I mentioned in a previous chapter the very bad condition of the roads about here; and there is a still lingering tradition that the last of the Fynes residing at White Hall used to drive about in a waggon drawn by bullocks. This estate, with some other land, of which the writer has been shooting tenant for more than a score of years, is still in the hands of the Fiennes Clinton Trustees; but there are Fynes, still in the flesh, living in our midst at Woodhall, who, though treading a humbler walk in life, are not altogether unworthy of their high ancestry. {138}

There is another old moated residence, of considerable historic interest, which next claims our attention. Within a mile westward of the Wood Hall, by the church, and closely contiguous to the north-west boundary of the Woodhall estate, stands Poolham Hall, an old-fashioned, but comfortable and substantially-built, stucco-coated and slated farmhouse. It now, along with the small manor, belongs to Dr. Byron, residing in London, who bought it a few years ago from Mr. Christopher Turnor, of Stoke Rochford and Panton Hall, in this county. At the back of the Hall, at the south-west corner of what is now the kitchen garden, and close to the enclosing moat, are the remains of a small chapel, consisting of an end wall and part of a side wall, each with a narrow window; there are fragments of larger stones bearing traces of sculpture, and, within recollection, there was also a tombstone with the date 1527, and a font. {139} The house was, doubtless, formerly much larger than it is now. Like the other similar residences which I have described, Poolham Hall has close by it a running stream, called Monks dyke, which unites with some of the other becks already named, and ultimately flows into the Witham. The chief interest in this old place lies in the distant past; it has gone through a varied series of vicissitudes, and witnessed some stirring scenes. Weir, in his History of Horncastle (ed. 1820, p. 58), under the head of Edlington, says briefly of Poolham, anciently called Polum, it formed part of the Barony of Gilbert de Gaunt, until about the 35th year of Edward I., when Robert de Barkeworth died seised of it; and it appears to have been the residence of Walter de Barkeworth, who died in 1374, and was buried in the cloister of Lincoln Cathedral. Afterwards it was the residence of the family of Thimbleby, a branch of the Thimblebys of Irnham, who probably built the present house about the time of Henry VIII. In the reign of Elizabeth the Saviles of Howley possessed it; and in 1600 Sir John Savile, Knight, sold it to George Bolles, citizen of London, whose descendant, Sir John Bolles, Baronet, conveyed it to Sir Edmund Turnor, Knight, of Stoke Rochford. Of the above families, I have not been able to find very much about the Barkworths, who took their name doubtless from East Barkwith, where they had property. But Gocelyn de Barkworth, and after him William de Barkworth, are named in an Assize Roll (4 Ed. II., 1311) as having possessions in Tetford. In 3 Ed. III. (A.D. 1329), William de Barkworth and his wife fflorianora were plaintiffs in a land dispute with Robert de Hanay and Alice his wife; whereby 1 messuage, 1 carucate of land, 9 acres of meadow, 1 acre of more, and the moiety of 1 messuage and 1 mill, with appurtenances in Normanby, Claxby, and Ussylby, were quitclaimed to William and fflorianora, and fflorianoras heirs. I may add, as to the item here named 1 mill, that a mill in those days was a property of some value; all the dependents of the lord of the manor were obliged to have their corn, for man or beast, ground in it; and no other mill was allowed in the neighbourhood where one was already established. It is recorded by Beckman that a certain Abbot wished to erect a mill, which was objected to by a neighbouring proprietor, who contended that the wind of the whole district belonged to him. The monks complained to the bishop, who gave them permission to build, affirming that the wind of the whole diocese was episcopal property. (Olivers Rel., Houses, p. 76 note 9.) In 1351 William de Barkworth, lord of Polume, presented to the moiety of the chapelry (of Poolham); and in 1369 Thomas de Thymelby presented to it. And from this time the Thimblebyes take the place of the Barkworths. These Thimblebyes, whose name is variously spelt Thimelby, Thymbylbye, and even (as in Domesday Book) Stimblebi, and Stinblebi, were a numerous and influential race. Their chief residence was Irnham Park, near Grantham, which was acquired about 1510 by Richard Thimbleby, on his marriage with the heiress of Godfrey Hilton, whose ancestor, Sir Geoffrey Hilton, Knight, had obtained it in 1419, by his marriage with an heiress of the Luterels, several of whom were called to Parliament, as Barons, in the 13th century. This was one of fifteen manors given by William the Conqueror to Ralph Paganel; and with the heiress of his family it passed, by marriage, to Sir Andrew Luterel, Knight. The Thymblebyes would seem to have taken their patronymic from the village of that name (part of which now forms a portion of the Woodhall Spa parish), as the earlier members of the family we find designated as Thomas de Thymelby. Nicholas de Thymelby, and so forth. Besides land in Thimbleby they owned many other estates. For instance, in the Court of Wards Inquisitions (3, 4, and 5 Edward VI., vol. v., 91), we find that Matthew Thimbleby of Polom, who married Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Hussey, about 1521, died seised of the manors of Polome, Farfford, Ruckelyond, Somersby, Parish-fee, in Horncastle, Edlynton, Thymylby, and Tydd St. Mary; also of lands in Horsyngton, Styxwolde, Blankney, Buckland (i.e. Woodhall), and Flette: and of the advowsons of Tetforde, Farefford, Rucklonde, and Somersbye. This Matthew Thimblebys wealthy grass widow married again, Sir Robert Savile, Knight, who (according to Chancery Inquisition, post mortem, 28 Eliz., 1st part, No. 116) died seised of the manors of Poolham, Horsington, Stixwolde, Edlington, Tetford, Farforth, Somersby, and Ruckland.

Before quitting the Thimblebyes, we have one more incident to name in connection with them. In 1581, one of them, residing at Poolham, was imprisoned in Lincoln Castle for refusing to attend the new Reformed Services and Communion. His wife greatly desired to see him, and was allowed her request by Thomas Cooper, Bishop of Lincoln. She was near her confinement, but, as her name was among a list of those not favourable to the Reformation, she was treated rather roughly, and detained by force in her husbands cell. This brought on premature labour, and in the hour of her weakness she was denied the assistance of a matron. It is said that a speedy death ended her sufferings; her husband also dying in prison.The Church under Elizabeth, by Dr. F. G. Lee, vol. ii., p. 60. It is further recorded of this same Bishop, that he summoned Sir Robert Dymoke to Lincoln for examination as to his supposed Papist tendencies, and on Sir Robert excusing himself on the score of ill health, the Bishop came in person to Scrivelsby and carried him forcibly to Lincoln, and cast him into prison, where he presently died. It is not a little curious that one, who, as a doughty knight, at three coronations threw down his gauntlet and challenged the world on his Sovereigns behalf, should have succumbed to a stiff-necked prelate. The account of this is given in Lodges Scrivelsby, the Home of the Champions, pp. 77, 78.

We now come to the Saviles. They were a wealthy and distinguished Yorkshire family, now represented by the Earls of Mexborough. Sir Robert disposed of some of the property in this neighbourhood, which he had acquired by his marriage with the widow Thimbleby, but he retained Poolham, and made the Hall his headquarters. {142a} The Saviles may have been hot-blooded, for they had not been located long at Poolham before they became embroiled with their neighbours. The manners of the times were somewhat rough, and we here give a sample or two. The autocrat of the neighbourhood at that time was Henry Fiennes Clinton, second Earl of Lincoln, who was apparently inclined to ride roughshod over everyone who came in his way; the object of his life seems to have been to quarrel, and to keep in a state of irritation the county from which he derived his title. It is said that Denzil Hollis, living much at Irby, used to confront the Earl of Lincoln, who was a great tyrant among the gentry of Lincolnshire, and to carry business against him, in spite of his teeth. {142b} But stout old Denzil died in 1590, and, this check withdrawn, the Earls conduct increased in violence. {142c} Lodge, {142d} in his records, mentions one Roger Fullshaw of Waddingworth (near Horncastle), who, in 1596, prayed for protection against the most horrible outrages committed by the Earl, and says that his conduct savoured of insanity. Before he succeeded to the earldom, and consequently when he had not yet so much power to oppress, he committed the following aggressions on the Saviles of Poolham. We must premise that Sir Robert Savile, though a knight of good estate, and though his descendants became Earls of Sussex, was, nevertheless, a natural son of Sir Henry Savile, by Margaret Barkston, his Ladies gentlewoman, {143a} which, as will be seen, was not forgotten by the high-born Clinton. These occurrences took place in 1578. They were neighbours, and jealous of trespass; and, on the 13th of June, Lord Clinton, with 7 men with cross-bowes and long-bowes bent, forced himself into the parlour at Poolham Hall, and, after threatening words, struck Sheffield Savile, the son, on the head. The elder Savile says that he prevented his son from noticing the outrage, an unusual degree of forbearance under the circumstances; but there had evidently been some previous misunderstanding, and possibly young Savile had been in the wrong. On the 25th of June following, Lord Clinton, hearing Sir Roberts hounds hunting in Mr. Welbys wood, {143b} although it was no concern of his, seized five of them, and then sent a letter to Sir Robert, threatening that he would hang them before his house; and, in fact, did hang them, as Sir Robert says, upon my own tree within my own ground.

