RASEN, or Market-Rasen, a town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Caistor district, Lincoln. The town stands on the river Rasen, and on the Hull and Lincoln railway, 15 miles N E by N of Lincoln; consists chiefly of one long street, intersected at right angles by smaller streets; is a seat of petty sessions, and a polling-place; and has a head post-office, ‡ a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, three chief inns, a police station, a public-hall, a corn exchange, a church, three dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a new cemetery with chapels, a national school, an endowed school with £17 a year, alms-houses with £40, and other charities £53. The church is later English; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a tower; and contains several monuments. The Roman Catholic chapel was built in 1824, and is a neat edifice. A corn and provision market is held on every Tuesday; a cattle-market, on every alternate Tuesday from Palm Sunday till Michaelmas; fairs for cattle, sheep, and horses, on thefourth Tuesday in Lent, and on 25 Sept.; and races, on the Monday after 25 Sept. There are breweries, maltings, a steam saw-mill, an iron foundry, and brickfields. Pop. in 1861, 2, 468. Houses, 536. The parish comprises 1, 220 acres. Real property, £7, 348; of which £92are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 2, 110; in 1861, 2, 563. Houses, 554. The manor belongs to Capt. W.Gordon. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £223.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor.—The sub-district contains also 25 other parishes. Acres, 56, 138. Pop. in 1851, 9, 658; in 1861, 10, 224. Houses, 2, 138.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))