Boston, Boston, Boston! Thou hast naught to boast on, But a Grand Sluice, and a high steeple; c.1500 A proud conceited ignorant people, And a coast where souls are lost on.

-Anonymous
  Comment by visitor at the opening of the Grand Sluice, Boston, Lincolnshire,15 Oct. Quoted in  Jennifer  Westwood Albion (1985), ch. 6,'English Shires'.

   He nursed the feelings these dull scenes produce, And loved to stop beside the opening sluice; Where the small stream, confined in narrow bound, Ran with a dull, unvaried, sad'ning sound; Where all presented to the eye or ear, Oppressed the soul! with misery, grief, and fear.

-Crabbe, George
  The Borough, letter 22,'Peter Grimes', l.194^9.