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his soul." The surname of the murderer had been effaced 
either by accident or design. In latter times it was men's 
purses rather than their lives that were in great danger on 
the heath — from highwaymen, by which it was infested. 
Even in the last century the Windmill House in a parish 
called Leasingham, I am told, was a favourite place of 
assemblage for these gentlemen of the road, as they were 
termed, and that little hollow on the Lincoln road in Dunsby 
parish, now marked by a row of cottages, was the most 
common scene of attack upon travellers. But there were 
natural dangers arising from the character of the heath in 
olden days. When no well-kept roads traversed it, and it 
could boast of still fewer houses upon it than at present, 
poor folks were often lost upon its dreary expanse, and some 
died from prolonged exposure to cold and wind and snow on 
the heath. In my own parish register are several evidences 
of such, misfortunes ; within a space of 53 years 9 poor 
travellers having apparently just reached Leasingham, on 
the southern confines of the heath, to die. They run as 
follows in the list of burials : — " Elizabeth Ping, a stranger;" 
" Susanna Ellis, a traveller ; 99 " Dolton Pickworth, a poor 
stranger ; 99 and sometimes even still shorter, such as "A 
travelling woman," or " A travelling man," without a name 
at all, yet these speak of unknown sufferings as well as of 
unknown persons. Two remarkable instances of thank- 
offerings for preservation from starvation on the heath still 
throw light upon this point : the first is connected with. 
Blankney, where a small field was left to the parish by a 
female whose life had been saved through the tolling of its 
church bell, on condition that that bell should be rung every 
evening at 8 o'clock. The other case is connected with 
Potterhanworth, where 23 acres of land, called Culfrey-lands, 
were left by a traveller who had been rescued from the heath 
by hearing the sound of Potterhanworth church bell, on 
condition that that bell should be tolled every evening, at 
