Here was a nunnery of the Benedictine order, dedicated to the honour of God and St. Michael, by William Abbot, of Peterborough, in the reign of Henry the Second. The annual revenues of which, at the suppression, were, according to Speed, 721. 18s. 101d.

In a deed granted in the time of Richard the First, notice is taken of an hospital for lepars, dedicated to St. Ægidius, or St. Giles; and a house of regular canons for Knights Hospitallers, but by whom founded is unknown. Where now is the almshouse, stood an hospital dedicated to St. John the Baptist, erected by Brand de Fossato, for the reception of pilgrims and poor travellers. Upon the site of this, William Lord Burleigh, lord high treasurer of England, built an hospital, and endowed it for a warden and twelve poor men.

The present Church, dedicated to St. Martin, was erected by Bishop Russel, in the reign of Edward the Fourth. It is a large handsome building, consisting of a nave, two chancels, north and south ailes, and a square pinnacled tower at the west end of the north aile. The lofty nave is divided from the north aile by six pointed arches, and from the south by five, supported by slender columns. Mr. Gough erroneously states, that, "in 1737 all the painted glass in St. Martin's was taken away to save the vicar from wearing spectacles *.".

At the upper end of the north chancel is a cenotaph to the memory of Richard Cecil and his wife, the parents of the first Lord Burleigh. The entablature is supported by columns of the Corinthian order, and under a circular canopy are the effigies of both represented before an altar; and on the front of the base, three female figures, in a supplicating posture. On the altar are two' inscriptions. A very curious monument of various marble, cone sisting of two circular arches, supported by Corinthian pillars, and surmounted with an escutcheoned tablet, and which has be neath, on a raised altar tomb, a figure in armour, with a dog lying

* Edition of Camden, Vol. II. p. 244.

at

at the feet; is commemorative of the virtues of William Cecil, Baron of Burleigh, and Lord high Treasurer of England.

Against the north wall of the north Chancel, is a stately tomb of white and grey marble, erected to the memory of John, Earl of Exeter, who died August 29th, 1700; and of his lady, who died June 18th, 1709.-The earl is represented in a Roman habit, discoursing with his countess, who has an open book resting on her knee, and a pen in her hand, as ready to take down the purport of his discourse. Below is the figure of Minerva with the gorgon's head; and opposite, the same deity is represented in a mournful attitude, as lamenting the loss of the patron of arts and sciences. A pyramid of grey marble, ascending almost to the roof, is crowned with the figure of Cupid, holding in his hand a snake with the tail in the mouth, emblematical of eternity.

These monuments were executed at Rome, and display a style of sculpture more distinguished by the quantity, than quality of its workmanship.

Against one of the pillars, on the north side of the nave, is a mural monument with a Latin inscription, importing, that it was erected at the expence of John Earl of Exeter, to the memory of William Wissing, an ingenious painter, a native of Amsterdam, and a disciple of the celebrated Peter Lely. He is compared to an early bunch of grapes, because snatched away in the flower of his age, September 10th, 1687, at the age of 39.

Stamford Baron comprises one parish. The living is a vicarage, which, by the munificence of the lord treasurer Burleigh, is endowed with the rectorial tythes *.

It would be improper to leave Stamford without adverting to an almost singular point in the law of inheritance, called Borough English; by which the youngest son, if the father dies intestate, inherits the lands and tenements, to the exclusion of the elder branches of the family. This, as well as the law of Gavel kind,

*

Burleigh, the handsome seat of Lord Exeter, about a mile distant, will be duly noticed in a subsequent account of Northamptonshire.

which prevails in Kent, were of Saxon origin; respecting the reason of its introduction, the opinions of lawyers and antiquaries are divided. Littleton supposes the youngest were preferred, as least able to provide for themselves. Dr Plot conjectures that it' arose from an old barbarous right, assumed by the lord of the manor during the feudal ages, of sleeping the first night after marriage with the vassal's bride. Whence the first born was supposed to belong to the lord. Though this might afford a reason for the exclusion of the eldest son, yet, in the case of there being more than two, it does not satisfactorily account for the preference given to the youngest. Mr. Peck's opinion is less exceptionable: he says, that Stamford being a trading town, the elder sons were set up in business, or generally received their respective shares of the paternal property, while the father was living.