Another violent proceeding is described in a letter of the Earls friend. Mr. Metham {143c} had been previously entertaining Lord Clinton at Metham, and was now on a return visit to Tattershall; and, as he relates, It pleased him (Lord Clinton) to carrye me with my companye through his park (still surviving in the name Tattershall park) unto the chase, where his meaning was to have made sport with hounds and greyhounds (i.e., badger hounds), and leading me by, into the meadows, he shewed me certain of the great deer of the chase, such as he kept rather for show than to be hunted. These would be the red deer (cervus elaphus) still existing then on Hatfield chase, in the northwest of the county, in considerable numbers. The deer broke away into Mr. Welbys woods, and thence, as my lord affirmed, with an oath, into the mouths of the Saviles. Lord Clintons attendants followed the hounds, Lord Clinton himself not doing so; but, in passing along a lane, he encountered some of the Savile followers, in number 20 or 24, the more part having swords, bucklers, and daggers, some pyked staves, one a cross-bowe with an arrowe, another a long bowe and arrows. While words were being exchanged ould Mr. Savile came up, and the following characteristic dialogue ensued. My Lord Clinton, yf thou be a man, light, and fight with me. With thee, bastardlye knave, quoth my lord, I will deal with thee well enough, and teach thee, knave, thy duty. Upon which words Mr. Savile called my lord a cowardly knave. Challenges passed between them, and with Sheffield Savile, who, withdrawing, as he says, Lord Clinton by the arm, called out after him, You a lord, you are a kitchen boy. Sir Robert, after their departure, having got hold of one of Lord Clintons dogs, meant, Metham says, to use it with like courtesy as my lord has done his. Lord Clinton then approached Poolham Hall, and a challenge passed, through John Savile, to fight six to six, which by good entreaty was stayed. Savile says, {144} in his narrative, that the followers of Lord Clinton were entertained at Horncastle, the same day, with a buck; and getting hold of an unfortunate tailor, some ten or twelve of them drew their swords and sore wounded him, saying he should have that, and more, for his masters sake, Mr. Sheffield Savile.

The Lansdown MSS. give details of other violent proceedings of Lord Clinton towards the Saviles; how he over-ran the lands of Poolham with 60 men, armed with guns, cross-bows, and long bows; how he ill-treated their servants sent to Tattershall on domestic errands; incited the neighbours to send challenges to them; how he tried to entice into his park the younger Saviles, and laid ambushes for them; and various other proceedings which he would not for a moment have tolerated in anyone else. It redounds, indeed, to the credit of the Saviles that Poolham was not made the scene of retaliation and bloodshed. {145}

In 1600 Sir John Savile sold Poolham to George Bolles, Esq. Of the Bolles family I have been able to find but scanty mention. Among Lincolnshire Gentry who supplied demy-lances and light horse, at the Louth Sessions, March, 15867, Charles Bolles is named as Captaine, furnishing ij. horse; and Richard Bolles ij launces and ij horse; while Richard Bowles, which is probably the same name, is mentioned along with Sir Willm. Skipwith, Mr. Willm. Fitzwilliam, and Mr. Andrewe Gedney, Sir Williams son-in-law, as the officials who presided at the Spittle Sessions, i.e., at Spittal in the Street, near Kirton in Lindsey.

The last of this family to occupy Poolham was Sir John Bolles, Bart., who conveyed it to Sir Edmund Turnor of Stoke Rochford. Sir John Bolles is connected with the pretty and interesting legend and ballad of The Green Lady of Thorpe Hall, which was his chief residence. The ballad is among Percys Reliques, and records how, while serving in Spain, the knight made captive a noble Spanish lady, who fell in love with her captor; but he had to check and chill her advances, in this language:

Courteous ladye, leave this fancy, Here comes all that breeds the strife; I in England have already A sweet woman to my wife.

To which, after craving pardon for her offence, she replies,

Commend me to thy lovely lady, Bear to her this chain of gold; And these bracelets for a token: Grieving that I was so bold. All my jewels, in like sort, take thou with thee, They are fitting for thy wife but not for me.

The tradition, confirmed in recent years in correspondence by connections of the family (see notes to ballad, The Spanish Ladys Love, vol. ii., p. 144, ed. 1848) affirms that, on Sir John leaving Spain for home, the lady sent as presents to his wife, a profusion of jewellery and other valuables, with a portrait of herself dressed in green. Hence she was named the Green Lady. It was said that she haunted Thorpe Hall, that her apparition was occasionally seen, and that it was long the custom to have a plate laid for her at this table at mealtime. That this story does not belong entirely to the region of fiction is proved by the fact, known to the writer, and, doubtless, to many others, that a lady in this neighbourhood possesses, and at times wears on her person, one article from the Green Ladys gift of jewellery.

We have one more moated mansion in our neighbourhood which should here be mentioned, viz., Halstead, or Hawstead, Hall, in the adjoining parish of Stixwould. This is the one instance, out of the several old residences I have mentioned, in which there still remains a substantial building above-ground. Doubtless the Hall, originally, was considerably larger than it is at present, since, at different periods, it has been occupied by members of leading county families; and I find, from a note, that the first Earl of Shaftesbury, who married a sister of Lord Coventry, at one time owner of Stixwould, used to visit here, and accommodation was found for himself and a large retinue. Foundations of further buildings have been found at odd times. The present Hall is a two-storied structure; the rooms not large, but lofty, their height on the ground floor being over 10ft., and on the upper floor more than 13ft.; with spacious attics above for stores. The walls are very substantial, being 2½ft. thick; while the windows, with their massive Ancaster mullions, would further indicate a much larger building. Outside the now dry bed of the moat stands a lofty building, at present used as stables and barn, which has stoneframed windows, the walls being of brick, smaller than the present-day bricks, and resembling those of Tattershall Castle and the Tower on the Moor, and, doubtless, made close at hand, where there is still a brickyard. The walls are relieved by diamond-shaped patterns, of black brick, those in the upper part being smaller than those below. {146} A very fine mantelpiece, formerly in Halstead Hall, is now at Denton House, near Grantham, the seat of Sir William Earle Welby Gregory, Bart., who is the present head of the family. It is after the fashion of the famous mantelpieces of Tattershall Castle. In recent times Halstead Hall has been chiefly known for the great robbery which occurred there on Feb. 2nd, 1829, and which has been related in Chapter II. of this volume. But, though no connected account of its early owners or occupants can be given, some interesting details have been brought together by the Rev. J. A. Penny, Vicar of Wispington, and formerly of Stixwould, which are given, with a sketch of the Hall, in Lincolnshire Notes & Queries (vol. iii., pp. 3337). The estate was the property of Richard Welby of Moulton, being named in his will, 1465. He left it to a son Morys, from whom it passed to a brother Roger, and from one of his sons came the Welbys of Halstead. The will of one of them is preserved among the Lincoln Wills (1st series) proved 18 August, 1524, wherein he desired to be buried in the Church of Stixwolde before the image of our Lady.

In 1561, March 21, the representative of the Halstead branch of this one of our leading county families was granted the crest of an armed arm, the hand charnell (i.e., flesh-coloured) yssvinge out of a cloud, azure, in a flame of fire; and the arms are sable, a fess, between three fleur-de-lis, argent, with six quarterings. He, Richard Welby, was in that year Sheriff for the county.

In 1588, Vincent Welby is named in the list of gentry who subscribed £25 each to the loan for repelling the expected Spanish Armada, and at the muster at Horncastle, in 15867, he furnished ij horse, as also did his relative Mr. Welby of Gouphill (Goxhill) at Castor. The first entry of the Welbys in the Stixwould Registers was Ann Welbie, christened May 28, 1547; the last was in 1598. After them Halstead Hall was owned by a family of the name of Evington, one of whom, Richard, left iiijli xs to be paid yearlie, at the discretion of my executors, to the poor of Stixwolde, on the 25 March and 29 Sept. After them it was occupied by the Townshends. Of this family there are two notices in the parish register:Mr. George Townshend Esqr died att Halstead and was buryed att Waddingworth on Wensdaie night the 13th of Februarie 1627. The other is, Mr. Kirkland Snawden and Mrs. Francis Townshend married the 25th of December, being Christmas daie 1628. Notice the Lincolnshire pronunciation Snawden for Snowden. No reason is given for the unusual burial by night; and special attention is drawn to the marriage of the widow, by the sketch in the margin of a hand with outstretched fingers. This Kirkland Snowden was a grandson of a Bishop of Carlisle, his father being the Bishops son, and Vicar of Horncastle. They had a daughter Abigail, who married a Dymoke, from whom the present Dymokes are descended. This is one of two instances of a daughter of a Vicar of Horncastle marrying a Dymoke, since in the present century Miss Madeley, the only daughter of Dr. Clement Madeley, Vicar, married the late champion, Rev. John Dymoke. After these it was held by the Gibbons, of which family there are also a few entries in the registers. Another owner was Sir John Coventry, who was assaulted for using offensive language about King Charles II., asking in Parliament whether the kings pleasure lay in the men or women players at the theatres. He wounded several of his assailants, but had his own nose cut to the bone; in consequence of which The Coventry Act was passed in 1671, making it felony to maim or disfigure a person, and refusing to allow the king to pardon the offenders. A later owner was Sir William Kite, Bart., who ran through a large fortune, and sold Halstead and Stixwould to Lord Anson, the distinguished navigator, and Lord High Admiral of England; some of whose exploits are recorded in Ansons Voyage Round the World, by Benjamin Robins. In 1778 the property was sold to Edmund Turnor, Esq., and is still held by his descendants. This old house is well worth a visit; and visitors are courteously received by the family who now reside there.

I now propose to invite the visitor to Woodhall Spa to accompany me in thought (as not a few have done in person) to some of the places of interest, churches, or ruins, in the neighbourhood, as it may add a zest to his perambulations to know something about them. The descriptions will probably be brief, leaving a margin to be filled in by his own personal observation, thus affording him a motive for further enquiry, and an aim and object for the rambles, which may conduce to his health in the expansion alike of mind and of lung. Woodhall does not lie within what may be called the architectural zone of Lincolnshire. In the south, south-east, and south-west of the county, parish after parish possesses a large church, often beyond the requirements of the population, and of great and varied architectural beauty. There is probably no district in England so rich in fine edifices. Much of the land was at one time held by powerful Norman knights and barons, whose energies were often spent in internecine feuds. The mediæval creed impressed them with the belief that their deeds of violence could be atoned for by the erection of costly churches for the worship, by others, of that God whom they themselves little honoured. Interested ecclesiastics fostered this feeling, {149a} which also fell in with the Ora pro nobis yearning of their own breasts, when suffering from what an old writer has called the ayen-bite of Inwyt, {149b} or, in modern parlance, remorse of conscience. But if, judged by the scale of expiation, made in endowment and embodied in stone, these high-handed lords would seem to have been sinners above their more ordinary fellows, we must at least gratefully allow that they have left to us of the present day a goodly heritage, which even our modern vastly increased wealth has not enabled us to emulate. These fine churches, in our neighbourhood may be said to terminate at Coningsby and Tattershall.

