Full text of "The natural history of Lincolnshire; being the natural history section of Lincolnshire notes & queries, from January, 1896, to October, 1897"

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THE

NATURAL HISTORY

LINCOLNSHIRE ;

BEING

THE NATURAL HISTORY SECTION

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES,

•

From January, 1896, to Oftober, 1897.

EDITED BY

THE REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK,
L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,

Hon. Organising Botanical Secretary of the Lincolnshire Naturalists Union ,'
Vicar of Cadney, Srigg.

HORNCASTLE :

W. K. MORTON, HIGH STREET.
1898.

HORNCASTLE :
PRINTED BY W. K. MORTON, HIGH STREET.

PREFACE.

P\URING the autumn of 1895 arrangements were entered
•*~"^ into between the Publisher of Lincolnshire Notes £s*
Queries and the Rev. E. Adrian WoodrufFe-Peacock,
L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S., Hon. Organising Secretary of the
Lincolnshire Naturalists Union, to publish a Natural History
Section of 16 pages each quarter as an annexe to the
Antiquarian portion of Lincolnshire Notes & ^uerles^ com-
mencing with the January part of Vol. V. of that periodical.
The two portions (Antiquarian and Natural History) were
kept quite distinct from each other, each having a separate
pagination. This arrangement was kept in force during the
period January, 1896 to October, 1897, when it was relinquished
on account of the Publisher not receiving sufficient support to
enable him to continue to publish without charge this section
relating to Natural History, in which so few took the interest
that was desired. Accordingly a small volume of 128 pages of
extremely interesting matter has alone been produced, but
there has been supplied a Title Page, Index, and List of
Contents, in order to give the volume the position of standing
on its own merits.

The Editor has certainly been fortunate in procuring many
able writers on matters Geological, Botanical, Zoological,
Entomological, &c., connected with the County of Lincoln
which are of considerable value. The very complete Place
Name List will serve as a guide to the student of this subject,
and deserves a careful perusal.

Mr. Burton's "Story of the Lincoln Gap," illustrated, is a
remarkable account of the laws relating to river courses ; and
Mr. George Sills' article on the " Archaeological History of the
Wash," shewing the effect the formation of the Wash had on

the low-lying land between Lincoln and Nottingham, &c.,
and even upon Lincoln itself, is one of first-class interest to
any Lincolnshire student of Geology.

The Publisher regrets, as much as the Editor, that his
efforts to found a Magazine dealing with the Natural History
of Lincolnshire has not met with the success that was expected,
but should an interest in this desirable field of work at any
time ever arise, he will be the first to offer a helping hand
as publisher, and do his best to produce a well-executed
publication worthy alike of the subject and of the county to
which he belongs.

Horncastle^ 1898.

CONTENTS.

Prefatory Note, I. — The Natural History Divisions of Lincolnshire : (a), The
County, 2 ; (b] Natural History Divisions, 3 j (c] Maps, 4 ; (d] The Place Name
List, 5 ; by Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Th., F.L.S., F.G.S. — Lincolnshire
Natural History, by John Cordeaux, M.B.O.U., 15. — The Lincolnshire Boulder
Committee, by the L.N.U., 26. — The Contents of Birds' Crops, by Mr. F. A.
Dorrington, 29. — The Goat Willow, by the Editor, 30. — The Lincolnshire Rye-grass,
by the Editor, 30. — The ' Blue Stone ' Boulder, Louth, Lincolnshire, by W.
Hampton, F.C.S., and H. Wallis Kew, F.E.S., 31. — How the Land between
Gainsborough and Lincoln was formed, by F. M. Burton, F.L.S., F.G.S. , 32. —
Lincolnshire Naturalists at Louth, by R. W. Goulding, 41. — A Lincolnshire
Coleoptera Record Wanted, by Rev. A. Thornley, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., 46.— A
Short Account of a Country Parish, by Mrs. C. E. Jarvis, 48.— The Story of the
Lincoln Gap (part i.), by F. M. Burton, F.L.S., F.G.S., 53. — Louth Antiquarian
and Naturalists Society, by R. W. Goulding, 61. — Vertebrata of Lincolnshire, by
the Editor, 64. — Lincolnshire (part i.), by John Cordeaux, M.B.O.U., 65. — Value
of a Salmon Fishery on the Trent, by the Editor, 71. — The Story of the Lincoln
Gap (part ii.), by F. M. Burton, F.L.S., F.G.S., 72. — A Short Account of a Country
Parish (part ii.), by Mrs. C. E. Jarvis, 77. — Lincolnshire (part ii.),by John Cordeaux,
M.B.O.U., 83. — Notes on the Ice-borne Blocks of Shap Granite, &c., found in
Lincolnshire, by Thomas Sheppard, 94. — Notes on the Ice-borne Blocks of Shap
Granite, &c., found in Lincolnshire, by Thomas Sheppard (part ii.), 97. — An
Archseological History of the Wash, by Geo. Sills, 101. — The Story of the Lincoln
Gap, by S. Bateman, no. — President's Address to the Lincolnshire Naturalists
Union, 1896, by Rev. Canon W. W. Fowler, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., 113.— The
Lincoln Gap, by F. M. Burton, 122. — Natural History Notes; What to Note
and How to Make Notes, by Gregory O. Benoni, 124.

PLATES.

Sketch Map of the Natural History Divisions of Lincolnshire, to face p. I.
Diagram illustrating " The Story of the Lincoln Gap," to face p. 53.

C S H I R E

NATURAL HISTORY DIVISIONS

LINCOLNSHIRE .

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English, Jfiles

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HOLBEACH

Lincolnshire 3\(otes & Queries.

Clje Natural ^tstorj> Section,

PREFATORY NOTE.

SIXTEEN pages per quarter have been dedicated by the
proprietor of this journal to advancing the study of
Natural History in Lincolnshire. With this end in
view, we propose to print a series of literary articles on every
branch of the subject which can interest dwellers in the
county. With these we hope to appeal, at once, by their
accuracy to the workers who are already athirst for knowledge,
and by their clear and simple style to those — not a few — who
require to be incited to take a greater interest in the varied
materials for observation that a quiet walk or drive in the
country will reveal. As but little space can be found for
Notes and Queries in such a limited number of pages, the
Editor has arranged with the Sectional Secretaries of the
Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union to render any help in their
power to any one applying for it, e.g.^ by naming specimens,
giving advice as to the best books to be consulted, or the best
grounds for collecting. The following list gives the names
and addresses of the Sectional Secretaries to whom direct
application should be made by post j but in case of doubt, it
will be better to apply to the editor of this section of the
journal, who will transmit the communication to the proper
authority, from whom a reply will be received in due course.
The Sectional Secretaries are : — Geology, H. Cooke, F.L.S.,
F.G.S., 123, Monks' Road, Lincoln; Phanerogamic Botany,
Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,
Cadney, Brigg ; Cryptogamic Botany, J. Larder, 33, Mercer
Row, Louth ; Vertebrate Zoology, John Cordeaux, M.B.O.U.,
Great Cotes House, R.S.O., Lincolnshire; Conchology, W. D.
Roebuck, F.L.S., F.R.P.S.E., Sunny Bank, Leeds ; General
Entomology, Rev. Canon W. W. Fowler, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S.,
Lincoln ; Lepidoptera, Rev. G. H. Raynor, M.A., Panton,
Wragby; Coleoptera, Rev. A. Thornley, F.L.S., F.E.S.,
South Leverton, Lincoln.

Any further information required can be obtained by
applying to

Cadney Vicarage^ Brigg. THE EDITOR.

Vol. 5, No. 33, Lines. N. & #.
Nat. Hist. Sect.

2 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

THE NATURAL BISTORT 'DIVISIONS
OF LINCOLNSHIRE*

REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,

Vicar of Cadney, Brigg, General and Botanical Secretary Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union,
and Curator of Lincolnshire County Herbarium,

THE COUNTY.

LINCOLNSHIRE, the second county in England in size,
according to the last Ordnance Survey, contains
1,783,769-998 square acres or 2,787-140 square miles
of land, fresh water, salt-marsh, fore-shore and tidal water.
It is about 75 miles from its extreme points north and south,
and 45 miles in its widest part from east to west, and lies
between the parallels 52 degrees and 40 minutes and 53
degrees 43 minutes north latitude, and 56 minutes west and
22 minutes east longitude from the meridian of Greenwich.
A little more than half of the county is upland and heath of
the wold and cliff ranges of hills ; the rest was formerly fen,
marsh, and carr, but is now most thoroughly drained by
natural means, artificial dykes, and steam pumps. There is
not an acre of true fen left in the whole county. Even
the bogs on the sand commons are most restricted, and only
found in two or three parishes in north-west Lindsey. The
drainage has been so thoroughly carried out that in a dry
season the fen-farms more distant from the outfall of the rivers
are badly in want of water for their stock, and to keep the cattle
from wandering across the natural boundaries of the district, the
fen-dykes, which are often quite dry. The native fauna and
flora of the fens have quite gone, but we have the fen-dyke
fauna and flora in profusion, if anyone but a native can under-
stand the distindtion, or appreciate the effecl: which the annual
cleaning out and mowing the sides of our larger and smaller
drains, liming and manuring have had on our flora — annual,
biennial, or perennial — and the life which it sustains.

NATURAL HISTORY DIVISIONS.

The plan I have adopted for these Divisions, after many
useless attempts to make a geological or river-basin distribution,

* This is the greater part of an article, with alterations and additions, which
appeared in The Naturalist, 1895, pp. 289-301, republished by special permission.

Natural History. 3

much thought, and some consultation with others interested in
the matter, is a purely arbitrary one, like that of the late Profes-
sor Babington's Flora of Cambridgeshire^ for the peculiar physical
features of Lincolnshire, with its 500,000 acres of fenland and
low hills, admit of no other. With a very few exceptions all
the natural history records yet published are on the parish basis ;
taking the larger towns as far as possible as centres the parishes
have been aggregated round them into divisions, always keeping
in view two points, (i) the work already done, and (2) railway
communication for future observation. The Watsonian Vice-
Counties, N. Lines. 54 or N. and S. Lines. 53 or S., have been
left inta6l, clearly separated as they are by the river Witham
from Boston to Lincoln, and by the Foss Dyke from Lincoln
to the border of Nottingham. The modern course of these
streams is the line of demarcation ; and as both cut through one
or more parishes on their way from the cathedral city to their
outfalls in the Wash and river Trent, these parishes have both a N.
and S. Vice-county number. This is also the case with parishes
scattered in departments referred to below. In making notes in
divided or scattered parishes it is an easy matter to remember
whether the Witham or Foss Dyke is to the north or south of
the place of observation. As N. contains more than three-fifths
of the county, and as S. is almost one-half unwooded fen-land,
which has been so greatly changed in fauna and flora by drainage
and high farming during the last hundred years, I have given
N. a double share of Divisions, which are therefore smaller for
the most part than those of S. They are shown by black
lines, names, and numbers on the map, and are named as follows :

NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE, 54.

I. — Isle of Axholme. 7. — Market Rasen.

2.— Winterton and Broughton. 8. - Louth.

3. — Barton and Caistor. 9.— Saltfleet (Littoral).

4. — Great Grimsby. lo. — Horncastle and West Fen.

5.- Kirton and Gainsborough. n. - Alford and Burgh.

6. — Lincoln (North). 12. — Boston and East Fen.

SOUTH LINCOLNSHIRE, 53.

13. — Lincoln (South). 1 6. — Bourn and Stamford.

14.. — Sleaford. I7-— Swineshead and Donington.

15. — Grantham. 18. — Spalding and Holbeach.

The numbers indicate which vice-county a record refers to
without the constant use of N. and S.

MAPS.
The best Map for field work is the index map to the six-

4 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

inch Ordnance Survey. It has the parishes printed in colours,
and all the roads are shown. Messrs. Stanford, Cockspur
Street, Charing Cross, London, S.W. supply it. Sub-divisions
have been added to the larger divisions for the purpose of
facilitating more detailed work, and of more fully indicating
the distribution of rare and local species. These were
obligingly worked out by W. Denison Roebuck, F.L.S., of
Sunny Bank, Leeds — the editor of The Naturalist — who is
prepared to supply workers with a large scale map of Lincoln-
shire showing the parish boundaries, and coloured clearly to
to indicate all the division and sub-division. In the Sketch
Map of the Soils of Lincolnshire^ by A. J. Jukes Browne,
B.A., F.G.S., which appeared in The Naturalist with the first
edition of this paper, the divisions and sub-divisions are shown,
and are further indicated by the initial letters of the cardinal
points of the compass. It is not thought advisable to print
these initial letters after the division numbers in the place
name list that follows, as it would add considerably to the
length of this paper. All these maps can be obtained from the
Editor of the Natural History section of the Lincolnshire
Notes & Queries.

THE PLACE NAME LIST.

The following alphabetical list gives the name and division
number of every parish, township, hamlet, railway stations
which are not called after places, and remarkable physical features
of the county, such as fens, hills, commons, woods and waters,
— when these places have a name of their own — to be found
in gazetteers, directories, and maps, new and old, which have
come under my observation. In the rare case where a parish
is scattered in separate departments lying at a distance from
one another, or a wood, with a distinctive name, runs continu-
ously from one parish into the next on the boundary line of a
division, two — only in one case three — numbers are required
to indicate the exact spot where an observation might be made
or a specimen taken. The spelling of these place-names is
that adopted by the Post Office Directory, or if not found
there, which was most frequently met with in the books and
maps consulted. Workers in the field, who intend to use this
place-name list, in recording the distribution of the species they
are studying, should note that Railway Stations are not always
situated in the parish after which they are named, in the case

Natural History. 5

of Dogdyke not even in the same Vice-county as the parish.
The sand and silt-banks of the Wash, and round the coast, as
well as the warp banks of the Humber and Trent, are so
constantly changing that they are hardly worth recording, but
with the latest maps to hand I have done my best; for the flora
of even a temporary bank of silt that rises above the wash of
ordinary tides in sea or river is extremely interesting, when
considering geographical distributions and means of dispersal.

The contractions used in this place name list are the
following :

E., East ; G., Great ; L., Little ; M.t Middle j N., North ; PL, Plantation ;
S., South ; St., Railway Station ; W., West ; Wd., Wood.

The words 'both' or 'all* in parentheses after a parish
name in this list implies that both or all the parishes of this
name are in the division indicated.

Abney Wood

Ashby (West)

Bardney

Aby

Ashby -de- la-Launde

Barf (Beelsby)

A&horpe

Ashby Puerorum . .

Barf (Blankney)

Acres (The) . .

»4

Ash Holt

Barf (Howsham)

Addlethorpe . .

Ash Lound . .

Barholme

Agthorpe Wood

Aslackby

Barkstone

Ailby

Asserby

Barkwith (E. & W.)

Ailesham

Asterby

Barlings

Aisby (Gainsborough

Aswardby (Falkingham)

Barnacle Pits..

Aisby (Grantham)

Aswardby (Spilsby)

Barnetby-le-Wold

Aisthorpe

Atterby

Barnoldby-le-Beck

Alford

Aubourn . . . .

Barnsdale (Eagle)

Algarkirk

Audleby

Barrowby

Algarkirk Allotment

Aukborough

Barrow-upon-Humbe

Alkborough

Aunby . . . .

Barton-upon-Humber

Allen's Wood

Aunsby . . . .

Bassingham . .

Allington (E. & W.)

Austendyke

Bassingthorpe

Althorpe

Austen Fen

Baston

Alvingham . .

Austerby . .

Baumber

Amberhill

AusterWood

Bayard's Leap

Amcotts

Autby

Bay Hall . .

Ancaster

Authorpe (Muckton)

Bayons Manor

Ancroft Fen . .

Authorpe (Hogsthorpe)

Beacon Hills (Barton) 3

Anderby

Aveland . . . .

Beacon Hill

Ann Cover . .

Axeltree Hurn

(Marsh Chapel) 9

Anthony's Clump

Aylesby

Beacon Hill

Anthony's Cover

Ayscoughfee Hall

(Thorpe-on-the-H ill) 1 3

Anwick

Azeby

Beaconthorpe. . 4.

Apley

Beadhouse Wood 10

Appleholme . .

Back Oak Wood

Beats (G. & L.) 10

Apple by

Badger Hills ..

Beckering . . 7

Asfordby

Badger Hills ..

Beckingham . . 13

Asgarby (Sleaford)

Badger Moor Wood . .

Beckingham Shores

Asgarby (Spilsby)

Bag Enderby . . . .

(Twigmoor) 2

Ashby (Brigg)

Bagmoor

Becklands . . 4.

Ashby (Grimsby)

Bamburgh . . . .

Bedlam Wood

Ashby (Partney)

Bamber Bridge

(Brocklesby) 3

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Bedlam Wood

Bonsdale

(Wainfleet St. Mary)

Bonthorpe

. .

Beech Holt . .

Boothby Graffoe

. .

Beelsby

Boothby-in-the-Marsh

Beesby (Hawerby)
Beesby-on-the- Marsh

8
II

Boothby Pagnall
Booths

••

Belch ford

Boston .. 12

and

Belleau

Boswell

Belmont . .

Botany Bay . .

. .

Belmount . .

Bottesford

f t

Belnie

Boughton

. „

Beltoft

Bounston Hill

Belton (Grantham) ..

Boultham

. .

Belton-in the-Isle

Bourn . .

Bendon's Cover . .

Bowin

Benington

Bowland's Cover

Bennington (Long) . .

Bowthorpe

Bennington Grange . .

Braceborough

Benniworth

Bracebridge . .

. .

Betty Green

Braceby

. .

Bickar

Bracken

. .

Bigby

Brackenborough

Billingborough

Brackendale Cover

Billinghay

Bracken (PI.)

Bilsby

Bradley

Binbrook

Braithing Bridge

. .

Birch Holt

Brakin

. .

Birch Plot

Brakon Wood

Birch Wood

Bramble Holt

. .

Bird Hag

Brampton

Birdock Gate

Brampton Firs

. .

Birds' Drove

Brand End Plot(G.&L.)

Birke Wood

Brandon

Birkholme

Brandy Wharfe

Birk'sWood..

Bransby

Birthorpe

Branston

Biscathorpe

Branswell

. .

Bishop Bridge

Brant Broughton

Bishop Norton

Bratland's Cover

. .

Bitchfield

Bratoft

Blackmills

Brattleby

Blackmoor

Brauncewell . .

Blankney

Breachom's Wood

Bleasby

Bready Wood

Bloxholm

Break's Holt..

Blow Wells (Barton)

Breast Sand . .

. .

BlowWells(Little Coates)4

Breeder Hills

Blow Wells (Tetney)

Bridge End . .

Blubber Hill ..

Brigg (Glamford)

. .

Blue Hills

Brigsley

Blyborough

Brindwell

Blyton

Brinkhill

Boat Mere Creek

Broadgate

. .

Bogmoor (Manton) . .

Broadham's Cover

Bole Ferry

Brocklesby . .

. .

Bolingbroke

Broom Hill . .

Bonby

Brothertoft . .

••

5 Broughton (Brant) .. 13
II Broughton l Brigg) .. 2
13 Broughton Clays .. 13
1 1 Broxholme . . . . 6

15 Brumby .. ..2

13 Buckminster . . .. 16
17 Bucknall .. . . 7

8 Bulby 15

9 Bull Close Holt .. 13

2 Bullington (Goltho) . . 7

14 Bullington (Friskney) 12

14 Bully Hills .. ..8
13 Bully Wells .. ..14

16 Bumble Pit . . ..14
16 Bunker's Hill .. lo

4 Eurcom Sand . . 4

1 6 Burgh Beacon .. 7

1 6 Burgh-in-the-Marsh . . ii
13 Burgh-upon-Bain .. 8

15 Burnham (The Isle) .. i
13 Burnham (Ulceby) .. 3

8 Burnt Wood .. ..13

13 Burringham .. ..2

13 Burtoft .. . . I/

4 Burton-by-Lincoln . . 6
13 Burton Coggles .. 15

1 Burton Ferry. . .. 6

10 Burton Gate . . 6
13 Burton Pedwardine .. 14

6 Burton-on-Stather . . 2

3 Burton Slate Wood .. 15

17 Burwell .. ..8

15 Bushy Leys . . . . 16

5 Buslingthorpe . . 7

6 Butler's (PL).. .. 3

13 Butterbump .. .. ii

14 Butterwick (Boston) .. 12

13 Butterwick (East) .. 2

4 Butterwick (West) . . I

11 Button Cap Holt .. II
6 Byard's Leap. . ..13

14 Bytham (Castle) .. 15

1 6 Bytham (Little) .. 15

13 Cabbage Wood .. 14

1 8 Cabourn .. •• 3

15 Cadeby .. ..8

16 Cadney .. .-3

3 Cadwell .. ..8

4 Caenby . . 6

1 6 Caistor .. •• 3
lo Calceby .. ..II
1 8 Calcethorpe .. ..8

2 Callow . . 7

3 Cammingham . . 6
13 Campney Lane .. 7

17 Candle Bottom .. 10

Natural History.

Candlesby . . • •

Clump Hill ..

Cross Keys Wash . .

Canwick . . . .

Coates (G.) ..

Cross Moors

Careby

Coates (L.)

Crowland . . . .

Carlby

Coates (N.) ..

Crowle . . . .

Carlton-by-the-Ashes

Coates (Willingham). .

Croxby

Carlton (Castle)

Cocked Hat (PL) . .

Croxton

Carlton (G.)

Cockerington (N. & S.)

Culverthorpe

Carlton-le-Moorlands

Cocklode Wood

Cumberworth

Carlton (L.)

Cold Bath House

Curdle Well

Carlton (N.)

Coldham Quarter

Cuxwold . . . .

Carlton Scroop

Cold Hanworth

Carlton (S.)

Coldstead

Dalby

Carr Holt

Coleby (Lincoln)

Dalderby

Carr House

Coleby (West Halton)

Dales Bottom

Carr (W.)

College Wood

Dame Amos' Holt . .

Carrington . . . .

Collow

Dam Ring

Caseby Wood

Colsterworth. .

Dandy Holt

Casewick

1 6

Combe Hill (Denton)

Dane Hill

Casthorpe

Common Side

Daubers Hill..

Castle Bytham

Coney Wood..

Dawesmere

Castle Carlton

Coneysby

Daw Wood

Castle Dyke Wood . .

Coningsby .. 10 and

Decoy Cottages

Castle Hill Place . .

Conisholme

(Brigg)

Castle Hills

Conyer's Wood

Decoy Plantation

Castlethorpe

Cooksey's Caver . .

(Grimsby)

Cathorpe

Copping Syke

Deep Dale ..

Catley

Corby

Deeping (E. & W.) ..

Cawkwell

Corking Bridge

Deeping St. James . .

Cawthorpe (L.)

Corringham (G. & L.)

Deeping Market

Cawthorpe (Bourn) ..

Cotehouses

Deeping St. Nicholas

Cawood Hall..

Cotes Grange

Deer Park Wood . .

Cay Leys Wood

Counessome Cross

Delta Cover

Caythorpe . . . .

Counter Close

Dembleby

Central Wingland ..

Counter Drain . .

Denton

Chapel Hill ..

Counter Drove (St.) . .

Derrythorpe

Chapel (Mumby)

Counthorpe

Dexthorpe

Chase Hill ..

Court Leys

Digby

Cheal

Covenham (both)

Ding Dong

Cherry Holt

Covers (The)

Dirrington . . . .

Cherry Willingham . .

Covey Wood

Dobbin Wood

Church End

Cowbank

Dob Wood

Church Town

Cowbit

Doddington

Cindersom Well

Cowdyke (PI.)

(Skellingthorpe)

«3

Claxby (Alford)

Cowgate Copse

Doddington (Dry) . .

Claxby (Normanby) .

Cow's Dyke

Dogdyke

Claxby Pluckacre

Coxey Hills ..

Dogdyke (St.)

Clay Hills Wood

Crab Tree Holt

Donington (Spalding)

Clay Hole

Craise Lound. .

Donington-on-Bain . .

Claypole

Cranwell

Donna Nook. .

Claythorpe

Cream Pot Wood

Dorrington

Cleatham

Creeton

Dotsey Wood

Clee

Cressy Hall

Dove Cote

Cleethorpes

Croft

Dovedale

Clixby

Crofton

Dow Dyke

Clough

Crosby . . . .

Dowsby

Clough Bridge

Cross Close Holt

Dovesdale

Cloven Hill ..

Crossholme

Drainage Marsh

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Drainage Fen..
Driby
Drove End
Dry Doddington
Dukes Wood..
Dumpin's Nook

II
18
15
15

Fenby
Fen Houses
(Somercoates)
Fen Houses
(Wigtoft)
Fenton (Beckingham)

4
9

Fulletby .. ..10
Fullsby .. . . 1 6
Fulnetby .. .. 7
Fulney .. ..18
Fulsby .. .. 16
Fulstow . . . . 8

Dunham Bridge

Fenton (Kettlethorpe)

Dunholme

Ferriby (South)

Gainsborough . . 5

Dunkirk Cover

Ferry Corner Plot . .

Gainsthorpe . . 2

Dunsby St. Andrew

Ferry (E.) ..

Callow Dale . . ..13

Dunsby (Bourn)

Ferry Gate Bottom . .

Gallows Dale . . 6

Dunstall

Ferry (High)..

Game Traps Wood . . 1 1

Dunston

Ferry (W.) ..

Gantoft .. ..II

Dyke (Bourn)

Fillingham

Garnsgate .. . . 1 8

Dyke Fen

Fire Beacon . .

Garthorpe . . I

Dyke Outgang . .

Firsby (E. and W.) . .

Garwick . . . . 14

Dyke Wood

Firsby (Wainfleet) . .

Gate Burton . . 6

Fishtoft . . 12 and

Gatliffe Wood . . 7

Eagle

Fiskerton

Gatt Sand .. .. 18

Eagle Barnsdale

Fitties (The)

GaumerHill.. .. 8

Eagle Hall

Five Mile (St.)

Gauntlet .. ..17

Eagle Woodhouse

Flawford

Gautby .. ..7

Ealand

Fleet (all)

Gayton (both) . 8

East Fen

Flixborough . . . .

Gazebo

• 9

East Ferry

Floors

Gedney

. 18

Eastholme

Fockerby

Gedney Hill (St.)

. 18

Eastlands Gorse

Fodder Dyke Bank . .

Gelston

• 15

Eastoft

Foldhill

Gibbet Hills . .

• 17

Easton

Folkingham . . .

Gibraltar Point

. ii

East Lound

Folly's Wood . .

Gilby..

. 5

East Thorpe

Fonaby

Gillian Holt . .

. 8

Eastville

Fordington

Gillswell (PI.)

. ii

Eaudyke

Forty Foot Bank

Gillwood

. 8

Eaugate

Fosdyke

Gippel

• i5

Edenham

Foston

Gipsey Bridge

. 10

Edlington

Fotherby

Girsby

. 8

Elkington (N. & S.) . .

Foxendale . . .

Glanford Brigg

• 3

Ellarow Wood

Foxhole Wood

Glentham

. 5

Elsey

Foxholt

Glentworth . .

. 6

Elsham

Frampton 10, 12 and

Goat Close (PI.)

. 8

Elsthorpe

Freiston . . 12 and

Godnow Bridge (St.)

Emswell . .

French Drove (St.) . .

God's Cross . .

Enderby (all)

Friesland

Gokewell

Epworth

Friesthorpe

Goltho

Eskham . . . .

Frieston (Boston)

Gonerby (G. M. & L 15

Evedon

12 and

Good Copse . . . i

Ewerby

Frieston (Claythorpe)

Goody Hatchem . 4

Friskney

Gorse Hill . . .14

Faldingworth

Frist ...

Gosberton .. . 17

Falkingham

Frith Bank

Goulceby .. .8

Farforth

Friths 'The) ..

Gould Dyke Bank . 18

Farlsthorpe

Frithville . . 10 and

Goulsby . . . 8

Farthorpe

Frodingham . . . .

Goxhill .. .3

Fellands

Froghall (Cadney) . .

Graby .. .16

Fen (E.)

Froghall(Wildmore)..

Grainsby . . . 8

Fen (W.)

Frognall

Grainthorpe . . . 9

Fen Wood . . ...

Fulbeck

Grand father's Wood . 13

Natural History.

Grange-de-Ling

Halltoft End..

. 12

Grantham

Haltham

. 10

Grantham Grange . .

Halton (E.) . .

• 3

Grantham's Cross . .

Halton Holegate

. ii

Grasby

Halton Skitter

• 3

Grass Hill (PL)

Halton (W.) . .

. 2

Grayingham

Halton Wood

. 16

Great Beats

Hameringham

. 10

Great Brand End Plot

Hamilton Hill

• J5

Great Common . .

Hammock Beck

. 17

Greatford

Hampshire (Pi.)

. II

Grebby

1 1

Hanbeck

. 14

Greenfield

Hanby

• J5

Greenhill

Hang Wood . .

. ii

Greenwalks . . . .

Hannah

. ii

Greetham

Hanthorpe . .

. 16

Greetwell

Hanworth (Cold)

. 6

Greetford

Hanworth (Porter)

• 13

Greygreen

Harding's (PL)

. 3

Grey Leys

Hardwick

. 6

Grimblethorpe

Hare Booth . .

. 7

Grime's Holt

Hareby

. 10

Grimoldby

Harlaxton

• J5

Grimsby (G.)

Harmston

. 13

Grimsby (L.)

Harpswell

. 5

Grimsthorpe

Harrington . .

. 10

Grisels Bottom

Harrowby

• !5

Grubhill

Harts' Grounds

. 17

Guanockgate

Hartsholme . .

. 13

Gulholme

Haseby . .

. 14

Gunborough Wood . .

Hasethorpe . .

. II

Gunby (St. Nicholas)..

Hatcliffe

• 4

Gunby (Spilsby)

Hathow

. 6

Gunness

Hatton

. 7

Gunthorpe

Haugh . .

. ii

Gunthorpe Sluice

Haugham

. 8

Guthramcote. .

Haughton

. 8

Haven Bank . .

. 10

Habertoft

Haverholme Priory

. 14

Habrough

Hawerby

. 8

Hacconby

Hawstead Wood

. 10

Haceby

Hawthorn Hill

. 10

Hackthorn

Hawthorpe . .

• J5

Haddington

Haxey

Hagnaby (Hannah) . .

1 1

Haydor

. 14

Hagnaby (Spilsby) . .

Hayes (The) ..

. 5

Hag Wood

Healing

. 4

Hagworthingham

Heapham . .

. 6

Hainton

Heck Dyke . .

. I

Hale (G. & L.)

Heckington (both)

. 14

Halfway Houses

Heighington . .

• 13

Hall Gate

Hell Furse ..

. 8

Hall Hills

Hell Hole . .

. 14

Halliday Hill

Hell Holt . .

• 13

Hallifers

Helpringham . .

. 14

Hallington

Helsey

. ii

Hallowells' Hills . .

Hemingby

. 8

Hemswell . . • • 5

Hendale Wood . . 3

Henhole Wood . . 4

Hericho Wood . . 15

Hermitage Hill .. II
Heron Wood

(Broughton) 2
Heron Wood

(Doddington) 13

Hibaldstow . . . . 2

High Bibers Hill .. Ii

High Ferry . . . . lo

Highfield Wood . . 4

High Hall Wood .. lo

High Wood .. ..13

High Wood Decoy .. 12

Hill Dyke . . . . lo

Hill Six Acres .. 17

Hills of the Slain . . 1 1

Hinkerson's Fen .. 18

Hirst Priory . . . . I

Hoffleet Stow .. 17

Hogsthorpe . . ..II

Hogtree Wood .. 15

Holbeach (all) .. 1 8

Holdingham . . . . 14

Holland (E.) .. ..12

Holland Fen .. 14 and 17

Holland Fen Chapel . . 14

Holland House .. 18

Holland (New) . . 3

Holme (Bottesford) . . 2

Holmes (Epworth) . . I

Holmes (Louth) . . 8

Holmes Common . . 6

Holton-le-Clay . . 8

Holton-le-Moor .. 7

Holton (Wragby) . . 7

Holtonbeck Gorse .. lo

Holy well .. ..15

Holy- Well Wood .. lo

Home Decoy. . .. 12

Home Wood . . . . 7

Honey Close (PL) . . 3

Honington .. . . 15

Hood's Wood .. 1 6

Hook Hill .. ..12

Hopland (PL) ..II

Hop Lane . . . . 7

Horbling .. . . 1 6

Horkstow . . 3

Horncastle . . . . lo

Horse Acre Wood . . 7

Horse Shoe Clump . . 8

Horsington . . . . 7

Hougham .. ..IS

Hough-on-the Hill .. 15

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Housham (Cadney) . .

Ketsby

Legsby

Housham

Kettleby

Lenton

(Haddington)

Kettlethorpe

Leverton

Howdale

Kew's Holt ..

Lily Wd.(Broughton)

Howell

Kexby

Lily Wood (Lea)

How Hills ..

Kib Wood

Limber (G. & L.)

Howlets Gate

Killingholme (N. & S.)

Lincoln . . 6 and

Howsham

Kinaid Ferry

Lincoln Heath . .

Hubbert's Bridge

Kingerby

Linwood (Blankney) . .

Hudson's Cover

Kingsforth Hall

Linwood (Rasen)

Humberstone. .

Kingsthorpe

Lissington

Humby (G. & L.) ..

Kingston Wood

Listoft

1 1

Hundleby

King's Wood

Little Beats

Hundon

Kirkby (E.) ..

Little Brand End Plot

Hungar Hill

Kirkby Green

Little Decoy

Hungerton

Kirkby-la-Thorpe . .

Little Hawe Wood . .

Hum's End

Kirkby-by-Rasen

Little Lond'n (Ulceby)

Hurst Priory. .

Kirkby Underwood . .

Little London

Huttoft

Kirkby-on-Bain

(Wisbech) . .

Hykeham (N. & S.) . .

Kirkstead

Little Sale Wood

Kirmington

Little Scrubs

Immingham

Kirkmond-le-Mire . .

Little Thicket

Infield Wood..

Kirton (Boston) lo and

Littleworth (Goxhill)

Ingham . .

Kirton (Lindsey)

Littleworth (Spalding)

Ingleby (all)

Knaith

Lobthorpe . . . .

Ingoldmells . .

Knowle's Wood

Londonthorpe

Ingoldsby

Knowle's Carr

Long Bennington

Ingram Gorse

Kyme (N. & S.)

Long Hills

Inner Knock

Kyme Tower..

Long Holt

Irby-on-Humber

Long Nursery

Irby-in -the-Marsh ..

Laceby

Long Owersby

Irford

Lady Wood

Long Sand

Irnham

Lambcroft

Long Sutton

Iver's Wood

Langham

Long Wood

Langmere Field

Lound

ackson's Leys 3 and

Langmoor Cover

Louth

ail (PI.)

Langrick . . 10 and

Loveden Hill

enny's Wood

Langriville . . lo and

Lower Barf Wood . .

ericho Wood

Langtoft

Lower Daw Wood . .

ock Hedge ..

Langton (Horncastle)

Lowfield

ubilee (PI.) ..

Langton Low. .

Ludborough .. ..

umping Mill

Langton (Spilsby)

Luddington

Langton (Wragby) . .

Ludford (G. &L.) ..

Kate's Bridges

Langworth

Ludney

Kay Wood

Laughterton

Lusby

Keadby

Laughton (Falkingham)

Lutton

Keal (all)

Laughton(Gainsbro') . .

Keddington

Lavington

Mablethorpe

Keelby

Lawless Wood

Magpie Holt

Keisby

Lawn Wood (both) . .

Maidenwell

Kelby

Law's Wood

Maidsdyke Bridge

Kelfield

Laythorpe

Major Wood

Kellwell

Lea

Maltby (Legbourne) . .

Kelsey(N.) ..

Leadenham

Maltby-le-Marsh

Kelsey (S.)

Leake (both)

Maltby (Raithby) . .

Kelstern

Leasingham . .

Manby (Brigg)

Kenwick ^Louth)

Legbuurne

Manby (Louth)

Natural History.

Manthorpe (Bourn) . .

Monks' Liberty . .

Northlands

Manthorpe (Grantham)

Monksthorpe . .

Northholme

Manton

Monks' Wood

Northorpe

Mareham-le-Fen

Moorby .. ..

(Donington)

Mareham-on-the-Hill

Moorhouses

Northorpe (Gainsboro')

Marehills Wood

Moortown

Northorpe (Thurlby) . .

Mare Tail

1 8

Morton (Bourn)

Northspring Wood . .

Marhams (The)

Morton (Gainsboro') . .

Northway Pond

Markbush Wood

Morton (Lincoln)

Norton (Bishop)

Markby

Mosswood . . . .

Norton Disney

Market Bridge . .

Moulton . . . .

Norton Wood

Market Deeping

Mown Rakes

Nun Gotham. .

Market Rasen

Muckton

Nun Ormsby. .

Market Stainton

Mumby

Marlborough. .

Munthorpe . .

Oaklands

Marsh (The)

Obthorpe

Marshall Wood

Nab Wood

Old Don (PI.)

Marsh Bank

Natty Cake Wood . .

Old Orchard

Marsh Chapel

Navenby

Old Park Wood

»s

Marston

Neap Houses. .

Old Pits Wood

Martin (Blankney) . .

Nelsam

Old Wood ..

Martin (Horncastle) . .

Nethergate

Orby

Marton

Neftleham

Orford (Binbrook) . .

Masson Hall. .

Nettleton

Orford

Marvis Enderby

Neville Wood

(Stainton-le-Vale)

Mawthorpe (Well) . .

Newball

Orgarth Hill..

Mawthorpe

Newbigg

Ormsby (N.)

(Willoughby)

Newbold

Ormsby (S.)

Mayo Hill Clump ..

Newclose Wood

Osbournbv

Meagrim Hall

New Decoy Wood . .

Oseby

Medlam

New England . .

Osgodby (Grantham) . .

Megtree Hill..

New Holland

Osgodby (Rasen)

Melton Ross. .

Newland

Otby

Mere

Newpark Wood

Outer Knock..

Merrishaw's (PI.)

Newsham

Outgate

Messingham

Newstead . . . .

Outhorpe

Metheringham

Newton-by-Falk ing-

Owersby (N. & S.)

Mickleburg

ham . . . .

Owmby (Searby)

Mickleholme

Newton-by-Toft

Owmby (Spittal)

Mickley Wood

Newton-le-Wold

Owston . .

Middle Carr

Newton-on-Trent

Oxcomb . . . .

Middle (PI.)

New York

Ozeby

Middle Rasen

Nineteen Pound

Middlethorpe

Nob Hill

Paddock (PL)

Midville

Nocton

Panton

Miles Cross Hill

Norlands

Park House

Miles Gorse Hill . .

Nurmanby

Parkinson's Wood

Mill Lane

(Scunthorpe)

Partney

Millthorpe

Normanby (Spittal) . .

Patching Knaves

Milner Wood

Normanby (Stow)

Patman's Wood

Miningsby

Normanby-le-Wold . .

Patstone Wood

Minting

Normanton

Pauline's Garden

Moat Orchard

Northbeck

Paunton (G. and L.) . .

Mockery Wood

North Drove (St.) . .

Peakhill

Money Bridge

Northfield

Peaks Fox Cover

Monks' Dyke

North Forty Foot

Peaterills (The)

Monks' Hall..

Bank

Pelham's Lands

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Penny Hill ..

Ring Wood

Scamblesby

Pepper Gowt Plot . .

Rippingale

Scampton . .

Pickhill Wath

Risby (High)

Scarle (N.)

