Chapter IV: The Market-Place (2)

"This Mr. Howard hath lately bought a piece of ground of Mr. Mingay,
in Norwich, by the waterside in Cunisford, which hee intends for a
place of walking and recreation, having made already walkes round and
across it, forty feet in breadth; if the quadrangle left be spacious
enough, he intends the first of them for a bowling-green, the third
for a wildernesse, and the fourth for a garden. These and the like
noble things he performeth, and yet hath paid 100,000 pounds of his
ancestors' debts.

"Jan. 6th. I dined at my Aunt Bendish's, and made an end of
Christmas at the Duke's palace, with dancing at night and a great
banquet. His gates were opened, and such a number flocked in, that
all the beer they could set out in the streets could not divert the
stream of the multitude.

"Jan. 7th. I opened a dog.

"Jan. 9th. Mr. Osborne sent my father a calf, whereof I observed the
knee joint, and the neat articulation of the put-bone, which was here
very perfect.

"This day Monsieur Buttet, who plays most admirably on the flageolet,
bagpipe, and sea-trumpet, a long three-square instrument, having but
one string, came to see me.

"Jan. 11th. This day, being Mr. Henry Howard's birthday, we danced
at Mr. Howard's, till 2 of the clock in the morning.

"Jan. 12th. Cutting up a turkey's heart. A monkey hath 36 teeth: 23
molares, 4 canini, and 8 incisores.

"Jan. 13th. This day I met Mr. Howard at my Uncle Bendish's, where
he taught me to play at _l'hombre_, a Spanish game at cards.

"Jan. 21st. I shewed Dr. De Veau about the town; I supped with him
at the Duke's palace, where he shewed a powder against agues, which
was to be given in white wine, to the quantity of three grains. He
related to me many things of the Duke of Norfolk, that lives at
Padua, _non compos mentis_, and of his travailes in France and Italy.

"Jan. 23rd. Don Francisco de Melo came from London, with Mr. Philip
Howard (third grandson of the Earl of Arundel), to visit his honour,
Mr. Henry Howard. I met them at Mr. Deyes the next day, in Madam
Windham's chamber.

"I boyled the right fore-foot of a monkey, and took out all the
bones, which I keep by me. In a put-bone, the unfortunate casts are
outward, the fortunate inward.

"Jan. 26th. I saw a little child in an ague, upon which Dr. De Veau
was to try his febrifuge powder; but the ague being but moderate, and
in the declension, it was thought too mean a disease to try the
efficacy of his extolled powder.

"Feb. 2nd. I saw cock-fighting at the White Horse, in St. Stephen's.

"Feb. 5th. I went to see a _serpent_, that a woman, living in St.
Gregory's church-yard, vomited up, but she had burnt it before I
came.

"Feb. 16th. I went to visit Mr. Edward Ward, an old man in a fever,
where Mrs. Anne Ward gave me my first fee, 10_s._

"Feb. 22nd. I set forward for my journey to London."

This quaint admixture of scientific research, pleasure-seeking, and superstitious credulity, blended with intellectual enquiry, affords a curious picture of the domestic and professional habits of a physician of the seventeenth century. The father of the writer, the eminent Dr. Thomas Browne, received the order of knighthood from his majesty, King Charles II., on the occasion of his visiting the city in 1671, when he dined in state at the New Hall (St. Andrew's); the same honour was pressed upon the acceptance of the mayor, who, however, ventured to decline the proffered dignity. In the reign of James II., we find record of Henry, then Duke of Norfolk, riding into the market-place at the head of 300 knights, to declare a free parliament, the mayor and sheriffs meeting him there, and consenting to the act. But the glory of the palace, once the scene of such regal splendour and magnificence, was not of long duration. A dispute between the grandson of the Duke Henry and the mayor of the city, concerning the entrance of some comedians into the city, playing their trumpets, &c. on the way to the palace, caused its owner, Thomas, then Duke, to destroy the greater portion of it, and leave the remainder untenanted; and among divers transmutations of property that characterized the era of Queen Anne, we find the appropriation of its vestiges to the purpose of a workhouse, when those institutions first sprang into existence--a fate shared at the same period by the cloisters of the old Black Friars monastery.

