ITER DOMESTICUM. I.
I, fuge, sed poteras tutior esse domi. Mart.
To MAURICE JOHNSON, Jun. Esq.
Barrister at Law of the Inner-Temple.
THE amity that long subsisted between our families giving birth to an early acquaintance, a certain sameness of disposition, particularly a love to antient learning, advanced our friendship into that confidence, which induces me to prefix your name to this little summary of what has occurred to me worth mentioning in our native country, HOLLAND, in Lincolnshire; but chiefly intended to provoke you to pursue a full history thereof, who have so large a fund of valuable papers and collections relating thereto, and every qualification necessary for the work. That these memoirs of mine are so short, is because scarce more time than that of childhood I there spent, and when I but began to have an inclination for such enquiries: that the rest which follow are grown to such a bulk as to become the present volume, is owing to my residence at London. Great as are the advantages of this capital, for opportunities of study, or for the best conversation in the world, yet I should think a confinement to it insupportable, and cry out with the poet,
Invideo vobis agros, formosaque prata. Virg.
I envy you your fields and pastures fair.
which engages me to make an excursion now and then into the country: and this is properly taking a review of pure nature; for life here may be called only artificial, especially when fixed down to it; like the gaudy entries upon a theatre, where a pompous character is supported for a little while, and then makes an exit soon forgotten. My ancestors, both paternal and maternal, having lived, from times immemorial, in or upon the edges of our marshy level, perhaps gave me that melancholic disposition, which renders the bustlings of an active and showy life disagreeable. The fair allurements of the business of a profession, which have been in my road, cannot induce me wholly to forsake the sweet recesses of contemplation, that real life, that tranquillity of mind, only to be met with in proper solitude; where I might make the most of the pittance of time allotted by Fate, and if possible doubly over enjoy its fleeting space. I own a man is born for his country and his friends, and that he ought to serve them in his best capacity; yet he confessedly claims a share in himself: and that, in my opinion, is enjoying one’s self; not, as the vulgar think, in heaping up immoderate riches, titles of honour, or in empty, irrational pleasures, but in storing the mind with the valuable treasures of the knowledge of divine and human things. And this may in a very proper sense be called the study of Antiquities.
Of the study of Antiquities.
I need not make an apology to you for that which some people of terrestrial minds think to be a meagre and useless matter; for truly what is this study, but searching into the fountain-head of all learning and truth? Some antient philosophers have thought that knowledge is only reminiscence. If we extend this notion no further than as to what has been said and done before us, we shall not be mistaken in asserting that the past ages bore men of as good parts as we: enquiry into their thoughts and actions is learning; and happy for us if we can improve upon them, and find out things they did not know, by help of their own clue. All things upon this voluble globe are but a succession, like the stream of a river: the higher you go, the purer the fluid, less tainted with corruptions of prejudice or craft, with the mud and soil of ignorance. Here are the things themselves to study upon; not words only, wherein too much of learning has consisted. If we examine into the antiquities of nations that had no writing among them, here are their monuments: these we are to explore, to strike out their latent meaning; and the more we reason upon them, the more reason shall we find to admire the vast size of the gigantic minds of our predecessors, the great and simple majesty of their works, and wherein mainly lies the beauty and the excellence of matters of antiquity. But more especially it is not without a happy omen, that the moderns have exerted themselves in earnest, to rake up every dust of past times, moved by the evident advantages therefrom accruing, in the understanding their invaluable writings, which have escaped the common shipwreck of time. It is from this method we must obtain an accurate intelligence of those principles of learning and foundations of all science: it is from them we advance our minds immediately to the state of manhood, and without them the world 5000 years old would but begin to think like a child. Nothing more illustrates this than looking into the comments that were wrote upon them 200 years ago, voluminous enough, but barbarous, poor, and impertinent, when compared to the solid performances of learned men since, whose heads were enriched with an exact search into the customs, manners and monuments of the writers. Hence it is, that history, geography, mathematics, philosophy, the learned professions, law, divinity, our own faculty, and the muses in general, flourish like a fresh garden richly watered and cultivated, weeded from rubbish of logomachy and barren mushrooms, gay with thriving and beautiful plants of true erudition, inoculated upon the stocks of the antients.
Of Britain.
If ruminating upon antiquities at home be commendable, travelling at home for that purpose can want no defence; it is still coming nearer the lucid springs of truth. The satisfaction of viewing realities has led infinite numbers of its admirers through the labours and dangers of strange countries, through oceans, immoderate heats and colds, over rugged mountains, barren sands and deserts, savage inhabitants, and a million of perils; and the world is filled with accounts of them. We export yearly our own treasures into foreign parts, by the genteel and fashionable tours of France and Italy, and import ship-loads of books relating to their antiquities and history (it is well if we bring back nothing worse) whilst our own country lies like a neglected province. Like untoward children, we look back with contempt upon our own mother. The antient Albion, the valiant Britain, the renowned England, big with all the blessings of indulgent nature, fruitful in strengths of genius, in the great, the wise, the magnanimous, the learned and the fair, is postponed to all nations. Her immense wealth, traffic, industry; her flowing streams, her fertile plains, her delightful elevations, pleasant prospects, curious antiquities, flourishing cities, commodious inns, courteous inhabitants, her temperate air, her glorious show of liberty, every gift of providence that can make her the envy and the desirable mistress of the whole earth, is slighted and disregarded.
You, Sir, to whom I pretend not to talk in this manner, well know that I had a desire by this present work, however mean, to rouse up the spirit of the Curious among us, to look about them and admire their native furniture: to show them we have rarities of domestic growth. What I offer them is an account of my journeyings hitherto, but little indeed, and with expedition enough, with accuracy no more than may be expected from a traveller; for truth in every particular, I can vouch only for my own share, strangers must owe somewhat to informations. I can assure you I endeavoured as much as possible not to be deceived, nor to deceive the reader. It was ever my opinion that a more intimate knowledge of Britain more becomes us, is more useful and as worthy a part of education for our young nobility and gentry as the view of any transmarine parts. And if I have learnt by seeing some places, men and manners, or have any judgment in things, it is not impossible to make a classic journey on this side the streights of Dover.
Thus much at least I thought fit to premise in favour of the study of antiquities. And with particular deference to the society of British Antiquaries in London, to whom I remember with pleasure you first introduced me: since for some time I have had the honour of being their secretary; to them I beg leave to consecrate the following work. To the right honourable the Earl of Hartford the illustrious and worthy President, the right honourable the Earl of Winchelsea, Peter le Neve, esq; Roger Gale, esq; the illustrious and worthy Vice-presidents, and to the learned Members thereof. Then, lest I should fall under my own censure passed upon others, that know least of things nearest them, I shall deliver my thoughts about the history of Holland before mentioned, which may serve as a short comment upon the map of this country which I published last year, with a purpose of assisting the gentlemen that are commissioners of sewers there, though it is of such a bulk as cannot conveniently be inserted into this volume.
