attle. He may well, therefore, have taken
Horncastle on his way.

CHAPTER III.

Having, so far, dealt with the more or less conjectural, prehistoric
period of Horncastle's existence in Chapter I, and with the Manor and its
ownership in Chapter II, we now proceed to give an account of the town's
institutions, its buildings, and so forth. Among these the Parish
Church, naturally, claims precedence.

ST. MARY'S CHURCH.

This is probably not the original parish church. There is no mention of
a church in _Domesday Book_, and although this is not quite conclusive
evidence, it is likely that no church existed at that date (circa 1085
A.D.); but in Testa de Nevill (temp. Richard I.) we find "Ecclesia de
Horncastre," named with those of (West) Ashby, High Toynton, Mareham
(-on-the-Hill), and (Wood) Enderby, as being in the gift of the King;
{33a} while at an Inquisition post mortem, taken at Horncastle, 8 Richard
II., No. 99, {33b} the Jurors say that "the Lord King Edward (I.), son of
King Henry (III.), gave to Gilbert, Prior of the alien Priory of
Wyllesforth, and his successors, 2 messuages, and 6 oxgangs (90 acres) of
land, and the site of the Chapel of St. Laurence, with the appurtenances,
in Horncastre," on condition that they find a fit chaplain to celebrate
mass in the said chapel three days in every week "for the souls of the
progenitors of the said King, and his successors, for ever." This chapel
probably stood near the street running northwards from the Market Place,
now called St. Lawrence Street, though, a few years ago, it was commonly
called "Pudding Lane." It is said to have formerly been a main street
and at the head of it stood the Market Cross. Bodies have at various
times been found interred near this street, indicating the vicinity of a
place of worship, and, when a block of houses were removed in 1892, by
the Right Honble. E. Stanhope, Lord of the Manor, to enlarge the Market
Place, several fragments of Norman pillars were found, which, doubtless,
once belonged to the Norman Chapel of St. Lawrence. {34}

The date of St. Mary's Church, as indicated by the oldest part of it, the
lower portion of the tower, is early in the 13th century. "It is a good
example of a town church of the second class (as said the late Precentor
Venables, who was a good judge) in no way, indeed, rivalling such
churches as those of Boston, Louth, Spalding or Grantham; nay even many a
Lincolnshire village has