In this connection we may also note, that “Toft,” which is a farm name in the parish, is also a Danish word, and this is another of their “footprints on the sands of time”; while further we may observe, that those roving invaders were called “Vikings,” because they first frequented our “viks,” “wicks,” or creeks; and there are geological indications, in the beds of sand and gravel, in this parish, that the river Bain was, at one time, much wider and deeper than it is in the present day {99b}; and so, we may well suppose, that, up this “ancient river,” the river Bain, those Danish marauders steered their way, from its mouth at “Dog-dyke,” originally Dock-dyke, because there was a Dock, or Haven, for shipping there (as the present Langrick was a long-creek of the sea, a few miles beyond; the sea then coming up from Waynfleet); and made their settlement here, from which they ousted the Saxons, whose presence is implied in the name of the hamlet Tumby, originally Tunne-by, which is, in part, a Saxon appellation. Thus, by the analysis of a name we are brought down from those far-off, dark ages to within the range of historic times. Kirkby is stated to be in “the soke of Horncastle,” in a document of date 1327–8 (“Lincolnshire N & Q.” vol. v., No. 44., p. 248), but the local historian, Mr. Weir (“Hist. Horncastle,” p. 310, Ed. 1828) says, that it had a jurisdiction of its own, including Kirkstead, and even more distant parishes, as Wispington, and Waddingworth. {100a} The Domesday survey of this county, made in 1089, by order of William the Conqueror, and so named by the Saxons, because it recorded the doom of many a Saxon Thane, ejected from his possessions by Norman warriors, contains several notices of this parish; and although at first sight they appear somewhat conflicting, yet a careful study of them enables us to put together something like a connected account of some of its former proprietors. First we may mention the Saxon owners, who were dispossessed of their lands by the Normans. One of these was Ulmar, who had 150 acres, charged with the land tax, called “gelt,” which was about 2_s._ to the carucate (or 120 acres); besides which he had 1½ carucates (180 acres), sub-let to smaller bond tenants, making in all 330 acres. He had also in the adjoining parish of Tattershall Thorpe, 240 acres, “in demesne,” _i.e._, in his own occupation, as Lord of the Manor, besides 360 acres sub-let to dependents. Ulmar was therefore what we should call, “well to do,” a Saxon yeoman of substance.