MAP QUESTIONS.

"But a trouble weighed upon her,

And perplex'd her night and morn,
With the burthen of an honour

Unto which she was not born.

165

"So she droop'd and droop'd before him,
Fading slowly from his side;
Three fair children first she bore him,
Then before her time she died."

Lincolnshire is not without its uplands; there are round, swelling chalk Wolds, which reach from the Humber to Spilsby. Farther west, running in a straight line through the county, are the Lincoln Heights, upon which the Romans made their Ermine Street, which is a good road still.

Lincoln city, with its castle and glorious cathedral, stands upon one of these hills; and the cathedral, one of the finest in England, can be seen from all the flat country round. It has a famous bell, called "Great Tom," which measures more than two yards across at the mouth. This ancient city was once a great Roman town; and a single Roman gate still remains. There are engine works here, where steam ploughs, and thrashing and other machines used in farming, are made.

The little piece of Lincolnshire to the west of the Trent is called the Isle of Axholme; it is low and marshy like the isles of the Fens.

Map Questions.

1. What estuary bounds the north of this county? What seaport town stands near its mouth? What river enters the Humber from Lincoln? From Yorkshire? What is the corner of Lincoln to the west of the Trent called? Name an important town on the river. Name all the counties through which the Trent flows.

2. What hill ranges lie to the east and the west of this flat county? What city stands on the western heights? Name a town among the Wolds. Another considerable town in East Lincolnshire.

3. Near the mouths of what rivers are the ports of Boston and Spalding? Into what opening do these rivers flow? Name two other rivers that flow into the Wash. Notice the sandbanks in the Wash. What name is given to the low land which lies round the south coast of the Wash in Lincoln? What part of the county is in Bedford Level? What name is given to the whole of this low district?

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NORFOLK.

NORFOLK is another shire of the Danelagh, and is nearly as flat as a table everywhere, except at the north corner of the Wash coast, where some chalk downs end in Hunstanton Cliffs. King's Lynn, at the mouth of the Great Ouse, is the port for this part of Norfolk.

Norfolk, like Lincoln, is a great farming county; indeed there is no English county in which the farmers are more skilful in the management of their land. One thing they are particular about is to have different crops growing in the same field in following years. Thus a field yellow with ripened corn one year might be sweet with bean blossom the next, and then be a potato or a turnip field. The reason for this is that all plants do not take the same kind of food out of the earth; what wheat will not touch, the potato will take and be thankful for. So the farmers arrange a round, or, as it is called, a rotation of crops, to follow one another in order. Sometimes a four-shift, sometimes a five-shift rotation is employed; that is, four or five different crops follow one another; and then the round begins again.

Our four kinds of corn-wheat, barley, oats, and rye as well as beans and peas, potatoes, turnips, and carrots, are all grown in Norfolk. There are prettier crops too: fields of red clover; fields of the crocus flower, from which saffron is made; fields of the delicate blue flax flower; and other fields, gay with the bright blue, handsome flower of the chicory plant,

the large roots of which are cut into squares and roasted, and then ground into chicory.

The very finest Christmas turkeys come from Norfolk, and geese just as good; while sheep and bullocks, pigs and horses, all get an excellent living in this rich shire.

Of the chief towns of the county, Wymondham and Attleborough, East Dereham, Aylesham, Diss, and Thetford, a town of fame in Saxon days, with several others, are market-towns.

Norwich is a pleasant city, built on a hill, a thing to be proud of in this shire. The city covers a good deal of ground, and there are openings planted with trees, from among which the towers of the churches rise; so that an old writer speaks of it as "Norwich (as you please), either a city in an orchard, or an orchard in a city." The keep of the ancient castle remains. The cathedral is a good specimen of Norman architecture.

The eastern counties have always been friendly to the people of the low-lying lands over the sea. These Flemings have been for centuries famous as skilful weavers, and the Conqueror brought over some of them, who settled in Norwich, to teach their art to his English subjects. Later, Edward III. invited parties of these same Flemish weavers to come to England, for the king thought it a pity that the fine wool of the English sheep, the finest anywhere, should be sent to Flanders to be made into cloth. Many of these remained in Norwich, and taught the citizens how to make cloth, and in later days crape. Still later, in Elizabeth's reign, more than 3000 of these same people came to seek a home in this city. They were Protestants, and were so persecuted by the Catholic king of Spain and the Netherlands that they had no