Download the full version of the textbook now at textbookfull.

com

Beginning SVG: A Practical Introduction to

SVG Using Real-World Examples Alex Libby

https://textbookfull.com/product/beginning-svg-a-
practical-introduction-to-svg-using-real-world-
examples-alex-libby/

Explore and download more textbook at https://textbookfull.com

 Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

Checking Out with the Payment Request API: A Practical

Introduction to the HTML5 Payment Request API using Real-
world Examples 1st Edition Alex Libby
https://textbookfull.com/product/checking-out-with-the-payment-
request-api-a-practical-introduction-to-the-html5-payment-request-api-
using-real-world-examples-1st-edition-alex-libby/
textbookfull.com

Introducing Dart Sass A Practical Introduction to the

Replacement for Sass Built on Dart 1st Edition Alex Libby

https://textbookfull.com/product/introducing-dart-sass-a-practical-
introduction-to-the-replacement-for-sass-built-on-dart-1st-edition-
alex-libby/
textbookfull.com

Gatsby E Commerce A Practical Introduction to Creating E

Commerce Sites with the Gatsby Framework 1st Edition Alex
Libby
https://textbookfull.com/product/gatsby-e-commerce-a-practical-
introduction-to-creating-e-commerce-sites-with-the-gatsby-
framework-1st-edition-alex-libby/
textbookfull.com

Consumers and Nanotechnology Deliberative Processes and

Methodologies 2nd Edition Pål Strandbakken

https://textbookfull.com/product/consumers-and-nanotechnology-
deliberative-processes-and-methodologies-2nd-edition-pal-strandbakken/

textbookfull.com
Woman Enough How a Boy Became a Woman and Changed the
World of Sport First Canadian Edition Kristen Worley

https://textbookfull.com/product/woman-enough-how-a-boy-became-a-
woman-and-changed-the-world-of-sport-first-canadian-edition-kristen-
worley/
textbookfull.com

Textiles and Fashion Materials Design and Technology 1st

Edition Rose Sinclair

https://textbookfull.com/product/textiles-and-fashion-materials-
design-and-technology-1st-edition-rose-sinclair/

textbookfull.com

Until You re Mine Hayes Samantha

https://textbookfull.com/product/until-you-re-mine-hayes-samantha/

textbookfull.com

Cannabis in Medicine An Evidence Based Approach Kenneth

Finn

https://textbookfull.com/product/cannabis-in-medicine-an-evidence-
based-approach-kenneth-finn/

textbookfull.com

Decode and Conquer Answers to Product Management

Interviews Lewis C. Lin

https://textbookfull.com/product/decode-and-conquer-answers-to-
product-management-interviews-lewis-c-lin/

textbookfull.com
Handbook on Marine Environment Protection Science Impacts
and Sustainable Management 1st Edition Markus Salomon

https://textbookfull.com/product/handbook-on-marine-environment-
protection-science-impacts-and-sustainable-management-1st-edition-
markus-salomon/
textbookfull.com
Alex Libby

Beginning SVG
A Practical Introduction to SVG using Real-World
Examples
Alex Libby
Rugby, Warwickshire, UK

Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the

author in this book is available to readers on GitHub via the book's
product page, located at www.​apress.​com/​9781484237595 . For more
detailed information, please visit http://​www.​apress.​com/​source-code
.

ISBN 978-1-4842-3759-5 e-ISBN 978-1-4842-3760-1

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3760-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018955493

© Alex Libby 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the

Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned,
specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other
physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.

Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather
than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked
name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an
editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no
intention of infringement of the trademark. The use in this publication
of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if
they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of
opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true
and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the
editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any
errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no
warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein.

Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer Science+Business

Media New York, 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013.
Phone 1-800-SPRINGER, fax (201) 348-4505, e-mail orders-
[email protected], or visit www.springeronline.com. Apress Media,
LLC is a California LLC and the sole member (owner) is Springer
Science + Business Media Finance Inc (SSBM Finance Inc). SSBM
Finance Inc is a Delaware corporation.
This is dedicated to my family, with thanks for their love and support
whilst writing this book.
Introduction
Beginning SVG is for people who want to learn how to create and
manipulate SVG content in the browser quickly, natively, or by using
third-party tools such as Snap.js.
Originally released back in 2001, it has only gained real-world
acceptance within the last few years, as an easy-to-edit, convenient
format for displaying scalable content without loss of quality. Over the
course of this book, I’ll take you on a journey through using the format,
showing you how easy it is to create and edit reusable shapes and text,
using the format. We’ll cover such diverse topics as animating content,
creating custom filters, optimizing it for efficiency – right through to
some real-world examples that you can use as a basis for future
projects. This book will provide you will a solid grounding in using SVG
as a format, with lots of simple exercises to help you develop your skills
using SVG as a format.
Beginning SVG is for the website developer who is keen to learn how
to use SVG to quickly produce dynamic visual effects in the browser,
without the need to use or learn packages such as Adobe Illustrator. It’s
ideal for those in Agile development teams, where time is of the
essence, and the pressure is on to deliver results rapidly. It’s perfect for
those developers who want to focus on producing great effects or
content but who don’t want to have to rely on using lots of external
resources, or others to style content such as images when it can easily
be done in the browser.
Acknowledgments
Writing a book can be a long but rewarding process; it is not possible to
complete it without the help of other people. I would like to offer a huge
vote of thanks to my editors, but in particular Nancy Chen and Louise
Corrigan, and with Zach Inglis as technical reviewer – all three have
made writing this book for Apress a painless and enjoyable process,
even with all of the edits!
My thanks also to my family for being so understanding and
supporting me while writing – it requires a lot of late nights alone, so
their words of encouragement (and also from Nancy and Louise) have
been a real help in getting to the end and producing the finished result
that you now have in your hands.
Table of Contents
Part I: Getting Started
Chapter 1:​Introducing SVG
The Benefits of Using SVG
Comparing Formats
Setting Up a Working Environment
Support for SVG
Creating a Basic Example
Understanding How It Works
Adding Fallback Support
Types of Fallback
Implementing a Fallback Image
Adding SVGs as Background Images
Managing Inline Support
Supporting an Icon System
Summary
Chapter 2:​Adding SVG Content to a Page
Implementing SVG Shapes
Creating Squares and Rectangles
Drawing Circles and Ellipses
Drawing Lines, Polylines, and Polygons
Constructing Paths and Markers
Creating More Advanced Shapes
Dissecting Our Gauge Code
Creating Unusual Shapes with Clip-Paths
Painting Elements
 Creating Gradients and Patterns
Constructing Gradients
Using Radial Gradients
Taking It Further
Applying Pattern Effects to CSS Backgrounds
Setting Advanced Configuration Options
Summary
Part II: In More Detail
Chapter 3:​Working with Images and Text
Inserting Images
Understanding the Benefits
Exporting Images
Exporting Images – an Epilogue
Using SVGs as Data URIs
Optimizing Our Image
Understanding How Our Code Works
Applying Image Masks
Exploring How the Code Works
Working with Icons
Creating Image Sprites with Icons
Using the <symbol> Element
Automating the Process
Adding Text with the <text> Element
Applying Different Effects to Text
Exploring How the Code Works
Embedding Other Content
 Adding Videos
Implementing a Real-World Example
Understanding How It Works
Summary
Chapter 4:​Sizing SVG
Understanding Scalability
Understanding the Impact of Scaling
Getting to Grips with SVG Coordinates
Applying Coordinates to an SVG
Introducing the SVG Scaling Toolbox
Setting Height and Width Attributes
Implementing a viewBox
Preserving the Aspect Ratio
Putting the Toolbox to Use
Understanding How It Works
Making SVG Content Responsive
Introducing the Golden Rules
Updating SVG Images
Using Media Queries with SVG Content
Understanding the Pitfalls
Making SVG images Adaptive or Responsive?​
Summary
Chapter 5:​Creating Filters
Introduction
The Benefits of Using SVG Filters
Exploring Existing Filters
Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
 Introducing SVG Primitives for Filters
Manipulating Content with Filters
Dissecting Our Code
Creating and Applying Filters
Changing Color with Filters
Understanding Our Code
Calculating Colors to Use
Re-creating filters à la Instagram
Understanding How It Works
Blending and Merging SVG Filters
Taking It Further in Watercolors
Creating Our Filter – an Epilogue
Animating Filter Effects
Is This the Right Solution?​
Creating a Practical Example
Understanding What Is Happening
Summary
Chapter 6:​Animating Content
Animating with CSS
Understanding the Different Methods
Transforming SVG Elements Using CSS
Moving Content with <animate>
Creating a Clock Using <animate>
Dissecting Our Code
Creating Animated SVG Loaders
Understanding How the Code Works
 Managing Multiple Animations
Working with Third-Party Libraries
Introducing Snap.​svg
Applying Easing Effects to Elements
Getting Prepared
Exploring the Code in Detail
Choosing Our Route – an Epilogue
Summary
Chapter 7:​Optimizing SVG
Exporting SVG Images for Use
Understanding the Importance of Optimization
Assessing Performance
Taking Care of Accessibility
Making Content Accessible
Shrinking Images with SVGO
Optimizing Manually
Automating the Optimization Process
Learning How to Micro-optimize Content
Paying Attention to Data URIs
Optimizing Data URIs
Exploring the Code in Detail
Summary
Part III: Putting SVG to Use
Chapter 8:​Creating SVG Charts
Understanding the Benefits of SVG for Charts
Designing Individual Charts Using SVG
 Creating Donuts
Eating Pie
Raising the Bar
Connecting the Dots
Sparking Lines to Life
Making Charts Interactive
Animating Chart Content
Animating Charts Using CSS
Animating Charts with Snap.​svg
Breaking Down Our Code
Making Charts Interactive – a Postscript
Exploring Other Library Options
Creating Charts Online Using amcharts.​js
Summary
Chapter 9:​Incorporating SVG Libraries
Why Use a Library?​
Choosing the Right Library
An Overview of Available Libraries
Using Vivus to Draw SVG Images
Understanding How It Works
Creating Bubble Charts with D3
Exploring Our Demo in Detail
Improving Our Design
Getting Creative with Anime.​js
Dissecting Our Demo
Taking a Different Look at Filters
 Exploring the Code in More Detail
Summary
Chapter 10:​Taking It Further
Manipulating SVG with JavaScript
Dissecting the Markup Code
Dissecting Our Code – the Functions Used
Animating Borders Using SVG
Dissecting the Demo
Creating Menus Using GSAP and SVG
Understanding How It Works
Lazy Loading with SVG
Breaking Apart Our Code
Creating Template-Based Charts
Dissecting the Code
A Parting Shot
Tilting UI Effect
Panning and Zooming Images
Tracking Progress
Summary
Index
About the Author and About the Technical
Reviewer

