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ayellowbirds · 7 years ago

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We’re in the final days! Less than 10K words to go... and if this is on track, it’ll probably be longer than that, in the end.

Want to support what you’ve been reading? Here’s a Paypal donation link for my household, and here’s my Ko-Fi link. Want to just go back to the 21st update? That’s right through this link.

Here’s Part 22, and some 23, too!

The 12th of Vernary, 5647 CC

The Newmandalers hadn’t bothered the Avanturisyegers. As far as the locals were concerned, if the adventurers brought things upon themselves, then so long as it didn’t extend to anyone else, it was on their own heads. When Scoloaster had made her way out of the guildhall to join Lináloe in chasing the adventurers that remained in town, a few citizens had simply stood out of her way.

Well, it might have been that she was now a clanking hollow girl made of strange alloys and fine silk, carrying unsheathed fighting knives in both hands. There were seven adventurers from the Adventurer’s Union of the Lower Alstuc Valley; Scoloaster had followed where Lináloe’s birds and beasts chased them, one by one, and plucked the badges from them while taunting them. It was all part of the play at being part of Cypora’s great forces.

“Some sort of campaign against the guild?” one adventurer had asked through a bloody mouth, teeth broken and one eye swollen shut.

“Silly,” Scoloaster teased, making up the lie on the spot while stuffing some of the treasure on his person into her empty body, feeling jewelry clatter all the way down into her boots, “this is just a diversion on the way to something else.”

The lies had built so easily, and she shared them with Lináloe and Orangella. Stories about Queen Cypora’s quest to consolidate the dungeons as a whole state. Her lieutenants: Bang the Antipaladin, Ella of the Wisps, Acantha the Reaper, the Necromancer Licoricia. Her companions, Keturah of the Droning Insects and Shiaroc pla Aurm, the Scarred. The victories they’d already had, crushing adventurers and retrieving stolen treasure. Oh, she had made such a point of that last part, really driving it home every time that this was about getting back what had been taken and hoarded.

“You’re not just adventurers that we’re hunting,” she said while plucking some enchanted earrings off a warrior, whispering right into his ear, “you’re bandits. You’re dragons hoarding gold. You think you’re heroes? What have you done for the people of the land?”

She made sure to laugh as darkly as she could.

Did she believe in any of it? She didn’t know if she did, and she didn’t care. This was the most entertainment she’d had since she first rode the vampire, maybe even longer.

So it was that she wound up with the empty space in the armor she was possessing being used as storage space for treasures taken off of adventurers, as well as trophies in the form of their guild badges. Lináloe had wound up with her own trophies: none of the adventurers aside from the three who had escaped were their targets, so the rage that animated her was not directed at them. She’d taken it out on the guildhall, tearing it apart with her bare hands from the top down. That had led to the discovery of a secret stash of treasure, which had included some things she indicated belonged to her. Something from her life; a very finely made gun, some rings.

Orangella had found the most useful prize, something Scoloaster remembered having been among what had been at the dungeon: the hide of a mountain lion, enchanted so that, if it was laid down as a rug and lifted from the nose, would reveal a magical stone cellar. It had somehow not occurred to the adventurers to make use of this; while Scoloaster had worked with Lináloe to torment those that remained, Orangella had hurriedly stuffed it full of the contents of the treasure bays in the guildhall, and rolled it back up again. There was plenty more room left within it, and on their return trip, the trio had even used it as a mobile headquarters.

They had quickly run low on room within, however, once the other avanturistyegers caught up.

While Scoloaster, Lináloe, and Orangella had followed one lead, a group of four had gone after another. The dark shapes and long, furry forms of the creatures most only knew as taily-pos had coursed through the forests and over the roads, delighted to have had an opportunity to reclaim what was stolen. They made the perfect hunters of adventurers, in Scoloaster’s opinion: stealthy, sharp-clawed, and hereditarily endowed with a mania for repossession and punishment of thieves.

