THE TRENT, FROM THE DERWENT TO THE HUMBER.
The Soar--Trent Junction--The Erewash--Gotham and its
Wise Men--Clifton Hall and Grove--Nottingham and its
History--Colwich Hall and Mary Chaworth--Sherwood
Forest--Newark--Gainsborough--Axholme--The Confluence with the
Humber.
Shortly after it has received the Derwent and passed by the locks
communicating with the Erewash canal, the Trent is joined by another
affluent, on its opposite bank. This is the Soar, which, for the latter
part of its course, bounds on the west a portion of the county of
Nottingham. Rising in the Leicestershire uplands, some miles to the
south of the county town, it passes--traversing a rather wide and open
valley--by Leicester itself, skirting the precincts of the Abbey--now
marked by but scanty ruins--where Cardinal Wolsey died in the "winter
of his discontent," disgraced by the king whom he had too well served.
Then it flows northward by the lime-kilns of Barrow, and near the
granite quarries of Mount Sorrel, wandering through water meadows, flat
and at times flooded, but for several miles bounded on its western
side by the rugged hills of Charnwood Forest, that insular outcrop of
old-world rock which so strangely interrupts the monotonous opulence
of the "red marl" scenery, and makes a little Wales in England. To the
Soar come tributary streams from the pasture lands of Leicester, dear
to the fox-hunter, which tributaries, like the river itself, glide past
many a quiet village, of which the churches are often of no little
interest, and the houses not seldom afford to us excellent specimens
of the domestic architecture of our country from the sixteenth to the
eighteenth century. The junction of the Soar is not far from another
junction, which has given both an origin and a name to what is rapidly
becoming a town. Here the main line of the Midland Railway receives one
or two important tributaries, and as the result, Trent Junction has
sprung up. As we approach, tall factories are seen to rise above lines
of red-brick houses, and the College--a young but important school,
which has helped to make the name of the place familiar--is conspicuous
just on the outskirts of the town. The valley here is wide and level,
and the scenery naturally becomes a little monotonous, but its right
bank, near to which the river, for a time, is flowing, is sometimes
rather steeply scarped. One of the prettiest spots is near to the place
where the railway crosses the Trent, shortly after emerging from the
cutting which conducts it from the valley of the Soar to that of the
main river. The side of the valley is steep and broken, a pleasant
combination of rough grassy slope and clustering trees. The uniform
flow of the water is interrupted by a weir, and its surface is flecked
with white bubbles, roughened and broken for a time with ripples, while
above and below the bridge our eyes range up and down the level meadows
broken but slightly with lines of green hedges and dots of trees.
Shortly below this place the Trent receives another tributary, the
Erewash, a river which traverses the Nottinghamshire coalfield,
and is now blackened in many places with collieries and ironworks.
Attenborough Church, with its monuments, is of some note, and in
the village was born Henry Ireton, son-in-law to Cromwell. Some two
miles south of the river is a village known throughout the length and
breadth of England, for its inhabitants in olden time have made it a
household word. This is Gotham, where wisdom was once to be found;
for are not its wise men proverbial? Thoroton, the county historian,
thus relates the origin of the saying:--"King John, passing through
the place towards Nottingham, and intending to go through the meadows,
was prevented by the villagers, who apprehended that the ground over
which a king had passed would for ever become a public road. The king,
incensed at their proceedings, sent some of his servants to inquire of
them the reason of their incivility, that he might punish them by way
of fine, or any other way he thought proper. The villagers, hearing of
the approach of the king's servants, thought of an expedient to turn
away His Majesty's displeasure. When the messengers arrived, they found
some of the inhabitants engaged in endeavouring to drown an eel; some
were employed in dragging carts on to a barn to shade the wood from the
sun; others were tumbling their cheeses down the hill to find their way
to Nottingham; and some were engaged in hedging in a cuckoo which had
perched upon a bush; in short, they were all employed in some foolish
way or other, whence arose the old adage." Obviously, when we remember
the monarch with whom they had to deal, they were not quite such fools
as they seemed.