The river, that once reflected the gorgeous displays of wealth that glittered upon the margin of its waters, in the palace of the Dukes, now flows darkly and silently on, through crowded thoroughfares and gloomy wharfs, and staiths; corn and coal depots, red brick factories, with their tiers of low window-ranges and tall chimneys, have usurped the place of banquetting halls and palace gardens; a toll bridge adds silence to the gloom, by its prohibitory tax on passers-by, a stillness, oppressive by its sudden contrast to the activity of neighbouring thoroughfares, pervades the whole region round about; and the spot that once was the nucleus of wealth, riches, and grandeur, now seems the very seat and throne of melancholy.

Coeval with the rise of workhouses, in the reign of Anne, is another event of local history--the introduction of street-lighting. An act of parliament of William III., confirmed in the 10th of Anne, enacted "that every householder charged with 2_d._ a week to the poor, whose dwelling-house adjoined any streets, market-places, public lanes, or passages in the city, should every night, yearly, from Michaelmas to Lady-day, as it should grow dark, hang out, on the outside of their houses, _a candle_, _or visible and convenient lights_, and continue the same until eleven o'clock at night, for enlightening the streets, and convenience of passengers, under penalty of 2_s._ for every neglect." Lamps, at the cost of the community in general, were soon afterwards substituted, but their shape, and distance from each other, would seem to have rendered them but indifferent substitutes for the illuminations that preceded them; and if memory is faithful to us, in recalling the progenitors of the gas-lights of the present day, we may form some slight conception of the pigmy race of ancestors from which they sprung.

Meantime, during these years of progress and prosperity, while Time was tracing its finger-marks upon the walls of men's houses, and writing its lessons on their hearts and minds, there stood, in the centre of the old market-place, a little silent symbol of the religious feeling of the passing ages,--the market-cross, and oratory within the little octagonal structure, whose external corners bore upon all of them the emblem of hope and salvation--the crucifix. In its earliest days, its oratory was tenanted by a priest, supported by the alms of the busy market-folks, who could find means, in the midst of all their worldly callings, to pay some tribute in time and money to religion. And was it such a very foolish practice of our ignorant old forefathers, thus to bring the sanctuary into the very midst of the business of life?--was it a great proof of childish simplicity, to seek to sanctify the scenes of merchandize by the presence and teaching of Christianity? Is it indeed needful that the elements of our nature, spirit, soul, and body, should be rent asunder, and fed and nurtured in distinct and separate schools, until each one of us becomes almost conscious of two separate existences--the Sabbath-day life, within the church or meeting walls, and the week-day business life abroad in the world? Or shall the union be pronounced more beautiful and consonant with the laws of harmony, that carries the world into the sanctuary, and desecrates the house of God by the presence of sordid passions, crusted round the heart by daily exercise in the great marts of commerce, or in the intercourse of political or even social life, that not the one day's rest in seven, spent in listening to some favourite theologian's intellectual teachings of doctrinal truths, or controversial dogmas, can suffice to rub off, to purify, or make clean? A market-cross and priest may not be the remedies for this disease of later times, but they were outer symbols of the reality needed--Christianity, to be carried out into the every-day actions of the world, mingling with the dealings of man with man, master and workman, capitalist and consumer,--that there may no longer exist those monstrous anomalies that are to be met with in almost every phase of society in this Christian land, among a people professing to be guided by the light of "Truth," to walk according to the law of "Charity," and to obey the precept, "Love thy neighbour as thyself."

But the busy hands of zealous reformers long since began their work upon this little outward expression of "superstition;" the priest disappeared, the crucifixes fell beneath the murmurs of "_true Protestants_," and the oratory was transferred to the "masters, and searchers, and sellers of leather;" but, in process of time, falling to decay, the little monument was pulled down, and all traces of its existence obliterated from the scene of its former dominion.

