[90c] The Cuppledykes were large owners of property in this neighbourhood, several of their monuments still remaining in Harrington Church and elsewhere.
[91] The pedigree of the Littleburies is given in the “Visitation of Lincolnshire,” A.D. 1562–1564, edited by Mr. W. Metcalf, F.S.A., A. Bell & Sons, 1881. Sir Humphrey Littlebury was descended from Hamon Littlebury, of Littlebury Manor, Essex, A.D. 1138. Sir Martin Littlebury Knight was Chief Justice of England, 28 Henry III., A.D. 1243. Fuller particulars of this family are given in other of these Records.
[93] This record is interesting as giving an instance of the title “Sir” as applied to the Clergy. A graduate of the University, having the M.A. degree was styled “Master” so and so, but when in Holy Orders, if he was only a B.A. he was styled “dominus,” the English equivalent of which was “Sir.” This was a general style of address, and was continued in the Isle of Man to a late period.
In “A Short Treatise on the Isle of Man,” by James Chaloner, governor, date 1656, it is stated that all the clergy who are natives have this title, even in one case a curate being so styled. In Bale’s “Image of bothe Churches” (circa 1550), it is said, “the most ragged runagate among them is no less than a Sir, which is a Lord in the Latin.” In Pulleyn’s “Etymological Compendium,” we find “The title of ‘Sir’ was given to all who had taken a degree, or had entered into Orders.” Thus, Hearne, the Antiquary, after he had taken the degree of B.A., was addressed as “Sir Hearne” (Aubrey’s Letters, i. 117), and William Waynfleet (afterwards Bishop of Winchester), when he had taken the same degree, was called “Sir Waynfleet,” (“Chandler’s Life,” p. 54), Chaucer in his “Canterbury Tales,” speaks of “Sir Clerk,” “Sir Monk,” and it even appeared in Acts of Parliament, as 12 and 13 Ed. IV., N. 14, “Sir James Theckness, Preste,” and i. Henry VII., p. 11, “Sir Oliver Langton, Preste? Sir Robert Nayelsthorp, Preste.”
[95] In a ploughed field, about 300 yards from the main road, a large boulder was discovered by a ploughman, in 1902, measuring about 3ft. in length, some 2½ft. in height, and about the same in thickness, being also ice-borne Neocomian.
[98a] The learned Dr. Oliver (“Religious Houses,” Appendix, p. 167, note 40) says, “wherever the word ‘Kir,’ or any of its derivatives, is found, it implies a former Druid temple.” This syllable forms the base of the Latin “Circulus,” and our own “Circle.” We find many interesting British names containing it; for instance, in the name of that favourite resort of tourists in North Wales, Capel Curig, we have the plural Kerig, implying the British (or Druid) sacred circle of stones, while we have also, prefixed, the translation of it by the Roman Conquerors of those Britons, “Capella,” or Chapel. As a parallel to this, we may mention, that in Wiltshire on “Temple” Downs, there are some stone Druidical remains, which are locally known by the name of “Old Chapel” (Oliver, Ibid., p. 175, note 66). Again in Kerig y Druidion, another place in North Wales, we have the sacred circle “Kerig,” directly connected with the Druids, in the suffix Druidion. There is also at Kirkby Green, near Sleaford, a spot called “Chapel Hill,” another at the neighbouring village Dorrington (“Darun” the Druid sacred oak), and also south of Coningsby, on the sacred Witham, all probably sites of Druid worship.
[98b] Mr. Taylor (“Words and Places” p. 130) says, “the names of our rivers are Celtic (i.e. British).” There is a river Ben, in Co. Mayo; Bandon, Co. Cork; Bann, Co. Wexford; Bana, Co. Down; Bannon (Ban-avon), in Pembrokeshire; Banney, in Yorkshire; and Bain, in Hertfordshire.
[99a] The exact meaning of “by” is seen in the German, which is akin. In Luther’s translation of Job. xxvi. 5, for “they dwell,” the old German is “die bey”; the latter word being our word “bide,” or “abide.” A “by” was an “abode,” or permanent residence; so the Lincolnshire farmer calls the foundation of his stack, the “steddle,” connected with the Saxon, “steady,” and “stead” in “homestead,” &c.
[99b] Government Geological Survey, pp. 154–5.
[100a] Portions of Waddingworth and Wispington are given in Domesday Book, as being in the soke of Great Stourton, and Kirkby-on-Bain. Stourton Magna, was formerly a place of some importance, sites being still known as the positions of the market place, &c.