About the Author

Alex Libby
is a Digital Ops / MVT developer, working for a global distributor based
in the United Kingdom. Although Alex gets to play with different
technologies in his day job, his first true love has always been with the
open source movement, and in particular experimenting with front-end
frameworks and libraries. To date, Alex has written a host of books on
subjects such as jQuery, HTML5 Video, SASS, and PostCSS. In his spare
time, Alex can often be found putting on shows at his local theater, or
out and about on his bike (and with his camera).

About the Technical Reviewer

Zach Inglis
is a web design and developer hybrid. He
started teaching himself design and
programming 19 years ago and hasn’t
looked back since. As one-half of design
agency Superhero Studios (
http://www.superhero-
studios.com ), Zach takes care of web
and print design, branding, and business
strategy for a wide range of large and
small clients. Zach was also co-organizer
of HybridConf, an inclusive conference
dedicated to bridging the gap between
design and development.
Part I
Getting Started
© Alex Libby 2018
Alex Libby, Beginning SVG
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3760-1_1

1. Introducing SVG
Alex Libby1

(1) Rugby, Warwickshire, UK

Let me start with a question – which image format should I use: bitmap
or vector, PNGs, JPEGs…?
If you spend any time developing content for the web, then I am
sure you’ve asked yourself this question countless times: there is a
whole array of different formats that we can use, all of which have their
own particular qualities! There isn’t a single image format that is ideally
suited to the web, which encompasses the best qualities of all image
types, although Google has tried to push this with the WebP format,
which hasn’t received widespread adoption among other browser
providers.
In many cases, I suspect that either JPEG or PNG images would be
favored; these are perfect for complex images where detail is essential
(such as photographs). However, if you need to display clear line
drawings, or 2D images, for example, then these formats aren’t ideal.
There are several reasons why, but one of the key weaknesses is
maintaining quality – try resizing a schematic saved as a PNG, and the
quality soon becomes very poor! There has to be a better way surely…?
Indeed there is – let me introduce you to the world of SVG, or
Scalable Vector Graphics. Some people might associate them with
applications such as Adobe Illustrator – it’s a perfectly valid
assumption; Illustrator is a market-leading product, even if it is
something of a heavyweight application. However, there is a whole lot
more to working with SVG images – over the course of this book, we’ll
see how easy it is to manipulate them using nothing more than just a
text editor and a browser. There’s lots to cover, so without further ado,
let’s make a start on exploring the benefits of using SVG images in our
projects.

The Benefits of Using SVG

For anyone working with a new format for the first time, I am sure
there will be one overriding question – what makes it so special? What
makes this such a useful format to learn?
There are several good reasons for exploring SVG as a format – it is
not intended as a replacement for JPEG or PNG images; the formats
work in different ways. SVG as a format really shines when used to
display vector images on the web :
SVG-based images do not lose quality when they are resized or
zoomed in the browser;
SVG images can be animated using JavaScript or CSS;
SVG images integrate with the DOM very well, and they can be
manipulated using JavaScript or CSS;
SVG images can be indexed by search engines, which is perfect for
SEO purposes;
SVG images can be printed at any resolution.
This means we can create some really powerful designs that can be
easily manipulated and which scale well. The question is – how do SVG
graphics manage to retain such a level of clarity, compared to images
that lose quality as soon as you try to resize them?
Well, I’ll let you into a little secret: SVG images are not images. Yes,
you heard me right – they are indeed not images! Instead, we’re
working with XML; to see what I mean, go ahead and view the
kiwi.svg image that is in the code download that accompanies this
book, in a browser. If you take a look at the source, you’ll see something
akin to the extract shown in Figure 1-1.
Figure 1-1 Source code for an SVG image
It looks scary, but in reality, the numbers are just coordinates that
trace the outline of the image (in this case a kiwi bird). Don’t worry –
you won’t be expected to write code like that; instead, we would add an
SVG image using the standard image tag:

<img class="mama"
src="https://s.cdpn.io/3/kiwi.svg">

We can see the result as illustrated in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2 An SVG image of a kiwi bird
Clearly far easier to use and understand! It’s important to get an
understanding of what to expect though, as we can manipulate the
contents of any SVG image (more on this later in the book).
For now, let’s try a simple change, using the kiwi bird image.

CHANGING A COLOR IN AN SVG IMAGE

1. Go ahead and open up a copy of the kiwi image in a text editor.

2. Look for this line of code, on or around line 7:

<ellipse fill="#C6C6C6" cx="283.5"

cy="487.5" rx="259" ry="80"/>

3. Go ahead and change the color to a different HEX value – I’ve

picked a random purple, using #834DCF;

4. Save the file, then preview the results in a browser – if all is well,
you should see something akin to the screenshot shown in
Figure 1-3.
Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
 Figure 1-3 Updated image of a kiwi bird

See how easy it was? Yes, the code may look archaic, but don’t worry –
as we go through some of the elements in more detail throughout this
book, things will become clearer and easier to understand.

