time, make it difficult to fulfil.

And here we may make the concluding remark that 100 years ago most of the
houses in Horncastle were thatched. It is on record (Overton MS.) that
the first slated house in the town was built for a Mr. Storr, a gardener,
in what is now the back passage from the Bow Bridge to the Wong, near the
Baptist Chapel. This was afterwards occupied (1790-1800) by Mrs. L'Oste,
widow of a former Rector of Langton. The next house to be slated was
that of Mr. Titus Overton, lately the residence of Mr. John Overton,
Grocer.

APPENDIX.

THIMBLEBY.

This parish is contiguous to Horncastle, but the village and church are
distant about 1.25 miles from the town, in a north-westerly direction.
Letters arrive at 8.30 a.m., from Horncastle, where are the nearest money
order and telegraph office and railway station.

As to the name Thimbleby, given in _Domesday Book_ as Stimbelbi, it
doubtless meant originally the Bye (scotice "Byre"), or farmstead, of a
thane, or owner, in pre-Norman times named stimel. {165} In the survey
made by the Conqueror, A.D. 1085, there are two mentions of this parish,
(1) It is included among the 1,442 lordships, or manors, of which King
William took possession on his own behalf, ejecting the previous owners;
none of whom, in this instance, are named. Under him it was occupied by
22 soc-men, or free tenants, and 18 villeins, or bondsmen, who cultivated
4.5 carucates (540 acres), with 240 acres of meadow. This, however, did
not comprise the whole parish, for (2) another mention gives Thimbleby
among the lands granted by the Conqueror to Odo, Bishop of Baieux, who
was half brother to King William, on his mother's side, and was created
by him Earl of Kent. His brother was Earl of Moretaine, and his sister
Adeliza was Countess of Albermarle. He had been consecrated Bishop of
Baieux before William's conquest of England, in 1049. He was
subsequently made Count Palatine and Justiciary of England. The old
historian, Ordericus Vitalis, says "he was reputed to be the wisest man
in England, and 'totius Angliae Vice-comes sub Rege, et . . . Regi
secundus'"; and this was hardly an exaggeration, since he was granted by
William 76 manors in Lincolnshire, besides 363 in other counties. But we
have observed in several other instances how insecure was the tenure of
property in those unsettled times, when might was deemed right, and this
ambitious Prelate was no exception. H