More intriguing nuggets of information from Sir Francis Hill’s Medieval Lincoln (see also our recent post on Stanthaket).

A short walk up Lincoln High Street from its southern end (not far from where we live) you will find Hermit Street. With no further clues, you might assume that it was built where a hermitage or monastery once stood. But you would be wrong. Hermit Street, it seems, was named after a horse! Hermit was the name of the winner of the 1867 Derby, no less, and was owned by Henry Chaplin. Aha, I thought. There’s a Chaplin Street further up the High Street, so whoever Henry Chaplin was, he must have been someone important — or at least rich.

The Chaplins had been landowners in Lincolnshire since 1658. Henry Chaplin was born at Ryhall hall, near Stamford in 1841 and inherited Blankney Hall and large estates in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire when he was 21. His social circle included the highest in the land, including Queen Victoria’s son, Bertie, who later became King Edward VII. Chaplin was engaged to Lady Florence Paget in 1864 but was jilted at the altar. After this Chaplin became obsessed with gambling and racing, and it was said ”he bought horses as if he was drunk and betted as if he was mad”.

Hermit was almost withdrawn from the Derby, owing to illness, but eventually won and apparently cost Chaplin’s love rival, 4th Marquis of Hastings, thousands of pounds in lost wagers, too, which was presumably some consolation to Chaplin for the events of three years earlier. One can only wonder how many of the present residents of Lincoln’s Hermit Street know anything of this fascinating story.