Bully. The sloe, wild fruit of the black thorn. Bullace cheese is made from it.

By-name. A nick-name. Compare by-word i.e. ill-repute.

Causey. Causeway. Commonly used of the brick paved yard of a cottage.

Cazzlety. Fickle and uncertain in temper.

Chickering. Chirping of the cricket on the hearth, or of a chicken.

Chittapag. A woman fond of using fine words.

Chuck, to. To throw. Chuck-penny, to play at pitch and toss.

Clagged. Draggle-tailed with mud and dirt. Of an untidy woman.

Clatty. Dirty. Of roads after rain.

Clegg. Matted wool on hedges, &c.

Clout. A cloth, dish-cloth, &c.

Clout. A knock or blow, as Fetch him a clout on the head.

Connyfogled. Cheated, outwitted.

Crizzle, to. To crystalize or freeze. The window is crizzled.

Daking. A dyke or ditch.

Dither. To shudder with alarm or dislike. To shiver with cold.

Dythe. Cow dung dried for fuel.

Fell. Hurtful or fierce. The flies are very fell this close weather.

Frit. Frightened, affrighted.

Gabblick. A crowbar.

Gallous. Frisky or lively (of youth).

Glegging. Glancing slily. That sly girls glegging eye.

Glib. Smooth (of ice). Smooth and ready of tongue.

Gout. A sluice by which water passes from one drain to another.

Gozny. To look. To look stupid.

Grizzley. To shade with grey. The evening is grizzling.

Hags place. A situation of hard work and drudgery. Fit only for a poor hag.

Hap up, to. To wrap up, in shawl, paper, &c.

Harr. A fog. An old writer says The air of the fens was crass, and full of rotten harrs. A sea-harr is a fog coining inland from the sea.

Heppen. Handy at work. Helpful.

Hing, to. To hang. This gate hings well.

Hirpling. Limping in gait.

How. Way or mode of acting. Do it i that how, and youll be right.

Hug, to. To carry. Hugging about a big load.

Ill-convenient. Inconvenient.

Keck. A large plant of the Hemlock species.

Kid. A faggot.

Lamb-toe. The plant Ladys fingers, Lotus corniculatus.

Lap up, to. To wrap up.

Leather. A ladder.

Leathering. A beating. If you dont keep quiet Ill give you a good leathering.

Letten. Perf. of to let. He has letten em go, i.e. allowed them to go.

Lig, to. To lie, down, &c.

Lug, the ear. The plant Mouse-ear (Myosotis Arvensis) is called mouse-lug.

Lick, to. To beat, Give him a licking. To be beyond anyones power. It licks me how they can do it, i.e. I cannot understand.

Lug, to. To drag. Why are you lugging (i.e. dragging) that bairn about?

Marguery. The herb Mercury, also called Good King Henry.

Mithered. Muddled, dazed, stupid.

Mizzlings. The measles.

Moiling. Working hard, toiling.

Mort. A large quantity. Working a mort of hours, i.e. many hours. That tree has a mort of blossoms.

Mud or mun. Must. I mun (or mud) do it or I shall be wrong.

Nag-nail. A corn on the foot.

Nautling. Towering up, a steeple or tall tree.

Neb. A birds beak.

Nobby. Handy, clever, ready of resource.

Nowt. Nothing. Worth nowt means worthless, good-for-nothing.

Overset, to. To overcome or surmount trial. Hes been very badly (i.e. ill) and cannot overset it, i.e. get over it.

Owry. Dirty, of roads after rain.

Pad. Path. A footpad is a footpath.

Pedigree. A long story, as of some grievance.

Petty. An outside W.C.

Pigs-paut. Pigs foot, a trotter.

Pismire. An ant.

Plasens. Places. Ive seen many plasens but this licks em all. (See lick.)

Posy. A bunch of flowers, bouquet.

Pry. Name of a field. Pry-close (from praie, coarse grass.)

Puddock. A kite or buzzard.

Purr. A poker. Purr the fire, i.e. poke it.

Quirking. Nimble, active, as a monkey.

Ramper. The highway (probably rampart).

Remble, to. To move a thing out of the way. Remble that chair, &c.

Ratle or Reightle. To set to rights, arrange in order. Lassy, ratle them things.

Screeved. Split up on the ice. Cattle in former frozen fen floods were thus ruptured and killed.

Shale, to. To walk awkwardly, shuffle along.

Shan. Shy. Of horses or cattle frightened at an object.

Shift, to. To move anything to another place.

Shiv or Shiver. A splinter of wood. Ive got a shiv in my finger.

Shout! A flat-bottomed fen boat.

Shove, to. To push anything along, or out of the way.

Shugh! An expression of disbelief. Shugh! Nonsense! I dont believe it.

Shut. Rid. To get shut (i.e. rid) of anything not needed, or a nuisance.

Sicker, to. To soak, as water oozing through a rotten bank.

Sidle. To walk aside, or indirectly, towards anyone. Sidle up to her quietly.

Sile, to. To pour. It siles wi rain.

Skelp, to. To empty a cart by tilting it.

Skirth. A fen drain.

Slape. Slippery, as roads after frost.

Slappy or sloppy. Muddy and moist.

Slither, to. To slide on ice.

Slive, to. To slip or creep slowly on. The night slives on.

Slosh. Aslant, as a path running slosh across a field.

Sloven. The stump of a tree.

Smock-raffled. Taken aback, puzzled.

Smower, to. To pour over. Yon tree smowers over wi fruit.

Snitchy. Bad tempered, irritable.

Soodle, to. To daudle.

Soodly. Idle.

Sooth. Soft, gentle, of whispers, winds, &c.

Souse, to. To soak in water, &c.

Spank. To strike with flat hand. Spank the tiresome bairn.

Splats. Leggings or gaiters.

Spry. Lively, full of spirit.

Squarls. Quarrels.

Stang. A pole. Only used in eel-stang, a long pole with iron prongs at the end, thrust into the mud to catch eels; and in riding the stang, in the old custom of rantanning, to serenade with beaten tins and kettles the wife-beater, when a figure was carried disguised as the offender, sitting astride of a long pole.

Stilted. Daubed with dirt (stockings, &c.)

Struttle. A runnel, small stream between stepping stones.

Suthering. Sighing, as the wind in the trees.

Swads. Bean pods.

Swail. Shade. Left in the swail, away from the sun.

Swingle. A flail.

Teem, to. To overflow or be full. He teems wi jokes. It teems wi rain.

Thruff. Pronunciation of through, compare enough, Linc. enew.

Tidy. A pinafore. Put on your tidy, my bairn.

Tray. A hurdle.

Trig. Trim, neat, as trim as a pin.

Tue or tew. To fret, chafe impatiently, tire oneself out.

Undernean. Underneath.

Wakken. Wide-awake, sharp, noticing everything.

Wankling. A weak child, also wreckling.

Ware, to. To spend. Are you going to ware anything on me at the fair?

Wath. A ford. Kirkstead Wath, Shearmans Wath.

Werrit, to. To worry or fidget, in needless anxiety.

Wopper. Anything unusually large. That bairn of yourn is a wopper.

Yocks. The two chains on which buckets are hung from the shoulder board, when carrying water from the well.

Yon. Yonder. Look at yon boy, what is he up to?

Yow. Ewe, a female sheep.

Yow-necked. Of a horse with neck too thin.

Yuck, to. To jirk. Yuck the reins to check the horse.



APPENDIX I. VERNACULAR NAMES OF WILD PLANTS.

Adams Flannel Mullein

Alehoof Ground Ivy

Alexanders foot Pellitory

All-heal Valeriana officinalis

Very preciousSpikenard. The Box of Ointment, Mark xiv., 35, worth 300 pence.

Ambrose Wild sage

Arse-smart Water pepper

Ass-ear Comfrey

Asss foot Coltsfoot

Aarons board Spirea

Bairn-wort Daisy

Ball-weed Centaury

Ban-wort Violet

Base-rocket Burdock

Beard-tree Hazel

Bedlam Cowslip Oxlip

Beggars buttons Burdock

Beggars needle Shepherds needle

Bell-bloom Daffodil

Benewithe Woodbine

Biddys eyes Pansy

Birds eye Germander Speedwell

Blaver Corn blue-bottle

Bleed wort Wild red poppy

Bleeding heart Wallflower

Blood wort Blood-veined dock

Blow-ball Dandelion

Bobbin and Joan Cuckoo-pint

Bog violet Butter wort

Brain berry Blackberry

Bride wort Meadow sweet

Bulls and Cows Cuckoo-pint

Bunny mouth Snapdragon

Butter and eggs Daffodil

Calfs snout Scarlet Pimpernel

Candlegrass Goose grass, cleavers

Carnadine Carnation

Catstail Horsetail

Catch weed Cleavers

Cheese rennet Yellow bedstraw

Choke weed Corn convolvulus

Ditto Dodder

Christmas rose Hellebore

Call me near Sweet William

Corn bind Corn convolvulus

Cows Langwort Mullein

Crow flower Crows foot / Wild Ranunculus

Crows toe Crows foot / Wild Ranunculus

Cuckoos meat Wood sorrel

Cuckoo spice Wood sorrel

Culver wort Columbine

Deaths herb Deadly nightshade

Dick-a-silver Periwinkle

Dog-fennel Corn chamomile

Dead mens fingers Early purple orchis

Eggs and bacon Birds foot trefoil

Ears wort Mouse ear

Lug wort Mouse ear

Five fingers Oxlip

Flea dock Butter bur

Flybane Catch fly

Fullers thistle Teasel

Gander gorse Rag wort

Gnat flower Fly orchis

Goose tongue Sneeze wort

Gracy-day Daffodil

Hairiff Cleavers

Hares eye Wild Campion

Headache Corn poppy

Hell weed Corn convolvulus

Hen gorse Rest harrow

Holy Ghosts root Angelica

Horse daisy Ox-eye-daisy

Horse thyme Wild thyme

Humblock Hemlock

(Humelock, 13th Century)

John that goes to bed at noon Pimpernel

Kettle case Purple orchis

Ketlock Cherlock

Kings finger Smaller purple orchis

Lad-love-lass Southern wood

Ladys cushion Thrift

Lily royal Penny royal

Love in idleness Pansy

Louse wort Marsh red rattle

Lads love Southern wood

Maidens love Southern wood

Medwort Meadow sweet

Muckweed Goose foot

Maiden hair Quake grass

Nap at noon Purple goats beard

Navel wort Cotyledon umbelicus

Neck weed Hemp

Ox tongue Bug loss

Penny weed Yellow rattle

Pick-pocket Shepherds purse

Pincushion Sweet Scabious

Pixy stool Toad stool

Poor mans pepper Stone crop

Poverty weed Purple cow-wheat

Pudding grass Penny royal

Red shanks Water pepper

Rattle penny Yellow rattle

Rust burn Rest harrow

Sallow Willow

Shepherds rod Teasel

Shoes and Stockings Ladys slipper

Stike-pile Storks bill

Toad pipes Horsetail

Turks cap Monks hood

Wall pepper Sedum acre

Water grass Water cress

Withywind Convolvulus

Wood sour Wood sorrel

Yellow bottle Corn marygold



APPENDIX II. LIST OF FOSSILS

found at Woodhall Spa, or in the neighbourhood, compiled by Professor J. F. BLAKE, given in the Government Geological Survey Memoirs, pp. 191, 192.