Try running through the steps again, but this time choose different
colors – you will see that the image is updated but will also retain
the same level of clarity throughout.

Okay – let’s change tack: now that we’ve completed our first edit, it’s
time we took a look at how the SVG format stacks up against other
image formats and see why there are occasions where SVG images will
give a superior result compared to standard images.

Comparing Formats
When working on the web, we have a number of image formats we can
choose from to display visual content. In many cases, it’s likely that
JPEG or PNG will be selected – these formats represent the best choice
for size and support in today’s modern browsers, when working with
photo-based imagery. However, in a world where websites must be
accessible on different devices, these formats do not scale well if we
need to use line-based drawings; we’ve already covered how SVG can
help in this respect.
To really understand how it can benefit us, it’s worth taking a
moment to see how the format compares to standard images; the key
benefit is the ability to manipulate, but there are other reasons why SVG
should be considered as a format:
Resolution independence – with many image formats, we might have
to download extra data or assets to fix resolution-based issues. A
great example is when using retina screens, which require us to apply
a @2x hack to force higher-resolution images to be displayed. This
isn’t the case with SVG images; these can be fully resized, irrespective
of device or resolution used, and without the need for additional tags.
Accessible DOM API – SVG elements can be manipulated using
nothing more than standard JavaScript or CSS; this could be as simple
as changing colors (as we saw back in the exercise “Changing a Color
in an SVG Image”) or as complicated as attaching event handlers to
perform specific events.
No unnecessary HTTP requests – unlike standard images, SVG images
are created using XML and CSS. This avoids the need for the browser
to request an image from the server, making it faster and more user
friendly.
Content can be indexed, scaled, searched, scripted, and compressed.
We can create images using nothing more than a text editor – yes, it
might be easier to create them in a suitable graphics application.
However, let us not forget that the key principle I outlined earlier:
Why download and install a graphics package if we can achieve the
same result in a text editor that we already have?
With this in mind, it’s worth summarizing what we should use SVG
for – in summary, they are perfect where we need:
Logos and icon with strong, geometric, vector-friendly designs;
Graphics that need to be displayed in multiple sizes and screens;
Graphics that respond to their device;
Graphics that need to be edited, updated, and redeployed.
In comparison (and as a reminder), we can see how this stacks up
against other image formats, as outlined in Table 1-1.
Table 1-1 Comparison of Image Formats and Their Uses

Category Palette Used for

JPG / Lossy Millions of Still Images, Photography
JPEG colors

GIF Lossless Maximum Simple animationsGraphics with flat colorsGraphics without

256 colors gradients

PNG-8 Lossless Maximum Similar to GIFBetter transparency but no animationGreat for icons
256 colors

PNG-24 Lossless Unlimited Similar to PNG-8Handles still images and transparency

colors

SVG Vector/lossless Unlimited Graphics/logos for webRetina/high-dpi screens

colors

WebP Lossless Unlimited Similar to PNGs, but typically 26% smaller in size – take-up isn’t
colors so extensive, with only Chrome and Opera supporting the format
at present

Note Lossy images do not retain all of the data in an image,

particularly when converted to JPEG; other formats retain data (i.e., are
lossless), but do not offer capabilities such as built-in animation or
clear scalability.

Okay – enough theory , methinks! Let’s move swiftly on, and turn our
attention to more practical matters.
We’re at the point where we need to ensure we have the right tools
in place – some of you may think this requires an array of different
applications to be set up: as some might say, not if we can help it! True,
there are some tools we can install if we decide to develop more
advanced solutions, but for now, there is very little that we need to
install. Let’s take a look at what we do need, in more detail.

Setting Up a Working Environment

Now that we’ve been introduced to the SVG format, it’s time to get stuck
into developing code! We’ve already run through a basic edit using
nothing more than a text editor; there are a few more tools we will
need, though, in order to complete the exercises in this book.
 Before we touch on what we need, there is a key principle I want to
share: where possible, we will try to avoid downloading extra tools, and
make use of what we already have available in our working
environment. There’s a good reason for taking this approach – I’m a
great believer in keeping things simple, and not introducing extra tools
unless they are needed. There is a trade-off in taking this approach,
where some tasks may not immediately be possible, but hopefully we
can keep this to a minimum!
With this in mind, let’s take a look at the tools we need to avail
ourselves of, to help set up our working environment. I suspect many of
you will already have suitable alternatives in place, so feel free to skip
steps if this is the case:
We need a decent text editor – there are dozens available online. My
personal preference is Sublime Text 3 (available from
http://www.sublimetext.com/3 ), although feel free to
substitute if you already have a favored editor.
We will make use of Node.js later in the book – this is to automate
some of the more menial tasks such as optimizing our images. This
can be downloaded from https://nodejs.org/en/ – you can
use default settings where prompted during the installation.
We need to create a folder for our code – for the purposes of this
book, I will assume it is called svgbook; please alter accordingly if
yours is different.
In our project folder, we need to add a couple of extra folders – go
ahead and create one called css, and another called font; both
should be at the same root level.
An optional extra is to download a font for our demos, to provide a
little styling – we’ll make use of PT Sans from FontSquirrel, available
at https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/pt-sans . Feel
free to skip this step if you want to – the demos will work perfectly
fine without it.
Last, but by no means least, we need to stock up on SVG images that
we can use (I would suggest that around six should be sufficient).
There are dozens available on the Internet – here are a few links you
can try, to help get you started:
https://www.freesvgimages.com/
 https://www.flaticon.com/
https://pixabay.com/en/
http://svgstock.com/

Note Where possible, I have included relevant source images in the

code download; if this hasn’t been possible, it will be noted in the text.

Hopefully you’ve managed to get everything set up, or have suitable

tools in place – the key here is that we don’t need anything complex
when working with SVG images; it’s all about simplicity, and working
with what works best for your development environment .

Support for SVG

Okay – we’ve been introduced to SVG as a format, have tools in place,
and touched on a basic edit of an existing image; what next? Ah yes –
browser support!
SVG as a format has been available since 1999, although it is only in
the last few years has it garnered support in recent browsers. A quick
check on the CanIUse.​com site (
http://caniuse.com/#search=SVG ) shows that most browsers
support the format (as shown in Figure 1-4), although IE / Edge
struggle to scale files correctly:
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
 CHAPTER VII
ROADS FROM GRANTHAM
Syston Hall—Belton—Harlaxton—Denton—Belvoir Castle—Allington—
Sedgebrook—Barrowby—Gonerby-hill—Stubton—Hough-on-the-Hill—
Gelston—Claypole.

