Chapter XVII 

 LOYAL GRANTHAM 



THE connection of the historic town of Grantham both 

 with the Manners family and the Belvoir Hunt has been 

 long and close. Grantham is an ancient town, and appears to 

 have had particular privileges in very early times, and has a 

 royal foundation. The greatest name in its annals is that 

 of Sir Isaac Newton, who was born in 1642, at Woolsthorpe. 



His family were lords of the manor until the property 

 passed by purchase into the hands of Edmund Turnor, of 

 Stoke Rochford, in 1727, who erected the tablet to Sir Isaac's 

 memory now to be seen in Colsterworth Church. The 

 Tumors were a family of note, both in the hunting field 

 and in the country, and Edmund Tumor's daughter, Diana, 

 married Dr. Johnson's friend, Benet Langton, of Langton. 

 Grantham lies on the great north road, and it was to that 

 town that Jeannie Deans was making her weary way when 

 she was stopped by the two foot pads ! 



"Jeannie resumed her solitary walk, and was somewhat 

 alarmed when evening and twilight overtook her in the open 

 ground which extends to the foot of Gunnerby Hill, and is 

 intersected with patches of copse and with swampy spots." ^ 



The present Duke told me that he could remember when 

 much of the country was wild and unenclosed. In 1800, 

 Grantham had a population of some three thousand souls, 

 and returned two members to Parliament. As a rule, one of 

 them was of the Manners family, which shows that the 

 influence of the Duke was considerable in the borough. The 

 celebrated Lord Granby, and his brothers, the Suttons, were 



* Heart of Midlothian, p. 260. 

 299 



