Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/680

 656 LINCOLN [COUNTY. York, and Bede tells us that Blsecca. the governor of Lincoln, was, with his household, among the first converts (628). Early in 870 the Danes or Northmen landed at Humberstoue near Grimsby, and ravaged Lindsey and the famous monastery of Bardney on the Withain. Lincolnshire passed permanently into the hands of the Danes about 877, and was included within the boundary of the &quot;Danelage&quot; of Danish jurisdiction as settled by the treaty of 878. Probably the greatest changes consequent upon the Danish invasion are, first, the supplanting of the Anglo-Saxon names of places by those of the Danish termination ending in by, which are numerous, and the substitution of the wapentake for the earlier division of the hundred ; the ancient British laws and those of the Danes were otherwise not dissimilar. In time the two populations became amalgamated and came under the dominion of the Anglo-Saxon crown. The subsequent history of the county under the Normans is associated more or less with the city of Lincoln. In the civil war between Stephen and the empress Matilda a battle was fought near Lincoln in 1141. In 1174 the Isle of Axholme Avas the scene of the struggle between Koger de Mowbray, one of the adherents of Prince Henry, and the forces sent against him by his father Henry II. The issue was decided by the Lincolnshire men in favour of the king. In 1216 occurred King John s march across the county, when he lost all his baggage and jewels in the Fossdyke Wash on his way to Swineshead Abbey. In the reign of Edward IV. Sir Robert Wells, at the head of 30,000 Lincolnshire ni3n, was defeated at Losecoat Field near Stamford, March 1470. At the suppression of the monasteries a rebellion broke out at Louth headed by Makerel, the last prior of the abbey of Barlings Oxney, October 1536. The prior was hanged, and the shire for the trouble it gave to King Henry VIII. was designated in a state paper as &quot;one of the most brute and beestalie of the whole realm.&quot; During the civil wars the county was a scene of numerous contests, the most famous of which was the battle at Grantham in 1643, won by Cromwell over the royalists. The advantage that was taken by the Fenmen to destroy the efforts made to drain and enclose the remaining levels of Lincolnshire during this stormy period has been already noticed. Riots broke out at intervals, and were continued down to the middle of the 18th century. Eemains of British camps are found at Barrow, Folkingham, Ingoldsby, Revesby, and Well. Traces of Roman camps are found at Alkborough, Caistor, Gainsborough, Gedney Hill near Holbeach, Honington near Grantham, South Ormsby, and Yar- borough. The Roman roads are nearly perfect, Ermine Street, on the east side of the Cliff hills, and the Fossway running south west from Lincoln. The crown of these remains is without doubt the famous Roman arch called the Newport Gate at Lincoln. Tesselated pavements have been found at Denton, Horkstow, Lincoln, Scampton, and Winterton. Coins of the emperors Nero, Vespasian, and Julian have been found at Lincoln and Ancaster, and two Roman altars to the west of Stow. There are remains of feudal castles at Boston, Lincoln, Sleaford, Somerton, Tattershall, and Torksey. The seats worthy of note (chiefly modern) are Appleby Hall, Aswarby Hall, Belton House, Blankney Hall, Brocklesby, Bulby House, Burghley House (near Stamford), Burton Hall, Casewick House, Denton Hall, Easton Hall, Hackthorn Hall, Haverholm Priory, Lea Hall, Leadenham House, Manby Hall, Newton House, Nocton Hall, Normanby Hall, Norton Place, Panton Hall, Riby Grove, Somerby Park, Stourton, Syston Park, Thonock House, Thurlby Hall, Uffington, and Willingham by Stow. At the time of the suppression of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. there were upwards of one hundred religious houses ; and among the Fens rose some of the finest abbeys held by the Benedictines. The Gilbertines were a purely English order which took its rise in Lincolnshire, the canons following the Austin rule, the nuns and lay brothers that of the Cistercians. They generally lived in separate houses, but formed a community having a common church in which the sexes were divided by a longitudinal wall. These houses were at Alvingham, Catley, Holland Brigg, Lincoln, before the gate of which was erected the first Eleanor Cross, New- stead in Lindsey, Semperingham, the chief house of the order, founded by St Gilbert of Gaunt in 1139, Stamford (a college for students), and Welles. There were nunneries of the order at Haverholm, Nun Ormsby, and Tunstal. The following are a few of the most famous abbeys. (1) Barlings Oxney (Premonstratensian), founded 1154, for fourteen canons. The tower, Decorated, with arcading pierced with windows, and the east wall of the south wing remain. (2) The Benedictine Mitred Abbey of Crowland, founded 716, refounded in 948. The foundations of the new church in 1114 were laid on massive piles of oak. lart of the west front was repaired in 1255-81, with beautiful Early English sculpture of the legend of St Guthlac and saints ; this, with the Perpendicular north-west tower 1460-70 remain. (3) Swineshead Abbey (Carthusian), colonized from Fur- ness in 1 134 by eleven monks. (4) Thornton-upon-Humber Abbey (Black Canons), founded in 1139. There remain a fragment of the south wing of the transept, two sides of the decagonal chapter house (1282), and the beautiful west gate-house, Early Perpen dicular (1382-88), with an oriel window on the east. The general beauty of the parish churches of Lincolnshire is proverbial, but it is incorrect to suppose that they are equally good in every part of the county. In the Parts of Lindsey, though there are some of considerable beauty and interest, the churches can scarcely be considered above the average ; several though small and mean present curious early features, particularly the well-known tower of St Peter, Barton-on-Humber, supposed to be of the Saxon period, and those of Crowle, Heapham, and Stow. Those of Grimsby and Wainfleet are cruciform. In the Parts of Kcsteven the churches are not only elegant but well finished, built of excellent stone which abounds at Ancaster and near Sleaford. The church of St Andrew Heckington is the best example of Middle Pointed architecture in the county ; it is famed for its Easter sepulchre and fine sedilia. The largest and finest church in this division is doubtless that of St Wolfran at Grantham, 200 by 87 feet, with three collateral naves, and steeple, 271 feet high, of the 14th century. It is principally in the Parts of Holland that we are to look for the finest churches in the county ; they are not to be equalled by those of any other district in the kingdom, which is the more remarkable as the district is comprised wholly of marsh land, and is without stone of any kind. It is highly probable that the churches of the south part of this district owe their origin to the munificence of the abbeys of Crowland and Spalding. The earliest specimen of Norman architecture is that of Long Sutton, which has been called the counterpart of Christ Church, Oxford. St Mary and Nicholas at Spalding, 157 feet by 95, has the uncommon feature of a double aisle on each side of the nave, as well as a transept. The glory of the division of Holland is beyond question the church of St Botolph, Boston. LINCOLN, the capital of the county of that name, is a city and county in itself, and is also a municipal and parliamentary borough. It is picturesquely situated on the summit and south slope of the limestone ridge of the Cliff range of hills which rises from the north bank of the river Witham, at its confluence with the Foss Dyke, to an altitude of 200 feet above the banks of the river. It is 132 miles north-west from London by road, and 138 miles by rail ; 53 15 N. lat., 32 W. long. Plan of Lincoln. Lincoln is one of the most ancient and interesting cities in England. The ancient British town occupied the crown of the hill beyond the Newport or North Gate of the subsequent Roman town, the ancient earthworks and ditches of which are nearly conterminous with the present boundaries of the parish of St John. The Roman town consisted of two parallelograms of unequal length, the first of which extended west from the Newport gate to a point