Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood Part 33

Well at Woodhall 9

Wells, saline, elsewhere 8, 10, 87, 99, 201, 256, note

Welles, Lord, beheaded 214

Wharf, meaning of 11 and note

White-Hall Wood murder 18

Wife-selling 181 and note

William de Karilepho 196 ,, de Romara 152

Willoughby, Lord, of Knaith 132

Winceby, fight at 190

Winchester, Bishop of 221, 235

Wispington 175, 176

Witham, ran to Wainfleet 104 and note ,, a sacred stream of Druids 102 and note

Wolds 27, 258 and notes

Wong, Horncastle 187

Woodc.o.c.k 35, 36

Wood Hall, the 126

Woodhall (Old) Church 200, 201 ,, water discovered 9 ,, Lines on 8 ,, Properties of 98, 99

Woodp.e.c.k.e.r, three kinds 41

Wry-neck 47

Footnotes:

{5} Mr. Parkinson resided at the Hall, Old Bolingbroke, or Bolingbroke, as it was called at that date, the prefix not being then needed to distinguish the old historic market town from its modern offshoot, New Bolingbroke. Old Bolingbroke is noted for the ruins of its ancient castle, where Henry IV. was born, and long ago gave a t.i.tle to the earls "of that ilk."

{8a} Tradition avers that, shortly before this accident occurred, an old woman pa.s.sing near the mine heard a raven-(doubtless a carrion crow)-croaking ominously as it sat on the bough of a tree hard by, and that it distinctly uttered these words, "carpse, carpse, carpse" (_i.e._, corpse), and this she regarded as a certain presage of some fatal occurence. Truly the age of witches and warlocks was not yet pa.s.sed.

{8b} Mr. John Sharpe was father of the late Mrs. Michel Fynes and a relative of Mr. James Sharpe, of Claremont House, Woodhall Spa.

{8c} In Lincolnshire dialect "heard" is commonly p.r.o.nounced so as to rhyme with "appeared," and this is said to be nearest the Saxon p.r.o.nunciation.

{8d} This was at the time of the Peninsular War, with its prolonged sieges and fearful carnage.

{9a} Mr. John Marshall, grocer and draper.

{9b} Mr. and Mrs. Michael Fynes-the latter the daughter of Mr. Sharpe, who wrote the foregoing verses-have told the writer of several other instances of the use of the water at this early period.

{9c} This tank was unearthed about the year 1875 by some persons who were ratting, and the writer saw it. It was situated at the back of the Bathhouse, and would be, to the best of his recollection, some 12ft. long by 8ft. wide, with a depth of 5ft. It was covered up again, and has (so far as he knows) remained so ever since.

{11a} There was a Roman brickyard, about two fields from the Bathhouse, along the pathway which now runs northwards through Coal Pit Wood and skirts Bracken Wood. The pits are still visible where the clay was dug; also the broad "ride," running east and west through Bracken Wood, near these pits, is said to have been a Roman road.

{11b} In the name Kirkstead Wharf, the etymologist will recognise, in the latter portion, the old Norse "wath" or ford. This was probably, at one time, when the river was wider and shallower, a ford for pa.s.sengers and cattle. There are many places in Yorkshire named Wath, as Wath-on-Dearne, situated on a ford on that river. This is further confirmed by the local p.r.o.nunciation of the name, which is still Kirkstead Wath, or "the Wath" _par excellence_. Wath is connected with our word "wade," and the Latin vadum, a shallow.

{11c} The reader may gather some idea of the slowness of travel from the following particulars given to the writer by an old gentleman:-"The carrier's cart left Horncastle at 8 a.m., arriving at Kirkstead Wath between 12 and 1 p.m.; or between four and five hours for the seven miles. The packet for Boston pa.s.sed Kirkstead at 2 p.m. and arrived at Boston at 5 p.m. This is now done in about 50 minutes. It would have been easy for a pedestrian to have walked direct from Horncastle to Boston in five hours, whereas by this route it took nine hours."

{12} As a further evidence of the difficulty, or rather the perils, of vehicular traffic in those days, the writer may here mention that he had once the unpleasant experience of being among the pa.s.sengers of the aforesaid carrier's cart, when the conveyance was overturned in the ditch, the driver being incapable of performing his duty.

{13} I may here mention that the anomaly of "donative" benefices was abolished by Act of Parliament in 1898.

{14a} Sir H. Dymoke, Bart., was the last champion who performed the ceremony of throwing down the glove in Westminster Hall at the coronation of the Sovereign.

{14b} The land extending from the present schoolhouse nearly to Mill-lane was at that time crown property, with much more in the neighbourhood, since sold.