In the villages immediately near us, and for several miles northward and eastward, the churches are small; yet several of them have features of considerable interest. Let us turn our steps northward. The road takes us in sight of a column, or obelisk, surmounted by a bust of the first Duke of Wellington. The history of this is told by the inscription on the pedestal: Waterloo Wood was raised from acorns sown immediately after the memorable battle of Waterloo, when victory was achieved by the great Captain of the age, his Grace the Duke of Wellington, commanding the British forces, against the French armies commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, the 18th June, 1815, which momentous victory gave general peace to Europe. This monument was erected by R. E. (Richard Elmhirst) 1844. The bust faces to the north-east, in the direction of West Ashby, where Colonel Elmhirst resided. The property some years ago passed, by sale, into other hands. At about three miles distance from Woodhall we reach the small but well-built village of Stixwould (in Domesday Book, Stigesuuald, Stigeswalt, Stigeswalde). As to the name Stixwould, anyone, without being a wag, might well say, and with some apparent reason, What more natural combination than these two syllables? We naturally, in primitive life, go to the wald, or wood, for our sticks. Was not the liberty to gather kindling, as we now call it, a valued privilege, even like the parallel right of turbageto cut peatfor the domestic hearth? The sticks-wood would be the resort of many a serf and villain, for purposes lawful, or the reverse. But, unfortunately, the most apparently obvious explanation is not necessarily the correct one. Whether the first part of this name has a reference to a staked-out ford on the Witham, corresponding to the wath, or ford, at Kirkstead, or whether it is from the old Norse stigt, a path, as some suggest, is uncertain. Streatfeild says, The swampy locality would favour the idea of stakes (Lincolnshire and the Danes, pp. 1478). I may here notice that the old name of Dublin (Dubh-lynn, i.e. the black water) was Athcleath, or the ford of the hurdles, which seems a parallel instance (The Vikings of Western Christendom, by C. F. Keary, p. 83, n. 3). The latter half of the name would seem to refer to the woods of the district; and visitors may see a very fine specimen of an ancient oak in the garden of the Abbey Farm at the farther end of the village; also a fine one at Halstead Hall, to the east of the village; and there are several more in the fields, relics, doubtless, of ancient woods. The church was rebuilt in 1831, not a favourable period in church restoration, but on the whole Mr. Padley, the architect, did his work fairly well, although some spoliation was perpetrated, stained glass being taken away from the windows; and the panels of the pulpit in Lea church are said to have been also taken from here. Some notes, still preserved in vol. ii. (p. 87) of Willsons Collection (architect and surveyor, of Lincoln) would seem to imply that the former church was finer than the present. He says, Stixwould church, spacious, and has been elegant, and is full of curious remnants; style Ed. IV. or Henry VII.; tower very handsome; . . . The interior has been very beautifullofty pointed arches, roof of nave and south aisle supported on rich carved figures of angels with shields; windows full of remnants of beautiful glass; old oak desks and benches carved . . . curious font . . . upper end of south aisle inclosed in two screens of oak . . . exquisitely rich and elegant. This is called the little choir, and belongs to Halstead Hall . . . both aisles have had altars. Base and pillar of churchyard cross remain. He also mentions a curiously-carved stone in the churchyard in front of the tower, like a clock face, with unusual inscription; which the present writer has also seen there; but it is now removed to Lincoln. {151a}

The Rev. J. A. Penny, formerly Vicar of Stixwould, furnished the following description of the present church, when the writer, as local honorary secretary, conducted the Lincoln and Notts. Architectural Society round the neighbourhood in 1894:The figures and pinnacles on the tower are from the old tower; the choir screen was formed from that formerly round the small choir, but only one-third of the original, {151b} which was used as a pew by the tenants of Halstead Hall. Under the stone slab nearest the screen, in the nave, were deposited the remains of a Mr. Boulton, who stabbed his mother to death in the little chapel outside the Priory gate, for which he was hanged at Lincoln. The stone face and wooden angels are from the former church, as also the bench ends on the south side. The royal arms, with date 1662, are in a wall in the Abbey farmhouse; and the holy water stoup is under the pump in the school yard. The fine slab, with cross, now under the tower, was dug up on the site of the Priory, also the stone coffin which stands there; and the rest in the vicarage garden. One of the bells is exactly the same as that in the Guildhall at Lincoln, and dates from 1370; it is dedicated to St. Katine, with foundry mark (Nottingham), founders initials, and merchants mark. The font is octagonal, with evangelic emblems, and names, on four sides; on the other sides, a monk seated in a chair and holding Y in his arms; next a man with arms akimbo, facing due east; next a monk, or Friar; and next a figure in flab cap, with sword, holding a rose in his left hand, his right resting on his belt. These four figures come between the emblems of St. Mark and St. Luke.

Of the Religious House, or Priory, at Stixwould, the published accounts are not quite in accord. Stukeley and Dugdale {152a} place it among the Benedictine establishments, whereas Leland calls it Cistercian; {152b} this, however, is hardly a contradiction, since the Cistercians were the straitest sect of the Benedictines. {152c} It is said generally to have been founded by the Lady Lucia (Comitissa Cestriæ et Lincoln), widow of the great Norman Baron, Ivo Taillebois, who came over with the Conqueror and to have been further endowed by her two sons, Ranulph, Earl of Chester, and William de Romara, Earl of Lincoln. {152d} We may just observe here, in passing, that the figure cut into the stone which supports the credence table, in the chancel of St. Andrews Church, Woodhall, is supposed to be that of this Countess Lucia, being brought from the ruins of Stixwould Priory. The Rev. Thomas Cox, in his Lincolnshire (1719), however, says that the founder was Galfred de Ezmondeys. Doubtless, various persons, and at different periods, endowed or enlarged the foundation, and so became entitled to be counted among the fundatores. By an Inquisition, taken at Stamford, 3 Ed. I., it was found that the Master and Nuns held divers lands at Huntington, of the gift of several benefactors, among them being Alexander Creviquer, Lucia, Countess of Chester, and her son Ranulph; and that they had been so held for the space of one hundred years. {153a} Ultimately it became a very wealthy institution, having, besides property in Lincoln, lands lying in 13 Deaneries, and in the Soke of Grantham in more than a dozen parishes; with the advowson of the Benefices of Stixwould and Wainfleet, a pension from Alford, and other property, one item being two tofts in Horsington to provide lamps and tapers for the service of the altar. {153b} The rules of this establishment were very strict. The lives of the nuns were to be devoted to prayer and works of charity. Their leisure hours were occupied in reading, or relating legends of Saints, in working tapestry, embroidering altar and pulpit cloths, and such like. {153c} The convent was so entirely shut in by walls, according to the old regulation, as scarcely to leave an entrance for birds. They were not allowed even to converse with each other without license from the Prioress. If strangers wished to communicate with them, it was only allowed through a grating, veiled, and in the presence of witnesses. They confessed periodically to the Incumbent of the parish, with a latticed window between them. By one of their rules they were not to go alone even into the garden, except under great necessity, and on festivals; and no flowers, except jessamine and violets, were to be plucked, without permission from the sacrist; and they could only leave the convent on account of illness, to console the sick, or attend funerals, except by episcopal dispensation. Nevertheless, although nominally living thus under severe restraint, it would appear that certain relaxations were allowed. They were at times permitted to exercise the accomplishments of music, and even dancing. They had their processions and other monastic amusements, like the monks, and even patronized the feast of fools, and other absurdities of the times. {154a} We may even picture to ourselves the Prioress indulging in the sport of hunting, for she had charters of free warren over the Priory lands, {154b} and the Harleyan MSS., in the British Museum, have illuminated representations of buxom dames, riding with hounds, and shooting stags, and bears, with cross-bow; wearing sensible clothing and seated astride on their palfreys {154c}. The State Records speak of these devotional ladies as the holy Nuns of Stixwold, {154d} yet, at one time, public complaint was made that the Prioress of Stixwould had no scruples in so encroaching upon the waters of the Witham and diverting its course, that the vessels accustomed to ply on it with turf and faggots for the people of Lincoln, could now only do so at great peril. {154e} We may, perhaps, however, exonerate the Lady Superior and her nuns from all blame in this matter, when we remember that there was a Master of the Nuns {154f} and other male officials who, indeed, battened on the Priory in such numbers, that it was even said that they were more numerous than the sisters. {154g}

I have dwelt thus at some length on these details, because Stixwould is the next parish to Woodhall, and within easy access of the visitor to the Spa; further, this Priory, like that of Sempringham in the south of the county, occupies a peculiar position, being one of a limited number of such establishments, which harboured the two sexes, canons as well as nuns, within their walls; an arrangement of questionable wisdom and propriety. {154h} We have only to add that this Priory was suppressed by Henry VIII., with other lesser monasteries, in the 28th year of his reign; but in the following year, out of the sincere devotion that he had to the Virgin Mary, and for the increase of virtue, and the divine worship, he reconstituted it, as a Pre-monstratensian Monastery, to consist of a Prioress and Nuns, to officiate . . . for the good estate of him and of his most dear consort, Jane, Queen of England, while they lived, and after their deaths for their souls, and the souls of their children and progenitors, and he re-endowed it with all the possessions which it had previously held. {155a} Unfortunately, as Henrys love for his consorts was not remarkable for its stability, neither was the singular favour which he thus showed to the Priory, for, two years afterwards, he again, and finally, dissolved it, and granted it to John Dighton. Sic transit!

