4 



JOHN CORDEAUX: LINCOLNSHIRE. 



is asserted,* that beneath the broad-headed nails which stud the 

 oaken doors may still be found some withered fragment of the skin 

 of sacrilegious viking. 



Of dread portent was the hoisting on the Saxon shore of the 

 Raven banner, surnamed the ' Land waster'; 



For there 



Was shedding of blood, and rending of hair, 



Rape of maiden, and slaughter of priest, 



Gathering of ravens and wolves to the feast. 

 Yet one hundred years later throughout the peaceful Danelagh the 

 savage marauder had become transformed into the peaceful tiller of 

 the soil. What the physical characters of the county were in the 

 second period we may conjecture from the positions chosen by these 

 vikings or ' creekers ' for their permanent homes, placed at regular 

 intervals on the slopes or near the foot of the uplands, overlooking 

 the low country or marsh. The house or by rising on a foundation of 

 stone — chalk quarried from the wold — the upper part of ' stud and 

 mud' with wattled outbuildings and 'crews,' surrounded by ' garth'' 

 and ' wong? Above them stretched the open wold, rolling uplands 

 of heather and gorse, and coarse tussocks of Aira ccespitosa and 

 the barren brome grass, stretches of brake bright green in spring 

 and golden-brown in the autumn • here and there solitary hawthorns 

 quite grey with lichen, storm-twisted and venerable; and on the 

 highest ridges many a tumulus and ' hoe ' — long since obliterated by 

 the destroying plough. A land without inhabitant ; the haunt of 

 bustard and stone curlew, golden plover and dotterel, where in deep 

 dales by chalk stream sides the otter had his home, and in the 

 twilight the red deer and roe came down to graze. Below the wold, 

 covering much of what is now known as the middle marsh, stretched 

 the wide forest of oak, beech, and elm, with an undergrowth of holly, 

 hazel, and yew; dense thickets of blackthorn and bramble, where 

 lurked the grey wolf and wild cat ; and above falcon, kite; and buzzard 

 held almost undisputed possession. Beyond the forest was the rich 

 pasture of the maritime marshes merging into salt 'fitties/ purple 

 with sea-lavender and thrift, or grey with the frosted sea-orache, 

 muddy stretches, green with glass wort, and then the flat seabeach — 



A coast 



Of ever-shifting sand, and far away 

 The phantom circle of a moaning sea. 



* In a footnote, 'Lincolnshire and the Danes,' p. 4, Mr. Streatfeild says 'the 

 four churches with which such traditions are distinctly connected are Rochester 

 Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and the churches of Hadstock and Copford in 

 Essex. In the case of Hadstock, the last fragments of skin did not disappear 

 until 1846; and in that of Copford, not until 1843 ( see Archaeological Journal, 

 Vol.V,p. .85 ; Vol.X.p. .67). 



