CHAPTER XXIV

LINCOLNSHIRE BYWAYS

Willoughby and Captain John Smith—Grimoldby—South Cockerington—Sir Adrian Scrope’s Tomb—Alvingham—Two Churches in one Churchyard—Yarborough—The Covenhams—Hog-back View—Milescross Hill to Gunby—Skendleby—South Ormsby and Walmsgate—Belchford—Thorpe Hall—The Elkingtons.

The Romans had a road from the sea probably by Burgh and Gunby and then on the ridge by Ulceby cross-roads to Louth, and so on the east edge of the Wold north to the Humber.

It is not a particularly interesting route, but if at Gunby we turn to the right we shall pass _Willoughby_ with its old sandstone church in a well-kept churchyard, a somewhat rare thing on this route. The church (St. Helen’s) has some Saxon stones in the south wall of the tower, and a double arch on the north side of the chancel, a Norman arch in front of a fourteenth century one. Here, in 1579, was born the redoubtable Captain John Smith, president of Virginia and the hero of the famous Pocahontas[13] story, a man whose life was more full of adventure than perhaps any in history. The interest which Pocahontas created when she came to England is evinced by the number of inn signs of “The belle Sauvage.” The church has a singular slab with the head and shoulders of a man, name unknown, in relief cut on it at one end—his feet showing at the other, something after the fashion of a “sandwich-man.” The huge belfry ladder is also noteworthy, being made of two trees, whole, with stout, rough timber spiked to them for steps.

[Sidenote: GRIMOLDBY]

From _Willoughby_ to _Alford_ and on by _Saleby_, _Withern_, _Gayton-le-Marsh_, _Great_ and _Little Carlton_, and _Manby_, the road is not remarkable; but, after crossing the main road from Horncastle to Saltfleet, which has come over the Wold _viâ_ Scamblesby, Cawkwell and Tathwell, it arrives at _Grimoldby_. Here the church is noteworthy for the size and excellence of its gargoyles. Outside it has heavy battlemented parapets, a good gable-cross with pent-house over it, as on the Somersby cross, and the entire shaft of a churchyard cross. Inside, the nave is whitewashed, but the fine old roof remains, and on one of the beams is the pulley block for the rood light, as at Addlethorpe and Winthorpe. The door is old and has been enriched with carving and there is the lower part of a good rood screen with three returns, possibly for lights, projecting twelve inches westwards. This arrangement is also found in the rood screen at Thornton Curtis. In the north porch is a fine holy water stoup.

[Illustration: _Manby._]

For the next six miles churches are to be found at every mile.

[Sidenote: SIR ADRIAN SCROPE]

_South Cockerington_ has a little holy water stoup just inside the door. Part of a handsome rood screen is stowed away under the tower, the rest being in _Manby_ Church. The church has had a profusion of consecration crosses—a dozen have been noticed, some of which still remain cut in the stone and filled with dark cement. Nearly all the churches about here are in two styles—Decorated and Perpendicular; and though _Grimoldby_ exhibits only one style, it is the transition between these two. The most noticeable thing in the church is the alabaster altar tomb to Sir Adrian Scrope, with effigies of his five sons over whom is the legend ‘similis in prole resurgo,’ and two daughters and an infant, over whom is written ‘Pares et impares.’ Does this mean “Like in face but different in character,” or “Like their father but not so good-looking”? The knight is represented armed and half reclining on one elbow, with his helmet behind him and his mailed glove by his knee, the head and face very life-like, the hands and fingers extremely delicate. On a brass plate he is described as the thrice honourable Adrian Scrope, Kt., etc., and this verse follows:—

Tombs are but dumb day-books, they will not keepe There names alive who in these wombes doe sleepe, But who would pen the virtues of this knight A story not an epitaph must write.

It was not easy to find the way to _South Cockerington_ as the road to it literally forms a square, and then passes on from the churchyard gate right through a farm; but to reach _North Cockerington_ you seem to go round at least five sides of a square or squares, then cross the Louth River, and then a bridge just above a water mill, and passing by two gates through a farmyard you arrive in a grass field, in which, devoid of any sort of fence on the north and west sides, the plain-looking church of _Alvingham_ stands; a gate leads to the south door, near which a few yards of grass is mown, but the rest of the churchyard is a tangle of long grass and tall nettles; and amongst them, within a stone’s throw, stands a second and larger church of _North Cockerington_, in which no service is held. “There _is_ some wildernesses!” was the apt remark of our driver as we reached the churchyard gate.

Two churches in one churchyard are to be found at Evesham in Worcestershire, and at Reepham in Norfolk. These I have seen; others are at Willingate in Essex, and at Trimley in Suffolk. At Evesham there is even a third tower for the bells. This is of stone, but in a few other places, as at Brookland in Romney Marsh, the bell tower is a separate timber erection. The reason for two here was that Alvingham, dedicated to St. Adelwold, is the parish church, but there was once a Gilbertine priory for monks and nuns close by, to which the other church served as a chapel. This was also the parish church of North Cockerington at a very early date, mention being made of it in a charter of about 1150.