The main South Lincolnshire roads run up from Stamford to

Boston, to Sleaford and to Grantham; here of the six spokes of the
wheel of which Grantham is the hub, three going westwards soon
leave the county. That which goes east runs a very uneventful
course for twelve miles till, having crossed the Bourne and Sleaford
road, it comes to Threckingham, and in another six or seven miles to
Donington where it divides and, after passing many most remarkable
churches, reaches Boston either by Swineshead or by Gosberton,
Algarkirk and Kirton, which will be described in the route from
Spalding. The Great Road north and south from Grantham is full of
interest, and passes through village after village, and on both the
northern and western sides the neighbourhood of Grantham is
extremely hilly and well wooded, and contains several fine country
seats. Belvoir Castle (Duke of Rutland), Denton (Sir C. G. Welby),
Harlaxton (T. S. Pearson Gregory, Esq.), Belton (Earl Brownlow), and
Syston (Sir John Thorold).
Syston Hall, Sir John Thorold’s place, looks down BELTON AND
upon Barkstone. It is grandly placed, and the BARKSTON
house, which was built in the eighteenth century,
contains a fine library. The greatest treasure of this, however, the
famed Mazarin Bible, was sold in 1884 for £3,200. A mile to the
south lies Belton. Here the church is filled with monuments of the
Cust and Brownlow families, and the font has eight carved panels
with very unusual subjects—a man pulling two bells, a monk
reading, a priest with both hands up, a deacon robed, a monster
rampant with a double tail, a man with a drawn sword, a naked
babe and a rope, a man with a large bird above him, and a tree;
also among the monuments is one of Sir John Brownlow, 1754, and
one dated 1768 of Sir John Cust, the “Speaker.” In this a singularly
graceful female figure is holding the “Journals of the House of
Commons.” The monument of his son, the first Baron Brownlow,
1807, is by Westmacott. The family have added a north transept for
use as a mortuary chapel. Here, amongst others, are monuments of
the first Earl Brownlow, 1853, by Marochetti, and of his two wives
with a figure emblematic of Religion, by Canova. The village is
always kept in beautiful order; adjoining it is the large park with fine
avenues and three lakes in it. The house, built in the shape of the
letter H, was finished from Sir Christopher Wren’s designs in 1689,
and the park enclosed and planted in the following year by Sir John,
the third Baronet Brownlow, who entertained William III. there in
1695. His nephew, Sir John, who was created Viscount Tyrconnel in
1718, formed the library and laid out the gardens. In 1778 James
Wyatt was employed to make improvements. He removed Wren’s
cupola, made a new entrance on the south side, and raised the
height of the drawing-room to twenty-two feet. All the rooms in the
house are remarkably high, and the big dining-room is adorned with
enormous pictures by Hondekoeter.
Wonderful carvings by Grinling Gibbons are in several rooms, and
also in the chapel, which is panelled with cedar wood.
Barkston is near the stream of the Witham, and ON THE WITHAM
is thence called Barkston-in-the-Willows; and ten
miles off, on the county boundary near Newark, is Barnby-in-the-
Willows, also on the Witham, which has arrived there from Barkston
by a somewhat circuitous route.
Barkston Church is worth seeing by anyone who wishes to see
how a complete rood-loft staircase was arranged, the steep twelve-
inch risers showing how the builders got the maximum of utility out
of the minimum of space. The last three steps below appear to have
been cut off to let the pulpit steps in. There is a similar arrangement
at Somerby, where the steps also are very high. A very good modern
rood screen and canopy, somewhat on the pattern of the Sleaford
one, has been put up by the rector, the Rev. E. Clements. There are
two squints, on either side of the chancel arch, one through the rood
staircase. The church has a nave and a south aisle, and the plain
round transition Norman pillars are exactly like those at Great Hale,
but are only about one-half the height. The arches are round ones,
with nail head ornament, and from the bases of these pillars it is
clear that the floor once sloped upwards continuously from west to
east, as at Colsterworth and Horkstow. The chancel arch is made
lofty by being set on the stone basement of the rood screen. The
transitional tower has a beautiful Early English window in the west
front, and the Decorated south aisle has a richly panelled parapet;
but the Perpendicular porch is not so well executed, and cuts rudely
into two pretty little aisle windows, and a niche over the door. It has
over it this rhyming inscription carved in stone.
 Withamside Boston.

Me Thomam Pacy post mundi flebile funus

Jungas veraci vite tu trinus et unus
Dñe Deus vere Thome Pacy miserere.

And under the capital of one of the doorway pillars is the line, rather
difficult to construe, but in beautiful lettering:—

Lex et natura XRS simul omnia cura.

