Part 12 (1/2)
The south inscription is, ”To the memorie of Thomas Vyner Esqr, second sonne of Sr Thomas Vyner, Knt. & Baronet, by Dame Honour, daughter of George Humble Esqr, of this Parish, His second wife, this monument was erected, at the charge of Sr Robert Vyner, Knt and Baronet, sole executor of his last will and Testament. Ano. Dni. 1673.”
The founder of the family of Vyner was Sir Robert, a wealthy London merchant, who, like his father before him, lent money to ruined Royalists, doubtless at a rate of interest which well repaid him. He was _fond of his sovereign_, in more senses than one, as is shewn by the following anecdote given in the ”Spectator,” No. 462:-When Sir Robert Vyner was Lord Mayor, in 1675, he entertained Charles II. in the Guild-hall; and this he did with so profuse hospitality, and withal repeatedly toasting the royal family, that he soon began to treat his sovereign with a familiarity unduly loving. The king understood very well how to extricate himself from such a difficulty, and with a hint to the company to avoid ceremony, he stole away and made for his coach, standing in the Guild-hall yard. But Sir Robert liked his Majesty's company so well that he pursued him, and catching the king by the hand, he cried out, with a round oath, ”Sire, you shall stay and take t' other bottle.” Charles, recognising the inevitable, put a good face on the matter, and, looking at him kindly, with a graceful air repeated this line of the old song,
”He that's drunk is as great as a king.”
He immediately returned and complied with the invitation. {173}
In the park at Gautby there stood for many years an equestrian statue, of which the history is somewhat ludicrous. It pa.s.sed for a statue of Charles II. Sir Robert Vyner, the hero of the above anecdote, presented it to the City of London, in 1675; and it was placed in the Stocks Market, in honour of his Majesty. The royal horseman bestrides a warlike steed, which is trampling under foot the figure of a turbanned Turk.
This seems hardly an appropriate mode of representing a sovereign, who, so far from thirsting for deeds of war, could drink wine and play cards when the Dutch were burning our s.h.i.+pping in the Thames close by. The Stocks Market was eventually demolished, when the statue was transferred to Gautby Park, the Lincolns.h.i.+re seat of the donor, whence it has in late years been transferred to the Yorks.h.i.+re seat of the Vyners-Newby Park, near Ripon. It had been originally intended to represent John Sobieski, King of Poland, who was regarded as the saviour of Europe from the Mussulman power; and for him, the Turk trampled under foot was a fitting emblem. When the statue was taken down in 1738, the following satiric lines were circulated and sung in the streets:-
”The last dying speech and confession of the Horse at Stock's Market.
Ye whimsical people of London's fair town Who one day put up, what the next day pull down; Full sixty-one years, have I stood in this place, And never, till now, met with any disgrace!
What affront to crowned heads could you offer more bare, Than to pull down a king to make room for a mayor?
The great Sobieski, on horse with long tail, I first represented, when set up for sale; A Turk, as you see, was placed under my feet, To prove o'er the Sultan my conquest compleat.
Next, when against monarchy all were combined, I, for your Protector, old Noll, was designed.
When the King was restored, you then, in a trice, Called me Charly the Second; and, by way of device, Said the old whiskered Turk had Oliver's face, Though you know to be conquered he ne'er had the disgrace.
Three such persons as these on one horse to ride, A Hero, Usurper, and King, all astride:- Such honours were mine; though now forced to retire, Perhaps my next change may be still something higher, From a fruitwoman's market, I may leap to a spire.
As the market is moved, I am forced to retreat; I could stay there no longer, with nothing to eat.
Now the herbs and the greens are all carried away, I must go unto those who will find me in hay.”
So the old horse, after serving varied purposes, and more than one ”flitting,” finds literally ”a green old age” in his ”retreat” in the great horse county; a standing memorial, in stone, of a Lord Mayor's ”zeal” _not_ ”tempered with knowledge.” But his memory is not allowed to perish, for in the neighbouring training stables a favourite name among the fleet racers is Sobieski.
A pleasant walk of less than a mile over meadows, or ”Ings,” brings us to the village of Minting, the last syllable of its name, possibly, being derived from the said ”Ings.” Here, as has been already mentioned, formerly existed a Priory of Benedictine monks, a ”cell” or offshoot of the Gallic monastery of St. Benedict super Loira, and founded in 1129 by Ranulph de Meschines, Earl of Chester. No buildings remain above-ground, but they must have been very extensive, as mound and hollow and stew pond cover an area of four or five acres. The benefice is in the gift of St.
John's College, Cambridge. The church, previously a very poor structure, was restored by the Vicar, the Rev. F. Bashforth, in 1863, at a cost of over 800, the late Mr. Ewan Christian being the architect. The font is modern, but handsome, in form hexagonal. There is a north aisle with three bays and Norman arches. Three windows in the north wall and two in the south are debased. The east window is a good sample of the Perpendicular, and on the outside has figureheads of king and queen, as terminals of the moulding. A curious slab, carved on both sides, formerly lay loose in the porch, having been part of a churchyard cross.
