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by raised causeways, called droves. The lower, or southern division, is most watery, and is only preserved from constant inundations by vast mounds raised on the sea coast and on the banks of the rivers. The air of these tracts is generally unwholesome, and the water rather of a brackish nature; whence the inhabitants are obliged to make reservoirs of rain water. In summer vast swarms of insects fill the air, and prove a great nuisance to the inhabitants. Yet even here industry has produced comfort and opulence, by forming excellent pasture land out of the swamps and bogs, and even making them capable of yielding large crops of corn. The fens too, in their native state, are not without their utility, as they afford various objects of curiosity to the naturalist. The reeds with which the waters are covered make good thatch, and are annually harvested in great quantity for that purpose. Prodigious flocks of geese are bred among the undrained fens, forming a considerable object of commerce, as well for their quills and feathers, as for the birds, which are driven in great numbers to the London markets. The principal decoys in England for wild-ducks, teal, widgeon, and other fowls of the duck kind, are in these parts, and afford the chief supplies to the metropolis. Wild geese, grebes, godwits, whimbrels, coots, ruffs and reeves, and a great variety of other species of water-fowl, breed here in amazing numbers, and obtain plentiful food from the fishy pools and streams.

Near Spalding is the greatest herony in England, and another at Surfleet, where the herons build together like rooks on high trees. The avoset, or yelper, distinguished by its bill, which bends upwards, is found in great numbers about Fossdike Wash; as also those delicate birds, the knots and dottrells. Great quantities of these wild-fowl are caught by means of

DECOYS, which are more numerous in this county than in any other part of England. These are generally formed by pools, surrounded by wood, and branching off from them are small canals, or ditches, called pipes. At the time of catching the fowls, these are covered over by nets, which rest on hoops, and

are

are terminated by a drawing net. Into these the wild fowl are enticed by various devices; but the usual mode is by means of a decoy duck, i. e. one that has been trained up for the purpose. This is taught to obey the whistle of the decoy man, who tempts it to swim up the trapping funnel, when he sees a number of wild birds. These follow the tame one; and when they have all entered the channel, are inclosed, and taken by the net. In all cases, however, the tame duck does not succeed in trepanning the others, when the decoy man employs a small dog, which by swimming about among the rushes and reeds, close to the mouth of the neck, attracts the wild fowl. The general season for catching these is from the end of October till February. An act of parliament passed in the tenth year of George the Second, forbids the taking of them from June the 1st till October the 1st, under a penalty of five shillings for every bird so illegally caught. The decoys of Lincoln supply the London market with wild fowl, and the number annually taken is almost incredible. Ten decoys in the west fen, it is stated, during one winter, furnished the enormous number of 31,200.

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The subdivisions of Holland are the wapentakes of Skirbeck, Kirton, and Elloe.

· SKIRBECK WAPENTAKE contains the parishes of Bennington, Boston, Butterwick, Fishtoft, Freiston, Leake, Leverton, Skirbeck, and Wrangle.

BOSTON,

The chief town in the division of Holland for population and trade, is situated on the river Witham, or, as named by Leland, Lindis, about five miles from its mouth, and thirty south-east of Lincoln. The parish is about two miles in length and one in

breadth;

breadth; and the town occupies about half of that extent. It is a market and borough town, incorporated as early as the fifth year of King John's reign, and sent members to the national council in the time of King Edward the Second. In succeeding reigns, by new charters, it obtained many privileges and immunities. In a charter dated the thirty-seventh year of Henry the Eighth, it was declared a borough, to be governed by a corporation, consisting of a mayor, twelve aldermen, and eighteen common council men, or burgesses; a recorder, town clerk, six constables, a coroner, two serjeants at inace, and a clerk of the market. The mayor and burgesses to be a body corporate, and to implead, or to be impleaded, by the name of, "The Mayor and Burgesses of Boston, in the county of Lincoln," with privilege to hold two markets weekly, on Wednesday and Saturday: and two fairs annually, on the feast of St. George, and the feast of St. James; and during the same, to hold courts of pie poudre. By a charter dated in the time of Elizabeth, the mayor and burgesses, were empowered to hold a court of admiralty, for the port and creeks of Boston; and in the reign of James the First still farther privileges were granted.

