Highways and Byways in LincolnshireRawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
History
Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire
Rawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
Lincolnshire (England) -- Description and travel
In 1764 Dr. Johnson walked over from _Langton_ with his friend, Bennet
Langton, to see Bennet’s Uncle Peregrine. He died two years later aged
eighty-four, and the doctor wrote to his friend: “In supposing that I
should be more than commonly affected by the death of Peregrine Langton
you were not mistaken: he was one of those I loved at once by instinct
and by reason. I have seldom indulged more hope of anything than of being
able to improve our acquaintance to friendship. Many a time have I placed
myself again at Langton, and imagined the pleasure with which I should
walk to Partney in a summer morning, but this is no longer possible. We
must now endeavour to preserve what is left us, his example of piety and
economy. I hope you make what enquiries you can and write down what is
told you. The little things which distinguish domestic character are soon
forgotten: if you delay to enquire you will have no information: if you
neglect to write, information will be in vain. His art of life certainly
deserves to be known and studied. He lived in plenty and elegance upon an
income which to many would appear indigent, and to most, scanty. How he
lived, therefore, every man has an interest in knowing. His death I hope
was peaceful: it was surely happy.”
After Partney the road goes up the hill to _Dalby_. Here the old house
where Tennyson’s aunt, Mrs. Bourne, lived, was burnt down in 1841, and
the thatched barn-like church swept away in 1862. The charm of the
present house lies in its beautiful garden.
Having got on to the chalk wold a fine view opens over the wide vale
to the left as far as the next ridge, which stretches from Spilsby to
Hagworthingham. About a mile further on, a road goes sharply down to the
left into Langton, and across a watersplash to Colonel Swan’s residence
at _Sausthorpe_, where again we find cross-roads near the pretty little
church built by Gilbert Scott, with a crocketed spire, the only spire in
the neighbourhood. The roads lead back to Partney, on to Raithby over the
stream, to Horncastle and to Harrington, all by-ways. But to return to
our Spilsby and Louth highway. From the turn to Langton we keep rising
and see some tumuli on our left, and then another left turn to Brinkhill,
where, from a steep and curiously scarped hillside, roads descend right
and left to Ormsby and Harrington; but we will keep on the highway for
another mile till we find that the Louth road by Haugh goes off to the
left, and the Roman road to Burgh to the right, and the way straight
forward comes to Well Vale and Milecross hill, and so drops into Alford.
The rest of the road to Louth we have described in the Louth chapter.
[Sidenote: KEAL HILL]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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