Chapter I: Part 1

MEMORIALS OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND

General Editor:
REV. P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.S.L., F.R.H.

MEMORIALS OF
OLD LINCOLNSHIRE

_E. R. Taylor pinx._ _Andre & Sleigh Sc._]

MEMORIALS OF
OLD LINCOLNSHIRE

EDITED BY
E. MANSEL SYMPSON, M.A., M.D.
_Author of “Lincoln” (Ancient Cities)
Co-Editor of “Lincolnshire Notes and Queries”_

WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
GEORGE ALLEN & SONS, RUSKIN HOUSE
RATHBONE PLACE
1911

[_All Rights Reserved_]

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL BROWNLOW LORD-LIEUTENANT OF LINCOLNSHIRE

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY KIND PERMISSION

PREFACE

Lincolnshire, perhaps, is known most widely as the second largest county in England, as pre-eminent in agriculture and stock-breeding on wold, heath, marsh, and fen, as well to the fore in the manufacture of agricultural and other machinery, as possessing the largest fishing-port in Europe (Grimsby), and as being associated with “The Handicap.”

But, apart from all these, she can boast of very many attractions for the traveller and the antiquary. Flat and low though her shores may be, yet there is a fascination in the great extent of “yellow sands”; and there is a recompense for the level plain of marsh or fen in the vast expanse of sky, where “The incomparable pomp of eve, And the cold glories of the dawn,” are seen at their finest.

And the views are wonderful: from Alkborough, over the junction of the Trent, the Ouse, and the Humber; from Lincoln, over the plateau eastwards to the wolds, or westwards over the valley of the Trent to the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire hills; or eastwards, from the edge of the “high wold,” over the great plain

“That sweeps with all its autumn bowers,
And crowded farms and lessening towers,
To mingle with the bounding main.”

The county possesses the birthplaces of Newton, Tennyson, Henry of Bolingbroke, Archbishop Whitgift, and John Wesley. She has produced explorers like Franklin, and heroes of romance and reality like Sir John Bolles (the hero of the Spanish Lady ballad) and Captain John Smith of Willoughby (who was rescued by Pocahontas). St. Botolph, St. Guthlac, and St. Gilbert of Sempringham were all Lincolnshire in origin and life, and the latter founded the only monastic order (that of the Gilbertines) which originated in this country.

The monastic institutions of this county have had to be passed by in this volume. Although there are no vast or splendid remains (if Thornton Abbey gate-house and Crowland be excepted) above ground, still the excavations of the Rev. C. G. Laing at Bardney Abbey have proved how large and beautiful one at least of those buildings was.

The city of Lincoln, again, demanding a volume to itself, has not been dealt with here, save in so far as it appears in Roman times.

The greatest and noblest “memorial” of all is, of course, the mighty Minster, superb in its architecture and in its situation, with its great roll of bishops from St. Hugh and Grosseteste to Christopher Wordsworth and the much beloved, most saintly, Edward King. But this subject could not be treated of piecemeal, and has been deliberately omitted.

But Lincolnshire is particularly rich in splendid and interesting churches, and much will be found in this volume to justify these epithets.

Stamford, Boston, and Grantham all have had full justice done to them, while Tattershall Castle may well serve as a specimen of the best domestic building of the time of King Henry VI., as Doddington does of “the spacious times of great Elizabeth.”

The history of the county has been interesting, and at times very important. The wars of King Stephen, the battle of “Lincoln Fair,” the Lincolnshire rising in 1470, and the second insurrection in 1536 at the suppression of the monasteries, have had to be passed over; but the _pre_-historic facts, those of the Roman rule, and of the great Civil War will be found.

To the Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, the General Editor of this series, and to the Rev. G. E. Jeans, whose knowledge of Lincolnshire is unequalled, for much kind help and advice; to all my contributors, and to all who have given photographs or illustrations, I desire to tender my most sincere thanks.

E. MANSEL SYMPSON.

DELORAINE COURT, LINCOLN, _November 1910_.

NOTE.—As the County of Lincoln possesses no heraldic bearings, the Lord Bishop has kindly permitted the use of the coat-of-arms of the See of Lincoln to be used on the cover of this volume.

CONTENTS

Prehistoric Lincolnshire By Rev. A. HUNT, M.A. 1

The Romans in Lincolnshire By Rev. E. H. R. TATHAM, M.A. 24

Saxon Churches of Lincolnshire By A. HAMILTON THOMPSON, M.A. 53

Kirkstead Chapel By C. HODGSON FOWLER, F.S.A. 81

South Lincolnshire Churches By W. E. FOSTER, F.S.A. 85

The Church of St. Andrew, Heckington By W. G. WATKINS, A.R.I.B.A. 114

Boston and its Church By G. S. W. JEBB, M.A. 120

The Town and Church of Grantham By A. HAMILTON THOMPSON, M.A. 131

Stamford By V. B. CROWTHER-BEYNON, 162
M.A., F.S.A.

Tattershall Castle and Church By the EDITOR 179

The Sepulchral Brasses of Lincolnshire By REV. G. E. JEANS, 198
M.A., F.S.A.

Mediæval Rood-Screens and Rood-Lofts
in Lincolnshire Churches By the EDITOR 206

Lincolnshire and the Great Civil War By Rev. E. H. R. TATHAM, M.A. 249

Doddington Hall By Rev. R. E. G. COLE, M.A. 280

Lincolnshire Families By Rev. CANON MADDISON, 309
M.A., F.S.A.

