GRANTHAM  , a municipal and

parliamentary borough of Lincolnshire, England; situated in a pleasant undulating country on the river Witham . Pop . (1901) 17,593 . It is an important junction of the Great Northern railway, 105 M . N. by W. from London, with branch lines to Nottingham, Lincoln and Boston; while there is communication with Nottingham and the Trent by the Grantham canal . The parish church of St Wulfram is a splendid building, exhibiting all the Gothic styles, but mainly Early English and Decorated . The massive and ornate western tower and spire, about 28o ft. in height, are of early Decorated workmanship . There is a double Decorated crypt beneath the lady chapel . The north and south porches are fine examples of a later period of the same style . The delicately carved font is noteworthy . Two libraries, respectively of the 16th and 17th centuries, are preserved in the church . At the King Edward VI. grammar school Sir Isaac Newton received part of his education .

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bronze statue commemorates him . The late Perpendicular building is picturesque, and the school was greatly enlarged in 1904 . The Angel Hotel is a hostelry of the 15th century, with a gateway of earlier date . A conduit dating from 1597 stands in the wide market-place . Modern public buildings are a gild hall, exchange hall, and several churches and chapels . The Queen Victoria Memorial home for nurses was erected in 1902-1903 . The chief industries are malting and the manufacture of agricultural implements . Grantham returns one member to parliament . The borough falls within the S . Kesteven or Stamford divisicn of the county . Grantham was created a suffragan bishopric in the diocese of Lincoln in 1905 . The municipal borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors .

Area, 1726 acres . Although there is no authentic evidence of Roman occupation, Grantham (Graham, Granham in Domesday Book) from its situation on the Ermine Street, is supposed to have been a Roman station . It was possibly a borough in the Saxon period, and by the time of the Domesday Survey it was a royal borough with 111 burgesses . Charters of liberties existing now only in the confirmation charter of 1397 were granted by various kings . From the first the town was governed by a bailiff appointed by the lord of the manor, but by the end of the 14th century the office of alderman had come into existence . Finally government under a mayor and alderman was granted by Edward IV. in 1463, and Grantham became a corporate town . Among later charters, that of James II., given in 1685, changed the title to that of government by a mayor and 6 aldermen, but this was afterwards reversed and the old order resumed . Grantham was first represented in parliament in 1467, and returned two members; but by the Redistribution Act of 1885 the number was reduced to one . Richard III. in 1483 granted a Wednesday market and two fairs yearly, namely on the feast of St Nicholas the Bishop, and the two following days, and on Passion Sunday and the day following . At the present day the market is held on Saturday, and fairs are held on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday following the fifth Sunday in Lent; a cherry fair on the iith of July and two stock fairs on the 26th of October and the 17th of December .