At Gautby was once a hall belonging to the Vyner family, and in the church are monuments dated 1672 and 1673. Here, too, is a slab in memory of F. G. Vyner, who was one of the party so infamously murdered by Greek brigands in 1870.
From here Baumber is quickly reached. This church, whose massive tower base is Norman, is the burial place of the Duke of Newcastle's family. Here, too, an old hall once stood, close by, in Sturton Park, just below a spur of the South Wold.
THE SNELLAND SHREW From Baumber, going four miles south, we reach Horncastle. The main eastern road from Lincoln to Wragby is described later in the Louth-to-Lincoln route. It is the Roman road to Horncastle. At the seventh milestone, shortly after passing Sudbrooke Holme, the house of Mr. C. Sibthorpe, where the garden is one of the most beautifully kept and tastefully planted of any garden in the county, the road divides to the left for Market Rasen, by Snelland, Wickenby, Lissington, and Linwood; and to the right for Wragby, where it again divides for Louth on the left, and on the right for Baumber and Horncastle. The third of the roads takes a north-easterly direction by Dunholme to Market Rasen. All this route between Nettleham and Linwood lies in the flat strip of country some eight miles wide, which runs up from the Fens to the Humber, narrowing in width after reaching Brigg, from whence it is drained by the river Ancholme and the Wear dyke, which discharge into the Humber opposite Read's Island, between South Ferriby and Winteringham. Half way across this flat-land, on the way to Market Rasen, and two miles to the left of the Wragby road, is Snelland. This place is called in Domesday Book Esnelent, and also Sneleslunt; and we find that land was held here by Thomas of Bayeux, Archbishop of York and chaplain to the Conqueror, while another land-holder was William de Percy, founder of Whitby Abbey and commander of the fleet which brought the Conqueror over. It is now the property of the Cust family. The following rhymed marriage entry is in the Snelland register for the year 1671, Mr. R. S. having presumably married a well-known scold:—
"The first day of November
Robert Sherriffe may remember
That he was marryed for all the days of his life
If God be not merciful to him and take his wife."
North of Snelland is Snarford, which we should visit, not so
