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For men unlearned I undertook

In English speech to write this book,

For many be of such mannere

That tales and rhymes will gladly hear.

On games and feasts and at the ale

Men love to hear a gossip’s tale

That leads perhaps to villainy

Or deadly sin, or dull folly.

For such men have I made this rhyme

That they may better spend their time.

To all true Christians under sun,

To good and loyal men of Brunn,

And specially all by name

O’ the Brotherhood of Sempringhame,

Robert of Brunn now greeteth ye,

And prays for your prosperity.

ROBERT DE BRUNNE

Robert was a translator and no original composer, but he was the first after Layamon, the Worcestershire monk who lived just before him, to write English in its present form. Chaucer followed him, then Spenser, after which all was easy. But he was, according to Freeman, the pioneer who created standard English by giving the language of the natives a literary expression.

The Station House, Bourne.

BLACKSMITH’S EPITAPH

It is difficult to see the abbey church, it is so hemmed in by buildings, and it never seems to have been completed. At the west end is some very massive work. In the churchyard there is a curious epitaph on Thomas Tye, a blacksmith, the first six lines of which are also found on a gravestone in Haltham churchyard near Horncastle:—