Ammonites Berryeri. Langton and Baumber.

Ammonites decipiens. Baumber.

Ammonites serratus. Woodhall, Langton, and Baumber.

Ammonites mutabilis. Horncastle.

Ammonites hector. Baumber.

Belemnites nitidus. Woodhall.

Cerithium crebrum. Horncastle.

Rostellaria mosensis. Langton and Horncastle.

Rissoa mosensis. Woodhall.

Dentalium Quenstedti. Horncastle.

Arca reticulata. Horncastle.

Arca rhomboidalis. Langton and Baumber.

Astarte Michaudiana. Baumber.

Astarte supracorallina. Horncastle.

Anatina minuta. Horncastle.

Anomia Dollfusii. Baumber.

Avicula ædilignensis. Woodhall and Langton.

Avicula Dorsetensis. Langton.

Cardium striatulum. Horncastle.

Corbula Deshayesia. Baumber and Horncastle.

Corbula fallax. Baumber.

Ceromya orbicularis. Baumber.

Cyprina cyrene-formis. Woodhall and Langton.

Homomya compressa. Baumber and Horncastle.

Lima ædilignensis. Woodhall and Baumber.

Nucula menkii. Langton, Baumber, and Horncastle.

Nucula obliquata. Langton.

Ostra deltoidea. Woodhall.

Pecten demissus. Langton.

Pecten Grenieri. Baumber and Horncastle.

Pecten arcuatus. Baumber.

Thracia depressa. Woodhall and Horncastle.

Lingula ovalis. Baumber.

Serpula tetragona. Langton.

Serpula intestinalis. Horncastle.

N.B.The Langton here named is Langton St. Andrew, now synonymous with Woodhall Spa, but referring specially to the ground west of the Stixwould Road, though including Jordans Pond. All these fossils may be expected throughout the immediate neighbourhood, in Kirkstead, &c., &c., as they are all from the Kimeridge formation.

We have no list of fossils from the lower geological formations, which are out of ordinary reach. Those here given are near the surface, or exposed in ditches or pits, and may be found by anyone who has the eye to discern them.



INDEX.

A.

Abbey, Bardney 167170 Kirkstead 239248 Stixwould 150156 Tupholme 165167

Abbot, of Bardney, Mitred 169

Accident at Woodhall Well 7, 8 Poem on, by J. Sharpe 8

Adelaide, Queen 14

Adelias de Cundi 189

Albini, Hugh de 229 and note

Albino Hares 65

All-Hallows Church, Ancient 156, 157

Ancient pistol 129

Andrews St., Church 14

Anelace, found in Kirkstead 107 and note

Angevine, Robert, of Langton 197

Antiquities of Lincoln 117125 ,, found in Witham 107110

Architect, Stephen Lewin 14 and note

Ashby Puerorum 253, 254 ,, ,, Roman tomb at 254

Ayscough, H., married E. Dymoke 214



B.

Bab, i.e., dredge 100

Badger, beneficial to fox 53

Bad roads to Woodhall 11

Bag Enderby 256, 257

Bage, or sod, old word 23 and note

Bain, Celtic river name 228 and note

Banks, Sir Joseph 189

Bardney 167171 Visited by Henry IV. 194

Barkworth family 139, 140

Bath, discovery of water 5 ,, House, the first, 1834 9

Bede-houses at Langton 200

Bell, Pan-cake 192

Beriwick, of Langton 197

Bernack, Sir William 230, 234

Birch, clogs 34 and note

Bird-Hag Wood 36, 37

Birds of Fenland, former 48, 49 ,, of neighbourhood 34, 47, 51

Bittern 34

Black death 193, 206

Black game 34, 35

Bogs nook 34

Bolingbroke, New, city 6 ,, Old 5 and note

Bolles family 145

Bolsover, water discovered 5

Botany of neighbourhood 2833

Bough-houses 180 and note

Boulders, glacier-borne 88, 91, 201

Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suffolk 234, 250

Brass of Cromwell, Lord 237, 238 ,, of Dymoke 190

Brick-work, beautiful 230, 231

Brick tank at Woodhall Spa 9

Buckland, in Woodhall 127

Bucknall 161165 ,, List of Rectors 164, 165

Bull baiting 178 and note

Bull Ring, Horncastle 178

Buzzard 43



C.

Callis, merchant of staple of 225

Canoes, ancient 114116

Carlisle, Bishop of 189

Carlsbad, water discovered 5

Caroline, Queens trial, anecdote 185

Cart, dragged by man 21 miles 185

Carving, S. Andrews Church 14 and note

Castle walls, Horncastle 187, 188

Caswell, Mr. Clement J. 185187, 256

Cathedral, Lincoln 27

Cato-street Conspiracy 159161

Celts, found 105 and note, 106

Champion Cups 209

Champion, Dymoke 14 and note

Charles I., Dymoke bequest to 214

Charles II., anecdote of 172, 173

Chesney, William, de 185

Chrismatory, mediæval 199

Churches: Andrews, St., Woodhall Spa 14 St. Peters ,, 16 Ashby Puerorum 253, 254 Bucknall 162164 Coningsby 222226 Edlington 176 Enderby, Bag 256, 257 Gautby 172 Haltham 215217 Horncastle 189, 190 Kirkstead 244249 Langton 198200 Martin 203, 204 Minting 174, 175 Roughton 205, 206 Scrivelsby 213, 214 Somersby 255 Tattershall 234238 Thimbleby 177 Thornton 201, 202 Wispington 175, 176 Woodhall, Old 200, 201

Church, robbers sanctuary 193

Clarkson, boring for coal 6

Clinton, Sir H. 189 ,, Lord 132, 136, 143, 144, 189, 234, 250

Coal-pit Wood 8

Cobbler, Captain 170

Coffins, leaden 110

Coins, Roman 112

Collar, brazen, for maniac 159

Coney-garth 169, 170

Conging-street, Horncastle 179

Coningsby 218227

Coningsby family 219

Coppledyke, knightly family of 257, 258

Corner, Hangmans, Horncastle 189

Cottage Hospital, Woodhall 17

Creviquer, Alexander 153

Cromwell, Lord Treasurer 136, 137 ,, Oliver, in Horncastle 194 and note ,, Ralph de 208, 230, 234

Cundi, Adelias de 189

Cures at Woodhall, early 9

Curfew 226



D.

Daubeney, Sir Giles 221

Dar-wood 127

Deane, tablet of, at Horsington 158

DEyncourt, Baron 230, 234

Diocese, Lincoln, Humber to Thames 125

Dispenser, Robert de 202, 208

Doctors, first resident at Woodhall 9

Dog-kennel yard, Horncastle 187

Donatives, abolished 13 and note

Drainage of Fens 101

Draytons Polyolbion 28, 48

Driby, Robert de 230, 234

Drogo de Bruere 220

Dyer, John, Poet 226

Dymoke, Champion, at Coronation 210213

Dymoke, bequest to Charles I. 214 ,, Edward, of Thornton 203 ,, Sir Robert, good marriage 214



E.

Eagle, seen at Woodhall 42

Eagle Hotel, built 15

Editha, Queen 189

Edlington 176

Elizabeth, Queen, held Horncastle Manor 189

Ellison, R., Poem Kirkstead 36 and note, 250 and note

Elmhirst, Col. Richard 150

Enderby, Bag 256, 257

Escald, Gerbald de 189

Ethelred, Kings burial-place 169

Eudo, Norman Knight 229

Eusden, Laurence, Poet Laureate 226

Ezmondeys, Galfred de 153

Enderby, Albin de 256



F.

Fairs at Horncastle 179 and note ,, tricks at 181183

Ferruginous water at Woodhall 10

Fight at Winceby 190

Fishes, list of local 72

Fish, Recipe for Cooking, by Francatelli 74 and note

Fitzendo, Hugh 229, 239

Flintgan 35 and note

Floralia, Festival of 188

Flower as bait for fish 74

Forest of Woodhall, Pakinsons 6, 7

Fortescue, Hugh, Baron 234

Fox, cunning of 58, 59

Franklin, Sir John, at Horncastle 194

Fynes family 136 Henry, of Christed 250, 251, 70 ,, Henry, of Christed 250, 251



G.

Gallows at Thimbleby 134, 240

Gap, the Lincoln 101, 102

Gaunt, Gilbert de 169, 170 ,, John of 120 ,, John, at Roughton 207 Walter de 169

Gautby 172174

Geological Notes 84104

Geology of South Scarle boring 84 and note ,, of Woodhall boring 10, 85, and note

Gerard de Rhodes 189

Gerbald de Escald 189

Gibson, Rev. Thomas 191, 192

Glacier-borne boulders 8791

Godiva, Lady 162

Granges, Moated 127, 129, 134, 135

Green Lady, legend of 145, 146

Gregory, Pope, curse of 196

Grey, John de 229

Gridiron, Horncastle Arms 192

Grosstête, Bishop, Epigram on 171 and note



H.

Hagworthingham Church 258, 259

Hall-garth, Thimbleby 177

Hall, Halstead 146148

Hall, High 128, 129

Hall, Poolham 138, 146

Hall, Roughton 207

Hall, White 135138, 205

Hall, Wood 126, 127

Haltham 215217

Hangmans Corner 189

Hardy-gang Wood 171

Hare, cunning of 66, 88

Harr 27 and note

Harrier, Hen 43

Harrington Church 257, 258

Hawks, farmers and sportsmans friends 41, 42

Henry IV., birthplace of 194 ,, visits Bardney 194 ,, ,, Horncastle 194

Heron and Kite, fight between 42 and note

High-Hall 128, 129

Hoe Hill 253

Holbeck 253

Holy Thistle 128, 161

Holy Well 254, 256

Home for Gentlewomen 18

Hopton, Sir Ingram 190, 194

Horncastle 177, 195 ,, Fairs 179 and note ,, Cheating at 181, 183 ,, Murder at 181 ,, Plague in 193 ,, Poet Laureate 184 and note ,, Railway opened 12

Horse-taker Wood 171

Horsington 156161

Hotchkin, Mr. Thomas 9 ,, T. J. Stafford, Esq. 15, 16

Hotel, Royal 15 ,, Victoria, built 9 ,, ,, enlarged 15

Hussey family 142 and note

Hybrid, hare and rabbit 63, 64



I.

Incident at Kirkstead Hall 21, 22

Indulgence, Letters of 149 and note

Ings, field-name 156, 226

Insect life 33, 82, 83



J.

Jack Musters 57

Jenny, Sir Edmund 254

Jews at Lincoln 122124

Julians Bower 188

Jurors, Non 137 and note, 164



K.

Karilepho, Willm. de 196

Kestrel, useful to man 44

Kid, i.e., faggot 133

Kimeridge Clay 92, 93

Kingfisher 46, 47

Kirkstead Abbey 239, 240 ,, Abbot 241, 243 ,, Church 244249 ,, Poem by R. Ellison, Esq. 36 and note



L.

