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.