Spalding Gentlemen’s Society By MARTEN PERRY, M.D. 319

INDEX 341

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Lincoln from the South-East (Evening) _Frontispiece_
(_From a water-colour drawing by E. R. Taylor_)

FACING PAGE

St. Peter’s Church, Barton-on-Humber (from S.W.) 54
(_From a photograph by C. C. Hodges_)

St. Mary’s Church, Stow (Interior, looking S.E.) 58
(_From a photograph by C. C. Hodges_)

St. Margaret’s Church, Marton (Tower before restoration) 78
(_From a photograph by C. C. Hodges_)

All Saints’ Church, Holbeach (Nave, looking W.) 86
(_From a photograph by T. M. Foster_)

St. Mary and St. Nicholas Church, Spalding (Nave, looking N.E.) 86
(_From a photograph by T. M. Foster_)

All Saints’ Church, Moulton (Nave, looking E.) 100
(_From a photograph by T. M. Foster_)

All Saints’ Church, Moulton (South Aisle, looking N.W.) 100
(_From a photograph by T. M. Foster_)

St. Andrew’s Church, Heckington (Plan) 116
(_From a drawing by W. G. Watkins_)

St. Andrew’s Church, Heckington (South Transept and Porch) 118
(_From a photograph by H. W. Hitchcock_)

St. Andrew’s Church, Heckington (from the E.) 120
(_From a photograph by H. W. Hitchcock_)

St. Botolph’s Church, Boston 126
(_From a photograph by G. Hadley & Son_)

Angel Hotel, Grantham 138
(_From a photograph by G. W. Wilson_)

St. Wulfran’s Church, Grantham (Plan) 146
(_Drawn by H. Thompson_)

St. Wulfran’s Church, Grantham (North Porch) 150
(_From a photograph by Emary_)

Stamford (from the Meadows) 164
(_From a photograph by Nicholls_)

Stamford, St. Mary’s Church and Hill 170
(_From a photograph by Nicholls_)

Stamford, Screen in Browne’s Hospital 172
(_From a photograph by Nicholls_)

Tattershall Castle (from the S.W.) 188
(_From a photograph by G. Hadley & Son_)

Tattershall, Holy Trinity Church (from S.E.) 196
(_From a photograph by G. Hadley & Son_)

Brass of Matilda, Lady Willoughby de Eresby 200
(_From a photograph by F. E. Harrison from rubbing by W. Scorer_)

Brass of John and Alice Lyndewode 204
(_From a photograph by F. E. Harrison from rubbing by W. Scorer_)

Crowland Abbey, Rood-Screen from the East 218
(_From a photograph by Aymer Vallance_)

Lincoln Minster, Pulpitum from the East 222
(_From a photograph by G. Hadley & Son_)

Holy Trinity Church, Tattershall, Pulpitum from the East 228
(_From a photograph by G. Hadley & Son_)

St. Denis’ Church, Sleaford, Rood-Screen 231
(_From a drawing by the late Herbert Kirk_)

St. Edith’s Church, Cotes-by-Stow, Rood-Screen and Loft from the
Nave 236
(_From a photograph by G. Hadley & Son_)

St. Mary’s Church, Winthorpe, Rood-Screen and Chantry Screen 238
(_From a photograph by Aymer Vallance_)

St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church, Middle Rasen, Rood-Screen 246
(_From a photograph by G. Hadley & Son_)

Doddington Hall (from S.E.) 284
(_From a photograph given by R. E. G. Cole_)

Doddington Hall, Long Gallery 300
(_From a photograph by W. J. Smith_)

Doddington Hall, Dining-Room 306
(_From a photograph by W. J. Smith_)

ERRATA

Page 106, line 4, _for_ “Norman capital” _read_ “Norman pier.”

” 108, paragraph 6, should read—“This church probably had its origin
from the Abbey of Castle Acre—aided by the laity.”

” 109, line 1, _for_ “St. Mary Magdalene’s, Gedney,” _read_ “St.
Mary’s, Gedney.”

” 180, line 28, _for_ “1220” _read_ “1201.”

PREHISTORIC LINCOLNSHIRE

BY THE REV. ALFRED HUNT, M.A.

That part of England which we now know as Lincolnshire passed through great changes in its surface before the advent of mankind.

The rocks which lie beneath the surface soil in this county are all made by deposit, for several thousand feet in thickness, and are what are called stratified rocks. They indicate the fact that in past periods of time Lincolnshire was all under a great sea. Occasionally in the limestone rocks are found small branches or pieces of trees, as well as great quantities of fossils of many kinds. The fact that oak and silver birch twigs are found inside the limestone shows that trees were growing elsewhere when the rocks were being laid down by the action of water in Lincolnshire.

Beneath the limestone are found thick beds of red sandstone, while still deeper down, over 3000 feet below the surface, lie beds of coal in the north-western part of the county—indicating vast changes in the land since what is now coal was first formed.

After the deposit or formation of these thick beds of rock, the land seems to have been raised above the surface of the sea, to be in turn covered with vast sheets of ice, called glaciers.

These glaciers extended all over Lincolnshire and up into North Britain above Aberdeen in the one case, and joined another vast glacier stretching right across what is now called the North Sea to land which is known to-day as Norway.

These glaciers carried on their surface blocks of rock of many kinds, some of an igneous nature, and as the glaciers moved slowly the fragments of rock were carried many miles from their original source. As the ice melted, these blocks of rock fell to the ground, and are now found all over Lincolnshire.

The time when these glaciers of Britain melted away is given by Lord Avebury[1] as about fifty thousand years ago, but they “may have lingered among the mountains, and occupied some of the valleys down to a much more recent period.”

The deepest borings in Lincolnshire have not yet reached the fiery or igneous rocks _in situ_, except in the Isle of Axholme; therefore those fragments of igneous rocks found on the surface, or in the soil, or in glacial clays, indicate that they have been transported from their original source, which, in certain instances, is as far distant as Norway.

Since the melting of the most recent glacier, other great changes have taken place in the surface of the land, owing to elevations and depressions, and the action of rain, frost, and denudation over wide areas.

A vast forest (now submerged) formerly existed right along the edge of the east coast of Lincolnshire; at specially low tides it is seen exposed at Chapel St. Leonards, Ingoldmells, and other places on the East Coast.

When the Romans came to Britain, and began their conquest or occupation of Lincolnshire, A.D. 50, they found extensive portions in the south-east of the county covered by great meres stretching many miles in extent. In the south-western part of the county were extensive forests; in the north-western part of the county was the island, now called the Isle of Axholme; but during the Roman occupation, and for centuries afterwards, were vast sheets of fresh water, with here and there an island or islet standing out above the surrounding meres. On the eastern side of the county, along the sea-board, the Romans built extensive banks or sea walls.

