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diff --git a/old/65921-0.txt b/old/65921-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 79b1ae6..0000000 --- a/old/65921-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,20390 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire, by -Willingham Franklin Rawnsley - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire - -Author: Willingham Franklin Rawnsley - -Illustrator: Frederick L. Griggs - -Release Date: July 26, 2021 [eBook #65921] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian - Libraries) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN -LINCOLNSHIRE *** - - - - - -HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN LINCOLNSHIRE - - [Illustration] - - MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED - LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA - MELBOURNE - - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO - DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO - - THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. - TORONTO - - - - -[Illustration: _Boston._] - - - - - _Highways and Byways_ - IN - _Lincolnshire_ - - BY - WILLINGHAM FRANKLIN RAWNSLEY - - WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY - FREDERICK L. GRIGGS - - MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED - ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON - 1914 - - _COPYRIGHT_ - - - - -PREFACE - - -All writers make use of the labours of their predecessors. This is -inevitable, and a custom as old as time. As Mr. Rudyard Kipling sings:— - - “When ’Omer smote ’is bloomin’ lyre - ’E’d ’eard men sing by land and sea, - And what ’e thought ’e might require - ’E went and took, the same as me.” - -In writing this book I have made use of all the sources that I could lay -under contribution, and especially I have relied for help on “Murray’s -Handbook,” edited by the Rev. G. E. Jeans, and the Journals of the -associated Architectural Societies. I have recorded in the course of -the volume my thanks to a few kind helpers, and to these I must add the -name of Mr. A. R. Corns of the Lincoln Library, for his kindness in -allowing me the use of many books on various subjects, and on several -occasions, which have been of the utmost service to me. My best thanks, -also, are due to my cousin, Mr. Preston Rawnsley, for his chapter on the -Foxhounds of Lincolnshire. That the book owes much to the pencil of Mr. -Griggs is obvious; his illustrations need no praise of mine but speak for -themselves. The drawing given on p. 254 is by Mrs. Rawnsley. - -I have perhaps taken the title “Highways and Byways” more literally -than has usually been done by writers in this interesting series, and -in endeavouring to describe the county and its ways I have followed the -course of all the main roads radiating from each large town, noticing -most of the places through or near which they pass, and also pointing -out some of the more picturesque byways, and describing the lie of the -country. But I have all along supposed the tourist to be travelling by -motor, and have accordingly said very little about Footpaths. This in -a mountainous country would be entirely wrong, but Lincolnshire as a -whole is not a pedestrian’s county. It is, however, a land of constantly -occurring magnificent views, a land of hill as well as plain, and, as I -hope the book will show, beyond all others a county teeming with splendid -churches. I may add that, thanks to that modern devourer of time and -space—the ubiquitous motor car—I have been able personally to visit -almost everything I have described, a thing which in so large a county -would, without such mercurial aid, have involved a much longer time for -the doing. Even so, no one can be more conscious than I am that the book -falls far short of what, with such a theme, was possible. - - W. F. R. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - CHAPTER I - - INTRODUCTORY 1 - - CHAPTER II - - STAMFORD 7 - - CHAPTER III - - STAMFORD TO BOURNE 18 - - CHAPTER IV - - ROADS FROM BOURNE 28 - - CHAPTER V - - SOUTH-WEST LINCOLNSHIRE 39 - - CHAPTER VI - - GRANTHAM 52 - - CHAPTER VII - - ROADS FROM GRANTHAM 64 - - CHAPTER VIII - - SLEAFORD 76 - - CHAPTER IX - - LINCOLN CATHEDRAL 91 - - CHAPTER X - - PAULINUS AND HUGH OF LINCOLN 112 - - CHAPTER XI - - LINCOLN CITY 120 - - CHAPTER XII - - ROADS FROM LINCOLN, WEST AND EAST 137 - - CHAPTER XIII - - ROADS SOUTH FROM LINCOLN 148 - - CHAPTER XIV - - PLACES OF NOTE NEAR LINCOLN 165 - - CHAPTER XV - - HERMITAGES AND HOSPITALS 178 - - CHAPTER XVI - - ROADS NORTH FROM LINCOLN 182 - - CHAPTER XVII - - GAINSBOROUGH AND THE NORTH-WEST 195 - - CHAPTER XVIII - - THE ISLE OF AXHOLME 208 - - CHAPTER XIX - - GRIMSBY AND THE NORTH-EAST 215 - - CHAPTER XX - - CAISTOR 228 - - CHAPTER XXI - - LOUTH 239 - - CHAPTER XXII - - ANGLO-SAXON, NORMAN AND MEDIÆVAL ART 251 - - CHAPTER XXIII - - ROADS FROM LOUTH, NORTH AND WEST 262 - - CHAPTER XXIV - - LINCOLNSHIRE BYWAYS 278 - - CHAPTER XXV - - THE BOLLES FAMILY 285 - - CHAPTER XXVI - - THE MARSH CHURCHES OF EAST LINDSEY 290 - - CHAPTER XXVII - - LINCOLNSHIRE FOLKSONG 296 - - CHAPTER XXVIII - - MARSH CHURCHES OF SOUTH LINDSEY 305 - - CHAPTER XXIX - - WAINFLEET TO SPILSBY 323 - - CHAPTER XXX - - SPILSBY AND NEIGHBOURHOOD 333 - - CHAPTER XXXI - - SOMERSBY AND THE TENNYSONS 343 - - CHAPTER XXXII - - ROADS FROM SPILSBY 358 - - CHAPTER XXXIII - - SCRIVELSBY AND TATTERSHALL 372 - - CHAPTER XXXIV - - BARDNEY ABBEY 390 - - CHAPTER XXXV - - HOLLAND FEN 400 - - CHAPTER XXXVI - - THE FEN CHURCHES—NORTHERN DIVISION 409 - - CHAPTER XXXVII - - ST. BOTOLPH’S TOWN (BOSTON) 425 - - CHAPTER XXXVIII - - SPALDING AND THE CHURCHES NORTH OF IT 441 - - CHAPTER XXXIX - - CHURCHES OF HOLLAND 463 - - CHAPTER XL - - THE BLACK DEATH 480 - - CHAPTER XLI - - CROYLAND 483 - - CHAPTER XLII - - LINCOLNSHIRE FOXHOUNDS 493 - - APPENDIX I - - SAMUEL WESLEY’S EPITAPH 499 - - APPENDIX II - - DR. WM. STUKELEY 500 - - APPENDIX III - - A LOWLAND PEASANT POET 501 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - PAGE - - BOSTON _Frontispiece_ - - ST. LEONARD’S PRIORY, STAMFORD 8 - - ST. GEORGE’S SQUARE, STAMFORD 10 - - ST. MARY’S STREET, STAMFORD 11 - - ST. PAUL’S STREET, STAMFORD 13 - - ST. PETER’S HILL, STAMFORD 15 - - STAMFORD FROM FREEMAN’S CLOSE 17 - - BOURNE ABBEY CHURCH 24 - - THE STATION HOUSE, BOURNE 26 - - SEMPRINGHAM 36 - - THE WITHAM, BOSTON 45 - - THE ANGEL INN, GRANTHAM 56 - - GRANTHAM CHURCH 61 - - WITHAM-SIDE, BOSTON 66 - - HOUGH-ON-THE-HILL 72 - - NORTH TRANSEPT, ST. DENIS’S CHURCH, SLEAFORD 78 - - HECKINGTON CHURCH 81 - - GREAT HALE 84 - - HELPRINGHAM 86 - - SOUTH KYME 88 - - SOUTH KYME CHURCH 89 - - NEWPORT ARCH, LINCOLN 92 - - GATEWAY OF LINCOLN CASTLE 94 - - THE ROOD TOWER AND SOUTH TRANSEPT, LINCOLN 100 - - POTTERGATE, LINCOLN 110 - - ST. MARY’S GUILD, LINCOLN 118 - - THE POTTERGATE ARCH, LINCOLN 121 - - THE JEW’S HOUSE, LINCOLN 123 - - REMAINS OF THE WHITEFRIARS’ PRIORY, LINCOLN 124 - - ST. MARY’S GUILD AND ST. PETER’S AT GOWTS, LINCOLN 125 - - ST. BENEDICT’S CHURCH, LINCOLN 127 - - ST. MARY-LE-WIGFORD, LINCOLN 128 - - THE STONEBOW, LINCOLN 130 - - OLD INLAND REVENUE OFFICE, LINCOLN 132 - - JAMES STREET, LINCOLN 133 - - THORNGATE, LINCOLN 135 - - LINCOLN FROM THE WITHAM 138 - - STOW CHURCH 142 - - BRANT BROUGHTON 152 - - THE ERMINE STREET AT TEMPLE BRUER 154 - - TEMPLE BRUER TOWER 158 - - NAVENBY 163 - - WYKEHAM CHAPEL, NEAR SPALDING 180 - - THE AVON AT BARTON-ON-HUMBER 189 - - ST. PETER’S, BARTON-ON-HUMBER 190 - - ST. MARY’S, BARTON-ON-HUMBER 192 - - NORTH SIDE, OLD HALL, GAINSBOROUGH 202 - - SOUTH SIDE, OLD HALL, GAINSBOROUGH 203 - - GAINSBOROUGH CHURCH 205 - - GREAT GOXHILL PRIORY 218 - - THORNTON ABBEY GATEWAY 220 - - REMAINS OF CHAPTER HOUSE, THORNTON ABBEY 221 - - THE WELLAND, NEAR FULNEY, SPALDING 237 - - THORNTON ABBEY GATEWAY 238 - - BRIDGE STREET, LOUTH 241 - - HUBBARD’S MILL, LOUTH 243 - - THE LUD AT LOUTH 246 - - ANCIENT SAXON ORNAMENT FOUND IN 1826 IN CLEANING OUT - THE WITHAM, NEAR THE VILLAGE OF FISKERTON, FOUR - MILES EAST OF LINCOLN. DRAWN BY MRS. RAWNSLEY 254 - - CLEE CHURCH 266 - - WESTGATE, LOUTH 275 - - MANBY 279 - - MABLETHORPE CHURCH 292 - - SOUTHEND, BOSTON 297 - - MARKBY CHURCH 306 - - ADDLETHORPE AND INGOLDMELLS 308 - - THE ROMAN BANK AT WINTHORPE 311 - - BRIDGE OVER THE HOLLOW-GATE 330 - - HALTON CHURCH 331 - - SOMERSBY CHURCH 341 - - TENNYSON’S HOME, SOMERSBY 351 - - LITTLE STEEPING 357 - - SIBSEY 362 - - CONINGSBY 369 - - TATTERSHALL AND CONINGSBY 370 - - TATTERSHALL CHURCH 371 - - THE LION GATE AT SCRIVELSBY 373 - - TATTERSHALL CHURCH AND THE BAIN 381 - - TATTERSHALL CHURCH AND CASTLE 386 - - TATTERSHALL CHURCH WINDOWS 388 - - SCRIVELSBY STOCKS 389 - - KIRKSTEAD CHAPEL 391 - - REMAINS OF KIRKSTEAD ABBEY CHURCH 396 - - KIRKSTEAD CHAPEL, WEST END 398 - - DARLOW’S YARD, SLEAFORD 403 - - LEAKE CHURCH 415 - - LEVERTON WINDMILL 417 - - FRIESTON PRIORY CHURCH 418 - - BOSTON CHURCH FROM THE N.E. 421 - - BOSTON STUMP 424 - - CUSTOM HOUSE QUAY, BOSTON 427 - - SOUTH SQUARE, BOSTON 429 - - SPAIN LANE, BOSTON 431 - - THE HAVEN, BOSTON 436 - - THE GUILDHALL, BOSTON 437 - - HUSSEY’S TOWER, BOSTON 439 - - THE WELLAND AT COWBIT ROAD, SPALDING 442 - - THE WELLAND AT HIGH STREET, SPALDING 443 - - AYSCOUGH FEE HALL GARDENS, SPALDING 445 - - SPALDING CHURCH FROM THE S.E. 447 - - N. SIDE, SPALDING CHURCH 449 - - PINCHBECK 450 - - SURFLEET 453 - - SURFLEET WINDMILL 454 - - THE WELLAND AT MARSH ROAD, SPALDING 458 - - ALGARKIRK 460 - - AT FULNEY 462 - - WHAPLODE CHURCH 467 - - FLEET CHURCH 469 - - GEDNEY CHURCH 471 - - LONG SUTTON CHURCH 473 - - GEDNEY, FROM FLEET 482 - - COWBIT CHURCH 484 - - CROYLAND ABBEY 488 - - CROYLAND BRIDGE 490 - - MAP _At end Volume_ - - - - -HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN LINCOLNSHIRE - - - - -CHAPTER I - -INTRODUCTORY - - -In dealing with a county which measures seventy-five miles by forty-five, -it will be best to assume that the tourist has either some form of -“cycle” or, better still, a motor car. The railway helps one less in this -than in most counties, as it naturally runs on the flat and unpicturesque -portions, and also skirts the boundaries, and seldom attempts to pierce -into the heart of the Wolds. Probably it would not be much good to the -tourist if it did, as he would have to spend much of his time in tunnels -which always come where there should be most to see, as on the Louth and -Lincoln line between Withcal and South Willingham. As it is, the only bit -of railway by which a person could gather that Lincolnshire was anything -but an ugly county is that between Lincoln and Grantham. - -But that it is a county with a great deal of beauty will be, I am sure, -admitted by those who follow up the routes described in the following -pages. They will find that it is a county famous for wide views, for -wonderful sunsets, for hills and picturesque hollows; and full, too, of -the human interest which clings round old buildings, and the uplifting -pleasure which its many splendid specimens of architecture have power to -bestow. - -[Sidenote: MARSH AND FEN] - -At the outset the reader must identify himself so far with the people -of Lincolnshire as to make himself at home in the universally accepted -meanings of certain words and expressions which he will hear constantly -recurring. He will soon come to know that ‘siver’ means however, that -‘slaäpe’ means slippery, that ‘unheppen,’ a fine old word (—unhelpen), -means awkward, that ‘owry’ or ‘howry’ means dirty; but, having learnt -this, he must not conclude that the word ‘strange’ in ‘straänge an’ owry -weather’ means anything unfamiliar. ‘Straänge’—perhaps the commonest -adverbial epithet in general use in Lincolnshire—_e.g._ “you’ve bin -a straänge long while coming” only means very. But besides common -conversational expressions he will have to note that the well-known -substantives ‘Marsh’ and ‘Fen’ bear in Lincolnshire a special meaning, -neither of them now denoting bog or wet impassable places. The _Fens_ are -the rich flat corn lands, once perpetually flooded, but now drained and -tilled; the divisions between field and field being mostly ditches, small -or big, and all full of water; the soil is deep vegetable mould, fine, -and free from stones, hardly to be excelled for both corn and roots; -while the _Marsh_ is nearly all pasture land, stiffer in nature, and -producing such rich grass that the beasts can grow fat upon it without -other food. Here, too, the fields are divided by ditches or “dykes” and -the sea wind blows over them with untiring energy, for the Marsh is all -next the coast, being a belt averaging seven or eight miles in width, and -reaching from the Wash to the Humber. - -[Sidenote: THE WOLDS] - -From this belt the Romans, by means of a long embankment, excluded the -waters of the sea; and Nature’s sand-dunes, aided by the works of man -in places, keep up the Roman tradition. Even before the Roman bank was -made, the _Marsh_ differed from the _Fen_, in that the waters which used -to cover the _fens_ were fed by the river floods and the waters from -the hills, and it was not, except occasionally and along the course of -a tidal river, liable to inundation from the sea; whereas the _Marsh_ -was its natural prey. Of course both Marsh and Fen are all level. But -the third portion of the county is of quite a different character, and -immediately you get into it all the usual ideas about Lincolnshire being -a flat, ugly county vanish, and as this upland country extends over most -of the northern half of the county, viz., from Spilsby to the Humber on -the eastern side and from Grantham to the Humber on the western, it is -obvious that no one can claim to know Lincolnshire who does not know the -long lines of the Wolds, which are two long spines of upland running -north and south, with flat land on either side of them. - -These, back-bones of the county, though seldom reaching 500 feet, come to -their highest point of 530 between Walesby and Stainton-le-Vale, a valley -set upon a hill over which a line would pass drawn from Grimsby to Market -Rasen. The hilly Wold region is about the same width as the level Marsh -belt, averaging eight miles, but north of Caistor this narrows. There are -no great streams from these Wolds, the most notable being the long brook -whose parent branches run from Stainton-in-the-Vale and “Roman hole” near -Thoresway, and uniting at Hatcliffe go out to the sea with the Louth -River “Lud,” the two streams joining at Tetney lock. - -North of Caistor the Wolds not only narrow, but drop by Barnetby-le-Wold -to 150 feet, and allow the railway lines from Barton-on-Humber, New -Holland and Grimsby to pass through to Brigg. This, however, is only a -‘pass,’ as the chalk ridge rises again near Elsham, and at Saxby attains -a height of 330 feet, whence it maintains itself at never less than 200 -feet, right up to Ferriby-on-the-Humber. These Elsham and Saxby Wolds are -but two miles across. - -Naturally this Wold region with the villages situated in its folds or on -its fringes is the pretty part of the county, though the Marsh with its -extended views, its magnificent sunsets and cloud effects, - - “The wide-winged sunsets of the misty Marsh,” - -its splendid cattle and its interesting flora, its long sand-dunes -covered with stout-growing grasses, sea holly and orange-berried -buckthorn, and finally its magnificent sands, is full of a peculiar -charm; and then there are its splendid churches; not so grand as the fen -churches it is true, but so nobly planned and so unexpectedly full of -beautiful old carved woodwork. - -West of these Wolds is a belt of Fen-land lying between them and the -ridge or ‘cliff’ on which the great Roman Ermine Street runs north -from Lincoln in a bee line for over thirty miles to the Humber near -Winteringham, only four miles west of the end of the Wolds already -mentioned at South Ferriby. - -[Sidenote: PARALLEL RIDGES] - -The high ridge of the Lincoln Wold is very narrow, a regular ‘Hogs -back’ and broken down into a lower altitude between Blyborough and -Kirton-in-Lindsey, and lower again a little further north near Scawby and -still more a few miles further on where the railway goes through the pass -between Appleby Station and Scunthorpe. - -From here a second ridge is developed parallel with the Lincoln Wold, -and between the Wold and the Trent, the ground rising from Bottesford to -Scunthorpe, reaching a height of 220 feet on the east bank of the Trent -near Burton-on-Stather and thence descending by Alkborough to the Humber -at Whitton. The Trent which, roughly speaking, from Newark, and actually -from North Clifton to the Humber, bounds the county on the west, runs -through a low country of but little interest, overlooked for miles from -the height which is crowned by Lincoln Minster. Only the Isle of Axholme -lies outside of the river westwards. - -The towns of Gainsborough towards the north, and Stamford at the extreme -south guard this western boundary. Beyond the Minster the Lincoln Wold -continues south through the Sleaford division of Kesteven to Grantham, -but in a modified form, rising into stiff hills only to the north-east -and south-west of Grantham, and thence passing out of the county into -Leicestershire. A glance at a good map will show that the ridge along -which the Ermine Street and the highway from Lincoln to Grantham run -for seventeen miles, as far, that is, as Ancaster, is not a wide one; -but drops to the flats more gently east of the Ermine Street than it -does to the west of the Grantham road. From Sleaford, where five railway -lines converge, that which goes west passes through a natural break in -the ridge by Ancaster, the place from which, next after the “Barnack -rag,” all the best stone of the churches of Lincolnshire has always -been quarried. South of Ancaster the area of high ground is much wider, -extending east and west from the western boundary of the county to the -road which runs from Sleaford to Bourne and Stamford. - -Such being the main features of the county, it will be as well to lay -down a sort of itinerary showing the direction in which we will proceed -and the towns which we propose to visit as we go. - -[Sidenote: ITINERARY] - -Entering the county from the south, at _Stamford_, we will make for -_Sleaford_. These are the two towns which give their names to the -divisions of South and North Kesteven. _Grantham_ lies off to the west, -about midway between the two. As this is the most important town in -the division of Kesteven, after taking some of the various roads which -radiate from Sleaford we will make Grantham our centre, then leave South -Kesteven for Sleaford again, and thence going on north we shall reach -_Lincoln_ just over the North Kesteven boundary, and so continue to -_Gainsborough_ and _Brigg_, from which the west and north divisions of -Lindsey are named. From each of the towns we have mentioned we shall -trace the roads which lead from them in all directions; and then, after -entering the Isle of Axholme and touching the Humber at _Barton_ and -the North Sea at Cleethorpes and Grimsby, we shall turn south to the -_Louth_ and _Horncastle_ (in other words the east and south) divisions -of Lindsey, and, so going down the east coast, we shall, after visiting -_Alford_ and _Spilsby_, both in South Lindsey, arrive at _Boston_ and -then at _Spalding_, both in the “parts of Holland,” and finally pass out -of the county near the ancient abbey of _Croyland_. - -By this itinerary we shall journey all round the huge county, going -up, roughly speaking, on the west and returning by the east; and shall -see, not only how it is divided into the political “parts” of Kesteven, -Lindsey and Holland, but also note as we go the characteristics of the -land and its three component elements of Fen, Wold and Marsh. - -We have seen that the Wolds, starting from the Humber, run in two -parallel ridges; that on the west side of the county reaching the whole -way from north to south, but that on the east only going half the way and -ending abruptly at West Keal, near Spilsby. - -All that lies east of the road running from Lincoln by Sleaford and -Bourne to Stamford, and south of a line drawn from Lincoln to Wainfleet -is “Fen,” and includes the southern portion of South Lindsey, the eastern -half of Kesteven, and the whole of Holland. - -In this Fen country great houses are scarce. But the great monasteries -clung to the Fens and they were mainly responsible for the creation of -the truly magnificent Fen churches which are most notably grouped in -the neighbourhood of Boston, Sleaford and Spalding. In writing of the -Fens, therefore, the churches are the chief things to be noticed, and -this is largely, though not so entirely, the case in the Marsh district -also. Hence I have ventured to describe these Lincolnshire churches -of the Marsh and Fen at greater length than might at first sight seem -warrantable. - -[Sidenote: PERIODS OF ARCHITECTURE] - -It would make it easier to follow these descriptions if the reader were -first to master the dates and main characteristics of the different -periods of architecture and their order of sequence. Thus, roughly -speaking, we may assign each style to one century, though of course the -style and the century were not in any case exactly coterminous. - - 11th Century Norman ⎫ With round arches. - 12th ” Transition ⎭ - 13th ” Early English (E.E.) ⎫ - 14th ” Decorated (Dec.) ⎬ With pointed arches. - 15th ” Perpendicular (Perp.) ⎭ - - - - -CHAPTER II - -STAMFORD - - The North Road—Churches—Browne’s Hospital—Brasenose - College—Daniel Lambert—Burghley House and “The Peasant - Countess.” - - -The Great Northern line, after leaving Peterborough, enters the county -at Tallington, five miles east of Stamford. Stamford is eighty-nine -miles north of London, and forty miles south of Lincoln. Few towns in -England are more interesting, none more picturesque. The Romans with -their important station of Durobrivæ at Castor, and another still nearer -at Great Casterton, had no need to occupy Stamford in force, though they -doubtless guarded the ford where the Ermine Street crossed the Welland, -and possibly paved the water-way, whence arose the name Stane-ford. -The river here divides the counties of Lincoln and Northamptonshire, -and on the north-west of the town a little bit of Rutland runs up, but -over three-quarters of the town is in our county. The Saxons always -considered it an important town, and as early as 664 mention is made -in a charter of Wulfhere, King of Mercia, of “that part of Staunforde -beyond the bridge,” so the town was already on both sides of the river. -Later again, in Domesday Book, the King’s borough of Stamford is noticed -as paying tax for the army, navy and Danegelt, also it is described as -“having six wards, five in Lincolnshire and one in Hamptonshire, but all -pay customs and dues alike, except the last in which the Abbot of Burgh -(Peterborough) had and hath Gabell and toll.” - -This early bridge was no doubt a pack-horse bridge, and an arch on the -west side of St. Mary’s Hill still bears the name of Packhorse Arch. - -[Illustration: _St. Leonard’s Priory, Stamford._] - -[Sidenote: ST. LEONARD’S PRIORY] - -St. Leonard’s Priory is the oldest building in the neighbourhood. After -Oswy, King of Northumbria, had defeated Penda, the pagan King of Mercia, -he gave the government of this part of the conquered province to Penda’s -son Pæda, and gave land in Stamford to his son’s tutor, Wilfrid, and -here, in 658, Wilfrid built the priory of St. Leonard which he bestowed -on his monastery at Lindisfarne, and when the monks removed thence to -Durham it became a cell of the priory of Durham. Doubtless the building -was destroyed by the Danes, but it was refounded in 1082 by the -Conqueror and William of Carilef, the then Bishop of Durham. - -The Danish marauders ravaged the country, but were met at Stamford by a -stout resistance from Saxons and Britons combined; but in the end they -beat the Saxons and nearly destroyed Stamford in 870. A few years later, -when, after the peace of Wedmore, Alfred the Great gave terms to Guthrum -on condition that he kept away to the north of the Watling Street, the -five towns of Stamford, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Lincoln were -left to the Danes for strongholds; of these Lincoln then, as now, was the -chief. - -[Sidenote: PARLIAMENT AT STAMFORD] - -The early importance of Stamford may be gauged by the facts that -Parliament was convened there more than once in the fourteenth century, -and several Councils of War and of State held there. One of these was -called by Pope Boniface IX. to suppress the doctrines of Wyclif. There, -too, a large number of nobles met to devise some check on King John, -who was often in the neighbourhood either at Kingscliffe, in Rockingham -Forest, or at Stamford itself—and from thence they marched to Runnymede. - -[Sidenote: STAMFORD TOWN] - -The town was on the Great North Road, so that kings, when moving up and -down their realm, naturally stopped there. A good road also went east and -west, hence, just outside the town gate on the road leading west towards -Geddington and Northampton, a cross (the third) was set up in memory of -the halting of Queen Eleanor’s funeral procession in 1293 on its way from -Harby near Lincoln to Westminster. - -[Illustration: _St. George’s Square, Stamford._] - -[Sidenote: CITY ARMS] - -There was a castle near the ford in the tenth century, and Danes and -Saxons alternately held it until the Norman Conquest. The city, like -the ancient Thebes, had a wall with seven gates besides posterns, one -of which still exists in the garden of 9, Barn Hill, the house in which -Alderman Wolph hid Charles I. on his last visit to Stamford in 1646. -Most of the buildings which once made Stamford so very remarkable were -the work of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and as they comprised -fifteen churches, six priories, with hospitals, schools and almshouses -in corresponding numbers, the town must have presented a beautiful -appearance, more especially so because the stone used in all these -buildings, public and private, is of such exceptionally good character, -being from the neighbouring quarries of Barnack, Ketton and Clipsham. -But much of this glory of stone building and Gothic architecture was -destroyed in the year 1461; and for this reason. It happened that, just -as Henry III. had given it to his son Edward I. on his marriage with -Eleanor of Castile in 1254, so, in 1363, Edward III. gave the castle and -manor of Stamford to his son Edmund of Langley, Duke of York; this, by -attaching the town to the Yorkist cause, when Lincolnshire was mostly -Lancastrian, brought about its destruction, for after the battle of St. -Alban’s in 1461, the Lancastrians under Sir Andrew Trollope utterly -devastated the town, destroying everything, and, though some of the -churches were rebuilt, the town never recovered its former magnificence. -It still looks beautiful with its six churches, its many fragments -of arch or wall and several fine old almshouses which were built -subsequently, but it lost either then or at the dissolution more than -double of what it has managed to retain. Ten years later the courage -shown by the men of Stamford at the battle of Empingham or “Bloody Oaks” -close by, on the North Road, where the Lancastrians were defeated, caused -Edward IV. to grant permission for the royal lions to be placed on the -civic shield of Stamford, side by side with the arms of Earl Warren. He -had had the manorial rights of Stamford given to him by King John in -1206, and he is said to have given the butchers a field in which to keep -a bull to be baited annually on November 13, and the barbarous practice -of “bull running” in the streets was actually kept up till 1839, and then -only abolished with difficulty. - -[Illustration: _St. Mary’s Street, Stamford._] - -[Illustration: _St. Paul’s Street, Stamford._] - -[Sidenote: THE SIX CHURCHES] - -[Sidenote: THE CALLISES] - -[Sidenote: STAMFORD UNIVERSITY] - -Of the six churches, St. Mary’s and All Saints have spires. St. Mary’s, -on a hill which slopes to the river, is a fine arcaded Early English -tower with a broach spire of later date, but full of beautiful work in -statue and canopy, very much resembling that at Ketton in Rutland. There -are three curious round panels with interlaced work over the porch, and -a rich altar tomb with very lofty canopy that commemorates Sir David -Phillips and his wife. They had served Margaret Countess of Richmond, -the mother of Henry VII., who resided at Collyweston close by. The body -of the church is rather crowded together and not easy to view. In this -respect All Saints, with its turrets, pinnacles and graceful spire, and -its double belfry lights under one hood moulding as at Grantham, has -the advantage. Moreover the North Road goes up past it, and the market -place gives plenty of space all round it. Inside, the arcade columns are -cylindrical and plain on the north, but clustered on the south side, -with foliated capitals. This church is rich in brasses, chiefly of the -great wool-merchant family of Browne, one of whom, William, founded a -magnificent hospital and enlarged the church, and in all probability -built the handsome spire; he was buried in 1489. The other churches all -have square towers, that of St. John’s Church is over the last bay of -the north aisle, and at the last bay of the south aisle is a porch. The -whole construction is excellent, pillars tall, roof rich and windows -graceful, and it once was filled with exceptionally fine stained glass. -St. George’s Church, being rebuilt with fragments of other destroyed -churches, shows a curious mixture of octagonal and cylindrical work in -the same pillars. St. Michael’s and St. Martin’s are the other two, of -which the latter is across the water in what is called _Stamford Baron_, -it is the burial place of the Cecils and it is not far from the imposing -gateway into Burghley Park. This church and park, with the splendid house -designed by John Thorpe for the great William Cecil in 1565, are all in -the diocese of Peterborough, and the county of Northampton. We shall have -to recall the church when we speak of the beautiful windows which Lord -Exeter was allowed by the Fortescue family to take from the Collegiate -Church of Tattershall, and which are now in St. Martin’s, where they are -extremely badly set with bands of modern glass interrupting the old. -Another remnant of a church stands on the north-west of the town, St. -Paul’s. This ruin was made over as early as the sixteenth century for -use as a schoolroom for Radcliffe’s Grammar School. Schools, hospitals or -almshouses once abounded in Stamford, where the latter are often called -_Callises_, being the benefactions of the great wool merchants of the -Staple of Calais. The chief of all these, and one which is still in use, -is Browne’s Hospital, founded in 1480 by a Stamford merchant who had been -six times Mayor, for a Warden, a Confrater, ten poor men, and two poor -women. It had a long dormitory hall, with central passage from which the -brethren’s rooms opened on either side, and, at one end, beyond a carved -screen, is the chapel with tall windows, stalls and carved bench-ends, -and a granite alms box. An audit room is above the hall or dormitory, -with good glass, and Browne’s own house, with large gateway to admit -the wool-wagons, adjoined the chapel. It was partly rebuilt with new -accommodation in 1870; the cloister and hall and chapel remain as they -were. One more thing must be noted. In the north-west and near the old -St. Paul’s Church schoolroom is a beautiful Early English gateway, which -is all that remains of _Brasenose College_. The history is a curious -one. Violent town and gown quarrels resulting even in murders, at Oxford -in 1260, had caused several students to migrate to Northampton, where -Henry III. directed the mayor to give them every accommodation; but in -1266, probably for reasons connected with civil strife, the license -was revoked, and, whilst many returned to Oxford, many preferred to go -further, and so came to Stamford, a place known to be well supplied with -halls and requisites for learning. Here they were joined in 1333 by a -further body of Oxford men who were involved in a dispute between the -northern and southern scholars, the former complaining that they were -unjustly excluded from Merton College Fellowships. The Durham Monastery -took their side and doubtless offered them shelter at their priory of -St. Leonard’s, Stamford. Then, as other bodies of University seceders -kept joining them, they thought seriously of setting up a University, and -petitioned King Edward III. to be allowed to remain under his protection -at Stamford. But the Universities petitioned against them, and the King -ordered the Sheriff of Lincolnshire to turn them out, promising them -redress when they were back in Oxford. Those who refused were punished -by confiscation of goods and fines, and the two Universities passed -Statutes imposing an oath on all freshmen that they would not read or -attend lectures at Stamford. In 1292 Robert Luttrell of Irnham gave a -manor and the parish church of St. Peter, near Stamford, to the priory -at Sempringham, being “desirous to increase the numbers of the convent -and that it might ever have scholars at Stamford studying divinity -and philosophy.” This refers to Sempringham Hall, one of the earliest -buildings of Stamford University. - -[Illustration: _St. Peter’s Hill, Stamford._] - -[Sidenote: A MAZE OF STREETS] - -[Sidenote: STAMFORD’S GREAT MEN] - -A glance at a plan of the town would show that it is exactly like -a maze, no street runs on right through it in any direction, and, -for a stranger, it is incredibly difficult to find a way out. To the -south-west, and all along the eastern edge on the river-meadows outside -the walls, were large enclosures belonging to the different Friaries, on -either side of the road to St. Leonard’s Priory. No town has lost more -by the constant depredations of successive attacking forces; first the -Danes, then the Wars of the Roses, then the dissolution of the religious -houses, then the Civil War, ending with a visit from Cromwell in his -most truculent mood, fresh from the mischief done by his soldiers in -and around Croyland and Peterborough. But, even now, its grey stone -buildings, its well-chosen site, its river, its neighbouring hills -and wooded park, make it a town more than ordinarily attractive. Of -distinguished natives, we need only mention the great Lord Burleigh, who -served with distinction through four reigns, and Archdeacon Johnson, the -founder of the Oakham and Uppingham Schools and hospitals in 1584, though -Uppingham as it now is, was the creation of a far greater man, the famous -Edward Thring, a pioneer of modern educational methods, in the last -half of the nineteenth century. Archbishop Laud, who is so persistently -mentioned as having been once Vicar of St. Martin’s, Stamford, was never -there; his vicarage was Stanford-on-Avon. But undoubtedly Stamford’s -greatest man in one sense was Daniel Lambert, whose monument, in St. -Martin’s churchyard, date 1809, speaks of his “personal greatness” and -tells us that he weighed 52 stone 11 lbs., adding “N.B. the stone of 14 -lb.” The writer once, when a schoolboy, went with another to see his -clothes, which were shown at the Daniel Lambert Inn; and, when the two -stood back to back, the armhole of his spacious waistcoat was slipped -over their heads and fell loosely round them to the ground. - -This enormous personage must not be confounded with another Daniel -Lambert, who was Lord Mayor and Member for the City of London in -Walpole’s time, about 1740. - -[Sidenote: THE PEASANT COUNTESS] - -It is quite a matter of regret that “Burleigh House near Stamford town” -is outside the county boundary. Of all the great houses in England, -it always strikes me as being the most satisfying and altogether the -finest, and a fitting memorial of the great Lincolnshire man William -Cecil, who, after serving in the two previous reigns, was Elizabeth’s -chief Minister for forty years. “The Lord of Burleigh” of Tennyson’s poem -lived two centuries later, but he, too, with “the peasant Countess” lived -eventually in the great house. Lady Dorothy Nevill, in _My Own Times_ -published in 1912, gives a clear account of the facts commemorated in -the poem. She tells us that Henry Cecil, tenth Earl of Exeter, before -he came into the title was divorced from his wife in 1791, owing to -her misconduct; being almost broken-hearted he retired to a village in -Shropshire, called Bolas Magna, where he worked as a farm servant to -one Hoggins who had a mill. Tennyson makes him more picturesquely “a -landscape painter.” He often looked in at the vicarage and had a mug of -ale with the servants, who called him “Gentleman Harry.” The clergyman, -Mr. Dickenson, became interested in him, and often talked with him, -and used to invite him to smoke an evening pipe with him in the study. -Mr. Hoggins had a daughter Sarah, the beauty of Bolas, and they became -lovers. With the clergyman’s aid Cecil, not without difficulty, persuaded -Hoggins to allow the marriage, which took place at St. Mildred’s, Bread -Street, October 30th, 1791, his broken heart having mended fairly -quickly. He was now forty years of age, and before the marriage he had -told Dickenson who he was. For two years they lived in a small farm, -when, from a Shrewsbury paper, “Mr. Cecil” learnt that he had succeeded -his uncle in the title and the possession of Burleigh House and estate. -Thither in due course he took his bride. Her picture is on the wall, but -she did not live long. - - “For a trouble weighed upon her, - And perplexed her night and morn, - With the burthen of an honour - Unto which she was not born. - Faint she grew and even fainter, - And she murmured ‘Oh that he - Were once more that landscape painter - That did win my heart from me’! - So she drooped and drooped before him, - Fading slowly from his side: - Three fair children first she bore him, - Then before her time she died.” - -[Illustration: _Stamford from Freeman’s Close._] - - - - -CHAPTER III - -STAMFORD TO BOURNE - - Tickencote—“Bloody - Oaks”—Holywell—Tallington—Barholm—Greatford—Witham-on-the-Hill—Dr. - Willis—West Deeping—Market Deeping—Deeping-St.-James—Richard de - Rulos—Braceborough—Bourne. - - -Of the eight roads which run to Stamford, the Great North Road which here -coincides with the Roman Ermine Street is the chief; and this enters -from the south through Northamptonshire and goes out by the street -called “Scotgate” in a north-westerly direction through Rutland. It -leaves Lincolnshire at Great or Bridge Casterton on the river Gwash; one -mile further it passes the celebrated church of Tickencote nestling in -a hollow to the left, where the wonderful Norman chancel arch of five -orders outdoes even the work at Iffley near Oxford, and the wooden effigy -of a knight reminds one of that of Robert Duke of Normandy at Gloucester. -_Tickencote_ is the home of the Wingfields, and the villagers in 1471 -were near enough to hear “the Shouts of war” when the Lincolnshire -Lancastrians fled from the fight on Loosecoat Field after a slaughter -which is commemorated on the map by the name “Bloody Oaks.” Further on, -the road passes Stretton, ‘the village on the street,’ whence a lane to -the right takes you to the famed Clipsham quarries just on the Rutland -side of the boundary, and over it to the beautiful residence of Colonel -Birch Reynardson at _Holywell_. Very soon now the Ermine Street, after -doing its ten miles in Rutland, passes by “Morkery Wood” back into -Lincolnshire. - -The only Stamford Road which is all the time in our county is the eastern -road through Market Deeping to Spalding, this soon after leaving -Stamford passes near Uffington Hall, built in 1688 by Robert Bertie, son -of Montague, second Earl of Lindsey, he whose father fell at Edgehill. On -the northern outskirt of the parish Lord Kesteven has a fine Elizabethan -house called Casewick Hall. Round each house is a well-timbered park, -and at Uffington Hall the approach is by a fine avenue of limes. At -_Tallington_, where the road crosses the Great Northern line, the church, -like several in the neighbourhood, has some Saxon as well as Norman work, -and the original Sanctus bell still hangs in a cot surmounting the east -end of the nave. It is dedicated to St. Lawrence. - -South Lincolnshire seems to have been rather rich in Saxon churches, and -two of the best existing towers of that period at Barnack and Wittering -in Northamptonshire are within three miles of Stamford, one on either -side of the Great North Road. - -_Barholm_ Church, near Tallington, has some extremely massive Norman -arches and a fine door with diapered tympanum. The tower was restored in -the last year of Charles I., and no one seems to have been more surprised -than the churchwarden or parson or mason of the time, for we find carved -on it these lines:— - - “Was ever such a thing - Sence the creation? - A new steeple built - In the time of vexation. - - I. H. 1643.” - -[Sidenote: FORDS OF THE WELLAND] - -An old Hall adds to the interest of the place, and another charming -old building is Mr. Peacock’s Elizabethan house in the next parish of -_Greatford_, or, as it should be spelt, Gretford or Gritford, the grit -or gravel ford of the river Glen, just as Stamford should be Stanford -or Staneford, the stone-paved ford of the Welland. Gretford Church is -remarkable if only for the unusual position of the tower as a south -transept, a similar thing being seen at _Witham-on-the-Hill_, four miles -off, in Rutland. Five of the bells there are re-casts of some which once -hung in Peterborough Cathedral, and the fifth has the date 1831 and a -curious inscription. General Johnson I used to see when I was a boy at -Uppingham; he was the patron of the school, and the one man among the -governors of the school who was always a friend to her famous headmaster, -Edward Thring. But why he wrote the last line of this inscription I can’t -conceive:— - - “’Twas not to prosper pride and hate - William Augustus Johnson gave me, - But peace and joy to celebrate; - And call to prayer to heaven to save ye. - Then keep the terms, and e’er remember, - May 29 ye must not ring - Nor yet the 5th of each November - Nor on the crowning of a king.” - -[Sidenote: THE DEEPINGS] - -[Sidenote: DEEPING FEN] - -To return to Gretford. In the north transept is a square opening, in the -sill of which is a curious hollow all carved with foliage, resembling -one in the chancel at East Kirkby, near Spilsby, where it is supposed -to have been a sort of alms dish for votive offerings. Here, too, is a -bust by Nollekens of a man who had a considerable reputation in his time, -and who occupied more than one house in this neighbourhood and built a -private asylum at Shillingthorpe near Braceborough for his patients, a -distinguished _clientèle_ who used to drive their teams all about the -neighbourhood; this was Dr. F. Willis, the mad-doctor who attended George -III. But these are all ‘side shows,’ and we must get back to Tallington. -The road from here goes through _West Deeping_, which, like the manor -of Market Deeping, belonged to the Wakes. Here we find a good font with -eight shields of arms, that of the Wakes being one, and an almost unique -old low chancel screen of stone, the surmounting woodwork has gone and -the west face is filled in with poor modern mosaic. Within three miles -the Bourne-and-Peterborough road crosses the Stamford-and-Spalding road -at _Market Deeping_, where there is a large church, once attached to -Croyland, and a most interesting old house used as the rectory. This was -the refectory of a priory, and has fine roof timbers. The manor passed -through Joan, daughter of Margaret Wake, to the Black Prince. Two miles -further, the grand old priory church of _Deeping-St.-James_ lies a mile -to the left. This was attached as a cell to Thorney Abbey in 1139, by the -same Baldwin FitzGilbert who had founded Bourne Abbey. A diversion of a -couple of miles northwards would bring us to a fine tower and spire at -_Langtoft_, once a dependency of Medehamstead[1] Abbey at Peterborough, -together with which it was ruthlessly destroyed by Swegen in 1013. On the -roof timbers are some beautifully carved figures of angels, and carved -heads project from the nave pillars. The south chantry is a large one, -with three arches opening into the chancel, and has several interesting -features. Amongst these is a handsome aumbry, which may have been used as -an Easter sepulchre. The south chantry opens from the chancel with three -arches, and has some good carving and a piscina with a finely constructed -canopy. There is a monument to Elizabeth Moulesworth, 1648, and a brass -plate on the tomb of Sarah, wife of Bernard Walcot, has this pretty -inscription:— - - Thou bedd of rest, reserve for him a roome - Who lives a man divorced from his deare wife, - That as they were one hart so this one tombe - May hold them near in death as linckt in life, - She’s gone before, and after comes her head - To sleepe with her among the blessed dead. - -At Scamblesby, between Louth and Horncastle, is another pathetic -inscription on a wife’s tomb:— - - To Margaret Coppinger wife of Francis Thorndike 1629. - Dilectissimæ conjugi Mæstissimus maritorum Franciscus - Thorndike. - - L.(apidem) M.(armoreum) P.(osuit) - -The old manor house of the Hyde family is at the north end of -the village. The road for the next ten miles over Deeping Fen is -uninteresting as a road can be. But this will be amply made up for in -another chapter when we shape our eastward course from Spalding to -Holbeach and Gedney. - -[Sidenote: THE FATHER OF FEN FARMERS] - -In Deeping Fen between Bourne, Spalding, Crowland and Market Deeping -there is about fifty square miles of fine fat land, and Marrat tells -us that as early as the reign of Edward the Confessor, Egelric, the -Bishop of Durham, who, having been once a monk at Peterborough, knew -the value of the land, in order to develop the district, made a cord -road of timber and gravel all the way from Deeping to Spalding. The -province then belonged to the Lords of Brunne or Bourne. In Norman times -Richard De Rulos, Chamberlain of the Conqueror, married the daughter of -Hugh de Evermue, Lord of Deeping. Their only daughter married Baldwin -FitzGilbert, and his daughter and heiress married Hugh de Wake, who -managed the forest of Kesteven for Henry III., which forest reached to -the bridge at Market Deeping. Richard De Rulos, who was the father of -all Lincolnshire farmers, aided by Ingulphus, Abbot of Croyland, set -himself to enclose and drain the fen land, to till the soil or convert it -into pasture and to breed cattle. He banked out the Welland which used -to flood the fen every year, whence it got its name of Deeping or the -deep meadows, and on the bank he set up tenements with gardens attached, -which were the beginnings of Market Deeping. He further enlarged St. -Guthlac’s chapel into a church, and then planted another little colony at -Deeping-St.-James, where his son-in-law, who carried on his activities, -built the priory. De Rulos was in fact a model landlord, and the result -was that the men of Deeping, like Jeshuron, “waxed fat and kicked,” and -the abbots of Croyland had endless contests with them for the next 300 -years for constant trespass and damage. Probably this was the reason why -the Wakes set up a castle close by Deeping, but on the Northampton side -of the Welland at Maxey, which was inhabited later by Lady Margaret, -Countess of Richmond, the mother of Henry VII., who, in addition to all -her educational benefactions, was also a capital farmer and an active -member of the Commissioners of Sewers. - -[Sidenote: THE LIMESTONE SPRINGS] - -We must now get back to Stamford. Even the road which goes due north to -Bourne soon finds itself outside the county; for Stamford is placed on a -mere tongue or long pointed nose of land belonging to Lincolnshire, in -what is aptly termed the Wapentake of ‘Ness.’ However, after four miles -in Rutland, it passes the four cross railroads at _Essendine_ Junction, -and soon after re-crosses the boundary near _Carlby_. Essendine Church -consists simply of a Norman nave and chancel. Here, a little to the -right lies _Braceborough Spa_, where water gushes from the limestone -at the rate of a million and a half gallons daily. This is a great -district for curative springs. There is one five miles to the west at -_Holywell_ which, with its stream and lake and finely timbered grounds, -is one of the beauty spots of Lincolnshire, and at the same distance -to the north are the strong springs of Bourne. We hear of a chalybeate -spring “continually boiling” or gushing up, for it was not hot, near -the church at Billingborough, and another at Stoke Rochford, each place -a good ten miles from Bourne and in opposite directions. Great Ponton -too, near Stoke Rochford, is said to “abound in Springs of pure water -rising out of the rock and running into the river Witham.” The church at -_Braceborough_ had a fine brass once to Thomas De Wasteneys, who died of -the Black Death in 1349. After Carlby there is little of interest on -the road itself till it tops the hill beyond _Toft_ whence, on an autumn -day, a grand view opens out across the fens to the Wash and to Boston on -the north-east, and the panorama sweeps southward past Spalding to the -time-honoured abbey of Croyland, and on again to the long grey pile of -Peterborough Minster, once islands in a trackless fen (the impenetrable -refuge of the warlike and unconquered Gervii or fenmen), but now a level -plain of cornland covered, as far as eye can see, with the richest crops -imaginable. A little further north we reach the Colsterworth road, and -turning east, enter the old town of _Bourne_, now only notable as the -junction of the Great Northern and Midland Railways. Since 1893 the -inhabitants have used an “e” at the end of the name to distinguish it -from Bourn in Cambridgeshire. Near the castle hill is a strong spring -called “Peter’s Pool,” or Bournwell-head, the water of which runs through -the town and is copious enough to furnish a water supply for Spalding. -This castle, mentioned by Ingulphus in his history of Croyland Abbey, -existed in the eleventh century; possibly the Romans had a fort here to -guard both the ‘Carr Dyke’ which passes by the east side of the town, -and also the King’s Street, a Roman road which, splitting off from the -Ermine Street at Castor, runs through Bourne due north to Sleaford. There -was an outer moat enclosing eight acres, and an inner moat of one acre, -inside which “on a mount of earth cast up with mene’s hands” stood the -castle, once the stronghold of the Wakes. To-day a maze of grassy mounds -alone attests the site, amongst which the “Bourn or Brunne gushes out in -a strong clear stream.” Marrat in his “History of Lincolnshire” tells us -that as early as 870 Morchar, Lord of Brun, fell fighting at the battle -of Threekingham. Two hundred years later we have “Hereward the Wake” -living at Bourn, and in the twelfth century “Hugh De Wac” married Emma, -daughter and heir of Baldwin FitzGilbert, who led some of King Stephen’s -forces in the battle of Lincoln and refused to desert his king. Hugh -founded the abbey of Bourn in 1138 on the site of an older building of -the eighth or ninth century. - -[Illustration: _Bourne Abbey Church._] - -[Sidenote: BOURNE] - -[Sidenote: FAMOUS NATIVES] - -Six generations later, Margaret de Wake married Edmund Plantagenet of -Woodstock, Earl of Kent, the sixth son of Edward I., and their daughter, -born 1328, was Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, who was finally married to -Edward the Black Prince. Their son was the unfortunate Richard II., and -through them the manor of Bourn, which is said to have been bestowed on -Baldwin, Count of Brienne, by William Rufus, passed back to the Crown. -Hereward is supposed to have been buried in the abbey in which only a -little of the early building remains. Certainly he was one of Bourn’s -famous natives, Cecil Lord Burleigh, the great Lord Treasurer, being -another, of whom it was said that “his very enemies sorrowed for his -death.” Job Hartop, born 1550, who sailed with Sir John Hawkins and spent -ten years in the galleys, and thirteen more in a Spanish prison, but came -at last safe home to Bourn, deserves honourable mention, and Worth, the -Parisian costumier, was also a native who has made himself a name; but -one of the most noteworthy of all Bourn’s residents was Robert Manning, -born at Malton, and canon of the Gilbertine Priory of Six Hills. He is -best known as Robert de Brunne, from his long residence in Bourn, where -he wrote his “Chronicle of the History of England.” This is a Saxon or -English metrical version of Wace’s Norman-French translation of the -“Chronicles of Geoffrey of Monmouth,” and of Peter Langtoft’s “History -of England,” which was also written in French. This work he finished in -1338, on the 200th anniversary of the founding of the abbey; and in 1303, -when he was appointed “Magister” in Bourn Abbey, he wrote his “Handlynge -of Sin,” also a translation from the French, in the preface to which he -has the following lines:— - - For men unlearned I undertook - In English speech to write this book, - For many be of such mannere - That tales and rhymes will gladly hear. - On games and feasts and at the ale - Men love to hear a gossip’s tale - That leads perhaps to villainy - Or deadly sin, or dull folly. - For such men have I made this rhyme - That they may better spend their time. - To all true Christians under sun, - To good and loyal men of Brunn, - And specially all by name - O’ the Brotherhood of Sempringhame, - Robert of Brunn now greeteth ye, - And prays for your prosperity. - -[Sidenote: ROBERT DE BRUNNE] - -Robert was a translator and no original composer, but he was the first -after Layamon, the Worcestershire monk who lived just before him, to -write English in its present form. Chaucer followed him, then Spenser, -after which all was easy. But he was, according to Freeman, the pioneer -who created standard English by giving the language of the natives a -literary expression. - -[Illustration: _The Station House, Bourne._] - -[Sidenote: BLACKSMITH’S EPITAPH] - -It is difficult to see the abbey church, it is so hemmed in by buildings, -and it never seems to have been completed. At the west end is some very -massive work. In the churchyard there is a curious epitaph on Thomas Tye, -a blacksmith, the first six lines of which are also found on a gravestone -in Haltham churchyard near Horncastle:— - - My sledge and hammer lie reclined, - My bellows too have lost their wind, - My fire’s extinct, my forge decayed, - And in the dust my vice is laid, - My coal is spent, my iron’s gone, - My nails are drawn, my work is done. - My fire-dryed corpse lies here at rest, - My soul like smoke is soaring to the bles’t. - -There is a charming old grey stone grammar school, possibly the very -building in which Robert De Brunne taught when “Magister” at the abbey -at the beginning of the fourteenth century. The station-master’s house, -called “Red Hall,” is a picturesque Elizabethan brick building once the -home of the Roman Catholic leader, Sir John Thimbleby, and afterwards of -the Digbys. Sir Everard Digby, whose fine monument is in Stoke Dry Church -near Uppingham, was born here. Another house is called “Cavalry House” -because Thomas Rawnsley, great grandfather of the writer, was living -there when he raised at his own expense and drilled a troop of “Light -Horse Rangers” at the time when Buonaparte threatened to invade England. -Lady Heathcote, whose husband commanded them, gave him a handsome silver -goblet in 1808, in recognition of his services. He died in 1826, and in -the spandrils of the north arcade in Bourne Abbey Church are memorial -tablets to him and to his wife Deborah (Hardwicke) “and six of their -children who died infants.” - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -ROADS FROM BOURNE - - The Carr Dyke—Thurlby—Edenham—Grimsthorpe Castle—King’s - Street—Swinstead—Stow Green—Folkingham—Haydor—Silk - Willoughby—Rippingale—Billingborough—Horbling—Sempringham and - the Gilbertines. - - -Bourne itself is in the fen, just off the Lincolnshire limestone. From it -the railways run to all the four points of the compass, but it is only -on the west, towards Nottingham, that any cutting was needed. Due north -and south runs the old Roman road, keeping just along the eastern edge -of the Wold; parallel with it, and never far off, the railway line keeps -on the level fen by Billingborough and Sleaford to Lincoln, a distance -of five-and-thirty miles, and all the way the whole of the land to the -east right up to the coast is one huge tract of flat fenland scored with -dykes, with only few roads, but with railways fairly frequent, running in -absolute straight lines for miles, and with constant level crossings. - -One road which goes south from Bourne is interesting because it goes -along by the ‘Carr Dyke,’ that great engineering work of the Romans, -which served to catch the water from the hills and drain it off so as -to prevent the flooding of the fens. Rennie greatly admired it, and -adopted the same principle in laying out his great “Catchwater” drain, -affectionately spoken of by the men in the fens as ‘the owd Catch.’ The -Carr Dyke was a canal fifty-six miles long and fifty feet wide, with -broad, flat banks, and connected the Nene at Peterborough with the Witham -at Washingborough near Lincoln. From Washingborough southwards to Martin -it is difficult to trace, but it is visible at Walcot, thence it passed -by Billinghay and north Kyme through Heckington Fen, east of Horbling -and Billingborough and the Great Northern Railway line to Bourne. Two -miles south of this we come to the best preserved bit of it in the parish -of _Thurlby_, or Thoroldby, once a Northman now a Lincolnshire name. The -“Bourne Eau” now crosses it and empties into the River Glen, which itself -joins the Welland at Stamford. - -[Sidenote: THURLBY] - -_Thurlby_ Church stands only a few yards from the ‘Carr Dyke,’ it is full -of interesting work, and is curiously dedicated to St. Firmin, a bishop -of Amiens, of Spanish birth. He was sent as a missionary to Gaul, where -he converted the Roman prefect, Faustinian. He was martyred, when bishop, -in 303, by order of Diocletian. The son of Faustinian was his godson, -and was baptized with his name of Firmin, and he, too, eventually became -Bishop of Amiens. Part of the church is pre-Norman and even exhibits -“long and short” work. The Norman arcades have massive piers and cushion -capitals. In the transepts are Early English arcades and squints, and -there is a canopied piscina and a font of very unusual design. There -is also an old ladder with handrail as in some of the Marsh churches, -leading to the belfry. Three miles south is _Baston_, where there is a -Saxon churchyard in a field. Hence the road continues to _Market Deeping_ -on the Welland, which is here the southern boundary of the county, and -thence to Deeping-St.-James and Peterborough. _Deeping-St.-James_ has a -grand priory church, which was founded by Baldwin Fitz-Gilbert as a cell -to Thorney Abbey in 1136, the year after he had founded Bourne Abbey. It -contains effigies of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Shameful -to say a fountain near the church was erected in 1819 by mutilating and -using the material of a fine village cross. Peakirk, with its little -chapel of St. Pega, and Northborough and Woodcroft, both with remarkable -houses built of the good gray stone of the neighbourhood, Woodcroft being -a perfect specimen of a fortified dwelling-house, though near, are in the -county of Northants. - -[Sidenote: EDENHAM CHURCH] - -The Corby-Colsterworth-and-Grantham Road leaves Bourne on the west and, -passing through Bourne Wood at about four miles’ distance, reaches -_Edenham_. On the west front of the church tower, at a height of forty -feet, is the brass of an archbishop. Inside the church are two stones, -one being the figure of a lady and the other being part of an ancient -cross, both carved with very early interlaced work. The chancel is -a museum of monuments of the Bertie family, the Dukes of Ancaster, -continued from the earliest series at Spilsby of the Willoughby -D’Eresbys, and beginning with Robert Bertie,[2] eleventh Lord Willoughby -and first Earl of Lindsey, who fell at Edgehill while leading the -Lincolnshire regiment, 1642. The present Earls of Lindsey and Uffington -are descended from Lord Albemarle Bertie, fifth son of Robert, third Earl -of Lindsey, who has a huge monument here, dated 1738, adorned with no -less than seven marble busts. - -Two fine altar tombs of the fourteenth century, with effigies of knight -and lady, seem to be treated somewhat negligently, being thrust away -together at the entrance. The nave pillars are very lofty, but the whole -church has a bare and disappointing appearance from the plainness of -the architecture, and the ugly coat of yellow wash, both on walls and -pillars, and the badness of the stained glass. - -On the north wall of the chancel and reaching to the roof there is a very -lofty monument, with life-size effigy to the first Duke of Ancaster, -1723. East of this, one to the second duke with a marble cupid holding -a big medallion of his duchess, Jane Brownlow, 1741, and on the south -wall are equally huge memorials. In the family pew we hailed with relief -a very good alabaster tablet with white marble medallion of the late -Lady Willoughby “Clementina Elizabeth wife of the first Baron Aveland, -Baroness Willoughby d’Eresby in her own right, joint hereditary Lord -Chamberlain of England,” 1888. - -The font is transition Norman, the cylindrical bowl surrounded by eight -columns not detached, and a circle of arcading consisting of two Norman -arches between each column springing from the capitals of the pillars. - -The magnificent set of gold Communion plate was presented by the -Willoughby family. It is of French, Spanish, and Italian workmanship. -_Humby_ church has also a fine gold service, presented by Lady Brownlow -in 1682. It gives one pleasure to find good cedar trees and yews growing -in the churchyard. - -[Sidenote: GRIMSTHORPE] - -_Grimsthorpe Castle_ is a mile beyond Edenham. The park, the finest -in the county, in which are herds of both fallow and red deer, is very -large, and full of old oaks and hawthorns; the latter in winter are -quite green with the amount of mistletoe which grows on them. The lake -covers one hundred acres. The house is a vast building and contains a -magnificent hall 110 feet long, with a double staircase at either end, -and rising to the full height of the roof. In the state dining-room is -the Gobelin tapestry which came to the Duke of Suffolk by his marriage -with Mary, the widow of Louis XII. of France. Here, too, are several -Coronation chairs, the perquisites of the Hereditary Grand Chamberlain. -The Willoughby d’Eresby family have discharged this office ever since -1630 in virtue of descent from Alberic De Vere, Earl of Oxford, Grand -Chamberlain to Henry I., but in 1779, on the death of the fourth Duke of -Ancaster, the office was adjudged to be the right of both his sisters, -from which time the Willoughby family have held it conjointly with the -Earl of Carrington and the Marquis of Cholmondeley. Among the pictures -are several Holbeins. The manor of Grimsthorpe was granted to William, -the ninth Lord Willoughby, by Henry VIII. on his marriage with Mary de -Salinas, a Spanish lady in attendance on Katharine of Aragon, and it was -their daughter Katherine who became Duchess of Suffolk and afterwards -married Richard Bertie. - -Just outside Grimsthorpe Park is the village of _Swinstead_, in whose -church is a large monument to the last Duke of Ancaster, 1809, and an -effigy of one of the numerous thirteenth century crusaders. Somehow one -never looks on the four crusades of that century as at all up to the -mark in interest and importance of the first and third under Godfrey de -Bouillon and Cœur de Lion in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; as for -the second (St. Bernard’s) that was nothing but a wretched muddle all -through. - -Two miles further on is _Corby_, where the market cross remains, but not -the market. The station on the Great Northern main line is about five -miles east of Woolsthorpe, Sir Isaac Newton’s birthplace and early home. - -I think the most remarkable of the Bourne roads is the Roman “Kings -Street,” which starts for the north and, after passing on the right -the fine cruciform church of _Morton_ and then the graceful spire of -_Hacconby_, a name of unmistakable Danish origin, sends first an offshoot -to the right to pass through the fens to Heckington, and three or four -miles further on another to the left to run on the higher ground to -Folkingham, whilst it keeps on its own rigidly straight course to the -Roman station on the ford of the river Slea, passing through no villages -all the way, and only one other Roman station which guarded a smaller -ford at _Threckingham_. - -[Sidenote: STOW GREEN, ALGAR AND MORCAR] - -This place is popularly supposed to be named from the three Danish -kings who fell in the battle at Stow Green, between Threckingham and -Billingborough, in 870; but the fine recumbent figures of Judge Lambert -de Treckingham, 1300, and a lady of the same family, and the fact that -the Threckingham family lived here in the fourteenth century points -to a less romantic origin of the name. The names of the Victors, Earl -Algar and Morcar, or Morkere, Lord of Bourne, survive in ‘Algarkirk’ and -‘Morkery Wood’ in South Wytham. - -_Stow Green_ had one of the earliest chartered fairs in the kingdom. -It was held in the open, away from any habitation. Like Tan Hill -near Avebury, and St. Anne de Palue in Brittany, and Stonehenge, all -originally were probably assembling-places for fire-worship, for tan = -fire. - -But as we go to-day from Bourne to Sleaford, we shall not use the Roman -road for more than the first six miles, but take then the off-shoot to -the left, and passing _Aslackby_, where, in the twelfth century, as at -Temple-Bruer, the Templars had one of their round churches, afterwards -given to the Hospitallers, come to the little town of _Folkingham_, which -had been granted by the Conqueror to Gilbert de Gaunt or Ghent, Earl of -Lincoln. - -He was the nephew of Queen Matilda, and on none of his followers, except -Odo Bishop of Bayeux, did the Conqueror bestow his favours with a more -liberal hand; for we read that he gave him 172 Lordships of which 113 -were in Lincolnshire. He made his seat at Folkingham, but, having lands -in Yorkshire, he was a benefactor to St. Mary’s Abbey, York, at the same -time that he restored and endowed Bardney Abbey after its destruction by -the Danes under Inguar and Hubba. - -The wide street seems to have been laid out for more people than now -frequent it. The church is spacious and lofty, with a fine roof and -singularly rich oak screen and pulpit, into which the rood screen doorway -opens. It was well restored about eighty years ago, by the rector, the -Rev. T. H. Rawnsley, who was far ahead of his time in the reverend -spirit with which he handled old architecture. The neighbouring church -of _Walcot_ has a fine fourteenth century oak chest, similar to one at -Hacconby. Three and a half miles further on we come to _Osbournby_, with -a quite remarkable number of old carved bench-ends and some beautiful -canopied Sedilia. Another Danish village, _Aswardby_—originally, I -suppose, Asgarby, one can fancy a hero called ‘Asgard the Dane’ but -hardly Asward—has a fine house and park, sold by one of the Sleaford Carr -family to Sir Francis Whichcote in 1723. - -Four miles west of Aswardby is the village of _Haydor_ (Norse, heide = -heath). Here, in the north aisle of the church, which has a tall tower -and spire, is some very good stained glass. It was given by Geoffrey le -Scrope, who was Prebend of Haydor 1325 to 1380, and much resembles the -fine glass in York Minster, which was put in in 1338. In this parish is -the old manor of Culverthorpe, belonging to the Houblon family. It has a -very fine drawing-room and staircase and a painted ceiling. - -[Sidenote: SILK-WILLOUGHBY] - -We must now come back to the Sleaford road which, a couple of miles -beyond Aswardby Park, turns sharp to the right for _Silk-Willoughby_, -or Silkby cum Willoughby. Here we have a really beautiful church, with -finely proportioned tower and spire of the Decorated period. The Norman -font is interesting and the old carved bench-ends, and so is the large -base of a wayside cross in the village, with bold representations of -the four Evangelists, each occupying the whole of one side. Three miles -further we reach Sleaford. - -One of the features of the county is the number of roads it has running -north and south in the same direction as the Wolds. The Roman road -generally goes straightest, though at times the railway line, as for -instance between Bourne and Spalding, or between Boston and Burgh, takes -an absolute bee line which outdoes even the Romans. - -We saw that the two roads going north from Bourne sloped off right -and left of the “Kings Street.” That on the left or western side -keeps a parallel course to Sleaford, but that on the right, after -reaching _Horbling_, diverges still further to the east and makes for -_Heckington_. These two places are situated about six miles apart, and it -is through the Horbling and Heckington fens that the only two roads which -run east and west in all South Lincolnshire make their way. They both -start from the Grantham and Lincoln Road at Grantham and at Honington, -the former crossing the “Kings Street” at Threckingham, and thence to -Horbling fen, the latter passing by Sleaford and Heckington. Both of -these roads curve towards one another when they have passed the fens, -and, uniting near Swineshead, make for Boston and the Wash. The whole of -the land in South Lincolnshire slopes from west to east, falling between -Grantham and Boston about 440 feet, but really this fall takes place -almost entirely in the first third of the way on the western side of “The -Roman Street” which was cleverly laid out on the Fen-side fringe of the -higher ground. The road from Bourne to Heckington East of the “Street” is -absolutely on the fen level and the railway goes parallel to it, between -the road and the Roman ‘Carr Dyke.’ Thus we have a Roman road, a Roman -canal, two modern roads and a railway, all running side by side to the -north. - -[Sidenote: RIPPINGALE] - -The Heckington road, after leaving the “Street,” passes through _Dunsby_ -and _Dowsby_, where there is an old Elizabethan house once inhabited by -the Burrell family. _Rippingale_ lies off to the left between the two and -has in its church a rood screen canopy but no screen, which is very rare, -and a large number of old monuments from the thirteenth century onwards, -the oldest being two thirteenth century knights in chain mail of the -family of Gobaud, who lived at the Hall, now the merest ruin, where they -were succeeded by the Bowet, Marmion, Haslewood and Brownlow families. -An effigy of a deacon with the open book of the Gospels has this unusual -inscription, “Ici git Hwe Geboed le palmer le fils Jhoan Geboed. Millᵒ -446 Prees pur le alme.” It is interesting to find here a fifteenth -century monument to a Roger de Quincey. Was he, I wonder, an ancestor -of the famous opium eater? There is in the pavement a Marmion slab of -1505. The register records the death in July, 1815, of “the Lincolnshire -Giantess” Anne Hardy, aged 16, height 7 ft. 2 in. The Brownlow family -emigrated hence to Belton near Grantham. They had another Manor House at -_Great Humby_, which is just half-way between Rippingale and Belton, of -which the little brick-built domestic chapel now serves as a church. As -we go on we notice that the whole of the land eastwards is a desolate and -dreary fen, which extends from the Welland in the south to the Witham -near Lincoln. Of this Fenland, the Witham, when it turns southwards, -forms the eastern boundary, and alongside of it goes the Lincoln and -Boston railway, while the line from Bourne viâ Sleaford and on to Lincoln -forms the western boundary. I use the term ‘fen’ in the Lincolnshire -sense for an endless flat stretch of black corn-land without tree or -hedge, and intersected by straight-cut dykes or drains in long parallels. -This is the winter aspect; in autumn, when the wind blows over the miles -of ripened corn, the picture is a very different one. - -It is curious that on the Roman road line all the way from the Welland to -the Humber so few villages are found, whilst on the roads which skirt the -very edge of the fen from Bourne to Heckington and then north again from -Sleaford to Lincoln, villages abound. - -[Illustration: _Sempringham._] - -[Sidenote: A LONG TRUDGE] - -[Sidenote: SEMPRINGHAM] - -[Sidenote: MONK AND NUN] - -[Sidenote: ST. GILBERT] - -I once walked with an Undergraduate friend on a winter’s day from -Uppingham to Boston, about 57 miles, the road led pleasantly at first -through Normanton, Exton and Grimsthorpe Parks, in the last of which -the mistletoe was at its best; but when we got off the high ground and -came to Dunsby and Dowsby the only pleasure was the walking, and as we -reached Billingborough and Horbling, about 30 miles on our way, and -had still more than twenty to trudge and in a very uninviting country, -snow began to fall, and then the pleasure went out of the walking. By -the time we reached Boston it was four inches deep. It had been very -heavy going for the last fourteen miles, and never were people more -glad to come to the end of their journey. Neither of us ever felt any -great desire to visit that bit of Lincolnshire again; and yet, under -less untoward circumstances, there would have been something to stop -for at _Billingborough_ with its lofty spire, its fine gable-crosses, -and great west window, and at the still older small cruciform church -at _Horbling_, exhibiting work of every period but Saxon, but most of -which, owing to bad foundations, has had to be at different times taken -down and rebuilt. It contains a fine fourteenth century monument to the -De la Maine family. Even more interesting would it have been to see -the remains of the famous priory church at _Sempringham_, a mile and a -half south of Billingborough, for Sempringham was the birthplace of a -remarkable Englishman. Gilbert, eldest son of a Norman knight and heir -to a large estate, was born in 1083; he was deformed, but possessing -both wit and courage he travelled on the Continent. Later in life he -was Chaplain to Bishop Alexander of Lincoln, who built Sleaford Castle -in 1137, and Rector of Sempringham, and Torrington, near Wragby. Being -both wealthy and devoted to the church, he, with the Bishop’s approval, -applied in the year 1148 to Pope Eugenius III. for a licence to found -a religious house to receive both men and women; this was granted him, -and so he became the founder of the only pure English order of monks -and nuns, called after him, _the Gilbertines_. Eugenius III. suffered -a good deal at the hands of the Italians, who at that time were led by -Arnold of Brescia, the patriotic disciple of Abelard, insomuch that he -was constrained to live at Viterbo, Rome not being a safe place for him; -but he seems to have thought rather well of the English, for he it was -who picked out the monk, Nicolas Breakspeare, from St. Alban’s Abbey -and promoted him to be Papal legate at the Court of Denmark, which led -eventually to his becoming Pope Adrian IV., the only Englishman who ever -reached that dignity. The elevation does not seem to have improved his -character, as his abominable cruelty to the above-mentioned Arnold of -Brescia indicates. Eugenius, however, is not responsible for this, and -at Gilbert’s request he instituted a new order in which monks following -the rules of St. Augustine were to live under the same roof with nuns -following the rules of St. Benedict. Their distinctive dress was a black -cassock with a white hood, and the canons wore beards. What possible -good Gilbert thought could come of this new departure it is difficult -to guess. Nowadays we have some duplicate public schools where boys -and girls are taught together and eat and play together, and it is not -unlikely that the girls gain something of stability from this, and that -their presence has a useful and far-reaching effect upon the boys, -besides that obvious one which is conveyed in the old line - - “Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros;” - -but these monks and nuns never saw one another except at some very -occasional service in chapel; even at Mass, though they might hear -each other’s voices in the canticles, they were parted by a wall and -invisible to each other, and as they thus had no communication with one -another they might, one would think, have just as well been in separate -buildings. Gilbert thought otherwise. He was a great educator, and -especially had given much thought to the education of women, at all -events he believed that the plan worked well, for he increased his houses -to the number of thirteen, which held 1,500 nuns and 700 canons. Most of -these were in Lincolnshire, and all were dissolved by Henry VIII. Gilbert -was certainly both pious and wise, and being a clever man, when Bishop -Alexander moved his Cistercians from Haverholme Priory to Louth Park -Abbey, because they suffered so much at Haverholme from rheumatism, and -handed over the priory, a chilly gift, to the Gilbertines, their founder -managed to keep his Order there in excellent health. He harboured, as we -know, Thomas à Becket there in 1164, and got into trouble with Henry II. -for doing so. He was over 80 then, but he survived it and lived on for -another five and twenty years, visiting occasionally his other homes at -Lincoln, Alvingham, Bolington, Sixhills, North Ormsby, Catley, Tunstal -and Newstead, and died in 1189 at the age of 106. Thirteen years later -he was canonised by Pope Innocent III., and his remains transferred to -Lincoln Minster, where he became known as St. Gilbert of Sempringham. -Part of the nave of his priory at Sempringham is now the Parish Church; -it stands on a hill three-quarters of a mile from _Pointon_, where is -the vicarage and the few houses which form the village. Much of the old -Norman work was unhappily pulled down in 1788, but a doorway richly -carved and an old door with good iron scroll-work is still there. At -the time of the dissolution the priory, which was a valuable one, being -worth £359 12_s._ 6_d._, equal to £3,000 nowadays, was given to Lord -Clinton. Campden, 300 years ago, spoke of “Sempringham now famous for -the beautiful house built by Edward Baron Clinton, afterwards Earl of -Lincoln,” the same man to whom Edward VI. granted Tattershall. Of this -nothing is left but the garden wall, and Marrat, writing in 1815, says: -“At this time the church stands alone, and there are but five houses in -the parish, which are two miles from the church and in the fen.” - - - - -CHAPTER V - -SOUTH-WEST LINCOLNSHIRE AND ITS RIVERS - - The Glen—Burton Coggles—Wilsthorpe—The Eden—Verdant - Green—Irnham Manor and Church—The Luttrell - Tomb—Walcot—Somerby—Ropsley—Castle Bytham—The - Witham—Colsterworth—The Newton Chapel—Sir Isaac Newton—Stoke - Rochford—Great Ponton—Boothby Bagnell—A Norman House. - - -I have said that the whole of the county south of Lincoln slopes from -west to east, the slope for the first few miles being pretty sharp. The -only exception to the rule is in the tract on the west of the county, -which lies north of the Grantham and Nottingham road, between the -Grantham to Lincoln ridge and the western boundary of the county. This -tract is simply the flat wide-spread valley of the Rivers Brant and -Witham, which all slopes gently to the north. North Lincolnshire rivers -run to the Humber; these are the Ancholme and the Trent; but there is -a peculiarity about the rivers in South Lincolnshire; for though the -Welland runs a consistent course eastward to the Wash, and is joined not -far from its mouth by the River Glen, that river and the Witham each run -very devious courses before they find the Eastern Sea. The Glen flowing -first to the south then to the north and north-east, the Witham flowing -first to the north and then to the south with an easterly trend to Boston -Haven. - -[Sidenote: THE GLEN AND THE EDEN] - -Both these streams are of considerable length, the course of the Glen -measured without its windings being five and thirty miles, and that of -the Witham as much again. - -All the other streams which go from the ridge drain eastwards into the -fens, and they effectually kept the fens under water until the Romans -cut the Carr Dyke, intercepting the water from the hills and taking it -into the river. - -[Sidenote: IRNHAM] - -To follow the “Glen” from its source in the high ground between Somerby -and Boothby Pagnell to its most southerly point two miles below -Braceborough, will take us through a very pleasant country. A tributary, -the first of many, runs in from _Bassingthorpe_, whose church, like that -of _Burton Coggles_, three miles to the south, is dedicated to St. Thomas -of Canterbury. A beautiful little house, built here by the Grantham -wool merchant, Thomas Coney, in 1568, has a counterpart at Ponton in -the immediate neighbourhood, where Antony Ellys, also a merchant of the -staple at Calais, built himself a charming little Tudor house about the -same time. Augmented by the Bassingthorpe brook, the Glen goes on past -_Bitchfield_, _Burton-Coggles_ and _Corby_, and on between _Swayfield_ -and _Swinstead_ to _Creeton_, where are to be seen many stone coffins, -probably of the monks of Vaudey Abbey in Grimsthorpe Park, a corruption -of Valdei (Vallis dei or God’s Vale). It then winds along by _Little -Bytham_, and, passing _Careby_ and _Carlby_, gets into a plain country, -and turns north near Shillingthorpe Hall. The last place it sees before -entering the region of the Bedford Levels is _Gretford_. But near the -church of _Wilsthorpe_—in which is the effigy of a thirteenth century -knight with the arms of the Wake family, who claim descent from the -famous Hereward the Wake—we find another stream joining the Glen to -help it on its straight-cut course through Deeping fen. We may well -spend an afternoon in tracing this stream from its source some sixteen -miles away. It flows all the way through a valley of no great width, -and, with the exception of _Edenham_, undistinguished by any villages. -A purely rustic stream, it is known as the Eden, though it has no name -on the maps, and its only distinction since it left its source near -Humby is that it divides the villages of _Lenton_ or _Lavington_, where -the author of “Verdant Green,” Rev. E. Bradley, best known as “Cuthbert -Bede,” was once rector, and _Ingoldsby_, the village of Ingold or -Ingulph, the Dane, which, however, has nothing to do with the well-known -“Ingoldsby Legends.” A little to the south of Ingoldsby are the prettily -named villages _Irnham_, _Kirkby-Underwood_, and _Rippingale_; of these -_Irnham_ has a picturesque Tudor hall in a fine park. This was built in -1510 by Richard Thimelby in the form of the letter L; the north wing was -mostly destroyed by fire in 1887, but the great hall remains, and there -is a priest’s hiding-place entered by a hinged step in the stairs in -which was found a straw pallet and a book of hours. - -The manor was granted by the Conqueror to Ralph Paganel along with -others, _e.g._, Boothby Bagnell and Newport Pagnell, and there was -even then, in the eleventh century, a church here. This manor passed -by marriage in 1220 to Sir Andrew Luttrell, Baron of Irnham, whence, -through an heiress, it passed to the Thimelbys. In the church is a fine -brass to “Andrew Luttrell Miles Dominus de Irnham,” 1390. He is in plate -armour with helmet, and has his feet on a lion. In the north aisle, -which is sometimes called the Luttrell Chapel, is a beautifully carved -Easter sepulchre, the design and work being much like that of the rood -screen in Southwell Cathedral. This was really a founder’s tomb of the -Luttrell family, and stood east and west under the easternmost arch on -the north side of the nave, whence it was most improperly moved in 1858 -and should certainly be put back again. Doubtless it was used as an -Easter sepulchre, and it is of about the same date, 1370, as those at -Heckington, Navenby, and Lincoln. In the pavement of the north aisle is -an altar slab, with the five consecration crosses well preserved. - -Since the Thimelbys, who followed the Hiltons, the house has been in -possession of the Conquest, Arundel, and Clifford families. Not more -than two miles to the east is a fine avenue leading to an Elizabethan -house in the form of an E, called Bulby Hall. Later the stream goes -through its one village of Edenham, passes near Bowthorpe Park with its -great oak, fifty feet in girth, and so joins the river Glen at Kotes -Bridge, near _Wilsthorpe_. Though the stream, Edenham excepted, has -nothing particular on its banks, near its source are several interesting -churches. _Sapperton_, which still exhibits the pulpit hour-glass-stand -for the use of the preacher to insure that the congregation got their -full hour; _Pickworth_, with chantry chapels at each end of the south -aisle, a rood screen and a fine old south door; and _Walcot_, with its -curious double “squint” from the south chantry and its beautiful little -priest’s door, evidently once a low-side window, for its sill is two feet -from the ground and is grooved for glazing. Here the economy of the Early -English builders is shown by their use of the caps of an earlier Norman -arcade to form the bases of their new pillars. Hard by is _Newton_ with -its lofty tower, _Haceby_, where once the Romans had a small settlement, -and _Braceby_, which, with _Ropsley_ and _Somerby_, complete an octave of -Early English churches all near together. - -[Sidenote: SOMERBY] - -_Somerby_ is within four miles of Grantham. The church contains a -singular effigy, date 1300, of a knight with a saddled horse at his feet, -and a groom wearing the hooded short cloak of the period, holding the -horse’s head. Among the Brownlow monuments is the following inscription -to Jane Brownlow, daughter of Sir Richard Brownlow of Humby, 1670, - - She was of a solid serious temper, of a competent - Stature and a fayre compleaciton, whoes soul - now is perfectly butyfyed with the friution of - God in glory and whose body in her dew time - he will rais to the enjoyment of the same. - -It is curious to find notes on stature and complexion in an epitaph, -but it was only lately that I saw a tomb slab in the church of -Dorchester-on-Thames, where, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, some of -our Lindsey bishops had their Bishop-stool (_see_ Cap. XII.), on which it -was thought worth while to record, _inter alia_, that Rebekah Granger who -died in 1753 was “respectful to her friends, and chearful and innocent in -her deportment”; whilst close by is a somewhat minute description of the -nervous idiosyncrasy of Mrs. S. Fletcher, who died in 1799 at the age of -29, ending with “She sank and died a martyr to excessive sensibility.” - -The feature of the church is the Norman chancel arch with double -moulding. It is especially interesting as showing that the carving of the -stones which form the arch was done not by plan but by eye; though the -same pattern goes throughout, no two stones are exactly similar, and the -pattern is larger or smaller as the mason cut it by guess, and has two -zigzags or two and a half accordingly, and therefore the pattern in some -places does not properly meet, but the whole effect is all right. The -manor was held by the Threckingham family in the fourteenth century, and -their arms are in one of the windows. In the feet of fines, Lincoln file -86, we have an agreement between Lambert de Trikingham and Robert, son of -Walter le Clerk, of Trikingham, and Hawysia his wife, made at Westminster -in the second year of Edward II. (1319). The lady with this charming name -seeming to have afterwards married Sir Henry de Wellington, for in the -thirty-second year of Edward III. (1359) another settlement is recorded -of a dispute about Somerby Manor between Enericus de Welyngton Miles and -Hawysia his wife on one side, and John Bluet and Alan Rynsley (one of -the sixteen various spellings of Rawnsley) and his wife Margaret on the -other, by which Alan and Margaret, for conceding their claims, receive -100 marks of silver. This and much other interesting information is to -be found in a paper on The Manor of Somerby, by Gilbert George Walker, -rector of the parish. - -In the fifteenth century John Bluet held the living, one of whose -ancestors was probably the civilian with his feet on a fleece, whose fine -recumbent effigy is in Harlaxton church. His daughter married Robert -Bawde, whose brass is in the church, and their family were in possession -till 1720. A large monument on the north wall commemorates Elizabeth Lady -Brownlow, _née_ Freke, whose son John built Belton House. She died in -1684. There is also a brass to Peregrine Bradshaw and his wife, who died -in 1669 and 1673. - -Dr. William Stukeley, the famous antiquary, who was a Lincolnshire man, -born at Holbeach in 1687, was, at one time, rector of Somerby. - -_Ropsley_, two and a half miles to the east, shows some ‘Long and Short’ -Saxon work at the north-east angle of the nave. The tower has a Decorated -broach spire. At the south porch is the couplet, - - “Hac non vade via - Nisi dices Ave Maria.” - -[Sidenote: BISHOP FOX] - -The church has also a very notable little stained glass window with -an armed figure of Johannes de Welby. In the church a curious broad -projection from the east window of the north aisle forms a bridge to -the rood loft. In the eyes of a Corpus man, like the writer, Ropsley is -sacred as being the birthplace of Bishop Fox, who held successively the -sees of Exeter, Bath and Wells, Durham and Winchester, and founded, or -helped to found, the Grantham Grammar School near his old home in 1528, -and also, in 1516, the College of Corpus Christi, Oxford. - -The Eden, whose course we have been tracing, having joined the Glen, -crosses the Carr Dyke a mile beyond Wilsthorpe, after which the Glen -becomes for a time simply a fen drain. The “Bourne Eau” goes into it and -they proceed together with many duck decoys marked in the 1828 map on -each side of them till they come to the beginning of the great “Forty -foot drain.” The Glen then turning east resumes more or less its river -character, joins the Welland and goes seawards to the Wash, while the -Forty foot going northwards parallel to and with the same purpose as the -“Carr Dyke” but a few miles to the east of that famous work, receives the -water from the many “Droves” which are all cut east and west and conveys -them to the outfall in Boston Haven. - -[Sidenote: PRIZE-FIGHTING] - -We will now, without having to go outside the parallelogram of pleasant -upland country which lies between the four towns of Stamford, Bourne, -Sleaford and Grantham, find the sources of the river Witham and follow -them through Grantham as far as Barkston and Marston, and thence through -a totally different country to Lincoln. To begin at the beginning of -things. Just at the junction of the three counties of Lincoln, Leicester, -and Rutland, is a place near ‘Crown point’ called Cribbs Lodge. This -commemorates the great boxing match between Molyneux, the black, and Tom -Cribb, when, as the _Stamford Mercury_ has it, “after a severe fight -Molyneux was beat, and a reel was danced by Gully and Cribb amidst shouts -of applause. There were 15,000 people present.” Gully afterwards became -an M.P. - -Close to this spot, but in the county of Leicestershire, is the source of -our river Witham, which takes its name from the little village of _South -Witham_ close by. - -The infant stream skirts the western side of Witham Common, which is -something like 400 feet above sea level; nearly all its feeders come from -still higher ground just outside the western edge of the county. A glance -at the map will show with what remarkable unanimity all the streams which -feed the South Lincolnshire rivers flow eastwards. Thus from Witham -Common a brook goes through _Castle Bytham_ to join the Glen at _Little -Bytham_. The castle, of which only huge mounds now remain, was perched on -a hill and divided by the brook from the village which covers the slope -of the valley and is crowned by its very early Norman church, making -altogether a very pretty picture. The church contains a fine canopied -tomb of the Colville family, who owned the castle in the thirteenth -century, and also in the tower is a ladder eloquent of the Restoration, -with the inscription “This ware the May Poul, 1660.” Middleton, first -Bishop of Calcutta, once held this living. - -[Illustration: _The Witham, Boston._] - -[Sidenote: CASTLE BYTHAM] - -The castle is of considerable interest. At the time of the Conquest the -land belonged to Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, whose name survives in -“Mockery or Morkery Wood” near South Witham, and was given by William the -First to his brother-in-law Drogo, who began the castle, and afterwards -to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, William’s half-brother, the same who gave his -name to “Bayons Manor.” When Odo began to show signs of contumacy Henry -III. in person fought against and took the castle, and when dismantled -gave it to the Colvilles, but it was not completely destroyed until the -Wars of the Roses. - -[Sidenote: “PRAY AND PLOUGH”] - -_Little Bytham_, two miles to the east, is the station for Grimsthorpe, -which is approached by a drive of three miles through the park. The -church is dedicated to St. Medard, Bishop of Noyon, A.D. 531, a name -familiar to us from the “Ingoldsby Legends.” It shows some Saxon “Long -and Short” work and a good deal of Norman, notably a doorway with a -curious tympanum ornamented with birds in circles. There is a small -lowside window of two lights on the west and a little Norman window high -up on the east of this doorway, which is at the south-east angle of the -nave. The Norman tower is surmounted by a transition upper story and -spire. The south porch and chancel arch are Early English and all round -the chancel runs a most interesting stone seat, broken only by a fine -canopied recess for a tomb. A good agricultural motto is cut on the stone -base of the pulpit, “Orate et arate,” “pray and plough.” The motto is not -inapt, for the land about here is mostly plough land, and one wonders it -should be as good as it is, for the limestone is very near the surface, -indeed the Great Northern line has stone _in situ_ on each side of it -about five feet high, which seems to have very few inches of soil above -it, and this runs the whole way from Little Bytham to Corby, and again at -Ponton the lines pass through it in a deeper cutting. - -But to return to our Witham river. This keeps due north by -_North-Witham_, _Colsterworth_, _Easton_, _Stoke Rockford_, _Great and -Little Ponton_ to _Grantham_, a distance of ten miles. The church at -_North Wytham_ has a long nave, a narrow massive Norman chancel arch, and -the floor descending to the east. In the 1887 restoration by Withers, a -choir was formed out of the east end of the nave, and the chancel has -been left as a monumental chapel for the Sherard family monuments of the -seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a decidedly clever arrangement. -Robert Sherard seems to have been a scholar, for he occupied his thoughts -when on his deathbed in writing twenty-six Latin elegiacs now on his -brass and dated 1592. - -[Sidenote: WOOLSTHORPE. THE NEWTON CHAPEL] - -[Sidenote: SIR ISAAC NEWTON] - -From _Colsterworth_ a road runs east past Twyford Forest, twelve -miles to Bourne. In the church, which is both Norman, Decorated, and -Perpendicular, there is the Newton chapel, with tombs of Sir Isaac’s -parents and grandparents. This is modern, but is on the site of the old -Woolsthorpe Manor chapel. It contains a sundial with an inscription, -which says that it was cut by Newton when a boy of nine. His baptism -appears in the Register thus:—“Isaac son of Isaac and Hanna Newton Janʳʸ -1, 1643.” She was an Ayscough, and married for her second husband the -Rev. Barnabas Smith of North Wytham. On the left bank of the Witham, at -a distance of half a mile, is the hamlet of _Woolsthorpe_, which must -not be confused with the Woolsthorpe near Belvoir. The name was probably -Wolph’s or Ulfsthorpe, and nothing to do with Wool. In Domesday Book it -is Ulstanthorp. In Woolsthorpe Manor House Newton was born on Christmas -Day, 1641. The window is shown from which he saw the apple fall and the -Newton Arms—two cross-bones—are sculptured over the door. In the days of -the Commonwealth he was at Bishop Fox’s school at Grantham, 1651-1656. -His mother thought to make a farmer of him, but kindly fate took him to -Cambridge when he was eighteen, and he spent more than four years there, -taking his degree in 1665. The incident of the apple dates from 1666, -the year of the great Plague and the Fire of London. Starting from this -he deduced the reasons for the movement of the planets which Galileo in -1610 and Copernicus in 1540 had noted. He had by this time accumulated -much of the material for his great work the “Principia,” and for the next -thirty years he worked and wrote unceasingly. He was appointed Master of -the Mint in 1695, and President of the Royal Society in 1703, and was -knighted in 1705. He died in March, 1727. His own view of his life’s -work may be given in his own words: “I do not know what I may appear to -the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on -the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother or -prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all -undiscovered before me.” After lying in state in the Jerusalem Chamber -he was buried in Westminster Abbey, the Lord Chancellor, two dukes, and -three earls being pall-bearers; his monument, near the entrance to the -choir on the north side, shows a recumbent figure with the right arm on -four folios named Divinity, Chronology, Optics, and Phil. Prin. Math. -Above is a large globe showing the planets, etc., projecting from a -pyramid, and on the globe the figure of Astronomy with a closed book, in -a very pensive mood. Below is a bas-relief representing Newton’s various -labours and discoveries. - -The inscription, written by Pope, is as follows:— - - “Isaacus Newtonius - Quem Immortalem - Testantur Tempus, Natura, Coelum: - Mortalem - Hoc Marmor fatetur. - - Nature, and Nature’s laws lay hid in night; - God said let Newton be! and all was light.” - -His statue is also in the ante-chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, so -eloquently described by Wordsworth as - - “The marble index of a mind for ever - Voyaging through strange seas of thought alone.” - -Newton is represented standing, and faces to the east, and of the other -seated figures in the ante-chapel, which all face north or south, the -latest addition and the finest work is Thornicroft’s statue of another -Lincolnshire celebrity Alfred Lord Tennyson. This is an admirable -likeness; the best view of it is from the east side. - -West of Woolsthorpe is _Buckminster_, just over the border, but -remarkable for having once had a beacon on the tower. The circular -chimney of the Watcher’s shelter still stands in the north-west angle. At -Weldon near Kettering is a lantern fifteen feet high with a cupola put up -200 years ago to guide folk through Rockingham Forest. It is lit now on -New Year’s Eve. - -From Colsterworth and Woolsthorpe we follow the river to _Stoke -Rockford_, which is wedged in between the parks of _Stoke_ and _Easton_. -Both these manors were once held by the Rochfords and each had a separate -church. Now one church serves for both and has a chapel for each manor, -one on either side and extending the full length of the chancel. The -Stoke Chapel has monuments of John de Neville 1320 and of the family of -the present owners, the Turners. The Easton Chapel has a very fine one to -the Cholmeleys, 1641, whose descendants still live in the old Elizabethan -“Hall” with its triple avenue of limes which reach to the Great North -Road. On the other side of the road the house at Stoke Park is also -Elizabethan in style, but not in date, being by Salvin. It belongs to -Christopher Turner, who also owns Panton Hall, near East Barkwith. The -park has many fine trees and some very old thorns. In the chancel of -Stoke Rochford is a brass to Henry Rochford, 1470, and on a brass plate -this inscription to Oliver St. John and his wife Elizabeth Bygod, 1503:— - -“Pray for the soil of Master Olyr-Sentjehn Squier, sonne unto ye right -excellent hye and mightty pryncess of Som~sete g~ndame unto ou~ sovey~n -Lord Kynge Herre the VII. and for the soll of Dame Elizabeth Bygod his -wiff, whoo dep~ted from this t~nsitore liffe ye XII daye of June, i~ ye -year of ou~ Lord MCCCCC and III.” - -[Sidenote: THE LADY MARGARET] - -Thus Oliver was brother to Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, the -mother of the King. She made a great mark on the history of her time, -which was the fifteenth century. Daughter of the first Duke of Somerset -and wife successively of the Earl of Richmond, who was half-brother to -Henry VI., and of Henry Stafford, son to the Duke of Buckingham, and -of Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby, and mother, by her first marriage, of -Henry VII., she was a magnificent patron of learning, for she endowed -Christ’s College and St. John’s College, Cambridge, and founded the “Lady -Margaret” professorships of Divinity both at Cambridge and at Oxford. -Oliver’s mother had been the wife of Sir John Bigod, who with his father -was killed on Towton field, near Leeds, in 1461, when, after a very -bloody fight, the throne was secured to Edward IV., 28,000 Lancastrians, -it is said, though this is hardly credible, having been left on the -field of battle. Oliver, whom Leland describes as a big black fellow, -died at Fontarabia, in Spain, but was buried at Stoke Rochford. It shows -of how little account the spelling even of proper names was in the -fifteenth century when we find here the brass plate on his daughter’s -tomb inscribed, “Hic jacet Sibella Seyntjohn quondam filia Oliveri -Sentjohn.” Perhaps there is something after all in the remark I heard a -farmer make in the train at Boston: “Well, I reckon it is a clear gift, -is spelling. My boy John, he’s nobbut eleven, and he can spell owt, but -I’m noä hand at it mysen, and I reckon theer’s a stränge many is makes -but a poor job on it.” In the museum at Peterborough there is a notebook -of The Lord Chief Justice, Oliver St. John, Chancellor of the University -of Cambridge, dated 1649, who earned for himself the undying gratitude of -his own and all future generations by saving Peterborough Cathedral. - -[Sidenote: OLIVER ST. JOHN] - -Henry VIII., when urged to erect a suitable monument to Queen Katherine -of Aragon in the cathedral, had said he would leave her one of the -goodliest monuments in Christendom, meaning that he would spare the -cathedral for her sake, but at the time of the civil war nearly all in -the nature of ornamentation was destroyed, including the organ, the -windows, the reredos, and the tombs and escutcheons of Queen Katherine -herself, and of Mary Queen of Scots. After a time Oliver St. John, -who had married twice over into the Cromwell family, as a reward for -political services in Holland obtained a grant of the ruined minster, -which was actually “propounded to be sold and demolished,” and gave -it to the town for use as a parish church. It still remained in a sad -state, but was being gradually put into order all through the nineteenth -century, and at last the tower, which rested on four piers, all of which -were found to be simply pipes of Ashlar masonry filled with sand, was -taken down in 1883 and solidly rebuilt, and the whole fabric put in -order, the white-washed walls scraped, new stalls excellently carved by -Thompson of Peterborough and a beautiful inlaid marble floor, the gift of -Dean Argles, placed in the choir, which was prolonged westwards two bays -into the nave, on the old Benedictine lines, till now the interior is -fully worthy of the uniquely magnificent west front. - -At _Easton_ there was a Roman station, halfway between _Casterton_ and -_Ancaster_. It was important as being the last roadside watering place, -the Ermine Street passing through a waterless tract for the next twelve -miles. - -[Sidenote: A NORMAN HOUSE] - -A mile and a half to the east, the Great Northern line tunnels under -Bassingthorpe hill at 370 feet above sea level, and, with the exception -of one spot in Berwickshire, this is the highest point the line attains -between London and Edinburgh. Immediately after this the line crosses the -“Ermine Street,” which from Stamford to Colsterworth is identical with -“the Great North Road,” but it splits off to the right a mile south of -Easton Park, and keeping always to the right bank of the Witham, takes a -straight course to Ancaster, leaving Grantham three miles to the left. -After this parting, the North Road crosses to the left bank of the river -and runs up to _Great Ponton_. The tall tower of the late Perpendicular -church, built in 1519 by Anthony Ellys, merchant of the staple, of -Calais, who lived in a manor house in the middle of the village, has -Chaucer’s phrase, “Thynke and thanke God of all,” carved on three sides -of it. - -Inside is a very early font, possibly Saxon; a large square bowl -chamfered on the under side resting on a square stone. The tower is -unlike anything in the county, but has counterparts among the churches of -Somersetshire. The base moulding is enriched with carving, and the double -buttresses have canopied niches excellently worked. The belfry has large -double two-light windows under a carved hood-mould, as at Grantham and -All Saints, Stamford. The gargoyles are remarkably fine, one shows a face -wearing spectacles, and the whole is finished by a fine parapet and eight -pinnacles. - -_Little Ponton_ is dedicated to St. Guthlac, which implies a connection -with Croyland. Four miles east of Great Ponton is the village of _Boothby -Pagnell_, where the Glen rises. Here is a twelfth century manor house, -supremely interesting as being one of the very few surviving examples of -Norman Domestic architecture. It is in the grounds of the modern hall. -The lower story is carried on vaulted arches and the upper rooms were -reached by an outside staircase. These are a hall and a chamber with a -thick partition wall; each had a two-light window in the east wall, with -window seats on either side. On the opposite side is a fine fireplace -with a flat arch formed by joggled stones and a projecting hood, and a -round chimney-shaft. The lower groined story had also two rooms, possibly -the larger was a kitchen, and the other a cellar. The barrel roof of this -has its axis at right angles to the larger room, the heavy vault-ribs of -which are in two bays, with low buttresses outside to take the thrust -of the roof. The building at St. Mary’s Guild, Lincoln, the hall at -Oakham, and a somewhat similar building at the north-eastern boundary -of Windsor Castle are of corresponding date to this. Robert Sanderson, -who was expelled as a Royalist, but on the restoration was made Bishop -of Lincoln, and whose saintly life is dwelt on in “Walton’s Lives,” was -incumbent here from 1619 to 1660. The whole building has been beautifully -restored by Pearson, thanks to the munificence of Mrs. Thorold of the -Hall. - -The course of the river between Grantham and Lincoln is through a totally -different country and may well claim another chapter. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -GRANTHAM - - Cromwell’s Letter—The George and the Angel—The Elections—Fox’s - Grammar School—The Church of St. Wolfram—The Market Place. - - -The usual way of reaching Grantham is by the Great Northern main line—all -expresses stop here. It is 105 miles from London, and often the only stop -between that and York. After the levels of Huntingdonshire and the brief -sight of Peterborough Cathedral, across the river Nene, the line enters -Lincolnshire near Tallington, after which it follows up the valley of the -river Glen, then climbs the wold and, just beyond Bassingthorpe tunnel, -crosses the Ermine Street and runs down the Witham Valley into Grantham. -Viewed from the train the town looks a mass of ugly red brick houses with -slate roofs, but the magnificent tower and spire soon come into sight, -and one feels that this must be indeed a church worth visiting. - -Coming, as we prefer to do, by road, the view is better; for there is -a background of hill and woodland with the fine park of Belton and the -commanding height of Syston Hall beyond to the north-east; and to the -left you see the Great North Road climbing up Gonerby Hill to a height of -200 feet above the town. - -[Sidenote: THE MANOR AND THE GEORGE] - -Grantham has no Roman associations, nor did it grow up round a feudal -castle or a great abbey; for, though a castle of some kind must once have -stood on the west side near the junction of the Mowbeck and the Witham, -the only proof of it is the name Castlegate and a reference in an old -deed to “Castle Dyke.” That the town was once walled, the streets called -Watergate, Castlegate, Swinegate, Spittalgate sufficiently attest, but no -trace of wall now exists. The name Spittalgate points to the existence -of a leper hospital, and I see from Miss Rotha Clay’s interesting and -exhaustive book, “The Mediæval Hospitals of England,” that there have -been two at Grantham—St. Margaret’s, founded in 1328, and St. Leonard’s -in 1428. - -The flat pastoral valley watered by the Wytham, then called in that -neighbourhood the Granta, as the Cam was at Cambridge, seems to have -been its own recommendation to an agricultural people; and the fact that -the manor was from the time of Edward the Confessor an appanage of the -queen, and remained all through the times of the Norman kings and their -successors down to William III. a Crown property, used as a dower for -the queen consort of the time, was no doubt some benefit to it. Even -when the town was bestowed, as, for instance, by King John on the Earl -of Warren who also owned Stamford, or by Edward I., who knew Grantham -well, on Aylmer Valence Earl of Pembroke, it was looked on as inalienable -from the Crown to which it always reverted. In the reign of Edward III., -on August 3, 1359, King John of France, captured at Poictiers, slept at -Grantham on his way from Hereford to Somerton Castle in custody of Lord -d’Eyncourt and a company of forty-four knights and men-at-arms. In 1420 -Henry V. allotted it as a dower to Katherine of France. In 1460 Edward -IV. headed the procession which brought from Pontefract to Fotheringay -for burial the body of his father Richard Duke of York, who was killed at -the battle of Wakefield. In 1461 he granted the lordship and the manor to -his mother Cicely Duchess of York, and the grant, it is interesting to -know, included the inn called “le George.” - -In 1503 Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII., passed with her -attendant cavalcade through Grantham on her way to meet her affianced -bridegroom,[3] James IV., King of Scotland. She arrived in state, and was -met by a fine civic and ecclesiastical procession which conducted her the -last few miles into and out of the town, and she lay all “Sounday the 9ᵗʰ -day of the monneth of Jully in the sayde towne of Grauntham.” - -[Sidenote: OLIVER CROMWELL] - -In 1642 the town was taken by Colonel Charles Cavendish for Charles I., -but his success was wiped out next year by Cromwell. Defoe in his “Memoir -of a Cavalier,” writing of this, says “About this time it was that we -began to hear of the name of Oliver Cromwell, who, like a little cloud, -rose out of the East and spread first into the North, till it shed down -a flood that overwhelmed the three Kingdoms.... The first action in -which we heard of his exploits and which emblazoned his character was at -Grantham.” Cromwell was with the Earl of Manchester, but was in command -of his own regiment of horse. Where the battle actually took place is -uncertain, but probably on Gonerby Moor. We happen to have Cromwell’s own -account of the skirmish—see vol. I., p. 177, of ‘Cromwell’s Letters and -Speeches,’ by Carlyle. It was written to some official, and is the first -letter of Cromwell’s ever published in the newspapers:— - - “_Grantham, 13ᵗʰ May, 1643._ - - “SIR, - - “God hath given us, this evening, a glorious victory over our - enemies. They were, as we are informed, one and twenty colours - of horse troops, and three or four of dragoons. - - “It was late in the evening when we drew out; they came and - faced us within two miles of the town. So soon as we had the - alarm we drew out our forces, consisting of about twelve troops - whereof some of them so poor and broken, that you shall seldom - see worse: with this handful it pleased God to cast the scale. - For after we had stood a little, above musket shot the one body - from the other; and the dragooners had fired on both sides, - for the space of half an hour or more; they were not advancing - towards us, we agreed to charge them; and, advancing the body - after many shots on both sides, we came on with our troops a - pretty round trot; they standing firm to receive us; and our - men charging fiercely upon them, by God’s providence they were - immediately routed, and ran all away, and we had the execution - of them two or three miles. - - “I believe some of our soldiers did kill two or three men - apiece in the pursuit; but what the number of dead is we are - not certain. We took forty-five prisoners, besides divers of - their horse and arms and rescued many Prisoners whom they had - lately taken of ours, and we took four or five of their colours. - - “I rest ... - - “OLIVER CROMWELL.” - -A fortnight later he writes from Lincolnshire to the Mayor and -Corporation of Colchester announcing the victory of Fairfax at -Wakefield, and asking for immediate supplies both of men and money. He -tells them how greatly Lord Newcastle outnumbers Fairfax, infantry two to -one, horse more than six to one. And he ends with:— - - “Our motion and yours must be exceeding speedye or else it - will do you no good at all. If you send, let your men come to - Boston. I beseech you to hasten the supply to us:—forget not - money! I press not hard; though I do so need, that I assure you - the foot and dragooners are ready to mutiny. Lay not too much - upon the back of a poor gentleman, who desires, without much - noise, to lay down his life, and bleed the last drop to serve - the Cause and you. I ask not your money for myself; if that - were my end and hope,—viz. the pay of my place,—I would not - open my mouth at this time. I desire to deny myself; but others - will not be satisfied. I beseech you to hasten supplies. Forget - not your prayers - - “Gentlemen, I am, - - “Yours - - “OLIVER CROMWELL.” - -It was six years after this that Isaac Newton went to school in Grantham. -Since the Restoration, but for the pulling down of the market cross by -Mr. John Manners in 1779, which he was compelled to put up again the -following year, nothing of note happened at Grantham till the Great -Northern Railway came and subsequently Hornsby’s great agricultural -implement works arose. - -[Sidenote: PRICE OF VOTES] - -Grantham had been incorporated in 1463, and received the elective -franchise four years later, in the reign of Edward IV., who more than -once visited the town. The two families at Belvoir and Belton usually -influenced the elections. But in 1802 their united interests were opposed -by Sir William Manners, who had bought most of the houses in the borough. -But the Duke of Rutland and Lord Brownlow won. There were then two -members, and the historian makes the naïve statement, “previous to this -election it had been customary for the voters to receive two guineas from -each candidate; at this election the price rose to ten guineas.” - -[Illustration: _The Angel Inn, Grantham._] - -[Sidenote: THE ANGEL] - -The mention of “le George” inn in the grant of 1461 brings to mind the -other ancient hostel opposite to it. The Angel stands on the site of an -earlier inn which goes back to the twelfth century. King John is said -to have held his court in it in 1203. On October 19, 1483, Richard III., -having sent to London for the Great Seal, signed the warrant for the -execution of Buckingham “in a chamber called the King’s Chamber in the -present Angel Inn.” This was a fine room extending the whole length of -the front, and now cut up into three rooms. There are two oriel windows -in this, and two more in the rooms beneath, which have all curved and -vaulted alcoves of stone. The present front dates from 1450, the gateway -from about 1350, and shows the heads of Edward III. and Queen Philippa on -the hood-mould. Next to it is a very pretty half-timbered house, figured -in Allan’s “History of the County of Lincoln,” 1830. This and the Angel -stand on land once the property of the Knights Templars of Temple-Bruer. - -Among the misdeeds of the eighteenth century are the pulling down of the -George Inn and a beautiful stone oratory or guild chapel which stood near -it. The Free Grammar school, founded by Bishop Fox 1528, still stands on -the north side of the churchyard; but new buildings having been lately -erected, the fine old schoolroom has been fitted up as a school chapel. - -Fox endowed his school with the revenue of two chantries, which before -the dissolution belonged to the church of St. Peter. This church is -gone, but doubtless it stood on St. Peter’s Hill on lands which had been -granted by Æslwith, before the Conquest, to the abbey of Peterborough. -Close by now is a good bronze statue of Sir Isaac Newton, and once there -was an Eleanor cross, which, with those at Lincoln and Stamford, were -destroyed by the fanatical soldiery in 1645. - -[Sidenote: ST. WULFRAM’S] - -We now come to the great feature of the town, its magnificent church -dedicated to St. Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, 680. We might almost call -this the third church, for the first has entirely disappeared though its -foundations remain beneath the floor of the eastern part of the nave, and -the second has been so enlarged and added to, that it is now practically -a different building; the tower, built at the end of the thirteenth -century, belongs entirely to number three. - -The ground plan is singularly simple, one long parallelogram nearly 200 -feet long and eighty feet wide, with no transepts, its only projections -being the north and south porches and the “Hall” chapel used as a vestry. - -[Sidenote: THE INTERIOR] - -The second, or Norman, church, ended two bays east of the present tower, -as is plain to see from the second pillar from the tower being, as is the -case in Peterborough Cathedral, composed of a broad mass of wall with a -respond on either side, the western respond being of much later character -than the eastern. If the chancel was originally as it is now, it must -have been as long as the nave, but the nave then perhaps included two of -the chancel bays. At present the lengthening of the nave westward and the -adding of the tower has made the nave twice the length of the chancel. -At first the church had just a nave and a chancel, but, about 1180, -aisles were added to the nave; to do this the nave walls were taken down -and the eastern responds made, which we have just spoken of, and the -beautiful clustered columns of the arcades, three on each side, set up. -The aisles were narrow and probably covered by a lean-to roof. The arches -springing from these columns would be round-headed, the pointed arches -we see now being the work of a century later, when much wider north and -south aisles were built; that on the north being on a particularly grand -and massive scale. The westernmost bay on either side was made nearly -twice the width of the others so as to correspond with the breadth of the -tower, because one of the features of the church is that the two aisles -run out westwards and align with the tower, and as the chapels on either -side run out in the same way eastwards, as far as the chancel, we get -the parallelogram above mentioned. As you enter the west door you are -at once struck by the great size of the tower piers, and next you will -notice the beauty of the tower arch, with its mouldings five deep. There -is no chancel arch, and the church has one long roof from end to end. -The aisles are very wide, and the pillars tall and slender, so that you -are able to see over the whole body of the church as if it were one big -hall. Curiously, the west window of the south aisle is not in the centre -of the wall, and looks very awkward. Below it is a bookcase lined with -old books. There are two arched recesses for tombs in the south wall, -and there is a monument between two of the south arcade pillars, where -a black marble top to an altar tomb is inscribed to Francis Malham de -Elslacke, 1660. The east end of the north aisle is used as a morning -chapel. A tall gilt reredos much blocks the chancel east window. When -I last visited the church the north and south doorways being wide open -gave the church plenty of wholesome fresh air, so different from the -well-known Sabbath “frowst” which, in the days of high pews, and when a -church was only opened on Sunday, never departed from the building. - -[Sidenote: THE TOWER] - -The north porch is very large, and has a passage-way east and west right -through; it was built with the north aisle about 1280, and was extended -and a room built over it about 1325, when the head of the north doorway -was much mutilated to let the floor in, at the same time a Lady chapel -was constructed on the south side of the chancel, and with a double -vaulted crypt, entered from outside, and also from the chancel, by a -beautiful staircase with richly carved doorway. The rood screen was also -built now, on which was an altar served by the chaplain daily at 5 a.m. -“after the first stroke of the bell which is called Daybelle.” It is -said that this bell is still rung daily from Lady Day to Michaelmas, but -whether at 5 o’clock deponent sayeth not. The Lincoln daybell rang at 6. -To reach this rood loft there is an octagon turret with a staircase on -the south side at the junction of the nave and chancel. The south porch -has also a staircase to the upper chamber, and the north porch has two -turreted staircases, probably for the ingress and egress of pilgrims -to the sacred relics kept there. Besides this there were at least five -chantries attached to the church; the latest of these were the fifteenth -century Corpus Christi chapel along the north side of the chancel, and -the contiguous “Hall” chapel which dates from the fifteenth century. -There is a good corbel table all along the aisles outside, and the west -front is very fine and striking. - -But the great glory of the building is the steeple. We have seen that -the nave runs up to the large eastern piers of the tower, and the aisles -run on past each side of it as far as the western piers, and so with the -tower form a magnificent western façade, examples of which might even -then have been seen at Newark, which was begun before Grantham, and at -Tickhill near Doncaster. - -[Sidenote: LINCOLNSHIRE SPIRES] - -The tower, one of the finest bits of fourteenth century work in the -kingdom, has four stages: first, the west door and window, both richly -adorned with ballflower, reminiscent of the then recent work at -Salisbury, to which North and South Grantham were attached as prebends. -Then comes a stage of two bands of arcading on the western face only, -and a band of quatrefoil diaper work all round. In the third stage are -twin deep-set double-light windows and then come two very lofty double -lights under one crocketed hood mould. Both this stage and the last -show a very strong central mullion and the fourth, or belfry stage, has -statued niches reaching to the parapet and filling the spandrils on -either side of the window head. Inside the parapet at the south-west -corner is a curious old stone arch like a sentry-box or bell turret. The -magnificent angle buttresses are crowned by pinnacles, from within which -rises the spire with three rows of lights and lines of crockets at each -angle running up 140 feet above a tower of equal height. It seems at that -distance to come to a slender point; but we are told that when it was -struck by lightning in 1797 a mill-stone was set on the apex into which -the weathercock was mortised. There are ten bells, a larger ring than is -possessed by any church in the county but one, viz., Ewerby near Sleaford. - -The date 1280 is assigned to the tower and north aisle because the -windows of that aisle reproduce in the cusped circles of their -head-lights the patterns of windows which had just a few years before -been inserted in Salisbury chapter-house, and the west window of the -aisle is a reduction to six lights of the great eight-light east window -at Lincoln; but neither Lincoln great tower nor Salisbury spire had yet -been built, and as they are the only buildings which are admitted to -surpass Grantham steeple—the former in richness of detail, the latter in -its soaring spire—and as Boston was not built till a hundred years later, -nor Louth till 200 years after Boston, it is clear that in 1300 Grantham -for height and beauty stood without a rival. Now-a-days, of course, we -have both Boston and Louth, and have them in the same county, and though -Sir Gilbert Scott puts Grantham as second only to Salisbury among English -steeples, and though in the grandeur and interest of its interior as well -as in the profuse ornamentation of its exterior Louth cannot compete with -it at all, yet there is in the delicate tapering lines of Louth spire -and the beautiful way in which it rises from its lofty tower-pinnacles -connected with their four pairs of light flying buttresses a satisfying -grace and a beauty of proportion which no other church seems to possess; -and when we look closely at the somewhat aimless bands of diaper work -and arcading in the second stage of Grantham tower and then turn to -the harmonious simplicity of the three stages in the Louth tower and -the incomparable beauty of the belfry lights with their crocketed -hood-mouldings which are carried up in lines ascending like a canopy to -the pinnacled parapet, it seems to satisfy the eye and the desire for -beauty and symmetry in the fullest possible measure. - -The church has not a great number of monuments; that to Richard de -Salteby, 1362, is the earliest, and there is, besides the Malham tomb, -one of the Harrington family, and a huge erection to Chief Justice Ryder, -whose descendants derive their title of Harrowby from a hamlet close by. -There are two libraries in the church, one with no less than seventy-four -chained books. But a church forms a bad library, and many are gone and -some of the best are mutilated, for as Tennyson says in “The Village -Wife”:— - - “The lasses ’ed teäred out leäves i’ the middle to kindle the fire.” - -Only here it was not the lasses but the mediæval verger. - -[Illustration: _Grantham Church._] - -The bowl of the font has most interesting carved panels of the -Annunciation, the Magi, the Nativity, Circumcision, Baptism, Blessing of -Children, the Sacrifice of Isaac, and one other. The oak chancel screen -and the parcloses by Scott, the reredos by Bodley, and the rest of the -oak fittings by Blomfield, are all very good. The screen takes the place -of the old stone screen which is quite gone. There is some excellent -modern glass, and for those who understand heraldry, I might mention that -in the east window were once many coats of arms of which Marrat gives a -list with notes by Gervase Holles, from which I gather that the armorial -glass was very fine, and that the arms of “La Warre” are “G. crusily, -botony, fitchy, a lion rampant or.” It is pleasant to know this, even if -one does not quite understand it. - -[Sidenote: THE MARKET CROSS] - -The extending of the church westwards encroached upon the open space in -which stood the reinstated “Applecross,” at one time replaced by a quite -uncalled-for stone obelisk in the market-place, opposite the Angel, with -an inscription to say that the Eleanor Cross once stood there, which was -not true, as that was set up in the broad street or square called “St. -Peter’s Hill,” where now the bronze statue of Newton stands. In Finkin -Street the town, until ten years ago, preserved a splendid chestnut tree, -and other fine trees near the church add a beauty which towns now-a-days -rarely possess. - -As at Lincoln, the Grey Friars first brought good drinking water to the -town, and their conduit is still a picturesque object in the market -square. It is on the south side, close to the Blue Sheep. Blue seems to -have been the Grantham colour, for there are at least twelve inns whose -sign is some blue thing—Bell, Sheep, Pig, Lion, Dragon, Boy, etc. Blue -pill is almost the only thing of that colour not represented. - -The connection of Grantham with Salisbury is a very old one, as far -back as 1091 the lands and endowments of the church were granted to St. -Osmund, and by him given to his new cathedral at Old Sarum, the site of -which is now being cleared in much the same manner as has been adopted -at Bardney Abbey. The Empress Maud added the gift of the living and the -right of presentation, so the prebendaries of North and South Grantham -became the rectors; North Grantham comprising Londonthorpe and North -Gonerby, and South Grantham South Gonerby and Braceby. Later, about 1225, -vicars were appointed, but there was no vicarage, and the work was mainly -done by the chaplain and the chantry priests. In 1713 the dual vicars -were merged in one, and since 1870 the presentation has been in the hands -of the Bishop of Lincoln. - -[Sidenote: THE CHANTRIES] - -We have spoken often of chantries. A chantry was a chapel endowed with -revenues for priests to perform Mass therein for the souls of the donors -or others. Hence we have in Shakespeare— - - “Five hundred poor I have, in yearly pay, - Who twice a day their wither’d hands hold up - Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built - Three Chantries where the sad and solemn priests - Sing still for Richard’s soul.” - - _Henry V._ iv. i. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -ROADS FROM GRANTHAM - - Syston Hall—Belton—Harlaxton—Denton—Belvoir - Castle—Allington—Sedgebrook—Barrowby—Gonerby-hill—Stubton - —Hough-on-the-Hill—Gelston—Claypole. - - -The main South Lincolnshire roads run up from Stamford to Boston, to -Sleaford and to Grantham; here of the six spokes of the wheel of which -Grantham is the hub, three going westwards soon leave the county. That -which goes east runs a very uneventful course for twelve miles till, -having crossed the Bourne and Sleaford road, it comes to Threckingham, -and in another six or seven miles to Donington where it divides and, -after passing many most remarkable churches, reaches Boston either by -Swineshead or by Gosberton, Algarkirk and Kirton, which will be described -in the route from Spalding. The Great Road north and south from Grantham -is full of interest, and passes through village after village, and on -both the northern and western sides the neighbourhood of Grantham is -extremely hilly and well wooded, and contains several fine country seats. -Belvoir Castle (Duke of Rutland), Denton (Sir C. G. Welby), Harlaxton (T. -S. Pearson Gregory, Esq.), Belton (Earl Brownlow), and Syston (Sir John -Thorold). - -[Sidenote: BELTON AND BARKSTON] - -_Syston Hall_, Sir John Thorold’s place, looks down upon Barkstone. It is -grandly placed, and the house, which was built in the eighteenth century, -contains a fine library. The greatest treasure of this, however, the -famed Mazarin Bible, was sold in 1884 for £3,200. A mile to the south -lies _Belton_. Here the church is filled with monuments of the Cust -and Brownlow families, and the font has eight carved panels with very -unusual subjects—a man pulling two bells, a monk reading, a priest with -both hands up, a deacon robed, a monster rampant with a double tail, -a man with a drawn sword, a naked babe and a rope, a man with a large -bird above him, and a tree; also among the monuments is one of Sir John -Brownlow, 1754, and one dated 1768 of Sir John Cust, the “Speaker.” In -this a singularly graceful female figure is holding the “Journals of the -House of Commons.” The monument of his son, the first Baron Brownlow, -1807, is by Westmacott. The family have added a north transept for -use as a mortuary chapel. Here, amongst others, are monuments of the -first Earl Brownlow, 1853, by Marochetti, and of his two wives with a -figure emblematic of Religion, by Canova. The village is always kept -in beautiful order; adjoining it is the large park with fine avenues -and three lakes in it. The house, built in the shape of the letter H, -was finished from Sir Christopher Wren’s designs in 1689, and the park -enclosed and planted in the following year by Sir John, the third Baronet -Brownlow, who entertained William III. there in 1695. His nephew, Sir -John, who was created Viscount Tyrconnel in 1718, formed the library -and laid out the gardens. In 1778 James Wyatt was employed to make -improvements. He removed Wren’s cupola, made a new entrance on the south -side, and raised the height of the drawing-room to twenty-two feet. All -the rooms in the house are remarkably high, and the big dining-room is -adorned with enormous pictures by Hondekoeter. - -Wonderful carvings by Grinling Gibbons are in several rooms, and also in -the chapel, which is panelled with cedar wood. - -[Sidenote: ON THE WITHAM] - -_Barkston_ is near the stream of the Witham, and is thence called -_Barkston-in-the-Willows_; and ten miles off, on the county boundary near -Newark, is _Barnby-in-the-Willows_, also on the Witham, which has arrived -there from Barkston by a somewhat circuitous route. - -Barkston Church is worth seeing by anyone who wishes to see how a -complete rood-loft staircase was arranged, the steep twelve-inch risers -showing how the builders got the maximum of utility out of the minimum -of space. The last three steps below appear to have been cut off to let -the pulpit steps in. There is a similar arrangement at Somerby, where -the steps also are very high. A very good modern rood screen and canopy, -somewhat on the pattern of the Sleaford one, has been put up by the -rector, the Rev. E. Clements. There are two squints, on either side of -the chancel arch, one through the rood staircase. The church has a nave -and a south aisle, and the plain round transition Norman pillars are -exactly like those at Great Hale, but are only about one-half the height. -The arches are round ones, with nail head ornament, and from the bases of -these pillars it is clear that the floor once sloped upwards continuously -from west to east, as at Colsterworth and Horkstow. The chancel arch -is made lofty by being set on the stone basement of the rood screen. -The transitional tower has a beautiful Early English window in the west -front, and the Decorated south aisle has a richly panelled parapet; but -the Perpendicular porch is not so well executed, and cuts rudely into two -pretty little aisle windows, and a niche over the door. It has over it -this rhyming inscription carved in stone. - -[Illustration: _Withamside Boston._] - - Me Thomam Pacy post mundi flebile funus - Jungas veraci vite tu trinus et unus - Dñe Deus vere Thome Pacy miserere. - -And under the capital of one of the doorway pillars is the line, rather -difficult to construe, but in beautiful lettering:— - - Lex et natura XRS simul omnia cura. - -The severe three-light east window has good glass by Kempe. The spire, -a very good one, is later than the tower, and built of squared stones, -different in colour from the small stones of the tower. Two half figures -incised in bold relief on fourteenth century slabs, are built into the -north wall, opposite the south door. - -[Sidenote: HONINGTON AND CAYTHORPE] - -Keeping along the Lincoln road the next place we reach is _Honington_. -The Early English tower of the church is entered by a very early pointed -arch, the nave being of massive Norman work with an unusually large -corbel table. There are the remains of a stone screen, and a canopied -aumbry in the chancel was perhaps used as an Easter sepulchre. The -chantry chapel has monuments of the Hussey family, and one of W. Smith, -1550, in gown and doublet. An early slab, with part of the effigy of a -priest on it, has been used over again to commemorate John Hussey and his -wife, he being described on it as “A professor of the Ghospell,” 1587. -To the south-east of the village is what was once an important British -fort with a triple ditch, used later by the Romans whose camp at Causennæ -on the “High Dyke” was but four miles to the east. Less than two miles -brings us to _Carlton Scroop_, with a late Norman tower and Early English -arcade, also some good old glass and a Jacobean pulpit. The remains of a -rood screen and the rood loft steps are still there. - -A mile further on is one of the many _Normantons_, with Early English -nave, decorated tower, fine west window, and Perpendicular clerestory. - -[Sidenote: FULBECK AND LEADENHAM] - -Two miles on we come to _Caythorpe_, which is built on a very singular -plan, for it has a double nave with a buttress between the two west -windows to take the thrust of the arches which are in a line with the -ridge of the roof. This forms the remarkable feature of the church -interior. There are short transepts, and the tower rises above the four -open arches. Over one of these there is a painting of the Last Judgment. -There are fine buttresses outside with figures of the Annunciation -and the Coronation of the Virgin, and one of our Lord on the porch. -The windows are large. The spire is lofty but unpleasing, as it has a -marked “entasis” or set in, such as is seen in many Lincolnshire and -Northamptonshire spires, which hence are often termed sugar-loafed. -Before its re-building, in 1859, after it had been struck by lightning, -the entasis was still more marked than it is now. The singularly thin, -ugly needle-like spire of Glinton, just over the southern border of the -county near Deeping, has a slight set in which does not improve its -appearance. A mile to the north the road passes through the very pretty -village of _Fulbeck_. The dip of the road, the charming old houses, grey -and red, the handsome church tower with its picturesque pinnacles, and -the ancestral beauty of the fine trees, make a really lovely picture. -Fine iron gates lead to the Hall, the home of the Fanes, an honoured -name in Lincolnshire. Many of the name rest in the churchyard, and -their monuments fill the dark church, which has a good Norman font. -The tampering with old walls and old buildings is always productive of -mischief, and, as at Bath Abbey, when, to add to its appearance, flying -buttresses were put up all along the nave, the weight began to crush in -the nave walls, and the only remedy was to put on, at great expense, -a stone groined roof, which is the real _raison d’être_ of flying -buttresses, so here at Fulbeck, when they pulled down the chancel and -built it up again with the walls further out, the consequence was that -the east wall of the nave, missing its accustomed support, began to lean -out eastwards. - -Another mile and a half brings us to _Leadenham_, where the east and -west road from Sleaford to Newark crosses the Great North road. The fine -tall spire is seen from all the country round, for it stands half way up -the cliff. But this and the rest of the road to Lincoln is described in -Chapter XIII. - -[Sidenote: HARLAXTON AND DENTON] - -If you go out of Grantham by the south-west, you should stop at a very -pretty little village to the south of the Grantham and Melton road, from -which a loop descends to an old gateway, all that is left of the old -_Harlaxton_ Manor, a pretty Tudor building now pulled down, the stone -balustrades in front of it having been removed by Mr. Pearson Gregory to -his large house a mile off, built on the ridge of the park by Salvin in -1845. The Flemish family of De Ligne lived in the old Hall in Jacobean -times, and their predecessors are probably represented by the fine but -mutilated alabaster recumbent effigies now in the northern, or Trinity, -chapel of the church. In the north-east angle of this chapel is a very -graceful canopied recess on a bracket, much like those at _Sedgebrook_, -about five miles off on the border of the county. - -The north aisle and nave are older than the tower and south aisle; and a -curious staircase ascends at the east of the south aisle wall, from which -a gangway crossed to the rood loft. - -There are many aumbries in various parts of the church, and a tall, -Decorated font, with grotesque faces in some panels, and in others sacred -subjects oddly treated, such as our Lord crowned and holding a Chalice. -In the south aisle is an old oak post alms-box resembling one at Halton -Holgate. - -A doorway leads out from the south side of the east end, an entrance -probably to an eastern chapel. The two doorways, one on each side of the -altar, at Spalding may have led to the same, or possibly to a vestry, as -in Magdalen Chapel, Oxford. - -The spire has a staircase, passing curiously from one of the pinnacles. -A very massive broken stone coffin, removed from a garden, lies in the -south chapel. The fine row of limes, and the ivy-grown walls of old -Harlaxton Manor, add to the beauty of this quiet little village, and a -group of half-timbered brick buildings, said to be sixteenth century, -though looking more modern, which are near the church, are a picturesque -feature. - -[Sidenote: BELVOIR CASTLE] - -_Denton Manor_, the seat of Sir C. G. E. Welby, Bart., is just beyond -Harlaxton, and there one might once have seen a fine old manor house, -now replaced by a large modern hall of fine proportions; the work is by -Sir A. W. Blomfield, good in design and detail, and containing a notable -collection both of furniture and pictures. St. Christopher’s Well, a -chalybeate spring, is in the park, and in the restored church are a good -recumbent effigy of John Blyth, 1602, and a figure of Richard Welby, -1713, with angels carefully planting a crown on his wig. After this the -road passes into Leicestershire, so we turn to the right and in less than -four miles, halfway between the Melton road and the Nottingham road, -and more in Leicestershire than in Lincolnshire, we come to _Belvoir -Castle_. The mound on which it stands is over the border and is not a -natural height, but was thrown up on a spur of the wold as early as -the eleventh century by Robert de Todeni, who thence became known as -Robert de Belvedeir. Certainly the pile is grandly placed, and has a -sort of Windsor Castle appearance from all the country round. It has -been in possession of the Manners family now for four hundred years. The -celebrated Marquis of Granby, a name well known in all the neighbourhood -as a public-house sign, was son of the third Duke. He was “Col. of the -Leicester Blues” in 1745, and General and Commander-in-Chief of the -British contingent at Minden, where the English and German forces, under -the Duke of Brunswick, defeated the French in 1759, and he distinguished -himself in battle in each of the three following years. The castle, -destroyed by order of Parliament in the civil wars, was rebuilt in 1668, -and again in 1801, but a fire having destroyed part of it in 1816 it was -restored at the worst of all architectural periods, so that at a near -view it does not fulfil the expectation raised by its grand appearance -when seen from a distance. As at Windsor there is a very fine “Guard -Room,” and many large rooms hung with tapestry or pictures, and a picture -gallery of unusual excellence. The Duchess’s garden in spring is one of -the finest horticultural sights in the kingdom. The greater part of the -castle is most liberally thrown open daily to the public. - -Returning from Belvoir we can pass by Barrowby to join the Nottingham and -Grantham road, which leaves the county at Sedgebrook, on either side of -which are seen the churches of _Muston_ and _East_ and _West Allington_, -where Crabbe, the poet, was rector 1789-1814. West Allington church -stands in Mr. Welby’s park, and close by, a salt well is marked on the -map. At _Sedgebrook_ is a farm house which was built as a manor-house -by Sir John Markham in the sixteenth century, when he was Lord Chief -Justice of the King’s Bench. He it was who received the soubriquet of -“The upright Judge,” on the occasion of his being turned out of office by -Edward IV., because of his scrupulous fairness at the trial of Sir Thomas -Coke, Lord Mayor of London. - -From Sedgebrook to _Barrowby_ is three miles of level ground, and then -the road rises 150 feet to the village, which commands a splendid view -over the vale of Belvoir. Leaving this you descend a couple of miles to -Grantham. - -[Sidenote: GONERBY HILL] - -At the outskirts of the town the road meets two others, one the northern -or Lincoln road, and the other the north-western or Newark road. This -is the Great North Road, and it starts by climbing the famous _Gonerby -Hill_, the terror and effectual trial ground of motors in their earliest -days, and described by “mine host” in _The Heart of Midlothian_ as -“a murder to post-horses.” The hill once gained affords a fine view -eastwards, _Foston_ and _Long Bennington_ (which has a large church with -a handsome porch, a good churchyard cross, and a mutilated market cross), -are the only villages, till the road crosses the county boundary near -_Claypole_, and runs on about four miles to Newark, distant fifteen miles -from Grantham. Long Bennington is a mile north-east of Normanton Lodge, -where Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Leicestershire touch. - -_Stubton_, a couple of miles to the east, has a fine group of yew trees -growing round the tomb of Sir George Heron, one of the family from -Cressy Hall, Gosberton, I suppose, who built the hall now occupied by G. -Neville, Esq. - -Between Stubton and the Grantham-and-Lincoln road are many winding lanes, -by a judicious use of which you may escape the fate that overtook us of -landing after a steep and rather rough climb from Barkstone at two farms -one after the other, beyond which the road did not even try to go. If -you have better luck you will reach the out-of-the-way parish church of -_Hough-on-the-Hill_. - -[Sidenote: HOUGH-ON-THE-HILL] - -This, the last resting-place of King John, when on his journey to Newark -where he died, has a church whose tower is singularly interesting, being -akin to St. Peter’s at Barton-on Humber, and the two very old churches in -Lincoln, and one at Broughton, near Brigg, and we may add, perhaps, the -tower at Great Hale. - -The work of all these towers is pre-Norman, and it is not unlikely that -the church, when first built, consisted of only a tower and two apses. At -Hough, as at Broughton, we have attached to the west face of the tower a -Saxon circular turret staircase, built in the rudest way and coped with a -sloping top of squared masonry, of apparently Norman work. The tower has -several very small lights, 12 to 15 inches high, and of various shapes, -while the west side of the south porch is pierced with a light which -only measures 8 inches by 4, but is framed with dressed stone on both -the wall-surfaces. The two lower stages of the square tower, to whose -west face the round staircase-tower clings, are all of the same rough -stone-work, with wide mortar joints, but with two square edged thick -string-courses of dressed stone, projecting 6 inches or more. The upper -stage is of much later date. The Early English nave, chancel, and aisles -are very high, and are no less than 20 feet wide, mercifully (for it was -proposed to abolish them and substitute a pine roof) they still retain -their old Perpendicular roofs with the chancel and nave timbers enriched -with carving. The sedilia are of the rudest possible construction. - -[Illustration: _Hough-on-the-Hill._] - -[Sidenote: A SAXON TOWER] - -The staircase turret has two oblong Saxon windows, like those at Barnack, -about four feet by one, in the west face, three small round lights on -the north, and four on the south, one square and one diamond-shaped and -two circular. The turret is of the same date as the tower, but appears to -have been built on after the tower was finished; and it almost obscures -the two little west windows of the tower, one on each side of it, and -near the top. A round-headed doorway leads from the tower to the turret, -inside which the good stone steps lead up to a triangular-headed door -into the tower, where now is the belfry floor, from which another similar -doorway leads into the nave. Close to the top of the old Saxon tower -walls are very massive stone corbels for supporting the roof. The Newel -post of the old tower is a magnificent one, being eighteen inches thick. -This, where the upper stage was added, is continued, but with only half -that thickness. - -There was once a porch with a higher pitched roof, as shown by the -gable roof-mould against the aisle. On the stone benches are three of -the solitaire-board devices, with eight hollows connected by lines all -set in an oblong, the same that you see often in cloisters and on the -stone benches at Windsor, where monks or chorister boys passed the time -playing with marbles. It is a truly primitive and world-wide amusement. -The natives of Madagascar have precisely the same pattern marked out -on boards, seated round which, and with pebbles which they move like -chessmen, they delight themselves, both young and old, in gambling. - -The church used to go with the Head-Mastership of Grantham Grammar -School, seven miles off, and some of the Headmasters were buried -here; one, Rev. Joseph Hall, is described as “Vicar of Ancaster and -Hough-on-the-Hill, Headmaster of Grantham Grammar School, and Rector of -Snelland, and Domestic Chaplain to Lord Fitzwilliam”—he died in 1814. - -[Sidenote: THE WAPENTAKE] - -It stands on a high knoll, whence the churchyard, which is set round with -yew-trees, slopes steeply to the south. The Wapentake of Loveden takes -its name from a neighbouring round-topped hill, and the old tower of -Hough-on-the-Hill may well have been the original meeting-place; just as -Barnack was, where the triangular-headed seat for the chief man is built -into the tower wall. The term “Wapentake” means the taking hold of the -chief’s weapon by the assembled warriors, or of the warriors’ weapons by -the chief, as a sign that they swear fealty to him, and then the name was -applied to the district over which a particular chief held rule. The -native chiefs of India, when they come to a Durbar, present their swords -to the King or his representative in a similar manner, for him to touch. - -Just south of Hough is the hamlet of _Gelston_, where, on a triangular -green, is all that is left of a wayside cross, a rare thing in this -county. Only about two feet of the old shaft is left and the massive base -block standing on a thick slab with chamfered corners. This is mounted on -three steps and is a very picturesque object. - -There are some two dozen Wapentakes within the county, some with odd -names, _e.g._, Longoboby; of these, eight end like Elloe in _oe_, which, -I take it, means water. - -[Sidenote: CLAYPOLE] - -From Hough-on-the-Hill the byway to the Grantham and Newark road, with -villages at every second milestone, runs through _Brandon_, where a -small chapel contains a Norman door with a tympanum and a rather unusual -moulding, very like one we shall see in the old church at Stow, and then -through _Stubton_, to _Claypole_, close to the county boundary. The -beautiful crocketed spire of this fine church is a landmark seen for -miles; as usual, it is Perpendicular, and on an Early English tower, -which is plastered over with cement outside and engaged between the -aisles inside. It is a cruciform building, and in the Early English -south transept are three beautiful sedilia, not at all common in such a -position. The flat coloured ceiling of the nave is old, though, since -the restoration by C. Hodgson Fowler in 1892, the high pitch of the roof -over it has been reverted to, both on chancel and nave. The nave is large -with four wide bays, supported on clustered pillars, the capitals being -all different and all ornamented with singularly bold foliated carving -of great beauty. The chancel arch exhibits brackets for the rood beam. -The large clerestory windows were probably in the nave before the aisles -were added. Another set of sedilia in the chancel are of the Decorated -period, and most of the windows have flowing tracery. On the north side -of the chancel is a Sacristy, containing an altar slab in situ with its -five dedication crosses. The porch has a very deep niche over it, for a -statue, and there is another niche at the east end of the nave; the fine -Perpendicular parapet leading to it being, like the rest of the church, -embattled. The screen is a good Perpendicular one, and the desk of the -well-carved pulpit was once part of it, this now is oddly supported by -the long stem of a processional cross. The font, which is hexagonal, is -of the Decorated period. - -One of the most unusual features in the church is to be found in the -stone seats which surround the bases of the pillars in the south arcade. -This is to be seen also at Bottesford and at Caistor. - -A short distance to the south-west of the church there was, until quite -recently, a charming old stone bridge, over a small stream, but this -has now, I regret to say, been superseded by one of those iron girder -structures, so dear to the heart of the highway surveyor. - -In the church the hook for the “Lenten Veil” still remains at the end of -the sedilia, and a staple over the vestry-door opposite. - -In pre-reformation days there was a regular “office” or service for the -Easter sepulchre, in which the priests acted the parts of the three -kings, the angel, and the risen Lord, at which time a line was stretched -across the chancel to support the “Lenten Veil” which served as a -stage-curtain. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -SLEAFORD - - Ewerby—Howell—Use of a Stone Coffin—Heckington—Great Hale—Outer - Staircase to Tower—Helpringham—Billinghay—North and South - Kyme—Kyme Castle—Ancaster—Honington—Cranwell. - - -[Sidenote: SLEAFORD CHURCH] - -Six roads go out of Sleaford, and five railways. Lincoln, Boston, Bourne -and Grantham have both a road and a railway to Sleaford, Spalding has -only a railway direct, and Horncastle and Newark only a road. At no -towns but Louth and Lincoln do so many routes converge, though Caistor, -Grantham and Boston come very near. The southern or Bourne road we have -traced from Bourne, so we will now take the eastern roads to Boston and -Horncastle. But first to say something of Sleaford itself. The Conqueror -bestowed the manor on Remigius, first Bishop of Lincoln. About 1130 -Bishop Alexander built the castle, together with that at Newark, which -alone in part survives. These castles were seized by Stephen, and here -King John, having left Swineshead Abbey, stayed a night before his last -journey by Hough-on-the-hill to Newark, where he died 1216. Henry VIII., -with Katherine Howard, held a council here on his way from Grimsthorpe to -Lincoln, 1541, dining next day at Temple-Bruer, which he gave in the same -year to the Duke of Suffolk. He had here in 1538 ordered the execution -of Lord Hussey. Murray’s guide-book tells us that Richard de Haldingham, -1314, who made the famous and curious “Mappa Mundi,” now kept in Hereford -Cathedral, was born at Holdingham close by. The church is one of four in -this neighbourhood dedicated to St. Denis. The lower stage of the tower -dates from 1180. The spire, a very early one, built about 1220, being -struck by lightning, was taken down and put up again by C. Kirk in 1884. -It is only 144 feet in height. As at Grantham and Ewerby the tower is -engaged in the aisles; its lower stage dates from 1180. The nave has -eight three-light clerestory windows, with tall pinnacles rising from the -parapet. The aisles have a richly carved parapet, without pinnacles; but -the beauty and extreme richness of the western ends of the aisles, where -they engage with the massive tower, surmounted as they are by turrets, -bellcots and pinnacles, and niches, some still containing their statues, -is not surpassed in any church in England. - -The doorway, which is in the west end of the north aisle, cuts into the -fine window above, and opens upon the baptistery. - -[Sidenote: THE NORTH TRANSEPT] - -The nave and aisles are all very lofty; and the grand proportions of the -church give one the feeling of being in a cathedral. There is an outer -north aisle, now screened off by a good modern oak screen, and fitted -with an organ and an altar with modern painted reredos depicting the -Crucifixion. The tracery of the big window is good, but that in the north -transept (there is no south transept) is one of the finest six-light -windows to be seen, and is filled with first-rate modern glass by Ward -and Hughes. The supporting arch at the west of the north aisle has an -inverted arch, as at Wells, to support the tower. At the end of the south -aisle, a tall half-arch acts as a buttress to the other side of the -tower arch. The chancel was once a magnificent one, but was rebuilt and -curtailed at a bad period. - -The fine monuments on each side of the chancel arch—one having two -alabaster recumbent figures, much blocked by the pulpit, are all of the -Carre family; and a curious carved and inscribed coffin lid, showing just -the face, and then, lower down, the praying hands of a man, apparently -a layman, with long hair, is set up in the transept against the chancel -pier. At Hartington in Derbyshire is one showing the bust and praying -hands together, and then, lower down, the feet. An old iron chest is in -the south aisle, and the church has a very perfect set of consecration -crosses both inside and out. - -The rood screen is especially fine, in fact, the finest in the country, -having still its ancient canopy projecting about six feet, with very -graceful carving on the heads of the panels below it. Two staircases in -the chancel piers still remain, opening on to the rood loft on either -side. - -The west end of the church overlooks the market, where there is always a -gay scene on Mondays—stalls and cheap-jacks and crowds of market folk -making it almost Oriental in life and colour. - -The street runs along the south side of the church, across which is seen -the excellent but not beautiful Sleaford almshouse. - -[Illustration: _North Transept, St. Denis’s Church, Sleaford._] - -[Sidenote: EWERBY] - -Eastwards on the Swineshead road, and within half-a-dozen miles of -Sleaford, is a cluster of especially good churches—Ewerby, Asgarby, -Heckington, Howell, Great Hale and Helpringham. Four of these six have -fine spires, and are seen from a long distance in this flat country. -_Ewerby_ is just on the edge of Haverholme Priory Park, and the building -rooks who have chosen the trees at the village end of the park for their -colony, gave, when we visited it, pleasant notification of the coming -spring. - -The tower is at the west end, engaged in the two aisles, and, adjoining -the churchyard, a little green with remains of the old village cross -leaves room for the fine pile of building to be seen and admired. The -roof line of nave and chancel is continuous, and the broach spire, a -singularly fine one, perhaps the best in England, is 174 feet high. It -is probably the work of the same master builder who planned and built -Heckington and Sleaford. The tower has a splendid ring of ten bells -(Grantham alone has as many) for the completion of which, as for much -else, Ewerby is indebted to the Earls of Winchelsea. - -Internally, the walls are mostly built of very small stones, like those -in a roadside wall. In the tower are good Decorated windows, in the lower -of which, on the western face, is a stained glass window. This was struck -by lightning in 1909, and all the faces of the figures were cut right -out, the rest of the glass being intact. A lightning-conductor is now -installed, but the faces are not yet filled in. - -There is a most beautiful little window at the west end of the north -aisle. Under the tower are three finely proportioned arches, and a stone -groined roof. The ten bells are rung from the ground. The nave pillars -are clustered, each erected on an earlier transition-Norman base; and -the base of the font is also Norman. The porch is unusual in having a -triangular string-course outside the hood-moulding. Besides the Market -Cross, there are parts of two others, in the church and churchyard. -There is a grand old recumbent warrior, probably Sir Richard Anses, -with fourteenth century chain mail and helmet, and gorget, but the most -interesting thing of all is a pre-Norman tomb-cover on the floor of the -north aisle, with a rude cross on it, and a pattern of knot-work all over -the rest of the slab. This is covered by a mat, but it certainly ought to -have a rail round it for permanent protection, for it is one of the most -remarkable stones in the county. An old oak chest with carved front is -in the vestry. The whole church is well-cared-for, but at present only -seated with chairs. - -[Sidenote: HOWELL PORCH] - -From Ewerby, two miles bring us to _Howell_, a small church with neither -spire nor tower, but a double bell-gable at the west end of the nave; -the porch is Norman, and a large pre-Norman stone coffin slab has been -placed in it. The transition pillars have huge mill-stone shaped bases; -and there is only a nave and north aisle. On the floor of the aisle is -a half figure of a mother with a small figure of her daughter, both -deeply cut on a fourteenth century stone slab. It is curious to come on -a monument to “Sir Charles Dymok of Howell, 2nd son to Sir Edward Dymok -of Scrielsby”—whose daughter married Sir John Langton. The tomb, with -coloured figures of the knight and his lady kneeling at an altar, was put -up about 1610 by his nephew, another Sir Edward Dymok. - -There is a broken churchyard cross, the base inscribed to John Spencer, -rector, 1448. The church is dedicated to St. Oswald. Ivy is growing -inside the nave, having forced its way right through the wall—a good -illustration of the mischief that ivy can do. - -The mention of the stone coffin in Howell church porch calls to mind a -similar case in a Cumberland church, where the sexton, pointing it out to -a visitor, said: “Ah think thet a varra good thing; minds ’em o’ their -latter end, ye knaw; an’ its varra useful for umberellas.” - -_Heckington_ is a town-like village on the main road, and its splendid -church, which faces you at the end of the street, as at Louth, is one of -the wonders of Lincolnshire. It is entirely in the Decorated style, with -lofty spire and four very high pinnacles. It owes its magnificence to the -fact that the great abbey at Bardney, which had a chantry here, obtained -a royal licence in 1345 to appropriate the church. Certainly it is the -most perfect example of a Decorated church in the kingdom. - -The nave is remarkably high and wide, and the building of it, as in the -case of Wilfrid’s great church at Hexham, apparently took thirty-five -years. The dimensions are 150 feet by eighty-five, and the masonry, owing -probably to the leisurely way in which it was built, is remarkably good -throughout. The statue niches have a few of their figures still. The -porch, with its waved parapet richly carved, with a figure of our Lord -above, still has its original roof. On either side are double buttresses, -each with its canopied niche; and the nave ends with handsome turrets. -The transept windows are very fine, and the seven-light east window, -a most superb one, is only surpassed in its dimensions and beautiful -tracery by those at Selby and Carlisle. It is filled with good glass by -Ward and Hughes, put up in memory of Mr. Little, by his wife, 1897. - -[Illustration: _Heckington Church_] - -[Sidenote: HECKINGTON] - -A massive timber gallery crosses the west end, above the tower arch, -giving access to the belfry above the groined roof of the tower. The -clock struck while we were in the church, and gave evidence of at least -one of the peal being of unusual magnificence of tone. - -[Sidenote: THE EASTER SEPULCHRE] - -On the south side of the chancel is one window beneath which is a -canopied credence table; and west of this, three tall and richly carved -sedilia with figures of our Lord and the Virgin Mary and Saints Barbara, -Katherine and Margaret; but the gem of the building is the Easter -sepulchre on the north side, where there are no windows. This is only -surpassed by one at Hawton, near Newark. Below are the Roman guards -asleep, in fourteenth century armour. On each side of the recess for the -sacred elements, which once had a door to it, are two figures of women -and a guardian angel, and above them, the risen Christ between two flying -angels. This is a truly beautiful thing, enshrined in a worthy building. - -Outside is a broken churchyard cross, and the slender chancel buttresses -are seen to have each a niche for a figure. The magnificent great -“Dos-D’Âne” coping-stones on the churchyard wall, both here and at Great -Hale, are a pleasure to see. - -There was a church at Heckington before the Conquest, and a second was -built about 1100. The income of this, as well as of that of Hale Magna, -was given in 1208 by Simon de Gant and his wife Alice to support the -church of St. Lazarus outside the walls of Jerusalem, and this endowment -was confirmed by King John. The rector of Hale Magna in his parish -magazine points out that the enormous amount of land which was constantly -passing to the churches and monasteries in the Middle Ages became a -distinct danger, and that an Act was passed to prevent it, called the -Statute of Mortmain, under which licence had to be obtained from the -Crown. - -Consequently we find that in the fourth year of Edward II. (1310) -inquisition was taken on a certain Sunday before Ranulph de Ry, Sheriff -of Lincoln, at Ancaster “to inquire whether or not it be to the damage -of the King or others if the King permit Wm. son of Wm. le Clerk of St. -Botolph (Boston) to grant a messuage and 50 acres of land in Hekyngton -and Hale to a certain chaplain and his successors to celebrate Divine -service every day in the parish church of Hekyngton for the health of -the souls of the said Wm. his father, mother and heirs, &c., for ever,” -etc. The jury found that it would not be to the damage or prejudice of -the king to allow the grant. They also reported that Henry de Beaumont -was the “Mesne,” or middle, tenant between the king and William Clerk of -Boston for twenty-eight acres, and between the king and Ralph de Howell -for the other twenty-two acres, he holding from the king “by the service -of a third part of a pound of pepper,” and subletting to the others, for -so many marks a year. The land apparently being valued at about 1_s._ -8_d._ an acre. From other sources we find that land thereabouts varied in -value from 4_d._ to 8_s._ an acre yearly rent. - -In 1345 when the abbot and abbey of Bardney by royal licence received -the churches and endowments of Hale and Heckington for their own use, -the abbot became rector and appointed a vicar to administer each parish. -The name of the abbot was Roger De Barrowe, whose tomb was found by the -excavators at Bardney in 1909. - -The building of the present beautiful church was completed by Richard de -Potesgrave, the vicar, in 1380. He doubtless received help from Edward -III., to whom he acted as chaplain. That he was an important person in -the reigns of both Edward II. and III. is shown by the former king making -over to him the confiscated property of the Colepeppers who had refused -to deliver Leeds Castle, near Maidstone, to Queen Isabella, wife of -Edward II., in 1321; while he was selected by Edward III. to superintend -the removal of the body of Edward II. from Berkeley Castle to Gloucester. -His mutilated effigy is under the north window of the chancel, and in a -little box above it with a glass front is now preserved the small chalice -which he used in his lifetime. - -[Sidenote: CHURCHWARDENS’ BOOKS] - -The churchwardens’ account book at Heckington begins in 1567, and in 1580 -and 1583 and 1590 “VIˢ VIIIᵈ” is entered as the burial fee of members of -the Cawdron family, whose later monuments are at Hale. - -[Sidenote: WHIPPING FOR TRAMPS] - -Another entry which constantly occurs in the sixteenth century is “for -Whypping dogges out of Church,” and in the seventeenth century not -“dogges” only but vagrants are treated to the lash, _e.g._:— - - “April 21, 1685. John Coulson then whipped for a vagrant rogue - and sent to Redford. - - “Antho. Berridge (Vicar).” - -And in 1686:— - - “Memorand. that John Herrin and Katherine Herrin and one child, - and Jonas Hay and wife and two children, and Barbary Peay and - Eliz. Nutall were openly whipped, at Heckington, the 28th day - of May, 1686—and had a passe then made to convey them from - Constable to Constable to Newark, in Nottinghamshire, and - Will Stagg was at the same time whipped and sent to Conton in - Nottinghamshire.” - -A good, sound method of dealing with “Vagrom men,” but for the women and -children one wonders the parson or churchwardens were not ashamed to make -the entry. - -[Illustration: _Great Hale._] - -The book also shows the accounts of the “Dike-reeve” (an important -officer) for what in another place is called “the farre fenne.” - -[Sidenote: HALE MAGNA] - -We have already spoken of _Great Hale_ or _Hale Magna_. It is very near -Heckington, and was once a large church. Long before the abbey of Bardney -appropriated it, in 1345, it had both a rector and a vicar, the two being -consolidated in 1296. In 1346 the vicarage was endowed, and on the -dissolution the rectorial tithes were granted, in 1543, to Westminster -Abbey; but within four years they reverted to the Crown by exchange, and -in 1607 were sold by James I., and eventually bought by Robert Cawdron, -whose family were for many years lay rectors. Robert probably found the -chancel in a bad state, and rather than go to the expense of restoring -it, pulled it down and built up the chancel arch, and so it remains. But -the great interest of the building lies at the west end. Here the tower -arch is a round one, but the tower into which the Normans inserted it -is Saxon, probably dating from about 950. It is built of small stones, -and the line of the roof gable is still traceable against it outside. -It has also a curious and complete staircase of the tenth century in a -remarkably perfect condition, though the steps are much worn. The outer -walls of this are built of the same small thin stones as are used in the -tower, in the upper stage of which are deeply splayed windows with a -baluster division of the usual Saxon type. - -The nave pillars are Early English and slender for their height, for they -are unusually tall, recalling the lofty pillars in some of the churches -in Rome. The arches are pointed. Among the monuments are those of Robert -Cawdron, and his three wives, 1605, and of another Robert, 1652, father -of twenty children, while a large slab with the indent of a brass to some -priest has been appropriated to commemorate a third of the same name. - -The Cawdron arms are on a seventeenth century chalice. The old registers, -which are now well cared for, are on paper, and have suffered sadly from -damp and rough handling. The first volume begins in 1568, the second -in 1658, and the list of vicars is complete from 1561. To antiquarians -I consider that this is one of the most interesting of Lincolnshire -churches. Two miles west is _Burton Pedwardine_, with fine Pedwardine and -Horsman tombs, and a pretty little square grille for exhibiting relics. -The central tower fell in 1862. - -[Sidenote: HELPRINGHAM] - -The road which runs south from Heckington to Billingborough and so on -by Rippingale to Bourne, passes by Hale Magna to _Helpringham_. Here is -another very fine church, with a lofty crocketed spire, starting from -four bold pinnacles with flying buttresses. The tower is engaged in the -aisles, as at Ewerby and Sleaford, and as at Ewerby it opens into nave -and aisles by three grand arches. The great height of the tower arch into -the nave here and at Boston and Sleaford was in order to let in light -to the church from the great west window. The main body of the building -is Decorated and has fine windows; the chancel with triplet window is -Early English. The font, Early English transition, the rood screen is of -good Perpendicular design, and the effect of the whole building is very -satisfying, especially from the exterior. It is curious that the lord -of the manors of Helpringham and Scredington, who since the sixteenth -century has been the Lord Willoughby De Broke, was in the fourteenth -century the Lord Willoughby D’Eresby. - -[Illustration: _Helpringham._] - -[Sidenote: SWATON] - -South of Helpringham, and situated half-way between that and Horbling, -and just to the north of the Sleaford-and-Boston road is _Swaton_ with -a beautiful cruciform church in the earliest Decorated style; indeed, -looking at the lancet windows in the chancel, one might fairly call it -transitional Early English. The simple two-light geometrical window at -the east end with the mullions delicately enriched outside and in, form -a marked contrast to the rich but heavy Decorated work of the four-light -west window. At the east end the window is subordinated to the whole -design. At the west end the windows are the predominant feature of the -building, and nowhere can this period of architecture be better studied. -The roof spans both nave and aisles, as at Great Cotes, near Grimsby, so -though the nave is big and high it has no clerestory. The tower arches -are very low. The font is a very good one of the period, with diaper work -and ball-flower. - -We have dwelt at some length on Sleaford and its immediate neighbourhood, -and not without cause, for there are few places in England or elsewhere -in which so many quite first-rate churches are gathered within less than -a six-mile square. They are all near the road from Sleaford to Boston, on -which, after leaving Heckington, nothing noticeable is met with for seven -miles, till Swineshead is reached, and nothing after that till Boston. - -The north-eastern road from Sleaford to Horncastle passes over a flat and -dull country to Billinghay and Tattershall, and thence by the interesting -little churches of Haltham and Roughton (pronounced Rooton) to -Horncastle. The road near _Billinghay_ runs by the side of the Old Carr -Dyke, which is a picturesque feature in a very Dutch-looking landscape. - -[Sidenote: KYME TOWER AND PRIORY] - -[Sidenote: SOUTH KYME] - -This road crosses the Dyke near _North Kyme_, where there is a small -Roman camp. The Normans have left their mark in the name of “Vacherie -House” and Bœuferie Bridge, close to which is “Decoy House,” and two -miles to the south is the isolated village of _South Kyme_. Here is the -keep of a thirteenth century castle, which is nearly eighty feet high, -a square tower with small loophole windows. The lower room vaulted and -showing the arms of the Umfraville family, to whom the property passed -in the fifteenth century from the Kymes by marriage, and soon afterwards -to the Talboys family, and, in 1530, to Sir Edward Dymoke of Scrivelsby, -whose descendants resided there till 1700. The castle was pulled down -about 1725, after which the Duke of Newcastle bought the estate and -sold it twenty years later to Mr. Abraham Hume. The existing tower -communicated from the first floor with the rest of the castle. The upper -floors are now gone. - -Close by was a priory for Austin canons, founded by Philip de Kyme in -the reign of Henry II., but all that now remains of it is in the south -aisle of the church, which, once a splendid cruciform building, has been -cut down to one aisle and a fine porch; over this is represented the -Coronation of the Virgin. A bit of very early carved stonework has been -let into the wall, and a brass inscription from the tomb of Lord Talboys -1530. - -[Illustration: _South Kyme._] - -The western road from Sleaford has no interesting features, till at about -the fifth milestone it comes to _Ancaster_, the old Roman ‘Causennæ’; -here it crosses the Ermine Street, which is a fine wide road, but fallen -in many parts into disuse. The Ancaster stone quarries lie two miles to -the south of the village in Wilsford heath on high ground; the Romans -preferred a high ridge for their great “Streets,” but at Ancaster the -Ermine Street descends 100 feet, and from thence, after crossing it, our -route takes us by a very pretty and wooded route to _Honington_, on the -Great North Road. - -[Illustration: _South Kyme Church._] - -We will now go back to Sleaford and trace out the course of its other -western road to Newark, leaving the north or Lincoln Road to be described -from Lincoln. - -[Sidenote: HOUR-GLASS STANDS] - -This road starts in a northerly direction, but splits off at _Holdingham_ -before reaching _Leasingham_, of which Bishop Trollope of Nottingham, who -did so much for archæology in our county, was rector for fifty years. -The church has a fine transition tower with curiously constructed -belfry windows and a broach spire. Two finely carved angels adorn the -porch, and the font, of which the bowl seems to have been copied from an -earlier one, though only the stem and base remain, exhibits very varied -subjects, among them The Resurrection, Last Judgment, The Temptation, -The Entry into Jerusalem, Herodias and Salome, and the Marriage of the -Virgin. Fixed to one of the pillars is the old hourglass stand, of which -other specimens, but usually fixed to the pulpit, are at Bracebridge near -Lincoln, Sapperton near Folkingham, Hameringham near Horncastle, and -Belton in the Isle of Axholme. - -But the Newark road holds westwards, and, leaving the tower of Cranwell, -with its interesting “Long and Short” work, to the right, climbs to -the high ground and crosses the Ermine Street by Caythorpe Heath to -_Leadenham_, eight miles. Here it drops from “the Cliff” to the great -plain, drained by the Wytham and Brant rivers, and at _Beckingham_ on the -Witham reaches the county boundary. The Witham only acts as the boundary -for two miles and then turns to the right and makes for Lincoln. Half way -between this and the lofty spire of Leadenham the road passes between -_Stragglethorpe_ and _Brant-Broughton_ (pronounced Bruton), which is -described later. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -LINCOLN, THE CATHEDRAL AND MINSTER-YARD - - -The city of Lincoln was a place of some repute when Julius Cæsar landed -B.C. 55. The Witham was then called the Lindis, and the province -Lindisse. The Britons called the town Lindcoit, so the name the Romans -gave it, about A.D. 100, “Lindum Colonia,” was partly Roman and partly -British. The Roman walled town was on the top of the hill about a quarter -of a mile square, with a gate in the middle of each wall. Of their four -roads, the street which passed out north and south was the Via Herminia -or Ermine Street. The east road went to “Banovallum”—Horncastle (or the -Bain)—and “Vannona”—Wainfleet—and the west to “Segelocum”—Littleborough. -The Roman milestone marking XIV miles to Segelocum is now in the -cathedral cloisters. - -[Sidenote: ROMAN ARCH] - -This walled space included the sites of both cathedral and castle, and -was thickly covered with houses in Danish and Saxon times. We hear of -166 being cleared away by the Conqueror to make his castle. The Romans -themselves extended their wall southward as far as the stone-bow in order -to accommodate their growing colony. Their northern gate yet exists. It -is known as “Newport Gate,” and is of surpassing interest, as, with the -exception of one at Colchester, there is not another Roman gateway in the -kingdom. Only last October the foundations of an extremely fine gateway -were uncovered at _Colchester_, the Roman “Camelodunum”; apparently -indicating the fact that there were two chariot gates as well as two side -entrances for foot passengers. The Newport Gate is sixteen feet wide, and -twenty-two feet high, with a rude round arch of large stones without a -key, the masonry on either side having stones some of which are six feet -long. On each side of the main gate was a doorway seven feet wide for -foot passengers. A fifth Roman road is the “Foss Way,” which came from -Newark and joined the Ermine Street at the bottom of Canwick Hill, a mile -south of Lincoln. - -[Illustration: _Newport Arch, Lincoln._] - -From the junction of these two roads a raised causeway, following the -line of the present High Street, ran over the marshy ground to the gate -of the walled town. This causeway, bearing in places the tracks of Roman -wheels, is several feet below the present level, and even on the top of -the hill several feet of debris have accumulated over the Roman pavements -which were found in the last century where the castle now stands. -Doubtless, as years went on, many villas would be planted outside the -walls of the Roman city, but we know little of the history of the colony, -except that it was always a place of considerable importance. - -[Sidenote: BISHOP REMIGIUS] - -To come to post-Roman times, Bede, who died in 785, tells us that -_Paulinus_, who had been consecrated Bishop of York in 625, and had -baptised King Ædwin and a large number of people at York in the church -which stood on the site afterwards occupied by the Minster, came to -Lincoln, and, after baptising numbers of people in the Trent, as he had -previously done in the Swale near Richmond in Yorkshire, built a stone -church in Lincoln, or caused his convert Blaeca, the Reeve of the city, -to build it, in which he consecrated Honorius Archbishop of Canterbury. -Bede saw the walls of this church which may well have stood where the -present church of St. Paul does. William the Conqueror in 1066 built the -Norman castle on the hill to keep the town, which had spread along the -banks of the Witham, in order. It was about this time that Remigius, a -monk of Fécamp, in Normandy, who had been made by William, Bishop of -Dorchester-on-Thames in 1067, as a reward for his active help with a -ship and a body of armed fighting men, got leave, after much opposition -from the Archbishop of York, to build a cathedral at Lincoln on the hill -near the castle. So, next after the Romans (and perhaps the Britons -were there before them), it is to him that we owe the choice of this -magnificent site for the cathedral. Remigius began his great work in -1075, of which the central portion of the west front, with its plain rude -masonry and its round-headed tall recesses on either side of the middle -door, and its interrupted band of bas-reliefs over the low Norman arches -to right and left of the tall recesses, is still _in situ_. The sixteen -stone bas-reliefs are subjects partly monkish, but mostly Scriptural, -concerning Adam, Noah, Samuel, and Jesus Christ. They are genuine Norman -sculptures, and they are at the same level as Welbourn’s twelve English -kings under the big central window, but these are of the fourteenth -century. - -The church of Remigius ended in an apse, of which the foundations are -now under the stalls about the middle of the choir. It probably had two -towers at the west end, and possibly a central tower as well. The church -of St. Mary Magdalene was swept away to clear the site, and a chapel at -the north west end of the new building allotted to the parishioners in -compensation. Like the Taj at Agra it was seventeen years in building, -and its great founder died, May 4, 1092, a few months before its -completion. This was in the reign of Rufus, a reign notable for the -building of the great Westminster Hall. - -[Illustration: _Gateway of Lincoln Castle._] - -[Sidenote: LINCOLN CASTLE] - -[Sidenote: BISHOP ALEXANDER] - -The wide joints of the masonry, and the square shape of the stones, and -the rude capitals of the pilasters are distinctive of Remigius’ work. -_Bloet_ succeeded Remigius, and during his thirty years he did much for -the cathedral staff, but not very much to the fabric. His successor, -_Bishop Alexander_, 1123, was a famous builder, and besides the castles -of Sleaford, Newark and Banbury, the first two of which Stephen forced -him to give to the Crown, he built the later Norman part of the west -front, raising its gables and putting in three doors and the interlaced -arcading above the arches of Remigius. He also vaulted the whole nave -with stone, after a disastrous fire in 1141. There had been a previous -fire just before Alexander was consecrated Bishop in 1123, of which -Giraldus Cambrensis, writing about 1200, says that the roof falling on -it “broke the stone with which the body of Remigius was covered into two -equal parts.” This richly carved and thus fractured stone you may see -to-day, where it is placed close to the north-west arch of the nave and -north aisle. Bishop Alexander’s work is richer than that of Remigius, -and the shafts and capitals of his west doors are beautifully carved. In -these, according to Norman custom, hunters are aiming at the birds and -beasts in the foliage. This is best seen in the north-west doorway. King -Stephen came to Lincoln in 1141, the year of the fire, and it was there -that, after a fierce fight which raged round the castle and cathedral, he -was taken prisoner and sent to Bristol, but in the following year terms -were arranged between him and the Empress Maud, and he was crowned at -Christmas in Lincoln cathedral. After that date Bishop Alexander carried -forward his work on the cathedral without intermission till his death in -1047, putting in the central western gable and the two gables over the -arcading, vaulting the whole west front with stone, and adding the little -north and south gables against the towers and the Norman stages of the -towers, of which the northern tower was a little the highest, but looked -less high because the south tower had its angles carried up higher than -the walls of the square. - -Bishop Alexander, like St. Hugh, died of a fever, which he caught at -Auxerre in France, where he had been to meet the Pope. Those French towns -seem to have been pretty pestilential at all times. _Bishop Chesney_ -succeeded him, and either he or Bishop Bloet began the episcopal palace. -He assisted at the Coronation of Henry II. in Lincoln, and founded St. -Catharine’s Priory. He died in 1166, and, after the lapse of six years, -_Geoffrey Plantagenet_, son of Henry II. by Fair Rosamund, held the See -for nine years, but was never consecrated. In 1182 he resigned, and was -afterwards made Archbishop of York. He gave many gifts to the cathedral, -and notably two “great and sonorous bells,” the putative parents of -“Great Tom.” _Walter de Constantiis_ followed him, but was in the very -next year translated to Rouen, 1184, and again the See was vacant for the -space of two years. - -[Sidenote: ST. HUGH] - -In 1185 an earthquake did great damage, and in the following year _Hugh -of Avalon_, the famous St. Hugh of Lincoln, was appointed Bishop by Henry -II. He widened the west end by putting a wing to each side of the work -of Remigius, and put a gable over the central arch, and began his great -work of making a new and larger cathedral with double transepts and a -choir 100 feet longer and a nave ten feet wider than that of Remigius, -starting at the east and building the present ritual choir and both the -eastern and western transepts. In this his work was of a totally new -character, with pointed arches, and “is famous as being the earliest -existing work of pure English Gothic.” But Early English work, so says -Murray, was already being done at Wells in 1174, twelve years earlier, -and it was there that the Gothic vaulting and pointed arch was first seen -in England. From the great transept to the angel choir is all his design, -and it bears no trace of Norman French influence in any particular. -The name of Hugh’s architect is Geoffrey de Noiers, his work is more -remarkable for lightness than for strength, and in about fifty years -Hugh’s tower fell, setting thereby a bad example which has been followed -so frequently that Bishop Creighton’s first question on visiting a new -church used generally to be, “When did your tower fall?” - -[Sidenote: BISHOP GROSTESTE] - -Hugh of Avalon died in London in 1200, and _William de Blois_ (1201) and -_Hugh of Wells_ (1209) went on with the building. The latter particularly -kept to Hugh of Avalon’s plan of intercalating marble shafts with those -of stone. Other characteristics of St. Hugh’s work are the double -arcading in the transept and the little pigeon-hole recesses between -the arcade arches, a trefoil ornament on the pillar belts and on the -buttresses, and the deep-cut base mouldings. He put in the fine Early -English round window in the north transept called the “Dean’s eye,” which -has plate tracery. The five lancet lights, something after the “Five -Sisters” window at York, were a later addition. The end of his work is -easily distinguishable in the east wall of the great transept. He also -built the Galilee porch, which was both a porch and an ecclesiastical -court, and the Chapter house, with its ten pairs of lancet windows, its -arcading and clustered pillars and beautiful central pillar to support -the roof groining. He was succeeded, in 1235, by the famous _Robert -Grosteste_, a really great man and a fine scholar, who had studied both -at Oxford and Paris. He opposed the Pope, who wished to put his nephew -into a canonry, declaring him to be unfit for the post, and stoutly -championed the right of the English Church to be ruled by English and -not Italian prelates. In his time the central tower fell, and he it was -who built up in its place the first stage at least of the magnificent -tower we have now. He also added the richly arcaded upper portion of the -great west front, and its flanking turrets crowned by the figures of the -Swineherd of Stow with his horn, on the north, and Bishop Hugh on the -south. _Henry Lexington_, Dean of Lincoln, succeeded him as Bishop in -1254, and during his short episcopate of four years Henry III. issued a -royal letter for removing the Roman city wall further east to enable the -Dean and Chapter to lengthen the cathedral for the Shrine of St. Hugh -after his canonisation. Then began the building of the ‘Angel Choir,’ -which “for the excellence of its sculpture, the richness of its mouldings -and the beauty of its windows, is not surpassed by anything in the -Kingdom” (Sir C. Anderson). Its height was limited by the pitch of the -vaulting of Hugh’s Ritual Choir, just as the height of Grosteste’s tower -arches had been. The Angel Choir was finished by Lexington’s successor -_Richard of Gravesend_, 1258-1279, and inaugurated in the following year -with magnificent ceremony under _Bishop Oliver Sutton_, Edward I. and -Queen Eleanor both being present with their children to see the removal -of St. Hugh’s body from its first resting-place before the altar of the -Chapel of St. John the Baptist in the north-east transept, where it had -been placed in 1200 when King John himself acted as one of the pall -bearers, to its new and beautiful gold shrine in the Angel Choir behind -the high altar. - -[Sidenote: JOHN DE WELBOURN] - -The whole cost of the consecration ceremony was borne by Thomas Bek, son -of Baron d’Eresby, who was on the same day himself consecrated Bishop of -St. David’s, his brother Antony being Bishop of Durham, and Patriarch -of Jerusalem. Bishop Sutton, in 1295, built the cloisters and began the -charming little “Vicar’s court.” He died in 1300, his successor was -_Bishop John of Dalderby_, the same who had a miracle-working shrine of -pure silver in the south transept, and whom the people chose to call -_St._ John of Dalderby, just as they did in the case of Bishop Grosteste, -though the Pope had refused canonisation in each case. He finished the -great tower, which, with its beautiful arcaded tower stage, its splendid -double lights and canopies above, and its delicate lace-like parapet, -seems to me to be quite the most satisfying piece of architecture that -this or any other county has to show. It is finished with tall pinnacles -of wood covered with lead. The exquisite stone rood-screen and the -beautiful arches in the aisles were put in at the same time, the work on -the screen being, as Sir C. Anderson remarks, very like the work on the -Eleanor’s Cross at Geddington. He died in 1320, and the lovely tracery of -the circular window in the south transept, called “The Bishop’s eye,” was -inserted about 1350 above his tomb. - -_John de Welbourn_, the munificent treasurer, who died in 1380, gave the -eleven statues of kings beneath the window at the west end, which begin -with William the Conqueror and end with Edward III., in whose reign they -were set up. Among other benefactions Welbourn gave the beautifully -carved choir stalls, and he also vaulted the towers. These were all, at -one time, finished by leaded spires. Those of the western tower being 100 -feet high, and that on the great central or rood tower soaring up to a -height of 525 feet. This was blown down in 1547, and the western spires -were removed in 1807-08, a mob of excited citizens having prevented their -removal in 1727, but eighty years later the matter made no great stir, -and though their removal may by some be regretted, I think it is a matter -of pure congratulation that the splendid central tower, whose pinnacles -attain an altitude of 265 feet, should have remained as it is. The -delicate lace-like parapet was added in 1775. It is not very likely that -anyone should propose to raise those spires again, but dreadful things do -happen; and quite lately one of our most eminent architects prepared a -design for putting a spire on the central tower at Peterborough. Think of -that! and ask yourself, is there any stability in things human? - -Apart from its commanding situation, the whole pile is very magnificent, -and, viewed as a whole, outside, it has nothing to touch it, though -the west front is not to compare in beauty with that of Peterborough. -Inside, York is larger and grander, and Ely surpasses both in effect. But -if we take both the situation and the outside view and the inside effect -together, Lincoln stands first and Durham second. - -[Sidenote: GREAT TOM] - -[Sidenote: THE CENTRAL TOWER] - -I was once at an Archæological society’s meeting in Durham when Dean Lake -addressed us from the pulpit, and he began by saying: “We are now met -in what by universal consent is considered the finest church in England -but one; need I say that that one is Lincoln?” The chuckle of delight -which this remark elicited from my neighbour, Precentor Venables, was -a thing I shall never forget. We will now take a look at the building, -and begin first with the outside, and, starting at the west, walk slowly -along the south side of the close. If we begin near the Exchequer Gate -we see the west front with its fine combination of the massive work of -Remigius, the fine Norman doors of Alexander (with the English kings over -the central door), the rich arcading of Grosteste along the top and at -the two sides, and the flanking turrets with spirelets surmounted by the -statues of St. Hugh and the Stow Swineherd. We look up to the gable over -the centre flanked by the two great towers on either side of it. Norman -below, Gothic above, with their very long Perpendicular double lights, -octagonal angle buttresses and lofty pinnacles. The northern tower once -held the big bell “Great Tom,” and the southern (“St. Hugh’s”) has still -its peal of eight. Lincoln had a big bell in Elizabeth’s reign, which -was re-cast in that of James I., and christened “Great Tom of Lincoln,” -1610. This second great bell being cracked in 1828, was re-cast in 1855, -and the Dean and chapter of the time actually took down the beautiful -peal of six, called the “Lady Bells,” which had been hung in Bishop -Dalderby’s great central tower about 1311 and gave that tower its name of -the “Lady Bell Steeple,” and had them melted down to add to the weight of -“Great Tom,” thus depriving the minster, by this act of vandalism, of its -second ring of bells. The third, or new, “Great Tom,” now hangs alone in -the central tower. It weighs five tons eight hundredweight, and is only -surpassed in size in England by those at St. Paul’s, at Exeter Cathedral, -and Christ Church, Oxford. It is six feet high, six feet ten inches in -diameter, and twenty-one and a half feet round the rim, and the hammer, -which strikes the hours, weighs two hundredweight. - -[Illustration: _The Rood Tower and South Transept, Lincoln._] - -[Sidenote: THE SOUTH SIDE] - -From the west front we should walk along the south side, passing first -the consistory court with its three lancet windows, and high pitched -gable, where is the little figure of “the devil looking over Lincoln.” -This forms a small western transept, and has a corresponding transept -on the north side, containing the ringers’ chapel and that of St. Mary -Magdalene. - -[Sidenote: THE EAST END] - -Going on we get a view of the clerestory windows in the nave, above which -is the parapet relieved by canopied niches, once filled with figures. -The flying nave buttresses now come into view, and next we reach, at -the south-western corner of the great transept, the beautifully built -and highly ornamented “Galilee Porch,” which was meant for the bishop’s -entrance from his palace into the cathedral. The room over it is now the -muniment room. From this point we get a striking view of the western -towers with the southern turret of the west front. The buttresses of the -transept run up to the top of the clerestory, and end in tall pinnacles -with statue-niches and crockets. The transept gable has a delicately -pierced parapet and lofty pinnacles. Above is a five-light Decorated -window, and below this a broad stone frieze, and then the large round -window, “The Bishop’s Eye,” with its unspeakably lovely tracery, a marvel -of lace-work in stone; below this comes a row of pointed arcading. The -eastern transept is the next feature, with another fine high-pitched -gable. Here the work of St. Hugh ends. The apsidal chapels of St. Paul -and St. Peter are at the east side of this transept, and then, along -the south side of the Angel Choir, the chapels of Bishops Longland and -Russell, with the splendid south-east porch between them. This, from -its position, is unique in English churches, and was probably designed -for the state entrance of the bishop after the presbytery had been -added, in place of the Galilee porch entrance. It has a deeply recessed -arch, with four canopied niches holding fine figures. The doorway has -two trefoil headed arches, divided by a central shaft with a canopied -niche above it, once containing the figures of the Virgin and Child. -Above this, and in the tympanum, is represented the Last Judgment. The -buttresses of the Angel Choir are beautifully and harmoniously enriched -with canopy and crocket, and the upper windows are perfect in design and -execution. Apart from its splendid position, it is this exquisite finish -to the beautifully designed building that makes Lincoln Cathedral so -“facile princeps” among English cathedrals. At the south-east buttress -are finely conceived figures of Edward I. trampling on a Saracen, and -his Queen Eleanor; and another figure possibly represents his second -queen, Margaret. Coming round to the east we look with delighted eyes -on what has been called “the finest example of Geometrical Decorated -Architecture to be found in the kingdom.” The window is not so fine as -that at Carlisle, and no east end competes with that at York, but York -is Perpendicular, and Lincoln is Geometrical. Here we have not only a -grand window, fifty-seven feet high, but another great five-light window -above it, and over that a beautiful figure of the Virgin and Child, and -all finished by a much enriched gable surmounted by a cross. The two -windows, one above the other, seem not to be quite harmonious, in fact, -one does not want the upper window, nor perhaps the windows in the aisle -gables, but the buttresses and their finials are so extraordinarily good -that they make the east end an extremely beautiful whole. Close to the -north-east angle is a little stone well cover, and the chapter-house, -with its off-standing buttress-piers and conical roof, comes into view -at the north. The north side is like the south, but has near it the -cloisters, which are reached by a short passage from the north-east -transept. From the north-east corner of these cloisters you get an -extremely good view of the cathedral and all its three towers. Steps -from this corner lead up to the cathedral library. The north side of -the cloisters of Bishop Oliver Sutton, unable to bear the thrust of the -timber-vaulted ceiling, fell, and was replaced in 1674 by the present -inharmonious pillars and ugly arches designed by Sir Christopher Wren. - -We must now look inside the cathedral, and if we enter the north-east -transept from the cloisters we shall pass over a large stone inscribed -“Elizabeth Penrose, 1837.” This is the resting-place of “Mrs. Markham,” -once _the_ authority on English history in every schoolroom, and -deservedly so. She took her _nom de plume_ from the little village of -East Markham, Notts., in which she lived for many years. - -[Sidenote: THE INTERIOR] - -Passing through the north-east transept, with its stained glass windows -by Canon Sutton, and its curious “Dean’s Chapel,” once the minster -dispensary, and turning eastwards, we enter the north aisle of the Angel -Choir and find the chapel of Bishop Fleming, the founder of Lincoln -College, Oxford. In this the effigy of the bishop is on the south side, -and there is a window to the memory of Sir Charles Anderson, of Lea, and -a reredos with a painting of the Annunciation, lately put up in memory -of Arthur Roland Maddison, minor canon and librarian, who died April -24, 1912, and is buried in his parish churchyard at Burton, by Lincoln. -He is a great loss, for he was a charming personality, and, having been -for many years a painstaking student of heraldry, he was always an -accurate writer on matters of genealogy, and on the relationships and -wills of the leading Lincolnshire families, subjects of which he had a -special and unique knowledge. Bishop Fleming was not the only Bishop -of Lincoln who founded a college at Oxford, as William Smith, founder -of Brasenose, Cardinal Wolsey, founder of Christchurch, and William of -Wykeham, founder of New College, were all once bishops here. Opposite to -the Fleming chapel is the Russell chapel, just east of the south porch -and between these lies the Retro Choir, which contained once the rich -shrine of St. Hugh, its site now marked, next to Bishop Fuller’s tomb, by -a black marble memorial. Here is the beautiful monument to the reverend -Bishop Christopher Wordsworth. This is a very perfect piece of work, -with a rich, but not heavy, canopy, designed by Bodley and executed by -M. Guillemin, who carved the figures in the reredos of St. Paul’s. This -rises over a recumbent figure of the bishop in robes and mitre. The face -is undoubtedly an excellent likeness. - -[Sidenote: THE CHOIR] - -The view from here of the perfect Geometrical Gothic east window, with -its eight lights, is very striking; beneath it are the three chapels -of St. Catherine, St. Mary, and St. Nicholas, and on either side of it -are two monuments, those on the south side to Wymbish, prior of Nocton, -and Sir Nicolas de Cantelupe; and on the north side to Bishop Henry -Burghersh, Chancellor of Edward III., 1340, and his father, Robert. On -each tomb are canopied niches, each holding two figures, among which are -Edward III. and his four sons—the Black Prince, Lionel Duke of Clarence, -John of Gaunt, and Edmund of Langley. Adjoining the chapel of St. -Catherine, which was founded by the Burghersh family, is a fine effigy -of Bartholomew Lord Burghersh, who fought at Crécy, in full armour with -his head resting on a helmet. A fine monument of Queen Eleanor once stood -beneath the great window where her heart was buried before the great -procession to London began. The effigy was of copper gilt, but, having -been destroyed, it has been recently replaced by a generous Lincoln -citizen from drawings which were in existence and from a comparison with -her monument in Westminster Abbey. A stone at the west of St. Catherine’s -chapel shows a deep indentation worn by the scrape of the foot of each -person who bowed at the shrine. A similar one is to be seen at St. -Cuthbert’s shrine, Durham. - -In the east windows of both the choir aisles is some good Early English -glass. - -[Sidenote: THE PRESBYTERY] - -We will now turn westwards, past the south porch, and come to the -south-east transept; here the line of the old Roman wall and ditch runs -right through the cathedral, the apsidal chapels of the eastern transepts -and the whole of the presbytery, as well as the chapter-house, lying -all outside it. Two apsidal chapels in this transept are dedicated to -St. Peter and St. Paul. It was in St. Peter’s that sub-dean Bramfield -was murdered by a sub-deacon, September 25, 1205, who paid the penalty -immediately at the hands of the sub-dean’s servants. The exquisite white -marble tomb and recumbent figure of John Kaye, bishop 1827 to 1853, by -Westmacott, is in this chapel. Opposite to these apsidal chapels are -the canons’ and choristers’ vestries; under the former is a crypt; the -latter has the monks’ lavatory, and a fireplace for the baking of the -sacramental wafers by the sacristan. Passing along the south choir-aisle -we reach the shrine of little St. Hugh, and here the work all around -us, in choir, aisles, and transepts, is that of the great St. Hugh. The -whole of the centre of the cathedral, with its double transept and the -choir between them, being his; and we must notice in two of the transept -chapels his peculiar work in the double capitals above slender pillars of -alternate stone and marble, and projecting figures of saints and angels -low down in each spandrel. We now enter the choir, and pause to admire -the magnificent work and all its beauty. On either side are the sixty-two -beautiful and richly carved canopied stalls. They are only excelled, -perhaps, by those at Winchester. The carving of the _Miserere_ seats -is much like that at Boston, where humorous scenes are introduced. The -fox in a monk’s cowl, the goose, and the monkey being the chief animals -represented. Here, on a poppy-head in the precentor’s seat, a baboon is -seen stealing the butter churned by two monkeys; he is caught and hanged, -and on the _Miserere_ he is being carried forth for burial. A finely -carved oak pulpit, designed by Gilbert Scott, is at the north-east end of -the stalls. The brass eagle is a seventeenth century copy of an earlier -one. We notice overhead the stone vaulting, springing from Purbeck -shafts; notice, too, the beauty of the mouldings and carved capitals, and -the groups of arches forming the triforium with clerestory window above, -which, however, only show between the ribs of the vaulting; and, then, -the length of it! For now, by taking in two from the Angel Choir, the -chancel has seven bays. It is a very striking view as you look eastwards, -but it has the defect of a rather plain, low vaulting, and west of it the -nave, which is a generation later, is more splendidly arranged, while -east of it the Angel Choir, which is nearly half a century later than the -nave, admittedly surpasses all the rest in delicacy and beauty. The choir -vaulting being low, caused both nave and presbytery to be lower than they -would otherwise have been, so that it has been said that when the tower -fell it was a pity the chancel did not fall with it, all would then have -been built with loftier roofs and with more perfect symmetry. - -If we pass down the Ritual Choir eastwards, we enter the presbytery, and -at once see the origin of the name “Angel Choir” in the thirty figures of -angels in the spandrels. It was built to accommodate the enormous number -of pilgrims who flocked to St. Hugh’s shrine, and is, according to G. A. -Freeman, “one of the loveliest of human works; the proportion of the side -elevation and the beauty of the details being simply perfect,” and it -would seem to be uncontested that all throughout, whether in its piers, -its triforium, its aisles, or its carved detail, it shows a delicacy and -finish never surpassed in the whole history of Gothic architecture. One -of its large clerestory windows was filled, in 1900, with excellent glass -by H. Holiday, to mark the seven-hundredth anniversary of St. Hugh’s -death. - -The angels sculptured in stone, and mostly carrying scrolls, fill the -triforium spandrels in groups of three, five groups on either side. They -are probably not all by the master’s hand. The Virgin and Child in the -south-west bay and the angel with drawn sword in the north-west seem -finer than the rest. The stone inscribed in Lombardic letters “Cantate -Hic,” marks the place for chanting the Litany; this is chanted by two -lay clerks. There are nine of these, one being vestry clerk; also four -choristers in black gowns with white facings (a reminiscence of the -earliest dress for the Lincoln choir, and a unique costume in England), -eight Burghersh choristers or “Chanters” (lineal descendants of the -Burghersh chantry of St. Catherine with its separate band of choristers), -and some supernumerary boys and men. There are four canons residentiary, -viz., the sub-dean, chancellor, precentor, and Archdeacon of Lincoln, and -fifty-three prebendaries. - -In the first bay of the north side of the Angel Choir is a remarkable -monument, part of which once served for an Easter sepulchre. This, like -those of Navenby and Heckington of the same date, is richly carved with -oak and vine and fig-tree foliage, and shows the Roman soldiers sleeping. -Opposite, on the south side, are the tombs of Katharine Swynford of -Ketilthorpe, Duchess of Lancaster, Chaucer’s sister-in-law, whose -marriage to John of Gaunt took place in the minster in 1396. Like so many -of the monuments, these are sadly mutilated, and are not now quite in -their original position. - -It is on one of the pillars of the east bay, the second from the east -end, that the curious grotesque, familiar to all as the “Lincoln Imp,” is -perched. - -[Sidenote: THE NAVE] - -If we now turn westwards we shall come to the fine stone organ screen, -and pass through to the tower, whose predecessor fell through faultiness -of construction, and was rebuilt by Grosteste as far as the nave roof, -and we shall look down the nave, which is forty-two feet wide, each -aisle being another twenty feet in width. The planning and execution -of the nave we owe to the two Bishops Hugh. Its great length (524 feet -with the choir and presbytery) makes the whole building, when viewed -from the west, look lower than it is, for it is really eighty-two feet -high. Looking west this is not felt so much, and there is a feeling of -great dignity which the best Early English work always gives. The piers -may seem lacking in massive strength, but they vary in pattern, those to -the east being the most elaborate, and so gain in interest. One curious -thing about the nave, though not discernible to the uninitiated, is that -the axis, which is continuous from the east end for the first five of -the seven bays, here diverges somewhat to the north, and so runs into -the centre of the Norman west front. The two western bays are five and -a quarter feet less in span than the others. Probably the architect, as -he brought the nave down westwards with that light-hearted disregard -of a previous style of architecture which characterised the medieval -builder and his predecessors of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, -intended to sweep away all the old Norman work at the west end and carry -the line straight on with equal-sized arches, but funds failed and he had -to join up the new with the old as best he could; and we have cause to be -thankful for this, since it has preserved for us the original and most -interesting work of Remigius. - -[Sidenote: THE TRANSEPTS] - -Before we leave our place beneath the tower, we must look at the two -great transepts. These have piers, triforium and clerestory similar to -those in the choir, and each has three chapels along the eastern wall; -these, from north to south, are dedicated to St. Nicholas, St. Denis, -St. Thomas; and in the south transept to St. Edward, St. John and St. -Giles. Of these, St. Edward’s is called the chanters’ chapel, and it -has four little figures of singers carved in stone, two on each side of -the door. This was fitted up for use and opened in August, 1913, for -a choristers’ chapel, the tombstone of Precentor Smith, 1717, being -introduced for an altar. Everybody is attracted by the rose windows. That -to the north has beneath it five lancet windows, something like those at -York, filled with white silvery glass, but the rose above has still its -original Early English stained glass, and is a notable example of the -work of the period. A central quatrefoil has four trefoils outside it and -sixteen circles round, all filled with tall bold figures and strongly -coloured. It is best seen from the triforium. Below is the dean’s door, -with a lancet window on either side, and over it a clock with a canopy, -given in 1324 by Thomas of Louth. This canopy was carried off by the -robber archdeacon, Dr. Bailey, and used as a pulpit-top in his church at -Messingham, but was restored by the aid of Bishop Trollope. - -The south transept, where Bishop John of Dalderby was buried, contains -what no one sees without a feeling of delight, and wonder that such -lovely work could ever have been executed in stone,—the great rose window -with its twin ovals and its leaf-like reticulations, which attract the -eye more than the medley of good old glass with which it is filled, -but which gives it a beautiful richness of effect. Below this are four -lancets with similar glass. - -[Sidenote: THE FONT] - -The aisles of the nave are vaulted, the groins springing from the nave -pillars on the inner, and from groups of five shafts on the outer side. -Behind these runs a beautiful wall arcade on detached shafts, continuous -in the north aisle, but only repeated in portions of the south aisle, -with bosses of foliage at the spring of the arches. In the aisle at the -second bay from the west is the grand old Norman font, resembling that -at Winchester. There is another at _Thornton Curtis_ in the north-east -of the county. Neither of the Lincolnshire specimens are so elaborately -carved as that at Winchester, which is filled with scenes from the life -of St. Nicholas, but all are of the same massive type, with dragons, -etc., carved on the sides of a great block of black basalt resting on a -round base of the same, with four detached corner pillars leading down -to a square black base. These early basalt fonts, of which Hampshire -has four, Lincolnshire two, the other being at Ipswich, Dean Kitchin -conclusively proved to have all come from Tournai, in Belgium, and to -date from the middle of the twelfth century, a time coinciding with the -episcopacy of Bishops Alexander and De Chesney at Lincoln, and Henry de -Blois at Winchester. The one at St. Mary Bourne is the biggest, and has -only clusters of grapes on it and doves. The other two are at East Meon -and at St. Michael’s, Southampton, and have monsters carved on them like -the Lincolnshire specimens. - -Of brasses, in which the cathedral before the Reformation was specially -rich, having two hundred, only one now remains, that of Bishop Russell, -1494, which is now in the cathedral library; but in a record made in -1641 by Sir W. Dugdale and Robert Sanderson, afterwards Bishop, is the -following most charming little inscription to John Marshall, Canon of the -cathedral, 1446, beneath the figure of a rose:— - - “Ut rosa pallescit ubi solem sentit abesse - Sic homo vanescit; nunc est, nunc desinit esse.” - -which may be Englished - - “As the rose loses colour not kissed by the sun, - So man fades and passes; now here, and now gone.” - -The ascent of the towers gives magnificent views; from the central tower -one may see “Boston Stump” on one hand, and on the other Newark spire. -The big bell, too, has its attractions, but the greatest curiosity is the -elastic stone beam, a very flat arch connecting the two western towers, -made of twenty-three stones with coarse mortar joints, which only rises -sixteen inches, and vibrates when jumped on. Its purpose is not clear, -possibly to gauge the settlement of the towers. The north end now is -thirteen inches lower than the south. A gallery in the thickness of the -wall between the great west window and the Cinquefoil above it, allows -a wonderful view of the whole length of the cathedral. It is called Sir -Joseph Banks’ view. - -[Sidenote: THE BISHOP’S PALACE] - -[Sidenote: THE CHANCERY] - -Within the Close, as we passed along looking at the cathedral, we had -our backs to the canons’ houses. First comes the precentory and the -sub-deanery near the Exchequer Gate, next the Cantilupe Chantry, with a -figure of the Saviour in a niche in the gable end, and a curious square -oriel window, and then the entrance to the Bishop’s palace opposite the -Galilee porch. The old palace, begun about 1150 or possibly earlier, -was a splendid building; the ruins of it are in the palace grounds. -Through a gateway or vaulted porch, where is now the secretary’s office, -you descend to the site of the magnificent hall, eighty-eight feet by -fifty-eight, built by St. Hugh, for, like Vicars Court, with its steep -flight of steps and its charming old houses, it is built on the slope of -the hill. Succeeding bishops added to the pile in which Henry VI. and -Henry VIII. were royally lodged and entertained, and the charges which -cost Queen Katharine Howard her life took their origin from her meetings -here and afterwards at Gainsborough with her relative Thomas Culpepper. -The palace was despoiled in the days of the Commonwealth, and little but -ruins now remain, but a part of it has been restored and utilised as a -chapel by the late Bishop King, perhaps the most universally beloved of -Lincoln’s many bishops. Buckden and Nettleham and Riseholme have supplied -a residence for successive bishops, and now the bishop is again lodged -close to his cathedral. But, in the grandiloquent language of a work -entitled ‘The Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet, containing a series -of elegant views of the most interesting objects of curiosity in Great -Britain, 1809,’ “The place where once the costly banquet stood arrayed -in all the ostentatious luxury of Ecclesiastic greatness has now its -mouldering walls covered with trees.” The same authority, speaking of -Thornton Abbey, has this precious reflection, which is too good to lose: -“Here in sweet retirement the mind may indulge in meditating upon the -instability of sublunary greatness, and contemplate, with secret emotion, -the wrecks of ostentatious grandeur.” The Chancery, built by Antony Bek, -1316, faces the east end of the minster yard; it is distinguished outside -by an entrance arch and an oriel window. Inside, there are some very -interesting old doorways, and a charming little chapel, with a wooden -screen of c. 1490, the time of Bishop Russell, and two embattled towers -on the old minster yard wall in the garden, of the early fourteenth -century. The deanery is a modern building on the north side of the -minster. - -[Illustration: _Pottergate, Lincoln._] - -It was in the chapter house, probably, that Edward I. held his great -Parliament in 1301, which secured the Confirmation of Magna Charta. -Edward II. and Edward III. also each held a parliament here, and since -their time certainly seven kings of England have visited Lincoln. - -[Sidenote: MINSTER OR CATHEDRAL?] - -The cathedral precincts of Lincoln are called the “Minster Yard,” and the -church is called the Minster, though Lincoln was a cathedral from the -first; the term Minster being only properly applied to the church of a -monastery, such as York, Canterbury, Peterborough, Ripon, and Southwell; -of these, Canterbury is not often called a Minster, but York is always. -Lincoln was never attached to a monastery. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -PAULINUS AND HUGH OF LINCOLN - - Pope Gregory and St. Augustine—Calumnies against the Jews—The - Three “St. Hugh’s.” - - -Perhaps here it may be well to say something of the life of Paulinus, the -first Christian missionary in Lincoln. And in doing so I must acknowledge -the debt I owe to Sir Henry Howorth’s most interesting book, “The Birth -of the English Church.” - -[Sidenote: PAULINUS BISHOP OF YORK] - -When Pope Gregory, having been struck by the sight of some fair-haired -Anglian boys being sold as slaves in the Roman Forum, had determined to -send a Mission to preach the Gospel in their land, he chose the prior of -his own monastery of St. Andrew’s, which was on the site where now stands -the church of San Gregorio on the Cælian Hill in Rome. The name of the -prior was Augustine. With his companion monks, he set out, apparently -in the spring of 596. They went from Ostia by sea to Gaul, but lingered -in that country for above a year, and landed on the Isle of Thanet in -April 597. He was well received by Æthelbert King of Kent and his wife -Bertha, daughter of Charibert King of Paris. She was a Christian, and had -brought her Christian chaplain with her. This made Augustine’s mission -comparatively easy. Quarters were given him in Canterbury, and he began -to build a monastery and was allowed to make use of the little church -dedicated to St. Martin, where the Queen’s chaplain had officiated. -Having then sent to the Pope for more missionaries, he received -instructions from Gregory to establish a Metropolitan See in London -and other Bishoprics in York and elsewhere. At the same time several -recruits were sent to him among whom Bede particularises Mellitus, -Justus, Paulinus, and Rufinianus. The first three became respectively -Bishops of London, Rochester, and York, and Rufinianus Abbot of St. -Augustine’s monastery at Canterbury. By the Pope’s command all these -bishops were to be subject to Augustine during his life, and he was to -be the Archbishop of Canterbury. Augustine died in the same year as St. -Gregory, A.D. 604. A few years later, about 616, Mellitus and Justus -both withdrew for a year to Gaul, but were recalled by King Eadbald, -Justus to Rochester and Mellitus to become Archbishop of Canterbury after -Laurence, a priest whom Augustine himself had selected to succeed him in -604, and who died in 619. To this post Justus succeeded in 624, and, as -Archbishop, consecrated Romanus to the See of Rochester. Shortly after -this Paulinus was consecrated Bishop of York by Justus in 625, and he -accompanied Æthelbert’s daughter Æthelberga to the Court of Ædwin King -of Deira, who ruled from the Forth to the Thames and who had sought her -hand, promising that she should be free to worship as she liked and that -if on inquiry he found her religion better than his own he would also -become a Christian. He discussed the matter with Paulinus, and after many -months’ delay summoned a Witenagemote and asked each counsellor what he -thought of the new teaching, which at present had no hold except in Kent. -Coifi, the Chief Priest of the old religion, was the first to speak; -he said he had not got any good from his own religion though none had -served the gods more faithfully—so if the new doctrine held out better -hopes he would advise the king to adopt it without further delay. Coifi -was followed by another of the king’s Ealdormen. His speech was a very -remarkable one, and is accurately rendered by the poet Wordsworth in his -Sonnet called _Persuasion_, which runs thus:— - - “Man’s life is like a sparrow, mighty King! - That—while at banquet with your Chiefs you sit - Housed near a blazing fire—is seen to flit - Safe from the wintry tempest. Fluttering, - Here did it enter; there, on hasty wing, - Flies out, and passes on from cold to cold; - But whence it came we know not, nor behold - Whither it goes. Even such that transient thing, - The human Soul; not utterly unknown - While in the Body lodged, her warm abode; - But from what world she came, what use or weal - On her departure waits, no tongue hath shown; - This mystery if the Stranger can reveal, - His be a welcome cordially bestowed!” - -[Sidenote: THE FIRST ENGLISH BISHOP] - -After this the king gave Paulinus permission to preach the Gospel -openly, and he himself renounced idolatry, and in April 627, with a -large number of his people, he was baptized at York in the little church -which was the first to be built on the site of York Minster. After this -Paulinus baptized in the river Swale, and later he came to the province -of “Lindissi,” and spent some time in Lincoln, converting Blaecca the -“Reeve” of the city, and baptizing in the presence of the king a great -number of people in the Trent either at Littleborough or Torksey. - -He appears to have spent some time in Lincoln, and to have come back to -it after 633, for early in 635 he consecrated Honorius the successor to -Justus, and fifth Archbishop of Canterbury. The ceremony taking place -probably in the little “church of stone” that he had built, possibly -where St. Paul’s Church now stands. It was probably thatched with reeds, -for eighty years later Bede speaks of it as being unroofed. If St. Paul’s -church really was originally the church of Paulinus, it helps to remove -the stigma that though Paulinus preached and baptised with effect, unlike -Wilfrith, he founded nothing. - -In 633 King Ædwin and both his sons were killed after a great battle -against Penda King of Mercia and Coedwalla King of the Britons, at -Haethfelth near Doncaster, and Christianity in Northumbria came to an -abrupt end; though, when Paulinus left, to escort the widowed queen back -to Kent, his faithful deacon James remained behind him, whose memorial we -probably have in the inscribed cross shaft with its unusual interlaced -pattern at Hawkswell near Catterick. To York Paulinus never returned; -but on the death of Romanus, who had been sent by Archbishop Justus on a -mission to the Pope but was drowned in the Bay of Genoa, he took charge -of the See of Rochester, and there he remained till his death on October -10, 644, after he had been Bishop at York for eight and at Rochester -for eleven years. Archbishop Honorius, who was consecrated just a year -before the death of a Pope of the same name, ordained Ithamar to succeed -Paulinus. He was a native of Kent and the first Englishman to be made -a bishop. After the death of Paulinus in 644, more than four centuries -passed before Remigius began to build the cathedral in 1075, which was -altered and amplified so remarkably about 100 years later by Hugh of -Lincoln. - - -HUGH OF LINCOLN - -[Sidenote: BISHOP HUGH OF LINCOLN] - -[Sidenote: CANONIZED] - -“Hugh of Lincoln” is a title which, like Cerberus in Sheridan’s play, -indicates “three gentlemen at once,” and it will perhaps prevent -confusion if I briefly distinguish the three. - -The first and greatest is the Burgundian, usually called from his -birthplace on the frontier of Savoy “Hugh of Avalon.” He went to a good -school in Grenoble, and, as a youth, joined the monastery of the Grande -Chartreuse, where he rose to be procurator or bursar. In 1175, at the -request of Henry II. who had, with difficulty, obtained the consent of -the Archbishop of Grenoble, he came to England to become the first prior -of the king’s new monastery at Witham in Somerset, the first Carthusian -house in England. In 1186, much against his will, he was, by the king’s -decree, elected Bishop of Lincoln, and took up his residence at Stow, -where he at once set to work to master the English tongue. His rule of -life was ascetic, and he made a practice of going every year in harvest -time to live as a simple monk at Witham. He was a strong man, with high -ideals, upright, unselfish and charitable, no believer in the miracles -of the day, and so free from prejudice that he always protected the -hated Jews, who wept sincere tears at his funeral. He was active in his -huge diocese, and was a maker of history, for, besides extending and -beautifying the cathedral of Remigius, he eventually became so powerful -that he joined the Archbishops in excommunicating their Sovereign, and in -1197 he successfully opposed King Richard I. and his “Justiciar,” who was -the great Archbishop _Hubert Walter_. Walter, when Bishop of Salisbury, -had accompanied Richard to the crusade, where he was the king’s chief -agent in negotiating with Saladin. He headed the first party of pilgrims -whom the Turks admitted to the Holy Sepulchre, led back the English host -from Palestine in the king’s absence to Sicily, whence he went to visit -Richard in captivity, and repaired to England to raise the £100,000 -demanded for his ransom. He was made by the king’s command Archbishop of -Canterbury, crowned the king a second time in 1194 at Winchester, and as -“Justiciar” had the task of finding means to supply Richard’s ceaseless -demands for money for his wars. Hence it was that he had summoned a -meeting of bishops and barons at Oxford on December 7, 1197, at which he -proposed that they should agree to the king’s latest demand and should -themselves furnish him with three hundred knights to serve for twelve -months against Philip of France, or give him money which would suffice -to obtain them. This was strenuously and successfully opposed by Hugh, -seconded by Herbert Bishop of Salisbury, and this action is spoken of by -Stubbs as a landmark of constitutional history, being “the first clear -case of the refusal of a money grant demanded by the Crown.” Hugh was in -France when Henry II. died, but returned in time for the coronation of -Richard I. He several times attended both Richard and John to Normandy, -and when Richard died he buried him at Fontevrault in 1199, where Henry -II. and his wife, Eleanora of Guienne, and John’s wife, Isabella of -Angoulême, are also buried. He was back in England for John’s coronation -on May 27, but, going again to visit the haunts of his boyhood at -Grenoble, he caught a fever and, after a long illness, died next year -in the London house of the Bishops of Lincoln, at the “Old Temple.” He -was buried in his own cathedral, November 24, 1200, in the north-east -transept, King John, who happened to be then in Lincoln, to receive -the homage of the Scottish king, taking part as bearer in the funeral -procession. Worship of him began at once, and was greatly augmented when -the Pope canonized him in 1220. In 1230, when Richard of Gravesend had -completed the angel choir, St. Hugh’s body was translated to it in the -presence of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor and their children. This was -ten years before Eleanor’s death at Harby, near Lincoln. The only thing -recorded against Bishop Hugh is that he should have, upon Henry’s death, -ordered the taking up of Fair Rosamond’s bones from Godstow Priory. - -The story of St. Hugh’s swan is curious but not incredible. Sir Charles -Anderson says: “It seems, from the minute description of the bill, to -have been a wild swan or whooper.” This swan was greatly attached to its -master, and constantly attended him when in residence at Stow Park, where -there was a good deal of water, and many wildfowl. It is said, also, that -on his last visit the bird showed signs of restlessness and distress. Sir -Charles sees no reason to withhold belief from the story, and instances -the case of a gander, within his own knowledge, which attached itself to -a farmer in the county, and used to accompany him daily for a mile and -a half, when he went to look after his cattle in the meadows, waddling -after him with the greatest diligence and satisfaction; and, whenever he -stopped, fondling his legs with neck and bill. - -The “Magna Vita S. Hugonis” in the Bodleian, written by Adam, Abbot of -Evesham soon after his death, is the chief source of our information -about him; and a metrical life, also, in Latin, is both in the Bodleian -and in the British Museum. - -[Sidenote: BISHOP HUGH OF WELLS] - -Nine years after St. Hugh’s death, Hugh the Second, or “Hugh of Wells,” -was appointed bishop. He carried out the plans of his namesake, and -completed the aisles and transepts and added the nave-chapels at the west -end with their circular windows. He added to the episcopal palace begun -by St. Hugh, and built that at _Buckden_—a fine brick building which -later became the sole palace. The Bishops of Lincoln had a visitation -palace at Lyddington, near Rockingham, in which a singularly beautiful -carved wood frieze ran all round the large room. In the “Metrical Life of -St. Hugh” we read that what St. Hugh planned, but left unfinished, Hugh -of Wells completed. - - “Perficietur opus primi sub Hugone secundo.” - -[Sidenote: LITTLE ST. HUGH] - -He died in 1235, and is buried in the north choir aisle. His extremely -harsh treatment of the Jews leads us to the curiously tragic events in -the life of the third Hugh, called the “Little St. Hugh.” He was born in -1246, and only lived nine years. That great man Grosteste, or Grostête, -had succeeded Hugh of Wells, and died after an active episcopate of -eighteen years, in 1254. His successor, Henry Lexington, had procured -leave to extend the cathedral close beyond the Roman city wall in order -to build the beautiful presbytery or angel choir for the shrine of Hugh -I. He was still engaged on this when the persecution which the Jews had -long endured produced such a bitter feeling that they were believed to -be capable of kidnapping and crucifying, or by less conspicuous methods, -putting to death a Christian boy when they had a chance. Hugh was said -to be a chorister who disappeared, and his mother, led by a dream, -discovered his body in a well outside the Newport Gate. A Jew called -Jopin, or Chopin, but in a French ballad Peitevin, was accused of his -murder, and is said to have confessed and to have been put to death with -others of his nation with no small barbarity. He has left his memory at -Lincoln in the name of “The Jews’ House,” which is given to the Norman -building on the steep hill. This story was not uncommon, and told with -much detail, as having really happened, in several places; nor is the -belief in it yet dead. The boy’s body was given to the canons of the -cathedral, who buried him with much solemnity in the south aisle of the -choir, and set a small shrine over him, to which folk came to worship, -and he received the title of “the Little St. Hugh.” - -[Illustration: _St. Mary’s Guild, Lincoln._] - -[Sidenote: THE JEWS] - -This story is referred to by Chaucer, who wrote a hundred years later in -“The Prioress’ Tale”:— - - “O younge Hew of Lincoln sleyn also - With cursed Jewes, as it is notable, - For it nis but a litel whyle ago.” - -His story makes the murdered boy reveal himself by singing “O alma -Redemptoris Mater” “loude and clere,” although, as he says— - - “My throte is cut unto my nekke-bon.” - -and he does not stop singing till a ‘greyn’ is taken from his tongue by -the abbot - - “and he yaf up the goost ful softely.” - -Marlowe has a similar story in his “Jew of Malta,” and ballads constantly -were made on this theme. Sir Charles Anderson quotes one beginning:— - - “The bonny boys of merry Lincoln - Were playing at the ball, - And with them stood the sweet Sir Hugh, - The flower of them all. - Whom cursed Jews did crucify,” &c. - -He was buried, in 1255, next to Bishop Grosteste, who had died two years -before. - -The persistence of this medieval accusation against the Jews is -singularly illustrated by a case which is reported in the papers of -October 9, 1913, headed “Ritual Murder Trial.” The trial is at Kieff in -Russia, of a perfectly innocent man called Beiliss, who has been more -than two years in prison without knowing the reason, and is charged with -the murder of a Christian boy called Yushinsky “to obtain blood for -Jewish sacrificial rites.” _The Times_ says that ritual murder is not -now mentioned in the indictment. But that so monstrous a charge should -be even hinted at shows how deeply these old malignant calumnies sank -into the medieval mind, and how prone to superstition and how ready to -believe evil we are even in the twentieth century of the Christian era. -The whole idea is on a par with the abominable cruelties of the days -when defenceless old women were burnt as witches, and is a cruel and -absolutely baseless calumny on a long-suffering and law-abiding people, -and yet there are plenty of people to-day in Russia who firmly believe in -it. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -LINCOLN.—THE CITY - - The City—The Corporation—The City Swords—Tennyson’s Centenary - and Statue—Queen Eleanor’s Cross—Brayford Pool—Afternoon Tea. - - -[Sidenote: THE MINSTER YARD] - -The rate at which the soil of inhabited places rises from the various -layers of debris which accumulate on the surface is well shown at -Lincoln. In Egypt, where houses are built of mud, every few years an -old building falls and the material is trodden down and a new erection -made upon it. Hence the entrance to the temple at Esneh from the present -outside floor level, is up among the capitals of the tall pillars; and, -the temple being cleaned out, the floor of it and the bases of its -columns were found to be nearly thirty feet below ground. Stone-built -houses last much longer, but when a fire or demolition after a siege -has taken place three or four times, a good deal of rubbish is left -spread over the surface and it accumulates with the ages. Hence, in -Roman Lincoln or “Lindum Colonia” pavements may be found whenever the -soil is moved, at a depth of seven or eight feet at least, and often -more. Thus the Roman West Gate came to light in 1836, after centuries of -complete burial, but soon crumbled away; and the whole of the hill top -where Britons, Romans, Danes, and Normans successively dwelt, is full of -remains which can only on rare occasions ever have a chance of seeing the -light. Still there is much for us to see above ground, so we may as well -take a walk through the city, beginning at the top of the hill. Here, as -you leave the west end of the cathedral and pass through the “Exchequer -Gate” with its one large and two small arches, under the latter of which -may be seen entrances to the little shopstalls where relics, rosaries, -etc., were once sold, you pass along the flat south wall of St. Mary -Magdalen’s Church, beyond which the outer Exchequer Gate stood till -1800. The wall in which this and other gates of the cathedral close were -inserted was built in the thirteenth or early fourteenth century, to -protect the close and the canons. The gateways were all double, except -the “Potter Gate,” which is the only other one now extant. It is said -that the Romans had a pottery near it; at present the road to the Minster -Yard goes both through it and round one side of it. - -[Illustration: _The Pottergate, Lincoln._] - -[Sidenote: THE CASTLE] - -Passing from the Exchequer Gate you see a very pretty sixteenth century -timbered house, with projecting story, at the corner of _Bailgate_, now -used as a bank. Hard by on your right is the White Hart inn, and on your -left you have a peep down _Steep Street_ to the _House of Aaron the Jew_, -a money lender of the reign of Henry II. Near this was once the South -Gate of the Roman city, and some of the stones are still visible in the -pavement. The gate was destroyed in 1775. Looking straight ahead from -the Exchequer Gate you see the east gateway of the castle, a Norman arch -with later semi-circular turrets corbelled out on either side of it. -Inside is a fine oriel window, brought from John of Gaunt’s house below -the hill. The enclosure is an irregular square of old British earthworks, -seven acres in extent. The west gate is walled up and the Assize Court -within the castle enclosure is near it. In the angles on either side of -the east gate are two towers in the curtain wall, one, “the observatory -tower,” crowns an ancient mound, and on the south side is a larger mound, -forty feet high, on which is the keep, a very good specimen of very early -work, in shape an irregular polygon. The castle was one of the eight -founded by the Conqueror himself, apparently never so massive a building -as his castle, which is now being excavated at _Old Sarum_, the walls of -which, built of the flints of the locality, are twelve feet thick and -faced with stone. At Lincoln the Roman walls were ten to twelve feet -thick and twenty feet high. Massive fragments of this wall still exist in -different places, the biggest being near the Newport Arch. Near here too -is “The Mint Wall,” seventy feet long by thirty feet high, and three and -a half feet thick, which probably formed the north wall of the Basilica. -Most of the fighting in Lincoln used to take place around this spot, -as Stephen felt to his cost. The old West Gate of the Roman city was -found just to the north of the castle west gate. The line which joined -the Roman East and West Gates ran straight then, and crossed the Ermine -Street, now called here the Bailgate, near the church of St. Paulinus, -but the result of some destructive assaults must have so filled the road -that the street now called ‘East Gate’ was deflected from its course -southwards and has to make a sharp bend to get back to its proper line. - -[Illustration: _The Jew’s House, Lincoln._] - -[Illustration: _Remains of the Whitefriars’ Priory, Lincoln._] - -[Sidenote: THE JEW’S HOUSE] - -[Sidenote: THE FRIARS] - -[Sidenote: ST. MARY’S GUILD] - -Getting back to the ‘Bail,’ or open space between the castle gate and the -Exchequer Gate, we can go down that bit of the old Ermine Street called -“Steep Street” (and I don’t think any street can better deserve its name) -and come into the High Street of Lincoln. If we go right down this, we -shall see all that is of most interest in the town below the hill. First -is the “Jew’s House” where the murderer of Little St. Hugh is said to -have lived, a most interesting specimen of Norman domestic architecture, -and more ornate than that at Boothby-Pagnell of a similar date. The -house has a round-headed doorway, with a chimney-breast starting -from above the doorway arch, and showing that the upper floor had a -fireplace. On either side the door now are modern shop windows. Between -the stringcourses are two double light windows, with a plain tympanum -under a round arch. Belaset of Wallingford, a Jewess, lived here in the -reign of Edward I. She was hanged for clipping coin in 1290, the year of -the Jews’ Expulsion. At the bottom of the street, No. 333, is another -charming old structure called “White Friars’ House” with a projecting -timbered front, and a passage round one end like that at the old “God -begot” house at Winchester. All Friars, whether White (Carmelite), Black -(Dominican), Grey (Franciscan), or Black and White (Augustinian), were to -be found in Lincoln as well as at Stamford, and, with the exception of -the Dominicans, at Boston too. One more bit of old domestic building is -the hall of St. Mary’s Guild, commonly called John o’ Gaunt’s Stables. -Here you may see a combination of the round and the pointed arch, which -dates it as late Norman. The house is longer than the other two, and the -upper story mostly gone, but in Parker’s “Domestic Architecture” it is -spoken of as “probably the most valuable and extensive range of buildings -of the twelfth century that we have remaining in England.” The house -within has round-headed windows with a mid-wall shaft, and a fireplace. -The house just opposite was the palace built by John of Gaunt for -Katharine Swynford; from which the oriel window inside the castle gateway -was taken. These old Norman houses are all small. The really magnificent -building which was once the boast of Lincoln was a thousand years earlier -than these; this was the Roman Basilica, or Hall of Judgment, near -Bailgate, perhaps, the baths at the town of Bath alone excepted, the -finest Roman building in England. Figure to yourself a building 250 feet -long by seventy feet wide, with a triangular pediment rising from a row -of pillars thirty feet high, something like what we still see at Milan. -Alas! that only the pillar bases of this fine hall have been found. The -pillars ran along the west side of Bailgate facing east. - -[Illustration: _St. Mary’s Guild and St. Peter’s at Gowts, Lincoln._] - -[Sidenote: SAXON TOWERS] - -[Sidenote: ST. BENEDICT’S] - -As we pass down the High Street we shall see on our left the Saxon towers -of St. Mary le Wigford and of “St. Peters at Gowts.” The “gowts” or -sluices were the two watercourses for taking the waters of the “Meres” -into the Witham, originally there were small bridges on either side over -each, with a ford between them for carts. These towers are tall and -without buttresses, having the Saxon long and short work and the upper -two-light window with the mid-wall jamb, and only small and irregularly -placed lights below. They are in style much what you see in Italy, -though the Italian are higher, but certainly none in England are so -uncompromisingly plain as the towers at Ravenna and Bologna. St. Andrews -in Scotland comes nearest, and bears a really extraordinary likeness to -that of St. John the Evangelist at Ravenna. Near St. Mary le Wigford is -the picturesque little remnant of a beautiful but disused church, called -St. Benedict’s; only the ivy-clad chancel, a side chapel and the recent -low tower are left, a very picturesque and peaceful object in the busy -town. Its original tower held a beautifully decorated bell, called “Old -Kate,” the gift of the Surgeon Barbers in 1585, it used to ring at 6 a.m. -and 7 p.m., to mark the beginning and end of the day’s labour. It now -hangs in the tower of St. Mark’s. - -The name of ‘le Wigford,’ Wickford or Wickenford, indicates the suburb -south of the river. In the days when kings used to wear their crowns, an -uneasy belief in the old saying— - - “The crownéd head that enters Lincoln walls, - His reign is stormy and his Kingdom falls,” - -made the monarch take it off on passing from Wickford to the city, -and certainly of all the kings who were crowned in the cathedral none -wore the crown outside except Stephen, and he, as we have seen, soon -had cause to repent it. It has been supposed that both these early -Lincoln churches were built by a Danish citizen called “Coleswegen,” -who is mentioned in Domesday Book as having thirty-six houses and two -churches outside the city. But though Lincoln has not lost nearly so -many churches and religious houses as Winchester has, yet, where she now -has a dozen she once had fifty, so it must be extremely doubtful whether -these two old ones that remain were those of Coleswegen. St. Mary’s now -has a Perpendicular parapet, and, besides the curious tower arch, some -interesting Early English work, and both churches have some good modern -ironwork in pulpit, screen and rails from the Brant Broughton forge. - -[Illustration: _St. Benedict’s Church, Lincoln._] - -[Illustration: _St. Mary-le-Wigford, Lincoln._] - -[Sidenote: THE “CONDUIT”] - -[Sidenote: THE BRIDGE AND THE STONEBOW] - -The woodwork in St. Peter’s was done by the parish clerk, a pleasant -feature not nearly so common now as it used to be. At the road side, -and close to the churchyard rails of St. Mary’s, is a handsome carved -drinking fountain, here called a “conduit,” partly made of stones from -the demolished Whitefriars monastery founded 1269. Leland speaks of it -as new in 1540, and it was repaired in 1672. The Grey Friars conduit and -the High bridge conduit are supplied from the same chalybeate spring, -which once sufficed to turn the mill at the monks’ house, now standing in -ruins a mile to the east of the city. This was one of the good deeds of -the Franciscans, to bring good drinking water within reach of the poor. -A similar system of “conduits” also due to them, existed at Grantham. -A serious epidemic, traced to the drinking water, which broke out in -Lincoln a few years ago, caused the town to go to great expense in laying -on a new supply which comes twenty miles in iron pipes from Elkesley, -Notts, between Retford and Clumber, and crosses the Trent at Dunham on a -little bridge of its own. - -The “High bridge” marks the spot where the Ermine Street forded the -Witham. It is the only bridge left in England out of many which still -carries houses on it. The ribbed arch is a very old one, twenty-two feet -wide. The houses are now only on one side, they are quaintly timbered, -and their backs, seen from below by the waterside, are very picturesque. -On the other side is an obelisk, set up 150 years ago, to mark the site -of a bridge chapel dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury. From here you -get the most magnificent view that any town can boast, as you look up the -steep street to the splendid pile which crowns the height, and see the -cathedral in all its beauty. - -The length of the High Street is relieved by the “Stonebow.” There was -always a gate here from Roman times onward, for when the Roman town was -extended southward to a good deal more than twice its original size, -it was here that the new wall crossed the Ermine Street. The road had -crossed the swampy ground and forded the river, and was now about to -enter the city and climb the hill. The mediæval gate which succeeded the -Roman ‘porta’ was removed in the fourteenth century, and the present one -dates from the sixteenth, and was repaired in 1887, at Queen Victoria’s -Jubilee. It has one central and two side arches, with slender towers -between, carried up to a battlemented parapet. On the east tower is a -tall figure of the Archangel Gabriel, and in a niche on the other tower -the Virgin Mary. The patroness of the city and cathedral is represented -treading on a dragon. A long room above the arch with timbered roof is -used as a Guildhall; in it are portraits of Queen Anne and Thomas Sutton -of Knaith, founder of the Charterhouse. The corporation, to whom they -belong, has had a long and distinguished existence, for municipal life in -Lincoln began in Roman times; and when they left, and Saxons, Danes or -Normans ruled, and the counties and towns had to adopt new names under -each successive conqueror, Lincoln retained throughout her Roman name -and her right of self-government. The corporation, besides their fine -Restoration mace, have three civic swords, one apparently made up out of -two, but said to have been presented by Richard II. when he visited the -city in 1386, to be carried point uppermost, except in presence of the -sovereign. - -[Illustration: _The Stonebow, Lincoln._] - -[Sidenote: THE CIVIC SWORDS] - -[Sidenote: THE “FOX”] - -The facts about the swords are these: the Charles I. sword, supposed to -have been presented to the city at the beginning of the Civil War, in -1642, has been mutilated to supply a new blade to the Richard II. sword. -This was done by order of the mayor in 1734. The blade has on it the orb -and cross mark and also the running wolf—a fourteenth century German -mark—but so common was it on the foreign blades used in England in the -sixteenth century that, the figure being taken for a fox—as wolves were -not then common in England—the term “Fox” was transformed to the sword; -hence in Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” act iv., scene 4, we have Pistol saying -to his French prisoner on the field of battle:— - - “O Signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox.” - -and in one of Webster’s plays we have— - - “Of what a blade is’t? - A Toledo or an English fox?” - -The two finest churches in Lincoln were at one time St. Swithun’s and -St. Botolph’s. The former was burnt down, but, after a century, was -rebuilt badly, but has now been restored by the munificence of Messrs. -Clayton and Shuttleworth to its former grandeur, and has a really fine -tower and spire, designed by Fowler, of Louth. St. Botolph’s, near the -south “Bargate,” had to endure a similar period of decay, but was at last -resuscitated, the south aisle being the last gift to the town of Bishop -Christopher Wordsworth. - -Lincoln’s last new building, the Carnegie Library, designed by Mr. -Reginald Blomfield, stands in St. Swithun’s Square. It was opened on -February 24th, 1914. - -[Illustration: _Old Inland Revenue Office, Lincoln._] - -Two other houses are interesting because of their inmates in the -eighteenth century; one the old Jacobean mansion of the Bromheads of -Thurlby, whose descendant, Captain Gonville Bromhead, won with Lieutenant -Chard undying fame by the defence of Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu War, 1879. -The other is a house called Deloraine House, in which once lived George -Tennyson, grandfather of the poet; and we cannot quit Lincoln without -going to see the fine bronze statue of the poet by G. F. Watts, which -stands in the close at the east end of the cathedral. - -[Sidenote: THE TENNYSON STATUE] - -[Sidenote: THE POET’S WOLFHOUND] - -In the autumn of 1909 the centenary of the poet’s birth was celebrated at -Lincoln. Dean Wickham preached an eloquent sermon to a large congregation -in the cathedral nave, after which, the choir, leaving the cathedral, -grouped themselves round the statue and sang “Crossing the Bar,” and -Bishop King gave a short and memorable address. In the evening the -writer read a paper on Tennyson to an intently listening audience of -twelve hundred people, which is now published by Routledge & Co., in -a little book called “Introductions to the Poets, by W. F. Rawnsley.” -Lincoln that day showed how fully she appreciated the great Lincolnshire -poet. The statue, a colossal one, represents him looking at a flower, -as described in his poem, “Flower in the crannied wall,” and his grand -wolf-hound is looking up into his face. This hound was a Russian, whose -grandfather had belonged to the Czar Alexander II., he who freed the -serfs in 1861, and was so basely assassinated twenty years later. The -wolf-hound was a very handsome light brindle, with a curious black -patch near the collar. She had a litter of thirteen, and one of these -with the mother, “Lufra,” was given to the writer when living at Park -Hill, Lyndhurst, in the New Forest. The puppy, “Cossack,” was Mrs. -Rawnsley’s constant companion till he died of old age in his sleep; the -mother went to Farringford to replace an old favourite that Tennyson had -lately lost. Her new owner changed her name to Karenina, and she was his -constant companion to the end. Once again, if not twice, she had a litter -of thirteen, and the cares of her large family not unnaturally were at -times too much for her temper. She is now immortalised with her master -in bronze, executed with loving care by his own old friend and quondam -neighbour in the Isle of Wight. The inscription at the back of the -pedestal is: “Alfred Lord Tennyson, born 1809, died 1892”; and below it -is “George Frederick Watts, born 1817, died 1904.” - -[Illustration: _James Street, Lincoln_] - -Another monument which once adorned Lincoln was the first and one of the -very best in the list of Queen Eleanor’s crosses, designed by the famous -“Richard of Stowe,” who carved the figures in the angel choir. Only a -fragment of this survived what Precentor Venables calls “the fierce -religious storm of 1645.” Before starting on its long funeral procession -to Westminster, the Queen’s body was embalmed by the Gilbertine nuns of -St. Catherine’s Priory, close to which, at the junction of the Ermine -Street and Foss Way, the cross was set up, near the leper hospital of -Remigius, called the Malandery (Fr. Maladerie) hospital. - -[Sidenote: THE “STUFF BALL”] - -Two railway stations and the many large iron and agricultural implement -works, which have given Lincoln a name all over the world, occupy the -lower part of the town, with buildings more useful than beautiful; for -this industry has taken the place of the woollen factories which were -once the mainstay of Lincoln. But a tall building with small windows, -known as “The Old Factory,” still indicates the place in which the -“Lincoln Stuff” was made, from which the Lincoln “Stuff Ball” took its -name. In order to increase the production and popularise the wear of -woollen material for ladies’ dresses, it was arranged to have balls -at which no lady should be admitted who did not wear a dress of the -Lincolnshire stuff. The first of these was held at the Windmill Inn, -Alford, in 1785. The colour selected was orange; but, the room not being -large enough for the number of dancers, in 1789 it was moved to Lincoln, -where it has been held ever since, the lady patroness choosing the colour -each year. In 1803 the wearing of this hot material was commuted to an -obligation to take so many yards of the stuff. The manufacture has long -ago come to an end, but the “Stuff Ball” survives, and the colours are -still selected. - -The swamps of the Wigford suburb have also disappeared, but _Brayford -Pool_, beloved of artists, where the Foss Dyke joins the Witham, still -makes a beautiful picture with the boats and barges and swans in front -below, and the Minster towers looking down into it from above. This Foss -Dyke was a Crown property, until James I., finding it to be nothing -but an expense, with economic liberality presented it to the mayor and -corporation. - -[Illustration: _Thorngate, Lincoln._] - -[Sidenote: THE “GREY FRIARS”] - -The river was always outside of the Roman town, for the south wall, -running east and west from the Stonebow, where are now Guildhall Street -and Saltergate, turned up by Broadgate Street, and here, just inside its -south-east angle, is now the interesting “Grey Friars,” a thirteenth -century building consisting of a vaulted undercroft and long upper room, -now used as a museum. - -[Sidenote: AFTERNOON TEA] - -I have no Lincoln notes of the eighteenth century of any special -interest, but from this little extract it looks as if the institution of -afternoon tea had been anticipated by a hundred years in Lincoln. The -extract is from “A Sketch wrote Aug. 4, 1762, at Lincoln,” and deals with -housekeeping expenses. The entries are:— - - “Three guineas a year for tea £3 3 0 - “Loave sugar 3 0 0 - “Tea, a quarter of an ounce each morning. - “Sugar, half of a quarter of a pound each morning. - “Also an allowance for sometimes in the afternoon.” - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -ROADS FROM LINCOLN, WEST AND EAST.