Page:Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire.djvu/150

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THE "CONDUIT"

St. Mary-le-Wigford, Lincoln.

pleasant feature not nearly so common now as it used to be. At the road side, and close to the churchyard rails of St. Mary's, is a handsome carved drinking fountain, here called a "conduit," partly made of stones from the demolished Whitefriars monastery founded 1269. Leland speaks of it as new in 1540, and it was repaired in 1672. The Grey Friars conduit and the High bridge conduit are supplied from the same chalybeate spring, which once sufficed to turn the mill at the monks' house, now standing in ruins a mile to the east of the city. This was one of the good deeds of the Franciscans, to bring good drinking