C.—LINCOLNSHIRE.
THE TowNs : — (CONTINUED.) BEFORE proceeding with the towns of Lincolnshire which+ still preserve a certain urban character, we must refer to a place which appears to have been of considerable importance at the time of the Confessor, but has now long dwindled into an obscure village. This is Torksey,—the 7'orchsey of the Survey. It is situated at the junction of the Foss Dyke with the Trent. According to Stukeley, here was a Roman walled town, securing the navigation of those parts, and a storehouse for corn ; the Norman castle being founded on this granary, which was, accordbig to him, much like Colchester Castle, with circular towers at the corners ; and a foundation was in his time still visible along the edge of the original site. In the time of Edward the Confessor there were 213 burgesses, but at the time of the Survey only 102 ; 111 mansiones then lying waste. The burgesses enjoyed many privileges, for which they were bound as often as the King's ambassadors came that way to convey them in their own barges down the Trent, and conduct them to the city of York. The bank of the river Trent in here a very deep sand, and on this declining shore, according to some antiquaries, Paulinus baptized the people of Lindsey, in the presence of Edwin, King of Northumbria. This, however, depends on the very doubtful identification of Torksey with the "City, which in the English tongue was called Tiovul,fingacestir," according to Bede's account of the transaction. Mr. Pearson thinks Southwell, in Notts, a more probable identification. The remains of the Norman castle at Torksey, in 1807, exhibited "a western front, with four irregular turrets placed at unequal distances, and a fragment of the south end, originally part of the offices, then converted into stables. The apartments seemed to have been spacious, but there was no indication that any outworks ever existed. The building is of brick, but the corners and battlements are of stone ; and it stands about 60 yards from the bank of the river, which sometimes flows up to the front of the ruins." Here was also a priory of Austin Canons, built by King John ; but it contained only about four religious persons at the time of the Dissolution, when Henry VIII. granted it to Sir Philip Hobby. King John also founded here another religions house called the Foss Nunnery. In Leland's time (Henry VIII.) Torksey had still two churches ; at present there is but one small one in the middle of the village. By an ancient charter which remains, the place enjoyed the privilege of a toll from strangers who brought cattle or goods to its fair on Whit-Monday. The little " township " had in 1861 a population of 205, or eight less than the burgesses in the time of the Confessor.
More fortunate has been the modern career of another place mentioned in Domesday Book as a borough. Pleasantly situated in a valley at the eastern foot of the Wolds of Lindsey, 22 miles east north-east from Lincoln, stands a town which once was called Ludes, from the little river Ludd, which flows round a considerable part of the modern town—Louth. At the time of the Survey 80 burgesses are enumerated as belonging to Ludes. Over its preceding and subsequent history, however, there is entire obscurity ; but one monument still remains to attest its significance in the middle ages. This is the church of St. James, a large structure of the latter part of the fourteenth century, consisting of a nave and chancel, with a beautiful east window, and one of the finest towers in the country, above which rises a light octangular spire to a height of 290 feet from the ground. This spire was begun under the direction of John Cole, a master mason and architect, in the year 1501. The height of the original spire was 360 feet, but the flat stone on the summit was blown off in the year 1587, and carried with it part of the building into the body of the church. The damage was repaired the following year at the cost of 230, but the whole spire was blown down on the 11th of October, 1634, and the present one erected under the hands of Thomas Turner, whose name appears on the north and north-east sides of the top stone, while on the eastern side is the date 1635. There was also formerly another church, St. Mary's; but it is now demolished, its site being indicated by the churchyard, still used as a buryingplace.
