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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33724-0.txt b/33724-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..585bc3b --- /dev/null +++ b/33724-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8714 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Rambles in an Old City, by S. S. Madders + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Rambles in an Old City + comprising antiquarian, historical, biographical and political associations + + +Author: S. S. Madders + + + +Release Date: September 14, 2010 [eBook #33724] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMBLES IN AN OLD CITY*** + + +Transcribed from the 1853 Thomas Cautley Newby edition by David Price, +email ccx074@pglaf.org + + [Picture: Norwich street scene] + + + + + + Rambles in an Old City; + + + COMPRISING + + ANTIQUARIAN, HISTORICAL, + + BIOGRAPHICAL AND POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS + + By S. S. Madders. + + * * * * * + + LONDON: + Thomas Cautley Newby, + 30, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. + + MDCCCLIII. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +It has been very aptly remarked by a recent writer, that “to send forth a +work without a preface, is like thrusting a friend into the society of a +room full of strangers, without the benefit of an introduction;” a custom +that no _fashion_ can redeem from the charge of incivility. A book, +however insignificant, grows beneath the author’s pen, to occupy a place +in his regard, not unworthy the title of friendship; and as that sacred +bond of social union is not dependent upon individual perfection, so the +companion of many a solitary hour is not to be cast out upon the “wide, +wide world,” without one word to secure it at least a gentle reception, +be its faults as manifold and manifest as they may, even to the most +partial eye. + +The design of this little book of “Rambles,” has been to concentrate into +the form of a light and amusing volume, some few of the many subjects of +interest suggested by the leading features of an “Old City.” It makes no +pretensions to any profound learning or deep research. It is little more +than a _compilation_ of facts, interwoven with the history of one of the +oldest cathedral and manufacturing cities of our country; but inasmuch as +the general features are common to most other ancient cities, and many of +the subjects are national and universal in their character, the outlines +are by no means strictly local in their application or interest. + +Whether the design has been carried out, in a way at all worthy of the +hale old city of Norwich, that has served as “the text of the discourse,” +remains to be proved; but the attempt to contribute to the light +literature of the day a few simple gleanings of fact, as gathered by a +stranger, during a ten years’ residence in a “strange land,” will, it is +to be hoped, secure a lenient judgment for the inexperience that has +attempted the task. + +The sources of information from which the historical parts of the work +have been derived, are such as are open to every ordinary student; its +light character has precluded the introduction of notes of reference, but +it would amount to downright robbery to refrain from acknowledging the +copious extracts that have been made from the valuable papers of the +Norfolk Archæological Society. + +For the kind assistance of the few individuals from whom information has +been sought, many thanks are due; and it is but just to state, that all +deficiences of matter or details, that may probably be felt by many, more +familiar than the writer herself with the persons, places, and things, +that make the sum and substance of her work, are referable alone to the +difficulty she has experienced in selecting suitable materials to carry +out her design, from the abundance placed at her disposal; a tithe of +which might have converted her “rambles” into a heavy, weary “march,” +along which few might have had patience to accompany her. + +To these few observations must be subjoined an expression of earnest and +heartfelt thanks to the many liberal-minded individuals who have extended +encouragement to this feeble effort of a perfect stranger. That some +portion or other of the contents of her little volume may be found worthy +their acceptance, is the fervent desire of + + THE AUTHORESS. + +NORWICH, + January 1, 1853. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + CHAP. I. +INTRODUCTION PAGE + 1 + CHAP. II. +THE CATHEDRAL 14 + CHAP. III. +THE CASTLE 62 + CHAP. IV. +THE MARKET-PLACE 117 + CHAP. V. +THE GUILDHALL 179 + CHAP. VI. +PAGEANTRY 227 + CHAP. VII. +SUPERSTITIONS 282 + CHAP. VIII. +CONVENTUAL REMAINS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 311 + +ERRATA. {0} + + +Page 7, line 15, _for_ “these,” _read_ “those.” + +„ 8, line 10, _for_ “querus,” _read_ “querns.” + +„ 37, line 16, for “veriest,” _read_ “various.” + +„ 59, lines 24 and 26, _for_ “Hoptin,” _read_ “Hopkin.” + +„ 64, line 8, _for_ “spirit—powers,” _read_ “spirit-powers.” + + + + + + CHAPTER I. + INTRODUCTION. + + +Who that has ever looked upon the strange conglomerations of architecture +that line the thoroughfares of an ancient city, bearing trace of a touch +from the hand of every age, from centuries far remote,—or watched the +busy scenes of modern every-day life, surrounded by solemnly majestic, or +quaintly grim old witnesses of our nation’s’ infancy,—but has felt the +Poetry of History that lies treasured up in the chronicles of an “Old +City?” + +We may not all be archæologists, we may many of us feel little sympathy +with the love of accumulating time-worn, moth-eaten relics of ages passed +away, still less may we desire to see the resuscitation of dead forms, +customs or laws, which we believe to have been advances upon prior +existing institutions, living their term of natural life in the season +appointed for them, and yielding in their turn to progressions more +suited to the growing wants of a growing people; but there are few minds +wholly indifferent to the associations of time and place, or that are not +conscious of some reverence for the links connecting the present with the +past, to be found in the many noble and stupendous works of ancient art, +yet lingering amongst us, massive evidences of lofty thoughts and grand +conceptions, which found expression in the works of men’s hands, when few +other modes existed of embodying the imaginations of the mind. + +It is not now my purpose to draw comparisons between the appeals thus +made through the outward senses to the spirituality of our nature, and +the varied other and more subtle means employed in later days, to awaken +our feelings of veneration and devotion, but it may be observed in +passing, that amid the floods of change that have swept across our +country’s history, it is scarcely possible but that some good should have +been lost among the débris of decayed and shattered institutions. We +have now to take a sweeping glance at the general outline of the place +that has been chosen as the nucleus from which to spin our web, of light +and perhaps fanciful associations. A desultory ramble through the +streets and bye-ways of an old city, that owns six-and-thirty parish +churches, the ghosts of about twenty more defunct, the remains of four +large friaries and a nunnery, some twenty or thirty temples of worship +flourishing under the divers names and forms of “dissent,” two Roman +branches of the Catholic Church, a Jewish synagogue, a hospital, museum, +libraries, and institutions of every possible name, and “refuges” for +blind, lame, halt, deaf, “incurable,” and diseased in mind, body, or +estate; that is sprinkled with factories, bounded by crumbling ruins of +old rampart walls, and studded with broken and mutilated bastion +towers,—brings into view a series of objects so heterogeneous in order +and character, that to arrange the ideas suggested by them to the mind or +memory, is a task of no slight difficulty. + +The great “lions” of interest to one, may rank the very lowest in the +scale of another’s imagination or fancy. The philosopher, the poet, the +philanthropist, the antiquarian, the utilitarian, the man of the world, +and the man of the day, each may choose his separate path, and each find +for himself food for busy thought and active investigation. + +The archæologist may indulge his love of interpreting the chiselled +finger-writing of centuries gone by, upon many a richly decorated page of +sculpture, and, hand in hand with the historian and divine, may trace out +the pathway of art and religion, through the multiform records of genius, +devotional enthusiasm, taste, and beneficence, chronicled in writings of +stone, by its ecclesiastical remains; he may gratify himself to his +heart’s content with “vis-à-vis” encounters with grim old faces, grinning +from ponderous old doorways, or watching as sentinels over dark and +obscure passages, leading to depths impenetrable to outward vision, and +find elaborately carved spandrils and canopies, gracing the entrances of +abodes where poverty and labour have long since found shelter in the +cast-off habitations of ancient wealth and aristocracy. + +He may venture to explore cavernous cellars with groined roofings and +piers that register their age; may make his way through moth-corrupted +storehouses of dust and lumber; to revel in the grandeur of some old +“hall,” boasting itself a relic of the domestic architecture of the days +of the last Henry, and there lose himself in admiration of old mullioned +windows, tie-beams, and antique staircases; may ferret out old cabinets +and quaint old buffets hard by, that once, perchance, found lodging in +the “Stranger’s Hall,” as it is wont, though erringly, to be designated; +he may wander thence through bye lanes and streets, stretching forth +their upper stories as if to meet their opposite neighbours half way with +the embrace of friendship; over the plain, memorable as the scene of +slaughter in famous Kett’s rebellion, to the “World’s End;” and see amid +the tottering ruins of half demolished pauper tenements, the richly +carved king-posts and beams of the banquet chamber of the famous knight, +Sir Thomas Erpingham, whose martial fame and religious “heresy” have +found a more lasting monument than the perishable frame-work of his +mansion-house, in the magnificent gateway known by his name, and raised +in commemoration of his sin of Lollardism. He may accompany the +philanthropist in his visit to the “Old Man’s Hospital,” and mourn over +the misappropriation of the nave and chancel of fine old St. Helen’s, +where lies buried Kirkpatrick, a patriarch of the tribe of antiquaries; +he may visit the grammar school that has sent forth scholars, divines, +warriors, and lawyers; a Keye, a Clarke, an Earle, {5} a Nelson, and a +Rajah Brooke, to spread its fame in the wide world. He may see in it a +record of the days when grammar was forbidden to be taught elsewhere; he +may peep through the oriels that look in upon the charnel-house of the +ancient dead beneath; may feast his eyes upon the beauties of the +Erpingham, and strange composite details of the Ethelbert gateways; +explore the mysteries of the Donjon, or Cow Tower; and following the +windings of the river past the low archway of the picturesque little +ferry, find himself at length stumbling upon some fragment of the old +“_Wall_.” Thence he may trace the ancient frontier line of the Old City, +and the sites of its venerable gateways, that _were_, but _are not_; the +flintwork of the old rampart, now clinging to the precipitous sides of +“Butter Hills,” with an old tower at the summit, mounted, sentinel-like, +to keep watch over the ruins of the Carrow Abbey, and the alder cars, +that gave it its name in the valley below; now, following a broken +course, here and there left in solitude for wild creepers and the rare +indigenous carnation to take root upon; now bursting through +incrustations of modern bricks and mortar, and showing a bastion tower, +with its orifices ornamented by spread-eagle emblems of the stone-mason’s +craft in the precincts below; here, forming the back of slaughter-houses, +or the foundations of some miserable workshop, fashioned from the rubble +of its sides; thence wandering on through purlieus of wretchedness and +filth that might shake the nerves of any more vulnerable bodies than +“paving commissioners” or “boards of health;” its arched recesses, once +so carefully defined, its elevated walks, so studiously preserved for +recreation as well as for defence, all now rendered an indefinite +disfigured mass, with accretions of modern growth, that bear the stamp +upon every feature of their parentage, poverty and decay. He may visit +barns and cottages with remnants of windows and doorways, that make it +easy to believe they once had been the shrine of a St. Mary Magdalen; may +trace out for himself, among hovels and cellars, and reeking court-yards, +grey patches of festering ruin, last lingering evidences of the age of +conventual grandeur; here, in the priory yard of a parish, that might be +said to shelter the offscum of poverty’s heavings up, he shall find a +little ecclesiastical remnant of monastic architecture, converted into a +modern meeting-house; the nursery walls that cradled the genius of a +Bale, the carmelite monk, and great chronicler of his age, now echoing +the doctrines of the “Reformed Religion,” as taught by the Anabaptist +preacher. In another district, but still skirting on the river-side, +where those old monks ever loved to pitch their dwelling-places, down in +a dreary little nook, shut out from noisy thoroughfares, and bearing +about it all the hushed stillness that beseems the place, he may seek the +ghostly companionship of the old “friar of orders grey” in the lanes and +walks that once bounded the flourishing territory of the rich “mendicant” +followers of holy St. Francis, or “friars minors,” as they were wont to +call themselves. Not far distant, the whereabouts of the old Austin +Friars may invite attention; and the locale of the “Carrow Nunnery,” or +ladies’ seminary of the mediæval times, claim a passing enquiry, and note +of admiration for the beauty of its site. + +Sacred spots, consecrated by the holy waters of loving humanity and +gentle charity, in ages gone by, as the refuge of the diseased leper and +homeless poor, shall be pointed to as the mustard-seed from whence have +sprung those glorious monuments of our land, the hospitals for the sick +of these later generations. + +Nor would he rest content without a glimpse of the Museum and its relics +of the dead, its hieroglyphical urns and querns, spurs, fibulæ, and +celts, its pyxes and beads, its lamps and coins, that lead imagination +back to pay domiciliary visits to the wooden huts, earthen +fortifications, and sepulchral hearths of our Icenic, Roman, or Saxon +forefathers, while gaping Egyptian mummies stand by, peering from their +wizened-up eye-balls at the industrious student of the “gallery of +antiquities,” looking wonder at the preference displayed for them, over +the more brilliant attractions offered to the lover of natural history, +and ornithology in particular, among the collections below. + +Nor shall the antiquarian be alone in his enjoyment. The botanist shall +delight to enrich his herbarium from the same hedgerows, fir-woods, +cornfields and rivulets, that have yielded flowers, mosses, hepatica, and +algæ to the researches of a Smith, a Hooker, and a Lindley, the children +of science nurtured on its soil. The lover of music shall find fresh +beauties in the harmonies of its organs, quires, and choruses, from the +halo of associations cast around them by the memories of a Crotch, the +remembrance of the Gresham professorship, filled from the musical ranks +of the city, and may be, in time to come from a new lustre added by +another name, that has begun to be sounded forth by the trumpet of fame +in the musical world. + +The scholar and literary man shall acknowledge the interest claimed by +the nursery in which has been reared a Bale, a Clarke, a Parker, a +Taylor, a Gurney, an Opie, and a Borrow, and we may add, a Barwell and a +Geldart, whose fruit and flowers, scattered on the way-side of the roads +of learning, have made many a rough path smooth to young and tender feet. + +The philanthropist shall dwell upon the early lessons of Christian love +and humanity breathed into the heart of a Fry from its prison-houses, and +the silent teachings of the quiet meeting-house, where the brethren and +sisters, in simple garb of sober gray, are wont to assemble, and where +yet may still be seen the adopted sister Opie, resting in the autumn of +her days in the calm seclusion of the body of Friends, after a life spent +in scattering abroad in the world, germs of simple truth, pure morality, +and heart-religion, the fruits of the genius which has been her gift from +God. He shall visit Earlham Hall, the birthplace of that great “sister +of charity,” Elizabeth Fry, and her brother, the philanthropist, Joseph +John Gurney, and beneath its avenues of chestnut, by the quiet waters of +its little lake, and the banks of bright anemones, that lay spread like a +rich carpet, in the early spring time, along its garden borders, inhale +sweet odours, and drink in refreshing draughts of pure unsullied poetry, +fresh from the fount of _nature_, and fragrant with the love that +breathes through all her teachings, the first child of the Great Parent +of good. + +Hence he may trace his way back through the village hamlet, that gave a +home in his last years to the weary-hearted Hall, yielding a refuge and a +grave to the head bowed beneath the weight of a sorrow-burthened mitre; +and with hearts yet vibrating to the mournful cadences of woe, that swept +from his harp strings, forth upon the world from its saddened solitudes, +they may pass on to the garden of the Bishop’s Palace, and the monuments +yet lingering there; ivy-clad ruins, meet emblems of harsh realities, +over which the hand of time has thrown the sheltering mantle of +forgiveness. And among the many chords touched by the hand of memory +here, where the shades of harsh bigotry and persecuting zeal vanish in +the gentle and softened light of Christian charity, breathed forth by the +spirits of later days, whose heart does not respond to the refined poetry +of the Charlotte Elizabeth, who has given such sweet paintings of this +familiar scene of her girlhood’s years? Who can forget the song of the +Swedish Nightingale, as it thrilled through the evening air upon the +listening ears of the ravished, though untutored multitude? happy +associations of the enjoyments of working world life, and lay minstrels +of God’s creation, to be blended with the grander, but scarce more +solemn, memories of the great heads among the labourers in the harvest +field of souls. Nor shall the poet forget to take a glimpse of the quiet +home, not far distant hence, of Sayer, the poet, philanthropist, +philosopher, and antiquarian, whose memory is still green in the hearts +of many of the great and good still living, and the remembrance of whose +friendship is esteemed by them among their choicest treasures. + +The historian has a yet wider field for labour, and a busier work to do, +to connect into one chain the links that lie scattered far and wide, +among deserted thoroughfares, decaying mansion houses, desecrated +churches, and monastic ruins; to gather up the broken fragments of +political records, enshrined in many a mouldering parchment, crumbling +stone, or withered tree; and to weave into a whole the threads of +tradition and legendary lore, unravelled from the mystic fables of +antiquity. It is his, to trace the identities of King Gurgunt and the +Danish Lothbroc; to establish the founder of the castle, and commemorate +the achievements of its feudal lords; upon him the duty of sifting +evidence, and searching out causes, of tracing the famous “Kett’s +rebellion,” to the deep-seated sense of wrong in the hearts of the +people, that found expression in the vague predictions and mystical +prophecies of the Merlin of the district. + +It is for him to unfold the little germs of after-history, that he +treasured up in the kernels of such documents as he order addressed to +the county sheriff, to commit to prison those who refused to attend the +services of the established church; to trace the growth of the spirit +among the people, that opened the city gates to the army of the +“Parliament,” fortified its castle against royalist soldiers, and turned +its market-place into a place of execution for fellow-citizens, who dared +to espouse the cause of their king; to rescue from oblivion the gems that +were buried beneath the blows of the zealous puritan’s demolishing +hammer; to read in the nailed horseshoes, that surmount the doorways of +hundreds of its cottages, as a talisman against witchcraft, the legacy of +superstition bequeathed to their descendants by these earnest +“abolitionists;” to mark the _rise_ and _progress_ of the unfranchised +masses in this age of enlightened liberalism, and the deepening and +mellowed tone of the “voice of the people,” as it rises from the +chastened and self-disciplined homes of the educated and thriving +artisans. Upon him too, it devolves, to mark the age and the man—to see +the monuments of the great-hearted and liberal-minded of the days gone +by, in the hospitals, charities, and endowments, their munificence has +showered down, from the heights of prosperity, upon the depths of +poverty—to trace the progress of the philanthropist of later times, in +his house to house visits, and read statistics of his labours in the +renovated homes and gladdened hearts of thousands, thus lifted out from +the swamps of misery and crime, by the single hand of Christian +benevolence, stretched forth in sympathy; to mark the efforts of +legislation to remove causes that evil results may cease, to note the +patriotism of honest hearts, that would seek to level, if at all, by +lifting up the poor to that standard of moral and physical comfort, +beneath which the manhood of human nature has neither liberty nor room to +grow; and finally, it is his to cast into the treasury of his nation’s +history his gleanings among the bye-ways of a single city, no mean or +despicable bundle of facts, with which to enrich its stores. + +But we must tarry no longer to generalize with archæologist, poet or +historian; we have many storehouses to visit, where associations of +religion, poetry, and art, lie garnered up in rich abundance. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +THE CATHEDRAL. + + +THE CATHEDRAL.—_Forms_.—_Symbols_.—_Early history of the Christian +church_.—_Growth of superstition_.—_Influence of +Paganism_.—_Government_.—_Growth of the Papacy_.—_Monasticism_.—_St. +Macarius_.—_Benedict_.—_St. Augustine_.—_Hildebrand_.—_Celibacy of the +clergy_.—_Herbert of Losinga_, _founder of Norwich +Cathedral_.—_Crusades_, _their influence on Civilization_.—_Historical +memoranda_.—_Bishop Nix_.—_Bilney_.—_Bishop Hall_.—_Ancient religious +festivals_.—_Easter_.—_Whitsuntide_.—_Good Friday_.—“_Creeping to the +Cross_.”—_Paschal taper_.—_Legend of St. William_.—_Holy-rood +Day_.—_Carvings_.—_Origin of grotesque sculptures_.—_Old Painting_: _mode +of executing +it_.—_Speculatory_.—_Cloisters_.—_Anecdote_.—_Epitaph_.—_List of +Bishops_.—_Funeral of Bishop Stanley_. + +“What is a city?” “A city contains a cathedral, or Bishop’s see.” + +Such being the definition given us in one of those valuable literary +productions that we were wont in olden time to call Pinnock’s +ninepennies, and which have since been followed by dozens upon dozens of +series upon series, written by a host of good souls that have followed in +his wake, devoting themselves to the task of retailing homeopathic doses +of concentrated geography, biography, philosophy, astronomy, geology, and +all the other phies, nies, onomies, and ologies, that ever perplexed or +enlightened the brains of the rising generation; we adopt the term, in +memory of those so-called happy days of childhood, when its vague +mysticism suggested to our country born and school-bred pates a wide +field of speculation for fancy to wander in; a Cathedral and a Bishop’s +see being to us, in their unexplained nomenclature, figures of speech as +hieroglyphical as any inscription that ever puzzled a Belzoni or a +Caviglia to decipher. + +We have grown, however, to know something of the meaning of these terms; +and having lived to see a few specimens of real cathedrals and live +bishops, we are now quite ready to acknowledge the priority of their +claims upon our notice when rambling among the lions of an old city. + +We say old, but where is the cathedral not old? save and except a few +just springing into existence, evidences we would hope of a reaction in +the devotional tendencies of our nature, rising up once more through the +confused assemblage of churches and chapels, and meeting houses, reared +in honour of man’s intellect, sectarian _isms_; human deity in fact, with +its standard _freedom of thought_, under which the myriad diverse forms +of hero worshippers have rallied themselves, each with their own atom of +the broken statue of truth, that they may vainly strive _of their own +power_ to re-unite again into a perfect and harmonious whole. Setting +aside, however, these later efforts to regain something of the lofty +conceptions that can alone enter into the mind of a worshipper of God, +not man, we have to deal with the monuments of a past age yet left among +us, witnessing to the early life in the church, though not unmingled with +symptoms of disease, and marks of the progress of decay,—marks which are +indeed fearfully manifest in the relics existing in our country, that +bear almost equal traces of corruption and spiritual growth, each +struggling, as it were, for victory. Is there any one who can walk +through the lofty nave of a cathedral, and not feel _lifted up_ to +something? may be he knows not _what_; but the spirit of worship, of +adoration, is breathed on him as it were from the structure around him. +And should it not be so? does not the blue vault of heaven, with its +unfathomed ocean of suns and worlds, each moving in its own orbit, +obeying one common law of order and perfect harmony, call up our +reverence for the God of _Nature_? and has it ever been forbidden that +the heart and understanding should be appealed to through the medium of +the outward senses, for the worship of the God of _Revelation_? Is the +eye to be closed, the mouth dumb, the ear deaf, to all save the +intellectual teachings of a fellow man? Is _music_ the gift of heaven, +_colour_ born in heaven’s light, _incense_ the fragrance of the garden, +planted by God’s hand, _form_ the clothing of soul and spirit, to be +banished from the temple dedicated to the service of that living God, who +created the music of the bird, the waterfall, and the thunder, who +painted the rainbow in the window of heaven, who scented the earth with +sweet flowers, and herbs and “spicy groves,” who gave to each tree, each +leaf, each bird and flower, each fibre, sinew, and muscle of the human +frame, each crystal, and each gem of earth, each shell of the ocean’s +depths, each moss and weed that creeps around the base of hidden rocks, +even to the noisome fungus and worm that owes its birth alike to death +and to decay a material body, full of beauty and adaptation in all its +parts; revealing thus to man, that all thought, all life, all spirit, +must dwell within an outer covering of _form_. True, the spirit and life +may depart, the garment may cover rottenness and decay, the symbol may be +a dead letter, in the absence of the truth it should shadow forth, the +candle at the altar, be meaningless from the dimness of the light of the +spirit, that it should represent as ever living and present in the +church; the eagle of the reading-desk be a graven image, without place in +God’s temple, when the soaring voice of prophecy, rising above earth, and +fed from the living fire burning on heaven’s altar, that it should +symbolize, has ceased to be heard. Incense may be a mystic mockery, when +the prayers of the children of God have ceased to ascend in unison as a +sweet smelling savour to the throne of their Father; the swelling chant +be monotonous jargon, when the beauty and harmony of _one common voice_ +of praise, thanksgiving, and prayer, is not felt; the vestment be a mere +display of weak and empty vanity, when purity, activity, authority and +love, have ceased to be the realities expressed in the alb, the stole, +the crimson and purple, the gold and silver; the screen, a senseless mass +of carving, the long unbenched and empty nave, so much waste stone and +mortar, to those who see not in it the vast Gentile court, where the +voice of preaching and invitation was sent forth to sinners to enter the +temple and join in the _worship_ of _praise_ and _prayer_ of the _church +within_. + +Why are all these too often as cold and empty outlines of a nothing to +our senses? is it not that their life is gone? But should we therefore +cast away the fragments that remain? should we not rather desire that the +spirit may breathe upon the dry bones, that they may live again, and form +a new and living temple for the most High to dwell in; the outer edifice +of wood and stone, being the _model_ or _statue_ of that spiritual +church, of which every pillar, every window, every beam, and curtain, +should be formed of living members, with Christ for the foundation and +chief corner stone, to be built up and fashioned by the hand of God; +every sand or ash of truth that lies scattered over the surface of the +earthy being cemented together by bonds of love and charity, to form the +masonry of the one great Catholic Church. + +Such thoughts may be misunderstood, and bring down upon us, in these days +of Papal Aggression, anathemas from many a zealous reformationist, or +member of the heterogeneous Protestant Alliance, nay, perhaps every shade +of Protestant dissenter, evangelical churchman, and Puseyite, may shake +his head at us in pity, and wonder what we mean; we would say to the +last, beware of the _shadow_ without the _substance_, the _symbol_ +without the _truth_, the _emblem_ without the _reality_; and of the +others we would ask forbearance. Popery does not necessarily lurk +beneath the advocacy of _forms_. + +With such formidable prejudices as we may possibly have raised by these +suggestive hints, dare we hope to find companions in our visit to the +venerable pile of building, whose spire still rears itself from the +valley, where some eight hundred years ago, the foundations were laid of +one of those huge monastic institutions, combining secular with spiritual +power, once so common, and plentifully scattered over our country, and +even then grown into strange jumbling masses of error and truth, beauty +and deformity? the sole trace of whose grandeur is now to be found in the +church and cloister of a Protestant cathedral, and the palace of a +Protestant bishop. + +We must not, however, lose sight of the fact, that this edifice, in +common with most others, among which we have to seek the past history of +the church either at home or abroad, did not spring into existence until +almost every truth possessed by the early Christians was so hidden by +cumbrous masses of superstition, the growth of centuries of darkness, +that it is difficult, nay, almost impossible, to trace any harmony of +purpose in their outline or filling up; hence the inconsistencies that +have sprung from the efforts to revive the ornaments and usages of a +period when, the life having departed from them in a great measure, their +meaning had been lost, and their practice perverted; hence, too, the +folly often displayed by zealous ecclesiastical symbolists, in regarding +every monkey, dog, mermaid, or imp that the carvers of wood and stone +fashioned from their own barbarous conceits, or copied from the +illuminations that some old monk’s overheated brain had devised for +embellishment to some fanciful legend, as embodied ideas, to be +interpreted into moral lessons or spiritual sermons. + +Before, however, we enter into the detail of the remnants left us for +examination, we may take a glance over the page of the early history of +the church, and trace a little of the origin of those errors which had +grown around simple truths, converting them from beautiful realities into +monstrous absurdities. + +A moment’s reflection may suffice to enable us to believe that the +church, as planted by its first head and master, was a _seed_ to be +watered and nurtured by the apostles, prophets, and ministers appointed +to the work, and intended to have an outward growth of form, as well as +inward growth of spirituality. During the early period of its existence, +while suffering from the persecution of the Roman emperors, it was +impossible that the church could develop itself freely; consequently, we +are not surprised to find that “upper chambers,” and afterwards the tombs +and sepulchres of their “brethren in the faith,” perhaps, too, of their +risen Lord, were the places of meeting of its members. Nor is it +difficult to trace from this origin the later superstitious worship at +the shrines of the saints. + +As early, however, as the peaceful interval under Valerian and +Diocletian, when there was rest from persecution, houses were built and +exclusively devoted to worship; they were called _houses of prayer_, and +_houses of the congregation_. And the idea that the Christian church +should only be a nobler copy of the Jewish temple was then clearly +recognized, the outline being as nearly as possible preserved, and the +inner part of the church, where the table of the Lord’s Supper stood, +ever having been inaccessible to the common people; an idea that has in a +certain sort of way survived all the reformations, dissolutions, and +dissensions of sixteen hundred years; for do we not even yet see the +minister and _deacons_ of the most ultra-dissenting meeting-houses +appropriating to themselves the _table pew_? There has always seemed +something incongruous in the idea, that the minute instructions which God +himself thought it worthy to deliver unto Moses in the mount, for the +construction of a “tabernacle for the congregation,” and to contain the +ark of the covenant, which also formed a model for the gorgeous temple of +Solomon, should be doomed to entire annihilation at any period of the +world’s history. + +As Jewish sacrifices, laws, and covenants, were types, pictures, of the +embodiments to be found in the Christian dispensation, when the anti-type +had appeared, surely it is possible that the tabernacle too was a type of +a real building of living stones, then to be formed and fitly framed +together, and which might have its outward symbol in the edifices of +worship in all ages. We may not pause to dwell upon this idea, further +than it was recognized by the early Christians, of which clear proof +exists. + +For the nearest approach to a perfect development of it, we must look to +a later date, when Christianity was first adopted by Constantine, and +just prior to its alliance with the state; and although, from the lack of +authority in church government, errors had already crept in, and mingled +with many of the practices, we believe the modern copyist might find a +far more pure and perfect model there, than in the meaningless +observances and ornaments of the middle ages. + +Churches had then grown large and magnificent; they were divided into +three parts, the porch, the nave, and the sanctuary. In the nave stood +the pulpit—preaching at that time being considered the invitation, or +preparation for the _church_, whose duty was _worship_. It was divided +from the sanctuary by a _lattice work_, or screen, behind which was often +a veil before the holy table, which answered to the Holy of Holies of the +temple, and within it none but the priests entered. The baptistery was +usually situated without the church doors, and contained a fount, and a +reservoir for washing the hands was always to be found in the outer court +that enclosed all the buildings. Some writers have traced this to +heathen observances; if so, it without doubt _originated_ in the Jewish +practice. The service within the church was conducted with all the means +at command for rendering it complete. Music was cultivated—antiphonal +singing, or singing in responses, practised. The clergy wore vestments +symbolical of their offices, each form and colour having its significant +meaning. Candles were burning continually at the altar, as in the holy +place of the temple, symbolising God’s presence in the church. Every +part of the building was designed to form a proportionate whole, and the +principle of dedicating to the house of God the best works of men’s hands +was admitted, the embellishment of His temple being then deemed of +superior importance to the decoration of individual dwelling-houses. + +Transubstantiation had not polluted the table of the Lord by its +presence; the _mystery_ of the _spiritual_ presence of the Lord in the +Eucharist, appealing to _faith_, had not been replaced by the _miracle_, +directed to the carnal senses. Images had no place in the house of God, +picture worship was unknown. Confession of sins was practised, and +penances were imposed, as tests of the sincerity of repentance; at the +celebration of the Eucharist offerings were presented, in memory of the +dead who in their lives had offered gifts to God; fasting was observed, +but only from choice, and Sunday and the feast of Pentecost were the only +_festivals_ and holy-days observed. Gradually, however, after the +alliance of the church with the state, and through the accession of +converts from the heathen world, grosser elements mingled themselves with +these observances; the superstition that the spirits of the saints +hovered around the mortal remains they had tenanted, led to the removal +of their bodies from their tombs, and placing them within the walls of +the church, and to the erection of shrines, where, first to offer up +worship _with_ them, afterwards _to_ them. + +And who among us cannot feel the poetry and truth that gave birth to this +superstition? Who that has ever watched in the chamber of death the +bursting of the earthly chrysalis, has not felt the soft touch of the +spirit’s wing, has not been conscious of the presence of the +spiritualized immortal, has not recognized the fragrance of the soul +passing from its earthly habitation, and filling the air with the essence +of its life, as the sweet scent of the flower when its perfect fruition +has been accomplished, lingers around the leaves of the falling petals? + +Who that has ever witnessed the laying down of life in ripened age, by +some great and noble type of our humanity, in whose heart the lion and +the lamb, the eagle and the dove have dwelt together, but has seemed to +breathe an atmosphere laden with power and love, strength, beauty and +gentleness, as the spirit passed forth at the call of Him who gave it +birth? And who has ever seen the portals of the spirit world open before +them, for one in whom all earthly trust, and confidence, and love were +centred, but has felt that an angel guardian lived for them in Heaven? +Is there no plea for saint worship? But, alas! the poetry and the truth +of the superstition became clouded, and were lost in the dark mists of +ignorance and worldliness, and from their decay sprung up, like a fungus +plant, the noxious idea of the efficacy of reliques, with the monstrous +absurdities that accompanied their presence. Confession and penance +merged into the sale of indulgences, purchased absolutions, and +interdicts; the sleep of the dead, into a belief in purgatorial fires, +voluntary seclusion from the gaieties and follies of the world, into +forced separation from its active duties; saint worship, image worship, +and picture worship gradually usurped the place of the worship of the one +God; the cross, from a symbol grew into an idol, and emblems, vestments, +and incense, losing their character, from the reality departing, whose +presence they should only shadow forth, grew into mere accumulations of +ceremonial, covering a decayed skeleton. In this process it is easy to +trace the influence of Pagan superstition. As the heathen world +gradually became converted to Christianity, objects in the new faith were +sought out, around which to cluster the observances and rites of the old +system. Thus the worship offered to Cybele, the great mother of the +gods, who among the innumerable deities of ancient Rome was pre-eminent, +was readily transferred to the madonna, from a fancied resemblance, and +as Juno, Minerva, Vesta, Pan, and others, were the especial guardians of +women, olive trees, bakers, shepherds, &c. &c. So Erasmus, Teodoro, +Genaro, and other saints received homage as the peculiar patrons of +individuals or classes. The Genii, Lares, and Penates, occupying the +Larrarium of the ancient houses, were replaced, or oftener rebaptized +under the names of a madonna, saints or martyrs; the Emperor Alexander, +the son of Mammaea, actually placed the image of Christ in his Larrarium, +with his Lares and Penates. The _Sacrarium_ took its origin hence. The +Pagan had been accustomed to bring his _hostia_ as a _sacrifice_ to Jove; +the convert found opportunity to engraft the idea on the commemorative +service of the Eucharist. + +Meantime church government had been going on in a floundering sort of +way, groping about in the dark for authority on which to act, but having +lost the apostleship and prophets, set in the church to rule and guide +it, and to aid in the work of perfecting the saints, the pastors or +bishops set about establishing a system to replace that given them from +above—thence began divisions, schisms, and heresies without number, and +as early as the commencement of the third century, we find the bishops +holding synods as a means towards obtaining Catholic form of doctrine; +gradually the bishops in whose provinces these synods were held, who were +called metropolitans, took precedence in rank to others, and thus those +of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, came to be recognised as the heads or +chiefs. After the removal of the seat of empire by Constantine, this +principle extended itself in the western church at Rome, until the final +assumption of temporal and spiritual power over all Christendom by +Hildebrand, or Gregory VII., who, although not the first that bore the +title of Pope, was the first who thoroughly established the power of the +Papacy. + +Another important feature of Christianity during these ages, was the +progress of monasticism, which had steadily increased from the time of +Anthony the Hermit, who fleeing from the corruptions and vanities of the +world, had sought to prove and improve his sanctity, by retirement to a +solitary cell, there to practise all manner of self tortures; in this +laudable attempt he was followed by a host of others, each vying with his +brother, as to which could attain the highest perfection in extravagant +folly. Thus one lived on the top of a pillar, and was emulated by a +whole tribe of pillar saints; another punished himself for killing a +gnat, by taking up his abode in marshes where flies abounded, whose sting +was sufficient to pierce the hide of a boar, and whose operations upon +his person were such as to disfigure him so that his dearest friends +could not recognise him; another class, the ascetics, carried on their +rigid system of self-denial in the midst of society, others wandered +about as beggars, and were afterwards called mendicants, or wandering +friars; but the anchorets, or _pillar saints_, attained the ultimatum of +glory, in their elevation of sanctity on the top of their pillars. In +progress of time these hermits began to associate themselves into +fraternities; and as far back as the middle of the second century, we +hear of a body of seventy, establishing themselves in the deserts of +Nitria, by the Nitron lakes. It is told of St. Macarius, the head of +this body, that having received a bunch of grapes, he sent it to another, +who tasting one, passed it to another; he being like abstemious, sent it +again forward to another, until, having gone the circuit, it reached +Macarius again unfinished. + +Basil the Great first founded a permanent monastic establishment to +convert people from the error of Arianism; and Benedict, a native of +Mursia in Umbria, A.D. 529, first established a regular order among the +scattered convents, by uniting them under a fixed circle of laws, +seclusion for life being the primary one. These societies also were made +useful by him, in having allotted to them various occupations, such as +the education of the young, copying and preserving manuscripts, recording +the history of their own times in their chronicles, and also in the +manual labour of cultivating waste lands. At first the monks had been +reckoned among the laity, the convents forming separate churches, of +which the abbot was usually presbyter, standing in the same relation to +the bishop as in other churches; but monastic life gradually came to be +considered the preparation for the clerical office, especially that of +bishop. This led to the adoption of monastic discipline among the +clergy; and the law of celibacy which had been rejected at the council of +Nice, was then prescribed by Siricius, bishop of Rome. + +The convents were the representatives of the Christian aristocracy or +monarchy, the mendicant orders, were the clergy of the poor. And each in +their sphere exercised a great civilizing influence on the people; the +latter especially, because the former, by their studies and literary +labours, were more occupied in preparing the revival of letters, and the +diffusion of knowledge in their own circle. Under the auspices of the +church, systems of Christian charity were established, schools for +children, hospitals and homes of refuge, were multiplied; all this was +beneficial, it was the warmth of Christian light shining in dark places, +although deep and painful wounds existed, whose fatal consequences soon +became manifest. + +Such was the state of the church when St. Augustine laid claim to the +supremacy of this country, towards the end of the sixth century. + +This zealous missionary, according to Neander, would seem to have been +especially wanting in the Christian grace of humility, which no doubt was +the cause of the disputes between the early British church and the Romish +Anglo-Saxon that ensued, which, however, were settled by Oswys, king and +afterwards saint of Northumberland, who decided upon acknowledging the +Romish supremacy, and from that time the doctrines, ritual, Gregorian +chaunt and Latin service of the Romish church were adopted, and an +admirable old man, Theodore of Cilicia, who brought sciences with him +from Greece, occupied the see of Canterbury, A.D. 668–690. The thirst +for knowledge among the people at this time was ministered to by this +good old man, who, with his friend Abbot Hadrian, made a progress through +all England, seeking to gather scholars around him; and the instructions +thus communicated to the English church were soon after collected by +Bede, that simple and thoughtful, as well as inquiring and scientific +priest and monk, who says of himself, “I have used all diligence in the +study of the Holy Scriptures, and in the observance of conventual rules, +and the daily singing in the church; it was ever my joy either to learn, +or teach, or write something.” + +The history of the western church becomes merged henceforth in the papal +power, and we pass on to the era of Hildebrand, or Gregory VII., its +great representative. The struggles of this prelate to suppress simony, +and enforce the celibacy of the clergy, are among the most notorious +features of his reign; legates were despatched to all the provinces of +the west, over which he had already set up claim to supreme power, +stirring up the people against the married clergy; and in order at once +to strike at the root of simony, he forbade entirely the investiture of +ecclesiastics by civil authorities. He excommunicated five councillors +of Henry IV. of Germany, threatened Philip of France with the same +punishment, and would doubtless have carried out his plans with equal +rigour in England, but for the potency of the monarch with whom he had to +deal. William the Conqueror refused permission for the bishops to leave +the country when summoned to Rome, exercised his right of investiture, +and treated the demands of the Pope with cold indifference. Yet Gregory +took no further steps against so vigorous an opponent. After the death +of both, the contest on the right of investiture was revived, and in the +reign of Rufus was maintained against him by Anselm, Archbishop of +Canterbury. + +We have dwelt perhaps tediously on this period of history, but its +connection with our subject will be apparent, when we come to the +foundation of the cathedral we are visiting; but we must not altogether +omit mention of the most conspicuous feature of political activity and +religious zeal combined, that characterized that age. The Crusades will +eternally remain in history an example of the devotion and mighty efforts +of which men are capable, when united by a common faith and religious +ideas. Gregory was the first who conceived the project, realized +afterwards by Urban II., through the instrumentality of that wonderful +man, Peter the Hermit, who went through all Europe fanning into a flame +the indignation that had been kindled by the reports of the ill treatment +of pilgrims to Palestine; and it was not long before a countless host, +urged on as much perhaps by love of adventure, a desire to escape from +feudal tyranny and hope of gain, as religious enthusiasm, gathered round +the banner raised in Christendom. The object in view was not gained, but +the consequences were numerous and beneficial. Nations learnt to know +each other, hostilities were softened by uniting in a common cause of +Christian faith; literature in the west received a stimulus from the +contact into which it was brought with the more enlightened eastern +nations, and the poetry and imagery of the sunnier climes threw their +mantle of refinement over the barbarisms of the colder countries. Among +the writings that bear this date, is the celebrated controversy between +Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089, with Berengen, Archdeacon of +Angers, on the doctrine of Transubstantiation, a doctrine first +promulgated by Paschasius Radbertus, and at that time supported by +Lanfranc, and opposed by Berengen. + +A proof of the partial failure, at least in this country, of the +legislations of Gregory, is found in the history of the founder of the +Norwich Cathedral. Gregory died A.D. 1085, and Herbert of Losinga, Abbot +of Ramshay, Bishop of Thetford, and afterwards Bishop of Norwich, to +which city he removed the see from Thetford, laid the first stone of the +present cathedral, A.D. 1096. Much has been said and written as to the +birth-place of this prelate: it has usually been considered that he was a +Norman, brought over by William Rufus in 1087, but it is much more +probable that he was a native of Suffolk, and his return with Rufus is +readily accounted for by the custom existing at that time of sending +youths to France, especially Normandy, to complete their education. That +he purchased the see of Thetford is undisputed, and also the abbey of +Winchester for his father, who, although a married man, filled a clerical +office. Remorse for these simoniacal transactions is said to have +quickly followed, and we are told that the bishop hastened to Rome to +obtain absolution, and then and there had imposed on him the penance of +building a monastery, cathedral, and some half-dozen other large +churches. This incredible legend is much more reasonably explained by +reference to the disturbed state of the affairs of the church before +referred to, which most probably rendered it difficult for Herbert to +obtain the spiritual rights of the see, although possessed of its +temporalities, therefore his visit to Rome; and as for the rest of the +churches attributed to him as works of penance, some other explanation of +their origin must be found. The coffers of the wealthiest monarch in +Europe could not have furnished means to fulfil such a penance; and when +the purchase-money of the see, £1900, and £1000 for the Abbacy of +Winchester, the expenses of the journey to Rome, and the cost of his work +in the cathedral be considered, we may fairly doubt even the wealthy +Herbert’s resources proving sufficient to meet the further demands of +such splendid edifices. + +There is little doubt that while at Rome arrangements were completed for +the transfer of the see, but most probably only in accordance with a +previous determination of the Council of London, A.D. 1075, when it had +been decreed that all bishoprics should be removed from villages to the +chief town of the county. Historians have bestowed upon this bishop the +title of the “Kyndling Match of Simony,” but the sin was far too common +in that age for him to deserve so distinctive an appellation; and +chroniclers, quite as veritable and much more charitable, have given +sketches of his character, that prove him to have been an amiable, +accomplished, and pious man, of great refinement, and possessing a +remarkable love of the young, and a cheerfulness and playfulness of +manner in intercourse with them, that rarely is an attribute of any but a +benevolent mind. We must not, however, linger upon the personal history +of the founder. Associated with him in the ceremony of laying the +foundation, we find the name of the great feudal lord of the castle, +Roger Bigod, and most of the nobility and barons of the district, one of +whom, Herbert de Rye, was a devoté from the Holy Land. The first stone +was laid by Herbert, the second by De Rye, the other barons placing their +several stones, and contributing in money to the work. The church, as +left by Herbert, consisted of the whole choir, the lower part of which, +now remaining, is the original building, though much concealed by modern +screenwork; the roofs and upper part are of later date. Eborard, the +successor of Herbert, built the nave, not then raised to the present +height, but terminating at the line distinctly traceable below the +clerestory windows. The Catholic cathedral, or Catholic architecture, so +miscalled _Gothic_, is the pride and glory of the middle ages. The +spirit of the times, of fervent aspiration towards heaven, speaks in it +more, perhaps, than in the purer models of more ancient works. +Architecture was then the language through which thoughts found +expression, speaking to the eye, the mind, the heart, and imagination. +Kings, clergy, nobility, people, all contributed towards these +structures. Painting, sculpture, music, found a place in them, and +flourished under the auspices of religion. “The Anglo-Norman cathedrals +were perhaps as much distinguished,” says Hallam, “above other works of +man, as the more splendid edifices of later date;” and they have their +peculiar effect, although perhaps not rivalling those of Westminster, +Wells, Lincoln, or York. + +We shall not attempt to expound the details of the building; but even the +uninitiated may discern at a glance that it is a work to which many a +different age has lent its aid. The simplicity of the Anglo-Norman style +is blended with various specimens of later date, not inharmoniously. The +nave, with its beautifully grained and vaulted roof, and elaborately +sculptured bosses, like forest boughs, and pendant roots, with tales of +Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and hosts of other old Scripture heroes carved +upon them, might almost seem one work with the sterner aisles, but modern +windows bespeak the hand of perpendicularism to have been busy in +after-years. To Lyhart, bishop of the see in the reign of Henry VI., +this roof is attributed, and to his successor Goldwell the continuation +of the design over the choir. Lyhart lies under a stone beneath his own +roof; Goldwell moulders under a tomb reared in the choir, where he lies +in stone, robed in full canonicals, his feet resting upon a lion. + +On the south side of the nave, between the pillars, is the tomb of +Chancellor Spencer. Upon it the chapter formerly received their rents, +and the stone was completely worn by the frequent ringing of the money. +On the same side, further up, are two elaborately decorated arches in the +perpendicular style, looking strangely at variance with the simplicity +prevailing around. These purport to be the chapel of Bishop Nix, who +lies buried beneath them, and an altar formerly stood at the foot of the +eastern pillar. The iron-work on which hung the bell, is still visible +on the side of the western pillar. The pulpit stood near here; a faint +trace of its site is discernible against the pillar, but that is all that +remains to speak of the original purpose of this spacious court. Bishop +Nix it was who tried and condemned the martyr Bilney, whose trial, as all +others of the same nature, was conducted in the consistory court, or +Bishop Beauchamp’s chapel, in the south aisle of the choir. In the north +aisle of the nave, between the sixth and seventh pillars, is a door-way, +now closed, and converted into a bench, through which the people formerly +adjourned after prayers in the choir to hear the sermon, which was +preached in the green yard, now the palace gardens, prior to the Great +Rebellion. Galleries were raised against the walls of the palace, and +along the north wall of the cathedral, for the mayor, aldermen, their +wives and officers, dean, prebends, &c.; the rest of the audience either +stood or sat on forms, paying for their seats a penny, or half-penny +each. The pulpit had a capacious covering of lead, with a cross upon it. +On the church being sequestered, and the service discontinued during the +Commonwealth, the pulpit was removed to the New Hall Yard, now the garden +of St. Andrew’s Hall, and the sermons were preached there. The +devastations committed in and about the building at that period, formed +the subject of grievous lamentations from the pen of good bishop Hall, +then the Bishop of the see, whose sufferings from persecution have become +a part of our country’s history. Hall spent the last melancholy years of +his life in the little village of Heigham, where the Dolphin Inn, with +its quaint flint-work frontage, mullioned windows, and curiously carved +chamber roof and door, yet remain to associate the spot with his memory: +his tomb is in the little village church close by. + +In the centre of the roof of the nave is a circular hole, the purpose of +which for many years puzzled enquirers; but one of the industrious and +intellectual archæologians of the present day, to whom we are indebted +for many interesting discoveries connected with the cathedral, has +reasonably suggested that it was the spot from whence was suspended the +large censer swung lengthwise in the nave at the festivals of Easter and +Whitsuntide. On the north side of the choir there still exists the small +oriel window, through which the sepulchre was watched from Good Friday to +Easter Morning. This ceremony consisted of placing the host in a +sepulchre, erected to represent the holy sepulchre, covering it with +crape, and setting a person or persons to watch it until Easter Sunday, +as the soldiers watched the tomb of Christ. During the time, no bells +sounded, no music was heard, and lights were extinguished. In silence +and gloom these three days were passed. In reference to the length of +time usually so denominated, that is from Friday to Sunday, a curious +solution, attributed to Christopher Wren, the son of the architect, has +recently been published; he seems to have puzzled himself over such like +problems, and says, “that the night in one hemisphere was day in the +other, and the two days in the other were nights in the opposite,” so +that in reality there were three nights and three days on _the earth_; +and as Christ died for the whole world, not only for the hemisphere in +which Judea was, he therefore truly remained in the grave that time. + +It is difficult for us, accustomed to the sober undemonstrative, not to +say cold demeanour of modern Protestantism, to form a conception of the +effect of the seasons of festivity or humiliation, as observed even in +our own land in earlier times. The setting apart the greater portion of +the day for weeks together, for religious ceremonies, and especially the +almost dramatic scenes of the Passion week, sound to our ears as tales of +mummery. Whether we have gained much by the acquisition of the wisdom +that sees nothing in them but occasion for ridicule, or pity, may be a +question. Certain it is that many of the practices were gross and +debasing; many, had beauty and truth in them. + +Amongst those peculiar to the season of Easter, are the ceremony of +creeping to the cross on Good Friday, and the kindling of the fires and +lighting of the paschal on Easter Eve. As these are distinctly mentioned +in ancient Norfolk wills, as practised in this cathedral, we may just +describe them in connection with our visit to it. It was often customary +to leave lands chargeable with the payment of offerings at this season, +both at the creeping of the cross, and to furnish new paschals or tapers +for lighting at Easter. + +The creeping to the cross is mentioned in a proclamation, black letter, +dated 26th February, 30th Henry VIII., in the first volume of a +collection of proclamations in the archives of the Society of +Antiquaries, where it is stated, “On Good Friday it shall be declared how +creeping to the cross sygnyfyeth an humblynge of oneself to Christ before +the cross, and the kyssynge of it a memory of our redemption made upon +the cross.” In a letter from Henry to Cranmer, of later date, a command +is issued that the practice should be discontinued as idolatrous. The +ceremony is described by Davies in his rites of the cathedral church of +Durham, where he relates, “that within that church, upon Good Friday, +there was a marvellously solemn service, in which service time, after the +passion was sung, two of the ancient monks took a goodly large crucifix, +all of gold, of the picture of our Saviour Christ nailed upon the cross, +laying it upon a cushion, bringing it betwixt them thereupon to the +lowest greese or step in the choir, and there did hold the said cross +betwixt them. And then one of the monks did rise, and went a pretty +space from it, and setting himself upon his knees, with his shoes put off +very reverently, _he crept upon his knees_ unto the said cross, and after +him the other did likewise, and then they set down again on either side +of it. Afterward, the prior came forth from his stall, and in like +manner did creep unto the said cross, and all the monks after him in the +said manner, in the meantime the whole quire singing a hymn. The service +being ended, the two monks carried the cross and the sepulchre with great +reverence; kings, queens, and common people, all followed the same +custom; it was, however, usual to place a carpet for royal knees to creep +upon.” + +The paschal, or taper as it was called, was lighted from fire struck from +a flint on Easter Eve, all previous fires being extinguished. The +paschal was often of great size: that of Westminster Abbey, in 1557, +weighed three hundred pounds. Many curious records of church +disbursements for these and such like things are recorded; in those of +St. Mary-at-Hill, in London, stands, “For a quarter of coles for the +hallowed fire of Easter Eve, 6_d._; also for two men to watch the +sepulchre, from Good Friday to Easter Eve, 14_d._; for a piece of timber +to the new paschal, 2_s._; paid for a dish of pewter for the paschal, +8_d_.” + +The church on Easter morning presented another scene. The sepulchre +removed, tapers were lighted, fires kindled, incense burned, music pealed +from the bells, Te Deums from organs, flowers fresh gathered lent their +fragrance to the hour, birds set loose from the crowd, all joined to +celebrate the joyful festival of the resurrection, and altars glittered +with the whole wealth of silver and gold, that munificence or penitence +had enriched them with. We have left off all these things—but we sing +the Easter hymn. + +On the north side of the entrance from the nave into the anti-choir was +placed the chapel, dedicated to the Lady of Pity; and above the spot +where Herbert laid the foundation stone, was placed the altar, dedicated +to St. William. As this sounds rather an unsaintly name, we must explain +that St. William was a little boy, aged nine years, who, in the time of +Rufus, when the Jews were powerful in our land, fell a martyr to their +hatred of the Christians. The tale runs that, in 1137, the Jews, then +the leading merchants, doctors, and scholars of the day, stole a little +boy, crucified him, and buried him in Thorpe wood. They were discovered +on their road to the burial, but escaped punishment by some clever +monetary arrangement with the authorities. Little William was buried in +the wood, and a chapel raised above his grave, the outline of which is +yet discernible by the fineness of the grass, that distinguishes it from +the heath around, the wood having long since narrowed its limits; the +shepherds say weeds will not grow on the spot, for it is “hallowed +ground.” The bones of the unfortunate boy were afterwards brought to the +cathedral, where another shrine was erected, and dedicated to the little +saint; and Thomas, a monk of Monmouth, is said to have written _seven_ +books of the miracles wrought by these bones. It was essential, before a +saint could be canonized, that three miracles should be proved to have +been wrought by him in life, or after death; hence, no doubt, the efforts +of the monk to prove their potency, as the youth of the martyr would +render it doubly essential to establish his claims to the honour +indubitably. The body of a saint, by act of canonization, was placed in +a sarcophagus, an altar raised over it, where mass was said continually, +to secure his or her mediation. + +Above the anti-choir was the rood loft, in which were kept the reliques, +and on which was erected the principal rood or cross, with the figure of +the Saviour carved on it. The rood loft was always placed between the +nave and choir, signifying that those who would go from the church +militant, which the nave then represented, into the church triumphant, +must go under the cross, and suffer affliction. The festival of the +cross was and is called Holy Rood Day, and was instituted first on +account of the recovery of a large piece of the cross by the Emperor +Heraclius, after it had been taken away, on the plundering of Jerusalem +by Chosroes, king of Persia, A.D. 615. Rood and cross are synonymous. +The rood, when perfectly made, had not only the figure of Christ on it, +but those of the Virgin and St. John, one on each side, in allusion to +their presence at the Crucifixion. + +Besides the rood, this loft also once contained a representation of the +Trinity, superbly gilt; the Father blasphemously figured as an old man, +with the Saviour Christ on the cross, between his knees, and the Holy +Spirit, in the form of a dove, on his breast. This image was ornamented +with a gold chain, weighing nearly eight ounces, a large jewel, with a +red rose enamelled in gold, hanging on it, and four smaller jewels. A +silver collar was also presented to it in 1443, that had been bestowed +upon some knight as a mark of honour. Among the relics was a portion of +the blood of the Virgin, to which numbers came in pilgrimage, and made +offerings. Whether or no it liquefied at stated seasons, like that of +St. Genaro, is not recorded. + +It is not pleasant to watch the growth of such gross materialisms over +the sacred truths and symbols of Christian worship; nor can we wonder at +the re-actionary enthusiasm that came and swept them all away, however +much good taste may deplore the loss of many beauties and solid +treasures, that disappeared amid the tumult of the “dissolution.” + +Passing beneath the rood loft, now the gallery for one of the finest +organs and choirs our country can boast, we enter the choir, which, as it +extends westward considerably beyond the tower, is of unusual length, and +imposing in its effect; the lantern, or lower part of the tower, rising +in the centre, supported by four noble arches, that bear the weight of +the whole tower and spire, is impressively beautiful, albeit modern +decorators have been at work to spoil the harmony that should prevail, by +medallions and wreaths that should have no place there, however pretty in +themselves. + +The connoisseur may here find an abundant field to exercise his +architectural knowledge, in deciding the various dates of the several +portions of this beautiful part of the building. The long row of stalls, +with their high-backed and projecting canopies, crowned with multitudes +of crocketted pinnacles, the richly decorated screen-work, that shuts out +the plainer Norman aisles, the mysterious-looking triforium running round +the curious apsidal termination, the light clerestory, with its tier of +windows, divided by feathered and canopied niches, whence spring the main +ribs of the vaulted roof,—form a whole, that it needs no skill in art or +science to be enabled to appreciate and enjoy. Of painted glass, perhaps +the less said the better—we may be wanting in taste or judgment; certain +it is, it forms no very prominent feature of beauty, and a kaliedoscope +of mediocre arrangement, and a rather indifferent illumination +transparency, may, we fancy, each find a counterpart among the specimens +of colour that do exist. Something is in progress—perhaps on an improved +scale. + +But we must not omit to glance at a few of the quaint old carvings, that +remain almost as sole relics of the ancient furniture of the church. +Entering any stall, we observe the seat turns up on hinges, and beneath +is a narrow ledge, which it has been presumed was a contrivance to +relieve the old monks from the fatigue of standing, during the parts of +the service where that position is prescribed by the rubric; they were +supposed to lean upon these ledges in a half-sitting posture; but a much +more reasonable conjecture is, that they were intended as rests for the +elbows and missal when kneeling in prayer; a glance at them when turned +up instantly suggests the idea of a _prie dieu_, which they closely +resemble. The lower parts of these _misereres_, as they were called, are +decorated in a most elaborate manner with carving, and supported by +bosses, sometimes of one or more figures, often foliage, fruit, and +flowers, or shields. Among them may be found the figures of a lion and +dragon biting each other; owls and little birds fighting; Sampson in +armour (?) slaying the lion; monkeys fighting, one holding a rod, another +in a wheelbarrow; the prodigal son feeding swine; a monk tearing a dog’s +hind legs; another flogging a little boy, amid a group of other urchins; +and numerous other equally inexplicable designs. If, indeed, such +objects did occupy the place under the eyes of the monks at their +devotions, they must have served admirably to train the risible muscles +to self-command. + +It is among these carvings that the presumed satires are to be found, +that are attributed to the dissensions existing between the secular and +regular clergy, about the period of the building of the Cathedral; they +would have us interpret them as something akin to liberty of the press, +with all its caprices, sarcasms, and ironical sneers; but as the +self-same subjects have been found to range over the works of the carvers +from the thirteenth century down to the Reformation, and on the Continent +as well as in this country, it is much more probable that they were +copies from the illustrations of books, at that time popular, or from the +illuminations of fanciful legends, upon which the monks were continually +engaged, and which were always at hand to serve as patterns for the +workmen. The Bestiaria, a work very celebrated, has been suggested as +the source of many of the figures; among its pages figured mermaids, +unicorns, dragons, &c.; and the calendars also, in which the agricultural +pursuits of each month were depicted on the top of the page, might form +another copy to be modelled from. Such is the most probable way of +accounting for the presence of such objects, although it is possible that +in an age when the church offered scope for every talent to display +itself, so, obscure recesses were found for the offspring of these +original, though not very refined, creations of fancy, often, however, +executed by the hands of skilful craftsmen. + +One look at the antique specimen of the reading desk—a pelican supporting +it with the clot of blood on its breast, symbolizing, we are told, the +shedding of the blood of Christ, as that bird sheds its blood for its +young. It may, or may not be so—but if it be, it is indeed a gross +substitute for the eagle, a symbol that has at least poetry and +spirituality to recommend it. + +Beyond this, and behind the high altar, in the recess of the apse, once +stood the bishop’s throne, a plain stone chair, in the days when the +priests did occupy their places in the church. The seat may still be +seen in the aisle, at the back of this spot, by any one adventurous +enough to climb a ladder, and peep into a niche they will find high up in +the wall. + +We let pulpits and thrones of the present day speak for themselves, and +leaving the choir, take a brief look at the fine old chapels of St. Luke +and Jesus, on the north and south side of the apse. The former still +remains in good preservation, and is used as the parish church of St. +Mary in the Marsh, destroyed by Herbert, the founder of both these +chapels, as well as the Cathedral. The only font within the precincts is +here; it is an ancient affair, brought hither from the demolished church, +and is decorated with carvings, representing the seven sacraments, the +four evangelists, and divers figures of popes, saints, confessors, &c. +Over this chapel is the treasury of the dean and chapter, from amongst +whose stores, hid up where moth and rust do corrupt, a beautiful and +curious painting of scenes in the life of Christ, has been of late years +rescued, and promoted to the honour of a place in the vestry room (the +ancient prison of the monastery), where it has been placed under a glass +case. It appears to have served originally as some part of the +decoration of an altar, and was set in a frame, the mouldings of which +are richly diapered and ornamented with gilding, with impressed work and +fragments of coloured glass inserted at intervals, a mode of enrichment +of which specimens are very rare in this country. The corners of the +frame had been removed to adapt it to the purpose of a table, at the +period of the great “dissolution,” where it had remained with its back +serving for the top of the required table, until accident revealed it to +the eyes of archæological research. + +The painting is divided into five compartments, each on a separate panel, +the subjects being the Flagellation of Christ, Christ bearing the Cross, +the Crucifixion, and the Ascension. The entire back-grounds of the +paintings are gilded and diapered in curious patterns, and the ornaments, +such as the bosses of the harness on the horses of the soldiers, the +goldsmith’s work on the cingulum or belt, are in slight relief. This +mode of painting is described as being executed upon a thin coating of +composition, made of whiting and white of egg, laid on the oaken panel; +upon this the outline of the design was traced with a red line, and the +spaces designed to receive gilding were then marked out with fresh +whitening and egg; the stems marked with a modelling tool, and leaves +added by filling moulds with the paste, and fixing them by pressure on +the surface of the picture; the puncture work and little toolings were +then produced, and the modelling finished. The gilded portions were next +covered with gold leaf, and the artist proceeded with his pictures, using +transparent colours liquefied by white of egg. + +At the extreme end of the Cathedral once stood another chapel, dedicated +to St. Mary the Great, of considerable note in early times—the offerings +at the high altar amounting to immense sums—daily mass was said here for +the founder’s soul in particular, his friends, relations, benefactors, +&c. The chapel was about seventy feet long and thirty broad, and had a +handsome entrance from the church; it has long since disappeared. The +Jesus chapel on the opposite side is rather a melancholy looking place at +present, one high tomb of some pretensions in the centre alone +distinguishing it from a lumber room; near this chapel, in the north +aisle, is the speculatory before alluded to, as the opening through which +the sepulchre was watched at Easter; it has, until recently, been called +the ancient “confessional,” a somewhat extraordinary position for such a +priestly office to be exercised in, as were it so, the penitent must of +necessity have stood in the aisle on tiptoe to reach the ear of his +confessor in the choir, who must equally of necessity have lain upon the +ground to receive the confession. + +And now we must pass on to the cloisters, where one almost involuntarily +cries out for “the monks of old,” to come and give life to the walks +among the tombs, no other earthly figure or garb, save a cowled monk, +seeming to have place in such a scene. The long lines of beautiful +windows, on the one side of pure early English tracery, on another of the +decorated period, and another line still more elaborate in its turnings +and twistings, while the last bespeaks the perpendicularism that prevails +among so many of the windows of the church—each and all are beautiful. +The splendidly carved doorway entering into the church, that has puzzled +learned and simple alike to interpret truly, is a gem, and the perfectly +preserved lavatories at the opposite corner have their own features of +interest. The roof, groined and vaulted with sculptured bosses, is +covered with fanciful and legendary carvings—the martyrdoms of saints, +St. Anthony roasting on his gridiron, &c., St. John the Baptist and +Herodias with his head in a charger; the mutilated body of another +headless saint has received from some kind charitable hand the blessing +of a new head, while the old one is under his arm; the date of this +addition or growth is uncertain—it looks very white, rather new; above +the door leading into the ancient refectory is a carving of the +Temptation, Adam and Eve and the serpent as usual; about this said +carving hangs a tale, another than the story of the Fall of man, and too +good to be omitted. The great historian of this comity, and all the +little historians that have condensed, contracted, extracted, and +dove-tailed little bits of his history together, have all with wonderful +precision agreed that above this arch was carved the _espousals_ or +Sacrament of Marriage; and upon that foundation, or perhaps rather +_under_ that head we should say, entered into elaborate details of how +this spot was the chosen site for the celebration of the sacrament of +marriage, which every one knows was performed in the _porch_ of the +church, and not in the church itself as now, but as this spot is a very +considerable number of yards distant from either church or porch, some of +those troublesome people who will be continually saying Why? and seeking +for a Because, began to look for these _espousals_, and found only a +_Temptation_. One of these individuals, of a peculiarly persevering +nature, earnestly desirous of reconciling these strange discrepancies +between the assertion of a respectable old historian, and his own +eye-sight, set to work, and the following was the result. He found that +much of this good historian’s description of the cloister was a tolerably +free translation of an old Latin work by William of Worcester, the +original manuscript of which exists in the library of Corpus Christi, at +Cambridge. It was printed and edited, many years ago, by one Nasmith, +and an extract is to be found in the last edition of the Monasticon, +where the work of a bishop who built one side of the cloister is +described as extending to the arches, “in quibus maritagia dependent,” +which must be translated “in which the espousals or marriages hang.” Now +it seemed to this inquisitive individual that a very trivial error of the +transcriber might have entirely altered the sense of the passage; that if +the word “maritagia” should turn out to be “manut’gia” for “manutergia,” +all the mystery would be explained. Upon inquiry, and inspection of the +original manuscript, this proved a correct surmise on the part of the +ingenious as well as inquisitive individual, and the arches in which the +(manutergia) _towels_ hang, _close by the lavatories_, turn out to be the +substitute for the arches in which the _espousals hang_. Overlooking the +single stroke of a pen, produced these queer misconceptions _for above a +century_. + +The following is an epitaph composed for Jacob Freeman, who was buried in +the cloister yard, where he used often to lie upon a hill and sleep, with +his head upon a stone. The old man was very hardly used by the +_committee_ for so doing, and for frequenting church porches, and +repeating the _common_ prayer to the people, in spite of ill treatment, +he being often sent to Bridewell, whipped and reproved for it. + + EPITAPH. + + “Here, in this homely cabinet, + Resteth a poor old anchoret; + Upon the ground he laid all weathers, + Not as most men, goose-like, on feathers, + For so indeed it came to pass, + The Lord of lords his landlord was; + He lived, instead of wainscot rooms, + Like the possessed, among the tombs. + As by some spirit thither led, + To be acquainted with the dead: + Each morning, from his bed so hallowed, + He rose, took up his cross, and followed; + To every porch he did repair, + To vent himself in common prayer, + Wherein he was alone devout, + When _preaching_, _jostled_, _praying out_, + In sad procession through the city, + Maugre the devil or committee, + He daily went, for which he fell + Not into _Jacob’s_, but _Bridewell_, + Where you might see his loyal back + Red-lettered, like an almanack; + Or I may rather else aver, + Dominickt, like a calendar; + And him triumphing at that harm, + Having nought else to keep him warm. + With Paul he always prayed, no wonder + The lash did keep his flesh still under; + Yet whip-cord seemed to lose its sting, + When for the church, or for the king, + High loyalty in such a death + Could battle torments with mean earth; + And though such sufferings he did pass, + In spite of bonds, still _Freeman_ was. + ’Tis well his pate was weather-proof; + The palace like it had no roof; + The hair was off, and ’twas the fashion, + The _crown_ being _under sequestration_. + Tho’ bald as time and mendicant, + No fryer yet, but Protestant— + His head each morning and each even + Was watered with the dews of heaven. + He lodged alike, dead and alive, + As one that did his grave survive, + For he is now, though he be dead, + But in a manner put to bed, + His cabin being above ground yet, + Under a thin turf coverlet. + Pity he in no porch did lay, + Who did in porches so much pray; + Yet let him have this Epitaph: + Here sleeps poor Jacob, stone and staff.” + +We must not close our chapter on cathedrals and bishops without some +little further notice of the more important branch of the subject, +although we venture not upon biographies of the many whose names shine +forth from among the list of “spiritual fathers,” well meriting more +detailed sketching than would be here in place. Hall, Nix, Lyhart, and +Goldwell, have had their share of passing comment, but there are other +names that must not be looked over in silence. Among the earliest stands +Pandulph, the notorious legate from the Pope, during the troubled reign +of John, when disputes about the appointment of Stephen Langton to the +archbishopric of Canterbury had had our country under the interdict of +his papal majesty; and for six years all Christian rites were suppressed, +save baptism and confirmation, in consequence of jealousies between these +rival powers upon the vexed question of the right of investiture. It was +mainly through the agency of Pandulph that the king was at last inclined +to submit, in return for which the bishopric of this diocese was +conferred on the successful diplomatist. Walter de Suffield, another +name of at least great local repute, was the founder of the Old Man’s +Hospital, an institution at this day in the receipt of £10,000 a year, +out of which some _two hundred_ old men and women are maintained in +clothes, food, and a shilling a day, and _lodged_ in a beautiful _old +church_, founded by Lyhart at a later period, the trustees of such a fund +thinking this arrangement preferable to restoring the church to its +original use, and providing more suitable buildings for the accommodation +of the recipients of the charity. The tomb of Suffield, in his own +chapel, at the east end of the cathedral, became a shrine for worship, to +which pilgrimages were frequent, and miracles in abundance were said to +be wrought. + +Percy, brother of the famous Earl of Northumberland, was another who wore +the mitre of the see; he lies buried before the roodloft door. Henry de +Spencer, the warrior bishop, is another, who raised and headed an army of +three thousand men, and conducted it in person to Flanders, where he +figured prominently in the wars between Richard and the French king, as +well as in the struggles of Urban and Clement for the papacy. His +military fame was rivalled by his notorious zeal in the cause of his +church, evidenced by unmitigated persecution of the Lollards, whose +adherence to the doctrines of Wickliffe was rewarded by every variety of +penance or punishment that could be devised to exterminate the heresy. A +splendid monument of this spirit of the man and age is left us in the +magnificent gateway opposite the West entrance to the cathedral, erected +by Sir Thomas Erpingham, at the bidding of De Spencer, as a penance for +his sympathy with these heretical doctrines. Above the doorway is an +effigy of himself in armour, kneeling and asking pardon for his offence. +Rugg—an instrument of Henry’s, in obtaining the divorce of Catherine of +Arragon; Hopkin—a notorious persecutor of the Protestants in Mary’s +reign; Parkhurst—a literary celebrity; Wren—the victim of Puritanism, +which placed him a prisoner in the tower for eighteen years without a +trial; Butts—a friend of Cranmer; Horne, whose letters on infidelity have +given him a fame; and Bathurst, respected in the memory of many yet +living; are names conspicuous in the catalogue; not yet complete without +two others, Stanley and Hinde. Of Hinde we can but say his work is yet +in hand, he is earning his place in history, for some future pen to +chronicle; but may be, no fitter subject could be offered for a closing +scene to this chapter on the bishops and cathedral of this see, than +memory can recal of that day, when beneath the lofty nave of the one, a +grave was opened to receive the mortal remains of the loved and honoured +Stanley. Who, among the thousands that then gathered themselves +together, wearing not alone the outer symbols of mourning and grief, but +carrying in their hearts deep sorrow, and in their eyes _unbidden_ +tears—who will forget the solemn stillness of the thronged multitude as +the simple pall was borne, unmocked by plumes or other idle trappings of +fictitious woe, through the avenues of unhired mutes, whose heads were +bowed in heartfelt reverence, and lines of infant mourners, clad in the +livery of their benefactor’s bounty, and watering the pathway to his tomb +with honest tears of childhood’s love—the attitudes of grief and saddened +faces that filled the crowded aisles, and no less crowded walks above—the +hushed breathing that left the air free to echo the tones of the wailing +dirge, as it rose upon the voices of the surpliced choir, who mourned a +child of harmony, and wafted their strains of lamentation through all the +heights of the vaulted roof, while beneath its centre the grave was +receiving the earthly tabernacle of the good, the noble-hearted, and the +great in deeds of love and charity? Who does not remember the measured +tread of the dispersing thousands, as each took his last look of the +simple coffin in its last resting-place, and as the dead march sent forth +its full low notes from the organ’s peal, and the rich closing bursts of +harmony proclaimed like a rush of mighty wind the soul’s release and +triumph? and who has not often since lingered around the simple marble +slab that marks the spot, and felt that it had been consecrated as a +shrine, by a baptism of tears from the fountain of loving hearts on that +memorable day? + + + + +CHAPTER III. +THE CASTLE. + + +_The Castle_.—_Present aspect_.—_Grave of the Murderer_.—_Historical +Associations_.—_View from the Battlements_.—_Thorpe_.—_Kett’s +Castle_.—_Lollard’s Pit_.—_Mousehold_.—_Plan of Military Structure of +Feudal Times_.—_Marriage of Ralph Guader_.—_Roger Bigod_.—_Feudal +Ranks_.—_Social Life_.—_Field Sports_.—_Hawking_.—_Legend of +Lothbroc_.—_Laws of Chivalry_.—_Tournaments_.—_Feminine +Occupations_.—_Tapestry_. + +In the centre of the Old City rises one of those huge mounds, heaped up +by our ancient warrior forefathers, which here and there, over the +surface of our island, yet stand out in bold relief against the blue +back-ground of the sky, like giant models for some modern monster +twelfth-cake, only, however, occasionally crowned by the original +structures, of which they were the ground-works, and in no other case, +perhaps by one whose outward coating of modern date more thoroughly might +carry out the suggested idea of a frosted moulding, designed to grace the +summit of a supper-table fortification. + +How involuntary is the longing to peel off the pasty composition and find +the substance hidden beneath, be it as crumbly and mottled as the most +luscious monument ever reared in honour of the feast of the Epiphany, +from the era of the Magi downwards. But so it may not be; the flinty +roughnesses of the past are hidden from our eyes by the soft covering of +refined stucco, and we must be content with the attempt of ingenious +modern masonry to give us an impress of what the castle called +Blanchflower was, in lieu of beholding it unspoiled save by the hand of +time. It is, however, something to know that there really does exist +beneath that outer casing, a bonâ fide mass of flint and stone, some +portions of which at least have stood, even from the days of the sea-king +Canute; by him raised on the site of the royal residence of East Anglian +princes, and yet earlier dwelling place of Gurguntus and other British +kings, and by him suffered to retain the name of “Blanchflower,” first +given, so legends say, by one of its royal owners in honour of his +mother, Blanche, a kinswoman of the mighty Cæsar. There it yet stands, +its very roots planted high above the topmost stories of all meaner +habitations, its battlements towering to the sky, as though climbing from +their earthen base through the turrets and towers, reared as a stronghold +for human pride and ambition, to heights that would rival the lofty spire +in the valley beneath, that blends itself with the heaven to which it +points in the solemn attitude of silent devotion, as if to ask, “Which +can do the greatest works, man serving man, or man serving God?” + +With the monuments of two such spirits side by-side, fancy might wander +into perfect labyrinths of mystic and speculative thought, not void of +beauty, tracing the unseen workings of the spirit-powers there sought to +be embodied, each lingering about and shedding itself around the temple +consecrated as its shrine—devotion, yet meetly expressed in the tapering +spire—human Despotism and human frailty, finding in every age a fitting +representative within the lordly castles of the robber chiefs, from the +day when its walls formed the boundary of life to feudal wives and +slaves, and its dungeons, the tombs of vanquished foes, through every age +of its isolated grandeur, down to the picture of aggregated solitudes and +woes, that it presents in the character now assigned to it, of a +prison-home for criminals. + +But for some such sense of the invisible links that make the present +purposes to which its limits are devoted, one with the past, there might +seem to be much difficulty in connecting the picture of the felon-town +now enclosed within its walls, with any associations of history; or the +accumulations of red brick, slate-roofed ranges of well-lighted, +well-ventilated and comfortable chambers, made dark or miserable _only_ +by the spirits that tenant them, with the ideas or expectations a +castle-prison could suggest. That such should be the only _cells_ to be +found or seen, is to the eye and ear of mere curiosity an absolute +disappointment. One feels half angry at the sudden annihilation of the +vague and undefined fillings up that fancy had given to the outline of +the feudal relic. The learned may know it all before-hand, but the +uninitiated cannot fail to receive an unwelcome surprise, in finding the +substantial and important looking keep, withal its crust of stucco, +little more than a shell, whose kernel is made up of modern habitations, +as fresh-looking as though they had but yesterday sprung up as pimples on +the face of nature, a title not inappropriate to most red brick +emanations of architectural skill. But our visit to the Castle must not +be spent in such vague lamentations over what is _not_; neither would we +in our regrets desire to be classed among the morbid cravers after +horrors, that can find pleasure in condemned cells, gibbets, chains +associated with murderers, or any such like appurtenances of a county +gaol; thankfully we claim exemption from any such mental disease, nor +even as the chroniclers of facts would we dwell one moment on the points +of detail that would pander to such a taste in our fellow beings. + +A prison must ever teem with painful associations, one scarcely more so +than another, nor does the fact of an apartment, in no way differing from +those around it, having been tenanted by a Rush, whom some would call the +mighty among murderers, make it an object to our ideas more worthy either +a visit or description. The simple initials in the wall of the +prison-yard, above the dishonoured grave where he lies, with the few +others who have met a like miserable fate, speak to the heart—and we turn +from them with an inward whispering, there—who was _his_ murderer?—was it +justice, human or Divine? Did the child speak with folly, or childhood’s +own wisdom, when it asked if Rush died for breaking God’s commandment, +“Thou shalt not kill,” _did_ not those who killed him also break it? +Such is not fiction—its simple baby logic answers for it—but we say as to +the child’s query, We cannot answer you. Many a great and noble heart +recognises the minister of justice, as God’s own delegate, to claim the +yielding up of his Creature’s life, a satisfaction to the broken laws of +God and man. Many as great and noble, and we would think as mindful of +the great ends of justice and design of punishment, would say, Leave the +gift of God, the breath of life, at His disposal, who has said, +“Vengeance is mine;”—trust to _His justice_ as to _His mercy_, to which +alone you appeal, when sending the soul into his presence, reeking with +guilt and sin. As spoke the child, on that sad, solemn day of +darkness,—when the spirit of sin seemed to breathe over the debased city, +and spread its contaminations through every channel where its subtle +essence could find an inlet, till the moral vision of the very purest +seemed to be obscured, and the atmosphere tainted for a while, by the +sickening familiarity with the face of crime;—the last day of the +wretched victim of unrestrained passions in life and in death,—whose +struggles of vanity and egotism, with the quailings of the flesh, +evidenced by the whitening hair, the trembling hand, and vapid +mutterings, through a trial prolonged to an unheard-of length, had drawn +around him a host of witnesses, almost without a parallel in history; and +not alone of the mass of unlearned and ignorant, whom we are wont to +charge with insensibility and coarseness, nor of the stern philosopher, +nor even sickly religionists, who find some concealed duty in witnessing +elaborations of torture, but of the gentle hearts that move within the +mothers and daughters of England; and white-gloved and richly-dressed +ladies thronged to use the tickets that gained them privileged entrance +to a gallery that overlooked this spectacle of human agony—(oh! is there +one among that assembled galaxy of England’s fair ones that can recal +that scene, without a shudder and a blush for the very refinements that +cast their cloak around the horrors of the reality?)—that day,—when the +festivities of concert and party over, when the merriment of the +bustling, noisy fair outside the court of trial had died away, and room +was left for the last act of the drama—as then, the child lifted up its +saddened voice, with its question so quaintly simple—so was it echoed +back to us from the grave of that poor criminal, and a torrent of +memories, linked with that fearful time, came flooding back upon us, as +the fruit of the tree of crime, whose seed was then sown before our eyes, +seemed to lie scattered at our feet, in the later-made grave, and +sin-filled cells around us. But enough of this—the darkest tragedy of +later days associated with our castle prison—how many more silent, but +not less sad, have been enacted within its limits, in chambers now +inaccessible to human tread, we may not know! how many death sighs have +been breathed out from its hidden dungeons, how many spirits violently +sundered from their earthly tabernacles, and sent wandering through +eternity before a home had been prepared for their rest, the record books +of earth yield no account, but they are registered above; shall it avail +to plead, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” when the great final day of +reckoning shall come, and the judges and rulers of the earth shall be +summoned to give an account of their stewardship? But these are _not_ +the thoughts awakened upon crossing the threshold of this portal, for, +strange to say, the first greeting offered us, is the smiling welcome of +gay, liberty-loving flowers, blooming as sweetly and merrily in that +atmosphere of sin and sorrow, as ever they could have done on mountain +heath or valley’s dell. Who knows what messages of hope and love these +simple tenants of the miniature conservatory have breathed to weary, +sin-laden hearts, bowed down in penitence for guilt! There was kindness +in the heart that placed them there, and justice is blessed in owning +servitors that do her bidding with such gentle mien. Modern prisons, +their advantages and defects, have formed subjects for the pens of many +writers; no need, therefore, that we longer dwell on this aspect of our +city stronghold. Colonies of zebra-clad prisoners tenant the wards, and +thread the intricate passages leading through tiers and radiating wings +of cells, so cunningly arranged that, amid all the appearance of +congregations, separation and solitude is ensured, even upon the giant +wheel itself, and still further, even in the place for worship, where +boardings, shelvings, and all manner of strangely devised contrivances, +prevent communion between the several classes of the unfortunate, that +suspected and condemned may not mingle, the felony and the misdemeanour +may not be in juxtaposition; these are the features that meet the eye, +and it would not be right to leave such judicious arrangements +unnoticed,—albeit our visit to the castle walls may have more to do with +its past than present history. + +Tradition assigns the foundation of this castle to Gurguntus, the son of +Belinus, the twenty-fourth king of Britain from Brutus, who, having +observed in the east part of Britain a place well fitted by nature for +the building a fortress on, founded a certain castle of a square form, +and of white stone, on the top of a high hill near a river, which castle +was completed by his successor, Guthulinus, who “encompassed it with a +wall, bank, and double ditches, and made within it subterraneous vaults +of a long and blind or intricate extent.” Another early writer ascribes +to Julius Cæsar the honour of being its founder, and explains the origin +of certain rents and fissures, perceptible in its sides before its recent +restoration, to the earthquake that shook the earth “when the vail of the +temple was rent in twain;”—he adds, that afterwards Thenatius, Lud’s son +by marriage with Blanche, kinswoman of Julius, gave it the name of +“Blancheflower.” Others attribute this title to the whiteness of its +walk, and assign to the Normans its appropriation to the edifice they +found existing here. + +Without doubt, as the metropolis of the Iceni, it was an important place +prior to the advent of the Saxons, who made it the royal seat of the +kings of East Anglia, and afterwards the residence of governors, called +aldermen, dukes, or earls. During the Danish wars, the castle was often +lost and won again, until Alfred the Great wholly subdued the Danes, and +he is said to have greatly improved its fortifications. The original +structure, however, is said to have fallen a sacrifice to the ravages of +the Danes under Sweyn, and the present edifice is attributed to Canute, +his son, upon his return after his flight upon the accession of Ethelred. +The supposition of its being the work of the Normans after the Conquest +is totally refuted by the events recorded as having transpired within its +precincts, while in the custody of Ralph Guader, who took possession of +it in the seventh year of William’s reign. The elevation upon which the +castle and its fortifications were founded, some writers have conjectured +to be originally the work of heathen worshippers, who raised such like +giant temples to the sun; others have suggested the possibility of its +forming a portion of the famous Icknild Way. + +This, in common with other military structures of the same period, which +were mostly built upon one plan, their chief strength consisting in their +height and inaccessibility, originally included within its boundaries a +considerable space of ground; the outer ballium (bailey or court) having +an elevation of about one hundred feet above the level of the river; and +the inner, upon which stands the keep, raised by art about twenty feet +higher, with the soil of the inner ditch—still remain entire; originally +three ditches surrounded the castle, from their circular form betokening +great antiquity; the second and third have been long filled up and built +over, but are distinctly traceable to the eye of persevering enquiry. + +The original entrance to the outer court was from Burgh Street, at the +end of which was the barbican, or passage leading to the first +draw-bridge and gate; the second was opposite, and intermediate between +it and the present bridge; a draw-bridge formerly occupied the site of +the present road-way across, at the end of which stood the gateway for +raising it with a strong tower above it, only removed within the last +century. + +Two round towers at the upper end of the draw-bridge, whose foundations +still remain, constituted additional defences of the upper ballium. +Connected with the tower on the west side, were dungeons or vaults, until +recently in use for prisoners before their committal. + +The keep, which occupies but a small portion of the original plan, is +about seventy feet high, and ninety-two feet long, by ninety-six broad. + +The walls are composed of flint rubble, faced with Caen stone, intermixed +with a stone found in the neighbourhood. + +The keep bore the same relation to the castle as the citadel to a +fortified town; it was the last retreat of the garrison, and contained +the apartments of the baron or commandant. Little of these is, however, +left us to explore; the outer wall with its ornamental arches being, as +we before hinted, nothing more than a shell surrounding an open yard, now +filled by detached modern buildings, occupying the site of the spacious +and magnificent chambers that once filled the interior. + +Upon the surface of these walls, within are distinctly traceable the +original openings to the various compartments, now filled up by masonry; +but within the memory of some yet living, the dungeons and storehouses of +the basement story were standing, and were accessible by stair-cases in +the north-east and south-west angles. + +The entrance to the first floor is on the east side, by a flight of steps +leading to a platform projecting outside fourteen feet from the wall. It +is now covered in, and forms a spacious vestibule, having three open +arches towards the east, one on the north, and one on the south, in which +is the entrance. It is usually called Bigod’s tower, its erection being +by some attributed to Roger Bigod, in the reign of William Rufus, and by +others to Hugh Bigod, during the twelfth century; the whole of it has +undergone restoration. The doorway from the vestibule is through an +archway of Saxon character, supported by five columns with ornamented +capitals; two columns only remain; upon the capital of the first, on the +left, is a bearded huntsman in the act of blowing a horn, with a sword by +his side, and holding with his left hand a dog in slips, which appears to +be attacking an ox; on the second capital is another huntsman, spearing a +wild boar of an unusual size. + +The fable of the wolf and lamb, the wolf and crane, a monstrous head and +arms, attached to the bodies of two lions, are amongst the other +ornamental carvings, traceable on the other portions of the capitals and +arches, but greatly mutilated. + +Prior to the restoration of the tower, this archway had been totally +concealed by masonry; it is only surprising, therefore, that so much of +it should still be in so good a state of preservation. + +A corridor led from this entrance to the chapel, which was on this floor +in the south-east angle, with an oratory or sanctum in the corner, +separated from it by an archway supported by two columns, the capitals of +which are ornamented, and at the angles are figures of pelicans. The +columns are decidedly Norman, the costumes and helmets bearing close +resemblance to those on the Bayeux tapestry. On the east side of the +oratory is a curious altar-piece in five compartments, representing the +Trinity, St. Catherine, St. Christopher, St. Michael and the Dragon, and +another figure too much mutilated to be recognized. + +We confess ourselves indebted for these details, to more erudite and +heroic adventurers in the voyage of discovery among these ruins than +ourselves, the inaccessible looking archway of the oratory high upon the +wall, to be attained only by crossing a plank from a tier of cells +opposite, offering little temptation to us to ascertain for ourselves the +accuracy of statements made by learned authorities, whose researches we +presume neither to question nor emulate. We do not venture to trespass +on paths so much more ably trodden; what pleases or strikes the eye of +the simple observer, we may note, perhaps often deriving sensations of +pleasure from objects that may offend the cultivated taste of the +connoisseur, but as we plead ignorance, we trust to meet with indulgence. +Associations, rather than details of outline, cluster round our minds in +visiting these scenes, and on them we dwell. + +The kitchens and dormitories were also on this floor, the former +accessible by a long narrow passage in the north wall, from the spiral +stairs in the north-east angle. + +The next floor was occupied by the state apartments; and on the exterior +of the west side are four large windows with central columns, opposite to +corresponding openings in the inner wall for the admission of light into +the interior. The gallery on this side contains three little recesses, +or chambers, as they would have us call them, benched on either side, and +probably intended as waiting-rooms for the attendants. It communicated +with the south-west flight of stairs, but although these yet remain, they +are not safe to be explored. + +The gallery on the north side has similar windows, and is reached by the +north-east staircase, with which the kitchen gallery communicates; the +passage is vaulted, and the tracings of large archways, in the inner +wall, filled in by masonry, have led to the idea that a large banqueting +chamber traversed this side of the building, the entrance to which would +be immediately connected with the grand entrance from the tower. Another +gallery, somewhat similar, runs along the south wall, not now accessible. +These three galleries are all that remain entire of the original +apartments, the various archways and outlines in the walls, rather +suggesting than deciding questions concerning the arrangement of the +interior filling up. + +Having finished our explorings among these hollow portions of the walls, +the winding stairs lead on to the giddy heights of the ramparts, where a +scene awaits the adventurer’s eye, that may well repay a steady effort to +conquer the propensity to walk over the unprotected side towards the +court within. And here we pause to take a survey of the picture as it +lies out before us; houses, slated, tiled, thatched and leaded, with +their forests of chimneypots, the growth and accumulations of centuries; +high pinnacles of brick, sending forth their volumes of smoke from huge +factories, telling their tales of human skill and genius triumphing over +the powers of earth, air, and water, bringing into subjection the sinews +of rock and veins of ore, and training them, by the aid of invisible and +subtle fluids, to yield obedience to the will of man, and minister to the +wants and luxuries of his being; windmills spreading out their giant arms +to stay the very winds of heaven in their path till they have done their +work; waters checked in their onward course till their rebellious force +has been turned to profit; all speak of matter visible and invisible, +made subject to spirit power, and ministering to the will and wants of +man. Tales, too, of human toil and suffering, of wasting labour, spent +in the service of luxury and indolence, burthen the air breathed forth +from groaning engine-houses, and rising up from hidden nests of poverty +that lie sheltered beneath the eaves of rich men’s habitations, whose +fair frontings to modern streets or road-ways, too often form but outer +coatings of decency to masses of corruption hidden away in close yards, +courts, and alleys, at their back—church towers, and spires, and turrets +in manifold variety and abundance; and prominent among the host, stands +out in all the glory of hale old age, fine old St Peter’s, looking down +from his proud eminence in solemn dignity, and smiling at all the feeble +efforts of the mushrooms clinging to his very base to hide his fair +proportions; far and wide may we look to find his peer, even among such +gems of beauty as the patron saints so lavishly have scattered among the +lanes and thoroughfares of this very garden of churches. Such are the +city features of the panoramic see; turning to another point of view, +away, beyond the foreground of the sheep and cattle pens that bespeak the +conversion of the ancient inner ballium into a modern market-place for +live stock, and across the deep running channel laden with crafts not yet +wholly superseded in their labours by steam—that infant Hercules, whose +leading-strings are compassing the surface of the globe—we catch a glance +of the hanging woods of the fairest village our Norfolk scenery may +boast, whose Richmond-like gardens skirting the pathway of the winding +river, and meadow lands beyond, dotted here and there by the alder cars +that once gave a name to the Benedictine convent close by, form a +landscape of mingled animation and quiet rural beauty, not often to be +equalled in the suburbs of a manufacturing city. No marvel why gala +spots for pleasure-loving citizens should be found interspersed among the +more refined parterres of the wealthy upon the shores; no marvel that a +summer’s evening should witness crowds of holiday-seeking folks, +thronging to taste the sweets of fresh air, and rest from labour, in the +midst of so fair a scene. + +No marvel that a water frolic becomes dignified into a regatta there, +that for once, within the circuit of the year, the great and small, the +proud and humble, rich and poor, can mingle, to look together upon a +common object of amusement—that fashion and poverty can meet in the field +of pleasure—St. Giles and St. James acknowledge the existence, nor frown +at the presence of each other. And who does not rejoice in the +festivity, almost the sole remnant of national sport left us in this +iron-working age? Who that can spare an hour from the counter or the +loom, or desk—from scribbling six-and-eight-penny opinions, or scratching +hieroglyphical prescriptions for _aqua pura_ draughts, does not contrive +to find some mode of transit by earth, air, or water to the scene of +mirth. Even a soaking shower is unavailing to damp the ardour of the +multitude, and not unseldom lends fresh stimulus to fun and laughter +among the merry-hearted denizens of smoke-dried city streets and lanes. +But we must not linger in their midst—the gay pleasure-boats, with their +shining sails, tacking and bending to the breeze, the swift skullers in +the gay uniforms, the eager faces that line the course, the signal guns +and flags of victory, the music, and the mirth—all tell that the spirit +of enjoyment is not yet quite gone out from among us. We must now pass +to other, and far different objects, and from the present, travel back to +the past, whose page of history unfolds itself in the nearer object that +meets our eye, the whitened sides of the “Lollard’s pit,” where martyrs +of old poured forth their dying prayers; and yielded up their bodies to +be burned as witness of their faith—where Bilney listened to the words of +his murderers, beseeching him to release them before the people from all +blame, that they might not suffer loss of popularity or alms—and where he +turned and said: “I pray you, good people, be never worse to these men +for my sake, as though they should be the authors of my death. It is not +they;”—then was bound to the stake and slowly burned, in the presence of +the multitudes that clothed the natural amphitheatre around. The heights +above are crowned by the ruins of the old priory of St. Leonards, on the +one side, and on the other by a few fragments of St. Michael’s chapel, +whose vestiges, under a name assigned to them through their later +notoriety, as the stronghold of the rebel Kett, yet linger as landmarks +on the early pathway of national progress and reform. + +There sat the “King of Norfolk,” as he was styled, and held his councils +of state under the old oak, which bore thenceforth the title of the “oak +of the Reformation;”—there morning and evening service were daily read to +the rebel forces, and the Litany and Te Deum were listened to with solemn +earnestness. There Parker, the future archbishop of Canterbury, ventured +into the midst of the rebel camp, and, under the shade of the oak, sent +forth the voice of exhortation to the discontented, but to little effect. +Enclosed lands, commons stolen from the public, and other grievances +suffered by the poor from the hands of the rich, lay at the hearts of the +people, and the prelate’s errand of peace had well nigh terminated ill, +but for the power of music—the solemn Te Deum burst forth from the voice +of the rebel’s chaplain, and swelled by many “singing voices” into a loud +strain of sweet harmony, fell upon the ear of the multitude, like oil +upon the raging waters, and by its sweetness shed peace for the time on +all around. In this rebellion fell the gallant Earl of Sheffield, in his +zeal to aid the efforts of the Earl of Warwick to quell the outburst of +the people’s will; while beside him figured Dudley, the hero of +Kenilworth, and cruel husband of the hapless Amy Robsart. The popular +prophecy— + + The country gnoffes, Hob, Dick, and Hick, + With clubs and clouted shoon, + Shall fill the vale of Duffendale + With slaughtered bodies soon— + +was fulfilled, and besiegers and besieged were among the victims. That +there is no war like civil war was verified; the wounded plucked the +arrows from their wounds, that they might be sent back dripping with +their blood to the hearts of their kinsmen and foes. The watchword, +“Gentlemen ruled aforetime, a number will rule now another while,” +testified to the turning of the worm when trodden on—evidencing the +ripening germ of the same spirit that had in earlier times wrung from the +tyrant monarch a “Magna Charta,” and will yet, by agencies far other than +arrow, spear, or sword, obtain for an independent people, who can +reverence the laws of order and of right, every charter that shall be +needed to gain them their due place in the pillar of the state, where +neither capitol nor column can bear its own weight, without a base of +solid and fair proportions, to give harmony, strength, and beauty to the +whole. + +Among the aggravating causes that led to this insurrection, so famous in +our country’s annals, the desecration of church furniture and vestments, +that had followed the footsteps of the Reformation, stood prominently +forth; the people’s hearts rebelled against the havoc made amongst the +objects they had been taught to look upon as holy—and as these deeds of +licence had been simultaneous with encroachments upon their temporal +rights of pasture and common land, a double feeling was engendered—a +longing for social and political freedom, and a desire to reform a +Reformation that was marked by such atrocious want of reverence for all +that had been sacred. Conservatism and ultra-radicalism were blended, +even as in many minds to this hour they grow together. Connected with +this event of history, are two memorials that mark it as of national +interest—the Homily on Rebellion which was written against the +insurgents, and the institution of lord lieutenants of counties, as +safeguards against such another sudden and formidable outbreak in any +part of the kingdom. + +Stretching away far as the eye may reach, is the broad moor, laid bare of +forest trees by these same rebel forces, now clothed with yellow furze +and purple heather, intertwined with clovewort and ranunculus, and hiding +beneath, the crimson-tipped lichen, whose sanguine clubs and cups would +seem to have drank from the soil the blood of the slain, and rendered it +immortal. Bowl-shaped excavations dotted over its surface, testify of +Celtic habitations hollowed out in remote ages, beneath the forest +shades, roofed by its boughs, and lying hidden among the leaves like +lower birds’ nests,—now in barren desolation, serving well the vagrant +purposes of gypsy life, and lending a feature to the scene that Lavengro +has painted with a master-hand. + +And now the eye reposes from its survey—and thought flies back to the day +when the distant sea swept around the base of the castle of Blanchflower, +and filled the valley below—to the era of the brave Iceni, and the +sorrows of the warrior queen, Boadicea—to the advent of the mighty +Cæsar,—the appropriating Saxons,—and the savage Danes and Norsemen, with +their pirate hordes, storming the outposts of the military camp from +their uncouth naval fleets,—and thence to the era of the Norman hero +planting his foot upon our soil, when barons multiplied in the land; and +one scene of history enacted within the castle walls, bearing this date, +tells much of feudal laws and feudal power. + +The earldom of the city, castle, and meadow lands, being then possessed +by a Breton, named Ralph de Gael, or Guader, partly by gift from the +Conqueror, partly perhaps by force of arms, this local sovereign designed +to wed the daughter of one Fitz-Osborn, a relation of William. + +This matrimonial scheme not pleasing his lord the king, without ceremony +it was prohibited; but in that day of might _versus_ might, earls and +barons would sometimes have a will of their own, and the fair affianced +was made a bride within the chapel walls, whose doorway in an angle, +marks the site of the act of disobedience; the banquetting room then +received the bridal guests, and the sumptuous feast, with its attendant +libations, witnessed a yet more decided scene of rebellion; the +bridegroom and the bride’s own brother, the Earl of Hereford, already +committed by carrying the forbidden marriage into effect, became eloquent +and bold in their language and designs, until a chorus of excited voices +joined them in oaths that sealed them as conspirators against their +absent sovereign. Treachery revealed the plot, and the church lent its +aid to the crown to crush the rebels. Lanfranc, the primate and +archbishop, sent out troops, headed by bishops and justiciaries, the +highest dignitaries of church and law, to oppose and besiege them; the +bridegroom fled for succour to his native Brittany, leaving his bride for +three months to defend the garrison with her followers, at the end of +which time the brave Emma was compelled to capitulate, but upon mild +terms, obtaining leave for herself and followers to flee to Brittany; her +husband thenceforth became an outlaw—her brother was slain, and scarcely +one guest present at that ill-fated marriage feast escaped an untimely +end. Each prisoner lost a right foot, many their eyes, and all their +worldly goods. A sorrowful romance of real life, to mark the early +history of our castle halls. + +Nor did the city go unscathed, the devastation carried into its midst by +the siege was heavy; many houses were burnt, many deserted by those who +had joined the earl, and it is curious to read in the valuation of land +and property that was taken soon after this event, how many houses are +recorded as “_void_” both in the burgh or that part of the city under the +jurisdiction of the king and earl, as well as in other portions subject +to other lords, for it would seem that the landlords of the soil on which +stood the city were three, the king or earl of the castle, the bishop, +and the Harold family, relatives of him who fell at Hastings. Clusters +of huts then congregated round the base of the hill and constituted the +feudal village; its inhabitants consisting of villains, of which there +were two classes, the husbandmen or peasants annexed to the manor or +land, and a lower rank described in English law as villains-in-gross, in +simple terms, absolute slaves, transferable by deed from one owner to +another, whose lives, save for the ameliorations of individual +indulgences, were a continued helpless state of toil, degradation and +suffering; the socmen or tenants holding land by some _service_, (not +knightly) and bordars or boors, who occupied a position somewhat above +the serfs or villains, and held small portions of land with cottages or +_bords_ on them, on condition they should supply the lord with poultry, +eggs, and other small provisions for his board and entertainment. + +Freemen seem to have included all ranks of society holding in military +tenure; they lived under the protection of great men, but in their +persons were free; the rural labourers were divided into ploughmen, +shepherds, neat-herds, cow-herds, swine-herds, and bee-keepers. The +“haiae” belonging to the manor houses were enclosed places, hedged or +paled round, into which beasts were driven to be caught. At the time of +the survey in William’s reign the estimate of the tenants and fiefs of +the earl and king is taken as one thousand five hundred and sixty-five +burgesses, Englishmen paying custom to the king, one hundred and ninety +mansions void, and four hundred and eighty _bordars_; the bishop’s +territory contained thirty-seven burgesses, and seven mansions void; and +on the property of the deceased Harold, there were fifteen burgesses and +seven mansions void. + +After the banishment of Earl Ralph, the castle was given to Ralph Bigod, +who was styled the Constable, as was usual when any castle was committed +to a baron or earl, and he exercised royal power within the jurisdiction +of the castle. To him succeeded Roger Bigod, a great favourite and +friend of Henry I., and one of the witnesses to the laws made by him +during his reign. William, the son of Roger, succeeded his father, and +by King Henry was made steward of his household. This William was +drowned at sea, and his brother Hugh became possessed of his estate and +honours. To him is referred the finishing and beautifying of the tower +of the castle; but he was supplanted in the office of constable by +William de Blois, Earl of Moreton, son of King Stephen. He in his turn +was dispossessed of it by Henry II. Hugh Bigod joined with the son of +Henry, afterwards Henry III., in his revolt against his father, for which +adherence he was reinstated in the Castle of Blancheflower, but was +obliged again to surrender when the son repented of his rebellion, and +submitted to his father. + +To Hugh succeeded another Roger Bigod, his son, who received from the +hands of Richard I. the earldom of Norfolk and stewardship of the king’s +household, and most probably was constable of the castle also. During +the troubled reign of John, it passed into the hands of Lewis, son of the +French king, who made William de Bellomont, his marshal, constable, and +placed him with a garrison within its walls. To him succeeded Roger +Bigod, who figured amongst the revolting barons in the reign of Henry +III. At the memorable interview between the confederated nobles and the +king, at the parliament in Westminster, he took a leading part in the +proceedings. All the barons having assembled in complete armour, as the +king entered, there is described to have been a rattling of swords; his +eye gleaming along the mailed ranks he asked, “What means this? Am I a +prisoner?” “Not so,” replied Roger Bigod, “but your foreign favourites +and your own extravagance have involved this realm in great wretchedness, +whereof we demand that the powers of government be made over to a +committee of bishops and barons, that the same may root up abuses and +enact good laws.” The committee when formed numbered in its list both +Roger of Norfolk earl marshal, and Hugh Bigod. In this reign it is +mentioned that the castle became a gaol for the county, and state +prisoners were confined here. Many a dark tragedy was doubtless +witnessed by its dungeon walls during those troubled times, when civil +wars were hourly peopling them with political offenders. In Edward II.’s +reign the castle was partly re-fortified, but in the following reign, +falling completely out of repair, it came to be regarded simply as a +county jail, and its jurisdiction vested in the hands of the sheriff of +the county. + +Among the historical facts of later date, connected with the castle, and +bearing date of the same year as that in which Queen Elizabeth visited +the city, is an order issued from Whitehall, to the sheriff of Norfolk, +to imprison within the castle walls certain persons who refused to attend +the service of the church; the letter is preserved among Cole’s +manuscripts in the British Museum; the copy of it which is published by +the Archæological Society, runs thus: + + To our loving Friend Mr. Gawdry, Sherif of the Countie of Norfolk. + + After our hearty Commendations: whereas We have given order to the + Sheref of the Countie of Suffolke to deliver certain Prisoners into + your hands, who were by our order commytted for their obstinacy in + refusing to come to the Church in time of Sermons sad Common Prayers: + Thes shal be to require you to receive them into your chardge and + forthwith to commytt them to such of her Majesty’s gaoles within that + Countie as shall seeme good unto the Lord Bishop of Norwiche, by + whose direction they shall be delivered unto you, ther to remayne in + Cloase Prison untill such tyme as you shalbe otherwise directed from + us. And so we bid you heartely farewell. + + From Whitehall, the xxiijrd of February, 1878. + + Your loving Freands + + W. Burghley. E. Lyncoln. T. Sussex. + + F. Knollys. E. Leycester. + + Chr. Hatton. Fra. Walsingham. Tho. Wilson. + +In 1643 an order was sent to fortify the castle, at the request of the +deputy lieutenant of the county; the order is signed by seven staunch and +influential opponents of the royal party, viz. Tho. Wodehouse, John +Palgrave, Tho. Hoggan, Miles Hobart, J. Spelman, Tho. Sotherton, Gre. +Gawsett. + +Information concerning it from this period is scanty, probably little of +interest is connected with its later history, beyond the calendar of +prisoners who have been lodged within its precincts, of which we have no +record, and were it otherwise, we should be reluctant to consult its +pages for materials to enhance the attractions of our “Rambles.” + +It is to the history of the period prior to its appropriation as a +prison, that we must look for a picture of the life once animating its +halls and banquet chambers, and from the general outlines of feudal +society and government, a tolerably faithful portrait of it may be drawn. + +The age of feudalism has been extolled with enthusiasm only equal to that +which has deprecated it beyond measure; it has even been proposed as a +model for future ages by the cotemporary voice to that which has +pronounced it as exclusively a time of immorality, despotism, and +superstition; between the two extremes, a wide field of truth lies open +to be explored. + +“It was a time,” as Guizot says, “when religion was the principle and end +of all institutions, while military functions were the forms and means of +action.” + +All social movements partook of this twofold character, as questions of +commerce and industry were decidedly subordinate. + +The land was divided between the military barons possessed of regal +authority and governing as kings in their petty kingdoms—the church, also +proprietors of large estates, and the cities, then only beginning to rise +from their abject nullity into an importance that has gone on increasing +until commerce has become the sovereign of the world—Mammon its god. The +individualism of barbarism was sunk in the centralisation to which this +system gave birth; and from the social arrangements connected with it, +sprung up that spirit of chivalry that was so marked a characteristic of +the times, than which nothing more fully exemplified the singular +combination of military and religious fervour. Isolated from all +communion with general society, a castle was at once a city and a family +in itself, youths were apprenticed, as it were, to learn the usages of +knighthood, and in the capacity of pages, from earliest boyhood, were +initiated into the forms and courtesies of chivalrous and military +exercises. In this task women bore their part, the youths being ever +treated as sons of the lord or knight under whose tutelage they had been +placed; from this they became promoted to the rank of esquires, and +perfected in the arts of tilting, riding, hunting, and hawking, +frequently of music, and in case of war were qualified to follow the +banner of their instructors. The rank or military renown of a baron +helped to swell the list of esquires and pages in his retinue; hence many +castles were complete colleges of chivalry. The close association of +years in such familiar relationship cut off from all other social +communion, engendered strong attachments, and fraternities, superseding +often the ties of common relationship, sprung up. + +The imposing ceremony that accompanied the distinction of knighthood was +the finishing touch to this education. The candidate, after several +lonely nights of prayer and watching in some church or chapel, during +which period he received the sacraments of religion, was finally arrayed +in full splendour, conducted in grand procession to a church with the +sword of knighthood suspended by a scarf; the weapon was blessed by an +officiating priest, and the oaths administered which bound him to defend +the church and clergy, be the champion of virtuous women, especially the +widow or orphan, and to be gentle ever to the weak. Warriors then of +high degree, or ladies, then buckled on the spurs, clothed him in suits +of armour, and the prince or noble from whom he received the knighthood, +finally advanced, and giving the accolade, which consisted of three +gentle strokes with the flat of the sword, exclaimed, “In the name of +God, St. Michael, and St. George, I make thee a knight; be hardy, brave, +and royal.” From this date he might aspire to the highest offices and +distinctions. + +The domestic comforts that graced the private life within these castle +halls, formed striking contrasts to the magnificence of the knightly and +military displays, although the walls often were hung with gorgeous +tapestries, and the banqueting table groaned beneath the weight of gold +and silver, the refinements essential to modern ideas of comfort were +unknown. The fingers of the eater supplied the place of forks, and when +withdrawn from rich dishes, were often employed in tearing the morsels of +food asunder. Straw and rushes were the substitutes for carpets, and +clumsy wooden benches and tables supported the guests and viands at these +entertainments; those who were unfortunate enough not to obtain a seat at +the board were compelled to make use of the floor. Several English +estates were held upon condition of furnishing straw for royal beds, and +litter for the apartment floors of a palace; and the office of rush +strewer remained in the list of the royal household to a very late +period. Doubtless these deficiences were of slight importance to an +active out-door people, whose happiness consisted in large retinues, rich +armours, and splendid tournaments; even the ladies, with hunting, +hawking, and the occasional amusement of displaying their skill in +archery from the loop-holes or ramparts of their castles, when acting as +viceroys for their sovereign lords, no doubt could well dispense with the +minor occupations of refined civilization. + +The bill of fare of a feudal banquet would possibly astonish and puzzle +the gastronomic powers and digestive organs of the nineteenth century, +although cookery was esteemed as a noble science even then, in the days +when Soyer was not. The boar’s head, the peacock, occasionally served up +in his feathers, the crane or young herons, might not have been +altogether bad substitutes for turkeys and geese, but whether larded, +roasted, and eaten with ginger, and often served in their feathers, they +might have been suited to our modern tastes is problematical; porpoises +and seals that often appeared in the list of “goodly provisions” for +special occasions, may scarcely be deemed more of dainties; and the +compounds that figure in some of the recipes extant, of the more mystical +entrées, present to the eye such medleys, that we feel certain of a +preference for the plain “roast” or “boil,” in feudal times, at least, if +not at all others. Force-meats, compounded of pork, figs, cheese, and +ale, seasoned with pepper, saffron, and salt, baked in a crust, and +garnished with powderings of sugar and comforts, may be quoted as a +sample of their made dishes, while beef-tea, enriched with pork fat, +beaten up with cream and sweetened with honey, as directed by their form, +possibly was classed among the delicate soups, or ranged under the head +of “_sick cookery_.” + +The bread that formed the substitute for our best and “second +households,” was of various kinds, the finest being a sort of spice-cake +of superior quality; simnel and wastel cakes were the ordinary food for +the aristocracy, while commoners were content with a coarse brown +material manufactured from rye, oats, or barley, that would at this day +cause a revolution in prisons, or pauper workhouses, were it to be found +in the dietary table of either, much less on the dinner-table. The +special wines, hippocras, pigment, morat, and mead, were the temptations +to inebriety among the rich; cider, perry, and ale, the form of alcoholic +drinks common to the less affluent. + +The record of Peter de Blois, in one of his letters from the Court of +Henry II., may be estimated perhaps as a faithful, if not attractive, +description of the ordinary fare on which many unfortunate knights and +retainers were sometimes compelled to subsist. He tells us that a priest +or soldier had bread put before him, “not kneaded, not leavened, made of +the dregs of beer, like lead, full of bran, and unbaked, wine spoiled by +being sour or mouldy, thick, greasy, rancied, tasting of pitch, and +vapid, sometimes so full of dregs, that they were compelled rather to +filter than drink it, with eyes shut and teeth closed; meat stale as +often as fresh; fish often four days old.” The picture is heightened by +sundry details of a pungent character, all tending to prove the truth of +his assertion, that powerful exercise was an essential assistant to +overcome the evils of such diet. Early hours possibly contributed to +lessen its injurious effects; and these of course, at any rate as far as +regarded the “early to bed,” were enforced by the curfew, which has so +mistakenly been attributed to the Norman Conqueror’s despotism, whereas +it had long prevailed as a custom here, as on the continent, prior to his +era, and was, in fact, a necessary precaution against the dangers of +fire, when the dwelling-houses that formed a town or city were little +more than bundles of faggots, well dried and bound up ready for burning. + +Among the social amusements of that time, gambling seems to have +prevailed to a great extent. The curious prohibitions that were enacted +in the reign of Richard, would indicate that it had then grown into a +formidable vice; kings were permitted to play with each other, and +command their followers, but the nobles were restricted to losing twenty +shillings in one night; priests and knights might, with permission, play +to the same amount, but were to forfeit four times twenty shillings if +they exceeded it; servants might also play to a limited extent, at the +_command_ of their master, but if they ventured without such permission, +they subjected themselves to the penalty of being whipped three +successive days; and mariners at sea, for a like transgression, were +sentenced to be ducked three times for the offence. Chess, that infinite +and insoluble intellectual problem, whose origin is lost in oriental +obscurity, was introduced by the Crusaders on their return from their +expeditions to the Holy Land, if, indeed, as some believe, it was not +known in this country prior to that date; but if we may judge by +inference, we may presume it to have been no favourite recreation in +those spirit-stirring times, when crusades, tournaments, and military +prowess were the end and aim of men’s lives. The amusements and sports +naturally partook of the character of the age, and hunting, hawking, +tilting, and tournaments were at once the schools for gaining strength +and dexterity, as well as safety-valves for the overflowing mobility +engendered by the spirit of the times. These pursuits were elevated to +the rank of perfect sciences, and the education of a youth was incomplete +that did not embrace regular tuition in all of them. Nor were they, as +we know, confined to the “lords of the creation.” In hunting, ladies not +only often joined in the sport, but frequently formed parties by +themselves, winding the horn, rousing the game, and pursuing it without +assistance, the female Nimrods manifesting especial partiality to +greyhounds—or hare-hounds, as they were then called. The objects of +these hunts were somewhat more numerous and varied then than now, and +were divided into three classes; first, the beasts for hunting, viz. the +hare, the hart, the wolf, and the wild boar; secondly, the beasts of the +chase, the buck and doe, the fox, the martin, and the roe; and a minor +class, which were said to afford great disport in the pursuit, the +_grey_, or badger, the wild cat, and the otter. + +The poor little hare and a fox or two, alone are left us of all these +original tenants of the soil; and game laws were, even in those days of +plentiful supply, found needful to preserve the aborigines of the woods +as their especial property, by the great ones of the land, and when +manslaughter was to be atoned for by a fine of money, the death of a head +of deer was punishable by the forfeiture of the offender’s eyes, and a +second instance by death. Who will dispute the aristocratic lineage of +the game laws, with such facts of history before them? Hunting had its +proper seasons; the wolf and fox might be hunted from Christmas-day to +the Annunciation, the roebuck from Easter to Michaelmas, the roe from +Michaelmas to Candlemas, the hare from Michaelmas to Midsummer, the boar +from the Nativity to the day of the “Presentation in the Temple.” + +The clergy were not behind-hand in partaking of the privileges of the +chase within their own demesnes, and they took care generally to have +good receptacles for game in their parks and enclosures. At the time of +the Reformation, the see of Norwich had no less than thirteen parks well +stocked with deer; and the name of one of the city churches, St. Peter’s, +Hungate, is derived from the _Hound’s_-gate, where the bishop’s hounds +were stabled. + +Hawking was a sport, until the magna charta, exclusively confined to the +nobility; lords and ladies alike indulged themselves in the exercise, +which from its gentleness, in comparison with others then in vogue, was +deemed somewhat an effeminate pastime, probably because, in the delicate +dexterity it required, the ladies bore off the palm of victory. + +A hawk’s eyrie was returned in doomsday-book as one of the most valuable +articles of property; and the estimation in which the bird was held, may +be judged of by the enormous prices given for them, and the heavy +penalties attached to stealing either them or their eggs; for destroying +one of which the offender was liable to imprisonment for a twelvemonth +and a day. Perhaps, however, this is no very safe criterion of their +intrinsic value, or those sentences that sometimes figure in our modern +assize reports—where seven years’ transportation for stealing two ducks +from an open pond, stands side by side with twelve months’ imprisonment +for murdering a wife, a friend, or a child, in a fit of temporary +insanity, alias intoxication—might lead to rather curious inferences. + +But to return to our hawks; a thousand pounds for a cast of these birds, +and a hundred marks for a single one, are recorded prices. In hawking, +the bird was carried on the wrist, which was protected by a thick glove, +the head of the bird covered with a hood, and its feet secured to the +wrist by straps of leather, called jesses, and to its legs were fastened +small bells, toned according to the musical scale. + +Among the chronicles of old monkish writers prior to the Conquest, is a +story accounting for the first advent of the Danes upon our shores, as +connected with the amusement of hawking: “A Danish chieftain of high +rank, named Lothbroc, amusing himself with hawking near the sea, upon the +western shores of Denmark, the bird in pursuit of her game fell into the +water; Lothbroc, anxious for her safety, got into a little boat that was +near at hand, and rowed from the shore to take her up; but before he +could return to land, a sudden storm arose, and he was driven out to sea. +After suffering great hardships, during a voyage of infinite peril, he +reached the coast of Norfolk, and landed at a port called Reedham, (now a +small village on the railway line from London to Yarmouth,) where he was +immediately seized by the inhabitants, and sent to the court of Edmund, +King of the East Angles, who received him favourably, and soon became +strongly attached to him for his skill in training and flying hawks. The +partiality shown to the foreigner excited the jealousy of Beoric, the +king’s falconer, who took an opportunity of murdering the Dane whilst he +was exercising his birds in a small wood, where he secreted the body. +The vigilance of a favourite spaniel discovered the deed. Beoric was +apprehended and convicted of the murder, and condemned to be put in an +open boat, without sails, oars, or rudder, and abandoned to the mercy of +the winds and wares. It so chanced that the boat was wafted to the very +point of land that Lothbroc came from; and Beoric was apprehended by the +Danes, and taken before their two chieftains, Hinguer and Hubba, the sons +of Lothbroc, to whom the crafty falconer made a statement as ingenious as +false, wherein he affirmed that their father had been murdered by Edmund, +and himself sent adrift for opposing the deed. Irritated by the +falsehood, the Danes invaded the kingdom of the East Angles, pillaged +their country, took their king prisoner, tied him to a stake, and shot +him to death with arrows.” Lidgate, a monk of St. Edmund’s at Bury, has +given this legend a place in his poetical life of the tutelary saint of +his monastery, but it bears upon it every mark of a legendary tale, and +the fact is well known that Danish pirates had infested the shores long +prior to the date assigned to the events narrated in it. + +The office of “queen’s falconer” yet exists, and it is written in a +certain little black book, that the duties attached to it, however +imaginary, receive substantial acknowledgement from the public purse in +the form of an annual stipend of no mean amount. Another recreation +peculiarly associated with the memory of knights and dames once tenanting +the feudal castle is the tournament, the site of whose gorgeous +pageantries yet bears the title of the “Gilden croft,” though the lustre +of the name is the only ray of splendour bequeathed to it as an +inheritance of glory. Centuries have witnessed the mutations of the +properties of the great ones of the land, as they have gradually passed +down through the various gradations of society like cast-off garments, +until the once brilliant lists of the gay tournament have changed to long +tiers of poverty tenanted “_right ups_;” the music of the herald’s +trumpet has been replaced by the rattle of the shuttle and the loom; and +the steel-clad knights and esquires, with their tiltings and joustings, +amid the smiles and favours of youth and beauty, have given place to the +struggles of the weaver and the winder in their weary battle of life, for +the guerdon of daily bread. Where, Edward and Phillippa held their +Easter tournament, and their gallant son, the brave Black Prince, +displayed his knightly prowess amid splendours that might rival the +“field of the cloth of gold,” poverty, hard labour, and penury now rear +their gaunt limbs; and the tale of the “Paramatta weaver” is breathed +forth to the listening ear of humanity from its precincts. + +But the tournament demands attention, inwrought as it is with every +conception we may form of the days of chivalry; and, thanks to the +patient researches of many chroniclers, we have not much difficulty in +learning all we may desire to know concerning these glories of an age +gone by. Fiction has given life and vigour to these features of past +history. Ivanhoe lives and breathes before us at the mention of a +tournament, and plain prose facts may not vie with the glowing pictures, +painted with imagination’s rainbow hues. The tournament was not +altogether the play-ground of full-grown knights and esquires, as romance +would sometimes tend to show it;—it was the theatre on which many an +important drama of life was played; it was a grand field for introduction +into military life, then the only life deemed worthy the ambition of a +gentleman; and the laws and regulations to which all who presented +themselves as candidates for honours became subject, bespeak the +importance attached to the favours it conferred. + +The mode of conducting a tournament was established by law. It was +preceded always by a proclamation; one worded thus, is given by Strutt: +“Be it known unto you, lords, knights, and esquires, ladies and +gentlewomen,” (they did not in those days of chivalry commence ladies, my +lords and gentlemen) “you are hereby acquainted, that a superb +achievement in arms, and a grand and noble tournament, will be held in +the parade of Clarencieux king at arms, on the part of the most noble +baron, lord of I. C. B., and on the part of the most noble baron the lord +of C. B. D., in the parade of Norreys king at arms.” The regulations +that follow are these: “The two barons on whose part the tournament is +undertaken shall be at their pavilions two days before the commencement +of the sports, when each of them shall cause his arms to be attached to +his pavilion, and set up his banner in front of his parade; and all those +who wish to be combatants on either side, must in like manner set up +their banner on either side before the parade allotted to them. Upon the +evening of the same day, they shall shew themselves in their stations, +and expose their helmets to view at the windows of their pavilions. On +the morrow the champions shall be at their parades by the hour of ten in +the morning, to await the commands of the lord of the parade, and the +governor, who are the speakers of the tournament; at this meeting the +prizes of honour are determined.” In the document from which this is +taken, a rich sword was to be the reward of the most successful on the +part of Clarencieux, and a helmet for the best on the side of Norreys. +It goes on to say, “On the morning of the day appointed for the +tournament, the arms, banners and helmets of all the combatants shall be +exposed at their stations, and the speakers present at the place of +combat by ten of the clock, where they shall examine the arms and approve +or reject them at pleasure; the examination being finished and the arms +returned to the owners, the baron who is the challenger shall then cause +his banner to be placed at the beginning of the parade, and the blazon of +his arms to be nailed to the roof of his pavilion; his example is to be +followed by the baron on the opposite side, and all the knights of either +party who are not in their stations before the nailing up of the arms, +shall forfeit their privileges and not be permitted to tournay. + +“The king at arms and the heralds are then commanded by the speakers to +go from pavilion to pavilion crying aloud, ‘_To Achievement_, _knights +and esquires_, _to Achievement_,’ being the notice for them to arm +themselves; and soon after the company of heralds shall repeat the former +ceremony, having the same authority, saying, ‘_Come forth_, _knights and +esquires_, _come forth_;’ and when the two barons have taken their places +in the lists, each of them facing his own parade, the champions on both +parts shall arrange themselves, every one by the side of his banner; and +then two cords shall be stretched between them, and remain in that +position, until it shall please the speakers to command the commencement +of the sports. The combatants shall each of them be armed with a +pointless sword, having the edges rebated, and with a truncheon hanging +from their saddles, and they may use either the one or the other, so long +as the speakers shall give them permission, by repeating the sentence, +‘_Let them go on_.’ After they have sufficiently performed their +exercise, the speakers are to call to the heralds, and order them to +‘_Fold up the banners_,’ which is the signal for the conclusion of the +tournament. The banners being rolled up, the knights and esquires are +permitted to return to their dwellings.” + +Every knight or esquire performing in the tournament, was permitted to +have one page within the lists, (but without a truncheon or any other +defensive weapon,) to wait upon him, give him his sword, or truncheon, as +occasion might require; and also in case of any accident happening to the +armour, to repair it. + +The laws of the tournament permitted any knight to unhelm himself at +pleasure, if he was incommoded by the heat; none being suffered to +assault him in any way, until he had replaced his helmet at the command +of the speakers. + +The king-at-arms and the heralds who proclaimed the tournament, had the +privilege of wearing the blazon of arms of those by whom the sport was +instituted; besides which, they were entitled to six ells of scarlet +cloth as their fee, and had all their expenses defrayed during the +continuance of the tournament; by the law of arms they had a right to the +helmet of every knight when he made his first essay at a tournament; they +also claimed six crowns as nail money, for affixing the blazon of arms to +the pavilion. The king at arms held the banners of the two chief barons +on the day of the tournament, and the other heralds the banners of their +confederates according to their rank. + +The lists for the tournaments and those appointed for ordeal combats, +were appointed in the same manner; the king found the field to fight in, +and the lists were made and devised by a constable; they were to be sixty +paces long and forty broad, set up in good order, the ground within hard +and level, without any great stones or other impediments, the entrances +to them to be by two doors east and west, strongly barred with bars seven +feet high, that a horse may not leap them. + +After the conclusion of the tournament, the combatants retired to their +homes, but usually met again in the evening at some entertainment; where +they were joined by all the nobility, including the ladies, and dancing, +feasting and singing concluded the day. After supper the speakers of the +tournament called together the heralds appointed on both sides, and +demanded from them alternately the names of those who had best performed +on the opposite sides; the double list was then presented to the ladies +who had been present at the pastime, and the decision was referred to +them as to the award of the prizes; they selected one name from each +party, and the successful heroes received their prizes from the hands of +two young maidens of rank. If a knight transgressed the rules he was +excluded from the lists with a sound beating, from which alone the +intercession of ladies could save him; so the influence of the fair sex +had opportunities of being practically felt, as well as theoretically +talked of, even then. + +The juste or lance game differed from the tournament and was often +included in it, when it took place at its conclusion, but it was quite +consistent with the rules of chivalry for justs to be held separately; +the sword was the weapon used at the tournament, the lance at the juste. +The juste received the title of the “Round table game,” in the reign of +Henry III., from a fraternity of knights who frequently justed together, +and accustomed themselves to associate and eat together in one apartment +at a round table, where every place was equally honourable (even in +feudal times a taint of democracy would creep in). Historians attribute +this round table game to Arthur, the son of Uter Pendragon, that famous +British hero, whose achievements are so disguised with legendary wonders +that his very existence has been questioned. + +At both tilts and tournaments the lists were superbly decorated, +surrounded by the pavilions of the champions, and ornamented with their +coats and banners. The scaffolds for the accommodation of the spectators +were hung with tapestry, and embroidered with gold and silver; all +attended in their most sumptuous apparel, and the display of costly +grandeur glittering over the whole surface of the field, might well earn +for the memorable scene so designated, its title of the Gilden Croft. +Wealth, beauty, and grandeur were concentrated into one focus, whence +they blazed forth to the eye as from a burning lens. + +The dress of the combatants varied according to the rank of the +individual. Above the under-dress of cloth, fitting close, and common to +all, was worn the _chausses_, or mail coverings for the feet and legs, +somewhat resembling metal stockings; upon the body the gambeson, a sort +of close jacket made of cloth or leather doubled and stuffed, and in +itself oftentimes a most efficient case of defensive armour; this +garment, without sleeves, and universally worn by all classes of men, was +also occasionally introduced into the catalogue of ladies’ attire, and no +doubt was the primitive model for the stays of later generations. Above +the gambeson was worn the _gorget_ or throat piece, beneath the _hauberk_ +or coat of mail, by which it was concealed; this was the garment that +peculiarly designated the rank of the wearer. Esquires might not wear +sleeves of mail, and none might claim to wear the complete suit that were +not possessed of certain estates. Above the armour was usually worn some +outer dress, a surcoat or mantle of rich material. The sword belt was a +necessary part of the warrior’s dress, and was often very elaborately +embellished with precious stones, but more commonly made simply of plain +leather. Another belt was also worn over the left shoulder, to support +the shield. + +The helmet comprised the whole armour for the head and face, and usually +consisted of two parts, one moving over the other, by which means the +face could be uncovered or perfectly inclosed at pleasure. These +portions of the dress, however, varied to an almost infinite degree at +various times, and at a later period were exchanged for the Bacinet, +Cervaliere, Coif de fer, &c. &c. + +Gloves of mail were attached to the sleeves of the hauberk, and were +sometimes divided at the extremities for the accommodation of the fingers +and thumb, but not often. Such was the military costume of the knight in +armour, and the dress of the spectators, both gentlemen and ladies, must +not altogether be left unnoticed. The tunic and rich surcoat above, +sometimes varied with a hooded mantle, and the robe a long garment of the +tunic kind, were the leading characteristics of male attire; shoes with +long points, cloth sandals, ornamented with embroidery, girdles enriched +with precious stones, gloves and spurs completed the suit. + +The ladies wore gowns, or upper tunics, or robes, with surcoats varying +much in length, sometimes being shorter than the tunic, at others +trailing on the ground, with long loose sleeves, open beneath to the +elbow, and falling thence almost to the feet. Their mantles were made of +the richest materials, and copiously embellished with gold, silver, and +rich embroideries, sometimes decorated with fringes of gold, varying in +size almost as much as material. The wimple was a head-dress, worn with +or without an additional veil, usually linen, but occasionally of silk, +embroidered with gold. It was a species of veil, covering the head but +not the face, and fastened underneath the chin, or at the top of the +head, by a circlet of gold. The hair was worn loose and flowing, often +without any covering, but frequently bound by a chaplet of goldsmith’s +work and flowers, or of the latter only. Boots and gloves were in the +inventory of necessaries, but, alas for comfort, stockings were rare, +white, black, or blue. With this faint sketch of an Anglo-Norman +wardrobe, as it furnished materials to add splendour to the glittering +field of sport, we bid farewell to the lists, not, however, without one +more word as to the honourable position awarded to the gentler sex in the +jousts, which were usually made in their especial honour, and over which +they presided as judges paramount; so that it behoved every true knight +to have a favourite fair one, who was not only esteemed by him as the +paragon of beauty and virtue, but supplied to him often the place of a +tutelary saint, to whom he paid his vows in the day of peril; for it was +then an established doctrine that “love made valour perfect, and incited +heroes to great enterprizes.” Alas! for the good old times of chivalry, +when women were content to make _great warriors_; but as she did her +mission in that day, so may she, in this sober life of mental tiltings, +lend her meed of influence to people the world with _great men_. And so +farewell to tournaments; verily they are of the past, and their glitter +dazzles our senses, in this generation of moral _versus_ physical force, +when among the number of the people’s favourite heroes is the champion of +Universal Peace Societies. + +But we must not leave our sketch of the life in a feudal castle, without +one glance at the feminine employments that served to relieve the +monotonous existence of the isolated dames condemned to comparative +solitude within its walls; nor are we able to discover much, if any, +variety in their occupations. The embroidery frame, and an occasional +spindle and distaff, before the improvements in arts and science had +substituted factories and looms, were almost the only resources allowed +them; but these were inexhaustible, and the many elaborate specimens of +their skill that have survived the casualties of a hundred generations, +bear witness to the indefatigable perseverance with which they were +employed. The garments of the clergy at this period were richly +embroidered, so much so, as to excite the admiration of the pope, and +induce him to issue a bull to the English priests, enjoining them to +procure him vestments equally gorgeous. Many of these were the free-will +offerings of the rich, and the fruits of highborn ladies’ industry. +Fringe-making of gold and silver, worked upon lace without the aid of the +needle, was another species of occupation afforded them, and constituted +the Phrygian work often spoken of by old historians. Cyprian work was a +variety of embroidery, inasmuch as it was a thin, transparent texture +like gauze, named _cyprus_, worked with gold. Cyprus was a term applied +also to black crape, then appropriated exclusively to widows’ mourning; +possibly this might have been the origin of “wearing the cypress.” +Embroidery was not alone confined to ornaments of dress, or even clerical +vestments; hangings for the chambers, and pictures on almost every +possible subject, were produced from the needle. + +The tapestry at Bayeux, in Normandy, attributed to Matilda, the queen of +the Conqueror, represents the history of Harold, king of England, and +William of Normandy, from the embassy of the former to Duke William, at +the command of Edward the Confessor, to his final overthrow at Hastings. +The ground of this work is a white linen cloth or canvas, one foot eleven +inches in depth, and two hundred and twelve in length. The figures are +all in their proper colours, of a style not unlike those of japan ware, +having no pretence to symmetry or proportion. It is preserved with great +care in the cathedral dedicated to Thomas à Becket, in Normandy, and is +annually exhibited for eight days, commencing on St. John’s day, and is +called _Duke William’s toilette_. + +It is, however, extremely questionable whether it was the work of the +royal lady,—many figures in it would indicate that its manufacture was of +more recent date—be it as it may, it is a wondrous specimen of patient +industry, and valuable for the representation of manners and customs of +the times traced upon it. + +Here we bid farewell to castle halls, to the ghosts of belted knights and +hooded dames, to spinning wheels and tapestries, falcons, jennets, +tournaments, and banquets, to the border’s bord upon the skirting of his +lord’s domain, the serf’s log hut, the cowherd’s shed, and the prisoner’s +dungeon,—the moat, once deep and flowing, now dried up, and teeming with +cultivated trees and shrubs, and ornamental flowers, and sculptured +figures,—we say adieu to the past history, written on the flints and +mortar of the ramparts, that have braved the “battle and the breeze,” for +near a thousand years,—and leave the soaring heights, whence we may look +down upon the little city world below as on a stage, whose scenes and +slips are all laid bare beneath us in their skeleton machinery—dark lanes +and lumbering alleys crowded round, and shut in out of sight, by facial +frontings of glass, and brick, and plaster. Churches and heaped-up +churchyards, bursting their walls with the accumulated corruption of +centuries of generations,—distant villages and village spires,—and spots +made sacred by the blood of hero-martyrs,—the winding river, once the +stormy sea-passage for Norsemen and Saxon fleets—and take one final leave +of the giant mound,—whose origin, whether first reared in Celtic ages far +remote, a temple to the Sun, or a portion of the far-famed Icknild Way, +that crosses our island like a belt from south-west to north-east, +whether the architecture of Danes, Saxons, or Normans, is alike full of +history and of poetry, and the well garnered store-house of many a rich +and precious truth,—a monument of the past, ever present to our eye, as a +landmark by which to measure the progress of our nation in religion, +freedom, and social happiness. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +THE MARKET-PLACE. + + +_Market-place_.—_Present aspect_.—_Visit to its stalls_.—_Norfolk +Marketwomen_.—_Christmas Market_.—_Early History_.—_Extracts from old +records_.—_Domestic scene of 13th century_.—_Early +Crafts_.—_Guilds_.—_Medley of Historical Facts_.—_Extract from Diary of +Dr. Edward Browne_.—_The City in Charles the Second’s reign_.—_Duke’s +Palace +Gardens_.—_Manufactures_.—_Wool_.—_Worsted_.—_Printing_.—_Caxton_.— +_Specimens of Ancient Newspapers_.—_Blomefield_. + +The old city, so rich in antiquarian remains, can boast but slow progress +in modern architectural developments; nor may it vie with many a younger +town in its contrivances for the comfort and conveniences of those most +useful members of society—the market-folks. No Grainger has arisen, to +rear a monument to his own fame, and of his city’s prosperity, in the +form of a shelter for this important class of the town and country +populace. May be, the picturesque beauty of the Flemish scene, with its +changeful canopy of “ethereal blue,” or neutral tint, toned down at +whiles to hues of sombre gloom, beneath the heavy shade of passing storms +of hail and thunder, or more steady-falling rain and snow, has made the +philanthropists of these reforming times conservatives all, on this one +point, while model cottages, baths and washhouses, almshouses for +freemen, and almost every other scheme ingenuity may devise to testify +the care and thought bestowed upon the public weal, are rising up around. +Let the cry of “_Protection_” once again be raised, not for the +“distressed agriculturist” salesman, in his handsome corn exchange, but +in favour of the “unprotected females” that sit unsheltered from the sun +or storm, to vend the produce of the poultry-yards, the dairy-house, and +market-garden. + +But though no Temple to Commerce of the larder has been erected—a fact to +be deplored in a utilitarian sense—it can never be denied that the good +old seat of thriving trade can boast as fine a specimen of a genuine old +market-place as may well be found in this day of competition and rivalry. +Its motley assemblage of buildings, ranged round the open square, of all +styles and all ages, jostling against one another, or here and there +huddled together into all sorts of inconceivable groups of varied and +fantastic outline; the young ones of to-day starting up with bold and +saucy front, and verily squeezing out from among them their quaint, +old-fashioned, gable-ended kinsfolk of older date, or sometimes creeping +out, as it were, from beneath them, content with shewing a modern face in +some lower window, decked with all the new-fangled conceits of the latest +fashions, and allowing their ancestors quiet resting-place aloft, where +to moulder away into decay, are a chronology of history in themselves. +Now and then, the fretted ironwork of some miniature parade, hanging +midway in the air, and clinging to the perpendicular of masonry above +some new plate-glassed and glittering front, suggests thoughts of marine +villas, moonlight and sea views, and all those pretty poetical fancies +associated with a lodging at some fashionable watering-place, and one +wonders how they ever came to be transported thither, and for why? They +that own them tell us that they have their use, in the city, where the +love of pageantry is an heir-loom from generations long since passed away +whose birthright was to minister to the gorgeous magnificence of +fraternities and guilds, banquettings and processions, that read like +fairy tales in this sober nineteenth century; and we would believe in +their utility, were it no other than to afford a bird’s eye view of the +busy scenes of homely traffic going on upon a market day, amongst the +accumulated heaps of provisions for the daily wants of life. + +_The wants of life_! Who amongst us knows the meaning of the words, the +_reality_ they hide? Who that has numbered among the wants of life, the +gold to purchase luxury or ornament, place or power, the ways and means +to shine and glitter in the world, where men are prized by what they +_seem_, rather than what they are; the wherewith to pay the idly +accumulated debts, incurred through mean attempts to cover the rags of +poverty, or decent homely garments of honesty, with tinsel mockeries of +wealth’s trappings? Who amongst these knows aught of the meaning of the +_wants of life_? Ask him who has known _Hunger_, has been face to face +with want and starvation, has shared with loved and loving ones, weak +babes, and sick and helpless mothers, the task of driving these unbidden +guests away, has felt the gnawing pangs of their demon power, while +gazing upon plenty, upon the wealth of food and sustenance displayed +before his eyes! Is it not more marvellous and strange, that such piles +as a market displays should ever be permitted to lie safe within the +arrow-shot of gaunt and wasting poverty, than that the annals of our +police reports should now and then record how poverty and crime sometimes +go hand in hand? + +But to look more in detail at the picture offered on a summer market-day. +There to the left sit congregated together the vendors of the far-famed +staple produce of the country farm-yards, sheltered from the heat by the +artificial grove of variegated umbrellas, serving, or attempting to +serve, the double purpose of protection from the sun in summer, and the +rain in winter and summer. The poultry “pads” and butter-stalls are one. +Turkeys, and geese, and fowls, and sausages, and little round white +cheeses, share the baskets and benches with eggs and _pints_ of butter, +in the land where that commodity is sold by _liquid_ measure, whose +equivalent is somewhere near about 1lb. 3 oz. + +There is a legend that one who sits here is the heroine of an old tale, +which goes to the effect that “once upon a time,” when the inspector came +his round to test the weights of all the measured pints, the old lady was +observed slily to slip a half crown into the end of a certain pint, and +hand it forward to bear the scrutiny; a bystander, who watched the trick, +a moment after laid his finger on the identical pint and begged to +purchase it, resisting all evasion on the part of the discomfited +saleswoman, who, compelled to submit, turned out eventually the “biter +bit.” + +Thronging around this neighbourhood, and proffering their services with +most assiduous perseverance, are a host of most amiable-looking porter +women, liveried in white aprons and sleeves, with a pair of huge peck +baskets dangling on their arms. Tumbling, and bumping, and jostling +among them, drowning their pleadings in a deafening chorus of discordant +cries, come the itinerant venders of small wares—“lucifers three boxes a +penny,” “cabbage-nets only a penny,” “reels of cotton two for a penny,” +little dangling bunches of skewers, ranged in progressive order on queer +and mysteriously twisted holders, that seem designed to puzzle any +mechanical skill to get them off again, “only a penny;” laces, and +saucepans, and stationery, and kettles, thrust into notice as though +haberdashers, and tinmen, and stationers were simultaneously rushing off +to the gold diggings, and disposing of their goods piecemeal by auction. +Ere the next range of stalls may be explored, the pathway is obstructed +by some “literate” specimen of the blind, with an attendant concourse of +listeners eagerly drinking in the titles of his sheet of hundred songs +for a penny. “There’s a good time coming,” “All’s lost now,” “My bark is +on the shore,” and “I’m on the Sea,” &c. &c.; or should any great tragedy +or judicial murder have occurred recently, to furnish him with a still +more profitable stock in trade, such as a “last dying speech and +confession,” or “full, true, and particular account” of some “shocking +and brutal outrage,” somewhat may be seen and heard of how the minds and +tastes of the ignorant are vitiated, and the morbid cravings of diseased +imaginations fed; and the hawker of this food for the million, forms +living evidence that the eye is not the only member through whose aid +vice may gain entrance to the soul. But there is little time or +opportunity to philosophize amid the din of importunity that is ringing +upon the ears, “What d’ye luke for? fine guse? butifull fowill?” And +there stands one who claims especial notice—the merry bacon woman, amid +her throng of earnest customers. There she stands, or rather moves; +stillness is a state to which she must be a total stranger, we could +fancy. “Good day, ma’am.” “What’s for you, sir?” “Nice pork, _dear_? +black meat? I’ll wait _of ye_ this minute, sir.” “Yes, ma’am, beautiful +ham; did you please to want any? Oh, thank you; very well, another day I +shall be _proud_ to wait _of ye_.” “No harm in asking,” she adds, +turning apologetically to her more profitable customers. And so she goes +on, ever moving, ever talking, ever cheerful, civil, and attentive, one +never-ending strain of courtesy and kindness pouring from her lips, while +her hands are ever busy cutting and weighing, and folding up in fine +white linen cloths, her sausages and bacon, and black meat, and still +nicer white juvenile-looking pork, just fresh from the pickle. Probably +she has a home somewhere, but her sphere of usefulness and theatre of +glory must be at the market-stall; she must have been born and bred a +market-woman. Further on, there sits a melancholy and original old lady, +proprietress of a heterogeneous kind of heap, composed of small +quantities of the choicest produce of various sources of supply—stray +joints of pork, trifling displays of butter, a few eggs, and an +occasional specimen of poultry; but her fame is built upon her unrivalled +“tatoes,” hidden up in pads, and carefully concealed from the eyes of +chance passengers; their discovery is a mine of wealth to the privileged +few, especially in bad seasons. Dealing forth sparingly, like a miser +counting out his treasures, the queen of murphies compensates for the +reserve that would seem to imply her belief that her purchasers were +begging favours of her, by the involuntary boon she confers upon the +lover of idioms, in her quaint displays of her county’s dialect. The +ordinary greeting of “How d’ye do?” will be met by the assurance that she +“don’t _fare to feel_ no matters,” or she “_fares to_ feel _right +muddled_,” or “_no how_,” or that she is scarce fit to be “abroad.” Her +“tatoes” she will recommend as eating like balls of flour, if cooked +_enow_ (a word indiscriminately used to express quantity and degree). +She will occasionally detail particulars of her market-horse’s +“_trickiness_” when he “_imitated_” to kick on the road, and how she +“_gots_” him on as well as she could. Her breakfast jug she will +designate a _gotch_, and many other like specimens will she afford of the +contents of the vocabulary of East Anglia. A traveller may with little +difficulty fancy he is listening to some native of the distant county +Devon; and, strange to say, the _guse_, _fule_, and _enow_, and other +striking similarities of brogue and dialect, are not the only features of +resemblance these two counties bear to each other. The ancient rood +screens of the Norfolk churches have many of them been found exactly to +correspond with those found in Devonshire, and only there. In the +celebrated rebellions of Edward the Sixth’s reign, many remarkable +features of resemblance were observed in the character of the outbreaks +at these distant points,—so much so, as to suggest the idea of secret +communication being kept up between them. Whether both alike owe their +peculiarities to the common parentage of the Iceni, a tribe of whom have +been said to have settled in Devonshire as well as Pembrokeshire, or they +are referable to any less remote link of connection, antiquarians may +perhaps at some future day make clear. Certain it is, the “southron” is +apt to be easily beguiled into the belief that he has met a +fellow-countryman or woman among the folks who deem themselves another +race than the people of the “_sheeres_.” + +But we have here wandered far aside in our market trip; next come in due +order the butcher-stalls, taking a higher rank in the social scale of +market society than the humbler _pads_, though their wares may not +compete with their neighbours for a world-wide fame—south-down mutton, +prime little scot, and short-horn beef, with the usual attendant displays +of calves’ white heads with staring eyes, and mangled feet hanging to +dismembered legs and shoulders by little strings of sinew, looking as +though they were carelessly left on by accident, _not_ to affect the +weight, and other mysterious manifestations of the internal anatomy of +oxen and sheep, and queer-looking conglomerations of odds and ends, +transmogrified by some cooking process into very greasy imitations of +brawn, and selling by the name of pork cheeses,—these make up the +attractions of the butcher department, not over-inviting to look upon, +even to those who are far from objecting to well-disguised appeals to +their carnivorous propensities in the form of savoury dishes. + +The lover of beauty will soon permit his eye to wander on and rest upon +the treasures of the market-garden, where it may revel in a perfect sea +of “Bremer” lusciousness; asparagus—seakale—peas, marafats and +blues—beans, kidneys dwarfs, and windsor—salads and cresses—radishes in +radiating bunches and globular bunches—cabbages and cauliflowers, that +may perplex cooks and boilers by their magnitude—cucumbers and melons, +and all the pumpkin tribe. Fruit—shining heaps of cherries—trays of +bright glistening currants, with their little seeds peeping through as +“natural” as the gems in the great Russian cabinet—strawberries and +raspberries on their wooden trays, with the little skimmer-like spades to +shovel them up, and the choice ones packed up in their little pints, +sheltered from the sun by the fresh green leaf tied over—and sundry and +divers wares from foreign parts lending new features to the home +department, since the tariff of the “people’s friend” came into +operation. But the crowning glory of the picture is the sovereign of the +stall, the sturdy market-gardener, full of strength and sinew, the +evidence of honest healthful labour meeting its due reward,—a fitting +representative of the great base upon whose soundness rests the column of +wealth, and capitol of rank, that with it form the pillar of our nation’s +social prosperity. He knows not what it is to seek for work, but rather +needs to pluralise himself to satisfy the demands upon his skill, and +time, and taste; and fairly has he earned his reputation both in horti +and floriculture. His rustic little home, with its thatched roof, and +ivy and clematis twined verandah, lies in the very midst of a city of +gardens almost of his own creation, watched and tended by him with a care +that has rendered them the fairest line of beauty art ever devised to +grace a road-side pathway through the suburbs of a city; and who ever saw +or tasted wares that could rival the produce of his own little profitable +domain? But the good-humoured smile of conscious superiority in his +profession, that plays upon his features, is the market-gardener’s +peculiar fascination. Talk to him of chemical manures or rich guano, how +he will smile! and what a tale will he unfold of roses all burnt up, +geraniums run to leaf, polyanthuses converted into cabbages, without the +advantage of being edible; auriculas dying, &c. “May do _somewheres_, +but not for flower or market-gardens.” Beyond him, lies spread out a +rich carpet of flowers, grouped by the hands of younger and humbler ones, +whom one might almost call the lay floricultural professors. Geraniums, +and fuchsias, and bright blue salvias, verbenas of every hue, from deep +maroon, through crimson, up to white; sweet-scented heliotrope, and +richly shaded primroses, that make the tenants of the woods look pale +with envy. A pity it seems to disturb the harmony of colour, so perfect +a parterre does it form, with the back-ground of shrubs that stand in +such rich clusters behind them, all waiting to be transplanted to new +homes. In the very midst of them rises a mysterious-looking little ark +of canvass, resting from its weekly labour of perambulating the streets +and suburbs through which it has been borne, sedan fashion, by the pair +of unclassical-looking hobbledehoys that own the gay treasures it is +formed to shelter, and whose lips can manage to send forth a string of +nomenclature that may fairly shake the nerves of any modest purchaser. +Sweet simple-looking little floral gems, they will recommend to notice as +Gilea rosea adorata, Clarkia fimbricata, Coreopsis nigra, speciosa, +Colinsea rubra, all hardy annuals; and with the utmost nonchalance +describe some trembling little creeper as Tropœlum Campatica Fuchsia +Carolinæ, Campanula Campatica, and Lobelia ramosa, all safely meant, we +presume, to conceal the relationship of the owners to the familiar +tenants of the cottage border. A novice must seize in desperation upon +some one that, shorn of its _ishii_ or _osum_, may chance to be +remembered, lest his fate should resemble that of the fair lady, who once +professed to own in her garden the “aurora borealis” and “delirium +tremens.” + +Among the scientific nurseries that clothe almost every outskirt of the +city, may perhaps be found grander exotics, or more luxuriant varieties +of floral beauty; but these fragments of botanic skill and lore are fair +specimens of the inheritance bequeathed to the sons of the soil by those +great master-minds whose gardens once drew Evelyn from the metropolis +upon a visit to this then pre-eminent seat of wealth and magnificence. +“My Lord’s Gardens,” that skirted the water-side, whose quadrangle +contained a bowling-green, a wilderness, and garden, with walks of forty +feet in breadth surrounding them, have passed away, a fragment of the +wilderness alone remains to mark the site of the glorious displays of +wealth and fashion once paraded among them; but the name, associated with +the memory of the times, is a star of the first magnitude, in the galaxy +of the city’s firmament of great men. + +Sir Thomas Browne, the philosopher, the physician, the naturalist, the +antiquarian, and the botanist, the associate and friend of the most +eminent men that graced the age in which he lived, and the historian +whose works have enriched the literature of the world, stands first in +the long list of names that are linked with the beauties of the vegetable +kingdom; a city that has sent forth a Lindley, a Hooker, and a Smith, to +be professors in the great world of science, as his followers, has cause, +indeed to honour the memory of him who sowed the first seeds in the +garden, that has reared such giants from its soil. + +But there is yet another picture to be viewed of homely traffic; the +Christmas market-day, when the old place and people seem to be in the +zenith of their glory. Each poultry-stall overflowing with the turkeys, +geese, and fowls, that have not found an exit through the myriad avenues +opened for their flight to every province, town, and city in the land. +There they lie in state, sharing the sovereignty of the season, with +bright-gemmed holly boughs and pearly mistletoe, that deck and garnish +every pad, and stall, and bench, and lie heaped up in shining stacks of +magnitude that may well suggest to the young novice a question as to how +the slow-growing holly and rare parasite could have been found year after +year in such profusion. Country walks, holly-skirted lanes, and park +enclosures, may tell something of the one; and alas! for the poetry of +the Druids and the oaks, the apple orchards now claim almost the sole +honour of giving shelter to the other—the ancient deity of the woods; +they will scarce allow the king of the forest a partial share in the +tribute offerings to merry Christmas. + +The bustling eve, when midnight surprises the scrambling teems of “Trotty +Vecks,” gathering up the fragments left from rich folk’s caterings, that +they too may have a savour of something more than the compliments of the +season; when the remnants of the bountiful display that has been hoarded +up for the highest bidders through the busy day, are auctioned off at the +buyer’s own price, and fall thus perchance within the compass of the +weaver’s earnings, then is the hour to see the spirit of peace and +good-will towards men stalking abroad, and lifting from men’s hearts and +faces the load of weariness and veil of care, transmuting by his magic +touch the poor man’s copper into gold, and giving to his little stores a +widow’s cruise-like power to cheer and comfort happy living hearts. No +one who dwells in the old city should deem it fruitless toil to wend +their way through the old market-place on Christmas Eve, and take a +poet’s lesson from the scene! + +But there are other pictures still to be seen within the quaint old +Elizabethan frame-work of the city’s market-place than scenes of +merchandise, in these days of monster meetings. Who can forget the human +gatherings that have many a time and oft, within the limits of even +childhood’s memory, been witnessed here, when gable roofs, and parapets, +windows, and balconies, church towers, and Guildhall leads, have swarmed +with living thousands; gay dressed “totties” and dames, aye, and +sober-minded lords of the creation too! all eager and intent to watch +from safe quarters some common object of attraction that has drawn +together a mighty multitude of the people, with their proverbial love of +sight-seeing, an inheritance bequeathed to them by their ancestral +pageantries. Slight stimulus is needed to send the heart’s blood of the +city through every vein and artery to this centre, where it pulsates in +deep and heavy throbs of joy, or hope, or anger, as the case may be; +true, in these modern days the common wants and common blessings that +have bound the sympathies of the million into one, cause the spectacle of +tumultuous hate and bitterness, knocking together of heads, &c, to be a +rare manifestation of popular enthusiasm; more frequently one desire, one +feeling animates the body aggregate, be it to see the mammoth train of a +Hughes or Van Amburgh, the _entrée_ of a royal duke, the failure of a +promised fountain bid to play by a new water company, the more successful +display of fireworks at the same behest, the popping of some threescore +pensioners in honour of some royal birthday, or the advent of some +political election. On each and all of such occasions, and many more, +the filling up of the frame-work is a picture of life, of concentrated +human power, will, and passion, full of effect; may be, it needs an +adequate cause to give it full strength, but everywhere it is full of +interest, and the good old city’s market-place would not be fairly +chronicled were its monster meetings of sight-seers deemed unworthy a +passing comment. Pageantry has been numbered among the chartered rights +of the citizens, from the days of “mysteries,” when the itinerant stage, +with its sacred drama provided by the church, was the only theatre known, +through the age of tournaments, the season of royal visits, Elizabethan +processions, and triumphal arches, of guilds, of Georges and dragons, +down to the last relic of the spirit of olden times—the chairing of its +members; and not even the scant nourishment offered in this nineteenth +century, has yet sufficed to starve and wither the seeds thus sown and +fostered in the very nature of the people. + +In a work that professes not to follow out the thread of history through +all its variable windings, or note consecutively all the beads of truth +that have been carved by the hand of time, and strung upon its surface, +but only here and there to pause, as some gem more glittering than its +fellows meets the eye, or some quaint rude relic of a day gone by lays +claim to a passing curiosity, wonder, or pity, we feel at liberty to make +a kaleidoscope sort of _pattern_ of our gleanings and notes on the old +market-place. Interwoven with its progress, and associated with its +memories, must be almost every historical reminiscence, peculiarly +belonging to an important municipality, and thriving mart of commerce and +manufactures; from the first simple gatherings in the outer court of the +castle, to the days when trades and crafts, brought over by Norman +intruders, and flourishing under the skilful tutelage of Flemish +refugees, clustered together in groups around the old croft, the +saddlers, the hosiers, the tanners, the mercers, the parmenters, the +goldsmiths, the cutlers, each with their own _row_, to the time when +staples were fixed, or right of wholesale dealing granted—when cloth +halls witnessed the measuring and sealing by government inspectors of +every manufactured piece of cloth, to ensure fairness of dealing between +buyer and seller—when sumptuary laws regulated quantity, quality, and +pattern of the dresses of all dutiful and loyal subjects—down through +ages of fluctuating vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity—tremulous +shakings—and reviving struggles against the tide of competition that has +sunk the first and greatest manufacturing city our country once could +boast, beneath the level of many a nurseling of yesterday, a mere +mushroom in growth and age—from the era of ultra-carnivorous diet, when +boars, peacocks, venison, and porpoise, were scattered in plentiful +profusion on the boards of butchers’ stalls, and in the regions of +“_Puleteria_,”—when the potato, brocoli, turnip, onion, and radish, were +unknown—the tansy, the rampion, cow cabbage, and salsify, their only +substitutes in the days when vegetarians were not;—when quinces, medlars, +rude grapes, and mulberries, wild raspberries and strawberries, supplied +the place of a modern dessert, with the valuable addenda of hazel, and +walnuts, whose beautiful wood even then was prized as an article of +manufacture for cups and bowls, under the name of _masere_—down to the +scene of the present day, as it has been pictured already. + +Manifold have been the fleeting shadows that have peopled its disc, now +bright, now dark, its area now traversed by triumphal arches and gorgeous +processions, now serving as a platform for a gallows, whereon a Roberts +and a Barber suffered for their loyalty to his majesty, Charles the +First; in one age witnessing the rise of an oratory in its very midst, +and a chaplain to minister to spiritual cravings, in the heart of +material abundance; the next echoing to the ruthless hammers of +destructive zealots, sweeping from their path every stone or carving that +bore trace of the finger of the “scarlet lady.” + +But although a consecutive detail of its rise and progress may not be +within the province of our pen, we may endeavour to trace a few of the +leading features of its history since the era of its first rise into +existence as a fishing hamlet, when the sea washed its shores, and the +huts of a few fishermen, perhaps, were the only habitations scattered +over its surface. Here they dwelt, no doubt, in peaceful security, when +the huge mound, topped with its towering castle, rose up in their midst, +and their sovereigns fixed their dwelling-place within its strongholds, +to be succeeded, after the departure of the Romans, by the feudal lords +or earls of Danish and Saxon conquerors, in whose time the market-place +was the magna crofta or great croft of the castle. At the gates of the +ancient castles the markets were continually set, following the precedent +of the assemblage of booths that gathered round the gates of the Roman +camps. These, from being at first moveable stalls or shelters for goods, +grew in after-years into towns, boroughs, and cities, many of them taking +their names from the castles or camps, and were called _chesters_. The +country people were not allowed to carry provisions into Roman camps; at +each gate was a strong guard, that suffered none to enter the camp +without licence from the commanding officer: this guard consisted of one +_cohort_, and one troop at least, from which sprung the modern term of +_court_, or _cohort_, of guard. The commanding officer of the guard at +the gate had oversight of the market, punished such as sold by false +weights and measures, brought bad provisions, or were guilty of any other +offence in the market, and arbitrated in all cases of dispute. The +Saxons, those exterminating conquerors, who so liberally parcelled out +their neighbours’ territory into the famous divisions of the Heptarchy, +next figured upon the scene, and the _castellans_ succeeded the officer +of the guard in the duties of his office, in later times to be fulfilled +by pie-powder courts and clerks of the market. At this period, markets +at the castle gates grew so important as to be composed of durable +houses, as durable at least as wooden shambles were likely to be; and of +such like constructions were the first outlines of the market-place +composed, the fishmongers’ and butchers’ shops of the present day being +the nearest similitudes that can be found to illustrate their features. + +From this time the history of the market-place becomes identified with +the progress of the borough, its struggles for growth being somewhat +impeded, we fancy, by the tithes and taxes extorted by barons and +bishops, between whom we may fancy the poor fisherfolks began to “fare +rather sadly,” scarcely knowing what was their own, or if, indeed, they +had any own at all. To sum up their miseries, old chroniclers record +that about this time the sea began to withdraw its arm, which to them had +been a great support, and the fishermen, who were bound to pay an annual +tithe of herrings to the bishops of the _see_, found themselves in much +the same plight as the Israelites of old, when doomed to make bricks +without straw—in their case to supply herrings without a fishery—and were +therefore reduced to the unpleasant necessity of thenceforth purchasing +the wherewith to pay the lasting imposition. Notwithstanding all these +impediments the progress of the borough was rapid; houses and churches +sprung up thick and fast; so that at the time of the survey, in the reign +of the “Confessor,” we find record of twenty-five parish churches, and +one thousand three hundred burgesses; of sheep-walks, mills, and hides of +land, (a hide being as much as one plough could till in a year,) of +taxes, of honey, and bear dogs. + +Churches were owned indiscriminately by bishops, earls, and burgesses; +the materials of which they were constructed, chiefly wood, though +occasionally rough flints and stones cemented by a durable mortar were +substituted; the towers were circular, bricks were employed for +pavements, and bells were used. The ancients conceived the sound of +metal to be an antidote against evil spirits; and the adoption of bells +into the Christian church, and their consecration, was but a variation of +the practices of the pagans, who at the feasts of Vulcan and Minerva, +consecrated trumpets for religious uses. + +Such was the condition of the town and market-place, when the Norman +Conqueror, whose coming produced such mighty changes in the land, brought +over from the continent a host of foreigners, who settled themselves down +in almost every part of the kingdom, and introduced trades and crafts of +every variety, giving birth to the great manufacturing spirit that has +grown to be so distinguishing a feature of our national greatness. Among +the foreigners who established themselves in this district, we find the +name of _Wimer_, a name yet prefixed to one of the great wards or +districts of the city—the Wimer ward. At this period, perhaps the most +prominent characteristic of the secular history of the times, especially +in connection with trade, is the important position held by the Jews. + +The Norman duke had brought with him a great number of this race of +people, and although their religion was despised and bitterly hated, they +monopolized almost every branch of trade, and so much of the learning of +the day, that they took a high place both in commercial and civil +transactions. In this city they successively had two extensive +synagogues and colleges, where medicine and rabbinical divinity were +taught together. + +Pharmacy, education, and all monetary transactions of any importance, +seem to have come within their province, their utility and wealth +preserving them, for the time at least, from anything more than petty +persecution. The history, however, of little St. William, given +elsewhere, and other similar records that have been handed down, betray +the jealousy and ill-will that existed between them and the Christians, +even during the season of their prosperity, when royalty, as in the time +of Rufus, patronized them. + +Meantime the city had become a bishopric; a monastery, three friaries, +and a nunnery sprung up in quick succession, betraying the growth of +ecclesiastical power, and the presence of a great rival to the secular +authority claimed by the ministers of civil justice; itinerant judges had +been established for trying great crimes, such as murder or theft, and +coroners had been instituted to hold inquests upon any persons dying +suddenly, or found dead; either to acquit them of self murder, or seize +their goods; the citizens were also exempted from the judgment of the law +by single combat by Richard I. Among the events of interest bearing very +early date is the royal visit of the first Henry, in the day when the +king was his own tax-gatherer, and when, failing to receive his dues in +lawful coin of the realm, he was wont to take them in kind, and to tarry +until himself and suite had eaten up the hogs and sheep, and cows and +geese, whose addition to his retinue would have been otherwise very +burdensome. So liberal was the entertainment afforded the royal visitor +here, that his majesty was pleased to confer upon the citizens many +privileges as a mark of gratitude, among which exemption from such like +visitations in future was included. + +The next visit of royalty is attributed to Edward the First, whose +generosity was evidenced by the command issued speedily after his return +thither, that the Jews throughout the kingdom should be charged with +unlawfully clipping and adulterating the coin of the realm, as an excuse +for their persecution, imprisonment, and final extermination. The +religious antipathies of the zealous crusader would not suffice to +explain these atrocities; but the ambition of the warlike monarch seeking +to replenish his exhausted treasury, that he might prosecute expensive +foreign enterprises, gives a more satisfactory clue to the origin of +cruelties, that led to such important confiscations being made to the +crown. In obedience to the royal will, the beautiful college of the Jews +in this city was plundered and burnt, its coffers emptied into the royal +exchequer, and its tenants banished or imprisoned. An inn, called +“Abraham’s Hall,” was soon after raised in the immediate neighbourhood, +to memorialize the event; but an old ricketty gable or two, hidden away +behind fair modern frontings of brickwork and stucco, is all that remains +of this monument. St. George in combat with the Dragon, now figures on +the sign board affixed to the inn that occupies one portion of its site. + +It is some credit to the ministers of justice in the city, that we find +upon their records, traces of the efforts made to bring to punishment +some of the actual perpetrators of the outrages in Jewry, albeit they +could perhaps only be deemed instruments in the hands of higher powers. +Extracts from the “Coroners’ Rolls,” containing accounts of robberies and +street frays in this reign and the preceding, prove this fact, and afford +in addition curious evidence of the state of society at that period. For +the quaint and amusing details they give, we must render thanks to the +learned and skilled in antiquarian lore, obsolete orthography, black +letter type, &c., but, for whose assistance in rescuing them from +obscurity, and interpreting their meaning, they must to us have remained +veiled in an impenetrable incognita. + +Amongst them is the record of an “inquisition made of the fire raised in +Jewry,” and a “precept given to apprehend all the felons concerned.” +Another is so graphic, that we feel able to see the whole picture it +gives at a glance—the widow sitting beside the bier of her husband, the +sanctity of her sorrow invaded by brute violence, the house pillaged, and +the corpse plundered and burnt in the agonised wife’s presence. The +words of the roll say, “Katharina, the wife of Stephen Justice, accused +Ralph, son of Robert Andrew, the gaoler, William Kirby Gaunter, William +Crede, Walter de Hereham, John, servant of Nicholas de Ingham, and +Nicholas sometime servant of Nicholas de Sopham, and Nicholas de Gayver, +that when she was at peace with God and the king, in the house of Stephen +Justice her husband, and the Thursday night after the feast of King +Edmund, in the forty-eighth year of the reign of King Henry, the son of +King John (1263), they came in the town of Norwich, in Fybriggate, St. +Clement’s, and broke the oaken gates, and the hooks and the hinges of +iron, with hatchets, bars, wedges, swords, knives, and maces, and flung +them down into the court, and feloniously entered; that they then broke +the pine wood doors of the hall, and the hinges and iron work of them, +and the chains, bolts, and oaken boards of the windows. Afterwards they +entered the door of the hall chamber towards the south, and robbed that +chamber of two swords, value 3_s._ 6_d._, one ivory handled anlace, value +12_d._, one iron head piece, value 10_d._, an iron staff, value 4_d._; +one cow leather quirre (cuirass) with iron plates, value half a mark; and +one wambeis (a body garment stuffed with cotton, wool, or tow), and +coming thence into the hall, they burnt the body of her husband, as it +there lay upon a bier, together with a blanket of ‘reins,’ value 3_s._; +and took away with them a linen cloth, value 18_d._ The said Katharina +immediately raised hue and cry, from street to street, from parish to +parish, and from house to house, until she came into the presence of the +bailiffs and coroners. They also stole a lined cloth of the value of +5_s._, and one hood of _Pers_ (Persian) with squirrel’s fur, value +10_s._” + +A writer in the Archæological Journal describes the houses of this period +as possessing only a ground floor, of which the principal apartment was +the aire, aitre, or hall, into which the principal door opened, and which +was the room for cooking, eating, receiving visitors, and the other +ordinary uses of domestic life. Adjacent to this, was the chamber which +was by day the private apartment and resort of the female portion of the +household, and by night the bed room. Strangers and visitors generally +slept in the hall, beds being made for them on the floor. A stable was +frequently adjacent to the hall, probably on the side opposite to the +chamber or bed-room. + +Another memorandum on the rolls, records the deaths of Henry Turnecurt +and Stephen de Walsham, who “were killed in the parish of St. George, +before the gate of the Holy Trinity, St. Philip and James’ day, in the +same year. The coroners and bailiffs went and made inquisition. +Inquisition then made was set forth in a certain schedule. Afterwards +came master Marc de Bunhale, clerk, and Ralph Knict, with many others, +threatening the coroners to cut them to pieces, unless the schedule was +given up, and then they took Roger the coroner, and by force led him to +his own house, with swords and axes, until the said Roger took the +schedule from his chest; and then they took him with the schedule to St. +Peter of Mancroft church, and there the aforesaid Ralph tore away the +schedule from the hands of Roger, and bore it away, and before his +companions, in the manner of fools, cut it into small pieces; and with +much ado, Roger the coroner escaped from their hands in great fear and +tremor. The coroners say they cannot make inquisition, by reason of the +imminence of the war.” The disturbances alluded to were the dissensions +going on between the king and barons. + +Another describes an attack of four men, one of them a priest, upon one +man in his shop in the market, where he was killed. Among many other +similar accounts of these troubled times, stands the description of +various felons, who sheltered themselves within the walls of the +sanctuary, a privilege permitted from the time of Alfred, whose laws +granted protection for three days and nights to any within the walls of a +church; William the Conqueror confirmed and extended the privilege. In +the times of feudal tyranny, this refuge was oftentimes of considerable +advantage to innocent persons falsely accused, but as frequently was the +shelter of crime. + +In a case quoted from this authority, the felon professes to have sought +refuge from punishment awaiting robberies, of which he acknowledges +himself guilty. Upon the church of St. Gregory there yet remains a +curious escutcheon, a part of the knocker, always then placed upon the +door of a church, for the purpose of aiding those who sought refuge in +sanctuary. A curious account of the ceremony of abjuration of the realm +by one who had taken refuge in Durham Cathedral, is given in the York +volume of the Archæological Institute. + + “A man from Wolsingham is committed to prison for theft. He escapes, + and seeks refuge in the Cathedral. He takes his stand before the + shrine of St. Cuthbert, and begs for a coroner. John Rachet, the + coroner of Chester ward, goes to him, and hears his confession. The + culprit, in the presence of the sacrist, sheriff, under-sheriff, and + others, by a solemn oath renounces the kingdom. He then strips + himself to his shirt, and gives up his clothing to the sacrist as his + fee. The sacrist restores the clothing—a white cross of wood is put + into his hand, and he is consigned to the under-sheriff, who commits + him to the care of the nearest constable, who hands him over to the + next, and he to the next, in the direction of the coast. The last + constable puts him into a ship, and he bids an eternal farewell to + his country.” + +There were usually chambers over the porches of churches, in which two +men slept, for the purpose of being ready at all hours to admit +applicants. In proof of the expense attending the maintaining of persons +in the sanctuary, it is said that “in 1491, the burgesses in parliament +acquainted the assembly that they had been at great expense in getting an +ordinance of parliament to authorize them in a quiet way to take one John +Estgate out of sanctuary, the said John having entered the churchyard of +St. Simon and St. Jude, and there remained for a long time past, during +which time, the city being compelled to keep watch on him day and night, +lest he should escape, was at great charge and trouble. The ordinance +being passed, John Pynchamour, one of the burgessess, went to the +sanctuary and asked John Estgate whether he would come out and submit to +the law, or no; and upon his answering he ‘would not,’ he in a quiet +manner went to him, led him to the Guildhall, and committed him to +prison.” + +Another entry of an event that transpired during the troubled reign of +Henry III., bears reference to the memorable disputes between the +citizens and the monks of the priory, of which the Ethelbert gateway, +leading into the Cathedral Close, is a monument; the citizens having had +the penance of erecting it, imposed upon them for their destructive +attacks upon the monastery, a great portion of which, including parts of +the cathedral, they pillaged and burnt. The record states that “one John +Casmus was found slain on the Tuesday next after the feast of St. +Laurence, by William de Brunham, prior of Norwich, at the gates of St. +Trinity, on the eastern side; the said prior having struck him with a +certain ‘fanchone’ on the head, from which blow he instantly died. The +coroners are afraid to make inquisition, for fear of a felonious assault; +a result rendered very probable by the known temper of the prior, who, by +his violent conduct, is said to have contributed materially to the +unhappy disturbances.” + +Long-cherished bitterness and jealousies respecting their several limits +of jurisdiction, had found occasion for outbreak the preceding week to +that mentioned in the record, at the annual fair, held on Trinity Sunday, +before the gates of the cathedral, on the ground known as Tombland, from +having anciently been a burial place. The servants of the monastery, and +the citizens, had come into collision at some games that were going on +upon the Tuesday, and a violent conflict ensued, which lasted for a +considerable time. The writers of the time are divided as to the +blameable parties; the monks being accused of aiding and abetting their +servants in doing wrong, and _vexing_ the people; the citizens, in their +turn, being condemned for transgressing the recognized laws which existed +concerning the boundaries of the prior’s jurisdiction. + +The animosities never fairly could be said to have ceased until the +general destruction of all monastic power at the period of the +Reformation. + +One more curious extract we will make from these coroner’s rolls, +remarkable as being one of the very few authentic accounts to be met with +of a person being restored to life after execution. + + “Walter Eye was condemned in the court of Norwich, and hung, and + appeared dead, but was afterwards discovered to be alive by William, + the son of Thomas Stannard; and the said Walter was carried in a + coffin to the church of St. George’s, before the gate of St. Trinity, + where he recovered in fifteen days, and then fled from that church to + the church of the Holy Trinity, and there was, until the king upon + his suit pardoned him.” + +It was formerly a prevalent idea that felons could only be suspended for +a certain time, but this was not really the case; so far from it, Hale’s +“Pleas of the Crown” asserts, “that, in case a man condemned to die, come +to life after he is hanged, as the judgment is not executed till he is +_dead_, he ought to be hung up again.” + +Another anecdote, extracted from the books of the corporation, bearing a +more recent date, possesses a double interest, from being connected with +a memorable disturbance, dignified in local history by the title of +Gladman’s Insurrection, and also from the name and rank of the lady +concerned, who was grand-daughter to Chaucer, the poet, and wife of +William de la Pole, who succeeded to the earldom of Suffolk upon the +death of his brother Michael, A.D. 1415, the second year of the reign of +King Henry V. + +The only liberty we shall take with the original account is to slightly +abridge it, and render it in modern orthography. + +Item. It was so, that Alice, Duchess, that time Countess of Suffolk, +lately in person came to this city, disguised like a country house-wife. +Sir Thomas Tuddenham, and two other persons, went with her, also +disguised; and they, to take their disports, went out of the city one +evening, near night, so disguised, towards a hovel called Lakenham Wood, +to take the air, and disport themselves, beholding the said city. One +Thomas Ailmer, of Norwich, esteeming in his conceit that the said duchess +and Sir Thomas had been other persons, met them, and opposed their going +out in that wise, and fell at variance with the said Sir Thomas, so that +they fought; whereby the said duchess was sore afraid; by cause whereof +the said duchess and Sir Thomas took a displeasure against the city, +notwithstanding that the mayor of the city at that time being, arrested +Thomas Ailmer, and held him in prison more than thirty weeks without +bail; to the intent thereby both to chastise Ailmer, and to appease the +displeasure of the said duchess and Sir Thomas; and also the said mayor +arrested and imprisoned all other persons which the said duchess and Sir +Thomas could understand had in any way given favour or comfort to the +said Ailmer, in making the affray. Notwithstanding which punishment, the +displeasure of the duchess and Sir Thomas was not appeased. And it is +so, moreover, that one John Haydon, late was recorder of the city, taking +of the mayor and citizens a reasonable fee, as the recorder is +accustomed; he, being so recorded, had interlaced himself with the prior +of Norwich, at that time being _in travers_ with the said mayor and +commonality, and discovered the privity of the evidence of the said city +to the said prior, because whereof the mayor and commons of the said city +discharged the said Haydon of the condition of recorder; for which Haydon +took a displeasure against the said city. + +By malice of these displeasures of the said duchess, Sir Thomas +Tuddenham, and John Haydon, the Duke of Suffolk, then earl, in his +person, upon many suggestions by the said Tuddenham and Haydon to him +made, that the mayor, aldermen, and commonality aforesaid, should have +misgoverned the city, laboured and made to be taken out of the chancery a +commission of over determiner. And thereupon, at a sessions holden at +Thetford, the Thursday next after the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, +the said Sir Thomas and John Haydon, finding in their conceit no manner +or matter of truth whereof they might cause the said mayor and +commonality there to be indicted, imagined thus as ensueth: first, they +_sperde an inquest_, _then taken_ in a chamber, at one Spilmer’s house; +in which chamber the said T. _lodged_, _and so kept them sperde_. + + “And it was so, that one John Gladman, of Norwich, which was then, + and at this hour, is a man of ‘sad’ dispositions, and true and + faithful to God and to the king, of disport, as is and hath been + accustomed in any city or borough through all this realm, on fasting + Tuesday made a disport with his neighbours, having his horse trapped + with tinsel, and otherwise disguising things, crowned as King of + Christmas, in token that all mirth should end with the twelve months + of the year; afore him went each month, disguised after the season + thereof; and Lent clad in white, with red-herring’s skins, and his + horse trapped with oyster shells after him, in token that sadness and + abstinence of mirth should follow, and an holy time; and so rode in + divers streets of the city, with other people with him disguised, + making mirth, and disport, and plays. + + “The said Sir Thomas and John Haydon, among many other full strange + and untrue presentments, made by perjury at the said inquest, caused + the said mayor and commonality, and the said John Gladman, to be + indicted of that, that they should have imagined to have made a + common rising, and have crowned the said John Gladman as king, with + crown, sceptre and diadem, (when they never meant it), nor such a + thing imagined, as in the said presentiment it showeth more plain, + and by that presentiment, with many other horrible articles therein + comprised, so made by perjury, thay caused the franchise of the said + city to be seized into the king’s hands, to the harm and cost of the + said mayor and commonality.” + +And now we take a long stride from the reign of Henry V. to that of +Charles II., omitting the intermediate century that was marked by the +royal visit of the maiden queen, chronicled at length among the +“pageantries;” and passing over the troubled era of the Commonwealth, the +Reformation, and “Kett’s rebellion,” all of which have found a place for +notice elsewhere, we find ourselves once more in the smooth waters of +peace, with the tide of prosperity at the full within the walls of the +old city; and we ask no pardon for making copious extracts from the +journal that furnished Macaulay with materials to serve up the rich +banquet that lies condensed in the few lines devoted to this period of +the city’s history, in his unrivalled work. The diary of Dr. Edward +Browne gives a picture of the society and habits of the citizens in his +time, perhaps not to be met with elsewhere. His father, Sir Thomas +Browne, then tenanted the house now known by the title of the “Star,” and +in the winter of 1663–4 was visited by his son Edward, who, during his +stay, made the entries in his journal which we have extracted. At that +time, Henry, afterwards Lord Howard, of Castle Rising, subsequently Earl +of Norwich, and Marshal of England, resided in the city, at the palace of +his brother, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, who was an invalid, on the +continent, suffering from disease of the brain. + + “Jan. 1st. (1663–4.) I was at Mr. Howard’s, brother to the Duke of + Norfolk, who kept his Christmas this year at the Duke’s palace in + Norwich, so magnificently that the like hath scarce been seen. They + had dancing every night, and gave entertainments to all that would + come; _hee_ built up a room on purpose to dance in, very large, and + hung with the bravest hangings I ever saw; his candlesticks, + snuffers, _tongues_, fire-shovel, and and-irons, were silver; a + banquet was given every night after dancing; and three coaches were + employed every afternoon to fetch ladies, the greatest of which would + holde fourteen persons, and coste five hundred pounde, without the + harnesse, which cost six score more; I have seen of his pictures, + which are admirable; he hath prints and draughts, done by most of the + great masters’ own hands. Stones and jewels, as onyxes, sardonyxes, + jacinths, jaspers, amethysts, &c. more and better than any prince in + Europe. Ringes and seales, all manner of stones, and limnings beyond + compare. These things were most of them collected by the old Earl of + Arundel (the Duke’s grandfather). + + “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 _à 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, barèges, 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 a year, bought a press for £7, +and fitted up a printing office with all the requisite materials. The +account in the papers of the “Archæological 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. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +GUILDHALL. + + +THE GUILDHALL.—_Visit to its dungeons_.—_Bilney_.—_St. Barbara’s +chapel_.—_Legend of St. Barbara_.—_Assize court_.—_Old document_.—_Trial +by Jury_.—_Council chamber_.—_Old record room_.—_Guilds_.—_St. George’s +company_.—_History of St. George_.—_Legend of St. Margaret_. + +Our rambles have now brought us to the threshold of that quaint, but +beautiful old “studwork” chamber, the guildhall; the seat of civic +honour, power, and glory, with its many appendages of courts and cells, +the witnesses of those multiplied alternations of tragedy, comedy, and +melodrama, that may be looked for to have been enacted during centuries, +beneath a roof covering a council chamber, an assize court, and a prison. +Once again, we avow that we aim not to be complete topographers, or +guides to all the strange old carvings, and grotesque remains of ancient +sculpture, that may be found in such rich abundance around the pathways +of a venerable city, neither do we profess to furnish all the historic +details that may be gleaned concerning these relics of antiquity; are +they not chronicled elsewhere, in many mighty tomes, readable and +unreadable, in “guides,” and “tours,” and manifold “directories?” We +look and think, and odd associations weave our thinkings sometimes, +perhaps, into a queer mottled garb, though we would solemnly aver the +woof through which the shuttle of our fancy plays is every fibre of it +truth. + +Such a preface is needed to our sketch of this fine old ornament of the +city’s market-place, lest disappointment should attend the hopes of the +inquisitive investigator of sights and relics. + +The guildhall, once like the municipal body it represents, was but a tiny +little thing compared with what it since has grown, and when bailiffs and +burgesses were the only distinctive titles and offices, a simple chamber +thatched, and commonly used to collect the market dues, sufficed for the +seat of civic government; but when, in the reign of the third Henry, the +citizens received from him a charter for a mayor and sheriffs, they took +off the thatched roof of their little toll-booth, and built upon it, and +round about it, spacious rooms and courts, to accommodate and do honour +to their newly acquired municipal dignitaries; for which purpose a +warrant was obtained, to press all carpenters, builders, and bricklayers, +into active service, from eight o’clock in the morning until eight +o’clock at night, as long as occasion might require; and by such +compulsory process, the design was completed some fifty years from the +date of its commencement. The tower, wherein was the treasury, fell down +in Bluff King Harry’s reign, whose matrimonial exploits have given him +notoriety, in addition to the grand event of history, the Reformation, +with which they bore so intimate a connection. Decay, renovation, +change, and reformation, have been so busy with this seat of government, +from the era of its infancy until the present time, that no small degree +of ingenuity must be needed to unravel the twistings and turnings, and +comprehend the inharmonious groupings that have sprung up about it, the +divers offsprings of various ages, that mark the progress and growth of +the municipal constitution. + +Without doubt, the first claim to antiquity is justly assigned to the +lower dungeons and cells, some of which still serve as _lock ups_ for +offenders awaiting magisterial examination; and a remarkably unpleasant +situation must the individual find himself in, who is there for ever so +brief a space in “durance vile;” the convicted transgressor certainly +makes an exchange for the better, when he reaches his ultimate +destination, the city prison cell; dark, damp, underground coal-cellars, +may be deemed _fair_ illustrations of the accommodation there offered to +those whom the “_law deems innocent_”, as it professes to do all +unconvicted persons. One degree darker, and more horrible, are the +_dungeons_, which receive no light whatever, save from a jet of gas +without the gratings of the doors; into these refractory guests are +stowed, that their rebellious sounds may not disturb the ears of any +passers-by above ground. + +“Deeper, and deeper still,” down beneath the very foundations of the +building, at the foot of a dark narrow winding stair, fast crumbling to +decay, is yet another dungeon, long since closed for any practical +purposes; the eye of curiosity alone happily is permitted to penetrate +its depths. Dark and damp, however, as it is, it would seem preferable +to the dismal “_lock ups_,” a light, of modern introduction, from the +street above, giving it a less intensely black look. Here it was that +poor old Bilney spent his last hours of life; and the groined and vaulted +roof, constructed upon the plan of so many of the cellars of that period +of civil and domestic architecture, gives to the place a strangely +ecclesiastical look in these days, and imagination has little difficulty +in calling up the priest of the subterranean temple, who has been +pictured to our eyes as there testing the powers of his endurance, by +holding his finger in the lighted flame of the candle, to satisfy his +friends that he should not shrink from the bodily pangs that were on the +morrow to earn for him the crown of martyrdom. Solemn and sad are the +memories clustered around these dreary tombs of liberty, nor is their +atmosphere tempting to linger in, even upon a visit of curiosity. + +The winding stair from _the dungeon_ leads into what is now a porch-way, +but which must once have been the site of the old chapel, built for the +use of the prisoners. This chapel was dedicated to St. Barbara, the +prisoner’s saint, who, according to the legend of the Romish church, “was +imprisoned by her father, in a high strong tower, to the end that no man +should behold her,” and therefore St. Barbara is always represented with +a tower. She is commemorated on the fourth of December, as St. Barbara, +the Virgin and Martyr. Here, were formerly kept all the goods and +chattels appertaining to the mayorality and civic feasts, in addition to +the services belonging to the chapel itself; but about the era of the +Reformation the chapel was pulled down, to make way for secular offices. +How busy those good reformers were in abolishing every place dedicated to +worship, that their judgment deemed supernumerary! When the treasury +tower fell in, it crushed a prison, known by the name of “_Little Ease_;” +the full details of whose attractions we are left in ignorance of. Upon +the first floor, near the site of the chapel, was once the large chamber, +where the sealing of the cloths manufactured in the city was carried on, +since converted into an assize court, where the notorious lawmongers of +this city, with their brother dignitaries of the bar, join forces to +promote the ends of justice, their clients, and their own. There is a +queer old document extant, wherein the number of learned gentlemen +permitted to follow the profession of the law in this city was limited, +“because,” as the preamble states, “when there were no more than six or +eight attorneys at the most coming to the king’s courts, great +tranquillity reigned in the city and county, and little trouble or +vexation was made by untrue and foreign suits; and now, so it is, that in +the said city and county there be fourscore attornies, or more, the more +part having nothing to live upon but only his gain by the practice of +attorneyship, and also the more part of them not being of sufficient +knowledge to be an attorney, &c. &c., whereby proceed many suits more of +evil will and malice than of the truth of the thing, to the manifold +vexations, and no little damage of the inhabitants of the said city and +county.” Wherefore it was enacted, that there should be but six +attorneys in the county, and two in the city, for the future. When this +admirable statute was repealed, we know not, but conceive it must have +been long, long ago, for so many brass-plate signs to have sprung up in +evidence of a numerous progeny taking place of the solitary two. Whether +the repeal was a _reform_ calculated to benefit the city, experience best +can prove; but if the character of the “common folk” in these parts is +faithfully given by the author of “English Worthies,” we may presume them +to have been considerably inconvenienced by the scarcity of tools with +which to play their favourite game. He says, “that the common folks of +Norfolk are possessed of such skill in the law, that they are said to +study the law at the plough’s tail, and some would persuade us that they +will enter an action for their neighbour’s horse only looking over the +fence.” + +In later times, evidences of the law mania exist in manifold forms; and +the fact of individuals consulting a lawyer before calling in a doctor, +in physical ailments, is by no means an uncommon occurrence among a +certain class. Some men think and judge with their lawyer’s heads, who, +in return, of course, in justice live upon their purses. + +Some few amusing facts connected with the boasted English privilege of +“Trial by Jury,” may serve to illustrate the growth of “purity” in our +courts of law. The jurisdiction exercised over jurors by the +“Star-chamber” is a notorious matter of history; but the curious and +graphic description of the nature and constitution of a jury in the +thirteenth century, as given by Sir Francis Palgrave, in his “Tale of the +Merchant and Friar,” may not be quite so familiar, and is far too good to +be omitted. + + “A trial was about to commence. ‘Sheriff, is your inquest in court?’ + said the Mayor. ‘Yes, my lord,’ replied the sheriff, ‘and, I am + proud to say, it will be an excellent jury for the crown. I myself + have picked and chosen every man upon the panel. I have spoken to + them all; and there is not one whom I have not examined carefully, + not only as to his knowledge of the offences of which the prisoner + stands charged, but of all the circumstances from which his guilt can + be collected, suspected, or inferred. All the jurors were acquainted + with him; eight out of the twelve have often been heard to declare + upon their oath, that they were sure one day he would come to the + gallows; and the remainder are fully of opinion that he deserves the + halter. My lord, I should ill have performed my duty, if I should + have allowed my bailiffs to summon the jury at hap-hazard, and + without previously ascertaining the extent of their testimony. Some + perhaps know more, and some less; but the least informed of them have + taken great pains to go up and down every corner of Westminster, they + and their wives, and to know all that they could hear concerning his + past and present life and conversation. Never had any culprit a + chance of a fairer trial.’” + +An extract from the archives of the Record room, gives another specimen +of the mode of dealing with jurymen, if they proved refractory or +obstinate. It bears the date of the 8th year of King Henry VIII., and is +to the purport that the jury that “acquitted Walter, James, and John Doo, +Benet Bullok, and Edmund Stuttlie, notwithstanding that they had good and +substantial evidence given against the said felons, at the last gaol +delivery of Norwich; as the chief Justice of the King’s Bench, the Lord +Edmund Howard, and William Ellis, one of the justices of the peace there, +openly declared before the lords, in the presence of the said jury; for +the which perjury so by them committed, it is by the lords’ most +honourable council adjudged and decreed, that the said jury shall do the +penance following, that is to say, they shall be committed to the Fleet, +there to remain till to-morrow, and that then, at six of the clock, they +shall be brought by the warden of the Fleet into Westminster Hall, with +papers on their heads, whereon shall be written in great letters, ‘these +men be wilfully perjured;’ and with the same papers on their heads they +shall be led thrice about the hall of Westminster aforesaid, and then to +be led by the warden of the Fleet to the Fleet again, there to remain +till Monday; and on Monday, in the morning, to be had into Cheapside, and +there shall go about the cross in Chepe thrice, and then they shall +return to the Fleet, and there to remain till Tuesday, and then to be +brought again before the lords, to be bound by recognizances to do the +same penance at home, in their county at Norwich; and that a precept +shall be directed to the mayor and sheriffs of the city of Norwich +aforesaid, to see the said parties do the said penance in the said city, +upon Saturday, the 22d day of this present month of November, openly in +the market-place there, with papers on their heads, whereupon shall be +written the same words above written.” + +The old mode of trial by ordeal, consisting as it did of an appeal to +Heaven for judgment, either directly by miraculous interference, as in +the ordeals of fire and water, or indirectly, in the ordeals of single +combat, might well have had their charms in the memory of culprit and +jurors both, when such a substitute alone was offered by the courts of +justice that had superseded them. There are, however, two extremes that +may be gone to about every thing; and we believe a little wholesome +penance might, even in the nineteenth century, not come amiss to stir up +the wits of many a sleepy juror. Certes, they often richly merit it. + +From the assize court we bend our steps upward, to the region where we +may feel at no loss in our search for objects of genuine antiquity, and +find ourselves in the _Council Chamber_; and here we arrive at the very +pinnacle of magisterial dignity—the zenith of municipal glory—the seat of +mayoralty and aldmermanship and common councilship, once broadly separate +and distinct in their grades of rank and power, in very truth an upper +and a lower house, a peerage and a commons—assembling themselves in +chambers becomingly graduated in their degrees of splendour—but now, +alas! in these degenerate days of reformation and democratic sovereignty, +as some might please to call them, all merged into one conglomerated body +corporate—shall we add, of _order Gothic composite_? + +The old chamber looks as if it had seen better days; two or three +patched-up windows of variegated colours, still retaining many quaint and +curious devices, bear witness of the taste and liberality of our +forefathers; and imagination, by the aid of history’s pen, can fill up +the unsophisticated plain glass lights at the side, with the old subjects +that once occupied their space, but which have fallen a sacrifice to the +despoiler’s barbarous hand;—one of the unjust judge, who, being flayed +alive, was succeeded in office by his son, and the picture, so they tell +us, was elucidated by some very characteristic specimens of antique +poetry—to wit, the first two lines of general advice, addressed to all +who may ever be in a position to profit by it,— + + “Let alle men se, stedfast you be, + Justice do ye, or else like you fle;” + +and an additional verse to the unfortunate son who succeeded him in +office:— + + “You that sittyst now in place, + See hange before thy face + Thyn own Fader’s skyn, + For falsehood; this ded he wyn.” + +Another equally original specimen of the judgment of Solomon is thus +explained:— + + “The trewe and counterfeit to trye, + She had rather lose her Ryght— + Saying, the Soulders ware redy + To clyve, with all their myght.” + +These, as I said, have disappeared; but we were unwilling in our sketch +to lose sight altogether of such very interesting reliques of our +ancestor’s skill, in conveying moral lessons by the light of their +window-panes, as were to be found here a century or two ago. Those good +old folks did not seem to be wanting in a certain kind of wit; here, as +in many other parts of the city, we have traces of their love of a fair +rebus—without a slight knowledge of which propensity, we might look long +ere we could understand the hieroglyphical appearance of a barrel set on +end, with N. E. C. written above—history, however, elucidates the +mystery, by explaining it as the rebus of one THOS. NECTON, who aided by +his wealth the filling in of one of the little gothic windows with +stained glass. The curiously carved old desk in the centre was once the +reading-desk in fair St. Barbara’s chapel down below,—could it speak, we +wonder whether it would glory in its _elevation_. But now we really can +resist no longer a good hearty laugh at those comical little +unmakeoutable animals, seated so demurely all round the room, on the tops +of the high-backed benches, with their queer little faces struggling to +keep down a grin. Whatever were they put there for? Was it to chronicle +up in their little wooden pates the doings and undoings, the sayings and +unsayings, that they have been looking at, and listening to, so patiently +and wonderingly, for these four centuries past? What would we give to +hear them tell the tale of all they have seen and heard go on, since +first the royal charter granted to our citizens the long-sought privilege +of a real _bona fide_ mayor! how, at first this dignitary used to sit in +solemn majesty upon his throne of state, surrounded by his aristocracy of +chosen peers, deliberating gravely on the affairs of their little state; +how, reverently and orderly the subordinate commons used to come into +their presence at their bidding, and do as they were told by the supreme +authorities; and how, as time and years passed, the heads of these same +commons began to lift themselves a little and a little higher, till they +really seemed as much _real men_ as those who occupied the chairs of +state; how, when at last their struggles had gained the great municipal +reform, some sixteen years ago, they took their seats in the very midst +of the aldermanic autocrats, with all the coolness of precocious +intellect, usurping dignities reserved for high-sounding names or +well-lined purses. Could they not tell a few more tales of how the +ethereal blue and whites,—remembering the day when their opponents, clad +in purple, numbered nine out of twelve of the industrious nominees who +were to choose their fellow-workers in the field of city usefulness, had +traded with their talents till they had gained nine and thirty more +purples to sit by their side, and smile at the twelve blue-looking +occupants of the opposition benches,—did, in later times, effectually +turn the tables on the oppressors’ heads, and sit above them in triumph, +looking down on fallen greatness; how this revolution had scarce become +familiar to their little sapiencies, when from the very centre of the +rival factions sprang another party; and the dogs, and dragons, and +what-nots, felt ready to jump from their seats, when their ears heard a +city youth avow himself an independent man, neither a _blue_ nor +_purple_—a man of _principle_—didn’t they wonder what it meant, and +whether he really had enough of it to buy up both the other bidders in +this marketable borough, or whether it would pay the interest of all the +sums that they had severally spent in the good city’s cause, and how they +longed to laugh outright when he avowed that honesty and truth were all +the _principal_ he traded with, and how they began by-and-bye to think +there might be something in it, and to comprehend a little of the theory, +but somehow the working of it seemed to puzzle and perplex them, it +seemed to be so complicated by the interference of expediency. But it +will not do to tarry longer, conjecturing what might be the confessions +of the little carved images; who does not, or has not read the brilliant +comedies that have been, and are yet being, enacted perpetually within +this chamber? + +But there are more objects of interest to be examined within its walls; +and among them pre-eminently stands forth the sword of Admiral Don Xavier +Francisco Winthuysen, transmitted by Horatio Nelson to the mayor of the +city, from the Irresistible, off Lisbon, Feb. 26th, A.D. 1797. The +sword, with its white vellum sheath ornamented with silver, is enclosed +in a glass case, with the original letter from Admiral Nelson, relating +the particulars of its capture. In these days of railways and universal +travelling, the trophy might prudently, we conceive, hold less +conspicuous place. No great stretch of the bounds of probability might +suggest the chance of some relative or descendant of Don Xavier Francisco +standing face to face with the uncomfortable memento of past misfortunes. +Leading from this chamber is a door-way, that opens out upon leads, where +in olden times the ladies and friends of the aldermen were wont to enjoy +the various spectacles offered by the processions and pageants then so +frequently displayed. + +The other principal chamber, formerly used by the common-councilmen, and +now appropriated to sundry legal purposes, is adorned with the various +quaint and significant emblems that once figured in the guild +processions, in attendance upon his majesty, Snap, who, from the dignity +of his elevation upon the landing-place without, looks down with proud +and silent scorn upon all the modern innovations and reformations that +have swept away the glories that surrounded his throne;—but of him more +by-and-bye. + +Beyond the council-chamber is the way of access to the old Record room, +whence, now and then, some “Old Mortality” may be seen emerging, laden +with treasures rescued from the mouldering heaps of antiquarian lore, +there lying buried beneath the accumulated dust and cobwebs of centuries. +All praise and thanks be given, as due, to these patient and industrious +workers, the fruits of whose labours so liberally are placed at the +command of all less learned and recondite scribblers, who scruple not to +gather of the crumbs that fall from the rich intellectual banquets they +have spread before the lovers of history, antiquity, or science. + +An armoury room, where weapons of divers sorts and multiform invention +are stored, all bearing evidence of long disuse by rust and decay, and a +treasury of gold and silver, maces and sceptres, in their various +departments, claim notice; but as such things possess neither very great +intrinsic worth, or any peculiarly interesting historical interest, save +the little sceptre of Queen Elizabeth, a passing word may be enough to +devote to them; it is time to turn attention to the subject more +intimately associated with the very name of the building itself. A +Guildhall instantly suggests the question of guilds, their origin, +character, and the features of history connected with those whose +existence are memorialized by this particular edifice and its appendages. + +Guilds were societies of persons confederated together for the common +cause of trade, charity, and religion. They were very numerous; in this +county alone 907 were enumerated by Taylor in his Index Monasticus, as +existing at the time of the Reformation. + +The Parochial guilds were often too poor to afford to hire a room for +their meetings, but assembled at each other’s houses; but when such was +not the case, they usually hired a house near the church, which was +called a Guildhall, or church house; the situation being chosen as +convenient, their business being to pray as well as to eat. The Guild +consisted of an alderman, brethren and sisters, the parson of the parish +and the principal persons of the neighbourhood being members. They held +lands, received legacies, and frequently met; but their grand assembly +was on the day of their patron saint, when they went to church and +offered up prayers at his altar for all the members of the society, +living and dead. From their saint they took their distinctive titles, as +St. George’s, St. Luke’s Guild, &c. They bestowed alms annually upon the +poor, received travelling strangers, and did other acts of charity, as +far as their revenues allowed. + +Their meetings were usually crowned by a dinner, and terminated often in +a manner not altogether consistent with their commencement. Some of the +guilds in large towns were wealthy and influential. The bill for giving +their possessions to the king, when sent to the lower house in 1547, was +much opposed by the burgesses, who represented that the boroughs could no +longer maintain their churches and other public works, if the rents +belonging to the guilds were transferred to the king. The act passed, +upon a pledge that the lands should be restored. It was the last act of +Henry the Eighth’s reign, and was put in execution by his successor; but +the promise was ill performed, many of the revenues being seized, upon +the plea of their being free chapel or chantry endowments. + +This brief sketch of the nature and origin of guilds, may suffice to +introduce more particularly the history of the great Guild of St. George, +the most important of all the fraternities that existed in this city, and +from being connected with the municipal body from an early date, +intimately associated with the history of the Guildhall. The following +copious account of the company, with the copy of one of the charters +granted to them, is extracted from the papers of the Norfolk and Norwich +Archæological Society. + + COPY OF CHARTER. + + “Henry, by the grace of God, (King) of England, France, and lord of + Ireland, &c., to whom these present letters shall come greeting: + + “Know ye that, whereas we have understood a certain Fraternity, and + Gild of the glorious martyr St. George, in our city of Norwich, for + thirty years past, and more, continually have been, and are, still + honestly governed, and the brethren and sisters of the Gylde + aforesaid, for the same time have found a chaplain duly celebrating + divine service in the Cathedral church of the said city, and diverse + and great cost for the worship of God, and the same glorious martyr, + have made and do purpose to do more, if we should vouchsafe to assist + them in the behalf. Wee, in consideration of the premises, and for + the augmentation of the same of our people, to the said glorious + martyr, do, for us, our heirs (as much as in us lye), accept, ratify, + and confirm the said Fraternity and Gylde, and we have granted that + the said Fraternity and Gylde be perpetually a community in time + succession for ever. And that the Fraternity and Gylde aforesaid + have the name of the Gylde of Saint George in Norwich, for ever. And + that the brethren and sisters aforesaid, and their successors yearly + by themselves, at their will choose and create one alderman and two + masters successively, and make honest and reasonable ordinances and + constitutions to the better government of the said Fraternity and + Gylde. + + “Also cloath themselves with one suit of cloaths, and yearly make a + feast for eating and drinking, in a convenient place within the said + city, to be by them assigned. + + “And also the aldermen and masters, brethren and sisters of the + Fraternity and Gylde aforesaid, and their successors, be able and + capable persons to purchase land, tenements, rents and services, to + have, receive, and hold to them and their successors for ever, to the + aldermen, masters, brothers and sisters of the Gyld of St. George in + Norwich; and may in all courts and places for ever sue and be sued, + answer and be answered, and gain and lose, and have a common seal for + the business of the Fraternity and Gylde aforesaid to be transacted. + + “And further of our special favour we have granted and given license + for us and our heirs, (as much as in us lyes), to the aforesaid + alderman, masters, brethren and sisters, that they and their + successors may purchase and hold to them and their successors lands + and tenements, rents and services, within the said city aforesaid, up + to the value of ten pounds, which are held of us in burgage, as well + for the support of one chaplain to celebrate divine service dayly in + the church aforesaid, to pray for us and the said brethren and + sisters, their healthful state while we shall live, and for our + souls, and the souls of the said brethren and sisters when we shall + die. And also for the sowlles of our renowned ancestors, and of all + the faithful deceased, as for the support of the Fraternity and Gylde + aforesaid. And other works and charges of piety made thereof, + according to the ordinances of the same alderman, brethren and + sisters for ever; the statute made against giving lands or tenements + in mortmain, or any other statute or ordinance made to the contrary, + or for that the then lands and tenements aforesaid are held of us in + burgage notwithstanding. + + “And moreover, to the setting aside the maintenance, confederacy, and + conspiracy which by means of the Fraternity and Gylde aforesaid we + have granted to the prior of the church aforesaid and to the mayor + and to the sheriffs of the said city; also to the alderman and + Fraternity of the Gylde aforesaid, which shall be for the time being, + sufficient power and authority of expelling, discarding and removing + according to their discretion, all brethren and sisters of the + Fraternity and Gylde, aforesaid, from the Fraternity and Gylde, and + from all the benefits and franchises thereof for ever, who shall be + the cause of supporting or upholding such like maintenance, + confederacy, or conspiracy aforesaid. + + “In testimony whereof, we have caused these letters to be made + patent. Witness myself at Reading, the ninth day of May, in the + fifth year of our reign, by the King himself, and for £40 paid into + the hamper, 1417. + + “WYNDHAM.” + (Here was affixed the great seal of England.) + +Another charter of much greater length is still extant; but we pass on to +the next important feature in the history of the society,—its union with +the corporate body of the city,—set forth in a voluminous indenture, +known as Judge Yelverton’s mediation, which we transcribe, adapting the +orthography to suit the general readers of the nineteenth century. + + “The Mayor, Sheriffs, and Commonality of the City first united to the + Fraternity of the Gylde of St. George, by the mediation of + + JUDGE YELVERTON. + + “This writing indented, made the 27th day of March, the year of the + reign of King Henry VI. the 30th, betwixt the mayor, sheriffs, and + commonality of the city of Norwich, on the one part, and the alderman + and brethren of the gylde of the glorious martyr, St. George, of the + said city, of the other part, by the mediation and diligency of + William Yelverton, Justice of our Lord the King, of his own place. + Witnesseth that, as well the said mayor, sheriffs, and commonality, + as the aforesaid aldermen and brethren of the said gylde, both + according of all matters had or moved betwixt them, before this in + manner and form, as in the articles hereafter shewing:— + + “First, for to begin to the worship of God, our Lady, and of the + glorious martyr, St. George, forasmuch as the Cathedral church of the + Holy Trinity, of Norwich, is the most worshipful and convenient + place, that the glorious martys, St. George, be worshipped by the + aldermen and brethren of the said guild, that therefore in the said + place, after the forms and effect of the old use had afore this time, + the said alderman and brethren be there on the feast of St. George, + or some other day in the manner accustomed, there to hear the first + even-song, and on the morrow following, to go in procession and hear + mass, and offer there in the worship of God and the said martyr; and + also there for to hear the second even-song and placebo, and dirige, + for the brethren and sisters’ souls of the said guild; and on the day + next following be at the mass of requiem, and offer there for the + souls of all the brethren and sisters of the said guild and all + Christians; and that a priest be continued there in the form + accustomed, for to sing and pray for the prosperity, welfare, and + honourable estate of the most Christian prince, King Henry VI., our + sovereign lord, and also for the welfare of William Yelverton, + Justice, by whose mediation and diligence the said accord and + appointments have been advised and engrossed. + + “And then, for the welfare of all the brethren and sisters of the + said guild and fraternity living, and also for the souls of King + Henry V., first founder of the said guild, and for all other souls of + all the brethren and sisters of the said guild, that be passed out of + the world, and all Christian souls; and if ever afterwards the + possessions of the said guild will stretch to sustain and find + another priest, that then such priest shall be found for to pray in + like form, and that poor men and women of the said guild be found and + relieved by the said guild, as hath been accustomed, as the goods + will stretch to save other charges and necessary expenses, to the + worship of God and of the said martyr, and to the good conservation + and continuance of the said brethren. + + “Also, on the morning next after the solemnity of the said guild, + kept in the worship of the glorious martyr, Saint George, the + brethren of the said guild, and their successors, shall yearly choose + the mayor of the said city, and that time being a brother of the said + guild, for to be alderman of the said guild for all the next year + following, after his discharge of his office of mayoralty, then + forthwith to take the charge and occupation of the said office of + aldermanship of the said fraternity and guild; and so every person + chosen to be mayor yearly, after he hath occupied mayoralty for an + whole year, to occupy the said aldermanship of the said guild; and in + case he refuse to occupy the said aldermanship after his mayoralty, + to pay unto the said fraternity 100_s._ to the use of the said guild, + and that the old alderman stand still alderman, unto the time another + be chosen unto the said office of alderman to the said guild; and if + the alderman of the said guild happen to die within the year, that + then the mayor for the time being, occupy that office of alderman for + his time, and so forth the next year following, according to this + act. + + “And that all the aldermen of the said city, that now are, and shall + be in time coming, shall be made brethren of the said guild, without + charge of the feast. + + “Also, that every man that is, or shall be chosen to be, of the + common council of the said city, be admitted also to be a brother of + the said guild if he like; and that by great diligence and + deliberation had, as well for the worship of the said city as the + said guild, that no man be chosen to the said common council, but + such as are and seem for to be able and sufficient of discretion and + good disposition, and that every man that shall be received a brother + into the said guild, shall be sworn, and receive his oath in form + that followeth:— + + “‘This hear, ye alderman and brethren of this fraternity and guild of + the glorious martyr, St. George, in this city of Norwich, that from + this day forward, the honour, prosperity, worships, profits, welfare, + and surety of the fraternity and guild, after my power, I shall + sustain, lawfully maintain and defend, and all lawful ordinances made + or to be made, with all the circumstances and dependancies thereto + belonging, truly and duly pay my dues after the said ordinances, + without trouble or grievance of the said brethren and sisters, or of + any officer of them, and Buxum to you aldermen and all your + successors in all lawful commandments, to my power and cunning, so + that this oath stretch not to any thing against the laws of God, nor + against the laws of the land, nor against the liberties or + franchises, the welfare, good peace, and rest of this city, nor + against any panel of the oath that I have made afore to the king, and + to the said city.’ + + “Also, the said aldermen and common council of the guild, shall + choose when they list, from henceforward, other men and women of the + said city, beside the said alderman and common council, such as they + may think convenient by their discretion, and able thereto for to be + brethren and sisters of the said guild. + + “Also, that there be no man chosen nor received from henceforth into + the said guild, dwelling out of the said city, but if he be a knight + or a squire, or else notably known for a gentleman of birth, or else + that he be a person of great worship by his virtue, and by his truth + and great cunning, or be some great notable means and cause of great + worship, and yet that all manner of thing that shall appertain to the + governance of the said guild, or to any possessions or goods thereof, + or choosing of any brother into the said guild, or correction of any + default done to any brother, or by any brother thereof, and all other + things that appertaineth to the rules of the said guild, or by the + more part of them dwelling within the said city. + + “Also, that all the possessions and moveable goods, that now or + hereafter shall appertain to the said guild, be all only employed and + applied to the worship of God and our Lady, and of the glorious + martyr, St. George, and to the worship of the brethren of the said + guild, and for the health of the souls of all those that have been + brethren and sisters of the said guild, are and shall be in time + coming, and in none otherwise; and hereto every man be sworn at his + coming in specially, that henceforward shall be any other brother in + the said guild, that he shall here do all that is in his power, and + in no wise give his assent nor his favour to the contrary. + + “Also, that every year be chosen surveyors, and such convenient + officers as shall be thought necessary by the discretion of the + aldermen and brethren of the said guild; and that every year the said + alderman and four brethren of the said guild, whereof two be aldermen + of the said city, be chosen for to see a reckoning, and to know the + disposition and governance of all the possessions, moveables, and + goods appertaining to the said guild, and to make a writing of the + estate thereof, and shew that to the brethren of the said guild + yearly, or else to a certain number of brethren, resident in the said + city thereto named. + + “Also, that every four years, once be given hoods or liveries of suit + to each of the brethren of the said guild, and them honestly to be + kept and worn to the worship of the glorious martyr, St. George, and + of the brotherhood, if it seemeth to the said alderman and common + council convenient. + + “Also, although the aldermen of the city, and every person of common + council of the same city, be brethren of the same guild, yet if it + happen that any of them, or any other citizen or brother of the said + guild, be discharged of his aldermanship, or put out of the said + common council, or _discomynyd_ against his will, for a great and + notable cause against his worship, that then forthwith he be + discharged of the said guild; or else, whosoever be once a brother of + the said guild, that he be a brother still, paying his duties, till + he will wilfully serve his own discharge, or else for notable causes + be reasonably discharged. + + “Also it is ordained that the alderman and twenty of the brethren, + aforesaid, be for the assembly, and the common council of the said + guild, and that it needeth not to have no greater number thereto; and + that the alderman name thereof six, by his oath, that he choose no + person by no manner persuaded, nor private means, nor for favour nor + friendship of no person, nor of no parties, but such as to his + conscience are most indifferent and best disposed, and best willed to + the worship and welfare, rest, peace, and profit of all the city, and + the said guild; and in like form, the six so chosen shall, by their + taking the same oath, choose six of such persons of the said guild, + according to their said oath; then the alderman, by his said oath, + such other two which be aldermen of the said guild, of which two of + the aldermen, and the more part of them, shall be and make the common + council, and the assembly of the said guild; and if any of them + should be warned to come to the said common council, if he then be + resident in the said city, and come not, but if he hath reasonable + excusation, that he pay 20_d._ for every day. + + “And that all the old rules and ordinances of the said guild shall be + seen by the aldermen, and the said common council of the said guild, + and all those that be good, reasonable, and convenient to the worship + of God, our Lady, and the glorious martyr St. George, and to the weal + and peace within the said city, shall be kept, with reasonable + additions put thereto, if it need; and if any ambiguity or doubt + hereafterwards fall for the understanding or execution of the said + article, in case that the said alderman, and more part of the said + common council cannot accord therein, that then it be reformed and + determined by the advice of the said William Yelverton. + + “And if any brother now being, or in time coming shall be, do + conspire or labour to attempt to do in any thing the contrary of any + of these appointments, or any other in time coming, by the aldermen + or more part of the common council to be made, and that reasonably + proved upon him before the said alderman, and the more part of the + said common council, that then he be forthwith discharged of the said + guild, and that notified by the said alderman to the mayor, in the + common council of the said city, that then, it done, he be discharged + of his liberties and franchises of the said city, and unable ever to + be citizen of the said city, or brother of the said guild, and taken + and had as a forsworn man shamed and reproved, and _reune_ in the + pain of infamy. + + “Also, that all these articles abovesaid, be every year, once, or + oftener if it be needed, be openly read before the said alderman, and + all the brethren, or the most part of them. In witness of these + premises to the one part of this indenture remaining towards the said + mayor and commonality, the alderman and brethren of the said + fraternity and guild have set their common seal; and to the other + part of the said indenture, abiding toward the said alderman and + brethren of the said guild, the mayor and commonality of the said + city have set their common seal. Given and done at Norwich, the day + and year aforesaid, in the time of the mayoralty of Ralph Segrim, + when William Baily and John Gilbert were sheriffs, Thomas Allen, + alderman of the aforesaid guild, according to the tenour of this + agreement. + + “From thenceforth, the court of mayorality, justices, alderman, + sheriffs, and common councilmen, were admitted and united to the + fraternity of the glorious martyr St. George. The rank and + importance of the members of the society may be inferred from the + fact, of their admitting from the country none beneath the rank of + _notable gentlemen_. The union of the two bodies took place fourteen + years after the substitution of mayor and sheriffs for bailiffs.” + +Among the entries in their book occur the following: + + “At George’s Inn, Fybriggate, at an asssembly there, holden the + Monday next before the feast of All Saints, in the ninth year of King + Henry IV., A.D. 1408; it was agreed to furnish priests with copes, + “and the George shall go in procession and make a conflict with the + dragon, and keep his estate both days.” + + “Item. It is ordained that two new jackets of fustian and red + buckram be bought for the henchmen (servitors upon George). + + “A.D. 1408, auditors were chosen to survey the accounts of the + company, a bellman to the company to have 2_s._ a year salary; a + beadle 1_s._ 3_d._, and for all those that are admitted and sworn, + 2_d._ for each entry; and the minstrel waytes of the city 5_s._, the + beadle for warning the brethren at any ‘obite,’ 6_d._; and twelve + poor men to be fed at a table by themselves every year, on St. + George’s day. + + “Item. It is ordained by the common assent, that forasmuch as before + this time, the dirige, and mass of requiem, have been so rudely and + dishonestly kept, and sung by aggregate persons, and children + standing in temporal clothing, for remedy whereof to the honour of + God, and spiritual conservation of the souls departed to God, that + henceforth yearly shall be provided ten secular priests, that be not + brethren of this fraternity, to be there at dirige and mass of + requiem; each of them to have, when mass is done, 4_d._ of the obite + money. + + “A.D. 1469, ordained that an inventory of all the goods and jewels + appertaining to the said fraternity be taken.” + + INVENTORY. + + “Imprimis. A precious relic; viz., an angel, silver-gilt, bearing + the arms of St. George, given by Sir John Fastolf. + + “One chalice, silver-gilt. + + “A manual, with two silver clasps. + + “A cheseble, of white diaper, powered with stars of gold. + + “A pax bread of timber. + + “A little chest, with charter of King Henry V. + + “A seal of silver, belonging to the fraternity, with an image of St. + George.” + +Another charter of King Henry VI:— + + “Two cloaths, of the martyrdom of St. George. + + “One gown of scarlet serge, for St. George. + + “A coat armour, beaten with silver, for St. George. + + “Four banners, with the arms of St. George, for the trumpeters. + + “One banner, with the image of St. George. + + “Two shafts for the banners, and one for the pennon. + + “A chaplet, for the George. + + “Two white gowns for the henchmen. + + “Three peyntrells, three croopers, three reins, three head-stalls of + red cloth, fringed and lined, with buckles, gilt, with the arms of + St. George thereon. + + “Eight torches, _a dragon_, a pair of gloves, of plate. + + “A sword, with a scabbard covered with velvet, the bosses gilt. + + “One russet gown, flowered and powdered with velvet spots. + + “A black cheseble, with an alb, with the arms of the Lord Bardolph, + by him given. + + “Lastly, one mass book, price twelve marks. + + “Also it is ordained, that the procession be done in copes, and all + the brethren to have hoods of sanguine, and a reed or wand in his + hand; and persons chosen to be aldermen, that every other of them + have a red cope, and every one a white cope; the next year shall be + clad in scarlet gowns, and parti-coloured hoods, scarlet and white + damask, on the forfeiture of the payment of 13_s._ 4_d._; and every + commoner to be clad in a long gown, red and white, on the forfeiture + of 6_s._ 8_d._; and every commoner to ride to the Wood (St. William’s + shrine) on St. George’s day, by the rules accustomed. + + “Also that a priest be paid a salary, amounting to eleven pounds ten + shillings. + + “Persons appointed to provide hoods for the aldermen and commoners, + to wear with their liveries at every entertainment hereafter.” + +The manner of choosing persons to be members of the society, was thus, in +the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry VIII.:— + + “The mayor chose three persons for the common council; the alderman + chose three other persons for the same; these six chose other six for + the same; and these twelve persons, with the advice of the four + feast-makers, chose two feast-makers for the next year.” + +In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of King Henry VIII., A.D. 1545, at +the general dissolution of the abbeys, monasteries, convents, friaries, +&c., the large and beautiful nave of the church of the Black Friars was +converted into a common hall for the mayors, sheriffs, citizens, and +commonality, with all their guilds and fraternities, to meet and hold +their annual feasts in; but principally the guild of St. George, who +expended two hundred and ten pounds upon its improvement at that time. + + “Upon inviting persons to the feast, which was to be done by the + surveyors at the Whitsun holidays, all that promised to dine at the + feast paid their money down to the feast-maker beforehand. + + “In the first year of the reign of King Henry VI., all fraternities, + guilds, processions, &c., being thought useless, and tending to + promote superstition, were set aside, and by virtue of the act + passed, judged and deemed in the actual possession of the sovereign. + + “In the third year of the reign of King Edward VI., it was further + enacted, and agreed, that the twenty persons, hitherto known as the + St. George’s assembly, should be henceforth called the assembly of + the feast of the mayor, sheriffs, citizens, and common council of the + city; and twenty persons were appointed to manage the guild feast, + now called the feast of the mayor, sheriffs, &c. &c. The + feast-makers to provide a supper also on the guild-day evening, and + the ordering of the charge to be referred to the mayor, sheriffs, &c. + &c. In the fourth year of this reign, the goods of the company were + appraised, and valued at £7 11_s._ 8_d._ + + “In the first year of the reign of Queen Mary, 1552, it was agreed, + that there should be neither George nor Margaret on the next feast + day in the procession; but the dragon to come and show himself as in + other years. + + “April 22d, second of Queen Mary, the laws since Henry VIII. + repealed, and the guild to be kept as before. + + “A.D. 1561; cordwainers admitted to office.” + +Innumerable other entries betray the various changes of arrangement and +regulation; but we pass on to + + THE MANNER OF THE PROCESSION ON THE GUILD-DAY. + + “About eight o’clock in the morning, the whole body of the court, St. + George’s company, and the livery, met at the new elect’s, where they + were entertained with sugar rolls and sack; from whence they all + proceeded with the newly elected mayor to the old mayor’s, in this + order; the court first, St. George’s company next, and the livery + last. At the mayor’s they had a breakfast provided for them, of + pasties and roast beef, and boiled legs of mutton; from whence, in + inverted order, (livery, St. George’s company, and court), they + proceeded to the Cathedral Church, where a sermon was preached, + always by the minister of the parish in which the mayor resided; and + he was the chaplain during the mayoralty. + + “When the sermon was ended, the court had their horses taken, finely + caparisoned, which they mounted; and at the entrance into the Royal + Free School, which was curiously adorned with greens and flowers, in + a bower, stood one of the lads thereto belonging, who was ready + against the new mayor should come up, to address himself to him in an + oration of Latin, as did several others, in different places, on + horseback. As the court proceeded with their robes of justice, the + alderman in their scarlet, and the sheriffs in their violet gowns, + with each a white wand in his hand, with trumpet sounding, the city + music playing along the streets, with the standard of England carried + before them. Then followed St. George’s standard and company, + supported by very tall stout men, who had dresses suitable and proper + for them; in this manner they proceeded, though but slowly, + occasioned by their stopping several times in different places, to + hear the speeches which were then spoken by the free-school boys, as + before mentioned. + + “Being arrived at the guildhall, in the market, the new-elected mayor + had his robe of justice put on him, the gold chain placed about his + neck, the key of the gates delivered to him according to custom: he + was then sworn; after which he generally made a speech to the + citizens. The whole body then remounted their horses, and proceeded + to the New Hall (or St. Andrew’s Hall) to the dinner. As soon as the + court and their ladies, with the rest of the company, were seated, + the dinner was served up first to the mayor’s table, next at St. + George’s, and then, as fast as they could, all the rest of the tables + were plentifully filled with great variety of all kinds of good + eatables, but little or no butcher’s meat, but as to pasties, tarts, + pickles, lobsters, salmon, sturgeon, hams, chickens, turkeys, ducks, + and pigeons, in great plenty, even to profusion; and these all served + up in order, and besides what beer every one chose to drink, either + small or strong, they had what quantity they pleased, besides a + bottle of wine, which every man had delivered to him to drink after + dinner. + +As soon as dinner was over, St George’s company looked into their book to +see for the names of such as were eligible to be chosen as feast-makers; +and when they had selected four persons, they walked round the hall to +look for them; and no sooner was one of them espied, than he had a +garland of roses and greens thrown over his head, and was congratulated +upon being chosen as feast-maker for the next year. If any of the four +were absent, it sufficed to send the garland to them at their own houses, +to make the appointment sure. A pecuniary fine attended a refusal to +serve. + +After the choice of feast-makers was over, the “banquets” were given to +the ladies, and it growing towards evening the whole body rose from their +seats and waited upon the new mayor home, where all were again +entertained with sugar rolls and sack; and then concluded the day by +seeing the old mayor to his home, where they remained and drank as long +as it was proper. + +The great guns were discharged many times during the day. + +The whole street, sometimes the whole parish, in which the mayor resided +was decorated in the handsomest manner; the streets were all strewn with +rushes and planted with trees, variety of “garlands, ship, antients, and +streamers in abundance.” The outside of the houses were hung with +tapestry and pictures. + + “The dragon (carried by a man in the body) gave great diversion to + the common people; they always seemed to fear it much when it was + near them, but looked upon it with pleasure when at a little + distance; it was so contrived as to spread its wings and move its + head. As there was always a multitude of people to see the + procession, it was necessary to have several persons to keep them + from coming too near, or breaking the ranks; for this purpose there + were six men called Whifflers, somewhat like the Roman gladiators, + who were neatly dressed, and who had the art of brandishing their + very sharp swords in the greatest crowds with such dexterity as to + harm no one, and of a sudden, to toss them high in the air and catch + them again by the hilts: to this purpose also a man or two in painted + canvas coats and vermilion red and yellow cloth caps, adorned with + cats’ tails and small bells, went up and down to clear the way; their + weapons were only small wands. These were called or known by the + name of Dick Fools; even they had their admirers, but it was among + the children and mobility.” + +The above curious and quaint description of the St. George’s Company and +the procession, is an extract from Mackerell’s “History of Norwich,” +published by the Archæological Society. From the same source the further +particulars added are collected. + +It would appear that the company, enjoying so many powers and privileges, +grew insolent and overbearing, and were wont to insult with impunity, and +tyrannize unmercifully over the pockets, purses, and freedom of their +fellow-citizens, until at length an individual named Clarke, an alderman, +to whom they had shown much discourtesy and injustice, by considerable +effort succeeded in bringing their career as a body to an end. Their +charter, books, regalia, and all that belonged to them were given up to +the Corporation, and arrangements made at the same time for the mayor’s +procession and rejoicings upon a new footing. The dragon, the fools, and +whifflers, were continued and paid by the Corporation, but instead of the +St. George’s company, the sixty common councilmen attended upon the newly +elected mayor on horseback in their gowns. The mayor was to make a guild +feast at his own charge, £150 being given him towards the expenses of his +mayoralty. + + “Thus (using the words of the writer) fell this honourable tyrannical + company, who had lorded it over the rest of the citizens, by laws of + their own making, for an hundred and fourscore years; had made all + ranks of men submit to them; neither had they any regard to the + meanness of persons’ circumstances, by which they had been the ruin + of many families, and had occasioned much rancour and uneasiness + every annual election of common-councilmen, when the conquerors + always put the vanquished on to the livery; thereby delivering them + over to the mercy of St. George, who was sure to have a pluck at them + as they assembled and met together; until this gentleman alderman + Clarke had the courage to oppose and withstand them; and having taken + a great deal of pains and time, at last effected this great work, and + brought this insolent company to a final period; for which good deed + he ought to have his name transmitted to the latest posterity.” + +And now it behoves us to inquire who was St. George? Shall we be content +to hear of his mighty prowess, his renowned sanctity, and his eminent +exaltation as patron saint of our country, and the most famous guilds or +fraternities that have ever flourished in Christendom, and know nothing +of his origin, history, or reality? Shall we subscribe to the heretical +belief that St. George was neither more nor less than a soldier in the +army of Diocletian, who rewarded his great military exploits by cutting +off his head for advocating the cause of the Christians, and that +therefore he was elevated into the calendar of saints and martyrs in the +early church? Shall we deny that he ever went to war with an insatiable +dragon, who, having eaten up all the sheep and cattle in the +neighbourhood, was fed upon fair youths and maidens “from a city of +Libya, called Silene, and that he did mortally wound the said dragon and +led him through the streets of the city,” as if it had been a meek beast +and debonnaire? or shall we give ear to the suggestion that St. George is +but another name for St Michael, who is always represented in combat with +the dragon? To whatever belief we may incline, the fact of the antiquity +of his claims upon Christendom for universal reverence cannot be +disputed. Long before he became the patron saint of England, many +eastern nations had adopted him in the same capacity; and to his personal +and miraculous interference in protecting Richard Cœur de Lion in his +conflict with Saladin, are we to attribute his elevation to that dignity +in this country? Many orders of knighthood besides that of England have +been distinguished by his name in Austria, Bavaria, Burgundy, Montesa, +Ravenna, Genoa, and Rome. The most authentic accounts that have come +down to us of the individual history and mortal career of this +semi-fabulous personage, resolve themselves into a few leading facts. He +was a saint of high repute in the eastern church at a very early date, a +Cappadocian of good family, and a commander of note in the army of +Diocletian, and that he suffered martyrdom at Raniel, on the 23d of +April, the day on which his festival was kept. He is mentioned in old +Saxon homilies as an ealder-man (or earl) of Cappadocia, and is mentioned +in a MS. Martyrologicum Saxonicum, in the library of Corpus Christi +College, Cambridge, as Georius Nobilis Martyr. The Greeks called him the +“Great Martyr.” The Coptic Arabic MSS. mention him as of Cappadocia; +Constantine instituted a religious order of knighthood, under the title +of St. George, on which was borne a red cross; he is also said to have +erected a church near his tomb in Palestine, and others in his honour at +Constantinople. The red cross, usually attributed to St. George for an +armorial bearing, was possibly adopted from Constantine’s order of +knighthood. The figure of the saint armed and on horseback, expresses +his martial character; and the dragon by many is conceived to be a symbol +of Paganism; the figure of the young lady sometimes introduced also is +regarded as a type of some city or province imploring aid, or may +possibly have been intended to memorialize the rescue of the damsel, whom +he is reported so gallantly to have saved from destruction. There is a +separate legend of a St. Margaret and a dragon related by Mrs. Jameson, +which says that the governor of Antioch, captivated by the beauty of the +fair Margaret, who inclined not to his highness, shut her up in a +dungeon, and subjected her to all kinds of torments, and that during her +imprisonment the devil, in the form of a dragon, appeared ready to devour +her, but she held up the cross and he fled. Many old prints represent +the dragon lying peaceably down, and Margaret with the cross standing by +unharmed. An old church at Canterbury is dedicated to this Saint +Margaret. Whether or not there exists any connection between her and the +heroine who usually is associated with St. George, we know not. + +We conclude this speculative inquiry with a curious extract from a work +by Dr. Sayer, a translation of a fragment annexed to the Vatican MS. of +Olfrid’s Gospels, some say written in the fourth century:— + + George went to judgement + With much honour + From the market-place, + And a great multitude following him, + He proceeded to the Rhine {223} + To perform the sacred duty, + Which then was highly celebrated, + And most acceptable to God. + He quitted the kingdoms of the earth, + And he obtained the kingdom of heaven. + Thus did he do, + The illustrious Count George, + Then hastened all + The kings who wished + To see this man entering, + (But) who did not wish to hear him. + The spirit of George was there honoured, + I speak truly from the report of these men, + (For) he obtained + What he sought from God. + Thus did he, + The Holy George. + Then they suddenly adjudged him + To prison; + Into which with him entered + Two beautiful angels + * * * * * + Then he became glad + When that sign was made (to him), + George then prayed; + My God granted every thing + To the words of George; + He made the dumb to speak, + The deaf to hear, + The blind to see, + The lame to walk. + * * * * * + Then began the powerful man + To be exceedingly enraged. + Tatian wished + To ridicule these miracles. + He said that George + Was an impostor; + He commanded George to come forth; + He ordered him to be unclothed; + He ordered him to be violently beaten + With a sword excessively sharp. + All this I know to be altogether true; + George then arose and recovered himself; + He wished to preach to those present, + And the Gentiles + Placed George in a conspicuous situation, + (Then) began that powerful man + To be exceedingly enraged. + He then ordered George to be bound + To a wheel, and to be whirled round. + I tell you what is fact; + The wheels were broken to pieces, + This I know to be altogether true; + George then arose and recovered himself, + He then wished (to preach); the Gentiles + Placed George in a conspicuous place, + Then he ordered George to be seized + And commanded him to be violently scourged; + Many desired that he should be beaten to pieces, + Or be burnt to a powder; + They at length thrust him into a well. + There was this son of beatitude, + Vast heaps of stones above him, + Pressed him down; + They took his acknowledgment; + They ordered George to rise; + He wrought many miracles, + As in fact he always does. + George rose and recovered himself. + He wished to preach to those Gentiles, + The Gentiles + Placed George in a conspicuous place. + * * * * * + They ordered him to rise, + They ordered him to proceed, + They ordered him instantly to preach. + Then he said, + I am assisted by faith. + (Then he said) when + Ye renounce the devil + Every moment * * * + * * * * * + This is what St. George himself may teach us. + Then he was permitted to go into the chamber + To the Queen; + He began to teach her, + She began to listen to him. + +The fragment ends here; the queen alluded to is deemed to be the wife of +Diocletian Alexandra, who has been canonized by the Romish Church. She +is said to have been converted to Christianity, and suffered martyrdom +with her teacher. + +We now beg to take leave of St. George and St. Margaret; Mr. Snap or the +Dragon in his coat of green and gold, at this present surmounted by an +outer coat of considerable thickness of dust, must permit us to make our +obeisance—trusting that the gleanings we have made of all these little +facts of history that contributed to his importance in the day of his +sovereignty and splendour, may have gained for us a parting good will. + +His days of pomp and majesty are ended—with the banishment of fun and +frolic, and folly, with the reformation of councils and committees, of +manners and municipalities—his glory has departed, and but for the +chronicles of the past, his presence slumbering in oblivion, or in +drooping despondency, hanging his head in attitude of grief, might be a +mystery insoluble, as also might be the annual exhibition of the shabby +counterfeit presentment of his person in the shape of a cumbrous +imitation of himself, that is paraded once a year through street and +suburb, to keep alive the shadow of the memory of “good old times,” in +the hearts of the populace of a pleasure-loving city—but a sorrowful and +piteous spectacle is this walking ghost of the _Snap_ of the glorious +guild of St. George. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +PAGEANTRY. + + +_Pageantries_.—_Ancient_ “_Mysteries_.”—_Origin of the religious +drama_.—_Moralities_.—_Oratorios_.—_Allegorical plays of Queen +Elizabeth’s time_.—_The Pageants got up to do honour to her visit_.—_Will +Kempe_, _Morris dancer_, _his_ “_nine days +wonder_.”—“_Hobby-horses_.”—_Festivals_.—_St. Nicholas or Boy +Bishop_.—_Bishop Blaize_.—_Woolcombers’ jubilee_.—_Southland fair_.—_St. +Valentine_.—_Mode of celebrating the festival_.—“_Chairing the +members_.”—_Origin of the custom_. + +Among the many quaint specimens of the ways and doings of the ancient +respectable denizens of this present sober-minded city, that have been +rescued from the dim and dusty obscurity of the municipal record chamber, +has been found a curious minute of the proceedings of a solemn court held +on the Sabbath day of the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, in the +nineteenth year of King Henry VIII., when a petition was presented to the +mayor, sheriffs and common council of the city of Norwich, by the +aldermen and brethren of the guild of St. Luke, praying to be relieved +from the burthen of being sole purveyors of plays and pageants for the +people on Whitsun Monday and Tuesday; and it may safely serve as a text +for a few rambling sketches of the entertainments that were wont to +gratify the taste of the lovers of the drama, in the age before the +stream of imperishable philosophy had been poured forth from the waters +of Avon, or its banks had resounded to the harmony that was destined to +sweep over the length and breadth of the earth, vibrating through the +chords of every living heart that felt its breath. + +Deep in the human mind lies the yearning for amusement, great have been +those who, laying hold of this inherent principle of our nature, could +make it a means for enlightening and ennobling it; nor must we judge of +the sincerity of the attempts that were made in this work, by their +impotency or failure. In dark and barbarous times, what may seem gross +buffoonery to our refined senses, may have had power to convey a moral +lesson or excite a worthy impulse; and we may scarcely with any justice +withhold our meed of praise and admiration of the philosophy of those old +monks, who, seeing the immorality that characterized the exhibitions +provided by strolling players, jugglers, tumblers, dancers, and jesters, +journeying from town to town, and castle to castle, and filling the large +square court-yards provided for their express accommodation by every +house of any pretensions to rank, set their inventive powers to work, to +find a substitute for these recreations of dubious tendency, and +endeavoured to supersede the secular by the religious drama. +Appolonarius, and Gregory, Archbishop of Constantinople, had done +likewise, and dramatised scenes both from the Old and New Testament, as +substitutes for Euripides and Sophocles, when the study of Greek +philosophy was deemed heresy, and to have read Virgil required from St. +Augustine penitence and prayer for pardon. Hence priests turned +playwrights and actors, and instead of profane mummeries presented +scriptural stories, or legendary tales, which they at least deemed +improving and instructive. Most old cities present traces, more or less +distinct, of these specimens of clerical ingenuity. + +The Coventry and Chester mysteries have been preserved almost entire; +royalty honoured them with its presence, both in the person of Richard +III. and Henry VII. and his queen; York and London have contributed their +store of relics, and the performances of the company of Clerks that gave +the name to far-famed Clerkenwell, and the fraternity of the Holy +Trinity, St. Botolph’s Aldersgate, have become matters of history. + +We have to borrow light from these richer stores, to comprehend the full +meaning of the few traces left among our chronicles, that bear evidence +of similar practices in the other localities; and here we return to the +petition of the St. Luke’s guild or fraternity. Each branch of trade had +then its company, or guild, and was governed by laws of its own, under +general supervision of the municipal authorities. The St. Luke’s guild +was composed of pewterers, braziers, bell-founders, plumbers, glaziers, +stainers, and other trades, and upon them it would seem that the whole +expense of the Whitsunside dramatic entertainments had fallen; wherefore +they besought their “discreet wisdoms” to enact, and ordain, and +establish, that every occupation within the city, should yearly, at the +procession on Monday in Pentecost week, set forth one pageant, by their +“discreet wisdoms” to be assigned and appointed of their costs and +charges, which should be “to the worship of the city, profit of the +citizens and inhabitants, and to the great sustentation, comfort and +relief as well of the said guild and brethren of the same;” which +favourable aid should bind them and their successors “daily to pray to +God for the prosperities long to endure of their discreet wisdoms.” + +Which petition being heard and understood, it was agreed and enacted that +thenceforth every occupation in the said city should find and set forth +in the said procession one such pageant as should be appointed by master +mayor and his brethren aldermen. In the same hand-writing as the minute +to this effect is a list of pageants, probably arranged in consequence of +it. + + PAGEANTS. +1. Mercers, Drapers, Creation of the World. +Haberdashers. +2. Glasiers, Steyners, Helle carte. +Screveners, Pchemyters, +Carpenters, Gravers, Caryers, +Colermakers Whelewrights. +3. Grocers, Raffemen, Paradyse. +(Chandlers). +4. Shermen, Fullers, Abell and Cain. +Thikwollenweavers, +Covlightmakers, Masons, +Lymebrenrs. +5. Bakers, Bruers, Inkepers, Noyse Shipp. +Cooks, Millers, Vynteners, +Coupers. +6. Taillors, Broderers, Reders, Abraham and Isaak. +and Tylers. +7. Tanners, Coryors, Moises and Aaron with the +Cordwainers. children of Irael, and Pharo with + his Knyghts. +8. Smythes. Conflict of David and Golias. +9. Dyers, Calaunderers, The birth of Christ, with +Goldsmythes, Goldbeters, Shepherds and three Kyngs of +Saddlers, Pewterers and Brasyers. Colen. +10. Barbors, Wexchandlers, The Baptysme of Criste. +Surgeons, Fisitians, +Hardewaremen, Hatters, Cappers, +Skynners, Glovers, Pynnmakers, +Poyntemakers, Girdelers, Pursers, +Bagmakers, “Scepps,” Wyredrawers, +Cardmakers. +11. Bochers, The Resurrection. +Fismongers,Watermen. +12. Worsted Wevers. The Holy Ghost. + + “These plays were performed on moveable stages constructed for the + purpose, described by Dugdale as ‘theatres very large and high, + placed on wheels;’ and Archdeacon Rogers, who died in 1595, and saw + the Whitsun plays performed at Chester, gives a very minute + description of the mode in which they were exhibited: ‘They were + divided there into twenty-four pageants, according to the companies + of the city; every company brought forth its _pageant_, which was the + carriage or stage in which they played; these were wheeled about from + street to street, exchanging with each other, and repeating their + several plays in the different places appointed. The pageants, or + carriages, were high places made like two rooms, one above the other, + open at the top; the lower room was used as a dressing-room, the + higher room was the performing place.” + +The first of the Norwich pageants, the Creation of the World, is similar +to one described by Hone, as performed at Bamberg, in Germany, so late as +1783; and its details so precisely accord with the stage directions still +extant of similar representations in this country, that it has been +adopted as a fair specimen of the play alluded to in the list. + +The description of the German representation is thus given in the words +of an eye-witness:—“The end of a barn being taken away, a dark hole +appeared, hung with tapestry the wrong side outwards; a curtain running +along, and dividing the middle. On this stage the Creation was +performed. A stupid-looking Capuchin personated the Creator. He entered +in a large full-bottomed wig, with a false beard, wearing over the rusty +dress of his order a brocade morning-gown, the lining of light blue silk +being rendered visible occasionally by the pride the wearer took in +showing it; and he eyed his slippers with the same satisfaction. He +first came on, making his way through the tapestry, groping about; and +purposely running his head against posts, exclaiming, with a sort of +peevish authority, ‘Let there be light,’ at the same time pushing the +tapestry right and left, and disclosing a glimmer through linen clothes +from candles placed behind them. The creation of the sea was represented +by the pouring of water along the stage; and the making of dry land by +the throwing of mould. Angels were personated by girls and young +priests, habited in dresses (hired from a masquerade shop), to which the +wings of geese were clumsily attached, near the shoulders. The angels +actively assisted the character in the flowered dressing-gown, in +producing the stars, moon, and sun. To represent winged fowl, a number +of cocks and hens were fluttered about; and for other living creatures, +some cattle were driven on the stage, with a well-shod horse, and two +pigs with rings in their noses. Soon after, Adam appeared. He was a +clumsy fellow, in a strangely-shaped wig; and being closely clad with a +sort of coarse stocking, looked quite as grotesque as in the worst of the +old woodcuts, and something like Orson, but not so decent. He stalked +about, wondering at every thing, and was followed from among the beasts +by a large ugly mastiff, with a brass collar on. When he reclined to +sleep, preparatory to the introduction of Eve, the mastiff lay down by +him. This occasioned some strife between the old man in brocade, Adam, +and the dog, who refused to quit his post; nor would he move when the +angels tried to whistle him off. The performance proceeded to the +supposed extraction of the rib from the dog’s master; which being brought +forward and shewn to the audience, was carried back to be succeeded by +Eve, who, in order to seem rising from Adam’s side, was dragged up from +behind his back, through an ill-concealed and equally ill-contrived +trap-door, by the performer in brocade. As he lifted her over, the dog, +being trod upon, frightened her by a sudden snap, so that she tumbled +upon Adam. This obtained a hearty kick from a clumsy angel to the dog, +who consoled himself by discovering the rib produced before, which, being +a beef bone, he tried his teeth upon.” + +The second pageant was “Paradise,” provided by the Grocers and Raffemen. +In the Grocers’ books, now lost, were the items of expenditure about this +pageant, among others, for painting clothes for Adam and Eve, &c. In the +French collections, a legendary incident is introduced in this play: When +Adam attempts to swallow the apple, it will not stir; and, according to +the legend, this was the cause of the lump in the man’s throat, which has +been preserved ever since. + +The third pageant, “Hell Carte,” was brought forth by the Glaziers, &c. +One of a series of illuminated drawings of the eleventh century, +illustrative of the Old and New Testaments, part of the Cottonian Library +in the British Museum, gives an idea of the manner in which this subject +was represented. By no very complex machinery, the huge painted mouth +was made to open and shut, and demons are represented dragging into it a +variety of classes of dishonest people; thereby conveying a moral and +satirical admonition against some of the crying sins of the day, most +practised among, and most offensive to, the lower and middle classes of +society. One of these offenders was the ale-wife, who gave short +measure. In a _miserere_ in Ludlow church, there is set forth a demon +carrying an ale-wife, with her false measure and gay head-dress, to the +mouth, while two other demons play on the bagpipes, and read from a +scroll the catalogue of her sins. + +The fourth pageant, “Abel and Cain,” was furnished by the Sheremen, &c. +Disputes between Cain and his man were comic scenes introduced into it, +and formed its chief attraction. + +The fifth, “Noyse Ship,” was brought forth by the Bakers. A fragment of +a Newcastle play of the same name affords a specimen of its probable +character. The _dramatis persona_ are Noah, his wife, and Diabolus; and +a considerable portion of the play consists of disputes between Noah and +his wife, about entering the ark, as:— + + NOAH. + + Good wife, doe now, as I thee bidd. + + NOAH’S WIFE. + + Not I, ere I see more need, + Though thou stande all day and stare. + + NOAH. + + . . . that women ben crabbed be, + And not are meek, I dare well say. + That is well seen by me to-day, + In witness of yet, eiehone. + Good wife, let be all this beare, + That thou mak’st in this place here, + For all they wene thou art master, + And soe thou art by St. John. + +Further rebellion on the part of the spouse compels Noah to carry out the +threat, + + Bot as I have blys, + I shall chastyse this. + +To which she replies:— + + “Yet may ye mys + Nicholle Nedy.” + +He stops beating her, for the reason, + + “That my bak is nere in two.” + +To which she adds:— + + “And I am bet so blo—” + +The sixth pageant was Abraham and Isaac. Of the details of this, and the +seventh and eighth, no records have been found. + +The ninth—the birth of Christ, with shepherds, and the three kings of +Colen,—was a very common subject. The scenes were, usually:—1st, Mary, +Joseph, the child, an ox and an ass, and angels speaking to +shepherds.