FROM LINCOLN TO THE TRENT ON THE FOSSDYKE CANAL.

AFTER our experience on the River Witham, we went on from Brayford Mere or Pool, to another waterway being a continuation of the course, viz., the Fossdyke (or Lincoln Fosse) Canal. The stay at Lincoln was a pleasant one. The cathedral, with its commanding situation, is a striking edifice; it ranks high as a fine example of early British architecture, and is well worth visiting. The monster bell, "Great Tom," weighing over five tons, is on the main tower, and has more than local repute; and the Lincoln Imp - a noted tiny piece of sculpture high up in the interior of the cathedral building-was also not overlooked.

At last we found ourselves by the waterside at Brayford and made a start on the remainder of our cruise in Lincolnshire. This canal has rather a noteworthy reputation, and is credited with being one of the most ancient artificial waterways at present in use in this country; its original construction dates back to the time of the Romans.

Although only eleven miles in length there is very considerable traffic on it to Lincoln - chiefly from the Trent direction. The concern has passed through many controls, but is now managed by the Great Northern and the Great Eastern Joint Railways. Of good dimensions, it is well maintained and the route makes a through communication from Boston to the Humber, via Lincoln and the River Trent, a distance in all of just under 90 miles. Most of the traffic is conveyed by horse haulage and the craft used, chiefly Yorkshire keels, ranging to 100 tons or more, are dragged along at about two miles an hour from a towpath some ten feet above the water level, and this runs the whole length of the route. Proceeding on our course at a bend of the canal we suddenly saw four keel ketches all close together carrying quite a lot of canvas - large main and top square sails and these formidable looking craft with a fair wind drifted slowly along. A somewhat curious sight it was, with such a rig, showing all the canvas set, and for the moment the fleet looked like the approach of a miniature Armada.

Like the Witham, there is not much to describe about the scenery on this waterway, the country all around being flat and uninteresting.

As one travels along there are long straight stretches and cuttings (the Romans in road making also invariably adopted the direct course) and the route passes no place of importance. Saxilby and Skellingthorpe were the only small towns on the way. There were consequently very few people about. The Fossdyke, like the Witham, is much frequented by anglers and the week before our visit a large peg down competition was held when as many as 1,050 fishermen competed at one time. These devotees were from the Midlands chiefly, and again the "Man from Sheffield" was much in evidence. Described as being rather a motley crew, they arrived by excursion trains, accompanied by their wives, sisters, cousins and aunts, and in many cases the men had rushed off from their work to the trains in their artisan garb, right on to the fishing ground. We came across dozens of the used peg down tickets strewn on the banks.

Along the canal the railway runs parallel to the water course and also to the roadway at places, so that with the canal itself there are three different means of communication all running alongside each other, a curious circumstance well worthy of note.

At length, on the sixth day of our cruise, we arrived at Torksey, our destination, and so finished our Lincolnshire trip, which proved a very pleasant one, the time having passed all too rapidly.

There is only one lock on this canal, and that at the junction with the River Trent, and here there is a pumping station for supplying water when required from the river for the canal. The boat we sent back to Northampton; and we entrained to Retford to catch the Scotch express to Edinburgh, there to pursue our travels elsewhere on the Caledonian and other Scotch Canals.

The waterways traversed on this tour were the River Nene, the River Witham and the Fossdyke Canal, altogether making up a distance of 140 miles from Northampton by water.

Picture related to this cruise