Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire

by W. F. Rawnsley

FONTS.

In our English churches the most noticeable bit of mediæval work is in many cases the font, which has often escaped when all the rest of the building inside and out has been defaced by neglect or destroyed by restoration. Much destruction followed on the Reformation, and even in Elizabeth’s reign, in spite of a royal mandate to preserve the old form of baptism “at the font and not with a bason,” attacks were constantly made on the fonts, and especially on the font-covers, which makes the preservation of the Frieston font-cover with a figure of the Virgin Mary on the top very remarkable. We have in the churchwardens’ accounts in various places this contemptuous entry:—

“Item. For takynge doune ye thynge ower the funt XIIᵈ.”

Parliamentarian soldiers went to greater lengths and broke up the font itself in very many churches. The bowls were often cast out or buried in the churchyard. At Ambleston in Wales the font pedestal was only ten years ago found in use by a farmer as a cheese-press, and the bowl on another farm doing duty as a pig-trough.

Still many have escaped with the loss of their carved covers, and how great the loss is can be judged when we see the beauty of such work as the cover which we still have at Ufford in Suffolk, eighteen feet high, or the similar ones at Grantham and Fosdyke and Frieston in our own county, or at Ewelme (Oxon), and Thaxted (Essex), and again in Suffolk at Sudbury St. Gregory and Hepworth, and one at Thirsk in Yorkshire which rises to the height of twenty-one feet. Sometimes the cover takes the form of a canopy, as at Swymbridge in Devon, and more beautifully in that erected by Bishop Cosin at Durham in 1663. The Sudbury font-cover has doors in it, as we see in the Jacobean cover in Burgh-le-Marsh church, and in the beautiful modern cover at Brant Broughton, both in Lincolnshire.

FONTS, SAXON AND NORMAN

There were at one time many Saxon fonts, most of which were swept away and replaced in a different form by the Normans. One of the earliest we have is in St. Martin’s Church, Canterbury, the lower part of which, built of twenty-eight wedge-shaped stones, is Saxon or Romano-British, the upper part being Norman put on to heighten it, with the old Saxon rim crowning it, though by some this is called Transitional. This font was inside the church when King Ethelbert was baptised by St. Augustine in the ninth century. But we get back still further when we find runic inscriptions, as on the wonderful square tub font at Bridekirk, Cumberland, and on the little low hollowed stone at Bingley, Yorkshire, attributed to the eighth century, and having three lines of runes which are read thus:—

“Eadbert, King, ordered to hew this dipstone for us, pray you for his soul.” He reigned 737 to 758, when as Æthelred King of Mercia in 675, had done at Bardney Abbey in the previous century, he resigned the crown and took the tonsure. Mellor, in Derbyshire, has a Saxon font, but without inscription.

The remarkable font at Bag Enderby, Lincolnshire (see Chap. [XXX.]), with its Scandinavian myth, is unique among fonts, though it has counterparts on many of the pre-Norman crosses in Northumbria. The font at Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, is also a very early one, and covered with Celtic scroll-work, this, though of the same kind, is bigger than the usual plain little stone tubs which, as a rule, mark the Saxon period.

The Norman fonts also are mainly of tub form, but often ornamented with cable moulding and arcading, as at Silk Willoughby, Lincolnshire.

LINCOLNSHIRE FONTS

The lead fonts, twenty-nine of which are in existence, are all Norman; most of these have arcading all round and figures within the arches; perhaps the best is at Dorchester, Oxon, showing the apostles. But at Brookland, in Romney Marsh, there is a double row of arcading with the signs of the Zodiac above, and figures cleverly emblematic of the months below. At Childrey, Berks, the figures are without arcading and represent bishops with crosiers, all quaintly of the same attenuated shape, and in very high relief. Berkshire and Oxon have several of these lead fonts, and Gloucestershire exhibits six, all cast in the same mould; Lincolnshire has only one at Barnetby-le-Wold, which is noticeable, however, as being the largest of them all, thirty-two inches in diameter; that at Brookland being the deepest with sixteen inches.

The Tournai group of black marble or basalt with thick central pedestal and four corner shafts, of which that at Winchester is the best, are described under Lincoln, in Chap. [XIX.] This form of support is pretty general through the thirteenth century, often with much massive carving and ornamentation on bowl and shafts, until the shafts developed, in some cases, into an open arcade round the central pillar, as best seen at Barnack, Northants. The tallest fonts and finest in design are of the fifteenth century, and are mostly octagonal pedestal fonts and frequently mounted on steps as in the churches of the Marsh near Boston, e.g., Benington and Leverton. Some bowls are found with seven panels as at Hundleby, six as at Ewerby, Heckington and Sleaford, nine as at Orleton, in Herefordshire, and at Bigby, in Lincolnshire, thus giving eight panels for figures, and allowing one to be placed against a wall or pillar; and ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen are not unknown. In our own county we have mentioned the font in nearly every case when describing a church, and will only now recall a few instances of the best. In addition to the Tournai font at Thornton Curtis and that of lead at Barnetby, the finest specimens of Early English will be found at Thorpe St. Peter’s near Wainfleet—a very chaste design; the supporting shafts are gone, but the capitals show heads of bishop, king, and knight, and a knot of flowers supporting the bowl; and at Weston, near Spalding, where is one of singularly graceful form, standing on steps with a broad platform for the priest. At Thurlby, near Bourne, is a tub of Barnack stone which has pilasters all round it, and curious carved work dividing the panels, the whole being set on four square stone legs.

Of Decorated fonts, Ewerby is remarkable; hexagonal, with sides going straight down from the bowl, each panel representing a window with tracery, tending in design to Perpendicular, so that it probably dates from the end of the fourteenth century. The windows are filled with diaper work, and surrounded by a border of quatre-foils and flowing foliage. Other good Decorated fonts are at Strubby and Maltby-le-Marsh and Huttoft, all near Alford. The Perpendicular period is best seen at Covenham St. Mary, North Somercotes, Bourne, Pinchbeck, Leverton, and Benington.

It is on the panels of the handsome fifteenth century fonts that the seven sacraments are carved, leaving one panel for any appropriate subject, and these panels are often real pictures of the methods of the time, and form most valuable records; the pedestal usually has its panels filled with Apostolic figures.

EAST ANGLIAN FONTS

It is curious that nearly all the thirty “seven sacrament fonts” in the kingdom are found in East Anglia; those of Walsoken, Little Walsingham, East Dereham, and Great Glenham in Norfolk, and Westall in Suffolk, are specially fine. And the churchwarden’s accounts for East Dereham show that no expense was spared on the making; the total of £12 14s. 2d., being equivalent to over £200 of our money.

The sacraments depicted are Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, The Eucharist, Holy Orders, Holy Matrimony, and Extreme Unction. But to return to our own county.

Utterby, near Louth, has an open channel to drain the water off from the font into the churchyard—a very uncommon feature.

Wickenby, near Wragby, retains the old bar and staple to secure the font cover, at the time when the fonts were all ordered to be locked to prevent possibility of the water being tainted by magic. “Water bewitched” is a familiar expression for weak tea. I wonder if it comes from this.

