BOOK I. Foss-way. Salt-way. "The Fossway ran from the coast about Saltfleetby by Ludborough,* Ludford, (an undoubted Roman station), to Lincoln; then by Bruff, to Newark, &c. "The Saltway ran from the salt mines, at Droitwich in Worcestshire, to the coast of Lincolnshire; the latter county entered not far from Saltby, crossed the Witham at Saltersford, near the town or Roman station of Ponton," its route thence, to the sea coast, does not seem to be accurately determined. Dr. Stukeley says, "I have little doubt in supposing that a Roman road was drawn from the northern high country about Bolingbroke by Stickford, Stickney, Sibsey, &c. and so to Boston river, about Redstone-Gowt, where it passed it by a ferry. I have fancied to myself that several parcels of it are plainly Roman, by the straightness and by the gravelly bottom. From thence to Kirton it is indubitably so, being laid with a very large bed of gravel; and just a mile from the river is a stone, now called the mile-stone, standing in a quadrivium ;‡ it is a large round stone, like the frustum of a pillar, and very probably a lapis miliaris. From Kirkton, I imagine the road went to Donington, where it met the great and principal road of the country, which is drawn from Ely to Sleaford, in a line not much different from a straight one."|| Another Roman road, Dr. Stukeley conjectures, was made from Horncastle (Banovallum) to Sleaford. He describes its course as "east of the river Bane, southward by Les Yates (Leeds Gates), crossing the Witham at Chapel Hill, and the Car-dyke, somewhere about Kyme." "I think we need not scruple to assert, that Raven's-bank is another ancient road; going I have rode east and west through the heart of the country, from Tid St. Mary's to Cowbit. some miles upon it, where it is now extremely straight and flat. We have been informed that it is actually in some writings called Roman's-bank.§ The same antiquary was of opinion that a road ran from Wainfleet (Vdinona) across the fens to Horncastle, and thence passing near Lincoln (Lindum) to Doncaster (Danum); and he supposed that Salter's road, or as it is now termed Salter's gate, was the remains of it. This conjecture is very probable, as this road communicates with a number of hills, near the high road leading from Wainfleet to Friskney, which are pronounced by every intelligent antiquary to be the remains of salt works. From its name, Salter's road, it is probable that it was formed for the purpose of conveying the salt manufactured in this neighbourhood to the Roman stations in the interior of the country. Mr. Dickinson conjectures "a Roman road to have run in a northerly direction from Lincoln by Castor, Stallingborough, &c. to the sea-coast." Others suppose this road, after passing Castor, to have gone by Yarborough-Camp, Horkstow, &c. Traces of a road are also visible between Wainfleet and Burgh, an undoubted Roman station. "In the years 1788 and 1789, Mr. Leman in company with Dr. Bennet, bishop of Cloyne, traversed the Fossway, from +Turnor's Grantham. This stone may yet be seen at the cross roads nearly opposite to the Pincushion public-house, in the parish of Wyberton. § Ibid, p. 15. Map to the Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, &c. || Stukeley's Iter. Cur. p. 14. A piece of land in the parish of Croft, retains the name of Bamborough field; through it the CHAP. 1. road is supposed to have passed. From Burgh there was a Roman road to Caistor, which passed, after leaving the former place, to the east of Gunby Hall, near the present road. It then proceeded in a direct line to Ulceby Furze Hill, where there was an encampment; from thence it went by Calceby to South Ormsby, where there was another encampment, a description of which is given in Gough's edition of Camden's Brittania. On leaving this station the route was circuitous to avoid the wold vallies; and in its course it formed the boundaries of several parishes, (a certain characteristic of a Roman road,) particularly Tetford, Oxcomb, Withcall, Stennigot, and Gayton le Wold, in which latter place was another encampment. From Gayton it ran to Tows, a hamlet in the parish of Ludford, where it crossed the Fossway, and thence by Binbrook to Caistor. It is also probable that the sea bank was made use of by the Romans as a road. It was the opinion of Dr. Stukeley that they had a road round the whole of the coast; traces of which remain in a variety of places in this county, as Raven's or Roman's bank at Holbeach, Pinchbeck, Bicker, Wainfleet, Burgh, Somercoats, Grimsby, Hallingborough, Harburgh, Thornton, Barrow, Barton, Wintringham, Alkborough,* and Scarborough. About a mile from Wainfleet All Saints' are the remains of a stone pillar, called the White Cross, which has been