Lincoln
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PLACES AND FAMILIES
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Popular Rhymes And Nursery Tales
"As for the town, though it flourished mightily for some years together
after the Norman Conquest, by reason of a staple for wooll and other
commodities, setled here by King Edward the Third; yet it met still with
some calamities or other, which hindred its growth and eclipsed its
grandeur, for it had its share of sufferings, both by fire and water, in
King Stephen's days, about which time, it seems, though the king had at
/>
first been conquered and taken prisoner, yet he afterward entred into
the city in triumph, with his crown upon his head, to break the citizens
of a superstitious opinion they held, that no king could possibly enter
into that city after such a manner, but some great disaster or other
would befal him; but neither did it then, or by the barons' wars
afterwards, sustain half the damages which of late years it hath
received from the devouring hands of time, who hath wrought its downfal,
and from a rich and populous city hath reduced it almost to the lowest
ebb of fortune; and of fifty churches, which were all standing within
one or two centuries, hath scarce left fifteen; so that the old
proverbial rhymes (which go current amongst them) seem so far to have
something of verity in them:
Lincoln was, and London is,
And York shall be
The fairest city of the three."--Ibid.