[Illustration:
_Walker & Boutall sc._
THE TRENT, FROM THE DERWENT TO THE HUMBER.]
The Trent now begins to draw near to Nottingham, and the villages show
signs of the approach to a great centre of manufacture. On a cliff
above the river is Clifton Hall. According to the county historian, the
house stands on a rock of alabaster, "curiously inlaid in many places
with beautiful spars." It is approached by "an avenue of trees, a mile
in length, upon gentle swells of the earth, which happily destroy the
formal line which would have been shown upon a level surface. Below,
the silvery Trent meanders." Tradition links a grim story of a murder
to the pleasant groves of Clifton, for here, as we are told, "the
Clifton Beauty, who was debauched and murdered by her sweetheart, was
hurled down the precipice into her watery grave. The place is shown
you, and it has been long held in veneration by lovers. Agreeable
must be the shady walks above or below on the water's brink. Here
the blackbird and the thrush whistle through the day, and the little
redbreast in the evening sings the creation to calm repose in plaintive
song. Here commerce is wafted from shore to shore, and industry flows
for the reciprocal benefit of the human race." Since these words were
written, industry has gone on flowing to an extent which would have
astonished the historian, and would perhaps have rather deranged
the measured progress of his periods. But, even now, the barges not
seldom form groups--as they did when Turner sketched--tempting to the
artist, and the natural beauty of the approach to Nottingham has not
been wholly destroyed by tall mills and lofty chimneys. The Cliftons,
from whom the Hall and Grove take their name, are an old and important
Nottinghamshire family. Thoroton duly records the items of a feast
given at the marriage of one of its members in the year 1530, which
are so curious as to be worth repeating as an indication of the state
of England some three and a half centuries since. For the more solid
comestibles were provided two oxen, six calves, six wethers, seven
lambs, and ten pigs. Among the lighter were "sixty couple conys,"
four dozen chickens, twelve swans, eight cranes, sixteen "hearonsews"
(herons), and ten bitterns. To quench the thirst of the guests, there
were three hogsheads of wine, "one white, one red, and one claret."
The prices were very different from those of Nottingham market at
the present time. A pig cost fivepence, a wether two shillings and
fourpence, and a calf fourpence more. A chicken could be purchased for
a penny, and a couple of rabbits for fivepence. A swan was priced at
sixpence, and a crane at fivepence; for the sixteen herons and the ten
bitterns the same sum was paid, viz., fourteenpence. One might visit
Nottingham market now for a long time before getting a chance of buying
any one of these four birds, and would then have to pay a fancy price
for it. Cygnet, as everyone knows who has tasted it, is an excellent
dish, but we should have thought that the other wild birds would have
needed a hunter's appetite.
Clifton Grove is also inseparable from the memory of Henry Kirke
White, the young poet who died at Cambridge, from overwork, in his
twenty-first year. The following quotation from his poem on the place
may serve as a specimen of his verses, which we think, in the present
day, would not have greatly pleased "reviewers, men, or bookstalls,"
and may give an idea of the Grove at the beginning of the present
century:--
"And oh, how sweet this walk o'erhung with wood
That winds the margin of the solemn flood!
What rural objects steal upon the sight!
What rising views prolong the calm delight!
"The brooklet branching from the silver Trent,
The whispering birch by every zephyr bent,
The woody islands and the naked mead,
The lowly hut half hid in groves of reed,
The rural wicket and the rural stile,
And frequent interspersed the woodman's pile.
"Above, below, where'er I turn my eyes,
Rocks, waters, woods in grand succession rise.
High up the cliff the varied groves ascend,
And mournful larches o'er the wave impend."