If we cast our eyes upon the geography of England, we must observe that much of the eastern shore is flat, low ground, whilst the western is steep and rocky. This holds generally true throughout the globe as to its great parts, countries or islands, and likewise particularly as to its little ones, mountains and plains. I mean, that mountains are steep and abrupt to the west,[2] especially the north-west, and have a gentle declivity eastward or to the south-east, and that plains ever descend eastward. I wonder very much that this remark has never been made. I took notice of it in our own country, almost before I had ever been out of it, in the universal declivity of that level eastward, in those parts where it did not by that means regard the ocean; particularly in South Holland, or the wapentake of Elho: the natural descent of water therein is not to the sea, as the rivers run, but directly eastward, and that very considerable. Beside, the current of every river is lower as more eastward: thus the Welland is higher in level than the Nen, the Nen than the Ouse; and probably at first both emptied themselves by the Ouse or Lyn river as most eastward. I observed in June 1732, that the Peterborough river Nen would willingly discharge itself into Whitlesea mere, and so to the Ouse at Lyn, if it were not hindered by the sluice at Horsey bridge by the river Nen. I see no difficulty to attribute the reason of it to the rotation of the globe. Those that have gone about to demonstrate to us that famous problem of the earth’s motion, have found out many mathematical and abstracted proofs for that purpose, but neglected this which is most sensible and before our eyes every minute. It is a property of matter, that when whirled round upon an axis, it endeavours to fly from the axis, as we see in the motion of a wheel, the dirt and loose parts are thrown the contrary way in a tangent line. This is owing to the natural inactivity of matter, which is not easily susceptible of motion. Now at the time that the body of the earth was in a mixt state between solid and fluid, before its present form of land and sea was perfectly determined, the almighty Artist gave it its great diurnal motion. By this means the elevated parts or mountainous tracts, as they consolidated whilst yet soft and yielding, flew somewhat westward, and spread forth a long declivity to the east: the same is to be said of the plains, their natural descent tending that way, and, as I doubt not, of the superfice of the earth below the ocean. This critical minute is sublimely described by the admirable poet and observer of nature,
Namque canebat, uti magnum per inane coacta
Semina terrarumque, animæque, marisque fuissent,
Et liquidi simul ignis. Ut his exordia primis
Omnia, & ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis.
Tum durare solum & discludere nerea ponto
CÅ“perit, & rerum paulatim sumere formas. Virg. Ecl. VI.
which may thus be englished.
He sang, how from the mighty void, in one
Large space, collected were the fluid seeds
Of earth, air, sea and fire; from these came all.
The callow world became one massive globe;
The ocean by the hard’ning ground disjoin’d,
New forms surpris’d the beauteous face of things.
The truth of this observation I have seen universally confirmed in all my travels, and innumerable instances of it will occur to the reader throughout these discourses. I design another time professedly to treat of it in a philosophical way. But consequent to this doctrine it is that we have so large a quantity of this marshland in the middle of the eastern shore of England, seeming as if made by the washings and eluvies of the many rivers that fall that way, such as the Welland, the Witham, the Nen, the Ouse great and little, together with many other streams of inferior note. These all empty themselves into the great bay formed between the Lincolnshire wolds and cliffs of Norfolk, called by Ptolemy Mentaris æstuarium, as rightly corrected by Mr. Baxter, seeing it is composed of the mouths of so many rivers; Ment, or Mant, signifying ostium in the British language. Beside the great quantity of high and inland country that discharges its waters this way, even as far as Fritwell in Oxfordshire; all the level country lies before it, extending itself from within some few miles of Cambridge south, to Keal hills near Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire north, about sixty miles long, known by the names of the Isle of Ely, Holland and Marshland. This country, since the flood, I believe was much in the same state as at present, and for its bulk the richest spot of ground in the kingdom; once well inhabited by gentry, especially the religious. I apprehend the more inland part of it, the Isle of Ely, Deeping Fen, &c. was not in distant ages in so bad a condition as now, because the natural drainage of it was better, before the sea had by degrees added so much solid ground upon the coasts.
Holland, its name.
In this country I have observed abundance of old Welsh words left among us; and I am persuaded that the name of Holland is derived from that language, though now terminated by a later word, as is frequent enough. It signifies no more than salt or marsh land, such as is gained from the sea; and to this day we call the marshes adjoining to, and sometime overflowed by the sea, salt marshes. Likewise upon the sea shore they formerly made salt in great abundance. The hills all along upon the sea bank, the remains of such works, are still called salt hills: such are at Fleet, Holbech, Gosberton, Wainflet,[3] &c. Many names of rivers and roads, thence derived, remain still, such as Salters Lode, Salteney Gate, &c. Hallt in the British is salsus, salt, as ἅλς in the Greek is mare, the sea; and most evidently borrowed from the British, because of its most notorious quality. The adjoining part of this country in Norfolk, is called marsh land, in the very same sense: so is Zeland and Holland at the mouth of the Rhine, where our Cimbric ancestors once lived. In the Cimbric Chersoness, now Denmark, is Halland, a division of the country by the Saxons called Halgo land. Vid. Spelman’s Glassary, voce Sciringes heal. Holsatia, Holstein, &c. and our Holderness in Yorkshire, must thus be understood. Hence the isle of Ely too is denominated, the very word heli being salsugo in the British. This, in the most antient British times, was as much marsh land as our wapentake of Elho is now, which acknowledges the same original; hoe signifying a parcel of high ground.
First Inhabitants the Britons.
We may be assured that this whole country was well inhabited by the antient Britons, and that as far as the sea coasts, especially the islets and higher parts more free from ordinary inundations of the rivers, or though not imbanked above the reach of the spring tides; for the nature of this place perfectly answered their gusto, both as affording abundant pasturage for their cattle, wherein their chief sustenance and employment consisted, and in being so very secure from incursion and depredations of war and troublesome neighbours, by the difficult fens upon the edge of the high country. Here I have not been able to meet with any remains of them, except it be the great quantity of tumuli, or barrows, in all these parts; scarce a parish without one or more of them. They are generally of a very considerable bulk, much too large for Roman; nor has any thing Roman been discovered in cutting them through; though, a few years ago, two or three were dug quite away near Boston, and another at Frampton, to make brick of, or to mend the highways. I guess these were the high places of worship among our Cimbrian predecessors, purposely cast up, because there are no natural hills in these parts; and we know antiquity affected places of elevation for religious rites. No doubt, some are places of sepulture, especially such as are very frequent upon the edges of the high countries all around, looking down upon the fens. Hither seem to have been carried the remains of great men, whose habitations were in the marshy grounds, who chose to be buried upon higher ground than where they lived; as is the case all over England; for the tumuli are commonly placed upon the brink of hills hanging over a valley, where doubtless their dwellings were.
Romans.
But when the Romans had made considerable progress in reducing this island into the regular form of a province, and began the mighty work of laying down the great military ways; then I suppose it was, that they cast their eyes upon this fertile and wide-extended plain, and projected the draining it. The Hermen Street.In the reign of Nero, in all probability, they made the Hermen Street,[4] as now called by a Saxon word equivalent to the Latin via militaris. That this was the first, seems intimated by the name, in that it has retained κατ’ εξοχην, what is but a common appellative of such roads. TAB. LVI.This noble work, taking in the whole of it, was intended to be a meridian line running from the southern ocean, through London, to the utmost bounds of Scotland. This may be inferred from the main of it, which runs directly north and south. And another argument of its early date, drawn from three remarkable particularities, I have observed in travelling upon it, and which show it was begun before that notable people had a thorough knowledge of the geography of the island. One is, its deviation westward as it advances towards these fens from London: another is, the new branch, drawn a little beyond Lincoln westward into Yorkshire, out of the principal stem going to the Humber: a third is, that it is double in Lincolnshire. Of these I shall speak again when we come to the following Iter Romanum. Now we will only consider such part of it as has relation to the country we are upon; and that is the road going from Caster by Peterburgh to Sleford in this county, which is undoubtedly Roman, and which first occasioned the draining this fenny tract, and surely more antient than that which goes above Stanford, and along the heathy part of the county to Lincoln. My reasoning depends upon the manner of the road itself, and upon that other great work which accompanies it, called the Cardike, equally to be ascribed to the same authors. This road is nearer the first intention of a meridian line than the other: but, when they found it carried them through a low country, where it perpetually needed reparation, and that they must necessarily decline westward to reach Lincoln, they quitted it, and struck out a new one, more westerly, that should run altogether upon better ground. This, if we have leave to guess, was done after the time of Lollius Urbicus, lieutenant under Antoninus Pius, who with great industry and courage had extended and secured the whole province as far as Edinburgh. Then it was they had time and opportunity to complete the work in the best manner, being perfect masters of the country, and of its geography: and this road was for the ready march of their armies and provisions to succour those northern frontiers. But it seems as if they had long before that time brought the Hermen Street as far as Lincolnshire,[5] especially that eastern branch, or original stem, of which we are treating, and that as early as the reign of Nero, and at the same time made the Cardike. I shall give you my further reasons for this conjecture, and nothing more than conjecture can be expected in such matters.