Other objects of interest have been found in Stixwould. My friend, the late Vicar, {155b} writes I found two glass bottle stamps, 1 ins. in diameter; one of these has the figure of a dog, and Rowles, in printed letters, beneath it; the other has Anth. Boulton, Stixwo. 1722. The Boultons lived at the Abbey farm for several generations, until the one (already mentioned) who committed murder. The bottles were made more like ship decanters, or the flagons of Australian wines, than our ordinary bottles. I also found many small pieces of mediæval pottery, some pieces of puzzle jugs, with holes, and the neck of a pilgrims bottle, of Cistercian ware, so called, as I was told by the late Sir Augustus Franks, of the British Museum, because it has only been found on the sites of Cistercian houses. The colour of mediæval pottery is as superior to the modern as ancient glass is to that of the present day, and it is sometimes tastefully ornamented with finger marks. The stone coffins, by the tower of Stixwould Church, were dug up where the Abbey Church formerly stood, in the field at the back of the present Abbey farm orchard.

There are several large blocks of stone, at different farmyards, which came from the Abbey. The stocks, until a few years ago, stood in the centre of the junction of the Horsington and Woodhall Spa roads, at the east end of the village street.

HORSINGTON.About two miles from Stixwould, north-eastward, is Horsington, its name, probably, being compounded of the Saxon elements horse-ing-ton i.e., the village with horse-meadows; that the central syllable is not the patronymic ing is evident, since about a mile away we have, also, Poolham Ings, which are rich meadow lands on that, the adjoining, manor. The present church of Horsington is modern, having been built in 1860, of brick, with stone dressings, in place of a previous very poor thatched structure, into which one entered by a descent of two steps, with something of the feeling of descending into a dripping well. The present edifice is neat, but of no great architectural merit, and is already, in parts, becoming dilapidated, the stonework of the spire being much weatherworn. It is not, however, strictly speaking, the parish church, but rather a chapel of ease. The ancient church was All Hallows, the site of which is shewn by a mound in the fields to the south-west of the present village, at a point which is almost equi-distant from Stixwould in the south, Bucknall to the west, and Horsington village itself; and is said, traditionally, to have been the common church of all three parishes before their present churches were built. Separated from it now by a small drain is the old burial ground. Tradition connects this site with the Fire-ceremony of November, in British times, once prevalent in Asia, as well as Europe, and even in America. The beginning of the year was then fixed by the culminating of the constellation Pleiades, in November. On the first of the month bonfires were lighted, as they have been by the Welsh in quite recent times, and, along with the fire, the emblem of purity, offerings were made on behalf of the dead, the sacrifices of animals being so numerous on this and other days, that the month acquired the name of Blot-monath, i.e., Blood-month. The Venerable Bede, {156} tells us that, at the request of Pope Boniface, A.D. 611, the Emperor Phocas ordered, according to a general practice, that, on the site, in Rome, where all the gods had been worshipped, which was called the Pantheon, the filth of idolatry being abolished, a church should be erected in memory of the Blessed Virgin and all Martyrs; and on this principle, in other places also, the site of the heathen worship, and the day of its special observance, were transformed into the occasion and place of observance of the Christian festival of All Hallows, or All Saints day; and in the course of re-corrupting time the offering on behalf of the dead by the heathen, and the commemorative ceremony of the early Christian, passed into prayers for the dead, which became general in a later age. Further, to give their sympathies a wider compass, the old Golden Legend tells us that Saynt Odylle ordeyned that the feast and remembraunce of all them that ben departed (generally) out of this worlde sholde be holden in al monasteryes, the daye after the fest Halowen (All Hallows even); the wyche thynge was approved after all holye Chyrche. {157} This is the old Christian black-letter festival of All Souls, generally, as distinguished from the red-letter, All Saints day. Such are some of the old traditions which hang, like evergreen garlands, round our sacred places. Children may once have passed through fire to Molech where now the heaving turf shrouds the skeleton of a decayed church.

On the walls of the church are tablets with the following inscriptions:To the beloved memory of Frederick Evan Cowper Smith, Lieutenant, Royal Artillery, eldest son of the late T. F. Smith formerly Rector of this Parish. He died of Fever, brought on by over-exertion in the discharge of his duty, while on active service in Afghanistan, with the Kyber Line Field Force, on July 26th, 1880, when he had just completed 19 years of earthly life. Jesu Mercy. A second is as follows:Sacred to the memory of Arthur Monro Cowper Smith, Captain in the Royal Field Artillery, and graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge; he died at Beira, East Africa, on Sept. 28, 1898, in the 36th year of his age, of injuries received in a grass fire while shooting big game on the Pungwe River. He was the second son of the Rev. T. F. Smith, B.D., late Rector of this Parish.

Another tablet is in memory of the Rev. T. F. Smith, B.C., formerly Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, and Rector of this parish, who died May 21, 1871, aged 50.

A fourth is to the memory of Colonel Bonar Millett Deane, second son of Rev. G. Deane, late Rector of Bighton. He died in South Africa, gallantly leading a column of the 58th Regiment, under General Colley, at the battle of Laings Nek, January 28, 1881, aged 46 years. He fought a good fight, he kept the faith. Jesu Mercy. He was a relative of the late Rector, the Rev. F. H. Deane, B.D., afterwards Rector of South Kilworth, Rugby.

A document in the parish chest shews that the burial ground was, at one time, re-purchased for a burial, and fenced in, while other papers shew how this came about, viz., that the duty of the parishioners to keep up the churchyard fence had been neglected (as has also occurred in other places in this neighbourhood), and so the land lapsed, and had to be recovered. In these papers, both church and chapel are named as distinct, which again is confirmed by the Will {158} of John Kele, parson of Horsington, 26 January, 1540, in which he directs that his body shall be buryed in the Quire of All Hallows, and bequeaths to the church of Horsington on mass boke (one mass book), on port huse (Breviary), on boke called Manipulus Curatorum; he adds, I also wyll that on broken chalyce, that I have, be sold, and wared off the chancell of the chapell of Horsington; proved 17 Feb. 1540. Here he is to be buried at All Hallows, and makes a bequest to the Horsington Church, this evidently again being All Hallows; but the money produced by the sale of the broken chalice is to be wared (note the Lincolnshire word, i.e., spent) on the chancell of the chapell. The pilgrim from Woodhall Spa can find his way by a pleasant walk of 2½ miles, mostly through the fields, northwards from the Bath-house, or along the Stixwould-road, re-entering the fields a little westward of Misers Row, and so by Halstead Hall, and to All Hallows. We now proceed to later incidents in Horsington history. There are the traces of two old moated mansions, one on the right of the road going from Woodhall Spa, about a quarter of a mile before reaching the village: there is now a small farmhouse within the moat, which is shaded by its sallows or willow trees. Nearly opposite, a cross cut in the turf by the road shews where a man was killed some years ago. The other traces are to be seen in the field just to the south of the present churchyard. The field is still called Hall close, and the moats, ponds, and mounds cover some two acres. It has been the residence of a family of importance; and we find among the list of those gentry who contributed their £25 to the Armada Fund the name of Robert Smythe, —- of Horsington. In the register of burials is the entry, dated 1671, Bridget Hall wiff of Robert Hall buried in her own yard Dec. 1st, 1671. She lived at Hall farm, near the road from Horsington to Bucknall; and deeming it popish to lie east and west in a churchyard, she directed that her body should be buried north and south in her own garden. Some years ago the occupier, in digging a drain between the house and the road, came upon a skeleton lying north and south, presumably that of Bridget Hall.

Here is another odd circumstance. We now have our splendid county asylums for our lunatics, but the writer can remember the case of an unfortunate lunatic who was kept chained to the kitchen fire-place in a house in Horncastle, was never unchained, and slept on the brick floor. At Horsington the parish officers made special provision for the insane. In the parish chest there was, until quite recently, {159} a brass collar, to which was attached a chain for securing the unfortunate individual by the neck. The writer was lately informed by an old Horsington man, over 80 years of age, that the last occasion on which this collar was used was early in the 19th century. A villager then residing near the present blacksmiths shop, and named Joe Kent, had two insane daughters, who had a very strong antipathy to each other, so that they had always to be kept apart, or they would have killed each other. My informant took me to what formerly was the garden of Kents house, and pointed out two spots where these two unfortunate creatures were, in fine weather, chained to the wall, one by the neck and the other by the waist, about 15 yards apart. When within doors they were similarly secured in separate rooms, treatment, surely, which was calculated to aggravate rather than alleviate their afflictions, but those were days in which rough remedies were too often resorted to.

Horsington was further connected with an incident which, had it not been nipped in the bud, might have had most serious national consequences, viz., what is known as the Cato street conspiracy, the leader of which was Arthur Thistlewood, a native of Horsington. His proper name was Burnett, the name of his mother, he not being born in wedlock. She was the daughter of a small shopkeeper in the village. Thistlewood, his father, was a farmer, and Burnett was brought up with the rest of Thistlewoods family. Possibly his peculiar position may have soured his temper. The following extracts taken from a recent publication give contemporary information as to the details of this dangerous and daringly-conceived plot. {160} The Earl of Hardwick, writing to Lady Elizabeth Stuart, then in Paris, Feb. 24, 1820, states that he had, in London, just received information of a plot to assassinate ministers as they came from dinner at Lord Harrowbys. (The Duke of Berry had been assassinated in Paris, at the door of the Opera House, on Feb. 13th, 1820, only eleven days before.) Thirty men, his lordship says, were found in a hay-loft, all armed. Notice had been privately given to the police of the plot, and the dinner had been consequently postponed. These men had probably met to consider the cause of this postponement. Nine of the party were taken, the rest escaping by a rope ladder. Lord Hardwick, writing again at 4 p.m. the same day, says, I have just seen the leaders of the horrible plot . . . Thistlewood was taken to the Treasury, where he was about to be examined. Townshend the police officer asked if I would like to see him . . . he was sitting over the fire without his hat; it was easy to distinguish him from the rest, by the character of ferocity which marked his countenance, which had a singularly bad expression . . . Sir Charles Flint took me to another room, where there were several of the arms taken; 7 pistols and bayonets, 4 daggers, or pike heads, two feet in length; and some muskets. A sergeant of the guard was wounded in the arm by a ball which had passed through his hand; he also received three balls in the crown of his hat. Thistlewood was taken in White Cross Street, near Finsbury Square, in his bed. The place where the conspirators were discovered by the police was the loft of a stable at the Horse and Groom public-house, in John Street, Portman Square, which is between the square and Edgware Road. They were to have forced themselves into the house, at Lord Harrowbys, while dinner was going on, which they could easily have done by knocking at the door and then overpowering the footmen; or, according to another version, to have assassinated the ministers as they came away in a body.

