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SECTION VI.

DRYASDUST

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CHAPTER 1.

Words and Names—Flora and Fauna.

WORDS. In parts remote from the centres of culture or the greater highways of progress there linger more relics of by-gone times than old buildings and institutions, and not unimportant among such vestiges of the past in any district must be reckoned those of speech. Conformably with the fact that different counties, and even different wapentakes, have developed different characteristics in this respect, Lincolnshire has its own very distinctive but dying dialect, and Lindsey its own modification of it. But apart from this, the folk-tongue of Clee retains features which are not so much local contortions as survivals of the earlier forms of speech of the Norman-Danish-English-British race. Not only in the words themselves, but in pronunciation of them, sometimes the original shape persists in such out-of-the-way places when all the world beside has forgotten them. As a case in point, take the word handkerchief. The sixteenth century writer, Florio, spells the word obviously as it was then pronounced among men of culture handkercher. And this is the pronunciation which obtains in Cleethorpes and elsewhere in the County at this day.

Suspiciously consistent with their spelling is the North Lincolnshire pronunciation of such words as build (bew-ild); sea (se-ah); dead (dee-ad); you {116} (yew). Oats, in actual use, from the rapidity with which both vowels are sounded becomes almost wäts; and earn arn.

Danish influence is to be traced in the use of mon and moänt for must and must not; and in such terms as beck, a stream, the equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon fleet.

An interesting word in use here is stee, a ladder, it is derived from stah, stag, the Anglo-Saxon root of stair and stile, a word akin to the Greek steíchein, to go up.

Wynken de Worde’s ballad “A Lytell Jeste of Robin Hood” (circa 1520) employs the verb lappe for our modern wrap—a usage still persisting, along with the following:—To starve is to clam; to throw with a jerk is to jet (c.f. the Old French Jetter); to slide is to slither (Anglo-Saxon slidor—slippery) while that which is slippery is described as slape (Anglo-Saxon, slype); to pull or drag a thing is to yuck it, a term presumably derived through the middle English, yok, from the Anglo-Saxon iok, a yoke used by oxen in drawing a load, and allied with the Greek zúgon, the word employed in Matthew XI. to designate that which the Christian receives from his Master to help him to carry or draw his burden—a yoke.

The Clee name for an unfledged bird is bub; and birds have nebs rather than beaks; yon (Anglo-Saxon geon) and yonder, words falling somewhat into desuetude in many parts, persist here, and yon-side means the further side. An object which is near is generally described as gain-hand; sot means {117} sodden, a reasonable word enough if it be remembered that a sod was originally a sodden piece of turf.

In the fourteenth century the plural of the present indicative in Northern England terminated in en, of which relics are yet to be found in such usages as hotten (hurt); gotten (got); and letten (let).

Among names of objects the following are curious:—Battle-twig for earwig; bully, a contraction of bullace; cat-haw, an extension of haw; ketlock for the charlock—the farmer’s bane; and ings for marshlands. While Lincolnshire speaks of a hedge-sparrow as a cuddy, Sussex calls a wren a cutty.

As an introduction to the dialectic pronunciation of ordinary words, a reference to the great Lincolnshire laureate will serve the best. If some of the terms employed by the “Northern Farmer” or the “Northern Cobbler” are never now heard in Cleethorpes, there are still a few “ivy-covered ruins” of word pronunciation left like the following:—Ax for ask; pick for pitch; scrat for scratch; shack for shake; fun for found; sen for self; telled and selled for told and sold; chanch for chance; minch for mince; choch for church; sewer for sure, and deäd for death. “Yow moänt clam him to deäd” being equivalent to “You must not starve him to death.”

*      *      *      *      *

Names.—Among local place-names a few reveal their origin as readily as the fabled ass in the lion’s skin; but many remain sphinx-like, and, unless elucidated by a more or less precise knowledge of {118} the past, the manner of their birth remains largely a matter of conjecture.

