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PREFACE
PREFACE
All writers make use of the labours of their predecessors. This is inevitable, and a custom as old as time. As Mr. Rudyard Kipling sings:— In writing this book I have made use of all the sources that I could lay under contribution, and especially I have relied for help on “Murray’s Handbook,” edited by the Rev. G. E. Jeans, and the Journals of the associated Architectural Societies. I have recorded in the course of the volume my thanks to a few kind helpers, and to these I must add the name of M
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY
In dealing with a county which measures seventy-five miles by forty-five, it will be best to assume that the tourist has either some form of “cycle” or, better still, a motor car. The railway helps one less in this than in most counties, as it naturally runs on the flat and unpicturesque portions, and also skirts the boundaries, and seldom attempts to pierce into the heart of the Wolds. Probably it would not be much good to the tourist if it did, as he would have to spend much of his time in tun
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CHAPTER II STAMFORD
CHAPTER II STAMFORD
The Great Northern line, after leaving Peterborough, enters the county at Tallington, five miles east of Stamford. Stamford is eighty-nine miles north of London, and forty miles south of Lincoln. Few towns in England are more interesting, none more picturesque. The Romans with their important station of Durobrivæ at Castor, and another still nearer at Great Casterton, had no need to occupy Stamford in force, though they doubtless guarded the ford where the Ermine Street crossed the Welland, and
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CHAPTER III STAMFORD TO BOURNE
CHAPTER III STAMFORD TO BOURNE
Of the eight roads which run to Stamford, the Great North Road which here coincides with the Roman Ermine Street is the chief; and this enters from the south through Northamptonshire and goes out by the street called “Scotgate” in a north-westerly direction through Rutland. It leaves Lincolnshire at Great or Bridge Casterton on the river Gwash; one mile further it passes the celebrated church of Tickencote nestling in a hollow to the left, where the wonderful Norman chancel arch of five orders o
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CHAPTER IV ROADS FROM BOURNE
CHAPTER IV ROADS FROM BOURNE
Bourne itself is in the fen, just off the Lincolnshire limestone. From it the railways run to all the four points of the compass, but it is only on the west, towards Nottingham, that any cutting was needed. Due north and south runs the old Roman road, keeping just along the eastern edge of the Wold; parallel with it, and never far off, the railway line keeps on the level fen by Billingborough and Sleaford to Lincoln, a distance of five-and-thirty miles, and all the way the whole of the land to t
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CHAPTER V SOUTH-WEST LINCOLNSHIRE AND ITS RIVERS
CHAPTER V SOUTH-WEST LINCOLNSHIRE AND ITS RIVERS
I have said that the whole of the county south of Lincoln slopes from west to east, the slope for the first few miles being pretty sharp. The only exception to the rule is in the tract on the west of the county, which lies north of the Grantham and Nottingham road, between the Grantham to Lincoln ridge and the western boundary of the county. This tract is simply the flat wide-spread valley of the Rivers Brant and Witham, which all slopes gently to the north. North Lincolnshire rivers run to the
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CHAPTER VI GRANTHAM
CHAPTER VI GRANTHAM
The usual way of reaching Grantham is by the Great Northern main line—all expresses stop here. It is 105 miles from London, and often the only stop between that and York. After the levels of Huntingdonshire and the brief sight of Peterborough Cathedral, across the river Nene, the line enters Lincolnshire near Tallington, after which it follows up the valley of the river Glen, then climbs the wold and, just beyond Bassingthorpe tunnel, crosses the Ermine Street and runs down the Witham Valley int
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CHAPTER VII ROADS FROM GRANTHAM
CHAPTER VII ROADS FROM GRANTHAM
The main South Lincolnshire roads run up from Stamford to Boston, to Sleaford and to Grantham; here of the six spokes of the wheel of which Grantham is the hub, three going westwards soon leave the county. That which goes east runs a very uneventful course for twelve miles till, having crossed the Bourne and Sleaford road, it comes to Threckingham, and in another six or seven miles to Donington where it divides and, after passing many most remarkable churches, reaches Boston either by Swineshead
