Page:Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire.djvu/449

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SKIRBECK

Custom House Quay, Boston.

Ely and part to Thorney Abbey. The name as a town does not appear in Domesday Book, though "Skirbec" does, and Skirbeck covered all the ground that Boston does, and almost surrounded it. As the old distich declares—

Though Boston be a proud town
Skirbeck compasseth it around.

This name for pride or conceit, whether deserved or not, seems to have stuck to Boston, for a rhyme of later day runs thus:—