Lincolnshire Superstitions

Studies in Folk-Song-and Popular Poetry. By Alfred M. Williams, with a Prefatory Note by Edward Clodd. 8vo; pp. vi., 329. Elliot Stock, 1895.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead. Translated by C. H. S. Davies. Putnam Sons, New York. By Joseph Jacobs.

Egyptian Tales Translated from the Papyri. First Series, IVth to XIIth Dynasty Edited Flinders Petrie, Hon. D.C.L. Illustrated by Tristram Ellis. London, Methuen &; Co. 1895.

Tales of the Fairies and of the Ghost World collected from oral tradition in South-West Munster by Jeremiah Curtin. David Nutt, 1895.     

Reconstructing Kirkstead Abbey,Lincolnshire: The Charters,Earthworks and Architecture of a Lost Cistercian House

Kirkstead abbey, in the Witham Valley of Lincolnshire, is a little-known but highly significant Cistercian house, both for its early history and architecture, and for the fact that it was treated unusually on being one of the monasteries seized by the Crown for the treason of its president after the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536. Substantially ruined and poorly preserved above ground, recent study has questioned its traditional interpretation. Its standing remains are sparse but extremely informative; its site at least partly marked by earthworks; and its home estate can be reconstructed from a late 13th-century cartulary and a remarkable series of loose charters.     

Pollen analytical investigations at Crosby Warren, Lincolnshire, in the Vicinity of the iron age and Romano-British settlement of Dragonby

Open-cast ironstone mining at Crosby Warren, near Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire exposed an extensive section through “cover sand” deposits. revealing buried podzol soils and peat layers. Stratigraphic studies, pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating have been carried out on three representative profiles. From these investigations it would appear that the “cover sands” in this area were stabilized under mixed oak woodland by c. 300 BC. After c. 100 BC woodland clearance and farming activities have been distinguished. Local alterations in land-use may be linked with cultural developments at the nearby Iron Age and Romano-British settlement of Dragonby. It is suggested that the impact of man upon the vegetation during Iron Age and Romano-British times probably facilitated podzolization and sand blowing.     

The Slate Quarries at Easdale,Argyllshire, Scotland

Abstract

In this article the author draws attention to the little-known slate industry that flourished in the Slate Islands off the west coast of Scotland. From small beginnings in the 17th century, the industry reached a peak around 1900, before declining to extinction in the 1960s. Attention is focused on the unusual location of some of the quarries—below sea-level—and of their consequent vulnerability to natural disasters.