From the Spilsby-and-Louth road a byway branches westwards, close to _Walmsgate_, which will illustrate this, for it quickly drops into the pretty village of _South Ormsby_, and, skirting the park on two sides, runs on to the village of _Tetford_ with its red roofs and grey-green church tower nestling under the hill. Thence the white line of road goes north over Tetford hill to _Buckland_ and _Haugham_, and so rejoins the main road again about four miles north of Walmsgate. But before leaving Tetford we should take a look at the fine grassy eminence of “Nab hill” with its entrenched camp, behind which lie the kennels of the Southwold hounds at _Belchford_. The road from Alford to Louth, by _Belleau_ and _Cawthorpe_, which runs along the eastern edge of the South Wold and gives such a fine view over the marsh, is interrupted at Louth, and you must go out for the first four miles on the Louth and Grimsby main road, but on reaching Utterby a turn to the left will bring you to a road which goes all the way to Brocklesby without passing through any village but _Keelby_ in the whole sixteen miles. This solitary road begins better than it ends for when it gets opposite to _Barnoldby-le-Beck_, which is just half way, it sinks to the level of the marsh. [Sidenote: FOTHERBY TOP] There are plenty of roads between Louth and Caistor, to the north-west, along the Wolds, which are here some eight miles wide; and it would be well worth while for the sake of the view over the marsh to take a little round from Louth, starting out on the Lincoln road by Thorpe Hall, the interesting home of the Bolles family, the ffytches, and, later, of some of the Tennysons. By this route you soon come to the parting of the ways to Wragby and Market Rasen, and taking the right hand road by _South Elkington_, the charming residence of Mr. W. Smyth, you climb up to a height of 400 feet, and taking the road to the right by _North Elkington_—whose church has a fine pulpit copied from one still to be seen at Tupholme Abbey, near Bardney—reach _Fotherby top_, from which for a couple of miles you can command as fine a view of the marsh from Grimsby to Mablethorpe as you can desire. Then leaving the height you can go eastward by _North Ormsby_, and, joining the Grimsby-and-Louth road at _Utterby_, run back to Louth. All approaches to Louth are rendered beautiful by the splendid views you get of that marvellous spire; and as the road drops steeply into the town you will hardly know whether the approach from this northern side or from Kenwick on the south forms the most striking picture. CHAPTER XXV THE BOLLES FAMILY