Cuttleby is a conundrum of the first water. When and how it arrived at its name are problems shrouded in mystery. Possibly it was originally “Kettleby,” a well-made Danish term, in which case it would indicate the existence of some township of that name, established probably on what is now called “Crow Hill” at the same time with Itterby and Weelsby, to which this lane formed an approach from Hoole for pedestrians. But unfortunately no evidence is as yet forthcoming to give colour to this, or indeed any theory concerning it.

Crow Hill, the name of the rising ground yet crowned by the old-fashioned windmill is of very doubtful derivation.

Isaac’s Hill, the local designation of the road between the Old Spring and the Cross Keys Inn is also lacking a reasonable derivation

Folly Hole, the old name for Sea Road, probably dates from the age which baptized Hoole itself, and probably is Foul ea (Anglo-Saxon Ful-ea or ee) or Dirty Water Hole, the hollow through which the Hoole surface sewer of old precipitated itself into the Humber. It is within living memory that the “Hoole Drain” emptied itself on the beach hereabouts. Its course is described in the Inclosures Award of 1846 as following the East side of Benjamin Chapman’s land, under the Hoole Road by a culvert, along the North side of land belonging the Rector and William Haigh, to and under the Itterby Road, to the South-West corner of Richard Thorold’s property {119} and around the West side and North end of it, “to the Recreation Ground, and by means of a tunnel to the Humber.”

Segmere Drain, which joined the Humber on Sea Bank (Segmere Street perpetuates the name) implies the existence of some stagnant pool surrounded by sedge-grass, a little way inland, a spot of the character of Vide Sect. III., Cap. 4. Church Well, though the identity has not been established. The word is Anglo-Saxon, secg—sword grass, and mere—a pool of stagnant water. This drain constitutes the boundary between the present Manors of Scartho-cum-Cleethorpes and Thrunscoe.

Sea Field was the old name of the Recreation Ground, now merged in the Cliff Gardens.

Raven Leys, the name of a part of Cleethorpes yet to be identified. It lay probably in the neighbourhood of the present site of High Cliff Terrace, and is mentioned in the “Award” of 1846.

Fisherman’s Road was a bridle-road extending from Raven Leys southwardly down to the beach. Its name reveals its character.

Various old street names have been obliterated in the march of the modern man. Blue Milk Street of suggestive memory has disappeared, Hoole Road and Itterby Road have been re-baptised, and Sea View Street replaces the quaint Town Street.

But Bark Street and Bark Field still preserve the identity of the lane to, and the garth, where the fishermen “barked” or tanned their sails; and Thrunscoe Lane shows in part the old way not only to Thrunscoe but on to Humberston also; a way {120} trodden in days of yore by many a black-robed, black-cowled monk, come for fish, or fodder, or news for his monastery at Humberston. Highgate is, of course, High-garth, the paddock on the rising ground.

Small-Fleets Common, Thorpes-Near-Marsh, and Common Coast were names given to different parts of the common ground, which, until the Inclosure, extended from the hill-foot at Cleethorpes to the Blue Stone boundary. Probably the names were, in a measure, interchangable.

*      *      *      *      *

Flora.—In addition to those flowers of field and hedge-row, which may be conveniently described as belonging an order unknown to the Linnean Society—the Ubiquitae, the Clee district possesses by right of its position on the sea-board a few plants of a rarer character. Prime among these ranks the Sea-holly (Erygium Maritimum) which is now to be found in but few places, and which, if not preserved from the ruthless hands of the little natives, who turn an honest penny by selling it to excursionists, will soon be as extinct here as the Dodo. Its habitat is the fitties of the Humberston foreshore, where also, in the muddy reaches toward low-water mark, grows the glassy saltwort (Salicornia herbacea) which in some places is sold as Samphire, and which, like St. Peter’s herb, is used as a pickle. On the green ings hereabout may be found in their season the Sea Lavender (Statice limonium), the Thrift or Sea Pink (Armeria vulgaris), the Bladder Campion (Silene maritima), and the Teazle-headed Trefoil (Trifolium maritimum).

