Part 7

Horncastle was undoubtedly the Banovallum in _Ravennas_: the latter part of the word is Latin, so that it signifies the fortification upon the river Bane. It is of a low situation, placed in the angle of the two brooks meeting here, the Bane and Waring; whence the modern name Horncastle, which signifies an angle, all this country over, as you know in your neighbouring Cow-hurn, Holbech-hurn, Guy-hurn, &c. I will not venture to conceit it came from the ancient way of painting rivers horned, from their windings and turnings; of which we may find a hint in Burton’s Comment. on Antoninus’s Itinerary, pag. 56. and they that please may consult Bochart’s _Phaleg_, II. 22. where are many proofs of the ancients expressing an angle by the term _horn_. Skinner in his _Etymologicon_ rightly affirms it comes from the Saxon word _hyrn_; and Ælfricus expounds it by the word _cornu_. It is probable the Romans were induced to make a station here at first from its convenient situation, easily rendered defensible by a _vallum_ drawn across the aperture from one river to the other; and thence came the Roman name. Afterwards they built the indissoluble stone wall, whole _vestigia_ are manifest the whole compass round, and in some places pretty high, as three or four yards, and four yards thick. It serves for sides of gardens, cellars, out-houses, &c. as chance offers, inclosing the market-place, church, and good part of the town. It is a perfect parallelogram, composed of two squares: at the angles have been square towers, as they report: the gates were in the middle of three sides, and I suppose a postern into the meadows called the Holmes at the union of the two rivulets. I suspect originally the river Bane ran nearer to the wall in that part, and behind the manor-house: the garden there has been heightened, and the river pushed farther off, and turned with a larger bow to favour the people who live in Far-street, and especially the tanners, who are very numerous there: both rivers probably were wider and deeper than now, as the Celtic name of _Bane altus_ intimates, which at present is conformable to reality lower down. Some do not scruple to affirm it was a sea-port, that is, navigable. The Waring arises but a mile or two off. The field across it south of the town is called the Thowng and Cagthorp, and probably was its _pomæria_, from the Saxon word _pang_, _campus_, _ager_. Here they find a great number of Roman coins. I saw a brass coin of Vespasian; reverse, an eagle, +CONSECRATIO+; dug up from under the walls of Banovallum: Mr. Hograve of the place has it now: but Horncastle was not built in the time of Vespasian. I saw, in possession of Mr. Terry of Lincoln, a silver Vespasian found here; reverse, a sitting Genius with a sympulum in her hand, and +DN. MA+. In 1734, a girl digging sand by the road side going from Les Yates to Horncastle, and near Horncastle, dug up an earthen urn full of Roman coins, rings, &c. Mr. Terry collector gave me some of them. Near the walls upon digging cellars they sometimes find bodies buried. A rivulet called Temsford runs into the Bane. The school lands were given by private persons, and it was incorporated by queen Elizabeth: their seal is a castle and hunting-horn: and a horn is the brand for the town cattle upon the common. It is dubious whether Bowbridge has its name from the arch of the bridge, or from its being the entrance into the town from Lindum through the gate called formerly a Bow. This way is the maypole-hill, where probably stood an Hermes in Roman times. The boys annually keep up the festival of the _Floralia_ on May day, making a procession to this hill with _May gads_ (as they call them) in their hands: this is a white willow wand, the bark peeled off, tied round with cowslips, a _thyrsus_ of the Bacchanals: at night they have a bonfire and other merriment; which is really a sacrifice, or religious festival. The king formerly had this whole town in his possession, until it was bestowed on the bishop of Carlisle. Near the conflux of the two brooks was lately a pleasant garden, and a place called Julian’s Bower, much talked of.

