That the hill in Stoke Fields above described, is that on which the Earl of Lincoln was encamped, seems to be satisfactorily proved, independently of tradition, from the circumstance, that when he entered Nottinghamshire from Yorkshire, and marched towards Newark-on-Trent, as stated in Leland’s _Collectanea_, {189} “Enemyes and rebelles drew towards Newarke warde, passing by Southwelle and the Furside of Trente,” he found the castle and town of Newark preoccupied by his enemy, in which Hall, Holinshed, Polydore Virgil, Bacon, Speed, and Baker, all agree, and he could not well get to Stoke, without passing through, or close to, Southwell, and then crossing the Trent: and the ford and ferry nearest to Southwell, and to those parts of the country through which he is said to have marched, is Fiskerton; which is close under the hill. Besides which, the hill is by far the strongest military position in that part of the country: in fact, the cliff occupied, as before observed, by his left wing, was almost inassailable; and the parts of the hill where his centre and right were posted, must have been exceedingly difficult of approach by hostile forces, because they would labour under the disadvantage of having to ascend an eminence, probably strengthened by artificial defences and by the natural obstacles of brushwood and other inconveniences incident to uncultivated ground. It is the only elevated ground near Stoke, of sufficient elevation to warrant the word “descends,” used by Polydore Virgil, “Comes copias educit, signoque suis dato in certamen descendit;” and, after a very careful survey of the country for miles round Stoke, no other eminence presents itself worthy of Bacon’s appellation, “the brow or hanging of a hill,” or to which his words “came down” can apply, “the earl courageously came down and joyned battel with him.” The bones, coins, and other relics, which have been dug up, show that the conflict took place at the spot before mentioned, near the village, and close to, and in the garden of Sir Robert Bromley, Bart., in Stoke Fields, and also upon a small portion of Elston Fields. {190} A great part of the church has evidently been rebuilt, and, except a Gothic arch communicating from the tower to the body of the church, it has not many claims to antiquity. A few brick and slated cottages have of late years been built amongst the others, in the village; but its appearance conveys to the spectator, the idea of its having undergone little change for centuries past.