{121} Further up is a plant common enough in England, but jealously preserved as a treasure indeed in many a foreign conservatory, the Furze or Gorse (Ulex Europœus). Here also the Lady’s Slipper (Lotus corniculatus) is plentiful, along with that sinister grass-parasite, the Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus crista galli). The Rest-harrow (Onono arvensis), which wears or discards a sword according as it needs one or not, grows barbed on the sand-dunes of Thrunscoe, thereby showing that these have been used for grazing ground during many generations. The long tough roots, which helped it to its name, are dug up and chewed as licorice by the school children.

Three flowers, each of which in different localities bears the name of “Cuckoo-flower,” are to be met with in the neighbourhood. Beaconthorpe and Thrunscoe produce the first, the cross-shaped Lady’s Smock (Cardamine pratensis) the old “wild watercress” of the children. The second is the familiar Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea), the chickweed’s big brother; and the third is Shakespear’s Cuckoo-flower, the pink Ragged Robin (Lychnis floscuculi).

Violets scented (Viola odorata) and unscented (Viola canina) were to be found in Clee, and perhaps may be still if one knows where to look. Weelsby woods contain them, and also the primrose (Primula vulgaris) in profusion. A road-side bank in Humberston grows the wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) and the rubble walls of Clee Church provide vantage ground for the Pellitory-of-the-Wall (Parietaria officinalis).

{122} The Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) flourishes in one spot, and occasionally the Eye-bright (Euphrasia officinalis) and the Dyer’s Weed (Reseda luteola) may be discovered not far away and just above the fitties. The Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum), the Dead Nettles, red (Lamium purpureum) and white (L. album), the Pimpernel or Poor Man’s Weather-glass (Anagallis avensis), the red and the white Campions (Lychnis diurna et vespertina), the Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris), the Silver-weed (Potentilla anserina),and the Meadow-sweet (Spirœa ulmaria), are common by the waysides ; while hedges here and there are decked with the Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), the Bryony (Taurus communis), the Toad Flax (Linaria vulgaris), the Purple Vetch (Vicia cracca), the Bitter Sweet (Solanum dulcamara) and the Wild Rose (Rosa canina) in their seasons.

The district is remarkably destitute of ferns, possibly owing to a process of “artificial selection” extending over a number of years. The Adder’s Tongue (Ophiglossum vulgatum) however grows in one spot in Clee.

*      *      *      *      *

Of marine flora, the Cleethorpes and Thrunscoe beach afford perhaps thirty varieties; but some are only to be met with during the winter months, when storms wrest them from the depths or harry them from rock to shingle and from shingle to sandy flat.

Roughly divided into the three great classes, the olive-green Weeds (Melanospermeæ) are represented {123} by a dozen kinds, the red weeds (Rhodospermeæ) by an equal number, the remainder belonging the grass-green Weeds (Chlorospermeæ).

The commonest of all is the Bladder-wrack or Black-tang (Fucus vesiculosus) which grows profusely along the breakwaters of the sea-wall. Two cousins, the Knotted Wrack (F. Nodosus) and the Saw-edged Wrack (F. Serratus) are also to be met with.

Members of the family Ulvaceæ abound. The “Sea Lettuce,” the “Sea Grass,” and the “Sea Moss” form a collection in themselves. The “Sea Moss” bleaches white, and in this form is known as “Poor-man’s thread” in some districts. The “Ribbon Weed” or “Sea Wand” (Laminaria digitata) whose bright leather-like fronds are to be found in abundance at Spurn, does not appear on this shore save in fragments after a gale. It used to be sought after for its ïodic properties.

Of the Corallines and Flustras nothing can be said here. Popularly ranked among Seaweeds, they are more correctly to be described among the Fauna of the district.

*      *      *      *      *

Fauna.—Placing “first things first,” an account of the animal life of the vicinity may begin at a fairly early period. “Snakestones” or ammonites, the fossil remains of the nautilus-like cuttle-fish, which inhabited the oceans of the Silurian age, are picked up ever and anon along the shore. Even commoner are the “Thunder-bolts,” which in varying sizes are mingled with almost every shingle bed. These, the vestiges of the belemnite, or two-gilled cuttle-fish, {124} which are thus preserved to us from ages too remote to be adequately stated in years. Of like antiquity are the fossil “lamp-shells” (Terebratulae), the “Millar’s Thumbs” of the children’s collections, while occasionally even the fossil “Sea-Urchin” (Micraster anguinum) may be discovered among the larger stones.

