Sovereign’s power was absolute and most arbitrarily exercised, unless, as was sometimes the case, the subject’s power was greater. The owners of large estates, and especially heiresses, were an object of peculiar interest to Sovereigns, who by reason of war, or their own extravagance, were not seldom more impecunious than their powerful subjects. The actions of the latter were carefully scanned, in order, if possible, that the Sovereign might find an excuse for confiscation, partial or entire, of the offender’s property, and so replenish the royal coffers. In the case of male proprietors, they could only obtain coveted privileges, or even exercise their own undoubted rights, on the payment of a very heavy fine. The times were turbulent, rebellion was not uncommon, and a large landowner sometimes found that he had espoused the unsuccessful cause, whereupon he naturally incurred the penalty. In the case of an heiress, a marriage contracted without the King’s license, was made sufficient ground for the royal displeasure, and a heavy fine or deprivation was the result. Some, or all of these causes were at work with different members of this particular line. In the case of the attainder of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, even his divorced wife, Alicia, became subject to a penalty of £20,000, a very large sum in those days, when pence were almost equivalent to our pounds. In this, and other ways, the once vast possessions of the Thorolds, in this part of the county, passed into other hands; although they are still one of the leading families on the other side of it. Other families here came to the fore. On the dissolution of the monasteries, any property which had been granted by benefactors to those institutions, would pass, by grant of the sovereign, to others, unless he retained it himself. As we pass the small stream in Scamblesby, over which a child could now leap, we may recognise it as a power that once turned the mill-wheel of the Lady Lucia, or ground corn for the tenants of the priors of Spalding, but it knows their name no more. Some of the land, including the manor, passed to the Bishop of Lincoln; until, in 1862, it was transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who are now the Lay Impropriators; the living, now, after various augmentations, worth £300 a year, being in the patronage of the Bishop of Lincoln, and the Earl of Yarborough. The latter nobleman is now one of the largest proprietors in the county, though we believe he originally belonged to the south of England, and was connected with the Earls of Chichester, of Stanmer Park, in Sussex, in which county the heraldic Pelham buckle is a marked feature in many of the churches. {178} Other proprietors are the Lill and Bourne families. There is a prebendal stall in Lincoln Cathedral, attached to Scamblesby in conjunction with Melton Ross, which is now held by the Rev. Canon Arthur Wright, rector of Coningsby, and Rural Dean of Gartree.