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CHAPTER VIII SLEAFORD
CHAPTER VIII SLEAFORD
Six roads go out of Sleaford, and five railways. Lincoln, Boston, Bourne and Grantham have both a road and a railway to Sleaford, Spalding has only a railway direct, and Horncastle and Newark only a road. At no towns but Louth and Lincoln do so many routes converge, though Caistor, Grantham and Boston come very near. The southern or Bourne road we have traced from Bourne, so we will now take the eastern roads to Boston and Horncastle. But first to say something of Sleaford itself. The Conqueror
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CHAPTER IX LINCOLN, THE CATHEDRAL AND MINSTER-YARD
CHAPTER IX LINCOLN, THE CATHEDRAL AND MINSTER-YARD
The city of Lincoln was a place of some repute when Julius Cæsar landed B.C. 55. The Witham was then called the Lindis, and the province Lindisse. The Britons called the town Lindcoit, so the name the Romans gave it, about A.D. 100, “Lindum Colonia,” was partly Roman and partly British. The Roman walled town was on the top of the hill about a quarter of a mile square, with a gate in the middle of each wall. Of their four roads, the street which passed out north and south was the Via Herminia or
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HUGH OF LINCOLN
HUGH OF LINCOLN
“Hugh of Lincoln” is a title which, like Cerberus in Sheridan’s play, indicates “three gentlemen at once,” and it will perhaps prevent confusion if I briefly distinguish the three. The first and greatest is the Burgundian, usually called from his birthplace on the frontier of Savoy “Hugh of Avalon.” He went to a good school in Grenoble, and, as a youth, joined the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse, where he rose to be procurator or bursar. In 1175, at the request of Henry II. who had, with diff
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CHAPTER XI LINCOLN.—THE CITY
CHAPTER XI LINCOLN.—THE CITY
The rate at which the soil of inhabited places rises from the various layers of debris which accumulate on the surface is well shown at Lincoln. In Egypt, where houses are built of mud, every few years an old building falls and the material is trodden down and a new erection made upon it. Hence the entrance to the temple at Esneh from the present outside floor level, is up among the capitals of the tall pillars; and, the temple being cleaned out, the floor of it and the bases of its columns were
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CHAPTER XII ROADS FROM LINCOLN, WEST AND EAST.—MARTON, STOW, COTES-BY-STOW, SNARFORD, AND BUSLINGTHORPE
CHAPTER XII ROADS FROM LINCOLN, WEST AND EAST.—MARTON, STOW, COTES-BY-STOW, SNARFORD, AND BUSLINGTHORPE
Of the eight roads from Lincoln one goes west, and, passing over the Foss Dyke by a swing bridge at Saxilby, crosses the Trent between Newton and Dunham into Nottinghamshire. The view of Lincoln Minster from Saxilby, with the sails of the barges in the foreground as they slowly make their way to the wharves at the foot of the hill, is most picturesque. Saxilby preserves some interesting churchwarden’s accounts from 1551 to 1569, and, after a gap of fifty-five years, from 1624 to 1790. The “Foss
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CHAPTER XIII ROADS SOUTH FROM LINCOLN
CHAPTER XIII ROADS SOUTH FROM LINCOLN
Besides these three roads going east from Lincoln, there are three great roads which run along “the ridged wold” northwards, and two going south; but these two, as soon as they are clear of Lincoln, branch into a dozen, which, augmented by five lines of railway, all radiating from one centre and all linked by innumerable small roads which cross them, form, on the map, an exact pattern of a gigantic spider’s web. Of this dozen the three trunk roads southwards are the Foss Way to Newark in the fla
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NOCTON
NOCTON
As an instance of what the great Roman catch-water drain the “Carr-dyke” effected, we may take the little village of Nocton, six miles south-east of Lincoln. Here is a little string of villages— Potter Hanworth , Nocton , Dunston and Metheringham —running north and south on the edge of a moor which drops quickly on the east to an uninhabited stretch of fen once all water, but now rich cornland cut into long strips by the drains which, aided by pumps, send the superfluous water down the Nocton “D