*      *      *      *      *

To-day, among the more common objects of the shore, the sea urchin takes its place along with the so-called “sea-mouse”—driven lifeless ashore after the waters have been troubled. Two specimens of the fisherman’s pest are in the habit of converting the Cleethorpes sands into a cemetery during the winter. These are the “five-fingered star-fish,” and its brother of the many rays.

Pea-crabs (Pinnotheres pisum) and shrimps have their dwellings in the pools, while the sea-worm inhabits the sand-flats between high and low watermarks. Sea-anemones, Hermit-crabs, and Jelly-fish one may visit on “at home” days by following the ebbing tide.

Indigenous edible shell-fish include the Oyster, the Mussel, the Cockle and the “Elephant” Clam (Mya truncata).

Such denizens of the deep as the Spirorbis nautiloides, whose tiny shell shelters itself among the more delicate fronds of the coralline, et hoc genus omne, it is only possible to mention. To one who will trouble to scrutinize and sift a little of the dry sand of the fitties, an amazing variety of similar lillipution shells will be revealed.

{125} The shore will yield to the collector the shells of the Whelk, Purpura, Sea-snail, Periwinkle, a variety of the delicate Stone-borer, an occasional Scallop, and more rarely still a Limpet. Most frequent and most attractive among the smaller shells will be found the Paper-shell. Trough-shells and Razor-shells are to be met with in their season, so too are the tiny white Cowries or “Black-a-moors Teeth,” “Pearly-tops,” and “Temple-shells.” Saddle-oyster shells came ashore in profusion one year, but as a large consignment of American oysters had previously been deposited on the beds, it is to be feared they were only “visitors.”

Turning to those interesting “elementary republics” the Zoophytes, the clammy “Dead Man’s Fingers” arrests attention. The thin, brown, Sponge-hand has a less gruesome name—the Hawks’ Talons (Alcyonium digitatum). The Sea-mat (Flustra foliacea), and the Paper-mat (F. chartacea) abound; and four varieties of Coralline—as interesting objects as any that the shore provides—are plentiful among the flotsam and jetsam of October or November. They are the Sea-hair (Sertularia operculata), the Sickle-Coralline (Plumularia falcata), the Sea-fir (Sertularia abiatima), and the Bottle-brush-Coralline (Thuiaria thuia).

*      *      *      *      *

The dunes and marshes of the Humberston foreshore lend an added interest to the locality from an ornithological—and perhaps, too, from a sporting—point of view. Those learned in such matters tell us that among the reeds and rank grass hereabouts {126} some of the rarer birds of the sea-board might be found. At any rate here are wild-duck and plover, and an occasional gay King-fisher

Winter visitants include the Golden Plover, the Common Plover or “Pye-wipe” as it is known hereabouts, the Field-fare (shortened into felfer), and the Curlew. Gulls and oyster-catchers, though they nest elsewhere, frequent the Humber mouth.

Sunny days in Spring or early Summer when one can walk beyond the limits of the village streets and not hear a skylark are few indeed; for larks are numerous. Not only the Skylark but also the Woodlark, the Tit-lark, and another—the Shorelark, identified by Bechstein with the Field-lark AlandaAlauda campestris) make their homes here.

The Finches are represented by the Chaffinch, the Greenfinch—always called the Green Linnet—the Goldfinch, and, more rarely, the Bullfinch. Two famous singers, the “Throstle” and the “Blackie,” dwell here and elsewhere; so also that less melodious medler, the Starling. Tits are not numerous. The Weelsby portion of the parish is most affected by the Yellow Hammer. Wrens and Robins delight most in Clee and Weelsby, the White-throat is not so easy to find, but the Mark Tapley of birds, the Misselthrush, is fairly common.