—2nd, The shepherds speaking by turns, the star, an angel +giving joy to the shepherds.—3rd, The three kings coming from the East, +Herod asking about the child, with the son of Herod, two counsellors, and +a messenger.—4th, Mary, with the child and star above, and the kings +offering gifts. + +In the Townley and Coventry Mysteries, the play commences with a ranting +speech of King Herod, one of those which gave rise to Shakespeare’s +saying of “out-heroding Herod.” In the fifth volume of the Paston +Letters, J. Wheatley writes to Sir J. Paston, “and as for Haylesdon, my +lord of Suffolk was there on Wednesday; at his being there that day, +there was never no man that played _Herod_ in Corpus Christi better, and +more agreeable to his pageant, than he.” + +Most of these pageants were founded upon scripture narrative; while of +those of Coventry several are founded on legendary history. + +The tenth pageant, having for its object the “Baptism of Christ,” was +exhibited by the Barbers, &c. + +The eleventh pageant was the “Resurrection,” brought forward by the +Butchers, &c. + +The twelfth and last pageant was the “Holy Ghost,” and exhibited the +descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. + +In the well-known mystery, entitled _Corpus Christi_, or the Coventry +play, the prologue is delivered by three persons, who speak alternately, +and are called _vexillators_; it contains the arguments of the several +_pageants_ or _acts_ that constitute the piece, and they amount to no +less than forty, every one of which consists of a detached subject from +scripture, beginning with the Creation of the Universe, and concluding +with the “Last Judgment.” In the first pageant or act, the Deity is +represented seated on a throne by himself; after a speech of some length, +the angels enter, singing from the church service portions of the Te +Deum. Lucifer then appears, and desires to know if the hymn was in +honour of God or himself, when a difference arises among the angels, and +the evil ones are with Lucifer expelled by force. + +The Reformation had not the effect of annihilating these observances in +many places; the Corpus Christi procession was kept up for years after, +as in Norwich; and it was not until the beginning of the reign of James +I. that they were finally suppressed in all the towns of the kingdom. + +John Bale, of the Carmelite Monastery, of Whitefriars, Norwich, +afterwards a convert to Protestantism, and made successively Bishop of +Ossory, Archbishop of Dublin, also a prebend of Canterbury, was a great +writer of mysteries; one of his compositions was entitled “The Chief +Promises of God to Man,” its principal characters being God, Adam, Noah, +Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and John Baptist. + +Moralities were of later date than mysteries, and differed from them, as +consisting of dramatic allegories, in which the vices and virtues were +personified; the province of exciting laughter descended from the devil +in the _mystery_, to _vice_ or _iniquity_ in the _morality_, and was +personified by _pride_ or _gluttony_, or any other evil propensity; and +even when regular tragedies and comedies came upon the stage, we may +trace the descendants of this line in the clowns and fools who undertook +this portion of the entertainment, to the no small detriment of the more +serious parts of the best tragedies. In Hamlet’s direction to the +players, allusion is made distinctly to this. The secular plays which +existed before mysteries were invented, differed very materially from +either them or moralities, and were far inferior to them in refinement +and delicacy; they retained their popularity, however, notwithstanding +their clerical rivals, and the efforts that were diligently made to do +away with them. + +_Interludes_ were a variety of these secular plays, and probably gave +birth to the _farce_ of later times; they were facetious or satirical +dialogues, calculated to promote mirth. A representation of this +character before Henry the Eighth, at Greenwich, is thus related by +Hall:—“Two persons played a dialogue, the effect whereof was to declare +whether riches were better than love; and when they could not agree upon +a conclusion, each knight called in three knights well armed; three of +them would have entered the gate of the arch in the middle of the +chamber, and the other three resisted; and suddenly between the six +knights, out of the arch fell down a bar all gilt, for the which bar the +six knights did battle, and then they departed; then came in an old man +with a silver beard, and he concluded that love and riches both be +necessary for princes; that is to say, by love to be obeyed and served, +and with riches to reward his lovers and friends.” + +Another is described by the same author as performed at Windsor, when +“the Emperor Maximilian and King Henry, being present, there was a +disguising or play; the effect of it was, that there was a proud horse, +which would not be tamed or bridled; but _Amity_ sent _Prudence_ and +_Policy_, which tamed him, and _Force_ and _Puissance_ bridled him. The +horse was the French king, Amity the king of England, and the emperor and +other persons were their counsel and power.” + +When regular plays became established, these motley exhibitions lost +their charm for all, save the vulgar; the law set its face against them, +performers were stigmatised as rogues and vagabonds, and it is highly +probable that necessity suggested to the _tragitour_ or juggler, who was +reduced to one solitary companion, the jester or jackpudding, to make up +his “company,” the idea of substituting puppets to supply the place of +other living characters. The drama was in much the same state of +progress throughout the civilized portions of Europe; and to the Italians +and Spaniards the ingenuity of “Punchinello” has been attributed. In +England these wooden performers were called _motions_; and Mr. Punch took +among them the rank of _mirth-maker_. If there yet lives a being who has +not at some moment of his life felt a thrill of delight at the prospect +of a half-hour’s exhibition of this gentleman’s performance in his +miniature theatre, we pity him most heartily. + +The oratorio is a mystery or morality in music. The Oratorio commenced +with the priests of the Oratory, a brotherhood founded at Rome, 1540, by +St. Philip Neri, who, in order to attract the youthful and +pleasure-loving to church, had hymns, psalms, or spiritual songs, or +cantatas sung either in chorus or by a single favourite voice. These +pieces were divided into two parts, one sung before the other, after the +sermon. Sacred stories or events from Scripture, written in verse, and, +by way of dialogue, were set to music, and the first part being +performed, the sermon succeeded, which people were inclined to remain to +hear, that they might also hear the conclusion of the musical +performance. This ingenious device precluded the necessity, we presume, +of locking the doors to prevent the egress of the congregation after +prayers, and before the sermon, that has in some places since been +resorted to. + +The institutions of the Oratory required that corporal punishments should +be mingled with their religious harmony; and the custom would seem to +have been, that at certain seasons, of frequent occurrence, the brethren +went through severe castigation from their own hands, upon their own +bodies, with whips of small cords, delivered to them by officers +appointed for the purpose. This ceremony was performed in the dark, +while a priest recited the Miserere and De Profundis with several +prayers; after which, in silence and gloom, they were permitted to resume +their attire, and refrain from their self-inflictions. + +Mysteries and moralities ceased altogether about the year 1758 in this +country; a comedy by Lupton, bearing that date, being about the last +trace of the old school of dramatic writing. The same year is memorable +in this city for the gorgeous pageantries that marked the progress of +England’s famous queen through its streets, on the occasion of her visit +to this then thriving metropolis of wealth and commerce; and a sketch of +the amusements provided for her entertainment, and the talents put into +requisition to do honour to her august presence, may not be out of place +here, containing, as they do, perhaps some of the latest specimens of the +allegorical dramatic writing that exist. They bear strong evidence of +the encouragement given to literature by Elizabeth, which had created the +fashion for classical allusion upon every possible occasion; and her +admiration of the compliment so conveyed, caused the mythology of ancient +learning to be introduced into the various shows and spectacles set forth +in her honour, until almost every pageant became a pantheon. + +But now for the royal visit, whose glorious memory has shed a halo over +worsted weaving, and bombazines, and stocking manufactures, and is now +enshrined in the magisterial closet of the Guildhall where the little +silver sceptre then bequeathed to the honoured city lingers as a memento +of the great event. + +It was in the year 1578, that her Most Gracious Majesty, by the grace of +God, Queen of England, France, and Ireland, was pleased to honour the +city by her royal presence for the space of six days and nights, during +which period the gaiety and magnificence of the doings would appear to +have surpassed all previous or subsequent experience. The civic +functionaries held preliminary meetings to ‘determine the order of the +procession that should welcome her Majesty, and to decree what +preparations should be made for the event. Great excitement prevailed +throughout the city; streets were cleaned, dirt heaps removed, boats +converted into state barges, velvets and satins, and gold and silver +laces bought up to an immense extent, and, what we would appreciate more +highly still, a decree was passed, banishing for the time being from the +city streets all candle makers and scoutherers, who used unodoriferous +washes that might offend the olfactory nerves of royalty. This delicate +attention we do esteem most creditable to the good sense of the august +body whose care it was to provide for the comfort of the fair maiden +queen. Another generous resolution was passed by these same gentlemen, +that none of the attendants that might form the retinue of their +sovereign should be unfeasted, or unbidden to dinner and supper during +the whole period of the six days. A devisor, a sort of lord of misrule, +we presume, was chosen to devote himself exclusively to the gettings up +of pageants for the amusement of the visitors and public; and to his wit +and ingenuity we fancy her majesty was mainly indebted for the +enlivenment of her visit. + +The auspicious day arrived, and a gay procession started forth to meet +the royal party. First came in rank, two by two, three score comely +youths of the school of bachelors, arrayed in doublets of black satin, +black hose, black taffeta hats with yellow bands, and then, as livery, a +mandelin of purple taffeta, trimmed with silver lace. These were +followed by a figure fancifully attired with armour, and velvet hat and +plume, intended to represent King Gurgunt, the reputed founder of the +castle. This personage was attended by three henchmen, bearing his +helmet, staff, and target, and gaily decked out in livery of white and +green, all richly mounted. Next followed the noble company of gentlemen +and wealthy citizens, in velvet coats and other costly apparel. Then +came the officers of the city, every one in his place; then the +sword-bearer, with the sword and cap of maintenance, next the mayor in +full scarlet robes, lined and trimmed with fur, the aldermen in their +scarlet gowns, and those of them that had been mayors in cloaks also; +next came those who had been sheriffs, in violet gowns and satin tippets; +and lastly, the notorious whifflers, poising and throwing up their +weapons with dexterity, just sufficient to impart fear and maintain order +without doing mischief. Thus they proceeded some two miles forward on +the road to meet her majesty, King Gurgunt only excepted, who remained +behind, to welcome her majesty at her first view of his redoubted castle. +Then followed all the shouting and rejoicing usual on such occasions; and +when the royal train arrived, the exchanging of compliments in flowers of +speech, and more substantial coins of gold. The mayor presented a vase +of silver gilt, containing one hundred pounds of money, as a tribute of +loyalty to his sovereign liege, upon which her majesty exclaimed to her +footman, “Look to it! there is one hundred pounds;” and in return, the +city was presented with a mace or sceptre richly gemmed, so that on this +occasion, if history tells us true, her majesty made some return for +value received, as was not always her custom to do. Then followed the +speechifyings; first the mayor’s and its answer, and afterwards King +Gurgunt’s that _was to have been_, but fortunately we must think for her +majesty this forty-two lined specimen of poetry was deferred, in +consequence of an April shower. Triumphal arches welcomed her to the +city walls, and pageants met her eye at every turn. The first pageant +was upon a stage forty feet long and eight broad, with a wall at the +back, upon which was written divers sentences, viz. “The causes of the +Commonwealth are God truly preached;” “Justice truly executed;” “The +People obedient;” “Idleness expelled;” “Labour cherished;” “and universal +Concord preserved.” In the front below, it was painted with +representations of various looms, with weavers working at them,—over each +the name of the loom, Worsted, Russels, Darnix, Mochado, Lace, Caffa, +Fringe. Another painting of a matron and several children, over whom was +written, “Good nurture changeth qualities.” Upon the stage, at one end, +stood six little girls spinning worsted yarn, at the other end the same +number knitting worsted hose; in the centre stood a little boy, gaily +dressed, who represented the “COMMONWEALTH of the city,” who made a +lengthened speech, commencing— + + “Most gracious prince, undoubted sovereign queen, + Our only joy next God and chief defence; + In this small shew our whole estate is seen, + The wealth we have we find proceed from thence; + The idle hand hath here no place to feed, + The painsful wight hath still to serve his need; + Again our seat denies our traffick here, + The sea too near divides us from the rest. + So weak we were within this dozen year, + As care did quench the courage of the best; + But good advice hath taught these little hands + To rend in twain the force of pining bands. + From combed wool we draw the slender thread, + From thence the looms have dealing with the same, + And thence again in order do proceed, + These several works which skilful art doth frame, + And all to drive dame _Need_ into her cave + Our heads and hands together laboured have. + We bought before the things that now we sell. + These slender imps, their works do pass the waves, + Of every mouth the hands the charges saves, + Thus through thy help, and aid of power divine, + Doth Norwich live, whose hearts and goods are thine.’” + +This device gave her majesty much pleasure. + +Another very magnificent affair, with gates of jasper and marble, was +placed across the market-place, five female figures on the stage above +representing the _City_, _Deborah_, _Judith_, _Hester_, and _Martia_ (a +queen); whose chief, the _City_, was spokeswoman first, and was succeeded +by the others each in turn. All that they said we dare not tarry to +repeat; the City expressed herself in some hundred lines of poetry, the +rest rather more briefly. “Whom fame resounds with thundering trump;” +“Flower of Grace, Prince of God’s Elect;” “Mighty Queen, finger of the +Lord,” and such like hyperbole, made up the substance of their flattery. +We know the good Queen Bess was somewhat fond of such food, but we think +even her taste must have been somewhat palled with the specimens offered +on this occasion. Others of a similar character were scattered along her +pathway to the cathedral. After service she retired to her quarters at +the palace of the bishop. On the Monday the deviser planned a scheme by +which her majesty was enticed abroad by the invitation of Mercury, who +was sent in a coach covered with birds and little angels in the air and +clouds, a tower in the middle, decked with gold and jewels, topped by a +plume of feathers, spangled and trimmed most gorgeously; Mercury himself +in blue satin, lined with cloth of gold, with garments cut and slashed +according to the most approved fashion of the day, a peaked hat, made to +“_cut the wind_,” a pair of wings on his head and his _heels_; in his +hand a golden rod with another pair of wings. The horses of his coach +were painted and furnished each with wings, and made to “drive with speed +that might resemble flying;” and in this guise did Mercury present +himself before the window at the palace, and tripping from his throne, +made his most humble obeisance and lengthy speech, all which most +graciously was received by her majesty. Thus ended this day’s sport. + +On Tuesday, as her majesty proceeded to Cossey Park, for the purpose of +enjoying a day’s hunt, another pageant was got up by the industrious +devisor, the subject of which was, Cupid in Search of a Home—not, +however, much worth detailing. Wednesday her majesty dined at Surrey +House with Lord Surrey, at which banquet the French ambassadors are said +to have been present; and a pageant was prepared for the occasion, but +the rooms seem to have been rather too small to admit the company of +performers, so it was of necessity deferred. On her road home, the +master of the grammar-school stayed the procession to deliver a +lengthened speech before the gates of the hospital for old men, to which +the queen graciously replied in flattering terms, presenting her hand to +be kissed. Thursday was marked by divers pageantries, prepared by order +of the Lord Chamberlain, by the devisor. The morning display, which was +to enliven her majesty’s riding excursion, was made up of nymphs playing +in water, the space occupied for the same being a square of sixty feet, +with a deep hole four feet square in some part of it, to answer for a +cave. The ground was covered with canvas, painted like grass, with +running cords through the rings attached to its sides, which obeyed +another small cord in the centre, by which machinery, with two holes on +the ground, the earth was made to appear to open and shut. In the cave, +in the centre, was music, and the twelve water-nymphs, dressed in white +silk with green sedges, so cunningly stitched on them, that nothing else +could be seen. Each carried in her hand a bundle of bulrushes, and on +her head a garland of ivy and a crop of moss, from whence streamed their +long golden tresses over their shoulders. Four nymphs were to come forth +successively and salute her majesty with a speech, then all twelve were +to issue forth and dance with timbrels. + +The show of _Manhood and Desert_, designed for the entertainment at Lord +Surrey’s, was also placed close by. _Manhood_, _Favour_, _Desert_, +striving for a boy called _Beauty_, who, however, was to fall to the +share of _Good fortune_. A battle should have followed, between six +gentlemen on either side, in which _Fortune_ was to be victorious; +_during the combat_, _legs and arms of men_ “_well and lively wrought_”, +_were to be let __fall in numbers on the ground_ “_as bloody as might +be_.” _Fortune_ marcheth off a conqueror, and a song for the death of +_Manhood_, _Favour_, and _Desert_, concluded the programme. But, alas! +all this preparation was rendered of no avail, by reason of a drenching +thunder-shower, which so “dashed and washed performers and spectators, +that the pastime was reduced to the display of a dripping multitude, +looking like half-drowned rats; and velvets, silks, tinsels, and cloth of +gold, to no end of an amount, fell a sacrifice to this caprice of the +weather.” + +The evening entertainment at the guildhall was more successful, the +casualties of rain and wind having no power there, to disturb the +arrangements got up with so much labour and cost. After a magnificent +banquet in the common council chamber, above the assize court, a princely +masque of gods and goddesses, richly apparelled, was presented before her +majesty. + +_Mercury_ entered first, followed by two torch-bearers, in purple taffeta +mandillions, laid with silver lace; then the musicians, dressed in long +vestures of white silk girded about them, and garlands on their heads; +next came _Jupiter and Juno_, _Mars and Venus_, _Apollo and Pallas_, +_Neptune and Diana_, and lastly _Cupid_, between each couple two +torch-bearers. Thus they marched round the chamber, and Mercury +delivered his message to the queen. + + “The good-meaning mayor and all his brethren, with the rest, have not + rested from praying to the gods, to prosper thy coming hither; and + the gods themselves, moved by their unfeigned prayers, are ready in + person to bid thee welcome; and I, Mercury, the god of merchants and + merchandise, and therefore a favourer of the citizens, being thought + meetest am chosen fittest to signify the same. Gods there be, also, + which cannot come, being tied by the time of the year, as Ceres in + harvest, Bacchus in wines, Pomona in orchards. Only Hymeneus denieth + his good-will either in presence or in person; notwithstanding Diana + hast so counter-checked him, therefore, as he shall hereafter be at + your commandment. For my part, as I am a rejoicer at your coming, so + am I furtherer of your welcome hither, and for this time I bid you + farewell.” + +All then marched about again, at the close of each circuit, stopping for +the gods to present each a gift to her majesty; Jupiter, a riding wand of +whalebone, curiously wrought; Mars, a _fair pair of knives_; Venus, a +white dove; Apollo, a musical instrument, called a bandonet; Pallas, a +book of _wisdom_; Neptune, a fish; Diana, a bow and arrows, of silver; +Cupid, an arrow of gold, with these lines on the shaft— + + “My colour _joy_, my substance _pure_, + My _virtue_ such as shall endure.” + +The queen received the gifts with gracious condescension, listening the +while to the verses recited by the gods as accompaniments. + +On Friday, being the day fixed for her majesty’s departure, the devisor +prepared one last grand spectacle, water spirits, to the sound of whose +timbrels was spoken “her majesty’s farewell to Norwich;” and thus +terminated this season of rejoicing, but not with it the results of the +royal visitation. + +The train of gay carriages that had formed the retinue of the fair queen, +were said to have left behind them the infection of the plague; and +scarcely had the last echoes of merriment and joy faded upon the ear, +when the deep thrilling notes of wailing and lamentation broke forth from +crushed hearts. Death held his reign of terror, threw his black mantle +of gloom over the stricken city, and wrapped its folds around each hearth +and home, and banquet chamber—sunshine was followed by clouds and storm, +and thunders of wrath—feast-makers, devisors, and players—Gurgunt, +Mercury, Cupid, and Apollo, laid down their trappings, and in their +stricken houses died alone. The finger-writing upon the door-posts +marked each smitten home with the touching prayer, “The Lord have mercy +upon us!” The insignia of the white wand borne by the infected ones, who +issued forth into the streets from their tainted atmospheres, warned off +communion with their fellow men, and sorrow filled all hearts;—a year of +sadness and gloom followed—men’s hearts failing them for fear. Scarcely +had the plague lifted its hand from oppressing the people, ere the +benumbed faculties of the woe-begone mourners were roused to fresh +terror, by the grumbling murmurs of an earthquake;—storms, lightnings, +hailstones, and tempests spread desolation in their course through all +parts of the country in quick succession—a very age of trouble. + +But turning from dark scenes of history once more to the sports and +pastimes that gladdened the hearts and eyes of the good old citizens of +yore, we must not fail to chronicle the famous visit of Will Kempe, the +morris dancer, whose “nine days’ wonder,” or dance from London to Norwich +in nine days, has been recorded by himself in a merry little pamphlet +bearing internal evidence of a lightness of heart rivalling the lightness +of toe that gained for him his Terpsichorean fame. His name receives a +fresh halo of interest from its association with that of one of the great +ones of the earth, Will Shakespeare, in whose company of players at the +Globe, Blackfriars, he was a comedian; and his signature and that of the +dramatist’s stand together at the foot of a counter petition presented at +the same time with one got up by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood +against the continuance of plays in that house. Kempe played Peter and +Dogberry in “Romeo and Juliet,” and “Much Ado about Nothing;” also, +Launce, Touchstone, Gravedigger, Justice Shallow, and Launcelot. One +feels that the morris dancer has a fresh claim upon our interest by such +associations, and we look into the merry book dedicated to Mistress Anne +Fitton, maid of honour to England’s maiden queen, prepared to relish +heartily the frolicsome account of how he tript it merrily to the music +of Thomas Slye, his taberer, gaining every where the admiration of the +wondering townsfolk and villagers upon his road, receiving, and +occasionally of necessity refusing, their profusely proffered +hospitalities, and now and then accepting their offers to tread a measure +with him at his pace, a feat that one brave and buxom lass alone was +found equal to perform—one can appreciate the quiet fun in which he +permits himself to indulge at the discomfiture of the followers who track +his flying steps, when their running accompaniment is interrupted by the +mud and mire of the unmacadamized mediæval substitutes for turnpike +roads, where occasionally he dances on, leaving the volunteer corps up to +their necks in some slough of despond. Such a picture of the highways in +the good old times, is consolatory to the unfortunate generation of the +nineteenth century, who, among their many burdens and oppressions, can at +least congratulate themselves that in respect to locomotion, the lines +have fallen to them in pleasanter places. + +The morris dance in its original glory was most frequently joined to +processions and pageants, especially to those appropriated to the +celebration of the May games. The chief dancer was more superbly dressed +than his comrades, and on these occasions was presumed to personate Robin +Hood; the maid Marian, and others supposed to have been the outlaw’s +companions, were the characters supported by the rest; and the +hobby-horse, or a dragon, sometimes both, made a part of the display. + +It was by some supposed to have been imported from the Moors, and was +probably a kind of Pyrrhic or military dance, usually performed with +staves and bells attached to the feet, each of which had its several tone +and name; the men who danced it, when in full character, were accompanied +by a boy dressed as a girl, and styled the maid _Marion_ (or Morian, +possibly from the Italian Moriane, a head piece, because his head was +generally gaily decked out). + +The hobby-horse was originally a necessary accompaniment of the morris +dance, but the Puritans had banished it before the time of the hero +Kempe,—why, or wherefore, it is difficult to imagine, as his presence, +with a ladle attached to his mouth to collect the douceurs of the +spectators, must have been as harmless, one would fancy, as that of the +_fool_ who succeeded him in the office. + +In Edward the Fourth’s reign, we find mention made of _hoblers_, or +persons who were obliged by tenure to send a light swift horse to carry +tidings of invasion from the sea-side—light horsemen from this came to be +called hoblers—and doubtless from this origin sprang the term +hobby-horse—hence the allusion to men riding their hobby. + +Kempe’s dance is alluded to by Ben Jonson, in his “Every Man out of his +Humour.” In his own narrative he alludes to some other similar exploit +he had it in his mind to perform; but as no record exists of its +accomplishment, we are left to infer that the entrance made of the death +of one Will Kempe, at the time of the plague, November 1603, in the +parish books of one of the metropolitan churches, refers to the merry +comedian, and that his career was suddenly terminated by that unsightly +foe. + +In 1609, a tract with an account of a morris dance performed by twelve +individuals who had attained the age of a hundred, was published, “to +which,” it was added, “Kempe’s morris dance was no more than a galliord +on a common stage at the end of an old dead comedy, is to a caranto +danced on the ropes.” + +Not long subsequent to these events, theatres became settled down into +stationary objects of attraction and amusement; and in most large cities, +companies were formed to conduct the business of the performances. Among +the epitaphs in the principal churchyard of the city, St. Peter’s +Mancroft, are several to the memory of different individuals who had +belonged to the company. Among them, one + + IN MEMORY OF + WILLIAM WEST, COMEDIAN, + LATE MEMBER OF THE NORWICH COMPANY. + + OBIIT 17 JUNE, 1733. AGED 32. + + To me ’twas given to die, to thee ’tis given + To live; alas! one moment sets us even— + Mark how impartial is the will of Heaven. + +Another:— + + IN MEMORY OF + ANNE ROBERTS. + 1743. AGED 30. + + The world’s a stage—at birth one play’s begun, + And all find exits when their parts are done. + + HENRIETTA BRAY. + 1737. AGED 60. + A COMEDIAN. + + Here, reader, you may plainly see + That Wit nor Humour e’er could be + A proof against Mortality. + +The subject of Pageantry may not be fitly closed without notice of the +costly displays of magnificence that characterize the various processions +and ceremonies that have become classed under the same title, although +distinct altogether from the original dramatic representations to which +the name belonged. Some of these, in honour of saints and martyrs, long +since dead even to the memory of enlightened Protestantism, partake more +of the character of religious festivals than any thing else; and among +them the annual commemoration of St. Nicholas day, by the election of the +Boy Bishop, peculiarly deserves to be classed. In olden times, on the +6th of December, it was an invariable custom for the boys of every +cathedral choir to make choice of one of their number to maintain the +state and authority of a bishop, from that time until the 28th, or +Innocent’s day, during which period he was habited in rich episcopal +robes, wore a mitre on his head, and carried a crosier in his hand; his +companions assumed the dress and character of priests, yielding to their +head all canonical obedience, and between them performing all the +services of the church excepting mass. On the eve of Innocent’s day, the +Boy Bishop, and his youthful clergy in their caps, and with lighted +tapers in their hand, went in solemn procession, chaunting and singing +versicles, as they walked into the choir by the west door; the dean and +canons of the Cathedral went first, the chaplains followed, and the Boy +Bishop with his priests in the last and highest place. The Boy Bishop +then took his seat, and the rest of the juveniles dispersed themselves on +each side the choir on the uppermost ascent. The resident canons bearing +the incense and book, the minor canons the tapers, he afterwards +proceeded to the altar of the Trinity, which he censed, and then the +image of the Trinity, his priests all the while singing. They all then +joined in chaunting a service with prayers and responses, and in +conclusion the Boy Bishop gave his benediction to the people. After he +received the crosier, other ceremonies were performed, and he chaunted +the complyn, and turning towards the choir delivered an exhortation. If +any prebends fell vacant during his episcopal power, he had the power of +disposing of them; and if he died during the month he was buried in his +robes, his funeral was celebrated with great pomp, and a monument was +erected to his memory with his effigy. + +The discovery of a monument of this character, some hundred and seventy +years since, in Salisbury Cathedral, caused much amazement to the many +then unread in antiquarian lore, who marvelled much at the anomalous +affair, wondering however a bishop could have been so small, or a child +so rich in ecclesiastical garments. + +From this custom originated the but lately discontinued honours, annually +awarded to the head boy in most grammar schools, who had a place in grand +civic processions, and for a season at least was magnified into a great +personage. + +The origin of this festival, on St Nicholas day, is involved like most +others in much obscurity, and buried in heaps of legendary mysticism. +The tale upon which it is said to have been founded is, that in the +fourth century St. Nicholas was bishop of Myra, when two young gentlemen +arrived at that city on their road to Athens, whither they were going to +complete their education. By their father’s desire they were to seek the +benediction of the bishop on their way, but as it was late at night when +they reached Myra, they deferred doing so till the next morning; but in +the meantime the host of the inn at which they were lodging, stimulated +by avarice to possess himself of their property, killed the young +gentlemen, cut them in pieces, salted them, and purposed to sell them for +pickled pork. + +St. Nicholas, the bishop, being favoured with a sight of these +proceedings in a vision, (or, as we should now-a-days express it, by +_clairvoyance_) went to the inn, reproached the cruel landlord for his +crime, who, confessing it, entreated the saint to pray to heaven for his +pardon. The bishop, moved by his entreaties, besought pardon for him, +and restoration of life to the children. He had scarcely finished, when +the pickled pieces re-united, and the animated youths threw themselves +from the brine-tub at the bishop’s feet; he raised them up, exhorted them +to ascribe the praise to God alone, and sent them forward on their +journey, with much good counsel. + +Such is the miracle handed down as the cause of the adoption of Saint +Nicholas as the patron saint of children. The Eton Montem is considered +to be a corruption of the ceremony of electing a boy-bishop, probably +changed at the time of the suppression of the religious festivals at the +Reformation. + +One other pageant, more especially connected with the history of a +manufacturing city, is the procession of Bishop Blaize, or St. Blazius, +the great patron saint of wool-combers; in which usually figured Jason, +the hero of the “golden fleece,” and forty Argonauts on horseback, the +emblems of the expedition, preceded by Hercules, Peace, Plenty, and +Britannia. These were followed by the bishop, dressed in episcopal +costume, crowned with a mitre of wool, drawn in an open chariot by six +horses, and attended by vergers, bands of music, the city standard, a +chaplain, and orators delivering, at intervals, grandiloquent speeches. +Seven companies of wool-combers on foot, and five on horseback, brought +up the rear; shepherds, shepherdesses, tastefully attired in fancy +costumes, added to the brilliancy of the display. Bishop Blazius, the +principal personage in the festivity, was Bishop of Sebesta, in Armenia, +and the reputed inventor of the art of combing wool. The Romish church +canonized the saint, and attributed to his miraculous interposition many +wondrous miracles. Divers charms, also, for extracting thorns from the +body, or a bone from the throat, were prescribed to be uttered in his +name. + +Among the festivals that lay claim to antiquity, of which some faint +traces, at least, are left in the observances of the nineteenth century, +are some few that belong as much to the history of the present as the +past, and must not be omitted in sketches of the characteristic features +of an old city. The Fair—the great annual gatherings of wooden houses +and wooden horses, tin trumpets, and spice nuts, Diss bread, and +gingerbread—menageries of wild natural history, and caravans of tame +_unnatural_ collections, giants, dwarfs, albinos, and _lusus naturæ_ of +every conceivable deformity—of things above the earth and under the +earth, in the sea and out of the sea—of panoramas, dioramas—wax-works, +with severable heads and moving countenances—of Egyptian tents, with +glass factories in miniature concealed within their mystic folds, under +the guidance of the glass-wigged alchemist, the presiding +genius—performing canaries, doing the Mr. and Mrs. Caudle, and firing off +pistols—pert hares playing on the tambourine, and targets and guns to be +played with for prizes of nuts, and whirligigs and rocking-boats—the +avenues of sailcloth, with their linings of confectionary, toys, +basket-work, and ornamental stationery—the gong and the drum, and the +torrents of Cheap-Jack eloquence, mingling with the music of the +leopard-clad minstrels of the zoological departments;—dear is the holiday +to the hearts, and memories, and anticipations, of many an _enlightened_ +infant of this highly developed age;—as dear, and welcome, and thrilling, +in its confusion of noise, and bewilderment of colour, as ever of old, to +the children of larger growth, who, in the infancy of civilization, were +wont to find in them their primers of learning, arts, and sciences. + +When trade was principally carried on by means of fairs, and they lasted +many days, the merchants who frequented them for business purposes, used +every art and means to draw people together, and were therefore +accompanied, we are told, by jugglers, minstrels, and buffoons; and as +then few public amusements or spectacles were established, either in +cities or towns, the fair-time was almost the only season of diversion. +The clergy, finding that the entertainments of dancing, music, mimicry, +&c. exhibited at them, drew people from their religious duties, in the +days of their power proscribed them—but to no purpose; and failing in +their efforts, with the ingenuity that characterized their age and +profession, changed their tastes, and took the recreations into their own +hands, turned actors and play-writers themselves, and substituted the +Religious Mysteries for the profane punchinellos and juggleries that have +since, in later times, resumed their sway, undisputed by any +ecclesiastical rivals for popular applause in the dramatic line. + +Among other sports that formed the attractions to the Fair in olden +times, was the Quintain, a game of contest, memorable in the annals of +the city, as having on one occasion, in the reign of Edward I., been made +the opportunity of commencing hostilities of a far more formidable nature +and protracted extent than the occasion itself could warrant, or be +presumed to cause. + +The Quintain was a post fixed strongly in the ground, with a piece of +wood, about six feet long, laid across it on the top, placed so as to +turn round; on one end of this cross-piece was hung a bag, containing a +hundred-weight of sand, which was called the _Quintal_; at the other end +was fixed a board about a foot square, at which the player, who was +mounted on horseback, with a truncheon, pole, or sort of tilting-spear, +ran direct with force; if he was skilful, the board gave way, and he +passed on before the bag reached him, in which feat lay success; but if +he hit the board, but was not expert enough to escape, the bag swung +round, and striking him, often dismounted him; to miss the board +altogether was, however, the greatest disgrace. The quarrel alluded to, +arose ostensibly about the truncheons, but it was supposed really to have +been at the instigation of other persons, both on the part of the +monastery and city. + +Tombland Fair stands not quite alone as a memorial of ancient festivals +held in honour of patron saints—one other day in the year stands forth in +the calendar of juvenile and mature enjoyments, unrivalled in its claim +upon our notice and our love. St. Valentine, that “man of most admirable +parts, so famous for his love and charity that the custom of choosing +valentines upon his festival took its rise from thence,” as Wheatley +tells us,—is yet, even to this hour, held in high honour, and most +gloriously commemorated in this good old city, and in so unique a +fashion, that a few words may not suffice to give a true delineation of +it. The approach of the happy day is heralded, in these days of +steam-presses and local journals, by monster-typed advertisements, +gigantically headed “_Valentines_,” or huge labels, bearing the same +mystic letters, carefully arranged in the midst of gorgeously-decked +windows, towards which young eyes turn in glistening hope and admiration; +and at sight of which little hearts beat high with eager expectation. +Not of Cupids, and hearts, and darts, and such like merry conceits on +fairy-mottoed note paper, doth the offerings of St. Valentine consist in +this good old mart of commerce;—far more real and substantial are the +samples of taste, ornament, and use, that rank themselves in the category +of his gifts. The jeweller’s front, radiant with gold and precious gems, +and frosted silver, and ruby-eyed oxydized owls, Russian malachite +fashioned into every conceivable fantasy of invention, brooches, +bracelets, crosses, studs masculine and feminine, chatelaines ditto, and +not a few of _epicene_ characteristics, betokening the signs of the +times,—all claim to rank under the title. The Drapers—especially the +“French depots,” with their large assortments on shew, in remote +_bazaars_ appropriated exclusively to the business of the festive season, +where labyrinths of dressing-cases, desks, work-boxes, inkstands, and +_portfeuilles_, usurp the place of lawful mercery, and haberdashery for +the time being yields place to stationery, perfumery, _bijouterie_, and +cutlery, proclaim the triumphs of his reign in their midst. But supreme +above all, are the glories that the toy-shops display, from the gay +balcony-fronted repository for all the choicest inventions science, +skill, or wit can devise, at once to please the fancy, help the brain, +tax the ingenuity of childhood, or dazzle the eye of babyhood, downwards +through the less _recherché_, but scarcely less thronged marts, a grade +below in price and quality, to the very huckster’s stall or apple booth, +that shall for the time being add its quota of penny whips, tin trumpets, +and long-legged, brittle-jointed, high-combed Dutch ladies, whose +proportions exhibit any thing but the contour usually described as a +“Dutch build.” Nor these alone—the shoemaker’s, with its newly-acquired +treasures of gutta percha knick-knacks, flower-pots, card-trays, +inkstands, picture-frames, boxes, caddies, medallions, and what-not that +is useful and ornamental, in addition to shoe-soles with a propensity to +adhere to hot iron, and betray by deeply indented gutters the impress of +any new bright-topped fender on which they have chanced to trespass—all, +all, are offerings at the shrine of good St. Valentine; how, when, and +where, we have yet to see. + +One peep behind these plate-glassed drop scenes—one visit to the +toy-shop—it is an event—a circumstance to be chronicled—even the quiet, +mild, and self-possessed proprietress of all the wealth of fun and +fashion, use and ornament, and zoology, from the rocking-horse down to +the Chinese spider, and Noah’s ark to lady-birds, for once looks heated +and tired; and one feels impelled to cheer the kind-hearted, gentle +matron, by reminding her, that her toil will be repaid tenfold, by +pleasant thoughts of the myriad shouts of welcome and heartfelt glee +that, ere long, will have been hymned forth in praise of the perfection +of her taste. + +Her labours and toils would seem scarcely to surpass those of her +purchasers. The perplexity and labyrinth of doubt and difficulty they +find themselves in is truly pitiable; the annual return of a festival +when every body, from grandpapa and grandmamma to baby bo, is expected to +receive and give some offering commemorative of the season, causes, in +time, a considerable difficulty in the choice of gifts, and added to the +mystifications of memory as to who has what? and what hasn’t who? +produces a perfect bewilderment. The fluctuations between dominoes, bats +and traps, dolls, la gràce, draughts, chess, rocks of Scilly, German +tactics, fox and geese, printing machines, panoramas, puzzles, +farmy-ards, battledores, doll’s houses, compasses, knitting cases, and a +myriad others, seem interminable—but an end must come, and the purchaser +and seller find rest. + +But all this toil is but the prelude to the grand act of the drama; +Valentine’s eve arrived, the play begins in earnest. The streets swarm +with carriers, and baskets laden with treasures—bang, bang, bang go the +knockers, and away rushes the banger, depositing first upon the door-step +some package from the basket of stores—again and again at intervals, at +every door to which a missive is addressed, is the same repeated till the +baskets are empty. Anonymously St. Valentine presents his gifts, +labelled only with “St. Valentine’s” love, and “Good morrow, Valentine.” + +Then within the houses of destination—the screams, the shouts, the +rushings to catch the bang bangs—the flushed faces, sparkling eyes, +rushing feet to pick up the fairy gifts—inscriptions to be interpreted, +mysteries to be unravelled, hoaxes to be found out—great hampers, heavy, +and ticketed “With care, this side upwards,” to be unpacked, out of which +jump live little boys with St. Valentine’s love to the little ladies +fair—the sham bang bangs, that bring nothing but noise and fun—the mock +parcels that vanish from the door step by invisible strings when the door +opens—monster parcels that dwindle to thread-papers denuded of their +multiplied envelopes, with pithy mottoes, all tending to the final +consummation of good counsel, “Happy is he who expects nothing, and he +will not be disappointed!” It is a glorious night, marvel not that we +would perpetuate so joyous a festivity. We love its mirth, the memory of +its smiles and mysteries of loving kindness, its tender reverential +tributes to old age, and time-tried friendship, amid the throng of +sprightlier festal offerings, that mark the season in our hearths and +homes, as sacred to a love so pure, so true, and holy, that good St. +Valentine himself may feel justly proud of such commemoration. + +How and when this peculiar mode of celebrating the festival arose it +would be difficult perhaps to discover. In olden times, as we find by +the diary of Dr. Browne, the more prevalent custom of drawing valentines +on the eve before Valentine day was in vogue; but Forby’s “Vocabulary of +East Anglia” makes mention of a practice which doubtless has become +developed in the course of time into the elaborate and costly celebration +of the present day. He says, “In Norfolk it is the custom for children +to ‘catch’ each other for valentines; and if there are elderly persons in +the family who are likely to be liberal, great care is taken to catch +them. The mode of catching is by saying ‘Good morrow, Valentine,’ and if +they can repeat this before they are spoken to, they are rewarded with a +small present. It must be done, however, before sunrise; otherwise +instead of a reward, they are told they are _sunburnt_.” He adds a +query—Does this illustrate the phrase _sunburned_, in “Much Ado about +Nothing”? + +The universal respect in which the anniversary of St. Valentine is held, +may perhaps be most justly estimated by the statistical facts that relate +to the post-office transactions for that day, in comparison with the +average amount of the daily transmissions; and each district has probably +some peculiar mode of celebrating it,—but nowhere, we imagine, does its +annual return leave behind it such pleasing and substantial memorials as +in our “Old City.” Douce, in his “Illustrations of Shakespeare,” would +have us believe that the observances of St. Valentine’s day had their +origin in the festivals of ancient Rome during the month of February, +when they celebrated the “Lupercalia,” or feasts in honour of Pan and +Juno, sometimes called Februalis, on which occasion, amidst a variety of +other ceremonies, the names of young men and maidens were put into a box, +and drawn as chance directed. The pastors of the early church, in their +endeavours to eradicate the vestiges of popular superstitions, +substituted the names of _saints_ for those of the young maidens, and as +the Lupercalia commenced in February, affixed the observance to the feast +of St. Valentine in that month, thus preserving the outline of the +ancient ceremony, to which the people were attached, modified by an +adaptation to the Christian system. + +Time, however, would seem to have restored the maidens to their original +position. Brande has given many curious details of the various modes of +celebrating the anniversary, in addition to the universal interchange of +illuminated letters and notes. In Oxfordshire the children go about +collecting pence, singing, + + “Good morrow, Valentine, + First ’tis yours, then ’tis mine, + So please give me a Valentine.” + +In some other counties the poorer classes of children dress themselves +fantastically, and visit the houses of the great, singing, + + “Good morning to you, Valentine, + Curl your locks as I do mine, + Two before and three behind— + Good morrow to you, Valentine.” + +In other parts the first member of the opposite sex that is seen by any +individual is said to be his or her “Valentine.” This is the case in +Berkshire and some other of the neighbouring counties. Pepys, in his +“Diary,” says, “St. Valentine’s day, 1667. This morning came up to my +wife’s bedside, I being up dressing myself, little Will Mercer, to be her +Valentine, and brought her name written upon blue paper in gold letters +done by himself very pretty; and we were both well pleased with it. But +I am also this year my wife’s Valentine, which will cost me £5—but that I +must have laid out if we had not been Valentines.” He afterwards adds, +“I find that Mrs. Pierce’s little girl is my Valentine, she having drawn +me, which I was not sorry for, it easing me of something more I must have +given to others. But here I do first observe the fashion of drawing of +mottoes as well as names; so that Pierce who drew my wife, did also draw +a mottoe, and this girl drew another for me. What mine was I forget; but +my wife’s was, ‘Most courteous and most fair.’ One wonder I observed +to-day, that there was no music in the morning to call up our new-married +people, which is very mean methinks.” The custom of presenting gifts +seems then to have been practised. + +In the “British Apollo,” 1708, a sort of “Notes and Queries” of the day, +we read, + + “Why Valentine’s a day to choose + A mistress, and our freedom lose? + May I my reason interpose, + The question with an answer close; + To imitate we have a mind, + And couple like the winged kind.” + +In the same work, “1709, Query.—In choosing Valentines (according to +custom), is not the party choosing (be it man or woman) to make a present +to the party chosen? Answer.—We think it more proper to say drawing of +Valentines, since the most customary way is for each to take his or her +lot, and chance cannot be termed choice. According to this method the +obligations are equal, and, therefore, it was formerly the custom +mutually to present, but now it is customary only for the gentlemen.” In +Scotland presents are reciprocally made on the day. + +Gay has given a poetical description of some rural ceremonies used in the +morning: + + “Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind + Their paramours with mutual chirpings find, + I early rose, just at the break of day, + Before the sun had chased the stars away; + A-field I went amid the morning dew, + To milk my kine (for so should house-wives do). + The first I spied, and the first swain we see, + In spite of Fortune shall our true love be.” + +The following curious practice on Valentine’s day or eve is mentioned in +the “Connoisseur.” “Last Friday was Valentine’s day, and the night +before I got five bay leaves, and pinned four of them to the corners of +my pillow, and the fifth in the middle; and then if I dreamt of my +sweetheart, Betty said we should be married before the year was out. But +to make it more sure, I boiled an egg hard, and took out the yolk and +filled it with salt; and when I went to bed, eat it shell and all, +without speaking or drinking after it. We also wrote the names of our +lovers upon bits of paper, and rolled them up in clay and put them into +water, and the first that rose up was to be our Valentine.” + +The popular tradition, that the birds select mates on this day, is the +last subject to be mentioned. Shakespeare alludes to it in the +“Midsummer Night’s Dream.” + + “St. Valentine is past; + Begin these wood birds but to couple now.” + +Cowper’s “Fable,” who cannot call to mind? and its moral may close our +notice of St. Valentine’s day. + + “Misses, the tale that I relate, + This lesson seems to carry— + Choose not alone a proper mate, + But proper time to marry?” + +The list of pageantries and festivals must now close, with an attempt to +chronicle the glories of a modern “chairing day;” and the more imperative +does it seem to find a place in history for this last stray sunbeam of +mediæval splendour, that it bids fair, amidst the growth of sobriety in +this utilitarian age, to share all, too soon, the fate of its ancestors, +who found their grave in the first “dissolution” and after-flood of +Puritanism. There may be who would liken this relic of pageantry to a +lingering mote of feudalism, that the penetrating broom of reform had +done well to sweep from the pathway of a “free and enlightened people;” +who would hint that the old custom is more honoured in the breach than +the observance; and towards their opinion seems to incline that of the +chief performers in the modern “_mystery_”—the M.P. himself, whose +nerves, proprieties, and objections have unitedly rebelled against +submission to these antiquated practices of this antiquated place. It is +therefore scarcely what _is_, but what _has been_, that we have to +commemorate in our detail. + +When the onerous duty of selecting a representative of the people’s +voice, wishes, and will in the councils of the nation has been completed +by the calm, deliberate, dispassionate, and disinterested decision of the +enfranchised tithe of the city’s populace, the successful candidates are, +or _were_, wont to receive installation from the hands of their +constituents by a “toss up,” not, we would inform our countrymen of the +“_sheeres_,” (meaning all other counties save Norfolk, Suffolk, and +Kent)—not that they engage in any little gambling speculation, such as is +usually known under a similar name, but that they are required to submit +to be made shuttlecocks for some few hours, for the amusement of the +admiring multitude; and seeing that the fun and frolic thus afforded is, +or _was_, the sole share of nine-tenths of the population in the +transaction of electing the “unruly member” that is to speak the hopes, +wants, dissatisfactions, and grumblings of a large city, it may seem +somewhat hard to them that they should be deprived of it. The order of +carrying out this provincial mode of installation, consists in forming a +grand procession, as it is called, made up of as many carriages and +horsemen as the stables of the city and neighbourhood, private and +public, may contrive to turn out, the _colour_ and popularity of the +candidate of course exercising its influence upon _quantity_ and +_quality_. The days of velvet doublets and liveries of silver and gold +being passed, the candidate makes no pretensions to display in the +toilettes of the gentlemen—plain, sober black predominates throughout the +mass; no shadow of a variation, save and except in the “dramatis +personæ,” who take their stand upon the battledores provided for them, +arrayed in full court costume or regimentals, as the case may be. To +particularize more closely, it should be stated, that the battledores, as +we have chosen to designate them, are wooden platforms, borne upon the +shoulders of some two or three dozen men; the platform supports a chair +elaborately ornamented, blue and silver, or purple and orange, as the +successful candidates may be _blues_ or _purples_—Whigs or Tories. +Besides the chair, the platform supports the fortunate M.P. himself, +standing, aided in balancing himself in the elevated pinnacle of glory to +which he has attained, by the back or elbows of the chair, which piece of +luxury, we presume, must be intended solely as a symbol of the easy berth +in prospect, since throughout the long sunny scorching perambulations of +city streets and market-place, it may seldom, if ever, be ventured to be +indulged in as a resting place. Meantime, every window, balcony, +house-top, church-tower, and parapet-wall, has been lined with anxious +and eager lookers-on—every space and avenue leading to or adjoining the +line of march has been thronged; flags, banners, &c. &c., have been +marshalled into the procession, whose pathway is cleared and protected by +a locomotive body-guard of _posse men_, bearing horizontally in their +hands long poles, which are presumed to act as barriers to the +encroachments of the multitude without the pale. The line of procession +once formed, in due order they make their triumphal progress, bowing, +smiling, and trembling on their elevations, as they draw near to the +thronging frontage of any loyal constituent, whose colours are a signal +for the game to commence. Up, then, goes the M.P. high in the air,—once, +twice, thrice, again and again, fortunate and clever if he comes down +perpendicularly. Perfection and elegance in the peculiar _pas de seal_ +requires much practice and many experiments; but as the _move_ is +repeated very frequently, at very short intervals, during the progress +round the city, possibly one experience may suffice in a life-time. The +exhibition is occasionally closed by the bearers of the two candidates +making a match with each other as to who can toss longest and highest, +which done, the victimized shuttlecocks and the delighted spectators are +permitted to retire. The origin of this very singular act of homage is +not very clear; but as one or two recent outbursts of popular enthusiasm +have manifested themselves in a similar form—to wit, laying violent hands +upon a popular favourite and tossing him in the air, with neither +platform or chair to lend grace to the proceeding—we must suppose that +some traditionary virtue is attached to the act; and this supposition is +somewhat confirmed by the fact that a superstitious practice of “lifting” +or “heaving,” very similar in its mode of operation, is still observed on +Easter Monday and Tuesday in some other English counties. The men and +women on these days alternately exercise the privilege of seizing and +“lifting” any member of the opposite sex that they may chance to meet, +and claim a fee for the honour. In the records of the Tower of London, +may be found a document purporting to set forth how such payment was made +to certain ladies and maids of honour for “taking” (or “lifting”) King +Edward I. at Easter, a custom then prevalent throughout the kingdom. +Brande gives an amusing account of an occurrence in Shrewsbury, extracted +from a letter from Mr. Thomas Loggan, of Basinghall Street. He says, “I +was sitting alone last Easter Tuesday at breakfast, at the Talbot, in +Shrewsbury, when I was surprised by the entrance of all the female +servants of the house handing in an arm-chair, lined with white, and +decorated with ribbons and favours of all kinds. I asked them what they +wanted; they said they came to ‘heave’ me; it was the custom of their +place, and they hoped I would take a seat in the chair. It was +impossible not to comply with a request so modestly made by a set of +nymphs in their best apparel, and several of them under twenty. I wished +to see all the ceremony, and seated myself accordingly; the group then +lifted me from the ground, turned the chair about, and I had the felicity +of a salute from each. I told them I supposed there was a fee due, and +was answered in the affirmative; and having satisfied the damsels in this +respect, they retired to ‘heave’ others.” + +The usage is said to be a vulgar commemoration of the event which the +festival of Easter celebrates. Lancashire, Staffordshire, and +Warwickshire still retain the Easter custom. + +Whether or not the notable Norfolk “chairing” takes its origin from the +same is open to question; _possibility_ there is without doubt that it +does so. Be it as it may, it must, we fear, be numbered among the +departed joys of the poor folks. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +SUPERSTITIONS. + + +_Superstitions_.—_Witchcraft_.—_Heard’s Ghost_.—_Wise Men and +Women_.—_Sayings by Mrs. Lubbock_.—_Prophecies_.—_Treasure +Trove_.—_Confessions of Sir William Stapleton and Sir Edward +Neville_.—_Cardinal Wolsey supposed to have been conversant with +Magic_.—_Effect of Superstition on the Great and Noble in Early Times_. + +Forby, in his “Vocabulary of East Anglia,” has described the whole of +this district of the country as barren of superstitions or legendary +lore. Its characteristics are adverse to the growth of that natural +poetry in the minds of the people which gives birth to nymphs, +water-sprites, elves, or demons. It has neither woods, mountains, rocks, +caverns, nor waterfalls, to be the nurseries of such genii; its plains +are cultivated, its rivers navigable, its hills and valleys furrowed by +the plough, even to the very basement of any lingering ruin of tower or +steeple that may be scattered amongst them. How much more, therefore, +may we expect to find a dearth of such literature in the heart of the +great city, where the struggles of working-day life among looms and +factories, leave little time or room for aught else than the stern +_realities_ of existence to be known or felt? + +But every where there exist some fragments of superstition, poetical or +uncouth; and we may not feel surprise that among such a people as the +lower orders of society, in an East Anglian manufacturing city, they +should bear little trace of the refinement which beautiful and romantic +scenery and occupation are wont in other scenes to throw over them. +Rarely do we hear of a haunted house, or a walking ghost; but not +unseldom do we see the horse-shoe nailed over the door-way of the +cottage, as an antidote to the power of witchcraft,—nor is it uncommon to +hear among the poor, of charms to cure diseases, of divinations by _wise +men_ and _wise women_, who by mystic rites pretend to discover lost or +stolen property,—nor even of animals bewitched, exercising direful +influence over the lives and health of human beings. Within the limits +of this age of enlightenment and civilization, many are the recorded +facts of this nature, and many more of continual recurrence might be +added, in illustration of the truth, that the lowest and grossest forms +of vulgar superstition yet lurk about in the purlieus and by-ways of the +old city. + +Not long since, a woman, holding quite a respectable rank among the +working classes, and in her way a perfect “_character_” avowed herself +determined “to _drown’d_ the cat,” as soon as ever her baby, which was +lying ill, should die; for which determination the only explanation she +could offer was, that the cat jumped upon the nurse’s lap, as the baby +lay there, soon after it was born, from which time it ailed, and ever +since that time, the cat had regularly gone under its bed once a day and +coughed twice. These mysterious actions of poor “Tabby,” were assigned +as the cause of the baby wasting, and its fate was to be sealed as soon +as that of the poor infant was decided. That the baby happened to be the +twenty-fourth child of his mother, who had succeeded in rearing four only +of the two dozen, was a fact that seemed to possess no weight whatever in +her estimation. The same strong-minded individual, for in many respects +she _is_ wonderfully strong-minded, scruples not to avow greater faith in +the magical properties of red wool, tied round a finger or an arm, in +curing certain ailments of the frame, than in many a remedy prescribed by +“doctor’s” skill; nor has the theoretical belief been altogether +unsupported by practice; on more than one occasion, she will aver, her +own life has thus been saved. + +As for divinations and charms, to doubt their faith in them would be to +discredit the evidence of our senses. A poor washerwoman, but a few +years since, who possessed more honesty than wisdom, happened to lose +some linen belonging to one of her employers. _Suspecting_ it to have +been stolen, she repaired to a _wise man_, who, of course, succeeded in +convincing her, upon the payment of half-a-crown, that her surmise was +correct; but as it helped her no further towards its recovery, it only +added to the expense her honesty prompted her to go to, to replace it, +which she secretly contrived to do, and offered it to her employer, with +a statement of the facts. + +These are but faint specimens of the “vulgar errors” that are every day +to be met with among the citizens, oftentimes attested more by deeds than +words; for many will in secret consult the _wise_ people, and pay them +well, who would still shrink from openly acknowledging faith in their +revelations or predictions. + +Though haunted houses are rare, there still are some known to exist;—one +respectable, elderly maiden, yet amongst us, has veritable tales of +refractory spirits, that took twelve clergymen to read them down, and of +one who haunted some particular closet, where at last he submitted to +priestly authority, a cable and a hook being firmly fixed in the floor of +the closet to bind him. We rather fancy some of the other legends that +we have heard from the same authority, are but variations of the story of +Heard’s spirit, that haunted the Alder Carr Fen Broad, which assumed the +appearance of a Jack-o’-Lantern, and refused to be “laid!” the gentlemen +who attempted it failing, because he always kept a verse ahead of them, +until a boy brought a couple of pigeons, and laid down before the +Will-o’-the-wisp, who, looking at them, lost his verse, and then they +succeeded in binding his spirit. + +_This_, and many other tales, have been collected by the rector of the +parish of Irstead, from an old woman living there; and they contain so +much that is amusing, that we cannot forbear repeating them for the +benefit of those who have not had the opportunity of seeing the papers of +the Archæological Society. Mrs. Lubbock is an old washerwoman, who, left +a widow with several children, has maintained herself “independently” up +to her eightieth year, without applying even for out-door parish relief, +until the cold winter of 1846 made her, as she expresses it, _sick_ for +crumbs like the birds. Education she has had none, that is, of book +learning, but she seems to have had a father, given to anecdote, from +whom she professes to have heard most of the “saws” and tales of which +she has such a profusion. She mentions the practice, among her +acquaintance, of watching the church porch on St. Mark’s eve, when, at +midnight, the watcher may see all his acquaintance enter the church: +those who were to die remained, those who were to marry went in couples +and came out again. This, one Staff had seen; but he would not tell the +names of those who were to die or be married. + +On Christmas-eve, she says, at midnight the cows and cattle rise and turn +to the east; and the horses in the stable, as far as their halters +permit. She says that a farmer once observing the reverent demeanour of +the horse, who will leisurely stay some time upon his knees moving his +head about and blowing over the manger, remarked, “Ah, they have more wit +than we;” which brings to mind an anecdote, related by an ear witness, of +a controversy that took place in this city among some cattle-drovers, +when an Irishman and Roman Catholic supported the claims of his religion +by commenting upon the invariable practice amongst those of his own +class, of saying their prayers before retiring to rest; whereas, added +he, “among you Protestants the _horse_ is the only real Christian that I +ever met with, who kneels before he goes to sleep and when he gets up.” +That there is too much ground for the satire no one can doubt. + +The Rosemary is said to flower on old Christmas-day, and Mrs. Lubbock +says that she recollects, on one occasion, a great argument about which +was the real Christmas-day, and to settle the point three men agreed to +decide by watching that plant. They gathered a bunch at eleven o’clock +at night of the old Christmas-day; it was then in bud. They threw it +upon the table, and did not look at it until after midnight, when they +went in, and found the bloom just dropping off. + +Concerning the weather, she says, when a sundog (or two black spots to be +seen by the naked eye) comes on the south side of the sun, there will be +fair weather; when on the north, there will be foul. “The sun then fares +to be right muddled and crammed down by the dog.” + +Of the moon, she says— + + “Saturdays new and Sundays full + Never was good, and never _wull_. + +“If you see the old moon with the new, there will be stormy weather. + + “If it rains on a Sunday before mass, + It rains all the week, more or less. + +“If it rains on a Sunday before the church doors are open, it will rain +all the week, more or less; or else we shall have three rainy Sundays. + +“If it rains the first Thursday after the moon comes in, it will rain, +more or less, all the while the moon lasts, especially on Thursdays. + +“If there be bad weather, and the sun does not shine all the week, it +will always show forth some time on the Saturday. + +“It will not be a hard winter when acorns abound, and there are no hips +nor haws: + + “If _Noah’s Ark shows_ many days together, + There will be foul weather. + +“On three nights in the year it never lightens (_i.e._ clears up) +anywhere; and if a man knew those nights, he would not turn a dog out. + +“We shall have a severe winter when the swallows and martins take great +pains to teach their young ones to fly; they are going a long journey, to +get away from the cold that is coming. It is singular they should know +this, but they do. + +“The weather will be fine when the rooks play pitch-halfpenny—_i.e._ +when, flying in flocks, some of them stoop down and pick up worms, +imitating the action of a boy playing pitch-halfpenny. + +“There will be severe winter and deep snow when snow-banks (_i.e._ white +fleecy clouds) hang about the sky.” + +In 1845, she knew there would be a failure of some crop, “because the +evening star _rode so low_. The leading star (_i.e._ the last star in +the Bear’s Tail) was above it all the summer the potato blight occurred.” +She feared the failure would have been in the wheat, till she saw the +_man’s face_ in it, and then she was comfortable, and did not think of +any other crop. Her opinion was, that the potato blight was caused by +the lightning, because the turf burnt so _sulphurously_. “The +lightning,” she says, “carries a burr round the moon, and makes the +_roke_ (fog) rise in the marshes, and smell strong.” + +A failure in the “Ash Keys,” she pronounces a sign of a change in the +government. + + “If the hen moult before the cock, + We get a winter as hard as a rock; + If the cock moult before the hen, + We get a winter like a spring. + +“She put plenty of salt in the water while washing clothes, to keep the +thunder out, and to keep away foul spirits.” + +Of Good Friday, she says, + +“If work be done on that day, it will be so unlucky, that it will have to +be done over again.” + +The story of Heard’s Ghost she accompanies by an anecdote of one Finch, +of Neatishead, who was walking along the road after dark, and saw a dog +which he thought was Dick Allard’s, that had snapped and snarled at him +at different times. Thinks he, “you have _upset_ me two or three times; +I will upset you now. You will not turn out of the road for me; and I +will not turn out of the road for you.” Along came the dog, straight in +the middle of the road, and Finch kicked at him, and his foot went +through him, as through a sheet of paper—he could compare it to nothing +else; he was quite astounded, and nearly fell backwards from the force of +the kick. + +She says that she has heard that the spirits of the dead haunt the places +where treasures were hid by them when living, and that those of the Roman +Catholics still frequent the spots where their remains were disturbed, +and their graves and monuments destroyed. Alas! what a ghost-besieged +city must poor Norwich be in such a case! + +Of the cuckoo, she says, “When evil is coming, he sings low among the +bushes, and can scarcely get his “cuckoo” out. In the last week before +he leaves, he always tells all that will happen in the course of the year +till he comes again—all the shipwrecks, storms, accidents, and +everything. If any one is about to die suddenly, or to lose a relation, +he will light upon touchwood, or a rotten bough, and “cuckoo.” + +“He is always here three months to a day, and sings all the while. The +first of April is the proper day for him to come, and when he does so, +there is sure to be a good and early harvest. If he does not come till +May, then the harvest is into October. If he sings long after midsummer, +there will be a Michaelmas harvest. If any one hears the cuckoo first +when in bed, there is sure to be illness or death to him or one of his +family.” + +Among her saws are— + + “Them that ever mind the world to win, + Must have a black cat, a howling dog, and a crowing hen. + + “If youth could know what age do crave, + _Sights_ of pennies youth would save. + + “They that wive + Between sickle and scythe, + Shall never thrive.” + +With reference to howling dogs, she says, “Pull off your left shoe and +turn it, and it will quiet him. I always used to do so when I was in +service. I hated to hear the dogs howl. There was no tax then, and the +farmers kept a _heap_ of them. They won’t howl three times after the +turning the shoe; if you are in bed, turn the shoe upside down by the +bedside.” + +Among the historical prophecies of Mother Shipton and Mother Bunch, her +sister, as remembered by her, are— + +That Mrs. Shipton foretold that the time should come when ships should go +without sails, and carriages without horses, and the sun should shine +upon hills that never _see_ the sun before; all which are fulfilled, Mrs. +Lubbock thinks, by steamers, railways, and cuttings through hills, which +let in upon them the light of the sun. + +Mrs. Shipton also foretold that we should know the summer from the winter +only by the green leaves, it should be so cold. “That the Roman +Catholics shall have this country again, and make England a nice place +once more. But as for these folks, they scarce know how to build a +church, nor yet a steeple. + +“That England shall be won and lost three times in one day; and that, +principally, through an embargo to be laid upon vessels. + +“That there is to come a man who shall have three thumbs on one hand, who +is to hold the king’s horse in battle; he is to be born in London, and be +a miller by business. The battle is to be fought at Rackheath-stone +Hill, on the Norwich road. Ravens shall carry the blood away, it will be +so clotted. + +“That the men are to be killed, so that one man shall be left to seven +women; and the daughters shall come home, and say to their mothers, +“Lawk, mother, I have seen a man!” The women shall have to finish the +harvest. + +“That the town of Yarmouth shall become a nettle-bush; that the bridges +shall be pulled up, and small vessels sail to Irstead and Barton Broads. + +“That blessed are they that live near Potter Heigham, and double-blessed +them that live in it.” (That parish seems destined to be the scene of +some great and glorious events.) May the blessing prove true! + +We here close our extracts from Mrs. Lubbock’s Norfolk sayings, and now +go back to superstitions of earlier date, that are so connected with +Kett’s rebellion as to make them peculiarly interesting as matters of +history. During the wars of the Roses, predictions of wars and +rebellions, not unfrequently proclaiming hostility towards the privileged +classes, were very common. Both persons and places were often designated +by strange hieroglyphical symbols, frequently taken from heraldic badges +and bearings, or analogies extremely puzzling to explain. They are +alluded to in Shakespeare’s “Henry the Fourth,” among the incitements +that urged Hotspur to anger, and Owen Glendower to rebellion, and +recorded by Hall, who says in his Chrouicle, “that a certain writer +writeth that the Earl of March, the Lord Percy, and Owen Glendower, were +made believe, by a Welsh prophecier, that King Henry was the _moldewarpe_ +(mole) _cursed of God’s own mouth_, and that they three were the dragon, +the lion, and the wolf which should divide the realm between them.” This +prophecy was doubtless identical with that published in 1652, under the +title of “Strange Prophecies of Merlin,” where it is said, “Then shall +the proudest prince in all Christendom go through Shropham Dale to Lopham +Ward, where the White Lion shall meet with him, and fight in a field +under Ives Minster, at South Lopham, where the prince aforesaid shall be +slain under the minster wall, _to the great grief of the priests all_; +then there shall come out of Denmark a Duke, and he shall bring with him +the King of Denmark and sixteen great lords in his company, by whose +consent he shall be crowned king in a town of Northumberland, and he +shall reign three months and odd days. They shall land at _Waborne +Stone_; they shall be met by the Red Deere, the Heath Cock, the Hound, +and the Harrow: between _Waborne_ and _Branksbrim_, a forest and a church +gate, there shall be fought so mortal a battle, that from Branksbrim to +Cromer Bridge it shall run blood; then shall the King of Denmark be +slain, and all the perilous fishes in his company. Then shall the duke +come forth manfully to Clare Hall, where the _bare_ and the _headlesse +men_ shall meet him and slay all his lords, and take him prisoner, and +send him to _Blanchflower_, and chase his men to the sea, where twenty +thousand of them shall be drowned without dint of the sword. Then shall +come in the French king, and he shall land at Waborne Hope, eighteen +miles from Norwich: there he shall be let in by a false mayor, and that +shall he keep for his lodging for awhile; then at his return shall he be +met at a place called Redbanke, thirty miles from Westchester, where at +the first affray shall be slain nine thousand Welchmen and the double +number of enemies.” + +These sort of predictions, often accompanied by symbolical illustrations, +continued to gain popularity, and were made use of at various periods to +serve the purposes of the people. Sir Walter Scott’s “Essays on the +Prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer,” shew the application made of them in +the time of the Stuarts. In the reign of Henry VIII., they excited so +much alarm, as to cause an act to be passed, which declared, “that if any +person should print, write, speak, sing, or declare to any other person, +of the king or any other person, any such false prophecies upon occasion +of any arms, fields, beasts, fowls, or such like things, they shall be +deemed guilty of felony, without benefit of the clergy.” + +The confession of Richard Byshop, of Bungay, when arraigned before the +Privy Council a few years prior to the date of the above act, shews upon +what grounds the fear it expresses was founded. + + THE CONFESSION OF RICHARD BYSHOP, OF BUNGAY. + + “Memorandum: that the said Richard Byshop saith, that he met with one + Robert Seyman, at Tyndale Wood, the 11th day of May, about nine of + the clock, in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of our sovereign + lord King Henry the Eighth, and after such salutation as they had + then, the said Richard Byshop said to the said Robert, ‘What tythings + hear you? Have you any musters about you?’ And the said Robert said + ‘No.’ Then the said Richard said, ‘This is a hard world for poor + men.’ And the said Robert said, ‘Truly it is so.’ Then the said + Richard said, ‘Ye seem to be an honest man, and such a one as a man + may open his mind unto.’ And the said Robert said, ‘I am a plain + man; ye may say to me what ye woll.’ And then the said Richard said, + ‘We are so used now-a-days at Bungay as was never seen afore this; + for if two or three good fellows be walking together, the constables + come to them, and woll know what communication they have had, or else + they shall be stocked. And as I have heard lately at Walsingham, the + people had risen if one person had not been. And as I hear say, some + of them now be in Norwich Castle, and others be sent to London.’ And + further, the said Richard said, ‘If two men were gathered together, + one might say to another what he would as long as the third man was + not there; _and if three men were together_, _if two of them were + absent_, the third might say what he would in surety enough.’ And he + said he knew there was a certain prophecy, which if the said Robert + would come to Bungay, he should hear it read; and that one man had + taken pains to watch in the night to write the copy of the same. And + if so be, as the prophecy saith, there shall be a rising of the + people this year or never. And that the prophecy saith the king’s + grace was signified by a mowle, and that the mowle should be subduyt + and put down. And that the said Richard did hear that the Earl of + Derby was up with many; and that he should be proclaimed traitor in + those parts where he dwelleth. And also he heard, as he saith, that + a great company was fled out of the land. And that the Duke of + Norfolk’s grace was in the north parts, and was so to be set about, + as he heard say, that he might not come away when he would. I pray + God that it be not so. Also he said that the prophecy saith that + three kings shall meet on Mousehold Heath, and the proudest prince in + Christendom be their subject. And that the White Lion should stay + all that business at length, and should obtain. And said, ‘Farewell, + my friend, and know me another day if ye can, and God send us a quiet + world.’” + +The same prophecies here alluded to were revived and repeated, together +with many doggrel rhymes, at the time of the famous Kett’s rebellion. +The historian of the event says that they were rung in the ears of the +people every hour, such as + + “The county Gnoffes, Hob, Dick, and Hick, + With clubbs and clowted shoon, + Shall fill the vale + Of Duffin’s dale + With slaughtered bodies soon.” + +And also + + “The headless men within the dale, + Shall there be slain both great and small.” + +So positively were these sort of prophecies applied to the circumstances +of the time, that the rebels who had possession of a favourable position +on the heights of the common, forsook it in expectation of realizing the +prediction by coming into the valley, “believing themselves,” as the +historian has it, “to be the _upholsterers_ that were to make Duffin’s +Dale a large soft pillow for death to rest on, whereas they proved only +the _stuffing to fill the same_.” + +The common phrase, “A cock and bull story,” took its origin from these +symbolical prophecies, in which the figures of animals were so often +introduced. + +Among the records of other mediæval superstitions, are many curious +details of the “invocation of spirits” to aid the searchers after +“Treasure Trove,” as it was called. In the days when “banking” was +unknown, wealth oftentimes accumulated in the hands of its owners, to a +degree that rendered its safe keeping a perilous task; and in very early +ages it would seem to have been a common practice to commit it to the +bosom of mother earth, until such time as its owner might have need of +it. The changes wrought upon the land by the several conquests that +succeeded the departure of the Romans, the reputed depositors of these +hidden treasures, caused the ownership to be forgotten and obscure, and +by degrees all such property became the right of the crown; and to +conceal any discovery of it was made an act of felony, at first +punishable by death, but afterwards subjecting the perpetrator only to a +pecuniary fine. + +It seems, however, that in the sixteenth century, it was customary to +grant licenses to individuals, to engage in the search after these hidden +stores of precious stones, metal, or coins; also permission to invoke the +aid of spirits in their pursuit. Among many other quaint stories upon +the subject, two especially connected with the localities in this +neighbourhood claim attention here: the first is the confession of +William Stapleton, a monk in the abbey of St. Bennet in the Holm, +addressed to Cardinal Wolsey, and many very curious illustrations it +gives of the superstitious feeling of the time; the other is that of Sir +Edward Neville, who was arraigned, tried, and executed for high treason, +as an accomplice of Cardinal Pole, in the thirtieth year of Henry the +Eighth. The extracts are taken from the papers of the Norfolk +Archæological Society. + +Stapleton seems to have been an idle monk, often punished “for not rising +to matins, and doing his duty in the church, which led to his desire to +purchase a dispensation.” Being too poor to do so at once, he obtained +six months’ license to obtain the means, and set about searching for +“Treasure Trove,” by the help of some books on Necromancy, which had been +previously lent to him. After some rambles about the county, he says, “I +went to Norwich, and there remained by the space of a month, and thence +to a town called Felmingham, and one Godfrey and his boy with me, which +Godfrey had a “_shower_,” called Anthony Fular, and his said boy did +“scry” unto him (which said spirit I had after myself); but +notwithstanding as we could find nothing, we departed to Norwich again, +where we met one unbeknown to us, and he brought us to a man’s house in +Norwich, where he supposed we should have found treasure, whereupon we +called the spirit of the treasure to appear—but he did not, for I suppose +of a truth there was none there.” + +Stapleton goes on to say that, failing in his efforts, he borrowed money +to buy his dispensation of “his Grace” to be a hermit, and then went to +the “diggings” again. He was then informed that one Leech had a book to +which the parson of Lesingham had bound a spirit, called Andrew Malchus; +“whereupon,” he says, “I went to Leech concerning the same, and upon our +communication he let me have all his instruments to the said book, and +shewed me that if I could get the book that the said instruments were +made by, he would bring me to him that should speed my business shortly. +And then he shewed me that the parson of Lesingham and Sir John of +Leiston, with other to me unknown, had called up of late Andrew Malchus, +Oberion, and Inchubus. And when they were all raised, Oberion would not +speak. And the then parson of Lesingham did demand of Andrew Malchus why +it was. And Andrew Malchus made answer, it was because he was bound to +the Lord Cardinal. And they did entreat the parson of Lesingham to let +them depart at that time, and whensoever it should please them to call +them up again, they would gladly do them any service they could. + +“And when I had all the said instruments, I went to Norwich, where I had +remained but a season, when there came to me a glazier, which, as he +said, came from the Lord Leonard Marquess, for to search for one that was +expert in such business. And thereupon one Richard Tynny came and +instanced me to go to Walsingham with him, where we met with the said +Lord Leonard, the which Lord Leonard had communicated with me concerning +the said art of digging, and thereupon promised me that if I would take +pains in the exercising the same art, that he would sue out a +dispensation for me that I should be a secular priest, and so would make +me his chaplain. And, for a trial to know what I could do in the same +art, he caused his servant to go hide a certain money in the garden, and +I showed for the same. And one Jackson ‘scryed’ unto me, but we could +not accomplish our purpose. + +“Sir John Shepe, Sir Robert Porter, and I, departed to a place beside +Creke Abbey, where we supposed treasure should be found. And the said +Sir John Shepe called the spirit of the treasure, and I showed to him; +but all came to no purpose. + +“And then there came one Cook of Calkett Hall, and showed me that there +was much money about his place, and in especial in the Bell Hill, and +desired me to come thither; and then I went to Richard Tynny, and showed +him what the said Cook had said, whereupon Tynny brought me to one +William Rapkyn, took me the book that the Duke’s Grace of Norfolk of late +took away from me; which Rapkyn said to me that forasmuch as I had all +the instruments that were made for the said book, and if I could get Sir +John of Leiston unto me, that then we should soon speed our purpose, for +the said Sir John of Leiston was with the parson of Lesingham when the +spirits appeared to the said book; and so I went to Colkett Hall, and +took the said book and instruments with me; but he” (Sir John) “came not; +wherefore, when I had tarried three or four days, I and the parish priest +of Gorleston went about the said business, but of truth we could bring +nothing to effect.” + +His lengthened confession then goes into details of other expeditions +aided by Lord Leonard, which ended in his imprisonment for deserting Lord +Leonard, but he was afterwards pardoned and set at liberty. He then goes +on to say in his letter, “and whereas your noble Grace here of late was +informed of certain things by the Duke’s Grace of Norfolk, as touching to +your Grace and him, I faithfully ascertain that the truth thereof is as +herein followeth, that is to say, one Wright, servant to the said Duke, +at a certain season showed me that the Duke’s Grace, his master, was sore +vexed with a spirit by the enchantment of your Grace; to the which I made +answer that his communication might be left, for it was too high a +subject to meddle with. Whereupon Wright went into the Duke’s presence +and showed things to me unknown, which caused the Duke’s Grace to send +for me; and at such time as I was before his Grace I required his grace +to show me what his pleasure was, and he said I knew well myself, and I +answered ‘Nay.’ Then he demanded of Wright whether he had showed me +anything or nay, and he answered he durst not, for because his Grace gave +so strait commandment unto the contrary. And so then was I directed to +the said Wright unto the next day, that he should show me the intention +of the Duke’s Grace.” + +Wright seems then to have suggested to Stapleton that he should pretend +power to rid the Duke of the troublesome spirit; and being strongly +tempted by hopes of reward, he consented, “and feigned to him,” when he +sent for him again, that he had forged an image of wax of his similitude, +and sanctified it—but whether it did any good for his sickness he could +not tell. + +“Whereupon the said Duke desired me that I should go about to know +whether the Lord Cardinal’s Grace had a spirit, and I showed him that I +could not skill thereof. And the Duke then said if I would take pains +therein, he would appoint me to a cunning man, Dr. Wilson. And so the +said Dr. Wilson was sent for, and they examined me, and the Duke’s Grace +commanded me to write all these things, and so I did. Whereupon, +considering the great folly which hath rested in me, I humbly beseech +your Grace to be a good and gracious lord unto me, and to take me to your +mercy.” + +The case of Sir Edward Neville, quoted from the same authority, commences +by a statement of the treasonable words laid to his charge, which were, +“The King is a beast, and worse than a beast; and I trust knaves shall be +put down, and lords reign one day, and that the world will amend one +day.” He was found guilty, hanged, drawn and quartered. + +He is suspected to have been connected with Stapleton the monk, who has +already appeared as a necromancer. At all events, his confession shows +again how much Wolsey was supposed to be conversant with magic; and +indeed the ‘ring’ by which the Cardinal was thought to have won the fatal +favour of the king, was noticed in the accusations against him when he +fell. + +In seeking for treasure, Sir Edward fully acknowledges being led to it by +“foolish fellows of the country.” + +In his account of his own dealings with spirits and magic, there is much +curious mixture of half-doubting marvel and self deceit, probably not +unconnected with influences baffling the human intellect, so apparent in +the kindred delusions of Mesmerism, that strange development of the age +of civilization, in no respect differing from the superstitions usually +considered as the peculiar characteristics of the Middle ages. He was +also a practitioner of alchemy. He would jeopard his life to make the +philosopher’s stone if the king pleased, aye, and was willing to be kept +in prison till he had: in a year he would make silver, and in a year and +a half, gold, which would be better to the king than a thousand men. But +Henry was too shrewd thus to be allured into mercy; and Neville perished +in the prolonged agonies which his sentence involved. He appears, from +other documents, to have been of a light-hearted and merry temper; not +very wise, but wholly innocent of any crime, except a few idle words. + + THE CONFESSION OF SIR EDWARD NEVILLE. + + “Honourable Lords, I take God to record, that I did never commit nor + reconcile treason sith I was born, nor imagined the destruction of no + man or woman, as God shall save my soul; He knows my heart, for it is + He that ‘scrutator cordium,’ and in Him is all trust. I will not + danger my soul for fear of worldly punishment; the joy of Heaven is + eternal, and incomparable to the joy of this wretched world: + therefore, good lords, do by me as God shall put in your minds; for + another day ye shall suffer the judgment of God, when ye cannot start + from it, no more than I can start from yours at this time. Now to + certify all that I can:—William Neville did send for me to Oxford, + that I should come and speak with him at ‘Weke,’ and to him I went; + it was the first time I ever saw him; I would I had been buried that + day. + + “When I came, he took me to a _littell_ room, and went to his garden, + and there demanded of me many questions, and among all others, asked + if it were not possible to have a ring made that should bring a man + in favour with his Prince; seeing my Lord Cardinal had such a ring, + that whatsoever he asked of the King’s Grace, that he had; and Master + Cromwell, when he and I were servants in my Lord Cardinal’s house, + did haunt to the company of one that was seen in your faculty; and + shortly after, no man so great with my Lord Cardinal as Master + Cromwell was; and I have spoke with all them that has any name in + this realm; and all they showed me that I should be great with my + Prince; and this is the cause that I did send for you, to know + whether your saying be agreeable to theirs, or no. And I, at the + hearty desire of him, shewed him that I had read many books, and + specially the works of Solomon, and how his ring should be made, and + of what metal; and what virtues they have after the canon of Solomon. + And then he desired me instantly to take the pains to make him one of + them; and I told him that I could make them, but I made never none of + them, nor I cannot tell that they have such virtues or no, but by + hearing say. Also he asked what other works had I read. And I told + him that I had read the magical works of Hermes, which many men doth + prize; and thus departed at that time. And one fortnight after, + William Neville came to Oxford, and said that he had one Wayd at + home, at his house, that did shew him more than I did shew him; for + the said Wayd did shew him that he should be a great lord, nigh to + the partes that he dwelt in. And in that lordship should be a fair + castle; and he could not imagine what it should be, except it were + the castle of Warwick.” + + “And I answered and said to him, that I dreamed that an angel took + him and me by the hands, and led us to a high tower, and there + delivered him a shield, with sundry arms, which I cannot rehearse, + and this is all I ever shewed him, save at his desire, I went thither + with him; and as concerning any other man, save at the desire of Sir + Gr. Done, Knt. I made the moulds that ye have, to the intent he + should have had Mistress Elizabeth’s gear. If any man or woman can + say and prove by me, otherwise than I have writed, except that I + have, at the desire of some of my friends, ‘_cauled to stone_,’ for + things stolen, let me die for it. And touching Master William + Neville, all the country knows more of his matters than I do, save + that I wrote a foolish letter or two, according to his foolish + desire, to make pastime to laugh at.” + + “Also concerning treasure trove, I was oft-times desired unto it, by + foolish fellows of the country, but I never meddled with it at all; + but to make the philosopher’s stone, I will jeopard my life, so to do + it, if it please the king’s good grace to command me to do it, or any + other nobleman under the king’s good grace; and, of surety to do it, + to be kept in prison till I have done it. And I desire no longer + space, but twelve months upon silver, and twelve and a half upon + gold, which is better to the king’s good grace than a thousand men; + for it is better able to maintain a thousand men for evermore, + putting the king’s good grace, nor the realm, to no cost nor charge.” + + “Also, concerning our sovereign lord the king’s going over, this I + said, ‘If I had been worthy to be his grace’s council, I would + counsel his grace not to have gone over at that time of year.’” + +One mode of consulting spirits was by the Beryl, by means of a speculator +or seer. Having repeated the necessary charms and adjurations, with the +invocation peculiar to the spirit or angel he wished to call (for each +had his peculiar form of invocation), the seer looked into a crystal or +beryl, to see his answer, represented generally by some type or figure; +sometimes, though rarely, the angels were heard to speak articulately. + +Different kinds of stone were also employed, and occasionally a piece of +coal. In Stapleton’s confession, he mentions the _plate_ he used being +left in the possession of Sir Thomas Moore. + +Other records of similar proceedings, that have been extracted from the +archives of the Record-chamber, make frequent mention of the magic +crystals or stones. + +The great names mixed up with the curious transactions described in these +two documents, give additional interest to them as matters of history, +and specimens of the enlightenment prevalent among the very highest +circles of society, in the period that so immediately preceded the +Elizabethan age. A runaway monk, turning necromancer, was received into +communion with some of the noblest of the land; and an educated +gentleman, as Sir Edward Neville may be presumed to have been, hoped to +win favour by promises to discover the philosopher’s stone. + +Three centuries have passed, and the only traces that may be found of +these high-born credulities, lurk in the darkest corners of the darkest +alleys of poverty and ignorance. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +CONVENTUAL REMAINS. + + +_Conventual Remains_.—_St. Andrew’s Hall_.—_The Festival_.—_Music_: _Dr. +Hook_, _Dr. Crotch_.—_Churches_.—_Biographical Sketches_: _Archbishop +Parker_, _Sir J. E. Smith_, _Taylor_, _Hooker_, _Lindley_, _Joseph John +Gurney_. + +The sketch of the Cathedral has embraced so much of the early history of +the various religious “orders,” as to render but little necessary +respecting the origin of the “frères,” or friars, whose settlements, in +the city and neighbourhood, once occupied such important place in its +limits and history. + +The Black Friars, or Preachers, White Friars, or Carmelites, Grey Friars, +or Minors, and the Austin Friars, all had at one period, from the +thirteenth century to the era of the Reformation, large establishments +within its precincts; besides which, there was a nunnery, and divers +hospitals, as they were called, such as the Chapel of the Lady in the +Fields, Norman’s Spital, and Hildebrand’s Hospital; and hermitages +without number lurked about the corners of its churchyards, or perched +themselves above the gateways of its walls. The greater portion of these +have left but a name, or a few scattered fragments, behind to mark their +site; but one magnificent relic of the Black Friars monastery, comprising +the whole of the nave and chancel of their beautiful church, yet stands +in an almost perfect state of preservation,—a noble witness of the wealth +and taste of the poor “mendicant” followers of Friar Dominick,—which was +rescued from destruction at the period of the general “dissolution,” by +the zeal and practical expediency of municipal authorities. Of the two +friaries that have ceased to exist even in outline, it may suffice to +record, that the Carmelites numbered among them the eminent writer, “John +Bale, the antiquary,” as he is wont to be called; the Austin Friars seem +to have possessed few particular claims for notice, save their less +rigorous injunctions for fasting, but the Friars Minors were the great +rivals of the Preachers, and both together, the sore troublers of the +peace of the “Regulars,” who looked upon the growing power of this +“_secular_” priesthood with a jealousy and hatred to be conceived only by +those who appreciate duly the “loaves and fishes.” As a sample of the +feeling existing, the account of Matthew Paris, the monk of St. Albans, +may fairly be cited. He says, “The ‘friars preachers’ having obtained +privileges from Pope Gregory IX. and Innocent IV. being rejoiced and +magnified, they talked malapertly to the prelates of churches, bishops +and archdeacons, presiding in their synods; and where many persons of +note were assembled, showed openly the privileges indulged to them, +proudly requiring that the same may be recited, and that they may be +received with veneration by the churches; and intruding themselves +oft-times impertinently, they asked many persons, even the religious, +‘Are you confessed?’ And if they were answered ‘Yes,’ ‘By whom?’ ‘By my +priest.’ ‘And what idiot is he? He never learned divinity, never +studied the devices, never learned to resolve one question; they are +blind leaders of the blind; come to us, who know how to distinguish one +leprosy from another, to whom the secrets of God are manifest.’ Many +therefore, especially nobles, despising their own priests, confessed to +these men, whereby the dignity of the ordinaries was not a little +debased.” + +Another says: “Now they have created two new fraternities, to which they +have so generally received people of both sexes, that scarce one of +either remains, whose name is not written in one of them, who, therefore, +all assembling in their churches, we cannot have our own parishioners, +especially on solemn days, to be present at divine service, &c.; whence +it is come to pass that we, being deprived of the due tithes and +oblations, cannot live unless we should turn to some manual labour. What +else remaineth therefore? except that we should demolish our churches, in +which nothing else remaineth for service or ornament but a bell and an +old image, covered with soot.’ But these preachers and minors, who begun +from cells and cottages, have erected royal houses and palaces, supported +on high pillars, and distinguished into various offices, the expenses +whereof ought to have been bestowed upon the poor; these, while they have +nothing, possess all things; but we, who are said to have something, are +beggars.” Alas! how many a poor curate of this nineteenth century, upon +£30 a-year, might subscribe to a like pitiful complaint. + +Another accusation against these mendicant friars, in their days of +maturity, was that they used to steal children under fourteen years of +age, or receive them without the consent of their friends, and refuse to +restore them, embezzling or conveying them away to “other cloisters,” +where they could not be found. A statute of Henry IV. subjected these +friars to punishment for this offence; and the provincials of the four +orders were sworn before the parliament, for themselves and successors, +to be obedient to this statute. + +Kirkpatrick, from whom the above is quoted, says elsewhere, that in 1242, +a great controversy arose between the friars minors and preachers, about +the greatest worthiness, most decent habit, the strictest, humblest, and +holiest life; for the preachers challenged pre-eminence in these—the +minors contradicted, and great scandal arose. And because they were +learned men, it was the more dangerous to the church. + +“These are they,” says he, “who in sumptuous edifices, and lofty walls, +expose to view inestimable treasures, impudently transgressing the limits +of poverty, and the fundamentals of their profession; who diligently +apply themselves to lords and rich persons, that they may gape after +wealth; extorting confessions and clandestine wills, commending +themselves and their order only, and extolling them above all others. So +that no Christian now believes he can be saved, unless he be governed by +the councils of the preachers and minors. In obtaining privileges, they +are solicitors; in the courts of kings and potentates, they are +councillors, gentlemen of the chamber, treasurers, match-makers, +matrimony-brokers; executioners of papal extortions; in their sermons, +either flatterers or stinging backbiters, discoverers of confession, or +impudent rebukers.” + +Making all due allowance for the party feeling of the historian, thus +commemorating the factions of the “Mother Church,” enough may be seen of +the truth, to form a general idea of the condition of the brotherhoods, +one of whose “palaces, supported by high pillars,” is now left us as a +subject for our investigation. + +The order of Black Friars owe their origin to the famous Dominick, +notorious for his zeal in the persecution of the Albigenses. He figures +also in the “Golden Legend,” as a miraculously endowed infant; his +god-mother perceiving on his forehead a star, which made the whole world +light. The common seal of the Black Friars, still preserved, +commemorates another miracle concerning him: “Being grown to man’s +estate, he became a great preacher against heretics; and once upon a +time, he put his authorities against them in writing, and gave the +schedule into the hands of a heretic, that he might ponder over its +contents. The same night, a party being met at a fire, the man produced +the schedule, upon which he was persuaded to cast it into the flames, to +test its truth; which doing, the schedule sprung back again, after a few +minutes, unburnt; the experiment was repeated thrice, with the same +results; but the heretics refused to be convinced, and pledged themselves +not to reveal the matter;—but one of them, it seems, afterwards did so.” + +Many other marvellous tales are extant of holy St. Dominick, but we +hasten on to take a look at the church of his followers. The present +building bears date of the fifteenth century, and would seem to have been +materially enriched by the famous Sir Thomas Erpingham, who takes such +prominent place in the city, and church walls, and gateways, his arms +figuring here in the stone-work between every two of the upper story of +windows. In its primitive condition the church boasted of three chapels, +one of them subterranean, three altars, two lights, and an image of St. +Peter of Malayn; the choir was decorated with panel paintings, which +found their way at the Reformation to the parlour of some private +dwelling-house close by, whose walls they yet adorn. Two guilds were +held there, the guild of St. William and the Holy Rood. In 1538, when +the axes and hammers of King Henry were busy over the face of the land, +and bonfires of libraries were being made in the precincts of every +monastery, the house and church of the Black Friars was saved. +Deputations to his majesty from the corporation of the city, successfully +negotiated the transfer of the building to its possession, on +consideration of the sum of eighty-one pounds being paid into the Royal +Treasury. Mention is made in old records of a handsome library belonging +to this as well as the Carmelite Monastery; their fate perhaps may be +conjectured by that of many others of the time. Bale mentions the fact +of a merchant buying the contents of two noble libraries for forty +shillings, to be used as waste paper, and ten years were occupied in thus +consuming them. The chancel of the church has retained its character as +a place of worship almost unvaryingly until the present day, at one time +being leased to the Dutch, and in later times used as a chapel by the +inmates of the workhouse; occasionally, however, it has served the +purpose of a playhouse; as we find on record, injuries sustained by the +breaking down of partitions at the performance of “interludes” in it upon +Sundays, in the thirty-eighth of Henry the Eighth. The king’s players we +also find similarly occupying the nave or hall in Edward the Sixth’s +reign, during Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before Christmas. The +cloisters and other portions of the monastery were in the reign of Anne, +upon the first establishment of workhouses for the poor, appropriated to +that purpose, the groined roofings to this day forming the ceilings of +pauper kitchens and outhouses. The sole trace of ecclesiastical +furniture lingering in the nave is a stone altar in one corner, much more +noted as the place of gathering in after-times for the brethren of the +St. George’s Guild than for any religious associations in the minds of +the people. A gallery, now hidden by the gigantic orchestra built over +it, savours also strongly of the primitive dedication of the building, +else it has retained little more than its architectural beauties of +outline to testify its original consecration. And now to trace its +history, since, wrested from the mendicants, and deprived of its rights +as a cemetery for the wealthy and beneficent dead, it first became the +banquet chamber for municipal feasts, its walls shone gorgeously with +tapestry hangings, and its tables groaned beneath the weight of luscious +dainties. The kitchens and monster chimneys, with their long rows of +spit-hooks and fire-places, that now stand gaping in silent desolation at +the empty larders and boiling-houses in out-of-the-way corners of the +premises, look like giant ghosts of ancient civic gastronomy, lurking +about in dark places, mocking the shadowy forms of latter-day epicurism, +that may be satisfied with the achievements to be performed by modern +“ranges,” on ever so improved a scale. But the glories of the St. +George’s feast are likewise departed from it; the corn-merchants, to whom +its limits were awhile devoted, have built unto themselves an exchange; +the assizes, once held in it, have been transferred to the little +castellated encrustation that has grown out of one side of the real +castle mound, and reft of all regular employment, the Hall now stands at +the mercy of the city mayor, by him to be lent to whom he wills, for any +or every purpose his judgment may deem consistent with propriety; hence +the same walls echo one day the eloquent pleadings of a league advocate, +the next to the cries of the distressed agriculturist; now to the +advantages of temperance or peace societies, and the musical streams of +eloquence that an Elihu Burritt can send forth, or witness the fires of +enthusiasm a Father Matthew can elicit. Another week shall see it +thronged with eager listeners to the reports of missionary societies, +Church, London, or Baptist; the next with ready auditors to the claims of +the Jews and the heathen calls for Bibles; interspersed among them shall +be lectures on every branch of art and science, and every fashionable or +unfashionable doctrine under the sun that can find advocates, down to +Mormonism or Bloomerism itself. But prior to all in its claims upon the +services of the magnificent old structure stands _music_—why else are its +proportions hid by the unsightly tiers of benches that, empty, make one +long for magic power to waft them all away, but which, once tenanted by +their legitimate occupants, banish every murmur from one’s heart and +mind? + +Thanks to the enterprise and spirit of the lovers of harmony, this is not +seldom; concerts for the rich and concerts for the poor, for the hundreds +and the “millions,” have risen up to meet the calls of humanity for +heart-culture by other inspirations than may be got from alphabets and +primers, or intellectual disquisitions. And, triennially, arrive the +great epochs of the city’s glory, when she asserts her claims upon the +world of music, to be classed high among the nursing mother of genius, +and foster-parents of art. Then is the hour of triumph for the Black +Friars’ solemn and grand old nave, when its roofs and pillars tremble at +the thunders of the Messiah’s “Hallelujah,” and resound to the +electrifying crash, uttering “Wonderful;” or when they echo the sweet +melodies of Haydn, Mozart, and Spohr; the refined harmonies of a +Mendellsohn’s “Elijah,” the magic strains of his “Loreley,” or reflect +the wondrous landscape painting of the mystic Beethoven. Nor was the day +a small one when its orchestra gave utterance to the outpourings of a +genius cradled and nurtured in its bosom, whose work is acknowledged to +be great and good, _albeit_ “a prophet” is not without honour save in his +own country. And all praise be given as due to the generous help yielded +to the son of the stranger as to the son of the soil. The world may yet +live to be grateful to the city that in one year brought before it two +such conceptions and creations as “Israel Restored” and “Jerusalem.” And +so would we take our farewell of the old “Hall,” while our eyes are yet +dazzled with the bright glitter of its thronged benches, galleries, and +aisles, and our ears and hearts vibrating to the mighty “concert of sweet +sounds” and peals of harmony poured forth from the almost matchless +orchestra and benches of choristers, that lend their powers to complete +the glories of the great “Festival.” + +The festival suggests thoughts on music, its history and progress, and of +the minds that have fostered and directed its growth in this particular +region, so successfully as to have gained for the “Old City” its present +high position in the musical world. + +Music and devotion have gone hand-in-hand from the era of the earliest +singing men and singing women of Israel, and the timbrel of Miriam; the +Jewish temple echoed the lofty strains of “David’s harp” and the songs of +the “Chief Musician;” from the pagan worship of the Greeks sprung the +Ambrosian chant, and the Christian Church has been the birthplace and +nursery of the grandest conceptions that have flowed from the pen of +inspired genius in every later age. The _antiphonal_ singing of the +earliest choirs, where a phrase of melody, after being sung by one +portion of the choristers, was echoed by others at certain distances, at +a higher or lower pitch, gave rise to the modern fugue. The Pope from +his throne lent his aid to improve the ecclesiastical chant, and gave it +his name. + +The oratorio was the Phœnix that arose from the ashes of the “mystery,” +the masses of Palestrina, Handel, Haydn, and Mozart, and Hummel were +responses to the calls of the church. The Reformation made no effort to +sever music from the services of religion; Luther was an enthusiastic +lover of harmony, and himself a composer of psalmody. The annihilations +of the works of art, that banished painting and defaced sculpture, could +not blot out music from the worship of the church. The “Te Deum” and +“Jubilate” outlived the persecution of bishops and clergy, and the nasal +whine of the Puritan conventicle was in itself a recognition of the true +power and place of that noblest of nature’s gifts and sciences. + +The quiet “Friends” nominally banish it from their form of worship; can +any that have heard the flowing melodies that clothe their exhortations +and prayers, say that it is so? Can any one that ever heard the voice of +Elizabeth Fry doubt that poetry and music are innate gifts, that, once +possessed, no human laws can sever from the utterances of a devotional +spirit? No marvel is it, therefore, that a Cathedral city at all times +is more or less the cradle of musical genius, or that scarce a record of +a great master-spirit of harmony exists, but the office of +“Kapellmeister,” or “Organist,” is attached to his name. + +The Organ, that almost inseparable associate of ecclesiastical music, +seems to have been an instrument of great antiquity; that one of the +Constantines presented one to King Pepin in 757, appears to be an +established fact, and that during the tenth century the use of the organ +became general in Germany, Italy, and England. In Mason’s “Essay on +Church Music” is a homely translation of some lines written by Wolstan, a +monk of that period, descriptive of the instrument then known under that +name. + + “Twelve pair of bellows ranged in stately row + Are joined above, and fourteen more below; + These the full force of seventy men require, + Who ceaseless toil, and plenteously perspire: + Each aiding each, till all the winds be prest + In the close confines of the incumbent chest, + On which four hundred pipes in order rise, + To bellow forth the blast that chest supplies.” + +It is presumed that the seventy men did not continue to blow throughout +the performance on this monster engine, but laid in a stock of wind, +which was gradually expended as the organist played; the keys were five +or six inches broad, and must have been played upon by blows of the fist; +the compass did not then exceed more than two octaves; half notes were +not introduced until the beginning of the twelfth century, stops, not +until the sixteenth; from which we may infer, that a real genuine organ, +deserving the name, could not have been manufactured many years prior to +the Reformation; but from the date of its first introduction may be +ascribed the first attempts at the invention of harmony. + +It is curious, however, in these days of penny concerts and music for the +million, to look back to that time when the only probable entertainments +of a secular character in which music bore a part, were such as could be +furnished by the _hautboys_, sackbuts, and _recorders_ of half-a-dozen +“waytes,” as we find to have been the case in this city in the sixteenth +century, when permission was first granted these performers to play +comedies, interludes, plays and tragedies. Will Kempe mentions these +same _waytes_ with great praise, and their renown may be inferred from +the fact of their being solicited by Sir Francis Drake “to accompany him +on his intended voyage” in 1589, upon which occasion the city provided +them with new instruments, new cloaks, and a waggon to convey their +chattels. The inventory of musical instruments in the possession of the +city in 1622, forms a rather striking contrast to a “band” of the +nineteenth century, consisting as it did of only four “sackbuts,” four +“hautboys” (one broken), two tenor cornets, one tenor “recorder,” two +counter tenor “recorders,” five “chaynes,” and five “flagges.” + +In the seventeenth century, when the country was deluged with civil war, +and overrun with Royalist and Puritan soldiers, music declined, and we +read little concerning it, here or elsewhere, until that age of strife +and commotion had passed away. + +In 1709, one of the city “waytes” advertised himself as teacher of the +violin and hautboy, and in 1734 there appeared another advertisement of a +concert to be given, tickets 2_s._ 6_d._, country dancing to be given +gratis after the concert, doors to be open at four o’clock, the +performance to commence at six, “_by reason of the country dancing_.” + +In the course of the sixteenth century, the psalmody of the Protestant +Church was brought nearly to its present state, and towards the end of +that and commencement of the next century, shone that constellation of +English musicians, whose inimitable madrigals are still the delight of +every lover of vocal harmony. A madrigal differs from a glee, inasmuch +as each of its parts should be sung by several voices; its name +originated in Italy, and was applied to compositions in four, five, or +six vocal parts, adapted to words of a tender character; neither madrigal +nor glee should be accompanied by instruments. + +In the Elizabethan age to sing in parts was an accomplishment held to be +indispensable in a well-educated lady or gentleman; and at a social +meeting, when the madrigal books were laid on the table, every body was +expected to take part in the harmony; any person declining from +inability, was regarded with contempt, as rude and ill-bred. + +The rapid improvement of music in all its branches during the last +century has been promoted mainly by the various societies, clubs, and +other associations that have sprung up in the metropolis and many large +cities, among which Norwich stands prominently; these have formed a bond +of union between professional musicians and amateurs, mutually +advantageous, by establishing among them a combination of talent and +taste, that tends materially to cultivate the art to which they are +attached. Norwich has produced many great minds, that have done much +towards this work. In the last century the musical world were astonished +by the wonderful precocity of the two young children, Hook and Crotch; +the name of the former as notorious perhaps as much through the literary +fame of his son Theodore, as for his own musical attainments. + +It is said that young Hook was able to play pieces at four years of age, +and at six to perform a concerto at a concert, and to have composed the +music for an opera with thirty-six airs, before he was eight years old. +In the course of his life he is said to have written two thousand four +hundred songs, one hundred and forty complete works or operas, one +oratorio, and many odes and anthems. He died in 1813, leaving two sons, +Dr. James Hook, the Dean of Worcester, who died 1828, and Theodore Edward +Hook, the author. + +William Crotch, whose name has attained a wider celebrity, was also a +native of the city, the son of a carpenter. His early displays of +musical talent exceed in wonder even those of his fellow-citizen and +co-temporary, Hook; and many curious anecdotes are related of its +manifestation during his infancy. His father seems to have been a +self-taught musician, who without any scientific knowledge had built +himself an organ, upon which he had learned to play a few common tunes, +such as “God save the King,” and “Let Ambition fire the mind.” About +Christmas 1776, his child William, then only a year and a half old, was +observed frequently to leave his food or play, to listen to his father, +and would even then touch the key note of the tunes he wished to be +played. Not long afterwards, a musical lady came to try the organ, and +after her visit he seems to have made his first attempt to play a +tune—her playing excited him to a painful degree, his mother describing +him as so peevish that she could “do nothing with him.” Music had +charms, however, to soothe his baby breast, and he consoled himself by +picking out the air of “God save the King,” which in addition to being +his father’s most frequent performance, had been also frequently sung as +a lullaby by his maternal nurse. At this time he was _two years and +three weeks old_, truly an infant prodigy! The report of his precocity +gained little credence, until accident confirmed what had previously been +deemed the exaggerations of parental fondness. + +His father’s employer, passing the house at a time when the elder Crotch +was absent from work on the plea of indisposition, heard the organ, and +fancied that his workman was idle instead of ill; to convince himself, he +went in, and found little Master William performing, and his brother +blowing the bellows. The marvel spread, and attracted such crowds of +auditors, that from that time the hours of his performance were obliged +to be limited. As he grew older his musical attainments rapidly +increased, while at the same time he discovered symptoms of a genius for +drawing, almost equal to that which he had already displayed for music. + +When he was twelve years old he did the duty of organist at several +chapels in Cambridge, whence he removed to Oxford, with a view to +entering the church; but he afterwards resumed the musical profession, +and was appointed organist of Christ Church, in 1790. In 1797, he became +professor of music in that university; and in 1799, obtained the degree +of doctor of music. On the establishment of the Royal Academy, in 1823, +he was nominated Principal of that institution, but retired from the +office before his death. Dr. Crotch’s great work is the oratorio of +“Palestine,” the poetry of which is the prize poem of Bishop Heber. He +was also the author of several anthems, and other pieces of sacred music. + +His death occurred suddenly, at the dinner-table, on the 29th of +September, 1847, in the seventy-third year of his age, at the residence +of his son, the Rev. W. R. Crotch, Master of the Grammar School at +Taunton, where he had spent the later years of his life. + +There are two points worthy of notice connected with the name and works +of this great man. The country has raised no monument in any of its +cathedrals or churches to his memory, and his greatest work, “Palestine,” +is an oratorio almost entirely neglected. May it not be possible for the +“Old City” that gave him birth to set an example to the rest of the +musical world, by attention to these facts? + +Most of the leading minds whose zeal and energy directed the earlier +movements of the various musical societies in this district, are yet +among the living, and the natural dictates of refinement cause us to +shrink from any attempts at their biographies; it is, therefore, with the +deference due to real genius, which needs no praise, that we pass in +silence over the names of the most earnest promoters of the growth and +cultivation of music, especially as developed in the workings of the +Festival Committee, and its important adjunct, the Choral Society. The +names and fame of Sir George Smart and Mr. Edward Taylor, professor of +music at Gresham College, are already too much the property of the world +at large to be reckoned among those whose privacy might be invaded by +comment in these pages; but there are many more, who with them, may from +the centre of that magnificent hall, and the midst of the greatest +triumphs of music that have ever been achieved by its almost unrivalled +choruses and orchestra, feel that “for their monument we must look +around.” + +And now it might seem but just and right that among the lions of the “Old +City” we should find a place for the manifold ecclesiastical structures +still surviving the downfall of “superstition,” and retaining their +legitimate right, as houses of worship. To do justice to the antiquities +or beauties that abound among them is a task beyond our powers, or the +limit of such a work as this; their traceries, their curiously cut flint +work, old carvings, rood lofts, chambers of sanctuary within, and +heaped-up grave-yards without, verily burying the pathways of the +streets, they line in such close succession—their monuments and epitaphs, +quaint, grim, chaste, and uncouth; their steeples, spires, and towers, +round, square, buttressed and bare—their bells musical and grand, cracked +and jangling—their roofs slated, tiled, leaded, patched, perfect, or +crumbling—their names and saintships a labyrinth of mystery in +themselves—would it not fill a volume alone to chronicle even their +leading features, to say nought of the changes they have undergone, the +barter among goods and chattels, the chopping and changing, and massacres +in the painted glass departments,—part of an Abraham and his ass left in +a St. Andrews, the other portions transported to the windows of St. +Stephens; of the ghostly outlines left of old brasses torn up and melted +down by Puritan soldiers and coppersmiths—or the legends that hang about +their shrines and mutilated images? We dare not venture upon the +well-beaten track of archæologians, topographers, and tourists; our +glance must be cursory and superficial, content to ascertain by its +sweeping survey that treasures of knowledge and stores of information +await the patient and diligent investigations of more learned and +scientific enquirers. + +A visit to St. Stephens rewards the archæologist by a sight of a few old +stalls and a font of early date, while the historian associates with it +the memory of the celebrated Parker, second Archbishop of Canterbury, who +was a native of Norwich, and some say of this parish, but at any rate was +singing pupil of the priest and clerk of this church. Parker’s life +occupies an important position in history. The son of “a calenderer of +stuffs,” in this city, he was at a very early age left fatherless, and +dependent upon a mother’s guidance and direction for his education. Her +superintending care provided him with a variety of masters for the +several branches of learning—reading, writing, singing, and grammar—each +being acquired under a separate teacher. He afterwards entered Corpus +Christi College, Cambridge, whence he was invited to the magnificent +foundation of Cardinal Wolsey’s (now Christ Church) College, Oxford, but +preferring to remain at Cambridge, he declined. In 1553, he was made +chaplain to Queen Anne Boleyn, and received from her a special commission +to superintend the education of her daughter Elizabeth. He was made +chaplain to King Henry VIII., after the death of Anne Boleyn, and +continued the same office in his successor’s reign; added to which, he +was Rector of Stoke in Essex, Prebend of Ely Cathedral, and successively +Rector of Ashen in Essex, and Birlingham All Saints, in Norfolk. He was +chosen Master of Corpus Christi College in 1544, and Vice-Chancellor of +the University. Happening to be in Norfolk during the celebrated “Kett’s +rebellion,” he had the courage to go to the rebels’ camp and preach to +them out of the oak of Reformation, exhorting them to moderation, +temperance, and submission, which expedition, as we have seen elsewhere, +had well nigh terminated fatally. + +In 1550–1, he was put in the commission for correcting and punishing the +new sect of Anabaptists, then sprung up. In Mary’s reign he was deprived +of most of his dignities, upon the plea of his being married, and retired +into Norfolk amongst his friends; but upon the succession of his old +pupil, Elizabeth, he was exalted to the dignity of Archbishop of +Canterbury. Her Majesty made several visits to his house at Canterbury. +His efforts to suppress the vague prophecies that were continually being +set up in the various dioceses, and exciting the minds of the people, +made him many enemies among the Puritans, but he still enjoyed the favour +of the Queen. He died in 1576, leaving, amongst numerous charitable +bequests, a legacy to be applied to keeping his parents’ monument, in St. +Clement’s church-yard, in repair. + +St. Peter’s Mancroft, the brightest star in the constellation of churches +that illumine the “Old City,” has beauties and curiosities of almost +every variety and character to offer for investigation; but perhaps none +so loudly appeal to the senses of the citizens at large as the eloquent +“changes” rung upon its magnificent set of bells, whenever occasion +offers for a display of the fulness and richness of their tone; and, +possibly, their melody is never more appreciated than when it comes forth +in the softened echo of the beautiful muffled peal. + +Touching the presence of bells in the church, we have noticed elsewhere +that they were introduced among the incrustations of Pagan worship that +grew up around the early Christian forms, and owed their origin to the +superstition that the sound of metal preserved the soul from the danger +of evil spirits; but there are other curious facts connected with their +history. The Roman Catholic baptised the bell, using holy water, incense +and prayers in the ceremony and according to the missal of Salisbury, +there were godfathers and godmothers, who gave them names. + +A strange allegorical signification of bells after their baptism was +written by Durandus, the great Catholic authority, for the mysterious +services of the church. “The bell,” he says, “denotes the preacher’s +mouth, the hardness of the metal implies the fortitude of his mind; the +clapper striking both sides, his tongue publishing both testaments, and +that the preacher should on one side correct the vice in himself, and on +the other reprove it in his hearers; the band that ties the clapper +denotes the moderation of the tongue; the wood on which the bell hangs +signifies the wood of the cross; the iron that ties it to the wood +denotes the charity of the preacher; the bell-rope denotes the humility +of the preacher’s life,” &c. &c. The description goes on yet further +into detail; but the analogies between the subjects and their allegorical +representations are so undiscernible, as to make it a somewhat tedious +task to follow it throughout. + +But St. Peter’s has manifold attractions beyond its bells. It has +brasses and effigies, and monuments of every variety, commemorating the +pious deeds of clergy and laity, warriors and comedians. Its vestry has +pictures and tapestry and quaint alabaster carvings; little chapels +jutting out from the nave like transepts, perpetuate the memory of old +benefactors; and beneath its pavement lie the remains of the great +philosopher Sir Thomas Browne, whose words of rebuke to the sepulchral +ambition of the nameless tenants of monuments that make no record of +those that lie beneath, involuntarily arise to the mind while +contemplating the spot chosen for his last resting place. “Had they made +so good a provision for their names as they have done for their relics, +they had not so grossly erred in the act of perpetuation; but to subsist +in bones, to be but pyramidically extant, is a fallacy of duration.” And +again, “to live indeed is to be again ourselves, which being not only our +hope, but an evidence in noble believers; ’tis all one to lie in St. +Innocent’s church-yard or the sands of Egypt. Ready to be anything in +the ecstacy of being ever, as content with six foot as the moles of +Adrianus.” + +Happy philosophy, that could permit him calmly to contemplate the +vicissitudes to which his bones might be subjected, even to the +legitimate possibility of the sanctuary chosen for their resting-place +being actually invaded by the blows of the workmen’s pickaxe, as +veritably did occur some few years since, when the curious of the present +generation were thus accidentally afforded an opportunity of cultivating +a personal acquaintance with the anatomical outlines and phrenological +developments of one whose intellectual offspring had been canonized, and +enshrined among the household gods of the learned and the great for more +than a century. + +The very slight sketches of eminent characters that are suitable for so +light and general a book as this, may perhaps be legitimately introduced +in the course of a tour among the churches, their _parochial headships_ +affording the best facilities for arrangement; but it seems almost +sacrilege to hash up into abridgements or synopses, biographies so +fraught with national and European interest, as are many of those whose +birth-place has been the Old City of Norwich, yet more is impossible +within the compass of the _Rambler’s_ pen; and to adopt the alternative +of omitting all mention of such names, would be to blot out some of the +brightest pages from the annals of its history. + +Among them, and perhaps the highest upon the pinnacle of fame, is that of +Sir James Edward Smith, the Linnæus of our country, the concentration of +whose “life and Correspondence” into two bulky volumes, evinces wondrous +powers of discriminating selection, and condensation, in the biographer +who has undertaken the important and onerous task. What, then, can be +effected in the hasty notices of a mere rambler’s gleanings? Little +more, if so much, as a bare outline of the leading features in the life +of this brilliant ornament of our city and country, but enough, we trust, +to lead any who have not already acquired a more intimate knowledge of +his personal history, to feel earnest to repair the omission. He was a +native of the parish of St. Peter’s Mancroft; and of his education, it is +worthy of note, that he never left the parental roof to enter either a +public or private boarding-school: he is one of the many favourable +testimonies to the advantages of a strictly domestic education, conducted +by aid of the most efficient masters, under the immediate superintendence +of parental care. About the age of eighteen, he devoted himself to the +study of botany as a science, and says himself, “the only book he could +then procure was ‘Berkenhout,’ Hudson’s ‘Flora’ having become extremely +scarce.” He received “Berkenhout” on the 9th of January, 1778, and on +the 11th began to examine the _Ule curopæus_ (common furze), and then +first comprehended the nature of systematic arrangement, little aware +that, at _that instant_, the world was losing the great genius who was to +be to him so important a future guide, and whose vacant place in the +world of science he was destined so ably to fill. Linnæus died that +night, January 11th, 1778. + +In 1780 Mr. Smith went to Edinburgh, and from thence to London, with a +view to study for the medical profession. During his stay there, he +became intimate with Sir Joseph Banks, an eminent patron of natural +science, through whom he heard that the library and museum of Linnæus +were for sale, and immediately he entered into negotiations with Dr. +Acrel, of Upsal, concerning it, which ended in his becoming the purchaser +of the whole collection at the price of nine hundred guineas. From +London he went to Leyden, and graduated as a physician at the university +there. From thence he proceeded on a tour, visiting most of the +classical spots and celebrated places in Italy and France, and upon his +return to London devoted himself almost exclusively to pursuits connected +with his favourite science, botany. By the assistance of his personal +friend, the Bishop of Carlisle, one among the many great minds with whom +he held constant communion, he set about establishing the Linnæan +Society. Its first meeting was held in April, 1788, when an introductory +address, “On the Rise and Progress of Natural History,” was read by Sir +James, then Dr. Smith, which paper formed the first article in the +“Transactions of the Linnæan Society,” a work which has since extended +itself to twenty quarto volumes. In 1792 Dr. Smith was invited to give +instructions in botany to the queen and princesses at Frogmore; and in +1814, received the honour of knighthood from the Prince Regent. + +Ill health caused Sir James to return to his native county to recruit his +strength, and there he continued to pursue his literary avocations in +comparative privacy. His “English Botany” is a work consisting of +thirty-six octavo volumes, and contains 2592 figures of British plants. +It is a curious and melancholy coincidence, that the fourth volume of his +“English Flora” reached him on the very last day he ever entered his +library; and he thus had the gratification of seeing the completion of a +work which, in his own estimation, was calculated, beyond all the other +labours of his pen, to establish his reputation as a botanist, and +confirm his erudition as an author. + +St. Giles, the next in order of the saintships, in addition to its +architectural beauties, with which we pretend not to “meddle,” presents a +few legendary claims to our notice. The effigy of St. Christopher, of a +monstrous size, with his staff sprouting by his side, was originally +painted over the north door, as the patron saint of children presented +for baptism, who generally were brought in at that door. In most +churches where a north door existed, this image or painting of St. +Christopher was wont to appear, depicted on as large a scale as the wall +would permit, in conformity with the legend that he was a saint of noble +and large stature. In the aisle once stood a chapel, altar, and image of +St. Catherine, with a light burning before it, and against one of the +pillars stood a famous rood, called the Brown Rood. + +St. Benedict, the patron of monks, has his monument in the form of a +little ancient church with a little tower, round at the bottom and +octagonal at the top, where three little jingling bells give notice of +the hours of prayer. + +St. Swithin, that famous prophet of wet weather, has his memorial, too, +not far distant. More have heard the old adage, “If it rain on St. +Swithin’s day, there will be rain more or less for forty succeeding +days,” than may have cared to trace its origin, which seems involved in +some mystery. One authority tells us that St. Swithin was Bishop of +Winchester, to which rank he was raised by Ethelwulf, the Dane; and when +he died in 865, he was canonized by the pope. He had expressed a desire +to be buried in the open church-yard, and not, as was usual with bishops, +within the walls of the church: his request was complied with; but upon +his being canonized, the monks took it into their heads that it was +disgraceful for a saint to lie in the open church-yard, and resolved to +remove his body into the choir, which was to be done in solemn procession +on the 15th of July. It rained, however, so violently on that day, and +for forty days succeeding, as “had hardly ever been seen,” which made +them set aside their design as heretical and blasphemous; and instead, +they erected a chapel over his grave, at which many miracles are said to +have been wrought. + +Another writer tells us that “St. Swithin, a holy bishop of Winchester, +about the year 860, was called the weeping St. Swithin, for that, about +his feast, Præsepe and Aselli, rainy constellations, arise _cosmically_, +and commonly cause rain.” The legend attached to its name is perhaps +almost the only particular attraction of this little church. + +The church of the holy St. Lawrence stands upon the spot of ground that +in ancient days, when Norwich was a fishing town, was the quay or +landing-place for all the herrings brought hither, the tithe of which was +so considerable when it belonged to the bishops of the East Angles, that +when Alfric, the bishop, granted the key staithe, with the adjoining +mansion, to Bury Abbey, about 1038, the abbey, upon building the church, +had a last of herrings reserved to it, to be paid them yearly. This last +of herrings was compounded for by the celerer of the convent, about the +time of Henry the Third, for a pension of forty shillings, which was +annually paid until the time of Henry the Seventh, and then done away +with, on account of the meanness of its profits. + +On the sides of the arch of the door in the west are two carvings, one +representing the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, the other that of St. Edmund, +who is seen in a rather mutilated condition, (in more senses than one) +his head lying at some distance in a parcel of bushes, while the Danes +are shooting arrows into his body, alluding to that portion of the legend +which says that when they could not kill him with arrows, Hunguar the +Danish leader ordered them to smite off his head, and carry and throw it +among the thickest thorns of the adjacent wood, which they did; but a +wolf finding it, instead of devouring it, kept it from all beasts and +birds of prey, till it was found by the Christians and buried with his +body, and that in a surprising manner. + +In the fifteenth century, three “Sisters of Charity,” called the Sisters +of St. Lawrence, dwelt in a tenement by the churchyard. In 1593, the +copes were turned into pall cloths, and in 1643 the painted glass of the +windows was smashed, and other considerable damage done to the ornamental +fittings up of the building. + +Near to the church is the well of St. Lawrence, the water of which is now +conveyed to a pump; bearing this inscription upon it:— + + This water here caught + In sort, as you see, + From a spring is brought + Three score foot and three. + + Gybson hath it sought + From St. Lawrence’s well, + And his charge this wrought + Who _now_ here doth dwell. + + Thy ease was his cost, not small— + Vouchsafed well of those + Which thankful be, his work to see, + And thereto be no foes. + +From St. Lawrence’s belfry, the curfew is rung at eight each evening. + +St. Gregory’s contains an altar tomb, with a long Latin inscription to +the memory of Sir Francis Bacon, a judge in the court of King’s bench, in +the time of Charles II. + +On the communion table is an inscription to Francis Watson, a pedlar, who +painted and marbled all the pillars of the altar, adorned it, and railed +the front. + +St. John’s _Madder Market_ owes its distinctive name to the market +formerly held on its north side, for the sale of _madder_, an article +used in dying. Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk, the widow of Thomas Duke of +Norfolk, beheaded by the command of Queen Elizabeth, lies buried in the +choir of the church. + +St. Andrews, the second church in point of architectural beauty, stands +upon the site of one founded prior to the Conquest. Its eastern window +bears traces of sad havoc having gone on in the midst of the scriptural +scenes it was intended to depict. + +At the east end of the two aisles are doors entering from the porches, +and over them verses. + +Over the south aisle door— + + This church was builded of Timber, Stone and Bricks, + In the year of our Lord XV hundred and six, + And lately translated from extreme Idolatry + A thousand five hundred and seven and forty. + And in the first year of our noble King Edward + The Gospel in parliament was mightily set forward. + Thanks be to God. Anno Dom. 1547, December. + +Over the north aisle door— + + As the good king Josiah, being tender of age, + Purged the realm from all idolatry, + Even so our noble Queen, and counsel sage, + Set up the Gospel and banished Popery. + At twenty-four years she began her reign, + And about forty four did it maintain. + Glory be given to God. + +There were formerly brass effigies of John Gilbert and his wife, with +_seventeen_ of their children. + +St. Peter’s Hungate, or Hounds’ Gate, owes its name to the fact of the +hounds belonging to the bishop being formerly kept close by. The old +church was demolished in 1458, and the new one, commenced the same year, +was finished in 1460, as appears by the date in a stone on the buttress +of the north door, where there is an old trunk of an oak, represented +without any leaves, to signify the decayed church; and from the root +springs a fresh branch with acorns on it, to denote the new one raised +where the old one stood. + +St. Michael at Plea takes its name from the Archdeacon of Norwich holding +his pleas or courts in the parish; it has some curious panel paintings of +the Crucifixion, Resurrection, the Lady of Pity, Judas, John and the +Virgin, St. Margaret and the Dragon, St. Benedict and St. Austin. + +In the church of St. Simon and St. Jude, is a curious monument of a +knight in armour, with a number of other figures grouped around the altar +on which he lies. In this parish is the bridge where the “cucking stool” +was wont to be kept, an instrument of punishment for “scolding and +unquiet women,” of as ancient origin as the time of the Anglo Saxons; the +offender was seated in a kind of chair, fixed at the end of a plank, and +then _ducked_ in the water; a cheating brewer or baker subjected himself +to a similar degradation. + +St. George’s Tombland, so called from the burial ground upon which it +stood, has also some curious monuments; near it is a house, commonly +called Sampson and Hercules Court, from two figures that formerly +supported the portico, but which now stand in the court. The house was +formerly owned by Sir John Fastolf, afterwards by the Countess of +Lincoln, and in the time of Henry VII., by the Duchess of Suffolk. + +“St. Martin’s at the Plain” stands close by the scene of the memorable +battle between the rebels under Kett, where Lord Sheffield fell, and many +other gentlemen and soldiers: the conflict lasted from nine o’clock on +Lammas morning until noon. The World’s End lane leads hence to the +dwelling of Sir Thomas Erpingham, long since transformed from a sumptuous +mansion into the abode of poverty, its chambers subdivided and parcelled +out, defaced and disguised by whitewash and plaster, and yet more by the +accumulations of dirt and decay; until it needs the microscopic vision of +an archæologist to trace even its outline, among such a mass of confusion +and rubbish. + +“St. Helen’s,” which belonged to the monks, is now cut up into three +parts, the choir being turned into lodgings for poor women, part of the +nave and aisles into the same for poor men, while the intermediate +portion is used for divine services. A charity that owns an annual +income of £10,000, might, we think, find some better arrangements +possible to be made. Kirkpatrick, the celebrated antiquarian, lies +buried here. Over the south entrance to the church are these lines— + + The house of God + King Henry the Eight of noble Fame + Bequeathed the City this commodious place, + With lands and rents he did endow the same, + To help decrepit age in woful case, + Edward the Sixth, that prince of royal stem, + Performed his father’s generous bequest. + Good Queen _Eliza_, imitating them, + Ample endowments added to the rest; + Their pious deeds we gratefully record, + While Heaven them crowns with glorious reward. + +St. Giles’ Hospital, to which the church of St. Helen has been united by +the appropriation of its nave and chancel, is a relic of great +antiquity—a memorial of the liberality of Bishop Suffield, who in 1249 +founded it, appointing four chaplains to celebrate service there for his +soul, and all poor and decrepit chaplains in the diocese, endowing it +with means to support the same number perpetually, and to lodge thirteen +poor people with one meal a day. There were also appointed afterwards +four sisters, above fifty years of age, to take care of the clothing, &c. +&c. The master and chaplains were to eat, drink and sleep, in one room, +and daily, after grace at dinner before any one drank, the bell was to +ring and the chaplains to go into the choir and sing _Miserere mei Deus_. +There was also an _Archa Domini_, or Lords’ Box, from which the poor that +passed by, were daily to be relieved as far as the funds permitted. From +Lady day to the Assumption, at a certain hour the bell was to ring and a +quantity of bread, “enough to repel hunger,” to be given to the poor then +present; and “because the house should be properly ‘Domus Dei,’ or the +house of God, and of the Bishops of Norwich,” it was ordained that “as +often as any bishop of the see should pass by, he should go in and give +his blessing to the sick.” Edward VI. dissolved the Hospital and gave it +to the city as a house for the poor. A school was also established, +which was afterwards transferred to the Free School. The cloisters of +the old hospital still remain almost entire, and serve as walks for the +pensioners. + +St. Edmund, St. James, St. Paul, St. Margaret, all the Saints, _St. +Saviour_, St. Clements the Martyr, _St. Peter Southgate_, and per +_Mountergate_, St. Julian, St. Michael at Plea, at _Thorn_, and +_Coslany_, St. Ethelred, St. John’s Sepulchre, and St. John’s Timberhill, +St. George, and St. Augustine, fill up the register of ecclesiastical +edifices; each possesses some particular claim to notice, down to the +legend of the Lady in the Oak, that gave a distinctive title to the +church of St. Martin at Oak, where her image once figured in an oak tree +in the churchyard, and wrought wondrous miracles, which caused so much +adoration to be paid to the graven image, that the purgers of idolatry in +good young King Edward’s reign, found it needful to displace it from its +high position, and cut down the tree in which it stood. + +Among the biographies associated with the various districts over which +these patron saints may be said to hold their reign, are those of the +eminent divine, Dr. Samuel Clarke, of the seventeenth century; Kay, or +Caius, the founder of Caius College, Cambridge; Professors Hooker and +Lindley, the great botanists; William Taylor, Sayer, Sedgwick, Gurney, +Opie, and Borrow, among the literary celebrities of the age; Professor +Taylor and Dr. Bexfield, names known well in the musical world, and many +others, whose lives and works entitle them to be ranked among the leading +characters of their time; while in the medical profession, the names and +fame of Martineau and Crosse have become European. Few of these can we +pause to sketch—many of them are among the number of those whose work is +not yet done; and of others it may be said that their memory is too fresh +in the hearts of those bound to them by chords of affection and +friendship, for a “stranger to intermeddle” therewith. + +William Taylor was the friend and correspondent of Southey. It is said, +in his “Life,” that he once jocosely remarked, “If ever I write my own +life, I shall commence it in the following grandiloquent manner; ‘Like +Plato, like Sir Isaac Newton, like Frederick Leopold, Count Stolberg, I +was born on the 7th of November, and, like Mrs. Opie and Sir James Edward +Smith, I was baptized by the Rev. Samuel Bourn, then the Presbyterian +minister of the Octagon chapel.’” His attainments as a German scholar +were notorious, and his metaphysical writings earned for him a +widely-extended fame. His translations of German theological works, may +be regarded as the first introduction of that school of literature, that +is at this moment deluging our country with the copious streams of +philosophy, whose deep and subtle waters, whether invigorating or +noxious, are spreading themselves through every channel of society in our +land. + +William Jackson Hooker, the son of a manufacturer of Norwich, rose to the +rank of Regius Professor of Botany, in the University of Glasgow. In +early life he was spoken of by Sir James Smith as the first cryptogamic +botanist of the time, and his after-works proved the accuracy of the +opinion. His “Muscologia Brittannica,” and “Monograph on the Genus +Jungermannia,” are unrivalled as guides to the scientific enquirer, and, +with his other works, may be classed among the gems of English +literature. In the course of his rambles in the neighbourhood of his +native city, he discovered, in a fir-wood near Sprowston, that quaint, +curious, one-sided looking little moss, called _Buxbaumia aphylla_, +which, destitute of any visible foliage, rears its little club-like +seed-vessels upon its foot-stalks in the most eccentric possible manner. +The muscologist may search long and often ere a specimen may meet his +eye, even within the precincts of the grove where Dr. Hooker first +discovered it; but many another rare and beautiful contribution to a moss +herbarium shall reward him for his pains, especially the elegant +_Bartramia_, with its exquisitely soft velvet foliage, and globular +seed-vessels, to be met with in such rich abundance in few other soils. + +Lindley, the Professor of Botany in the London University, is another +genius raised from the nursery grounds of the Old City; his father having +followed the profession of horticulture at Catton, one of the suburbs of +Norwich. + +One more biographical notice must close our list, and with it we make an +end of our chronicles and “Rambles in an Old City.” + +To those who were among the privileged number of friends, acquaintances, +or even fellow-citizens of Joseph John Gurney, it will be easy to imagine +why so beautiful a subject has been chosen for the closing sketch of our +“pencillings by the way;” and the world at large will see in the name of +the great philanthropist, whose memory sheds a sacred halo over every +spot familiar with the deeds of gentle loving-kindness, tender mercy, and +active benevolence, that marked his earthly career—a meet theme from +which to borrow a ray of glory to brighten the scene of our “Ramblings,” +as the landscape borrows a golden tint from the lingering beams of the +sun that has set beneath the horizon. + +As the brother of Elizabeth Fry, her fellow-worker in the field of +usefulness, and her companion in her memorable visits to the prisons of +England, Ireland, Scotland, and the Continent, his history could not have +failed to possess a deep interest, even apart from the individual +characteristics of his bright and beautiful home-life, and the lustre +shed upon his name by its familiar association with those of Clarkson, +Wilberforce, and Buxton, in the cause of slave emancipation. + +The third son of John and Catherine Gurney, and sister of Priscilla +Wakefield, he was born at Earlham Hall, August 2d, 1788. It is a +singular fact connected with the name, that one of his ancestors, in +1653, was sent a prisoner to the Norwich gaol, for refusing to take the +oath, and that Waller Bacon, of Earlham, who committed him, resided at +the time in the very Hall which the descendants of the prisoner +afterwards occupied. When Joseph was only four years of age, the family +of eleven children lost the superintending care of their mother, and his +home education mainly devolved upon his three elder sisters, among whom +was Mrs. Fry. Their home was the scene of rich hospitality, dealt out by +their liberal-minded father; and the literary tastes, intellectual +pursuits, and elegant accomplishments, in which every member of the +social group delighted, drew around them a brilliant circle of the +choicest society, to which the late Duke of Gloucester was a frequent and +welcome addition. + +The scholastic instruction of Joseph John was at first superintended by a +clergyman, and afterwards matured at Oxford, where he attended the +professor’s lectures, and enjoyed many of the advantages of the +university, without becoming a member or subscribing to the thirty-nine +articles. + +Such an education naturally tended to create some doubts as to the system +of Quakerism; but after much examination and consideration, his +preference became settled in favour of the views and profession of his +old “Friends;” and consistently with them he lived and died, by no means +finding in them any barrier to the fullest and freest association with +any other body of Christians, or to a personal friendship with the +ecclesiastical bishops of the diocese, with one of whom, Bishop Bathurst, +he was a frequent and esteemed guest; while to Bishop Stanley was left +the melancholy opportunity of bearing a testimony to his public and +private character, in the memorable form of a funeral sermon from the +cathedral pulpit, a tribute of respect unexampled since the days of +George Fox. His life spent in doing good, in preaching as the minister +of the society to which he belonged, in England, Ireland, upon the +Continent, and in America, was full of interest. In the legislative +hall, at Washington, before the assembled members of Congress, his voice +was heard. Louis Philippe, Guizot, and De Stael, were among his auditors +in France; the King of Holland abandoned, through his counsel, the +importation of slave soldiers from the Gold Coast; Vinet at Lausanne, +D’Aubigne in Geneva, and the King of Wirtemberg, held council with him. +To attempt to chronicle his deeds of pecuniary munificence, public and +private, would be an herculean task. The great sums lavished upon public +societies, the world of necessity was made acquainted with, but they +formed but a moiety of the aids furnished from his abundance to the wants +of the needy. He was truly one whose left hand was not suffered to know +the deeds of its fellow. The sick and the poor, at home and abroad, the +industrious and the struggling, the aged and the young—each and all +shared his bounty and loving help, for he was one who _gave_, and did not +_fling_ his charities down from the proud heights of opulence, so that +poverty might blush to pick them up. But the record of his life was +inscribed upon the page of history in characters indelible by the tears +that watered his pathway to the tomb. We have made a faint effort to +paint the last solemn scene that marked the close of the lamented Bishop +Stanley’s career, and were almost tempted to place side by side with it +the shade of grief that hung over the city when the great “_Friend_” was +suddenly called home from his labours of usefulness and love upon earth. +Few will ever be able to forget the scene of mourning and sorrow that +followed the unlooked-for event, or the almost unparalleled silence of +woe that was written upon every heart and countenance among the thronging +thousands that attended to pay the last tributes of respect at the grave +of the beloved and honoured philanthropist; when Magistrates and +Artizans, Clergymen and Dissenting Ministers, Churchmen, Independents, +Baptists, Methodists, and Friends, representatives of every grade of +society and shade of religious opinion that the Old City could send +forth, gathered around that lowly spot of earth to drop a tear, and seek +inspiration from the spirit of love that seemed to breathe around the +silent tomb. And who will forget the thrilling prayer offered up from +the lips of the widowed mourner, who fulfilled, in the midst of that +heart-stricken multitude, her measure of obedience to the will of Heaven +and the duty of self-government, by public prayer and thanksgiving. Who +does not rank among the noblest of the many noble sermons of the good +Bishop Stanley, the far-sounding appeal that was sent forth from the +pulpit of his cathedral, “Watchman, what of the night?”—the commemorating +words that have been inseparably linked with the name and memory of +Joseph John Gurney from that hour. + +Years have passed since these events occurred, but the remembrance of +them is vivid; the rich legacy bequeathed to the Old City by the holy +life, walk, and conversation of such a man is not soon expended; but +treasured in the sanctuary of many loving hearts, it is nurtured, and +brings forth fruit, fifty, seventy, and a hundred-fold, to the honour and +glory of God, and to immortalize the memory of a faithful servant in the +vineyard of souls. + + * * * * * + + THE END. + + * * * * * + + J. BILLING, PRINTER, WOKING, SURREY. + + + + +Footnotes + + +{0} These corrections have been applied in this Project Gutenberg +eText.—DP. + +{5} Erasmus Earle, a celebrated lawyer. + +{223} A place of judgment. + + + + + + NEW WORKS + PUBLISHED BY + MR. NEWBY, + 30, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. + + + * * * * * + + In One Vol. 5s. 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Madders</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 30%; } + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Rambles in an Old City, by S. S. Madders + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Rambles in an Old City + comprising antiquarian, historical, biographical and political associations + + +Author: S. S. Madders + + + +Release Date: September 14, 2010 [eBook #33724] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMBLES IN AN OLD CITY*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1853 Thomas Cautley Newby edition by +David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p0b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Norwich street scene" +title= +"Norwich street scene" +src="images/p0s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h1>Rambles in an Old City;</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap"><b>comprising</b></span></p> +<p style="text-align: center">ANTIQUARIAN, HISTORICAL,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">BIOGRAPHICAL AND POLITICAL +ASSOCIATIONS</p> +<p style="text-align: center">By S. S. Madders.</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">london</span>:<br /> +Thomas Cautley Newby,<br /> +30, <span class="smcap">welbeck street</span>, <span +class="smcap">cavendish square</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">mdcccliii</span>.</p> +<h2><!-- page iii--><a name="pageiii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. iii</span>PREFACE.</h2> +<p>It has been very aptly remarked by a recent writer, that +“to send forth a work without a preface, is like thrusting +a friend into the society of a room full of strangers, without +the benefit of an introduction;” a custom that no +<i>fashion</i> can redeem from the charge of incivility. A +book, however insignificant, grows beneath the author’s +pen, to occupy a place in his regard, not unworthy the title of +friendship; and as that sacred bond of social union is not +dependent upon individual perfection, so the companion of many a +solitary hour is not to be cast out upon the “wide, wide +world,” without one word to secure it at least a gentle +reception, be its faults as manifold and manifest as they may, +even to the most partial eye.</p> +<p><!-- page iv--><a name="pageiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +iv</span>The design of this little book of “Rambles,” +has been to concentrate into the form of a light and amusing +volume, some few of the many subjects of interest suggested by +the leading features of an “Old City.” It makes +no pretensions to any profound learning or deep research. +It is little more than a <i>compilation</i> of facts, interwoven +with the history of one of the oldest cathedral and manufacturing +cities of our country; but inasmuch as the general features are +common to most other ancient cities, and many of the subjects are +national and universal in their character, the outlines are by no +means strictly local in their application or interest.</p> +<p>Whether the design has been carried out, in a way at all +worthy of the hale old city of Norwich, that has served as +“the text of the discourse,” remains to be proved; +but the attempt to contribute to the light literature of the day +a few simple gleanings of fact, as gathered by a stranger, during +a ten years’ residence in a “strange land,” +will, it is to be hoped, secure a lenient judgment for the +inexperience that has attempted the task.</p> +<p><!-- page v--><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +v</span>The sources of information from which the historical +parts of the work have been derived, are such as are open to +every ordinary student; its light character has precluded the +introduction of notes of reference, but it would amount to +downright robbery to refrain from acknowledging the copious +extracts that have been made from the valuable papers of the +Norfolk Archæological Society.</p> +<p>For the kind assistance of the few individuals from whom +information has been sought, many thanks are due; and it is but +just to state, that all deficiences of matter or details, that +may probably be felt by many, more familiar than the writer +herself with the persons, places, and things, that make the sum +and substance of her work, are referable alone to the difficulty +she has experienced in selecting suitable materials to carry out +her design, from the abundance placed at her disposal; a tithe of +which might have converted her “rambles” into a +heavy, weary “march,” along which few might have had +patience to accompany her.</p> +<p>To these few observations must be subjoined an <!-- page +vi--><a name="pagevi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +vi</span>expression of earnest and heartfelt thanks to the many +liberal-minded individuals who have extended encouragement to +this feeble effort of a perfect stranger. That some portion +or other of the contents of her little volume may be found worthy +their acceptance, is the fervent desire of</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">The +Authoress</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Norwich</span>,<br /> + January 1, 1853.</p> +<h2><!-- page vii--><a name="pagevii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. vii</span>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAP. I.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">introduction</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">page</span><br /> +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAP. II.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">the cathedral</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAP. III.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">the castle</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page62">62</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAP. IV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">the market-place</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page117">117</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAP. V.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">the guildhall</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page179">179</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAP. VI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">pageantry</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page227">227</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAP. VII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">superstitions</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page282">282</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAP. VIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">conventual remains and biographical +sketches</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page311">311</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><!-- page viii--><a name="pageviii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. viii</span>ERRATA. <a name="citation0"></a><a +href="#footnote0" class="citation">[0]</a></h2> +<p>Page 7, line 15, <i>for</i> “these,” <i>read</i> +“those.”</p> +<p>„ 8, line 10, <i>for</i> “querus,” +<i>read</i> “querns.”</p> +<p>„ 37, line 16, for “veriest,” <i>read</i> +“various.”</p> +<p>„ 59, lines 24 and 26, <i>for</i> “Hoptin,” +<i>read</i> “Hopkin.”</p> +<p>„ 64, line 8, <i>for</i> +“spirit—powers,” <i>read</i> +“spirit-powers.”</p> +<h1><!-- page 1--><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +1</span>CHAPTER I.<br /> +<span class="smcap">introduction</span>.</h1> +<p>Who that has ever looked upon the strange conglomerations of +architecture that line the thoroughfares of an ancient city, +bearing trace of a touch from the hand of every age, from +centuries far remote,—or watched the busy scenes of modern +every-day life, surrounded by solemnly majestic, or quaintly grim +old witnesses of our nation’s’ infancy,—but has +felt the Poetry of History that lies treasured up in the +chronicles of an “Old City?”</p> +<p>We may not all be archæologists, we may many of us feel +little sympathy with the love of accumulating time-worn, +moth-eaten relics of ages passed away, still less may we desire +to see the resuscitation of dead forms, customs or laws, which we +believe to <!-- page 2--><a name="page2"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 2</span>have been advances upon prior existing +institutions, living their term of natural life in the season +appointed for them, and yielding in their turn to progressions +more suited to the growing wants of a growing people; but there +are few minds wholly indifferent to the associations of time and +place, or that are not conscious of some reverence for the links +connecting the present with the past, to be found in the many +noble and stupendous works of ancient art, yet lingering amongst +us, massive evidences of lofty thoughts and grand conceptions, +which found expression in the works of men’s hands, when +few other modes existed of embodying the imaginations of the +mind.</p> +<p>It is not now my purpose to draw comparisons between the +appeals thus made through the outward senses to the spirituality +of our nature, and the varied other and more subtle means +employed in later days, to awaken our feelings of veneration and +devotion, but it may be observed in passing, that amid the floods +of change that have swept across our country’s history, it +is scarcely possible but that some good should have been lost +among the débris of decayed and shattered +institutions. We have now to take a sweeping glance at the +general outline of the place that has been chosen as the nucleus +from which to spin our web, of light and perhaps fanciful +associations. A desultory ramble through the streets <!-- +page 3--><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>and +bye-ways of an old city, that owns six-and-thirty parish +churches, the ghosts of about twenty more defunct, the remains of +four large friaries and a nunnery, some twenty or thirty temples +of worship flourishing under the divers names and forms of +“dissent,” two Roman branches of the Catholic Church, +a Jewish synagogue, a hospital, museum, libraries, and +institutions of every possible name, and “refuges” +for blind, lame, halt, deaf, “incurable,” and +diseased in mind, body, or estate; that is sprinkled with +factories, bounded by crumbling ruins of old rampart walls, and +studded with broken and mutilated bastion towers,—brings +into view a series of objects so heterogeneous in order and +character, that to arrange the ideas suggested by them to the +mind or memory, is a task of no slight difficulty.</p> +<p>The great “lions” of interest to one, may rank the +very lowest in the scale of another’s imagination or +fancy. The philosopher, the poet, the philanthropist, the +antiquarian, the utilitarian, the man of the world, and the man +of the day, each may choose his separate path, and each find for +himself food for busy thought and active investigation.</p> +<p>The archæologist may indulge his love of interpreting +the chiselled finger-writing of centuries gone by, upon many a +richly decorated page of sculpture, and, hand in hand with the +historian and divine, may trace out the pathway of art and +religion, through <!-- page 4--><a name="page4"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 4</span>the multiform records of genius, +devotional enthusiasm, taste, and beneficence, chronicled in +writings of stone, by its ecclesiastical remains; he may gratify +himself to his heart’s content with +“vis-à-vis” encounters with grim old faces, +grinning from ponderous old doorways, or watching as sentinels +over dark and obscure passages, leading to depths impenetrable to +outward vision, and find elaborately carved spandrils and +canopies, gracing the entrances of abodes where poverty and +labour have long since found shelter in the cast-off habitations +of ancient wealth and aristocracy.</p> +<p>He may venture to explore cavernous cellars with groined +roofings and piers that register their age; may make his way +through moth-corrupted storehouses of dust and lumber; to revel +in the grandeur of some old “hall,” boasting itself a +relic of the domestic architecture of the days of the last Henry, +and there lose himself in admiration of old mullioned windows, +tie-beams, and antique staircases; may ferret out old cabinets +and quaint old buffets hard by, that once, perchance, found +lodging in the “Stranger’s Hall,” as it is +wont, though erringly, to be designated; he may wander thence +through bye lanes and streets, stretching forth their upper +stories as if to meet their opposite neighbours half way with the +embrace of friendship; over the plain, memorable as the scene of +slaughter in famous Kett’s rebellion, <!-- page 5--><a +name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>to the +“World’s End;” and see amid the tottering ruins +of half demolished pauper tenements, the richly carved king-posts +and beams of the banquet chamber of the famous knight, Sir Thomas +Erpingham, whose martial fame and religious “heresy” +have found a more lasting monument than the perishable frame-work +of his mansion-house, in the magnificent gateway known by his +name, and raised in commemoration of his sin of Lollardism. +He may accompany the philanthropist in his visit to the +“Old Man’s Hospital,” and mourn over the +misappropriation of the nave and chancel of fine old St. +Helen’s, where lies buried Kirkpatrick, a patriarch of the +tribe of antiquaries; he may visit the grammar school that has +sent forth scholars, divines, warriors, and lawyers; a Keye, a +Clarke, an Earle, <a name="citation5"></a><a href="#footnote5" +class="citation">[5]</a> a Nelson, and a Rajah Brooke, to spread +its fame in the wide world. He may see in it a record of +the days when grammar was forbidden to be taught elsewhere; he +may peep through the oriels that look in upon the charnel-house +of the ancient dead beneath; may feast his eyes upon the beauties +of the Erpingham, and strange composite details of the Ethelbert +gateways; explore the mysteries of the Donjon, or Cow Tower; and +following the windings of the river past the low archway of the +picturesque little ferry, find himself at length stumbling upon +some fragment <!-- page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 6</span>of the old +“<i>Wall</i>.” Thence he may trace the ancient +frontier line of the Old City, and the sites of its venerable +gateways, that <i>were</i>, but <i>are not</i>; the flintwork of +the old rampart, now clinging to the precipitous sides of +“Butter Hills,” with an old tower at the summit, +mounted, sentinel-like, to keep watch over the ruins of the +Carrow Abbey, and the alder cars, that gave it its name in the +valley below; now, following a broken course, here and there left +in solitude for wild creepers and the rare indigenous carnation +to take root upon; now bursting through incrustations of modern +bricks and mortar, and showing a bastion tower, with its orifices +ornamented by spread-eagle emblems of the stone-mason’s +craft in the precincts below; here, forming the back of +slaughter-houses, or the foundations of some miserable workshop, +fashioned from the rubble of its sides; thence wandering on +through purlieus of wretchedness and filth that might shake the +nerves of any more vulnerable bodies than “paving +commissioners” or “boards of health;” its +arched recesses, once so carefully defined, its elevated walks, +so studiously preserved for recreation as well as for defence, +all now rendered an indefinite disfigured mass, with accretions +of modern growth, that bear the stamp upon every feature of their +parentage, poverty and decay. He may visit barns and +cottages with remnants of windows and doorways, that make it <!-- +page 7--><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +7</span>easy to believe they once had been the shrine of a St. +Mary Magdalen; may trace out for himself, among hovels and +cellars, and reeking court-yards, grey patches of festering ruin, +last lingering evidences of the age of conventual grandeur; here, +in the priory yard of a parish, that might be said to shelter the +offscum of poverty’s heavings up, he shall find a little +ecclesiastical remnant of monastic architecture, converted into a +modern meeting-house; the nursery walls that cradled the genius +of a Bale, the carmelite monk, and great chronicler of his age, +now echoing the doctrines of the “Reformed Religion,” +as taught by the Anabaptist preacher. In another district, +but still skirting on the river-side, where those old monks ever +loved to pitch their dwelling-places, down in a dreary little +nook, shut out from noisy thoroughfares, and bearing about it all +the hushed stillness that beseems the place, he may seek the +ghostly companionship of the old “friar of orders +grey” in the lanes and walks that once bounded the +flourishing territory of the rich “mendicant” +followers of holy St. Francis, or “friars minors,” as +they were wont to call themselves. Not far distant, the +whereabouts of the old Austin Friars may invite attention; and +the locale of the “Carrow Nunnery,” or ladies’ +seminary of the mediæval times, claim a passing enquiry, +and note of admiration for the beauty of its site.</p> +<p><!-- page 8--><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +8</span>Sacred spots, consecrated by the holy waters of loving +humanity and gentle charity, in ages gone by, as the refuge of +the diseased leper and homeless poor, shall be pointed to as the +mustard-seed from whence have sprung those glorious monuments of +our land, the hospitals for the sick of these later +generations.</p> +<p>Nor would he rest content without a glimpse of the Museum and +its relics of the dead, its hieroglyphical urns and querns, +spurs, fibulæ, and celts, its pyxes and beads, its lamps +and coins, that lead imagination back to pay domiciliary visits +to the wooden huts, earthen fortifications, and sepulchral +hearths of our Icenic, Roman, or Saxon forefathers, while gaping +Egyptian mummies stand by, peering from their wizened-up +eye-balls at the industrious student of the “gallery of +antiquities,” looking wonder at the preference displayed +for them, over the more brilliant attractions offered to the +lover of natural history, and ornithology in particular, among +the collections below.</p> +<p>Nor shall the antiquarian be alone in his enjoyment. The +botanist shall delight to enrich his herbarium from the same +hedgerows, fir-woods, cornfields and rivulets, that have yielded +flowers, mosses, hepatica, and algæ to the researches of a +Smith, a Hooker, and a Lindley, the children of science nurtured +on its soil. The lover of music shall find <!-- page 9--><a +name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>fresh beauties +in the harmonies of its organs, quires, and choruses, from the +halo of associations cast around them by the memories of a +Crotch, the remembrance of the Gresham professorship, filled from +the musical ranks of the city, and may be, in time to come from a +new lustre added by another name, that has begun to be sounded +forth by the trumpet of fame in the musical world.</p> +<p>The scholar and literary man shall acknowledge the interest +claimed by the nursery in which has been reared a Bale, a Clarke, +a Parker, a Taylor, a Gurney, an Opie, and a Borrow, and we may +add, a Barwell and a Geldart, whose fruit and flowers, scattered +on the way-side of the roads of learning, have made many a rough +path smooth to young and tender feet.</p> +<p>The philanthropist shall dwell upon the early lessons of +Christian love and humanity breathed into the heart of a Fry from +its prison-houses, and the silent teachings of the quiet +meeting-house, where the brethren and sisters, in simple garb of +sober gray, are wont to assemble, and where yet may still be seen +the adopted sister Opie, resting in the autumn of her days in the +calm seclusion of the body of Friends, after a life spent in +scattering abroad in the world, germs of simple truth, pure +morality, and heart-religion, the fruits of the genius which has +been her gift from God. He shall visit Earlham <!-- page +10--><a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>Hall, +the birthplace of that great “sister of charity,” +Elizabeth Fry, and her brother, the philanthropist, Joseph John +Gurney, and beneath its avenues of chestnut, by the quiet waters +of its little lake, and the banks of bright anemones, that lay +spread like a rich carpet, in the early spring time, along its +garden borders, inhale sweet odours, and drink in refreshing +draughts of pure unsullied poetry, fresh from the fount of +<i>nature</i>, and fragrant with the love that breathes through +all her teachings, the first child of the Great Parent of +good.</p> +<p>Hence he may trace his way back through the village hamlet, +that gave a home in his last years to the weary-hearted Hall, +yielding a refuge and a grave to the head bowed beneath the +weight of a sorrow-burthened mitre; and with hearts yet vibrating +to the mournful cadences of woe, that swept from his harp +strings, forth upon the world from its saddened solitudes, they +may pass on to the garden of the Bishop’s Palace, and the +monuments yet lingering there; ivy-clad ruins, meet emblems of +harsh realities, over which the hand of time has thrown the +sheltering mantle of forgiveness. And among the many chords +touched by the hand of memory here, where the shades of harsh +bigotry and persecuting zeal vanish in the gentle and softened +light of Christian charity, breathed forth by the spirits of +later days, whose heart does not respond <!-- page 11--><a +name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>to the +refined poetry of the Charlotte Elizabeth, who has given such +sweet paintings of this familiar scene of her girlhood’s +years? Who can forget the song of the Swedish Nightingale, +as it thrilled through the evening air upon the listening ears of +the ravished, though untutored multitude? happy associations of +the enjoyments of working world life, and lay minstrels of +God’s creation, to be blended with the grander, but scarce +more solemn, memories of the great heads among the labourers in +the harvest field of souls. Nor shall the poet forget to +take a glimpse of the quiet home, not far distant hence, of +Sayer, the poet, philanthropist, philosopher, and antiquarian, +whose memory is still green in the hearts of many of the great +and good still living, and the remembrance of whose friendship is +esteemed by them among their choicest treasures.</p> +<p>The historian has a yet wider field for labour, and a busier +work to do, to connect into one chain the links that lie +scattered far and wide, among deserted thoroughfares, decaying +mansion houses, desecrated churches, and monastic ruins; to +gather up the broken fragments of political records, enshrined in +many a mouldering parchment, crumbling stone, or withered tree; +and to weave into a whole the threads of tradition and legendary +lore, unravelled from the mystic fables of antiquity. It is +his, to trace the identities of King Gurgunt and the Danish +Lothbroc; <!-- page 12--><a name="page12"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 12</span>to establish the founder of the +castle, and commemorate the achievements of its feudal lords; +upon him the duty of sifting evidence, and searching out causes, +of tracing the famous “Kett’s rebellion,” to +the deep-seated sense of wrong in the hearts of the people, that +found expression in the vague predictions and mystical prophecies +of the Merlin of the district.</p> +<p>It is for him to unfold the little germs of after-history, +that he treasured up in the kernels of such documents as he order +addressed to the county sheriff, to commit to prison those who +refused to attend the services of the established church; to +trace the growth of the spirit among the people, that opened the +city gates to the army of the “Parliament,” fortified +its castle against royalist soldiers, and turned its market-place +into a place of execution for fellow-citizens, who dared to +espouse the cause of their king; to rescue from oblivion the gems +that were buried beneath the blows of the zealous puritan’s +demolishing hammer; to read in the nailed horseshoes, that +surmount the doorways of hundreds of its cottages, as a talisman +against witchcraft, the legacy of superstition bequeathed to +their descendants by these earnest “abolitionists;” +to mark the <i>rise</i> and <i>progress</i> of the unfranchised +masses in this age of enlightened liberalism, and the deepening +and mellowed tone of the “voice of the people,” as it +rises from the <!-- page 13--><a name="page13"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 13</span>chastened and self-disciplined homes +of the educated and thriving artisans. Upon him too, it +devolves, to mark the age and the man—to see the monuments +of the great-hearted and liberal-minded of the days gone by, in +the hospitals, charities, and endowments, their munificence has +showered down, from the heights of prosperity, upon the depths of +poverty—to trace the progress of the philanthropist of +later times, in his house to house visits, and read statistics of +his labours in the renovated homes and gladdened hearts of +thousands, thus lifted out from the swamps of misery and crime, +by the single hand of Christian benevolence, stretched forth in +sympathy; to mark the efforts of legislation to remove causes +that evil results may cease, to note the patriotism of honest +hearts, that would seek to level, if at all, by lifting up the +poor to that standard of moral and physical comfort, beneath +which the manhood of human nature has neither liberty nor room to +grow; and finally, it is his to cast into the treasury of his +nation’s history his gleanings among the bye-ways of a +single city, no mean or despicable bundle of facts, with which to +enrich its stores.</p> +<p>But we must tarry no longer to generalize with +archæologist, poet or historian; we have many storehouses +to visit, where associations of religion, poetry, and art, lie +garnered up in rich abundance.</p> +<h2><!-- page 14--><a name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +14</span>CHAPTER II.<br /> +<span class="smcap">the cathedral</span>.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">The +Cathedral</span>.—<i>Forms</i>.—<i>Symbols</i>.—<i>Early +history of the Christian church</i>.—<i>Growth of +superstition</i>.—<i>Influence of +Paganism</i>.—<i>Government</i>.—<i>Growth of the +Papacy</i>.—<i>Monasticism</i>.—<i>St. +Macarius</i>.—<i>Benedict</i>.—<i>St. +Augustine</i>.—<i>Hildebrand</i>.—<i>Celibacy of the +clergy</i>.—<i>Herbert of Losinga</i>, <i>founder of +Norwich Cathedral</i>.—<i>Crusades</i>, <i>their influence +on Civilization</i>.—<i>Historical +memoranda</i>.—<i>Bishop +Nix</i>.—<i>Bilney</i>.—<i>Bishop +Hall</i>.—<i>Ancient religious +festivals</i>.—<i>Easter</i>.—<i>Whitsuntide</i>.—<i>Good +Friday</i>.—“<i>Creeping to the +Cross</i>.”—<i>Paschal taper</i>.—<i>Legend of +St. William</i>.—<i>Holy-rood +Day</i>.—<i>Carvings</i>.—<i>Origin of grotesque +sculptures</i>.—<i>Old Painting</i>: <i>mode of executing +it</i>.—<i>Speculatory</i>.—<i>Cloisters</i>.—<i>Anecdote</i>.—<i>Epitaph</i>.—<i>List +of Bishops</i>.—<i>Funeral of Bishop Stanley</i>.</p> +<p>“What is a city?” “A city contains a +cathedral, or Bishop’s see.”</p> +<p>Such being the definition given us in one of those valuable +literary productions that we were wont in olden time to call +Pinnock’s ninepennies, and which have since been followed +by dozens upon dozens of series upon series, written by a host of +good souls that have followed in his wake, devoting <!-- page +15--><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +15</span>themselves to the task of retailing homeopathic doses of +concentrated geography, biography, philosophy, astronomy, +geology, and all the other phies, nies, onomies, and ologies, +that ever perplexed or enlightened the brains of the rising +generation; we adopt the term, in memory of those so-called happy +days of childhood, when its vague mysticism suggested to our +country born and school-bred pates a wide field of speculation +for fancy to wander in; a Cathedral and a Bishop’s see +being to us, in their unexplained nomenclature, figures of speech +as hieroglyphical as any inscription that ever puzzled a Belzoni +or a Caviglia to decipher.</p> +<p>We have grown, however, to know something of the meaning of +these terms; and having lived to see a few specimens of real +cathedrals and live bishops, we are now quite ready to +acknowledge the priority of their claims upon our notice when +rambling among the lions of an old city.</p> +<p>We say old, but where is the cathedral not old? save and +except a few just springing into existence, evidences we would +hope of a reaction in the devotional tendencies of our nature, +rising up once more through the confused assemblage of churches +and chapels, and meeting houses, reared in honour of man’s +intellect, sectarian <i>isms</i>; human deity in fact, with its +standard <i>freedom of thought</i>, under which the myriad +diverse forms of hero worshippers <!-- page 16--><a +name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>have rallied +themselves, each with their own atom of the broken statue of +truth, that they may vainly strive <i>of their own power</i> to +re-unite again into a perfect and harmonious whole. Setting +aside, however, these later efforts to regain something of the +lofty conceptions that can alone enter into the mind of a +worshipper of God, not man, we have to deal with the monuments of +a past age yet left among us, witnessing to the early life in the +church, though not unmingled with symptoms of disease, and marks +of the progress of decay,—marks which are indeed fearfully +manifest in the relics existing in our country, that bear almost +equal traces of corruption and spiritual growth, each struggling, +as it were, for victory. Is there any one who can walk +through the lofty nave of a cathedral, and not feel <i>lifted +up</i> to something? may be he knows not <i>what</i>; but the +spirit of worship, of adoration, is breathed on him as it were +from the structure around him. And should it not be so? +does not the blue vault of heaven, with its unfathomed ocean of +suns and worlds, each moving in its own orbit, obeying one common +law of order and perfect harmony, call up our reverence for the +God of <i>Nature</i>? and has it ever been forbidden that the +heart and understanding should be appealed to through the medium +of the outward senses, for the worship of the God of +<i>Revelation</i>? Is the eye to be closed, the mouth dumb, +the ear deaf, to all save <!-- page 17--><a +name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>the +intellectual teachings of a fellow man? Is <i>music</i> the +gift of heaven, <i>colour</i> born in heaven’s light, +<i>incense</i> the fragrance of the garden, planted by +God’s hand, <i>form</i> the clothing of soul and spirit, to +be banished from the temple dedicated to the service of that +living God, who created the music of the bird, the waterfall, and +the thunder, who painted the rainbow in the window of heaven, who +scented the earth with sweet flowers, and herbs and “spicy +groves,” who gave to each tree, each leaf, each bird and +flower, each fibre, sinew, and muscle of the human frame, each +crystal, and each gem of earth, each shell of the ocean’s +depths, each moss and weed that creeps around the base of hidden +rocks, even to the noisome fungus and worm that owes its birth +alike to death and to decay a material body, full of beauty and +adaptation in all its parts; revealing thus to man, that all +thought, all life, all spirit, must dwell within an outer +covering of <i>form</i>. True, the spirit and life may +depart, the garment may cover rottenness and decay, the symbol +may be a dead letter, in the absence of the truth it should +shadow forth, the candle at the altar, be meaningless from the +dimness of the light of the spirit, that it should represent as +ever living and present in the church; the eagle of the +reading-desk be a graven image, without place in God’s +temple, when the soaring voice of prophecy, rising above earth, +and fed from <!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 18</span>the living fire burning on +heaven’s altar, that it should symbolize, has ceased to be +heard. Incense may be a mystic mockery, when the prayers of +the children of God have ceased to ascend in unison as a sweet +smelling savour to the throne of their Father; the swelling chant +be monotonous jargon, when the beauty and harmony of <i>one +common voice</i> of praise, thanksgiving, and prayer, is not +felt; the vestment be a mere display of weak and empty vanity, +when purity, activity, authority and love, have ceased to be the +realities expressed in the alb, the stole, the crimson and +purple, the gold and silver; the screen, a senseless mass of +carving, the long unbenched and empty nave, so much waste stone +and mortar, to those who see not in it the vast Gentile court, +where the voice of preaching and invitation was sent forth to +sinners to enter the temple and join in the <i>worship</i> of +<i>praise</i> and <i>prayer</i> of the <i>church within</i>.</p> +<p>Why are all these too often as cold and empty outlines of a +nothing to our senses? is it not that their life is gone? +But should we therefore cast away the fragments that remain? +should we not rather desire that the spirit may breathe upon the +dry bones, that they may live again, and form a new and living +temple for the most High to dwell in; the outer edifice of wood +and stone, being the <i>model</i> or <i>statue</i> of that +spiritual church, of which every pillar, every window, every +beam, and curtain, <!-- page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 19</span>should be formed of living members, +with Christ for the foundation and chief corner stone, to be +built up and fashioned by the hand of God; every sand or ash of +truth that lies scattered over the surface of the earthy being +cemented together by bonds of love and charity, to form the +masonry of the one great Catholic Church.</p> +<p>Such thoughts may be misunderstood, and bring down upon us, in +these days of Papal Aggression, anathemas from many a zealous +reformationist, or member of the heterogeneous Protestant +Alliance, nay, perhaps every shade of Protestant dissenter, +evangelical churchman, and Puseyite, may shake his head at us in +pity, and wonder what we mean; we would say to the last, beware +of the <i>shadow</i> without the <i>substance</i>, the +<i>symbol</i> without the <i>truth</i>, the <i>emblem</i> without +the <i>reality</i>; and of the others we would ask +forbearance. Popery does not necessarily lurk beneath the +advocacy of <i>forms</i>.</p> +<p>With such formidable prejudices as we may possibly have raised +by these suggestive hints, dare we hope to find companions in our +visit to the venerable pile of building, whose spire still rears +itself from the valley, where some eight hundred years ago, the +foundations were laid of one of those huge monastic institutions, +combining secular with spiritual power, once so common, and +plentifully scattered over our country, and even then grown into +strange jumbling <!-- page 20--><a name="page20"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 20</span>masses of error and truth, beauty and +deformity? the sole trace of whose grandeur is now to be found in +the church and cloister of a Protestant cathedral, and the palace +of a Protestant bishop.</p> +<p>We must not, however, lose sight of the fact, that this +edifice, in common with most others, among which we have to seek +the past history of the church either at home or abroad, did not +spring into existence until almost every truth possessed by the +early Christians was so hidden by cumbrous masses of +superstition, the growth of centuries of darkness, that it is +difficult, nay, almost impossible, to trace any harmony of +purpose in their outline or filling up; hence the inconsistencies +that have sprung from the efforts to revive the ornaments and +usages of a period when, the life having departed from them in a +great measure, their meaning had been lost, and their practice +perverted; hence, too, the folly often displayed by zealous +ecclesiastical symbolists, in regarding every monkey, dog, +mermaid, or imp that the carvers of wood and stone fashioned from +their own barbarous conceits, or copied from the illuminations +that some old monk’s overheated brain had devised for +embellishment to some fanciful legend, as embodied ideas, to be +interpreted into moral lessons or spiritual sermons.</p> +<p>Before, however, we enter into the detail of the remnants left +us for examination, we may take a <!-- page 21--><a +name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>glance over +the page of the early history of the church, and trace a little +of the origin of those errors which had grown around simple +truths, converting them from beautiful realities into monstrous +absurdities.</p> +<p>A moment’s reflection may suffice to enable us to +believe that the church, as planted by its first head and master, +was a <i>seed</i> to be watered and nurtured by the apostles, +prophets, and ministers appointed to the work, and intended to +have an outward growth of form, as well as inward growth of +spirituality. During the early period of its existence, +while suffering from the persecution of the Roman emperors, it +was impossible that the church could develop itself freely; +consequently, we are not surprised to find that “upper +chambers,” and afterwards the tombs and sepulchres of their +“brethren in the faith,” perhaps, too, of their risen +Lord, were the places of meeting of its members. Nor is it +difficult to trace from this origin the later superstitious +worship at the shrines of the saints.</p> +<p>As early, however, as the peaceful interval under Valerian and +Diocletian, when there was rest from persecution, houses were +built and exclusively devoted to worship; they were called +<i>houses of prayer</i>, and <i>houses of the +congregation</i>. And the idea that the Christian church +should only be a nobler copy of the Jewish temple was then +clearly recognized, <!-- page 22--><a name="page22"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 22</span>the outline being as nearly as +possible preserved, and the inner part of the church, where the +table of the Lord’s Supper stood, ever having been +inaccessible to the common people; an idea that has in a certain +sort of way survived all the reformations, dissolutions, and +dissensions of sixteen hundred years; for do we not even yet see +the minister and <i>deacons</i> of the most ultra-dissenting +meeting-houses appropriating to themselves the <i>table +pew</i>? There has always seemed something incongruous in +the idea, that the minute instructions which God himself thought +it worthy to deliver unto Moses in the mount, for the +construction of a “tabernacle for the congregation,” +and to contain the ark of the covenant, which also formed a model +for the gorgeous temple of Solomon, should be doomed to entire +annihilation at any period of the world’s history.</p> +<p>As Jewish sacrifices, laws, and covenants, were types, +pictures, of the embodiments to be found in the Christian +dispensation, when the anti-type had appeared, surely it is +possible that the tabernacle too was a type of a real building of +living stones, then to be formed and fitly framed together, and +which might have its outward symbol in the edifices of worship in +all ages. We may not pause to dwell upon this idea, further +than it was recognized by the early Christians, of which clear +proof exists.</p> +<p>For the nearest approach to a perfect development <!-- page +23--><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>of +it, we must look to a later date, when Christianity was first +adopted by Constantine, and just prior to its alliance with the +state; and although, from the lack of authority in church +government, errors had already crept in, and mingled with many of +the practices, we believe the modern copyist might find a far +more pure and perfect model there, than in the meaningless +observances and ornaments of the middle ages.</p> +<p>Churches had then grown large and magnificent; they were +divided into three parts, the porch, the nave, and the +sanctuary. In the nave stood the pulpit—preaching at +that time being considered the invitation, or preparation for the +<i>church</i>, whose duty was <i>worship</i>. It was +divided from the sanctuary by a <i>lattice work</i>, or screen, +behind which was often a veil before the holy table, which +answered to the Holy of Holies of the temple, and within it none +but the priests entered. The baptistery was usually +situated without the church doors, and contained a fount, and a +reservoir for washing the hands was always to be found in the +outer court that enclosed all the buildings. Some writers +have traced this to heathen observances; if so, it without doubt +<i>originated</i> in the Jewish practice. The service +within the church was conducted with all the means at command for +rendering it complete. Music was +cultivated—antiphonal singing, or singing in responses, +<!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +24</span>practised. The clergy wore vestments symbolical of +their offices, each form and colour having its significant +meaning. Candles were burning continually at the altar, as +in the holy place of the temple, symbolising God’s presence +in the church. Every part of the building was designed to +form a proportionate whole, and the principle of dedicating to +the house of God the best works of men’s hands was +admitted, the embellishment of His temple being then deemed of +superior importance to the decoration of individual +dwelling-houses.</p> +<p>Transubstantiation had not polluted the table of the Lord by +its presence; the <i>mystery</i> of the <i>spiritual</i> presence +of the Lord in the Eucharist, appealing to <i>faith</i>, had not +been replaced by the <i>miracle</i>, directed to the carnal +senses. Images had no place in the house of God, picture +worship was unknown. Confession of sins was practised, and +penances were imposed, as tests of the sincerity of repentance; +at the celebration of the Eucharist offerings were presented, in +memory of the dead who in their lives had offered gifts to God; +fasting was observed, but only from choice, and Sunday and the +feast of Pentecost were the only <i>festivals</i> and holy-days +observed. Gradually, however, after the alliance of the +church with the state, and through the accession of converts from +the heathen world, grosser elements mingled themselves with these +observances; the superstition that the <!-- page 25--><a +name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>spirits of +the saints hovered around the mortal remains they had tenanted, +led to the removal of their bodies from their tombs, and placing +them within the walls of the church, and to the erection of +shrines, where, first to offer up worship <i>with</i> them, +afterwards <i>to</i> them.</p> +<p>And who among us cannot feel the poetry and truth that gave +birth to this superstition? Who that has ever watched in +the chamber of death the bursting of the earthly chrysalis, has +not felt the soft touch of the spirit’s wing, has not been +conscious of the presence of the spiritualized immortal, has not +recognized the fragrance of the soul passing from its earthly +habitation, and filling the air with the essence of its life, as +the sweet scent of the flower when its perfect fruition has been +accomplished, lingers around the leaves of the falling +petals?</p> +<p>Who that has ever witnessed the laying down of life in ripened +age, by some great and noble type of our humanity, in whose heart +the lion and the lamb, the eagle and the dove have dwelt +together, but has seemed to breathe an atmosphere laden with +power and love, strength, beauty and gentleness, as the spirit +passed forth at the call of Him who gave it birth? And who +has ever seen the portals of the spirit world open before them, +for one in whom all earthly trust, and confidence, and love were +centred, but has felt that an angel guardian lived for them in +<!-- page 26--><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +26</span>Heaven? Is there no plea for saint worship? +But, alas! the poetry and the truth of the superstition became +clouded, and were lost in the dark mists of ignorance and +worldliness, and from their decay sprung up, like a fungus plant, +the noxious idea of the efficacy of reliques, with the monstrous +absurdities that accompanied their presence. Confession and +penance merged into the sale of indulgences, purchased +absolutions, and interdicts; the sleep of the dead, into a belief +in purgatorial fires, voluntary seclusion from the gaieties and +follies of the world, into forced separation from its active +duties; saint worship, image worship, and picture worship +gradually usurped the place of the worship of the one God; the +cross, from a symbol grew into an idol, and emblems, vestments, +and incense, losing their character, from the reality departing, +whose presence they should only shadow forth, grew into mere +accumulations of ceremonial, covering a decayed skeleton. +In this process it is easy to trace the influence of Pagan +superstition. As the heathen world gradually became +converted to Christianity, objects in the new faith were sought +out, around which to cluster the observances and rites of the old +system. Thus the worship offered to Cybele, the great +mother of the gods, who among the innumerable deities of ancient +Rome was pre-eminent, was readily transferred to the madonna, +from a fancied resemblance, and as <!-- page 27--><a +name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>Juno, +Minerva, Vesta, Pan, and others, were the especial guardians of +women, olive trees, bakers, shepherds, &c. &c. So +Erasmus, Teodoro, Genaro, and other saints received homage as the +peculiar patrons of individuals or classes. The Genii, +Lares, and Penates, occupying the Larrarium of the ancient +houses, were replaced, or oftener rebaptized under the names of a +madonna, saints or martyrs; the Emperor Alexander, the son of +Mammaea, actually placed the image of Christ in his Larrarium, +with his Lares and Penates. The <i>Sacrarium</i> took its +origin hence. The Pagan had been accustomed to bring his +<i>hostia</i> as a <i>sacrifice</i> to Jove; the convert found +opportunity to engraft the idea on the commemorative service of +the Eucharist.</p> +<p>Meantime church government had been going on in a floundering +sort of way, groping about in the dark for authority on which to +act, but having lost the apostleship and prophets, set in the +church to rule and guide it, and to aid in the work of perfecting +the saints, the pastors or bishops set about establishing a +system to replace that given them from above—thence began +divisions, schisms, and heresies without number, and as early as +the commencement of the third century, we find the bishops +holding synods as a means towards obtaining Catholic form of +doctrine; gradually the bishops in whose provinces these synods +were held, who were called metropolitans, <!-- page 28--><a +name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>took +precedence in rank to others, and thus those of Rome, Antioch, +and Alexandria, came to be recognised as the heads or +chiefs. After the removal of the seat of empire by +Constantine, this principle extended itself in the western church +at Rome, until the final assumption of temporal and spiritual +power over all Christendom by Hildebrand, or Gregory VII., who, +although not the first that bore the title of Pope, was the first +who thoroughly established the power of the Papacy.</p> +<p>Another important feature of Christianity during these ages, +was the progress of monasticism, which had steadily increased +from the time of Anthony the Hermit, who fleeing from the +corruptions and vanities of the world, had sought to prove and +improve his sanctity, by retirement to a solitary cell, there to +practise all manner of self tortures; in this laudable attempt he +was followed by a host of others, each vying with his brother, as +to which could attain the highest perfection in extravagant +folly. Thus one lived on the top of a pillar, and was +emulated by a whole tribe of pillar saints; another punished +himself for killing a gnat, by taking up his abode in marshes +where flies abounded, whose sting was sufficient to pierce the +hide of a boar, and whose operations upon his person were such as +to disfigure him so that his dearest friends could not recognise +him; another class, the ascetics, carried on <!-- page 29--><a +name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>their rigid +system of self-denial in the midst of society, others wandered +about as beggars, and were afterwards called mendicants, or +wandering friars; but the anchorets, or <i>pillar saints</i>, +attained the ultimatum of glory, in their elevation of sanctity +on the top of their pillars. In progress of time these +hermits began to associate themselves into fraternities; and as +far back as the middle of the second century, we hear of a body +of seventy, establishing themselves in the deserts of Nitria, by +the Nitron lakes. It is told of St. Macarius, the head of +this body, that having received a bunch of grapes, he sent it to +another, who tasting one, passed it to another; he being like +abstemious, sent it again forward to another, until, having gone +the circuit, it reached Macarius again unfinished.</p> +<p>Basil the Great first founded a permanent monastic +establishment to convert people from the error of Arianism; and +Benedict, a native of Mursia in Umbria, <span +class="smcap">a.d.</span> 529, first established a regular order +among the scattered convents, by uniting them under a fixed +circle of laws, seclusion for life being the primary one. +These societies also were made useful by him, in having allotted +to them various occupations, such as the education of the young, +copying and preserving manuscripts, recording the history of +their own times in their chronicles, and also in the manual +labour of cultivating waste lands. At first <!-- page +30--><a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>the +monks had been reckoned among the laity, the convents forming +separate churches, of which the abbot was usually presbyter, +standing in the same relation to the bishop as in other churches; +but monastic life gradually came to be considered the preparation +for the clerical office, especially that of bishop. This +led to the adoption of monastic discipline among the clergy; and +the law of celibacy which had been rejected at the council of +Nice, was then prescribed by Siricius, bishop of Rome.</p> +<p>The convents were the representatives of the Christian +aristocracy or monarchy, the mendicant orders, were the clergy of +the poor. And each in their sphere exercised a great +civilizing influence on the people; the latter especially, +because the former, by their studies and literary labours, were +more occupied in preparing the revival of letters, and the +diffusion of knowledge in their own circle. Under the +auspices of the church, systems of Christian charity were +established, schools for children, hospitals and homes of refuge, +were multiplied; all this was beneficial, it was the warmth of +Christian light shining in dark places, although deep and painful +wounds existed, whose fatal consequences soon became +manifest.</p> +<p>Such was the state of the church when St. Augustine laid claim +to the supremacy of this country, towards the end of the sixth +century.</p> +<p><!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +31</span>This zealous missionary, according to Neander, would +seem to have been especially wanting in the Christian grace of +humility, which no doubt was the cause of the disputes between +the early British church and the Romish Anglo-Saxon that ensued, +which, however, were settled by Oswys, king and afterwards saint +of Northumberland, who decided upon acknowledging the Romish +supremacy, and from that time the doctrines, ritual, Gregorian +chaunt and Latin service of the Romish church were adopted, and +an admirable old man, Theodore of Cilicia, who brought sciences +with him from Greece, occupied the see of Canterbury, <span +class="smcap">a.d.</span> 668–690. The thirst for +knowledge among the people at this time was ministered to by this +good old man, who, with his friend Abbot Hadrian, made a progress +through all England, seeking to gather scholars around him; and +the instructions thus communicated to the English church were +soon after collected by Bede, that simple and thoughtful, as well +as inquiring and scientific priest and monk, who says of himself, +“I have used all diligence in the study of the Holy +Scriptures, and in the observance of conventual rules, and the +daily singing in the church; it was ever my joy either to learn, +or teach, or write something.”</p> +<p>The history of the western church becomes merged henceforth in +the papal power, and we pass on to the era of Hildebrand, or +Gregory VII., its great <!-- page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 32</span>representative. The struggles +of this prelate to suppress simony, and enforce the celibacy of +the clergy, are among the most notorious features of his reign; +legates were despatched to all the provinces of the west, over +which he had already set up claim to supreme power, stirring up +the people against the married clergy; and in order at once to +strike at the root of simony, he forbade entirely the investiture +of ecclesiastics by civil authorities. He excommunicated +five councillors of Henry IV. of Germany, threatened Philip of +France with the same punishment, and would doubtless have carried +out his plans with equal rigour in England, but for the potency +of the monarch with whom he had to deal. William the +Conqueror refused permission for the bishops to leave the country +when summoned to Rome, exercised his right of investiture, and +treated the demands of the Pope with cold indifference. Yet +Gregory took no further steps against so vigorous an +opponent. After the death of both, the contest on the right +of investiture was revived, and in the reign of Rufus was +maintained against him by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury.</p> +<p>We have dwelt perhaps tediously on this period of history, but +its connection with our subject will be apparent, when we come to +the foundation of the cathedral we are visiting; but we must not +altogether omit mention of the most conspicuous feature <!-- page +33--><a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>of +political activity and religious zeal combined, that +characterized that age. The Crusades will eternally remain +in history an example of the devotion and mighty efforts of which +men are capable, when united by a common faith and religious +ideas. Gregory was the first who conceived the project, +realized afterwards by Urban II., through the instrumentality of +that wonderful man, Peter the Hermit, who went through all Europe +fanning into a flame the indignation that had been kindled by the +reports of the ill treatment of pilgrims to Palestine; and it was +not long before a countless host, urged on as much perhaps by +love of adventure, a desire to escape from feudal tyranny and +hope of gain, as religious enthusiasm, gathered round the banner +raised in Christendom. The object in view was not gained, +but the consequences were numerous and beneficial. Nations +learnt to know each other, hostilities were softened by uniting +in a common cause of Christian faith; literature in the west +received a stimulus from the contact into which it was brought +with the more enlightened eastern nations, and the poetry and +imagery of the sunnier climes threw their mantle of refinement +over the barbarisms of the colder countries. Among the +writings that bear this date, is the celebrated controversy +between Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089, with Berengen, +Archdeacon of Angers, on the doctrine of Transubstantiation, a +doctrine <!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 34</span>first promulgated by Paschasius +Radbertus, and at that time supported by Lanfranc, and opposed by +Berengen.</p> +<p>A proof of the partial failure, at least in this country, of +the legislations of Gregory, is found in the history of the +founder of the Norwich Cathedral. Gregory died <span +class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1085, and Herbert of Losinga, Abbot of +Ramshay, Bishop of Thetford, and afterwards Bishop of Norwich, to +which city he removed the see from Thetford, laid the first stone +of the present cathedral, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> +1096. Much has been said and written as to the birth-place +of this prelate: it has usually been considered that he was a +Norman, brought over by William Rufus in 1087, but it is much +more probable that he was a native of Suffolk, and his return +with Rufus is readily accounted for by the custom existing at +that time of sending youths to France, especially Normandy, to +complete their education. That he purchased the see of +Thetford is undisputed, and also the abbey of Winchester for his +father, who, although a married man, filled a clerical +office. Remorse for these simoniacal transactions is said +to have quickly followed, and we are told that the bishop +hastened to Rome to obtain absolution, and then and there had +imposed on him the penance of building a monastery, cathedral, +and some half-dozen other large churches. This incredible +legend is much more reasonably explained by <!-- page 35--><a +name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>reference to +the disturbed state of the affairs of the church before referred +to, which most probably rendered it difficult for Herbert to +obtain the spiritual rights of the see, although possessed of its +temporalities, therefore his visit to Rome; and as for the rest +of the churches attributed to him as works of penance, some other +explanation of their origin must be found. The coffers of +the wealthiest monarch in Europe could not have furnished means +to fulfil such a penance; and when the purchase-money of the see, +£1900, and £1000 for the Abbacy of Winchester, the +expenses of the journey to Rome, and the cost of his work in the +cathedral be considered, we may fairly doubt even the wealthy +Herbert’s resources proving sufficient to meet the further +demands of such splendid edifices.</p> +<p>There is little doubt that while at Rome arrangements were +completed for the transfer of the see, but most probably only in +accordance with a previous determination of the Council of +London, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1075, when it had been +decreed that all bishoprics should be removed from villages to +the chief town of the county. Historians have bestowed upon +this bishop the title of the “Kyndling Match of +Simony,” but the sin was far too common in that age for him +to deserve so distinctive an appellation; and chroniclers, quite +as veritable and much more charitable, have given sketches of his +character, that prove him <!-- page 36--><a +name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>to have been +an amiable, accomplished, and pious man, of great refinement, and +possessing a remarkable love of the young, and a cheerfulness and +playfulness of manner in intercourse with them, that rarely is an +attribute of any but a benevolent mind. We must not, +however, linger upon the personal history of the founder. +Associated with him in the ceremony of laying the foundation, we +find the name of the great feudal lord of the castle, Roger +Bigod, and most of the nobility and barons of the district, one +of whom, Herbert de Rye, was a devoté from the Holy +Land. The first stone was laid by Herbert, the second by De +Rye, the other barons placing their several stones, and +contributing in money to the work. The church, as left by +Herbert, consisted of the whole choir, the lower part of which, +now remaining, is the original building, though much concealed by +modern screenwork; the roofs and upper part are of later +date. Eborard, the successor of Herbert, built the nave, +not then raised to the present height, but terminating at the +line distinctly traceable below the clerestory windows. The +Catholic cathedral, or Catholic architecture, so miscalled +<i>Gothic</i>, is the pride and glory of the middle ages. +The spirit of the times, of fervent aspiration towards heaven, +speaks in it more, perhaps, than in the purer models of more +ancient works. Architecture was then the language through +which thoughts <!-- page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 37</span>found expression, speaking to the +eye, the mind, the heart, and imagination. Kings, clergy, +nobility, people, all contributed towards these structures. +Painting, sculpture, music, found a place in them, and flourished +under the auspices of religion. “The Anglo-Norman +cathedrals were perhaps as much distinguished,” says +Hallam, “above other works of man, as the more splendid +edifices of later date;” and they have their peculiar +effect, although perhaps not rivalling those of Westminster, +Wells, Lincoln, or York.</p> +<p>We shall not attempt to expound the details of the building; +but even the uninitiated may discern at a glance that it is a +work to which many a different age has lent its aid. The +simplicity of the Anglo-Norman style is blended with various +specimens of later date, not inharmoniously. The nave, with +its beautifully grained and vaulted roof, and elaborately +sculptured bosses, like forest boughs, and pendant roots, with +tales of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and hosts of other old Scripture +heroes carved upon them, might almost seem one work with the +sterner aisles, but modern windows bespeak the hand of +perpendicularism to have been busy in after-years. To +Lyhart, bishop of the see in the reign of Henry VI., this roof is +attributed, and to his successor Goldwell the continuation of the +design over the choir. Lyhart lies under a stone beneath +his own <!-- page 38--><a name="page38"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 38</span>roof; Goldwell moulders under a tomb +reared in the choir, where he lies in stone, robed in full +canonicals, his feet resting upon a lion.</p> +<p>On the south side of the nave, between the pillars, is the +tomb of Chancellor Spencer. Upon it the chapter formerly +received their rents, and the stone was completely worn by the +frequent ringing of the money. On the same side, further +up, are two elaborately decorated arches in the perpendicular +style, looking strangely at variance with the simplicity +prevailing around. These purport to be the chapel of Bishop +Nix, who lies buried beneath them, and an altar formerly stood at +the foot of the eastern pillar. The iron-work on which hung +the bell, is still visible on the side of the western +pillar. The pulpit stood near here; a faint trace of its +site is discernible against the pillar, but that is all that +remains to speak of the original purpose of this spacious +court. Bishop Nix it was who tried and condemned the martyr +Bilney, whose trial, as all others of the same nature, was +conducted in the consistory court, or Bishop Beauchamp’s +chapel, in the south aisle of the choir. In the north aisle +of the nave, between the sixth and seventh pillars, is a +door-way, now closed, and converted into a bench, through which +the people formerly adjourned after prayers in the choir to hear +the sermon, which was preached in the green yard, now the palace +gardens, <!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 39</span>prior to the Great Rebellion. +Galleries were raised against the walls of the palace, and along +the north wall of the cathedral, for the mayor, aldermen, their +wives and officers, dean, prebends, &c.; the rest of the +audience either stood or sat on forms, paying for their seats a +penny, or half-penny each. The pulpit had a capacious +covering of lead, with a cross upon it. On the church being +sequestered, and the service discontinued during the +Commonwealth, the pulpit was removed to the New Hall Yard, now +the garden of St. Andrew’s Hall, and the sermons were +preached there. The devastations committed in and about the +building at that period, formed the subject of grievous +lamentations from the pen of good bishop Hall, then the Bishop of +the see, whose sufferings from persecution have become a part of +our country’s history. Hall spent the last melancholy +years of his life in the little village of Heigham, where the +Dolphin Inn, with its quaint flint-work frontage, mullioned +windows, and curiously carved chamber roof and door, yet remain +to associate the spot with his memory: his tomb is in the little +village church close by.</p> +<p>In the centre of the roof of the nave is a circular hole, the +purpose of which for many years puzzled enquirers; but one of the +industrious and intellectual archæologians of the present +day, to whom we are indebted for many interesting discoveries +connected <!-- page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 40</span>with the cathedral, has reasonably +suggested that it was the spot from whence was suspended the +large censer swung lengthwise in the nave at the festivals of +Easter and Whitsuntide. On the north side of the choir +there still exists the small oriel window, through which the +sepulchre was watched from Good Friday to Easter Morning. +This ceremony consisted of placing the host in a sepulchre, +erected to represent the holy sepulchre, covering it with crape, +and setting a person or persons to watch it until Easter Sunday, +as the soldiers watched the tomb of Christ. During the +time, no bells sounded, no music was heard, and lights were +extinguished. In silence and gloom these three days were +passed. In reference to the length of time usually so +denominated, that is from Friday to Sunday, a curious solution, +attributed to Christopher Wren, the son of the architect, has +recently been published; he seems to have puzzled himself over +such like problems, and says, “that the night in one +hemisphere was day in the other, and the two days in the other +were nights in the opposite,” so that in reality there were +three nights and three days on <i>the earth</i>; and as Christ +died for the whole world, not only for the hemisphere in which +Judea was, he therefore truly remained in the grave that +time.</p> +<p>It is difficult for us, accustomed to the sober +undemonstrative, not to say cold demeanour of modern <!-- page +41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +41</span>Protestantism, to form a conception of the effect of the +seasons of festivity or humiliation, as observed even in our own +land in earlier times. The setting apart the greater +portion of the day for weeks together, for religious ceremonies, +and especially the almost dramatic scenes of the Passion week, +sound to our ears as tales of mummery. Whether we have +gained much by the acquisition of the wisdom that sees nothing in +them but occasion for ridicule, or pity, may be a question. +Certain it is that many of the practices were gross and debasing; +many, had beauty and truth in them.</p> +<p>Amongst those peculiar to the season of Easter, are the +ceremony of creeping to the cross on Good Friday, and the +kindling of the fires and lighting of the paschal on Easter +Eve. As these are distinctly mentioned in ancient Norfolk +wills, as practised in this cathedral, we may just describe them +in connection with our visit to it. It was often customary +to leave lands chargeable with the payment of offerings at this +season, both at the creeping of the cross, and to furnish new +paschals or tapers for lighting at Easter.</p> +<p>The creeping to the cross is mentioned in a proclamation, +black letter, dated 26th February, 30th Henry VIII., in the first +volume of a collection of proclamations in the archives of the +Society of Antiquaries, where it is stated, “On Good Friday +it <!-- page 42--><a name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +42</span>shall be declared how creeping to the cross sygnyfyeth +an humblynge of oneself to Christ before the cross, and the +kyssynge of it a memory of our redemption made upon the +cross.” In a letter from Henry to Cranmer, of later +date, a command is issued that the practice should be +discontinued as idolatrous. The ceremony is described by +Davies in his rites of the cathedral church of Durham, where he +relates, “that within that church, upon Good Friday, there +was a marvellously solemn service, in which service time, after +the passion was sung, two of the ancient monks took a goodly +large crucifix, all of gold, of the picture of our Saviour Christ +nailed upon the cross, laying it upon a cushion, bringing it +betwixt them thereupon to the lowest greese or step in the choir, +and there did hold the said cross betwixt them. And then +one of the monks did rise, and went a pretty space from it, and +setting himself upon his knees, with his shoes put off very +reverently, <i>he crept upon his knees</i> unto the said cross, +and after him the other did likewise, and then they set down +again on either side of it. Afterward, the prior came forth +from his stall, and in like manner did creep unto the said cross, +and all the monks after him in the said manner, in the meantime +the whole quire singing a hymn. The service being ended, +the two monks carried the cross and the sepulchre with great +reverence; kings, <!-- page 43--><a name="page43"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 43</span>queens, and common people, all +followed the same custom; it was, however, usual to place a +carpet for royal knees to creep upon.”</p> +<p>The paschal, or taper as it was called, was lighted from fire +struck from a flint on Easter Eve, all previous fires being +extinguished. The paschal was often of great size: that of +Westminster Abbey, in 1557, weighed three hundred pounds. +Many curious records of church disbursements for these and such +like things are recorded; in those of St. Mary-at-Hill, in +London, stands, “For a quarter of coles for the hallowed +fire of Easter Eve, 6<i>d.</i>; also for two men to watch the +sepulchre, from Good Friday to Easter Eve, 14<i>d.</i>; for a +piece of timber to the new paschal, 2<i>s.</i>; paid for a dish +of pewter for the paschal, 8<i>d</i>.”</p> +<p>The church on Easter morning presented another scene. +The sepulchre removed, tapers were lighted, fires kindled, +incense burned, music pealed from the bells, Te Deums from +organs, flowers fresh gathered lent their fragrance to the hour, +birds set loose from the crowd, all joined to celebrate the +joyful festival of the resurrection, and altars glittered with +the whole wealth of silver and gold, that munificence or +penitence had enriched them with. We have left off all +these things—but we sing the Easter hymn.</p> +<p>On the north side of the entrance from the nave into the +anti-choir was placed the chapel, dedicated <!-- page 44--><a +name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>to the Lady +of Pity; and above the spot where Herbert laid the foundation +stone, was placed the altar, dedicated to St. William. As +this sounds rather an unsaintly name, we must explain that St. +William was a little boy, aged nine years, who, in the time of +Rufus, when the Jews were powerful in our land, fell a martyr to +their hatred of the Christians. The tale runs that, in +1137, the Jews, then the leading merchants, doctors, and scholars +of the day, stole a little boy, crucified him, and buried him in +Thorpe wood. They were discovered on their road to the +burial, but escaped punishment by some clever monetary +arrangement with the authorities. Little William was buried +in the wood, and a chapel raised above his grave, the outline of +which is yet discernible by the fineness of the grass, that +distinguishes it from the heath around, the wood having long +since narrowed its limits; the shepherds say weeds will not grow +on the spot, for it is “hallowed ground.” The +bones of the unfortunate boy were afterwards brought to the +cathedral, where another shrine was erected, and dedicated to the +little saint; and Thomas, a monk of Monmouth, is said to have +written <i>seven</i> books of the miracles wrought by these +bones. It was essential, before a saint could be canonized, +that three miracles should be proved to have been wrought by him +in life, or after death; hence, no doubt, the efforts of the monk +to prove their potency, as the <!-- page 45--><a +name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>youth of the +martyr would render it doubly essential to establish his claims +to the honour indubitably. The body of a saint, by act of +canonization, was placed in a sarcophagus, an altar raised over +it, where mass was said continually, to secure his or her +mediation.</p> +<p>Above the anti-choir was the rood loft, in which were kept the +reliques, and on which was erected the principal rood or cross, +with the figure of the Saviour carved on it. The rood loft +was always placed between the nave and choir, signifying that +those who would go from the church militant, which the nave then +represented, into the church triumphant, must go under the cross, +and suffer affliction. The festival of the cross was and is +called Holy Rood Day, and was instituted first on account of the +recovery of a large piece of the cross by the Emperor Heraclius, +after it had been taken away, on the plundering of Jerusalem by +Chosroes, king of Persia, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> +615. Rood and cross are synonymous. The rood, when +perfectly made, had not only the figure of Christ on it, but +those of the Virgin and St. John, one on each side, in allusion +to their presence at the Crucifixion.</p> +<p>Besides the rood, this loft also once contained a +representation of the Trinity, superbly gilt; the Father +blasphemously figured as an old man, with the Saviour Christ on +the cross, between his knees, <!-- page 46--><a +name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>and the Holy +Spirit, in the form of a dove, on his breast. This image +was ornamented with a gold chain, weighing nearly eight ounces, a +large jewel, with a red rose enamelled in gold, hanging on it, +and four smaller jewels. A silver collar was also presented +to it in 1443, that had been bestowed upon some knight as a mark +of honour. Among the relics was a portion of the blood of +the Virgin, to which numbers came in pilgrimage, and made +offerings. Whether or no it liquefied at stated seasons, +like that of St. Genaro, is not recorded.</p> +<p>It is not pleasant to watch the growth of such gross +materialisms over the sacred truths and symbols of Christian +worship; nor can we wonder at the re-actionary enthusiasm that +came and swept them all away, however much good taste may deplore +the loss of many beauties and solid treasures, that disappeared +amid the tumult of the “dissolution.”</p> +<p>Passing beneath the rood loft, now the gallery for one of the +finest organs and choirs our country can boast, we enter the +choir, which, as it extends westward considerably beyond the +tower, is of unusual length, and imposing in its effect; the +lantern, or lower part of the tower, rising in the centre, +supported by four noble arches, that bear the weight of the whole +tower and spire, is impressively beautiful, albeit modern +decorators have been at work to spoil the harmony that should +prevail, by medallions <!-- page 47--><a name="page47"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 47</span>and wreaths that should have no place +there, however pretty in themselves.</p> +<p>The connoisseur may here find an abundant field to exercise +his architectural knowledge, in deciding the various dates of the +several portions of this beautiful part of the building. +The long row of stalls, with their high-backed and projecting +canopies, crowned with multitudes of crocketted pinnacles, the +richly decorated screen-work, that shuts out the plainer Norman +aisles, the mysterious-looking triforium running round the +curious apsidal termination, the light clerestory, with its tier +of windows, divided by feathered and canopied niches, whence +spring the main ribs of the vaulted roof,—form a whole, +that it needs no skill in art or science to be enabled to +appreciate and enjoy. Of painted glass, perhaps the less +said the better—we may be wanting in taste or judgment; +certain it is, it forms no very prominent feature of beauty, and +a kaliedoscope of mediocre arrangement, and a rather indifferent +illumination transparency, may, we fancy, each find a counterpart +among the specimens of colour that do exist. Something is +in progress—perhaps on an improved scale.</p> +<p>But we must not omit to glance at a few of the quaint old +carvings, that remain almost as sole relics of the ancient +furniture of the church. Entering any stall, we observe the +seat turns up on hinges, <!-- page 48--><a +name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>and beneath +is a narrow ledge, which it has been presumed was a contrivance +to relieve the old monks from the fatigue of standing, during the +parts of the service where that position is prescribed by the +rubric; they were supposed to lean upon these ledges in a +half-sitting posture; but a much more reasonable conjecture is, +that they were intended as rests for the elbows and missal when +kneeling in prayer; a glance at them when turned up instantly +suggests the idea of a <i>prie dieu</i>, which they closely +resemble. The lower parts of these <i>misereres</i>, as +they were called, are decorated in a most elaborate manner with +carving, and supported by bosses, sometimes of one or more +figures, often foliage, fruit, and flowers, or shields. +Among them may be found the figures of a lion and dragon biting +each other; owls and little birds fighting; Sampson in armour (?) +slaying the lion; monkeys fighting, one holding a rod, another in +a wheelbarrow; the prodigal son feeding swine; a monk tearing a +dog’s hind legs; another flogging a little boy, amid a +group of other urchins; and numerous other equally inexplicable +designs. If, indeed, such objects did occupy the place +under the eyes of the monks at their devotions, they must have +served admirably to train the risible muscles to +self-command.</p> +<p>It is among these carvings that the presumed satires are to be +found, that are attributed to the dissensions <!-- page 49--><a +name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>existing +between the secular and regular clergy, about the period of the +building of the Cathedral; they would have us interpret them as +something akin to liberty of the press, with all its caprices, +sarcasms, and ironical sneers; but as the self-same subjects have +been found to range over the works of the carvers from the +thirteenth century down to the Reformation, and on the Continent +as well as in this country, it is much more probable that they +were copies from the illustrations of books, at that time +popular, or from the illuminations of fanciful legends, upon +which the monks were continually engaged, and which were always +at hand to serve as patterns for the workmen. The +Bestiaria, a work very celebrated, has been suggested as the +source of many of the figures; among its pages figured mermaids, +unicorns, dragons, &c.; and the calendars also, in which the +agricultural pursuits of each month were depicted on the top of +the page, might form another copy to be modelled from. Such +is the most probable way of accounting for the presence of such +objects, although it is possible that in an age when the church +offered scope for every talent to display itself, so, obscure +recesses were found for the offspring of these original, though +not very refined, creations of fancy, often, however, executed by +the hands of skilful craftsmen.</p> +<p>One look at the antique specimen of the reading <!-- page +50--><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +50</span>desk—a pelican supporting it with the clot of +blood on its breast, symbolizing, we are told, the shedding of +the blood of Christ, as that bird sheds its blood for its +young. It may, or may not be so—but if it be, it is +indeed a gross substitute for the eagle, a symbol that has at +least poetry and spirituality to recommend it.</p> +<p>Beyond this, and behind the high altar, in the recess of the +apse, once stood the bishop’s throne, a plain stone chair, +in the days when the priests did occupy their places in the +church. The seat may still be seen in the aisle, at the +back of this spot, by any one adventurous enough to climb a +ladder, and peep into a niche they will find high up in the +wall.</p> +<p>We let pulpits and thrones of the present day speak for +themselves, and leaving the choir, take a brief look at the fine +old chapels of St. Luke and Jesus, on the north and south side of +the apse. The former still remains in good preservation, +and is used as the parish church of St. Mary in the Marsh, +destroyed by Herbert, the founder of both these chapels, as well +as the Cathedral. The only font within the precincts is +here; it is an ancient affair, brought hither from the demolished +church, and is decorated with carvings, representing the seven +sacraments, the four evangelists, and divers figures of popes, +saints, confessors, &c. Over this chapel is the +treasury of the dean and chapter, from amongst whose <!-- page +51--><a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +51</span>stores, hid up where moth and rust do corrupt, a +beautiful and curious painting of scenes in the life of Christ, +has been of late years rescued, and promoted to the honour of a +place in the vestry room (the ancient prison of the monastery), +where it has been placed under a glass case. It appears to +have served originally as some part of the decoration of an +altar, and was set in a frame, the mouldings of which are richly +diapered and ornamented with gilding, with impressed work and +fragments of coloured glass inserted at intervals, a mode of +enrichment of which specimens are very rare in this +country. The corners of the frame had been removed to adapt +it to the purpose of a table, at the period of the great +“dissolution,” where it had remained with its back +serving for the top of the required table, until accident +revealed it to the eyes of archæological research.</p> +<p>The painting is divided into five compartments, each on a +separate panel, the subjects being the Flagellation of Christ, +Christ bearing the Cross, the Crucifixion, and the +Ascension. The entire back-grounds of the paintings are +gilded and diapered in curious patterns, and the ornaments, such +as the bosses of the harness on the horses of the soldiers, the +goldsmith’s work on the cingulum or belt, are in slight +relief. This mode of painting is described as being +executed upon a thin coating of composition, made of whiting and +white of egg, laid on the <!-- page 52--><a +name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>oaken panel; +upon this the outline of the design was traced with a red line, +and the spaces designed to receive gilding were then marked out +with fresh whitening and egg; the stems marked with a modelling +tool, and leaves added by filling moulds with the paste, and +fixing them by pressure on the surface of the picture; the +puncture work and little toolings were then produced, and the +modelling finished. The gilded portions were next covered +with gold leaf, and the artist proceeded with his pictures, using +transparent colours liquefied by white of egg.</p> +<p>At the extreme end of the Cathedral once stood another chapel, +dedicated to St. Mary the Great, of considerable note in early +times—the offerings at the high altar amounting to immense +sums—daily mass was said here for the founder’s soul +in particular, his friends, relations, benefactors, &c. +The chapel was about seventy feet long and thirty broad, and had +a handsome entrance from the church; it has long since +disappeared. The Jesus chapel on the opposite side is +rather a melancholy looking place at present, one high tomb of +some pretensions in the centre alone distinguishing it from a +lumber room; near this chapel, in the north aisle, is the +speculatory before alluded to, as the opening through which the +sepulchre was watched at Easter; it has, until recently, been +called the ancient “confessional,” a somewhat +extraordinary position for such a priestly office to be exercised +in, as were <!-- page 53--><a name="page53"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 53</span>it so, the penitent must of necessity +have stood in the aisle on tiptoe to reach the ear of his +confessor in the choir, who must equally of necessity have lain +upon the ground to receive the confession.</p> +<p>And now we must pass on to the cloisters, where one almost +involuntarily cries out for “the monks of old,” to +come and give life to the walks among the tombs, no other earthly +figure or garb, save a cowled monk, seeming to have place in such +a scene. The long lines of beautiful windows, on the one +side of pure early English tracery, on another of the decorated +period, and another line still more elaborate in its turnings and +twistings, while the last bespeaks the perpendicularism that +prevails among so many of the windows of the church—each +and all are beautiful. The splendidly carved doorway +entering into the church, that has puzzled learned and simple +alike to interpret truly, is a gem, and the perfectly preserved +lavatories at the opposite corner have their own features of +interest. The roof, groined and vaulted with sculptured +bosses, is covered with fanciful and legendary carvings—the +martyrdoms of saints, St. Anthony roasting on his gridiron, +&c., St. John the Baptist and Herodias with his head in a +charger; the mutilated body of another headless saint has +received from some kind charitable hand the blessing of a new +head, while the old one is under his arm; the date of this +addition or growth is uncertain—it <!-- page 54--><a +name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>looks very +white, rather new; above the door leading into the ancient +refectory is a carving of the Temptation, Adam and Eve and the +serpent as usual; about this said carving hangs a tale, another +than the story of the Fall of man, and too good to be +omitted. The great historian of this comity, and all the +little historians that have condensed, contracted, extracted, and +dove-tailed little bits of his history together, have all with +wonderful precision agreed that above this arch was carved the +<i>espousals</i> or Sacrament of Marriage; and upon that +foundation, or perhaps rather <i>under</i> that head we should +say, entered into elaborate details of how this spot was the +chosen site for the celebration of the sacrament of marriage, +which every one knows was performed in the <i>porch</i> of the +church, and not in the church itself as now, but as this spot is +a very considerable number of yards distant from either church or +porch, some of those troublesome people who will be continually +saying Why? and seeking for a Because, began to look for these +<i>espousals</i>, and found only a <i>Temptation</i>. One +of these individuals, of a peculiarly persevering nature, +earnestly desirous of reconciling these strange discrepancies +between the assertion of a respectable old historian, and his own +eye-sight, set to work, and the following was the result. +He found that much of this good historian’s description of +the cloister was a tolerably free translation of an old Latin +work by <!-- page 55--><a name="page55"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 55</span>William of Worcester, the original +manuscript of which exists in the library of Corpus Christi, at +Cambridge. It was printed and edited, many years ago, by +one Nasmith, and an extract is to be found in the last edition of +the Monasticon, where the work of a bishop who built one side of +the cloister is described as extending to the arches, “in +quibus maritagia dependent,” which must be translated +“in which the espousals or marriages hang.” Now +it seemed to this inquisitive individual that a very trivial +error of the transcriber might have entirely altered the sense of +the passage; that if the word “maritagia” should turn +out to be “manut’gia” for +“manutergia,” all the mystery would be +explained. Upon inquiry, and inspection of the original +manuscript, this proved a correct surmise on the part of the +ingenious as well as inquisitive individual, and the arches in +which the (manutergia) <i>towels</i> hang, <i>close by the +lavatories</i>, turn out to be the substitute for the arches in +which the <i>espousals hang</i>. Overlooking the single +stroke of a pen, produced these queer misconceptions <i>for above +a century</i>.</p> +<p>The following is an epitaph composed for Jacob Freeman, who +was buried in the cloister yard, where he used often to lie upon +a hill and sleep, with his head upon a stone. The old man +was very hardly used by the <i>committee</i> for so doing, and +for frequenting church porches, and repeating the <i>common</i> +prayer <!-- page 56--><a name="page56"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 56</span>to the people, in spite of ill +treatment, he being often sent to Bridewell, whipped and reproved +for it.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">EPITAPH.</p> +<p>“Here, in this homely cabinet,<br /> +Resteth a poor old anchoret;<br /> +Upon the ground he laid all weathers,<br /> +Not as most men, goose-like, on feathers,<br /> +For so indeed it came to pass,<br /> +The Lord of lords his landlord was;<br /> +He lived, instead of wainscot rooms,<br /> +Like the possessed, among the tombs.<br /> +As by some spirit thither led,<br /> +To be acquainted with the dead:<br /> +Each morning, from his bed so hallowed,<br /> +He rose, took up his cross, and followed;<br /> +To every porch he did repair,<br /> +To vent himself in common prayer,<br /> +Wherein he was alone devout,<br /> +When <i>preaching</i>, <i>jostled</i>, <i>praying out</i>,<br /> +In sad procession through the city,<br /> +Maugre the devil or committee,<br /> +He daily went, for which he fell<br /> +Not into <i>Jacob’s</i>, but <i>Bridewell</i>,<br /> +Where you might see his loyal back<br /> +Red-lettered, like an almanack;<br /> +Or I may rather else aver,<br /> +Dominickt, like a calendar;<br /> +And him triumphing at that harm,<br /> +Having nought else to keep him warm.<br /> +With Paul he always prayed, no wonder<br /> +The lash did keep his flesh still under;<br /> +Yet whip-cord seemed to lose its sting,<br /> +When for the church, or for the king,<br /> +<!-- page 57--><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +57</span>High loyalty in such a death<br /> +Could battle torments with mean earth;<br /> +And though such sufferings he did pass,<br /> +In spite of bonds, still <i>Freeman</i> was.<br /> +’Tis well his pate was weather-proof;<br /> +The palace like it had no roof;<br /> +The hair was off, and ’twas the fashion,<br /> +The <i>crown</i> being <i>under sequestration</i>.<br /> +Tho’ bald as time and mendicant,<br /> +No fryer yet, but Protestant—<br /> +His head each morning and each even<br /> +Was watered with the dews of heaven.<br /> +He lodged alike, dead and alive,<br /> +As one that did his grave survive,<br /> +For he is now, though he be dead,<br /> +But in a manner put to bed,<br /> +His cabin being above ground yet,<br /> +Under a thin turf coverlet.<br /> +Pity he in no porch did lay,<br /> +Who did in porches so much pray;<br /> +Yet let him have this Epitaph:<br /> +Here sleeps poor Jacob, stone and staff.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>We must not close our chapter on cathedrals and bishops +without some little further notice of the more important branch +of the subject, although we venture not upon biographies of the +many whose names shine forth from among the list of +“spiritual fathers,” well meriting more detailed +sketching than would be here in place. Hall, Nix, Lyhart, +and Goldwell, have had their share of passing comment, but there +are other names that must not be looked over in silence. +Among the earliest stands Pandulph, <!-- page 58--><a +name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>the notorious +legate from the Pope, during the troubled reign of John, when +disputes about the appointment of Stephen Langton to the +archbishopric of Canterbury had had our country under the +interdict of his papal majesty; and for six years all Christian +rites were suppressed, save baptism and confirmation, in +consequence of jealousies between these rival powers upon the +vexed question of the right of investiture. It was mainly +through the agency of Pandulph that the king was at last inclined +to submit, in return for which the bishopric of this diocese was +conferred on the successful diplomatist. Walter de +Suffield, another name of at least great local repute, was the +founder of the Old Man’s Hospital, an institution at this +day in the receipt of £10,000 a year, out of which some +<i>two hundred</i> old men and women are maintained in clothes, +food, and a shilling a day, and <i>lodged</i> in a beautiful +<i>old church</i>, founded by Lyhart at a later period, the +trustees of such a fund thinking this arrangement preferable to +restoring the church to its original use, and providing more +suitable buildings for the accommodation of the recipients of the +charity. The tomb of Suffield, in his own chapel, at the +east end of the cathedral, became a shrine for worship, to which +pilgrimages were frequent, and miracles in abundance were said to +be wrought.</p> +<p>Percy, brother of the famous Earl of Northumberland, <!-- page +59--><a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>was +another who wore the mitre of the see; he lies buried before the +roodloft door. Henry de Spencer, the warrior bishop, is +another, who raised and headed an army of three thousand men, and +conducted it in person to Flanders, where he figured prominently +in the wars between Richard and the French king, as well as in +the struggles of Urban and Clement for the papacy. His +military fame was rivalled by his notorious zeal in the cause of +his church, evidenced by unmitigated persecution of the Lollards, +whose adherence to the doctrines of Wickliffe was rewarded by +every variety of penance or punishment that could be devised to +exterminate the heresy. A splendid monument of this spirit +of the man and age is left us in the magnificent gateway opposite +the West entrance to the cathedral, erected by Sir Thomas +Erpingham, at the bidding of De Spencer, as a penance for his +sympathy with these heretical doctrines. Above the doorway +is an effigy of himself in armour, kneeling and asking pardon for +his offence. Rugg—an instrument of Henry’s, in +obtaining the divorce of Catherine of Arragon; Hopkin—a +notorious persecutor of the Protestants in Mary’s reign; +Parkhurst—a literary celebrity; Wren—the victim of +Puritanism, which placed him a prisoner in the tower for eighteen +years without a trial; Butts—a friend of Cranmer; Horne, +whose letters on infidelity have given him a fame; and <!-- page +60--><a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +60</span>Bathurst, respected in the memory of many yet living; +are names conspicuous in the catalogue; not yet complete without +two others, Stanley and Hinde. Of Hinde we can but say his +work is yet in hand, he is earning his place in history, for some +future pen to chronicle; but may be, no fitter subject could be +offered for a closing scene to this chapter on the bishops and +cathedral of this see, than memory can recal of that day, when +beneath the lofty nave of the one, a grave was opened to receive +the mortal remains of the loved and honoured Stanley. Who, +among the thousands that then gathered themselves together, +wearing not alone the outer symbols of mourning and grief, but +carrying in their hearts deep sorrow, and in their eyes +<i>unbidden</i> tears—who will forget the solemn stillness +of the thronged multitude as the simple pall was borne, unmocked +by plumes or other idle trappings of fictitious woe, through the +avenues of unhired mutes, whose heads were bowed in heartfelt +reverence, and lines of infant mourners, clad in the livery of +their benefactor’s bounty, and watering the pathway to his +tomb with honest tears of childhood’s love—the +attitudes of grief and saddened faces that filled the crowded +aisles, and no less crowded walks above—the hushed +breathing that left the air free to echo the tones of the wailing +dirge, as it rose upon the voices of the surpliced choir, who +mourned <!-- page 61--><a name="page61"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 61</span>a child of harmony, and wafted their +strains of lamentation through all the heights of the vaulted +roof, while beneath its centre the grave was receiving the +earthly tabernacle of the good, the noble-hearted, and the great +in deeds of love and charity? Who does not remember the +measured tread of the dispersing thousands, as each took his last +look of the simple coffin in its last resting-place, and as the +dead march sent forth its full low notes from the organ’s +peal, and the rich closing bursts of harmony proclaimed like a +rush of mighty wind the soul’s release and triumph? and who +has not often since lingered around the simple marble slab that +marks the spot, and felt that it had been consecrated as a +shrine, by a baptism of tears from the fountain of loving hearts +on that memorable day?</p> +<h2><!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +62</span>CHAPTER III.<br /> +<span class="smcap">the castle</span>.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><i>The Castle</i>.—<i>Present +aspect</i>.—<i>Grave of the +Murderer</i>.—<i>Historical Associations</i>.—<i>View +from the +Battlements</i>.—<i>Thorpe</i>.—<i>Kett’s +Castle</i>.—<i>Lollard’s +Pit</i>.—<i>Mousehold</i>.—<i>Plan of Military +Structure of Feudal Times</i>.—<i>Marriage of Ralph +Guader</i>.—<i>Roger Bigod</i>.—<i>Feudal +Ranks</i>.—<i>Social Life</i>.—<i>Field +Sports</i>.—<i>Hawking</i>.—<i>Legend of +Lothbroc</i>.—<i>Laws of +Chivalry</i>.—<i>Tournaments</i>.—<i>Feminine +Occupations</i>.—<i>Tapestry</i>.</p> +<p>In the centre of the Old City rises one of those huge mounds, +heaped up by our ancient warrior forefathers, which here and +there, over the surface of our island, yet stand out in bold +relief against the blue back-ground of the sky, like giant models +for some modern monster twelfth-cake, only, however, occasionally +crowned by the original structures, of which they were the +ground-works, and in no other case, perhaps by one whose outward +coating of modern date more thoroughly might carry out the +suggested idea of a frosted moulding, designed to grace the +summit of a supper-table fortification.</p> +<p>How involuntary is the longing to peel off the <!-- page +63--><a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>pasty +composition and find the substance hidden beneath, be it as +crumbly and mottled as the most luscious monument ever reared in +honour of the feast of the Epiphany, from the era of the Magi +downwards. But so it may not be; the flinty roughnesses of +the past are hidden from our eyes by the soft covering of refined +stucco, and we must be content with the attempt of ingenious +modern masonry to give us an impress of what the castle called +Blanchflower was, in lieu of beholding it unspoiled save by the +hand of time. It is, however, something to know that there +really does exist beneath that outer casing, a bonâ fide +mass of flint and stone, some portions of which at least have +stood, even from the days of the sea-king Canute; by him raised +on the site of the royal residence of East Anglian princes, and +yet earlier dwelling place of Gurguntus and other British kings, +and by him suffered to retain the name of +“Blanchflower,” first given, so legends say, by one +of its royal owners in honour of his mother, Blanche, a kinswoman +of the mighty Cæsar. There it yet stands, its very +roots planted high above the topmost stories of all meaner +habitations, its battlements towering to the sky, as though +climbing from their earthen base through the turrets and towers, +reared as a stronghold for human pride and ambition, to heights +that would rival the lofty spire in the valley beneath, that +blends itself with <!-- page 64--><a name="page64"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 64</span>the heaven to which it points in the +solemn attitude of silent devotion, as if to ask, “Which +can do the greatest works, man serving man, or man serving +God?”</p> +<p>With the monuments of two such spirits side by-side, fancy +might wander into perfect labyrinths of mystic and speculative +thought, not void of beauty, tracing the unseen workings of the +spirit-powers there sought to be embodied, each lingering about +and shedding itself around the temple consecrated as its +shrine—devotion, yet meetly expressed in the tapering +spire—human Despotism and human frailty, finding in every +age a fitting representative within the lordly castles of the +robber chiefs, from the day when its walls formed the boundary of +life to feudal wives and slaves, and its dungeons, the tombs of +vanquished foes, through every age of its isolated grandeur, down +to the picture of aggregated solitudes and woes, that it presents +in the character now assigned to it, of a prison-home for +criminals.</p> +<p>But for some such sense of the invisible links that make the +present purposes to which its limits are devoted, one with the +past, there might seem to be much difficulty in connecting the +picture of the felon-town now enclosed within its walls, with any +associations of history; or the accumulations of red brick, +slate-roofed ranges of well-lighted, well-ventilated and +comfortable chambers, made dark or miserable <!-- page 65--><a +name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span><i>only</i> +by the spirits that tenant them, with the ideas or expectations a +castle-prison could suggest. That such should be the only +<i>cells</i> to be found or seen, is to the eye and ear of mere +curiosity an absolute disappointment. One feels half angry +at the sudden annihilation of the vague and undefined fillings up +that fancy had given to the outline of the feudal relic. +The learned may know it all before-hand, but the uninitiated +cannot fail to receive an unwelcome surprise, in finding the +substantial and important looking keep, withal its crust of +stucco, little more than a shell, whose kernel is made up of +modern habitations, as fresh-looking as though they had but +yesterday sprung up as pimples on the face of nature, a title not +inappropriate to most red brick emanations of architectural +skill. But our visit to the Castle must not be spent in +such vague lamentations over what is <i>not</i>; neither would we +in our regrets desire to be classed among the morbid cravers +after horrors, that can find pleasure in condemned cells, +gibbets, chains associated with murderers, or any such like +appurtenances of a county gaol; thankfully we claim exemption +from any such mental disease, nor even as the chroniclers of +facts would we dwell one moment on the points of detail that +would pander to such a taste in our fellow beings.</p> +<p>A prison must ever teem with painful associations, one +scarcely more so than another, nor does the fact <!-- page +66--><a name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>of an +apartment, in no way differing from those around it, having been +tenanted by a Rush, whom some would call the mighty among +murderers, make it an object to our ideas more worthy either a +visit or description. The simple initials in the wall of +the prison-yard, above the dishonoured grave where he lies, with +the few others who have met a like miserable fate, speak to the +heart—and we turn from them with an inward whispering, +there—who was <i>his</i> murderer?—was it justice, +human or Divine? Did the child speak with folly, or +childhood’s own wisdom, when it asked if Rush died for +breaking God’s commandment, “Thou shalt not +kill,” <i>did</i> not those who killed him also break +it? Such is not fiction—its simple baby logic answers +for it—but we say as to the child’s query, We cannot +answer you. Many a great and noble heart recognises the +minister of justice, as God’s own delegate, to claim the +yielding up of his Creature’s life, a satisfaction to the +broken laws of God and man. Many as great and noble, and we +would think as mindful of the great ends of justice and design of +punishment, would say, Leave the gift of God, the breath of life, +at His disposal, who has said, “Vengeance is +mine;”—trust to <i>His justice</i> as to <i>His +mercy</i>, to which alone you appeal, when sending the soul into +his presence, reeking with guilt and sin. As spoke the +child, on that sad, solemn day of darkness,—when the spirit +of sin <!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 67</span>seemed to breathe over the debased +city, and spread its contaminations through every channel where +its subtle essence could find an inlet, till the moral vision of +the very purest seemed to be obscured, and the atmosphere tainted +for a while, by the sickening familiarity with the face of +crime;—the last day of the wretched victim of unrestrained +passions in life and in death,—whose struggles of vanity +and egotism, with the quailings of the flesh, evidenced by the +whitening hair, the trembling hand, and vapid mutterings, through +a trial prolonged to an unheard-of length, had drawn around him a +host of witnesses, almost without a parallel in history; and not +alone of the mass of unlearned and ignorant, whom we are wont to +charge with insensibility and coarseness, nor of the stern +philosopher, nor even sickly religionists, who find some +concealed duty in witnessing elaborations of torture, but of the +gentle hearts that move within the mothers and daughters of +England; and white-gloved and richly-dressed ladies thronged to +use the tickets that gained them privileged entrance to a gallery +that overlooked this spectacle of human agony—(oh! is there +one among that assembled galaxy of England’s fair ones that +can recal that scene, without a shudder and a blush for the very +refinements that cast their cloak around the horrors of the +reality?)—that day,—when the festivities of concert +and party over, when the merriment of the <!-- page 68--><a +name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>bustling, +noisy fair outside the court of trial had died away, and room was +left for the last act of the drama—as then, the child +lifted up its saddened voice, with its question so quaintly +simple—so was it echoed back to us from the grave of that +poor criminal, and a torrent of memories, linked with that +fearful time, came flooding back upon us, as the fruit of the +tree of crime, whose seed was then sown before our eyes, seemed +to lie scattered at our feet, in the later-made grave, and +sin-filled cells around us. But enough of this—the +darkest tragedy of later days associated with our castle +prison—how many more silent, but not less sad, have been +enacted within its limits, in chambers now inaccessible to human +tread, we may not know! how many death sighs have been breathed +out from its hidden dungeons, how many spirits violently sundered +from their earthly tabernacles, and sent wandering through +eternity before a home had been prepared for their rest, the +record books of earth yield no account, but they are registered +above; shall it avail to plead, “Am I my brother’s +keeper?” when the great final day of reckoning shall come, +and the judges and rulers of the earth shall be summoned to give +an account of their stewardship? But these are <i>not</i> +the thoughts awakened upon crossing the threshold of this portal, +for, strange to say, the first greeting offered us, is the +smiling welcome of gay, liberty-loving <!-- page 69--><a +name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>flowers, +blooming as sweetly and merrily in that atmosphere of sin and +sorrow, as ever they could have done on mountain heath or +valley’s dell. Who knows what messages of hope and +love these simple tenants of the miniature conservatory have +breathed to weary, sin-laden hearts, bowed down in penitence for +guilt! There was kindness in the heart that placed them +there, and justice is blessed in owning servitors that do her +bidding with such gentle mien. Modern prisons, their +advantages and defects, have formed subjects for the pens of many +writers; no need, therefore, that we longer dwell on this aspect +of our city stronghold. Colonies of zebra-clad prisoners +tenant the wards, and thread the intricate passages leading +through tiers and radiating wings of cells, so cunningly arranged +that, amid all the appearance of congregations, separation and +solitude is ensured, even upon the giant wheel itself, and still +further, even in the place for worship, where boardings, +shelvings, and all manner of strangely devised contrivances, +prevent communion between the several classes of the unfortunate, +that suspected and condemned may not mingle, the felony and the +misdemeanour may not be in juxtaposition; these are the features +that meet the eye, and it would not be right to leave such +judicious arrangements unnoticed,—albeit our visit to the +castle walls may have more to do with its past than present +history.</p> +<p><!-- page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +70</span>Tradition assigns the foundation of this castle to +Gurguntus, the son of Belinus, the twenty-fourth king of Britain +from Brutus, who, having observed in the east part of Britain a +place well fitted by nature for the building a fortress on, +founded a certain castle of a square form, and of white stone, on +the top of a high hill near a river, which castle was completed +by his successor, Guthulinus, who “encompassed it with a +wall, bank, and double ditches, and made within it subterraneous +vaults of a long and blind or intricate extent.” +Another early writer ascribes to Julius Cæsar the honour of +being its founder, and explains the origin of certain rents and +fissures, perceptible in its sides before its recent restoration, +to the earthquake that shook the earth “when the vail of +the temple was rent in twain;”—he adds, that +afterwards Thenatius, Lud’s son by marriage with Blanche, +kinswoman of Julius, gave it the name of +“Blancheflower.” Others attribute this title to +the whiteness of its walk, and assign to the Normans its +appropriation to the edifice they found existing here.</p> +<p>Without doubt, as the metropolis of the Iceni, it was an +important place prior to the advent of the Saxons, who made it +the royal seat of the kings of East Anglia, and afterwards the +residence of governors, called aldermen, dukes, or earls. +During the Danish wars, the castle was often lost and won again, +<!-- page 71--><a name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +71</span>until Alfred the Great wholly subdued the Danes, and he +is said to have greatly improved its fortifications. The +original structure, however, is said to have fallen a sacrifice +to the ravages of the Danes under Sweyn, and the present edifice +is attributed to Canute, his son, upon his return after his +flight upon the accession of Ethelred. The supposition of +its being the work of the Normans after the Conquest is totally +refuted by the events recorded as having transpired within its +precincts, while in the custody of Ralph Guader, who took +possession of it in the seventh year of William’s +reign. The elevation upon which the castle and its +fortifications were founded, some writers have conjectured to be +originally the work of heathen worshippers, who raised such like +giant temples to the sun; others have suggested the possibility +of its forming a portion of the famous Icknild Way.</p> +<p>This, in common with other military structures of the same +period, which were mostly built upon one plan, their chief +strength consisting in their height and inaccessibility, +originally included within its boundaries a considerable space of +ground; the outer ballium (bailey or court) having an elevation +of about one hundred feet above the level of the river; and the +inner, upon which stands the keep, raised by art about twenty +feet higher, with the soil of the inner ditch—still remain +entire; originally <!-- page 72--><a name="page72"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 72</span>three ditches surrounded the castle, +from their circular form betokening great antiquity; the second +and third have been long filled up and built over, but are +distinctly traceable to the eye of persevering enquiry.</p> +<p>The original entrance to the outer court was from Burgh +Street, at the end of which was the barbican, or passage leading +to the first draw-bridge and gate; the second was opposite, and +intermediate between it and the present bridge; a draw-bridge +formerly occupied the site of the present road-way across, at the +end of which stood the gateway for raising it with a strong tower +above it, only removed within the last century.</p> +<p>Two round towers at the upper end of the draw-bridge, whose +foundations still remain, constituted additional defences of the +upper ballium. Connected with the tower on the west side, +were dungeons or vaults, until recently in use for prisoners +before their committal.</p> +<p>The keep, which occupies but a small portion of the original +plan, is about seventy feet high, and ninety-two feet long, by +ninety-six broad.</p> +<p>The walls are composed of flint rubble, faced with Caen stone, +intermixed with a stone found in the neighbourhood.</p> +<p>The keep bore the same relation to the castle as the citadel +to a fortified town; it was the last <!-- page 73--><a +name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>retreat of +the garrison, and contained the apartments of the baron or +commandant. Little of these is, however, left us to +explore; the outer wall with its ornamental arches being, as we +before hinted, nothing more than a shell surrounding an open +yard, now filled by detached modern buildings, occupying the site +of the spacious and magnificent chambers that once filled the +interior.</p> +<p>Upon the surface of these walls, within are distinctly +traceable the original openings to the various compartments, now +filled up by masonry; but within the memory of some yet living, +the dungeons and storehouses of the basement story were standing, +and were accessible by stair-cases in the north-east and +south-west angles.</p> +<p>The entrance to the first floor is on the east side, by a +flight of steps leading to a platform projecting outside fourteen +feet from the wall. It is now covered in, and forms a +spacious vestibule, having three open arches towards the east, +one on the north, and one on the south, in which is the +entrance. It is usually called Bigod’s tower, its +erection being by some attributed to Roger Bigod, in the reign of +William Rufus, and by others to Hugh Bigod, during the twelfth +century; the whole of it has undergone restoration. The +doorway from the vestibule is through an archway of Saxon +character, supported by five columns with ornamented capitals; +<!-- page 74--><a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +74</span>two columns only remain; upon the capital of the first, +on the left, is a bearded huntsman in the act of blowing a horn, +with a sword by his side, and holding with his left hand a dog in +slips, which appears to be attacking an ox; on the second capital +is another huntsman, spearing a wild boar of an unusual size.</p> +<p>The fable of the wolf and lamb, the wolf and crane, a +monstrous head and arms, attached to the bodies of two lions, are +amongst the other ornamental carvings, traceable on the other +portions of the capitals and arches, but greatly mutilated.</p> +<p>Prior to the restoration of the tower, this archway had been +totally concealed by masonry; it is only surprising, therefore, +that so much of it should still be in so good a state of +preservation.</p> +<p>A corridor led from this entrance to the chapel, which was on +this floor in the south-east angle, with an oratory or sanctum in +the corner, separated from it by an archway supported by two +columns, the capitals of which are ornamented, and at the angles +are figures of pelicans. The columns are decidedly Norman, +the costumes and helmets bearing close resemblance to those on +the Bayeux tapestry. On the east side of the oratory is a +curious altar-piece in five compartments, representing the +Trinity, St. Catherine, St. Christopher, St. Michael and the +Dragon, and another figure too much mutilated to be +recognized.</p> +<p><!-- page 75--><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +75</span>We confess ourselves indebted for these details, to more +erudite and heroic adventurers in the voyage of discovery among +these ruins than ourselves, the inaccessible looking archway of +the oratory high upon the wall, to be attained only by crossing a +plank from a tier of cells opposite, offering little temptation +to us to ascertain for ourselves the accuracy of statements made +by learned authorities, whose researches we presume neither to +question nor emulate. We do not venture to trespass on +paths so much more ably trodden; what pleases or strikes the eye +of the simple observer, we may note, perhaps often deriving +sensations of pleasure from objects that may offend the +cultivated taste of the connoisseur, but as we plead ignorance, +we trust to meet with indulgence. Associations, rather than +details of outline, cluster round our minds in visiting these +scenes, and on them we dwell.</p> +<p>The kitchens and dormitories were also on this floor, the +former accessible by a long narrow passage in the north wall, +from the spiral stairs in the north-east angle.</p> +<p>The next floor was occupied by the state apartments; and on +the exterior of the west side are four large windows with central +columns, opposite to corresponding openings in the inner wall for +the admission of light into the interior. The gallery on +this side contains three little recesses, or chambers, <!-- page +76--><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>as +they would have us call them, benched on either side, and +probably intended as waiting-rooms for the attendants. It +communicated with the south-west flight of stairs, but although +these yet remain, they are not safe to be explored.</p> +<p>The gallery on the north side has similar windows, and is +reached by the north-east staircase, with which the kitchen +gallery communicates; the passage is vaulted, and the tracings of +large archways, in the inner wall, filled in by masonry, have led +to the idea that a large banqueting chamber traversed this side +of the building, the entrance to which would be immediately +connected with the grand entrance from the tower. Another +gallery, somewhat similar, runs along the south wall, not now +accessible. These three galleries are all that remain +entire of the original apartments, the various archways and +outlines in the walls, rather suggesting than deciding questions +concerning the arrangement of the interior filling up.</p> +<p>Having finished our explorings among these hollow portions of +the walls, the winding stairs lead on to the giddy heights of the +ramparts, where a scene awaits the adventurer’s eye, that +may well repay a steady effort to conquer the propensity to walk +over the unprotected side towards the court within. And +here we pause to take a survey of the picture as it lies out +before us; houses, slated, tiled, <!-- page 77--><a +name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>thatched and +leaded, with their forests of chimneypots, the growth and +accumulations of centuries; high pinnacles of brick, sending +forth their volumes of smoke from huge factories, telling their +tales of human skill and genius triumphing over the powers of +earth, air, and water, bringing into subjection the sinews of +rock and veins of ore, and training them, by the aid of invisible +and subtle fluids, to yield obedience to the will of man, and +minister to the wants and luxuries of his being; windmills +spreading out their giant arms to stay the very winds of heaven +in their path till they have done their work; waters checked in +their onward course till their rebellious force has been turned +to profit; all speak of matter visible and invisible, made +subject to spirit power, and ministering to the will and wants of +man. Tales, too, of human toil and suffering, of wasting +labour, spent in the service of luxury and indolence, burthen the +air breathed forth from groaning engine-houses, and rising up +from hidden nests of poverty that lie sheltered beneath the eaves +of rich men’s habitations, whose fair frontings to modern +streets or road-ways, too often form but outer coatings of +decency to masses of corruption hidden away in close yards, +courts, and alleys, at their back—church towers, and +spires, and turrets in manifold variety and abundance; and +prominent among the host, stands out in all the glory of hale +<!-- page 78--><a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +78</span>old age, fine old St Peter’s, looking down from +his proud eminence in solemn dignity, and smiling at all the +feeble efforts of the mushrooms clinging to his very base to hide +his fair proportions; far and wide may we look to find his peer, +even among such gems of beauty as the patron saints so lavishly +have scattered among the lanes and thoroughfares of this very +garden of churches. Such are the city features of the +panoramic see; turning to another point of view, away, beyond the +foreground of the sheep and cattle pens that bespeak the +conversion of the ancient inner ballium into a modern +market-place for live stock, and across the deep running channel +laden with crafts not yet wholly superseded in their labours by +steam—that infant Hercules, whose leading-strings are +compassing the surface of the globe—we catch a glance of +the hanging woods of the fairest village our Norfolk scenery may +boast, whose Richmond-like gardens skirting the pathway of the +winding river, and meadow lands beyond, dotted here and there by +the alder cars that once gave a name to the Benedictine convent +close by, form a landscape of mingled animation and quiet rural +beauty, not often to be equalled in the suburbs of a +manufacturing city. No marvel why gala spots for +pleasure-loving citizens should be found interspersed among the +more refined parterres of the wealthy upon the shores; no marvel +that a summer’s <!-- page 79--><a name="page79"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 79</span>evening should witness crowds of +holiday-seeking folks, thronging to taste the sweets of fresh +air, and rest from labour, in the midst of so fair a scene.</p> +<p>No marvel that a water frolic becomes dignified into a regatta +there, that for once, within the circuit of the year, the great +and small, the proud and humble, rich and poor, can mingle, to +look together upon a common object of amusement—that +fashion and poverty can meet in the field of pleasure—St. +Giles and St. James acknowledge the existence, nor frown at the +presence of each other. And who does not rejoice in the +festivity, almost the sole remnant of national sport left us in +this iron-working age? Who that can spare an hour from the +counter or the loom, or desk—from scribbling +six-and-eight-penny opinions, or scratching hieroglyphical +prescriptions for <i>aqua pura</i> draughts, does not contrive to +find some mode of transit by earth, air, or water to the scene of +mirth. Even a soaking shower is unavailing to damp the +ardour of the multitude, and not unseldom lends fresh stimulus to +fun and laughter among the merry-hearted denizens of smoke-dried +city streets and lanes. But we must not linger in their +midst—the gay pleasure-boats, with their shining sails, +tacking and bending to the breeze, the swift skullers in the gay +uniforms, the eager faces that line the course, the signal guns +and flags of victory, the music, and the mirth—all tell +that the <!-- page 80--><a name="page80"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 80</span>spirit of enjoyment is not yet quite +gone out from among us. We must now pass to other, and far +different objects, and from the present, travel back to the past, +whose page of history unfolds itself in the nearer object that +meets our eye, the whitened sides of the “Lollard’s +pit,” where martyrs of old poured forth their dying +prayers; and yielded up their bodies to be burned as witness of +their faith—where Bilney listened to the words of his +murderers, beseeching him to release them before the people from +all blame, that they might not suffer loss of popularity or +alms—and where he turned and said: “I pray you, good +people, be never worse to these men for my sake, as though they +should be the authors of my death. It is not +they;”—then was bound to the stake and slowly burned, +in the presence of the multitudes that clothed the natural +amphitheatre around. The heights above are crowned by the +ruins of the old priory of St. Leonards, on the one side, and on +the other by a few fragments of St. Michael’s chapel, whose +vestiges, under a name assigned to them through their later +notoriety, as the stronghold of the rebel Kett, yet linger as +landmarks on the early pathway of national progress and +reform.</p> +<p>There sat the “King of Norfolk,” as he was styled, +and held his councils of state under the old oak, which bore +thenceforth the title of the “oak of <!-- page 81--><a +name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>the +Reformation;”—there morning and evening service were +daily read to the rebel forces, and the Litany and Te Deum were +listened to with solemn earnestness. There Parker, the +future archbishop of Canterbury, ventured into the midst of the +rebel camp, and, under the shade of the oak, sent forth the voice +of exhortation to the discontented, but to little effect. +Enclosed lands, commons stolen from the public, and other +grievances suffered by the poor from the hands of the rich, lay +at the hearts of the people, and the prelate’s errand of +peace had well nigh terminated ill, but for the power of +music—the solemn Te Deum burst forth from the voice of the +rebel’s chaplain, and swelled by many “singing +voices” into a loud strain of sweet harmony, fell upon the +ear of the multitude, like oil upon the raging waters, and by its +sweetness shed peace for the time on all around. In this +rebellion fell the gallant Earl of Sheffield, in his zeal to aid +the efforts of the Earl of Warwick to quell the outburst of the +people’s will; while beside him figured Dudley, the hero of +Kenilworth, and cruel husband of the hapless Amy Robsart. +The popular prophecy—</p> +<blockquote><p>The country gnoffes, Hob, Dick, and Hick,<br /> +With clubs and clouted shoon,<br /> +Shall fill the vale of Duffendale<br /> +With slaughtered bodies soon—</p> +</blockquote> +<p>was fulfilled, and besiegers and besieged were among <!