Of later fonts the quaintest is in Moulton church, near Spalding, and now disused. It represents the trunk of a tree carved in stone, the branches going round the bowl and the serpent round the trunk, with Adam and Eve, rather more than half life size, discussing the apple. It dates from 1830, and seems to be a copy of one in the church of St. James’, Piccadilly, said to have been carved in marble by Grinling Gibbons.

Mr. Francis Bond, in his charming book on porches and fonts, says that some of the fonts in our most ancient Lincolnshire churches, Cabourn, Waith, Scartho and Clee, look older than they are by reason of their coarse workmanship. He notes that the cover of the Skirbeck font belonged to a larger one destroyed by the Puritans, the present font having been put up in 1662.

WOODEN FONTS

The material of all the fonts described above is either stone or lead. We have very few of any other material, but of these by far the most interesting are those made of solid oak, of which specimens are extant at Dinas-Mawddwy (pronounced Mouthy) and Evenechtyd in Wales. But one might go on long enough talking about fonts, and I would only urge readers to go themselves and study them, and if they would pick out a few of the finest they should visit the fonts and font covers we have mentioned, and especially such typical fonts as are to be found at Winchester and Durham, at Walsoken in Norfolk, at Fishlake in Yorkshire, and Bridekirk in Cumberland, whenever they happen to be in those neighbourhoods.

The worst of fonts is that they are so easily removable. Even in such out-of-the-way places as Crowle the font has not remained, though the Norman south wall with its beautiful doorway is in quite good repair.

CHAPTER XXIII
ROADS FROM LOUTH, NORTH AND WEST

The Grimsby Group of Pre-Norman Towers—Waith—Holton-le-Clay—Scartho—Clee—Humberstone—Tetney—Ravendale—Ashby-cum-Fenby—Roads to Lincoln and Horncastle—Hainton—Glentham—West Rasen—The Pack-horse Bridge—Toft-next-Newton and Newton-by-Toft—Gibbet-posts—Middle Rasen—The Labourer—Market Rasen—North Willingham—Tealby and Bayons Manor—Bishop Odo—South Elkington—Road from Horncastle—The South Wolds—Tathwell—Jane Chaplin.

JUNE FLOWERS

The road from Louth to Grimsby, in its first part, is described elsewhere; but north of Ludborough it passes through a succession of small villages in each of which is a very early church tower. These are all somewhat similar to the two primitive churches in Lincoln and to the famous one at Barton-on-Humber, but they have no “Long-and-Short” work which is distinctive of the Saxon towers, and so the term Romanesque perhaps best describes them. They are certainly pre-Norman. Similar groups have been described near Caistor and Gainsborough in Chaps. [XVII.] and [XX.], and others mentioned in Chap. [XXII.] It was a bright and breezy morning early in June when we set out from Well to visit this remarkable group. The trees were at their best, chestnuts and may trees still in bloom, and in the wayside gardens the laburnum with its “dropping-wells of fire” was a joy to see. As we passed along the wind brought the strong scent of the mustard fields and the delicious perfume of the beans, not badly described by the Barber to his wife as “just like the very most delicious hair-oil, my dear.” The pastures were golden with buttercups, but the most wonderful sight of all was the profusion of chervil, or cow-parsley (Anthriscus), which, with its lace-like flowers, at times filled the space of grass between the road and the hedge with mile upon mile of its delicate white blossom, and in places lined every hedge, showing above the ordinary low-cut Lincolnshire fence, or, where the hedge was higher, whitening the lower half in lines of flowery loveliness. It nowhere encroached on the cultivated land, but every hedge and ditch and roadside was marked out by it in a profusion of soft white blossoms which was quite astonishing. We note that the “tender ash” is still, as our Lincolnshire poet has it, delaying ‘to clothe herself when all the woods are green,’ but a few days of such balmy sunshine will woo even her leaves from out the bud, and full summer will be with us. The red cattle are feeding in little herds, and the sheep, white from the hands of the shearer, are dotted about the fields. The labourers seem, most of them, to be at the same work, weeding the corn; but as we get further on to the heavy lands whence Holton-le-Clay so aptly gets its name, we see teams of four horses abreast harnessed to the “Drags,” by which the great clods are broken up.

The first of the group of towers we look at is Waith, a small cruciform building in a churchyard thickly planted with trees, two fine cedars among them. There are some Early English arcades to the nave, but outside, the tower alone is ancient. This originally was just the width of the nave, and has no openings in the north and south walls. It is also built, not of rubble with quoins, but of dressed stones throughout, solidly but roughly built, with a tiny opening low down; and above the invariable string course, a double light of two small round-headed arches supported by a stout mid-wall shaft with heavy impost. Coming away, we note on a tombstone the curious and possibly Roman surname ‘Porcass.’ Two miles south-west is Grainsby where, as at Clee and Scartho, the stones bear the red marks of Danish fire, and where, inside the tower, is an old boulder stone. Two miles north, on the Grimsby road, is Holton-le-Clay, where the tower of the church is of similar antiquity, all but the top storey above the string-course. The west side has only one very small window, but it has on the east side a good tall Romanesque tower-arch, and there is an Early Norman or Saxon font. The rest of the church is of the poorest in all respects.

SCARTHO

As we proceed, the tall windmill with six sails shows above the Waltham woods on our left, and we pass a roadside inn with the sign of “The Old Pop Shop.” Three miles more and we reach Scartho, a village which is beginning to take the overflow of Grimsby and is full of new buildings. This is the only living in the north or east of England which belongs to Jesus College, Oxford. The church is very interesting on account of its tower, which is Saxon in all but the absence of “Long-and-Short” work. The stones of the tower are of all shapes and kinds, the quoins alone being of hewn stone. Below are only the tiny windows common to all Saxon towers, and above, the belfry has two-light windows with the usual mid-wall shaft. In the west of the tower is a doorway with a round head of large stones and massive imposts.

There is a deep, narrow archway from the nave into the tower, with a little window looking into the nave, and there have been originally tall arches in both the north and south walls, narrow of necessity so as to leave wall enough at each angle for the tower to stand on. A charming original font is there, but hideously placed on a modern inverted stone bowl. The tower and the font are the only things worth looking at, but both of these are of unusual interest. The parapet is Perpendicular and built of different stone, and it is easy to see from the red appearance of many calcined stones used in the tower that it has been rebuilt from the old materials after a former church had been burnt by that scourge of Lincolnshire—the Dane. The principal entrance is now through a big doorway, but in the thirteenth century was in the south wall of the tower.

Leaving Scartho we quickly reach the outskirts of Grimsby, and, turning to the right on the Cleethorpes road, we come in a couple of miles to the church of Clee. This is the best of the group we have been visiting. It is one of the earliest churches in the county, and is highly interesting, not only for the venerable antiquity of its tower, but for the fine and varied early Norman and Transition architecture in the body of the church. As a rule there is nothing left of any antiquity in these pre-Norman churches but the tower.