Prior to the Roman occupation of Lincolnshire, a race or different races of people lived in the land we now know as the county of Lincolnshire; and it is of this period that we write regarding the earliest known races of mankind in the county.

The different races of mankind in the Prehistoric Ages or Periods have been tabulated as—

1. The Eolithic Man, or Dawn of the Stone Age.
2. The Paleolithic Man, or the Old Stone Age, subdivided by
Professor Dawkins as (_a_) The River Drift Man and (_b_)
Cave Man.[2]
3. The Neolithic Man, or New Stone Age.
4. The Pygmy Man.
5. The Bronze Age, subdivided as Early and Late Bronze Periods.
6. The Prehistoric Iron Age.
7. The Iron Age of the Roman Period.

We will deal with each of these races separately as they concern Lincolnshire.

THE EOLITHIC PERIOD

Of this period no traces of the work of mankind have been found in the county of Lincolnshire.

It is a period which some experts strongly affirm show traces of the work of man in other more southern parts of Britain; so far as our experience by definite research has extended, we are not satisfied with the evidence offered, and prefer to keep an open mind.

THE PALEOLITHIC PERIOD, OR OLD STONE AGE

Many thousands of specimens of man’s work in this period or age have been found in Southern England—that is, as we define it south of a line drawn from the Severn to the Wash—but none of these old rough stone weapons have been found _in situ_ in Lincolnshire. From the facts presented by geology and a careful study of the county, it would appear that, while Paleolithic Man existed in the south of England, north of an imaginary line from the Wash to the Severn no traces of mankind have been found relating to the Paleolithic Period. It is probable that the great glaciers covered what is now known as Lincolnshire and Northern Britain in that period, and formed an inaccessible barrier to the progress of mankind.

THE RIVER DRIFT PERIOD AND THE PERIOD OF CAVE MAN

In these ages or periods, mankind found a home in the caves of North Yorkshire, at Kirkdale and on both sides of Cresswell Craggs, the boundary line between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Quite recently[3] discoveries have been made at Upper Langwith, also on the borders of the two counties, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, showing unmistakable signs of Cave Man dwellings and handiwork. While these places are not far geographically from Lincolnshire, yet, to be accurate, no trace of Cave Man or River Drift Man has been found in what is now the county of Lincolnshire.[4]

THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD

It is in this period we first find traces of mankind in Lincolnshire. Various burial places and many finds of implements show how widely Neolithic Man spread over and occupied the county.

These implements are described as stone axes, spear-heads, lance-heads, arrow-heads, scrapers, gouges, chisels, pot-boilers, knives, borers, graving tools, hammer stones, whetstones, polishers, sink stones, anvil stones. A list of the places where these “finds” have been recorded is as follows:—

*Alkborough.
Barlings.
*Billinghay.
Branston.
Brigg.
Broughton.
*Burwell.
*Bully Hill.
Caythorpe.
Claxby, near Alford (flint flakes).
Cold Harbour.
*Cold Hanworth.
Crowle.
Coningsby Warren.
Coxey Hills, near Louth.
Doddington.
Donington-on-Bain.
Elkington, South.
Fiskerton.
Fotherby.
Friskney.
Ferriby, South.
Gonerby.
Gonerby, Little.
*Haxey.
Healing (arrow-head).
Horncastle.
Hubbard’s Hills, Louth.
Irby.
*Isle of Axholme.
Keal, West (arrow-heads).
Kelstern.
Kirkstead (axe-head).
Kirton-in-Lindsey.
*Legbourn.
*Lincoln.
*Lynwode.
*Mablethorpe.
Maidenwell.
Manton.
Messingham.
Newport, Lincoln.
Nocton (axe-head).
Ponton, Great.
Potterhanworth.
Reepham.
*Ruckland.
*Salmonby.
Saxilby.
*Scawby.
*Scunthorpe (arrow-heads).
Sleaford.
Spalding (spear-head).
Stewton.
*Stow.
Tathwell.
Tetford (arrow-heads).
Welton, by Lincoln (whetstone).
Wragby.
Woodhall.
*Witham River.

Those marked with an asterisk (*) are to be seen in the County Museum at Lincoln.

Many of these implements are excellent specimens of the art and skill of the Neolithic workers in stone. For the purpose for which they were made, they seem to have served well.

The axe-heads have been (in some cases) made to be used with wood handles formed out of the branches of trees. In the course of ages the handles have perished, but the stone implement remains.

Often people unacquainted with the subject of stone implements ask, “How do these stone implements differ from stone forms of natural shape?” There are several points for students to notice about “Worked Stone Implements.” The points to be noticed with the Old Stone or Paleolithic Implements are as follows:—

1. The Flat Top, where the blow was struck to separate the
implement from the flint nodule.
2. The Bulb of Percussion caused by the blow.
3. The Conchoidal Fracture or shell-like flake.
4. The Flaking off at the back.
5. The Dorsal Ridge or Ridges.
6. The Secondary Working, round the edges.
7. The Patina or Skin, the result of exposure to the weather.

In the characteristics of the New Stone Implements, or Neolithic Stones, which are found in Lincolnshire, the points to be noticed are—

1. The Definite Shaping of the Stone.
2. The Worked Edges of the Implement.
3. The Piercing or Socketing of the Stone.
4. The Patination of the Implement.

THE NEOLITHIC BOATS

Several boats made out of the trunks of trees have been found in the county—

Two at Lincoln.
One at Scotter.
Two at Castlethorpe, near Brigg.

One of the two boats found at Castlethorpe was an exceptionally fine specimen of the Neolithic boat craft. In length it was 45 feet, and 5½ feet wide inside, made out of an oak tree trunk. Within the boat was found a very fine polished stone axe-head.

The interior of the boat showed that it had probably been charred, and scraped or chopped out with a stone hatchet.

The boat is now transferred from Brigg to the Hull Museum.

POTTERY OF THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD

Very little pottery of this period has been found in the county.

One very good specimen of a jar or vase, broken in pieces, was found by Mr. S. Maudson Grant on the sea-coast, outside the Roman Bank at Ingoldmells.

This specimen is now deposited in the Lincoln Museum.