Langton Church 198200 ,, Hill, extensive view 195 ,, Moated House 196 ,, Owners of land 196, 197

Langworth 227

Lawrence, St., Chapel, Horncastle 192

Lincoln, Antiquities 117125 ,, Diocese, from Humber to Thames 125 Minster 121, 122 ,, Spires demolished 122 ,, Railway opened 12

Lindsey, Lord of 169

Literæ Laureatæ 184 and note

Lizard, shedding tail 72



M.

Marmyon, Baron 230, 234, 240 ,, Roger de 170

Martin Church 203, 204

Mastiffs of Kirkstead Abbot 240

Maypole Hill 188

Maze 188

Meeres family 132, 134

Merlin hawk 43

Meschines, Ranulph de 174

Mill, valuable possession 140

Minting Church 174, 175 ,, Weavers 175

Moat, valuable possession 136

Moon, race against the 185

Murder at Well-syke Wood 20 ,, White Hall Wood 18 ,, ,, Queens Head, Horncastle 181



N.

Names, old 26

Nevill family 165

Nightingale 4951

Nightjar 45, 46

Non-jurors 137 and note, 164

Norreys Fynes, monument 137



O.

Osmunda regalis 30

Ostler, Mr. W., at Woodhall 6 ,, Plantations, bird resort 35 ,, ,, varied sport in 62 and note

Oswald, Kings miraculous hand 169 ,, tombstone 167

Osyth, St 236 and note

Otter 54, 55

Overseer, female 207

Owls, anecdote of 45 and note ,, three kinds 44 very useful 44 and note



P.

Parishes in Woodhall district 13

Parkinson, John, and Spa Well 5 ,, three projects of 5

Partridge, brown and red-leg mixing eggs 39 ,, red-leg and keeper, anecdote 38 ,, sitting close, anecdote 40 ,, when sitting, has no scent 39, 40, and note

Pheasant, cream-coloured 37 Kalege 37 ,, White 37

Pigeons, wild, three kinds 41

Pike, large 75, 78

Pinso, Norman Knight 229

Pistol, history of 129 and note

Plague 193, 206

Plantation, Ostlers 6, 35, 62 and note

Plants, lists of 3032

Poachers 19

Poem, Kirkstead, by R. Ellison, Esq. 36 and note

Pry-close, origin of name 200



Q.

Quadrupeds of the district 5269

Queen Adelaide 14 ,, Carolines trial 185 Editha 189 ,, Victoria 14

Queens Head, Horncastle, murder at 181



R.

Ramper 11

Rebus at Scrivelsby 209

Reptiles, fishes, etc., of district 7081

Rhodes, Gerard de 189 ,, Ralph de 189, 221, 240

Richmond, Duke of 214

Robber, sheltered in church 193 and note

Robbers hanged, last time 24

Robbery frustrated 25, 26 ,, at Halstead Hall 23, 24

Roman brickyard 11 and note ,, road, reputed 11 and note ,, sepulchre 254 ,, well 177

Romara, William de 152, 240

Rook, the, a marauder 45

Roughton Church 205, 206 ,, Plague at 206 ,, Registers, peculiar entries in 206

Royal Oak, Knight of the 215



S.

Saddlers shop, famous at Horncastle 179

Savile family 141, 144

Scenery at Woodhall 27, 28

Scrivelsby 208 ,, Champion Cups 209 ,, Church 213, 214 ,, Court 209 ,, Lion Gateway 209 ,, Parish Stocks 209

Scrubs, i.e., woodland 227

Scytha, St. 236 and note

Scythes in Horncastle Church 190 and note

Selling a wife 181 and note

Sewer, a stream 46 and note

Sharpe, John, lines by, on Well 8 and notes

Sherard family 131134

Shooting, sport at Woodhall 63 and note

Silene quinque vulneralis, rare 29

Skipworth, old county family 133, 134

Snakes only defence 71 and note

Snowden family, of Halstead, etc. 147, 148

Somersby Church 255 ,, Lines on 186

Sparrow hawk, an enemy 43, 44

Spa, syndicate of 15 and note ,, water, analysis 98, 99 and note ,, ,, discovered 59

Spurs, tenure by 217 and note, 221

Statue, Equestrian, at Gautby 173, 174

Statutes, servant hiring 184

Steep hills 27, 258, 259 and note

Stixwold Abbey 152155 ,, Church 151, 152 ,, Meaning of name 150

Stocks, parish 156, 181, 209

Stone coffins 155

Sunsets, fine 28

Swans on Witham 48



T.

Tab shag, old man 33, 112, 113

Taillebois, Ivo 152 ,, Lord 214 ,, Robert, Knight 220

Tattershall, Baron de 230 ,, Castle 231, 232 ,, accidents in 233 ,, Church 234238 ,, Market Cross 228

Tench, flower bait for 74

Terrot, Rev. C. P. 175, 176, 189 and note

Thief at Red Cap Farm 24, 25

Thimbleby 176, 177 ,, Church 177 Family 139, 140, 141

Thistle, the Holy 32, 128, 161

Thornton Church 201, 202 ,, sacrilege at 203 ,, Owners of land 202, 203 ,, Alured, of Lincoln 202 Dispenser, Robert 202 ,, Dymoke family 203 ,, Gozelin 202

Tiger Tom, burglar 23, 24 and note

Tithe stone 163, 164

Toll-bar, leaping 238 and note

Toot-Hill 227

Travelling difficult 11 and notes

Troy Wood 227

Tumby Chase 218

Tupholme Abbey 165167 ,, Abbot, illegal acts of 166

Tyrwhitt, John, of Pentre, tablet to 213 ,, J. Bradshaw, Rev., tablet to 214 ,, Robert, tablet to 176



V.

Victoria Hotel, Woodhall, built 9 ,, ,, enlarged 15 ,, Queen 14

Vyner family 172, 173



W.

Waterloo Monument 150

Weasels, and prey 68, 69

Weavers, village 175

Welby family 147

Well at Woodhall 9

Wells, saline, elsewhere 8, 10, 87, 99, 201, 256, note

Welles, Lord, beheaded 214

Wharf, meaning of 11 and note

White-Hall Wood murder 18

Wife-selling 181 and note

William de Karilepho 196 ,, de Romara 152

Willoughby, Lord, of Knaith 132

Winceby, fight at 190

Winchester, Bishop of 221, 235

Wispington 175, 176

Witham, ran to Wainfleet 104 and note ,, a sacred stream of Druids 102 and note

Wolds 27, 258 and notes

Wong, Horncastle 187

Woodcock 35, 36

Wood Hall, the 126

Woodhall (Old) Church 200, 201 ,, water discovered 9 ,, Lines on 8 ,, Properties of 98, 99

Woodpecker, three kinds 41

Wry-neck 47



Footnotes:

{5} Mr. Parkinson resided at the Hall, Old Bolingbroke, or Bolingbroke, as it was called at that date, the prefix not being then needed to distinguish the old historic market town from its modern offshoot, New Bolingbroke. Old Bolingbroke is noted for the ruins of its ancient castle, where Henry IV. was born, and long ago gave a title to the earls of that ilk.

{8a} Tradition avers that, shortly before this accident occurred, an old woman passing near the mine heard a raven(doubtless a carrion crow)croaking ominously as it sat on the bough of a tree hard by, and that it distinctly uttered these words, carpse, carpse, carpse (i.e., corpse), and this she regarded as a certain presage of some fatal occurence. Truly the age of witches and warlocks was not yet passed.

{8b} Mr. John Sharpe was father of the late Mrs. Michel Fynes and a relative of Mr. James Sharpe, of Claremont House, Woodhall Spa.

{8c} In Lincolnshire dialect heard is commonly pronounced so as to rhyme with appeared, and this is said to be nearest the Saxon pronunciation.

{8d} This was at the time of the Peninsular War, with its prolonged sieges and fearful carnage.

{9a} Mr. John Marshall, grocer and draper.

{9b} Mr. and Mrs. Michael Fynesthe latter the daughter of Mr. Sharpe, who wrote the foregoing verseshave told the writer of several other instances of the use of the water at this early period.

{9c} This tank was unearthed about the year 1875 by some persons who were ratting, and the writer saw it. It was situated at the back of the Bathhouse, and would be, to the best of his recollection, some 12ft. long by 8ft. wide, with a depth of 5ft. It was covered up again, and has (so far as he knows) remained so ever since.

{11a} There was a Roman brickyard, about two fields from the Bathhouse, along the pathway which now runs northwards through Coal Pit Wood and skirts Bracken Wood. The pits are still visible where the clay was dug; also the broad ride, running east and west through Bracken Wood, near these pits, is said to have been a Roman road.

{11b} In the name Kirkstead Wharf, the etymologist will recognise, in the latter portion, the old Norse wath or ford. This was probably, at one time, when the river was wider and shallower, a ford for passengers and cattle. There are many places in Yorkshire named Wath, as Wath-on-Dearne, situated on a ford on that river. This is further confirmed by the local pronunciation of the name, which is still Kirkstead Wath, or the Wath par excellence. Wath is connected with our word wade, and the Latin vadum, a shallow.

{11c} The reader may gather some idea of the slowness of travel from the following particulars given to the writer by an old gentleman:The carriers cart left Horncastle at 8 a.m., arriving at Kirkstead Wath between 12 and 1 p.m.; or between four and five hours for the seven miles. The packet for Boston passed Kirkstead at 2 p.m. and arrived at Boston at 5 p.m. This is now done in about 50 minutes. It would have been easy for a pedestrian to have walked direct from Horncastle to Boston in five hours, whereas by this route it took nine hours.

{12} As a further evidence of the difficulty, or rather the perils, of vehicular traffic in those days, the writer may here mention that he had once the unpleasant experience of being among the passengers of the aforesaid carriers cart, when the conveyance was overturned in the ditch, the driver being incapable of performing his duty.

{13} I may here mention that the anomaly of donative benefices was abolished by Act of Parliament in 1898.

{14a} Sir H. Dymoke, Bart., was the last champion who performed the ceremony of throwing down the glove in Westminster Hall at the coronation of the Sovereign.

{14b} The land extending from the present schoolhouse nearly to Mill-lane was at that time crown property, with much more in the neighbourhood, since sold.

{14c} Mr. Lewin himself presented the handsome pulpit of Caen stone, the carved poppyheads of the seats, and figures of angels in the roof. The corbels, from which the wooden arches spring, were carved by a barber of Boston, named White, one of three brothers of humble origin, all of whom developed talent in different directions: One (Andrew) as an artist in oil-painting of no small merit,I have seen an oil-painting by himanother in rustic garden work, and the brother in question (Robert), continuing his calling as a barber, employed his spare time in carving in stone. The corbels in the chancel represent the Queen and Archbishop: those in the north wall of the nave bear the arms of the Rev. E. Walter and his wife; those in the south wall the arms of the Dymokes and the Hotchkin family. The reading desk was presented by the writer in memory of his father, the Rev. E. Walter. As a support to the Credence-table in the chancel is a stone with an effigy of a lady abbess of Stixwould Priory. This, with the stone for the church, was given by the late Mr. Christopher Turnor, owner of the Stixwould Estate, from the Priory ruins, and, as from the rude character of the carving it is evidently of very early date, it has been supposed to represent the Lady Lucia, the foundress: unfortunately, the masonry being dug from confused heaps, covered by the soil and turf of ages, was not, in many cases, laid by the builders in its proper layer as it was quarried. Consequently damp has penetrated, and frost and thaw have broken it up in many parts of the church walls. The small coloured window by the pulpit was the gift of the writers eldest daughter when a child, as a thank-offering on recovering from an accident, in which she providentially escaped death, when thrown, dragged, and kicked by her run-away pony. An engraving of the church, with description and other particulars, is to be found in the Illustrated London News, of September 25th, 1817.

