A HAPPY CONCEIT hotel we took a look at the church, as it was on our road, and the door happened to be open. We descended into the building down two or three steps, from which we concluded, rightly as we discovered, that it was dedicated to John the Baptist. As the late Rev. R. S. Hawker, the famous Cornish vicar, says, "Every church dedicated to John the Baptizer is thus arranged. We go down into them, as those about to be baptized of John went down into the water." The church is well worth inspection; but what chiefly interested us in it was a stone sun-dial let into the north wall with the following inscription below:—"Newton, aged nine years, cut with his penknife this dial." Above, one of the corbels is carved with the likeness of Sir Isaac Newton, a delightful conceit that pleased us greatly. An old body we spoke to in the church amused us not a little by exclaiming, "Yes, he were a wonderful man Sir Isaac to invent gravitation!" "Ah!" we replied, "however did the world get on before he invented it?" But our satire fell harmless. "Oh, very well," she responded; "it b'aint no good of to nobody as far as I can see." And with this we took our departure, and returned to our inn.
After a hurried glance at our map before starting, we decided to drive across country to Melton Mowbray, and to stop there the night. On inquiring about the way we were informed that we could not miss it, as it was well "sign-posted," a fresh expression to us. Just as we started the rain came down. Lincolnshire had greeted our coming with sunny smiles, and now
