The manor of Somersby goes with that of Bag Enderby, and the benefices are held together, being barely a mile apart. The church of the latter is rather more interesting than that of Somersby, and it would be a pity not to see it, while we are so far, or near. It was built by Albin de Enderby, who died in 1407. Some of the windows, as the three-light one at the east end of the chancel, and others are Perpendicular; while others are of the Decorated style, but probably of the same date. There is some interesting old iron-work on the original oak door in the porch. The font is octangular, Perpendicular; on the bowl is carved the figure of the Virgin, supporting on her knees the dead body of the Saviour; a shield, on which is cut the spear, and hyssop with sponge, crosswise; the cross and crown of thorns; a deer couchant with head turned back, and feeding on the leaves of a tree; and other more ordinary devices. The chancel arch is fine, and there are some remains of a screen. All the windows would seem to have been originally filled with delicately-painted 14th century glass, of which fragments retrain. In the westernmost window of the south wall of the nave is a shield bearing the arms of Croyland Abbey. In the central alley of the nave are two fine Purbeck marble slabs, bearing legends on brass plates. {257} On the north wall of the chancel is a stone mural monument commemorating Andrew and Dorothy Gedney, with their two sons and two daughters, kneeling before two prayer-desks, in the costume of their period. In the churchyard is the base of a cross, the upper part having been removed some years ago. The font stands on a sepulchral slab, which has been ruthlessly cut into for the purpose. As the name Enderby is sometimes, in old documents, written Hinterby, an idea has been broached that the prefix “Bag,” means “back,” or “hinder-by.” But, as we are in the region of sand and sandstone, abounding in burrows, it would seem more likely that the Bag is the badger; after a similar form to Bagshot, in Surrey, _i.e._, Bag or Badger’s holt; Bagley, near Oxford; Badgeworth, near Cheltenham (from which last neighbourhood the writer has a badger-skin), &c. An alternative derivation, of course, is the word Bag, or Bage, _i.e._, “turf,” for fuel, which might be not unlikely in Lincolnshire; but as “Bag” enters into place-names all over the kingdom, where the word “Bag,” for turf, is not used, this is hardly a likely explanation.