Page:Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire.djvu/343

 Quis jacet hic? Leonardus Palmerus Generosus. Quae conjux dilecta fuit? Catherina. Quis haeres? Christopherus (cui nupta Anna est). Quis filius alter? Robertus. Gnatae quot erant? Tres, Elizabetha Ac Maria, ac Helena. An superant? Superant. Ubi mens est Defuncti? Rogitas. Dubio procul astra petivit. obiit Die Martis octavo Anno Domi 1610. ætatis suæ 70.

Who lies here? Leonard Palmer, Gentleman. Who was his beloved wife? Catherine. Who his heir? Christopher (whose wife was Anna). Who was his second son? Robert. How many daughters were there? Three, Elizabeth and Mary and Helen. Are they living? Yes. Where is the spirit of the departed? You ask. Doubtless it has sought the stars. He died Mar. 8, 1610, aged 70.

At Burgh the straight road from Skegness to Gunby turns to the left to pass through Bratoft. This church with picturesque ivy-clad tower has a good font, a chancel and parclose screens, and the rood-loft doorway. It has been well restored in memory of C. Massingberd, Squire of Gunby, and contains a very curious painting on wood which now hangs in the tower; it was once over the chancel arch, and by its irregular shape it is clear that it was originally made to fit elsewhere. It is signed Robert Stephenson. The Armada is shown as a red dragon, between four points of land marked England, Scotland, Ireland and France with the following lines:—

Spaine's proud Armado with great strength and power Great Britain's state came gapeing to devour, This dragon's guts, like Pharoa's scattered hoast Lay splitt and drowned upon the Irish coast. For of eight score save too ships sent from Spaine But twenty-five scarce sound returned again non Nobis Domine.

Bratoft Hall, the residence of the Bratofts and Massingberds, was built in a square moated enclosure of two acres, which stood in a deer park of two hundred acres. It was taken down in 1698, and the Hall at Gunby built about the same time. The bridge over the moat of two brick arches was standing in 1830 intact.