6 



JOHN CORDEAUX: LINCOLNSHIRE. 



district of the impending danger.* The spire of the church at Louth, 

 in North Lincolnshire, is 288 feet high, and yields to none in England 

 for symmetrical proportions and beauty of decoration. An interesting 

 feature of this church is the weathercock, which was placed in position 

 on Holy Rood-eve, 15 15, being made out of a copper basin taken 

 two years previously from the Scottish king by the men of Lindsey, at 

 the battle of Flodden.t St. Guthlac's Abbey of Crowland was 

 entirely destroyed by the Danes in 870; but, as some compensation, 

 on its rebuilding it was richly endowed with gifts by Canute — not the 

 least remarkable of these being the skins of twelve polar bears for the 

 altars, so that the feet of the officiating priests might be kept warm. % 

 Crowland at one period had six bells, the £ sweetest in all England.' 

 Much of the beauty and durability of Lincolnshire churches is due 

 to the Barnack-ragstone, which in medieval times was carried by 

 water from the quarries of that name in Northamptonshire to every 

 part of the county. It is a coarse-grained shelly oolite, and proba- 

 bly the most durable freestone in England. The working of the 

 stone appears to have been almost entirely abandoned before the 

 commencement of the 15th century, probably from the exhaustion of 

 the quarries.§ 



The geological strata of Lincolnshire extend in long ribbon-like 

 bands, which generally correspond to the length of the county, 

 running nearly north and south, and with a dip to the east, over- 

 lapping in regular succession, not unlike the leaves of an open book. || 

 Much of the picturesque beauty of the shire is due to the two main 

 ranges of hills, the chalk wolds and the oolite, having an easy slope 

 to the east, and more or less bold escarpments to the west. The 

 chalk or wold district commences at Barton-on-Humber, and termi- 

 nates near Burgh-in-the-Marsh, fifty-two miles, dipping beneath the 



* Miss Ingelow, herself a Lincolnshire worthy, in her poem ' The High Tide on 

 the Coast of Lincolnshire ' (1571), graphically pictures the perils of fen life in flood 

 time, when the great bells of Boston rang out night and day to the warning tune 

 of the 'Brides of Mavis-Enderby.' 



t Lincoln Pocket Guide, p. 72. 



+ Monasticon Anglicanum, Dugdale, Vol. II, p. 96. 



§See Miller and Skertchly, ' The Fenland Past and Present,' 1878, pp. 78, 79. 



|| The Journals of the Geological Society contain several important papers on 

 the geology of Lincolnshire, which may be studied with advantage by those who 

 take an interest in the subject, such are ' Rhcetic beds near Gainsborough ; ' Strata 

 which form the base of the Lincolnshire wolds,'' 1867, Vol. XXIII, pp. 315, 227; 

 Glacial and Pcsl-glacial strata of Lincolnshire, Vol. XXIV, 1868, p. 146 ; 

 Neocomian strata of Lincolnshire, Vol. XXVI, 1870, p. 326; Lias and Oolite of 

 north-west Lincolnshire, Vol. XXXI, 1875, p. 115; Southerly extension of the 



Hessle Boulder Clay, Vol. XXXV, 1879, P- 397- 



Naturalist, 



