[188e] “The Vikings of Western Christendom,” by C. F. Keary, p. 52.
[188f] “History of Horncastle,” p. 27.
[188g] “Collectanea,” vol. ii, p. 509.
[190] In the “Memoirs of the Verney Family,” Vol. i., it is stated that the King’s army were raw levies, pressed by force at short notice, ill fed and ill clothed. The Verneys’ relative, Dr. Denton, present with the forces, writes, “Our men are very rawe, our armes, of all sorts, naught, our vittle scarce, and provision for horses worse” (p. 315). Sir Jacob Astley writes, his recruits “have neither colours nor halberts”; and he has to “receive all the arch knaves of the kingdom, who beat their officers and break open prisons.” Edmund Verney writes, “We have 6 weeks’ pay due, and unless there be some speedy payment, you may expect to hear that our souldyers are in a mutiny; they are notable sheep stealers already.” Many had only rude pykes and lances; few who had a musket had a sword as well. Pistols and matchlocks were scarce. Old armour, which had hung in churches and manor houses, was used over again (pp. 109–116).
[192a] Walker’s “Sufferings of the Clergy,” pt. ii, pp. 252, 253.
[192b] Chancery Inquis., p. mort, 8 Ric. II, No. 99.
[193c] Some of these fragments were taken by Mr. Stanhope to Revesby Abbey. Two of them stand in the writer’s garden, at Langton Rectory.
[193] Cl. Rot., 13 Hen III., given in “Lincs. N. & Q.,” vol. i, p. 49. From a very early period churches and churchyards were regarded as so sacred that a criminal, having reached one of these, like the Biblical cities of refuge, could not be disturbed. On the north door of Durham Cathedral there is a ponderous bronze knocker-ring, to which the criminal, clinging, was safe. There is another at Hexham, and at St. Gregory’s, Norwich. At Westminster, Worcester, Croyland, Tintern, and many other places, there was the same privilege. In Beverley Minster there is a remarkable stone called the “Frith-stool,” because it “freeth” the criminal from pursuit. It is recorded that in 1325 ten men escaped from Newgate, four of them to the Church of St. Sepulchre, and one to St. Bride’s. Nicholas de Porter joined in dragging a man from Sanctuary, who was afterwards executed. But this act was itself so great an offence, that he only obtained pardon through the Papal Nuncio, on doing penance in his shirt and bare head and feet in the church porch, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Whitsun week. A result, however, of the abuse of Sanctuary was, that churches being so numerous over the country, criminals could always obtain a refuge, and the roads became infested with highwaymen. Henry VIII. passed Acts curtailing the privilege, and it was finally abolished by James I., 1624—“New Quarterly Mag.,” Jan., 1880. Et alibi.
[194a] Collectanea, vol. ii., p. 300.
[194b] Although these events happened more than 250 years ago, it does not require many links to connect that day with the present. The writer was informed, at the time he was putting these records together, that a man named John Barber died in Horncastle, aged 95, in the year 1855 or 1856, whose grandfather remembered Oliver Cromwell sleeping in the above-named house, then a mud and stud structure, on the night before Winceby fight. In the Register of West Barkwith is recorded the burial of Nicholas Vickers in 1719, who guided Cromwell over Market Rasen Moor after the battle. Cromwell may well, therefore, have returned to the same house at Horncastle before proceeding northward by Market Rasen.