NEOLITHIC BURIAL PLACES

The burial places of early man in Lincolnshire must have been very numerous, judging from the remains we still have surviving to this day. These people were buried in barrows or large mounds of earth, which are called “Tumuli.”

In Lincolnshire the barrows are of two classes, called Long Barrows and Round Barrows.

The Long Barrow is the oldest form of interment, and belonged to the race of people called Dolicho-cephalic, or long-headed people. Sir John Lubbock says: “The Long Barrows are like the Gang-graben of Scandinavia, in which the dead are buried and not burnt.”

It is in the _Long_ Barrows that we find this Neolithic race of people buried their dead in Lincolnshire.

One of the Long Barrows still exists at Swinhope, near Grimsby, and there are others in different parts of the county.

In a map of Lincolnshire, published about 1570, by Saxton, the position of some of the barrows was indicated. From that map we have compiled the following list, but the list includes both kinds of barrow, long and round—there being no indication on the map to distinguish the one form of barrow from the other:—

Aukborough, 2.
Ashby.
Barkstone.
Barnetby.
Barrow, 2.
Barton.
Belton.
Binbrook.
Bonby.
Boothby Graffoe.
Bottesford, 2.
Blyborough.
Branston, 3.
Braceby.
Burton-upon-Stather, 2.
Caburn.
Carlton, North.
Caythorpe.
Clixby.
Coleby.
Coleby, near West Halton, 4.
Cranwell.
Croxby.
Croxton.
Cuxwold, 2.
Dunston, 2.
Ferriby, 2.
Fillingham.
Frodingham, 2.
Fulbeck.
Glentworth.
Grange de Lings, 2.
Grantham, 2.
Harmston.
Hatcliffe, 2.
Haydour.
Hemswell, 2.
Horkstow, 2.
Howsham.
Hybaldstow, 2.
Ingham.
Kirmond le Mire.
Limber, 2.
Londonthorpe, 2.
Manby.
Manton, 2.
Mere Hospital, 2.
Messingham.
Metheringham.
Navenby, 2.
Nettleham.
Normanby.
Normanton.
Rauceby, 2.
Redbourne.
Riby.
Riseholme.
Rothwell.
Ropsley.
Rowston.
Saxby.
Scampton.
Scawby.
Scopwick.
Scotter, 2.
Scotton, 2.
Searby.
Southorp.
Spridlington.
Stainton le Vale.
Thoresway, 2.
Thornton, 3.
Ulceby.
Waddington, 2.
Walesby.
Walcot.
Welby.
Welton.
Welton le Wold, 2.
Willoughton.
Wootton.
Worlaby, 3.
Wrawby.
Wyham.

The custom of raising a mound over the place where the dead are buried is very ancient, widespread, and continuous to the present day: examples are to be seen in Egypt, India, America, and Britain. In its simple form it is seen in the village churchyard, in its greatest development it is seen in the magnificent pyramids of Egypt.

In the Long Barrows no metal implements are found unless they have been used for what are called “secondary interments.”

The date of these Long Barrows is variously stated; Canon Greenwell says, “probably 1000 B.C., but may be much earlier”; others say they were probably made 3000 B.C. or 5000 years ago. The definite date cannot be given, but only probabilities stated.

It is in this Neolithic Age that the bodies of the dead were placed in a cist or stone box; that is, large stones were placed round the body, and on these upright stones was fixed a covering stone.

One such system of burial was found at Rothwell, near Caistor, and another at Dunholme.

In nearly every case of burial of this kind, which is called _Inhumation_, the body has been placed facing the sun in a contracted position; that is, with the knees drawn up to the chin and lying on its side. Some specialists think this position indicates the sleeping attitude, others think it points to the fact that as the child entered into life in a contracted position, so the dead body was similarly placed for departure from life, with the possibility of entering into a new life after death.

Frequently by the side of the dead body were placed the weapons that he used when living—axe-heads, arrow-heads, knives, and spear-heads.

LIFE OF THE NEOLITHIC PEOPLE

Naturally we may ask how did these people live? The answer undoubtedly is by hunting, fishing, and fowling. They appear to have had large flocks of sheep, goats, and cattle, and possessed dug-out canoes or boats.

Their dwelling places were probably hut circles, but no remains of these have so far been found in the county of Lincolnshire.

Their care of the dead would lead us to suppose that, by comparison with similar practices in other parts of the world, they believed in a future state or future life.

Who were the Neolithic people?

This question has been asked by many, and the answer given by Professor Boyd Dawkins[5] and others is that they were Iberians, and are represented at the present time by the surviving Basque peoples of the Western Pyrenees, on the borders of Spain and France.

“By a chain of reasoning, purely zoological, we arrive at the important conclusion that the Neolithic inhabitants of the British Isles belong to the same non-Aryan section of mankind as the Basques, and that in ancient times they were spread through Spain as far south as the Pillars of Hercules, and as far to the north-east as Germany and Denmark.”

THE PYGMY RACE OF MAN IN LINCOLNSHIRE

One of the most recent discoveries regarding Prehistoric Man in Lincolnshire is the finding of some thousands of diminutive flint implements at Scunthorpe, Manton Common, and Scotton, in North Lincolnshire. At the suggestion of the writer of this article, Mr. E. E. Brown made a careful search at Scunthorpe in A.D. 1900, and found some thirty or forty specimens.

Since then the Rev. Reginald Gatty, the Rev. Alfred Hunt, and others have found hundreds of specimens at Scunthorpe.

The Pygmy Flints are of various forms and sizes. Similar forms and shapes have been found in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, Sussex, and elsewhere in England. On the Continent similar forms of Pygmy Flints have been found in Belgium, France, and Germany. They have also been found in Egypt, Palestine, North and Central Africa, and in great numbers on the Vindhya Mountains, India.

The bodies or bones of these Pygmy people have been found at Sohâgi Ghât, on the Vindhya Mountains, in Germany, and at Bungay, Suffolk, quite recently, by Mr. H. A. Dutt, of Lowestoft.[6]

The Pygmy Flints all show points characteristic of the work of man:—

1. The Bulb of Percussion.
2. The Conchoidal Fractures running down the flint.
3. The Dorsal Ridges on the back of the flint.
4. The Secondary Working along one edge.
5. The Patina or Skin, the result of weathering.