Of the taily-pos that had remained in the dungeon, these four were the only ones. Three kept their names secret, having nothing else to claim as their own, but the fourth, their leader, agreed to answer to the name Rifka. Where the other three were sleek and small, Rifka was more like a small black panther with an oversized raccoon’s tail. She had dragged a huge bag of treasures back to the agreed-upon meeting point, most of which Scoloaster and Orangella had recognized as other things stolen from the dungeon.

For a taily-po, simply getting the treasures back to the dungeon would have been reward enough. When Scoloaster shared her collection of guild badges with them, they’d been delighted, and when Orangella fed them all from the meal she’d been cooking when they arrived before having any for herself, their already excellent mood had turned downright playful.

So it was that, amidst the shadows by the road and a chorus of whispery squeaks and playful cheers, the First Avanturistyeger Company returned to the Timber Barony.

Or rather, they arrived before the gate that hadn’t been in the road when they left.

“Well, I expected they’d be busy,” Orangella observed as the structure came into view. A small stone tower rose by the side of the road, connected to a thick wooden gate, and walls that only extended as far as the treeline. It would have made things difficult if approaching by cart, but travelers on foot or horseback could have just made their way around the obstacle. “Looks like some of Bang and my sister’s sense of architecture.”

“Ahoy?” Scoloaster called, catching sight of movement in the tower. Rifka sniffed the air.

“The bugs,” she hissed—but then, she hissed every word, regardless of the emotion attached to it—and the three smaller taily-pos repeated it as a chorus.

A strange, red-furred face popped up from one of the narrow windows, and then above it, Keturah Med’s smile.

“The Avanturistyegers! Hi! Hold up, I’ll let you through,” she called back, and disappeared from the window. A moment later, she came out behind the gate, and undid a padlock that chained the timbers together, swinging the way open. She turned to look at Scoloaster’s new form. “Is that Miss Spitznogle in there?”

“Just so,” Scoloaster replied, walking forward more to inspect the gatehouse than pass through. “Something like this was spoken of in the past, but as I recollect, the decision was reached that it would be too difficult to extend out through the forest, and intruders might simply pass it by between the trees.”

“Which is why we didn’t really bother with walls,” Keturah explained with a grin. “I’ve been teaching my new friends to watch out for sneaks, instead.”

She made a clicking noise with her tongue, and they appeared, crawling out of the windows and from behind the walls, six-legged furry creatures moving over the walls as easily as over ground. They wriggled and tapped their legs as they gathered.

“Tamed them?” Rifka asked, again echoed by her companions. She drew herself up alongside Scoloaster, and met with the largest pair of the creatures.

“Bedcats don’t really take to taming,” Keturah said, digging in a bag at her hip. She pulled out a saucer, and a jar of honey which she poured out into the dish. “But they respond well to rewards.”

The bedcats converged on the treat at Keturah’s signal, taking turns to bump heads while lapping up honey. There were at least a dozen of them present.

“So you’re on guard duty,” Orangella observed, giving Keturah a hug that produced an ‘oof’.

“It’s pretty great, actually. The bedcats and my other friends have sharper senses, so I just have to look out for when they act funny, and I can sit around and read as much as I like,” Keturah said, and gestured up to the tower. “We moved a lot of the library out here. Well, what’s left of it.”

“We’ll bring back more,” Orangella said, smiling back at Scoloaster and Lináloe. The taily-pos had continued through the gate while the bedcats snacked, and were investigating the other side.

“Looks like you already got a bit,” Keturah said, appraising Scoloaster’s armored body and the bags they all carried. Lináloe came up to show off a pair of boots she’d recovered, gesturing to them before walking up the wall as easily as the bedcats had. She smiled at Keturah, and showed off the necklace she’d made of her trophies, without stepping down from the wall.

“More than a bit,” Orangella replied, hefting the cougar skin off her back and beginning an explanation of its function and contents.

