A tradition remains to this day, that Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Stratford, in the reign of Charles I., and one of his Sovereign’s most faithful adherents, owned the manor of Greetham. I cannot find any positive proof of this; but it seems not at all unlikely, since a lease dated 14 Nov., 1685, was granted to Sir William Wentworth, Knight, of Ashby Puerorum, who was a son of Sir William Wentworth, who fell at Marston Moor, fighting for Charles I; and from him descended the first Earl of Stafford, of the second creation. {69} It is proved by the award that Thomas, Earl of Stafford was Lord of the Manor in 1785. We pass on to the present century. About the year 1830, John Fardell, Esq., of Lincoln (who represented that City in Parliament for a brief period, being unseated on petition) became owner, by purchase, of the Manor of Greetham, the rest of the parish, except the Rectory farm of 48 acres, being purchased by the late Mr. Robert Dennis, who built in 1830, a commodious residence, Greetham House, where his two daughters now reside. The manor, and about half the parish, was sold by the Fardell Trustees to F. Wormall, Esq., whose present representative is his grand-daughter, Lady Garden of Templemore Abbey, co. Tipperary; whose father was Colonel Valentine Baker, one of a family distinguished as sportsmen, travellers, and soldiers. We have said that the road, or street, on which the village houses cluster, was probably originally Roman; and some years ago, the neck of a Roman urn was found near it. Along this road, to the North is a quarry in which many ammonites and other fossils are found, in the gravel lying above the white clay. The age of “Praise God Barebones” and his Puritanical allies, has long since passed away; but something of the Puritan Spirit seems to survive in the names of the villagers, given in the registers, which date from 1653. My informant had herself known, within recent years, the names Mordecai, Naomi, Keziah, Solomon, and Bridget shortened into Briggy. There are also some curious field names. A boggy field is called the “Waddles”; a similar field in the almost adjoining parish of Salmonby is called “Wallows,” both probably referring to a slough of mire, and the awkward ducklike gait involved in traversing it. A grass field is named “Thunker,” as locally pronounced, which may embody the Norse Thing-garth, or Council enclosure of the great hamlet. Another meadow is named “Kirtle,” probably the Kirk-dale; while two fields, one ploughed and the other meadow, are called “the Gousles,” which Mr. Streatfeild (“Lincolnshire and the Danes,” p. 174.) considers to mean the first slopes of the Wolds. “Gaut,” or “gout” (go-out) means an outlet from a drain; and throughout the whole range of the Wolds, there are numerous springs, issuing from their base, not uncommonly possessing medicinal properties. Greetham is situated on the first spur or projection, of the