-- page +82--><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>the +victims. That there is no war like civil war was verified; +the wounded plucked the arrows from their wounds, that they might +be sent back dripping with their blood to the hearts of their +kinsmen and foes. The watchword, “Gentlemen ruled +aforetime, a number will rule now another while,” testified +to the turning of the worm when trodden on—evidencing the +ripening germ of the same spirit that had in earlier times wrung +from the tyrant monarch a “Magna Charta,” and will +yet, by agencies far other than arrow, spear, or sword, obtain +for an independent people, who can reverence the laws of order +and of right, every charter that shall be needed to gain them +their due place in the pillar of the state, where neither capitol +nor column can bear its own weight, without a base of solid and +fair proportions, to give harmony, strength, and beauty to the +whole.</p> +<p>Among the aggravating causes that led to this insurrection, so +famous in our country’s annals, the desecration of church +furniture and vestments, that had followed the footsteps of the +Reformation, stood prominently forth; the people’s hearts +rebelled against the havoc made amongst the objects they had been +taught to look upon as holy—and as these deeds of licence +had been simultaneous with encroachments upon their temporal +rights of pasture and common land, a double feeling was +engendered—a longing for social and political freedom, and +a <!-- page 83--><a name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +83</span>desire to reform a Reformation that was marked by such +atrocious want of reverence for all that had been sacred. +Conservatism and ultra-radicalism were blended, even as in many +minds to this hour they grow together. Connected with this +event of history, are two memorials that mark it as of national +interest—the Homily on Rebellion which was written against +the insurgents, and the institution of lord lieutenants of +counties, as safeguards against such another sudden and +formidable outbreak in any part of the kingdom.</p> +<p>Stretching away far as the eye may reach, is the broad moor, +laid bare of forest trees by these same rebel forces, now clothed +with yellow furze and purple heather, intertwined with clovewort +and ranunculus, and hiding beneath, the crimson-tipped lichen, +whose sanguine clubs and cups would seem to have drank from the +soil the blood of the slain, and rendered it immortal. +Bowl-shaped excavations dotted over its surface, testify of +Celtic habitations hollowed out in remote ages, beneath the +forest shades, roofed by its boughs, and lying hidden among the +leaves like lower birds’ nests,—now in barren +desolation, serving well the vagrant purposes of gypsy life, and +lending a feature to the scene that Lavengro has painted with a +master-hand.</p> +<p>And now the eye reposes from its survey—and thought +flies back to the day when the distant sea <!-- page 84--><a +name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>swept around +the base of the castle of Blanchflower, and filled the valley +below—to the era of the brave Iceni, and the sorrows of the +warrior queen, Boadicea—to the advent of the mighty +Cæsar,—the appropriating Saxons,—and the savage +Danes and Norsemen, with their pirate hordes, storming the +outposts of the military camp from their uncouth naval +fleets,—and thence to the era of the Norman hero planting +his foot upon our soil, when barons multiplied in the land; and +one scene of history enacted within the castle walls, bearing +this date, tells much of feudal laws and feudal power.</p> +<p>The earldom of the city, castle, and meadow lands, being then +possessed by a Breton, named Ralph de Gael, or Guader, partly by +gift from the Conqueror, partly perhaps by force of arms, this +local sovereign designed to wed the daughter of one Fitz-Osborn, +a relation of William.</p> +<p>This matrimonial scheme not pleasing his lord the king, +without ceremony it was prohibited; but in that day of might +<i>versus</i> might, earls and barons would sometimes have a will +of their own, and the fair affianced was made a bride within the +chapel walls, whose doorway in an angle, marks the site of the +act of disobedience; the banquetting room then received the +bridal guests, and the sumptuous feast, with its attendant +libations, witnessed a yet more decided scene of rebellion; the +bridegroom and the <!-- page 85--><a name="page85"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 85</span>bride’s own brother, the Earl +of Hereford, already committed by carrying the forbidden marriage +into effect, became eloquent and bold in their language and +designs, until a chorus of excited voices joined them in oaths +that sealed them as conspirators against their absent +sovereign. Treachery revealed the plot, and the church lent +its aid to the crown to crush the rebels. Lanfranc, the +primate and archbishop, sent out troops, headed by bishops and +justiciaries, the highest dignitaries of church and law, to +oppose and besiege them; the bridegroom fled for succour to his +native Brittany, leaving his bride for three months to defend the +garrison with her followers, at the end of which time the brave +Emma was compelled to capitulate, but upon mild terms, obtaining +leave for herself and followers to flee to Brittany; her husband +thenceforth became an outlaw—her brother was slain, and +scarcely one guest present at that ill-fated marriage feast +escaped an untimely end. Each prisoner lost a right foot, +many their eyes, and all their worldly goods. A sorrowful +romance of real life, to mark the early history of our castle +halls.</p> +<p>Nor did the city go unscathed, the devastation carried into +its midst by the siege was heavy; many houses were burnt, many +deserted by those who had joined the earl, and it is curious to +read in the valuation of land and property that was taken soon +after this event, how many houses are recorded as +“<i>void</i>” both in the burgh or that part of the +city <!-- page 86--><a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +86</span>under the jurisdiction of the king and earl, as well as +in other portions subject to other lords, for it would seem that +the landlords of the soil on which stood the city were three, the +king or earl of the castle, the bishop, and the Harold family, +relatives of him who fell at Hastings. Clusters of huts +then congregated round the base of the hill and constituted the +feudal village; its inhabitants consisting of villains, of which +there were two classes, the husbandmen or peasants annexed to the +manor or land, and a lower rank described in English law as +villains-in-gross, in simple terms, absolute slaves, transferable +by deed from one owner to another, whose lives, save for the +ameliorations of individual indulgences, were a continued +helpless state of toil, degradation and suffering; the socmen or +tenants holding land by some <i>service</i>, (not knightly) and +bordars or boors, who occupied a position somewhat above the +serfs or villains, and held small portions of land with cottages +or <i>bords</i> on them, on condition they should supply the lord +with poultry, eggs, and other small provisions for his board and +entertainment.</p> +<p>Freemen seem to have included all ranks of society holding in +military tenure; they lived under the protection of great men, +but in their persons were free; the rural labourers were divided +into ploughmen, shepherds, neat-herds, cow-herds, swine-herds, +and bee-keepers. The “haiae” belonging to the +manor <!-- page 87--><a name="page87"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 87</span>houses were enclosed places, hedged +or paled round, into which beasts were driven to be caught. +At the time of the survey in William’s reign the estimate +of the tenants and fiefs of the earl and king is taken as one +thousand five hundred and sixty-five burgesses, Englishmen paying +custom to the king, one hundred and ninety mansions void, and +four hundred and eighty <i>bordars</i>; the bishop’s +territory contained thirty-seven burgesses, and seven mansions +void; and on the property of the deceased Harold, there were +fifteen burgesses and seven mansions void.</p> +<p>After the banishment of Earl Ralph, the castle was given to +Ralph Bigod, who was styled the Constable, as was usual when any +castle was committed to a baron or earl, and he exercised royal +power within the jurisdiction of the castle. To him +succeeded Roger Bigod, a great favourite and friend of Henry I., +and one of the witnesses to the laws made by him during his +reign. William, the son of Roger, succeeded his father, and +by King Henry was made steward of his household. This +William was drowned at sea, and his brother Hugh became possessed +of his estate and honours. To him is referred the finishing +and beautifying of the tower of the castle; but he was supplanted +in the office of constable by William de Blois, Earl of Moreton, +son of King Stephen. He in his turn was dispossessed of it +by Henry II. Hugh Bigod joined with the son of Henry, +afterwards <!-- page 88--><a name="page88"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 88</span>Henry III., in his revolt against his +father, for which adherence he was reinstated in the Castle of +Blancheflower, but was obliged again to surrender when the son +repented of his rebellion, and submitted to his father.</p> +<p>To Hugh succeeded another Roger Bigod, his son, who received +from the hands of Richard I. the earldom of Norfolk and +stewardship of the king’s household, and most probably was +constable of the castle also. During the troubled reign of +John, it passed into the hands of Lewis, son of the French king, +who made William de Bellomont, his marshal, constable, and placed +him with a garrison within its walls. To him succeeded +Roger Bigod, who figured amongst the revolting barons in the +reign of Henry III. At the memorable interview between the +confederated nobles and the king, at the parliament in +Westminster, he took a leading part in the proceedings. All +the barons having assembled in complete armour, as the king +entered, there is described to have been a rattling of swords; +his eye gleaming along the mailed ranks he asked, “What +means this? Am I a prisoner?” “Not +so,” replied Roger Bigod, “but your foreign +favourites and your own extravagance have involved this realm in +great wretchedness, whereof we demand that the powers of +government be made over to a committee of bishops and barons, +that the same may root up abuses <!-- page 89--><a +name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>and enact +good laws.” The committee when formed numbered in its +list both Roger of Norfolk earl marshal, and Hugh Bigod. In +this reign it is mentioned that the castle became a gaol for the +county, and state prisoners were confined here. Many a dark +tragedy was doubtless witnessed by its dungeon walls during those +troubled times, when civil wars were hourly peopling them with +political offenders. In Edward II.’s reign the castle +was partly re-fortified, but in the following reign, falling +completely out of repair, it came to be regarded simply as a +county jail, and its jurisdiction vested in the hands of the +sheriff of the county.</p> +<p>Among the historical facts of later date, connected with the +castle, and bearing date of the same year as that in which Queen +Elizabeth visited the city, is an order issued from Whitehall, to +the sheriff of Norfolk, to imprison within the castle walls +certain persons who refused to attend the service of the church; +the letter is preserved among Cole’s manuscripts in the +British Museum; the copy of it which is published by the +Archæological Society, runs thus:</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">To our loving Friend +Mr. Gawdry, Sherif of the Countie of Norfolk.</p> +<p>After our hearty Commendations: whereas We have given order to +the Sheref of the Countie of Suffolke to deliver certain +Prisoners into your hands, who were by our order <!-- page +90--><a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +90</span>commytted for their obstinacy in refusing to come to the +Church in time of Sermons sad Common Prayers: Thes shal be to +require you to receive them into your chardge and forthwith to +commytt them to such of her Majesty’s gaoles within that +Countie as shall seeme good unto the Lord Bishop of Norwiche, by +whose direction they shall be delivered unto you, ther to remayne +in Cloase Prison untill such tyme as you shalbe otherwise +directed from us. And so we bid you heartely farewell.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">From Whitehall, the xxiijrd of +February, 1878.</p> +<p>Your loving Freands</p> +<p style="text-align: center">W. Burghley. E. +Lyncoln. T. Sussex.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">F. Knollys. E. Leycester.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Chr. Hatton. Fra. +Walsingham. Tho. Wilson.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In 1643 an order was sent to fortify the castle, at the +request of the deputy lieutenant of the county; the order is +signed by seven staunch and influential opponents of the royal +party, viz. Tho. Wodehouse, John Palgrave, Tho. Hoggan, Miles +Hobart, J. Spelman, Tho. Sotherton, Gre. Gawsett.</p> +<p>Information concerning it from this period is scanty, probably +little of interest is connected with its later history, beyond +the calendar of prisoners who have been lodged within its +precincts, of which we have no record, and were it otherwise, we +should be reluctant to consult its pages for materials to enhance +the attractions of our “Rambles.”</p> +<p>It is to the history of the period prior to its appropriation +as a prison, that we must look for a picture of the life once +animating its halls and banquet <!-- page 91--><a +name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>chambers, and +from the general outlines of feudal society and government, a +tolerably faithful portrait of it may be drawn.</p> +<p>The age of feudalism has been extolled with enthusiasm only +equal to that which has deprecated it beyond measure; it has even +been proposed as a model for future ages by the cotemporary voice +to that which has pronounced it as exclusively a time of +immorality, despotism, and superstition; between the two +extremes, a wide field of truth lies open to be explored.</p> +<p>“It was a time,” as Guizot says, “when +religion was the principle and end of all institutions, while +military functions were the forms and means of action.”</p> +<p>All social movements partook of this twofold character, as +questions of commerce and industry were decidedly +subordinate.</p> +<p>The land was divided between the military barons possessed of +regal authority and governing as kings in their petty +kingdoms—the church, also proprietors of large estates, and +the cities, then only beginning to rise from their abject nullity +into an importance that has gone on increasing until commerce has +become the sovereign of the world—Mammon its god. The +individualism of barbarism was sunk in the centralisation to +which this system gave birth; and from the social arrangements +connected with it, <!-- page 92--><a name="page92"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 92</span>sprung up that spirit of chivalry +that was so marked a characteristic of the times, than which +nothing more fully exemplified the singular combination of +military and religious fervour. Isolated from all communion +with general society, a castle was at once a city and a family in +itself, youths were apprenticed, as it were, to learn the usages +of knighthood, and in the capacity of pages, from earliest +boyhood, were initiated into the forms and courtesies of +chivalrous and military exercises. In this task women bore +their part, the youths being ever treated as sons of the lord or +knight under whose tutelage they had been placed; from this they +became promoted to the rank of esquires, and perfected in the +arts of tilting, riding, hunting, and hawking, frequently of +music, and in case of war were qualified to follow the banner of +their instructors. The rank or military renown of a baron +helped to swell the list of esquires and pages in his retinue; +hence many castles were complete colleges of chivalry. The +close association of years in such familiar relationship cut off +from all other social communion, engendered strong attachments, +and fraternities, superseding often the ties of common +relationship, sprung up.</p> +<p>The imposing ceremony that accompanied the distinction of +knighthood was the finishing touch to this education. The +candidate, after several lonely nights of prayer and watching in +some church or <!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 93</span>chapel, during which period he +received the sacraments of religion, was finally arrayed in full +splendour, conducted in grand procession to a church with the +sword of knighthood suspended by a scarf; the weapon was blessed +by an officiating priest, and the oaths administered which bound +him to defend the church and clergy, be the champion of virtuous +women, especially the widow or orphan, and to be gentle ever to +the weak. Warriors then of high degree, or ladies, then +buckled on the spurs, clothed him in suits of armour, and the +prince or noble from whom he received the knighthood, finally +advanced, and giving the accolade, which consisted of three +gentle strokes with the flat of the sword, exclaimed, “In +the name of God, St. Michael, and St. George, I make thee a +knight; be hardy, brave, and royal.” From this date +he might aspire to the highest offices and distinctions.</p> +<p>The domestic comforts that graced the private life within +these castle halls, formed striking contrasts to the magnificence +of the knightly and military displays, although the walls often +were hung with gorgeous tapestries, and the banqueting table +groaned beneath the weight of gold and silver, the refinements +essential to modern ideas of comfort were unknown. The +fingers of the eater supplied the place of forks, and when +withdrawn from rich dishes, were often employed in tearing the +morsels of food <!-- page 94--><a name="page94"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 94</span>asunder. Straw and rushes were +the substitutes for carpets, and clumsy wooden benches and tables +supported the guests and viands at these entertainments; those +who were unfortunate enough not to obtain a seat at the board +were compelled to make use of the floor. Several English +estates were held upon condition of furnishing straw for royal +beds, and litter for the apartment floors of a palace; and the +office of rush strewer remained in the list of the royal +household to a very late period. Doubtless these +deficiences were of slight importance to an active out-door +people, whose happiness consisted in large retinues, rich +armours, and splendid tournaments; even the ladies, with hunting, +hawking, and the occasional amusement of displaying their skill +in archery from the loop-holes or ramparts of their castles, when +acting as viceroys for their sovereign lords, no doubt could well +dispense with the minor occupations of refined civilization.</p> +<p>The bill of fare of a feudal banquet would possibly astonish +and puzzle the gastronomic powers and digestive organs of the +nineteenth century, although cookery was esteemed as a noble +science even then, in the days when Soyer was not. The +boar’s head, the peacock, occasionally served up in his +feathers, the crane or young herons, might not have been +altogether bad substitutes for turkeys and geese, but whether +larded, roasted, and eaten with ginger, and <!-- page 95--><a +name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 95</span>often served +in their feathers, they might have been suited to our modern +tastes is problematical; porpoises and seals that often appeared +in the list of “goodly provisions” for special +occasions, may scarcely be deemed more of dainties; and the +compounds that figure in some of the recipes extant, of the more +mystical entrées, present to the eye such medleys, that we +feel certain of a preference for the plain “roast” or +“boil,” in feudal times, at least, if not at all +others. Force-meats, compounded of pork, figs, cheese, and +ale, seasoned with pepper, saffron, and salt, baked in a crust, +and garnished with powderings of sugar and comforts, may be +quoted as a sample of their made dishes, while beef-tea, enriched +with pork fat, beaten up with cream and sweetened with honey, as +directed by their form, possibly was classed among the delicate +soups, or ranged under the head of “<i>sick +cookery</i>.”</p> +<p>The bread that formed the substitute for our best and +“second households,” was of various kinds, the finest +being a sort of spice-cake of superior quality; simnel and wastel +cakes were the ordinary food for the aristocracy, while commoners +were content with a coarse brown material manufactured from rye, +oats, or barley, that would at this day cause a revolution in +prisons, or pauper workhouses, were it to be found in the dietary +table of either, much less on the dinner-table. The special +wines, hippocras, <!-- page 96--><a name="page96"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 96</span>pigment, morat, and mead, were the +temptations to inebriety among the rich; cider, perry, and ale, +the form of alcoholic drinks common to the less affluent.</p> +<p>The record of Peter de Blois, in one of his letters from the +Court of Henry II., may be estimated perhaps as a faithful, if +not attractive, description of the ordinary fare on which many +unfortunate knights and retainers were sometimes compelled to +subsist. He tells us that a priest or soldier had bread put +before him, “not kneaded, not leavened, made of the dregs +of beer, like lead, full of bran, and unbaked, wine spoiled by +being sour or mouldy, thick, greasy, rancied, tasting of pitch, +and vapid, sometimes so full of dregs, that they were compelled +rather to filter than drink it, with eyes shut and teeth closed; +meat stale as often as fresh; fish often four days +old.” The picture is heightened by sundry details of +a pungent character, all tending to prove the truth of his +assertion, that powerful exercise was an essential assistant to +overcome the evils of such diet. Early hours possibly +contributed to lessen its injurious effects; and these of course, +at any rate as far as regarded the “early to bed,” +were enforced by the curfew, which has so mistakenly been +attributed to the Norman Conqueror’s despotism, whereas it +had long prevailed as a custom here, as on the continent, prior +to his era, and was, in fact, a necessary precaution against the +dangers of fire, <!-- page 97--><a name="page97"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 97</span>when the dwelling-houses that formed +a town or city were little more than bundles of faggots, well +dried and bound up ready for burning.</p> +<p>Among the social amusements of that time, gambling seems to +have prevailed to a great extent. The curious prohibitions +that were enacted in the reign of Richard, would indicate that it +had then grown into a formidable vice; kings were permitted to +play with each other, and command their followers, but the nobles +were restricted to losing twenty shillings in one night; priests +and knights might, with permission, play to the same amount, but +were to forfeit four times twenty shillings if they exceeded it; +servants might also play to a limited extent, at the +<i>command</i> of their master, but if they ventured without such +permission, they subjected themselves to the penalty of being +whipped three successive days; and mariners at sea, for a like +transgression, were sentenced to be ducked three times for the +offence. Chess, that infinite and insoluble intellectual +problem, whose origin is lost in oriental obscurity, was +introduced by the Crusaders on their return from their +expeditions to the Holy Land, if, indeed, as some believe, it was +not known in this country prior to that date; but if we may judge +by inference, we may presume it to have been no favourite +recreation in those spirit-stirring times, when crusades, +tournaments, and military prowess <!-- page 98--><a +name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>were the end +and aim of men’s lives. The amusements and sports +naturally partook of the character of the age, and hunting, +hawking, tilting, and tournaments were at once the schools for +gaining strength and dexterity, as well as safety-valves for the +overflowing mobility engendered by the spirit of the times. +These pursuits were elevated to the rank of perfect sciences, and +the education of a youth was incomplete that did not embrace +regular tuition in all of them. Nor were they, as we know, +confined to the “lords of the creation.” In +hunting, ladies not only often joined in the sport, but +frequently formed parties by themselves, winding the horn, +rousing the game, and pursuing it without assistance, the female +Nimrods manifesting especial partiality to greyhounds—or +hare-hounds, as they were then called. The objects of these +hunts were somewhat more numerous and varied then than now, and +were divided into three classes; first, the beasts for hunting, +viz. the hare, the hart, the wolf, and the wild boar; secondly, +the beasts of the chase, the buck and doe, the fox, the martin, +and the roe; and a minor class, which were said to afford great +disport in the pursuit, the <i>grey</i>, or badger, the wild cat, +and the otter.</p> +<p>The poor little hare and a fox or two, alone are left us of +all these original tenants of the soil; and game laws were, even +in those days of plentiful <!-- page 99--><a +name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>supply, found +needful to preserve the aborigines of the woods as their especial +property, by the great ones of the land, and when manslaughter +was to be atoned for by a fine of money, the death of a head of +deer was punishable by the forfeiture of the offender’s +eyes, and a second instance by death. Who will dispute the +aristocratic lineage of the game laws, with such facts of history +before them? Hunting had its proper seasons; the wolf and +fox might be hunted from Christmas-day to the Annunciation, the +roebuck from Easter to Michaelmas, the roe from Michaelmas to +Candlemas, the hare from Michaelmas to Midsummer, the boar from +the Nativity to the day of the “Presentation in the +Temple.”</p> +<p>The clergy were not behind-hand in partaking of the privileges +of the chase within their own demesnes, and they took care +generally to have good receptacles for game in their parks and +enclosures. At the time of the Reformation, the see of +Norwich had no less than thirteen parks well stocked with deer; +and the name of one of the city churches, St. Peter’s, +Hungate, is derived from the <i>Hound’s</i>-gate, where the +bishop’s hounds were stabled.</p> +<p>Hawking was a sport, until the magna charta, exclusively +confined to the nobility; lords and ladies alike indulged +themselves in the exercise, which from its gentleness, in +comparison with others then in vogue, was deemed somewhat an +effeminate pastime, <!-- page 100--><a name="page100"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 100</span>probably because, in the delicate +dexterity it required, the ladies bore off the palm of +victory.</p> +<p>A hawk’s eyrie was returned in doomsday-book as one of +the most valuable articles of property; and the estimation in +which the bird was held, may be judged of by the enormous prices +given for them, and the heavy penalties attached to stealing +either them or their eggs; for destroying one of which the +offender was liable to imprisonment for a twelvemonth and a +day. Perhaps, however, this is no very safe criterion of +their intrinsic value, or those sentences that sometimes figure +in our modern assize reports—where seven years’ +transportation for stealing two ducks from an open pond, stands +side by side with twelve months’ imprisonment for murdering +a wife, a friend, or a child, in a fit of temporary insanity, +alias intoxication—might lead to rather curious +inferences.</p> +<p>But to return to our hawks; a thousand pounds for a cast of +these birds, and a hundred marks for a single one, are recorded +prices. In hawking, the bird was carried on the wrist, +which was protected by a thick glove, the head of the bird +covered with a hood, and its feet secured to the wrist by straps +of leather, called jesses, and to its legs were fastened small +bells, toned according to the musical scale.</p> +<p>Among the chronicles of old monkish writers prior <!-- page +101--><a name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>to +the Conquest, is a story accounting for the first advent of the +Danes upon our shores, as connected with the amusement of +hawking: “A Danish chieftain of high rank, named Lothbroc, +amusing himself with hawking near the sea, upon the western +shores of Denmark, the bird in pursuit of her game fell into the +water; Lothbroc, anxious for her safety, got into a little boat +that was near at hand, and rowed from the shore to take her up; +but before he could return to land, a sudden storm arose, and he +was driven out to sea. After suffering great hardships, +during a voyage of infinite peril, he reached the coast of +Norfolk, and landed at a port called Reedham, (now a small +village on the railway line from London to Yarmouth,) where he +was immediately seized by the inhabitants, and sent to the court +of Edmund, King of the East Angles, who received him favourably, +and soon became strongly attached to him for his skill in +training and flying hawks. The partiality shown to the +foreigner excited the jealousy of Beoric, the king’s +falconer, who took an opportunity of murdering the Dane whilst he +was exercising his birds in a small wood, where he secreted the +body. The vigilance of a favourite spaniel discovered the +deed. Beoric was apprehended and convicted of the murder, +and condemned to be put in an open boat, without sails, oars, or +rudder, and abandoned to the mercy of <!-- page 102--><a +name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>the winds +and wares. It so chanced that the boat was wafted to the +very point of land that Lothbroc came from; and Beoric was +apprehended by the Danes, and taken before their two chieftains, +Hinguer and Hubba, the sons of Lothbroc, to whom the crafty +falconer made a statement as ingenious as false, wherein he +affirmed that their father had been murdered by Edmund, and +himself sent adrift for opposing the deed. Irritated by the +falsehood, the Danes invaded the kingdom of the East Angles, +pillaged their country, took their king prisoner, tied him to a +stake, and shot him to death with arrows.” +Lidgate, a monk of St. Edmund’s at Bury, has given this +legend a place in his poetical life of the tutelary saint of his +monastery, but it bears upon it every mark of a legendary tale, +and the fact is well known that Danish pirates had infested the +shores long prior to the date assigned to the events narrated in +it.</p> +<p>The office of “queen’s falconer” yet exists, +and it is written in a certain little black book, that the duties +attached to it, however imaginary, receive substantial +acknowledgement from the public purse in the form of an annual +stipend of no mean amount. Another recreation peculiarly +associated with the memory of knights and dames once tenanting +the feudal castle is the tournament, the site of whose gorgeous +pageantries yet bears the title of the “Gilden +croft,” <!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 103</span>though the lustre of the name is the +only ray of splendour bequeathed to it as an inheritance of +glory. Centuries have witnessed the mutations of the +properties of the great ones of the land, as they have gradually +passed down through the various gradations of society like +cast-off garments, until the once brilliant lists of the gay +tournament have changed to long tiers of poverty tenanted +“<i>right ups</i>;” the music of the herald’s +trumpet has been replaced by the rattle of the shuttle and the +loom; and the steel-clad knights and esquires, with their +tiltings and joustings, amid the smiles and favours of youth and +beauty, have given place to the struggles of the weaver and the +winder in their weary battle of life, for the guerdon of daily +bread. Where, Edward and Phillippa held their Easter +tournament, and their gallant son, the brave Black Prince, +displayed his knightly prowess amid splendours that might rival +the “field of the cloth of gold,” poverty, hard +labour, and penury now rear their gaunt limbs; and the tale of +the “Paramatta weaver” is breathed forth to the +listening ear of humanity from its precincts.</p> +<p>But the tournament demands attention, inwrought as it is with +every conception we may form of the days of chivalry; and, thanks +to the patient researches of many chroniclers, we have not much +difficulty in learning all we may desire to know concerning these +glories of an age gone by. Fiction has given <!-- page +104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +104</span>life and vigour to these features of past +history. Ivanhoe lives and breathes before us at the +mention of a tournament, and plain prose facts may not vie with +the glowing pictures, painted with imagination’s rainbow +hues. The tournament was not altogether the play-ground of +full-grown knights and esquires, as romance would sometimes tend +to show it;—it was the theatre on which many an important +drama of life was played; it was a grand field for introduction +into military life, then the only life deemed worthy the ambition +of a gentleman; and the laws and regulations to which all who +presented themselves as candidates for honours became subject, +bespeak the importance attached to the favours it conferred.</p> +<p>The mode of conducting a tournament was established by +law. It was preceded always by a proclamation; one worded +thus, is given by Strutt: “Be it known unto you, lords, +knights, and esquires, ladies and gentlewomen,” (they did +not in those days of chivalry commence ladies, my lords and +gentlemen) “you are hereby acquainted, that a superb +achievement in arms, and a grand and noble tournament, will be +held in the parade of Clarencieux king at arms, on the part of +the most noble baron, lord of I. C. B., and on the part of the +most noble baron the lord of C. B. D., in the parade of Norreys +king at arms.” The regulations that follow are <!-- +page 105--><a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +105</span>these: “The two barons on whose part the +tournament is undertaken shall be at their pavilions two days +before the commencement of the sports, when each of them shall +cause his arms to be attached to his pavilion, and set up his +banner in front of his parade; and all those who wish to be +combatants on either side, must in like manner set up their +banner on either side before the parade allotted to them. +Upon the evening of the same day, they shall shew themselves in +their stations, and expose their helmets to view at the windows +of their pavilions. On the morrow the champions shall be at +their parades by the hour of ten in the morning, to await the +commands of the lord of the parade, and the governor, who are the +speakers of the tournament; at this meeting the prizes of honour +are determined.” In the document from which this is +taken, a rich sword was to be the reward of the most successful +on the part of Clarencieux, and a helmet for the best on the side +of Norreys. It goes on to say, “On the morning of the +day appointed for the tournament, the arms, banners and helmets +of all the combatants shall be exposed at their stations, and the +speakers present at the place of combat by ten of the clock, +where they shall examine the arms and approve or reject them at +pleasure; the examination being finished and the arms returned to +the owners, the baron who is the challenger shall then cause his +banner <!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 106</span>to be placed at the beginning of the +parade, and the blazon of his arms to be nailed to the roof of +his pavilion; his example is to be followed by the baron on the +opposite side, and all the knights of either party who are not in +their stations before the nailing up of the arms, shall forfeit +their privileges and not be permitted to tournay.</p> +<p>“The king at arms and the heralds are then commanded by +the speakers to go from pavilion to pavilion crying aloud, +‘<i>To Achievement</i>, <i>knights and esquires</i>, <i>to +Achievement</i>,’ being the notice for them to arm +themselves; and soon after the company of heralds shall repeat +the former ceremony, having the same authority, saying, +‘<i>Come forth</i>, <i>knights and esquires</i>, <i>come +forth</i>;’ and when the two barons have taken their places +in the lists, each of them facing his own parade, the champions +on both parts shall arrange themselves, every one by the side of +his banner; and then two cords shall be stretched between them, +and remain in that position, until it shall please the speakers +to command the commencement of the sports. The combatants +shall each of them be armed with a pointless sword, having the +edges rebated, and with a truncheon hanging from their saddles, +and they may use either the one or the other, so long as the +speakers shall give them permission, by repeating the sentence, +‘<i>Let them go on</i>.’ After they have +sufficiently performed their exercise, <!-- page 107--><a +name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>the +speakers are to call to the heralds, and order them to +‘<i>Fold up the banners</i>,’ which is the signal for +the conclusion of the tournament. The banners being rolled +up, the knights and esquires are permitted to return to their +dwellings.”</p> +<p>Every knight or esquire performing in the tournament, was +permitted to have one page within the lists, (but without a +truncheon or any other defensive weapon,) to wait upon him, give +him his sword, or truncheon, as occasion might require; and also +in case of any accident happening to the armour, to repair +it.</p> +<p>The laws of the tournament permitted any knight to unhelm +himself at pleasure, if he was incommoded by the heat; none being +suffered to assault him in any way, until he had replaced his +helmet at the command of the speakers.</p> +<p>The king-at-arms and the heralds who proclaimed the +tournament, had the privilege of wearing the blazon of arms of +those by whom the sport was instituted; besides which, they were +entitled to six ells of scarlet cloth as their fee, and had all +their expenses defrayed during the continuance of the tournament; +by the law of arms they had a right to the helmet of every knight +when he made his first essay at a tournament; they also claimed +six crowns as nail money, for affixing the blazon of arms to the +pavilion. The king at arms held the banners of the <!-- +page 108--><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +108</span>two chief barons on the day of the tournament, and the +other heralds the banners of their confederates according to +their rank.</p> +<p>The lists for the tournaments and those appointed for ordeal +combats, were appointed in the same manner; the king found the +field to fight in, and the lists were made and devised by a +constable; they were to be sixty paces long and forty broad, set +up in good order, the ground within hard and level, without any +great stones or other impediments, the entrances to them to be by +two doors east and west, strongly barred with bars seven feet +high, that a horse may not leap them.</p> +<p>After the conclusion of the tournament, the combatants retired +to their homes, but usually met again in the evening at some +entertainment; where they were joined by all the nobility, +including the ladies, and dancing, feasting and singing concluded +the day. After supper the speakers of the tournament called +together the heralds appointed on both sides, and demanded from +them alternately the names of those who had best performed on the +opposite sides; the double list was then presented to the ladies +who had been present at the pastime, and the decision was +referred to them as to the award of the prizes; they selected one +name from each party, and the successful heroes received their +prizes from the hands of two young maidens of rank. If a +knight transgressed <!-- page 109--><a name="page109"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 109</span>the rules he was excluded from the +lists with a sound beating, from which alone the intercession of +ladies could save him; so the influence of the fair sex had +opportunities of being practically felt, as well as theoretically +talked of, even then.</p> +<p>The juste or lance game differed from the tournament and was +often included in it, when it took place at its conclusion, but +it was quite consistent with the rules of chivalry for justs to +be held separately; the sword was the weapon used at the +tournament, the lance at the juste. The juste received the +title of the “Round table game,” in the reign of +Henry III., from a fraternity of knights who frequently justed +together, and accustomed themselves to associate and eat together +in one apartment at a round table, where every place was equally +honourable (even in feudal times a taint of democracy would creep +in). Historians attribute this round table game to Arthur, +the son of Uter Pendragon, that famous British hero, whose +achievements are so disguised with legendary wonders that his +very existence has been questioned.</p> +<p>At both tilts and tournaments the lists were superbly +decorated, surrounded by the pavilions of the champions, and +ornamented with their coats and banners. The scaffolds for +the accommodation of the spectators were hung with tapestry, and +embroidered with gold and silver; all attended in their <!-- page +110--><a name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +110</span>most sumptuous apparel, and the display of costly +grandeur glittering over the whole surface of the field, might +well earn for the memorable scene so designated, its title of the +Gilden Croft. Wealth, beauty, and grandeur were +concentrated into one focus, whence they blazed forth to the eye +as from a burning lens.</p> +<p>The dress of the combatants varied according to the rank of +the individual. Above the under-dress of cloth, fitting +close, and common to all, was worn the <i>chausses</i>, or mail +coverings for the feet and legs, somewhat resembling metal +stockings; upon the body the gambeson, a sort of close jacket +made of cloth or leather doubled and stuffed, and in itself +oftentimes a most efficient case of defensive armour; this +garment, without sleeves, and universally worn by all classes of +men, was also occasionally introduced into the catalogue of +ladies’ attire, and no doubt was the primitive model for +the stays of later generations. Above the gambeson was worn +the <i>gorget</i> or throat piece, beneath the <i>hauberk</i> or +coat of mail, by which it was concealed; this was the garment +that peculiarly designated the rank of the wearer. Esquires +might not wear sleeves of mail, and none might claim to wear the +complete suit that were not possessed of certain estates. +Above the armour was usually worn some outer dress, a surcoat or +mantle of rich material. The sword belt was a necessary +part of the warrior’s <!-- page 111--><a +name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>dress, and +was often very elaborately embellished with precious stones, but +more commonly made simply of plain leather. Another belt +was also worn over the left shoulder, to support the shield.</p> +<p>The helmet comprised the whole armour for the head and face, +and usually consisted of two parts, one moving over the other, by +which means the face could be uncovered or perfectly inclosed at +pleasure. These portions of the dress, however, varied to +an almost infinite degree at various times, and at a later period +were exchanged for the Bacinet, Cervaliere, Coif de fer, &c. +&c.</p> +<p>Gloves of mail were attached to the sleeves of the hauberk, +and were sometimes divided at the extremities for the +accommodation of the fingers and thumb, but not often. Such +was the military costume of the knight in armour, and the dress +of the spectators, both gentlemen and ladies, must not altogether +be left unnoticed. The tunic and rich surcoat above, +sometimes varied with a hooded mantle, and the robe a long +garment of the tunic kind, were the leading characteristics of +male attire; shoes with long points, cloth sandals, ornamented +with embroidery, girdles enriched with precious stones, gloves +and spurs completed the suit.</p> +<p>The ladies wore gowns, or upper tunics, or robes, with +surcoats varying much in length, sometimes being shorter than the +tunic, at others trailing on <!-- page 112--><a +name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 112</span>the ground, +with long loose sleeves, open beneath to the elbow, and falling +thence almost to the feet. Their mantles were made of the +richest materials, and copiously embellished with gold, silver, +and rich embroideries, sometimes decorated with fringes of gold, +varying in size almost as much as material. The wimple was +a head-dress, worn with or without an additional veil, usually +linen, but occasionally of silk, embroidered with gold. It +was a species of veil, covering the head but not the face, and +fastened underneath the chin, or at the top of the head, by a +circlet of gold. The hair was worn loose and flowing, often +without any covering, but frequently bound by a chaplet of +goldsmith’s work and flowers, or of the latter only. +Boots and gloves were in the inventory of necessaries, but, alas +for comfort, stockings were rare, white, black, or blue. +With this faint sketch of an Anglo-Norman wardrobe, as it +furnished materials to add splendour to the glittering field of +sport, we bid farewell to the lists, not, however, without one +more word as to the honourable position awarded to the gentler +sex in the jousts, which were usually made in their especial +honour, and over which they presided as judges paramount; so that +it behoved every true knight to have a favourite fair one, who +was not only esteemed by him as the paragon of beauty and virtue, +but supplied to him often the place of a tutelary saint, to whom +he paid his <!-- page 113--><a name="page113"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 113</span>vows in the day of peril; for it was +then an established doctrine that “love made valour +perfect, and incited heroes to great enterprizes.” +Alas! for the good old times of chivalry, when women were content +to make <i>great warriors</i>; but as she did her mission in that +day, so may she, in this sober life of mental tiltings, lend her +meed of influence to people the world with <i>great +men</i>. And so farewell to tournaments; verily they are of +the past, and their glitter dazzles our senses, in this +generation of moral <i>versus</i> physical force, when among the +number of the people’s favourite heroes is the champion of +Universal Peace Societies.</p> +<p>But we must not leave our sketch of the life in a feudal +castle, without one glance at the feminine employments that +served to relieve the monotonous existence of the isolated dames +condemned to comparative solitude within its walls; nor are we +able to discover much, if any, variety in their +occupations. The embroidery frame, and an occasional +spindle and distaff, before the improvements in arts and science +had substituted factories and looms, were almost the only +resources allowed them; but these were inexhaustible, and the +many elaborate specimens of their skill that have survived the +casualties of a hundred generations, bear witness to the +indefatigable perseverance with which they were employed. +The garments of the clergy at this period were richly <!-- page +114--><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +114</span>embroidered, so much so, as to excite the admiration of +the pope, and induce him to issue a bull to the English priests, +enjoining them to procure him vestments equally gorgeous. +Many of these were the free-will offerings of the rich, and the +fruits of highborn ladies’ industry. Fringe-making of +gold and silver, worked upon lace without the aid of the needle, +was another species of occupation afforded them, and constituted +the Phrygian work often spoken of by old historians. +Cyprian work was a variety of embroidery, inasmuch as it was a +thin, transparent texture like gauze, named <i>cyprus</i>, worked +with gold. Cyprus was a term applied also to black crape, +then appropriated exclusively to widows’ mourning; possibly +this might have been the origin of “wearing the +cypress.” Embroidery was not alone confined to +ornaments of dress, or even clerical vestments; hangings for the +chambers, and pictures on almost every possible subject, were +produced from the needle.</p> +<p>The tapestry at Bayeux, in Normandy, attributed to Matilda, +the queen of the Conqueror, represents the history of Harold, +king of England, and William of Normandy, from the embassy of the +former to Duke William, at the command of Edward the Confessor, +to his final overthrow at Hastings. The ground of this work +is a white linen cloth or canvas, one foot eleven inches in +depth, and two hundred <!-- page 115--><a +name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 115</span>and twelve +in length. The figures are all in their proper colours, of +a style not unlike those of japan ware, having no pretence to +symmetry or proportion. It is preserved with great care in +the cathedral dedicated to Thomas à Becket, in Normandy, +and is annually exhibited for eight days, commencing on St. +John’s day, and is called <i>Duke William’s +toilette</i>.</p> +<p>It is, however, extremely questionable whether it was the work +of the royal lady,—many figures in it would indicate that +its manufacture was of more recent date—be it as it may, it +is a wondrous specimen of patient industry, and valuable for the +representation of manners and customs of the times traced upon +it.</p> +<p>Here we bid farewell to castle halls, to the ghosts of belted +knights and hooded dames, to spinning wheels and tapestries, +falcons, jennets, tournaments, and banquets, to the +border’s bord upon the skirting of his lord’s domain, +the serf’s log hut, the cowherd’s shed, and the +prisoner’s dungeon,—the moat, once deep and flowing, +now dried up, and teeming with cultivated trees and shrubs, and +ornamental flowers, and sculptured figures,—we say adieu to +the past history, written on the flints and mortar of the +ramparts, that have braved the “battle and the +breeze,” for near a thousand years,—and leave the +soaring heights, whence we may look down upon the little city +world below as on a stage, whose scenes and <!-- page 116--><a +name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>slips are +all laid bare beneath us in their skeleton machinery—dark +lanes and lumbering alleys crowded round, and shut in out of +sight, by facial frontings of glass, and brick, and +plaster. Churches and heaped-up churchyards, bursting their +walls with the accumulated corruption of centuries of +generations,—distant villages and village spires,—and +spots made sacred by the blood of hero-martyrs,—the winding +river, once the stormy sea-passage for Norsemen and Saxon +fleets—and take one final leave of the giant +mound,—whose origin, whether first reared in Celtic ages +far remote, a temple to the Sun, or a portion of the far-famed +Icknild Way, that crosses our island like a belt from south-west +to north-east, whether the architecture of Danes, Saxons, or +Normans, is alike full of history and of poetry, and the well +garnered store-house of many a rich and precious truth,—a +monument of the past, ever present to our eye, as a landmark by +which to measure the progress of our nation in religion, freedom, +and social happiness.</p> +<h2><!-- page 117--><a name="page117"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 117</span>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +<span class="smcap">the market-place</span>.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><i>Market-place</i>.—<i>Present +aspect</i>.—<i>Visit to its stalls</i>.—<i>Norfolk +Marketwomen</i>.—<i>Christmas Market</i>.—<i>Early +History</i>.—<i>Extracts from old +records</i>.—<i>Domestic scene of 13th +century</i>.—<i>Early +Crafts</i>.—<i>Guilds</i>.—<i>Medley of Historical +Facts</i>.—<i>Extract from Diary of Dr. Edward +Browne</i>.—<i>The City in Charles the Second’s +reign</i>.—<i>Duke’s Palace +Gardens</i>.—<i>Manufactures</i>.—<i>Wool</i>.—<i>Worsted</i>.—<i>Printing</i>.—<i>Caxton</i>.—<i>Specimens +of Ancient Newspapers</i>.—<i>Blomefield</i>.</p> +<p>The old city, so rich in antiquarian remains, can boast but +slow progress in modern architectural developments; nor may it +vie with many a younger town in its contrivances for the comfort +and conveniences of those most useful members of +society—the market-folks. No Grainger has arisen, to +rear a monument to his own fame, and of his city’s +prosperity, in the form of a shelter for this important class of +the town and country populace. May be, the picturesque +beauty of the Flemish scene, with its changeful canopy of +“ethereal blue,” or neutral tint, toned down at +whiles to hues of sombre gloom, beneath <!-- page 118--><a +name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 118</span>the heavy +shade of passing storms of hail and thunder, or more +steady-falling rain and snow, has made the philanthropists of +these reforming times conservatives all, on this one point, while +model cottages, baths and washhouses, almshouses for freemen, and +almost every other scheme ingenuity may devise to testify the +care and thought bestowed upon the public weal, are rising up +around. Let the cry of “<i>Protection</i>” once +again be raised, not for the “distressed +agriculturist” salesman, in his handsome corn exchange, but +in favour of the “unprotected females” that sit +unsheltered from the sun or storm, to vend the produce of the +poultry-yards, the dairy-house, and market-garden.</p> +<p>But though no Temple to Commerce of the larder has been +erected—a fact to be deplored in a utilitarian +sense—it can never be denied that the good old seat of +thriving trade can boast as fine a specimen of a genuine old +market-place as may well be found in this day of competition and +rivalry. Its motley assemblage of buildings, ranged round +the open square, of all styles and all ages, jostling against one +another, or here and there huddled together into all sorts of +inconceivable groups of varied and fantastic outline; the young +ones of to-day starting up with bold and saucy front, and verily +squeezing out from among them their quaint, old-fashioned, +gable-ended kinsfolk of older date, or sometimes creeping out, as +it <!-- page 119--><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +119</span>were, from beneath them, content with shewing a modern +face in some lower window, decked with all the new-fangled +conceits of the latest fashions, and allowing their ancestors +quiet resting-place aloft, where to moulder away into decay, are +a chronology of history in themselves. Now and then, the +fretted ironwork of some miniature parade, hanging midway in the +air, and clinging to the perpendicular of masonry above some new +plate-glassed and glittering front, suggests thoughts of marine +villas, moonlight and sea views, and all those pretty poetical +fancies associated with a lodging at some fashionable +watering-place, and one wonders how they ever came to be +transported thither, and for why? They that own them tell +us that they have their use, in the city, where the love of +pageantry is an heir-loom from generations long since passed away +whose birthright was to minister to the gorgeous magnificence of +fraternities and guilds, banquettings and processions, that read +like fairy tales in this sober nineteenth century; and we would +believe in their utility, were it no other than to afford a +bird’s eye view of the busy scenes of homely traffic going +on upon a market day, amongst the accumulated heaps of provisions +for the daily wants of life.</p> +<p><i>The wants of life</i>! Who amongst us knows the +meaning of the words, the <i>reality</i> they hide? Who +that has numbered among the wants of life, the gold <!-- page +120--><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>to +purchase luxury or ornament, place or power, the ways and means +to shine and glitter in the world, where men are prized by what +they <i>seem</i>, rather than what they are; the wherewith to pay +the idly accumulated debts, incurred through mean attempts to +cover the rags of poverty, or decent homely garments of honesty, +with tinsel mockeries of wealth’s trappings? Who +amongst these knows aught of the meaning of the <i>wants of +life</i>? Ask him who has known <i>Hunger</i>, has been +face to face with want and starvation, has shared with loved and +loving ones, weak babes, and sick and helpless mothers, the task +of driving these unbidden guests away, has felt the gnawing pangs +of their demon power, while gazing upon plenty, upon the wealth +of food and sustenance displayed before his eyes! Is it not +more marvellous and strange, that such piles as a market displays +should ever be permitted to lie safe within the arrow-shot of +gaunt and wasting poverty, than that the annals of our police +reports should now and then record how poverty and crime +sometimes go hand in hand?</p> +<p>But to look more in detail at the picture offered on a summer +market-day. There to the left sit congregated together the +vendors of the far-famed staple produce of the country +farm-yards, sheltered from the heat by the artificial grove of +variegated umbrellas, serving, or attempting to serve, the double +purpose of protection from the sun in summer, and <!-- page +121--><a name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +121</span>the rain in winter and summer. The poultry +“pads” and butter-stalls are one. Turkeys, and +geese, and fowls, and sausages, and little round white cheeses, +share the baskets and benches with eggs and <i>pints</i> of +butter, in the land where that commodity is sold by <i>liquid</i> +measure, whose equivalent is somewhere near about 1lb. 3 oz.</p> +<p>There is a legend that one who sits here is the heroine of an +old tale, which goes to the effect that “once upon a +time,” when the inspector came his round to test the +weights of all the measured pints, the old lady was observed +slily to slip a half crown into the end of a certain pint, and +hand it forward to bear the scrutiny; a bystander, who watched +the trick, a moment after laid his finger on the identical pint +and begged to purchase it, resisting all evasion on the part of +the discomfited saleswoman, who, compelled to submit, turned out +eventually the “biter bit.”</p> +<p>Thronging around this neighbourhood, and proffering their +services with most assiduous perseverance, are a host of most +amiable-looking porter women, liveried in white aprons and +sleeves, with a pair of huge peck baskets dangling on their +arms. Tumbling, and bumping, and jostling among them, +drowning their pleadings in a deafening chorus of discordant +cries, come the itinerant venders of small +wares—“lucifers three boxes a penny,” +“cabbage-nets only a penny,” “reels of cotton +two for a penny,” <!-- page 122--><a +name="page122"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>little +dangling bunches of skewers, ranged in progressive order on queer +and mysteriously twisted holders, that seem designed to puzzle +any mechanical skill to get them off again, “only a +penny;” laces, and saucepans, and stationery, and kettles, +thrust into notice as though haberdashers, and tinmen, and +stationers were simultaneously rushing off to the gold diggings, +and disposing of their goods piecemeal by auction. Ere the +next range of stalls may be explored, the pathway is obstructed +by some “literate” specimen of the blind, with an +attendant concourse of listeners eagerly drinking in the titles +of his sheet of hundred songs for a penny. +“There’s a good time coming,” +“All’s lost now,” “My bark is on the +shore,” and “I’m on the Sea,” &c. +&c.; or should any great tragedy or judicial murder have +occurred recently, to furnish him with a still more profitable +stock in trade, such as a “last dying speech and +confession,” or “full, true, and particular +account” of some “shocking and brutal outrage,” +somewhat may be seen and heard of how the minds and tastes of the +ignorant are vitiated, and the morbid cravings of diseased +imaginations fed; and the hawker of this food for the million, +forms living evidence that the eye is not the only member through +whose aid vice may gain entrance to the soul. But there is +little time or opportunity to philosophize amid the din of +importunity that is ringing upon <!-- page 123--><a +name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>the ears, +“What d’ye luke for? fine guse? butifull +fowill?” And there stands one who claims especial +notice—the merry bacon woman, amid her throng of earnest +customers. There she stands, or rather moves; stillness is +a state to which she must be a total stranger, we could +fancy. “Good day, ma’am.” +“What’s for you, sir?” “Nice pork, +<i>dear</i>? black meat? I’ll wait <i>of ye</i> this +minute, sir.” “Yes, ma’am, beautiful ham; +did you please to want any? Oh, thank you; very well, +another day I shall be <i>proud</i> to wait <i>of +ye</i>.” “No harm in asking,” she adds, +turning apologetically to her more profitable customers. +And so she goes on, ever moving, ever talking, ever cheerful, +civil, and attentive, one never-ending strain of courtesy and +kindness pouring from her lips, while her hands are ever busy +cutting and weighing, and folding up in fine white linen cloths, +her sausages and bacon, and black meat, and still nicer white +juvenile-looking pork, just fresh from the pickle. Probably +she has a home somewhere, but her sphere of usefulness and +theatre of glory must be at the market-stall; she must have been +born and bred a market-woman. Further on, there sits a +melancholy and original old lady, proprietress of a heterogeneous +kind of heap, composed of small quantities of the choicest +produce of various sources of supply—stray joints of pork, +trifling displays of butter, a few eggs, and an occasional +specimen of poultry; but her fame is <!-- page 124--><a +name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>built upon +her unrivalled “tatoes,” hidden up in pads, and +carefully concealed from the eyes of chance passengers; their +discovery is a mine of wealth to the privileged few, especially +in bad seasons. Dealing forth sparingly, like a miser +counting out his treasures, the queen of murphies compensates for +the reserve that would seem to imply her belief that her +purchasers were begging favours of her, by the involuntary boon +she confers upon the lover of idioms, in her quaint displays of +her county’s dialect. The ordinary greeting of +“How d’ye do?” will be met by the assurance +that she “don’t <i>fare to feel</i> no +matters,” or she “<i>fares to</i> feel <i>right +muddled</i>,” or “<i>no how</i>,” or that she +is scarce fit to be “abroad.” Her +“tatoes” she will recommend as eating like balls of +flour, if cooked <i>enow</i> (a word indiscriminately used to +express quantity and degree). She will occasionally detail +particulars of her market-horse’s +“<i>trickiness</i>” when he +“<i>imitated</i>” to kick on the road, and how she +“<i>gots</i>” him on as well as she could. Her +breakfast jug she will designate a <i>gotch</i>, and many other +like specimens will she afford of the contents of the vocabulary +of East Anglia. A traveller may with little difficulty +fancy he is listening to some native of the distant county Devon; +and, strange to say, the <i>guse</i>, <i>fule</i>, and +<i>enow</i>, and other striking similarities of brogue and +dialect, are not the only features of resemblance these two +counties <!-- page 125--><a name="page125"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 125</span>bear to each other. The +ancient rood screens of the Norfolk churches have many of them +been found exactly to correspond with those found in Devonshire, +and only there. In the celebrated rebellions of Edward the +Sixth’s reign, many remarkable features of resemblance were +observed in the character of the outbreaks at these distant +points,—so much so, as to suggest the idea of secret +communication being kept up between them. Whether both +alike owe their peculiarities to the common parentage of the +Iceni, a tribe of whom have been said to have settled in +Devonshire as well as Pembrokeshire, or they are referable to any +less remote link of connection, antiquarians may perhaps at some +future day make clear. Certain it is, the +“southron” is apt to be easily beguiled into the +belief that he has met a fellow-countryman or woman among the +folks who deem themselves another race than the people of the +“<i>sheeres</i>.”</p> +<p>But we have here wandered far aside in our market trip; next +come in due order the butcher-stalls, taking a higher rank in the +social scale of market society than the humbler <i>pads</i>, +though their wares may not compete with their neighbours for a +world-wide fame—south-down mutton, prime little scot, and +short-horn beef, with the usual attendant displays of +calves’ white heads with staring eyes, and mangled feet +hanging to dismembered legs and shoulders by little strings of +sinew, looking as though <!-- page 126--><a +name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>they were +carelessly left on by accident, <i>not</i> to affect the weight, +and other mysterious manifestations of the internal anatomy of +oxen and sheep, and queer-looking conglomerations of odds and +ends, transmogrified by some cooking process into very greasy +imitations of brawn, and selling by the name of pork +cheeses,—these make up the attractions of the butcher +department, not over-inviting to look upon, even to those who are +far from objecting to well-disguised appeals to their carnivorous +propensities in the form of savoury dishes.</p> +<p>The lover of beauty will soon permit his eye to wander on and +rest upon the treasures of the market-garden, where it may revel +in a perfect sea of “Bremer” lusciousness; +asparagus—seakale—peas, marafats and +blues—beans, kidneys dwarfs, and windsor—salads and +cresses—radishes in radiating bunches and globular +bunches—cabbages and cauliflowers, that may perplex cooks +and boilers by their magnitude—cucumbers and melons, and +all the pumpkin tribe. Fruit—shining heaps of +cherries—trays of bright glistening currants, with their +little seeds peeping through as “natural” as the gems +in the great Russian cabinet—strawberries and raspberries +on their wooden trays, with the little skimmer-like spades to +shovel them up, and the choice ones packed up in their little +pints, sheltered from the sun by the fresh green leaf tied +over—and sundry <!-- page 127--><a name="page127"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 127</span>and divers wares from foreign parts +lending new features to the home department, since the tariff of +the “people’s friend” came into +operation. But the crowning glory of the picture is the +sovereign of the stall, the sturdy market-gardener, full of +strength and sinew, the evidence of honest healthful labour +meeting its due reward,—a fitting representative of the +great base upon whose soundness rests the column of wealth, and +capitol of rank, that with it form the pillar of our +nation’s social prosperity. He knows not what it is +to seek for work, but rather needs to pluralise himself to +satisfy the demands upon his skill, and time, and taste; and +fairly has he earned his reputation both in horti and +floriculture. His rustic little home, with its thatched +roof, and ivy and clematis twined verandah, lies in the very +midst of a city of gardens almost of his own creation, watched +and tended by him with a care that has rendered them the fairest +line of beauty art ever devised to grace a road-side pathway +through the suburbs of a city; and who ever saw or tasted wares +that could rival the produce of his own little profitable +domain? But the good-humoured smile of conscious +superiority in his profession, that plays upon his features, is +the market-gardener’s peculiar fascination. Talk to +him of chemical manures or rich guano, how he will smile! and +what a tale will he unfold of roses all burnt up, geraniums run +to <!-- page 128--><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +128</span>leaf, polyanthuses converted into cabbages, without the +advantage of being edible; auriculas dying, &c. +“May do <i>somewheres</i>, but not for flower or +market-gardens.” Beyond him, lies spread out a rich +carpet of flowers, grouped by the hands of younger and humbler +ones, whom one might almost call the lay floricultural +professors. Geraniums, and fuchsias, and bright blue +salvias, verbenas of every hue, from deep maroon, through +crimson, up to white; sweet-scented heliotrope, and richly shaded +primroses, that make the tenants of the woods look pale with +envy. A pity it seems to disturb the harmony of colour, so +perfect a parterre does it form, with the back-ground of shrubs +that stand in such rich clusters behind them, all waiting to be +transplanted to new homes. In the very midst of them rises +a mysterious-looking little ark of canvass, resting from its +weekly labour of perambulating the streets and suburbs through +which it has been borne, sedan fashion, by the pair of +unclassical-looking hobbledehoys that own the gay treasures it is +formed to shelter, and whose lips can manage to send forth a +string of nomenclature that may fairly shake the nerves of any +modest purchaser. Sweet simple-looking little floral gems, +they will recommend to notice as Gilea rosea adorata, Clarkia +fimbricata, Coreopsis nigra, speciosa, Colinsea rubra, all hardy +annuals; and with the utmost nonchalance describe <!-- page +129--><a name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +129</span>some trembling little creeper as Tropœlum +Campatica Fuchsia Carolinæ, Campanula Campatica, and +Lobelia ramosa, all safely meant, we presume, to conceal the +relationship of the owners to the familiar tenants of the cottage +border. A novice must seize in desperation upon some one +that, shorn of its <i>ishii</i> or <i>osum</i>, may chance to be +remembered, lest his fate should resemble that of the fair lady, +who once professed to own in her garden the “aurora +borealis” and “delirium tremens.”</p> +<p>Among the scientific nurseries that clothe almost every +outskirt of the city, may perhaps be found grander exotics, or +more luxuriant varieties of floral beauty; but these fragments of +botanic skill and lore are fair specimens of the inheritance +bequeathed to the sons of the soil by those great master-minds +whose gardens once drew Evelyn from the metropolis upon a visit +to this then pre-eminent seat of wealth and magnificence. +“My Lord’s Gardens,” that skirted the +water-side, whose quadrangle contained a bowling-green, a +wilderness, and garden, with walks of forty feet in breadth +surrounding them, have passed away, a fragment of the wilderness +alone remains to mark the site of the glorious displays of wealth +and fashion once paraded among them; but the name, associated +with the memory of the times, is a star of the first magnitude, +in the galaxy of the city’s firmament of great men.</p> +<p><!-- page 130--><a name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +130</span>Sir Thomas Browne, the philosopher, the physician, the +naturalist, the antiquarian, and the botanist, the associate and +friend of the most eminent men that graced the age in which he +lived, and the historian whose works have enriched the literature +of the world, stands first in the long list of names that are +linked with the beauties of the vegetable kingdom; a city that +has sent forth a Lindley, a Hooker, and a Smith, to be professors +in the great world of science, as his followers, has cause, +indeed to honour the memory of him who sowed the first seeds in +the garden, that has reared such giants from its soil.</p> +<p>But there is yet another picture to be viewed of homely +traffic; the Christmas market-day, when the old place and people +seem to be in the zenith of their glory. Each poultry-stall +overflowing with the turkeys, geese, and fowls, that have not +found an exit through the myriad avenues opened for their flight +to every province, town, and city in the land. There they +lie in state, sharing the sovereignty of the season, with +bright-gemmed holly boughs and pearly mistletoe, that deck and +garnish every pad, and stall, and bench, and lie heaped up in +shining stacks of magnitude that may well suggest to the young +novice a question as to how the slow-growing holly and rare +parasite could have been found year after year in such +profusion. Country walks, holly-skirted lanes, and park +enclosures, may tell <!-- page 131--><a name="page131"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 131</span>something of the one; and alas! for +the poetry of the Druids and the oaks, the apple orchards now +claim almost the sole honour of giving shelter to the +other—the ancient deity of the woods; they will scarce +allow the king of the forest a partial share in the tribute +offerings to merry Christmas.</p> +<p>The bustling eve, when midnight surprises the scrambling teems +of “Trotty Vecks,” gathering up the fragments left +from rich folk’s caterings, that they too may have a savour +of something more than the compliments of the season; when the +remnants of the bountiful display that has been hoarded up for +the highest bidders through the busy day, are auctioned off at +the buyer’s own price, and fall thus perchance within the +compass of the weaver’s earnings, then is the hour to see +the spirit of peace and good-will towards men stalking abroad, +and lifting from men’s hearts and faces the load of +weariness and veil of care, transmuting by his magic touch the +poor man’s copper into gold, and giving to his little +stores a widow’s cruise-like power to cheer and comfort +happy living hearts. No one who dwells in the old city +should deem it fruitless toil to wend their way through the old +market-place on Christmas Eve, and take a poet’s lesson +from the scene!</p> +<p>But there are other pictures still to be seen within the +quaint old Elizabethan frame-work of the city’s +market-place than scenes of merchandise, in these days <!-- page +132--><a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>of +monster meetings. Who can forget the human gatherings that +have many a time and oft, within the limits of even +childhood’s memory, been witnessed here, when gable roofs, +and parapets, windows, and balconies, church towers, and +Guildhall leads, have swarmed with living thousands; gay dressed +“totties” and dames, aye, and sober-minded lords of +the creation too! all eager and intent to watch from safe +quarters some common object of attraction that has drawn together +a mighty multitude of the people, with their proverbial love of +sight-seeing, an inheritance bequeathed to them by their +ancestral pageantries. Slight stimulus is needed to send +the heart’s blood of the city through every vein and artery +to this centre, where it pulsates in deep and heavy throbs of +joy, or hope, or anger, as the case may be; true, in these modern +days the common wants and common blessings that have bound the +sympathies of the million into one, cause the spectacle of +tumultuous hate and bitterness, knocking together of heads, +&c, to be a rare manifestation of popular enthusiasm; more +frequently one desire, one feeling animates the body aggregate, +be it to see the mammoth train of a Hughes or Van Amburgh, the +<i>entrée</i> of a royal duke, the failure of a promised +fountain bid to play by a new water company, the more successful +display of fireworks at the same behest, the popping of some +threescore pensioners in honour of some <!-- page 133--><a +name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 133</span>royal +birthday, or the advent of some political election. On each +and all of such occasions, and many more, the filling up of the +frame-work is a picture of life, of concentrated human power, +will, and passion, full of effect; may be, it needs an adequate +cause to give it full strength, but everywhere it is full of +interest, and the good old city’s market-place would not be +fairly chronicled were its monster meetings of sight-seers deemed +unworthy a passing comment. Pageantry has been numbered +among the chartered rights of the citizens, from the days of +“mysteries,” when the itinerant stage, with its +sacred drama provided by the church, was the only theatre known, +through the age of tournaments, the season of royal visits, +Elizabethan processions, and triumphal arches, of guilds, of +Georges and dragons, down to the last relic of the spirit of +olden times—the chairing of its members; and not even the +scant nourishment offered in this nineteenth century, has yet +sufficed to starve and wither the seeds thus sown and fostered in +the very nature of the people.</p> +<p>In a work that professes not to follow out the thread of +history through all its variable windings, or note consecutively +all the beads of truth that have been carved by the hand of time, +and strung upon its surface, but only here and there to pause, as +some gem more glittering than its fellows meets the eye, or some +quaint rude relic of a day gone by <!-- page 134--><a +name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>lays claim +to a passing curiosity, wonder, or pity, we feel at liberty to +make a kaleidoscope sort of <i>pattern</i> of our gleanings and +notes on the old market-place. Interwoven with its +progress, and associated with its memories, must be almost every +historical reminiscence, peculiarly belonging to an important +municipality, and thriving mart of commerce and manufactures; +from the first simple gatherings in the outer court of the +castle, to the days when trades and crafts, brought over by +Norman intruders, and flourishing under the skilful tutelage of +Flemish refugees, clustered together in groups around the old +croft, the saddlers, the hosiers, the tanners, the mercers, the +parmenters, the goldsmiths, the cutlers, each with their own +<i>row</i>, to the time when staples were fixed, or right of +wholesale dealing granted—when cloth halls witnessed the +measuring and sealing by government inspectors of every +manufactured piece of cloth, to ensure fairness of dealing +between buyer and seller—when sumptuary laws regulated +quantity, quality, and pattern of the dresses of all dutiful and +loyal subjects—down through ages of fluctuating +vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity—tremulous +shakings—and reviving struggles against the tide of +competition that has sunk the first and greatest manufacturing +city our country once could boast, beneath the level of many a +nurseling of yesterday, a mere mushroom in growth and +age—from the era <!-- page 135--><a +name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>of +ultra-carnivorous diet, when boars, peacocks, venison, and +porpoise, were scattered in plentiful profusion on the boards of +butchers’ stalls, and in the regions of +“<i>Puleteria</i>,”—when the potato, brocoli, +turnip, onion, and radish, were unknown—the tansy, the +rampion, cow cabbage, and salsify, their only substitutes in the +days when vegetarians were not;—when quinces, medlars, rude +grapes, and mulberries, wild raspberries and strawberries, +supplied the place of a modern dessert, with the valuable addenda +of hazel, and walnuts, whose beautiful wood even then was prized +as an article of manufacture for cups and bowls, under the name +of <i>masere</i>—down to the scene of the present day, as +it has been pictured already.</p> +<p>Manifold have been the fleeting shadows that have peopled its +disc, now bright, now dark, its area now traversed by triumphal +arches and gorgeous processions, now serving as a platform for a +gallows, whereon a Roberts and a Barber suffered for their +loyalty to his majesty, Charles the First; in one age witnessing +the rise of an oratory in its very midst, and a chaplain to +minister to spiritual cravings, in the heart of material +abundance; the next echoing to the ruthless hammers of +destructive zealots, sweeping from their path every stone or +carving that bore trace of the finger of the “scarlet +lady.”</p> +<p>But although a consecutive detail of its rise and progress may +not be within the province of our pen, <!-- page 136--><a +name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 136</span>we may +endeavour to trace a few of the leading features of its history +since the era of its first rise into existence as a fishing +hamlet, when the sea washed its shores, and the huts of a few +fishermen, perhaps, were the only habitations scattered over its +surface. Here they dwelt, no doubt, in peaceful security, +when the huge mound, topped with its towering castle, rose up in +their midst, and their sovereigns fixed their dwelling-place +within its strongholds, to be succeeded, after the departure of +the Romans, by the feudal lords or earls of Danish and Saxon +conquerors, in whose time the market-place was the magna crofta +or great croft of the castle. At the gates of the ancient +castles the markets were continually set, following the precedent +of the assemblage of booths that gathered round the gates of the +Roman camps. These, from being at first moveable stalls or +shelters for goods, grew in after-years into towns, boroughs, and +cities, many of them taking their names from the castles or +camps, and were called <i>chesters</i>. The country people +were not allowed to carry provisions into Roman camps; at each +gate was a strong guard, that suffered none to enter the camp +without licence from the commanding officer: this guard consisted +of one <i>cohort</i>, and one troop at least, from which sprung +the modern term of <i>court</i>, or <i>cohort</i>, of +guard. The commanding officer of the guard at the gate had +<!-- page 137--><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +137</span>oversight of the market, punished such as sold by false +weights and measures, brought bad provisions, or were guilty of +any other offence in the market, and arbitrated in all cases of +dispute. The Saxons, those exterminating conquerors, who so +liberally parcelled out their neighbours’ territory into +the famous divisions of the Heptarchy, next figured upon the +scene, and the <i>castellans</i> succeeded the officer of the +guard in the duties of his office, in later times to be fulfilled +by pie-powder courts and clerks of the market. At this +period, markets at the castle gates grew so important as to be +composed of durable houses, as durable at least as wooden +shambles were likely to be; and of such like constructions were +the first outlines of the market-place composed, the +fishmongers’ and butchers’ shops of the present day +being the nearest similitudes that can be found to illustrate +their features.</p> +<p>From this time the history of the market-place becomes +identified with the progress of the borough, its struggles for +growth being somewhat impeded, we fancy, by the tithes and taxes +extorted by barons and bishops, between whom we may fancy the +poor fisherfolks began to “fare rather sadly,” +scarcely knowing what was their own, or if, indeed, they had any +own at all. To sum up their miseries, old chroniclers +record that about this time the sea began to withdraw its arm, +which to them had been a great support, <!-- page 138--><a +name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 138</span>and the +fishermen, who were bound to pay an annual tithe of herrings to +the bishops of the <i>see</i>, found themselves in much the same +plight as the Israelites of old, when doomed to make bricks +without straw—in their case to supply herrings without a +fishery—and were therefore reduced to the unpleasant +necessity of thenceforth purchasing the wherewith to pay the +lasting imposition. Notwithstanding all these impediments +the progress of the borough was rapid; houses and churches sprung +up thick and fast; so that at the time of the survey, in the +reign of the “Confessor,” we find record of +twenty-five parish churches, and one thousand three hundred +burgesses; of sheep-walks, mills, and hides of land, (a hide +being as much as one plough could till in a year,) of taxes, of +honey, and bear dogs.</p> +<p>Churches were owned indiscriminately by bishops, earls, and +burgesses; the materials of which they were constructed, chiefly +wood, though occasionally rough flints and stones cemented by a +durable mortar were substituted; the towers were circular, bricks +were employed for pavements, and bells were used. The +ancients conceived the sound of metal to be an antidote against +evil spirits; and the adoption of bells into the Christian +church, and their consecration, was but a variation of the +practices of the pagans, who at the feasts of Vulcan and Minerva, +consecrated trumpets for religious uses.</p> +<p><!-- page 139--><a name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +139</span>Such was the condition of the town and market-place, +when the Norman Conqueror, whose coming produced such mighty +changes in the land, brought over from the continent a host of +foreigners, who settled themselves down in almost every part of +the kingdom, and introduced trades and crafts of every variety, +giving birth to the great manufacturing spirit that has grown to +be so distinguishing a feature of our national greatness. +Among the foreigners who established themselves in this district, +we find the name of <i>Wimer</i>, a name yet prefixed to one of +the great wards or districts of the city—the Wimer +ward. At this period, perhaps the most prominent +characteristic of the secular history of the times, especially in +connection with trade, is the important position held by the +Jews.</p> +<p>The Norman duke had brought with him a great number of this +race of people, and although their religion was despised and +bitterly hated, they monopolized almost every branch of trade, +and so much of the learning of the day, that they took a high +place both in commercial and civil transactions. In this +city they successively had two extensive synagogues and colleges, +where medicine and rabbinical divinity were taught together.</p> +<p>Pharmacy, education, and all monetary transactions of any +importance, seem to have come within their province, their +utility and wealth preserving them, <!-- page 140--><a +name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>for the +time at least, from anything more than petty persecution. +The history, however, of little St. William, given elsewhere, and +other similar records that have been handed down, betray the +jealousy and ill-will that existed between them and the +Christians, even during the season of their prosperity, when +royalty, as in the time of Rufus, patronized them.</p> +<p>Meantime the city had become a bishopric; a monastery, three +friaries, and a nunnery sprung up in quick succession, betraying +the growth of ecclesiastical power, and the presence of a great +rival to the secular authority claimed by the ministers of civil +justice; itinerant judges had been established for trying great +crimes, such as murder or theft, and coroners had been instituted +to hold inquests upon any persons dying suddenly, or found dead; +either to acquit them of self murder, or seize their goods; the +citizens were also exempted from the judgment of the law by +single combat by Richard I. Among the events of interest +bearing very early date is the royal visit of the first Henry, in +the day when the king was his own tax-gatherer, and when, failing +to receive his dues in lawful coin of the realm, he was wont to +take them in kind, and to tarry until himself and suite had eaten +up the hogs and sheep, and cows and geese, whose addition to his +retinue would have been otherwise very burdensome. So +liberal <!-- page 141--><a name="page141"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 141</span>was the entertainment afforded the +royal visitor here, that his majesty was pleased to confer upon +the citizens many privileges as a mark of gratitude, among which +exemption from such like visitations in future was included.</p> +<p>The next visit of royalty is attributed to Edward the First, +whose generosity was evidenced by the command issued speedily +after his return thither, that the Jews throughout the kingdom +should be charged with unlawfully clipping and adulterating the +coin of the realm, as an excuse for their persecution, +imprisonment, and final extermination. The religious +antipathies of the zealous crusader would not suffice to explain +these atrocities; but the ambition of the warlike monarch seeking +to replenish his exhausted treasury, that he might prosecute +expensive foreign enterprises, gives a more satisfactory clue to +the origin of cruelties, that led to such important confiscations +being made to the crown. In obedience to the royal will, +the beautiful college of the Jews in this city was plundered and +burnt, its coffers emptied into the royal exchequer, and its +tenants banished or imprisoned. An inn, called +“Abraham’s Hall,” was soon after raised in the +immediate neighbourhood, to memorialize the event; but an old +ricketty gable or two, hidden away behind fair modern frontings +of brickwork and stucco, is all that remains of this +monument. St. George in combat with the <!-- page 142--><a +name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span>Dragon, now +figures on the sign board affixed to the inn that occupies one +portion of its site.</p> +<p>It is some credit to the ministers of justice in the city, +that we find upon their records, traces of the efforts made to +bring to punishment some of the actual perpetrators of the +outrages in Jewry, albeit they could perhaps only be deemed +instruments in the hands of higher powers. Extracts from +the “Coroners’ Rolls,” containing accounts of +robberies and street frays in this reign and the preceding, prove +this fact, and afford in addition curious evidence of the state +of society at that period. For the quaint and amusing +details they give, we must render thanks to the learned and +skilled in antiquarian lore, obsolete orthography, black letter +type, &c., but, for whose assistance in rescuing them from +obscurity, and interpreting their meaning, they must to us have +remained veiled in an impenetrable incognita.</p> +<p>Amongst them is the record of an “inquisition made of +the fire raised in Jewry,” and a “precept given to +apprehend all the felons concerned.” Another is so +graphic, that we feel able to see the whole picture it gives at a +glance—the widow sitting beside the bier of her husband, +the sanctity of her sorrow invaded by brute violence, the house +pillaged, and the corpse plundered and burnt in the agonised +wife’s presence. The words of the roll say, +“Katharina, the wife of Stephen Justice, accused <!-- page +143--><a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +143</span>Ralph, son of Robert Andrew, the gaoler, William Kirby +Gaunter, William Crede, Walter de Hereham, John, servant of +Nicholas de Ingham, and Nicholas sometime servant of Nicholas de +Sopham, and Nicholas de Gayver, that when she was at peace with +God and the king, in the house of Stephen Justice her husband, +and the Thursday night after the feast of King Edmund, in the +forty-eighth year of the reign of King Henry, the son of King +John (1263), they came in the town of Norwich, in Fybriggate, St. +Clement’s, and broke the oaken gates, and the hooks and the +hinges of iron, with hatchets, bars, wedges, swords, knives, and +maces, and flung them down into the court, and feloniously +entered; that they then broke the pine wood doors of the hall, +and the hinges and iron work of them, and the chains, bolts, and +oaken boards of the windows. Afterwards they entered the +door of the hall chamber towards the south, and robbed that +chamber of two swords, value 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, one ivory +handled anlace, value 12<i>d.</i>, one iron head piece, value +10<i>d.</i>, an iron staff, value 4<i>d.</i>; one cow leather +quirre (cuirass) with iron plates, value half a mark; and one +wambeis (a body garment stuffed with cotton, wool, or tow), and +coming thence into the hall, they burnt the body of her husband, +as it there lay upon a bier, together with a blanket of +‘reins,’ value 3<i>s.</i>; and took away with them a +linen cloth, value 18<i>d.</i> The said Katharina <!-- page +144--><a name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +144</span>immediately raised hue and cry, from street to street, +from parish to parish, and from house to house, until she came +into the presence of the bailiffs and coroners. They also +stole a lined cloth of the value of 5<i>s.</i>, and one hood of +<i>Pers</i> (Persian) with squirrel’s fur, value +10<i>s.</i>”</p> +<p>A writer in the Archæological Journal describes the +houses of this period as possessing only a ground floor, of which +the principal apartment was the aire, aitre, or hall, into which +the principal door opened, and which was the room for cooking, +eating, receiving visitors, and the other ordinary uses of +domestic life. Adjacent to this, was the chamber which was +by day the private apartment and resort of the female portion of +the household, and by night the bed room. Strangers and +visitors generally slept in the hall, beds being made for them on +the floor. A stable was frequently adjacent to the hall, +probably on the side opposite to the chamber or bed-room.</p> +<p>Another memorandum on the rolls, records the deaths of Henry +Turnecurt and Stephen de Walsham, who “were killed in the +parish of St. George, before the gate of the Holy Trinity, St. +Philip and James’ day, in the same year. The coroners +and bailiffs went and made inquisition. Inquisition then +made was set forth in a certain schedule. Afterwards came +master Marc de Bunhale, clerk, and Ralph Knict, with many others, +threatening the <!-- page 145--><a name="page145"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 145</span>coroners to cut them to pieces, +unless the schedule was given up, and then they took Roger the +coroner, and by force led him to his own house, with swords and +axes, until the said Roger took the schedule from his chest; and +then they took him with the schedule to St. Peter of Mancroft +church, and there the aforesaid Ralph tore away the schedule from +the hands of Roger, and bore it away, and before his companions, +in the manner of fools, cut it into small pieces; and with much +ado, Roger the coroner escaped from their hands in great fear and +tremor. The coroners say they cannot make inquisition, by +reason of the imminence of the war.” The disturbances +alluded to were the dissensions going on between the king and +barons.</p> +<p>Another describes an attack of four men, one of them a priest, +upon one man in his shop in the market, where he was +killed. Among many other similar accounts of these troubled +times, stands the description of various felons, who sheltered +themselves within the walls of the sanctuary, a privilege +permitted from the time of Alfred, whose laws granted protection +for three days and nights to any within the walls of a church; +William the Conqueror confirmed and extended the privilege. +In the times of feudal tyranny, this refuge was oftentimes of +considerable advantage to innocent persons falsely accused, but +as frequently was the shelter of crime.</p> +<p><!-- page 146--><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +146</span>In a case quoted from this authority, the felon +professes to have sought refuge from punishment awaiting +robberies, of which he acknowledges himself guilty. Upon +the church of St. Gregory there yet remains a curious escutcheon, +a part of the knocker, always then placed upon the door of a +church, for the purpose of aiding those who sought refuge in +sanctuary. A curious account of the ceremony of abjuration +of the realm by one who had taken refuge in Durham Cathedral, is +given in the York volume of the Archæological +Institute.</p> +<blockquote><p>“A man from Wolsingham is committed to +prison for theft. He escapes, and seeks refuge in the +Cathedral. He takes his stand before the shrine of St. +Cuthbert, and begs for a coroner. John Rachet, the coroner +of Chester ward, goes to him, and hears his confession. The +culprit, in the presence of the sacrist, sheriff, under-sheriff, +and others, by a solemn oath renounces the kingdom. He then +strips himself to his shirt, and gives up his clothing to the +sacrist as his fee. The sacrist restores the +clothing—a white cross of wood is put into his hand, and he +is consigned to the under-sheriff, who commits him to the care of +the nearest constable, who hands him over to the next, and he to +the next, in the direction of the coast. The last constable +puts him into a ship, and he bids an eternal farewell to his +country.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 147--><a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +147</span>There were usually chambers over the porches of +churches, in which two men slept, for the purpose of being ready +at all hours to admit applicants. In proof of the expense +attending the maintaining of persons in the sanctuary, it is said +that “in 1491, the burgesses in parliament acquainted the +assembly that they had been at great expense in getting an +ordinance of parliament to authorize them in a quiet way to take +one John Estgate out of sanctuary, the said John having entered +the churchyard of St. Simon and St. Jude, and there remained for +a long time past, during which time, the city being compelled to +keep watch on him day and night, lest he should escape, was at +great charge and trouble. The ordinance being passed, John +Pynchamour, one of the burgessess, went to the sanctuary and +asked John Estgate whether he would come out and submit to the +law, or no; and upon his answering he ‘would not,’ he +in a quiet manner went to him, led him to the Guildhall, and +committed him to prison.”</p> +<p>Another entry of an event that transpired during the troubled +reign of Henry III., bears reference to the memorable disputes +between the citizens and the monks of the priory, of which the +Ethelbert gateway, leading into the Cathedral Close, is a +monument; the citizens having had the penance of erecting it, +imposed upon them for their destructive attacks upon the +monastery, a great portion of which, <!-- page 148--><a +name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 148</span>including +parts of the cathedral, they pillaged and burnt. The record +states that “one John Casmus was found slain on the Tuesday +next after the feast of St. Laurence, by William de Brunham, +prior of Norwich, at the gates of St. Trinity, on the eastern +side; the said prior having struck him with a certain +‘fanchone’ on the head, from which blow he instantly +died. The coroners are afraid to make inquisition, for fear +of a felonious assault; a result rendered very probable by the +known temper of the prior, who, by his violent conduct, is said +to have contributed materially to the unhappy +disturbances.”</p> +<p>Long-cherished bitterness and jealousies respecting their +several limits of jurisdiction, had found occasion for outbreak +the preceding week to that mentioned in the record, at the annual +fair, held on Trinity Sunday, before the gates of the cathedral, +on the ground known as Tombland, from having anciently been a +burial place. The servants of the monastery, and the +citizens, had come into collision at some games that were going +on upon the Tuesday, and a violent conflict ensued, which lasted +for a considerable time. The writers of the time are +divided as to the blameable parties; the monks being accused of +aiding and abetting their servants in doing wrong, and +<i>vexing</i> the people; the citizens, in their turn, being +condemned for transgressing the recognized laws which existed +concerning the boundaries of the prior’s jurisdiction.</p> +<p><!-- page 149--><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +149</span>The animosities never fairly could be said to have +ceased until the general destruction of all monastic power at the +period of the Reformation.</p> +<p>One more curious extract we will make from these +coroner’s rolls, remarkable as being one of the very few +authentic accounts to be met with of a person being restored to +life after execution.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Walter Eye was condemned in the court of +Norwich, and hung, and appeared dead, but was afterwards +discovered to be alive by William, the son of Thomas Stannard; +and the said Walter was carried in a coffin to the church of St. +George’s, before the gate of St. Trinity, where he +recovered in fifteen days, and then fled from that church to the +church of the Holy Trinity, and there was, until the king upon +his suit pardoned him.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was formerly a prevalent idea that felons could only be +suspended for a certain time, but this was not really the case; +so far from it, Hale’s “Pleas of the Crown” +asserts, “that, in case a man condemned to die, come to +life after he is hanged, as the judgment is not executed till he +is <i>dead</i>, he ought to be hung up again.”</p> +<p>Another anecdote, extracted from the books of the corporation, +bearing a more recent date, possesses a double interest, from +being connected with a memorable disturbance, dignified in local +history by the title of Gladman’s Insurrection, and also +from the <!-- page 150--><a name="page150"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 150</span>name and rank of the lady concerned, +who was grand-daughter to Chaucer, the poet, and wife of William +de la Pole, who succeeded to the earldom of Suffolk upon the +death of his brother Michael, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> +1415, the second year of the reign of King Henry V.</p> +<p>The only liberty we shall take with the original account is to +slightly abridge it, and render it in modern orthography.</p> +<p>Item. It was so, that Alice, Duchess, that time Countess +of Suffolk, lately in person came to this city, disguised like a +country house-wife. Sir Thomas Tuddenham, and two other +persons, went with her, also disguised; and they, to take their +disports, went out of the city one evening, near night, so +disguised, towards a hovel called Lakenham Wood, to take the air, +and disport themselves, beholding the said city. One Thomas +Ailmer, of Norwich, esteeming in his conceit that the said +duchess and Sir Thomas had been other persons, met them, and +opposed their going out in that wise, and fell at variance with +the said Sir Thomas, so that they fought; whereby the said +duchess was sore afraid; by cause whereof the said duchess and +Sir Thomas took a displeasure against the city, notwithstanding +that the mayor of the city at that time being, arrested Thomas +Ailmer, and held him in prison more than thirty weeks without +bail; to the intent thereby both to chastise Ailmer, and to +appease <!-- page 151--><a name="page151"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 151</span>the displeasure of the said duchess +and Sir Thomas; and also the said mayor arrested and imprisoned +all other persons which the said duchess and Sir Thomas could +understand had in any way given favour or comfort to the said +Ailmer, in making the affray. Notwithstanding which +punishment, the displeasure of the duchess and Sir Thomas was not +appeased. And it is so, moreover, that one John Haydon, +late was recorder of the city, taking of the mayor and citizens a +reasonable fee, as the recorder is accustomed; he, being so +recorded, had interlaced himself with the prior of Norwich, at +that time being <i>in travers</i> with the said mayor and +commonality, and discovered the privity of the evidence of the +said city to the said prior, because whereof the mayor and +commons of the said city discharged the said Haydon of the +condition of recorder; for which Haydon took a displeasure +against the said city.</p> +<p>By malice of these displeasures of the said duchess, Sir +Thomas Tuddenham, and John Haydon, the Duke of Suffolk, then +earl, in his person, upon many suggestions by the said Tuddenham +and Haydon to him made, that the mayor, aldermen, and commonality +aforesaid, should have misgoverned the city, laboured and made to +be taken out of the chancery a commission of over +determiner. And thereupon, at a sessions holden at +Thetford, the Thursday next after the feast of St. Matthew the +Apostle, the said <!-- page 152--><a name="page152"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 152</span>Sir Thomas and John Haydon, finding +in their conceit no manner or matter of truth whereof they might +cause the said mayor and commonality there to be indicted, +imagined thus as ensueth: first, they <i>sperde an inquest</i>, +<i>then taken</i> in a chamber, at one Spilmer’s house; in +which chamber the said T. <i>lodged</i>, <i>and so kept them +sperde</i>.</p> +<blockquote><p>“And it was so, that one John Gladman, of +Norwich, which was then, and at this hour, is a man of +‘sad’ dispositions, and true and faithful to God and +to the king, of disport, as is and hath been accustomed in any +city or borough through all this realm, on fasting Tuesday made a +disport with his neighbours, having his horse trapped with +tinsel, and otherwise disguising things, crowned as King of +Christmas, in token that all mirth should end with the twelve +months of the year; afore him went each month, disguised after +the season thereof; and Lent clad in white, with +red-herring’s skins, and his horse trapped with oyster +shells after him, in token that sadness and abstinence of mirth +should follow, and an holy time; and so rode in divers streets of +the city, with other people with him disguised, making mirth, and +disport, and plays.</p> +<p>“The said Sir Thomas and John Haydon, among many other +full strange and untrue presentments, made by perjury at the said +inquest, caused the said mayor and commonality, and the said John +<!-- page 153--><a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +153</span>Gladman, to be indicted of that, that they should have +imagined to have made a common rising, and have crowned the said +John Gladman as king, with crown, sceptre and diadem, (when they +never meant it), nor such a thing imagined, as in the said +presentiment it showeth more plain, and by that presentiment, +with many other horrible articles therein comprised, so made by +perjury, thay caused the franchise of the said city to be seized +into the king’s hands, to the harm and cost of the said +mayor and commonality.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And now we take a long stride from the reign of Henry V. to +that of Charles II., omitting the intermediate century that was +marked by the royal visit of the maiden queen, chronicled at +length among the “pageantries;” and passing over the +troubled era of the Commonwealth, the Reformation, and +“Kett’s rebellion,” all of which have found a +place for notice elsewhere, we find ourselves once more in the +smooth waters of peace, with the tide of prosperity at the full +within the walls of the old city; and we ask no pardon for making +copious extracts from the journal that furnished Macaulay with +materials to serve up the rich banquet that lies condensed in the +few lines devoted to this period of the city’s history, in +his unrivalled work. The diary of Dr. Edward Browne gives a +picture of the society and habits of <!-- page 154--><a +name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 154</span>the +citizens in his time, perhaps not to be met with elsewhere. +His father, Sir Thomas Browne, then tenanted the house now known +by the title of the “Star,” and in the winter of +1663–4 was visited by his son Edward, who, during his stay, +made the entries in his journal which we have extracted. At +that time, Henry, afterwards Lord Howard, of Castle Rising, +subsequently Earl of Norwich, and Marshal of England, resided in +the city, at the palace of his brother, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, +who was an invalid, on the continent, suffering from disease of +the brain.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Jan. 1st. (1663–4.) I was at +Mr. Howard’s, brother to the Duke of Norfolk, who kept his +Christmas this year at the Duke’s palace in Norwich, so +magnificently that the like hath scarce been seen. They had +dancing every night, and gave entertainments to all that would +come; <i>hee</i> built up a room on purpose to dance in, very +large, and hung with the bravest hangings I ever saw; his +candlesticks, snuffers, <i>tongues</i>, fire-shovel, and +and-irons, were silver; a banquet was given every night after +dancing; and three coaches were employed every afternoon to fetch +ladies, the greatest of which would holde fourteen persons, and +coste five hundred pounde, without the harnesse, which cost six +score more; I have seen of his pictures, which are admirable; he +hath prints and draughts, done by most of the great +masters’ <!-- page 155--><a name="page155"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 155</span>own hands. Stones and jewels, +as onyxes, sardonyxes, jacinths, jaspers, amethysts, &c. more +and better than any prince in Europe. Ringes and seales, +all manner of stones, and limnings beyond compare. These +things were most of them collected by the old Earl of Arundel +(the Duke’s grandfather).</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“Jan. 7th. I opened a dog.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“This day Monsieur Buttet, who plays most admirably <!-- +page 156--><a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +156</span>on the flageolet, bagpipe, and sea-trumpet, a long +three-square instrument, having but one string, came to see +me.</p> +<p>“Jan. 11th. This day, being Mr. Henry +Howard’s birthday, we danced at Mr. Howard’s, till 2 +of the clock in the morning.</p> +<p>“Jan. 12th. Cutting up a turkey’s +heart. A monkey hath 36 teeth: 23 molares, 4 canini, and 8 +incisores.</p> +<p>“Jan. 13th. This day I met Mr. Howard at my Uncle +Bendish’s, where he taught me to play at +<i>l’hombre</i>, a Spanish game at cards.</p> +<p>“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, <i>non compos +mentis</i>, and of his travailes in France and Italy.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p><!-- page 157--><a name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +157</span>“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.</p> +<p>“Feb. 2nd. I saw cock-fighting at the White Horse, +in St. Stephen’s.</p> +<p>“Feb. 5th. I went to see a <i>serpent</i>, that a +woman, living in St. Gregory’s church-yard, vomited up, but +she had burnt it before I came.</p> +<p>“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<i>s.</i></p> +<p>“Feb. 22nd. I set forward for my journey to +London.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <!-- page 158--><a name="page158"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 158</span>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.</p> +<p>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, <!-- page 159--><a name="page159"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 159</span>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.</p> +<p>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<i>d.</i> 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, <i>a candle</i>, <i>or visible and +convenient lights</i>, and continue the same until eleven +o’clock at night, for enlightening the streets, and +convenience of passengers, under penalty of 2<i>s.</i> 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.</p> +<p>Meantime, during these years of progress and prosperity, while +Time was tracing its finger-marks <!-- page 160--><a +name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 160</span>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 <!-- +page 161--><a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +161</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 “<i>true +Protestants</i>,” 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.</p> +<p>And now a word upon manufactures. The great <!-- page +162--><a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +162</span>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 <!-- page +163--><a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +163</span>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 <!-- page 164--><a name="page164"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 164</span>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>There is little doubt that woollen manufactures of <!-- page +165--><a name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +165</span>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 +<i>not</i>, 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 +<i>à nos</i> moutons.”</p> +<p>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 <!-- page 166--><a +name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +166</span>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 <i>Worsted</i>, about +thirteen miles from Norwich, whence the name of the wool first +spun there by them.</p> +<p>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; <!-- page 167--><a name="page167"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 167</span>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 <i>staples</i>, 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 <!-- page 168--><a +name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 168</span>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 <!-- +page 169--><a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +169</span>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, barèges, 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. +<!-- page 170--><a name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +170</span>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 <!-- page 171--><a +name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 171</span>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 “<i>completest work ever yet +published</i>.” 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 “<i>Gazette</i>” bearing +date July 16, 1709, are these—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">June 5, 1708.</p> +<p>“Mr. Augustine de Clere, of Norwich Thorpe, have now +<!-- page 172--><a name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +172</span>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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Among the Queries from Correspondents occur the +following—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">Norwich Gazette, April +9, 1709.</p> +<p>“Mr. Crossgrove,</p> +<p>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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This query is replied to at some length satisfactorily by Mr. +Crossgrove.</p> +<p>This department of the paper is headed “The Accurate +Intelligencer,” and in its columns are sundry other rather +peculiar interrogatories, such as—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Mr. Crossgrove,</p> +<p>Pray tell me where Moses was buried, and you will very much +oblige your constant customer, B. S.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Answer.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Mr. B. S.</p> +<p><i>He tells you himself</i> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 173--><a name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +173</span>Another rich specimen runs—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">Lynn, May 18, 1709.</p> +<p>“Mr. Crossgrove,</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Yours unknown, &c.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Answer</p> +<blockquote><p>“Sir,</p> +<p>I have a bushel of letters by me that came all to the same +tune with this of yours, viz. <i>You cannot or durst not answer +it</i>; 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 <i>No</i>, 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Yours, H. C.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Well done, Mr. Crossgrove! say we.</p> +<p>In 1714, a “Courant” was established, small folio +size: at the end of one occurs this notice—</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 174--><a name="page174"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 174</span>“Note. An Accident +happening, the reader is desired to pardon all <i>literal</i> +errors, as it is not corrected.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>one</i> advantage over railway travellers of the +present day—that they could choose their own route.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><!-- page 175--><a name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +175</span>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.</p> +<p>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).</p> +<p><!-- page 176--><a name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +176</span>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.”</p> +<p>Eventually he decided upon printing the work upon his own +premises, and engaged a good workman, at a salary of £40 a +year, bought a press for £7, and fitted up a printing +office with all the requisite materials. The account in the +papers of the “Archæological 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 <!-- page 177--><a +name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 +<i>with the </i><!-- page 178--><a name="page178"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 178</span><i>whole borough of +Yarmouth</i>. Many of the parcels, it is added, were +recovered, but others irrecoverably lost.</p> +<blockquote><p>“I know not how the truth may be,<br /> +But tell the tale as ’twas told to me.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<h2><!-- page 179--><a name="page179"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 179</span>CHAPTER V.<br /> +<span class="smcap">guildhall</span>.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">The +Guildhall</span>.—<i>Visit to its +dungeons</i>.—<i>Bilney</i>.—<i>St. Barbara’s +chapel</i>.—<i>Legend of St. Barbara</i>.—<i>Assize +court</i>.—<i>Old document</i>.—<i>Trial by +Jury</i>.—<i>Council chamber</i>.—<i>Old record +room</i>.—<i>Guilds</i>.—<i>St. George’s +company</i>.—<i>History of St. George</i>.—<i>Legend +of St. Margaret</i>.</p> +<p>Our rambles have now brought us to the threshold of that +quaint, but beautiful old “studwork” chamber, the +guildhall; the seat of civic honour, power, and glory, with its +many appendages of courts and cells, the witnesses of those +multiplied alternations of tragedy, comedy, and melodrama, that +may be looked for to have been enacted during centuries, beneath +a roof covering a council chamber, an assize court, and a +prison. Once again, we avow that we aim not to be complete +topographers, or guides to all the strange old carvings, and +grotesque remains of ancient sculpture, that may be found in such +rich abundance around the pathways of a venerable city, neither +do we profess to furnish all the historic details <!-- page +180--><a name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +180</span>that may be gleaned concerning these relics of +antiquity; are they not chronicled elsewhere, in many mighty +tomes, readable and unreadable, in “guides,” and +“tours,” and manifold +“directories?” We look and think, and odd +associations weave our thinkings sometimes, perhaps, into a queer +mottled garb, though we would solemnly aver the woof through +which the shuttle of our fancy plays is every fibre of it +truth.</p> +<p>Such a preface is needed to our sketch of this fine old +ornament of the city’s market-place, lest disappointment +should attend the hopes of the inquisitive investigator of sights +and relics.</p> +<p>The guildhall, once like the municipal body it represents, was +but a tiny little thing compared with what it since has grown, +and when bailiffs and burgesses were the only distinctive titles +and offices, a simple chamber thatched, and commonly used to +collect the market dues, sufficed for the seat of civic +government; but when, in the reign of the third Henry, the +citizens received from him a charter for a mayor and sheriffs, +they took off the thatched roof of their little toll-booth, and +built upon it, and round about it, spacious rooms and courts, to +accommodate and do honour to their newly acquired municipal +dignitaries; for which purpose a warrant was obtained, to press +all carpenters, builders, and bricklayers, into active service, +from eight o’clock in the morning until <!-- page 181--><a +name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 181</span>eight +o’clock at night, as long as occasion might require; and by +such compulsory process, the design was completed some fifty +years from the date of its commencement. The tower, wherein +was the treasury, fell down in Bluff King Harry’s reign, +whose matrimonial exploits have given him notoriety, in addition +to the grand event of history, the Reformation, with which they +bore so intimate a connection. Decay, renovation, change, +and reformation, have been so busy with this seat of government, +from the era of its infancy until the present time, that no small +degree of ingenuity must be needed to unravel the twistings and +turnings, and comprehend the inharmonious groupings that have +sprung up about it, the divers offsprings of various ages, that +mark the progress and growth of the municipal constitution.</p> +<p>Without doubt, the first claim to antiquity is justly assigned +to the lower dungeons and cells, some of which still serve as +<i>lock ups</i> for offenders awaiting magisterial examination; +and a remarkably unpleasant situation must the individual find +himself in, who is there for ever so brief a space in +“durance vile;” the convicted transgressor certainly +makes an exchange for the better, when he reaches his ultimate +destination, the city prison cell; dark, damp, underground +coal-cellars, may be deemed <i>fair</i> illustrations of the +accommodation there offered to those whom the “<i>law deems +innocent</i>”, as it professes to <!-- page 182--><a +name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 182</span>do all +unconvicted persons. One degree darker, and more horrible, +are the <i>dungeons</i>, which receive no light whatever, save +from a jet of gas without the gratings of the doors; into these +refractory guests are stowed, that their rebellious sounds may +not disturb the ears of any passers-by above ground.</p> +<p>“Deeper, and deeper still,” down beneath the very +foundations of the building, at the foot of a dark narrow winding +stair, fast crumbling to decay, is yet another dungeon, long +since closed for any practical purposes; the eye of curiosity +alone happily is permitted to penetrate its depths. Dark +and damp, however, as it is, it would seem preferable to the +dismal “<i>lock ups</i>,” a light, of modern +introduction, from the street above, giving it a less intensely +black look. Here it was that poor old Bilney spent his last +hours of life; and the groined and vaulted roof, constructed upon +the plan of so many of the cellars of that period of civil and +domestic architecture, gives to the place a strangely +ecclesiastical look in these days, and imagination has little +difficulty in calling up the priest of the subterranean temple, +who has been pictured to our eyes as there testing the powers of +his endurance, by holding his finger in the lighted flame of the +candle, to satisfy his friends that he should not shrink from the +bodily pangs that were on the morrow to earn for him the crown of +martyrdom. Solemn and sad are the memories clustered <!-- +page 183--><a name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +183</span>around these dreary tombs of liberty, nor is their +atmosphere tempting to linger in, even upon a visit of +curiosity.</p> +<p>The winding stair from <i>the dungeon</i> leads into what is +now a porch-way, but which must once have been the site of the +old chapel, built for the use of the prisoners. This chapel +was dedicated to St. Barbara, the prisoner’s saint, who, +according to the legend of the Romish church, “was +imprisoned by her father, in a high strong tower, to the end that +no man should behold her,” and therefore St. Barbara is +always represented with a tower. She is commemorated on the +fourth of December, as St. Barbara, the Virgin and Martyr. +Here, were formerly kept all the goods and chattels appertaining +to the mayorality and civic feasts, in addition to the services +belonging to the chapel itself; but about the era of the +Reformation the chapel was pulled down, to make way for secular +offices. How busy those good reformers were in abolishing +every place dedicated to worship, that their judgment deemed +supernumerary! When the treasury tower fell in, it crushed +a prison, known by the name of “<i>Little Ease</i>;” +the full details of whose attractions we are left in ignorance +of. Upon the first floor, near the site of the chapel, was +once the large chamber, where the sealing of the cloths +manufactured in the city was carried on, since converted into an +assize court, <!-- page 184--><a name="page184"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 184</span>where the notorious lawmongers of +this city, with their brother dignitaries of the bar, join forces +to promote the ends of justice, their clients, and their +own. There is a queer old document extant, wherein the +number of learned gentlemen permitted to follow the profession of +the law in this city was limited, “because,” as the +preamble states, “when there were no more than six or eight +attorneys at the most coming to the king’s courts, great +tranquillity reigned in the city and county, and little trouble +or vexation was made by untrue and foreign suits; and now, so it +is, that in the said city and county there be fourscore +attornies, or more, the more part having nothing to live upon but +only his gain by the practice of attorneyship, and also the more +part of them not being of sufficient knowledge to be an attorney, +&c. &c., whereby proceed many suits more of evil will and +malice than of the truth of the thing, to the manifold vexations, +and no little damage of the inhabitants of the said city and +county.” Wherefore it was enacted, that there should +be but six attorneys in the county, and two in the city, for the +future. When this admirable statute was repealed, we know +not, but conceive it must have been long, long ago, for so many +brass-plate signs to have sprung up in evidence of a numerous +progeny taking place of the solitary two. Whether the +repeal was a <i>reform</i> calculated to benefit the city, +experience best can <!-- page 185--><a name="page185"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 185</span>prove; but if the character of the +“common folk” in these parts is faithfully given by +the author of “English Worthies,” we may presume them +to have been considerably inconvenienced by the scarcity of tools +with which to play their favourite game. He says, +“that the common folks of Norfolk are possessed of such +skill in the law, that they are said to study the law at the +plough’s tail, and some would persuade us that they will +enter an action for their neighbour’s horse only looking +over the fence.”</p> +<p>In later times, evidences of the law mania exist in manifold +forms; and the fact of individuals consulting a lawyer before +calling in a doctor, in physical ailments, is by no means an +uncommon occurrence among a certain class. Some men think +and judge with their lawyer’s heads, who, in return, of +course, in justice live upon their purses.</p> +<p>Some few amusing facts connected with the boasted English +privilege of “Trial by Jury,” may serve to illustrate +the growth of “purity” in our courts of law. +The jurisdiction exercised over jurors by the +“Star-chamber” is a notorious matter of history; but +the curious and graphic description of the nature and +constitution of a jury in the thirteenth century, as given by Sir +Francis Palgrave, in his “Tale of the Merchant and +Friar,” may not be quite so familiar, and is far too good +to be omitted.</p> +<blockquote><p>“A trial was about to commence. +‘Sheriff, is <!-- page 186--><a name="page186"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 186</span>your inquest in court?’ said +the Mayor. ‘Yes, my lord,’ replied the sheriff, +‘and, I am proud to say, it will be an excellent jury for +the crown. I myself have picked and chosen every man upon +the panel. I have spoken to them all; and there is not one +whom I have not examined carefully, not only as to his knowledge +of the offences of which the prisoner stands charged, but of all +the circumstances from which his guilt can be collected, +suspected, or inferred. All the jurors were acquainted with +him; eight out of the twelve have often been heard to declare +upon their oath, that they were sure one day he would come to the +gallows; and the remainder are fully of opinion that he deserves +the halter. My lord, I should ill have performed my duty, +if I should have allowed my bailiffs to summon the jury at +hap-hazard, and without previously ascertaining the extent of +their testimony. Some perhaps know more, and some less; but +the least informed of them have taken great pains to go up and +down every corner of Westminster, they and their wives, and to +know all that they could hear concerning his past and present +life and conversation. Never had any culprit a chance of a +fairer trial.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>An extract from the archives of the Record room, gives another +specimen of the mode of dealing with jurymen, if they proved +refractory or obstinate. It bears the date of the 8th year +of King Henry VIII., <!-- page 187--><a name="page187"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 187</span>and is to the purport that the jury +that “acquitted Walter, James, and John Doo, Benet Bullok, +and Edmund Stuttlie, notwithstanding that they had good and +substantial evidence given against the said felons, at the last +gaol delivery of Norwich; as the chief Justice of the +King’s Bench, the Lord Edmund Howard, and William Ellis, +one of the justices of the peace there, openly declared before +the lords, in the presence of the said jury; for the which +perjury so by them committed, it is by the lords’ most +honourable council adjudged and decreed, that the said jury shall +do the penance following, that is to say, they shall be committed +to the Fleet, there to remain till to-morrow, and that then, at +six of the clock, they shall be brought by the warden of the +Fleet into Westminster Hall, with papers on their heads, whereon +shall be written in great letters, ‘these men be wilfully +perjured;’ and with the same papers on their heads they +shall be led thrice about the hall of Westminster aforesaid, and +then to be led by the warden of the Fleet to the Fleet again, +there to remain till Monday; and on Monday, in the morning, to be +had into Cheapside, and there shall go about the cross in Chepe +thrice, and then they shall return to the Fleet, and there to +remain till Tuesday, and then to be brought again before the +lords, to be bound by recognizances to do the same penance at +home, in their county at Norwich; and that a precept <!-- page +188--><a name="page188"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +188</span>shall be directed to the mayor and sheriffs of the city +of Norwich aforesaid, to see the said parties do the said penance +in the said city, upon Saturday, the 22d day of this present +month of November, openly in the market-place there, with papers +on their heads, whereupon shall be written the same words above +written.”</p> +<p>The old mode of trial by ordeal, consisting as it did of an +appeal to Heaven for judgment, either directly by miraculous +interference, as in the ordeals of fire and water, or indirectly, +in the ordeals of single combat, might well have had their charms +in the memory of culprit and jurors both, when such a substitute +alone was offered by the courts of justice that had superseded +them. There are, however, two extremes that may be gone to +about every thing; and we believe a little wholesome penance +might, even in the nineteenth century, not come amiss to stir up +the wits of many a sleepy juror. Certes, they often richly +merit it.</p> +<p>From the assize court we bend our steps upward, to the region +where we may feel at no loss in our search for objects of genuine +antiquity, and find ourselves in the <i>Council Chamber</i>; and +here we arrive at the very pinnacle of magisterial +dignity—the zenith of municipal glory—the seat of +mayoralty and aldmermanship and common councilship, once broadly +separate and distinct in their grades of rank and <!-- page +189--><a name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +189</span>power, in very truth an upper and a lower house, a +peerage and a commons—assembling themselves in chambers +becomingly graduated in their degrees of splendour—but now, +alas! in these degenerate days of reformation and democratic +sovereignty, as some might please to call them, all merged into +one conglomerated body corporate—shall we add, of <i>order +Gothic composite</i>?</p> +<p>The old chamber looks as if it had seen better days; two or +three patched-up windows of variegated colours, still retaining +many quaint and curious devices, bear witness of the taste and +liberality of our forefathers; and imagination, by the aid of +history’s pen, can fill up the unsophisticated plain glass +lights at the side, with the old subjects that once occupied +their space, but which have fallen a sacrifice to the +despoiler’s barbarous hand;—one of the unjust judge, +who, being flayed alive, was succeeded in office by his son, and +the picture, so they tell us, was elucidated by some very +characteristic specimens of antique poetry—to wit, the +first two lines of general advice, addressed to all who may ever +be in a position to profit by it,—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Let alle men se, stedfast you be,<br /> +Justice do ye, or else like you fle;”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and an additional verse to the unfortunate son who succeeded +him in office:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“You that sittyst now in place,<br /> +See hange before thy face<br /> +<!-- page 190--><a name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +190</span>Thyn own Fader’s skyn,<br /> +For falsehood; this ded he wyn.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Another equally original specimen of the judgment of Solomon +is thus explained:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The trewe and counterfeit to trye,<br /> +She had rather lose her Ryght—<br /> +Saying, the Soulders ware redy<br /> +To clyve, with all their myght.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>These, as I said, have disappeared; but we were unwilling in +our sketch to lose sight altogether of such very interesting +reliques of our ancestor’s skill, in conveying moral +lessons by the light of their window-panes, as were to be found +here a century or two ago. Those good old folks did not +seem to be wanting in a certain kind of wit; here, as in many +other parts of the city, we have traces of their love of a fair +rebus—without a slight knowledge of which propensity, we +might look long ere we could understand the hieroglyphical +appearance of a barrel set on end, with <span class="smcap">N. E. +C.</span> written above—history, however, elucidates the +mystery, by explaining it as the rebus of one <span +class="smcap">Thos. Necton</span>, who aided by his wealth the +filling in of one of the little gothic windows with stained +glass. The curiously carved old desk in the centre was once +the reading-desk in fair St. Barbara’s chapel down +below,—could it speak, we wonder whether it would glory in +its <i>elevation</i>. But now we really can resist no +longer a good hearty laugh <!-- page 191--><a +name="page191"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 191</span>at those +comical little unmakeoutable animals, seated so demurely all +round the room, on the tops of the high-backed benches, with +their queer little faces struggling to keep down a grin. +Whatever were they put there for? Was it to chronicle up in +their little wooden pates the doings and undoings, the sayings +and unsayings, that they have been looking at, and listening to, +so patiently and wonderingly, for these four centuries +past? What would we give to hear them tell the tale of all +they have seen and heard go on, since first the royal charter +granted to our citizens the long-sought privilege of a real +<i>bona fide</i> mayor! how, at first this dignitary used to sit +in solemn majesty upon his throne of state, surrounded by his +aristocracy of chosen peers, deliberating gravely on the affairs +of their little state; how, reverently and orderly the +subordinate commons used to come into their presence at their +bidding, and do as they were told by the supreme authorities; and +how, as time and years passed, the heads of these same commons +began to lift themselves a little and a little higher, till they +really seemed as much <i>real men</i> as those who occupied the +chairs of state; how, when at last their struggles had gained the +great municipal reform, some sixteen years ago, they took their +seats in the very midst of the aldermanic autocrats, with all the +coolness of precocious intellect, usurping dignities reserved for +high-sounding names or well-lined <!-- page 192--><a +name="page192"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +192</span>purses. Could they not tell a few more tales of +how the ethereal blue and whites,—remembering the day when +their opponents, clad in purple, numbered nine out of twelve of +the industrious nominees who were to choose their fellow-workers +in the field of city usefulness, had traded with their talents +till they had gained nine and thirty more purples to sit by their +side, and smile at the twelve blue-looking occupants of the +opposition benches,—did, in later times, effectually turn +the tables on the oppressors’ heads, and sit above them in +triumph, looking down on fallen greatness; how this revolution +had scarce become familiar to their little sapiencies, when from +the very centre of the rival factions sprang another party; and +the dogs, and dragons, and what-nots, felt ready to jump from +their seats, when their ears heard a city youth avow himself an +independent man, neither a <i>blue</i> nor <i>purple</i>—a +man of <i>principle</i>—didn’t they wonder what it +meant, and whether he really had enough of it to buy up both the +other bidders in this marketable borough, or whether it would pay +the interest of all the sums that they had severally spent in the +good city’s cause, and how they longed to laugh outright +when he avowed that honesty and truth were all the +<i>principal</i> he traded with, and how they began by-and-bye to +think there might be something in it, and to comprehend a little +of the theory, but somehow <!-- page 193--><a +name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 193</span>the working +of it seemed to puzzle and perplex them, it seemed to be so +complicated by the interference of expediency. But it will +not do to tarry longer, conjecturing what might be the +confessions of the little carved images; who does not, or has not +read the brilliant comedies that have been, and are yet being, +enacted perpetually within this chamber?</p> +<p>But there are more objects of interest to be examined within +its walls; and among them pre-eminently stands forth the sword of +Admiral Don Xavier Francisco Winthuysen, transmitted by Horatio +Nelson to the mayor of the city, from the Irresistible, off +Lisbon, Feb. 26th, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1797. +The sword, with its white vellum sheath ornamented with silver, +is enclosed in a glass case, with the original letter from +Admiral Nelson, relating the particulars of its capture. In +these days of railways and universal travelling, the trophy might +prudently, we conceive, hold less conspicuous place. No +great stretch of the bounds of probability might suggest the +chance of some relative or descendant of Don Xavier Francisco +standing face to face with the uncomfortable memento of past +misfortunes. Leading from this chamber is a door-way, that +opens out upon leads, where in olden times the ladies and friends +of the aldermen were wont to enjoy the various spectacles offered +by the processions and pageants then so frequently displayed.</p> +<p><!-- page 194--><a name="page194"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +194</span>The other principal chamber, formerly used by the +common-councilmen, and now appropriated to sundry legal purposes, +is adorned with the various quaint and significant emblems that +once figured in the guild processions, in attendance upon his +majesty, Snap, who, from the dignity of his elevation upon the +landing-place without, looks down with proud and silent scorn +upon all the modern innovations and reformations that have swept +away the glories that surrounded his throne;—but of him +more by-and-bye.</p> +<p>Beyond the council-chamber is the way of access to the old +Record room, whence, now and then, some “Old +Mortality” may be seen emerging, laden with treasures +rescued from the mouldering heaps of antiquarian lore, there +lying buried beneath the accumulated dust and cobwebs of +centuries. All praise and thanks be given, as due, to these +patient and industrious workers, the fruits of whose labours so +liberally are placed at the command of all less learned and +recondite scribblers, who scruple not to gather of the crumbs +that fall from the rich intellectual banquets they have spread +before the lovers of history, antiquity, or science.</p> +<p>An armoury room, where weapons of divers sorts and multiform +invention are stored, all bearing evidence of long disuse by rust +and decay, and a treasury of gold and silver, maces and sceptres, +in <!-- page 195--><a name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +195</span>their various departments, claim notice; but as such +things possess neither very great intrinsic worth, or any +peculiarly interesting historical interest, save the little +sceptre of Queen Elizabeth, a passing word may be enough to +devote to them; it is time to turn attention to the subject more +intimately associated with the very name of the building +itself. A Guildhall instantly suggests the question of +guilds, their origin, character, and the features of history +connected with those whose existence are memorialized by this +particular edifice and its appendages.</p> +<p>Guilds were societies of persons confederated together for the +common cause of trade, charity, and religion. They were +very numerous; in this county alone 907 were enumerated by Taylor +in his Index Monasticus, as existing at the time of the +Reformation.</p> +<p>The Parochial guilds were often too poor to afford to hire a +room for their meetings, but assembled at each other’s +houses; but when such was not the case, they usually hired a +house near the church, which was called a Guildhall, or church +house; the situation being chosen as convenient, their business +being to pray as well as to eat. The Guild consisted of an +alderman, brethren and sisters, the parson of the parish and the +principal persons of the neighbourhood being members. They +held lands, received legacies, and frequently met; but their +grand assembly was on the <!-- page 196--><a +name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 196</span>day of +their patron saint, when they went to church and offered up +prayers at his altar for all the members of the society, living +and dead. From their saint they took their distinctive +titles, as St. George’s, St. Luke’s Guild, +&c. They bestowed alms annually upon the poor, received +travelling strangers, and did other acts of charity, as far as +their revenues allowed.</p> +<p>Their meetings were usually crowned by a dinner, and +terminated often in a manner not altogether consistent with their +commencement. Some of the guilds in large towns were +wealthy and influential. The bill for giving their +possessions to the king, when sent to the lower house in 1547, +was much opposed by the burgesses, who represented that the +boroughs could no longer maintain their churches and other public +works, if the rents belonging to the guilds were transferred to +the king. The act passed, upon a pledge that the lands +should be restored. It was the last act of Henry the +Eighth’s reign, and was put in execution by his successor; +but the promise was ill performed, many of the revenues being +seized, upon the plea of their being free chapel or chantry +endowments.</p> +<p>This brief sketch of the nature and origin of guilds, may +suffice to introduce more particularly the history of the great +Guild of St. George, the most important of all the fraternities +that existed in this city, and from being connected with the +municipal <!-- page 197--><a name="page197"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 197</span>body from an early date, intimately +associated with the history of the Guildhall. The following +copious account of the company, with the copy of one of the +charters granted to them, is extracted from the papers of the +Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">copy of charter</span>.