The history and antiquities of Boston, and the villages of Skirbeck, Fishtoft, Freiston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton, Leake, and Wrangle; comprising the hundred of Skirbeck, in the county of Lincoln. Including also a history of the East, West, and Wildmore fens, and copious notices of the Holland or Haut-Huntre fen ... sketches of the geology, natural history, botany, and agriculture of the district; a very extensive collection of archaisms and provincial words, local dialect, phrases, proverbs, omens, superstitions, etc. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with one hundred engravings.

ANTIQUITIES. 301
The matrix of the seal here represented was
found about the commencement of the present
century, in making an excavation under an old X
house in Bargate.' The seal represents a manll
in mail armour attacking a lion; the man has
on his left arm a shield, bearing a lion rampant, and in his right hand a sword, with which
he is prepared to strike. A tree placed near
the combatants indicates that the scene of action'
is a forest. The legend is in the old NormanFrench language:C' ORA' GARDEZ' BEL' AMI,
TROP'FORT' BATAILLE'I' A' CI."
"Now defend yourself, my good friend;
I have here a too strong contest for you."
These words are addressed to the lion by his opponent. The seal appears to
be of the time of Richard I. (1189 to 1199). In the absence of any name, it is
impossible to decide with certainty for whom the figure of the man is intended.
It may, however, be remarked, that about this time Hugh de Nevil, of the Essex
branch of that family, had a seal similar to the above. In the fourth year of
Richard I. (1193), this Hugh was with the King in the Holy Land, where he
performed the part of a stout soldier, and likewise slew a lion, whereupon it was
said, —
"' Viribus Hugonis vires periere leonis."2
Jollan de Nevil (temp. Henry III.), one of the successors of Hugh de Nevil,
bore for his arms a lion rampant.3
Very probably this seal belonged to the Nevil family. Ralph Nevil, Earl of
Westmoreland and Ruby, had the county and honour of Richmond given him
for the term of his life, by Henry IV. in 1400, but without the title. The
Earls of Richmond had large possessions in this neighbourhood, and this seal
was most likely lost during the residence of Ralph Nevil or some of his successors at Boston.
The engravings in the next page represent a seal which was found about sixteen
inches below the surface, on the borders of the parish of Fishtoft, a short time
since. The seal is of a mixed metal resembling bell-metal, about two inches in
height, and the face a little more than an inch in diameter. The inscription
round the edge of-the face is: —" Sigillum Corn: Lincolni P. S.'vis," and across
the centre, " Flaxwell." This seal " was one of those which were made according
vide representations of any such objects of devotional substantial offerings. I know many' signs,' or
veneration, and to give them to the visitors who signacula, usually of pewter, and I believe this to be
frequented the places where they were displayed, of the same class of reliques, but it differs in form
that I am inclined to regard this as one of that from any I know. It is probably of the sixteenth
class of' Tokens' or signacula. It isveryprobable century, or even of the time of Mary, for its
that this Good Rood of Boston had some connexion character seems hardly as old as the Pre-Reformawith the Guild of the Holy Rood there. We are yet tion times."
very ignorant of the extent and character of these 1 This matrix is now in the possession of the
Guilds. Much may, probably, be known of these Rev. John Tunnard, of Frampton, near Boston.
institutions from those in Flanders, whence, as I 2 DUGDALE'S Baronage, vol. i. p. 285, and
have always conceived, the great commercial corm- MATTHEW PARIS, P. 315. London, 1640.
munities of the Eastern Coasts derived many of 3 This statement is abridged from a letter upon
their customs in these matters. I doubt not there the subject from Dr. T. COMBE of the British
must have beern at Boston a Rood in especial vener- Museum, to Sir Joseph Banks, dated December
ation, and to which pilgrims resorted, as to Walsing- 6th, 1806.
ham, Canterbury, and other places; when tokens 4 Reliquzie G4aleane, p. 257.
of metal were presented to them, in return for more