Lincoln was an important meeting place of Roman roads, and to-day it is a great railway centre. Except for a branch line on the L.M. and S. railway from Newark to Lincoln and a joint line of the L.M. and S. railway and L. and N.E. railway from Sutton Bridge through Spalding to Melton Mowbray (Notts.), the country is served entirely by the L. and N.E. railway. The main line from Peterborough to Doncaster passes through the south-west of the county, while a branch line links up Spalding, Boston, Louth, Grimsby, Barton and other places near the coast. From Lincoln lines radiate in all directions to Gainsborough, Barton, Louth and the coast, Boston, Spalding, Stamford, etc. Canals connect Louth with the Humber, Sleaford with the Witham, and Grantham with the Trent near Nottingham; the great rivers and many of the drainage cuts are navigable.
The area of the county is 1,705,293 ac., with a population in 1931 of 624,553. The pri mary divisions are three trithings or ridings (q.v.) ; the Parts of Lindsey, Kesteven and Holland. The Parts a' Lindsey contain 17 wapentakes ; Kesteven, exclusive of the soke and borough of Grantham and the borough of Stamford, 9 wapentakes; and Holland, 3 wapentakes. The three Parts of Lindsey, Kesteven and Holland now form administrative counties. In Lindsey there are 14 petty-sessional divisions the parliamentary boroughs of Grimsby and Lincoln have each a distinct commission of the peace and a separate court of quarter sessions, and the municipal borough of Louth has a separate commission of the peace. In
Kesteven there are four petty-sessional divisions ; the municipal boroughs of Grantham and Stamford have each a separate com mission of the peace and separate courts of quarter sessions. Holland is divided into two petty-sessional divisions, and Boston has a distinct commission of the peace. For parliamentary pur poses the county is divided into seven divisions, namely, in the Parts of Kesteven, Grantham, Rutland and Stamford ; the par liamentary county of Holland with Boston ; in the Parts of Lind sey, Brigg, Gainsborough, Horncastle and Louth, and the parlia mentary boroughs of Grimsby and Lincoln, each returning one member.
Victoria County History, Lincolnshire; Thomas Allen, The History of the County of Lincoln (2 vols., 1834) ; C. G. Smith, A Translation of that portion of the Domesday Book which relates to Lincolnshire and Rutlandshire (187o) ; G. S. Streatfield, Lincolnshire and the Danes (1884) ; Chronicle of the Rebellion in Lincolnshire, 1470, edit. J. E. Nicholls, Camden Society. Camden Miscellany, vol. i. (5847) ; The Lincolnshire Survey, temp. Henry I., edit. James Green street (1884) ; Lincolnshire Notes and Queries (Horncastle, 1888) ; Lincolnshire Record Society (Horncastle, 1891) ; Christopher Marlowe, The Fen Country (1925).