42·2d.
Old Hermen Street.
The road which we suppose the original stem of the Hermen Street goes in a direct line, and full north and south from Durobrivæ, or Caster, to Sleford; and there, for aught I know, it terminates. It is manifest, that if it had been carried further in that direction, it would have passed below Lincoln heath, and arrive at the river where it is not fordable. It parts from the present and real Hermen Street at Upton, a mile north of Caster; but this is continued in a strait line, which demonstrates that it is the original one: the other goes from it with an angular branching. This traverses the river Welland at Westdeeping, and is carried in a high bank across the watery meadows of Lolham bridges.[6] These are numerous and large arches made upon the road, to let the waters pass through, taken notice of by the great Camden as of antiquity; and no doubt originally Roman: then it crosses the Glen at Catebridge, (whereabouts it is now called King’sgate, via regia) to Bourn, (where Roman coins are often found, many in possession of Jos. Banks, jun. esq.) so to Fokingham and Sleaford. It is now called Longdike. All along parallel to this road runs a famous old drain, called The Cardike. Cardike.[7] Mr. Morton has been very curious in tracing it out through his county, Northamptonshire. I am sorry I have not yet had opportunity to pursue his laudable example, in finishing the course of it through Lincolnshire: but as far as I have observed it, it is marked in the map. This is a vast artificial canal drawn north and south upon the edge of the fens, from Peterburgh river to Lincoln river, about fifty mile long, and by the Romans without all peradventure. It is taken notice of by serjeant Callis, our countryman, in his readings on the sewers. That wise people, with a greatness of thought peculiar to themselves, observed the great use of such a channel, that by water carriage should open an inland traffic between their two great colonies of Durobrivæ and Lindum, or Lincoln, without going round the hazardous voyage of the Estuary: just such was the policy of Corbulo in Tacitus, Annal. xi. Ne tamen miles otium indueret inter Mosam Rhenumque trium & viginti millium spatio fossam produxit, qua incerta oceani evitarentur. And lest the soldiery should be idle, he drew a dike for the space of three and twenty miles between the Maese and the Rhine, whereby the dangers of the ocean are avoided; which is exactly a parallel case with ours. Besides, it is plain that by intercepting all the little streams coming down from the high country, and naturally overflowing our levels, it would much facilitate the draining thereof, which at this time they must have had in view. This canal enters Lincolnshire at Eastdeeping, proceeding upon an exact level, which it takes industriously between the high and low grounds all the way, by Langtoft and Baston: passing the river Glen at Highbridge, it runs in an uninterrupted course as far as Kyme: beyond that I have not yet followed it; but I suppose it meets Lincoln river near Washenburgh, and where probably they had a fort to secure the navigation, as upon other proper intermediate places, such as Walcot, Garick, Billingborough, Waldram-hall, Narborough, Eye antiently Ege, agger; and I imagine St. Peter’s de Burgo hence owes its original: and a place called Low there, a camp ditched about, just where the Cardike begins on one side the river: another such fortification at Horsey bridge on the other side the river: all these names point out some antient works. It is all the way threescore foot broad, having a large flat bank, on both sides, for the horses that drew their boats. Roman coins are frequently found through its whole length, as you well know, who are possessed of many of them of different emperors. Now it seems to me highly probable that Catus Decianus, the procurator in Nero’s time, was the projector both of this road and this canal, two notable examples in different kinds of Roman industry and judgment; and the memorial of the author of so great a benefit to the country is handed down to us in several particulars; as that of Catesbridge before mentioned upon the road, and of Catwater, a stream derived from this artificial channel, at the very place where it begins, to the Nen at Dovesdale bar: likewise at Dovesdale bar comes in another stream from the north, from a place by Shephey bank, called Catscove corner; and this was first hinted to me by our deceased friend, the learned and reverend Mr. John Britain, late schoolmaster of Holbech: to which we may add Catley, a town near Walcot upon the Cardike beyond Kyme; and Catthorp, a village near Stanfield, upon the road. We may likewise upon the same grounds conjecture that Lollius Urbicus repaired this work; whence it seems that his name, though corrupted, is preserved in Lolham bridges; for there is no town of that kind near it. Vid. Gale’s Itinerar. pag. 28. Lowlsworth upon the Hermen Street without Bishops-Gate, in Spittle-Fields. Certainly this is a good hint for our imitation, had we a like public spirit. Now this road thus accompanying the canal, was of great service to the traders, who might have an eye upon their vessels all the while. And even after the projection of the other branch which goes to Lincoln upon the higher ground, the navigation here was undoubtedly continued in full perfection, till the Romans left the island; for such is its advantage of situation, that it could never want water, nor ever overflow: that stream of Catwater seems to be cut on purpose, at least scoured up, to preserve these uses in drawing off the floods of Peterburgh river into the Nen, if its proper channel was not sufficient. The meaning of the word Cardike is no more than Fendike: we use the word still in this country, to signify watery, boggy places: it is of British original.
I doubt not but that the Romans likewise made that other cut, between Lincoln river and the Trent, called the Foss: the name seems to indicate it, as well as the thing itself; for it is but a consequent of the Cardike, and formed on the same idea: so that I suppose it was not originally cut, but scoured by Henry I. as Hoveden mentions: then the navigation was continued by land from Peterborough quite to York, and this was very useful to the Romans in their northern wars. The other way they might come from Huntingdon.
The 20th of October, 1726, I traced the Cardike round the out-skirts of Sir William Ellys’s park of Nockton: it runs near the site of the old priory, whose ruins are just visible: it bounds the park entirely on the fen side, and is very perfect thereabouts; the high-country streams from Dunston, and others, running along it. We saw where it crossed a marshy valley, and reached the opposite high ground in its course to Washenburgh. A well of the old priory is well preserved, remarkably good water.
That part of the Cardike between Lincoln and the Trent was begun to be cleansed by bishop Atwater, but he died before completed. It is highly probable that the Romans called our Cardike Fossa, which happens to be preserved only on that part between Lincoln and the Trent.
The Fossdike in being in Edward the Confessor’s time. Vide Camden, Nottingham.
Cardike runs close by Thurlby town end.
The marquis of Lindsey gave me an exceeding fair Maximinus; the reverse, GENIO POP. ROM. found at Grimsthorp.
Mrs. Tichmus of Stamford told me she once had many Roman coins, from a great parcel found at or near Sleford.
The 18th of October, 1728, I travelled on the Roman road, the eastern branch of the Hermen Street from Sleford, for about three miles southward. I observed that it went not to Sleford town directly, but to the old house of Sir Robert Carr’s, formerly Lord Hussey’s (attainted for treason in time of Henry VIII.) called Old Place. We saw by the way, on the east side the road, a mile or more south of Sleford, an old work, square, ditched about, large, with an entry from the road; the earth of the vallum thrown on both sides.
But it was not enough for the Romans thus to provide for commerce and travelling, without they set proper stations or mansions for the reception of negociators and the like. Accordingly we find the distance between Caster and Lincoln, about 40 miles, has two towns upon it at proper intervals for lodging; these are Sleaford and Stanfield: the original names of them are in irrecoverable silence, but the eternity of the Romans is inherent. Sleaford Ro. town.At Sleaford they have found many Roman coins, especially of the Constantine family and their wives, about the castle and the spring-head a little above the town. It is probable that Alexander, the bishop of Lincoln, built his work upon the site of a Roman citadel. Beside, at Sleaford comes in the other Roman road from the fen country by Brig-end causeway, and at the intersection of these two roads the old town stood. At Stanfield,Stanfield Ro. town. which is a little village near Burn, they find daily the foundations of buildings, innumerable coins and other antiquities, of which yourself and our friend Mr. John Hardy have a good quantity. These are chiefly dug up in a close called Blackfield, from the extraordinary richness of the ground. It stands half a mile off the road upon elevated ground, whence you may see Spalding, Boston, and the whole level: it is now only of some note for a good chalybeat spring.