But Scoloaster was following the taily-pos. They had disappeared out of view, and as she went through the gate, she saw their snake-like trails in the dust on of the entrance to the gatehouse. Inside, the sound of them continued through a door that led not higher up, but down below ground. She followed down, relying on her ability to see without light. A cellar of some sort, for the guardhouse, stocked with some foods. But there was also a gate down here, albeit one left open and flush against the walls. It was far sturdier-looking, built of harder woods. She recognized the handiwork on it, Yered’s fondness for embellishments familiar from the last time he’d had a decent body.

The cellar continued further and further down, and without a need for light, she realized it was actually a long tunnel. Further down, the taily-pos were investigating every inch.

She looked up the stairs to the noise from above. Keturah and the others had come down to see where she’d gone.

“Cypora and the others worked it out,” she explained to Scoloaster, indicating the tunnel to Orangella and Lináloe. “The Widows led the work and it went super quick, since I guess you don’t need to sleep like living people do?”

Leading the trio down the passage after the taily-pos, Keturah began to explain what they’d missed; the discovery that the dungeon’s magic meant that Cypora’s boundaries as an overlord went further than the walls, and the presence of the rephaim. More importantly, she related the cost of bringing them back from Sheol.

“But if they’re in Sheol, how does she sense them as part of the dungeon?” Orangella asked.

“A whole other world,” Scoloaster muttered to herself. It certainly was strange to think about, but she noticed Orangella twitch at her words, and wondered what had surprised her fellow Ritermaysterin about that.

Keturah grinned, getting up close. “That’s the really nifty thing. Near as we can guess, the Dungeon System didn’t just mess with up, down, north, and south. It must have extended out into other worlds that are connected to this one! So, there’s a part of the dungeon that’s in Sheol. Maybe all dungeons are like that?”

“It would explain some curiosities of undeath, here,” Scoloaster supposed. She was watching Orangella, who looked contemplative.

The answer hit her as they came in view of a wide staircase behind another underground gate. Orangella was interacting more and more with the world of her shedim family, that otherworld of smoke and shadows. If there was a part of that world linked to the dungeon, what would it be like, and what would it mean for her?

Half an hour later, the Avanturistyegers were assembled before the other inhabitants of the dungeon, both survivors and newcomers. The recovery of the cougar pelt was the first to be shown, aside from Scoloaster’s new body.

“You always happen upon the best ones, don’t you just? Jayyida teased. “But look at what the corn dolly made us! Bespoke possessibles. You’re out of fashion, this time.”

“Needs must, I am afraid,” Scoloaster replied, as Orangella demonstrated how the pelt could be lifted off the ground by its tail to be transported, or lifted by its nose to reveal the magical room beneath. “If I am to continue to serve as a Rittermaysterin, perforce I look the part.”

“Oh, but isn’t it a shame that you’ll have to give it up eventually, especially if you wish to really terrorize someone with their blood still pumping?” Reumah asked, keeping an eye on Orangella’s demonstration but listening in on the conversation, as was Yered.

“Oh, my word!” Scoloaster cried, seeing her chance. She made a point to raise her voice and affect an attitude of shock. Sure enough, Orangella’s demonstration—which had already gone on too long and repeated things she had explained at the beginning—was interrupted as some of those gathered turned to look at her, Cypora included. “I had never considered that, after possessing this suit of armor, I might need to give it up soon after, and could not enjoy this suit of armor, which I found amongst the magical treasures stashed away by adventurers?”

She hadn’t seen the need to tell Orangella or Lináloe. After all, why spoils the surprise? There was so little to entertain when one existed as long as she did. But now seemed like the right time.

As she had done with other bodies in the past, Scoloaster detached her spirit from the suit of armor, swinging out of it and willing her spectral form to become visible in the dim light of the meeting-hall. She did so as if she were dancing with the armor, taking hold of its hand as she slipped out from the metal, before spinning out away for a moment in an admittedly clumsy pirouette. She made a point of showing that she was not touching it—and then dropped backwards into the arms of the armor like it was a dance partner catching her. Which was the moment she chose to re-possess it.

To the stunned faces of the Widows and the other assembled dybbuks, she smiled a broad, steel-sharp smile.

“‘Tis an enchanted armor. I can possess it as many times as I should like.”

Cypora began the applause, and others followed.