In early history little is found respecting this place; though from its situation, it probably obtained very early notice. Stukeley says that the Romans built a fort at the entrance of the Witham, and had a ferry over the river at Redstone Gowt, about a furlong distance from the south entrance of the present town; and that an old Roman foundation was dug up here, with an urn, containing ashes, a small pot with an ear to it, an iron key, and an urn lined" with lead, full of red earth and bones, unquestionably Roman."

In the early part of the reign of Edward the Second, a staple was established at Boston, for wool, leather, tin, lead,

and

.* Leland says, "the staple and stiliard-houses yet remain." In the bite of the river, a building stands, which goes by the name of the Stilyard.

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and other mercantile articles. By the roll of the "high fleet" of Edward the Third, Boston appears to have been then a considerable. place; for it furnished a quota of sixteen ships to the "maritime militia." Subsequent to that the town gradually declined in the com-› mercial scale; and about fifty years ago it sunk so low, as nearly. to lose the whole of its trade, owing to the navigation of the Witham being choaked with silt. The barges, or flat vessels, which required only a small draught of water, could then reach the quays only at high spring tides. But on cutting a new chan-, nel from the town to Dogdyke, an extent of twelve miles, the river › · was again rendered navigable. The Holland fens being inclosed. about forty years since, the produce of 22,000 acres of rich cultivated land came to the market; and these occasioned an increase of shipping from five or six, to seventy or eighty vessels, exclusive of other small craft. And the inclosure and draining, of Wildmore, with the east and west fens, which consist of about. 41,000 acres, now carrying into effect, together with the improvement of the port under the direction of Mr. Rennie, will be greatly conducive to the wealth and population of the place. The foreign trade is principally to the north of Europe, and consists of imports of deals, battens, balks, hemp, iron, linen, &c. Its export trade is chiefly coasting, and consists of corn and other provisions, with an occasional back freight of coals from Sunderland and Newcastle. Of late quantities of coals from Sunderland have been brought down the Trent and Witham. Formerly Boston had several religious houses, among which was St. Botolph's priory, founded, according to Leland, by St. Bo-: tolph, in the time of the Saxons, whence the town derived both: its origin and its name. Besides which there was a priory near› the sea, dedicated to St. Mary; four friaries of austin, black, grey, and white friars; and three colleges, dedicated to St. Mary, Corpus

This was probably the site of the ancient custom-house, where, while the staple privileges remained, the commodities were weighed, by means of a large steelyard, or weighing machine.

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Corpus Christi, and St. Peter. The chief object of curiosity and beauty in the town is the CHURCH, which is a large, elegant, and interesting pile of architecture; at once an honour to the taste and science of our ancient artists, and to the religious zeal of the people. At what time it was built is not ascertained. Stukeley says, that the first stone was laid by dame Margery Tilney, in the year 1309; and "that she put five pounds upon it, as did Sir John Twesdale, the vicar, and Richard Stevenson, a like sum; and that these were the greatest sums at that time given." It is dedicated to St. Botolph, the tutelar saint of ma riners, and is supposed to be the largest church, without cross ailes, in the kingdom. The nave is extremely lofty and grand; and the ceiling, representing a stone vaulting, is said to be of Irish oak. It consists of fourteen groined arches, with light spandrils, which, by their elegant curves, intersections, and em+ bossments, produce a beautiful effect. The upper part of the nave is lighted by twenty-eight clerestory windows, between the springs of the arches. Beneath these, and on each side of the nave, is an aile, the roofs of which were formerly lined with flat ceilings, divided into a great number of compartments, each ornamented with historic painting; but these becoming impaired, were replaced by ceilings, in some degree corresponding with that of the nave. The latter is divided by an open screen into two unequal parts; that on the west side, being about one-third, forms a noble area; that on the east, containing the other twothirds, is used for the performance of divine worship. The chancel, which is spacious and lofty, has on each side ranges of stalls, the seats of which are ornamented with grotesque carvings, and over these formerly were canopies, highly embellished with foliage and fret work. The altar is of oak, in the Corinthian order, which, though beautiful, must disgust the eye of taste, as not being in unison with the style of the building. It is enriched by a copy of Rubens' celebrated picture, "The taking VOL. IX. down

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* Itin. Curios.

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