road, and seven miles from Lincoln, is COLEBY HALL, the seat of General Bertie. It is a fine old house, to which additions have been made in a more modern style, and is surrounded with plantations. The entrance into the grounds is by an arch, which was intended to imitate the ruin of a Roman gateway. The gardens are ornamented by two temples: a small one upon the terrace is of the Doric order, dedicated to the memory of the late Earl of Chatham; the other, built upon the model of the temple of Romulus and Remus, at Rome, from a design of the late Sir William Chambers, is said to be the first building which he ever crected in England, that displayed the taste of this eminent architect.

NOCTON PARK, about two miles and a half north-east from Dunston Pillar, and seven miles south-east of Lincoln, is the handsome seat of the Earl of Buckinghamshire. It is recorded, that in the time of King Stephen, Robert de Areci, or D'Arci, erected, in his park at Nocton, a priory for black canons of the Augustine order. At the time of the dissolution, it had five monks, whose annual revenues amounted, according to Speed, to the sum of 571. 19s. 2d. The site was granted by Henry the Eighth to Charles, Duke of Suffolk; and in the time of Elizabeth, it was bestowed by the crown on Sir Henry Stanley, Lord Strange. By the Stanley family it was converted into a residence; but the greater part of the old house was afterwards taken down, and the present mansion rebuilt by Sir William Ellys, Bart. in the latter end of the seventeenth century. The house is a handsome building, for that period, consisting of a body with two wings, the angles turretted, with cupolas at top; and in the centre rises an octangular cupola, or lantern. The grounds were planted and laid out agreeably to the formal prevailing taste of the times, but have been much altered and improved by the present noble proprietor. The prospects are numerous, varied, and extensive; and near the mansion stands a chesnut tree, considered the finest of the kind in England.

At

At CATTELEY, in the parish of Billinghoy, was a Gilbertine Priory, founded by Peter de Bilingey, in the time of King Stephen, for nuns and brethren of the order of Sempringham. At the dissolution, the annual endowment was, according to Speed, 381. 13s. 8d. The site was granted, by Henry the Eighth, to Robert Carr, of Sleaford, whose father was a rich merchant of the staple *.

FLEXWELL WAPENTAKE contains the parishes of Anwick, Ashby, Bloxholme, Branswell, Cranwell, Digby, Dorrington, Leasingham, Rauceby North, Rauceby South, Rowlston, Roxholme hamlet, Ruskington, and Sleaford New, including the hamlet of Holdingham.

In the north-western angle of this wapentake, at the distance of about ten miles from Lincoln, are the ruins of

TEMPLE BRUER, which formerly was a religious house. "Here was, before A. D. 1185, a preceptory, first of Knights Templars, and after of the Hospitalars, who had annexed such possessions to it as were valued, twenty-sixth of Henry the Eighth, at 1841. 6s. 8d. per annum, as Dugdale and Speed †." The church is said to have been built after the model of that of

St. Sepulchre, at Jerusalem. "There be great and vaste buildinges," says Leland, "but rude at this place, and the este end of the temple is made opere circulari de more " At present only a few vaults, and the tower of the church are left. The latter is a massy quadrangular building, and is accessible to the top by a winding stone staircase. The lower part, used by the occupier of an adjacent farm house, is ucarly entire; has a window

* Tanner's Notit. Monast.

+ Tauner's Not. Monast.

Itinerary, Vol. I, f. 32.

a window with a double pointed arch, and the entrance is by a retiring circular-headed door-way. Opposite Temple Bruer, Stukeley describes his having seen a stone cross, "cut through in the shape of that borne by the Knights Templars," and which he supposed was erected to mark the boundary of their demesnes. "The Hermin Street hereabout is very bold and perfect, made of stone, gathered all along from the superficial quarries. It goes perfectly strait from Ancaster to Lincoln, full north, butting upon the west side of Lincoln town. "Tis about thirty foot broad, made of stone, piled into an easy convexity. There is generally likewise a little trench dug on both sides the road *."

