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wives," renouncing all royal prohibitions and privileges to the contrary, and promising that they and their families shall submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincoln."

Empingham church is a Prebend of Lincoln Cathedral, and is dedicated to St. Peter. It is extremely ancient, but in excellent repair and condition, and consists of a nave, two aisles, and two transepts. The tower is elegantly Gothic, and the west entrance consists of two Gothic arches, one surmounting the other, in a manner extremely curious, and ornamented with very rich mouldings. The body is Gothic, both inside and out; but there are some Saxon arches in the interior. The nave is separated from the side aisles by two rows of pillars, both supported by short round columns; the arches on the south side are Saxon, on the north, Gothic. Most of the windows are of the elegant AngloNorman lancet shape; they are rich in tracery, and there is still some armorial glass.

At a spot in this parish, marked in the maps as the ruins of St. Botolph's, called " St. Botley's," by the villagers, the chapel of the Normanville family is supposed to have stood. This was the site on which the fair was held.

Tradition says the town once extended so far, and also towards the banks of the Guash. In the former direction nothing remains, even of the ruins, to direct the eye of the antiquary, as the very foundations are obliterated; but coffins have been dug up, and various other remains have been discovered, which seem to point out its ancient respectability. Towards the Guash there are still existing many remains of Earthen Mounds, the marks of former establishments; most likely of the Mills, which at the Norman Survey appear to have been so numerous.

The Poor of this parish are chiefly farmed in a "House of Protection," as it is called, built on an extensive plan, by Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Bart. the present Lord of the Manor, in 1793, and furnished by the parishioners. On the entrance of each pauper into the house, they are supplied by the parish with two suits of clothes, and changes of linen; they are well fed; the sickly and

infirm are not required to work; but the healthy are made to exert themselves.

This is one of the parishes which derive benefits from the bequest of Mr. Henry Foster, for the education of the poor children. When Sir F. M. Eden wrote on the Poor, there was here one Friendly Society, consisting of 90 members, established in 1791, with its rules confirmed at the Quarter Sessions.

Sir Frederic observes, that the great benefits which then resulted from it, both to the morals, and comfort of its members, afforded the clearest conviction of its utility. The first article is, "that every person hereafter to be admitted into the Society shall declare that he will pay allegiance to the king, and duty to the laws of his country."

Near this is a seat of Thomas Forsyth, Esq.

HORNE, at the Norman Survey, was partly the property of the Bishop of Durham, and partly of the Countess Judith. The former had four carucates of arable, and one in demesne, to which belonged one socman, a priest, twelve villeins, seven bordarii, and one servant, who, amongst them, had four carucates He had also three mills of twenty shillings, and a wood of nearly two furlongs in length; all valued at four pounds. The Countess seems to have granted her part to Grimbaldus, who held here two carucates of arable, and one in demesne, with two servants, nine villeins, and four bordarii, who had among them two carucates; there was also a mill of four shillings; and the whole valued at thirty shillings, which appears to have been an increase of one half upon its value in Saxon times. Like most of the other manors in its vicinity, it has passed through the Harringtons to the Noels: but is now almost depopulated. Mr. Blore supposes it to have received its name from its situation in an angle or corner, formed by the intersection, or more probably the diverging, of two ancient roads; one of these being the direct line from London to York, the other from Essex to Cumberland, the point of intersection being where Horn Lane turnpike now stands. Of the church, not a single fragment remains. Its site is now

within

within the limits of Exton Park, and each new Rector receives his induction, under an aged thorn tree which stands on, or near, it.

Stukeley says that Hornfield and Hardwick were demolished by the rebels in Henry the Seventh's time; but the fact is, that their destruction was of an earlier date, and during the temporary restoration of Henry VI. when, on the 12th of March 1470, a battle was fought here between Edward IV. and the Lancastrian partizans under Sir Robert Welles and Sir Thomas Launde. Its exact scene of action was five miles from Stamford, near the York Road, at a place still called "Bloody Oaks," and the battle has been called "Loosecoat battle," both in tradition, and in history, from a story of the runaways having pulled off their upper garments in their flight. It has been said to have taken place between Casterton and Stamford; but the Lancastrian chiefs having been taken prisoners, and attainted two years afterwards, the records of their attainder expressly state the battle to have been fought in "Hornfield, in Empingham."

TICKENCOTE, derived from Tican, "Goats" and Cote, " a habitation," is a small village, or rather a pretty hamlet, about half a mile to the west of the great north road. At the Norman Survey it was the property of the Countess Judith, and then valued at fifty shillings. In the reign of Edward II. it was the property of Britius Daneys; but came about the time of Henry VIII. to Champynet, and soon after to Wingfield, a junior branch of that ancient family, so long seated at Upton in Northamptonshire; and it has ever since been their residence.

The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is supposed to be of very great antiquity, (lately re-edified,) and has engaged the attention of all our antiquaries. That it was of Saxon architecture is proved by those curious remains which are still preserved; but that it is also of Saxon date previous to the Norman Conquest, is asserted by Staveley, who observes, that the Saxons generally made their churches with descents to them, but the Normans with ascents; and Harrod adds, that this of Tickencote, from this and VOL. XII.

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