be thus established without an adequate cause, and he is accordingly said to have saved, from the peril of shipwreck, very soon after his arrival on this coast, a young man named Havéloc, the son of Guthrum, King of Denmark; who, being afterwards conveyed to the British court, made such a favourable representation of the services of his preserver, that many privileges were conferred upon the town which he is said to have founded, and at length, according to some authorities, Haveloc, his protogee, received the King's daughter in marriage, and the Danish monarch, granted an immunity from all tolls and dues, at the port of Elsineur, to every individual burgess or householder of Grymsby.

Although Peter Langtoft expresses a doubt about the credibility of this tale, arising from the difficulty of finding competent authorities for it, yet it may have some correspondence with certain incidents which did actually take place at the period alluded to, about the middle of the ninth century; and might advance a merchant of Grymsby, whose name was Gryme, to considerable rank and fortune: for one of the ancient seals of the borough, of which I have caused an engraving to be made, fully corroborates the most important passages in his history. On this seal* is represented the gigantic figure of a man, brandishing a drawn sword in his right hand, and bearing on his left arm a circular

• Vid. Plate 2. Fig. 1.

target. The word Gryem near him, indicates that this is the identical person named in the foregoing legend; for he is represented as being tall and majestic in his stature. On his right hand is pourtrayed a youth, with a crown over his head to denote his royal extraction, and near him the word Hablot. On the other hand is represented a female figure, crowned with a regal diadem; whom, by the inscription round her person, we discover to be Goldeburgh, the young princess who is said to have been married to Haveloc. The legend is Sigillum: Comunitatis: Grimebye*; and this, as well as the names, is in the Saxon character; which leads us to the obvious conclusion, that the seal was cut and used by the town of Grymsby, before the Danes succeeded in establishing their dominion in Britain; and most probably was granted by the Anglo-Saxon government, during the life-time of Gryme, with other privileges which contributed to restore this port to opulence and respectability, after it had been deserted by its primitive inhabitants, on the first invasion of Lindesey by the Danes.

An ancient monument, still in existence, offers a further testimony to corroborate the story of Gryme and Haveloc. A large stone, composed of imperishable materials, said to have been brought by the Danes, out of their own country, forms the landmark which separates the parish of Grimsby from the adjoining hamlet of Wellow; and is know at this day by the significant appellation of Haveloc's

Stone. And the unequivocal acknowledgment, at this remote period of time, of the privilege which guarantees to a burgess of Grimsby, a freedom from toll at the port of Elsineur, is an unquestionable evidence that the tale of Gryme is not, as Camden insinuates, so totally without foundation as to be "fitter for tattling gossips in a winter night, than a grave historian."*

That learned antiquary, Gervase Holles, does not accede to the common opinion, that Grymsby received its name from this Gryme. After reciting the above legend, with some unimportant variations, he gives his own opinion as follows. "Thus much for the tradition; which, notwithstanding I may not believe to be true in all circumstances, (for rare it is to have any tradition without a mixture of something fabulous) yet, that the founder's name was GRIME, I easily incline to believe; but neither Grime the merchant, nor Grime the fisherman: I can name a third, who (if my judgment may passe) shall be the man. You shall find him in the Chronicle of Isaac Pontanus,† to have bin a Norvegian pirate, in the tyme of Frotho, King of Denmark, which

* Gibson. Col. 471.

Isaac Pontanus was a Danish Historian who composed the History of those troublesome times.-Rapin.

Frotho was King of Denmark; and he married Thyralda, or Thyra, the daughter of Ethelred, King of England; and this Thyralda may be the King's daughter, with whom Grimus, the Norwegian pirate, in vain attempted a marriage and was slain in single combat, by Haldanus or Havelochus, as above.-Rapin.

Grimus was, (by Pontanus' relation) a man of vast stature; and attempting the marriage of Thorilda, the King of daughter, he was slaine in single combate, by Haldanus, a Danish prince.→ The stories have some resemblance., Haldanus and Havelochus are, in sound, not extremely distant; and not unlikely it is, that a maritime towne in Lincolnshire should be built by a Norway pirate.",

In this theory, Holles falls into an error, equally untenable and fatal to the antiquity of Grimsby, by ascribing its origin to a Norwegian or any other pirate for Dane or Norwegian, and Pirate, in those ages, were convertible terms; and I most decidedly object to that part of the memoir which makes either of these celebrated personages the original planter of the town, and the source whence Grymsby received its name. It is quite certain, that, long before the existence of Gryme or Grimus-even, so early as the time of the Saxons-this port was the great emporium of commerce for all the northern nations of Europe; which fact is recorded, as we learn from Macpherson, in his Annals of Commerce, by the early Norwegian and Icelandic writers, The Britons, both before and after the Roman invasion, carried on an ex an extensive trade in the articles of chalk and lime; several depôts of which were established

at Grymsby; and so famous was this town for the chalk trade, that the lands on the opposite side of the old haven were denominated CLEA, from the Celtic word Cleis, chalk; and the parish, formed subsequently on these lands, retains the name to this day. In corroboration of this important fact, an inscription was found at Zealand, about the year 1647, on a pillar which had been erected while the Romans had possession of Britain, by a Grymsby chalk merchant, named Secundus Sylvanus, in performance of a vow for the preservation and safety of his merchandize. The inscription was as follows:" Dea Nehalenniæ, ob merces recte conservatas Secundus Silvanus, nego tor cretarius Britannicianus, V. S. L. M."” "To the goddess Nehalennia, for his goods well preserved, Secundus Sylvanus, a chalk merchant of Britain, willingly performed his merited vow."* This shews how early our port was occupied by an active population; and refutes the hypothesis that Grymsby was first founded by the Danes or Norwegians; and it establishes the fact, that great facilities for commerce were afforded by its haven, even in those primitive times.

Rapin speaks of Grymsby being inhabited before the time when Gryme and Haveloc flourished; for he says, that when the Danes made their first descent upon this coast, the inhabitants were so alarmed