GAINSBOROUGH, a town of England, in the county of Lincoln, is pleasantly situated on the eastern bank of the Trent, which here separates Lincolnshire from Nottingham shire. The town is clean, well paved and lighted, and con sists chiefly of one long street parallel to the river. The principal public buildings are the church, the town-hall, the old hall or palace, the theatre, and the bridge. The church, which is an irregular building, in a very bad style of archi tecture, was lately rebuilt at the expence of the inhabitants. The pulpit cloth and cushions are made of crimson bro cade velvet, trimmed with gold ; and they are made of ma terials which were taken in 1743 at the battle of Dettingen. The town-hall, which is situated in the market-place, is a brick edifice, with shops below it and the jail : it is used occasionally as an assembly room. The old hall or palace is a Gothic mansion, situated at the north-west end of the town. It consists principally of oak timber framing, and forms three sides of a quadrangle, open to the south. It has a tower 78 feet high, and the whole building was about 600 feet square. The moats with which it was once sur rounded are still visible. It is now converted into apart ments for families. The theatre is a small but very hand some modern building. The bridge, which is very elegant, consists of three elliptical arches. It was completed in 1791 ; and, being private property, a toll is exacted. There
are several meeting-houses in the town, and some good charity schools. This town has a small share in the Baltic trade, and it carries on a considerable trade in corn and other commodities to and from the coast. Vessels of 150 tons burden can come to the town with the tide. The trade of Gainsboroogh is greatly facilitated by the Readley Canal, which opens a communication with Yorkshire ; and by the Chesterfield Canal a communication is opened with the counties of Nottingham and Derby.
About five miles to the south-east of Gainsborough are vestiges of the city of Sidnacester. On a ridge along the banks of the Trent, about half a mile to the north of Gains borough, are some embankments, called the Castle Hills. The central encampment contains an area of 5I0 feet in circuit, and is surrounded by a double fosse and vullum. The circular part appears to have been a Roman work, and the rest is Danish. Horse races are annually held at Gainshorough.
The following is the statistical abstract for the town and parish in 1811 : Inhabited houses . • . 1159 Number of families . 1227 Families employed in agriculture . 49 Ditto in trade and manufactures . 628 Males . • . 244G Females . 2726 Total population . . 5172 See the Beauties of England and Wales.