A singular custom, called Bull-running, which annually takes place here and at Tilbury in Staffordshire, must not be passed unnoticed. Tradition relates, that William, the Fifth Earl of Warren, in the reign of King John, while standing one day on the walls of his castle, saw two bulls contending for a cow. A butcher, to whom one of the bulls belonged, coming up with a large dog, set him at his own bull. The dog driving the animal into the town, more dogs joined in the chace, with a vast concourse of people. The animal, enraged by the baiting of the dogs and the clamour of the multitude, knocked down and ran over many persons. This scene so delighted the earl, who had been a spectator, that he gave the meadows where it commenced, after the first crop was off, as a common for the use of the butchers in Stamford; on condition, that they should annually provide a bull six weeks before Christmas-day, to perpetuate the sport.

This plebeian carnival, which has been instituted five hundred and seventy years, is still held on the appointed day, the festival of St Brice; but, from the account given by Mr. Butcher, of the manner in which the ceremony used to be conducted, it appears, that either the manners of the inhabitants are more refined, or their veneration for antiquity has diminished. Formerly, the night

previous

A

previous to the important day, the bull procured for the occasion was secured in the stable belonging to the chief magistrate; and the Bullards, or men appointed to take the lead in the pursuit, were clad in antic dresses. But at present the magistracy decline all interference, the bullards are simply cloathed, and much of the original spirit has latterly evaporated. The morning the bull is to run, proclamation is made through the town by the bellman, that no person, on pain of imprisonment, shall offer any violence to strangers. The town being a great thoroughfare, a guard is appointed to protect persons passing through it that day. No person pursuing the bull is allowed to have clubs or sticks with iron in them. When the people, after due notice given, have secured their doors and windows, the bull is turned out; when men, women, children, dogs, &c. run promiscuously after the animal with loud vociferations and wanton frolics. After the diversion is over, the bull is killed, and the price for which he sells, is divided among the Society of Butchers, who procured him. This custom of bull-running, which, to a stranger, must appear highly ludicrous, Mr. Samuel Pegge observes, "is a sport of a higher kind than diversions commonly are, because it was made a matter of tenure." Those, however, who have read Blount's Jocular tenures, will not, from this circumstance, be inclined to change their opinion, if they before considered it cruel towards the animal, and derogatory to man.

END OF LINCOLNSHIRE.

LIST

OF THE

Principal Books, Maps, and Prints, that have been published in Illustration of the Topography and Antiquities of the Counties contained in the Ninth Volume of the Beauties of England and Wales.

LANCASHIRE.

"Phthisiologia Lancastriensis, cui accessit tantamen philosophicum de mineralibus aquis in eodem comitatu observatis. Lond. 1694.” 12mo *. By Dr. Charles Leigh. The principal matter of this small Volume is incorporated in his "Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak in Derbyshire: with an account of the British, Phoenician, Armenian, Greek, and Roman Antiquities in those parts. Oxford, 1700." Fol.

"A punctuall relation of the passages in Lancashire this weeke. Con taining the taking of Houghton Tower by the parliament's forces, &c. how the Earl of Darbie's forces made an onset on the town of Boulton, &c. The taking of the Towne and Castle of Lancaster, by Serjeant major Birch. Lond. 1643," 4to.

"Strange newes of a prodigious monster, born in the township of Adlington, in the parish of Standish, in the county of Lancaster, April 17, 1613, testified by the Rev. Divine W. Leigh, D. D. and preacher of God's word at Standish aforesaid, 1613," 4to.

Since the preceding Account of Lancashire_was published, the following work has appeared. "The Lancashire Gazetteer: an Alphabetically arranged Account of the Hundreds, Market Towns, Boroughs, Parishes, Townships, Hamlets, Gentlemens' Seats, Rivers, Lakes, Mountains, Moors, Commons, Mosses, Antiquities, &c. in the County Palatine of Lancaster: together with Historical Descriptions of the chief places, with their Fairs, Markets, Local and Metropolitan Distances, Charters, Church Livings, Patrons, &c. By Joseph Aston, Author of the Manchester Guide, 1808," 18mo.

"Latham Spaw in Lancashire, with some remarkable cases and cures effected by it. By Edmund Borlace. Lond. 1670," 12mo. A second Edition was published in London, 1672, 12mo.

VOL. IX.

3 F

"Antiquitates

* Dr. Cay, in his account of this book, Phil. Trans. No. 206, p. 1003, makes many objections to the Author's observations.