{15} This syndicate consisted of the Right Honourable Edward Stanhope, M.P. (since deceased), Right Honourable H. Chaplin, M.P., Sir Richard Webster, M.P., T. Cheney Garfit, Esq., Kenwick Hall, Louth, and the Rev. J. O. Stephens, Rector of Blankney.

{21a} The date was February 2nd, 1850. £200 reward was offered. The writer has seen the printed proclamation of it. Tasker was buried in the churchyard at Scrivelsby, of which benefice his master was rector.

{21b} That he was, most probably, the guilty man is further confirmed by the following incident, vouched for by my informant, who knew him. The keeper at Tattershall, at that time, was a man named Penny. He, for his own reasons, had strong suspicions of the guilt of Kent, but said nothing, as he could not prove it. Several years after, Penny retired from his post as keeper, and took a farm, a few miles distant, in Timberland Fen. The man Kent, on one occasion called upon him to buy some chickens. In the course of conversation, Penny suddenly turned upon Kent, and said, What a thing it was that you shot Tasker, as you did! Kent was so taken by surprise, and confused by the remark, that he at once went away without completing his bargain. It is not, however, little remarkable, that, although no one was convicted of this murder, one of the suspected men, a few years later, committed suicide, another left the country, going out to Australia, and a third died of consumption. This looks, presumably, in all three cases, as though conscience was at work, condemning them, although the law was powerless. A tombstone was erected to the memory of Richard Tasker, by his master, in Scrivelsby Churchyard, stating that he was cruelly murdered in his service.

{24} A cast was taken of Tiger Toms head, after the execution; and a mould from it now forms an ornament over the door of No. 31, Boston-road, Horncastle: at present occupied by Mr. Arthur Buttery, but formerly the residence of Mr. William Boulton (grandfather of Mr. W. Boulton, landlord of the Great Northern Hotel), who was present at the execution, and obtained the cast at that time. The features are certainly not prepossessing. Another cast is in the possession of Mr. Robert Longstaff, Mareham Road, Horncastle, lately residing at Halstead Hall.

{27a} Over Fen and Wold, by J. J. Hissey, 1898, p. 290. Mr. Hissey, with his wife, made a driving tour from London to Lincolnshire, and round the county, staying for some days at Woodhall. Anyone who wishes to read a delightfully entertaining account of the chief objects of interest in the county, and in the approach to it, cannot do better than get this book.

{27b} So far from Lincolnshire being all on a dead level, there is a stiff gradient on the Great Northern line, as it passes through the county, about 2 miles from Essendine, where an elevation is attained about 10ft. higher than the cross of St. Pauls Cathedral; and only some 10ft. lower than the highest point, at Grants House, near Berwick. On the old Coach-road from London to Edinburgh, the worst hill in the whole distance is that of Gonerby, near Grantham, Lincolnshire. Over Fen and Wold, p. 417.

{27c} Quoted by Sir Charles Anderson, in his Pocket Guide to Lincoln. Harr is an old Lincolnshire terra for fog. A sea-harr is a mist drifting inland from the sea.

{28a} Song, 25; date, 1612.

{28b} Over Fen and Wold, pp. 1956.

{31} The above lists are, of course, only selections. Indeed, on the occasion to which the last list refers, one of the party produced a series of water-colour paintings of wild flowers which are found in the neighbourhood, beautifully executed by Dr. Burgess, of Spilsby, and numbering about 500.

{32} In speaking of the silene quinque vulneralis, on a previous page, I said that there was no absolute reason why it should not re-appear in the garden of the Victoria Hotel. The holy thistle is a case in point. Several years ago seeing that it was being steadily exterminated, and that the end was inevitably near, the writer transplanted a root to his own garden. It flourished there through two seasons, but was eventually, by mistake, improved away, when the garden beds were being dug over. To his surprise, some years after, a vigorous plant of it was found growing in his kitchen garden among the potatoes. Alas! That also has now gone the way of all thistle flesh.

{33} Bage is an old Lincolnshire word meaning a sod. In the overseers accounts of the neighbouring parish of Roughton occurs this entry twice in the year 1707: 2s. 6d. paid for one days work of church moor bages; i.e., peat cut for fuel.

{34a} The birch trees of the neighbourhood, with their silvery bark and light and elegant foliage have been very much reduced in numbers, as the wood is used for clogs in the manufacturing districts of Yorkshire and elsewhere.

{34b} There is a Pyewipe Inn at Lincoln, and Pyewipe Hall, near Kirton-in-Lindsey.

{34c} This may seem to the ordinary uninitiated mind to be a stretch of the imagination; but if we are to believe Mr. Cornish, the old practised gunners on our coasts, who make the cries of our wild fowl a life-long study can almost understand them as well as human speech. See Animals, their Life and Conversation, by C. J. Cornish.

{34d} They also frequented other moorlands in the north of the county, in the neighbourhood of Market Rasen and Caistor.

{35} The writer has enjoyed the privilege (often a welcome relief from hard literary, and other labours) of shooting over this ground for more than a quarter of a century, having known it for double that period. His father-in-law had it before him; a genuine sportsman of the old type, being one of a trio, who clung to the last, even far into the seventies, to the old flint gunthe late General Hall, of Sixmile Bottom, near Newmarket, being the second, and I believe the famous sportsman, Sir Richard Sutton, the third, two of whose guns became the property of my father-in-law. Only one man was left in the kingdom who made the flints. A grand weapon was a genuine flint of old Joe Manton; with plenty of metal, a hard hitter, and often equally serviceable when converted into a breech-loader. Its only drawbacks were, that the exposure of the powder rendered it uncertain in damp weather; and the slowness of ignition; but this latter, to a sportsman who had known no other arm of precision, was little hindrance, and naturally, entered into his calculations whenever he pulled trigger.

{36a} The writer, from one cause or another, has probably had a unique experience of shooting in the neighbourhood of Woodhall and elsewhere. To say nothing of shooting in nine other counties, he at one time shot over the whole of the Kirkstead estate. During the absence from home of the late owner of the Woodhall estate, T. J. Stafford Hotchkin, Esq., when residing abroad, he, with a friend, shot over all Woodhall. Within the nineties, he, with two others, rented the greater part of the Woodhall shooting for three years. He has shot, at one time or another, in more than 50 parishes in the county. Tempora Mutantur. Probably hard times have had an astringent effect on the hospitality of the shooting fraternity.

{36b} I quote from a poem, long ago out of print, written by Richard Ellison, Esq. (of Boultham), entitled Kirkstead, or the Pleasures of Shooting, and published in 1837; the proceeds of its sale to be given to the funds of a fancy fair held in aid of Lincoln County Hospital.

{38} Another anecdote of the said keeper may here be given, which is amusing. Soon after the above incident he gave notice to quit his place, in order (as he said) to better himself. He had often heard me descant on the charms of grouse shooting and deer-stalking, and he came to me to ask me to help him to a situation in Scotland. I got him the post of keeper on a large moor on the shores of Loch Ness. He was a man with a big head, a bulky body, and with rather weak bandy legs (not unlike many a sketch in Punch), and though a good English keeper, and able to stride along through the turnips, in a level country like our own, he was not adapted for mountaineering. One season in the Highlands cooled his ardour, and the very next year he called on me again, being out of place. Well, I asked my friend, how is it youre here again? To tell you the truth, sir, he replied, I could not stand those barelegged Highland gillies. [N.B.He had, himself, no fine calves to show.] They were always a-laughing at me. And their gaelic was worse than Latin and Greek. Youll never catch me in Scotland again. We can picture to ourselves the bandy legs bearing the unwieldly body up a steep brae side; stumbling over loose stones, struggling through the tall heather, till breathless he would pause, while the agile gillies would, chuckling, leave him behind; pause and ponder with the conclusion not slowly arrived at, What a fool I was to leave Woodhall for work like this. The Sassenach was indeed out of his element on the Scotch hills. He took my advice; picked up a wife half his own age, and now keeps a country public-house, where he can recount his Scotch and other adventures at the bar.

{39} This is also confirmed by a writer in the Naturalist, of 1895, p. 67. He says the bird is very erratic in its nesting habits. He has found its egg in a pheasants nest, and in two cases the egg laid on the bare ground. Only last season I myself found an egg lying without any nest.

{40} This peculiar protective property is not confined to the partridge, but seems to apply to game birds generally. The keeper on the Woodhall shooting reported to me, on one occasion, that a pheasant had nested close to a footpath, where she was certain to be disturbed, and asked permission to take the eggs to hatch under one of his hens. Mr. E. M. Cole reports in the Naturalist of 1892, p. 182, Phasianus Colchicus nest of seven or eight eggs found May 6th, on the road margin. Mr. J. Watson, in his book Sylvan Folk, says: A party of ornithologists were trying to get a specimen of the ptarmigan in breeding plumage, but failed up to luncheon time. Sitting down, the lunch was unstrapped from a pony, and a strap fell on a ptarmigan, sitting, actually, under the pony. On another occasion a dog sat down upon the hen ptarmigan, which it had not discovered in the middle of the party.Sylvan Folk, p. 147, Fisher Unwin, 1889.

{42} The writer once witnessed a fight in the air between a kite and a heron. Hearing a confused sound of harsh cries overhead, he looked up, and soon caught sight of two large birds wheeling round and round, each apparently doing its utmost to get above the other. The two, however, were very evenly matched, for, whereas the kite had its strong beak and talons, deadly weapons for seizing and rending when at close quarters, and could make a powerful swoop at his preythe heron, though an awkward bird in the air, and ungainly in its movements, had yet its long, sharp, bill, with which it could receive its enemy as it were at point of bayonet, and even transfix him, should he make a reckless onset. Again and again, when the kite succeeded in getting uppermost, he would make a rapid downward swoop upon the heron; but as he neared the latter, he was forced swiftly to turn aside, to avoid being pierced through by the long bill. This went on for a considerable time, the two birds by turns surmounting each other, until they were lost to view in a cloud; and as to which ultimately gained the day, witness deponeth not.

As Mary Howitt prettily says;

Up, up into the skies, Thy strenuous pinions go; While shouts, and cries, and wondering eyes Still reach thee from below. But higher and higher, like a spirit of fire, Still oer thee hangs thy foe; Thy cruel foe, still seeking With one down-plunging aim To strike thy precious life For ever from thy frame; But doomed, perhaps, as down he darts, Swift as the rustling wind, Impaled upon thy upturned beak, To leave his own behind.