Pickworth

Risby (Low)

Scartho

Piggin's Gorse

«4

Risby (Rasen)

Scawby

Pilham

Risby (Roxby)

Scitler Wood

Pillar, The (Dunston)

Risegate

Scopwick

Pillow Wood

Riseholme

Scothern

Pinchbeck

Rise (PI.)

Scotter

Podehole

Riverhead (Ancholme)

Scotterthorpe (Bourn)

Pointon

Riverhead (Lud)

Scotterthorpe (Brigg) . .

Poke's Hole

Robin Wood..

Scottlethorpe

Pondclose Wood

Roger Sand

Scotton

Ponton (G. and L.) . .

Rookery Clump

Scott's Wood

Pool Decoy Wood . .

Ropsley . . . .

Scotwater Bridge

Poolham Hall

Rosedale

Scot Willoughby

Poplar Walk

Roseshole

Scrafield

Postland

Rothwell

Scrane End

Potter-Hanworth

Roughton

Scredington ..

Prim Fen

Rough Wood..

Scremby

I 1

Primrose Hill

Round Holt

Scrivelsby

Pudding Pie Sand . .

Rowston

Scrope

Roxby

Scrubbly Wood

Quadring

Roxham

Scrub Close Wood . .

Quaker's Hill

Roxholme

Scrub Hill

Quarrington . .

Roxton . . . .

Scrub Holt

Quebeck Wood

Royalty Farm

Scrubs (The)

Quick Gate

Rubbing Pit Cover . .

Scrub Wood

Ruckholme

Sculler Wood

Raithby (Maltby) . .

Ruckland

Scunthorpe

Raithby (Spilsby) . .

Ruskington

Scupholme

Rakes Farm

Ryehill Cover

Searby

Ranby

Ryland

Seas End

Rand

Sedgebrook

Rasen

St. Anne's Well

Sempringham

Rauceby (N. & S.)

St. Helen's Cover

Seven Acres Parish . .

Ravendale (E. & W.)

St. John's Wood

Shaw's Decoy

Raven Moor

St. Lambert's Farm . .

ShefTord

Ravens Bank. .

Saleby

Shillingthorpe Hall . .

Raventhorpe . .

Salmonby

Shire Wood

Read's Island.. 2 and 3

Salter

Short Ferry

Reasby

Saltfleet

Showell Spring

Redbounv

Saltfleetby

ShufY Fen

Redhill

SalvinWood ..

Shurk Wood

Red Leys

Samber Wood

Sibsey

Redwell Spring

Sandfield

Silk Willoughby

Reed ings (The)

Sand toft

Simon Weir

Reedmere Holt

Santon (High)

Sixhills

Reepham

Santon (Low)

Sixhundreds ..

Reeve's Cover

Sapperton

Skegness

Reston.(N. & S.) ..

Sausthorpe

Skellingthorpe

Revesby

Sawcliffe (Roxby) . .

Skelton's Decoy Wd..

Riby

Saxby (Barton)

Skendleby

I I

Ridge Spires

Saxby (Rasen)

Skidbrook

Ridings Wood

Saxilby . . 6 and

Skiers Flash

Rigbolt

Scabcroft

Skillington

Rigsby

Scalp (The)

Skinnand

Natural History.

Skirbeck

Stank (The)

Swaby

Skirbeck Quarter

Stanmore Hill

Swallow (Caistor) ..

Skitter Sand

Stapleford

Swallow Beck

Slackholme

Steeping (G. & L.)

Swallow Pit . . . .

Sleaford

Stenigot

Swallow Vale

Sleeken End

Stewton

Swans Holt

Sloothby

Stewton Nook ng . .

Swarby

Smock Skirts

Steynby

Swaton . .

Snakeholme

Stickford

Swayfield

Snarford

Stickney

Swinderby . .

Snelland

Stixwould

Swineshead

Snipe Dales

Stockdove Holt

Swinethorpe . .

Snitter'oy

Stockhill Wood

1 1

Swinhope

Somerby (Bigby)
Somerby (Corringham)

Stocking Wood
Stockwith (E.)

Swinn Wood
Swinestead

ii
15

S->merby (Old & New)

Stoke Furlong Cover. .

Swinthorpe

Somercotes (N. & S.) ,

Stoke (N. and S.) . .

Syston

Somersby . .

Stoke Rochford

Somerton Castle

Stonepit Wood

Tallington

Sotby

Storton

Tame Wood

South Dale (PI.)

Stourton

Tanvats

South Fens (Bourn) . .

Stow (Billingborough)

Tathwell

Southgate
South-of-the-Witham

Stow (Gainsborough)
Stow Park (St.)

6
6

Tattershall
Tealby

(the parish)

Stowe

Temple Aslackby

Southorpe

Stragglethorpe . .

Temple Bellwood

Southrey . . . .

Stroxton

Temple Bluer

Southrow

Stroy Wood

Temple Garth

Southwood Malting . .

Strubby (Woodthorpe)

Temple High Grange

Spalding

Strubby (Wragby)

Temple Hill

Spanby

Strugg's Hill..

Tennison's Holt

Sparrow Gorse

Strunch Wood

Tesselated Pavement . .

Speezeland . . . .

Stubber Hill

Tetford

Spellow Hills

Stubton

Tetley

Spilsby

Sturgate . . . .

Tetney

Spittal

Sturton (G. and L.) . .

Thealby

Spittlegate . .

Sturton Harding

Theddlethorpe (both)

Spottle Hill

Sturton (Scawby)

Thick Thorn..

Spreckle Field

Sturton (Stow)

Thimbleby

Spridlington

Sudbrook (Grantham)

Thirkington Wood . .

Springfield Cover

Sudbrooke (Wragby)..

Thomas Wood

Springs (The)

Sudthorpe

Thonock . .

Springthorpe

Summer Castle

Thoresby (N.)

Square Wood . . . .

Summer Ings

Thoresby (S.)

Stackforth Hill

Sunny Fleet Eau

Thoresthorpe . . . .

Stain

Surfleet

Thoresway

Stainfield (Hacconby)

Susworth

Thorganby

Stainfield (Wragby) . .

Sutterby

Thorn Bush

Stainsby

Sutterton

Thornholme

Stainton (Langworth)

Sutton (Beckingham)

Thornton Abbey (St.)

Stainton-le-Hole . .

Sutton Fen Allotment

Thornton Curtis

Stainton-le-Vale

Sutton-in-the-Marsh. .

Thornton (Horncustle)

Stainton (Market)

Sutton (Long)

Thornton-le-Fen

Stainwith

Sutton-on-Sea

Thornton-le -Moor . .

Stallingborough . .

Sutton St. James

Thorpe (E. and W.) . .

Stamford

Sutton St. Mary

Thorpe-in-the-Fallows

Stane ..

Sutton St. Nicholas . .

Thorpe Latimer

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Thorpe-on-the-Hill
Thorpe St. Peter
Thorpe (Tattershall)
Thorpe (The) . .
Thorpe Tilney
Threckingham
Thrunscoe
Thurlby (Alford)
Thurlby (Bourn)
Thurlby (Lincoln)
Thurlby Wood
Tiger Holt . .
Tillbridge Lane
Tilney (Thorpe)
Timberland . .
Toft (Bourn) . .
Toft (Newton)
Toft Hill
Tofts (The) . .
Tongue End . .
Top Barf Wood
Top Cover . .
Torksey

Torrington (E. & W
Tothby
Tothill

Tower Moor. .
Towes (G. and L.)
Towsers End . .
Toynton (All Saints)
Toynton (High)
Toynton (Low)
Toynton St. Peter
Troy Wood . .
Trusthorpe . .
Tumby

Tumman's Wood
Tupholme
Tupholme Priory
Turf Carr
Turpits (PI.) . .
Tuttle Rampier
Twenty (St.)..
Twigmoor
Twyford
Tydd (both) ..
Tytton Hall . .

Uckerby
Uffington
Ulceby (Alford)
Ulceby (Barton)
Upperthorpe . .
Upton
Usselby
Utterby

13 Waddingham..
ii Waddington ..
10 Waddingworth
8 Wainfleet (all)

Wainham Beck

Waith

Walcot (Alkborough)

Walcot (Falkingham)

Walcott (Billinghay) . .

Walesby

Walkerith

Walks (The)

Walmsgate

Waltham

Warfen Ings

Warmsley Holt

Warren Lodge Wood

Wash Gould

Washingborough

6
13
13
16

7
10

1 6 Washingdales Wood
13 Waterloo

7
ii
1 1

Waterloo Wood

Water Park . .

Waterside

Waythe

Weavers' Lodge

Weelsby

Welbourn . .

Welby

Well

Welhams

Well Heads . .

Wellingore . .

Wellow

Wellsdale Bottom

Well Vale . .

Welton-in-the-Marsh

Welton-le-Wold

7
10

IO
10

10 Welton (Lincoln)

1 Welton Wood

1 1 Wenghale

9 Westborough . .

1 6 Westby

2 West Carr . .

15 West End
1 8 West Fen

1 7 Westgate
Westhorpe

5 Westlaby

1 6 West Mark Knock
II Westmere Creek

3 Weston

I Westville

6 West Wood . .

7 West Woodside

8 Whaplode ..
Wharton

5 Whisby .. ..13

13 White Hall Wood .. 10

7 White Pit .. .. 10

12 White Wood.. .. 5

13 Whitton .. ..2

8 Wickenby .. . . 7

2 Wickham .. .. 18
1 6 Wideham .. ..13
14. Wigtoft .. ..17

7 Wildmore . . . . 10

5 Wildsworth . . 5

9 Wilksby .. ,.io

8 Willingham (Cherry) 6
4 Willingham (N. & S.) 7

9 Willingham (Stow) . . 6
8 Willoughby (Alford).. ii

15 Willoughby (Scot) .. 14

18 Willoughby (Silk) .. 14

13 Willoughby (West) .. 15

4 Willoughton . . 5

13 Wilsford . . . . 14

10 Wilsthorpe .. .. 16
8 Winceby . . . . 10

14 Windle Bridge .. 5
8 Winghale . . . . 7

14 Wingland (Central) .. 18
4 Winsoever .. .. 18

13 Winteringham .. 2

15 Winterton . . 2

1 1 Winthorpe . . . . 1 1

3 Wirehill .. ..7

16 Wisby .. ..13
1 3 Wispington . . 7

4 Witham (N. & S.) ..15
8 Witham-on-the-Hill.. 16

n Withcall .. ..8

ii Withern .. .. n

8 Woldale Trees .. 8

6 Wold Newton . . 8
ii Wood Enderby .. 10

7 Wood Nook .. ..15
15 Woodhall .. ..10
15 Woodhall Spa .. 10

I Woodhouse . . i

17 Woodside . .• . . 10
10 Woodthorpe .. .. n

i Woolfits (PI.) .. 13

17 Woolsthorpe .. . . 15
7 Wootton . . 3

1 8 Worlaby (Brigg) .. 3
1 8 Worlaby (Louth) .. 10
18 Wothorpe .. .. 16
10 Wragby .. 7
13 Wragholme .. ..9

i Wrangle .. .. 12

18 Wrawby .. ..3

5 Wrongsome Holt .. 13

Natural History. 15

Wroot .. ..i Wykeham (E. & W.) 8 Yaddlethorpe. . .. 2

Wyberton .. 10 and 17 Wykeham (Spalding) 18 Yarborough .. ..8

Wyche Drain .. n Wykes .. . . 17 Yarborough Camp .. 3

Wyham .. ..8 Wyville .. -.15 Yawthorpe .. ..5

LINCOLNSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY.

By JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U.
Great Cotes R.S.O., Lincolnshire.

IN rising to address you on this occasion, 1 am not
unmindful of the fact that I have been elected first
President of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, and I
wish now, in the first place, to thank you for having placed
me in so honourable a position. The object of our Society is
intended to bring about a thorough and systematic investigation
of the Natural History capabilities of the county, carried on
year by year, a publication, if possible, from time to time, of
the results, and an endeavour to create amongst all classes of
the population an intelligent interest and correct appreciation
of the various natural phenomena which surround them.

It is somewhat of a reflection on this great county that so
little has been done hitherto for the cause of science ; this,
indeed, becomes painfully apparent when we consider the
excellent results shown by the enterprising naturalists in the
two neighbouring counties of Norfolk and Yorkshire. In the
former, the " Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society " was
formed in 1870, and published their first report ; the number
of members is now 250. The " Yorkshire Naturalists'
Union" came into existence previous to 1883, and the number
of its members is nearly 600. Both these, like our own, had
small beginnings ; they have, however, succeeded in extending
the knowledge of local Natural History. In looking forward
to the future, I can see no reason whatever to think that our
own Union will not be equally successful, and certainly in this
great and diversified county it will never lack material to work
on or fall short in variety and interest of subjects.

So far, our efforts have been individual ones, and isolated and
spasmodic : now, as a united band and numbering specialists

* An address, delivered at Lincoln, May 24th, 1894, to the Lincolnshire
Naturalists' Union, by the First President (1893).

1 6 "Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

in various branches, we shall become a representative body
having a local habitation and name, and have much greater
facilities for an exchange of opinion and for the proper
collection and diffusion of facts. It must not, however,
altogether be inferred that nothing has hitherto been done by
the sons of Lincolnshire for the increase of physical science;
indeed, we have just cause of pride to see in our roll of honour
such names as Isaac Newton, of Woolsthorpe ; Matthew-
Flinders, of Donington ; John Franklin, of Spilsby ; Joseph
Banks, of Revesby Abbey ; and more recently, Charles
Anderson, of Lea. Of those now living, either within or
without our boundaries, who are doing good work, it would be
invidious to make direct personal mention ; sufficient is it to say
that we include amongst ourselves all that is both necessary
and capable for making this Union a great and a lasting
success.

Lincolnshire is the second largest county in England, its
total length being 75 miles by 45 in breadth, and containing
1,783,769 acres, 85 per cent, under cultivation. The surface
presents a very considerable diversity of character, sea-coast,
marsh, wold, moor, heath and fen, and some very considerable
woodlands with much pleasant and typical scenery without
anywhere rising into the grand and strikingly picturesque.

The county is not readily divided into what are called faunal
areas — that is, districts more or less compact, with well-defined
boundaries, between which — one or the other — faunal dis-
tinctions can be clearly established. In taking a general
survey of the whole area it appears capable of being irregularly
divided into at least six fairly marked districts ; these are —
I. — The Marsh and Middle Marsh — which is the whole of
the great alluvial flat which lies between the east coast
and the foot of the chalk wolds, as far as Spilsby.
II. — The Fens — south of Spilsby and Wainfleet and east of
Billinghay, Heckington, Bourn, and Market Deeping,
with a branch extending westward of the Witham to
Lincoln.

III.— The Chalk Wolds.

IV. — The Heath — an irregular district, partly on the oolite
and partly on the lias, and not easily defined. In its more
southern portion it is split into two arms by the Witham
valley. It runs from S.E. to N.W., and includes the
heaths near Woodhall Spa, the moorland near Market
Rasen and below Caistor, and the commons and rabbit-

Natural History. 17

warrens between Gainsboro' and Frodingham, in the

north-west of the county.
V. — A portion of Kesteven, south of Grantham and east of

Belvoir, of which Corby is about the centre, well-wooded,

picturesque, and highly cultivated, and containing noble

parks and country seats.
VI. — The Isle of Axholme, formerly moor, bog, and widely

extending heath and low firwood, but now 50,000 acres

of rich warp, and bounded to the north-west by the great

level of Thome waste in Yorkshire.

It must be clearly understood, however, that these divisions
are only approximate, and that with our present knowledge no
absolutely hard and fast lines can be laid down defining faunal
areas, and that there are yet portions of the county which it is
difficult to range under any of these divisions. I have en-
deavoured to define roughly six fairly marked districts within
the boundaries of Lincolnshire, and I shall now briefly enter
more fully into the physical peculiarities of each, and endeavour
to show that, notwithstanding the great changes which have
taken place, these still possess attractions for the naturalist. I
would also mention those special matters which require more
careful working out.

In the Marsh and Middle Marsh is included the whole of
the low-lying plain between the foot of the chalk wolds and
the sea, including the sea-coast itself and all its wide attractions.
The chief interest of this district rests in its ornithology — more
particularly in the spring and autumn — and in connection with
the migration of birds. The total number of species which
can fairly be admitted at the present time into the Lincolnshire
avifauna is somewhat doubtful. In the Humber district up to
this date I have been able to record 290. This compares
favourably with the Norfolk list of 293, and Yorkshire with
310. With our present knowledge as to the frequency with
which rare birds turn up during the period of migration, far
out of their ordinary route, I think we should attach very little
importance to the increase of any local or county list by the
addition of mere wanderers. The record of such is interesting
as showing how far some birds get driven out of their normal
course. The chief additions to the Humber district in late
years have come from Spurn, but there is no reason why
equally good results should not be obtained from our own
coast.

Vol. 5, No. 34, Lines. N. & £>. B

Nat. Hist. Sect.

1 8 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

The flora of the marshes and the sea-coast is a very
attractive and interesting one, and our knowledge of the same,
as well as of Lincolnshire botany generally, has been greatly
increased by the researches of the Rev. W. Fowler, of
Liversedge ; Dr. F. Arnold Lees, of Harrogate ; the Rev.
Adrian Wood ruffe- Peacock ; Mr. F. M. Burton ; Mr. O.
Thimbleby, of Spilsby, and others.

The collection of facl:s in connection with this district
commenced as far back as 1590, and the great naturalists of
former days — Gerarde, Ray, Dr. Martin Lister, and Sir Joseph
Banks — have each in turn visited and investigated its floral
treasures.

Before leaving this portion of the county I should like to
call attention to the marine mammalia, the seals, and various
forms of whale, grampus, porpoise, and dolphin. Although in
recent years considerable additions have been made to our local
list, we still require much further knowledge and more scientific
investigations. The capture of a seal or the stranding of a
whale — and such occurrences are by no means unfrequent —
should at once be noted, and an examination carried out on
the spot, careful notes and measurements made, the skull, at
least preserved, and where possible a photograph taken before
the carcase is removed. In this branch of zoology, as well as
ornithology, the official representative of our Vertebrate Section,
Mr. G. H. Caton Haigh, has done some excellent work.
There is, so far as I know, no list of marine fish ; the
colle&ion of fa&s in connection with these and with Marine
Zoology generally, might well be taken up by those members
who live near or have most frequent access to the coast. The
Entomology, more particularly in this district the Aquatic-
entomology, Conchology, and Micro-zoology and Botany, also
present wide fields for close and careful study. In the former
we have in the Rev. Canon W. W. Fowler, a member whose
reputation as an entomologist is not only local and national,
but world-wide. We must not fail to recognise, also, the good
services rendered by Mr. H. W. Kew, formerly of Louth, and
Mr. James Eardley Mason, of Alford.

There is no other faunal area in Lincolnshire where the old
glories have so entirely vanished as in the fenland, formerly a
vast level of peat-moor, morass and bog, with league beyond
league of shallow mere, interspersed with a vast growth of reed
and bull rush and various water-loving plants, and on the drier
portion deep sedge and doubtless some rich pasturage, with

Natural History. 19

thickets of sallow, willow, birch, and sweet-gale, which before
the dawn of history had usurped the place of oak, Scotch fir,
and yew. The whole of this vast level was a paradise for wild
creatures, beast, bird, and fish, and predominate over all, upon
the peat-stained waters of the shallow lagoons floated primitive
man in a canoe dug out from a single tree, and using weapons
tipped with fractured flint or fish-bone.

Of the natural treasures of the old fenland we have but
scant record. Unfortunately our forefathers, when they did
write, cared little for depicting their natural every-day
surroundings, yet we must be thankful for the few precious
records which have come down to us of those olden times, and
enable us to form some idea of the extreme richness of the Fen
fauna and flora, from the Liber Ellensis ; the Chronicles of
Crowland ; and the writings of William of Malmsbury (1200);
Thomas Fuller j Camden's Britannia (Gough's edition) ; and
the naturalists Pennant, Ray, and Colonel Montagu; also the
quaint verses left by Michael Drayton in the Polyolbion ; and
by " Antiquary Hall," of Llyn, in the doggerel rhymes
depicting a fenman's daily life.

One aim of our Society should be the collection of any scrap,
oral or written, in connection with physical-archaeology, and
any who have opportunities of inspecting old deeds, letters, and
family account books, will do good service by extracting any
small matter which directly or indirectly bears on this subject.
Such entries were, no doubt, considered most trivial by the
original writers, but in the light of the present day they are of
much interest and importance. To cite one or two instances
alone, how little historical record is left of the Great Bustard
in Lincolnshire. The late Sir Charles Anderson, of Lea, in
1874, sent me extracts from an old account book kept by
Charles Anderson, at Broughton, near Brigg, from 1669 to
1673 :~

" 1670, September 26 — To John Hall, brought curlew - is.
„ October 23 — Item to Thos. Beckett for killing

two Bustards - 2s.

Then there is a letter from the great Dr. Johnson, dated
January gth, 1758, to his friend, Bennet Langton of Langton,
acknowledging the receiving a parcel of game, amongst other
things a bustard which he gave to Dr. Lawrence.

A letter written to myself by the Rev. Edward Elmhirst,
November 29th, 1886, containing personal recollections of
Lincolnshire ornithology, also his communication made to the

2O Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Field newspaper, November 28th, 1886, concerning the former
nesting of the Hen Harriers in the moors near Market Rasen,
are amongst the most valuable contributions to the records of
county natural history in recent years.

Of infinite interest also, as throwing light on the past,
would be the account books and records of captures made in
the duck-decoys at one period so common in the marsh and
fen. We have never met with more than one decoy book,
namely, the well-kept register of the Ashby Decoy, near Brigg,
worked successfully for so many years by Captain Healey.

So marvellously abundant were wildfowl before the fens were
drained that we are told a flock of wild ducks has been
observed passing along from the north and north-east into the
east fen, in a continuous stream for eight hours together.

Our next faunal area is very distinct and well-marked — the
Chalk Wolds — in its greatest length from Barton-on-Humber
to Burgh, fifty- two miles, and the greatest breadth near
Market Rasen, fourteen miles ; and the highest point of the
range, 549 ft., is near Normanby Clump, and this is the
highest land in the county. Before the general enclosure at
the commencement of the present century the wold was a wild
and open region, a rolling upland, more or less intersected by
deep valleys. These rounded hills were covered with heather
and heaths, coarse rough grasses, like the barren brome, and
Aria ctespitosa the tufted hair-grass, the most graceful if the
most useless of all, with thousands of acres together of gorse,
and ancient thorns in clumps and single. It was a district
most admirably fitted to the habits of that noble bird the Great
Bustard, and the Stone Curlew, the former probably becoming
nearly extinct before the commencement of the century, and
the latter still holding its own —a few pairs annually nesting,
but not now on the wold.

During the last quarter of the century much good work has
been done with Lincolnshire geology, the most important
reports being in connection with the extension of the Rhcetic
beds, near Gainsborough, by Mr. F. M. Burton, also his
examination of these and the Keuper Sandstones in the same
district; Professor Judd's paper on the Neocomian strata;
Professor Morris on some Oolite sections ; Canon J. E. Cross
on Lincolnshire Oolites and Lias ; also Mr. Clement Reid's
work in connection with the new Geological Survey amongst
the boulder-clays, inter-glacial beds, marine gravels, post glacial
beds and alluvium of Northern Lincolnshire.

Natural History. 21

In connection with our Geological section I would suggest
the appointment of a boulder committee, whose object will be
to take observations relative to the erratic or ice-borne blocks
of Lincolnshire, their character, position, size, origin and
height above the sea. This to be carried out on the same
lines generally as those adopted by the boulder committee of
the British Association.

The two distinct ranges of chalk and oolite which run from
south to north of the county form elevated tracts, which in
their original condition were heath and moorland, and almost
destitute of timber trees. Along the flanks of these hills and
in the intervening low country stretched the deep forests of
Kesteven and Lindsey — the Bruneswald — oak, ash, elm, beech,
fir, holly, yew, and hazel, sufficient remains existing in some
of our oldest woodlands to recall the ancient glories of the
land. No better "happy hunting grounds" remain to reward
the naturalist than these comparatively undisturbed areas.
Here in 1884 an example of the old British wild cat (Fells
catus] was taken, and the pine marten (Martes abietum] can
scarcely yet be extinct j bones of red deer, Bos longifrons,
wolf, wild boar, and beavers, have been found in the becks.
We have as yet no list of Lincolnshire mammals, and I shall
be greatly indebted to any of our members who will enable me
to complete a list, which is already partially prepared, with
notes from their respective districts.

The heath is another most charming faunal area, from the
fact that some few scattered portions are still in their primitive
condition, as in the neighbourhood of Woodhall Spa and the
warrens and commons of Scotton, Manton, Twigmoor, Crosby
and Brumby, in the north-east. The Ermin Street, that great
military highway of the Romans, which passed through the
gates of their chief fortress, Lincoln, followed the ridge of the
oolite from south to north — to east and west of this was a
wide, open and continuous stretch of elevated tableland, the
road running through leagues of purple heather, where the
pink and purple shading of the common and cross-leaved
heaths intermingled with the yellow blooms of the petty whin
and sheets of pale blue hairbell, and the darker blue gentian
(Qentiana pneumonanthe). A glorious land it was to cross in
those days : the long, lone, level line of a well-kept war path,
stretching like a ribbon over the heath, and marked at short
intervals with high stones or posts as a guiding line in fog or
snow, in a solitude but rarely broken, except by the footfall of

22 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

the legionaries and the dismal creakings of the baggage trains
and provision carts, while above, under the blue heaven, the
lark carolled as it does now, and the plaint of the golden plover
sounded sweet from off the moorlands.

The north-east corner of Lincolnshire, notwithstanding
recent changes and trade encroachments, is still rich in animal
and plant life, and presents a wide field for future research.
Further westward, and beyond the Trent, lies the Isle of
Axholme ; some portion adjoining the great deer chase of
Hatfield and Lindholme, in Yorkshire, was once the hunting-
ground of English kings. We must turn to the pages of
historians, such as Leland, De la Pryme, Dr. Stonehouse and
others if we wish to learn its ancient condition before the
enterprise of the Dutchman Vermuyden transformed its wastes
and swamps and demon-haunted solitudes into fertile lands, and
at the same time banished its indigenous flora and fauna. In
fact, the entire district, including Thorne waste, beyond our
border, and portions also east of Trent, resembled the
" tundras " of Lapland and northern Asia, and, like these,
was the breeding-home of innumerable wildfowl and waders.
Most suggestive of a not remote Arctic character are the
lingering of such plants as Selaginella selaginoides, Lycopodium
alpinum, recently discovered by the Rev. W. Fowler, also
Andromeda polifolia, and Empetrum nigrum, on Thorne waste,
Myrica gale, generally, and the impressions of leaves of some
Arctic willow in the laminated silts and peaty alluviums.

Of our sixth district, that south of Grantham and east of
Belvoir, I can tell you little, for excepting in passing through
by rail, it is a terra incognita to me. The chief attraction is
Grimsthorpe Park, which contains many fine oaks, hornbeams
and hawthorns, and a small herd of red deer — interesting as the
only one left in the county, and descendants of those indigenous
deer which at one period wandered wild, free and unrestricted
through the length and breadth of the land.

It is customary on these occasions briefly to notice the work
done by the Union during the President's year of office. Two
meetings have been held, the first at Mablethorpe, on June
1 2th, about thirty attending, and Professor L. C. Miall, F.R.S.,
of the Yorkshire College, presiding. The vertebrate section
(ornithology) was, perhaps, the most successful. The full
report of this very interesting meeting will be found in " The
Naturalist " for August and September, this year.

Natural History. 23

The Rev. C. W. Whistler found the Natterjack toad (Bufo
calamlta] on the sand-hills. This is an interesting reptile and
very different from the common toad. It is a light yellow
colour, and never leaps nor does it crawl, its progression being
more like a run. This toad was first discovered near Revesby
Abbey, by Sir Joseph Banks, who made it known to the
naturalist Pennant. Its distribution is somewhat remarkable,
for it is found not only in England, but also in localities in
Ireland, where the common species is unknown. All the Irish
snakes and toads, as you know, were turned into stone by St.
Patrick, but this seems to have escaped the wrath of the Saint.
The inference is that the Natterjack succeeded in reaching
Ireland before that distressful isle had become severed from
Great Britain, which the common toad did not do, so we must
consider the former is the older immigrant of the two ;
perhaps its particular mode of progress afforded better and
more favourable facilities for getting over the ground.

In our investigations into the natural history of this county,
we must remember that at no very distant period Lincolnshire
was part of the mainland of Europe, and there was no North
Sea as we know it now, and we must therefore expect to find
close affinity between the fauna and flora on both sides of the
water. Once, no doubt, a great central river, whose debouchure
was over the Dogger Bank, received the waters of the rivers
from each side. The North Sea, if you will take the trouble
to look at Mr. Olsen's map, is little more than a great plain
covered by shallow water ; off the north-east coast of England
it is twenty fathoms, and as we go south even this depth is
exceptional. The North Sea contains some remarkable
depressions, one of which, the Silver Pit, is a narrow submarine
valley fifty fathoms in depth, forty miles off the north-east
coast of Lincolnshire. The intrusion of this great water, the
North Sea, between ourselves and the continent may have been
very rapid, for when the chalk barrier, which presumably at
one time extended eastward from Flamboro' Head (cropping
out again round Heligoland), was once breached and the
central river taken in flank, there is no reason why the great
level plain of intermediate Lincolnshire should not have been
submerged in a period even of a few days.

The second meeting was at Woodhall Spa, on August yth,
with a very fair attendance of members, who were taken over
the ground by the Rev. J. Conway Walter. The day was
very hot, scarcely any birds were seen and very few insects

24 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

taken. The botanical section was, however, most successful,
and several rare plants were found, the most interesting,
perhaps, being the lovely dark blue gentian, in damp places on
the moor. I must take this opportunity of publicly expressing
the thanks of the Union to our Secretary, Mr. Walter F.
Baker, whose untiring and intelligent exertions and great
aptitude for organisation have done so much in setting us in
motion and making the Union a success.

Before closing these remarks — as we are now engaged in
rocking the cradle of the Union — I should like to say a few
words as to the possibilities of a future, and the taking up of a
useful position. There is no other county in England in
which the fauna and flora have so greatly altered ; large
numbers of birds, insects and plants have been altogether
destroyed, or, in the former case, driven away by enclosure and
drainage. It becomes therefore an imperative duty that we
should use our best endeavours to preserve what is left and to
take care that our scarcer mammals, nesting birds and surviving
plants are not ruthlessly destroyed and unnecessarily banished.
There is no sadder chapter to read than that on " Extermi-
nation," in Professor Newton's recently published Part I. of
"A Dictionary of Birds ;" it is a record of a destruction and
waste of life in this fair world, brought about directly or
indirectly by the ignorance, avarice, and greed of civilised man,
assisted in late years by that rage for wearing feathers that now
and again seizes civilised women.

Much might be accomplished if we could give our people an
intelligent knowledge of their natural surroundings and an
interest in their preservation. It would be a step in the right
direction if object lessons were occasionally given in our village
schools in connection with Natural History, illustrated from
those easily accessible raw materials of observation in the
neighbourhood, which would best illustrate the every-day life
of plants and animals.

I fear there is no class of men who, considering the very
favourable opportunities they have, are so proverbially ignorant
of the economy of out-door life as the gamekeepers, and so
systematically destroy what it is often their best interest to
preserve. Agriculturists, too, as a class, with but few
exceptions, are deplorably indifferent to, and ignorant of, the
most elementary principles of Natural Science. They care
for none of these things. In looking back, however, I am
proud to admit many genuine services rendered by agricultural

Natural History. 25

labourers, who have walked miles to bring some curious object,
or to tell of some strange beast or bird seen during their daily
toil.

Unfortunately, in England the inculcation of scientific
knowledge is left almost entirely to private enterprise and in
the hands of such societies as ours. This is not the case in
foreign states, and notably so in America, where neither pains
nor expense are spared in instructing the people. I have now
before me a volume, most beautifully illustrated, recently
published and issued by the American Government Department
of Agriculture, on " The Hawks and Owls of the United
States." This book has been scattered wholesale, as a free
gift, over the land, and is intended to teach the American
farmer the great usefulness of birds of prey, and the good
which, as a rule, they confer upon him. Surely we have had
object lessons sufficient to bring this matter forcibly home to
us in that plague of field voles which has laid waste some of
the great sheep farms beyond the border, and the plague of
rats in Lincolnshire.

It is hoped that in time we shall get a museum in Lincoln.
The want of this has been the cause of our losing many art
treasures, antiquities, and natural history specimens. We have
lost the inimitable pictures of De Wint, the Franklin relics,
and many other things which ought not to have left the
county.

A word on our own individual and special duties as
naturalists ; and here I cannot do better than quote the words
of a late Bishop of Oxford — the great Bishop Wilberforce.
He says : —

u A good practical naturalist must be a good observer ; and
how many qualities are required to make up a good observer ?
Attention, patience, quickness to seize separate fails, discrim-
ination to keep them unconfused, readiness to combine them,
and rapidity and yet slowness of induction ; above all, perfect
fidelity, which can be seduced neither by the enticements of a
favourite theory nor by the temptation to see a little more than
actually happens in some passing drama."

In conclusion, it is gratifying to find that there is at least an
awakening and uprising on these matters in Lincolnshire, and
that the dry bones are moving. Let us trust that this Union —
a real Union of hearts — will inaugurate a new era. The most
wonderful fadfc in connection with the last half century has
been the progress of science. Everywhere amongst the

26 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

educated and thoughtful there is a striving to search and probe
downwards into the very sources and origin of all life — not
alone that we may get a deeper insight into the workings of
nature, but to find the key to our own position in connection
with the life which is everywhere about us. Men of science
are diligently engaged in painfully searching backwards into
the infinity of the past, and, considering the results already
attained, I think we can look forward with hope to the infinity
of the future. Yet, I think, when science has spoken her last
word, we shall still have to confess, in the words of Lincoln-
shire's noblest son, we are but

" An infant crying in the night :
An infant crying for the light :
And with no language but a cry."

THE LINCOLNSHIRE BOULDER
COMMITTEE.

A COMMITTEE has been appointed by the L. N. U. for
the purpose of recording all the facts they can collect
concerning the erratics left by the great ice sheet that
once overspread the county. It consists of the following
members :— F. M. Burton, F.G.S. ; J. H. Cooke, B.Sc.,
F.G.S. ; H. Preston, F.G.S. ; A. W. Rowe, F.G.S. ; Percy
F. Kendall, F.G.S. ; E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock, F.G.S. ; and
W. Tuckwell. They wish that the following directions should
be read over and acted upon in reporting to the Committee's
Secretary.

Shortly, in case of haste, the following points should be
noted : —

I. Dimensions of Boulder in length, breadth, height above

Sound,
f what material composed ; Blue-Stone, Red Granite,
Grey Granite, Sandstone.
3. Rounded or angular, smooth or scratched.
More fully, the following : —

(A} ISOLATED BOULDERS.

i. What is the name of the Parish, Estate, and Farm on
which Boulder is situated, adding nearest Town, and

Natural History. 27

County, and any particular enabling its position to be
marked on the Ordnance map ?

2. What are dimensions of Boulder, in length, breadth,
and height, above ground ?

3. Is the Boulder rounded, subangular, or angular ?

4. If the Boulder is long-shaped, and has not been moved
by man, what is direction by compass of its longest
axis ?

5. If there are any natural ruts, groovings, or striations on
Boulder, state —

(a] Their length, depth, and number.

(b] The part of Boulder striated, viz., whether top
or sides.

(c] Whether the striations are in the direction of the
longer axis, or at what angle to it ?

(d] Whether there is any difference of direction
between the scratches on the upper surface and
those on the lower surface ? Give the compass
bearing.

(e] Whether there are any indications by which you
can tell from which direction the several sets of
scratches were inflicted ?

[The scratches on the under side are commonly from
the opposite direction to those on the upper surface^
though parallel to them.']

6. What is the nature of the rock composing the Boulder ?
If it is of a species of rock differing from any rocks
adjoining it, state locality where, from personal observa-
tion, you know that a rock of the same nature as the
Boulder occurs, the distance of that locality, and its
bearings by compass from the Boulder.

7. If the Boulder is known by any popular name, or has
any legend connected with it, mention it.

8. What is the height of the Boulder above the sea ?

9. Is the Boulder indicated on any map, or does it make
any boundary of a County, Parish, or Estate ?

10. If there is any photograph or sketch of the Boulder,
please to say how the Committee can obtain it ?

11. Is the Boulder connected with any long ridges of gravel
or sand, or is it isolated ?

1 2. Upon what does the Boulder rest ?

28 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

(B} GROUPS OF BOULDERS.

1. What is the name of the Parish, Estate, and Farm on
which they are situated, adding the nearest Town, and
County, and any particular enabling their position to be
marked on the Ordnance map ?

2. What are the dimensions of the smallest and largest
Boulders of the group ?

3. Are the Boulders rounded, subangular, or angular ?

4. If any large Boulder of the group (which has not been
moved by man) is long-shaped, what is the direction by
compass of its longest axis ?

5. If there are any natural ruts, groovings, or striations on
any Boulder, state —

(a] Their lengths, depth, and number.

(b] The parts of the Boulder striated, viz., whether
top or sides.

(c] Whether the striations are in the direction of the
longer axis, or at what angle to it ?

(d] Whether there is any difference of direction
between the scratches on the upper surface and
those on the lower surface ? Give the compass
bearing.

(e] Whether there are any indications by which you
can tell from which direction the several sets of
scratches were inflicted ?

[The scratches on the under side are commonly
from the opposite direction to those on the upper
surface^ though parallel to tkem.~]

6. State —

(a) Localities where rocks undoubtedly of the same
nature as the Boulders occur.

SBe careful to ascertain that none of the Boulders
ave been brought from a distance by human agency ^\

(b) The distance of those localities and their bearings
by compass from the Boulders.

7. What is the nature of the rocks composing the Boulders,
and in what proportions do the Boulders of the various
rocks represented in the ground occur ?

8. What is the height of the group above the sea ?

9. Over what area does the group extend, and what
number of Boulders are there in the group or per acre ?

Natural History. 29

With respect both to the isolated Boulders and groups of
Boulders described, state whether they are exposed on the
surface, or surrounded by any deposit. Describe the nature of
any deposit containing Boulders, and state whether the
imbedded Boulders are of the same character as those (if any)
upon the surface.

Please forward reports, accompanied by a specimen of the
rock, to the Secretary,

THE REV. W. TUCKWELL,

Waltham Reftory^ Grimsby.

THE CONTENTS OF BIRDS' CROPS.

ON the iyth of March, Mr. F. A. Dorrington, of Nettle-
ton Lodge, Caistor, sent me the contents of the crop of
the Ring Dove — Columba palumbas^ L. It was one of
two birds shot a few days before in the wood round his place.
The crop of the bird I did not receive was said to contain
only the young spring leaves of the white clover —
Tnfolium repens, L. This was certainly the species of Tnfolium
I found in the packet I received mixed up with a mass of
cylindrical root-fibres, some of which were rarely of a fusiform
shape. At the first glance I mistook these for the root-fibres
of the Heath Thistle — Cnicus pratensis^ Willd. j a not un-
common species on sandy warreny ground like Nettleton, and
common enough on Scotton Common and elsewhere. But
after tasting the root-fibres of the Pilewort or Lesser Celandine
— Ranunculus Ficaria^ L., I came to the conclusion that the
bird had been feeding on this plant, turned up on ground
newly prepared for spring-corn sowing. The Cnicus is a rare
plant in the neighbourhood, while the Ranunculus is common
enough. This suggests the idea that very much might be
learned concerning the varying food of our feathered population
if sportsmen-naturalists would carefully examine the crops of
all the birds they shoot. If any doubt arises, the contents
should be put into a corked bottle and common lamp paraffin
added. It is the cheapest and handiest preserving fluid I know,
and has the great advantage that it does not take the colour

30 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries* ,

out of specimens — even tender plant colours — for weeks. I
have by me some plants bottled in paraffin in June, 1892, as an
experiment ; the colours of the Forget-me-not, common
*" rimrose, and red garden variety, Veronica (7. Cham&drys^
L.), Daisy, and Dandelion, are still clearly distinguishable.
When once bottled up and fully labelled, interesting finds can
be sent on the most convenient opportunity to the nearest
botanist, entomologist, &c., as the case may require.

