Page:Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire.djvu/385

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LUSBY us to Lusby and Winceby; of these Lusby has a most interesting little church, thoroughly well restored, with a good deal of Norman work and some unmistakable Saxon work in it. There are two blocked doorways on the north-west, one with Norman zigzag moulding in green-sand showing how durable a material it is when properly laid and not exposed to wet. Some singular arcading of a very early type is seen on the west of the walls on either side of the round-headed chancel arch, which is not in the centre of the wall. It has been renewed in green-sand of various colours. This work may have been Saxon, for there was a church here when Domesday Book was written, and there is certainly a definite bit of "Long and Short" work on the right hand side of the blocked south doorway, and a fragment of a Saxon stone inside, closely resembling the Miningsby Stone, but it is difficult to speak with certainty, as the early Normans made use of Saxon ornamentation. Outside there are two courses of big basement stones running on both sides of the nave—one bevelled and set back a little. Inside is a low-side window, two or three aumbreys, two arched recesses for tombs, a niche near the chancel arch, and a very good stone head of a queen projecting from the south-east window in the nave. There is also a remarkable little "Keyhole" window high up in the north wall of the chancel. The masonry is rough and amorphous, but very solid. The old rood-screen of three arches is very handsome. Under the Communion table is a sepulchral slab with an inscription in old lettering, mostly obliterated, from which the brass tablet has been removed and put up on the wall. It is singular, being a dialogue between a deceased wife and her husband:—

[She] My fleshe in hope doth rest and slepe
         In earth here to remain;
       My spirit to Christ I give to kepe
         Till I do rise againe.

[He] And I with you in hope agre
         Though I yet here abide;
       In full purpose if Goddes will be
         To ly doune by your side.

Going on two miles along the Roman road to Horncastle we come to Hameringham. Here, as at Lusby, there is no tower, but a little slated bell-turret. Two large arches and one beautiful