I shall rehearse a few things I have noted hereabouts, and then we will descend into Holland. The following antient part of the genealogy of the inheritors of Brun, or Bourn, contains several antiquities hereabouts. The spring-head at Bourn, near the castle belonging to them, is remarkable for its largeness and quickness.
There were other collateral branches of this family about 1244. such as Thomas Wake, who held lands in Stoke and Irthingbure under the abbot of Peterburgh. Wydo Wac held half a knight’s fee in Deping, Beresham and Stow, of the heirs of Hugh Wake the same year. Hugo Wac, Roger Wac, witnesses to a charter 1152. Rymer’s Fœdera, I. p. 12. From Sir Tho. Wake, that married the daughter of Sir John Pateshul, is descended his grace the present archbishop of Canterbury.
Not long since some British instruments of brass called celts, arrow-heads, and bits of bridles of the same metal, were found at Aye near the Cardike. The 19th of November, 1731, I saw four celts and a brass spear-head found at Ege, or Aye: the celts were of the female or recipient kind: they were bought by bishop Kennet, and are now in the gentlemen’s society at Peterborough. The Druids buried them there, when the Romans drove them northward: there has been some great work of the Druids there, as I take it. At Jernham was found an old brass seal, a man blowing a horn, the legend John de Sodeburi, now in the hands of Mr. Richards of Stanford. At Edenham was a stone cross now demolished: the inscription on it I have inserted in the TAB. XI.Plate of Crosses: I saw the stump of it remaining not long since: hard by has been an old castle at Bitham. Grimsthorp, the pleasant seat of the Duke of Ancaster: the park is very large and beautiful; in the middle of it stood Vaudy abbey in a vale, founded by Wil. de Albemarle 1147. some small ruins of it are left: the lawn there, whereon is an annual horse-race, is extremely delightful.[13] In Hakunby church upon a stone I read this inscription,
Iste fuit Rector Thomas de Brunn vocitatus.
Sempringham abbey founded by St. Gilbert lord of the place, and author of the Gilbertin order, where men and women lived together in holy community: now an old ruinous seat of the earls of Lincoln.
Trekingham, so called, as some will have it, from a fanciful story of three Danish kings there buried: round the font in the church is this inscription, + Ave maria gratia p. d. t. Upon a tombstone in the church-yard this,
HIC INTVMVLATVR JOHANNES
QVONDAM DNÌ…S DE TRIKINGHAM.
St. Saviour’s chapel at the end of Brig-end causeway is still left, turned into a mansion house, founded by George of Lincoln, endowed with lands to maintain the causeway: a legacy highly to be commended. At Ranceby near Sleford on a hill, many Roman antiquities found, of which an account in Leland’s Itinerar. Hale Parva, Hale Magna, so called from the hall or seat of the lord of the manor: in the former is Helpringham, which I suppose no more than Hale parva ingham, the termination being very common in towns hereabouts.
Holland imbanked by the Romans.
Having given an account of the preparation made by the Romans towards gaining this vast tract of fen-land, the Lincolnshire levels, by securing it from the fresh water of the high countries in that noble cut called Cardike; we must imagine their next care was to render it safe from the flux of the Ocean, by making a great bank all along upon the sea coasts: this was done as to the wapentake of Elho by what we call the Old Sea-dike, which by the people at this day is said to be made by Julius Cæsar and his soldiers; as if they had knowledge of its being a Roman work: at the mouths of all the rivers no doubt they made gotes and sluices as at present, which was an invention of Osiris, the great king of Egypt, as Diodorus Siculus tells us, I. 19. We may well suppose it was performed after the time of Lollius Urbicus, scarce fully accomplished before: possibly in Severus his time, which seems not obscurely hinted at by Herodian, III. Sed in primis curæ habuit pontibus occupare paludes, ut stare in tuto milites possint atque in solido præliari. Siquidem Britanniæ pleraque loca frequentibus oceani alluvionibus paludescunt. Per eas igitur paludes barbari ipsi natant excursantque ad ilia usque demersi. But he had it in his particular care to make passes over the fens, that the soldiers might stand firm and fight upon hard ground; for many places in Britain are marshy through the frequent overflowings of the ocean, over which the inhabitants will swim, and walk though up to the middle in water. To which description no place so well corresponds.
That the Romans thoroughly inhabited this fertile plain, the following instances will sufficiently evince. About 1713, at Elm near Wisbech, an urn full of Roman brass money was taken up, not far from a tumulus of which the common people have strange notions, affirming that they frequently see a light upon it in dark winter nights. Dr. Massey has many of the coins; they are of the later empire. There is another piece of high ground near it, where have been buildings. Dr. Massey says there is a Roman altar in a wall there. At Gedney hill several Roman coins have been found; some of Antoninus are in your collection. In the same hamlet, about two mile north of Southea bank, is a pasture called the High Doles, being a square doubly moted, where ancient foundations have been dug up, and some Roman coins. Another like square so moted is in the parish of St. Edmund’s, about the same distance from the said bank, where the like matters have been discovered. Aswic grange in Whaplodedrove parish is a high piece of ground, square and moted about: in this and near it many Roman coins have been dug up, and urns, which I have seen; some coins in your collection. This is near Catscove corner; and it was Mr. Britain’s notion that Catus made this work among many others as castella to secure the possession of the country: these lie as it were in a line, on the most southerly part of Elho. In the parish of Fleet near Ravensclow, about 1698,[14] upon a piece of high ground where buildings have been, Mr. Edward Lenton dug up a large urn with letters round it, full of Roman coins,[15] about the quantity of three pecks, covered with an oak board: the urn he broke in pieces: they were of brass piled edgeways, mostly about the time of Gallienus and the thirty tyrants as called, Tetricus, Claudius Gothicus, Victorinus, Carausius, Alectus, &c. I have seen vast numbers of them, and have some by me: many are in your collection. Near this place runs a low channel, quite to Fleet haven, which probably then was the chief outlet of the waters into the sea. Mr. Lenton found some ship-timber upon it with rusty nails, probably of some Roman barge. None of these coins were lower than the Tetrici, which proves the imbankation was made before their time. In the same latitude, and in the next parish, Holbech,[16] in a pasture called Anytofts, in my tenure, is a like square of high ground, where rubbish of buildings and coins have been found; it is moted likewise: not long since a labourer, scouring up a pit in the mote, took up an urn now in my possession. At Giggleshurn, in casting up a ditch, were many Roman coins found: we may reasonably conjecture Moulton hall was such another place originally: and in a Held not far from thence, called Woods, near Ravens-bank, three mile south of Moulton church, upon plowing, several Roman urns and vessels were found, of fine white and red earth; some of them were brought to Mr. Hardy. At Spalding, Roman antiquities have been found, particularly cisterns; of which some accounts in the Acts of the Royal Soc. No 279. and there was a Roman castle there, as I conjecture, on the north side of the town, not far from the river on the right hand of the great road to Bolton, the square form of the ditch yet remaining. These places, with some other of like nature, make another line of fortresses through the middle of the country, parallel to the present towns. I have been told that at Theophilus Grant’s house in Whaplode, near Gorham’s holt, aqueducts of clay, one let into another, have been dug up;[17] and that in the seadike bank, between Fleet and Gedney, a brass sword was lately found, which seem to be Roman. Thus far in South Holland. At Boston, about 1716, they dug up an old Roman foundation beyond the school-house: near it some hewn stones formed a cavity, in which was an urn with ashes, another little pot with an ear, and an iron key of an odd figure, in my possession. Some time before then, in Mr. Brown’s garden at the Green poles, they dug up an urn lined with thin lead full of red earth and bones. A like one I have seen now in Sir Hans Sloan’s museum, unquestionably Roman.