E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PE ACOCK.
Cadney Vicarage^ Brigg.

®®@®@

THE GOAT WILLOW. — Salix Caprea^ L. The common
hive-bee (Apis Mellifica, L.) in scores were very busy
gathering honey from a goodly-sized male tree of this
species in Poolthorn Cover, Howsham, on March 2ist, a very
mild Spring-like day. On examination of a male catkin — the
other sex is not yet open — the wedge-shaped nectary, which is
to be found at the back of the two stamens, i.e., between the
essential organs of the flower and the stalk of the catkin,
could be clearly seen tipped with honey. Observation was
attracted to the tree by the humming of the bees. Notes on
bees or any insects frequenting the catkins of other species of
willows will be thankfully received, if specimens of the leaves
and flowers accompany them.

THE EDITOR.

THE LINCOLNSHIRE RYE-GRASS. — Lolium perenne^ L.
stoloniferum, G. Sinclair. " A specimen of the stolon-
iferous rye-grass was communicated by Mr, Whitworth,
from his extensive collection at Acre House. Of late years
much has been done in discovering new and improved varieties
of Lolium perenne. Mr. Whitworth has devoted much
attention to this subject, and the talents, judgment, and success
he has displayed in this important inquiry, deserve very great
praise. His collection of the varieties of Lolium perenne, in
1823 amounted to the surprising number of sixty." — G.
Sinclair's Hort. Gram. Wobur. London, 1825. The Acre
House in which Mr. Whitworth lived has disappeared from
Normanby-le-Wold ; but the site of its garden,? where he
carried on his experiments on the varieties of Rye Grass, is

Natural History. 31

still known. I hope to visit it this season. Can anyone give
me further fa&s about the late Mr. George Whitworth, and
supply me with specimens of his variety of L. perenne^ L. ?

THE EDITOR.

THE 'BLUE STONE' BOULDER, LOUTH,
LINCOLNSHIRE.

By W. HAMPTON, F.C.S., Hanky, AND H. WALLIS KEW, F.E.S., Louth*

THE Louth 'Blue Stone' is a subangular boulder of a
blue-black colour, about 32 inches in height and about
145 inches in girth, estimated to weigh from four to
five tons, which has existed in Louth for centuries, and now
rests in the yard of the c Blue Stone Printing Office ' in Mercer
Row.

This boulder is, doubtless, a natural monolith of glacial
times ; its surface, however, does not exhibit definite striae.
Unfortunately, its natural position is unknown, but considering
its large size and great weight, the presumption is that it was
originally found in the immediate neighbourhood of Louth.

After preparing and examining a large number of micro-
scopical sections, we consider the stone to be a typical Dolerite.
It consists of crystals of Plagioclase felspar (Labradorite) ;
Augite, very fresh and in large crystals ; Titaniferous Iron ; a
greenish-looking decomposition product (which may or may
not represent former Olivine) , and brownish stains, which
are probably due to the oxidation of the iron. As the result of
our examination did not exactly agree with the conclusions
arrived at by one who had previously examined the stone, a
section was submitted to Dr. Bonny, who says: — 'The slide
contains Plagioclase felspar, probably Labrodite ; Augite ;
Iron Oxide (llmenite) ; and a greenish mineral of secondary
origin, probably indicating the former presence of a ferro-
magnesian-silicate. The replacing mineral is so indefinite in
its character that I can hardly venture to give it a name. The
structure of the rock is " Ophitic." It is merely a question
whether we should call the rock a dolerite or a diabase. It is
not a very typical diabase, but is a slightly altered dolerite. So

* Reprinted from The Naturalist, 1887, pp. 225-226, by special permission.

32 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

practically your determination is accurate. In Scotland there
are many dolerites in this condition, where one man would call
them dolerites and others diabases.'

Formerly standing at the corner of Mercer Row — the
principal street in Louth — this boulder became a nuisance as a
rendezvous for loafers and idlers, on which account it was
removed, at a considerable expense, to the premises above-
mentioned. These premises were in old time a large county
inn, of which the c Blue Stone ' formed the material sign, and
there is still in Louth a publichouse, known as the c Blue Stone
Inn,' which has a rough representation of the boulder for its
sign ; there is also a tradition to the effect that it was once in
use as a Druidical altar stone on Julian Bower, a locality not
far distant from its present position. Chapter xix of Bayley's
'Notitiae Ludae,' 1834, is devoted to the c Blue Stone,' from
which the following extract may perhaps be amusing: —
c Conjecture is endless, and the positive opinions of men who
have given some attention to the subject are very numerous and
unsatisfactory. Some think a land flood, others an influx of
the sea, others the Noachic flood [!] to have caused the
presence of this stone here.'

HOW THE LAND BETWEEN GAINS-

BOROUGH AND LINCOLN WAS

FORMED.

By F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S. *

IN addressing you on a geological subject, as I am about to
do, I do not forget that this is a Society of Naturalists ;
and as Geology, to those who have not studied it, may
perhaps have an uninviting aspect, I intend to avoid technical
details as far as possible, endeavouring at the same time to
show that, in point of interest, Geology comes quite up to
that of any other branch of natural science, and perhaps, I may
say, exceeds most of them.

* An address, delivered at Grimsby, November 22nd, 1894, to the Lincolnshire
Naturalists Union, by the second President (1894-5).

Natural History. 33

Geologists divide the earth's strata, for convenience, into 3
great divisions — Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary — and as, in
Lincolnshire, we have representatives of the entire Secondary
series, from the strata above the Trias on the west to the
chalk on the east, this fact alone must give to the Geology of
the County a special interest and value. I am not, however,
going to speak of so wide an area now, but intend to confine
my address to the low flat land between Gainsborough and
Lincoln — a distance of some 15 miles — alluding to the adjoining
strata, only as they are necessary to explain the structure and
present configuration of the district.

Now, as we stand on the high ground above Gainsborough
and look over the Trent, we are on the oldest strata in the
County — the Upper Keuper beds as they are called — at the
top of the Trias or new red sandstone, the highest beds in the
great Primary Division ; and if we could be carried back to
the time when these beds were laid down, we should see,
instead of the present country, a vast lake, or inland sea,
surrounded on all sides by land, which extended far out into the
Atlantic on the west, and was connected with Europe on the
south, and with Scandinavia, over what is now the North Sea
or German Ocean, on the east.

This region had, for a very long period, been in a quiet,
tranquil state ; a great contrast to the stormy Permian age
which preceded it, when the Alleghany mountains of America
and the Pennine Chain of Derbyshire, the backbone of
England, were thrown up.

This vast inland sea was a fresh-water lake, which gradually
became salt by the concentration of its waters, — like the salt
lakes of North America,— and in which sandstones, grey and
red marls, salt and gypsum were deposited.

It is to this inland sea, barren as it was, that we owe the
rock-salt and brine springs of Worcestershire, Cheshire, and
Middlesborough : while, from its deposits of gypsum, or
hydrated sulphate of lime, we get ornamental alabaster and
plaster of Paris, from which Parian and other cements are
made.

In the railway cutting leading to Lincoln, bands of blue,
red, and grey Keuper marls are seen, each resting on the other.
They are the slow and quiet products of this great inland lake
and have no traces of life left in them. Suddenly, however, a
wonderful change takes place j for, resting on the uppermost

Vol. 5, No. 35, Lines. N. & %. c

Nat. Hist. Sea.

34 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Keuper deposit, and at the same angle with it, appears a broad
black band of rock, utterly different from the bed on which it
lies.

The Keuper marls are, as I have said, devoid of fossil
remains, but this new deposit abounds — nay, literally swarms —
with them ; while, instead of marly deposits, the new strata
consist of fissile slaty shales, full of iron pyrites — >the token of
exuberant life — and narrow bands of sandstone glittering with
mica : and, what adds to the wonder is, that, towards the base
of this deposit, there lies a thin band of rock, not more than
an inch in thickness, composed entirely of fish remains, bones,
scales, teeth, and coprolites, pressed down into a hard solid
mass ; while a similar bed, scarcely as thick, occurs a little
higher up. And how can all this have come about ?

To understand it we must know something of the world
we live on.

Originally a vast nebulous mass, which gradually condensed,
it is now (as generally accepted) a thin crust, some 25 miles
thick at the most, resting on a molten fluid substratum, under
which (as some think), lies a solid rigid core. Now a thin
crust over a fluid cannot be stable, and the surface therefore of
our globe is for ever changing, rising here and sinking there ;
rising in parts where denudation makes it thinner, and sinking
in regions where, through volcanic action or the pouring on of
the debris of large rivers and other similar causes, matter is
being piled up and the strata thickened.

And, in the region we are considering, action of this latter
kind had taken place. The older strata had begun to sink,
and, by degrees, the waters of a great ocean, coming up from
the south over France, were let in upon them. The inland
lake became an arm of the Liassic sea, and the Rhoetic beds
were formed.

It must not be supposed, however, that all this took place
suddenly. It was the result of no convulsion of nature, no
rending of the rocks and inrush of the sea, but it came about
quietly and imperceptibly, occupying as much time, probably,
as would be necessary for so great a change in our own days.
First, as the land continued to sink, would come the want of
drainage, then the morass, then the tidal wash, and, last of all,
the full open sea. It was the work of ages.

The Rhoetic beds, — which owe their name to the Alps of
Lombardy (the ancient Rhoetia), the Grisons, and the Tyrol,
where they attain a considerable thickness, — had not been

Natural History. 35

found further to the north in England, in 1866, than at
Coptheath near Birmingham, and at Abbots Bromley in
Staffordshire ; when, in that year, as the gradients of the line
between Gainsborough and Lincoln were lowered, I had the
satisfaction of meeting with them. Since that time they have
been discovered, in a nearly continuous line, across England
from north to south, wherever the jun&ion of the Trias and
Lias is exposed.

Some geologists place these beds at the top of the Trias,
others at the base of the Lias, or Jurassic, system. This,
however, is a matter of small importance. They are the
passage beds from one great system to another, from the
deposits of the upper Keuper lake to those of the great Liassic
sea ; beds which go far to unlock the hidden story of the land
we are considering.

About the origin of the bone beds referred to, much
speculation has taken place.

Mr. Jukes Browne, in his work on "the building of the
British Isles," — to which I am indebted for several of the facl:s
stated in my paper, — speaks of the irruption of the sea water
being prejudicial to the inhabitants of the Triassic lake, "so
that most of them died, and their bones, scales and teeth were
drifted into layers on the sea floor;" but this, I think, could
hardly have been the case, as, apparently, the concentrated
saltness of the lake had, to a great extent, prevented the
possibility of life — no trace of it, except in a few localities,
being met with throughout the system ; — and this view Mr.
Jukes Brown himself bears out, when, in another part of his
work, speaking of the Triassic lake, he says, " the sheet of
water being apparently as salt, as clear, and heavy, and as
nearly lifeless as the modern waters of the Dead Sea, or of the
great salt lake of Utah." May not these beds be rather due
to the fishes, which the Liassic sea brought in, being killed by
the salinity of the waters of the inland lake ? or, perhaps, after
life had developed through the change of water, the land
temporarily rose again, or became stationary for a time, and, the
salinity returning, the fishes, no longer able to sustain life,
perished, and their remains sank, in a layer, on the sea floor.

There is another facl: of interest connected with the
Rhoetics which must not be omitted before we leave them,
and that is, that the earliest known British mammal — the
Microlestes — a small insect-eating animal — is found within its
strata. The Rhoetic beds contain also remains of the huge

36 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Saurians which are so characteristic of the Lias and higher
formations ; and we are indebted to Mr. Montagu Browne, of
the Leicester Museum, for an account of several new species,
which he recorded at the recent meeting of the British
Association at Oxford, as well as on two former occasions.
Remains of Saurian life occur also in the Rhoetic strata at Lea,
near Gainsborough.

AND now we pass on to the Lias, the lower beds of the
Jurassic system, in which the ironstone bands of Frodingham
and Appleby are found, and change to a deep sea ; the remains
of which, beginning a little way to the east of Gainsborough,
extend right across to Lincoln, and form the material of the
Cliff there to within 20 feet of its summit.

This sea is one of great interest j it covered a great part
of England, with a portion of Ireland, and ran up far north
into Scotland, having rivers to feed it from the adjoining lands
around ; while to the south it extended down towards the
tropics. Its depth was considerable, and, as its strata show,
its waters teemed with life. Fish, reptiles, molluscs of many
kinds, echinoderms, insects, wood and corals are met with in
its layers. The insects, — which, according to Westwood,
belong to no less than 24 families, and comprise both wood-
eating and herb-devouring beetles, grass-hoppers, dragon-flies,
and may-flies,— together with the wood, were doubtless
brought down by the rivers which flowed into the sea ; while
the corals owe their presence to the extension of its waters
southward, enabling the products of warmer climes to push up
towards the north.

Amongst the mollusca the Ammonites hold the first place.
Chambered shells of great beauty, which have their counterpart
in the Nautilus of the present day ; they vary very much in
shape, and are so distinct that they have been used to designate
zones of life in describing the Liassic strata, each zone having
its distinct Ammonite as a characteristic feature ; and although
this cannot altogether be relied on, — some Ammonites being
found in more zones than one, and not always in the zones
to which they give their name, — yet the fact of different
species being found in succession one above the other, as the
higher beds appear, bears strong testimony to the vast period
of time that must have elapsed during the formation of these
strata. We have only to call to mind how slowly forms of
molluscan life, (and we may say the same of life generally), die
out now, and are replaced by others, to appreciate this.

Natural History. 37

Taking an illustration near our own time, we find that, out
of the shells in the Norwich Crag at the top of the Pliocene
period in the Tertiary age, 85 per cent, exist at the present
day ; and yet, between that period and our own lies the whole
of the Pleistocene and Glacial age, during which the
Mammoth, the cave Bear and the Hyaena, the woolly
Rhinoceros, the great Irish Elk and other animals appeared on
the scene and passed away, hunted to death for the most part
by man.

It is, however, in the Saurians that the great interest of this
period centres. Huge fish-like lizards from 20 to 30 feet long
— Icthyosaurs with eyes 14 inches in diameter, and Plesiosaurs
with long swan-like necks — infested the shallower gulfs and
bays, some swimming out in the open water and feeding on
the fishes and Ammonites, others hiding themselves amongst
the tangle and in the crevices of the rocks, and darting out at
their passing prey,

" Dragons of the prime
That tare each other in their slime,"

while Pterodactyls — large, flying, bat-like lizards, which are
principally found in the higher Jurassic strata — pursued their
victims in the air, and clung to the cliffs and rocks on shore.
A strange weird life indeed was that which once filled the
plain between Gainsborough and Lincoln, and, with other
deposits of the same period elsewhere, it has well been called
" the great dragon land."

This wonderful development of Saurian life began in the
Triassic age, attained its greatest energy in the Lias, and
finally died out, as a dominating power, in the Chalk. The
greater portion of it then passed, by the process of evolution,
into birds ; nearly every successive link in the chain having
been now discovered, as Professor Huxley remarked at the late
meeting of the British Association at Oxford.

And here, after ascending the Lincoln Cliff and passing
over the higher beds of the Lias on our way — so well described
by Mr. W. D. Carr, whose removal from Lincoln we all
deplore as a real loss to our Society — we reach the Oolite
capping at the top, and stand on ground made famous by many
a stirring event in history. Here Caesar's Roman legions
came and colonized. Here Norman William reared his
fortress against the vain force of Hereward, who lies with his
true forsaken wife somewhere in Crowland's precincls amid the
fens he kept so well. We from the same site look down,

38 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

immeasurably further back, over " the great dragon land," and
picture again in thought the teeming life of the old Liassic sea.

AND now, having completed the building of the land
between Gainsborough and Lincoln, I will, as briefly as
possible, try to show how it attained its present shape.

To understand this we must first glance a little further to
the east, where, after passing over the limestones and clays of
the higher Jurassic seas, we reach the chalk wolds.

In these cretaceous strata we have the remains of beds
which must have been laid down in great ocean depths, for
there only are similar deposits being formed in our own day.

The Atlantic ooze, the modern equivalent of the chalk, is
not deposited at a less depth than about 1,000 feet, and usually
much deeper; and as this ooze is laid down, according to the
Challenger calculations, at the rate of a foot in a century
at the most, the chalk, which is now some 1,300 feet thick,
and had at one time another 1,000 feet at the top of it, which
has since been swept away, the time occupied in the formation
of these chalk beds must have been enormous. At the above
rate of a foot of sediment in a century, the lost 1,000 feet
alone would have taken 100,000 years to form.

Now, that the neighbourhood of such an ocean as this,
which reached from Ireland over Europe to the Crimea, should
have greatly affected the area we are considering, is not to be
wondered at.

For a long period, during the existence of the Oolite and
higher Jurassic seas — when the land to the east of Lincoln,
between it and the chalk wolds, was being formed — the
Triassic, Rhoetic, and Lias beds on the west had become dry
land ; but as the chalk sea grew, the weight of its deposits
caused the land all round to sink, and as this sea at last covered
nearly the whole of England and Wales, the district between
Gainsborough and Lincoln, with all the western land, was
buried far beneath its waves.

Now the action of a sea is always that of a leveller, and as,
in course of ages, the cretaceous ocean itself passed away, the
land beneath it, as it rose again to the surface, presented a
smooth plane of erosion, gradually sloping up to the higher
lands around, which had, during this epoch, remained dry
ground.

At this time — a period when the Pyrenees were thrown up
— England, Scotland, and Ireland were probably, as Mr. Jukes
Browne tells us, bound together in one mass. Land lay far

Natural History. 39

out into the Atlantic on the west, and land connected Scotland
with Greenland through the Faroes and Iceland on the north,
and with Scandinavia on the east.

How far, and to what extent, the area between Gainsborough
and Lincoln was denuded during this great erosion, we shall
never know ; but as it rose higher and higher above the waves
the carving tools of nature were brought into play, and rain,
frost, and other forces of the atmosphere began their ceaseless
work.

Now rain may seem but a weak agent for forming hills and
scooping out valleys, but, with the help of frost and the
corroding forces of the atmosphere, without doubt it effects
the task.

Both hill and valley have one common origin ; they are the
remains of surfaces once planed and levelled by the sea, (I am
not here speaking of volcanic force), which, when raised above
the waves, were carved and cut into shape by the rain ; the
harder parts, the most capable of resisting erosion, forming the
hills, and the softer portions, the most easily denuded, forming
the valleys.

Rising as vapour, mist, and cloud, and falling again on the
earth, rain is the source of all our lakes, springs, and rivers ;
and, through rivers, the source of continents also, by the
deposition of sediment on the floors of oceans and seas, and by
the silting up of shallow bays and estuaries.

Its work never ceases, and, aided by frost and the chemical
components of the air, it penetrates and dissolves the hardest
rocks, and nothing is free from its action. Rivers can cut
only narrow channels, and it is left to rain to widen them into
valleys. No drop of rain runs an inch on the surface without
setting some soil in motion towards a lower level.

The amount of erosion depends, of course, greatly on the
soil on which the rain falls. On clays, like those of the Lias,
it works far greater havoc than on sandy or gravelly soils ;
though, without due thought, the reverse might appear to be
the case. Mr. W. Whitaker of the Geological survey, in
discussing the age of man at the recent British Association
Meeting, well observed this when he said, "When rain falls
on gravel and sand, which are open and porous, they say ' Oh !
come in, there's plenty of room,' and in it goes and comes out
again as a clear spring of water at the base ; whereas, when it
falls on clays and stiff soils, they say c We don't want you and
w e won't have you,' and the rain, in response, washes hundreds

40 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

of tons away from the surface," showing that resistance is not
always the best policy.

A good illustration of this may be seen in the district I am
speaking of, for Hardwick Hill, which stands out as a landmark
at the far end of Scotton Common, is mainly composed of
gravel and sand, while the unyielding clays of the Lias are
worn away to their present depth below the Lincoln Cliff.

For actions such as I have described unlimited time is, I
need not say, required j but, that given, from the planed down
surface of land emerging from the sea, we get the earth in its
present form, with its infinite variety of mountain and valley,
hill and dale.

Of course there are volcanic and other forces that aid in
the construction of the earth's surface, but they lack the
universality and ceaseless operation of rain, and there is no
time to speak of them now.

It is to the eroding action of rain that we owe, in the main,
the present features of " the great dragon land."

ONE more phase in the life history of the area we are
considering I have still to record.

After the chalk sea had disappeared, and the Tertiary age —
which may be called the latter days of geology — had set in,
the land underwent, for a great length of time, varying periods
of elevation, subsidence, and rest, during which the North
Sea appeared, and the principal physical features of our islands
were developed ; but in the later Pleistocene epoch — a period
approaching our own days in a geological sense — a great
change took place. The Glacial conditions, which now
prevail in the arctic regions, gradually invaded our land. The
whole country sank to a considerable depth below its present
level, and a great portion of Lincolnshire was covered with
floating ice, which scored the rocks, and poured on its surface
volumes of mud arid clay, mixed with stones and boulders,
which now pave the streets and market places of Gainsborough
and Lincoln. And when, at last, all this had passed away, and
the land had risen again to the surface, a period of subsidence
once more set in. The North Sea, which had come into
existence prior to the invasion of the ice, but had, during this
period, been filled up with its debris, again resumed its sway.
Our land, in course of time, became separated from the
Continent, and Great Britain, as it now is, appeared.

I should like to have spoken of a great river system, which
cut through the Oolite and Lias on the south and west, and

Natural History. 41

poured its waters into the Wash, — a system, the only remains
of which are seen in the Lincoln Gap, through which the
Trent once flowed, and where the Witham still finds its way, —
but time will not permit of it.

I have drawn attention to the vast period of time that must
have been consumed during the events I have attempted to
describe; and this is a point that I cannot too strongly impress
on your memory.

I have dwelt on the structure and configuration of the land,
as it appeared during the several ages my paper deals with ;
for this is the goal that all geological investigation should aim
at. The special study of strata, and their embedded relics,
valuable as it is, is nothing, if, out of it, we do not try to build
up the framework of the world, as it appeared at the time these
strata were deposited. I do not mean in any sense to under-
estimate the value of such special studies. Those who labour
at them are the patient seekers after fa&s, without whose
labours it would be impossible to read the story the rocks are
meant to teach. And here I must bring my paper to a close.

Elevations and subsidences are still going on, though we
cannot see them. Attrition and denudation of the strata are
still proceeding, though, in our short existence, we cannot
trace them. Rains, frost, and rivers are still at work. The
" dragon land " is slowly altering year by year ; and the carving
and modelling of the surface will last, as long as raindrops fall,
and a vestige of land remains above the waves.

LINCOLNSHIRE NATURALISTS AT
LOUTH.

By R. W. GOULDING,

Mercer Row, Louth.

[Reprinted from the Louth Advertiser, 1894.]

THE Louth Antiquarian and Naturalists' Society joined
the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union at their fifth
meeting on Monday last. Arrangements had been
made for a fungus foray in Muckton, Burwell, and Haugham
Woods, permission to visit which had been courteously
granted by Porter Wilson, Esq., and Wm. Hornsby, Esq.,
notwithstanding the facl: that the day chosen for the excursion
was the ist of October, when pheasant shooting begins.

42 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

It was hoped that some of the visitors would form a party
for the investigation of the geology of Donington and district,
and this section was represented by Mr. F. M. Burton,
F.L.S., F.G.S., President of the Union, Mr. Jos. Mawer, Mr.
O. Burdett and Miss Burdett, who, under the leadership of
Mr. S. Cresswell, proceeded to Donington, thence in a westerly
direction towards South Willingham and back by Benniworth
Haven to the east end of Benniworth Tunnel, examining the
railway cuttings on the way. At Stenigot they diverged and
made for Goulceby Top, and then crossing the Heath Road
reached the east end of Withcall Tunnel, afterwards turning
towards Louth, and passing Raithby Brackens and Hubbard's
Valley. The party observed the marine equivalents of the
Weald and southern beds, and found good sections of the red
chalk, (a member of the Gault), the carstone, the pink chalk,
(near Louth), and other strata.

The fungus section was strongly represented, among the
party being some of the most eminent mycologists in the
country, the principal being Mr. George Massee, of the Royal
Herbarium, Kew, author of the British Fungus-Flora^ and Mr.
Carleton Rea, M.A., B.C.L., Worcester. Other able men
were Mr. H. T. Soppitt and Mr. Charles Crossland of Halifax.
The local members metaphorically sat at the feet of these
Gamaliels, whose excellent services they highly appreciated.
Others who joined the section were Mr. J. W. Sutcliffe of
Halifax, Mr. Sneath and Mr. Fieldsend of Lincoln, Mr. B.
Brow, Mr. T. Gelsthorp, Mr. G. Vere, Mr. V. T, Crow, and
Mr. R. W. Goulding of Louth, and Mr. Walter F. Baker,
F.E.S., the indefatigable secretary of the Union.

Some of the excursionists reached Louth on Saturday and
worked Hubbard's Valley, Welton Vale, and the neighbourhood
of Elkington before the official proceedings commenced.
They found the lawn in front of Elkington Hall a very
produ (Stive spot, their best record being the very rare Psilocybe
ptlulteforme. Other species of interest were Hygropkorus foeten s
H. glutinifer, Truholoma saponaceum (which emits a soapy odour)
and T. personatum^ an edible species, well known by its popular
name "Blewitts." On the leaves of some poppies they noticed
a disease, Peronospora^ which is allied to the potato disease.

On Monday morning the party left Louth station at 10.12,
booking for Authorpe, whence they proceeded through
Muckton, Burwell and Haugham Woods, returning by drag
from Cawthorpe Lane. Early in the day a specimen of grass

Natural History. 43

affected by the blight Ergot was found. This ergot results
from the growth of a fungus (Cla^lceps purpurea\ known for
its medicinal and other properties. It converts the ovary of
the grain (particularly rye) into an elongated cylindrical
excrescence resembling a horn or spur, which is first red, then
lead-coloured and finally black with a white interior. A writer
on fungi states that where rye is extensively cultivated, grains
diseased in this way often compose a considerable part of the
bread produced, and thus not infrequently give rise to ergotism,
one of the most distressing diseases to which the human frame
is liable, and "on the Continent," says Johnston, "rye
gangrene of the limbs, induced by eating bread made from the
ergotised grain, has proved fatal." It is highly important that
farmers should carefully pick out any ergoted grains he may per-
ceive, for, if neglected, they may result in very serious mischief.

The records of the day were numerous, about 120 species in
all, many of them being known by polysyllabic Latin names,
which to the uninitiated did not appear to fulfil the conditions
of Mr. Weller's definition of " a wery good name and a easy
one to spell." Very few species have English names. We
were, however, introduced to the " Liberty Cap," though we
were told that in all probability we should not survive to tell
the tale if we were rash enough to eat the little conical
Agaricus which popularly goes by that name. We were of
opinion, moreover, that we could more easily remember
" Candle-snufT fungus " than Xylaria hypoxylon^ which we were
informed is the proper designation of the little fungus which
closely resembles the burnt wick of a candle. " Come eat us "
sounds an excellently appropriate name for a delicious fungus
whose acquaintance we rejoiced to make, and we congratulate
the people of Huddersfield who have substituted this name for
Coprinus comatus. One other English name we heard, and that
was the "Vegetable Beefsteak," a term which exactly describes
the appearance of Fistulina hepatlca. This fine fungus grows
in England only on oak trees. Canon du Port (of Denver),
who joined the party at tea, said that it was very good eating,
and he gave some directions for cooking it properly.

Of edible species some 30 were found, some of them being
of great interest. For instance, Coprinus atramentarius^
described by the experts as a delicacy, and as the mushroom
par excellence for ketchup making, is of a dark, inky colour,
and a durable ink was formerly made from it. Hygrophorus
psittacinus is noted for its beautiful green and yellow hue.

44 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

ClcTvaria fusiformis and C.fragilis bear a cluster of yellow fruit
shaped like long clubs, and the snowy Hygrophorus nfpeus is as
delicate as it is said to be dainty.

Turning to inedible fungi, the best find was considered to
be 'Psilocybe pllulteforme (which had also been obtained at
Elkington). Another good record was the local Chlorosplenlum
teruginosum. This small fungus is a rich green in point of
colour, and its mycelium (or spawn), which is of the same hue,
gives a green stain to wood, and wood so stained was formerly
used for Tunbridge ware. The large yellow Phollota speclabilis
was conspicuous. CRtpcybe fragrans has a pleasant spicy odour,
and Russula nigricam turns black when mature. Xylaria
polymorpha is dead black in colour and is surprisingly heavy.
The genus LaRarlus (which emits when squeezed a milky-
looking fluid) was represented by various species, many of
them being extremely plentiful, e.g., L. quietus (the liquid of
which has an oily smell), L. vellenus (which assumes a cup-
shape when mature), L. pyrogalus (the milk of which is very
acrid), and L. pubescens. One of the most abundant kinds
was nArmillaria mellea^ so called because it is honey-coloured.
On the whole the district is fairly good and appears to be
particularly productive of microscopic forms.

The botanists in search of flowering plants had but a small
record. The early part of October is not a favourable time
for collectors of phanerogams, and hence very few specimens
were discovered. We may, however, mention the hedge
Stone-wort (Sison amomum\ the Dwarf-spurge {Euphorbia
exlgua\ the Musk Mallow (Malva moschata)^ the Hoary
Ragwort (Senecio erucifolia\ and the Skull-cap (Scutellaria
galericulata\ which was in abundance in Haugham Wood.

A meat tea was provided at the "King's Head" at 5.15,
and the party then received several additions, among them
being Mr. C. M. Nesbitt (President of the Louth Society),
Mr. Joseph Larder and Mr. J. B, Robinson. After tea
sectional and business meetings were held. The accounts
were passed ; the thanks of the Union were voted to Mr.
Wilson and Mr. Hornsby ; Mr. Fieldsend was elected assistant
secretary in the place of Mr. Coe ; it was decided that the
annual meeting of the Union should be held at Grimsby on
the 22nd of November ; a sum of ^3 35. was voted to the
Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock in aid of the purchase of
cases for the plants which he has collected for the county
herbarium j and it was announced by the President that it was

Natural History. 45

probable that rooms in the Old Prison in the Castle Grounds at
Lincoln would be set apart for a county museum. It was also
resolved that the transactions of the Union should be published.

After the meeting the fungi were named and were exhibited
at the Committee Room of the Mechanics' Institution, and at
9.15 Mr. Massee delivered a lecture, taking Fungi as his
subject, and drawing particular attention to many of the
specimens on the table. He treated his theme from the
evolutionary standpoint, indicating broadly the relative devel-
opment of different types. His first illustration was the flat
stereum which lies along the soil or rotten log, and is simply a
fruit mass. He pointed out that what is popularly understood
to be the fungus is in reality its fruit, which fruit bears a
similar relation to the mycelium that an apple bears to the tree
on which it grows. Mycelium is the technical word for the
spawn or vegetative and productive part of the fungus which
creeps underground or under bark and creates the material of
which the fruit is the visible sign. He then described ££nftzri<7,
Craterellus and other well-defined and more highly specialised
forms. Referring to edible species, he said he did not believe
in any of the old rule of thumb methods of discrimination.
Edible fungi had distinct characteristics and these characteristics
had to be learned. He suggested that anyone who was desirous
of pursuing the study should obtain Dr. M. C. Cooke's
excellent book on Edible Fungi. He proceeded to state that
there were two groups of poisonous forms, the alkaloids and
toxalbumins. When the albumen is coagulated, then these
latter forms are innoxious and may be eaten with safety.
Many of the so-called poisoning cases were in his opinion not
due to the actual poison of the fungus, but might very probably
be attributed to the fact that the fungus had been eaten to
excess. In some cases it was dangerous to drink spirituous
liquors after a meal of fungi, for it happens that some of the
poisons are not soluble in water, whereas they are in spirit.
Thus one man may eat certain kinds of fungi and not take
the slightest harm, whereas another man may eat out of the
same dish and then may have a couple of glasses of whisky,
the result being that the poison would be liberated by the
action of the spirit and would perhaps prove fatal. Cases of
this sort are well known.

Mr. Massee was cordially thanked for his lecture on the
motion of Mr. Burton, seconded by Mr. B. Crow. In
acknowledging the vote, the lecturer said he hoped that one of

46 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

the results of his talk would be that those present would at
least refrain from injuring toadstools when they saw them.
He ventured to make that suggestion because he knew that
many Englishmen appeared to consider it their duty to go out
of their way to kick over toadstools, and felt an inward
satisfaction when they had done so.

On Tuesday, Canon Du Port, Mr. Massee, Mr. Rea, Mr.
Jos. Larder, Mr. J. B. Robinson and Mr. T. H. Burditt
explored Acthorpe and adjoining woods and were well satisfied
with their discoveries. The first wood examined was the
larch plantation at Fotherby, and this proved the best of those
visited, the fungus flora being totally distinct from that seen on
Monday. The specimens, however, were of too critical a
character to enable a decision to be given on the spot. Among
those found were Spathularia flcfyida, Hygrophorus psittacinus^
Stropharla teruginosa, which has a very pretty bluish colour,
Laftarius blennius and Tricholoma rutllans. Among ferns were
noticed Nephrodium dilatatum and N. Fillx-mas^ specimens of
the latter being very generally sterile.

A LINCOLNSHIRE COLEOPTERA
RECORD WANTED.

By REV. A. THORNLEY, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S.,

South Leverton, Lincoln.

MY objecl: in this short paper is to induce Lincolnshire
people to assist us in making complete the Natural
History record for the county. 1 believe a great
many would help if they only knew how. They think that a
great deal of time and a great deal of knowledge is necessary
before they can do anything useful towards this objecl:. This
is indeed not so. All that we would ask for is the collection
of material. There are many friends, specialists in particular
departments, always ready to work it out. In this paper I
plead especially on behalf of the Coleoptera or Beetles, not
that I consider these as surpassing in interest any of the other
productions of nature, but I hope by means of them to
illustrate how much interesting and useful work may be done.
It will be necessary to point out at once that for our purpose

Natural History. 47

the record is more important than the specimen, as the object
of this inquiry is not to accumulate a handsome collection of
inse6ts so much as to study the distribution, variation and life
habits of each species. Beginning with locality we work to
the county, from this to the country and so on until the
gathered results give us full information as to the distribution
and variation of the species in the world. I will venture to
say that no more absorbing problems come within the view of
the naturalist than those connected with the range and
variation of species. When many records are possible it is
not an uncommon thing to discover that species usually
considered common are much more local than was expected,
and that so-called rarieties are much more generally distributed
than was known. Then again the study of habit and life
history is a great deal more profitable than the mere amassing
of specimens for show. So much then for the general objects
which the true naturalist will keep in view. I might spend a
much longer time dwelling on the pure delight of such an
investigation, its interest and exhilaration — the best tonic and
stimulant to health and spirits possible. Think of the profusion
of living things around us. The other afternoon one dip of
the water net brought up an amazing number of bugs, amongst
which were no less than five species of Corixa ; and out of
this same little village pond, a very ordinary one, I have taken
fifteen species of water-beetle. As I am not writing for
experts, a few words as to ways and means may be useful to
some. Natural ingenuity will suggest a great many more
than are mentioned here. Let our friends then provide them-
selves with a small bottle — the rounder the better — well corked.
Through the cork insert a large quill, with a little plug to close
the outside end of it. Through the quill he drops in tiny
insects from the palm of the hand. He should put inside a
little blotting paper or crushed laurel leaf. An old umbrella, a
good strong water net, a large white canvas sweeping net and
a few small strong glass tubes to go in his waistcoat pocket —
these will rig out our friend with almost all he wants. His
operations may be briefly summed up under six heads — all
quite obvious : (i) turn over all decent sized stones ; (ii) beat
into umbrella trees and shrubs ; (iii) sweep herbage with the
bag net ; (iv) fish streams and ponds (particularly close to the
banks) with the water net j (v) shake out moss and litter of
every kind over paper ; (vi) cut up old bark and rotten tree
stumps with an old knife. A few words as to killing insects

48 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

may be useful. Laurel leaf will kill many, but a nice cyanide
bottle may be made by filling a large-mouthed bottle for a
quarter of its depth with plaister of Paris, moist, and before it
sets insert a few pieces of cyanide. When it is hard and dry,
a piece of blotting paper may be cut to the required shape and
put on the top of the plaister. Keep well corked and you will
have no more useful instrument in your collection. Beetles and
all hard insects may be well killed by putting them for a few
seconds into absolutely boiling water, which kills instantaneously.
But above all do not forget to make a proper record of date
and place of capture — this is imperative ; any other data you
like to add, e.g., meteorological conditions, food plant, peculiar
habits, will be very valuable. It only remains to say that
Lincolnshire with its varied conditions of soil and level, with
its sea board and varied climate, should be a very good county
indeed for entomology. The few localities in which I have
worked have invariably yielded good results. I need hardly
say that I shall be glad at any time to name and report upon
beetles, and possibly other inseds ; and I am quite sure that I
can add that any of the various sectional secretaries of the
Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union will be glad to do the same.
The insects can be sent in quills or glass tubes in small boxes
easily through post, the return postage being sent with them if
they are to be returned. A report upon them will then be sent
to the sender at the first opportunity.

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF A COUNTRY
PARISH ;

With some notes relative to the effefts of game preserving on its
Natural History.

By MRS. C. E. JARVIS.

PART I.

THE parish of Hatton contains 1831 acres, of which
about 270 are woods. It belongs entirely to one
owner, who rears from 1000 to 2000 pheasants
annually. In the adjoining parishes game is also preserved, so
that the effect on animal life is about equal for some miles
round. The soil is mostly stiff* clay but part is sand.

Natural History. 49

And first as to the inhabitants — 157 in number according to
the last census. The houses number 36, of which five may
be described as farm houses. The largest farm contains
between 300 and 400 acres, the others less than 200 each.
There are two other small holdings and the blacksmith and
carpenter each farm a few acres. A wheelwright and a shoe-
maker represent other trades. There is a small general shop
and a brickyard, and everyone has a garden ; there is also one
public house. The Lincolnshire custom of hiring garthmen,
shepherds, waggoners and labourers by the year, "confined
men " as they are called, causes a constant change among
them, so that though the farms seldom change hands, only half
the inhabitants can be considered as constant residents. The
good old Lincolnshire dialect, with many words of Danish
origin, is still spoken, and though it may become extinct: in
course of time through the compulsory Education Act, it will
not be so soon as some people think. As long as children can
contrive to pass the 4th Standard and go to work at 12 years
old they soon forget most of what they learn at school and
revert to the expressive language of their parents. A farmer
who was asked his opinion of technical education said, the
most useful thing a boy could learn was to hold a gate open for
a flock of sheep to go through whilst they were being counted.

The following are some of the words still in use : — Bottle, a
bundle of hay or straw ; fell, ferocious ; fierce, lively ; flea,
fly ; gam, near — " Gain of a road " j odd, solitary — " An odd
house " j low, short — " A low woman " ; thacf^ thatch ; fyear,
this year ; wankle, weakly.