Not many towns in the Midland counties of England have a finer
natural situation than Nottingham. The upland district on the western
bank of the Trent terminates in an abrupt craggy scarp above the wide
and level valley. The river, just opposite to the town, has swung
away into the plain to a distance of more than half a mile from its
ancient course, and a tributary stream called the Leen, which has cut
deep into the plateau, intervenes between it and the ancient town.
This, no doubt, was once limited to the scarped headland which rises
between the two valleys, though probably it straggled down into the
plain, and gradually extended along the road leading to the old bridge
over the Trent. But during the present century Nottingham has gained
enormously in size, and lost correspondingly in beauty. It has become
less picturesque, though probably more healthy, and certainly more
convenient; but now it is not wholly guiltless of smoke; it bristles
in parts with chimneys, the utilitarian substitute for spires, and it
would require very subjective treatment at the hands of an artist who
was desirous of depicting the beautiful. Still, there are some views
of the town, from the side of the Leen, which are not even now without
a certain beauty. Scarped cliffs of grey sandstone support the gardens
and terraces of the castle, in the rear of which the town rises from
the valley in alternating lines of trees and houses, broken here and
there by the steeple or tower of a church. But in olden times, when
the valley plain was free from railways, factories, and chimneys,
Nottingham must have been a singularly picturesque town. Then the view
from the valley of the Trent, especially from near the influx of the
Leen, must have been a worthy subject for an artist. The southern wall
of the town crowned the grey cliff; above it rose the noble tower of
the principal church, and near the extremity of the headland, above the
steepest crags, stood the keep and bastions of the castle. The church
remains, but of the rest, as a glance shows, little is left to recall
the Nottingham of the days of the Plantagenets.
[Illustration: NOTTINGHAM, FROM THE CASTLE.]
A better site for a town could not readily have been found in the days
when the "good old rule" in regard to taking and keeping prevailed.
Thus there was a settlement on the headland at an early epoch,
though the exact date of the foundation of Nottingham and its more
ancient history are equally obscure. As this is not the place for an
antiquarian discussion of the value of legends, we will pass over
them in silence. As the Trent appears to have been bridged opposite
to the town so long since as the tenth century, it is probable that
even then a settlement of some importance was already in existence.
Its subsequent history was for a time not altogether peaceful or
prosperous. It was sorely harried by the Danes; it was taken and
spoiled by the troops of Robert Earl of Gloucester in the days of King
Stephen, when numbers of the townspeople were slain and no small part
of the town was burnt; it was again besieged and captured by Duke
Henry, afterwards the second king of that name. Since this time, though
more than once the noise of war has been heard in its gates, the town
has been, on the whole, much more fortunate. On two occasions only it
occupies a prominent place in the history of England. At Nottingham
Castle the young King Edward III. was residing with his mother Isabella
and her notorious favourite, Roger Mortimer, when what would now be
called a _coup d'état_ was planned and successfully carried out. The
insolence of this man had stirred the anger of the English nobles,
and they rallied to the aid of the young king. He was lodged outside
the castle; within its walls his so-called guardians appeared to be
in safety. But one night Edward and his friends were admitted through
a long underground passage, which is still shown under the name of
"Mortimer's Hole," into the very interior of the castle; the Queen and
Mortimer were arrested in their chambers, and the latter was hurried
off to London, where the Parliament pronounced his doom, and he was
instantly put to an ignominious death, meeting with a fate worse than
that of Haman. This great act of justice done, the king, as Froissart
says, "took new counsellors, the wisest and best beloved by his people."
The other episode occurred after a lapse of more than three centuries.
