ed with this ancient
mansion. One, says that Sweyn the Danish invader, (the remains of whose
camp exist at the distance of a mile from the town,) was killed at a
banquet, by his drunken nobles, in the field adjoining its precincts.
Another, avers that in the Saxon building believed to have stood on the
same spot, as the residence of the earls of Mercia, the glorious
Alfred's wedding-feast was held. Speed gives some little aid to the
imagination in its credent regard for the story: "Elswith, the wife of
king AElfred, was the daughter of Ethelfred, surnamed Muchel, that is,
the Great, an Earle of the Mercians, who inhabited about Gainesborough,
in Lincolnshire: her mother was Edburg, a lady borne of the Bloud roiall
of Mercia." (Historie of Great Britaine, 1632: page 333.)

XII.

ROCHE.

A visit to the beautiful ruins of Roche Abbey, near ancient Tickhill,
and to the scenery amidst which they lie, created a youthful desire to
depict them in verse. This doggrel ditty (I forestall the critics!) of
the Miller of Roche is all, however, that I preserved of the imperfect
piece. The ditty is a homely versification of a homely tale which was
often told by the fireside in Lincolnshire. I never saw anything
resembling it in print, until Mr. Dickens (whose kind attention I cannot
help acknowledging) pointed out to me a similar story in the Decameron.

Roche Abbey, according to the "Monasticon Anglicanum," was founded by
Richard de Builli and Richard Fitz-Turgis, in 1147. "The architecture
bespeaks the time of Edward II. or III." (Edit. 1825: vol. v. p. 502.)

XIII.

SCROGG AND CARR.

Johnson says, "Scrog. A stunted shrub, bush, or branch; yet used in some
parts of the north." In Lincolnshire, however, the word is used to
designate wild ground on which "stunted shrub, bush, or branch" grows,
and _not_ as a synonyme with shrub or bush.

_Carr_ I have looked for in vain among the etymologists. Johnson merely
quotes Gibson's Camden to show that, in the names of places, _Car_
"seems to have relation to the British _caer_, a city;" and Junius,
Skinner, Lemon, Horne Tooke, Jamieson, &c. are silent about it. The word
is applied, in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, to the low lands, or
wide marsh pastures that border the Trent; and I feel little doubt that,
like the word _heygre_, and many others that might be collected, it has
been in use ever since it was given to these localities, by the primeval
tribes, the Kelts, when the