There is no actual village, most of the houses being scattered
in pairs about the farms, but that part of the parish nearest the
church is called the "Town": there is the "Town-end
close " ; and, till lately, the " Town-end gate " lead into some
unenclosed fields, now fenced off. Twenty-five years ago, the
Rectory and most, if not all, of the cottages were of " stud
and mud," with a large open chimney. One only remains as
it was, the rest have been replaced by commodious but ugly
brick and slated tenements, or altogether altered and roofed
with tiles. The old Re6tory was demolished in 1870, and the
architect judged by the chamfered oak beams that it was 500
years old. Until 1874 the nearest station was seven miles
distant, and many people had never been in a train, much less
seen the sea ; a visit to the market town on foot or by carrier

Vol. 5, No. 36, Lines. N. &f #.
Nat. Hist. &ff.

50 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries*

was all the outing they aspired to : now there is a -station at
half the distance, and they travel more, occasionally going by
an excursion train to the seaside.

Bank Holidays pass almost unnoticed, but May I4th, or
Pag-rag day, is a great event, when the single firm servants,
male and female, leave their places, or at least take a week's
holiday, and spend the time in visiting their friends and going
round to the different markets. The married men decide
whether they will remain with their masters at Candlemas ;
they have the privilege of attending what is called the
labourers' market soon after that date, when they hire them-
selves again and leave their old places April 6th. The life of
an agricultural labourer has the advantage of being healthy ;
they are seldom ill and often live to a great age ; their work,
if on a day farm, is heavy, but it is slow — they need not hurry
except in harvest time ; their food consists of bacon, bread,
potatoes and other vegetables, — butcher's meat once a week if
they can afford it, — with tea and sometimes beer ; milk is not
always obtainable, and they use butter sparingly. The lads
who board with the foreman have plenty of bread and milk
and bacon every day, tea or coffee on Sundays. On the other
hand their hours are long : in summer from three or four
o'clock till nearly dark, and the married men have no holiday
except at their own expense ; no wonder all the sharpest boys
want to be clerks or go on the railway, where they have some
time to themselves, at least on Sundays. If farmers would
give each man a week's holiday, and a day off occasionally to
work in his garden or go to a neighbouring fair or flower show,
he would be much more content. Some arrangement should
also be made to give the garthmen and shepherds assistance on
Sunday ; they like to have the chance of putting on their best
clothes, which they seldom do except to attend a funeral.

The Reading-room at Hatton is self-supporting, and, for so
small and scattered a parish, much appreciated in winter,
besides being useful for meetings, teas, etc., at other times.
The married labourers do not patronize it, because they
naturally prefer their own firesides when once they get home ;
but it is a pity the lads are not encouraged to make more use
of it, instead of spending their evenings in stables and out-
houses.

ANIMALS.

About 20 years ago the old keeper was pensioned, and his
nephew, an intelligent young man, took his place. Till then

Natural History. 51

scarcely any game was reared and foxes were plentiful. Several
foxhound puppies were " walked " by the farmers, whose wives
complained, not only of the quantity of bread and milk they
consumed but of the devastations caused by the foxes amongst
their poultry even in broad daylight, whilst those people living
near the coverts could hear them barking at night and see the
cubs playing about in the early morning. In winter, the
hounds in full cry afforded frequent excitement for the labourers
and school children.

All this is changed : the foxhound puppies have long since
vanished, as have the foxes, with the exception of a few
outsiders attracted by the game ; they are not encouraged to
stay and breed.

The present keeper has given me some interesting informa-
tion about some of the quadrupeds and birds, which I will
transcribe in his own words. He says : u I have never seen or
heard of a badger at Hatton. I trapped a marten in Hatton
Wood about 15 years ago ; I have never heard of another one
at Hatton since that time. We had a polecat here some four
or five years ago ; it was caught in the rabbit traps at Panton
shortly after we had seen it. I know of four kinds of mice —
the two kinds that live in the fields, the indoor mouse, and the
dormouse. One of the field mice is reddish, with a long tail
and a dark bright eye (Mus syivatica). The other one is a
dark mouse, what we call the grass mouse ; you may see plenty
of them in the summer in the hay field ; I do not remember
seeing one of them at any other time of the year j they have a
short face and rather large head, with a short tail ; colour very
much the same as the house mouse ; it is much bigger and
heavier looking than any of the others (^rvlcola pratansis}.
The dormouse I have seen twice ; once in Chamber's Wood
when shooting, two of them were picked up together in a
sleeping condition ; if I remember right they were found in a
nest of dead leaves ; the other I saw in Hatton Wood. We
have had a lot of stoats this summer (1891)."

In February, 1890, I saw a white stoat with a black tail run
from under some large trees across a field to a sunk fence in
the middle of the day. There was always a pair of bats about
the ivy-covered Rectory, probably Vesperugo pipistullus ; they
were to be seen at dark from March to November, and
occasionally in winter in very mild weather.

The hedgehog is not yet quite extinct, though the keepers
trap and otherwise slay a few every year. I once had the

52 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

pleasure of letting one out of a trap ; it was caught by the
hind leg, and ran off not much the worse. The hedgehog's
little grunt as it runs along a dry ditch in an evening is one of
the pleasantest summer sounds.

The shrew is common, and dead ones are frequently seen,
perhaps, as suggested by Mr. J. E. Taylor in Underground^
carried off by an epidemic caused by want of food.

The mole is plentiful in the lighter land, it does not work so
much in clay ; formerly a mole-catcher (as well as a rat-catcher)
was appointed every year by the Vestry, but both offices are
now abolished.

The squirrel is another victim to game preserving ; it is shot
at whenever seen, its chief crime being that it nibbles off the
lead of the spruces. An odd one or two found an asylum
about the Rectory grounds, where stood the only beech tree of
any size in the parish, which no doubt attracted the squirrels
in the autumn. I once, to my surprise, watched a squirrel
eating a fungus, which it held in its paw and nibbled as if it
were a biscuit. The fact was new to me, but on making
enquiry in the Naturalist and elsewhere, I found it was not
unknown.

Rats are among the animals which profit by the preservation
of game. An M.F.H. once told me a fox enjoys nothing
more than a fine fat rat, which shows that Reynard is of some
use besides affording sport. The extermination of hawks,
owls, magpies, and jays is also accountable for the great
increase in the number of rats. In autumn and winter when
the becks and ditches are full of water, they betake themselves
to farmyards and stick heaps, and though the farmers may kill
hundreds when threshing, it does not seem to diminish their
numbers.

The water vole is a harmless animal and allowed to live in
peace by the side of the beck. I have watched a pair of them
from a bridge, sitting on the water plants and nibbling away at
their evening meal, either unaware or oblivious of my presence.

We now come to those highly-favoured races, hares and
rabbits, which next to pheasants and partridges are most
thought of. Their numbers vary according as the season is
wet or dry. As many as sixty hares are sometimes shot in a
day, and very fine ones they are, weighing 10 or 12 pounds.
Twenty hares have been counted in one large field of white
clover in winter ; but though farmers complain of having to
feed so many, they do not cause so much havoc as rabbits,

Natural History. 53

because they are spread more evenly over the country, whilst
rabbits keep to one side of a wood or hedge, and eat the corn
crops till they look as if they had been mown for a certain
distance, besides which they waste so much, never picking up
again what they have once let fall. According to the keepers,
rabbits are quite scarce at Hatton, and it is true they do not
multiply so quickly on clay as on sandy land, but they are
carefully preserved as food for any stray fox, and to be mixed
with pheasant food when boiled. Now and then a day is given
to rabbit shooting, when between 300 and 400 are shot, so
they can hardly be considered scarce. A few black ones exist
and are generally spared.

List of mammals : — Bat (Pesperugo plpistrellus\ hedgehog,
(Erinaceus Europ&us\ shrew (Tor ex tetragonarus\ mole (Talpa
Europ<za\ marten (Maries folna\ stoat (Mustela ermlnea\
polecat (Mustela putorius\ fox (Canes vulpes\ squirrel (Scuirus
vulgarls\ rat (Mus decumanus\ field mouse (Mm syl*patica\
house mouse (Mus musculus}^ grass mouse (Ar'vicola agrestls\
water rat (Ar^icola amphibia}^ hare (Lepus Europ<zus\ rabbit
(Lepus cuniculus\ dormouse (Myoxus cTpellanarius}.

Reptiles are represented by the slow-worm ( Jf nguis fragllis\
the grass snake (Tropidonotus natrlx\ two sorts of newts, and I
once saw a lizard. The frog (Rana Temporarla] is common in
and near certain ponds, and the toad (Bup *vulgaris] about
gardens.

THE STORY OF THE LINCOLN GAP.

By F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S.,

President of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, being the Presidential Address,
deliver ed at Lincoln, 1895.

PART I.

A TRAVELLER starting from the Trent side, and jour-
neying eastwards across Lincolnshire, might reasonably
suppose, as he met with escarpment after escarpment —
first the Triassic and Rhcetic, then the Oolitic, and lastly that
of the Chalk, with, here and there, lesser intermediate ridges

* Re-published, with alterations and additions, from The Naturalist, 1895,
pp. 273-280, by special permission.

54 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

— that the sea had been at work in forming the surface of the
land; but his impression would be wrong. True that, since
the land rose from under the deep chalk ocean, it has under-
gone various periods of subsidence, elevation, and rest, and has
been covered by the waters of the sea at various times ; true
that, in the ice period, the whole of the land sank to a consid-
erable depth below its present level, and, therefore, true that
the surface has been to some extent modified by the sea — yet,
for all that, there are distinct proofs, both positive and negative,
that it is to the action of rain and rivers that the present con-
figuration of the land is due.

In order to understand this, we cannot do better than con-
sider how the gap through the Oolite escarpment at Lincoln
was formed, as from it we get a clue to all the rest.

In my address last year I alluded to a great river system
coming from the South and West, the only remains of it being
the Witham.

Rivers cut narrow gorges or channels, and it is left to rains
and sub-aerial forces to widen them into valleys. The fiords
of Norway and the canons of America are the work of rivers ;
but no one will give the Witham the credit of having cut
through the Lincoln Gap, so we must look for a more power-
ful and efficient agent, and we find it in the Trent.

In considering this, it is most important that we should bear
in mind the difference in the height of the land before the gap
was formed, and at the present time.

To enable a river to cut through rocks, whether hard or
soft, it must, of necessity, start from higher ground than the
land it runs over ; it must in fact have a downward slope to
work on, and cannot go uphill. The land, therefore, to the
West of Lincoln must at one time have been higher, instead of
lower, than the present cliff, otherwise the gap could not have
been made ; or, as Mr. Jukes-Brown, in his paper " On the
relative ages of certain river-valleys in Lincolnshire," puts it :
"The original direction of all rivers which cut through ridges
was determined by the general slope of the ancient surface
over which they began to run." This being borne in mind,
what evidence is there to show that the Trent once flowed
through the gap on which Lincoln is built ?

The river itself is one of considerable volume. It is the
combined issue of several streams, having their sources in
Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Leicestershire,
and it flows, as far as Newark, in a north-easterly direction ;

Natural History. 55

there, however, it leaves its course and bends to the north,
skirting the low Triassic and Rhcetic escarpment on the west,
"as if it had not been able to cross that comparatively slight
obstruction"; then, continuing past Gainsborough, it flows on
northwards until it is lost in the Humber.

Now that this northward bend of the Trent, after reaching
Newark, is of comparatively recent origin, and that it formerly
continued its north-easterly course, and flowed through the gap
at Lincoln, is capable of proof; and the credit of suggesting
this is due to Mr. Penning, of the Geological Survey, when he
was engaged, in 1878, in mapping the gravel beds round
Lincoln.

And what are the proofs ? First, it is, as Mr. Jukes-Browne
says in his paper before referred to, "a significant fact that if
the general course of the Trent, south-west of Newark, be
prolonged to the north-east, it points to the great gap in the
Oolitic escarpment at Lincoln through which the river
Witham now flows " ; but it is more significant to find that,
all along this north-east track, lie vast beds of ancient gravel
deposits, showing clear traces of river action, distinct from the
other and more modern gravels around (which latter, as I shall
show later on, are the result of floods to which the Trent has
always been greatly liable) ; and still more significant is the
fact that these ancient gravel beds carry with them incontestable
proofs of their origin, being " largely made up of rounded
pebbles of quartzite, hornstone, and other old rocks, which
have evidently been derived from the triassic pebble-beds
beyond Newark on the west " ; and as these ancient gravels,
with their component pebbles, are found in large quantities,
not only between Newark and Lincoln to the west of the gap,
but right through and far beyond it, on the east, they could
have been brought there only by the Trent, otherwise there is
no way of accounting for them.

All this is, I submit, sufficient to convince any reasonable
mind that the present course of the river Trent is not its
original one, but that, ages ago, in early pre-glacial times — (as
I think), and not post-glacial, as Mr. Jukes-Browne suggests —
it passed through the Lincoln Gap to the fen-land beyond,
which was then probably an open bay.

My reason for putting the date back to pre-glacial times is
that the submergence of the land in the eastern part of
England, during that age, was not sufficient to wear away its
then existing contour to any great extent ; and the denudation

56 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

of the Keuper strata, where the Trent now flows, weak as
these strata are, must have consumed a very long period of time.

We have now to enquire how the change came about ; and,
to understand it, we must learn something of the laws relating
to river courses.

Rivers may be roughly divided into two main classes,
"primary" and "secondary." The "primary" — or, as they
are sometimes called, transverse rivers, from their running with
the dip, transverse to the strike of the beds — take their rise on
any elevated ground, and, having a gradual slope towards the
sea, cut in a more or less direct line through hard ridges and
soft strata alike j and the valleys they form in their course,
with the aid of rain and atmospheric agencies, are known as
transverse valleys ; while the streams which flow into them
on the sides, and which follow the strike of the strata, cutting
through the softer and weaker beds between the ridges, are
known as " secondary " or subsequent rivers, and their valleys
longitudinal. These "subsequent " streams may be, and they
sometimes are, of greater length than the "primary" rivers j
and, as they deepen their beds and widen their valleys, they
leave the hard ridges, parallel to which they run, standing out
as inland cliffs or escarpments (the formation of "longitudinal "
valleys, and of inland escarpments, being, in fact, in each case
the result of one and the same process). Again, as time goes
on, and the " longitudinal " valleys are pushed further back,
these "subsequent" rivers sometimes succeed in tapping, or
capturing, other rivers and streams flowing at a higher level
than themselves, which they happen to reach.

The Trent was a " primary " stream when it first started on
its course from the high district in the west — a time when the
Derbyshire hills were hundreds of feet higher than they now
are — and, finding a gradual slope towards the east, thither, of
necessity, it directed its steps, cutting through opposing ridges
and the more yielding strata alike till it reached the sea.

The Humber, too, was a " primary " river when, ages ago,
it left its cradle in the Yorkshire hills ; and in its lower course
it is one still, or rather the beheaded remains of one, for its
upper streams —which Prof. Davis thinks may have been
somewhere about Halifax or Huddersfield — are lost. This
river, as it reached our land, had the same ridges to cut through
as the Trent — the Triassic, Oolite, and Chalk — and it, too,
found an outlet in the eastern sea.

At that time, however, as now, it lay at a lower level than

Natural History. 57

the Trent ; and, as it deepened its bed, a " longitudinal "
valley began to form on the soft Keuper marls to the south,
where the Trent now flows.

The river Idle, which runs into the Trent a little to the
north of Gainsborough — and was then an independent stream
draining the land round Mansfield where it rises — flowed down
this valley, deepening and widening it continually, till it
reached the Humber. Other brooks and rivulets, collecting
from the land around, helped on the work ; and, as this went
on year after year, and the valley was pushed back further to
the south, the Trent was reached at last, and tapped near
Newark ; perhaps, as Mr. Jukes-Brown suggests, " on the
occasion of some great flood, when the last intervening barrier
gave way."

Whether this is correct or not — and something of the kind
may have easily occurred — I cannot doubt that, for a very long
time afterwards, the two opposing channels struggled for the
supremacy, and that the river flowed both ways ; but, as the
Humber continued deepening its bed, and, as a consequence,
deepening and pushing back its " longitudinal " valley also,
while the land between Newark and Lincoln, where the old
channel ran, was reduced almost to a level, the result was
inevitable ; the captured Trent gave way at last to the yielding
marls of the Keuper, and — no longer a " primary " but a
" subsequent " stream — became a tributary of the Humber.

A reference to the accompanying diagram will tend to make
this more clear.

This is but a mere outline of the subject, and those who
wish to know more of it should read Mr. Jukes-Browne's
paper ; and also an article in the magazine of the Royal
Geographical Society, February, 1895, by William Morris
Davis, Professor of Physical Geography, Harvard University,
u On the Development of certain English Rivers," which deals
with the subjecl: more fully and elaborately than has been
attempted by any previous author. A careful perusal of this
most able and instructive paper will well repay the reader for
his trouble ; and, at the risk of wearying you with somewhat
technical details, the following short summary of the views put
forth in it will not, I think, be out of place.

Prof. Davis begins his paper with the following thesis : —

"The rivers of Eastern England have been developed, in
their present course, by the spontaneous growth of drainage
lines on an original gently inclined plane, composed of

58 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

sedimentary strata of varying resistance. In the course of
this development the land has been, at least once, worn down
to a lowland of faint relief, and afterwards broadly uplifted,
thus opening a second cycle of denudation, and reviving the
rivers to new activity ; and, in the second cycle of denudation,
the adjustment of streams to structures has been carried to a
higher degree of perfection than it could have reached in the
first cycle." He then goes on to differ with previous authors
and workers on the subject — Ramsay, Greenwood, Foster,
Topley, Whittaker, Green, Jukes-Browne, and others — in the
fact of their starting the drainage of rivers on planes of
"marine erosion," whereas he urges that rivers, and sub-aerial
forces, account for it all. By such latter agencies, he thinks,
and thinks rightly, that land surfaces, hard and soft alike, may in
time be reduced almost to a level — a "peneplain" as he terms it.
You will have noticed in his thesis that he speaks of the
land, after being worn down to a lowland of faint relief, being
broadly uplifted again, "thus opening a second cycle of
denudation, and reviving the rivers to new activity." The
features of this second cycle, he points out, will differ in two
significant respects from those of the first. There would be,
in the first place, at the beginning of the initial cycle, no
subsequent streams, all the drainage would be trans^perse^ or
consequent as he terms it. At the beginning of the second
cycle the greater part of the drainage would be revived along
the subsequent streams left by the first cycle at the end of its
career ; and, with this gain to start with, the adjustmentS'of
the second cycle would naturally exceed those of the first.
Then, in the second place, the escarpments, or ridges, left by
the first cycle would, for some time, retain the even form they
were reduced to at the close of that cycle ; and, when these
two special features occur together in a region, it can, he says,
"hardly be doubted that two cycles of sub-aerial denudation
have been, more or less, completely passed through in its
geographical development." He then goes on to show that
this theory is pertinent to the development of the newer rivers
of England ; for everything, as he says, points to the former
higher stand, and greater mass, of the land in the west in the
first instance ; then to the consequent or transverse streams that
flowed from this high land to the eastern sea ; then to the
development of subsequent streams along the weaker strata, and
the diverting and tapping of the primary transverse courses as
a necessary sequence.

Natural History. 59

He then considers the evidence indicating that at least two
cycles of sub-aerial denudation have been involved for the
development of the geographical features of the east of
England, the first cycle having reached old age, the second
being, at present, in its maturity. " Look," he says, " at the
remarkable evenness of the Oolite and Chalk uplands in
Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and other counties." " Remember,"
he adds, " that the most reasonable view concerning the
original extension of the strata of these uplands would carry
them high up in the air over the Midland Triassic lowland,
and then ask how denudation could reduce the original
constructional extension of these strata to the even uplands
they now present." " These uplands," he says, " seem to be
remnants of a 'peneplain' of sub-aerial denudation, for the
reason that their drainage is accomplished, in great part, by
subsequent streams (as should be the case if the present streams
are the revived successors of those of a former cycle of
atmospheric denudation), and not by streams imperfectly
adjusted to the structures (as should be the case if the region
had been denuded afresh by marine action, and then elevated
to its present height)." "Marine denudation," he reiterates,
(and this is a well-known physical axiom) " distinctly requires
the suppression of all previous drainage systems, and the
inception of a new system of streams entirely independent of
those beneath ; while the hypothesis of sub-aerial denudation,
as distinctly requires the retention of a previously adjusted
drainage system as a foundation to start with." Marine
denudation demanding a drainage without subsequent streams ;
sub-aerial denudation equally demanding a considerable
number of subsequent streams at the time of upheaval.

Prof. Davis then takes individual rivers in Yorkshire,
Lincolnshire, and elsewhere, and points out some of the most
important captures that have been made by the subsequent
streams, as in the case of the Humber and Trent, and he
suggests that portions of the original consequent or transverse
rivers may be looked for in various localities \ and, for my part,
I do not know any more interesting occupation for a geologist
than to search for such portions, and to try to make out how,
and by what means, their courses have been changed.*

After the Trent was captured, it would no doubt, for a long
time, have a tendency to resort to its original course in times

* See note at end.

60 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

of flood. The Triassic and Rhoetic escarpment, which now
bounds it on the east, is a very weak one at the best ; and
only here and there, in places like Gate Burton, Gainsborough,
and Burton Stather, does it present anything like a formidable
barrier ; while, in many parts, it is a mere bank, and scarcely
that ; but', as years went on, and its new channel through the
soft Keuper marls was deepened, this tendency would gradually
diminish.

The Trent has always been liable to floods. Before its
course was changed the narrowness of the Lincoln outlet
prevented any rush of water getting away quickly ; and the
wide extent of ground covered by gravel deposits between
Newark and Lincoln shows how greatly the land around was
flooded.

At that distant period, also, a powerful tributary, which has
left its mark on the land in the shape of an ancient gravel-bed,
entered the Trent near Lincoln, adding to the difficulty.

This stream, according to Mr. Jukes-Browne, had its source
among the hills near Belvoir Castle, where the small river
Devon, its modern representative, now rises.

Other similar streams would doubtless drain into the river
from the "longitudinal" valleys on either side, making matters
worse, so that, in time of flood, the entire area west of Lincoln
would often, for weeks together, be a sea of water. The river
Witham, however, at this period followed a course of its own.
Instead of running into Brayford, at the foot of the Oolite
escarpment at Lincoln, as it now does, it passed, as a "transverse"
stream, through that escarpment at Ancaster, and flowed thence
into the Wash. How it came to take its present course is not
exactly known. It was certainly after the Trent had been
captured by the Humber, and it may have been due to the
wearing back of the " longitudinal " valley in which it now
runs ; but, as there are signs of the uplifting of the land in the
neighbourhood of the Ancaster gap, through which it formerly
flowed, it may, in this way, have been turned aside and forced
into its present channel. Prof. Davis thinks its course was
changed by capture, and says " One of the greatest successes
of the Trent was the capture of the upper Witham, as
explained by Mr. Jukes-Browne." As a fa el, however, the
latter leaves the question open, and I am inclined to think,
indeed I see no reason to doubt, that the channel was turned
by the elevation of the land at Ancaster, where there has been
a distinct uplifting of the strata.

Natural History. 61

Recently, at one of the meetings of the Lincolnshire
Naturalists' Union at Sleaford, I had an opportunity of
examining this district, and, in a pit called " Greylees," a few
miles east of the Ancaster Gap, I made the following note :
" in this pit the rubble at the top of the Oolite is much broken
up and contorted, dipping in every direction, and curved and
folded in an extraordinary manner, and on the south side of it
the underlying rocks show signs of folding. This may be
connected with the uplift in the Gap through the Oolite cliff
at Ancaster, which lies a few miles off to the west, where the
Witham once flowed ; and the disturbance of the rubble may
be due to the same cause."

The present straight course of the Witham into Brayford,
as it approaches Lincoln, is due to modern requirements.
Formerly it branched off westward into Boultham parish,
where it was joined by the Till, coming from the opposite
"longitudinal" valley, half a mile, or more, west of the present
High Bridge at Lincoln, before passing through the Gap.

LOUTH ANTIQUARIAN AND NATUR-
ALISTS' SOCIETY.

By R. W. GOULDING.

[Reprinted from the Louth Advertiser, 6 July, 1895.]

IT is frequently made a ground of complaint against
Lincolnshire men that they have done very little towards
the elucidation of their county fauna and flora. Now,
however true that may be of Lincolnshire as a whole, still
there are certain districts of the county the flora of which has
been diligently worked, and against these districts the reproach
cannot fairly be brought. In Louth, for instance, for many
years past there have been at least a few zealous adherents of

6 2 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

botanical science, and scanty though their numbers have been,
yet their unobtrusive and careful investigations have yielded,
and still are yielding, excellent results. Prominent among the
local botanists of 40 years ago were the two brothers Thomas
Wemyss Bogg and Edward B. Bogg, who not only collected,
preserved and named their specimens, but also recorded the
localities where, and the dates when, the said specimens were
found. Their valuable collections have been recently handed
over to the Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, who is the
custodian of the herbarium which is being formed to represent
the botany of the entire county. Contemporary with the
Boggs, and with enthusiasm akin to theirs, was the Rev. John
Theodore Barker, a man of enlightened mind and attractive
personality, who was the author of a pleasant little book
entitled "The Beauty of Flowers in Field and Wood," and
who was for a number of years the esteemed President of the
Louth Mechanics' Institution. Mr. Barker's tenure of the
office is memorable by reason of the fact that during it he
furthered the interests of the branch of science to which he
was devoted by conducting classes for botanical study ; and his
efforts were so far successful that he communicated some of his
own enthusiasm to men like Mr. T. W. Wallis and Mr. B.
Crow, the former of whom thoroughly explored the district
and formed a herbarium which contains some seven or eight
hundred specimens, while the latter still continues his
researches with undiminished ardour and activity. Except,
however, in these and a few other isolated instances, interest in
local botany seemed steadily to decline after Mr. Barker's
removal from Louth. But in process of time Mr. Harry Kew
arose, and he stirred up his friends and by and by persuaded
four of them to join him in forming the Louth Naturalists'
Society (the first society of its kind in Lincolnshire), and the
somewhat flagging zeal of the elder generation received a fresh
impetus. This was in 1884; some four years later the
members deemed it advisable to enlarge their borders, and the
society was re-organised as the Louth Antiquarian and
Naturalists' Society. They have, from time to time, by means
of lectures, excursions and exhibitions of specimens, taken
many opportunities of endeavouring to advance the objects for
the promotion of which they were constituted ; and, so far as
botany is concerned, they hope that they are doing some really
useful educational work. During the summer months their
museum is open on Monday evenings, and flowering plants are

Natural History. 63

usually exhibited and named for the benefit of any members
who are interested in the study and who care to attend.

But theirs have not been the only efforts recently put forth
to diffuse a knowledge of local botany, for during the past
winter the technical committee of the Mechanics' institution
laudably spent some of the funds at their disposal in engaging
a competent instructor, in the person of Professor J. W. Carr
of, Nottingham, to deliver a course of four lectures upon
" Plant Life," which lectures proved to be highly interesting
and were much appreciated. At the end of his course the
Professor intimated his willingness to spend an afternoon with
the students in pradtical field work, if such proceeding were
deemed desirable. The Antiquarian and Naturalists' Society
cordially approved the suggestion and took the initiative in
arranging for a ramble, the day chosen being Thursday, June
2yth.

The time for meeting at the London Road Railway Bridge
was two o'clock, but, owing to the threatening weather and
the attractions of an auspicious celebration at the Parish
Church, the party was less numerous than had been anticipated.
The faithful, tenacious few, however, whose fixed resolutions
quailed not before the menaces of Jupiter Tonans et Pluvius,
spent about four hours very pleasantly in wandering over
Coxey Hills in company with Mr. Carr, whose ample know-
ledge and experience enabled him to impart various hints and
bits of information which were novel to his hearers. In one
cornfield the bladder campion (Silene cucubalus) was very
common, and Mr. Carr pointed out a nameless variety, with a
kind of fringe round the edges of the leaves, which he
described as being intermediate between the type and the
variety puberula. This field also produced lamb's lettuce
(Valerianella dentata\ shepherd's needle, greater knapweed
(Centaurea scabiosd] and scabious (Scabiosa arvensis}. In the
next field, which was a pasture, a good find was made by
Master Hall, whose acute eyes detected a solitary specimen of
the dropwort (Spiraea filipenduld], which has not in recent times
been recorded for the immediate locality. Other plants
gathered in the same field were : — Purging flax (Linum
catharticum\ betony (Stachys betonica\ helleborine orchis
(Epipacfis latifolid), tway blade {Lister a o^ata\ lady's mantle
(Alchemilla vulgaris\ and pepper saxifrage (Silaus pratensis).
Among the other plants noted were the great burnet, spurge
(Euphorbia amygdaloides)^ tufted vetch, water bedstraw (Gallurn

64 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

palustre)^ fragrant orchis, milk wort (Pimpinella major\ hedge
wound wort, St. John's wort (Hypericum quadratum), black
bryony, My os at is ctespitosa, Chara fragilis^ Apium nodiflorum^
eyebright, giant bell-flower (not in bloom), meadow sweet,
sneeze wort, cat's ear (Hypochoeris radicata), Leontodon hirtus^
L.hispidus, Conopodium denudatum, Cerastium trfyiale, Potamogeton
crispus^ P. natans and Tormentil. Among grasses and sedges
the following may be mentioned : — Dog's-tail grass (Cynosurus
cristatus\ float grass ((jlyceria plicata\ meadow soft grass
(Holcus mollis\ Car ex dlsticha, Arrenatherum avenaceum^ Juncus
effusus^ J. conglomerates^ Heleocharis palustris^ and Brachypodlum
pinnatum.

VERTEBRATA OF LINCOLNSHIRE.

MAY I appeal to all true lovers of natural history for local
lists of animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes.
The lists that have already come to hand have been
run into a Locality Register^ like that for the Flora, with a
view, as the facts accumulate, to working out the distribution
of species according to the Natural History Division Scheme,
lately published in The Naturalist and Lincolnshire Notes &
Queries.

Bare lists are of great value, but all interesting information
should be added for publication. In the case of rare specimens
and eggs there should be a note not only of the date, place, and
name of Collector, but also where these valuable finds are now
preserved. Full notes of specimens that have passed through
the hands of professional naturalists are simply invaluable —
they see so much.

I want notes especially on the old English Black Rat, Voles,
Shrews, Mice, Bats, and Seals and Fish of our coast line.

Everyone's information will be most fully acknowledged.

THE EDITOR.

Natural History. 65

LINCOLNSHIRE.*

By JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U.,

Great Cotes, R.S.O., Lincoln ,• Convener of the British Association Committee on the
Migration of Birds.

IT is somewhat curious that even in the present day so
much misconception should linger in connection with the
second in size of English shires, popularly invested with
fens and fogs, ague and marsh fever; a haunt of wild-fowl and
waders, reeds and watercress : where the rainfall is excessive,
floods the order and not the exception. One of the greatest
of modern authors adds to this general prejudice when in
commencing his workf he writes 'it was raining down in
Lincolnshire,' a remark perhaps as little complimentary as that
of Henry VIII., who speaks of the county as 'being one of
the most brute and beastly of the whole realm, and of the
least experience.'! Even at the commencement of the present
century Lincolnshire was comparatively a terra incognita^ and
was looked upon as the ultima Thu/e of English counties. This
isolation probably in great part due to its position with the
broad frontage of a great tidal river and the sea to the north,
east, and south-east, separated also, as in the Isle of Axholme
and the fens, by impassable swamps and morasses from the rest
of England. Thus it came to pass that Lincolnshire folks
were considered behind the age, and it is yet somewhat of a
reflection on the literary enterprise of the shire that, notwith-
standing the materials ready to hand, it should stand almost
alone in having no county history,

From north to south, Lincolnshire extends seventy-five
miles, and from east to west forty-five. The area is 1,767,962
acres — the Isle of Axholme containing 50,000; of the whole a
very small portion, 5,762 acres, now remains which is not
either cultivated or in pasture. Fuller in quaint language
likens it to c a bended bow, the sea making the back, the rivers
Welland and Humber the two horns thereof, whilst Trent

* Reprinted from The Naturalist, 1886, p. i, by special permission,
f Charles Dickens, Bleak House.

JFroude, History of England (Ed. 1870), Vol. II., p. 527.
Vol. 5, No. 37, Lines. N. & 9. _

Nat. Hist. Sea.

66 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

hangeth down like a broken string, as being somewhat of the
shortest.*

At the time of the Roman invasion Lincolnshire formed
part of the territories of the powerful tribe of the Coritani,
their district also comprising Rutland, part of Nottinghamshire,
the whole of Leicestershire, and some portion of Warwick-
shire,f Lindum being their chief city and stronghold, their
frontier fortresses at Gainsborough, Aukborough, Yarborough
Camp, and Caistor predominating the Trent and Humber,
which rivers separated them to the north and north-east from
their equally powerful neighbours the Brigantes. When the
Romans, probably under Ostorius, about A.D. 70, seized
Lincoln, they appreciated its commanding site and strongly
fortified it. Subsequently it became a chief fortress — one of
the nine Coloniae held by veterans of the legions on condition
of rendering military service. They appear also to have
utilised for defensive purposes the remaining strongholds of the
tribe along the northern frontier, connecting them by roads,
yia Militares et Vicinales. Of these the most remarkable is
the Ermine Street running above Grantham to Ancaster and
Lincoln, and then leaving the camp at the Newport Arch, the
most perfect Roman gateway existing in the country, it ran in
a direct line to the north through Kirton-in-Lindsey to Win-
tringham-on-the-Humber, where there was a ferry at Brough
on the Yorkshire side, and hence on to York. Through a
considerable portion of its course the 'old strete' is still used
for purposes of traffic, in others, as over part of Lincoln Heath
and near its northern extremity, it is a wide green lane bordered
by gorse, whin, and bramble thicket; and in solitudes which
once echoed to the tramp of the cohorts and the heavy rumbling
of baggage trains, and in more recent days the march of great
English armies towards Scotland, we now listen to the warbling
of innumerable linnets, or the monotonous song of the yellow-
hammer. The eastern face of the fortress ran nearly in line
with the transepts of the present Minster, which stands partly
within and partly without the camp. From its commanding
position, overlooking an immense extent of country, it must
have been practically impregnable. Those indeed who have
climbed the steep slopes from the lower town to the castle-
yard can form some estimate of its strength, when massive

* Worthies of England, Nicholls' Ed., 1811, Vol. II., p. i.

f M. H. Bloxam, Lindum civitas Coritanorum. Line. Diocesan Arch. Soc. 34th
Report, 1877, p. 41 et seq.

Natural History. 67

wall* was lined with the hardy veterans of the VI. and X.
Legions, when iron darts from catapult hurtled through the air,
and huge stones from the balistae bounded down the slopes.

Of the successive waves of conquerors — Saxon, Dane, and
Norman — which during the six centuries subsequent to the
Roman occupation swept over Lincolnshire, none have so
indelibly left their mark as the Dane. The county is still
England's Denmark, and the names of 292 towns and villages
indicate the prevalence of the Danish element. Of these 212
have the termination by, 63 have thorpe, one has with, four
have toft, eight have becf^ and three have dale.\ Nowhere
else, except in Holderness, have the repeated Danish invasions
left such landmarks. And, just as in the present the emigrant
from our shores to the backwoods of America gives to his
small freehold the name of the old home beyond the seas, so
likewise his Danish fore-elders, for everywhere in Denmark we
find names having close affinity to Lincolnshire villages. J
Mr. Freeman shows how the Danish invasions of eastern
England may be divided into three periods — simple plunder,
period of settlement, political conquest. § Terrible indeed
were the ravages, of which oral tradition still lingers, of these
ferocious sea-rovers during the first period. Loosing from the
opposite shores of the North Sea in the early spring, they sped
across in the long ships with big main-sails spread, wing and
wing, running before the east wind and tossing the salt spray
above the splendours of their richly-blazoned prows, like
falcons swooping on their prey. The Humber offered unusual
facilities for landing; berthing their galleys in the muddy
creeks, as Gaimsby and Tetney havens, where at low-water
they lay like painted serpents in the slimy ooze — creeks to
which the song of Kal U the son of Kali is as yet equally
applicable as then :

Unpleasantly we have been wading
In the mud a weary five week,
Dirt we had indeed in plenty
When we lay in Grimsby harbour.

* The walls of Roman Lincoln are computed at 10 to 12 feet thick, and 20 to 25
feet high. The area of the camp was about six or seven acres. — Line. Diocesan
Arch. Soc. report, 1876, pp. 178, 179.

f Freeman's Norman Conquest, Vol. I, p. 437.

J The whole subject of the occupation and settlement of Lincolnshire by the
Danes has been most ably and exhaustively treated by the Rev. G. S. Streatfeild, in
Lincolnshire and the Danes. (Kegan Paul, Trench and Co., London, 1884.)

§ Freeman, Norman Conquest ,V 'ol. I., pp. 12, 43 seq.

^[ Orkneyinga Saga, Anderson's Ed., p. 76.

68 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

There is scarcely a church on our eastern coast which shows
not, in some part or other of its structure, red and calcined
stones suggestive of Danish ravage ; and it is by no means
improbable, as is asserted,* that beneath the broad-headed nails
which stud the oaken doors may still be found some withered
fragment of the skin of sacrilegious viking.

Of dread potent was the hoisting on the Saxon shore of the
Raven banner, surnamed the ' Landwaster ' ;

For there

Was shedding of blood and rending of hair,
Rape of maiden, and slaughter of priest,
Gathering of ravens and wolves to the feast.

Yet one hundred years later throughout the peaceful Danelagh
the savage marauder had become transformed into the peaceful
tiller of the soil. What the physical characters of the county
were in the second period we may conjecture from the positions
chosen by these vikings or ' creekers ' for their permanent
homes, placed at regular intervals on the slopes or near the foot
of the uplands, overlooking the low country or marsh. The
house or by rising on a foundation of stone — chalk quarried
from the wold — the upper part of c stud and mud ' with wattled
outbuildings and c crews,' surrounded by 'garth* and ^wong?
Above them stretched the open wold, rolling uplands of heather
and gorse, and coarse tussocks of tAira ccespitosa and the barren
brome grass, stretches of brake bright green in spring and
golden-brown in the autumn ; here and there solitary
hawthorns quite grey with lichen, storm-twisted and venerable ;
and on the highest ridges many a tumulus and c hoe ' — long
since obliterated by the destroying plough. A land without
inhabitant; the haunt of bustard and stone curlew, golden
plover and dotterel, where in deep dales by chalk stream sides
the otter had his home, and in the twilight the red deer and
roe came down to graze. Below the wold, covering much of
what is now known as the middle marsh, stretched the wide
forest of oak, beech and elm, with an undergrowth of holly,
hazel, and yew ; dense thickets of blackthorn and bramble,
where lurked the grey wolf, wild boar, and wild cat; and
above falcon, kite, and buzzard held almost undisputed posses-

* In a footnote, Lincolnshire and the Danes, p. 4, Mr. Streatfeild says ' the
four churches with which such traditions are distinctly connected are Rochester
Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and the churches of Hadstock and Copford in
Essex. In the case of Hadstock, the last fragments of skin did not disappear until
1846 ; and in that of Copford, not until 1843 (see Archaeological Journal, Vol. V.,
p. 185 ; Vol. X., p. 167).

Natural History. 69

sion. Beyond the forest was the rich pasture of the maritime
marshes merging into salt 'fitties,' purple with sea-lavender
and thrift, or grey with the frosted sea-orache, muddy stretches,
green with glasswort, and then the flat seabeach —

A coast

Of ever-shifting sand, and far away
The phantom circle of a moaning sea.