CLEE

There is a narrow western doorway and a much taller one of similar character opening into the nave; each has Voussoirs set in double rows. Just above the belfry on the west face is a keyhole light made of top and side stones, and a circular light in the south face. Mr. Jeans, in Murray’s “Lincolnshire,” notes that they have all similar characteristics—“Rubble walling with large quoins, a bold string-course dividing them into stages, tall, narrow doorways with rude imposts and coupled belfry windows with a massive mid-wall shaft.” All this we find at Clee, and the red calcined stones in the wall tell of the Danish fire here as at Scartho. The early Norman arcade in the north of the nave has square piers with shafts at the corners, one of them twisted, like the work in Durham Cathedral. All are different in their structure and in the carving of their capitals. The south arcade has thick round columns of later Norman work with chevron, billet, and very thick cable moulding. The arches are round, and the stones of the moulding, as at Somerby, being cut by various hands and without plan or drawing, fit together, but are hardly any two of them of the same sized pattern. This is quite usual in Norman arch mouldings. I noticed it lately over the west doorway of the fine tower of New Romney, Kent. The arches at the east of each aisle which give upon the transepts are pointed, but with Norman mouldings, and the transept arches are the same; the transepts themselves and the low central tower and the chancel are all modern. The old tower is, as usual, at the west end. On the shaft of one of the south arcade pillars is a very interesting record of two notable Bishops of Lincoln. It is in Latin, cut on a small tablet of marble about six inches by eight, and let in flush with the pillar. It says that “the Church was dedicated in honour of the Holy Trinity and the blessed Virgin by Hugh Bishop of Lincoln in the year 1192, in the time of King Richard and re-dedicated after restoration by Bishop Christopher Wordsworth in 1888.” 1192 was the same year in which Bishop Hugh began the choir at Lincoln, which is pure Early English, but doubtless the nave at Clee was built some years before it was dedicated. The font is a massive Norman one, and a portion of the shaft of an early cross stands just inside the door.

Clee Church.

PRE-NORMAN TOWER

ASHBY-CUM-FENBY

The pathway to the church is lined on either side with tall fuschias, not a usual sight near the east coast. This church is the old parish church of Cleethorpes, which is the most crowded of the Lincolnshire watering-places, the goal of endless excursions from all the neighbouring counties, but not a place of any attraction for residents. Six miles due east across the river Humber is the revolving light of the Spurn Head lighthouse, plainly seen from the hill above Alford, thirty miles away. Between the Louth and Grimsby main road and the sea another road runs south from Clee by Humberstone and Tetney, thence to Covenham and Alvingham and so to Louth. Humberstone is a parish which goes with Holton-le-Clay, though they are about three miles apart. It is remarkable for its fine avenues of trees, and has a good Perpendicular tower. But in this respect it is surpassed by the extremely well-built and well-designed tower at the next village of Tetney. This, unlike the body of the church, is entirely of good, hard, grey Yorkshire stone. Some “Blow Wells,” which are circular pits of very blue water 100 feet deep, are in a field half a mile to the south-east of the church. There are others at Laceby and Little Cotes, both in the valley of the Freshney river, six miles off. The water comes through faults in the limestone ridge four or five miles to the west. A stream also flows through Tetney, which comes out of the Croxby pond near Hatcliffe, the only piece of water in the neighbourhood. The roads we have been writing of are all entirely in the flat ground, but from the Louth and Grimsby main road a branch goes off to the left, after crossing a fourteenth century bridge with ribbed arches, at Utterby, which runs north along the western edge of the Wold past Brocklesby to Barrow on Humber. This, when it is opposite to Waith, has on its left a place called Ravendale, and, on its right, a little hidden away village, called Ashby-cum-Fenby. At Ravendale there was once a priory belonging to a Premonstratensian abbey in Brittany. It was seized by the Crown with other alien priories in 1337 to form part of the dowry of Joan of Navarre, Queen of Henry IV. Ashby-cum-Fenby has very pretty Early-English two-light windows in the belfry, set round with dog-tooth moulding. A Crusader effigy of 1300 is at the west end of the tower, and two fine monuments to two sisters of the Drury family are in good preservation; one to Sir F. and Lady Wray closely resembles the Irby monument at Whaplode, and, as the families are related, probably the work is by the same sculptor. That of Susannah Drury in the chancel is a good piece of sculpture, but the whole has literally been whitewashed, which does not improve it. The churchyard is for the most part deplorably neglected, and a few sheep would greatly improve it. A row of almshouses with tiny gardens, made like the Workmen’s row at Tattershall, adjoins the west side of the churchyard.

The road after this passes nothing of importance near it, till it reaches Brocklesby.

Close to the bell ropes in the tower at Tetney is a neat little brass which aptly commemorates a fine old parishioner as follows:—

Matthew Lakin
born 1801 died 1899 One of the regular bellringers of
Tetney for 84 years and sometime Clerk and Sexton.

The highway which goes out of Louth on the west, after passing Thorpe Hall, within a mile of the town, soon splits into two, the one going up the hill to the right has, at first, a north-easterly course, but after passing through South Elkington leaves North Elkington on the right and goes on due east to Market Rasen and Gainsborough, and is the great east-and-west road of North Lincolnshire: the only other roads which take that direction being the Boston-Sleaford-and-Newark and the Donington-and-Grantham roads in the southern part of the county, and the great Sutton-Holbeach-Spalding-Bourne-and-Colsterworth road. But none of these run so straight.

HAINTON

The other road from the foot of South Elkington hill goes on at first due west till, passing Welton-le-Wold on the right and Gayton-le-Wold on the left, it drops into the picturesque little village of Burgh-on-Bain (pronounced Bruff). So far we have had a wide Wold view, but no blue distances over fen or marsh; but Grimblethorpe and Burgh-on-Bain are in two parallel little valleys, and when the road turns here, at seven miles distance from Louth, to the south-west, a quite different type of country is entered, beginning with the woods of Girsby, the seat of Mr. J. Fox, quondam joint Master of the Southwold Hounds, and Hainton Hall and park, where the Heneage family have been seated since the time of Henry III. The church tower has some of the characteristics of the early Norman or pre-Norman groups, and both church and chantry-chapel are rich in monuments of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and brasses of still earlier date. The altar tombs of 1553 and 1595 are magnificent, and the kneeling effigies of 1559 and 1610 are in excellent preservation. The helmets and spurs over the effigy of John (1559), and the gilded armour of Sir George (1595), are especially noticeable, as also are the varied spellings of the name—in 1435 Henege, in 1530 Hennage, and in 1553 Henneage.

