LINCOLNSHIRE, a maritime county of England, having the German ocean on the east, Northamptonshire on the south, from which it is separated by the river Welland, as it is on the west from Yorkshire by the
the Humber: it has also on the west, part of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Rutlandshire. Its greatest length is above 60 miles, and its greatest breadth about 40, making upwards of 180 miles in circumference, containing 2162 square miles; or, according to others, 1,740,000 acres, 30 hundreds or wapen-takes, 688 parishes, one city, five parliamentary boroughs, 34 other market-towns, and about 254,540 inhabitants. The names of the three grand divisions are Holland, Kesteven, and Lindsey; the last of which is by much the largest. The soil of Holland being marshy, the air is moist and foggy, and therefore unwholesome. Kesteven has a drier and more fruitful soil, and consequently a better air. Of the third division, Lindsey, the air is reckoned good and wholesome. There are many large rivers in the county, as the Nene, Welland, Gwash, Witham, Bane, Trent, Dun, and Ankan, all abounding with fish. In the Fens are very rich pastures; so that their cattle are the largest in England, unless, perhaps, we should except those of Somersetshire: and at certain seasons the numbers of fowl are amazing, especially of ducks; so that Cambden says, they could, in his time, about Crowl "catch 1000 at once in August with a single net; and they called the pools where they caught them, their corn-fields, no corn then growing within five miles of the place: that of these fowls there were some sorts not only very rare, but extremely delicate, as the puittes, knotts, and goodwitts; so that the nicest palates and richest purses greatly coveted them." The knotts are said to be so called, from their having been first brought from Denmark for the use of king Canute. The dotterel is so called because it is a very simple bird, and mimicks all the motions of the fowler, till it is easily caught by candle-light. They have all the common fruits, and some of them in greater perfection than in other parts of England. Their hares and their hounds are said to be exceeding swift. The fens seem to have been over-run with wood anciently, for trunks of trees are still found in them. The churches in Lincolnshire are said to be very fine, but the houses indifferent. There is a homely proverb, which says, that its hogs sh—t soap, and its cows fire; because the poor people wash their clothes with hogs dung, and, from the scarcity of other fuel, burn dried cow-dung. It is entirely in the diocese of Lincoln; and sends 12 members to parliament, viz. two knights for the shire, two citizens for Lincoln, two burghesses for Bolton, two for Great Grimshy, two for Stamford, and two for Grantham.