Greatford Hall lies beyond its boundary wall, a handsome rebuild in pale Lincolnshire limestone of the old country house where during the 18th-century Dr Francis Willis practised pioneering forms of psychiatric treatment. His patients were misfortunate gentlemen of quality, the most illustrious of whom was the occasionally demented King George III.
In the village church alongside we found a bust of Dr Willis, bald and benign. The memorial eulogised the good doctor, “Happily the chief agent in removing the malady which affected the present majesty in the year 1789”. The physician’s kindliness and benevolence were attested “by the tears and lamentations which followed him to the grave”.
With this touching image in mind we left Greatford and struck out north across the flat south Lincolnshire
