'Here,' says Defoe,[1] 'is a particular trade carried on with London, which is nowhere else practised in the whole kingdom, that I have met with or heard of, viz. For carrying fish alive by land-carriage in great butts of water. The butts have a little square flap, instead of a bung, about 10 in., 12 in., or 14 in. square, which, being opened, gives air to the fish; and every night, when they come to the inn, they draw off the water, and let more fresh and sweet water run into them again. In these carriages they chiefly carry tench and pike, perch and eels, but especially the two former, of which here are some of the largest in England.'
SHELL FISH
The mussel 'scalps' of the Wash have long been famous for the excellent quality of the takings. In 1777 the marshal of the Admiralty received between £3 and £4 a year for collecting the duties due to the corporation for mussel vessels coming into the port. And in 1780 'mussel money' was ordered to be collected.[2] A record year was evidently 1810, when fifty vessels were annual visitors to the Wash, when they carried away in that one season 1,200 tons, which furnished bait for the cod-fishing on the Dogger and Well Banks; £50 was paid by one fisherman alone for the carriage of mussels from Boston in 1850, whilst three years later 100 tons taken by 50 sail of from 4 to 14 tons burthen were being exported every week. If sold in Boston the cargo fetched 1s. a bushel, if the sale was delayed until they reached their destination (Leeds, Manchester, or Birmingham) the price was raised to 2s. 6d. During nine months of the year it is calculated by Wheeler in his History of the Fens that 80 to 140 tons were taken from the 'scalps' for food, 80 to 120 tons for bait—in busy seasons representing a profit of £700 to £800 a week. These riches were recklessly dealt with, for in 1863 it was brought to the notice of a Royal Commission sitting at Boston that, owing to the want of proper supervision and the wholesale carrying away of the mussels, chiefly for manuring purposes, the beds were becoming rapidly exhausted. It was not, however, until 1870 that the corporation obtained an order, under the Sea Fisheries Act, giving them full jurisdiction over the raided beds and empowering them to appoint a bailiff.[3]
The beds were promptly temporarily closed, with the result that, on their reopening in 1871, 4,500 tons were taken from the Old South Middle Bed, representing 18¾ tons to an acre. A year later the yield from the Gat Sand Bed was 2,139 tons to its 158 acres; 13½ tons, that is to say, to an acre. In 1876 4,000 tons were taken from the Tofts, 6 tons to an acre. Coming down to the later times, according to the most recent report of the Sea Fisheries, under the Boston Order of 1897, 85 boats were licensed, producing in tolls and fees £40 5s; 115 new layings were staked off between the Witham and Welland, and 40 of these were leased at 5s. per annum. Under the Boston Order of 1902, 44 layings, leased at the same rental, returned 35 tons (£100).[4]
The fishing for shrimps, which still maintain their reputation for quality, is carried on at Boston for nine months in the year by smacks, and also by men driving in a cart with one horse, of which there are twenty-eight along the coast.
MINES AND QUARRIES
Geologically speaking, Lincolnshire has been declared 'the most neglected of counties.' From its Lower Oolite formation, nevertheless, comes the Ancaster stone, extensively quarried by Messrs. Lindley & Son, to which the commissioners appointed in 1839 to report on building stones for the Houses of Parliament thus refer:
Many buildings constructed of a material similar to the Oolite of Ancaster, such as Newark and Grantham churches and other edifices in various parts of Lincolnshire, have scarcely yielded to the effects of atmospheric influences.[5]
At Little Bytham there are works for the manufacture of the Adamantine Clinker, a brick made of a siliceous clay, which is remarkable for its strength, hardness, and imperviousness to water.
The chalk of the Humber cliffs maintains its reputation for the manufacture of whiting, but the gypsum formerly brought from the Isle of Axholme has ceased to be quarried.
Ironstone, once extensively worked in the south of the county, is now transferred, as far as
- ↑ Defoe, Tour through Great Britain, iii, 22.
- ↑ Marrat, Hist. of Boston, 66.
- ↑ The office, and its necessity, was of ancient standing. In March, 1595, one Christopher Wilson, 'now aged and in extreme poverty,' begged the office of 'water bailiff of the Ouse, from Lynn to Boston, for 21 years, on rent of 40s., such an officer being necessary to preserve the spawn and brood of fish and prevent its inordinate taking by the common fishers.' Cal. S. P. Dom. 1595–7, p. 24.
- ↑ Rep. of Sea Fisheries, 1904, p. 83.
- ↑ Buildings of this stone are Harlaxton Hall, Stourton Hall, the mansion of Westholme, the ancient church of St. Martin at Ancaster, the reredos of the church of St. Denys at Sleaford, the Savings Bank at Grantham, several buildings at Hull, also St. Pancras terminus and hotel.
