LINCOLNSHIRE HILLS
In another mile or two we reached the charming
village of Brandon situated in a wooded valley,
backed by a long line of church-dotted hills; a line
of hills stretching far away to the right and left that
form the backbone of Lincolnshire, and are known
locally by the curious title of "the Cliff." From
this pleasant rural spot an excellent going road
brought us to another pretty village with a grand
and very interesting-looking church, in the quiet
God's acre of which was a quaint sun-dial raised on
the top of a tall stone pillar; the church doors were
carefully locked, so we did not see inside. As at
Fenton, so here, close by the church, stands an old
manor-hall, a pleasant bit of past-century building.
Soon after this we struck upon the old Great North Road and began to mount the long and stiff Gonerby Hill, famous in the old coaching days as the worst "pitch" on the road between London and Edinburgh. It is a striking fact that the worst hill on the old main high-road, close upon four hundred miles in length, should be in Lincolnshire, a county supposed to be so flat! It may be remembered that Scott, who frequently travelled this road, makes mention of this hill in The Heart of Midlothian. Jeanie Deans, on leaving the Saracen's Head at Newark, bound for Grantham, was assured, "It was all plain road, except a high mountain called Gunnerby Hill about three miles from Grantham, which was her stage for the night. 'I'm glad to hear there's a hill,' said Jeanie, 'for baith my sight and my very feet are weary o' sic tracts o' level ground—it looks a' the way between this
