Birthplace : Limber Magna 



flat land, might not, except for its fine old twelfth-century 

 church, have presented any special feature of interest to the 

 world in general unless to those who, like my brother Maun- 

 sell, were bred, born, and reared there ; he loved it better than 

 any place in the world. Its environment grew upon him. The 

 magnificent Brocklesby woods, stretching for miles, right away 

 from Brocklesby Hall to Pelham's Pillar, no doubt formed to 

 him, amidst many other charming features, a most picturesque 

 background to the village of Limber. 



This beautiful setting of woodland not only takes away all 

 reproach of bare ugliness from the village, but makes it 

 positively unique, for in its straggling mile of length — sup- 

 posing you are walking from one end to the other — one is 

 accompanied by this stretch of trees, which follows you, either 

 on your right hand or your left, as you go up or down the long 

 village street. Over a century ago, the then owner of the 

 Brocklesby estates, Squire Pelham, planted these millions of 

 trees for the benefit of his heirs in succeeding generations, and 

 for the beautifying of his favourite village, that of Limber Magna. 

 It is also a happy thought to his descendants, that Squire 

 Pelham's lifelong friend, Squire Richardson of Immingham, our 

 great -great-uncle, who rented the big " Top House" at Limber, 

 and much land adjoining from Squire Pelham, had also a hand 

 in adorning the village he too loved so well. 



As one imagines those men and their times and ambitions, 

 one can see them in one's mind's eye, two fine old English 

 gentlemen, both then in the prime of life, in top boots, buff 

 breeches, and brass-buttoned blue coats, astride their respec- 

 tive bob-tailed nags, and sallying forth day after day, to 

 determine which would be the best site for the planting of the 

 trees, and deciding where the proposed great belt would be 

 best broad, or best narrow. They no doubt took with them 



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