The severe three-light east window has good glass by Kempe. The
spire, a very good one, is later than the tower, and built of squared
stones, different in colour from the small stones of the tower. Two
half figures incised in bold relief on fourteenth century slabs, are
built into the north wall, opposite the south door.
Keeping along the Lincoln road the next place we HONINGTON AND
reach is Honington. The Early English tower of the CAYTHORPE
church is entered by a very early pointed arch, the
nave being of massive Norman work with an unusually large corbel
table. There are the remains of a stone screen, and a canopied
aumbry in the chancel was perhaps used as an Easter sepulchre.
The chantry chapel has monuments of the Hussey family, and one of
W. Smith, 1550, in gown and doublet. An early slab, with part of the
effigy of a priest on it, has been used over again to commemorate
John Hussey and his wife, he being described on it as “A professor of
the Ghospell,” 1587. To the south-east of the village is what was
once an important British fort with a triple ditch, used later by the
Romans whose camp at Causennæ on the “High Dyke” was but four
miles to the east. Less than two miles brings us to Carlton Scroop,
with a late Norman tower and Early English arcade, also some good
old glass and a Jacobean pulpit. The remains of a rood screen and
the rood loft steps are still there.
A mile further on is one of the many Normantons, with Early
English nave, decorated tower, fine west window, and Perpendicular
clerestory.
Two miles on we come to Caythorpe, which is FULBECK AND
built on a very singular plan, for it has a double LEADENHAM
nave with a buttress between the two west
windows to take the thrust of the arches which are in a line with the
ridge of the roof. This forms the remarkable feature of the church
interior. There are short transepts, and the tower rises above the
four open arches. Over one of these there is a painting of the Last
Judgment. There are fine buttresses outside with figures of the
Annunciation and the Coronation of the Virgin, and one of our Lord
on the porch. The windows are large. The spire is lofty but
unpleasing, as it has a marked “entasis” or set in, such as is seen in
many Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire spires, which hence are
often termed sugar-loafed. Before its re-building, in 1859, after it
had been struck by lightning, the entasis was still more marked than
it is now. The singularly thin, ugly needle-like spire of Glinton, just
over the southern border of the county near Deeping, has a slight
set in which does not improve its appearance. A mile to the north
the road passes through the very pretty village of Fulbeck. The dip
of the road, the charming old houses, grey and red, the handsome
church tower with its picturesque pinnacles, and the ancestral
beauty of the fine trees, make a really lovely picture. Fine iron gates
lead to the Hall, the home of the Fanes, an honoured name in
Lincolnshire. Many of the name rest in the churchyard, and their
monuments fill the dark church, which has a good Norman font. The
tampering with old walls and old buildings is always productive of
mischief, and, as at Bath Abbey, when, to add to its appearance,
flying buttresses were put up all along the nave, the weight began to
crush in the nave walls, and the only remedy was to put on, at great
expense, a stone groined roof, which is the real raison d’être of
flying buttresses, so here at Fulbeck, when they pulled down the
chancel and built it up again with the walls further out, the
consequence was that the east wall of the nave, missing its
accustomed support, began to lean out eastwards.
Another mile and a half brings us to Leadenham, where the east
and west road from Sleaford to Newark crosses the Great North
road. The fine tall spire is seen from all the country round, for it
stands half way up the cliff. But this and the rest of the road to
Lincoln is described in Chapter XIII.
If you go out of Grantham by the south-west, HARLAXTON AND
you should stop at a very pretty little village to the DENTON
south of the Grantham and Melton road, from
which a loop descends to an old gateway, all that is left of the old
Harlaxton Manor, a pretty Tudor building now pulled down, the stone
balustrades in front of it having been removed by Mr. Pearson
Gregory to his large house a mile off, built on the ridge of the park
by Salvin in 1845. The Flemish family of De Ligne lived in the old
Hall in Jacobean times, and their predecessors are probably
represented by the fine but mutilated alabaster recumbent effigies
now in the northern, or Trinity, chapel of the church. In the north-
east angle of this chapel is a very graceful canopied recess on a
bracket, much like those at Sedgebrook, about five miles off on the
border of the county.
The north aisle and nave are older than the tower and south aisle;
and a curious staircase ascends at the east of the south aisle wall,
from which a gangway crossed to the rood loft.
There are many aumbries in various parts of the church, and a
tall, Decorated font, with grotesque faces in some panels, and in
others sacred subjects oddly treated, such as our Lord crowned and
holding a Chalice. In the south aisle is an old oak post alms-box
resembling one at Halton Holgate.
A doorway leads out from the south side of the east end, an
entrance probably to an eastern chapel. The two doorways, one on
each side of the altar, at Spalding may have led to the same, or
possibly to a vestry, as in Magdalen Chapel, Oxford.
The spire has a staircase, passing curiously from one of the
pinnacles. A very massive broken stone coffin, removed from a
garden, lies in the south chapel. The fine row of limes, and the ivy-
grown walls of old Harlaxton Manor, add to the beauty of this quiet
little village, and a group of half-timbered brick buildings, said to be
sixteenth century, though looking more modern, which are near the
church, are a picturesque feature.
Denton Manor, the seat of Sir C. G. E. Welby, BELVOIR CASTLE
Bart., is just beyond Harlaxton, and there one
might once have seen a fine old manor house, now replaced by a
large modern hall of fine proportions; the work is by Sir A. W.
Blomfield, good in design and detail, and containing a notable
collection both of furniture and pictures. St. Christopher’s Well, a
chalybeate spring, is in the park, and in the restored church are a
good recumbent effigy of John Blyth, 1602, and a figure of Richard
Welby, 1713, with angels carefully planting a crown on his wig. After
this the road passes into Leicestershire, so we turn to the right and
in less than four miles, halfway between the Melton road and the
Nottingham road, and more in Leicestershire than in Lincolnshire, we
come to Belvoir Castle. The mound on which it stands is over the
border and is not a natural height, but was thrown up on a spur of
the wold as early as the eleventh century by Robert de Todeni, who
thence became known as Robert de Belvedeir. Certainly the pile is
grandly placed, and has a sort of Windsor Castle appearance from all
the country round. It has been in possession of the Manners family
now for four hundred years. The celebrated Marquis of Granby, a
name well known in all the neighbourhood as a public-house sign,
was son of the third Duke. He was “Col. of the Leicester Blues” in
1745, and General and Commander-in-Chief of the British contingent
at Minden, where the English and German forces, under the Duke of
Brunswick, defeated the French in 1759, and he distinguished
himself in battle in each of the three following years. The castle,
destroyed by order of Parliament in the civil wars, was rebuilt in
1668, and again in 1801, but a fire having destroyed part of it in
1816 it was restored at the worst of all architectural periods, so that
at a near view it does not fulfil the expectation raised by its grand
appearance when seen from a distance. As at Windsor there is a
very fine “Guard Room,” and many large rooms hung with tapestry
or pictures, and a picture gallery of unusual excellence. The
Duchess’s garden in spring is one of the finest horticultural sights in
the kingdom. The greater part of the castle is most liberally thrown
open daily to the public.
Returning from Belvoir we can pass by Barrowby to join the
Nottingham and Grantham road, which leaves the county at
Sedgebrook, on either side of which are seen the churches of
Muston and East and West Allington, where Crabbe, the poet, was
rector 1789-1814. West Allington church stands in Mr. Welby’s park,
and close by, a salt well is marked on the map. At Sedgebrook is a
farm house which was built as a manor-house by Sir John Markham
in the sixteenth century, when he was Lord Chief Justice of the
King’s Bench. He it was who received the soubriquet of “The upright
Judge,” on the occasion of his being turned out of office by Edward
IV., because of his scrupulous fairness at the trial of Sir Thomas
Coke, Lord Mayor of London.
From Sedgebrook to Barrowby is three miles of level ground, and
then the road rises 150 feet to the village, which commands a
splendid view over the vale of Belvoir. Leaving this you descend a
couple of miles to Grantham.
At the outskirts of the town the road meets two GONERBY HILL
others, one the northern or Lincoln road, and the
other the north-western or Newark road. This is the Great North
Road, and it starts by climbing the famous Gonerby Hill, the terror
and effectual trial ground of motors in their earliest days, and
described by “mine host” in The Heart of Midlothian as “a murder to
post-horses.” The hill once gained affords a fine view eastwards,
Foston and Long Bennington (which has a large church with a
handsome porch, a good churchyard cross, and a mutilated market
cross), are the only villages, till the road crosses the county
boundary near Claypole, and runs on about four miles to Newark,
distant fifteen miles from Grantham. Long Bennington is a mile
north-east of Normanton Lodge, where Lincolnshire,
Nottinghamshire, and Leicestershire touch.
Stubton, a couple of miles to the east, has a fine group of yew
trees growing round the tomb of Sir George Heron, one of the family
from Cressy Hall, Gosberton, I suppose, who built the hall now
occupied by G. Neville, Esq.
Between Stubton and the Grantham-and-Lincoln road are many
winding lanes, by a judicious use of which you may escape the fate
that overtook us of landing after a steep and rather rough climb
from Barkstone at two farms one after the other, beyond which the
road did not even try to go. If you have better luck you will reach
the out-of-the-way parish church of Hough-on-the-Hill.
This, the last resting-place of King John, when HOUGH-ON-THE-
on his journey to Newark where he died, has a HILL
church whose tower is singularly interesting, being akin to St. Peter’s
at Barton-on Humber, and the two very old churches in Lincoln, and
one at Broughton, near Brigg, and we may add, perhaps, the tower
at Great Hale.
The work of all these towers is pre-Norman, and it is not unlikely
that the church, when first built, consisted of only a tower and two
apses. At Hough, as at Broughton, we have attached to the west
face of the tower a Saxon circular turret staircase, built in the rudest
way and coped with a sloping top of squared masonry, of apparently
Norman work. The tower has several very small lights, 12 to 15
inches high, and of various shapes, while the west side of the south
porch is pierced with a light which only measures 8 inches by 4, but
is framed with dressed stone on both the wall-surfaces. The two
lower stages of the square tower, to whose west face the round
staircase-tower clings, are all of the same rough stone-work, with
wide mortar joints, but with two square edged thick string-courses
of dressed stone, projecting 6 inches or more. The upper stage is of
much later date. The Early English nave, chancel, and aisles are very
high, and are no less than 20 feet wide, mercifully (for it was
proposed to abolish them and substitute a pine roof) they still retain
their old Perpendicular roofs with the chancel and nave timbers
enriched with carving. The sedilia are of the rudest possible
construction.
 Hough-on-the-Hill.