GLENTHAM

From here a road leads to the left to South Willingham and Benniworth, but the main road runs through East and West Barkwith, with those fine grass borders, each wider than the road, which are characteristic of the Wold highways, for five miles to Wragby, eleven miles from Lincoln. Near East Barkwith Station is Mr. Turnor’s residence, Panton Hall, and from West Barkwith a road goes to the Torringtons. Here Gilbert of Sempringham was rector, and established one of his Gilbertine houses. The road on either side of the rather town-like village of Wragby is uninteresting, till suddenly, at a distance of eight miles, the towers of Lincoln Minster appear, not in front, but away to the left, and then again disappear from view. But the road turns, and after four miles, lo! again the Minster, straight in front; and as you approach from the north-east you see all three towers at the end of the long road, getting ever finer as you approach and are able to make out the details of the architecture. Only too quickly you come to the top of the hill, and gaze at the splendid upper windows of the great bell tower, now close on your right, then sweep down the curve and, passing through the Minster yard by the Potter and Exchequer gates, go out northwards by the old Roman Ermine Street. We soon reach the turn to Riseholme, where from 1830, when Buckden was given up, the bishops resided, until Bishop King built the present house in the Old Palace grounds in Lincoln, and where in the churchyard are the tombs of her much-revered Bishops Kaye and Wordsworth, though their monuments are in the cathedral. After this we pass nothing, the road running straight on for over thirty miles, and on much the same level all the way. But we will only go to the thirteenth milestone and turn to the right at Caenby Corner, where the Gainsborough and Louth road crosses the Ermine Street, and so make our way back by Market Rasen. The first village we shall come to is Glentham, which contains in chancel and chantry several monuments of the Tourney family from 1452. It is believed that the church was originally dedicated to “Our Lady of Pity,” hence, over the porch is a beautiful little carving of the Virgin holding the dead Christ, and the Tourney arms below it. A brass to Ann Tourney has the following play on words:—

“Abiit non obiit, preiit non periit.”

Till the early part of last century, a rent charge on some land in the village provided a shilling each for seven old maids every Good Friday for washing the recumbent effigy of a lady of the Tourney family which is under the gallery, with water from “The New Well.” This singular survival of the custom of washing an effigy of the dead Christ for a representation of the entombment is now abandoned, as the land was sold in 1852 without reservation of the rent charge on it. The effigy was known as “Molly Grime,” a corruption of “Malgraen,” which means in some ancient tongue or dialect the ‘Holy-Image-Washing.’ (“Lincs. Notes and Queries.” I., 125.)

The church is rather a curiosity, being seated throughout with box pens and having a gallery at the west end. Even the font is painted, and is a cheese-shaped stone on three legs placed on a round block. The door is old and has an unmistakable sanctuary ring on it, as at Durham, and the porch has a pretty little two-light window on each side.

THE TOURNAYS

The Tournays of Caenby are one of the genuine old county families, having held land in it certainly since 1328. John Tournay, in the sixteenth century, married a Talboys co-heiress, and was brother-in-law to Sir Christopher Willoughby and Sir Edward Dymoke.

The manor of Caenby-cum-Glentham, given in the thirteenth century to Barlings Abbey, and at the dissolution, along with so many other things, bestowed by Henry VIII. on Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, was purchased by Edward Tournay in 1675, but he had inherited another manor in Caenby, or Cavenby through a long line of ancestors from the family of Thornton, of whom one Gilbert de Thornton was Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, 1289-1295. The present representative of the Tournays, or Tornys, who, to suit both spellings, have a tower for a crest and a chevron between three Bulls for their coat of arms, is Sir Arthur Middleton of Belsay Castle, Northumberland, who parted with the property at Caenby in 1871.

Three miles beyond Glentham we reach “Bishops’ Bridge” inn. Here a fourteenth century bridge crosses the stream at the junction of the River Rase with the Ancholme. Thence, after several turns, the road reaches West Rasen, where there is a most picturesque and interesting Pack Horse Bridge of the same date, with three ribbed arches, placed at right angles to the present road. The church has heavy embattled turrets and some curious carved figures in the chancel.

THE ‘GOOD OLD DAYS’

Going south from here, a roundabout road takes you to Buslingthorpe, passing by the two oddly-named villages of Toft-next-Newton and Newton-by-Toft, each apparently, like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, leaning for support on the other. Two miles to the west, on the Normanby road, is Gibbet-posthouse. The name Gibbet-post or Gibbet-hill is not uncommon, but I doubt if a single post remains. Eighty years ago some still held their ghastly record. My uncle, Edward Rawnsley, who was born in 1815, told me once that he had passed one with a skeleton hanging in chains, as he rode from Bourne to Wisbech. The Melton Ross gallows was renewed in 1830.

Only two miles east of West Rasen we reach Middle Rasen, which has an interesting church. It once had two, one on each side of the stream; the existing one, which belonged to Tupholme Abbey, has a very fine Norman south door and Norman piers to the chancel arch, and a deeply moulded Early English arcade, on which is a singular beaded moulding. There is also a low-side window and a beautiful Perpendicular rood screen, also a fourteenth-century effigy of a priest with vestments and chalice. In the churchyard is the font of the other church.

In the days of toll-bars there were two at Middle Rasen; usually they were let to the highest bidder, and the man who took the main road gate in the year 1845 is still living, at the age of eighty-nine, in 1912. A toll-bar keeper in the days before railways, when all the corn went to market by road, had little rest at night, as waggons full or empty passed through at all hours. In his early days food was dear—tea eight shillings a pound—and wages were low, and bread and water and barley-chaff dumpling were the common fare. He is now a rate-collector and, of course, can read and write, but he never went to school, and at eight years of age he began to earn a little by “scaring crows.” At fifteen he was mowing and using the flail at his native village of Legbourne. In a field, near where the station now is, he remembers a man mowing wheat for six days on bread and water, and the crop yielded six quarters to the acre. A woman of ninety-three, now living in the Wolds, remembers when flour was 4s. 6d. a stone, and a loaf cost 11½d. instead of 2½d. They mixed rye with wheat flour and baked at home; and a labourer who earned enough to buy a stone of flour a day thought he could live well.

Only the other day I heard of a labouring family living just between the Wold and the Marsh, seven sons of a retired Crimean soldier. The clergyman used to make them a present at the christening if he might choose the name, and he gave them grand historic names for them to live up to, e.g., Washington and Wellington, and the plan certainly answered, for they all took to the land and by steadiness, hard work and good sense raised themselves first to a foreman’s position and then to that of small occupiers, with the result that the family now farms three or four hundred acres between them. Yet they, as children, had had a hard struggle, and never knew either luxury or comfort. Their cottage had but two rooms, and half the family having gone to bed with the sun, habitually got up when night was but half over and came and sat round the fire whilst the other half went to bed. The conditions of life have improved since then, but the men of to-day can’t have more of the right stuff in them.

Another instance of the same kind which goes to prove that no walk of life is without its chances, if only the man is strenuous and sober and gifted with good sense, is that of a family in the Louth neighbourhood, three grandsons of a labouring man, who in two generations have raised themselves to such purpose that they now farm between them some 10,000 acres. Of course the great factors in such successful careers are steadiness and industry, and that shrewd good sense which is so characteristic of the best Lincolnshire natives.

Not many years ago I talked with a small farmer in Hampshire, whose wages as a labourer used to be ten and sixpence a week, when a pair of boots cost eighteen shillings; but then, he said, they did wear well. The family lived, year in year out, on hot water with barley in it and a sprinkling of salt. And yet, incredible as it may seem, he and his wife had brought up a family of ten. There was some grit in those people.

MARKET RASEN

From Middle Rasen it is little more than a mile to Market Rasen. Men still living there can recall the Shrove Tuesday football, when the whole male population of the village, aided by friends from outside, spent some strenuous hours in trying to get the ball into Middle Rasen. The windows were boarded up all along the road, and the struggle of hundreds of rough fellows was more concerned in pushing their opponents into the beck by the roadside than in keeping on the ball.

The town has an unusual number of schools in it. The De Aston School, founded 1401 at Spital, was set up here in 1862 as a middle-class school, and has been most successful; and the church school and still larger Wesleyan school between them can accommodate nearly 400 children.