Roman roads there.
As the Romans had thus intirely taken in and inhabited the country, no doubt but according to their custom they drew several roads across it: but I fear it will be very difficult to give an exact account of them: such is the nature of the ground, having no solid materials, that they would be presently wore away without more constant reparations than the inhabitants practise: yet I have little doubt in supposing one of their ways was drawn from the northern high country about Bolingbroke by Stickford, Stickney, Sibsey, and so to Boston river about Redstonegote, where it passed it by a ferry. I have fancied to myself that several parcels of it are plainly Roman, by the straitness and by the gravelly bottom: from thence to Kirkton it is indubitably so, being laid with a very large bed of gravel: and just a mile from the river is a stone, now called the Mile-stone, standing in a quadrivium; it is a large round stone like the frustum of a pillar, and very properly a lapis milliaris. From Kirkton I imagine the road went to Donington, where it met the great and principal road of the country, which is drawn from Ely to Sleaford in a line not much different from a strait one. It is certain that there is such a road from Grantchester, which was a Roman town a mile above Cambridge, to Ely by Stretham: thence another goes across the depth of the fens by Upwell and Elme towards Wisbech; and it was near this road that the urn with coins first mentioned was found: and anno 1730 a Roman urn full of coins was found at the same place; they were of silver, and very fair. Mr. Beaupre Bell, a curious gentleman, has many Roman coins found near this Roman road by Emney; several of Carausius undescribed. Wisbech probably was a Roman station, and their castle founded upon an older foundation. I suppose this road passed over Wisbech river above the town towards Guyhurn chapel, then went to Trokenholt and Clowscross, there entering our country: from thence that it went in a strait line to Spalding, by which means most of those square forts we have mentioned in Elho, where Roman antiquities were discovered, together with most of the southern hamlets, will be found to be situate near or upon it; such as St. Edmund’s chapel, the moted place there, Gedneyhill chapel, Highdoles there, Holbech chapel, Whaplodedrove chapel, Aswic grange, St. Katherine’s, and Moulton chapel: whether any traces of it can now be found or no, I cannot say; but the villages thereabouts seem strongly to favour the conjecture. Supposing it fact, I should not be surprised if it now be laid perfectly level with the surface of this fenny soil, seeing I have observed the like appearance of a Roman road when carried across a meadow in the high countries, and which was composed of a bed of gravel 100 foot broad, particularly at the Roman city of Alauna by Bicester, of which I shall in a following page give an account: and this of ours I suppose only made of the earth of the country thrown into a bank, because it was impossible to get more durable materials.
From Spalding, according to my sentiments, this road went towards Herring bridge (the word retaining some semblance of antiquity) upon Surflet river, so along the division between the wapentakes of Kirton and Aveland, near Wrigbolt and Cressy-hall, to the end of Brig-end causeway at Donington. Here, Holland brig or Brig-end causeway has all the requisites that can ascertain it to be a Roman work, being strait and laid with a solid bed of stone: the present indeed is repaired every year, but we have much reason to think the first projection of it through this broad morass was no less than Roman. From thence it went to Sleford; then it seems to have gone across the heath, and to have fallen in with the great Hermen street at a remarkable place called Biard’s leap: from thence possibly it was carried, or was designed to be, by Stretleythorp and Brentbroughton over the Witham to Crocolana upon the foss-way; then over the Trent into Nottinghamshire, where it answers in a line with the road to Tuxford and Worksop; and so on perhaps to the Irish sea, whereby it would become a great parallel to the Watling street running across the kingdom, as it does, from south-east to north-west. At Sleaford I am inclinable to think another road came from Banovallum, or Horn castle, to the east of the river Bane southward by les Yates, and so crossed the Witham by Chapelhill and the Cardike somewhere about Kyme: or else crossed the Witham at the Hermitage, so went by Swinshed north end to Donington: this principal road we speak of on the other end seems to go from Ely by Soham and Bury to the German ocean. I am not ashamed to offer my conjecture to the curious, however slender its foundation may be, if only as a hint for a future search: but it seems to me very probable, that if it was not fully executed by the Romans, they intended it, and have in part manifestly done it. I conceit it crosses the Icening street at Ikesworth near Bury, then goes to Bretenham, the Combretonium; but with that country of Suffolk I am at present perfectly unacquainted. Return we to Holland.
Besides this great road, I think we need not scruple to assert that now called Ravensbank to be another, going east and west, through the heart of the country, from Tid St. Mary’s to Cowbit. I have rode some miles upon it, where it is now extremely strait and broad. We have been informed that it is actually in some old writings called Romans Bank: it is well known the Welsh pronounced Roman Rhuffain, and our English word ruffian is from this fountain. Among the Welsh the letters m and v are equivalent, to which f is perfectly alike: maur and vaur is great, and many more: so that Roman, raven, and ruffen, is the same word; and hence no doubt came rambling, roving, and roming, as an ignominious appellative of such as thought every country better than their own; for such to our ancestors seemed the Romans, that scarce left any corner of the known world impervious to their all-conquering eagles, carrying arts and arms along with them as an impetuous torrent, with a most glorious and invincible perseverance. Further, it is not unlikely that the upper road running east and west nearer the sea bank, now called Old Spalding gate, is originally Roman: in some places, as about Fleet, it retains the name of Haregate, which is equivalent to via militaris when spoken by our Saxon progenitors. Thus the main road and these two lesser ones seem sufficiently to answer this purpose as to Elho: it seems to me, that when the Romans made the many forts all along the eastern shore, to guard against the Saxons, that this bay was provided for by five, two upon the edges of the high country, and three upon the rivers; Brancaster in Norfolk, Burgh on Lincolnshire side; Wisbech,[18] Spalding, and Boston, upon each river of the fenny tract.
Having given you then all the authentic or conjectural memoirs that have in general occurred to my reflection upon the most ancient state of this country, I shall proceed to other particularities, nearer our own times, through every parish; only first take notice in short of a wonderful appearance in nature all over this country, and which is common to all such like upon the globe, as far as my informations reach: that is, Antediluvian trees.the infinite quantities of subterraneous trees, lying three or four foot deep, of vast bulk and different species, chiefly fir and oak, exceeding hard, heavy and black: many times the branches reach so near day as to break their ploughs, for so I have heard them complain about Crowland: about Kyme and Billingay they have dug up some boats or canoos made of hollowed trunks of trees.[19] Many people will think that this is nothing but the effect of particular floods, and that this country was once a forest, and not long since disafforested. This country was once taken into the forest of Kesteven by the Norman kings, (as you have told me) only with a political view of extending their power, and disafforested soon after at the instance of the prior of Spalding: yet it is true of Nassaburg hundred only, in Northamptonshire. But in my apprehension, as to the matter before us, such confine their notions to very scanty bounds: an universal phænomenon requires a more dilated solution, and no less than that of the Noachian deluge. But upon this I hope for an occasion to be more copious another time: at present I remember a passage in Pausanias’s Attics toward the end; speaking of an ebeny statue of Archigetes, “I have heard, (says he) from a man of Cyprus very skilful in medicinal herbs, that ebeny bears no leaves, no fruit, nor has it any stock exposed to the sun, only roots in the earth, which the Ethiopians dig up. Some of them are particularly skilful in finding them out.� I doubt not but our author speaks of subterranean trees, and that our people might use this timber to better use than burning it.
