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