The staircase turret has two oblong Saxon A SAXON TOWER

windows, like those at Barnack, about four feet by
one, in the west face, three small round lights on the north, and four
on the south, one square and one diamond-shaped and two circular.
The turret is of the same date as the tower, but appears to have
been built on after the tower was finished; and it almost obscures
the two little west windows of the tower, one on each side of it, and
near the top. A round-headed doorway leads from the tower to the
turret, inside which the good stone steps lead up to a triangular-
headed door into the tower, where now is the belfry floor, from
which another similar doorway leads into the nave. Close to the top
of the old Saxon tower walls are very massive stone corbels for
supporting the roof. The Newel post of the old tower is a magnificent
one, being eighteen inches thick. This, where the upper stage was
added, is continued, but with only half that thickness.
There was once a porch with a higher pitched roof, as shown by
the gable roof-mould against the aisle. On the stone benches are
three of the solitaire-board devices, with eight hollows connected by
lines all set in an oblong, the same that you see often in cloisters
and on the stone benches at Windsor, where monks or chorister
boys passed the time playing with marbles. It is a truly primitive and
world-wide amusement. The natives of Madagascar have precisely
the same pattern marked out on boards, seated round which, and
with pebbles which they move like chessmen, they delight
themselves, both young and old, in gambling.
The church used to go with the Head-Mastership of Grantham
Grammar School, seven miles off, and some of the Headmasters
were buried here; one, Rev. Joseph Hall, is described as “Vicar of
Ancaster and Hough-on-the-Hill, Headmaster of Grantham Grammar
School, and Rector of Snelland, and Domestic Chaplain to Lord
Fitzwilliam”—he died in 1814.
It stands on a high knoll, whence the THE WAPENTAKE
churchyard, which is set round with yew-trees,
slopes steeply to the south. The Wapentake of Loveden takes its
name from a neighbouring round-topped hill, and the old tower of
Hough-on-the-Hill may well have been the original meeting-place;
just as Barnack was, where the triangular-headed seat for the chief
man is built into the tower wall. The term “Wapentake” means the
taking hold of the chief’s weapon by the assembled warriors, or of
the warriors’ weapons by the chief, as a sign that they swear fealty
to him, and then the name was applied to the district over which a
particular chief held rule. The native chiefs of India, when they come
to a Durbar, present their swords to the King or his representative in
a similar manner, for him to touch.
 Just south of Hough is the hamlet of Gelston, where, on a
triangular green, is all that is left of a wayside cross, a rare thing in
this county. Only about two feet of the old shaft is left and the
massive base block standing on a thick slab with chamfered corners.
This is mounted on three steps and is a very picturesque object.
There are some two dozen Wapentakes within the county, some
with odd names, e.g., Longoboby; of these, eight end like Elloe in
oe, which, I take it, means water.
From Hough-on-the-Hill the byway to the CLAYPOLE
Grantham and Newark road, with villages at every
second milestone, runs through Brandon, where a small chapel
contains a Norman door with a tympanum and a rather unusual
moulding, very like one we shall see in the old church at Stow, and
then through Stubton, to Claypole, close to the county boundary.
The beautiful crocketed spire of this fine church is a landmark seen
for miles; as usual, it is Perpendicular, and on an Early English tower,
which is plastered over with cement outside and engaged between
the aisles inside. It is a cruciform building, and in the Early English
south transept are three beautiful sedilia, not at all common in such
a position. The flat coloured ceiling of the nave is old, though, since
the restoration by C. Hodgson Fowler in 1892, the high pitch of the
roof over it has been reverted to, both on chancel and nave. The
nave is large with four wide bays, supported on clustered pillars, the
capitals being all different and all ornamented with singularly bold
foliated carving of great beauty. The chancel arch exhibits brackets
for the rood beam. The large clerestory windows were probably in
the nave before the aisles were added. Another set of sedilia in the
chancel are of the Decorated period, and most of the windows have
flowing tracery. On the north side of the chancel is a Sacristy,
containing an altar slab in situ with its five dedication crosses. The
porch has a very deep niche over it, for a statue, and there is
another niche at the east end of the nave; the fine Perpendicular
parapet leading to it being, like the rest of the church, embattled.
The screen is a good Perpendicular one, and the desk of the well-
carved pulpit was once part of it, this now is oddly supported by the
long stem of a processional cross. The font, which is hexagonal, is of
the Decorated period.
One of the most unusual features in the church is to be found in
the stone seats which surround the bases of the pillars in the south
arcade. This is to be seen also at Bottesford and at Caistor.
A short distance to the south-west of the church there was, until
quite recently, a charming old stone bridge, over a small stream, but
this has now, I regret to say, been superseded by one of those iron
girder structures, so dear to the heart of the highway surveyor.
In the church the hook for the “Lenten Veil” still remains at the
end of the sedilia, and a staple over the vestry-door opposite.
In pre-reformation days there was a regular “office” or service for
the Easter sepulchre, in which the priests acted the parts of the
three kings, the angel, and the risen Lord, at which time a line was
stretched across the chancel to support the “Lenten Veil” which
served as a stage-curtain.
 CHAPTER VIII
SLEAFORD
Ewerby—Howell—Use of a Stone Coffin—Heckington—Great Hale—Outer
Staircase to Tower—Helpringham—Billinghay—North and South Kyme
—Kyme Castle—Ancaster—Honington—Cranwell.

Six roads go out of Sleaford, and five railways. SLEAFORD

Lincoln, Boston, Bourne and Grantham have both a CHURCH
road and a railway to Sleaford, Spalding has only a
railway direct, and Horncastle and Newark only a road. At no towns
but Louth and Lincoln do so many routes converge, though Caistor,
Grantham and Boston come very near. The southern or Bourne road
we have traced from Bourne, so we will now take the eastern roads
to Boston and Horncastle. But first to say something of Sleaford
itself. The Conqueror bestowed the manor on Remigius, first Bishop
of Lincoln. About 1130 Bishop Alexander built the castle, together
with that at Newark, which alone in part survives. These castles
were seized by Stephen, and here King John, having left Swineshead
Abbey, stayed a night before his last journey by Hough-on-the-hill to
Newark, where he died 1216. Henry VIII., with Katherine Howard,
held a council here on his way from Grimsthorpe to Lincoln, 1541,
dining next day at Temple-Bruer, which he gave in the same year to
the Duke of Suffolk. He had here in 1538 ordered the execution of
Lord Hussey. Murray’s guide-book tells us that Richard de
Haldingham, 1314, who made the famous and curious “Mappa
Mundi,” now kept in Hereford Cathedral, was born at Holdingham
close by. The church is one of four in this neighbourhood dedicated
to St. Denis. The lower stage of the tower dates from 1180. The
spire, a very early one, built about 1220, being struck by lightning,
was taken down and put up again by C. Kirk in 1884. It is only 144
feet in height. As at Grantham and Ewerby the tower is engaged in
the aisles; its lower stage dates from 1180. The nave has eight
three-light clerestory windows, with tall pinnacles rising from the
parapet. The aisles have a richly carved parapet, without pinnacles;
but the beauty and extreme richness of the western ends of the
aisles, where they engage with the massive tower, surmounted as
they are by turrets, bellcots and pinnacles, and niches, some still
containing their statues, is not surpassed in any church in England.
The doorway, which is in the west end of the north aisle, cuts into
the fine window above, and opens upon the baptistery.
The nave and aisles are all very lofty; and the THE NORTH
grand proportions of the church give one the TRANSEPT
feeling of being in a cathedral. There is an outer
north aisle, now screened off by a good modern oak screen, and
fitted with an organ and an altar with modern painted reredos
depicting the Crucifixion. The tracery of the big window is good, but
that in the north transept (there is no south transept) is one of the
finest six-light windows to be seen, and is filled with first-rate
modern glass by Ward and Hughes. The supporting arch at the west
of the north aisle has an inverted arch, as at Wells, to support the
tower. At the end of the south aisle, a tall half-arch acts as a buttress
to the other side of the tower arch. The chancel was once a
magnificent one, but was rebuilt and curtailed at a bad period.
The fine monuments on each side of the chancel arch—one having
two alabaster recumbent figures, much blocked by the pulpit, are all
of the Carre family; and a curious carved and inscribed coffin lid,
showing just the face, and then, lower down, the praying hands of a
man, apparently a layman, with long hair, is set up in the transept
against the chancel pier. At Hartington in Derbyshire is one showing
the bust and praying hands together, and then, lower down, the
feet. An old iron chest is in the south aisle, and the church has a
very perfect set of consecration crosses both inside and out.
The rood screen is especially fine, in fact, the finest in the country,
having still its ancient canopy projecting about six feet, with very
graceful carving on the heads of the panels below it. Two staircases
in the chancel piers still remain, opening on to the rood loft on either
side.
The west end of the church overlooks the market, where there is
always a gay scene on Mondays—stalls and cheap-jacks and crowds
of market folk making it almost Oriental in life and colour.
The street runs along the south side of the church, across which is
seen the excellent but not beautiful Sleaford almshouse.

North Transept, St. Denis’s Church, Sleaford.