One summer a large number of people strolled down into Beaconthorpe evening after evening to hear a Nightingale, which was said to have taken up its abode in a small spinny on the banks of one of the brick-pits there. The Nightingale is indeed a rara avis in the parish of Clee.

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Note.—The foregoing lists are not in any case exhaustive.

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CHAPTER 2.

Trade and Government.

AS far back as the records will carry us, Clee and Cleethorpes folk have been among the number of “those that go down to the sea in ships—that do business in great waters.” In the 13th century, Rot. Hund. Walter Unkel, of Clee, rented a defined fishing ground, extending up to the high water line (juxta hayas suos pisciales sup’ sabula mar’) and in the great law-suit which the Cleethorpers—men of Hoole and Thrunscoe—had with the Grimbarians in the following century, Placit. in Domo Cap. West. they claimed that they had enjoyed the right to fish along the coast from time immemorial.

No wonder, then, that in the reign of Henry the Eighth we find Cal. Plead. Clee, Itterby and Hoole described as “fish towns,” for farmers and fishermen are almost the only kind of people which the villages knew, and of these the latter were doubtless the more numerous.

As we have seen, the common plan was for the “Meggy” fishermen to land their bright and silvery cargoes at their own shore under the cliff, and then loading them into carts to convey them to Grimsby and the inland villages for sale. But with the advent of the days of larger craft and longer trips this form of the industry decayed, and Cleethorpes retained {128} its place in the fishing world merely as the home of many who made their journeys between the Dogger Bank and Grimsby.

Until lately, the Cleethorpes fishing smacks were a fleet of their own—compelled by stress of circumstances to put into alien ports like Grimsby, but not to be confounded with the more numerous but less select Grimsby boats—and it may be that to some extent the fishing indentity of Cleethorpes yet survives the introduction of the steam-trawler. Certain it is that many a true Meg on board his proud steam-propelled smoke-vomitting vessel rides the same seas that, for many a dim generation back, his fathers braved in their little wave-tossed boats, and upon the same errand bent.

Oysters are the chief relic of by-gone glory. While other branches of the fishing trade have thrown their banyan-like roots into Grimsby and flourished there, this one has remained and developed on its “native” shores, which have also afforded a home for numberless Blue-points and other Yankee cousins. These oyster-beds extend over almost, if not all, the available space at low water mark on the Clee Ness to the Luda outfall. When we have mentioned the oysters and a few mussels, cockles and shrimps, we have exhausted the varieties of fish landed at Cleethorpes in these days.

A large percentage of the householders live upon “the season,” which lasts from Whitsuntide to the end of September. Between these dates they shelter, feed, clothe, wash, drive, row and generally entertain the numerous excursionists and visitors who come to {129} this resort, for a breath of sea-air and a whiff of the brine—and perhaps more than anything else to watch the ever-changing panorama of shipping, which is Cleethorpes’ chief attraction.

The Cleethorpes-with-Thrunscoe Local Board was formed in 1873, the Rector, the Rev. W. P. Jones, M.A., being the first Chairman, and the following were the Members:—Jno. O. Chapman, Thos. Saunby, Thos. Willerton, Walker Moody, Rich. Garniss, Abs. Osbourne, Hy. B. Coulbeck, Thos. T. Chapman, Geo. Barton, Robt. Swaby, Jno, R. Mackrill. The first Treasurer, appointed in the following year, was Mr. Johnson Brown; in the same month, Mr. W. Wilkinson was appointed Surveyor. Mr. Benj. Greaves, who still serves the town in a similar capacity, was elected Clerk at the first meeting of the Board, September 24th, 1873.

The town is now under the government of an Urban District Council, which superseded the old Local Board in 1890. In that year Dr. Newby succeeded Dr. T. B. Keetley as Medical Officer.

The following is a list of the Chairmen of the Cleethorpes-with-Thrunscoe Local Board and Urban District Council:—

{130} The Arms of the township, which were introduced in the form of a seal by the Rev. W. P. Jones, as Chairman of the first Board, and which are now employed as the seal of the District Council, are:—Azure three owls in fess proper. Motto, “Vigilantes.”