The Alvingham Cartulary or priory book, once in possession of F. G. Ingoldby, Esq., is now in Louth Museum, and among the charters is a curious entry of an agreement between the joint occupiers of a meadow that their men should meet on a certain day at Cockerington Church and there fix a day for beginning to mow.

[Sidenote: YARBOROUGH WEST DOOR]

The next village is one which gives his title to Lord _Yarborough_. The church, like so many in this neighbourhood, Grimoldby and South Cockerington being honourable exceptions, is locked, but the chief point of interest is to be seen outside. This is a beautiful example of a richly carved doorway. The mouldings of the square head are good and set with little ornaments, and very bold and original carvings run round the arch of the doorway. The space between the arch and the outer square head mould is filled with shallow carved work representing on the left, the fall, with Adam, Eve, the Serpent, and much good foliage carving; and on the right the Lamb and the emblems of the Passion. An old English inscription runs round the arch of the doorway, but is only in part decipherable; the stone is a white hardish sandstone, and the surface a good deal worn, but the whole design is most elegant and unusual.

A mile more brings us to the two churches of _Covenham_, within a quarter of a mile of each other, and both locked. Covenham _St. Mary_ seems to be built of a hard chalk. There are mason-marks high up on each pilaster of the porch. The other church, of _St. Bartholomew_, was once a cruciform building. It is made of the same white material, but the tower is now covered with Welsh slate, and one transept is gone. The fonts in both churches are good. That in St. Mary’s is, for beauty of design and boldness of execution, the best in the neighbourhood, but they do not compare for beauty and size with those in the Fen churches, which are lofty and set on wide octagonal basements of three or four steps. Here, the brass to Sir John Skipwyth, who died at, or in the year of, Agincourt, 1415, is in exceptionally good condition. He is armed and has both the long dagger and sword, the latter suspended from his left arm by a strap. The tail of the lion on which he stands is erect between the leg of the knight and his sword.

The rest of the route by _Fulston_, _Tetney_ and _Humberston_ to Grimsby is not of any interest until we come to _Clee_, which, with its interesting Saxon church tower, we have already described.

[Sidenote: A ROMAN ‘HOG’S BACK’]

In the Wold country the main roads usually run along the ridges of the Wolds and afford views on either side. One of the best of these, “Hog’s Back” views is obtained from one of the byways which starts from the Spilsby and Alford road at the top of Milescross hill, and runs south till it reaches Gunby. It skirts the wooded belt of the Well Vale estate, and drops into the village of _Ulceby_ which, like most of the tiny Wold villages, lies on the bank of a small stream in a wooded hollow, where the church and farm and a few cottages form a pleasing picture of rural retirement.

Mounting again, the road turns to the left and goes straight ahead on what is evidently a portion of a Roman “street,” giving on the left a view of the “Marsh” towards Mablethorpe, with its grey shimmering line which denotes “the bounding main,” and on the right a still more distant prospect over the flat “fen” lands in the direction of Boston, whose columnar tower rises far up into the sky. The blue haze of the marsh, the purple distance over the fens, with, in the autumn, the long, drifting lines of grey smoke from the burning “quitch,” or “twitch” as they usually call it here, make a delightful impression; and then if we turn fenwards we drop into the leafy hollow of _Skendleby_ village, where once the Conqueror’s friend, Gilbert de Gaunt, resided, and to which William of Waynfleet, the famous Bishop of Winchester, was presented as vicar by the convent of Bardney in 1430. It is a pretty village with its church and manor-house, and thatched, white-washed cottages bright with flowers, and its well-stocked farm. A tall windmill crowns the next height; this is Grebby Mill, and it is interesting to find that there has been a windmill there for 600 years.

For _Grebby_ is old enough to be mentioned in Domesday Book, and in 1317 we have mention of a windmill there belonging to Robert de Willoughby and Margaret his wife.

[Sidenote: THE FLOODED FEN]

From the windmill one looks down to the old brick tower of _Scremby_ church, which is the last building on the edge of the slope from which the endless levels of the fen begin and run south till they reach Crowland and Peterborough. From whence the great cathedral, with its splendid west front, looked out in the disastrous August of 1912 over miles and miles of corn-land where the tall sheaves stood up out of a vast expanse of water, the result of the abnormal rains and the burst dyke which made Whittlesea Mere once more resume its ancient appearance.

Below Scremby the road runs to the left to _Candlesby_, and so rejoins that starting-place of so many byways—_Gunby_.

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.

[Sidenote: 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.

##