The Lincolnshire insurrection of 1536, excited by the suppression of the Religious Houses, began, as we have said, at Louth. According to Mr. Froude's account, at the end of the month of September in that year the nunnery of Legbourne, near the town, was suppressed by the Visitors, and two servants of Thomas Cromwell were left in the house to complete the dissolution. "On Monday, the 2nd of October, Heneage, one of the examiners under the clerical commission, was coming with the chancellor of the Bishop of Lincoln into Louth itself, and the clergy of the neighbourhood were to appear and to submit themselves to inspection." "The evening before, being Sunday, a host of people gathered on the green in the town. They had the great silver cross belonging to the parish with them, and as a crowd collected about them, a voice cried, 'Masters, let us follow the Cross God knows whether ever we shall follow it hereafter, or nay !' They formed in procession, and went round the streets ; and after vespers a party, headed by one Nicholas Melton, who, being a shoemaker, was called 'Captain Cobler,' appeared at the doors of the church, and required the churchwardens to give them the key of the jewel-chamber. The chancellor, they said, was coming the next morning, and intended to seize the plate. The churchwardens hesitating, the keys were taken by force. The chests were opened, the crosses, chalices, and candlesticks were showed openly in the sight of every man ;' and then, lest they should be stolen in the night, an armed watch kept guard till daybreak in the church aisles. At nine o'clock on Monday morning Heneage entered the town with a single servant. The chancellor was ill, and could not attend. As he rode in the alarm-bell pealed out from Louth 'rower. The inhabitants swarmed into the streets with bills and staves, the stir and the noise arising hideous.' rhe commissioner, in panic at the disturbance, hurried into the church for sanctuary ; but the protection was not allowed to avail him. He was brought out into the market-place, a sword was held to his breast, and he was sworn at an extemporized tribunal to be true to the Commons upon pain of death. Let us swear ! let us all swear !' was then the cry. A general oath was drawn. The townsmen swore, all strangers resident swore, they would be faithful to the King, the commonwealth, and the Holy Church. In the heat of the enthusiasm appeared the registrar of the diocese, who had followed Heneage with his books, in which was enrolled Cromwell's commission. Instantly clutched, he was dragged to the market-cross. A priest was mounted on the stone steps and commanded to read the commission aloud. Ile began, but the 'hideous clamour' drowned his voice. The crowd, climbing on his shoulders to overlook the pages, bore him down. He flung the book among the mob, and it was torn leaf from leaf and burnt upon the spot. The registrar barely escaped with his life ; he was rescued by friends, and hurried beyond the gates. Meanwhile, a party of the rioters had gone out to Legbourne, and returned, bringing Cromwell'a servants, who were first set in the stocks and thrust afterwards into the town gaol." Such was the outbreak of this memorable insurrection at Louth, on the suppression of which Captain Cobler and the Vicar of Louth were among those who were executed.
Louth was incorporated in the fifth year of Edward VI. with a warden and six assistants, and two weekly markets and three annual fairs were established by the same charter. Queen
Elizabeth, in the sixth year of her reign, gave the corporation the manor of Louth, for the better support of the corporate dignity.
James I., in the third year of his reign, constituted the warden and one of the assistants justices of the peace, with exempt jurisdiction not extending to life and limb ; and by a charter of the fifth of the same reign the corporation was empowered to appoint a deputy warden ; and so the corporation continued till the Municipal Act of William IV. reconstituted it as a mayor and three aldermen, with twelve councillors. There were before the Reformation three religious fraternities in Louth, called "The Guild of our Blessed Lady," "The Guild of the Holy Trinity," and "The Chantry of John of Louth ;" but in the time of Edward VI. (1552) the funds of these guilds were alienated and appropriated to the establishment of a free grammar school, half the revenue going to the support of the master and a fourth to an usher. The residue was to support twelve poor women. Another school was established in 1677.
Louth "contains little or no manufacture, there being few establishments of any importance." The river Ludd, not itself navigable, feeds a canal communicating with the Humber. "The principal traffic outwards is that of corn for London and the West Riding of Yorkshire ; the inward freight being chiefly coal, most of which comes down the Humber from York." The town has a Commission of the Peace under a Recorder, and is a polling-place for the county of Lincoln. Its population in 1861 was 10,560, a small increase from that of 1851, which was 10,467.