Their shapes have been described as—

Crescent-shaped.
Triangular or Scalene.
Arrow-head.
Round-headed and pointed.
Chisel-shaped.
Trapezoid or Rhomboidal.
Flint knives with serrated edges.

They are figured in the _British Museum Handbook to the Stone Age_, on p. 110, Fig. 132.

They are beautifully made, and show extraordinary keen sight in those who made them—frequently one side only shows secondary working, and the chipping is so finely done that often twenty and thirty different chips have been made on a fine thin edge of flint in the length of half an inch.

The question has been asked, how may we know Pygmy Flints are the work of mankind? Practically by the same method that we know other flint or stone implements are the handiwork of man. Examine these Pygmy Flints closely, and you will be able to trace—

1. The Bulb of Percussion, showing where the blow was struck to
separate the flake from the flint nodule.
2. The Conchoidal Fracture running down the length of the flint.
3. The Dorsal Ridges on the back of the flint.
4. The Secondary Working along one edge.
5. The Patina or Skin, the result of weathering or exposure.

These distinct characteristics prove these flints are no haphazard flakings from a flint core.

When you can pick up these Pygmy Flints, and show all these peculiarities, you are able to convince reasonable men that they are the work of a race of people, who, with keen vision and clever handiwork, were able to make tools which have outlived their own age and race by many thousands of years.

SIMILARITY IN DESIGN

One point of great interest in these widely scattered Pygmy Flints is the great similarity in design. So much is this similarity carried out that, if you place a Scunthorpe specimen beside one found on the Vindhya Hills in India, it is almost impossible to say which is from the one place and which is from the other.

This similarity in design has led many specialists to think that the Pygmy Flints of Scunthorpe are the work of a migrating people, who passed over from India through Asia and Europe to Britain. Amongst those who accept this theory are Dr. Gatty and Vincent A. Smith, M.A., of the Indian Civil Service, one of the greatest specialists we have on this subject.

WHAT WAS THE USE OF THESE PYGMY FLINTS?

Various conjectures have been made as to the use of these small flint implements. They must have been made for human daily use and need.

_Arrow Points_ are easily accounted for as used in hunting—being, it is supposed, fastened to wood shafts; which is still the practice of Australian savages.

_Fishing Hooks_ is another very natural suggestion for some of the forms; when fixed with sinew or gut, the triangular form makes a specially suitable hook to catch in the throat of fish.

_Knives_ is undoubtedly another use to which some specimens are adapted; the clear cut edge would, even after the lapse of thousands of years, cut flesh of animals at the present time.

_Boring Tools_, for making holes to sew skins together for clothing purposes, is also a natural theory for other specimens of these Pygmy Flints.

_Chisels_ for scraping and shaping wood handles or hafts of their tools is also another suggestion, which is highly probable from the shape of the flints with a square cutting edge.

_Skin Scrapers_ is still another use for which some specimens of the implements may have been made by these people who lived by the chase; while it is also possible that other shapes were mounted in wood frames and used as saws, sickles, and harpoons, as shown in _British Museum Handbook_, Fig. 118.

Some of them may have been used for tattooing, as has been suggested, but certainly not a great proportion of the many thousands that have been found.

BY WHAT CLASS OF PEOPLE WERE THESE IMPLEMENTS MADE?

To begin with, these small implements were made by people with _keen vision_, the minute character of their work being more easily seen and appreciated under a magnifying glass than with the naked eye of an ordinary observer.

They were also _clever designers_, as the persistent shapes of these implements show. It is not to an ordinary person an easy matter to chip out a piece of flint in the shape of these samples; the same figures or shapes are repeated in hundreds of instances.

Again, they were _careful workers_, as is seen by the way in which these flint implements are made. To-day men would have to exercise almost the care of a jeweller if they wished to make implements equal in shape and accuracy to those found on the Scunthorpe Floor, made by these Pygmy workers.

They knew how to _make_ a _fire_, as many fragments of charcoal have been found on the floors of their dwelling places.

As regards _their clothing_, I am inclined to the idea that they clothed themselves but slightly, and what clothing they had was made of the skins of animals taken in the chase.

PYGMY SITES, STATIONS, OR DWELLING PLACES

One very interesting feature regarding Pygmy stations, sites, or dwelling places where these Flints are found is their close association with a _Peat Floor_. Monsieur de Pierpoint says: “He collected some thousands of Pygmy Flints on the high plateaux above the Meuse. Formerly a thick forest covered these mountains, and in that district the small flints are mostly found near springs and away from the east winds.” Both at Scunthorpe and on the hills of the Pennine Range, it is on or in the Peat that these diminutive Flints are discovered. Dr. Colley March found them in a bed of Peat 6 feet deep, in certain cases 10 feet deep, and at an altitude of 1350 feet above sea-level. Dr. Gatty found them at Scunthorpe on the top of the Peat and below the wind-blown sand 200 feet above sea-level.

It was on the Peat that I and my friends, the Rev. R. N. Matthews, of Tetney, in the year 1900, and the Rev. Samuel Wild, of Dunholme, found numerous examples as recently as the spring of 1907. Dr. Gatty found as many as 200 implements on the floor of one habitation. These facts lead me to the belief that the natural conditions or surroundings of Scunthorpe have completely changed since the time of the deposit of these implements.

I believe that the natural conditions at Scunthorpe were very much like the conditions at the Ituri Forest of North Africa at the present day, where we see a Peat deposit in progress; that the Pygmies lived in a warmer atmosphere at Scunthorpe than now exists in England; and that these people lived in communities in small huts, such as may be seen now among these living survivals of Pygmy people. They were in fact _Forest Dwellers_.

No pottery has been found with the Pygmy Flints in Lincolnshire, but a class of rude hand-made pottery has been found with the Indian Pygmy Flints, and entire skeletons of the Pygmy people have been found both in India and Germany. In India they dwelt in caves and rock shelters, but at Scunthorpe we have no trace of caves or rock shelters; therefore hut circles seem to be the only alternative to fall back upon as their dwelling places in Lincolnshire.

TO WHAT PERIOD IN THE STONE AGE MUST WE ATTRIBUTE THE PYGMY RACE OF MANKIND?