From Market Rasen three miles of low country brings us to North Willingham. The Hall, the home of Mr. Wright, was for over a hundred years the residence of the family of Boucherett, whose former mansion stood a couple of miles to the west. The present house with its pretty bit of water faces the road. In the village we may see a blacksmith who, at the age of ninety, can still shoe a horse. We are now twelve miles from Louth; a road to the left goes to Tealby and Bayons Manor, and to the right by Sixhills to Hainton; and here, instead of going right on up the sweep of the hill, we will make the round by Tealby and come back to the high road at Ludford Parva.

BAYONS MANOR

Tealby is quite an ideal village, with beautiful trees, a fine and well-placed church, a stream and bridges and picturesque cottages. One road leads from it up the steep “Bully hill,” a 300 feet rise, another road takes us to Bayons Manor, the seat of the Tennyson d’Eyncourt family. Originally there was an old eleventh or twelfth century fortified dwelling about a hundred yards up the hill, traces of which may still be seen in bank or dyke. This was replaced about the sixteenth century by a fairly large house, at one time thatched; part of this remains as the nucleus of the present castellated mansion built in the romantic era of the Waverley novels and completed with drawbridge and barbican in the middle of the last century by Charles Tennyson, M.P., uncle of the poet, who, after the death of his father, George Tennyson, took the name of d’Eyncourt. His grandson, E. Tennyson d’Eyncourt, now lives there. The house has a fine open-roofed hall, and is replete with interesting mementoes of the Tennysons as well as of the ancient family of d’Eyncourt. The site is good, with a charming garden sloping to the park, in which is a fine piece of water. The name Bayons is derived from its first Norman possessor, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. He was half-brother to William the Conqueror on the mother’s side, and he was so exalted a personage that he was called “Totius Angliae Vice-dominus, sub rege.” Thus he was on occasions the king’s representative, and seems to have had as much land in Lincolnshire and elsewhere granted to him by William, as Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk had under Henry VIII., for we hear that he held seventy-six manors in the county and 463 in other parts.

It is interesting to know that Bulwer Lytton in 1848, when he was trying to recover his seat for Lincoln, wrote his historical romance “Harold” here, making good use of his friend Mr. Tennyson d’Eyncourt’s fine collection of early English chronicles.

A little north of Tealby is the temporarily disused church of Walesby, where once Robert Burton (1577-1640), author of the “Anatomy of Melancholy,” was rector, before he went to Segrave in Leicestershire. It is hoped that this church may soon be in use again.

One of the many roads across the Wolds from Rasen to Grimsby passes through Walesby to Stainton-le-Vale and Thorganby, another goes through Tealby, Kirmond-le-Mire, and Binbrook, once a market town, and near to Swinhope, the ancestral seat of the Alingtons. Both roads after this unite and pass by East Ravendale, Brigsley, Waltham and Scartho.

A clear stream flows north through a narrow valley from Kirmond top through Swinhope, Thorganby, Croxby pond, Hatcliffe, and almost to Barnoldsby, and thence east to Brigsley, and so across the marsh to Tetney Haven.

SOUTH ELKINGTON

Leaving Tealby, we climb to the top of the Ludford ridge, and, turning to the right, come to the Market Rasen and Louth highway at Willingham Corner, thence, to the left, by Ludford Magna with its cruciform church on the infant ‘Bain.’ To the right we notice Wykeham Hall, further on to the left the church of Kelstern, standing solitary in a field, and soon we reach the singularly beautiful and well-wooded approach to Louth by South Elkington, the seat of Mr. W. Smyth. The church here, whose patronage goes with the Elkington estate, was given about 1250 to the convent at Ormsby, which presented to it until the dissolution, when it fell to the Crown, and was given, in 1601, by Queen Elizabeth to the famous John Bolle of Thorpe Hall. This Hall we now pass on our approach to Louth, and a splendid picture awaits us when we see that lovely spire of Louth church, standing up out of a grove of trees, and eventually presenting itself to our eyes, in its full height and beautiful proportions, as we come into the town by the west gate.

LOUTH SPIRE

The highway from Louth to Horncastle is best traversed the reverse way. Starting from Horncastle with its little river—the Bain—its cobble-paved streets and its pretty little thatched hostel, the King’s Head, the Louth road brings us soon to West Ashby. Then, at a distance of four miles from Horncastle, we come suddenly on the unpretending buildings of the Southwold Hunt kennels. These are in the parish of Belchford, which lies half a mile to the right.

Westgate, Louth.

We now climb 300 feet up Flint Hill, a name which tells us that we are on an outlier of the chalk wolds, and a fine view opens out on the left which we can enjoy for a mile, after which the road turns to the right and discloses a totally different scene. In front lies the snug village of Scamblesby, and behind it the south-eastern portion of the South Wolds, sweeping round from Oxcombe’s wooded slope in a wide curve to Redhill, behind which the Louth and Lincoln railway emerges near Donington-on-Bain. It is a fine landscape.

We descend to the village, and passing in the wide valley the turn to Asterby and Goulceby on the left, set ourselves to climb the main ridge of the Wolds by Cawkwell. On the top of the hill we pass a cross road which runs for many miles right and left without coming to anything in the shape of a village; and naturally so, for the road like the Roman streets in the Lake District, keeps sturdily along the highest ground, and who would care to live on a wind-swept ridge?

TATHWELL

To the right the Wold runs up to nearly 500 feet, but our road only crosses it, and after little more than a mile we see the level of the marsh and the tall spire of Louth five miles ahead of us. The road here forks, and forsaking the direct route by Raithby we will take the right-hand road and in a couple of miles find ourselves dropping to the village of Tathwell. This we circle round and arrive at the lane which leads to the church.

This little church, dedicated to St. Vedast, who was Bishop of Arras and Cambray (circa 500), was once a Norman building, but the Norman pilasters supporting the round tower-arch of the eleventh century are all that is left of that period, unless the four courses nearest the ground of large stones of a hard, grey, sandstone grit can be referred to it. Upon these now is built a structure of brick with a broad tower at the west and an apse at the east; but the charm of the place is its situation, on a steep little hill overlooking a good sheet of clear chalk-stream water. You look westwards across this to a pathway running up the slope opposite which is fringed with a fine row of beeches, and just below you at the edge of the little graveyard you see the thatched roof of a primitive cottage, whilst beyond it the ground is broken into steep little grass fields, the whole most picturesquely grouped.

We leave the secluded little village, and turning to the right, pass between the Danish camp on Orgarth Hill and the six long barrows on Bully Hill (the second hill of the name, the other being near Tealby). These are all probably of the same date; the latter in a field adjoining the road. A mile more and we turn to the left at Haugham, where is another and larger tumulus, after passing which, on the left, we soon come to the main Louth and Spilsby road.

The number six seems to have been a favourite one with the Vikings. Eleven miles to the west of Bully Hill is “Sixhills,” between Hainton and North Willingham, and another place of the same name near Stevenage in Hertfordshire shows a fine row of six tumuli close to the road side.