At Nottingham was enacted the first scene of the long drama of the
civil war termed by Royalist historians "the Great Rebellion." From
York Charles I. had issued a proclamation requiring "all men who
could bear arms to repair to him at Nottingham by the 25th of August
following, on which day he would set up his royal standard there." On
the morning of the day named he reached Nottingham, and took up his
lodging at a house in the town, as the buildings of the castle had even
then fallen into a dilapidated condition. The day was wild and stormy;
but about six o'clock in the evening "the king himself, with a small
train, rode to the top of the castle hill, Varney, the Knight Marshal,
who was standard-bearer, carrying the standard, which was then erected
in that place, with little other ceremony than the sound of drums and
trumpets. The standard was blown down the same night it had been set
up, by a very strong and unruly wind, and could not be fixed in a day
or two, till the tempest was allayed." It was an evil omen, as many
observed--not the first in that ill-fated career--and seemed a fitting
beginning to the long series of calamities which was closed on the
scaffold before the windows of the banqueting house of Whitehall.
But in days previous to those of the Stuarts, Nottingham Castle was a
not unfrequent residence of the Kings of England. It was sometimes a
prison for men of high estate, for here Owen Glendower and David II. of
Scotland were immured, the latter for twelve years, after the battle of
Neville's Cross. King Charles, after he had set up his standard, was
not long able to retain possession of the town, and it fell into the
hands of his opponents, who repaired the fortifications, and placed
Colonel Hutchinson in command. Several attempts were made by the
Royalists to regain possession of so important a centre; but though a
metal more valuable than lead was also tried, all were unsuccessful,
and the King was never again able to set foot within the walls.
The castle was "slighted" at the conclusion of the war, and became
ultimately the property of the Duke of Newcastle. He cleared away the
ruins, and upon the site built a mansion, the design of which some
ascribe to Sir Christopher Wren. If so, it is far from being among the
happiest efforts of that great man. How ugly it is those who do not
know it may see from Turner's early sketch of Nottingham, which gives
an excellent notion of the leading features of the town before its
later development. What an offence it had become to the feelings of his
maturity may be seen in Turner's latest sketch of the town, engraved
on the next plate of "Modern Painters" (vol. IV.), where the castle is
almost thrust aside out of the picture, and is treated rather freely,
in order to alleviate slightly the hardness of its rectangular walls
and windows.
It was not, however, for long a favourite residence, and by the
earlier part of the present century the ducal owner seldom passed any
time under its roof. At last, on the rejection of the Reform Bill
by the House of Lords in 1831, the Nottingham "lambs," as the town
roughs are called--seemingly because that is about the last animal to
which they present any resemblance--"determined to make the castle
a burnt-offering to the shade of the outcast Bill." With the usual
British negligence, no precautions had been taken against a riot, so
they had for a season full opportunity to disport themselves. After a
little preliminary diversion in the country they swarmed up the castle
hill, forced the gates, piled up combustibles in the rooms, kindled
them, and in a short time the whole building was in flames. Thus the
duke got rid of a useless house, and as he recovered damages from the
Hundred, he probably did not bear much malice against the rabble of
Nottingham. For some forty years it stood a mere roofless, floorless,
windowless shell, an unpicturesque ruin. The walls, however, were
still in good condition, and were ultimately acquired by the municipal
authorities, at whose expense the structure was thoroughly restored for
use as a museum; this was opened in 1878, the adjoining grounds being
laid out as an ornamental garden. The terrace commands a fine view
over the valley of the Trent. "Striking at all times, it is never so
remarkable as when that river is in flood. Formerly this was a common
event, but the inundations were mitigated by the removal, in the year
1871, of the old Trent Bridge, with its narrow arches, and the erection
in its stead of the present handsome structure, which gives a more
ready passage to the swollen waters. Still, it is not a rare occurrence
to see the whole valley, as far as the eye can reach, converted into
one huge lake. The roads in many places are submerged; the railway
embankments barely overtop the waters; hedges almost disappear, and
the trees rise forlornly from the flood; whole groups of houses are
converted into a bad imitation of Venice, and the water disports
itself on the ground-floors of warehouses, and among the chattels of
store-yards, greatly to the detriment of their owners."
[Illustration: NEWARK CASTLE.]
