The Countess of Caledon, writing, about the same date, to Lady Elizabeth Stuart, says, “Since the Gunpowder Plot there has been nothing so terrible. Sir Willm. Scott says there was a plan to set London on fire in twelve places. They only waited for the signal that the assassination had taken place at Lord Harrowby’s. Seven thousand persons were ready that night to act on the signal. We should never have escaped a Revolution.” Truly the Horsington lunatic’s collar might well have been employed in curtailing the movements of this seditious native; but the public safety was more effectually secured by hanging him on May 1st in the same year, 1820. {161a} The church bell bears the date 1754, with founder’s name, “Dan Hedderly.” I may add that one of the bells in St. Mary’s Church, Horncastle, has the inscription “Supplicem Deus audit. Daniel Hedderly cast me, 1727.” In the present churchyard at Horsington grows the St. Mary’s thistle referred to in a previous chapter, among the Flora. I find a note with reference to the same plant growing in a field near Somerford Grange, the farm of the monks of Christchurch. “It is supposed to have been brought from the Holy Land, and only found near Religious Houses.” {161b} The writer happens to know that, in this case, the plant was imported some 20 years ago from Kirkstead, where it is now extinct. Had it a tongue to speak with, it would appeal to the pity of the visitor in the words “Noli me tangere.” * * * * *