—MARTON, STOW, COTES-BY-STOW, SNARFORD, -AND BUSLINGTHORPE - - West—The Foss-Dyke—Marton—Stow—Cotes-by-Stow. - East—Fiskerton—Barlings Abbey—Gautby—Baumber—Snelland—Snarford - and the St. Poll Tombs—Buslingthorpe—Early Brass—Linwood. - - -[Sidenote: PASSAGES OF THE TRENT] - -Of the eight roads from Lincoln one goes west, and, passing over the Foss -Dyke by a swing bridge at Saxilby, crosses the Trent between Newton and -Dunham into Nottinghamshire. The view of Lincoln Minster from Saxilby, -with the sails of the barges in the foreground as they slowly make their -way to the wharves at the foot of the hill, is most picturesque. Saxilby -preserves some interesting churchwarden’s accounts from 1551 to 1569, -and, after a gap of fifty-five years, from 1624 to 1790. The “Foss Dyke” -is a canal made by the Romans to connect the Witham with the Trent and -deepened by Henry I. The road runs alongside of it from Saxilby for two -miles. Consequently we get glimpses now and again of the low round-nosed -barges with widespread canvas sailing slowly past trees and hedgerows; -then we turn north and pass by Kettlethorpe Lodge and Fenton village, -through lanes lined with oak trees or edged with gorse, and amidst fields -brilliant with corn-marigold, and poppy, till we come, all at once, on -a little fleet of barges waiting with their picturesque unfurled sails -for a passage through the lock near Torksey, a place of some importance -in Saxon times, having two monastic houses. Two miles beyond Torksey is -_Marton_. This place is also approached by the old Roman road, now called -“Till bridge Lane,” which branched off from the Ermine Street ten miles -above Lincoln, and went to Doncaster and York, crossing both arms of -the river Till near _Thorpe-in-the-fallows_. One mile from Marton this -road passes out of the county at Littleborough ferry, the “Segelocum” of -the Romans. The ferry is the main means of crossing the Trent where it -touches Lincolnshire, as there are but two bridges in twenty miles, one -at Gainsborough, and one between Dunham and _Newton-on-Trent_, where the -view from the cliff with the bridge below is very picturesque. - -[Illustration: _Lincoln from the Witham._] - -There is a ferry at Laneham, between Newton and Torksey; and below -Gainsborough are half a dozen, at _Stockwith_, _Ouston_, _Althorpe_, -_Keadby_, where a bridge is now being built, _Flixborough_, and _Burton -Stather_, but the latter only takes foot passengers, and the others are -all, I believe, of the same calibre. It is just the same on the Ouse, -across which Yokefleet and Ousefleet look at each other about a mile -apart, but to drive from one to the other is a matter of more than thirty -miles. - -[Sidenote: MARTON] - -[Sidenote: HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE] - -_Marton_ is a tiny place, but has a very interesting church, with -unbuttressed tower and heavily embattled parapet to both nave and -chancel. The tower up to the upper stringcourse is entirely built in -Norman “Herringbone” work, this is now plastered over outside, but you -can trace the herring-bone through the plaster, and inside the tower it -is plain to see, and shows courses of thin stone laid horizontally at -frequent intervals. Above the stringcourse is the usual two light window -with mid-wall jamb, which, like the Long-and-Short work at the angles -of the tower, we generally describe as Saxon. Several Saxon stones with -interlaced work, parts of a cross probably, are built into the west end -of the south aisle at about two feet from the ground outside. I always -want to see these very old stones inside, for their better preservation. -Above the present nave roof, but below the mark of the earlier and -high-pitched roof, is a door which once opened from the tower into the -church. The chancel arch is Norman, as are the two lofty bays of the -north arcade. The rest of the church is Early English. In the chancel -south wall is a large niche with a pedestal, evidently intended for a -figure, perhaps of St. Margaret, the patron saint, and there is also a -low-side window of one light with a two-light window above it. But the -most interesting thing in the chancel is a little stone, nine inches by -eleven, now in the north wall, which was lately found in part of the wall -where it had been used as building material; this has on it a very early -attenuated figure of the crucified Saviour, clothed in long drapery. It -might have been part of a cross-head; certainly it is a very remarkable -figure, and of very early date. There is a tall cross-shaft and pedestal, -now in the churchyard, but this is said to have been a market cross -originally. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings were -called in to do the work of repairing and, as usual, their work has been -done in an inexpensive manner and on conservative lines. They found that -the foundation of the old walls, only two feet below the surface, was -just a trench filled with loose pebbles and sand. Three miles to the east -of Marton stands the church which, next to the Minster, we may put at the -head of the list of all the churches in the county. This is what Murray -rightly speaks of as “The venerable church of St. Mary at Stow, the -mother church of the great Minster.” - -[Sidenote: STOW] - -_Stow_ is thought to be identical with the Roman _Sidnacester_, and the -first church was built there in 678 by the Saxon King Egfrith, husband -of Etheldred, the foundress of Ely, at the time when Wilfrid’s huge -Northumbrian diocese was divided. From 627, when Paulinus, Bishop of -York, preached at Lincoln, baptized in the Trent and built the first -stone church in Lincolnshire, to 656, the province of Lindisse, or -Lindsey, was under the Bishop of York. From 656 to 678 it was under the -Bishops of Mercia, whose “Bishop-stool” was at Repton, and after 669 at -Lichfield. In 678 King Egfrith of Northumbria established the diocese -of Lindsey, with Eadred as first bishop, with its “Bishop-stool,” and a -church of stone built for the See at Sidnacester or Stow. This lasted -for 192 years; then, in 870, the Danes overran Mercia and burnt Stow -church and murdered Bishop Berktred. Then from 876, when England was -divided between Edmund Ironside and Canute, Lincoln became an important -Danish borough. This period is marked by the number of streets in Lincoln -called ‘gates,’ and by the enormous number of villages in the county -ending in the Danish ‘by,’ which we find side by side with the Saxon -terminations ‘ton’ and ‘ham.’ The Danes held Lincoln certainly till 940, -during which time the province had no bishop. In 958 Lindsey was united -with Leicester, and the “Bishop-stool” was fixed at Dorchester-on-Thames -till, in 1072, it was transferred to Lincoln, and the province of Lindsey -became part of the diocese of Lincoln under Remigius, the first Bishop -of Lincoln. _Stow_ being burnt in 870, remained in ruins till about -1040, when Eadnoth, seventh Bishop of Dorchester, rebuilt it, using the -materials of the older church as far as they would go, as may be seen -in the lower part of the transept walls. He probably built the massive -round-headed tower arches. Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and his wife, Godiva, -helped liberally both with the building and the endowment. The Early -Norman nave, and the upper parts of the transepts are probably the -work of Bishop Remigius (1067-1093) who, we are told, “re-edified the -Minster at Stow.” The chancel is late Norman, of the best kind, and, -together with the rich doorways in the nave, may be assigned to Bishop -Alexander (1123-1147) whose great west doorway at Lincoln is of similar -workmanship. A few Early English windows, and the Perpendicular central -tower, are all that has been added later, so that the church is of the -eleventh and twelfth centuries. The tower rests on pointed arches, whose -piers come down inside the angles formed by the old Norman arches, which -remain, and are visible below and outside the pointed arches, and give -the very remarkable appearance of double arches supporting the central -tower. - -[Sidenote: COTES BY STOW] - -A curious loop-moulding goes round the western Norman arch, and is used -also on a window in the south transept, and a similar moulding is found -at _Coleby_. The chancel is surrounded by an arcade, and a stone seat -runs all round. In restoring the church in 1864 Mr. Pearson left part -of the north-west pier of the tower untouched, in order to show the red -traces of the fire of 870, and in the north transept a mass of burnt -stone is visible behind the organ. This is close to a fine and very -early doorway which opens into the north aisle from the west side of -the transept, while on the opposite side, in an altar recess, remains, -fast fading, are seen of a fresco depicting scenes from the life of -St. Thomas à Becket. The steep rood-loft steps start four feet above -the pavement from the angle of the north-east pier close by. The stone -groining of the chancel has been renewed on the old pattern obtained from -several of the old stones which were found built into the walls; and in -underpinning the walls in order to replace the groining, the bases of -pillars were discovered, showing that a previous chancel with aisles had -been either built or else begun and abandoned. The small windows and -lack of buttresses give the outside a plain appearance, but the three -Norman doorways are rich, and there is a great majesty about the Norman -work of the spacious and lofty interior. The font, a very early one, is -octagonal, and rests on eight circular shafts. It was late in the evening -when we left this wonderful church, but we had only two miles to go to -see the beautiful old rood screen at _Cotes-by-Stow_, which is half way -between _Stow_ and the Ermine Street. It is approached by a field road, -and stands at the entrance to a farm, but the little chapel, built of -small, rough stones, is so shut in by trees that the top of its double -bell-turret is the only part of it visible. Inside is a round tub font, -with a square base, some old oak benches, four on one side and three on -the other; and, what no one would expect in such a tiny remote chapel, -the most beautiful of old Perpendicular rood screens, with exquisite -carving, and with the overhang complete. Moreover, the gallery is still -approachable by the ancient rood loft staircase. The loft is about three -feet wide, and there is a tiny pair of keyhole windows, each about ten -inches by two, set close together, in the south wall to light it. Of -ordinary windows the whole south side has but two, though there are four -of different sizes with old leaded panes on the north side. The doorway -is Early English. The building was restored in an excellent manner in -1884 by Mr. J. L. Pearson, who put back the original altar slab with its -unusual number of six crosses. - -[Illustration: _Stow Church._] - -We recrossed the field, and passing between _Ingham_ and _Cammeringham_, -climbed the hill, and, getting on to the ridge, turned to the right for -Lincoln, distant about eight miles. As we went along we looked down on -_Brattleby_ and _Aisthorpe_, on _Scampton_ and the _Carltons_, and passed -through _Burton_ to the minster city. - -The mists were rising in the flat country westwards, and the ripening -corn gave a colour to the fields below us, and, as the sun set at the -edge of the horizon, it seemed to us that it would be extremely difficult -to find any road in England more striking, or from which so fine a view -could be seen for so many miles on end. - -[Sidenote: FISKERTON] - -Of the three eastern roads one goes by _Greetwell_ and _Fiskerton_ to -_Gautby_ and _Baumber_. _Cherry Willingham_ lies just to the north where, -till 1820, the vicarage was a small thatched house at the end of the -village. - -_Fiskerton_ was given by Edward the Confessor to Peterborough, and the -gift still holds. The charter was copied by Symon Gunton in his famous -history of Peterborough, of which he was prebendary from 1646 to 1676, -and at the same time rector of Fiskerton, where Dean Kipling was also -rector in 1806. Only a few years ago what is either the original charter -of the Confessor or an early copy was discovered in the cathedral -library. The unique chronicle of the abbey and monastery called -‘Swapham,’ and written in MS., was saved from Cromwell’s soldiers who -were burning all the books, etc., by Gunton’s son, who tucked it under -his arm, saying that it was exempt from destruction being a Bible, as any -fool could see. That, too, is now one of the treasures of the cathedral -library. The Fiskerton Register is one of the earliest, beginning in -1559. In that book is the following entry for 1826:— - -“The driest summer known for the last 20 years. Conduit water taken from -Lincoln to Boston. No rain from April Fair 20th to the 26th of June. -The river was deepened this summer, packet went to Boston by the drain; -prayers for rain during Hay harvest.” - -_Barlings Abbey_ lies three miles to the north-east, across Fiskerton -Moor. It was founded in 1054 for Premonstratensian canons by Ralph de -Hoya, and a grand tower, 180 feet high, was still standing in 1710. -Half-way to Gautby we reach _Stainfield_, founded by Henry Percy at about -the same time for Benedictine nuns. - -At _Gautby_ was once a hall belonging to the Vyner family, and in the -church are monuments dated 1672 and 1673. Here, too, is a slab in memory -of F. G. Vyner, who was one of the party so infamously murdered by Greek -brigands in 1870. - -From here _Baumber_ is quickly reached. This church, whose massive tower -base is Norman, is the burial place of the Duke of Newcastle’s family. -Here, too, an old hall once stood, close by, in Sturton Park, just below -a spur of the South Wold. - -[Sidenote: THE SNELLAND SHREW] - -From Baumber, going four miles south, we reach Horncastle. The -main eastern road from Lincoln to Wragby is described later in the -Louth-to-Lincoln route. It is the Roman road to Horncastle. At the -seventh milestone, shortly after passing Sudbrooke Holme, the house of -Mr. C. Sibthorpe, where the garden is one of the most beautifully kept -and tastefully planted of any garden in the county, the road divides to -the left for Market Rasen, by _Snelland_, _Wickenby_, _Lissington_, and -_Linwood_; and to the right for Wragby, where it again divides for Louth -on the left, and on the right for Baumber and Horncastle. The third of -the roads takes a north-easterly direction by Dunholme to Market Rasen. -All this route between Nettleham and Linwood lies in the flat strip of -country some eight miles wide, which runs up from the Fens to the Humber, -narrowing in width after reaching Brigg, from whence it is drained by -the river Ancholme and the Wear dyke, which discharge into the Humber -opposite Read’s Island, between South Ferriby and Winteringham. Half way -across this flat-land, on the way to Market Rasen, and two miles to the -left of the Wragby road, is _Snelland_. This place is called in Domesday -Book Esnelent, and also Sneleslunt; and we find that land was held here -by Thomas of Bayeux, Archbishop of York and chaplain to the Conqueror, -while another land-holder was William de Percy, founder of Whitby Abbey -and commander of the fleet which brought the Conqueror over. It is now -the property of the Cust family. The following rhymed marriage entry is -in the Snelland register for the year 1671, Mr. R. S. having presumably -married a well-known scold:— - - “The first day of November - Robert Sherriffe may remember - That he was marryed for all the days of his life - If God be not merciful to him and take his wife.” - -[Sidenote: THE ST. POLL TOMBS] - -North of _Snelland_ is _Snarford_, which we should visit, not so much to -see the four inner arches of the church tower, which are Norman, as to -inspect the wonderful tombs of the St. Poll family. The earliest is in -the chancel, where Sir Thomas lies on an altar tomb in plate armour, with -helmet under his head, bearing as crest an elephant and castle; he wears -both sword and dagger, and holds in his hand a book. They seem to have -been a literary family, for his wife, in a long flowing robe with girdle -and a peculiar head-dress, also holds a book, and the side panels have a -projection on each face also supporting a book. A son and a daughter are -kneeling below; and a canopy supported on pillars and having a richly -moulded cornice bears, over each pillar and between the pillars, kneeling -figures—ten in all. Shields of arms enclosed in wreaths form further -decorations, but both this, which is dated 1582, and the other large -monument in the north chantry are much defaced, and the heavy canopies -look as if they might fall and destroy the figures beneath them at any -moment. It is no good shouting “police!” but where is the archdeacon? -This north chantry has been boarded off from the church, which has an -ugly effect. The monuments in it are first to Sir George St. Poll, 1613, -and his wife Frances, daughter of Chief Justice Sir Christopher Wray of -Glentworth, whom he married in 1583. This is very large, being eleven and -a half feet in height and width. Sir George reclines on his elbow; he, -also, is in armour, his wife is by his side; and below is their little -daughter Mattathia, with cherubs weeping and resting their inverted -torches on skulls. The wife, after putting up this monument, took for -a second husband Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick; and opposite to the -monument of herself and her first husband she re-appears as the Countess -of Warwick, on a round tablet, with medallions of herself and the earl, -her second husband, who died in 1618. His first wife was Lady Penelope -Devereux, by whom he had two sons, Robert and Henry, and two daughters, -Lettice and Essex. A brass on the south side of the chancel has a quaint -Latin inscription, by the Snarford parson, telling us that Frances Wray, -after marriage, was twelve years without issue, and then had a daughter -who died before reaching her second birthday, “cut off while on her way -to Bath.” This was a terrible loss of a most precious treasure, and he -mentions that he had christened her Mattathia, and goes on to tell us -that the “mother passes no day without tears of poignant anguish,” and -ends with “How I wished, alas in vain, that I the writer, instead of -thee, had been the subject of a funeral elegy. John Chadwick, Sept. 9th, -1597.” - - “Hos tibi jam posui versus Mattathia Sct. Poll, - Qui primum in sacro nomina fonte dedi. - Quam vellem (at frustra), te nempe superstite, scriptor - Essem funerei carminis ipse mihi.” - -[Sidenote: THE BUSLINGTHORPE BRASS] - -Close to the St. Poll monument in the chantry is a stone in memory of -George Brownlow Doughty, 1743, who married a Tichborne heiress, and took -the name in addition to his own. From Snarford, less than four miles -brings us to _Buslingthorpe_, where is a Crusader’s effigy, which, like -the priest at Little Steeping, had been turned upside down and used as -a paving-stone, possibly for the sake of saving it from destruction. -This may be Sir John de Buslingthorpe, _c._ 1250. But the great treasure -of the church is a brass half-effigy on a coffin-lid, which also had -been buried, and was only recovered in 1707. This represents a knight -in armour, holding a heart and wearing remarkable scaled gauntlets. The -inscription in Norman French is without date, but reads: “Issy gyt Sire -Richard le fiz sire John de Boselyngthorp,” and is probably not later -than 1290. This is earlier than the somewhat similar brass in Croft -Church, which is assigned to 1300 or 1310, but is not so early as the -fine brass of Sir John d’Abernoun at Stoke d’Abernon in Surrey, which is -dated 1277. Anyhow, it is the earliest in Lincolnshire. From here, less -than four miles brings us back on to the Market Rasen road at Linwood, -only two miles from Rasen. - -[Sidenote: LINWOOD] - -Instead of going by _Snarford_ and _Buslingthorpe_ we might have reached -Rasen by a more direct route from _Snelland_ through _Wickenby_ to -_Lissington_. Here the road divides, the right hand going to _Legsby_ -and _Sixhills_, and then turning left-handed to join the Louth and Rasen -road at _North Willingham_; or, if the day is clear, the traveller can -go straight on from _Sixhills_ and climb the Wold, which with a rise of -one hundred feet will give him a view and bring him to the crown of the -same road at _Ludford_. The left-hand road from _Lissington_ will bring -us to Rasen viâ _Linwood_. This is a pretty road just elevated above the -flat, whence the church spire is visible for a long way. This interesting -church, dedicated to St. Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, A.D. 251, is of the -Early English period with Perpendicular tower. The brasses, which are -good, have been removed from the south chantry to the north aisle and -placed at the west end. We have John Lyndewode, wool stapler, and his -wife, under a double canopy, date 1419. In his shield are three Linden -leaves, which shows the name of the village to mean ‘the Linden (or -Limetree) wood.’ There is also one to their son John, a wool stapler, -dated 1421, and a figure of a bishop in the south chancel window, -probably commemorates another son William, who became Bishop of St. -David’s. A cross-legged effigy of a knight has been torn from its matrix. -The old Lyndewode Manor once stood close to the church. - -Continuing northwards for two miles we find ourselves at Market Rasen. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -ROADS SOUTH FROM LINCOLN - - The Foss Way—The Sleaford Road and Dunston Pillar on “The - Heath”—The Ermine Street and the Grantham Road on “The - Ridge”—Canwick—Blankney—Digby—Rowston—Brant-Broughton—Temple - Bruer and the Knights Templars and Hospitallers—Somerton Castle - and King John of France—Navenby—Coleby—Bracebridge. - - -Besides these three roads going east from Lincoln, there are three great -roads which run along “the ridged wold” northwards, and two going south; -but these two, as soon as they are clear of Lincoln, branch into a dozen, -which, augmented by five lines of railway, all radiating from one centre -and all linked by innumerable small roads which cross them, form, on the -map, an exact pattern of a gigantic spider’s web. Of this dozen the three -trunk roads southwards are the Foss Way to Newark in the flat country, -and the Sleaford road over “the heath,” both of which roads avoid all -villages (though the Sleaford road passes through Leasingham, described -in Chap. VIII., about two miles north of Sleaford, and has that curious -erection, _the Dunston pillar_, at the roadside about eight miles out -from Lincoln, described in the chapter on Nocton); and thirdly, the -Grantham road, on the ridge between the two, which has a village at every -mile. Others run, one to _Skellingthorpe_, one to _Doddington_ with its -interesting old Hall, which we will revert to shortly; one all down the -Witham valley to Beckingham on the border, going by _Basingham_ with -its ninth-century Saxon font, and _Norton Disney_ with its fine Disney -tombs and remarkable brass, also to be described later; and one to _Brant -Broughton_. - -[Sidenote: CANWICK] - -[Sidenote: ROWSTON] - -A sign-post in Lincoln points to this village, because, though twelve -miles distant, there is nothing on the way; indeed you may follow up -the valley of the Brant River another six miles to its source near -_Hough-on-the-Hill_, and then go on another six as it curves round -into _Grantham_, and not pass through anything but _Marston_, and -there is nothing to see there but the old seat of the Thorold family, -Marston Hall, now a farmhouse. All these are on the low ground to the -west. Then on the ridge itself is “the Ermine Street,” and east of the -Sleaford highway is a desolate road over “Lincoln Heath” to _Scopwick_, -where a stream, crossed by several single planks, runs right through -the village. East of this, another somewhat important road goes across -the low and once swampy ground south of Lincoln, where the Witham gets -through the gap in the cliff ridge to _Canwick_. Here the church, which -has a rich Norman chancel arch and arcade, and an Early English arcaded -reredos in the vestry, once a chantry chapel, rises, without any other -footing, from a Roman pavement; here, too, from the grounds of Mr. Waldo -Sibthorp’s house, Canwick Hall, where the cliff begins again, you get -a most beautiful view of the minster about two miles distant; indeed, -those who live near Lincoln and can see the minster may boast of a view -which for grandeur has few equals in the land. This walk from Lincoln -is a favourite one, and passes a well-planted cemetery of twenty-five -acres, part of which was taken from the common, which rejoices in the -delightfully bucolic name of “the Cowpaddle.” The road is really the -continuation of the Wragby road, and, curving down Lindum road passes -into Broadgate, then crossing the Witham and the Sincel dyke and the -intersection of the Midland and Great Northern Railways, crosses yet -two more lines before it reaches the cemetery. After Canwick the road -goes through _Branston_ and passes, near _Nocton_, _Dunston_, and -_Metheringham_, to _Blankney_. The hall here, the home of Mr. Henry -Chaplin, than whom no Lincolnshire man is better known or more popular, -is now occupied by Lord Londesborough. The church has a curious tomb-slab -to John de Glori, with a bearded head looking out of a cusped opening, -and a beautiful sculpture by Boehm of Lady Florence Chaplin. This is -one of the few churches in which the ringing of the Curfew-bell still -obtains. After _Blankney_ the road passes Scopwick and curves round -through _Digby_, _Donnington_ and _Rushington_ to Sleaford. Of these -villages _Digby_ is worth seeing, and so is _Rowston_, lying one mile -north of it. At _Digby_ the village cross has been restored, but with a -very indifferent top, and at the other end of the village is a curious -stone lock-up, like a covered well-head, and hardly capable of holding -more than one man at a time. Lingfield in Surrey has a larger one called -‘Ye Village Cage’; it has two steps up inside, and is capable of holding -a dozen people. The tower has three stages, Early English, Decorated and -Perpendicular. The south door is transition Norman, the north arcade -aisle and chancel Early English, the south arcade and aisle Decorated, -and the font, screen and clerestory Perpendicular. In this the six tall -two-light windows are distributed in pairs. _Rowston_, which is dedicated -to St. Clement, has a spire rising from a tall tower, so little wider -than itself that it may safely be said to cover less ground than any -tower in England, for it measures only five and a-half feet inside; it -is blank except for a rather heavy window in the upper stage. The first -thing that strikes you on entering is the extraordinary loud ticking of -the clock. It has to be stopped during service, as no one can compete -with it. The next thing is that the thirteen windows are all filled -with painted glass and of the same type, striking in design, though not -of quite first-rate excellence. One window has figures of the three -Lincolnshire saints—St. Guthlac, St. Hugh, and St. Gilbert. The church -is in very good order, having been recently restored, and some Saxon -stones with interlaced work have been built into the outside wall of -the chancel. It would have been better to have put these inside. But -there is inside a very good head of a churchyard or village cross, and -the base and broken shaft of one, possibly the same, is just outside -the churchyard. This head is of the usual penthouse form, with a carved -figure on either side; it was found quite recently built into a cowshed. -In the nave the pillars are all different. The vestry was over the burial -chapel of the Foster family; later it was, as was so often the case, used -for a school. A beautiful bit of an old carved oak screen separates it -now from the north aisle. A heavy timber floor cuts across the top of the -tall tower arch, and below a very curious pillar stands against one side -of the arch. An Early English priest’s door, with a flat-arched lintel, -is in the south wall of the chancel. It is impossible to walk round the -slender tower, as a garden wall runs into it on both the north and south -sides, leaving part of the tower in a neighbouring garden, the owner of -which once claimed half the tower as his property, and considered that -he had a right to pierce a door through it for easier access to his pew. - -[Sidenote: GRANTHAM ROAD] - -We have now but one road south of Lincoln to describe—for what we have -to say about Norton Disney and Nocton can come afterwards; this is the -Grantham road, a road curiously full of villages mostly perched on the -western edge of the ridge, whilst the Ermine Street running so near it -on the east has no villages at all on it, and the Sleaford road over -“the Heath,” a little to the east of the Ermine Street, is, as we have -said, just as bare. The number of roads in Lincolnshire which have no -villages on them is very remarkable, though not hard to explain. We have -already, in treating of the roads from Grantham, through the villages -of _Manthorpe_, _Belton_, _Syston_, _Barkstone_, _Honington_, _Carlton -Scroop_, _Normanton_, _Caythorpe_ and _Fulbeck_, brought the account -of this road northwards as far as _Leadenham_. Here the Sleaford and -Newark main road crosses it, and _Leadenham_ spire is a fine landmark -for all the neighbourhood. It is to be noted that, common as the Danish -termination ‘by’ is in all parts of the county, the Saxon ‘ton’ just -about here and on the west side generally, is even more frequent. - -This spire is crocketed, but has no flying buttresses. The nave and -arcades are lofty, with bold clustered columns, and the doorways, which -are quite different in style, are both very good. There is some good -Flemish glass, and a stone monument of the Beresford family has long been -in use as an altar. _Wellbourn_, on an Early English tower, has one of -those ugly, Perpendicular “sugar loaf” spires, with a sort of bulge in -the middle, and that to a worse degree than at Caythorpe. The nave and -aisles are the work of John of Wellbourn, the munificent treasurer of -Lincoln in the middle of the fourteenth century. - -[Illustration: _Brant Broughton._] - -[Sidenote: BRANT BROUGHTON] - -[Sidenote: THE VILLAGE SMITH] - -To the right and left of Wellbourn are two places which should not be -missed. _Brant Broughton_, with its beautiful spire, and _Temple Bruer_, -where are the remains of a preceptory of the Knights Templars. The church -of _Brant Broughton_ (pronounced Bruton) is a beautiful structure, and -all in perfect order, the magnificent lofty chancel having been built -to match the rest of the church by Bodley and Garner in 1876. To take -the woodwork first, the tall handsome screen and the chancel stalls -are in memory of the late rector, Canon E. H. Sutton, as is also the -lofty carved font cover, whose doors open and display three carved and -coloured figures, one being St. Nicholas, the patron saint, with the -three children in a pickling tub, whom he is said to have raised to life -after their murder by a butcher, as is so quaintly represented in the -famous black font in Winchester Cathedral. The roof, which in the first -instance was of a higher pitch, as seen by the string course, is an exact -reproduction, both in shape and colour, of the old Perpendicular one -which it replaced, and is in appearance upborne by figures of angels with -outspread wings. The three tall arches of the aisle arcades and chancel -are Early English, two of the pillars are octagonal. These arches are -very high, though not so high as those in _Hough-on-the-Hill_, which -are of about the same date. The three-light clerestory windows, five on -each side, and the roof to the nave, were added with the upper stages -of the tower in 1460, and the Perpendicular aisle windows are large and -handsome, and have a transom running across the tracery in the head of -each. They are filled with most interesting glass, good in design, and -mostly good in colour, all of which was made in the village by the late -Canon Sutton, who also filled several windows in Lincoln Minster. The -ironwork in the church was also made by Mr. F. Coldron and Son at the -village forge, where excellent work is always being done and sent to all -parts of the country. All the work inside the church, and the chancel -in particular, is beautifully finished in every detail, and bears the -impress of being all the work of one mind, and as that mind was Bodley’s, -and he took the utmost pains with it, it need hardly be said that it -comes very near perfection. - -Among the things to notice are the long stone responds of light clustered -pillars between each clerestory window, which support the roof timbers. -This is seen in other churches in this part of the county, but is -otherwise by no means common. Another is that at intervals on the outer -moulding of some of the doors and windows are carved rosettes which give -a very rich effect and are, I believe, unique. The excellent lectern -eagle is a copy of one at Oxborough in Norfolk, and a similar one is in -the neighbouring church of Navenby. Thus far I have spoken of the inside, -but it is the outside of the church which gives the greatest delight, -for it is a very perfect specimen, built of good stone, of the finest -proportions, and richly ornamented. The nave and chancel have each an -ornate parapet, while the nave is also embattled and pinnacled. The tower -has the most glorious base-mouldings, and the pinnacled and crocketed -spire soars up 175 feet. Both tower and spire date from about 1320, the -period of the Flowing Decorated style. But the two porches, which are -a little later, are absolute gems of architecture. They have groined -roofs, their parapets are pierced and ornamented, thickly set with -gargoyles, and supported by canopied buttresses. Over the entrance of the -south porch is a figure of Christ seated, and in the north porch is an -ornamental roof ridge of carved stone. These porches are as beautiful as -anything can well be; altogether it would be hard to find in a country -village anything architectural, more pleasing than _Brant Broughton_ -Church. - -[Illustration: _The Ermine Street at Temple Bruer._] - -[Sidenote: THE ERMINE STREET] - -We passed through the village, visited the Coldron forge, and then by a -road constantly turning first right then left, with fields of scarlet -poppy or brilliant yellow corn-marigold on either hand, and with a stormy -sky which ever and anon brought us a squall of rain, we drove across -the flat country eastwards till we crossed the railway and reached the -ridge. Climbing this, we come to _Wellbourn_, on the Grantham road, and -going on eastwards over Wellbourn Heath we reach the Ermine Street, -here only a wide grassy track. This we cross and go forwards through a -well-cultivated, but almost uninhabited plain, till we see on the left -a farm road leading over a field to a big farmyard, in the middle of -which stands a solitary square-built Early English tower, with windows -irregularly placed, and steps on one side. This is all that is left of -a Preceptory of the Knights Templars, founded early in the thirteenth -century in the reign of Henry II. by the Lady Elizabeth de Canz at -_Temple Bruer_. - -[Sidenote: THE TEMPLARS] - -One does not always like to confess one’s ignorance, but I am sure many -people may read that word “preceptory” without at all knowing what -it may mean, or what the difference is between a _Preceptory_ and a -_Commandery_. So we may as well say something about the Templars, and the -kindred order of the Hospitallers. And here I may say that I am indebted -for my facts to a paper read at Lincoln by Bishop Trollope in 1857. - -The first, then, of these, in point of time, were the Hospitallers. -But as they long outlived the Templars we will take the history of the -Templars first. This famous order, half-religious and half military, was -founded in 1118, during the first Crusade, by nine French knights, whose -object was to protect pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. At -first they were bound by laws of poverty, and were termed “Poor Knights,” -but Baldwin II., having given them lodging in a part of his palace at -Jerusalem, the abbot of the Temple Convent, which adjoined the palace, -gave them further rooms to live in, and from this they got the name -“Templars.” In 1128 they adopted a white distinctive mantle, to which a -red cross on the breast and on their banner was added in 1166. The fame -of their feats of arms and chivalry induced many members of noble houses -to join the society, and land and treasure were so freely offered them -that they became known for their wealth, as at first for their poverty. -Their head was termed “Grand Master,” and their headquarters were in -Palestine, until they moved, in 1192, to Cyprus. In other countries each -section or “Province” was governed by a “Grand Preceptor.” They first -came to England in the early part of Stephen’s reign, and had a church -in London, near Southampton Buildings, called “The Old Temple,” from -which they migrated in 1185 to the spot where the circular Temple Church -still stands. Their wealth was the cause of their downfall, morally -and physically; and the monarchs, both of France and England, becoming -jealous, Philip IV., in 1307, seized and imprisoned every Templar in his -dominion, 200 in number, on the vague charges of infidelity, sorcery, -and apostasy, and eventually confiscated all their property and burnt -more than fifty of them alive, relegating the rest to perpetual seclusion -in some monastic house. Edward II. did much the same here, except that -there were no burnings or executions. Old Fuller, the historian, was -probably thinking of those in France when he says in his inimitable way: -“Their lives would not have been taken if their lands could have been -got without; but the mischief was, the honey could not be got without -burning the bees.” In 1312 the Pope, Clement V., who was under Philip’s -thumb at Avignon, and had helped him to coerce Edward II., abolished the -order, which was found to be possessed of no less than 9,000 manors and -16,000 lordships, besides lands abroad. Grants were made to favourites, -and also to those who had claims for some benefaction to any Templar’s -estate. Thus Robert de Swines (Sweyne’s)-thorp was to receive 3_d._ a -day for food, and another 3_d._ for himself and 2_d._ for his groom; and -his daughter, Alice Swinesthorpe was to have for life (and she drew it -for thirty years) “7 white loaves, 3 squire’s loaves, 5 gals of better -ale, 7 dishes of meat and fish on Saturday for the week following, and an -extra dish (interferculum) of the better course of the brethren, at Xmas, -Easter, Whitsuntide, Midsummer, The Assumption, and Feast of All Saints, -and 3 stone of cheese yearly and an old gown of the brethren.” - -[Sidenote: THE HOSPITALLERS] - -Twelve years later Edward granted the whole of their property to the -similar society of “Knights Hospitallers.” - -This society came into existence some fifty years before the Templars, -and originated in a band of traders from Amalfi, who got leave from the -Caliph of Egypt to build a church and monastery for the Latins near the -Holy Sepulchre, in order to look after the sick and poor pilgrims who -used to come in large numbers to Jerusalem. Soon a hospital, or guest -house, was added, and a chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist; but -the society did not take the distinctive name of Hospitallers, or guest -receivers, until 1099, when Jerusalem was in the hands of the Christians. -They then assumed a white cross as their badge, and were termed Knights -of the Hospital, Knights Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John. - -In 1154 they procured a Papal bull, relieving them from payment of -tithes, and exempting them from all interdicts and excommunications, -and giving them other privileges, but binding them never to leave the -order. These marks of Papal favour seem to have made them presumptuous, -and great complaints soon arose of their insolence. They were accused -before the Pope, but they managed to clear themselves and to keep their -privileges. Hence we find that _Temple Bruer_, which came to them after -the destruction of the Knights Templars, still remains exempt from -the payment of tithe, and from episcopal jurisdiction, as being extra -parochial. - -[Sidenote: KNIGHTS OF MALTA] - -The head of the order had the title of “Grand Prior,” and when the -Christians were expelled from Palestine, the Knights retreated to Cyprus, -after which they took from the Turks the island of Rhodes, which they -held against the Sultan until 1522, when Solyman II., after a long siege, -forced them to capitulate. A few years after that, the Emperor Charles -V. gave them a home in Malta, and they thenceforth were commonly called -Knights of Malta. They fortified the island, and imported soil to make -it productive, and putting to sea with their galleys they made constant -war upon all Turkish vessels. Solyman at length determined to drive them -out of Malta. He despatched a fleet of 180 galleys, carrying 30,000 men. -The Turks took the fort of St. Elmo, but with a loss of 8,000 men; and -when the Emperor sent an army to assist the Knights, La Valette, the -Grand Prior, a famous leader, drove the Moslems off. After this they -remained in Malta until the order was dissolved at the close of the -eighteenth century by order of Napoleon, when most of the Knights took -service in the French army. Whilst the society existed it had branch -establishments in England, where the chief or Prior took precedence of -all the barons, and had a seat in Parliament. Their establishments were -called “commanderies”—while those of the Templars, who were ruled by -“Grand Preceptors,” were called “preceptories.” Of these there were three -in Lincolnshire: at _Willoughton_, four miles south of Kirton in Lindsey; -at _Aslackby_, two miles south of Falkingham; and at _Temple Bruer_; all -three situated close to the Ermine Street or “High Dyke” as they call -it, on Lincoln Heath, and it is from the heath that one of them gets its -name _Templum de la bruère_, or the temple on the heath, shortened into -_Temple Bruer_. - -[Sidenote: TEMPLE BRUER] - -The lands of these Knights Templars, which were handed over by Edward II. -in 1324 to the Knights Hospitallers, were all sequestrated in England -at the time of the dissolution of the monastic and religious houses in -1538, and, like so many other Lincolnshire estates, granted by Henry -VIII. to his relative, Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk. Henry, with his -wife, Katherine Howard, dined at Temple Bruer when on his way to Lincoln -in 1541. The buildings then were of considerable size, and the circular -church, whose pillar bases have been laid bare, a little to the west of -the existing tower, was fifty feet in diameter. It is modelled on the -plan of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, having, as may still be seen in -London, Cambridge, and Northampton, a corridor running round between the -circular arcade of the church and the outer wall. The existing tower is -of the Early English period, fifty feet high, and having three storeys; -the walls of the lower storey are decorated by arcading on two sides, and -the rising levels of the floor indicate that an altar was placed at the -east end, so that it was probably the domestic chapel of the Grand Prior. -The roof of this and the next storey is vaulted, and above the third -storey was a parapet. The rooms were reached by a winding staircase in -the north-west angle. A well nine feet in diameter, and never dry, was -in the precincts, and another, discovered in the eighteenth century, was -found to have in it three large bells. The Earl of Dorset, who owned this -interesting property in 1628, sold it to Richard Brownlow of Belton, -whose daughter and co-heiress carried it to the family of Lord Guildford, -and he sold it to the ancestors of Mr. Chaplin of Blankney. - -[Illustration: _Temple Bruer Tower._] - -[Sidenote: KNIGHTS AT RHODES] - -It shows that the interest in the Order of the Knights of Jerusalem is -not yet extinct when we read the following, which appeared in _The Times_ -of December 21, 1913:— - - “HOUSE OF THE KNIGHTS AT RHODES. - - “(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) - - ROME, _Dec. 23_. - - “The _Tribuna_ announces that the House of the Knights at - Rhodes has been acquired for France by the French Ambassador at - Constantinople, M. Bompard. The house, which is one of the most - beautiful in the island, is a Gothic edifice dating from the - 15th century, and was originally the residence of the French - Priors of the Order of Jerusalem. - - “⁂ This appears to refer to the Auberge of the “Langue” of - France, with its shield-adorned façade in the famous street - of the Knights in Rhodes, which is still preserved in fair - condition. Under the Ottoman regime no Christian was allowed - to own a house or to sleep within the walled town of Rhodes, - and before the revival of the Constitution foreigners were - jealously excluded from the majority of the medieval buildings - of the city. It is probably due to this suspicious and - exclusive attitude that no such step as that just taken by - France has been attempted before. It is to be hoped that the - palace of the Grand Masters of the Order of the Hospital, which - ruled the island from 1309 until 1522, is now no longer to be - used as a common prison.” - -[Sidenote: SOMERTON CASTLE] - -From _Temple Bruer_ we return to the “High Dyke,” and, crossing it, make -westward for the Grantham road; but before we go along it, by _Boothby -Graffoe_ to _Navenby_, we must pause on the Ridge, or “Cliff,” as they -call it there, and look down on a solitary round tower on a slight -elevation about a mile across the flat plain which extends westward -from the Wolds to the Trent. This tower and its grassy mounds are all -that is left of a once fine stronghold, built, about 1281, by Antony -Bec, Archdeacon of Durham, second son of Walter Bec, Baron d’Eresby. -He was consecrated Bishop of Durham in the presence of Edward I., on -January 9, 1284, and he was wise enough, a few years later, when his -growing magnificence excited the jealousy of his sovereign, to present -_Somerton_ to Edward I., and it remained a royal castle for some three -centuries, passing afterwards through several families, among whom were -the Disneys of Norton and Carlton. Edward, son of Thomas Disney of -Carlton-le-Moorland having purchased it from Sir George Bromley, and -being succeeded in 1595 by his son Thomas, who having lost both his sons, -sold it to Sir Ed. Hussey. Hence we find that his son Charles, afterwards -Sir Charles Hussey of Caythorpe, is described in his marriage licence, -April 10, 1649, as Charles Hussey, Esq., of Somerton. - -After the battle of Poictiers, in 1356, John, son of Philip of Valois, -King of France, was brought captive to London, together with his third -son Philip. Hence, after a short residence at the Savoy Palace, they -went to Windsor as guests of the King and Queen Philippa, and were -subsequently sent to Hertford Castle. Edward III. soon thought it wiser -to transfer them to Somerton, where they were placed under the custody -of William, Baron d’Eyncourt of Blankney, during the years 1359 and -1360. The expensive furnishing of the castle (_see_ Chap. XXXVII.) and -the provision made for the maintenance of the large number of the king’s -French suite, and of the officers and men who were appointed to guard the -prisoners, and the style of life there, the tuns of French claret, and -the enormous amount of sugar to make French bon-bons, together with the -subsequent history of King John, who, on being set at liberty, returned -in the most honourable way to England in 1363, because his son Louis, Duc -d’Anjou, had broken his parole as a hostage and left England for France, -is fully related by Bishop Trollope. King John died in 1364, at the -palace of the Savoy. - -_Somerton Castle_, which we must now visit, was a fortified -dwelling-place with outer and inner moats, and with round towers at -each corner of an irregular parallelogram, only one remains now at the -south-west angle. This is forty-five feet high, and has three storeys—the -lower one vaulted, the highest covered with a conical roof and having two -chimneys, rising well above the plain parapet, which is still perfect, -and springs from a bold and effective moulding. Each floor is lit by -small lancet windows, the middle one much enlarged of late years, for -it is still inhabited, together with some building adjoining it on the -east, as a farm house. The large earthworks around the castle, which are -especially noticeable on the south, are very remarkable, and must be much -earlier than the castle, which seems to have been planted inside these -rectangular embankments, of which the northern side has been levelled, -probably at the time of the building. The earthworks are not Roman in -character, and are probably of very great antiquity. Outside these are at -least two round artificial hills, which have not been as yet explained -with certainty. - -[Sidenote: NAVENBY] - -Leaving the castle, and driving over the rough field road which leads to -it, we regain a highway which takes us up “the cliff” to the village of -_Navenby_. This is situated on a spur jutting out from the edge of the -cliff, with a deep little valley sweeping round on the south side and -breaking down into the plain. Nestling in the curve of the hill are some -picturesque farm buildings and stacks, and above is an old windmill; -whilst over the horizon peeps through the trees the spire of _Wellingore_ -Church. The chancel of Navenby Church, as at Heckington, is as long -as the nave, and almost as high; indeed, this Decorated chancel is as -fine as any to be found, no other being built on at all so magnificent -a scale, except Hawton in Notts, and Heckington and perhaps Merton at -Oxford. The tower, which probably had a spire, fell in the eighteenth -century, and the whole church was restored about forty years ago, by -Kirk of Sleaford, who made the chancel roof of too high a pitch, and -kept the nave roof too low. The pillars in the nave, of which there are -two on each side, have shafts clustered round a central column, four -shafts of coursed masonry alternating with four light detached monolithic -shafts, all united under a circular capital. But the north-west pillar is -thicker than the others, and belongs to the latter part of the twelfth -century. The tower arch is a low one; the fine Decorated east window -of six lights, restored in 1876, has superb tracery, and is nearly as -fine as that at Heckington. There are four large chancel windows, and a -good Early English window in the south aisle. There is also a rood-loft -staircase, and a rood-loft with canopy, or ‘hang over,’ and a modern -rood-beam above bearing a large crucifix and two almost life-size figures -carved and painted. An octagon panelled font stands on a pedestal -of slender columns. The roof of both nave and aisles is painted. The -clerestory, added later, has five three-light windows. The east window is -filled with white glass, slightly toned, and is half hidden by a tapestry -screen used as a reredos, by no means beautiful, and twice as high as -it need be. The Jacobean pulpit and the fine copy of an old brass eagle -lectern, as at Brant Broughton, are to be noticed; but the main glories -of the church are in the chancel, where, besides the splendid windows, -there are, on the south side, three rich sedilia and a piscina; and on -the north, just east of the canopied arch for the founder’s tomb, in -which is now placed a trefoiled stone with Lombardic lettering of Richard -Dewe, priest, is a priest’s door and a very beautiful Easter Sepulchre. -This is only surpassed by those at Heckington, Lincoln, and Hawton, near -Newark. It has only one compartment, with three Roman soldiers, with -mutilated heads, below the opening, and above it, amongst the delicately -carved foliage of the canopy, are two figures of women. Few churches can -give more pleasure to the lover of church architecture than this; and its -fine position on the edge of the cliff, with the wide view over the plain -westward, makes a visit to Navenby very memorable. - -[Sidenote: COLEBY] - -Going on northwards along the cliff road we pass _Boothby Graffoe_, where -the old church was actually blown down, or, as the Wellingore register -has it, “extirpated in a hurricane,” in 1666—and come to _Coleby_. Here -is an early unbuttressed tower with a rude original arch over the door of -the tower staircase, and with two keyhole windows in the south side, as -in the early Lincoln towers or those at Hough-on-the-Hill, and Clee. Part -of the original tower arch is visible inside the tower, which is entered -from the nave through a very tall narrow arch supported by two very small -pilasters with plain rectangular caps. - -[Sidenote: TREVENEN PENROSE] - -The two arches of the north arcade are Transition Norman; those on the -south Early English, with good stiff foliage. The tall, plain porch had -once a room over it, and retains its richly moulded Transition doorway. -The font is of the same date, being a massive cylinder with Norman -arcading cut on it, and with four equidistant pillars which give it a -square appearance. The crocketed spire is a good one, Perpendicular in -style, and of better stone than the tower. The three lancet windows at -the east end are filled with good glass, and the seats are of oak with -poppy-heads throughout. The fellows of Oriel College, Oxford, to whom -the living belongs, helped in its restoration by Bodley and Garner in -1901. The wall at the west end of the south aisle, which runs up to the -tower and also forms the west side of the porch, as the aisle has no -window, is one long blank face, which has a singularly ugly look outside. -Inside, there are some good bench-ends, and there is an inscription by -Sir John Coleridge to the Rev. Trevenen Penrose, who spent the greater -part of a long life as vicar of the parish. - -[Illustration: _Navenby._] - -The Hall is a gabled house of 1628, built by Sir W. Lester, now the -property of the Tempest family, and having classic temples in the -grounds, one of them adapted from the Rotunda in the baths of Diocletian -at Rome. - -_Harmston_, the next village, has a tower of the pre-Norman type, with a -mid-wall shaft to the window of the belfry in which are eight bells. A -brass plate commemorates Margaret Thorold who had a family of eight sons -and eleven daughters, and lived to be eighty. - -[Sidenote: BRACEBRIDGE] - -_Waddington_ has some very good Early English work in its clustered -columns and carved capitals. Here the string of villages, one at every -milestone, ceases, and we go on for three miles seeing the beautiful -minster tower in front of us on the height, and arrive at _Bracebridge_, -a very dark church, but with some most interesting Long-and-Short work -in the tower, in the angles of the nave, and in the south porch, and a -Norman west door to the tower, which is a very early one with mid-wall -shaft to the belfry window. The Norman north door is now blocked. There -is a curious rectangular opening, twice as wide as its height, in the -south aisle, near the porch, which allows a view between the pillars and -through the hagioscope or “squint” on the right of the chancel arch to -the altar. Another squint is on the left side of the chancel arch, which -is a very narrow and early one, through a thick wall. - -The nave pillars, two on each side, are cylindrical with four banded -shafts attached. The north aisle and transept are modern. A fine -Transition Norman font is mounted on a new base, and on the pulpit is -still to be seen the old hour-glass stand, as at _Leasingham_; though -there and at _Belton_ in the Isle of Axholme it is attached to a pillar, -at _Sapperton_ and _Hammeringham_ it is on the pulpit. There is also an -old cracked Sanctus bell. - -The road over the heath unites with the Grantham road near _Bracebridge_, -and runs into Lincoln by the Stonebow, and on up to the Minster Hill. - -So much for the roads east, west, and south. The roads north of Lincoln -demand another chapter. But a few words about Nocton and Norton Disney -shall come first. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -PLACES OF INTEREST NEAR LINCOLN - - Nocton—Norton Disney—Doddington—Kettlethorpe. - - -NOCTON - -As an instance of what the great Roman catch-water drain the “Carr-dyke” -effected, we may take the little village of Nocton, six miles south-east -of Lincoln. Here is a little string of villages—_Potter Hanworth_, -_Nocton_, _Dunston_ and _Metheringham_—running north and south on the -edge of a moor which drops quickly on the east to an uninhabited stretch -of fen once all water, but now rich cornland cut into long strips by the -drains which, aided by pumps, send the superfluous water down the Nocton -“Delph” into the Witham River. Along the extreme edge of the moorland -runs the “Carr-dyke” and intercepts all the water which would otherwise -discharge into the already water-logged lowlands, and so makes the task -of dealing with the fen water a possible one. - -At _Potter Hanworth_ the Romans had a pottery. The church was rebuilt -in 1857, one of the bells was re-cast in memory of the Diamond Jubilee -of Queen Victoria, and on it were placed Tennyson’s lines from “Morte -d’Arthur.” - - “The old order changeth, yielding place to new, - And God fulfils Himself in many ways, - Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.” - -On the same occasion the ringing of the Curfew bell, which had been -continued till 1890, was given up, and a clock with four faces put up -instead, which strikes the hours, but is not at all the same thing. Thus -one more interesting and historic custom has disappeared, which is much -to be regretted in this utilitarian and unimaginative age. - -[Sidenote: THE D’ARCY FAMILY] - -Domesday Book tells us that _Nocton_ was divided in unequal shares -between two landlords, Ulf and Osulf; on the land of the former there -was already a church with a priest in 1086. These owners had given place -to one Norman de Ardreci, written later de Aresci, and finally D’Arcy, a -companion of the Conqueror. Norman D’Arcy’s son granted the churches of -Nocton and Dunston to the Benedictines of St. Mary’s Abbey, York, also -some land to the Carthusians of Kirkstead Abbey, and himself founded a -priory at Nocton for canons of the Orders of St. Augustine, who first -settled in England in 1108. The buildings are quite gone, but the site -is still called the Abbey Field, and the vicarage is called the Priory; -the Priory well, whose water was said to be “remarkably good,” in 1727, -was only filled up about fifty years ago. Why couldn’t they have let it -alone, one wonders. To follow up the history of Nocton: in 1541 Henry -VIII. and Katharine Howard slept there. - -The D’Arcy family and their descendants in the female line, whose married -names were Lymbury, Pedwardine, Wymbishe and Towneley, held the property -for three and twenty generations till the middle of the seventeenth -century—a good innings of 600 years. But the losses which the Civil War -brought about made it necessary for Robert Towneley, at the Restoration -in 1660, to sell the estate to Lord Stanhope, from whom it soon passed -by sale to Sir William Ellys, about 1676, and in 1726—by the marriage -of Sir Richard Ellys’ widow—to Sir Francis Dashwood; after whom, in -1767, it descended to a cousin, George Hobart, eventually third Earl of -Buckinghamshire. He altered Nocton considerably, pulled down the church, -which was too near the house, and set up a poor structure further off, -where the present church stands. He also spent much in draining Nocton -fen, and erected a windmill pump which raised the water and sent it into -the Witham, and worked well for forty years till it was superseded in -Frederick Robinson’s time (1834) by a forty-horse-power steam engine -which was found to pump the water faster than the fens could supply it. -The earl died in 1804; ten years later his daughter, Lady Sarah Albinia, -carried the estate to Frederick John Robinson, second son of Lord -Grantham, who became Prime Minister and was created Viscount Goodrich in -1827, and Earl of Ripon in 1833; and, as a member of Sir Robert Peel’s -cabinet, moved in the House of Lords the second reading of the Bill for -the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. In 1834 the house at Nocton was -burnt down, and the earl’s young son, afterwards Marquis of Ripon, laid -the foundation stone of the present house in 1841. The earl died in 1859, -and his widow, who survived him eight years, built in his memory the -present fine church, which was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. In 1889 -Lord Ripon sold the estate to Mr. G. Hodgson of Bradford. - -It is interesting to hear of a school being set up in 1793 at Nocton; -first as a private school by John Brackenbury of Gedney, grandson of -Edward Brackenbury of Raithby, near Spilsby, which was continued for -forty-six years after her father’s death in 1813, by his daughter -Justinia, who became Mrs. Scholey. In her time it was an elementary -school which Lady Sarah financed and managed, the children paying a penny -a week. - -[Sidenote: DUNSTON PILLAR] - -Another thing that was set up was a land lighthouse on Dunston Heath. -This was a lonely tract where inhabitants had not only been murdered -by highwaymen, but had even been lost in the storms and snow-drifts on -the desolate and roadless moor. Here then Sir Francis Dashwood set up -the Dunston Pillar, ninety-two feet high with a lantern over fifteen -feet high on the top. The date on it is 1751. The fourth Earl of -Buckinghamshire, who as Lord Hobart was Governor of Madras, took down the -lantern on July 18, 1810, and set up in its place a colossal statue of -George III. to commemorate the king’s jubilee. - -[Sidenote: NOCTON HALL] - -The granddaughter of the third earl, whose father (The Very Rev. H. -L. Hobart) lived at the Priory, being, _inter alia_, vicar of Nocton -and Dean of Windsor, and also of Wolverhampton, tells me that the mail -coaches used to pass the pillar and leave all the letters for the -neighbourhood at one of the four little lodges close by. She has several -interesting specimens of the work done by the Nocton School of Needlework -under the guidance of Justinia, whose family were remarkable for their -Scriptural as well as “heathen Christian names,” _e.g._, Ceres and -Damaris. Justinia herself always, as they say in Westmorland, used to -“get” Justina. These specimens include a very clever and faithful copy in -black silk needlework of an engraving by Hoylett from a picture by Thos. -Espin of old Nocton Hall, which was burnt down in 1834. The needlework -artist has done one of the trees in the picture most beautifully, but has -given the rein to her imagination by working in two fine palm trees in -place of the oaks of the picture. There is a sampler done at the vicarage -by the dean’s daughter, and inscribed:— - - “Nocton Priory, 1839. - Louisa C. Hobart.” - -And two large samplers with the usual pretty floral borders worked by -Justinia’s daughters, signed “Alice Scholey, 1832, and Betsey Scholey, -1848.” The latter has some rather primitive representations of the -old Hall and its two lodges; also the Vicarage and the School, and a -libellous portrait of Lincoln Minster. Alice Scholey was of a more -Scriptural turn of mind and apparently fond of birds, for she has owls -in the centre of green bushes, and pheasants or peacocks among her -flowers; but her central picture is the temptation, where Adam and Eve, -worked in pink silk, _au naturel_, stand on either side of a goodly tree -covered with fruit, a gorgeous serpent twining round the trunk, and one -remarkably fine plum-coloured apple temptingly within reach of Eve’s hand. - -Certainly Justinia’s school was in advance of the time, but the art -needlework doubtless owed much to the interest taken in it by Sarah -Albinia, Countess of Ripon. - -Samplers of the eighteenth century are now much sought after. I saw -one lately of 1791, on which a little mite of seven, in days when the -“three R’s” were taught along with the use of the needle in the good old -sensible way, had stitched in black silk letters:— - - The days were long - The weather hot - Sometimes I worked - And sometimes not. - - Seven years my age - Thoughtless and gay - And often much - Too fond of play. - -The first stanza with its pathetic little picture is genuine enough, but -the second was manifestly dictated by her elders. - -[Sidenote: SAXON ORNAMENT] - -Among the treasures long preserved at Nocton was an Anglo-Saxon ornament -of great beauty (see illustration, Chap. XXII) in which three discs of -silver with a raised pattern of dragons, &c., and with pins four inches -long are connected by silver links so as to form a cloak-chain to fasten -the garment across the breast. The pins have shoulders an inch from -the sharp points to prevent their shaking loose. This for a time was in -a museum at Lincoln, and on the dispersal of the collection was bought -and presented to the British Museum, and is in the Anglo-Saxon room. In -the same room are kept the very interesting finds from the Anglo-Saxon -cemetery at _Sleaford_, consisting mainly of bronze ornaments and -coloured beads. The cloak-chain was found in the Witham at _Fiskerton_, -four miles from Lincoln, when the river was deepened in 1826. - -[Sidenote: THE MASQUERADE] - -Sir Charles Anderson, in his excellent Lincoln pocket guide, gives some -notion of the gaiety which distinguished Nocton in the eighteenth century -by quoting an account of a masquerade held there on December 29, 1767, -which begins:— - -“Met at the door by a Turk, in a white Bearskin, who took our tickets.” - -It is curious to note the use of the word Turk for any dark-skinned -person in a turban, for later in the list of dresses we have: “Mr. -Amcotts, a Turk, his turban ornamented with diamonds. Mr. Cust, a Turk; -scarlet and ermine; turban and collar very rich with diamonds. He -represented the Great Mogul,” who would have been little pleased to be -called a Turk, I imagine. Amongst more than seventy other dresses which -are described we find: “Lady Betty Chaplin: a Chinese Lady, in a long -robe of yellow taffety; the petticoat painted taffety. Her neck and hair -richly ornamented with diamonds.” - -But rich jewellery was the order of the night whether it was proper to -the costume or not, so we find “Lady Buck: a Grecian Lady, scarlet satin -and silver gauze; her neck and head adorned with diamonds and pearls.” - -The host and hostess are thus described:— - -“Mr. Hobart: ‘Pan.’ His dress dark brown satin, made quite close to his -shape, shag breeches, cloven feet, a round shock wig, and a mask that -beggars all description, a leopard skin over his back fastened to his -shoulder by a leopard’s claw. In his hand a shepherd’s pipe.” - -“Mrs. Hobart; First “Imoinda,” a muslin petticoat, puffed very small, -spotted with spangles. The arms muslin puffed like a dancer. Her second -dress “Nysa” or “Daphne.” She came in footing it, and singing a song in -“Midas.” Muslin and blue ornaments; a white chip hat and blue ribbons.” - -Several dancers had two costumes. Thus “Lord George Sutton. First a -Pilgrim; next a Peasant Dancer; pink and white. - -Miss Molly Peart: a Peasant Dancer; same colours as Lord George. - -Miss Peart: ‘Aurora’ Blue and White. The Moon setting on one side of her -head; the Sun rising on the other. - -Miss A. Peart: a Dancer; pink and silver.” - -Mr. and Miss Hales went as a Dutchman and “a Dutchwoman, brown and pink,” -and Mrs. Ellis as “a Polish Lady; pink and silver; a white cloak and a -great many diamonds.” - -Another classic lady to match ‘Aurora’ was “Miss Manners: ‘Diana’ her -vest white satin and silver; her robe purple lute-string; a silver bow -and quiver: her hair in loose curls, flowing behind, and a diamond -crescent on her forehead.” - -I should judge that the “Eyewitness” who wrote the account was a Mr. -Glover because of the minute particularity with which his own costume is -set forth, thus: “Mr. Glover: a Cherokee Chief; a shirt and breeches in -one, puffed and tied at the knees; a scarlet mantle, trimmed with gold, -one corner across his breast; scarlet cloth stockings; brown leather -shoes, worked with porcupine quills and deer’s sinews; a gold belt; gold -leather about his neck, and before like a stomacher, and over that a long -necklace and gorget; head-dress of long black horsehair, tied in locks of -coloured ribbons, a single lock hanging over his forehead; ear-rings red -and blue; plumes of black and scarlet feathers on his head; a scalping -knife tucked into his girdle; a tomahawk in his hand, and a pipe to smoke -tea with.” - -Mrs. Glover went in black and yellow as a Spanish lady. - -Then we have Henry the Eighth, a shepherdess, “a Witch with blue gown, -red petticoat and high crowned hat,” a friar in a mask, a Sardinian -knight, a Puritan, a sailor, “Lord Vere Bertie a very good Falstaff,” and -many Spaniards, among them “Dr. Willis: a Spaniard with a prodigious good -mask.” - - -THE NORTON DISNEY BRASS - -[Sidenote: NORTON DISNEY] - -_Norton Disney_ (= de Isigny, a place near Bayeux) was the home of a -family who lived here from the thirteenth century to nearly the end of -the seventeenth. - -[Sidenote: THE BRASS] - -The castle was in the field near the church, just across the road to the -west, but has quite disappeared, as has also the seventeenth century -manor-house. The church, which is well worth a visit, belonged to the -Gilbertines of Sempringham (_see_ Chap. IV.). The manor is now the -property of Lord St. Vincent, a title bestowed on Admiral Sir John Jervis -when he so handsomely defeated the Spaniards near the cape of that name -on the coast of Portugal in 1797. On opening the door you find that you -have to descend three steps into the church. Here the arcade consists -of two Norman arches, and one next the chancel smaller and of later -date. There are old carved benches without poppy-heads, and a very plain -old oak screen with rood stairs on the south side. The east window is -filled with stained glass in memory of the Lord St. Vincent who fell at -Tel-el-Kebir. The aisle has an old roof with carved bosses, and there is -a very deeply carved font. Outside, the look of the church is spoilt by -some very inharmonious additions, among these is the north chapel to the -chancel, inside which, on a rough brick floor, are the monuments which -give the church its interest; these are six in number, three to ladies. -One of them is a recumbent effigy in coif and wimple of “Joan d’Iseney,” -1300. One a curious sepulchral slab with the half-effigy of a lady at one -end and her feet showing at the other, with Norman French inscription -to “Joan Disney.” Another is the recumbent effigy of Hantascia Disney, -a name of frequent use in the family. Close to this on the ground is a -slab with the matrix of a fine brass of a knight under a canopy, while -another knight is on an altar tomb in the chancel. These are all of the -fourteenth century. But the most important is a brass of the sixteenth -century. This is a thick brass plate three feet by two, now set in an -oak frame and hinged so that one may see the reverse side on which is -engraved a long inscription in Dutch recording the foundation of a -chantry in Holland in 1518 by Adrian Ardenses and the Lady Josephine -Van de Steine. The face of this brass is divided horizontally into five -compartments, at the top is a pediment with a shield bearing the Disney -arms impaling those of Joiner in the centre, and on either side are -crests of the Disney and Hussey family—a lion passant regardant and a -stag couchant under a tree. The next compartment shows the half-length -figures with their names below of “Willm Disney Esquier” in armour -and helmeted, and “Margaret Joiner” his wife; he in profile, she -three-quarters face, they are kneeling at a faldstool with open books, -their hands joined in prayer, and between them on a scroll: “Sufferance -dothe Ease.” Behind him are four sons and behind her five daughters, all -with hands joined in prayer and with their names engraved on labels above -them. The next compartment shows three shields with the arms of Hussey, -Disney and Ayscough, in which Hussey has three squirrels sitting up, -Disney has three fleurs de lys, and Ayscough three asses coughing. In the -compartment below these are the half-length figures of Richard Disney, -full face in armour with very high shoulder-pieces, and his two wives who -are three-quarter face; and below are their names engraved thus: “Nele -daughter of Sr Wilton Husey Knyght, Richard Disney, Janne daughʳ of Sʳ -Wilton Ayscoughe Kᵗ.” Behind the first wife are ranged in two tiers her -seven sons and five daughters and their names were engraved above them. -“Sara, Ester, Judeth, Judet and Susan” are still there, but the sons’ -names are gone; a bit of the brass which held them, about six inches by -one and a half, having been cut out, in connection, it is said, with a -lawsuit arising out of Richard Disney’s will. They can be supplied from -Gervase Holles’ MS. as William, Humphrey, John, Daniel, Ciriac, Zachariah -and Isaac. - -The lowest compartment has this inscription:— - -“The lyfe, conversacion and seruice, of the first above named Willm -Disney and of Richard Disney his Sonne were comendable amongest their -Neigbours trewe and fathefull to ther prince and cutree and acceptable to -Thallmighty of Whome we trust they are receved to Saluation accordinge to -the Stedfast faythe which they had in and throughe the mercy and merit -of Christ oʳ Savior. Thes truthes are thus sette forthe that in all ages -God may be thankfully Glorified for thes and suche lyke his gracious -benefites.” - -[Sidenote: THE DISNEYS] - -No dates are given, but William Disney’s will was proved in 1540; Richard -Disney’s in 1578; and that of Jane, the second wife of Richard, in 1591. -She was the younger sister of Anne Askew, who was so cruelly burnt for -heresy at Smithfield in 1546, because she had read the Bible to some -poor folk in the cathedral. She had previously been married to George -St. Poll of Snarford, by whom she had a son. Canon Cole, in his “Notes -on the Ecclesiastical History of the Deanery of Graffoe during the 15th -and 16th centuries,” says that “such demi figures as these are rare in -the 16th century, and helmets are seldom seen on the heads of knights -at this date,” and he shows an engraving of the brass, which, of course, -cannot be earlier than 1578. Richard Disney was one of those who profited -most largely by the dissolution of the monasteries. His first wife, Nele -Hussey, was grand-daughter of the unfortunate John Lord Hussey, who was -beheaded in 1537. Early in the next century one branch of the Disneys -removed from Norton to the next parish of Carlton-le-Moorland, where -Ursula Disney’s burial on August 22, 1615, is in the register; and her -husband, Thomas, removed to Somerton Castle, three miles to the east, the -lease of which he bought from Sir George Bromley, but, having no issue, -he sold it again to Sir Edward Hussey. Canon Cole also notices that it -was while the Disneys were at Carlton that the very unusual event in -Elizabethan times, the rebuilding of a great part of the parish church, -took place. Churches, as a rule, were getting dilapidated, and the -archdeacon’s visitations, preserved in the bishop’s registry at Lincoln, -some of which go back to the time of Henry VII., show many presentments -for absence of service-books, decay of walls and roofs, or churchyard -fences. For instance, at Bassingham in 1601 the churchwardens are cited -“for that their churchyard fences toward the street are in manie places -downe, by reason whereof their churchyard is abused by swyne and such -unseemlie cattell.” - -The smiling youthful faces of the figures in this most remarkable brass, -and the modern-looking whiskers and beard and moustache, combined -with the helmet, give a singularly unancient look to the wearers, and -irresistibly call to mind what one has so often seen of late in the -twentieth-century pageants. - - -DODDINGTON HALL - -Between the road which runs west from Lincoln to Saxilby, and the old -Roman Foss Way from Lincoln to Newark, which went on by Leicester, -Cirencester, and Bath to Axminster, a tongue of Nottinghamshire runs -deep into the county. South of this and north of the Foss Way are a few -villages of no particular importance, amongst them _Eagle_, which was -once a preceptory of the Knights Templars. But here also, within six -miles of Lincoln, is _Doddington_. This deserves especial mention for its -fine Elizabethan hall, which is still very much as it was three hundred -years ago. - -[Sidenote: DODDINGTON HALL] - -The station of Doddington and Harby is just over the border, and Harby -village is in Nottinghamshire. A statue over the doorway in the church -tower commemorates the fact that Here Queen Eleanor died. Edward I. was -holding a council at Clipston in Sherwood Forest in 1290 when the queen -was taken ill and was removed to the house of one of her gentlemen in -attendance who lived at Harby. After her death her heart was buried in -Lincoln Minster and her embalmed body was taken by stages to Westminster, -a beautiful cross being subsequently ordered to be set up at each resting -place, ten of the thirteen were either not completed or subsequently -destroyed, all those in the county being among the number. These were -at Lincoln, Grantham, and Stamford. The only three Eleanor crosses that -have survived the abominable destruction of all beautiful things from -which the country suffered, first at the hands of Henry VIII.’s minister -Cromwell, and then from the acts of Parliament passed by the iconoclasts -of the Reformation, and finally by the soldiery of the Civil War, are at -Northampton, Geddington, and Waltham. - -[Sidenote: AND ITS OWNERS] - -The first owner of Doddington Manor that we know of was one Ailric, in -Edward the Confessor’s time, who gave it as an endowment to the newly -built Abbey of Westminster. The family of Pigot held it under the abbot, -paying a rent of £12, and the estate remained with them till 1486, after -which Sir John Pigot, having no heir, his widow sold it to Sir Thomas -Burgh of the Old Hall, Gainsborough, and his family 100 years later sold -it, in 1586, to John Savile, M.P. for Lincoln; but when, seven years -later, he ceased to represent the town, he sold it to Thomas Taylor, for -many years registrar to the Bishops of Lincoln. He was a wealthy man, -and at once set to work to build the present hall, which was finished in -1600. It is built of red and black brick with stone quoins and mullions, -and is approached by a stone gateway with two brick storeys above it and -three gables. It stands between two quadrangles, with gardens in that on -the west, and with a cedar-planted lawn on the east, and the E-shaped -house is surmounted by three octagonal brick turrets with leaden cupolas. -It is 160 feet long and seventy-five feet deep on the wings. There is no -superfluous ornament, all being solidly plain but harmonious outside, -and with fine stately rooms inside. The hall is fifty-three feet by -twenty-two, and the long gallery on the third floor ninety-six feet by -twenty-two, the house being all one room thick. A good deal of internal -decoration—oak panels, a staircase, and marble chimney-pieces, and heavy -architraves over the doors—was the work of Lord Delaval about 1760. The -pictures are numerous, mostly family portraits, one being of Lord Hussey -of Sleaford, beheaded after the Lincolnshire rebellion, 1536. At the -south end of the long gallery is a group by Sir Joshua Reynolds. - -Thomas Taylor died in 1607, and his son in 1652, when the estate devolved -on his niece, Lady Hussey of Honington. Her husband, whose great uncle -was the man beheaded by order of Henry VIII., was fined as a Royalist -in 1646 in the enormous sum of £10,200, of which £8,759 was actually -paid—half of it in his lifetime, and the rest by his widow and his -eldest son’s widow, Rhoda, who had for her second husband married Lord -Fairfax. The accession to her uncle’s estate at Doddington just two years -after she had cleared this huge debt on Honington must have been truly -welcome to Lady Hussey, but she only lived to enjoy it for six years, -and was succeeded by her grandson, Sir Thomas Hussey, who lived till -1706. Then his title passed to Sir Edward Hussey of Caythorpe and his -estate to his three daughters, the last of whom, Mrs. Sarah Apreece, by -will dated 1747, settled it on her daughter, Rhoda, the wife of Captain -Francis Blake-Delaval, R.N., who had large estates in Northumberland, -Seaton Delaval, Ford Castle near Flodden Field, and Dissington. The -estate remained with the Delavals till 1814, when Edward Hussey Delaval, -a learned man of science and an F.R.S., died, and was buried in the nave -of Westminster Abbey. Lord Delaval held the property for nearly forty -years and spent much on the house, but to spite his brother Edward he -had the meanness to cut down all the timber of any value. His youngest -daughter was the beautiful Countess of Tyrconnel who died in 1800, and to -her daughter he left Ford Castle. He himself died at the age of eighty at -Seaton Delaval, and was buried in the family vault in St. Paul’s Chapel, -Westminster Abbey. - -His brother Edward was only one year younger, but lived to the age of -eighty-five. Then, in 1814, Seaton Delaval went to his nephew, Sir Jacob -Astley, but Doddington to his widow and daughter, the latter of whom -became Mrs. Gunman. The mother survived the daughter, and in 1829 it was -found that they had left all their property to a friend, Colonel George -Ralph Payne Jarvis, who had served in the Peninsular War, and whose -grandson, Mr. G. Eden Jarvis, is the present owner. - - -KETTLETHORPE - -[Sidenote: KETTLETHORPE] - -The tongue of Nottinghamshire, mentioned above, runs into the county as -far as Broadholme, near Skellingthorpe, within five miles of the city. -The northern boundary of this tongue is the Saxilby road, between which -and the Trent is _Kettlethorpe_, which has an interesting history, though -the present hall was reconstructed in 1857 by Colonel Weston Cracroft -Amcotts, father of the present Squire of Hackthorn, who dropped the -name of Amcotts after his father’s death in 1883, and handed over the -Kettlethorpe estate to his brother Frederick, whose widow is now lady of -the Manors of Kettlethorpe and Stow. - -The name takes us back to the invasions of Ketil the Dane, and the old -spelling of Ketilthorp is therefore the correct one. - -In 1283 Sir John de Kewn was the owner. Later it passed to the De Cruce -or De Sancta Cruce or De la Croix or De Seynte Croix family. - -In 1356 John De Seynte Croix, son of William de la Croix, conveyed the -manor and advowson to Sir Thomas Swynford, Knight, one of a family who -had held land of the Darcys at Nocton in the thirteenth and fourteenth -centuries. - -Sir Hugh de Swynford was employed in his wars by John of Gaunt, son of -Edward III., and he died in 1371. His widow, Katharine, being placed in -charge of John of Gaunt’s children, became his mistress and had four -children by him who were afterwards legitimised, she took the name of -Beaufort, and of her sons one became Earl of Somerset, one Duke of -Exeter, one Bishop of Lincoln and of Winchester, and then Cardinal -Beaufort, whilst Joan became Countess of Westmorland. Katherine Swynford -was called “Lady of Ketilthorpe.” In 1394 John of Gaunt’s second wife, -Constance of Carlisle, died, and in 1396 he married Katherine at Lincoln, -and her title in Deeds of that time is “The Lady Katherine, Duchess of -Lancaster, Lady of Ketilthorpe.” Her father was Sir Payne (Lat. Paganus) -Roelt, and her sister Philippa is said to have been the wife of Geoffrey -Chaucer. - -John of Gaunt died in 1399 at Lincoln, and Katherine, dying four years -later, was buried on the south side of the Angel Choir, her son Henry -being at that time Bishop of Lincoln. Later, the tomb of her daughter, -who died in 1440, was placed near her. The tombs were defaced in the -Civil War. The Swynfords remained owners of Kettlethorpe for 150 years; -now only a fourteenth century gateway and a portion of the moat remain. - -[Sidenote: THE AMCOTTS FAMILY] - -Sir William Meryng was the next owner, and in 1564 it passed from the -Meryngs to John Elwes, who in 1588 conveyed it to W. Meekley, whose -successor sold it to Gervase Bellamy, of Luneham. He died in 1626, and -his heirs were his two daughters, _Mary_, who married Gervase Sibthorp -of Luneham, ancestor of the Sibthorps of Canwick, and _Abigail_, whose -husband, Charles Hall, became owner of Kettlethorpe. His son, Thomas, -married for his second wife the widow of Vincent Amcotts, of Harrington, -who had died in 1686, and their son left the property to his nephew -Charles Amcotts, of Amcotts, in the Isle of Axholme. He, in 1762, -purchased from Lord Abingdon the manor of Stow, once the property of the -Bishops of Lincoln. He enclosed the lordship, and, dying in 1777, his -two sisters inherited. The husband of the survivor of these sisters, -Wharton Emerson, of Retford, had assumed the name of Amcotts, and in -1797 was created a baronet. He died in 1807, and his daughter Elizabeth -married Sir John Ingilby, and their son, known as Sir William Ingilby -Amcotts, held both the Amcotts and Ingilby baronetcies inherited from his -grandfather Sir Wharton Amcotts, and from his father Sir John Ingilby. -He died in 1854 and the baronetcies died with him, but the estate passed -to his sister Augusta, wife of Robert Cracroft of Hackthorn, who took -the name of Amcotts. His son, Weston Cracroft Amcotts, was Member of -Parliament for Mid-Lincolnshire 1866-1874. He it was who reconstructed -the hall which Sir William Ingilby Amcotts had allowed to get into -disrepair, and rebuilt the tower of West Keal church, which had fallen. -He died in 1883, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Edward -Weston Cracroft of Hackthorn. - -For most of my facts about Kettlethorpe and Doddington I am indebted -to the exhaustive papers by Rev. Canon Cole, Prebendary of Lincoln, -contributed to the Lincoln Architectural Society’s Journal, to whom also -I owe valuable information about the brass at Norton Disney, which we -visited together, and also a pleasant and profitable hour in the minster. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -HERMITAGES AND HOSPITALS - - -SPITAL-ON-THE-STREET - - A little lonely hermitage it was, - Down in a dale, hard by a Forest’s side, - Far from resort of people that did pass - In travel to and froe: a little wyde - There was a holy chappell edifyde, - Wherein the hermite duly went to say - His holy things each morne and eventyde. - - SPENSER, _Faerie Queene_. I. I. 34. - -_Spital-on-the-Street_ is an ancient hospital situated twelve miles -north of Lincoln on the Roman Ermine Street, which had its origin in -a Hermitage. The Hermits or “Eremites,” dwellers in the Eremos or -wilderness, commonly placed their habitats in remote spots, though some -stationed themselves near the gates of a town where they could assist -wayfarers with advice and gather contributions at the same time for -their own support; others dwelt by lonely highways in order to extend -hospitality to benighted wayfarers. A hermitage on the “Ermine Street” -between Lincoln and the Humber would be of the latter sort. For the -Street runs in a bee line for two-and-thirty miles through an absolutely -tenantless country. Villages lie pretty continuously a few miles distant -on either side, but with the exception of Spital itself the Street passes -through nothing till it arrives within five miles of its termination. -The hermitage would therefore be a welcome asylum to a belated traveller -on a stormy night and the sound of the chapel bell, or the gleam of the -hermit’s rushlight through the darkness would be just salvation to him. -Probably such a picture was in Shakespeare’s mind when he wrote:— - - How far that little candle throws his beams! - So shines a good deed in a naughty world. - -The chapel attached to the hermitage was one of four churches in -Lincolnshire dedicated to St. Edmund King and Martyr.[4] A licence was -granted by Edward II. for land and rent to be appropriated by the Vicar -of Tealby for the payment of the chaplain; and, by a document signed -at Tealby in the year 1323 and witnessed by nearly all the dignitaries -of the Cathedral of Lincoln, the foundation was placed under the -jurisdiction of the Lincoln Dean and Chapter. Ten years later we find -the hermitage called “_Spital_-on-the-Street,” so that its uses had -already been enlarged, though we have no documentary evidence of this. -All we know of, is the building of a house for the chaplain by John of -Harrington in 1333. - -[Sidenote: THOMAS DE ASTON] - -In 1396 Richard II., “at the request of his dear cousin John de -Bellomonte, grants to Master Thomas de Aston, Canon of Lincoln, leave -to newly build a house adjoining the west side of the chapel of St. -Edmund the King and Martyr at Spitell o’ the Street, for the residence -of William Wyhom the Chaplain and of certain poor persons there resident -and their successors,” and before the end of the fourteenth century it -had buildings sufficient for the maintenance of these poor persons. As -such it escaped in Henry VIII.’s time, but in the sixteenth century the -property was seized by Elizabeth for her own use in the most barefaced -manner and sold by her. The Sessions for the Kirton division of Lindsey -were for many years held in the chapel, but subsequently it fell into -disrepair and was pulled down by Sir William Wray in 1594, and a new -sessions house built close by, on which was this Latin couplet, - - Hæc domus odit amat punit conservat honorat - Nequitiam pacem crimina jura bonos. - -In 1660 Dr. Mapletoft, of Pembroke College, Cambridge, being appointed -Sub-Dean of Lincoln and also Master of the Spital Hospital, at once -rebuilt the chapel and set to work to improve the revenue, and when he -became Dean of Ely in 1668, he retained his Mastership of Spital, and -so well did he and his next-but-one successor, Chancellor Mandeville do -their work, that, whereas it had sunk to a master and two poor persons to -whom he paid 2_s._ each, they restored it to its complement of seven poor -people and bought land for it, which so increased in value that, when -the Charity Commissioners took the Spital in hand in the reign of Queen -Victoria, the revenues were estimated at £959, which was nearly all of it -being misappropriated. - -[Illustration: _Wykeham Chapel, near Spalding._] - -[Sidenote: THE NEW SCHEME] - -[Sidenote: MAPLETOFT’S INSCRIPTION] - -In 1858 a new scheme was drawn up, and now seven alms-people of each sex -receive £20 a year, and besides other annual payments £5,500 has been -spent out of the Spital funds on the Grammar School at Lincoln and on -founding and maintaining a middle-class school at Market-Rasen called -after the Spital’s founder _The De Aston School_. Of the old hospital -at Spital only the chapel built by Mapletoft in 1662 remains; a plain -structure with its east end to the road where the entrance door is, the -altar being at the west end. Below the small square bell-cot is a stone -bearing this inscription:— - - Fui Aᵒ Dni 1398 ⎫ - Non Fui 1594 ⎬ Domus Dei et Pauperum - Sum 1616 ⎭ - - Qui hanc Deus hunc destruat. - G.P. 1830. - -This means:— - - I was in 1398 ⎫ - I was not in 1594 ⎬ The House of God and of the poor - I am in 1616 ⎭ - - Whoever destroys this house may God destroy him. - -This means that it was founded by De Aston as a chantry and hospital in -1398,[5] pulled down by Wray in 1594 and rebuilt by Mapletoft in 1661. -The mason who carved the date has transposed the two last figures in 1661. - -G.P. should be J.P. for John Pretyman, the last “Master.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -ROADS NORTH FROM LINCOLN - - Kirton-in-Lindsey—The Carrs—Broughton—Brigg—The North - Wolds—Worlaby—Elsham—Saxby-All-Saints—Horkstow—South - Ferriby—Barton-on-Humber—St. Peter’s and St. Mary’s—Greater - care of Churches. - - -Of the three roads north from Lincoln we have spoken of the road on the -ridge which is the continuation of the Cliff road on which we travelled -from Navenby to Lincoln. The view is the notable thing on this road, for, -though it looks down on a series of small villages below its western -slope, Burton, Carlton, Scampton, Aisthorpe, Brattleby, Cammeringham, -Ingham, Fillingham, Glentworth, Harpswell, Hemswell, Willoughton, -Blyborough and Grayingham, all in a stretch of fourteen miles, it passes -through nothing of importance but _Kirton-in-Lindsey_. This Kirton is -a very old place, the manor being once held by Piers Gaveston, the -favourite of Edward II., and later by the Black Prince. The office of -Seneschal was filled at one time by the Burgh family of Gainsborough. -The church is an interesting one, and has a richly carved and moulded -west doorway. Leading from the nave to the tower is a very massive double -Early English arch, resting on a large circular pillar, and two thick -responds. The south doorway is like the western one, richly carved with -tooth moulding. The porch is used as a baptistry. On the north wall of -the nave is a wall-painting representing the seven sacraments and blood -flowing from the crucified Saviour to each. - -[Sidenote: “CLIFF” AND “CARR”] - -The road east of Ermine Street goes through any number of villages, for -it goes on the low ground, and each parish runs up to the Ermine Street -and has its portion of high ground or “cliff.” Normanby Cliff, Owmby -Cliff, Saxby Cliff, etc., and from the west side each village does the -same, so that we have in succession Brattleby, Ingham, and Hemswell -Cliff. The winds on the ridge apparently, which “extirpated” the church -of Boothby Graffoe, have always deterred people from building on the -height; but none of the places on this low road which occur regularly at -intervals of two miles are of any special importance except Glentham, -which will be noticed later. We will therefore run along the middle -road, the grand old Roman Street, which begins at Chichester and, as -seen on the map, goes through the county north of Lincoln as straight as -an arrow for over thirty miles. At the twelfth mile we pass Spital, and -when, after eighteen miles we get to the latitude of Kirton-Lindsey on -the cliff road, we shall find that the branch road to the right, which -goes to Brigg, takes all the traffic, and the Ermine Street for seven or -eight miles is disused. So, turning off, we pass _Redbourne_ Hall and -_Hibaldstow_, the place of St. Higbald, who came to Lincolnshire across -the Humber with St. Chad to bring Christianity to the Mercians in the -seventh century. This parish runs up to the ridge, and in the middle of -it is an old camp at Gainsthorpe on the “Street.” At Scawby Park, with -its fine lakes, the property of the Sutton-Nelthorpes, we turn eastwards -and reach Brigg. This, once a fishing place on the Ancholme River, is now -the one market town of all this low-lying neighbourhood. Roads from the -four villages of _Scawby_, _Broughton_, _Wrawby_ and _Bigby_ unite here, -and the great Weir Dyke or “New River Ancholme” which runs from the river -Rase to the Humber goes through it. It is eleven miles from Bishopsbridge -on the Rase to Brigg, and seven from Brandy Wharf, whence boats used to -run to meet the Humber boats at Ferriby Sluice, ten miles north of Brigg. -Hereabouts the fens are called “carrs.” We noticed the term “carr dyke” -for the Roman drain near Bourn, which runs from the Nene to the Witham; -and the map along the whole course of the Ancholme, which runs north for -twenty miles, is covered with “carrs.” The villages are at the edge of -the Wold generally, but they all have their bit of fen and all are called -by this name, Horkstow carrs, Saxby carrs, Worlaby carrs, Elsham carrs, -etc. - -_Carr_ is a north country word, and has two distinct meanings in -Lincolnshire. - -1. The moat-like places which originally surrounded the inaccessible -islets, with which the Fenland at one time abounded; but now used chiefly -of low-lying land apt to be flooded. - -2. A wood of alder, ash, &c., in a moist boggy place, _e.g._, “Keal -Carrs,” near Spilsby. - -A third meaning is less common, viz., the humate of iron or yellow -sediment in water which flows from peaty land. - -[Sidenote: BROUGHTON AND BRIGG] - -Of the four parishes above mentioned which meet at Brigg,[6] _Broughton_ -on the Ermine Street is worth a visit. The pre-Norman church and -tower, like _Marton_, has a good deal of herring-bone work, and, like -_Hough-on-the-Hill_, an outer turret containing a spiral staircase. There -is a small rude doorway, and as at Barton, the tower with its two apses -probably formed the original church. - -The present nave is built on the Norman foundation, and the cable -moulding is visible at the base of two of the pillars. There is a chapel -in the north aisle, and on the north side of the chancel a good altar -tomb with alabaster effigies of Sir H. Redford and his wife, 1380, and -a fine brass on the floor of about the same date. This chancel was once -sixteen feet longer. In another meanly built chantry is a monument to -Sir Ed. Anderson, 1660. In Broughton woods, as at Tumby, the lily of the -valley grows wild. North of Broughton the Ermine Street becomes again -passable, and, after running some miles through a well-wooded country, -is crossed by the railway at Appleby Station, whence it becomes a good -road again, but again falls into disuse when the road turns to the left -for _Winterton_, a large village in which three fine Roman pavements were -ploughed up in 1747. Here we have a large cruciform church with a very -early tower. Afterwards the Street continues, a visible but not very -serviceable track, to _Winteringham Haven_, the Roman “Ad Abum.” - -[Sidenote: OLD BOAT OF BRIGG] - -In _Brigg_ we had hoped to see the old boat which was dug out near the -river in 1886, it is forty-eight feet long and four to five feet wide, -hollowed out of a single tree, and could carry at least forty men over -the Humber, though not perhaps across the sea. Its height at the stern -was three feet nine inches, and it was six inches thick at the bottom. -The tree trunk was open at the thick or stern end, and two oak boards -slid into grooves cut in the sides and bottom to make a stern-board. -It probably had bulwark-boards also, certainly it had three stiffening -thwarts, and the stern end had been decked, as a ledge still shows on -either side on which the planking rested. One very interesting feature -in it was that the boat had been repaired, with a patch of oak boarding -six feet by one foot, on the starboard side, the board being bevelled -at the edges and pegged on with oak pins. A similar boat made out of a -huge oak tree is in the portico of the British Museum. In this, which is -fifty feet long and four feet wide, tapering off a little at either end, -both the ends and two thwarts are left solid. The latter are not more -than six inches high, but sufficient to add considerably to the strength -of the hull. The boat is three inches thick at the gunwale and possibly -more at the bottom, and has no keel. But this most interesting relic of -Viking days has been removed from Brigg, for what reasons I know not, to -the Museum at Hull, and is no longer in the county. A British corduroy -road or plank causeway was also found below the mud from which the boat -was dug out, and is therefore probably of greater age, though such a -mud-bearing stream as the Humber can make a considerable deposit in a -very short time. This fact is illustrated by the process of “warping,” -which is described in the chapter on the Isle of Axholme. - -_Brigg_, without its old boat, has little to detain us, so we can pass to -_Wrawby_, and then desert the main road, which goes east through a gap in -the Wold to _Brocklesby_, and turn northwards to _Elsham_, where we come -up against the most northerly portion of the “Wolds” as distinguished -from the “Cliff” or Ridge which lies more to the west. The main road -or highway to _Barton_ runs right up the hill and crosses the Wold -obliquely, and, as usual, being on the high ground, exhibits no villages -in the whole of its course, but we will turn sharp to the left and take a -byway which goes by “the Villages” of which we shall pass through no less -than half a dozen in the six miles between Elsham and the Humber. - -At _Elsham_ is the seat of Sir John Astley. The church has a rich tower -doorway with curious sculptured stones on either side. - -[Sidenote: SAXBY AND HORKSTOW] - -Any road which runs by the edge of a curving range of hills is sure -to be picturesque; and the continuation of the Wolds south of Elsham, -after the Barnetby Gap, where the railway line gets through the Wolds -without tunnelling, with the string of villages all ending in “by,” -Bigby, Somerby, Searby, Owmby, Grasby, Clixby, Audleby, and Fonaby, -which lead the traveller to _Caistor_, affords pleasant travelling. But -it does not come up in varied charm to this western edge of the Wold, -which goes farthest north, and ends on the plateau which overlooks -the Humber near _South Ferriby_. On this route the first village from -_Elsham_ is _Worlaby_, and whereas _Elsham_ had once a small house of -Austin Canons founded by Beatrice de Amundeville before 1169, and given -by Henry VIII. at the Dissolution to the all devouring Duke of Suffolk, -_Worlaby_ had its benefactor in John, first Lord Bellasyse, who founded -in 1670 a hospital for poor women, of which the brick building still -exists. The twisting road with its wooded slopes and curving hollows is -here extremely pretty. We next reach _Bonby_, and soon after come to -_Saxby All Saints_. This is a really delightful village, and evidently -under the care of one owner, for all the houses are extremely neat and, -with the exception of two proud-looking brick-built houses of the villa -type, all have tiled roofs and buff-coloured walls. That the village -is grateful to the landlord and his agent, and is also, like Mrs. John -Gilpin, of a thrifty mind, is quaintly testified by the inscription on -a drinking fountain in the village, with a semicircular seat round one -side of it which tells how it was set up “in honour of the 60ᵗʰ year of -Queen Victoria’s reign, and of Frederick Horsley, agent for 42 years -on Mr. Barton’s estate.” Each of these parishes extends up on to the -Wold, and down across the fen, and the map shows this and marks Saxby or -Elsham “Wolds” as well as Saxby or Elsham “Carrs”; and in each village a -signpost points west “to the bridge,” which goes over the land drain and -the Weir Dyke. - -In the next village of _Horkstow_, a big elm stands close to the gates -of the churchyard and parsonage. Here the fine air and the bright breezy -look of sky and landscape fill one with pleasure, and the snug way in -which the churches nestle against the skirt of the wold give a charming -air of peace and retirement. The church here is singular in its very -sharp rise of level towards the east. You mount up six steps from the -nave at the chancel arch, further east are two more steps and another -arch, and again further on, two more and another arch. It looks as though -the ground had been raised, for the capitals of the pillars on which -these last two arches rest are only four feet and a half from the floor. -The north arcade is transition Norman, the arches on the Norman pillars, -instead of round, being slightly pointed. - -[Sidenote: QUAINT EPITAPHS] - -A Colonel of the sixty-third regiment, who died in 1838, has a mural -tablet here, which tells us that “In the discharge of his publick -duties he was firm and just yet lenient, and as a private gentleman his -integrity and urbanity endeared him to all his friends.” This is almost -worthy to be placed beside that of the man who on ending “his social -career” is stated to have “endeared himself to all his friends and -acquaintances by the charm of his manner and his elegant performance on -the bassoon.” Curious, what things people used to think proper to put up -in churches! One of the oddest is at Harewood in Yorkshire, where, under -a bust of Sir Thomas Denison, who is represented in a wig, his widow -writes that “he was pressed and at last prevailed on to accept the office -of Judge in the Kings Bench, the duties of which he discharged with -_unsuspected integrity_.” Doubtless she meant with an integrity which was -above suspicion, but it reads so very much as if those who knew him had -never for a moment suspected him of possessing the virtue mentioned. For -other examples see Chapter V. - -After _Horkstow_ we come to _South Ferriby_, where a chalk road leads -along the edge of the cliff towards a little landing stage on the water’s -edge, giving a pretty view over the wide estuary to the Yorkshire -continuation of the Wold, and the little village of _North Ferriby_ -opposite. - -The church of South Ferriby, which is dedicated, as many coast churches -are, to St. Nicholas, the patron Saint of children and fishermen, has its -nave running north and south, and a bit railed off at the north end for -the altar, though that is now placed at the south end. - -The name suggests a ferry over the Humber, but the locality seems -to forbid this, for in no place is the Humber wider until you have -almost reached _Grimsby_, and from _Barton_ to _Hessle_, about three -miles further down stream, it is only about half the width, and there, -no doubt, there was a ferry. The reason of this great width is that -the Humber has made inroads here and washed away a good deal of land -which used to be between Ferriby Hall and the water. This being partly -deposited on the “old Warp” sand bank, once the breeding place of many -sea birds, has formed a permanent pasture there, now claimed by the Crown -and called “Reads Island.” - -[Sidenote: THE BARTON HOY] - -A hundred years ago the ‘hoy,’ a sloop-rigged packet, used to take -passengers from Barton Waterside Inn, just north of Barton, to Hull; and -Sir J. Nelthorpe notes in his pocket book, under date August 9th, 1793. -“arrived at Scawby after a very bad passage over the Humber, having been -on the water five hours, and at last forced to run on shore in Barrow -Haven, not being able to make Barton, owing to the negligence of the -boatmen in not leaving Hull in time; my horses, seven in number, remained -in the boat from four o’clock in the morning till seven at night, before -they could be landed.” - -Coming back from the Cliff Edge road, we turn up the hill for -_Barton-on-Humber_, and from the top of the Wold, which here comes to an -end, we get a really beautiful and extended view in all directions. But -we must now speak of Barton, with its two old churches. - - -BARTON-ON-HUMBER - -[Sidenote: BARTON-ON-HUMBER] - -_Barton-on-Humber_ had a market and a ferry when Domesday Book was -compiled, and was a bigger port than Hull. At the Conquest it was -given to the King’s nephew, Gilbert of Ghent, son of Baldwin Earl of -Flanders, whose seat was at Folkingham. The ferry is still used, and -the Hull cattle boats mostly start from Barton landing-stage, but most -of the passenger traffic is from the railway pier at New Holland, four -miles to the east. The town is a mile from the waterside. It has two -fine churches, of which St. Peter’s is one of the earliest in England; -curiously one of the same type of Saxon church is also at a Barton, -Earl’s Barton in Northants, and not far from it is another of similar -date, at Brixworth, which is held to be the most noteworthy of all the -early churches in England. Barnack and Wittering in the same county -are also of the same style and of the same antiquity, and at Dover, at -Bradford-on-Avon, and at Worth and Sompting in Sussex are others similar. -Stow, near Lincoln, Broughton near Brigg, and Hough-on-the-Hill, and -the two Lincoln towers and Bracebridge, are of similar age, but these -last, like Clee and so many in the neighbourhood of Grimsby, Caistor and -Gainsborough, have little but their tower or part of their tower left -that can be called Saxon, while at Stow, and some of the churches in the -other counties mentioned, there is more to see of the original building. - -The last restoration of St. Peter’s, Barton, in 1898, has put the church -into good condition and left the old work at the west end much as it was -a thousand years ago; probably the church at first was very like what we -may still see at _Brixworth_. The tower outside is divided into panels by -strips of stone, which go deep into the walls and project from the rubble -masonry, as at Barnack. This has been aptly termed “Stone carpentry,” but -cannot really be a continuation in stone of a previously existing method -of building with a wooden framework, such as we see in the half-timbered -houses of the south of England, because that method of building was -later. It is possibly a method imported from Germany; certainly the -double light with the mid-wall jamb came from Northern Italy to the -Rhenish provinces, and may have come on to England from thence. Hence it -has been termed “Teutonic Romanesque.” - -[Illustration: _The Avon at Barton-on-Humber._] - -[Sidenote: A SAXON CHURCH] - -[Sidenote: ST. PETER’S, BARTON] - -Of the four stages of the tower the lowest has an arcading of dressed -stone, as there is at Bradford-on-Avon, and on the east, south and west -sides a round-headed doorway, and on the north a triangular-headed one, -with massive “Long-and-Short” work. The next stage exhibits triangular -arcading with double lights and a massive baluster and capital under a -triangular arch. The third stage has no arcading, but a similar two-light -window. The fourth stage is not Saxon but early Norman in style. From -the west of the tower projects a sort of annexe, fifteen feet by twelve, -of the same width as the tower and cöeval with it, having quoins of -“Long-and-Short” work, this is pierced with two small rude lights north -and south, and with two circular lights on the west. These circular -lights are of extraordinary interest, for they still have in them, -across the top of the upper opening and at the bottom of the lower one, -a portion of the old original Saxon oak shutter, perforated with round -holes to let in light and air, a thing absolutely unique. A chancel, -whose foundations have been recently discovered, projected from the tower -eastward, and just below the floor, near the north wall, is a curious -bricked chamber, which might have been a small tomb. - -[Illustration: _St. Peter’s, Barton-on-Humber._] - -[Sidenote: ST. MARY’S, BARTON] - -The tower has four doorways irregularly placed and all differing from -each other: it is fitted up for daily morning service, for which it has -been used intermittently for over a thousand years; for no doubt the -original church consisted simply of the tower and the two chambers east -and west of it. At present, from the interior of the spacious Decorated -nave, with its added Perpendicular clerestory, when you look up at the -west end and see the rude round-headed arches of the first and second -stages of the tower, and the double triangular-headed light of the next -stage, all of which come within the nave roof, you see at the same time -two deep grooves cut in the tower face for the early steep-pitched roof. -These start from the double light and finish by cutting through the -upright stone strips which run like elongated pilasters up the whole -height of the tower on either side. The tower and its annexe is of such -absorbing interest that one hardly looks at the rest of the church, or -stops to note its beautifully restored rood screen with a new canopy to -it, which serves to hide the wide ugly chancel arch. But we shall perhaps -be able to make up for this if we go on to St. Mary’s Church, which was -the church of the people of Barton, and served by a secular priest, St. -Peter’s being an appanage of Bardney Abbey. The churches both stand high, -and are quite near one another. St. Mary’s was a Norman building, as -the north arcade testifies; the south arcade was rebuilt in the Early -English period, to which the massive tower also belongs, the parapet -being later. Once the nave and chancel had a continuous roof till the -clerestory was added, and were of the same width, and built of brick and -stone intermingled and set anyhow. The four-light windows in the chancel -are handsome. The north arcade has five round arches, and one, at the -west end, pointed. The south arcade has only four arches, but larger and -with slenderer columns, consisting of eight light shafts round a central -pillar. On the south the chantry chapel extends the whole length of the -chancel, and has beside the altar an aumbry and, what is very unusual in -such a chapel, sedilia. The aisles are wide and out of proportion to the -building in both churches. The east window is white, with one little bit -of old glass in it, and on the floor is a full-sized brass of Simon Seman -Sheriff of London, in Alderman’s gown. Some Parliamentarian soldiers’ -armour is in the vestry of St. Peter’s. There are also two fine oak -chests, one hollowed out of a section of a large tree with the outer slab -of the tree several inches thick as a lid. A similar, but smaller, chest -is in Blawith church vestry, near Coniston Lake, Lancashire.[7] - -[Illustration: _St. Mary’s, Barton-on-Humber._] - -[Sidenote: INTEREST IN CHURCH HISTORY] - -In Barton St. Peter’s the Rector has provided a very full account of -the history of the church, for which all who visit it must be extremely -grateful. - -It is very pleasant to find that the number are so decidedly on the -increase of clergymen who take an interest in the past history of their -churches, and write all they can find out about them, either in their -parish magazines or in a separate pamphlet. Some of these, too, take -pains with their old registers, and if only the rector, or someone -in the parish whom he could trust to do the work with skill, care, -and knowledge, would copy the old sixteenth and seventeenth century -registers in a clear hand, the parish would be in possession of the most -interesting of all local documents in a legible form, and the originals -could be safely housed in a dry place, which is by no means the case with -all of them at present, and no longer be subjected to the wear and tear -of rough handling and the decay from damp which has been so fatal to the -earliest pages of most of them. - -The printing and placing more frequently in the church of a card, -pointing out the salient features and giving what is known of the -history of the building, would also be a boon to those visitors who know -something of architecture, and would stimulate a taste for it in others, -and a respect for old work, the lack of which has been the cause of so -much destruction under the specious name of restoration in the earlier -half of the past century. Things are much better now than they were -two generations ago, but ignorance and want of means may still cause -irreparable damage, which, if the above suggestion were universally -carried out, would become less and less possible. - -[Sidenote: CHURCH PATRONAGE] - -Amongst those who take the greatest interest in their churches I am -especially indebted to the Rev. G. G. Walker, Rector of Somerby near -Grantham, the Rev. Canon Sutton, of Brant Broughton, the Rev. F. -McKenzie, of Great Hale near Sleaford, and the Rev. C. H. Laing, of -Bardney, who has done such good work in the excavation of the famous -abbey. The writer, too, of letters in _The Spilsby and Horncastle -Gazette_, on town and village life in Lincolnshire, brings together much -interesting information. From him I gather that as far back as 668, -when Theodore was Archbishop of Canterbury, local provision was made -for the village clergy who were then, of course, but few in number. His -wise arrangement, that those who built a church should have the right -of choosing their pastor, initiated the system of private patronage -and thereby encouraged the building and endowing of churches, so that -it is not surprising to hear that in Domesday Book—400 years later than -Theodore’s time—the county of Lincolnshire had no less than 226 churches. -The original patron often gave the right of presentation to an abbey, -which was a wise plan, as it ensured to the people a pastor, and to the -pastor an adequate means of living, and provided for the building and -upkeep of the church, which was often larger than the population of the -village warranted either then or since. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -THE NORTH-WEST - - Winteringham—Alkborough and “Julian’s - Bower”—Burton-Stather—Scunthorpe and Frodingham—Fillingham - and Wycliff—Glentworth and Sir Christopher - Wray—Laughton—Corringham—Gainsborough—The Old Hall—Lea and Sir - Charles Anderson—Knaith and Sir Thomas Sutton—A Group of Early - Church Towers—Lincolnshire Roads. - - -It is quite a surprise to the traveller in the north of the county to -find so much that is really pretty in what looks on the map, from the -artistic point of view, a trifle “flat and unprofitable,” but really -there are few prettier bits of road in the county than that by “the -Villages” under the northern Wolds, and there is another little bit of -cliff near the mouth of the Trent which affords equally picturesque bits -of village scenery combined with fine views over the Trent, Ouse, and -Humber. - -From _South Ferriby_ a byway runs alongside the water to _Winteringham_, -from whence the Romans must have had a ferry to _Brough_, whence their -great road went on to the north. - -In _Winteringham_ church there are some good Norman arches, and a fine -effigy of a knight in armour, said to be one of the Marmions. The road -hence takes us by innumerable turns to _West Halton_, where the church -is dedicated to St. Etheldreda, who is said to have hidden here from her -husband Ecgfrith, when she was fleeing to Ely, at which place she founded -the first monastery, in 672, six years before the building of the church -at Stow. Murray notes that in the “Liber Eliensis” Halton is called -Alftham. - -Three miles to the south-east we find the large village of _Winterton_, -just within a mile of the Ermine Street, and it is evident that a good -many Romans had villas on the high ground looking towards the Humber, -for both here and at _Roxby_, a mile to the south, good Roman pavements -have been found, and another, four miles to the east, at Horkstow. -Roxby church shows some pre-Norman stone work at the west end of the -north aisle, and a fine series of canopied sedilia in the chancel, with -unusually rich and lofty pinnacles. At _Winterton_ a Roman pavement -was noticed by De la Pryme in 1699, and another with a figure of Ceres -holding a cornucopia was discovered in 1797. The churchyard has an -Early English cross, and the tower, which is engaged in the aisles, is -of the primitive Romanesque type, with the Saxon belfry windows in the -lower stage, and elegant Early English ones above. An early slab is -over the west door, the nave has lofty octagonal pillars with bands of -tooth ornament. The transepts are unusually wide and have rich Decorated -windows. A Holy Family, by Raphael Mengs, forms the altarpiece. - -[Sidenote: MAZES] - -From here we go west to _Alkborough_, and on a grassy headland -overlooking the junction of the Trent with the Ouse, we find a -saucer-shaped hollow a few feet deep and forty-four feet across, at -the bottom of which is a maze cut in the turf by monks 800 years ago. -It is almost identical in pattern with one at Wing, near Uppingham, -in Rutland, and unlike those “quaint mazes on the wanton green” -mentioned in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which “for lack of tread are -undistinguishable,” it has been kept cleared out, and a copy of it laid -down in the porch, as we find to be done on one of the porch piers at -Lucca Cathedral, and in the nave of Chartres Cathedral. These mazes -were Christian adaptations of the Egyptian and Greek labyrinths, and -were supposed to be allegorical of the mazes and entanglements of sin -from which man can only get free if assisted by the guiding hand of -Providence, or of Holy Church. Hence in a Christian Basilica in Algeria -the words “Sancta Ecclesia” are arranged in a complicated fashion in -the centre of the maze. Other mazes used to exist at Appleby, Louth, -and Horncastle in Lincolnshire, and at Ripon one of the same pattern, -but half as large again as the Alkborough maze, was only ploughed up -in 1827. At Asenby in Yorkshire is a similar one still carefully kept -clear. That on St. Catherine’s Hill, Winchester, is quadrangular and much -simpler. At Leigh in Dorset is a “Miz Maze.” Northants, Notts, Wilts, -Beds, Cambridge, and Gloucestershire, all had one at least. _Comberton_ -in Cambridge has one of precisely the same pattern, and at _Hilton_, in -Huntingdonshire, is one called by the same name as that at Alkborough, -“Julian’s bower.” This is thought to be a reminiscence of the intricate -‘Troy’ game described in Virgil, _Aen._ v., 588-593, as played on -horseback by Iulus and his comrades:— - - “Ut quondam Creta fertur Labyrinthus in alta - Parietibus textum caecis iter, ancipitemque - Mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi - Falleret indeprensus et irremeabilis error. - Haud alio Teucrum nati vestigia cursu - Impediunt texuntque fugas et proelia ludo.” - -And the fact that a labyrinthine figure cut in the turf near Burgh on -the Solway by the Cumberland herdsmen was called “the walls of Troy” -somewhat favours the interpretation. But it seems rather a far-fetched -origin. Doubtless they served as an innocent recreation for the monks who -lived at St. Anne’s chapel hard by, and the idea of such labyrinthine -patterns is found in many churches abroad, for they are executed in -coloured marbles, both in Rome and in the Early church of St. Vitale at -Ravenna. The mazes formed of growing trees, as at Hampton Court, are more -difficult to make out, as you cannot see the whole pattern at one time. - -[Sidenote: ALKBOROUGH] - -The church at _Alkborough_ was, like Croyland, a bone of contention -between the monks of Spalding and Peterborough, each claiming it as a -gift from the founder Thorold, in 1052. Tradition says that it was partly -rebuilt by the three knights, Brito, Tracy, and Morville, who had taken -refuge in this most remote corner of Lincolnshire, where one of them -lived, after their murder of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The original -Early tower and tower-arch remain, and a fragment of a very early -cross is now to be seen by the north pier. One of the bells has this -inscription:— - - “Jesu for yi Modir sake - Save all ye sauls that me gart make.” - -[Sidenote: BURTON-STATHER] - -In the village is a really beautiful old Tudor house of brick, with stone -mullions, called Walcot Old Hall, the property of J. Goulton Constable, -Esq. The little isolated bit of chalk wold which begins near Walcot is -but four miles long, and in the centre of it is perched the village -of _Burton-Stather_. The church stands on the very edge of the cliff, -and a steep road leads down to the Staithe, a ferry landing stage, from -which the village gets its name. Here, at a turn in the road, close to -the village pump, still in universal use by the road side, we stopped -to admire the wide and delightful view. The Trent was just below us. -_Garthorpe_, where the other side of the ferry has its landing place, -was in front, across the Trent lay the _Isle of Axholme_, green but -featureless, and beyond it the sinuous Ouse, like a great gleaming snake, -with the smoke of Goole rising up across the wide plain, and beyond the -river, Howden tower; while, on a clear day, Selby Abbey and York Minster -can be seen from the churchyard. We leave the village by an avenue of -over-arching trees, and cross the Wold obliquely, passing Normanby -Hall, the residence of Sir B. D. Sheffield, many of whose ancestors are -buried in Burton-Stather church, and leaving the height, descend into a -plain filled with smoke from the tall chimneys of the _Scunthorpe_ and -_Frodingham_ iron furnaces. To come all at once on this recent industrial -centre is a surprise after the bright clear atmosphere and keen air -in which we have been revelling all day. But we soon leave the tall -chimneys behind and find that the road divides; the left passing over -to the “Cliff” at _Raventhorpe_ near _Broughton_ on the Ermine Street, -and continuing south past _Manton_, where the black-headed gull, “_Larus -Ridibundus_,” the commonest of all the gulls on the south coast of -England, breeds on land belonging to Sir Sutton Nelthorpe of Scawby, to -_Kirton in Lindsey_, and so by _Blyborough_, _Willoughton_, _Hemswell_, -and _Harpswell_, to _Spital-on-the-Street_; and thence by _Glentworth_ -and _Fillingham_ to Lincoln. - -Of these places _Blyborough_ is curiously dedicated to St. Alkmund, -a Northumbrian Saint, to whom also is dedicated a church founded in -the ninth century by the daughter of Alfred the Great in Shrewsbury. -_Willoughton_ once had a preceptory of the Templars, founded in 1170. - -_Harpswell_ in its Early Norman, or possibly pre-Norman, tower has a -mid-wall shaft carved with chevron ornament, similar to that in the upper -of two sets of early double lights on the south side of the tower of -Appleton-le-Strey near Malton in Yorkshire. It also possesses a clock -which was given in memory of the victory at Culloden, 1746. Moreover it -contains several fine monuments; but _Glentworth_ and _Fillingham_ are -of more interest than all these. _Glentworth_, for its very interesting -church, and _Fillingham_, because from 1361 to 1368 it was the home of -the great John Wyclif, who held the living as a ‘fellow’ of Balliol -College, Oxford. - -[Sidenote: WYCLIF] - -Wyclif was made Master of Balliol in 1360, and became rector of -Fillingham in the same year. In 1368 he moved to Ludgershall in Bucks, -and in 1374 to Lutterworth, where he died on December 31, 1384. He was a -consistent opposer of the doctrine of transubstantiation, for which he -was condemned by the University of Oxford; and he renounced allegiance to -the Pope, who issued no less than five Bulls against him. The Archbishop -of Canterbury persecuted him in his latter years, and forty-four years -after his death his bones were exhumed and burnt by order of the Synod of -Constance, and the ashes cast into the Swift. He made the first complete -translation of the Bible into English from the Vulgate, and in this he -was assisted by Nicolas of Hereford, who took the Old Testament, Wyclif -doing the New. Chaucer, who died in 1400, thus describes him in his -Prologue to the “Canterbury Tales”:— - - A good man was ther of religioun, - And was a poure Persoun of a toun; - But riche he was of holy thought and werk. - He was also a lerned man, a clerk - That Christes gospel trewly wolde preche. - - Wide was his parische, and houses fer asonder, - But he ne lefte not for reyne ne thonder, - In sicknesse nor in mischiefe to visite - The ferrest in his parische, muche and lite, - Upon his feet, and in his hand a staf. - This noble ensample to his sheep he gaf, - That first he wrought and afterward be taughte. - Out of the Gospel he the wordes caughte - And this figure he added eek thereto, - That if golde ruste, what shal iren do? - - A better preest, I trowe, ther nowher non is, - He wayted after no pompe and reverence, - Ne maked him a spiced conscience, - But Christes lore, and his apostles twelve, - He taught, but first he folowed it himselve. - -[Sidenote: SIR CHRISTOPHER WRAY] - -_Glentworth_ has a typical pre-Norman tower, built of small stones with -dressed quoins. It has the two stringcourses, the first being two-thirds -of the way up from the ground with only thin slits for lights below it -and with the usual mid-wall shaft in the belfry window above it, but with -an unusual impost; a slab with a boldly-cut cross on it forms the jamb in -the light over the west window, and the south side shows ornamentation -similar to that which we noticed at Stow. Besides the tower, the -chancel-arch and a narrow priest’s door are all that remains of the Early -work. The monument to Sir Christopher Wray, who lived here from 1574 to -1592, is a very fine one. The judge is represented in his robes and hat, -with ruff, which his wife also wears, she having a hood and gown with -jewelled stomacher. Four daughters are figured kneeling below, while -the son kneels above in armour. Marble pillars with Corinthian capitals -support the arch over the recess in which the figures lie, and it was -once richly coloured and enclosed by a screen of wrought ironwork. - -The right hand road from Scunthorpe runs down the centre of the -plain half-way between the Cliff and the Trent, through a number of -villages. Of these _Ashby_ still maintains a Duck Decoy near the Trent. -_Bottesford_ has a fine cruciform church, with a handsome chancel, -having narrow deep-set lancet windows of unusual length, ornamented with -tooth moulding, a singular arrangement of alternate lancet and circular -windows in the clerestory, and stone seats round the Early English arcade -pillars, as at Claypole. _Messingham_, with its stained-glass and oak -furniture collected by Archdeacon Bailey from various churches in his -Archdeaconry and elsewhere, as also _Scotter_ and _Scotton_, are but -milestones on the way to _Northorpe_, where are two good doorways, one -Norman, and one, in the south porch, Decorated, with fine carved foliage, -and the old door still in use. The western bays of the arcade are built -into the walls of the Perpendicular tower, which has been inserted -between them. A sepulchral brass with inscription to Anthony Moreson, -1648, has been inserted into an old altar slab, shown as such by its five -crosses. Thanks to Mrs. Meynell Ingram the church of _Laughton_, three -miles west of Northorpe, was beautifully restored by Bodley and Garner in -1896. Here is a very fine brass of a knight of the Dalison (D’Alençon) -family, about 1400, which, like that of Thomas and Johanna Massingberd at -Gunby, has been made to serve again by a parsimonious Dalison of a later -century. - -Roads lead both from _Northorpe_ and _Laughton_ to _Corringham_. This -village is on the great east-and-west highway from Gainsborough to -Market-Rasen, and here, too, the fine Transition Norman church has been -magnificently restored by Bodley at the sole cost of Miss Beckett, of -Somerby Hall. It now has a fine rood-screen, good modern stained-glass -windows, and a painting of the adoration of the Magi for a reredos. There -is here a brass in memory of Robert and Thomas Broxholme, 1631, placed -by their brother and sister, Henry and Mary, who all had “lived together -above sixty years and for the most parte of the time in one family in -most brotherly concord.” A long rhymed epitaph goes on to say:— - - “Though none of them had Husband Child or Wife - They mist no blessings of the married life; - For to the poore they eva were insteed - Of Husband Wife and Parent at their need.” - -[Sidenote: GAINSBOROUGH] - -[Sidenote: “THE MILL ON THE FLOSS”] - -From _Corringham_ a turn to the right brings us after four miles to -_Gainsborough_. From this town on the extreme edge of the county four -roads and four railway lines radiate, and the Trent runs along the edge -of the town with a good wide bridge over it, built in 1790, for which a -stiff toll is demanded. It is described by George Eliot in “The Mill on -the Floss,” as “St. Oggs,” where the ‘Eagre’ or ‘bore’ is thus poetically -referred to. “The broadening Floss hurries on between its green banks -to the sea; and the loving tide, rushing to meet it, checks its passage -with an impetuous embrace.” Constantly overrun by the Danes, the town -was eventually looked on as his capital city by Swegen, who, with his -son Canute, brought his vessels up the Trent in 1013, and died here, -“full King of the Country,” in 1014. In the Civil War it was occupied -first by the Royalists and afterwards by the Parliamentarians, and one of -Cromwell’s first successful engagements was a cavalry skirmish at _Lea_, -two miles to the south, when he routed and killed General Cavendish, -whom he drove “with some of his soldiers into a quagmire,” still called -‘Cavendish bog.’ The place has some large iron works and several -seed-crushing mills for oil and oil-cake, and much river traffic is done -in large barges. Talking of barges, Gainsborough has the credit of having -owned the first steam-packet seen in Lincolnshire waters. This was the -‘Caledonia,’ built at Glasgow, and brought round by the Caledonian Canal, -to the astonishment of all the east coast fishermen, in 1815. She was a -cargo boat, but she took passengers to Hull, and was a great boon to the -villages on the Trent. - -[Illustration: _North Side, Old Hall, Gainsborough._] - -[Illustration: _South Side, Old Hall, Gainsborough._] - -[Sidenote: THE OLD HALL] - -River traffic below Gainsborough is somewhat hampered during the time -of spring tides by the Eagre, which, when the in-rushing tide overcomes -the river current and rides on the surface of the stream, rising in a -wave six or seven feet high, rolls on from the mouth of the Trent to -Gainsborough, a distance of more than twenty miles. The long street -leading to the bridge is so dirty and narrow that you cannot believe as -you go down it that you are in the main artery of the town. But when -you have crossed the bridge and look back, the long riverside with its -wharf and red brick houses, boats, and barges, has a very picturesque -and old-world effect. The great sight of the town is the Old Hall, -which stands on a grassy plot of some two acres, with a very poor iron -railing round it, and a road all round that. In the middle of this rough -grass-grown plot in the heart of the town is a charming old baronial -hall, rebuilt in the times of Henry VII. and Elizabeth, after its -destruction in 1470, and still occupied as a private residence. There was -doubtless a building here before the time of the Conquest, and here it -would be that Alfred the Great stopped on the occasion of his marriage -with Ethelwith, daughter of Ethelred, and here, too, it would be that -Swegen died, and his son Canute held his court. The present building is -of brick and timber with a fine stone-built oriel on the north side, as -the centre of a long frontage, and is of various patterns, having tall -chimneys and buttresses on the west, and a brick tower on the north-east, -and two wings on the south projecting from a magnificent central hall -with much glass and woodwork, and a lantern. The large kitchen with its -two huge fireplaces is at the end of this hall. Henry VIII. and Katharine -Howard were entertained here by Lord Burgh, whose ancestor rebuilt -the hall in Henry VII.’s time, _c._ 1480; and another of his Queens, -Katharine Parr, was often here, being at one time the wife of Lord -Burgh’s eldest son. - -[Sidenote: THE MASTER BUILDER] - -The wide area round the hall, with its untidy grass and the miserable -iron fence, gives a singularly forlorn appearance to a beautiful and -uncommon-looking building. It is supposed that the famous master-builder, -“Richard de Gaynisburgh,” was born at Gainsborough, with whom, then -styled “Richard de Stow,” the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln in 1306 -contracted “to attend to and employ other masons under him for the new -work,” at the time when the new additional east end or Angel Choir -as well as the upper parts of the great tower and the transepts were -being built. He contracted “to do the plain work by measure, and the -fine carved work and images by the day.” One of the Pilgrim Fathers was -a Gainsborough man, and a Congregational Chapel has been built as a -memorial to him. - -From Gainsborough, going north, we come at once to _Thonock_ Hall, the -seat of Sir Hickman Bacon, the premier baronet of England, and _Morton_ -is just to the west, where the church has a very good new rood screen -and five Morris windows, from designs by Burne-Jones. Between Morton -and Thonock is a large Danish camp, called Castle Hills, with a double -fosse. On the other side of the town the westernmost road of the county -runs south by _Lea_, _Knaith_, and _Gate Burton_ to _Marton_, and thence -to _Torksey_, which in early times was a bigger place than Gainsborough, -and so on to _Newark_, but another road branches off by _Torksey_ to the -left, for _Saxilby_ and Lincoln, twelve miles distant. - -[Sidenote: SIR CHARLES ANDERSON] - -_Lea_ church stands high, and has a chantry in which is a cross-legged -knight, Sir Ranulph Trehampton, 1300, and some good early glass of -about 1330. Of Trehampton’s manor-house only the site remains, but the -hall, which is full of antiquarian treasures, was the home of that -well-known Lincolnshire worthy Sir Charles Anderson, Bart., the county -antiquarian, 1804-1891. He was a charming personality. The following -story, referring to him, was told me by that delightful teller of good -stories, the Very Rev. Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester. At the time when -a railway was being cut (between Lincoln and Gainsborough probably, for -that passes through Lea), but at all events in a part of the county in -which Sir Charles took a great interest, he was visiting the works, when -an insinuating Irish navvy stopped and looked at him and then said, “So -you’re Sir Charles Anderson, are ye? Sure now there’s scores of Andersons -where I come from; there’s one now in Sligo, a saddler. Ach! he’s a good -fellow is that; the rale gintleman. He gives without asking.” Then, after -a pause, “You’ve a look of ’em.” The Andersons lived in Lincolnshire from -the days of Richard II., first at Wrawby then at Flixborough, temp. Henry -VII. - -[Illustration: _Gainsborough Church._] - -_Knaith_ is noticeable as being the birthplace, in 1532, of Thomas -Sutton, the founder of the Charterhouse in London, where he is buried. -The church has what is not at all common in English churches, a -baldacchino over the altar, but in fact it is not an ordinary church, -being just a part of an old Cistercian nunnery, founded by Ralph Evermue, -about 1180. - -[Sidenote: THE CHARTERHOUSE] - -Thomas Sutton was of Lincoln parents. He served in the army and was -made inspector of the King’s Artillery. Having leased some land in the -county of Durham, he proceeded to work the coal there, and became very -wealthy, in fact the wealthiest commoner in the realm, and with at least -£5,000 a year, so that he was able to give Lord Suffolk £13,000 for the -house then called Howard House in Middlesex, which had been the original -Charterhouse, founded in 1371 by Sir Walter Manney and dissolved in 1535. -This was in May, 1611. He wished to do something to benefit the nation, -but he left the details to the Crown. He died in December of the same -year, but his charity was arranged to support eighty poor folk, and to -teach forty boys, being, like Robert Johnson’s foundation at Uppingham, -both a hospital and a school. The hospital remains in its old buildings -in London, the school was moved in 1872 to Godalming, where it greatly -flourishes. - -A central road runs through the middle of the flat country, half-way -between the Lincoln-and-Gainsborough road and the Ridge. This takes us -from _Corringham_ by a string of small villages to _Stow_, and thence -by _Sturton_ to _Saxilby_, and so back to Lincoln. Of those villages -_Springthorpe_ and _Heapham_ both have the early unbuttressed towers, -described in Chapters XXII. and XXIII., the former with herring-bone -masonry, the latter, like Marton, is unfortunately covered with stucco. -In the next village of _Upton_ again we find herring-bone masonry; at -_Willingham-by-Stow_, the base of the tower is early Norman; so that -in spite of the ruthless way in which succeeding styles destroyed the -work of their predecessors, we have a large group in this neighbourhood -of churches whose early Norman or even Saxon work is still visible. At -_Sturton_ is a good brick church by Pearson, reminding one of that by -Gilbert Scott at Fulney, just outside Spalding. - -[Sidenote: LINCOLNSHIRE ROADS] - -A few years ago, when the first motor made its way into Lincolnshire, -the road from Gainsborough to Louth was one long stretch of small loose -stones. It had never even dreamt of a steam roller, and there were always -ruts for the wheels, and as Lincolnshire carriage wheels were set three -or four inches wider apart so that they could accommodate themselves to -the cart ruts, when we brought a carriage up from Oxfordshire it was -found impossible to use it till the axles had been cut and lengthened so -that it could run in the ruts. But this was a great improvement on the -days my grandmother remembered, when it took four stout horses to draw a -carriage at foot’s pace from Ingoldmells to Spilsby (and this was only -100 years ago), or when Sir Charles Anderson saw a small cart-load of -corn stuck on the road and thatched down for the winter there, doubtless -belonging to a small farmer who had but one horse, which could not draw -the load home. Mention is made in this chapter of Scunthorpe. The iron -workers there appear to be keen footballers, for I notice that there is -now (December, 1913) one family there of eleven brothers between the ages -of 18 and 43, ten of them experienced players, who challenge any single -family anywhere to play two matches, one at the home of each team. I -wonder if any family of eleven stalwart sons will be found to take them -on. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -THE ISLE OF AXHOLME - - Epworth and the Wesleys—“Warping”—Crowle—St. Oswald—St. - Cuthbert. - - -The _Isle of Axholme_, or Axeyholm, is, as the name when stripped of its -tautology signifies, a freshwater island, for _Isle_, _ey_ and _holm_ are -all English, Anglo-Saxon, or Danish, for “island,” and _Ax_ is Celtic for -water. The whole region is full of Celtic names, for it evidently was a -refuge for the Celtic inhabitants. Thus we have Haxey, and Crowle (or -_Cruadh_ = hard, _i.e._, _terra firma_), also _Moel_ (= a round hill), -which appears in Melwood. Bounded by the Trent, the Idle, the Torn, and -the Don, it fills the north-west corner of the county, and is seventeen -miles long and seven wide. The county nowhere touches the Ouse, but ends -just beyond _Garthorpe_ and _Adlingfleet_ on the left bank of the Trent, -about a mile above the Trent falls. The northern boundary of the county -then goes down the middle of the channel of the Humber estuary to the -sea. Once a marsh abounding in fish and water-fowl, with only here and -there a bit of dry ground, viz., at _Haxey_, _Epworth_, _Belton_ and -_Crowle_, it has now a few more villages on Trent side, and two lines of -railway, one going south from Goole to Gainsborough, and one crossing -from Doncaster by Scunthorpe and Frodingham to Grimsby. - -[Sidenote: TWO LINCOLNSHIRE MEN] - -An unfair arrangement was made by Charles I. by which the Dutchman -Vermuyden, the famous engineer who afterwards constructed the “Bedford -Level,” undertook to drain the land, some of which lies from three to -eight feet below high water-mark, he receiving one-third of all the land -he rescued, the king one-third, the people and owners only the other -third between them. This gave rise to the most savage riots; and the -Dutch settlement at _Sandtoft_, where it is said that the village is -still largely Dutch, was the scene of endless skirmishes, sieges, and -attacks. A good insight into the lawlessness of the time is obtained -from a book called “The M.S.S. in a Red Box,” published by John Lane. -The ancestors of Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk, whose banishment with -Bolingbroke in lieu of trial by combat, is described in the opening -scenes of Shakespeare’s “Richard II.,” had a castle in Norman times near -_Owston_, between Haxey and East-Ferry on the Trent: so that both the -would-be combatants were Lincolnshire men. - -Bolingbroke in the play is banished - - “till twice five summers have enriched our fields,” - -and Mowbray’s sentence is pronounced by the king in these words:— - - “Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom, - Which I with some unwillingness pronounce: - The fly-slow hours shall not determinate - The dateless limit of thy dear exile. - The hopeless word of never to return - Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.” - - _Richard II._, I. 3. - -Norfolk was banished in 1398, and died in Venice in the following year, -and in Act IV., Scene 1 of the play, when Bolingbroke announces that he -shall be “repealed”:— - - “and, though mine enemy, restored again - to all his lands and signories.” - -The Bishop of Carlisle answers:— - - “That honourable day shall ne’er be seen. - Many a time hath banished Norfolk fought - For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field, - Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross - Against black Pagans, Turks and Saracens; - And, toil’d with works of war, retired himself - To Italy; and there at Venice gave - His body to that pleasant country’s earth,[8] - And his pure soul unto his Captain Christ, - Under whose colours he had fought so long.” - -[Sidenote: THE WESLEY FAMILY] - -In the church of _Belton_ is a fine effigy of a knight in chain armour, -an hour-glass-stand on a pillar near the pulpit, as at Leasingham, and a -monument to Sir Richard de Belwood. _Temple Belwood_, in the centre of -the island, was a preceptory of the Knights Templars. _Epworth_ is the -chief town, and is famous as the birthplace of John Wesley. His father, -Samuel, was the rector of S. Ormsby when he published his heroic poem in -ten books on the Life of Christ, which caused him to be hailed by Nahum -Tate, the Laureate of the day, as a sun new risen, before whom he and -others would naturally and contentedly fade to insignificance. - - “E’en we the Tribe who thought ourselves inspired - Like glimmering stars in night’s dull reign admired, - Like stars, a numerous but feeble host, - Are gladly in your morning splendour lost.” - -Queen Mary, to whose “Most sacred Majesty” the poem was dedicated, -bestowed on him the Crown living of Epworth, to which he was presented -in 1696, two years after her death. But, though he owed his living to -the Whigs, rather than side with the dissenters, he voted Tory, and was -accordingly persecuted with great animosity by high and low, thrown into -prison for a debt, his cattle and property damaged, and in 1709 his home -burnt down, which made a deep impression on his six-year-old son John, -who never forgot being “plucked as a brand from the burning.” - -John, the fifteenth child, was the middle brother of three, who all had a -first-rate public school and university education, getting scholarships -both at school and college: John at Charterhouse, the others under Dr. -Busby at Westminster, and all at Christchurch, Oxford, whence John, at -the age of seventeen, wrote to his mother “I propose To be busy as long -as I live.” Eventually he became a Fellow of Lincoln. The whole family -were as clever as could be, and the seven daughters had a first-rate -education from their father and mother at home. Mrs. Wesley was a -remarkable woman, a Jacobite—which was somewhat disconcerting to her -husband, who had written in defence of the Revolution—and a person of -strong independence of spirit. Of her daughters, Hetty was the cleverest; -and she is the only one who gives no account of the famous “Epworth -Ghost,” which is significant, when both her parents and all her sisters -wrote a full account of it. Hetty’s poems are of a very high standard of -excellence, and it is more than likely that she wrote the verse part—for -it is partly in prose dialogue—of “Eupolis’ Hymn to the Creator,” which -is far better than anything else attributed to Sam Wesley. He died in -1735, and John, who had been curate to him at Epworth and _Wroot_ (the -livings went together), left the neighbourhood; and the place which had -been the home of one of Lincolnshire’s most remarkable families for -nearly forty years knew them no more. (_See_ Appendix I.) - -[Sidenote: JOHN WESLEY] - -Lincoln, however, saw John Wesley, for he preached in the Castle yard -in 1780, as his father had done seventy-five years earlier, when he was -spitefully imprisoned for debt. He was preaching at Lincoln again in -1788, and again in July, 1790, in the new Wesleyan Chapel. Eight months -later he died. His last sermon was preached at Leatherhead, February 23, -1791, and his last letter was written on the following day to Dr. John -Whitehead. He died on March 2, aged 88, having, as he said, during the -whole of his life “never once lost a night’s sleep.” A memorial tablet -to John and his brother Charles was placed in 1876 in Westminster Abbey. -But there is also a fine statue of him as a preacher in gown and bands, -showing a strong, rugged and kindly face, and at the base an inscription: -“The world is my parish.” This is in front of the City Road Chapel, which -he had built in Moorfields, and where he was buried, but not till 10,000 -people had filed past to take their last look at the well-known face as -he lay in the chapel. - -Dean Stanley visiting this once, said that he would give a great deal to -preach in the pulpit there, and when, to his query whether the ground was -consecrated and by whom, the attendant answered, “Yes; by holding the -body of John Wesley,” he rejoined, “A very good answer.” - -John Wesley himself had been denied access to Church of England pulpits -for fifty years, 1738-1788. Even when he preached at Epworth in 1742, it -was from his father’s tombstone; and in most cases his congregations, -which were often very large, were gathered together in the open air. -We hear of him preaching to a large assemblage in the rain at North -Elkington, on April 6, 1759; and also at Scawby, Tealby, Louth, Brigg -and Cleethorpes; but in June, 1788, he notes in his diary: “Preached in -church at Grimsby, the Vicar reading prayers (a notable change this), -not so crowded in the memory of man.” Each president of the Wesleyan -Conference sits in Wesley’s chair on his inauguration, and has Wesley’s -Bible handed to him to hold, as John Wesley himself holds it in his left -hand in the statue. - -[Sidenote: WARPING] - -We have alluded to the process of _warping_ which is practised in the -isle. The word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon _Weorpan_ (= to turn -aside); it indicates the method by which the tide-water from the river, -when nearly at its highest, is turned in through sluices upon the flat, -low lands, and there retained by artificial banks until a sufficient -deposit has been secured, when the more or less clarified water is turned -back into the river at low tide, and the process may be continuously -repeated for one, two, or three years. The water coming up with the -tide is heavily charged with mud washed from the Humber banks, and this -silt is deposited to the depth of some feet in places, and has always -proved to be of the utmost fertility. The process is a rather difficult -and expensive one, costing £10 an acre, but it needs doing only once in -fourteen years or so. A wet season is bad for warping, and 1912 was as -bad as 1913 was good. - -At _Crowle_ is a church of some importance, for in it is a bit of very -early Anglian carving, probably of the seventh century. It is part of -the stem of a cross, and has been used by the builders of the Norman -church as a lintel for their tower arch. On it are represented a man -on horseback (such as we see on the Gosforth cross, and on others in -Northumbria), some interlacing work and a serpent with its tail in its -mouth. Also two figures which I have nowhere seen accurately explained, -but explanation is easy, for if you go and examine the great Anglian -cross at Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire, you will find just such a pair -of figures with their names written over them thus: “S. Paulus et S. -Antonius panem fregerunt in Deserto.” The figures are so similar that -they would seem to have been carved by the same hand, and the cross at -Ruthwell can be dated on good evidence as but a year or two later than -that at Bewcastle, whose undoubted date is 670. - -[Sidenote: ST. OSWALD] - -The church is dedicated to _St. Oswald_, not the archbishop of York -who died in 992 and was buried at Worcester, but the sainted king of -Northumbria who died in battle, slain by Penda, King of Mercia, at -Maserfield, A.D. 642. His head, arms and hands were cut off, and set -up as trophies, but were afterwards kept as holy relics, the hands at -Bamborough, while one arm was for a time at Peterborough. The head was at -Bamborough, and later at Lindisfarne in St. Cuthbert’s Cathedral, where -the monks placed it in St. Cuthbert’s coffin. He had died in 687, and -this coffin, when the Danes pillaged the cathedral, was taken away by -the monks to Cumberland and carried by them from place to place in their -flight, according to St. Cuthbert’s dying wish; and from 690 to 998, when -it finally rested in the cathedral, it was kept in the coffin which is -now in Durham Library. For 100 years, 783 to 893, it rested at Chester, -and then passed to Ripon, and so to Durham, where it was enshrined and -visited by hundreds of pilgrims. The marks of their feet are plain to -see still. In 1104 the coffin was opened, and St. Oswald’s head seen in -it. In 1542 the shrine being defaced, the body was buried beneath the -pavement. In 1826 it was again opened, and some relics then taken out are -now in the Cathedral Library—a ring, a cup and patten, the latter about -six inches square, of oak with a thin plate of silver over it, and a -stole. This was beautifully worked by the nuns at Winchester 1,000 years -ago, and intended for Wulfstan, but on his death given by them to King -Athelstan, and by him to St. Cuthbert’s followers. - -[Sidenote: ST. CUTHBERT’S TOMB] - -The late Dean Kitchin described to me how, in company with a Roman -Catholic bishop and a medical man, he had opened what was supposed to -be St. Cuthbert’s tomb about the beginning of this century. The old -chronicler had related how he was slain in battle, how the body was -hastily covered with sand and afterwards taken up, and for fear of -desecration was carried about by the monks whithersoever they went, until -at last it was laid in a tomb, and a shrine built over it in Durham -Cathedral. He also said that the saint suffered from a tumour in the -breast, the result of the plague in 661, which latterly had got better. -It was known where the shrine was and the reputed tomb was close by. The -tomb slab was removed; beneath it were bones enough to form the greater -part of one skeleton, and there were two skulls. “What do you think of -that?” asked the dean; the bishop at once replied “St. Oswald’s head.” -The doctor then said, “This body has never been buried.” “How do you make -that out?” “Because the skin has not decayed but dried on to the limbs -as you see, as if it had been dried in sand,” just as tradition said. -“Also,” he said, “there is a hole in the breast here which has partly -filled up, evidence probably of a tumour or abscess which was healing,” -again just what the chronicler stated. One of the skulls showed a cut -right through the bone, like the cut of axe or sword, again corroborating -the story of the death of St. Oswald in battle. The whole account seemed -to me to be most interesting, and certainly it would be difficult to -obtain more conclusive proof of the veracity in every detail of the old -chronicler. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -THE NORTH-EAST OF THE COUNTY - - Thornton Curtis—Barrow—The Hull-to-Holland - Ferry—Goxhill—Thornton Abbey—Immingham—The New - Docks—Stallingborough—The Ayscough Tombs—Great - Cotes—Grimsby—The Docks—The Church, Cleethorpes—Legend of - Havelock the Dane. - - -We will now return to the north-east of the county. - -From _Brocklesby_ a good road runs north by _Ulceby_, with its -ridiculously thin, tall spire, and _Wootton_, to _Thornton Curtis_ and -_Barrow-on-Humber_. - -[Sidenote: THORNTON CURTIS] - -_Thornton Curtis_ is a place to be visited, because it possesses one -of the seven black marble Tournai fonts like those at Lincoln and -Winchester. This stands in a wide open space at the west end of the -church, mounted on a square three-stepped pedestal. The four corner -shafts, like those at Ipswich, are of lighter colour than the central -pillar and the top. The latter has suffered several fractures owing to -its having been more than once moved, and the base is much worn as if it -had been exposed to the weather. The sides are sculptured with griffins -and monsters, and on the top at each corner is a bird. Of the church -the groined porch has been renewed, but the doorway is old and good, -and part of the ancient oak door remains with the original fine hinges, -and a design in iron round the head of the door. On the floor near the -south-west corner of the church is a sepulchral stone slab with a half -effigy of a lady in deep relief showing at the head end. There is a fine -wide Early English tower arch, and the handsome arches of the nave are -borne on clustered pillars, which are all alike on the north side, but -of different patterns on the south side, and with excellent boldly cut -foliage capitals, the western capital and respond being especially fine. -The north aisle is very wide, and the church unusually roomy. The pine -roof and the oak seats were all new about thirty years ago. The light -and graceful rood screen is also new, and has deep buttress-like returns -on the western side, as at Grimoldby. The chancel has late twelfth -century lancets, one with a Norman arch, the others pointed, showing the -transition period; once the church was all Norman, but it was extended -westwards early in the thirteenth century. There are two charming -piscinas of the same period, with Norman pilasters and round-headed -arches, but the western one has had a later pointed arch, apparently put -on in more recent times. - -In the north aisle wall there are three arched niches for tombs, and on -the north side of the chancel outside is a wide Norman arch with a flat -buttress curiously carried up from above the centre of the archway, as in -the Jews’ House at Lincoln. Near the south porch is a mural tablet carved -in oak, with old English lettering, which reads thus:— - - In the yer yat all the stalles - In thys chyrch was mayd - Thomas Kyrkbe Jho Shreb - byn Hew Roston Jho Smyth - Kyrk Masters in the yer of - Our Lorde God MCCCCCXXXII. - -In the churchyard is half of the shaft of a cross, octagonal, with -rosettes carved at intervals on the four smaller sides. Like the font, it -is mounted on a broad, square three-stepped pedestal. - -At _Barrow_, two miles further north, there was once a monastery, -founded in the seventh century by St. Ceadda, or Chad, on land given by -Wulfhere King of Mercia. This is an interesting corner of the county. New -Holland, where the steam ferry from Hull lands you, is but three miles -to the north, and near _Barrow Haven_ station, between the ferry pier -and Barton, is a remarkable ancient Danish or British earthwork called -“The Castles”—a large tumulus-topped mound with a wide fosse, and with -other mounds and ditches grouped round it, which, when occupied, were -surrounded by marshes and only approachable by a channel from the Humber. -The claim that this is the site of the great battle of Brunanburh in 937 -cannot be looked upon as more than the merest conjecture. Both _Barton_ -and _Barrow_ have been claimed for it; and “Barrow Castles” might or -might not have had some connection with the great battle, which certainly -is referred to as near the Humber in Robert de Brunne’s chronicle, as -follows:— - - “He brought the King Anlaf up the Humber - With seven hundred ships and fifteen, so great was the number. - Athelstan here saw all the great host, - He and Edward his brother hurried to the coast. - At Brunnisburgh on Humber they gave them assault, - From Morning to Evening lasted the battle, - At the last to their ships the King gave them chase - All fled away, that was of God’s grace.” - -[Sidenote: THE HULL FERRY] - -The Great Northern Railway runs south from Holland pier to Ulceby, and -then splits right and left to Brigg and Grimsby; and here let me warn -anyone who thinks to bring a motor over by the ferry to or from Hull. The -sloping stage at New Holland is fairly easy, though the boats’ moveable -gangway is not provided with an inclined approach board, the simplest -thing in the world, but each car or truck has to bump on and off it -with a four-inch rise, and an extra man or two are required to lift the -wheels of each loaded truck on or off—a childishly stupid arrangement -which reflects no credit on the brains of the officers of the Central -Railway, who own the ferry service; but on the Hull side matters are much -worse, and I don’t think that any method of loading or unloading even in -a remote Asiatic port can be so barbaric and out-of-date as that which -the Central Railway provides for its long-suffering customers. To get a -motor on board from Hull is both difficult and dangerous; after threading -an intricate maze of close-set pillars a car has to go down a very steep -and slippery gangway, and when at the bottom has to turn at right angles -with no room to back, and across a moveable gangway so narrow that the -side railing has to be taken off and a loose plank added to take the -wheels; then, whilst the car hangs over the water on the slippery slope, -several men lift the front part round to the left and then, with a great -effort, drag the back wheels round to the right, and after filling up a -yawning gap between the slope and the gang-plank by putting a piece of -board of some kind, but with no fit, to prevent the wheel from dropping -through or the car going headlong into the sea, the machine is got on to -the deck; and then all sorts of heavy goods on hand-barrows are brought -on, four men having to hang on to each down the slippery planks, and -these are piled all round the motor, and all are taken off on the other -side with incredible exertions before the motor has a chance to move. -The crossing itself takes but twenty minutes, but the whole process of -getting on, crossing and getting off, occupied us two hours, and a really -big car would never have been able to get over at all. No one at the -Hull Corporation pier seems to know anything about the use of a crane -for loading purposes, and it is evident that passenger traffic with any -form of vehicle is not to receive any encouragement from this anything -but up-to-date railway company. Why do not the Hull Corporation insist on -something very much better? The parallelogram between the railway and -Humber, when it turns south opposite Hull, has a belt of marsh along the -river side, and because it was in old times so inaccessible, it contains -some fine monastic buildings. - -[Illustration: _Great Goxhill Priory._] - -[Sidenote: GOXHILL] - -[Sidenote: THORNTON ABBEY] - -Two miles west of Barrow is _Goxhill_. Here there is a fine church tower, -with a delicate parapet, and a mile south is the so-called “Priory,” -which was probably only a memorial chapel served by a hermit in the pay -of the De Spenser family. Murray gives this entry from the bishop’s -registers for 1368: “Thomas De Tykhill, hermit, clerk, presented by -Philip Despenser to the chapel of St. Andrew in the parish of Goxhill, on -the death of Thomas, the last hermit.” It is now a picturesque ruin of -two stories, the lower one vaulted and with three large Decorated windows -at the sides, and a large double round-headed one at the end, all now -blocked, the building being used for a barn. Two miles from this, and -near Thornton Abbey Station, is all that is left of _Thornton Abbey_. -A fine gateway, second only to that at Battle Abbey, and two sides of -a beautiful octagonal chapter-house, with very rich arcading beneath -the lovely three-light windows. Founded in 1139, for a prior and twelve -Augustinian canons, it became an abbey in 1149, and in 1517 a “mitred” -abbey, the only one in the county except Croyland. And these two are now -the most notable of all the monastic remains in Lincolnshire. One of -its abbots was said to have been walled up alive, and Bishop Tanner, in -his MS. account of the abbey, now in the Bodleian, says of Abbot Walter -Multon, 1443: “He died, but by what death I know not. He hath no obit, -as other Abbots have, and the place of his burial hath not been found,” -and Stukeley, 1687-1765, says that on taking down a wall in his time a -skeleton was found in a sitting posture, with a table and a lamp, but I -am glad to think that though the tradition is not infrequent,—probably as -an echo from the days of the Roman Vestal Virgins—there is no positive -evidence of anyone ever being immured alive; though an inconvenient dead -body was doubtless got rid of at times in that way. - -[Sidenote: THE ABBEY GATE] - -The principal remaining part of the abbey is the fine grey stone gateway, -a beautiful arch flanked by octagon turrets, with a passage through -them, and then other arches on each side, and beyond these two corner -towers. Above the central archway there are two rows of statues in -niches with canopies. The Virgin being crowned by the Holy Trinity is -flanked by full-length statues of St. Antony and St. Augustine. Other -figures are above these, but not easy to make out. Inside the gateway -are guard rooms, and a winding staircase leading to the large refectory -hall. An oriel in this contained an altar, as the piscina and a squint -from an adjoining chamber testify. The approach over the ditch up to -the gateway is by a curious range of massive brickwork, with coved -recesses and battlements, all along on each side. The ruin is owned by -Lord Yarborough, and is kept locked, but an attendant is always on the -spot, as both the abbey and Brocklesby Park are favourite objects for -excursions from Hull, Grimsby, and Cleethorpes. - -[Illustration: _Thornton Abbey Gateway._] - -[Sidenote: THE CHAPTER HOUSE] - -The abbey was a very magnificent one, occupying 100 acres. Henry VIII. -was so well entertained there in 1541 that when he had suppressed the -abbey he bestowed the greater part of the land on a new foundation in the -same building, a college of the Holy Trinity; but a few years later, -either in 1547 or 1553, that in turn was dissolved, and the land granted -to the pitifully subservient Bishop Henry Holbeche. Inside the gateway -is a large square, on the east side of which stood the chapter-house, -a handsome octagonal building, of which two sides remain, as does also -a fragment of the beautiful south transept, and, still further south, -the abbot’s lodging, now in use as a farmhouse. The church was 235 feet -long and sixty-two feet wide, the transepts being double of that. The -architecture was mainly of the best Decorated period. There are many -slabs with incised crosses still to be seen, one of Robert Girdyk, 1363. - -[Illustration: _Remains of Chapter House, Thornton Abbey._] - -_East Halton_ lies east of the abbey, whence the road runs through -_North_ and _South Killingholme_, at the corner of which is a picturesque -old brick manor-house of the Tudor period, with linen-pattern oak -panelling and grotesque heads over the doors inside, and outside a -remarkably fine chimney-stack and some fine old yew trees. The church has -a very large Norman tower-arch, an interesting old roof and the remains -of a delicately carved rood-screen. From here we go to _Habrough_ and -_Immingham_, where some curious paintings of the Apostles are set between -the clerestory windows. - -[Sidenote: IMMINGHAM DOCK] - -_Immingham_ village is more than two miles from the haven, and here the -most enormous works have long been in progress. Indeed, at _Immingham_ -a new port has sprung up in the last five years, and to this the Great -Central Railway, who so utterly neglect the convenience of passengers -with vehicles at the Hull ferry, have given the most enlightened -attention, and by using the latest inventions and all the most advanced -methods and laying out their docks in a large and forward-looking -way to cover an enormous area, have created a dock which can compete -successfully with any provincial port in England. - -A deep-water channel leads to the lock gates on the north side of what -is the deepest dock on the east coast, with forty-five acres of water -over thirty feet deep. It runs east and west, and it is about half a -mile long. A quay 1,250 feet long, projects into the western half of -this, leaving room for vessels to load or unload on either side of it, -direct from or into the railway trucks. A timber-quay occupies the -north-west side of the dock, and the grain elevator is at the east end, -while all along the whole of the south side runs the coaling quay. There -are at least twenty-seven cranes able to lift two, three, five, ten, -and one even fifty tons on the various quays, and on the coaling-quay -eight hoists, on to which the trucks are lifted and the coal shot into -the vessels, after which the truck returns to the yard by gravitation -automatically. Each of these hoists can deal with 700 tons of coal an -hour, and as each hoist has eight sidings allotted to it there are 320 -waggons ready for each. One of these hoists is moveable so that two -holds of a vessel can be worked simultaneously. The means for quick and -easy handling of the trucks, full and empty, by hydraulic power, and -light for the whole dock also is supplied from a gigantic installation -in the power-house, near the north-west corner of the dock; and this -quick handling is essential, for the many miles of sidings can hold -11,600 waggons, carrying 116,000 tons of coal or more, besides finding -room for empties. The coal is brought from Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Notts, -and Lincolnshire, and not far short of 3,000,000 tons of coal will be -now sent out of England from this port alone.[9] It seems to the writer -that to send away at this tremendous rate from all our big coaling -ports the article on which all our industries virtually depend is a -folly which no words are too strong to condemn. With coal England has -the means of supplying all her own wants for many generations, but it -is not inexhaustible, and when it is gone, where will England be? Will -anything that may be found ever take its place? And, unless we are able -to reassure ourselves on this point, is this not just a case in which a -wise State would step in and prohibit export, and not allow the nation to -cut its own throat like a pig swimming? Large store sheds are now (1914) -being built for wool to be landed direct from Australia. Thus Immingham -will compete with Liverpool, where I have seen bales so tightly packed -that when you knock with your knuckles on the clean-cut end of one it -resounds like a board. - -[Sidenote: STALLINGBOROUGH] - -Going on south from Immingham village we come, after three miles, to -_Stallingborough_. - -[Sidenote: THE AYSCOUGH TOMBS] - -The old church having fallen, the present brick parallelogram, with tower -and campanile, was built in 1780. Inside, though destitute of any touch -of church architecture, it is beautifully clean, and if you penetrate up -to the very end you will be rewarded by seeing what the organ absolutely -obscures till you reach the altar rail—a really wonderful alabaster tomb -of the Ayscoughe, Ayscugh, or Askew family, at the north-east corner, -inside the chancel rail. Above is part of a bust of Francis, the father, -who lived at South Kelsey, near Caister, and who so basely, in terror -for himself, betrayed his sister Anne’s hiding-place, which resulted -in her being first tortured and then burnt at Smithfield in 1546, her -crime being that she had read the Bible to poor folk in Lincoln Minster. -The whole story is too horrible to dwell upon. This cowardly brother is -portrayed half length, in a recess, leaning his head on his left hand -and holding in his right a spear. From this it will be seen that this is -no ordinary sepulchral monument, but a work of art. Below him his son, -Edward of Kelsey, 1612, lies supine in plate armour and a ruff, with bare -head pillowed on a cushion, while on a raised platform, just behind him, -his wife Esther, daughter of Thomas Grantham, Esq., leans on her right -elbow; she, too, in a ruff with hair done high and with a tight bodice -and much-pleated skirt. The faces look like portraits, and Sir Edward has -a singularly feeble, but not unpleasant, face, with small, low forehead. -On the wall at his wife’s feet is a painted coat of arms on a lozenge, -with nineteen quarterings, and a real helmet is placed on the tomb slab -below it. The slab is a very massive one, and below it is an inscription -in gold letters on a black ground in Latin, which is from Psalm CXXVIII. -“Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine upon the walls of thine house, -thy children like the olive branches round about thy table, lo thus shall -the man be blessed that feareth the Lord”; and beneath this, on the side -of the tomb, are the kneeling effigies of six sons and six daughters. -The whole thing—both the effigies and the inscription—is similar to the -Tyrwhit tomb at _Bigby_. Above the mural monument of the father is the -Ayscoughe crest, a little grey ass coughing, and under his half-effigy -is a later inscription, which doubtless refers to his son, and not to -himself, the poor, unhappy cause of his sister’s dreadful sufferings. It -runs thus:— - - Clarus imaginibus proavum, sed mentis honestae - Clarior exemplis, integritate, fide. - Una tibi conjux uni quae juncta beatas - Fecerat et noctes et sine lite dies. - Praemissi non amissi. - -And a thing called on the monument an “Anigram,” which is past the -understanding of ordinary men, is also part of the inscription. The -extraordinary state of preservation of the whole group is a marvel. - -Other inscriptions and brasses are in the church, though partly hidden -by the organ and the altar, one to the second wife of Anne’s father, Sir -William, along with others of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In -the churchyard is the stem of a cross. - -Four miles further south the fine broad fifteenth-century tower of _Great -Cotes_ of rich yellow stone, attracts anyone who is passing from Goxhill -to Grimsby, and it is a church which well repays a visit. - -[Sidenote: GREAT COTES] - -In the churchyard, after passing under a yew-tree arch, you see a -magnificent walnut on a small green mound. There is no porch. You enter -by a small, deeply moulded doorway at the north-west end of the north -aisle. The pillars of the arcades are clusters of four rather thick -shafts, some with unusually large round capitals, but others various -in shape, and all of a bluish grey stone. There are four bays, three -big and one a small one next the tower at the west end. There is a flat -ceiling, both in nave and chancel, which cuts off the top of the Early -English tower arch; hence the nave and aisles are covered, as at Swaton, -near Helpringham, by one low, broad slate roof, reminding one of that at -Grasmere. The chancel arch, if it can be called an arch at all, is the -meanest I ever saw, and only equalled by the miserable, and apparently -wooden, tracery of the east window. The chancel, which is nearly as long -as the nave, is built of rough stones and has Decorated windows. On the -floor is a curious brass of local workmanship probably, to Isabella, -wife of Roger Barnadiston, _c._ 1420, and the artist seems to have -handed on his craft, for the attraction of the church is a singular -seventeenth century brass before the altar, to Sir Thomas Barnadiston, -Kt. of Mikkylcotes, and his wife Dame Elizabeth, and their eight sons and -seven daughters. The children kneel behind their kneeling parents, who -are, however, on a larger scale, and have scrolls proceeding from their -mouths. Above them is a picture of the Saviour, with nimbus, rising from -a rectangular tomb of disproportionately small dimensions, while Roman -soldiers are sleeping around. A defaced inscription runs all round the -edge of the brass, and in the centre is the inscription in old lettering: -“In the worschypp of the Resurrectio of o̅r Lord and the blessed sepulcur -pray for the souls of Sir Thos Barnadiston Kt. and Dame Elizabeth his wife - - and of yʳ charite say a pʳ noster ave and cred - and ye schall have a C days of p~don to yoʳ med” - -[Sidenote: GRIMSBY] - -Another six miles brings us to the outskirts of _Grimsby_, the -birthplace, in 1530, of John Whitgift, Queen Elizabeth’s Archbishop of -Canterbury. This is not at all an imposing or handsome town, but the -length of the timber docks, and the size and varied life in the great -fish docks, the pontoons which project into the river and are crowded -with fishing boats, discharging tons of fish and taking in quantities -of ice, are a wonderful sight. 165,510 tons of fish were dealt with in -1902—it is probably 170,000 now; and 300 tons of ice a day is made close -by. The old church is a fine cruciform building, with a pair of ugly -turrets at the end of nave, chancel, and transepts. Inside it is fine -and spacious, and in effect cathedral-like. The transepts have doorways -and two rows of three-light windows with tooth moulding round the upper -lights and the gables. A corbel table with carved heads runs all round -the church. - -The south transept Early-English porch had eight shafts on either side, -in most cases only the capitals now remain. The south aisle porch is -good, but less rich. The tower arches are supported on octagonal pillars, -which run into and form part of the transept walls. They are decorated by -mouldings running up the whole length. The nave has six bays, and tall, -slender clustered columns and plain capitals, with deeply moulded arches. -Dreadful to relate, the columns and capitals are all painted grey. - -There is a unique arrangement of combined triforium and clerestory, -the small clerestory windows being inserted in the triforium into the -taller central arches of the groups of three, which all have slender -clustered shafts. This triforium goes round both nave, chancel and -transepts, a very well carved modern oak pulpit rests on a marble base -with surrounding shafts. The lectern is an eagle of the more artistic -form, with one leg advanced and head turned sideways and looking upwards. -I wonder that this is not more common, for I see it is figured in the A. -and N. Stores catalogue. The sedilia rises in steps, as at Temple Bruer. -A raised tomb carries the effigy of Sir Thomas Haslerton, brought from -St. Leonard’s nunnery; he is in chain armour with helmet. A chapel in -the north aisle has a squint looking to the high altar. This chapel is -entered by a beautiful double arch from the transept, with Early capital -to the mid pillar. The proportions of the whole church are pleasing, -and its size is very striking. The tower has an arcaded parapet, and on -each side two windows set in a recess under a big arch, between them a -buttress runs up from the apex of a broad and deep gable-coping, which -goes down each side of the tower, forming the hood-mould into which the -gables of the nave transepts and chancel fit. All the doors, curiously -enough, are painted green outside. There is in the churchyard a pillar -with clustered shafts and carved capital, the base of which rests on a -panelled block, which looks like an old font. Many bits from the old -church, which was restored throughout in 1885, are ranged on the low wall -of the churchyard walk, some of which look worthy of a better place. - -The line from the docks runs along by the shore to _Cleethorpes_, where -the Humber begins to merge into the sea. The wide, firm sands and the -rippling shallow wavelets of the brown seawater are the delight of -thousands of children; the air is fresh, food and drink are plentiful, -and all things conspire to make a trippers’ paradise, while the Dolphin -Hotel, which, like the others, looks out on the sea, is no bad place for -a short sojourn in the off season. - -[Sidenote: THE CORPORATION SEALS] - -The corporation had in old times two seals, one the common seal, and -one the mayor’s seal; the latter showed a boar charged by a dog and a -huntsman winding his horn, an allusion to an ancient privilege of the -mayor and burgesses of hunting in the adjacent woods of Bradley Manor. -The common seal bore a gigantic figure of a man with drawn sword and -round shield, and the name ‘Gryem,’ the reputed founder of the town; -on his right a youth crowned, and the name ‘Habloc,’ and on his left a -female figure with a diadem and the legend “Goldeburgh,” the name of the -princess he is said to have married. - -These two interesting and distinctive old seals have, sad to say, been -discarded for one bearing the arms of the corporation, just like what any -mushroom town might adopt. - -The figures on the old seal alluded to the tradition embodied in the -old Anglo-Danish ballad of Havelock the Dane, which was borrowed from a -French romance of the twelfth century, called “Le lai de Aveloc,” which -in turn was probably taken from an Anglo-Saxon original. It tells how -Havelock, son of the Danish King Birkabeen, was treacherously put to -sea and saved by one Grim, a Lincolnshire fisherman, who brought up the -waif as his own. He grew to be of huge stature and strength and of great -beauty, and, from serving as a scullion in the king’s kitchen, he became -betrothed to the king’s daughter; and his royal descent being discovered, -the Danish king rewarded Grim with a sum of money with which he built a -village on the coast and called it Grim’s town or Grimsby. - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -CAISTOR - - The Roman Castrum—The Church and the Hundon Tombs—Rothwell - and the Caistor Groups of Early Church Towers, “Riby,” - “Wold,” “Cliff” and “Top”—Pelham Pillar—Grasby and - the Tennyson-Turners—Barnetby—Bigby—The Tyrwhit - Tombs—Brocklesby—The Mausoleum—The Pelham Buckle. - - -[Sidenote: CAISTOR] - -_Caistor_ is the centre from which roads radiate in all directions, so -much so that if you describe a circle from Caistor as your centre at the -distance of _Swallow_ it will cut across seventeen roads, and if you -shorten the distance to a two-mile radius, it will still cross eleven, -though not more than four or five of them will separately enter the old -Roman town. For the town has grown round a Roman “Castrum,” and the -church is actually planted in the centre of the walled camp. A portion -of the solidly grouted core of their wall shows on the southern boundary -of the churchyard, and bits of it still exist to the east and west just -beyond the churchyard boundary, and also a little further from the church -on the north. Even the well which the Roman soldiers used, one of many -springs coming out of the chalk, for Caistor is on the slope of the Wold, -is still in use to the south-east of the church, and was included within -the walls of the “Castrum.” - -Dr. Fraser of Caistor, who takes a keen interest in the subject, kindly -showed me a plan on which such portions of the wall as have been laid -bare, in some half-a-dozen spots, were marked. He lives in a house -belonging to the Tennyson family, the poet’s uncle and his brother -Charles having both tenanted it. The place has a long history. It was -a hill fort of the early Britons, then it was occupied by the Romans -till late in the fourth century, and, after their departure, it was a -stronghold of the Angles, who called it, according to Bede, Tunna-Ceaster -or Thong-caster, which might refer to its being placed on a projecting -tongue of the Wold, just as Hyrn-Ceaster or Horncastle is so named, -because it is on a horn or peninsular, formed by the river. In 829 -Ecgberht, King of Wessex, defeated the Mercians in a battle here, and -offered a portion of the spoil to the church, if a stone dug up about 150 -years ago with part of an inscription apparently to that effect can be -trusted. Earl Morcar, who had land near Stamford, was lord of the manor -in Norman times, and the Conqueror gave the church to Remigius for his -proposed Cathedral. - -For the present church inside the Roman camp goes back to probably -pre-Norman times. The tower has a Norman doorway, and has also a very -early round arch, absolutely plain, leading from the tower to the nave, -and it shows in its successive stages Norman, Early English, Decorated, -and Perpendicular work. The lower part of the tower has angle buttresses -and two string-courses, and, except the battlements, which are of hard -whitish stone, the whole building is, like all the churches in the -north-east of the county, made of a rich yellow sandy ironstone with -fossils in it. This gives a beautiful tone of colour and also, from its -friable nature, an appearance of immense antiquity. The north porch has -good ball-flower decoration, but is not so good as the Early English -south door with its tooth ornaments; here the old door with its original -hinges is still in use. The octagonal pillars stand on a wide square base -two feet high with a top, a foot wide, forming a stone seat round the -pillar, as at Claypole and Bottesford. The nave arcade of four bays is -Early English with nail-head ornament. Since Butterfield removed the flat -ceiling and put a red roof with green tie-beams and covered the chancel -arch and walls with the painted patterns which he loved, the seats, like -the porch doors at Grimsby, have all been green! This, to my mind, always -gives a garden woodwork atmosphere. In the north aisle is a side altar, -and near it are the interesting tombs of the Hundon family, while in the -south aisle, behind the organ, is a fine marble monument with a kneeling -figure in armour of Sir Edward Maddison, of Unthank Hall, Durham, and -of Fonaby, who died in his 100th year, A.D. 1553. His second wife was -Ann Roper, sister-in-law to Margaret Roper, who was the daughter of Sir -Thomas More, and who— - - “clasped in her last trance - Her murdered father’s head.” - -[Sidenote: THE HUNDON TOMBS] - -The Hundon tombs have recumbent stone effigies under recessed arches -in the North wall, one being of Sir W. de Hundon cross-legged, with -shield, and clad in chain-mail from head to foot. He fought in the last -crusade, 1270. Another, in a recess massively cusped, is of Sir John de -Hundon, High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1343, and Lady Hundon his wife, -in a wimple and the dress of the period. Sir John is in plate armour, -with chain hauberk, and girt with both sword and dagger, and both wear -ruffs. She has a cushion at her head, and a lion at her feet. He lies -on a plaited straw mattress rolled at each end, and wears a very rich -sword-belt and huge spurs, but no helmet. - -[Sidenote: PRE-NORMAN TOWERS] - -The singular cluster of very early church towers near Caistor are similar -to those near Gainsborough, and to another group just south of Grimsby -(_see_ Chapter XXIII.). South of Caistor is _Rothwell_, which we hoped -to reach in a couple of miles from Cabourn, but could only find a bridle -road, unless we were prepared to go two miles east to Swallow, or two -miles west to Caistor, and then make a further round of three miles -from either place. The church, which keeps the register of marriages -taken in Cromwell’s time before Theophilus Harneis, Esq., J.P., after -publication of banns “on three succeeding Lord’s Days, at the close of -the morning exercise, and no opposition alleged to the contrary,” has two -very massive Norman arches, the western bays with cable moulding. The -tower is of the unbuttressed kind, and exhibits some more unmistakable -“Long-and-Short” work than is at all common in the Saxon-built towers of -Lincolnshire churches, built, that is to say, if not by Saxon hands, at -least in the Saxon style, and in the earliest Norman days. The village is -in a depression between two spurs of the Wold, and a road from it, which -is the eastern one of three, all running south along the Wold, leads -to Binbrook. The middle road is the “High Dyke,” the Roman road from -Caistor to Horncastle, and has no villages on it. The western one goes by -_Normanby le Wold_, Walesby, and Tealby, and joins the Louth-and-Rasen -road at North-Willingham. From this road you get a fine view over the -flats in the centre of the county, as indeed you do if you go by the main -road from Caistor to Rasen. This takes you through _Nettleton_, where -there is another of these early towers, but not so remarkably old-looking -a specimen as some. A buttress against the south wall of the tower is -noticeable, being carefully devised by the mediæval builders so as not -to block the little window. _Usselby_, three miles north of Rasen, lies -hidden behind “The Hall,” and is the tiniest church in the county. It has -a nave and chancel of stone, and a bell-turret, and hideous brick-headed -windows. At _Claxby_, close by, some fine fossils have been found. The -eastern main road to Grimsby has most to show us, for on it we pass -_Cabourn_ and _Swallow_, both of which have towers like Rothwell, as -also has _Cuxwold_, which is half-way between Swallow and Rothwell. All -these unbuttressed towers are built of the same yellow sandy stone, and -generally have the same two-light belfry window with a midwall jamb. -_Cabourn_ was the only church we found locked, and we could not see why, -and as the absence of the rector’s key keeps people from seeing the -inside, so the presence of his garden fence, which runs right up to the -tower on both sides, keeps them from seeing the west end outside—a horrid -arrangement, not unlike that at Rowston. The tower has a pointed tiled -roof, like a pigeon cote, a very small blocked low-side window is at the -south-west end of the chancel, and the bowl of a Norman font with cable -moulding, found under the floor of the church, has been placed on the top -of the old plain cylinder which did duty as a font till lately. The view -from Cabourn hill, which drops down to Caistor, is a magnificent one. To -the north the lofty Pelham Pillar, a tribute to a family distinguished -as early as the reign of Edward III., stands up out of the oak woods, a -landmark for many a mile. - -_Swallow_ has no jamb to its belfry window. But it has a very good Norman -door, and round-headed windows. The south aisle arches have been built -up. During the recent restoration two piscinas, Norman and Early English, -were found, the former with a deep square bowl set on a pillar. The next -church has the singular name of _Irby-on-Humber_, though the Humber is -eight miles distant. Here we find Norman arcades of two arches with -massive central pillars, thicker on the north side than the south, and -Early English tower and chancel arches. An incised slab on the floor -has figures of John and Elianora Malet, of the late fourteenth or early -fifteenth centuries. In the south aisle there is a blocked doorway to -the rood loft, and a piscina. The east window is of three lancets. All -the woodwork in the church is new and everything in beautiful order. -_Laceby_ Church, two miles further on, has a Transition tower, and an -Early English arcade with one Norman arch in the middle. There are some -blow-wells in the parish, as at _Tetney_. John Whitgift, Archbishop of -Canterbury, at the end of Elizabeth’s reign, was formerly rector here. - -[Sidenote: LINCOLN LONGWOOLS] - -A mile to the left as we go from Irby to Laceby, lies the fine and -well-wooded park of Riby Grove, the seat of Captain Pretyman, M.P. The -Royalists won a battle here in 1645, in which Colonel Harrison, the -Parliamentary leader, was slain. He was buried at Stallingborough. Riby -of late years has been famous for the flocks and herds of the late Mr. -Henry Dudding, which at their dispersal in July, 1913, realised in a two -days’ sale 16,644 guineas. Over 1,800 Lincolnshire long-wool sheep were -sold, the highest price being 600 guineas for the champion ram at the -Bristol and Nottingham shows, who has gone to South America, in company -with another stud ram who made eighty guineas, and several more of the -best animals. But though the ram lambs made double figures, as the -best had been secured before the sale the prices on the whole were not -high, the sheep on the first day averaging just over £4 9_s._ Among the -shorthorns 160 guineas was the highest price; this was given for a heifer -whose destination was Germany. It is owing to men like Mr. Dudding that -Lincolnshire farming and Lincolnshire flock and stock breeding has so -great a name. - -About five miles further, we come to the suburbs of Grimsby, and the road -runs on past _Clee_ to _Cleethorpes_. - -It is curious how different localities, though in the same neighbourhood, -have their own special and different terms for the same thing, thus: -alongside the ridge north of Lincoln, each village has its bit of -“Cliff,” and from Elsham to the Humber each has its bit of “Wold,” -while on the continuation of the Wold near Caistor from Barnetby to -Burgh-on-Bain the same thing is called neither “Cliff” nor “Wold,” but -“top”; and we have Somerby, Owmby, Grasby, Audleby, Fornaby, Rothwell, -Orby, Binbrook, Girsby and Burgh “top,” etc. There is an Owmby “Cliff” as -well as an Owmby “top,” but the words sufficiently indicate the position -of the villages—one (near Fillingham) on the Ermine Street, and one (near -Grasby) north of Caistor. - -[Sidenote: THE PELHAM PILLAR] - -There is no view, I think, in the county so wide all round as that from -the top of the Pelham Pillar. It stands on one of the highest points of -the Wold, from whence the ground falls on three sides. In front are the -woods of Brocklesby and the mausoleum, with the Humber and Hull in the -distance; on the right Grimsby, the Spurn Point, and the grand spire of -Patrington in Holderness, and on the left the wide mid-Lincolnshire plain -as far as “the Cliff.” Of the Wold villages between Caistor and Barnetby, -where the Wold stops for a couple of miles and lets the railway and the -Brigg-to-Brocklesby road through on the level, none affords a better -view than Grasby. But the whole of this road is one not to be missed. As -we pass along it we first reach _Clixby_, which shows, or rather hides, -a tiny church in a thick clump of trees by the road side, where is a -churchyard cross, restored after the model of Somersby. The little stone -church has been once very dilapidated, and is now renewed with a double -bell-turret in brick—no wonder it hides itself in the trees. There is -also a remarkable modern graveyard cross of dark stone, of a very early -primitive shape, such as is seen on some of the incised grave stones of -Northumbria. North of _Clixby_ is _Grasby_. This church was the home -for over forty years of the poet’s brother Charles Tennyson-Turner, the -author, with Alfred, of the “Poems by Two Brothers,” and afterwards of -many sonnets written at Grasby. It would be difficult to surpass the -charm of one called ‘Letty’s Globe’: - - LETTY’S GLOBE. - - When Letty had scarce passed her third glad year, - And her young artless words began to flow, - One day we gave the child a coloured sphere - Of the wide earth, that she might mark and know, - By tint and outline, all its sea and land. - She patted all the world; old empires peeped - Between her baby fingers; her soft hand - Was welcome at all frontiers. How she leap’d - And laugh’d and prattled in her world-wide bliss, - But when we turned her sweet unlearned eye - On our own isle, she raised a joyous cry, - ‘Oh! yes, I see it, Letty’s home is there!’ - And while she hid all England with a kiss, - Bright over Europe fell her golden hair. - -[Sidenote: CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER] - -A white marble tablet of chaste design on the wall of the nave shows a -couple of sprays of bay or laurel beneath the Christian monogram, bending -to right and left over the inscription, on the left to “Charles Tennyson -Turner, Vicar and Patron of Grasby, who died April 25, 1879. - - True poet surely to be found - When truth is found again.” - -and on the right to “Louisa his wife, died May 20, 1879. - - More than conquerors through him that loved us. - -They rest with Charlotte Tennyson in the cemetery at Cheltenham.” -Charlotte was his brother Horatio’s first wife; his wife Louisa was -the sister of Lady Tennyson, the two brothers having married two Miss -Sellwoods, nieces of Sir John Franklin. Tennyson’s grandfather had -married Mary Turner of Caistor, and Charles succeeded his uncle Sam -Turner. - -The church, with its low broached spire, has a nave and a north aisle, -but has little of the old left in it, except the south doorway and some -Early English clustered pillars, and a curious plain font set on four -little square legs mounted on steps. The church was rebuilt, and the -schools and vicarage built _de novo_ by the Tennyson-Turners, for until -his time the vicar had lived at Caistor. Under the east window outside is -a stone let into the wall with three dedication crosses on it. - -We must follow this Caistor and Brigg highway along the edge of the Wold -to Bigby, where it turns to the left, and only a byway runs north to -_Barnetby le Wold_ which looks down on _Melton Ross_, so named from the -Ros family to whom Belvoir came by marriage with a d’Albini heiress in -the thirteenth century. Sir Thomas Manners—Lord Ros—was created Earl of -Rutland in the sixteenth century. - -[Sidenote: THE TYRWHIT TOMBS] - -_Barnetby_ Church has a most ancient appearance; it stands high in -a field by itself, the village lying below. A long, high wall of -brick and stone, grey with lichen, a low tower and a flat roof and -windows irregularly placed, make up a building of undoubted antiquity. -Inside, and lately recovered from the coal-hole, is a Norman lead -font, thirty-two inches across. This is unique in Lincolnshire, though -twenty-eight others are known in other counties, the best being that -at Dorchester-on-Thames. From Barnetby we must retrace our steps for a -couple of miles to see _Bigby_, which is well placed on the edge of the -Wold. The church has corbels all round, as at Grantham, under a parapet -of later build and of a lighter-coloured and harder stone. The old thick -tower is of the yellow stone, with a good two-light window to the west. -The porch is of oak with panelled sides. The nave has an Early English -arcade of three bays, with slender octagonal pillars. The tower arch is -low, the chancel arch lofty. Here we find two fonts, not superimposed, -as at Cabourn, but one in each aisle. One is low and formed of grey -marble, the other has an old carved stone bowl of _nine_ panels on a new -pedestal. This number of sides is unique. Near it is placed an incised -slab showing the figure of a lady of the Skipwyth family, 1374, and -another lady of the same name has a recumbent effigy in the chancel, _c._ -1400. The nave and chancel roof are one,[10] and in the chancel are some -more interesting monuments. On the floor a brass of Elizabeth Tyrwhit, -wife of William Skipwyth of Ormsby, _c._ 1520. On the north side a large -altar tomb with alabaster effigies of Sir Robert Tyrwhit of Kettelbie, -1581, and his wife. He is on a plaited mattress rolled at each end for -his head and feet, and below his feet a wild man or “Wode-howse” on all -fours and covered with hair. Two of these support the feet of Ralph Lord -Treasurer Cromwell in the fine brass at Tattershall, and the Willoughby -chapel at Spilsby shows one. His wife lies nearest the wall, with a lion -at her feet and a cushion for her head; both wear ruffs, and he is in -armour, but without helmet. In many respects the monument resembles the -tomb of Sir John and Lady Hundon at Caistor, but is still more like the -Ayscoughe tomb at Stallingborough. - -On the two ends and front of the tomb are figures of their children, -twenty-two in number, two or three infants in cradles, the rest all -kneeling, and above them is the old metrical version of the 128th Psalm, -running round three sides of the tomb. The front or middle portion bears -the following lines:— - - Like fruitful vine on thy house side - So doth thy wife spring out. - Thy children stand like Oliveplantes - Thy table round about. - Thus art thou blest that fearest God, - And he shall let thee see - The promiesed Hierusalem and his felicitie. - -Inside the chancel rails is a mural monument with life-size figures of a -man and his wife kneeling, but the lady’s head is gone. The man is Robert -Tyrwhit, who made a runaway match with Lady Bridget Manners, maid of -honour to Queen Elizabeth, who was highly incensed at it, and doubtless -used language appropriate to the occasion. At the back of the sedilia two -or three little brasses have been inserted, one to Edward Nayler, rector -1632, with wife and seven children. He is described as “a painefull -minister of God’s word.” - -From Bigby four miles brings us to Brigg, passing near _Kettleby_, the -home of the Tyrwhits, who kept up a blood feud with the Ros family -till the beginning of the seventeenth century—not a very neighbourly -proceeding—and as they only lived four miles apart their combats and -murders were perpetual. - -[Sidenote: BROCKLESBY] - -The road which runs north from Caistor goes along the top of the Wold -as far as “Pelham’s Pillar,” where the real High Wold stops. It is then -460 feet above sea level. Caistor itself, on the western slope, is only -150 feet up, but the High Wold keeps rising south of Caistor till it -attains its highest point between Normanby-le-Wold and Stainton-le-Vale, -at about 525 feet. From “Pelham’s Pillar” the road forks into three, -and runs down into the flat at _Riby_, _Brocklesby_, and _Kirmington_, -where there is a church with a bright green spire sheathed with copper. -_Brocklesby_, Lord Yarborough’s seat, has a deer park more than two miles -long. It is entered on the west side through a well-designed classical -arch, erected by the tenantry in memory of the third lord. Extensive -drives through the woods planted by the first lord, who married Miss -Aufrere of Chelsea, and was created Baron Yarborough in 1794, reach as -far as the “Pelham Pillar,” some six miles from Brocklesby. On the pillar -it is recorded that twelve and a half million trees were planted. The -planter, who rivals “Planter John,” he who laid out the many miles of -avenue at Boughton near Kettering, was an Anderson, whose grandmother was -sister of Charles, the last of the Pelhams, hence the family name now is -Anderson-Pelham. - -[Illustration: _The Welland, near Fulney, Spalding._] - -[Sidenote: THE KOH-I-NOOR] - -The mausoleum on the south side, designed by Wyatt in 1794 in memory of -Sophia, first Countess of Yarborough, is in the classical style, with a -flat dome rising from a circular balustrade supported on twelve fluted -Doric columns. It stands on an ancient barrow, in it is a monument by -Nollekens, of the Countess. The house, part of which was rebuilt after a -fire in 1898, has the appearance of a brick and stone Queen Anne mansion. -In it are some of the exquisite wood carvings by Wallis of Louth, some -of whose work was admired in the first “Great Exhibition” of 1851, -attracting almost as much attention as the Koh-i-noor Diamond, then in -its rough form, as worn by “Akbar the Great,” by Nadir Shah, and by “The -Lion of the Punjab,” Runjeet Sing. It is now in the crown of the Queen of -England, and, being re-cut, is much smaller, but far more brilliant. In -addition to a fine hall and staircase there is a picture gallery built in -1807 to take the paintings and sculptures which had been collected by Mr. -John Aufrere of Chelsea, father-in-law of the first Lord Yarborough. The -gem of this collection is the antique bust of Niobe, purchased in Rome by -Nollekens the sculptor, who has himself contributed a fine bust of the -first earl’s wife. In a conservatory are portions of another once famous -collection of antiques, tombs, altars, and statues, made by Sir Richard -Worsley and kept as a kind of classical museum till 1855 at Appuldurcombe -in the Isle of Wight. - -[Sidenote: THE PELHAM BUCKLE] - -Religious houses abounded here. Thornton Abbey is only five miles off, -and here, outside the park to the north-west, is Newsham Abbey, 1143, -perhaps the earliest Premonstratensian house in England. On the east was -the Cistercian nunnery of Colham, and just at the south of the park, in -the village of Limber, was an alien priory belonging to the Cistercian -house of Aulnay in Normandy. Newsham abbey, which was worth twice what -the other two were, became part of the spoil which was absorbed by -Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk. The gardens have some fine cedars, -and the church with its curious tower and small spire is in the garden -grounds. There are some Pelham monuments in it of the sixteenth and -seventeenth century: one to Sir John and one to Sir William and Lady -Pelham and their seventeen children. At her feet is the head of a king -and the Pelham “Buckle,” commemorating the seizure by a Pelham of King -John of France, at the battle of Poictiers. - -[Illustration: _Thornton Abbey Gateway._] - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - -LOUTH AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD - - Louth Church—“The Weder-Coke”—The Pilgrimage of Grace—Letter - read in Lincoln Chapter-House from Henry VIII—“The Lyttel - Clause”—The Blue Stone—Turner’s Horse-fair—The Louth - Spire—Louth Park Abbey—Kiddington—Roads from Louth—Cawthorpe - and Haugham—Dr. Trought’s Jump—Well Vale—Starlings. - - -[Sidenote: LOUTH] - -Louth spire is one of the sights of Lincolnshire; it is a few feet higher -than Grantham, which it much resembles, and in beauty of proportions and -elegance of design one feels, as one looks at it, that it has really no -rival, for Moulton, near Spalding, though on the same lines, is so much -smaller. - -The way in which it bursts upon the view as the traveller approaches -it from Kenwick, which lies to the southward, is a thing impossible -to forget. Taking the place of originally a small Norman, and later a -thirteenth century building, the present church of St. James dates from -the fifteenth century. Louth once had two, if not three, other small -churches, dedicated to St. John, St. Mary, and St. Herefrid; but no -certain traces of these remain, and only the north and south doorways -of the thirteenth century church are now visible. Excavations made at -the last restoration in 1867 revealed the pillar bases of this church -and some fragments of eleventh century moulding of the earlier one. The -present building has nothing of interest inside—it is only the shell -from which the living tenant has long been absent. Once its long aisles -were filled with rich chapels, and the chancel arch was furnished with -a rood-loft and screen, and the church was unusually rich in altars, -vessels, vestments, and books, of which only the inventory remains. In -the vestry an oak cupboard has medallions carved in the panels of Henry -VII. and Elizabeth of York; and that is all. The steeple, with its large -belfry windows, was doubtless built for its clock and bells; there were -at first but three, which in 1726 were increased to a full peal of eight, -but the clock and its chime was there as early as 1500. The spire was not -completed till 1815; the weathercock was fixed then, but no lightning-rod -until 1844 after the spire had been struck and damaged three times, in -the sixteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth centuries; in the eighteenth it -escaped. - -The first of the Louth churchwardens’ books has an ill-written entry of -the year 1515-16, the time of the second (or thirteenth century) church, -which tells us that one Thomas Taylor, a draper, bought a copper basin in -York and had it made at Lincoln into a “Wedercoke” for the church. This -is very interesting, for the basin had been part of the spoil taken from -the King of Scots at Flodden. - -[Sidenote: THE KING’S LETTER] - -Twenty years later the vicar of Louth was hanged with others, at Tyburn, -for his part in the Lincolnshire rebellion, when 20,000 men took up arms -in defence of the pillaged monasteries. Concerning this rebellion, there -is a graphic account of the receipt of Henry VIIIth’s letter in response -to the people’s petition, which was read in the chapter-house at Lincoln, -on October 10, 1556. Moyne tells how, when they thought to have read the -letter secretly among themselves in the chapter-house, a mob burst in -and insisted on hearing it: “And therefore,” he goes on to say, “I redd -the Kynges letter openly and by cause there was a lyttyl clause therein -that we feared wolde styr the Commons I did leave that clause unredd, -which was persayved by a Chanon beying the parson of Snelland, and he -sayde there openly that the letter was falsely redd be cause whereof I -was like to be slayn.” Eventually they got out by the south door to the -Chancellor’s house, while the men waited to murder them at the great -West door, “And when the Commons persayved that wee were gone from theym -another way, they departed to ther lodgings in a gret furye, determynyng -to kill us the morowe after onles wee wolde go forwards with theym.” - -[Illustration: _Bridge Street, Louth._] - -The “lyttyl clause” referred to as likely to “styr the Commons,” was -wisely omitted, for it is that in which the king expresses his amazement -at the presumption of the “rude commons of one shire, and that one of -the most brute and beastly of the whole realm and of least experience, -to take upon them to rule their prince whom they were bound to obey and -serve.” - -This rebellion, which was called the Pilgrimage of Grace, brought -disaster on many Lincolnshire families. Over sixty of all conditions -were put to death for it in Louth alone, and others at Alford, Spilsby -and Boston, and at all the monasteries, and the vicars of Cockerington, -Louth, Croft, Biscathorpe, Donington and Snelland and some others, as -well as John Lord Hussey at Sleaford, suffered for their religion and -were canonized as martyrs by the Pope. A list of more than one hundred -victims is given in “Notes and Queries,” III., 84. - -The town has a museum of some interest, and outside of it may be seen a -large boulder of some foreign stone, probably brought by an icefloe from -Denmark or Norway. This used to stand at a street corner in the town, but -was afterwards removed to the inn-yard at the back, and painted blue, and -was known for many years as the blue stone. Speaking of stone, we have a -record that a good deal of the stone for building the church spire in the -sixteenth century was landed at Dogdyke, and drawn thence on wheels or -carried on pack horses on flag pavements across the fen. The stone is of -good quality and adapted for carving. - -There is notably good openwork on the east gable of the church, much -resembling that at Grimoldby and Theddlethorpe-in-the-Marsh, a few miles -to the east of Louth. Turner’s picture of the horse fair at Louth shows -the spire, which was no doubt the motive of the picture, and until one -has seen it, both from a distance and from the street of Louth itself, -one can have no notion how beautiful a thing a well-proportioned spire -can be, one is never tired of looking at it. - -An old statue of Edward VI. over a doorway in the Westgate indicates -the grammar school where Alfred and Charles Tennyson spent a few -uncomfortable years. The school seal shows a boy being birched, with the -motto “Qui parcit virgam odit filium,” and date 1552. Among other pupils -were Governor Eyre, one of the victims of British sentimentality, and -Hobart Pasha. Thomas of Louth gave a clock to Lincoln Minster in 1324, -and William de Lindsey, Bishop of Ely, 1290, who has there a beautiful -monument, was also a Louth native. - -[Illustration: _Hubbards Mill, Louth._] - -[Sidenote: LOUTH PARK ABBEY] - -Louth Park Abbey, about a mile and a half to the east of the town, was -built on a site belonging to the Bishops of Lincoln, and was given to the -Cistercian colony from Fountains Abbey, who found Haverholme too damp for -comfort, by Bishop Alexander in 1139. The Cistercians built themselves a -large church, 256 feet long and sixty-one feet in width, with transepts -which more than doubled this; parts of these and the chancel, also a -portion of the west front and one nave pillar, are all that is left -of it, but the ground plan has been excavated, which shows that there -were no fewer than ten bays to the nave, and massive circular piers. -There was a cloister on the south, surrounded by monastic buildings, -and east of these a chapter-house with groined roof springing from six -pillars. A very large gateway stood at the south-west, and outside was a -double moat to which the water from St. Helen’s Spring was conducted by -what is still known as “the Monk’s Dyke.” It flourished greatly at the -beginning of the fourteenth century, having then sixty-six monks and 150 -lay brethren. The Louth Park Abbey Chronicle, though very valuable, is -not exactly contemporaneous with the things it mentions, for it was all -written by a scribe in the fifteenth century. It covers the years from -1066 to the death of Henry IV. in 1413. - -Near the abbey, but on the other side of the canal, is _Keddington_, -where the arch of the organ chamber is made of carved stones, no -doubt brought from the abbey. The church, which is built of chalk and -greensand, is older than any in the immediate neighbourhood, and has a -Norman south door. It has a remarkable lancet window on the south side, -in the upper part of which is a carved dragon, and has also what is very -rare, a wooden mediæval eagle lectern. - -[Sidenote: ROADS FROM LOUTH] - -Half-a-dozen main roads radiate from Louth, one might call it eight, for -two of the half-dozen divide, one within a mile, and one at a distance of -two miles from the town. They go, one north to Grimsby, twenty miles of -level road along the marsh, and one west to Market Rasen, by the Ludfords -and North Willingham, fifteen and a half miles. One mile out, this road -divides and goes west and then south to Wragby by South Willingham, -sixteen and a half miles. Both of these roads, as well as that which runs -south-west to Horncastle, fourteen and a half miles, cross the Wolds and -are distinctly hilly, rising and falling nearly four hundred feet. The -fifth road, which goes due south to Spilsby, sixteen miles, though seldom -as much as 250 feet higher than Louth, which stands about seventy-five -feet above sea level, affords fine views, and is a very pleasant road -to travel. But all these highways must be dealt with in detail later. -The sixth road from Louth runs south-east to Alford, and keeps on the -level of the marsh, and the seventh and eighth roads run eastwards across -the marsh to the sea, one branching off the Alford road at Kenwick and -avoiding all villages, comes to the coast at Saltfleet; the other, -starting out from Louth by Keddington and Alvingham, loses itself in many -small and endlessly twisting roads which connect the various villages and -reaches the sea eventually at Donna Nook and Saltfleet, places five miles -apart, with no passage to the sea between them—nothing but mud flats, -samphire beds and sea birds. There is a charm about “the waste enormous -marsh,” and also about the high and windy Wolds, which never palls, but -before we journey along either of the highways from Louth I should like -to introduce one of those byways which form the chief delight of people -who love the country. - -[Sidenote: SOME BYWAYS] - -We will leave Louth, then, by the Spilsby road, and when we reach the -second milestone, 147 miles from London, turn and look at the beautiful -spire of Louth Church rising from a group of elms in the middle distance -of a wide panorama. From our height of 300 feet we look across the whole -marsh to the sea, ten miles to the east, and far on beyond Louth we look -northwards towards Grimsby and the Humber, the perpetually shifting -lights and shades caused by the great cumulus clouds in these fine level -views, the many farmsteads and occasional church towers— - - “The crowded farms and lessening towers” - -of our own Lincolnshire poet—all combine to make a very satisfactory -picture to which the wonderfully wide extent which lies unrolled before -us, lends enchantment; and always the eye reverts to rest with delight on -that perfect spire standing so high above the trees by the banks of the -river Lud. - -At length we turn and pursue our way, but soon quit the Spilsby road and -go down the hill to the left, past the entrance to Kenwick Hall, till -we reach the Alford road, and, turning to the right, come to the pretty -little village of _Cawthorpe_. - -[Sidenote: DR. TROUGHT’S JUMP] - -This is not a bad centre for country walks. You can walk on a raised -footpath all along the side of the curious water-lane, and if you go out -in the opposite direction the road to _Haugham_ takes you through two -miles of as pretty a road as you could desire; it is called “Haugham -Pastures,” but it is really a road through a wood, without hedges, -reminding one of the New Forest or the “Dukeries.” On the right, going -from Cawthorpe, the trees extend some distance with oak and fern and all -that makes the beauty of an English wood; on the other side it is only a -belt of trees through which at intervals a grassy tract curves off from -the road and leads to the fields; and as we passed in September we could -see the corn-laden waggons moving up towards us or the teams going afield -among the sheaves. No county could supply a prettier series of pictures -of simple pastoral beauty than this byway through “Haugham Pastures.” A -deep lane near the little brick-built manor-house is noticeable as the -site of a famous jump. The roadway is about fifteen feet wide, with steep -sides and a low hedge, the top of which is nine or ten feet above the -roadway. Over these Dr. Trought of Louth, on a famed hunter, once jumped -for a wager, flying from field to field, a distance of some twenty feet. - -[Illustration: _The Lud at Louth._] - -One of the charming peculiarities of Cawthorpe is that here the “Long -Eau” stream runs between hedge-banks over a level sand and gravel bed -and forms a water street, which extends for about a furlong. There is a -similar thing at Swaby, six miles to the south, where the “Great Eau” -runs along a street or road through the village. At Cawthorpe the water -is always running and usually about six inches deep. The village lies -in a hollow with curiously twisting little roads in it, and is very -picturesque with its farms and trees and quaint little brick manor-house -standing near the church at the three cross ways. - -[Sidenote: A BEAUTIFUL ROAD] - -Rising from the hollow, the small byway runs with here and there -beautiful trees and often on the right a tall hedge or narrow strip of -plantation, reminding one of the roadside “shaws” in Hampshire, while -on the left there is always a view down over cornfields and beyond the -tops of the Tothill oak woods right across the fertile belt of the marsh -to the shining line of the distant sea. With many a twist the byway -runs on through _Muckton_ village to _Belleau_, where it crosses the -above-mentioned Swaby or Calceby beck and looks down on the picturesque -church, standing in the grassy meadows, and on the brick turret and -groined archways of the old Manor-house, and so on to _South Thoresby_, -where the broken ground and the fine trees tell of an old mansion which -stood there till last century; and past _Rigsby_, till it meets the -Spilsby and Alford highway just below Miles-cross-Hill, whence it runs -on through the avenue of elms to _Well_. And all the way, as it has run -along the top of the eastern escarpment of the Wold, it has afforded us -an outlook over a wide expanse of the marsh such as none of the other -roads on the high wolds can equal. True, the Lincoln cliff road gives -a finer view and runs further, but I don’t think there is any prettier -ten-mile stretch in the county than this ‘Middle road’ from Well to Louth. - -At the entrance gate of Well Vale Hall the road divides, either route -ending at Alford. _Well Vale_, a fine sporting estate and also a famous -stronghold for foxes, the residence of Mr. Walter H. Rawnsley, is, I -venture to think, the prettiest spot in the county. For a mile or more a -grassy track descends from the top of Miles-Cross-Hill through a wooded -valley where fine beeches stretch out their long arms, and pines and -larch crown the chalky turf-clad sides, till the mouth of the Vale opens -out into a park, whose rolling slopes are studded with handsome trees, -and as you near the mansion, the front of which looks out across its -brilliant flower-beds and quaint pinnacled gateway upon the little church -flanked by branching elms on the summit of a grassy hill, you see a fine -sheet of water fed by a copious chalk stream which passes the house and -is then conducted to a still larger lake on the garden side, stretching -with a double curve from the giant cedars on the lawn to a vanishing -point, of which glimpses only are caught through the stems of the Scotch -firs and oaks in the distance. The history of Well goes back to Roman -times, and has been told fully by the Rev. E. H. R. Tatham, Rector of the -neighbouring parish of _Claxby_, where the site of a Roman camp is still -visible, another being at _Willoughby_, two miles off eastwards in the -levels, where the marsh begins. - -[Sidenote: HISTORY OF WELL] - -The name was derived in Saxon times from the strong spring which wells -out from the chalk and feeds the lakes on either side the house. The -names Burwell and Belleau in the immediate neighbourhood are of similar -origin, though the latter is a Norman name. At the time of the Conquest -_Well_ and _Belleau_ were both bestowed on Gilbert de Gaunt, the -Conqueror’s nephew, and were let by him to one Ragener, whose family -took the addition “de Welle” and lived here for four centuries. In the -thirteenth century we hear of a church at Well, and William de Welle -(the third of the name) in 1283 obtained a licence for a market and fair -at Alford. His son Adam was summoned to Parliament as a baron in 1299. -In the fifteenth century the name was changed from Welle to Welles, and -Leo Lord Welles fell at Towton in 1461. The title was now combined with -that of Willoughby d’Eresby, and Leo’s son, Richard, who took it _jure -uxoris_, he having married the Willoughby heiress, was the Lord Welles -who was so basely put to death in 1470 by Edward IV. for complicity in -the Lincolnshire rebellion, together with his son-in-law, T. Dymoke, and -his son Robert. _See_ Chap. XXXIII. - -Leo, who fell at Towton, had married for his second wife, Margaret -Duchess of Somerset, and her son John joined Henry VII., and after the -battle of Bosworth the king restored to him the Welles estate which had -been forfeited after Robert’s execution, made him a viscount, and gave -him the hand of Cicely, daughter of Edward IV. and sister to his own -queen, in marriage. It is interesting to read in Mr. Tatham’s paper that -“This lady carried the heir-apparent, Prince Arthur, at his baptism at -Winchester in 1486.” She subsequently married one of the Kyme family of -Kyme Tower near Boston. John Viscount Welles died in 1499, and the male -line of the Welles became extinct, but the Willoughby line went on, for -Cicely, the sister of the unfortunate Richard Welles, had married Sir R. -Willoughby, and her grandson William succeeded to that title as the ninth -Lord Willoughby. He was the father of Catharine Duchess of Suffolk and -subsequently wife of Richard Bertie, whose monument occupies so large a -space in the Willoughby chapel at Spilsby. The Welles estate remained -with the Willoughbys (who in 1626 were created Earls of Lindsey) till -1650, when the extortionate fines levied on Royalist families by the -Parliament made it necessary for Belleau and Welle to be sold. Belleau -went to Sir H. Vane, and Well to W. Wolley, who sold it about 1700 to -Anthony Weltden, a man who had a romantic career in the early days of the -Hon. East India Company. From him Well passed to James Bateman, one of -whose sons became Lord Bateman. Another, James, succeeded to the estate -and built the present house about 1725, a wing of which was pulled down -about 1845. This James married Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Chaplin of -Tathwell, who also came to live and die at Well. Bateman’s daughter -and heiress married a Dashwood in 1744—probably it was he who planted -the Vale (he died in 1825)—and in 1838 the estate was purchased by Mr. -Christopher Nisbet Hamilton, whose daughter, Mrs. Hamilton Ogilvy, has -just sold it to Mr. Walter H. Rawnsley. - -[Sidenote: WELL VALE] - -The following lines were written on the gate at the top of Well Vale by a -traveller taking his yearly tramp from Horncastle for a dip in the sea at -Mablethorpe, a good twenty miles. - - Some say “All’s well that ends well,” - But here Well begins well. - They say too “Truth is in a well,” - But here there is in truth a Well. - Welcome then Well! since I well come along to her, - For well I’ve known Well and the charms that belong to her - Passing well to the view looks the Vale of fair Well, - And I, passing Well too, must bid her farewell - ’Till again I’m this way; or perhaps for aye. - Farewell then (or ‘vale’) to fair Well Vale. - Farewell! Fair Well! - -This is more than a mere assemblage of puns—there is some poetry in the -old fellow, and the penultimate line has an added pathos from the fact -that only a few months later the poet bid his final farewell to life, on -November 10, in the same year, at the age of seventy-six. - -[Sidenote: THE STARLINGS] - -Speaking of Well Vale, I think I have seen and heard more starlings -collected together in a young larch plantation there than I ever came -across at once elsewhere. The only multitude of birds at all comparable -to it was the army of cranes I have seen covering half a mile or more of -sandbank in the Nile, near Komombos, while clouds of them kept dropping -from the sky. They have black wings and white bodies, so that aloft they -looked black, but standing on the sandbank as close as they could pack -they looked all white. - -But to return to our starlings. It is a very curious thing this massing -of countless thousands of these birds amongst the osiers[11] in the fenny -parts of the county, or in some of the plantations in the Wolds. If you -take your stand about sunset near one of these, when the wood pigeons, -after much noisy flapping of their wings, have settled down to rest, -a loud whirring noise will make you look up to see the sky darkened -by a cloud of these birds, which will be only the advance portion of -the multitudes that will quickly be converging from all sides to their -roosting quarters. They have been feeding in many places, often at a -considerable distance; but each night they assemble, and for a quarter -of an hour or more the noise of their chattering and fluttering as each -successive flight comes in will be indescribable. If a disturbing noise -is made, myriads will rise with one loud rush, but nothing will prevent -their return and, when the noise and movement has at length subsided, -the trees will be black with their living load, which will sleep till -sunrise, and then again disperse for the day in quest of food, returning -every night for several weeks, till the call of spring scatters them for -good. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - - Anglo-Saxon, Norman and Mediæval Art—Fonts. - - -When we talk of Anglo-Saxon art it is not to be implied that no artistic -work was done before Saxon time in Britain. But if we speak of churches, -though doubtless British churches were once to be found here, there are -certainly none now existing, and we cannot get back beyond Saxon times. -The British churches were built probably of wattle, or at the best of -stones without mortar, and so were not likely to be long-lived. Still, -Stonehenge is British work, and domed huts, like beehives, similar to but -smaller and ruder than those to be still seen in Greece, were made by the -ancient Britons. It was the Romans who first introduced architecture to -our land. They had learnt it from those wonderful people, the pioneers of -so much that we all value, the Greeks, who in turn had got their lessons -from Egypt and Assyria. That takes us back eight thousand years, and we -still profit by the art thus handed down through the centuries. When the -Romans left us, all the arts at once declined in our islands, and notably -the art of building. - -In speaking of the churches in the south of the county, I drew attention -to the number in which traces of Saxon work were still visible and -spoke of the two remarkable specimens only three miles over the border -at Wittering and Barnack. It is pleasant to hear so good an authority -as Mr. Hamilton Thompson say that Lincolnshire is more rich than any -other county in churches which, though only in few instances of a -date indisputably earlier than the Conquest, yet retain traces of an -architecture of a distinctly pre-Norman character. We do not vie with -Kent and Northumbria, for we cannot show anything which can be referred -to the first century of Anglo-Saxon Christianity associated with the -name of Augustine, nor had St. Ninian, St. Kentigern, St. Oswald, St. -Cuthbert, or St. Wilfrid any work to do in Lincolnshire. St. Paulinus -alone, by his visit to Lincoln, connected the province of Lindsey, which -was part of his diocese of York, with the religious life of Northumbria. -But the only existing trace of this is the dedication of the church in -Lincoln to St. Paul, _i.e._, St. Paulinus. - -[Sidenote: SAXON TOWERS] - -Still, Saxon architecture was a real thing in the two centuries preceding -the Norman invasion, and we have in Lincolnshire an unusually large -number of churches (I can mention no less than thirty-eight at once), -which represent a late state of Saxon architecture carried out probably -by Saxon workmen for Norman employers and bearing traces of Norman -influence. At Stow, near Lincoln, is some very fine Saxon work, but there -the Norman overlies the Saxon more decidedly than it does in the notable -church of Barton-on-Humber; both of these have been discussed in previous -chapters. But we may here draw attention to the less magnificent Saxon -remains in the county, and notice how often the churches with Saxon work -still visible, lie in groups. Thus, quite in the north we have Barton, -Winterton, and Alkborough, with Worlaby not far off. Then in the course -of ten miles along the road from Caistor to Grimsby we have Caistor, -Cabourn, Nettleton, Rothwell, Cuxwold, Swallow, Laceby, Scartho, and -Clee; with Holton-le-Clay and Waith just to the south on the road to -Louth. On the west, near Gainsborough, we have a group of five close -together at Corringham, Springthorpe, Harpswell, Heapham, and Glentworth; -and Marton and Stow are not far away, one by the Trent and the other on -the central road between the Trent and the ‘Cliff.’ - -[Sidenote: “LONG-AND-SHORT” WORK] - -Lincoln has its two famous church towers of St. Mary-le-Wigfords and -St. Peters-at-Gowts. Near it, to the south, are Bracebridge, Bramston, -Harmston and Coleby, the two latter close together, and all with traces -of “Long-and-Short” work; and if we continue our way southwards, we shall -pass Hough-on-the-Hill between Grantham and Newark, with its interesting -pre-Conquest stair turret, and so finish our Saxon tour by visiting three -churches on or near the river Glen, at Boothby-Pagnell, Little Bytham and -Thurlby. This is not an exhaustive list, for Great Hale near Heckington -must be included, and Cranwell near Sleaford and Ropsley near Grantham, -both show “Long-and-Short” work. But the more closely the churches -mentioned are examined, the more clear it becomes that, though the dates -of the building, when we can get at them, mostly point us to the eleventh -century, the art is of a pre-Conquest type, and could only have been -executed before the general spread of Norman influence which that century -witnessed. We are therefore quite justified in speaking of this work as -Saxon. - -Here, perhaps, the term “Long-and-Short” work should be explained. - -It is often said that the Saxon architecture was the development in -stone of the building which had previously been done in timber and -wattle, and thus in Barnack, and Barton, and at Stow, but nowhere else -in Lincolnshire, parallel strips of stone run up the tower at intervals -of a couple of feet, as if representing the upright timbers. This -theory, perhaps, will not bear pressing; still, though the arch over -a window is often triangular, made by leaning two slabs one against -another, not unfrequently a square-ended stone projects from the top of -a rounded arch, which seems to be a reminiscence in stone of the end -of a wooden beam. This may be seen at Barnack on the south side of the -tower. The towers have no buttresses, and though the stones between the -upright strips are small and rubbley, the stones at the angles of the -tower are fairly large and squared. When these are long-shaped, but set -alternately perpendicular and horizontal, this is called “Long-and-Short” -work, and is definitely “Saxon,” even though built by Norman hands. -The herring-bone work, as seen at Marton, is Romanesque and a sign of -Norman builders. They also copied the Romans in facing a rubble core with -dressed stone, whereas the Saxons only used dressed stones at the angles. - -[Illustration: _Ancient Saxon Ornament found in 1826 in cleaning out the -Witham, near the village of Fiskerton, four miles east of Lincoln._] - -[Sidenote: SAXON ORNAMENTS] - -The enormous activity of the Norman builders in every part of the kingdom -has thrown previous architectural efforts into the shade; but the Normans -found in England a by no means barbarous people. Anglo-Saxon or Anglian -art had exhibited developments in many directions, in metal work and -jewellery, in illumination of MSS., in needlework, in stone-carving, as -well as in architecture; and when Augustine landed in 597 it was not to -a nation of barbarous savages, but to people quite equal in many ways to -those he had lived among in Italy or conversed with in Gaul, that he -had to preach the tenets of Christianity. As proof of this we can point -to the beautiful carved stonework of the Anglians of Northumbria on the -great crosses of Bewcastle and Ruthwell, and the cross of Bishop Acca of -Hexham, now in the Durham library, all of the seventh century; and to the -Lindisfarne Gospels of St. Wilfred’s time which was only some fifty years -later; whilst to show the continuity of Anglo-Saxon art we have the St. -Cuthbert stole in the Durham Cathedral library, a triumph of needlework -by the nuns of Winchester in the days of Athelstan; and, besides the -celebrated Alfred Jewel, a silver trefoil brooch[12] found at Kirkoswald -in Cumberland, which, for purity of design, richness of ornamentation -and beauty of execution, it would be difficult to match in any age or -country, and the cloak chain, found at Fiskerton, described in Chapter -XIV.; all these are quite first-rate in their different lines, and should -make us speak with respect of our Saxon ancestors. - -Having already noted the Gainsborough group (Chap. XVII.) and the Caistor -group (Chap. XX.), we will now make our way towards a third group of -pre-Norman towers to be seen on the Louth and Grimsby road. - -[Sidenote: NORMAN DWELLINGS] - -In Norman times strongholds and churches were built all over the country, -and doubtless many domestic houses which did not aspire to be more than -ordinary dwelling-places. It is curious how almost entirely these have -vanished; one at Boothby Pagnell and three in Lincoln are among the -very few left. In Lincoln ‘The Jews’ House,’ ‘Aaron’s House,’ and ‘John -of Gaunt’s Stables’ or ‘St. Mary’s Guild’ go back to the beginning of -the twelfth century. They none of them would satisfy our modern notions -of comfort, but neither do the much later houses, such as the mediæval -merchant’s house called “Strangers’ Hall,” in Norwich, which is so -interesting and so obviously uncomfortable. When King John of France was -confined at Somerby Castle in the fourteenth century he had to import -furniture from France to take the place of the benches and trestles which -was all that the castle boasted, and to hang draperies and tapestries on -the bare walls; and though some of these were supplied him by his captor, -comfortable furniture seems to have been not even dreamt of at that time -in England. - -[Sidenote: ROOD-SCREENS] - -For the churches the Normans did surprisingly well, as far as the -building and stonework went, but the beautiful woodwork, which is the -glory of our Lincolnshire marsh churches, is mostly the work of the -men of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. We see this mediæval -workmanship sometimes in the bench ends and stalls and miserere seats, -but most notably in such of the rood screens as have escaped the -successive onslaughts made on them in the sixteenth and seventeenth -centuries, whilst the shameful neglect of the eighteenth and the shocking -ignorance of both clergy and laity in that and the first part of the -nineteenth century, have swept away much that was historically of the -utmost interest, and which the better informed and more responsible -guardians of the churches to-day would have preserved and treasured. This -mediæval woodwork is found most frequently in the more remote parts of -the country. The best rood loft I have ever seen is in a little church -in Wales, near Towyn, and some of the finest rood screens with canopies -are in the churches of Devon; of these, Mr. Hubert Congreve, in his -paper contributed to the Worcester Archæological Society, notes that at -_Stoke-in-Teignhead_ there is one of the fourteenth century, carved in -the reign of Richard II. From this the loft has been removed, and it -was generally the case that when this was taken away as idolatrous, the -screen itself was not objected to. - -Many of these screens in the Devon churches have an extremely rich and -deep cornice, and they often extend right across the nave and both -the aisles. Perhaps the finest of these is in the famous parson Jack -Russell’s church at _Swymbridge_. This is of the fifteenth century. From -the same source we learn that _Bovey Tracey_ has a similar screen, but -it has had to be greatly restored since the Commonwealth destruction, -and that _Atherington_ has a lovely screen in the north aisle, with -fan-shaped coving springing from figures of angels holding shields. The -cornice is delicately carved, and there is some fine canopy work over the -parapet, with niches which once held figures of the saints. This screen -was originally in the chapel at Umberleigh Manor, and is perhaps the only -screen in the county which has never been painted. When I visited lately -the quaint little town of _Totnes_ I saw what is most uncommon—a stone -screen. This dates from 1479, and richly and beautifully carved, much -after the pattern of the screen in the Lady Chapel at Exeter Cathedral. - -All this fine mediæval work suffered terribly from the ultra-Protestant -mania for iconoclasm which exhibited itself in the reign of Edward VI., -in 1547, and again under Elizabeth in 1561. Finally, under the Parliament -both in 1643 and 1644, was issued “An ordinance of the Lords and Commons -assembled in Parliament for the utter demolishing, removing and taking -away of all Monuments of superstition and idolatry.” - -This Act provided specifically for the taking away of all altar rails and -the levelling of the “Chancel-ground” and the removal of the Communion -table from the east end, and the destruction of all stone altars, so that -it is always noticeable when we find one such, either in a side chapel or -in the pavement, with its five and occasionally six dedication crosses -cut on the stone. Norwich has one in which a small black slab bearing the -crosses is let into the large altar slab. - -[Sidenote: ICONOCLASM] - -All images, “representative of the persons of the Trinity or of any -Angell or Saint” were to be “utterly demolished,” and all vestments -“defaced”; with the quaint proviso that the order should “not extend to -any image, picture or coat-of-arms set up or graven onely for a Monument -of any King, Prince or Nobleman, or other dead person _which hath not -been commonly reputed or taken for a saint_.” - - -FONTS. - -In our English churches the most noticeable bit of mediæval work is in -many cases the font, which has often escaped when all the rest of the -building inside and out has been defaced by neglect or destroyed by -restoration. Much destruction followed on the Reformation, and even in -Elizabeth’s reign, in spite of a royal mandate to preserve the old form -of baptism “at the font and not with a bason,” attacks were constantly -made on the fonts, and especially on the font-covers, which makes the -preservation of the _Frieston_ font-cover with a figure of the Virgin -Mary on the top very remarkable. We have in the churchwardens’ accounts -in various places this contemptuous entry:— - - “Item. For takynge doune _ye thynge ower the funt_ XIIᵈ.” - -Parliamentarian soldiers went to greater lengths and broke up the font -itself in very many churches. The bowls were often cast out or buried in -the churchyard. At _Ambleston_ in Wales the font pedestal was only ten -years ago found in use by a farmer as a cheese-press, and the bowl on -another farm doing duty as a pig-trough. - -Still many have escaped with the loss of their carved covers, and how -great the loss is can be judged when we see the beauty of such work as -the cover which we still have at Ufford in Suffolk, eighteen feet high, -or the similar ones at _Grantham_ and _Fosdyke_ and _Frieston_ in our -own county, or at _Ewelme_ (Oxon), and _Thaxted_ (Essex), and again in -Suffolk at _Sudbury St. Gregory_ and _Hepworth_, and one at _Thirsk_ in -Yorkshire which rises to the height of twenty-one feet. Sometimes the -cover takes the form of a canopy, as at _Swymbridge_ in Devon, and more -beautifully in that erected by Bishop Cosin at _Durham_ in 1663. The -_Sudbury_ font-cover has doors in it, as we see in the Jacobean cover -in _Burgh-le-Marsh_ church, and in the beautiful modern cover at _Brant -Broughton_, both in Lincolnshire. - -[Sidenote: FONTS, SAXON AND NORMAN] - -There were at one time many Saxon fonts, most of which were swept away -and replaced in a different form by the Normans. One of the earliest we -have is in _St. Martin’s Church, Canterbury_, the lower part of which, -built of twenty-eight wedge-shaped stones, is Saxon or Romano-British, -the upper part being Norman put on to heighten it, with the old Saxon -rim crowning it, though by some this is called Transitional. This font -was inside the church when King Ethelbert was baptised by St. Augustine -in the ninth century. But we get back still further when we find runic -inscriptions, as on the wonderful square tub font at _Bridekirk_, -Cumberland, and on the little low hollowed stone at _Bingley_, Yorkshire, -attributed to the eighth century, and having three lines of runes which -are read thus:— - -“Eadbert, King, ordered to hew this dipstone for us, pray you for his -soul.” He reigned 737 to 758, when as Æthelred King of Mercia in 675, had -done at Bardney Abbey in the previous century, he resigned the crown and -took the tonsure. _Mellor_, in Derbyshire, has a Saxon font, but without -inscription. - -The remarkable font at _Bag Enderby_, Lincolnshire (_see_ Chap. XXX.), -with its Scandinavian myth, is unique among fonts, though it has -counterparts on many of the pre-Norman crosses in Northumbria. The font -at _Deerhurst_, Gloucestershire, is also a very early one, and covered -with Celtic scroll-work, this, though of the same kind, is bigger than -the usual plain little stone tubs which, as a rule, mark the Saxon period. - -The Norman fonts also are mainly of tub form, but often ornamented with -cable moulding and arcading, as at _Silk Willoughby_, Lincolnshire. - -[Sidenote: LINCOLNSHIRE FONTS] - -The lead fonts, twenty-nine of which are in existence, are all Norman; -most of these have arcading all round and figures within the arches; -perhaps the best is at _Dorchester_, Oxon, showing the apostles. But at -_Brookland_, in Romney Marsh, there is a double row of arcading with -the signs of the Zodiac above, and figures cleverly emblematic of the -months below. At _Childrey_, Berks, the figures are without arcading and -represent bishops with crosiers, all quaintly of the same attenuated -shape, and in very high relief. Berkshire and Oxon have several of these -lead fonts, and Gloucestershire exhibits six, all cast in the same mould; -Lincolnshire has only one at _Barnetby-le-Wold_, which is noticeable, -however, as being the largest of them all, thirty-two inches in diameter; -that at _Brookland_ being the deepest with sixteen inches. - -The _Tournai_ group of black marble or basalt with thick central pedestal -and four corner shafts, of which that at Winchester is the best, are -described under Lincoln, in Chap. XIX. This form of support is pretty -general through the thirteenth century, often with much massive carving -and ornamentation on bowl and shafts, until the shafts developed, in some -cases, into an open arcade round the central pillar, as best seen at -_Barnack_, Northants. The tallest fonts and finest in design are of the -fifteenth century, and are mostly octagonal pedestal fonts and frequently -mounted on steps as in the churches of the Marsh near Boston, _e.g._, -_Benington_ and _Leverton_. Some bowls are found with seven panels as -at _Hundleby_, six as at _Ewerby_, _Heckington_ and _Sleaford_, nine as -at _Orleton_, in Herefordshire, and at _Bigby_, in Lincolnshire, thus -giving eight panels for figures, and allowing one to be placed against a -wall or pillar; and ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen are not unknown. -In our own county we have mentioned the font in nearly every case when -describing a church, and will only now recall a few instances of the -best. In addition to the _Tournai_ font at _Thornton Curtis_ and that -of lead at _Barnetby_, the finest specimens of Early English will be -found at _Thorpe St. Peter’s_ near Wainfleet—a very chaste design; the -supporting shafts are gone, but the capitals show heads of bishop, king, -and knight, and a knot of flowers supporting the bowl; and at _Weston_, -near Spalding, where is one of singularly graceful form, standing on -steps with a broad platform for the priest. At _Thurlby_, near Bourne, -is a tub of Barnack stone which has pilasters all round it, and curious -carved work dividing the panels, the whole being set on four square stone -legs. - -Of Decorated fonts, _Ewerby_ is remarkable; hexagonal, with sides -going straight down from the bowl, each panel representing a window -with tracery, tending in design to Perpendicular, so that it probably -dates from the end of the fourteenth century. The windows are filled -with diaper work, and surrounded by a border of quatre-foils and -flowing foliage. Other good Decorated fonts are at _Strubby_ and -_Maltby-le-Marsh_ and _Huttoft_, all near Alford. The Perpendicular -period is best seen at _Covenham St. Mary_, _North Somercotes_, _Bourne_, -_Pinchbeck_, _Leverton_, and _Benington_. - -It is on the panels of the handsome fifteenth century fonts that the -seven sacraments are carved, leaving one panel for any appropriate -subject, and these panels are often real pictures of the methods of the -time, and form most valuable records; the pedestal usually has its panels -filled with Apostolic figures. - -[Sidenote: EAST ANGLIAN FONTS] - -It is curious that nearly all the thirty “seven sacrament fonts” in -the kingdom are found in East Anglia; those of _Walsoken_, _Little -Walsingham_, _East Dereham_, and _Great Glenham_ in Norfolk, and -_Westall_ in Suffolk, are specially fine. And the churchwarden’s accounts -for _East Dereham_ show that no expense was spared on the making; the -total of £12 14_s._ 2_d._, being equivalent to over £200 of our money. - -The sacraments depicted are Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, The -Eucharist, Holy Orders, Holy Matrimony, and Extreme Unction. But to -return to our own county. - -_Utterby_, near Louth, has an open channel to drain the water off from -the font into the churchyard—a very uncommon feature. - -_Wickenby_, near Wragby, retains the old bar and staple to secure the -font cover, at the time when the fonts were all ordered to be locked -to prevent possibility of the water being tainted by magic. “Water -bewitched” is a familiar expression for weak tea. I wonder if it comes -from this. - -Of later fonts the quaintest is in _Moulton_ church, near Spalding, and -now disused. It represents the trunk of a tree carved in stone, the -branches going round the bowl and the serpent round the trunk, with Adam -and Eve, rather more than half life size, discussing the apple. It dates -from 1830, and seems to be a copy of one in the church of St. James’, -Piccadilly, said to have been carved in marble by Grinling Gibbons. - -Mr. Francis Bond, in his charming book on porches and fonts, says that -some of the fonts in our most ancient Lincolnshire churches, _Cabourn_, -_Waith_, _Scartho_ and _Clee_, look older than they are by reason of -their coarse workmanship. He notes that the cover of the _Skirbeck_ font -belonged to a larger one destroyed by the Puritans, the present font -having been put up in 1662. - -[Sidenote: WOODEN FONTS] - -The material of all the fonts described above is either stone or lead. -We have very few of any other material, but of these by far the most -interesting are those made of solid oak, of which specimens are extant -at _Dinas-Mawddwy_ (pronounced Mouthy) and _Evenechtyd_ in Wales. But -one might go on long enough talking about fonts, and I would only urge -readers to go themselves and study them, and if they would pick out a -few of the finest they should visit the fonts and font covers we have -mentioned, and especially such typical fonts as are to be found at -_Winchester_ and _Durham_, at _Walsoken_ in Norfolk, at _Fishlake_ in -Yorkshire, and _Bridekirk_ in Cumberland, whenever they happen to be in -those neighbourhoods. - -The worst of fonts is that they are so easily removable. Even in such -out-of-the-way places as _Crowle_ the font has not remained, though the -Norman south wall with its beautiful doorway is in quite good repair. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - -ROADS FROM LOUTH, NORTH AND WEST - - The Grimsby Group of Pre-Norman - Towers—Waith—Holton-le-Clay—Scartho—Clee—Humberstone—Tetney - —Ravendale—Ashby-cum-Fenby—Roads to Lincoln and - Horncastle—Hainton—Glentham—West Rasen—The Pack-horse - Bridge—Toft-next-Newton and Newton-by-Toft—Gibbet-posts—Middle - Rasen—The Labourer—Market Rasen—North Willingham—Tealby - and Bayons Manor—Bishop Odo—South Elkington—Road from - Horncastle—The South Wolds—Tathwell—Jane Chaplin. - - -[Sidenote: JUNE FLOWERS] - -The road from Louth to Grimsby, in its first part, is described -elsewhere; but north of Ludborough it passes through a succession of -small villages in each of which is a very early church tower. These are -all somewhat similar to the two primitive churches in Lincoln and to the -famous one at Barton-on-Humber, but they have no “Long-and-Short” work -which is distinctive of the _Saxon_ towers, and so the term _Romanesque_ -perhaps best describes them. They are certainly pre-Norman. Similar -groups have been described near Caistor and Gainsborough in Chaps. XVII. -and XX., and others mentioned in Chap. XXII. It was a bright and breezy -morning early in June when we set out from Well to visit this remarkable -group. The trees were at their best, chestnuts and may trees still in -bloom, and in the wayside gardens the laburnum with its “dropping-wells -of fire” was a joy to see. As we passed along the wind brought the strong -scent of the mustard fields and the delicious perfume of the beans, not -badly described by the Barber to his wife as “just like the very most -delicious hair-oil, my dear.” The pastures were golden with buttercups, -but the most wonderful sight of all was the profusion of chervil, -or cow-parsley (_Anthriscus_), which, with its lace-like flowers, at -times filled the space of grass between the road and the hedge with -mile upon mile of its delicate white blossom, and in places lined every -hedge, showing above the ordinary low-cut Lincolnshire fence, or, where -the hedge was higher, whitening the lower half in lines of flowery -loveliness. It nowhere encroached on the cultivated land, but every hedge -and ditch and roadside was marked out by it in a profusion of soft white -blossoms which was quite astonishing. We note that the “tender ash” is -still, as our Lincolnshire poet has it, delaying ‘to clothe herself when -all the woods are green,’ but a few days of such balmy sunshine will woo -even her leaves from out the bud, and full summer will be with us. The -red cattle are feeding in little herds, and the sheep, white from the -hands of the shearer, are dotted about the fields. The labourers seem, -most of them, to be at the same work, weeding the corn; but as we get -further on to the heavy lands whence _Holton-le-Clay_ so aptly gets its -name, we see teams of four horses abreast harnessed to the “Drags,” by -which the great clods are broken up. - -The first of the group of towers we look at is _Waith_, a small cruciform -building in a churchyard thickly planted with trees, two fine cedars -among them. There are some Early English arcades to the nave, but -outside, the tower alone is ancient. This originally was just the width -of the nave, and has no openings in the north and south walls. It is -also built, not of rubble with quoins, but of dressed stones throughout, -solidly but roughly built, with a tiny opening low down; and above the -invariable string course, a double light of two small round-headed arches -supported by a stout mid-wall shaft with heavy impost. Coming away, we -note on a tombstone the curious and possibly Roman surname ‘Porcass.’ Two -miles south-west is _Grainsby_ where, as at Clee and Scartho, the stones -bear the red marks of Danish fire, and where, inside the tower, is an old -boulder stone. Two miles north, on the Grimsby road, is _Holton-le-Clay_, -where the tower of the church is of similar antiquity, all but the top -storey above the string-course. The west side has only one very small -window, but it has on the east side a good tall Romanesque tower-arch, -and there is an Early Norman or Saxon font. The rest of the church is of -the poorest in all respects. - -[Sidenote: SCARTHO] - -As we proceed, the tall windmill with six sails shows above the _Waltham_ -woods on our left, and we pass a roadside inn with the sign of “The Old -Pop Shop.” Three miles more and we reach _Scartho_, a village which is -beginning to take the overflow of Grimsby and is full of new buildings. -This is the only living in the north or east of England which belongs -to Jesus College, Oxford. The church is very interesting on account of -its tower, which is Saxon in all but the absence of “Long-and-Short” -work. The stones of the tower are of all shapes and kinds, the quoins -alone being of hewn stone. Below are only the tiny windows common to all -Saxon towers, and above, the belfry has two-light windows with the usual -mid-wall shaft. In the west of the tower is a doorway with a round head -of large stones and massive imposts. - -There is a deep, narrow archway from the nave into the tower, with a -little window looking into the nave, and there have been originally tall -arches in both the north and south walls, narrow of necessity so as to -leave wall enough at each angle for the tower to stand on. A charming -original font is there, but hideously placed on a modern inverted stone -bowl. The tower and the font are the only things worth looking at, but -both of these are of unusual interest. The parapet is Perpendicular and -built of different stone, and it is easy to see from the red appearance -of many calcined stones used in the tower that it has been rebuilt from -the old materials after a former church had been burnt by that scourge -of Lincolnshire—the Dane. The principal entrance is now through a big -doorway, but in the thirteenth century was in the south wall of the tower. - -Leaving _Scartho_ we quickly reach the outskirts of Grimsby, and, turning -to the right on the Cleethorpes road, we come in a couple of miles -to the church of _Clee_. This is the best of the group we have been -visiting. It is one of the earliest churches in the county, and is highly -interesting, not only for the venerable antiquity of its tower, but for -the fine and varied early Norman and Transition architecture in the body -of the church. As a rule there is nothing left of any antiquity in these -pre-Norman churches but the tower. - -[Sidenote: CLEE] - -There is a narrow western doorway and a much taller one of similar -character opening into the nave; each has Voussoirs set in double -rows. Just above the belfry on the west face is a keyhole light made -of top and side stones, and a circular light in the south face. Mr. -Jeans, in Murray’s “Lincolnshire,” notes that they have all similar -characteristics—“Rubble walling with large quoins, a bold string-course -dividing them into stages, tall, narrow doorways with rude imposts and -coupled belfry windows with a massive mid-wall shaft.” All this we find -at _Clee_, and the red calcined stones in the wall tell of the Danish -fire here as at Scartho. The early Norman arcade in the north of the nave -has square piers with shafts at the corners, one of them twisted, like -the work in Durham Cathedral. All are different in their structure and in -the carving of their capitals. The south arcade has thick round columns -of later Norman work with chevron, billet, and very thick cable moulding. -The arches are round, and the stones of the moulding, as at Somerby, -being cut by various hands and without plan or drawing, fit together, but -are hardly any two of them of the same sized pattern. This is quite usual -in Norman arch mouldings. I noticed it lately over the west doorway of -the fine tower of New Romney, Kent. The arches at the east of each aisle -which give upon the transepts are pointed, but with Norman mouldings, -and the transept arches are the same; the transepts themselves and the -low central tower and the chancel are all modern. The old tower is, as -usual, at the west end. On the shaft of one of the south arcade pillars -is a very interesting record of two notable Bishops of Lincoln. It is in -Latin, cut on a small tablet of marble about six inches by eight, and -let in flush with the pillar. It says that “the Church was dedicated -in honour of the Holy Trinity and the blessed Virgin by Hugh Bishop of -Lincoln in the year 1192, in the time of King Richard and re-dedicated -after restoration by Bishop Christopher Wordsworth in 1888.” 1192 was the -same year in which Bishop Hugh began the choir at Lincoln, which is pure -Early English, but doubtless the nave at Clee was built some years before -it was dedicated. The font is a massive Norman one, and a portion of the -shaft of an early cross stands just inside the door. - -[Illustration: _Clee Church._] - -[Sidenote: PRE-NORMAN TOWER] - -[Sidenote: ASHBY-CUM-FENBY] - -The pathway to the church is lined on either side with tall fuschias, -not a usual sight near the east coast. This church is the old parish -church of _Cleethorpes_, which is the most crowded of the Lincolnshire -watering-places, the goal of endless excursions from all the neighbouring -counties, but not a place of any attraction for residents. Six miles -due east across the river Humber is the revolving light of the Spurn -Head lighthouse, plainly seen from the hill above Alford, thirty miles -away. Between the Louth and Grimsby main road and the sea another road -runs south from Clee by Humberstone and Tetney, thence to Covenham -and Alvingham and so to Louth. _Humberstone_ is a parish which goes -with Holton-le-Clay, though they are about three miles apart. It is -remarkable for its fine avenues of trees, and has a good Perpendicular -tower. But in this respect it is surpassed by the extremely well-built -and well-designed tower at the next village of Tetney. This, unlike the -body of the church, is entirely of good, hard, grey Yorkshire stone. -Some “Blow Wells,” which are circular pits of very blue water 100 feet -deep, are in a field half a mile to the south-east of the church. There -are others at _Laceby_ and _Little Cotes_, both in the valley of the -Freshney river, six miles off. The water comes through faults in the -limestone ridge four or five miles to the west. A stream also flows -through Tetney, which comes out of the Croxby pond near _Hatcliffe_, the -only piece of water in the neighbourhood. The roads we have been writing -of are all entirely in the flat ground, but from the Louth and Grimsby -main road a branch goes off to the left, after crossing a fourteenth -century bridge with ribbed arches, at _Utterby_, which runs north along -the western edge of the Wold past Brocklesby to Barrow on Humber. This, -when it is opposite to Waith, has on its left a place called Ravendale, -and, on its right, a little hidden away village, called Ashby-cum-Fenby. -At _Ravendale_ there was once a priory belonging to a Premonstratensian -abbey in Brittany. It was seized by the Crown with other alien priories -in 1337 to form part of the dowry of Joan of Navarre, Queen of Henry IV. -_Ashby-cum-Fenby_ has very pretty Early-English two-light windows in the -belfry, set round with dog-tooth moulding. A Crusader effigy of 1300 is -at the west end of the tower, and two fine monuments to two sisters of -the Drury family are in good preservation; one to Sir F. and Lady Wray -closely resembles the Irby monument at Whaplode, and, as the families -are related, probably the work is by the same sculptor. That of Susannah -Drury in the chancel is a good piece of sculpture, but the whole has -literally been whitewashed, which does not improve it. The churchyard is -for the most part deplorably neglected, and a few sheep would greatly -improve it. A row of almshouses with tiny gardens, made like the -Workmen’s row at Tattershall, adjoins the west side of the churchyard. - -The road after this passes nothing of importance near it, till it reaches -Brocklesby. - -Close to the bell ropes in the tower at Tetney is a neat little brass -which aptly commemorates a fine old parishioner as follows:— - - Matthew Lakin - born 1801 died 1899 One of the regular bellringers of - Tetney for 84 years and sometime Clerk and Sexton. - -The highway which goes out of Louth on the west, after passing Thorpe -Hall, within a mile of the town, soon splits into two, the one going -up the hill to the right has, at first, a north-easterly course, but -after passing through South Elkington leaves North Elkington on the -right and goes on due east to Market Rasen and Gainsborough, and is the -great east-and-west road of North Lincolnshire: the only other roads -which take that direction being the Boston-Sleaford-and-Newark and the -Donington-and-Grantham roads in the southern part of the county, and the -great Sutton-Holbeach-Spalding-Bourne-and-Colsterworth road. But none of -these run so straight. - -[Sidenote: HAINTON] - -The other road from the foot of South Elkington hill goes on at first -due west till, passing Welton-le-Wold on the right and Gayton-le-Wold on -the left, it drops into the picturesque little village of Burgh-on-Bain -(pronounced Bruff). So far we have had a wide Wold view, but no blue -distances over fen or marsh; but _Grimblethorpe_ and _Burgh-on-Bain_ are -in two parallel little valleys, and when the road turns here, at seven -miles distance from Louth, to the south-west, a quite different type of -country is entered, beginning with the woods of _Girsby_, the seat of Mr. -J. Fox, quondam joint Master of the Southwold Hounds, and _Hainton_ Hall -and park, where the Heneage family have been seated since the time of -Henry III. The church tower has some of the characteristics of the early -Norman or pre-Norman groups, and both church and chantry-chapel are rich -in monuments of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and brasses of -still earlier date. The altar tombs of 1553 and 1595 are magnificent, and -the kneeling effigies of 1559 and 1610 are in excellent preservation. -The helmets and spurs over the effigy of John (1559), and the gilded -armour of Sir George (1595), are especially noticeable, as also are the -varied spellings of the name—in 1435 Henege, in 1530 Hennage, and in 1553 -Henneage. - -[Sidenote: GLENTHAM] - -From here a road leads to the left to _South Willingham_ and -_Benniworth_, but the main road runs through _East and West Barkwith_, -with those fine grass borders, each wider than the road, which are -characteristic of the Wold highways, for five miles to _Wragby_, eleven -miles from Lincoln. Near East Barkwith Station is Mr. Turnor’s residence, -Panton Hall, and from West Barkwith a road goes to the _Torringtons_. -Here Gilbert of Sempringham was rector, and established one of his -Gilbertine houses. The road on either side of the rather town-like -village of _Wragby_ is uninteresting, till suddenly, at a distance of -eight miles, the towers of Lincoln Minster appear, not in front, but away -to the left, and then again disappear from view. But the road turns, and -after four miles, lo! again the Minster, straight in front; and as you -approach from the north-east you see all three towers at the end of the -long road, getting ever finer as you approach and are able to make out -the details of the architecture. Only too quickly you come to the top of -the hill, and gaze at the splendid upper windows of the great bell tower, -now close on your right, then sweep down the curve and, passing through -the Minster yard by the Potter and Exchequer gates, go out northwards by -the old Roman Ermine Street. We soon reach the turn to Riseholme, where -from 1830, when Buckden was given up, the bishops resided, until Bishop -King built the present house in the Old Palace grounds in Lincoln, and -where in the churchyard are the tombs of her much-revered Bishops Kaye -and Wordsworth, though their monuments are in the cathedral. After this -we pass nothing, the road running straight on for over thirty miles, -and on much the same level all the way. But we will only go to the -thirteenth milestone and turn to the right at _Caenby_ Corner, where -the Gainsborough and Louth road crosses the Ermine Street, and so make -our way back by Market Rasen. The first village we shall come to is -_Glentham_, which contains in chancel and chantry several monuments -of the Tourney family from 1452. It is believed that the church was -originally dedicated to “Our Lady of Pity,” hence, over the porch is a -beautiful little carving of the Virgin holding the dead Christ, and the -Tourney arms below it. A brass to Ann Tourney has the following play on -words:— - - “Abiit non obiit, preiit non periit.” - -Till the early part of last century, a rent charge on some land in the -village provided a shilling each for seven old maids every Good Friday -for washing the recumbent effigy of a lady of the Tourney family which -is under the gallery, with water from “The New Well.” This singular -survival of the custom of washing an effigy of the dead Christ for a -representation of the entombment is now abandoned, as the land was sold -in 1852 without reservation of the rent charge on it. The effigy was -known as “Molly Grime,” a corruption of “Malgraen,” which means in some -ancient tongue or dialect the ‘Holy-Image-Washing.’ (“Lincs. Notes and -Queries.” I., 125.) - -The church is rather a curiosity, being seated throughout with box pens -and having a gallery at the west end. Even the font is painted, and is a -cheese-shaped stone on three legs placed on a round block. The door is -old and has an unmistakable sanctuary ring on it, as at Durham, and the -porch has a pretty little two-light window on each side. - -[Sidenote: THE TOURNAYS] - -The Tournays of Caenby are one of the genuine old county families, having -held land in it certainly since 1328. John Tournay, in the sixteenth -century, married a Talboys co-heiress, and was brother-in-law to Sir -Christopher Willoughby and Sir Edward Dymoke. - -The manor of Caenby-cum-Glentham, given in the thirteenth century -to Barlings Abbey, and at the dissolution, along with so many other -things, bestowed by Henry VIII. on Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, was -purchased by Edward Tournay in 1675, but he had inherited another manor -in Caenby, or Cavenby through a long line of ancestors from the family -of Thornton, of whom one Gilbert de Thornton was Lord Chief Justice of -the King’s Bench, 1289-1295. The present representative of the Tournays, -or Tornys, who, to suit both spellings, have a tower for a crest and -a chevron between three Bulls for their coat of arms, is Sir Arthur -Middleton of Belsay Castle, Northumberland, who parted with the property -at Caenby in 1871. - -Three miles beyond Glentham we reach “Bishops’ Bridge” inn. Here a -fourteenth century bridge crosses the stream at the junction of the River -Rase with the Ancholme. Thence, after several turns, the road reaches -_West Rasen_, where there is a most picturesque and interesting Pack -Horse Bridge of the same date, with three ribbed arches, placed at right -angles to the present road. The church has heavy embattled turrets and -some curious carved figures in the chancel. - -[Sidenote: THE ‘GOOD OLD DAYS’] - -Going south from here, a roundabout road takes you to _Buslingthorpe_, -passing by the two oddly-named villages of _Toft-next-Newton_ and -_Newton-by-Toft_, each apparently, like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, -leaning for support on the other. Two miles to the west, on the Normanby -road, is Gibbet-posthouse. The name Gibbet-post or Gibbet-hill is not -uncommon, but I doubt if a single post remains. Eighty years ago some -still held their ghastly record. My uncle, Edward Rawnsley, who was born -in 1815, told me once that he had passed one with a skeleton hanging in -chains, as he rode from Bourne to Wisbech. The Melton Ross gallows was -renewed in 1830. - -Only two miles east of West Rasen we reach _Middle Rasen_, which has an -interesting church. It once had two, one on each side of the stream; the -existing one, which belonged to Tupholme Abbey, has a very fine Norman -south door and Norman piers to the chancel arch, and a deeply moulded -Early English arcade, on which is a singular beaded moulding. There is -also a low-side window and a beautiful Perpendicular rood screen, also a -fourteenth-century effigy of a priest with vestments and chalice. In the -churchyard is the font of the other church. - -In the days of toll-bars there were two at Middle Rasen; usually they -were let to the highest bidder, and the man who took the main road gate -in the year 1845 is still living, at the age of eighty-nine, in 1912. A -toll-bar keeper in the days before railways, when all the corn went to -market by road, had little rest at night, as waggons full or empty passed -through at all hours. In his early days food was dear—tea eight shillings -a pound—and wages were low, and bread and water and barley-chaff dumpling -were the common fare. He is now a rate-collector and, of course, can -read and write, but he never went to school, and at eight years of age -he began to earn a little by “scaring crows.” At fifteen he was mowing -and using the flail at his native village of Legbourne. In a field, near -where the station now is, he remembers a man mowing wheat for six days on -bread and water, and the crop yielded six quarters to the acre. A woman -of ninety-three, now living in the Wolds, remembers when flour was 4_s._ -6_d._ a stone, and a loaf cost 11½_d._ instead of 2½_d._ They mixed rye -with wheat flour and baked at home; and a labourer who earned enough to -buy a stone of flour a day thought he could live well. - -Only the other day I heard of a labouring family living just between -the Wold and the Marsh, seven sons of a retired Crimean soldier. The -clergyman used to make them a present at the christening if he might -choose the name, and he gave them grand historic names for them to -live up to, _e.g._, Washington and Wellington, and the plan certainly -answered, for they all took to the land and by steadiness, hard work and -good sense raised themselves first to a foreman’s position and then to -that of small occupiers, with the result that the family now farms three -or four hundred acres between them. Yet they, as children, had had a -hard struggle, and never knew either luxury or comfort. Their cottage -had but two rooms, and half the family having gone to bed with the sun, -habitually got up when night was but half over and came and sat round -the fire whilst the other half went to bed. The conditions of life have -improved since then, but the men of to-day can’t have more of the right -stuff in them. - -Another instance of the same kind which goes to prove that no walk of -life is without its chances, if only the man is strenuous and sober and -gifted with good sense, is that of a family in the Louth neighbourhood, -three grandsons of a labouring man, who in two generations have raised -themselves to such purpose that they now farm between them some -10,000 acres. Of course the great factors in such successful careers -are steadiness and industry, and that shrewd good sense which is so -characteristic of the best Lincolnshire natives. - -Not many years ago I talked with a small farmer in Hampshire, whose -wages as a labourer used to be ten and sixpence a week, when a pair of -boots cost eighteen shillings; but then, he said, they did wear well. -The family lived, year in year out, on hot water with barley in it and a -sprinkling of salt. And yet, incredible as it may seem, he and his wife -had brought up a family of ten. There was some grit in those people. - -[Sidenote: MARKET RASEN] - -From _Middle Rasen_ it is little more than a mile to _Market Rasen_. Men -still living there can recall the Shrove Tuesday football, when the whole -male population of the village, aided by friends from outside, spent some -strenuous hours in trying to get the ball into Middle Rasen. The windows -were boarded up all along the road, and the struggle of hundreds of rough -fellows was more concerned in pushing their opponents into the beck by -the roadside than in keeping on the ball. - -The town has an unusual number of schools in it. The De Aston School, -founded 1401 at Spital, was set up here in 1862 as a middle-class school, -and has been most successful; and the church school and still larger -Wesleyan school between them can accommodate nearly 400 children. - -From Market Rasen three miles of low country brings us to _North -Willingham_. The Hall, the home of Mr. Wright, was for over a hundred -years the residence of the family of Boucherett, whose former mansion -stood a couple of miles to the west. The present house with its pretty -bit of water faces the road. In the village we may see a blacksmith who, -at the age of ninety, can still shoe a horse. We are now twelve miles -from Louth; a road to the left goes to Tealby and Bayons Manor, and to -the right by _Sixhills_ to Hainton; and here, instead of going right on -up the sweep of the hill, we will make the round by Tealby and come back -to the high road at Ludford Parva. - -[Sidenote: BAYONS MANOR] - -_Tealby_ is quite an ideal village, with beautiful trees, a fine and -well-placed church, a stream and bridges and picturesque cottages. One -road leads from it up the steep “Bully hill,” a 300 feet rise, another -road takes us to _Bayons Manor_, the seat of the Tennyson d’Eyncourt -family. Originally there was an old eleventh or twelfth century fortified -dwelling about a hundred yards up the hill, traces of which may still -be seen in bank or dyke. This was replaced about the sixteenth century -by a fairly large house, at one time thatched; part of this remains as -the nucleus of the present castellated mansion built in the romantic -era of the Waverley novels and completed with drawbridge and barbican -in the middle of the last century by Charles Tennyson, M.P., uncle of -the poet, who, after the death of his father, George Tennyson, took the -name of d’Eyncourt. His grandson, E. Tennyson d’Eyncourt, now lives -there. The house has a fine open-roofed hall, and is replete with -interesting mementoes of the Tennysons as well as of the ancient family -of d’Eyncourt. The site is good, with a charming garden sloping to the -park, in which is a fine piece of water. The name Bayons is derived from -its first Norman possessor, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. He was half-brother -to William the Conqueror on the mother’s side, and he was so exalted a -personage that he was called “Totius Angliae Vice-dominus, sub rege.” -Thus he was on occasions the king’s representative, and seems to have had -as much land in Lincolnshire and elsewhere granted to him by William, as -Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk had under Henry VIII., for we hear that -he held seventy-six manors in the county and 463 in other parts. - -It is interesting to know that Bulwer Lytton in 1848, when he was trying -to recover his seat for Lincoln, wrote his historical romance “Harold” -here, making good use of his friend Mr. Tennyson d’Eyncourt’s fine -collection of early English chronicles. - -A little north of Tealby is the temporarily disused church of _Walesby_, -where once Robert Burton (1577-1640), author of the “Anatomy of -Melancholy,” was rector, before he went to Segrave in Leicestershire. It -is hoped that this church may soon be in use again. - -One of the many roads across the Wolds from Rasen to Grimsby passes -through _Walesby_ to _Stainton-le-Vale_ and _Thorganby_, another goes -through _Tealby_, _Kirmond-le-Mire_, and _Binbrook_, once a market town, -and near to _Swinhope_, the ancestral seat of the Alingtons. Both roads -after this unite and pass by _East Ravendale_, _Brigsley_, _Waltham_ and -_Scartho_. - -A clear stream flows north through a narrow valley from Kirmond top -through Swinhope, Thorganby, Croxby pond, Hatcliffe, and almost to -Barnoldsby, and thence east to Brigsley, and so across the marsh to -Tetney Haven. - -[Sidenote: SOUTH ELKINGTON] - -Leaving Tealby, we climb to the top of the Ludford ridge, and, turning -to the right, come to the Market Rasen and Louth highway at Willingham -Corner, thence, to the left, by _Ludford Magna_ with its cruciform church -on the infant ‘Bain.’ To the right we notice Wykeham Hall, further on -to the left the church of _Kelstern_, standing solitary in a field, and -soon we reach the singularly beautiful and well-wooded approach to Louth -by _South Elkington_, the seat of Mr. W. Smyth. The church here, whose -patronage goes with the Elkington estate, was given about 1250 to the -convent at Ormsby, which presented to it until the dissolution, when it -fell to the Crown, and was given, in 1601, by Queen Elizabeth to the -famous John Bolle of Thorpe Hall. This Hall we now pass on our approach -to Louth, and a splendid picture awaits us when we see that lovely spire -of Louth church, standing up out of a grove of trees, and eventually -presenting itself to our eyes, in its full height and beautiful -proportions, as we come into the town by the west gate. - -[Sidenote: LOUTH SPIRE] - -The highway from Louth to Horncastle is best traversed the reverse way. -Starting from Horncastle with its little river—the Bain—its cobble-paved -streets and its pretty little thatched hostel, the King’s Head, the Louth -road brings us soon to West Ashby. Then, at a distance of four miles -from Horncastle, we come suddenly on the unpretending buildings of the -Southwold Hunt kennels. These are in the parish of _Belchford_, which -lies half a mile to the right. - -[Illustration: _Westgate, Louth._] - -We now climb 300 feet up Flint Hill, a name which tells us that we are -on an outlier of the chalk wolds, and a fine view opens out on the -left which we can enjoy for a mile, after which the road turns to the -right and discloses a totally different scene. In front lies the snug -village of _Scamblesby_, and behind it the south-eastern portion of the -South Wolds, sweeping round from Oxcombe’s wooded slope in a wide curve -to Redhill, behind which the Louth and Lincoln railway emerges near -_Donington-on-Bain_. It is a fine landscape. - -We descend to the village, and passing in the wide valley the turn to -Asterby and Goulceby on the left, set ourselves to climb the main ridge -of the Wolds by _Cawkwell_. On the top of the hill we pass a cross road -which runs for many miles right and left without coming to anything in -the shape of a village; and naturally so, for the road like the Roman -streets in the Lake District, keeps sturdily along the highest ground, -and who would care to live on a wind-swept ridge? - -[Sidenote: TATHWELL] - -To the right the Wold runs up to nearly 500 feet, but our road only -crosses it, and after little more than a mile we see the level of the -marsh and the tall spire of Louth five miles ahead of us. The road -here forks, and forsaking the direct route by Raithby we will take the -right-hand road and in a couple of miles find ourselves dropping to the -village of _Tathwell_. This we circle round and arrive at the lane which -leads to the church. - -This little church, dedicated to St. Vedast, who was Bishop of Arras -and Cambray (_circa_ 500), was once a Norman building, but the Norman -pilasters supporting the round tower-arch of the eleventh century are -all that is left of that period, unless the four courses nearest the -ground of large stones of a hard, grey, sandstone grit can be referred -to it. Upon these now is built a structure of brick with a broad tower -at the west and an apse at the east; but the charm of the place is its -situation, on a steep little hill overlooking a good sheet of clear -chalk-stream water. You look westwards across this to a pathway running -up the slope opposite which is fringed with a fine row of beeches, and -just below you at the edge of the little graveyard you see the thatched -roof of a primitive cottage, whilst beyond it the ground is broken into -steep little grass fields, the whole most picturesquely grouped. - -We leave the secluded little village, and turning to the right, pass -between the Danish camp on Orgarth Hill and the six long barrows on Bully -Hill (the second hill of the name, the other being near Tealby). These -are all probably of the same date; the latter in a field adjoining the -road. A mile more and we turn to the left at Haugham, where is another -and larger tumulus, after passing which, on the left, we soon come to the -main Louth and Spilsby road. - -The number six seems to have been a favourite one with the Vikings. -Eleven miles to the west of Bully Hill is “Sixhills,” between Hainton and -North Willingham, and another place of the same name near Stevenage in -Hertfordshire shows a fine row of six tumuli close to the road side. - -[Sidenote: JANE CHAPLIN] - -On October 25 there was a funeral in the Tathwell churchyard, when, in -presence of her surviving grand-children and great-grandchildren Jane -Chaplin was laid to rest beside the husband who had died forty years -before. She was not only of a remarkable age—it is seldom that a coffin -plate bears such an inscription:— - - “Jane Chaplin, born 24th June, 1811, died 21st October, 1913”— - -but during all that long life she was always cheerful and kindly and full -of interest, and up to the very last, within two hours of her death, -she was bright and happy, lively with talk and merriment, and in full -possession of all her faculties. On her 102nd birthday she received her -relatives and delighted them with her reminiscences of the days before -they were born, telling the writer how she remembered Alfred Tennyson -asking her to dance at the local ball, and adding that she was still -able to read and to paint, though she had of late years given up reading -by candlelight for fear of trying her eyes, and saying how thankful she -was that she felt so well and had no pains and was, in fact, much better -than she used to be fifty years ago. She had left Lincolnshire and lived -of late years at Bournemouth and then at Cheltenham, where she literally -‘fell on sleep’ and passed from this life to the next, without any -illness or struggle, in the happiest possible manner. Truly, we may say -with Milton— - - Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail - Or knock the breast. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - -LINCOLNSHIRE BYWAYS - - Willoughby and Captain John Smith—Grimoldby—South - Cockerington—Sir Adrian Scrope’s Tomb—Alvingham—Two Churches - in one Churchyard—Yarborough—The Covenhams—Hog-back - View—Milescross Hill to Gunby—Skendleby—South Ormsby and - Walmsgate—Belchford—Thorpe Hall—The Elkingtons. - - -The Romans had a road from the sea probably by Burgh and Gunby and then -on the ridge by Ulceby cross-roads to Louth, and so on the east edge of -the Wold north to the Humber. - -It is not a particularly interesting route, but if at Gunby we turn to -the right we shall pass _Willoughby_ with its old sandstone church in a -well-kept churchyard, a somewhat rare thing on this route. The church -(St. Helen’s) has some Saxon stones in the south wall of the tower, and -a double arch on the north side of the chancel, a Norman arch in front -of a fourteenth century one. Here, in 1579, was born the redoubtable -Captain John Smith, president of Virginia and the hero of the famous -Pocahontas[13] story, a man whose life was more full of adventure than -perhaps any in history. The interest which Pocahontas created when she -came to England is evinced by the number of inn signs of “The belle -Sauvage.” The church has a singular slab with the head and shoulders of a -man, name unknown, in relief cut on it at one end—his feet showing at the -other, something after the fashion of a “sandwich-man.” The huge belfry -ladder is also noteworthy, being made of two trees, whole, with stout, -rough timber spiked to them for steps. - -[Sidenote: GRIMOLDBY] - -From _Willoughby_ to _Alford_ and on by _Saleby_, _Withern_, -_Gayton-le-Marsh_, _Great_ and _Little Carlton_, and _Manby_, the road -is not remarkable; but, after crossing the main road from Horncastle -to Saltfleet, which has come over the Wold _viâ_ Scamblesby, Cawkwell -and Tathwell, it arrives at _Grimoldby_. Here the church is noteworthy -for the size and excellence of its gargoyles. Outside it has heavy -battlemented parapets, a good gable-cross with pent-house over it, as on -the Somersby cross, and the entire shaft of a churchyard cross. Inside, -the nave is whitewashed, but the fine old roof remains, and on one of -the beams is the pulley block for the rood light, as at Addlethorpe and -Winthorpe. The door is old and has been enriched with carving and there -is the lower part of a good rood screen with three returns, possibly for -lights, projecting twelve inches westwards. This arrangement is also -found in the rood screen at Thornton Curtis. In the north porch is a fine -holy water stoup. - -[Illustration: _Manby._] - -For the next six miles churches are to be found at every mile. - -[Sidenote: SIR ADRIAN SCROPE] - -_South Cockerington_ has a little holy water stoup just inside the door. -Part of a handsome rood screen is stowed away under the tower, the rest -being in _Manby_ Church. The church has had a profusion of consecration -crosses—a dozen have been noticed, some of which still remain cut in the -stone and filled with dark cement. Nearly all the churches about here -are in two styles—Decorated and Perpendicular; and though _Grimoldby_ -exhibits only one style, it is the transition between these two. The -most noticeable thing in the church is the alabaster altar tomb to Sir -Adrian Scrope, with effigies of his five sons over whom is the legend -‘similis in prole resurgo,’ and two daughters and an infant, over whom is -written ‘Pares et impares.’ Does this mean “Like in face but different in -character,” or “Like their father but not so good-looking”? The knight -is represented armed and half reclining on one elbow, with his helmet -behind him and his mailed glove by his knee, the head and face very -life-like, the hands and fingers extremely delicate. On a brass plate he -is described as the thrice honourable Adrian Scrope, Kt., etc., and this -verse follows:— - - Tombs are but dumb day-books, they will not keepe - There names alive who in these wombes doe sleepe, - But who would pen the virtues of this knight - A story not an epitaph must write. - -It was not easy to find the way to _South Cockerington_ as the road to -it literally forms a square, and then passes on from the churchyard gate -right through a farm; but to reach _North Cockerington_ you seem to go -round at least five sides of a square or squares, then cross the Louth -River, and then a bridge just above a water mill, and passing by two -gates through a farmyard you arrive in a grass field, in which, devoid of -any sort of fence on the north and west sides, the plain-looking church -of _Alvingham_ stands; a gate leads to the south door, near which a few -yards of grass is mown, but the rest of the churchyard is a tangle of -long grass and tall nettles; and amongst them, within a stone’s throw, -stands a second and larger church of _North Cockerington_, in which no -service is held. “There _is_ some wildernesses!” was the apt remark of -our driver as we reached the churchyard gate. - -Two churches in one churchyard are to be found at Evesham in -Worcestershire, and at Reepham in Norfolk. These I have seen; others are -at Willingate in Essex, and at Trimley in Suffolk. At Evesham there is -even a third tower for the bells. This is of stone, but in a few other -places, as at Brookland in Romney Marsh, the bell tower is a separate -timber erection. The reason for two here was that Alvingham, dedicated -to St. Adelwold, is the parish church, but there was once a Gilbertine -priory for monks and nuns close by, to which the other church served as a -chapel. This was also the parish church of North Cockerington at a very -early date, mention being made of it in a charter of about 1150. - -The Alvingham Cartulary or priory book, once in possession of F. G. -Ingoldby, Esq., is now in Louth Museum, and among the charters is a -curious entry of an agreement between the joint occupiers of a meadow -that their men should meet on a certain day at Cockerington Church and -there fix a day for beginning to mow. - -[Sidenote: YARBOROUGH WEST DOOR] - -The next village is one which gives his title to Lord _Yarborough_. -The church, like so many in this neighbourhood, Grimoldby and South -Cockerington being honourable exceptions, is locked, but the chief point -of interest is to be seen outside. This is a beautiful example of a -richly carved doorway. The mouldings of the square head are good and set -with little ornaments, and very bold and original carvings run round the -arch of the doorway. The space between the arch and the outer square -head mould is filled with shallow carved work representing on the left, -the fall, with Adam, Eve, the Serpent, and much good foliage carving; -and on the right the Lamb and the emblems of the Passion. An old English -inscription runs round the arch of the doorway, but is only in part -decipherable; the stone is a white hardish sandstone, and the surface a -good deal worn, but the whole design is most elegant and unusual. - -A mile more brings us to the two churches of _Covenham_, within a -quarter of a mile of each other, and both locked. Covenham _St. Mary_ -seems to be built of a hard chalk. There are mason-marks high up on each -pilaster of the porch. The other church, of _St. Bartholomew_, was once a -cruciform building. It is made of the same white material, but the tower -is now covered with Welsh slate, and one transept is gone. The fonts -in both churches are good. That in St. Mary’s is, for beauty of design -and boldness of execution, the best in the neighbourhood, but they do -not compare for beauty and size with those in the Fen churches, which -are lofty and set on wide octagonal basements of three or four steps. -Here, the brass to Sir John Skipwyth, who died at, or in the year of, -Agincourt, 1415, is in exceptionally good condition. He is armed and has -both the long dagger and sword, the latter suspended from his left arm by -a strap. The tail of the lion on which he stands is erect between the leg -of the knight and his sword. - -The rest of the route by _Fulston_, _Tetney_ and _Humberston_ to -Grimsby is not of any interest until we come to _Clee_, which, with its -interesting Saxon church tower, we have already described. - -[Sidenote: A ROMAN ‘HOG’S BACK’] - -In the Wold country the main roads usually run along the ridges of the -Wolds and afford views on either side. One of the best of these, “Hog’s -Back” views is obtained from one of the byways which starts from the -Spilsby and Alford road at the top of Milescross hill, and runs south -till it reaches Gunby. It skirts the wooded belt of the Well Vale estate, -and drops into the village of _Ulceby_ which, like most of the tiny Wold -villages, lies on the bank of a small stream in a wooded hollow, where -the church and farm and a few cottages form a pleasing picture of rural -retirement. - -Mounting again, the road turns to the left and goes straight ahead on -what is evidently a portion of a Roman “street,” giving on the left a -view of the “Marsh” towards Mablethorpe, with its grey shimmering line -which denotes “the bounding main,” and on the right a still more distant -prospect over the flat “fen” lands in the direction of Boston, whose -columnar tower rises far up into the sky. The blue haze of the marsh, the -purple distance over the fens, with, in the autumn, the long, drifting -lines of grey smoke from the burning “quitch,” or “twitch” as they -usually call it here, make a delightful impression; and then if we turn -fenwards we drop into the leafy hollow of _Skendleby_ village, where once -the Conqueror’s friend, Gilbert de Gaunt, resided, and to which William -of Waynfleet, the famous Bishop of Winchester, was presented as vicar by -the convent of Bardney in 1430. It is a pretty village with its church -and manor-house, and thatched, white-washed cottages bright with flowers, -and its well-stocked farm. A tall windmill crowns the next height; this -is Grebby Mill, and it is interesting to find that there has been a -windmill there for 600 years. - -For _Grebby_ is old enough to be mentioned in Domesday Book, and in 1317 -we have mention of a windmill there belonging to Robert de Willoughby and -Margaret his wife. - -[Sidenote: THE FLOODED FEN] - -From the windmill one looks down to the old brick tower of _Scremby_ -church, which is the last building on the edge of the slope from which -the endless levels of the fen begin and run south till they reach -Crowland and Peterborough. From whence the great cathedral, with its -splendid west front, looked out in the disastrous August of 1912 over -miles and miles of corn-land where the tall sheaves stood up out of a -vast expanse of water, the result of the abnormal rains and the burst -dyke which made Whittlesea Mere once more resume its ancient appearance. - -Below Scremby the road runs to the left to _Candlesby_, and so rejoins -that starting-place of so many byways—_Gunby_. - -There was a church at Scremby in Norman times; at the dissolution the -manor came to the all-acquiring Duke of Suffolk. Now-a-days the handbook -dismisses it as “of no special interest,” but eighty-five years ago it -was thought worth while to mention that “at the west end of the nave is a -neat and commodious singing-gallery.” - -Those who wish to see the beauties of the country must leave the high -ridge every here and there and make a round into the little villages -which lie at the foot of the Wolds, mostly on the western slopes where -they escape the strong sea winds. - -From the Spilsby-and-Louth road a byway branches westwards, close to -_Walmsgate_, which will illustrate this, for it quickly drops into the -pretty village of _South Ormsby_, and, skirting the park on two sides, -runs on to the village of _Tetford_ with its red roofs and grey-green -church tower nestling under the hill. Thence the white line of road goes -north over Tetford hill to _Buckland_ and _Haugham_, and so rejoins the -main road again about four miles north of Walmsgate. - -But before leaving Tetford we should take a look at the fine grassy -eminence of “Nab hill” with its entrenched camp, behind which lie the -kennels of the Southwold hounds at _Belchford_. - -The road from Alford to Louth, by _Belleau_ and _Cawthorpe_, which runs -along the eastern edge of the South Wold and gives such a fine view over -the marsh, is interrupted at Louth, and you must go out for the first -four miles on the Louth and Grimsby main road, but on reaching Utterby -a turn to the left will bring you to a road which goes all the way to -Brocklesby without passing through any village but _Keelby_ in the whole -sixteen miles. This solitary road begins better than it ends for when it -gets opposite to _Barnoldby-le-Beck_, which is just half way, it sinks to -the level of the marsh. - -[Sidenote: FOTHERBY TOP] - -There are plenty of roads between Louth and Caistor, to the north-west, -along the Wolds, which are here some eight miles wide; and it would be -well worth while for the sake of the view over the marsh to take a little -round from Louth, starting out on the Lincoln road by Thorpe Hall, the -interesting home of the Bolles family, the ffytches, and, later, of -some of the Tennysons. By this route you soon come to the parting of -the ways to Wragby and Market Rasen, and taking the right hand road by -_South Elkington_, the charming residence of Mr. W. Smyth, you climb -up to a height of 400 feet, and taking the road to the right by _North -Elkington_—whose church has a fine pulpit copied from one still to be -seen at Tupholme Abbey, near Bardney—reach _Fotherby top_, from which -for a couple of miles you can command as fine a view of the marsh from -Grimsby to Mablethorpe as you can desire. Then leaving the height you can -go eastward by _North Ormsby_, and, joining the Grimsby-and-Louth road -at _Utterby_, run back to Louth. All approaches to Louth are rendered -beautiful by the splendid views you get of that marvellous spire; and as -the road drops steeply into the town you will hardly know whether the -approach from this northern side or from Kenwick on the south forms the -most striking picture. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV - -THE BOLLES FAMILY - - -The byway which runs west from the Spilsby and Alford road, at the foot -of Milescross hill near Alford station, after passing Rigsby, comes to -a farm with an old manor-house and tiny church in a green hollow to the -left. A deep sort of cutting on this side of the church has, along its -steep grassy brow, a line of very old yew trees, not now leading to -anything. This is all there is of the hamlet from which an ancient and -notable family derived its title, the Bolles of Haugh. - -_Haugh_ church is a small barn-like building of chalk; the nave -twenty-four feet, and the chancel twenty-one feet long, with an -enormously thick, small, round-headed arch between them. The chancel is -floored with old sepulchral slabs and stone coffin tops, several with -Lombardic lettering, and all apparently of the Bolle or Bolles family who -lived partly at Haugh in the old manor close to the church, and partly at -Thorpe Hall, Louth. - -[Sidenote: SIR JOHN BOLLES] - -[Sidenote: COLONEL BOLLES AT ALTON] - -The family of Bolle seemed to have lived at Bolle Hall, Swineshead, from -the thirteenth century till the close of the reign of Edward IV., 1483, -when, by an intermarriage with the heiress of the Hough family, the elder -branch became settled at Hough or Haugh, near Alford, and one of the -younger branches settled at Gosberkirke (Gosberton) and spelt their name -Bolles. The men of both branches were active both in civil and military -positions. Sir George of Gosberton succeeded to the manor of Scampton, -near Lincoln, from his father-in-law, Sir John Hart, Lord Mayor of -London, 1590. He too became Lord Mayor in 1617, both men being members of -the Grocers’ Company. He was knighted by James I., after withstanding -his majesty in the matter of travelling through the city of London on -a Sunday, on which occasion his conduct somewhat recalls that of Judge -Gascoigne in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.” He died in 1621, and his monument -is in St. Swithin’s church, London. His son John was made a baronet by -Charles I., and _his_ son George is commemorated on a monument opposite -to that of his grandfather, in a pretty Latin inscription beginning— - - Nil opus hos cineres florum decorare corollis; - Flos, hic compositus qui jacet, ipse fuit. - -We hear of a Sir George Bolle being killed at Winceby in 1643, fighting -against Cromwell; certainly George’s brother, Sir Robert of Scampton, -was one of the jury in 1660 for trying the regicides, and at the death -of his son, Sir John, in 1714 the title became extinct. The distinctions -of the elder branch, who settled at Haugh, were more military than -civil. Their name also has passed away, their lineal descendants being -named Bush, Ingilby, Bosville and Towne. The earliest monument to this -branch is on a brass plate in Boston Church to Richard Bolle of Haugh, -1591, son of Richard Bolle of Haugh and Maria, daughter and heiress of -John Fitzwilliams of Mablethorpe. He was thrice married, and his only -son Charles died a year before him, 1590, and is commemorated at Haugh. -His daughter Anne married Leonard Cracroft, the others married John and -Leonard Kirkman of Keel. His son Charles, whose mother was a Skipworth of -South Ormsby, had four wives, his first wife a daughter of Ed. Dymoke of -Scrivelsby, and his fourth a daughter of Thomas Dymoke of Friskney. His -only son, John, was the son of number two, Brigitt Fane; and his daughter -Elizabeth of number three, Mary Powtrell. To this son John, there is also -in Haugh Church a well-preserved monument, which shows him kneeling with -his wife, attended by their three sons and five daughters, in the usual -Jacobean style; date 1606, Aet. suæ 46. Sir John built Thorpe Hall, and -was a famous Elizabethan captain. He was at the siege of Cadiz under -Essex, 1596, and had custody of the young lady of high position who goes -by the title of the Spanish Lady or the Green Lady, and whose story is -told in Percy’s “Reliques” in the ballad of “The Spanish Lady’s love for -an Englishman.” Sir John Bolle is the hero of the story. The lady fell -in love with him, but on hearing that he had a wife at home, she retired -to a nunnery and sent rich presents to his wife of tapestry, plate and -jewels, and her picture in a green dress. The jewels are now in the hands -of many of Lady Bolle’s descendants, the necklet of 298 pearls being, -it is said, in the Bosvile family at Ravensfield Park, Yorkshire. The -last warden of Winchester College was called Godfrey Bolles Lee, and -was related to the Bosviles; and, curiously enough, in the Cathedral of -Winchester is a brass plate giving an account of the death of Colonel -John Bolles. It seems that Charles, the elder of the three sons whose -effigies are on Sir John’s monument in the quaint little church of Haugh, -was a Royalist, living at Thorpe Hall, Louth, where he raised a regiment -of foot, which was commanded by his brother John, a soldier of unusual -gallantry. Charles once saved his life when pursued, by hiding under the -bridge at Louth. The regiment was engaged at Edgehill and other places, -and finally cut to pieces in a most bloody engagement inside Alton Church -in Hampshire. Clarendon tells us that Sir William Waller, finding that -Lord Hopton’s troops lay quartered at too great distance from each other, -had, by a night march, come suddenly upon the Royalist forces at Alton. -The horse made good their escape to Winchester, and Colonel Bolles, -who was in command of his own regiment of 500 men, being outnumbered, -retired with some four score men into the church, hoping to defend it -till succour arrived. But the enemy, as he had not had time to barricade -the doors, entered with him, and some sixty of his men were killed -before the rest asked for quarter; this was granted, but Colonel Bolles -refused the offer, and was killed fighting. Alton is seventeen miles from -Winchester, and the little brass plate on the eastern pillar of the north -arcade of the nave in Winchester Cathedral, just where the steps go up to -the choir, has a counterpart in Alton Church. The inscription on it was -composed almost fifty years after the event by a relative who describes -himself M.A., but he does no credit to the learning of the time, for it -is full of errors, both of spelling and of facts; for instance, he calls -the gallant Colonel, Richard instead of John, and gives the date of the -fight as 1641 instead of December, 1643; but it is too quaint a thing not -to be transcribed in full. - -[Sidenote: THE WINCHESTER BRASS] - - A Memoriall. - - For this renowned Martialist Richard Boles of ye Right - Worshipful family of the Bolleses in Linkhornsheire; collonell - of a ridgment of Foot of 1300 who for his gratious King Charles - ye first did Wounders att the Battell of Edgehill: his last - action, to omit all others, was at Alton in this County of - Soughthampton, was sirprised by five or six thousand of the - Rebells, which caused him there Quartered, to fly to the - church, with near fourscore of his men, who there fought them - six or seven houers, and then the Rebells breaking in upon - him he slew with his sword six or seven of them, and then was - slayne himselfe, with sixty of his men about him. - - 1641 - - His Gratiouse Souveraigne, hearing of his death, gave him - his high comendation in ye pationate expression. Bring me a - Moorning Scarffe; i have Lost one of the best Comanders in this - Kingdome. - - Alton will tell you of that famous Fight - Which ye man made and bade this world goodnight, - His Verteous life feared not Mortalyty, - His body might, his Vertues cannot die. - Because his blood was there so nobly spent - This is his Tombe, that church his Monument. - Ricardus Boles Wiltoniensis in Art Mag: - Composuit Posuitque dolens - An Dom 1689. - -A somewhat similar bit of spelling is this from a private diary:— - -“The iiii day of Sept 1551 ded my lade Admerell wyffe in Linkolneshire -and ther bered.” - -The third brother, Edward, died and was buried at Louth, 1680 A.D., at -the age of seventy-seven. He left £600 to purchase land, the rents “to -be divided among the poorest people of Louth at Christmas, Easter and -Whitsuntide for ever, and to be disposed of ‘in other charitable and -pious uses for the good of the said Toune.’” The income of the bequest is -now worth £85 a year. - -[Sidenote: THE GREEN LADY] - -Sir Charles, the elder brother, had a son and a grandson called John, the -last of the name. This John’s half-sister, Elizabeth, whose mother was a -Vesci, married Thomas Bosvile, rector of Ufford, and was buried at Louth -in 1740; their daughter Bridget also marrying a Bosvile. The children -of Bridget’s elder sister Elizabeth married into the families of the -Ingilbys and the Massingberds, while another sister, Margaret, married -James Birch, James Birch’s daughter married a Lee, and his grandson, -Captain Thos. Birch, assumed the name of Bosvile and sold Thorpe Hall. -He died in 1829. Sir Charles also had a daughter Elizabeth, who married -Thomas Elye of Utterby, whose granddaughter Sarah married Richard Wright -of Louth, whence are descended the Wrights of Wrangle. Canon Wright, her -great great grandson, has a picture of this Sarah Elye in which she is -represented as wearing a ring which was one of the Spanish jewels, some -of which are in possession of the Canon’s family now. The picture of the -Green Lady was unfortunately sold at the Thorpe Hall sale, and it is said -that another small picture of her, painted in the corner of a portrait of -Sir John Bolles by Zucchero, was lost when the picture was restored and -considerably cut down, in the last century. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI - -THE MARSH CHURCHES OF EAST LINDSEY - - West Theddlethorpe—Saltfleetby—All Saints—Skidbrook—South - Somercotes—Grainthorpe—Marsh Chapel. - - -THE PLAGUE-STONE - -An inconspicuous little byway starts from near Alford station and runs -parallel with the line about a mile northwards to _Tothby_, where it -bends round and loses itself in a network of lanes near _South Thoresby_. -At Tothby, under a weeping ash tree on the lawn in front of the old Manor -House farm, is an interesting relic of bygone days. It is a stone about a -yard square and half a yard thick, once shaped at the corners and with a -socket in it. Evidently it is the base of an old churchyard, wayside, or -market cross of pre-reformation times. And it has been put to use later -as a plague-stone, having been for that purpose placed on its edge and -half buried probably, and a hole seven inches by five, and two and a half -inches deep, cut in the upper side. This was to hold vinegar into which -the townspeople put the money they gave for the farm produce brought from -the country in times of plague. - -The great desire was to avoid contact with possibly plague-stricken -people. So the country folk brought their poultry, eggs, etc., laid -them out at fixed prices near the stone and then retired. Then the town -caterer came out and took what was wanted, placing the money in the -vinegar, and on his retiring in turn, the vendors came and took their -money, which was disinfected by its vinegar bath. The buyers, of course, -had to pay honestly or the country folk would cut off the supplies, and -_they_ probably appointed one of their number as salesman. - -[Sidenote: THE PLAGUE-STONE] - -On the whole the plan is said to have answered well enough, and the -stone is an interesting relic of the time. There is one _in situ_ at -Winchester, not so big as this, and now built in as part of the basis -to the Plague Monument outside the West Gate of the city. It is, I -believe, plain to distinguish, being of a darker colour than the rest -of the monument; but you cannot now see the hole in it any more. That -stone was used in 1666, the year after the great plague in London. The -Croft register speaks of 1630 as the plague year, but a plague seems to -have visited Partney in 1616; at Louth 754 people died in eight months -in 1631. At Alford the plague year was 1630. On the 2nd of July in that -year the vicar, opposite the entry of Maria Brown’s burial has written -“Incipit pestis” (the plague begins), and between this date and the end -of February, 1631, 132 out of a population of about 1,000, died, the -average number of burials for Alford being 19 per annum, so that the -rate was 100 above normal for the nineteen months; indeed, for the rest -of 1631 only eight burials are registered in ten months. July and August -were the worst months, six deaths occurring in one family in eleven days. -It has been said that the stone was placed on the top of Miles-Cross -hill, whence the folk from Spilsby and the villages of the Wolds, when -they brought their produce, could look down on the plague-stricken town -from a safe distance. But that would be a long pull for the poor Alford -people, and it is more likely that it was placed near where the railway -now crosses the high road; certainly the Winchester stone was barely 100 -yards from the Gate. - -We can now go back to Alford and start again on the Louth road. To get -to the fine Marsh churches of the east Lindsey district, four miles out -we turn off to the right near Withern, and pass two little churches on -the border of the district called _Strubby_ and _Maltby-le-Marsh_. Each -of these has, like _Huttoft_, a remarkable font, but that at _Maltby_ -is extraordinarily good—angels at each corner are holding open books, -and their wings join and cover the bowl of the font, below an apostle -guards each corner of a square base. There is in this church, too, a -cross-legged effigy of a knight. In _Strubby_ are some good poppy-head -bench ends and a fourteenth century effigy without a head, and on the -south wall near the door a curious inscription in old English letters -hard to decipher. There is also a small re-painted Jacobean monument -with effigies of Alderman W. Bailett, aged ninety-nine, his two wives and -nine children. - -[Illustration: _Mablethorpe Church._] - -[Sidenote: MABLETHORPE] - -The whole of the region between the Alford-and-Louth road and the coast -is a network of roads with dykes on either side, which never go straight -to any place, but turn repeatedly at right angles, so that you often have -to go right away from the point you are aiming at. That point is always a -church steeple standing up with its cluster of trees from the wide extent -of surrounding pasture-land. The only direct road in the district is that -which runs north-east to _Mablethorpe_, close on the sea. This is quite -a frequented watering-place. Here, as at Trusthorpe and Sutton, the sea -has swallowed up the original church, but the present one, half a mile -inland, has some sixteenth century tombs and brasses; one notable one of -Elizabeth Fitzwilliam, 1522, which represents her with long, flowing -hair as in that of Lady Willoughby in Tattershall Church, and Sir Robert -Dymoke at Scrivelsby. There is here a seaside open-air school for invalid -children. - -[Sidenote: THEDDLETHORPE] - -Three miles north is _West Theddlethorpe_ (All Saints), one of the -largest and finest of all the Marsh churches. Here, as elsewhere, -the green-sand, patched with brick, on which the sea air favours the -growth of grey lichen, gives a delightful colour to the tower. The -battlemented parapets are of Ancaster stone, and were once surmounted at -short intervals by carved pinnacles, and the nave gable, as at Louth, -is beautifully pierced and worked, with carved bosses and rosettes set -in the lower moulding. There are five two-light clerestory windows on -either side, and inside are many good bench ends, both old and new, -and a Perpendicular chancel screen with doors, and two chantries, each -still keeping its altar slab in position, and having good oak screens -ornamented with rich and unusual Renaissance carved open-work panels. In -one of these chantries is a shallow recess with a beautiful carved stone -canopy which once held a memorial tablet. A list of the vicars from 1241 -to 1403 gives first the name of William Le Moyne (the monk), and in 1349 -we have Nicholas de Spaigne on the nomination of Edward III. An important -little brass of Robert Hayton, 1424, shows, as Mr. Jeans tells us, the -latest instance of “Mail Camail.” In the churchyard is a most singular -tombstone to Rebecca French, 1862, the stump of a willow carved in stone -about four feet high with broken branches and—symbol of decay—a large -toadstool growing from the trunk. - -Three miles further north, and still close by the sea bank, we come to -the church of _Saltfleetby-All-Saints_. A most provoking habit prevails, -possibly with reason, but none the less trying to those who come to -see the churches, of keeping the keys of the locked-up church at some -distance off, even when there is a cottage close at hand. The church is -in a sadly ruinous condition, and the picturesque porch literally falling -to bits. On it is a shield bearing a crucifixion. The tower, which leans -badly to the north-west, has two Early English lancet lights to the west -and double two-light windows above. The gargoyles are very fine, and -cut, as usual, in Ancaster stone. In the north aisle are two beautiful -three-light windows with square heads and embattled transoms. There are -some Norman pillars and capitals, also a good rood screen and a handsome -Decorated font set on a reversed later font. This church, like so many -in the Marsh, is only half seated, though even so it is too big for the -population, as probably it always has been. - -Within a mile to the north-east we pass _Saltfleetby-St.-Clements_, -a church which has been moved from a site two fields off, and very -carefully rebuilt in 1885, and shows an arcade of five small arches -beautifully moulded resting on massive circular columns. It has also a -good font on a central shaft with clustered columns round it, and in -the vestry, part of a very early cross shaft. Hence we soon reach the -sea at _Saltfleet_ on a tidal channel, as the name indicates. Here is a -remarkable old manor-house. - -The parish church of Saltfleet is at _Skidbroke_, which stands in the -fields a mile inland. In the churchyard is a tall granite cross in memory -of Canon Overton of Peterborough. The church is of Ancaster stone which -has a much longer life than the green-sand, but the parapets of the nave -are of brick now, with stone coping. The belfry of all these churches is -approached by rough and massive ladders. In the west of the tower is a -good doorway. The chancel is a poor one. - -Two miles through the rich meadows brings us to _South Somercotes_, -remarkable as having a spire, but of later date than the tower. Here the -chancel is absolutely bare, with painted dado and red tiled floor and -no fittings of any kind. It looks something like a G.N.R. waiting-room, -without the table. There is a very elegant rood screen, and an -exceptionally tall belfry ladder or “stee,” also, as in the two churches -just visited, ancient tablets in memory of the family of Freshney. The -family still flourishes; and at the Alford foal show, September 1912, -a Freshney of South Somercotes carried off several prizes. Unlike -Skidbrooke, the church has houses and even shops close to it. We saw -here a fell-monger’s trolley drive up with a strange assorted cargo from -the station of Saltfleetby-St.-Peters. There were several packages and, -sitting amongst them, several people all huddled together. It stopped at -the village corner to deliver a long parcel draped in sacking—it was a -coffin. - -[Sidenote: THE GRAINTHORPE BRASS] - -A few miles north is _Grainthorpe_, the old roof lately renovated. The -whole church well cared for, and in the chancel a mutilated but once -very beautiful brass, with a foliated cross, probably in memory of -Stephen-le-See, who was the vicar about 1400. The stem is gone, the head -shows some very delicate work, and the base stands on a rock in the sea -with five various fishes depicted swimming. It was once seven feet high; -and, if perfect, would be the most beautiful brass cross extant. - -[Sidenote: THE HARPHAM TABLET] - -Three miles north we reach the fine church of _Marsh Chapel_. This -was once a hamlet of _Fulstow_, four miles to the west on the road -to Ludborough. It is Perpendicular from the foundation. Here, as at -Grainthorpe, is a rood screen partly coloured, the lower part being new. -The church is seated throughout in oak, and evidently used by a large -congregation. The capitals of both arcades are battlemented. On the -chancel wall is an exquisite little alabaster tablet put up in 1628, -representing Sir Walter Harpham, his wife and little daughter—quite a -gem of monumental sculpture. The parents died in 1607 and 1617. The -lofty tower has a turret staircase with a spirelet—a rare feature in -Lincolnshire, though common in Somersetshire—and the church is all built -of Ancaster stone. - -Going north we reach _North Cotes_ and Tetney lock, where we can see -part of the Roman sea bank, though Tetney haven now is almost two miles -distant. The Louth river, which is cut straight and turned into the Louth -Navigation Canal, runs out here. - -The by-road we have been following from the south ends here; but a branch -running due west passes to _Tetney_ village and thence joins the Louth -and Grimsby highway at Holton-le-Clay. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII - -LINCOLNSHIRE FOLKSONG - - Dan Gunby and The Ballad of the Swan. - - -There is no great quantity of native verse in this county, and children’s -songs of any antiquity are by no means so common with us as they are in -Northumbria, but there is _The Lincolnshire Poacher_ with its refrain, -“For ’tis my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year,” the -marching tune of the Lincolnshire Regiment; and there is an old quatrain -here and there connected with some town, such as that of Boston, and that -is all. - -It was my luck, however, to know, fifty years ago, a man who wrote -genuine ballad verses, some of which I took down from his lips. They -have never been printed before, but seem to me to be full of interest, -for the man who wrote them was a typical east-coast native, a manifest -Dane, as so many of these men are—unusually tall, upright, with long nose -and grey eyes, and a most independent, almost proud, bearing. He was a -solitary man, and made his living, as his earliest forefathers might have -done, by taking fish and wild fowl as best he could; and, for recreation, -drinking and singing and playing his beloved fiddle. It seemed as if the -runes of his Scandinavian ancestors were in his blood, so ardently did -he enjoy music and so strongly, in spite of every difficulty, for he had -had little education, did he feel the impulse to put the deeds he admired -into verse. - -[Sidenote: R. L. NETTLESHIP] - -It is something to be thankful for that, in spite of railways and Board -Schools, original characters are still to be found in Lincolnshire. They -were more abundant two generations ago, but they are still to be met -with, and one of the most remarkable that I have personally known was -this typical east-coaster, whose name was Dan Gunby. It was in September, -1874, when I was a house master at Uppingham, under the ever-famous -Edward Thring, that my dear friend, R. L. Nettleship, then a fellow of -Balliol, came to our house at Halton, and after a day or two there, we -passed by Burgh over the marsh to Skegness, eleven miles off. - -[Illustration: _Southend, Boston._] - -We were making for the old thatched house by the Roman bank, for this -belonged to our family, and here, with one old woman to “do” for us, -and with the few supplies we had brought with us and the leg of a -Lincolnshire sheep in the larder, we felt we could hold out for a week -whilst we read, unmolested by even a passing tradesman. Sundays we spent -at Halton, walking up on Saturday and down again on Monday, after which -we took off our boots for the rest of the week. - -[Sidenote: DAN GUNBY] - -One night about ten o’clock, as we were sitting over our books, a step -was heard on the plank bridge, and a loud knock resounded through the -house. I went to the door and opened it. It was pitch dark, and from the -darkness above my head, for Dan was a tall man, came a voice: “Ah’ve -browt ye sum dooks. Ye knaw me, Dan Gunby.” We gratefully welcomed them -as a relief from the sheep, and after a talk we agreed to go over and see -Dan in his home at Gibraltar Point, where the Somersby Brook, “a rivulet -then a river,” runs out into Wainfleet haven. Accordingly, on the 12th -of September, 1874, we set off, going along on the flat dyke top for -four miles till we came to what seemed the end of the habitable world. -Here the level, muddy flat stretched out far into the distant shallow -sea, groups of wading shore-birds were visible here and there, and an -occasional curlew flew, with his melancholy cry, overhead, or a lonely -sea-gull passed us— - - “With one waft of the wing.” - -We came to a small river channel with steep, slimy banks; just beyond -it was an old boat half roofed over, and, sitting on it, was our friend -Dan mending a net. We shouted to ask how we were to get to him, and he -said, “Cum along o’er, bottoms sound.” We pulled off our boots and got -down without much difficulty, but to get up, “Hic labor, hoc opus est.” -But Dan shouted encouragement: “Now then, stick your toäs in, and goo -it.” We did ‘goo it,’ and soon landed by the old boat, and sitting on it, -we asked him if he always slept there, and what he did for a living. He -answered “Yees, this is my plaäce, an’ it’s snug, an all. Ye see I hev a -bit of a stoäve here.” - -“Is that your duck-shout (the name for a sort of canoe for duck shooting) -and gun?” - -“Yees, ye sees I’m a bit of a gunner, an’ a bit of a fisherman, an’ a bit -of a fiddler.” - -“And a bit of a poet, too, aren’t you, Dan?” - -“Well, I puts things down sometimes in the winter evenings like.” - -“About your shooting, isn’t it?” - -“Yees, moästlins.” - -“And you have got tunes to them?” - -“Yees. It’s easy to maäke the tunes up o’ the fiddle, but the words is a -straänge hard job oftens.” - -“Well now, will you let us hear one of them?” - -“To be sewer I will,” and he took his fiddle and sat on the gunwale, -while we listened to the following:— - -It was in the iambic metre—which befits a ballad—with occasional anapæsts. - -[Sidenote: THE SWAN] - -[Sidenote: YOUNG JIM HALL] - -“It’s called The Swan this ’ere un,” he said, and, with a preliminary -flourish on the fiddle, he went off. - -I should say that we got the words in his own writing afterwards spelt as -I give them. - - THE SWAN. - - Now it Gentel men hall cum lisen to me, - And ile tell you of a spre, - When Sam and Tom Gose in there boats, - Tha never dise a Gre. - - CHORUS. - - For the Halls they are upon the spre, - Tha’ll do the best tha can, - Am when tha goä to seä my boys - Tha meäns to shoot a Swan. - - Then a storking down clay-’ole,[14] - And laying as snug as tha can, - For it’ Slap Bang went both the guns - And down come the Swan. - - Now Sam and Tom ’as got this Swan, - Tha do not now repent; - Tha will pull up to Fosedyke Brige, - And sell him to Hary Kemp. - - Now Sam and Tom they got a shere - Tha dow not see no Feer, - Tha will call too the Public-house, - An git a Galling of Beer. - - Sam says to Tom here’s luck my lad, - We will drink hall we can; - And then wele pull down Spalding sett - To loke for another Swan. - - There’s young Jim Hall he has a fine gun - Tha say it weighs a ton, - And he will pull down Spalding Set - To have a bit of fun. - - CHORUS. - - For the Halls they are upon the spre, - Tha’ll do the best tha can, - And when tha goä to seä my boys - Tha means to shoot a swan. - - And when tha hev got side by side - Tha moastly scheme and plan, - Tha meän to shoot either duck or goose - Or else another swan. - - Jim, Bill an Tom was storking - At thousands of geese in a line, - Tha fired three guns before daylight - An killed ninety-nine. - (My eye! they did an’ all.) - - The old man larned the boys to shoot - Without any fere or doubt, - And young Jim Hall he was the man - Who made the Gun and Shout.[15] - - There’s young Ted Hall he’s fond of life, - His diet is beäf and creäm - He cares nothing about shooting - He’d rayther goä by steäm. - - Captain Rice, he’s deäd an gone, - We hope he is at rest, - All his delight was guns and boäts, - And he always did his best. - - He was a hearty old cock - As ever sailed on the sea. - He has paid for many a galling of ale - When he was in company. - - CHORUS. - - For the Halls tha are upon the spre, - Tha’ll do the best tha can, - An when tha goä to seä my boys - Tha meäns to shoot a swan. - -[Sidenote: CAPTAIN RICE] - -Dan paused for some time after he had finished the ballad, and then said -with much feeling in look and voice, “Captain Rice, poor chap, he died -after I’d gotten yon lines finished, and I had to alter them, ye knaw. It -took me three weeks to get ’em altered.” - -The captain was well remembered; he had “paid for many a galling of ale.” -But the family that Dan most admired were the Halls, the old man and his -three eldest sons—Jim, Bill and Tom. Young Ted he despised; he cared -nothing about shooting, he would rather sit in a train! - -He tells in two other short ballads of how they hunted the seal on the -bar or on the long sand, and there is a poetic touch in the way he makes -the seals talk, and in the description of their eyes and teeth. - -But “The Swan” is Dan’s great achievement, and is a real good folk song, -and has lines with the true ballad ring. “Down come the swan” is a fine -expressive line, and “He was a hearty old cock, As ever sailed on the -sea” has a ring in it like _Sir Patrick Spens_. - -When Dan came to the astonishing kill of ninety-nine he never failed to -make the ejaculation I have given above; the geese were Brent geese and -were feeding in a creek or wet furrow. There was a big gun used in the -“Gruft holes” or deep channels in the sands going seaward, where the -gunner sat waiting for the “flighting” of the ducks. This was called a -“raille,” and was fired from the shoulder. The gun which weighed a ton is -a poetic exaggeration; but the old duck-shout guns were more than one man -would care to lift, and about six to eight feet long. The man lay on a -board to sight and fire this miniature cannon or demi-culverin, which was -loaded to the muzzle, and the rusty piece of ordnance shot back with the -recoil underneath him; had it been made fast to the canoe or duck-shout -it would have torn the little boat to bits. - -[Sidenote: THE SEALS] - -The ballads of the seals are as follows:— - - SEALS ON THE BAR. - - 1. - - There is two seäls upon the bar, - Tha lay like lumps of lead. - When tha see Sam and Tom coming - Tha begins to shaäke their head. - - CHORUS. - - For the Halls tha are upon the look out - Tha love to see a seäl, - An when tha git well in my boys - He’s bound to taäste a meäl. - - 2. - - The owd seäl said unto his wife, - Yon’s sumthing coming sudden, - We must soon muster out o’ this - Or we shall get plum-pudden. - - CHORUS. - - For the Halls they are upon the look out - Tha love to see a seäl, - An when they git well in my boys - He’s bound to taäste a meäl. - - SEÄLS ON THE LONG SAND. - - 1. - - Bill and Jim was shoving down the North - And keepin close to the land, - Jim says to Bill, we’ll pull across, - Right ower to the Long Sand.[16] - - CHORUS, _after each verse_. - - For the Halls tha are upon the look out, - Tha love to see a seäl, - An when tha git well in my boys, - He’s bound to taäste a meäl. - - 2. - - And when tha hed got ower - Tha hed a cheerful feel. - Bill says to Jim “What greät heäd’s yon?” - It must be a monstrous seäl. - - 3. - - For his eyes like fire they did shine - An his teeth was long an white, - Then slap bang went boäth the guns, - An he wished ’em boäth good-night. - - 4. - - Well done, my lad! We’ve hit ’im hard, - He’ll niver git ashore, - For I knaw his head will ake to-day - And ’twill be very sore. - - CHORUS. - - For the Halls tha are upon the look out, - Tha love to see a seäl, - An when tha git well in my boys - He’s bound to taäste a meäl. - -Seals are more common on this coast than one would think. Only this -autumn, 1913, great complaints have been made by the fishermen of the -destruction of soles, etc., in the ‘Wash’ by the increased number of -these unwelcome visitors. - -[Sidenote: NORTH COUNTRY HUMOUR] - -[Sidenote: NATURE’S POETS] - -Dan Gunby, in spite of his fiddling and attendance at all the dances in -the neighbourhood, was not of a jovial nature. His life was hard and his -outlook on it was always serious, and any humour which he had was of the -dry order, which is so frequent in the northern counties. Terse remarks -with a touch of humour, sly or grim, he doubtless showed at times, but a -real hearty laugh he would seldom allow himself. We find this same almost -unconscious habit of saying a biting thing in a sly way frequent in the -counties north of Lincolnshire, as for instance, when in Westmorland -a man meeting a friend says, “I hear Jock has gotten marriet” and the -rejoinder, which expresses so much in so few words, both about the man in -question and the subject of matrimony generally, is “Ah’m gled o’ that, -ah niver liked Jock.” Another time, a man meets a ‘pal’ and for a bit -of news says, “We’m gotten a chain for oor Mayor,” and the answer, “Han -yo? We let yon beggar of ourn go loose” is far more funny than was ever -intended. But Gunby and his likes, of whom there are more in the regions -of the hills and fells than elsewhere, have not only the seriousness -of those who live solitary and have leisure to do a deal o’ thinking, -but dwelling apart in places where they can commune with Nature and the -stars they get the poetic touch from their surroundings. The mountain -shepherd goes up on to the heights and spends long hours with his dog -and sheep. He marks the great clouds move by, and listens to the voice -of the streams. He knows “the silence that is in the starry sky;” the -great constellations are his companions; he sees the rising moon, and the -splendours of the dawn and sunset. Those sights which fill us with such -delight and wonder when beheld now and then in a lifetime, are before his -eyes repeatedly. Now he watches the storm near at hand in all its fury, -the thunder echoing round him from crag to crag; soon the clouds roll -off and disclose the brilliant arch of the rainbow across the glistening -valley, each perfect in its different way. At one time he must be out -on the slopes sparkling with snow, at another his heart gladdens at the -approach of spring, and he feels himself one with it all. And so the -changing seasons of the year cannot fail to touch him more than most -men, and what the heart feels the lips will strive to utter. In the same -way Dan Gunby used to watch the wide sunsets across the marsh, and see -the floods of golden light on the shore, and the ebbing and flowing of -the far-spread tide about his anchored cabin. He saw, at one time, the -ripples crested with gold by the sun’s last rays, at another the red orb -rising from the sea on a clear morning; or, in the mist which closed him -in, he listened to the cries of the sea-birds sweeping by invisible. -At times, when the wind was up and the tide high, he heard the roar of -the waves dashed on the sand; or, upon a calm night, he looked out on -a gently moving water led by the changing moon. There were always some -voices of the night, and usually some visions both at eve and morn; and -with his observant eye and ear, and his leisure to reflect, while Nature -was his one companion, how could he fail to be in some sort a poet? - -I lately heard of a shepherd or crofter who was quite a case in point; -but as he was not a Lincolnshire native but lived in the Scotch Lowlands, -I put the account of him and his poetry, which, by the help of a Scotch -lady, I have succeeded in collecting, small in quantity but some of -it very good, I think, in quality, into an appendix at the end of the -volume. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII - -THE MARSH CHURCHES IN SOUTH LINDSEY - - Alford—Markby—Hogsthorpe—Addlethorpe—Ingoldmells—Winthorpe—Skegness—The - Bond Epitaph—Croft—The Parish Books—Burgh-le-Marsh—Palmer - Epitaph—Bratoft—The Armada—Gunby—The Massingberd Brasses. - - -Starting from _Alford_, a little town with several low thatched houses in -the main street, and a delightful old thatched ivy-clad manor, we will -first look into the church which stands on a mound in the centre of the -town, to see the very fine rood screen. Before reaching the south porch -with its sacristy or priests’ room above, and its good old door, we pass -an excellent square-headed window. Inside, the bold foliage carving on -the capitals at once arrests the eye. The pillars, as in most of these -churches, are lofty, slender and octagonal. The steps to the rood loft -remain, and a squint to the altar in the north aisle chapel. On the other -side is a carved Jacobean pulpit of great beauty, east of which is a -low-side window, and east of that again a tomb with recumbent alabaster -figures of Sir Robert Christopher and his wife, date 1668, in perfect -condition. - -From Alford a road goes north to Louth, branching to the right three -miles out, to run to Mablethorpe, the favourite seaside resort of the -Tennysons when living at Somersby. But we will follow the road to -_Bilsby_, where Professor Barnard keeps his unapproachable collection of -Early English water-colours. From here we can reach _Markby_, a curious -thatched chapel standing inside a moat, and now disused. Then we can -look in at _Huttoft_ to see the extremely fine font which resembles that -at Covenham St. Mary, and Low Toynton, near Horncastle; after which, -passing by _Mumby_, we will make for the first of the typical Marsh -churches at _Hogsthorpe_. - -Markby vicarage goes with _Hannah-cum-Hagnaby_ rectory. Once there was -an Austin or Black Friars priory at Markby, and at Hagnaby—a hamlet in -Hannah or Hannay—an abbey of Premonstratensian or White Canons, which -was founded in 1175 by Herbert de Orreby and dedicated to St. Thomas the -Martyr. - -[Illustration: _Markby Church._] - -The registers at _Markby_ are among the earliest in the kingdom, -beginning in 1558, those in Hannay dating from 1559. The first year of -their institution was 1838. - -[Sidenote: THE HUTTOFT FONT] - -The _Huttoft_ font is of the fourteenth century, and is four feet eight -inches high, so it needs a step like those at Wrangle, Benington, and -Frieston, and that at Skendleby. On the bowl are represented the Holy -Trinity, the Virgin and Child, the Virgin holding a bunch of lilies, and -the Child an apple. On six of the panels are the Apostles in pairs, as at -Covenham St. Mary. The under part has angel figures all round supporting -the bowl. The shaft has eight panels with figures of popes, bishops, and -holy women, and at the base are symbols of the four evangelists. The -string-courses show three different roofs to the nave. - -[Sidenote: HOGSTHORPE] - -_Hogsthorpe_, like most of the churches in the neighbourhood, is built -of the soft local green-sand, which is found near the edge of the marsh -where the Wolds die away into the level. The tower shows patches of -brickwork which give a warm and picturesque appearance. The south porch -is here, as is the rule, built of a harder stone, and is handsome and -interesting. A pair of oblong stones of no great size are built in on -either side above the arch with an inscription in old English letters, -beginning, oddly enough, both in this church and in one at Winthorpe a -few miles off, with the right hand stone and finishing on the left. The -words are, “Orate pro animabus Fratrum et Sororum Guilde Sᶜᵗᵃᵉ Mariæ -hujus Ecclesiæ quorum expensis et sumptibus fabricata est haec porticus.” -The church has had its roof renewed in pine wood. It also has the worst -coloured window glass I have ever seen, an error of local piety.[17] The -registers begin in 1558. - -[Sidenote: ADDLETHORPE] - -From here the road, with countless right-angled turns, runs between the -reedy dykes to the Perpendicular church of _Addlethorpe_ (St. Nicolas). -Here the south porch is unusually good, with figures of angels on the -buttresses and beautiful foliage work carved on the parapet. On the apex -is a well-cut crucifix and, as at Somersby, on the back is a small figure -of the Virgin and Child. A large holy-water stoup stands just within the -door. There is a window in the porch, also a niche and a slab with the -following inscription:— - - The Cryst that suffered - Grette pangs and hard - hafe mercy on the sowle - of John Godard - That thys porche made - and many oder thynges dede - There-for Jsu Cryst - Qwyte hym hys mede. - -Over the buttresses of the north aisle are gargoyles holding scrolls; one -has on it “Of Gods saying comes no ill,” another— - - God : for : ihs : m’̅c̅y : bryng : he̅ : to : blys : - Yᵗ : ha̅ : p̅d̅ : to : ys : - -Cut with a knife on the western pilaster of the porch is— - - “January 1686 - Praise God.” - -The glory of this church is its wealth of old wood work, in which it is -not surpassed by any in the county, though its neighbour, Winthorpe, runs -it hard. - -[Illustration: _Addlethorpe and Ingoldmells._] - -The chancel here, as at the older Decorated church of Ingoldmells, which -is within half a mile, has been pulled down, and the rood screen acts -as a reredos. There are two extremely good parclose screens, and old -benches with carved ends throughout the church. Another fine oak screen -goes across the tower arch, inscribed, “Orate pro animabus Johannis -Dudeck Senior et uxor̅ ejus.” The noble roof is the original one. -The pulley-block for lowering the rood light is still visible on the -easternmost tie-beam but one, as it is also at Winthorpe and Grimoldby. -A new rafter at the west end has painted on it, “Struck by fireball June -27, 1850.” - -The Boston wool trade is alluded to in the epitaph “Hic jacet Ricardus -Ward qdm. Mr̅ctor Stapali Calais MCCCCXXXIII.” - -A slab in the north aisle to Thomas Ely, 1783, has a singular inscription -on it:— - - “Plain in his form but rich he was in mind, - Religious, quiet, honest, meek and kind.” - -Evidently a real good fellow though he _was_ plain. - -[Sidenote: CHURCHWARDEN’S ACCOUNTS] - -The following extracts from the churchwarden’s accounts between the years -1540 and 1580 are curious. - - Itm payde to the Scolemʳ (Schoolmaster) of Allforde - for wryting of Thoms Jacson Wylle iiijᵈ - Itm payde unto Thoms Wryghte for dressynge - the crosse ijᵈ - Itm payde for a horsse skyne for bellstryngs ijˢ iᵈ - Itm payde to the players iiijᵈ - Itm reseuyd (received) for ye Sepuller lyghte - gatheryd in ye cherche iiˢ iᵈ - Itm reseuyd for ye wyttworde[18] of Rycharde Grene xijᵈ - Itm Receuyd of Anthony Orby for his wyffs yereday[19] xijᵈ - Itm payde un to Wyllm Craycrofte for the rente - of ye Kyrke platte ijˢ vᵈ - Itm payde for washing the corporaxys[20] iiijᵈ - Itm payd for a ynglyghe sultʳ [an English - psalter] xxᵈ - Receuyd of Thomas Thorye for o̅n̅ thrughestone iijˢ iiijᵈ - Itm payde for the Sepulcre xˢ - Itm for a paire of Sensors xˢ iiijᵈ - Receuyd of John Curtus for his Wyff lying in ye - churche viˢ viijᵈ - Receuyd[21] of ye said John for o̅n̅ thrughstone xxᵈ - It Recd for ye sowll of John Dodyke xiiiˢ - It Recd for ye sowll of Syr Gregory Wylk viᵈ - Impmus [In primis] payd for certeffyenge of - ye Rodloffe xijˢ - Itm payd for dyssygerenge [_query_ dressing] of - ye Rod loffte iijˢ iiijᵈ - It given to ye men of mumbye chappelle for - carryinge of ye lytle belle to Lincolne xijᵈ - It Layde oute for a lytle booke of prayer for - Wednesdays and frydayes iijᵈ - -The church has six bells. - -From the account of the charities left in Addlethorpe we find that in -1554 a gift of land was sold for £4 an acre, but in 1653 an acre situated -in Steeping let for 15_s._ - -[Sidenote: INGOLDMELLS] - -The adjoining parish with its mellifluous name of _Ingoldmells_, -(pronounced Ingomells), has had its suffix derived from the Norse _melr_, -said to mean the curious long grass of the sandhills. It might perhaps -be more correctly considered as the same suffix which we have on the -Norse-settled Cumbrian coast at Eskmeals, or Meols, where it is said -to mean a sandy hill or dune, a name which would well fit in with the -locality here. Thus the whole name would mean the sand-dunes of Ingulf, -a Norse invader of the ninth century. A farmer we met at Winthorpe, next -parish to Ingoldmells, alluded to these sandhills when he said, “It is a -sträange thing, wi’ all yon sand nobbut häfe a mile off, that we cant hav -nowt but this mucky owd cläy hereabouts: not fit for owt.” But the Romans -found the clay very useful for making their great embankment along the -coast. - -_Ingoldmells_ church, though good, is not so fine as Addlethorpe; but -it has a very interesting little brass, dated 1520, to “William Palmer -wyth ye stylt,” a very rare instance of an infirmity being alluded to on -a brass. The brass shows a crutched stick at his side. The porch has a -quatrefoil opening on either side, and a niche; and a curious apse-like -line of stones in the brick paving goes round all but the east side -of the fine front. Round the base of the churchyard cross is a later -inscription cut in 1600, J. O. Clerk. “Christus solus mihi salus,” and -figures run round three sides of the base, beginning on the north 1, 2, -3; and on the east 4, 5, 6; none on the south, but on the west 5, 6, -7, 8, 9, at the corner 10; and again on the north, 11, 12. Doubtless -it was a form of sundial, the cross shaft throwing its shadow in the -direction of the figures. Of the four bells one has fallen and lies on -the belfry floor. One has on it, according to Oldfield, “Wainfleet and -the Wapentake of Candleshoe, 1829,” “Catarina vocata sum rosa _pulsata_ -mundi” (I am called Catherine, the beaten rose of the world); and on -another is the rhyme— - - “John Barns churchwarden being then alive - Caused us to be cast 1705:” - -At Partney a bell has the same Catarina legend, but with _dulcata_ (= -sweet) instead of _pulsata_. S and C are often interchanged, and I think -the ‘p’ is really a ‘d’ upside down on the Ingoldmells bell, especially -as the bell is of about the same date and was also cast by the same -man—Penn of Peterborough. I must admit, however, that _pulsata_ on a bell -with a clapper has something to be said for it; still, _dulcata_ (sweet) -is the obviously proper epithet for rose. - -[Illustration: _The Roman Bank at Winthorpe._] - -[Sidenote: THE SEA BANKS] - -[Sidenote: RICH OAK CARVING] - -From this church the road runs to the sea bank near Chapel, and gets -quite close to it. You can walk up the sandy path amongst the tall -sand-grass and the grey-leaved buckthorn, set with sharp thorns and a -profusion of lovely orange berries, till from the top you look over to -the long brown sands and the gleaming shore, where a retiring tide is -tumbling the cream-coloured breakers of a brown sea. Returning to the -road we go for some distance along the old Roman bank, which we leave -before reaching Skegness in order to get to _Winthorpe_ (_St. Mary_). -This Decorated church was restored in 1881 by the untiring energy of -“Annie Walls of Boothby,” but not so as to spoil its old woodwork, which -is remarkably fine. In the body of the church all the seats have their -old carved fifteenth century bench ends, and in the chancel are four -elaborately carved stall-ends. In one of these, amidst a mass of foliage, -St. Hubert is represented kneeling, as in Albert Dürer’s picture, before -a stag who has a crucifix between his antlers, from which the Devil, who -appears just behind him, in human shape but horned, is turning away. The -poppyhead above this panel is exquisitely carved with oak leaves and -acorns, and little birds, with manikins climbing after them. The old -roof, with the rood-light pulley-block visible on one of the tie-beams, -still remains, and the rood screen, too, though its doors have been -foolishly transferred to another screen at the west end, and ought to be -put back in their place; and at the end of each aisle, as at Addlethorpe, -are good parclose screens. Within one of these, the roof of the north -aisle has a painted pattern on the rafters and good carved bosses once -painted and gilt. - -The seventeen steps to the rood loft are all there, also an aumbrey; and -we are told that one of the chantries was founded and endowed by Walter -De Friskney, 1316, and dedicated to St. James. - -In the south wall of the tower is a singular fireplace, originally used -for baking the wafers. - -In the north chantry is an altar slab with three consecration crosses -on it, and a sepulchral slab to “Ricardus Arglys (Argles?), Presbyter, -De Bynington” (near Boston) who died on the 20th of November, 1497; and -there are, in the nave, brasses to Richard Barowe with his wife Batarick -and their three children, 1505, and to Robert Palmer, 1515, doubtless a -relative of “W. Palmer with ye stylt” in Ingoldmells. - -The inscription on the former is “Richard Barowe sumtyme marchant of -the stapyll of Calys, and Batarick his wyfe, the which Richard decissyd -the XX day of Apryle the yere of owre Lord A.MCCCCC and fyve, on whose -soullys Ihu̅ have mercy Amen for charitie.” - -The Barrows were an old and notable family, one of them was Master of -the Rolls and Keeper of the Great Seal, 1485. They were long settled at -Winthorpe, and in 1670 Isaac Barrow was Bishop of St. Asaph, and his -nephew was well known to history as the Master of Trinity, 1672-1677, and -a celebrated divine. - -[Sidenote: WINTHORPE] - -One of Robert Palmer’s descendants, Elizabeth of Winthorpe, married -George Sharpe, who was Archbishop of York in 1676, so Winthorpe furnished -a bishop and an archbishop’s wife in the same decade. - -William Palmer was apparently part donor of the south porch of Winthorpe, -which is very like those at Addlethorpe and Hogsthorpe, having a gabled -and crocketed parapet carved with graceful flowing foliage; and on the -two stones, lettered in Early English as at Hogsthorpe, are the lines:— - - Robert Lungnay and Wyll’ P - alm’: thay payd for thys - God in hys mercy - bryng them to his blys. - -Over the east gable of the nave is a sanctus bell-cot, and in the tower -are four good bells, three of which are thus inscribed:— - - 1. 1604 I sweetly tolling do men call - to taste of meat that feeds the soul. - - 2. Jesus be our speed. - - 3. Antonius monet ut Campana bene sonet. - -In the west of the south aisle is the well-carved head of the churchyard -cross, of which, as usual, only half of the shaft remains. On the head is -a crucifixion, and on the other side the Virgin and Child. This head was -found in 1910 a mile and a quarter from the church. It closely resembles -that still standing intact at Somersby. - -Opposite, in the west end of the north aisle, are two bases of columns -belonging to a former church of the thirteenth century, which church is -first mentioned in the donation of it by William de Kyme to the abbey of -Bardney, 1256. - -The registers of the church begin in 1551. - -From the foregoing it will be seen how extremely interesting these Marsh -churches are, and these four are not the only ones in this part of the -Marsh, _Croft_ and _Burgh_ being both within three or four miles of -_Winthorpe_. _Theddlethorpe_, north of these, is a finer building, as is -_Burgh-le-Marsh_; but I doubt if any other church has such a wealth of -old carved woodwork as Addlethorpe or Winthorpe. There is, cut on the -south-east angle of Winthorpe tower, a deep horizontal line with the -letters “H.W. 1837.” This indicates the level of high-water mark on the -other side of the sea bank, and as the mark on the tower is eight feet -nine inches from the ground, though the 1837 tide was an exceptionally -high one, it gives some idea of what this part of the Marsh must at times -have been in the days before the Romans made their great embankment. A -plan for improving the drainage of the land at Winthorpe was made as -early as 1367, and a rate was exacted of 1_s._ an acre. - -[Sidenote: SKEGNESS HOUSE] - -_Skegness_, now, next to Cleethorpes, the best known and most frequented -by excursion “trippers” of all the east coast places, used to be fifty -years ago only a little settlement of fishermen who lived in cabins built -on the strip of ground between the road and the ditches on each side. A -lifeboat shed and an old sea-boat set up on its gunwale for a shelter, -with a seat in it, and a flagstaff close by, used chiefly for signalling -to a collier to come in, were on the sea bank. Behind it was an hotel, -and one thatched house just inside the Roman bank, built by Mr. Edward -Walls about 1780. This was cleverly contrived so that not an inch of -space was wasted anywhere. It was only one room thick, so that from the -same room you could see the sun rise over the sea and set over the Marsh. -It was here that Tennyson saw those “wide-winged sunsets of the misty -marsh” that he speaks of in “The Last Tournament,” and took delight in -their marvellous colouring. - -The house rose up from the level behind and below the bank, and the back -door was on the ground floor, with a porch and hinged leaves to shut out -the terrific wind from N. and E. or N. and W. as required, but on the -sea front, access was obtained by a removable plank bridge from the bank -top which landed you on the first floor. Here was the summer home of all -our family—a children’s paradise—when you ran straight out bare-foot on -to the sandy bank and so across the beautiful hard sands and through the -salt-water creeks down to the sea. This at high water was close at hand -with tumbling waves and seething waters, but at low tide, far as eye -could reach was nothing but sand, with the fisherman’s pony and cart, and -his donkey and boy at the other end of the shrimp net, moving slowly -like specks in the distance along the edge of the far-retreating sea. - -This enchanting desolation is now the trippers’ play ground, with stalls -and donkeys and swings and sham niggers and a pier and lines of shops. -It must be admitted that it has all its old health-giving breezes, and -also a fine garden and a cricket field and golf links of the very best. A -new line from Lincoln has just been opened (July 1st, 1913), which runs -through Coningsby, New Bolingbroke and Stickney, to join the old loop -line between Eastville and Steeping, and for a shilling fare will bring -thousands from Lincoln, Sheffield and Retford, to have a happy day of -nine hours at what the natives call “Skegsnest.” - -We have seen that the Romans had a bank all along this coast to keep -out the sea, and besides their five roads from Lincoln, one of which -went to Horncastle, they had a road from Horncastle to Wainfleet; and a -road, part of which we have noticed, from Ulceby to Burgh and Skegness. -Skegness lies midway between Ingoldmells, which is the most easterly -point of the county, and _Gibraltar Point_, from which the coast sweeps -inland and forms the northern shore of the Wash. Across, on the further -side of this, was the Roman camp at Brancaster (Branodunum), and here -at Skegness there seems to have been a Roman fort which has now been -swallowed up by the sea. - -[Sidenote: OLD POTTERIES] - -Near Ingoldmells, about fifty years ago, the sea, at low water, laid bare -some Roman potteries, so called, from which the Rev. Edward Elmhirst got -several specimens of what were called “thumb bricks.” These were just -bits of clay the size of sausages, but twice as thick, some as much as -two and a half inches thick and four inches high, which had been squeezed -in the hand, the impress of the fingers and thumb being plainly visible; -the extremities, being more than the hand could take, were rather bigger -than the middle. They were flat enough at each end to stand, and had -doubtless been used to place the pottery on when being burnt in the kiln. - -It is more than probable that these potteries were pre-Roman. They are -about a quarter of a mile south of the Ingoldmells outfall drain, and -half way between high and low-water mark. They are only exposed now and -then, and appear to be circular kilns about fifteen feet in diameter, -with walls two feet thick, and now only a foot high. The reason of their -existence is found in a bed of dark clay which underlies all this coast. - -The only pot found has been a rough, hand-made jar with rolled edge and -marks of the stick or bone with which the outside had been scraped and -trimmed. Now, doubtless the Romans used the wheel. Moreover, these kilns -are far outside the Roman bank, and not likely, therefore, to be for -Roman use. Tree roots are found in the walls and inside the circle of the -kilns, of the same sort as those of which at one time a perfect forest -existed, the stumps of which are sometimes visible at low tide. At the -time the Romans made their sea bank the sea must have come right over -this forest, so that we may perhaps say that those thumb-bricks bear the -impress of the fingers of the earliest inhabitants of Britain, and are -therefore of extraordinary interest. - -On the eastern side of South Lindsey the running out of the roads, from -Burgh and Wainfleet, to the coast always seemed to point to the existence -of some Roman terminus near Skegness. Some years after he had noted this -as probable, the Rev. E. H. R. Tatham, who has made a study of Roman -roads in Lincolnshire, discovered that in the court rolls of the manor of -Ingoldmells, the mention is made of a piece of land called indifferently -in a document dated 1345, “Chesterland,” or “Castelland”; and again -in 1422, four acres of land in “Chesterland” are mentioned as being -surrendered by one William Skalflete (Court Rolls, p. 248), this land -is never mentioned again, and the presumption is that it was swallowed -by the sea. And in 1540 Leland mentions a statement made to him, that -Skegness once had a haven town with a “castle,” but that these had been -“clene consumed and eaten up with the se.” - -[Sidenote: ROMAN CASTRUM] - -These terms “Chester” and “caster” point to a Roman fort or “castrum,” -and the fact that the names “Chesterland” and “Castelland” exist in -medieval documents dealing with the land in the immediate neighbourhood -seems to go a long way towards confirming Mr. Tatham’s conjecture of -the existence of a Roman fort near Skegness, over which the sea has now -encroached. - -[Sidenote: AN EARLY BRASS] - -[Sidenote: CROFT] - -From Skegness we will now turn inland, and after about four miles reach -_Croft_ (All Saints) by a road which keeps turning at right angles -and only by slow degrees brings a traveller perceptibly nearer to the -clump of big, shady trees which hide the church, parsonage and school. -Large trees grow in all parts of the forlorn churchyard, and the church -when opened has a musty, charnel-house smell, but one soon forgets -that in amazement at the fine and spacious fourteenth century nave and -clerestory, its grand tower and its large and lofty fifteenth century -Perpendicular chancel and aisles. The wide ten-foot passage up the nave -between the old poppy-head seats fitly corresponds to the large open -space round the font, which rises from an octagonal stone platform as big -as that of a market cross. There is a quantity of old woodwork besides -the seats. A good rood-screen—though like all the others, minus its -coved top and rood-loft—shows traces yet of its ancient colouring; birds -and beasts of various kinds are carved both as crockets above and also -in relief on the panels below, and two good chantry screens fill the -eastern ends of the aisles. A very fine Jacobean pulpit and tester was -put up by Dr. Worship, the vicar from 1599 to 1625, in memory of his wife -Agnes, whom he describes in a brass on her tomb, dated 1615, as “a woman -matchless both for wisdom and godlyness.” The two greatest treasures in -brass are the extremely fine eagle lectern, its base supported by three -small lions, which was found in the moat of the old Hall, the seat of the -Browne family, flung there probably for safety and then forgotten; and a -notable half-effigy, head and arms only, of a knight in banded mail, with -a tunic over the hauberk, and hands joined in prayer. The legend round -him is in Norman French, but his name is lost; the date is said to be -1300, so that this is, next to that at Buslingthorpe, the earliest brass -in the county. - -The Browne family are perpetuated in the chancel, where on the north wall -are two similar monuments of kneeling figures facing each other, both -erected about 1630. The first is to Valentine Browne, a man with a very -aquiline nose, and his wife Elizabeth (Monson), with effigies in relief -of their fifteen children. He is described as “Treasurer and Vittleter -of Barwick, and Dyed Treasurer of Ireland.” Barwick is “The March town -of Berwick-on-Tweed.” The tomb was erected _c._ 1600 by his second son -John who lived at Croft, and whose effigy is on the other tomb along with -his wife Cicely (Kirkman), of whom we are told “she lived with him but -20 weeks and dye without issue ætatis 21 Ano Domini 1614,” just a year -before Agnes Worship, the vicar’s wife. Another monument, a marble slab -eighteen inches square, has this inscription:— - -“Here lyeth Willyam Bonde Gentleman, whoe dyed An̅o Dom̅ 1559 leaving two -sonnes, Nicolas Docter in Divinitie, and George Docter in physicke, the -elder sonne, who dyed the ____ et etatis ____ and here is buryed. THE -which in remembrance of his most kynd father haith erected this lytle -moniment” - - Bondus eram Doctor Medicus nunc vermibus esca, - Corpus terra tegit, spiritus astra petit, - Ardua scrutando, cura, morbis, senioque - Vita Molesta fuit: Mors mihi grata quies. - -The guide-books say that this was erected by Nicolas, D.D., who -afterwards became president of Magdalen College, Oxford. But clearly -it was by George the M.D., and he left spaces for his own death date, -which were never filled; perhaps he is not buried at Croft, but he must -have been near his end when he wrote the Latin lines which are all about -himself, and may be thus translated— - - I was Bond a Physician, now I am food for worms, - The earth covers my body, my spirit seeks the stars, - From difficult studies, anxiety, diseases and old age - Life was a burden; death is a welcome rest to me. - -There is a note in the church accounts to the effect that the old bell -was (re-)cast at Peterborough by Henry Penn in 1706 and inscribed -“prepare to die.” - -This church is, for spaciousness and for the amount of good old woodwork, -and for its monuments, one of the very best. As we leave it we notice -carved on the door, “God save the King 1633.” - -I believe that Bishop Hugh-de-Wells who was appointed Bishop of Lincoln -in 1209, but who, mistrusting King John, did not take up the work of his -See till 1218, when John was dead, was a native of Croft. - -The parish books of _Croft_ show “The dues and duties belonginge and -appertaininge unto the office of the clarkes of Crofte. A.D. 1626.” - -He collected the Easter gratuities of the neighbours in the parish; he -got twenty shillings a year for looking after the clock, “to be paid by -the churchwards.” - - “For skowringe and furbishinge the eagle or ‘brazen lectorie’ - 2/6 by the yeare. Sixpence for ‘evry marriadge,’ fourpence ‘for - the passinge bell ringeinge for every inhabitant &c. that are - deceased.” - - And “Item the privilege of makeinge the graves for the deceased - before any other yf he will take the paines and canne doe yt.” - -[Sidenote: THE PARISH CLERK] - -Evidently the clerks were old men and not always capable of wielding the -spade and pick; and now comes an entry which lets one into the secret -of why the registers were often so ill-kept. Instead of the entries -being made by the parson at the time, the clerk put them down “from time -to time,” and they were copied from his notes once a year. Under this -system, of course, there were both mistakes and omissions, often for many -months and even years together. - -This is the entry:— - - “Itm for the Register keepinge from tyme to tyme of all - Christnings Marriadges and burialles from Ladyday to Ladyday - until they be ingrossed: two shillings and sixpence a year.” - -Possibly “from tyme to tyme” may mean on each occasion, but it sounds -precarious. - -His fixed salary, besides fees, was, in 1773, thirty shillings and two -strikes (—4 bushels) of corn out of the two quarters (—sixteen bushels) -which was given from the glebe every Easter to the poor by the parson. - -The Sexton’s wages at the same date were given thus:— - - as Sexton 2. 10. 0. - for dogs wipping 0. 7. 6. - Dressing church round 0. 2. 0. - For oyle 0. 2. 4. - For ringing the bell at 8 and 4 1. 0. 0. - ------------- - 04. 01. 10. - -The “Parish Clerk” in Lincolnshire was, as a rule, a rougher-looking -individual than he appears in Gainsborough’s splendid picture in the -National Gallery, but he was generally an original character, both in -word and deed. I heard of one in Ireland who announced, “There will -be no sarmon this afternoon as the Bishop has been providentially -prevented from praching,” and many a quaint saying is recorded of -those Lincolnshire clerks of the last century. Boys were their special -aversion. In the old days at Spilsby the clerk kept a stick, and during -the sermon would go down to the west end of the building, and the sound -of his weapon on the boys’ heads quite waked up the slumberers in the -seats nearer the pulpit. One hears of a clerk putting a stop to what he -considered an unnecessary afternoon service and saying to the clergyman, -“We ha’en’t no call to hev sarvice just for you and me, sir.” “Oh, but I -thought I saw some people coming in.” “Just a parcel of boys, sir; but I -soon started they.” But it is not the clerks only who show an intelligent -interest in the parson and the services, though from generations of -somewhat slovenly performance, the churchgoers had difficulty at first -in appreciating the high-church ritual which here and there they saw for -the first time. One kindly old woman on seeing in one of the Fen churches -some unexpected genuflexions and bows, said afterwards, “I _was_ sorry -for poor Mr. C., he was that bad of his inside that he couldn’t howd -hissen up.” And another I knew of who, when asked how they got on with -the new ritualistic clergyman, and whether he hadn’t introduced some new -methods, replied, “Oh, yis, he antics a bit; but we looves him soä we -antics along wi’ him.” - -[Sidenote: BURGH-LE-MARSH] - -From Croft we turn north to _Burgh-le-Marsh_ (SS. Peter and Paul) whose -fine lofty tower, with its grand peal of eight bells, stands on the -extreme edge of the Wold and overlooks the marsh, and, like “Boston -Stump,” is visible far out to sea, The exterior is very fine, and the -church, like Croft, has retained its chancel, so ruthlessly destroyed -in the case of Addlethorpe and Ingoldmells. The nave is wide and lofty, -but the pillars poor. It is all Perpendicular, and has much interesting -screen work which has been a good deal pulled about, even as late as -1865, the year in which similar destruction was wrought at Ingoldmells. -The rood screen now stands across the tower arch, and the chancel screen -is a patchwork. There are two porches, north and south, the latter of -brick, a good pulpit and a canopied font-cover which opens with double -doors, dated 1623. On the north aisle wall is a plain brass plate with -the following dialogue in Latin hexameters:— - - Quis jacet hic? Leonardus Palmerus Generosus. - Quae conjux dilecta fuit? Catherina. Quis haeres? - Christopherus (cui nupta Anna est). Quis filius alter? - Robertus. Gnatae quot erant? Tres, Elizabetha - Ac Maria, ac Helena. An superant? Superant. Ubi mens est - Defuncti? Rogitas. Dubio procul astra petivit. - obiit Die Martis octavo - Anno Domi 1610. - ætatis suæ 70. - - Who lies here? Leonard Palmer, Gentleman. - Who was his beloved wife? Catherine. Who his heir? - Christopher (whose wife was Anna). Who was his second son? - Robert. How many daughters were there? Three, Elizabeth - and Mary and Helen. Are they living? Yes. Where is the spirit - of the departed? You ask. Doubtless it has sought the stars. - He died Mar. 8, 1610, aged 70. - -[Sidenote: BRATOFT] - -At Burgh the straight road from Skegness to Gunby turns to the left to -pass through _Bratoft_. This church with picturesque ivy-clad tower has a -good font, a chancel and parclose screens, and the rood-loft doorway. It -has been well restored in memory of C. Massingberd, Squire of Gunby, and -contains a very curious painting on wood which now hangs in the tower; -it was once over the chancel arch, and by its irregular shape it is -clear that it was originally made to fit elsewhere. It is signed Robert -Stephenson. The Armada is shown as a red dragon, between four points of -land marked England, Scotland, Ireland and France with the following -lines:— - - Spaine’s proud Armado with great strength and power - Great Britain’s state came gapeing to devour, - This dragon’s guts, like Pharoa’s scattered hoast - Lay splitt and drowned upon the Irish coast. - For of eight score save too ships sent from Spaine - But twenty-five scarce sound returned again non Nobis Domine. - -Bratoft Hall, the residence of the Bratofts and Massingberds, was built -in a square moated enclosure of two acres, which stood in a deer park of -two hundred acres. It was taken down in 1698, and the Hall at Gunby built -about the same time. The bridge over the moat of two brick arches was -standing in 1830 intact. - -[Sidenote: GUNBY] - -The twisting byeways lead from here back into the Skegness, Burgh, and -Spilsby road. The Hall at _Gunby_[22] is a fine brick mansion, the home -of the Massingberds. A pretty little church stands in the park, in which -are two very valuable brasses of the Massingberd family, one dated 1405, -of a knight, Sir Thomas, in camail and pointed Bascinet, and his lady -Johanna, in a tight dress and mantle. The other of William Lodyngton, -Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in his judicial robes, 1419. The -Massingberd brass has had its incised inscription beaten out, and, with -a new inscription in raised letters, has been made to serve for another -Thomas and Johanna Massingberd in 1552, the figures, costumed as in -1400, serving for their parsimonious descendants of 150 years later. A -precisely similar case of appropriation by two Dallisons with dates 1400 -and 1546 and 1549, may be seen in Laughton church near Gainsborough; and -again on a stone slab of the Watson family in Lyddington, Rutland. About -1800 Elizabeth Massingberd, sole heiress of Gunby, married her neighbour, -Peregrine Langton, son of Bennet Langton, the friend of Dr. Johnson, who -on marriage took the name of Massingberd. Their grandson was the Algernon -Massingberd, born 1828, who left England in 1852, and since June, 1855, -was never again heard of. In 1862 his uncle, Charles Langton Massingberd, -took possession of the estate. - -From Gunby various small by-roads lead literally in all directions; you -can take your choice of eight within half a mile of the park gates, and -Burgh station, on the Boston and Grimsby line, is only just outside the -boundary. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX - -CHURCHES IN SOUTH LINDSEY - - Spilsby to Wainfleet—Little - Steeping—Tomas-de-Reding—Monksthorpe—The Baptists—Thomas - Grantham—Firsby—Thorpe—Churchwarden’s Book—The - “Dyxonary”—Wainfleet—William of Waynflete—Halton Holgate—Sire - Walter Bec—Village Carpentry. - - -The record of the churches in the marsh land of the South Lindsey -division would not be complete without some mention of Wainfleet. The -Somersby brook, which, winding “with many a curve” through Partney -and Halton, becomes at last “the Steeping river,” is thence cut into -a straight canal as far as Wainfleet, and then, resuming its proper -river-character, goes out through the flats at Wainfleet Haven, near that -positive end of the world, “Gibraltar Point.” - -_Little Steeping_ has just undergone a most satisfactory restoration in -memory of its once rector, Bishop Steere, who succeeded Bishop Tozer of -Burgh-le-Marsh as the third missionary bishop in Central Africa, and -there did a great work as a missionary, and also built the first Central -African cathedral in what had previously been the greatest slave market -of the world—Zanzibar. The restorers have had a most interesting find -this year (1912), for the chancel step, when taken up, proved to be the -back of a fine recumbent effigy of a fourteenth century rector. Doubtless -the monument was taken from the arched recess in the north wall of the -chancel and thus hidden to save it from destruction in the sixteenth or -seventeenth century. The masons who fitted it into its new bed had no -scruple in knocking off the inscribed moulding on one side, and a bit of -the carved stone got broken off and was found in the rectory garden. - -[Sidenote: LITTLE STEEPING] - -The figure represents a robed priest, with feet curiously clothed in what -look like socks. The face is good and in excellent preservation. The -work was probably local, for the ear is of enormous size. The mutilated -inscription read originally: “Tomas de Red_ing priez qe Dieu pour sa -grace_ de sa alme eyt merci.” The letters in italics are missing. Thomas -de Reding was presented to Little Steeping in 1328. There is a very good -font, and the south porch outer arch is remarkable for the very unusual -depth of its hollowed moulding on both of the outer porch pilasters. The -canopied work over the head of the inner doorway is good, but quite of a -different character, and the wide projection of the north arcade capitals -is noticeable. A stone on the outer wall marked “1638 W P & R G” gives -the date of a destructive restoration, when tomb slabs were cut up for -window-sills and some ruthless patchwork put in on the north side of -both aisle and chancel. A good rood screen with canopy has been put in, -old work being used where possible, and a new churchyard cross erected -on the old base, with figures of St. Andrew and the Crucifixion, under a -canopy like that at Somersby. The octagonal font in rich yellow stone has -figures difficult to make out, and a small niche over the north-east pier -of the nave arcade is to be noted; probably it contained some relic or -image. The stone brackets for the rood loft remain, but there is no trace -left of the staircase. The seats and pulpit of dark stained deal are -interesting, as they were all made by Bishop Steere himself. The tower is -patched with the old two-inch bricks, which always look well, and with -some of the larger modern kind, which seldom do. - -Our best way now is to return to the Spilsby-and-Firsby road at _Great -Steeping_, which will take us past _Irby_ to _Thorpe-St.-Peter_ and -_Wainfleet_. - -[Sidenote: THE BAPTISTS] - -The hamlet of _Monksthorpe_ in Great Steeping parish indicates by its -name the fact that Bardney Abbey had an estate here. No trace now remains -of the manor built by Robert de Waynflete, when he retired in 1317 from -the abbey and had the proceeds of the estates in Steeping and Firsby and -two cells in Partney and Skendleby assigned to him for the maintenance -and clothing of himself and family. But part of the moat is visible, -and one may see here in a chapel enclosure a baptist’s pool bricked -and railed round on three sides with one end open and sloping to the -water, for the Baptists walked into the pool and did not believe in the -efficacy of infant baptism. This was doubtless one of the places which -was ministered to by the famous leader of the “General Baptist Church” -who suffered such shameful and repeated persecution in the days of -Cromwell and Charles II., Thomas Grantham, for he was a native of Halton, -where the name still exists, and throughout a long life showed himself -a man of a truly religious and eminently courageous heart, of whom his -native village may well be proud. He died in 1692, aged seventy-eight, at -Norwich, and was buried inside the church of St. Stephen, as a memorial -to him set up therein states, “to prevent the indecencies threatened to -his corpse,” such as, we read on a tombstone in Croft churchyard, had -been perpetrated on the body of his friend and fellow-Baptist, Robert -Shalders, whose body was disinterred on the very day of his funeral by -inhabitants of Croft, and dragged on a sledge and left at his own gates. -Doubtless the clergyman was privy to this, so hot was the feeling for -religious persecution in those days, and took credit to himself for it, -for in the parish book of Croft we may read as follows:— - - “Dec 20th, 1663. These persons here underwritten, viz. Roger - Faune, Gent., Robert Shalders, Anne Montgomerie, Cicilie - Barker, Alice Egger, were excommunicated in the parish church - of Croft the day and year above written, - - “per me R. Clarke Curate Ibid - Philip Neave ⎫ - John Wells ⎭ Churchwardens.” - -[Sidenote: THORPE] - -[Sidenote: CHURCHWARDEN’S BOOK] - -Two miles east of Steeping a good road to the right goes to _Firsby_, -where is a small church built by Mr. G. E. Street to show how an entirely -satisfactory building adapted to the needs of quite a small parish could -be put up at a very small cost. The whole church cost under £1,000, -and was built in less than six months, and opened November 5, 1857. In -_Thorpe_ we find a graceful font, a well-carved Perpendicular screen and -a good Jacobean pulpit. The place belonged after the Conquest to the Kyme -family. The Thorpe churchwardens’ book commences in 1545, and in 1546 -contains such items as these about the rood light and the light in the -Easter Sepulchre: - - “Anᵒ regᵒ regˢ Hen. VIII, xxxvij. - - “By thys dothe ytt appr what Symon Wylly̅son & Roger - Hopster hath payᵈ & layd for the cherche cocernyng the - rode lyght & ye Sepulture lyght in ye xxxvj yere of ye rene - off ower Soffera̅t lorde king He̅r̅y ye viij. - fyrst payd by yᵉ hands off yᵉ forsayd Rogʳ for - one powd waxe makyng and a half agenst - lent j½d - Item payd to Gu̅rwycke Wyffe for brede and - ale to ye waxe makyng for yᵉ supulture lyght xiiijd - Item payd for j powde waxe maykyng for the - rode lyght aga̅s̅t estʳ jd - Item payd to yᵉ clark for kepping off yᵉ sepulture - lyght ijd.” - -In the reign of Edward VI the churchwardens seem to have had a jumble -sale of all the odds and ends in the church, which they called the -“offalment” or rubbish. - - “Anᵒ Reg E. VIᵗⁱ Vᵗᵒ. - - “Howffulment in the church soulde & delyvered by ye hands of - John Greene & Robert Emme cherche masters.” - -Amongst the various items of metal and woodwork, vestments, chests, -books, &c., we have:— - - “Item off John Wolbe yᵉ elder for an Albe and an old - pantyd cloth iiijˢ - Item to John Wolbe all yᵉ boks in yᵉ cherche ijˢ iiijᵈ - Item sowlde to Wᵐ Keele ij altar clothes, a robe vˢ - Item sowlde to Sir John Westmels curate, ij robes iiijˢ - Item Sowlde Wᵐ Sawer ij corporaxs[23] wᵗ otre ofelment iijˢ vijiᵈ” - -They were probably restoring their church, for we have two years later:— - - “Itᵐ pᵈ for a wayn and iiij beasts for sand to the cherche viijᵈ” - -This was in the first and second year of Queen Mary, and they were then -busy putting back what they had sold in Edward’s reign, making side -altars, etc., hence we find:— - - “Itᵐ pᵈ for yᵉ clothe yᵉ roode was paynted on xiiijᵈ - Itᵐ pᵈ for paentyng off the roode ijˢ viijᵈ - Itᵐ pᵈ to yᵉ man that mayd the syd aulters in wageys xijᵈ - Itᵐ pᵈ to Thomas hymlyn Wyffe for meat & dryncke too them - that mayd the saide aulters ijˢ viijᵈ - Itᵐ pᵈ to yᵉ man that makg. the Roode in prte of paementt xijᵈ” - -Other interesting items are— - - “Itᵐ payd to yᵉ players off ca̅dylmesse day viijᵈ - Itᵐ payd in yᵉ same year to yᵉ players whytche playd off yᵉ - Sonday next after Sant Mathyes day vjᵈ” - -One might make quite an amusing “story of a dictionary” from the various -entries in the Thorpe churchwardens’ book about an Elliott’s Dictionary -which, in the middle of the sixteenth century the vicar bequeathed to -his successors _in perpetuo_. It is described as “one boke called a -dyxonary,” and evidently exercised both vicar and wardens a good deal -until one vicar bethought him of the device of “delivering” it to the -parish to be kept along with various volumes of homilies, and expositions -and the paraphrases of Erasmus. - -But it is time to leave Thorpe; and two miles will bring us to -_Wainfleet_ which, as its name declares, though now a couple of miles -from the sea, was once a haven for sea-going ships, for “Fleet” means -a navigable creek. This little place gave its name in the fifteenth -century to a great man, William of Wainfleet, or Waynflete, Headmaster -of Winchester, and first headmaster and Provost of Eton, successor to -Cardinal Beaufort as Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England -under Henry VI. He was a great builder, for he possibly planned, and -certainly completed, Tattershall Castle, built Tattershall church, and -founded Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1457, the first college to admit -commoners, a wise and far-seeing innovation of Waynflete’s; and in his -native town erected in 1484 the Magdalen College School, a fine brick -building seventy-six feet by twenty-six with its gateway flanked by -polygonal towers recalling the entrance to Eton College. In the south -tower is a remarkable staircase, and in the north a bell. - -[Sidenote: WAINFLEET] - -His adoption of St. Mary Magdalen as the patron of his school at -Wainfleet and his college at Oxford may have originated in his having -been appointed by Cardinal Beaufort to the mastership and chantry of St. -Mary Magdalen hospital on Magdalen Down outside Winchester. - -The bishop lived to the reign of Richard III., and died in 1486. He -erected a monument to his father, Richard Patten. The son is called -either Patten or Barbour, for he bore both names indifferently, though he -soon discarded them both for the name of his birthplace, as was commonly -done from the eleventh to the sixteenth century; his brother also taking -the name of Waynflete. This monument was in the original church of All -Saints, for the second church of St. Thomas had long been destroyed. But -All Saints’ church, built cruciform and with a light wooden spire on -account of the soft nature of the soil on which it stood, was destined to -the same fate, for the foolish inhabitants having, in 1718, put a heavy -brick tower to it, with five bells in it, the weight brought a great part -of the building to ruin. Subsequently it was pulled down, and the present -church was set up at some distance from the old site in 1820, when the -inhabitants added vandalism to their folly and wantonly demolished this -fine tomb. The broken bits were collected and placed in the Magdalen -School, and later were, by the intervention of the rector of Halton -Holgate, Rev. T. H. Rawnsley, obtained for the President and Fellows of -the Bishop’s College at Oxford, and are now on the north side of the -altar in the College Chapel. The figure has its feet resting on a bank of -flowers and its head on a cushion and pillow supported by his two sons, -John the Monk and William the Bishop. The face of the latter resembles -the father, but is not so broad or so old as that of John. It is to be -noted that Lincolnshire has produced two Bishops of Winchester, each of -them the founder of a college at Oxford—Bishop Fox and Bishop Waynflete. - -The town is older than Boston and existed in Roman days, possibly under -the name of Vannona, and apparently a Roman road ran from Doncaster to -Wainfleet, passing through Horncastle and Lusby. Certainly “Salters -road,” which crosses the East Fen, was a Roman road, and the Romans made -a good deal of salt from the sea-water in the immediate neighbourhood of -Wainfleet. In the charter rolls of Bardney Abbey (_temp._ Henry III.) we -read that Matthew, son of Milo de Wenflet, paid annually “to God, Saint -Oswald and the Monks of Bardney 4 shillings and eighteen sextaires of -salt by the old measure” for the land he held in the village of Friskney. - -Later we find that (_temp._ Edward II.) Hugh le Despencer held lands in -Wainfleet in 1327, and we know that a Robert le Despencer did so in Burgh -in the time of Edward I. In the reign of Edward III. Wainfleet furnished -two ships and forty seamen for the invasion of Brittany. - -_Wainfleet St. Mary’s_ lies one and a half miles to the south. The church -is a massive structure with five arches on the north and four on the -south of the nave. - -We have now completed the round of the Marsh churches, and in so doing, -on leaving Gunby, we struck into the Spilsby and Wainfleet road, just -where the Somersby brook, there called the Halton river, is crossed by -an iron bridge. This we did not cross, but keeping always to the left -bank we followed the stream to Wainfleet. We must now go back and cross -this iron bridge, and trace the road thence for four miles and a half -to Spilsby. This will take us on to the Wold. We shall only pass one -village, but this is one of infinite charm. - -[Sidenote: HALTON HOLGATE] - -[Sidenote: THE HOLLOW-GATE BRIDGE] - -_Halton Holgate_ stands on the very edge of the Wold, where the -green-sand terminates, and looks far across the Fen to Boston. The name -of the village is always properly pronounced by the natives Halton -Hollygate, _i.e._, hollow gate or way; for the descending road has been -cut through the green-sand rock, and where the cutting is deepest a -pretty timber footbridge is thrown over it, leading from the rectory to -the churchyard. The garden lawn has, or had, two fine old mulberry trees. -These were once more common—for in the reign of James I. an order went -out for the planting of mulberry trees in all rectory gardens with a view -to the encouragement of the silk trade by the breeding and feeding of -silkworms, whose favourite diet is the mulberry leaf. From the garden, -“Boston stump” is visible eighteen miles to the south. The church is a -particularly handsome one with massive well-proportioned tower, and large -belfry windows, eight three-light clerestory windows on either side and a -fine south porch of Ancaster stone. The rest is built of the beautifully -tinted local green-sand, with quoins of harder Clipsham stone. Inside it -is spacious, with lofty octagonal pillars. It is seated throughout with -oak, and has several good old oak poppy-heads and some large modern ones -copied from Winthorpe and carved by a Halton carpenter. Here it is worth -notice that for the last hundred years Halton has never been without -wood-workers of unusual talent. - -[Illustration: _Bridge over the Hollow-Gate._] - -[Sidenote: HALTON CHURCH] - -South of the chancel two tall blocked arcades, leading to a Lady chapel -long pulled down, were opened by the Rev. T. Sale, rector in 1894, who -had reseated the chancel and filled the east window with good stained -glass. The chapel, which now holds the organ, was rebuilt in memory of -the two previous rectors, Rev. T. H. Rawnsley (1825-1861) and R. D. -B. Rawnsley (1861-1882), and their wives Sophia Walls and Catharine -Franklin. The fine effigy of a Crusader, called Henry de Halton, had -been buried for safety and forgotten, like that of the priest at Little -Steeping, and the sepulchral slab with Lombardic lettering, of Sir Walter -Bec, of the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, is the oldest -monument in the neighbourhood. The inscription is: “Sire Walter Bec jist -ici de ki alme Dieu ait merci.” There is a fine peal of six bells, and a -“tingtang,” a thing very common in Lincolnshire, and reminiscent of the -pre-Reformation Sanctus bell. - -We have so often seen, owing to the negligence of church authorities, -damp church walls, and wet streaming down from gutter or stack-pipe, -which is blocked with growing grass or sparrows’ nests, to the great -detriment of the building, that it is pleasant to record the useful -activity of the Halton churchwardens, of whom one has carved, and the -other put together, a fine oak screen, with the names and dates of all -the known rectors, churchwardens and clerks of the parish. - -[Illustration: _Halton Church._] - -In the north wall of the chancel is a priest’s door, which has always -been in constant use. It is a beautiful bit of Perpendicular work with -an exceptionally good hood-moulding and lovely carving of waved foliage -in the spandrels. These north side doors are sometimes called “Devils’ -doors,” as they were not only to let the priest in but also to let the -Devil out, being left open at baptisms to let him fly out when the infant -renounces the Devil and all his works, and becomes the child of grace. -The idea that the north was the Devil’s side had possibly something to -do with the repugnance, hardly yet quite overcome, to a burial on that -side of the churchyard. - -[Sidenote: LOCAL WORKMANSHIP] - -An avenue of elms, planted by the Rev. T. H. Rawnsley about 1830, -starting from the “Church Wongs,”[24] leads past the tower at the west -to the Hollow-gate road, close to where a pit was dug by the roadside -to get the sandstone for repairing the tower; and to-day, as we pass -along to Spilsby, we shall see a wall of sandstone rock exposed on the -right of the road, and a lot of blocks cut out and hardening in the -air preparatory for use at Little Steeping, and we shall naturally be -reminded of the words of Isaiah, “Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, -and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” - -We have said that the restoration of Halton Holgate church was carried -out by the Rev. T. H. Rawnsley about 1845, and it is remarkable that -it was done so extremely well; for at that particular time the art of -architectural restoration was almost at its lowest. As far as they went -there were no mistakes made by the restorers at Halton, and the carved -work for the seats was copied from the best models to be seen in any -Lincolnshire church, and executed under the eye of the rector and his -son, Drummond Rawnsley, by a Halton carpenter. That is just as it should -be, and just as it used to be, but it is not often possible of attainment -now. - -Jesus College chapel at Cambridge underwent a much needed restoration at -the same bad period, _i.e._, in 1849, and here too, by the genius of the -architect, excellent work was done, some good old carving being preserved -and very cleverly matched with new work well executed, and by a very -curious coincidence, the shape of some of the poppy-heads and the plan -of the panel carving is almost identical with that which was executed at -Halton, after the Winthorpe pattern. - - - - -CHAPTER XXX - -SPILSBY AND ITS BYWAYS - - Spilsby Market-town—The Churches and Willoughby Chapel—The - Franklins—The Talk of the Market—Lincolnshire Stories and - Others—Byways—Old Bolingbroke—Harrington Church—The Copledike - Tombs—The Hall—Bag-Enderby—Remarkable Font—Somersby—The - Churchyard Cross—The Brook—Ashby Puerorum. - - -[Sidenote: SPILSBY CHURCH] - -Spilsby is the head of a petty-sessional division in the parts of -Lindsey. The name is thought by some to be a corruption of Spellows-by, -to which the name of Spellows hill in the neighbourhood gives some -colour. The old gaol, built in 1825, had a really good classic portico -with four fluted columns and massive pediment. Most of the buildings -behind this imposing entrance were pulled down after fifty years, and -all that it leads to now is the Sessions House and police station. The -long market-place is interrupted in one place by a block of shops, and -in another by a mean-looking Corn Exchange; but at one end of it still -stands an elegant, restored market cross, and at the other a bronze -statue by Noble of Sir John Franklin, the most famous of Spilsby’s sons, -the discoverer of the “North West Passage.” His hand rests on an anchor, -and on the pedestal are the words: “They forged the last link with their -lives.” Just beyond the town a fine elm-tree avenue leads to Eresby, the -seat whence the Willoughby family take their title. In Domesday Book, -1086, Spilsby and Eresby are said to belong to the Bishop of Durham. His -tenant Pinco, or one of his sons, the Fitz Pincos, acquired it; and about -1166 a Pinco heiress married Walter Bec, whose grandson has a sepulchral -slab in Halton church, _c._ 1243. In 1295 a John, the son of Walter, -was created Baron Bec of Eresby, the younger brothers being Antony, -Bishop of Durham, and Thomas, who was consecrated Bishop of St. David’s -at Lincoln in 1280. Lord Bec died in 1302, in which year Sir William of -Willoughby (near Alford), who had married his daughter and heiress Alice, -obtained a charter for a market at Spilsby every Monday. Their son Robert -was the first Baron Willoughby De Eresby, who died in 1316. His son John -fought at Crécy 1346, and in 1348 founded the College of the Holy Trinity -at Spilsby, and the chantry which, when he and his successors in the -fourteenth and sixteenth centuries with their huge altar tombs filled -up the chancel of the old church, even blocking up the entire chancel -arch with the stone screen of the Bertie monument, became eventually the -chancel of the parish church. For the old church consisted of a nave and -chancel into which the west door opened direct; it had probably a narrow -north aisle, and certainly a large south aisle was added with the Trinity -chapel at the east end of it. This aisle and chapel are now the nave and -chancel of the church, which was restored in Ancaster stone in 1879, and -a new south aisle added, the tower alone remaining of green-sand with -lofty hard-stone pinnacles. In this the bells have just been re-hung, -in December, 1913. John, second Baron Willoughby (1348), also the third -(1372), who fought at Poictiers, and the fourth, with his second wife, -Lady Neville, at his side (1380), have huge altar tombs with effigies in -armour; he died 1389. A brass commemorates his third wife (1391), and -another fine one, said to be Lincolnshire work, the fifth baron and his -first wife (1410). Both these ladies being of the family of Lord Zouch. -The gap between the fifth and the tenth Lord Willoughby is accounted for -thus:— - -[Sidenote: WILLOUGHBY D’ERESBY] - -The sixth Lord was created Earl of Vendome and Beaumont and died 1451. -His second wife was Maud Stanhope, co-heiress of Lord Cromwell of -Tattershall. The seventh and eighth, best known by their other title -of Lord Welles, were both put to death for heading the Lincolnshire -rebellion against Edward IV., the father by an act of bad faith on the -king’s part, who had taken him, together with Dymoke the Champion, out of -the Sanctuary in Westminster; and the son because, in revenge, joining -Sir Thomas de la Launde, he had fought the Yorkists and been defeated -at the battle of Loose-coatfield near Stamford, 1470. The ninth lord -was William, who was descended from a younger son of the fifth Baron -Willoughby, since Richard Hastings, whom Joan, the sister and heiress of -the eighth Lord Welles, had married, left no issue. There is a monument -in Ashby church near Spilsby, though in a very fragmentary condition, to -William and also to Joan and Richard Hastings. William married Katherine -of Aragon’s maid-of-honour, Lady Mary Salines, for his second wife, and -by a will, dated Eresby 1526, desired to be buried and have a monument -erected to himself and his wife at Spilsby, but this was never done. The -stone screen with its supporting figures of a hermit, a crowned Saracen, -and a wild man, erect, set up in 1580, is in memory of his daughter and -heiress, Katherine Duchess of Suffolk, and her second husband, Richard -Bertie, her first husband being that Charles Brandon who obtained so huge -a share of the estates confiscated by Henry VIII. in Lincolnshire. They -lived at Grimsthorpe, on the west side of the county, which the king had -given to Katherine’s parents; and thenceforth that became the chief seat -of the Willoughby family, and the series of monuments is continued in -Edenham church. But there is one more monument, in what is now called the -Willoughby chapel at Spilsby. This is to a son of the duchess, Peregrine -Bertie, tenth Baron Willoughby; he died at Berwick in 1601, and was -buried at Spilsby as directed in his will; his daughter, Lady Watson, -died in 1610, and, as she wished to be buried near her father, Sir Lewis -Watson of Rockingham erected a monument to both father and daughter, the -latter reclining on her elbow, with the baby, which caused her death, in -a little square cot at her feet. Peregrine was so named because he was -born abroad, his parents having fled from the Marian persecutions. His -wife was the Lady Mary Vere who brought the office of chamberlain into -the Willoughby family. It was claimed by her son Robert, the eleventh -baron, who in 1630 was made Earl of Lindsey, and thus the barony became -merged in the earldom, the fourth earl being subsequently created Duke of -Ancaster. - -Eresby Manor was burnt down in 1769, and only the moat and garden wall -and, at the end of the avenue, one tall brick-and-stone gate-pillar -surmounted by a stone vase remain. At the suppression of the college and -chantries the Grammar School was founded on the site of the college, just -to the north of the church, Robert Latham being the first master, in -1550. - -At the south-west end of the church are three tablets to three remarkable -brothers born in Spilsby towards the end of the eighteenth century. - -[Sidenote: THE FRANKLINS] - -Major James Franklin, who made the first military survey of India, and -contributed a paper to the Geological Society in 1828, died in 1834. Sir -Willingham Franklin who, after a distinguished career at Westminster and -Oxford, died, with wife and daughter, of cholera, 1824, at Madras, where -he was judge of the Supreme Court. And Sir John Franklin, the famous -Arctic navigator, who fought at Trafalgar and Copenhagen, and died in -the Arctic regions on June 11, 1847, before the historic disaster had -overtaken the crews of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_. His statue stands in -his native town, and also in Hobart Town, where he lived for a time as -Governor of Tasmania, and is one of the two statues in London which -were set up by the nation. On his monument in Westminster Abbey are the -beautiful lines by his friend and neighbour, and relative by marriage, -Alfred Tennyson. - - Not here! the white North has thy bones; and thou, - Heroic sailor-soul, - Art passing on thy happier Voyage now - Towards no earthly pole. - -The other brother, Thomas Adams Franklin, raised the Spilsby and Burgh -battalion of volunteer infantry in 1801. Major Booth followed his good -example and raised a company at Wainfleet to resist the invasion by -Napoleon, and the men of the companies presented each of them with a -handsome silver cup. Five Franklin sisters married and settled in the -neighbourhood; and Catharine, the daughter of Sir Willingham, married -Drummond, the son of the Rev. T. H. Rawnsley, vicar of Spilsby. Thus -quite a clan was created, insomuch that forty cousins have been counted -at one Spilsby ball. Drummond succeeded his father as rector of Halton, -and very appropriately preached the last sermon in the old church at -Spilsby at the closing service previous to its restoration, speaking from -the pulpit which his father had occupied from 1813 to 1825. His sermon, -a very fine one, called “The Last Time,” was from 1 St. John ii. 18, and -was delivered on Trinity Sunday, 1878. - -[Sidenote: LINCOLNSHIRE STORIES] - -The time to visit Spilsby is on market day, when, round the butter cross, -besides eggs, butter and poultry, pottery is displayed “on the stones,” -stalls are set up where one may buy plants and clothes, and things hard -to digest like “bull’s eyes,” as well as boots and braces, and near -“the Statue” at the other end, are farm requisites, sacks, tools, and -the delightful-smelling tarred twine, as well as all sorts of old iron, -chains, bolts, hinges, etc., which it seems to be worth someone’s while -to carry from market to market. It is here that the humours of the petty -auctioneer are to be heard, and the broad Doric of the Lincolnshire -peasant. In the pig market below the church hill you may hear a man -trying to sell some pigs, and to the objection that they are “Stränge -an’ small,” he replies, “Mebbe just now; but I tell ye them pigs ’ull -be greät ’uns,” then, in a pause, comes the voice from a little old -woman who is looking on without the least idea of buying, “It ’ull be -a straänge long while fust,” and in a burst of laughter the chance of -selling that lot is snuffed out, or, as they say at the Westmorland dog -trials, “blown off.” - -[Sidenote: MORE STORIES] - -There is an unconscious humour about the older Lincolnshire peasants -which makes it very amusing to be about among them, whether in market, -field or home. My father never returned from visiting his parish without -some rich instance of dialect or some humorous speech that he had heard. -Finding a woman flushed with anger outside her cottage once, and asking -her what was amiss, he was told “It’s them Hell-cats.” “Who do you call -by such a name?” “Them Johnsons yonder.” “Why? What have they been -doing?” “They’ve been calling me.” “That’s very wrong; what have they -been calling you?” “They’ve bin calling me Skinny.” At another time a -woman, in the most cutting tones, alluding to her next-door neighbours -who had an afflicted child, said, “We may-be poor, and Wanty [her -husband] says we _are_ poor, destitutely poor, and there’s no disgraäce -in being poor, but _our_ Mary-Ann doant hev fits.” Another time, when -my sister was recommending a book from the lending library describing a -voyage round the world, and called “Chasing the Sun,” a little old woman -looked at the title and said, “Naäy, I weänt ha’ that: I doänt howd wi -sich doings. Chaäsing the Sun indeed; the A’mighty will soon let ’em know -if they gets a chevying him.” In the same village I got into conversation -one autumn day with a small freeholder whose cow had been ill, and asked -him how he had cured her, he said, “I got haafe a pound o’ sulphur and -mixed it wi’ warm watter and bottled it into her. Eh! it’s a fine thing -I reckon is sulphur for owt that’s badly, cow or pig or the missis or -anythink.” Then, with a serious look he went on, “There’s a straänge -thing happened wi’ beans, Mr. Rownsley.” “What’s that?” “Why, the beans -is turned i’ the swad” (= pod). “No!” “Yees they hev.” “How do you mean?” -“Why they used to be black ends uppermost and now they’r ’tother waay -on.” “Well, that’s just how they always have been.” “Naay they warn’t. It -was ’81 they turned.” They _do_ lie with the attachment of each bean to -the pod, just the way you would not expect, and having noticed this he -was convinced that up to then they had really lain the way he had always -supposed they did, so difficult is it to separate fact from imagination. -The similes used by a Lincolnshire native are often quite Homeric, as -when an old fellow, who was cutting his crop of beans, the haulm of -which is notoriously tough, resting on his scythe said, “I’d rayther -plow wi two dogs nor haulm beans.” Then they have often a quiet, slow -way of saying things, which is in itself humorous. I remember a labourer -who was very deaf, but he had been much annoyed by the mother of a man -whose place he had succeeded to. He was working alongside of his master -and _apropos_ of nothing but his own thoughts, he said, “Scriptur saäys -we should forgive one another; but I doänt knoä. If yon owd ’ooman fell -i’ the dyke I doänt think _I_ should pull her out. I mowt tell some ’un -on her, but I doänt think I should pull her out howiver.” There is some -kindliness in that, though in quantity it is rather like the Irishman’s -news: “I’ve come to tell you that I have nothing to tell you, and there’s -some news in that.” But the Lincolnshire native is a trifle stern; even -the mother’s hand is more apt to be punitive than caressing. “I’ll -leather you well when I gets you home, my lad,” I have heard a mother say -to a very small boy, and I have heard tell of a mother who, when informed -that her little girl had fallen down the well, angrily exclaimed, “Drat -the children, they’re allus i’ mischief; and now she’s bin and drownded -hersen I suppose.” - -In Westmorland it is the husband who _will_ take too much at market -on whom the vials of the wrath of the missis are outpoured, and they -generally know how to “sarve” him. One good lady, on being asked -“How_ever_ did you get him ower t’wall, Betty?” replied “I didna get him -ower at a’—I just threshed him through th’ hog-hole” (the hole in the -wall for the sheep, or hoggetts, to pass through). - -Speaking of tippling, there is no more delightful story than this from -Westmorland, of a mouse which had fallen into a beer vat and was swimming -round in despair, when a cat looked over, and the mouse cried out, “If -ye’ll git me oot o’ this ye may hev me.” The cat let down her tail and -the mouse climbed up, and shaking herself on the edge of the vat, jumped -off and went down her hole, and on being reproached by the cat as not -being a mouse of her word, answered, “Eh! but ivry body knaws folks will -say owt when they’re i’ drink.” - -[Sidenote: OLD BOLINGBROKE] - -There are several pretty little bits of country near Spilsby, but the -most interesting of the by-ways leads off from the Horncastle road -at Mavis Enderby, and, going down a steep hill, brings us to _Old -Bolingbroke_, a picturesque village with a labyrinth of lanes circling -about the mounded ruins of the castle, where, in 1366, Henry IV. “of -Bolingbroke” was born. It was built in 1140 by William de Romara, first -Earl of Lincoln, and was, till 1643, when Winceby battle took place, a -moated square of embattled walls, with a round tower at each corner. Here -Chaucer used to visit John of Gaunt and the Duchess Blanche of Lancaster, -on whose death, in 1369, he wrote his “Book of the Duchess.” The castle, -after the Civil Wars, sank into decay, and the gate-house, the last of -the masonry, fell in 1815. The road onwards comes out opposite Hagnaby -Priory. William de Romara, who three years later founded Revesby Abbey, -had for his wife the second Lady Lucia, the heiress of the Saxon -Thorolds, an honoured name among Lincolnshire families. She brought him, -among other possessions, the manor of Bolingbroke. Her second husband was -the Norman noble, Ranulph, afterwards earl of Chester. The Thorolds were -descended from Turold, brother of the Lady Godiva. There apparently were -two _Lady Lucias_, whose histories are rather mixed up by the ancient -chroniclers. The earlier of the two was, it seems, the sister of the -Saxon nobles, Edwin and Morcar, and of King Harold’s queen Ealdgyth. Her -hand was bestowed by the conqueror upon his nephew, Ivo de Taillebois (= -Underwood), who became, according to Ingulphus and others, a monster of -cruelty, and died in 1114. - -[Sidenote: HARRINGTON] - -There are several by-ways to the north-west of Spilsby, which all -converge on _Harrington_. Here the church contains several monuments of -interest. At the east end of the nave, a knight in chain armour with -crossed legs and shield is said to be Sir John Harrington (_circa_ -1300); and against the chancel wall, but formerly on the pavement, is -the brass of Margaret Copledike (1480). Her husband’s effigy is missing. -Under the tower window is the monument to Sir John Copledike (1557), -and in the chancel south wall a canopied tomb with a brass of Sir John -Copledike (1585). Opposite is a Jacobean monument, which testifies to -the illiteracy of the age with regard to spelling, to Francis Kopaldyk, -his wife and two children (1599). In the time of Henry III. it was spelt -Cuppeldick. A Perpendicular font with the Copledike arms stands against -the tower arch. - -Close to the church is Harrington Hall, with its fine old brick front -and projecting porch. Hanging over the doorway is a large dial with -the Amcotts arms, a curiously shaped indicator, and the date 1681. On -either side of the porch which runs up the whole height of the house, are -twelve windows, under deep, projecting, corbelled eaves. Inside is an old -oak-panelled room, most richly carved. The house is the property of the -Ingilby family, and at present the residence of E. P. Rawnsley, Esq., who -has been for many years Master of the Southwold Hunt. - -Somersby is but two miles off, and we may without hesitation turn our -thoughts to the terraced garden of this delightful old hall when we read -in Tennyson’s “Maud”:— - - “Birds in the high Hall-garden - When twilight was falling, - Maud, Maud, Maud, Maud, - They were crying and calling.” - -The poet loved to tell how, when he was reading this and paused to ask, -“Do you know what birds those were?” a lady, clasping her hands, said, -“Oh, Mr. Tennyson, was it the nightingale?” though in reading it he had -carefully given the harsh caw of the rooks. - -[Sidenote: BAG ENDERBY] - -To get from here to _Somersby_ you pass through _Bag Enderby_, where -there is a fine church, now in a very ruinous state. The very interesting -old font, which stands on two broken Enderby tombstones, has some unusual -devices carved on it, such as David with a viol, and the Virgin with the -dead Christ. One, the most remarkable of all, is a running hart turning -back its head to lick off with its long tongue some leaves from the tree -of life growing from its back. This symbolism is purely Scandinavian; and -that it could be used on a Christian font shows how thoroughly the two -peoples and their two religions were commingling.[25] The large number -of villages about here ending in “by”—Danish for hamlet—is sufficient -evidence of the number of settlers from over the North Sea who had taken -up their abode in this part of the county. - -[Illustration: _Somersby Church._] - -The green-sand, which underlies the chalk, and of which almost all the -churches are built, crops out by the roadside in fine masses both here -and at Somersby and Salmonby, as it does too at Raithby, Halton, Keal, -all in the immediate neighbourhood of the chalk wolds. Inside the church, -slabs on the floor of the chancel retain their brass inscriptions to -Thomas and Agnes Enderby (1390), and Albinus de Enderby, builder of the -tower (1407); and on the wall is a monument to John and Andrew Gedney -(1533 and 1591). The latter represented in armour and with his wife and -family of two sons and two daughters. The wife, whose name is spelt first -Dorithe, then Dorathe, “died the 7th of June 1591 and Andrew ____” the -blank being left unfilled. - -The knives and scourges of Crowland Abbey (_see_ Chap. XLI.) are seen -in the old glass. The custom of giving little knives to all comers at -Crowland on St. Bartholomew’s Day was abolished by Abbot John de Wisbeche -in the reign of Edward IV. In the tower is a fine peal of disused bells. - -[Sidenote: SOMERSBY CROSS] - -Dr. Tennyson held this living with _Somersby_. This is a smaller -building, but it retains in the churchyard a remarkable and perfect -cross, a tall, slender shaft with pedimented tabernacle, under which are -figures, as on the gable cross at Addlethorpe and on the head of the -broken churchyard cross at Winthorpe—the Crucifixion is on one side and -the Virgin and Child on the other. - -From Somersby there are two roads to Horncastle—each passes over the -brook immortalised in “In Memoriam” and in the lovely little lyric, “Flow -down cold rivulet to the sea,” and branching to the left, one passes -through Salmonby, where Bishop William of Waynflete is said to have been -rector. This is doubtful, but probably he was presented to the vicarage -of Skendleby by the Prior of Bardney in 1430. The other and prettier -road goes by _Ashby Puerorum_ and _Greetham_, and both run out into the -Spilsby and Horncastle road near _High Toynton_. Ashby Puerorum (or -Boys’ Ashby) gets its name from an estate here bequeathed to support the -Lincoln Minster choir boys. At this place, and again close by Somersby, -the hollows in the Wold which this road passes through are among the -prettiest bits of Lincolnshire. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXI - -SOMERSBY AND THE TENNYSONS - - Tennyson’s Poetry descriptive of his home—Bronze Bust of the - Poet—Dedication Festival—A Long-lived Family—Dialect poems. - - -This little quiet village, tucked away in a fold of the hills, with -the eastern ridge of the Wolds at its back and the broad meadow valley -stretching away in front of it and disappearing eastwards in the -direction of the sea, had no history till now. It was only in 1808 that -Dr. George Clayton Tennyson came to Somersby as rector of Somersby and -Bag Enderby, incumbent of Beniworth and Vicar of Great Grimsby. He came -as a disappointed man, for his father, not approving, it is said, of his -marriage with Miss ffytche of Louth (a reason most unreasonable if it -was so) had disinherited him in favour of his younger brother Charles, -who became accordingly Charles Tennyson d’Eyncourt of Bayons Manor near -Tealby. - -Dr. Tennyson’s eldest son George was born in the parsonage at Tealby, -in 1806, but died an infant. Frederick was born at Louth in 1807, and -the other ten children at Somersby. Of these, the first two were Charles -(1808) and Alfred (1809). - -They were a family of poets; their father wrote good verse, and their -grandmother, once Mary Turner of Caister, always claimed that Alfred got -all his poetry through her. Her husband George was a member of Parliament -and lived in the _old_ house at Bayons Manor. - -[Sidenote: THE TENNYSONS] - -From the fourteenth century the Tennysons, like their neighbours the -Rawnsleys, had lived in Yorkshire; but Dr. Tennyson’s great-grandfather, -Ralph, had come south of the Humber about 1700 to Barton and Wrawby -near Brigg, and each succeeding generation moved south again. Thus, -Michael, who married Elizabeth Clayton, lived at Lincoln, and was the -father of George, the first Tennyson occupant of Bayons Manor. He had -four children: George Clayton, the poet’s father; Charles, who took the -name of Tennyson d’Eyncourt; Elizabeth, the “Aunt Russell” that the poet -and his brothers and sisters were so fond of; and Mary, the wife of John -Bourne of Dalby, of whom, though she lived so near to them, the Somersby -children were content to see very little, for she was a rigid Calvinist, -and once said to her nephew, “Alfred, when I look at you I think of the -words of Holy Scripture, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting -fire.’” At Somersby, then, the poet and all the children after Frederick -were born in this order: Charles, Alfred, Mary, Emilia, Edward, Arthur, -Septimus, Matilda, Cecilia, Horatio. They were a singularly fine family, -tall and handsome, taking after their father in stature (he was six feet -two inches) and after their mother (a small and gentle person, whose -good looks had secured her no less than twenty-five offers of marriage) -in their dark eyes and Spanish colouring. She was idolised by her eight -tall sons and her three handsome daughters, of whom Mary, who became Mrs. -Ker, was a wonderfully beautiful woman. Frederick, who outlived all his -brothers, dying at the age of ninety-one after publishing a volume of -poems in his ninetieth year, alone of the family had fair hair and blue -eyes. Matilda is alive still at the age of ninety-eight. - -[Sidenote: DR. KEATE AND WELLINGTON] - -The three elder sons all went to the Grammar School at Louth in 1813, -when Alfred was but seven. Frederick went thence to Eton in 1817, and to -St. John’s, Cambridge, in 1826; Charles and Alfred stayed at Louth till -1820, and they left it with pleasure for home teaching. Few could have -been better qualified to teach than the Doctor. He had a good library -and he was a classical scholar; could read Hebrew and was not without -a knowledge of mathematics, natural science and modern languages; also -he was a rigid disciplinarian, and, like all good schoolmasters, was -held in considerable awe by his pupils. I should like to have heard him -had anyone in his day outlined to him as the method of the future the -Montessori system. This power of terrifying a whole class and causing -each one of a set of ordinarily plucky English lads to feel for the space -of half an hour that his heart was either in his mouth or in his shoes, -would be incredible, were it not that there are so many English gentlemen -now living who have experience of it. How well I remember the terrible, -if irrational, state of funk which the whole of any class below the -upper sixth was always in, when going up for their weekly lesson to that -really most genial of men, Edward Thring, and it was the same elsewhere, -and given the same sort of circumstances, the grown-up man could feel as -frightened as the boy; witness this delightful story of the Iron Duke. -No one could call him a coward, but on his return from Waterloo he went -down on the fourth of June to Eton, and first told some one in his club -that he meant to confess to Keate that he was the boy who had painted the -Founder’s Statue or some such iniquity, the perpetrator of which Keate -had been unable to discover. His friend extracted a promise that after -his interview he would come and report at the club. He came, and being -questioned by a group of deeply interested old Etonians, he said, “Well, -it was all different, not at all like what I expected. I seized the -opportunity when Keate came to speak with me by the window and said, “You -remember the Founder’s Statue being defaced, sir?” “Certainly. Do you -know anything about it?” he said sharply. “_No, sir._” “You don’t mean -to say you said that?” “Certainly I do, and what is more, every one of -you would, in the circumstances, have said just the same,” and then and -there they all admitted it; so difficult is it to shake off the feelings -of earlier days. And yet he was not naturally terrible, and I who write -this, never having been under him, have, as a small boy, spoken to Keate -without a shadow of fear. - -This reminds me of a remark of Gladstone’s, who was giving us -some delightful reminiscences of his days at Eton, and, speaking -enthusiastically of Alfred Tennyson’s friend, Arthur Hallam, when on my -saying that I had spoken with Keate, he turned half round in his chair -and said, “Well, if you say you have seen Keate I must believe you, but -I should not have thought it possible.” He had forgotten for the moment -that Keate, after retiring from Eton, lived thirteen years at Hartley -Westpall (near Strathfieldsaye), where my father was curate. - -To return to Somersby. We read in the memoir of the poet an amusing -account, by Arthur Tennyson, of how the Doctor’s approach when they were -skylarking would make the boys scatter. - -[Sidenote: EARLY VOLUMES] - -In 1828 Charles and Alfred went up to Trinity, Cambridge. Frederick was -already a University prize-winner, having got the gold medal for the -Greek ode, and Charles subsequently got the Bell Scholarship, and Alfred -the English Verse prize. The boys’ first poetical venture was the volume -“Poems by Two Brothers,” published in 1826 by Jackson of Louth, who -gave them £20, more than half to be taken out in books. To this volume -Frederick contributed four pieces, the rest were by Charles and Alfred. -The latter used very properly to speak with impatience of it in later -years as his “early rot.” And it is quite remarkable how comparatively -superior is the work done by Alfred as a boy of fourteen, and how little -one can trace in the two brothers’ volume of that lyrical ability which -in 1830 produced _Mariana_ and _The Arabian Nights_, _The Merman_, _The -Dying Swan_ and the _Ode to Memory_. The majority of these poems were -written at Cambridge, but there is much reference to Somersby in at least -two of them, and the song, “A Spirit haunts the year’s last hours,” was, -we know, written in the garden there with its border of hollyhocks and -tiger-lilies. In the _Ode to Memory_ he invokes her to arise and come, -not from vineyards, waterfalls, or purple cliffs, but to - - “Come from the Woods that belt the grey hill side, - The seven elms, the poplars four - That stand beside my father’s door, - And chiefly from the brook that loves - To purl o’er matted cress and ribbèd sand. - ... - O! hither lead thy feet! - Pour round mine ears the livelong bleat - Of the thick fleecèd sheep from wattled folds, - Upon the ridgèd wolds.” - -This is reminiscent of Somersby. - -Then again, Memory calls up the pictures of “the sand-built ridge of -heaped hills that mound the sea” at Mablethorpe, and the view over “the -waste enormous marsh.” - -In 1831 Dr. Tennyson died, aged fifty-two, and his sons left Cambridge. -His widow lived on for thirty-four years, dying at the age of -eighty-four, in 1865. They stayed on in the Somersby home till 1837, -and a new volume came out in 1832, with a whole array of poems of rare -merit, showing how much the poet’s mind had matured in that last year -at Cambridge. This volume, like the Louth volume, is dated for the year -after that in which it was really published. It carried Alfred to the -front rank at once, for in it was _The Lady of Shalott_, _The Palace of -Art_, _The Miller’s Daughter_, _Œnone_, _The May Queen_, _New Year’s -Eve_, _The Lotus Eaters_, _A Dream of Fair Women_, and the _Lines to -James Spedding_, on the death of his brother Edward. Only think of all -these wonderful poems in a thin book of 162 pages written before he was -twenty-three. - -[Sidenote: THE LINCOLNSHIRE COAST] - -To Mablethorpe and Skegness on the Lincolnshire coast we find frequent -allusions in many poems, _e.g._, he speaks in _The Last Tournament_ of -“the wide-winged sunset of the misty marsh,” and when the Red Knight in -drunken passion, trying to strike the King overbalances himself, he falls— - - “As the crest of some slow arching wave, - Heard in dead night along that table shore, - Drops flat, and after, the great waters break - Whitening for half-a-league, and thin themselves, - Far over sands marbled with moon and cloud, - From less and less to nothing.” - -A most accurate picture of that flat Lincolnshire coast with its -“league-long rollers,” and hard, wet sands shining in the moonlight. In -another place he speaks of “The long low dune and lazy-plunging sea.” - -In his volume of 1832 there are many pictures drawn from this familiar -coast, _e.g._, in _The Lotus Eaters_, _The Palace of Art_, _The Dream of -Fair Women_; and in his 1842 volumes he speaks of - -“Locksley Hall that in the distance overlooks the sandy flats And the -hollow ocean ridges roaring into cataracts.” - -A relative of mine was once reading this poem to the family of one -of those Marsh farmers who had known “Mr. Alfred” when a youth, and -who lived in the remotest part of that coast near the sandy dunes and -far-spread flats between Skegness and “Gibraltar Point”; but she had not -got far when at the line— - - “Here about the beach I wandered, nourishing a youth sublime, - With the fairy tales of science——” - -she was stopped by the farmer’s wife. “Don’t you believe him, Miss, -there’s nothing hereabouts to nourish onybody, ’cepting it be an owd -rabbit, and it ain’t oftens you can get howd of them.” - -[Sidenote: IN MEMORIAM] - -_In Memoriam_ has many cantos descriptive of Somersby, both of the happy -summer evenings on the lawn, when Mary - - “brought the harp and flung - A ballad to the bright’ning moon,” - -or of the walks about home with Arthur Hallam— - - by “Gray old grange or lonely fold, - Or low morass and whispering reed, - Or simple stile from mead to mead, - Or sheepwalk up the windy wold.” - -Or the winter nights when - - “The Christmas bells from hill to hill - Answer each other in the mist.” - -And nothing could be more full of tender feeling than this farewell to -the old home in Canto CI., beginning— - - “Unwatched, the garden bough shall sway, - The tender blossom flutter down, - Unloved, that beech will gather brown, - This maple burn itself away.” - -And in Canto CII.— - - “We leave the well-beloved place - Where first we gazed upon the sky; - The roofs that heard our earliest cry - Will shelter one of stranger race. - - We go, but ere we go from home - As down the garden walks I move, - Two spirits of a diverse love - Contend for loving masterdom. - - One whispers ‘here thy boyhood sung - Long since its matin song, and heard - The low love-language of the bird - In native hazels tassel-hung.’ - - The other answers, ‘yea, but here - Thy feet have strayed in after hours - With thy lost friend among the bowers, - And this hath made them trebly dear.’ - - These two have striven half the day, - And each prefers his separate claim, - Poor rivals in a loving game, - That will not yield each other way. - - I turn to go: my feet are set - To leave the pleasant fields and farms; - They mix in one another’s arms - To one pure image of regret.” - -[Sidenote: ARTHUR HALLAM] - -Other sections speak of Arthur Hallam, and as each Christmas comes round, -or each birthday of his friend, the poet’s feelings are voiced in such a -way that, if we read it with care, the poem gives us a good deal of the -author’s own life history. - -Arthur Hallam died on September 15, 1833, at Vienna, and his remains -were brought home at the end of the year and interred at Clevedon in -Somersetshire on January 4, 1834. - - “The Danube to the Severn gave - The darken’d heart that beat no more; - They laid him by the pleasant shore - And in the hearing of the wave.” - -Immediately after his death Tennyson had turned to work as the one solace -in his overwhelming grief, although, but for those dependent on his aid, -such as his sister Emily who was betrothed to Hallam, he said that he -himself would have gladly died. He wrote the fine classic poem _Ulysses_, -in which he voiced the need he felt of going forward and braving the -struggle of life, and then, before it had reached England, he wrote the -first section of _In Memoriam_ No. 9 addressed to the ship with its sad -burden. - - “Fair ship that from the Italian shore - Sailest the placid ocean plains - With my lost Arthur’s loved remains, - Spread thy full wings and waft him o’er.” - -At some later time, possibly many years later, for _In Memoriam_ was -sixteen years in the making, he added section 10—“I hear the noise about -thy keel”—which carries on the subject, and also alludes to Somersby -church - - “where the kneeling hamlet drains - The chalice of the grapes of God.” - -For the time he wrote no more sections, but busied himself with _The -Two Voices_, only towards the end of 1834 he wrote section 30, which -he afterwards prefaced by sections 28 and 29, all describing the sad -first Christmas of 1833, the first since Arthur’s death. In 28 he hears -the bells of four village steeples near Somersby rising and sinking on -the wind. He had more than once wished that he might never hear the -Christmas bells again, but the sound of church bells had always touched -him from boyhood, just as the words “far, far away” which always set him -dreaming. In section 29 he bids his sisters, after decorating the church, -make one more wreath for old sake’s sake, to hang within the house. - -Then section 30 tells how they wove it. - - “With trembling fingers did we weave - The holly round the Christmas hearth;” - -After this we hear how they made a “vain pretence” - - “Of gladness with an awful sense - Of one mute Shadow watching all.” - -They attempt the usual Christmas games, but they have no heart for them, -and all pause and listen to the wind in the tree-tops and the rain -beating on the window panes. Afterwards they sit in a circle and think of -Arthur, they try to sing, but the carols only bring tears to their eyes, -for only last year he, too, was singing with them. After this Alfred sits -alone and watches for the dawn which rises, bringing light and hope. - -[Sidenote: LEAVING SOMERSBY] - -Section 104 brings us to another Christmas. Four years have elapsed -since that last described. The Tennysons have left Somersby, with what -regret they did so is beautifully told in the four sections immediately -preceding this. And now, listening as of old for the Christmas bells, he -hears not “four voices of four hamlets round,” but only - - “A single peal of bells below, - That wakens at this hour of rest - A single murmur in the breast, - That these are not the bells I know.” - -The following section continues the subject. They are living at High -Beech in Essex “within the stranger’s land.” He thinks of the old home -and garden and his father’s grave. The flowers will bloom as usual, but -there, too, are strangers, - - “And year by year our memory fades - From all the circle of the hills.” - -The change of place - - “Has broke the bond of dying use.” - -They put up no Christmas evergreens, they attempt no games and no -charades. His sister Mary does not touch the harp and they indulge in no -dancing, though it was a pastime of which they were extremely fond. But -as of old Alfred looks out into the night and sees the stars rise, “The -rising worlds by yonder wood,” and receives comfort. All this points to -the sad year 1837, when they left the well-beloved place of his birth. -And now in section 106 we have a New Year’s hymn of a very different -character. It has a jubilant sound, and was certainly written some years -after its predecessors. In 1837 he was in no mood to say “Ring happy -bells across the snow.” But there is no allusion in this splendid hymn -to Arthur Hallam at all, and in the following section they keep Arthur’s -birthday, not any more in sadness, but - - “We keep the day, with festal cheer, - With books and music, surely we - Will drink to him, whate’er he be - And sing the songs he loved to hear.” - -But to return to Somersby. - -[Illustration: _Tennyson’s Home, Somersby._] - -[Sidenote: THE OLD HOME] - -The quaint house with its narrow passages and many tiny rooms, the -brothers’ own particular little western attic with its small window -from which they could see the ‘golden globes’ in the dewy grass which -had “dropped in the silent autumn night,” the dining-room and its tall -gothic windows with carved heads and graceful gables, the low grey tower -patched with brick, just across the road, (for the “noble tall towered -churches” spoken of in _The Memoir_ are not in this part of the county,) -and the pre-Reformation (not “Norman”) cross near the porch, all these -may still be seen much as they were one hundred years ago. - -[Sidenote: THE CHURCH RE-OPENED] - -True, the church has been lately put in good repair, and a fine bronze -bust of the poet placed in the chancel. This was unveiled, and the -church re-opened on Sunday, April 6, 1911, being the fulfilment of the -plan projected on the occasion of the centenary celebration two years -previously. On that Sunday the little church was more than filled with -neighbours and relatives who listened to sermons from the Bishop of -Lincoln and the Rev. Canon Rawnsley. Next day was Bank Holiday, and -in a field near the rectory hundreds of Lincolnshire folk of every -kind—farmers, tradespeople, gentry, holiday makers—assembled to do honour -to their own Lincolnshire poet, and for a couple of hours listened -intently to speeches about him and laughed with a will at the humours of -the “Northern Farmer” read in their own native dialect, just as the poet -intended; whilst the relatives of the poet and those who were familiar -with his works looked with glad interest upon a scene of rural beauty -which brought to the mind the descriptions in _The Lady of Shalott_, -seeing on the slopes before them the promise of crops soon to “clothe -the wold and meet the sky,” while far away to the left stretched the -valley which pointed to Horncastle, the home of the poet’s bride, and -on the right was the churchyard where the stern “owd Doctor” rests, and -the church where for five and twenty years he ministered. The whole -was a remarkable assemblage and a remarkable tribute, and the setting -was a picture of quiet English rural life, one which the poet himself -must often have actually looked out upon, and such as he has himself -beautifully described in _The Palace of Art_:— - - “And one an English home—gray twilight pour’d - On dewy pastures, dewy trees, - Softer than sleep—all things in order stored, - A haunt of ancient Peace.” - -[Sidenote: A LONG-LIVED FAMILY] - -The spirit of the poet seemed still to be a haunting presence in the -place, and as then, so now and for all time his works speak to us. But -three-quarters of a century have passed since a Tennyson has had his -home in Somersby. They left in 1837, and though Mary went back at times -to see the “beloved place,” Alfred never set eyes on it again. Charles -married in that year Louisa Sellwood, whose mother was a sister of Sir -John Franklin, and thirteen years later Alfred married her sister Emily. -They left Somersby; but Lincolnshire still kept possession of Charles, -who took the name of Turner in addition to his own, and ministered -happily at Grasby near Caistor, being both vicar and patron of the -living; and he and his wife both died there in the spring of 1879, at the -comparatively early age, for a Tennyson, of seventy-one, for the family -have been a remarkably long-lived one. - - The Mother died in 1865, aged 84 - Charles ” ” 1879 ” 71 - Mary ” ” 1884 ” 74 - Emilia ” ” 1889 ” 78 - Alfred died on October 6, 1892 ” 83 - Emily Lady Tennyson died in 1896 ” 83 - Frederick ” ” 1898 ” 91 - Arthur died in June, 1899 ” 85 - Horatio died in October, 1899 ” 80 - Cecilia died in 1909 ” 92 - -Matilda, who was born before Cecilia and Horatio, still survives. I -went to see her in the summer of 1913. I found her well and full of -early memories. She was a girl in the schoolroom when she first saw -Arthur Hallam, an event of which she had a vivid recollection. I said, -“I suppose you get out every fine day for a drive.” “Oh,” she said, “I -go out for a walk every day and take the dog.” I thought that rather -wonderful at her age. “Yes, I am ninety-seven,” she said, “and I mean -to live to be 105.” I told her how Queen Victoria, who was always -looking forward to reunion with the dear departed—but ever a ceaseless -worker—used to say, “my dear, you should always act as if you were going -to live for ever.” - -[Sidenote: THE MASTER’S OPINION] - -Alfred, who succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850, was raised to -the Upper House in 1884. He is buried in Westminster Abbey side by side -with his great contemporary, Robert Browning, and on his grave was laid -a wreath of bay-leaves from a tree derived from the bay which flourishes -over Virgil’s tomb near Naples, and on the wreath were Tennyson’s -own magnificent lines, written at the request of the Mantuans for the -nineteenth centenary of their poet’s death (1881). - - “I salute thee, Mantovano, - I that loved thee since my day began, - Wielder of the stateliest measure - Ever moulded by the lips of man.” - -[Sidenote: THE POET’S RANGE OF KNOWLEDGE] - -The recent appearance (October, 1913) of a notable volume of Tennyson’s -poems, introduced by a Memoir and concluding with the poet’s own notes, -may well serve as the text for some remarks on his poems generally. The -volume bound in green cloth is priced at 10_s._ 6_d._ The Memoir is -somewhat abbreviated from the two interesting volumes published by his -son in 1897, which appeared again as the first four volumes of Messrs. -Macmillan’s fine twelve-volume edition of 1898. There are, however, a -few additions, notably a letter from the Master of Trinity, Cambridge, -telling how he once, years ago, asked Dr. Thompson, the Master, whether -he could say, not from later evidence, but from his recollection of -what he thought at the time, which of the two friends had the greater -intellect, Hallam or Tennyson. “Oh, Tennyson,” he said at once, with -strong emphasis, as if the matter was not open to doubt. This is very -high praise indeed, for Gladstone said that Hallam was far ahead of -anyone at Eton in his day, and Monckton Milnes thought him the only man -at Cambridge to whom he “bowed in conscious inferiority in all things.” -The Notes first appeared in the very pleasant “Annotated Edition” -edited also by Hallam Lord Tennyson within the last five years. The -present generation can never know the delight of getting each of those -little green volumes which came out between ’32 and ’55, and sequels to -which kept following till ’92. But for general purposes it is far more -convenient to have a one-volume edition, such as we have had for some -time now. This new edition, however, with its Memoir, gives us what, -as the years go by, is more and more valuable, enabling us to read -the poet in his verses and to know what manner of man he was, and how -his environment affected him at the different stages of his life. The -Notes add an interest, and though it is seldom that in any but the _In -Memoriam_ Cantos any explanation is needed to poems that are so clear -and so easily intelligible, one gains information and finds oneself here -and there let into the author’s secrets, which is always pleasant. The -book runs to over a thousand pages, and is so beautifully bound that it -lies open at any page you choose. There is an interesting appendix to the -Notes, giving the music to “The Silent Voices,” composed by Lady Tennyson -and arranged for four voices by Dr. Bridge for Lord Tennyson’s funeral -at the Abbey, October 12, 1892. Also a previously unpublished poem of -his later years, entitled “Reticence.” She is called the half-sister of -Silence, and is thus beautifully described:— - - “Not like Silence shall she stand, - Finger-lipt, but with right hand - Moving toward her lip, and there - Hovering, thoughtful, poised in air.” - -Then comes a facsimile of the poet’s MS. of “Crossing the Bar,” finally, -besides the usual index of first lines, the book ends with an index to -_In Memoriam_, and, what we have always wanted, an index to the songs. - -Undoubtedly in the future this new edition will be the Tennyson for the -library shelf, and a very complete and compact volume it is. Personally, -I like the little old green volumes, but if I were now recommending an -edition not in one volume, I would say, “Have the Eversley or Annotated -Edition in nine volumes, which exactly reproduces the page and type of -those old original volumes with the added advantage of the Notes.” It -is hardly to be expected that the spell with which Tennyson bound all -English-speaking people for three generations should not in a measure be -relaxed, but though we have a fuller chorus of singers than ever before, -and an unusually appreciative public, the attempt so constantly made to -decry Tennyson has no effect on those who have for years found in him a -charm which no poet has surpassed, and, indeed, it will be long before a -poet arises who has, as Sir Norman Lockyer observes, “such a wide range -of knowledge and so unceasing an interest in the causes of things and the -working out of Nature’s laws, combined with such accuracy of observation -and exquisite felicity of language.” Let me give one more criticism, and -this time by a noted scholar, Mr. A. Sidgwick, who speaks of his “inborn -instinct for the subtle power of language and for musical sound; that -feeling for beauty in phrase and thought, and that perfection of form -which, taken all together, we call poetry.” That perfection was the -result of labour as well as of instinct. He had an ear which never played -him false, hence he was a master of melody and metre, and he was never -in a hurry to publish until he had got each line and each word right. “I -think it wisest,” he wrote to one of his American admirers, “for a man -to do his work in the world as quietly and as well as he can, without -much heeding the praise or dispraise.” He was a lover of the classics, -and in addressing Virgil on the nineteenth centenary of his death, as -quoted above, he himself alludes to this. Without being what we call a -great scholar, in his classic poems he is hard to beat, while in his -translations of Homer he certainly has no equal. Then in his experiments -in classic metres, whether in the “Metre of Catullus” or in the Alcaics -in praise of Milton, his perfect accuracy is best understood if we turn -to the similar experiments by living poets, who never go far without a -blunder, at least none that I have ever read do. - -[Sidenote: THE DIALECT POEMS] - -To the Lincolnshire folk, his dialect poems, written in the dialect -which was current in his youth at Spilsby and in the country about it -(and still used there, I am glad to say, though not so universally or -so markedly as of yore), give genuine pleasure, and are full of humour -and of character, and it is a tribute to his accurate ear and memory -that, after an absence of some twenty-seven years, he should have got -the Lincolnshire so correct. He did it all right, but for fear he might -have forgotten and got wrong, he asked a friend to look at it and -criticise; unfortunately the friend lived in the north of the county and -knew not the dialect of “Spilsbyshire,” so he altered it all to that -which was spoken about Brigg, which is more like Yorkshire, and it had -to be put back again. But some of the northern dialect has stuck, and -in “The Northern Farmer Old Style” the ‘o’ is seen in ‘moind,’ ‘doy,’ -‘almoighty,’ etc., where the Spilsby sound would be better rendered by -using an ‘a.’ This ‘o’ is never found in any of his subsequent dialect -poems, and in a note to the text in the “Northern Cobbler” the poet -points out that the proper sound is given by ‘ai.’ - -[Sidenote: FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS] - -One sign of the remarkable way in which our Lincolnshire poet has made -himself the poet of the English-speaking race is the extraordinary number -of familiar quotations which he has given us. For the last fifty years in -book and newspaper, in speech and sermon, some line or some phrase of his -has constantly occurred which the user felt certain that his hearer or -readers would recognise, until our literature has become tessellated with -Tennysonian expressions, and they have always given that satisfaction -which results from feeling that in using his words we have said the thing -we wished to say in a form which could not be improved upon. In this -respect of “daily popularity and application,” I think Shakespeare alone -excels him, though Pope and Wordsworth may run him close. - -[Illustration: _Little Steeping._] - - - - -CHAPTER XXXII - -ROADS FROM SPILSBY - - Road to Louth—Partney—Dr. Johnson—His letter on Death of - Peregrine Langton—Dalby—Langton and Saucethorpe—View from Keal - Hill with Boston Stump—“Stickfoot Stickknee and Stickneck”—The - Hundleby Miracle—Raithby—Mavis Enderby—Lusby—Hameringham—The - Hourglass Stand—Winceby—Horncastle—The Horse Fair—The - Sleaford Road—Hagnaby—East Kirkby—Miningsby—Revesby - Abbey—Moorby—Wood Enderby—Haltham—Tumby - Wood—Coningsby—Tattershall—Billinghay—Haverholme Priory. - - -The four roads from Spilsby go north to Louth, and south to Boston, each -sixteen miles; east to Wainfleet, eight miles; and west to Horncastle, -ten miles. The Wainfleet one we have already described and two-thirds -of that from Louth. The remaining third, starting from Spilsby, only -goes through two villages—Partney and Dalby. _Partney_ lies low in the -valley of Tennyson’s “Cold rivulet,” and those who have driven across -the flat meadows between the village and the mill after sundown know how -piercingly cold it always seems. - -The place has a very long history. Bede, who died in 725, writing twelve -hundred years ago and speaking of the Christianising of Northumbria by -Paulinus, who was consecrated Bishop of York in 625, and his visit to -the province of Lindissi, _i.e._, “the parts of Lindsey” and Lincoln in -particular, says that the Abbot of Peartaney (= Partney, near Spilsby, -which was a cell of Bardney) spoke to him once of a man called Deda, -who was afterwards, in 730, Abbot of Bardney and a very truthful man, -“presbyter veracissimus,” and said that Deda told him that he had talked -with an aged man who had been baptised by Bishop Paulinus in the presence -of King Ædwin, in the middle of the day, and with him a multitude of -people, in the River Treenta, near a city called in the language of the -Angles, Tiovulfingaceaster; this was in 627. Many have taken the place to -be Torksey, though that in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle is Turcesig. Green -suggested it was at the ford of Farndon beyond Newark, but it was far -more likely to be at Littleborough Ferry, two miles north of Torksey, -where the Roman road (“Till bridge Lane”) from Lincoln crossed the river. -But certainly Torksey is the nearest point of the river to Lincoln, and -the Fossdyke went to it, as well as a road, so that communication was -easy and inexpensive, and on the whole I should be inclined to say that -Torksey was the place of baptism. - -[Sidenote: PARTNEY] - -But to return to Partney. In addition to its being a ‘cell’ of Bardney -Abbey, we know there was a very fine hospital at Partney, dedicated to -St. Mary Magdalene, before 1138, and among the tombs recently uncovered -at Bardney is one of Thomas Clark, rector of Partney, 1505. It appears -to have been a market town when Domesday Book was compiled, at a time -when Spilsby was of no account; but the Black Death in 1349 or the plague -in 1631, when Louth registered 500 deaths in two months, and in the -Alford neighbourhood Willoughby also suffered, severely decimated the -place, and tradition has it that some clothing dug up eighty years after -burial caused a fresh and violent outbreak. Whenever it happened, for -no records exist, the consequence was that the glory of Partney as the -next market town to Bolingbroke departed, and Spilsby grew as Partney -dwindled. Of course the healthy situation of Spilsby had much to do with -it. Yet Partney still retains the two sheep fairs on August 1 for fat -lambs and September 19 for sheep, and they are the biggest sheep fairs -in the neighbourhood. Two other fairs take place, on August 25 and at -Michaelmas, and it is noticeable that three of the four are held on the -eve of the festivals of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalen. In 1437 we -find that Matilda, wife of Thomas Chaucer, the eldest son of the poet, -had a share of an eighteenth part of the Partney market tolls. Fine -brasses to her and her husband exist in Ewelme church, near Oxford. On -fair days sheep are penned all along the streets and in adjoining fields, -and “Beast” on the second day are standing for half a mile down the -Scremby road. - -The church is dedicated to St. Nicolas, the most popular of all church -patrons, who was Bishop of Myra in Lycia in the fourth century. As patron -of fishermen he has many sea coast churches, and he is also the peculiar -saint of children, who know him by his Dutch name of Santa Klaus. One -of the oldest oaks in England is in the churchyard. The chiming church -clock, put in in 1869, is a monument to the skill of a clever amateur, -Sidney Maddison, Esq., who fitted it with “Dennison’s three-legged -escapement,” which was then a new and ingenious invention of the late -Lord Grimthorpe. - -[Sidenote: DR. JOHNSON] - -In 1764 Dr. Johnson walked over from _Langton_ with his friend, Bennet -Langton, to see Bennet’s Uncle Peregrine. He died two years later aged -eighty-four, and the doctor wrote to his friend: “In supposing that I -should be more than commonly affected by the death of Peregrine Langton -you were not mistaken: he was one of those I loved at once by instinct -and by reason. I have seldom indulged more hope of anything than of being -able to improve our acquaintance to friendship. Many a time have I placed -myself again at Langton, and imagined the pleasure with which I should -walk to Partney in a summer morning, but this is no longer possible. We -must now endeavour to preserve what is left us, his example of piety and -economy. I hope you make what enquiries you can and write down what is -told you. The little things which distinguish domestic character are soon -forgotten: if you delay to enquire you will have no information: if you -neglect to write, information will be in vain. His art of life certainly -deserves to be known and studied. He lived in plenty and elegance upon an -income which to many would appear indigent, and to most, scanty. How he -lived, therefore, every man has an interest in knowing. His death I hope -was peaceful: it was surely happy.” - -After Partney the road goes up the hill to _Dalby_. Here the old house -where Tennyson’s aunt, Mrs. Bourne, lived, was burnt down in 1841, and -the thatched barn-like church swept away in 1862. The charm of the -present house lies in its beautiful garden. - -Having got on to the chalk wold a fine view opens over the wide vale -to the left as far as the next ridge, which stretches from Spilsby to -Hagworthingham. About a mile further on, a road goes sharply down to the -left into Langton, and across a watersplash to Colonel Swan’s residence -at _Sausthorpe_, where again we find cross-roads near the pretty little -church built by Gilbert Scott, with a crocketed spire, the only spire in -the neighbourhood. The roads lead back to Partney, on to Raithby over the -stream, to Horncastle and to Harrington, all by-ways. But to return to -our Spilsby and Louth highway. From the turn to Langton we keep rising -and see some tumuli on our left, and then another left turn to Brinkhill, -where, from a steep and curiously scarped hillside, roads descend right -and left to Ormsby and Harrington; but we will keep on the highway for -another mile till we find that the Louth road by Haugh goes off to the -left, and the Roman road to Burgh to the right, and the way straight -forward comes to Well Vale and Milecross hill, and so drops into Alford. -The rest of the road to Louth we have described in the Louth chapter. - -[Sidenote: KEAL HILL] - -The other roads from Spilsby are, south to Boston and west to Horncastle. -The Boston road is noticeable for the wonderful view of the fen, with the -“Stump” standing far up into the sky, which you get from Keal Hill, where -the green-sand ends and the road drops into a plain which is without a -hill or even a rise for the next fifty or sixty miles. After Keal the -road passes by _Stickford_, _Stickney_ and _Sibsey_—the last having a -very handsome transition Norman tower, and a ring of eight bells—and -comes into Boston by Wide Bargate. The road is uninteresting throughout, -and so monotonous that a story is told of someone driving in a coach in -years gone by, when roads were deep and miry, who put his head out and -asked the name of each place they came to. “What is this?” “Stickford, -sir.” “And this?” “Stickney, sir.” “Stick-foot! Stick-knee! we shall come -to Stick-neck next; you had better turn back.” - -[Illustration: _Sibsey._] - -[Sidenote: WESLEY’S CHAPEL] - -[Sidenote: LUSBY] - -The Horncastle road from Spilsby goes out along the green-sand by -_Hundleby_, from the tower of which I remember a man falling to the -ground and receiving no hurt at all, the nearest approach to a miracle -any one need wish to experience. Much of the money for the re-building of -the church was raised by the untiring industry and beautiful needlework -of Mrs. Ed. Rawnsley of Raithby; for _Raithby_, with its pretty broken -ground and ornamental water and its beautifully kept church filled with -good modern glass, was for half a century the home of the Rev. Edward -Rawnsley. The old stable adjoins the churchyard, and by an anomalous -arrangement the loft over the stable is fitted up as a Wesleyan chapel, -the use of it for that purpose having been granted _in perpetuo_ to John -Wesley by his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Carr Brackenbury. The road -goes on straight from here by _Hagworthingham_ or turns to the left to -_Mavis Enderby_, and so strikes a parallel route, both of them unite at -the top of the hill which runs down by High Toynton into Horncastle. The -name _Mavis_ was originally Malbyse, a name more characteristic than -complimentary, for it means evil beast. The word byse, or bys, exists in -Bison, and the name of the unpleasant one is found again in the village -of Acaster Malbis, near York. There is nothing of special interest on the -“Hag” road, but the Mavis Enderby road leads us to Lusby and Winceby; -of these _Lusby_ has a most interesting little church, thoroughly well -restored, with a good deal of Norman work and some unmistakable Saxon -work in it. There are two blocked doorways on the north-west, one with -Norman zigzag moulding in green-sand showing how durable a material it -is when properly laid and not exposed to wet. Some singular arcading -of a very early type is seen on the west of the walls on either side -of the round-headed chancel arch, which is not in the centre of the -wall. It has been renewed in green-sand of various colours. This work -may have been Saxon, for there was a church here when Domesday Book was -written, and there is certainly a definite bit of “Long and Short” work -on the right hand side of the blocked south doorway, and a fragment of -a Saxon stone inside, closely resembling the Miningsby Stone, but it -is difficult to speak with certainty, as the early Normans made use of -Saxon ornamentation. Outside there are two courses of big basement stones -running on both sides of the nave—one bevelled and set back a little. -Inside is a low-side window, two or three aumbreys, two arched recesses -for tombs, a niche near the chancel arch, and a very good stone head -of a queen projecting from the south-east window in the nave. There is -also a remarkable little “Keyhole” window high up in the north wall of -the chancel. The masonry is rough and amorphous, but very solid. The -old rood-screen of three arches is very handsome. Under the Communion -table is a sepulchral slab with an inscription in old lettering, mostly -obliterated, from which the brass tablet has been removed and put up on -the wall. It is singular, being a dialogue between a deceased wife and -her husband:— - - [SHE] My fleshe in hope doth rest and slepe - In earth here to remain; - My spirit to Christ I give to kepe - Till I do rise againe. - - [HE] And I with you in hope agre - Though I yet here abide; - In full purpose if Goddes will be - To ly doune by your side. - -Going on two miles along the Roman road to Horncastle we come to -_Hameringham_. Here, as at _Lusby_, there is no tower, but a little -slated bell-turret. Two large arches and one beautiful little pointed -arch at the west end on small octagonal pillars divide the nave from the -aisle. The western pillar is of the local green-sand, and dates from -the thirteenth century. The other pillar is of whitish stone, and the -small eastern respond is of the same. These date from the fourteenth -century, and have boldly foliaged capitals. Close together on the abacus -are two distinct marks of bullets which must have come in through -the aisle window. There is a good fifteenth century font, and on the -Jacobean pulpit is the original hour-glass stand, and with an old church -hour-glass in it. These stands are still to be seen at Bracebridge, -Leasingham, Sapperton and Belton in the Isle of Axholme. The traces of -a blocked priest’s door are visible on the north side. Oddly enough the -dressings of the porch, etc., are of red sandstone from Dumfries. It is -a good hard stone, but there is much to be said for always, if possible, -using the stone of the country. - -[Sidenote: WINCEBY FIGHT] - -[Sidenote: HORNCASTLE] - -The next village is _Winceby_, where “Slash Lane” commemorates the place -of Cromwell’s cavalry-battle in 1643. In the south chapel of _Horncastle_ -church, some four miles on, we shall see a goodly array of scythes on -long straight handles, which are said to have been used with deadly -effect in this fight. This church has five three-light clerestory windows -on each side of the nave, but in the chancel, six on the south and only -five on the north side, the eastmost one being larger than the rest. -There is an outside belfry staircase with a cone to it built against -the middle of the south wall of the tower. Inside, the pilasters of the -tower arch die away into the arch moulding without capitals. The brass -in the north wall, to Lionel Dymoke, is remarkable (date 1519); and -in the north chapel a tomb to Sir Ingram Hopton “who paid his debt to -Nature and duty to his King and Country in the attempt of seizing the -arch rebel in the bloody skirmish near Winceby, October 6, 1643.” This -should be October 11. The arch rebel was Cromwell, who was unhorsed and -nearly taken prisoner by Sir Ingram. He afterwards slept at Horncastle -in a house in West Street. This battle secured Lindsey and the Wolds -for Cromwell, Boston and the Fens were never Royalist. The River Bain, -which rises in Kelston near the Louth and Rasen road, gave its name -to the Roman station of Banovallum. It flows through Gayton-le-Wold, -Biscathorpe, Donington-on-Bain and Goulceby to Horncastle, and out by -Coningsby and Tattershall to the River Witham, and it makes a peninsula -at Horncastle, whence the name of Hyrn-ceaster, = the camp at the horn or -bend. Portions of a Roman wall still exist near the market-place, and at -the south-west corner of the churchyard. The manor was sold in 1230 to -the Bishop of Carlisle for the use of the see; it served as a refuge when -border invasions made the diocese of Carlisle undesirable as a peaceful -home, and during the fourteenth century was the usual episcopal residence. - -The celebrated horse fair is not what it used to be. Lincoln fair is -more accessible, and is now the more important of the two. But it still -affords two or three days of wild excitement, with horses tearing about -the streets. At one time the fair lasted three weeks. August was a -thirsty month, and the number of beer-houses had to be increased _pro. -tem._ to meet the need of both buyers and sellers; so five-shilling -licenses were issued called bush or bough licenses, a bush being hung -out for a sign, a custom once common in England and still prevalent on -the Continent. Hence, the proverb, “Good wine needs no bush,” _i.e._, no -advertisement. The Hon. Edward Stanhope of Revesby, who was Minister for -War in 1868, has a statue in the market-place, near the house in which -the Sellwoods lived, two of whom, Louisa and Emily, married Charles and -Alfred Tennyson. - -Leaving the market-place for the Lincoln road you pass what is an unusual -feature in a town—an elm tree overhanging the street, and having in it -several rooks’ nests. It is near the “Fighting Cocks” inn. There is a -similar tree loaded with nests in the town of Staines. - -When the river was used for navigation there was a high arched bridge -with a towing-path under it, and the bridge, though now flat, is still -called “the bow bridge.” - -At that time the church was filled with box pews and lofts, and the front -row of pews in the lofts were sold to different families by auction and -would fetch as much as £80, the second row reaching £40. But though -there were ardent churchgoers in the town, the villages around were very -indifferently served, having in quite a dozen instances in that one -neighbourhood no parsonage house and consequently no resident parson. - -It is interesting to know that a good deal of the carving in the church -was done less than fifty years ago by a carpentry class of young men who -took lessons for the purpose from a clever carver called Thomas Scrivener. - -But we have one other road to speak of, which is the way from Spilsby to -Sleaford. - -The Boston road from Spilsby, after it reaches the edge of the -green-sand, where it suddenly breaks down at West Keal into the level -fen, divides at the foot of the hill, and the right-hand road goes -westwards by Hagnaby, East Kirkby, Revesby, Coningsby, Tattershall and -Billinghay to Sleaford. This is all a level road. _Hagnaby Priory_, two -miles from West Keal, is the residence of Mrs. Pocklington Coltman. The -house is modern, in fact, there never was a priory here, but near Alford -there was once an abbey of Hagnaby, so the name is suggestive of Priors. - -[Sidenote: EAST KIRKBY] - -Another two miles brings us to _East Kirkby_; the turn to the right takes -us to the church which, having been entrusted to the capable hands of -Mr. W. D. Caröe, is a model of what church restoration should be. He has -put square-headed clerestory windows in the chancel with good effect. -The tower has a beautiful two-light early Decorated window. The piers -of the nave are remarkably slender. There is a good font, and the early -Perpendicular rood screen is a very graceful one. In the north wall of -the chancel is a two-light low-side window and a curious recess, possibly -an Easter Sepulchre. It is covered with diaper work, and with wild -geranium, oak leaves and acorns excellently carved in stone, and below -this, some half-figures of the three Maries, each holding a heart-shaped -casket, of spices perhaps for embalming. A basin projecting from the -front is thought to have been a receptacle for the Easter offerings. A -similar basin, as Mr. Jeans in Murray’s Guide points out, is attached -to the tomb of Edward II. at Gloucester. A little further on is the -tiny church of _Miningsby_, only to be approached by footpaths over -grass fields. It has in it a pre-Norman slab of very uncommon character -with figure-of-eight intertwined knot work and a herring-bone border. A -fragment with similar figure-of-eight work is in Mavis Enderby church, -on a coped stone which has been cut to make a door-step, and a smaller -bit like it is in Lusby church—probably all the work of the same Saxon -mason. In a house near the church is a stone with the initials “L. G., -1544,” which must refer to the Goodrich family; for East Kirkby was the -birthplace of Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely, 1534, Lord Chancellor, -1550, and coadjutor in the first Communion Office with Cranmer. - -[Sidenote: REVESBY] - -The next place on the Spilsby and Sleaford road is _Revesby Abbey_ -(Hon. R. Stanhope), a fine deer park with a modern house, built by J. -Banks-Stanhope, Esq., 1848. The previous house had been the residence -of the great naturalist, Sir Joseph Banks, P.R.S., who died in 1820, -and took part with Rennie in devising and carrying out the drainage -of the East Fen. The abbey, founded in 1143 by W. de Romara, Earl of -Lincoln, was colonised from Rievaulx, and was itself the parent of Cleeve -Abbey in Somerset. The abbey was a quarter of a mile south-east of the -present church, in which are preserved the few fragments now extant of -a building which was once 120 feet long and sixty feet wide. The Hon. -Edward Stanhope in 1870 discovered the tombs and bodies of the founder -and his two sons. The founder, who had become a monk, had requested to -be buried “before the high Altar,” and his tomb was inscribed, “Hic -jacet in tumba Wiellielmus de Romare, comes Lincolniae, Fundator istius -Monasterii Sancti Laurentii de Reivisbye.” The site of his re-burial is -marked by a granite stone. Among the abbey deeds is one by which the -Lady Lucia’s second husband, Ranulph Earl of Chester, gives to the abbey -“his servant Roger son of Thorewood of Sibsey with all his property and -chatells.” I don’t suppose that Roger found the abbey folk bad to work -for; they certainly did much for the good of the neighbourhood, notably -in keeping up the roads and bridges, which was one of the recognised -duties of religious houses; but all this came to an end when in 1539, -like so many other Lincolnshire estates, it was granted by Henry VIII. to -his brother-in-law the Duke of Suffolk. The Duke died in 1545, and was -buried at Windsor; his two sons both died in one day, July 16, 1551, in -the Bishop of Lincoln’s house at Buckden. - -The road past the park gates is very wide, with broad grass borders on -either side, and a fine row of wych elms bordering the park, at each end -of which are some model farm buildings of the best Lincolnshire kind; -and, to take us more than a thousand years back, we have two large tumuli -quite close to the road. There were three, but one, after being examined -by Sir Joseph Banks in 1780, was levelled in 1892; later the existing two -were explored and one was found to contain a clay sarcophagus, which -possibly once contained the remains of a British king. - -[Sidenote: MOORBY] - -Just past the tumuli is the inn, at the four cross-roads. That to the -left runs absolutely straight for eleven miles to Boston; to the right -is the Horncastle road through Moorby and Scrivelsby, with the barn-like -church of _Wilksby_ in a grass field behind Moorby. Both these churches -have good fonts; that at _Moorby_ is the later of the two, having -two crowned and two mitred heads at the four corners, and with very -remarkable figures of the Virgin and Child learning, with open book -and scourge; the sun and moon being depicted on either side looking on -complacently, evidently they had never heard of the Montessori system, -also there are six kneeling figures and two angels watching the dead -body of the donor. A stone in the vestry, about fourteen inches by -eight, exhibits two women and a man vigorously dancing hand in hand to -the bagpipes, all in fifteenth century head-dresses and costumes. Moorby -is in the gift of the Bishop of Manchester, it having been assigned -presumably by Carlisle when the new see was carved out of parts of older -ones. How Carlisle came to have patronage here may be briefly told. -On St. George’s Day, April 23—a day memorable as the birth and death -day of Shakespeare, and the death day of Wordsworth—in the year 1292, -John-de-Halton, who may well have come of the family who gave the name to -Halton Holgate near Spilsby, being then Canon of Carlisle, was elected -bishop. Within a month, a fire having destroyed the cathedral and all the -town, he set to work and rebuilt the cathedral, and encouraged others -to rebuild the town; and by the year 1297 Robert Bruce swore fealty to -the king in his presence in the newly risen pile. He was a man of mark, -and was mediator between Edward I. and John of Balliol in the claim to -the Scottish throne. He planned Rose Castle, the palace of the Bishops -of Carlisle. In 1307 he received at his cathedral, from the sick king’s -hands, the horse-litter which had brought him to the north; and within -a few days saw the king, who had bravely mounted his charger at the -cathedral door, borne back a dead man on the shoulders of his knights -from Burgh Marsh (pronounced Berg) on the Solway shore. In 1318 he was -driven from his diocese by Robert the Bruce, and came to the manor of -Horncastle, which, as mentioned above, had belonged to the see since -1230, and got the Pope to attach the living of Horncastle and with it -that of Moorby and probably some others to his see as a means of support -for him whilst in exile and poverty, and up to the middle of last century -Horncastle so remained, whilst Moorby is now in the gift of the Bishop of -Manchester. John de Halton died in the year 1324. - -[Illustration: _Coningsby._] - -[Sidenote: WOOD ENDERBY AND HALTHAM] - -[Sidenote: CONINGSBY] - -If we went west from Moorby we should pass by _Wood Enderby_, the only -church in this neighbourhood with a spire, as Sausthorpe is in the -Spilsby neighbourhood, and should reach _Haltham_ on the road from -Horncastle to Coningsby. Here the small church with its old oak seats -has an early Norman doorway with a quaintly carved tympanum. Going north -from Moorby we should pass Scrivelsby, but this must have a chapter to -itself, so we will get back to the main road at Revesby and go through -_Mareham-le-fen_ to _Coningsby_, passing _Tumby_ Wood, the home of the -wild lily-of-the-valley and the rare little smilacina or _Maianthemum -bifolium_, which also grows near Horncastle. Across the entrance to -Coningsby, the Great Northern Railway Company have just built a new line -from Lincoln to Skegness, by which tens of thousands of “trippers” will -be taken for a shilling and turned out to enjoy the sea shore and the -splendid expanse of hard sand. Skegness, once a delightful solitude, is -now disfigured by all that appertains to those who cater for the hungry -multitudes. - -[Illustration: _Tattershall and Coningsby._] - -[Sidenote: HAVERHOLME PRIORY] - -From the bridge over the Bain at the other end of Coningsby village a -pretty picture of water and willows is crowned by the view of Tattershall -church and castle, both of which are described later. _Coningsby_ church, -built, like Tattershall, all of Ancaster stone, has a singular tower -which stands on tall arches and allows free passage under it from three -sides. In the west of this tower is a large circular window. Passing -through _Tattershall_ village with its open space and market cross, -near which three roads meet, and where the Horncastle canal unites the -Bain and Witham, we cross the Lincoln and Boston railway, and also the -River Witham which, from the next station of Dogdyke, was cut straight -by Rennie, and runs like a great dyke to Langrick, and then with only -two bends to Boston. At Dogdyke is a bit of undrained swamp, the home -of several good bog-plants, such as the bladderwort, water-violet, -meadow-rue (Ophelia’s “Herb o’ Grace”) and the bog-stitchwort. The -road on to Sleaford, across the fen for fourteen miles, is quite -uninteresting, except for the very Dutch appearance of the village of -_Billinghay_ on the banks of a large drain called the Billinghay Skirth, -near which, at _North Kyme_, we pass alongside the old Roman Carr Dyke, -and, crossing it, arrive at _Anwick_, which has a pretty church with -broach spire and good Early English doorway. Here, on our left, on the -River Slea, is _Haverholme Priory_ (Countess of Winchelsea), founded 1137 -by Bishop Alexander, who afterwards moved the rheumatic Monks to Louth -Park, and gave the priory to his chaplain Gilbert, founder of the order -of Gilbertines, who had also a priory at Alvingham near Louth. There is -nothing left of the priory, in which it is said that Archbishop Thomas -à Becket once took refuge from Henry II. Four more miles bring us to -Sleaford, whose spire has long been visible across the flats. - -[Illustration: _Tattershall Church._] - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIII - -SCRIVELSBY, DRIBY, TUMBY AND TATTERSHALL - - The Hereditary Grand Champion of England—History of - the Dymokes—Siward the Saxon—Simon de Dryby—The Abbot - of Kirkstead—Robert de Tateshalle—John and William de - Bernac—Ralph, Baron Cromwell builds the brick Castle and - founds the College and Almshouses at Tattershall—The Carved - Mantelpieces—Bishop Waynflete’s brick buildings—Esher - Place—Tattershall Church—Stained Glass Windows—The Brasses—The - Castle safe at last. - - -SCRIVELSBY. - -The manor which carried with it the title for its possessor of -“Hereditary Grand Champion of England,” was a very interesting old house -till the year of the Coronation of George III., when it was destroyed -by fire. An arched gateway remains near the house, where once a moat, -drawbridge, and portcullis protected the courtyard. The picturesque Lion -Gateway at the entrance to the park from the Horncastle road, opposite -to which under some trees are seen the village stocks, was set up by -Robert Dimoke about 1530. It is built of rough stones but has a fine -stone lion, passant and crowned, above it, and a rebus of an oak tree -(Dim oak) carved at the side of the archway. The manor with this peculiar -privilege attached was given by the Conqueror to his steward “Robert the -Dispenser,” Lord of Fontenaye and ancestor of the De Spencers and the -Marmions. - -Sir Walter Scott speaks of the Marmion of his poem, though he was an -imaginary character and of much later date, as— - - “Lord of Fontenaye - Of Lutterward and Scrivelbaye - Of Tamworth tower and town.” - -[Sidenote: MARMIONS OF SCRIVELSBY] - -[Sidenote: DYMOKES OF SCRIVELSBY] - -In the Scrivelsby parish church of St. Benedict is a mutilated recumbent -stone figure clad in chain-mail with sword and shield, and by his side -a lady in the severe costume of the time, with muffled chin and plain -head-dress. The warrior is Philip Marmion, the last of the Marmions -of Scrivelsby, who died 1292, the family having acted as champions -from the time of William the Conqueror to Henry III. Together with the -championship, Philip Marmion had the right of free-warren and gallows at -his manor at Scrivelsby. - -[Illustration: _The Lion Gate at Scrivelsby._] - -Philip having no son, his estates were divided among his four daughters. -His second daughter, Mazera, married a Ralph Cromwell, ancestor of the -Lord Cromwell who built Tattershall Castle, and the Scrivelsby estate -fell to Joan, the youngest, who married Sir Thomas Ludlow. His son, -Thomas, left one daughter, Margaret, who married Sir John Dymoke and -brought the Championship in 1350 into the family, which has held it now -for upwards of 560 years. It was probably their son John who married the -daughter of Sir Thomas Friskney, whence descended the Dymokes of Friskney -and Fulletby. - -At the coronation of Edward II., 1307, and Edward III., 1327, the -Championship appears to have been in commission, but at that of Richard -II., 1377, Sir John Dymoke claimed it in right of his wife. Baldwin -Freville counter-claimed as Lord of Tamworth, but the office was awarded -to Sir John. - -There are many Dymokes buried both in the church and churchyard, the most -notable monument being an altar tomb in the chancel with a brass on it -of Sir Robert Demoke. Edward IV. had beheaded his father along with Lord -Welles after he had taken them under pledge of safety out of sanctuary -at Westminster, and he tried to make amends by heaping favours on the -son, who lived in five reigns—Edward IV., Edward V., Richard III., Henry -VII., and Henry VIII.; and acted as Champion at the coronation of the -last three, in 1483, 1485, and 1509. The brass presents him in armour and -spurred, but bareheaded and with short neck, long flowing hair, and a -huge beard; he stands on a lion, and the inscription runs thus:— - - “Here liethe the body of Sir Robert Demoke of Scrivelsby Knight - and Baronet who departed out of this present lyfe the XV day - of April in ye yere of our Lord God MDXLV upon whose sowle - almighte god have m’ci Amen.” - -The words “Knight and Baronet” have puzzled many, but in spite of the -fact that Sir Brien Stapilton at Burton Joice, Notts., and Sir Thomas -Vyner at Gautby, Lincolnshire, 1672, are described as Knight and Baronet, -and though they may have been first Knights and then Baronets, in this -case of Sir Robert Dymoke, of 1545, it can hardly have been so, for the -title baronet was not in use until after 1603, and we must suppose that -the words were originally “Knight Banneret,” a distinction which was -conferred on Sir Robert by Henry VIII., and that the present wording was -probably a correction by an ignorant restorer in the seventeenth century, -after damage done in the civil wars. The eldest son of the Champion who -had been so unjustifiably put to death by Edward IV., was Lionel, who -died before his father, and whose brass in Horncastle church represents -him kneeling on a cushion in full armour, holding a scroll in his hand, -date 1519. The figure is kneeling in a stiff attitude, armed and spurred, -and bareheaded, a scroll from his mouth says:— - - “_S’cta Trinitas Unus Deus Miserere nob_:” - -The inscription on the brass is:— - - “_In honore S’cte et individue Trinita̅s orate p’ ’aia Leonis - Dymoke milit’ q’ obijit xvij die Me’se Augusti ao D’ni - M’cccccxlx: cui ai’e p’ piciet’ DE’ Amen._” - -Below on either side were figures of two sons and three daughters. The -sons are now missing. - -[Sidenote: THE CHAMPION] - -Lionel’s brother Robert was only ten when he obtained the title. He was -succeeded by his son Edward, who performed the office of Champion for the -three children of Henry VIII. His son Robert, though never acting at any -coronation, deserves mention as a martyr, in Elizabeth’s reign, to his -religious convictions. This queen, always dreading a Romish reaction in -favour of her rival, Mary Queen of Scots, allowed a Puritanical bishop -to persecute any Catholic in his diocese, and Robert, though in feeble -health, was stout of heart and kept firm to his faith and died a prisoner -at Lincoln, 1580. - -The mother of Edward Dymoke who was Champion to Charles II. was buried -at Leverton in 1640. Sir Edward was summoned in 1660 before the -Parliamentarians at Westminster and accused of “delinquency” because -he bore the Royalist title of King’s Champion. He was fined £7,000, -an enormous sum for the time, and he had to pay between four and five -thousand. Hence the impoverishment of the Dymoke family. He lived to see -the Restoration, and officiated for Charles II. in 1660, dying in 1663. -He was knighted in 1661 “for his loyalty and great sufferings both in -person and estate.” - -A brass plate commemorates his son, Sir Charles Dymoke, who died in -1686. He officiated at the coronation of James II. in 1685, and getting -off his horse in order to walk up to kiss the king’s hand he fell full -length. Whereupon the queen said, “See, love, what a weak Champion you -have!” He was buried at Scrivelsby, November, 1686. - -[Sidenote: WESTMINSTER HALL] - -Of other memorials there is a marble bust to Lewis, the Champion to -George I. and II., in 1714 and 1727, who died in 1760, Ætat. 90. His -widow Jane endowed a school at Hemingby “to teach the children of the -poor of the parish to read, write, spin and card wool.” Finally, there -is a memorial to John, Champion in 1761 to George III. Henry Dymoke who -acted for his father, a clergyman, on the accession of George IV., 1821, -was the last who rode into Westminster Hall in bright armour and flung -down his glove and dared to mortal combat any who disputed the right and -title of the king. Then, having backed a little, he turned his horse and -rode out, holding in his hand the gold cup in which the king had pledged -him and he had in turn drunk to the health of his majesty. Since then the -quaint historic ceremony has fallen into abeyance, but the title of “the -Hon. the King’s Champion” remains, and at the coronation of Edward VII. -he was appointed to carry the royal banners. _Sic transit gloria mundi._ - -[Sidenote: THE CEREMONY] - -The following is a description of the championship ceremony at the -banquet in Westminster Hall written at the time of the coronation of -George IV., 1821, and taken from Allen’s History of the County:— - - “Before the second course was brought in the deputy appointed - to officiate as King’s Champion (this was the son of the - champion, who was himself disqualified, being a clerk in holy - orders), in his full suit of bright armour, mounted on a horse - richly caparisoned, appeared under the porch of the triumphal - arch, at the bottom of Westminster Hall. Everything being in - readiness, the procession moved in the following order:— - - “Two trumpeters with the Champion’s arms on their banners, - - “The Sergeant Trumpeter with his mace on his shoulder, - - “Two Sergeants-at-Arms with their maces on their shoulders, - - “The Champion’s two Esquires, in half armour, one on the right - hand bearing the Champion’s lance, the other on the left hand - with the Champion’s target and the arms of Dymoke depicted - thereon. - - “A Herald, with a paper in his hand, containing the Challenge. - - “The Deputy Earl Marshall (Lord Howard of Effingham) on - horseback, in his Robes and Coronet, with the Earl Marshall’s - staff in his hand, attended by a page. - - “The Champion (Henry Dymoke, Esq.) on Horseback, in a complete - suit of Bright Armour, with a Gauntlet in his hand, his Helmet - on his head, adorned with a plume of feathers. - - “The Lord High Constable (The Duke of Wellington), in his Robes - and Coronet and Collar of his Order, on Horseback, with the - Constable’s Staff, attended by two pages. - - “Four Pages richly apparelled, attendants on the Champion. - At the entrance into the Hall, the Trumpets sounded thrice, - and the passage to the King’s table being cleared by the - Knight Marshall, the Herald, with a loud voice proclaimed the - Champion’s Challenge, in the words following:— - - “‘If any person of what degree soever, high or low, shall deny - or gainsay our sovereign Lord King George the fourth, of the - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the - Faith, son and next heir to our Sovereign Lord King George the - third, the last King, deceased, to be the right heir to the - Imperial Crown of this United Kingdom, or that he ought not to - enjoy the same, here is his Champion, who saith that he lieth, - and is a false traitor, being ready in person to combat with - him, and in the quarrel will adventure his life against him on - what day soever he shall be appointed.’ - - “Whereupon the Champion threw down his gauntlet: which having - lain a short time upon the ground, the Herald took it up, and - delivered it again to the Champion. They then advanced to the - middle of the Hall, where the ceremony was again performed in - the same manner. - - “Lastly they advanced to the steps of the throne, where the - Herald with those who preceded him ascended to the middle of - the steps, and proclaimed the challenge in the like manner; - when the Champion having thrown down his gauntlet and received - it again from the Herald, made a low obeisance to the King: - Whereupon the Cupbearer, having received from the officer - of the Jewel-house a Gold Cup and Cover filled with Wine, - presented the same to the King, and his Majesty drank to the - Champion, and sent to him by the Cupbearer the said Cup, - which the Champion (having put on his gauntlet) received, and - having made a low obeisance to the King drank the Wine; after - which, making another low obeisance to his Majesty and being - accompanied as before, he departed out of the Hall, taking with - him the said Cup and Cover as his fee.” - - -DRIBY, TUMBY, AND TATTERSHALL. - -[Sidenote: NORMAN ACTIVITY] - -The amount of work done by the Normans in England has always astonished -me. Not only did they build castles and strongholds, but in every county -they set up churches built of stone, and not here and there but literally -everywhere. They apportioned and registered the land, measured it and -settled the rent, and, though hard task masters, they showed themselves -efficient guardians, nor was any title or property too small for the king -and his officers to inquire into. Hence, in quite small out-of-the-way -places in the county we find monuments in little and almost unknown -churches which attest the activity of our Norman forefathers and which, -when examined by the aid of documents from the Public Record Office or -the abbey or manor rolls, old wills and all the early parchments in -which the industrious bookworm revels, often unfold chapters of early -history of extraordinary interest, if not for the general public, at -least for students and for the local gentry who still haunt the places -where once the armed heel of the knight rang and the monastery dispensed -the unstinted doles of a period which would have held up both hands -in astonishment at the luxury of our poor laws, the excellence of our -roads and the enormity of our rates and taxes. Take, for instance, the -little village of _Driby_ in the Lincolnshire wolds, a village the -early denizens of which my old friend, the late W. C. Massingberd, has -taken the trouble to make acquaintance with, and to whose labours I am -indebted for what little I know about it. He tells us how even in Saxon -times a notable man lived at Driby, one Siward, not perhaps the great -Northumbrian Thegn mentioned in _Macbeth_, but a later Siward who helped -Hereward and his fenmen to oppose the Normans at Ely. Whoever he was, -he held Scrivelsby and a large acreage in the Wolds. Next we find the -great Lincolnshire Baron, Gilbert de Gaunt, succeeding Siward at Driby, -holding, as Domesday Book (1086) shows, direct from the king. - -[Sidenote: THE ABBOT OF KIRKSTEAD] - -Early in the next century Simon de Driby comes before us; and his -son Robert—the eldest son was nearly always alternately Simon or -Robert—grants some lands in _Tumby_ to the abbey of Kirkstead. Robert’s -father is called sometimes Symon de Tumbi and sometimes Simon de Driby, -and it seems that he had obtained disposal of this land in Tumby by a -grant from Robert, son of Hugh de Tattershall, just as his forefather -had held land in Driby by the grant of Gilbert de Gaunt. On February 25, -1216, a Simon de Driby made his submission to King John at Lincoln, and -Ralph de Cromwell, whose descendant of the same name eventually married -the heiress of the Simon de Dribys and held the castle of Tattershall, -also submitted at Stamford on the 28th and gave his own eldest daughter -as a hostage for his good behaviour. The submissive Simon died in 1213, -and his son, the inevitable Robert, made an agreement with Hugh, the -Abbot of Kirkstead, by which the abbot was allowed to have his big cattle -and sheep dogs, mastiffs they were termed, in the warren of Tumby at all -times of the year, but no greyhounds or lurchers (_leporarios vel alios -canes preter mastivos_), and if the latter turned riotous and chased game -they were to be removed and others put in their place. - -Robert’s son Simon obtained by marriage additional lands near Driby, -at _Tetford_, _Bag Enderby_, _Stainsby_, and _Ashby Puerorum_ on the -wolds, as well as some of the rich marsh land at _Wainfleet_. Henry III. -granted to Robert Tateshalle license to crenelate his house at Tateshall, -“quod possit kernelare mansum suum” in 1239; and we may here note that -Tattershall Castle in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and half -of the fifteenth was a stone building. Just at the close of the reign of -Edward I. a Robert de Driby married Joan, one of the three co-heiresses -of Robert de Tateshale or Tattershall, the last male representative of -the family, and Joan tried to settle the castle and manor of Tattershall -on her youngest son, Robert, instead of on the rightful heir. Until the -heir was of age Edward had granted them to his wife, Queen Margaret, a -sign that the property was valuable. She, moreover, when a widow, had the -manor of Tumby for her dower house. - -When the third Edward was on the throne one of the parsons who served -Driby was a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, William Merle by name, who -is worthy to be remembered because he was the first Englishman to keep -a diary of the weather. He was appointed in 1330, and at that time one -Gilbert de Bernak was the parson at Tattershall, whose relative William -de Bernak, Kt., married Alice, the daughter of Robert de Driby and Joan -Tattershall, and, her three brothers dying without issue, Alice came into -possession of the manor of Driby. Their son, Robert de Bernak, presented -a man of the same name to Driby in 1347, who died probably of the Black -Death, for he presented again two years later. Robert in some way made -himself unpopular, and in 1369 we hear of his being spoiled and beaten -at Driby, with many of his men grievously wounded, and his reeve and his -butler both killed. - -In 1374 he founded a chantry in Driby church endowed _inter alia_ with -rents from land in Driby and Friskney. His wife is called in his will -Katherine de Friskney. This Robert de Bernak was the only one of the name -who held the manor of Driby, for his elder brother John appears not to -have done so, and to have died in 1346. - -[Sidenote: MATILDA DE BERNAK] - -The uncle of these de Bernaks, John de Driby, shortly before his death -had granted the castle of Tattershall and the manors of Tattershall and -Tumby away from his sister Alice to John de Kirton, who was knighted by -Edward II., and summoned to Parliament in the sixteenth year of Edward -III., 1343; so none of the de Bernaks ever held Tattershall, and it was -through the direct interposition of the king that the descendants in the -female line of the Driby and Bernak families got the property back. The -way it came into the female line was this: The John de Bernak, eldest son -of William de Bernak and Alice de Driby, had married Joan, the daughter -of John Marmion of Wintringham, and had two sons and a daughter Matilda, -who eventually was his sole heiress. She married Ralph second Baron -Cromwell, and the presentation to her uncle, Robert de Bernak’s, chantry -at Driby was left to her and to her son Robert Cromwell after her. - -Then, at her mother’s death in 1360, she succeeded to her mother’s -property in Norfolk, Tumby Manor and Tattershall Manor and Castle -reverted to her on the death of John de Kirton in 1367 and Driby Manor -with Brynkyl on her uncle, Robert De Bernak’s, death in 1387; so she held -Driby, Tumby, and Tattershall, as well as property in Norfolk. - -[Sidenote: MARRIES RALPH CROMWELL] - -In 1395 and 1399 we find her husband, Ralph Cromwell, presenting to the -chantry of the Holy Trinity in the church at Driby. They were large -landholders, for, in addition to the manor of Cromwell and his other -lands in Notts., he and his wife held the manor of ‘Kirkeby in Bayne’ -with what are called the appurtenances to those various manors, _i.e._, -lands in many parts of the wolds and marsh. - -[Illustration: _Tattershall Church and the Bain._] - -Matilda died in 1419. Her son, Ralph Cromwell, was baptised on July -15, 1414, a day memorable for a very high tide on the Lincolnshire -coast which inundated all the land about Huttoft. He only lived to -be twenty-eight, and was succeeded by his cousin, Ralph third Baron -Cromwell, the grandson of Matilda. - -[Sidenote: HER GRANDSON LORD HIGH TREASURER] - -This Ralph Lord Cromwell had been appointed Lord High Treasurer of -England under Henry VI. in 1433. He married Margaret, daughter of John -fifth and last Baron d’Eyncourt, but had no issue. He it was who replaced -the old castle by the splendid brick building which was, and is, the -finest in England. He presented to Driby in 1449, and was the founder of -the college and the almshouse at Tattershall, for which he obtained leave -from the Crown to turn the parish church into a collegiate church in -1439, when he rebuilt it from the ground and endowed it with[26] several -manors, Driby being one, so in 1461 and until 1543 the warden of the -college of Tattershall was the patron of Driby. The almshouse has still -an endowment of £30. He died in 1455, as the brass in Tattershall church -records, and his nieces, the daughters of Sir Richard Stanhope, succeeded -to his estates, but Driby remained with the warden of Tattershall. The -nieces were Joan Lady Cromwell (for her husband Humphrey Bourchier, -son of the first Earl of Essex, was summoned to Parliament as Baron -Cromwell _jure uxoris_) and Matilda Lady Willoughby d’Eresby. One of -his executors, William of Waynflete, the famous Bishop of Winchester, -held the manor of Candlesby in 1477 for the use of this Lady Matilda, -and soon afterwards obtained a grant of it to his newly founded college -of Magdalen, Oxford, with whom it remains. Matilda Lady de Willoughby -presented to Candlesby in 1494, eight years after the bishop’s death. -Since then the living has been in the gift of the college. - -At the dissolution of the monasteries, in 1545, Driby was granted to -the Duke of Suffolk, then it passed to Sir Henry Sidney of Penshurst, -who sold it to the Prescotts, a Lancashire family, about 1580, with -appurtenances of lands and rents in “Brynkhill, Belchford, Orebye, -Grenwyke, Ingolmells, Bagenderbie, Asbie Puerorum, ffulletsbye, West -Saltfletby alias Sallaby, Sallaby Allsaints, Golderbye, Tathwell, Thorpe -next Waynflet, Sutterbye and Scamlesbye.” There are two small brasses -in the church to James Prescott and his wife, who was a Molineux of -Lancashire. They died in 1581 and 1583. In 1636 Sir W. Prescott sold the -manor of Driby to Sir John Bolles, and in 1715 it was bought by Burrell -Massingberd and still goes with the Ormsby estate of that family. - -[Sidenote: BUILDS TATTERSHALL] - -[Sidenote: THE CASTLE] - -A few words must be added about _Tattershall_. The great brick building -which rises so magnificently out of the flat is one of the most -impressive things in this or any country. I have walked all day partridge -shooting on the estate, and however far you went you never seemed able -to get away from the immediate presence of the magnificent pile; you -only had to look round and it was apparently just at your shoulder all -day long. Then if you enter it and go up, for even the first floor is -several feet above the level of the quadrangle, you are astonished at -the size of the great chambers one above the other, thirty-eight feet -by twenty-two, and seventeen feet high; and finally you come on the -second, third, and fourth story to the most beautiful brick vaulting -and mouldings in the small rooms and galleries running round the big -central rooms in the thickness of the walls. The whole is of exquisite -workmanship, and finished by very deep and handsome machicolations and -battlements. The bricks are apparently Flemish, thinner and of finer -quality than the English bricks; similar ones were used in building -Halstead Hall, Stixwould. The windows are dressed with stone, these -are large and arched, having mullions and the heads filled with stone -tracery like church windows. This shows how the nobleman’s castle was -changing into the nobleman’s palace or mansion. The building is at one -corner of a quadrangle, and is itself a parallelogram, and, including the -turret bases, eighty-seven feet long by sixty-nine wide, and 112 feet -high to the parapet of the angle turret. The walls, which are built on -massive brick vaulting, are immensely thick, being fifteen feet above, -and even more on the ground floor. The windows of the basement chambers -are close on the water of the moat, for several small chambers were made -in the thickness of the walls, in which, too, are the four chimneys. -The spiral staircase is in the south-east turret, and has a continuous -stone handrail let into the brick wall, very cleverly contrived, and -giving a firm and easy grasp. Each turret is octagonal, going up all -the way from the ground and being finished with a cone. In each turret -is a fireplace—a comfort to the warders, and useful at a pinch for -heating the supplies of oil and lead which could be poured down through -the machicolations on the heads of a too assiduous foe. From turret -to turret, and projecting somewhat over these machicolations, runs -a loopholed gallery, and here, too, the vaulting and the rich brick -mouldings are better than anything else of the kind in England, with -the exception of the smaller but elaborately enriched wall surfaces -of Barsham, near Walsingham in Norfolk. There are little rooms in the -turrets, on each floor, and the galleries on the second and third are -divided into rooms, so that in the whole building there were some -forty-eight rooms. The large central rooms would be hung with tapestry, -the lowest being used for an entrance-hall, meals being served in the -fine banqueting hall adjoining, the second for a hall of audience or -withdrawing room, and the third for the state bedroom. The fireplaces -are, in the large rooms, of great width, and the restored mantelpieces, -the barbarous removal of which lately caused such a stir, show a -number of most interesting coats-of-arms of the families who have been -connected with Tattershall down to the time of Henry VI. The treasurer’s -purse figures alternately with the shields, which bear the arms of the -Cromwells, Tattershalls, and d’Eyncourts, of Marmion, Driby, Bernak, and -Clifton; and on the second floor one panel represents the combat between -Hugh de Neville and a lion. Neville and Clifton were the second and third -husbands of Matilda Lady Willoughby, which points to the fact that these -mantelpieces were not carved until after the Lord Treasurer’s death, -1455, when Bishop Waynflete was in charge of the work. Sir Thomas Neville -was killed at the battle of Wakefield, 1460, and Sir Gervasse Clifton at -Tewkesbury in 1471. - -[Illustration: _Tattershall Church and Castle._] - -[Sidenote: ESHER PLACE] - -[Sidenote: TATTERSHALL CHURCH] - -There are three other brick buildings, which always strike me as being -worthy to rank along with Tattershall. The first, but following _longo -intervallo_, is the Bishop of Lincoln’s palace at Buckden in Hunts., -built by Bishop Hugh of Wells about 1225. Another is the beautiful old -Tudor manor-house already alluded to at Barsham, near Walsingham, which -Lord Hastings has just advertised for sale (November, 1913). This has -more exquisite brick diaper work and mouldings on the outside of both -house and gate-house than Tattershall Castle has even in the passages -and vaulted rooms on the upper floor inside, and is a miracle of lovely -brick building. But it is not nearly so big as Tattershall. The other -bit of fine bricklaying which is of the same rather severe character as -Tattershall and Magdalen School at Wainfleet, is the gate-house of Esher -Place, occupied by Cardinal Wolsey October, 1529, to February, 1530. It -belonged to the Bishops of Winchester, and Wolsey then held that see -together with York. Waynflete, who was bishop 1447-1486, and finished -Tattershall about 1456, a year after the Lord Treasurer Cromwell’s death, -had partly re-built Esher Place in his inimitable brickwork, about -seventy years before. He used bricks for the lintels and mouldings, and -even put in the same sunk spiral handrail, which we have noticed as so -clever and remarkable a device in the turret staircase at Tattershall. -Waynflete’s arms, the lilies, so familiar to us at Eton and Magdalen, -were found by the Rev. F. K. Floyer, F.S.A., only last year (1912), when -some plaster was removed, on the keystone of the curiously contrived -vaulting over the porch. It is noticeable that Henry Pelham, who bought -the house in 1729, has introduced also his family badge, the Pelham -buckle, which is cut on the stone capitals of the door. This badge we -have spoken of in the chapter on Brocklesby. So we have two Lincolnshire -families of note, each of which has left his cognisance on the gateway of -the once proud Esher Place, the “Asher House” in that magnificent scene -of Act III. in Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII.” - - _Norfolk._ “Hear the king’s pleasure, cardinal; who commands you - To render up the great seal presently - Into our hands: and to confine yourself - To Asher-house, my lord of Winchester’s, - Till you hear farther from his highness.” - -Tattershall had a double moat, the outer one reaching to the River Bain. -Over both of them the entrance would probably be, as it certainly was -over the inner one, protected by a drawbridge and portcullis. This was -still to be seen in 1726 at the north-east corner of the quadrangle. -All that is now left is this one great pile of the Lord Treasurer’s -and one guard-house of the fifteenth century. The original castle was -begun 200 years earlier, when Robert, the direct descendant of Hugh -Fitz Eudo—founder in 1138 of the Cistercian abbey of Kirkstead, who had -received the estate from William the Conqueror—obtained leave from Henry -III. to build a castle there. We have seen how the castle became the -property of Joan who married Sir Robert Driby, whose daughter Alice -consigned it at her marriage to Sir W. Bernak, and their daughter Matilda -married Lord Cromwell, whose grandson was the High Treasurer to Henry -VI. He built the brick castle, but died soon after doing so, leaving -his collegiate church to be finished by his executors. The college he -had founded was to consist of a warden, a provost, six priests, six lay -clerks, and six choristers, and the almshouse was for thirteen poor of -either sex. The original building for this still exists, and is of very -humble appearance, having, it is said, been put up to serve first as a -lodgment for the masons engaged on the castle and church. Of these the -latter is singularly well built, as any building supervised by Bishop -William of Waynflete was sure to be, and evidently of very good stone; -and the two buildings being close together are striking specimens of the -secular and ecclesiastical architecture of the period. - -[Sidenote: THE BRASSES] - -The Treasurer’s wife, who was sister and coheir of William fifth Baron -d’Eyncourt, died a year before her husband. They are buried in the -church, and two very fine brasses once marked the spot. He was a K.G., -and this shows him with the Garter and Mantle of his Order, but the brass -is sadly mutilated now; while her effigy is, sad to say, lost entirely. - -Two other fine brasses of this family are in the church. One, of the -Treasurer’s niece, Joan Stanhope, who married first Sir Humphrey -Bourchier, son of the Earl of Essex, who was made fourth Baron Cromwell -in her right in 1469; and secondly, after her first husband had been -slain at the battle of Barnet, 1471, Sir Robert Ratcliffe. She died in -1479, and was succeeded in the property by her sister Matilda, who had -married Lord Willoughby d’Eresby. Her brass has also been a particularly -fine one. She died in 1497, and ten years before this the Tattershall -estate had passed to the Crown. The inscription on her brass is filled -in by a later and inferior hand, and no mention is made of her two next -husbands. - -[Sidenote: THE WINDOWS] - -There is a very fine brass also of one of the last provosts or wardens -of the college, probable date between 1510 and 1520. In 1487 Henry VIII. -granted the manor to his mother, Margaret Countess of Richmond, and, -the Duke of Richmond having no issue, Henry VIII., in 1520, granted it -with many other manors in the neighbourhood to Charles Duke of Suffolk. -This grant was confirmed by Edward VI. on his accession in 1547, but the -duke and his two sons having died, he granted it, in 1551, to Edward -Lord Clinton, afterwards Earl of Lincoln. The Clintons held it till -1692, when it passed, through a cousin Bridget, to the Fortescue family -under whom both church and castle have suffered severely. Amongst other -vandalisms, Lord Exeter, when living at Revesby, was allowed to remove -the fine stained glass windows to his church of St. Martin’s in Stamford, -in 1757. He paid £24 2_s._ 6_d._ to his steward for white glass to be -put in in their stead, but the glass was not put in, and for eighty -years the church was open to the wind and rain. The removal at all was -a disgraceful business, and no wonder the Tattershall folk threatened to -kill the glazier who was employed to take the windows out. - -[Illustration: _Tattershall Church._] - -The castle is now (1912) the property of Lord Curzon, who is putting -it into repair. The story of its sale quite recently to a speculator, -and the ruthless tearing out by his creditors of the fine historic -mantelpieces is one which reflects little credit on any concerned in it. -They are now replaced. - -[Sidenote: THE KEEP RESTORED] - -But “All’s well that ends well,” and Lincolnshire may congratulate -herself that the finest old brick building in the country is in such -good hands, and that the needed restoration is being carried out so -admirably. It was no easy task to find oak trees to supply the beams -which carry the floors, as each had to be twenty-four feet long and -eighteen inches square.