TO THE HERON

{44a} The writer, when the sport of hawking was revived some 40 years ago by the late Mr. Barr, witnessed several trials of his hawks, and himself tried hawking with the sparrow-hawk on a small scale. A great friend of his took up the sport at one time, and spent a good deal of money on it in securing good birds and well trained; but it almost invariably resulted in their getting away. Failing to kill his quarry, the bird would fly wildly about in search of it, thus getting beyond recall, and so would eventually go off and resume its wild habits. After losing a hawk for some days, the writer has caught sight of it again, called it, and swung his lure in the air to attract it. The hawk has come and fluttered about him, almost within arms length, but carefully eluded being taken; and so, after a little playful dalliance, has flown away again.

{44b} Lord Lilford, the great naturalist, states that a pair of owls, with their adult progeny, will, in three months, rid the land of no less than 10,000 vermin; and Frank Buckland states that he found the remains of 20 dead rats in one owls nest.

{45} Among his various pets the writer has tried to keep owls, but not with success. On one occasion he brought home two young birds, taken from a nest on the moor. They were put into an empty pigeon-cote. The next morning they were found dead, with their claws, in fatal embrace, buried deep in each others eyes. At another time he reared a couple, and got them fairly tame. They were allowed to go out at night to forage for themselves. But on one occasion, for the delectation of some visitors, he turned them out in the afternoon before dusk, and (presumably), taking offence at the affront put upon them, they never returned to their quarters. For a time he heard them in the dusk, and when he called they would even hover about him, uttering a low kind of purr but keeping carefully out of his reach.

{46a} The writer on Jan. 7, 1899, walking along a footpath, saw a pedlar who was meeting him, suddenly stop, and poke out a sort of bundle from the hedge-bottom with is stick. On coming up to him he asked what he had got. The reply was One of the varmints that kill the ducks; i.e., hedgehog. On his saying that he did not believe that the creature did anything of the kind, the pedlar replied, rather indignantly, that he knew an instance where a hedgehog had killed 20 ducks in a night. While, however, claiming for the hedgehog, mainly an insect, or vegetable diet, we are aware that it is open to the soft impeachment, that it does not object, like some of its betters, to an occasional poached egg, whether of duck, chicken, or partridge; and cases are on record of its being caught in flagrante delicto, as mentioned by Mr. E. L. Arnold, in his Bird Life in England.

{46b} The term sewer does not at all imply that this stream was ever used for sewerage purposes. It is a survival from old times, once meaning a drain or water course. Commissioners of sewers were appointed by Henry VIII. under the Statute of Sewers. But the same bucolic mind which can see in the most graceful church tower in the kingdom Boston Stump, gives the name of Sewer to a stream pellucid enough to be a fount of Castaly.

{47} There are several other birds occasionally about Woodhall, but they can hardly be counted among the regular denizens of the district. The curlew has recently been seen during a whole season, doubtless nesting somewhere in the neighbourhood, though the nest has not been found. The Green Sand-piper (Totanus Octaopus) frequents some of our ponds, but only as a bird of passage; the writer has occasionally shot them. The Razorbill (Alca Torda) is sometimes blown inland to us. A specimen was caught a few years ago, in an exhausted state, by some boys in Woodhall, and brought to the writer. A Little Auk (Alca Arctica) was caught under similar circumstances some years ago. A specimen of the Scoter, or Surf-Duck (Oidemia perspicillata), was brought to him, exhausted, but alive. He took care of it, and fed it. It recovered, and eventually regained its freedom, and was seen no more. Two stuffed specimens of that rare bird, the Ruff and Reeve, may be seen at the house of Mr. Charles Fixter, farmer, within three fields of the Bathhouse, Woodhall. They were shot by a Woodhall keeper, at Huttoft, near the sea coast.

{49} In connection with this decoy, it may be added that, in order to prevent the wild ducks being disturbed, no shooting was allowed anywhere near it. There was a large rabbit warren close by, where a peculiar kind of wild rabbit, black with silver hairs, bred in great numbers. These, as they could not be shot, were caught in large deep pits with trap doors. The skins were exported to Prussia, to make busbies for the soldiers, while the bodies were sent to Hull market. For the entertainment of sporting readers, it may be further mentioned that the relative and his son were crack shots. The old gentleman rode a shooting-pony, and fired from his thigh, instead of from the shoulder. A wager was, on one occasion, laid between father and son as to which would miss his game first. They each fired 18 shots before a miss occurred. Which of the two was the defaulter, the writer deponeth not; but in either case it was not a bad score. Sir John Astley, in his autobiography, mentions that when he was invalided home from the Crimea, having been wounded in the neck, he, for some time, could not get his arm up, and shot from the thigh, and managed to kill his rabbits. In the case of my relative long practice had made perfect.

{53a} Mr. A. E. Pease, M.P., in his volume Hunting Reminiscences, 1898, in a chapter on badger hunting, says: In countries where mange in foxes has become a scourge, the preservation of badgers would do much to remove this plague, for they are wonderful cleansers of earths.

{53b} It is to be hoped that the cruel sport of badger baiting is no longer indulged in, although not many years ago (1888), there appeared in the columns of the Exchange and Mart, the following advertisement: Very fine large badger and baiting cage, in good condition; price 20s.

{54a} Badger hunting, a more legitimate sport, is still carried on in a few rare instances. A friend of the writer, for several years, kept badger hounds in Gloucestershire, where these animals, are still fairly numerous, and the writer still possesses the skin of a badger killed by his hounds. A variety of hounds are used for this sport. There is the smell dog to track the quarry by his trail left in the previous night; the pack of more ordinary dogs to hunt him, and the plucky, smaller dog, who draws him from his retreat. It takes a good dog to beard the badger.

{54b} Nature Notes, vol. v., 1894, p. 98.

{55a} The late Mr. E. R. Alston, F.Z.S., Selbourne Magazine Vol. ii., p. 169.

{55b} Mr. W. Cartmell. Ibidem.

{55c} The Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, F.L.S., F.G.S., secretary of the Lincolnshire Naturalists Union, has assured me, that, seeing a pike lying dead on the river bank, with the shoulder eaten away in the above manner, he has watched it for two days, but the otter never returned. And Mr. H. C. Hey, Derwent House, West Ayrton, York, mentions a similar case. (The Naturalist, 1895, p. 106). While a writer in The Globe (April 30, 1896) says that he has seen half-a-dozen bream dead on a river bank, from not one of which has the otter taken more than this one bite.

{55d} See again Nature Notes, quoted above.

{56} To shew that the writer is not speaking without book in calling this neighbourhood a stronghold of Reynard in former years, it is sufficient to quote two or three of the entries in the accounts of the Parish Overseer of Woodhall, still preserved in the chest at Woodhall Church.

£ s. d.

1806, March 30.Needhams boy for a 0 1 0 fox

1806, April 6.Paid for foxes 0 16 3½

1814, April 11.Paid for foxes 1 12 2½

The slaughter of foxes, even in the 19th century, was thus remunerated at the rate of 1s. each; yet, in Woodhall, they would seem to have been so plentiful, that for such services, with other incidental expenses (such, probably, as traps, &c.), as much as £1 12s. 2½d. was paid in one year. Since those days, there has been a reaction in public sentiment. Nous avons changé tout cela, and instead of putting a price on Reynards head, we value his brush, and give him general protection.

{57} This is confirmed by the late Sir John Astley, who states that, as a boy, he often gave wood-pigeons, rabbits, and rats to a litter of fox cubs, kept by their keeper within a wire fence, and they almost invariably preferred the rat.Fifty Years of My Life, by Sir J. Astley. Vol. i., p. 245.

{61} Hinerarium, vol. vi., p. 58, 1710.

{62a} Part of the Glebe of Kirkby-on-Bain.

{62b} I take haphazard two or three entries from my shooting diary, recording the produce of a mornings walk, alone, on the moor, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 4, 1874.9 hares, 8 pheasants, 3 brace of partridges, 2 couple of rabbits, 3 woodpigeons, 2 waterhens. Oct. 1877.10 hares, 7 pheasants, 4½ brace of partridges, 2 woodcock, 2 couple of rabbits. Jan. 29, 1878.5 pheasants, 4 hares, 2 brace of partridges, 2½ couple of rabbits, 3 woodcock, 2 woodpigeon, 1 waterhen, 2 snipe.

{63} The bag that day (Nov. 1877) was 352 hares, 14 pheasants, 8 partridges, 4 rabbits. I also find the following brief entry: Nov. 7, 1878Shot with a party in Kirkstead, killing to my own gun nearly 60 hares. And again, Oct. 19, 1876. Shot with a friend in Kirkstead, 15 brace of partridges, 6 brace of pheasants, and 10 hares. To show that the Kirkstead and Tattershall shootings still maintain their excellence, I give here the bag on a more recent occasion. Oct. 12, 1894.In Kirkstead a party shot, in the open, 70 brace of partridges, 1 pheasant, and 110 hares. At Tattershall in the same year a party killed 531 hares in three days. I have mentioned above, the Tattershall shooting as being nearly as good as that of Kirkstead. I give here a note or two of sport on that estate: Sep. 21, 1876.Shot with Mr. S. (the lessee of the shooting) the Witham side of Tattershall. Bag: 25 hares, 9 brace of partridges. Sep. 25.Shot on the same ground, 7 hares, 26 brace of partridges. On the Woodhall ground, hares were always few in number, the soil not seeming to suit them; but among partridges I have shared in good sport. I give two entries as samples: Sep. 16, 1873.Shot with Captain H. (lessee of the shooting) 30½ brace of partridges and 2 hares. And again, Nov. 16, 1872.Shot for the third day, Bracken Wood. Total bag, rather more than 400 pheasants in the three days; rabbits, over 150, and 20 woodcock.

{65} Other instances of albinos are not uncommon, but more among birds than quadrupeds. I find among my notes the following: Albino shrew mouse caught at Ackworth, near Pontefract, June, 1895; white robin at Whitby, Jan., 1896; ditto at Boston, Sept., 1898; white woodcock nested in Manby Woods, near Louth, with four young of the usual colour, July, 1892; buff woodcock shot at Bestwood, Nottingham, Feb. 1892; white landrail shot at Kedleston, near Derby, Sept., 1892; white thrush caught at Nidderdale, November 1892; cream-coloured skylark shot near Harrogate, Sept., 1891; white jaytwo young specimens shot near York, 1893; white sand martin caught at Killinghall, near Harrogate, July, 1898; at Brackenborough, near Louth, there were two coveys of partridges, in the season of 18967, with white specimens among them: and at Stonehouse, in Gloucestershire, a covey of mixed white and brown partridges were reported in 1897. A buff hare was shot near Bourne in 1897. A white black-buck was killed by a friend in Kattiawar, India, in 1897, and I have a stuffed specimen of buff blackbird, caught some years ago in the vicarage garden at Woodhall: the parent birds having buff young two seasons in succession.

{67} In the Southdowns, the hills are called Downs, and the valleys Deans, or sometimes by the Devonshire term Coomb.

{69} Essays on Natural History, Third Series, p. 169. Ed. 1857.

{71a} Gilbert White mentions this habit of snakes stinking, se defendendo. A friend (he says) kept a tame snake, in its own person as sweet as any animal; but as soon as a stranger, a cat, or a dog entered the room, it fell to hissing, and filled the room with such nauseous effluvia as rendered it hardly supportable. Natural History, Selbourne, p. 90. Ed. 1829.