And now a word upon manufactures. The great parent of English looms, and English weavers of wool, claims it; the city, that has for centuries robed the priesthood of Christendom in its camlets; that has invented crapes, and bombazines, and paramattas, to clothe one-half of the world in the sable "livery of woe;" that has draped the fair daughters of every clime in the graceful folds of its far-famed "filover;" that has in later years shod the feet of no small proportion of the nation's population; whose every court and alley echoes the throw of the shuttle and rattle of the loom; whose every cellar and hovel has its winding frame for childhood and old age to earn their mite upon; whose garrets pour forth their pale sickly wool-combers, with faces blanched by the fumes of charcoal; that has its districts of "cord-wainers," and colonies of "binders;" its hidden timber-yards, where thousands of square feet are rapidly being transformed into "vestas" and "lucifers," and "silent lights;" and its tall factories, whose heaped-up stories send down their streams of human working bees, from the cells of their monster queen, the steam-engine, and the task of making produce to supply the rich man's wants--has, we say, a claim upon us in her character of a manufacturing place. The venerable city, once the summit of the pyramid of our nation's commercial glory, stands no longer in isolated grandeur, the mistress of trade, but for long has had to look up at a vast mass of capital and labour, accumulated above her head by the energies and activities of younger rivals. India has gorged with its raw material the markets once fed with the wool of home-grown sheep, and cotton towns have risen up and outgrown the old woollen mart of the country. Fashion and its fluctuations, machinery and its progressions, iron and coal in their partial distribution, have each and all helped to lay the head of the mighty low; but there is strong vitality left within her--powerful talents and great resources; she is even now rising from the lethargy that had crept over her. Would our space permit, how fain would we trace the workings yet going on in her midst: the progress of the shearer's wool from the wool-sack to the rich brocaded cashmere; through its "combing" with irons heated over charcoal furnaces, that poison the atmosphere around, and shorten the lives of the operatives engaged in it, forsooth, because the foreman of the manufactory has a perquisite of selling charcoal,--thence to the huge factory with giant engines, and labyrinths of spinning-wheels; away, again, to the spider-looking winding-frame, that children and old women may turn to help to fill the shuttles of the abler workers at the loom; thence to the dyers, and then to the loom itself, where manhood, youth, and woman's feebler strength alike find exercise and room for labour. How many histories have been woven into the fabric--what tears or smiles have cast their light or shade upon the tints,--what notes of harmony or love, or wailings of sorrow and sickness have echoed the shuttle's throw,--how many tales of stern heart griefs, pining wants, wasting penury, or disease, are wrapped in the luxurious folds that minister to the comfort and enjoyment of the unconscious wearer.

But we dare not tarry amid these scenes, richly fraught as they may be with subject for graphic sketching; we may not pause to visit the great gatherings in factory chambers, or linger amongst the home labours of the industrious artisan; can barely hint at traits of heroism, lives of gentle loving duty going on amid the rattling noise of looms that trench upon the narrow limits of the sick bed; deeds of good Samaritanism that grace the weary weaver's home, or dwell upon the Christian lessons they have power to teach. If the anatomy of a manufacturing city does revolt the senses and sensibilities in the pictures of suffering and poverty it seldom fails to abound with, there is yet much beauty in the deep, earnest, truthful poetry to be read in the page it lays open. Mary Barton is no fiction; scarce a district in a manufacturing province that could not furnish a heroine like her; nor need we, perhaps, look to the other side of the Atlantic, to find the prototype of "Uncle Tom."

There is little doubt that woollen manufactures of some kind existed in this neighbourhood from a very early period. Sheep were here in great abundance, and as soon as there were ships to send them in, were exported to other countries from these parts. Doomsday Book mentions numerous "sheep-walks," covering many acres of ground; whether these "walks" comprised such lands as we now term "meadows or pastures," is not explained, but most probably such is the interpretation to be put upon the term, and _not_, as at first sight might seem to be implied, that the sheep had narrow strips of "esplanade," or promenade, all to themselves, upon which they marched up and down in regimental order. About these same sheep it has been said, in these our times, that there exists strong presumptive evidence that the fine Spanish "merino" is a lineal descendant of the family, and that the wool now imported as of foreign extraction, is literally and truly the growth of the offspring of respectable English forefathers, some members of whose domestic circle were honoured by being made presents of to Spanish princes by the sovereign of England, in the days when the office and title of shepherd was coveted by nobles in that country. The hypothesis we pretend not to establish, so "revenons _a nos_ moutons."

The preparing of wool was a favourite occupation of the British ladies of rank; and soon after the settlement of the Romans, it is recorded by Dionysius Alexandrinus, that "the wool of Britain was often spun so fine, that it was in a manner comparable to a spider's thread." The mother of Alfred is described as being skilled in the spinning of wool, and busied in training her daughters to similar occupations. The advent of the various workmen who followed in the train of the conqueror from Normandy, caused fresh energy to be infused into this, as all other branches of manufactures; but the main stimulus was given by a colony of Dutch, who, driven from their own country by inundations in the reign of Henry the First, crossed the channel, and selecting the convenient promontory of Norfolk, settled themselves down at a little village called _Worsted_, about thirteen miles from Norwich, whence the name of the wool first spun there by them.