SLEAFORD, OR NEW SLEAFORD,

A considerable market town, distant south from Lincoln fourteen miles, is situated upon a small rivulet, called the Slea, which rises in the vicinity, and runs to Chapel Hill, where it joins the river Witham. Many Roman coins, of the Constantine family, have been found about the spring head, near the castle. Stukeley, from this and other circumstances, conjectures that this was a Roman town. "We find the distance between Caster and Lincoln," says he, "about forty miles, and has two towns upon it, at proper intervals for lodging; these are Sleaford and Stanfield. The original name of them are in irrecoverable silence; but the eternity of the Romans is inherent. 'Tis probable that Alexander, the Bishop of Lincoln, built his work upon the scite of a Roman citadel. Beside, at Sleaford comes in the other Roman road from the fen country, by Brig End Causy, and at the intersection of these two roads the old town stood +." The work here alluded to was the castle, which, in Leland's time, was standing, and is thus described by him. "Withoute the towne of Sleford standith, west-south-west, the propre castell of Sleford, very well mantayned; and it is compassed with a renning

ning streme, cumming by a moste flatte weste against it. a high toure in the middle of the castelle, but not set upon a hill of raised earth: the vaults of the castle by the ground be fair. The house, or manor place, lately almost new, buildid of stone and timbre by the Lord Husey, standith southward without the town. The town nor market is of no price; the ornaments of it is the Bishop of Lincoln's castle and the late Lord Hussey's house." Since Leland's time, however, Sleaford has become a different place, and is at present improving, both as to buildings and population. The castle has been wholly levelled to the ground, and Lord Hussey's mansion, at Old Sleaford, is now a farm house.

cut oute of a little feene, lying alIn the gateway be two portcullices,

The church is a handsome, spacious structure, and, from a manuscript found in the parish chest, it appears to have been built in the year 1271, by Roger Blunt and Roger Brickham, of Sleaford, merchants. It was dedicated to St. Dennis, and endowed A. D. 1277. It consists of a chancel, nave, transept, and north and south ailes, with a tower, crowned by a spire, which rises to the height of 144 feet. The western front is curious, and rather elegant in its design and ornaments. It has three entrance door-ways, each having a differently shaped arch; and above these are three windows, also varying from each other. Part of this façade displays the circular style, which was probably erected by Bishop Alexander. The windows, pinnacles, and ornaments, are all greatly diversified, and some of them particularly elegant. In the chancel are several monuments to the family of CARR, some of whom were long resident in the neighbourhood; one to the memory of Joseph Carr, who died September 11th, 1590; another to Sir Edward Carr, who died October 1st, 1618; and a third to Robert Carr, Chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and a privy counsellor, who died November 14th, 1682.

By Joseph Carr, one of this family, a free school was erected, and liberally endowed, in the year 1603; and also an hospital

for

Itinerary, Vol. I. fol. 30.

for twelve poor men. The manor and estates came by marriage with an heiress of the Carr family, to the present Earl of Bristol. The petty sessions are held in this town, which has a well supplied market on Mondays, and four annual fairs. The number of houses returned under the late population act was 333, and of inhabitants 1,483.

At KYME, about three miles from Sleaford, in Leland's time, was "a gcodly house and park." Philip de Kyme, in the time of King Henry the Second, built here a priory for black canons, of the order of St. Augustine, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin. Willis, in his History of Abbies, observes, that this house, in the time of Henry the Eighth, was surrendered to the king by the prior and nine canons. Its annual revenues were valued at 1381. 4s. 9d.

In the twenty-first year of Henry the Eighth, Sir Gilbert Talbois was created Baron Talbois, of Kyme. He lies buried in the church, under a marble slab, on which is a brass plate, with this inscription:-" Gilbert, Lord Talbois, Lord of Kyme, married Elizabeth the daughter of Sir John Blount, Knight, of Kinlet, in Shropshire; and died 15th of April, A. D. 1530." His widow was the celebrated mistress of that lecherous monarch, Henry the Eighth; and it is more than probable that the coronet was the doceur for the infamous connivance of Talbois at his own dishonour.

constitute an This 'n

This manor

About four miles east of Sleaford is HAVERHOLME PRIORY, the seat of Sir Jenison William Gordon, Bart. The house and grounds 'occupy an area of about 300 acres, which island, formed by two branches of the river Slea. was given, "by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, to the Cistertian monks of Fountain's Abbey, in Yorkshire, about the year 1137, that they might build an abbey of that order; but after having made some progress in the same, they pretended not to like the situation, and thereupon removed to Louth Park. The good