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THE NORTON DISNEY BRASS
THE NORTON DISNEY BRASS
Norton Disney (= de Isigny, a place near Bayeux) was the home of a family who lived here from the thirteenth century to nearly the end of the seventeenth. The castle was in the field near the church, just across the road to the west, but has quite disappeared, as has also the seventeenth century manor-house. The church, which is well worth a visit, belonged to the Gilbertines of Sempringham ( see Chap. IV. ). The manor is now the property of Lord St. Vincent, a title bestowed on Admiral Sir John
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DODDINGTON HALL
DODDINGTON HALL
Between the road which runs west from Lincoln to Saxilby, and the old Roman Foss Way from Lincoln to Newark, which went on by Leicester, Cirencester, and Bath to Axminster, a tongue of Nottinghamshire runs deep into the county. South of this and north of the Foss Way are a few villages of no particular importance, amongst them Eagle , which was once a preceptory of the Knights Templars. But here also, within six miles of Lincoln, is Doddington . This deserves especial mention for its fine Elizab
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KETTLETHORPE
KETTLETHORPE
The tongue of Nottinghamshire, mentioned above, runs into the county as far as Broadholme, near Skellingthorpe, within five miles of the city. The northern boundary of this tongue is the Saxilby road, between which and the Trent is Kettlethorpe , which has an interesting history, though the present hall was reconstructed in 1857 by Colonel Weston Cracroft Amcotts, father of the present Squire of Hackthorn, who dropped the name of Amcotts after his father’s death in 1883, and handed over the Kett
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SPITAL-ON-THE-STREET
SPITAL-ON-THE-STREET
Spital-on-the-Street is an ancient hospital situated twelve miles north of Lincoln on the Roman Ermine Street, which had its origin in a Hermitage. The Hermits or “Eremites,” dwellers in the Eremos or wilderness, commonly placed their habitats in remote spots, though some stationed themselves near the gates of a town where they could assist wayfarers with advice and gather contributions at the same time for their own support; others dwelt by lonely highways in order to extend hospitality to beni
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BARTON-ON-HUMBER
BARTON-ON-HUMBER
Barton-on-Humber had a market and a ferry when Domesday Book was compiled, and was a bigger port than Hull. At the Conquest it was given to the King’s nephew, Gilbert of Ghent, son of Baldwin Earl of Flanders, whose seat was at Folkingham. The ferry is still used, and the Hull cattle boats mostly start from Barton landing-stage, but most of the passenger traffic is from the railway pier at New Holland, four miles to the east. The town is a mile from the waterside. It has two fine churches, of wh
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CHAPTER XVII THE NORTH-WEST
CHAPTER XVII THE NORTH-WEST
It is quite a surprise to the traveller in the north of the county to find so much that is really pretty in what looks on the map, from the artistic point of view, a trifle “flat and unprofitable,” but really there are few prettier bits of road in the county than that by “the Villages” under the northern Wolds, and there is another little bit of cliff near the mouth of the Trent which affords equally picturesque bits of village scenery combined with fine views over the Trent, Ouse, and Humber. F
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CHAPTER XVIII THE ISLE OF AXHOLME
CHAPTER XVIII THE ISLE OF AXHOLME
The Isle of Axholme , or Axeyholm, is, as the name when stripped of its tautology signifies, a freshwater island, for Isle , ey and holm are all English, Anglo-Saxon, or Danish, for “island,” and Ax is Celtic for water. The whole region is full of Celtic names, for it evidently was a refuge for the Celtic inhabitants. Thus we have Haxey, and Crowle (or Cruadh = hard, i.e. , terra firma ), also Moel (= a round hill), which appears in Melwood. Bounded by the Trent, the Idle, the Torn, and the Don,
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CHAPTER XIX THE NORTH-EAST OF THE COUNTY
CHAPTER XIX THE NORTH-EAST OF THE COUNTY
