Footnotes:

As Mary Howitt prettily says;—

Up, up into the skies, Thy strenuous pinions go; While shouts, and cries, and wondering eyes Still reach thee from below. But higher and higher, like a spirit of fire, Still o’er thee hangs thy foe; Thy cruel foe, still seeking With one down-plunging aim To strike thy precious life For ever from thy frame; But doomed, perhaps, as down he darts, Swift as the rustling wind, Impaled upon thy upturned beak, To leave his own behind.

To the Heron

£ s. d.

“1806, March 30.—Needham’s boy for a fox 0 1 0

“1806, April 6.—Paid for foxes 0 16 3½

“1814, April 11.—Paid for foxes 1 12 2½”

The slaughter of foxes, even in the 19th century, was thus remunerated at the rate of 1s. each; yet, in Woodhall, they would seem to have been so plentiful, that for such services, with other incidental expenses (such, probably, as traps, &c.), as much as £1 12s. 2½d. was paid in one year. Since those days, there has been a reaction in public sentiment. Nous avons changé tout cela, and instead of putting a price on Reynard’s head, we value his brush, and give him general protection.

“I wind about, and in and out, With here a blossom sailing. And here and there a lusty trout, And here and there a grayling.”

There are no grayling in the Somersby beck.

In one gallon.

Chloride of Sodium 1,215,175

„ Potassium 2,453

„ Magnesium 86,146

„ Calcium 105,001

Bromide of Sodium 5,145

Iodide of Sodium 2,731

Bi-carbonate of Soda 45,765

Carbonate of Lime 9.381

,, Iron 0.277

Silica 0.339

“Leaving her former course in which she first set forth, Which seemed to have been directly to the north, She runs her silver front into the muddy fen . . . coming down, . . . to lively Botolph’s town.”

Polyolbion, song xxv.

It may here be added that the antiquary, Stukely, who at one time lived at Boston was of opinion, that the Witham, at one period, diverged from its present channel a little below Tattershall, about Dogdyke, to the east, and through various channels, which are now drains, found its way to Wainfleet and there debouched into the sea. And an old map of Richard of Cirencester, in the 14th century, confirms this.

Wherewith some lordly abbot, in the chase, Gave to the deer “embossed” his coup de grace.

Impregnata parens patitur per somnia multum, Quod nihil in ventre sit, nisi grande caput; Et tam grande caput, et tanto robore forte, Quod puer ex utero fultus abit baculo.

Which may be done thus into English:—

A mother, great with coming child, Much suffers in her dreams, That naught beyond a monster head Her inward burden seems. A head so huge, yet with such might Endowed, that at his birth, Supported on a wooden staff The infant issues forth.

A bill against the sport was introduced into the House of Commons, May 24th, 1802, but was rejected, mainly through the influence of Mr. Wyndham, who used some curious arguments in favour of the sport. It has since been made illegal, through the instrumentality of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, established 1824. At one time many towns, and even villages, practised the sport. Strutt, “Sports” (p. 277), says many of the rings “remain at the present time” (1780.)

“But first, quod he, her, at thys ale-stake, I will both drynke, and biten at a cake.”

Jusseraud, in his “Wayfaring life of 14th century,” gives a sketch of such a Bow-house from a XIV. century illuminated MS.

Whilst Bacon was but bacon, had he fearde, He long ere this had proved but larde; But he, instead of larde, must be a lord, And so grew leane, and was not fit for boarde.

And, again, we find,

There needed not to blazon forth the Swinton, His ancient burgonet the boar; &c.

“Cambridge Portfolio,” vol. i., pp. 233, 234.

This may be a convenient place to discuss the origin of the name Dymock. Walford (“Tales of Great Families”) says the name is Welsh, being a contraction of Daimadoc, which means David Madoc. He was a descendant of Owen Tudor, Lord of Hereford and Whittington. This chief had three sons; the second married a daughter of the Prince of North Wales, half a century before the Conquest, and was ancestor of David ap Madoc; Dai-Madoc, in course of time, shrinking into Daimoc, or Dymoke. Burke says that the John Dymoke who married Margaret de Ludlow, granddaughter of Philip de Marmion, was a knight of ancient Gloucestershire ancestry, and there is a village of Dymock, near Gloucester. A Welsh origin is likely, as there were Dymokes of Pentre in Wales; the Lady Margaret de Ludlow, who married Sir John Dymoke of Scrivelsby, took her title from Ludlow in the adjoining county of Salop. And another Welsh origin of the name has been suggested. “Ty,” pronounced “Dy” in Welsh, means “house”; “moch” means “swine”; and so Dymoke would mean Swinehouse, after the fashion of Swynburne, Swinhop, Swineshead; all old names. The motto of the Dymokes, adopted at a later date, Pro Rege Dimico, “I fight for the King,” is again a case, though most appropriate, of a “canting” motto.

Chester presents Walton with a bridle To curb women’s tongues that be idle;

the said Chester being, it is said, a man who lost money through a talkative woman of Walton. An engraving of a “brancks” is given in the volume of the Archæological Institute for 1848, p. 211. It was exhibited, by Col. Jarvis of Doddington, at Lincoln, on the visit of the Institute to that city.

I was a friere ful many a day, Therefor the soth I wot; But when I saw that their lyvinge Accorded not to their prechynge, Of I cast my friere clothynge, And wyghtly went my way.

Quoted, Jusseraud’s “Way-faring Life of 14th Century.”