to Grimsby is not of any interest until we come to Clee, which, with its interesting Saxon church tower, we have already described.
A ROMAN 'HOG'S BACK' In the Wold country the main roads usually run along the ridges of the Wolds and afford views on either side. One of the best of these, "Hog's Back" views is obtained from one of the byways which starts from the Spilsby and Alford road at the top of Milescross hill, and runs south till it reaches Gunby. It skirts the wooded belt of the Well Vale estate, and drops into the village of Ulceby which, like most of the tiny Wold villages, lies on the bank of a small stream in a wooded hollow, where the church and farm and a few cottages form a pleasing picture of rural retirement.
Mounting again, the road turns to the left and goes straight ahead on what is evidently a portion of a Roman "street," giving on the left a view of the "Marsh" towards Mablethorpe, with its grey shimmering line which denotes "the bounding main," and on the right a still more distant prospect over the flat "fen" lands in the direction of Boston, whose columnar tower rises far up into the sky. The blue haze of the marsh, the purple distance over the fens, with, in the autumn, the long, drifting lines of grey smoke from the burning "quitch," or "twitch" as they usually call it here, make a delightful impression; and then if we turn fenwards we drop into the leafy hollow of Skendleby village, where once the Conqueror's friend, Gilbert de Gaunt, resided, and to which William of Waynfleet, the famous Bishop of Winchester, was presented as vicar by the convent of Bardney in 1430. It is a pretty village with its church and manor-house, and thatched, white-washed cottages bright with flowers, and its well-stocked farm. A tall windmill crowns the next height; this is Grebby Mill, and it is interesting to find that there has been a windmill there for 600 years.
For Grebby is old enough to be mentioned in Domesday Book, and in 1317 we have mention of a windmill there belonging to Robert de Willoughby and Margaret his wife.
From the windmill one looks down to the old brick tower of Scremby church, which is the last building on the edge of the slope from which the endless levels of the fen begin and run south till they reach Crowland and Peterborough. From whence the great cathedral, with its splendid west front, looked out