In the reign of Stephen the woollen manufactures were so flourishing in many large towns, that the merchants petitioned for power to form themselves into distinct guilds or corporations,--the earliest development of the principle of joint stock companies, borrowed by the Normans from the free cities of Italy, where trade and manufactures had long flourished, and where this combination of mercantile influence had been employed by the Roman monarchs as a check upon the feudal power of the barons. The inconvenience, however, that attended the monopolies that sprung from this source were soon manifest; and disturbances were continually arising, until free trade was in a measure restored. The sumptuary laws of Edward the Third, and the inducements held out by him to foreigners to settle in his dominions,--the fixing of the _staples_, that obliged all merchants to bring their wool and woollen cloths for sale to Norwich, forbidding any to offer such articles in any other part of Norfolk or Suffolk,--tended materially to the commercial prosperity of the city; but in the reign of Richard the Second, discontent spread itself throughout the working population of the kingdom, and the insurrection of Wat Tyler was followed by an open rebellion in Suffolk, when 80,000 men marched upon Norwich, and committed divers acts of devastation and plunder, headed by John Litester, a dyer. This, united to the jealousies that existed between the native and foreign artisans, caused a decline in the local manufactures for some time. In Elizabeth's reign they revived, through the invitation given to the Dutch and Walloons, then fleeing from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva. By the advice of the Duke of Norfolk, thirty of these, all experienced workmen, were invited to attend in Norwich, each bringing with him ten servants, to be maintained at the expense of the duke. These speedily multiplied, until their number exceeded five thousand. No matter of surprise, therefore, is it that the Old City retains so many quaint traces of Flemish taste and Flemish architecture, or that strangers, one and all, should be struck with the peculiarly foreign outline of its quaint old market-place. Soon after the settlement of these strangers in the neighbourhood, new articles of manufacture were introduced; in addition to the "worsteds," "saies," and "stamins," hitherto the sole articles of commerce, and the admixture of mohair and silk with the wool, produced a total change in the quality of the goods. Bombazine, that staple "mourning garb," was the first result of the experiments made in silk and wool combined. The ladies of Spain were thenceforth supplied with the material for that indispensable article of their costume, the mantilla. Camlets, too, were woven for the religious orders of priests and monks, as also calimancoes, tabinets, brocaded satins, florettes, and damasks, of which the legends of our grandmothers, and occasionally their wardrobes, bear trace; crape, the celebrated Norwich crape, now almost a forgotten fabric, was of later invention; but its fame is chronicled in Ministerial mandates during Walpole's administration, 1721, when court mourning was ordered to consist of nothing but that pre-eminent material. Long since, the paramatta cloth has superseded both bombazine and Norwich crape; nor must we be unmindful that this superfine invention owes its origin to the skill and ingenuity of a manufacturer of the same city. Shawls of every variety have held a prominent place among the manufactures; indeed, may be considered as nominally the staple produce of the Norwich looms, though in reality such is not the fact, an infinite variety of materials, bearing as many new and fashionable titles, being in truth the result of the labour of its artisans, silk--satins, brocades, alpaccas, bareges, and many more; and of late years the shoe manufactory has so vastly increased, that it may fairly take a place henceforth among the constituents of the "fame" of the capital of Norfolk. It may not be out of place here also to give some little sketch of the rise and progress of that most important of all inventions and arts, printing, in these particular parts,--more especially as William Caxton, the first English printer, was one of the agents, and a principal one, in opening the commerce between this country and Flanders in 1464, when that port was appointed a staple for English goods as well as Calais, a measure fraught with immense advantages to the manufacturing districts of the country, and of course pre-eminently to this city. When he, the mercer's apprentice, first stamped the "merchants' mark" upon his master's bales, he little thought that by this same process of stamping, carried forward by the ingenuity of many men into a new art, the whole aspect of the world's history would be changed. The origin of these distinctive "marks," still to be seen engraved on brasses, painted in church windows, and here and there carved on the doors and panels of old houses, is about as obscure as most of the other customs of those ages. They were undoubtedly used to distinguish the property of one merchant from another; and if their owners gave money towards the building or restoration of churches, their marks were placed in the windows, in honour of their liberality. Similar marks are to this day used by some of the merchants of Oporto and Lisbon, stamped upon their pipes of wine. Their forms seemed to depend on fancy, but a certain geometrical precision pervaded all; sometimes they were composed of a circle with a cross, or a shield with crosses laid over each other, of angles of every possible direction grouped into a figure, now and then the figure of a bird or animal added, but each differing essentially from every other, that it may retain its distinctive characteristics. Printing, however, though introduced into this country by Caxton, was for some centuries seldom, if ever, practised, save in London and the two universities. To the Dutch and Walloons, who came over at the invitation of Elizabeth, is ascribed its first introduction in this city. In 1568, a Dutch metrical version of the Psalms was issued from the press. No great progress, however, would seem to have been made during the next century, but in 1736 was printed anonymously the "Records of Norwich," containing the monuments of the cathedral, the bishops, the plagues, friars, martyrs, hospitals, &c., in two parts, price three halfpence each; and in 1738, an "Authentic History of the Ancient City of Norwich, from its Foundation to its Present State, &c. (the like not extant), by Thomas Eldridge, T.C.N., printed for the author in St. Gregory's ch. yd., where may be had neat Jamaica rum, fine brandy, Geneva and cordial waters, all sorts of superfine snuffs and tobaccos at the lowest price!!!" This work, the author presumes, from its bulk (thirty-two pages), to be the "_completest work ever yet published_." Alas for the literature of the day! From this period, however, Norwich kept pace with other places; a newspaper had been established even earlier, a quarto foolscap, at a penny a number. Among the advertisements from this "_Gazette_" bearing date July 16, 1709, are these--