</p> +<p>“Henry, by the grace of God, (King) of England, France, +and lord of Ireland, &c., to whom these present letters shall +come greeting:</p> +<p>“Know ye that, whereas we have understood a certain +Fraternity, and Gild of the glorious martyr St. George, in our +city of Norwich, for thirty years past, and more, continually +have been, and are, still honestly governed, and the brethren and +sisters of the Gylde aforesaid, for the same time have found a +chaplain duly celebrating divine service in the Cathedral church +of the said city, and diverse and great cost for the worship of +God, and the same glorious martyr, have made and do purpose to do +more, if we should vouchsafe to assist them in the behalf. +Wee, in consideration of the premises, and for the augmentation +of the same of our people, to the said glorious martyr, do, for +us, our heirs (as much as in us lye), accept, ratify, and confirm +the said Fraternity and Gylde, and we have granted that the said +Fraternity and Gylde be perpetually a <!-- page 198--><a +name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 198</span>community +in time succession for ever. And that the Fraternity and +Gylde aforesaid have the name of the Gylde of Saint George in +Norwich, for ever. And that the brethren and sisters +aforesaid, and their successors yearly by themselves, at their +will choose and create one alderman and two masters successively, +and make honest and reasonable ordinances and constitutions to +the better government of the said Fraternity and Gylde.</p> +<p>“Also cloath themselves with one suit of cloaths, and +yearly make a feast for eating and drinking, in a convenient +place within the said city, to be by them assigned.</p> +<p>“And also the aldermen and masters, brethren and sisters +of the Fraternity and Gylde aforesaid, and their successors, be +able and capable persons to purchase land, tenements, rents and +services, to have, receive, and hold to them and their successors +for ever, to the aldermen, masters, brothers and sisters of the +Gyld of St. George in Norwich; and may in all courts and places +for ever sue and be sued, answer and be answered, and gain and +lose, and have a common seal for the business of the Fraternity +and Gylde aforesaid to be transacted.</p> +<p>“And further of our special favour we have granted and +given license for us and our heirs, (as much as in us lyes), to +the aforesaid alderman, masters, brethren and sisters, that they +and their <!-- page 199--><a name="page199"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 199</span>successors may purchase and hold to +them and their successors lands and tenements, rents and +services, within the said city aforesaid, up to the value of ten +pounds, which are held of us in burgage, as well for the support +of one chaplain to celebrate divine service dayly in the church +aforesaid, to pray for us and the said brethren and sisters, +their healthful state while we shall live, and for our souls, and +the souls of the said brethren and sisters when we shall +die. And also for the sowlles of our renowned ancestors, +and of all the faithful deceased, as for the support of the +Fraternity and Gylde aforesaid. And other works and charges +of piety made thereof, according to the ordinances of the same +alderman, brethren and sisters for ever; the statute made against +giving lands or tenements in mortmain, or any other statute or +ordinance made to the contrary, or for that the then lands and +tenements aforesaid are held of us in burgage +notwithstanding.</p> +<p>“And moreover, to the setting aside the maintenance, +confederacy, and conspiracy which by means of the Fraternity and +Gylde aforesaid we have granted to the prior of the church +aforesaid and to the mayor and to the sheriffs of the said city; +also to the alderman and Fraternity of the Gylde aforesaid, which +shall be for the time being, sufficient power and authority of +expelling, discarding and removing according to their discretion, +all brethren and sisters <!-- page 200--><a +name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 200</span>of the +Fraternity and Gylde, aforesaid, from the Fraternity and Gylde, +and from all the benefits and franchises thereof for ever, who +shall be the cause of supporting or upholding such like +maintenance, confederacy, or conspiracy aforesaid.</p> +<p>“In testimony whereof, we have caused these letters to +be made patent. Witness myself at Reading, the ninth day of +May, in the fifth year of our reign, by the King himself, and for +£40 paid into the hamper, 1417.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Wyndham</span>.”<br /> +(Here was affixed the great seal of England.)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Another charter of much greater length is still extant; but we +pass on to the next important feature in the history of the +society,—its union with the corporate body of the +city,—set forth in a voluminous indenture, known as Judge +Yelverton’s mediation, which we transcribe, adapting the +orthography to suit the general readers of the nineteenth +century.</p> +<blockquote><p>“The Mayor, Sheriffs, and Commonality of the +City first united to the Fraternity of the Gylde of St. George, +by the mediation of</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Judge +Yelverton</span>.</p> +<p>“This writing indented, made the 27th day of March, the +year of the reign of King Henry VI. the 30th, betwixt the mayor, +sheriffs, and commonality of the city of Norwich, on the one +part, and the <!-- page 201--><a name="page201"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 201</span>alderman and brethren of the gylde +of the glorious martyr, St. George, of the said city, of the +other part, by the mediation and diligency of William Yelverton, +Justice of our Lord the King, of his own place. Witnesseth +that, as well the said mayor, sheriffs, and commonality, as the +aforesaid aldermen and brethren of the said gylde, both according +of all matters had or moved betwixt them, before this in manner +and form, as in the articles hereafter shewing:—</p> +<p>“First, for to begin to the worship of God, our Lady, +and of the glorious martyr, St. George, forasmuch as the +Cathedral church of the Holy Trinity, of Norwich, is the most +worshipful and convenient place, that the glorious martys, St. +George, be worshipped by the aldermen and brethren of the said +guild, that therefore in the said place, after the forms and +effect of the old use had afore this time, the said alderman and +brethren be there on the feast of St. George, or some other day +in the manner accustomed, there to hear the first even-song, and +on the morrow following, to go in procession and hear mass, and +offer there in the worship of God and the said martyr; and also +there for to hear the second even-song and placebo, and dirige, +for the brethren and sisters’ souls of the said guild; and +on the day next following be at the mass of requiem, and offer +there for the souls of all the brethren and sisters of the said +guild <!-- page 202--><a name="page202"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 202</span>and all Christians; and that a +priest be continued there in the form accustomed, for to sing and +pray for the prosperity, welfare, and honourable estate of the +most Christian prince, King Henry VI., our sovereign lord, and +also for the welfare of William Yelverton, Justice, by whose +mediation and diligence the said accord and appointments have +been advised and engrossed.</p> +<p>“And then, for the welfare of all the brethren and +sisters of the said guild and fraternity living, and also for the +souls of King Henry V., first founder of the said guild, and for +all other souls of all the brethren and sisters of the said +guild, that be passed out of the world, and all Christian souls; +and if ever afterwards the possessions of the said guild will +stretch to sustain and find another priest, that then such priest +shall be found for to pray in like form, and that poor men and +women of the said guild be found and relieved by the said guild, +as hath been accustomed, as the goods will stretch to save other +charges and necessary expenses, to the worship of God and of the +said martyr, and to the good conservation and continuance of the +said brethren.</p> +<p>“Also, on the morning next after the solemnity of the +said guild, kept in the worship of the glorious martyr, Saint +George, the brethren of the said guild, and their successors, +shall yearly choose the mayor of the said city, and that time +being a brother of the <!-- page 203--><a +name="page203"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 203</span>said guild, +for to be alderman of the said guild for all the next year +following, after his discharge of his office of mayoralty, then +forthwith to take the charge and occupation of the said office of +aldermanship of the said fraternity and guild; and so every +person chosen to be mayor yearly, after he hath occupied +mayoralty for an whole year, to occupy the said aldermanship of +the said guild; and in case he refuse to occupy the said +aldermanship after his mayoralty, to pay unto the said fraternity +100<i>s.</i> to the use of the said guild, and that the old +alderman stand still alderman, unto the time another be chosen +unto the said office of alderman to the said guild; and if the +alderman of the said guild happen to die within the year, that +then the mayor for the time being, occupy that office of alderman +for his time, and so forth the next year following, according to +this act.</p> +<p>“And that all the aldermen of the said city, that now +are, and shall be in time coming, shall be made brethren of the +said guild, without charge of the feast.</p> +<p>“Also, that every man that is, or shall be chosen to be, +of the common council of the said city, be admitted also to be a +brother of the said guild if he like; and that by great diligence +and deliberation had, as well for the worship of the said city as +the said guild, that no man be chosen to the said common <!-- +page 204--><a name="page204"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +204</span>council, but such as are and seem for to be able and +sufficient of discretion and good disposition, and that every man +that shall be received a brother into the said guild, shall be +sworn, and receive his oath in form that followeth:—</p> +<p>“‘This hear, ye alderman and brethren of this +fraternity and guild of the glorious martyr, St. George, in this +city of Norwich, that from this day forward, the honour, +prosperity, worships, profits, welfare, and surety of the +fraternity and guild, after my power, I shall sustain, lawfully +maintain and defend, and all lawful ordinances made or to be +made, with all the circumstances and dependancies thereto +belonging, truly and duly pay my dues after the said ordinances, +without trouble or grievance of the said brethren and sisters, or +of any officer of them, and Buxum to you aldermen and all your +successors in all lawful commandments, to my power and cunning, +so that this oath stretch not to any thing against the laws of +God, nor against the laws of the land, nor against the liberties +or franchises, the welfare, good peace, and rest of this city, +nor against any panel of the oath that I have made afore to the +king, and to the said city.’</p> +<p>“Also, the said aldermen and common council of the +guild, shall choose when they list, from henceforward, other men +and women of the said city, beside the said alderman and common +council, such as <!-- page 205--><a name="page205"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 205</span>they may think convenient by their +discretion, and able thereto for to be brethren and sisters of +the said guild.</p> +<p>“Also, that there be no man chosen nor received from +henceforth into the said guild, dwelling out of the said city, +but if he be a knight or a squire, or else notably known for a +gentleman of birth, or else that he be a person of great worship +by his virtue, and by his truth and great cunning, or be some +great notable means and cause of great worship, and yet that all +manner of thing that shall appertain to the governance of the +said guild, or to any possessions or goods thereof, or choosing +of any brother into the said guild, or correction of any default +done to any brother, or by any brother thereof, and all other +things that appertaineth to the rules of the said guild, or by +the more part of them dwelling within the said city.</p> +<p>“Also, that all the possessions and moveable goods, that +now or hereafter shall appertain to the said guild, be all only +employed and applied to the worship of God and our Lady, and of +the glorious martyr, St. George, and to the worship of the +brethren of the said guild, and for the health of the souls of +all those that have been brethren and sisters of the said guild, +are and shall be in time coming, and in none otherwise; and +hereto every man be sworn at his coming in specially, that +henceforward shall be <!-- page 206--><a name="page206"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 206</span>any other brother in the said guild, +that he shall here do all that is in his power, and in no wise +give his assent nor his favour to the contrary.</p> +<p>“Also, that every year be chosen surveyors, and such +convenient officers as shall be thought necessary by the +discretion of the aldermen and brethren of the said guild; and +that every year the said alderman and four brethren of the said +guild, whereof two be aldermen of the said city, be chosen for to +see a reckoning, and to know the disposition and governance of +all the possessions, moveables, and goods appertaining to the +said guild, and to make a writing of the estate thereof, and shew +that to the brethren of the said guild yearly, or else to a +certain number of brethren, resident in the said city thereto +named.</p> +<p>“Also, that every four years, once be given hoods or +liveries of suit to each of the brethren of the said guild, and +them honestly to be kept and worn to the worship of the glorious +martyr, St. George, and of the brotherhood, if it seemeth to the +said alderman and common council convenient.</p> +<p>“Also, although the aldermen of the city, and every +person of common council of the same city, be brethren of the +same guild, yet if it happen that any of them, or any other +citizen or brother of the said guild, be discharged of his +aldermanship, or put out of the said common council, or +<i>discomynyd</i> against <!-- page 207--><a +name="page207"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 207</span>his will, +for a great and notable cause against his worship, that then +forthwith he be discharged of the said guild; or else, whosoever +be once a brother of the said guild, that he be a brother still, +paying his duties, till he will wilfully serve his own discharge, +or else for notable causes be reasonably discharged.</p> +<p>“Also it is ordained that the alderman and twenty of the +brethren, aforesaid, be for the assembly, and the common council +of the said guild, and that it needeth not to have no greater +number thereto; and that the alderman name thereof six, by his +oath, that he choose no person by no manner persuaded, nor +private means, nor for favour nor friendship of no person, nor of +no parties, but such as to his conscience are most indifferent +and best disposed, and best willed to the worship and welfare, +rest, peace, and profit of all the city, and the said guild; and +in like form, the six so chosen shall, by their taking the same +oath, choose six of such persons of the said guild, according to +their said oath; then the alderman, by his said oath, such other +two which be aldermen of the said guild, of which two of the +aldermen, and the more part of them, shall be and make the common +council, and the assembly of the said guild; and if any of them +should be warned to come to the said common council, if he then +be resident in the said city, and come not, but if he hath +reasonable excusation, that he pay 20<i>d.</i> for every day.</p> +<p><!-- page 208--><a name="page208"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +208</span>“And that all the old rules and ordinances of the +said guild shall be seen by the aldermen, and the said common +council of the said guild, and all those that be good, +reasonable, and convenient to the worship of God, our Lady, and +the glorious martyr St. George, and to the weal and peace within +the said city, shall be kept, with reasonable additions put +thereto, if it need; and if any ambiguity or doubt hereafterwards +fall for the understanding or execution of the said article, in +case that the said alderman, and more part of the said common +council cannot accord therein, that then it be reformed and +determined by the advice of the said William Yelverton.</p> +<p>“And if any brother now being, or in time coming shall +be, do conspire or labour to attempt to do in any thing the +contrary of any of these appointments, or any other in time +coming, by the aldermen or more part of the common council to be +made, and that reasonably proved upon him before the said +alderman, and the more part of the said common council, that then +he be forthwith discharged of the said guild, and that notified +by the said alderman to the mayor, in the common council of the +said city, that then, it done, he be discharged of his liberties +and franchises of the said city, and unable ever to be citizen of +the said city, or brother of the said guild, and taken and had as +a forsworn man shamed and reproved, and <i>reune</i> in the pain +of infamy.</p> +<p><!-- page 209--><a name="page209"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +209</span>“Also, that all these articles abovesaid, be +every year, once, or oftener if it be needed, be openly read +before the said alderman, and all the brethren, or the most part +of them. In witness of these premises to the one part of +this indenture remaining towards the said mayor and commonality, +the alderman and brethren of the said fraternity and guild have +set their common seal; and to the other part of the said +indenture, abiding toward the said alderman and brethren of the +said guild, the mayor and commonality of the said city have set +their common seal. Given and done at Norwich, the day and +year aforesaid, in the time of the mayoralty of Ralph Segrim, +when William Baily and John Gilbert were sheriffs, Thomas Allen, +alderman of the aforesaid guild, according to the tenour of this +agreement.</p> +<p>“From thenceforth, the court of mayorality, justices, +alderman, sheriffs, and common councilmen, were admitted and +united to the fraternity of the glorious martyr St. George. +The rank and importance of the members of the society may be +inferred from the fact, of their admitting from the country none +beneath the rank of <i>notable gentlemen</i>. The union of +the two bodies took place fourteen years after the substitution +of mayor and sheriffs for bailiffs.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Among the entries in their book occur the following:</p> +<blockquote><p>“At George’s Inn, Fybriggate, at an +asssembly <!-- page 210--><a name="page210"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 210</span>there, holden the Monday next before +the feast of All Saints, in the ninth year of King Henry IV., +<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1408; it was agreed to furnish +priests with copes, “and the George shall go in procession +and make a conflict with the dragon, and keep his estate both +days.”</p> +<p>“Item. It is ordained that two new jackets of +fustian and red buckram be bought for the henchmen (servitors +upon George).</p> +<p>“A.D. 1408, auditors were chosen to survey the accounts +of the company, a bellman to the company to have 2<i>s.</i> a +year salary; a beadle 1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i>, and for all those +that are admitted and sworn, 2<i>d.</i> for each entry; and the +minstrel waytes of the city 5<i>s.</i>, the beadle for warning +the brethren at any ‘obite,’ 6<i>d.</i>; and twelve +poor men to be fed at a table by themselves every year, on St. +George’s day.</p> +<p>“Item. It is ordained by the common assent, that +forasmuch as before this time, the dirige, and mass of requiem, +have been so rudely and dishonestly kept, and sung by aggregate +persons, and children standing in temporal clothing, for remedy +whereof to the honour of God, and spiritual conservation of the +souls departed to God, that henceforth yearly shall be provided +ten secular priests, that be not brethren of this fraternity, to +be there at dirige and mass of requiem; each of them to have, +when mass is done, 4<i>d.</i> of the obite money.</p> +<p><!-- page 211--><a name="page211"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +211</span>“A.D. 1469, ordained that an inventory of all the +goods and jewels appertaining to the said fraternity be +taken.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">inventory</span>.</p> +<p>“Imprimis. A precious relic; viz., an angel, +silver-gilt, bearing the arms of St. George, given by Sir John +Fastolf.</p> +<p>“One chalice, silver-gilt.</p> +<p>“A manual, with two silver clasps.</p> +<p>“A cheseble, of white diaper, powered with stars of +gold.</p> +<p>“A pax bread of timber.</p> +<p>“A little chest, with charter of King Henry V.</p> +<p>“A seal of silver, belonging to the fraternity, with an +image of St. George.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Another charter of King Henry VI:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Two cloaths, of the martyrdom of St. +George.</p> +<p>“One gown of scarlet serge, for St. George.</p> +<p>“A coat armour, beaten with silver, for St. George.</p> +<p>“Four banners, with the arms of St. George, for the +trumpeters.</p> +<p>“One banner, with the image of St. George.</p> +<p>“Two shafts for the banners, and one for the pennon.</p> +<p>“A chaplet, for the George.</p> +<p>“Two white gowns for the henchmen.</p> +<p>“Three peyntrells, three croopers, three reins, three +<!-- page 212--><a name="page212"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +212</span>head-stalls of red cloth, fringed and lined, with +buckles, gilt, with the arms of St. George thereon.</p> +<p>“Eight torches, <i>a dragon</i>, a pair of gloves, of +plate.</p> +<p>“A sword, with a scabbard covered with velvet, the +bosses gilt.</p> +<p>“One russet gown, flowered and powdered with velvet +spots.</p> +<p>“A black cheseble, with an alb, with the arms of the +Lord Bardolph, by him given.</p> +<p>“Lastly, one mass book, price twelve marks.</p> +<p>“Also it is ordained, that the procession be done in +copes, and all the brethren to have hoods of sanguine, and a reed +or wand in his hand; and persons chosen to be aldermen, that +every other of them have a red cope, and every one a white cope; +the next year shall be clad in scarlet gowns, and parti-coloured +hoods, scarlet and white damask, on the forfeiture of the payment +of 13<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i>; and every commoner to be clad in a +long gown, red and white, on the forfeiture of 6<i>s.</i> +8<i>d.</i>; and every commoner to ride to the Wood (St. +William’s shrine) on St. George’s day, by the rules +accustomed.</p> +<p>“Also that a priest be paid a salary, amounting to +eleven pounds ten shillings.</p> +<p>“Persons appointed to provide hoods for the aldermen and +commoners, to wear with their liveries at every entertainment +hereafter.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The manner of choosing persons to be members <!-- page +213--><a name="page213"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 213</span>of +the society, was thus, in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of +King Henry VIII.:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The mayor chose three persons for the +common council; the alderman chose three other persons for the +same; these six chose other six for the same; and these twelve +persons, with the advice of the four feast-makers, chose two +feast-makers for the next year.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of King Henry VIII., +<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1545, at the general dissolution +of the abbeys, monasteries, convents, friaries, &c., the +large and beautiful nave of the church of the Black Friars was +converted into a common hall for the mayors, sheriffs, citizens, +and commonality, with all their guilds and fraternities, to meet +and hold their annual feasts in; but principally the guild of St. +George, who expended two hundred and ten pounds upon its +improvement at that time.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Upon inviting persons to the feast, which +was to be done by the surveyors at the Whitsun holidays, all that +promised to dine at the feast paid their money down to the +feast-maker beforehand.</p> +<p>“In the first year of the reign of King Henry VI., all +fraternities, guilds, processions, &c., being thought +useless, and tending to promote superstition, were set aside, and +by virtue of the act passed, judged and deemed in the actual +possession of the sovereign.</p> +<p>“In the third year of the reign of King Edward <!-- page +214--><a name="page214"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +214</span>VI., it was further enacted, and agreed, that the +twenty persons, hitherto known as the St. George’s +assembly, should be henceforth called the assembly of the feast +of the mayor, sheriffs, citizens, and common council of the city; +and twenty persons were appointed to manage the guild feast, now +called the feast of the mayor, sheriffs, &c. &c. +The feast-makers to provide a supper also on the guild-day +evening, and the ordering of the charge to be referred to the +mayor, sheriffs, &c. &c. In the fourth year of this +reign, the goods of the company were appraised, and valued at +£7 11<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i></p> +<p>“In the first year of the reign of Queen Mary, 1552, it +was agreed, that there should be neither George nor Margaret on +the next feast day in the procession; but the dragon to come and +show himself as in other years.</p> +<p>“April 22d, second of Queen Mary, the laws since Henry +VIII. repealed, and the guild to be kept as before.</p> +<p>“A.D. 1561; cordwainers admitted to office.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Innumerable other entries betray the various changes of +arrangement and regulation; but we pass on to</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">the +manner of the procession on the guild-day</span>.</p> +<p>“About eight o’clock in the morning, the whole +body of the court, St. George’s company, and the <!-- page +215--><a name="page215"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +215</span>livery, met at the new elect’s, where they were +entertained with sugar rolls and sack; from whence they all +proceeded with the newly elected mayor to the old mayor’s, +in this order; the court first, St. George’s company next, +and the livery last. At the mayor’s they had a +breakfast provided for them, of pasties and roast beef, and +boiled legs of mutton; from whence, in inverted order, (livery, +St. George’s company, and court), they proceeded to the +Cathedral Church, where a sermon was preached, always by the +minister of the parish in which the mayor resided; and he was the +chaplain during the mayoralty.</p> +<p>“When the sermon was ended, the court had their horses +taken, finely caparisoned, which they mounted; and at the +entrance into the Royal Free School, which was curiously adorned +with greens and flowers, in a bower, stood one of the lads +thereto belonging, who was ready against the new mayor should +come up, to address himself to him in an oration of Latin, as did +several others, in different places, on horseback. As the +court proceeded with their robes of justice, the alderman in +their scarlet, and the sheriffs in their violet gowns, with each +a white wand in his hand, with trumpet sounding, the city music +playing along the streets, with the standard of England carried +before them. Then followed St. George’s standard and +company, supported by <!-- page 216--><a name="page216"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 216</span>very tall stout men, who had dresses +suitable and proper for them; in this manner they proceeded, +though but slowly, occasioned by their stopping several times in +different places, to hear the speeches which were then spoken by +the free-school boys, as before mentioned.</p> +<p>“Being arrived at the guildhall, in the market, the +new-elected mayor had his robe of justice put on him, the gold +chain placed about his neck, the key of the gates delivered to +him according to custom: he was then sworn; after which he +generally made a speech to the citizens. The whole body +then remounted their horses, and proceeded to the New Hall (or +St. Andrew’s Hall) to the dinner. As soon as the +court and their ladies, with the rest of the company, were +seated, the dinner was served up first to the mayor’s +table, next at St. George’s, and then, as fast as they +could, all the rest of the tables were plentifully filled with +great variety of all kinds of good eatables, but little or no +butcher’s meat, but as to pasties, tarts, pickles, +lobsters, salmon, sturgeon, hams, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and +pigeons, in great plenty, even to profusion; and these all served +up in order, and besides what beer every one chose to drink, +either small or strong, they had what quantity they pleased, +besides a bottle of wine, which every man had delivered to him to +drink after dinner.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 217--><a name="page217"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +217</span>As soon as dinner was over, St George’s company +looked into their book to see for the names of such as were +eligible to be chosen as feast-makers; and when they had selected +four persons, they walked round the hall to look for them; and no +sooner was one of them espied, than he had a garland of roses and +greens thrown over his head, and was congratulated upon being +chosen as feast-maker for the next year. If any of the four +were absent, it sufficed to send the garland to them at their own +houses, to make the appointment sure. A pecuniary fine +attended a refusal to serve.</p> +<p>After the choice of feast-makers was over, the +“banquets” were given to the ladies, and it growing +towards evening the whole body rose from their seats and waited +upon the new mayor home, where all were again entertained with +sugar rolls and sack; and then concluded the day by seeing the +old mayor to his home, where they remained and drank as long as +it was proper.</p> +<p>The great guns were discharged many times during the day.</p> +<p>The whole street, sometimes the whole parish, in which the +mayor resided was decorated in the handsomest manner; the streets +were all strewn with rushes and planted with trees, variety of +“garlands, ship, antients, and streamers in +abundance.” The outside of the houses were hung with +tapestry and pictures.</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 218--><a name="page218"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 218</span>“The dragon (carried by a man +in the body) gave great diversion to the common people; they +always seemed to fear it much when it was near them, but looked +upon it with pleasure when at a little distance; it was so +contrived as to spread its wings and move its head. As +there was always a multitude of people to see the procession, it +was necessary to have several persons to keep them from coming +too near, or breaking the ranks; for this purpose there were six +men called Whifflers, somewhat like the Roman gladiators, who +were neatly dressed, and who had the art of brandishing their +very sharp swords in the greatest crowds with such dexterity as +to harm no one, and of a sudden, to toss them high in the air and +catch them again by the hilts: to this purpose also a man or two +in painted canvas coats and vermilion red and yellow cloth caps, +adorned with cats’ tails and small bells, went up and down +to clear the way; their weapons were only small wands. +These were called or known by the name of Dick Fools; even they +had their admirers, but it was among the children and +mobility.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The above curious and quaint description of the St. +George’s Company and the procession, is an extract from +Mackerell’s “History of Norwich,” published by +the Archæological Society. From the same source the +further particulars added are collected.</p> +<p><!-- page 219--><a name="page219"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +219</span>It would appear that the company, enjoying so many +powers and privileges, grew insolent and overbearing, and were +wont to insult with impunity, and tyrannize unmercifully over the +pockets, purses, and freedom of their fellow-citizens, until at +length an individual named Clarke, an alderman, to whom they had +shown much discourtesy and injustice, by considerable effort +succeeded in bringing their career as a body to an end. +Their charter, books, regalia, and all that belonged to them were +given up to the Corporation, and arrangements made at the same +time for the mayor’s procession and rejoicings upon a new +footing. The dragon, the fools, and whifflers, were +continued and paid by the Corporation, but instead of the St. +George’s company, the sixty common councilmen attended upon +the newly elected mayor on horseback in their gowns. The +mayor was to make a guild feast at his own charge, £150 +being given him towards the expenses of his mayoralty.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Thus (using the words of the writer) fell +this honourable tyrannical company, who had lorded it over the +rest of the citizens, by laws of their own making, for an hundred +and fourscore years; had made all ranks of men submit to them; +neither had they any regard to the meanness of persons’ +circumstances, by which they had been the ruin of many families, +and had occasioned much rancour and uneasiness every annual +election of common-councilmen, <!-- page 220--><a +name="page220"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 220</span>when the +conquerors always put the vanquished on to the livery; thereby +delivering them over to the mercy of St. George, who was sure to +have a pluck at them as they assembled and met together; until +this gentleman alderman Clarke had the courage to oppose and +withstand them; and having taken a great deal of pains and time, +at last effected this great work, and brought this insolent +company to a final period; for which good deed he ought to have +his name transmitted to the latest posterity.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And now it behoves us to inquire who was St. George? +Shall we be content to hear of his mighty prowess, his renowned +sanctity, and his eminent exaltation as patron saint of our +country, and the most famous guilds or fraternities that have +ever flourished in Christendom, and know nothing of his origin, +history, or reality? Shall we subscribe to the heretical +belief that St. George was neither more nor less than a soldier +in the army of Diocletian, who rewarded his great military +exploits by cutting off his head for advocating the cause of the +Christians, and that therefore he was elevated into the calendar +of saints and martyrs in the early church? Shall we deny +that he ever went to war with an insatiable dragon, who, having +eaten up all the sheep and cattle in the neighbourhood, was fed +upon fair youths and maidens “from a city of Libya, called +Silene, and that he did mortally wound the said <!-- page +221--><a name="page221"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +221</span>dragon and led him through the streets of the +city,” as if it had been a meek beast and debonnaire? or +shall we give ear to the suggestion that St. George is but +another name for St Michael, who is always represented in combat +with the dragon? To whatever belief we may incline, the +fact of the antiquity of his claims upon Christendom for +universal reverence cannot be disputed. Long before he +became the patron saint of England, many eastern nations had +adopted him in the same capacity; and to his personal and +miraculous interference in protecting Richard Cœur de Lion +in his conflict with Saladin, are we to attribute his elevation +to that dignity in this country? Many orders of knighthood +besides that of England have been distinguished by his name in +Austria, Bavaria, Burgundy, Montesa, Ravenna, Genoa, and +Rome. The most authentic accounts that have come down to us +of the individual history and mortal career of this semi-fabulous +personage, resolve themselves into a few leading facts. He +was a saint of high repute in the eastern church at a very early +date, a Cappadocian of good family, and a commander of note in +the army of Diocletian, and that he suffered martyrdom at Raniel, +on the 23d of April, the day on which his festival was +kept. He is mentioned in old Saxon homilies as an +ealder-man (or earl) of Cappadocia, and is mentioned in a MS. +Martyrologicum Saxonicum, in the library of <!-- page 222--><a +name="page222"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 222</span>Corpus +Christi College, Cambridge, as Georius Nobilis Martyr. The +Greeks called him the “Great Martyr.” The +Coptic Arabic MSS. mention him as of Cappadocia; Constantine +instituted a religious order of knighthood, under the title of +St. George, on which was borne a red cross; he is also said to +have erected a church near his tomb in Palestine, and others in +his honour at Constantinople. The red cross, usually +attributed to St. George for an armorial bearing, was possibly +adopted from Constantine’s order of knighthood. The +figure of the saint armed and on horseback, expresses his martial +character; and the dragon by many is conceived to be a symbol of +Paganism; the figure of the young lady sometimes introduced also +is regarded as a type of some city or province imploring aid, or +may possibly have been intended to memorialize the rescue of the +damsel, whom he is reported so gallantly to have saved from +destruction. There is a separate legend of a St. Margaret +and a dragon related by Mrs. Jameson, which says that the +governor of Antioch, captivated by the beauty of the fair +Margaret, who inclined not to his highness, shut her up in a +dungeon, and subjected her to all kinds of torments, and that +during her imprisonment the devil, in the form of a dragon, +appeared ready to devour her, but she held up the cross and he +fled. Many old prints represent the dragon lying peaceably +down, and Margaret with the cross standing by <!-- page 223--><a +name="page223"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +223</span>unharmed. An old church at Canterbury is +dedicated to this Saint Margaret. Whether or not there +exists any connection between her and the heroine who usually is +associated with St. George, we know not.</p> +<p>We conclude this speculative inquiry with a curious extract +from a work by Dr. Sayer, a translation of a fragment annexed to +the Vatican MS. of Olfrid’s Gospels, some say written in +the fourth century:—</p> +<blockquote><p>George went to judgement<br /> +With much honour<br /> +From the market-place,<br /> +And a great multitude following him,<br /> +He proceeded to the Rhine <a name="citation223"></a><a +href="#footnote223" class="citation">[223]</a><br /> +To perform the sacred duty,<br /> +Which then was highly celebrated,<br /> +And most acceptable to God.<br /> +He quitted the kingdoms of the earth,<br /> +And he obtained the kingdom of heaven.<br /> +Thus did he do,<br /> +The illustrious Count George,<br /> +Then hastened all<br /> +The kings who wished<br /> +To see this man entering,<br /> +(But) who did not wish to hear him.<br /> +The spirit of George was there honoured,<br /> +I speak truly from the report of these men,<br /> +(For) he obtained<br /> +What he sought from God.<br /> +Thus did he,<br /> +The Holy George.<br /> +<!-- page 224--><a name="page224"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +224</span>Then they suddenly adjudged him<br /> +To prison;<br /> +Into which with him entered<br /> +Two beautiful angels<br /> +* * * * *<br /> +Then he became glad<br /> +When that sign was made (to him),<br /> +George then prayed;<br /> +My God granted every thing<br /> +To the words of George;<br /> +He made the dumb to speak,<br /> +The deaf to hear,<br /> +The blind to see,<br /> +The lame to walk.<br /> +* * * * *<br /> +Then began the powerful man<br /> +To be exceedingly enraged.<br /> +Tatian wished<br /> +To ridicule these miracles.<br /> +He said that George<br /> +Was an impostor;<br /> +He commanded George to come forth;<br /> +He ordered him to be unclothed;<br /> +He ordered him to be violently beaten<br /> +With a sword excessively sharp.<br /> +All this I know to be altogether true;<br /> +George then arose and recovered himself;<br /> +He wished to preach to those present,<br /> +And the Gentiles<br /> +Placed George in a conspicuous situation,<br /> +(Then) began that powerful man<br /> +To be exceedingly enraged.<br /> +He then ordered George to be bound<br /> +To a wheel, and to be whirled round.<br /> +I tell you what is fact;<br /> +The wheels were broken to pieces,<br /> +<!-- page 225--><a name="page225"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +225</span>This I know to be altogether true;<br /> +George then arose and recovered himself,<br /> +He then wished (to preach); the Gentiles<br /> +Placed George in a conspicuous place,<br /> +Then he ordered George to be seized<br /> +And commanded him to be violently scourged;<br /> +Many desired that he should be beaten to pieces,<br /> +Or be burnt to a powder;<br /> +They at length thrust him into a well.<br /> +There was this son of beatitude,<br /> +Vast heaps of stones above him,<br /> +Pressed him down;<br /> +They took his acknowledgment;<br /> +They ordered George to rise;<br /> +He wrought many miracles,<br /> +As in fact he always does.<br /> +George rose and recovered himself.<br /> +He wished to preach to those Gentiles,<br /> +The Gentiles<br /> +Placed George in a conspicuous place.<br /> +* * * * *<br /> +They ordered him to rise,<br /> +They ordered him to proceed,<br /> +They ordered him instantly to preach.<br /> +Then he said,<br /> +I am assisted by faith.<br /> +(Then he said) when<br /> +Ye renounce the devil<br /> +Every moment * * *<br /> +* * * * *<br /> +This is what St. George himself may teach us.<br /> +Then he was permitted to go into the chamber<br /> +To the Queen;<br /> +He began to teach her,<br /> +She began to listen to him.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The fragment ends here; the queen alluded to is <!-- page +226--><a name="page226"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +226</span>deemed to be the wife of Diocletian Alexandra, who has +been canonized by the Romish Church. She is said to have +been converted to Christianity, and suffered martyrdom with her +teacher.</p> +<p>We now beg to take leave of St. George and St. Margaret; Mr. +Snap or the Dragon in his coat of green and gold, at this present +surmounted by an outer coat of considerable thickness of dust, +must permit us to make our obeisance—trusting that the +gleanings we have made of all these little facts of history that +contributed to his importance in the day of his sovereignty and +splendour, may have gained for us a parting good will.</p> +<p>His days of pomp and majesty are ended—with the +banishment of fun and frolic, and folly, with the reformation of +councils and committees, of manners and municipalities—his +glory has departed, and but for the chronicles of the past, his +presence slumbering in oblivion, or in drooping despondency, +hanging his head in attitude of grief, might be a mystery +insoluble, as also might be the annual exhibition of the shabby +counterfeit presentment of his person in the shape of a cumbrous +imitation of himself, that is paraded once a year through street +and suburb, to keep alive the shadow of the memory of “good +old times,” in the hearts of the populace of a +pleasure-loving city—but a sorrowful and piteous spectacle +is this walking ghost of the <i>Snap</i> of the glorious guild of +St. George.</p> +<h2><!-- page 227--><a name="page227"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 227</span>CHAPTER VI.<br /> +<span class="smcap">pageantry</span>.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><i>Pageantries</i>.—<i>Ancient</i> +“<i>Mysteries</i>.”—<i>Origin of the religious +drama</i>.—<i>Moralities</i>.—<i>Oratorios</i>.—<i>Allegorical +plays of Queen Elizabeth’s time</i>.—<i>The Pageants +got up to do honour to her visit</i>.—<i>Will Kempe</i>, +<i>Morris dancer</i>, <i>his</i> “<i>nine days +wonder</i>.”—“<i>Hobby-horses</i>.”—<i>Festivals</i>.—<i>St. +Nicholas or Boy Bishop</i>.—<i>Bishop +Blaize</i>.—<i>Woolcombers’ +jubilee</i>.—<i>Southland fair</i>.—<i>St. +Valentine</i>.—<i>Mode of celebrating the +festival</i>.—“<i>Chairing the +members</i>.”—<i>Origin of the custom</i>.</p> +<p>Among the many quaint specimens of the ways and doings of the +ancient respectable denizens of this present sober-minded city, +that have been rescued from the dim and dusty obscurity of the +municipal record chamber, has been found a curious minute of the +proceedings of a solemn court held on the Sabbath day of the +feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, in the nineteenth year of King +Henry VIII., when a petition was presented to the mayor, sheriffs +and common council of the city of Norwich, by the aldermen and +brethren of the guild of St. Luke, praying to be relieved from +the burthen of being sole purveyors of plays and pageants for the +people <!-- page 228--><a name="page228"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 228</span>on Whitsun Monday and Tuesday; and +it may safely serve as a text for a few rambling sketches of the +entertainments that were wont to gratify the taste of the lovers +of the drama, in the age before the stream of imperishable +philosophy had been poured forth from the waters of Avon, or its +banks had resounded to the harmony that was destined to sweep +over the length and breadth of the earth, vibrating through the +chords of every living heart that felt its breath.</p> +<p>Deep in the human mind lies the yearning for amusement, great +have been those who, laying hold of this inherent principle of +our nature, could make it a means for enlightening and ennobling +it; nor must we judge of the sincerity of the attempts that were +made in this work, by their impotency or failure. In dark +and barbarous times, what may seem gross buffoonery to our +refined senses, may have had power to convey a moral lesson or +excite a worthy impulse; and we may scarcely with any justice +withhold our meed of praise and admiration of the philosophy of +those old monks, who, seeing the immorality that characterized +the exhibitions provided by strolling players, jugglers, +tumblers, dancers, and jesters, journeying from town to town, and +castle to castle, and filling the large square court-yards +provided for their express accommodation by every house of any +pretensions to rank, set their <!-- page 229--><a +name="page229"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 229</span>inventive +powers to work, to find a substitute for these recreations of +dubious tendency, and endeavoured to supersede the secular by the +religious drama. Appolonarius, and Gregory, Archbishop of +Constantinople, had done likewise, and dramatised scenes both +from the Old and New Testament, as substitutes for Euripides and +Sophocles, when the study of Greek philosophy was deemed heresy, +and to have read Virgil required from St. Augustine penitence and +prayer for pardon. Hence priests turned playwrights and +actors, and instead of profane mummeries presented scriptural +stories, or legendary tales, which they at least deemed improving +and instructive. Most old cities present traces, more or +less distinct, of these specimens of clerical ingenuity.</p> +<p>The Coventry and Chester mysteries have been preserved almost +entire; royalty honoured them with its presence, both in the +person of Richard III. and Henry VII. and his queen; York and +London have contributed their store of relics, and the +performances of the company of Clerks that gave the name to +far-famed Clerkenwell, and the fraternity of the Holy Trinity, +St. Botolph’s Aldersgate, have become matters of +history.</p> +<p>We have to borrow light from these richer stores, to +comprehend the full meaning of the few traces left among our +chronicles, that bear evidence of similar practices in the other +localities; and here we <!-- page 230--><a +name="page230"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 230</span>return to +the petition of the St. Luke’s guild or fraternity. +Each branch of trade had then its company, or guild, and was +governed by laws of its own, under general supervision of the +municipal authorities. The St. Luke’s guild was +composed of pewterers, braziers, bell-founders, plumbers, +glaziers, stainers, and other trades, and upon them it would seem +that the whole expense of the Whitsunside dramatic entertainments +had fallen; wherefore they besought their “discreet +wisdoms” to enact, and ordain, and establish, that every +occupation within the city, should yearly, at the procession on +Monday in Pentecost week, set forth one pageant, by their +“discreet wisdoms” to be assigned and appointed of +their costs and charges, which should be “to the worship of +the city, profit of the citizens and inhabitants, and to the +great sustentation, comfort and relief as well of the said guild +and brethren of the same;” which favourable aid should bind +them and their successors “daily to pray to God for the +prosperities long to endure of their discreet wisdoms.”</p> +<p>Which petition being heard and understood, it was agreed and +enacted that thenceforth every occupation in the said city should +find and set forth in the said procession one such pageant as +should be appointed by master mayor and his brethren +aldermen. In the same hand-writing as the minute to this +effect is a list of pageants, probably arranged in consequence of +it.</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><!-- page 231--><a +name="page231"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +231</span>PAGEANTS.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>1. Mercers, Drapers, Haberdashers.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Creation of the World.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>2. Glasiers, Steyners, Screveners, Pchemyters, +Carpenters, Gravers, Caryers, Colermakers Whelewrights.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Helle carte.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>3. Grocers, Raffemen, (Chandlers).</p> +</td> +<td><p>Paradyse.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>4. Shermen, Fullers, Thikwollenweavers, +Covlightmakers, Masons, Lymebrenrs.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Abell and Cain.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>5. Bakers, Bruers, Inkepers, Cooks, Millers, +Vynteners, Coupers.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Noyse Shipp.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>6. Taillors, Broderers, Reders, and Tylers.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Abraham and Isaak.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>7. Tanners, Coryors, Cordwainers.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Moises and Aaron with the children of Irael, and Pharo +with his Knyghts.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><!-- page 232--><a name="page232"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 232</span>8. Smythes.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Conflict of David and Golias.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>9. Dyers, Calaunderers, Goldsmythes, Goldbeters, +Saddlers, Pewterers and Brasyers.</p> +</td> +<td><p>The birth of Christ, with Shepherds and three Kyngs of +Colen.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>10. Barbors, Wexchandlers, Surgeons, Fisitians, +Hardewaremen, Hatters, Cappers, Skynners, Glovers, Pynnmakers, +Poyntemakers, Girdelers, Pursers, Bagmakers, +“Scepps,” Wyredrawers, Cardmakers.</p> +</td> +<td><p>The Baptysme of Criste.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>11. Bochers, Fismongers,Watermen.</p> +</td> +<td><p>The Resurrection.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>12. Worsted Wevers.</p> +</td> +<td><p>The Holy Ghost.</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<blockquote><p>“These plays were performed on moveable +stages constructed for the purpose, described by Dugdale as +‘theatres very large and high, placed on wheels;’ and +Archdeacon Rogers, who died in 1595, and saw the Whitsun plays +performed at Chester, gives a <!-- page 233--><a +name="page233"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 233</span>very minute +description of the mode in which they were exhibited: ‘They +were divided there into twenty-four pageants, according to the +companies of the city; every company brought forth its +<i>pageant</i>, which was the carriage or stage in which they +played; these were wheeled about from street to street, +exchanging with each other, and repeating their several plays in +the different places appointed. The pageants, or carriages, +were high places made like two rooms, one above the other, open +at the top; the lower room was used as a dressing-room, the +higher room was the performing place.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The first of the Norwich pageants, the Creation of the World, +is similar to one described by Hone, as performed at Bamberg, in +Germany, so late as 1783; and its details so precisely accord +with the stage directions still extant of similar representations +in this country, that it has been adopted as a fair specimen of +the play alluded to in the list.</p> +<p>The description of the German representation is thus given in +the words of an eye-witness:—“The end of a barn being +taken away, a dark hole appeared, hung with tapestry the wrong +side outwards; a curtain running along, and dividing the +middle. On this stage the Creation was performed. A +stupid-looking Capuchin personated the Creator. He entered +in a large full-bottomed wig, with a false beard, wearing over +the rusty dress of his order a brocade <!-- page 234--><a +name="page234"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +234</span>morning-gown, the lining of light blue silk being +rendered visible occasionally by the pride the wearer took in +showing it; and he eyed his slippers with the same +satisfaction. He first came on, making his way through the +tapestry, groping about; and purposely running his head against +posts, exclaiming, with a sort of peevish authority, ‘Let +there be light,’ at the same time pushing the tapestry +right and left, and disclosing a glimmer through linen clothes +from candles placed behind them. The creation of the sea +was represented by the pouring of water along the stage; and the +making of dry land by the throwing of mould. Angels were +personated by girls and young priests, habited in dresses (hired +from a masquerade shop), to which the wings of geese were +clumsily attached, near the shoulders. The angels actively +assisted the character in the flowered dressing-gown, in +producing the stars, moon, and sun. To represent winged +fowl, a number of cocks and hens were fluttered about; and for +other living creatures, some cattle were driven on the stage, +with a well-shod horse, and two pigs with rings in their +noses. Soon after, Adam appeared. He was a clumsy +fellow, in a strangely-shaped wig; and being closely clad with a +sort of coarse stocking, looked quite as grotesque as in the +worst of the old woodcuts, and something like Orson, but not so +decent. He stalked about, wondering at every thing, and +<!-- page 235--><a name="page235"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +235</span>was followed from among the beasts by a large ugly +mastiff, with a brass collar on. When he reclined to sleep, +preparatory to the introduction of Eve, the mastiff lay down by +him. This occasioned some strife between the old man in +brocade, Adam, and the dog, who refused to quit his post; nor +would he move when the angels tried to whistle him off. The +performance proceeded to the supposed extraction of the rib from +the dog’s master; which being brought forward and shewn to +the audience, was carried back to be succeeded by Eve, who, in +order to seem rising from Adam’s side, was dragged up from +behind his back, through an ill-concealed and equally +ill-contrived trap-door, by the performer in brocade. As he +lifted her over, the dog, being trod upon, frightened her by a +sudden snap, so that she tumbled upon Adam. This obtained a +hearty kick from a clumsy angel to the dog, who consoled himself +by discovering the rib produced before, which, being a beef bone, +he tried his teeth upon.”</p> +<p>The second pageant was “Paradise,” provided by the +Grocers and Raffemen. In the Grocers’ books, now +lost, were the items of expenditure about this pageant, among +others, for painting clothes for Adam and Eve, &c. In +the French collections, a legendary incident is introduced in +this play: When Adam attempts to swallow the apple, it will not +stir; and, according to the legend, this was the cause of the +<!-- page 236--><a name="page236"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +236</span>lump in the man’s throat, which has been +preserved ever since.</p> +<p>The third pageant, “Hell Carte,” was brought forth +by the Glaziers, &c. One of a series of illuminated +drawings of the eleventh century, illustrative of the Old and New +Testaments, part of the Cottonian Library in the British Museum, +gives an idea of the manner in which this subject was +represented. By no very complex machinery, the huge painted +mouth was made to open and shut, and demons are represented +dragging into it a variety of classes of dishonest people; +thereby conveying a moral and satirical admonition against some +of the crying sins of the day, most practised among, and most +offensive to, the lower and middle classes of society. One +of these offenders was the ale-wife, who gave short +measure. In a <i>miserere</i> in Ludlow church, there is +set forth a demon carrying an ale-wife, with her false measure +and gay head-dress, to the mouth, while two other demons play on +the bagpipes, and read from a scroll the catalogue of her +sins.</p> +<p>The fourth pageant, “Abel and Cain,” was furnished +by the Sheremen, &c. Disputes between Cain and his man +were comic scenes introduced into it, and formed its chief +attraction.</p> +<p>The fifth, “Noyse Ship,” was brought forth by the +Bakers. A fragment of a Newcastle play of the same name +affords a specimen of its probable character. <!-- page +237--><a name="page237"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +237</span>The <i>dramatis persona</i> are Noah, his wife, and +Diabolus; and a considerable portion of the play consists of +disputes between Noah and his wife, about entering the ark, +as:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Noah</span>.</p> +<p>Good wife, doe now, as I thee bidd.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Noah’s +Wife</span>.</p> +<p> Not I, ere I see more need,<br /> +Though thou stande all day and stare.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Noah</span>.</p> +<p> . . . that women ben crabbed be,<br /> +And not are meek, I dare well say.<br /> +That is well seen by me to-day,<br /> +In witness of yet, eiehone.<br /> +Good wife, let be all this beare,<br /> +That thou mak’st in this place here,<br /> +For all they wene thou art master,<br /> +And soe thou art by St. John.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Further rebellion on the part of the spouse compels Noah to +carry out the threat,</p> +<blockquote><p>Bot as I have blys,<br /> +I shall chastyse this.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>To which she replies:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Yet may ye mys<br /> +Nicholle Nedy.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>He stops beating her, for the reason,</p> +<blockquote><p>“That my bak is nere in two.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>To which she adds:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“And I am bet so blo—”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The sixth pageant was Abraham and Isaac. Of <!-- page +238--><a name="page238"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +238</span>the details of this, and the seventh and eighth, no +records have been found.</p> +<p>The ninth—the birth of Christ, with shepherds, and the +three kings of Colen,—was a very common subject. The +scenes were, usually:—1st, Mary, Joseph, the child, an ox +and an ass, and angels speaking to shepherds.—2nd, The +shepherds speaking by turns, the star, an angel giving joy to the +shepherds.—3rd, The three kings coming from the East, Herod +asking about the child, with the son of Herod, two counsellors, +and a messenger.—4th, Mary, with the child and star above, +and the kings offering gifts.</p> +<p>In the Townley and Coventry Mysteries, the play commences with +a ranting speech of King Herod, one of those which gave rise to +Shakespeare’s saying of “out-heroding +Herod.” In the fifth volume of the Paston Letters, J. +Wheatley writes to Sir J. Paston, “and as for Haylesdon, my +lord of Suffolk was there on Wednesday; at his being there that +day, there was never no man that played <i>Herod</i> in Corpus +Christi better, and more agreeable to his pageant, than +he.”</p> +<p>Most of these pageants were founded upon scripture narrative; +while of those of Coventry several are founded on legendary +history.</p> +<p>The tenth pageant, having for its object the “Baptism of +Christ,” was exhibited by the Barbers, &c.</p> +<p><!-- page 239--><a name="page239"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +239</span>The eleventh pageant was the +“Resurrection,” brought forward by the Butchers, +&c.</p> +<p>The twelfth and last pageant was the “Holy Ghost,” +and exhibited the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles.</p> +<p>In the well-known mystery, entitled <i>Corpus Christi</i>, or +the Coventry play, the prologue is delivered by three persons, +who speak alternately, and are called <i>vexillators</i>; it +contains the arguments of the several <i>pageants</i> or +<i>acts</i> that constitute the piece, and they amount to no less +than forty, every one of which consists of a detached subject +from scripture, beginning with the Creation of the Universe, and +concluding with the “Last Judgment.” In the +first pageant or act, the Deity is represented seated on a throne +by himself; after a speech of some length, the angels enter, +singing from the church service portions of the Te Deum. +Lucifer then appears, and desires to know if the hymn was in +honour of God or himself, when a difference arises among the +angels, and the evil ones are with Lucifer expelled by force.</p> +<p>The Reformation had not the effect of annihilating these +observances in many places; the Corpus Christi procession was +kept up for years after, as in Norwich; and it was not until the +beginning of the reign of James I. that they were finally +suppressed in all the towns of the kingdom.</p> +<p><!-- page 240--><a name="page240"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +240</span>John Bale, of the Carmelite Monastery, of Whitefriars, +Norwich, afterwards a convert to Protestantism, and made +successively Bishop of Ossory, Archbishop of Dublin, also a +prebend of Canterbury, was a great writer of mysteries; one of +his compositions was entitled “The Chief Promises of God to +Man,” its principal characters being God, Adam, Noah, +Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and John Baptist.</p> +<p>Moralities were of later date than mysteries, and differed +from them, as consisting of dramatic allegories, in which the +vices and virtues were personified; the province of exciting +laughter descended from the devil in the <i>mystery</i>, to +<i>vice</i> or <i>iniquity</i> in the <i>morality</i>, and was +personified by <i>pride</i> or <i>gluttony</i>, or any other evil +propensity; and even when regular tragedies and comedies came +upon the stage, we may trace the descendants of this line in the +clowns and fools who undertook this portion of the entertainment, +to the no small detriment of the more serious parts of the best +tragedies. In Hamlet’s direction to the players, +allusion is made distinctly to this. The secular plays +which existed before mysteries were invented, differed very +materially from either them or moralities, and were far inferior +to them in refinement and delicacy; they retained their +popularity, however, notwithstanding their clerical rivals, and +the efforts that were diligently made to do away with them.</p> +<p><!-- page 241--><a name="page241"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +241</span><i>Interludes</i> were a variety of these secular +plays, and probably gave birth to the <i>farce</i> of later +times; they were facetious or satirical dialogues, calculated to +promote mirth. A representation of this character before +Henry the Eighth, at Greenwich, is thus related by +Hall:—“Two persons played a dialogue, the effect +whereof was to declare whether riches were better than love; and +when they could not agree upon a conclusion, each knight called +in three knights well armed; three of them would have entered the +gate of the arch in the middle of the chamber, and the other +three resisted; and suddenly between the six knights, out of the +arch fell down a bar all gilt, for the which bar the six knights +did battle, and then they departed; then came in an old man with +a silver beard, and he concluded that love and riches both be +necessary for princes; that is to say, by love to be obeyed and +served, and with riches to reward his lovers and +friends.”</p> +<p>Another is described by the same author as performed at +Windsor, when “the Emperor Maximilian and King Henry, being +present, there was a disguising or play; the effect of it was, +that there was a proud horse, which would not be tamed or +bridled; but <i>Amity</i> sent <i>Prudence</i> and <i>Policy</i>, +which tamed him, and <i>Force</i> and <i>Puissance</i> bridled +him. The horse was the French king, Amity the king of +England, and the emperor and other persons were their counsel and +power.”</p> +<p><!-- page 242--><a name="page242"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +242</span>When regular plays became established, these motley +exhibitions lost their charm for all, save the vulgar; the law +set its face against them, performers were stigmatised as rogues +and vagabonds, and it is highly probable that necessity suggested +to the <i>tragitour</i> or juggler, who was reduced to one +solitary companion, the jester or jackpudding, to make up his +“company,” the idea of substituting puppets to supply +the place of other living characters. The drama was in much +the same state of progress throughout the civilized portions of +Europe; and to the Italians and Spaniards the ingenuity of +“Punchinello” has been attributed. In England +these wooden performers were called <i>motions</i>; and Mr. Punch +took among them the rank of <i>mirth-maker</i>. If there +yet lives a being who has not at some moment of his life felt a +thrill of delight at the prospect of a half-hour’s +exhibition of this gentleman’s performance in his miniature +theatre, we pity him most heartily.</p> +<p>The oratorio is a mystery or morality in music. The +Oratorio commenced with the priests of the Oratory, a brotherhood +founded at Rome, 1540, by St. Philip Neri, who, in order to +attract the youthful and pleasure-loving to church, had hymns, +psalms, or spiritual songs, or cantatas sung either in chorus or +by a single favourite voice. These pieces were divided into +two parts, one sung before the other, after the sermon. +Sacred stories or events from <!-- page 243--><a +name="page243"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 243</span>Scripture, +written in verse, and, by way of dialogue, were set to music, and +the first part being performed, the sermon succeeded, which +people were inclined to remain to hear, that they might also hear +the conclusion of the musical performance. This ingenious +device precluded the necessity, we presume, of locking the doors +to prevent the egress of the congregation after prayers, and +before the sermon, that has in some places since been resorted +to.</p> +<p>The institutions of the Oratory required that corporal +punishments should be mingled with their religious harmony; and +the custom would seem to have been, that at certain seasons, of +frequent occurrence, the brethren went through severe castigation +from their own hands, upon their own bodies, with whips of small +cords, delivered to them by officers appointed for the +purpose. This ceremony was performed in the dark, while a +priest recited the Miserere and De Profundis with several +prayers; after which, in silence and gloom, they were permitted +to resume their attire, and refrain from their +self-inflictions.</p> +<p>Mysteries and moralities ceased altogether about the year 1758 +in this country; a comedy by Lupton, bearing that date, being +about the last trace of the old school of dramatic writing. +The same year is memorable in this city for the gorgeous +pageantries that marked the progress of England’s famous +queen <!-- page 244--><a name="page244"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 244</span>through its streets, on the occasion +of her visit to this then thriving metropolis of wealth and +commerce; and a sketch of the amusements provided for her +entertainment, and the talents put into requisition to do honour +to her august presence, may not be out of place here, containing, +as they do, perhaps some of the latest specimens of the +allegorical dramatic writing that exist. They bear strong +evidence of the encouragement given to literature by Elizabeth, +which had created the fashion for classical allusion upon every +possible occasion; and her admiration of the compliment so +conveyed, caused the mythology of ancient learning to be +introduced into the various shows and spectacles set forth in her +honour, until almost every pageant became a pantheon.</p> +<p>But now for the royal visit, whose glorious memory has shed a +halo over worsted weaving, and bombazines, and stocking +manufactures, and is now enshrined in the magisterial closet of +the Guildhall where the little silver sceptre then bequeathed to +the honoured city lingers as a memento of the great event.</p> +<p>It was in the year 1578, that her Most Gracious Majesty, by +the grace of God, Queen of England, France, and Ireland, was +pleased to honour the city by her royal presence for the space of +six days and nights, during which period the gaiety and +magnificence of the doings would appear to have surpassed all +previous or subsequent experience. The civic <!-- page +245--><a name="page245"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +245</span>functionaries held preliminary meetings to +‘determine the order of the procession that should welcome +her Majesty, and to decree what preparations should be made for +the event. Great excitement prevailed throughout the city; +streets were cleaned, dirt heaps removed, boats converted into +state barges, velvets and satins, and gold and silver laces +bought up to an immense extent, and, what we would appreciate +more highly still, a decree was passed, banishing for the time +being from the city streets all candle makers and scoutherers, +who used unodoriferous washes that might offend the olfactory +nerves of royalty. This delicate attention we do esteem +most creditable to the good sense of the august body whose care +it was to provide for the comfort of the fair maiden queen. +Another generous resolution was passed by these same gentlemen, +that none of the attendants that might form the retinue of their +sovereign should be unfeasted, or unbidden to dinner and supper +during the whole period of the six days. A devisor, a sort +of lord of misrule, we presume, was chosen to devote himself +exclusively to the gettings up of pageants for the amusement of +the visitors and public; and to his wit and ingenuity we fancy +her majesty was mainly indebted for the enlivenment of her +visit.</p> +<p>The auspicious day arrived, and a gay procession started forth +to meet the royal party. First came in rank, two by two, +three score comely youths of the <!-- page 246--><a +name="page246"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 246</span>school of +bachelors, arrayed in doublets of black satin, black hose, black +taffeta hats with yellow bands, and then, as livery, a mandelin +of purple taffeta, trimmed with silver lace. These were +followed by a figure fancifully attired with armour, and velvet +hat and plume, intended to represent King Gurgunt, the reputed +founder of the castle. This personage was attended by three +henchmen, bearing his helmet, staff, and target, and gaily decked +out in livery of white and green, all richly mounted. Next +followed the noble company of gentlemen and wealthy citizens, in +velvet coats and other costly apparel. Then came the +officers of the city, every one in his place; then the +sword-bearer, with the sword and cap of maintenance, next the +mayor in full scarlet robes, lined and trimmed with fur, the +aldermen in their scarlet gowns, and those of them that had been +mayors in cloaks also; next came those who had been sheriffs, in +violet gowns and satin tippets; and lastly, the notorious +whifflers, poising and throwing up their weapons with dexterity, +just sufficient to impart fear and maintain order without doing +mischief. Thus they proceeded some two miles forward on the +road to meet her majesty, King Gurgunt only excepted, who +remained behind, to welcome her majesty at her first view of his +redoubted castle. Then followed all the shouting and +rejoicing usual on such occasions; and when the royal train +arrived, the exchanging <!-- page 247--><a +name="page247"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 247</span>of +compliments in flowers of speech, and more substantial coins of +gold. The mayor presented a vase of silver gilt, containing +one hundred pounds of money, as a tribute of loyalty to his +sovereign liege, upon which her majesty exclaimed to her footman, +“Look to it! there is one hundred pounds;” and in +return, the city was presented with a mace or sceptre richly +gemmed, so that on this occasion, if history tells us true, her +majesty made some return for value received, as was not always +her custom to do. Then followed the speechifyings; first +the mayor’s and its answer, and afterwards King +Gurgunt’s that <i>was to have been</i>, but fortunately we +must think for her majesty this forty-two lined specimen of +poetry was deferred, in consequence of an April shower. +Triumphal arches welcomed her to the city walls, and pageants met +her eye at every turn. The first pageant was upon a stage +forty feet long and eight broad, with a wall at the back, upon +which was written divers sentences, viz. “The causes of the +Commonwealth are God truly preached;” “Justice truly +executed;” “The People obedient;” +“Idleness expelled;” “Labour cherished;” +“and universal Concord preserved.” In the front +below, it was painted with representations of various looms, with +weavers working at them,—over each the name of the loom, +Worsted, Russels, Darnix, Mochado, Lace, Caffa, Fringe. +Another <!-- page 248--><a name="page248"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 248</span>painting of a matron and several +children, over whom was written, “Good nurture changeth +qualities.” Upon the stage, at one end, stood six +little girls spinning worsted yarn, at the other end the same +number knitting worsted hose; in the centre stood a little boy, +gaily dressed, who represented the “<span +class="smcap">Commonwealth</span> of the city,” who made a +lengthened speech, commencing—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Most gracious prince, undoubted sovereign +queen,<br /> + Our only joy next God and chief defence;<br /> +In this small shew our whole estate is seen,<br /> + The wealth we have we find proceed from thence;<br +/> +The idle hand hath here no place to feed,<br /> +The painsful wight hath still to serve his need;<br /> +Again our seat denies our traffick here,<br /> + The sea too near divides us from the rest.<br /> +So weak we were within this dozen year,<br /> + As care did quench the courage of the best;<br /> +But good advice hath taught these little hands<br /> +To rend in twain the force of pining bands.<br /> + From combed wool we draw the slender thread,<br /> +From thence the looms have dealing with the same,<br /> + And thence again in order do proceed,<br /> +These several works which skilful art doth frame,<br /> + And all to drive dame <i>Need</i> into her cave<br +/> + Our heads and hands together laboured have.<br /> +We bought before the things that now we sell.<br /> +These slender imps, their works do pass the waves,<br /> +Of every mouth the hands the charges saves,<br /> +Thus through thy help, and aid of power divine,<br /> +Doth Norwich live, whose hearts and goods are +thine.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This device gave her majesty much pleasure.</p> +<p><!-- page 249--><a name="page249"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +249</span>Another very magnificent affair, with gates of jasper +and marble, was placed across the market-place, five female +figures on the stage above representing the <i>City</i>, +<i>Deborah</i>, <i>Judith</i>, <i>Hester</i>, and <i>Martia</i> +(a queen); whose chief, the <i>City</i>, was spokeswoman first, +and was succeeded by the others each in turn. All that they +said we dare not tarry to repeat; the City expressed herself in +some hundred lines of poetry, the rest rather more briefly. +“Whom fame resounds with thundering trump;” +“Flower of Grace, Prince of God’s Elect;” +“Mighty Queen, finger of the Lord,” and such like +hyperbole, made up the substance of their flattery. We know +the good Queen Bess was somewhat fond of such food, but we think +even her taste must have been somewhat palled with the specimens +offered on this occasion. Others of a similar character +were scattered along her pathway to the cathedral. After +service she retired to her quarters at the palace of the +bishop. On the Monday the deviser planned a scheme by which +her majesty was enticed abroad by the invitation of Mercury, who +was sent in a coach covered with birds and little angels in the +air and clouds, a tower in the middle, decked with gold and +jewels, topped by a plume of feathers, spangled and trimmed most +gorgeously; Mercury himself in blue satin, lined with cloth of +gold, with garments cut and slashed according to the most +approved fashion of the day, a peaked hat, <!-- page 250--><a +name="page250"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 250</span>made to +“<i>cut the wind</i>,” a pair of wings on his head +and his <i>heels</i>; in his hand a golden rod with another pair +of wings. The horses of his coach were painted and +furnished each with wings, and made to “drive with speed +that might resemble flying;” and in this guise did Mercury +present himself before the window at the palace, and tripping +from his throne, made his most humble obeisance and lengthy +speech, all which most graciously was received by her +majesty. Thus ended this day’s sport.</p> +<p>On Tuesday, as her majesty proceeded to Cossey Park, for the +purpose of enjoying a day’s hunt, another pageant was got +up by the industrious devisor, the subject of which was, Cupid in +Search of a Home—not, however, much worth detailing. +Wednesday her majesty dined at Surrey House with Lord Surrey, at +which banquet the French ambassadors are said to have been +present; and a pageant was prepared for the occasion, but the +rooms seem to have been rather too small to admit the company of +performers, so it was of necessity deferred. On her road +home, the master of the grammar-school stayed the procession to +deliver a lengthened speech before the gates of the hospital for +old men, to which the queen graciously replied in flattering +terms, presenting her hand to be kissed. Thursday was +marked by divers pageantries, prepared by order of the Lord +Chamberlain, by the devisor. The morning display, <!-- page +251--><a name="page251"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +251</span>which was to enliven her majesty’s riding +excursion, was made up of nymphs playing in water, the space +occupied for the same being a square of sixty feet, with a deep +hole four feet square in some part of it, to answer for a +cave. The ground was covered with canvas, painted like +grass, with running cords through the rings attached to its +sides, which obeyed another small cord in the centre, by which +machinery, with two holes on the ground, the earth was made to +appear to open and shut. In the cave, in the centre, was +music, and the twelve water-nymphs, dressed in white silk with +green sedges, so cunningly stitched on them, that nothing else +could be seen. Each carried in her hand a bundle of +bulrushes, and on her head a garland of ivy and a crop of moss, +from whence streamed their long golden tresses over their +shoulders. Four nymphs were to come forth successively and +salute her majesty with a speech, then all twelve were to issue +forth and dance with timbrels.</p> +<p>The show of <i>Manhood and Desert</i>, designed for the +entertainment at Lord Surrey’s, was also placed close +by. <i>Manhood</i>, <i>Favour</i>, <i>Desert</i>, striving +for a boy called <i>Beauty</i>, who, however, was to fall to the +share of <i>Good fortune</i>. A battle should have +followed, between six gentlemen on either side, in which +<i>Fortune</i> was to be victorious; <i>during the combat</i>, +<i>legs and arms of men</i> “<i>well and lively +wrought</i>”, <i>were to be let </i><!-- page 252--><a +name="page252"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 252</span><i>fall in +numbers on the ground</i> “<i>as bloody as might +be</i>.” <i>Fortune</i> marcheth off a conqueror, and +a song for the death of <i>Manhood</i>, <i>Favour</i>, and +<i>Desert</i>, concluded the programme. But, alas! all this +preparation was rendered of no avail, by reason of a drenching +thunder-shower, which so “dashed and washed performers and +spectators, that the pastime was reduced to the display of a +dripping multitude, looking like half-drowned rats; and velvets, +silks, tinsels, and cloth of gold, to no end of an amount, fell a +sacrifice to this caprice of the weather.”</p> +<p>The evening entertainment at the guildhall was more +successful, the casualties of rain and wind having no power +there, to disturb the arrangements got up with so much labour and +cost. After a magnificent banquet in the common council +chamber, above the assize court, a princely masque of gods and +goddesses, richly apparelled, was presented before her +majesty.</p> +<p><i>Mercury</i> entered first, followed by two torch-bearers, +in purple taffeta mandillions, laid with silver lace; then the +musicians, dressed in long vestures of white silk girded about +them, and garlands on their heads; next came <i>Jupiter and +Juno</i>, <i>Mars and Venus</i>, <i>Apollo and Pallas</i>, +<i>Neptune and Diana</i>, and lastly <i>Cupid</i>, between each +couple two torch-bearers. Thus they marched round the +chamber, and Mercury delivered his message to the queen.</p> +<blockquote><p><!-- page 253--><a name="page253"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 253</span>“The good-meaning mayor and +all his brethren, with the rest, have not rested from praying to +the gods, to prosper thy coming hither; and the gods themselves, +moved by their unfeigned prayers, are ready in person to bid thee +welcome; and I, Mercury, the god of merchants and merchandise, +and therefore a favourer of the citizens, being thought meetest +am chosen fittest to signify the same. Gods there be, also, +which cannot come, being tied by the time of the year, as Ceres +in harvest, Bacchus in wines, Pomona in orchards. Only +Hymeneus denieth his good-will either in presence or in person; +notwithstanding Diana hast so counter-checked him, therefore, as +he shall hereafter be at your commandment. For my part, as +I am a rejoicer at your coming, so am I furtherer of your welcome +hither, and for this time I bid you farewell.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>All then marched about again, at the close of each circuit, +stopping for the gods to present each a gift to her majesty; +Jupiter, a riding wand of whalebone, curiously wrought; Mars, a +<i>fair pair of knives</i>; Venus, a white dove; Apollo, a +musical instrument, called a bandonet; Pallas, a book of +<i>wisdom</i>; Neptune, a fish; Diana, a bow and arrows, of +silver; Cupid, an arrow of gold, with these lines on the +shaft—</p> +<blockquote><p>“My colour <i>joy</i>, my substance +<i>pure</i>,<br /> +My <i>virtue</i> such as shall endure.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 254--><a name="page254"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +254</span>The queen received the gifts with gracious +condescension, listening the while to the verses recited by the +gods as accompaniments.</p> +<p>On Friday, being the day fixed for her majesty’s +departure, the devisor prepared one last grand spectacle, water +spirits, to the sound of whose timbrels was spoken “her +majesty’s farewell to Norwich;” and thus terminated +this season of rejoicing, but not with it the results of the +royal visitation.</p> +<p>The train of gay carriages that had formed the retinue of the +fair queen, were said to have left behind them the infection of +the plague; and scarcely had the last echoes of merriment and joy +faded upon the ear, when the deep thrilling notes of wailing and +lamentation broke forth from crushed hearts. Death held his +reign of terror, threw his black mantle of gloom over the +stricken city, and wrapped its folds around each hearth and home, +and banquet chamber—sunshine was followed by clouds and +storm, and thunders of wrath—feast-makers, devisors, and +players—Gurgunt, Mercury, Cupid, and Apollo, laid down +their trappings, and in their stricken houses died alone. +The finger-writing upon the door-posts marked each smitten home +with the touching prayer, “The Lord have mercy upon +us!” The insignia of the white wand borne by the +infected ones, who issued forth into the streets from their +tainted atmospheres, warned off communion with their fellow men, +and <!-- page 255--><a name="page255"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 255</span>sorrow filled all hearts;—a +year of sadness and gloom followed—men’s hearts +failing them for fear. Scarcely had the plague lifted its +hand from oppressing the people, ere the benumbed faculties of +the woe-begone mourners were roused to fresh terror, by the +grumbling murmurs of an earthquake;—storms, lightnings, +hailstones, and tempests spread desolation in their course +through all parts of the country in quick succession—a very +age of trouble.</p> +<p>But turning from dark scenes of history once more to the +sports and pastimes that gladdened the hearts and eyes of the +good old citizens of yore, we must not fail to chronicle the +famous visit of Will Kempe, the morris dancer, whose “nine +days’ wonder,” or dance from London to Norwich in +nine days, has been recorded by himself in a merry little +pamphlet bearing internal evidence of a lightness of heart +rivalling the lightness of toe that gained for him his +Terpsichorean fame. His name receives a fresh halo of +interest from its association with that of one of the great ones +of the earth, Will Shakespeare, in whose company of players at +the Globe, Blackfriars, he was a comedian; and his signature and +that of the dramatist’s stand together at the foot of a +counter petition presented at the same time with one got up by +the inhabitants of the neighbourhood against the continuance of +plays in that house. Kempe played Peter and Dogberry in +“Romeo and Juliet,” and <!-- page 256--><a +name="page256"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 256</span>“Much +Ado about Nothing;” also, Launce, Touchstone, Gravedigger, +Justice Shallow, and Launcelot. One feels that the morris +dancer has a fresh claim upon our interest by such associations, +and we look into the merry book dedicated to Mistress Anne +Fitton, maid of honour to England’s maiden queen, prepared +to relish heartily the frolicsome account of how he tript it +merrily to the music of Thomas Slye, his taberer, gaining every +where the admiration of the wondering townsfolk and villagers +upon his road, receiving, and occasionally of necessity refusing, +their profusely proffered hospitalities, and now and then +accepting their offers to tread a measure with him at his pace, a +feat that one brave and buxom lass alone was found equal to +perform—one can appreciate the quiet fun in which he +permits himself to indulge at the discomfiture of the followers +who track his flying steps, when their running accompaniment is +interrupted by the mud and mire of the unmacadamized +mediæval substitutes for turnpike roads, where occasionally +he dances on, leaving the volunteer corps up to their necks in +some slough of despond. Such a picture of the highways in +the good old times, is consolatory to the unfortunate generation +of the nineteenth century, who, among their many burdens and +oppressions, can at least congratulate themselves that in respect +to locomotion, the lines have fallen to them in pleasanter +places.</p> +<p><!-- page 257--><a name="page257"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +257</span>The morris dance in its original glory was most +frequently joined to processions and pageants, especially to +those appropriated to the celebration of the May games. The +chief dancer was more superbly dressed than his comrades, and on +these occasions was presumed to personate Robin Hood; the maid +Marian, and others supposed to have been the outlaw’s +companions, were the characters supported by the rest; and the +hobby-horse, or a dragon, sometimes both, made a part of the +display.</p> +<p>It was by some supposed to have been imported from the Moors, +and was probably a kind of Pyrrhic or military dance, usually +performed with staves and bells attached to the feet, each of +which had its several tone and name; the men who danced it, when +in full character, were accompanied by a boy dressed as a girl, +and styled the maid <i>Marion</i> (or Morian, possibly from the +Italian Moriane, a head piece, because his head was generally +gaily decked out).</p> +<p>The hobby-horse was originally a necessary accompaniment of +the morris dance, but the Puritans had banished it before the +time of the hero Kempe,—why, or wherefore, it is difficult +to imagine, as his presence, with a ladle attached to his mouth +to collect the douceurs of the spectators, must have been as +harmless, one would fancy, as that of the <i>fool</i> who +succeeded him in the office.</p> +<p><!-- page 258--><a name="page258"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +258</span>In Edward the Fourth’s reign, we find mention +made of <i>hoblers</i>, or persons who were obliged by tenure to +send a light swift horse to carry tidings of invasion from the +sea-side—light horsemen from this came to be called +hoblers—and doubtless from this origin sprang the term +hobby-horse—hence the allusion to men riding their +hobby.</p> +<p>Kempe’s dance is alluded to by Ben Jonson, in his +“Every Man out of his Humour.” In his own +narrative he alludes to some other similar exploit he had it in +his mind to perform; but as no record exists of its +accomplishment, we are left to infer that the entrance made of +the death of one Will Kempe, at the time of the plague, November +1603, in the parish books of one of the metropolitan churches, +refers to the merry comedian, and that his career was suddenly +terminated by that unsightly foe.</p> +<p>In 1609, a tract with an account of a morris dance performed +by twelve individuals who had attained the age of a hundred, was +published, “to which,” it was added, +“Kempe’s morris dance was no more than a galliord on +a common stage at the end of an old dead comedy, is to a caranto +danced on the ropes.”</p> +<p>Not long subsequent to these events, theatres became settled +down into stationary objects of attraction and amusement; and in +most large cities, companies were formed to conduct the business +of the performances. Among the epitaphs in the principal +churchyard <!-- page 259--><a name="page259"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 259</span>of the city, St. Peter’s +Mancroft, are several to the memory of different individuals who +had belonged to the company. Among them, one</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">in +memory of</span><br /> +WILLIAM WEST, COMEDIAN,<br /> +<span class="smcap">late member of the norwich +company</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Obiit</span> 17 +<span class="smcap">June</span>, 1733. <span +class="smcap">Aged</span> 32.</p> +<p>To me ’twas given to die, to thee ’tis given<br /> +To live; alas! one moment sets us even—<br /> +Mark how impartial is the will of Heaven.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Another:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">in +memory of</span><br /> +ANNE ROBERTS.<br /> +1743. <span class="smcap">Aged</span> 30.</p> +<p>The world’s a stage—at birth one play’s +begun,<br /> +And all find exits when their parts are done.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">HENRIETTA BRAY.<br /> +1737. <span class="smcap">Aged</span> 60.<br /> +<span class="smcap">a comedian</span>.</p> +<p>Here, reader, you may plainly see<br /> +That Wit nor Humour e’er could be<br /> +A proof against Mortality.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The subject of Pageantry may not be fitly closed without +notice of the costly displays of magnificence that characterize +the various processions and ceremonies that have become classed +under the same title, although distinct altogether from the +original dramatic representations to which the name +belonged. <!-- page 260--><a name="page260"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 260</span>Some of these, in honour of saints +and martyrs, long since dead even to the memory of enlightened +Protestantism, partake more of the character of religious +festivals than any thing else; and among them the annual +commemoration of St. Nicholas day, by the election of the Boy +Bishop, peculiarly deserves to be classed. In olden times, +on the 6th of December, it was an invariable custom for the boys +of every cathedral choir to make choice of one of their number to +maintain the state and authority of a bishop, from that time +until the 28th, or Innocent’s day, during which period he +was habited in rich episcopal robes, wore a mitre on his head, +and carried a crosier in his hand; his companions assumed the +dress and character of priests, yielding to their head all +canonical obedience, and between them performing all the services +of the church excepting mass. On the eve of +Innocent’s day, the Boy Bishop, and his youthful clergy in +their caps, and with lighted tapers in their hand, went in solemn +procession, chaunting and singing versicles, as they walked into +the choir by the west door; the dean and canons of the Cathedral +went first, the chaplains followed, and the Boy Bishop with his +priests in the last and highest place. The Boy Bishop then +took his seat, and the rest of the juveniles dispersed themselves +on each side the choir on the uppermost ascent. The +resident canons bearing the incense and book, the <!-- page +261--><a name="page261"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +261</span>minor canons the tapers, he afterwards proceeded to the +altar of the Trinity, which he censed, and then the image of the +Trinity, his priests all the while singing. They all then +joined in chaunting a service with prayers and responses, and in +conclusion the Boy Bishop gave his benediction to the +people. After he received the crosier, other ceremonies +were performed, and he chaunted the complyn, and turning towards +the choir delivered an exhortation. If any prebends fell +vacant during his episcopal power, he had the power of disposing +of them; and if he died during the month he was buried in his +robes, his funeral was celebrated with great pomp, and a monument +was erected to his memory with his effigy.</p> +<p>The discovery of a monument of this character, some hundred +and seventy years since, in Salisbury Cathedral, caused much +amazement to the many then unread in antiquarian lore, who +marvelled much at the anomalous affair, wondering however a +bishop could have been so small, or a child so rich in +ecclesiastical garments.</p> +<p>From this custom originated the but lately discontinued +honours, annually awarded to the head boy in most grammar +schools, who had a place in grand civic processions, and for a +season at least was magnified into a great personage.</p> +<p>The origin of this festival, on St Nicholas day, is involved +like most others in much obscurity, and <!-- page 262--><a +name="page262"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 262</span>buried in +heaps of legendary mysticism. The tale upon which it is +said to have been founded is, that in the fourth century St. +Nicholas was bishop of Myra, when two young gentlemen arrived at +that city on their road to Athens, whither they were going to +complete their education. By their father’s desire +they were to seek the benediction of the bishop on their way, but +as it was late at night when they reached Myra, they deferred +doing so till the next morning; but in the meantime the host of +the inn at which they were lodging, stimulated by avarice to +possess himself of their property, killed the young gentlemen, +cut them in pieces, salted them, and purposed to sell them for +pickled pork.</p> +<p>St. Nicholas, the bishop, being favoured with a sight of these +proceedings in a vision, (or, as we should now-a-days express it, +by <i>clairvoyance</i>) went to the inn, reproached the cruel +landlord for his crime, who, confessing it, entreated the saint +to pray to heaven for his pardon. The bishop, moved by his +entreaties, besought pardon for him, and restoration of life to +the children. He had scarcely finished, when the pickled +pieces re-united, and the animated youths threw themselves from +the brine-tub at the bishop’s feet; he raised them up, +exhorted them to ascribe the praise to God alone, and sent them +forward on their journey, with much good counsel.</p> +<p>Such is the miracle handed down as the cause of <!-- page +263--><a name="page263"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +263</span>the adoption of Saint Nicholas as the patron saint of +children. The Eton Montem is considered to be a corruption +of the ceremony of electing a boy-bishop, probably changed at the +time of the suppression of the religious festivals at the +Reformation.</p> +<p>One other pageant, more especially connected with the history +of a manufacturing city, is the procession of Bishop Blaize, or +St. Blazius, the great patron saint of wool-combers; in which +usually figured Jason, the hero of the “golden +fleece,” and forty Argonauts on horseback, the emblems of +the expedition, preceded by Hercules, Peace, Plenty, and +Britannia. These were followed by the bishop, dressed in +episcopal costume, crowned with a mitre of wool, drawn in an open +chariot by six horses, and attended by vergers, bands of music, +the city standard, a chaplain, and orators delivering, at +intervals, grandiloquent speeches. Seven companies of +wool-combers on foot, and five on horseback, brought up the rear; +shepherds, shepherdesses, tastefully attired in fancy costumes, +added to the brilliancy of the display. Bishop Blazius, the +principal personage in the festivity, was Bishop of Sebesta, in +Armenia, and the reputed inventor of the art of combing +wool. The Romish church canonized the saint, and attributed +to his miraculous interposition many wondrous miracles. +Divers charms, also, for extracting thorns from the body, or a +bone from the throat, were prescribed to be uttered in his +name.</p> +<p><!-- page 264--><a name="page264"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +264</span>Among the festivals that lay claim to antiquity, of +which some faint traces, at least, are left in the observances of +the nineteenth century, are some few that belong as much to the +history of the present as the past, and must not be omitted in +sketches of the characteristic features of an old city. The +Fair—the great annual gatherings of wooden houses and +wooden horses, tin trumpets, and spice nuts, Diss bread, and +gingerbread—menageries of wild natural history, and +caravans of tame <i>unnatural</i> collections, giants, dwarfs, +albinos, and <i>lusus naturæ</i> of every conceivable +deformity—of things above the earth and under the earth, in +the sea and out of the sea—of panoramas, +dioramas—wax-works, with severable heads and moving +countenances—of Egyptian tents, with glass factories in +miniature concealed within their mystic folds, under the guidance +of the glass-wigged alchemist, the presiding +genius—performing canaries, doing the Mr. and Mrs. Caudle, +and firing off pistols—pert hares playing on the +tambourine, and targets and guns to be played with for prizes of +nuts, and whirligigs and rocking-boats—the avenues of +sailcloth, with their linings of confectionary, toys, +basket-work, and ornamental stationery—the gong and the +drum, and the torrents of Cheap-Jack eloquence, mingling with the +music of the leopard-clad minstrels of the zoological +departments;—dear is the holiday to the hearts, and +memories, and anticipations, of <!-- page 265--><a +name="page265"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 265</span>many an +<i>enlightened</i> infant of this highly developed age;—as +dear, and welcome, and thrilling, in its confusion of noise, and +bewilderment of colour, as ever of old, to the children of larger +growth, who, in the infancy of civilization, were wont to find in +them their primers of learning, arts, and sciences.</p> +<p>When trade was principally carried on by means of fairs, and +they lasted many days, the merchants who frequented them for +business purposes, used every art and means to draw people +together, and were therefore accompanied, we are told, by +jugglers, minstrels, and buffoons; and as then few public +amusements or spectacles were established, either in cities or +towns, the fair-time was almost the only season of +diversion. The clergy, finding that the entertainments of +dancing, music, mimicry, &c. exhibited at them, drew people +from their religious duties, in the days of their power +proscribed them—but to no purpose; and failing in their +efforts, with the ingenuity that characterized their age and +profession, changed their tastes, and took the recreations into +their own hands, turned actors and play-writers themselves, and +substituted the Religious Mysteries for the profane punchinellos +and juggleries that have since, in later times, resumed their +sway, undisputed by any ecclesiastical rivals for popular +applause in the dramatic line.</p> +<p>Among other sports that formed the attractions to <!-- page +266--><a name="page266"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +266</span>the Fair in olden times, was the Quintain, a game of +contest, memorable in the annals of the city, as having on one +occasion, in the reign of Edward I., been made the opportunity of +commencing hostilities of a far more formidable nature and +protracted extent than the occasion itself could warrant, or be +presumed to cause.</p> +<p>The Quintain was a post fixed strongly in the ground, with a +piece of wood, about six feet long, laid across it on the top, +placed so as to turn round; on one end of this cross-piece was +hung a bag, containing a hundred-weight of sand, which was called +the <i>Quintal</i>; at the other end was fixed a board about a +foot square, at which the player, who was mounted on horseback, +with a truncheon, pole, or sort of tilting-spear, ran direct with +force; if he was skilful, the board gave way, and he passed on +before the bag reached him, in which feat lay success; but if he +hit the board, but was not expert enough to escape, the bag swung +round, and striking him, often dismounted him; to miss the board +altogether was, however, the greatest disgrace. The quarrel +alluded to, arose ostensibly about the truncheons, but it was +supposed really to have been at the instigation of other persons, +both on the part of the monastery and city.</p> +<p>Tombland Fair stands not quite alone as a memorial of ancient +festivals held in honour of patron saints—one other day in +the year stands forth in the <!-- page 267--><a +name="page267"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 267</span>calendar of +juvenile and mature enjoyments, unrivalled in its claim upon our +notice and our love. St. Valentine, that “man of most +admirable parts, so famous for his love and charity that the +custom of choosing valentines upon his festival took its rise +from thence,” as Wheatley tells us,—is yet, even to +this hour, held in high honour, and most gloriously commemorated +in this good old city, and in so unique a fashion, that a few +words may not suffice to give a true delineation of it. The +approach of the happy day is heralded, in these days of +steam-presses and local journals, by monster-typed +advertisements, gigantically headed +“<i>Valentines</i>,” or huge labels, bearing the same +mystic letters, carefully arranged in the midst of +gorgeously-decked windows, towards which young eyes turn in +glistening hope and admiration; and at sight of which little +hearts beat high with eager expectation. Not of Cupids, and +hearts, and darts, and such like merry conceits on fairy-mottoed +note paper, doth the offerings of St. Valentine consist in this +good old mart of commerce;—far more real and substantial +are the samples of taste, ornament, and use, that rank themselves +in the category of his gifts. The jeweller’s front, +radiant with gold and precious gems, and frosted silver, and +ruby-eyed oxydized owls, Russian malachite fashioned into every +conceivable fantasy of invention, brooches, bracelets, crosses, +studs masculine and feminine, chatelaines <!-- page 268--><a +name="page268"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 268</span>ditto, and +not a few of <i>epicene</i> characteristics, betokening the signs +of the times,—all claim to rank under the title. The +Drapers—especially the “French depots,” with +their large assortments on shew, in remote <i>bazaars</i> +appropriated exclusively to the business of the festive season, +where labyrinths of dressing-cases, desks, work-boxes, inkstands, +and <i>portfeuilles</i>, usurp the place of lawful mercery, and +haberdashery for the time being yields place to stationery, +perfumery, <i>bijouterie</i>, and cutlery, proclaim the triumphs +of his reign in their midst. But supreme above all, are the +glories that the toy-shops display, from the gay balcony-fronted +repository for all the choicest inventions science, skill, or wit +can devise, at once to please the fancy, help the brain, tax the +ingenuity of childhood, or dazzle the eye of babyhood, downwards +through the less <i>recherché</i>, but scarcely less +thronged marts, a grade below in price and quality, to the very +huckster’s stall or apple booth, that shall for the time +being add its quota of penny whips, tin trumpets, and +long-legged, brittle-jointed, high-combed Dutch ladies, whose +proportions exhibit any thing but the contour usually described +as a “Dutch build.” Nor these alone—the +shoemaker’s, with its newly-acquired treasures of gutta +percha knick-knacks, flower-pots, card-trays, inkstands, +picture-frames, boxes, caddies, medallions, and what-not that is +useful and ornamental, in addition to shoe-soles <!-- page +269--><a name="page269"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +269</span>with a propensity to adhere to hot iron, and betray by +deeply indented gutters the impress of any new bright-topped +fender on which they have chanced to trespass—all, all, are +offerings at the shrine of good St. Valentine; how, when, and +where, we have yet to see.</p> +<p>One peep behind these plate-glassed drop scenes—one +visit to the toy-shop—it is an event—a circumstance +to be chronicled—even the quiet, mild, and self-possessed +proprietress of all the wealth of fun and fashion, use and +ornament, and zoology, from the rocking-horse down to the Chinese +spider, and Noah’s ark to lady-birds, for once looks heated +and tired; and one feels impelled to cheer the kind-hearted, +gentle matron, by reminding her, that her toil will be repaid +tenfold, by pleasant thoughts of the myriad shouts of welcome and +heartfelt glee that, ere long, will have been hymned forth in +praise of the perfection of her taste.</p> +<p>Her labours and toils would seem scarcely to surpass those of +her purchasers. The perplexity and labyrinth of doubt and +difficulty they find themselves in is truly pitiable; the annual +return of a festival when every body, from grandpapa and +grandmamma to baby bo, is expected to receive and give some +offering commemorative of the season, causes, in time, a +considerable difficulty in the choice of gifts, and added to the +mystifications of memory as to who has <!-- page 270--><a +name="page270"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 270</span>what? and +what hasn’t who? produces a perfect bewilderment. The +fluctuations between dominoes, bats and traps, dolls, la +gràce, draughts, chess, rocks of Scilly, German tactics, +fox and geese, printing machines, panoramas, puzzles, farmy-ards, +battledores, doll’s houses, compasses, knitting cases, and +a myriad others, seem interminable—but an end must come, +and the purchaser and seller find rest.</p> +<p>But all this toil is but the prelude to the grand act of the +drama; Valentine’s eve arrived, the play begins in +earnest. The streets swarm with carriers, and baskets laden +with treasures—bang, bang, bang go the knockers, and away +rushes the banger, depositing first upon the door-step some +package from the basket of stores—again and again at +intervals, at every door to which a missive is addressed, is the +same repeated till the baskets are empty. Anonymously St. +Valentine presents his gifts, labelled only with “St. +Valentine’s” love, and “Good morrow, +Valentine.”</p> +<p>Then within the houses of destination—the screams, the +shouts, the rushings to catch the bang bangs—the flushed +faces, sparkling eyes, rushing feet to pick up the fairy +gifts—inscriptions to be interpreted, mysteries to be +unravelled, hoaxes to be found out—great hampers, heavy, +and ticketed “With care, this side upwards,” to be +unpacked, out of which jump live little boys with St. +Valentine’s love to the little ladies fair—<!-- page +271--><a name="page271"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +271</span>the sham bang bangs, that bring nothing but noise and +fun—the mock parcels that vanish from the door step by +invisible strings when the door opens—monster parcels that +dwindle to thread-papers denuded of their multiplied envelopes, +with pithy mottoes, all tending to the final consummation of good +counsel, “Happy is he who expects nothing, and he will not +be disappointed!” It is a glorious night, marvel not +that we would perpetuate so joyous a festivity. We love its +mirth, the memory of its smiles and mysteries of loving kindness, +its tender reverential tributes to old age, and time-tried +friendship, amid the throng of sprightlier festal offerings, that +mark the season in our hearths and homes, as sacred to a love so +pure, so true, and holy, that good St. Valentine himself may feel +justly proud of such commemoration.</p> +<p>How and when this peculiar mode of celebrating the festival +arose it would be difficult perhaps to discover. In olden +times, as we find by the diary of Dr. Browne, the more prevalent +custom of drawing valentines on the eve before Valentine day was +in vogue; but Forby’s “Vocabulary of East +Anglia” makes mention of a practice which doubtless has +become developed in the course of time into the elaborate and +costly celebration of the present day. He says, “In +Norfolk it is the custom for children to ‘catch’ each +other for valentines; and if there are elderly persons in the +family who are likely to be liberal, <!-- page 272--><a +name="page272"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 272</span>great care +is taken to catch them. The mode of catching is by saying +‘Good morrow, Valentine,’ and if they can repeat this +before they are spoken to, they are rewarded with a small +present. It must be done, however, before sunrise; +otherwise instead of a reward, they are told they are +<i>sunburnt</i>.” He adds a query—Does this +illustrate the phrase <i>sunburned</i>, in “Much Ado about +Nothing”?</p> +<p>The universal respect in which the anniversary of St. +Valentine is held, may perhaps be most justly estimated by the +statistical facts that relate to the post-office transactions for +that day, in comparison with the average amount of the daily +transmissions; and each district has probably some peculiar mode +of celebrating it,—but nowhere, we imagine, does its annual +return leave behind it such pleasing and substantial memorials as +in our “Old City.” Douce, in his +“Illustrations of Shakespeare,” would have us believe +that the observances of St. Valentine’s day had their +origin in the festivals of ancient Rome during the month of +February, when they celebrated the “Lupercalia,” or +feasts in honour of Pan and Juno, sometimes called Februalis, on +which occasion, amidst a variety of other ceremonies, the names +of young men and maidens were put into a box, and drawn as chance +directed. The pastors of the early church, in their +endeavours to eradicate the vestiges of popular superstitions, +substituted the names of <!-- page 273--><a +name="page273"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +273</span><i>saints</i> for those of the young maidens, and as +the Lupercalia commenced in February, affixed the observance to +the feast of St. Valentine in that month, thus preserving the +outline of the ancient ceremony, to which the people were +attached, modified by an adaptation to the Christian system.</p> +<p>Time, however, would seem to have restored the maidens to +their original position. Brande has given many curious +details of the various modes of celebrating the anniversary, in +addition to the universal interchange of illuminated letters and +notes. In Oxfordshire the children go about collecting +pence, singing,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Good morrow, Valentine,<br /> +First ’tis yours, then ’tis mine,<br /> +So please give me a Valentine.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In some other counties the poorer classes of children dress +themselves fantastically, and visit the houses of the great, +singing,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Good morning to you, Valentine,<br /> +Curl your locks as I do mine,<br /> +Two before and three behind—<br /> +Good morrow to you, Valentine.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In other parts the first member of the opposite sex that is +seen by any individual is said to be his or her +“Valentine.” This is the case in Berkshire and +some other of the neighbouring counties. Pepys, in his +“Diary,” says, “St. Valentine’s day, +1667. This morning <!-- page 274--><a +name="page274"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 274</span>came up to +my wife’s bedside, I being up dressing myself, little Will +Mercer, to be her Valentine, and brought her name written upon +blue paper in gold letters done by himself very pretty; and we +were both well pleased with it. But I am also this year my +wife’s Valentine, which will cost me £5—but +that I must have laid out if we had not been +Valentines.” He afterwards adds, “I find that +Mrs. Pierce’s little girl is my Valentine, she having drawn +me, which I was not sorry for, it easing me of something more I +must have given to others. But here I do first observe the +fashion of drawing of mottoes as well as names; so that Pierce +who drew my wife, did also draw a mottoe, and this girl drew +another for me. What mine was I forget; but my wife’s +was, ‘Most courteous and most fair.’ One wonder +I observed to-day, that there was no music in the morning to call +up our new-married people, which is very mean +methinks.” The custom of presenting gifts seems then +to have been practised.</p> +<p>In the “British Apollo,” 1708, a sort of +“Notes and Queries” of the day, we read,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Why Valentine’s a day to choose<br /> +A mistress, and our freedom lose?<br /> +May I my reason interpose,<br /> +The question with an answer close;<br /> +To imitate we have a mind,<br /> +And couple like the winged kind.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the same work, “1709, Query.—In choosing <!-- +page 275--><a name="page275"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +275</span>Valentines (according to custom), is not the party +choosing (be it man or woman) to make a present to the party +chosen? Answer.—We think it more proper to say +drawing of Valentines, since the most customary way is for each +to take his or her lot, and chance cannot be termed choice. +According to this method the obligations are equal, and, +therefore, it was formerly the custom mutually to present, but +now it is customary only for the gentlemen.” In +Scotland presents are reciprocally made on the day.</p> +<p>Gay has given a poetical description of some rural ceremonies +used in the morning:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Last Valentine, the day when birds of +kind<br /> +Their paramours with mutual chirpings find,<br /> +I early rose, just at the break of day,<br /> +Before the sun had chased the stars away;<br /> +A-field I went amid the morning dew,<br /> +To milk my kine (for so should house-wives do).<br /> +The first I spied, and the first swain we see,<br /> +In spite of Fortune shall our true love be.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The following curious practice on Valentine’s day or eve +is mentioned in the “Connoisseur.” “Last +Friday was Valentine’s day, and the night before I got five +bay leaves, and pinned four of them to the corners of my pillow, +and the fifth in the middle; and then if I dreamt of my +sweetheart, Betty said we should be married before the year was +out. But to make it more sure, I boiled an egg hard, and +took out the yolk and filled it with salt; and when I <!-- page +276--><a name="page276"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +276</span>went to bed, eat it shell and all, without speaking or +drinking after it. We also wrote the names of our lovers +upon bits of paper, and rolled them up in clay and put them into +water, and the first that rose up was to be our +Valentine.”</p> +<p>The popular tradition, that the birds select mates on this +day, is the last subject to be mentioned. Shakespeare +alludes to it in the “Midsummer Night’s +Dream.”</p> +<blockquote><p> “St. +Valentine is past;<br /> +Begin these wood birds but to couple now.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Cowper’s “Fable,” who cannot call to mind? +and its moral may close our notice of St. Valentine’s +day.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Misses, the tale that I relate,<br /> +This lesson seems to carry—<br /> +Choose not alone a proper mate,<br /> +But proper time to marry?”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The list of pageantries and festivals must now close, with an +attempt to chronicle the glories of a modern “chairing +day;” and the more imperative does it seem to find a place +in history for this last stray sunbeam of mediæval +splendour, that it bids fair, amidst the growth of sobriety in +this utilitarian age, to share all, too soon, the fate of its +ancestors, who found their grave in the first +“dissolution” and after-flood of Puritanism. +There may be who would liken this relic of pageantry to a +lingering mote of feudalism, that the penetrating broom of reform +had <!-- page 277--><a name="page277"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 277</span>done well to sweep from the pathway +of a “free and enlightened people;” who would hint +that the old custom is more honoured in the breach than the +observance; and towards their opinion seems to incline that of +the chief performers in the modern +“<i>mystery</i>”—the M.P. himself, whose +nerves, proprieties, and objections have unitedly rebelled +against submission to these antiquated practices of this +antiquated place. It is therefore scarcely what <i>is</i>, +but what <i>has been</i>, that we have to commemorate in our +detail.</p> +<p>When the onerous duty of selecting a representative of the +people’s voice, wishes, and will in the councils of the +nation has been completed by the calm, deliberate, dispassionate, +and disinterested decision of the enfranchised tithe of the +city’s populace, the successful candidates are, or +<i>were</i>, wont to receive installation from the hands of their +constituents by a “toss up,” not, we would inform our +countrymen of the “<i>sheeres</i>,” (meaning all +other counties save Norfolk, Suffolk, and Kent)—not that +they engage in any little gambling speculation, such as is +usually known under a similar name, but that they are required to +submit to be made shuttlecocks for some few hours, for the +amusement of the admiring multitude; and seeing that the fun and +frolic thus afforded is, or <i>was</i>, the sole share of +nine-tenths of the population in the transaction of electing the +“unruly member” that is to speak the hopes, wants, +<!-- page 278--><a name="page278"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +278</span>dissatisfactions, and grumblings of a large city, it +may seem somewhat hard to them that they should be deprived of +it. The order of carrying out this provincial mode of +installation, consists in forming a grand procession, as it is +called, made up of as many carriages and horsemen as the stables +of the city and neighbourhood, private and public, may contrive +to turn out, the <i>colour</i> and popularity of the candidate of +course exercising its influence upon <i>quantity</i> and +<i>quality</i>. The days of velvet doublets and liveries of +silver and gold being passed, the candidate makes no pretensions +to display in the toilettes of the gentlemen—plain, sober +black predominates throughout the mass; no shadow of a variation, +save and except in the “dramatis personæ,” who +take their stand upon the battledores provided for them, arrayed +in full court costume or regimentals, as the case may be. +To particularize more closely, it should be stated, that the +battledores, as we have chosen to designate them, are wooden +platforms, borne upon the shoulders of some two or three dozen +men; the platform supports a chair elaborately ornamented, blue +and silver, or purple and orange, as the successful candidates +may be <i>blues</i> or <i>purples</i>—Whigs or +Tories. Besides the chair, the platform supports the +fortunate M.P. himself, standing, aided in balancing himself in +the elevated pinnacle of glory to which he has attained, by the +back or elbows of the <!-- page 279--><a name="page279"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 279</span>chair, which piece of luxury, we +presume, must be intended solely as a symbol of the easy berth in +prospect, since throughout the long sunny scorching +perambulations of city streets and market-place, it may seldom, +if ever, be ventured to be indulged in as a resting place. +Meantime, every window, balcony, house-top, church-tower, and +parapet-wall, has been lined with anxious and eager +lookers-on—every space and avenue leading to or adjoining +the line of march has been thronged; flags, banners, &c. +&c., have been marshalled into the procession, whose pathway +is cleared and protected by a locomotive body-guard of <i>posse +men</i>, bearing horizontally in their hands long poles, which +are presumed to act as barriers to the encroachments of the +multitude without the pale. The line of procession once +formed, in due order they make their triumphal progress, bowing, +smiling, and trembling on their elevations, as they draw near to +the thronging frontage of any loyal constituent, whose colours +are a signal for the game to commence. Up, then, goes the +M.P. high in the air,—once, twice, thrice, again and again, +fortunate and clever if he comes down perpendicularly. +Perfection and elegance in the peculiar <i>pas de seal</i> +requires much practice and many experiments; but as the +<i>move</i> is repeated very frequently, at very short intervals, +during the progress round the city, possibly one experience may +suffice in a <!-- page 280--><a name="page280"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 280</span>life-time. The exhibition is +occasionally closed by the bearers of the two candidates making a +match with each other as to who can toss longest and highest, +which done, the victimized shuttlecocks and the delighted +spectators are permitted to retire. The origin of this very +singular act of homage is not very clear; but as one or two +recent outbursts of popular enthusiasm have manifested themselves +in a similar form—to wit, laying violent hands upon a +popular favourite and tossing him in the air, with neither +platform or chair to lend grace to the proceeding—we must +suppose that some traditionary virtue is attached to the act; and +this supposition is somewhat confirmed by the fact that a +superstitious practice of “lifting” or +“heaving,” very similar in its mode of operation, is +still observed on Easter Monday and Tuesday in some other English +counties. The men and women on these days alternately +exercise the privilege of seizing and “lifting” any +member of the opposite sex that they may chance to meet, and +claim a fee for the honour. In the records of the Tower of +London, may be found a document purporting to set forth how such +payment was made to certain ladies and maids of honour for +“taking” (or “lifting”) King Edward I. at +Easter, a custom then prevalent throughout the kingdom. +Brande gives an amusing account of an occurrence in Shrewsbury, +extracted from a letter from Mr. <!-- page 281--><a +name="page281"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 281</span>Thomas +Loggan, of Basinghall Street. He says, “I was sitting +alone last Easter Tuesday at breakfast, at the Talbot, in +Shrewsbury, when I was surprised by the entrance of all the +female servants of the house handing in an arm-chair, lined with +white, and decorated with ribbons and favours of all kinds. +I asked them what they wanted; they said they came to +‘heave’ me; it was the custom of their place, and +they hoped I would take a seat in the chair. It was +impossible not to comply with a request so modestly made by a set +of nymphs in their best apparel, and several of them under +twenty. I wished to see all the ceremony, and seated myself +accordingly; the group then lifted me from the ground, turned the +chair about, and I had the felicity of a salute from each. +I told them I supposed there was a fee due, and was answered in +the affirmative; and having satisfied the damsels in this +respect, they retired to ‘heave’ others.”</p> +<p>The usage is said to be a vulgar commemoration of the event +which the festival of Easter celebrates. Lancashire, +Staffordshire, and Warwickshire still retain the Easter +custom.</p> +<p>Whether or not the notable Norfolk “chairing” +takes its origin from the same is open to question; +<i>possibility</i> there is without doubt that it does so. +Be it as it may, it must, we fear, be numbered among the departed +joys of the poor folks.</p> +<h2><!-- page 282--><a name="page282"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 282</span>CHAPTER VII.<br /> +<span class="smcap">superstitions</span>.</h2> +<p +class="gutsumm"><i>Superstitions</i>.—<i>Witchcraft</i>.—<i>Heard’s +Ghost</i>.—<i>Wise Men and Women</i>.—<i>Sayings by +Mrs. Lubbock</i>.—<i>Prophecies</i>.—<i>Treasure +Trove</i>.—<i>Confessions of Sir William Stapleton and Sir +Edward Neville</i>.—<i>Cardinal Wolsey supposed to have +been conversant with Magic</i>.—<i>Effect of Superstition +on the Great and Noble in Early Times</i>.</p> +<p>Forby, in his “Vocabulary of East Anglia,” has +described the whole of this district of the country as barren of +superstitions or legendary lore. Its characteristics are +adverse to the growth of that natural poetry in the minds of the +people which gives birth to nymphs, water-sprites, elves, or +demons. It has neither woods, mountains, rocks, caverns, +nor waterfalls, to be the nurseries of such genii; its plains are +cultivated, its rivers navigable, its hills and valleys furrowed +by the plough, even to the very basement of any lingering ruin of +tower or steeple that may be scattered amongst them. How +much more, therefore, may we expect to find a dearth of such +literature in the heart of the great city, where the struggles +<!-- page 283--><a name="page283"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +283</span>of working-day life among looms and factories, leave +little time or room for aught else than the stern +<i>realities</i> of existence to be known or felt?</p> +<p>But every where there exist some fragments of superstition, +poetical or uncouth; and we may not feel surprise that among such +a people as the lower orders of society, in an East Anglian +manufacturing city, they should bear little trace of the +refinement which beautiful and romantic scenery and occupation +are wont in other scenes to throw over them. Rarely do we +hear of a haunted house, or a walking ghost; but not unseldom do +we see the horse-shoe nailed over the door-way of the cottage, as +an antidote to the power of witchcraft,—nor is it uncommon +to hear among the poor, of charms to cure diseases, of +divinations by <i>wise men</i> and <i>wise women</i>, who by +mystic rites pretend to discover lost or stolen +property,—nor even of animals bewitched, exercising direful +influence over the lives and health of human beings. Within +the limits of this age of enlightenment and civilization, many +are the recorded facts of this nature, and many more of continual +recurrence might be added, in illustration of the truth, that the +lowest and grossest forms of vulgar superstition yet lurk about +in the purlieus and by-ways of the old city.</p> +<p>Not long since, a woman, holding quite a respectable rank +among the working classes, and in her way a perfect +“<i>character</i>” avowed herself determined <!-- +page 284--><a name="page284"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +284</span>“to <i>drown’d</i> the cat,” as soon +as ever her baby, which was lying ill, should die; for which +determination the only explanation she could offer was, that the +cat jumped upon the nurse’s lap, as the baby lay there, +soon after it was born, from which time it ailed, and ever since +that time, the cat had regularly gone under its bed once a day +and coughed twice. These mysterious actions of poor +“Tabby,” were assigned as the cause of the baby +wasting, and its fate was to be sealed as soon as that of the +poor infant was decided. That the baby happened to be the +twenty-fourth child of his mother, who had succeeded in rearing +four only of the two dozen, was a fact that seemed to possess no +weight whatever in her estimation. The same strong-minded +individual, for in many respects she <i>is</i> wonderfully +strong-minded, scruples not to avow greater faith in the magical +properties of red wool, tied round a finger or an arm, in curing +certain ailments of the frame, than in many a remedy prescribed +by “doctor’s” skill; nor has the theoretical +belief been altogether unsupported by practice; on more than one +occasion, she will aver, her own life has thus been saved.</p> +<p>As for divinations and charms, to doubt their faith in them +would be to discredit the evidence of our senses. A poor +washerwoman, but a few years since, who possessed more honesty +than wisdom, happened to lose some linen belonging to one of her +employers. <!-- page 285--><a name="page285"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 285</span><i>Suspecting</i> it to have been +stolen, she repaired to a <i>wise man</i>, who, of course, +succeeded in convincing her, upon the payment of half-a-crown, +that her surmise was correct; but as it helped her no further +towards its recovery, it only added to the expense her honesty +prompted her to go to, to replace it, which she secretly +contrived to do, and offered it to her employer, with a statement +of the facts.</p> +<p>These are but faint specimens of the “vulgar +errors” that are every day to be met with among the +citizens, oftentimes attested more by deeds than words; for many +will in secret consult the <i>wise</i> people, and pay them well, +who would still shrink from openly acknowledging faith in their +revelations or predictions.</p> +<p>Though haunted houses are rare, there still are some known to +exist;—one respectable, elderly maiden, yet amongst us, has +veritable tales of refractory spirits, that took twelve clergymen +to read them down, and of one who haunted some particular closet, +where at last he submitted to priestly authority, a cable and a +hook being firmly fixed in the floor of the closet to bind +him. We rather fancy some of the other legends that we have +heard from the same authority, are but variations of the story of +Heard’s spirit, that haunted the Alder Carr Fen Broad, +which assumed the appearance of a Jack-o’-Lantern, and +refused to be “laid!” the gentlemen who attempted it +failing, because he always kept a verse <!-- page 286--><a +name="page286"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 286</span>ahead of +them, until a boy brought a couple of pigeons, and laid down +before the Will-o’-the-wisp, who, looking at them, lost his +verse, and then they succeeded in binding his spirit.</p> +<p><i>This</i>, and many other tales, have been collected by the +rector of the parish of Irstead, from an old woman living there; +and they contain so much that is amusing, that we cannot forbear +repeating them for the benefit of those who have not had the +opportunity of seeing the papers of the Archæological +Society. Mrs. Lubbock is an old washerwoman, who, left a +widow with several children, has maintained herself +“independently” up to her eightieth year, without +applying even for out-door parish relief, until the cold winter +of 1846 made her, as she expresses it, <i>sick</i> for crumbs +like the birds. Education she has had none, that is, of +book learning, but she seems to have had a father, given to +anecdote, from whom she professes to have heard most of the +“saws” and tales of which she has such a +profusion. She mentions the practice, among her +acquaintance, of watching the church porch on St. Mark’s +eve, when, at midnight, the watcher may see all his acquaintance +enter the church: those who were to die remained, those who were +to marry went in couples and came out again. This, one +Staff had seen; but he would not tell the names of those who were +to die or be married.</p> +<p><!-- page 287--><a name="page287"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +287</span>On Christmas-eve, she says, at midnight the cows and +cattle rise and turn to the east; and the horses in the stable, +as far as their halters permit. She says that a farmer once +observing the reverent demeanour of the horse, who will leisurely +stay some time upon his knees moving his head about and blowing +over the manger, remarked, “Ah, they have more wit than +we;” which brings to mind an anecdote, related by an ear +witness, of a controversy that took place in this city among some +cattle-drovers, when an Irishman and Roman Catholic supported the +claims of his religion by commenting upon the invariable practice +amongst those of his own class, of saying their prayers before +retiring to rest; whereas, added he, “among you Protestants +the <i>horse</i> is the only real Christian that I ever met with, +who kneels before he goes to sleep and when he gets +up.” That there is too much ground for the satire no +one can doubt.</p> +<p>The Rosemary is said to flower on old Christmas-day, and Mrs. +Lubbock says that she recollects, on one occasion, a great +argument about which was the real Christmas-day, and to settle +the point three men agreed to decide by watching that +plant. They gathered a bunch at eleven o’clock at +night of the old Christmas-day; it was then in bud. They +threw it upon the table, and did not look at it until after +midnight, when they went in, and found the bloom just dropping +off.</p> +<p><!-- page 288--><a name="page288"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +288</span>Concerning the weather, she says, when a sundog (or two +black spots to be seen by the naked eye) comes on the south side +of the sun, there will be fair weather; when on the north, there +will be foul. “The sun then fares to be right muddled +and crammed down by the dog.”</p> +<p>Of the moon, she says—</p> +<p class="poetry">“Saturdays new and Sundays full<br /> +Never was good, and never <i>wull</i>.</p> +<p>“If you see the old moon with the new, there will be +stormy weather.</p> +<p class="poetry">“If it rains on a Sunday before mass,<br +/> +It rains all the week, more or less.</p> +<p>“If it rains on a Sunday before the church doors are +open, it will rain all the week, more or less; or else we shall +have three rainy Sundays.</p> +<p>“If it rains the first Thursday after the moon comes in, +it will rain, more or less, all the while the moon lasts, +especially on Thursdays.</p> +<p>“If there be bad weather, and the sun does not shine all +the week, it will always show forth some time on the +Saturday.</p> +<p>“It will not be a hard winter when acorns abound, and +there are no hips nor haws:</p> +<p class="poetry">“If <i>Noah’s Ark shows</i> many +days together,<br /> +There will be foul weather.</p> +<p>“On three nights in the year it never lightens +(<i>i.e.</i> clears up) anywhere; and if a man knew those nights, +he would not turn a dog out.</p> +<p><!-- page 289--><a name="page289"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +289</span>“We shall have a severe winter when the swallows +and martins take great pains to teach their young ones to fly; +they are going a long journey, to get away from the cold that is +coming. It is singular they should know this, but they +do.</p> +<p>“The weather will be fine when the rooks play +pitch-halfpenny—<i>i.e.</i> when, flying in flocks, some of +them stoop down and pick up worms, imitating the action of a boy +playing pitch-halfpenny.</p> +<p>“There will be severe winter and deep snow when +snow-banks (<i>i.e.</i> white fleecy clouds) hang about the +sky.”</p> +<p>In 1845, she knew there would be a failure of some crop, +“because the evening star <i>rode so low</i>. The +leading star (<i>i.e.</i> the last star in the Bear’s Tail) +was above it all the summer the potato blight +occurred.” She feared the failure would have been in +the wheat, till she saw the <i>man’s face</i> in it, and +then she was comfortable, and did not think of any other +crop. Her opinion was, that the potato blight was caused by +the lightning, because the turf burnt so +<i>sulphurously</i>. “The lightning,” she says, +“carries a burr round the moon, and makes the <i>roke</i> +(fog) rise in the marshes, and smell strong.”</p> +<p>A failure in the “Ash Keys,” she pronounces a sign +of a change in the government.</p> +<blockquote><p>“If the hen moult before the cock,<br /> +We get a winter as hard as a rock;<br /> +<!-- page 290--><a name="page290"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +290</span>If the cock moult before the hen,<br /> +We get a winter like a spring.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“She put plenty of salt in the water while washing +clothes, to keep the thunder out, and to keep away foul +spirits.”</p> +<p>Of Good Friday, she says,</p> +<p>“If work be done on that day, it will be so unlucky, +that it will have to be done over again.”</p> +<p>The story of Heard’s Ghost she accompanies by an +anecdote of one Finch, of Neatishead, who was walking along the +road after dark, and saw a dog which he thought was Dick +Allard’s, that had snapped and snarled at him at different +times. Thinks he, “you have <i>upset</i> me two or +three times; I will upset you now. You will not turn out of +the road for me; and I will not turn out of the road for +you.” Along came the dog, straight in the middle of +the road, and Finch kicked at him, and his foot went through him, +as through a sheet of paper—he could compare it to nothing +else; he was quite astounded, and nearly fell backwards from the +force of the kick.</p> +<p>She says that she has heard that the spirits of the dead haunt +the places where treasures were hid by them when living, and that +those of the Roman Catholics still frequent the spots where their +remains were disturbed, and their graves and monuments +destroyed. Alas! what a ghost-besieged city must poor +Norwich be in such a case!</p> +<p><!-- page 291--><a name="page291"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +291</span>Of the cuckoo, she says, “When evil is coming, he +sings low among the bushes, and can scarcely get his +“cuckoo” out. In the last week before he +leaves, he always tells all that will happen in the course of the +year till he comes again—all the shipwrecks, storms, +accidents, and everything. If any one is about to die +suddenly, or to lose a relation, he will light upon touchwood, or +a rotten bough, and “cuckoo.”</p> +<p>“He is always here three months to a day, and sings all +the while. The first of April is the proper day for him to +come, and when he does so, there is sure to be a good and early +harvest. If he does not come till May, then the harvest is +into October. If he sings long after midsummer, there will +be a Michaelmas harvest. If any one hears the cuckoo first +when in bed, there is sure to be illness or death to him or one +of his family.”</p> +<p>Among her saws are—</p> +<p class="poetry">“Them that ever mind the world to win,<br +/> +Must have a black cat, a howling dog, and a crowing hen.</p> +<p class="poetry">“If youth could know what age do +crave,<br /> +<i>Sights</i> of pennies youth would save.</p> +<p class="poetry">“They that wive<br /> +Between sickle and scythe,<br /> +Shall never thrive.”</p> +<p>With reference to howling dogs, she says, “Pull off your +left shoe and turn it, and it will quiet him. I always used +to do so when I was in service. I hated to hear the dogs +howl. There was no tax then, <!-- page 292--><a +name="page292"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 292</span>and the +farmers kept a <i>heap</i> of them. They won’t howl +three times after the turning the shoe; if you are in bed, turn +the shoe upside down by the bedside.”</p> +<p>Among the historical prophecies of Mother Shipton and Mother +Bunch, her sister, as remembered by her, are—</p> +<p>That Mrs. Shipton foretold that the time should come when +ships should go without sails, and carriages without horses, and +the sun should shine upon hills that never <i>see</i> the sun +before; all which are fulfilled, Mrs. Lubbock thinks, by +steamers, railways, and cuttings through hills, which let in upon +them the light of the sun.</p> +<p>Mrs. Shipton also foretold that we should know the summer from +the winter only by the green leaves, it should be so cold. +“That the Roman Catholics shall have this country again, +and make England a nice place once more. But as for these +folks, they scarce know how to build a church, nor yet a +steeple.</p> +<p>“That England shall be won and lost three times in one +day; and that, principally, through an embargo to be laid upon +vessels.</p> +<p>“That there is to come a man who shall have three thumbs +on one hand, who is to hold the king’s horse in battle; he +is to be born in London, and be a miller by business. The +battle is to be fought at Rackheath-stone <!-- page 293--><a +name="page293"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 293</span>Hill, on +the Norwich road. Ravens shall carry the blood away, it +will be so clotted.</p> +<p>“That the men are to be killed, so that one man shall be +left to seven women; and the daughters shall come home, and say +to their mothers, “Lawk, mother, I have seen a +man!” The women shall have to finish the harvest.</p> +<p>“That the town of Yarmouth shall become a nettle-bush; +that the bridges shall be pulled up, and small vessels sail to +Irstead and Barton Broads.</p> +<p>“That blessed are they that live near Potter Heigham, +and double-blessed them that live in it.” (That +parish seems destined to be the scene of some great and glorious +events.) May the blessing prove true!</p> +<p>We here close our extracts from Mrs. Lubbock’s Norfolk +sayings, and now go back to superstitions of earlier date, that +are so connected with Kett’s rebellion as to make them +peculiarly interesting as matters of history. During the +wars of the Roses, predictions of wars and rebellions, not +unfrequently proclaiming hostility towards the privileged +classes, were very common. Both persons and places were +often designated by strange hieroglyphical symbols, frequently +taken from heraldic badges and bearings, or analogies extremely +puzzling to explain. They are alluded to in +Shakespeare’s “Henry the Fourth,” among the +incitements that urged Hotspur to anger, and Owen Glendower to +rebellion, and recorded by <!-- page 294--><a +name="page294"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 294</span>Hall, who +says in his Chrouicle, “that a certain writer writeth that +the Earl of March, the Lord Percy, and Owen Glendower, were made +believe, by a Welsh prophecier, that King Henry was the +<i>moldewarpe</i> (mole) <i>cursed of God’s own mouth</i>, +and that they three were the dragon, the lion, and the wolf which +should divide the realm between them.” This prophecy +was doubtless identical with that published in 1652, under the +title of “Strange Prophecies of Merlin,” where it is +said, “Then shall the proudest prince in all Christendom go +through Shropham Dale to Lopham Ward, where the White Lion shall +meet with him, and fight in a field under Ives Minster, at South +Lopham, where the prince aforesaid shall be slain under the +minster wall, <i>to the great grief of the priests all</i>; then +there shall come out of Denmark a Duke, and he shall bring with +him the King of Denmark and sixteen great lords in his company, +by whose consent he shall be crowned king in a town of +Northumberland, and he shall reign three months and odd +days. They shall land at <i>Waborne Stone</i>; they shall +be met by the Red Deere, the Heath Cock, the Hound, and the +Harrow: between <i>Waborne</i> and <i>Branksbrim</i>, a forest +and a church gate, there shall be fought so mortal a battle, that +from Branksbrim to Cromer Bridge it shall run blood; then shall +the King of Denmark be slain, and all the perilous fishes in his +company. Then shall the duke come forth manfully to Clare +<!