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Flinders in print. The Memoirs of the Medical Society of London* (* 1779
Volume 4 page 330.) contain a paper read before that body on October
30th, 1797: "Case of a child born with variolar pustules, by Matthew
Flinders, surgeon, Donington, Lincolnshire." The essay occupies three
pages, and is a clear, succinct record of symptoms, treatment and
results, for medical readers. The child died; whereupon the surgeon
expresses his regret, not on account of infant or parents, but, with true
scientific zest, because it deprived him of the opportunity of watching
the development of an uncommon case.

Donington is a small town in the heart of the fen country, lying ten
miles south-west of Boston, and about the same distance, as the crow
flies, from the black, muddy, western fringe of the Wash. It is a very
old town. Formerly it was an important Lincolnshire centre, enjoying its
weekly Saturday market, and its four annual fairs for the sale of horses,
cattle, flax and hemp. During Flinders' youth and early manhood the
district grew large quantities of hemp, principally for the Royal Navy.
In the days of its prosperity Donington drew to itself the business of an
agricultural neighbourhood which was so far cultivable as it rose above
the level of desolate and foggy swamps. But the drainage of the fens and
the making of good roads over what had once been an area of amphibious
uncertainty, neither wholly land nor wholly water, had the effect of
largely diverting business to Boston. Trade that came to Donington when
it stood over its own tract of fen, like the elderly and respectable
capital of some small island, now went to the thriving and historic port
on the Witham. Donington stopped growing, stagnated, declined. On the map
of Lincolnshire included in Camden's Britannia (1637) it is marked
"Dunington," in letters as large as those given to Boston, Spalding and
Lincoln. On modern maps the name is printed in small letters; on some in
the smallest, or not at all. That fact is fairly indicative of its change
of fortunes. Figures tell the tale with precision. In 1801 it contained
1321 inhabitants; in 1821, 1638; in 1841 it reached its maximum, 2026; by
1891 it had gone down to 1547; in 1901 to 1484; at the census of 1911 it
had struggled up to 1564.* (* Allen, History of Lincolnshire, 1833 Volume
1 342; Victoria History of Lincolnshire Volume 2 359; Census Returns for
1911.)

The fame conferred by a distinguished son is hardly a