imported from Ireland, by the missionaries of St. Columba. There is an excellent sketch of the Miningsby stone, by the Rev. J. A. Penny, vicar of Wispington, in “Lincolnshire Notes and Queries,” vol. iv., p. 225. After the Reformation, the earliest presentation which we find to this benefice is that of William Clerke, by King Edward VI. (as Duke of Lancaster); he was instituted as rector, 4, Edwd. VI., A.D. 1550–1. (“Architect. S. Journal,” 1897, p. 23.) Recent rectors have been the Rev. E. Repton, in the earlier years of the century; the Rev. W. Nevins, later; and the Rev. H. Caukwell, appointed in 1878. The register dates from 1688, earlier records being lost. The children have a right to go to the free school of East Kirkby. There is a modern commodious house, occupied by the present rector, who has 170 acres of glebe; but it is remarkable that about 100 acres of glebe are missing; the award made by the commissioners in lieu of tithe being largely in excess of the land now attached to the benefice. This parish also contains about 100 acres of charity land belonging to Stamford school. OXCOMBE. This parish is situated about 7 miles, in a north-easterly direction from Horncastle, and about the same distance south-west from Louth. It is interesting to notice that in the name of this parish we have one of the few survivals in the county of its former British inhabitants. The old writer, William Camden, Clarenceaux King of Arms, in his “Remaines concerning Britain,” p. 116, A.D. 1657, says “Combe, a word in use both in France and England, for a valley between high hills.” It is, in fact, the term still common in the south of England for a secluded valley, as in such names as Pyecombe, in Sussex, a village nestling in a hollow at the base of the south Downs; Combe Pyne, and Combe Martin, in Devonshire, and many another similar name, as well as in the old Welsh (or British) “cwm,” which occurs in many a name in Wales, of places situated in like hill-locked positions. And this exactly describes the situation of Oxcombe, a valley almost cup-shaped, surrounded by steep hills, the whole parish now forming one estate, of something over 1,000 acres in extent, lying in a ring fence.