“One of these days I’ll find something better than you,” Jayyida grumbled good-naturedly, “just watch.”

Scoloaster gave her a little rap on the arm, metal pushing against cloth filled with timber and sawdust. Even Orangella was clapping, in spite of the interruption. But then she smiled her own sharp grin.

“Well, if my fellow hunter over there thinks it’s time for the surprises,” she said, and ducked down to where the pelt laid on the ground, rolling up the nose-end and darting inside. There was a sound of things clattering around, and she reappeared from the magical stairs holding something over her head. A sword, in a scabbard. “I guess it’s time for this!”

She kept her hand on it, not unsheathing it yet, as those around her peered at it. As far as Scoloaster could see, it was just a sword in a scabbard. The pommel and guard looked very plain, in fact.

“When did you pick that up?” she asked Orangella.

“Those adventurers left in a hurry and we took all their stuff, right?” Orangella asked her as if she hadn’t been the one to do most of the scaring herself. “Well, they didn’t leave all their stuff locked up. I found this just outside of where they disappeared from!”

She unsheathed it, and Scoloaster could have sworn that the blade was not there. It was like an empty space in the air, revealing night behind. But as it shifted in Orangella’s hand, it became clear that it was neither empty space, nor flat; it had definition and breadth, but was made of something so dark black as to show none of it in the light.

“The personal weapon of the notorious and hated adventurer Almaz, the failed paladin whose own magic turned on her, with a reputation that has preceded the adventurer herself in the rumor and gossip we traced while hunting her,” Orangella intoned, using her free hand to weave the image of dark serpents in the air, before holding the sword up to point at the sky. “I give you Vuègbòrd, the Void-Edge!”

She resheathed it, and knelt, presenting it to Cypora.

“By which I mean, I give it to you, Cyppeleh,” she said. “I got the wizard back. But Almaz, to you….”

Cypora nodded, but she didn’t take the sword.

“As much as I’d like to hang onto that as a trophy to taunt her with if we ever find her again,” she said, “I think I have a better use for it.”