Here we have a problem that puzzles many at the present time. Mr. Read, of the British Museum, suggests a Neolithic Age or Bronze Period, while Mr. Vincent Smith does not agree with that, but inclines to the belief that they are to be placed at the end of the Paleolithic Age. Dr. Colley March calls it the Early Neolithic Floor of East Lancashire.

One thing is certain, we do not find any smooth or polished stone implements on the Pygmy Floor. Another thing is equally true, we do not find Pygmy Flints associated with Bronze or Copper implements, so that they were not metal workers.

The suggestion has been thrown out that the Pygmies were a weak race who were overcome by Neolithic Man. This may be true, but we have the authority of Herodotus, 2000 years ago, and modern travellers like Dr. Wollaston of 1907, pointing out that the Pygmies were, and are at the present time, rather a fighting race of people. After considering all the evidence obtainable, I am inclined to think that the Pygmy Race must be placed in the Messeolithic or Middle Stone Age.

It is true that at one period “there were giants on the earth in those days,” so also it is true that there were dwarfs on the earth in other days. Was this race the Iberic race?

It is ably argued by Mr. W. J. Knowles, Vice-President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, that Neolithic Man is the descendant of Paleolithic Man.

The question before ethnologists to-day is: How was this transition effected? Was it through a Messeolithic Age?

Because there are no references to the Pygmy Flint Age in the standard books of thirty years ago on Prehistoric Man, such as those of Boyd Dawkins, Canon Greenwell, Sir John Evans and Mr. Mortimer of Driffield, some few people are prepared to question the reality of what are called Pygmy Flints.

To begin with, each of these authors referred to have within the last few years become thorough believers in Pygmy Flints as the product of mankind. This is shown by their speeches at the recent meetings of the British Association at York and elsewhere.

Then let the doubtful person concerning Pygmy Flints turn to recent works on Prehistoric Man, such as Mr. Charles H. Read’s _Handbook or Guide to the Stone Age_, in the British Museum, published 1902, to Prof. Windle’s book on _Remains of Prehistoric Age in England_, published 1904, to the articles by Vincent A. Smith, late of India Civil Service, to Dr. Gatty, and other works, he will then, I think, if open to conviction, be ready to admit there is more evidence for a Pygmy race than he anticipated.

HISTORICAL REFERENCE TO THE PYGMY RACES OF MANKIND

If we go back to the ancients, we have the authority of Herodotus, Book II., Chapter 33, page 51, that “the Nasamonians were captured and carried off by the Pygmy Tribe and led across extensive marshes, and finally came to a town where all the men were the height of their conductors and black complexioned under the middle height.”

Homer’s _Iliad_, Book III., line 9, refers to Pygmy nations.

Aristotle calls them Troglodytal—which would seem to indicate that they were Cave Dwellers in that age. Homer and Aristotle both place them near the sources of the Nile.

Pliny, Book VI., 19, and Philostratus, _Vit. Apoll._, Tz. III., 47, and others, place them in India, where, in modern days, many thousands of Pygmy Flints have been found.

The representation of Pygmy people is frequently met with on Greek vases and Egyptian pottery.

After two thousand years of literary silence about Pygmy people, modern travellers like Captain Harrison have brought over from the Ituri Forest Pygmy people, and exhibited them in all parts of England.

SMALL DARK-COLOURED PEOPLE UNDER THE MIDDLE HEIGHT

Major Powell Cotton, in the year 1907, gives his experience of life among the Pygmies of the Congo Forest, and describes them as “small dark-coloured people under the middle height.”

Dr. A. F. R. Wollaston, also in 1907, returned to civilisation through the Congo Forest and the volcanic region of Mfumbiro, and says the tops of the extinct volcanoes are covered with dense bamboo and inhabited by a Pygmy race.

In Central Mexico we have relics of a Pygmy people, the dried head of one being offered in Mr. Steven’s London auction room this year (1907).

The last surviving Aztecs, a very diminutive people, we remember to have seen exhibited in Manchester thirty years ago.

All these instances point to diminutive or Pygmy races of men scattered over the world.

As the literature on this subject is so limited, we venture to name the authorities quoted:—

Herodotus.
Pliny.
Homer.
Philostratus.
Aristotle.
British Museum, _Guide to Stone Age_, by C. H. Read, Esq.
Dr. Colley March, of Rochdale.
W. H. Sutcliffe, Esq., of Littleborough, Lancashire.
The Rev. Reginald A. Gatty, LL.B., of Hooton Roberts, Doncaster.
Dr. Sturge, formerly of Nice, now of Mildenhall, Cambridge.
The late A. C. Carlleyle, Esq., of the Archæological Survey of India.
M. de Pierpoint, of Brussels.
M. Thieullen, of Paris.
Sir John Evans.
Professor Boyd Dawkins.
Professor Windle, of Birmingham.
Major Powell Cotton.
Dr. A. F. R. Wollaston.
Vincent A. Smith, Esq., M.A.

THE BRONZE AGE IN LINCOLNSHIRE

The earliest appearance of bronze in Britain is put down at 2000 B.C.

As we have already stated this period is divided into Early and Late Periods by specialists.

Specimens of both periods have been found in many parts of the county, and so far as we have been able to trace them, we have compiled the following list of places where they have been discovered:—

Anwick.
Barton-on-Humber.
Billinghay.
Boston, B.M.
*Branston, B.M.
Brigg.
Broughton.
Burringham.
Caythorpe.
Caenby.
Crosby.
Crowle.
Crowland.
Elsham.
Fleet.
Flixborough.
Fiskerton.
Gainsborough.
Halton, West, B.M.
*Haxey, B.M.
Horncastle, B.M.
Kelsey, South.
Kyme, South.
Langton.
Leasingham.
*Lincoln.
*Nettleham.
Newport, Lincoln.
Owersby, North.
*Reepham.
Roxby, B.M.
Scothorne.
Scunthorpe, B.M.
Sleaford.
Toynton, B.M.
Washingborough.
Winghale, B.M.
Winterton.
Winteringham.
Wrawby.
*Witham River.

Those marked with an asterisk (*) are to be seen in the County Museum at Lincoln. Those marked B.M. are in the British Museum.

