{120b} In the preamble to a Charter granted to the city (4 Charles I.) Lincoln is called “one of the chiefest seats of our kingdom of England for the staple and public market of wool-sellers and merchant strangers, &c.” There came into the writer’s possession a few years ago a curious relic, consisting of a terra cotta cube, light red in colour, each of the six sides being 1¾ inches square, and having each a different, deeply-cut, pattern; crosses of different kinds, squares, or serpentine lines. It was found in a private garden in Lincoln, and was pronounced to be a stamp for bales of wool. I exhibited it before the Linc. Architectural Society, the Society of Antiquaries, &c.; and ultimately presented it to the British Museum. {120c} The number of monasteries closed by Henry VIII. was 645, containing some 20,000 religious persons. {121a} Anderson’s “Pocket Guide,” pp. 119–121. {121b} Anderson, p. 126. {121c} Letter written to Mr. Page, who was Mayor of Lincoln in that year. {122} “Brooke’s “History,” pp. 56, 56. {125} Brooke’s “History, pp. 55, 56. {126a} Demesne is an old Norman compound word. “The Mesne” was “the Lord of the Manor” (conf. Fr. “mener” and “menager”—to command), and “de-mesne” was the land “of the lord.” In this case, the “mesne” was originally the Baron Eudo, to whom the Conqueror gave the manors of Tattershall and Kirkstead, with certain appendages, of which Woodhall, or a large portion of it, would seem to have been one; for, when his son Brito endowed the Abbey of Kirkstead, he assigned to it two parts of the manor of Woodhall, and the advowson of the benefice. {126b} It was customary, where feasible, to thus connect the moat with running water, to avoid complete stagnation, and so to keep the water more healthy. {127} The writer has also an old map, undated, but belonging to a Dutch History of “Lincolnshire” or “Nicolshire,” probably published in the sixteenth century; also another old map, inscribed “Fodocus Hondius cælavit Anno Domini 1610,” as well as another by Christophorus Saxton, undated; in all of which Buckland is given instead of Woodhall. {128a} The Abbot of Bardney had a hunting establishment at Bardney Vaccary; and why not the powerful Abbot of Kirkstead also, who possessed the right of “free warren” over many thousands of acres; in the Wildmore Fen alone about 45,000 acres.