JANE CHAPLIN

On October 25 there was a funeral in the Tathwell churchyard, when, in presence of her surviving grand-children and great-grandchildren Jane Chaplin was laid to rest beside the husband who had died forty years before. She was not only of a remarkable age—it is seldom that a coffin plate bears such an inscription:—

“Jane Chaplin, born 24th June, 1811, died 21st October, 1913”—

but during all that long life she was always cheerful and kindly and full of interest, and up to the very last, within two hours of her death, she was bright and happy, lively with talk and merriment, and in full possession of all her faculties. On her 102nd birthday she received her relatives and delighted them with her reminiscences of the days before they were born, telling the writer how she remembered Alfred Tennyson asking her to dance at the local ball, and adding that she was still able to read and to paint, though she had of late years given up reading by candlelight for fear of trying her eyes, and saying how thankful she was that she felt so well and had no pains and was, in fact, much better than she used to be fifty years ago. She had left Lincolnshire and lived of late years at Bournemouth and then at Cheltenham, where she literally ‘fell on sleep’ and passed from this life to the next, without any illness or struggle, in the happiest possible manner. Truly, we may say with Milton—

Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail

Or knock the breast.

CHAPTER XXIV
LINCOLNSHIRE BYWAYS

Willoughby and Captain John Smith—Grimoldby—South Cockerington—Sir Adrian Scrope’s Tomb—Alvingham—Two Churches in one Churchyard—Yarborough—The Covenhams—Hog-back View—Milescross Hill to Gunby—Skendleby—South Ormsby and Walmsgate—Belchford—Thorpe Hall—The Elkingtons.

The Romans had a road from the sea probably by Burgh and Gunby and then on the ridge by Ulceby cross-roads to Louth, and so on the east edge of the Wold north to the Humber.

It is not a particularly interesting route, but if at Gunby we turn to the right we shall pass Willoughby with its old sandstone church in a well-kept churchyard, a somewhat rare thing on this route. The church (St. Helen’s) has some Saxon stones in the south wall of the tower, and a double arch on the north side of the chancel, a Norman arch in front of a fourteenth century one. Here, in 1579, was born the redoubtable Captain John Smith, president of Virginia and the hero of the famous Pocahontas[13] story, a man whose life was more full of adventure than perhaps any in history. The interest which Pocahontas created when she came to England is evinced by the number of inn signs of “The belle Sauvage.” The church has a singular slab with the head and shoulders of a man, name unknown, in relief cut on it at one end—his feet showing at the other, something after the fashion of a “sandwich-man.” The huge belfry ladder is also noteworthy, being made of two trees, whole, with stout, rough timber spiked to them for steps.

GRIMOLDBY

From Willoughby to Alford and on by Saleby, Withern, Gayton-le-Marsh, Great and Little Carlton, and Manby, the road is not remarkable; but, after crossing the main road from Horncastle to Saltfleet, which has come over the Wold viâ Scamblesby, Cawkwell and Tathwell, it arrives at Grimoldby. Here the church is noteworthy for the size and excellence of its gargoyles. Outside it has heavy battlemented parapets, a good gable-cross with pent-house over it, as on the Somersby cross, and the entire shaft of a churchyard cross. Inside, the nave is whitewashed, but the fine old roof remains, and on one of the beams is the pulley block for the rood light, as at Addlethorpe and Winthorpe. The door is old and has been enriched with carving and there is the lower part of a good rood screen with three returns, possibly for lights, projecting twelve inches westwards. This arrangement is also found in the rood screen at Thornton Curtis. In the north porch is a fine holy water stoup.

Manby.

For the next six miles churches are to be found at every mile.

SIR ADRIAN SCROPE

South Cockerington has a little holy water stoup just inside the door. Part of a handsome rood screen is stowed away under the tower, the rest being in Manby Church. The church has had a profusion of consecration crosses—a dozen have been noticed, some of which still remain cut in the stone and filled with dark cement. Nearly all the churches about here are in two styles—Decorated and Perpendicular; and though Grimoldby exhibits only one style, it is the transition between these two. The most noticeable thing in the church is the alabaster altar tomb to Sir Adrian Scrope, with effigies of his five sons over whom is the legend ‘similis in prole resurgo,’ and two daughters and an infant, over whom is written ‘Pares et impares.’ Does this mean “Like in face but different in character,” or “Like their father but not so good-looking”? The knight is represented armed and half reclining on one elbow, with his helmet behind him and his mailed glove by his knee, the head and face very life-like, the hands and fingers extremely delicate. On a brass plate he is described as the thrice honourable Adrian Scrope, Kt., etc., and this verse follows:—

Tombs are but dumb day-books, they will not keepe

There names alive who in these wombes doe sleepe,

But who would pen the virtues of this knight

A story not an epitaph must write.

It was not easy to find the way to South Cockerington as the road to it literally forms a square, and then passes on from the churchyard gate right through a farm; but to reach North Cockerington you seem to go round at least five sides of a square or squares, then cross the Louth River, and then a bridge just above a water mill, and passing by two gates through a farmyard you arrive in a grass field, in which, devoid of any sort of fence on the north and west sides, the plain-looking church of Alvingham stands; a gate leads to the south door, near which a few yards of grass is mown, but the rest of the churchyard is a tangle of long grass and tall nettles; and amongst them, within a stone’s throw, stands a second and larger church of North Cockerington, in which no service is held. “There is some wildernesses!” was the apt remark of our driver as we reached the churchyard gate.

Two churches in one churchyard are to be found at Evesham in Worcestershire, and at Reepham in Norfolk. These I have seen; others are at Willingate in Essex, and at Trimley in Suffolk. At Evesham there is even a third tower for the bells. This is of stone, but in a few other places, as at Brookland in Romney Marsh, the bell tower is a separate timber erection. The reason for two here was that Alvingham, dedicated to St. Adelwold, is the parish church, but there was once a Gilbertine priory for monks and nuns close by, to which the other church served as a chapel. This was also the parish church of North Cockerington at a very early date, mention being made of it in a charter of about 1150.

The Alvingham Cartulary or priory book, once in possession of F. G. Ingoldby, Esq., is now in Louth Museum, and among the charters is a curious entry of an agreement between the joint occupiers of a meadow that their men should meet on a certain day at Cockerington Church and there fix a day for beginning to mow.

YARBOROUGH WEST DOOR

The next village is one which gives his title to Lord Yarborough. The church, like so many in this neighbourhood, Grimoldby and South Cockerington being honourable exceptions, is locked, but the chief point of interest is to be seen outside. This is a beautiful example of a richly carved doorway. The mouldings of the square head are good and set with little ornaments, and very bold and original carvings run round the arch of the doorway. The space between the arch and the outer square head mould is filled with shallow carved work representing on the left, the fall, with Adam, Eve, the Serpent, and much good foliage carving; and on the right the Lamb and the emblems of the Passion. An old English inscription runs round the arch of the doorway, but is only in part decipherable; the stone is a white hardish sandstone, and the surface a good deal worn, but the whole design is most elegant and unusual.

