accession he was sworn one of her privy council, became her chief cabinet minister, and made secretary of state. In 1561 he received the appointment of master of the wards; and in 1571 he was created Baron Lord Burleigh. The following year he was honoured with the order of the garter, and raised to the office of lord high treasurer of England, which distinguished situation he held twenty-seven years, performing its duties with credit to himself, and to the satisfaction of his sovereign and the country. Having thus filled some of the most important situations, and guided the helm of state during the most critical and glorious period of English history, he departed this life on the 4th of August, 1598, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. His remains were removed to the burial place at Stamford, where a most magnificent monumental tomb was erected to his me mory. To those acquainted with the history of their country any eulogium on him would be superfluous. Suffice it to add, that Camden, in his Annals, observes, "He was one of those few who lived and died with equal glory. Such a man as, while others regard with admiration, I, after the ancient manner, rather contemplate with silent and religious veneration." ...The Rev. Dr. WILLIAM DODD was also a native of Bourne, where he was born in 1729. His father was vicar of this parish, and brought up this son to the church; which he lived to honour by his eloquence and erudition, and to disgrace by his fatal propensity to gallantry and fashionable dissipation. Never, perhaps, was there a clergyman whose manners and writings obtained greater patronage and admiration; yet a single act of injustice involved him in ruin, and brought him to an untimely end. Having committed a forgery on Lord Chesterfield for the sum of 42001. he was arrested, committed to Newgate, tried, and convicted; and though the most powerful influence was exerted in his behalf, and various modes of preserving his life was em, ployed, he was doomed to suffer death at Tyburn, June 27, 1777. * Annales Elizabetha, Anno 1598. FOLKINGHAM FOLKINGHAM Is a small town, pleasantly situated on the side and summit of a hill, abounding with springs. The church stands at the N. W. end of the town, and consists of a nave, with north and south ailes, chancel and porch, with a room over it, and has a handsome lofty stone tower, crowned with eight croketted pinnacles. The manor of Folkingham was given, by the Conqueror, to Gilbert de Gaunt, who came over with him from Normandy, and eminently distinguished himself at the decisive battle of Hastings: for which service William, when he came to the throne, amply rewarded him. For in the Domesday Book it appears, that besides forty-one other lordships which Gilbert was seized of in different counties, he possessed one hundred and thirty-one in Lincolnshire, of which Folkingham was one. This place he made his seat, and constituted it the head of the barony. A descendant of Gilbert de Gaunt, who died without issue, 2d of January, 1274, appointed King Edward the First his heir to the manor and lands of this barony. They were, by that monarch, granted, for eminent services, to Henry de Bellomonte, or Beaumont, who was usually called "Consanguineus Regis." In the family of the Bellomontes the manor continued till the time of Henry the Seventh. After that period it came into the family of the Duke of Norfolk; but being forfeited by the attainder of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, it was granted by King Edward the Sixth, in exchange for lands in the county of Worcester, to the family of Clinton. Here was formerly a Castle, probably built by Henry de Bellomonte. "From Grimsthorpe to Sempringham five miles; and a mile thence, somewhat inward, is the castle of Fokingham, sometime the Lord Bardolfe's, since the Lord Bellomonte's, now longing to the Duke of Norfolk. It hath been a goodly house, but it now falleth to ruin, and standeth even about the edge of the fenns*." Even the *Leland's Itin. Vol. I. f. 28. the ruins have disappeared; and the only remains to mark where once the castle stood, are the moats and mounds on the eastern side of the town. Folkingham has a weekly market on Thursdays, and eight annual fairs. The resident population, by the returns made to government in 1801, was 531, the number of houses 100. South-east of the town is a large Encampment, with a deep foss and lofty vallum. Within the area is a square keep of raised earth, defended also by a foss capable of being filled with water from the adjoining brook. Without the area, at the northeast corner, is a small fortified enclosure, intended as an advanced work to secure the water for the use of the garrison. SEMPRINGHAM, about three miles east-south-east of Folkingham, is noted in the monastical annals of England, for giving birth to Sir Gilbert de Sempringham, who founded a novel religious order, and settled it at his native place. Gilbert was the eldest son of a Norman knight, and