considered by some, as having been originally a lapis miliaris; and it has been inferred from this circumstance, that the Romans constructed a road from Wainfleet to Boston, which passed in a direct line through St. Mary's and Friskney to the latter place, a little to the Westward of the present high road. Allowing this conjecture to be correct, the line of road would go very near a piece of land in the parish of Wrangle, denominated “the Ivorys," where a building of considerable magnitude, has at some remote period, undoubtedly stood. The foundations are still remaining, and the form, a paralellogram, is easily ascertained from the remains of the moat which surrounded it. Had the Romans a small fort or military post here? The spot is about an equal distance from Burgh and Boston, at both which places the Romans had, without doubt, stations.+ During the Anglo-Saxon dominion of England this county was incorporated within the kingdom of Mercia, which, according to an old chronicle quoted by Leland, was divided into two provinces, north and south; and as the Trent was the separating line, the county of Lincoln constituted a great part of South Mercia. Crida was the first Mercian sovereign, and began his reign in 586. At this time it is supposed that the whole island was governed by eight Anglo-Saxon monarchs; whence it should rather be denominated an octarchy than an heptarchy. During the establishment of these petty kingdoms, the Saxons were in constant warfare with the Romanized Britons; and after these were subdued, they were repeatedly embroiled in conflicts with each other. In the midst of these civil commotions Christianity was Thompson's Boston, p. 15. + Mention is made in the Tower Records of an old castle called "Twigrain," as existing in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet' which separated the divisions of Lindsey and Holland; Ivory Hills are situate in the latter division, but the North and East sides are bounded by Lindsey; the name is very probable to be a corruption of "Twigrain," and it may safely be inferred that if not originally of Roman formation, it was at least erected by our Saxon or Danish ancestors.-Oldfield. ↑ Another chronicle says, that this kingdom was "departed into three partes, into West Mercia, Middle Mercia, and East Mercia: it contained the diocesses of Lincoln, Wircester, Hereford, Coventry, and Lichfield.”—Britton. Historic Notices. BOOK I. introduced, and gradually made its progress through the island. Peada, the son of Penda, was the reigning monarch here when this religion was offered to, and accepted by the south Mercians. This benign stranger gave a new turn to human pursuits, and soon diverted and engrossed the attention of the barbarous heathens. Peada founded a monastery at Mederhamsted, now Peterborough; and, according to Speed, governed all the middle part of Mercia, and after the death of Oswy, king of Northumberland, by gift, received all the southern part of that kingdom. This was only given on condition of his adopting the Christian faith; when he was also to marry Alfleda, daughter of Oswy. Peada was soon afterwards murdered, as supposed, by his wife.* "Edwin the Great, the first Christian king of Northumberland, conquered the counties of Durham, Chester, Lancaster, the Isle of Man, and Anglesea, carried his arms southward over the Trent, and obtained all the province of Lindsey. Paulinus, who converted him to Christianity, preached it wherever that king's power extended. He built the cathedral of Southwell, a little west of Newark, baptized many thousands in the river Trent, near to Tiovulfingacester, and converted Blecca, the governor of Lincoln.+ This was about A. D. 630. The learned and pious Alkfrid kept his court at Stamford in 658. After the death of Oswy, king of Northumberland, Egfrid, his son, invaded Wulfere, and wrested from him the whole province of Lindsey, in Lincolnshire. This was about the year 673. In 677, he erected the Episcopal See of Sidnacester, in favour of Eadhead, who had been chaplain to his brother, king Alkfrid, of Deira. In A. D. 683, we learn from Ralph de Diceto, Eadhed left Lindissi for Ripon, where he remained till his death." The south Mercian kingdom, and Bishop's See, being thus established, we hear of but few other public events till the incursions and pillages of the Danes. These freebooters were particularly active in this county, and committed numerous depredations on the monasteries, &c. Ingulphus has given a circumstantial account of their cruelties in this part of the island, and Hearne thus translates the abbot's narrative: Early in the year 870, "the Danes took shipping, and went into Lindisse, in Lincolnshire; and, landing at Humberstan, spoiled all that country. At which time the famous and ancient monastery of Bardney was destroyed, the Monks being all massacred in the church without mercy. And when they had stayed there all summer, wasting the country with fire and sword, about Michaelmas they came into Kesteven, in the same county, where they committed the like murders and desolations. At length, in September, 870, Count Algar, and two knights, his senechals, called Wibert and Leofric, (from whose names the people thereabouts have since given appellations to the villages where they lived, calling them Wiberton and Leofrington,) Bede, lib. III. ca. 24.