[Sidenote: +Boston.+]

[Sidenote: +TAB. XIX.+]

_Leak_ signifies a watery marshy place. _Wrangle_ an _ab_ A. S. _Wear lacus_, and _hangel arundo_, _lacus arundinibus obsita_? Return we to Boston, _Fanum Sti. Botulphi_, the saint of sea-faring men. St. Botulf (the bishop) his body lay in St. Edmund’s monastery at Bury. Wm. Malmsb. p. 137. This seems to have been the last bounds northward of the _Iceni_ in most antient times; therefore its old name was _Icanhoe_, or _Icenorum munimentum_, as Mr. Baxter interprets it in his Glossary. I guess the first monastery founded here was on the south of the present church; for I saw vast stone walls dug up there, and a plain leaden cross taken up; in my possession. Many were the religious houses here in superstitious times, whose lands were given to the corporation by Hen. VIII. as likewise the estate of the lord Hussey, beheaded then at Lincoln for rebellion: he lived in one of the houses where is a great square tower of brick, called now Hussey tower. There are many such in this country, as that now called Rochford and sometimes Richmond tower, which is very high. Queen Mary was a great benefactress to this corporation, and gave them lands called Erection-lands, to pay a vicar, a lecturer, and two school-masters: they have now a revenue of a thousand pounds per annum. In the parsonage-house is a scutcheon with a pastoral staff behind it thus: a fess charged with a fish and two annulets between three plates, each charged with a cross fitché. The church, I think, is the largest parish church (without cross ailes) in the world: it is a hundred foot wide and three hundred foot long within the walls: the roof is handsomely cieled with Irish oak supported by four and twenty tall and slender pillars: many remains of fine brasses in the church, none so perfect as this in the south aile. Under the figures of the man and woman this inscription,

*Ecce sub hoc lapide henricus Mete sistit humatus vi mortis rapida generosus semper vocitatus hic quisquis veneris ipsum precibus memoraris. sponsam defunctam simul aliciam sibi junctam anno mil C quater quadragenoque deno marcia quarto dies, extat ei Requies.*

[Sidenote: TAB. III. 2d vol.]

The tower is the highest (100 yards) and noblest in Europe, flattering a weary traveller with its astonishing aspect even at ten miles distance. It is easily seen forty mile round this level country, and farther by sea: the lantern at top is very beautiful, and the thinness of the stone-work is admirable. There was a prodigious clock-bell, which could be heard six or seven miles round, with many old verses round it: about the year 1710 they knocked it in pieces, without taking the inscription. Twenty yards from the foundation of this tower runs the rapid Witham, through a bridge of wood. On the south side of the church-yard was, some few years ago, a curious monument[25] (as they say) of one of the builders of the church, in stone, of arched work, but now intirely demolished; and in the market place in my memory was an old and large cross, with a vault underneath, steps all around it, and at top a stone pyramid of thirty foot high, but at this time quite destroyed. I found here an old brass seal of William Chetwynd, with his coat of arms, A fesse lozengé between three mullets, which I gave to the honourable gentleman of that name. Several frieries here, black, white and grey; of which little remains. Oliver Cromwell, then a colonel, lay in Boston the night before he fought the battle of Winceby near Horncastle, Oct. 5. 1643. In North Holland they have a custom of pulling geese twice a year; which has not escaped Pliny’s notice, X. 22. There is nothing left of the adjacent Swineshed abbey, founded by Rob. Greisly, but a yew-tree and a knightly tomb fixed in the wall of the new house. Here king John sickened in his journey to Sleeford castle and Newark castle, where he died.

East of Boston was a chapel called Hiptoft, and in the town a church dedicated to St. John, but demolished. Here was a staple for wool and several other commodities, and a vast foreign trade: the hall was pulled down in my time. The great hall of St. Mary’s Guild is now the place of meeting for the corporation and sessions, &c. Here was born the learned John Fox the martyrologist. Queen Elizabeth gave the corporation a court of admiralty all over the sea-coast hereabouts.