-- page 295--><a name="page295"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +295</span>Hall, where the <i>bare</i> and the <i>headlesse +men</i> shall meet him and slay all his lords, and take him +prisoner, and send him to <i>Blanchflower</i>, and chase his men +to the sea, where twenty thousand of them shall be drowned +without dint of the sword. Then shall come in the French +king, and he shall land at Waborne Hope, eighteen miles from +Norwich: there he shall be let in by a false mayor, and that +shall he keep for his lodging for awhile; then at his return +shall he be met at a place called Redbanke, thirty miles from +Westchester, where at the first affray shall be slain nine +thousand Welchmen and the double number of enemies.”</p> +<p>These sort of predictions, often accompanied by symbolical +illustrations, continued to gain popularity, and were made use of +at various periods to serve the purposes of the people. Sir +Walter Scott’s “Essays on the Prophecies of Thomas +the Rhymer,” shew the application made of them in the time +of the Stuarts. In the reign of Henry VIII., they excited +so much alarm, as to cause an act to be passed, which declared, +“that if any person should print, write, speak, sing, or +declare to any other person, of the king or any other person, any +such false prophecies upon occasion of any arms, fields, beasts, +fowls, or such like things, they shall be deemed guilty of +felony, without benefit of the clergy.”</p> +<p>The confession of Richard Byshop, of Bungay, when <!-- page +296--><a name="page296"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +296</span>arraigned before the Privy Council a few years prior to +the date of the above act, shews upon what grounds the fear it +expresses was founded.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">The +confession of Richard Byshop</span>, <span class="smcap">of +Bungay</span>.</p> +<p>“Memorandum: that the said Richard Byshop saith, that he +met with one Robert Seyman, at Tyndale Wood, the 11th day of May, +about nine of the clock, in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of +our sovereign lord King Henry the Eighth, and after such +salutation as they had then, the said Richard Byshop said to the +said Robert, ‘What tythings hear you? Have you any +musters about you?’ And the said Robert said +‘No.’ Then the said Richard said, ‘This +is a hard world for poor men.’ And the said Robert +said, ‘Truly it is so.’ Then the said Richard +said, ‘Ye seem to be an honest man, and such a one as a man +may open his mind unto.’ And the said Robert said, +‘I am a plain man; ye may say to me what ye +woll.’ And then the said Richard said, ‘We are +so used now-a-days at Bungay as was never seen afore this; for if +two or three good fellows be walking together, the constables +come to them, and woll know what communication they have had, or +else they shall be stocked. And as I have heard lately at +Walsingham, the people had risen if one person had not +been. And as I hear say, some of them now be in Norwich +Castle, and others be sent to London.’ And further, +the said Richard said, <!-- page 297--><a +name="page297"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 297</span>‘If +two men were gathered together, one might say to another what he +would as long as the third man was not there; <i>and if three men +were together</i>, <i>if two of them were absent</i>, the third +might say what he would in surety enough.’ And he +said he knew there was a certain prophecy, which if the said +Robert would come to Bungay, he should hear it read; and that one +man had taken pains to watch in the night to write the copy of +the same. And if so be, as the prophecy saith, there shall +be a rising of the people this year or never. And that the +prophecy saith the king’s grace was signified by a mowle, +and that the mowle should be subduyt and put down. And that +the said Richard did hear that the Earl of Derby was up with +many; and that he should be proclaimed traitor in those parts +where he dwelleth. And also he heard, as he saith, that a +great company was fled out of the land. And that the Duke +of Norfolk’s grace was in the north parts, and was so to be +set about, as he heard say, that he might not come away when he +would. I pray God that it be not so. Also he said +that the prophecy saith that three kings shall meet on Mousehold +Heath, and the proudest prince in Christendom be their +subject. And that the White Lion should stay all that +business at length, and should obtain. And said, +‘Farewell, my friend, and know me another day if ye can, +and God send us a quiet world.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 298--><a name="page298"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +298</span>The same prophecies here alluded to were revived and +repeated, together with many doggrel rhymes, at the time of the +famous Kett’s rebellion. The historian of the event +says that they were rung in the ears of the people every hour, +such as</p> +<blockquote><p>“The county Gnoffes, Hob, Dick, and Hick,<br +/> +With clubbs and clowted shoon,<br /> + Shall fill the vale<br /> + Of Duffin’s dale<br /> +With slaughtered bodies soon.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And also</p> +<blockquote><p>“The headless men within the dale,<br /> +Shall there be slain both great and small.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>So positively were these sort of prophecies applied to the +circumstances of the time, that the rebels who had possession of +a favourable position on the heights of the common, forsook it in +expectation of realizing the prediction by coming into the +valley, “believing themselves,” as the historian has +it, “to be the <i>upholsterers</i> that were to make +Duffin’s Dale a large soft pillow for death to rest on, +whereas they proved only the <i>stuffing to fill the +same</i>.”</p> +<p>The common phrase, “A cock and bull story,” took +its origin from these symbolical prophecies, in which the figures +of animals were so often introduced.</p> +<p>Among the records of other mediæval superstitions, <!-- +page 299--><a name="page299"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +299</span>are many curious details of the “invocation of +spirits” to aid the searchers after “Treasure +Trove,” as it was called. In the days when +“banking” was unknown, wealth oftentimes accumulated +in the hands of its owners, to a degree that rendered its safe +keeping a perilous task; and in very early ages it would seem to +have been a common practice to commit it to the bosom of mother +earth, until such time as its owner might have need of it. +The changes wrought upon the land by the several conquests that +succeeded the departure of the Romans, the reputed depositors of +these hidden treasures, caused the ownership to be forgotten and +obscure, and by degrees all such property became the right of the +crown; and to conceal any discovery of it was made an act of +felony, at first punishable by death, but afterwards subjecting +the perpetrator only to a pecuniary fine.</p> +<p>It seems, however, that in the sixteenth century, it was +customary to grant licenses to individuals, to engage in the +search after these hidden stores of precious stones, metal, or +coins; also permission to invoke the aid of spirits in their +pursuit. Among many other quaint stories upon the subject, +two especially connected with the localities in this +neighbourhood claim attention here: the first is the confession +of William Stapleton, a monk in the abbey of St. Bennet in the +Holm, addressed to Cardinal <!-- page 300--><a +name="page300"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 300</span>Wolsey, and +many very curious illustrations it gives of the superstitious +feeling of the time; the other is that of Sir Edward Neville, who +was arraigned, tried, and executed for high treason, as an +accomplice of Cardinal Pole, in the thirtieth year of Henry the +Eighth. The extracts are taken from the papers of the +Norfolk Archæological Society.</p> +<p>Stapleton seems to have been an idle monk, often punished +“for not rising to matins, and doing his duty in the +church, which led to his desire to purchase a +dispensation.” Being too poor to do so at once, he +obtained six months’ license to obtain the means, and set +about searching for “Treasure Trove,” by the help of +some books on Necromancy, which had been previously lent to +him. After some rambles about the county, he says, “I +went to Norwich, and there remained by the space of a month, and +thence to a town called Felmingham, and one Godfrey and his boy +with me, which Godfrey had a “<i>shower</i>,” called +Anthony Fular, and his said boy did “scry” unto him +(which said spirit I had after myself); but notwithstanding as we +could find nothing, we departed to Norwich again, where we met +one unbeknown to us, and he brought us to a man’s house in +Norwich, where he supposed we should have found treasure, +whereupon we called the spirit of the treasure to +appear—but he did not, for I suppose of a truth there was +none there.”</p> +<p><!-- page 301--><a name="page301"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +301</span>Stapleton goes on to say that, failing in his efforts, +he borrowed money to buy his dispensation of “his +Grace” to be a hermit, and then went to the +“diggings” again. He was then informed that one +Leech had a book to which the parson of Lesingham had bound a +spirit, called Andrew Malchus; “whereupon,” he says, +“I went to Leech concerning the same, and upon our +communication he let me have all his instruments to the said +book, and shewed me that if I could get the book that the said +instruments were made by, he would bring me to him that should +speed my business shortly. And then he shewed me that the +parson of Lesingham and Sir John of Leiston, with other to me +unknown, had called up of late Andrew Malchus, Oberion, and +Inchubus. And when they were all raised, Oberion would not +speak. And the then parson of Lesingham did demand of +Andrew Malchus why it was. And Andrew Malchus made answer, +it was because he was bound to the Lord Cardinal. And they +did entreat the parson of Lesingham to let them depart at that +time, and whensoever it should please them to call them up again, +they would gladly do them any service they could.</p> +<p>“And when I had all the said instruments, I went to +Norwich, where I had remained but a season, when there came to me +a glazier, which, as he said, came from the Lord Leonard +Marquess, for to search for one that was expert in such +business. And thereupon <!-- page 302--><a +name="page302"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 302</span>one Richard +Tynny came and instanced me to go to Walsingham with him, where +we met with the said Lord Leonard, the which Lord Leonard had +communicated with me concerning the said art of digging, and +thereupon promised me that if I would take pains in the +exercising the same art, that he would sue out a dispensation for +me that I should be a secular priest, and so would make me his +chaplain. And, for a trial to know what I could do in the +same art, he caused his servant to go hide a certain money in the +garden, and I showed for the same. And one Jackson +‘scryed’ unto me, but we could not accomplish our +purpose.</p> +<p>“Sir John Shepe, Sir Robert Porter, and I, departed to a +place beside Creke Abbey, where we supposed treasure should be +found. And the said Sir John Shepe called the spirit of the +treasure, and I showed to him; but all came to no purpose.</p> +<p>“And then there came one Cook of Calkett Hall, and +showed me that there was much money about his place, and in +especial in the Bell Hill, and desired me to come thither; and +then I went to Richard Tynny, and showed him what the said Cook +had said, whereupon Tynny brought me to one William Rapkyn, took +me the book that the Duke’s Grace of Norfolk of late took +away from me; which Rapkyn said to me that forasmuch as I had all +the instruments that were made for the said book, and if I could +get <!-- page 303--><a name="page303"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 303</span>Sir John of Leiston unto me, that +then we should soon speed our purpose, for the said Sir John of +Leiston was with the parson of Lesingham when the spirits +appeared to the said book; and so I went to Colkett Hall, and +took the said book and instruments with me; but he” (Sir +John) “came not; wherefore, when I had tarried three or +four days, I and the parish priest of Gorleston went about the +said business, but of truth we could bring nothing to +effect.”</p> +<p>His lengthened confession then goes into details of other +expeditions aided by Lord Leonard, which ended in his +imprisonment for deserting Lord Leonard, but he was afterwards +pardoned and set at liberty. He then goes on to say in his +letter, “and whereas your noble Grace here of late was +informed of certain things by the Duke’s Grace of Norfolk, +as touching to your Grace and him, I faithfully ascertain that +the truth thereof is as herein followeth, that is to say, one +Wright, servant to the said Duke, at a certain season showed me +that the Duke’s Grace, his master, was sore vexed with a +spirit by the enchantment of your Grace; to the which I made +answer that his communication might be left, for it was too high +a subject to meddle with. Whereupon Wright went into the +Duke’s presence and showed things to me unknown, which +caused the Duke’s Grace to send for me; and at such time as +I was before his Grace I required his grace to show me what <!-- +page 304--><a name="page304"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +304</span>his pleasure was, and he said I knew well myself, and I +answered ‘Nay.’ Then he demanded of Wright +whether he had showed me anything or nay, and he answered he +durst not, for because his Grace gave so strait commandment unto +the contrary. And so then was I directed to the said Wright +unto the next day, that he should show me the intention of the +Duke’s Grace.”</p> +<p>Wright seems then to have suggested to Stapleton that he +should pretend power to rid the Duke of the troublesome spirit; +and being strongly tempted by hopes of reward, he consented, +“and feigned to him,” when he sent for him again, +that he had forged an image of wax of his similitude, and +sanctified it—but whether it did any good for his sickness +he could not tell.</p> +<p>“Whereupon the said Duke desired me that I should go +about to know whether the Lord Cardinal’s Grace had a +spirit, and I showed him that I could not skill thereof. +And the Duke then said if I would take pains therein, he would +appoint me to a cunning man, Dr. Wilson. And so the said +Dr. Wilson was sent for, and they examined me, and the +Duke’s Grace commanded me to write all these things, and so +I did. Whereupon, considering the great folly which hath +rested in me, I humbly beseech your Grace to be a good and +gracious lord unto me, and to take me to your mercy.”</p> +<p><!-- page 305--><a name="page305"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +305</span>The case of Sir Edward Neville, quoted from the same +authority, commences by a statement of the treasonable words laid +to his charge, which were, “The King is a beast, and worse +than a beast; and I trust knaves shall be put down, and lords +reign one day, and that the world will amend one +day.” He was found guilty, hanged, drawn and +quartered.</p> +<p>He is suspected to have been connected with Stapleton the +monk, who has already appeared as a necromancer. At all +events, his confession shows again how much Wolsey was supposed +to be conversant with magic; and indeed the ‘ring’ by +which the Cardinal was thought to have won the fatal favour of +the king, was noticed in the accusations against him when he +fell.</p> +<p>In seeking for treasure, Sir Edward fully acknowledges being +led to it by “foolish fellows of the country.”</p> +<p>In his account of his own dealings with spirits and magic, +there is much curious mixture of half-doubting marvel and self +deceit, probably not unconnected with influences baffling the +human intellect, so apparent in the kindred delusions of +Mesmerism, that strange development of the age of civilization, +in no respect differing from the superstitions usually considered +as the peculiar characteristics of the Middle ages. He was +also a practitioner of alchemy. He would jeopard his life +to make the philosopher’s stone <!-- page 306--><a +name="page306"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 306</span>if the king +pleased, aye, and was willing to be kept in prison till he had: +in a year he would make silver, and in a year and a half, gold, +which would be better to the king than a thousand men. But +Henry was too shrewd thus to be allured into mercy; and Neville +perished in the prolonged agonies which his sentence +involved. He appears, from other documents, to have been of +a light-hearted and merry temper; not very wise, but wholly +innocent of any crime, except a few idle words.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">the +confession of sir edward neville</span>.</p> +<p>“Honourable Lords, I take God to record, that I did +never commit nor reconcile treason sith I was born, nor imagined +the destruction of no man or woman, as God shall save my soul; He +knows my heart, for it is He that ‘scrutator +cordium,’ and in Him is all trust. I will not danger +my soul for fear of worldly punishment; the joy of Heaven is +eternal, and incomparable to the joy of this wretched world: +therefore, good lords, do by me as God shall put in your minds; +for another day ye shall suffer the judgment of God, when ye +cannot start from it, no more than I can start from yours at this +time. Now to certify all that I can:—William Neville +did send for me to Oxford, that I should come and speak with him +at ‘Weke,’ and to him I went; it was the first <!-- +page 307--><a name="page307"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +307</span>time I ever saw him; I would I had been buried that +day.</p> +<p>“When I came, he took me to a <i>littell</i> room, and +went to his garden, and there demanded of me many questions, and +among all others, asked if it were not possible to have a ring +made that should bring a man in favour with his Prince; seeing my +Lord Cardinal had such a ring, that whatsoever he asked of the +King’s Grace, that he had; and Master Cromwell, when he and +I were servants in my Lord Cardinal’s house, did haunt to +the company of one that was seen in your faculty; and shortly +after, no man so great with my Lord Cardinal as Master Cromwell +was; and I have spoke with all them that has any name in this +realm; and all they showed me that I should be great with my +Prince; and this is the cause that I did send for you, to know +whether your saying be agreeable to theirs, or no. And I, +at the hearty desire of him, shewed him that I had read many +books, and specially the works of Solomon, and how his ring +should be made, and of what metal; and what virtues they have +after the canon of Solomon. And then he desired me +instantly to take the pains to make him one of them; and I told +him that I could make them, but I made never none of them, nor I +cannot tell that they have such virtues or no, but by hearing +say. Also he asked what other works had I read. And I +told him that I had read <!-- page 308--><a +name="page308"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 308</span>the magical +works of Hermes, which many men doth prize; and thus departed at +that time. And one fortnight after, William Neville came to +Oxford, and said that he had one Wayd at home, at his house, that +did shew him more than I did shew him; for the said Wayd did shew +him that he should be a great lord, nigh to the partes that he +dwelt in. And in that lordship should be a fair castle; and +he could not imagine what it should be, except it were the castle +of Warwick.”</p> +<p>“And I answered and said to him, that I dreamed that an +angel took him and me by the hands, and led us to a high tower, +and there delivered him a shield, with sundry arms, which I +cannot rehearse, and this is all I ever shewed him, save at his +desire, I went thither with him; and as concerning any other man, +save at the desire of Sir Gr. Done, Knt. I made the moulds that +ye have, to the intent he should have had Mistress +Elizabeth’s gear. If any man or woman can say and +prove by me, otherwise than I have writed, except that I have, at +the desire of some of my friends, ‘<i>cauled to +stone</i>,’ for things stolen, let me die for it. And +touching Master William Neville, all the country knows more of +his matters than I do, save that I wrote a foolish letter or two, +according to his foolish desire, to make pastime to laugh +at.”</p> +<p>“Also concerning treasure trove, I was oft-times <!-- +page 309--><a name="page309"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +309</span>desired unto it, by foolish fellows of the country, but +I never meddled with it at all; but to make the +philosopher’s stone, I will jeopard my life, so to do it, +if it please the king’s good grace to command me to do it, +or any other nobleman under the king’s good grace; and, of +surety to do it, to be kept in prison till I have done it. +And I desire no longer space, but twelve months upon silver, and +twelve and a half upon gold, which is better to the king’s +good grace than a thousand men; for it is better able to maintain +a thousand men for evermore, putting the king’s good grace, +nor the realm, to no cost nor charge.”</p> +<p>“Also, concerning our sovereign lord the king’s +going over, this I said, ‘If I had been worthy to be his +grace’s council, I would counsel his grace not to have gone +over at that time of year.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>One mode of consulting spirits was by the Beryl, by means of a +speculator or seer. Having repeated the necessary charms +and adjurations, with the invocation peculiar to the spirit or +angel he wished to call (for each had his peculiar form of +invocation), the seer looked into a crystal or beryl, to see his +answer, represented generally by some type or figure; sometimes, +though rarely, the angels were heard to speak articulately.</p> +<p>Different kinds of stone were also employed, and occasionally +a piece of coal. In Stapleton’s confession, <!-- page +310--><a name="page310"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 310</span>he +mentions the <i>plate</i> he used being left in the possession of +Sir Thomas Moore.</p> +<p>Other records of similar proceedings, that have been extracted +from the archives of the Record-chamber, make frequent mention of +the magic crystals or stones.</p> +<p>The great names mixed up with the curious transactions +described in these two documents, give additional interest to +them as matters of history, and specimens of the enlightenment +prevalent among the very highest circles of society, in the +period that so immediately preceded the Elizabethan age. A +runaway monk, turning necromancer, was received into communion +with some of the noblest of the land; and an educated gentleman, +as Sir Edward Neville may be presumed to have been, hoped to win +favour by promises to discover the philosopher’s stone.</p> +<p>Three centuries have passed, and the only traces that may be +found of these high-born credulities, lurk in the darkest corners +of the darkest alleys of poverty and ignorance.</p> +<h2><!-- page 311--><a name="page311"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 311</span>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +<span class="smcap">conventual remains</span>.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><i>Conventual Remains</i>.—<i>St. +Andrew’s Hall</i>.—<i>The +Festival</i>.—<i>Music</i>: <i>Dr. Hook</i>, <i>Dr. +Crotch</i>.—<i>Churches</i>.—<i>Biographical +Sketches</i>: <i>Archbishop Parker</i>, <i>Sir J. E. Smith</i>, +<i>Taylor</i>, <i>Hooker</i>, <i>Lindley</i>, <i>Joseph John +Gurney</i>.</p> +<p>The sketch of the Cathedral has embraced so much of the early +history of the various religious “orders,” as to +render but little necessary respecting the origin of the +“frères,” or friars, whose settlements, in the +city and neighbourhood, once occupied such important place in its +limits and history.</p> +<p>The Black Friars, or Preachers, White Friars, or Carmelites, +Grey Friars, or Minors, and the Austin Friars, all had at one +period, from the thirteenth century to the era of the +Reformation, large establishments within its precincts; besides +which, there was a nunnery, and divers hospitals, as they were +called, such as the Chapel of the Lady in the Fields, +Norman’s Spital, and Hildebrand’s Hospital; and +hermitages without number lurked about the corners <!-- page +312--><a name="page312"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 312</span>of +its churchyards, or perched themselves above the gateways of its +walls. The greater portion of these have left but a name, +or a few scattered fragments, behind to mark their site; but one +magnificent relic of the Black Friars monastery, comprising the +whole of the nave and chancel of their beautiful church, yet +stands in an almost perfect state of preservation,—a noble +witness of the wealth and taste of the poor +“mendicant” followers of Friar Dominick,—which +was rescued from destruction at the period of the general +“dissolution,” by the zeal and practical expediency +of municipal authorities. Of the two friaries that have +ceased to exist even in outline, it may suffice to record, that +the Carmelites numbered among them the eminent writer, +“John Bale, the antiquary,” as he is wont to be +called; the Austin Friars seem to have possessed few particular +claims for notice, save their less rigorous injunctions for +fasting, but the Friars Minors were the great rivals of the +Preachers, and both together, the sore troublers of the peace of +the “Regulars,” who looked upon the growing power of +this “<i>secular</i>” priesthood with a jealousy and +hatred to be conceived only by those who appreciate duly the +“loaves and fishes.” As a sample of the feeling +existing, the account of Matthew Paris, the monk of St. Albans, +may fairly be cited. He says, “The ‘friars +preachers’ having obtained privileges from Pope Gregory IX. +and Innocent IV. being rejoiced <!-- page 313--><a +name="page313"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 313</span>and +magnified, they talked malapertly to the prelates of churches, +bishops and archdeacons, presiding in their synods; and where +many persons of note were assembled, showed openly the privileges +indulged to them, proudly requiring that the same may be recited, +and that they may be received with veneration by the churches; +and intruding themselves oft-times impertinently, they asked many +persons, even the religious, ‘Are you +confessed?’ And if they were answered +‘Yes,’ ‘By whom?’ ‘By my +priest.’ ‘And what idiot is he? He never +learned divinity, never studied the devices, never learned to +resolve one question; they are blind leaders of the blind; come +to us, who know how to distinguish one leprosy from another, to +whom the secrets of God are manifest.’ Many +therefore, especially nobles, despising their own priests, +confessed to these men, whereby the dignity of the ordinaries was +not a little debased.”</p> +<p>Another says: “Now they have created two new +fraternities, to which they have so generally received people of +both sexes, that scarce one of either remains, whose name is not +written in one of them, who, therefore, all assembling in their +churches, we cannot have our own parishioners, especially on +solemn days, to be present at divine service, &c.; whence it +is come to pass that we, being deprived of the due tithes and +oblations, cannot live unless we should <!-- page 314--><a +name="page314"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 314</span>turn to +some manual labour. What else remaineth therefore? except +that we should demolish our churches, in which nothing else +remaineth for service or ornament but a bell and an old image, +covered with soot.’ But these preachers and minors, +who begun from cells and cottages, have erected royal houses and +palaces, supported on high pillars, and distinguished into +various offices, the expenses whereof ought to have been bestowed +upon the poor; these, while they have nothing, possess all +things; but we, who are said to have something, are +beggars.” Alas! how many a poor curate of this +nineteenth century, upon £30 a-year, might subscribe to a +like pitiful complaint.</p> +<p>Another accusation against these mendicant friars, in their +days of maturity, was that they used to steal children under +fourteen years of age, or receive them without the consent of +their friends, and refuse to restore them, embezzling or +conveying them away to “other cloisters,” where they +could not be found. A statute of Henry IV. subjected these +friars to punishment for this offence; and the provincials of the +four orders were sworn before the parliament, for themselves and +successors, to be obedient to this statute.</p> +<p>Kirkpatrick, from whom the above is quoted, says elsewhere, +that in 1242, a great controversy arose between the friars minors +and preachers, about the <!-- page 315--><a +name="page315"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 315</span>greatest +worthiness, most decent habit, the strictest, humblest, and +holiest life; for the preachers challenged pre-eminence in +these—the minors contradicted, and great scandal +arose. And because they were learned men, it was the more +dangerous to the church.</p> +<p>“These are they,” says he, “who in sumptuous +edifices, and lofty walls, expose to view inestimable treasures, +impudently transgressing the limits of poverty, and the +fundamentals of their profession; who diligently apply themselves +to lords and rich persons, that they may gape after wealth; +extorting confessions and clandestine wills, commending +themselves and their order only, and extolling them above all +others. So that no Christian now believes he can be saved, +unless he be governed by the councils of the preachers and +minors. In obtaining privileges, they are solicitors; in +the courts of kings and potentates, they are councillors, +gentlemen of the chamber, treasurers, match-makers, +matrimony-brokers; executioners of papal extortions; in their +sermons, either flatterers or stinging backbiters, discoverers of +confession, or impudent rebukers.”</p> +<p>Making all due allowance for the party feeling of the +historian, thus commemorating the factions of the “Mother +Church,” enough may be seen of the truth, to form a general +idea of the condition of the brotherhoods, one of whose +“palaces, supported by high <!-- page 316--><a +name="page316"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +316</span>pillars,” is now left us as a subject for our +investigation.</p> +<p>The order of Black Friars owe their origin to the famous +Dominick, notorious for his zeal in the persecution of the +Albigenses. He figures also in the “Golden +Legend,” as a miraculously endowed infant; his god-mother +perceiving on his forehead a star, which made the whole world +light. The common seal of the Black Friars, still +preserved, commemorates another miracle concerning him: +“Being grown to man’s estate, he became a great +preacher against heretics; and once upon a time, he put his +authorities against them in writing, and gave the schedule into +the hands of a heretic, that he might ponder over its +contents. The same night, a party being met at a fire, the +man produced the schedule, upon which he was persuaded to cast it +into the flames, to test its truth; which doing, the schedule +sprung back again, after a few minutes, unburnt; the experiment +was repeated thrice, with the same results; but the heretics +refused to be convinced, and pledged themselves not to reveal the +matter;—but one of them, it seems, afterwards did +so.”</p> +<p>Many other marvellous tales are extant of holy St. Dominick, +but we hasten on to take a look at the church of his +followers. The present building bears date of the fifteenth +century, and would seem to have been materially enriched by the +famous Sir Thomas <!-- page 317--><a name="page317"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 317</span>Erpingham, who takes such prominent +place in the city, and church walls, and gateways, his arms +figuring here in the stone-work between every two of the upper +story of windows. In its primitive condition the church +boasted of three chapels, one of them subterranean, three altars, +two lights, and an image of St. Peter of Malayn; the choir was +decorated with panel paintings, which found their way at the +Reformation to the parlour of some private dwelling-house close +by, whose walls they yet adorn. Two guilds were held there, +the guild of St. William and the Holy Rood. In 1538, when +the axes and hammers of King Henry were busy over the face of the +land, and bonfires of libraries were being made in the precincts +of every monastery, the house and church of the Black Friars was +saved. Deputations to his majesty from the corporation of +the city, successfully negotiated the transfer of the building to +its possession, on consideration of the sum of eighty-one pounds +being paid into the Royal Treasury. Mention is made in old +records of a handsome library belonging to this as well as the +Carmelite Monastery; their fate perhaps may be conjectured by +that of many others of the time. Bale mentions the fact of +a merchant buying the contents of two noble libraries for forty +shillings, to be used as waste paper, and ten years were occupied +in thus consuming them. The chancel of the church has +retained its character <!-- page 318--><a +name="page318"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 318</span>as a place +of worship almost unvaryingly until the present day, at one time +being leased to the Dutch, and in later times used as a chapel by +the inmates of the workhouse; occasionally, however, it has +served the purpose of a playhouse; as we find on record, injuries +sustained by the breaking down of partitions at the performance +of “interludes” in it upon Sundays, in the +thirty-eighth of Henry the Eighth. The king’s players +we also find similarly occupying the nave or hall in Edward the +Sixth’s reign, during Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before +Christmas. The cloisters and other portions of the +monastery were in the reign of Anne, upon the first establishment +of workhouses for the poor, appropriated to that purpose, the +groined roofings to this day forming the ceilings of pauper +kitchens and outhouses. The sole trace of ecclesiastical +furniture lingering in the nave is a stone altar in one corner, +much more noted as the place of gathering in after-times for the +brethren of the St. George’s Guild than for any religious +associations in the minds of the people. A gallery, now +hidden by the gigantic orchestra built over it, savours also +strongly of the primitive dedication of the building, else it has +retained little more than its architectural beauties of outline +to testify its original consecration. And now to trace its +history, since, wrested from the mendicants, and deprived of its +rights as a cemetery for the wealthy and beneficent <!-- page +319--><a name="page319"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +319</span>dead, it first became the banquet chamber for municipal +feasts, its walls shone gorgeously with tapestry hangings, and +its tables groaned beneath the weight of luscious dainties. +The kitchens and monster chimneys, with their long rows of +spit-hooks and fire-places, that now stand gaping in silent +desolation at the empty larders and boiling-houses in +out-of-the-way corners of the premises, look like giant ghosts of +ancient civic gastronomy, lurking about in dark places, mocking +the shadowy forms of latter-day epicurism, that may be satisfied +with the achievements to be performed by modern +“ranges,” on ever so improved a scale. But the +glories of the St. George’s feast are likewise departed +from it; the corn-merchants, to whom its limits were awhile +devoted, have built unto themselves an exchange; the assizes, +once held in it, have been transferred to the little castellated +encrustation that has grown out of one side of the real castle +mound, and reft of all regular employment, the Hall now stands at +the mercy of the city mayor, by him to be lent to whom he wills, +for any or every purpose his judgment may deem consistent with +propriety; hence the same walls echo one day the eloquent +pleadings of a league advocate, the next to the cries of the +distressed agriculturist; now to the advantages of temperance or +peace societies, and the musical streams of eloquence that an +Elihu Burritt can send forth, or <!-- page 320--><a +name="page320"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 320</span>witness the +fires of enthusiasm a Father Matthew can elicit. Another +week shall see it thronged with eager listeners to the reports of +missionary societies, Church, London, or Baptist; the next with +ready auditors to the claims of the Jews and the heathen calls +for Bibles; interspersed among them shall be lectures on every +branch of art and science, and every fashionable or unfashionable +doctrine under the sun that can find advocates, down to Mormonism +or Bloomerism itself. But prior to all in its claims upon +the services of the magnificent old structure stands +<i>music</i>—why else are its proportions hid by the +unsightly tiers of benches that, empty, make one long for magic +power to waft them all away, but which, once tenanted by their +legitimate occupants, banish every murmur from one’s heart +and mind?</p> +<p>Thanks to the enterprise and spirit of the lovers of harmony, +this is not seldom; concerts for the rich and concerts for the +poor, for the hundreds and the “millions,” have risen +up to meet the calls of humanity for heart-culture by other +inspirations than may be got from alphabets and primers, or +intellectual disquisitions. And, triennially, arrive the +great epochs of the city’s glory, when she asserts her +claims upon the world of music, to be classed high among the +nursing mother of genius, and foster-parents of art. Then +is the hour of triumph for the Black Friars’ solemn and +grand old nave, when <!-- page 321--><a name="page321"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 321</span>its roofs and pillars tremble at the +thunders of the Messiah’s “Hallelujah,” and +resound to the electrifying crash, uttering +“Wonderful;” or when they echo the sweet melodies of +Haydn, Mozart, and Spohr; the refined harmonies of a +Mendellsohn’s “Elijah,” the magic strains of +his “Loreley,” or reflect the wondrous landscape +painting of the mystic Beethoven. Nor was the day a small +one when its orchestra gave utterance to the outpourings of a +genius cradled and nurtured in its bosom, whose work is +acknowledged to be great and good, <i>albeit</i> “a +prophet” is not without honour save in his own +country. And all praise be given as due to the generous +help yielded to the son of the stranger as to the son of the +soil. The world may yet live to be grateful to the city +that in one year brought before it two such conceptions and +creations as “Israel Restored” and +“Jerusalem.” And so would we take our farewell +of the old “Hall,” while our eyes are yet dazzled +with the bright glitter of its thronged benches, galleries, and +aisles, and our ears and hearts vibrating to the mighty +“concert of sweet sounds” and peals of harmony poured +forth from the almost matchless orchestra and benches of +choristers, that lend their powers to complete the glories of the +great “Festival.”</p> +<p>The festival suggests thoughts on music, its history and +progress, and of the minds that have fostered <!-- page 322--><a +name="page322"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 322</span>and +directed its growth in this particular region, so successfully as +to have gained for the “Old City” its present high +position in the musical world.</p> +<p>Music and devotion have gone hand-in-hand from the era of the +earliest singing men and singing women of Israel, and the timbrel +of Miriam; the Jewish temple echoed the lofty strains of +“David’s harp” and the songs of the +“Chief Musician;” from the pagan worship of the +Greeks sprung the Ambrosian chant, and the Christian Church has +been the birthplace and nursery of the grandest conceptions that +have flowed from the pen of inspired genius in every later +age. The <i>antiphonal</i> singing of the earliest choirs, +where a phrase of melody, after being sung by one portion of the +choristers, was echoed by others at certain distances, at a +higher or lower pitch, gave rise to the modern fugue. The +Pope from his throne lent his aid to improve the ecclesiastical +chant, and gave it his name.</p> +<p>The oratorio was the Phœnix that arose from the ashes of +the “mystery,” the masses of Palestrina, Handel, +Haydn, and Mozart, and Hummel were responses to the calls of the +church. The Reformation made no effort to sever music from +the services of religion; Luther was an enthusiastic lover of +harmony, and himself a composer of psalmody. The +annihilations of the works of art, that banished painting <!-- +page 323--><a name="page323"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +323</span>and defaced sculpture, could not blot out music from +the worship of the church. The “Te Deum” and +“Jubilate” outlived the persecution of bishops and +clergy, and the nasal whine of the Puritan conventicle was in +itself a recognition of the true power and place of that noblest +of nature’s gifts and sciences.</p> +<p>The quiet “Friends” nominally banish it from their +form of worship; can any that have heard the flowing melodies +that clothe their exhortations and prayers, say that it is +so? Can any one that ever heard the voice of Elizabeth Fry +doubt that poetry and music are innate gifts, that, once +possessed, no human laws can sever from the utterances of a +devotional spirit? No marvel is it, therefore, that a +Cathedral city at all times is more or less the cradle of musical +genius, or that scarce a record of a great master-spirit of +harmony exists, but the office of “Kapellmeister,” or +“Organist,” is attached to his name.</p> +<p>The Organ, that almost inseparable associate of ecclesiastical +music, seems to have been an instrument of great antiquity; that +one of the Constantines presented one to King Pepin in 757, +appears to be an established fact, and that during the tenth +century the use of the organ became general in Germany, Italy, +and England. In Mason’s “Essay on Church +Music” is a homely translation of some lines written by +Wolstan, a monk of that period, <!-- page 324--><a +name="page324"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 324</span>descriptive +of the instrument then known under that name.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Twelve pair of bellows ranged in stately +row<br /> +Are joined above, and fourteen more below;<br /> +These the full force of seventy men require,<br /> +Who ceaseless toil, and plenteously perspire:<br /> +Each aiding each, till all the winds be prest<br /> +In the close confines of the incumbent chest,<br /> +On which four hundred pipes in order rise,<br /> +To bellow forth the blast that chest supplies.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It is presumed that the seventy men did not continue to blow +throughout the performance on this monster engine, but laid in a +stock of wind, which was gradually expended as the organist +played; the keys were five or six inches broad, and must have +been played upon by blows of the fist; the compass did not then +exceed more than two octaves; half notes were not introduced +until the beginning of the twelfth century, stops, not until the +sixteenth; from which we may infer, that a real genuine organ, +deserving the name, could not have been manufactured many years +prior to the Reformation; but from the date of its first +introduction may be ascribed the first attempts at the invention +of harmony.</p> +<p>It is curious, however, in these days of penny concerts and +music for the million, to look back to that time when the only +probable entertainments of a secular character in which music +bore a part, were <!-- page 325--><a name="page325"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 325</span>such as could be furnished by the +<i>hautboys</i>, sackbuts, and <i>recorders</i> of half-a-dozen +“waytes,” as we find to have been the case in this +city in the sixteenth century, when permission was first granted +these performers to play comedies, interludes, plays and +tragedies. Will Kempe mentions these same <i>waytes</i> +with great praise, and their renown may be inferred from the fact +of their being solicited by Sir Francis Drake “to accompany +him on his intended voyage” in 1589, upon which occasion +the city provided them with new instruments, new cloaks, and a +waggon to convey their chattels. The inventory of musical +instruments in the possession of the city in 1622, forms a rather +striking contrast to a “band” of the nineteenth +century, consisting as it did of only four +“sackbuts,” four “hautboys” (one broken), +two tenor cornets, one tenor “recorder,” two counter +tenor “recorders,” five “chaynes,” and +five “flagges.”</p> +<p>In the seventeenth century, when the country was deluged with +civil war, and overrun with Royalist and Puritan soldiers, music +declined, and we read little concerning it, here or elsewhere, +until that age of strife and commotion had passed away.</p> +<p>In 1709, one of the city “waytes” advertised +himself as teacher of the violin and hautboy, and in 1734 there +appeared another advertisement of a concert to be given, tickets +2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, country dancing to be given gratis after +the concert, doors to be open at <!-- page 326--><a +name="page326"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 326</span>four +o’clock, the performance to commence at six, “<i>by +reason of the country dancing</i>.”</p> +<p>In the course of the sixteenth century, the psalmody of the +Protestant Church was brought nearly to its present state, and +towards the end of that and commencement of the next century, +shone that constellation of English musicians, whose inimitable +madrigals are still the delight of every lover of vocal +harmony. A madrigal differs from a glee, inasmuch as each +of its parts should be sung by several voices; its name +originated in Italy, and was applied to compositions in four, +five, or six vocal parts, adapted to words of a tender character; +neither madrigal nor glee should be accompanied by +instruments.</p> +<p>In the Elizabethan age to sing in parts was an accomplishment +held to be indispensable in a well-educated lady or gentleman; +and at a social meeting, when the madrigal books were laid on the +table, every body was expected to take part in the harmony; any +person declining from inability, was regarded with contempt, as +rude and ill-bred.</p> +<p>The rapid improvement of music in all its branches during the +last century has been promoted mainly by the various societies, +clubs, and other associations that have sprung up in the +metropolis and many large cities, among which Norwich stands +prominently; these have formed a bond of union between +professional musicians and amateurs, mutually advantageous, <!-- +page 327--><a name="page327"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +327</span>by establishing among them a combination of talent and +taste, that tends materially to cultivate the art to which they +are attached. Norwich has produced many great minds, that +have done much towards this work. In the last century the +musical world were astonished by the wonderful precocity of the +two young children, Hook and Crotch; the name of the former as +notorious perhaps as much through the literary fame of his son +Theodore, as for his own musical attainments.</p> +<p>It is said that young Hook was able to play pieces at four +years of age, and at six to perform a concerto at a concert, and +to have composed the music for an opera with thirty-six airs, +before he was eight years old. In the course of his life he +is said to have written two thousand four hundred songs, one +hundred and forty complete works or operas, one oratorio, and +many odes and anthems. He died in 1813, leaving two sons, +Dr. James Hook, the Dean of Worcester, who died 1828, and +Theodore Edward Hook, the author.</p> +<p>William Crotch, whose name has attained a wider celebrity, was +also a native of the city, the son of a carpenter. His +early displays of musical talent exceed in wonder even those of +his fellow-citizen and co-temporary, Hook; and many curious +anecdotes are related of its manifestation during his +infancy. His father seems to have been a self-taught +musician, <!-- page 328--><a name="page328"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 328</span>who without any scientific knowledge +had built himself an organ, upon which he had learned to play a +few common tunes, such as “God save the King,” and +“Let Ambition fire the mind.” About Christmas +1776, his child William, then only a year and a half old, was +observed frequently to leave his food or play, to listen to his +father, and would even then touch the key note of the tunes he +wished to be played. Not long afterwards, a musical lady +came to try the organ, and after her visit he seems to have made +his first attempt to play a tune—her playing excited him to +a painful degree, his mother describing him as so peevish that +she could “do nothing with him.” Music had +charms, however, to soothe his baby breast, and he consoled +himself by picking out the air of “God save the +King,” which in addition to being his father’s most +frequent performance, had been also frequently sung as a lullaby +by his maternal nurse. At this time he was <i>two years and +three weeks old</i>, truly an infant prodigy! The report of +his precocity gained little credence, until accident confirmed +what had previously been deemed the exaggerations of parental +fondness.</p> +<p>His father’s employer, passing the house at a time when +the elder Crotch was absent from work on the plea of +indisposition, heard the organ, and fancied that his workman was +idle instead of ill; to convince himself, he went in, and found +little Master William <!-- page 329--><a name="page329"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 329</span>performing, and his brother blowing +the bellows. The marvel spread, and attracted such crowds +of auditors, that from that time the hours of his performance +were obliged to be limited. As he grew older his musical +attainments rapidly increased, while at the same time he +discovered symptoms of a genius for drawing, almost equal to that +which he had already displayed for music.</p> +<p>When he was twelve years old he did the duty of organist at +several chapels in Cambridge, whence he removed to Oxford, with a +view to entering the church; but he afterwards resumed the +musical profession, and was appointed organist of Christ Church, +in 1790. In 1797, he became professor of music in that +university; and in 1799, obtained the degree of doctor of +music. On the establishment of the Royal Academy, in 1823, +he was nominated Principal of that institution, but retired from +the office before his death. Dr. Crotch’s great work +is the oratorio of “Palestine,” the poetry of which +is the prize poem of Bishop Heber. He was also the author +of several anthems, and other pieces of sacred music.</p> +<p>His death occurred suddenly, at the dinner-table, on the 29th +of September, 1847, in the seventy-third year of his age, at the +residence of his son, the Rev. W. R. Crotch, Master of the +Grammar School at Taunton, where he had spent the later years of +his life.</p> +<p>There are two points worthy of notice connected <!-- page +330--><a name="page330"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +330</span>with the name and works of this great man. The +country has raised no monument in any of its cathedrals or +churches to his memory, and his greatest work, +“Palestine,” is an oratorio almost entirely +neglected. May it not be possible for the “Old +City” that gave him birth to set an example to the rest of +the musical world, by attention to these facts?</p> +<p>Most of the leading minds whose zeal and energy directed the +earlier movements of the various musical societies in this +district, are yet among the living, and the natural dictates of +refinement cause us to shrink from any attempts at their +biographies; it is, therefore, with the deference due to real +genius, which needs no praise, that we pass in silence over the +names of the most earnest promoters of the growth and cultivation +of music, especially as developed in the workings of the Festival +Committee, and its important adjunct, the Choral Society. +The names and fame of Sir George Smart and Mr. Edward Taylor, +professor of music at Gresham College, are already too much the +property of the world at large to be reckoned among those whose +privacy might be invaded by comment in these pages; but there are +many more, who with them, may from the centre of that magnificent +hall, and the midst of the greatest triumphs of music that have +ever been achieved by its almost unrivalled choruses and +orchestra, feel that “for their monument we must look +around.”</p> +<p><!-- page 331--><a name="page331"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +331</span>And now it might seem but just and right that among the +lions of the “Old City” we should find a place for +the manifold ecclesiastical structures still surviving the +downfall of “superstition,” and retaining their +legitimate right, as houses of worship. To do justice to +the antiquities or beauties that abound among them is a task +beyond our powers, or the limit of such a work as this; their +traceries, their curiously cut flint work, old carvings, rood +lofts, chambers of sanctuary within, and heaped-up grave-yards +without, verily burying the pathways of the streets, they line in +such close succession—their monuments and epitaphs, quaint, +grim, chaste, and uncouth; their steeples, spires, and towers, +round, square, buttressed and bare—their bells musical and +grand, cracked and jangling—their roofs slated, tiled, +leaded, patched, perfect, or crumbling—their names and +saintships a labyrinth of mystery in themselves—would it +not fill a volume alone to chronicle even their leading features, +to say nought of the changes they have undergone, the barter +among goods and chattels, the chopping and changing, and +massacres in the painted glass departments,—part of an +Abraham and his ass left in a St. Andrews, the other portions +transported to the windows of St. Stephens; of the ghostly +outlines left of old brasses torn up and melted down by Puritan +soldiers and coppersmiths—or the legends that hang about +their shrines and mutilated images? We dare <!-- page +332--><a name="page332"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +332</span>not venture upon the well-beaten track of +archæologians, topographers, and tourists; our glance must +be cursory and superficial, content to ascertain by its sweeping +survey that treasures of knowledge and stores of information +await the patient and diligent investigations of more learned and +scientific enquirers.</p> +<p>A visit to St. Stephens rewards the archæologist by a +sight of a few old stalls and a font of early date, while the +historian associates with it the memory of the celebrated Parker, +second Archbishop of Canterbury, who was a native of Norwich, and +some say of this parish, but at any rate was singing pupil of the +priest and clerk of this church. Parker’s life +occupies an important position in history. The son of +“a calenderer of stuffs,” in this city, he was at a +very early age left fatherless, and dependent upon a +mother’s guidance and direction for his education. +Her superintending care provided him with a variety of masters +for the several branches of learning—reading, writing, +singing, and grammar—each being acquired under a separate +teacher. He afterwards entered Corpus Christi College, +Cambridge, whence he was invited to the magnificent foundation of +Cardinal Wolsey’s (now Christ Church) College, Oxford, but +preferring to remain at Cambridge, he declined. In 1553, he +was made chaplain to Queen Anne Boleyn, and received from her a +special commission to superintend the education of her daughter +Elizabeth. <!-- page 333--><a name="page333"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 333</span>He was made chaplain to King Henry +VIII., after the death of Anne Boleyn, and continued the same +office in his successor’s reign; added to which, he was +Rector of Stoke in Essex, Prebend of Ely Cathedral, and +successively Rector of Ashen in Essex, and Birlingham All Saints, +in Norfolk. He was chosen Master of Corpus Christi College +in 1544, and Vice-Chancellor of the University. Happening +to be in Norfolk during the celebrated “Kett’s +rebellion,” he had the courage to go to the rebels’ +camp and preach to them out of the oak of Reformation, exhorting +them to moderation, temperance, and submission, which expedition, +as we have seen elsewhere, had well nigh terminated fatally.</p> +<p>In 1550–1, he was put in the commission for correcting +and punishing the new sect of Anabaptists, then sprung up. +In Mary’s reign he was deprived of most of his dignities, +upon the plea of his being married, and retired into Norfolk +amongst his friends; but upon the succession of his old pupil, +Elizabeth, he was exalted to the dignity of Archbishop of +Canterbury. Her Majesty made several visits to his house at +Canterbury. His efforts to suppress the vague prophecies +that were continually being set up in the various dioceses, and +exciting the minds of the people, made him many enemies among the +Puritans, but he still enjoyed the favour of the Queen. He +died in 1576, leaving, amongst numerous <!-- page 334--><a +name="page334"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 334</span>charitable +bequests, a legacy to be applied to keeping his parents’ +monument, in St. Clement’s church-yard, in repair.</p> +<p>St. Peter’s Mancroft, the brightest star in the +constellation of churches that illumine the “Old +City,” has beauties and curiosities of almost every variety +and character to offer for investigation; but perhaps none so +loudly appeal to the senses of the citizens at large as the +eloquent “changes” rung upon its magnificent set of +bells, whenever occasion offers for a display of the fulness and +richness of their tone; and, possibly, their melody is never more +appreciated than when it comes forth in the softened echo of the +beautiful muffled peal.</p> +<p>Touching the presence of bells in the church, we have noticed +elsewhere that they were introduced among the incrustations of +Pagan worship that grew up around the early Christian forms, and +owed their origin to the superstition that the sound of metal +preserved the soul from the danger of evil spirits; but there are +other curious facts connected with their history. The Roman +Catholic baptised the bell, using holy water, incense and prayers +in the ceremony and according to the missal of Salisbury, there +were godfathers and godmothers, who gave them names.</p> +<p>A strange allegorical signification of bells after their +baptism was written by Durandus, the great <!-- page 335--><a +name="page335"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 335</span>Catholic +authority, for the mysterious services of the church. +“The bell,” he says, “denotes the +preacher’s mouth, the hardness of the metal implies the +fortitude of his mind; the clapper striking both sides, his +tongue publishing both testaments, and that the preacher should +on one side correct the vice in himself, and on the other reprove +it in his hearers; the band that ties the clapper denotes the +moderation of the tongue; the wood on which the bell hangs +signifies the wood of the cross; the iron that ties it to the +wood denotes the charity of the preacher; the bell-rope denotes +the humility of the preacher’s life,” &c. +&c. The description goes on yet further into detail; +but the analogies between the subjects and their allegorical +representations are so undiscernible, as to make it a somewhat +tedious task to follow it throughout.</p> +<p>But St. Peter’s has manifold attractions beyond its +bells. It has brasses and effigies, and monuments of every +variety, commemorating the pious deeds of clergy and laity, +warriors and comedians. Its vestry has pictures and +tapestry and quaint alabaster carvings; little chapels jutting +out from the nave like transepts, perpetuate the memory of old +benefactors; and beneath its pavement lie the remains of the +great philosopher Sir Thomas Browne, whose words of rebuke to the +sepulchral ambition of the nameless tenants of monuments that +make no record of those <!-- page 336--><a +name="page336"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 336</span>that lie +beneath, involuntarily arise to the mind while contemplating the +spot chosen for his last resting place. “Had they +made so good a provision for their names as they have done for +their relics, they had not so grossly erred in the act of +perpetuation; but to subsist in bones, to be but pyramidically +extant, is a fallacy of duration.” And again, +“to live indeed is to be again ourselves, which being not +only our hope, but an evidence in noble believers; ’tis all +one to lie in St. Innocent’s church-yard or the sands of +Egypt. Ready to be anything in the ecstacy of being ever, +as content with six foot as the moles of Adrianus.”</p> +<p>Happy philosophy, that could permit him calmly to contemplate +the vicissitudes to which his bones might be subjected, even to +the legitimate possibility of the sanctuary chosen for their +resting-place being actually invaded by the blows of the +workmen’s pickaxe, as veritably did occur some few years +since, when the curious of the present generation were thus +accidentally afforded an opportunity of cultivating a personal +acquaintance with the anatomical outlines and phrenological +developments of one whose intellectual offspring had been +canonized, and enshrined among the household gods of the learned +and the great for more than a century.</p> +<p>The very slight sketches of eminent characters that are +suitable for so light and general a book as <!-- page 337--><a +name="page337"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 337</span>this, may +perhaps be legitimately introduced in the course of a tour among +the churches, their <i>parochial headships</i> affording the best +facilities for arrangement; but it seems almost sacrilege to hash +up into abridgements or synopses, biographies so fraught with +national and European interest, as are many of those whose +birth-place has been the Old City of Norwich, yet more is +impossible within the compass of the <i>Rambler’s</i> pen; +and to adopt the alternative of omitting all mention of such +names, would be to blot out some of the brightest pages from the +annals of its history.</p> +<p>Among them, and perhaps the highest upon the pinnacle of fame, +is that of Sir James Edward Smith, the Linnæus of our +country, the concentration of whose “life and +Correspondence” into two bulky volumes, evinces wondrous +powers of discriminating selection, and condensation, in the +biographer who has undertaken the important and onerous +task. What, then, can be effected in the hasty notices of a +mere rambler’s gleanings? Little more, if so much, as +a bare outline of the leading features in the life of this +brilliant ornament of our city and country, but enough, we trust, +to lead any who have not already acquired a more intimate +knowledge of his personal history, to feel earnest to repair the +omission. He was a native of the parish of St. +Peter’s Mancroft; and of his education, it is worthy <!-- +page 338--><a name="page338"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +338</span>of note, that he never left the parental roof to enter +either a public or private boarding-school: he is one of the many +favourable testimonies to the advantages of a strictly domestic +education, conducted by aid of the most efficient masters, under +the immediate superintendence of parental care. About the +age of eighteen, he devoted himself to the study of botany as a +science, and says himself, “the only book he could then +procure was ‘Berkenhout,’ Hudson’s +‘Flora’ having become extremely scarce.” +He received “Berkenhout” on the 9th of January, 1778, +and on the 11th began to examine the <i>Ule curopæus</i> +(common furze), and then first comprehended the nature of +systematic arrangement, little aware that, at <i>that +instant</i>, the world was losing the great genius who was to be +to him so important a future guide, and whose vacant place in the +world of science he was destined so ably to fill. +Linnæus died that night, January 11th, 1778.</p> +<p>In 1780 Mr. Smith went to Edinburgh, and from thence to +London, with a view to study for the medical profession. +During his stay there, he became intimate with Sir Joseph Banks, +an eminent patron of natural science, through whom he heard that +the library and museum of Linnæus were for sale, and +immediately he entered into negotiations with Dr. Acrel, of +Upsal, concerning it, which ended in his becoming the purchaser +of the whole collection at <!-- page 339--><a +name="page339"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 339</span>the price +of nine hundred guineas. From London he went to Leyden, and +graduated as a physician at the university there. From +thence he proceeded on a tour, visiting most of the classical +spots and celebrated places in Italy and France, and upon his +return to London devoted himself almost exclusively to pursuits +connected with his favourite science, botany. By the +assistance of his personal friend, the Bishop of Carlisle, one +among the many great minds with whom he held constant communion, +he set about establishing the Linnæan Society. Its +first meeting was held in April, 1788, when an introductory +address, “On the Rise and Progress of Natural +History,” was read by Sir James, then Dr. Smith, which +paper formed the first article in the “Transactions of the +Linnæan Society,” a work which has since extended +itself to twenty quarto volumes. In 1792 Dr. Smith was +invited to give instructions in botany to the queen and +princesses at Frogmore; and in 1814, received the honour of +knighthood from the Prince Regent.</p> +<p>Ill health caused Sir James to return to his native county to +recruit his strength, and there he continued to pursue his +literary avocations in comparative privacy. His +“English Botany” is a work consisting of thirty-six +octavo volumes, and contains 2592 figures of British +plants. It is a curious and melancholy coincidence, that +the fourth volume of <!-- page 340--><a name="page340"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 340</span>his “English Flora” +reached him on the very last day he ever entered his library; and +he thus had the gratification of seeing the completion of a work +which, in his own estimation, was calculated, beyond all the +other labours of his pen, to establish his reputation as a +botanist, and confirm his erudition as an author.</p> +<p>St. Giles, the next in order of the saintships, in addition to +its architectural beauties, with which we pretend not to +“meddle,” presents a few legendary claims to our +notice. The effigy of St. Christopher, of a monstrous size, +with his staff sprouting by his side, was originally painted over +the north door, as the patron saint of children presented for +baptism, who generally were brought in at that door. In +most churches where a north door existed, this image or painting +of St. Christopher was wont to appear, depicted on as large a +scale as the wall would permit, in conformity with the legend +that he was a saint of noble and large stature. In the +aisle once stood a chapel, altar, and image of St. Catherine, +with a light burning before it, and against one of the pillars +stood a famous rood, called the Brown Rood.</p> +<p>St. Benedict, the patron of monks, has his monument in the +form of a little ancient church with a little tower, round at the +bottom and octagonal at the top, where three little jingling +bells give notice of the hours of prayer.</p> +<p>St. Swithin, that famous prophet of wet weather, <!-- page +341--><a name="page341"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +341</span>has his memorial, too, not far distant. More have +heard the old adage, “If it rain on St. Swithin’s +day, there will be rain more or less for forty succeeding +days,” than may have cared to trace its origin, which seems +involved in some mystery. One authority tells us that St. +Swithin was Bishop of Winchester, to which rank he was raised by +Ethelwulf, the Dane; and when he died in 865, he was canonized by +the pope. He had expressed a desire to be buried in the +open church-yard, and not, as was usual with bishops, within the +walls of the church: his request was complied with; but upon his +being canonized, the monks took it into their heads that it was +disgraceful for a saint to lie in the open church-yard, and +resolved to remove his body into the choir, which was to be done +in solemn procession on the 15th of July. It rained, +however, so violently on that day, and for forty days succeeding, +as “had hardly ever been seen,” which made them set +aside their design as heretical and blasphemous; and instead, +they erected a chapel over his grave, at which many miracles are +said to have been wrought.</p> +<p>Another writer tells us that “St. Swithin, a holy bishop +of Winchester, about the year 860, was called the weeping St. +Swithin, for that, about his feast, Præsepe and Aselli, +rainy constellations, arise <i>cosmically</i>, and commonly cause +rain.” The legend attached <!-- page 342--><a +name="page342"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 342</span>to its name +is perhaps almost the only particular attraction of this little +church.</p> +<p>The church of the holy St. Lawrence stands upon the spot of +ground that in ancient days, when Norwich was a fishing town, was +the quay or landing-place for all the herrings brought hither, +the tithe of which was so considerable when it belonged to the +bishops of the East Angles, that when Alfric, the bishop, granted +the key staithe, with the adjoining mansion, to Bury Abbey, about +1038, the abbey, upon building the church, had a last of herrings +reserved to it, to be paid them yearly. This last of +herrings was compounded for by the celerer of the convent, about +the time of Henry the Third, for a pension of forty shillings, +which was annually paid until the time of Henry the Seventh, and +then done away with, on account of the meanness of its +profits.</p> +<p>On the sides of the arch of the door in the west are two +carvings, one representing the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, the +other that of St. Edmund, who is seen in a rather mutilated +condition, (in more senses than one) his head lying at some +distance in a parcel of bushes, while the Danes are shooting +arrows into his body, alluding to that portion of the legend +which says that when they could not kill him with arrows, Hunguar +the Danish leader ordered them to smite off his head, and carry +and throw it among the <!-- page 343--><a +name="page343"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 343</span>thickest +thorns of the adjacent wood, which they did; but a wolf finding +it, instead of devouring it, kept it from all beasts and birds of +prey, till it was found by the Christians and buried with his +body, and that in a surprising manner.</p> +<p>In the fifteenth century, three “Sisters of +Charity,” called the Sisters of St. Lawrence, dwelt in a +tenement by the churchyard. In 1593, the copes were turned +into pall cloths, and in 1643 the painted glass of the windows +was smashed, and other considerable damage done to the ornamental +fittings up of the building.</p> +<p>Near to the church is the well of St. Lawrence, the water of +which is now conveyed to a pump; bearing this inscription upon +it:—</p> +<blockquote><p>This water here caught<br /> +In sort, as you see,<br /> +From a spring is brought<br /> +Three score foot and three.</p> +<p>Gybson hath it sought<br /> +From St. Lawrence’s well,<br /> +And his charge this wrought<br /> +Who <i>now</i> here doth dwell.</p> +<p>Thy ease was his cost, not small—<br /> +Vouchsafed well of those<br /> +Which thankful be, his work to see,<br /> +And thereto be no foes.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>From St. Lawrence’s belfry, the curfew is rung at eight +each evening.</p> +<p><!-- page 344--><a name="page344"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +344</span>St. Gregory’s contains an altar tomb, with a long +Latin inscription to the memory of Sir Francis Bacon, a judge in +the court of King’s bench, in the time of Charles II.</p> +<p>On the communion table is an inscription to Francis Watson, a +pedlar, who painted and marbled all the pillars of the altar, +adorned it, and railed the front.</p> +<p>St. John’s <i>Madder Market</i> owes its distinctive +name to the market formerly held on its north side, for the sale +of <i>madder</i>, an article used in dying. Margaret, +Duchess of Norfolk, the widow of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, beheaded +by the command of Queen Elizabeth, lies buried in the choir of +the church.</p> +<p>St. Andrews, the second church in point of architectural +beauty, stands upon the site of one founded prior to the +Conquest. Its eastern window bears traces of sad havoc +having gone on in the midst of the scriptural scenes it was +intended to depict.</p> +<p>At the east end of the two aisles are doors entering from the +porches, and over them verses.</p> +<p>Over the south aisle door—</p> +<blockquote><p>This church was builded of Timber, Stone and +Bricks,<br /> +In the year of our Lord XV hundred and six,<br /> +And lately translated from extreme Idolatry<br /> +A thousand five hundred and seven and forty.<br /> +And in the first year of our noble King Edward<br /> +The Gospel in parliament was mightily set forward.<br /> + Thanks be to God. Anno Dom. 1547, +December.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 345--><a name="page345"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +345</span>Over the north aisle door—</p> +<blockquote><p>As the good king Josiah, being tender of age,<br +/> +Purged the realm from all idolatry,<br /> +Even so our noble Queen, and counsel sage,<br /> +Set up the Gospel and banished Popery.<br /> +At twenty-four years she began her reign,<br /> +And about forty four did it maintain.<br /> + Glory be given to God.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There were formerly brass effigies of John Gilbert and his +wife, with <i>seventeen</i> of their children.</p> +<p>St. Peter’s Hungate, or Hounds’ Gate, owes its +name to the fact of the hounds belonging to the bishop being +formerly kept close by. The old church was demolished in +1458, and the new one, commenced the same year, was finished in +1460, as appears by the date in a stone on the buttress of the +north door, where there is an old trunk of an oak, represented +without any leaves, to signify the decayed church; and from the +root springs a fresh branch with acorns on it, to denote the new +one raised where the old one stood.</p> +<p>St. Michael at Plea takes its name from the Archdeacon of +Norwich holding his pleas or courts in the parish; it has some +curious panel paintings of the Crucifixion, Resurrection, the +Lady of Pity, Judas, John and the Virgin, St. Margaret and the +Dragon, St. Benedict and St. Austin.</p> +<p>In the church of St. Simon and St. Jude, is a <!-- page +346--><a name="page346"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +346</span>curious monument of a knight in armour, with a number +of other figures grouped around the altar on which he lies. +In this parish is the bridge where the “cucking +stool” was wont to be kept, an instrument of punishment for +“scolding and unquiet women,” of as ancient origin as +the time of the Anglo Saxons; the offender was seated in a kind +of chair, fixed at the end of a plank, and then <i>ducked</i> in +the water; a cheating brewer or baker subjected himself to a +similar degradation.</p> +<p>St. George’s Tombland, so called from the burial ground +upon which it stood, has also some curious monuments; near it is +a house, commonly called Sampson and Hercules Court, from two +figures that formerly supported the portico, but which now stand +in the court. The house was formerly owned by Sir John +Fastolf, afterwards by the Countess of Lincoln, and in the time +of Henry VII., by the Duchess of Suffolk.</p> +<p>“St. Martin’s at the Plain” stands close by +the scene of the memorable battle between the rebels under Kett, +where Lord Sheffield fell, and many other gentlemen and soldiers: +the conflict lasted from nine o’clock on Lammas morning +until noon. The World’s End lane leads hence to the +dwelling of Sir Thomas Erpingham, long since transformed from a +sumptuous mansion into the abode of poverty, its chambers +subdivided and parcelled out, defaced and <!-- page 347--><a +name="page347"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 347</span>disguised +by whitewash and plaster, and yet more by the accumulations of +dirt and decay; until it needs the microscopic vision of an +archæologist to trace even its outline, among such a mass +of confusion and rubbish.</p> +<p>“St. Helen’s,” which belonged to the monks, +is now cut up into three parts, the choir being turned into +lodgings for poor women, part of the nave and aisles into the +same for poor men, while the intermediate portion is used for +divine services. A charity that owns an annual income of +£10,000, might, we think, find some better arrangements +possible to be made. Kirkpatrick, the celebrated +antiquarian, lies buried here. Over the south entrance to +the church are these lines—</p> + +<blockquote><p> The +house of God<br /> +King Henry the Eight of noble Fame<br /> +Bequeathed the City this commodious place,<br /> +With lands and rents he did endow the same,<br /> +To help decrepit age in woful case,<br /> +Edward the Sixth, that prince of royal stem,<br /> +Performed his father’s generous bequest.<br /> +Good Queen <i>Eliza</i>, imitating them,<br /> +Ample endowments added to the rest;<br /> +Their pious deeds we gratefully record,<br /> +While Heaven them crowns with glorious reward.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>St. Giles’ Hospital, to which the church of St. Helen +has been united by the appropriation of its nave and chancel, is +a relic of great antiquity—a <!-- page 348--><a +name="page348"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 348</span>memorial of +the liberality of Bishop Suffield, who in 1249 founded it, +appointing four chaplains to celebrate service there for his +soul, and all poor and decrepit chaplains in the diocese, +endowing it with means to support the same number perpetually, +and to lodge thirteen poor people with one meal a day. +There were also appointed afterwards four sisters, above fifty +years of age, to take care of the clothing, &c. &c. +The master and chaplains were to eat, drink and sleep, in one +room, and daily, after grace at dinner before any one drank, the +bell was to ring and the chaplains to go into the choir and sing +<i>Miserere mei Deus</i>. There was also an <i>Archa +Domini</i>, or Lords’ Box, from which the poor that passed +by, were daily to be relieved as far as the funds +permitted. From Lady day to the Assumption, at a certain +hour the bell was to ring and a quantity of bread, “enough +to repel hunger,” to be given to the poor then present; and +“because the house should be properly ‘Domus +Dei,’ or the house of God, and of the Bishops of +Norwich,” it was ordained that “as often as any +bishop of the see should pass by, he should go in and give his +blessing to the sick.” Edward VI. dissolved the +Hospital and gave it to the city as a house for the poor. A +school was also established, which was afterwards transferred to +the Free School. The cloisters of the old hospital still +remain almost entire, and serve as walks for the pensioners.</p> +<p><!-- page 349--><a name="page349"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +349</span>St. Edmund, St. James, St. Paul, St. Margaret, all the +Saints, <i>St. Saviour</i>, St. Clements the Martyr, <i>St. Peter +Southgate</i>, and per <i>Mountergate</i>, St. Julian, St. +Michael at Plea, at <i>Thorn</i>, and <i>Coslany</i>, St. +Ethelred, St. John’s Sepulchre, and St. John’s +Timberhill, St. George, and St. Augustine, fill up the register +of ecclesiastical edifices; each possesses some particular claim +to notice, down to the legend of the Lady in the Oak, that gave a +distinctive title to the church of St. Martin at Oak, where her +image once figured in an oak tree in the churchyard, and wrought +wondrous miracles, which caused so much adoration to be paid to +the graven image, that the purgers of idolatry in good young King +Edward’s reign, found it needful to displace it from its +high position, and cut down the tree in which it stood.</p> +<p>Among the biographies associated with the various districts +over which these patron saints may be said to hold their reign, +are those of the eminent divine, Dr. Samuel Clarke, of the +seventeenth century; Kay, or Caius, the founder of Caius College, +Cambridge; Professors Hooker and Lindley, the great botanists; +William Taylor, Sayer, Sedgwick, Gurney, Opie, and Borrow, among +the literary celebrities of the age; Professor Taylor and Dr. +Bexfield, names known well in the musical world, and many others, +whose lives and works entitle them to be ranked among the leading +characters <!-- page 350--><a name="page350"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 350</span>of their time; while in the medical +profession, the names and fame of Martineau and Crosse have +become European. Few of these can we pause to +sketch—many of them are among the number of those whose +work is not yet done; and of others it may be said that their +memory is too fresh in the hearts of those bound to them by +chords of affection and friendship, for a “stranger to +intermeddle” therewith.</p> +<p>William Taylor was the friend and correspondent of +Southey. It is said, in his “Life,” that he +once jocosely remarked, “If ever I write my own life, I +shall commence it in the following grandiloquent manner; +‘Like Plato, like Sir Isaac Newton, like Frederick Leopold, +Count Stolberg, I was born on the 7th of November, and, like Mrs. +Opie and Sir James Edward Smith, I was baptized by the Rev. +Samuel Bourn, then the Presbyterian minister of the Octagon +chapel.’” His attainments as a German scholar +were notorious, and his metaphysical writings earned for him a +widely-extended fame. His translations of German +theological works, may be regarded as the first introduction of +that school of literature, that is at this moment deluging our +country with the copious streams of philosophy, whose deep and +subtle waters, whether invigorating or noxious, are spreading +themselves through every channel of society in our land.</p> +<p><!-- page 351--><a name="page351"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +351</span>William Jackson Hooker, the son of a manufacturer of +Norwich, rose to the rank of Regius Professor of Botany, in the +University of Glasgow. In early life he was spoken of by +Sir James Smith as the first cryptogamic botanist of the time, +and his after-works proved the accuracy of the opinion. His +“Muscologia Brittannica,” and “Monograph on the +Genus Jungermannia,” are unrivalled as guides to the +scientific enquirer, and, with his other works, may be classed +among the gems of English literature. In the course of his +rambles in the neighbourhood of his native city, he discovered, +in a fir-wood near Sprowston, that quaint, curious, one-sided +looking little moss, called <i>Buxbaumia aphylla</i>, which, +destitute of any visible foliage, rears its little club-like +seed-vessels upon its foot-stalks in the most eccentric possible +manner. The muscologist may search long and often ere a +specimen may meet his eye, even within the precincts of the grove +where Dr. Hooker first discovered it; but many another rare and +beautiful contribution to a moss herbarium shall reward him for +his pains, especially the elegant <i>Bartramia</i>, with its +exquisitely soft velvet foliage, and globular seed-vessels, to be +met with in such rich abundance in few other soils.</p> +<p>Lindley, the Professor of Botany in the London University, is +another genius raised from the nursery grounds of the Old City; +his father having followed <!-- page 352--><a +name="page352"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 352</span>the +profession of horticulture at Catton, one of the suburbs of +Norwich.</p> +<p>One more biographical notice must close our list, and with it +we make an end of our chronicles and “Rambles in an Old +City.”</p> +<p>To those who were among the privileged number of friends, +acquaintances, or even fellow-citizens of Joseph John Gurney, it +will be easy to imagine why so beautiful a subject has been +chosen for the closing sketch of our “pencillings by the +way;” and the world at large will see in the name of the +great philanthropist, whose memory sheds a sacred halo over every +spot familiar with the deeds of gentle loving-kindness, tender +mercy, and active benevolence, that marked his earthly +career—a meet theme from which to borrow a ray of glory to +brighten the scene of our “Ramblings,” as the +landscape borrows a golden tint from the lingering beams of the +sun that has set beneath the horizon.</p> +<p>As the brother of Elizabeth Fry, her fellow-worker in the +field of usefulness, and her companion in her memorable visits to +the prisons of England, Ireland, Scotland, and the Continent, his +history could not have failed to possess a deep interest, even +apart from the individual characteristics of his bright and +beautiful home-life, and the lustre shed upon his name by its +familiar association with those of Clarkson, Wilberforce, and +Buxton, in the cause of slave emancipation.</p> +<p><!-- page 353--><a name="page353"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +353</span>The third son of John and Catherine Gurney, and sister +of Priscilla Wakefield, he was born at Earlham Hall, August 2d, +1788. It is a singular fact connected with the name, that +one of his ancestors, in 1653, was sent a prisoner to the Norwich +gaol, for refusing to take the oath, and that Waller Bacon, of +Earlham, who committed him, resided at the time in the very Hall +which the descendants of the prisoner afterwards occupied. +When Joseph was only four years of age, the family of eleven +children lost the superintending care of their mother, and his +home education mainly devolved upon his three elder sisters, +among whom was Mrs. Fry. Their home was the scene of rich +hospitality, dealt out by their liberal-minded father; and the +literary tastes, intellectual pursuits, and elegant +accomplishments, in which every member of the social group +delighted, drew around them a brilliant circle of the choicest +society, to which the late Duke of Gloucester was a frequent and +welcome addition.</p> +<p>The scholastic instruction of Joseph John was at first +superintended by a clergyman, and afterwards matured at Oxford, +where he attended the professor’s lectures, and enjoyed +many of the advantages of the university, without becoming a +member or subscribing to the thirty-nine articles.</p> +<p>Such an education naturally tended to create some doubts as to +the system of Quakerism; but after much <!-- page 354--><a +name="page354"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 354</span>examination +and consideration, his preference became settled in favour of the +views and profession of his old “Friends;” and +consistently with them he lived and died, by no means finding in +them any barrier to the fullest and freest association with any +other body of Christians, or to a personal friendship with the +ecclesiastical bishops of the diocese, with one of whom, Bishop +Bathurst, he was a frequent and esteemed guest; while to Bishop +Stanley was left the melancholy opportunity of bearing a +testimony to his public and private character, in the memorable +form of a funeral sermon from the cathedral pulpit, a tribute of +respect unexampled since the days of George Fox. His life +spent in doing good, in preaching as the minister of the society +to which he belonged, in England, Ireland, upon the Continent, +and in America, was full of interest. In the legislative +hall, at Washington, before the assembled members of Congress, +his voice was heard. Louis Philippe, Guizot, and De Stael, +were among his auditors in France; the King of Holland abandoned, +through his counsel, the importation of slave soldiers from the +Gold Coast; Vinet at Lausanne, D’Aubigne in Geneva, and the +King of Wirtemberg, held council with him. To attempt to +chronicle his deeds of pecuniary munificence, public and private, +would be an herculean task. The great sums lavished upon +public societies, the world of necessity was made acquainted <!-- +page 355--><a name="page355"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +355</span>with, but they formed but a moiety of the aids +furnished from his abundance to the wants of the needy. He +was truly one whose left hand was not suffered to know the deeds +of its fellow. The sick and the poor, at home and abroad, +the industrious and the struggling, the aged and the +young—each and all shared his bounty and loving help, for +he was one who <i>gave</i>, and did not <i>fling</i> his +charities down from the proud heights of opulence, so that +poverty might blush to pick them up. But the record of his +life was inscribed upon the page of history in characters +indelible by the tears that watered his pathway to the +tomb. We have made a faint effort to paint the last solemn +scene that marked the close of the lamented Bishop +Stanley’s career, and were almost tempted to place side by +side with it the shade of grief that hung over the city when the +great “<i>Friend</i>” was suddenly called home from +his labours of usefulness and love upon earth. Few will +ever be able to forget the scene of mourning and sorrow that +followed the unlooked-for event, or the almost unparalleled +silence of woe that was written upon every heart and countenance +among the thronging thousands that attended to pay the last +tributes of respect at the grave of the beloved and honoured +philanthropist; when Magistrates and Artizans, Clergymen and +Dissenting Ministers, Churchmen, Independents, Baptists, +Methodists, and Friends, representatives of every grade of +society and shade of religious opinion <!-- page 356--><a +name="page356"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 356</span>that the +Old City could send forth, gathered around that lowly spot of +earth to drop a tear, and seek inspiration from the spirit of +love that seemed to breathe around the silent tomb. And who +will forget the thrilling prayer offered up from the lips of the +widowed mourner, who fulfilled, in the midst of that +heart-stricken multitude, her measure of obedience to the will of +Heaven and the duty of self-government, by public prayer and +thanksgiving. Who does not rank among the noblest of the +many noble sermons of the good Bishop Stanley, the far-sounding +appeal that was sent forth from the pulpit of his cathedral, +“Watchman, what of the night?”—the +commemorating words that have been inseparably linked with the +name and memory of Joseph John Gurney from that hour.</p> +<p>Years have passed since these events occurred, but the +remembrance of them is vivid; the rich legacy bequeathed to the +Old City by the holy life, walk, and conversation of such a man +is not soon expended; but treasured in the sanctuary of many +loving hearts, it is nurtured, and brings forth fruit, fifty, +seventy, and a hundred-fold, to the honour and glory of God, and +to immortalize the memory of a faithful servant in the vineyard +of souls.</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">THE END.</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">j. +billing</span>, <span class="smcap">printer</span>, <span +class="smcap">woking</span>, <span +class="smcap">surrey</span>.</p> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> +<p><a name="footnote0"></a><a href="#citation0" +class="footnote">[0]</a> These corrections have been +applied in this Project Gutenberg eText.—DP.</p> +<p><a name="footnote5"></a><a href="#citation5" +class="footnote">[5]</a> Erasmus Earle, a celebrated +lawyer.</p> +<p><a name="footnote223"></a><a href="#citation223" +class="footnote">[223]</a> A place of judgment.</p> +<h1><!-- page 359--><a name="page359"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 359</span>NEW WORKS<br /> +<span class="smcap">published by</span><br /> +MR. NEWBY,<br /> +30, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE.</h1> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">In One Vol. 5s. Second +Edition.<br /> +THE ROCK OF ROME.<br /> +<span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +AUTHOR OF “VIRGINIUS,” &c.</p> +<p>“Mr. Knowles appears to be only a believer in his Bible, +as he comes forward in this work with an earnestness which all +true-hearted men will +appreciate.”—<i>Examiner</i>.</p> +<p>“It is a vivid and eloquent exposure of the lofty +pretensions of the Church of Rome.”—<i>Morning +Herald</i>.</p> +<p>“It should be in the libraries of all +Protestants.”—<i>Morning Post</i>.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">In Two Vols. £1 1s. cloth.<br +/> +THE LIFE OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.<br /> +<span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +Captain Medwin,<br /> +AUTHOR OF “CONVERSATIONS WITH LORD BYRON.”</p> +<p>“This book must be read by every one interested in +literature.”—<i>Morning Post</i>.</p> +<p>“A complete life of Shelley was a desideratum in +literature, and there was no man so competent as Captain Medwin +to supply it.”—<i>Inquirer</i>.</p> +<p>“This book is sure of exciting much +discussion.”—<i>Literary Gazette</i>.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><!-- page 360--><a +name="page360"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 360</span>In Two +Vols. demy 8vo. £1 10s. cloth.<br /> +<i>With numerous plates</i>.<br /> +THE SHRINES AND SEPULCHRES OF THE<br /> +OLD AND NEW WORLD.<br /> +<span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +R. R. Madden, M.R.J.A.</p> +<p>“Mr. Madden’s work displays both extensive reading +and extensive travel. He has been a pilgrim in many lands, +and seems to have made use of his eyes and +<i>ears</i>.”—<i>Athenæum</i>.</p> +<p>“To the antiquarian and moralist, the archæologist +and student of the sacred volume, these volumes must prove a +treasury of most recondite +erudition.”—<i>Telegraph</i>.</p> +<p>“Dr. Madden evinces the research of a true <i>helluo +librorum</i>.”—<i>Freeman’s Journal</i>.</p> +<p>“These are erudite, curious, and most agreeable +volumes.”—<i>Warder</i>.</p> +<p>“The historical student will find it of rare +interest.”—<i>The Nation</i>.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">In One Vol. 4to. £1 1s. +Second Edition.<br /> +<i>Illustrated with fifty-four subjects by George Scharf</i>, +<i>Junr.</i><br /> +THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE<br /> +GREEKS.<br /> +<span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +Theodore Panofka of Berlin.</p> +<p><i>The Times</i> says: “This new publication may be +added to a series of works which honourably characterize the +present age, infusing a knowledge of things into a branch of +learning which too often consisted of a knowledge of mere words, +and furnishing the general student with information which was +once exclusively confined to the professed +archæologist. As a last commendation to this elegant +book, let us add that it touches on no point that can exclude it +from the hands of youth.”</p> +<p>“It will excellently prepare the student for the uses of +the vases in the British +Museum.”—<i>Spectator</i>.</p> +<p>“Great pains, fine taste, and large expense are +evident. It does infinite credit to the enterprising +publisher.”—<i>Literary Gazette</i>.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMBLES IN AN OLD CITY***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 33724-h.htm or 33724-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/3/7/2/33724 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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S. Madders + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Rambles in an Old City + comprising antiquarian, historical, biographical and political associations + + +Author: S. S. Madders + + + +Release Date: September 14, 2010 [eBook #33724] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RAMBLES IN AN OLD CITY*** + + +Transcribed from the 1853 Thomas Cautley Newby edition by David Price, +email ccx074@pglaf.org + + [Picture: Norwich street scene] + + + + + + Rambles in an Old City; + + + COMPRISING + + ANTIQUARIAN, HISTORICAL, + + BIOGRAPHICAL AND POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS + + By S. S. Madders. + + * * * * * + + LONDON: + Thomas Cautley Newby, + 30, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. + + MDCCCLIII. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +It has been very aptly remarked by a recent writer, that "to send forth a +work without a preface, is like thrusting a friend into the society of a +room full of strangers, without the benefit of an introduction;" a custom +that no _fashion_ can redeem from the charge of incivility. A book, +however insignificant, grows beneath the author's pen, to occupy a place +in his regard, not unworthy the title of friendship; and as that sacred +bond of social union is not dependent upon individual perfection, so the +companion of many a solitary hour is not to be cast out upon the "wide, +wide world," without one word to secure it at least a gentle reception, +be its faults as manifold and manifest as they may, even to the most +partial eye. + +The design of this little book of "Rambles," has been to concentrate into +the form of a light and amusing volume, some few of the many subjects of +interest suggested by the leading features of an "Old City." It makes no +pretensions to any profound learning or deep research. It is little more +than a _compilation_ of facts, interwoven with the history of one of the +oldest cathedral and manufacturing cities of our country; but inasmuch as +the general features are common to most other ancient cities, and many of +the subjects are national and universal in their character, the outlines +are by no means strictly local in their application or interest. + +Whether the design has been carried out, in a way at all worthy of the +hale old city of Norwich, that has served as "the text of the discourse," +remains to be proved; but the attempt to contribute to the light +literature of the day a few simple gleanings of fact, as gathered by a +stranger, during a ten years' residence in a "strange land," will, it is +to be hoped, secure a lenient judgment for the inexperience that has +attempted the task. + +The sources of information from which the historical parts of the work +have been derived, are such as are open to every ordinary student; its +light character has precluded the introduction of notes of reference, but +it would amount to downright robbery to refrain from acknowledging the +copious extracts that have been made from the valuable papers of the +Norfolk Archaeological Society. + +For the kind assistance of the few individuals from whom information has +been sought, many thanks are due; and it is but just to state, that all +deficiences of matter or details, that may probably be felt by many, more +familiar than the writer herself with the persons, places, and things, +that make the sum and substance of her work, are referable alone to the +difficulty she has experienced in selecting suitable materials to carry +out her design, from the abundance placed at her disposal; a tithe of +which might have converted her "rambles" into a heavy, weary "march," +along which few might have had patience to accompany her. + +To these few observations must be subjoined an expression of earnest and +heartfelt thanks to the many liberal-minded individuals who have extended +encouragement to this feeble effort of a perfect stranger. That some +portion or other of the contents of her little volume may be found worthy +their acceptance, is the fervent desire of + + THE AUTHORESS. + +NORWICH, + January 1, 1853. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + CHAP. I. +INTRODUCTION PAGE + 1 + CHAP. II. +THE CATHEDRAL 14 + CHAP. III. +THE CASTLE 62 + CHAP. IV. +THE MARKET-PLACE 117 + CHAP. V. +THE GUILDHALL 179 + CHAP. VI. +PAGEANTRY 227 + CHAP. VII. +SUPERSTITIONS 282 + CHAP. VIII. +CONVENTUAL REMAINS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 311 + +ERRATA. {0} + + +Page 7, line 15, _for_ "these," _read_ "those." + +,, 8, line 10, _for_ "querus," _read_ "querns." + +,, 37, line 16, for "veriest," _read_ "various." + +,, 59, lines 24 and 26, _for_ "Hoptin," _read_ "Hopkin." + +,, 64, line 8, _for_ "spirit--powers," _read_ "spirit-powers." + + + + + + CHAPTER I. + INTRODUCTION. + + +Who that has ever looked upon the strange conglomerations of architecture +that line the thoroughfares of an ancient city, bearing trace of a touch +from the hand of every age, from centuries far remote,--or watched the +busy scenes of modern every-day life, surrounded by solemnly majestic, or +quaintly grim old witnesses of our nation's' infancy,--but has felt the +Poetry of History that lies treasured up in the chronicles of an "Old +City?" + +We may not all be archaeologists, we may many of us feel little sympathy +with the love of accumulating time-worn, moth-eaten relics of ages passed +away, still less may we desire to see the resuscitation of dead forms, +customs or laws, which we believe to have been advances upon prior +existing institutions, living their term of natural life in the season +appointed for them, and yielding in their turn to progressions more +suited to the growing wants of a growing people; but there are few minds +wholly indifferent to the associations of time and place, or that are not +conscious of some reverence for the links connecting the present with the +past, to be found in the many noble and stupendous works of ancient art, +yet lingering amongst us, massive evidences of lofty thoughts and grand +conceptions, which found expression in the works of men's hands, when few +other modes existed of embodying the imaginations of the mind. + +It is not now my purpose to draw comparisons between the appeals thus +made through the outward senses to the spirituality of our nature, and +the varied other and more subtle means employed in later days, to awaken +our feelings of veneration and devotion, but it may be observed in +passing, that amid the floods of change that have swept across our +country's history, it is scarcely possible but that some good should have +been lost among the debris of decayed and shattered institutions. We +have now to take a sweeping glance at the general outline of the place +that has been chosen as the nucleus from which to spin our web, of light +and perhaps fanciful associations. A desultory ramble through the +streets and bye-ways of an old city, that owns six-and-thirty parish +churches, the ghosts of about twenty more defunct, the remains of four +large friaries and a nunnery, some twenty or thirty temples of worship +flourishing under the divers names and forms of "dissent," two Roman +branches of the Catholic Church, a Jewish synagogue, a hospital, museum, +libraries, and institutions of every possible name, and "refuges" for +blind, lame, halt, deaf, "incurable," and diseased in mind, body, or +estate; that is sprinkled with factories, bounded by crumbling ruins of +old rampart walls, and studded with broken and mutilated bastion +towers,--brings into view a series of objects so heterogeneous in order +and character, that to arrange the ideas suggested by them to the mind or +memory, is a task of no slight difficulty. + +The great "lions" of interest to one, may rank the very lowest in the +scale of another's imagination or fancy. The philosopher, the poet, the +philanthropist, the antiquarian, the utilitarian, the man of the world, +and the man of the day, each may choose his separate path, and each find +for himself food for busy thought and active investigation. + +The archaeologist may indulge his love of interpreting the chiselled +finger-writing of centuries gone by, upon many a richly decorated page of +sculpture, and, hand in hand with the historian and divine, may trace out +the pathway of art and religion, through the multiform records of genius, +devotional enthusiasm, taste, and beneficence, chronicled in writings of +stone, by its ecclesiastical remains; he may gratify himself to his +heart's content with "vis-a-vis" encounters with grim old faces, grinning +from ponderous old doorways, or watching as sentinels over dark and +obscure passages, leading to depths impenetrable to outward vision, and +find elaborately carved spandrils and canopies, gracing the entrances of +abodes where poverty and labour have long since found shelter in the +cast-off habitations of ancient wealth and aristocracy. + +He may venture to explore cavernous cellars with groined roofings and +piers that register their age; may make his way through moth-corrupted +storehouses of dust and lumber; to revel in the grandeur of some old +"hall," boasting itself a relic of the domestic architecture of the days +of the last Henry, and there lose himself in admiration of old mullioned +windows, tie-beams, and antique staircases; may ferret out old cabinets +and quaint old buffets hard by, that once, perchance, found lodging in +the "Stranger's Hall," as it is wont, though erringly, to be designated; +he may wander thence through bye lanes and streets, stretching forth +their upper stories as if to meet their opposite neighbours half way with +the embrace of friendship; over the plain, memorable as the scene of +slaughter in famous Kett's rebellion, to the "World's End;" and see amid +the tottering ruins of half demolished pauper tenements, the richly +carved king-posts and beams of the banquet chamber of the famous knight, +Sir Thomas Erpingham, whose martial fame and religious "heresy" have +found a more lasting monument than the perishable frame-work of his +mansion-house, in the magnificent gateway known by his name, and raised +in commemoration of his sin of Lollardism. He may accompany the +philanthropist in his visit to the "Old Man's Hospital," and mourn over +the misappropriation of the nave and chancel of fine old St. Helen's, +where lies buried Kirkpatrick, a patriarch of the tribe of antiquaries; +he may visit the grammar school that has sent forth scholars, divines, +warriors, and lawyers; a Keye, a Clarke, an Earle, {5} a Nelson, and a +Rajah Brooke, to spread its fame in the wide world. He may see in it a +record of the days when grammar was forbidden to be taught elsewhere; he +may peep through the oriels that look in upon the charnel-house of the +ancient dead beneath; may feast his eyes upon the beauties of the +Erpingham, and strange composite details of the Ethelbert gateways; +explore the mysteries of the Donjon, or Cow Tower; and following the +windings of the river past the low archway of the picturesque little +ferry, find himself at length stumbling upon some fragment of the old +"_Wall_." Thence he may trace the ancient frontier line of the Old City, +and the sites of its venerable gateways, that _were_, but _are not_; the +flintwork of the old rampart, now clinging to the precipitous sides of +"Butter Hills," with an old tower at the summit, mounted, sentinel-like, +to keep watch over the ruins of the Carrow Abbey, and the alder cars, +that gave it its name in the valley below; now, following a broken +course, here and there left in solitude for wild creepers and the rare +indigenous carnation to take root upon; now bursting through +incrustations of modern bricks and mortar, and showing a bastion tower, +with its orifices ornamented by spread-eagle emblems of the stone-mason's +craft in the precincts below; here, forming the back of slaughter-houses, +or the foundations of some miserable workshop, fashioned from the rubble +of its sides; thence wandering on through purlieus of wretchedness and +filth that might shake the nerves of any more vulnerable bodies than +"paving commissioners" or "boards of health;" its arched recesses, once +so carefully defined, its elevated walks, so studiously preserved for +recreation as well as for defence, all now rendered an indefinite +disfigured mass, with accretions of modern growth, that bear the stamp +upon every feature of their parentage, poverty and decay. He may visit +barns and cottages with remnants of windows and doorways, that make it +easy to believe they once had been the shrine of a St. Mary Magdalen; may +trace out for himself, among hovels and cellars, and reeking court-yards, +grey patches of festering ruin, last lingering evidences of the age of +conventual grandeur; here, in the priory yard of a parish, that might be +said to shelter the offscum of poverty's heavings up, he shall find a +little ecclesiastical remnant of monastic architecture, converted into a +modern meeting-house; the nursery walls that cradled the genius of a +Bale, the carmelite monk, and great chronicler of his age, now echoing +the doctrines of the "Reformed Religion," as taught by the Anabaptist +preacher. In another district, but still skirting on the river-side, +where those old monks ever loved to pitch their dwelling-places, down in +a dreary little nook, shut out from noisy thoroughfares, and bearing +about it all the hushed stillness that beseems the place, he may seek the +ghostly companionship of the old "friar of orders grey" in the lanes and +walks that once bounded the flourishing territory of the rich "mendicant" +followers of holy St. Francis, or "friars minors," as they were wont to +call themselves. Not far distant, the whereabouts of the old Austin +Friars may invite attention; and the locale of the "Carrow Nunnery," or +ladies' seminary of the mediaeval times, claim a passing enquiry, and +note of admiration for the beauty of its site. + +Sacred spots, consecrated by the holy waters of loving humanity and +gentle charity, in ages gone by, as the refuge of the diseased leper and +homeless poor, shall be pointed to as the mustard-seed from whence have +sprung those glorious monuments of our land, the hospitals for the sick +of these later generations. + +Nor would he rest content without a glimpse of the Museum and its relics +of the dead, its hieroglyphical urns and querns, spurs, fibulae, and +celts, its pyxes and beads, its lamps and coins, that lead imagination +back to pay domiciliary visits to the wooden huts, earthen +fortifications, and sepulchral hearths of our Icenic, Roman, or Saxon +forefathers, while gaping Egyptian mummies stand by, peering from their +wizened-up eye-balls at the industrious student of the "gallery of +antiquities," looking wonder at the preference displayed for them, over +the more brilliant attractions offered to the lover of natural history, +and ornithology in particular, among the collections below. + +Nor shall the antiquarian be alone in his enjoyment. The botanist shall +delight to enrich his herbarium from the same hedgerows, fir-woods, +cornfields and rivulets, that have yielded flowers, mosses, hepatica, and +algae to the researches of a Smith, a Hooker, and a Lindley, the children +of science nurtured on its soil. The lover of music shall find fresh +beauties in the harmonies of its organs, quires, and choruses, from the +halo of associations cast around them by the memories of a Crotch, the +remembrance of the Gresham professorship, filled from the musical ranks +of the city, and may be, in time to come from a new lustre added by +another name, that has begun to be sounded forth by the trumpet of fame +in the musical world. + +The scholar and literary man shall acknowledge the interest claimed by +the nursery in which has been reared a Bale, a Clarke, a Parker, a +Taylor, a Gurney, an Opie, and a Borrow, and we may add, a Barwell and a +Geldart, whose fruit and flowers, scattered on the way-side of the roads +of learning, have made many a rough path smooth to young and tender feet. + +The philanthropist shall dwell upon the early lessons of Christian love +and humanity breathed into the heart of a Fry from its prison-houses, and +the silent teachings of the quiet meeting-house, where the brethren and +sisters, in simple garb of sober gray, are wont to assemble, and where +yet may still be seen the adopted sister Opie, resting in the autumn of +her days in the calm seclusion of the body of Friends, after a life spent +in scattering abroad in the world, germs of simple truth, pure morality, +and heart-religion, the fruits of the genius which has been her gift from +God. He shall visit Earlham Hall, the birthplace of that great "sister +of charity," Elizabeth Fry, and her brother, the philanthropist, Joseph +John Gurney, and beneath its avenues of chestnut, by the quiet waters of +its little lake, and the banks of bright anemones, that lay spread like a +rich carpet, in the early spring time, along its garden borders, inhale +sweet odours, and drink in refreshing draughts of pure unsullied poetry, +fresh from the fount of _nature_, and fragrant with the love that +breathes through all her teachings, the first child of the Great Parent +of good. + +Hence he may trace his way back through the village hamlet, that gave a +home in his last years to the weary-hearted Hall, yielding a refuge and a +grave to the head bowed beneath the weight of a sorrow-burthened mitre; +and with hearts yet vibrating to the mournful cadences of woe, that swept +from his harp strings, forth upon the world from its saddened solitudes, +they may pass on to the garden of the Bishop's Palace, and the monuments +yet lingering there; ivy-clad ruins, meet emblems of harsh realities, +over which the hand of time has thrown the sheltering mantle of +forgiveness. And among the many chords touched by the hand of memory +here, where the shades of harsh bigotry and persecuting zeal vanish in +the gentle and softened light of Christian charity, breathed forth by the +spirits of later days, whose heart does not respond to the refined poetry +of the Charlotte Elizabeth, who has given such sweet paintings of this +familiar scene of her girlhood's years? Who can forget the song of the +Swedish Nightingale, as it thrilled through the evening air upon the +listening ears of the ravished, though untutored multitude? happy +associations of the enjoyments of working world life, and lay minstrels +of God's creation, to be blended with the grander, but scarce more +solemn, memories of the great heads among the labourers in the harvest +field of souls. Nor shall the poet forget to take a glimpse of the quiet +home, not far distant hence, of Sayer, the poet, philanthropist, +philosopher, and antiquarian, whose memory is still green in the hearts +of many of the great and good still living, and the remembrance of whose +friendship is esteemed by them among their choicest treasures. + +The historian has a yet wider field for labour, and a busier work to do, +to connect into one chain the links that lie scattered far and wide, +among deserted thoroughfares, decaying mansion houses, desecrated +churches, and monastic ruins; to gather up the broken fragments of +political records, enshrined in many a mouldering parchment, crumbling +stone, or withered tree; and to weave into a whole the threads of +tradition and legendary lore, unravelled from the mystic fables of +antiquity. It is his, to trace the identities of King Gurgunt and the +Danish Lothbroc; to establish the founder of the castle, and commemorate +the achievements of its feudal lords; upon him the duty of sifting +evidence, and searching out causes, of tracing the famous "Kett's +rebellion," to the deep-seated sense of wrong in the hearts of the +people, that found expression in the vague predictions and mystical +prophecies of the Merlin of the district. + +It is for him to unfold the little germs of after-history, that he +treasured up in the kernels of such documents as he order addressed to +the county sheriff, to commit to prison those who refused to attend the +services of the established church; to trace the growth of the spirit +among the people, that opened the city gates to the army of the +"Parliament," fortified its castle against royalist soldiers, and turned +its market-place into a place of execution for fellow-citizens, who dared +to espouse the cause of their king; to rescue from oblivion the gems that +were buried beneath the blows of the zealous puritan's demolishing +hammer; to read in the nailed horseshoes, that surmount the doorways of +hundreds of its cottages, as a talisman against witchcraft, the legacy of +superstition bequeathed to their descendants by these earnest +"abolitionists;" to mark the _rise_ and _progress_ of the unfranchised +masses in this age of enlightened liberalism, and the deepening and +mellowed tone of the "voice of the people," as it rises from the +chastened and self-disciplined homes of the educated and thriving +artisans. Upon him too, it devolves, to mark the age and the man--to see +the monuments of the great-hearted and liberal-minded of the days gone +by, in the hospitals, charities, and endowments, their munificence has +showered down, from the heights of prosperity, upon the depths of +poverty--to trace the progress of the philanthropist of later times, in +his house to house visits, and read statistics of his labours in the +renovated homes and gladdened hearts of thousands, thus lifted out from +the swamps of misery and crime, by the single hand of Christian +benevolence, stretched forth in sympathy; to mark the efforts of +legislation to remove causes that evil results may cease, to note the +patriotism of honest hearts, that would seek to level, if at all, by +lifting up the poor to that standard of moral and physical comfort, +beneath which the manhood of human nature has neither liberty nor room to +grow; and finally, it is his to cast into the treasury of his nation's +history his gleanings among the bye-ways of a single city, no mean or +despicable bundle of facts, with which to enrich its stores. + +But we must tarry no longer to generalize with archaeologist, poet or +historian; we have many storehouses to visit, where associations of +religion, poetry, and art, lie garnered up in rich abundance. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +THE CATHEDRAL. + + +THE CATHEDRAL.--_Forms_.--_Symbols_.--_Early history of the Christian +church_.--_Growth of superstition_.--_Influence of +Paganism_.--_Government_.--_Growth of the Papacy_.--_Monasticism_.--_St. +Macarius_.--_Benedict_.--_St. Augustine_.--_Hildebrand_.--_Celibacy of +the clergy_.--_Herbert of Losinga_, _founder of Norwich +Cathedral_.--_Crusades_, _their influence on Civilization_.--_Historical +memoranda_.--_Bishop Nix_.--_Bilney_.--_Bishop Hall_.--_Ancient religious +festivals_.--_Easter_.--_Whitsuntide_.--_Good Friday_.--"_Creeping to the +Cross_."--_Paschal taper_.--_Legend of St. William_.--_Holy-rood +Day_.--_Carvings_.--_Origin of grotesque sculptures_.--_Old Painting_: +_mode of executing +it_.--_Speculatory_.--_Cloisters_.--_Anecdote_.--_Epitaph_.--_List of +Bishops_.--_Funeral of Bishop Stanley_. + +"What is a city?" "A city contains a cathedral, or Bishop's see." + +Such being the definition given us in one of those valuable literary +productions that we were wont in olden time to call Pinnock's +ninepennies, and which have since been followed by dozens upon dozens of +series upon series, written by a host of good souls that have followed in +his wake, devoting themselves to the task of retailing homeopathic doses +of concentrated geography, biography, philosophy, astronomy, geology, and +all the other phies, nies, onomies, and ologies, that ever perplexed or +enlightened the brains of the rising generation; we adopt the term, in +memory of those so-called happy days of childhood, when its vague +mysticism suggested to our country born and school-bred pates a wide +field of speculation for fancy to wander in; a Cathedral and a Bishop's +see being to us, in their unexplained nomenclature, figures of speech as +hieroglyphical as any inscription that ever puzzled a Belzoni or a +Caviglia to decipher. + +We have grown, however, to know something of the meaning of these terms; +and having lived to see a few specimens of real cathedrals and live +bishops, we are now quite ready to acknowledge the priority of their +claims upon our notice when rambling among the lions of an old city. + +We say old, but where is the cathedral not old? save and except a few +just springing into existence, evidences we would hope of a reaction in +the devotional tendencies of our nature, rising up once more through the +confused assemblage of churches and chapels, and meeting houses, reared +in honour of man's intellect, sectarian _isms_; human deity in fact, with +its standard _freedom of thought_, under which the myriad diverse forms +of hero worshippers have rallied themselves, each with their own atom of +the broken statue of truth, that they may vainly strive _of their own +power_ to re-unite again into a perfect and harmonious whole. Setting +aside, however, these later efforts to regain something of the lofty +conceptions that can alone enter into the mind of a worshipper of God, +not man, we have to deal with the monuments of a past age yet left among +us, witnessing to the early life in the church, though not unmingled with +symptoms of disease, and marks of the progress of decay,--marks which are +indeed fearfully manifest in the relics existing in our country, that +bear almost equal traces of corruption and spiritual growth, each +struggling, as it were, for victory. Is there any one who can walk +through the lofty nave of a cathedral, and not feel _lifted up_ to +something? may be he knows not _what_; but the spirit of worship, of +adoration, is breathed on him as it were from the structure around him. +And should it not be so? does not the blue vault of heaven, with its +unfathomed ocean of suns and worlds, each moving in its own orbit, +obeying one common law of order and perfect harmony, call up our +reverence for the God of _Nature_? and has it ever been forbidden that +the heart and understanding should be appealed to through the medium of +the outward senses, for the worship of the God of _Revelation_? Is the +eye to be closed, the mouth dumb, the ear deaf, to all save the +intellectual teachings of a fellow man? Is _music_ the gift of heaven, +_colour_ born in heaven's light, _incense_ the fragrance of the garden, +planted by God's hand, _form_ the clothing of soul and spirit, to be +banished from the temple dedicated to the service of that living God, who +created the music of the bird, the waterfall, and the thunder, who +painted the rainbow in the window of heaven, who scented the earth with +sweet flowers, and herbs and "spicy groves," who gave to each tree, each +leaf, each bird and flower, each fibre, sinew, and muscle of the human +frame, each crystal, and each gem of earth, each shell of the ocean's +depths, each moss and weed that creeps around the base of hidden rocks, +even to the noisome fungus and worm that owes its birth alike to death +and to decay a material body, full of beauty and adaptation in all its +parts; revealing thus to man, that all thought, all life, all spirit, +must dwell within an outer covering of _form_. True, the spirit and life +may depart, the garment may cover rottenness and decay, the symbol may be +a dead letter, in the absence of the truth it should shadow forth, the +candle at the altar, be meaningless from the dimness of the light of the +spirit, that it should represent as ever living and present in the +church; the eagle of the reading-desk be a graven image, without place in +God's temple, when the soaring voice of prophecy, rising above earth, and +fed from the living fire burning on heaven's altar, that it should +symbolize, has ceased to be heard. Incense may be a mystic mockery, when +the prayers of the children of God have ceased to ascend in unison as a +sweet smelling savour to the throne of their Father; the swelling chant +be monotonous jargon, when the beauty and harmony of _one common voice_ +of praise, thanksgiving, and prayer, is not felt; the vestment be a mere +display of weak and empty vanity, when purity, activity, authority and +love, have ceased to be the realities expressed in the alb, the stole, +the crimson and purple, the gold and silver; the screen, a senseless mass +of carving, the long unbenched and empty nave, so much waste stone and +mortar, to those who see not in it the vast Gentile court, where the +voice of preaching and invitation was sent forth to sinners to enter the +temple and join in the _worship_ of _praise_ and _prayer_ of the _church +within_. + +Why are all these too often as cold and empty outlines of a nothing to +our senses? is it not that their life is gone? But should we therefore +cast away the fragments that remain? should we not rather desire that the +spirit may breathe upon the dry bones, that they may live again, and form +a new and living temple for the most High to dwell in; the outer edifice +of wood and stone, being the _model_ or _statue_ of that spiritual +church, of which every pillar, every window, every beam, and curtain, +should be formed of living members, with Christ for the foundation and +chief corner stone, to be built up and fashioned by the hand of God; +every sand or ash of truth that lies scattered over the surface of the +earthy being cemented together by bonds of love and charity, to form the +masonry of the one great Catholic Church. + +Such thoughts may be misunderstood, and bring down upon us, in these days +of Papal Aggression, anathemas from many a zealous reformationist, or +member of the heterogeneous Protestant Alliance, nay, perhaps every shade +of Protestant dissenter, evangelical churchman, and Puseyite, may shake +his head at us in pity, and wonder what we mean; we would say to the +last, beware of the _shadow_ without the _substance_, the _symbol_ +without the _truth_, the _emblem_ without the _reality_; and of the +others we would ask forbearance. Popery does not necessarily lurk +beneath the advocacy of _forms_. + +With such formidable prejudices as we may possibly have raised by these +suggestive hints, dare we hope to find companions in our visit to the +venerable pile of building, whose spire still rears itself from the +valley, where some eight hundred years ago, the foundations were laid of +one of those huge monastic institutions, combining secular with spiritual +power, once so common, and plentifully scattered over our country, and +even then grown into strange jumbling masses of error and truth, beauty +and deformity? the sole trace of whose grandeur is now to be found in the +church and cloister of a Protestant cathedral, and the palace of a +Protestant bishop. + +We must not, however, lose sight of the fact, that this edifice, in +common with most others, among which we have to seek the past history of +the church either at home or abroad, did not spring into existence until +almost every truth possessed by the early Christians was so hidden by +cumbrous masses of superstition, the growth of centuries of darkness, +that it is difficult, nay, almost impossible, to trace any harmony of +purpose in their outline or filling up; hence the inconsistencies that +have sprung from the efforts to revive the ornaments and usages of a +period when, the life having departed from them in a great measure, their +meaning had been lost, and their practice perverted; hence, too, the +folly often displayed by zealous ecclesiastical symbolists, in regarding +every monkey, dog, mermaid, or imp that the carvers of wood and stone +fashioned from their own barbarous conceits, or copied from the +illuminations that some old monk's overheated brain had devised for +embellishment to some fanciful legend, as embodied ideas, to be +interpreted into moral lessons or spiritual sermons. + +Before, however, we enter into the detail of the remnants left us for +examination, we may take a glance over the page of the early history of +the church, and trace a little of the origin of those errors which had +grown around simple truths, converting them from beautiful realities into +monstrous absurdities. + +A moment's reflection may suffice to enable us to believe that the +church, as planted by its first head and master, was a _seed_ to be +watered and nurtured by the apostles, prophets, and ministers appointed +to the work, and intended to have an outward growth of form, as well as +inward growth of spirituality. During the early period of its existence, +while suffering from the persecution of the Roman emperors, it was +impossible that the church could develop itself freely; consequently, we +are not surprised to find that "upper chambers," and afterwards the tombs +and sepulchres of their "brethren in the faith," perhaps, too, of their +risen Lord, were the places of meeting of its members. Nor is it +difficult to trace from this origin the later superstitious worship at +the shrines of the saints. + +As early, however, as the peaceful interval under Valerian and +Diocletian, when there was rest from persecution, houses were built and +exclusively devoted to worship; they were called _houses of prayer_, and +_houses of the congregation_. And the idea that the Christian church +should only be a nobler copy of the Jewish temple was then clearly +recognized, the outline being as nearly as possible preserved, and the +inner part of the church, where the table of the Lord's Supper stood, +ever having been inaccessible to the common people; an idea that has in a +certain sort of way survived all the reformations, dissolutions, and +dissensions of sixteen hundred years; for do we not even yet see the +minister and _deacons_ of the most ultra-dissenting meeting-houses +appropriating to themselves the _table pew_? There has always seemed +something incongruous in the idea, that the minute instructions which God +himself thought it worthy to deliver unto Moses in the mount, for the +construction of a "tabernacle for the congregation," and to contain the +ark of the covenant, which also formed a model for the gorgeous temple of +Solomon, should be doomed to entire annihilation at any period of the +world's history. + +As Jewish sacrifices, laws, and covenants, were types, pictures, of the +embodiments to be found in the Christian dispensation, when the anti-type +had appeared, surely it is possible that the tabernacle too was a type of +a real building of living stones, then to be formed and fitly framed +together, and which might have its outward symbol in the edifices of +worship in all ages. We may not pause to dwell upon this idea, further +than it was recognized by the early Christians, of which clear proof +exists. + +For the nearest approach to a perfect development of it, we must look to +a later date, when Christianity was first adopted by Constantine, and +just prior to its alliance with the state; and although, from the lack of +authority in church government, errors had already crept in, and mingled +with many of the practices, we believe the modern copyist might find a +far more pure and perfect model there, than in the meaningless +observances and ornaments of the middle ages. + +Churches had then grown large and magnificent; they were divided into +three parts, the porch, the nave, and the sanctuary. In the nave stood +the pulpit--preaching at that time being considered the invitation, or +preparation for the _church_, whose duty was _worship_. It was divided +from the sanctuary by a _lattice work_, or screen, behind which was often +a veil before the holy table, which answered to the Holy of Holies of the +temple, and within it none but the priests entered. The baptistery was +usually situated without the church doors, and contained a fount, and a +reservoir for washing the hands was always to be found in the outer court +that enclosed all the buildings. Some writers have traced this to +heathen observances; if so, it without doubt _originated_ in the Jewish +practice. The service within the church was conducted with all the means +at command for rendering it complete. Music was cultivated--antiphonal +singing, or singing in responses, practised. The clergy wore vestments +symbolical of their offices, each form and colour having its significant +meaning. Candles were burning continually at the altar, as in the holy +place of the temple, symbolising God's presence in the church. Every +part of the building was designed to form a proportionate whole, and the +principle of dedicating to the house of God the best works of men's hands +was admitted, the embellishment of His temple being then deemed of +superior importance to the decoration of individual dwelling-houses. + +Transubstantiation had not polluted the table of the Lord by its +presence; the _mystery_ of the _spiritual_ presence of the Lord in the +Eucharist, appealing to _faith_, had not been replaced by the _miracle_, +directed to the carnal senses. Images had no place in the house of God, +picture worship was unknown. Confession of sins was practised, and +penances were imposed, as tests of the sincerity of repentance; at the +celebration of the Eucharist offerings were presented, in memory of the +dead who in their lives had offered gifts to God; fasting was observed, +but only from choice, and Sunday and the feast of Pentecost were the only +_festivals_ and holy-days observed. Gradually, however, after the +alliance of the church with the state, and through the accession of +converts from the heathen world, grosser elements mingled themselves with +these observances; the superstition that the spirits of the saints +hovered around the mortal remains they had tenanted, led to the removal +of their bodies from their tombs, and placing them within the walls of +the church, and to the erection of shrines, where, first to offer up +worship _with_ them, afterwards _to_ them. + +And who among us cannot feel the poetry and truth that gave birth to this +superstition? Who that has ever watched in the chamber of death the +bursting of the earthly chrysalis, has not felt the soft touch of the +spirit's wing, has not been conscious of the presence of the +spiritualized immortal, has not recognized the fragrance of the soul +passing from its earthly habitation, and filling the air with the essence +of its life, as the sweet scent of the flower when its perfect fruition +has been accomplished, lingers around the leaves of the falling petals? + +Who that has ever witnessed the laying down of life in ripened age, by +some great and noble type of our humanity, in whose heart the lion and +the lamb, the eagle and the dove have dwelt together, but has seemed to +breathe an atmosphere laden with power and love, strength, beauty and +gentleness, as the spirit passed forth at the call of Him who gave it +birth? And who has ever seen the portals of the spirit world open before +them, for one in whom all earthly trust, and confidence, and love were +centred, but has felt that an angel guardian lived for them in Heaven? +Is there no plea for saint worship? But, alas! the poetry and the truth +of the superstition became clouded, and were lost in the dark mists of +ignorance and worldliness, and from their decay sprung up, like a fungus +plant, the noxious idea of the efficacy of reliques, with the monstrous +absurdities that accompanied their presence. Confession and penance +merged into the sale of indulgences, purchased absolutions, and +interdicts; the sleep of the dead, into a belief in purgatorial fires, +voluntary seclusion from the gaieties and follies of the world, into +forced separation from its active duties; saint worship, image worship, +and picture worship gradually usurped the place of the worship of the one +God; the cross, from a symbol grew into an idol, and emblems, vestments, +and incense, losing their character, from the reality departing, whose +presence they should only shadow forth, grew into mere accumulations of +ceremonial, covering a decayed skeleton. In this process it is easy to +trace the influence of Pagan superstition. As the heathen world +gradually became converted to Christianity, objects in the new faith were +sought out, around which to cluster the observances and rites of the old +system. Thus the worship offered to Cybele, the great mother of the +gods, who among the innumerable deities of ancient Rome was pre-eminent, +was readily transferred to the madonna, from a fancied resemblance, and +as Juno, Minerva, Vesta, Pan, and others, were the especial guardians of +women, olive trees, bakers, shepherds, &c. &c. So Erasmus, Teodoro, +Genaro, and other saints received homage as the peculiar patrons of +individuals or classes. The Genii, Lares, and Penates, occupying the +Larrarium of the ancient houses, were replaced, or oftener rebaptized +under the names of a madonna, saints or martyrs; the Emperor Alexander, +the son of Mammaea, actually placed the image of Christ in his Larrarium, +with his Lares and Penates. The _Sacrarium_ took its origin hence. The +Pagan had been accustomed to bring his _hostia_ as a _sacrifice_ to Jove; +the convert found opportunity to engraft the idea on the commemorative +service of the Eucharist. + +Meantime church government had been going on in a floundering sort of +way, groping about in the dark for authority on which to act, but having +lost the apostleship and prophets, set in the church to rule and guide +it, and to aid in the work of perfecting the saints, the pastors or +bishops set about establishing a system to replace that given them from +above--thence began divisions, schisms, and heresies without number, and +as early as the commencement of the third century, we find the bishops +holding synods as a means towards obtaining Catholic form of doctrine; +gradually the bishops in whose provinces these synods were held, who were +called metropolitans, took precedence in rank to others, and thus those +of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, came to be recognised as the heads or +chiefs. After the removal of the seat of empire by Constantine, this +principle extended itself in the western church at Rome, until the final +assumption of temporal and spiritual power over all Christendom by +Hildebrand, or Gregory VII., who, although not the first that bore the +title of Pope, was the first who thoroughly established the power of the +Papacy. + +Another important feature of Christianity during these ages, was the +progress of monasticism, which had steadily increased from the time of +Anthony the Hermit, who fleeing from the corruptions and vanities of the +world, had sought to prove and improve his sanctity, by retirement to a +solitary cell, there to practise all manner of self tortures; in this +laudable attempt he was followed by a host of others, each vying with his +brother, as to which could attain the highest perfection in extravagant +folly. Thus one lived on the top of a pillar, and was emulated by a +whole tribe of pillar saints; another punished himself for killing a +gnat, by taking up his abode in marshes where flies abounded, whose sting +was sufficient to pierce the hide of a boar, and whose operations upon +his person were such as to disfigure him so that his dearest friends +could not recognise him; another class, the ascetics, carried on their +rigid system of self-denial in the midst of society, others wandered +about as beggars, and were afterwards called mendicants, or wandering +friars; but the anchorets, or _pillar saints_, attained the ultimatum of +glory, in their elevation of sanctity on the top of their pillars. In +progress of time these hermits began to associate themselves into +fraternities; and as far back as the middle of the second century, we +hear of a body of seventy, establishing themselves in the deserts of +Nitria, by the Nitron lakes. It is told of St. Macarius, the head of +this body, that having received a bunch of grapes, he sent it to another, +who tasting one, passed it to another; he being like abstemious, sent it +again forward to another, until, having gone the circuit, it reached +Macarius again unfinished. + +Basil the Great first founded a permanent monastic establishment to +convert people from the error of Arianism; and Benedict, a native of +Mursia in Umbria, A.D. 529, first established a regular order among the +scattered convents, by uniting them under a fixed circle of laws, +seclusion for life being the primary one. These societies also were made +useful by him, in having allotted to them various occupations, such as +the education of the young, copying and preserving manuscripts, recording +the history of their own times in their chronicles, and also in the +manual labour of cultivating waste lands. At first the monks had been +reckoned among the laity, the convents forming separate churches, of +which the abbot was usually presbyter, standing in the same relation to +the bishop as in other churches; but monastic life gradually came to be +considered the preparation for the clerical office, especially that of +bishop. This led to the adoption of monastic discipline among the +clergy; and the law of celibacy which had been rejected at the council of +Nice, was then prescribed by Siricius, bishop of Rome. + +The convents were the representatives of the Christian aristocracy or +monarchy, the mendicant orders, were the clergy of the poor. And each in +their sphere exercised a great civilizing influence on the people; the +latter especially, because the former, by their studies and literary +labours, were more occupied in preparing the revival of letters, and the +diffusion of knowledge in their own circle. Under the auspices of the +church, systems of Christian charity were established, schools for +children, hospitals and homes of refuge, were multiplied; all this was +beneficial, it was the warmth of Christian light shining in dark places, +although deep and painful wounds existed, whose fatal consequences soon +became manifest. + +Such was the state of the church when St. Augustine laid claim to the +supremacy of this country, towards the end of the sixth century. + +This zealous missionary, according to Neander, would seem to have been +especially wanting in the Christian grace of humility, which no doubt was +the cause of the disputes between the early British church and the Romish +Anglo-Saxon that ensued, which, however, were settled by Oswys, king and +afterwards saint of Northumberland, who decided upon acknowledging the +Romish supremacy, and from that time the doctrines, ritual, Gregorian +chaunt and Latin service of the Romish church were adopted, and an +admirable old man, Theodore of Cilicia, who brought sciences with him +from Greece, occupied the see of Canterbury, A.D. 668-690. The thirst +for knowledge among the people at this time was ministered to by this +good old man, who, with his friend Abbot Hadrian, made a progress through +all England, seeking to gather scholars around him; and the instructions +thus communicated to the English church were soon after collected by +Bede, that simple and thoughtful, as well as inquiring and scientific +priest and monk, who says of himself, "I have used all diligence in the +study of the Holy Scriptures, and in the observance of conventual rules, +and the daily singing in the church; it was ever my joy either to learn, +or teach, or write something." + +The history of the western church becomes merged henceforth in the papal +power, and we pass on to the era of Hildebrand, or Gregory VII., its +great representative. The struggles of this prelate to suppress simony, +and enforce the celibacy of the clergy, are among the most notorious +features of his reign; legates were despatched to all the provinces of +the west, over which he had already set up claim to supreme power, +stirring up the people against the married clergy; and in order at once +to strike at the root of simony, he forbade entirely the investiture of +ecclesiastics by civil authorities. He excommunicated five councillors +of Henry IV. of Germany, threatened Philip of France with the same +punishment, and would doubtless have carried out his plans with equal +rigour in England, but for the potency of the monarch with whom he had to +deal. William the Conqueror refused permission for the bishops to leave +the country when summoned to Rome, exercised his right of investiture, +and treated the demands of the Pope with cold indifference. Yet Gregory +took no further steps against so vigorous an opponent. After the death +of both, the contest on the right of investiture was revived, and in the +reign of Rufus was maintained against him by Anselm, Archbishop of +Canterbury. + +We have dwelt perhaps tediously on this period of history, but its +connection with our subject will be apparent, when we come to the +foundation of the cathedral we are visiting; but we must not altogether +omit mention of the most conspicuous feature of political activity and +religious zeal combined, that characterized that age. The Crusades will +eternally remain in history an example of the devotion and mighty efforts +of which men are capable, when united by a common faith and religious +ideas. Gregory was the first who conceived the project, realized +afterwards by Urban II., through the instrumentality of that wonderful +man, Peter the Hermit, who went through all Europe fanning into a flame +the indignation that had been kindled by the reports of the ill treatment +of pilgrims to Palestine; and it was not