Most writers, and particularly Mr. Camden, and most strangers, have an injurious opinion of this country, and apply that to the whole which is true but of part of it: for in the main the land is admirably good, hard, and dry; produces excellent corn and grass; feeds innumerable sheep and oxen of a very large size, and good flesh and wool; bears wood extremely well, has several large woods in it, some intirely of oak of considerable size; is full of hedge-rows and quicksets, and in summer time looks like the garden of Eden: it is level, and most delightful to travellers, whether on horseback, or in a coach. The air indeed is moist, as being near the sea, and bordering upon the fens of the isle of Ely: as to the first, it is the same upon every sea coast; as to the latter, they are chiefly on the south side, whence the sun for the most part draws off the vapours from this country. Indeed this inconvenience accrues from such vicinity, the production of gnats; to which Angelus Politianus has done so much honour in that beautiful Greek epigram you showed me; and is well guarded against by the gentry in the use of netted canopies hung round their beds, which was an invention of the Ægyptians living in a like country. Vide Brown’s Garden of Cyrus, p. 30. But all things necessary for the comfort of life are here in great plenty; and visitants ever go away with a better opinion of it than they bring. That great soul king Charles I. himself undertaking the glorious talk, and others under him, had projected and made such stately works of sewers, as would have rendered this country before now, for trade and beauty, the rival of its name-sake beyond sea; but the licentious times that succeeded, gave the unthinking mob (incited by his avowed adversary in all things, Cromwell) an opportunity to destroy them. I have often considered and admired the length, breadth, and depth of their canals, the vastness of their gotes and sluices: indeed I think they made many more than were useful, and might have laid out the whole in a better manner. I would not, like the Trojan Prophetess, prognosticate ill to my own country; but it is not difficult to foresee, that unless some project be taken in hand, like that which my friend Mr. Kinderley published some time ago, this vast and rich tract must be abandoned to eels and wild ducks. A thing of this nature is not to be done but by the senate of the kingdom taking the matter intirely into their own hands; and if I have any judgement, whatever new works are made, ought always to be carried eastward only, for reasons I inculcated before: therefore, instead of deriving the Welland into the Witham, as was his notion, I would have it brought to the Nen, and both into the Ouse at Lynn, as it was in its original and natural state.
Since the time of the Romans, beyond their first bank have been many intakes, by successive banks, of the best ground in the world left by the sea, which contracts its own limits by throwing up banks of sand out of the estuary: so that, from time to time, the land-owners upon these frontiers gain several thousands of acres. It is observed, the land so imbanked is ever higher in level than that left behind it; and I doubt not but some time the whole bay between Lincolnshire and Norfolk (being one of our great sovereign’s noblest chambers in his British dominions over the sea, vide Seld. Mar. claus.) will become dry land. By this means the parishes hereabouts increase to a huge bulk. Holbech from Dovesdale bar, where it joins to Cambridgeshire, to the limits of the salt marshes, is near twenty miles long. The cattle bred on this ground are very large; the sheep never have horns. Smithfield market, as now much supported, was chiefly set up by the inhabitants here, as I have been told, particularly by Mr. William Hobson, brother to the famous Cambridge carrier, and Mr. Cust; the London butchers, before then, commonly going into the country to buy cattle.
In every parish formerly were many chapels, it being impracticable for people to come so far to one church, though now most of them are demolished, at what time I cannot imagine. No part of England boasts of so many beautiful churches, having generally lofty spires of fine squared stone, fetched from Barneck pits, which are a coarse rag full of petrified shells of all kinds of small fish, and not, as some think, from Norway. And in no very distant times, not a parish without great numbers of gentry, lords, knights, and great families, who made a figure in the world: now scarce any remains of them, but the site of their houses moted round, their tombs in the churches, their arms in the painted windows, where they have by chance escaped the fury of fanatic zeal. Many religious houses formerly there; and nearly the whole country was got into their hands, as appears by the old terriers, or town-books. The only houses of note are at present Dunton hall, in Tyd St. Mary’s parish, lately rebuilt magnificently by Sigismund Trafford, esq. who has likewise inclosed a considerable park with a brick wall; and Cressy hall in Surflet parish, the seat of Henry Heron, esq. in which the lady Margaret, mother to Hen. VII. was once entertained. The house was handsomely rebuilt by the present possessor’s father, Sir Henry Heron, knight of the Bath; but the chapel is old, built, or licensed at least, anno 1309, as an inscription over the door tells us. In it is an old brass eagle with an inscription round it.[20]
Formerly, there is reason to suppose, the gentry had many parks near their seats. Records in your possession show that the prior of Spalding, about 1265, compelled Thomas lord Moulton to compound with him for the venison in his park at Moulton; and in Holbech, about a mile south of the church, are lands in my tenure, called the Park. That fish and fowl is here plentiful, no one will wonder; but particularly the pigeons are noted for large and fine.
Decoys.
TAB. II.
In the out-skirts of it are great numbers of decoys, places so called where they take an incredible quantity of wild ducks,[21] mostly sent up to London: they are large pits dug in the fens, with five canals shooting from them, each ending in a point after one angle made, well planted with willows, fallows, osiers, and such underwood. I have given a drawing of one. The method of catching fowl in short is this: the decoy-man coming down to the angle of the pipe, or canal, which is covered with nets and over-shadowed with trees, peeps through the holes in the reedy sheds, disposed like the scenes at the play-house, and joined by the others with holes at the bottom, about as high as a man’s breast: when he sees a sufficient quantity of wild ducks in the mouth of the great pond, by whistling softly, the tame ducks wing-stocked, and brought up for that purpose, swim into the pipe covered with the nets, to feed upon the corn he throws over the sheds into the water: this tempts the wild ducks in to partake of the bait: in the mean time a dog they teach runs round the half-sheds, in and out at the holes in the bottom, which amuses the fowl so that they apprehend no danger: when he has brought them far enough into the pipe, stooping he goes along the scenes, till he is got beyond the ducks, and rising up shows himself at the half-scenes, which frightens the wild ducks only, the opposite way into the narrow end of the pipe, which terminates in a fatal net: and all this is done without any noise or knowledge of the rest of the wild ducks in the great pond; so that the decoy-man having dispatched one pipe, goes round to execute the same game at all the rest, whereby infinite quantities are catched in a year’s time at one of these places only.
2
The Form of the Decoys in Lincolnshire.
Richardo M. Masfey M.D.
tabulam d.d. WË¢. Stukeley
In running over what few remarkables I have observed in this country, I shall exclude Marsh-land, because in Norfolk, observing only that their churches are very beautiful, numerous, large, and stately; that here are, too, many such of the tumuli. You will indulge me the liberty of giving the etymology of places all along: Cicero likes that method; Acad. Quæst. 1. 8. verborum explicatio probatur, i. e. qua de causa quæque essent ita nominata quam etymologiam appellabant: and though there be often more of pleasant subtlety than reality in such matters, yet it serves to find out and preserve some old words in a language that otherwise are in danger of oblivion. The Washes. I shall begin with the Washes so much talked of, and so terrible to strangers, though without much reason; if they take a guide, which is highly adviseable. The meaning is this: they are the mouths of the river Welland, called Fossdike Wash, and the river Ouse, called Cross-Keys Wash, running into the sea, and inclosing this country almost round. Wase Sax. lutum, oose. Twice in a day, six hours each time during the recess of the tide, they are fordable and easy to be passed over: the intermediate six hours they are covered with the flux of the ocean. Mr. Merret, of Boston, son to Dr. Merret, has given a table in the Philos. Trans. which I improved for the benefit of travellers, and is graven on a handsome copperplate by my friend, Mr. John Redman: but I would have passengers not to trust too far to the minutes in the table, because at some times of the year the tides will anticipate a few minutes, at others will be retarded, and at all times (not to say any thing of the difference of clocks and watches) south-east winds make the tides flow earlier than ordinary, north-west protract them; so that a wise traveller, in this and all other cases, will take time and tide by the forelock. Formerly people travelled what they call the Long Wash, between Lynn and Boston, intirely upon the sands or skirts of the ocean, but now quite disused and impracticable: there it was, that king John lost all his carriages among the creeks and quicksands. The memory of it is retained to this day, by the corner of a bank between Cross-Keys Wash and Lynn, called now King’s Corner.