#Cypora’s Guide to Cementing Your Rule As An Evil Queen

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ghotte · 8 years ago

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A turbulent history Burg Castle has two great stories ... ... and thousands of small ones! The castle is enthroned on a hill above the River Wupper. The site was tailor-made for a secure seat of mediaeval Baronial power. Work on the castle started around 1130 and from then on the Dukes of Berg lived here for several centuries, all the while constantly enlarging their sphere of influence. By the end of the fifteenth century their successors ruled over huge areas of what is now North Rhine Westphalia! Later they moved their seat of power to Düsseldorf and Burg Castle declined in significance. The buildings began to crumble and from the middle of the nineteenth century they were utterly cannibalised. And here begins the second great story. The castle was reconstructed once again thanks to local initiative and financial help. The citizens wanted to restore the symbol of the region! Hence they set up a so-called »Castle Construction Association« and began to collect money. Reconstruction work was mostly completed by 1919. Nowadays Burg Castle is a popular venue for day trips and a wide variety of cultural activities. Idealized view of Burg Castle in the 16th century – A Drawing of architect Fischer (about 1892), who was charged with the reconstruction of Burg Castle. (Copyright: Archives of the Schlossbauverein Burg a/d Wupper e.V.) Count Adolf II. of Berg – mural painting in the Gallery of Ancestors (Copyright: SBV) 12th – 14th century Family seat of the Counts of Berg ca. 1130 Construction of Neuenberge Fortress (later Schloss Burg Castle) by Count Adolf II. of Berg as the new family seat 1218 Adolf III. dies during the 5th Crusade in Egypt. His brother Engelbert, Archbishop of Cologne takes over the County of Berg – seemingly illegally. As Engelbert II., Count of Berg and Archbishop he exerts considerable political influence at the court of Kaiser Friedrich II. He extends Neuenberge Fortress and converts it into a major courtly seat for representative ends. It now includes a Great Hall with a Knights Hall, a bower (living chamber)and a castle chapel, double walls, towers and gates. In 1225 he is murdered in an ambush organised by his nephew, Friedrich von Isenburg. 1225 on Since Duke Engelbert II. has no male successors Heinrich von Limburg, who is married to Engelbert’s niece Irmgard, becomes the next Count of Berg. As a result the twin tailed Limburg Lion becomes the new heraldic animal in the Bergisch coat of arms. 1288 The Battle of Worringen, the largest mediaeval battle in north-west Europe. Count Adolf V. of Berg is one of the victors in the battle. He is given the privilege of imprisoning the most important loser, the Archbishop of Cologne, in Neuenberge Fortress. Shortly afterwards he sets up Düsseldorf on the Rhine. 1348 Due to a lack of successors the territory of Berg is handed over to the Counts of the house of Jülich. Hunting Party – The mural paintings in the »Kemenate« show scenes of courtly life. (Copyright: BSW / Christina Schultes) 14th – 16th century Usage as a hunting lodge and for courtly festivities 1380 on Following the introduction of new war techniques fortresses become useless for defence purposes. After the Counts of Jülich-Berg are raised to the status of Dukes in 1380, Düsseldorf becomes the new royal seat of the Duchy of Berg. In 1408 the last ruler to reside in Neuenberge Fortress dies. 1485 on During the fourteenth and fifteenth century Neuenberge Fortress is used for important festivities and as a hunting lodge. As a result it is gradually converted and extended into a site for courtly festivities. Thus the fortress becomes a castle. 1496 Child betrothal at Schloss Burg Castle: the five-year-old Maria von Jülich-Berg is promised to the six-year-old Johann von Kleve-Mark. In 1521 the United Duchies are created from the merger of the houses of Jülich-Berg and Kleve-Mark. They cover broad parts of today’s North Rhine Westphalia. 1526 The hand of Sibylle von Jülich-Kleve-Berg is promised to the later Prince Johann Friedrich of Saxony at Schloss Burg Castle. 1539 Schloss Burg Castle becomes the widow’s seat of the Duchess’s mother, Maria. Previously Anna von Jülich-Kleve-Berg (Anne of Cleves), who is later to become the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England, also stays for a time in Schloss Burg Castle. 