The stately tower of St. Mary's Church is still conspicuous in the
views of the town from the neighbourhood of the Trent, and the whole
structure is well worth a visit, for there are few finer churches in
the county. It is a noble specimen of Perpendicular architecture,
especially remarkable for the number and size of its windows--which, as
Leland says, are so many "that no artificer can imagine to set more."
The market-place also--a triangular area some four and a half acres in
extent--is an interesting spectacle on Saturdays, when it is covered
with booths for the sale not only of fish, flesh, and fowl, but of
all sorts of wares; for Nottingham market still maintains its ancient
repute in the town; and there, on its stony pastures, the Nottingham
lambs were formerly wont to disport themselves at election times, and
probably will do it again, whenever political feeling is running high.
Of this spectacle one might say that distance would certainly lend
enchantment to the view.
[Illustration: CARLTON.]
On University College--a fine new structure, and a lasting monument
to the public spirit of the municipality--on the modern churches and
public buildings, the arboretum and the town gardens, want of space
forbids us to dwell. But the sandstone cliffs so prominent in every
view from the river call for the mention of one peculiarity, which is
exhibited not only by Nottingham but also by some of the neighbouring
villages. In these may be seen dwellings hewn in the rocks, for
which some persons claim a remote antiquity, and see in them indeed
a survival, if not an actual remnant, of the days when, as the Greek
tragedian relates--
Houses of wood or brick they could not frame,
But underneath the ground, like swarming ants,
In sunless caves they found a hidden home.
Be this as it may, houses partly excavated in the rock are still not
very uncommon, and there are some singular caves in the cemetery which
are now being utilised for vaults, so that "at the present day in the
town of Nottingham, we find a return not only to primitive dwellings as
at Petra, but to primitive sepulchres as at Jerusalem."
The secret of the rapid development of Nottingham during the present
century, the cause, direct or indirect, of the great blocks of
buildings that rise high above the level of the houses on the hill, and
have spread so widely over the meadows of the Trent and Leen, is the
manufacture of hosiery and lace. In early days Nottingham was noted
for making malt and tanning leather, but the latter trade, happily for
the noses of the inhabitants, is not now among the leading industries
of the town. It became distinguished for hand-knit stockings not very
long after this method of making them was adopted, and one of the first
attempts at a weaving machine was set up in a Nottinghamshire village.
It is needless to say that the inventor experienced the common fate of
those wiser than their generation, and that others reaped the fruits of
what he had sown in poverty and sorrow. The machine, after the death
of the inventor, was adapted for use in London, and was brought back
again into Nottinghamshire, where during the seventeenth century it
became firmly established. Great improvements in the methods of weaving
were made in the following century, and these during the present one
have been carried to a high pitch of perfection. The machinery in the
factories produces almost everything that can be woven, from the most
ordinary articles of hosiery to the most delicate lacework.
From Nottingham to Newark the Trent continues to flow and to wind
along a wide open valley, bounded here and there, as at the former
town, by sandstone crags, which with their pleasant combinations of
rock, wood, and water occasionally relieve the general monotony of the
scenery. On the left bank runs the railway. Colwich Hall, which is in
the valley not far from Nottingham, is noted for its memories of Mary
Chaworth, who first awakened the youthful susceptibilities of Byron,
and is commemorated in more than one of his earlier poems. She married
the owner of Colwich Hall, and her fate was a sad one. At the time of
the riots already mentioned, the house was attacked and plundered by
the Nottingham mob; she escaped from the tender mercies of the playful
"lambs" into a neighbouring plantation, but the fright and the exposure
to the rain caused an illness which proved fatal.