The objects found include swords, celts (socketed and unsocketed), arrow-heads, spear-heads, palstaves, adzes, knives, daggers, circular shields, armlets, bracelets, bridle bits, trumpet, horse trappings (probably a peytrel at Caenby).

These show progress in the art of man from rude plane castings to what may be called high art in decoration, as shown in the very elaborate shield from the river Witham, and now in the British Museum, figured in their catalogue to the Early Iron Age on page 90.

It is to this period that we must attribute many of the very fine pieces of pottery belonging to Mr. H. Preston, now deposited at the Lincoln Museum. It consists of cinerary urns, drinking cups, food vessels, incense cups, and other forms of vessels.

The places where this early class of pottery has been found in the county, so far as we have been able to compile it, is as follows:—

*Billinghay.
Caythorpe.
Denton.
Donnington.
*Dunston.
Ferriby, South.
Heighington.
Horncastle.
Kirton in Lindsey.
Lincoln.
Manton.
Normanton.
*Potterhanworth.
Scotter.
Willingham, North.
Woolsthorpe.

Those marked with an asterisk (*) are to be seen in the County Museum at Lincoln.

All this pottery is made of burnt clay in an open fire.

CLOTHING OF THE PEOPLE IN THE BRONZE AGE

In the one instance where a body has been found with clothing at Haxey in the Isle of Axholme, it was that of a woman dressed in skins with sandals on her feet. Cæsar’s statement in Book V., paragraph 147, describes the Celts or Britons as wearing skins on their bodies for clothing, and the parts of the body not covered with skins being painted in order to render themselves more terrible in battle.

BRONZE AGE BURIALS

We have already referred to two classes of barrows or burial places. One is described as a long barrow, the other as a round barrow.

It is in this latter class of burial place that the people of the Bronze Age buried their dead.

The round barrows belong to another race of people who existed in Lincolnshire, and are described as Brachy-cephalic or round-headed people.

In these burial places bronze implements have sometimes been found, and occasionally stone implements, showing that the Stone Age overlapped or ran into the Bronze Period.

Incompleteness of the circle in the barrow points to design.

An alphabetical list of the places where in recent times the round barrow existed is as follows:—

Barrow.
Bardney.
Brigg.
Burgh.
Burgh-on-Bain.
Burnham.
Bully Hills, 6.
Claxby by Alford.
Cockerington.
Cleasham.
Donington-on-Bain.
Falkingham.
Gainsborough.
Halton, West.
Haugham.
Horncastle.
Ingoldsby.
Kelstern.
Langton by Spilsby, 3.
Revesby.
Riseholme.
Spellow Hills.
Temple Bruer, 2.
Wainfleet, 2.
Walcot.
Well near Alford, 3.
Welton in the Marsh.
Wold Newton, 20 urns.

The barrow was considered to be the habitation of the spirits of the dead.

In the Bronze Age often the body was burnt wholly or in parts. Sometimes the ashes were collected and placed in an urn. This burning of the body seems to have been one of their sacred rites of burial. In nearly every case where the body has been burnt, holes seem to have been bored or drilled into the ground underneath the body. Sometimes these were stake holes, but the wood has perished. In these barrows was buried the chief of the clan or tribe.

A plate picture of the different kinds of skulls of the Dolicho-cephalic and the Brachy-cephalic people appears in the _British Museum Handbook to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age_, page 20.

It is considered very probable that the round-headed people were the conquerors of the long-headed race.

ENTRENCHMENTS OF THE IRON AGE

It is to this age we must refer the making of the lines of entrenchments in various parts of the county at Honington, Ingoldsby, Kingerby, Hoe Hill, Fulletby, and other places.

The Bronze Age people are generally called Celts, and have been subdivided by Professor Rhys as Goidelic and Brythonic races—the older race being the Goidels and the later race Brythons.

“Both races spoke a language that belonged to the Aryan or
Indo-European family, but had certain peculiarities that point
to racial divergence.”—C. H. READ.

It is to the Bronze Age Professor Boyd Dawkins would attribute the erection of the great stone circles, such as Stonehenge, Avebury, and other places, but of these stone circles no remnants exist in Lincolnshire.

THE PREHISTORIC IRON AGE, 400 B.C.

Traces of the occupation of Lincolnshire in this period are to be found in the pre-Roman smelting furnaces for iron in various parts of the county at Manton and elsewhere.

Certain iron spear-heads, daggers,[7] sheaths,[8] and swords[9] of bronze from the river Witham are also attributed to this period. The art of enamelling the surface of metal appears in the Prehistoric Iron Age, and its chief centre seems to have been the British Isles.

The shield found in the river Witham is put down to this period in the _British Museum Handbook_, pages 87 to 92. It is one of the most beautiful specimens of inlaid work yet discovered.

“With the introduction of iron a change in the burial customs
took place in Britain. Cremation was carried on, but the dead
were frequently interred at full length in a stone chamber, or
shallow pit, along with various articles used in daily life.”

Doubtless there are many “finds” of stone and bronze and iron implements from Lincolnshire in private collections that are not described in any book or catalogue extant.

It is only by personal knowledge, and by contributing that knowledge to a common centre, that anything like a correct record can be made for the benefit of students and futurity of the Prehistoric Period in Lincolnshire.

With the coming of the Romans, B.C. 55 and 47 A.D., we enter on the Historic Iron Age, which is outside the scope of this article. As regards the Roman occupation of Lincoln, A.D. 50, we have written elsewhere.[10]

THE ROMANS IN LINCOLNSHIRE

BY THE REV. E. H. R. TATHAM, M.A.