1600 on Schloss Burg Castle increasingly decreases in significance for the Dukes of Berg. The German Kaiser (bottom left) visited Burg Castle in 1899 to examine the progress of reconstruction. (Copyright: Archives of the Schlossbauverein Burg a/d Wupper e.V.) The Battle of Worringen 1288 – The mural paintings in the Knights Hall illustrate important events in the history of Burg Castle. (Copyright: BSW / Christina Schultes) During the 19th century the ruins of Burg Castle were a popular destination – overlooking the Thieves' tower (Diebsturm) and the facade of the Palace (left), before 1887 (Copyright: Archives of the Schlossbauverein Burg a/d Wupper e.V.) The German Kaiser (bottom left) visited Burg Castle in 1899 to examine the progress of reconstruction. (Copyright: Archives of the Schlossbauverein Burg a/d Wupper e.V.) The Battle of Worringen 1288 – The mural paintings in the Knights Hall illustrate important events in the history of Burg Castle. (Copyright: BSW / Christina Schultes) 1 2 3 Children enjoyed playing in the ruins – view on the »Zwingertor«, before 1887 (Copyright: Archives of the Schlossbauverein Burg a/d Wupper e.V.) 17th – 19th Century Further uses until it falls into ruins 1618 on Schloss Burg Castle is captured by enemy troops during the Thirty Years’ War. Henceforth it is used, amongst others, as a warehouse for Swedish and Hessian troops. Imperial troops take over Schloss Burg Castle in 1641. 1648 When the Imperial troops withdraw at the end of the war they destroy all the defensive parts of the castle, including the walls, gates, and keep. From now on it is used solely as an administrative seat. 1806/1807 The Duchy of Berg falls to the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. After the administrative reforms are introduced by Napoleon I. in 1807, the last administrative civil servants are withdrawn from Schloss Burg Castle. Thus the site is deprived of all its administrative functions. 1811 The French administration under the Emperor Napoleon I. attempts to auction off Schloss Burg Castle to the highest bidder. However it can find no buyer. 1815 The Duchy of Berg falls to Prussia and Schloss Burg Castle is handed into Prussian state ownership. Since it has no use for the building it is now used purely for commercial purposes – as a blanket factory, a horse driven mill and a school. 1849 The Prussian state demolishes the roof of Schloss Burg Castle. The building material is used for building the regional courthouse in Elberfeld. Schloss Burg Castle is now used solely as a stone quarry and is allowed to fall into ruin. The progress of the reconstruction around 1900 with drawn in keep and artillery tower – bottom right: Julius Schumacher, the founding father of the Castle Construction Association (Copyright: Archives of the Schlossbauverein Burg a/d Wupper e.V.) 1887 on Reconstruction and Foundation of the Castle Construction Association 1871 Founding of the German Reich 1887 Founding of an association to preserve the castle ruins near Burg on the Wupper – later known as the Castle Construction Association Burg a. d. Wupper. The appeal for the reconstruction put out by the Association leads to a considerable increase in visitors. 1890 on Reconstruction of Schloss Burg Castle in several stages, mostly financed by donations and lottery money. Clubs and societies in the whole of the Bergisch Land organise special events including concerts and bazaars, the income from which is donated to the reconstruction. 1894 The completion of the Great Hall is followed by the setting up of the Bergisch Museum in Schloss Burg Castle. After a modest start the collection quickly grows as a result of donations and active collecting activities. The Museum is now able to display weapons and armour, paintings, crafts, furniture, coins and printed matter from the Middle Ages and early modern period. 1899 The German Kaiser Wilhelm II. visits Schloss Burg Castle. 1902 The Castle keep collapses shortly before completion. As a result the architect who is mainly responsible for designing the reconstruction is dismissed. 1919 Most of the essential reconstruction is completed. 1920 A fire in the castle roof almost completely destroys the Bergisch Museum. Work on clearing up the damage lasts until 1923. 1950 on In the post-war period Schloss Burg Castle develops into a real tourist attraction. Every year up to 300,000 guests visit the castle. 2014 Start of comprehensive restoration measures at the castle.

