Through the whole length of Lincolnshire, from north to south, in a strait line runs a ledge of hills, that is, from Stanford to Winteringham: the Romans, observing this, carried their road upon it, and left the original stem of Fokingham. This high ground is similar all along, having a steep descent westward, overlooking Nottinghamshire, and is a rock of rag-stone quite through; the stone is white, and rises in _strata_, thicker as deeper: the surface is heathy. The river Witham, which rises on the west of this ridge, must have run into the Humber, had not Nature, by her propensity of drawing it eastward, as her declivities generally run, broke it off in the middle by that great valley under Lincoln, and made a passage for it into the estuary. Hence it is that the stone upon this western cliff is full of sea-shells; for, when the great and universal deluge had carried those inhabitants of the ocean into the mediterranean parts, by the weight of their shells they were unapt to retire again along with the waters, so were intercepted against this cliff, and received into the nascent stone.[81] A remarkable antediluvian curiosity I procured for the repository of the Royal Society, from these parts; being the real skeleton of a crocodile, or some such animal, inclosed in a broad flat stone. But now it is time to proceed. [Illustration: 29 _The Shrine of Sᵗ._ Hugh _the Burgundian_ Bishop _of_ Lincoln. In the South Isle of the Cathedral there behind the Choir._ Reverendo Doctissimoqᵤₑ Laurentio Echard _dicata_. _Stukeley delin._ _F. Kirkall sculp._] [Illustration: 16 Sub marmore isto tenet hic tumulus ossa venerabilis in Christo patris et dñi Witti Smith quond̃̃̃̃̃̃̃̃̃̃m̃̃̃̃̃̃̃̃̃̃̃̃̃ Eoventrens et Lichfeldens ac deinde Lincolnien presulis qui obüt secundo die mentis Januarii anno dñi millesimo quingentessimo trio decimo cñj̃ aĩe ppicietur qĩ pius et misicors in die tribulat peccata remittit Cestrensis presul post Lincolniensis Hmato Cleriuam multos cis mare transqᵤₑ aluit. Qui utriusqq fuit prefectus Principis aulæ Fundavitqᵤₑ duas perpetuando Scholas. aulasqᵤₑ sumptu hujus renovata est Cnea Ehrste hic situs est Anime parce benigne sue.] [Illustration: 87 AGELOCVM. _Sep. 1722._ Erudito Willo Ella A. M. vieario _de_ Rampton vicinam _Stationem. d.d. Wˢ. Stukeley_]