A mile more brings us to the two churches of Covenham, within a quarter of a mile of each other, and both locked. Covenham St. Mary seems to be built of a hard chalk. There are mason-marks high up on each pilaster of the porch. The other church, of St. Bartholomew, was once a cruciform building. It is made of the same white material, but the tower is now covered with Welsh slate, and one transept is gone. The fonts in both churches are good. That in St. Mary’s is, for beauty of design and boldness of execution, the best in the neighbourhood, but they do not compare for beauty and size with those in the Fen churches, which are lofty and set on wide octagonal basements of three or four steps. Here, the brass to Sir John Skipwyth, who died at, or in the year of, Agincourt, 1415, is in exceptionally good condition. He is armed and has both the long dagger and sword, the latter suspended from his left arm by a strap. The tail of the lion on which he stands is erect between the leg of the knight and his sword.

The rest of the route by Fulston, Tetney and Humberston to Grimsby is not of any interest until we come to Clee, which, with its interesting Saxon church tower, we have already described.

A ROMAN ‘HOG’S BACK’

In the Wold country the main roads usually run along the ridges of the Wolds and afford views on either side. One of the best of these, “Hog’s Back” views is obtained from one of the byways which starts from the Spilsby and Alford road at the top of Milescross hill, and runs south till it reaches Gunby. It skirts the wooded belt of the Well Vale estate, and drops into the village of Ulceby which, like most of the tiny Wold villages, lies on the bank of a small stream in a wooded hollow, where the church and farm and a few cottages form a pleasing picture of rural retirement.

Mounting again, the road turns to the left and goes straight ahead on what is evidently a portion of a Roman “street,” giving on the left a view of the “Marsh” towards Mablethorpe, with its grey shimmering line which denotes “the bounding main,” and on the right a still more distant prospect over the flat “fen” lands in the direction of Boston, whose columnar tower rises far up into the sky. The blue haze of the marsh, the purple distance over the fens, with, in the autumn, the long, drifting lines of grey smoke from the burning “quitch,” or “twitch” as they usually call it here, make a delightful impression; and then if we turn fenwards we drop into the leafy hollow of Skendleby village, where once the Conqueror’s friend, Gilbert de Gaunt, resided, and to which William of Waynfleet, the famous Bishop of Winchester, was presented as vicar by the convent of Bardney in 1430. It is a pretty village with its church and manor-house, and thatched, white-washed cottages bright with flowers, and its well-stocked farm. A tall windmill crowns the next height; this is Grebby Mill, and it is interesting to find that there has been a windmill there for 600 years.

For Grebby is old enough to be mentioned in Domesday Book, and in 1317 we have mention of a windmill there belonging to Robert de Willoughby and Margaret his wife.

THE FLOODED FEN

From the windmill one looks down to the old brick tower of Scremby church, which is the last building on the edge of the slope from which the endless levels of the fen begin and run south till they reach Crowland and Peterborough. From whence the great cathedral, with its splendid west front, looked out in the disastrous August of 1912 over miles and miles of corn-land where the tall sheaves stood up out of a vast expanse of water, the result of the abnormal rains and the burst dyke which made Whittlesea Mere once more resume its ancient appearance.

Below Scremby the road runs to the left to Candlesby, and so rejoins that starting-place of so many byways—Gunby.

There was a church at Scremby in Norman times; at the dissolution the manor came to the all-acquiring Duke of Suffolk. Now-a-days the handbook dismisses it as “of no special interest,” but eighty-five years ago it was thought worth while to mention that “at the west end of the nave is a neat and commodious singing-gallery.”

Those who wish to see the beauties of the country must leave the high ridge every here and there and make a round into the little villages which lie at the foot of the Wolds, mostly on the western slopes where they escape the strong sea winds.

From the Spilsby-and-Louth road a byway branches westwards, close to Walmsgate, which will illustrate this, for it quickly drops into the pretty village of South Ormsby, and, skirting the park on two sides, runs on to the village of Tetford with its red roofs and grey-green church tower nestling under the hill. Thence the white line of road goes north over Tetford hill to Buckland and Haugham, and so rejoins the main road again about four miles north of Walmsgate.

But before leaving Tetford we should take a look at the fine grassy eminence of “Nab hill” with its entrenched camp, behind which lie the kennels of the Southwold hounds at Belchford.

The road from Alford to Louth, by Belleau and Cawthorpe, which runs along the eastern edge of the South Wold and gives such a fine view over the marsh, is interrupted at Louth, and you must go out for the first four miles on the Louth and Grimsby main road, but on reaching Utterby a turn to the left will bring you to a road which goes all the way to Brocklesby without passing through any village but Keelby in the whole sixteen miles. This solitary road begins better than it ends for when it gets opposite to Barnoldby-le-Beck, which is just half way, it sinks to the level of the marsh.

FOTHERBY TOP

There are plenty of roads between Louth and Caistor, to the north-west, along the Wolds, which are here some eight miles wide; and it would be well worth while for the sake of the view over the marsh to take a little round from Louth, starting out on the Lincoln road by Thorpe Hall, the interesting home of the Bolles family, the ffytches, and, later, of some of the Tennysons. By this route you soon come to the parting of the ways to Wragby and Market Rasen, and taking the right hand road by South Elkington, the charming residence of Mr. W. Smyth, you climb up to a height of 400 feet, and taking the road to the right by North Elkington—whose church has a fine pulpit copied from one still to be seen at Tupholme Abbey, near Bardney—reach Fotherby top, from which for a couple of miles you can command as fine a view of the marsh from Grimsby to Mablethorpe as you can desire. Then leaving the height you can go eastward by North Ormsby, and, joining the Grimsby-and-Louth road at Utterby, run back to Louth. All approaches to Louth are rendered beautiful by the splendid views you get of that marvellous spire; and as the road drops steeply into the town you will hardly know whether the approach from this northern side or from Kenwick on the south forms the most striking picture.

CHAPTER XXV
THE BOLLES FAMILY

The byway which runs west from the Spilsby and Alford road, at the foot of Milescross hill near Alford station, after passing Rigsby, comes to a farm with an old manor-house and tiny church in a green hollow to the left. A deep sort of cutting on this side of the church has, along its steep grassy brow, a line of very old yew trees, not now leading to anything. This is all there is of the hamlet from which an ancient and notable family derived its title, the Bolles of Haugh.

Haugh church is a small barn-like building of chalk; the nave twenty-four feet, and the chancel twenty-one feet long, with an enormously thick, small, round-headed arch between them. The chancel is floored with old sepulchral slabs and stone coffin tops, several with Lombardic lettering, and all apparently of the Bolle or Bolles family who lived partly at Haugh in the old manor close to the church, and partly at Thorpe Hall, Louth.

SIR JOHN BOLLES

COLONEL BOLLES AT ALTON

The family of Bolle seemed to have lived at Bolle Hall, Swineshead, from the thirteenth century till the close of the reign of Edward IV., 1483, when, by an intermarriage with the heiress of the Hough family, the elder branch became settled at Hough or Haugh, near Alford, and one of the younger branches settled at Gosberkirke (Gosberton) and spelt their name Bolles. The men of both branches were active both in civil and military positions. Sir George of Gosberton succeeded to the manor of Scampton, near Lincoln, from his father-in-law, Sir John Hart, Lord Mayor of London, 1590. He too became Lord Mayor in 1617, both men being members of the Grocers’ Company. He was knighted by James I., after withstanding his majesty in the matter of travelling through the city of London on a Sunday, on which occasion his conduct somewhat recalls that of Judge Gascoigne in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.” He died in 1621, and his monument is in St. Swithin’s church, London. His son John was made a baronet by Charles I., and his son George is commemorated on a monument opposite to that of his grandfather, in a pretty Latin inscription beginning—

Nil opus hos cineres florum decorare corollis;

Flos, hic compositus qui jacet, ipse fuit.