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annelisterstravelnotes · 4 years ago

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Netherlands with Mariana - Lincoln, 21 August 1831

August Sunday 21

3 55/..

9 55/..

Fahrenheit 66° at 5 a.m.

good bed – off from Peterborough,

at 5 20/.. (all 3 inside) – to Lincoln –

52 miles – Market Deeping like

a good village Bourne at 6 53/.. the same – of brick –

at Folkingham at 7 53/.. – picturesque little

village like town – stop to change

horses in a large square – brick

or stuccoed and partly straw thatched –

at the Lion Hotel Sleaford at 8 42/.. –

good little town very neat good church – 1/2 hour for

breakfast – had it upstairs and both had little

motion and all the better for it –

off at 9 12/.. change horses 8 miles from Lincoln at single

house at 10 – nice country all the way today –

well farmed light yellowish red light

land – flat but not dead flat –

not much wood – some capital wheat

to cut – beautiful even corn all today –

wheat and barley chiefly – and capital turnips –

did not observe the cathedral till between 4 and 5 miles

from Lincoln – looks more like York in the

distance than any of them –

at 10 3/4 fine look down upon the plain

of Lincoln – at the commercial Inn just

on this side the gate (Sternbow) at 10 57/..

ate my 4 oranges – out at 11 25/.. – found

we might have gone forward to Hull by the

Express coach at 12 1/2 if we liked – which coach left

Peterborough at the same time that we did – came up

the hill in 10 minutes to the cathedral – 2 west

towers and Lantern tower like York but the west

tower are not seen to rise from the ground but great

heavy mass of front covers them – very

inferior to York – the rest of the exterior very

fine – longer? but less regular than York and not

so well kept – cant get all round –

indifferent brick houses or not at all

good enough houses too near all round the building –

but stands finely on the hill – far superior

to York in that respect – waited in the interior

till service over at 12 – the chair very

fine – rather florid gothic upper arches

with corbeilles supporting the clustered pillars

below and between these upper arches as at Ely –

a sort of 2nd transept springing from the

choir at the foot of the chancel –

annunciation by a late prebewarry Mr Petres

Mr Petres who got a living of £300

a year by it – Cloisters lead to the chapter

house with handsome column in the middle

supporting the groined roof – all the

intervals between the pointed arches

inside and out relieved by a trellis –

which had a very good effect –

{margin: 2 west towers – too low -}

sinking for water and found tesselated

pavement 1700 years old – now covered

in by brick building – go down 8 steps

to it – 2 pieces the lesser under a brick arch –

said by some to have been a bath – by others

a ground room – cloisters round the whole

square – the modern arcades of them under

the deans library – communicate with the

choir transept by old cloister pass –

the lady’s chapel of 3 large arches

like the choir arches very large behind

the altar in fact a regular part of the choir with

its aisles in the style of Ely – monument

of bishop Fleming – attempted to fast 40 days

and 40 nights – did it 3 weeks and then died –

his monument is a sort of supine

recumbent skeleton –

only one transept aisle to each

transept east side partitioned off

into chapels and the entrances to the 2 choir

aisles – Lancet arches in transept

and rounder in the nave – small vestibule

between west entrance doors and the nave – oh

that the organ was there – 9 1/2 minutes going to the top

260 steps and 8 minutes coming down – 1/4 hour

at the top – just an hour doing the whole –

home at 1 3/4 – our Inn neat and newly done up –

the great old brick house, the Rein deer,

just opposite is perhaps the head Inn –

off from Lincoln, Saracen’s head, at 2 –

queer winding up narrow streets and lanes to get

out of the town – poor town – handsome new

stuccoed or stone assize courts and judges’

lodgings brick at a little distance – the prison

of brick – the new drop in a sound tower

that belonged to the old castle wall – the olds

castle keep tower on a mound – ivy covered put

ruin – looking down on all this from the top of the

cathedral and on an old ruined baronial house

called King John’s house – saw the river (small)

witham like a canal running towards

the Trent – look down upon

upon immense plain all around the

foot of the hill on which Lincoln stands –

the best part of the town around the cathedral

but apparently no good house –the screen in the

cathedral is narrowed and heavy three quarters

of the great pillar towards the nave – at

the little village of Sturton at 3 12/.. and stopt

to water the horses – just 3/4 hour out

of Lincoln fine look down upon Extensive

richish looking plain – then turn left

along fat uninteresting country – cross road

and very bad all the way till good new road near Lex pretty

little tidy tidy white washed tiled and straw thatched village a 4 10/..

here lives the reverend Sir Charles Anderson – some

fine pastures – Gainsborough a large

brick town – 1 long narrow street then a

kind of square or markeet place with large

brown lamp post in the middle – stop to change

chaise and horses at 4 27/.. at the Roebuck Inn –

off at 4 10/.. – returned to near where

we entered te town and croff the

Trent over handsome 3 arch hewn stone

bridge along a new road? a dyke,

a chaussee or fosse dike – fine pastures on

each side full of abundance of Scotch and other cattle –

fine liveable country – good land – much corn and grass –

well farmed from Gainsborough to Bawtry –

nice fresh air as we get away from

the fens – Gringley at 5 25/.. nice good little

village – see great extent of barish plain right

and rich and well wooded plain left

pretty road here – winding and descending –

at Bawtry at 6 4/.. nice good wide –

street village with good airy Inn where

we shall rest very comfortably – tea and bacon

and poached eggs at 6 ½ to 7 10/.. – went out

at 7 1/2 very fine evening – very pretty village –

walked to the 1st main street on the Tilnsney road

to 13 miles from Rotheram and 19 from Sheffield – very

pretty good country road – back at 8 20/.. - fine

day – very fine evening – Fahrenheit 65° now at 8 1/2 p.m.

came to our room at 8 50/.. –

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