{71b} Brusher, a well-known character in the New Forest, Hampshire, says he has seen hundreds of snakes swallow their young in time of danger. The New Forest, by R. C. de Crespigny and Horace Hutchinson.

{74} Several kinds of fish which we now think coarse or insipid, would doubtless become, through the culinary skill of the monastic chef savoury dishes such as even a lordly abbots soul might relish. For the benefit of readers who may like to try the fish of our district under most favourable conditions, I here give two or three recipes for cooking them. Francatelli, no mean authority, says, a pike cooked properly can hold its own against many fish from the sea. Boiled with horseradish sauce and mustard it makes an excellent dish. Perch, with sorrel sauce and mayonnaise, is equally good. Carp, fried with butter, is excellent. Chub, taken in frosty weather, are firm, at other times rather flabby, but treated in either of the above ways they are more than palatable. Roach, cooked on a gridiron, with butter, make a nice breakfast. Tench, with port wine sauce, are a luxury. Eels, though despised in Scotland, are very good stewed.

{76a} Lincoln Records, quoted in Sir Charles Andersons Pocket Guide of Lincoln, p. 107. The spelling wesh agrees with the local pronunciation of the present day.

{76b} Mr. S. Cheer, of Horncastle.

{76c} Mr. W. Bryant, of Horncastle.

{78} Rev. C. D. Ash, Skipwith Vicarage. Naturalist, 1896, pp. 302 and 303.

{79a} Mr. J. Watson, in his very interesting book, Sylvan Folk, states (p. 232) that a single swan will destroy a gallon of trout ova in a day.

{79b} Mr. W. Bryant.

{79c} Aaron Rushton.

{80a} This fine specimen of the salmo fario was bought by the late Rev. J. W. King, of sporting celebrity, to put into the lake at Ashby-de-la-Launde, to improve the breed of trout there.

{80b} In one part of The Brook, the Laureate has taken a poetic licence, when he says:

I wind about, and in and out, With here a blossom sailing. And here and there a lusty trout, And here and there a grayling.

There are no grayling in the Somersby beck.

{81} For brothers of the cloth with piscatorial proclivities, who visit Woodhall, the writer would point to this means of healthful relaxation, which he can recommend from experience. Any qualms of the clerical conscience as to the legitimacy of such an avocationa wholesome calling away from graver dutiesmay be set at rest on episcopal, and even archi-episcopal, authority. The late Archbishop Magee was an ardent fisherman, and would go on flogging on Irish lough or river, even though he did not get a single rise. (See Life of W. Connor Magee, by J. C. McDonnell.) And the writer once read, with much enjoyment, an article on salmon fishing in the Quarterly Review, which was attributed to the versatile pen of the Bishop of Winchester, better known as Samuel of Oxford, who sought occasional relief from his almost superhuman labours on the banks of a Highland river.

{84a} The exception to which allusion is here made is the village of South Scarle, about six miles from Lincoln, where a deep boring was made in 1876, in search of coal. The depth attained was 2,029 feet, or nearly twice that of the Woodhall well; but as only the upper layer of the coal measures was thus reached, and it was calculated that actual coal would be some 1,600 feet lower still, or a total depth of 3,600 feet, the boring was abandoned. The strata passed through were found to be as follows: Alluvial or drift, 10ft.; lower lias clay and limestone, 65ft. rhtic beds, 66ft.; the three triassic formations, new red marl (Keuper), lower keuper sandstone, new red sandstone, 1,359ft.; upper permian marls, upper magnesian limestone, middle permian marls, lower magnesian limestone, permian marl slates, with basement of breccia, 619ft.; and upper coal measures, 10ft.; total, 2,029ft.

{84b} See end of Chapter I. on The History of the Well.

{85a} We have the testimony of two of the labourers employed in the shaft (Cheeseman and Belton) who agree in giving this depth. They also state that the particular stratum was 54ft. thick; that the set of the current was from south-east to north-west, running from a crack in one side of the shaft into a corresponding crack in the opposite side, and that they both assisted in making a brick and cement lining to the shaft, leaving a channel behind for the water to run round half the circumference, from crack to crack.

{85b} We may further add that it is at the junction of the Northampton sand with the underlying lias, that we find numerous springs in other parts of the county; as at Navanby, Waddington, Lincoln, Blyborough, Kirton, and several other places. The Government Geological Survey Memoir for the country around Lincoln (p. 208) agrees in saying that the Woodhall water comes from the inferior oolite which comprises the Northampton sands.

{87a} Life of Nansen, 18811893, by W. C. Brögger and Nordahl Rolfsen. (Longmans, 1896, pp. 350357).

{87b} Ibidem, p. 139.

{88a} Ibidem, p. 123.

{88b} This subject has been fully gone into by Mr. P. F. Kendall, F.G.S., in his article The Cause of an Ice-age, contributed to the Transactions of the Leeds Geological Association, part viii. Other ice-streams also passed down various alleys from Teesdale to Airedale, and the Ouse.

{88c} See an article On the Occurrence of Shap Granite Boulders in Lincolnshire, by Mr. W. T. Sheppard, in the Naturalist of 1896, pp. 333339. Also the Presidential Address to the Yorkshire Naturalists Union, by J. Cordeaux, F.R.G.S., M.B.O.U., in the Naturalist for 1897, pp. 195, 6. See also a very interesting article in the Fortnightly Review, November, 1863, on The Ice-age and its Work, by A. R. Wallace, F.R.S.

{89a} Mr. J. Cordeaux gives this thickness in the Naturalist (1897, p. 186). Professor J. Geikie says it did not exceed 3,500ft. or 4,000ft. at most, and would take 3,000ft. as an average. (The Glacial Period and Earth Movement, a paper read before the Victoria Institute in 1893. Trans. No. 104, pp. 221249, where also the question is largely considered of the causes of the Ice-age).

{89b} Mr. Wallace says; Every mountain group, north of the Bristol channel, was a centre from which, in the Ice-age, glaciers radiated; these became confluent, extensive ice-sheets, which overflowed into the Atlantic on the west, and spread far over the English lowlands on the east and south. The Ice-age and its work.Fortnightly Review, Nov., 1893, p., 269.

{90} Quoted by Mr. Wallace in The Fortnightly, p. 630.

{91a} Quoted from Glacialists Magazine, Fortnightly Review, Nov., 1893, p. 631.

{91b} A list of Scandinavian boulders, which have been found in Lincolnshire is given by Mr. T. Sheppard, in the Glacialists Magazine, vol. iii, 1895, p. 129. Notices of lakeland boulders are given in the Naturalist of 1897, pp. 67, 103104, 1956, 2834; and of 1898, pp. 1720,8587, 133138, 221224. In the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for May, 1885, Mr. Jukes Brown gives the general range of the boulder clay in Lincolnshire, while its range of flanking rocks in our own more immediate neighbourhood is treated of in the Government Geological Survey of Lincoln and the Country around, pp. 2, 122129, 155, 156.

{91c} The average rate of a glacier has been computed at 64 inches for the four summer months; in other cases one inch a day. The progress, of course, varies with the slope or smoothness of its bed, and is more rapid in the centre than at the sides, where it scrapes against flanking rocks.

{92} Sydney B. J. Skertchly, F.G.S., joint author of a valuable work, entitled The Fenland, Past and present.

{93a} Geological Survey, p. 79.

{93b} At Bardney, Baumber, Horncastle, West Ashby, and Fulletby, &c. Geological Survey, 7981.

{93c} These beds of inflammable shale are also found on the coast of Dorset, and are worked by levels driven into the cliff. This clay indeed receives its name Kimeridge, from a Dorset village, on the coast, near Corfe Castle and Poole.

{94a} Mr. Jeans, in Murreys Handbook of Lincolnshire, [p. 6] puts the total thickness of the various cretaceous formations at about 1,000ft.

{94b} Geological Survey, pp. 207209.

{95a} Ibedem.

{95b} Quarterly Journal, Geol. Soc., vol. xxxi., p. 125.

{95c} Geological Survey, pp. 202206.

{95d} Geological Survey, pp. 203206.

{95e} Ibidem.

{96a} Ibidem, pp. 198222.

{96b} Whites Dictionary of Lincolnshire. Article on the Geology by W. J. Harrison, F.G.S.

{97a} Quoted Ibidem.

{97b} Geolog. Survey Memoir of S. Yorks and N. Linc. p. 3.

{97c} Mr. F. M. Burton, F.L.S., F.G.S., Naturalist, 1894, p. 251. In A Selection of Papers relative to the County of Lincoln, read before the Lincolnshire Topographical Society, published by W. and B. Brooke, 1843, there is a paper by W. Bedford on the Geology of Lincoln. He divides the rocks into 26 beds, commencing from the north of the Cathedral and descending to the bed of the Witham. He gives a very interesting coloured section, showing these different strata, where the springs arise beneath the oolite; then the ferruginous gravels, the clunch clay, and the lias underlaying all.

{97d} Geolog. Survey, Around Lincoln, pp. 3335.

{98a} Article on Geology, Whites Lincolnshire, p. 70.

{98b} Ibidem.

{98c} Taken from a paper read by Surgeon-Major Cuffe, V.D., before the British Medical Congress, held in London, August, 1895.

{99a} The original analysis of Mr. West gave some properties not noticed by Professor Frankland as follows:

In one gallon.

Chloride of Sodium 1,215,175

Potassium 2,453

Magnesium 86,146

Calcium 105,001

Bromide of Sodium 5,145

Iodide of Sodium 2,731

Bi-carbonate of Soda 45,765

Carbonate of Lime 9.381

,, Iron 0.277

Silica 0.339

{99b} Smiths Dict. of Bible. Art., The Salt Sea, and The Dead Sea and Bible Lands, by F. de Saulcy.

{99c} Geolog. Survey Memoir, p. 210.

{99d} Information by R. Harrison, at one time resident at the farm where the well was sunk. Geolog. Survey, p. 205.

{99e} The Roman generals are supposed to have imported Belgian workmen, and by their aid, with their own soldiers, and the forced labour of the Britons, to have made the huge embankments, of which there are remains still existing in The Roman Bank, near Sutterton and Algarkirk, Bicker, and other places. The Car Dyke, skirting the Fens, on the west, some four miles from Kirkstead, was their work, and a few miles westward is Ermine Street, the great Roman highway, which stretches from Sauton on the Humber to London.

{101a} The revolution effected in the drainage of the Fens was not accomplished without considerable and even violent opposition on the part of many of the inhabitants, who thought that their interests were being ruthlessly disregarded, and in some cases even their means of subsistence destroyed. The state of affairs at this period, and the measures resorted to, are very graphically described in the historic novel, A daughter of the Fens, written by Mr. J. T. Bealby. This book the present writer would recommend to visitors to our Lincolnshire health-resort, as likely to give them an interest in the neighbourhood.

{101b} Mr. H. Preston, F.G.S., of Grantham, goes into the matter rather fully in the Naturalist of 1898, pp. 247255; as also Mr. F. M. Burton, F.L.S., F.G.S., of Gainsborough had previously done, in the Naturalist of 1895, pp. 273280.

