them with bark of a dull reddish hue; the latter was a coarse and thick mixed cloth of various colours, sometimes used for the habits of monks."-(p. 37.)

"The extent and importance of the commerce of Boston at this period are manifested by the fact, that in the year 1205, the sixth of the reign of King John, when William de Wrotham and others accounted for the quinzeme of merchants, which was a tax levied of one-fifteenth part of the goods of merchants, for the use of the state, at the several ports of England, the amount paid by the merchants of Boston was 7801.; those of London paying 8361.; of Lynn 6517; and of Southampton 7127. London paid the largest sum of any port towards the tax, and Boston the second in amount."-(p. 37.)

"In 1220, according to Stow, 'Ranulph Earl of Chester, Lincoln, and Richmond,

and Lord of Little Brittayne, came into England from the Holy Land, and built a castle at Boston.' This was, very probably, merely a manorial residence in the town of Boston,-in fact, the original Hall-Toft manor-house. There was as many as 1,115 castles-as they were called-in England, in the reign of Henry II. It was directed that there should be one in every manor, such castle to bear the name of the manor in which it was erected; these castles were therefore merely the manor-houses of the respective manorial lords. Each of these manor-houses contained a prison. The constables, or keepers, of these prisons often treated their prisoners so cruelly, and made them compound for their liberty by such heavy fines, that at length, in the fifth of Henry IV. (1403), it was enacted that Justices of the Peace should imprison in the common gaols."-(p. 39.)

"The town of Boston appears at this time to have been surrounded by a wall, for, in 1285 (13 Edward I.), a grant was made by the king to the bailiffs and burgesses, and other good men of the town of Boston, of a toll in aid of repairing the said walls, at the instance of John de Brittany, Earl of Richmond. This toll was granted for one year, and was as follows:"For every weight (256 pounds) of cheese, fat, tallow, and butter for sale, one farthing; for every weight of lead for sale, one farthing; for every hundredweight of wax for sale, one halfpenny; for every hundredweight of almonds and rice, one halfpenny; for every hundredweight of pepper, ginger, white cinnamon, incense, quicksilver, vermilion, and verdigrease for sale, one farthing; for every hundr dweight of cummin seed, alum, sugar, liquor ce, aniseed, picony roots, or pimentum, one farthing; for every hundredweight of sulphur, potter's earth, bone of cuttle-fish, rosin and copperas, one farthing; for every great frail of raisins and figs for sale, one farthing; for every hundredweight of cloves, nutmegs, mace, cubebs seed, saffron, and silk for sale, one penny; for every 1,000 yards of the best grey cloth for sale, one penny; for every 1,000 of Russet cloth, one farthing; for every hundred of rabbits for sale, one farthing; for every timber (40 skins) of fox-skins for sale, one farthing; for every dozen of leather for sale, one halfpenny; for every dozen of whetstones for sale, one farthing; for every ton of honey for sale, one penny; for every tun of wine for sale, one halfpenny; for every

sack of wool, one halfpenny; for every sieve of salt, one farthing; for every ton of ashes and pitch, one farthing; for every hundred of deal boards, one halfpenny; for every barrel of steel wire, one farthing; for every hundred of canvas, one farthing; for every great truss of cloth, one penny; for every 1,000 stock-fish, one penny; and for all sorts of merchandise not enumerated, one farthing for every 20s.-worth. The year having been completed, the custom to wholly cease and be abolished.'

66

No traces of this wall are now visible, but some evidences of its former existence are, perhaps, discernible in the present names of some of the streets-Bargate, Wormgate, &c." - (pp. 13, 44.)

"A similar flood had occurred in the year 1236, on the morrow after Martinmas;' another in the year 1251; and a third in 1257. A more ruinous affliction, however, than these occurred in 1287, of which Stow says, 'A Justis was proclaimed at Boston, in the faire time in 1287, whereof one part came in the habyte of monks, the other in sute of chanons, who had covenanted after the Justis, to spoile the faire; for the atchieving of their purpose, they fired the towne in three places; it is said the streams of gold, silver, and other metal, molten, ranne into the sea. The Caiptaine of this confederacye was Robert Chamberlain, Esquire, who was hanged, but woulde never confesse hys fellows.' Leland says this took place in 1288:

"Better times (says Camden) succeeding, raised Botolph's town once more out of its ashes, and the staple of wool, &c.

being settled here, brought in great wealth, and invited the merchants of the Hanseatic league, who established here their guild, or house.'"-(p. 44.)

"Additional evidence of the great traffic which was carried on at the annual mart or fair held at Boston, and of the great distance from which people resorted to it to purchase their annual supplies of both necessaries and luxuries, is afforded by a knowledge that the Canons of Br dlington regularly attended this fair, from 1290 to 1325, to purchase wine, groceries, cloth, &c., for their convent."-(p. 45.)

"The trade between Boston and the Continent appears to have been very considerable at this time; for in the year 1336

a patent grant of protection was issued for a great number of German merchants, and fourteen ships, coming to the fair of St. Botolph."-(p. 53.)

