Page:Over fen and wold; (IA overfenwold00hissiala).pdf/435

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in times gone by, I've heard say not much better than a trackless waste. So you see a lighthouse could be useful inland as well as by the sea." We saw! On referring again to my copy of Patersons Roads I find the following: "Dunston Pillar is a plain quadrangular stone shaft, of a pyramidal shape, that rises to the height of about 100 feet. It was erected when the roads were intricate, and the heath was an extensive waste, and was then of great utility; but as the lands have since been enclosed, and other improvements made, it can now only be considered as a monument of the public spirit of the individual by whom it was constructed."

Then after a few more miles we reached Metheringham, an out-of-the-world, forsaken-looking little town; so out-of-the-world that I do not find it even mentioned in my Paterson, and why, or how, it existed at all was a puzzle to us. In times past it was shut away from the world more than now by the wild extensive Lincolnshire Heath on one side, and a narrow, though long, stretch of roadless fenland on the other, so was not very get-at-able.

In the centre of the sleepy old town, midway in the street, stand the remains of its ancient market-cross: these consist of an upright shaft rising from some worn and weathered steps; the place of the cross on the top is now occupied by an ugly petroleum lamp. Even a stern Puritan might have been satisfied with this arrangement, there is nothing in the least superstitious about it, it is convenient but not beautiful. I only wonder that, as the ruined cross stands so handily at the junction of three roads,