1903 Rambles on the Lincolnshire Hold 147 



course of an hour or so. Upon some of these expert 

 opinion reports as follows : — 



The fossil is a part of the stalk or arm of a pentacrinus (consisting 

 of a cup-shaped body with a crown of arms attached by a stalk), be- 

 longing to the Pentacrinida, a family of the Sea-Lilies or Crinoids. 

 The whole stalk is either short or may reach a length of 60 feet in 

 some species, and is composed of a series of ring-like or pentagonal 

 joints. The whole group is Palaeozoic, its greatest development 

 being in the Silurian rocks. These particular ones are Jurassic, 

 ranging from the Trias to the present day. 



In view of which august statement it will be wiser, perhaps, 

 to add nothing upon the " star-stone's" magical properties ! 

 It had been intended to conclude this paper with some 

 discursive remarks upon the archaeology of the district 

 under consideration. But the demands of space leave 

 room only — after giving a bare mention of the antique 

 church at Alkborough, which tradition assigns to the re- 

 morseful murderers of Thomas a Becket — to refer to the 

 remains of the "Julian Bower," likewise at Alkborough, 

 and said to be one of the only three similar antiquities 

 in the kingdom. A photograph of this "bower" accom- 

 panies this article, from which the reader will see that 

 the remains consist merely of the foundations — cut in the 

 cliff soil — of a maze. Not a stone of the walls is left 

 standing, and speculation as to the purpose served by the 

 original building is speculation only. That the " maze " 

 could have been designed for amusement the nature of 

 its arrangement and its small limits hardly lead one to 

 suppose. One theory makes it an exercise - ground for 

 monks, though on what grounds we cannot say : certainly 

 such wearisome exercise as it would furnish accords but 

 ill with traditional notions as to the well-fed ease of the 

 early monastic fathers. Its date is likewise a mystery, 

 though probably subsequent to the Roman encampment 

 already referred to, which lies but a stone's-throw away, 

 commanding a magnificent view of the great waterways 

 of Trent and Ouse where they meet to form the Humber, 

 and of which the main features (though disguised as a 

 modern pleasaunce) are plainly discernible. 