"In 1369, Boston was made a staple town for wool, leather, &c., and would necessarily derive most material advantage from this measure. It had, before this time, been only the outport for Lincoln; the staple for this district having been fixed there in 1353. The counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby petitioned in the year 1376, that the staple might be removed back from Boston to Lincoln, but they failed in accomplishing their desire."-(p. 55.)

"Queen Mary, in the first year of her reign (1554), endowed the corporation with the lands, &c. now called the Erection Lands, including the possession of the three then lately-dissolved guilds of St. Mary, St. Peter, and St. Paul-and the Holy Trinity; in order that they might be the better able to support the bridge and port of Boston; both of which appear, from the words of her grant, to have been at that time in a deplorable state, and causing great charges in their daily reparation.

The fifth division is devoted to the "It has often been a subject of inquiry, both by the intelligent resident in the district, and the stranger travelling through it,-How was the money raised to build the magnificent churches in this neighbourhood, so very disproportioned in their size to the population residing there at the time of their erection ? A respectable authority, after stating the mode of raising the funds to build the cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, in 1138,

says,

'If it was a practice in those ages for the feudal lord to impart to his vassals full hereditary rights to their lands in consideration of a payment which he laid out in pious uses, such as the building of churches, it is evident that the quality of the land, and value of the right ceded to the vassal, would have more to do, than the number of the inhabitants, in determining the size and number of their parish churches; and it is precisely in the rich alluvial lands gained from the rivers and fens, in which the feudal lord had a title to the new land found contiguous to his vassal's land, that the most of such parish churches as were

This grant was also made to the corporation for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a free grammar-school in the town; and for the finding of two presbyters for the celebration of divine worship in the parish church, and for the maintenance of four beadsmen, to pray there for ever, for the good and pros; erous state of the queen whilst living, and for her and her ancestors' souls after her decease." "_ (p. 66.)

history of St. Botolph's Church :evidently not erected with any reference to the population of the parish, are found. The land being gained gradually from the fen or marsh, could never have been cultivated so as to have employed a large resident population. The erection of so many churches in such a tract has, therefore, been probably connected with the grants of the land as it was gained from time to time from the water.'

"This is an ingenious and not improbable mode of solving the difficulty in part. But we think one other circumstance, at least, had a share in it.

"The foundation of the present steeple of Boston Church is said to have been laid in 1309, although the tower was not carried up until a considerable time afterwards. The nave and aisles, and part of the chancel,-

"Appear, from the style of the architecture, to have been built in the reign of Edward III., a period during which a great movement in the way of churchbuilding seems to have taken place throughout this district, as nearly every church in the neighbourhood appears to have been,

either wholly or in part, rebuilt at the same time.'

"This was during the period when Boston was one of the ten shipping ports of the kingdom, and the principal one as to the extent of its shipments. At that time it had an immense trade in wool, leather, hides, &c.; and many merchants from Calais, Cologne, Ostend, Bruges, and other continental towns, resided there. The merchants of the Hanseatic League had their guild or house there It is traditionally said that the foundations of Boston steeple were laid upon woolsacks, and this is, probably, figuratively correct; for it may be doubted whether those foundations would have been laid, had it not been for the woolsacks which then contributed so largely to the wealth of the town. Among the merchants who about that time resided in Boston and Skirbeck, were the families of Tilney, Spayne, Sibsey, Pescod, Derby, Emery, Robinson, Whiting, and Dutchfeldt. Merchants and other persons connected with the trading guilds had their residences in all the villages in the hundred of Skirbeck; and, no doubt, by the liberality of these persons the erection of the other churches, as well as that of Boston, was materially assisted."-(pp. 160, 161.)

"The first stone of the steeple was laid in 1309, and Stukeley gives the following particulars of the ceremony:

"Anno 1309, in the 3d. yeare of King Edward ye. 2d. the foundation of Boston steeple, on the next Munday after Palm Sunday in that yeare, was begun to be digged by many miners, and so continued till Midsummer following; at which time they were deeper than the haven by 5 foot, and they found a bed of stone upon a spring of sand, and that laid upon a bed of clay, the thickness of which could not be known. Then upon the Munday next after the feast of St. John Baptist was laid the first stone by Dame Margery Tilney, and thereon laid shee five pound sterling: Sr. John Truesdale, then parson of Boston, gave also 51.; and Richard Stephenson, a merchant in Boston, 51. more. These were all ye. great guifts at that time."". (p. 162.)

"In 1428, the King, on the petition of the Bishop of Lincoln, granted a license to the abbot and convent of St. Mary at York, to establish a college in the church of St. Botolph at Boston, under the title of the College of the Blessed Mary and St.Botolph, at the town of St. Botolph; the same to be under the patronage of the Bishop of Lincoln, and to consist of one deacon, one precentor, and a certain number of prebends and canons, according to his discretion; the said college to be endowed by the abbey

of St. Mary, with lands and tenements of the annual value of 401. In 1478, the abbot and convent of St. Mary at York granted the advowson of the church of Boston to the king and his heirs for ever." (p. 162.)