[27] The floors are now in, and the roof, which -had been off for 250 years, reinstated. In the inner ward the ground plan -of the kitchen has been laid bare; this was close outside the south-east -angle of the keep and connected with it by a covered passage leading from -the staircase turret. The turrets and parapets are repaired, and the -floors and roof being again in place and the moat refilled with water, -though not what one would call a comfortable residence, it will be a -most interesting place to visit, and never again, we trust, be likely -to fall into the neglect which it has suffered for the last two hundred -years. Enough pottery and metal has been found to form the nucleus of a -collection which will be preserved for visitors to see. But no collection -will ever be half as interesting as the sight of this magnificent brick -building itself, and the close examination of all its structural details. - -[Illustration: _Scrivelsby Stocks._] - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIV - -BARDNEY ABBEY - - The Excavations—The Title - “Dominus”—Barlings—Stainfield—Tupholme—Stixwould—Kirkstead - Abbey—Kirkstead Chapel—Woodhall Spa—Tower-on-the-Moor—Charles - Brandon Duke of Suffolk. - - -The fens were always a difficulty to the various conquerors of England, -and, probably owing to the security which they gave, they, from the -earliest times, attracted the monastic bodies. Hence we find on the -eastern edge of the Branston, Nocton, and Blankney fens, and just -off the left bank of the Witham river when it turns to the south, an -extraordinary number of abbeys. For Kirkstead, Stixwould, Tupholme and -Bardney, with Stainfield and Barlings just a mile or two north of the -river valley, are all within a ten mile drive. Of these, Kirkstead was -Cistercian, and Stixwould and Stainfield were nunneries. They were -all most ruthlessly and utterly destroyed by Thomas Cromwell at the -dissolution, so it is only the history of them that we can speak about. - -[Illustration: _Kirkstead Chapel._] - -Stixwould and Kirkstead were originally as much in the fen as Bardney; -but since the “Dales Head Dyke” was cut parallel with the Witham and -about a mile to the west from “Metheringham Delph” to “Billinghay -Skirth,” the land between it and the river is known as the “Dales.” - -[Sidenote: ST. OSWALD] - -[Sidenote: A ROYAL ABBOT] - -By far the oldest and the biggest and most interesting of the group -was the great Benedictine Abbey of Bardney. This was founded not later -than the seventh century. Some of the chronicles say by Æthelred, son -of Penda, the pagan king of Mercia; but it may have been by his brother -Wulfhere, who reigned before him. Æthelred’s Queen Osfrida, niece of -the sainted Oswald, the Northumbrian king who had defeated Cædwalla at -Hevenfield in 635 and was himself killed in battle by Penda at Maserfield -in 642—had before her marriage brought the relics of her uncle in 672 -to Bardney, where they became the centre of attraction for pilgrims, -and St. Oswald’s name as patron was added to those of St. Peter and -St. Paul to whom the abbey was dedicated. Osfrida herself having been -murdered by the Danes in 697, was buried here, and Æthelred, who in 701 -founded Evesham Abbey, following the example of half-a-dozen Anglian -and Saxon kings, gave up his throne after a reign of thirty years and -entered Bardney as a monk in 704. In the quaint words of the chronicle -he “was shorn a religious,” i.e., adopted the tonsure, and died twelve -years later, after ruling for four years as Abbot of Bardney. One of the -frescoes in Friskney church represents him resigning his crown to become -a monk. St. Oswald’s arm, which had been preserved in St. Peter’s church -at Bamborough, and which never withered, was afterwards transferred to -Peterborough Abbey, according to Gunton, a little before the Conquest. A -monk of the period wrote the following lines about it:— - - “Nullo verme perit, nulla putredine tabet - Dextra viri, nullo constringi frigore, nullo - Dissolvi fervore potest, sed semper eodem - Immutata statu persistit, mortua vivit.” - -In which the monk, as usual, made a “false quantity.” In 870 Hingvar -and Hubba, the Danes, in spite of its fancied security, utterly -destroyed the abbey and put some 300 monks to death. They also destroyed -Peterborough, Croyland, Ely, Huntingdon, Winchester, and other fine and -wealthy monastic houses in the same barbarous manner. Bardney after -this lay desolate for 200 years; after which, Gilbert De Gaunt, on whom -the Conqueror had bestowed much land in mid-Lincolnshire, with the aid -of the famous Bishop Remigius of Lincoln, restored it, and endowed it -with revenues from at least a dozen different villages, amongst them -Willingham, Southrey, Partney, Steeping, Firsby, Skendleby, Willoughby, -Lusby, Winceby, Hagworthingham, Folkingham, and Heckington. This would -be about 1080. In 1406 we read of Henry IV., our Lincolnshire king, -spending a Saturday-to-Monday there, riding from Horncastle with his two -sons and three captive earls of the Scots, Douglas, Fyfe, and Orkney, -and a goodly company. The Bishop of Lincoln “with 24 horses” and the -“venerable Lord Willoughby” came to do homage in the afternoon. The abbey -stood on slightly rising ground, with a moat and deep ditch lined with -brick, as at Tattershall, and enclosing twenty-four acres. It was half a -mile from the present church. On the east side of the abbey is a large -barrow on which was once a handsome cross in memory of King Æthelred, who -is supposed to have been buried there, and it is quite possible that he -was. The name of a field close by “Coney garth” is no doubt a corruption -of Koenig Garth, which is much the same as the “King’s Mead fields” near -Bath Abbey, immortalised in Sheridan’s “Rivals,” as the place of meeting -between Captain Absolute and Bob Acres, and where Sir Lucius O’Trigger -inhumanly asks Acres “In case of accident ... would you choose to be -pickled and sent home? or would it be the same to you to lie here in the -Abbey? I’m told there is very snug lying in the Abbey.” - -[Sidenote: BARDNEY ABBEY] - -The site of the abbey when excavations were begun in 1909 was apparently -a grass field with a moat; but since then the whole of the great monastic -church has been laid bare to the floor pavement, which was about four -and a half feet below the surface. The Norman bases of the eight chancel -columns and twenty pillars of the nave are now visible, and also of the -four large piers which supported the tower arches; these must have been -very beautiful, each nave pillar having round a solid core a cluster of -twelve, and the tower piers of sixteen, columns. All down the church, -which is 254 feet long and over sixty-one feet wide, tombs were found -_in situ_, with inscriptions, the earliest being that of Johanna, wife -of John Browne of Bardney, merchant, 1334, and the handsomest that of -Richard Horncastel, abbot, 1508, which measures eight feet by four, is -seven inches thick, and weighs three tons. This had been already moved, -and it is now fixed against the south wall of Bardney church. Adjoining -the south side of the nave is the cloister; and the chapter-house, -parlour, dormitory, dining-hall, cellar, kitchen, well and guest-house -are all contiguous. A little way off are the infirmary-hall and chapel, -with three fireplaces and some tile paving. Not much statuary was found, -but various carved heads and iron tools, pottery, etc., one headless -figure three feet high of St. Laurence and, most interesting of all, the -reverse of the abbey seal which was in use in 1348, showing St. Peter and -St. Paul beneath a canopy and the half figure of an abbot with crozier -below. We know that the obverse had on it a figure of St. Oswald, but -that has not yet been found. It is made of bronze or latten. - -The huge extent of the buildings and the beauty of the column bases and -the plan of this, the earliest of English monasteries, with its moat -enclosing the whole twenty-five acres, and its king’s tumulus, make a -visit to the site very interesting, and the vicar, Rev. C. E. Laing, has -worked hard with his four men each year since 1909, and with the help of -kind friends has managed to purchase three acres, but is greatly hampered -by want of funds, which at present only reach one quarter of the sum -required. - -[Sidenote: THE TITLE “DOMINUS”] - -Mr. Laing has published a little shilling guide to the excavations at -Bardney, with photographs, which explain the work very clearly and show -the tombs with their inscriptions. From this it will be noticed that -Abbot Horncastel is called on his tomb “Dompnus,” _i.e._, Dominus, and -Thomas Clark, rector of Partney, has this title “Dns.,” and also Thomas -Goldburgh, soldier, has the same. This is the same name as that on the -old Grimsby Corporation seal of the princess, who is said to have married -Havelock the Dane (_see_ Chap. XIX.). Dominus is a difficult title to -translate, for if we call it ‘Sir,’ as the old registers often do, it is -misleading, as it has no knightly significance, and it probably meant no -more than “The Rev.,” or in the case of a soldier “Esq.” or “Gent.” It -certainly does not imply here that the owners of the title belonged to -“the lower order of clergy,” and yet that is the recognised meaning of -it in many old church registers, _e.g._, in the list of rectors, vicars, -and chantry priests of Heckington, taken from the episcopal records at -Lincoln. Some of the vicars and most of the chantry priests are called -“Sir,” and this generally implies a non-graduate. So also in the chapter -on the clergy with the list of rectors and curates given in Miss Armitt’s -interesting book, “The Church of Grasmere” (published 1912), pp. 57-60 -and p. 81, we find that the tythe-taking rector is termed “Master,” -and bears the suffix “Clerk”; while “Sir” is reserved for the curate, -his deputy, who has not graduated at either university. This view is -upheld in Dr. Cox’s “Parish Registers of England,” p. 251. The Grasmere -book speaks of “_Magister_ George Plumpton,” who was son of Sir William -Plumpton, of Plumpton, Knight, and rector of Grasmere, 1438-9. In 1554 -Gabriel Croft is called rector, and his three curates for the outlying -hamlets are put down as— - -“Dns. William Jackson, called in his will ‘late Curate of Grasmer.’” - -“Dns. John Hunter. - -“Dns. Hugo Walters.” - -This entry is followed by— - -“_Sirre_ Thomas Benson curate” who witnesses a will in 1563; and in 1569 -we have “_Master_ John Benson Rector.” In 1645 we have a “Mr. Benson” -doing the duty as rector during the Commonwealth, and in 1646 we have -“Sir Christopher Rawling,” who had probably served as curate for some -years, as he is, at his child’s baptism in 1641, styled “Clericus.” -Clearly this word “Sir” is here the translation of the Latin “Dominus,” -and the previous entries bear out the statement that the prefix ‘Sir’ -here betokens the lower order of clergy who had not graduated at either -university. But that this was not a plan universally followed is made -quite clear from the monuments at Bardney, where we find a rector and an -abbot and a soldier all called “Dominus.” Perhaps in neither of these -cases is it necessary to translate the word by ‘Sir,’ why not leave it -at “Dominus”? From a letter in _The Times_, May, 1913, I gather that -this word “Dominus” is responsible for the title “Lord Mayor.” The words -“Dominus Major” are first found among the City of London Records for -1486, in an order issued for the destruction of unlawful nets and coal -sacks of insufficient size. The words only meant “Sir Mayor,” but in -course of time they came to be translated “The Lord The Mayor,” which -easily passed into “The Lord Mayor,” a title which did not come into -general use till 1535. - -[Sidenote: BARLINGS ABBEY] - -_Barlings Abbey_ stood a mile west of the Benedictine nunnery of -_Stainfield_, which was founded by Henry Percy in the twelfth century. -The abbey was founded about the same time by Ralph de Hoya for -Premonstratensian canons. This term is derived from the “_Premonstratum_” -Abbey in Picardy, _i.e._, built in a place “pointed out” by the Blessed -Virgin to be the headquarters of the Order. This was in 1120, and the -Order first came to England in 1140. At the dissolution they seem to -have had thirty-five houses here, Tupholme Abbey being one of them. The -canons lived according to the rule of St. Augustine, and wore a white -robe. In the revolt against the suppression of the smaller houses, known -as “the Lincolnshire Rebellion,” or “the Pilgrimage of Grace,” in 1537, -the prior of Barlings, Dr. Matthew Makkerell, a D.D. of Cambridge, took a -prominent part, and under the name of Captain Cobbler, for he took that -disguise, he led 20,000 men. They were dispersed by Charles Brandon, Duke -of Suffolk, and the prior was hanged at his own gate. - -The abbey is sometimes called Oxeney, because the founders removed the -canons from Barling Grange to a place called Oxeney in another part of -the village, but the name followed them and Oxeney became Barlings. - -_Barlings_ and _Stainfield_ are both near Bardney to the north, and -_Tupholme_ and _Stixwould_ just as near on the south. _Tupholme_, like -Barlings, has a Premonstratensian house, founded 1160. A wall of the -refectory with lancet window, and a beautiful stone pulpit for the reader -during meals is all that is left. It is close to the road from Horncastle -to Bardney. - -[Illustration: _Remains of Kirkstead Abbey Church._] - -[Sidenote: KIRKSTEAD ABBEY] - -_Stixwould_ is three miles to the south, and was, like Stainfield, a -nunnery. It was founded by Lucia the first, the wife of Ivo Taillebois. -Nothing is left of it; but in the parish church are some stone coffins, -a good parclose screen, used as a reredos, and a remarkable font, whose -panels, bearing emblems of the Evangelists and of the first four months -of the year, are divided by richly carved pinnacles with figures of -lions and flowers. Near by is _Halstead Hall_ (“Hawstead”), a fifteenth -century moated house of the Welby family, from which Lincoln, Boston, and -Heckington are all visible. - -[Sidenote: KIRKSTEAD CHAPEL] - -_Kirkstead_ is three miles further south, and here is one of the most -beautiful little thirteenth-century buildings in the county. It is near -the ruin of the abbey, of which only a gaunt fragment remains. This -chapel of St. Leonard is a real gem of Early English architecture. It -is an oblong chamber with vaulted roof adorned with tooth and nail-head -ornament, springing from bosses low down in the wall. The wall is arcaded -all round, and the capitals exquisitely carved. Bishop Trollope speaks -of the western door as “one of the most lovely doorways imaginable, its -jambs being first enriched by an inner pair of pillars having caps from -which spring vigorously and yet most delicately carved foliage, and then, -after a little interval, two more pairs of similar pillars carrying a -beautifully moulded arch, one member of which is worked with the tooth -moulding. Above this lovely doorway, in which still hangs the cöeval -delicately ironed oak door, is an arcade of similar work, in the centre -of which is a pointed oval window of beautiful design. The inside is -still more beautiful than without.” - -Inside, part of a rood screen with lancet arcading is earlier than -anything of the kind in England, except the plain Norman screen in the -room above the altar in Compton Church, Surrey. A mutilated effigy of a -knight with a cylindrical saucepan-shaped helmet and a hauberk of banded -mail, shows a rare instance of thirteenth-century armour. It is thought -to be Robert, second Lord of Tattershall, who died about 1212. - -The ruinous state of this lovely little building, which was used for -public worship until Bishop Wordsworth prohibited it, as the building -was unsafe, has long been a crying scandal; the owner always refusing -to allow it to be made safe by others, and doing nothing to prevent its -imminent downfall himself. The present Act of 1913 has, it is devoutly -hoped, come in time to enable proper and prompt measures to be taken to -put it into a sound condition.[28] - -Quite near to Kirkstead is the newest Lincolnshire -watering-place—_Woodhall Spa_. - -[Sidenote: WOODHALL SPA] - -A deep boring for coal in 1811 found no coal but struck a spring or -flow of water, which is more highly charged with iodine and bromine -than any known spa. This has been utilised, and a fine range of baths, -on the principle of those at Bath, has been set up, though the water, -unlike that at Bath, or at Acqui near Genoa, does not gush out boiling -hot, but has to be pumped up 400 feet and then heated. All the various -kinds of baths and appliances for the treatment of rheumatism, etc., are -now installed, and quite a town has arisen on what was not long ago a -desolate moor. The air is fine, the soil dry and sandy, the heather is -beautiful around the place, and the Scotch fir woods and the picturesque -“Tower-on-the-Moor”—a watch-tower or part of a hunting-lodge built by the -Cromwells of Tattershall—add a charm to the landscape, though the “greate -ponde or lake brickid about,” mentioned by Leland, is gone. - -[Illustration: _Kirkstead Chapel._] - -[Sidenote: CHARLES BRANDON DUKE OF SUFFOLK] - -The Duke of Suffolk, to whom his sovereign gave so many Lincolnshire -manors, was son of Sir W. Brandon, the king’s standard-bearer who fell -at Bosworth field. Henry VIII. had a great liking for him and made him -Master of the Horse, a viscount, and afterwards a duke. Like his royal -master, he was the husband of several wives, the third of four being Mary -Queen of France, widow of Louis XII. and second sister of Henry VIII. He -resembled the king, too, in being a big man; indeed he was remarkable -for his bodily strength and feats of arms, and was victor in several -tournaments. The pains he took to quell the Lincolnshire Rebellion -greatly pleased the king, who showered rewards on him with lavish hands. -He is said to have somewhat resembled him, his countenance being bluff -and his beard white and cut like the king’s. He was good-tempered and -fortunate in never giving offence. Hence, on his portrait at Woburn Abbey -he is said to have been “Gratiose withe Henry VIII. Voide of Despyte, -moste fortunate to the end, never in displeasure with his Kynge.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXXV - -THE FENS - - Brothertoft or Goosetoft—In Holland Fen—John Taylor’s Poem—Fen - Skating. - - -Primitive peoples have been always rather prone to establishing -themselves on swampy ground, probably because they felt secure from -attack in such places. They passed in their coracles easily from one -little island of dry ground to another and found plenty of employment -in taking fish and waterfowl, in cutting grass for fodder or hay, reeds -for thatch and bedding, willows to make their wattled huts, and peat for -fuel, all of which were close at hand and free to everyone. It was not -such a bad life after all. - -[Sidenote: THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN] - -The earliest inhabitants of the Lincolnshire fens came from the mouths of -the Meuse, Rhine, and Scheldt, so they lived by choice in low land and -knew how to make the most of the situation. They clung for habitation to -the islands of higher ground, and the names of many villages in the low -part of the county, though no longer surrounded by water, bear witness -by their termination to their insular origin, _e.g._, Bardney, Gedney, -Friskney, Stickney, Sibsey, _ey_, as in the word ‘eyot’ (pronounced ait, -_e.g._, Chiswick Eyot), meaning _island_. In time the knots of houses -grew to village settlements, and raised causeways were made from one to -another, which served also as banks to keep out the sea at high tides. -And we know that they did this effectually; hence we find the churches -mostly placed for safety on that side of the causeway bank which is -furthest from the sea. You will see this to be the case as you go along -the road from Boston to Wainfleet, where the churches are all west of -the road, or from Spalding to Long Sutton, where they are all south of -the road, and this explains how the Lincolnshire name for a high road is -“ramper,” _i.e._, rampart. There are other sea banks which were thrown -up purposely to keep out the sea, not necessarily as roads. These are -very large and important works, fifty miles in length and at a varying -distance from the sea, girdling the land with but little intermission -from Norfolk to the Humber. Such large undertakings could only have been -carried out by the Romans. - -This bank, when made, had to be watched; for both in the earliest ages, -and also in Jacobean times when the fens were drained, all embanking and -draining works were violently opposed by the fen-men who lived by fishing -and fowling, and had no desire to see the land brought into cultivation. - -The Romans were great colonisers; they made good roads through the -country wherever they went to stay, and in Lincolnshire they began -the existing system of “Catchwater” drains which has been the means -of converting a marshy waste into the finest agricultural land in the -kingdom. The Roman Carr (or fen) dyke joined the Witham with the Welland, -so making a navigable waterway from Lincoln in the centre to Market -Deeping in the extreme south of the county; and by catching the water -from the hills to the west it prevented the overflowing streams from -flooding the low-lying lands, and discharged them into the sea. - -Rennie, at the beginning of last century, used the same method in the -east fen; but modern engineers have this advantage over the Romans that -they are able by pumping stations to raise the water which lies below the -level of the sea to a higher level from which it can run off by natural -gravitation. Still the Romans did wonderfully, and when they had to leave -England, after 400 years of beneficent occupation, England lost its best -friends, for, not only was he a great road and dyke builder but, as the -child’s “Very First History Book” says, - - “If he just chose, there could be no man - Nicer and kinder than a Roman.” - -The Romans themselves were quite aware of the beneficial nature of their -rule, as far as their colonies were concerned, and were proud of it. Who -can fail to see this feeling if he reads the charming lines on Rome which -Claudian wrote, about 400 A.D., when the Romans were still in Britain. - - “Hæc est in gremium victos quae sola recepit, - Humanumque genus communi nomine fovit - Matris non Dominae ritu, civesque vocavit - Quos domuit, nexuque pio longinqua revinxit.” - - Alone her captives to her heart she pressed, - Gave to the human race one common name, - And—mother more than sovereign—fondly called - Each son though far away her citizen. - - W. F. R. - -[Sidenote: THE SAXONS] - -The whole country soon became a prey to the freebooters who crossed -the North Sea in search of plunder. Of these, the Saxons under Cedric -besieged Lincoln about 497 and, the Angles from the Elbe joining with -them, made a strong settlement there which became the capital of Mercia -and received a Saxon king. To these invaders, who came as plunderers -but remained as colonists, we also owe much. In east Lincolnshire they -certainly fostered agriculture, and like the Romans made salt-pans for -getting the salt from sea water by evaporation. - -[Illustration: _Darlow’s Yard, Sleaford._] - -[Sidenote: THE DANES] - -[Sidenote: THE NORMANS] - -The Saxons dominated the country for about the same time as the Romans, -and were then themselves ousted with much cruelty and bloodshed by the -Danes or Norsemen. But during their time Christianity had been introduced -at the instance of Pope Gregory I., who sent Augustine and forty monks -to Britain at the end of the sixth century to convert the Anglo-Saxons, -and as Bertha, wife of Æthelbert, King of Kent, was a Christian, he met -with considerable success, and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. -He was followed early in the seventh century by Paulinus, who came from -York and built the first stone church at Lincoln. When, a hundred and -fifty years later, the Danes made their appearance they found in several -places monasteries and cathedrals or churches which they ruthlessly -pillaged and destroyed; and they too, having come for plunder, remained -as indwellers, settling in the eastern counties, not only near the coast -but far inland, just as the Norsemen settled and introduced industrial -arts on the west coast in Cumberland. Dane and Saxon struggled long and -fiercely, the Danes being beaten in Alfred’s great battle at Ethandune -in Wilts, 878, but only to return in Edmund’s reign and defeat the -Saxons at Assandun in Essex under King Canute, 1016, after which, by -agreement, they divided the country with Edmund Ironsides, and withdrew -from Wessex, the region south-west of _Watling Street_, but the whole -country north-eastwards from the Tees to the Thames was given over to -them and called the Danelagh, or country under Dane law. Thus Lincoln -became a Danish burgh, and in the next year, on Edmund’s death, Canute -became sole King of England. None of the Fenmen of Lincolnshire had been -subdued till in 1013 Swegen, King of Denmark, invaded the county in force -and pillaged and burnt St. Botolph’s town (Boston), and they appear to -have maintained their independence all through the Norman times. For -the dynasty of Danish kings did not last long, and both they and the -kings of the restored Saxon line were effaced by the Norman invaders -who, like all their predecessors, found the Fenmen a hard nut to crack. -Hereward, who was not son of Leofric, but a Lincolnshire man, had many a -fight for liberty, and held the Isle of Ely against the repeated attacks -of the Normans, and, when at last the Fenmen were beaten, they still -maintained a sort of independence, and instead of becoming Normans in -manners and language they are said to have kept their own methods and -their own speech, so that there may well be some truth in the boast that -the ordinary speech of the East Lincolnshire men of “the Fens” and “the -Marsh” is the purest English in the land. - - -HOLLAND FEN AND FEN SKATING. - -In the Fens there were always some tracts of ground raised above the -waters which at times inundated the lower levels there. These are -indicated by such names as Mount Pleasant, or by the termination ‘toft,’ -as in Langtoft, Fishtoft, Brothertoft, and Wigtoft in the Fens; and -similarly in the Isle of Axholme, Eastoft, Sandtoft, and Beltoft. Toft -is a Scandinavian word connected with top, and means a knoll of rising -ground. When the staple commodities of the Fens were “feathers, wool, -and wildfowl,” these knolls were centres of industry. Sheep might roam -at large, but in hard weather always liked to have some higher ground -to make for, and human beings have a preference for a dry site, hence -a cottage or two and, if there was room, a collection of houses and -possibly a church would come into existence, and the grassy knoll would -be often white with the flocks of geese which were kept, not so much -for eating as for plucking; and we know that the monasteries always -had ‘vacheries’ or cow-pastures either on these isolated knolls or on -rising ground at the edge of the fen. One of the most notable of these -island villages was called at one time Goosetoft, now Brothertoft, in the -Holland Fen about four miles west of Boston. Here on the 8th of July, -O.S., all sheep “found in their wool,” _i.e._, who had not been clipped -and marked, were driven up to be claimed by their owners, fourpence a -head being exacted from all who had no common rights. - -The custom survives in Westmorland, where in November of every year all -stray Herdwick sheep are brought in to the shepherds’ meeting at the -‘Dun Bull’ at Mardale, near Hawes-Water, and after they are claimed, the -men settle down to a strenuous day, or rather two nights and a day, of -enjoyment; a fox hunt on foot, and a hound trail whatever the weather -may be, followed by feasting and songs at night, keep them all “as merry -as grigs.” But where there are ten people at the Dun Bull there were one -hundred or more at Brothertoft, people coming out from Boston for the day -or even for the week, and all being lodged and fed in some thirty large -tents. - -[Sidenote: GOOSETOFT] - -John Taylor, ‘the water poet,’ wrote in 1640 an account of Goosetoft -which is worth preserving:— - - In Lincolnshire an ancient town doth stand - Called Goosetoft, that hath neither fallow’d land - Or woods or any fertile pasture ground, - But is with wat’ry fens incompast round. - The people there have neither horse nor cowe, - Nor sheep, nor oxe, nor asse, nor pig, nor sowe; - Nor cream, curds, whig, whey, buttermilk or cheese, - Nor any other living thing but geese. - The parson of the parish takes great paines, - And tythe-geese only are his labour’s gaines; - If any charges there must be defrayed - Or imposition on the towne is lay’d, - As subsidies or fifteenes[29] for the King, - Or to mend bridges, churches, anything, - Then those that have of geese the greatest store - Must to these taxes pay so much the more. - Nor can a man be raised to dignity - But as his geese increase and multiply; - And as men’s geese do multiply and breed - From office unto office they proceed. - A man that hath but with twelve geese began - In time hath come to be a tythingman; - And with great credit past that office thorough, - His geese increasing he hath been Headborough, - Then, as his flock in number are accounted, - Unto a Constable he hath been mounted; - And so from place to place he doth aspire, - And as his geese grow more hee’s raisèd higher. - ’Tis onely geese then that doe men prefer, - And ’tis a rule no geese no officer. - - -FEN SKATING. - -[Sidenote: FEN SKATING] - -The Fen skaters of Lincolnshire have been famous for centuries. In the -Peterborough Museum you may see two bone skates made of the shin bones -of an ox and a deer ground to a smooth flat surface on one side and -pierced at either end with holes, or grooved, for attachment thongs. -The regular fen skates, which are only now being ousted by the more -convenient modern form were like the Dutch skates of Teniers’ pictures, -long, projecting blades twice as long as a man’s foot, turned up high -at the end and cut off square at the heel. They were called “Whittlesea -runners,” and were supposed to be the best form of skate for pace -straight ahead; and no man who lived at Ramsey 100 to 200 years ago or -at Peterborough or Croyland was without a pair. The writer has been on -Cowbit Wash (pronounced Cubbit), near Spalding, when the great frozen -plain was in places black with the crowds of Lincolnshire fenmen, mostly -agricultural labourers, all on skates and all thoroughly enjoying -themselves, whilst ever and anon a course was cleared, and with a swish -of the sounding “pattens” a couple of men came racing down the long lane -bordered with spectators with both arms swinging in time to the long -vigorous strokes which is the fenman’s style. The most remarkable thing -about the gathering was the splendid physique of the crowd. Could they -all have been taken and drilled for military service they would have made -a regiment of which Peter the Great would have been proud. - -The best ice fields for racing purposes are Littleport in Cambridgeshire, -and Lingay Fen and Cowbit Wash in Lincolnshire. Before it was drained in -1849, Whittlesea Mere in Huntingdonshire was the great meeting ground, -and the Ramsey and Whittlesea men were famous skaters. By dyke or river -one could go from Cambridge to Ramsey on skates all the way. The best -speed skaters—and speed was the only aim of the fen skater—for many years -were the Smarts of Welney, near Littleport. “Turkey” Smart beat Southery, -who won the championship in the last match on Whittlesea Mere from -Watkinson of Ramsey, and after him “Fish” Smart held the record at Cowbit -Wash for a whole generation from 1881 to 1912. - -In 1878 and 1879 the frost was long and hard, and the prizes at the -great skating match near Ramsey took the form of food and clothing for -the frozen-out labourers. The course was down a road which a heavy fall -of snow, followed first by a thaw and then by a frost, had made into an -ideal skating course. - -[Sidenote: THE CHAMPIONSHIPS] - -Whatever year you take you will find that the prize-winners for fen -skating come from the same district and the same villages; Welney, -Whaplode, Gedney, Cowbit, and Croyland are perpetually recurring -names, the last four being all situated in the south-eastern corner of -Lincolnshire which abuts on the Wash between the outfall of the Welland -and the Nene. - -In the severe frost of 1912, which lasted from January 29 to February -5, the thermometer on the night of February 3 going down to zero, -Cowbit Wash saw the contest for both the professional and the amateur -championship for Lincolnshire. The Lincolnshire professional race on -Saturday, February 3, over a course of one mile and a half with one -turn in it brought out two Croyland men, H. Slater first and G. Pepper -second, F. Ward of Whaplode being third. The winning time was 4 minutes -50 seconds. - -On Monday, February 5, W. W. Pridgeon of Whaplode won the Lincolnshire -amateur championship over a mile course with a turn and a terrific wind -in 3 minutes 40 seconds, two Boston men coming next. On the following -day, February 6, the ice from the thaw, though wet, had a beautiful -surface, and in the great “one mile straightaway” race open to amateurs -and professionals alike, eight men entered, all of whom beat Fish Smart’s -record of 3 minutes. F. W. Dix, the British amateur champion winning -in 2 minutes 27¼ seconds, with S. Greenhall, the British professional -champion, second in 2 minutes 32²⁄₁₅ seconds. - -F. W. Dix showed himself to be first-rate at all distances, for besides -this mile race, he won the mile and a half on February 2 at Littleport, -with five turns in 4 minutes 40 seconds, and next day at the Welsh Harp -he secured the prize for 220 yards in 22⅘ seconds. S. Greenhall had won -the British professional championship on the previous day at Lingay Fen -over a course of one and a half miles, coming in first by 170 yards in 4 -minutes 44⅘ seconds. - -In all these races the wind was blowing a gale, and those who won the -toss, and could run close up under the lee of the line of spectators had -a decided advantage, and as a matter of fact they won in every case. - -[Sidenote: A WORLD’S RECORD] - -Since this Dix has won in the Swiss skating matches of 1913, and here it -may be of interest to add the following, which appeared in _The Times_ of -February 3, 1913:— - - “SPEED-SKATING. - - INTERNATIONAL RACE IN CHRISTIANIA. - - (From our Correspondent.) - - CHRISTIANIA, FEB. 1. - - “The International Skating Race held here to-day over a course - of 10,000 metres was won by the Norwegian skater, Oscar - Mathieson. His time was 17 min. 22⁶⁄₁₀ sec., which is a world’s - ‘record.’ The Russian, Ipolitow, was second, his time being 17 - min. 35⁵⁄₁₀ sec. The previous world’s ‘record’ was 17 min. 36⅗ - sec.” - -‘Metres’ fairly beat me, but I take it that 10,000 of them would be about -six miles. - -But anyone who likes to worry it out can postulate that the length of -a metre is 39·37079 inches. This was originally adopted as a “Natural -unit,” being one ten-millionth of the distance between a pole and the -Equator. But, as an error has been found in the measurement of this -distance, it is no longer a “Natural unit,” but just the length of a -certain rod of platinum kept at Paris, as the yard is the length of a rod -kept at Westminster. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVI - -THE FEN CHURCHES—NORTHERN DIVISION - - Friskney—Frescoes in the Church—Its Decoys—Wrangle—John - Reed’s Epitaph—Leake—Leverton—Benington—Frieston—The - Font-Cover—Frieston Shore—Rare - Flowers—Fishtoft—Skirbeck—Boston—The Church. - - -The two centres for “The parts of Holland” are Spalding and Boston. From -the latter we go both north and south, from Spalding only eastwards, and -in each case we shall pass few residential places of importance, but many -exceptionally fine churches. - -We will take the district north of Boston first. - -Friskney, which is but three and a half miles south of Wainfleet, where -we ended our south Lindsey excursion, is really in Lindsey. It stands -between the Marsh and the Fen. The road from Wainfleet to Boston bounds -the inhabited area of the parish on the east, and another from Burgh, -which runs for ten miles without passing a single village till it reaches -Wrangle, does the same on the west. Outside of these roads on the west is -the great “East Fen,” reclaimed little more than 100 years ago, and on -the east is the “Old Marsh,” along which went the Roman Bank, and east -of which again is the “New Marsh,” and beyond it the huge stretch of the -“Friskney flats,” over which the sea ebbs and flows for a distance of -from three to four miles; the haunt of innumerable sea birds, plovers -(locally pyewipes), curlew, redshanks, knots, dunlins, stints, etc., as -well as duck and geese of many kinds and even, at times, the lordly swan. - -[Sidenote: FRISKNEY] - -Thus surrounded, _Friskney_ stands solitary about half way between -Wainfleet and Wrangle, and if only the northern boundary of Holland had -been made the “Black Dyke” and “Gout” as would have been most natural, -Friskney would have been the north-eastern point of Holland, instead -of being the south-eastern point of Lindsey. Since their discovery by -the late rector, the Rev. H. J. Cheales, the most noticeable thing in -the fine Perpendicular church is the series of wall paintings above the -arcades of the nave, date 1320, most of them are faint and hard to make -out, but there are drawings of them, and an account was published in 1884 -and 1905 in the “Archæologia,” vols. 48 and 50. The subjects are the -Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, and Ascension, and the Assumption -of the Virgin, on the north arcade; on the south are the Offering of -Melchizedek, the Gathering of the Manna, the Last Supper, one possibly -of Pope Gregory, one of King Æthelred entering Bardney Abbey, and a most -curious one of Jews stabbing the Host. There are two Norman arches in -the aisle wall, and a beautiful tower arch with steps from the nave down -into the tower, the lower part of which is transition Norman, the next -stage Early English, and the next Perpendicular; there are six bells in -it. The nave is very high, the clerestory, on which the paintings are, -having been added early in the fourteenth century. The old roof has -been preserved, and the chancel screen and two chantry screens, which -are unusually high to match the nave. The rood stairs, as at Wrangle -and Leake, are on the south side. The pulpit is dated 1659. The north -chantry is entered by a half arch, and there is a squint and a curious -low-side window placed oddly on the north side of the chancel arch. Some -unusually fine sedilia with diaper work at the back, and a trefoiled -aumbry and piscina are in the chancel, which has been nearly ruined by -bad restoration with a new roof in 1849. It has large handsome windows -and finely canopied niches on each buttress, with ornamentation carved in -Ancaster stone. This chancel was the gift of John Mitchell of Friskney in -1566. - -An effigy of a knight of the Freshney family (a local pronunciation of -Friskney), of whom we have seen so many monuments in the Marsh churches -at Somercoats, Saltfleetby and Skidbrooke, is at the west end, and a -restored churchyard cross stands near the south door. - -The family of Kyme, who had a manor near Boston and two villages called -after them between Sleaford and Dogdyke, held land in Friskney through -the thirteenth century and until 1339, when it passed by marriage to -Gilbert Umfraville, whose son, the Earl of Angus, married Maud, daughter -of Lord Lucy. She afterwards became the second wife of Henry Percy, first -Earl of Northumberland, father of the famous “Hotspur,” whose wife, -together with her second husband, Baron Camoys, has such a fine monument -in Trotton church near Midhurst, Sussex. Hence, in the east window of the -north aisle of the church at Friskney are the arms, amongst others, of -Northumberland, Lucy, and Umfraville. - -The Earl’s grandson, the second Earl of Northumberland, who was killed at -the battle of St. Albans fighting for Henry VI., May 22, 1455, possessed -no less than fifty-seven manors in Lincolnshire, many of them inherited -from the Kymes. - -William de Kyme, uncle of Gilbert Umfraville, left a widow Joan who -married Nicolas de Cantelupe. He founded a chantry dedicated to St. -Nicolas in Lincoln Cathedral, and she, one dedicated to St. Paul. - -[Sidenote: LOST INDUSTRIES] - -It is melancholy to hear of old-fashioned employments fading away, but -it is the penalty paid by civilisation all the world over. Friskney in -particular may be called the home of lost industries. For instance, -“Mossberry or Cranberry Fen,” in this parish, was so named from -the immense quantity of cranberries which grew on it, and of which -the inhabitants made no use until a Westmorland man, knowing their -excellence, taught them; and thence, until the drainage of the fens, -thousands of pecks were picked and sent into Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire, -and Lancashire every year, 5_s._ a peck being paid to the gatherers. -After the drainage they became very scarce and fetched up to 50_s._ a -peck. - -Similarly, before the enclosure of the fens there were at least ten _Duck -Decoys_ in this part of the county, of which five were in Friskney, and -they sent to the London market in one season over 31,000 ducks. Eighty -years ago there were still two in Friskney and one in Wainfleet St. -Mary’s, and I remember one in Friskney which still maintained itself, in -the sixties, though each year the wild fowl came to it in diminishing -numbers. - -Bryant’s large map of 1828 shows a decoy near Cowbit Wash, no less than -five near the right bank of the River Glen in the angle formed by the -“Horseshoe Drove” and the “Counter Drain,” and two on the left bank -of the Glen, all the seven being within a two-mile square, and two -more further north in the Dowsby Fen, and four in the Sempringham Fen -probably made by the Gilbertines. - -[Sidenote: THE DECOY] - -The decoy was a piece of water quite hidden by trees, and only to be -approached by a plank across the moat which surrounded it, and with a -large tract of marshy uncultivated ground extending all round it, the -absence of disturbing noises being an essential, for the birds slept -there during the day and only took their flight to the coast at evening -for feeding. The method of taking them was as follows. The pond had -half-a-dozen arms like a star-fish, but all curving to the right, over -which nets were arched on bent rods; and these pipes, leading down each -in a different direction and gradually narrowing, ended in a purse of -netting. All along the pipes were screens, so set that the ducks could -not see the man till they had passed him, and lest they should wind -him he always held a bit of burning turf before his mouth. Decoy birds -enticed by hemp and other floating seed flung to them over the screens -kept swimming up the pipes followed by the wild birds, and a little dog -was trained to enter the water and pass in and out of the reed screens. -The ducks, being curious, would swim up, and the dog, who was rewarded -with little bits of cheese, kept reappearing ahead of them, and so led -them on to follow the decoys. At last the man showed himself, and the -birds—ducks, teal, and widgeon—rushed up the pipe into the purse and were -taken. The decoy was only used in November, December, and January, and it -is not in use now at all. But there are still two of the woods left round -the ponds at Friskney, each about twelve acres, and the water is there -to some extent, but the arms are grown over with weeds and are barely -traceable. Indeed it is a hundred years and rather more since the famous -old decoy man, George Skelton, lived and worked here with his four sons. -His great grandson was the last to follow the occupation, but when the -numbers caught came to be only three and four a day, it was clear that -the business had “given out.” Absolute quiet and freedom from all the -little noises which arise wherever the lowliest and smallest of human -habitations exist was necessary, for at least a mile all round the wood, -and as cultivation spread this could not be obtained. Nothing is so shy -as wild-fowl; and Skelton said that even the smell of a saucepan of burnt -milk would scare all the duck away. The mode of taking birds in “flight -nets” is still practised on the coast, the nets being stretched on poles -at several feet above the ground, and the birds flying into them and -getting entangled. Plover are taken in this way, and the smaller birds -which fly low in companies along by the edge of the sea, or across the -mud flats. - -A decoy still exists near Croyland, and another at Ashby west of Brigg, -in the lower reaches of the Trent; and formerly there were many in -Deeping Fen and other parts of Holland. But wild-fowl were not the only -birds the Fenmen had to rely on, and Cooper’s “Tame Villatic Fowl,” and -the goose and turkey in particular, are a steady source of income, as the -Christmas markets in the Fens testify. - -[Sidenote: WRANGLE] - -[Sidenote: THE REED EPITAPH] - -From _Friskney_ we run on about four miles to _Wrangle_. What the road -used to be we may guess from the constable’s accounts for the parish of -Friskney, in which the expenses for a journey to Boston are charged for -two days and a night “being in the winter time.” The distance is thirteen -miles. In the eighteenth century corn was still conveyed to market on -the backs of horses tied in strings, head to tail, like the camels in -eastern caravans. The name of _Wrangle_ is Weranghe, or Werangle, in -Domesday, said to mean the lake or mere of reeds, from “wear,” a lake, -and “hangel,” a reed. A friend of mine passing Old Leake station (which -was first called “Hobhole drain,” but, at the request of the Wrangle -parishioners, because the name deterred visitors, was altered afterwards -to Leake-and-Wrangle), observed that this name reminded him of the -words of Solomon that the beginning of strife is like the letting out -of water.[30] The place used to be a haven on a large sea creek, and -furnished to Edward III. for the invasion of France, in 1359, one ship -and eight men, Liverpool at that time being assessed at one ship and five -men. The church is large, and the rectors have been for over a hundred -years members of the family of Canon Wright of Coningsby, a nephew of -Sir John Franklin. The outer doorway of the south porch has a beautiful -trefoiled arch with tooth moulding, and curious carvings at the angles. -Near this is a fine octagonal font with three steps and a raised stone, -called a ‘stall,’ for the priest to stand on. This is not uncommon in -all these lofty Early English fonts. The tower was once much higher, as -is shown by the fine tower arch with its very singular moulding. The -tracery in the clerestory windows marks a period of transition, being -alternately flowing and Perpendicular. There is a good deal of old -glass of the fourteenth century in the north aisle, quite two-thirds of -the east window of the aisle being old, with the inscription “Thomas -de Weyversty, Abbas de Waltham me fieri fecit.” There is a turret -staircase for the rood-loft stair at the junction of the south aisle and -chancel, hence the door to the rood loft is on that side. The pulpit -is Elizabethan. The Reed family have several monuments here, and it is -probable that the three first known parsons of Wrangle—William (1342), -John (1378), and Nicolas (1387)—were chaplains to that family. On a large -slab in the chancel pavement to “John Reed sum time Marchant of Calys and -Margaret his wyfe,” date 1503, are these lines:— - - This for man, when ye winde blows - Make the mill grind, - But ever on thyn oune soul - Have thou in mind, - That thou givys with thy hand - Yt thou shalt finde, - And yt thou levys thy executor - Comys far behynde. - Do thou for thy selfe while ye have space. - To pray Jesu of mercy and grace, - In heaven to have a place. - -Sir John Reade, the great-grandson of John and Margaret, who died in -1626, is described as “eques aureus vereque Xianus eirenarcha prudens,” -etc., the last substantive meaning Justice of the Peace. - -There is an old Bede-house founded 1555, which we shall pass now on our -way to _Leake_, and we may perhaps trace the old sea-bank just behind -it. There was once one also at Benington, a few miles further on, called -“Benington Bede.” But before leaving so much that is old we may delight -our eyes, if we are lucky enough to find Mr. Barker (the vicar) or his -wife in the church, with a sight of some most exquisite modern church -embroidery in the form of an altar cloth, lately made by the ladies of -the rectory. - -[Illustration: _Leake Church._] - -[Sidenote: LEAKE] - -_Leake_, little more than a mile from Wrangle, has a most massive -Perpendicular tower which was fifty-seven years building and never -completed; here, too, there was a seaway to the coast. The south aisle -of the church and the nave have been restored, but the north aisle is -still in a ruinous condition, and reflects little credit on the patrons -who are, or were, the governors of Oakham and Uppingham schools. There is -a magnificent clerestory of six windows with carved and canopied niches -between each window, giving a very rich effect; and, as at Wrangle, there -is an octagonal rood turret and spirelet at the south-east of the nave. -The wavy parapet of the nave gable reminds one of the similar work round -the eastern chapel at Peterborough Cathedral, and the tall nave pillars -resemble those at Boston. Only a very little Norman work remains from -an earlier church. A knight in alabaster, a good Jacobean pulpit, and a -remarkable old alms-box made out of a solid oak stem are in the church, -and round the churchyard is a moat with a very large lych-gate on the -bridge across it. A mile and a half east of this are the remains of an -old stone building of early date, called the Moat House. - -Two of the Conington family were vicars here in the seventeenth century, -and a Thomas Arnold was curate in 1794. - -[Sidenote: LEVERTON] - -_Leverton_ is but two miles from Leake, and _Benington_ only one mile -further. The churches in this district have no pinnacles. Leverton was -thatched until 1884, when the present clerestory was built. The chancel -has some beautiful canopied sedilia, which are spoken of by Marrat in -his “History of Lincolnshire” as “three stone stalls of most exquisite -workmanship, to describe the beauties of which the pen seems not to -possess an adequate power.” At the back of one of these is an aumbrey, or -locker. The windows are square-headed, the font is tall and handsome, but -the greatest charm of the building is the sacristy or Lady chapel to the -south of the chancel—a perfect gem of architecture, the carved stone work -of which is rich and tasteful. Crucifixes surmount both gables of this, -and also that at the chancel end, this profusion being a consequence of -the church being dedicated to St. Helena. Whether she was the daughter -of a Bithynian innkeeper or a British princess, she was the wife of -Constantius Chlorus and mother of Constantine the Great; and the legend -is that, being admonished in a dream to search for the Cross of Christ, -she journeyed to Jerusalem, and, employing men to dig at Golgotha, found -three crosses, and having applied each of them to a dead person, one of -the crosses raised the dead to life, so she knew that that was the one -she was searching for. The church of North Ormsby is also dedicated to -her. At Leverton the rood-loft steps exist on the south of the chancel -arch, and the churchwarden’s book, which begins in 1535, gives the -bill for putting up the rood loft and also for taking it down. At the -beginning of last century Mrs. A. Skeath, of Boston, made a new sea-bank -three miles long, which effectually reclaimed from the sea 390 acres for -this parish. - -The village of _Benington_ has a fine church with a good porch and a -turret stairway to the north-east of the nave. The roof retains its old -timbers with carved angels. In the chancel are the springers for a stone -roof. The pillars of the nave have a very wide circular base, and in the -Early English chancel are sedilia with aumbries and piscina, and also -an arched recess which may have been used for an Easter sepulchre. The -tall red sandstone font is singularly fine, both bowl and pedestal being -richly carved with figures under canopies. - -[Illustration: _Leverton Windmill._] - -The practice of putting inscriptions into rhyme is exemplified in the -windows of these churches. - -[Sidenote: BENINGTON] - -Benington has a Latin couplet:— - - Ad loca Stellata - Duc me Katherina beata - -Leverton one in Norman French:— - - Pour l’amour de Jhesu Christ - Priez par luy q moy fatre fist. - - (Pray for him who caused me to be made.) - -[Sidenote: BUTTERWICK AND FRIESTON] - -[Sidenote: FRIESTON SHORE] - -A lane here leads eastwards to Benington-Sea-End, which is close on the -Roman bank. And, as the main road to Boston is devoid of interest, we -will bend to the left hand, and pass through Butterwick to Frieston -and so to the shore. An old register records in rhyme the planting of -the fine sycamore tree in _Butterwick_ churchyard, in 1653. The name -Butterwick occurs in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and is derived -probably from the Dane Buthar, as are Buttermere in Cumberland, and -Butterlip-How in Grasmere. At _Frieston_, which, like Friskney and -Firsby, is said to indicate a colony of Frieslanders, the present church -is the nave of a fine old priory church of the twelfth century founded -by Alan de Creon for Benedictines and attached as a cell to Croyland, -where his brother was abbot. It had a central tower adjoining the east of -the present building; the west piers of this tower are visible outside. -Inside there are six Norman and three pointed arches, the latter leading -to a massive western tower with a stone figure in a niche dating from the -fifteenth century. The south aisle is now all of brick, the Norman stone -corbelling being replaced above the eight large three light clerestory -windows. The most remarkable thing in the church is the beautiful carved -wood font-cover, at least twelve feet high, and surmounted by a figure -of the Virgin. This is similar, but superior, to that at Fosdyke, but -in no way equal to the beautiful and richly carved example ten feet in -height at Ufford church in Suffolk. The font itself has carved panels -and two kneeling-steps for priest and sponsor. The churchyard is an -extremely large one. The sea once came close up to Frieston, the coast -bending round to Fishtoft and towards Skirbeck; at the present time the -Frieston shore is two and a half miles off. The road runs close up to the -sea-bank. A long old-fashioned hostelry, with a range of stables telling -of days gone by, stands under the shelter of the bank, on mounting which -you find a bench on a level with the bedroom windows of the inn, whence -you look out towards the sea, which forms a shining line in the far -distance, for it is over two miles to ‘Boston deeps,’ far over a singular -stretch of foreshore channelled with a network of deep clefts by which -the retreating tide drains seaward through the glistening mud. The first -part of this desolate shore is green with sea-grasses, visited daily by -the salt water, and along the fringe of it there are here many rather -uncommon flowers growing just below high-water mark, such as the yellow -variety of the sea aster (_Aster tripolium var. discoideus_), and the -rare _Suæda fruticosa_; and in the ditches leading inland the handsome -marsh-mallow (_Althæa officinalis_) flourishes, as it does on Romney -Marsh, near Rye. At high water all looks quite different; and a sunrise -over the lagoon-like shallow water gives a picture of colour which is not -easily forgotten. - -[Illustration: _Frieston Priory Church._] - -From Frieston shore one gets by a circuitous three-mile route to -_Fishtoft_. Here once was a Norman church. The present one has two rood -screens; one, at the west end, having been purchased from Frieston, -which, however, retained its two aisle screens. There is a good small -figure of St. Guthlac, the patron saint, over the west window of the -tower, much like that at Frieston. On a tombstone in the churchyard is -the following:— - - Interred here lies Anne the wife - Of Bryon Johnson during life - The 25ᵗʰ day of November - In 68 he lost this member. - -He only survived her two months, and the next inscription is:— - - Now Bryon is laid down by Anne - ’Till God does raise them up again. - -This rhyme might do for Norfolk or Devonshire, but is not Lincolnshire. - -[Sidenote: BOSTON STUMP] - -And now two miles more bring us to _Skirbeck_ on the outskirts of Boston. -The only interesting feature of the church here is in the columns of the -nave, which have four cylinders round a massive centre pillar, all four -quite detached except at the bases and capitals, which last are richly -carved. We shall find exactly similar ones at Weston, near Spalding. We -now follow the curving line of the Haven with its grassy banks right -into Boston. The splendid parish church, the sight of whose tower is a -never-failing source of delight and inspiration, stands with its east end -in the market-place, and its tall tower close on the bank of the river. -It has no transepts as the Great Yarmouth church has, but, apart from -its unapproachable steeple, it is longer and higher and greater in cubic -contents than any parish church in the kingdom. The tower, 288 feet, is -taller than Lincoln tower or Grantham spire, and is only exceeded in -height by Louth spire, which is 300 feet. The view of it from across the -river is one of the most entirely satisfying sights in the world.[31] -The extreme height is so well proportioned, and each stage leads up so -beautifully to the next, that one is never tired of gazing on it. Add -to this that it is visible to all the dwellers in the Marsh and Fen for -twenty miles round and from the distant Wolds, and again far out to sea, -and is as familiar to all as their own shadow, and you can guess at the -affection which stirs the hearts of all Lincolnshire men when they think -or speak of the ‘Owd Stump,’ a curious title for a beloved object, but -so slightly does it decrease in size as it soars upwards from basement -to lantern, that in the distance it looks more like a thick mast or the -headless stem of a gigantic tree than a church steeple. - -[Illustration: _Boston Church from the N.E._] - -[Sidenote: THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH] - -[Sidenote: THE INTERIOR] - -There was once here a church of the type of Sibsey, said to date from -1150, of which but little has been discovered. The present building was -begun in 1309, when the digging for the foundation of the tower began -“on ye Monday after Palm Sunday in the 3ʳᵈ yr of Ed. II.” They went down -thirty feet to a bed of stone five feet below the level of the river -bed, overlying “a spring of sand,” under which again was a bed of clay -of unknown thickness. The excavation was a very big job, and the “first -stone” was not laid till the feast of St. John the Baptist (Midsummer -Day) by Dame Margaret Tilney, and she and Sir John Truesdale, then parson -of Boston, and Richard Stevenson, a Boston merchant, each laid £5 on the -stone “which was all ye gifts given at that time” towards the expense -which, we are told, was, for the whole tower, under £500 of the money of -those days. Leland, Vol. VIII., 204, says: “Mawde Tilney who layed the -first stone of the goodly steeple of the paroche chirch of Boston lyith -buried under it.” The work of building up the tower was interrupted for -fifty years, and the body of the church was taken in hand, the present -tower arch serving as a west window. Then the tower began to rise, but -it was finished without the lantern. In the middle of the fifteenth -century the chancel was lengthened by two bays, and the parapets and -pinnacles added to the aisles. The parapet at the east end of the north -aisle is very curious and elaborate, being pierced with tracery of nearly -the same design as that on the flying buttresses of Henry VII.’s Chapel -at Westminster. There were several statues round the building on tall -pedestals rising from the lowest coping of the buttresses to about the -height of the nave parapets; one is conspicuous still at the south-east -corner of the tower and above the south porch. The tower has three -stages, arranged as in Louth church, and then the lantern above. In the -first stage a very large west window rises above the west doorway, and -similar ones on the north and south of the tower, and all the surface is -enriched with panelling both on tower and buttresses. The next stage is -lighted by a pair of windows of great height, finely canopied and divided -by a transom, on each side of the tower; this forms the ringing chamber, -and a gallery runs round it in the thickness of the wall communicating -with the two staircases. On the door of one of these is a remarkable -handle, a ring formed by two bronze lizards depending from a lion’s -mouth. The clustered shafts and springers of the stone vault were built -at the beginning, but the handsome groined roof with its enormous central -boss 156 feet from the ground was not completed until 1852. The next -story has large single-arched windows of a decidedly plain type. These -are the only things one can possibly find fault with, but probably when -the tower had no lantern the intention was to exhibit the light from this -story, the bells being hung below and rung from the ground. Eventually -the eight bells were hung in the third story, and the lantern, by far the -finest in England, was added, which gives so queenly an effect to the -tall tower. Before this was done four very high pinnacles finished the -building, subsequently arches were turned diagonally over the angles of -the tower so as to make the base of the octagonal lantern. The roof of -the tower and the gutters round it are of stone and curiously contrived. -The lantern has eight windows like those in the second stage of the -tower, but each one pane longer, and the corners are supported by flying -buttresses springing in pairs from each tower pinnacle. The whole is -crowned with a lofty parapet with pierced tracery and eight pinnacles -with an ornamented gable between each pair of pinnacles. Inside was a -lantern lighted at night for a sea mark. The church of All Saints, York, -has a very similar one, and there the hook for the lantern pulley is -still to be seen. - -[Sidenote: BOSTON, U.S.A.] - -Inside, one is struck by the ample size and height of the church and its -vast proportions. The choir has five windows on each side. But the nave -is spoilt by a false wooden roof which cuts off half of the clerestory -windows. It is a pity this is not removed and the old open timber roof -replaced. In the chancel are sixty-four stalls of good carved work, and -the old and curiously designed miserere seats, often showing humorous -subjects as at Lincoln, are of exceptional interest. Of the once numerous -brasses most are gone, but two very fine ones are on either side the -altar: one to Walter Peascod, merchant, 1390, and one to a priest in a -cope, _c._ 1400; an incised slab of 1340 is at the west of the north -aisle. The Conington tablet in memory of John Conington, Corpus Professor -of Latin in the University of Oxford, on the south wall of the chancel -is to be noticed, and the Bolles monument in the south aisle, and, near -the south porch, the chapel which was restored by the Bostonians of -the United States as a recognition of their Lincolnshire origin. Close -to this is a curious epitaph painted on a wooden panel, which reads as -follows:— - - My corps with Kings and Monarchs sleeps in bedd, - My soul with sight of Christ in heaven is fedd, - This lumpe that lampe shall meet, and shine more bright - Than Phœbus when he streams his clearest light, - Omnes sic ibant sic imus ibitis ibunt. - Rich. Smith obiit - Anno salutis 1626. - -[Illustration: _Boston Stump._] - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVII - -ST. BOTOLPH’S TOWN - - The River Witham—Drayton’s Polyolbion—The Steeple at - Boston—Monastic Houses—Merchants’ Guilds—Dykes and Sluices—The - Fens reclaimed—Great Floods—High Tides—The Hussey and Kyme - Towers—John Fox—Hallam and Conington—Jean Ingelow—Lincolnshire - Stories. - - -A not unapt parallel has been drawn between Boston and Venice for, like -the Campanile, Boston steeple is a sort of Queen of the Waters, and -before the draining of the Fens she often looked down on a waste of -waters which stretched in all directions. - -Leland, who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII., in Vol. VII. of his -Itinerary, speaks of “the great Steple of Boston,” and describes the town -thus: “Bosstolpstoune stondeth harde on the river Lindis (Witham). The -greate and chifiest parte of the toune is on the este side of the ryver, -where is a faire market place, and a crosse with a square toure. Al the -buildings of this side of the toune is fayre, and Marchuntes duelle yn -it; and a staple of wulle is used there. There is a bridg of wood to cum -over Lindis, into this parte of the toune, and a pile of stone set yn the -myddle of the ryver. The streame of yt is sumtymes as swifte as it were -an arrow. On the West side of Lindis is one long strete, on the same side -is the White Freies. The mayne sea ys VI miles of Boston. Dyverse good -shipps and other vessells ryde there.” - -[Sidenote: THE RIVER WITHAM] - -Michael Drayton, who wrote in Elizabeth’s reign, was quite enthusiastic -about the merits of the Witham, which runs out at Boston, and makes her -speak in her own person thus:— - - From Witham, mine own town, first water’d with my source, - As to the Eastern sea I hasten on my course, - Who sees so pleasant plains or is of fairer seen? - Whose swains in shepherd’s gray and girls in Lincoln green, - Whilst some the ring of bells, and some the bagpipes play, - Dance many a merry round, and many a hydegy.[32] - I envy, any brook should in my pleasure share, - Yet for my dainty pikes, I am without compare. - - No land floods can me force to over proud a height; - Nor am I in my course too crooked or too streight; - My depths fall by descents, too long nor yet too broad, - My fords with pebbles, clear as orient pearls, are strow’d, - My gentle winding banks with sundry flowers are dress’d, - My higher rising heaths hold distance with my breast. - Thus to her proper song the burthen still she bare; - Yet for my dainty pikes I am without compare. - - By this to Lincoln town, upon whose lofty scite - Whilst wistly Wytham looks with wonderful delight, - Enamour’d of the state and beauty of the place - That her of all the rest especially doth grace, - Leaving her former course, in which she first set forth, - Which seem’d to have been directly to the North, - She runs her silver front into the muddy fen - Which lies into the east, in the deep journey when - Clear Bane, a pretty brook, from Lindsey, coming down - Delicious Wytham leads to lively Botulph’s town, - Where proudly she puts in, among the great resort - That there appearance make, in Neptune’s Wat’ry Court. - - Polyolbion. Song 25. - -[Sidenote: SKIRBECK] - -We have no definite information of what Boston was in Roman times, but -as the Witham was the river on which their colony at Lincoln stood, it -is more than probable that they had a station at Boston to defend the -river-mouth, and whatever _they_ may have called it, it is certain that -it has got its name of Boston or Botolph’s town from an English saint who -is said to have founded a monastery here in 654, which was destroyed by -the Danes in 870. St. Botolph was buried in his monastery in 680, and his -remains moved in 870, part to Ely and part to Thorney Abbey. The name -as a town does not appear in Domesday Book, though “Skirbec” does, and -Skirbeck covered all the ground that Boston does, and almost surrounded -it. As the old distich declares— - - Though Boston be a proud town - Skirbeck compasseth it around. - -[Sidenote: BOSTON PORT] - -This name for pride or conceit, whether deserved or not, seems to have -stuck to Boston, for a rhyme of later day runs thus:— - - Boston Boston Boston! - Thou hast nought to boast on - But a grand sluice, and a high steeple, - And a proud conceited ignorant people, - And a coast which souls get lost on. - -And certainly Boston once had some reason to be proud, for though the -town was quite an infant till the beginning of the twelfth century, in -1113 “Fergus, a brazier of St. Botolph’s town” was able, according to -Ingulphus in his “Chronicles of Croyland Abbey,” “to give 2 _Skillets_ -(Skilletas) which supplied the loss of their bells and tower.” The gift, -whatever it was (probably small bells), must have been of considerable -value to Croyland, which had been burnt down in 1091, and argues much -prosperity among Boston tradespeople. Indeed, the town and its trade rose -with such rapidity during the next hundred years that when, in the reign -of King John, a tax or tythe of a fifteenth was levied on merchants’ -goods, Boston’s contribution was £780, being second only to the £836 of -London. For the next two centuries it was a commercial port of the first -rank, and merchants from Flanders and most of the great Continental towns -had houses there. - -[Illustration: _Custom House Quay, Boston._] - -When in 1304 Edward I. granted his wife Queen Margaret the castle and -manor of Tattershall to hold till the heir was of age, he added to it -the manor of St. Botolph and the duties levied on the weighing of the -wool there. This was set down as worth £12 a year. A wool sack was very -large—one sees them now at Winchester, each large enough to fill the -whole bed of a Hampshire waggon—but at 6_s._ 8_d._ a sack the duties -must have been often worth more than £12, for there was no other staple -in the county but at Lincoln, and that was afterwards, under Edward III. -in 1370, transferred to Boston, and whether at Boston or Lincoln, when -weighed and sealed by the mayor of the staple, it was from Boston that it -was all exported. - -[Sidenote: THE STAPLE] - -When a staple of wool, leather, lead, etc., was established at any -town or port it was directed that the commodities should be brought -thither from all the neighbourhood and weighed, marked and sealed. -Then they could be delivered to any other port, where they were again -checked. In 1353, during the long reign of Edward III., the staple was -appointed to be held in Newcastle, York, Lincoln, Norwich, Westminster, -Canterbury, Chichester, Winchester, Exeter and Bristol. Of these, York -and Lincoln sent all the produce when weighed to Hull and Boston, Norwich -to Yarmouth, Westminster to London Port, Canterbury to Sandwich, and -Winchester (by water or road) to Southampton. In 1370 some of the inland -towns—York, Lincoln and Norwich—were deprived of their staple, and -Hull and Queensborough were added to the list; and, though Nottingham, -Leicester and Derby petitioned to have the staple at Lincoln, which was -much more convenient to them, the answer they got was that it should -continue at St. Botolph’s during the king’s pleasure. - -[Illustration: _South Square, Boston._] - -In Henry VIII.’s time, when the king passed through Lincolnshire after -“the pilgrimage of grace” and the chief towns made submission and paid -a fine, Boston paid £50, while Stamford and Lincoln paid £20 and £40 -respectively. - -[Sidenote: FRIARIES AND GUILDS] - -In 1288 a church of the Dominican or Black Friars which had been recently -built was burnt down, and a few years later a friary was re-established, -which was one of the many Lincolnshire religious houses granted by Henry -VIII. to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk. In 1301, under Edward I., a -Carmelite, or White Friars, monastic house and priory was founded; and in -the next reign, 1307, an Augustinian, or “Austin,” friary; and only a few -years later, under Edward III., a Franciscan, or Grey Friars, friary was -established. All these three were granted by Henry at the dissolution to -the mayor and burgesses of Boston. He also granted the town their charter -under the great Seal of England, to make amends for the losses they -sustained by the destruction of the religious houses. It is a document -with fifty-seven clauses, making the town a free borough with a market -on Wednesday and Saturday, and two fairs annually of three days each, to -which are added two “marts” for horses and cattle. The ground where the -grammar school stands is still called the Mart-yard, and there you may -still see the beautiful iron gate which was once part of a screen in the -church, and is a very notable piece of good seventeenth-century work. - -The charter also gave the corporation, among other things, “power to -assess the inhabitants, as well unfree as free, with a tax for making -a safeguard and defence of the borough and church there against the -violence of the waters and rage of the sea.” - -In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there were no less than fifteen -guilds in the town, six of them with charters. The hall of St. Mary’s -guild still exists, the names of St. George’s Lane and Corpus Christi -Lane is all that is left of the others, but the old names indicate the -localities. - -[Sidenote: THE WINE-CELLARS] - -In 1360 we have mention on the corporation records of William de Spayne, -one of a family of merchants of repute, after whom Spayne’s Place and -what is now Spain Lane were named. William was an alderman of the Corpus -Christi Guild, and sheriff of the county in 1378. Spain Lane had a row of -great cellars, some of which were rented by the abbeys, and a quantity -of wine was shipped from Bordeaux to Boston. King John of France had 140 -tuns at one time, the carriage of which to Boston, and some part of it -to the place of his detention at Somerton Castle (_see_ Chap. XIII.), -cost close upon £500. This large supply was sent to him from France, -partly for his own consumption and partly to be sold in order to bring in -money to keep up his royal state, and when we read of the silk curtains -and tapestries, the French furniture for dining-hall and bedrooms which -displaced the benches and trestles of an English castle, the horse -trappings and stable fittings, and the enormous amount of stores and -confectionery used at Somerton, we realise that his daily expenditure -must have been a very large one. The cellars which stowed these large -cargoes of wine were in Spain (or Spayne) Lane, and most of them were, -in 1590, in accordance with Boston’s usual suicidal custom, destroyed, -though the corporation still held two in 1640 which had once belonged to -Kirkstead Abbey. - -[Illustration: _Spain Lane, Boston._] - -[Sidenote: THE SILTING OF THE RIVER] - -In the sixteenth century several trade companies—cordwainers, glovers, -etc.—received charters. In this century Queen Elizabeth gave the mayor -and burgesses a “Charter of Admiralty” over the whole of the “Norman -Deeps” to enable them to repair and maintain the sea marks, and to levy -tolls on all ships entering the port. But trade was then declining owing -to the silting up of the river. This, in 1569, when the town was made -a _Staple_ town, had been in good order, and navigable for seagoing -ships of some size, the tide water running up two miles inland as far -as Dockdyke (now Dogdyke), and then a large trade was done in wool and -woollen goods between Boston and Flanders. Hence it was that when, in the -reign of Henry VII., a council was held to discuss the two great needs -of the town, _viz._, the restraining the sea water from flooding the -land, and the delivery of the inland waters speedily to the sea, it was -to Flanders that the Boston men turned for an engineer, one Mahave Hall, -who built them a dam and sluice in the year 1500. This is called the Old -Sluice, and was effectual for a time. But in Queen Elizabeth’s reign the -river below Boston was getting so silted up again that the waters of -South Holland were brought by means of two “gowts” (go outs), or “clows,” -one into the Witham above Boston at Langrick, and one below into the -harbour at Skirbeck, to scour out the channel. The Kesteven men, from a -sense of being robbed of their waters, opposed, but their objections were -over-ruled by the chief justices. In 1568-9 the “Maud Foster” drain was -cut and named after the owner, who gave easement over her land on very -favourable terms. - -In the map to the first volume of the “History of Lincolnshire,” -published by Saunders in 1834, the Langrick Gowt (or gote) finds no -place; but the “Holland Dyke” is probably meant for it. The Skirbeck dyke -is marked very big and called “The South Forty-foot,” which, along with -the North Forty-foot and Hobhole drains, and others of large size, aided -by powerful steam pumps, have made the Fens into a vast agricultural -garden. - -[Sidenote: THE GRAND SLUICE] - -But the Elizabethan expedient was only successful for a time, and in 1751 -a small sloop of forty to fifty tons and drawing about six feet of water -could only get up to Boston on a spring tide. To remedy this and also to -keep the floods down, which, when the cutfall was choked, extended in wet -seasons west of the town as far as eye could see, an Act of Parliament -was passed to empower Boston to cut the Witham channel straight and -set to work on a new sluice. This “Grand Sluice,” designed by Langley -Edwardes, had its foundation carried down twenty feet, on to a bed of -stiff clay. Here, just as, near the old Skirbeck sluice, where Hammond -beck enters the haven, at a depth of sixteen feet sound gravel and soil -was met with, in which trees had grown; and at Skirbeck it is said that a -smith’s forge, with all its tools, horseshoes, etc., complete, was found -at that depth below the surface, showing how much silt had been deposited -within no great number of years. The foundation stone of the present -Grand sluice was laid by Charles Amcotts, then Member of Parliament and -Mayor of Boston, in 1764, and opened two years later in the presence -of a concourse of some ten thousand people. He died in 1777, and the -Amcotts family in the male line died with him. In Jacobean times much -good embankment work under Dutch engineers had been begun, and had met -with fierce opposition from the Fen men, and the same spirit was still -in existence a hundred and fifty years later, for when, in 1767, an Act -was passed for the enclosure of Holland, the works gave rise to the most -determined and fierce riots which were carried to the most unscrupulous -length of murder, cattle maiming, and destruction of valuable property, -and lasted from 1770 to 1773. But at length common sense prevailed, -and a very large and fertile tract of land to the south-east of Boston -was acquired, which helped again to raise the fortunes of the town to -prosperity. Following on this in 1802 a still larger area was reclaimed -on the other side of Boston in the East, West, and Wildmore Fens. But, -as in all low-lying lands near the coast which are below the level of -high-water mark, constant look-out has to be kept even now, both to -prevent the irruption of the sea and the flooding of the land from -storm-water not getting away quickly enough. - -[Sidenote: GREAT FLOODS] - -The Louth Abbey “Chronicle,” a most interesting document, extending from -1066 to the death of Henry IV., 1413, records disastrous floods in the -Marsh in 1253 and 1315, and a bad outbreak of cattle plague in 1321. From -other sources we have notice of a great flood at Boston in 1285; another -in ‘Holland,’ 1467; and again at Boston in 1571 a violent tempest, with -rain, wind, and high tide combining, did enormous damage. Sixty vessels -were wrecked between Newcastle and Boston, many thousands of sheep and -cattle were drowned in the Marsh, the village of Mumby-Chapel was washed -into the sea and only three cottages and the steeple of the church left -standing. One “Maister Pelham had eleven hundred sheep drowned there.” At -the same time “a shippe” was driven against a house in the village, and -the men, saving themselves by clambering out on to the roof, were just in -time to save a poor woman in the cottage from the death by drowning which -overtook her husband and child. So sudden and violent was the rise of the -flood that at Wansford on the Nene three arches of the bridge were washed -away, and “Maister Smith at the Swanne there hadde his house, being three -stories high, overflowed into the third storie,” while the walls of the -stable were broken down, and the horses tied to the manger were all -drowned. - -At the same time the water reached half way up Bourne church tower. -This shows the tremendous extent of the flood, for those two places are -forty-four miles apart. This is the “High tide on the Lincolnshire Coast” -sung by our Lincolnshire poetess, Jean Ingelow. She speaks of the Boston -bells giving the alarm by ringing the tune called “The Brides of Mavis -Enderby.” - - The old Mayor climbed the belfry tower, - The ringers ran by two by three; - ‘Pull if ye never pulled before, - Good ringers, pull your best,’ quoth he. - Play uppe play uppe, O Boston bells; - Ply all your changes, all your swells, - Play uppe “The Brides of Enderby.” - -This tune, which Miss Ingelow only imagined, was subsequently composed, -and is now well known at Boston, for, besides the ring of eight bells, -the tower has a set of carillons like those at Antwerp. They were set -up in 1867, thirty-six in number, by Van Aerschodt, of Louvain, but not -proving to be a success, were changed in 1897 for something less complex, -and now can be heard at 9 a.m., and every third hour of the day playing -“The Brides of Mavis Enderby.” - -[Sidenote: AND HIGH TIDES] - -A violent gale is recorded on February 16, 1735, which did much damage, -and in 1763-4 there was a great flood, not owing to any high tide but -simply, as in 1912, from continued heavy rains, and we are told that the -flood lasted for many weeks. Just lately, in 1912, this was aggravated -by the bursting of a dyke in the Bedford level which flooded miles -of fenland. In August, 1913, the land was parched by drought, but in -1912 it was a melancholy sight to see, in August, on both sides of the -railway between Huntingdon and Spalding the corn sheaves standing up -out of the water, and the farm buildings entirely surrounded, while the -rain continued to fall daily. Even after three weeks of fine weather in -September, though the drenched sheaves had been got away, water still -covered the fields, stretching sometimes as far as eye could see. In -1779, when the reclamation of the Holland ‘Fens’ had been carried out, -many vessels are said to have been driven by a violent gale nearly two -miles inland on the ‘Marsh.’ This was long spoken of as “The New Year’s -Gale.” - -Exceptionally high tides, each four inches higher than its predecessor, -in the streets of Boston are recorded for October 19, 1801, November 30, -1807, and November 10, 1810. This last accompanied by a storm of wind -and rain. On this occasion the water was all over the streets of Boston -and flowed up the nave of the church as far as the chancel step, being -nearly a yard deep at the west end. Since then high-water marks were cut -on the base of the tower showing how deep the nave was flooded in 1883 -and 1896. In 1813 another high tide caused the sea-bank assessment to -rise to 13_s._ 8_d._ an acre, the normal rate then, as it is now, for the -drainage tax in the east fen, amounting to 3_s._ an acre. Even that seems -to be pretty stiff, £15 a year on a hundred acre farm! Of course it is an -absolute necessity, and has been recognised from the earliest times. We -know that in the reign of Edward I. an assessment was levied on all who -had land to keep the drains in repair. This was as long ago as 1298. - -[Sidenote: PICTURESQUE BOSTON] - -[Sidenote: THE GUILDHALL] - -The great feature of Boston is the wonderful church tower. But the town -is from many points very picturesque. The deep-cut channel of the tidal -river goes right through it. Passing close up against the western side -of the great steeple, it goes with houses almost overhanging its eastern -bank down to the bridge, a structure of no beauty. After this it runs -alongside the street. From the windows you look across and see the masts -of the small sea-going craft tied up to the bank, which, with all the old -weed-grown timbers of landing-stage and jetty, the natural accompaniments -of a tidal river, make quaint and effective pictures. In another street -the boys in their old-fashioned blue coats and brass buttons let you into -the secret of Boston’s many educational charities. One is in Wormgate -(or Withamsgate), one in White Friars Lane, dating from the beginning of -the sixteenth century, and another in Shodfriars Lane. The very names -of the streets in Boston are full of history, and the recently-restored -“Shod Friars Hall,” to the south-east of the Market Place, helps, with -its abundant timbers and carved gables, to take one right back to the -fourteenth century, though the name was only recently bestowed on this -particular building. - -[Illustration: _The Haven, Boston._] - -[Illustration: _The Guildhall, Boston._] - -But alas, not only all the monastic buildings, but nearly all the -domestic buildings which once made Boston like a medieval Dutch town -are gone, though the fifteenth-century brick Guildhall remains. The -citizens seem to have had a fatal mania for pulling down all that was -most worth preserving of their old buildings. Gone, too, is much else -which Bostonians might well have preserved. Such, for instance, as “the -prodigious clock bell which could be heard many miles round, and was -knocked to pieces in the year 1710.” It is but a few years ago that some -of the Boston Corporation plate was sold in London for immense prices, -and when astonished people asked how it came to the hammer they heard -a miserable tale how the fine collection of civic plate, and it was -unusually fine, had been sold in 1837 for £600, nothing approaching to -its value, by the corporation itself, for the purpose of liquidating some -civic debt. But any sin Boston may commit, such as the crude colouring of -the interior of the much-renovated Guildhall, and painting and graining -of the deal panels only last year, will be forgiven, so long as they have -their uniquely glorious church tower to plead for them. - -Lord Hussey’s tower and the Kyme tower are ruins, built about the end of -the fifteenth century, and at the end of the eighteenth century a big -house was still standing which may have been Lord Hussey’s. The brick -tower stands near the school fields, not far from the Public Gardens, -which are a credit to Boston, and have some first-rate salt-water baths -close by, which belong to the corporation. - -The Kyme tower is also called the Rochford tower, that family having held -it before the Kymes. It is a massive tower, also of brick, as may be seen -from the illustration. It stands about two miles outside the town to the -east. - -[Sidenote: FAMOUS BOSTONIANS] - -Of celebrated folk born in Boston we have, to begin with, John Fox, -author of the “Book of Martyrs,” who was born there in 1517. He was sent -to Brasenose, Oxford, and worked very hard, but was expelled as a heretic -when he forsook the Roman Catholic religion. The Warwickshire family of -Sir Thomas Lucie, a name made famous by Shakespeare, gave him shelter -and employment as a tutor; and later he tutored the children of the Earl -of Surrey who, in the reign of Queen Mary, helped him to escape from -Bishop Gardiner’s deadly clutches. Like so many who suffered persecution -for their religion, he made his home at Basle till Elizabeth’s accession -allowed of his return. He then spent eleven years on his “Acts and -Monuments,” and died in 1587. - -At about this time the plague raged at Boston, 1585, and broke out again -in 1603. Boston and Frampton had, as the Registers show, suffered an -unusual mortality in 1568-9. The water was not good, and as late as 1783 -a boring to a depth of 478 feet was made in a vain search for a better -supply. The town was at that time supplied from the west fen through -wooden pipes. - -[Illustration: _Hussey’s Tower, Boston._] - -[Sidenote: CROMWELL AT BOSTON] - -Hallam, the historian, and Professor John Conington, whose monuments are -in the church, were both of Boston families, as was also Jean Ingelow; -and the statue near the church preserves the memory of John Ingram, -Member of Parliament for the town, and founder of the _Illustrated London -News_. Saunders tells us that Oliver Cromwell lay at Boston the night -before he fought the battle of Winceby, near Horncastle, October 10, -1643. He must have been up betimes, for a crow couldn’t make the distance -less than sixteen miles, and fen roads at that time were a caution. - -[Sidenote: “MY OWD SON”] - -Boston is a great centre for the fen farmers, and, as at Peterborough, -you may see and hear in the market much that is original. It was at -Peterborough that the “converted” sailor made his famous petition when -asked to do a bit of praying in the open: “O Lord! bless this people! -bless their fathers and mothers! and bless the children! O Lord bless -this place! make it prosperous, send thy blessing upon it and make -it—make it, O Lord! a sea-poort-town!” Boston having the Marsh farmers as -well as the Fen-men meeting in her market, preserves a more racy dialect. -I was once in the Boston Station waiting-room as it was getting dusk on a -winter evening; three people of the sea-faring class were there—a tall, -elderly man standing up, his son asleep on the floor, and the son’s wife -sitting and apparently not much concerned with anything. The father, -seeing me look at the sleeper, said “He’ll be all right after a bit. My -owd son yon is. He’s a bit droonk now, but he’s my owd son. A strange -good hand in a boat he is, I tell ye. They was out lass Friday i’ the -Noorth Sea and it cam on a gale o’ wind, they puts abowt you knooa, an’ -runs for poort. The seäs was monstrous high, they was, and the gale was a -rum un, an’ the booat she was gaff-hallyards under. The tother men ‘She’s -gooing!’ they says, ‘She’s gooing!’ But my owd son he hed the tiller. -‘_She’s_ all right,’ he säys, and mind ye she was gaff-hallyards under, -but ‘_She’s_ all right,’ he säys, and he brings her right in. Aye he’s a -rare un wi’ a booat is my owd son, noan to touch him. He’s a bit droonk -now, but he’s my owd son.” - -On another occasion at Boston I heard one farmer greet another with -“Well, Mr. Smith, how’s pigs?” a very common inquiry, for in Lincolnshire -pigs fill a large space on the agricultural horizon. Witness the reply -of an aged farmer, probably a little unmanned by market-day potations, -to a vegetarian who, with a cruelty hardly to be suspected in the votary -of so mild a diet, had attacked him with “How will you feel at the day -of Judgment when confronted by a whole row of oxen whose flesh you have -eaten?” “’Taint the beasts I’d be scared on; it’s the pigs; I’ve yetten a -vast o’ pigs.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVIII - -SPALDING AND THE CHURCHES NORTH OF IT - - Potato Trade—Bulb-growing—The Welland—Ayscough Fee - Hall—The Gentleman’s Society—The Church—Pinchbeck—Heraldic - Tombs—The Custs—Surfleet—Leaning Tower—Gosberton—Churchyard - Sheep—Cressy Hall—Quadring—Donington—Hemp and - Flax—Swineshead—Bicker—Sutterton—Algarkirk. - - -Three main roads enter the town of _Spalding_, the last town on the -Welland before it runs out into Fosdyke Wash. They come from the north, -south, and east. The west has none, being one huge fen which, till -comparatively recent times, admitted of locomotion only by boat. The -southern road comes from Peterborough and enters the county by the bridge -over the Welland at Market Deeping, a pleasant-looking little town -with wide market-like streets and its four-armed signpost pointing to -Peterborough and Spalding ten miles, and Bourne and Stamford seven miles. - -[Sidenote: THE WELLAND] - -From Deeping to Spalding the road is a typical fen road—three little inns -and a few farm cottages and the occasional line of white smoke on the -perfectly straight Peterborough and Boston railway is all there is to see -save the crops or the long potato graves which are mostly by the road -side. - -[Illustration: _The Welland at Cowbit Road, Spalding._] - -[Illustration: _The Welland at High Street, Spalding._] - -[Sidenote: BULB-GROWING] - -The potato trade is a very large one. Every cart or waggon we passed at -Easter-time on the roads between Deeping and Kirton-in-Holland was loaded -with sacks of potatoes, and all the farm hands were busy uncovering -the pits and sorting the tubers. Donington and Kirton seemed to be the -centres of the trade, Kirton being the home of the man who is known as -the potato king, and has many thousands of acres of fenland used for this -crop alone. Spalding itself is the centre of the daffodil market, and -quantities of bulbs are grown here and annually exported to Holland, -it is said, to find their way back to England in the autumn as Dutch -bulbs. I do not vouch for the truth of this, but certainly the business, -which has been for years a speciality of Holland, where the lie of the -land and the soil are much the same as in the South Lincolnshire and -Cambridgeshire Fens, is now a large and lucrative industry here, and is -each year expanding. The Channel and Scilly Islands and Cornwall can, of -course, owing to their climate, get their narcissus into bloom earlier, -but the conditions of soil are better in the Fens. Still, a liberal -supply of manure is needed to insure fine blooms, and sixty or seventy -tons to the acre is none too much, a crop of mustard or potatoes being -taken off after its application before planting the bulbs. Hyacinths are -still left to Holland, in one part of which, at Hillegom, near Haarlem, -the soil has just that amount of sand and lime which that particular -bulb demands. Tulips, however, are grown in England with great success; -crocuses are seldom planted as they make such a small return on the -outlay. For this outlay is very considerable, nine or ten women are -needed to each plough for planting, which alone costs 45_s._ an acre, -and then there is the constant weeding and cleaning of the ground, the -picking, bunching and packing, which needs many hands at once; also -there is the heavy cost of the bulbs themselves for planting, Narcissus -poeticus will cost £50 an acre of 400,000 bulbs, but 270,000 of Golden -Spur will cost £300 and fill the same space; others will cost prices -halfway between these two. Tulips want more room, and at 180,000 to the -acre some will cost as much as £500. Growers like to advertise big -bulbs, but the harder and smaller English-grown bulb will often give -as fine a bloom as the larger imported article. The whole industry is -comparatively new, and a very pleasant one for the many women who are -employed. - -[Sidenote: A DISTRIBUTING CENTRE] - -The town is a very old one, and the Welland going through it with trees -along its banks and the shipping close to the roadway gives it rather -a Dutch appearance. It is noteworthy as being the centre from which we -shall be able to see more fine churches, all within easy distance, than -we can in any other part of the county or kingdom. As early as 860 the -fisheries of the Welland, together with a wooden chapel of St. Mary -here, which became the site afterwards of the priory, were given by Earl -Alfgar to Croyland. Ivo Taillebois, the Conqueror’s nephew, with his -wife Lucia the first, lived here in the castle in some magnificence as -Lord of Holland. They were both buried in the priory church, founded -by Lady Godiva’s brother, Thorold of Bokenhale, and over possession of -which Spalding and Croyland had frequent disputes. One of the priors -subsequently built Wykeham chapel. The Kings Edward I. and II. stayed -at the priory, and from Bolingbroke, John of Gaunt and Chaucer were -not infrequent visitors. The building was on the south side of the -Market-place, and a shop there with a vaulted roof to one of its rooms -had probably some connection with it. At the dissolution it was valued -at £878, a very large sum, and next only to Croyland, which was by far -the richest house in the county and valued at £1,100 or £1,200. Thornton -Abbey was only set at £730. - -The river is navigable for small sea-going vessels, and many large -barges may generally be found tied up along its course through the town, -discharging oil cake and cotton cake, and taking in cargoes of potatoes, -both being transhipped at Fosdyke from or into coasting steamers running -between Hull and London. - -But water carriage though cheap is limited in that it only goes between -two points, whereas Spalding is the meeting-place of at least three -railways, making six exits for Spalding goods to come and go to and from -all the main big towns in Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire or Norfolk, as -well as to all those in our own county. Thus there are twice as many ways -out of Spalding by rail as there are by road. - -[Illustration: _Ayscough Fee Hall Gardens, Spalding._] - -[Sidenote: AYSCOUGH FEE HALL] - -The Welland, carefully banked by the Romans, is now bridged for one -railway after another, and runs with a street on either side of it and -rows of trees along it right through the town. On your right as you -enter from the south you see across the river, looking over the top of -a picturesque old brick wall, the well-clipped masses of ancient yew -trees which form the shaded walks in the pretty grounds of _Ayscough Fee -Hall_. The house, built in 1429, but terribly modernised, is now used as -a museum, and the grounds form a public garden for the town. Murray tells -us that Maurice Johnson once lived in it, who helped to found the Society -of Antiquaries in 1717, and founded in 1710 the “Gentleman’s Society of -Spalding,” which still flourishes. Among its many distinguished members -it numbered Newton, Bentley, Pope, Gay, Addison, Stukeley, and Sir Hans -Sloane, and Captain Perry, engineer to the Czar, Peter the Great, who was -engaged in the drainage of Deeping Fen. - -[Sidenote: SPALDING CHURCH] - -Close to it is the fine old church, the body of which is as wide as it -is long owing to its having double aisles on either side of the nave. -It was founded to take the place of an earlier one which was falling to -ruins, in the market-place. It dates from 1284, and was once cruciform in -plan, with a tower at the north-west corner of the nave. The transepts, -which now do not project beyond the double north and south aisles, had -each two narrow transept aisles, but the western ones have been thrown -into the aisles of the nave. The inner nave aisles are the same length -as the nave, but the outer ones only go as far west as the north and -south porches, the tower filling up the angle beyond the south porch. -The chancel is so large that it was used by Bishop Fleming (1420-30) for -episcopal ordinations. - -[Illustration: _Spalding Church from the S.E._] - -[Sidenote: THE “HOLE IN THE WALL”] - -The east end wall is not rectangular, but the south chancel wall runs out -two feet further east than the north wall, as it does also in the church -of Coulsdon, near Reigate, in Surrey. The reason of this is that it is -built on the foundation of an older chapel. The flat Norman buttresses -are still to be seen outside the east end. The tower leans to the east, -and when examined it was found to have been built flat on the surface -of the ground with no foundation whatever. It seems incredible, but -the intelligent verger was positive about it. The spire has beautiful -canopied openings in three tiers, the lower ones having two lights and -being unusually graceful. Standing inside the south porch and near the -tower, and looking up the church, you get a most picturesque effect, for -the church has so many aisles that you can see no less than twenty-three -different arches. The north porch is handsome, and had three canopied -niches over both the outer and the inner doorway, and a vaulted roof -supporting a room over the entrance. A five-light window over the chancel -arch is curious. There is a rood-loft and a staircase leading to it, and -going on up to the roof. The Perpendicular west window is very large -and has seven lights. This dates from the fifteenth century, when the -nave was lengthened and the pillars of the nave considerably heightened -and the old caps used again, and what had previously been an “early -Decorated” church with only a nave and transepts, had Perpendicular -aisles added. The large south-east chapel which, until 1874 was used -as a school, was founded in 1311. An erect life-size marble figure -commemorates Elizabeth Johnson, 1843. There are no other important -monuments. The tower has eight bells and a Sanctus bell-cot at the east -end of the nave. There are stone steps to enable people to get over the -brick churchyard wall, as there are also at Kirton and Friskney. Some -stone coffin-lids curiously out of place are let into one of the boundary -walls of the churchyard. Close by is the White Horse, a picturesque old -thatched and gabled inn. There is another inn here called “The Hole in -the Wall.” I wonder if this title is derived from Shakespeare’s play, -“The tedious brief scene of young Pyramus and Thisbe,” who, says the -story, “did talk through the chink of a wall,” or does it refer to some -breach in the sea wall? To come from fancy to fact, the real name seems -to have been Holy Trinity Wall, the house having been built up against a -wall of that church which, with half a score of others in Spalding, has -been dismantled and utterly swept away. Another puzzling sign I passed -lately was “The New Found out.” The writer of an article in _The Times_ -of April 8, on the fire at Little Chesterford, thinks the sign of one of -the burnt public-houses, “The Bushel and Strike,” a very singular one, -not knowing that the strike, like the bushel, is a measure of corn. - -_St. Paul’s, Fulney_, to the north of the town, is a handsome new -brick-and-stone church, by Sir Gilbert Scott, who also restored the old -church and removed every sort of hideous inside fitting, where galleries -all round the nave came within four feet of the heads of the worshippers -in the box pews. At that time £11,000 was spent on the restoration. This -was in 1866, in which year the vicar, the Rev. William Moore, died, and -he and his wife are buried in the nave; his parents, who had done so much -for the church, are buried at Weston. - -About two miles from Fulney is Wykeham chapel,[33] built in 1310 and -attached to a country residence of the priors of Spalding; it is now only -a ruin. - -[Illustration: _N. Side, Spalding Church._] - -[Sidenote: PAINTED PILLARS] - -[Sidenote: PINCHBECK] - -Going out of Spalding northwards, three miles bring us to _Pinchbeck_, -which was an important village in Saxon times, and attached to Croyland -Abbey, where a fine tower with six bells leans to the north-west. It is -approached by a lime avenue. There are two rows of diaper carved work -round the base of the tower, and large canopied niches on either side -of the west door. The old roof on the north aisle is good, the pillars -of the nave are spoilt by a hideous coat of purple paint. A delightful -old brass weathercock is preserved in the church, and over the south -porch is a dial. The high narrow tower-arch is a pleasure to look on. -The altar tomb of Sir Thomas Pinchbeck (1500) has heraldic shields all -round it, but is quite outdone by a brass of Margaret Lambert, a very -ugly one, but adorned with twenty-seven heraldic coats of arms of her -husband and fifteen of her own. The ten fine Perpendicular clerestory -windows of three lights give the church a handsome appearance, and show -the large wooden angels in the roof, who used to hold shields bearing the -achievements of the house of “Pynchebek.” - -[Illustration: _Pinchbeck._] - - -THE CUSTS. - -[Sidenote: THE CUST FAMILY] - -There is another name connected with this place, for one of the oldest -Lincolnshire families is that of the Custs, or Costes, who have held land -in Pinchbeck and near Bicker Haven for fourteen generations: though the -first known mention of the name is not in the fens but at Navenby, where -one Osbert Coste had held land in King John’s reign. - -The neighbourhood of Croyland Abbey, of Spalding Priory, and of -Boston Haven, with its large wool trade, made “Holland” a district of -considerable importance, and led some of the more enterprising mercantile -families to settle in the neighbourhood. - -The same causes occasioned the building of the fine fen churches, which -still remain, though the great houses have disappeared. Custs settled in -Gosberton and Boston as well as at Pinchbeck. At the latter place, what -is now the River Glen was in the fifteenth century called the “Bourne -Ee,” or Eau, and the road by it was the “Ee Gate.” Here Robert Cust in -1479 lived in “The Great House at Croswithand,” in which was a large -hall open to the roof and strewed with rushes, with hangings in it to -partition off sleeping places for the guests or the sons of the house, -the daughters sharing the parlour with their parents. Robert is called a -“Flaxman,” that being the crop by which men began to make their fortunes -in Pinchbeck Fen. He continually added small holdings to his modest -property as opportunity arose, and his son Hugh, succeeding in 1492, did -the same; buying two acres from “Thomas Sykylbrys Franklin” for 50_s._ -and one and a half from Robert Sparowe for £5, and so on. Hugh is styled -in 1494 “flax chapman,” in 1500 he had advanced to “Yeoman.” He then had -three farms of sixty-nine acres, and by economy and industry he not only -lived, but lived comfortably, and had money to buy fresh land, though his -will shows that things were on a small scale still, so that individual -mention is made of his “black colt with two white feet behind.” After the -death of his two sons, Hugh’s grandson Richard succeeded in 1554, and -married the juvenile widow, Milicent Slefurth _née_ Beele, who brought -him the lands of R. Pereson, the wealthy vicar of Quadring, with a house -at Moneybridge on the Glen, which she left eventually to her second -son, Richard. His grandson Samuel took to the legal profession, and, -disdaining the parts of Holland after life in London, left the house -there to his brother Joshua, who was the last Cust to live at Pinchbeck. -The family were by this time wealthy, and had a good deal of land round -Boston and elsewhere. Samuel’s son, Richard, married in 1641 Beatrice -Pury, and had a son called Pury, whence spring the Purey Custs. The -Pury family then lived at Kirton, near Boston. He left the law for a -soldier’s life, and was “captain of a Trained Band in the Wapentake of -Skirbeck in the parts of Holland.” He succeeded his father in 1663 and -lived, after the Restoration, at Stamford. In 1677, by interest and the -payment of £1,000, he obtained a baronetcy. His son, Sir Pury Cust, who -had been knighted by William III. in 1690, after the battle of the Boyne, -in which he commanded a troop of horse under the Duke of Schomberg, died -in 1698, two years before his father. His wife, Ursula, the heiress of -the Woodcock family of Newtimber, had died at the age of twenty-four -in 1683. Her monument is in St. George’s church, Stamford. She traced -back her family to Joan, “the fair maid of Kent,” through Joan’s second -husband, John Lord Holland, if we are to take it that she was really -married first, and not simply engaged when a girl to Lord Salisbury. At -all events, her last husband was the Black Prince, by whom she was mother -of Richard II. Her father was Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, the -sixth son of Edward I. - -In 1768 Sir John Cust was Speaker of the House of Commons. The present -head of the Cust family is the Earl of Brownlow. - -[Illustration: _Surfleet._] - -[Sidenote: GOSBERTON] - -[Sidenote: THE LEANING TOWER] - -Close to Pinchbeck, on whose already sinking tower the builders had not -dared to place their intended spire, is _Surfleet_, where the tower -and spire lean in a most threatening manner. Arches have been built -up to support it, and by the well-known power of old buildings known -as “Sticktion,” it may last for many generations, but it presents a -very uncomfortable appearance. For the next twenty miles we shall be -constantly crossing the great dykes which drain the fens, all running -eastwards. The road which divides after crossing the Hammond Beck and -the Rise-Gate-Eau passes through _Gosberton_, once called Gosberdekirk, -a large village with a very fine Perpendicular church. You enter by a -richly moulded doorway from a very wide porch, over the entrance to which -is a figure. To the right of the porch, arched recesses are seen under -each south aisle window. There is a central tower with large transepts -and a lofty crocketed spire. A Lady chapel adjoins the south transept. -The clerestory is a later addition, and the ground has been filled up -so that the beautifully carved bases of the nave pillars are two feet -below the present paving. A trap-door is lifted to show one of them. -The rood staircase is on the south side, and in the south transept is a -particularly fine window, with two carved cross-mullions. The moulding -of the nave arches is carried right down the pillars, which deprives them -of capitals and gives them a very feeble appearance. A similar absence -of capitals is found in the tower arches at Horncastle. The roof under -the belfry is groined, and a fine screen separates the chapel of St. -Katherine from the body of the church. In this, there is an old plain -chest with three iron bands. An elegant recumbent stone effigy of a lady -and another of a knight in armour, with a shield bearing a Red Cross, are -the only monuments of interest. As early as 1409, in the reign of Henry -IV., Gosberton was a fat living, for in that year we find that the warden -of the hospital of St. Nicholas at Pontefract exchanged the manor of -Methley in Yorkshire for the advowsons of Gosberkirk, Lincolnshire, and -Wathe, Yorkshire. This manor, before the end of that century, became the -property of Sir Thomas Dymoke. - -[Sidenote: SHEEP IN CHURCHYARDS] - -The church is very well cared for, and I was glad to see sheep in the -churchyard, the only way of keeping the grass tidy without going to an -unwarrantable expense. - -[Illustration: _Surfleet Windmill._] - -I know quite well the objections which can reasonably be urged to this -plan, that the sheep make the paths and the porch dirty and may damage -the tombstones; but the porch can have wire netting doors, and the -paths can be cleaned up and the sheep excluded for Sunday; and in those -churchyards which are worst cared for there are generally no tombstones -which would be liable to any hurt. - -Certainly in one churchyard where I have seen sheep for many years I -never knew of any damage, and they did keep the grass neat where it would -have cost much to keep it trimmed up by hand. - -Not far from Gosberton station is Cressy Hall, a modern red brick house, -built on the site of a very ancient one. It had been a manor of the Creci -family from Norman times, and passed from them to Sir John Markham, who -entertained there the Lady Margaret, mother of Henry VII. - -Dr. Stukeley, towards the end of the eighteenth century, saw the old -oak bedstead on which she slept. It was then in a farm-house, called -Wrigbolt, in the parish of Gosberton, and was very large and shut in all -round with oak panels carved outside, two holes being left at the foot -big enough to admit a full-grown person—a sort of hutch in fact. The -property subsequently came to the Heron family, who lived there for three -centuries. They kept up a large heronry there, and we read of as many as -eighty nests in one tree, but since the family left the manor, at the -beginning of last century, the birds have been dispersed. - -[Sidenote: QUADRING] - -The next village to Gosberton is _Quadring_, a curious name, said to be -derived from the Celtic Coed (= wood). The western tower and spire are -well proportioned, and the tower is quite remarkable for the way in which -it draws in, narrowing all the way up from the ground to the spire. The -rich embattled nave parapet and the rood turrets and staircase are also -noticeable, and, as usual with these Lincolnshire churches, a fine row of -large clerestory windows gives a very handsome appearance. This church -has in it a fine chest; as have Gosberton and Sutterton. The latter very -plain, and both with three iron straps and locks, while at Swineshead is -a good iron chest of the Nuremberg pattern. - -Four miles will bring us to _Donington_, once a market town and the -centre of the local hemp and flax trade, of which considerable quantities -were grown both here and round Pinchbeck. It was the flax trade that -attracted the Custs to Pinchbeck in the fifteenth century. - -[Sidenote: DONINGTON] - -Up to the last century Donington had three hemp fairs in the year, in -May, September, and October, and the land being mostly wet fen, the -villagers kept large flocks of geese, one man owning as many as 1,000 -“old geese.” These, besides goslings, yielded a crop of quills and -feathers, and the poor birds were plucked five times a year. The sea -shells in the soil indicate that before the sea banks were made the land -was just a salt-water fen, and it is probable that the men of Donington -had a navigable cut to the sea near Bicker or Wigtoft, for the Roman -sea-bank from Frieston curved inland to Wigtoft and thence ran to -Fossdyke, and the sea water no doubt came up to the bank. - -The Romans did much for this village, which lies between their sea-bank -and the Carr Dyke. The former kept out the sea water, and the latter -intercepted the flood water from the hills. This was more effectually -done later by the Hammond Beck, which, coming from Spalding, ran -northwards a parallel course to the Roman Dyke, and with the same -purpose, but some four or five miles nearer to Donington, after passing -which place it bends round to the east and goes out at Boston. Thus -farming was made possible, and potatoes now have taken the place of flax -and hemp. - -[Sidenote: FLINDERS AND FRANKLIN] - -A large green, bordered by big school buildings, now fills the Market -Square. The church, dedicated to St. Mary and the Holy Rood, is late -Decorated and Perpendicular, and has a splendid tower and spire 240 -feet high, which stands in a semi-detached way at the south-east of the -south aisle and is surmounted by a very fine ball and weathercock. The -lower stage forms a groined south porch, over which as well as on each -buttress are large canopied niches for statues, and over the inner door -is a figure of our Lord. The pillars in the nave are octagonal. There -is a large rood bracket, and the rood staircase starts, not from behind -the pulpit, but from the top of the chancel step. The walls of the -Early English chancel are of rough stone, with no windows on the north, -but the east window is a grand five-light Perpendicular one, and three -large windows of the same style are at the west end. In all of these the -tracery is unusually good. A doorway at each side of the altar shows -that the chancel once extended further, and there is a curious arched -recess at the north-east corner with high steps, the meaning of which is -a puzzle. A little kneeling stone figure is seen in the wall of the north -aisle. The responds of the nave arcades, both east and west, have very -large carved bosses. The roof is old and quite plain. In the church are -many memorial slabs to members of the Flinders family, among them one to -Captain Matthew Flinders,[34] 1814, one of the early explorers, who, in -the beginning of last century, was sent to map the coast of Australia, -and having been captured by the French, was kept for some years in prison -in Mauritius. - -The Blacksmith’s epitaph, mentioned in the account of Bourne Abbey, -is also found in the churchyard here, with bellows, forge, and anvil -engraved on the stone. - -[Sidenote: SWINESHEAD] - -_Swineshead_ is but four miles further on, with _Bicker_ half way. The -latter has a far older church than any in the neighbourhood. It is -dedicated to St. Swithun. It is a twelfth-century cruciform building with -massive piers and cushion capitals and fine moulding to its Norman arches -over the two western bays of the nave. The clerestory has Norman arcading -in triplets with glass in the centre light. The east window consists of -three tall Early English lancets. A turret staircase in the south aisle -gives access to another in the tower. The north aisle oak seats have been -made out of portions of the rood screen. The Early English font, being -supported on four short feet, is interesting, as is a holy water stoup in -the porch. This church has been well restored by the Rev. H. T. Fletcher, -now ninety-three years of age, who has been rector for half a century. -In the last half of the thirteenth century a Christopher Massingberd -was the incumbent. It is kept locked on account of recent thefts in the -neighbourhood. As you go to _Swineshead_ you pass a roadside pond with a -notice, “Beware of the Swans.” The village, like Donington, was once a -market town, and has still the remains of its market cross and stocks. -The low spire of the church rises from a beautiful battlemented octagon -which crowns the tower and is _the_ feature of the building. There is a -similar one at the base of the spire of the grand church of Patrington in -Holderness. The tower is at the west end of the nave, and at each of its -corners are very high pinnacles. The belfry is lighted by unusually large -three-light Perpendicular windows, and the clerestory by large windows -with Decorated tracery. The south aisle windows, too, are Decorated, -those in the north aisle Perpendicular. The roof is old, and though -plain in the nave, is richer in the north aisle. The clustered columns -in the nave are slender, and the long pointed chancel arch, having -no shoulders, is curiously ugly. The old iron chest has been already -mentioned. - -[Illustration: _The Welland at Marsh Road, Spalding._] - -[Sidenote: SUTTERTON] - -At Swineshead the road goes east to Boston and west to Sleaford. This we -will speak of when we describe the six roads out of Sleaford, of which -the Swineshead road is by far the most interesting. But we must go back -by _Bicker_, to which the sea once came close up, as testified by the -remains of the Roman sea-bank only two miles off; and perhaps, too, -by the name “Fishmere End,” near the neighbouring village of Wigton. -After seeing _Bicker_ we will retrace our steps through Donington by -Quadring and Gosberton, till we reach the “Gate Eau,” then turning to the -left, strike the direct Spalding and Boston road. This, after crossing -“Quadring Eau-Dyke”—a name which tells a fenny tale—passes over the Roman -bank as it leaves Bicker, and making eastwards after its long inland -curve from Frieston, proceeds to _Sutterton_ and _Algarkirk_. The names -go together as a station on the Great Northern Railway loop line, and -the villages are not far apart. They were both endowed as early as 868, -as mentioned in the Arundel MSS. The churches of both are cruciform. -_Sutterton_ has a tall spire thickly crocketed, and a charming Transition -doorway in the south porch. That of the north is of the same date. The -Early English arcades have rich bands of carving under the capitals -of their round pillars; the two eastern pillars, from the thrust of -the tower, lean considerably to the west; and, showing how much of the -building was done in the Transition Norman time, the pointed arch of the -chancel is enriched with Norman moulding. The large Perpendicular windows -are very good, but the tracery of the Decorated west window is not -attractive. The level of the floor has been so filled up that the narrow -transept-arch pillars are now buried as much as three feet. The fittings -are all pinewood, which gives one a kind of shock in so fine an old -church. There are eight bells and a thirteenth-century Sanctus bell with -inscription in Lombardic letters. The wood of the massive old iron-bound -chest is sadly decayed. - -[Illustration: _Algarkirk._] - -[Sidenote: THE MAGNIFICENT WINDOWS] - -_Algarkirk_, the church of Earl Alfgar, stands within half a mile of -Sutterton, in a park. The parish is a huge one, and the living was, -till recently, worth £2,000 a year, but having been purchased from the -Berridge family and presented to the Bishop of Lincoln, its revenues -have gone largely to endow new churches in Grimsby, and the present -incumbent has only one quarter of what his predecessors had. Like -Spalding, Algarkirk had double aisles to the transepts, but the eastern -aisle on the south side has been thrown into the transept. The Decorated -windows of each transept are very fine ones, and those at the east and -west ends of the nave are extremely large and good, that at the west -filling the whole of the wall space. The clerestory has ten three-light -windows, and the transepts have similar ones. Outside, the nave, aisles -and transepts are all battlemented, which gives a very rich appearance. -The fittings are all of oak, and there are six bells. Every window below -the clerestory has good modern stained glass, and, taken as a whole, the -church is one of the most beautiful in the county. - -[Sidenote: AT ALGARKIRK] - -It was Easter time when we visited Algarkirk, and the rookery in the park -at the edge of the churchyard was giving abundant signs of busy life. -The delightful cawing of the rooks is always associated in my mind with -the bright spring time in villages of the Lincolnshire wolds. In the -churchyard I noticed the name of Phœbe more than once, but I doubt if the -parents, when bestowing this pretty classic name on their infant daughter -at the font, ever thought of her adding to it, as the tombstone says she -did, the prosaic name of Weatherbogg. - -At Sutterton two main roads cross, one from Swineshead to Holbeach, -crossing the Welland near Fosdyke; the other from Boston to Spalding, -crossing the Glen at Surfleet. - -From Swineshead two very dull roads run west to Sleaford, and north to -Coningsby and Tattershall, to join the Sleaford and Horncastle road. -This, after crossing the old Hammond Beck, sends an off-shoot eastwards -to Boston, whose tower is seen about four miles off. It then crosses the -great South-Forty-foot drain at Hubbert’s bridge, named after Hubba the -Dane, and the North-Forty-foot less than a mile further on, and, passing -by Brothertoft to the Witham, which it crosses at Langrick, runs in a -perfectly straight line through Thornton-le-Fen to Coningsby. An equally -straight road goes parallel to, but four miles east of it, from Boston by -New Bolingbroke to Revesby. - -From what we have said it will be seen that the road from Spalding -northwards is thickly set with fine churches; but that which goes -eastwards boasts another group which are grander still. They are all -figured in the volume of “Lincolnshire Churches,” which deals with the -division of Holland. This was published in 1843 by T. N. Morton of -Boston, the excellent drawings being by Stephen Lewin. His drawing of -Kirton Old Church shows what an extremely handsome building it was before -Hayward destroyed it in 1804. - -[Sidenote: MEANING OF ‘PINCHBECK’] - -One ought not to close this Chapter without some reference to the term -“pinchbeck,” meaning _sham_, literally base metal, looking like gold, and -used for watchcases.