The Countess of Caledon, writing, about the same date, to Lady Elizabeth Stuart, says, Since the Gunpowder Plot there has been nothing so terrible. Sir Willm. Scott says there was a plan to set London on fire in twelve places. They only waited for the signal that the assassination had taken place at Lord Harrowbys. Seven thousand persons were ready that night to act on the signal. We should never have escaped a Revolution.

Truly the Horsington lunatics collar might well have been employed in curtailing the movements of this seditious native; but the public safety was more effectually secured by hanging him on May 1st in the same year, 1820. {161a}

The church bell bears the date 1754, with founders name, Dan Hedderly. I may add that one of the bells in St. Marys Church, Horncastle, has the inscription Supplicem Deus audit. Daniel Hedderly cast me, 1727. In the present churchyard at Horsington grows the St. Marys thistle referred to in a previous chapter, among the Flora. I find a note with reference to the same plant growing in a field near Somerford Grange, the farm of the monks of Christchurch. It is supposed to have been brought from the Holy Land, and only found near Religious Houses. {161b} The writer happens to know that, in this case, the plant was imported some 20 years ago from Kirkstead, where it is now extinct. Had it a tongue to speak with, it would appeal to the pity of the visitor in the words Noli me tangere.

* * * * *

BUCKNALL lies barely two miles from Horsington, to the west. The name (Buckehale in Domesday Book, or Buckenhall) would seem to indicate a former hall, or mansion, surrounded by beech trees; {161c} and in a field, still called Hallyards, to the south of the village, there are traces of such a residence, near the farm now occupied by Mr. W. Carter. This was probably the home of the Saxon Thorold, Sheriff of Lincoln, and lord of the demesne, before the Conquest. His daughter, the Lady Godiva (or Gods gift), of Coventry fame, and probably born here, married Leofric, the powerful Earl of Mercia. She was a great benefactress to the Church. Thorold gave to the monastery of St. Guthlac at Croyland, for the salvation of his soul, land in Bucknall, comprising 1 carucate, {162} with 5 villiens, 2 bordars, and 8 soc-men, with another carucate; meadow 120 acres, and wood 50 acres. The two principal features in the village are now the rectory house and the church. The former, a substantial old gabled building, standing in a large old-fashioned garden, probably dates back some 300 years. By a curious arrangement, in some of the rooms the fireplace stands in the corner, instead of in the centre of the room wall. The church, dedicated, like so many others in the neighbourhood, to St. Margaret, has no very striking features. Its architecture is mainly Early English, with some traces of Norman; embattled tower, with four pinnacles, and conical roof. It has been renovated and improved at various periods. In 1704 it was re-roofed and considerably altered. It was thoroughly restored in 1882, at a cost of about £1,500, the older features being judiciously retained. The late rector, Rev. E. W. Lutt, introduced a new Communion table, chancel rails, and lamps. In 1899 a handsome carved eagle lectern was given by his parishioners and friends. Under the present rector, Rev. W. H. Benson-Brown, a beautifully-carved oak reredos, of chaste design, was erected, and dedicated Sept. 17, 1902. Two coloured windows were presented, and dedicated Dec. 23, 1903, the subject of one being St. Margaret, the patron saint of the church; that of the other, St. Hugh, patron saint of the diocese. The inscription on the former is To the glory of God, and in loving memory of Jessie Syme Elsey, who entered into rest May 1st, 1903. This window was given by her sisters Louisa Pepper and Nancy Margaret Richardson. The inscription of the other window is To the glory of God, and in loving memory of Robert Brown, who entered rest Nov. 21st, 1897, also of Mary Jane Brown, who entered rest March 22nd, 1903. This window was given by their son, W. H. Benson-Brown, Rector. Through the Rectors efforts coloured glass is shortly also to be placed in the chancel east window. A processional cross was presented to the church as a thankoffering, by the Rector and Mrs. Brown, on the recovery of their son, Langton Benson-Brown, after a serious operation, Sept. 11th, 1899.

The churchyard was enlarged, and consecrated by the Bishop, May 22nd, 1900.

The general plan of the church is nave, with small north and south aisles, and chancel. At the east end of the south aisle, in the south wall, is a piscina; a slab of considerable size below it, indicating that this has been formerly a chantry, with altar at the east end, lit up by two small windows, one in the eastern wall, the other over the piscina. In the easternmost bay of the north arches, which now extends within the chancel, there is, at the base of the arch moulding, a nuns head. This, however, is believed to be modern work, introduced at the restoration. The pulpit is of old oak, nicely carved, with peculiar Masonic-looking design, the money for its erection being left by Henry Taylor, Esq., of All Hallows, Barking, in 1646. The font is hexagonal, having a simple semi-circular moulding in the centre on four sides, the other sides being plain. There is a good old oak parish chest in the tower. The tower, externally, has two good original gurgoyles, the other two being modern.

The Communion plate was the gift of Mrs. Hannah Ashley, 1786. In the chancel is a pewter alms dish, with the name Bucknall, and the date, hardly legible, 1680. The bell of the church is evidently ancient, and has several curious devices graven upon it, including a Tudor Rose, beneath which are four crosses, alternating with four capital Ss; besides these, there is a long cross, with upper end branching into a trefoil, its lower end forming a fork, resting on a circle, on each side being a smaller stem, slightly foliating at top.

On the east side of the south doorway is an old stone having a sundial graven on it; now built into masonry which must have come from some other part of the fabric. Opposite the porch, in the churchyard, slightly raised above the path, is a large, flat square stone, nearly a yard broad, and with some moulding below. This is called the tithe stone. It may have been the base of a churchyard cross; but, as in olden times the cross often served as a place of barter and business, it may well also have received the tithes and other dues belonging to the rector. (See Old Stone Crosses, by Elias Owen, 1886.) I may add that there was a similar stone in the churchyard in the neighbouring parish of Waddingworth.

A list of non-jurors connected with this parish in 1715 has the following names:Susanna Smith, widow, £10 0s. 0d.; William Smith, gent, £30 0s. 0d.; Samuel Martin, gent., £36 0s. 0d. (It may be remembered that non-jurors were subject to double taxation, although they erred in such company as the saintly Bishop Ken and other prelates.)

It may be further mentioned that in the reign of Charles I. an inhabitant of this parish, Mr. Thomas Toking (who was also of Ludgate Hill, London), presented a petition to the Kings Commissioners, showing that he held under the Bishop of Carlisle a lease of the manor of Horncastle, which had been sequestered through the default of his predecessor, Rutland Snowden, and praying for a commission of enquiry.State Papers, Domestic. Chas. I. Vol. 345, No. 42.

The Rector has supplied me with a list of the Rectors of Bucknall, complete, with the exception of the period between 1608 and 1660. As there are but few parishes of which such a record is obtainable, I give this below, as interesting. We notice among them two members of the formerly well-known family of Dighton; also another known name in Robert Clifton. Evan Yorke Nepean, Rector 18591868, afterwards succeeded his uncle in the baronetcy, while the second Rector, who held office from 1227 to 1244 being named Eusebius, was probably a foreigner, and, possibly, as was common in those times, though enjoying the income, never resided in the parish, leaving his duties to be performed by a scantily-paid substitute.



RECTORS OF BUCKNALL FROM A.D. 1219.