West of the Trent lies Sherwood Forest, with its memories of Robin
Hood, who more than once played his pranks in the town of Nottingham,
and made its officials his victims. On this side also lies the group
of ample estates and lordly mansions called the "Dukery"; but on
the river itself there is no place of any note--though some of the
village churches are of interest--till we reach the old ferry at
Fiskerton, near to which is East Stoke, where the misguided followers
of Lambert Simnel were crushed and scattered by the troops of Henry
VII. Before the Trent reaches Newark it divides into two streams, the
larger keeping to the western side of the valley, while the smaller
flows nearer to the undulating plateau by which it is bounded on the
east. Between the base of this plateau and the water is a broad strip
of level land, on which the town is built. It was, in former days,
a military post of some importance, for it guarded the line of the
Great North Road, which is now carried across the island plain on a
raised causeway, constructed by Smeaton. According to tradition, the
first fortress by the riverside was erected by Egbert, but this was
rebuilt by Leofric, the great Earl of Mercia, when it was called the
New Work, and thus gave a name to the town. But of this fortress not a
fragment is now visible, the oldest part of the present castle dating
from about the year 1123, when it was rebuilt from the ground by one
of the Bishops of Lincoln. He had a liking for castle-building, but
as he doubted how far such work was episcopal, in order to keep his
conscience easy, he always founded a monastery when he built a new
fortress. Since this date also very much has been changed, and the
ruin as it stands is for the most part distinctly less ancient. Within
the walls of Newark Castle, King John, of evil fame, ended his unquiet
life; and not long after it was occupied by the nobles who were in
arms against him, and was defended for a few days against the Earl of
Pembroke, guardian of the young king, his successor.
But the most stirring episodes in the history of Newark Castle occurred
during the Civil War. After the troubles began, the town, which was
exceptionally loyal, was held by a strong Royalist garrison, which for
a time formed a serious obstacle to the progress of the other party.
So it was beleaguered by three separate bands of the Parliamentary
troops. This division of forces proved to be a disastrous policy. The
band which had occupied Beacon Hill, to the north-east of the town,
was attacked suddenly on one side by Prince Rupert, on the other by
a sally of the besieged, and was crushed and captured, whereupon the
others retreated hurriedly. Newark was again besieged after Marston
Moor, and again relieved by Prince Rupert. But at last, after the fatal
field of Naseby, the town was blockaded by the Scotch army. Yet even
then it held out till the king had surrendered at Southwell, when, in
accordance with his orders, it capitulated. Among the "siege pieces"
which remain as memorials of the great struggle, those of Newark are
familiar to the collector. The castle, of course, was duly "slighted,"
and for two centuries the ruins were abandoned to the ravages of the
weather and of the local vandals. Now, however, they are carefully
preserved. The river front, which consists of a lofty curtain-wall with
three towers, is still fairly perfect, but the latter do not project
sufficiently to produce an effective outline or a picturesque view.
Newark, though now a busy place, for it is the centre of an important
agricultural district, and has a noted corn market, besides gypsum and
farming implement works and malthouses, still retains several remnants
of bygone times, particularly in its ample market-place, where one
or two interesting old houses may yet be seen, as well as a curious
though much-restored cross, called the Beaumont Cross, at the junction
of two of its streets. In former days, as a halting-place on the Great
North Road, it was noted for its inns, and two of those which now
remain claim to have existed from very early times. The "Saracen's
Head" (where Jeanie Deans is lodged by the author of the "Heart of
Midlothian") traces back its history to the reign of Edward III., and
the "White Hart" to that of Henry IV. But its chief attraction to the
antiquarian is the church, the lofty spire of which rises conspicuously
above the houses in every view of the town. It yields to few parish
churches in England either in size or beauty; and, now that Southwell
is a cathedral, may claim to be, on the whole, the finest in the county
of Nottingham. It incorporates a few remnants of a Norman building,
but the lower part of the tower is Early English--the building as a
whole, together with the spire, being Perpendicular. The steeple is at
the western end, and the plan is cruciform, but the transepts do not
project beyond the outer wall of the aisles. The stalls and woodwork
of the choir and the roof are very fine, and some of the brasses are
interesting. There is also some good modern stained glass, and an
excellent organ. The large churchyard allows the church to be well seen
from near at hand, and for many a mile along the broad and level valley
of the Trent its steeple rises like a landmark, which in olden times
served to guide the traveller to the shelter of the walls of the "New
work."