We will now return to the north-east of the county. From Brocklesby a good road runs north by Ulceby , with its ridiculously thin, tall spire, and Wootton , to Thornton Curtis and Barrow-on-Humber . Thornton Curtis is a place to be visited, because it possesses one of the seven black marble Tournai fonts like those at Lincoln and Winchester. This stands in a wide open space at the west end of the church, mounted on a square three-stepped pedestal. The four corner shafts, like those at Ipswich, a
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CHAPTER XX CAISTOR
CHAPTER XX CAISTOR
Caistor is the centre from which roads radiate in all directions, so much so that if you describe a circle from Caistor as your centre at the distance of Swallow it will cut across seventeen roads, and if you shorten the distance to a two-mile radius, it will still cross eleven, though not more than four or five of them will separately enter the old Roman town. For the town has grown round a Roman “Castrum,” and the church is actually planted in the centre of the walled camp. A portion of the so
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CHAPTER XXI LOUTH AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD
CHAPTER XXI LOUTH AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD
Louth spire is one of the sights of Lincolnshire; it is a few feet higher than Grantham, which it much resembles, and in beauty of proportions and elegance of design one feels, as one looks at it, that it has really no rival, for Moulton, near Spalding, though on the same lines, is so much smaller. The way in which it bursts upon the view as the traveller approaches it from Kenwick, which lies to the southward, is a thing impossible to forget. Taking the place of originally a small Norman, and l
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FONTS.
FONTS.
In our English churches the most noticeable bit of mediæval work is in many cases the font, which has often escaped when all the rest of the building inside and out has been defaced by neglect or destroyed by restoration. Much destruction followed on the Reformation, and even in Elizabeth’s reign, in spite of a royal mandate to preserve the old form of baptism “at the font and not with a bason,” attacks were constantly made on the fonts, and especially on the font-covers, which makes the preserv
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CHAPTER XXIII ROADS FROM LOUTH, NORTH AND WEST
CHAPTER XXIII ROADS FROM LOUTH, NORTH AND WEST
The road from Louth to Grimsby, in its first part, is described elsewhere; but north of Ludborough it passes through a succession of small villages in each of which is a very early church tower. These are all somewhat similar to the two primitive churches in Lincoln and to the famous one at Barton-on-Humber, but they have no “Long-and-Short” work which is distinctive of the Saxon towers, and so the term Romanesque perhaps best describes them. They are certainly pre-Norman. Similar groups have be
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CHAPTER XXIV LINCOLNSHIRE BYWAYS
CHAPTER XXIV LINCOLNSHIRE BYWAYS
The Romans had a road from the sea probably by Burgh and Gunby and then on the ridge by Ulceby cross-roads to Louth, and so on the east edge of the Wold north to the Humber. It is not a particularly interesting route, but if at Gunby we turn to the right we shall pass Willoughby with its old sandstone church in a well-kept churchyard, a somewhat rare thing on this route. The church (St. Helen’s) has some Saxon stones in the south wall of the tower, and a double arch on the north side of the chan
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CHAPTER XXV THE BOLLES FAMILY
CHAPTER XXV THE BOLLES FAMILY
The byway which runs west from the Spilsby and Alford road, at the foot of Milescross hill near Alford station, after passing Rigsby, comes to a farm with an old manor-house and tiny church in a green hollow to the left. A deep sort of cutting on this side of the church has, along its steep grassy brow, a line of very old yew trees, not now leading to anything. This is all there is of the hamlet from which an ancient and notable family derived its title, the Bolles of Haugh. Haugh church is a sm
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THE PLAGUE-STONE
THE PLAGUE-STONE
An inconspicuous little byway starts from near Alford station and runs parallel with the line about a mile northwards to Tothby , where it bends round and loses itself in a network of lanes near South Thoresby . At Tothby, under a weeping ash tree on the lawn in front of the old Manor House farm, is an interesting relic of bygone days. It is a stone about a yard square and half a yard thick, once shaped at the corners and with a socket in it. Evidently it is the base of an old churchyard, waysid