Eastwards on the Swineshead road, and within EWERBY

half-a-dozen miles of Sleaford, is a cluster of
especially good churches—Ewerby, Asgarby, Heckington, Howell,
Great Hale and Helpringham. Four of these six have fine spires, and
are seen from a long distance in this flat country. Ewerby is just on
the edge of Haverholme Priory Park, and the building rooks who
have chosen the trees at the village end of the park for their colony,
gave, when we visited it, pleasant notification of the coming spring.
The tower is at the west end, engaged in the two aisles, and,
adjoining the churchyard, a little green with remains of the old
village cross leaves room for the fine pile of building to be seen and
admired. The roof line of nave and chancel is continuous, and the
broach spire, a singularly fine one, perhaps the best in England, is
174 feet high. It is probably the work of the same master builder
who planned and built Heckington and Sleaford. The tower has a
splendid ring of ten bells (Grantham alone has as many) for the
completion of which, as for much else, Ewerby is indebted to the
Earls of Winchelsea.
Internally, the walls are mostly built of very small stones, like
those in a roadside wall. In the tower are good Decorated windows,
in the lower of which, on the western face, is a stained glass
window. This was struck by lightning in 1909, and all the faces of
the figures were cut right out, the rest of the glass being intact. A
lightning-conductor is now installed, but the faces are not yet filled
in.
There is a most beautiful little window at the west end of the
north aisle. Under the tower are three finely proportioned arches,
and a stone groined roof. The ten bells are rung from the ground.
The nave pillars are clustered, each erected on an earlier transition-
Norman base; and the base of the font is also Norman. The porch is
unusual in having a triangular string-course outside the hood-
moulding. Besides the Market Cross, there are parts of two others, in
the church and churchyard. There is a grand old recumbent warrior,
probably Sir Richard Anses, with fourteenth century chain mail and
helmet, and gorget, but the most interesting thing of all is a pre-
Norman tomb-cover on the floor of the north aisle, with a rude cross
on it, and a pattern of knot-work all over the rest of the slab. This is
covered by a mat, but it certainly ought to have a rail round it for
permanent protection, for it is one of the most remarkable stones in
the county. An old oak chest with carved front is in the vestry. The
whole church is well-cared-for, but at present only seated with
chairs.
From Ewerby, two miles bring us to Howell, a HOWELL PORCH
small church with neither spire nor tower, but a
double bell-gable at the west end of the nave; the porch is Norman,
and a large pre-Norman stone coffin slab has been placed in it. The
transition pillars have huge mill-stone shaped bases; and there is
only a nave and north aisle. On the floor of the aisle is a half figure
of a mother with a small figure of her daughter, both deeply cut on a
fourteenth century stone slab. It is curious to come on a monument
to “Sir Charles Dymok of Howell, 2nd son to Sir Edward Dymok of
Scrielsby”—whose daughter married Sir John Langton. The tomb,
with coloured figures of the knight and his lady kneeling at an altar,
was put up about 1610 by his nephew, another Sir Edward Dymok.
There is a broken churchyard cross, the base inscribed to John
Spencer, rector, 1448. The church is dedicated to St. Oswald. Ivy is
growing inside the nave, having forced its way right through the wall
—a good illustration of the mischief that ivy can do.
The mention of the stone coffin in Howell church porch calls to
mind a similar case in a Cumberland church, where the sexton,
pointing it out to a visitor, said: “Ah think thet a varra good thing;
minds ’em o’ their latter end, ye knaw; an’ its varra useful for
umberellas.”
Heckington is a town-like village on the main road, and its
splendid church, which faces you at the end of the street, as at
Louth, is one of the wonders of Lincolnshire. It is entirely in the
Decorated style, with lofty spire and four very high pinnacles. It
owes its magnificence to the fact that the great abbey at Bardney,
which had a chantry here, obtained a royal licence in 1345 to
appropriate the church. Certainly it is the most perfect example of a
Decorated church in the kingdom.
The nave is remarkably high and wide, and the building of it, as in
the case of Wilfrid’s great church at Hexham, apparently took thirty-
five years. The dimensions are 150 feet by eighty-five, and the
masonry, owing probably to the leisurely way in which it was built, is
remarkably good throughout. The statue niches have a few of their
figures still. The porch, with its waved parapet richly carved, with a
figure of our Lord above, still has its original roof. On either side are
double buttresses, each with its canopied niche; and the nave ends
with handsome turrets. The transept windows are very fine, and the
seven-light east window, a most superb one, is only surpassed in its
dimensions and beautiful tracery by those at Selby and Carlisle. It is
filled with good glass by Ward and Hughes, put up in memory of Mr.
Little, by his wife, 1897.
 Heckington Church

A massive timber gallery crosses the west end, HECKINGTON

above the tower arch, giving access to the belfry
above the groined roof of the tower. The clock struck while we were
in the church, and gave evidence of at least one of the peal being of
unusual magnificence of tone.
 On the south side of the chancel is one window THE EASTER
beneath which is a canopied credence table; and SEPULCHRE
west of this, three tall and richly carved sedilia with
figures of our Lord and the Virgin Mary and Saints Barbara,
Katherine and Margaret; but the gem of the building is the Easter
sepulchre on the north side, where there are no windows. This is
only surpassed by one at Hawton, near Newark. Below are the
Roman guards asleep, in fourteenth century armour. On each side of
the recess for the sacred elements, which once had a door to it, are
two figures of women and a guardian angel, and above them, the
risen Christ between two flying angels. This is a truly beautiful thing,
enshrined in a worthy building.
Outside is a broken churchyard cross, and the slender chancel
buttresses are seen to have each a niche for a figure. The
magnificent great “Dos-D’Âne” coping-stones on the churchyard wall,
both here and at Great Hale, are a pleasure to see.
There was a church at Heckington before the Conquest, and a
second was built about 1100. The income of this, as well as of that
of Hale Magna, was given in 1208 by Simon de Gant and his wife
Alice to support the church of St. Lazarus outside the walls of
Jerusalem, and this endowment was confirmed by King John. The
rector of Hale Magna in his parish magazine points out that the
enormous amount of land which was constantly passing to the
churches and monasteries in the Middle Ages became a distinct
danger, and that an Act was passed to prevent it, called the Statute
of Mortmain, under which licence had to be obtained from the
Crown.
Consequently we find that in the fourth year of Edward II. (1310)
inquisition was taken on a certain Sunday before Ranulph de Ry,
Sheriff of Lincoln, at Ancaster “to inquire whether or not it be to the
damage of the King or others if the King permit Wm. son of Wm. le
Clerk of St. Botolph (Boston) to grant a messuage and 50 acres of
land in Hekyngton and Hale to a certain chaplain and his successors
to celebrate Divine service every day in the parish church of
Hekyngton for the health of the souls of the said Wm. his father,
mother and heirs, &c., for ever,” etc. The jury found that it would not
be to the damage or prejudice of the king to allow the grant. They
also reported that Henry de Beaumont was the “Mesne,” or middle,
tenant between the king and William Clerk of Boston for twenty-
eight acres, and between the king and Ralph de Howell for the other
twenty-two acres, he holding from the king “by the service of a third
part of a pound of pepper,” and subletting to the others, for so many
marks a year. The land apparently being valued at about 1s. 8d. an
acre. From other sources we find that land thereabouts varied in
value from 4d. to 8s. an acre yearly rent.
In 1345 when the abbot and abbey of Bardney by royal licence
received the churches and endowments of Hale and Heckington for
their own use, the abbot became rector and appointed a vicar to
administer each parish. The name of the abbot was Roger De
Barrowe, whose tomb was found by the excavators at Bardney in
1909.
The building of the present beautiful church was completed by
Richard de Potesgrave, the vicar, in 1380. He doubtless received help
from Edward III., to whom he acted as chaplain. That he was an
important person in the reigns of both Edward II. and III. is shown
by the former king making over to him the confiscated property of
the Colepeppers who had refused to deliver Leeds Castle, near
Maidstone, to Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II., in 1321; while he
was selected by Edward III. to superintend the removal of the body
of Edward II. from Berkeley Castle to Gloucester. His mutilated effigy
is under the north window of the chancel, and in a little box above it
with a glass front is now preserved the small chalice which he used
in his lifetime.
The churchwardens’ account book at Heckington CHURCHWARDEN
begins in 1567, and in 1580 and 1583 and 1590 S’ BOOKS
“VIˢ VIIIᵈ” is entered as the burial fee of members
of the Cawdron family, whose later monuments are at Hale.
 Another entry which constantly occurs in the WHIPPING FOR
sixteenth century is “for Whypping dogges out of TRAMPS
Church,” and in the seventeenth century not
“dogges” only but vagrants are treated to the lash, e.g.:—

“April 21, 1685. John Coulson then whipped for a vagrant

rogue and sent to Redford.
“Antho. Berridge (Vicar).”

