your last volume, stating that it stood there in the summer of 1789, such
of your readers as have no means of knowing to the contrary, may infer
that it is not now in existence.[1] I am led to trouble you with a few
lines on the subject, as this specimen still in the best preservation,
deserves us full an account as your limits will admit. The sepulchre
nearly, and the stalls also mentioned by you, which have been cleaned
completely, remain now in the same state as the artist originally left
them. An architect, Mr. T. Rickman, who visited the neighbourhood a short
time ago, gives the following account, which was printed in a work[2] on
the topography of the neighbourhood, soon after his visit: he says, "The
sepulchre, of which there are not many specimens now remaining, consists
of a series of richly ornamented niches, the largest of which represents
the tomb, having angels standing beside it; the side niches have the
Maries and other appropriate figures, and in the lower niches are the
Roman soldiers reposing; these niches have rich canopies, and are
separated by buttresses and rich finials, having all the spaces covered by
very rich foliage." He further observes, that "the stalls exhibit a
specimen of pure decorated work, as rich as the finest sculpture of
foliage and small figures can render it, and hardly surpassed by any in
the kingdom, and the sepulchre is of the same excellent character. The
various small ornaments about these stalls and niches form one of the best
possible studies for enrichments of this date: and it is almost peculiar
to this church, that there is nothing about it, except what is quite
modern, that is not of the same style of architecture."

As the above gentleman's description of the present state of the church at
Heckington will give a clearer idea of many others in the county of
Lincoln, we perhaps cannot do better than close this account with it.
"This beautiful church, of pure decorated character, is one of the most
perfect models in the kingdom, having, with one exception, (that of the