BOSTON, formerly Botolph's Town, a large com mercial town of England, in Lincolnshire, situated on the east side of the river Witham, about five miles from the sea. The town is well built, and has lately received very considerable improvements. Its spaci ous market-place is adorned with a handsome cross, and a commodious assembly room. The public build ings are the theatre, the fish market, built in 1772, and the elegant church of St Botolph's. This mag nificent building was begun in 1309, and is said to be the largest parochial church, without cross aisles, in the world. Its lofty tower, which is 282 feet high, supports an octagon lantern which serves as a light house to the vessels that navigate the dangerous channels of Lynn Deeps and Boston Deeps. It. has 365 steps, 52 windows, and 12 pillars, corresponding to the number of days, weeks, and months, in the year, and is 300 feet long, and 100 feet wide.
Boston formerly carried on a great trade in the ex portation of wool, but after this trade was prohibited, it carried on a considerable foreign and coasting trade. At spring tides, the Witham is navigable for vessels of about eleven feet of water, and the barges navigate this river as far as Lincoln. Some of the foreign ves sels trade in timber, rye, wine, &c. and several ships are employed in the corn trade to London.
The fens with which thig town was formerly sur rounded, have been, in a great measure, enclosed and drained, and form good meadow and arable land. It is proposed to build an iron bridge over the Witham, instead of the present wooden one. Number of houses 1221. Population in 1801, 5926, of whom 866 were returned as employed in trade and manufac tures. See Oldfield's History of the Boroughs, and Howlett's Select Views of Lincolnshire. ())