The reference here is obviously to the old name of Lower Thorpe—Hole, a name commonly pronounced Howle, and so sometimes written, and serving in designating the most important of the three “highland” hamlets, as a covering name for the district. (Homines de Ole dicunt quod ipsi sunt libri in hamleto de Thirnsco qui est infra precinctum ville de Ole—Placit in Domo Capit. Westm. Ed. I.) The “Meggies,” or Cleethorpers, have long been known by the alternative name of “Howlets,” and when the old town’s name was forgotten this title was accredited to the owl-like nature of a fisherman’s work—the best of it being done at night.

It is not unlikely that the North Country pronunciation of the word Owlet, persisting here among many similar relics, may have helped the idea:—

“But the houlet cried frae the castle wa’.”

Burns.

Clee Burial Board was formed in 1876, and augmented in 1895 by the fusion of all the townships of the ancient parish in a Joint Board. The present Chairman is Mr. F. W. Mackrill, the Clerk Mr. Wm. Brown.

The Cleethorpes School Board was constituted to administer the educational affairs of the rapidly developing district of New Cleethorpes, in {131} 1894. It consists of a Chairman and six members. The present Chairman is Mr. Wm. Sinderson.

Mr. Henry Kelly, of Cleethorpes, represents that district upon the County Council, and has done since its formation.

The parish of Clee and its progeny parishes of New Clee and Weelsby are all in the Parliamentary Borough of Great Grimsby, for which Mr. Geo. Doughty is the sitting member.

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CHAPTER 3.

Notes and Queries.

THE Name of Clee.—In offering a new hypothesis respecting the name of the parish, it is due to those who incline to the derivation put forward by Oliver that something should be said both to explain the grounds for its rejection, and to justify a proffered substitute. The passage in the Monumental Antiquities of Great Grimsby referring to the subject is as follows:—

“The Britons, both before and after the Roman invasion, carried on an extensive trade in the articles of Chalk and Lime; several depôts of which were established at Grimsby; and so famous was the town for its chalk trade, that the lands on the opposite (i.e. the S.E.) side of the Old Haven were denominated “Clea,” from the Celtic word cleis, chalk, and the parish subsequently formed on these lands retains the name to this day.”

In support the learned writer goes on to quote the votive inscription found on the Continent of a certain Sylvanus, a Chalk Merchant, trading with Britain.

Against this theory the following observations may be made :-

(a) Upon what evidence does the fame of Grimsby as a chalk port rest?

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(b) There is nothing in Henry’s History of England whence the account of the votive pillar of Sylvanus is culled to connect either Sylvanus with Grimsby, or Grimsby with the chalk trade.

(c) To derive Clee from Cleis we must suppose that the terminal sibilant of the latter has been dropped during the centuries intervening between the time of the Roman occupation and the Domesday Survey. It is true that all names have a tendency to become abbreviated under the demand of convenience. A difficult or long name is in unstable equilibrium, and such letters as prevent its easy utterance will slowly crumble away. But the letter s is very rarely a hindrance to English pronunciation; rather the reverse. It clings tenaciously to whatever place it has; witness Staithes, St. Helens, Cleethorpes. Indeed, it more often intrudes than retires; thus, the ton on the Humber becomes Humberston, the grim or powerful by becomes not Grimby but Grimsby, and an illustration is to be found in the vulgar tendency to convert Skegness into Skegsness.

In support of the derivation from Ceol-Ee, the reader is reminded that among the Anglo-Saxons a breadth of water lying on lowlands, or forming a shallow arm of the sea, or comprising the more or less constant floods of a river, was called an ee or ea. A small inland lake gave the name to Horn-ings-ea (Hornsea). So too in the same neighbourhood are Withernsea and Kilnsea, and instances of a similar character are frequent in low-lying lands near the coast, or along the course of rivers. It will suffice to mention Tetn-ey, and the marshlands along the {134} course of the old Mersey, where according to the name of the townships, one finds the Lymm Eas, the Thelwall Eas, etc.