"There is in the British Museum a curious document entitled, "The inventory of all the goodes, juelles, plate, and ornaments perteynyng to ye parishe churche of Boston, in the countie of Lyncoln.' It bears date 17th August, 6 Edward VI. (1552), and was taken by the churchwardens, by the command of the mayor, under the orders of the king."—(p. 163.)

"In the sale of the vestments and ornaments are enumerated

"An egle for a lectern,' sold for 40s. "Two pelles to lay before the altar, 13s. 4d. Sixe altire clothes of sylke, sundrie colours, 40s. One vestmente for deacon and subdeacon of blake worsted, with copes of the same, 20s. A sute of red bawdekyn, 13s. 4d. A sute of blewe silke and a blewe bawdekyn cope with unycorns, 23s. 4d. Another sute with half mones, 8s. A sute of satten of Bruges, and two copes with garters, 16s. One sute of barred sylke with pellycanes, 10s. Two copes of red velvett embrodered with egles, 30s. Three redde sylke vestmentes, with moun and sterres, 6s. 8d.'

"A number of other vestments, altarcloths, hangings for lecterns, copes of white bustion,' &c., are enumerated."(p. 163)

"The present plan of this very beautiful building consists of a nave, with north and south aisles, a spacious chancel, the great west tower, a south porch, and a chapel at the south-west angle of the south aisle.”(p. 175.)

"The south aisle contains five bays, the porch, and the chapel. The windows are of four lights each, varying alternately in the design of the tracery. There is a buttress between each two windows, the top canopy of which has boldly projecting gorgoyle figures. The buttress next to the porch contains a beautiful niche, with crocketed pediment and canopy; and it may be inquired whether the other buttresses had not formerly the same ornament. The south porch is two stories in height, and has an imposing effect. The lower story is of Decorated work, the upper one of Perpendicular. Both the porch arch, and the doorway within it, are very excellent examples of Decorated detail. In the east wall, and adjoining the aisle, is a staircase which leads to the upper room. The mode of adding the Perpendicular work of the upper story to the lower one is curious, especially in the south face, where the low arch with hanging tracery

It

surmounts the pointed Decorated one. is shewn by the arch in the interior of the church immediately over the south door, that the porch was originally constructed with a room over it; but, as first built, this room was no doubt partly in the highpitched Decorated roof.

"The upper part of the buttresses are simple and plain, but the lower stages contain very elaborate canopied niches, clearly shewing where the new work is engrafted into the old. The buttress at the southeast angle of the porch was raised at the late restoration to its former height: it is hoped that the opposite buttress will soon receive its appropriate addition. The upper parts of the buttress pinnacles were probably cut down in 1663, when new battlements were erected to the porch. The

rious architecture, than is to be found in any of the English cathedrals. Before the building of the tower, the four great angles were adorned with turrets, as at King's College Chapel, Cambridge. The tower, the roofs, and some minor details, are of the Perpendicular period, and the rest of the church is of remarkably fine Decorated work.

"The nave, and the north and south walls of the aisles, are Decorated Gothic, the prevailing style when the foundations were laid. As the body of the church gradually progressed towards completion, Perpendicular Gothic was introduced in several places, until its predecessor being laid

aside, the tower was raised in this style alone; however, in part of the parapet of the north aisle another change is perceptible, for here the rich Tudor Gothic of the time of Henry VII. and VIII. is engrafted.'"-(p. 180.)

"Entering by the porch, we find an object of attraction in the elaborate oak carving of the south door, of two different designs, in the Decorated style, where the beautiful forms and ramifications of this era of Gothic architecture are displayed to unusual advantage. Passing this excellent specimen of ancient workmanship, we come to the font, the gift, in 1853, of A. J. Beresford Hope, Esq. It is capacious in

size, and of elegant Decorated work; the wreath of vine-leaves round the bowl being a beautiful specimen of carving.

"It stands on a basement of four courses, exactly between the north and south entrance-doors, and in the centre of the west end of the nave,

"A situation originally selected by the fathers of the Church, for the administration of the first Sacrament of Christianity, as emblematical of the spiritual warfare on which the young aspirant for a celestial inheritance had then entered, who was required, in his progress through this life towards an everlasting habitation, to fight his way like a good soldier of Jesus Christ against the three great adversaries which were continually opposed to his successthe world, the flesh, and the devil. Thus, in pursuance of the same metaphorical

GENT. MAG. VOL. XLVII.

imagery, the nave was termed the Church militant, and the choir or chancel the Church triumphant.'

"Over the font hangs a beautiful 'corona,' a choice specimen of modern metalwork.

"The tower is roofed with a magnificent stone vaulting, at the height of 156 feet above the floor of the church, so that many spires would stand beneath the sculptured bosses of this, in some respects, unequalled vaulting. The centre boss, before it was carved, weighed six tons, and bears the . Agnus Dei; the four other principal ones, the emblems of the holy Evangelists; the next four exhibit angels bearing the words, O Lamb of God.' It has been observed, that this roof must be seen before it can be appreciated. Certainly, considering it as a work of bold construction in its ele

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