{102} Dr. Oliver (in his Religious houses on the Witham, appendix pp. 165167) says: The honours of the Witham may be inferred, not only from the consecrated spots and temples (once existent) on its banks, but from its very names. It was called Grant-avon, or the divine stream; and Cwaith-Ket, i.e. the work or river of Ket (Ked or Keridwen, the Druid goddess Ceres). Ket survives in Catley, not far from the Witham. The river was worshipped as her embodiment. Oliver adds: The sacred places on its banks were more numerous, perhaps than those of any other river in Britain. It will be apparent, to anyone that the name Witham is not a river name at all, but that of a village, the village near which the river rises. In the time of Leland, the antiquary (circa 1550) it was known as the Lindis. He says: There be four ferys upon the water of Lindis betwixt Lincoln and Boston. Shut (Short) Fery, Tatershaul Fery, Dogdick Fery, Langreth Fery (quoted by Mr. G. Sills, Archl. His. Wash., Lin. N. and Q., Nat. His. section, July, 1897, p. 108). But Mr. Taylor tells us (in his Words and Places, p. 130) that throughout the whole of England there is hardly a single river name which is not Celtic, and accordingly the Celtic name of the Witham was Grant-avon (avon meaning river), while the town upon it was Grantham. It was also known by the names Rhe and Aye, the former Celtic, the latter Saxon or Danish. Lin. N. and Q., vol. ii., p. 222.

{103a} Introduction to vol. on The Geology arounde Lincoln. Government Geolog. Survey Memoir.

{103b} Naturalist, 1895, p. 274.

{103c} The late Mr. W. H. Wheeler, one of our ablest engineers, held the opinion that there was a time when the Witham, by a somewhat similar process, instead of passing through the Lincoln Gap, if it then existed, found its way through a low tract of country northward into the Trent, and so passed out into the Humber. See Lincolnshire Notes and Queries, vol. i., pp. 53, 54, and 213. It would almost seem that the poet Drayton had an idea of something of this kind, when he says of the Witham

Leaving her former course in which she first set forth, Which seemed to have been directly to the north, She runs her silver front into the muddy fen . . . coming down, . . . to lively Botolphs town.

Polyolbion, song xxv.

It may here be added that the antiquary, Stukely, who at one time lived at Boston was of opinion, that the Witham, at one period, diverged from its present channel a little below Tattershall, about Dogdyke, to the east, and through various channels, which are now drains, found its way to Wainfleet and there debouched into the sea. And an old map of Richard of Cirencester, in the 14th century, confirms this.

{105a} Naturalist, 1895, pp. 230, 231.

{105b} This celt, as they are called, has been exhibited by the writer at more than one scientific meeting. It is still in the possession of Mr. Daft, who would doubtless be glad to show it to any one wishing to see it.N.B.the term celt is not connected with the name Celtic or Keltic, but is frem a Latin word celtis, or celtes; meaning a chisel, and used in the Vulgate, Job xix., 24, the classic word is clum.

{106a} Gov. Geolog. Survey, Country round Lincoln, p. 161, now in the possession of Mr. Fox, land surveyor, of Coningby.

{106b} S. B. J. Skertchly, Fenland, p. 344.

{107} A representation of Chaucer on horseback, in a MS. on vellum, of the Canterbury Tales, in the possession of the Duke of Sutherland, and reproduced as a frontispiece to Illustrations of the lives of Gower and Chaucer, by H. J. Todd, F.S.A., 1810, shows the anelace hanging from a button on the breast of his surcoat. It was usually worn at the girdle, except in the case of ecclesiastics. M. Paris mentions Petrus de Rivallis as gestans anelacium ad lumbare, quod clericum non decebat. The present writer possesses what he believes is an anelace, which was found among the ruins of a cottage on the Kirkstead Abbey estate some 25 years ago. He exhibited it at a meeting in London of the Archæological Institute, in November, 1882, where it was described as a beautiful knife handle, decorated with nielli of Italian character. It is of blue enamel, beautifully chased with an elegant filigree pattern in silver. It has also been pronounced by an authority to be Byzantine work. As being found near the ruins of Kirkstead Abbey, we might well imagine it to have hung at the girdle, or from the breast, of some sporting ecclesiastic; and to have belonged to the jewelled blade,

Wherewith some lordly abbot, in the chase, Gave to the deer embossed his coup de grace.

{108a} The conserving properties of the mud ooze is remarkable. The Philosophical Transactions mention a human body dug up in the Isle of Axholme, of great antiquity, judging by the structure of the sandals on its feet, yet the skin was soft and pliable, like doe-skin leather, and the hair remained upon it.-Lincs. N. & Q. Vol. III., p. 197.

{108b} This relic of not less that 1700 years ago is further interesting from the fact that the bone, of which it is made, was proved to be that of a horse, yet the horse must have been smaller than any of the present day, except the Shetland pony. The Britons are known to have had horses of great size, which excited the admiration of Cæsar; which survived in the huge war-horse carrying the great weight of the mail-clad Norman knight in the active exercises of the tournament; and the descendants of which are the Shire horses of to-day.The Old English Warhorse, by Sir Walter Gilbey. We may add here, as an interesting fact, that there is evidence to show that the horses of our neighbourhood were specially valued, as far back as the time of the Commonwealth. Cromwell wrote to an acquaintance, I will give you sixty pieces for that black [horse] you won [in battle] at Horncastle; and on the acquaintance not jumping at the offer, he wrote again, I will give you all you ask for the black you won the last fight.Quoted, Animals and their Conversations, p. 85, by C. J. Cornish.

{108c} The bolt of a crossbow was forged square, hence its name quarrel, from carre, or quarre,square.Lincs. N. & Q. Vol. IV, p. 21.

{108d} The Roman lituus is supposed by antiquarians to have been adopted from barbarous nations, the serpentine form indicating the object of their worship. The serpent was held sacred among the Druids of Britain.

{110a} Archæological Journal, No. VII., Sept., 1845, p. 253. The dimensions of the chest were 16 inches square by 8½ inches high; the interior 12 inches square. The height of the urn was 7 inches; its diameter at the widest part, 7 inches; diameter of mouth, 4 inches.

{110b} At the restoration of the Parish Church in 1864, in making some alterations in the floor of the chancel, a lead coffin was found below, said to have been that of Lady Jane Dymoke. It was temporarily removed during the operations, but orders were given that it should be re-interred. Before, however, these instructions could be carried out, it mysteriously disappeared, and doubtless found its way to the melting-pot.

{111} Proc. Soc. Antiq. 1849, 1st series, 57. The finding of the Horncastle coffins is described in The Reliquary and Illustrated Archæologist, April, 1897.

{112a} In Norwich one of the principal thoroughfares is named Rampant Horse Street. To this same superstition also we owe the huge figures of the white horse cut in the turf at Bratton Castle and at Oldbury Camp, both in Wiltshire. Tacitus speaks of immolati diis abscissum equi caput.

{112b} Quoted, Surtees Society Publications, vol. lxxvi.

{112c} Weirs History of Horncastle, p. 27.

{113} Provincial Words of Lincolnshire.

{114a} An old Lincolnshire term for a male elf is Tom-tut, which may be a corruption of Tom-cat. A person in a rage is said to be quite a Tom-tut, or spitfire, like a cat spitting. In connection with shag, we may add that there is a sea bird frequenting some of our coasts called a Black-shag. Another explanation of Tab-shag, which has been suggested is that Tab is another word for turf sods, and sods used to be cut on the moor for fuel.

{114b} Facts and Remarks relative to the Witham, &c. by W. Chapman, p. 18. A large anchor was also dug up at a considerable depth, indicating that large vessels also ascended the river to Lincoln.

{115a} Thompsons Boston, p. 126.

{115b} Letter from Sir Joseph Banks to the Editor of the Journal of Science and Art, No. ii., p. 224.

{116} There was a wood called Synker Wood, which extended from within 100 yards of Kirkby lane, westward to the Tattershall road skirting the boundary between the parishes of Kirkstead and Thornton, having at the east end of it Synker Wood House. South of this wood, near the Tattershall road, was a lee, or strip of grass land: and south of that again, and opposite the present larger farm house, there was another smaller wood called the Synker Pool Wood. Of this there is one solitary oak left still standing, about 20 yards from the road; and it was some yards eastward of this tree that the boat was found.

{118a} Account of trees found under ground in Hatfield chase. Philosoph, Transactions, No. 275, p. 980

{118b} Richard of Cirencester (circa A.D. 1380) says of them, Coitani in tractu sylvis obsito (habit-antes). Some writers, following Ptolemy, call them Coritani, others Coriceni, but the learned Dr. Pegge prefers Coitani, as a name in harmony with the circumambient woods, Coed being still Welsh for wood.

{118c} Flores Historiarum, A.D. 1377.

{118d} Brookes Lincoln, p. 14.

{119a} Brooke, Ibid. But the earliest record of a stone church in the British Isles is that built by St. Ninian, first Bishop of Scotland. A.D. 488, at Witherne, in Galloway. Bede, Eccles. Hist., book iii., ch. iv.

{119b} Egregii opperis, Bede, Eccles. Hist., book i. p. 32.

{119c} Weirs Hist. Lincolnshire, vol i., p. 32.

{120a} A fine copy of Magna Charta, is still preserved among the Archives of the Cathedral.

{120b} In the preamble to a Charter granted to the city (4 Charles I.) Lincoln is called one of the chiefest seats of our kingdom of England for the staple and public market of wool-sellers and merchant strangers, &c. There came into the writers possession a few years ago a curious relic, consisting of a terra cotta cube, light red in colour, each of the six sides being 1¾ inches square, and having each a different, deeply-cut, pattern; crosses of different kinds, squares, or serpentine lines. It was found in a private garden in Lincoln, and was pronounced to be a stamp for bales of wool. I exhibited it before the Linc. Architectural Society, the Society of Antiquaries, &c.; and ultimately presented it to the British Museum.

{120c} The number of monasteries closed by Henry VIII. was 645, containing some 20,000 religious persons.

{121a} Andersons Pocket Guide, pp. 119121.

{121b} Anderson, p. 126.

{121c} Letter written to Mr. Page, who was Mayor of Lincoln in that year.

{122} Brookes History, pp. 56, 56.

{125} Brookes History, pp. 55, 56.

{126a} Demesne is an old Norman compound word. The Mesne was the Lord of the Manor (conf. Fr. mener and menagerto command), and de-mesne was the land of the lord. In this case, the mesne was originally the Baron Eudo, to whom the Conqueror gave the manors of Tattershall and Kirkstead, with certain appendages, of which Woodhall, or a large portion of it, would seem to have been one; for, when his son Brito endowed the Abbey of Kirkstead, he assigned to it two parts of the manor of Woodhall, and the advowson of the benefice.

{126b} It was customary, where feasible, to thus connect the moat with running water, to avoid complete stagnation, and so to keep the water more healthy.

{127} The writer has also an old map, undated, but belonging to a Dutch History of Lincolnshire or Nicolshire, probably published in the sixteenth century; also another old map, inscribed Fodocus Hondius cælavit Anno Domini 1610, as well as another by Christophorus Saxton, undated; in all of which Buckland is given instead of Woodhall.

{128a} The Abbot of Bardney had a hunting establishment at Bardney Vaccary; and why not the powerful Abbot of Kirkstead also, who possessed the right of free warren over many thousands of acres; in the Wildmore Fen alone about 45,000 acres.