That the bay, which extended to Clee village itself, whether to its full extent or only so far as its deeper reaches allowed, was available for the full-sized vessels of the early and even the middle ages is more than likely. When Abraham de la Pryme visited the district, in 1695, he found a very substantial tradition current to the effect that such was the case. Diary of Abraham de la Pryme.
Vide The Grimsby News. His words are:—“That which destroy’d it (the Grimsby Haven) was the Humber’s wearing away the huge cliff at Cleythorp, and bringing it and casting it all into Grimsby haven or river, and all along Grimsby coast on the North, so that the river was not onely fill’d thereby, but also a huge bay on the North side of the town, which came almost close to the town side, in which shipps did formerly ride with the greatest eas and advantage to the town imaginable. This bay being thus fill’d up and made common for almost two miles broad, from the town’s end to the Humber, the Mayor and Aldermen petitioned Queen Elizabeth to bestow this new land for ever upon them and the town, which she did. I was at Cleythorp to examine about this notion, and I observed how the sea washed the cliff away, which is nothing but clay and sand, and is as high as a Church steeple; huge pieces is undermined and brought down every great tide as bigg as whole Churches together, and the people of the place says that they have by tradition, that there has been several miles length of land washed away, and people have been oblig’d to {135} pull down their houses and build them again furder off. I observed in the cliff how confusedly the layers of earth lay, sometimes sand uppermost, sometimes clay, sometimes a mixture, etc., but no stone amongst them.”

*      *      *      *      *

The Names of the Thorpes of Clee.—The following table, compiled from the various records, may serve to explain the rise of the plural terminal in the modern name of Cleethorpes:—

*      *      *      *      *

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The Spelling of the Name “Thrunscoe.”—Thrunscoe has presented grave orthographical difficulties to the recorders of every century since its baptism, as the following list of variations will show:—

*      *      *      *      *

Meg’s Island.—The slang name for Cleethorpes is, and apparently has been for centuries, “Meg’s Island,” or, more correctly, “Mag Highland.” In flat, low-lying districts such as Holderness and the Eastern parts of Lincolnshire, the tern “Highland” was applied to any rising ground. In Holderness is Dimlington Highland, and doubtless others. The {137} word is Teutonic, and is preserved in Scotland in its original sense to this day. It has congeners in the Dutch Hoogland, the German Hochland, and the Danish Hojland.

Mag is the root of the old English maegan, to be great. It appears in the Greek megas, and the Latin magnus, and in such modern English words as main, more, magnitude, etc. The Mag Highland or “the Big Hill,” was a reasonable name enough for the rising ground on which Cleethorpes stands, in a district destitute of hills for ten miles round; and if, in the course of time, “Mag” became “ Meg’s” it was because the former word had been lost to ordinary speech, and common consent had sanctioned the substitution of a familiar name with a similar sound, and justified it by dropping in a possessive s.

“Mag owlet” is the recognised name of the great owl; and in dubbing the inhabitants of the Mag Highland mag howlets the neighbouring wits stand convicted of a double-barrelled pun, for a great part of the highland was occupied by Hoole—generally of old pronounced “Howle,” and thus sometimes written. Doubtless the joke is a patriarch among local “chestnuts”; the point of it has long been lost, and modern wit, rather less keen, has attempted to justify the Cleethorpers’ claim to the term from the fact that much of a fisherman’s work is done when the owls do theirs.

*      *      *      *      *

Walter Unkel’s Porpoise.—The story of the raid upon the house of Walter Unkel, at Clee, as given in “Ye Byrde of Gryme,” is singularly {138} distorted. Undoubtedly the Clee fisherman was the aggrieved party, and his case was brought forward as against the Bailiff of the Earl of Lincoln, by the Corporation of Grimsby, whose tenant he was. The account is given in the Hundred Rolls.

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CHAPTER 4.

Authorities.