Then beyond Horncastle and Spilsby, where the chalk dips
below the fen ' from the foot of the wolds, the green flat
stretched away illimitable, to an horizon where from the
roundness of the earth, the distant trees and islands were hulled
down like ships at sea. The firm horse-fen lay, bright green,
along the foot of the wold ; beyond it the browner peat or
deep fen ; and among that, dark velvet alder beds, long lines of
reed-rond, emerald in spring and golden under the autumn
sun ; shining c eas ' or river reaches ; broad meres dotted with
a million fowl. . . . Here and there, too, upon the far
horizon, rose a tall line of ashen-trees, marking some island of
firm rich soil. . . . Overhead the arch of heaven spread
more ample than elsewhere, as over the open sea ; and that
vastness gave, and still gives, such cloudlands, such sunrises, * -_ i|
such sunsets, as can be seen nowhere else within these isles.'* ^
This was the land of the Girvii or Fenmen, a tribe of Angles
who, even in Danish days, remained practically unsubdued
within the fastnesses of their impassable morasses.

During the Norman period Lincolnshire contained no less
than ninety religious foundations — Abbeys, Monasteries,
Preceptories of Knights Templars, alien Priories and Hospitals ;
four principal castles — Lincoln, Tattershall, Carlton, and
Sleaford ; and nine crenellated or fortified mansions. Most of
these have entirely disappeared, and there is perhaps no other
county so utterly devoid of picturesque ruins. With the
exception of the great gateway of Thornton, near Ulceby,
the Western part of Crowland, and some remains at Tupholme,
Kirkstead, and Louth, and the castles at Lincoln, Somerton,
and Tattershall, scarce a remnant now remains, and even the
site of the buildings is in many cases with difficulty made out.f
Nowhere else in England, however, do we find so many

* Kingsley's Hereivard.

f For a list of Lincolnshire Religious Houses and Castles, see The Lincoln Pocket
Guide, 1880, pp. 178-180, by Sir C. H. J. Anderson, Bart.

jo Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

interesting churches dating from early Saxon times down to
the close of the Perpendicular period at the end of the I5th
century. Perhaps the most remarkable among many is the
c Mother of Lincoln,' the Saxon church at Stowe, which for
some time was the throne of the Bishops of Lindisse, before
removal to Lincoln. Lincoln itself at one period contained
fifty-two churches, reduced in the reign of the sixth Edward
to thirteen. At Boston the magnificent tower of the parish
church, 260 feet high, the c stump,' as it is called, predominates
the fens, and it is a prominent object both by sea and land
from an immense distance. In times of fen floods the bells
were rung to warn the district of the impending danger.*
The spire of the church at Louth, in North Lincolnshire,
is 294 feet high, and yields to none in England for symmetrical
proportions and beauty of decoration. An interesting feature
of this church is the weathercock, which was placed in position
on Holy Rood-eve, 1515, being made out of a copper basin
taken two years previously from the Scottish king by the men
of Lindsey, at the battle of Flodden.f St. Guthlac's Abbey
of Crowland was entirely destroyed by the Danes in 870 ; but,
as some compensation, on its rebuilding it was richly endowed
with gifts by Canute — not the least remarkable of these being
the skins of twelve polar bears for the altars, so that the feet of
the officiating priests might be kept warm.J Crowland at one
period had six bells, the 'sweetest in all England.' Much of
the beauty and durability of Lincolnshire churches is due to
the Barnack-ragstone, which in mediaeval times was carried by
water from the quarries of that name in Northamptonshire to
every part of the county. It is a coarse-grained shelly oolite,
and probably the most durable freestone in England. The
working of the stone appears to have been almost entirely
abandoned before the commencement of the I5th century,
probably from the exhaustion of the quarries.§

* Miss Ingelow, herself a Lincolshire worthy, in her poem The High Tide on
the Coast of Lincolnshire (1571), graphically pictures the perils of fen life in flood
time, when the great bells of Boston rang out night and day to the warning tune of
* The Brides of Mavis-Enderby.'

f Lincoln Pocket Guide, p. 72.

J Monasticon Anglicanum, Dugdale, Vol. II, p. 96.

§ See Miller and Skertchly, The Fen/and Past and Present, 1878, pp. 78, 79.

Natural History. 71

VALUE OF A SALMON FISHERY
ON THE TRENT.

PERHAPS the following particulars relating to the value of
a salmon fishery at different times during the last 130
years may be interesting. The particulars relate to a
"several" fishery on the river Trent, at East Ferry, extending
two miles, belonging to the manor of Scotton.

In 1743, in a rent-roll of John Hayley, lord of the manor
of Scotton, George Newcombe was tenant of a small farm at
East Ferry with the fishery, at ^35 IQS. a-year. In 1750, in
a rent-roll of Vansittart Hudson, then lord of the manor of
Scotton, Robert Goodburn was tenant of the fishery alone at
^4 a-year, and widow Newcome kept the farm.

In 1752 the fishery was leased for twenty-one years to
Robert Goodburn at ^6 a-year; and in 1754 sub-let to
C. Wilkinson for ^8 a-year. In 1771 it was reduced to ^4
a-year. In 1801 Sir John Frederick was lord of the manor of
Scotton, and the fishery was rented at j£io 6s. In 1802 it
was leased for twenty-one years to Thomas Wilkinson for
^21 i Os. In 1815 the rent was reduced to ^4, and it was
let with the farm; so it continued down to 1867, when it was
separated from the farm and leased by Sir Richard Frederick,
lord of the manor, for seven years at £j a-year. The decreased
value in 1815 was attributed to the introduction of steam
packets from Hull to Gainsborough up the Trent. The
salmon were prejudiced against steam as an invasion of the
rights of their river by such an ogre, and left; but the take of
salmon at this fishery has wonderfully increased in the last ten
years, and, as the steam packets have increased also, some
other reason must be assigned for the removal of the prejudice
in the salmon against their ancient haunts. The net profit to
the lessee in 1873 was ^100, and the fishermen earned ^40
each, thus clearly proving that the increase of the salmon in
the river Trent is due to the remedial measures taken by law
to preserve salmon, or else that this "several" fishery was let
very much under its value since 1815. The Trent is a late
river, and fish begin to run up the end of May. In 1873 tne
average weight of salmon taken at this fishery was I2fb. each.

THE EDITOR.

72 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

THE STORY OF THE LINCOLN GAP.

By F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S.,

President of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, being the Presidential Address,
delivered at Lincoln, 1895.

PART II.*

In 1882, the late Mr. J. T. Padley — well known in the
county as an accurate and painstaking engineer — published a
work "On the Fens and Floods of Mid Lincolnshire," to
which we are indebted for much valuable information. Before
the Romans came, he says, " every flood of the Trent flowed
down to Lincoln through the Gap, and on over the fens to the
sea," part entering in at Friskney and Wainfleet Havens, and
the rest at Boston. These flood waters came mainly through
five openings in a range of low sandhills, extending from the
village of Girton in Nottinghamshire to Marton Cliff in
Lincolnshire. These openings are at Spaldford, Newton, the
Foss Dyke entrance, Torksey, and Brampton ; and the most
southerly one — at Spaldford — being the highest up the valley,
was the most dangerous.

The far-seeing Romans, who did so much good work in the
country, built banks across these openings, prior to which the
Trent had access through them to Lincoln ; and then, having
received the waters of the Till and Witham, it had to pass
through the narrow gap, thus raising the water to a great
height, as a boat chained to a stake at Motherby Hill, 340
yards north of Brayford, proves ; then, having gone through
the Gap, the water flowed down into the fens, and, being
joined by the Langworth river, the Bain and other streams,
covered all the low land down to the Wash, leaving " Swines-
head, Bicker, Wigtoft, Boston, Skirbeck, Sibsey, and all the
Holland towns (or tofts as they are called by Dugdale) mere
islands in the water."

The Spaldford bank, which is from 12 to 15 feet high on
the road from Girton to South Clifton, is a mile and a half
long, and stands now a mile to the east of the river ; and Mr.

g,
dley

Padley gives us a very graphic account of a flood which

* Lines. N. & ^., " Nat. Hist." Section, 1896, p. 53.

Natural History. 73

occurred in 1795 when this bank gave way, and a great part of
Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire was flooded. To the west
of Lincoln nearly 20,000 acres were covered to the height of
10 feet above the present level of the land, and remained so
covered for three weeks, during which time the only remaining
communication between the villages around, and for those
going to Lincoln market, was by boat. The people at Saxilby
had to get on to the higher ground in the village, the lower
part being under water, and many lived in the church. The
frightened cattle had to be rescued by boats from the knolls on
which they had gathered. The water ran over the High
Street at Lincoln ; and, on the far side of the gap, the land was
converted into a sea. Such a flood as this, one would have
thought, would have roused up the people to look after their
interests j but, Mr. Padley tells us, from the time the Romans
first made the banks referred to, up to 1852 — when one of
these great floods occurred — beyond a temporary patching up
as occasion required, they were entirely neglected ; a sign both of
the apathy, and of the contented state of the people in those days.

This great flood of 1795 occurred at Candlemas; and it is
curious to note that, at Candlemas of the present year (1895), just
a century later, and owing to the same cause — the melting of
the snow after a long and severe frost, when the frozen ground
was unable to absorb the moisture — the Trent bank a little
above Gainsborough gave way, and this, notwithstanding the
resources and experiences of another 100 years.

Since the year 1852, the attempts to keep out the floods
from the Trent and the fens have been carried out on a more
systematic scale. Up to that time the low land in Boultham,
North and South Carlton, and Broxholme, were mere swamps
covered with water the greater part of the year, while the
fens to the east of the Gap were in a permanent state of flood.

The reclaimed land, at first, was of little value for ordinary
agricultural purposes, 2,500 acres at Blankney being let by
auction, Mr. Padley tells us, for j£io per annum. Now, in
many of these reclaimed areas, we have the richest pasture land
in Lincolnshire.

Many amongst us can well remember the great changes
which have taken place in the fens by drainage. In the early
part of this century, and far later, you might look down over
the fen country, winter after winter, and see nothing but water
for miles. Skating to Boston was a common event ; long lines
of water-fowl flitted across the sky ; " kite upon kite " could

74 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

be seen on the wing; starlings whirled about in clouds, and
broke down the reeds as they settled upon them ; and, where
now the great engineering works of Lincoln are carried on, flocks
of wild swans were seen, and the boomingof the bittern was heard.
The fens were a sure and easy means of livelihood to those
who dwelt in them. They netted the fish and trapped the
eels, they stalked and shot the wildfowl, and brought them all
on market days to the towns around. Many of them lived on
the water in house boats nearly all the year through; while
those on the outskirts kept large flocks of geese and sheep on
the rich grass lands ; and all loved their wild free life. No
wonder, then, that, in 1768, numbers of them, fearing the loss
of their old privileges, assembled to prevent the inclosure of
Holland Fen. Unfortunately they committed great excesses,
for they were a wild and lawless set. Men were shot ; horses
and sheep barbarously killed and mutilated ; houses and
haystacks burned, and much mischief was done : and, though
all this must be deplored, there is many a Lincolnshire man
left who can feel with the old fen-men yet. To many
amongst us the fen district is still a happy hunting-ground,
and a land full of beauty as well. Many there are who see in
it no mere level waste, but a land of glorious landscapes and
happy feeding cattle ; of rich sunsets and flights of birds ; a
land of rare water-plants and reeds ; of deep, clear pools where
the big pike lie ; and of

"tangled water-courses . . . ,
Shot over with purple, and green, and yellow."

We have only now to enquire whether the sea took any part
in all we have been considering, or whether it was the result
of river action alone.

The low land to the east of the wolds has, no doubt, since
glacial times, been frequently covered by the sea: the Romans,
in fact, raised the sea bank to keep it out. The Witham also,
until stopped by the locks at Boston, was tidal ; and the sea
would often run over the land long after the fens were
reclaimed, and partially drained, — as J. Ingelow records in her
well-known poem, " The High Tide on the coast of Lincoln-
shire, 1571"; — and, even as late as 1779, Mr. Padley, in his
work before referred to, speaks of " many vessels on the
Lincolnshire coast being driven two miles in the marshes
during a heavy gale."

Besides this, a reference to the drift map of the Geological
Survey round Lincoln will show remains of marine peat, and

Natural History. 75

marine fen silt, in the fens to the east of Lincoln, in the
parishes of Branston and Dunston ; and the skull of a Walrus
was not long since dug up from the peat near Ely; indicating
that this animal formerly inhabited the valley of the Ouse,
which, at that time, was probably an estuary.

To the west also, where the Trent valley lies, it is quite
probable that the sea occasionally covered the land in past
times before the river was banked ; but this would be only for
a time, and during exceptionally high tides ; and when we
think how low the land is on that side, and that the aegre, or
tidal wave, which runs up the Trent, is felt quite 14 miles
above Gainsborough, we cannot wonder at it.

In addition to this, there are proofs of the near presence of
the sea in the finding of recent marine shells inland. Some,
Mr. J. D. Carr informs me, were met with in Newland, at
the foot of Lincoln Cliff, during some alterations a few years
since. They consisted chiefly of Cardlum edule^ ZMytllus edulls^
and Littorina llttorea — the common cockle, mussel, and peri-
winkle— and they were all dwarfed, as is invariably the case
when marine molluscs are found living in salt, or estuarine,
marshes, with a large admixture of fresh water. Mr. Carr,
in writing about them, says they were "involved in a marine
peat containing a good many bones, a large number being
those of birds ; the peat underlies the whole of Newland,
Guildhall Street, and Brayford, and I should think (though I
have seen no sections) the east side of the city also ; the whole
rests on the Capricornis zone of the Lias." Besides this, the
valve of an oyster shell, having the sandy case of a marine
annelid attached, mixed with bones of deer and horse, and
pieces of wood, was found recently in Mr. Pearson's new
brickyard on the Trent bank at Gainsborough, 14 feet 6
inches below the surface, in a bed of sand underlying warpy
clay ; and, as the worm case is unbroken, and in good
preservation, it could not have travelled far, and had probably
been cast up by some stronger tidal rush than usual, which
burst over and flooded the land. Beyond, however, these
temporary occupations and incursions, there is no record of sea
action ; and, in forming the contour of the land, its escarp-
ments, valleys and plains, the sea took no part.

Rivers to start the grips, and atmospheric forces to widen
them into valleys, is sufficient for it all. We want no other
aid.

Such is the story of the Lincoln Gap ; one of the many

76 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

pages in nature's book which lie open at our feet, and which it
is our privilege to read if we will. The study of it is wide
and far-reaching, for, in the evolution, or development, of the
Trent, we have a clue to the history of many another river
and stream ; and, by the aid of the new and strong light
thrown on the subject by Prof. Davis, in his recent admirable
paper, we shall be able to trace the birth of many an inland
escarpment, valley, and plain, the origin of which is at present
unaccountable, or, to say the least, obscure.

NOTE. — In connexion with this subject and Prof. Davis' paper, an article, which
appears in the July number of the Royal Geographical Soc. Mag. for this year, was
read before that Society on the 23rd March last, by J. E. Marr, F.R.S., Sec. Geol.
Soc., on " The Waterways of English Lakeland," in which he alludes to river
action, and speaks of the origin and diversion of the Lune and Eden in that district j
and in the discussion which took place after the reading of the paper, Mr. W. T.
Blanford, F.R.S., Treasurer of the Geol. Soc., said :

"The history of the river valleys is one of the questions of modern geology, a
question which has arisen within my recollection, and which was almost ignored by
many of the great geologists 50 years ago." ..." Rivers are of very ancient
origin } in many cases they are older than the mountains they traverse. All sorts of
explanations have been adopted for the fact that a great many rivers run across
mountains from side to side, and there is no doubt that all sorts of explanations may
be necessary, because the fact is an extraordinary one. A very simple explanation,
but a most obvious one when fully conceived, is the simple fact that the river existed
before the mountains, and as elevation gradually took place, the river kept its way,
cutting through the mountains. Two of the most extraordinary cases known are
those of the Indus and Bramaputra, cutting through the Himalayas, and actually
running from one side to the other of the biggest mountains in the world, and that
this is so is probably due to the fact that the rivers were there before the mountains
existed." . . . "I think that, as a contribution to the history of rivers, Mr.
Marr's paper is of particular interest, because he shows not only how the rivers
make their valleys, but also how rivers change their courses."

Dr. H. Woodward, F.R.S., late President of the Geol. Soc., who also spoke, said :

"One of the things that strikes one most is the way in which rivers have
continued to hold certain directions through great changes in the denudation of the
country."

Dr. H. R. Mill said : " It must have struck some, when Mr. Marr described
rivers wandering over the country, and valleys working backwards to behead and
capture the waters of other rivers, that the land is in a very much less stable
condition than they had been in the habit of thinking." . . . . "In America
Prof. W. Morris Davis, and in France Prof, de Lapperent, had elaborated a method
of studying these phenomena, and I am pleased to see that Mr. Marr, while acting
independently in the same direction as these gentlemen, has, for purposes of popular
description, avoided their terminology. In its proper place, the theoretical elucidation
of practical problems, a precise terminology is essential, and in introducing one for
such purposes Prof. Davis has rendered an inestimable service."

Mr. H. J. Mackinder, Reader in Geography at Oxford, who is one of the
members of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, said :

"There is one point which struck me in what Dr. Mill said just now by way of
commendation of Mr. Marr, that he had avoided the use of the terms with which
Prof. Davis had equipped this branch of the subject. I agree with him that this

Natural History. 77

evening it was probably right to avoid the use of these terms, but I trust that no
one will carry away the idea that they are therefore without use. Mr. Davis has
done a very valuable thing in giving us terms which, with all due deference to
Dr. Mill, I cannot regard by any means as so uncouth as those with which most
sciences are equipped. ' Subsequent,' ' Consequent,' and so forth, enable us at once
to compare the rivers and parts of rivers we have studied in any particular district
with other rivers. During the whole evening I could not help feeling how admirably
the intellectual analysis implied in Mr. Davis" terminology fitted with every sentence
by Mr. Marr."

Mr. Marr in reply to the comments of the several speakers, said :
" 1 am glad to hear Mr. Mackinder take up the cudgels in favour of Prof.
Davis' terminology, though it is somewhat technical ; but had I used it instead of
hurrying over sentences which my hearers found it difficult to follow, I should have
been able to replace sentences with words pregnant with meaning."

I am very glad to see this worthy tribute paid to Prof. Davis' admirable
exposition and work.

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF A COUNTRY
PARISH ;

With some notes relative to the effects of game preserving on its
Natural History.

By MRS. C. E. JARVIS.

PART II.*
BIRDS.

IRD life is perhaps more affected by game-preservation
than any other, as a good gamekeeper, in the eyes of his
master, is one who does his best to extirpate all birds of
prey, as well as those of the crow tribe ; this causes a great
increase in the number of wood pigeons, sparrows, and other
small birds.

The following are either resident or migrate in spring and
autumn: — Missel thrush, Song thrush, Field fare, Blackbird,
Whin-chat, Redstart, Redbreast, Nightingale, White throat,
Lesser White throat, Gold crest, Chiff-chaff, Willow wren,
Sedge warbler, Hedge sparrow, Long-tailed tit, Great tit, Cole
tit, Blue tit, Tree creeper, Wren, Pied wagtail, Grey wagtail,
Meadow pipit, Tree pipit, Spotted fly-catcher, Swallow,
Martin, Goldfinch, Siskin, Green-finch, Sparrow, Chaffinch,
Linnet, Redpoll, Bull-finch,Yellow-hammer, Sky-lark, Starling,

* Lines. N. & ^., " Nat. Hist." Section, 1896, p. 48.

78 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Jay, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion crow, Hooded crow, Rook,
Swift, Great black woodpecker, Green woodpecker, King-
fisher, Cuckoo, Ring-dove, Barn owl, Tawny owl, Buzzard,
Sparrow-hawk, Peregrine falcon, Kestrel, Mallard, Pheasant,
Red-legged partridge, Common partridge, Land rail, Moor hen,
Lapwing, Heron, Woodcock, Black-headed gull.

In addition to these, Swan, Geese, Wild duck, Pigeon,
Golden plover, and common Curlew have been seen to pass over
flying, and there may have been other and rarer birds unnoticed.

If the winter is severe the song thrushes depart, and are not
so plentiful the following spring. We had several blackbirds
more or less speckled with white, and one with a foot missing
frequented the Rectory garden for two years ; his misfortune
did not prevent him from rinding a mate. A few whin-
chats return every year; one pair can always be found
about the same hedge. Redstarts are rare, as there are no
stone buildings or walls in the parish ; a pair or two
frequent the woods. The nightingale from being a passer-by
remained to breed, though I never actually heard of the nest
being found ; on a still evening it can be heard a quarter of a
mile off. Nightingales have increased very much in Lincoln-
shire of late years. The white throat and willow wren are
very common, especially the latter ; the chifF-chaff less so.
The gold crest is plentiful in winter, and some remain to breed ;
I found a nest in April, 1882, full of eggs ; it was beautifully
made, of moss, almost as round as a ball, and suspended at the
end of a spruce fir branch. The parent birds attracted my
attention by their shrill noise. By May ist the young were
hatched. I only once saw a pair of tree-creepers. Pied wag-
tails migrate in winter, and return regularly in the middle of
March. In July, 1882, two young cuckoos were hatched by
wagtails, and brought to the garden to be fed. I noticed the
first on the i6th, and was able to observe it from the window.
On the ground it was very awkward ; when following the
wagtail for food it took two or three hops, then flew a little
way, and opened its orange-lined mouth very wide. At times
it sat on the edge of the sunk fence, and whilst the wagtail
was was searching for food running backwards and forwards ;
the cuckoo never ceased screaming. When the wagtail could
not conveniently reach its mouth it sat on its head and put the
food in from above. On the 23rd a second cuckoo appeared
with another wagtail in attendance, this cuckoo being rather
smaller and differently marked.

Natural History. 79

I have now and then seen yellow wagtails in winter, but was
never sure of the species until one day in November, 1890,
under cover of a thick fog, I got close to a pair near the beck,
which proved to be Motacilla melanope^ the grey wagtail. They
were restless, but occasionally perched on the hedge.

Swallows are not so numerous as house martins. There
were two nests about the Rectory ; one glued to the inside
wall of the pig-stye, the other on a ledge in the coal-house or
sometimes on a shelf in an out-house. On Aug. 26th, 1877,
I saw a young buff-coloured swallow flying with others.
Swifts do not build in the parish, but are constantly to be seen
and heard in summer, especially in the evening. The goldfinch
has been known to nest, and the young have been reared. In
March, 1891, a flock of 20 visited a lime avenue leading to the
Rectory. Flocks of redpolls and siskins frequent the hedges
and shrubberies in spring arid autumn. Siskins are very tamej
they are fond of the seeds of the cypress, and on one occasion
found something in a cabbage bed they liked. Their sweet
song cannot be mistaken when almost all other birds are mute.
Of late years thousands of starlings have made a young wood,
in the middle of the estate and far from a road, their resting-
place. They arrive in flocks from all quarters and alight first
in hedgerow trees, where they spend some time chattering
before finally flying off to the wood. A good many pairs rear
their young in chimneys, ivy, and holes in trees ; to the best
of my belief they are not double brooded.

There is no large rookery; there were' about 14 nests at one
time in some old hedgerow elms in the "Hall Close," where
the old hall is said to have stood. The rooks all deserted those
trees one spring and came to a group of elms on the glebe,
within sight of their old homes. An old woman who lived
near said they left because the keepers fired into their nests.
Shooting the young ones will not drive them away, as is well
known, but it appears they dislike shot in their nests. Food
may have had something to do with the" flitting," for when there
was snow on the ground, the rooks would come and steal the
food thrown out for the small birds ; so they were given bones
and large crusts, which they carried off, leaving the little birds
to eat their crumbs in peace.

A pair of great black woodpeckers was seen in the spring of
1890, and one was unfortunately shot. In the autumn the
green woodpecker is very fond of pecking about in rank grass,
and looks very comical with its head held at such a curious

80 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

angle, and its body very upright. A pair of kingfishers inhabit
the same holt as the nightingales ; the beck runs through it,
and they make their nest in the bank. Moorhens also build
there ; their nest has been found in a spruce at some distance
from the water. A pair of common buzzards used to build
year after in a wood just outside the parish boundary, and not-
withstanding the plundering of their nests and constant perse-
cution they did not desert the locality till about 1888. In
November, 1883, a pair was trapped in Hatton. In May,
1879, there was a kestrel's nest in the nightingale wood; the
keepers had the cruelty to wait till the young were hatched
before climbing the tree to take the nest, as they said if they
failed to shoot the old birds, at any rate they would not rear a
second brood. They uttered a wild plaintive cry when one
approached the nest tree, and as it is known they do more good
than harm they ought to be spared. I once saw a sparrow-hawk
drop a full-grown partridge, which lost a good many
feathers but ran off unhurt. A sparrow-hawk once dashed
against the window during a sewing meeting. As quick as
possible a woman ran out and wrung its neck. On my remon-
strating, she said, " If you knew the damage they do amongst
our poultry, you would do the same." I had it stuffed.

Ring doves at one time increased to such an extent, and did
so much damage to turnips and cabbages, that after the shooting
season the owners of the various estates agreed to shoot them
on one fixed evening every week, which diminished their
numbers to a great extent. On Oct. i4-th, 1881, a young
pigeon, unfledged, fell out of its nest during a gale.

There are a certain number of wild pheasants, amongst them
a white one now and then, but the greater number are reared
by hand, the eggs being collected from nests likely to be
disturbed, and more obtained by shutting up some of the birds
and setting their eggs under barn-door hens. They are brought
up like chickens, and remain quite tame till the shooting season,
running to the keepers to be fed. They give employment to
several men, who take it in turns to sit up all night to watch
the coverts and scare away foxes, etc.

Partridges are far more interesting than pheasants, being
more truly wild. Their call note, especially in the evening, is
a very pleasant sound. The land rail or corn crake is an
occasional visitor; I only remember one summer when they
stayed. They seem to me to have become scarcer, or perhaps
they prefer limestone to clay, for they were plentiful about

Natural History. 81

Lincoln formerly. A few pairs of lapwings nest in an upland
pasture, and larger flocks come in winter ; their eggs are often
broken by the plough. Black-headed gulls are also winter
visitors ; they come from their breeding places at Twigmoor
near Brigg. Larger gulls are sometimes with them, or come
alone, but I never could determine the species. Larus ridibun-
dus loses its black head when the breeding season is over.

I will now add what the keeper said about birds in 1891 : —

" We were very much troubled two years ago with a
perigrine falcon ; it killed a lot of partridges and some
pheasants ; we have had them here before, but not to stay as
this did, it was here for several weeks. We could not trap it,
as it never came a second time to eat of what it had killed.
Cook (an under-keeper) shot at it, it was never seen afterwards,
I think he must have killed it. It is two years since I saw a
buzzard, they are getting very scarce. We have plenty of
jays at Hatton Wood and Chambers' Wood, they breed
there ; magpies as well, but they are not as plentiful as the jays.
I saw near Chambers' Wood the other afternoon fifteen jays
fly out of a hedgerow, one after the other, into the wood.

The sparrow-hawk is very troublesome with the pheasants.
We have trapped and shot about eleven this season, and there are
several about yet ; we see very little of them until the end of
July. Last year I killed near the pheasants fifteen or sixteen;
have killed something about the same quantity for several
years. We have a lot of trouble with the kestrel when the
pheasants are first hatched ; I believe they take them for mice.
Perhaps you may have heard of the white partridge that was
bred at Hatton about three years ago. A pure white starling
was killed at Hatton last year."

The white partridge strayed off the property and was killed
and stuffed by a neighbouring land owner.

The thickness of the game upon the ground seems to
attract birds of prey in considerable numbers, only to be, for
the most part, trapped or shot. With regard 'to the noble
peregrine, it is well known that they will fly as far as 50 miles
in search of food for their young, so this one may have come
from the cliffs of Yorkshire or the Peak of Derbyshire.

Game rearing cannot be said to affect the botany of a district
to any great extent, on the whole it is in favour of the
botanist. The cutting down of some woods and planting of
others encourages certain plants, and some fields of stiff clay,
left in a state of nature for the benefit of the pheasants,

Vol. 5, No. 38, Lines. N. & 9.
Nat. Hisf. Sea.

82 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

produce a great number of " weeds." One plant Polygonum
Fagopyrum was probably introduced as pheasant food. The
district, varied by woodland meadow, clay and sandy soil with
a small stream and mossy ponds or " pits," affords a good
variety of plants, the local Natural History Society having
collected in 1891 about 300 flowering plants exclusive of
sedges, rushes, and grasses. This little Society owed its
existence to the wheelwright, an enthusiastic botanist and
bird-stuffer. He was inspired at a very early age by an old
woman, a herbalist, to whom many came for advice, and for
whom he collected herbs, and thus got to know their names
and properties before he went to school.

Hound's tongue still grows near the house she once occupied
and is thought to have been introduced by her. The wheel-
wright inherits from his old friend a strong faith in herbs as
remedies, and when through an accident he lacerated one of
his ringers badly, he applied a plaster of adder's tongue chopped
up, until the wound was healed. He is the possessor of
several old-fashioned botanical works, such as Withering ;
and was acquainted with the Lenncean system only, until
Bentham's excellent Annual was introduced to his notice.
His brother, a working farmer and excellent gardener is also
a botanist, and when hoeing spares any weed he does not
know, until it has flowered and he can ascertain its name.
The brothers own mowing and reaping machines and when
working them always look out for strange plants, especially
among " seeds." In these and other ways they have identified
several which might otherwise have been overlooked, such as :
Senebiera Coronopus^ Melllotus officinalis, Anthyllus l/ulnerarla^
Caucalls nodosa^ Anthemis nobilis, Cnicus acaulis^ Centamea
nigra^ variety declpiens^ Clchorium Intybus^ Picris echioides^
Campanula latlfolla^ Anagallis cterulea, Samolus Valerandl^
Echuim vulgar e^ Solanum nlgrum^ and Botrychium Lunar ia^ none
of them common in the neighbourhood. They found other
rarities during their botanical rambles further afield, generally
on a Sunday afternoon. Walking through one of their
meadows one day, we came across a labourer pollarding some
willows -, he had left in the middle of one of them a straight
young tree, with bark of a different colour to the willow, and,
being winter, denuded of the leaves. Asked what it was, he
said, " a wicken tree," and that his master had instructed him
to leave it as a curiosity, its roots probably reaching through
the willow to the ground. The wicken, or mountain ash, is

Natural History. 83

rare in this part of Lincolnshire, except when planted in
woods, but it was formerly much thought of as a charm
against witch-craft. Rev. E. G. Cole, in his Glossary of
Words in use in South-west Lincolnshire^ gives the following
example of its use : " There's heder wicken, and there's sheder
wicken, one has berries, and the t'other has none ; when you
thought you were overlooked, if the person was he you got a
piece of sheder wicken, if it was she you got heder wicken,
and made a T with it on the hob, and then they could do
nowt at you."

Besides the wheelwright and his brother, all the other
members of the Natural History Society were successful in
contributing specimens to the district botany, with the result
above stated. White varieties of flowers frequently occur,
the most noteworthy being some pure white examples of
Scabiosa succisa in a meadow since ploughed up, and Ajuga
reptans^ observed to be persistent in the same place year after year.

A small hayfield full of Saxifraga granulata is worth
mentioning ; also that Stratiotes abides introduced into a pond
took root and multiplied quickly. The latest addition is
Epipactis latifolia^ which has appeared within the last two
years, and the most conspicuous, a gigantic specimen of
Onopordoin Acanthium^ which, most appropriately, sprang up in
the wheelwright's new garden and attracted great attention.
It measured, when in flower, about six feet high, and must
have been quite three feet in circumference. With this
wonder of nature, I will conclude my paper.

LINCOLNSHIRE.*

By JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U.,

Great Cotes, R.S.O., Lincoln ; Convener of the British dissociation Committee on the
Migration of Birds.

PART II. t

THE geological strata of Lincolnshire extend in long
ribbon-like bands, which generally correspond to the
length of the county, running nearly north and south,

* Reprinted from The Naturalist, 1886, p. I, by special permission,
f Lines. N.&S^t "Nat. Hist." Section, 1897, p. 65.

84 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

and with a dip to the east, overlapping in regular succession,
not unlike the leaves of an open book. * Much of the
picturesque beauty of the shire is due to the two main ranges
of hills, the chalk wolds and the oolite, having an easy slope to
the east, and more or less bold escarpments to the west. The
chalk or wold district commences at Barton-on-Humber, and
terminates near Burgh-in-the-Marsh, fifty-two miles, dipping
beneath the fen to appear again beyond the Wash at Hunstan-
ton, its greatest breadth is fourteen miles. The oolite runs
like a spine through the whole length of the county, and is
represented by a narrow band in the north and south of
Lincoln (where it is once cut through and divided by the bed
of the Witham), spreading into the wide elevated district
known as the c Heath,' where on its western side it forms the
striking escarpment called the c Cliff,' predominating the level
lias and new red sandstones of the Trent Valley. Between
these ranges of the chalk and the oolite lies the great central
plain of Lincolnshire — greensands, gault, Kimmeridge, and
Oxford clays ; these all in South Lincolnshire pass beneath the
peats, clays, and gravels of the fens. There is still a third line
of elevated land formed by the Lias, Rhaetic, and red-marl beds
extending from the mouth of the Trent to as far as Gains-
borough. At its northern extremity, near Scunthorpe, is the
rich bed of iron ore, twenty-seven feet thick, which has already
added so much to the wealth and importance of this otherwise
poor and barren district. A section across the county from
east to west at its greatest breadth, passes first through the
chalky boulder-clay, overlaid in north-east Lincolnshire by a
considerable thickness of warp, and generally along the
maritime plain by recent alluvial deposits, sand, and clays.
In the Humber marshes borings for water show twelve to
forty-five feet of clean stoneless warp, with an occasional
cockle-shell ; beneath the warp is the forest bed, two and a
half feet in thickness, resting on about a foot of whitish clay
and sand. This old indigenous forest crops out at various
places, both within the Humber and the sea coast, at low-

*The Journals of the Geological Society contain several important papers on
the geology of Lincolnshire, which may be studied with advantage by those who
take an interest in the subject, such are ' Rhaetic beds near Gainsborough ; * Strata
which form the base of the Lincolnshire ivolds,' 1867, Vol. XXIII., pp. 315,227 j
Glacial and Post-glacial strata of Lincolnshire, Vol. XXIV., 1868, p. 146; Neocomian
strata of Lincolnshire, Vol. XXVI., 1870, p. 326; Lias and Oolite of north-ivest
Lincolnshire, Vol. XXXI., 1875, p. 115 ; Southerly extension of the Hessle Boulder Clay,
Vol. XXXV., 1879, p. 397.

Natural History. 85

water mark, presenting clay beds thickly interlaced with roots,
also scattered stumps of trees in sltu^ identified as oak, beech,
elm, birch, holly, yew, hazel, alder, and willow. The only
remains of animal life we have found was during the excavation
of the new docks at Grimsby — the core of a horn of 'Bos
primlgemus. In the peat bed, probably of the same date, which
lies below the silt and sand of the Freshney Beck in Aylesby
parish, we have dug up bones of the red deer, Bos longlfrons^
wolf, or large dog, wild boar, probably wild cat, and a human
ulna^ like the rest stained perfectly black with the peat.*
Below the forest bed is the boulder drift, a reddish clay filled with
fragments of chalk and derivative rocks, and varying from 50
to 300 feet in thickness. A peculiarity of the low-lying
districts near the sea, as at Tetney and Great Cotes, are the
ponds, locally known as ' blow-wells,' popularly supposed to be
unfathomable ; they are powerful springs, never failing in the
driest season, rising from the chalk through the superincumbent
drift and alluvium. The blow-wells in the parish of Little
Cotes supply the town of Grimsby with an unfailing source of
pure water. Many of the low-country springs in the north-
east districts are more or less intermittent, the flow of water
being regulated by the ebb and flow of the tides. Mr.
Clement Reid's recent researches in the north of the county,
more especially in connection with the old coast line at the
base of the wolds, f and the deposits of inter-glacial sands have
added much to the geological interest of the district. J The
examination of the sand pits at Laceby and Croxton has
resulted in the determination of numerous species of marine
shells, some yet common on the coast, others slightly northern,
but not Arctic, whilst some are indicative of a comparatively
warm and equable climate. An interesting find at Croxton is
Corblcula fluminalis^ of which living examples are now restricted
to the Nile, the Lake of Gennesareth, and some rivers of Asia.

* The great forest of Kesteven in the south of the county, of which relics
remain in Grimsthorpe Park, with its original herd of red deer, probably extended
far into Fenland proper. The buried forests beneath the peat comprise oak, elm,
birch, Scotch fir, yew, hazel, sallow, alder, and willow. Some of the oaks are of
immense size, and the wood, a specimen of which is now before me, nearly as black
and hard as ebony. Years after the drainage of the West Fen the exact position of
the great trees was made apparent to the fenmen by the rime frost lying longer
above them than on the surrounding fen.

t At this period the coast of Lincolnshire was represented by a chain of low-
lying islands of chalk, separated by narrow and deep fiords.

J ' The Geology of Holderness, and the adjoining parts of Yorkshire and
Lincolnshire.' Memoirs of the Geographical Survey, 1885. Clement Reid.

86 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

This shell is extremely abundant at Kelsey Hill ballast pits,
north of the H umber, in conjunction with bones of bison,
leptorhine rhinoceros, and elephant. A narrow band of red
chalk known as the Hunstanton red chalk is traceable all
through Lincolnshire from Gunby to South Ferriby. The
summit of the wold near Pelham's Pillar is 456 feet above sea-
level ; the highest point is probably near Normanby clump,
about 549 feet. On the western slope of the wolds below
Caistor, and running south, there are a series of ironstones,
sandstones, and clays to which the term Neocomian has been
applied.

Still following the sectional line we find the Kimmeridge
clay represented in a narrow band, estimated at 600 feet in
thickness ; then in succession Oxford clay and Kellaway rocks,
passing into the cornbrash and great oolites, forming an
elevated belt of varying breadth through the length of the
county. The Liassic clays and marlstones are defined by a
narrow belt ten to twelve miles wide in the south, and running
off to a mile in width near the Humber. Lastly, on the
slopes of the Trent Valley are the oldest rocks in the county,
the Keuper sandstone.

Up to the present date Lincolnshire compares unfavourably
with other counties * in having no published list of the
Mammalia found within its bounds. The last and most
interesting addition to the fauna was the wild cat (Felts catus)
shot in the early part of March, 1883, in a small plantation
close to Bullington Wood, near Wragby. f The marten is
sparingly distributed in the chain of great woodlands which
extends from Wragby to Bourn, and from information recently
acquired, we are inclined to think it will be many years before
it becomes extinct. The polecat is common ; the otter still
lingers in the north and south ; the badger probably more
abundant than in any of the midland counties. The common
seal is frequently seen on the coast in the autumn, and on that
labyrinth of great sandbanks in the Wash, between Lynn and
Wainfleet — of which some, like the Dogshead and Knock, and
Seal's Bank, are only covered at 'high spring tides — there has been

* The list of Yorkshire Mammalia, in Clarke and Roebuck's Vertebrata,
includes forty-five species out of a possible sixty-nine. In Mr. T. Southwell's list
for the county of Norfolk, altogether forty-one species are named.

•j- For a detailed account of the capture see Tkt Naturalist, Sept. 1884, p. 33 j
Zoologist, Sept. 1884, pp. 360-1 j Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich
Naturalists' Society, Vol. III., p. 67 6a.