[35] Some Pinchbeck natives still have it that it -was a yellow metal found rather more than a century ago near Pinchbeck, -and now exhausted. But fen soil has no minerals, and really it was a -London watchmaker, who was either a native of Pinchbeck or else called -Pinchbeck, who invented the alloy of 80 parts copper to 20 of zinc. I -remember hearing of a case at Spilsby sessions, where a man was accused -of stealing a watch. The robbed man was asked, “What was your watch? a -gold one?” “Nöa, it wëant gowd.” “Silver then?” “Näay, it wëant silver, -nither.” “Then what was it?” “Why, it wor pinchbeck.” - -On a later occasion the thief, asking the same “lawyer feller” to defend -him, said, by way of introduction, “You remember you got me off before -for stealing a watch.” “For the _alleged_ stealing of a watch, you mean.” -“Alleged be blowed! I’ve got the watch at home now.” - -[Illustration: _At Fulney._] - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIX - -CHURCHES OF HOLLAND, EAST OF SPALDING - - Weston—The Font—Fertile Country—Colman’s Factory—The - Woad Plant—’Twixt Marsh and Fen—Moulton—The Spire—The - Elloe Stone—Whaplode—Holbeach—Fleet—Gedney—The Mustard - Fields—Long Sutton—Groups of Churches—Fossdyke Old - Bridge—Kirton—Frampton—Wyberton—A Storm—Agricultural - Statistics, 1913—A Legend of Holbeach. - - -The road which runs east from Spalding passes out of the county to reach -King’s Lynn. But before it does so, it goes through a line of villages -along which, within a distance of ten miles, are six of the finest -churches which even Lincolnshire can show. Going out through Fulney we -begin, less than four miles from Spalding, with _Weston_, where we find -an unusually fine south porch with arcading and stone seats on either -side. At the east end are three lancet lights of perfect Early English -work and four slender buttresses. The nave dates from the middle of the -twelfth century, and has stout round pillars in the south and octagonal -in the north arcades, each set round with slender detached shafts as -at Skirbeck, united under capitals carved with good stiff foliage. The -aisles and transepts are later, and the tower later again. - -The Early English font is a splendid specimen and stands on its original -octagonal steps with half of the circle occupied by a broad platform for -the priest. Two good old oak chests stand on either side of the tower -arch, and near the south door two curious musical instruments of the oboe -type are hanging, and seem to be worthy of more careful preservation. - -[Sidenote: ‘MARSH’ AND ‘FEN’] - -The whole of our route to-day lies through a perfectly flat land, mostly -arable and of extraordinary fertility. The corn crops at the end of May -were standing nearly two feet high, and all around bright squares of -yellow made the air heavy with the scent of the mustard flower. I lately -went all over the great mustard factory of Messrs. Colman at Norwich, in -which the beauty and ingenuity of the machinery for making and labelling -the tins, for filling bags and boxes, or for sorting and folding up -in their proper papers the cubes of blue (of which there is a factory -contiguous) were a perfect marvel. The works cover thirty-two acres, and -everything needed for the business is made on the premises. The mustard -of commerce is a mixture of the brown and the white, both of which, and -especially the best brown, are grown in the greatest perfection in the -fields round Holbeach. It is a valuable crop. In October, 1912, I saw a -quotation of 10_s._ 6_d._ to 13_s._ 6_d._ a bushel for brown, and 8_s._ -to 8_s._ 6_d._ for white; 1913 was a much better year, and so I suppose -prices ruled higher. But to return. - -Here and there we passed a field with an unfamiliar crop of stiff -purplish plants which showed where the cultivation of the _Isatis -tinctoria_, the woad plant, which added so much to the attractiveness of -our earliest British ancestors, was still kept going. This flat country -is not without its trees, and near the villages park-like meadows, the -remains of ancient manors, showed a beautiful wealth of chestnut bloom, -whilst the cottage gardens were gay with laburnum and pink May. This -was especially the case with the most easterly villages of Holbeach, -Gedney and Long Sutton, but all along this line of road from Weston to -Sutton there were, at one time, manors of the Irby, Welby, Littlebury, -and other families, of which nothing now remains but this heritage of -trees. The line of road is a very remarkable one, for it divides what -once might have been described as the waters that were above from the -waters that were below; in other words the Fen from the Marsh. If you -look at a good map you will see to the north of the road, from west -to east successively, Pinchbeck Marsh, Spalding Marsh, Weston Marsh, -Moulton Marsh, Whaplode Marsh, Holbeach Marsh, Gedney Marsh, Sutton -Marsh, and Wingland Marsh. The last of these lies between Sutton Bridge -and Cross-Keys, on the county boundary; and since the new outfall of the -river Nene was cut, a rich tract has been gained for cultivation where -once the sea had possession, and just where King John lost his baggage -and treasure in his disastrous crossing of the Cross-Keys Wash, at low -tide, shortly before his death in 1216. There is now a good road there. - -Now look at the map again and you will see to the south of this Holbeach -road the same names, but with _Fen_ instead of _Marsh_—Moulton, Whaplode, -Holbeach, and Gedney _Fen_. - -[Sidenote: RETIREMENT OF THE WASH] - -The Marsh country is far the most interesting, and it is clear both from -the nature of the land and from the names of the places that the Wash -used to come several miles further inland than it does now, running up -between Algarkirk and Gosberton as far as Bicker, and penetrating up -the Welland estuary to “Surfleet seas end,” and up the Moulton river to -“Moulton seas end,” to Holbeach Clough, to Lutton Gowt, which is north -of Long Sutton on the Leam, and to the Roman bank which is still visible -at Fleet and again further east between Cross-Keys and Walpole. This -bank probably came by _Tydd St. Mary_, through which a Roman road from -Cowbit also passed. But this was long ago, and many centuries elapsed -before this Spalding and Lynn road, passing between Marsh and Fen, came -into being, with its many magnificent churches, mostly the work of great -monastic institutions between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, and -therefore built with exceptional magnificence. - -[Sidenote: MOULTON] - -After _Weston_ less than two miles, through a country brightened by the -many red and white chestnut trees in bloom, brings us to _Moulton_, -lying a little to the south of the main road. Here we have a beautiful -Perpendicular tower and crocketed spire, reminding one, by its graceful -proportions, of Louth, though not much more than half the height. The -nave has six bays of Transition Norman work with pillars both round and -clustered, resting on large millstone-like bases, the two western piers -having tall responds built into them, which probably supported the arch -of an earlier tower. The Early English carved foliage on the capitals is -like that at Skirbeck, or in the Galilee Porch at Ely and the transept -of York Cathedral. Some most graceful old work has been restored in the -lower part of the rood-screen, and a new and well-designed canopy added. -The doorway to this rood-loft is on the south side. A curious old oak -alms-box is near the south door, and against the western pier of the -north arcade is a singular font which has been displaced by a modern -square one of no particular merit. In the older one the bowl stands on -the trunk of a tree carved in stone, on either side of which are figures -about three feet high of Adam and Eve, and the Serpent is curling round -the tree.[36] The wooden cover with the figure of a stout Rubens angel -flying and grasping the top has fallen into disrepair. A list of the -vicars from 1237 is in the north aisle. - -The clerestory windows are handsomely arcaded outside, with round Norman -arcading on the south and pointed arcades on the north side, and ugly -Perpendicular windows inserted at intervals which occupy the space of two -arcades. - -The great beauty of the church is the Perpendicular tower and spire, -built about 1380. It has four stages, and over the great west window -are some canopied niches, two of which still contain their statues. The -buttresses have also niches and canopies, and the tower finishes with -a rich battlement and pinnacles which are connected with the spire by -light flying-buttresses; the whole is beautifully proportioned, and as it -stands in a very wide street one can get a satisfactory view of it. - -The dividing of each side by set-off string courses, three on the west -and four on the north and south sides, the canopy work of the buttresses -at each stage, the pleasing varieties in the size of the windows, the -canopied arcading on the west front, the panelled parapet and deep -cornice, the elegant pinnacles at the corners of the coped battlements -from which the light flying-buttresses spring up to the richly ornamented -spire, all help to delight and satisfy the eye in a manner which few -churches in any county can hope to rival. - -In a bridge half a mile from the church on the south side of a lane -called ‘Old Spalding Gate,’ or ‘Elloe Stone lane,’ at the fifth milestone -from Spalding, still stands _the Elloe Stone_. - -The Shire Mote or hundred court of the Elloe Wapentake, which is a huge -one embracing the whole of Holland between the Welland and the Nene, used -to be held at the four cross-roads near this stone, in pre-Norman times. -The manor courts were introduced by the Normans. - -Boy Scouts were very much in evidence when we were in Moulton; they -number over thirty there alone, and I never saw a smarter lot. - -[Sidenote: WHAPLODE] - -From Moulton we get back to the main road and go on two short miles -to _Whaplode_. In Domesday Book this is spelt Quappelode, the cape on -the lode or creek, the village being built on a spit of land elevated -above the fens and encircled by drains, or lodes, to keep it free from -inundation. - -[Illustration: _Whaplode Church._] - -The church here was built by the abbot of Croyland in rivalry with -Moulton, which was the work of the prior of Spalding. The nave, of no -less than seven bays, is narrow and 110 feet long, and exhibits in the -low chancel arch and four adjoining arcades quite the most interesting -Norman work in ‘Holland.’ The massive Norman pillars are built in pairs -of different patterns. The three western arches are Transitional and -pointed; of this period the chief feature is the west door with a fine -series of mouldings and a double row of eight detached shafts on either -side, set one behind the other. - -The tower is very fine and is in a most unusual position, being south -of the eastmost bay of the south aisle and almost detached, though -once joined by a transept. We quite agree with Mr. Jeans when he says -“Probably it was intended to have two transeptal towers like Exeter -and Ottery, the only two churches in England with them, but a late -Perpendicular transept occupies the place of the North one.” The lower -Transition stage is richly arcaded, the next two Early English stages -have lancet arcading, and the belfry stage, which is early Decorated, -has coupled lights and a parapet above them. The choir-screen stood, -curiously, a bay in front of the rood loft, the stairs to which are on -the south side. The pulpit is Jacobean, the font a copy of a Norman one, -the chancel is of the meanest, and all the windows except one at the east -of the north aisle are incredibly ugly. Some stone coffins are placed in -the west end, where also is the fine canopied monument of Sir Anthony and -Lady Elizabeth Irby with large figures of their children kneeling at the -side. See _Ashby-cum-Fenby_, p. 267. - -[Sidenote: HOLBEACH] - -Another three miles along this wonderful line of grand churches brings -us to the church of All Saints, _Holbeach_, a magnificent building all -in the latest Decorated style throughout. The spire without crockets, -though higher than Moulton, is rather dwarfed by the large tower -without pinnacles. The nave is very spacious and light, having large -aisle windows with no stained glass, and no less than fourteen pairs -of clerestory windows. The flamboyant tracery in the east window is -very good. The nave has seven very lofty bays on tall, light, clustered -pillars, and the eastern bay does not reach the chancel arch, but leaves -a wall space of six feet to accommodate the requirements of the rood -loft. There is a very large north porch of singular construction, with -heavy, round battlemented turrets like the flanking bastions of a castle -gateway. Above is a parvise. In the north aisle is a well-preserved altar -tomb to Sir Humphrey Littlebury, _c._ 1400, and two brasses; one of -Joanna Welbye, 1458, for both these families once had manors at Holbeach. - -[Illustration: _Fleet Church._] - -The approach to the town is through a well-wooded country, and a row of -pink chestnuts in bloom lined the churchyard, as we saw it early in June. -Like Moulton, the parish is a very large one, containing, according to -Murray, 21,000 acres of land and 14,000 of water. Somewhere in this huge -parish was born, in 1687, William Stukeley, the antiquarian, who became -in his later years the rector of Somerby, near Grantham. - -The “Legend of Holbeach” was probably unknown to him, but it is of some -antiquity, and it is printed at the end of the chapter in the rhyming -form which was given to it more than a hundred years ago by Thomas -Rawnsley of Bourne, D.L. - -[Sidenote: A DETACHED SPIRE] - -A mile off the road to the right, is seen the spire of _Fleet_ church. -This, too, is mainly in the Decorated style with Early English arcades -and a Perpendicular west window. The tower stands apart from the rest of -the church at an interval of fifteen feet. Other instances of detached -towers are at Evesham in Worcestershire, at Elstow near Bedford, and, I -think, at Terrington in Norfolk; but a detached spire is very rarely seen. - -All the churches on the main road are at intervals of three miles, -and that distance will bring us to the tall slender Giotto-like tower -of _Gedney_, ninety feet high with very small buttresses. This, like -Whaplode, was built, by the abbots of Croyland. The spacious nave has -twelve Perpendicular three-light clerestory windows of unusual beauty, -divided by pinnacles rising above the parapet. There are six lofty bays -and a fine Early English tower arch. As at Holbeach and Sutton, there -is a parvise over the south porch. The tower was to have had a spire -instead of its present little spirelet, but only the base of it was -built. Possibly this was because the foundations were not trustworthy, -and, indeed, it may be said to have no foundations but to be built on -a raft in the peat bog on which it floats securely, as did Winchester -Cathedral before the deep drainage trench was cut along the north side -of the close. At Gedney, if you jump on the floor of the porch you will -distinctly perceive the vibration of the ground. - -It is enriched at the first stage by lancet windows, then by an arcading -with pointed arches, above which come beautiful twin windows, each with -two lights; and the upper, Decorated, stage of the tower—above the line -where the Black Death so obviously and effectually stopped the work, -as described in the next chapter—has two lofty canopied and transomed -windows in each face, which give a very handsome appearance. There is no -west door. - -[Illustration: _Gedney Church._] - -[Sidenote: GEDNEY] - -Within is a ‘low-side’ window at the south-west end of the chancel which -is sometimes called an ‘Ichnoscope,’ and in the vestry is a ‘squint.’ -A thirteenth-century cross-legged knight, the fine brass of a lady -(1390), recently discovered, and the richly coloured alabaster monument -of Adlard and Cassandra Welby (1590) are all worthy of notice; while the -abbots’ inscription over the door, “Pax Xti sit huic domui et omnibus -habitantibus in ea, hic requies nostra,” is to be contrasted with the -worldly-wise motto of John Petty on the old bell-metal door lock, “Be -Ware before, avyseth Johannes Pette.” Let into the door is a very -remarkable crucifixion in ivory. - -[Sidenote: THE MUSTARD FIELDS] - -As we left Gedney and looked back over the fields the tall and -Italian-looking campanile, whose bells, however, cannot vie with the -eight bells of Holbeach, made a unique and memorable picture. I doubt -if there is anything quite like it in England. We passed on eastwards -another three miles by Gedney Marsh, with its “Cock and Magpie” inn, -while the strong summer scent of the brilliant mustard fields recalled -the apt description of our great Lincolnshire poet: - - “All the land in flowery squares, - Beneath a broad and equal-blowing wind, - Smelt of the coming Summer.” - -As with Shakespeare, once let anything be described by Tennyson, and no -other form of words can ever again seem so fit and inevitable. How often -does one notice this! - -[Sidenote: GROUPS OF FINE CHURCHES] - -But now we are at _Long Sutton_, or Sutton St. Mary’s, and find there -perhaps the most interesting of this wonderful sequence of exceptional -churches. - -Again we have a long nave of seven bays, with Norman pillars, both round -and octagonal. A flat Norman arch to the chancel, and on each side of -the chancel a slender column and two tall arches leading to chancel -transepts. The rood staircase goes up from the pulpit on the north side, -and above the nave arcades is a Transitional clerestory with arcading, -which now serves as a triforium, being surmounted by another clerestory -of the Perpendicular period; indeed the outside of the church, from its -aisle and clerestory windows, has just the appearance of a Perpendicular -building, so that when on entering one finds oneself in a fine Norman -nave, the sight, as Mr. Jeans says, is quite startling. - -[Illustration: _Long Sutton Church._] - -At the north-east angle is a curious two-storied octagonal vestry, -or sacristy, with a winding stair of fourteenth century date, having -a small window into the chancel. The tower is Early English and is -curiously placed at the south-west angle of the south aisle. That at -Whaplode is at the south-east angle. Both tower and spire are in their -original condition (the latter of timber covered with lead) and are the -best and earliest specimens of their period. The tower stands on four -magnificent arches now blocked, above which outside is a rich arcading -like that in the north transept of Wells Cathedral. Above this the belfry -windows are double, having a three-light window inside, with a two-light -window outside, the mullion coming down to the outer edge of the splay; -a very unusual arrangement. The spire is clasped at each corner by a -spirelet, and rises to the height of 162 feet. Altogether this church -is the fitting crown to our long string of stately churches. There are -larger single churches with twelve to even twenty clerestory windows in -Norfolk and Suffolk, but I doubt if any group in the kingdom can rival -these, though the Sleaford group runs them hard. And certainly the Marsh -churches between Boston and Wainfleet, and the still more characteristic -group round Burgh-le-Marsh and Theddlethorpe have a charm—owing a -good deal to their old oak fittings—which “can only be described in -superlatives.” Next to these for interest I would put the Pinchbeck group -in the triangle formed by Boston, Spalding, and Donington, and the group -of old pre-Norman towers like Clee which are found near together to the -south and west of Grimsby. Of course, Lincoln Minster with Stow, Grantham -with Hough-on-the-Hill, Boston Stump, and Louth spire, stand outside -every group in unapproachable greatness. Long Sutton is not without -neighbours. Two miles to the north is _Lutton_, where Dr. Busby, the -famous headmaster of Westminster, was born. He died in 1695. The large -inlaid Italian pulpit with elegant canopy, put up in 1702, was probably -his gift. - -Three miles east is _Sutton bridge_, only separated from Norfolk by the -uninhabited Wingland Marsh, while three miles to the south is the village -of _Tydd-St.-Mary_, the last village on the Wisbech road which is in -Lincolnshire, _Tydd-St.-Giles_ being over the border in Cambridgeshire; -for both Norfolk and Cambridge here touch the county; Wisbech, which -is itself the centre of a grand group of churches, being in the latter -county. - -[Sidenote: OLD FOSDYKE BRIDGE] - -To finish our day and get into “the parts of Lindsey,” we take the -north road from Holbeach over Fosdyke bridge to Boston. In the church -at _Fosdyke_ we may see a remarkable font with a tall Perpendicular oak -cover similar, but not equal in beauty, to that at Frieston. - -Before 1814, people who wished to go from Boston into the eastern half of -Holland and on to Cambridge and Norfolk had to cross the Welland estuary -by ferry or go round by Spalding, but in 1811 an Act was passed for -erecting a bridge at Fosdyke Wash and making a causeway to it over the -sands. The work was designed by Rennie, who had an excellent patron in -Sir Joseph Banks. The account of it, written at the time, is curious. The -bridge was 300 feet long and had eight openings, the three in mid-stream -being thirty feet wide, and the centre one opened with two leaves, -which, having a counterpoise, were easily moved from a horizontal to a -perpendicular position by means of a large rack-wheel and pinion wound by -a common hand-winch. The nine piers were each made of oak trees driven -in whole in clusters of six. These trees were none of them less than -thirty feet long and eighteen inches in diameter, rather larger than the -beams used to carry the floors in Tattershall Castle.[37] Those in the -four central piers were enormous, being forty-two feet long and nineteen -inches in diameter. They were driven in twenty to twenty-two feet below -the bottom of the river and bolted together with timbers a foot thick. -All was carried out in oak, the roadway planks being three inches thick. -I went to see this stout old timber bridge and was disgusted to find that -a grey-painted iron structure had taken its place. - -From Fosdyke the road passes Algarkirk and strikes the Spalding and -Boston main road at Sutterton, where it turns north to _Kirton_. After -passing Kirton—the magnificent church of which place was so strangely -altered and mutilated by a ruthless architect called Hayward, in 1804, -who pulled down its noble central tower and its double-aisled transept -and built of the old materials a handsome but new tower at the west -end—we soon see on the right, first Frampton and then Wyberton, the -latter only about a mile south of Boston. - -[Sidenote: FRAMPTON AND WYBERTON] - -_Frampton_, once cruciform with a good tower and spire, has lost its -north transept, its tall Early English pillars now support arches of a -later style, but a fine oak roof and tall screen remain. There is an -odd monument of ecclesiastical power on a buttress outside at the angle -of the transept. A figurehead grotesquely carved, with the inscription, -“Wot ye whi I sta̅d her [know ye, why I stand here] for I forswor my -Savior ego Ricardus in Angulo,” probably a lasting reference to some -ecclesiastical penance. - -Frampton Hall, a good Queen Anne house, is close to the church. Here, as -in several of the Marsh churches, rings to tie horses to during service -may be seen in the wall. Not a mile away northwards is _Wyberton_, which, -if built as planned, would have been a very fine edifice. When it was -restored by G. Scott, Jun., in 1881, the floor of the chancel being -lowered brought to light two magnificent pillar bases. These, with the -grand chancel arch, are indications that a fine cruciform church was -projected but apparently never carried out. Tall arcades with clustered -and octagonal columns and a good Perpendicular roof with carved bosses -and angels are there now, and signs that an earlier building existed are -visible in stones either lying loose or built into the walls. A slab to -Adam Frampton is dated 1325. - -The font is a very rich one of the same period as those to the north-east -of Boston, at Benington and Leverton. _The registers begin as early as -1538._ We pass now through Boston, and crossing the sluice bridge, get a -fine view of the tall tower by the water-side and soon strike the Sibsey -and Spilsby road. - -A grand black thunder-cloud rolls up across the fen, and having -discharged a tempest of hailstones on the Wolds, descends upon us between -Sibsey and Stickney in torrents of rain. It passes, and the bright -sunshine—the “clear shining after rain” of the Hebrew prophet—contrasted -with the darkness of the moving thunder-clouds as they roll seawards, -makes a fine picture, and one which in that flat land you can watch for -miles as it moves. - -[Sidenote: AGRICULTURAL RETURNS] - -The agricultural statistics for Lincolnshire in 1913 show that there were -in Lindsey about 860,000, in Kesteven 419,560, and in Holland 243,200 -acres under cultivation. The various crops in each were in thousands of -acres as follows:— - - +-----------+-------------------------------------------------------+ - | |Wheat. | - | | +------------------------------------------------+ - | | |Oats. | - | | | +-----------------------------------------+ - | | | |Barley. | - | | | | +----------------------------------+ - | | | | |Beans and Peas. | - | | | | | +---------------------------+ - | | | | | |“Roots.” | - | | | | | | +--------------------+ - | | | | | | |Potatoes. | - | | | | | | | +-------------+ - | | | | | | | |Clover, | - | | | | | | | |Vetches &c. | - | | | | | | | | +------+ - | | | | | | | | |Other | - | | | | | | | | |crops.| - +-----------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ - |In Lindsey | 79 | 69½ | 125½ | 24 | 83¼ | 27 | 109 | 7 | - | ” Kesteven| 44½ | 24 | 67½ | 17½ | 34½ | 8½ | 46¼ | 3¾ | - | ” Holland | 35 | 23 | 18 | 17¼ | 7 | 40⅓ | 15 | 12¾ | - +-----------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ - -The table shows that Holland grows a good deal of wheat and oats, but not -much barley compared with the two other divisions, and very few “roots.” -But in 1913 it grew 40,370 acres of potatoes, which is 5,000 acres more -than all the rest of the county; and this was a decrease on the previous -year’s crop of 2,479 acres. Then the big item in Holland under “other -crops” shows the mustard, while 2,500 acres in that column for Lindsey -are taken up with “rape.” The amount of bare fallow last year was, in -Lindsey, 22,940 acres; in Kesteven, 15,385; and in Holland, 5,311. This, -and the number of horses employed on the land—Lindsey, 26,930; Kesteven, -12,412; Holland, 10,892—when it is remembered that the acreage of the -three divisions is in the proportion of 4, 2, and 1, shows how highly -cultivated the Lincolnshire fen-land in Holland is. The arable land in -that division is more than two-thirds of the whole acreage. - -Another thing this report brings out is the marked decrease in 1913 in -the number of cattle, sheep and pigs, and especially of sheep in every -part of the county. This decrease was— - - +--------------+---------+---------+-------+ - | | Cattle. | Sheep. | Pigs. | - +--------------+---------+---------+-------+ - | In Lindsey | 8,672 | 35,516 | 1,002 | - | ” Kesteven | 5,675 | 10,462 | 2,801 | - | ” Holland | 3,664 | 9,587 | 4,638 | - +--------------+---------+---------+-------+ - | Total | 18,011 | 55,565 | 8,441 | - +--------------+---------+---------+-------+ - -This shows that Holland suffered more decrease in proportion than the -other two divisions in all respects, and especially in the number of -pigs. Of course the season must always be answerable for a good deal, -and the numbers may all go up this year. But the enormous drop in the -number of cattle and sheep, telling a tale of the absence of “roots” and -“feed,” will hardly be made good in one year. - -[Sidenote: THE REVELLERS] - -[Sidenote: “A LEGEND OF HOLBECH”] - -“A LEGEND OF HOLBECH” - -a true story. - -Made into this rhyme by Mr. Rawnsley of Bourne, about the year 1800. - - In the bleak noxious Fen that to Lincoln pertains - Where agues assert their fell sway, - There the Bittern hoarse moans and the seamew complains - As she flits o’er the watery way. - - While with strains thus discordant, the natives of air - With screams and with shrieks the ear strike, - The toad and the frog croaking notes of despair - Join the din, from the bog and the dyke. - - Mid scenes that the senses annoy and appal - Sad and sullen old Holbech appears, - As if doomed to bewail her hard fate from the Fall, - Like a Niobe washed with her tears. - - From fogs pestilential that hovered around, - To ward off despair and disease, - The juice of the grape was most generous found, - Source of comfort, of joy, and of ease. - - At the “Chequers” long famed to quaff then did delight - The Burghers both ancient and young, - With smoking and cards, passed the dull winter night, - They joked and they laughed and they sung. - - Three revellers left, when the midnight was come, - Unable their game to pursue, - Repaired, most unhallowed, to visit the tomb - Where enshrouded lay one of their crew. - - For _he_, late-departed, renowned was at whist, - The marsh-men still tell of his fame, - Till Death with a spade struck the cards from his fist - And spoiled both his hand and his game. - - Cold and damp was the night; thro’ the churchyard they prowled, - As wolves by fierce hunger subdued, - ’Gainst the doors they huge gravestones impetuous rolled - Which recoiled at such violence rude. - - From the sepulchre’s jaws their old comrade uncased, - (How chilling the tale to relate), - Upreared ’gainst the wall on the table was placed - A corpse, in funereal state. - - By a taper’s faint blaze and with Luna’s faint light - That would sometimes emit them a ray, - The cards were produced, and they cut with delight - To know who with “_Dumby_” should play. - - Exalted on basses the bravoes kneeled round - Exulting and proud of the deed, - To Dumby they bent with respect most profound - And said “Sir! it is _your_ turn to lead.” - - The game then commenced, when one offered him aid, - And affected to guide his cold hand - While another cried out, “Bravo! Dumby, well played, - I see you’ve the cards at command.” - - Thus impious, they jokèd devoid of all grace, - When dread sounds shook the walls of the church, - And lo! Dumby sank down, and a ghost in his place - Shrieked dismal “Haste! haste! save your lurch!” - - Astounded they stared; but the fiend disappeared - And Dumby again took his seat, - So they deemed ’twas but fancy, nor longer they feared - But swore that “Old Dumb should be beat.” - - Eight to nine was the game, Dumby’s partner called loud - “Speak once, my old friend, or we’re done - Remember our stake ’tis my coat or your shroud - Now answer and win—_can you one?_”[38] - - “What silent, my Dumby, when most I you need - Dame Fortune our wishes has crossed,” - When a voice from beneath, howled, “your fate is decreed - The game and the gamesters are lost.” - - Then strange! most terrific and horrid to view! - Three Demons thro’ earth burst their way: - Each one chose his partner, his arms round him threw - And vanished in smoke with his prey. - - - - -CHAPTER XL - -THE BLACK DEATH - - -Mention being made in the last chapter of the Black Death, the disastrous -effects of which were so visible in the tower of Gedney, it will be not -inappropriate to give some short account of it here. - -Edward the Third had been twenty years on the throne when a great change -came over the country. The introduction of leases of lands and houses by -the lord of the manor had created a class of “farmers”—the word was a -new one—by which the old feudal system of land-tenure was disturbed, the -old tie of personal dependence of the serf on his lord being broken, and -the lord of the manor reduced to the position of a modern landlord. And -not only was an independent class of tenants coming into existence who -were able to rise to a position of apparent equality with their former -masters, but among the labourers, too, a greater freedom was growing, -which was gradually loosing them from their local bondage to the soil, -and giving them power to choose what place of employment and what master -they pleased. This rise of the free labourer following naturally on the -enfranchisement of the serf had made it necessary for the landlord to -rely on hired labour, and just when it was most essential for them to -have an abundant supply of hands seeking employment, all at once the -supply absolutely and entirely failed. - -The cause of this was the Black Death, which, starting in Asia, swept -over the whole of Europe and speedily reached these shores in the autumn -of 1348. No such swift and universally devastating plague had ever been -known. One half of the population of every European country perished, -and in England more than half. In one London burying-place above 50,000 -corpses were interred. - -[Sidenote: THE BLACK DEATH] - -In Norwich, then the chief east-coast port north of the Thames, we hear -of 60,000 deaths. We hear, too, of whole villages being wiped out, and -nowhere were sufficient hands left to cultivate the soil. - -Crops were ungathered, cattle roamed at will. The pestilence lasted -through the whole of 1349, after which, though occasionally recurring, it -died away. - -In Lincolnshire it was very bad, and some knowledge of it can be -gathered from the memoranda of the Bishop of Lincoln, John Gynewell, who -held office from September 23, 1347, to August 5, 1362; the appalling -frequency of the institutions to the various benefices in his diocese -give some measure of the severity of this dreadful visitation. - -It began at Melcombe Regis in Dorset in the month of July, 1348, but did -not reach Lincoln until May, 1349. It got to London in January of that -year, and was at its height there in March, April, and May. In May, in -the town of Newark, we read that “it waxes day by day more and more, -insomuch that the Churchyard will not suffice for the men that die in -that place.” - -From his palace at Liddington, in Rutland, Bishop Gynewell went in May to -consecrate a burial ground at Great Easton, which, being only a chapelry -to the parish of Bringhurst, had no burial ground of its own. The licence -was granted only during the duration of the pestilence. The bishop in -his preamble says: “There increases among you, as in other places of our -Diocese, a mortality of men such as has not been seen or heard aforetime -from the beginning of the world, so that the old grave-yard of your -church [Bringhurst] is not sufficient to receive the bodies of the dead.” - -The enormous number of clergy who died in the Diocese of Lincoln is -attested by the fact that in July alone 250 institutions were made and -all but fifteen owing to deaths, a number which is considerably more than -the whole for the first eighteen months of Bishop Gynewell’s episcopate. -The average is over eight a day. - -The most singular thing which the statistics point to, is that, on the -high ground round Lincoln and in the parts of Lindsey the mortality -among the clergy was far higher than in other parts of the diocese, -whilst in the low lands and fens round Peterborough, and in the parts of -Holland, the percentage of deaths was almost invariably low, twenty-seven -and twenty-four per cent. as compared with fifty-seven for Stamford -and sixty for Lincoln. The worst months in Lincolnshire were July and -August, yet even then, in spite of the severity of the plague and the -disorganisation which it occasioned in all the social and religious life -of the age, ordinary business, we are told, went on, and the bishop never -ceased his constant journeys and visitations to all parts of his enormous -diocese, reaching as it did from Henley on the Thames to the Humber, -and including besides Lincoln, the counties of Northampton, Rutland, -Leicester, Huntingdon, Bedford, Hertford, Buckingham, and Oxford. - -That the nation was not more depressed by this state of things was -doubtless due to the feeling of national exaltation occasioned by the -battle of Cressy in 1346, and the capture of Calais in the next year and -the subsequent truce with France. - -[Sidenote: ITS EFFECT ON BUILDING] - -One of the results of this plague was the absolute cessation of work for -want of hands, which threw land out of cultivation and suspended all -building operations. At Gedney, as the architect who restored the church -in 1898, Mr. W. D. Caröe, pointed out to me, the history of the Black -Death is distinctly written on the tower, and you may plainly see where -the fourteenth-century builders ceased and how, above the present clock, -the work was recommenced by different hands, with altered design and -quite other materials. - -[Illustration: _Gedney, from Fleet._] - - - - -CHAPTER XLI - -CROYLAND - - St. Guthlac—Abbot Joffrid—Boundary Crosses—The Triangular - Bridge—Figure with Sceptre and Ball—Lincolnshire swan-marks. - - -As you pass in the train along the line from Peterborough to Spalding, -and have got a mile or two north of Deeping St. James station, you can -see to the east in a cluster of trees a broad tower with a short, thick -spire standing out as the only feature in a wide, flat landscape. This, -for all who know it, has a mysterious attraction, for it is the sorrowful -ruin of a once magnificent building, a far-famed centre of light and -learning from whence came the brains, the piety, and the wealth which, -issuing over the fens of south-east Lincolnshire, not only supplied the -first lecturers to Cambridge, but planted those splendid churches for -which the “parts of Holland” are famous to this day. For this is the -great Abbey of Crowland, or Croyland, the home of the good St. Guthlac, -to whose memory this and many another church was dedicated, and to whose -shrine pilgrimage was made for several centuries. It stands alone on a -once desolate and still sparsely inhabited and seemingly endless fen, -and past it the Welland flows down to the long serpentine lake beloved -of skaters, which is spelt Cowbit, but called by all Lincolnshire folk -“Cubbit Wash.” - -Croyland is an older name than Crowland, and the fine church and -monastery to which it owes its fame was set up in the eighth century, -by King Æthelbald, in grateful memory of St. Guthlac. Now St. Guthlac -is no legendary saint; he was a member of the Mercian royal house, who, -tired of soldiering, sought a retirement from the world; and certainly -few better places could be found than what was then a desolate, reedy -waste of waters at the point where Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and -Lincolnshire meet by the edge of Deeping Fen. No road led to it, and the -fenmen’s boats were the only means of passage. - -[Illustration: _Cowbit Church._] - -[Sidenote: ST. GUTHLAC] - -Guthlac was, we are told, the son of Penwald, a Mercian nobleman, -and he was very likely born not far from Croyland. After nine years’ -military service he entered the monastery of Hrypadon, or Repton, and -after two years’ study resolved to take up the life of an Anchorite. -So, in defiance of the evil spirits who were reputed to have their -abode there, and who were probably nothing but the shrieking sea-gulls -and the melancholy cries of the bittern and curlew, he landed on a -bit of dry ground two miles to the north-east of Croyland, now called -Anchor-Church-Hill, just east of the Spalding road. Here were some -British or Saxon burial mounds, on one of which he set up his hut and -chapel, while his sister Pega established herself a few miles to the -south-west, at Peakirk. He had landed on his island on St. Bartholomew’s -Day, August 24, 699, a young man of twenty-six, and here he was visited -by Bishop Hædda, who ordained him in 705. In 709 Æthelbald being outlawed -by his cousin King Coelred, took sanctuary with St. Guthlac, who -prophesied to him that he would one day be king, and without bloodshed. -St. Guthlac died in 713 or 714, but Æthelbald, who had vowed to build -a monastery for Guthlac if ever he could, did become king in 716, and -in gratitude built the first stone church and endowed a monastery for -Benedictines at Croyland. Naturally St. Guthlac was the patron saint, -and to him was joined St. Bartholomew, on whose day he had first come to -Croyland. - -[Sidenote: FOUNDATIONS OF THE ABBEY] - -[Sidenote: ABBOTS OF CROYLAND] - -_St. Guthlac_ is represented in his statue as bearing the scourge of St. -Bartholomew, on whose feast day each year little knives were given away -emblematic of his martyrdom by flaying. The custom was not abolished -till 1476. Pictures of the scourge and knives are found in the stained -glass of old windows; for instance, at Bag-Enderby, near Somersby. In -866 the Danes burnt the monastery. Eighty years later the chancellor of -King Edred, whose name is variously given as Turketyl, or _Thurcytel_, -restored the church and monastery, and became the first abbot in 946, -about which time he founded the Croyland library. The first church was -built on a peat bog; oak piles five and a half feet long being driven -through the peat on to gravel, and above the piles recent digging has -shown alternate layers of loose stone and quarry-dust, above which the -stone foundations of the tower were found to go down fifteen inches below -the surface, and to rest on a mixture of rubble and stiff soil which was -brought in boats a distance of nine miles. Thurcytel’s church, which was -cruciform and of considerable size and held one large bell, has almost, -if not entirely, disappeared. The monastery was finished after his death -by his successor, _Egelric_, who added six other bells in 976. The Danes, -by cruel and repeated exactions, ruined the abbey which Thurcytel had -left so richly endowed, in the time of Egelric’s successor, _Godric_, -about 1010. This Egelric must not be confused with the Peterborough abbot -of the same name, who became Bishop of Durham and made the great causeway -from Deeping to Spalding in 1052, probably to give work to the peasantry -in the year of the dreadful famine, 1051. - -On so treacherous a foundation the monks wisely built in wood rather -than stone when possible, but they had no preservatives for wood in -those days, hence, in 1061, Abbot _Ulfcytel_ had to rebuild the wooden -erections which were attached to the monastery. He was greatly helped -by the famous Waltheof, Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon, and when, -on the false accusation of his infamous wife Judith, sister of William -I., Waltheof was beheaded at Winchester, the monks got leave from the -Conqueror to have his body buried at Croyland. In 1076 _Ingulphus_ -became abbot, and, owing to the carelessness of some plumbers—an old and -ever-recurring story—the whole of the buildings were again burnt down and -the library of 700 MSS. destroyed. It is to the Chronicle of Ingulphus -that we owe most of our knowledge of the early history of Croyland, and -even if the Chronicle were written three centuries after his death, it -still contains much sound and reliable information. Certainly after the -fire his building was patched up for a generation, and the Abbot Joffrid, -a man of extraordinary learning, zeal, and skill, built in 1109 what -may well be called the third abbey. Most of Thurcytel’s work which had -escaped the fire was taken down, and the foundations carried down to -the gravel bed below the peat. Of this building, which was carried out -by Arnold, a lay monk and a very skilful mason, the two western piers -and arch of the central tower remain, but an earthquake in 1113 damaged -the nave, and when in 1143 it was partly burnt down again, for the -third time, Abbot Edward restored it. King Henry had sent for Joffrid -(or Geoffrey) from Normandy. Among other remarkable deeds he sent four -learned monks to give a course of lectures on grammar, logic, rhetoric -and philosophy in a barn which they hired in Cambridge, or Grantbridge as -it was then called. Sermons were also preached there in French and Latin, -both by the monk Gilbert and by the abbot himself, of whom we are told -that, though his numerous hearers understood neither language, the force -of his subject and his comely person excited them to give amply towards -his building fund. The account of the laying of the first stones of his -new abbey is very remarkable. Five thousand persons were assembled and -feasted on the spot, and many distinguished people took part, each laying -one stone and placing on it a handsome offering of money, or titles to -property, or patronage, or land, or possession of yearly tithes of sheep, -gifts of corn or malt or stone, or the service for so many years of -quarriers at the stone pits, with carriage of stone in boats. - -Croyland lost a good friend by the death of Queen Maud, wife of Henry -I., in 1118. She had been the especial patroness of the abbot Joffrid, -and had founded the first Austin priory in England in 1108. Twenty -years later King Stephen gave a fresh charter to the abbey, in the time -of Abbot _Edward_, who commenced to re-build the abbey in 1145. The -beautiful west front of the nave, some of which remains, was possibly -planned by _Henry de Longchamp_ in 1190, but was not finished till the -time of _Richard de Upton_, 1417-1427. His predecessor, _Thomas de -Overton_, had rebuilt the nave in 1405, and it was during his abbacy that -Croyland became a mitred abbey. - -[Sidenote: THE MASTER MASON] - -The architect and master mason under Richard de Upton was one William -de Wernington, or William de Croyland, whose monument is in the tower -now. The effigy wears a monk’s cowl and long robe, and holds a builder’s -square and compasses and has this inscription: “ICI : GIST : MESTRE : -WILLM : DE : WERMIGTON : LE : MASON : A : LALME : DE : KY : DEVY : P″SA : -GRACE : DOVNEZ : ABSOLVTION.” - -The noble west window, which has lost all its mullions and tracery, must -have been one of the very finest in England. - -In the days of Henry II. a dispute arose between the Abbot of Croyland -and the Prior of Spalding, the prior going so far as to claim Croyland as -a cell to Spalding. This quarrel continued through the reigns of Richard -I. and John, when the Abbot of Peterborough joined the fray with a fresh -dispute about the rights of common and pasture, and the payment of tolls -at Croyland bridge. In these controversies Croyland generally was worsted. - -[Illustration: _Croyland Abbey._] - -[Sidenote: THE RUINS] - -_John de Lytlyngton_ succeeded Abbot Upton and ruled for forty years. -In his time Henry VI. and Edward IV. both visited Croyland, the latter -being on his way to Fotheringay. A three months’ frost, followed by two -years of famine, and later a great flood, followed by a pestilence and -a fire which destroyed nearly all the village, but spared the abbey, are -among the records of his abbacy. He vaulted the roofs of the aisles, -glazed the windows, had the bells recast, and gave the choir an organ; -also he built the great west tower for the bells and the porch with its -parvise. He died in 1469. The short steeple was added to the tower later. -The last abbot was _John Welles_, _alias_ Bridges. Another campanile had -been built beyond the east end of the choir by Abbot _Ralph Marshe_, -1260, which gave the abbey two separate peals, as once at Lincoln. After -these many vicissitudes the greater part of the beautiful building was -destroyed at the dissolution in 1539, the nave, of nine bays, being -preserved for a parish church. The north aisle had been used for the -purpose before, and is so still. Besides this there is left now the -west front, consisting of a tower with short spire and a very fine -Perpendicular window, and all but the gable and window tracery of the -beautiful ornate west end of the nave. This had originally no less than -twenty-nine statues under canopies, in seven tiers, covering the wall on -either side of the doorway and window, and also above the window. The -handsome doorway is entered by a deeply moulded single arch enclosing -two smaller ones, and in the tympanum is a large quatrefoil illustrating -the life of St. Guthlac. The tower has a western porch under a six-light -window. Much has been done by the rector, the Rev. T. H. Le Bœuf, to -preserve this magnificent ruin, and since 1860, under Sir G. Scott and -Mr. J. L. Pearson, sound restoration has been carried out. Besides the -west front and the western tower and spire, one of the most remarkable -parts of the abbey still existing is the stone screen which, contrary to -usual custom, filled the west arch of the central tower, and is pierced -by two doors, one on either side of the altar. Of this the side looking -west is plain and probably had wooden panelling, but the eastern side is -handsomely carved and panelled in stone. The north aisle has Lytlyngton’s -groined roof, five large Perpendicular windows, and a rood-screen. Of St. -Guthlac’s Shrine, which was destroyed in 870 and newly erected in 1136, -and moved in 1196, nothing remains. - -Of the old glass fragments have lately been found buried in the -churchyard. - -An epitaph on the north wall, dated 1715, has the following apt lines:— - - Man’s life is like unto a winter’s day, - Some brake their fast and so departs away; - Others stay dinner then departs full fed, - The longest age but supps and goes to bed. - -[Illustration: _Croyland Bridge._] - -[Sidenote: THE BOUNDARY CROSSES] - -[Sidenote: TRIANGULAR BRIDGE] - -The boundaries of Croyland, which in Æthelbald’s Charter were rivers, -were staked out more definitely when disputes between this abbey and -Peterborough arose, by stone crosses; and though these are in part -destroyed or broken down, six crosses, or parts of them, are still -standing in fields or hedges, which are all mentioned by name, in later -charters. One of them, “Turketyls or Thurcytels Cross,” is placed at -the junction of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. In this, as in all the -others, the cross is missing. The shaft is of obelisk form, on a shapely -base, and has been restored. Parts of other crosses are “Guthlac’s -Stone,” near the Assendyke, four miles from Croyland; “Finestone,” or -“Fynset,” “Greynes,” “Folwardstaking,” and “Kenulph’s Stone.” One of the -boundaries mentioned as early as the charter of Edred, A.D. 943, is “The -Triangular Bridge.” The present is an extremely curious thirteenth- or -fourteenth-century structure, doubtless replacing an earlier one. Like -the triangular lodge near Rothwell, in Northamptonshire, it was probably -intended to be emblematic of the Trinity. It has three pointed arches, -with a way for a stream to flow under each, and three roadways over the -arches, but the arches are too low, and the roadways too narrow for -vehicles and too steep for any convenient traffic. Hence it may have -been the basement of a large cross approached by three flights of steps, -where now we have the steep inclines. The parapet walls are perhaps a -later addition. Still it served as a bridge too. Roads from Stamford, -Peterborough and Spalding meet at the bridge, and tributaries of the -Welland and Nene, now covered in, flow under it. The height of the arches -is nine feet, and their span sixteen and a half. It would not require -that span now, but the streams were bigger when this bridge was built, -for we are told that Henry VI. came to Croyland by water in 1460, and -that Edward IV. embarked at the wharf just below the bridge, in 1468, for -Fotheringay Castle, which is on the banks of the Nene, a distance of some -two and twenty miles by water. - -[Sidenote: FIGURE ON THE BRIDGE] - -There is a stone bench along the left side of the bridge parapet, as you -approach from Peterborough, and on this you find an ancient stone figure -seated: it is often called Æthelbald holding a globe in his hand or a -loaf of bread; but it is far more likely that it is the figure of our -Lord, from the centre of the gable above the great west window of the -nave, holding in his hands what Shakespeare in the lines below calls “the -sceptre and the ball.” The shallowness of the statue and its height—six -feet when seated but even the knees only projecting ten inches—make it -certain that it was only meant to be seen from the front and at a good -height. Moreover, the workmanship of the statue corresponds with that of -the other statues on the west front of the abbey. - -The rector states as a fact that the west gable of this west front was -taken down in 1720, and the statue placed on the bridge, where it must -be admitted that it looks very much out of place and uncomfortable. The -bridge is said to be in three counties—Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and -Northamptonshire—so, though the abbey is entirely in Lincolnshire, we can -in a few steps leave the county of which Croyland is the last place we -have to describe. - -The “ball,” or orb, is carried by the monarch at the coronation service -in one hand and the sceptre in the other as symbols of imperial power. -There is no finer passage in English literature than the soliloquy of -King Henry V. on the eve of the battle of Agincourt, the last part of -which runs thus:— - - ’Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball, - The sword, the mace, the crown imperial, - The intertissued robe of gold and pearl, - The farced title running ’fore the king, - The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp - That beats upon the high shore of this world, - No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony, - Not all these, laid in bed majestical, - Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave, - Who with a body fill’d and vacant mind - Gets him to rest, cramm’d with distressful bread; - Never sees horrid night, the child of hell, - But, like a lackey, from the rise to set - Sweats in the eye of Phœbus, and all night - Sleeps in Elysium; next day after dawn, - Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse, - And follows so the ever-running year, - With profitable labour, to his grave: - And, but for ceremony, such a wretch, - Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep, - Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king. - The slave, a member of the country’s peace, - Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots - What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace, - Whose hours the peasant best advantages. - - _Henry V._, Act IV. Scene 1. - -[Sidenote: LINCOLNSHIRE SWAN-MARKS] - -In the Museum of the Record-office is a long brown-paper roll with a -double column of swans’ heads, the bills painted red and showing in black -the marks of the different owners in two counties, of which Lincolnshire -is one. These marks were in use in the years 1497-1504, a few being added -for the year 1515. - -One of the plainest to read is the name of Carolus Stanefeld de -Bolyngbroke; among others are the marks of the parsons of Leek and -Leverton, the vicars of Waynflete, Frekeney and Sybsa, the Bayly of -Croft, the abbot of Revysbye and Philip abbas de Croyland. - - - - -CHAPTER XLII - -LINCOLNSHIRE FOX-HOUNDS - -BY E. P. RAWNSLEY, ESQ., M.F.H. - - Brocklesby—Burton—Blankney and Southwold—Note by Author. - - -[Sidenote: THE BROCKLESBY] - -Except the fen country and a small corner in the extreme north-west, -the whole of Lincolnshire is hunted by fox-hounds. Four packs, namely, -the _Brocklesby_ (Lord Yarborough’s), the _Burton_, _Blankney_ and -_Southwold_ hunt entirely in Lincolnshire; while the Belvoir and -Cottesmore hunt partly in Lincolnshire. Premier position must be given -to the _Brocklesby_. It is one of the very few packs maintained entirely -by the master, and for over 150 years the Earls of Yarborough have done -this for the benefit of the residents and farmers in the large tract of -country they hunt over. The country hunted extends from the Humber on -the north to a line drawn from Louth to Market-Rasen on the south, and -from the sea on the east to the river Ancholme on the west. The country -is mostly wold, and consequently plough, but very open, the only big -woods being those that surround Brocklesby itself. The hounds having -been so long in one family are of the best, and there are few kennels -in England but have a large infusion of the Brocklesby blood, famous -for nose, tongue, and stoutness. For upwards of 100 years the family -of Smith carried the horn and did much to establish the notoriety of -the pack, while in more recent years Will Dale, a great huntsman and -houndman, and Jem Smith, no relation of the former huntsman, have kept it -up. Possibly sport in the country was never better than when W. Dale and -Mr. Maunsell-Richardson each hunted one pack; when one was hunting the -other was always out to render assistance, and as both knew the country -perfectly, the result was more good runs and more foxes caught at the -end of them than was ever done in the country before or since. - -With the exception of Brocklesby there are not many residences in the -country, though the Upplebys of Barrow, the Alingtons of Swinhope, the -Nelthorpes of Scawby in old days joined the chase; and it is related of -the first, grandfather of the present owner of Barrow, that after a good -run he was found riding on his pillow shouting at the top of his voice, -“Mind you keep your eye on Blossom,” a noted bitch at that time in the -pack. At the present time a great supporter is Mr. Haigh of Grainsby, who -cannot have too many foxes, though he does all his hunting on foot. Mr. -Pretyman’s covers at Riby are equally well stocked; while Bradley Wood, -the property of Mr. Sutton-Nelthorpe, is the key of all that side of the -country. Probably hunting will continue longer over cultivated country, -such as the Brocklesby, than in most parts of England. There are few -railways, the country is not adapted to small holdings, the farmers are -all sportsmen, and occupy large farms, delighted to have a litter of cubs -reared on their land and to see a couple of fox-hound puppies playing in -their yards, while such a thing as a complaint about hounds and field -crossing their land is unknown. - -[Sidenote: THE BURTON AND THE BLANKNEY] - -_The Burton_ comes next in point of antiquity, and takes its name from -Burton, Lord Monson’s place near Lincoln, where Lord Monson first started -the hounds in 1774. Many notable sportsmen have held the mastership. -The old Burton country was of very wide extent, stretching from Brigg -on the north to Sleaford on the south, and from Stourton by Horncastle -on the east to the Trent on the west. It is now divided into _Burton_ -and _Blankney_, the present southern boundary of the Burton being the -river Witham and the Fossdyke. The most notable Masters of the country -when undivided were Mr. Assheton-Smith, Sir Richard Sutton, Lord Henry -Bentinck, who bred a pack of hounds which for work were unequalled, and -their blood is still treasured in many kennels, and Mr. Henry Chaplin, -to whom Lord Henry gave his hounds, and when the old Burton country was -divided Mr. Chaplin took this pack with him. The Burton country as it -is now was established in 1871; Mr. F. Foljambe being the first master, -a great houndman with a thorough knowledge of the science of hunting, -he very soon established a pack, and with Will Dale as huntsman, sport -of the highest order was the result. Mr. Foljambe was succeeded by Mr. -Wemyss, Mr. Shrubb and again Mr. Wemyss for short periods; then Mr. T. -Wilson came, and for twenty-four years presided over the country. He bred -an excellent pack of hounds, and sport, especially during the latter part -of his reign, was very good; the country, when he gave up, being better -off for foxes than it had ever been; this was in 1912. Sir M. Cholmeley -succeeded Mr. Wilson. The Burton country is a fair mixture of grass and -plough, with some very fine woodlands on the east side of it, known as -the Wragby woods. It is far the best scenting country in Lincolnshire, -and being little cut up with railways or rivers, is the best hunting -country in all the shire. There are not many residences in the country, -but excellent support in the way of foxes is given by the landowners. -The Bacons of Thonock have ever assisted; then the Amcotts family of -Hackthorn and Kettlethorpe, the Wrights of Brattleby, the owners of most -of the Wragby woods, and of Toft, Newton and Nevile’s gorses are perhaps -most conspicuous; but the whole country is well provided. - -_The Blankney_ was first formed as a separate country in 1871, when Mr. -Henry Chaplin took command, and as he brought the pack given to him by -Lord H. Bentinck, and H. Dawkins as huntsman, very good sport was shown. -On Mr. Chaplin giving up he was succeeded by Major Tempest. Then followed -Mr. Cockburn, and for a short time Lord Londesborough joined him; Mr. -Lubbock followed, then an old name in Lord Charles Bentinck; Mr. R. Swan -came next and is still in command. Changes have been rather frequent, as -in many countries. - -The Blankney country is now a good deal intersected by railways, and the -vale towards the Trent has two rivers, the Brant and Witham, which cut -it up further. The Wellingore vale is looked on as the best part, having -a large proportion of grass, “the heath,” in the centre, is all light -plough and very bad scenting country, while on the east there is a strip -of country bordering on the fen of good hunting character, and a portion -of the Belvoir country towards Sleaford, which is lent to the Blankney, -is also very fair. - -[Sidenote: THE SOUTHWOLD] - -_The Southwold_ was the last part of Lincolnshire to be established as -a separate country (later, that is, than either the Brocklesby or the -Burton); it was not till 1823 that it was hunted regularly. It has a -wide range, extending from the sea on the east to the river Witham on -the west, and from Market-Rasen and Louth on the north to the fens on -the south. It is probably more varied than any part of Lincolnshire. -The marsh with its wide ditches comes on the east; the wolds, mostly -light plough, in the centre; while on the west they dip into a mixed -country of grass and plough. The fen country, all ditches and plough, -is in the south; hounds, however, only occasionally get into it, as -there are hardly any covers. Very short masterships have been the rule, -but a committee ruled for nearly twenty years (1857-76), at the end of -which time foxes were very scarce in the country. Mr. Crowder then came -for four years, and in 1880 Mr. E. P. Rawnsley took the country, and is -still master. With latterly the aid of Mr. J. S. V. Fox, and now of Sir -W. Cooke, so great an alteration has taken place that whereas formerly -four days a week sufficed to hunt the country, now it is always hunted -six days, Sir W. Cooke taking the north side and Mr. Rawnsley the south. -Sir W. Cooke has a pack of his own, while Mr. Rawnsley hunts the pack -which belongs to the country and has been bred from all the best working -strains of blood obtainable. Though there are some very big woods on the -edges of the country, the centre is all open; there are few railways -and no rivers, the scenting conditions are fair, and it is probably the -second best hunting country in Lincolnshire. - -Conspicuous supporters of the hunt are the Heneages of Hainton, and the -large extent of covers and country owned by them has always been open to -hounds. The Foxes of Girsby and Mr. Walter Rawnsley of Well Vale have -been the same. The late Captain J. W. Fox was for many years chairman -of the committee when it ruled the affairs of the hunt, and his son was -for seven years joint master with Mr. Rawnsley, during which time the -sport was of higher average merit than it had ever attained. Many more -residents now come out than was formerly the case, and everywhere the -stock of foxes is far better than thirty years ago. - -Somersby, the birthplace of Tennyson, is situated in the centre of -the hunt, but we never heard of the Poet Laureate joining the chase -in his young days. Then Spilsby, the birthplace of Sir John Franklin, -and Tattershall Castle, noted as one of the finest brick buildings in -England, are both of them in the Southwold country. - - -NOTE BY AUTHOR - -[Sidenote: MASTERS OF THE SOUTHWOLD] - -It appears that Mr. Charles Pelham, who was the last of the Brocklesby -Pelhams, was the first M.F.H. of _The Brocklesby_, at first as joint and -then as sole master, till his death in 1763. Also that Lord Yarborough -hunted what is now the Southwold country for a month at a time in spring -and autumn, having kennels at Ketsby until 1795, by which time his gorse -covers round Brocklesby had grown up and he was able to dispense with the -country south of Louth. Then till 1820 a pack of trencher-fed harriers -hunted fox and hare indiscriminately. These from 1820 to 1822 were called -“_The Gillingham_” and were hunted by Mr. Brackenbury from Scremby, after -which the kennels were transferred to Hundleby and the name changed to -“_The Southwold_.” They now kept to fox entirely, and the Hon. George -Pelham, then living at Legbourne, was the first master. - -The following is a complete list of the masters of the Southwold up to -the present date, 1914:— - - Hon. G. Pelham 1823-6 - Lord Kintore 1826 - Mr. Joseph Brackenbury 1827-9 - Sir Richard Sutton, combining it with the Burton 1829-30 - Captain Freeman, who brought hounds from “The Vine” 1830-32 - Mr. Parker 1832-35 - Mr. Heanley, who brought his own hounds 1835-41 - Mr. Musters, who brought his own hounds 1841-43 - Mr. Hellier 1843-52 - Mr. Henley Greaves 1852-53 - Mr. Cooke 1853-57 - A Committee, presided over part of the time by Captain - Dallas York 1857-76 - Mr. F. Crowder 1876-80 - Mr. E. Preston Rawnsley 1880 - -From this it will be seen that until the days of the committee no one -hunted the pack for even five years, with the exception of Mr. Heanley -and Mr. Hellier, until the present master, Mr. E. P. Rawnsley. - -[Sidenote: BELCHFORD KENNELS] - -With the reign of the committee central kennels were established for the -hunt at Belchford in 1857. Previously each master fixed his kennels as it -suited him, either at Louth, Horncastle, Hundleby or Harrington. - -Now, April 1914, Sir William Cooke having given up, Lord Charles Bentinck -has succeeded him. He brings his own pack with him, and the country no -longer is divided into north and south, but hunted as a whole again. - - - - -APPENDIX I - - -The altar tombstone from which John preached is near the chancel door. -Epworth people will tell you that the mark of his heels is still visible -on the stone. Really they are segments of two ironstone nodules in the -sandstone slab. The inscription is a remarkable one: - - “Here lieth all that was mortal of Samuel Wesley, A.M., who was - Rector of Epworth for 39 years and departed this life 15th of - April, 1735, aged 72. - - As he lived so he died, in the true Catholic faith of the Holy - Trinity in Unity, and that Jesus Christ is God incarnate and - the only Saviour of mankind.—Acts 4, 12. - - Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: yea, saith the - Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works - do follow them.—Rev. 14, 13.” - - - - -APPENDIX II - - -Dr. Wm. Stukeley, 1687-1765, was a famous Lincolnshire antiquarian. He -practised medicine, first at Boston and then at Grantham from 1710 to -1726. He was made an F.R.S. in 1717, and in that or the following year -he helped to establish the Society of Antiquaries in London, and was for -the first nine years secretary to that Society. In 1719 he became an M.D. -of Cambridge and was made a member of the “Spalding Gentlemen’s Society” -in 1722. In 1727 he took Holy Orders and from 1730 to 1748 officiated -as Vicar of All Saints at Stamford, where he founded the short-lived -“Brazenose Society.” He was a great friend of Sir Isaac Newton and kept -up his interest in scientific matters to the end, inasmuch as he put off -his service on one occasion in order that his congregation might watch -an eclipse of the sun. Whilst still Vicar of Stamford he was made Rector -of Somerby near Grantham, 1739-1747, but he retired from both livings -in 1748, and spent the rest of his life in London, where at the age of -75 he preached his first sermon in spectacles, taking as his text “Now -we see through a glass darkly.” He wrote five volumes of Notes of the -proceedings of the “Royal Society,” which are now in the library of -the “Spalding Gentlemen’s Society,” and he dedicated his “_Itinerarium -curiosum_” to Maurice Johnson, the founder of that society. He took, for -many years, antiquarian tours all over England; writing at some length -on Stonehenge and the Roman Wall, and often illustrating his articles, -for he was a skilful draughtsman. He died in London in his seventy-ninth -year. - - - - -APPENDIX III - -A LOWLAND PEASANT POET - - -I had not long ago a couple of poems put into my hands by one who, -knowing the author, told me something of his life and circumstances. -Being much struck by the poems I set to work to make inquiries in the -hope of getting something further. But he seems to have written very -little. His nephew copied out and sent _The Auld Blasted Tree_ and added -“I made inquiry of my aunt if she had any more; she says those you have -seen along with this one I now enclose were all he wrote, at least the -best of them.” The relatives allowed me to see the account of his funeral -with an appreciation of the man as it appeared in the local newspaper. It -ran as follows, and was published in _The Peebleshire Advertiser_, July -7, 1906. - - THE LATE MR. FARQUHARSON, LONELYBIELD. - - Our obituary of Saturday last contained the name of one whose - memory will be for long in this district. We refer to the - late Alexander Forrester Farquharson. His “mid name” takes us - back to the first baptismal scene of by-gone long occupants - of Linton Manse, viz., the Rev. Alexander Forrester, whose - father, too, was minister before. Born in Carlops sixty-nine - years ago, there are but few now amongst us who were children - then. When six years old, his father, of the same vocation as - himself, removed to the picturesque hamlet at the foot of the - “Howe,” and here his lifetime was spent. Married to one of a - family of long pastoral connection with our district, who still - survives to cherish the happy memories of their long sojourn - together, in this, their quiet and peaceful home, they reared - their family. By his departure, there has gone from amongst us - one of the finest types of Scotchmen that our country districts - develop, both, it may be said, in lineaments of feature and - character. But, added to the possession generally of the - best features of our race, there was in him truly a special - element, which seemed to be gathered from the classic scenes in - which he was reared. It is not too much to say that his manner - and language (quaint to a degree) were a living, embodied - personification of the genius of the place, as pictured in - the pages of the immortal Pastoral of Ramsay. Gifted with - musical powers and some inspiration from the Muses—which, - however, not often saw the light—these were fostered in his - wanderings amid the lovely scenes, o’er moor and fell, whither - his daily vocations led. And with such characteristics, added - to his stores of local lore and story, and knowledge of bird, - beast, and fossil, it may be gathered how entertaining were - the “cracks” in the homesteads he visited, and how much these - would be looked forward to and welcomed. And not less so were - those in the cosy home in the “Bield,”[39] to which many a - one of kindred spirit specially pilgrimaged. Evidence of this - was ample from the large gathering from all parts to his - resting-place with his “forbears” in Linton’s “auld kirkyaird.” - -Thus far the newspaper of 1906; and a correspondent who knew the family -writes under date March 18, 1912, “Alexander Forrester Farquharson (the -subject of the foregoing notice) was born on Sept. 26, 1836, and was -named Forrester after the minister of West Linton Parish. He was the -son of Andrew Farquharson, mole catcher and small Farmer, and Isabella -Cairns, both natives of the Carlops district who lived there at a house -called Lonely Bield. Alexander lived in the same house, and followed his -father’s occupation. His son died lately and the mother has now left the -House.” From this somewhat meagre account we may gather that the whole of -his life was spent in Nature’s lonely places - - “up on the mountains, in among the hills” - -and in this respect he resembles Allan Ramsay who drank in the poetry -of Nature when a boy at Leadhills high up on the Crawford moor in -Lanarkshire, where hills, glens, and burns, with birds and flowers and -ever-changing skies were his to watch and study and take delight in, at -the impressionable season of boyhood; whereby Nature herself laid the -foundations of his poetic fancies. And this opportunity to walk with -Nature came also to Farquharson, in even a greater measure than it did -to Ramsay; for he, like Burns, lived and laboured in the country after -he had grown to manhood. But Farquharson had not so good an education -as the other two, nor did it fall to him, as it did to them, to have -at the outset of his career books put into his hands which directed -his attention more especially to poetry. Thus, what the selection of -English Songs, which he called his _Vade mecum_, did for Burns, Watson’s -collection of Scottish poems did for Ramsay, and among these, notably, -one by Robt. Semphill called “The life and death of the Piper of -Kilbarchan” and another by Hamilton of Gilbertfield, “The last dying -words of Bonnie Heck.” Later, Hamilton, who by this poem first inspired -Ramsay with the desire to write in verse, heartily recognised his merit -and himself wrote of him - - “O fam’d and celebrated Allan! - Renowned Ramsay! canty callan! - There’s nouther Hieland man nor Lawlan - In poetrie, - But may as soon ding doun Tantallan - As match wi’ thee.” - -This source of inspiration from books of poetry never, as far as we -know, fell to the lot of Farquharson, whose education was altogether on -a lower plane. He was born and died just a Scottish peasant; but his -communing with Nature gave him the power of observation, whilst the love -of reading, which has for generations been the heritage of the Scots even -in the humblest walks of life, taught him how to express the thoughts -which came to him, and he had undoubtedly a gift for verse. His poems -on his old “Hardie” fiddle, and on the Sundew are so good that they -might have been written by Burns. But, like Burns and Ramsay too, he is -best when he sticks to the vernacular. When he begins to write English -he is less convincing. It is well to remember that Ramsay could owe -nothing to Burns, as he died in 1758, the year before Burns was born; but -Farquharson, whose widow is still alive, died only the other day, and was -acquainted with the works certainly of one and probably of both of them. -This does not, however, make him less deserving of notice; for little -as he wrote, the two poems just mentioned show, I cannot help thinking, -a high degree of poetic merit, being not merely surprising as the work -of a peasant, but—extremely good _per se_, and serve to show how the -true poetic gift may lurk unsuspected in a country village. In his poems -_Fair Habbies Howe_ (or hollow) and _Monk’s Burn_ he refers to the fact -that the descriptions of Nature in Allan Ramsay’s pastoral _The Gentle -Shepherd_ are taken from the Carlops district, about twelve miles from -Edinburgh, in which he himself lived. The second scene of the first act -of _The Gentle Shepherd_ begins thus: - - _Jenny._ Come, Meg, let’s fa’ to wark upon this green, - This shining day will bleach our linen clean; - The waters clear, the lift’s unclouded blue - Will make them like a lily wet wi’ dew. - - _Peggy._ Gae farer up the burn to Habbie’s Howe, - Where a’ the sweets o’ spring an’ simmer grow: - Between two birks, out o’er a little lin,[40] - The water fa’s an’ maks a singan din: - A pool breast-deep, beneath as clear as glass, - Kisses wi’ easy whirls the bord’ring grass. - We’ll end our washing while the morning’s cool; - An’ when the day grows het, we’ll to the pool, - There wash oursells—’tis healthfu’ now as May, - An sweetly cauler on sae warm a day. - -_The Gentle Shepherd_, the poem on which Allan Ramsay’s reputation is -mainly founded, is a pastoral of great beauty and charm. The original MS. -was presented by the author to the Countess of Eglinton. It is a folio -Vol. of 105 pages, clearly written by his own hand, and has a few comic -pen-and-ink sketches added at the beginning or end of the acts, and at -the close is this note: - - “Finished the 29ᵗʰ of April, 1725, just as eleven o’clock - strikes, by Allan Ramsay. - - All glory be to God. Amen.” - -We will now turn to the seven bits of verse we have been able to collect -by the Shepherd of Lonely Bield. - -FAIR HABBIE’S HOWE. - -(May be sung to the tune “Craigielea,” with first verse as the Chorus). - - O Habbie’s Howe! Fair Habbie’s Howe, - Where wimplin’ burnies[41] sweetly row; - Where aft I’ve tasted nature’s joys, - O Habbie’s Howe! Fair Habbie’s Howe. - - Roond thee my youthfu’ days I spent, - Amang thy cliffs aft ha’e I speil’d. - Thou theme o’ Ramsay’s pastoral lay; - O hoary, moss-clad Craigy Bield. - - The auld oak bower, wi’ ivy twined, - Adorns thy weather-furrowed brow, - A trysting-place where lovers met - When tenting flocks in Habbie’s Howe. - - When April’s suns glint through the trees, - The mavis lilts his mellow lay; - And, deep amid thy sombre shades - The owlet screams at close of day. - - Amang thy cosy, mossy chinks, - The fern now shows its gentle form - And through thy caves the ousel darts, - To build his nest in early morn. - - The scented birk, and glossy beech, - Hang o’er thee for thy simmer veil; - And gowany haughs[42] aroond thee bloom, - Where shepherds tauld love’s tender tale. - - Sweet Esk, glide o’er thy rocky path, - And echo through thy classic glen; - Where can we match, in flowery May, - Fair Habbie’s Howe, and Hawthornden? - - ALEX. FARQUHARSON. - - Lanely Bield. Carlops, 1885. - -MONK’S BURN. - - Doon in Monk’s bonnie verdant glen - A sparklin’ birnie murmurs through - Dark waving pines, ’mang hazel shaws - Decked with the hawk-weed’s golden hue. - - It ripples aft ’neath ferny banks - With fragrant birks and briers spread - Till o’er the linn its echo sings, - Deep cradled in a rocky bed. - - Here Auld Dame Nature gaily haps - Frae ilka side her crystal streams; - And soaring high o’er leafy bowers, - On hovering wing, the falcon screams. - - Aboon Glaud’s yaird the burnie meets - Esk dancing to the morning sun, - An’ glintin’ bonnie through Monk’s Haugh,[43] - Where Pate and Peggie[44] aft hae run; - - Noo joined wi’ silv’ry limpid Esk, - Gangs merrily singing tae the sea. - Ilk bird and flower the chorus join - Till wilds and braes resound wi’ glee. - - Sing on, ye warblers ’mang the trees, - Bloom fair, ye blue-bells on the plains, - And deck the banks of infant rills - That wander through my native glens. - - ALEX. FARQUHARSON. - - Lanely Bield, _16th January 1886_. - -THE AULD BLASTED TREE. - - The blasted ash tree that langsyne grew its lane, - Whilk Ramsay has pictured in his pawky strain, - Wi’ Bauldy aboon’t on the tap o’ the knowe, - Glowrin’ doon at auld Mause[45] in aneath, spinnin’ tow, - Is noo whommilt doon ower the Back Buckie Brae, - Baith helpless, an’ lifeless, an’ sair crummilt away, - ’Mang the bonnie blue speedwell that coortit its beild, - Tho’ its scant tap e’en growin’ but little could yield. - - For years—nigh twa hunner—it markit the spot - Whaur Mause the witch dwalt in her lanely wee cot; - But dour Eichty-sax sent a drivin’ snaw blast, - An’ the storied link brak ’tween the present an’ past. - Tho’ in summer ’twas bare, an’ had lang tint its charms, - Scarce a leaf e’er was seen on’t to hap its grey arms, - Yet it clang to the brae,[46] rockit sair, sair, I ween, - Wi’ the loud howlin’ winds that blaw doon the Linn Dean. - - An’ mony a squall warsled at the deid ’oor o’ nicht. - When Mause took in her noddle to raise ane for a flicht, - On her auld besom shank, lowin’ at the ae en’,[47] - That she played sic pranks on when she dwalt i’ the glen; - Some alloo she could loup on’t clean ower Carlops toon, - Gawn as heich i’ the air as Dale wi’ his balloon, - Wi’ nocht on but her sark an’ a white squiny much— - A dress greatly in vogue in thae days wi’ a wutch. - - But thae fashions, like wutches, hae gane oot o’ date - E’en the black bandit squiny has shared the same fate, - The lint-wheels they span on are just keepit for fun, - Or tae let lasses see the wey hand-cloots were spun. - Feint a trace o’ the carlin’ there’s noo left ava— - Her wee hoosie’s doon, an’ the auld tree an’ a’, - That waggit ayont it for mony a year - Ere anither bit timmer took thocht to grow here. - - A. FARQUHARSON. - - Lanely Bield (1887?). - -EPISTAL TO ALAN REID. EDINBURGH. 1888. - - Gin August wiles oot wi’ her smile - Auld Reekie’s sons when freed frae toil, - There ane’ comes here tae bide awhile, - A clever chield; - Ilk place he’s paintit in grand style, - E’en oor wee bield. - - He’s craigs an’ castles, cots an’ ha’s, - Lint mills, auld brigs, an’ water fa’s, - Auld stumps o’ trees an’ cowpit wa’s[48] - A treat to see’t. - - O’er vera hills he’s gi’en a ca’, - Frae Rullion Green yont ta’ Mentma’; - An’ brawer pictures I ne’er saw, - They’re fair perfection: - They’d even mense[49] a baron’s ha’ - That rare collection. - - Thanks tae ye, noo, for paintin’ bonnie - The “Lanely Bield,” whaur dwells a cronie, - Wha likes a nicht wi’ ane sae funny - An’ fu’ o’ glee: - I trow Auld Reekie has nae mony - Tae match wi’ thee. - - It mak’s me dowie the news I hear - That ye’re no comin’ oot this year; - They tell me that ye’re gaun tae steer - For Lunnon toon: - Losh, man, I’ll miss ye sair I fear - No’ comin’ doon. - - But gif I’m spared wi’ health ava, - A holiday, or may be twa, - I’ll tak’ an’ come tae see ye a’, - An’ bide a’ nicht; - An’ faith we’ll sing tae the cock’s craw - At “grey daylicht.” - - ALEX. FARQUHARSON. - - Lanely Bield. - -ADDRESS TO THE SUNDEW. - -(One of the insect-eating plants). - - Wha e’er wad think sae fair a flow’r - Wad be sae pawky[50] as to lure - A midge intae its genty bow’r - O’ bristles bricht, - An’ syne at leisure clean devour - It oot o’ sicht? - - Your crimson colour’s sae enticin’ - In simmer gin the sun be risin’ - I daursay they’ll need nae advisin’ - Tae step in ow’r - Tae view an’ find the plan surprisin’ - O sic a bow’r. - - For oot again they canna wun; - Tho’ wee an’ gleg,[51] they’re fairly done, - I wad they’ll get an awfu’ stun - Gin its deteckit - They’ve death tae face an’ no’ the fun - That they expeckit. - - It serves them richt, the wicked crew, - De’il gin the lave were in your mou’! - For oh! they’re ill tae thole the noo - When bitin’ keen, - Dingin’ their beaks intae ane’s broo - Up tae the een! - - Ilk foggy[52] sheugh aroond ye scan, - An’ nip as mony as ye can, - ’Twill help a wee tae gar ye stan’ - The winter weather, - For fient a midge ye’ll pree[53] gin than - Amang the heather. - - I kenna hoo ye’ll fend ava - Gin a’ the muirs are clad wi’ snaw. - I doot ye’ll hae tae snooze awa’ - Sax months at least, - An’ aiblins then your chance is sma’ - Tae get a feast. - - But gin I happen ere tae stray - Neist August roond by Jenny’s Brae, - I hope tae see ye fresh an’ gay, - Wee muirlan’ plantie! - Wi’ routh[54] o’ midges then tae slay - Tae keep ye cantie. - - A. F. - - Lanely Bield. - -ADDRESS TAE A MATTHEW HARDIE FIDDLE. - - Ae blink at you an’ ane could tell - That ye’re nae foreign factory shell, - But a Scotch mak’, an’, like mysel’, - Made gey and sturdy; - An’ as for tone, there’ll few excel - Ma guid auld Hardie. - - Ye’ve been ma hobbie late and sune, - Noo sax an’ twenty years come June, - An’ noo and than I tak’ a tune; - Yet gin I weary. - Altho’ it’s but a kin’ o’ croon, - It keeps ane cheery. - - Gin ower ye’re thairms[55] I jink the bow, - Bright notions bizz intae ma pow, - For worl’y cares ye them can cow, - An’ a’ gangs richt, - When ower I stump[56] ‘Nathaniel Gow,’ - Or ‘Grey daylicht.’ - - Wi’ reek an’ rozet noo ye’re black - An scarted sair aboot the back, - But what tho’ tawdry ye’re ne’er slack - Tae lilt a spring[57] - Wi’ ony far fecht fancy crack - They e’er will bring. - - In silk-lined cases ower the seas - Scrawled oot an’ in wi’ foreign lees - Aboot their S’s, scrolls, an’ C’s,[58] - An’ eke a name - Wad tak’ a child that’s ta’en degrees - Tae read that same. - - An’ nocht but bum-clocks[59] at the best - Wi’ shinin’ coats o’ amber drest; - Och! what o’ that? their tones but test! - Sic dandie dummies! - Lyin’ in braw boxes at their rest, - Row’d up like mummies. - - For a’ the sprees ye hae been at, - Haech! nae sic guide-ship e’er ye gat, - But took your chance tho’ it was wat, - Ay, e’en wat snaw - I’ve seen or noo a denty brat[60] - Oot ower ye a’. - - I never kent ye tak’ the gee,[61] - But aye sang sweet at ilka spree, - Tho’ I played wild at times a wee - Gin I gat fou. - The fau’t lay wi’ the wee drap bree,[62] - An’ no’ wi’ you. - - Sae noo I trust gin I’m nae mair, - Some fiddlin’ frien’ will tak’ guid care, - And see that ye’re nae dauded[63] sair, - When frail an’ auld; - For Hardies noo are unco rare - Sae that I’m tauld. - - A. F. - - Lanely Bield. - -SONNET IN MEMORY OF ELEANORA BROWN. - - Gone! noble spirit, from our mortal view, - The still form shaded by the sombre yew - In Mary’s Bower, a spot remote from din, - Save when in flood the shrill gush of the linn - From wailing waves is wafted o’er her tomb, - Retiring soft round her parental home, - Where trained with pious care to womanhood, - Henceforth her motto, Ever doing good; - Gentle with youth, and comforting the old, - In faith and hope to gain the promised Fold. - Alas! the link has snapped in Friendship’s chain. - Kind Ora’s call we’ll sigh for now in vain, - Amid her native flora laid to rest, - The modest speedwell a remembrance on her breast. - - A. FARQUHARSON. - - Lanely Bield. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] Or Medeshamstede = Meadow homestead. - -[2] He claimed the Earldom of Oxford and the Great Chamberlainship of -England in right of his mother, Lady Mary Vere, sister and heiress of -Edward, seventeenth Earl of Oxford, but succeeded in establishing his -claim to the Chamberlainship only. - -[3] Defeated and slain at Flodden Field, 1513. - -[4] The others are Riby, Sutton St. Edmund, and one in Lincoln, now -destroyed. - -[5] The Hermitage which dated from 1323 was absorbed into the Hospital. - -[6] Originally “Glanford briggs.” - -[7] At Mellor in Derbyshire is a pulpit of very early date, hollowed out -of the trunk of a tree and carved in panels. - -[8] Nearly five hundred years later his tombstone was discovered in the -pavement of St. Mark’s and brought to England. - -[9] The coal output in the United Kingdom in 1913 was 287,411,869 tons, -an increase of 27 millions on the previous year. - -[10] As at Grantham. - -[11] Where there were no osiers they took to the reeds. A Ramsay man, now -in his 95th year (1914), remembers the reed-harvest at Whittlesey Mere -being frequently injured by the clouds of starlings who roosted in them. - -[12] Figured in Lyson’s Cumberland p. ccvii. - -[13] She saved Smith’s life, subsequently married an Englishman, John -Rolfe, and died at Gravesend, where two windows have just—July, 1914—been -put up to her memory. Her most distinguished descendant is Sir R. S. -Baden-Powell. - -[14] Near Boston Haven. - -[15] The ‘shout’ was a sort of flat-bottomed canoe, sometimes covered -fore and aft with canvas painted grey in which one man lay with his hands -over the sides so that by using short paddles he could approach the ducks -unseen. It is not likely that Hall _made_ the gun, but no doubt he fitted -it to the shout. - -[16] On the outer side of Boston Deeps opposite Friskney Flats. - -[17] The gift of a late parish clerk. - -[18] _Wytteworde_ may have meant the warning notice of a funeral. - -[19] _Yereday_ = the anniversary of a death. - -[20] Corporaxys is the plural of corporax = a linen cloth for the -consecrated elements. (_See_ Chap. XXIII.) - -[21] Spelt indifferently Reseuyd, Receuyd, Reseauyd, reseueade, Resauyd, -resevyd, Recevyd. - -[22] This is Gunby St. Peter; Gunby St. Nicholas is between N. Witham and -the Leicestershire border. - -[23] The corporax or corporal was the linen cloth to go under or over the -vessel containing the consecrated elements. - -[24] Wong = field. In Horncastle there is a street called “The Wong.” - -[25] The most notable instance of this is on the Gosforth Cross in -Cumberland, where the same figure represents both Odin and Christ. Here -too was a permanent Norse settlement. - -[26] The astounding list of Manors and advowsons handed over to “the -Master or custodian and the Chaplains of the College and almshouse -of the Holy Trinity of Tattershall and to their successors” was the -following:—“The Manors of Wasshyngburgh, Ledenham, ffulbeck, and Driby, -and the advowsons of the Churches of the same Manors, and the Manors of -Brinkyll, ffoletby, Boston, Ashby Puerorum, Withcall Souche, Withcall -Skypwyth, Bynbroke, called Northall, Woodenderby, Moreby, Wylkesby, -Conyngesbye, Holtham, the moiety of the Manors of Swynhope, Willughton, -Billingey and Walcote and the advowson of the Church of Swynhope.” - -[27] They all came from Lord Middleton’s park in Nottinghamshire. - -[28] This is now being done. - -[29] A tax of a fifteenth levied on merchants’ goods in King John’s reign. - -[30] Prov. 17. 14. - -[31] See Frontispiece. - -[32] _Hydegy_ Hay-de-guy or guise lit. Hay of Guy or Guise, a -particular kind of hay or dance in the 16th and early 17th century. -Spenser, Shepherd’s Calendar “Heydeguyes”; Drayton, Polyolbion, “dance -hy-day-gies” among the hills. Robin Goodfellow in “Percy Reliques,” &c. -English Dictionary, Murray. _Hay_ (of uncertain origin) a country dance -with winding movement of the nature of a reel. - -[33] See Illustration, page 180. - -[34] This Matthew Flinders, of Donington, was a notable hydrographer. He -was sent as lieutenant in command of an old ship the _Xenophon_, renamed -the _Investigator_, to explore and chart the coast of S. Australia in -1801-3. And he took with him his young cousin John Franklin who had just -returned from the battle of Copenhagen where he distinguished himself as -a midshipman on the _Polyphemus_,—Captain John Lawford. Under Flinders he -showed great aptitude for Nautical and Astronomical observations and was -made assistant at the Sydney observatory, the Governor, Mr. King, usually -addressing him as “Mr. Tycho Brahe.” These two natives of Lincolnshire, -Flinders and Franklin, are of course responsible for such names on the -Australian Coast as _Franklin Isles_, _Spilsby Island_ in the _Sir -Joseph Banks_ group, _Port Lincoln_, _Boston Island_, _Cape Donington_, -_Spalding Cove_, _Grantham Island_, _Flinders Bay_, _&c._ - -The _Investigator_ proving unseaworthy, Flinders, with part of his crew, -sailed homewards on the _Cumberland_; and touching at St. Mauritius was -detained by the French Governor because his passport was made out for the -_Investigator_. He was set free after seven tedious years on the island, -1803-1810, and died at Donington 1814. - -[35] The _Times_, alluding to the Ulster Plot, spoke of “The Pinchbeck -Napoleons of the Cabinet.” - -[36] See Chap. XXII. - -[37] These were cut in Nottinghamshire; but I see that Sussex is to -supply the oak for the roof timbers of Westminster Hall. - -[38] An expression used in “Long whist.” - -[39] Or “Shelter,” which, from its name, “Lonely Bield,” was probably far -from any other human habitation. - -[40] Waterfall. - -[41] “A trotting burnie wimpling thro’ the ground,” Allan Ramsay’s -_Gentle Shepherd_, Act I., Sc. 2. - -[42] Daisied slopes. - -[43] Vale. - -[44] Characters in _The Gentle Shepherd_. - -[45] Characters in _The Gentle Shepherd_. - -[46] Brow. - -[47] Flaming at one end. - -[48] Ruinous walls. - -[49] Grace. - -[50] Cunning. - -[51] Quick. - -[52] Hollow. - -[53] Taste. - -[54] Plenty. - -[55] Catgut, fiddlestrings. - -[56] Play. - -[57] A tune. - -[58] Stradivariuses and Cremonas. - -[59] Chafers. - -[60] Thick covering (of snow). - -[61] Offence. - -[62] Brew = whisky. - -[63] Knocked about. - - - - -INDEX - -Compiled mainly by Miss Rotha Clay, author of _Mediæval Hospitals of -England_ and _Hermits and Anchorites of England._ - - - A - - Addlethorpe, 307-12 - - Ædwin, King, 93, 114, 354 - - Agricultural returns, 477 - - Alexander, Bp., 76, 95, 371 - - Alford, 305 - - Algarkirk, 32, 459-61 - - Alkborough, 196-7 - - Allington, E. and W., 70 - - Alms-box, 69 - - Almshouses, 13-14, 16, 186, 206, 267, 414. - _See also_ Hospitals - - Altar stone, 41, 142, 200, 257 - - Alton church fight, 287 - - Alvingham, 280, 371 - - Anatomy of Melancholy, 274 - - Ancaster, 88-9 - - Ancholme, R., 183 - - Anderson, Sir Charles, 205-6, 207 - - Angel Hotel, Grantham, 56 - - Anglo-Saxon ornaments, 254-5 - - Anglo-Saxon remains, 168-9. - _See also_ Architecture - - Anwick, 371 - - Aragon, Katherine of, 31 - - Architecture, Different Styles, 6. - Saxon and Early Romanesque, 19, 29, 43, 46, 71-2, 85, 90, 126, 139, - 148, 164, 188-9, 196, 230, 251-5, 252-4. - Norman Domestic, 51, 122, 124, 255 - - Armada picture of Bratoft Church, 321 - - Arras and Cambray, St. Vedast, Bp. of, 276 - - Ashby near Spilsby, 335 - - Ashby-cum-Fenby, 267 - - Ashby Puerorum, 342, 379 - - Askew (Ayscoughe), family of, 223-4 - - Axholme, Isle of, 4, 5, 198, 208-12 - - Ayscoughe Fee Hall, Spalding, 445 - - - B - - Baden-Powell, Sir R. S., 278, note - - Bain, R., 274, 364-5, 371, 385 - - Bacon, Sir Hickman, of Thonock, 204, 405 - - Baptists in Lincolnshire, 325 - - Bardney, 390-3 - - Barholm, 19 - - Barkston, 65-6 - - Barkwith, East and West, 268 - - Barlings Abbey, 143, 395 - - Barnadiston, family of, 225 - - Barnetby-le-Wold, 234, 259 - - Barnoldby-le-Beck, 283 - - Barrow-on-Humber, 216-7 - - Barrowby, 70 - - Barton-on-Humber, 7, 188-93 - - Barsham, Norfolk, 384 - - Bassingham Saxon font, 148 - - Bassingthorpe, 40 - - Baston, 29 - - Baumber, 144 - - Bayons Manor, 273 - - Beacon, 48, 167, 423 - - Beaufort, Lady Margaret, 12, 49 - - Bec, Sir Walter’s grave, Halton, 330 - Thomas and Antony, Bishops, 97, 160 - - Belchford, S. W. H. Kennels, 275, 283 - - Belleau, 247-48, 249 - - Bells, 19-20, 60, 99, 126, 197, 311, 313, 318, 434, 438, 459 - - Belton, 64-5, 210 - - Belvoir Castle, 69-70 - - Benington, 416-7 - - Benniworth, 268 - - Bertie, family of, 19, 30-1, 335 - - Bicker, 457, 459 - - Bigby, 183, 235 - - Bigby font and Tyrwhit Monuments, 235-6 - - Billingborough, 35 - - Bilsby, 305 - - Bitchfield, 40 - - Binbrook, 274 - - Black Death, 480-2 - - Blankney, 149 - - Bloody Oaks, battle of, 11, 18 - - Blow wells, 232, 267 - - Boat, ancient, 184-5 - - Bolingbroke, Old, 339, 359 - - Bolles, family of, 284-8 - - Bond family monuments at Croft, 318 - - Books, chained, 60 - - Boothby Graffoe, 162 - - Boothby Pagnell, 51 - - Bore, the, 201-2 - - Boston, 420-40 - “stump,” 60, 108, 420-3 - guilds, 430 - religious houses, 430 - silting of the river, 432-3 - - Bottesford, 200 - - Botolph, St., 426 - - Boucherett, family, 273 - - Bourne Town and Abbey, 23, 27; - manor, 21-4, 32 - - Braceborough Spa, 22 - - Bracebridge, 164 - - Braceby, 42 - - Bramfield, Sub-dean, Murder of, 104 - - Brandon, Chas., Duke of Suffolk, 399 - - Brant, Broughton, 90, 148, 151-4 - - Brasenose Coll., Stamford, 14 - - Brasses, 171-2, 225, 235, 294-5, 317, 334, 387 - - Brasses, earliest in County, 146, 317 - - Brasses twice used, 200, 322 - - Bratoft, 321 - - Bridges, ancient, 129, 270, 490 - - Brigg, old boat at, 184-5 - - Brigsley, 274 - - Brocklesby, 236-8 - - Bromhead and Chard, 131 - - Brothertoft, 404 - - Broughton near Brigg, 71, 183-4 - - Browne family, Monuments at Croft, 317 - - Browne, William, 12, 13 - - Brownlow family, 64-5 - - Buckden, 109, 117, 384 - - Buckland, 283 - - Bulb trade, Spalding, 441-4 - - Bull-running, 11 - - Bully Hill, 276 - - Burgh-le-Marsh, 320 - - Burgh-on-Bain, 268 - - Burghley House, 12 - - Burleigh, Lord of, 16-17 - - Burton Coggles, 40 - - Burton Pedwardine, 85 - - Burton Stather, 4, 198 - - Buslingthorpe, early brass, 146 - - Butterwick, 418 - - Bytham, Castle, 44-5 - maypole ladder, 44 - - Bytham, Little, 40, 44, 46 - - Bytham farmers’ motto, 46 - - Byways, 245-7 - - - C - - Cabourn Hill, 231 - - Caenby, 269-270 - - Caistor, 7, 228-30, 236 - - Callis, (Almshouse), 13 - - Candlesby, 283, 382 - - Canwick, 149 - - Careby and Carlby, 40 - - Carlton Scroop, 67 - - Carlton Gt. and Little, 278 - - Carr, use of word, 183-4 - - Carr Dyke, 23, 28-9, 34, 40, 44, 87, 165, 183, 371, 401, 456 - - Carre Family, 77 - - Casewick Hall, 19 - - Casterton, Great, 7 - - Cathedrals Compared, 98-9 - - Cawdron Monuments, 85 - - Cawkwell, 276 - - Cawthorpe, 245-7 - - Caythorpe, 67-8 - - Ceremony of Championship, 376-8 - - Chalice, Priest’s, 83 - - Champion of England, Grand, 334, 372-8 - - Chantries, 63 - - Chaplin, Jane, aged 102, 277 - - Cartulary, Alvingham, 281 - - Charterhouse, Founder of, 206 - - Chaucer, 199, 339, 359, 444 - - Cherry Willingham, 143 - - Church Clock at Rowston, 150 - - Churchwardens’ Books, 83-4, 137, 240, 257, 260, 309-10, 318-19, 325-7 - - Claxby, near Alford, 248 - - Claxby, near Rasen, 232 - - Claypole, 71, 74-75 - - Clee, 264-6 - - Cleethorpes, 227, 265 - - “Cliff,” 159, 183, 198, 232-3 - - Clixby, 234 - - Cockerington, (North, South), 279-81 - - Coifi, Chief Priest, 113 - - Coleby, 141, 162-3 - - Colsterworth, Newton Chapel, 46-47, 66 - - Compton Church, Surrey, 397 - - Coningsby, 370-1 - - Conington, Prof., 423 - - Corby, 31, 40 - - Corringham, 200-1 - - Cotes-by-Stow, 141-2 - - Cotes, Great, and Barnadiston Brasses, 224-5 - - Cotes, Little, 267 - - Cotes, North, 295 - - Country Seats near Grantham, 64 - - Covenham, St. M. and St. B., 281 - - Cowbit, 406, 483-4 - - Cowpaddle, The, 149 - - Crabbe, Rector of Allington, 70 - - Cranwell, 90 - - Cressy Hall, 71, 454-5 - - Creeton, Stone coffins at, 40 - - Cripple, Memorial Brass to, 310 - - Croft, 316-19 - - Cromwell, Oliver, 201, 364, 439 - his letters, 54-55, 364, 439 - - Cromwell, Ralph, 380-382, 384-385 - - Crosses, Stone, 33, 57, 71, 74, 79, 80, 134, 139, 150, 196, 342 - Queen Eleanor, 9, 62, 134, 174 - Boundary, 489-90 - - Crowle, 212, 261 - - Croxby Pond, 267, 274 - - Croyland Abbey, 5, 342, 483-9 - Bridge, 490-1 - - Curfew, 149 - - Cust, Family of, 64-5, 450-2 - - Cuthbert Bede, 40 - - Cuthbert, St., 213-14 - - Cuxwold, 231 - - - D - - Dalby, 360 - - Danegelt, 7 - - Danish occupation, 8-9, 20, 32, 140, 201, 204, 263-5, 276, 402-3, 485 - - Dashwoods and Batemans at Well, 249 - - Deeping Fen, 21-2 - St. James, 20, 29 - - Denton, 69 - - Devil’s door, the, 331 - - Devil looking over Lincoln, 101 - - Dictionary, Elliott’s, 327 - - Digby, 150 - - Disney, family of, 171-3 - - Doddington Hall, 173-6 - - Dog-whipping in church, 83, 319 - - _Dominus_, use of word, 394-5 - - Donington, 455-6 - on Bain, 276 - - Dorchester (Oxon), bishopric of, 93, 140 - - Drainage and embankments in fen and marsh, 28, 209, 314, 432-5, 446, - 456. - _See also_ Roman Works - - Drainage opposed by Fenmen, 433 - - Drayton, M., quoted, 426 - - Driby, 378-83 - - “Droves,” all E. and W., 44 - - Duck-decoys, 200, 411-13 - - Dunham Bridge, 137-8 - - Dunsby and Dowsby, 34 - - Dunston pillar, 148, 167 - - Durham priory, 8 - - Durobrivæ Roman station, 7 - - Dymoke, family of, 80, 334, 372-7 - - - E - - Eagle, 173 - - “Eagre” or bore in R. Trent, 201-2 - - Early church towers, group of, 198-9, 230, 252, 262 - - Easter Sepulchre, 21, 41, 75, 82, 106, 162 - - Easton, 48, 50 - - Eden, R., 40, 41, 43 - - Edenham, 29-30 - - Eleanor, Queen, 9, 103, 116, 174 - - Elkington, South, 274, 284 - North, 284 - - Elloe stone, 466 - - Elsham, 3, 185-6 - - Empingham, battle at, 11, 18 - - Enderby, Bag, 258, 340, 379 - - Enderby, Mavis, 362, 434 - - Enderby Wood, 369 - - Epworth, 210 - - Eresby, 335 - - Ermine Street, High Dyke, 3-4, 7, 18, 50, 88, 90, 92, 122, 129, 149, - 151, 154, 157, 159, 178, 182-4, 190, 230, 269 - - Ewerby, 60, 78-9, 85, 259 - - - F - - Farquharson, A. F., 501-10 - - Fens, 2, 5, 23, 34-35, 400-8, 464-5 - - Ferriby, South and North, 186-7, 196 - - Ferries over the Trent, 138 - - Ferry at Hull, 217-8 - - Fillingham, 199 - - Firsby, 325 - - Fishtoft, 419-20 - - Fiskerton, 143, 168-9 - - Fleet, 470 - - Flinders, Matthew, 456-7, note - - Flodden Field, 240 - - Floods, in the fen, 433-5 - - Floss, mill on, 201 - - Flowers in June, 262-3, 464 - Rare, 370-1, 419 - - Folkingham, 32 - - Folk-song, Lincolnshire, 296-303 - - Font covers, 257-8, 419, 475 - - Fonts, 64-5, 69, 108, 215, 234-5, 257-61, 291, 305, 306, 340-1, 368, - 417, 463, 465-6 - - Football, a family team, 207 - - Fosdyke, Rennie’s Bridge at, 475 - - Foss Dyke, 134, 137 - - Foss Way, 92, 148, 173 - - Fotherby Top, 284 - - Fox, John, born at Boston, 438 - - Fox-hounds, 493-8 - - Frampton, 476 - - Franklin, family of, 336, 457 - - Friaries, 124, 430 - - Frieston, 257, 418-9 - - Friskney, 380, 409-11 - duck decoy, 411-12 - - Frodingham, 198 - - Fulbeck, 68 - - Fulney, 448 - - Fulston, 281, 295 - - - G - - Gainsborough, 138, 201-4 - - Gautby, 144 - - Gaynisburgh, Richard de, 204 - - Gayton-le-Marsh, 278 - - Gayton-le-Wold, 268 - - Gedney, 470-2 - - Gelston Cross, 74 - - Gentleman’s Soc. of Spalding, 445-6 - - Giantess, Lincolnshire, 34 - - Gibbets, 270-1 - - Gibraltar Point, 298, 315 - - Gilbert de Gaunt, 32 - - Gilbert of Sempringham, St., 35-8, 371 - - Girsby, 268 - - Glass, ancient, 12, 33, 43 - - Glen, R., 19, 29, 39-41, 43-4, 51 - - Glentham, 269-70 - - Glentworth, 199-200 - - Gobaud family, 34 - - Godiva, Lady, 444 - - Gonerby Hill, 71 - - Goosetoft, 404-5 - - Gosberton, 452-4 - - Gowts, 126, 432 - - Goxhill, 218-19 - - Grainsby, 263 - - Grainthorpe, 294-5 - - Grandiloquent writing, 109 - - Grantham, 5, 52-63, 73 - - Grantham, Thomas, of Halton Baptist, 325 - - Grasby, 233-4 - - Great Humby, 34 - - Grebby, 282 - - Green lady, the, 286, 289 - - Greetham, 342 - - Gretford, 19-20 - - Grey friars at Grantham and Lincoln, 62, 128 - - Grimblethorpe, 268 - - Grimoldby, 216, 242, 279, 281 - - Grimsby, 225-7 - Corporation seals, 227 - - Grimsthorpe, 30-1 - - Grinling Gibbons, 65 - - Guilds and charters, 430, 432 - - Gunby, Dan, 296 - - Gulls breeding at Manton, 198 - - Gunby St. Peter, 283, 322 - - Guthlac, St., 483-5 - - Gynewell, Bishop, 481 - - - H - - Habrough, 222 - - Hacconby, 31 - - Haceby, 42 - - Hagnaby, 306, 366 - - Hagworthingham, 362 - - Hainton, 268 - - Hale, Great, 71, 84-5 - - Hallam, historian, 439 - - Halstead Hall, 396 - - Haltham, 369 - - Halton, East, 221 - - Halton, West, 195 - - Halton Holgate, 329-32 - - Halton, John de, Bp. of Carlisle, 368-9 - - Hameringham, 363-4 - - Harlaxton, 68-9 - - Harmston, 164 - - Harpswell, 198 - - Harrington, 340 - - Hatcliffe, 267 - - Haugh, 285 - - Haugham, 245, 277 - - Havelock, The Dane, Story of, 227, 394 - - Haverholme, 37, 78, 243, 371 - - Hawysia, de Trikingham, 42 - - Haydor, good stained glass, 33 - - Heapham, 206 - - Heckington, 80-3 - - Helpringham, 85-6 - - Heneage, family of, 268 - - Henry VIII., 76, 109, 157, 240 - - Hereward the Wake, 23-4, 40 - - Hermits, 178, 219 - - Hexham, 80 - - Hibaldstow, 183 - - High Dyke, alias Ermine St., 159 - From Caistor, 230 - - Hogsthorpe, 307 - - Holbeach, 468-70 - Legend of, 478-9 - - Holdingham, 89 - - Holland Fen, 404 - - Holton-le-Clay, 263 - - Holywell, 22 - - Honington, 67 - - Horbling, 35 - - Horkstow, 186-7 - - Horncastle, 91, 364-5 - - Hospitals and Almshouses, 9, 12-14, 53, 134, 178-81, 186 - - Hough-on-the-Hill, 71-4, 149, 162, 184 - - Hour-Glasses, 41, 90, 164, 210, 364 - - Houses, beautiful, 40 - - Howell, 79-80 - - Howorth, Sir Henry’s interesting book, 112 - - Hubbert’s Bridge, why so called, 46 - - Hugh of Lincoln, St., 96-117 - - Hugh of Wells, 96-7 - - Hugh, “Little St. Hugh,” 118-9 - - Humber, R., 187 - - Humberstone, 266 - - Hundleby, 361 - - Hundon, Tombs, Caistor, 229-30 - - Hussey, Ld., 76, 242, 438 - - Huttoft, 306 - - - I - - Iconoclasm, 256-7 - - Immingham, 222-3 - - Imp, The Lincoln, 106 - - Ingelow, Jean, 434, 439 - - Ingoldmells, 310, 315 - - Ingoldsby, 40 - - Inscriptions in Churches, 19, 21, 42, 43, 46, 49, 51, 67, 108, 201, - 216, 224, 225, 234, 235, 267, 280, 286, 288, 307, 318, 321, - 363, 375, 414, 417, 424, 476, 487, 489 - On Jubilee Memorial, 186 - On Bells, 511, 313 - - Irby, 324 - - Irby-on-Humber, 231-2 - - Irby family monuments, 468 - - Irnham, 40-1 - - Ithamar, first English Bp., 114 - - - J - - Jesus Coll. Chapel bench ends, 332 - - Jews, persecution of, 117-9, 123 - - Joffrid, Abbot of Croyland, 486-7 - sends Lecturers to Cambridge, 486 - lays first stone of the third abbey, 487 - - John, King of England, at Kingscliffe, 9, 56, 71, 76 - - John, King of France, 53, 160, 238 - - Johnson, Archdeacon, 16 - - Johnson, Dr., 360 - - Jump, famous, of Dr. Trought, 246 - - - K - - Katherine Howard, 76, 109, 157 - - Keate, Dr., 345 - - Keddington, 244 - - Keelby, 283 - - Kelstern, 274 - - Kettleby, 235-6 - - Kettlethorpe Hall, 176-7 - - Killingholme, North, South, 222 - - King’s Street, 23, 31-4 - - Kirkby-Underwood, 40 - - Kirkby, East, 366 - - Kirkstead, Abbey and Chapel, 396-8 - - Kirmington, Green Spire, 236 - - Kirmond-le-mire, 274 - - Kirton, 475 - - Kirton-in-Lindsey, 182 - - Knaith, 206 - - Knights Hospitallers, alias of Jerusalem and of St. John, 155-9 - - Knights Templars, 155-9, 173, 198. - _See also_ Temple Belwood, Temple Bruer - - Koh-i-noor (mt. of light), diamond, 237. - - Kyme, North and South, 87-9, 371 - tower, 438 - - - L - - Laceby, 232, 267 - - Lady Lucia, 339 - - Lambert, Daniel, 16 - - Langton, 360 - - Langtoft, 20-1 - - Laughton, 200 - - Lea, 201, 204-5 - - Leadenham, 68, 151 - - Leake, 413-6 - - Leasingham, 89-90 - - Lenton or Lavington, 40 - - Leverton, 416-7 - - Liddington, 481 - - Lincoln— - Lindum Colonia, 91 - Afternoon tea at, A.D. 1762, 136 - Bishop’s palaces, 109, 117, 384, 481 - Cathedral, 91-111 - Chancery, 109-10 - Chapter-house, 110 - Churches, 126-7 - Corporation, 129-31 - Conduits, 128-9 - Friaries, 123-4, 128, 135 - Gates, 91-2, 120-2, 129, 131 - Guild, 124-5, 255 - High bridge, 129 - Hospitals, 134 - Jews’ houses, 118, 121-3, 255 - Library, 131 - Stonebow, 129-30 - - Lincoln, Bishops of, 95-8, 103-8, 117, 481 - Parliaments of, 110-11 - Heath, 148-9, 157 - - Lincoln Stuff ball, 134 - - Lincolnshire flocks, 232 - - Lincolnshire, divisions of, 4-5, 22, 73-4 - - Lincolnshire Rebellion, 240-2 - - Lincolnshire Roads, 207 - Slope of the land, 34, 39 - - Lincolnshire stories, 337-8, 339-40, 462 - - Linwood, 146-7 - - Littleborough, 90, 138 - - Lock-up house, 150 - - “Long and short” work, 2, 253 - Long Bennington, 71 - - Lord High Treasurer Cromwell, Chapter XXXIII - - Louth, 60, 239-45 - Grammar School, 242 - - Louth Park Abbey, 37, 242-4 - Chronicle, 244, 433 - Roads, 244 - - Lud, R., 3 - - Ludford Magna, 274 - - Lusby, 363 - - “Lyttyl clause,” the, 240-2 - - - M - - Mablethorpe, 292, 347 - - Maddison, Canon, 103 - - Maltby-le-Marsh, 291 - - Manby, 278-9 - - Mappa Mundi, 76 - - Mareham-le-fen, 370 - - Markby, 306 - - Markham, Mrs., 102 - - Marquis of Granby, 70 - - Marsh, the, 2-3, 464-5 - - Marsh Chapel, 295 - - Marton, 139 - - Marston, 149 - - Martyrs, Clerical, 242 - - Masquerade at Nocton, 169-70 - - Massingberd family, 322 - - Mausoleum at Brocklesby, 236 - - Mavis Enderby, 362, 366, 434 - - Maypole, use of, 44 - - Mazes, 196-7 - - Melton Ross, 234 - - Mercia, kings of, 7-8, 114 - - Messingham, 107, 200 - - Miningsby, 366 - - Miserere seats, 104, 423 - - “Molly Grime,” 270 - - Monksthorpe, 324 - - Monumental effigies, &c., 30, 31, 34, 49, 67, 69, 77, 79, 80, 83, - 103, 104, 145-7, 149, 171-3, 184, 192, 195, 200, 210, 223-6, - 229-30, 232, 235-6, 238, 267-9, 271, 278, 280-1, 292-5, 310, - 312, 317, 322-4, 330, 334, 340, 364, 372-5, 423, 453, 468, - 471-2, 487 - - Monumental epitaphs, 26-7, 420, 457. - _See also_ Inscriptions in Churches. - - Moorby, 368 - - Morton, 31, 204 - - Moulton, 260, 465-6 - - Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, 209 - - Muckton, 247 - - Mustard, cultivation of, 463-4, 472, 477 - Colman’s factory, Norwich, 464 - - Muston, 70 - - “My owd Son,” 440 - - - N - - Names ending in ‘by,’ 185, 341 - - Nature’s poets, 303-4 - - Navenby, 161-3 - - Nettleton, 231 - - Nettleship, R. L., 297 - - Newsham Abbey, 238 - - Newton Church Tower, 42 - - Newton, Isaac, 31, 46-8, 55, 57, 62 - - Newton-by-Toft, 270 - - Noblemen not Saints, 257 - - Nocton, 166-9 - - Nonconformists, 324-5 - - Normanby-le-Wold, 230 - - Norman buildings, 255 - - North Country humour, 303 - - Northorpe, 200 - - North Wytham, 46 - - Norton Disney, 148, 170-3 - - - O - - Octave of E.E. Churches, 42 - - Orgarth Hill, Danish Camp, 276 - - Ormsby, North, 284 - - Ormsby, South, 361 - - Osbournby, 33 - - Oswald, St., 212-4 - - Oswy, King of Northumbria, 8 - - - P - - Pagnell, Boothby, 51 - - Palmer, effigy of, 34 - - Parish Clerks, Stories of, 319-20 - - Partney, 358-60 - - Paulinus, St., 93, 112-14 - - Peasant poets, 303-4, 501 - - Pelham buckle, the, 238, 385 - - Pelham pillar, 231, 233, 236 - - Penda and Pæda, Kings of Mercia, 8, 114 - - Penrose, Rev. Trevenen, 163 - - Peterborough, cathedral, 49-50, 52 - - Pickworth, 41 - - Pilgrimage of Grace, 240, 242 - - Pinchbeck, 448-50 - metal called, 461-2 - - Plague, 290-1, 439 - - Plague-stone, 290-1 - - Ponton, Great, 50 - - Ponton, Little, 51 - - Pope Gregory, 112-13 - - Potter Hanworth, 165 - - Potteries, Pre-Roman, 315-6 - - Premonstratensian, meaning of, 395 - - Pulpit, early, note, 192 - - - Q - - Quadring, 455 - - Queen Margaret (Ed. I.), 428 - - Queen Eleanor’s heart buried at Lincoln A.D. 1290, 103 - - - R - - Raithby, 361-2 - - Rasen, Market, 272 - Middle, 271 - West, 270 - - Ravendale, 267, 274 - - Rawnsley, 27, 43, 249, 328, 330, 332, 336, 340, 352, 361, 493, 496 - - Read’s Island, 187 - - Rebellion, Lincolnshire, 240-2, 243 - - Registers, Early, 306, 476 - - Remigius, Bishop, 76, 93, 140 - - Revesby Abbey, 367 - - Riby Grove, 232 - - Richard III. at Grantham, 56 - - Ridge, the, 4, 159 - - Rigsby, 247 - - Rippingale, 34 - - Riseholme, 269 - - Roads, few going E. and W., 33 - in the marsh, 280, 316 - without villages, 151 - - Roadway streams, 246-7 - - Robert de Brunne, 25-6 - - Rochford, Stoke, 48 - - Romanus, Bp., 113-114 - - Romans, our benefactors, 401 - - Roman works: - embankments, etc., 2, 295, 310-12, 315, 401, 409, 417, 456, 459, - 464-5; - _see_ Carr Dyke, Foss Dyke - gateways, 91 - roads, 23, 34, 89, 91-3, 137, 144,183, 230, 328, 465. - _See_ Ermine Street, Foss Way, King’s Street - stations, 32, 50, 67, 87, 88, 91, 138, 140, 184, 228-9, 248, 315-6, - 364-5 - remains, 91, 104, 120, 122, 125-6, 149, 184, 196 - - Rood lofts and screens, 256 - - Roof covering both nave and aisles, 87, 225 - - Rooks in towns, 365 - - Ropsley, 43 - - Rothwell, long and short work, 230 - - Rowston, 150 - - Rulos, Richard de, father of Lincolnshire farmers, 21-22 - - - S - - St. Denis, 76 - - St. John, family of, 49-50 - - St. John, Oliver, 49-50 - - St. Poll, family of, 145 - - St. Thomas of Canterbury, Church Dedicated to, 40 - - Saleby, 278 - - Salinas, Mary de, 31 - - Salisbury, Connection of Grantham with, 62-3 - - Saltfleetby, All Saints, 293 - St. Clements, 294 - - Samplers, 168 - - Sandbank, “The Old Warp,” 187 - - Sandtoft, 209 - - Sapperton, Pulpit Hour-glass at, 41 - - Sausthorpe, 360 - - Saxby, All Saints, 186 - - Saxilby, 137 - - Saxon Churchyard, 29 - - Scamblesby, 276 - - Scartho, 264 - - Scawby, 183, 198 - Sutton Nelthorpe of, 198, 494 - - Schools, 13, 16, 27, 43, 57, 206, 242, 272 - - Scopwick, 149 - - Scremby, 282 - - Scrivelsby, 372-4 - - Scunthorpe, 198, 207 - - Sea-dyke, 2, 416-7, - _see_ Draining, Roman Embankment - - Seals, Ancient, 227 - - Sedgebrook, 69, 70 - - Sempringham, 35-38 - - Sempringham Hall, Stamford, 14 - - Sempringham, Order of, 25-6 - - Sheep in Churchyard, 267, 454 - - Sibsey, 361 - - Silk Willoughby Wayside Cross, 33 - - Sixhills, 146, 273, 277 - - Shakespeare Quotations, 63, 209, 491-2 - - Skating in Fens, 405-7 - International, 408 - - Skegness, 314-5 - Roman Castrum at, 316 - - Skendleby, 282 - - Skidbroke, 294 - - Skirbeck, 420, 427 - - “Skirth” Billinghay, 371 - - Slash Lane, 364 - - Sleaford, 4, 76-8, 169 - - Slope of Church W. to E., 66, 186 - - Smith, Capt. John, 278 - - Snarford, 144-5 - - Snelland Register, 144 - St. Poll Tombs, 145-6 - - Somerby, 42-3 - - Somercotes, South, 294 - - Somersby, 340-343, 345-353 - - Somersby Brook, 298, 322, 342 - - Somersby Church Opening, 352 - - Somerton Castle, 160-1 - - South Thoresby, 247, 290 - - Spalding, 441-8 - - Spectacles, Use of, 51 - - Spelling, a clear gift, 49 - - Spilsby, 233, 333-7 - - Spital-on-the-Street, 178-81 - - Springs, Mineral, 22, 69, 70 - - Springthorpe, 206 - - Stainfield, 395 - - Stainsby, 379 - - Stainton-le-Vale, 274 - - Stallingborough, 223 - The Ayscoughe Tombs, 223-4 - - Stamford, 4, 7-17 - bedehouse, 13-14 - churches, 7, 9, 12-14 - college, 14 - St. Leonard’s Priory, 8 - - “Stamford Baron,” 12 - - Stanley, Dean, on Wesley, 211 - - “Staple,” the meaning of, 428 - - Starlings, flocks of, 250 - - Steeping, Little and Great, 323-4 - - Stephen King, 76 - - Stickford and Stickney, 361 - - Stixwould, 395-6 - - Stocks, 372, 389, 457 - - Stoke Rochford, 48 - - Stones, sculptured, 139, 150, 212, 269, 281, 366, 368 - - Stonebow, the, 129 - - Stone Coffin, use for, 80 - - Stow, 140-2 - - Stow Green, 32 - - Stragglethorpe, 90 - - Strubby, 291 - - Stubton, 71 - - Stukeley, Dr. W., 43, 500 - - Sturton, 207 - - Suffolk, Duke of, 398-9 - Duchess of, 31 - - Surfleet, 452-3 - - Sutterton, 459 - - Sutton, Long, 472-4 - - Sutton, Thomas, 206 - - Swallow, 231 - - Swan, St. Hugh’s, 116 - - Swan-marks, 492 - - Swan, ballad of the, 299 - - Swaton, 86-7 - - Swineshead, 457-9 - - Swinstead, 31 - - Sword called “Fox,” 131 - - Syston Hall, 64 - - - T - - Tallington, 7, 19 - - Tathwell, St. Vedast’s, 276-7 - - Tattershall, 12, 235, 370-1, 379-80, 382-9 - Mantelpieces, 384, 388 - - Taylor, John, poet, 405 - - Tealby, 273, 343 - - Temple Belwood, 210 - Bruer, 76, 151, 154-9 - - Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 131-4, 340, 346-357 - - Tennyson, Dr., 342-344, 346 - - Tennyson Centenary, 131-2 - - Tennyson, family of, 343-57 - - Tennyson-Turner, C., 233-4 - - Tennyson poems in the Lincolnshire dialect, 356 - - Tennyson, Matilda, last of the family, 353 - - Tetford, 379 - - Tetney, 3, 266-7 - - Theddlethorpe, West, 293, 313 - - Theodore, Archbp. of Canterbury, 193 - - Thorganby, 274 - - Thonock Hall, 204, 495 - - Thornton Abbey, 219-21, 238 - - Thornton Curtis, 108, 215-16 - - Thorpe, 325-7 - - Thorpe Hall, 284-9 - - Thorpe St. Peter’s, 259 - - Threckingham, 32 - - Thurcytel, first Abbot of Croyland, 485 - - Thurlby, 29, 259 - - Tickencote, 18 - - Toft-next-Newton, 270 - - Top, Cliff and Wold, 232 - - Torrington, East and West, 263 - - Tothby, 290 - - Tournai fonts, 108, 215, 259 - - Tournays, or Tourneys, family of, 269-70 - - Tower-on-the-Moor, 398 - - Toynton, High, 342 - - Trent, R., 4, 114, 137-8, 200-2, 207 - - Tumby, 370, 379-80 - - Tupholme, Abbey, 284, 395 - - Two churches in one churchyard, 280 - - Tydd St. Mary, 465, 474 - - - U - - Uffington Hall, 19 - - Ulceby, 213, 282 - - Uppingham, founder of, 16, 206 - - Upton, 206 - - Usselby, 231 - - Utterby, 260, 267, 284 - - - V - - Vyner, F. G., 144 - - - W - - Waddington, 164 - - Wainfleet, 91, 327-9, 379 - - Wainfleet, St. Mary’s, 329 - - Wainfleet, William of, Bishop, 327-8 - - Waith, 263 - - Wake, de, family of, 20-1, 23, 40 - - Walcot, double “squint” at, 41 - - Walesby, 274 - - Walks, Uppingham to Boston, 35; - Horncastle to Mablethorpe, 249 - - Wall-painting, 141, 182, 410 - - Walmsgate, 283 - - Waltham, 264, 274 - - Wapentake, meaning of, 73-74 - - “Warping,” process of, 212 - - Wars, Civil, 19, 53-5, 201, 232, 286, 364 - - Wars of the Roses, 10-11, 18 - - Watts, G. F., and Tennyson, 134 - - “Wedercoke” at Louth, 240 - - Weir dyke, 144, 183, 186 - - Welbourn, John de, treasurer, 98, 151 - - Well, 247-251 - - Welland, R., 7 - - Wellbourn, 154 - - Wellingore, 161 - - Wellington and Dr. Keate, 345 - - Wells, blow-, 232, 267 - - Welton-le-Wold, 268 - - Wernington, William de, Master Mason, 487 - - Wesley, Samuel and John, 210-12, 499 - - Westmoreland Stories, 303, 338-9 - - Weston, 463 - - Whitgift, John, Archbp. of Canterbury, 225, 232 - - Wickenby, 260 - - Wilfrid, Bishop, 8-10 - - Wilksby, 368 - - Willingham, North, 146, 230, 244, 272, 277 - South, 244, 268 - Cherry, 143 - by Stow, 206 - - Wilsthorpe, 40, 41 - - Whaplode, 466-8 - - Willoughby, 248, 278 - - Willoughby d’Eresby, family of, 30-1, 86, 248-9, 333-5 - - Willoughton, 157 - - Winceby, 364-5 - - Wine-cellars in Boston, 430-1 - - Winteringham, 3, 184, 195 - - Winterton, 184, 195-6 - - Winthorpe, 312-14 - - Witham-on-hill, inscription on Bells, 20 - - Witham, R., 39, 44, 46, 51, 90, 91, 126, 129, 134, 137, 149, 371, - 425-6, 432-3 - - Withern, 278 - - Woad, cultivation of, 464 - - Wolds, the, 2-5, 146, 148, 232 - - Wood, Enderby, 369 - - Woodhall Spa, 397-8 - - Woodcarving by Wallis, of Louth, 237 - - Wood-work, church, 255-6 - - Wool, staple, 13, 147, 309, 428-9, 432 - - Woolsthorpe, 31, 47-8 - - Wordsworth, Bishop, Christopher, 103, 265, 269 - - Wordsworth, W., Sonnet _Persuasion_, 113 - - Wragby, 269 - - Wrangle, 413-4 - - Wrawby, 183, 185, 206 - - Wray, Sir Christopher, 145, 200 - - Wright family, 289, 413 - - Wulfhere, King of Mercia, 7 - - Wyberton, 476 - - Wyclif, John, 199 - - Wykeham Chapel, 448 - - - Y - - Yarborough, Earls of, 236-7 - Church, 281 - - - Z - - Zucchero, 289 - - -R. 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With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON. - - _PALL MALL GAZETTE._—“A book over which it is a pleasure - to pore, and which every man of Kent or Kentish man, or - ‘foreigner,’ should promptly steal, purchase, or borrow.... The - illustrations alone are worth twice the money charged for the - book.” - -=Sussex.= By E. V. LUCAS. With Illustrations by FREDERICK L. GRIGGS. - - _WESTMINSTER GAZETTE._—“A delightful addition to an excellent - series.... Mr. Lucas’s knowledge of Sussex is shown in so many - fields, with so abundant and yet so natural a flow, that one - is kept entertained and charmed through every passage of his - devious progress.” - -=Berkshire.= By JAMES EDMUND VINCENT. With Illustrations by FREDERICK L. -GRIGGS. - - _DAILY CHRONICLE._—“We consider this book one of the best in an - admirable series, and one which should appeal to all who love - this kind of literature.” - -=Oxford and the Cotswolds.= By H. A. EVANS. With Illustrations by -FREDERICK L. GRIGGS. - - _DAILY TELEGRAPH._—“The author is everywhere entertaining and - fresh, never allowing his own interest to flag, and thereby - retaining the close attention of the reader.” - -=Shakespeare’s Country.= By The Ven. W. H. HUTTON. With Illustrations by -EDMUND H. NEW. - - _PALL MALL GAZETTE._—“Mr. Edmund H. New has made a fine book - a thing of beauty and a joy for ever by a series of lovely - drawings.” - -=Hampshire.= By D. H. MOUTRAY READ. With Illustrations by ARTHUR B. -CONNOR. - - _STANDARD._—“In our judgment, as excellent and as lively a book - as has yet appeared in the Highways and Byways Series.” - -=Dorset.= By Sir FREDERICK TREVES. With Illustrations by JOSEPH PENNELL. - - _STANDARD._—“A breezy, delightful book, full of sidelights on - men and manners, and quick in the interpretation of all the - half-inarticulate lore of the countryside.” - -=Wiltshire.= By EDWARD HUTTON. With Illustrations by NELLY ERICHSEN. - - _DAILY GRAPHIC._—“Replete with enjoyable and informing - reading.... Illustrated by exquisite sketches.” - -=Somerset.= By EDWARD HUTTON. With Illustrations by NELLY ERICHSEN. - - _DAILY TELEGRAPH._—“A book which will set the heart of every - West-country-man beating with enthusiasm, and with pride for - the goodly heritage into which he has been born as a son of - Somerset.” - -=Devon and Cornwall.= By ARTHUR H. NORWAY. With Illustrations by JOSEPH -PENNELL and HUGH THOMSON. - - _DAILY CHRONICLE._—“So delightful that we would gladly fill - columns with extracts were space as elastic as imagination.... - The text is excellent; the illustrations of it are even better.” - -=South Wales.= By A. G. BRADLEY. With Illustrations by FREDERICK L. -GRIGGS. - - _SPECTATOR._—“Mr. Bradley has certainly exalted the writing - of a combined archæological and descriptive guide-book into a - species of literary art. The result is fascinating.” - -=North Wales.= By A. G. BRADLEY. With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON and -JOSEPH PENNELL. - - _PALL MALL GAZETTE._—“To read this fine book makes us eager to - visit every hill and every valley that Mr. Bradley describes - with such tantalising enthusiasm. It is a work of inspiration, - vivid, sparkling, and eloquent—a deep well of pleasure to every - lover of Wales.” - -=Cambridge and Ely.= By Rev. EDWARD CONYBEARE. With Illustrations by -FREDERICK L. GRIGGS. - - _ATHENÆUM._—“A volume which, light and easily read as it is, - deserves to rank with the best literature about the county.” - -=East Anglia.= By WILLIAM A. DUTT. With Illustrations by JOSEPH PENNELL. - - _WORLD._—“Of all the fascinating volumes in the ‘Highways and - Byways’ series, none is more pleasant to read.... Mr. Dutt, - himself an East Anglian, writes most sympathetically and in - picturesque style of the district.” - -=Lincolnshire.= By W. F. RAWNSLEY. With Illustrations by FREDERICK L. -GRIGGS. - - _PALL MALL GAZETTE._—“A splendid record of a storied shire.” - -=Nottinghamshire.= By J. B. FIRTH. With Illustrations by FREDERICK L. -GRIGGS. - - _DAILY TELEGRAPH._—“A book that will rank high in the series - which it augments; a book that no student of our Midland - topography and of Midland associations should miss.” - -=Northamptonshire and Rutland.= By HERBERT A. EVANS. With Illustrations -by FREDERICK L. GRIGGS. - - _TIMES._—“A pleasant, gossiping record.... Mr. Evans is a guide - who makes us want to see for ourselves the places he has seen.” - -=Derbyshire.= By J. B. FIRTH. With Illustrations by NELLY ERICHSEN. - - _DAILY TELEGRAPH._—“The result is altogether delightful, for - ‘Derbyshire’ is as attractive to the reader in his arm-chair as - to the tourist wandering amid the scenes Mr. Firth describes so - well.” - -=Yorkshire.= By ARTHUR H. NORWAY. With Illustrations by JOSEPH PENNELL -and HUGH THOMSON. - - _PALL MALL GAZETTE._—“The wonderful story of Yorkshire’s past - provides Mr. Norway with a wealth of interesting material, - which he has used judiciously and well; each grey ruin of - castle and abbey he has re-erected and re-peopled in the most - delightful way. A better guide and story-teller it would be - hard to find.” - -=Lake District.= By A. G. BRADLEY. With Illustrations by JOSEPH PENNELL. - - _ST. JAMES’S GAZETTE._—“A notable edition—an engaging volume, - packed with the best of all possible guidance for tourists. For - the most part the artist’s work is as exquisite as anything of - the kind he has done.” - -=Northumbria.= By ANDERSON GRAHAM. With Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON. - -=The Border.= By ANDREW LANG and JOHN LANG. With Illustrations by HUGH -THOMSON. - - _STANDARD._—“The reader on his travels, real or imaginary, - could not have pleasanter or more profitable companionship. - There are charming sketches by Mr. Hugh Thomson to illustrate - the letterpress.” - -=Galloway and Carrick.= By the Rev. C. H. DICK. With Illustrations by -HUGH THOMSON. - - _SATURDAY REVIEW._—“The very book to take with one into that - romantic angle of Scotland, which lies well aside of the beaten - tourist track.” - -=Donegal and Antrim.= By STEPHEN GWYNN. With Illustrations by HUGH -THOMSON. - - _DAILY TELEGRAPH._—“A perfect book of its kind, on which - author, artist, and publisher have lavished of their best.” - -=Normandy.= By PERCY DEARMER, M.A. With Illustrations by JOSEPH PENNELL. - - _ST. JAMES’S GAZETTE._—“A charming book.... Mr. Dearmer is - as arrestive in his way as Mr. Pennell. He has the true - topographic eye. He handles legend and history in entertaining - fashion.” - -MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN -LINCOLNSHIRE *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. 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