"This is to give notice to all persons in the city, that right over
against the three Feathers in St. Peter's of Hungate, there is one
lately come from London, who teacheth all sorts of Pastry and
Cookery, all sorts of jellies, creams, and pickles, also all sorts of
Collering and Potting, and to make rich cakes of all sorts, and
everything of that nature. She teaches for a crown down, and a crown
when they are fully learned, that her teaching so cheap may encourage
very many to learn."

June 5, 1708.

"Mr. Augustine de Clere, of Norwich Thorpe, have now very good malt
for retail as he formerly had; if any of his customers have a mind to
take of him again, they shall be kindly used with good malt, and as
cheap as any body sell.--You may leave your orders with Mr. John de
Clere, Hot-presser, living right over the Ducking stool, in St.
Martin's of the palace of Norwich."

Among the Queries from Correspondents occur the following--

Norwich Gazette, April 9, 1709.

"Mr. Crossgrove,

You are desired to give an answer to this question, 'Did the soul
pre-exist in a separate state, before it came into the body, as many
learned men have thought it did; and as that question in the ninth
chapter of St. John's gospel seems to insinuate. Your answer to this
query will very much oblige your constant customer, T. R."

This query is replied to at some length satisfactorily by Mr. Crossgrove.

This department of the paper is headed "The Accurate Intelligencer," and in its columns are sundry other rather peculiar interrogatories, such as--

"Mr. Crossgrove,

Pray tell me where Moses was buried, and you will very much oblige
your constant customer, B. S."

Answer.

"Mr. B. S.

_He tells you himself_ that no man knew it, even when he could not
have been long buried; as you may see in the last chapter of
Deuteronomy; from whence, Sir, you may infer, that if it was a secret
so early, 'tis certainly so still. Your humble servant, H. C."

Another rich specimen runs--

Lynn, May 18, 1709.

"Mr. Crossgrove,

Did the Apostles use notes when they preached? I have sent this
Query twice before, and if I do not find it answered in your next
paper, I shall conclude you either cannot or durst not answer it.

Yours unknown, &c."

Answer

"Sir,

I have a bushel of letters by me that came all to the same tune with
this of yours, viz. _You cannot or durst not answer it_; but
sometimes they see I dare do it, tho' I neglect other letters more
pertinent through want of room: I have a dozen letters come in a
week, all post haste for an answer, and seldom room to insert more
than one at a time, so that many must of necessity lye by. But now
for your dreadful puzzling question, Did the Apostles use notes? and
to this I answer positively _No_, nor Bibles neither to hide their
notes in; take notice of that; nor had they pulpits to stand in as
ever I heard of, and we may observe from their sermons they took no
texts: and what then? What would you infer from all this? The
Apostles also never studied their sermons, for they had an
extraordinary gift of preaching, as well as of speaking. But I shall
say no more to your designing question than this--That those divines
who read their sermons know how to improve their time much better
than in getting them like schoolboys by heart; and that a good polite
discourse well read, is more worthy than a Bundle of what comes
uppermost tumbled out Head and Heels.

Yours, H. C."

Well done, Mr. Crossgrove! say we.

In 1714, a "Courant" was established, small folio size: at the end of one occurs this notice--

"Note. An Accident happening, the reader is desired to pardon all
_literal_ errors, as it is not corrected."