Natural History. 87

from time immemorial a considerable colony, and doubtless
many young are born in the course of the season. The grey
seal is also found in the same locality, and with Mr. T.
Southwell, of Norwich,* remains the credit of adding this
interesting species to the respective faunas of the two
counties. f Of the smaller mammals the dormouse is found in
the south-west of the county ; J the harvest-mouse is rare, the
lesser shrew local, and the water shrew exceedingly plentiful.
Lincolnshire in the present day can boast of little of its
former ornithological pre-eminence ; it was truly described by
Fuller in his day as e the aviary of England, for the wild-foule
therein : remarkable for their Plenty — Variety — Delicious-
nesse.' § Few and fragmentary are the records which have
come down to us concerning the treasures of the fens in the
Liber Eliensis,|| the Chronicles of Crowland,fT and from
William of Malm es bury** and Camden,ft and again more
recently in the writings of Gough,JJ Pennant, and Colonel
Montagu. Drayton also in quaint verse §§ describes the
goodly fens and their teeming life. These passages from old
writers have frequently been quoted in descriptions of fen
scenery, and space will not permit us to do more than allude
to them in a general way. A glorious place in its wild natural
state was that old fenland before man had come in to bank and
drain, and a very paradise to the fowler and fisher were the
boggy flats where the c dark-green alders, and the pale-green
reeds stretched for miles round the lagoon, where the coot
clanked and the bittern boomed, and the sedge-bird, not
content with its own sweet song, mocked the notes of all the
birds around, while high overhead hung motionless, hawk
beyond hawk, buzzard beyond buzzard, kite beyond kite, as
far as the eye could see.'|||| Some idea may be formed of the

* Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc., Vol. III., p. 670.

•f- We are afraid a similar joint claim cannot be set up in the north of the county
in respect to the recent occurrence of Sowerby's whale, Physeter bidens, within the
estuary of the Humber, cast up on the shore at Spurn Point in the autumn of 1885.

J See Mr. G. T. Rope, Range of the Dormouse in England and Wales, Zoo/.,
1885, p. 207.

§ Worthies of England, Vol. II., p. 2.

|| Ed. Stuart, 1848.

f[ Ingulph's History of Crovuland, Bonn's translation.

** Temp. 1 100.

ft Camden's Britannia, i Ed., 1695.

H Op. cit., Gough's Ed., 1806, Vol. II, pp. 380-1.

§§ Polyolbicn, Song 25 (Holland's oration).

HI) Kingsley, Prose idylls — the fens.

88 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

enormous number of wild foul frequenting the fens by the
facts as related by Pennant,* that in one year from only ten
decoys near Wainfleet 31,200 ducks were sent to London. In
these times a flock of wild duck has been observed passing
along from the north and north-east into the east fen in a
continuous stream for eight hours together, f

With the drainage of the fens the bird-life disappeared.
Gone now as habitual residents are the harriers and short-eared
owls, the grey geese and ducks, cormorants, grebes, and divers,
the bitterns, cranes, spoonbills, and storks ; gone also are the
smaller fowl — the black-tailed god wit, the avosets, ruffs and
reeves, gulls and terns. J Vanished too has many a fen plant,
as the great fen ragwort, the giant cineraria and marsh sow-
thistle, whilst others like the fragrant bog-myrtle, water
germander, and the marsh and royal ferns manage just to retain
a precarious footing, and are probably sooner or later doomed
to extinction ; and with the lost plants — and mainly perhaps
from that cause — have disappeared many beautiful insects.
The great copper and swallow-tailed butterflies, the red
wainscot, rosy-marsh, red-leopard, and Whittlesea ermine
moths, and many another insect treasure too numerous to
mention; gone too are the myriad frogs, the 'Lincolnshire
nightingales,' whose night croakings well nigh drowned all
other sounds of fen-life.

Scarcely second to the fens in interest were the vast swamps
and wastes of the Isle of Axholme, which as late as the
commencement of the present century still swarmed with
various fowl. Mr. Stonehouse has left some interesting notes §
in connection with the avifauna of this little known district,
having reference to the nesting of the marsh harrier, the
nesting habits of the bittern, and the taking of ruffs ; he also
says c the gyr-falcon is sometimes seen sailing over this and the
adjacent wastes ; it boldly attacks the largest of the feathered
race ; the stork, the heron, and the crane are easy vicitims ;

* British Zoology, Ed. 1768, p. 486.

fin one of the only two existing decoys worked in Lincolnshire, that of Ashby
near the Trent, an average of 2,741 ducks, teal, and widgeon, with some others,
were captured between the years 1874 and 18675 and since this 6,351 have been
taken in a single season, and of these 2,300 in thirty-one days, but in late years the
annual take appears to have somewhat fallen off.

J It is satisfactory to know that for the last four or five years the black tern has
nested in Lincolnshire.

§ The History and Topography of the Isle of Axholme, by the Rev. W. B. Stonehouse,
M.A., 1839.

Natural History. 89

it kills hares by darting directly upon them.' * In the time of
James I. a great herd of red deer wandered over Hatfield
levels and the adjacent wastes of Lindholme, and in the
inquisition of 1607 it is said that the number amounted to
about 1,000 head, and that the herd is much impaired by
the depredations of the borderers. From a curious entry
preserved in the parish registers of Finningley in 1737, it is
probable that some of the herd remained down to the
commencement of the i8th century.

In the first twenty years of the present century, ruffs and
reeves were common in all the maritime marshes in the north-
east of the county, and we have been assured by an old sports-
man that he used regularly to make excursions into the
Stallingborough and Immingham marshes in the spring to
shoot ruffs and dotterel ; a friend also recently told us that he
had heard his grandfather, who was a great shooter, talk of
seeing the bank between Glee and Tetney in the spring
covered with ruffs and reeves, and so tired with their long
flight that you might almost knock them down with a stick,
and that he could soon shoot as many as he could carry.

On the same coast and salt-fitties at that time came
regularly to nest great numbers of oyster-catchers, Arctic,
common and lesser terns, and the ringed plover; the sheld-duck
also in the sandhills and warrens, and in the adjoining marsh
the hen harrier, spotted crake, ruffs and reeves, snipe, and
redshank ; still further inland, in the woods skirting the wolds,
the kite,f buzzard, and hobby. These were the days before
the gamekeeper and the trapper were known, and sportsmen
were well content with moderate bags, shot over dogs, and
with much healthy exercise.

All testimony proves the former abundance of birds in
Lincolnshire, and we only know of one exception to this.
William Cobbett, who died in 1835, in his 'Rural Rides,'
which extended almost over the whole of England, coming to
Horncastle, says : ' There is one deficiency, and that with me
is a great one, throughout this county of corn and grass and
oxen and sheep that I have come over during the last three

* In an old map MDCXXVI. of the Isle, before the drainage by Vermuyden,
Storkcarre's are marked between Haxey and Wroote, on the east bank of the river
Idle (Idille).

f The eggs of the last kite recorded as nesting in Lincolnshire were taken from
a nest in Bullington Wood, near Wragby, in the spring of 1870. Since this time
(it has only occurred as an immigrant passing south in the autumn,

90 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

weeks, the want of singing .birds. We are now just in the
season when they sing most. Here in all this country I have
seen and heard only about four skylarks, and not one other bird
of any description ; and of small birds that do not sing I have
seen only one yellow-hammer, and it was perched on the
rail of the pound between Boston and Sibsey.' Had he passed
through the same district in the autumn, when the great wave
of migration has set in, he would have probably written
differently, seeing the fields swarming with larks, chaffinches,
and buntings, the hedgerows alive with blackbirds, thrushes,
and redwings, and in the marshes, near the coast, immense
flocks of snow buntings, tree sparrows, linnets, and twites, as
well as hundreds of that characteristic bird of the county the
grey crow ; on the coast itself such flights of knot, godwit,
and grey plover as can be seen nowhere else in England.

The fresh-water fisheries of Lincolnshire had a great
reputation, more especially for pike and eels j enormous
numbers of the latter were annually taken, and they formed
no small part of the tribute and endowments of the monasteries
and religious houses. The fen eels often grew to an enormous
size — two are mentioned by Yarrell, taken in draining a fen
dike, near Wisbeach, one of which weighed 27 Ibs., the other
25 Ibs.* The pike is plentiful in the rivers and drains of the
fens ; there is an old adage which says

Witham Pike
England has neen like ;

and another,

Ankholme eels and Witham Pike,
In all England are nane syke.

The pike of the Witham, however, in the present day will
bear no comparison with the monsters of the old fen meres, as
we may judge from the jaws of this fish found in the peat and
preserved in the Cambridge Museum. In the collection of the
late Mr. Frank Buckland was a pike weighing over 100 Ibs.,
taken when Whittlesea mere was drained. Valuable salmon
fisheries were worked at the beginning of this century on the
Humber. Sir Charles Anderson t states: 'In 1806, John
Barrick of Barrow, gamekeeper, stated that his father rented
the fishery of Barrow, and that thirty years ago he was present
at the taking of eighteen salmon in one tide, one weighed 47

* We recently obtained one of four large eels, Angullla acutirottris, caught in a
trawl net at sea some miles east of Flamborough Head,
f The Lincoln Pocket Guide, p. 85.

Natural History. 91

Ibs., another 46 Ibs., the remainder from 18 to aolbs. each, and
sold at 6d. per Ib. -, at Killingholme 100 salmon were caught
in one tide.' That curious fish the burbolt, a freshwater cod,
is common in the Trent and other rivers ; the barbel also is
plentiful, and grows to a large size ; we have known six taken
with a line and rod in a little over the hour, the collective
weight of which was 42-^ Ibs.

There are districts in Lincolnshire which require careful and
scientific examination before we can form a correct estimate of
the existing fauna and flora. Such are the low-lying flats and
warp islands at the junction of the Trent, Ouse, and Humber,
where the Avoset nested as recently as about 1840,* and the
rufF in 1871. Then there are the commons and warrens in
the north-west, near the Trent, the habitat of many rare and
interesting plants which thus far have escaped the ban of
cultivation. Here also nest, or have recently nested, the hen-
harrier and short-eared owl, sheld-duck, shoveller, teal, and wild
duck, stone curlew, rufF, redshank, snipe, dunlin, and little
grebe j and at Twigmoor, as well as at Manton Common,
thousands of black-headed gulls. The great woodlands from
Wragby southward to Bourn, and about Horncastle, the last
haunt of the wild cat, pine marten, and kite, would well repay
a close investigation ; also the fenny flats at the head of the
Wash, and the estuary itself, the home of the seal, and in the
autumn and winter still the chosen retreat of innumerable
wild fowl ; here too in the summer we have seen flights of
various waders and scoter, which from some cause or other
have not joined in the spring migration of their fellows to
breeding grounds fifteen hundred miles away within the
Arctic circle.

Of the present aspect of the shire, its rich fertility and
picturesque scenery we have said little ; let such as care to
estimate its agricultural wealth follow the wold road from
Barton-on-Humber, above Caistor, and through Tealby and
Market Stainton to Horncastle, at the season when the wide
expanse of the hill country is ripening to the harvest. View
the unbounding prospect just south of Pelham's Pillar, first
northward across the continuous range of the Limber and
Brocklesby Woods, and south-east over the rolling uplands to
beyond Croxby and Binbrooke, every yard of which is in the
highest cultivation, under corn, turnips, and artificial grasses

* Handbook of Yorkshire Vertebrata, Clarke and Roebuck, p. 72.

92 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

and clover. What perhaps most strikes the observer is the
absence of houses or farmsteads, for the wold villages as a rule
lie hid away in hollows of the hills or along the main lines of
traffic through the valleys, and at the best it is even now a
thinly populated district compared with the rest of the county.
North-east towards the Humber the wold breaks away through
the Gap (the scene of a sharp cavalry skirmish between a
detachment of the Newark garrison and the Parliamentarian
horse), beyond the ancient oak and beech of Riby Park and
pleasant Aylesby, of shorthorn fame, with the fertile middle
marsh merging into the rich pastures of the maritime plain ;
there softened by distance, rises the graceful water tower, 300
feet high, towering above the blue smoke haze of Grimsby
like a Florentile campanile, and marking the entrance to the
Royal Dock ; beyond this the broad estuary of the river, Spurn
Point and Dimlington high land, and on the outmost verge
the silver sheen of the North Sea. Turning south, where the
wold dips steeply to the central plain, we see the red-tiled
houses and grey church tower of Caistor nestling in a hollow
of the hills, with half the county spread out like a map, field
succeeding field, with infinite shades of yellow, brown, and
green, mingled with pinewood, coppice, and hedgerow timber,
league beyond league to where on the blue horizon, like a
great rock, rises the stately pile of Remigius — Lincoln
Minster. All honour to the great Lord Yarborough, great
great grandfather to the present earl, who with a lavish
expenditure, and aided by an enterprising tenantry, changed the
barren wastes into the garden of England, and who, as the
inscription on the pillar in the neighbouring wood states,
between 1787 and 1823 planted 12,552,700 trees on his
estates.

Take again the view from the heath road south of Lincoln,
above Boothby-Graffbe, looking west across Somerton Castle
and the level district round Newark to the furthest bounds of
Nottinghamshire ; southward in one broad curve sweeps the
wooded escarpment, mile beyond mile to Grantham, the
graceful spires of frequent churches marking the position of
each cliff village, till the oolite cliff becomes merged into that
lias ridge from which the lordly towers of Belvoir overlook the
wide vale of Trent. Still keeping our position, but facing
eastward, we overlook the breadth of Lincoln Heath, where
the finest barley is grown and the largest sheep are reared. In
the foreground Dunstan Pillar, a lighthouse on land, built in

Natural History, 93

1751, to guide travellers over the heath. Beyond the woods
of Blankney rises at the edge of the fen, the massive square of
Tattershall Castle, built by Lord Cromwell, Treasurer to
Henry VIII. ; and still following the same direction, that
slight-looking column on the skyline is Boston 'stump,' over-
looking the never-ending fen.

Again, drive from Spalding to Boston in the latter part of
August, along one of those long, straight fen roads, bordered
with pollard willow and flanked by wide drains ; from each
reed-bed comes the rattling song of the sedge warbler, and
here the reed-wren suspends her nest ; the white or yellow
cups of water lilies float on the peat-stained dike, and beneath
the shadow of their rounded leaves we detect close-packed
shoals of roach. On each side ripening sheets of corn extend
to the horizon, or long rows of closely-placed c stooks ' stand in
serried ranks like the encampment of an army — nowhere else in
England can we see oats and wheat with such length of straw
and size of head ; then there are beanfields where each stalk is
suggestive of that climbed by Jack in his search for the Giant's
home ; stretches of golden mustard, now in full flower ; fields
of dark-green swedes or light-green mangolds, of which each
root would not disgrace the stall of the seedsman in the
Agricultural Hall. Mighty oxen browse lazily the rich
pastures, dotted too with big Lincoln wethers, whose recently
shorn fleeces weigh from ten to even twenty pounds. From
every side comes the sound of busy labour — the noisy rattle of
the reaping machines, creaking of the laden wains, and the
rustle of sheaves as they are pitched on the load ; and all this
under a sky which for intensity of blue and freedom from coal
smoke, might compare with that of Southern Europe. Seeing
all this, we may well exclaim with Cobbett that c everything
taken together, here in Lincolnshire are more good things than
man could have had the conscience to ask of God.'

94 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

NOTES ON THE ICE-BORNE BLOCKS
OF SHAP GRANITE, St., FOUND
IN LINCOLNSHIRE.

By THOMAS SHEPPARD,

Hon. Secretary to Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists' Club, and Member of the
Glacialists1 Association.

WHILST examining the erratics in the vicinity of Barton
for the newly-formed Lincolnshire Boulder Committee,
I found a boulder of Shap Granite, measuring 2 feet
6 inches by I foot 3 inches, by I foot +. This was
at the foot of a gatepost at the entrance to Mr. Milson's
mill, near the top of the hill just outside Barton, on the South
Ferriby Road. The granite in question was well rounded and
thoroughly embedded in the ground, so that its precise
dimensions could not be ascertained. Owing to its long
exposure to the atmosphere the upper part is weathered, the
large pink felspars being very prominent. It was in its present
position when Mr. Milson took charge of the place several
years ago, and I have no doubt it came originally from the
boulder clay which occurs in the neighbourhood, though up to
the present I have been unable to get any definite information
on the point. So far as I can learn, this is the first boulder of
Shap Granite recorded for Lincolnshire.

A few weeks later, when walking along the Humber bank
between South Ferriby Hall and the Chalk Pit, I was fortunate
enough to find a small pebble of the same rock in 'the Boulder
Clay at a depth of eighteen feet. I have this pebble before
me as I write. Though small, it is a very good sample, and
there is no doubt whatever that it is Shap Granite. The
characteristic felspars are exceptionally well shown, and, though
the pebble is only an inch and a half long, there are portions
of no less than four porphyritic crystals of felspar thereon, one
of them showing the 'twinning.' This specimen, it should be
noted, was found in the clay only about two miles from the
previously mentioned boulder.

Natural History. 95

There are two Boulder Clays in the cliff between Ferriby
Chalk Pit and the Hall. The lower one, which is only a thin
deposit, is of a dark colour, is very compact, and contains a
fair quantity of boulders of different sorts, including rhomb-
porphyry and others of Scandinavian origin. * The upper
clay, however, is of a totally different character. It attains a
thickness of about 20 feet in its highest part, which is near the
centre of the cliffs, and gradually thins out towards the east
and west. It resembles the ' Hessle ' clay of Wood and
Rome,t being of a very red colour, blue-jointed in places, and
containing only a few pebbles (including rhomb-porphyry).
Large boulders are only rarely found in this upper clay. In
both deposits pebbles, generally of carboniferous limestone, are
often found beautifully ice-scratched, and sometimes even
polished.

On the opposite side of the Humber, at North Ferriby, is a
precisely similar deposit, about the same size as the bed at
South Ferriby, containing similar boulders (though in far
greater number and variety), and composed of similar beds of
Boulder Clay, etc. These sections have recently been fully
described by Mr. J. W. Stather, F.G.S. I Both Mr. Stather
and the writer have found boulders of Shap Granite here.

The Rev. W. Tuckwell tells me he has lately found a block
of Shap Granite measuring I foot by I foot, by I foot 6 inches,§
at Irby, near Laceby, North Lincolnshire. It was c taken out
of an old Saxon wall,' and is 'hollowed into quern-like
depressions on three sides.' Of course there is no knowing
from where this boulder may have been carted, along with
other stones, to build the wall with.

Later still, Mr. J. H. Cooke, B.Sc., F.G.S., has found two
or three boulders of this Granite at Goxhill.

Mr. Clement Reid, F.G.S., in his c Geology of Holderness,'
1885, page 35, refers to a boulder of Shap Granite which he
found on the beach near Dimlington, and which up to that
time was 'the furthest point to the south-east to which Shap
Granite had yet been traced.' Later, Mr. John Cordeaux

* For a list of the various rocks of Scandinavian origin found in Lincolnshire, see
the list which accompanies my paper ' On the Occurrence of Scandinavian boulders
in England" (Glac. Mag., vol. iii., 1895, p. 129).

•f Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxiv., p. 146.

| In a paper read to the Yorks. Geol. Soc. at Whitby, July, 1896.

§ ist Rept. Line. Boulder Committee, Naturalist for November, 1896.

96 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

records a boulder of this rock at Kilnsea near Spurn.* This
is now in the garden of Mr. H. B. Hewetson, at Easington.

Inland, at Royston near Barnsley, which is just south of the
line of the Humber, this granite has been found, f and Messrs.
Corbett and Kendall report a boulder at Balby near Doncaster ; J
this and the Barton, South Ferriby, Irby, and Goxhill
specimens described above, are the only records that I know of
for the country immediately south of the Humber.

Whilst in the quarries at Wasdale Crag in Westmorland
last Easter (it is from this place that all the boulders of Shap
Granite have originally travelled) I obtained a quantity of hand
specimens of the rock, and shall be very pleased indeed to send
a piece to anyone in Lincolnshire interested in the subject, who
is unacquainted with the rock, in the hopes that a constant
look-out may be made for c Snaps.' I feel confident that many
other boulders of this granite will be found in Lincolnshire —
they only require looking for. The rock cannot very well be
mistaken, it is a 'pepper-and-salt '-looking granite, of a pinkish
colour, containing large rectangular crystals of flesh-coloured
felspar, which vary from an inch to an inch and a half in
length, and are about half as wide. The matrix consists of
minute crystals of colourless quartz, pink felspars and black
mica, together with other minerals. There is also a whitish
variety of the same rock, the ground-mass in this case contain-
ing several small specks of white felspar, which give it a
generally whiter aspect. This granite has recently formed the
subject of an exhaustive paper by Messrs. Harker and Marr.§

(To be continued).

* The Naturalist, 1889, p. 355.

f Mackintosh. Geol. Mag., 1871, p. 312.

J Report of Brit. Assn. Committee on Erratic Blocks, 1896.

§ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1891, pp. 266-328.

Natural History, 97

NOTES ON THE ICE-BORNE BLOCKS
OF SHAP-GRANITE, &c., FOUND
IN LINCOLNSHIRE

(concluded).

By THOMAS SHEPPARD,

Hon. Secretary to Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists' Club, and Member of the
Glac'ialhts Association.

I SHOULD here like to say a few words respecting the
Lincolnshire Boulder Committee. It was with very great
pleasure that I read in Part I. of the Transactions of the
Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union, the Presidential address of
Mr. J. Cordeaux, M.B.O.U., in which he proposed (p. 7) that
a Boulder Committee should be formed whose object would be
c to take observations relative to the erratic or ice-borne blocks
of Lincolnshire, their character, position, size, origin and
height above the sea. This to be carried out on the same
lines generally as those adopted by the Boulder Committee of
the British Association.' It is also gratifying to learn that
this suggestion has been carried out, the Committee consisting
of the following gentlemen : — The Rev. W. Tuckwell
(Secretary), and Messrs. F. M. Burton, J. H. Cook, H. Preston,
A. W. Rowe, E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock and P. F. Kendall.
Though only in existence a very short period, a large amount
of good work has already been done. Mr. Tuckwell has put
on record particulars of a quantity of boulders (including some
Norwegian) obtained from a depth of over ten feet at
Grimsby,* and during the past summer the Hull Geological
Society and the writer have sent particulars of a large number
of erratics which have been observed at different places in the
county, to the Committee. In May last the Hull Society
made an excursion in the Louth neighbourhood, when Mr.
Tuckwell, Mr. Kendall (the Secretary of Brit. Assn. Erratic

* 23rd Report Brit. Assn. Erratic Blocks Committee, 1895.
Vol. 5, No. 39, Lines. N. & ^
Nat. Hist. Sect.

98 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Blocks Committee), and others were also present. On this
occasion everybody was surprised at the large quantity of
boulders and rocks of foreign origin that were found on and in
the Boulder Clay of the district. In front of the entrance to
Thorp Hall, just outside Louth, on the Lincoln Road, was a
boulder of Augite-syenite, a characteristic Norwegian rock,
measuring 2 feet by I foot 8 inches, by I foot 5 inches, which
still retained the scratches inflicted upon it by the ice during
the 'Glacial Period.' Up to the time of writing, this is one of
the largest boulders of Augite-syenite recorded for Britain, if
not the largest. Steps are being taken by Captain Tennyson,
the owner of Thorp Hall, to preserve this boulder.

There is another Norwegian rock which was found in plenty
in the Boulder Clays, viz., Rhomb-porphyry. This is so called
on account of the large rhomb-shaped crystals of felspar
(orthoclase), which are embedded in a fine-grained matrix,
which varies in colour from slaty green to purple or brown.
These ' rhombs ' are especially striking on a water-worn
surface.

From these numerous finds it would appear that there is a
splendid field open for persons having a geological inclination
who are fortunate enough to live in the ' second largest county
of England.' So far as I am concerned, I shall be glad at any
time to render what services I can, and if any of our Lincoln-
shire friends would care to have specimens of the commoner of
the Norwegian rocks, I shall be only too pleased to have the
opportunity of supplying them. Mr. Tuckwell, the Secretary
of the Boulder Committee, would, I am sure, answer any
inquiries respecting the boulders of his county, or receive any
information respecting the erratics of any part of Lincolnshire.

With regard to the mariner in which the various far-travelled
stones have reached their present positions, the following is the
view generally accepted by those geologists who make a special
study of the subject.

During the last of the series of great geological events, viz.,
the 'Glacial Period,' the climate gradually grew colder and
colder, and the snow accumulated on the great hill-centres of
the Northern Hemisphere, and probably of the whole world.
The cause of this it is not necessary at the present moment to
discuss.*

* The subject has been fully dealt with by Mr. P. F. Kendall, F.G.S., in 'The
Cause of an Ice Age.' Trans. Leeds Geol. Asm., part viii., 1893.

Natural History. 99

As the accumulated snow was in excess of the quantity
annually melted, glaciers began to descend, first of all into the
Irish Sea from all sides, namely, North Wales, Ireland, the
Clyde, and the English Lake District; and into the North and
Baltic Seas from the Scandinavian Mountains. Year after
year, the glaciers increased in magnitude, and the ice flowing
into the Irish Sea (which is only, comparatively speaking, very
shallow) coalesced, entirely excluding the water,* and finally
diverted the ice from the Lake District over the Upper
Stainmoor Pass into Teesdale, down which it flowed towards
the North Sea.

In the meantime the ice from the Scandinavian Mountains,
advancing in a huge sheet (which would resemble the Green-
land Ice-cap of the present day), encroached upon the waters
of the North Sea,t and, after reaching our shores, the two
glaciers flowed down the east coast. The Norse ice brought
with it the boulders of rhomb-porphyry, augite-syenite, etc.,
while the Teesdale glacier carried the boulders of Shap Granite,
c Brockram,' and other Lake District rocks, together with
boulders of carboniferous limestone from the sides of Teesdale
itself. It was at this stage, when the Scandinavian arrested the
progress of the Teesdale ice, that the bulk of the latter
glacier was diverted down the Vale of York and formed the
beautiful crescentric mounds around York, which have been so
lucidly described by Mr. Kendall.J These mounds are
terminal moraines.

The Boulder Clays of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, therefore,
not only mark the area covered by the ice, but contain boulders
which help to indicate the direction the ice took.§

The Norwegian ice-sheet, as might be expected, laid down
a moraine, and this, a line of gravel hills, extends from
Flamborough Head into Lincolnshire, crossing the Humber at
Paull. During the many oscillations of the ice front the
moraine was over-ridden — perhaps on two or three occasions.

* We have proof that it covered Snae Fell (2,034 feet), the highest peak in the
Isle of Man. Kendall, ' On the Glacial Geology of the Isle of Man.' Tn. Lioar
Manriinagh, 1894.

f The bed of the North Sea, like that of the Irish Sea, is exceedingly shallow.

I The Glaciation of Yorkshire. Proc. Torks. Geol. Soc., 1893. See also Mr. C.
Fox Strangways' paper in Proceedings of the same Society for 1895.

§ Mr. Fox Strangways' paper (just referred to) is accompanied by an excellent
map showing the drift-covered area of Yorkshire, and a similar map appears with
Mr. A. Jukes-Browne's paper in Stuart. Journ. Geol. Soc. for May, 1885, p. 115,
indicating the range of the Boulder Clays in the county of Lincoln.

ioo Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

In addition to the great moraine just mentioned there is a
smaller, though none the less interesting one, a few miles to
the west of this large one. This moraine (for such it is)
crossed the Humber at North and South Ferriby, the Boulder
Clay cliffs on either side of that estuary being all that is left of
a bank of glacier debris that once existed right across the
river, which would no doubt at some time interfere with its
drainage. It was in this moraine, at a depth of eighteen feet,
that the pebble of Shap Granite referred to at the beginning of
this paper was obtained.

It should here be remarked that whilst c boulder-searching '
during the past summer I found a piece of chalk thoroughly
embedded in the chalky rubble on which the bank of boulder
clay rests at South Ferriby, which was beautifully ice-scratched,
the striations thereon indicating that, if striated in its present
position, the ice which made them came from a north-easterly
direction.

The foregoing remarks may perhaps appear to be a rather
roundabout way of explaining the transportation of the
boulders in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, but it must be
borne in mind that were it not for the fact that the Irish Sea
was rilled with ice to overflowing, thus causing the Lake
District ice to find its way into the North Sea, to be after-
wards dragged down by the Norwegian ice-sheet, we should not
have had the pleasure of finding Shap Granite in Lincolnshire !

The whole subject is so full of interest that one could say
much more, but I feel I have already trespassed too much on
valuable space. However, I have endeavoured to show that
simply recording 'erratics' is not uninteresting, and it is such
facts as these that we must have in order to solve the com-
plex glacial problems that are occupying the attention of so
many of the geologists of to-day. No matter what theory may
be advanced in order to explain the presence of these boulders,
the records of the boulders themselves must be first taken into
consideration.

In conclusion, I sincerely hope that an earnest effort will be
made, by all who are able, to help the Lincolnshire Boulder
Committee in their work. The Yorkshire Boulder Committee
has now been in existence some ten years, and has each
year printed most valuable reports, though the county is far
from being c worked out ' yet.

The ' East Riding ' Boulder Committee, which report to
the Yorkshire Boulder Committee, has divided the area under

Natural History. 101

its supervision into mile squares, each member taking one or
more of these squares and reporting all the large boulders
occurring in the area allotted to him. By this means a
systematic record is being made, and though we can hardly
expect our few, too few, fellow-workers in Lincolnshire to
adopt the same course just yet, it is to be hoped this method
will be carried out in time to come.

Unlike the other sections of the Lincolnshire Naturalists'
Union, the Geologists are able to pursue their field-work, and
with good result too, during the winter months. In fact, for
boulder recording, wet weather is decidedly preferable, as the
rocks show off to far greater advantage when wet, and can thus
be identified with much greater ease. We need only go into
one of the numerous c cobble '-paved yards that abound in
districts where Boulder Clay occurs (the 'cobbles' being
generally obtained from the clay) to see this. In dry weather
they all appear to be of similar composition, but as soon as they
have been thoroughly cleaned with rain, it is quite surprising
what a variety of granites, porphyrites, schists, limestones,
sandstones, etc., can be seen. This variety is also noticeable,
though not to such an appreciable extent, among the larger
erratics.

Mr. J. Lomas, speaking of striated surfaces in the Liver-
pool district, says — c It is worth remarking that the striae more
thickly congregate in places where geologists reside?* Let us hope
that our Lincolnshire boulder reports will shortly show a
similar result.

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF
THE WASH.

By GEO. SILLS,

of St. John's College, Cambridge, M.A,, and of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at-Lavu.

THERE are few subjects of greater interest than the
change which in the course of ages has taken place in
our lakes and rivers. To take one or two instances :
The Thames was formerly an estuary, the remains of which

* Glacialists1 Magazine, vol. iii., 1895, p. 21.

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

may still be seen in the Essex marshes. The various places
situate in the bed of the estuary still bear the names of
islands. Thus, we have Moles^y, ChesiW (now Chelsea),
Putney, Batters^, Bermondsra, Pits^, &c., &c. The street
called " The Strand " took its name from being the strand, or,
as we should say, " the beach " of the estuary, although it is
now half a mile from the present course of the river.

Lewes was formerly on an estuary, and the marks of the
tide may still be seen on the neighbouring hills. Between
there and the sea are the islands of Horsey, Hindnea, Lzngney,
Pevensey, &c., &c., now surrounded by dry land.

Norwich was formerly a seaport town, and remained so until
the sea was kept out by the bar called Yarmouth, i.e.
Yaremouth.

Sedgemoor was formerly a large inland lake, in proof of
which it is enough to say that every place in it is called an
island, although for many years past surrounded by dry land.

I propose in this article to show the history and change in
the Wash, and that Lincoln was formerly a seaport town, that
is to say, that it was situated on the Wash, which is now about
30 miles off.

In considering this question it is all-important to show what
the Wash was, and how far it extended.

This subject has already been considered by the Rev. Canon
Taylor in his Words and Places, and he comes to the conclusion
that the Wash was formerly six times as large as it now is, and
in my judgment he has rather understated than overstated the
case.

Let us take the present fen country and marshland, bounded
on the east by the highlands of Norfolk and Cambridge, on
the south by the counties of Huntingdon and Northampton,
and on the West by the highlands of Huntingdon, Northamp-
ton and Lincoln counties, and on the north by the highlands of
Lincolnshire, and we find that with the exception of two bars
or deltas, which I will presently mention, every place is called
an island.

Among other places, too numerous to mention, may be
noticed in Lincolnshire — Sticky, Frisky, Sibs^, Gedw^y,
Southerly, Bardney ; in Northamptonshire — Eye, Oxnea ; in
Cambridgeshire, Man^7, Thonz^, Whittles^, Ely i.e. Eelej^ ;
in Huntingdonshire — Rams<?y, Sawtrey, Swathes^.

The terminals ey, ea, eye, are Saxon names for islands ;
while nea and ney are Scandinavian, or, as we now say,

Natural History. 103

" Danish " terminals. The Saxons seem to have used their
terminals for any island, whether surrounded by the sea or by
fresh water.

The Danes, however, used the terminals nea and ney to
signify land surrounded by the sea. Their word for an island
surrounded by fresh water was holme.

It must not be forgotten that the invasion of this country
by the Saxons and Danes were as follows : —

The Jutes about A.D. 449.

The Saxons about A.D. 477 to 495.

The Danes about 790 to A.D. 1013.

The names of those islands were therefore given not earlier
than A.D. 449 or later than A.D. 1013, and the importance
of that question consists in the fact that in those times the
places in question were islands surrounded by the sea.

While I am dealing with the names of places, I may here
mention two " bars " or " deltas " which exist in the Wash,
one starting at King's Lynn and running due east to Spalding,
and then running due north from Spalding and ending at
Sibsey and Wainfleet ; and the other starting at Skegness and
running due north to Great Grimsby.

I may dismiss the latter at once by saying that it is formed
by the sandhills which are blown up from the bed of the Wash
and so keep out the sea, and it has no bearing on my subject.

The former is however of vital importance.

In order to deal with this part of my subject, I may mention
that the sea flows up every tidal stream twice in about every
26 hours. At every influx of the sea, a time comes when the
fresh water running to the sea and the sea water in the river
are In equilibria. When that event happens, the solid matter
held in solution instantly begins to sink to the bottom, the
heavier particles first and the lighter ones afterwards. As this
usually happens about the same place, a bar gradually forms
which in time becomes a " delta."

These deltas are sometimes so important that cities are
built upon them, e.g. Calcutta, at the mouth of the Ganges.

Into the south and west sides of the Wash an unusual
number of rivers flow — the Ouse, the Cam, the Nene, the
Welland, the Glen, the Guash, the Slea, the Witham, and the
Bain, flow within a short distance either directly into the
Wash or into rivers which flow there, the result of which has
been that the Wash has for many thousands of years been
gradually silted up ; and, as the rivers have been gradually

104 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

trained out to sea in definite channels, the bar or delta in
question has been formed.

If we take the names of places, we shall see the rapidity
with which this bar has been formed.

The place called " Lynn " bears a Celtic name, and means
"deep water." In other words, King's Lynn occupies a place
which in the time of the Celts was deep water. Part of the
deep water is still left, and is to be found at " Lynn Deeps."

" Gedney " is compounded of two Danish words " Ged,"
a pike ; and " Nea," an island surrounded by the sea. This
name could not have been given earlier than A.D. 790, when
the Danes first invaded us, and it suffices to say that at that
time the bar in question had not been sufficiently formed to
prevent the sea flowing from the present Wash past Gedney
and up to Ely and Cambridge ; while, when Lynn was deep
water, it seems probable that the bar had not even begun to
be formed, nor is it likely that it had begun, for at that time
the rivers in question did not reach so far, but entered the
Wash many miles away. To proceed with the names of
places, Wisbeach means the "Ouse beach," though its position
is so far changed that the " beach " is now at least 20 miles
away.

Holbeach means the " beach in the hole," but that place is
1 6 miles from the sea.

The tide no longer flows to Tydd, i.e. Tide, or within
many miles of it.

Moulton Seas End is now 8 miles from the sea.

Turning from Spalding northward, anyone driving from
Gosberton Risgate to Swineshead will see at a distance of 9 or
10 miles from the sea the small hills thrown up by the waves
with the marks of the tides still upon them.

In Keble's Reports^ A.D. 1685, a case is reported thus: —

" Parte lessee of Sir H. Herm ">. Brownlow^ in ejectment
of a marsh the Plaintiff" claimed as parcel of the manor of
Cressy Hall, the Defendant as parcel of the Manor of
Newburgh in Surfleet ; but it appeared to be a marsh in
common to two vills, between them and their tenants
by prescription for sheep, being salt. The Plaintiff" also
claimed as derelict ; but> being overflowed by the sea at
springtides^ he was non-suited."

Although in the reign of Charles the 2nd the locus in quo
was, as appears above, overflowed by the sea, it is now about
12 miles from the sea.

Natural History. 105

A little farther north is " Bicker Haven," which is now not
only dry land, but is many miles from the sea.

If we take the evidence afforded by the names of places,
and by the changes of modern times, we have sufficient to show
that much less than 2000 years ago the "bar " in question was
not in existence, and that at that time the Wash extended
from the North Sea to Ely and Cambridge on the south, and
on the west over the low-lying country now called the Fens,
up to the valley of the Witham, and so up to Lincoln.

This conclusion is fortified by history.

The Romans who stayed with us from about 55 B.C. to
420 A.D. seem to have found the Wash, to which they gave
the name of " Metaris Estuarium," in a transition state.

It was evidently rapidly silting up, and the islands which I
have previously mentioned were probably being formed. They
made the first great effort to convert part of it into dry land
by making the " Roman bank," which still exists on the east
coast of Lincolnshire, and the deep drain now called the
" Cardyke," I.e. the dyke in the Fens, parts of which still
exist.

As I have previously pointed out, the islands in question
were then formed or being formed, and some at least were
soon after inhabited, e.g. Friskney, the island of the Frisians,
Oxnea the Island of Oxen, Eye on which stood the Danish
fortress Eyeborough.

At the time of the Conquest the marshes and fens were
some of them covered by the sea, though if it is true as told by
Kingsley in the Camp of Refuge that the waters about Ely
teemed with fresh-water fish, the sea at that time had ceased
to go so far inland as Ely and Cambridge. This is, however,
probably a mistake of the author, for in the 43rd year of
Elizabeth an Act was passed to " drain the marshes and other
lands commonly subject to surrounding by the sea within the
Isle of Ely and the counties of Cambridge, Huntingdon,
Northampton, Lincoln, and other counties."

This Act was not carried into effect ; but in the reign of
Charles the 2nd and afterwards the great Bedford Level was
drained, which extended into several of the counties above
mentioned.

About 60 years ago Whittlesea Mere, a remain of the Wash,
was drained.

About the same time Cowbit Wash was drained.

Neither time nor space suffice to detail the various Acts of

106 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Parliament which were passed in the reigns of the Georges and
up to the present time providing for the institution of Drainage
Commissioners, the draining of the fens and marshes, and the
training of the various rivers to the sea j but, I may add that
if in the reign of Elizabeth the Isle of Ely was "commonly
subject to surrounding by the sea," it is manifest that the sea
must even at that time have flowed over most of the fen and
marshland, extending from Lincoln past Bardney, Friskney
to Spilsby on the north, and past Peterborough to Ely on the
South.