{14c} Mr. Lewin himself presented the handsome pulpit of Caen stone, the carved poppyheads of the seats, and figures of angels in the roof. The corbels, from which the wooden arches spring, were carved by a barber of Boston, named White, one of three brothers of humble origin, all of whom developed talent in different directions: One (Andrew) as an artist in oil-painting of no small merit,-I have seen an oil-painting by him-another in rustic garden work, and the brother in question (Robert), continuing his calling as a barber, employed his spare time in carving in stone. The corbels in the chancel represent the Queen and Archbishop: those in the north wall of the nave bear the arms of the Rev. E. Walter and his wife; those in the south wall the arms of the Dymokes and the Hotchkin family. The reading desk was presented by the writer in memory of his father, the Rev. E. Walter. As a support to the Credence-table in the chancel is a stone with an effigy of a lady abbess of Stixwould Priory. This, with the stone for the church, was given by the late Mr.

Christopher Turnor, owner of the Stixwould Estate, from the Priory ruins, and, as from the rude character of the carving it is evidently of very early date, it has been supposed to represent the Lady Lucia, the foundress: unfortunately, the masonry being dug from confused heaps, covered by the soil and turf of ages, was not, in many cases, laid by the builders in its proper "layer" as it was quarried. Consequently damp has penetrated, and frost and thaw have broken it up in many parts of the church walls. The small coloured window by the pulpit was the gift of the writer's eldest daughter when a child, as a thank-offering on recovering from an accident, in which she providentially escaped death, when thrown, dragged, and kicked by her run-away pony. An engraving of the church, with description and other particulars, is to be found in the "Ill.u.s.trated London News," of September 25th, 1817.

{15} This syndicate consisted of the Right Honourable Edward Stanhope, M.P. (since deceased), Right Honourable H. Chaplin, M.P., Sir Richard Webster, M.P., T. Cheney Garfit, Esq., Kenwick Hall, Louth, and the Rev.

J. O. Stephens, Rector of Blankney.

{21a} The date was February 2nd, 1850. 200 reward was offered. The writer has seen the printed proclamation of it. Tasker was buried in the churchyard at Scrivelsby, of which benefice his master was rector.

{21b} That he was, most probably, the guilty man is further confirmed by the following incident, vouched for by my informant, who knew him. The keeper at Tattershall, at that time, was a man named Penny. He, for his own reasons, had strong suspicions of the guilt of Kent, but said nothing, as he could not prove it. Several years after, Penny retired from his post as keeper, and took a farm, a few miles distant, in Timberland Fen. The man Kent, on one occasion called upon him to buy some chickens. In the course of conversation, Penny suddenly turned upon Kent, and said, "What a thing it was that you shot Tasker, as you did!"

Kent was so taken by surprise, and confused by the remark, that he at once went away without completing his bargain. It is not, however, little remarkable, that, although no one was convicted of this murder, one of the suspected men, a few years later, committed suicide, another left the country, going out to Australia, and a third died of consumption. This looks, presumably, in all three cases, as though conscience was at work, condemning them, although the law was powerless.

A tombstone was erected to the memory of Richard Tasker, by his master, in Scrivelsby Churchyard, stating that he "was cruelly murdered" in his service.

{24} A cast was taken of "Tiger Tom's" head, after the execution; and a mould from it now forms an ornament over the door of No. 31, Boston-road, Horncastle: at present occupied by Mr. Arthur b.u.t.tery, but formerly the residence of Mr. William Boulton (grandfather of Mr. W. Boulton, landlord of the Great Northern Hotel), who was present at the execution, and obtained the cast at that time. The features are certainly not prepossessing. Another cast is in the possession of Mr. Robert Longstaff, Mareham Road, Horncastle, lately residing at Halstead Hall.

{27a} "Over Fen and Wold," by J. J. Hissey, 1898, p. 290. Mr. Hissey, with his wife, made a driving tour from London to Lincolnshire, and round the county, staying for some days at Woodhall. Anyone who wishes to read a delightfully entertaining account of the chief objects of interest in the county, and in the approach to it, cannot do better than get this book.

{27b} So far from Lincolnshire being all on a dead level, there is a stiff gradient on the Great Northern line, as it pa.s.ses through the county, about 2 miles from Essendine, where an elevation is attained about 10ft. higher than the cross of St. Paul's Cathedral; and only some 10ft. lower than the highest point, at Grant's House, near Berwick. On the old Coach-road from London to Edinburgh, the worst hill in the whole distance is that of Gonerby, near Grantham, Lincolnshire. "Over Fen and Wold," p. 417.

{27c} Quoted by Sir Charles Anderson, in his "Pocket Guide to Lincoln."

"Harr" is an old Lincolnshire terra for "fog." A "sea-harr" is a mist drifting inland from the sea.

{28a} Song, 25; date, 1612.

{28b} "Over Fen and Wold," pp. 1956.