-Speed, 252. + Bede states, that Paulinus built a stone church, of notable workmanship, (operis egregii) in the city of Lincoln, the roof whereof being fallen to decay, or destroyed by enemies, left the bare walls standing alone. "In this place, however," he observes, "that every year some miraculous cures are generally wrought, for the benefit of those who seek the faith." Bede, Book II. ch. 16.--In this work the city of Lincoln is particularly specified; but to identify the Linclocolinæ civitatis of Bede with the present city, requires something more than assertion; for the place adopted by Paulinus for the erection of this stone church, was most probably the subsequent Sidnacester. In the same chapter our venerable historian proceeds to state, that a certain Abbot and priest of singular veracity, named Deda, told him he knew an aged person who was baptized at noon-day, by the Bishop Paulinus, in the presence of King Edwin, in the river Trent, near the city, which, in the English Tongue, is called Tiovulfingacester. This will be more particularly enquired into hereafter. ‡ Dr. Stukeley, in a MS. quoted by Dickinson in his “History and Antiquities of Newark,” 4to. 1806. In this work the Doctor and Mr. Dickinson endeavour to prove that Newark is the Saxon Sidnacester. drew together all the youth of Holland, with a brave body of two hundred men, belonging to Croyland Abbey, who were led on by one Toly, a famous soldier among the Mercians before his conversion, but now a converted monk of the same monastery. These taking with them about three hundred more stout and warlike men from Deping, Langtoft, and Baston; to whom also joined Morchar, lord of Brunne, with his strong and numerous family; and being met by the sheriff of Lincoln, named Osgot, a valiant and ancient soldier, with the Lincolnshire forces, in number five hundred more, mustered together in Kesteven, on St. Maurice's day, gave the Pagans battle, and, by God's assistance, vanquished them, with the slaughter of three of their kings, and a great number of common soldiers; the Christians pursued the Barbarians to their very camp, where finding a very stout resistance, night at last parted them, and the Earl drew back his army. But it seems the same night there returned to the Danish camp all the rest of the princes of that nation, who, dividing the country among them, had marched out to plunder." The next morning, notwithstanding the weakness of their forces, the Christians again gave battle to the Danes; who being "exasperated at the slaughter of their men, having buried their three kings early in the morning, at a place then called Launden, but afterwards, from this burial, Trekingham, four of their kings and eight counts marched out, whilst two kings and four counts guarded the camp and captives. But the Christians, because of the smallness of their number, drawing themselves up in one body, made, with their shields, a strong testudo against the force of their enemies' arrows, and kept off the horse with their pikes. And thus being well ordered by their commanders, they kept the ground all day. But night coming on, notwithstanding till then they had remained unbroken, and had withstood the force of their enemies arrows, whose horses being tired, began to flag; yet they very imprudently left an entire victory to the Pagans: for the Pagans feigning a flight, began to quit the field, which the Christians had no sooner perceived, (however their commanders forbade and opposed it,) than they broke their ranks, and, pursuing the Pagans, were all dispersed through the plain without any order or command; so that the Pagans returning like lions among a flock of sheep, made a most prodigious slaughter. On the annihilation of the Christian forces, the Pagans directed their course towards the monastery of Croyland, plundering and burning all the villages in their way, and murdering the inhabitants. Being apprised, by some fugitives, of the approach of the sanguinary conquerors, the terrified monks, expecting an immediate attack, instantly employed themselves in secreting and securing their sacred relics and valuables, some of which were thrown into the well, and