At the restoration it was cut into two sections, and these were placed on the east wall of the nave, north and south of the chancel arch, thus shewing the two carved surfaces. The device on the northern one is a rude representation of the Crucifixion; the Saviour's legs are crossed, and a figure stands on either side, probably St. John and the Virgin.
Below is a rudely-cut foliated pattern. The design of the slab on the south, formerly the back, is also rude foliation. On the north wall of the chancel there is an oval bra.s.s tablet to the memory of Gulielmus Chapman, of which one is tempted to say that, unless the individual commemorated was an almost more than human embodiment of all the virtues, the author of the epitaph must have acted on the principle recommended by the poet Matthew Prior,-
Be to his virtues very kind, And to his faults a little blind.
It runs as follows:-”Gulielmus Chapman, Probus, Doctus, Lepidus, Facundus, Hic jacet. Pietate, Fidelitate, Benignitate, Modestia, Nulli Secundus, Hanc Vicariam bis 20 et octo annos tenuit. Clarus in Umbra, Rara in senectute Emicuit, Die 14 Aprilis decessit, Anno aetat. 82, Anno Dom. 1722.”
The villagers of this parish, 100 years ago, are said to have exercised the art of weaving on a considerable scale, and one of the writer's paris.h.i.+oners states that his grandmother lived there and had a hand-loom.
A walk of less than two miles, chiefly across the fields, brings us to Wispington. We have already mentioned {175} the presence here of moats, mounds, and portions of a former old mansion of the Phillips family, utilized in existing farm buildings. We have only now to notice the church, which does not call for much remark. It was rebuilt on the site, and partly of the materials, of the previously-existing church, in 1863, at a cost of 1,500, by the Rev. C. P. Terrott, late vicar, and one of our greatest local antiquaries. He himself designed the font and stone pulpit, and also executed the devices which adorned them, representing groups of different animals named in the Bible. The tower is supported on b.u.t.tresses, on a principle adopted from the church of Old Woodhall, which is peculiar, but simple and effective. In the vestry there is a slab, in the floor, of a former rector, John Hetherset, holding a chalice with hands in many-b.u.t.toned gloves. Built into the vestry wall are the capitals of two small Norman pillars, which were dug up near the church, and doubtless formed part of the older Norman building. Propped up against the vestry wall is a Jacobean altar-stone, formerly on the Communion table, one of the very few in England. The two mediaeval bells are dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The east window has modern coloured gla.s.s, the subject being the crucifixion, and scenes in the life of our Saviour. In the north wall of the nave is a window of coloured gla.s.s, commorative of the late vicar, C. P. Terrot; and in the south wall of the chancel is another, commemorating his son, Capt. Charles Terrott; in the south nave wall, near the font, is a bra.s.s tablet, with the Tyrwhitt arms, erected by the late Rev. Beauchamp St. John Tyrwhitt, vicar, in memory of his brother Robert. The west window is of coloured gla.s.s, the subject being St. Margaret and St. John the Baptist.
Edlington Church (St. Helen's)-the village being a very scattered one, with scarcely two houses contiguous-stands to the east, some two miles from Wispington. It was rebuilt, except the lower part of the tower, in 185960. The pulpit, reading desk, lectern, and sittings are all of oak, modern and plain, but substantial. There are three bells. Edlington park is nicely wooded with some good timber, though much of it has been felled of late years. There was formerly a good residence on the northern rising ground, but it was pulled down ”in the forties” by the then owner, J. Ha.s.sard Short, Esq., and only the kitchen gardens and fish ponds remain. In a field near at hand there were found, several years ago, a number of heaps of oxbones, each heap also containing an ancient urn, supposed to have been connected with Roman sacrifices; but, as Dr.
Oliver {176} derives the name Edlington from Eiddileg, a mystic character in the Bardic mythology, these may be the remnants of some other heathen superst.i.tion.
A walk across the park and over a couple of fields southward brings us to the village of Thimbleby, which consists of a ”street” of small cottages and two or three larger dwelling-houses. There is here an old manor, called ”Hall-garth,” with an interesting old house with gables, thatched roof, some panelled rooms, a large fish pond, an old-time garden with yew hedges fantastically trimmed, and a fine old tree or two. In a field called ”the Park,” at the east end of the parish, are some fine trees, remnants of a former avenue. The ancient well, said to be Roman, in the rectory grounds, has already been mentioned. The church was re-fas.h.i.+oned in 1879, and an old, nondescript, flat-ceiled structure was converted into a substantial and well-designed edifice of Early Decorated style, with clock-tower and good clock, which gives out its notes of time to the neighbourhood.
We are now within a mile of Horncastle; somewhat weary after our long explorations, let us wend our way on to the old town, and seek rest and refreshment at the well-appointed and almost historic hostel which is ready to welcome us beneath ”ye Signe of ye Bull.”