Richard (clerk) 1219

Eusebius 1227

Bartholomew de Bukenhal 1244

Henry ——

William Gascelyn 1294

William de Rasen 1297

Thomas de Swayneshaye 1298

Walter de Maydenstone 1299

Robert de Wythme 1306

John Denery 1307

Richard Mahen ——

John Mahen de Chipping Norton 1318

Richard de Norton ——

Ralph de Saleby 1330

Roger Sutton ——

Richard Starkie 1399

Richard de Crumwell 1406

Thomas de Grenley 1410

John Glaster 1421

John Endrik ——

John Arthur 1470

John Archer ——

Robert Clifton 1503

John Galyn ——

John Sheffield 1520

John Robynson 1530

John Thorpe 1546

Robert Grawd 1549

Arthur Wright 1566

Edward Wright 1607

No record from 1608 to 1660

Everard Dighton 1661

William Dighton 1677

Benjam. Brown 1702

Edmd. Whitehead 1706

Wm. White 1738

Thomas Willis 1783

Richard Vevers 1791

John Myddelton 1804

John Fendal 1834

Evan Yorke Nepean 1859

Annesley Paul Hughes 1868

Edward Kefford Lutt 1886

William Henry Benson-Brown 1898

Tupholme Abbey ruins, about two miles from Bucknall, stand on the left side of the road leading westward from that place to Bardney. These require a short notice. This was a Præmonstratensian House, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and founded by Robert, or, as some say, Ranulph, Nova Villa, or Nevill, who held lands in capite of the King, from the Conquest, the foundation being further augmented by Alan de Nevill and Gilbert his brother, temp. Henry II. Tanner states that at the time of its dissolution by Henry VIII. there were nine religious in the House, and the contemporary Leland, in his Collectanea, names two works which he saw in the Tupholme Library, viz., Fulcherii Historia and Historiolæ de Britannia fragmentum. {165} The properties of the Abbey were very considerable, lying in the parishes of Tupholme, Gautby, Langton, Franthorpe (where there was a Grange farm), Stixwould, Metheringham, Lincoln, Boston, Middle Rasen, Ranby, West Ashby, Brokelesby, Stourton, Great Coates, Louth, with the advowson of Stratton Church, and other places. These ample possessions seem to have bred in the Priors a spirit of independence, and even of lawlessness; for, at an Inquisition, held at Lincoln in the 13th century, it was stated that the Prior of the day had refused to pay his Crown quit rents, and indulged in other illegal proceedings, besides claiming free warren over these different manors, which of right belonged to the King. Another Prior was accused of forgery and counterfeiting the coin of the realm, {166a} with which he purchased corn and wine and disposed of them again at a profit. He was also charged with carrying on an extensive traffic in horn, {166b} and it is not a little curious, in connection with this last charge, that a Mr. Pell, whom the writer, as a boy, knew well, residing at Tupholme Hall, found, while his men were digging in the Abbey field, great quantities of the pith, or core, of bullocks horns, all of which had been divested of the outer coating. Henry II. granted to the Prior, by Charter, a canal to the Witham; the course of similar canals can be traced at Stixwould Priory and Kirkstead Abbey, and thus articles of illegal traffic could be smuggled down the Witham to foreign lands. At the dissolution the site of the Abbey was given to Sir Thomas Heneage.

The remains of the Abbey are now small, forming one end, running north and south, of some farm buildings, with a small modern house attached, which helps to keep them standing; for, otherwise, they are so worn away at the lower part, by the cattle rubbing against them, that they would be in danger of falling; and of late years such a contingency has been evidently thought not unlikely, as a railing is now put up outside to keep the cattle out of danger. There are southward five upper Early English windows in the remaining fragment, probably the wall of the Refectory; and two more ornamental windows of a small chamber, northward, with a small narrow round-headed window, deeply let in, at the end; with eight round arched recesses below, one of these being perforated, and forming an entrance to the refectory from the outside. Fragments of carved stones are also inserted in a modern wall at the north end. A local tradition survives, that the place is haunted by a headless lady; and an instance is related by a labourer formerly living close by, who, when beating his wife, was so terrified by an apparition, which in his ignorance he took to be the Old Lad, i.e., the Devil, that he henceforth became a reformed character, and never belaboured his wife again.

There is a short cut over the fields from Stixwould to Tupholme Priory, available for the pedestrian, but transit for the carriage is doubtful, as the cart track is a private accommodation road, though possibly the proverbial silver key may open the locks. On the opposite side of the ruins is Tupholme Hall, a large substantial brick building, with some fine timber about it. The age of this house I do not know, but some spouting bears date 1789. Tupholme can be reached by train to Southrey station, with a walk of about a mile and a half, or from Bardney about two miles.

* * * * *

We now pass over two miles in thought, and reach Bardney. Here we have the largest church (St. Lawrence) in this neighbourhood; and though for a long time it was left in a wretched condition, it was restored in 1878 at a cost of £2,500, and is now in a very good condition. Its chief features of interest are as follows:In the south wall of the chancel there is a piscina; in the pavement north of the Communion table is a flat slab of Purbeck marble, with a cross and the initials C.S., with date 1715. The present Communion table is formed of a massive slab of Lincoln limestone, 9 feet long, 4 feet in width, and 6 inches in thickness. Inscribed on this are seven crosses, three at each end and one in the front centre; they have evidently been scratched with a rude instrument and are doubtless of early date. The number of these crosses, seven, would imply that it was dedicated to some sacred purpose. The stone was found under the floor of the nave, while operations were going on for the restoration. It is supposed to have been brought from the Abbey (of which we shall speak presently), and to have been the tombstone of King Oswald of Northumbria, who, as the Venerable Bede states (Book iii.. c. vi.), was buried in the Abbey under the High Altar; although it is known that with the exception of one hand (which is said to have acquired miraculous powers) his remains were afterwards removed to Gloucester. The chancel is built of bricks, which resemble those of Tattershall and Halstead Hall, and commonly called Flemish; but it is likely that, as in the case of the two other buildings just named, they were made in the neighbourhood, where there have been very extensive brick and tile kilns, of so old a date as to have given its name to a small stream, which is called Tile-house Beck. The chancel has angels between the main beams of the roof. In the chancel arch south wall, on the eastern side, are initials scratched, with dates 1443 and 1668. The nave has north and south aisles with five bays, and Early English arches and columns, the plinths of these columns being unusually highover three feet, and those on the south being slightly higher than those on the north. The aisle windows are debased. The timber beams in the roof are of strong good oak; plain, except a central floriated device; the general boarding being of pine. The east window has five lights, with fourteen divisions above, within the low arch. The register dates from 1653. The Communion plate is good, its date 1569. The tower is massive, broad, and low, with here and there a relic of Norman zigzag work built into the walls. There are four bells, large, and of good tone, the weight of the largest being just short of one ton. Their inscriptions are as follows:

(a) Soli Deo gloria (Churchwardens) T. T. & W. K. 1644.

(b) W. S. (with Fleur de lys) Deus . . . 1670.

(c) Sanctus Dominus . . . 1663.

(d) Jhesus be our spede. E. E. R.R. a Rose. 1615.

The Abbey of Bardney, of which now nothing remains in situ except a sepulchral barrow, dates from the Saxon Heptarchy, being one of the oldest in the kingdom. It was first built, says Dugdale {168a} by King Ethelred, who himself, in 705, quitted his throne of Mercia, and, retiring to Bardney, became its Abbot for the last 13 years of his life. The name of the actual founder, however, is lost in obscurity. Leland says {168b} that the monks themselves did not know it. The barrow referred to is called, to this day, the coney-garth or Kings enclosure, and Ethelred is supposed to have been buried there. The Abbey was destroyed in 870, by the Danes, under their leaders Inguar and Hubba, and 300 monks slaughtered before the altar. It was re-built 200 years later, and re-endowed, by Gilbert de Gaunt, the powerful Norman baron whose bounteous acts we have referred to more than once; and his son, Walter de Gaunt, in 1115, confirmed to the church and monastery of St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Oswald, all those lands and possessions which his father had given in pure and perpetual alms to the same. And all this was afterwards confirmed by Henry I. {169a} It was a very wealthy establishment of the Benedictine order. The superior was one of the twenty-five mitred Abbots in England; he was called the Lord of Lindsey, had a seat in the House of Lords, and a palace in London. At the time when the body of Oswald, King of Northumbria, was buried here, there were 300 monks in the Abbey, says Dugdale. I have mentioned that when the body of King Oswald was afterwards transferred to Gloucester, a hand was retained, which acquired miraculous powers; the versions as regards this vary, but there is a legend that Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne was dining with Oswald, there being a silver dish on the royal table, well replenished, when the kings almoner announced that there was a crowd of mendicants begging at the gate. The king immediately ordered the whole of the meat, and the dish itself, to be divided among them. This generosity so struck the bishop that he grasped the kings right hand, exclaiming that it was impossible that a hand so munificent should ever perish, and the monks assert that it never did. After his death it was deposited as a holy relic in St. Peters Church at Bebba, now called Bamborough. Thence it was purloined by a monk of Peterborough (says William of Malmsbury) and deposited in the Abbey there, where it is said, by Nicholas Harpsfield, to have remained in a perfect state till after the Reformation. {169b}

In the Record Testa de Nevill (p. 338) it is stated that, besides the lands given to the Abbey by Gilbert de Gaunt, in Bardenay, Surraye (Southrey), An-Goteby (Gautby), and elsewhere, Roger de Marmion (ancestor of the Dymokes of Scrivelsby) also endowed it with certain lands. The Abbots held the advowsons of, or pensions from, the churches of Bardney, Barton-on-Humber, Sotby, Falkingham, Wlacot, Skendleby, Partney, Frisby, Lusby, Baumber, Edlington, and half a dozen more.

Of Bardney I have only one more particular to mention, a modern miracle:In the year 1898, in the hamlet of Southrey, an outlying part of the parish, a church was built, where there had been none before, to accommodate 90 people; the builders, as in the historic case of St. Hugh of Avalon, carrying his hod at the erection of his own cathedral, were the clergy, assisted by the parishioners generally, all carting being done by the farmers; and the greatest zeal and interest being shewn by all parties. It is a wooden structure, on a concrete foundation. The font was brought from the vicarage, probably being of the 15th century.

As I stand on this barrow, coney-garth, with the remains mouldering beneath me, blending with their kindred earth, of the saintly Ethelred, who in his singular devotion exchanged the crown of a king for the mitre of an abbot, I command a view, probably unrivalled in the world. In the near distance north-east are the buildings which occupy the site of the vaccary of Bardney Abbey, still called Bardney Dairies, and said to have been the original position of the abbey itself, before its destruction by the Danes. North-westward, beyond the woods, between two and three miles away, are the crumbling remains of Barlings Abbey, whose last abbot, Macharell (under the name of Captain Cobbler), headed the Lincolnshire Rebellion, in the reign of Henry VIII., and for his offence was executed, along with the contemporary Abbot of Kirkstead. In the next village but one to the west formerly stood the Priory of Minting, of which only mounds and ponds survive. To the north of this was the Priory of Benedictine Nuns at Stainfield; while a few short miles again beyond this to the east was Bullington Priory; and crowning the north-western horizon stands the majestic Cathedral of Lincoln, around which clustered in its immediate proximity fourteen monasteries; truly a region once rich beyond compare in monastic institutions; the homes of devotion, if also, unhappily, of error and superstition; but the almost sole sources in their day of light and leading; but for whom we should now know but little or nothing of the distant past, since it was the monks who made and preserved for us our historic records, {171} they who multiplied our old MSS., they who were our great agriculturists, and they above all who handed down to us the Word of Life. Not far off to the east is a wood, commonly called Horsetaker wood, but the term is really Auster-acre, the eastern-acre or field (Latin, Australis ager); as at Bawtry there is land called by the similar name, Auster-field, and we have most of us heard of the battle of Austerlitz, when Napoleon conquered the forces of Austria and Russia, in 1805. To the north lies another wood, known as Hardy-gang wood, a name derived from the following local tradition:Once upon a time a wild man lived in the fastnesses of this wood (the woods about here were, within the writers recollection, much more extensive than they now are); he wore no clothing; was covered with hair; and was the terror of the neighbourhood, raiding the sheep and cattle, and carrying off occasionally a child. At length his maraudings became so excessive that a number of men banded together, binding themselves not to rest until they had rid the country of this monster in human form. They had a hard task to perform, but at length they did it, and their name of the hardy gang was passed on to the wood itself.

