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.

26 SAXON ICANHOE,.
in the legends. ETHELMUND was not Duke of Mercia till near one hundred
and fifty years after St. Botolph; and I suspect that South Angles is a mistake
for South Hymbres, by which name the people of Lincolnshire are often called
by the Saxon writers."
LELAND gives contradictory statements, not only respecting the date of the
foundation of the monastery by St. BOTOLPH, but also as to the situation in
which it was erected. In one place he says, ICANHOE was at Lincoln, "scant
half a mile from the minster."l Again, he states, " St. BOTOLPH founded the
monastery at Icanno, in the reign of Ethelmund. St. Botolph died there and
was buried there. The monastery at Icanno was destroyed by Inguar and
Hubba."2 In another place,3 he writes, " Anna, King of the East Angles, was
slain in battle with Penda, King of Mercia, A.D. 654. Ethelbert, his brother,
succeeded him, who reigned only two years, and in his reign St. BOTOLPH
founded the manastery of Icanno." LELAND also says, "In the year 651, St.
BOTOLPH founded a monastery at Ycanno, near the eastern side of Lincoln.
This monastery was afterwards slightly repaired, and is now a cell for two or
three monks of St. Mary's at York."4
BEDE merely says, in reference to the subject, "St. BOTOLPH, a pious Saxon,
had a monastery at Icanhoe."
Dr. STUKELEY states, "Icanhoe, Icanhoc, or as it was commonly called, according to Dugdale, Wenno, is supposed to have been the ancient name of
Boston; and also that it was the last bounds northward of the Iceni, in most
ancient times; therefore, he concludes its old name was Icanhoe," or, as Mr.
Baxter interprets in his Glossary, "Icenorum munimentum."5
HIGDON, in his Polychronicon, speaking of the situation of Icanhoe, places it
" ad orientem Lincolnice;" which, Tanner remarks, "if some distance of miles
be observed, is reconcileable to Boston." CAMDEN, in his Britannia, mentions
a part of the city of Lincoln, called Wickanford, which Tanner thinks resembles
the name of Icanhoe.6 A more modern writer supposes MONKHOUSE, near
Lincoln, to be the ancient Icanhoe.7
In all the maps of Saxon England which we have inspected, we have invariably found the present site of Boston represented as Icanhoe.
Amidst this opposing testimony, it is impossible to come to an absolute
decision respecting the site of the Saxon Icanhoe'; it is, however,
rendered more than probable, by the following considerations, that it was
situated at or near Boston. The writers of the Life of St. Botolph say, that
he, wishing to disturb no one in his possessions, solicited leave to found his
monastery in a situation previously unoccupied and unappropriated; this could
not be the case with any part of the city of Lincoln. The Saxon Chronicle
says, "he founded this monastery upon a desert piece of ground;" and a
description of the site of the monastery8 is certainly much more applicable to
the marshy mouth of a river, than the vicinity of a powerful and long-established city, like Lincoln, "scant half a mile of which," is said to be the situation of Icanhoe. That St. Botolph did found a monastery where Boston
is now situated, is almost beyond a doubt, but there is no evidence whatever to
prove that he established two in the county of Lincoln. That he founded his
monastery at Icanhoe, there is the testimony of Bede, the Saxon Chronicle,
Leland, Higdon, Dugdale, Stukeley, and of almost every writer on the subject.
I LELAND'S Collectanea, vol. i., p. 32. 6 There is also, in this part of the city of Lincoln,
2 Itinerary, vol. viii., p. 71. a church dedicated to St. Botolph.
3 LELAND'S Collectanea, vol. i., p. 590. 7 Topographical Cabinet, vol. x.
4 LELAND'S Collectanea, vol. iv., p. 33. 8 See Life of ST. BOTOLPH in a subsequent page.
5 STUKELEY'S It. Cur.