Markby Church.
The registers at Markby are among the earliest in the kingdom, beginning in 1558, those in Hannay dating from 1559. The first year of their institution was 1838.
THE HUTTOFT FONT
The Huttoft font is of the fourteenth century, and is four feet eight inches high, so it needs a step like those at Wrangle, Benington, and Frieston, and that at Skendleby. On the bowl are represented the Holy Trinity, the Virgin and Child, the Virgin holding a bunch of lilies, and the Child an apple. On six of the panels are the Apostles in pairs, as at Covenham St. Mary. The under part has angel figures all round supporting the bowl. The shaft has eight panels with figures of popes, bishops, and holy women, and at the base are symbols of the four evangelists. The string-courses show three different roofs to the nave.
HOGSTHORPE
Hogsthorpe, like most of the churches in the neighbourhood, is built of the soft local green-sand, which is found near the edge of the marsh where the Wolds die away into the level. The tower shows patches of brickwork which give a warm and picturesque appearance. The south porch is here, as is the rule, built of a harder stone, and is handsome and interesting. A pair of oblong stones of no great size are built in on either side above the arch with an inscription in old English letters, beginning, oddly enough, both in this church and in one at Winthorpe a few miles off, with the right hand stone and finishing on the left. The words are, “Orate pro animabus Fratrum et Sororum Guilde Sᶜᵗᵃᵉ Mariæ hujus Ecclesiæ quorum expensis et sumptibus fabricata est haec porticus.” The church has had its roof renewed in pine wood. It also has the worst coloured window glass I have ever seen, an error of local piety.[17] The registers begin in 1558.
ADDLETHORPE
From here the road, with countless right-angled turns, runs between the reedy dykes to the Perpendicular church of Addlethorpe (St. Nicolas). Here the south porch is unusually good, with figures of angels on the buttresses and beautiful foliage work carved on the parapet. On the apex is a well-cut crucifix and, as at Somersby, on the back is a small figure of the Virgin and Child. A large holy-water stoup stands just within the door. There is a window in the porch, also a niche and a slab with the following inscription:—
The Cryst that suffered