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CHAPTER XXVII LINCOLNSHIRE FOLKSONG
CHAPTER XXVII LINCOLNSHIRE FOLKSONG
There is no great quantity of native verse in this county, and children’s songs of any antiquity are by no means so common with us as they are in Northumbria, but there is The Lincolnshire Poacher with its refrain, “For ’tis my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year,” the marching tune of the Lincolnshire Regiment; and there is an old quatrain here and there connected with some town, such as that of Boston, and that is all. It was my luck, however, to know, fifty years ago, a man who
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CHAPTER XXVIII THE MARSH CHURCHES IN SOUTH LINDSEY
CHAPTER XXVIII THE MARSH CHURCHES IN SOUTH LINDSEY
Starting from Alford , a little town with several low thatched houses in the main street, and a delightful old thatched ivy-clad manor, we will first look into the church which stands on a mound in the centre of the town, to see the very fine rood screen. Before reaching the south porch with its sacristy or priests’ room above, and its good old door, we pass an excellent square-headed window. Inside, the bold foliage carving on the capitals at once arrests the eye. The pillars, as in most of the
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CHAPTER XXIX CHURCHES IN SOUTH LINDSEY
CHAPTER XXIX CHURCHES IN SOUTH LINDSEY
The record of the churches in the marsh land of the South Lindsey division would not be complete without some mention of Wainfleet. The Somersby brook, which, winding “with many a curve” through Partney and Halton, becomes at last “the Steeping river,” is thence cut into a straight canal as far as Wainfleet, and then, resuming its proper river-character, goes out through the flats at Wainfleet Haven, near that positive end of the world, “Gibraltar Point.” Little Steeping has just undergone a mos
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CHAPTER XXX SPILSBY AND ITS BYWAYS
CHAPTER XXX SPILSBY AND ITS BYWAYS
Spilsby is the head of a petty-sessional division in the parts of Lindsey. The name is thought by some to be a corruption of Spellows-by, to which the name of Spellows hill in the neighbourhood gives some colour. The old gaol, built in 1825, had a really good classic portico with four fluted columns and massive pediment. Most of the buildings behind this imposing entrance were pulled down after fifty years, and all that it leads to now is the Sessions House and police station. The long market-pl
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CHAPTER XXXI SOMERSBY AND THE TENNYSONS
CHAPTER XXXI SOMERSBY AND THE TENNYSONS
This little quiet village, tucked away in a fold of the hills, with the eastern ridge of the Wolds at its back and the broad meadow valley stretching away in front of it and disappearing eastwards in the direction of the sea, had no history till now. It was only in 1808 that Dr. George Clayton Tennyson came to Somersby as rector of Somersby and Bag Enderby, incumbent of Beniworth and Vicar of Great Grimsby. He came as a disappointed man, for his father, not approving, it is said, of his marriage
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CHAPTER XXXII ROADS FROM SPILSBY
CHAPTER XXXII ROADS FROM SPILSBY
The four roads from Spilsby go north to Louth, and south to Boston, each sixteen miles; east to Wainfleet, eight miles; and west to Horncastle, ten miles. The Wainfleet one we have already described and two-thirds of that from Louth. The remaining third, starting from Spilsby, only goes through two villages—Partney and Dalby. Partney lies low in the valley of Tennyson’s “Cold rivulet,” and those who have driven across the flat meadows between the village and the mill after sundown know how pierc
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Scrivelsby.
Scrivelsby.
The manor which carried with it the title for its possessor of “Hereditary Grand Champion of England,” was a very interesting old house till the year of the Coronation of George III., when it was destroyed by fire. An arched gateway remains near the house, where once a moat, drawbridge, and portcullis protected the courtyard. The picturesque Lion Gateway at the entrance to the park from the Horncastle road, opposite to which under some trees are seen the village stocks, was set up by Robert Dimo
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Driby, Tumby, and Tattershall.