Two very interesting questions arise here. The first is —
What caused the Wash? This question is best answered by
geology. Although the Wash has been in existence, certainly,
some thousands of years, and has been gradually reclaimed
from the sea, underneath its bed are large forests of well-grown
timber trees, for the most part consisting of oak, larch, and fir,
though near Crowland there is a large district called "The
Alderlands," which receives its name from the fact that
wherever digging takes place, alder trees are found beneath the
surface.

When it is remembered that oak, larch, and fir will only
flourish in fairly dry places, it follows that before the convulsion
of nature which sent them beneath the sea they must have
existed on high and dry land, and there seems no reason to
doubt that the forests in question were situated on land as
high as the neighbouring land : while, as the alder will only
flourish in damp low places, it follows that the land about
Crowland was always low.

What caused the convulsion of nature ? When it is borne
in mind that all these submarine forests consist of full-grown
trees of about the same age, it seems to follow that they were
overwhelmed at the same time, and seeing that the land, on
which they were, was suddenly lowered so much that the sea
flowed over it, nothing but an earthquake could have been the
cause.

Geologists tell us that France and England were once joined
together, and that the Isle of Wight was once joined to the
mainland of Hampshire. Is it too much to suppose that the
earthquake which caused that severance was also responsible
for the making of the Wash ?

The second question to which I have alluded is this — What
effect would the formation of the Wash have upon the low
lying land between Lincoln and Nottingham, Lincoln and

Natural History. 107

Leicester, Lincoln and Derby, and what effect would it have
upon Lincoln itself?

The earthquake in question made the Wash as a whole
within the limits which I have above pointed out ; and the
"bars" which I have above mentioned and the various islands
were made by natural causes in succeeding ages.

At the time of the making of the Wash, the sea would
naturally find its own level, and would not only flow to
Lincoln but up the valley of the Fosdyke and the Trent to
Nottingham, up the valley of the Soar to Leicester, and up the
valley of the Derwent to Derby. Even in such comparatively
modern times as the incursion of the Danes, this was still so;
for history tells us that they used to sail from the North Sea to
Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, and Stamford, and
that they made those five places their principal "burghs,'
I.e. fortresses.

The names of the places of the valleys in question all disclose
the same state of facts. Thus in the valley of the Witham we
have the islands "Bardn^y" and Souther-e#, or as it is now
spelt Southrey; and in Lincoln itself we have the Holmes,
i.e. the Islands and Carholme, I.e. the Island in the Fen.
Danish names that were given some time between the years
A.D. 790 and A.D. 1013.

Between Lincoln and Nottingham there are the following
names of islands, Torks^y, Drinsra Holme near Markham,
Thorw^y, Broadholm, while only four miles from Nottingham
is another " Holme" now called "Home Pierpoint." It may
well be asked, "If the Wash formerly flowed past Lincoln and
up the Fosdyke valley, how is it that part of Lincoln now
stands upon what must have been the bed of the Wash ?
The question is easily answered. The rivers Brant and
Witham flowed into the Wash somewhere about Bassingham
or Boultham. According to the well-known law of nature, a
bar was being formed probably at Lincoln itself, and this would
be further increased by the waters of the Trent and Derwent
which at that time must have flowed up the Fosdyke valley.

The Romans found it necessary to carry their Ermine-street
across the valley of the Witham ; and for that purpose they
embanked and dug out a drain up the valley of the Fosdyke,
and gave it the Latin name "Fossa," I.e. "dug out," "a
drain," to which modern times have added the word dyke.
They also trained the Witham and the Brant from Bassingham
up to Brayford, i.e. the "braw" or great ford. They also

io8 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

made a deep cutting from Boultham along the east side of what
is now the High-street called the Sincil Dyke, and two deep
cross drains from the Witham to the Sincil Dyke. These
works still exist, though of necessity somewhat curtailed in
size. By this means they were able to make the present High-
street from Canwick common as far as the Wickenford, i.e. the
ford at the Vicus or village, and the Brayford. The position
of the church of St. Mary-le-Wigford or Wickenford, and the
fact that New-land was taken out of the Brayford, is abundant
evidence that the river at those points was a large stream, and
not the puny river that it now is. The fact that there were
two fords, one of which divided the Ermine-street, is evidence
that the river was too wide for a bridge, and was crossed either
by the ford or by boats.

The Fossa or Fossdyke was evidently afterwards continued
at least as far as Boston. All this is not mere conjecture, but
is fortified by history.

For more than 1000 years after the Romans had gone, the
Witham ended at the Brayford in Lincoln.

The historian, Leland, who wrote about A.D. 1550, thus
deals with the subject: "The river of Lindis fleateth a little
above Lincoln towne and maketh certain pools whereof one is
called " Swanne Pool." And again : "There be four ferys
upon the water of Lindis betwixt Lincoln and Boston. To Shut
Fery 5 m. Tatershaul Fery 8 m. To Dogdich Fery I m.
To Langreth Fery 5 m."

I have lately come across a pleasing ballad by Jean Ingelow
called "The High Tide on the coast of Lincolnshire, 1571."
In that ballad the river at Boston is called the Lindis, and not
the Witham. Thus the authoress speaks of " Reedy Lindis,"
"the Lindis Flow," "the Lindis raging sped," "Sunny Lindis
floweth." The ballad is evidently taken from an older ballad,
or from tradition, in either of which events it is important as
corroborating Leland.

In Dugdale's History of the Embanking of the Fens there is
the following account of this locality :

" In the 4Qth year of Edward the 3rd (the term being then
kept at Lincoln) the Jurors of divers Wapentakes in that
county did exhibit a Presentment in the Court of King's Bench
importing that the channel called the Fosdyke extending itself
from the river of Trent at Torksey to the city of Lincoln
having been anciently open and full of water so that ships and
boats loaded with victual and other vendible commodities did

Natural History. 109

use to pass to and from Nottingham, York, Kingston-upon-
Hull, and sundry other places and counties by the said river
of Trent, and so by this channel to Lincoln, and from Lincoln
to Boston to the great benefit of the city of Lincoln, and
advantage of all tradesmen passing that way, as also of the
whole county adjacent was then choked up for want of cleans-
ing and repair."

It will be noticed that the Presentment mentions not only
boats but ships, which used to sail from the North Sea to
Kingston-upon-Hull, from there to Torksey, and from Torksey
to Lincoln and Boston : also, that the Court of King's Bench
sat at Lincoln, as indeed it frequently did in the times of the
Norman and Plantagenet kings, in whose reigns so many
statutes were passed there that they are called " The Statutes
of Lincoln" to this day. The Presentment mentions the
Fosdyke as extending from Torksey to Lincoln. If that is
correct, it would seem to show that the channel from Lincoln
to Boston was first made at some time subsequent to the
making of the Fosdyke.

The history of the Wash dates back from times long before
written history; and even educated persons may draw different
conclusions from archaeology, the names of places, and the levels
of land, which is all we have to go upon in addition to the
comparatively modern history that we have to guide us.

It may be useful therefore for me to sum up my argument,
which I do thus : —

The existence of forests below the bed of the Wash shows
that it was once dry land. The forests consisting of oak, fir,
and larch, the land must have been a considerable height above
the level of the sea. The trees comprising the submarine
forest being full grown and of about the same size, the convul-
sion of nature which hurled the land below the level of the sea
must have taken place at one time, and must have been what
we call an earthquake. This earthquake probably took place
at the same time as the one that divided England from France.
At any rate, it took place long before the date of history, for
Lynn, a Celtic word for deep water, shows that the Wash was
in existence in Celtic times. When first made, the Wash was,
at least, six times as large as it is now, and must have flowed
quite up to Lincoln, and the tide must have flowed up to
Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, and Stamford. Indeed the
name of the place Washingborough, i.e. "the Danish tribal
fortress on the Wash," is a strong argument that in the time

no Lincolnshire Notes & Queries .

of the Danes the Wash still flowed up to Lincoln. For many
thousands of years the Wash has gradually silted up from
natural causes, until it has reached its present dimensions.

So much for the past. As to the future, it is said to be
prudent not to prophesy unless you know.

Seeing that, early in the reign of Her Majesty, an Act of
Parliament was passed to enable a company of adventurers to
enclose the Wash by a bank extending from Lincolnshire to
Norfolk, and that they were only stopped from carrying the
work into effect by want of funds, and seeing that Nature is
taking the matter into its own hands by rapidly silting up the
Wash, I think that I may safely prophesy that many of those
who do me the honour to read this article will live to see the
Wash once more dry land, and the coast of Lincolnshire once
more joined to that of Norfolk.

THE STORY OF THE LINCOLN GAP.

THE Presidential Address on this subject, delivered at
Lincoln in 1895, and re-published in the Natural
History section of Notes and Queries^ in the October
number of last year, is of great and wide-spreading interest.
The author's (Mr. J. M. Burton) object is to prove that the
Trent once flowed through the gap on which Lincoln is built.

Quoting from Mr. Jukes Brown, he gives several proofs of
his assertion, and we cannot but admire the practised manner
in which the quarry is scented step by step by means of the
ancient gravel deposits found between the great gap in the
oolitic escarpment at Lincoln and the river Trent.

Mr. Burton is of opinion that the course of the Trent was
changed in pre-glacial times, whilst Mr. Jukes Brown, he
tells us, suggests that the change took place in a post-glacial
period.

There are reasons to suppose that the view taken by the
latter is the more likely one. Some of these I will briefly
mention.

I. The village of Holme now consolidated with Langford
(both being on the east of the river) formerly went with

Natural History. 1 1 1

N. Muskham which is on the west, and there is evidence that
the water or the greater portion of it once flowed between
Langford and Holme, and not as it does now between Holme
and N. Muskham. Hence the name of Langford may
reasonably be supposed to be derived from the " Long ford "
which in days of yore had to be crossed in getting from the
one to the other of these places.

II. There is still extant what may be called the original or
principal bed of the Trent, now known by the name of the
" Fleet," being in some parts twenty or thirty yards wide in
Langford Lordship, and connected by a narrow neck with the
Trent some three miles north of Newark. The Fleet
passing through Langford runs hard by the villages of South
and North Collingham through Besthorpe where it widens
into a fine sheet of water at least 150 yards wide and nearly a
mile long, on to Girton, where no doubt in comparatively
recent times a narrow channel has been cut almost at right
angles to take this water again to the Trent. Before this
channel was cut, in all probability, the Fleet, or rather the
ancient river, or the greater portion of it, would continue its
course through the low lands of Girton to Spalford, whence it
would go, as described by Mr. Burton, to "join the Witham a
short distance west of Lincoln."

III. This Fleet is about a mile, more or less, from the
present bed of the stream, and between them there is a series
of pools, apparently beginning at S. Collingham and extending
through N. Collingham, Besthorpe, and Girton, like links of
a sunken chain floating to the surface one by one at irregular
intervals, tracing the course of a central stream. These pools
have distinctive names, e.g. Cowarth, Mons pool, Black pool,
Leech pool, some still possessing considerable depth of water,
and some being rapidly silted up, stock now grazing on places
which can be remembered as formerly the haunts of the
voracious pike.

IV. There is yet another stream to be considered and this
is known as the " Old Trent " and runs almost from west to
east from that river to Spalford, dividing that hamlet from the
parish of S. Clifton. This still contains a good deal of water
till it comes within a short distance of the " High Flood
Bank," extending from the Spalford sandhills to South Clifton,
from ten to fifteen feet high, which was erected no doubt with
the object of changing the course of the Trent. Near this
spot all these streams met. And here crosses the road from

112 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

Newark to Gainsborough, travellers on it being warned by
guide-posts " not to pass this way in flood-time." The affix
to the name of this hamlet may not unlikely have been derived
from the " ford " which had here to be waded. This Flood
Bank broke during an unusually high flood nearly a century
ago, and then it was clearly seen that the Trent waters if left
to themselves would again mingle with those of the Witham,
although the old bed of the river was entirely obliterated by the
blow-away sand so abundantly provided by that district.

In addition to the above-mentioned High Flood Bank there
is the ordinary bank along the side of the Trent, but this river
being constantly subject to great floods, this ordinary bank is
totally inadequate to prevent nearly the whole of the land
lying between the Trent and the Fleet from being submerged
— sometimes to such an extent that the writer of these pages
has rowed over the highest hedges, and more than once has had
to be rowed to Girton Church on Sunday to take his duty
there, the churchyard, with the exception of a few feet opposite
the usual entrance, being entirely surrounded by the deluge.

In conclusion, it may be added that it is highly probable that
when the great bulk of the waters thus flowed to the Witham,
the present course of the Trent was also in use. In proof of
this it is but necessary to call attention to —

1. The fact that as the water at Girton rises some 6 inches
at every high tide, there could have been no prima facie difficulty
in some of the superfluous waters of the Trent taking that
course.

2. The escarpment of the cliffs at Clifton.

3. The fact that there is also an " Old Trent " at Dunham,
some few miles lower down, this Old Trent being on the west
side of the river.

4. That several miles still lower down there is a place
called Burton Stathers, so called most likely from the " stathers "
or piles driven by the side of the bank, either to prevent further
corrosion of the river bank — a favourite and well-known
pastime of this river — or, which is still more probable, to
provide convenient landing for the passengers or freight of
boats drawn up alongside.

S. BATEMAN.
Tar burgh Rectory.

Natural History. 113

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS TO THE
LINCOLNSHIRE NATURALISTS'
UNION, 1896.*

By Rev. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S.

IT is usual to estimate the success of any society or union
of members, and it must be allowed that, although often

misleading, the growth or decrease of the number of
members affords a rough method, at all events, for judging of
its prosperity and popularity. On December 3ist, 1895, the
Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union consisted of 76 members.
During the present year 31 new members have joined, one has
died, one has left the county, one has resigned, and the
membership of three has lapsed, owing to non-payment of
subscriptions ; this leaves the present number at 107
(including twelve life members), so that we show a net
increase of nineteen. This, though of course satisfactory,
cannot as yet be said to be an adequate representation of the
people in this large county who are interested in natural
history, and there is no doubt but that the membership might
be very largely increased if each of the present members would
endeavour to induce his friends to join the Union.

Our obituary is limited to one notice, but by the death of
Lord Lilford we have lost an ornithologist of world-wide
reputation, whose literary work is of the utmost value to
science, and whose ability was only equalled by his kindness
and generosity.

It is usually the custom in the addresses of the scientific
societies to allude to any important works published during the
year which relate to their especial subject, and it seems only
right that in our Union we should make allusion to scientific
works of any kind in which our members have taken part.
We ought, therefore to congratulate Miss Florence Woolward,
of Belton, on the conclusion of her great work on the orchids

Re-published by special permission from The Naturalist, 1897, pp. 149-156.

Vol. 5, No. 40, Lines. N. & 9. H

Not. Hist. Sect,

1 1 4 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries .

of the genus Masdevallia^ a group found only in Central and
South America, chiefly in mountainous regions and often
at a great elevation. The book is especially valuable for the
large number of hand-coloured plates (eighty-seven) of the
natural size of the plants, lithographed by Miss Woolward, and
all drawn by her from nature, with the exception of seven
species, of which drawings were sent to her by botanists
residing in the country which is the habitat of the plants.

From the various reports which you have heard read you will
have gathered a fair idea of the work taken in hand by the
Union, and also of the work which it may be expected to
accomplish in the future. The excursions to Grantham and
neighbourhood, to Bourn, and to Great Cotes were well
attended, and the best thanks of all the members are due to
Mr. and Mrs. Cordeaux for their kind hospitality on the last
occasion. These excursions, however, though most enjoyable,
are rather pleasant meetings than opportunities for obtaining
great results. This, I take it, is as it should be. The object
of a Union like ours is to interest as large a number of people
as possible in natural history, geology, and kindred studies, and
such an interest is far better promoted by friendly gatherings such
as these, with a semi-scientific flavour about them, if we may
use the term, than by insisting upon the Union being placed
entirely upon a scientific basis. It is from the efforts of small
bodies of specialists, or even of individuals, within the Union
that real scientific results may be expected, and we certainly
have excellent examples of these efforts in the geological
excursions conducted by Mr. J. H. Cooke, which ought,
however, to have been more largely attended ; and in the
formation of a Boulder Committee, with the Rev. W.
Tuckwell as secretary j and, above all, in the formation of the
nucleus of a County Museum.

The mention of the Museum brings me to what is, I feel
sure, the most important part of my address. The great
object which the Union ought to set before itself is the
establishment of a Museum worthy of the traditions of the
county. The present rooms, although hitherto they have
excellently served their purpose, are fast becoming quite
inadequate. There can be no doubt that there is a strong
feeling in the county that such a Museum ought to be
established, and we feel confident that its establishment is only
a matter of time. Should not the Union, then, do all that it
can to hasten it ? It is a building that is chiefly required ; as

Natural History. 115

regards the endowment, it is very probable that considerable
help might be given by the Technical Education Committee
of the County Council ; and it surely ought not to be difficult
to raise ^2,000 or ^3,000 from the whole county, when we
consider the large sum that was raised in Lincoln alone for the
School of Science and Art. Over and over again we hear of
the irreplaceable treasures that leave the county, simply because
there is no place to store them in for the public benefit, and if
the Union does nothing more than help towards the providing
of the much needed Museum, it will not have existed in vain.
In this connection I should very much like to thank Mr.
Fieldsend, in the name of the Union, for all he has done for
our present collections.

On an occasion like the present it is usual for the President of
a Union like ours not only to set forth the position and aims of
the Union, and anything of interest in its history during the
course of the past year, but also to say a few words on the par-
ticular subject in which he may himself have taken an interest.

Now, in considering the subject of this part of my address,
I have felt very much at a loss, for it is, of course, right that it
should, if possible, have some bearing upon the natural history,
geology or archaeology of Lincolnshire. I should hardly,
however, venture to do more than merely touch upon the
geology, botany, or ornithology of the county, in the presence
of several leading authorities on these subjects ; and with
regard to the conchology and, more particularly, the entom-
ology, I have made comparatively few observations, as the
chief part of the time which I have felt I could legitimately
devote to natural history has been spent on the general
subjects of the British Coleoptera, and lately of the Central
American Homoptera ; such observations, moreover, as I have
been able to make, have been mostly limited to the immediate
neighbourhood of Lincoln. I feel convinced, however, that,
in spite of the fact that many of the fen species have been doubt-
less effaced by drainage, the county will be found to be exceed-
ingly rich in every branch of natural history, and it is to be
hoped that, in the field of entomology, workers may be found
who will emulate such ardent geologists as Mr. F. M. Burton
and Mr. Cooke, such indefatigable botanists as Mr. Peacock
and the Rev. W. Fowler, and such world-renowned ornith-
ologists as Mr. Cordeaux.

If we consider the physical features of Lincolnshire we
shall see that it ought certainly to contain a large and varied

1 1 6 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

insect fauna, for it may roughly be divided into three districts,
which are quite distinct in general character ; to begin with,
there is the large coast line, bounded by great sand-dunes, on
which the low thickets of the buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus)
and coarse reeds and grasses give shelter to numerous good
insects of various orders ; in passing, we may notice that these
dunes in summer are the haunt of the rare Natterjack Toad
(Bufo calamita\ which has been found by members of the
Union on summer excursions to Mablethorpe and the surround-
ing district ; in the second place there are large expanses of
what was formerly fen country but now is mostly drained ;
there are, however, many occasional ponds and marshy corners,
which, we may be sure, afford a last shelter to many of the
fen species, especially the water insects ; and, thirdly, there are
the higher districts, often well wooded, which present every
indication of an abundance of invertebrate life ; the woods
towards the west are apparently outlying remnants of the
ancient Forest of Sherwood, which besides containing many
good lepidoptera, is the sole, or almost the sole, habitat of
several of our rarest beetles ; we might, perhaps, almost regard
the banks of the Trent as a fourth district, for it has an insect
fauna of its own ; quite recently one of the least common
species of British Carabidae or ground-beetles, Bembidium
stomoldes, has been found in large numbers near Torksey Abbey
by the Rev. A. Thornley, who has done a great deal of good
work at the beetles of both Lincolnshire and Nottingham-
shire.

If we look at a geological map of the county we shall find
that the whole south-eastern portion, comprising nearly one-
fourth of the county, is made up of drift or alluvial deposit ;
north of this, and running somewhat in a direction from N.W.
to S.E. are two broad strips of Upper Oolite and chalk,
separated by a narrow and irregular band of Lower Greensand ;
the western portion of the county is almost entirely taken up
by three fairly regular strips consisting of Lias on the extreme
west, then Lower Oolite and next Middle Oolite \ it would be
an interesting point to work out the distribution of the insect
fauna of these divisions ; in great measure, of course, it
depends upon the flora, which undoubtedly varies with the
geological formation, although Mr. Woodruffe-Peacock, who
has made this subject peculiarly his own, says that the presence
of humidity or dryness and the permeability or impermeability
of the soil has more to do with the matter than chemistry.

Natural History. 1 1 7

At present the very local butterfly Hesperia paniscus (the
Chequered Skipper) appears to be confined to the Middle
Oolite district, its range extending from Bourn on the south to
the woods around Wickenby and Market Rasen and, perhaps,
further north. Most probably this is accidental, but I have no
record of its occurence outside this narrow strip. The
mention of the butterfly raises memories of many pleasant
afternoons, when I have seen it flying up and down with its
peculiarly glancing rapid flight in the glades of Newball Wood,
near Wragby. I remember that when I first came to Lincoln
I was introduced to its locality by Mr. Barber, of Lincoln (an
excellent taxidermist and keen naturalist, who died quite
young), and that there seemed to be a considerable probability
of the butterfly being exterminated by dealers from Hull, who
with the retail price fixed at 8d. or gd., were able to make a
very fair profit out of a good day's collecting. We were,
therefore, very pleased when Mr. Wordsworth, the courteous
agent of Earl Manvers, closed the woods entirely to all except
a limited number of legitimate naturalists, to whom cards of
admission are issued each year on application ; it is a great
pity that the privilege cannot be extended in many other
cases, but, as a rule, where woods and parks are entirely closed,
we shall find that too often the closure has been caused by
abuse of privilege ; either plants have been ruthlessly destroyed,
or fences damaged, or gates left open, or game disturbed. A
gamekeeper in Sherwood Forest once told me that a man had
been going about with a butterfly-net and taking pheasant
eggs all the time ; what wonder then if the innocent suffer
with the guilty. Were we the owners of property we should
act in the same way in the face of wanton provocation. Even
genuine collectors and observers are too often utterly careless.
One of the best localities for beetles in the whole of the
Midlands is entirely shut up now because someone who ought
to have known better threw away a match after lighting his
pipe and fired the whole place. This, of course, is a digression,
and in any case it is well that there are a large number of
localities which are practically inaccessible. If all the habitats
of our birds, insects, and flowers were open to everyone, the
rarer species would soon become extinct, for nothing apparently
can exceed the greed of the collector for gain, a person who
brings especial discredit upon the study of the lepidoptera,
which are perhaps the most marketable of all natural history
commodities. Of course, certain insects have become or are

1 1 8 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries*

becoming extinct for reasons over which there is no control
— notably the drainage of the Fen district. The great
instance, perhaps, is the Large Copper Butterfly, which has
not been seen for about fifty years, although there are several
now living who can remember the insect as quite common in
Yaxley and neighbouring Fens. A friend of mine, now far
advanced in years, once bought a boxful for a half-penny apiece,
and now ^7 is not an uncommon price for a good specimen.
Noctua subrosea is another less known fen insect which has been
extinguished by drainage, and Orgyia c&nosa (the Reed
Tussort) has comparatively recently disappeared ; Cleora
riduaria (the Speckled Beauty) has, I believe, not occurred for
many years in the New Forest ; Lyceena ads (the Mazarine
Blue) is already gone j and the two conspicuous butterflies,
Aporia crattegi (the Black-veined White) and Lyctenaarion (the
Large Blue) appear to be in imminent danger of complete
extinction ; in one or two of these cases the destruction of the
food plant by the burning of pasture or grazing of sheep may
be the cause of the disappearance, but in others the numbers
have certainly been much diminished by collectors, and a
Committee has recently been appointed by the Council of the
Entomological Society to enquire into the matter generally,
and, if possible, to devise a plan by which some of the rapidly
disappearing species may be yet preserved.

This, perhaps, may seem to have but little bearing upon the
natural history of the county, but I have not much doubt that
some of those now extinct insects were once common in the
Lincolnshire fens ; in fact, through Mr. Barber, whom I have
before mentioned, I thought I had secured some evidence of
the occurrence of the Large Copper in the county within the last
twenty-five or thirty years, but on examining into it, it did not
appear sufficiently trustworthy to found a record on. The
Swallow-tail Butterfly (Papilw machaon\ the most conspicuous
of all our British insects, ought certainly to occur in
Lincolnshire, and I believe that it has been found, but I cannot
come across any authentic record. This beautiful species will
soon be exterminated from its chief haunt, Wicken Fen, but it
will still linger in many inaccessible localities in the Norfolk
Broads and smaller Cambridgeshire Fens, such as Chippenham,
where the larvae have been found feeding on Angelica syhestrls.
With regard to Butterflies undoubtedly occurring in the county,
we have already alluded to Hesperia paniscus^ and Thecla betults
(the Brown Hair-streak) and Apatura iris (the Purple

Natural History. 1 1 9

Emperor) are well worthy of record. A stray specimen of
Venessa antlopa (the Camberwell Beauty) has occurred this
summer at Bracebridge, Lincoln. Melit&a artemis (the Greasy
Fritilliary) and Melanagria galathea (the Marbled White) are
local but not uncommon. Of butterflies which occur
abundantly in many other counties, Gonepteryx rhamni (the
Brimstone) may be noticed as very rare, and of Satyrus tithonus
(the Large Heath) only three specimens have, apparently, been
taken. These were captured by the Rev. G. H. Raynor (from
whom I received some most valuable notes) at Panton, near
Wragby, very occasionally. The Clouded Yellow (Collas
edusa] is abundant, as it is in other parts of England. Of
Moths we cannot here give any detailed list ; but the common
occurrence of the Death's Head Moth caterpillar during 1895
and 1896 may be noticed. Unfortunately a considerable
number have been spoilt by the country people, who regard
them as venomous serpents, and will only pick them up, more
or less roughly, with tongs or other implements, the injury
caused being sufficient to produce a crippled imago. The
Convolvulus Hawk Moth (Sphinx convolvull}^ the Large and
Small Elephant Hawk Moth (Cbarocampa elpenor and C.
porcellus\ and the Broad and Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk
Macroglossa fuciformis and M. bombyliformis) have been taken
at Panton, and Newball and Legsby Woods ; and among other
things may be mentioned the Alder Moth {Acronycta alni\
which used to be one of the rarest British moths, but is
apparently not uncommon around Lincoln, and the Swallow
Prominents ( Ttilodonta dicttea and P. dht<zoides\ which have
been found in the Lincoln and Market Rasen districts.

Amongst other orders of insects the Coleoptera, when really
worked and properly catalogued, will be found to comprise a
large number of good species. I could give a fair list of names,
but will not burden this address with particulars that cannot
be otherwise than uninteresting to any but enthusiastic beetle
hunters. The county is evidently rich in Hymenoptera, and
probably in Diptera.

For an agricultural county like Lincolnshire, however, the
great interest of the Entomology lies in its economic consider-
ations, such as the prevalence and spread of injurious insects,
the effects on the crops, and possible remedies. For our
increased knowledge of this subject we have much for which
to thank Miss E. A. Ormerod, who has spared no pains or
money to help combat these pests of the farmers, and I feel

I2O Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

sure that all persons interested in her work will deeply
sympathise with her in the loss of her sister and energetic
fellow worker.

As a rule the subject of Economic Entomology is much
neglected by farmers, although a few well-timed precautions
will often save a large amount of trouble and money : in
nothing is the old proverb more true that a stitch in time saves
nine. In Lincolnshire, where the consideration of the best
way to deal with insect pests (especially those that attack
cereals) ought to be of paramount importance, the subject has
hardly been taken up by anyone except Mr. Ralph Lowe, of
Sleaford, and Mr. Eardly Mason, of Alford, who some years
ago made observations in certain cases of attack which were
of great interest. We are far behind the people of the United
States in this matter. There a State Entomologist is appointed,
whose periodic reports, in their style, fulness, and excellent
illustrations are models of what such reports should be. It is
true that Miss Ormerod issues excellent yearly reports in her
private capacity ; but our official reports are, as a rule, meagre
in the extreme, and our best entomologists have little or
nothing to do with them. This is much to be deplored, for
insect attack, more or less serious, is always present among
us. Occasionally there is a scare ; we can most of us recall the
excitement caused by what people thought to be the threatened
invasion of the Colorado Potato Beetle. Its importation
alive was strictly prohibited, the walls both in town and country
were placarded with illustrations and notices of precautions
to be taken if it arrived, and of course every harmless beetle
was supposed to be a Colorado Beetle. This was but
natural, as people who had never thought of a beetle before
began to look out for them, and of course found and made notes of
various species. The authorities of one important town
seriously sent up to London an ordinary large y-spot ladybird,
feeling confident that at last the dreaded plague had come and
that they were the fortunate discoverers of its advent. Most
of us, too, can remember the more recent scare concerning the
Hessian Fly, how perpetual articles regarding it kept appear-
ing in the papers, and how it was held up as the last straw that
would break the farmer's back. But the fact is that the
Hessian Fly is always among us : it is only on occasions (due
to the climate of the season favouring its increase, or other
causes which require careful investigation) that its attack
becomes serious. There are, unfortunately, many other

Natural History. 121

enemies of the corn crops whose attacks are, under favourable
circumstances, quite as much to be feared as that of the
Hessian Fly. Among them we may mention the Frit Fly
•(Oscinis frit\ the Gout Fly (Chlorops teeniopus\ the Wheat
Fly (Hylemyia coarctata\ the Wheat Midge or " Red
Maggot" (Cecidomyla trltlcl\ an insect closely allied to the
Hessian Fly (Cecidomyla destructor], the Saddle Fly (Diplosis
equestris\ first discovered as British by Mr. Mason, near
Alford, the Corn Aphis (dphis (Siphonophara] granarla\ the
Corn Sawfly (Cephus pygmteus}^ the Corn Thrips (Thrips
cereallum), and last, but not least, the Wire-worms, which are
not worms at all, but the larvae of certain beetles, and the two
species of " Eelworms " (Tylenchus devastatrlx and T. trltlcl\
which are true nematodes or threadworms, one attacking oats,
rye and clover, and the other doing considerable damage at
times to the wheat crops. This, it must be allowed, is a
formidable list of pests, but fortunately, they never seem to
attack at once, and even in the same localities their ravages are
sporadic ; one farm, for instance, may be ravaged by wire-
worms in one year and little harmed in the next, while on an
adjoining farm the case may be just reversed. Evidently, then,
there are many problems to be solved — problems requiring
careful examination by skilled specialists, but likely to repay a
hundredfold the cost of their solution. It is for this reason
that we would ask for the appointment of a State Entomologist
for Great Britain, whose duty it shall be to inspect any infected
district, to report on any cases of disastrous infestation of
which he has obtained knowledge, and to take such precaution-
ary measures as he may deem requisite. May I give one
instance of the extreme value of the researches of the
American State Entomologist, Professor Riley, whose recent
sad death by a fall from his bicycle is so much deplored by
entomologists throughout the world. Some years ago the
orange orchards of one of the orange-growing states
were in danger of imminent destruction by a species of
"mealy-bug" (leery a] , ruin stared the proprietors in the face
until Professor Riley, who was investigating the infestation,
found that a like species of " mealy bug " was found in New
Zealand, but did no appreciable harm there. On examining
into matters he found that the pest was extensively preyed
upon and so kept down by a small species of beetle belonging
to the Lady-Bird tribe (Vedalla cardlnalls\ which closely
resembles in size and colour our ordinary small red Lady-Bird.

122 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

He therefore imported numbers of these insects to the infested
American districts, and on being placed on the orange trees
they grew and multiplied until they practically exterminated
the " mealy bug " within a comparatively short space of time ;
in fact, it is said that a certain amount of the insect had to be
cultivated, if we may so call it, in order to keep up the supply
of the Vedalia.

I had at first intended to give some account of certain of
the insect pests before referred to, but I find that I have
already trespassed too much upon your time. As you have
been kind enough to re-elect me as President for the year 1897,
I may perhaps be allowed, if all be well, to continue the
subject in my next presidential address.

I would conclude by again returning to the subject of the
Museum, and expressing a strong hope that it may not be long
before we obtain, through individual or collective generosity, a
suitable building, and in that case I feel sure that we shall soon
get together a collection of objects of interest which will be
fully worthy of this large and important county of Lincoln-
shire.

THE LINCOLN GAP.

THE Rev. S. Bateman in his paper, in the last number of
Lincolnshire Notes £ff ®)ueries^ on my address on the
"Lincoln Gap," gives certain reasons for supposing that
the change in the Trent's course took place after, and not
before, the Glacial era ; but I fail to see how the reasons he
gives affect the question.

Some of the changes Mr. Bateman speaks of are of, compara-
tively, quite recent origin ; while the change in the Trent's
course must have occurred thousands of years ago.

Mere changes of bed are of common occurrence in the
history of the Trent. Indeed, whenever you meet with a river
with a wide, flat basal-area, like that of the Trent, you may
safely assume that it is continually shifting its bed — the broad,
flat area being, in fact, the result of such shifting.

In places also where rivers form two or more channels, as
they often do, all but one of such channels are sometimes cut off

Natural History. 123

by banking ; and this might easily have been the case with the
Trent in some of the localities noticed by Mr. Bateman — as at
Dunham and elsewhere — while, in other places, the course of
a river is often changed by the cutting off of wandering loops,
in order to increase the land area ; or for other useful purposes.

The escarpments which Mr. Bateman alludes to, and which
are records of very considerable antiquity, occur in various places
on the Trent sides ; but they are merely the result of the harder
rocks resisting the wear and tear of the water and atmosphere,
and they have no special bearing either on ice-action itself, or
the relative time of its occurrence.

The only proofs that can be accepted as to when the great
change in the Trent's course occurred, in relation to the
Glacial era, must be sought for in the usual remains left by the
ice, such as boulder deposits, foreign erratics, and so forth ;
and, as these proofs are at present wanting in the area in
question, until they are met with, it will be impossible to say,
with any authority, when the change occurred.

I quite agree, as I say in my address, that the Trent has
from time to time frequently gone over its old course through the
Lincoln Gap, especially in seasons of flood ; and, probably, it
did not relinquish that course for a very long period after it
was tapped by the drainage through the longitudinal valley on
the north, heading back from, and leading into, the Humber.

There is no reason to doubt that the great ice-plough, in
some form or other, ran up the Trent valley ; but, owing to the
action of the river, and the force of the tide — which, at one
time, extended higher up, and spread further over, the adjoin-
ing land than it does now — all traces of this event appear to
have been swept away ; and the only remains of water action
are — so far, at all events, as I am myself aware of — rounded
pebbles and gravel, such as occur in the old course through the
Lincoln Gap, which the river has brought down from the
area it drains on the west ; and which have been by the
force of stream and tide assorted, and re-assorted, over and
over again, till the problem has become a very difficult one to
decipher.

I quite admit the possibility of the Glacial period having
preceded, instead of having occurred after, the change in the
Trent's course, but at present it is an open question ; and until
the proofs, which ice-action alone can give, are obtained, it
must, I fear, remain so.

F. M. BURTON.

124 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES.

WHAT TO NOTE AND HOW TO
MAKE NOTES.*

By GREGORY O. BENONI.

NO man knows how much the world has lost by some of
her greatest sons not having the gift or knack — for it is
very often only the latter — of jotting down their experi-
ences and observations in black and white. When we consider
the time we all waste in trifling, a few moments occupied
daily in writing would never be missed. But what should we
have in return ? The experiences of the man of action, the
stories of the talker, the bon-mots of the convivial and versatile
companion at our last field meeting, who was the soul and life
of the whole affair, and the notes of the observant naturalist,
whose opportunity of seeing what is best worth recording is
infinitely greater than any the late Richard Jefferies ever had,
if his power of clothing his memories in living language may
never be comparable with that "nature poet's" wonderful gift.
Scores of keen-minded men see things almost daily which
are worthy of permanent record — the field-mouse in the hedge
stealing hip and haw, when in a prolonged frost the snow
wraps the ground with that thick white mantle so destructive
to animal and bird life — or the young oak thrusting up from
the little creature's abandoned home and store after a mild
winter as the observer stalks his rabbits down the wood side.
But few, how few, realise the truly valuable facts amongst the
crowd of things they see, or take the trouble, if they know
how, to make a note of them. We mean to make notes that
will be of value in refreshing the memory at any time, or for
future publication.

What to note is the difficulty of all young naturalists. Mere
bare lists in any department of natural history, without any
annotations, are of comparatively little value j at most they
only appeal to workers at geographical distribution. The fact
of such species being found in a given spot is recorded, but the
nexus which gives the sparkling touch of life to the thing

* Reprinted by special permission from The Naturalist, July, 1897.

Natural History. 125

recorded is wanting. For instance, the young botanist in
Lincolnshire, who knows his plants fairly well, is adding hardly
anything to our knowledge of nature by bare lists of species
which grow in his neighbourhood. But let him take the new
drift maps, published by the Geological Survey, in his hand as
he walks, and accurately note the changing flora with the
varying outcrops and soils he passes over, and he will just give
us that connecting link which makes his work live. If the
elevation, humidity, porosity, and impenetrability of the surface
has nothing to do with the distribution, he has discovered the
chemistry of the soil has, and a quantitative and qualitative
analysis of the plants will show it. He has pointed out to the
chemist where his work has to begin and what the problem is
he must settle. Had as much been known as might be
discovered with a little trouble on this very question of
geological distribution, thousands of acres would not have been
sown down to permanent pasture with expensive seeds, which
the land could not support till the passage of years had accu-
mulated its fertility. When a young lady drew a lovely
picture of the heath-covered wolds of Lincolnshire the other
day in a magazine article she had just missed the nexus, which
was all important to the truth, if not the loveliness, of her
description. Our wolds are chalk, but our English heaths
cannot stand a particle of lime in their love for silica. Our
wind-blown sand-hills and commons are clothed with their fair
pink bells, and so to a perfervid but inaccurate mind the chalk
hills must be, but nature having ordained it otherwise — it is
not so. The point to catch and note for ever is the nexus or
connecting link between the thing observed or the action seen
and its environment. Nothing is there by accident, nothing
is done in nature without a motive, an all-sufficient reason.
When we observed all the birds flying in one direction on
Salisbury plain, as if a bush fire were behind them, we did not
doubt there was a very good reason, and found it later in the "dew
pond" at the foot of Sidbury Hill. The only open water for
miles on that barrow-strown height, was frequented by all the
birds and animals round. But the fox and rat, rabbit and hare,
did not visit the spot at the same time of day, nor the different
species of birds drink together, but we made no notes, and
missed the nexus, and are ignorant why to this moment. The
water was full of newts and lower life forms, and if we remem-
ber accurately a solitary species of P otamogeton^ but that was not
surprising, as these ponds are sometimes frequented by wild fowl.

1 26 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries,

But the point to notice is that what we did not find out we
missed for good, first, because we did not picture before our
minds the connecting link and work till it was discovered; and
secondly, we did not make any accurate notes at the time for
future study. The droppings of birds were on the low firm
railings which kept the horses and cattle from the water, while
the sheep could pass under and drink their fill ; but we idly
tapped them into the water, regardless of the undigested seeds
they contained, as we watched the newts and kept a pair of
wood pigeons from their evening drink or bath. We never
made a note of what was growing round the pond to see if it
differed from the surrounding herbage, though we noted how
frequently the birds left droppings after drinking. The
stupidity of these lost opportunities, how vexed they make a
naturalist in his future work! Sidbury Hill stands on or just
beyond the family property of the late Sir John Astley, of
sporting fame, and this suggests an incident of observation
which only required an accurate note to have made it of value.
Late one day Sir John shot a wood pigeon at Elsham, in
Lincolnshire, with such a distended crop that he could not help
noticing it. Opening it, he found it not only remarkably full,
but was also struck by the number of the species of seeds.
These were sown in a flower-pot of the largest size and placed
in the forcing-house. A full and varied crop of the weeds of
our stubbles was the reward of his care, but no botanist was
called in to name the species and work out their numerical
relation, and so the value of the experiment was lost for want
of an accurate note.