Continuing our ramble, a walk of some five miles eastward, partly through fields, by a wide and evidently ancient footpath, trod, doubtless, by many a monk of old, and skirting the above-named Auster-acre wood, we arrive at the small and scattered village of Gautby, the property of the Vyners. We are here in a region of fine and stately timber, a suitable position for a large, and handsome residence; but the hall was demolished several years ago, and only the gardens remain, enclosed by a high wall. In such a place, and under such patronage, we should expect to find the church a handsome fabric, but, on the contrary, the visitor will be surprised to see a mean, brick, small structure, with no pretensions whatever to architectural beauty. The old square pews are still retained, with some open sittings, all of oak, but without ornament; pulpit and reading-desk, in keeping with these; the font is of wood with marble basin, small, and of no beauty. A small wooden gallery, for singers, over the west door, reminds one of the days when our country choirs were accompanied by hautboy, clarionet and fiddle, and almost the only hymns were Tate and Brady. The chancel is almost entirely paved with tombstones of the Vyners. One of these records the murder of F. G. Vyner, Esq., by brigands in Greece, in the year 1870. On the north and south sides of the Communion table are raised monuments, on which are semi-recumbent figures in stone. The inscription on the northern sepulchre runs as follows:At the instance of Thomas Vyner, Esqvire, Clerke of the Patents, piously desiring to preserve the memorie of his dear Father, Sr Thomas Vyner deceased, His Executor Sr Robert Vyner, Knight and Baronet, caused this monument to be set up Anno. Dom. 1672. The south inscription is, To the memorie of Thomas Vyner Esqr, second sonne of Sr Thomas Vyner, Knt. & Baronet, by Dame Honour, daughter of George Humble Esqr, of this Parish, His second wife, this monument was erected, at the charge of Sr Robert Vyner, Knt and Baronet, sole executor of his last will and Testament. Ano. Dni. 1673.

The founder of the family of Vyner was Sir Robert, a wealthy London merchant, who, like his father before him, lent money to ruined Royalists, doubtless at a rate of interest which well repaid him. He was fond of his sovereign, in more senses than one, as is shewn by the following anecdote given in the Spectator, No. 462:When Sir Robert Vyner was Lord Mayor, in 1675, he entertained Charles II. in the Guild-hall; and this he did with so profuse hospitality, and withal repeatedly toasting the royal family, that he soon began to treat his sovereign with a familiarity unduly loving. The king understood very well how to extricate himself from such a difficulty, and with a hint to the company to avoid ceremony, he stole away and made for his coach, standing in the Guild-hall yard. But Sir Robert liked his Majestys company so well that he pursued him, and catching the king by the hand, he cried out, with a round oath, Sire, you shall stay and take t other bottle. Charles, recognising the inevitable, put a good face on the matter, and, looking at him kindly, with a graceful air repeated this line of the old song,

He thats drunk is as great as a king.

He immediately returned and complied with the invitation. {173}

In the park at Gautby there stood for many years an equestrian statue, of which the history is somewhat ludicrous. It passed for a statue of Charles II. Sir Robert Vyner, the hero of the above anecdote, presented it to the City of London, in 1675; and it was placed in the Stocks Market, in honour of his Majesty. The royal horseman bestrides a warlike steed, which is trampling under foot the figure of a turbanned Turk. This seems hardly an appropriate mode of representing a sovereign, who, so far from thirsting for deeds of war, could drink wine and play cards when the Dutch were burning our shipping in the Thames close by. The Stocks Market was eventually demolished, when the statue was transferred to Gautby Park, the Lincolnshire seat of the donor, whence it has in late years been transferred to the Yorkshire seat of the VynersNewby Park, near Ripon. It had been originally intended to represent John Sobieski, King of Poland, who was regarded as the saviour of Europe from the Mussulman power; and for him, the Turk trampled under foot was a fitting emblem. When the statue was taken down in 1738, the following satiric lines were circulated and sung in the streets:



The last dying speech and confession of the Horse at Stocks Market.

Ye whimsical people of Londons fair town Who one day put up, what the next day pull down; Full sixty-one years, have I stood in this place, And never, till now, met with any disgrace! What affront to crowned heads could you offer more bare, Than to pull down a king to make room for a mayor? The great Sobieski, on horse with long tail, I first represented, when set up for sale; A Turk, as you see, was placed under my feet, To prove oer the Sultan my conquest compleat. Next, when against monarchy all were combined, I, for your Protector, old Noll, was designed. When the King was restored, you then, in a trice, Called me Charly the Second; and, by way of device, Said the old whiskered Turk had Olivers face, Though you know to be conquered he neer had the disgrace. Three such persons as these on one horse to ride, A Hero, Usurper, and King, all astride: Such honours were mine; though now forced to retire, Perhaps my next change may be still something higher, From a fruitwomans market, I may leap to a spire. As the market is moved, I am forced to retreat; I could stay there no longer, with nothing to eat. Now the herbs and the greens are all carried away, I must go unto those who will find me in hay.

So the old horse, after serving varied purposes, and more than one flitting, finds literally a green old age in his retreat in the great horse county; a standing memorial, in stone, of a Lord Mayors zeal not tempered with knowledge. But his memory is not allowed to perish, for in the neighbouring training stables a favourite name among the fleet racers is Sobieski.

A pleasant walk of less than a mile over meadows, or Ings, brings us to the village of Minting, the last syllable of its name, possibly, being derived from the said Ings. Here, as has been already mentioned, formerly existed a Priory of Benedictine monks, a cell or offshoot of the Gallic monastery of St. Benedict super Loira, and founded in 1129 by Ranulph de Meschines, Earl of Chester. No buildings remain above-ground, but they must have been very extensive, as mound and hollow and stew pond cover an area of four or five acres. The benefice is in the gift of St. Johns College, Cambridge. The church, previously a very poor structure, was restored by the Vicar, the Rev. F. Bashforth, in 1863, at a cost of over £800, the late Mr. Ewan Christian being the architect. The font is modern, but handsome, in form hexagonal. There is a north aisle with three bays and Norman arches. Three windows in the north wall and two in the south are debased. The east window is a good sample of the Perpendicular, and on the outside has figureheads of king and queen, as terminals of the moulding. A curious slab, carved on both sides, formerly lay loose in the porch, having been part of a churchyard cross. At the restoration it was cut into two sections, and these were placed on the east wall of the nave, north and south of the chancel arch, thus shewing the two carved surfaces. The device on the northern one is a rude representation of the Crucifixion; the Saviours legs are crossed, and a figure stands on either side, probably St. John and the Virgin. Below is a rudely-cut foliated pattern. The design of the slab on the south, formerly the back, is also rude foliation. On the north wall of the chancel there is an oval brass tablet to the memory of Gulielmus Chapman, of which one is tempted to say that, unless the individual commemorated was an almost more than human embodiment of all the virtues, the author of the epitaph must have acted on the principle recommended by the poet Matthew Prior,

Be to his virtues very kind, And to his faults a little blind.

It runs as follows:Gulielmus Chapman, Probus, Doctus, Lepidus, Facundus, Hic jacet. Pietate, Fidelitate, Benignitate, Modestiâ, Nulli Secundus, Hanc Vicariam bis 20 et octo annos tenuit. Clarus in Umbra, Rarâ in senectute Emicuit, Die 14 Aprilis decessit, Anno Ætat. 82, Anno Dom. 1722.

The villagers of this parish, 100 years ago, are said to have exercised the art of weaving on a considerable scale, and one of the writers parishioners states that his grandmother lived there and had a hand-loom.

* * * * *

A walk of less than two miles, chiefly across the fields, brings us to Wispington. We have already mentioned {175} the presence here of moats, mounds, and portions of a former old mansion of the Phillips family, utilized in existing farm buildings. We have only now to notice the church, which does not call for much remark. It was rebuilt on the site, and partly of the materials, of the previously-existing church, in 1863, at a cost of £1,500, by the Rev. C. P. Terrott, late vicar, and one of our greatest local antiquaries. He himself designed the font and stone pulpit, and also executed the devices which adorned them, representing groups of different animals named in the Bible. The tower is supported on buttresses, on a principle adopted from the church of Old Woodhall, which is peculiar, but simple and effective. In the vestry there is a slab, in the floor, of a former rector, John Hetherset, holding a chalice with hands in many-buttoned gloves. Built into the vestry wall are the capitals of two small Norman pillars, which were dug up near the church, and doubtless formed part of the older Norman building. Propped up against the vestry wall is a Jacobean altar-stone, formerly on the Communion table, one of the very few in England. The two mediæval bells are dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The east window has modern coloured glass, the subject being the crucifixion, and scenes in the life of our Saviour. In the north wall of the nave is a window of coloured glass, commorative of the late vicar, C. P. Terrot; and in the south wall of the chancel is another, commemorating his son, Capt. Charles Terrott; in the south nave wall, near the font, is a brass tablet, with the Tyrwhitt arms, erected by the late Rev. Beauchamp St. John Tyrwhitt, vicar, in memory of his brother Robert. The west window is of coloured glass, the subject being St. Margaret and St. John the Baptist.