Abundance of rare sea-plants grow near this coast: many species of sea-_wormwoods_, _scurvy-grass_, _crithmum marinum_, _atriplex marinum_, _&c._ of which we may expect a good account from Dr. Blair of Boston; as also of many rare fishes caught hereabouts, _Raja_, _needle-fish_, _star-fish_, &c. and of the _stickle-back_ oil is made in very large quantities, the invention of the _Ichtyophagi_, Pliny XV. 7. _Carum vulgare_, Caraway, grows plentifully in the pastures all about Boston. _Sambucus foliis variegatis baccis albis_, Elder-tree with gilded leaves and white berries, in Boston Fen-ends: a gilded _ivy_ in Mr. Pacey’s garden. _Apium palustre Italicum_, Selery _vulgo dictum_, in all the ditches of Holland. _Paronychia folio rutaceo_, Rue-leaved whitlow-grass, on the north side of walls and houses. A _barberry-tree_ without stones, in Alderchurch parish. _Asparagus sylvestris_, wild asparagus, in Gorham wood, Whaplode. Many rare plants in the east fen, such as _stratiotes azoides_, fresh water fengreen. In the boggy grounds about Tattersall, _Trifolium palustre_, _ros solis_, _virga aurea_, _myrtus brabantica_, _pinguicula_, _asphodelus_, _adianthum aureum_. In the park, _androsæmum_, _tutsan_: in the ditches hard by, _valeriana sylvestris_: in the heaths, many sorts of _erica_: _solanum lethale_ about Cowhurn.

[Sidenote: +Kirton.+]

Pass we from Boston by Kirkton, famous for apples, denominated from its fair church built by Alexander, that magnificent bishop of Lincoln, after the manner of a cathedral with a transept. It has a handsome tower standing upon four pillars in the middle of the cross, with a noble ring of five large bells. I observe, this building is set upon the ruins of a former church, part whereof is visible at the west end: and in most of the churches in this country the same may be discovered, from the different manner of the architecture; the most ancient having small windows arched semicircularly; what is additional, to be known by the pointed Gothic arches. This church is very neat both within and without: upon the font is this inscription:

+ *Orate pro anima alani burton qui fontem istum fieri fec. a. d. mccccii.*

Against the north wall is the monument of a person in armour, and round it this inscription,

+ *Orate pro anima Iohannis de Meres.*

The family of the Meres has flourished much hereabouts.

[Sidenote: +Crowland.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. IV.]

Upon the edge of Lincolnshire, in the middle of a vast fenny level, Crowland is situate, memorable for its early religion and the ruins of an opulent monastery, which still makes a considerable prospect. The abbey presents a majestic view of ruins; founded a thousand years ago, by Athelbald king of the Mercians, in a horrid silence of bogs and thorns; made eminent for the holy retirement of his chaplain Guthlac, who changed the gaieties of the court for the severities of an anchorite. The king endowed it with a profuse hand, and all the land for several miles round the church belonged to it. The foundation is laid on piles of wood drove into the ground with gravel and sand, and they have found several of them in tearing up the ruins of the eastern part of the church; for what remains now is only part of the west end; and of that only one corner in tolerable repair, which is their parish-church at present. It is not difficult at this time to distinguish part of the very first building of this church, from that which was built by Ingulphus.[26] In the middle of the cross stood once a lofty tower and a remarkably fine ring of bells, of which there is a proverb in this country still remaining: one prodigiously great bell was sacred to Guthlac: they are said to have been the first peal of bells in the county, perhaps England.[27] From the foundation of this tower to the west end, is somewhat left, but only the walls, pillars, with passages or galleries at top, and stair-cases at the corners. The roof, which was of Irish oak finely carved and gilt, fell down about twenty years ago: you see pieces of it in every house. The pavement is covered with shrubs for brass inscriptions, and people now at pleasure dig up the monumental stones, and divide the holy shipwreck for their private uses; so that, instead of one, most of the houses in the town are become religious. The painted glass was broke by the soldiers in the rebellion, for they made a garrison of the place. All the eastern part of the body of the church is intirely razed to the foundation; and the ashes as well as tombs of an infinite number of illustrious personages, kings, abbots, lords, knights, &c. there hoping for repose, are dispersed, to the irreparable damage of English history. The great Waltheof, earl of Northumberland and Huntingdon, was one of the saints here: he was beheaded by the Norman conqueror. The monastic buildings, cloysters, hall, abbot’s lodgings,[28] and the like, which no doubt were very fine, are absolutely demolished; no trace thereof left, whereby their extent might be guessed at. In the north-west corner of the church stands a strong tower with a very obtuse spire, and a pleasant ring of small bells. Over the west gate are the images of divers kings, abbots, &c. among the rest St. Guthlac with a whip and knife, as always painted: they were cut in a soft kind of stone, and drawn over in oil colour with gilding.

