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Odds n' Ends..! |
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'When I was bound apprentice,
In famous Lincolnshire,
Full well I served my master
For more than seven year,
Till I took up with poaching,
As you shall quickly hear:
Oh! 'tis my delight on a shiny night,
In the season of the year.'
That song, The Lincolnshire Poacher, sung to a rollicking tune and first printed at York about 1775, tells the story of a
hare-stealing poacher who crept around rural 18th Century Lincolnshire. The Lincolnshire poacher had plenty of companions -
Lincolnshire was famous for poaching. Henry VIII had no love for Lincolnshire, describing it as "one of the most brutal and
beestlie [counties] of the whole realm". Now, Lincolnshire poaching has become respectable - sort of. Tourist
organisations offer tours of 'Poacher Country".
The chalk hills of the Lincolnshire Wolds offer gentle inclines, perfect for cycling and walking. Views from the hills are spectacular.
Cyclists on the long-distance Hull to Harwich cycle route pedal through the heart of the Wolds. Louth, set on the edge of the Wolds,
is the area's most appealing town, with lovely Georgian architecture and a striking church steeple.
The Wolds were a favourite haunt of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who spent his childhood there, having been born at nearby Somersby. Tennyson's
poem The Brook is loosely based on the stream that runs through his home village. The BBC finds Lincolnshire's scenery suits many of
its television series. It filmed Middlemarch, George Eliot's classic novel set in 19th Century Georgian England, at Stamford and
Grimsthorpe Castle. Belton House, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, was the home of Aunt Catherine de Bough in the BBC version of
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. When the BBC filmed Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, it used Belton House again, along with
delightfully named Straggleworth Hall, nearby.
Click on the headings to find out more:
Lincoln, occupied by Roman legions in 47 AD when the town was known as Lindon, is distinguished by its medieval gothic cathedral, a
building of outstanding historical and architectural merit. By tradition, the heart of Edward I's Queen Eleanor of Castille (1246-90)
is buried under the east window. The rest of her lies next to her husband in Westminster Abbey. Early pagan images are still visible
around the Cathedral. Look for "the cheeky green man" - he's not the bishop but an ancient fertility symbol inscribed on a wall.
Bristling with towers and ramparts, Lincoln Castle looks impregnable. It houses a Magna Carta exhibition and
a prison chapel experience.
Lincoln's Museum of Lincolnshire Life in Burton road is the region's largest social history museum.
Tales of the River Bank Visitor Centre, in Walcott Bank, Lincoln, tells you all about the history of fen drainage, an
activity that was resisted when it began and which has an enormous impact on the region.
The tiny hamlet of Somersby has changed little since Alfred Tennyson was born there in 1809. Tennyson later
rose to become Poet Laureate of England. He described the countryside where he roamed as a boy as being rich
"with plaited alleys of the trailing rose". Ahhhh. The church where Tennyson's father preached still stands,
now adorned with a bust of his poetic son.
Gainsborough, a venerable river port, is home to Gainsborough Old Hall, bending and buckling with age because it was built in the 1460s.
King Henry VIII (who was described in his lifetime as one who "spared no man in his rage and no woman in his lust")
met his sixth wife, Catherine Parr, in this hall. Henry was ageing, fat, ugly and syphilitic by that time -
poor Catherine! But Catherine wasn't too unlucky - she outlived Henry and escaped the executioner's block.
Also in Gainsborough Old Hall, the Pilgrim Fathers met regularly to worship about 40 years before persecution of their
religion led them to flee England and head to America in their small, crowded ship Mayflower.
Louth is one of Lincolnshire's prettiest villages. An ill-fated 16th Century rebellion, directed against the repression and brutality of
Henry VIII, began in Louth. Outraged at being accused of brutality, Henry put an end to the uprising (but not to the accusations) by
having the local vicar strung up, disembowelled and chopped into four pieces. Phew, after that story, perhaps
duck into the Wheatsheaf for ale.
Boston is home to the tallest working windmill in Britain, an easy-to-recognise landmark. Windmills (a bit smaller than this one)
once dotted the Fens - they served to drain the marshy ground.
Boston Guildhall Museum, a 15th Century building with 16th Century kitchens, stands over the original cells that imprisoned
the Pilgrim Fathers.
Spalding, where the River Welling is lined with grand Georgian buildings, is graced by the restored medieval manor house of
Ayscoughfee (pronounced Ascuffee) Hall, now a museum. The town is the centre of Britain's flower and bulb industry.
The Gordon Boswell Romany Museum houses a collection of Gypsy vardos (caravans) and other mementos of Romany life.
You can even have your palm read.
Grantham, halfway between Stamford and Lincoln, was where Isaac Newton (1642-1727) received his early education in the 1650s. Newton wrote a
treatise on gravitation after seeing an apple fall from a tree, making him realise gravity must exist. He formulated the theories of
universal gravitation, terrestrial mechanics and colour. He might have discovered even more, had not his dog, Diamond, knocked over a
candle, set fire to some papers and thereby "destroyed the almost finished labours of some years". Drat! Margaret Thatcher, inventor of
Thatcherism, was born in Grantham in 1925. A large parish church with a 282-foot spire is open for visits.
The Tupholme Abbey Ruins (off the B1190) displays the remains of a 12th Century Abbey in 20 acres of grass,
complete with picnic site.
Where else but England would you find a little museum housing a collection of 4500 old glass lampshades? The Old
Curiosity Museum is located in the village of Mablethorpe.
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