Edlington Church (St. Helens)the village being a very scattered one, with scarcely two houses contiguousstands to the east, some two miles from Wispington. It was rebuilt, except the lower part of the tower, in 185960. The pulpit, reading desk, lectern, and sittings are all of oak, modern and plain, but substantial. There are three bells. Edlington park is nicely wooded with some good timber, though much of it has been felled of late years. There was formerly a good residence on the northern rising ground, but it was pulled down in the forties by the then owner, J. Hassard Short, Esq., and only the kitchen gardens and fish ponds remain. In a field near at hand there were found, several years ago, a number of heaps of oxbones, each heap also containing an ancient urn, supposed to have been connected with Roman sacrifices; but, as Dr. Oliver {176} derives the name Edlington from Eiddileg, a mystic character in the Bardic mythology, these may be the remnants of some other heathen superstition.

A walk across the park and over a couple of fields southward brings us to the village of Thimbleby, which consists of a street of small cottages and two or three larger dwelling-houses. There is here an old manor, called Hall-garth, with an interesting old house with gables, thatched roof, some panelled rooms, a large fish pond, an old-time garden with yew hedges fantastically trimmed, and a fine old tree or two. In a field called the Park, at the east end of the parish, are some fine trees, remnants of a former avenue. The ancient well, said to be Roman, in the rectory grounds, has already been mentioned. The church was re-fashioned in 1879, and an old, nondescript, flat-ceiled structure was converted into a substantial and well-designed edifice of Early Decorated style, with clock-tower and good clock, which gives out its notes of time to the neighbourhood.

We are now within a mile of Horncastle; somewhat weary after our long explorations, let us wend our way on to the old town, and seek rest and refreshment at the well-appointed and almost historic hostel which is ready to welcome us beneath ye Signe of ye Bull.



CHAPTER X.

Re-invigorated, after the prolonged explorations of the last chapter, by a much-needed rest at the hostel of The Bull, we now prepare for our final round of visitation among the still remaining objects of interest in the neighbourhood. And first we may seek enlightenment as to the meaning of the sign of our inn, for such signs are ofttimes significant. For this we have not far to go. Looking out of the window of the snug little parlour we are occupying, we see before us what an Irishman might call a triangular squarea sort of Trivium, where three ways meet, and where men not seldom congregate for trivial converse, although on market days it is the scene of busy barter, and at mart, or fair, transactions in horse, and other, flesh are negotiated with dealers of many kindreds, peoples, and tongues; but more of this anon. On the far side of this open space, the Red Lion bravely faces us, lashing its tail in rivalry. In the centre we notice a large lamppost (recently erected by the Urban Council; in 1897). At this spot, well within living memory, was to be seen a large iron ring, securely embedded in a stone in the pavement, of goodly dimensions. This was the Bull King, and the open space still perpetuates the name. Here the ancient sport of bull-baiting was practised annually for the brutal, but thoughtless, delectation of the people of town and country side. {178} I find a note that on April 21, 1887, I conversed with an old woman, and, as a link with what is passed, never to return, I may here give her name,Judith Thornley, daughter of W. Elvin, farmer, of Baumber,and then 84 years of age, who remembered the Bull ring, as I also do, and who, as a child, raised on her fathers shoulders to see over the crowd, witnessed more than one bull-baiting. On one such occasion she saw a woman gored by the bull, its horns piercing her bowels, although it was secured by the nose to the ring, the crowd being so great that she was thrust within the dangerous area by those pressing upon her from behind. This, she reckoned, would be about the year 1809 or 1810. As Mr. Weir, in his History of Horncastle, dated 1820, makes no reference to this practice, we may assume that the old lady was about right in her calculation.

Nearly opposite our hostel may be noticed, at the corner, a saddlers shop. This was established in the year 1760, and, situated as the shop is in the centre of the great fair, Messrs. H. and W. Sharp receive orders for various articles, in connection with horseflesh, from foreign as well as English customers. Conversing with the head of this firm at the time of this writing, I found that within the last few months they had received commissions not only from various parts of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but from Belgium, Norway, France and Germany; some handsome harness, which I recently saw being made by them, was for Berlin. Opposite the entrance to the Bull is a smaller inn, the Kings Head, which is thatched; one hundred years ago nearly every house in the town was thatched, and by the terms of the Will by which this particular inn was devised to the present owner, it is required that it should always remain thatched. This, surely, is a proviso which might be legitimately ignored; and, doubtless, in a few years time, thatching will be a lost art. The street to the right, running north, and now named North Street, was formerly called The Mill-stones, from two old abandoned millstones which lay near the northern end of it. Half-way up this street, a back street branching off to the left is called Conging Street, and formerly near it was a well named Conging Well. This term is derived from the old Norman-French congé, a permission, or licence; from very early times the lord of the manor levied a toll on all who wished to traffic at the great fairs which were established by ancient charters of the Sovereign. There formerly stood, near the present Dispensary, an old house called the Conging House, where these tolls were paid for the licence to trade. {179}

A curious custom which formerly prevailed in the town at the time of the great fairs, and which continued to later than the middle of the 19th century, was the opening of what were termed Bough-houses, for the entertainment of visitors. Horncastle has still an unusually large number of licensed public-houses, and not many years ago had nearly twice the number, many of them with extensive stabling, for the accommodation of man and beast, at the fairs for which it is famous; but, beyond these, it was a custom, from time immemorial, that any private house could sell beer without a licence, if a bough, or bush, was hung out at the door. {180} This, no doubt, gave rise to the old saying, good wine needs no bush, i.e., the quarters where it was sold would need no bough or bush hung out to advertise its merits, as they would be a matter of common bruit. This, as was to be expected, was a privilege liable to be abused, and, only to give one instance, a couple living in the town and owning a name not unknown at Woodhall Spa, are said to have ordered for themselves a goodly barrel of beer to be ready for the fair, but, the barrel having been delivered two or three days before the fair commenced, they had themselves tried its merits so frequently, that when the day arrived there was none left to sell, and the barrel was unpaid for, with no means received to pay for it, while they themselves were no better for the transaction.

On the Millstones, about half-way up the street, a friend of the writer witnessed, in the forties, a man selling his wife by auction, {181} who stood on the top of a barrel, with a halter round her neck, and a crowd collected round, examining her merits, as might not long ago have been seen in a slave market in Egypt. She was sold for £30, in the street, opposite a small inn then called The Horse and Jocky, and kept by a man commonly called Banty Marshall. I am not aware that it is more than a coincidence, that, although the inn has now a different name, a device in the window represents a cat on a barrel. The parish stocks stood at the top of this street, where the Court House now stands; they were last used in 1859, and were only removed on its erection in 1865. The present writer can remember seeing persons confined in the stocks; as also in a neighbouring village, where the parish clerk, after his return from the Saturday market, not uncommonly was put in the stocks, to fit him for his Sunday duties.

In connection with the fairs, deeds of violence were not unknown. At a house on the north side of the Market-place, which was formerly the Queens Head inn, but is now occupied by a veterinary surgeon, while alterations were being made, two skeletons were found under the bricks of the kitchen floor. The men had doubtless been murdered for their money at fair-time, and the bodies placed there for concealment. Of the cheating practised at the fairs I can give a sample or two. It is recorded, I believe, that the late Dr. Dealtry, Archdeacon of Calcutta, preaching on the different ideas of honesty or fraud, gave point to his argument by a humorous illustration. For instance, he said, my worthy friend, who occupies the reading desk beneath me, would see no dishonesty in misrepresenting the qualities of a horse he wished to sell, even to his dearest friend. And honesty has by no means always been deemed the best policy in the streets of Horncastle. Edmund Yates, in his personal Recollections, relates that he was dining with the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Alexander Cockburn, when his host told the following story:A man saw a handsome-looking horse at Horncastle Fair, and was astonished at the low price asked for it. After some chaffering, he bought it, taking it without a warranty. Having paid his money, he gave an extra five shillings to the groom, and asked what was the matter with the horse that he was sold so cheap. After some hesitation, the man said that the horse was a perfect animal, but for two faults. Two faults, said the buyer, then tell me one of them. One, said the groom, is, that when you turn him out, in a field, he is very hard to catch. That, said the buyer, does not matter to me, as I never turn my horses out. Now for the other fault. The other, said the groom, scratching his head and looking sly, the other is, that when youve caught him hes not worth a rap.

Another story is as follows:Some yeans ago a Lincolnshire clergyman, advanced in years, had an old horse which had run in his antiquated carriage from being four years old, till he was fourteen or fifteen. He would still have satisfied his master, but that he acquired a very bad habit, to which, like other old animals not four-legged, he obstinately adhered. He would jump over the dyke (the locality being in the marshes) into a neighbours field. The said neighbour complained of this so often that the pastor decided to sell. The old coachman took the horse to Horncastle Fair and sold him for £26. The old gentleman and his coachman then looked about the fair for another that would suit them. They presently saw a horse of the same size and style as the old favourite just sold, but with shorter mane and tail, and lacking the star on the forehead which marked the old horse. They asked, the price, and were told it was £40. After much haggling the horse was bought for £35, and his reverence drove home with the new purchase. After tea his wife said, Well, so you have not sold? Oh, yes, he replied, we have, and have got a younger and more spirited animal, very like the old sinner, but with shorter mane and tail, and no star on his forehead. Well, said the wife, I think you were taken in, for the new horse is already, like the old one, grazing in neighbour Browns field; and there, sure enough, he was. The dealer had docked the tail, trimmed the mane, and dyed the white star brown; and had gingered the old horse till he played up like a colt. His reverence, in short, had been sold, and the old sinner had been returned on his hands with the loss of £10.