Lutton.
In Lutton was born the famous Dr. Busby, master of Westminster school, who has beautified the church, and founded a school there: he owes his education to the Welbys, an ancient family in this country. I suppose the town has its name from the general drainage of the country, which was here in one channel united: they call such Lades, or Lodes, to this day: this probably is as ancient as any town in Holland. South from it (and therefore)Sutton. Sutton church is of an ancient make, especially the stone work of the steeple: the upper part of the church has been built of brick in the memory of man. John of Gaunt owned Sutton, and other vast manors and townships in this country. At Tyd St. Giles, Nicholas Breakspear was curate, who afterwards became pope Adrian IV. St. James’s chapel is built of a large sort of brick, such as I have seen no where else; not Roman.TAB. XI. Near it is Ivy-Cross, of stone, in a quadrivium; a curious piece, upon Ravensbank.
Gedney.
Gedney church is very beautiful, built, I believe, chiefly by the abbots of Croyland, who had a house, no doubt, very stately, on the north side of the church, and large possessions in the parish: the upper part of the tower is of the same date with the church, built upon older work; probably both the work of the abbots, together with contributions of the rich families that formerly lived here. In the chancel window a religious in his habit. There is an old monument of the Welbys, and upon the south door is this inscription:
PAX XPISIT HUIC DOMUI
ET OMNIBUS HABITANTIBUS
IN EA HIC REQUIES NOSTRA.
The town seems to be derived from Gaden-ea, aqua ad viam: Ea is a watering place properly for cattle, and roads we still call gates in this country.
Fleet.
The next parish, Fleet, from the Anglo-Saxonic Fleot, æstuarium, fluxus, still called Fleet-Haven, is remarkable for the steeple standing at a distance from the church: from this place the family of the Fletes come, who have made a considerable figure in the country ever since we have any written memorials.
Holbech.
Holbech (the Salt-Beech) church is very large, and well built, a strong tower and lofty steeple, dedicate to all saints: formerly there were organs and fine painted glass, with many coats of arms, but none left except the Holbeches: Vert, six escallops argent, three, two, one.TAB. XXI. There is a fine monument of the Littleburys, an ancient and flourishing family in these parts:TAB. I. 2d Vol. upon his shield is his coat, Argent, two lions passant gardant gules: there is a brass inscription of a lady of the Welby family, wife to Sir Richard Leake, knight. Orate pro anima Johanne Welby quondam filiae Richardi Leake militis nuper uxoris Littlebury que obiit xviii die mensis decembris anno domini mccclxxxviii. cujus anime propitietur deus Amen. Here was born Henry Rands, alias de Holbech, bishop of Lincoln, who was one of the compilers of the Liturgy: here formerly flourished the ancient families of Fleet, Dacres, Harrington, Barrington, Welby, Multon.
In the year 1696, in digging at Mr. Adlard Stukeley’s gardens, they found an old brass seal, which I gave to Sir Hans Sloan; a man in long robes, with two escutcheons, on one three cocks, on the other a portcullis; the legend, +SOVRABLA DEUS OLER. In the year 1698, an iron spur with a very long shank was found: in my possession. A remarkable rarity in nature I met withal, an admirable ossification in the omentum of a sheep, white and solid as ivory. Mr. Cheselden has printed a cut of it in the second edition of his Anatomy. I gave it to Dr. Mead.
From the ancient churchwardens’ accounts, before the time of the Reformation, from anno 1453, many curious remarks may be made, in relation to prices of things, wages, superstitious customs, old families, and the like: a specimen whereof I have here annexed.
ss. A Boake of the Stuffe in the Cheyrche of Holbeche sowld by Chyrchewardyns of the same according to the injunctyons of the Kynges Magyste.
| s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|
| An. dni. M. ccccc. xlviio. First to Antony Heydon the trynite with the tabernacle | ii. | iiii. |
| It. to Wm. Calow thelder the tabernacle of Nicholas and Jamys | vi. | viii. |
| It. to Wm. Davy on tabernacle of our lady of pytye | iiii. | |
| It. to Wm. Calow the younger on other tabernacle of our lady | iii. | vi. |
| It. to Antony Heydon the ymage of the Antony | xx. | |
| It. to Humphry Hornesey on sygne | vi. | |
| It. to Antony Heydon on other synge and a lytyl tabernacle | xx. | |
| It. to Wm. Calow the younger the tabernacle of Thomas Bekete | iiii. | viii. |
| It. to Wm. Davy the sygne whereon the plowghe did stond | xvi. | |
| It. to John Thorpe a chyst in St. Jamys chapell | ii. | |
| It. to Lincone howld woode | iiii. | |
| It. to Nicholas Foster the banke that the George stoode on | iiii. | |
| It. to Antony Heydon ij alters | ii. | viii. |
| It. to Wm. Stowe ij lytyll tabernacles | viii. | |
| It. to Henry Elman on lytyll tabernacle | ii. | |
| It. to John Thorpe for Harod’s coate | xviii. | |
| It. to Wm. Calow the younger all thapostyls coats and other raggs | viii. | iiii. |
| It. to Henry Elman for vii baner clothes | ix. | iiii. |
| It. to Antony Heydon on blewe clothe | ix. | |
| It. to Smithes on pece of howlde saye | iii. | |
| It. to Richerd Richerson the crosse and other gydys | ii. | iii. |
| It. to Mr. Byllysby ij tablys | iiii. | iiii. |
| It. to Antony Heydon for the coats of the iij kyngs of Coloyne | v. | iiii. |
| It. to Humphry Hornesey the canypye that was born over the sacrament | xx. | |
| It. to Wm. Calow thelder and John Thorpe iiij owlde pantyd clothes | vi. | viii. |
| It. to Antony Heydon on wood candlestyke | iiii. | |
| It. to Wm. Calow the younger on lytyll bell | vi. | |
| It. to Antony Heydon on other lytyll bell | vi. | |
| It. to Wm. Davy for the tabernacles that stode at the end of the hy alter | viii. |
| l. | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sm. | iiii. | ii. | iiii. |
A. D. m. ccccc xlvii.
| It. to Wm. Calow the younger on rod of iyron | iiii. | |
| It. to Robt. Gyffon for ij barrs of iyron | v. | |
| It. to Antony Heydon xx score and x hund. of latyn at ii s. and xi d. the score | lxix. | xi. ob. |
| It. to Richerd Richerson ij lytyll tabernacles | viii. | |
| It. of John Suger for the chyrche lond | ii. | viii. |
| It. of the burial of Mr. Byllysby | iii. | iiii. |
| It. of John Mays wyffe for the Dracon | iii. | |
| It. of Alys Boyds debt to xps corpys gilde | ii. | |
| It. for on belll. xviii. | ii. | |
| It. for seyten vestments and trashe in the chest in trinete quere sold to Davy | xxxiii. | iiii. |
| It. of Wm. Burnit for pilows | xvi. | |
| It. of Wm. Calow the younger for eyrne | xx. |
| l. | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sm. totalis | xxviii. | iiii. | iiii. ob. |
21
Ecclesiam de HOLBECH in Agro Linc. Lucio
Henrico Hibbins Arm. d.d. W. Stukeley 1722
Stukeley delin.
I. Harris sculp
1·2d.
Littlebury in Holbech Church
More superstitious ornaments of the church were sold in queen Elizabeth’s time, 1560.