And in 1686:—

“Memorand. that John Herrin and Katherine Herrin and one

child, and Jonas Hay and wife and two children, and Barbary
Peay and Eliz. Nutall were openly whipped, at Heckington, the
28th day of May, 1686—and had a passe then made to
convey them from Constable to Constable to Newark, in
Nottinghamshire, and Will Stagg was at the same time
whipped and sent to Conton in Nottinghamshire.”

A good, sound method of dealing with “Vagrom men,” but for the
women and children one wonders the parson or churchwardens
were not ashamed to make the entry.
 Great Hale.

The book also shows the accounts of the “Dike-reeve” (an

important officer) for what in another place is called “the farre
fenne.”
We have already spoken of Great Hale or Hale HALE MAGNA
Magna. It is very near Heckington, and was once a
large church. Long before the abbey of Bardney appropriated it, in
1345, it had both a rector and a vicar, the two being consolidated in
1296. In 1346 the vicarage was endowed, and on the dissolution the
rectorial tithes were granted, in 1543, to Westminster Abbey; but
within four years they reverted to the Crown by exchange, and in
1607 were sold by James I., and eventually bought by Robert
Cawdron, whose family were for many years lay rectors. Robert
probably found the chancel in a bad state, and rather than go to the
expense of restoring it, pulled it down and built up the chancel arch,
and so it remains. But the great interest of the building lies at the
west end. Here the tower arch is a round one, but the tower into
which the Normans inserted it is Saxon, probably dating from about
950. It is built of small stones, and the line of the roof gable is still
traceable against it outside. It has also a curious and complete
staircase of the tenth century in a remarkably perfect condition,
though the steps are much worn. The outer walls of this are built of
the same small thin stones as are used in the tower, in the upper
stage of which are deeply splayed windows with a baluster division
of the usual Saxon type.
The nave pillars are Early English and slender for their height, for
they are unusually tall, recalling the lofty pillars in some of the
churches in Rome. The arches are pointed. Among the monuments
are those of Robert Cawdron, and his three wives, 1605, and of
another Robert, 1652, father of twenty children, while a large slab
with the indent of a brass to some priest has been appropriated to
commemorate a third of the same name.
The Cawdron arms are on a seventeenth century chalice. The old
registers, which are now well cared for, are on paper, and have
suffered sadly from damp and rough handling. The first volume
begins in 1568, the second in 1658, and the list of vicars is complete
from 1561. To antiquarians I consider that this is one of the most
interesting of Lincolnshire churches. Two miles west is Burton
Pedwardine, with fine Pedwardine and Horsman tombs, and a pretty
little square grille for exhibiting relics. The central tower fell in 1862.
The road which runs south from Heckington to HELPRINGHAM
Billingborough and so on by Rippingale to Bourne,
passes by Hale Magna to Helpringham. Here is another very fine
church, with a lofty crocketed spire, starting from four bold pinnacles
with flying buttresses. The tower is engaged in the aisles, as at
Ewerby and Sleaford, and as at Ewerby it opens into nave and aisles
by three grand arches. The great height of the tower arch into the
nave here and at Boston and Sleaford was in order to let in light to
the church from the great west window. The main body of the
building is Decorated and has fine windows; the chancel with triplet
window is Early English. The font, Early English transition, the rood
screen is of good Perpendicular design, and the effect of the whole
building is very satisfying, especially from the exterior. It is curious
that the lord of the manors of Helpringham and Scredington, who
since the sixteenth century has been the Lord Willoughby De Broke,
was in the fourteenth century the Lord Willoughby D’Eresby.

Helpringham.

South of Helpringham, and situated half-way SWATON

between that and Horbling, and just to the north of
the Sleaford-and-Boston road is Swaton with a beautiful cruciform
church in the earliest Decorated style; indeed, looking at the lancet
windows in the chancel, one might fairly call it transitional Early
English. The simple two-light geometrical window at the east end
with the mullions delicately enriched outside and in, form a marked
contrast to the rich but heavy Decorated work of the four-light west
window. At the east end the window is subordinated to the whole
design. At the west end the windows are the predominant feature of
the building, and nowhere can this period of architecture be better
studied. The roof spans both nave and aisles, as at Great Cotes,
near Grimsby, so though the nave is big and high it has no
clerestory. The tower arches are very low. The font is a very good
one of the period, with diaper work and ball-flower.
We have dwelt at some length on Sleaford and its immediate
neighbourhood, and not without cause, for there are few places in
England or elsewhere in which so many quite first-rate churches are
gathered within less than a six-mile square. They are all near the
road from Sleaford to Boston, on which, after leaving Heckington,
nothing noticeable is met with for seven miles, till Swineshead is
reached, and nothing after that till Boston.
The north-eastern road from Sleaford to Horncastle passes over a
flat and dull country to Billinghay and Tattershall, and thence by the
interesting little churches of Haltham and Roughton (pronounced
Rooton) to Horncastle. The road near Billinghay runs by the side of
the Old Carr Dyke, which is a picturesque feature in a very Dutch-
looking landscape.
This road crosses the Dyke near North Kyme, KYME TOWER
where there is a small Roman camp. The Normans AND PRIORY
have left their mark in the name of “Vacherie
SOUTH KYME
House” and Bœuferie Bridge, close to which is
“Decoy House,” and two miles to the south is the
isolated village of South Kyme. Here is the keep of a thirteenth
century castle, which is nearly eighty feet high, a square tower with
small loophole windows. The lower room vaulted and showing the
arms of the Umfraville family, to whom the property passed in the
fifteenth century from the Kymes by marriage, and soon afterwards
to the Talboys family, and, in 1530, to Sir Edward Dymoke of
Scrivelsby, whose descendants resided there till 1700. The castle
was pulled down about 1725, after which the Duke of Newcastle
bought the estate and sold it twenty years later to Mr. Abraham
Hume. The existing tower communicated from the first floor with the
rest of the castle. The upper floors are now gone.
Close by was a priory for Austin canons, founded by Philip de
Kyme in the reign of Henry II., but all that now remains of it is in the
south aisle of the church, which, once a splendid cruciform building,
has been cut down to one aisle and a fine porch; over this is
represented the Coronation of the Virgin. A bit of very early carved
stonework has been let into the wall, and a brass inscription from
the tomb of Lord Talboys 1530.
 South Kyme.
The western road from Sleaford has no interesting features, till at
about the fifth milestone it comes to Ancaster, the old Roman
‘Causennæ’; here it crosses the Ermine Street, which is a fine wide
road, but fallen in many parts into disuse. The Ancaster stone
quarries lie two miles to the south of the village in Wilsford heath on
high ground; the Romans preferred a high ridge for their great
“Streets,” but at Ancaster the Ermine Street descends 100 feet, and
from thence, after crossing it, our route takes us by a very pretty
and wooded route to Honington, on the Great North Road.

South Kyme Church.

We will now go back to Sleaford and trace out the course of its
other western road to Newark, leaving the north or Lincoln Road to