[Illustration: ON THE TRENT AT GAINSBOROUGH.]
The general course of the Trent is now almost due north to beyond
Gainsborough, though the river sweeps through the broad valley in great
sinuous curves. The scenery loses its interest, for the slopes which
rise from the plain are, as a rule, rather low, and comparatively
distant from the waterside. Level meadows have, no doubt, a certain
beauty of their own, particularly in the early summer, when the
grass is dappled with flowers and the scythe has not yet laid low
their beauty. There is a charm in the beds of rustling reeds, in the
grey willows overhanging the water, in the clusters of meadow-sweet,
willow-herb, and loosestrife, fringing the bank and brightening the
ditches; in the swan that "floats double" on the still stream, and the
kingfisher that glances over it like a flying emerald; but these after
a time become a little monotonous; and neither the river itself, nor
the villages near its bank, afford much opportunity for illustration or
for description.
[Illustration: OLD SLUICE GATE AT AXHOLME.]
West of Lincoln, roughly speaking, the Trent ceases to traverse
Nottinghamshire, and becomes the boundary between it and the adjoining
shire of Lincoln. The only place of importance on the latter portion
is Gainsborough, a town of considerable antiquity, for here the fleet
of Sweyn was moored, and here he himself, on returning from his foray,
"was stabbed by an unknown hand"; but it retains little of interest
and is less picturesque than is the wont of riverside towns. The
influence of the tide extends some miles above the town, and bare
banks of slimy mud are exposed at low water on either side of the
stream. The Trent is said to exhibit at spring tides the phenomenon
called the "bore" or "eagre," when, at the first rise after low, the
tidal wave, forcing its way up the contracted channel of the river
from the broad expanse of the estuary, advances as a rolling mass of
water, causing no little disturbance to the smaller craft which it
meets in its course. A handsome stone bridge of three arches, with a
balustraded parapet, spans the river at Gainsborough, and affords a
good view both of it and of the town. The latter occupies a strip of
level land between the water-brink and the well-defined slope which
forms the eastern boundary of the valley. Mills old and new are its
most conspicuous features. Not a few have their bases washed by the
tide; but at intervals gardens, defended as usual by retaining-walls,
come down to the Trent. Chimneys are more prominent than spires, and
the principal church--at some distance from the bridge--has a tower
inconspicuous either for height or for beauty. On the left bank houses
are not numerous; flat meadows and hedgerow trees generally border
the stream, and extend for a mile or more, till the ground gradually
rises to the opposite slope of the valley. It must be confessed that
neither the scenery nor the town itself is particularly attractive;
but the former is improved by regarding it from the higher ground on
the east, from which also views are obtained across another expanse of
comparatively level ground to a line of low hills forming the northern
prolongation of the plateau on which stands the Cathedral of Lincoln.
The parish church of Gainsborough is said to have been built early
in the thirteenth century; but the greater part of the tower must be
considerably later in its date, and the body of the church is a heavy
stone structure in what its architects would probably have called the
Italian style. It has, however, a churchyard, pleasantly--it might be
said, thickly--planted with trees; and, to judge by its size, one would
infer that Gainsborough at any rate was deemed a good place to die in,
whatever it might be for the purpose of living. The town, however,
possesses easy communication, by way of the Trent, with the Humber, and
is thus an inland port of some rank.
[Illustration: MEADOW LAND AT AXHOLME.]