Grimsby, called Great by way of distinction from a village of the same name, is a borough and seaport on the south side of the estuary of the Humber (which is there 7 miles in breadth), seven miles west from the lighthouse on Spurn Head, on the flat shores opposite which the town stands. "The long, low, narrow hooked tongue of laud which terminates in the Head, protects a capacious roadstead, with good holding-ground, extending to within a mile of the new works at Grimsby, and well known as a harbour of refuge." It is 15 miles lower down the river than Hull, and with the exception of that place is the "only port with docks between Hartlepool in Durham and King's Lynu in Norfolk, a distance of fully 150 miles." Its situation must at a very early period have recommended it as a station or site for a settlement. The older part of the town, which is irregularly laid out, is at the head of the harbour, about a mile from the sea. The harbour is at one of the mouths of the Laceby Beck, extending inland about a mile southward from the sea. The origin of the town, according to general tradition, was Danish or Norwegian, the former origin being etymologically supported by the termination by. The story on which several old romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries have been based, is that it was founded by a merchant, Grytn, who obtained great riches in consequence of having brought up an exposed child called Havelok, who proved to be of royal Danish blood. This is the " llavelok the Dane" of Scandinavian and French romance.
The first charter of incorporation was granted to the town in the reign of John, and it had attained to considerable importance in the Plantagenet period, for it furnished Edward III. with eleven vessels and 170 mariners for the armament against Calais. It first returned two members to the House of Commons in 1295; since 1832 only one. Besides a monastery of Grey Friars and a convent of Benedictine Nuns, Grimsby had a priory of Augustine Canons, founded by Ilenry I., who liberally endowed and conferred several privileges on it. These were confirmed by Henry II., who further granted that the monks should enjoy their lands and rentals free from all exactions and secular services. The church of St. Mary, which was a handsome building with a steeple,—a good landmark for mariners,—has been long taken down. St. James's, which was originally of larger extent than at present, a part of the choir having fallen down about the year 1600, is a large cruciform building, with a tower in the centre. Much of the building is Early English, and the west window Norman. "In the upper part of the steeple is the inscription, Pray for the soul of John Empringham ' "—a considerable benefactor to the Church, who was born here in tho reign of Henry IV. Stow states that John Walsh, another native of this place, being accused of high treason by a gentleman of Navarre, Martileto de Vilenos, did on St. Andrew's Day, in the 8th year of King Richard II., 1385, engage in public combat with him, and gained the victory, his traducer being hanged for false accusation.
The prosperity of Grimsby greatly decayed, owing to the gradual choking-up of the harbour with sand ; and it had almost ceased to be a port, when at the beginning of the nineteenth century some of the neighbouring landed proprietors exerted themselves to restore the harbour. In 1802 a new one (of about 17 acres) was formed ; "but being accessible only at high water, it was not productive of all the advantages that were expected. But in 1846 a new harbour, on a large scale, accessible at all times of the tide, was commenced, and in anticipation of its being finished, Grimsby was made the terminus of two important railways." To secure a proper depth of water, the new works were "projected three-quarters of a mile into the estuary, in advance of the old dock, thus reclaiming and enclosing 130 acres of land." The Royal Docks, opened in 1849, occupy 140 acres, near the railway terminus, and afford accommodation for more than 1,200 sail. There are also several other docks, and large warehouses, and timber yards, &c., connected with the shipping interest, and "a tower, 300 feet high, serves as a lighthouse, and also as a hydraulic press for opening the flood gates." Since the clearing of the harbour and establishment of the docks, Grimsby has greatly risen in importance. The newer part of the town, called "the Marsh," consists of several streets parallel to the harbour. "There belonged to the port, on January 1, 1864, 151 sailing vessels under and 28 above 50 tons ; the gross amount of customs' duties received in 1863 was £33,847. The principal foreign trade is with the Baltic. There are mills for grinding bones, and tanneries ; and on the shore, on the east side of the harbour, is an extensive ropery. The other manufactures are local and unimportant." A Court of Requests for small debts was established here in the forty-sixth of George III. There is a weekly market, and a fair for sheep in June, and for horses in September. The population of the municipal borough, which in 1851 was 8,860, had risen in 1861 to 11,067.
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