Note-making is the simplest thing in the world, far simpler
than finding material worthy of permanent record, as every
hard-working field naturalist knows to his cost. What days
and weeks have we all spent fruitlessly on the look-out for
something new, when it was only our own stupidity which
prevented us seeing what was just under our noses! Though
we knew water plants have a wider distribution than land
plants, we had to visit a deep unfrozen spring twenty times in
the great frost of 1895 before the bright green foliage struck
our mind's eye, and it flashed into our vacant organ that the
deep warm springs in the north, and by contrast the deep cool
springs of the south, could keep an uniform temperature in a
limited area and preserve a flora and its attendant life, which
would become a centre of distribution should the climate
change to greater warmth or cold. We must brighten and

Natural History. 127

polish up our faculties in the field if we would find plenty of
material worthy of our note-books. An unknown quantity of
unobserved connections lie around us the moment we leave
our doors ; if we do not find them some one else will.

How to make notes is our next point. If you have not
invented a plan — a good one, mind you, of your own — try this
one; it is perhaps the simplest and most effective yet discovered.
We all have our favourite books, even when we get better ;
Bell's Quadrupeds, 2nd ed., and Yarrell's Birds, 4th ed., are
ours. Now, for example, you want to make a note of the
long-tailed field mouse. Take a half sheet of ordinary note
paper and write the number of Bell's page 293 in the left-hand
corner, then the English or Latin name, or both if you like,
opposite. Underline these names, and in the right-hand
corner add the figure I to signify this is the first page devoted
to this species. Then make your notes, carefully recording
place, date, and fact, or anything you consider important to
notice. In this printed sketch the underlined parts are repro-
duced in Italics.

293. Mus syhaticus L. Long-tailed Field Mouse. I

Bottesford, Lines., 7.11.69. Dug out nest. There was
a side-bolt. Had stored acorns, nuts, and wheat.

Cadney, Lines., 24.9.93. Watched one carrying wheat
to its nest.

Harrington, Northamps., 8.7.89. Young oak springing up

from deserted winter store in field by Larkland Wood.

If we are dealing with our bird-notes we work just the same.

320. Scolopax rusticola L. Woodcock. 2

Broughton Wood, Lines., 1872. Very plentiful this year,

I hear.

The same. 1876. First seen 18.10.76.
Harrington, Northamps. Big fall in 1870, Mr. Cheney

told me, after rough N.E. winds.

Cadney, Lines, 1894. Watched one under hedge of oak
wood through field-glass turning over the dead leaves
and eating worms.

The left-hand figures refer to Yarrell, volume 3, page 320.
When the notes accumulate, a little case of deal, I2in. long,
Sin wide, and 3in. deep, stained throughout but varnished
only on the outside, keeps them neatly together, in the order

ia8 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

of the left-hand numbers ; while at the same time they may be
turned over like the leaves of a book to find the sheet required,
after the general index of Bell and Yarrell has been first con-
sulted to give the right number. If a page gets damaged by
mistakes or an accident it can easily be re-copied without
spoiling the look of the whole series of notes, as is too often
the case if a book is used. It is also much easier to w.nte on
sheets than in a book. A more simple way than using any
author's order and the index to his book is to keep the notes
in alphabetical order. There is only one danger in doing this.
The nomenclature of species is so uncertain and various in
different authors, that cross-references have to be added for all
the commoner scientific names. If this is not done with great
care by young naturalists, notes on the same species will be
scattered under different scientific names throughout his whole
collection. But the alphabetical order has one great advantage;
notes on every department can be kept together in one long
series. When the sheets may be reckoned by thousands, as in
our own case, it becomes the only practical way.

A friend of the cynical order, who knows his own foibles as
well as he sees other men's, suggested that note paper is a
handy size for illustrations, and pointed out how they enrich
any collection of notes. He enclosed one as a specimen of
what these should be like — a sketch of a bird shot with an
ounce of water instead of lead. He maintained he had never
heard of water-shooting till we told him how to proceed.
Whether in his hands it has been successful in saving damage
to the plumage of delicate birds we cannot say, as his cartoon
is the last communication we have had on the subject.

In another paper we purpose to make a selection from the
notes of a North Lincolnshire naturalist to illustrate how
interesting these casual jottings, which only take a few minutes
to carefully observe and record, become as facts accumulate in
the passage of years.

INDEX

Natural History Section,

INDEX.

ABBEYS of Lincolnshire, 69.
Address of Presidents, 15, 113.
Agricultural Wealth of Lincolnshire, 91.
Anderson, the late Sir Charles, 16, 19, 90.
Animals noticed at Hatton, 50.
Antiquarian and Naturalists Society,

Louth, 61.

Archxological History of the Wash, 101.
Areas, Faunal, 16.
Ashby Decoy, 20.
Axholme, Isle of, 17, 22.

BANKS, Sir Joseph, 23.

Barker, Rev. J. T., botanist, 62.

Bars or Deltas, how formed, 103.

Bateman, Rev. S. (criticism), no.

Benoni, G. O., How to make notes, 124.

Birds, Alleged deficiency of, 89.

crops, Contents of, 29.
„ Disappearance of, 88.
„ Nesting places of, 91.
„ Noticed at Hatton, 77.
„ of the Fen, 87.
„ of the Marsh, 89.
Blocks of Shap-granite, Ice-borne, 94.
Blue-stone Boulder, Louth, 31.
Boulder Committee, 26, 97.
Boulders, 31, 94-

Bogg, T. W. and E. B., botanists, 62.
Burton, F. M., Papers by, 32, 53, 72, 122.

CHALK Wolds, 20.
Coleoptera, Record wanted, 46.
Commons, 21, 91.
Contents of Birds' crops, 29.
Cordeaux, John, Papers by, 15, 65, 83.
Corn Crops, Enemies of, 120.
Country Parish, Short account of, 48, 77,
County of Lincoln, 2.
Crowland, 1 06.

DANELAGH, 68.

Danes in Lincolnshire, 67, 103, 107.
Divisions, Natural History, 2.

ECONOMIC Entomology, 120.
Editor, Notes by, i, 30, 64, 71.
Ermine Street, 21.

FENS, 93.

„ Insects of, 88, us.
Fish, 90.
Fisheries, 90.

Fishery, Salmon, Value of, 71.
Flora near Louth, 61.
Forests, Submarine, 109.
Fossdyke, 107.
Fowler, Rev. Canon W. W., Presidents

Address, 113.
Fungus Foray near Louth, 41.

GOAT Willow (note), 30-
Goulding,R.W., Meetings at Louth, 4.1,61.

HAMPTON and Kew (joint paper), 31

ICE-BORNE blocks of Shap-granite, 94.
Insects, 88, 117.

LAND between Gainsborough and Lincoln i

how formed, 32.
Lincoln Gap, Story of, 53, 72-
„ (criticism), no.
„ „ (reply), I"-

Lincolnshire (a paper), 65, 83.

Boulder Committee, 26.
Natural History, 15.
Natural History Divisions, 2.
Naturalists at Louth, 41, 6l.
Rye-grass, 30.
Vertebrata of, list wanted,

64.
Louth, Blue Stone Boulder, 31.

Antiquarian and Naturalists Soci-
ety, 6 1.

132

MAMMALIA, 50, 86.

Index.

NATURAL History Notes ; what to note,

and how to make notes, 124.
Natural History Divisions of Lincoln-
shire, 2.

„ „ of Lincolnshire, 15.

Note on Ice-borne blocks of Shap, 94.

„ Prefatory, I.
Notes, how to make them, 124.

PEACOCK, Rev. E. A. Woodruffe-, Paper

by, 2.
Place Name List, 4.

Prefatory Note, i.

SALMON Fishery, Value of, 71.
Sheppard, T., Notes on Shap, 94.
Sills, G., Paper by, 101.

THORNLEY, A., Coleoptera Record wanted,
46.

VALUE of Salmon Fishery on Trent, 71.
Vertebrata of Lincolnshire, list wanted,
64.

WASH, Archaeological History of, 101.

roL. I. No. i. JANUARY, 1896. PRICE is.

The Natural History Seffiion

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO

TSotany, Qonchology, Entomology, Geology, Ornithology, and Zoology,

&c., of the Bounty.

Edited by

The Rev. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK,
L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,

Hon. Organising and Botanical Sec. of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union,
Vicar of Cadney, Brigg.

CONTENTS.

PAGE. PAGE.

'refatory Note i Lincolnshire Natural History 15

7he Natural History Divisions of Lincolnshire
(with Map) 2

HORNCASTLE :
Printed by W. K. MORTON, 27, HIGH STREET.

LONDON: CHAS. J. CLARK, 4, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.
Entered at Stationers' Hall.] [^/ Right Reserved.

u. LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

THIS SPACE

FOR
ADVERTISEMENTS.

NATURAL HISTORY.

THIS SPACE

FOR
ADVERTISEMENTS.

VOL. I. No. 2. APRIL, 1896. PRICE is.

"The Natural History Section

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO

^Botany, fynchology, Entomology, Geology, Ornithology, and Zoology,

&c., of the Bounty.

Edited by

The Rev. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK,
L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,

Hon. Organising and Botanical Sec. of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union,
Vicar of Cadney, Brigg.

CONTENTS.

PAGE. | PACK.

Lincolnshire Natural History (Contiuued] . . 17

The Lincolnshire Boulder Committee ... 26

The Contents of Birds' Crops 29

The Goat Willow 3°

The Lincolnshire Rye-grass 30

The ' Blue Stone ' Boulder, Louth . ... 31
How the Land between Gainsborough and

Lincoln was formed 32

HORNCASTLE :
Printed by W. K. MORTON, 27, HIGH STREET.

LONDON : CHAS. J. CLARK, 4, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.
Entered at Stationers' Hall.] O*// R'g^s Reserved.

ii. LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

THIS SPACE
FOR

ADVERTISEMENTS.

NATURAL HISTORY.

THIS SPACE

FOR
ADVERTISEMENTS.

iv. LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

THIS SPACE

FOR
ADVERTISEMENTS.

'OL. I. No. 3. JULY, 1896. PRICE is.

The Natural History Section

incolnshire Notes & Queries.

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO

Botany, Qonchology, entomology, Geology, Ornithology, and Zoology,

&c., of the Qounty.

Edited by

The Rev. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK,

L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,

Hon. Organising and Botanical Sec. of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union,
Vicar of Cadney, Brigg.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

How the Land between Gainsborough and

Lincoln was formed (continued] ... 33
Lincolnshire Naturalists at Louth .... 41 I

A Lincolnshire Coleoptera Record Wanted . 46
A Short Account of a Country Parish . . 48

HORNCASTLE :

Printed by W. K. MORTON, 27, HIGH STREET.

LONDON : CHAS. J. CLARK, 4, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.
Entered at Stationer? Hall.-] ^ ***** Reuroed'

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

THIS SPACE
FOR

ADVERTISEMENTS.

NATURAL HISTORY.

THIS SPACE
FOR

ADVERTISEMENTS.

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

THIS SPACE
FOR

ADVERTISEMENTS.

VOL. I. No. 4. OCTOBER, 1896. PRICE "•

I The Natural History Settion

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO

^Botany, C™chology, Entomology, Geology, Ornithology, and Zoology,

&c., of the Bounty.

Edited by

The Rev. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK,
L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,

Hon. Organising and Botanical Sec. of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union,
Vicar of Cadney, Brigg.

CONTENTS.

The Story of the Lincoln Gap (Part i.). . 53
Louth Antiquarian and Naturalists' Society . 6 1

PAGE.

Vertebrata of Lincolnshire 64

Entered at Stationers' Hall.-]

HORNCASTLE :
Printed by W. K. MORTON, 27, HIGH STREET.

LONDON : CHAS. J. CLARK, 4, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.

R"erwd'

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

Lincolnshire N aturalists* Union

1896.

f rmtotrt :

REV. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., The School House, Lincoln.

JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., GREAT COTES, R.S.O. (Pres. 1893) j

F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough, (Pres. 1894-5).

F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough.

REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.TH., F.L.S., F.G.S., Cadney, Brigg.

'Urn. Qmztmt $emtarj|:

R. W. GOULDINO, 20 Mercer Row, Louth.

VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY. .

President : — G. H. CATON-HAIGH, Grainsby, Great Grimsby.
Secretary : — J. CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., Great Cotes, Ulceby.

CONCHOLOGY.

President: — J. H. COOKE, B.SC., F.L.S., F.G.S., 123, Monks' Road, Lincoln.
Secretary : — W. D. ROEBUCK, F.L.S., Sunny Bank, Leeds.

ENTOMOLOGY.

President : — CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., Lincoln.
Secretaries : — REV. G. H. RAYNOR, M.A., Panton, Wragby ; Rev. A. THORNLEY,
M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., Leverton, Lincoln.

BOTANY.

President : — REV. W. FOWLER, M.A., Liversedge, Normanton.

Pheenogamic Secretary : — REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.TH., F.L.S.,
F.G.S., Cadney, Brigg.

Cryptogamic Secretary: — J. LARDER, Mercer Row, Louth.

GEOLOGY.

President: F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Gainsborough.

Secretary: — J. H. COOKE, B.SC., F.L.S., F.G.S., 123, Monks' Road, Lincoln.

NATURAL HISTORY.

ant!

The Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union was formed to promote the thorough
investigation of the fauna, flora, and physical features of the county, to bring
together workers interested in the same pursuits, and to increase the interest in, and
study of, every branch of Natural History.

Field meetings will be held at least three times a year, alternately in the northern
and southern divisions of the county j there will also be one general meeting yearly
for the transaction of the business of the Society, and for the retiring President's
address : this will be held at Lincoln. Before each field meeting, arrangements will
be made for the investigation of the locality chosen, and a detailed programme will
be printed and issued to members. At the close of the day's investigations, sectional
and general meetings will be held for the purpose of ascertaining the scientific
results of the day's proceedings.

The Sections are five in number, as under :

Vertebrate Zoology ; Conchology j Entomology j Botany 5 and Geology. After
each excursion the Secretary or Secretaries of each section will furnish to the
Organising Secretary a detailed and descriptive report of the work done by his or
their section. These combined reports will then be published in the " Naturalist."

The minimum subscription is 53., payable in advance. The payment of one sum
of £5 constitutes a life member. Those subscribing los. 6d. or more, receive, if
they apply by letter, either the " Naturalist," or the " Lincolnshire Notes and
Queries " as they desire.

Subscriptions are to be paid only to the Assistant Secretary, Mr. R. W. Goulding, 2O
Mercer ROIU, Louth, 'who will send receipts.

Members will be entitled to free admission to all meetings and excursions, and to
possess the card of membership, ivhich card ivilt entitle the holder to special railivay
privileges for each excursion.

The officers of the Union consist of a President, Vice-Presidents, one or more
general Secretaries, and for each section a President and one or more Secretaries.
The President shall be elected annually. He must be connected with Lincolnshire
either by birth, residence, or scientific work. At the close of his term of office he
becomes a permanent Vice-President.

The Executive Committee consists of all Members who serve in, or have at any
time served in, the offices of President, or Secretary of the Union, or its sections.
This Committee has the sole management of all affairs of the Union, subject to the
approval of the Committee of the whole Union, to which it reports fully at the
annual Lincoln meeting.

Ladies and Gentlemen desirous of becoming Members of the Union should apply
to the Organising Secretary for nomination papers. A new member requires to be
proposed and seconded, and the paper must be countersigned by the President or one
of the Vice-Presidents of the Union.

Correspondence with respect to Field and Sectional Meetings and organisation
generally should be addressed to Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney
Vicarage, Brigg.

It is hoped that all members will interest themselves in the work of the Union.
Proposal Forms will be sent to each member applying for them.

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

FIELD MEETINGS, 1896.

The Field Meetings arranged for Season 1896 are the following : —

Grantham, Nat. Hist. Div. 15, in June, with a drive to Ancaster, under the
guidance of Mr. Henry Preston, F.G.S.

Bourne, Nat. Hist. Div. 16 can be thoroughly worked, in July.

Great Cotes, Nat. Hist. Div. 4, in September, when Mr. John Cordeaux, M.B.O.U.,
leads and entertains the Union.

General Meeting, with President's Address, Thursday, October 29th,

^y ^^ ^^ ^y ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

A Lincolnshire Museum.

Hon. Curator and Taxidermist ; — ALFRED FIELDSEND, 2, Norman Street, Lincoln.

Chairman: — F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough.
Secretary : — G. M. LOWE, M.D., C.M., M.R.C.P., Castle Hill House, Lincoln.

JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., Great Cotes,. Ulceby.
REV. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., The School House, Lincoln.

THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF LINCOLN.

REV. W. FOWLER, M.A., Liversedge, Normanton.

W. J. CANT, L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S., L.S.A., Lindum Road, Lincoln.

REV. A. W. ROWE, M.A., F.G.S. , Newport, Lincoln.

J. H. COOKE, B.SC., F.L.S, F.G.S., 123, Monks' Road, Lincoln.

REV. CANON HARVEY, F.S.A., Navenby Reclory, Lincoln.

REV. CANON MADDISON, F.S.A., Vicars' Court, Lincoln.

REV. A. H. SUTTON, Brant Broughton Redlory, Newark.

E. MANSEL SYMPSON, ESQ_., M.D., Lincoln.
Hon. Member of Committee : — Jos. RUSTON, Eso^., J.P.

With power to add to their number Members of the Union or gentlemen interested
in the history, antiquities, and educational questions of the county.

The County Committee have lent the L.N.U. the use of a suite of rooms, free of
rent, in the Castle Gateway as a temporary Museum. Mr. A. Fieldsend has kindly
consented to act as Honorary Curator and Taxidermist, and all specimens may be
sent to him.

F. M. BURTON, F.G.S. J. H. COOKE, F.G.S.

REV. E. A. WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, F.G.S. H. PRESTON, F.G.S.

REV. A. W. ROWE, F.G.S. REV. W. TUCKWELL, Secretary.

With power to add to their number ; for the purpose of investigating and recording
the erratics and boulders of the County.

(VoL. I. No. 5.

JANUARY, 1897.

PRICE is.

Natural History Seffiion

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO

^Botany, Qonchology, Entomology, Geology, Ornithology, and Zoology,

&c., of the Bounty.

Edited by

The Rev. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK,

L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,

Hon. Organising and Botanical Sec. of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union,
Vicar of Cadney, Brigg.

CONTENTS.

Lincolnshire 65

Value of a Salmon Fishery on the Trent ... 71

The Story of the Lincoln Gap (Part II) . 7Z
A Short Account of a Country Parish . 77

HORNCASTLE :

Printed by W. K. MORTON, 27, HIGH STREET.

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union,

1896.

REV. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., The School House, Lincoln.

JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., GREAT COTES, R.S.O. (Pres. 1893) ;

F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough, (Pres. 1894-5).

F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough..

REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.TH., F.L.S., F.G.S., Cadney, Brigg.

Hum. gtssistsnt £jer«targ:

R. W. GOULDING, 20 Mercer Row, Louth.

VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY.

President: — G. H. CATON-HAIGH, Grainsby, Great Grimsby.
Secretary : — J. CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., Great Cotes, Ulceby.

CONCHOLOGY.

President: — J. H. COOKE, B.SC., F.L.S., F.G.S., 123, Monks' Road, Lincoln.
Secretary : — W. D. ROEBUCK, F.L.S., Sunny Bank, Leeds.

ENTOMOLOGY.

President : — CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., Lincoln.
Secretaries : — REV. G. H. RAYNOR, M.A., Panton, Wragby ; Rev. A. THORNLEY,
M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., Leverton, Lincoln.

BOTANY.

President : — REV. W. FOWLER, M.A., Liversedge, Normanton.

PJuenogan&c Secretary: — REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.TH., *.L.S.,
F.G.S., Cadney, Brigg.

Cryptogamic Secretary: — J. LARDER, Mercer Row, Louth.

GEOLOGY.

President : F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Gainsborough.

Secretary: — J. H. COOKE, B.SC., F.L.S., F.G.S., 123, Monks' Road, Lincoln.

NATURAL HISTORY.

anti 3&ule0«

Field meetings will be held at least three times a year, alternately in the northern
and southern divisions of the county ; there will also be one general meeting yearly
for the transaction of the business of the Society, and for the retiring President'*
address : this will be held at Lincoln. Before each field meeting, arrangements will
be made for the investigation of the locality chosen, and a detailed programme will
be printed and issued to members. At the close of the day's investigations, sectional
and general meetings will be held for the purpose of ascertaining the scientific
results of the day's proceedings.

The Sections are five in number, as under :

Vertebrate Zoology ; Conchology ; Entomology ; Botany ; and Geology. After
each excursion the Secretary or Secretaries of each section will furnish to the
Organising Secretary a detailed and descriptive report of the work done by his or
their section. These combined reports will then be published in the " Naturalist."

The minimum subscription is 55., payable in advance. The payment of one sum
of £5 constitutes a life member. Those subscribing los. 6d. or more, receive, it
they apply by letter, either the " Naturalist," or the " Lincolnshire Notes and
Queries " as they desire.

Subscriptions are to be paid only to the Assistant Secretary, Mr. R. W. Goulding, 20
Mercer Rcnv, Louth, ivho will send receipts,

Members will be entitled to free admission to all meetings and excursions, and to
possess the card of membership, ivhich card will entitle the holder to special railway
privileges for each excursion.

The Executive Committee consists of all Members who serve in, or have at any
time served in, the offices of President, or Secretary of the Union, or its sections,
This Committee has the sole management of all affairs of the Union, subject to the
approval of the Committee of the whole Union, to which it reports fully at the
annual Lincoln meeting.

Correspondence with respect to Field and Sectional Meetings and organisation
generally should be addressed to Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney
Vicarage, Brigg.

It is hoped that all members will interest themselves in the work of the Union.
Proposal Forms will be sent to each member applying for them.

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

FIELD MEETINGS, 1896.

The Field Meetings arranged for Season 1896 are the following : —

Grantham, Nat. Hist. Div. 15, in June, with a drive to Ancaster, under the
guidance of Mr. Henry Preston, F.G.S.

Bourne, Nat. Hist. Div. 16 can be thoroughly worked, in July.

Great Cotes, Nat. Hist. Div. 4, in September, when Mr. John Cordeaux, M.B.O.U.,
leads and entertains the Union.

General Meeting, with President's Address, Thursday, October 29th.

&y ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

A Lincolnshire Museum.

Hon. Curator and Taxidermist : — ALFRED FIELDSEND, 2, Norman Street, Lincoln.

Chairman: — F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough.
Secretary: — G. M. LOWE, M.D., C.M., M.R.C.P., Castle Hill House, Lincoln.

JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., Great Cotes, Ulceby.
REV. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., The School House, Lincoln.

THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF LINCOLN.

REV. W. FOWLER, M.A., Liversedge, Normanton.

W. J. CANT, L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S., L.S.A., Lindum Road, Lincoln.

REV. A. W. ROWE, M.A., F.G.S., Newport, Lincoln.

J. H. COOKE, B.SC., F.L.S, F.G.S., 123, Monks' Road, Lincoln.

REV. CANON HARVEY, F.S.A., Navenby Reftory, Lincoln.

REV. CANON MADDISON, F.S.A., Vicars' Court, Lincoln.

REV. A. H. SUTTON, Brant Broughton Redlory, Newark.

E. MANSEL SYMPSON, Esq_., M.D., Lincoln.
Hon. Member of Committee : — Jos. RUSTON, ESQ_., J.P.

With power to add to their number Members of the Union or gentlemen interested
in the history, antiquities, and educational questions of the county.

F. M. BURTON, F.G.S. J. H. COOKE, F.G.S.

REV. E. A. WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, F.G.S. H. PRESTON, F.G.S.

REV. A. W. ROWE, F.G.S. REV. W. TUCKWELL, Secretary.

With power to add to their number j for the purpose of investigating and recording
the erratics and boulders of the County.

VOL. I. No. 6. APRIL, 1897. PRICE is.

The Natural History Section

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO

^Botany, fynchology, Entomology, Geology, Ornithology, and Zoology,

&c., of the Qounty.

Edited by

The Rev. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK,

L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,

Hon. Organising and Botanical Sec. of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union,
Vicar of Cadney, Brlgg.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Lincolnshire (Part II.) 83

Notes on Ice-borne Blocks of Shap

Granite, &c., found in Lincolnshire... 94

HORNCASTLE :
Printed by W. K. MORTON, 27, HIGH STREET.

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

Lincolnshire N aturalists* Union,

1897.

REV. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., The School House, Lincoln.

JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., GREAT COTES, R.S.O. (Pres. 1893) ;

F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough, (P es. 1894.- j)

rr.

F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough,,

0H,

REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.TH., F.L.S., F.G.S., Cadney, Brigg

HSU, gusmfcmt

R. W. GOULDING, 20 Mercer Row, Louth.

VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY.

President : — G. H. CATON-HAIGH, Grainsby, Great Grimsby.
Secretary : — J. CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., Great Cotes, Ulceby.

CONCHOLOGY.

President : — J. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Gainsborough.
Secretary : — W. D. ROEBUCK, F.L.S., Sunny Bank, Leeds.

ENTOMOLOGY.

President : — CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., Lincoln.
Secretary: — REV. A. THORNLEY, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., Leverton, Lincoln.

BOTANY.

President : — REV. W. FOWLER, M.A., Liversedge, Normanton.

P ktenogarrac Secretary: — REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.TH., " I-.L.S.,
F.G.S., Cadney, Brigg.

Cryptogamic Secretary: — J. LARDER, Mercer Row, Louth.

GEOLOGY.

President : F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Gainsborough.
Secretary : — H. PRESTON, F.G.S., Hawthornden Villa, Grantham.

NATURAL HISTORY.

ann

Field meetings will be held at least three times a year, alternately in the northern
and southern divisions of the county ; there will also be one general meeting yearly
for the transaction of the business of the Society, and for the retiring President's
address : this will be held at Lincoln. Before each field meeting, arrangements will
be made for the investigation of the locality chosen, and a detailed programme will
be printed and issued to members. At the close of the day's investigations, sectional
and general meetings will be held for the purpose of ascertaining the scientific
results of the day's proceedings.

The Sections are five in number, as under :

The minimum subscription is 55., payable in advance. The payment of one sum
of £5 constitutes a life member. Those subscribing los. 6d. or more, receive, if
they apply by letter, either the " Naturalist," or the " Lincolnshire Notes and
Queries " as they desire.

Subscriptions are to be paid only to the Assistant Secretary, Mr. R. W. Goulding, 20
Mercer Row, Louth, luho 'will send receipts.

Members will be entitled to free admission to all meetings and excursions, and to
possess the card of membership, 'which card 'will entitle the holder to special railivay
privileges for each excursion.

The officers of the Union, consist of a President, Vice-Presidents, one or more
general Secretaries, and for each section a President and one or more Secretaries.
The President shall be elected annually. He must be connected with Lincolnshire
either by birth, residence, or scientific work. At the close of his term of office he
becomes a permanent Vice-President.

The Executive Committee consists of all Members who serve in, or have at anj
time served in, the offices of President, or Secretary of the Union, or its sections.
This Committee has the sole management of all affairs of the Union, subject to the
approval of the Committee of the whole Union, to which it reports fully at the
annual Lincoln meeting.

Correspondence with respect to Field and Sectional Meetings and organisation
generally should be addressed to Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney
Vicarage, Brigg.

It is hoped that all members will interest themselves in the work of the Union.
Proposal Forms will be sent to each member applying for them.

iv. LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

FIELD MEETINGS, 1897.

The Field Meetings arranged for Season 1897 are the following : —
June, — GAINSBOROUGH in Divs. 5 & 6, a two days' meeting.
July. — SPALDING, in Divs. 17 & 18, a two days' meeting.
August. — TUMBY WOOD, Div. 10, a one day's meeting".
September. — BOSTON, in Divs. 12 & 17, a two days' meeting.

A Lincolnshire Museum.

Chairman: — F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough.

Secretary : — G. M. LOWE, M.D., C.M., M.R.C.P., Castle Hill House, Lincoln.

W. J. CANT, L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S., L.S.A., Lindum Road, Lincoln.

JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., Great Cotes, Ulceby.
REV. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., The School House, Lincoln.

THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF LINCOLN.
A. FIELDSEND, 2, Norman Street, Lincoln (Hon. Curator of Museum}.

REV. W. FOWLER, M.A., Liversedge, Normanton.

G. A. GRIERSON, F.L.S., 312, High Street, Lincoln (Hon. Curator of County Herbarium),
REV. CANON A. W. ROWE, M.A., F.G.S., Newport, Lincoln.

Antiquarian Members : —

REV. CANON HARVEY, F.S.A., Navenby Rectory, Lincoln.
REV. CANON MADDISON, F.S.A., Vicars' Court, Lincoln.
REV. A. F. SUTTON, Brant Broughton Rectory, Newark.

E. MANSEL SYMPSON, ESQ_., M.D., Lincoln.
Hon. Member of Committee : — Jos. RUSTON, Eso^., J.P.

The Museum will mainly be a collection of objects carefully selected to illustrate
Lincolnshire, and so arranged and described that they may be a means of instruction
to the student as well as of interest to all.

It is hoped that all members will interest themselves in obtaining donations and
articles for the Museum.

VOL. I. No. 7. JULY, 1897. PRICE is.

The Natural History Section

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO

'Botany, Qonchology, Entomology, Geology, Ornithology, and Zoology ',

&c., of the (Bounty.

Edited by

The Rev. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK,

L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,

Hon. Organising and Botanical Sec. of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union,
Vicar of Cadney, Brigg.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Notes on Ice-borne Blocks of Shap
Granite, &c., found in Lincolnshire
(concluded) 0,7

PAGE

An Archaeological History of the Wash... 101
The Story of the Lincoln Gap no

HORNCASTLE :

Printed by W. K. MORTON, 27, HIGH STREET.

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

Lincolnshire N aturalists* Union.

i897.

REV. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., The School House, Lincoln.

JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., GREAT COTES, R.S.O. (Pres. 1893) ;

F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough, (Pres. 189^-5)

F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough»

H0tt, (Ifrgjmismg %ttutm%i .

REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.TH., F.L.S., F.G.S. Cadney, Brigg.

Urn*, gtssistewt ^tejeterg :

R. W. GOULDING, 20 Mercer Row, Louth.

VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY.

President: — G. H. CATON-HAIGH, Grainsby, Great Grimsby.
Secretary : — J. CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., Great Cotes, Ulceby.

CONCHOLOGY.

President : — J. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Gainsborough.
Secretary : — W. D. ROEBUCK, F.L.S., Sunny Bank, Leeds.

ENTOMOLOGY.

President : — CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., Lincoln.
Secretary : — REV. A. THORNLEY, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., Leverton, Lincoln.

BOTANY.

President : — REV. W. FOWLER, M.A., Liversedge, Normanton.

fhtfnogamic Secretary : — REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.TH., F.L.S.,
F.G.S., Cadney, Brigg.

Cryptogamic Secretary: — J. LARDER, Mercer Row, Louth.

GEOLOGY.

President : F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Gainsborough.
Secretary : — H. PRESTON, F.G.S., Hawthornden Villa, Grantham

NATURAL HISTORY.

anti

Field meetings will be held at least three times a year, alternately in the northern
and southern divisions of the county ; there will also be one general meeting yearly
for the transaction of the business of the Society, and for the retiring President's
address : this will be held at Lincoln. Before each field meeting, arrangements will
be made for the investigation of the locality chosen, and a detailed programme will
be printed and issued to members. At the close of the day's investigations, sectional
and general meetings will be held for the purpose of ascertaining the scientific
results of the day's proceedings.

The Sections are five in number, as under :

Vertebrate Zoology 5 Conchology ; Entomology ; Botany ; and Geology. After
each excursion the Secretary or Secretaries of each section will furnish to the
Organising Secretary a detailed and descriptive report of the work done by his or
their section. These combined reports will then be published in the " Naturalist."

Subscriptions are to be paid only to the Assistant Secretary, Mr. R. W. Goulding, 2O
Mercer Roiu, L.outh, <who will send receipts.

Members will be entitled to free admission to all meetings and excursions, and to
possess the card of membership, 'which card ivill entitle the holder to special railway
privileges for each excursion.

Correspondence with respect to Field and Sectional Meetings and organisation
generally should be addressed to Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney
Vicarage, Brigg.

It is hoped that all members will interest themselves in the work of the Union.
Proposal Forms will be sent to each member applying for them.

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

FIELD MEETINGS, 1897.

The Field Meetings arranged for Season 1897 are the following : —
June. — GAINSBOROUGH in Divs. 5 & 6, a two days' meeting
July. - SPALDING, in Divs. 17 & 18, a two days' meeting.
August. — TUMBY WOOD, Div. 10, a one day's meeting-.
September. — BOSTON, in Divs. 12 & 17, a two days' meeting.

A Lincolnshire Museum.

Chairman: — F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough.

Secretary: — G. M. LOWE, M.D., C.M., M.R.C.P., Castle Hill House, Lincoln.

W. J. CANT, L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S., L.S.A., Lindum Road, Lincoln.

JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., Great Cotes, Ulceby.
REV. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., The School House, Lincoln.

THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF LINCOLN.
A. FIELDSEND, 2, Norman Street, Lincoln (Hon. Curator of Museum}.

REV. W. FOWLER, M.A., Liversedge, Normanton.

G. A. GRIERSON, F.L.S., 312, High Street, Lincoln (Hon. Curator of County Herbarium}.
REV. CANON A. W. ROWE, M.A., F.G.S., Newport, Lincoln.

Antiquarian Members : —

REV. CANON HARVEY, F.S.A., Navenby Reclory, Lincoln.
REV. CANON MADDISON, F.S.A., Vicars' Court, Lincoln.
REV. A. F. SUTTON, Brant Broughton Reclory, Newark.

E. MANSEL SYMPSON, Eso^., M.D., Lincoln.
Hon. Member of Committee : — Jos. RUSTON, Eso^., j.p.

It is hoped that all members will interest themselves in obtaining donations and
articles for the Museum.

AOL. I. No. 8. OCTOBER, 1897. PRICE is.

The Natural History Seffiion

Lincolnshire Notes & Queries.

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL

DEVOTED TO

'Botany, fynchology, Sntomology, Geology, Ornithology, and Zoology,

&c., of the Bounty.

Edited by

The Rev. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK,

L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S.,

Hon. Organising tnd Botanical Sec. of the Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union,
Vicar of Cadney, Srigg.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

President's Address to the Lincolnshire
Naturalists' Union, 1896

The Lincoln Gap I22

Natural History Notes 124

HORNCASTLE :
Printed by W. K. MORTON, 27, HIGH STREET.

LONDON: W. P. W. PHILLIMORE, 124, CHANCERY LANE.
Entered at Stationed Hall.} \*U RiZAts *«™'.

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

Lincolnshire N aturalists* Union,

1897.

REV. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., The School House, Lincoln.

JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., GREAT COTES, R.S.O. (Pres. 1893) j
F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough, (Pres.

F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough,

H0H, @r0a»iaitt0 gtcutwit:

REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.TH., F.L.S., F.G.S., Cadney, Brigg.

J|0tf, ^mJSfcmt %ttUi%tQ\
R. W. GOULDING, 20 Mercer Row, Louth.

VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY.

President: — G. H. CATON-HAIGH, Grainsby, Great Grimsby.
Secretary : — J. CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., Great Cotes, Ulceby.

CONCHOLOGY.

President : — F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Gainsborough.
Secretary : — W. D. ROEBUCK, F.L.S., Sunny Bank, Leeds.

ENTOMOLOGY.

President : — CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., Lincoln.
Secretary : — REV. A. THORNLEY, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., Leverton, Lincoln.

BOTANY.
President: — REV. W. FOWLER, M.A., Liversedge, Normanton.

Pheenogamic Secretary : — REV. E. ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.TH., F.L.S.
F.G.S., Cadney, Brigg.

Cryptogamic Secretary : — J. LARDER, Mercer Row, Louth.

GEOLOGY.

President : F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Gainsborough.
Secretary : — H. PRESTON, F.G.S., Hawthornden Villa, Grantham,

NATURAL HISTORY. iii.

ann

The Sections are five in number, as under :

Vertebrate Zoology ; Conchology j Entomology j Botany ; and Geology. After
each excursion the Secretary or Secretaries of each section will furnish to the
Organising Secretary a detailed and descriptive report of the work done by his or
their section. These combined reports will then be published in the " Naturalist."

The minimum subscription is 53., payable in advance. The payment of one sum
of ^5 constitutes a life member. Those subscribing los. 6d. or more, receive, if
they apply by letter, either the " Naturalist," or the " Lincolnshire Notes and
Queries " as they desire.

Subscriptions are to be paid only to the Assistant Secretary, Mr, R. W. Goulding, 20
Mercer Row, Louth, rwho ivill send receipts,

Members will be entitled to free admission to all meetings and excursions, and to
possess the card of membership, which card will entitle the holder to special railway
privileges for each excursion.

Correspondence with respect to Field and Sectional Meetings and organisation
generally should be addressed to Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney
Vicarage, Brigg.

It is hoped that all members will interest themselves in the work of the Union
Proposal Forms will be sent to each member applying for them.

iv. LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES & QUERIES.

FIELD MEETINGS, 1897.

The Field Meetings arranged for Season 1897 are the following : —
June. — GAINSBOROUGH, in Divs. 5 & 6, a two days' meeting
July. — SPALDING, in Divs. 17 & 18, a two days' meeting.
August. — TUMBY WOOD, Div. 10, a one day's meeting1.
September. — BOSTON, in Divs. 12 & 17, a two days' meeting.

A Lincolnshire Museum,

Chairman: — F. M. BURTON, F.L.S., F.G.S., Highfield, Gainsborough.

Secretary: — G. M. LOWE, M.D., C.M., M.R.C.P., Castle Hill House, Lincoln.

W. J. CANT, L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S., L.S.A., Lindum Road, Lincoln.

JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., Great Cotes, Ulceby.
REV. CANON W. W. FOWLER, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., The School House, Lincoln.

THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF LINCOLN.
A. FIELDSEND, 2, Norman Street, Lincoln (Hon. Curator of Museum).

REV. W. FOWLER, M.A., Liversedge, Normanton.

G. A. GRIERSON, F.L.S., 312, High Street, Lincoln (Hon. Curator of County Herbarium).
REV. CANON A. W. ROWE, M.A., F.G.S., Newport, Lincoln.

Antiquarian Members : —

REV. CANON HARVEY, F.S.A., Navenby Reftory, Lincoln.
REV. CANON MADDISON, F.S.A., Vicars' Court, Lincoln.
REV. A. F. SUTTON, Brant Broughton Re&ory, Newark.

E. MANSEL SYMPSON, ESQ_., M.D., Lincoln.
Hon. Member of Committee : — Jos. RUSTON, Eso^., J.P.

It is hoped that all members will interest themselves in obtaining donations and
articles for the Museum.

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Full text of "The natural history of Lincolnshire; being the natural history section of Lincolnshire notes & queries, from January, 1896, to October, 1897"

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