We hear of a Sir George Bolle being killed at Winceby in 1643, fighting against Cromwell; certainly George’s brother, Sir Robert of Scampton, was one of the jury in 1660 for trying the regicides, and at the death of his son, Sir John, in 1714 the title became extinct. The distinctions of the elder branch, who settled at Haugh, were more military than civil. Their name also has passed away, their lineal descendants being named Bush, Ingilby, Bosville and Towne. The earliest monument to this branch is on a brass plate in Boston Church to Richard Bolle of Haugh, 1591, son of Richard Bolle of Haugh and Maria, daughter and heiress of John Fitzwilliams of Mablethorpe. He was thrice married, and his only son Charles died a year before him, 1590, and is commemorated at Haugh. His daughter Anne married Leonard Cracroft, the others married John and Leonard Kirkman of Keel. His son Charles, whose mother was a Skipworth of South Ormsby, had four wives, his first wife a daughter of Ed. Dymoke of Scrivelsby, and his fourth a daughter of Thomas Dymoke of Friskney. His only son, John, was the son of number two, Brigitt Fane; and his daughter Elizabeth of number three, Mary Powtrell. To this son John, there is also in Haugh Church a well-preserved monument, which shows him kneeling with his wife, attended by their three sons and five daughters, in the usual Jacobean style; date 1606, Aet. suæ 46. Sir John built Thorpe Hall, and was a famous Elizabethan captain. He was at the siege of Cadiz under Essex, 1596, and had custody of the young lady of high position who goes by the title of the Spanish Lady or the Green Lady, and whose story is told in Percy’s “Reliques” in the ballad of “The Spanish Lady’s love for an Englishman.” Sir John Bolle is the hero of the story. The lady fell in love with him, but on hearing that he had a wife at home, she retired to a nunnery and sent rich presents to his wife of tapestry, plate and jewels, and her picture in a green dress. The jewels are now in the hands of many of Lady Bolle’s descendants, the necklet of 298 pearls being, it is said, in the Bosvile family at Ravensfield Park, Yorkshire. The last warden of Winchester College was called Godfrey Bolles Lee, and was related to the Bosviles; and, curiously enough, in the Cathedral of Winchester is a brass plate giving an account of the death of Colonel John Bolles. It seems that Charles, the elder of the three sons whose effigies are on Sir John’s monument in the quaint little church of Haugh, was a Royalist, living at Thorpe Hall, Louth, where he raised a regiment of foot, which was commanded by his brother John, a soldier of unusual gallantry. Charles once saved his life when pursued, by hiding under the bridge at Louth. The regiment was engaged at Edgehill and other places, and finally cut to pieces in a most bloody engagement inside Alton Church in Hampshire. Clarendon tells us that Sir William Waller, finding that Lord Hopton’s troops lay quartered at too great distance from each other, had, by a night march, come suddenly upon the Royalist forces at Alton. The horse made good their escape to Winchester, and Colonel Bolles, who was in command of his own regiment of 500 men, being outnumbered, retired with some four score men into the church, hoping to defend it till succour arrived. But the enemy, as he had not had time to barricade the doors, entered with him, and some sixty of his men were killed before the rest asked for quarter; this was granted, but Colonel Bolles refused the offer, and was killed fighting. Alton is seventeen miles from Winchester, and the little brass plate on the eastern pillar of the north arcade of the nave in Winchester Cathedral, just where the steps go up to the choir, has a counterpart in Alton Church. The inscription on it was composed almost fifty years after the event by a relative who describes himself M.A., but he does no credit to the learning of the time, for it is full of errors, both of spelling and of facts; for instance, he calls the gallant Colonel, Richard instead of John, and gives the date of the fight as 1641 instead of December, 1643; but it is too quaint a thing not to be transcribed in full.

THE WINCHESTER BRASS

A Memoriall.

For this renowned Martialist Richard Boles of ye Right Worshipful family of the Bolleses in Linkhornsheire; collonell of a ridgment of Foot of 1300 who for his gratious King Charles ye first did Wounders att the Battell of Edgehill: his last action, to omit all others, was at Alton in this County of Soughthampton, was sirprised by five or six thousand of the Rebells, which caused him there Quartered, to fly to the church, with near fourscore of his men, who there fought them six or seven houers, and then the Rebells breaking in upon him he slew with his sword six or seven of them, and then was slayne himselfe, with sixty of his men about him.

1641

His Gratiouse Souveraigne, hearing of his death, gave him his high comendation in ye pationate expression. Bring me a Moorning Scarffe; i have Lost one of the best Comanders in this Kingdome.

Alton will tell you of that famous Fight

Which ye man made and bade this world goodnight,

His Verteous life feared not Mortalyty,

His body might, his Vertues cannot die.

Because his blood was there so nobly spent

This is his Tombe, that church his Monument.

Ricardus Boles Wiltoniensis in Art Mag:

Composuit Posuitque dolens

An Dom 1689.

A somewhat similar bit of spelling is this from a private diary:—

“The iiii day of Sept 1551 ded my lade Admerell wyffe in Linkolneshire and ther bered.”

The third brother, Edward, died and was buried at Louth, 1680 A.D., at the age of seventy-seven. He left £600 to purchase land, the rents “to be divided among the poorest people of Louth at Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide for ever, and to be disposed of ‘in other charitable and pious uses for the good of the said Toune.’” The income of the bequest is now worth £85 a year.

THE GREEN LADY

Sir Charles, the elder brother, had a son and a grandson called John, the last of the name. This John’s half-sister, Elizabeth, whose mother was a Vesci, married Thomas Bosvile, rector of Ufford, and was buried at Louth in 1740; their daughter Bridget also marrying a Bosvile. The children of Bridget’s elder sister Elizabeth married into the families of the Ingilbys and the Massingberds, while another sister, Margaret, married James Birch, James Birch’s daughter married a Lee, and his grandson, Captain Thos. Birch, assumed the name of Bosvile and sold Thorpe Hall. He died in 1829. Sir Charles also had a daughter Elizabeth, who married Thomas Elye of Utterby, whose granddaughter Sarah married Richard Wright of Louth, whence are descended the Wrights of Wrangle. Canon Wright, her great great grandson, has a picture of this Sarah Elye in which she is represented as wearing a ring which was one of the Spanish jewels, some of which are in possession of the Canon’s family now. The picture of the Green Lady was unfortunately sold at the Thorpe Hall sale, and it is said that another small picture of her, painted in the corner of a portrait of Sir John Bolles by Zucchero, was lost when the picture was restored and considerably cut down, in the last century.

CHAPTER XXVI
THE MARSH CHURCHES OF EAST LINDSEY

West Theddlethorpe—Saltfleetby—All Saints—Skidbrook—South Somercotes—Grainthorpe—Marsh Chapel.