{108b} This relic of not less that 1700 years ago is further interesting from the fact that the bone, of which it is made, was proved to be that of a horse, yet the horse must have been smaller than any of the present day, except the Shetland pony. The Britons are known to have had horses of great size, which excited the admiration of Cæsar; which survived in the huge war-horse carrying the great weight of the mail-clad Norman knight in the active exercises of the tournament; and the descendants of which are the Shire horses of to-day.—“The Old English Warhorse,” by Sir Walter Gilbey. We may add here, as an interesting fact, that there is evidence to show that the horses of our neighbourhood were specially valued, as far back as the time of the Commonwealth. Cromwell wrote to an acquaintance, “I will give you sixty pieces for that black [horse] you won [in battle] at Horncastle”; and on the acquaintance not jumping at the offer, he wrote again, “I will give you all you ask for the black you won the last fight.”—Quoted, “Animals and their Conversations,” p. 85, by C. J. Cornish. {108c} The bolt of a crossbow was forged square, hence its name “quarrel,” from “carre,” or “quarre,”—square.—“Lincs. N. & Q.” Vol. IV, p. 21. {108d} The Roman lituus is supposed by antiquarians to have been adopted from barbarous nations, the serpentine form indicating the object of their worship. The serpent was held sacred among the Druids of Britain. {110a} “Archæological Journal,” No. VII., Sept., 1845, p. 253. The dimensions of the chest were 16 inches square by 8½ inches high; the interior 12 inches square. The height of the urn was 7 inches; its diameter at the widest part, 7 inches; diameter of mouth, 4 inches. {110b} At the restoration of the Parish Church in 1864, in making some alterations in the floor of the chancel, a lead coffin was found below, said to have been that of Lady Jane Dymoke. It was temporarily removed during the operations, but orders were given that it should be re-interred. Before, however, these instructions could be carried out, it mysteriously disappeared, and doubtless found its way to the melting-pot. {111} “Proc. Soc. Antiq.” 1849, 1st series, 57. The finding of the Horncastle coffins is described in “The Reliquary and Illustrated Archæologist,” April, 1897. {112a} In Norwich one of the principal thoroughfares is named “Rampant Horse Street.” To this same superstition also we owe the huge figures of the white horse cut in the turf at Bratton Castle and at Oldbury Camp, both in Wiltshire. Tacitus speaks of “immolati diis abscissum equi caput.” {112b} Quoted, “Surtees Society Publications,” vol. lxxvi. {112c} Weir’s “History of Horncastle,” p. 27. {113} “Provincial Words of Lincolnshire.”