Driby, Tumby, and Tattershall.
The amount of work done by the Normans in England has always astonished me. Not only did they build castles and strongholds, but in every county they set up churches built of stone, and not here and there but literally everywhere. They apportioned and registered the land, measured it and settled the rent, and, though hard task masters, they showed themselves efficient guardians, nor was any title or property too small for the king and his officers to inquire into. Hence, in quite small out-of-th
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CHAPTER XXXIV BARDNEY ABBEY
CHAPTER XXXIV BARDNEY ABBEY
The fens were always a difficulty to the various conquerors of England, and, probably owing to the security which they gave, they, from the earliest times, attracted the monastic bodies. Hence we find on the eastern edge of the Branston, Nocton, and Blankney fens, and just off the left bank of the Witham river when it turns to the south, an extraordinary number of abbeys. For Kirkstead, Stixwould, Tupholme and Bardney, with Stainfield and Barlings just a mile or two north of the river valley, ar
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Holland Fen and Fen Skating.
Holland Fen and Fen Skating.
In the Fens there were always some tracts of ground raised above the waters which at times inundated the lower levels there. These are indicated by such names as Mount Pleasant, or by the termination ‘toft,’ as in Langtoft, Fishtoft, Brothertoft, and Wigtoft in the Fens; and similarly in the Isle of Axholme, Eastoft, Sandtoft, and Beltoft. Toft is a Scandinavian word connected with top, and means a knoll of rising ground. When the staple commodities of the Fens were “feathers, wool, and wildfowl
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Fen Skating.
Fen Skating.
The Fen skaters of Lincolnshire have been famous for centuries. In the Peterborough Museum you may see two bone skates made of the shin bones of an ox and a deer ground to a smooth flat surface on one side and pierced at either end with holes, or grooved, for attachment thongs. The regular fen skates, which are only now being ousted by the more convenient modern form were like the Dutch skates of Teniers’ pictures, long, projecting blades twice as long as a man’s foot, turned up high at the end
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CHAPTER XXXVI THE FEN CHURCHES—NORTHERN DIVISION
CHAPTER XXXVI THE FEN CHURCHES—NORTHERN DIVISION
The two centres for “The parts of Holland” are Spalding and Boston. From the latter we go both north and south, from Spalding only eastwards, and in each case we shall pass few residential places of importance, but many exceptionally fine churches. We will take the district north of Boston first. Friskney, which is but three and a half miles south of Wainfleet, where we ended our south Lindsey excursion, is really in Lindsey. It stands between the Marsh and the Fen. The road from Wainfleet to Bo
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CHAPTER XXXVII ST. BOTOLPH’S TOWN
CHAPTER XXXVII ST. BOTOLPH’S TOWN
A not unapt parallel has been drawn between Boston and Venice for, like the Campanile, Boston steeple is a sort of Queen of the Waters, and before the draining of the Fens she often looked down on a waste of waters which stretched in all directions. Leland, who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII., in Vol. VII. of his Itinerary, speaks of “the great Steple of Boston,” and describes the town thus: “Bosstolpstoune stondeth harde on the river Lindis (Witham). The greate and chifiest parte of the toune
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The Custs.
The Custs.