Roman Lincolnshire has no written history. There is not a line in any extant ancient writer describing the progress of a Roman army within its limits. Yet that wonderful people have left indelible marks of their presence in the county, not merely, as elsewhere, in a few fortifications connected by military roads, but in the systematic reclamation of a whole district. The details remaining to us of their conquest of the island apply principally to the south-east, the north, and the north-west. And yet the marshy plain of the Lincolnshire coast must have been then, as it proved in later times, an ideal refuge for native tribes at last driven to bay. Bounded on the east by the sea and on the south by impassable fens—subject in parts to submersion by the sea—the county was only accessible to a southern invader on its south-west side, through the forest which then covered Kesteven. But the Roman conqueror was seldom daunted by natural obstacles; and some further explanation is needed of the fact that, in the earlier stages of the conquest, his efforts seem constantly deflected to the west. Some have fancied that the Romans recognised their most implacable enemies in the Druids, and that these priestly fanatics retreated westward before them until they were finally exterminated by Paulinus in their stronghold of Mona (Anglesey). A simpler hypothesis is that, like the Regni in Sussex and the Brigantes in Yorkshire, the inhabitants of our county at first propitiated the enemy by alliance and by giving hostages for good conduct.

The tribe which, according to Ptolemy (about A.D. 120), then occupied the counties of Lincoln, Leicester, and Nottingham, was the Coritani. If, as some have supposed, this tribe was a branch of the Eceni, it would almost certainly have been involved in the rebellion of Boudicca (A.D. 61). Yet for at least ten years we hear of no further expedition undertaken in this direction. If, on the other hand, the tribe was subject to or allied with its powerful northern neighbour, the Brigantes, it may possibly have been included in the compact which, before the year A.D. 50, was made by that tribe with the invader. Professor Rhys conjectures, rather hesitatingly,[11] that the Coritani may have been a remnant of the pre-Celtic population, and that their submission may have synchronised with the conquest of the warlike tribes of the southern midlands, to whom they had been subject.

Anyhow there is no positive indication that before A.D. 70 the Roman forces had penetrated into the eastern counties beyond the southern shore of the Wash. Some have fancied that the Coritani were subdued by Ostorius (A.D. 50-55), or Paulinus (A.D. 57-62). But the line of advance taken by both generals was to the north-west, along Watling Street, rather than due north; and Ostorius in particular is said to have established a chain of fortified camps—doubtless to secure his communications—from the Nene to the Severn. But when Petilius Cerealis assumed the command in the year A.D. 71, the peace with the Brigantes was broken, and Tacitus represents that the ensuing campaigns, of which he only says that “there were many battles and some not bloodless,” lasted the four years of this command. As his father-in-law, Agricola, was then in command of the Twentieth Legion, Tacitus must have known the facts, and may have reserved a full account of them for his _Histories_, but the portion of the work which deals with this war has not survived.

We do not know what were the headquarters of the Roman governors from A.D. 61 to 71, but they were almost certainly south of the Wash. An advance, therefore, against the Brigantes of Yorkshire must have brought them along the western branch of Ermine Street to Lincoln, as any good map will show. To the west they had the difficult country of the Peak, to the east the dreaded Fenland, and there is no direct road through Nottinghamshire to York. Starting from Durobrivæ (Castor)—which was perhaps the most easterly fort on the Nene, and as such occupied by the Ninth Legion in A.D. 61—and taking the line of road afterwards laid down, the army would at first bend to the north-west to avoid the immediate neighbourhood of the fens. Along this road, still traceable, and called in parts the “High Dyke,” there are camps at Casterton, Easton, and Ancaster, the last of which subsequently became an important station. At length, after traversing the high ground of the Cliff, the army would appear on the ridge of Canwick, facing the “Lincoln Gap.” On the crest of the opposite hill, from which they were separated by a flooded valley then reached by the tide, lay a strong British “oppidum.” It would be no light matter to take such a position by storm, but taken it was, whether by force or through a timely surrender. When once occupied, this stronghold would be turned into a military earthwork and used as a base of operations against the Brigantes, thus becoming the nucleus of the subsequent city. The advance into Yorkshire, if supported by a fleet, may have been made from the north gate of the camp by the direct line of Ermine Street to Winteringham on the Humber, for the Ouse was then navigable as far as York. But it seems more likely that this was a land expedition, and that the earliest road was that which leaves the main Ermine Street four miles north of Lincoln, and under its present name of Tillbridge Lane points direct to Littleborough on the Notts bank of the Trent. Here a camp would be formed, which developed later into the walled station Segelocum; here also was a ford which could soon be made available for the passage of an army. The banks were sloped away so as to make the descent easy to a raised causeway—paved with stones and held up by strong stakes driven into the bed of the river. This causeway, which was 18 feet wide, existed till 1820, when, owing to the obstruction it caused to navigation in dry seasons, it had to be removed; but part of the paved descent can still be seen on the farther bank. The reason why the road from Lincoln to this ford was not more direct is that it avoided the low land, then subject, as will be shown, to constant flooding from the Trent.

It was perhaps not till the governorship of Agricola (A.D. 78-85), when the country between the Humber and the Tyne was completely subdued, that Lindum became an important fortress. In his _Life of Agricola_ Tacitus names a provokingly small number of places in Britain; but he states that that general, in the second year of his command, “erected garrisons and fortresses among those tribes which had hitherto considered themselves a match for Rome.”[12] His, therefore, may have been the vigilant eye, which first discerned the strategic value of Lindum; but possibly it was Hadrian, or one of his commanders, who elevated it to the rank of a “colony.” This term was applied under the Empire to a settlement of veterans, which was held to form an integral part of Rome, and whose government was a copy in miniature of that of the capital. Each colony had its senate or “curia,” and annually elected two “duumviri,” corresponding to the consuls. A portion of the neighbouring land was assigned to each soldier, and the men were sometimes allowed, for a time at least, to retain their arms. If we may trust the “Ravenna” list of towns, the only “coloniæ” in Britain were Colchester, Lincoln, and Gloucester, and this was perhaps the order of their foundation. These colonies formed in themselves so strong a nucleus of Roman civilisation that they were seldom or never made garrison towns. The three headquarters of the legions—York, Chester, and Caerleon—were not colonies;[13] and there is no trace of a colony among the military stations on Hadrian’s Wall. The small number of these towns in Britain, and their intimate connection with Rome, indicate the great importance of Lindum. Another proof of this is the fact that the Foss Way, which, at least in part, is a work of the second century, seems to have been constructed with the express object of creating easy communication between Lincoln and the thickly-settled district of the south-west. No other town, except London, York, Colchester, and perhaps Cirencester, was connected with so many highways of the first class.