The old chapel mentioned by Leland, the traditional burial-place of
sundry Danish invaders, is gone; but the visitor who has traversed the
rather long and, near the waterside, unlovely streets which intervene
between the railway station and the central part of the town, will
find, when he has reached the latter, something between it and the
river to reward him for his pains. This is a remarkable specimen, in
very fair preservation, of the older English domestic architecture. It
is called the Old Hall, or Manor House, and John of Gaunt is popularly
indicated as its builder; but it may perhaps be doubted whether the
greater part, at least, does not belong to a rather later date. The
house, which is of considerable size, stands at the end of a kind of
open courtyard surrounded by cottages. Its general plan is that of a
long central block from which two wings project at right angles. The
former is chiefly--at any rate, in the upper portion--of timber-work;
the latter are mainly built of brick. The mansion has suffered
considerably from the effects of time and neglect, but it has been
to some extent restored of late years, and portions of it are still
either inhabited or in use. About a century and a half since it was
the residence of one Sir Neville Hickman, but since his death it has
served various purposes, one part for a time having been converted into
a theatre.
The tidal river below Gainsborough passes on through scenery less
and less interesting. After a time it ceases to divide the county of
Nottingham from Lincoln, and is bordered on both banks by the latter.
The district to the west is called the Island of Axholme. This, "though
now containing some of the richest land perhaps in the kingdom, was
formerly one continued fen, occasioned by the silt thrown up the Trent
with the tides of the Humber. This, obstructing the free passage of
the Dun and the Idle, forced back their waters over the circumjacent
lands, so that the higher central parts formed an island, which
appellation they still retain. From this circumstance it became a place
so deplorable that Roger, Lord Mowbray, an eminent baron in the time
of King Henry II., adhering to the interests of the younger Henry, who
took up arms against his father, repaired with his retainers to this
spot, fortified an old castle, and for some time set at defiance the
king's forces who were sent to reduce him to obedience."[4]
The authority just quoted tells us that an attempt to regulate the
drainage of Axholme was made so long since as the reign of Henry V. by
one of the Abbots of Selby, who constructed "a long sluice of wood"
upon the Trent "at the head of a certain sewer called the Maredyke,"
and this he did "of his free goodwill and charity for the care of the
country." This was destroyed of malicious purpose in the days of his
successor, who rebuilt the same of stone. But the chief reclamation
of land, not only in the marshes of Axholme, but also in the adjacent
fens called Dikes Mersh and Hatfield Chase, in the county of York,
was undertaken in the earlier part of the reign of Charles I., when a
contract bearing date May 24, 1646, was made with Cornelius Vermuden,
which was successfully carried out during the next five years, so
that many thousand acres of land were made available for agricultural
purposes--"the waters which usually overflowed the whole level being
conveyed into the river Trent, through Snow sewer and Althorpe river
by a sluice, which opened out the drained water at every ebb, and kept
back the tides upon all comings-in thereof."
The confluence of the Trent with the Humber takes place near
Alkborough, "where Dr. Stukeley places the _Aquis_ of Ravennas, having
discovered a Roman _castrum_ and a vicinal road. The Roman castle
is square, 300 feet each side, the entrance north, the west side is
objected to the steep cliff hanging over the Trent, which here falls
into the Humber; for this castle is very conveniently placed in the
north-west angle of Lincolnshire, as a watch-tower over all Nottingham
and Yorkshire, which it surveys. I am told the camp is now called
_Countess Close_, and they say a Countess of Warwick lived there,
perhaps owned the estate; but there are no marks of building, nor, I
believe, ever were. The vallum and ditch were very perfect. Before the
north entrance is a square plot, called the Green, where I suppose the
Roman soldiers lay _pro castris_. In it is a round walk, formed into a
labyrinth, which they call 'Julian's Bower.'"
So, where Trent and Ouse unite to form the broad and "storming Humber,"
that "keeps the Scythian's name," our survey ends; the rivers have
now become an estuary, and that, as another writer will presently
show, soon begins to open out towards the sea, along which the vessels
come and go to "merchandising Hull" and other ports which during this
century have risen into notice.
T. G. BONNEY.
[Illustration: BOLTON BRIDGE.]
THE HUMBER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.