Papers of somewhat later date afford samples almost as quaint:--Advertisement. "James Hardy acquaints his friends, that he has lately had a large quantity of preserves. I shall be very happy to supply any gentleman with coals." "Notice is hereby given that on Thursday and Friday next, being sixth and seventh of June, 1734, a coach and horses will set out for London, from Mr. Thomas Bateman's, St. Giles, and perform the same in three days. Note, the coach will go either by Newmarket or Ipswich, as the passengers shall agree." They certainly had _one_ advantage over railway travellers of the present day--that they could choose their own route.

Another specimen runs--"Whereas Mrs. Cooke at the pastry shop near the three steps has charged Mrs. Havers with embezzling to the quantity of two yards of padashway, out of her suit of clothes turned upside down two years since, and made at first for a much less person; the clothes having been viewed by several mantua makers, the same appears to be a most malicious slander," &c.

Specimens might be multiplied, but these may suffice to place beside the elaborate and ornate productions of this present year 1853, to see what a century has done in orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody.

It must have been rather more than twenty years after the first establishment of a local newspaper, that the Rev. Francis Blomefield, the great historian of the county, first commenced printing his elaborate "Topographical Essay," a work of five volumes folio, the materials for which he is said to have begun to collect when only fifteen years of age. Many beyond the limits of the locality more especially intended to profit by this laborious undertaking, may feel interested in the facts connected with its progress, contributing so much as they do to give a correct idea of the difficulties attending the path of an author little more than a century ago.

Blomefield was rector of the parish of Fersfield, in which also he was born; in the summer months he was in the habit of making excursions in search of materials for his work, and to test the accuracy of information he had gained, by a method he had adopted, in furtherance of his object, of distributing "queries," to be filled up with answers concerning any historical or antiquarian subjects that may be known to the parties applied to. In reference to this plan, he says himself, in a letter to a friend, "It is impossible to tell you what great helps have come in by my queries: sometimes having twenty or thirty sheets, besides books, letters, records and papers for a single hundred;" (alluding to the divisions of the county into hundreds).

It was after one of his collating rambles that he finally determined to issue proposals for printing his work; and meeting with much encouragement, he speedily looked about for a suitable printing establishment. In a letter to Mr. Chase, a printer who lived next door to "John o' all sorts," Cockey Lane, Norwich, on the 1st of July, 1733, he says, "I have endeavoured to procure a set of Saxon types, but cannot do it; and upon looking over my book find a good number of Greek inscriptions, some Hebrew words, and some Gothic. So that I must print it in London; it being impossible to have those types any where in the country (!). I wish heartily I could have done it with you; for I like your terms, and could have been glad to have corrected the press myself, which I then could easily have done."

Eventually he decided upon printing the work upon his own premises, and engaged a good workman, at a salary of 40 pounds a year, bought a press for 7 pounds, and fitted up a printing office with all the requisite materials. The account in the papers of the "Archaeological Society," goes on to say, "At that time, distance and difficulties of intercourse made any want of punctuality most annoying, and the plan of printing at home involved the necessity of a great variety of type and other materials. Meanwhile type founders, stationers, and engravers, were but too much given to weary him with delay, or to disgust him with fraud. Beginning a correspondence with frankness and civility, he often had to continue it, urging and reiterating entreaties of attention--alternately coaxing compliance with 'half a piece' to drink his health and success to his work, or with 'promise of making amends,' or a 'fowl at Christmas,' or rebuking with reluctant severity, resulting more from devotedness to his object, than anger or bitterness. A facetious engraver, who was introduced to him, and invited to his house to assist him, after remaining there three weeks, agreed for a large portion of the work, and cut several of the things, all which he ran away with. Other vexations sprang out of the patronage and assistance he most valued; but, after many interruptions, the first edition of a part of the book was brought out in 1736."

In the midst of his labours, however, he was cut off by that virulent enemy, the small pox, on the 15th January, 1751, at the age of forty-six. His work was continued by the Rev. Charles Parkens, of whom a curious anecdote is related;--its accuracy we do not pretend to vouch; the tale runs that Mr. Parkens had a tame magpie, which had access to her master's study, and seeing him busily employed in folding and unfolding the packets that lay before him on his desk, she thought it no harm to be busy too, until from time to time she flew away _with the __whole borough of Yarmouth_. Many of the parcels, it is added, were recovered, but others irrecoverably lost.

"I know not how the truth may be,
But tell the tale as 'twas told to me."

With this cursory glance at the work of the great historian of the district, we close our chapter on the subjects suggested by the "Old Market-place." The sketches have been necessarily superficial, but they afford proof that its chronicles include a variety of matter and incident that may interest almost every class of mind.