The only other object of interest in the chapel is an effigy of Purbeck marble of a knight, now set up against the south wall. This is thought to represent Robert, the second Lord Tattershall, who died _c._ 1212. He is in a hauberk of banded mail, the earliest of the five known examples, and wears the cylindrical helmet, with convex top, having two bands crossing in front. For many of these particulars I am indebted to drawings by Mr. J. Nixon and Mr. A. Hartshorne in the _Spring Garden Sketch Book_. SOME SOUTH LINCOLNSHIRE CHURCHES BY W. E. FOSTER, F.S.A. In no part of Lincolnshire—a county famous for its ecclesiastical buildings—can so interesting a group of churches be found as that between Pinchbeck and Sutton St. Mary—a distance of about fifteen miles. First we have the village church of Pinchbeck, next the Church of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, Spalding—always the church of the town; then the interesting village church of St. Mary’s, Weston; then within a mile the village church of All Saints, Moulton; then within another mile the village church of St. Mary’s, Whaplode; then we have the beautiful Church of All Saints, Holbeach, always a town church; then we have the two village churches of Fleet and St. Mary’s, Gedney; and lastly, the interesting town church of Sutton St. Mary. Any stranger visiting the district must be struck with the size and magnificence of the village churches of Pinchbeck, Moulton, Whaplode, and Gedney, which have always been out of all proportion to the requirements of the inhabitants of those various places. It was not the needs of the people that prompted the erecting of these four beautiful village shrines; but the church-building rivalry that existed between the two wealthy abbeys of Croyland and Spalding. These four village churches, all within twelve miles, as the crow flies, are probably unequalled in the kingdom, and are lasting monuments of the energy and zeal of the two local abbeys in providing places of worship in the villages over which they had sway. SPALDING The first church to which we will direct our attention is that of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, Spalding. This church owes its origin to a dispute between the prior and monks of Spalding and the town’s people, about the year 1280. The history of the foundation of this edifice is supplied by the records of the priory.