some committed to the care of the youthful class of their community, who were impelled to seek self preservation in flight. Thus prepared, the old monks devoted themselves to prayer, from which they were roused by the flames of the neighbouring villages; and the clamours of the fierce Pagans drew nearer. The abbot, and they who were too young or too old to fly, assembled in the choir, near the high altar, hoping there to secure life; but the desperadoes rushed into the sacred place, and, with savage exultation, imbrued their swords in the bodies of the unresisting victims. Every part of the sanctified building was stained with blood; and by the statement of Ingulphus, it appears that only one youth was preserved from the general massacre. The spoilers broke down all the tombs and monuments, with the avaricious hope of discovering treasures; and on the third day, they committed the whole monastic CHAP. I. BOOK I. buildings to the flames. With immense plunder, of cattle, &c. the barbarians marched the next day to Mederhamsted, or Peterborough, where they committed similar atrocities and barbarities; and it is related that the monastery continued fifteen days in flames. Though the horrible proceedings of the Danish marauders were so truly calamitous in their immediate operations; and though language can only depict their repeated exploits, in the terms of plunder, murder, rape, famine, and distress; yet these were the harbingers of national improvement and amelioration. The petty, jealous, and opposing kingdoms of the AngloSaxons, were compelled, to confederate for mutual defence; a consolidation of the different states arose, and during the greatest distraction of the realms, that amiable man, wise monarch, and skilful general, Alfred, was sent as a guardian angel to the country. He employed the energies of intellect to repel invasion, to discomfit the public and private enemies of the island, and to administer comfort to the distressed by wise and appropriate laws. After his firm establishment on the throne, the nation assumed a new aspect; and after that felicitous event, its annals became more clear and enlightened. "The sovereignty of Mercia, on the defeat of the Danes, fell into the power of Alfred. He did not, however, avowedly incorporate it with Wessex. He discontinued its regal honors, and constituted Ethelred its military commander, to whom he afterwards married his daughter, Ethelfleda, when her age permitted.."* This lady continued the command of Mercia after Alfred's and her husband's decease; and during the reign of Edward the elder, it was found necessary to construct and fortify several places on the borders of Mercia joining Northumbria, particularly on the banks of the Humber. On Ethelfleda's death, Mercia was incorporated with Wessex; but some places were still held by the Danes. Among these were the towns of Stamford and Lincoln, even so late as 941, when Edmund the elder expelled them hence. The transactions of the Church and See constitute the principal subjects of historical narrative respecting this county, till the conquest and subjugation of England by William of Normandy. Innovations of every kind were now introduced; and the whole property of Lincolnshire was distributed among his favorite followers. The following list of names and manors may be found in Domesday book. "To Alan Rufus, Earl of Britain and Richmond, he gave 101 lordships. Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent, 76. Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland, 2. Judith, Countess of Northumberland, 17. Robert Vesci, 7. William Mallet, 1. Nigil de Albini, 12. Robert de Stafford, 20. William de Percy, 32. Walter D'Eincourt, 17. Guy de Creon or Crown, 61. Goisfrid Hanselin, 15. Ranulph de St. Valery, 6. William le Blound, or Blunt, 6. Robert de Todenes, 32. Ralph de Mortimer, 7. Henry de Ferrers, 2. Norman D'Areil, 2. Alured de Lincoln, 51. Walter Bec, 1. Ralph Paganel, 15. Ernisius Burun, 28. Gilbert de Gandovo, or Gaunt, grandson of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, 113." It will not be an easy task to specify the respective lordships thus distributed; and indeed it will be extremely difficult to identify the places where each of those barons erected their castles, and established their habitations, &c. From the Conquest to the present time, there are few matters deserving the notice of the historian. During the Civil War between Charles the First and his parliament, the county was decidedly in favour of the measures of the popular party, and the few battles and sieges that occurred within the county will be noticed in the local history. • Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxans, I. p. 267. +Magna Britannia, vol. ii. p. 1405. |