[Sidenote: TAB. VII.]

[Sidenote: TAB. XI.]

Not far off the abbey eastward, upon a hillock, is the remnant of a little stone cottage, called Anchor Church-house: here was a chapel over the place where St. Guthlac lived a hermit, and where he was buried.[29] Over-against the west end of the abbey is the famous triangular bridge: it is too steep to be commonly rode over; horses and carriages go under it: it is formed upon three segments of a circle meeting in one point; they say each base stands in a different county. The rivers Nyne and Welland here meet. On one side sits an image of king Athelbald with a globe in his hand. St. Guthlake’s cross, between Spalding and Crowland, near Brother-house and Cloot-bar, stands upon the side of the bank, almost buried under earth: it is a boundary of the church lands: of great antiquity.[30]

ITER OXONIENSE. II.

_Sed prior hæc hominis cura est cognoscere terram._ +Virg.+

_To Mr._ JOHN HARDY _of_ Nottingham.

It is commonly remarked, that impressions of any sort made upon youthful minds last long; and, like a cut in the bark of tender sprigs, grow deeper and more apparent with advancing years.

_Crescent illæ crescetis amores._ +Virg.+

The many hours I have spent with you when I first began to cast my eyes upon the scenes of the world, and consider things about me, recur to my mind with pleasure. I should be ungrateful then, (to which my temper is most abhorrent) and I should deny myself a particular satisfaction, did I not acknowledge the remembrance of a friendship now mature: therefore to you I offer the earliest fruits of it, this small account of the first pleasurable journey I can reckon to myself, where I had opportunity for satisfying my growing curiosity. It is no wonder that your learning, your taste of antiquities, and all endearing qualities, made me fond of cultivating your acquaintance; and perhaps to you in great measure do I owe what may not be discommendable in amusements of the following kind, since our converse and our journeying sometimes together, to visit the remains of venerable antiquity, in my first years, gave me the love and incitement to such pursuits. I am not concerned to make an excuse for the meanness of this present: were it not juvenile, it would not be genuine. As when first with you, so since it has been my method, to put into writing what little remarks I made in travelling: at length I had collected so much, that with some drawings of places and things taken at the same time, it was judged not unworthy of publication: my consent was grounded upon hopes that by this means I might give some account of every part of my time, and that my own pleasures might not be altogether unuseful; especially thinking it was no hard task to equal somewhat of this sort lately done, and well received of the public. It is to be wished this branch of learning should revive among us, which has lain dormant since the great Camden; so that either in discoursing on it, or journeying, we might find some entertainment worthy of men of letters.

[Sidenote: +Stanford.+]

Passing the fenny counterscarps of Holland, we begin our journey at Stanford, which stands in a mild air and pleasant country abounding with noblemen’s seats. Many religious houses have been at Stanford, and once a college founded there, of which they boast much; but of all these things we expect shortly an exact and full account from the reverend Mr. Peck. About 1708, a brass seal was dug up, in the castle at Stanford, of Thomas bishop of Elphin in Ireland; in possession of Ralf Madyson, esq. Burghley, the earl of Exeter’s, is worth a traveller’s view: the rooms are finely painted by Seignior Varrio: abundance of curious pictures from Italy, collected by my lord’s grandfather. At St. Martin’s church are the monuments of that noble family.

[Sidenote: +Foderinghay.+]

Through a pleasant and woody country, we went to Foderinghay castle, situate on a branch of the river Nyne, overlooking the adjacent country and wide-extended meadows. The castle seems to have been very strong: there was a high mount, or keep, environed with a deep ditch: the space around it is guarded by a wall, double ditch, and the river: it is mostly demolished, and all the materials carried off. They pretend to show the ruins of the hall where Mary queen of Scots was beheaded. Some say king James I. ordered this fortress to be destroyed out of indignation: it was the seat of Edmund of Langley, duke of York, buried in the collegiate church here, a very neat building, founded by Edward duke of York, and here likewise interred: their monuments in the chancel (which was intirely demolished at the suppression) were restored by queen Elizabeth: the windows of the church are filled with very handsome painted glass, representing the images of cardinals, arch-bishops, abbots, &c. such as St. Denis with his head in his hand, St. Guthlac of Croyland, Richard Scrope arch-bishop of Canterbury, &c. these were saved in the late civil war, by the then minister of the parish, with a little money given to the soldiers that came to execute the harmless saints. We met with these uncouth verses upon the wall, showing the poetry of those times:

_In festo Martyrii processus Martiniani, Ecclesiæ prima fuit hujus petra locata, Anno Christi primum centum ac mille Cum deca quinta H. V. tunc imminente 2ᵈᵃ._

On the north side of the church are the remains of the college, and the meadow under it retains its name: the steeple has an octagonal tower at the top, somewhat like that of Boston; at the bases of which are the images of bears and ragged staffs, cognisances (I suppose) of the founders; as the falcon and fetterlock often painted in the glass. They have a very ancient MS. book here, of the affairs of the parish. There is a school in the town, erected by Hen. VII. worth about 30l. per ann. over the door is wrote, _Disce aut discede_. A stone bridge over the river was built by queen Elizabeth anno 1555. shown by an inscription on the wall, a monument of the spite of the soldiers, who cut out with their swords, as they passed by, one line of it, _God save the queen_.

[Sidenote: +Oundale.+]

Oundale, or Avondale, is remarkable for a drumming well, much talked of by the superstitious vulgar: no doubt it is owing to the passage of the water, and air upon certain conditions, through the subterraneous chinks; for, as Virgil says, in his fine poem called _Ætna_,

_Secta est omnis humus penitusque cavata latebris, &c._

and that it is done by intervals or pulses as it were, is but consentaneous to many of Nature’s operations. Here are two long bridges of stone. Louick church, on the side of a hill, is very fine, founded by John de Drayton, anno 1125: the windows are full of coats of arms. There is a picture of the founder in armour, on his knees, presenting his church to God: here is his monument, of the Veres too, and Staffords earls of Wiltshire, and others who intermarried with his family: there is a modern one of the late Dutchess of Norfolk, who was married, after her divorcement, to the present owner of the family seat, called Drayton house, Sir John Germayn, who has for the most part new-built it.

[Sidenote: +Boughton.+]

From hence we went to Boughton, the seat of the duke of Montagu, magnificent for building, painting and gardens: the stables are large and stately, well calculated for the designed grandeur of the house; for it is not yet finished: the hall is a very noble room: on the cieling is a convocation of the gods admirably painted, as are many suites of rooms and apartments, stair-cases, galleries, &c. beside the great numbers of portraits and other curious pictures, part of the furniture: the gardens contain fourscore and ten acres of ground, adorned with statues, flower-pots, urns of marble and metal, many very large basons, with variety of fountains playing, aviaries, reservoirs, fish-ponds, canals, admirable greens, wildernesses, terraces, &c. the cascade is very fine: a whole river, running through the length of the gardens, is diversified very agreeably to complete its beauty.

[Sidenote: +Geddington.+]

A mile off is Geddington, where in a _trivium_ stands one of the stone crosses[31] built by king Edward I. in memory of his queen Eleanor, who died at Hareby near Bolingbroke, in Lincolnshire, 1291. It is formed upon a triangular model, of pretty Gothic architecture to suit its station. Her bowels were buried by the high altar in the Lady’s chapel of Lincoln minster; and in her journey thence to Westminster, where ever her herse rested, the king erected one of these magnificent crosses, as a monument of his great love: upon them are the arms of England, Castile, Leon and Poictou. These are the places, as far as I am at present informed, Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford,[32] Geddington, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Dunstable, St. Alban’s, Waltham, Cheapside over against Wood-street, Charing-cross. Near this place is Boughton, having a petrifying spring, which forms itself a canal of stone as it runs, consolidating the twigs, moss, and all adventitious bodies. We saw near the road a spring-head, with a statue of Moses in the middle of the water, belonging to Boughton house.

[Sidenote: +Eltabona+]