There is another name connected with this place, for one of the oldest Lincolnshire families is that of the Custs, or Costes, who have held land in Pinchbeck and near Bicker Haven for fourteen generations: though the first known mention of the name is not in the fens but at Navenby, where one Osbert Coste had held land in King John’s reign. The neighbourhood of Croyland Abbey, of Spalding Priory, and of Boston Haven, with its large wool trade, made “Holland” a district of considerable importance
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CHAPTER XXXIX CHURCHES OF HOLLAND, EAST OF SPALDING
CHAPTER XXXIX CHURCHES OF HOLLAND, EAST OF SPALDING
The road which runs east from Spalding passes out of the county to reach King’s Lynn. But before it does so, it goes through a line of villages along which, within a distance of ten miles, are six of the finest churches which even Lincolnshire can show. Going out through Fulney we begin, less than four miles from Spalding, with Weston , where we find an unusually fine south porch with arcading and stone seats on either side. At the east end are three lancet lights of perfect Early English work a
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CHAPTER XL THE BLACK DEATH
CHAPTER XL THE BLACK DEATH
Mention being made in the last chapter of the Black Death, the disastrous effects of which were so visible in the tower of Gedney, it will be not inappropriate to give some short account of it here. Edward the Third had been twenty years on the throne when a great change came over the country. The introduction of leases of lands and houses by the lord of the manor had created a class of “farmers”—the word was a new one—by which the old feudal system of land-tenure was disturbed, the old tie of p
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CHAPTER XLI CROYLAND
CHAPTER XLI CROYLAND
As you pass in the train along the line from Peterborough to Spalding, and have got a mile or two north of Deeping St. James station, you can see to the east in a cluster of trees a broad tower with a short, thick spire standing out as the only feature in a wide, flat landscape. This, for all who know it, has a mysterious attraction, for it is the sorrowful ruin of a once magnificent building, a far-famed centre of light and learning from whence came the brains, the piety, and the wealth which,
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NOTE By Author
NOTE By Author
It appears that Mr. Charles Pelham, who was the last of the Brocklesby Pelhams, was the first M.F.H. of The Brocklesby , at first as joint and then as sole master, till his death in 1763. Also that Lord Yarborough hunted what is now the Southwold country for a month at a time in spring and autumn, having kennels at Ketsby until 1795, by which time his gorse covers round Brocklesby had grown up and he was able to dispense with the country south of Louth. Then till 1820 a pack of trencher-fed harr
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APPENDIX I
APPENDIX I
The altar tombstone from which John preached is near the chancel door. Epworth people will tell you that the mark of his heels is still visible on the stone. Really they are segments of two ironstone nodules in the sandstone slab. The inscription is a remarkable one: “Here lieth all that was mortal of Samuel Wesley, A.M., who was Rector of Epworth for 39 years and departed this life 15th of April, 1735, aged 72. As he lived so he died, in the true Catholic faith of the Holy Trinity in Unity, and
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APPENDIX II
APPENDIX II
Dr. Wm. Stukeley, 1687-1765, was a famous Lincolnshire antiquarian. He practised medicine, first at Boston and then at Grantham from 1710 to 1726. He was made an F.R.S. in 1717, and in that or the following year he helped to establish the Society of Antiquaries in London, and was for the first nine years secretary to that Society. In 1719 he became an M.D. of Cambridge and was made a member of the “Spalding Gentlemen’s Society” in 1722. In 1727 he took Holy Orders and from 1730 to 1748 officiate
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APPENDIX III A LOWLAND PEASANT POET
APPENDIX III A LOWLAND PEASANT POET
I had not long ago a couple of poems put into my hands by one who, knowing the author, told me something of his life and circumstances. Being much struck by the poems I set to work to make inquiries in the hope of getting something further. But he seems to have written very little. His nephew copied out and sent The Auld Blasted Tree and added “I made inquiry of my aunt if she had any more; she says those you have seen along with this one I now enclose were all he wrote, at least the best of the
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THE HIGHWAYS & BYWAYS SERIES.
THE HIGHWAYS & BYWAYS SERIES.
Extra crown 8vo, gilt tops, 7s. 6d. net each. London. By Mrs. E. T. Cook. With Illustrations by Hugh Thomson and Frederick L. Griggs . GRAPHIC. —“Mrs. Cook is an admirable guide; she knows her London in and out; she is equally at home in writing of Mayfair and of City courts, and she has a wealth of knowledge relating to literary and historical associations. This, taken together with the fact that she is a writer who could not be dull if she tried, makes her book very delightful reading.” Middle
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