{128b} That this supposition is correct would seem to be shewn by fact that this propertyHigh-hall wood and land adjoiningstill belongs to the Earls of Fortescue, who now own the manor of Tattershall, the estates having gone together since the days of Eudo, in the Conquerors time. In the Award Map, one of the fields in Woodhall just outside the High-hall property, is named Priests Moor, probably as marking the limit of the Church (formerly the Abbey) estate, as distinguished from the land of the Baron. The Abbots land in Woodhall was, at the Dissolution, given to the Bishops of Lincoln, and only enfranchised from them in the year 1868. The writer has in his possession a copy of the deed, conveying, in the first year of Edward VI., the rectorial rights and appurtenances of Woodhall to Henry Holbeach, at that time Bishop of Lincoln, and his successors, post mon. de Kirksted nuper dissolutum.

{129} The pistol was originally a German invention, so named because its calibre corresponded with the diameter of the old coin, pistole. They were first used by German cavalry at the battle of Renty (1554), and contributed greatly to the defeat of the French. After that they were introduced into the French army, and later into the English. They were at first furnished with a matchlock, and fired by a match. This was followed by a wheel-lock, wound up like a clock, and having a piece of iron pyrite, and later, a piece of flint, for producing ignition. The wheel-lock was superseded by the trigger and the hammer, still with flint. The percussion cap, invented by the Scotchman, Alexander Forbes, was introduced about 1820 (Notes on Arms and Armour, by C. Boutell). The pistol found at High-hall is inscribed with the two French words Shermand Brevete (patentee). The earliest pistol preserved in the United Service Museum is supposed to date from Charles I. (Haydn, Dict. of Dates), and it is known that, at that period, the French gunsmiths were much in advance of the English.

{131} Series ii., 16001617, p. 30, No. 34, edited by Rev. A. R. Maddison, 1891.

{133} It may occur to some to wonder for what purpose the Lord Clinton could need so many as 1,000 kiddes; and as a probable answer we may say that, in those days, coal was not in universal use, as it is now. Peat-sods, called in Lincolnshire bages, and wood, were the ordinary fuel. Hence we find frequent mention of the right of Turbary, i.e., of cutting turf on certain lands, as a valuable privilege. At such an extensive establishment as Tattershall Castle, then at least three times its present size, there would be no small number of persons needing fire-warmth. The old writer, William of Worcester, (Itinerarium, p. 162), tells us that the Lord Treasurer Cromwells household consisted ordinarily of 100 persons, and that, when he rode to London, his retinue was commonly 120 horsemen (Weirs Hist. vol. i. p. 304, ed. 1828). The beautiful mantelpieces still remaining in the castle, embellished with his arms, and the proud motto, Ne j droit?Have I not right? are famed throughout the kingdom; and on the spacious hearths beneath them the smouldering peat and blazing faggot would yield welcome warmth to guests and retainers reclining before them, wearied with the varied labours of the day: days, indeed, we may well believe, by no means monotonous, when it is remembered that, besides the sport of hunting and hawking, the Lord Clintons followers were not uncommonly engaged in predatory strife (of which I shall presently give instances) with neighbours hardly less powerful than himself. By way of adding note to note, I may here say that, among the poor, cheaper kinds of fuel were in use than the peat and faggot. Cow-dung was dried in brick-shaped blocks, which were called dythes; or sheep-dung into brocks, and stacked like peat for burning. I have spoken with old people, in the marsh, who remember both these being in common use.

{134} There is a prevalent tendency to pronounce, in a general and uncritical fashion, many things to be Roman which are only ancient and of indefinite date; an easy way of getting out of a difficulty. Possibly we may trace to this source the origin of the Lincolnshire expression, descriptive of anything or anybody out of the ordinary, that it is, or he is, or she is, a rum un.

{137} I may, perhaps, here explain that non-jurors were those persons who considered that James II. was unjustly deposed, and who refused to swear allegiance to William III. and his successors. Non-jurors were subjected to double taxation, and obliged to register their estates (1723); and from the first were excluded from any public office. I may also here state that the Sir Richard Morrison who is named in this epitaph was a man of great learning, and employed by Henry VIII. and Edward VI. in several embassies to the greatest princes in Europe (Camdens Britannia, p. 302). He was also appointed President of Mounster in Ireland. He had a brother, Fynes Morrison, who was fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, who obtained from his college permission to travel, and spent eight years in foreign parts. On his return he went to Ireland and became secretary to Sir Charles Blount, the Lord Lieutenant. There he wrote an account, in Latin, of his Travels through the twelve dominions of Germany, Bohemia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, England, Scotland and Ireland. These he afterwards translated into English, but they were not published till three years after his death, which occurred in 1614. His works are a treasury of old-time information, and he is named in the second volume of Magna Britannia among the learned men whom our county has produced.

{138} It is a coincidence which seems to merit a note, that on the very day on which these lines were penned it was the writers duty to unite in the bonds of wedlock a young woman whose mothers maiden-name was Fynes, to her cousin, Charles Fynes: their common grandfather, Charles Pelham Fynes, a fine sample of the old English yeoman, having been, as well as two of his sons, the tenant of land held under the writer, and under his father before him, during many years.

{139} This font which is old Norman, plain, but massive, was, some years ago, taken away from its position at Poolham, and, by way of rescuing it from destruction, was placed as an ornamental relic in the garden of Whispington Vicarage, by the late Rev. C. P. Terrot who was, in his day, one of our greatest antiquaries. When the writer restored Woodhall Church, in 1893, the font in that church being of no architectural value, he obtained the gift of this ancient font and restored it to its original religious purpose, where it now stands, supported by four handsome columns of serpentine, the gift of the Rev. J. A. Penny, the present Vicar of Whispington. The gravestone here referred to was taken away some years ago, and now forms the sill of a cottage doorway in Stixwould.

{142a} He sold Tetford to George Anton, Esq., through whose daughter Elizabeth, married to Sir Edward Hussey, that property passed to the Hussey family, the head of which was Lord Hussey of Sleaford, who, for his treachery at the time of the Lincolnshire Rebellion, was attainted and beheaded by Henry VIII., as were also the Abbots of Kirkstead and Barlings, and many more. He sold Somersby to George Littlebury (to whom there is a memorial tablet in the church), a younger son of Thomas Littlebury of Stainsby. These Littleburys, again, Sir John of Stainsby, with Humphrey of Hagworthingham, and Robert his brother, were all mixed up with the Lincolnshire Rising; so, also, was their relative, Andrew Gedney, lord of Oxcombe and of Bag Enderby (of whom, and his wife Dorothy, there is a mural monument in the church), who married a daughter of Sir William Skipwith of South Ormsby; so, also, were the Dightons, Robert of Stourton and Thomas of Waddingworth, all in this neighbourhood; so, also, was William Dalyson, of a very old family (DAlencon) of Laughton; with scores more: John Savile of Poolham, Vincent Welby of Halstead Hall, Stixwould; several Dymokes, Heneages, Massingberds, Tyrwhitts, &c., &c. But these are mentioned here because the Littleburys, the Gedneys, the Dightons and the Dalysons, were connected, in one way or another, with the family, on one side, of the present writer. He may further add here, in connection with the Saviles, that when the first Napoleon was expected to invade England, a Company of Volunteer Grenadiers was raised in the loyal town of Pontefract, of which a Savile, Lord Mexborough, was Colonel Commandant, and the writers grandfather, George Pyemont, of Tanshelf House, of Methley and Rothwell, was Major. The Majors sword hangs on the dining-room wall at Langton Rectory.

{142b} Thorotons Hist. of Notts., vol. iii., p. 360.

{142c} Collins Peer., vol. i., p. 207. This Denzil Hollis, or Holles, is mentioned in the list, given at the Spittle Sessions, March 1, 15867, of those gentry who supplied launces and light hors, as furnishing ij. horse, being captaine; John Savile of Poolham furnishing ij. launces and ij. horse.

{142d} Illustrations of English History.

{143a} Lansdown MSS. 27, Art. 41.

{143b} This would be the present Halstead wood, on the western side of Stobourne; the ditch, or sto-bourne, running between the two is the bourne or boundry of the two parishes, Woodhall and Stixwould (or Halstead), where the Welbys lived at that time. The first syllable of Sto-bourne would be stow or stoc a stake or post, marking the boundary; oftener used as a suffix than a prefix, as in Hawkstow, Chepstow, Woodstock, &c.

{143c} Thomas Metham of Metham. The chief seat of the Methams was Bullington Priory. A George Metham was executor, with Andrew Gedney, to Sir William Skipwiths will proved 31st March, 1587. Methams letter, quoted above, is given in the Lansdown MSS. 27, Art. 32.

{144} Lansdown MSS. 27, Art. 41.

{145} These details are given in a Paper on The feuds of Old Lincolnshire Families, by Lord Monson (Proceedings of Archæol. Institute, Lincoln, 1848).

{146} There is a common tendency to give a far-fetched origin to ancient structures and things, to make them more remarkable; but the skill and economy of the old builders often lay in utilising and making the most of material at hand. The bricks of Tattershall Castle have been said to be Dutch, and brought up the Witham from the Low Countries in exchange for other commodities; but a geologist assures me that both the bricks and the mortar at Tattershall, when examined, shew a native origin; and, so, doubtless, the bricks of Halstead are born of the soil of the locality.

{149a} To show that I am not here speaking without book, I may cite the following:Some years ago a bundle of papers were found among the Archives at Lincoln, stitched together, and much damaged by time. They proved to be Letters of indulgence, issued by Bishop Dalderby of Lincoln, in which he instructed the Deans to enjoin the clergy throughout their deaneries to make it known, on Sundays and other festivals, that money was needed to complete the central tower of the Cathedral, and that indulgences and other privileges would be granted (indulgencias multiplices, et alia Suffragia) to any who should contribute to this object (qui ad constructionem campanilis contulerint subsidia.) This mandate was dated Stowe-park vii. 1d. Marcii A.D. MCCCVI. Among these papers was found a letter of indulgence from John, Bishop of Carlisle, dated Horncastle, May 12, 1305 (that Prelate then having a palace at Horncastle, on what are now the premises of Mr. Lunn, grocer), and a similar document from Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, dated Lincoln, Oct. 11, 1314; shewing that the practice was a universal one. The Indulgences were, in each case, for forty days. We may look with admiration at our Cathedral, fabrica tam nobilis, et honorifica toti regno, as the Bishop calls it; but surely it takes not a little gilt from the gingerbread, when we reflect that this grand edifice was not entirely the product of the piety of our forefathers, as we have too fondly supposed, but due largely to the episcopal sanction of what with all charity, can hardly be called a pious fraud; and that it was really paid for by the wages of sin. The individuals were granted their forty days fling of iniquity, with the episcopal pledge of exemption from its penalty, provided they responded to the episcopal calla system of Do ut des, based on a superstitio damnabilis,Bishop Dalderbys Memorandums, 101 b. Quoted Archit. Soc. Reports, vol. iv., pt. ***., pp, 42, 43. The author of a book recently (1904) published on French Cathedrals, says that many of them were built in expiation of wrong deeds.