Havelok the Dane (Legendary character) -- Romances
“The singular fact,” adds Sir F. Madden, “alluded to by Holles, of the
Burgesses of Grimsby being free from toll at the Port of Elsineur, in
Denmark, is confirmed by the Rev. G. Oliver, in his Monumental
Antiquities of Grimsby, 8vo, Hull, 1825, who is inclined from that, and
other circumstances, to believe the story is not so totally without
foundation.” There is also an absurd local story that the church at
Grimsby, which has now but one turret, formerly had four, three of which
were kicked down by Grim in his anxiety to destroy some hostile vessels.
The first fell among the enemy’s fleet; the second dropped in
Wellowgate, and is now Havelock’s stone; the third fell within the
churchyard, but the fourth his strength failed to move. Perhaps amongst
the most interesting notices of the story are the following words by Sir
Henry Havelock, whose family seems to have originally resided in Durham.
His own account, however, is this. “My father, William Havelock,
descended from a family which formerly resided at Grimsby in
Lincolnshire, and was himself born at Guisborough in Yorkshire.”[19] And
it may at least be said with perfect truth, that if the name of
_Havelock_ was not famous formerly, it is famous now.
[Footnote 18: His account has been printed in the _Topographer_,
V. i. p. 241. sq. 8vo, 1789. We follow, as usual, the MS. itself,
p. 1.]
[Footnote 19: Quoted in Brock’s Biography of Sir H. Havelock,
1858; p. 9.]
§ 19. The last evidence for the legend is the still-existing seal of the
corporation of Great Grimsby. The engraving of this seal, as it appears
in the present edition, was made from a copy kindly furnished to the
E.E.T.S. by the Mayor of Grimsby, and I here subjoin a description of
it, communicated to me by J. Hopkin, Esq., Jun., of Grimsby, which was
first printed, in a slightly different form, in Notes and Queries, 2nd
Series, vol. xi. p. 41; see also p. 216.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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