IN gathering materials for local history, it is the happy fate of some compilers to have to exercise much discrimination in deciding between what is worthy to be retained and what may be omitted. With the present essay it has been far different. Famine threatened the explorer at the very outset, and scanty fare has weakened him throughout. Yet, judging from the skeleton record of events which find their way in dog—nay mongrel—Latin into the State Papers, there has been no lack of stirring incident in stirring times of old in this place, but a grievous dearth of “chiels … takin’ notes.”

One must needs be a brave man, like the venerable antiquary Dr. Oliver, to dare with him to say, “the facts and anecdotes contained in the following pages are indisputable truths, solemnly vouched for on my own personal responsibility.” Perhaps his generation was not so critical as the present; but, with the awful possibilities of error which beset every author, translator, editor and printer, to take responsibility for the absolute verity of all his data is more than the most careful historian, in even the smallest sphere, may venture to do to-day.

Moreover, it is surely an advantage that the next generation of historians should be able to take up the pen where the last dropped it. Time is becoming {140} more and more precious as the centuries multiply. For these reasons, therefore, reference has been given uniformly to all the “oracles” consulted, in such a manner as to interfere as little as possible with the sequence of the narrative. All that now remains is to render a very brief account of the more important of the documents employed.

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Domesday, the Conqueror’s great account-book of his newly acquired kingdom, was compiled as a basis for taxation with such wonderful accuracy that its authority was never disputed.

The Lincolnshire Survey was compiled in the reign of Henry I. It is an account of the capite and mesne tenants in the county, and their holdings.

Rotuli Chartarum, the Rolls of Charters, was a record of Charters granted to towns, abbeys, etc. They date from the 12th century.

Placitorum in Domo Capitulari Westmonasteriensi Asservatorum Abbreviatio Temporibus Regnum Ric. I., Johann, Henr. III., Edw. I., Edw. II.—This contains brief records of the cases tried in the Court of King’s Bench during the reigns of Richard I., John, Henry. III., Edward I., and Edward II.

Rotuli Hundredorum, the Rolls of the Hundreds into which the shires were sub-divided, are the records of judicial inquisitions made during the reign of Edward I. and onward, into the irregularities and lawlessness existing in the land.

{141} Rotulorum Originalium in Curia Scaccari Abbreviatio, the digests of the original rolls in the Exchequer Court, belong the reigns of the first Edwards. The Period of legislative reconstruction which began with the reign of Edward I., marked the establishment of various restrictions and privileges recorded in the following series of Calendars:—

Calendarium Rotulorum Chartarum and Calendarium Rotulorum Patentium are records of Royal grants of lands, honours and privileges.

Calendarium Inquisitionum ad quod damnum and Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem are records of Inquisitions held when property was to be transferred, either after sale, by gift or by inheritance, to ascertain its character and value, and to impose the amount of fine or succession duty.

Catalogue of Ancient Deeds, a State publication, covering a long period, from the time of the Norman Kings.

Taxatio Ecclesiastica, of the year 1291, is a detailed account of all Church property, compiled to enable the computation of the six years’ tithes surrendered to Edward I. by Pope Nicholas V. to defray the expenses of a Crusade.

Testa de Nevill sive Liber Feodorum in Curia Scaccari.—This was, as the name denotes, a Treasury Court record of military service dues. It belongs to the close of the reign of Edward II., or the first years of his successor.

Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, the Chronicle of the Abbey of Meaux, near Beverley, was compiled probably during the last decade of the fourteenth century.

{142} Calendar to Pleadings.—These are records of lawsuits during the Tudor period.

Valor Ecclesiasticus.—A list of Church revenues “temporalities” and “spiritualities” was drawn up during the reign of Henry VIII. to enable a reckoning to be made of those first fruits and tithes which at the Reformation fell to the Crown instead of the Pope.

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For valuable aid in gathering information covering more modern times, thanks are due to the Misses Appleyard, Rev. A. Abbott, M.A., Mr. W. Ayre, Rev. A. W. Ballachey, Mr. E. Benj. Chapman, Mr. B. Greaves, the Rev. Canon Hutchinson, M.A., Mr. W. Wilkinson; and Mr. W. H. Wintringham.

Grimsby News Co., Limited, Printers, Great Grimsby.