was sent to France for edu¬ cation. Returning thence, he took orders, and obtained great preferments; being presented to the churches of Tissingden and Sempringham, and appointed chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln. Having devoted himself wholly to a religious life, he obtained leave of Pope Eugenius III. in the year 1148, to institute a new order of monks, to be called Gilbertines. The singularity of the plan adopted by, and the reputed piety of the first recluse, soon attracted the attention of others, and induced numbers of both sexes to join the society. For their reception Gilbert em¬ ployed his large estate in building a house, and settling on the institution an adequate endowment. The rules laid down for the regulation of the order were-1. That the nuns should follow the rules of St. Benedict, and the monks the rules of St. Augustin.-2. That the men should live in a separate habitation from the women, and never have access to the nuns but at the administration of the sacrament.-3. That the same church should serve both for divine service.-4. That the sacrament should should not be administere o both together, but in the presence of many witnesses. Though this notley order was contrary to the law of the Justinian code, yet it long flourished, and numerous monasteries were subsequently founded, conformably to the Gilbertine scheme. The founder lived to see thirteen er ected, in which were 700 men and 1100 women. He attained the great age of 100 years; and from his austerity, and many * miracles having been performed after his death, according to legendary story, he was canonized by Pope Innocent the Third, A. D. For some centuries this order maintained its credit for superior sanctity; but human institutions are liable to degenerate, and the brethren and sisters, in a subsequent period, departed strangely from the continency and chastity they so solemnly and rigidly professed. 1202. The annual revenues of the priory in Sempringham, at the suppression, were valued, according to Speed, at 3591. 11s. 7d. The monastery stood to the north-east of the church. The site is still marked by a moated area. The church, which serves the two parishes of Poyton and Billingborough, is only a part of the ancient edifice. The transepts are down, and the chancel in ruins. The windows are lancet-shaped, and the doors have cir-* cular arches, with chevron or zigzag mouldings, and evidently point out the time of its erection to have been in the early Norman period. BETTISLOE WAPENTAKE contains the parishes of Bassingthorpe cum Westby, Bitchfield, Burton Coggles, Bytham Castle, Bytham Little, Careby, Corby, Counthorpe hamlet, Creeton, Edenham, Gunby, Holywell cum Awnby chapelry, Irnham, including the hamlets of Bulby and Hawthorpe, -Keisby hamlet, Lavington, alias Lenton cum Hanby, Manthorpe hamlet, Osgodby hamlet, Skillington, Stainby, Swayfield, Swinstead, Toft and Lound hamlet, Witham on the Hill, Withan North and Twiford, including the hamlet of Lobthorpe, and Witham South. At C. ISTLE BYTHAM was a fortified mansion, or castle, which belonged to Lord Hussey in the time of Henry the Seventh. In the time of William the First, this manor was the property of Odo, Earl of Albemarle and Holderness; who, having married Adeliza the Conqueror's Sister, obtained the grant of the castle, and adjoi ning territory, for the support of their infant son Stephen : and for the specified purpose, that they might be enabled to feed him with wheaten bread. William de Foxtibus Earl of Albemarle, in the time of Edward the Third, rebelled against that monarch; and fortifying his castle at Bytham, plundered the surrounding country. But the fortress being besieged by the royal troops, it was levelled with the ground. It was afterwards repaired, and long remained in possession of the family of Calville. EDENHAM, large parish, includes the township of Edenham, Grimsthorpe, Elsthorpe, and Scottlethorpe, with the site of the demesnes abbey of Vaudey, or de Valle Dei. This parish contains 6424 acres of land, which, excepting about 160 acres, belong to the Duke of Ancaster. The parish church, was formerly appropriated to the abbey of Vaudey, and the living is now a perpetual curacy in the gift of the above named nobleman, who is impropriator of the parish, and proprietor of the church-yard. The Church consists of a nave, with north and south ailes, a chancel, south porch, and handsome western tower. This is of more modern erection than some parts of the church, and was probably built about the time of Henry the Sixth. The western door has a flat pointed arch with quatrefoils in the groins. The ailes are separated from the nave, by four arches on each side. At the eastend of the north aile are two tablets of black marble, bordered with naval and military trophies; over which, within a garter, surmounted by an earl's coronet, is a shield containing twenty-five coats. On the first tablet is a Latin inscription to the memory of Robert |