Chapter I: Preface

All writers make use of the labours of their predecessors. This is inevitable, and a custom as old as time. As Mr. Rudyard Kipling sings:—

“When ’Omer smote ’is bloomin’ lyre
’E’d ’eard men sing by land and sea,
And what ’e thought ’e might require
’E went and took, the same as me.”

In writing this book I have made use of all the sources that I could lay under contribution, and especially I have relied for help on “Murray’s Handbook,” edited by the Rev. G. E. Jeans, and the Journals of the associated Architectural Societies. I have recorded in the course of the volume my thanks to a few kind helpers, and to these I must add the name of Mr. A. R. Corns of the Lincoln Library, for his kindness in allowing me the use of many books on various subjects, and on several occasions, which have been of the utmost service to me. My best thanks, also, are due to my cousin, Mr. Preston Rawnsley, for his chapter on the Foxhounds of Lincolnshire. That the book owes much to the pencil of Mr. Griggs is obvious; his illustrations need no praise of mine but speak for themselves. The drawing given on p. 254 is by Mrs. Rawnsley.

I have perhaps taken the title “Highways and Byways” more literally than has usually been done by writers in this interesting series, and in endeavouring to describe the county and its ways I have followed the course of all the main roads radiating from each large town, noticing most of the places through or near which they pass, and also pointing out some of the more picturesque byways, and describing the lie of the country. But I have all along supposed the tourist to be travelling by motor, and have accordingly said very little about Footpaths. This in a mountainous country would be entirely wrong, but Lincolnshire as a whole is not a pedestrian’s county. It is, however, a land of constantly occurring magnificent views, a land of hill as well as plain, and, as I hope the book will show, beyond all others a county teeming with splendid churches. I may add that, thanks to that modern devourer of time and space—the ubiquitous motor car—I have been able personally to visit almost everything I have described, a thing which in so large a county would, without such mercurial aid, have involved a much longer time for the doing. Even so, no one can be more conscious than I am that the book falls far short of what, with such a theme, was possible.

W. F. R.

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY 1

CHAPTER II

STAMFORD 7

CHAPTER III

STAMFORD TO BOURNE 18

CHAPTER IV

ROADS FROM BOURNE 28

CHAPTER V

SOUTH-WEST LINCOLNSHIRE 39

CHAPTER VI

GRANTHAM 52

CHAPTER VII

ROADS FROM GRANTHAM 64

CHAPTER VIII

SLEAFORD 76

CHAPTER IX

LINCOLN CATHEDRAL 91

CHAPTER X

PAULINUS AND HUGH OF LINCOLN 112

CHAPTER XI

LINCOLN CITY 120

CHAPTER XII

ROADS FROM LINCOLN, WEST AND EAST 137

CHAPTER XIII

ROADS SOUTH FROM LINCOLN 148

CHAPTER XIV

PLACES OF NOTE NEAR LINCOLN 165

CHAPTER XV

HERMITAGES AND HOSPITALS 178

CHAPTER XVI

ROADS NORTH FROM LINCOLN 182

CHAPTER XVII

GAINSBOROUGH AND THE NORTH-WEST 195

CHAPTER XVIII

THE ISLE OF AXHOLME 208

CHAPTER XIX

GRIMSBY AND THE NORTH-EAST 215

CHAPTER XX

CAISTOR 228

CHAPTER XXI

LOUTH 239

CHAPTER XXII

ANGLO-SAXON, NORMAN AND MEDIÆVAL ART 251

CHAPTER XXIII

ROADS FROM LOUTH, NORTH AND WEST 262

CHAPTER XXIV

LINCOLNSHIRE BYWAYS 278

CHAPTER XXV

THE BOLLES FAMILY 285

CHAPTER XXVI

THE MARSH CHURCHES OF EAST LINDSEY 290

CHAPTER XXVII

LINCOLNSHIRE FOLKSONG 296

CHAPTER XXVIII

MARSH CHURCHES OF SOUTH LINDSEY 305

CHAPTER XXIX

WAINFLEET TO SPILSBY 323

CHAPTER XXX

SPILSBY AND NEIGHBOURHOOD 333

CHAPTER XXXI

SOMERSBY AND THE TENNYSONS 343

CHAPTER XXXII

ROADS FROM SPILSBY 358

CHAPTER XXXIII

SCRIVELSBY AND TATTERSHALL 372

CHAPTER XXXIV

BARDNEY ABBEY 390

CHAPTER XXXV

HOLLAND FEN 400

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE FEN CHURCHES—NORTHERN DIVISION 409

CHAPTER XXXVII

ST. BOTOLPH’S TOWN (BOSTON) 425

CHAPTER XXXVIII

SPALDING AND THE CHURCHES NORTH OF IT 441

CHAPTER XXXIX

CHURCHES OF HOLLAND 463

CHAPTER XL

THE BLACK DEATH 480

CHAPTER XLI

CROYLAND 483

CHAPTER XLII

LINCOLNSHIRE FOXHOUNDS 493

APPENDIX I

SAMUEL WESLEY’S EPITAPH 499

APPENDIX II

DR. WM. STUKELEY 500