From this book I extracted the following catalogue of the Ministers
of the parish.
| John Clerk chaplain. | Anno | 1450. |
| John Risceby vicar. | 1460. | |
| Thomas George chaplain then. | ||
| Robert Jelow. | 1469. | |
| William Greyborn vicarius perpetuus. | 1474. | |
| Sir John Welby priest. | ||
| Sir John Lyard perpetual vicar. | obiit | 1496. |
| Baxter. | 1508. | |
| Ds. Neel capellanus. | ||
| Richard Wytte. | 1520. | |
| Sir John Scapull. | ob. | 1524. |
| Sir Robert Manning. | 1550. | |
| Sir Thomas West. | 1561. | |
| Thomas Gybson precher. | ||
| Othoneel Bradbury. | 1600. | |
| Matthew Clarke vicar of Holbech. | 1610. | |
| Henry Williamson. | 1630. | |
| John Grante. | 1633. | |
| John Bellenden. | 1640. | |
| John Pymlowe. | 1647. | |
| John Pymlowe. | 1687. | |
| George Arnett. | 1720.[22] |
In 1529, a new organ cost 3l. 6s. 8d. The organ in the church was taken down 1568. Anno 1453, Wm. Enot, of Lynn, epi. and Henry Nele of Holbech, gave the saints bell. Another guild of St. Thomas; another of our Lady. The vestry on the south side of the choir was taken down 1567. There was formerly a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary at Holbech hurn, near the ancient seat of the Littleburys; standing 1515: another chapel thereabouts, dedicated to St. Nicholas: another in Wignal’s gate, near Holbech hall, by the river side, dedicated to St. Peter. About 1719, I saw many corpses dug up in the yard at making a ditch there. Another in the fen ends. An ancient guild of Corpus Christi stood near Barney pit, where is now a house once belonging to Moses Stukeley, who owned the estate thereof. An hospital founded by John de Kirkton, in his own messuage, by licence of king Ed. III dat. Nov. 16, for a warden, chaplain, and fifteen poor people: he endowed it with several lands in Holbech, which he held of the abbot of Croyland, who by licence permitted the same to be annexed to this hospital of All Saints in Holbech, for which he paid 20l. This stood, as I imagine, where now is the Chequer inn, over against the church. I remember the old stone-work arched doors and windows with mullions, pulled down when rebuilt by my father, and many of the carved stones were laid in the foundation of the houses he built by the river side at the bridge. See Dugdale’s Monasticon. A free-school was founded here, about 1669, by George Farmer, esq. who endowed it with lands, which with others since given are now worth about 50l. per annum; which I am bound in gratitude not to forget. A. D. 1699, there were belonging to the fifty-four bounds of this parish, paying rates, acres 6234; in the marsh, acres 6532; and since added for the last intake, acres 170. The old cross in the market-place was pulled down 1683. 1253, Thomas de Multon, lord Egremont, obtained a market and fair toTAB II. 2d Vol. Holbech, 31 Oct. 37 Hen. III. at Windsor, and probably built that cross.
2·2d.
Holbech Cross Lincolnshire
Ob amorem erga Solum Natale, Temporum Ignorantia direptam restituit Ws. Stukeley 1722
Whaplode.
Quaplode, called anciently Capellade, i. e. Capella ad Ladam s. fluvium, has a very ancient church, founded by the abbots of Croyland: the tower stands on the south side. In the upper and south windows are these coats of arms. Barry of six azure and argent; Azure, a bend gules, charged with three roses argent; Argent, two lions passant gardant gules, Littlebury. In the east window of the north chapel, Littlebury, and Or, a fesse between two chevronels gules; and Sable, a fret argent, Harrington: Azure, on a bend gules, three roses argent, as before. I have a copy of the foundation of this church. Here is a large monument of the Irbys.
GENEALOGY of MOULTON.
Moulton.
Moulton, or Multon, probably has its name from a mill, which anciently, perhaps, were not so common as now. There is a good church, and very fine spire; as also a good free-school of near 100l. per ann. value in lands. Moulton hall, whose last ruins I have seen, was the seat of Thomas de Multon, lord Egremont, a great man in these parts. His hand is among the barons at Magna Charta. Between these two parishes, in a green lane northwards, stands a little stone called Elho stone, whence the name of this hundred is derived: it is about the middle thereof, and was formerly the main road across the country, now called Old Spalding Gate. Old men tell us, here was kept in ancient times an annual court; I suppose a convention, sub dio, of the adjacent parts, to treat of their general affairs. A wood hard by is called Elhostone wood.
Weston.
Weston, because west from the last town. Here is the stately chapel of Wykeham, the villa of the rich priors of Spalding, built by Clement de Hatfield, prior, who died anno 1318. In 1051, Spalding priory made by Thorold, sheriff of Lincoln, out of his own manor-house. Many places near the old sea-bank are called hurns, signifying an angle. Here is a little leam called the Wik: Mr. Camden, in Bucks, says it signifies the winding of a river, as Cowhurn hard by.
Spalding.
Spalding has been famous for its ancient and rich priory founded before the Conquest, and for the residence of Ivo Tailbois, the lord of this country, by gift of William the Conqueror, the site of whose castle is on the north-east part of the town. The town-hall was built by William Hobson. But of this place we expect from you, sir, a more particular account.
Pynchbek.
In Pynchbek church-windows are the arms of Ogle, of Fleet; Argent, on two bars sable, six escallops of the first, empaled with De la Launde. Pyncebeck seems to come from the Cimbrian pinken, lucere, from the clearness of its water.
Many towns, on both sides Deeping Fen, end in ington, ingham, as lying upon the Mead. Donington.Donington is very hilly, full of elevations or dunes. Thomas Cowley, esq. of Donington, who died about 1718, left all his estate, which was considerable, to the poor of every parish where it lay, whereof 400l. per ann. to Donington, where he built a school-house, and endowed it.
Algarkirk.
Algarkirk has a fine church, in which are some water-bougets carved on the oak seats in escutcheons. They say here lived the famous count Algar,[23] commander of the Holland men in many battles against the Danes, of whom they show an image in stone in the church-yard. I found there this inscription,
Sis testis Xpe, quod non jacet hic lapis iste
Quisquis es si transeas sta perlege plora
Corpus ut ornetur sit lapis ut memoretur.
Sum quod eris fueramque quod es pro me precor ora.
Wiberton.
Wiberton, they say, has its name from Guibertus, a great man here formerly. There is a place called Multon hall, which belonged to the aforementioned Thomas de Multon. Here is likewise Titton hall: the chapel is now converted into a stable.
Frampton.
Hard by is Frampton, probably from the Anglo-Saxonic Faran, trajicere: for here they passed over the river in a ferry, before Boston bridge was built; as at Framton, in Gloucestershire, upon the Severn, and Framilode passage. Farnton by Newark, where now is the ferry over the Trent. Gosberton, from Gosbèrt, or Gosbright, I suppose lord of the town before the Conquest. Fossdike seems to be Fordsdike, where we pass over the Washes.
Skirbeck.
Skirebec doubtless has its name from the Saxon, scire, division, because here the river parts the hundreds. Here was an hospital of knights of St. John of Jerusalem, now intirely demolished, though the church was standing within memory of man. There was another religious house near the church: the remains of it is now the parsonage-house. Such names of towns as Fishtoft, Butterwick, Swineshead, Cowbyte, and the like, seem easy enough.
Sibsey.
Sibsey church has very handsome pillars and circular arches, somewhat after the Roman mode. The top of the steeple is added upon the old work; perhaps from its watery situation; sipan, to steep. Leverton.Leverton, Leofrici oppidum: he was a potent man thereabouts at the time of the Normans coming, and gave to the town much common: his deed of gift is now in possession of the reverend and worthy vicar, Mr. William Falkner, which I have seen.
Frieston.
Frieston, a frith, æstuarium; so Ald Friston in Sussex, near Cuckmere haven. Here was an opulent monastery founded by Guy de Croun, whose genealogy I shall not think much to recite, because it relates to the antiquities of this country, and in some measure shows the reason of what my friend Mr. Becket, surgeon, much wondered at when he searched the old repository of wills at the Prerogative Office in London, where he observed more of this country than any other in England.