For proof,--we have only need to examine their docks,
piers, and landing-places; the last of which are being improved, very much
against the will of the authorities, by a Lincolnshire railway company.
From Hull there is a very convenient and swift railway road open to London
through Lincolnshire, which, branching in several directions, renders easy a
visit either to the Wolds, where gorse-covered moors have been turned, within
the last century, into famous turnip-land, farmed by the finest tenantry in
the world; or to the Fens, where the science of engineers learned in
drainage, greatly aided by the pumping steam-engine, has reclaimed a whole
county from eels and wild ducks.
Lincolnshire is not a picturesque county; both the wet half and the dry half,
both the Fen district and the Wold district, are treeless; and the Wolds are
only a line of molehills, of great utility, but no special beauty. But it is
the greatest producing county in England, and the produce, purely
agricultural, is the result of the industry and intellect of the men who till
the soil. In Devonshire and Somersetshire we are charmed by the scenery, and
amazed by the rich fertility of the soil, while we are amazed by the
stolidity of the farmers and their labourers--nay, sometimes of the
landlords--whose two ideas are comprised in doing what their forefathers did,
and in hating every innovation.
Pages:
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383