long before a countless host, +urged on as much perhaps by love of adventure, a desire to escape from +feudal tyranny and hope of gain, as religious enthusiasm, gathered round +the banner raised in Christendom. The object in view was not gained, but +the consequences were numerous and beneficial. Nations learnt to know +each other, hostilities were softened by uniting in a common cause of +Christian faith; literature in the west received a stimulus from the +contact into which it was brought with the more enlightened eastern +nations, and the poetry and imagery of the sunnier climes threw their +mantle of refinement over the barbarisms of the colder countries. Among +the writings that bear this date, is the celebrated controversy between +Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089, with Berengen, Archdeacon of +Angers, on the doctrine of Transubstantiation, a doctrine first +promulgated by Paschasius Radbertus, and at that time supported by +Lanfranc, and opposed by Berengen. + +A proof of the partial failure, at least in this country, of the +legislations of Gregory, is found in the history of the founder of the +Norwich Cathedral. Gregory died A.D. 1085, and Herbert of Losinga, Abbot +of Ramshay, Bishop of Thetford, and afterwards Bishop of Norwich, to +which city he removed the see from Thetford, laid the first stone of the +present cathedral, A.D. 1096. Much has been said and written as to the +birth-place of this prelate: it has usually been considered that he was a +Norman, brought over by William Rufus in 1087, but it is much more +probable that he was a native of Suffolk, and his return with Rufus is +readily accounted for by the custom existing at that time of sending +youths to France, especially Normandy, to complete their education. That +he purchased the see of Thetford is undisputed, and also the abbey of +Winchester for his father, who, although a married man, filled a clerical +office. Remorse for these simoniacal transactions is said to have +quickly followed, and we are told that the bishop hastened to Rome to +obtain absolution, and then and there had imposed on him the penance of +building a monastery, cathedral, and some half-dozen other large +churches. This incredible legend is much more reasonably explained by +reference to the disturbed state of the affairs of the church before +referred to, which most probably rendered it difficult for Herbert to +obtain the spiritual rights of the see, although possessed of its +temporalities, therefore his visit to Rome; and as for the rest of the +churches attributed to him as works of penance, some other explanation of +their origin must be found. The coffers of the wealthiest monarch in +Europe could not have furnished means to fulfil such a penance; and when +the purchase-money of the see, 1900 pounds, and 1000 pounds for the +Abbacy of Winchester, the expenses of the journey to Rome, and the cost +of his work in the cathedral be considered, we may fairly doubt even the +wealthy Herbert's resources proving sufficient to meet the further +demands of such splendid edifices. + +There is little doubt that while at Rome arrangements were completed for +the transfer of the see, but most probably only in accordance with a +previous determination of the Council of London, A.D. 1075, when it had +been decreed that all bishoprics should be removed from villages to the +chief town of the county. Historians have bestowed upon this bishop the +title of the "Kyndling Match of Simony," but the sin was far too common +in that age for him to deserve so distinctive an appellation; and +chroniclers, quite as veritable and much more charitable, have given +sketches of his character, that prove him to have been an amiable, +accomplished, and pious man, of great refinement, and possessing a +remarkable love of the young, and a cheerfulness and playfulness of +manner in intercourse with them, that rarely is an attribute of any but a +benevolent mind. We must not, however, linger upon the personal history +of the founder. Associated with him in the ceremony of laying the +foundation, we find the name of the great feudal lord of the castle, +Roger Bigod, and most of the nobility and barons of the district, one of +whom, Herbert de Rye, was a devote from the Holy Land. The first stone +was laid by Herbert, the second by De Rye, the other barons placing their +several stones, and contributing in money to the work. The church, as +left by Herbert, consisted of the whole choir, the lower part of which, +now remaining, is the original building, though much concealed by modern +screenwork; the roofs and upper part are of later date. Eborard, the +successor of Herbert, built the nave, not then raised to the present +height, but terminating at the line distinctly traceable below the +clerestory windows. The Catholic cathedral, or Catholic architecture, so +miscalled _Gothic_, is the pride and glory of the middle ages. The +spirit of the times, of fervent aspiration towards heaven, speaks in it +more, perhaps, than in the purer models of more ancient works. +Architecture was then the language through which thoughts found +expression, speaking to the eye, the mind, the heart, and imagination. +Kings, clergy, nobility, people, all contributed towards these +structures. Painting, sculpture, music, found a place in them, and +flourished under the auspices of religion. "The Anglo-Norman cathedrals +were perhaps as much distinguished," says Hallam, "above other works of +man, as the more splendid edifices of later date;" and they have their +peculiar effect, although perhaps not rivalling those of Westminster, +Wells, Lincoln, or York. + +We shall not attempt to expound the details of the building; but even the +uninitiated may discern at a glance that it is a work to which many a +different age has lent its aid. The simplicity of the Anglo-Norman style +is blended with various specimens of later date, not inharmoniously. The +nave, with its beautifully grained and vaulted roof, and elaborately +sculptured bosses, like forest boughs, and pendant roots, with tales of +Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and hosts of other old Scripture heroes carved +upon them, might almost seem one work with the sterner aisles, but modern +windows bespeak the hand of perpendicularism to have been busy in +after-years. To Lyhart, bishop of the see in the reign of Henry VI., +this roof is attributed, and to his successor Goldwell the continuation +of the design over the choir. Lyhart lies under a stone beneath his own +roof; Goldwell moulders under a tomb reared in the choir, where he lies +in stone, robed in full canonicals, his feet resting upon a lion. + +On the south side of the nave, between the pillars, is the tomb of +Chancellor Spencer. Upon it the chapter formerly received their rents, +and the stone was completely worn by the frequent ringing of the money. +On the same side, further up, are two elaborately decorated arches in the +perpendicular style, looking strangely at variance with the simplicity +prevailing around. These purport to be the chapel of Bishop Nix, who +lies buried beneath them, and an altar formerly stood at the foot of the +eastern pillar. The iron-work on which hung the bell, is still visible +on the side of the western pillar. The pulpit stood near here; a faint +trace of its site is discernible against the pillar, but that is all that +remains to speak of the original purpose of this spacious court. Bishop +Nix it was who tried and condemned the martyr Bilney, whose trial, as all +others of the same nature, was conducted in the consistory court, or +Bishop Beauchamp's chapel, in the south aisle of the choir. In the north +aisle of the nave, between the sixth and seventh pillars, is a door-way, +now closed, and converted into a bench, through which the people formerly +adjourned after prayers in the choir to hear the sermon, which was +preached in the green yard, now the palace gardens, prior to the Great +Rebellion. Galleries were raised against the walls of the palace, and +along the north wall of the cathedral, for the mayor, aldermen, their +wives and officers, dean, prebends, &c.; the rest of the audience either +stood or sat on forms, paying for their seats a penny, or half-penny +each. The pulpit had a capacious covering of lead, with a cross upon it. +On the church being sequestered, and the service discontinued during the +Commonwealth, the pulpit was removed to the New Hall Yard, now the garden +of St. Andrew's Hall, and the sermons were preached there. The +devastations committed in and about the building at that period, formed +the subject of grievous lamentations from the pen of good bishop Hall, +then the Bishop of the see, whose sufferings from persecution have become +a part of our country's history. Hall spent the last melancholy years of +his life in the little village of Heigham, where the Dolphin Inn, with +its quaint flint-work frontage, mullioned windows, and curiously carved +chamber roof and door, yet remain to associate the spot with his memory: +his tomb is in the little village church close by. + +In the centre of the roof of the nave is a circular hole, the purpose of +which for many years puzzled enquirers; but one of the industrious and +intellectual archaeologians of the present day, to whom we are indebted +for many interesting discoveries connected with the cathedral, has +reasonably suggested that it was the spot from whence was suspended the +large censer swung lengthwise in the nave at the festivals of Easter and +Whitsuntide. On the north side of the choir there still exists the small +oriel window, through which the sepulchre was watched from Good Friday to +Easter Morning. This ceremony consisted of placing the host in a +sepulchre, erected to represent the holy sepulchre, covering it with +crape, and setting a person or persons to watch it until Easter Sunday, +as the soldiers watched the tomb of Christ. During the time, no bells +sounded, no music was heard, and lights were extinguished. In silence +and gloom these three days were passed. In reference to the length of +time usually so denominated, that is from Friday to Sunday, a curious +solution, attributed to Christopher Wren, the son of the architect, has +recently been published; he seems to have puzzled himself over such like +problems, and says, "that the night in one hemisphere was day in the +other, and the two days in the other were nights in the opposite," so +that in reality there were three nights and three days on _the earth_; +and as Christ died for the whole world, not only for the hemisphere in +which Judea was, he therefore truly remained in the grave that time. + +It is difficult for us, accustomed to the sober undemonstrative, not to +say cold demeanour of modern Protestantism, to form a conception of the +effect of the seasons of festivity or humiliation, as observed even in +our own land in earlier times. The setting apart the greater portion of +the day for weeks together, for religious ceremonies, and especially the +almost dramatic scenes of the Passion week, sound to our ears as tales of +mummery. Whether we have gained much by the acquisition of the wisdom +that sees nothing in them but occasion for ridicule, or pity, may be a +question. Certain it is that many of the practices were gross and +debasing; many, had beauty and truth in them. + +Amongst those peculiar to the season of Easter, are the ceremony of +creeping to the cross on Good Friday, and the kindling of the fires and +lighting of the paschal on Easter Eve. As these are distinctly mentioned +in ancient Norfolk wills, as practised in this cathedral, we may just +describe them in connection with our visit to it. It was often customary +to leave lands chargeable with the payment of offerings at this season, +both at the creeping of the cross, and to furnish new paschals or tapers +for lighting at Easter. + +The creeping to the cross is mentioned in a proclamation, black letter, +dated 26th February, 30th Henry VIII., in the first volume of a +collection of proclamations in the archives of the Society of +Antiquaries, where it is stated, "On Good Friday it shall be declared how +creeping to the cross sygnyfyeth an humblynge of oneself to Christ before +the cross, and the kyssynge of it a memory of our redemption made upon +the cross." In a letter from Henry to Cranmer, of later date, a command +is issued that the practice should be discontinued as idolatrous. The +ceremony is described by Davies in his rites of the cathedral church of +Durham, where he relates, "that within that church, upon Good Friday, +there was a marvellously solemn service, in which service time, after the +passion was sung, two of the ancient monks took a goodly large crucifix, +all of gold, of the picture of our Saviour Christ nailed upon the cross, +laying it upon a cushion, bringing it betwixt them thereupon to the +lowest greese or step in the choir, and there did hold the said cross +betwixt them. And then one of the monks did rise, and went a pretty +space from it, and setting himself upon his knees, with his shoes put off +very reverently, _he crept upon his knees_ unto the said cross, and after +him the other did likewise, and then they set down again on either side +of it. Afterward, the prior came forth from his stall, and in like +manner did creep unto the said cross, and all the monks after him in the +said manner, in the meantime the whole quire singing a hymn. The service +being ended, the two monks carried the cross and the sepulchre with great +reverence; kings, queens, and common people, all followed the same +custom; it was, however, usual to place a carpet for royal knees to creep +upon." + +The paschal, or taper as it was called, was lighted from fire struck from +a flint on Easter Eve, all previous fires being extinguished. The +paschal was often of great size: that of Westminster Abbey, in 1557, +weighed three hundred pounds. Many curious records of church +disbursements for these and such like things are recorded; in those of +St. Mary-at-Hill, in London, stands, "For a quarter of coles for the +hallowed fire of Easter Eve, 6_d._; also for two men to watch the +sepulchre, from Good Friday to Easter Eve, 14_d._; for a piece of timber +to the new paschal, 2_s._; paid for a dish of pewter for the paschal, +8_d_." + +The church on Easter morning presented another scene. The sepulchre +removed, tapers were lighted, fires kindled, incense burned, music pealed +from the bells, Te Deums from organs, flowers fresh gathered lent their +fragrance to the hour, birds set loose from the crowd, all joined to +celebrate the joyful festival of the resurrection, and altars glittered +with the whole wealth of silver and gold, that munificence or penitence +had enriched them with. We have left off all these things--but we sing +the Easter hymn. + +On the north side of the entrance from the nave into the anti-choir was +placed the chapel, dedicated to the Lady of Pity; and above the spot +where Herbert laid the foundation stone, was placed the altar, dedicated +to St. William. As this sounds rather an unsaintly name, we must explain +that St. William was a little boy, aged nine years, who, in the time of +Rufus, when the Jews were powerful in our land, fell a martyr to their +hatred of the Christians. The tale runs that, in 1137, the Jews, then +the leading merchants, doctors, and scholars of the day, stole a little +boy, crucified him, and buried him in Thorpe wood. They were discovered +on their road to the burial, but escaped punishment by some clever +monetary arrangement with the authorities. Little William was buried in +the wood, and a chapel raised above his grave, the outline of which is +yet discernible by the fineness of the grass, that distinguishes it from +the heath around, the wood having long since narrowed its limits; the +shepherds say weeds will not grow on the spot, for it is "hallowed +ground." The bones of the unfortunate boy were afterwards brought to the +cathedral, where another shrine was erected, and dedicated to the little +saint; and Thomas, a monk of Monmouth, is said to have written _seven_ +books of the miracles wrought by these bones. It was essential, before a +saint could be canonized, that three miracles should be proved to have +been wrought by him in life, or after death; hence, no doubt, the efforts +of the monk to prove their potency, as the youth of the martyr would +render it doubly essential to establish his claims to the honour +indubitably. The body of a saint, by act of canonization, was placed in +a sarcophagus, an altar raised over it, where mass was said continually, +to secure his or her mediation. + +Above the anti-choir was the rood loft, in which were kept the reliques, +and on which was erected the principal rood or cross, with the figure of +the Saviour carved on it. The rood loft was always placed between the +nave and choir, signifying that those who would go from the church +militant, which the nave then represented, into the church triumphant, +must go under the cross, and suffer affliction. The festival of the +cross was and is called Holy Rood Day, and was instituted first on +account of the recovery of a large piece of the cross by the Emperor +Heraclius, after it had been taken away, on the plundering of Jerusalem +by Chosroes, king of Persia, A.D. 615. Rood and cross are synonymous. +The rood, when perfectly made, had not only the figure of Christ on it, +but those of the Virgin and St. John, one on each side, in allusion to +their presence at the Crucifixion. + +Besides the rood, this loft also once contained a representation of the +Trinity, superbly gilt; the Father blasphemously figured as an old man, +with the Saviour Christ on the cross, between his knees, and the Holy +Spirit, in the form of a dove, on his breast. This image was ornamented +with a gold chain, weighing nearly eight ounces, a large jewel, with a +red rose enamelled in gold, hanging on it, and four smaller jewels. A +silver collar was also presented to it in 1443, that had been bestowed +upon some knight as a mark of honour. Among the relics was a portion of +the blood of the Virgin, to which numbers came in pilgrimage, and made +offerings. Whether or no it liquefied at stated seasons, like that of +St. Genaro, is not recorded. + +It is not pleasant to watch the growth of such gross materialisms over +the sacred truths and symbols of Christian worship; nor can we wonder at +the re-actionary enthusiasm that came and swept them all away, however +much good taste may deplore the loss of many beauties and solid +treasures, that disappeared amid the tumult of the "dissolution." + +Passing beneath the rood loft, now the gallery for one of the finest +organs and choirs our country can boast, we enter the choir, which, as it +extends westward considerably beyond the tower, is of unusual length, and +imposing in its effect; the lantern, or lower part of the tower, rising +in the centre, supported by four noble arches, that bear the weight of +the whole tower and spire, is impressively beautiful, albeit modern +decorators have been at work to spoil the harmony that should prevail, by +medallions and wreaths that should have no place there, however pretty in +themselves. + +The connoisseur may here find an abundant field to exercise his +architectural knowledge, in deciding the various dates of the several +portions of this beautiful part of the building. The long row of stalls, +with their high-backed and projecting canopies, crowned with multitudes +of crocketted pinnacles, the richly decorated screen-work, that shuts out +the plainer Norman aisles, the mysterious-looking triforium running round +the curious apsidal termination, the light clerestory, with its tier of +windows, divided by feathered and canopied niches, whence spring the main +ribs of the vaulted roof,--form a whole, that it needs no skill in art or +science to be enabled to appreciate and enjoy. Of painted glass, perhaps +the less said the better--we may be wanting in taste or judgment; certain +it is, it forms no very prominent feature of beauty, and a kaliedoscope +of mediocre arrangement, and a rather indifferent illumination +transparency, may, we fancy, each find a counterpart among the specimens +of colour that do exist. Something is in progress--perhaps on an +improved scale. + +But we must not omit to glance at a few of the quaint old carvings, that +remain almost as sole relics of the ancient furniture of the church. +Entering any stall, we observe the seat turns up on hinges, and beneath +is a narrow ledge, which it has been presumed was a contrivance to +relieve the old monks from the fatigue of standing, during the parts of +the service where that position is prescribed by the rubric; they were +supposed to lean upon these ledges in a half-sitting posture; but a much +more reasonable conjecture is, that they were intended as rests for the +elbows and missal when kneeling in prayer; a glance at them when turned +up instantly suggests the idea of a _prie dieu_, which they closely +resemble. The lower parts of these _misereres_, as they were called, are +decorated in a most elaborate manner with carving, and supported by +bosses, sometimes of one or more figures, often foliage, fruit, and +flowers, or shields. Among them may be found the figures of a lion and +dragon biting each other; owls and little birds fighting; Sampson in +armour (?) slaying the lion; monkeys fighting, one holding a rod, another +in a wheelbarrow; the prodigal son feeding swine; a monk tearing a dog's +hind legs; another flogging a little boy, amid a group of other urchins; +and numerous other equally inexplicable designs. If, indeed, such +objects did occupy the place under the eyes of the monks at their +devotions, they must have served admirably to train the risible muscles +to self-command. + +It is among these carvings that the presumed satires are to be found, +that are attributed to the dissensions existing between the secular and +regular clergy, about the period of the building of the Cathedral; they +would have us interpret them as something akin to liberty of the press, +with all its caprices, sarcasms, and ironical sneers; but as the +self-same subjects have been found to range over the works of the carvers +from the thirteenth century down to the Reformation, and on the Continent +as well as in this country, it is much more probable that they were +copies from the illustrations of books, at that time popular, or from the +illuminations of fanciful legends, upon which the monks were continually +engaged, and which were always at hand to serve as patterns for the +workmen. The Bestiaria, a work very celebrated, has been suggested as +the source of many of the figures; among its pages figured mermaids, +unicorns, dragons, &c.; and the calendars also, in which the agricultural +pursuits of each month were depicted on the top of the page, might form +another copy to be modelled from. Such is the most probable way of +accounting for the presence of such objects, although it is possible that +in an age when the church offered scope for every talent to display +itself, so, obscure recesses were found for the offspring of these +original, though not very refined, creations of fancy, often, however, +executed by the hands of skilful craftsmen. + +One look at the antique specimen of the reading desk--a pelican +supporting it with the clot of blood on its breast, symbolizing, we are +told, the shedding of the blood of Christ, as that bird sheds its blood +for its young. It may, or may not be so--but if it be, it is indeed a +gross substitute for the eagle, a symbol that has at least poetry and +spirituality to recommend it. + +Beyond this, and behind the high altar, in the recess of the apse, once +stood the bishop's throne, a plain stone chair, in the days when the +priests did occupy their places in the church. The seat may still be +seen in the aisle, at the back of this spot, by any one adventurous +enough to climb a ladder, and peep into a niche they will find high up in +the wall. + +We let pulpits and thrones of the present day speak for themselves, and +leaving the choir, take a brief look at the fine old chapels of St. Luke +and Jesus, on the north and south side of the apse. The former still +remains in good preservation, and is used as the parish church of St. +Mary in the Marsh, destroyed by Herbert, the founder of both these +chapels, as well as the Cathedral. The only font within the precincts is +here; it is an ancient affair, brought hither from the demolished church, +and is decorated with carvings, representing the seven sacraments, the +four evangelists, and divers figures of popes, saints, confessors, &c. +Over this chapel is the treasury of the dean and chapter, from amongst +whose stores, hid up where moth and rust do corrupt, a beautiful and +curious painting of scenes in the life of Christ, has been of late years +rescued, and promoted to the honour of a place in the vestry room (the +ancient prison of the monastery), where it has been placed under a glass +case. It appears to have served originally as some part of the +decoration of an altar, and was set in a frame, the mouldings of which +are richly diapered and ornamented with gilding, with impressed work and +fragments of coloured glass inserted at intervals, a mode of enrichment +of which specimens are very rare in this country. The corners of the +frame had been removed to adapt it to the purpose of a table, at the +period of the great "dissolution," where it had remained with its back +serving for the top of the required table, until accident revealed it to +the eyes of archaeological research. + +The painting is divided into five compartments, each on a separate panel, +the subjects being the Flagellation of Christ, Christ bearing the Cross, +the Crucifixion, and the Ascension. The entire back-grounds of the +paintings are gilded and diapered in curious patterns, and the ornaments, +such as the bosses of the harness on the horses of the soldiers, the +goldsmith's work on the cingulum or belt, are in slight relief. This +mode of painting is described as being executed upon a thin coating of +composition, made of whiting and white of egg, laid on the oaken panel; +upon this the outline of the design was traced with a red line, and the +spaces designed to receive gilding were then marked out with fresh +whitening and egg; the stems marked with a modelling tool, and leaves +added by filling moulds with the paste, and fixing them by pressure on +the surface of the picture; the puncture work and little toolings were +then produced, and the modelling finished. The gilded portions were next +covered with gold leaf, and the artist proceeded with his pictures, using +transparent colours liquefied by white of egg. + +At the extreme end of the Cathedral once stood another chapel, dedicated +to St. Mary the Great, of considerable note in early times--the offerings +at the high altar amounting to immense sums--daily mass was said here for +the founder's soul in particular, his friends, relations, benefactors, +&c. The chapel was about seventy feet long and thirty broad, and had a +handsome entrance from the church; it has long since disappeared. The +Jesus chapel on the opposite side is rather a melancholy looking place at +present, one high tomb of some pretensions in the centre alone +distinguishing it from a lumber room; near this chapel, in the north +aisle, is the speculatory before alluded to, as the opening through which +the sepulchre was watched at Easter; it has, until recently, been called +the ancient "confessional," a somewhat extraordinary position for such a +priestly office to be exercised in, as were it so, the penitent must of +necessity have stood in the aisle on tiptoe to reach the ear of his +confessor in the choir, who must equally of necessity have lain upon the +ground to receive the confession. + +And now we must pass on to the cloisters, where one almost involuntarily +cries out for "the monks of old," to come and give life to the walks +among the tombs, no other earthly figure or garb, save a cowled monk, +seeming to have place in such a scene. The long lines of beautiful +windows, on the one side of pure early English tracery, on another of the +decorated period, and another line still more elaborate in its turnings +and twistings, while the last bespeaks the perpendicularism that prevails +among so many of the windows of the church--each and all are beautiful. +The splendidly carved doorway entering into the church, that has puzzled +learned and simple alike to interpret truly, is a gem, and the perfectly +preserved lavatories at the opposite corner have their own features of +interest. The roof, groined and vaulted with sculptured bosses, is +covered with fanciful and legendary carvings--the martyrdoms of saints, +St. Anthony roasting on his gridiron, &c., St. John the Baptist and +Herodias with his head in a charger; the mutilated body of another +headless saint has received from some kind charitable hand the blessing +of a new head, while the old one is under his arm; the date of this +addition or growth is uncertain--it looks very white, rather new; above +the door leading into the ancient refectory is a carving of the +Temptation, Adam and Eve and the serpent as usual; about this said +carving hangs a tale, another than the story of the Fall of man, and too +good to be omitted. The great historian of this comity, and all the +little historians that have condensed, contracted, extracted, and +dove-tailed little bits of his history together, have all with wonderful +precision agreed that above this arch was carved the _espousals_ or +Sacrament of Marriage; and upon that foundation, or perhaps rather +_under_ that head we should say, entered into elaborate details of how +this spot was the chosen site for the celebration of the sacrament of +marriage, which every one knows was performed in the _porch_ of the +church, and not in the church itself as now, but as this spot is a very +considerable number of yards distant from either church or porch, some of +those troublesome people who will be continually saying Why? and seeking +for a Because, began to look for these _espousals_, and found only a +_Temptation_. One of these individuals, of a peculiarly persevering +nature, earnestly desirous of reconciling these strange discrepancies +between the assertion of a respectable old historian, and his own +eye-sight, set to work, and the following was the result. He found that +much of this good historian's description of the cloister was a tolerably +free translation of an old Latin work by William of Worcester, the +original manuscript of which exists in the library of Corpus Christi, at +Cambridge. It was printed and edited, many years ago, by one Nasmith, +and an extract is to be found in the last edition of the Monasticon, +where the work of a bishop who built one side of the cloister is +described as extending to the arches, "in quibus maritagia dependent," +which must be translated "in which the espousals or marriages hang." Now +it seemed to this inquisitive individual that a very trivial error of the +transcriber might have entirely altered the sense of the passage; that if +the word "maritagia" should turn out to be "manut'gia" for "manutergia," +all the mystery would be explained. Upon inquiry, and inspection of the +original manuscript, this proved a correct surmise on the part of the +ingenious as well as inquisitive individual, and the arches in which the +(manutergia) _towels_ hang, _close by the lavatories_, turn out to be the +substitute for the arches in which the _espousals hang_. Overlooking the +single stroke of a pen, produced these queer misconceptions _for above a +century_. + +The following is an epitaph composed for Jacob Freeman, who was buried in +the cloister yard, where he used often to lie upon a hill and sleep, with +his head upon a stone. The old man was very hardly used by the +_committee_ for so doing, and for frequenting church porches, and +repeating the _common_ prayer to the people, in spite of ill treatment, +he being often sent to Bridewell, whipped and reproved for it. + + EPITAPH. + + "Here, in this homely cabinet, + Resteth a poor old anchoret; + Upon the ground he laid all weathers, + Not as most men, goose-like, on feathers, + For so indeed it came to pass, + The Lord of lords his landlord was; + He lived, instead of wainscot rooms, + Like the possessed, among the tombs. + As by some spirit thither led, + To be acquainted with the dead: + Each morning, from his bed so hallowed, + He rose, took up his cross, and followed; + To every porch he did repair, + To vent himself in common prayer, + Wherein he was alone devout, + When _preaching_, _jostled_, _praying out_, + In sad procession through the city, + Maugre the devil or committee, + He daily went, for which he fell + Not into _Jacob's_, but _Bridewell_, + Where you might see his loyal back + Red-lettered, like an almanack; + Or I may rather else aver, + Dominickt, like a calendar; + And him triumphing at that harm, + Having nought else to keep him warm. + With Paul he always prayed, no wonder + The lash did keep his flesh still under; + Yet whip-cord seemed to lose its sting, + When for the church, or for the king, + High loyalty in such a death + Could battle torments with mean earth; + And though such sufferings he did pass, + In spite of bonds, still _Freeman_ was. + 'Tis well his pate was weather-proof; + The palace like it had no roof; + The hair was off, and 'twas the fashion, + The _crown_ being _under sequestration_. + Tho' bald as time and mendicant, + No fryer yet, but Protestant-- + His head each morning and each even + Was watered with the dews of heaven. + He lodged alike, dead and alive, + As one that did his grave survive, + For he is now, though he be dead, + But in a manner put to bed, + His cabin being above ground yet, + Under a thin turf coverlet. + Pity he in no porch did lay, + Who did in porches so much pray; + Yet let him have this Epitaph: + Here sleeps poor Jacob, stone and staff." + +We must not close our chapter on cathedrals and bishops without some +little further notice of the more important branch of the subject, +although we venture not upon biographies of the many whose names shine +forth from among the list of "spiritual fathers," well meriting more +detailed sketching than would be here in place. Hall, Nix, Lyhart, and +Goldwell, have had their share of passing comment, but there are other +names that must not be looked over in silence. Among the earliest stands +Pandulph, the notorious legate from the Pope, during the troubled reign +of John, when disputes about the appointment of Stephen Langton to the +archbishopric of Canterbury had had our country under the interdict of +his papal majesty; and for six years all Christian rites were suppressed, +save baptism and confirmation, in consequence of jealousies between these +rival powers upon the vexed question of the right of investiture. It was +mainly through the agency of Pandulph that the king was at last inclined +to submit, in return for which the bishopric of this diocese was +conferred on the successful diplomatist. Walter de Suffield, another +name of at least great local repute, was the founder of the Old Man's +Hospital, an institution at this day in the receipt of 10,000 pounds a +year, out of which some _two hundred_ old men and women are maintained in +clothes, food, and a shilling a day, and _lodged_ in a beautiful _old +church_, founded by Lyhart at a later period, the trustees of such a fund +thinking this arrangement preferable to restoring the church to its +original use, and providing more suitable buildings for the accommodation +of the recipients of the charity. The tomb of Suffield, in his own +chapel, at the east end of the cathedral, became a shrine for worship, to +which pilgrimages were frequent, and miracles in abundance were said to +be wrought. + +Percy, brother of the famous Earl of Northumberland, was another who wore +the mitre of the see; he lies buried before the roodloft door. Henry de +Spencer, the warrior bishop, is another, who raised and headed an army of +three thousand men, and conducted it in person to Flanders, where he +figured prominently in the wars between Richard and the French king, as +well as in the struggles of Urban and Clement for the papacy. His +military fame was rivalled by his notorious zeal in the cause of his +church, evidenced by unmitigated persecution of the Lollards, whose +adherence to the doctrines of Wickliffe was rewarded by every variety of +penance or punishment that could be devised to exterminate the heresy. A +splendid monument of this spirit of the man and age is left us in the +magnificent gateway opposite the West entrance to the cathedral, erected +by Sir Thomas Erpingham, at the bidding of De Spencer, as a penance for +his sympathy with these heretical doctrines. Above the doorway is an +effigy of himself in armour, kneeling and asking pardon for his offence. +Rugg--an instrument of Henry's, in obtaining the divorce of Catherine of +Arragon; Hopkin--a notorious persecutor of the Protestants in Mary's +reign; Parkhurst--a literary celebrity; Wren--the victim of Puritanism, +which placed him a prisoner in the tower for eighteen years without a +trial; Butts--a friend of Cranmer; Horne, whose letters on infidelity +have given him a fame; and Bathurst, respected in the memory of many yet +living; are names conspicuous in the catalogue; not yet complete without +two others, Stanley and Hinde. Of Hinde we can but say his work is yet +in hand, he is earning his place in history, for some future pen to +chronicle; but may be, no fitter subject could be offered for a closing +scene to this chapter on the bishops and cathedral of this see, than +memory can recal of that day, when beneath the lofty nave of the one, a +grave was opened to receive the mortal remains of the loved and honoured +Stanley. Who, among the thousands that then gathered themselves +together, wearing not alone the outer symbols of mourning and grief, but +carrying in their hearts deep sorrow, and in their eyes _unbidden_ +tears--who will forget the solemn stillness of the thronged multitude as +the simple pall was borne, unmocked by plumes or other idle trappings of +fictitious woe, through the avenues of unhired mutes, whose heads were +bowed in heartfelt reverence, and lines of infant mourners, clad in the +livery of their benefactor's bounty, and watering the pathway to his tomb +with honest tears of childhood's love--the attitudes of grief and +saddened faces that filled the crowded aisles, and no less crowded walks +above--the hushed breathing that left the air free to echo the tones of +the wailing dirge, as it rose upon the voices of the surpliced choir, who +mourned a child of harmony, and wafted their strains of lamentation +through all the heights of the vaulted roof, while beneath its centre the +grave was receiving the earthly tabernacle of the good, the +noble-hearted, and the great in deeds of love and charity? Who does not +remember the measured tread of the dispersing thousands, as each took his +last look of the simple coffin in its last resting-place, and as the dead +march sent forth its full low notes from the organ's peal, and the rich +closing bursts of harmony proclaimed like a rush of mighty wind the +soul's release and triumph? and who has not often since lingered around +the simple marble slab that marks the spot, and felt that it had been +consecrated as a shrine, by a baptism of tears from the fountain of +loving hearts on that memorable day? + + + + +CHAPTER III. +THE CASTLE. + + +_The Castle_.--_Present aspect_.--_Grave of the Murderer_.--_Historical +Associations_.--_View from the Battlements_.--_Thorpe_.--_Kett's +Castle_.--_Lollard's Pit_.--_Mousehold_.--_Plan of Military Structure of +Feudal Times_.--_Marriage of Ralph Guader_.--_Roger Bigod_.--_Feudal +Ranks_.--_Social Life_.--_Field Sports_.--_Hawking_.--_Legend of +Lothbroc_.--_Laws of Chivalry_.--_Tournaments_.--_Feminine +Occupations_.--_Tapestry_. + +In the centre of the Old City rises one of those huge mounds, heaped up +by our ancient warrior forefathers, which here and there, over the +surface of our island, yet stand out in bold relief against the blue +back-ground of the sky, like giant models for some modern monster +twelfth-cake, only, however, occasionally crowned by the original +structures, of which they were the ground-works, and in no other case, +perhaps by one whose outward coating of modern date more thoroughly might +carry out the suggested idea of a frosted moulding, designed to grace the +summit of a supper-table fortification. + +How involuntary is the longing to peel off the pasty composition and find +the substance hidden beneath, be it as crumbly and mottled as the most +luscious monument ever reared in honour of the feast of the Epiphany, +from the era of the Magi downwards. But so it may not be; the flinty +roughnesses of the past are hidden from our eyes by the soft covering of +refined stucco, and we must be content with the attempt of ingenious +modern masonry to give us an impress of what the castle called +Blanchflower was, in lieu of beholding it unspoiled save by the hand of +time. It is, however, something to know that there really does exist +beneath that outer casing, a bona fide mass of flint and stone, some +portions of which at least have stood, even from the days of the sea-king +Canute; by him raised on the site of the royal residence of East Anglian +princes, and yet earlier dwelling place of Gurguntus and other British +kings, and by him suffered to retain the name of "Blanchflower," first +given, so legends say, by one of its royal owners in honour of his +mother, Blanche, a kinswoman of the mighty Caesar. There it yet stands, +its very roots planted high above the topmost stories of all meaner +habitations, its battlements towering to the sky, as though climbing from +their earthen base through the turrets and towers, reared as a stronghold +for human pride and ambition, to heights that would rival the lofty spire +in the valley beneath, that blends itself with the heaven to which it +points in the solemn attitude of silent devotion, as if to ask, "Which +can do the greatest works, man serving man, or man serving God?" + +With the monuments of two such spirits side by-side, fancy might wander +into perfect labyrinths of mystic and speculative thought, not void of +beauty, tracing the unseen workings of the spirit-powers there sought to +be embodied, each lingering about and shedding itself around the temple +consecrated as its shrine--devotion, yet meetly expressed in the tapering +spire--human Despotism and human frailty, finding in every age a fitting +representative within the lordly castles of the robber chiefs, from the +day when its walls formed the boundary of life to feudal wives and +slaves, and its dungeons, the tombs of vanquished foes, through every age +of its isolated grandeur, down to the picture of aggregated solitudes and +woes, that it presents in the character now assigned to it, of a +prison-home for criminals. + +But for some such sense of the invisible links that make the present +purposes to which its limits are devoted, one with the past, there might +seem to be much difficulty in connecting the picture of the felon-town +now enclosed within its walls, with any associations of history; or the +accumulations of red brick, slate-roofed ranges of well-lighted, +well-ventilated and comfortable chambers, made dark or miserable _only_ +by the spirits that tenant them, with the ideas or expectations a +castle-prison could suggest. That such should be the only _cells_ to be +found or seen, is to the eye and ear of mere curiosity an absolute +disappointment. One feels half angry at the sudden annihilation of the +vague and undefined fillings up that fancy had given to the outline of +the feudal relic. The learned may know it all before-hand, but the +uninitiated cannot fail to receive an unwelcome surprise, in finding the +substantial and important looking keep, withal its crust of stucco, +little more than a shell, whose kernel is made up of modern habitations, +as fresh-looking as though they had but yesterday sprung up as pimples on +the face of nature, a title not inappropriate to most red brick +emanations of architectural skill. But our visit to the Castle must not +be spent in such vague lamentations over what is _not_; neither would we +in our regrets desire to be classed among the morbid cravers after +horrors, that can find pleasure in condemned cells, gibbets, chains +associated with murderers, or any such like appurtenances of a county +gaol; thankfully we claim exemption from any such mental disease, nor +even as the chroniclers of facts would we dwell one moment on the points +of detail that would pander to such a taste in our fellow beings. + +A prison must ever teem with painful associations, one scarcely more so +than another, nor does the fact of an apartment, in no way differing from +those around it, having been tenanted by a Rush, whom some would call the +mighty among murderers, make it an object to our ideas more worthy either +a visit or description. The simple initials in the wall of the +prison-yard, above the dishonoured grave where he lies, with the few +others who have met a like miserable fate, speak to the heart--and we +turn from them with an inward whispering, there--who was _his_ +murderer?--was it justice, human or Divine? Did the child speak with +folly, or childhood's own wisdom, when it asked if Rush died for breaking +God's commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," _did_ not those who killed him +also break it? Such is not fiction--its simple baby logic answers for +it--but we say as to the child's query, We cannot answer you. Many a +great and noble heart recognises the minister of justice, as God's own +delegate, to claim the yielding up of his Creature's life, a satisfaction +to the broken laws of God and man. Many as great and noble, and we would +think as mindful of the great ends of justice and design of punishment, +would say, Leave the gift of God, the breath of life, at His disposal, +who has said, "Vengeance is mine;"--trust to _His justice_ as to _His +mercy_, to which alone you appeal, when sending the soul into his +presence, reeking with guilt and sin. As spoke the child, on that sad, +solemn day of darkness,--when the spirit of sin seemed to breathe over +the debased city, and spread its contaminations through every channel +where its subtle essence could find an inlet, till the moral vision of +the very purest seemed to be obscured, and the atmosphere tainted for a +while, by the sickening familiarity with the face of crime;--the last day +of the wretched victim of unrestrained passions in life and in +death,--whose struggles of vanity and egotism, with the quailings of the +flesh, evidenced by the whitening hair, the trembling hand, and vapid +mutterings, through a trial prolonged to an unheard-of length, had drawn +around him a host of witnesses, almost without a parallel in history; and +not alone of the mass of unlearned and ignorant, whom we are wont to +charge with insensibility and coarseness, nor of the stern philosopher, +nor even sickly religionists, who find some concealed duty in witnessing +elaborations of torture, but of the gentle hearts that move within the +mothers and daughters of England; and white-gloved and richly-dressed +ladies thronged to use the tickets that gained them privileged entrance +to a gallery that overlooked this spectacle of human agony--(oh! is there +one among that assembled galaxy of England's fair ones that can recal +that scene, without a shudder and a blush for the very refinements that +cast their cloak around the horrors of the reality?)--that day,--when the +festivities of concert and party over, when the merriment of the +bustling, noisy fair outside the court of trial had died away, and room +was left for the last act of the drama--as then, the child lifted up its +saddened voice, with its question so quaintly simple--so was it echoed +back to us from the grave of that poor criminal, and a torrent of +memories, linked with that fearful time, came flooding back upon us, as +the fruit of the tree of crime, whose seed was then sown before our eyes, +seemed to lie scattered at our feet, in the later-made grave, and +sin-filled cells around us. But enough of this--the darkest tragedy of +later days associated with our castle prison--how many more silent, but +not less sad, have been enacted within its limits, in chambers now +inaccessible to human tread, we may not know! how many death sighs have +been breathed out from its hidden dungeons, how many spirits violently +sundered from their earthly tabernacles, and sent wandering through +eternity before a home had been prepared for their rest, the record books +of earth yield no account, but they are registered above; shall it avail +to plead, "Am I my brother's keeper?" when the great final day of +reckoning shall come, and the judges and rulers of the earth shall be +summoned to give an account of their stewardship? But these are _not_ +the thoughts awakened upon crossing the threshold of this portal, for, +strange to say, the first greeting offered us, is the smiling welcome of +gay, liberty-loving flowers, blooming as sweetly and merrily in that +atmosphere of sin and sorrow, as ever they could have done on mountain +heath or valley's dell. Who knows what messages of hope and love these +simple tenants of the miniature conservatory have breathed to weary, +sin-laden hearts, bowed down in penitence for guilt! There was kindness +in the heart that placed them there, and justice is blessed in owning +servitors that do her bidding with such gentle mien. Modern prisons, +their advantages and defects, have formed subjects for the pens of many +writers; no need, therefore, that we longer dwell on this aspect of our +city stronghold. Colonies of zebra-clad prisoners tenant the wards, and +thread the intricate passages leading through tiers and radiating wings +of cells, so cunningly arranged that, amid all the appearance of +congregations, separation and solitude is ensured, even upon the giant +wheel itself, and still further, even in the place for worship, where +boardings, shelvings, and all manner of strangely devised contrivances, +prevent communion between the several classes of the unfortunate, that +suspected and condemned may not mingle, the felony and the misdemeanour +may not be in juxtaposition; these are the features that meet the eye, +and it would not be right to leave such judicious arrangements +unnoticed,--albeit our visit to the castle walls may have more to do with +its past than present history. + +Tradition assigns the foundation of this castle to Gurguntus, the son of +Belinus, the twenty-fourth king of Britain from Brutus, who, having +observed in the east part of Britain a place well fitted by nature for +the building a fortress on, founded a certain castle of a square form, +and of white stone, on the top of a high hill near a river, which castle +was completed by his successor, Guthulinus, who "encompassed it with a +wall, bank, and double ditches, and made within it subterraneous vaults +of a long and blind or intricate extent." Another early writer ascribes +to Julius Caesar the honour of being its founder, and explains the origin +of certain rents and fissures, perceptible in its sides before its recent +restoration, to the earthquake that shook the earth "when the vail of the +temple was rent in twain;"--he adds, that afterwards Thenatius, Lud's son +by marriage with Blanche, kinswoman of Julius, gave it the name of +"Blancheflower." Others attribute this title to the whiteness of its +walk, and assign to the Normans its appropriation to the edifice they +found existing here. + +Without doubt, as the metropolis of the Iceni, it was an important place +prior to the advent of the Saxons, who made it the royal seat of the +kings of East Anglia, and afterwards the residence of governors, called +aldermen, dukes, or earls. During the Danish wars, the castle was often +lost and won again, until Alfred the Great wholly subdued the Danes, and +he is said to have greatly improved its fortifications. The original +structure, however, is said to have fallen a sacrifice to the ravages of +the Danes under Sweyn, and the present edifice is attributed to Canute, +his son, upon his return after his flight upon the accession of Ethelred. +The supposition of its being the work of the Normans after the Conquest +is totally refuted by the events recorded as having transpired within its +precincts, while in the custody of Ralph Guader, who took possession of +it in the seventh year of William's reign. The elevation upon which the +castle and its fortifications were founded, some writers have conjectured +to be originally the work of heathen worshippers, who raised such like +giant temples to the sun; others have suggested the possibility of its +forming a portion of the famous Icknild Way. + +This, in common with other military structures of the same period, which +were mostly built upon one plan, their chief strength consisting in their +height and inaccessibility, originally included within its boundaries a +considerable space of ground; the outer ballium (bailey or court) having +an elevation of about one hundred feet above the level of the river; and +the inner, upon which stands the keep, raised by art about twenty feet +higher, with the soil of the inner ditch--still remain entire; originally +three ditches surrounded the castle, from their circular form betokening +great antiquity; the second and third have been long filled up and built +over, but are distinctly traceable to the eye of persevering enquiry. + +The original entrance to the outer court was from Burgh Street, at the +end of which was the barbican, or passage leading to the first +draw-bridge and gate; the second was opposite, and intermediate between +it and the present bridge; a draw-bridge formerly occupied the site of +the present road-way across, at the end of which stood the gateway for +raising it with a strong tower above it, only removed within the last +century. + +Two round towers at the upper end of the draw-bridge, whose foundations +still remain, constituted additional defences of the upper ballium. +Connected with the tower on the west side, were dungeons or vaults, until +recently in use for prisoners before their committal. + +The keep, which occupies but a small portion of the original plan, is +about seventy feet high, and ninety-two feet long, by ninety-six broad. + +The walls are composed of flint rubble, faced with Caen stone, intermixed +with a stone found in the neighbourhood. + +The keep bore the same relation to the castle as the citadel to a +fortified town; it was the last retreat of the garrison, and contained +the apartments of the baron or commandant. Little of these is, however, +left us to explore; the outer wall with its ornamental arches being, as +we before hinted, nothing more than a shell surrounding an open yard, now +filled by detached modern buildings, occupying the site of the spacious +and magnificent chambers that once filled the interior. + +Upon the surface of these walls, within are distinctly traceable the +original openings to the various compartments, now filled up by masonry; +but within the memory of some yet living, the dungeons and storehouses of +the basement story were standing, and were accessible by stair-cases in +the north-east and south-west angles. + +The entrance to the first floor is on the east side, by a flight of steps +leading to a platform projecting outside fourteen feet from the wall. It +is now covered in, and forms a spacious vestibule, having three open +arches towards the east, one on the north, and one on the south, in which +is the entrance. It is usually called Bigod's tower, its erection being +by some attributed to Roger Bigod, in the reign of William Rufus, and by +others to Hugh Bigod, during the twelfth century; the whole of it has +undergone restoration. The doorway from the vestibule is through an +archway of Saxon character, supported by five columns with ornamented +capitals; two columns only remain; upon the capital of the first, on the +left, is a bearded huntsman in the act of blowing a horn, with a sword by +his side, and holding with his left hand a dog in slips, which appears to +be attacking an ox; on the second capital is another huntsman, spearing a +wild boar of an unusual size. + +The fable of the wolf and lamb, the wolf and crane, a monstrous head and +arms, attached to the bodies of two lions, are amongst the other +ornamental carvings, traceable on the other portions of the capitals and +arches, but greatly mutilated. + +Prior to the restoration of the tower, this archway had been totally +concealed by masonry; it is only surprising, therefore, that so much of +it should still be in so good a state of preservation. + +A corridor led from this entrance to the chapel, which was on this floor +in the south-east angle, with an oratory or sanctum in the corner, +separated from it by an archway supported by two columns, the capitals of +which are ornamented, and at the angles are figures of pelicans. The +columns are decidedly Norman, the costumes and helmets bearing close +resemblance to those on the Bayeux tapestry. On the east side of the +oratory is a curious altar-piece in five compartments, representing the +Trinity, St. Catherine, St. Christopher, St. Michael and the Dragon, and +another figure too much mutilated to be recognized. + +We confess ourselves indebted for these details, to more erudite and +heroic adventurers in the voyage of discovery among these ruins than +ourselves, the inaccessible looking archway of the oratory high upon the +wall, to be attained only by crossing a plank from a tier of cells +opposite, offering little temptation to us to ascertain for ourselves the +accuracy of statements made by learned authorities, whose researches we +presume neither to question nor emulate. We do not venture to trespass +on paths so much more ably trodden; what pleases or strikes the eye of +the simple observer, we may note, perhaps often deriving sensations of +pleasure from objects that may offend the cultivated taste of the +connoisseur, but as we plead ignorance, we trust to meet with indulgence. +Associations, rather than details of outline, cluster round our minds in +visiting these scenes, and on them we dwell. + +The kitchens and dormitories were also on this floor, the former +accessible by a long narrow passage in the north wall, from the spiral +stairs in the north-east angle. + +The next floor was occupied by the state apartments; and on the exterior +of the west side are four large windows with central columns, opposite to +corresponding openings in the inner wall for the admission of light into +the interior. The gallery on this side contains three little recesses, +or chambers, as they would have us call them, benched on either side, and +probably intended as waiting-rooms for the attendants. It communicated +with the south-west flight of stairs, but although these yet remain, they +are not safe to be explored. + +The gallery on the north side has similar windows, and is reached by the +north-east staircase, with which the kitchen gallery communicates; the +passage is vaulted, and the tracings of large archways, in the inner +wall, filled in by masonry, have led to the idea that a large banqueting +chamber traversed this side of the building, the entrance to which would +be immediately connected with the grand entrance from the tower. Another +gallery, somewhat similar, runs along the south wall, not now accessible. +These three galleries are all that remain entire of the original +apartments, the various archways and outlines in the walls, rather +suggesting than deciding questions concerning the arrangement of the +interior filling up. + +Having finished our explorings among these hollow portions of the walls, +the winding stairs lead on to the giddy heights of the ramparts, where a +scene awaits the adventurer's eye, that may well repay a steady effort to +conquer the propensity to walk over the unprotected side towards the +court within. And here we pause to take a survey of the picture as it +lies out before us; houses, slated, tiled, thatched and leaded, with +their forests of chimneypots, the growth and accumulations of centuries; +high pinnacles of brick, sending forth their volumes of smoke from huge +factories, telling their tales of human skill and genius triumphing over +the powers of earth, air, and water, bringing into subjection the sinews +of rock and veins of ore, and training them, by the aid of invisible and +subtle fluids, to yield obedience to the will of man, and minister to the +wants and luxuries of his being; windmills spreading out their giant arms +to stay the very winds of heaven in their path till they have done their +work; waters checked in their onward course till their rebellious force +has been turned to profit; all speak of matter visible and invisible, +made subject to spirit power, and ministering to the will and wants of +man. Tales, too, of human toil and suffering, of wasting labour, spent +in the service of luxury and indolence, burthen the air breathed forth +from groaning engine-houses, and rising up from hidden nests of poverty +that lie sheltered beneath the eaves of rich men's habitations, whose +fair frontings to modern streets or road-ways, too often form but outer +coatings of decency to masses of corruption hidden away in close yards, +courts, and alleys, at their back--church towers, and spires, and turrets +in manifold variety and abundance; and prominent among the host, stands +out in all the glory of hale old age, fine old St Peter's, looking down +from his proud eminence in solemn dignity, and smiling at all the feeble +efforts of the mushrooms clinging to his very base to hide his fair +proportions; far and wide may we look to find his peer, even among such +gems of beauty as the patron saints so lavishly have scattered among the +lanes and thoroughfares of this very garden of churches. Such are the +city features of the panoramic see; turning to another point of view, +away, beyond the foreground of the sheep and cattle pens that bespeak the +conversion of the ancient inner ballium into a modern market-place for +live stock, and across the deep running channel laden with crafts not yet +wholly superseded in their labours by steam--that infant Hercules, whose +leading-strings are compassing the surface of the globe--we catch a +glance of the hanging woods of the fairest village our Norfolk scenery +may boast, whose Richmond-like gardens skirting the pathway of the +winding river, and meadow lands beyond, dotted here and there by the +alder cars that once gave a name to the Benedictine convent close by, +form a landscape of mingled animation and quiet rural beauty, not often +to be equalled in the suburbs of a manufacturing city. No marvel why +gala spots for pleasure-loving citizens should be found interspersed +among the more refined parterres of the wealthy upon the shores; no +marvel that a summer's evening should witness crowds of holiday-seeking +folks, thronging to taste the sweets of fresh air, and rest from labour, +in the midst of so fair a scene. + +No marvel that a water frolic becomes dignified into a regatta there, +that for once, within the circuit of the year, the great and small, the +proud and humble, rich and poor, can mingle, to look together upon a +common object of amusement--that fashion and poverty can meet in the +field of pleasure--St. Giles and St. James acknowledge the existence, nor +frown at the presence of each other. And who does not rejoice in the +festivity, almost the sole remnant of national sport left us in this +iron-working age? Who that can spare an hour from the counter or the +loom, or desk--from scribbling six-and-eight-penny opinions, or +scratching hieroglyphical prescriptions for _aqua pura_ draughts, does +not contrive to find some mode of transit by earth, air, or water to the +scene of mirth. Even a soaking shower is unavailing to damp the ardour +of the multitude, and not unseldom lends fresh stimulus to fun and +laughter among the merry-hearted denizens of smoke-dried city streets and +lanes. But we must not linger in their midst--the gay pleasure-boats, +with their shining sails, tacking and bending to the breeze, the swift +skullers in the gay uniforms, the eager faces that line the course, the +signal guns and flags of victory, the music, and the mirth--all tell that +the spirit of enjoyment is not yet quite gone out from among us. We must +now pass to other, and far different objects, and from the present, +travel back to the past, whose page of history unfolds itself in the +nearer object that meets our eye, the whitened sides of the "Lollard's +pit," where martyrs of old poured forth their dying prayers; and yielded +up their bodies to be burned as witness of their faith--where Bilney +listened to the words of his murderers, beseeching him to release them +before the people from all blame, that they might not suffer loss of +popularity or alms--and where he turned and said: "I pray you, good +people, be never worse to these men for my sake, as though they should be +the authors of my death. It is not they;"--then was bound to the stake +and slowly burned, in the presence of the multitudes that clothed the +natural amphitheatre around. The heights above are crowned by the ruins +of the old priory of St. Leonards, on the one side, and on the other by a +few fragments of St. Michael's chapel, whose vestiges, under a name +assigned to them through their later notoriety, as the stronghold of the +rebel Kett, yet linger as landmarks on the early pathway of national +progress and reform. + +There sat the "King of Norfolk," as he was styled, and held his councils +of state under the old oak, which bore thenceforth the title of the "oak +of the Reformation;"--there morning and evening service were daily read +to the rebel forces, and the Litany and Te Deum were listened to with +solemn earnestness. There Parker, the future archbishop of Canterbury, +ventured into the midst of the rebel camp, and, under the shade of the +oak, sent forth the voice of exhortation to the discontented, but to +little effect. Enclosed lands, commons stolen from the public, and other +grievances suffered by the poor from the hands of the rich, lay at the +hearts of the people, and the prelate's errand of peace had well nigh +terminated ill, but for the power of music--the solemn Te Deum burst +forth from the voice of the rebel's chaplain, and swelled by many +"singing voices" into a loud strain of sweet harmony, fell upon the ear +of the multitude, like oil upon the raging waters, and by its sweetness +shed peace for the time on all around. In this rebellion fell the +gallant Earl of Sheffield, in his zeal to aid the efforts of the Earl of +Warwick to quell the outburst of the people's will; while beside him +figured Dudley, the hero of Kenilworth, and cruel husband of the hapless +Amy Robsart. The popular prophecy-- + + The country gnoffes, Hob, Dick, and Hick, + With clubs and clouted shoon, + Shall fill the vale of Duffendale + With slaughtered bodies soon-- + +was fulfilled, and besiegers and besieged were among the victims. That +there is no war like civil war was verified; the wounded plucked the +arrows from their wounds, that they might be sent back dripping with +their blood to the hearts of their kinsmen and foes. The watchword, +"Gentlemen ruled aforetime, a number will rule now another while," +testified to the turning of the worm when trodden on--evidencing the +ripening germ of the same spirit that had in earlier times wrung from the +tyrant monarch a "Magna Charta," and will yet, by agencies far other than +arrow, spear, or sword, obtain for an independent people, who can +reverence the laws of order and of right, every charter that shall be +needed to gain them their due place in the pillar of the state, where +neither capitol nor column can bear its own weight, without a base of +solid and fair proportions, to give harmony, strength, and beauty to the +whole. + +Among the aggravating causes that led to this insurrection, so famous in +our country's annals, the desecration of church furniture and vestments, +that had followed the footsteps of the Reformation, stood prominently +forth; the people's hearts rebelled against the havoc made amongst the +objects they had been taught to look upon as holy--and as these deeds of +licence had been simultaneous with encroachments upon their temporal +rights of pasture and common land, a double feeling was engendered--a +longing for social and political freedom, and a desire to reform a +Reformation that was marked by such atrocious want of reverence for all +that had been sacred. Conservatism and ultra-radicalism were blended, +even as in many minds to this hour they grow together. Connected with +this event of history, are two memorials that mark it as of national +interest--the Homily on Rebellion which was written against the +insurgents, and the institution of lord lieutenants of counties, as +safeguards against such another sudden and formidable outbreak in any +part of the kingdom. + +Stretching away far as the eye may reach, is the broad moor, laid bare of +forest trees by these same rebel forces, now clothed with yellow furze +and purple heather, intertwined with clovewort and ranunculus, and hiding +beneath, the crimson-tipped lichen, whose sanguine clubs and cups would +seem to have drank from the soil the blood of the slain, and rendered it +immortal. Bowl-shaped excavations dotted over its surface, testify of +Celtic habitations hollowed out in remote ages, beneath the forest +shades, roofed by its boughs, and lying hidden among the leaves like +lower birds' nests,--now in barren desolation, serving well the vagrant +purposes of gypsy life, and lending a feature to the scene that Lavengro +has painted with a master-hand. + +And now the eye reposes from its survey--and thought flies back to the +day when the distant sea swept around the base of the castle of +Blanchflower, and filled the valley below--to the era of the brave Iceni, +and the sorrows of the warrior queen, Boadicea--to the advent of the +mighty Caesar,--the appropriating Saxons,--and the savage Danes and +Norsemen, with their pirate hordes, storming the outposts of the military +camp from their uncouth naval fleets,--and thence to the era of the +Norman hero planting his foot upon our soil, when barons multiplied in +the land; and one scene of history enacted within the castle walls, +bearing this date, tells much of feudal laws and feudal power. + +The earldom of the city, castle, and meadow lands, being then possessed +by a Breton, named Ralph de Gael, or Guader, partly by gift from the +Conqueror, partly perhaps by force of arms, this local sovereign designed +to wed the daughter of one Fitz-Osborn, a relation of William. + +This matrimonial scheme not pleasing his lord the king, without ceremony +it was prohibited; but in that day of might _versus_ might, earls and +barons would sometimes have a will of their own, and the fair affianced +was made a bride within the chapel walls, whose doorway in an angle, +marks the site of the act of disobedience; the banquetting room then +received the bridal guests, and the sumptuous feast, with its attendant +libations, witnessed a yet more decided scene of rebellion; the +bridegroom and the bride's own brother, the Earl of Hereford, already +committed by carrying the forbidden marriage into effect, became eloquent +and bold in their language and designs, until a chorus of excited voices +joined them in oaths that sealed them as conspirators against their +absent sovereign. Treachery revealed the plot, and the church lent its +aid to the crown to crush the rebels. Lanfranc, the primate and +archbishop, sent out troops, headed by bishops and justiciaries, the +highest dignitaries of church and law, to oppose and besiege them; the +bridegroom fled for succour to his native Brittany, leaving his bride for +three months to defend the garrison with her followers, at the end of +which time the brave Emma was compelled to capitulate, but upon mild +terms, obtaining leave for herself and followers to flee to Brittany; her +husband thenceforth became an outlaw--her brother was slain, and scarcely +one guest present at that ill-fated marriage feast escaped an untimely +end. Each prisoner lost a right foot, many their eyes, and all their +worldly goods. A sorrowful romance of real life, to mark the early +history of our castle halls. + +Nor did the city go unscathed, the devastation carried into its midst by +the siege was heavy; many houses were burnt, many deserted by those who +had joined the earl, and it is curious to read in the valuation of land +and property that was taken soon after this event, how many houses are +recorded as "_void_" both in the burgh or that part of the city under the +jurisdiction of the king and earl, as well as in other portions subject +to other lords, for it would seem that the landlords of the soil on which +stood the city were three, the king or earl of the castle, the bishop, +and the Harold family, relatives of him who fell at Hastings. Clusters +of huts then congregated round the base of the hill and constituted the +feudal village; its inhabitants consisting of villains, of which there +were two classes, the husbandmen or peasants annexed to the manor or +land, and a lower rank described in English law as villains-in-gross, in +simple terms, absolute slaves, transferable by deed from one owner to +another, whose lives, save for the ameliorations of individual +indulgences, were a continued helpless state of toil, degradation and +suffering; the socmen or tenants holding land by some _service_, (not +knightly) and bordars or boors, who occupied a position somewhat above +the serfs or villains, and held small portions of land with cottages or +_bords_ on them, on condition they should supply the lord with poultry, +eggs, and other small provisions for his board and entertainment. + +Freemen seem to have included all ranks of society holding in military +tenure; they lived under the protection of great men, but in their +persons were free; the rural labourers were divided into ploughmen, +shepherds, neat-herds, cow-herds, swine-herds, and bee-keepers. The +"haiae" belonging to the manor houses were enclosed places, hedged or +paled round, into which beasts were driven to be caught. At the time of +the survey in William's reign the estimate of the tenants and fiefs of +the earl and king is taken as one thousand five hundred and sixty-five +burgesses, Englishmen paying custom to the king, one hundred and ninety +mansions void, and four hundred and eighty _bordars_; the bishop's +territory contained thirty-seven burgesses, and seven mansions void; and +on the property of the deceased Harold, there were fifteen burgesses and +seven mansions void. + +After the banishment of Earl Ralph, the castle was given to Ralph Bigod, +who was styled the Constable, as was usual when any castle was committed +to a baron or earl, and he exercised royal power within the jurisdiction +of the castle. To him succeeded Roger Bigod, a great favourite and +friend of Henry I., and one of the witnesses to the laws made by him +during his reign. William, the son of Roger, succeeded his father, and +by King Henry was made steward of his household. This William was +drowned at sea, and his brother Hugh became possessed of his estate and +honours. To him is referred the finishing and beautifying of the tower +of the castle; but he was supplanted in the office of constable by +William de Blois, Earl of Moreton, son of King Stephen. He in his turn +was dispossessed of it by Henry II. Hugh Bigod joined with the son of +Henry, afterwards Henry III., in his revolt against his father, for which +adherence he was reinstated in the Castle of Blancheflower, but was +obliged again to surrender when the son repented of his rebellion, and +submitted to his father. + +To Hugh succeeded another Roger Bigod, his son, who received from the +hands of Richard I. the earldom of Norfolk and stewardship of the king's +household, and most probably was constable of the castle also. During +the troubled reign of John, it passed into the hands of Lewis, son of the +French king, who made William de Bellomont, his marshal, constable, and +placed him with a garrison within its walls. To him succeeded Roger +Bigod, who figured amongst the revolting barons in the reign of Henry +III. At the memorable interview between the confederated nobles and the +king, at the parliament in Westminster, he took a leading part in the +proceedings. All the barons having assembled in complete armour, as the +king entered, there is described to have been a rattling of swords; his +eye gleaming along the mailed ranks he asked, "What means this? Am I a +prisoner?" "Not so," replied Roger Bigod, "but your foreign favourites +and your own extravagance have involved this realm in great wretchedness, +whereof we demand that the powers of government be made over to a +committee of bishops and barons, that the same may root up abuses and +enact good laws." The committee when formed numbered in its list both +Roger of Norfolk earl marshal, and Hugh Bigod. In this reign it is +mentioned that the castle became a gaol for the county, and state +prisoners were confined here. Many a dark tragedy was doubtless +witnessed by its dungeon walls during those troubled times, when civil +wars were hourly peopling them with political offenders. In Edward II.'s +reign the castle was partly re-fortified, but in the following reign, +falling completely out of repair, it came to be regarded simply as a +county jail, and its jurisdiction vested in the hands of the sheriff of +the county. + +Among the historical facts of later date, connected with the castle, and +bearing date of the same year as that in which Queen Elizabeth visited +the city, is an order issued from Whitehall, to the sheriff of Norfolk, +to imprison within the castle walls certain persons who refused to attend +the service of the church; the letter is preserved among Cole's +manuscripts in the British Museum; the copy of it which is published by +the Archaeological Society, runs thus: + + To our loving Friend Mr. Gawdry, Sherif of the Countie of Norfolk. + + After our hearty Commendations: whereas We have given order to the + Sheref of the Countie of Suffolke to deliver certain Prisoners into + your hands, who were by our order commytted for their obstinacy in + refusing to come to the Church in time of Sermons sad Common Prayers: + Thes shal be to require you to receive them into your chardge and + forthwith to commytt them to such of her Majesty's gaoles within that + Countie as shall seeme good unto the Lord Bishop of Norwiche, by + whose direction they shall be delivered unto you, ther to remayne in + Cloase Prison untill such tyme as you shalbe otherwise directed from + us. And so we bid you heartely farewell. + + From Whitehall, the xxiijrd of February, 1878. + + Your loving Freands + + W. Burghley. E. Lyncoln. T. Sussex. + + F. Knollys. E. Leycester. + + Chr. Hatton. Fra. Walsingham. Tho. Wilson. + +In 1643 an order was sent to fortify the castle, at the request of the +deputy lieutenant of the county; the order is signed by seven staunch and +influential opponents of the royal party, viz. Tho. Wodehouse, John +Palgrave, Tho. Hoggan, Miles Hobart, J. Spelman, Tho. Sotherton, Gre. +Gawsett. + +Information concerning it from this period is scanty, probably little of +interest is connected with its later history, beyond the calendar of +prisoners who have been lodged within its precincts, of which we have no +record, and were it otherwise, we should be reluctant to consult its +pages for materials to enhance the attractions of our "Rambles." + +It is to the history of the period prior to its appropriation as a +prison, that we must look for a picture of the life once animating its +halls and banquet chambers, and from the general outlines of feudal +society and government, a tolerably faithful portrait of it may be drawn. + +The age of feudalism has been extolled with enthusiasm only equal to that +which has deprecated it beyond measure; it has even been proposed as a +model for future ages by the cotemporary voice to that which has +pronounced it as exclusively a time of immorality, despotism, and +superstition; between the two extremes, a wide field of truth lies open +to be explored. + +"It was a time," as Guizot says, "when religion was the principle and end +of all institutions, while military functions were the forms and means of +action." + +All social movements partook of this twofold character, as questions of +commerce and industry were decidedly subordinate. + +The land was divided between the military barons possessed of regal +authority and governing as kings in their petty kingdoms--the church, +also proprietors of large estates, and the cities, then only beginning to +rise from their abject nullity into an importance that has gone on +increasing until commerce has become the sovereign of the world--Mammon +its god. The individualism of barbarism was sunk in the centralisation +to which this system gave birth; and from the social arrangements +connected with it, sprung up that spirit of chivalry that was so marked a +characteristic of the times, than which nothing more fully exemplified +the singular combination of military and religious fervour. Isolated +from all communion with general society, a castle was at once a city and +a family in itself, youths were apprenticed, as it were, to learn the +usages of knighthood, and in the capacity of pages, from earliest +boyhood, were initiated into the forms and courtesies of chivalrous and +military exercises. In this task women bore their part, the youths being +ever treated as sons of the lord or knight under whose tutelage they had +been placed; from this they became promoted to the rank of esquires, and +perfected in the arts of tilting, riding, hunting, and hawking, +frequently of music, and in case of war were qualified to follow the +banner of their instructors. The rank or military renown of a baron +helped to swell the list of esquires and pages in his retinue; hence many +castles were complete colleges of chivalry. The close association of +years in such familiar relationship cut off from all other social +communion, engendered strong attachments, and fraternities, superseding +often the ties of common relationship, sprung up. + +The imposing ceremony that accompanied the distinction of knighthood was +the finishing touch to this education. The candidate, after several +lonely nights of prayer and watching in some church or chapel, during +which period he received the sacraments of religion, was finally arrayed +in full splendour, conducted in grand procession to a church with the +sword of knighthood suspended by a scarf; the weapon was blessed by an +officiating priest, and the oaths administered which bound him to defend +the church and clergy, be the champion of virtuous women, especially the +widow or orphan, and to be gentle ever to the weak. Warriors then of +high degree, or ladies, then buckled on the spurs, clothed him in suits +of armour, and the prince or noble from whom he received the knighthood, +finally advanced, and giving the accolade, which consisted of three +gentle strokes with the flat of the sword, exclaimed, "In the name of +God, St. Michael, and St. George, I make thee a knight; be hardy, brave, +and royal." From this date he might aspire to the highest offices and +distinctions. + +The domestic comforts that graced the private life within these castle +halls, formed striking contrasts to the magnificence of the knightly and +military displays, although the walls often were hung with gorgeous +tapestries, and the banqueting table groaned beneath the weight of gold +and silver, the refinements essential to modern ideas of comfort were +unknown. The fingers of the eater supplied the place of forks, and when +withdrawn from rich dishes, were often employed in tearing the morsels of +food asunder. Straw and rushes were the substitutes for carpets, and +clumsy wooden benches and tables supported the guests and viands at these +entertainments; those who were unfortunate enough not to obtain a seat at +the board were compelled to make use of the floor. Several English +estates were held upon condition of furnishing straw for royal beds, and +litter for the apartment floors of a palace; and the office of rush +strewer remained in the list of the royal household to a very late +period. Doubtless these deficiences were of slight importance to an +active out-door people, whose happiness consisted in large retinues, rich +armours, and splendid tournaments; even the ladies, with hunting, +hawking, and the occasional amusement of displaying their skill in +archery from the loop-holes or ramparts of their castles, when acting as +viceroys for their sovereign lords, no doubt could well dispense with the +minor occupations of refined civilization. + +The bill of fare of a feudal banquet would possibly astonish and puzzle +the gastronomic powers and digestive organs of the nineteenth century, +although cookery was esteemed as a noble science even then, in the days +when Soyer was not. The boar's head, the peacock, occasionally served up +in his feathers, the crane or young herons, might not have been +altogether bad substitutes for turkeys and geese, but whether larded, +roasted, and eaten with ginger, and often served in their feathers, they +might have been suited to our modern tastes is problematical; porpoises +and seals that often appeared in the list of "goodly provisions" for +special occasions, may scarcely be deemed more of dainties; and the +compounds that figure in some of the recipes extant, of the more mystical +entrees, present to the eye such medleys, that we feel certain of a +preference for the plain "roast" or "boil," in feudal times, at least, if +not at all others. Force-meats, compounded of pork, figs, cheese, and +ale, seasoned with pepper, saffron, and salt, baked in a crust, and +garnished with powderings of sugar and comforts, may be quoted as a +sample of their made dishes, while beef-tea, enriched with pork fat, +beaten up with cream and sweetened with honey, as directed by their form, +possibly was classed among the delicate soups, or ranged under the head +of "_sick cookery_." + +The bread that formed the substitute for our best and "second +households," was of various kinds, the finest being a sort of spice-cake +of superior quality; simnel and wastel cakes were the ordinary food for +the aristocracy, while commoners were content with a coarse brown +material manufactured from rye, oats, or barley, that would at this day +cause a revolution in prisons, or pauper workhouses, were it to be found +in the dietary table of either, much less on the dinner-table. The +special wines, hippocras, pigment, morat, and mead, were the temptations +to inebriety among the rich; cider, perry, and ale, the form of alcoholic +drinks common to the less affluent. + +The record of Peter de Blois, in one of his letters from the Court of +Henry II., may be estimated perhaps as a faithful, if not attractive, +description of the ordinary fare on which many unfortunate knights and +retainers were sometimes compelled to subsist. He tells us that a priest +or soldier had bread put before him, "not kneaded, not leavened, made of +the dregs of beer, like lead, full of bran, and unbaked, wine spoiled by +being sour or mouldy, thick, greasy, rancied, tasting of pitch, and +vapid, sometimes so full of dregs, that they were compelled rather to +filter than drink it, with eyes shut and teeth closed; meat stale as +often as fresh; fish often four days old." The picture is heightened by +sundry details of a pungent character, all tending to prove the truth of +his assertion, that powerful exercise was an essential assistant to +overcome the evils of such diet. Early hours possibly contributed to +lessen its injurious effects; and these of course, at any rate as far as +regarded the "early to bed," were enforced by the curfew, which has so +mistakenly been attributed to the Norman Conqueror's despotism, whereas +it had long prevailed as a custom here, as on the continent, prior to his +era, and was, in fact, a necessary precaution against the dangers of +fire, when the dwelling-houses that formed a town or city were little +more than bundles of faggots, well dried and bound up ready for burning. + +Among the social amusements of that time, gambling seems to have +prevailed to a great extent. The curious prohibitions that were enacted +in the reign of Richard, would indicate that it had then grown into a +formidable vice; kings were permitted to play with each other, and +command their followers, but the nobles were restricted to losing twenty +shillings in one night; priests and knights might, with permission, play +to the same amount, but were to forfeit four times twenty shillings if +they exceeded it; servants might also play to a limited extent, at the +_command_ of their master, but if they ventured without such permission, +they subjected themselves to the penalty of being whipped three +successive days; and mariners at sea, for a like transgression, were +sentenced to be ducked three times for the offence. Chess, that infinite +and insoluble intellectual problem, whose origin is lost in oriental +obscurity, was introduced by the Crusaders on their return from their +expeditions to the Holy Land, if, indeed, as some believe, it was not +known in this country prior to that date; but if we may judge by +inference, we may presume it to have been no favourite recreation in +those spirit-stirring times, when crusades, tournaments, and military +prowess were the end and aim of men's lives. The amusements and sports +naturally partook of the character of the age, and hunting, hawking, +tilting, and tournaments were at once the schools for gaining strength +and dexterity, as well as safety-valves for the overflowing mobility +engendered by the spirit of the times. These pursuits were elevated to +the rank of perfect sciences, and the education of a youth was incomplete +that did not embrace regular tuition in all of them. Nor were they, as +we know, confined to the "lords of the creation." In hunting, ladies not +only often joined in the sport, but frequently formed parties by +themselves, winding the horn, rousing the game, and pursuing it without +assistance, the female Nimrods manifesting especial partiality to +greyhounds--or hare-hounds, as they were then called. The objects of +these hunts were somewhat more numerous and varied then than now, and +were divided into three classes; first, the beasts for hunting, viz. the +hare, the hart, the wolf, and the wild boar; secondly, the beasts of the +chase, the buck and doe, the fox, the martin, and the roe; and a minor +class, which were said to afford great disport in the pursuit, the +_grey_, or badger, the wild cat, and the otter. + +The poor little hare and a fox or two, alone are left us of all these +original tenants of the soil; and game laws were, even in those days of +plentiful supply, found needful to preserve the aborigines of the woods +as their especial property, by the great ones of the land, and when +manslaughter was to be atoned for by a fine of money, the death of a head +of deer was punishable by the forfeiture of the offender's eyes, and a +second instance by death. Who will dispute the aristocratic lineage of +the game laws, with such facts of history before them? Hunting had its +proper seasons; the wolf and fox might be hunted from Christmas-day to +the Annunciation, the roebuck from Easter to Michaelmas, the roe from +Michaelmas to Candlemas, the hare from Michaelmas to Midsummer, the boar +from the Nativity to the day of the "Presentation in the Temple." + +The clergy were not behind-hand in partaking of the privileges of the +chase within their own demesnes, and they took care generally to have +good receptacles for game in their parks and enclosures. At the time of +the Reformation, the see of Norwich had no less than thirteen parks well +stocked with deer; and the name of one of the city churches, St. Peter's, +Hungate, is derived from the _Hound's_-gate, where the bishop's hounds +were stabled. + +Hawking was a sport, until the magna charta, exclusively confined to the +nobility; lords and ladies alike indulged themselves in the exercise, +which from its gentleness, in comparison with others then in vogue, was +deemed somewhat an effeminate pastime, probably because, in the delicate +dexterity it required, the ladies bore off the palm of victory. + +A hawk's eyrie was returned in doomsday-book as one of the most valuable +articles of property; and the estimation in which the bird was held, may +be judged of by the enormous prices given for them, and the heavy +penalties attached to stealing either them or their eggs; for destroying +one of which the offender was liable to imprisonment for a twelvemonth +and a day. Perhaps, however, this is no very safe criterion of their +intrinsic value, or those sentences that sometimes figure in our modern +assize reports--where seven years' transportation for stealing two ducks +from an open pond, stands side by side with twelve months' imprisonment +for murdering a wife, a friend, or a child, in a fit of temporary +insanity, alias intoxication--might lead to rather curious inferences. + +But to return to our hawks; a thousand pounds for a cast of these birds, +and a hundred marks for a single one, are recorded prices. In hawking, +the bird was carried on the wrist, which was protected by a thick glove, +the head of the bird covered with a hood, and its feet secured to the +wrist by straps of leather, called jesses, and to its legs were fastened +small bells, toned according to the musical scale. + +Among the chronicles of old monkish writers prior to the Conquest, is a +story accounting for the first advent of the Danes upon our shores, as +connected with the amusement of hawking: "A Danish chieftain of high +rank, named Lothbroc, amusing himself with hawking near the sea, upon the +western shores of Denmark, the bird in pursuit of her game fell into the +water; Lothbroc, anxious for her safety, got into a little boat that was +near at hand, and rowed from the shore to take her up; but before he +could return to land, a sudden storm arose, and he was driven out to sea. +After suffering great hardships, during a voyage of infinite peril, he +reached the coast of Norfolk, and landed at a port called Reedham, (now a +small village on the railway line from London to Yarmouth,) where he was +immediately seized by the inhabitants, and sent to the court of Edmund, +King of the East Angles, who received him favourably, and soon became +strongly attached to him for his skill in training and flying hawks. The +partiality shown to the foreigner excited the jealousy of Beoric, the +king's falconer, who took an opportunity of murdering the Dane whilst he +was exercising his birds in a small wood, where he secreted the body. +The vigilance of a favourite spaniel discovered the deed. Beoric was +apprehended and convicted of the murder, and condemned to be put in an +open boat, without sails, oars, or rudder, and abandoned to the mercy of +the winds and wares. It so chanced that the boat was wafted to the very +point of land that Lothbroc came from; and Beoric was apprehended by the +Danes, and taken before their two chieftains, Hinguer and Hubba, the sons +of Lothbroc, to whom the crafty falconer made a statement as ingenious as +false, wherein he affirmed that their father had been murdered by Edmund, +and himself sent adrift for opposing the deed. Irritated by the +falsehood, the Danes invaded the kingdom of the East Angles, pillaged +their country, took their king prisoner, tied him to a stake, and shot +him to death with arrows." Lidgate, a monk of St. Edmund's at Bury, has +given this legend a place in his poetical life of the tutelary saint of +his monastery, but it bears upon it every mark of a legendary tale, and +the fact is well known that Danish pirates had infested the shores long +prior to the date assigned to the events narrated in it. + +The office of "queen's falconer" yet exists, and it is written in a +certain little black book, that the duties attached to it, however +imaginary, receive substantial acknowledgement from the public purse in +the form of an annual stipend of no mean amount. Another recreation +peculiarly associated with the memory of knights and dames once tenanting +the feudal castle is the tournament, the site of whose gorgeous +pageantries yet bears the title of the "Gilden croft," though the lustre +of the name is the only ray of splendour bequeathed to it as an +inheritance of glory. Centuries have witnessed the mutations of the +properties of the great ones of the land, as they have gradually passed +down through the various gradations of society like cast-off garments, +until the once brilliant lists of the gay tournament have changed to long +tiers of poverty tenanted "_right ups_;" the music of the herald's +trumpet has been replaced by the rattle of the shuttle and the loom; and +the steel-clad knights and esquires, with their tiltings and joustings, +amid the smiles and favours of youth and beauty, have given place to the +struggles of the weaver and the winder in their weary battle of life, for +the guerdon of daily bread. Where, Edward and Phillippa held their +Easter tournament, and their gallant son, the brave Black Prince, +displayed his knightly prowess amid splendours that might rival the +"field of the cloth of gold," poverty, hard labour, and penury now rear +their gaunt limbs; and the tale of the "Paramatta weaver" is breathed +forth to the listening ear of humanity from its precincts. + +But the tournament demands attention, inwrought as it is with every +conception we may form of the days of chivalry; and, thanks to the +patient researches of many chroniclers, we have not much difficulty in +learning all we may desire to know concerning these glories of an age +gone by. Fiction has given life and vigour to these features of past +history. Ivanhoe lives and breathes before us at the mention of a +tournament, and plain prose facts may not vie with the glowing pictures, +painted with imagination's rainbow hues. The tournament was not +altogether the play-ground of full-grown knights and esquires, as romance +would sometimes tend to show it;--it was the theatre on which many an +important drama of life was played; it was a grand field for introduction +into military life, then the only life deemed worthy the ambition of a +gentleman; and the laws and regulations to which all who presented +themselves as candidates for honours became subject, bespeak the +importance attached to the favours it conferred. + +The mode of conducting a tournament was established by law. It was +preceded always by a proclamation; one worded thus, is given by Strutt: +"Be it known unto you, lords, knights, and esquires, ladies and +gentlewomen," (they did not in those days of chivalry commence ladies, my +lords and gentlemen) "you are hereby acquainted, that a superb +achievement in arms, and a grand and noble tournament, will be held in +the parade of Clarencieux king at arms, on the part of the most noble +baron, lord of I. C. B., and on the part of the most noble baron the lord +of C. B. D., in the parade of Norreys king at arms." The regulations +that follow are these: "The two barons on whose part the tournament is +undertaken shall be at their pavilions two days before the commencement +of the sports, when each of them shall cause his arms to be attached to +his pavilion, and set up his banner in front of his parade; and all those +who wish to be combatants on either side, must in like manner set up +their banner on either side before the parade allotted to them. Upon the +evening of the same day, they shall shew themselves in their stations, +and expose their helmets to view at the windows of their pavilions. On +the morrow the champions shall be at their parades by the hour of ten in +the morning, to await the commands of the lord of the parade, and the +governor, who are the speakers of the tournament; at this meeting the +prizes of honour are determined." In the document from which this is +taken, a rich sword was to be the reward of the most successful on the +part of Clarencieux, and a helmet for the best on the side of Norreys. +It goes on to say, "On the morning of the day appointed for the +tournament, the arms, banners and helmets of all the combatants shall be +exposed at their stations, and the speakers present at the place of +combat by ten of the clock, where they shall examine the arms and approve +or reject them at pleasure; the examination being finished and the arms +returned to the owners, the baron who is the challenger shall then cause +his banner to be placed at the beginning of the parade, and the blazon of +his arms to be nailed to the roof of his pavilion; his example is to be +followed by the baron on the opposite side, and all the knights of either +party who are not in their stations before the nailing up of the arms, +shall forfeit their privileges and not be permitted to tournay. + +"The king at arms and the heralds are then commanded by the speakers to +go from pavilion to pavilion crying aloud, '_To Achievement_, _knights +and esquires_, _to Achievement_,' being the notice for them to arm +themselves; and soon after the company of heralds shall repeat the former +ceremony, having the same authority, saying, '_Come forth_, _knights and +esquires_, _come forth_;' and when the two barons have taken their places +in the lists, each of them facing his own parade, the champions on both +parts shall arrange themselves, every one by the side of his banner; and +then two cords shall be stretched between them, and remain in that +position, until it shall please the speakers to command the commencement +of the sports. The combatants shall each of them be armed with a +pointless sword, having the edges rebated, and with a truncheon hanging +from their saddles, and they may use either the one or the other, so long +as the speakers shall give them permission, by repeating the sentence, +'_Let them go on_.' After they have sufficiently performed their +exercise, the speakers are to call to the heralds, and order them to +'_Fold up the banners_,' which is the signal for the conclusion of the +tournament. The banners being rolled up, the knights and esquires are +permitted to return to their dwellings." + +Every knight or esquire performing in the tournament, was permitted to +have one page within the lists, (but without a truncheon or any other +defensive weapon,) to wait upon him, give him his sword, or truncheon, as +occasion might require; and also in case of any accident happening to the +armour, to repair it. + +The laws of the tournament permitted any knight to unhelm himself at +pleasure, if he was incommoded by the heat; none being suffered to +assault him in any way, until he had replaced his helmet at the command +of the speakers. + +The king-at-arms and the heralds who proclaimed the tournament, had the +privilege of wearing the blazon of arms of those by whom the sport was +instituted; besides which, they were entitled to six ells of scarlet +cloth as their fee, and had all their expenses defrayed during the +continuance of the tournament; by the law of arms they had a right to the +helmet of every knight when he made his first essay at a tournament; they +also claimed six crowns as nail money, for affixing the blazon of arms to +the pavilion. The king at arms held the banners of the two chief barons +on the day of the tournament, and the other heralds the banners of their +confederates according to their rank. + +The lists for the tournaments and those appointed for ordeal combats, +were appointed in the same manner; the king found the field to fight in, +and the lists were made and devised by a constable; they were to be sixty +paces long and forty broad, set up in good order, the ground within hard +and level, without any great stones or other impediments, the entrances +to them to be by two doors east and west, strongly barred with bars seven +feet high, that a horse may not leap them. + +After the conclusion of the tournament, the combatants retired to their +homes, but usually met again in the evening at some entertainment; where +they were joined by all the nobility, including the ladies, and dancing, +feasting and singing concluded the day. After supper the speakers of the +tournament called together the heralds appointed on both sides, and +demanded from them alternately the names of those who had best performed +on the opposite sides; the double list was then presented to the ladies +who had been present at the pastime, and the decision was referred to +them as to the award of the prizes; they selected one name from each +party, and the successful heroes received their prizes from the hands of +two young maidens of rank. If a knight transgressed the rules he was +excluded from the lists with a sound beating, from which alone the +intercession of ladies could save him; so the influence of the fair sex +had opportunities of being practically felt, as well as theoretically +talked of, even then. + +The juste or lance game differed from the tournament and was often +included in it, when it took place at its conclusion, but it was quite +consistent with the rules of chivalry for justs to be held separately; +the sword was the weapon used at the tournament, the lance at the juste. +The juste received the title of the "Round table game," in the reign of +Henry III., from a fraternity of knights who frequently justed together, +and accustomed themselves to associate and eat together in one apartment +at a round table, where every place was equally honourable (even in +feudal times a taint of democracy would creep in). Historians attribute +this round table game to Arthur, the son of Uter Pendragon, that famous +British hero, whose achievements are so disguised with legendary wonders +that his very existence has been questioned. + +At both tilts and tournaments the lists were superbly decorated, +surrounded by the pavilions of the champions, and ornamented with their +coats and banners. The scaffolds for the accommodation of the spectators +were hung with tapestry, and embroidered with gold and silver; all +attended in their most sumptuous apparel, and the display of costly +grandeur glittering over the whole surface of the field, might well earn +for the memorable scene so designated, its title of the Gilden Croft. +Wealth, beauty, and grandeur were concentrated into one focus, whence +they blazed forth to the eye as from a burning lens. + +The dress of the combatants varied according to the rank of the +individual. Above the under-dress of cloth, fitting close, and common to +all, was worn the _chausses_, or mail coverings for the feet and legs, +somewhat resembling metal stockings; upon the body the gambeson, a sort +of close jacket made of cloth or leather doubled and stuffed, and in +itself oftentimes a most efficient case of defensive armour; this +garment, without sleeves, and universally worn by all classes of men, was +also occasionally introduced into the catalogue of ladies' attire, and no +doubt was the primitive model for the stays of later generations. Above +the gambeson was worn the _gorget_ or throat piece, beneath the _hauberk_ +or coat of mail, by which it was concealed; this was the garment that +peculiarly designated the rank of the wearer. Esquires might not wear +sleeves of mail, and none might claim to wear the complete suit that were +not possessed of certain estates. Above the armour was usually worn some +outer dress, a surcoat or mantle of rich material. The sword belt was a +necessary part of the warrior's dress, and was often very elaborately +embellished with precious stones, but more commonly made simply of plain +leather. Another belt was also worn over the left shoulder, to support +the shield. + +The helmet comprised the whole armour for the head and face, and usually +consisted of two parts, one moving over the other, by which means the +face could be uncovered or perfectly inclosed at pleasure. These +portions of the dress, however, varied to an almost infinite degree at +various times, and at a later period were exchanged for the Bacinet, +Cervaliere, Coif de fer, &c. &c. + +Gloves of mail were attached to the sleeves of the hauberk, and were +sometimes divided at the extremities for the accommodation of the fingers +and thumb, but not often. Such was the military costume of the knight in +armour, and the dress of the spectators, both gentlemen and ladies, must +not altogether be left unnoticed. The tunic and rich surcoat above, +sometimes varied with a hooded mantle, and the robe a long garment of the +tunic kind, were the leading characteristics of male attire; shoes with +long points, cloth sandals, ornamented with embroidery, girdles enriched +with precious stones, gloves and spurs completed the suit. + +The ladies wore gowns, or upper tunics, or robes, with surcoats varying +much in length, sometimes being shorter than the tunic, at others +trailing on the ground, with long loose sleeves, open beneath to the +elbow, and falling thence almost to the feet. Their mantles were made of +the richest materials, and copiously embellished with gold, silver, and +rich embroideries, sometimes decorated with fringes of gold, varying in +size almost as much as material. The wimple was a head-dress, worn with +or without an additional veil, usually linen, but occasionally of silk, +embroidered with gold. It was a species of veil, covering the head but +not the face, and fastened underneath the chin, or at the top of the +head, by a circlet of gold. The hair was worn loose and flowing, often +without any covering, but frequently bound by a chaplet of goldsmith's +work and flowers, or of the latter only. Boots and gloves were in the +inventory of necessaries, but, alas for comfort, stockings were rare, +white, black, or blue. With this faint sketch of an Anglo-Norman +wardrobe, as it furnished materials to add splendour to the glittering +field of sport, we bid farewell to the lists, not, however, without one +more word as to the honourable position awarded to the gentler sex in the +jousts, which were usually made in their especial honour, and over which +they presided as judges paramount; so that it behoved every true knight +to have a favourite fair one, who was not only esteemed by him as the +paragon of beauty and virtue, but supplied to him often the place of a +tutelary saint, to whom he paid his vows in the day of peril; for it was +then an established doctrine that "love made valour perfect, and incited +heroes to great enterprizes." Alas! for the good old times of chivalry, +when women were content to make _great warriors_; but as she did her +mission in that day, so may she, in this sober life of mental tiltings, +lend her meed of influence to people the world with _great men_. And so +farewell to tournaments; verily they are of the past, and their glitter +dazzles our senses, in this generation of moral _versus_ physical force, +when among the number of the people's favourite heroes is the champion of +Universal Peace Societies. + +But we must not leave our sketch of the life in a feudal castle, without +one glance at the feminine employments that served to relieve the +monotonous existence of the isolated dames condemned to comparative +solitude within its walls; nor are we able to discover much, if any, +variety in their occupations. The embroidery frame, and an occasional +spindle and distaff, before the improvements in arts and science had +substituted factories and looms, were almost the only resources allowed +them; but these were inexhaustible, and the many elaborate specimens of +their skill that have survived the casualties of a hundred generations, +bear witness to the indefatigable perseverance with which they were +employed. The garments of the clergy at this period were richly +embroidered, so much so, as to excite the admiration of the pope, and +induce him to issue a bull to the English priests, enjoining them to +procure him vestments equally gorgeous. Many of these were the free-will +offerings of the rich, and the fruits of highborn ladies' industry. +Fringe-making of gold and silver, worked upon lace without the aid of the +needle, was another species of occupation afforded them, and constituted +the Phrygian work often spoken of by old historians. Cyprian work was a +variety of embroidery, inasmuch as it was a thin, transparent texture +like gauze, named _cyprus_, worked with gold. Cyprus was a term applied +also to black crape, then appropriated exclusively to widows' mourning; +possibly this might have been the origin of "wearing the cypress." +Embroidery was not alone confined to ornaments of dress, or even clerical +vestments; hangings for the chambers, and pictures on almost every +possible subject, were produced from the needle. + +The tapestry at Bayeux, in Normandy, attributed to Matilda, the queen of +the Conqueror, represents the history of Harold, king of England, and +William of Normandy, from the embassy of the former to Duke William, at +the command of Edward the Confessor, to his final overthrow at Hastings. +The ground of this work is a white linen cloth or canvas, one foot eleven +inches in depth, and two hundred and twelve in length. The figures are +all in their proper colours, of a style not unlike those of japan ware, +having no pretence to symmetry or proportion. It is preserved with great +care in the cathedral dedicated to Thomas a Becket, in Normandy, and is +annually exhibited for eight days, commencing on St. John's day, and is +called _Duke William's toilette_. + +It is, however, extremely questionable whether it was the work of the +royal lady,--many figures in it would indicate that its manufacture was +of more recent date--be it as it may, it is a wondrous specimen of +patient industry, and valuable for the representation of manners and +customs of the times traced upon it. + +Here we bid farewell to castle halls, to the ghosts of belted knights and +hooded dames, to spinning wheels and tapestries, falcons, jennets, +tournaments, and banquets, to the border's bord upon the skirting of his +lord's domain, the serf's log hut, the cowherd's shed, and the prisoner's +dungeon,--the moat, once deep and flowing, now dried up, and teeming with +cultivated trees and shrubs, and ornamental flowers, and sculptured +figures,--we say adieu to the past history, written on the flints and +mortar of the ramparts, that have braved the "battle and the breeze," for +near a thousand years,--and leave the soaring heights, whence we may look +down upon the little city world below as on a stage, whose scenes and +slips are all laid bare beneath us in their skeleton machinery--dark +lanes and lumbering alleys crowded round, and shut in out of sight, by +facial frontings of glass, and brick, and plaster. Churches and +heaped-up churchyards, bursting their walls with the accumulated +corruption of centuries of generations,--distant villages and village +spires,--and spots made sacred by the blood of hero-martyrs,--the winding +river, once the stormy sea-passage for Norsemen and Saxon fleets--and +take one final leave of the giant mound,--whose origin, whether first +reared in Celtic ages far remote, a temple to the Sun, or a portion of +the far-famed Icknild Way, that crosses our island like a belt from +south-west to north-east, whether the architecture of Danes, Saxons, or +Normans, is alike full of history and of poetry, and the well garnered +store-house of many a rich and precious truth,--a monument of the past, +ever present to our eye, as a landmark by which to measure the progress +of our nation in religion, freedom, and social happiness. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +THE MARKET-PLACE. + + +_Market-place_.--_Present aspect_.--_Visit to its stalls_.--_Norfolk +Marketwomen_.--_Christmas Market_.--_Early History_.--_Extracts from old +records_.--_Domestic scene of 13th century_.--_Early +Crafts_.--_Guilds_.--_Medley of Historical Facts_.--_Extract from Diary +of Dr. Edward Browne_.--_The City in Charles the Second's +reign_.--_Duke's Palace +Gardens_.--_Manufactures_.--_Wool_.--_Worsted_.--_Printing_.--_Caxton_.-- +_Specimens of Ancient Newspapers_.--_Blomefield_. + +The old city, so rich in antiquarian remains, can boast but slow progress +in modern architectural developments; nor may it vie with many a younger +town in its contrivances for the comfort and conveniences of those most +useful members of society--the market-folks. No Grainger has arisen, to +rear a monument to his own fame, and of his city's prosperity, in the +form of a shelter for this important class of the town and country +populace. May be, the picturesque beauty of the Flemish scene, with its +changeful canopy of "ethereal blue," or neutral tint, toned down at +whiles to hues of sombre gloom, beneath the heavy shade of passing storms +of hail and thunder, or more steady-falling rain and snow, has made the +philanthropists of these reforming times conservatives all, on this one +point, while model cottages, baths and washhouses, almshouses for +freemen, and almost every other scheme ingenuity may devise to testify +the care and thought bestowed upon the public weal, are rising up around. +Let the cry of "_Protection_" once again be raised, not for the +"distressed agriculturist" salesman, in his handsome corn exchange, but +in favour of the "unprotected females" that sit unsheltered from the sun +or storm, to vend the produce of the poultry-yards, the dairy-house, and +market-garden. + +But though no Temple to Commerce of the larder has been erected--a fact +to be deplored in a utilitarian sense--it can never be denied that the +good old seat of thriving trade can boast as fine a specimen of a genuine +old market-place as may well be found in this day of competition and +rivalry. Its motley assemblage of buildings, ranged round the open +square, of all styles and all ages, jostling against one another, or here +and there huddled together into all sorts of inconceivable groups of +varied and fantastic outline; the young ones of to-day starting up with +bold and saucy front, and verily squeezing out from among them their +quaint, old-fashioned, gable-ended kinsfolk of older date, or sometimes +creeping out, as it were, from beneath them, content with shewing a +modern face in some lower window, decked with all the new-fangled +conceits of the latest fashions, and allowing their ancestors quiet +resting-place aloft, where to moulder away into decay, are a chronology +of history in themselves. Now and then, the fretted ironwork of some +miniature parade, hanging midway in the air, and clinging to the +perpendicular of masonry above some new plate-glassed and glittering +front, suggests thoughts of marine villas, moonlight and sea views, and +all those pretty poetical fancies associated with a lodging at some +fashionable watering-place, and one wonders how they ever came to be +transported thither, and for why? They that own them tell us that they +have their use, in the city, where the love of pageantry is an heir-loom +from generations long since passed away whose birthright was to minister +to the gorgeous magnificence of fraternities and guilds, banquettings and +processions, that read like fairy tales in this sober nineteenth century; +and we would believe in their utility, were it no other than to afford a +bird's eye view of the busy scenes of homely traffic going on upon a +market day, amongst the accumulated heaps of provisions for the daily +wants of life. + +_The wants of life_! Who amongst us knows the meaning of the words, the +_reality_ they hide? Who that has numbered among the wants of life, the +gold to purchase luxury or ornament, place or power, the ways and means +to shine and glitter in the world, where men are prized by what they +_seem_, rather than what they are; the wherewith to pay the idly +accumulated debts, incurred through mean attempts to cover the rags of +poverty, or decent homely garments of honesty, with tinsel mockeries of +wealth's trappings? Who amongst these knows aught of the meaning of the +_wants of life_? Ask him who has known _Hunger_, has been face to face +with want and starvation, has shared with loved and loving ones, weak +babes, and sick and helpless mothers, the task of driving these unbidden +guests away, has felt the gnawing pangs of their demon power, while +gazing upon plenty, upon the wealth of food and sustenance displayed +before his eyes! Is it not more marvellous and strange, that such piles +as a market displays should ever be permitted to lie safe within the +arrow-shot of gaunt and wasting poverty, than that the annals of our +police reports should now and then record how poverty and crime sometimes +go hand in hand? + +But to look more in detail at the picture offered on a summer market-day. +There to the left sit congregated together the vendors of the far-famed +staple produce of the country farm-yards, sheltered from the heat by the +artificial grove of variegated umbrellas, serving, or attempting to +serve, the double purpose of protection from the sun in summer, and the +rain in winter and summer. The poultry "pads" and butter-stalls are one. +Turkeys, and geese, and fowls, and sausages, and little round white +cheeses, share the baskets and benches with eggs and _pints_ of butter, +in the land where that commodity is sold by _liquid_ measure, whose +equivalent is somewhere near about 1lb. 3 oz. + +There is a legend that one who sits here is the heroine of an old tale, +which goes to the effect that "once upon a time," when the inspector came +his round to test the weights of all the measured pints, the old lady was +observed slily to slip a half crown into the end of a certain pint, and +hand it forward to bear the scrutiny; a bystander, who watched the trick, +a moment after laid his finger on the identical pint and begged to +purchase it, resisting all evasion on the part of the discomfited +saleswoman, who, compelled to submit, turned out eventually the "biter +bit." + +Thronging around this neighbourhood, and proffering their services with +most assiduous perseverance, are a host of most amiable-looking porter +women, liveried in white aprons and sleeves, with a pair of huge peck +baskets dangling on their arms. Tumbling, and bumping, and jostling +among them, drowning their pleadings in a deafening chorus of discordant +cries, come the itinerant venders of small wares--"lucifers three boxes a +penny," "cabbage-nets only a penny," "reels of cotton two for a penny," +little dangling bunches of skewers, ranged in progressive order on queer +and mysteriously twisted holders, that seem designed to puzzle any +mechanical skill to get them off again, "only a penny;" laces, and +saucepans, and stationery, and kettles, thrust into notice as though +haberdashers, and tinmen, and stationers were simultaneously rushing off +to the gold diggings, and disposing of their goods piecemeal by auction. +Ere the next range of stalls may be explored, the pathway is obstructed +by some "literate" specimen of the blind, with an attendant concourse of +listeners eagerly drinking in the titles of his sheet of hundred songs +for a penny. "There's a good time coming," "All's lost now," "My bark is +on the shore," and "I'm on the Sea," &c. &c.; or should any great tragedy +or judicial murder have occurred recently, to furnish him with a still +more profitable stock in trade, such as a "last dying speech and +confession," or "full, true, and particular account" of some "shocking +and brutal outrage," somewhat may be seen and heard of how the minds and +tastes of the ignorant are vitiated, and the morbid cravings of diseased +imaginations fed; and the hawker of this food for the million, forms +living evidence that the eye is not the only member through whose aid +vice may gain entrance to the soul. But there is little time or +opportunity to philosophize amid the din of importunity that is ringing +upon the ears, "What d'ye luke for? fine guse? butifull fowill?" And +there stands one who claims especial notice--the merry bacon woman, amid +her throng of earnest customers. There she stands, or rather moves; +stillness is a state to which she must be a total stranger, we could +fancy. "Good day, ma'am." "What's for you, sir?" "Nice pork, _dear_? +black meat? I'll wait _of ye_ this minute, sir." "Yes, ma'am, beautiful +ham; did you please to want any? Oh, thank you; very well, another day I +shall be _proud_ to wait _of ye_." "No harm in asking," she adds, +turning apologetically to her more profitable customers. And so she goes +on, ever moving, ever talking, ever cheerful, civil, and attentive, one +never-ending strain of courtesy and kindness pouring from her lips, while +her hands are ever busy cutting and weighing, and folding up in fine +white linen cloths, her sausages and bacon, and black meat, and still +nicer white juvenile-looking pork, just fresh from the pickle. Probably +she has a home somewhere, but her sphere of usefulness and theatre of +glory must be at the market-stall; she must have been born and bred a +market-woman. Further on, there sits a melancholy and original old lady, +proprietress of a heterogeneous kind of heap, composed of small +quantities of the choicest produce of various sources of supply--stray +joints of pork, trifling displays of butter, a few eggs, and an +occasional specimen of poultry; but her fame is built upon her unrivalled +"tatoes," hidden up in pads, and carefully concealed from the eyes of +chance passengers; their discovery is a mine of wealth to the privileged +few, especially in bad seasons. Dealing forth sparingly, like a miser +counting out his treasures, the queen of murphies compensates for the +reserve that would seem to imply her belief that her purchasers were +begging favours of her, by the involuntary boon she confers upon the +lover of idioms, in her quaint displays of her county's dialect. The +ordinary greeting of "How d'ye do?" will be met by the assurance that she +"don't _fare to feel_ no matters," or she "_fares to_ feel _right +muddled_," or "_no how_," or that she is scarce fit to be "abroad." Her +"tatoes" she will recommend as eating like balls of flour, if cooked +_enow_ (a word indiscriminately used to express quantity and degree). +She will occasionally detail particulars of her market-horse's +"_trickiness_" when he "_imitated_" to kick on the road, and how she +"_gots_" him on as well as she could. Her breakfast jug she will +designate a _gotch_, and many other like specimens will she afford of the +contents of the vocabulary of East Anglia. A traveller may with little +difficulty fancy he is listening to some native of the distant county +Devon; and, strange to say, the _guse_, _fule_, and _enow_, and other +striking similarities of brogue and dialect, are not the only features of +resemblance these two counties bear to each other. The ancient rood +screens of the Norfolk churches have many of them been found exactly to +correspond with those found in Devonshire, and only there. In the +celebrated rebellions of Edward the Sixth's reign, many remarkable +features of resemblance were observed in the character of the outbreaks +at these distant points,--so much so, as to suggest the idea of secret +communication being kept up between them. Whether both alike owe their +peculiarities to the common parentage of the Iceni, a tribe of whom have +been said to have settled in Devonshire as well as Pembrokeshire, or they +are referable to any less remote link of connection, antiquarians may +perhaps at some future day make clear. Certain it is, the "southron" is +apt to be easily beguiled into the belief that he has met a +fellow-countryman or woman among the folks who deem themselves another +race than the people of the "_sheeres_." + +But we have here wandered far aside in our market trip; next come in due +order the butcher-stalls, taking a higher rank in the social scale of +market society than the humbler _pads_, though their wares may not +compete with their neighbours for a world-wide fame--south-down mutton, +prime little scot, and short-horn beef, with the usual attendant displays +of calves' white heads with staring eyes, and mangled feet hanging to +dismembered legs and shoulders by little strings of sinew, looking as +though they were carelessly left on by accident, _not_ to affect the +weight, and other mysterious manifestations of the internal anatomy of +oxen and sheep, and queer-looking conglomerations of odds and ends, +transmogrified by some cooking process into very greasy imitations of +brawn, and selling by the name of pork cheeses,--these make up the +attractions of the butcher department, not over-inviting to look upon, +even to those who are far from objecting to well-disguised appeals to +their carnivorous propensities in the form of savoury dishes. + +The lover of beauty will soon permit his eye to wander on and rest upon +the treasures of the market-garden, where it may revel in a perfect sea +of "Bremer" lusciousness; asparagus--seakale--peas, marafats and +blues--beans, kidneys dwarfs, and windsor--salads and cresses--radishes +in radiating bunches and globular bunches--cabbages and cauliflowers, +that may perplex cooks and boilers by their magnitude--cucumbers and +melons, and all the pumpkin tribe. Fruit--shining heaps of +cherries--trays of bright glistening currants, with their little seeds +peeping through as "natural" as the gems in the great Russian +cabinet--strawberries and raspberries on their wooden trays, with the +little skimmer-like spades to shovel them up, and the choice ones packed +up in their little pints, sheltered from the sun by the fresh green leaf +tied over--and sundry and divers wares from foreign parts lending new +features to the home department, since the tariff of the "people's +friend" came into operation. But the crowning glory of the picture is +the sovereign of the stall, the sturdy market-gardener, full of strength +and sinew, the evidence of honest healthful labour meeting its due +reward,--a fitting representative of the great base upon whose soundness +rests the column of wealth, and capitol of rank, that with it form the +pillar of our nation's social prosperity. He knows not what it is to +seek for work, but rather needs to pluralise himself to satisfy the +demands upon his skill, and time, and taste; and fairly has he earned his +reputation both in horti and floriculture. His rustic little home, with +its thatched roof, and ivy and clematis twined verandah, lies in the very +midst of a city of gardens almost of his own creation, watched and tended +by him with a care that has rendered them the fairest line of beauty art +ever devised to grace a road-side pathway through the suburbs of a city; +and who ever saw or tasted wares that could rival the produce of his own +little profitable domain? But the good-humoured smile of conscious +superiority in his profession, that plays upon his features, is the +market-gardener's peculiar fascination. Talk to him of chemical manures +or rich guano, how he will smile! and what a tale will he unfold of roses +all burnt up, geraniums run to leaf, polyanthuses converted into +cabbages, without the advantage of being edible; auriculas dying, &c. +"May do _somewheres_, but not for flower or market-gardens." Beyond him, +lies spread out a rich carpet of flowers, grouped by the hands of younger +and humbler ones, whom one might almost call the lay floricultural +professors. Geraniums, and fuchsias, and bright blue salvias, verbenas +of every hue, from deep maroon, through crimson, up to white; +sweet-scented heliotrope, and richly shaded primroses, that make the +tenants of the woods look pale with envy. A pity it seems to disturb the +harmony of colour, so perfect a parterre does it form, with the +back-ground of shrubs that stand in such rich clusters behind them, all +waiting to be transplanted to new homes. In the very midst of them rises +a mysterious-looking little ark of canvass, resting from its weekly +labour of perambulating the streets and suburbs through which it has been +borne, sedan fashion, by the pair of unclassical-looking hobbledehoys +that own the gay treasures it is formed to shelter, and whose lips can +manage to send forth a string of nomenclature that may fairly shake the +nerves of any modest purchaser. Sweet simple-looking little floral gems, +they will recommend to notice as Gilea rosea adorata, Clarkia fimbricata, +Coreopsis nigra, speciosa, Colinsea rubra, all hardy annuals; and with +the utmost nonchalance describe some trembling little creeper as +Tropoelum Campatica Fuchsia Carolinae, Campanula Campatica, and Lobelia +ramosa, all safely meant, we presume, to conceal the relationship of the +owners to the familiar tenants of the cottage border. A novice must +seize in desperation upon some one that, shorn of its _ishii_ or _osum_, +may chance to be remembered, lest his fate should resemble that of the +fair lady, who once professed to own in her garden the "aurora borealis" +and "delirium tremens." + +Among the scientific nurseries that clothe almost every outskirt of the +city, may perhaps be found grander exotics, or more luxuriant varieties +of floral beauty; but these fragments of botanic skill and lore are fair +specimens of the inheritance bequeathed to the sons of the soil by those +great master-minds whose gardens once drew Evelyn from the metropolis +upon a visit to this then pre-eminent seat of wealth and magnificence. +"My Lord's Gardens," that skirted the water-side, whose quadrangle +contained a bowling-green, a wilderness, and garden, with walks of forty +feet in breadth surrounding them, have passed away, a fragment of the +wilderness alone remains to mark the site of the glorious displays of +wealth and fashion once paraded among them; but the name, associated with +the memory of the times, is a star of the first magnitude, in the galaxy +of the city's firmament of great men. + +Sir Thomas Browne, the philosopher, the physician, the naturalist, the +antiquarian, and the botanist, the associate and friend of the most +eminent men that graced the age in which he lived, and the historian +whose works have enriched the literature of the world, stands first in +the long list of names that are linked with the beauties of the vegetable +kingdom; a city that has sent forth a Lindley, a Hooker, and a Smith, to +be professors in the great world of science, as his followers, has cause, +indeed to honour the memory of him who sowed the first seeds in the +garden, that has reared such giants from its soil. + +But there is yet another picture to be viewed of homely traffic; the +Christmas market-day, when the old place and people seem to be in the +zenith of their glory. Each poultry-stall overflowing with the turkeys, +geese, and fowls, that have not found an exit through the myriad avenues +opened for their flight to every province, town, and city in the land. +There they lie in state, sharing the sovereignty of the season, with +bright-gemmed holly boughs and pearly mistletoe, that deck and garnish +every pad, and stall, and bench, and lie heaped up in shining stacks of +magnitude that may well suggest to the young novice a question as to how +the slow-growing holly and rare parasite could have been found year after +year in such profusion. Country walks, holly-skirted lanes, and park +enclosures, may tell something of the one; and alas! for the poetry of +the Druids and the oaks, the apple orchards now claim almost the sole +honour of giving shelter to the other--the ancient deity of the woods; +they will scarce allow the king of the forest a partial share in the +tribute offerings to merry Christmas. + +The bustling eve, when midnight surprises the scrambling teems of "Trotty +Vecks," gathering up the fragments left from rich folk's caterings, that +they too may have a savour of something more than the compliments of the +season; when the remnants of the bountiful display that has been hoarded +up for the highest bidders through the busy day, are auctioned off at the +buyer's own price, and fall thus perchance within the compass of the +weaver's earnings, then is the hour to see the spirit of peace and +good-will towards men stalking abroad, and lifting from men's hearts and +faces the load of weariness and veil of care, transmuting by his magic +touch the poor man's copper into gold, and giving to his little stores a +widow's cruise-like power to cheer and comfort happy living hearts. No +one who dwells in the old city should deem it fruitless toil to wend +their way through the old market-place on Christmas Eve, and take a +poet's lesson from the scene! + +But there are other pictures still to be seen within the quaint old +Elizabethan frame-work of the city's market-place than scenes of +merchandise, in these days of monster meetings. Who can forget the human +gatherings that have many a time and oft, within the limits of even +childhood's memory, been witnessed here, when gable roofs, and parapets, +windows, and balconies, church towers, and Guildhall leads, have swarmed +with living thousands; gay dressed "totties" and dames, aye, and +sober-minded lords of the creation too! all eager and intent to watch +from safe quarters some common object of attraction that has drawn +together a mighty multitude of the people, with their proverbial love of +sight-seeing, an inheritance bequeathed to them by their ancestral +pageantries. Slight stimulus is needed to send the heart's blood of the +city through every vein and artery to this centre, where it pulsates in +deep and heavy throbs of joy, or hope, or anger, as the case may be; +true, in these modern days the common wants and common blessings that +have bound the sympathies of the million into one, cause the spectacle of +tumultuous hate and bitterness, knocking together of heads, &c, to be a +rare manifestation of popular enthusiasm; more frequently one desire, one +feeling animates the body aggregate, be it to see the mammoth train of a +Hughes or Van Amburgh, the _entree_ of a royal duke, the failure of a +promised fountain bid to play by a new water company, the more successful +display of fireworks at the same behest, the popping of some threescore +pensioners in honour of some royal birthday, or the advent of some +political election. On each and all of such occasions, and many more, +the filling up of the frame-work is a picture of life, of concentrated +human power, will, and passion, full of effect; may be, it needs an +adequate cause to give it full strength, but everywhere it is full of +interest, and the good old city's market-place would not be fairly +chronicled were its monster meetings of sight-seers deemed unworthy a +passing comment. Pageantry has been numbered among the chartered rights +of the citizens, from the days of "mysteries," when the itinerant stage, +with its sacred drama provided by the church, was the only theatre known, +through the age of tournaments, the season of royal visits, Elizabethan +processions, and triumphal arches, of guilds, of Georges and dragons, +down to the last relic of the spirit of olden times--the chairing of its +members; and not even the scant nourishment offered in this nineteenth +century, has yet sufficed to starve and wither the seeds thus sown and +fostered in the very nature of the people. + +In a work that professes not to follow out the thread of history through +all its variable windings, or note consecutively all the beads of truth +that have been carved by the hand of time, and strung upon its surface, +but only here and there to pause, as some gem more glittering than its +fellows meets the eye, or some quaint rude relic of a day gone by lays +claim to a passing curiosity, wonder, or pity, we feel at liberty to make +a kaleidoscope sort of _pattern_ of our gleanings and notes on the old +market-place. Interwoven with its progress, and associated with its +memories, must be almost every historical reminiscence, peculiarly +belonging to an important municipality, and thriving mart of commerce and +manufactures; from the first simple gatherings in the outer court of the +castle, to the days when trades and crafts, brought over by Norman +intruders, and flourishing under the skilful tutelage of Flemish +refugees, clustered together in groups around the old croft, the +saddlers, the hosiers, the tanners, the mercers, the parmenters, the +goldsmiths, the cutlers, each with their own _row_, to the time when +staples were fixed, or right of wholesale dealing granted--when cloth +halls witnessed the measuring and sealing by government inspectors of +every manufactured piece of cloth, to ensure fairness of dealing between +buyer and seller--when sumptuary laws regulated quantity, quality, and +pattern of the dresses of all dutiful and loyal subjects--down through +ages of fluctuating vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity--tremulous +shakings--and reviving struggles against the tide of competition that has +sunk the first and greatest manufacturing city our country once could +boast, beneath the level of many a nurseling of yesterday, a mere +mushroom in growth and age--from the era of ultra-carnivorous diet, when +boars, peacocks, venison, and porpoise, were scattered in plentiful +profusion on the boards of butchers' stalls, and in the regions of +"_Puleteria_,"--when the potato, brocoli, turnip, onion, and radish, were +unknown--the tansy, the rampion, cow cabbage, and salsify, their only +substitutes in the days when vegetarians were not;--when quinces, +medlars, rude grapes, and mulberries, wild raspberries and strawberries, +supplied the place of a modern dessert, with the valuable addenda of +hazel, and walnuts, whose beautiful wood even then was prized as an +article of manufacture for cups and bowls, under the name of +_masere_--down to the scene of the present day, as it has been pictured +already. + +Manifold have been the fleeting shadows that have peopled its disc, now +bright, now dark, its area now traversed by triumphal arches and gorgeous +processions, now serving as a platform for a gallows, whereon a Roberts +and a Barber suffered for their loyalty to his majesty, Charles the +First; in one age witnessing the rise of an oratory in its very midst, +and a chaplain to minister to spiritual cravings, in the heart of +material abundance; the next echoing to the ruthless hammers of +destructive zealots, sweeping from their path every stone or carving that +bore trace of the finger of the "scarlet lady." + +But although a consecutive detail of its rise and progress may not be +within the province of our pen, we may endeavour to trace a few of the +leading features of its history since the era of its first rise into +existence as a fishing hamlet, when the sea washed its shores, and the +huts of a few fishermen, perhaps, were the only habitations scattered +over its surface. Here they dwelt, no doubt, in peaceful security, when +the huge mound, topped with its towering castle, rose up in their midst, +and their sovereigns fixed their dwelling-place within its strongholds, +to be succeeded, after the departure of the Romans, by the feudal lords +or earls of Danish and Saxon conquerors, in whose time the market-place +was the magna crofta or great croft of the castle. At the gates of the +ancient castles the markets were continually set, following the precedent +of the assemblage of booths that gathered round the gates of the Roman +camps. These, from being at first moveable stalls or shelters for goods, +grew in after-years into towns, boroughs, and cities, many of them taking +their names from the castles or camps, and were called _chesters_. The +country people were not allowed to carry provisions into Roman camps; at +each gate was a strong guard, that suffered none to enter the camp +without licence from the commanding officer: this guard consisted of one +_cohort_, and one troop at least, from which sprung the modern term of +_court_, or _cohort_, of guard. The commanding officer of the guard at +the gate had oversight of the market, punished such as sold by false +weights and measures, brought bad provisions, or were guilty of any other +offence in the market, and arbitrated in all cases of dispute. The +Saxons, those exterminating conquerors, who so liberally parcelled out +their neighbours' territory into the famous divisions of the Heptarchy, +next figured upon the scene, and the _castellans_ succeeded the officer +of the guard in the duties of his office, in later times to be fulfilled +by pie-powder courts and clerks of the market. At this period, markets +at the castle gates grew so important as to be composed of durable +houses, as durable at least as wooden shambles were likely to be; and of +such like constructions were the first outlines of the market-place +composed, the fishmongers' and butchers' shops of the present day being +the nearest similitudes that can be found to illustrate their features. + +From this time the history of the market-place becomes identified with +the progress of the borough, its struggles for growth being somewhat +impeded, we fancy, by the tithes and taxes extorted by barons and +bishops, between whom we may fancy the poor fisherfolks began to "fare +rather sadly," scarcely knowing what was their own, or if, indeed, they +had any own at all. To sum up their miseries, old chroniclers record +that about this time the sea began to withdraw its arm, which to them had +been a great support, and the fishermen, who were bound to pay an annual +tithe of herrings to the bishops of the _see_, found themselves in much +the same plight as the Israelites of old, when doomed to make bricks +without straw--in their case to supply herrings without a fishery--and +were therefore reduced to the unpleasant necessity of thenceforth +purchasing the wherewith to pay the lasting imposition. Notwithstanding +all these impediments the progress of the borough was rapid; houses and +churches sprung up thick and fast; so that at the time of the survey, in +the reign of the "Confessor," we find record of twenty-five parish +churches, and one thousand three hundred burgesses; of sheep-walks, +mills, and hides of land, (a hide being as much as one plough could till +in a year,) of taxes, of honey, and bear dogs. + +Churches were owned indiscriminately by bishops, earls, and burgesses; +the materials of which they were constructed, chiefly wood, though +occasionally rough flints and stones cemented by a durable mortar were +substituted; the towers were circular, bricks were employed for +pavements, and bells were used. The ancients conceived the sound of +metal to be an antidote against evil spirits; and the adoption of bells +into the Christian church, and their consecration, was but a variation of +the practices of the pagans, who at the feasts of Vulcan and Minerva, +consecrated trumpets for religious uses. + +Such was the condition of the town and market-place, when the Norman +Conqueror, whose coming produced such mighty changes in the land, brought +over from the continent a host of foreigners, who settled themselves down +in almost every part of the kingdom, and introduced trades and crafts of +every variety, giving birth to the great manufacturing spirit that has +grown to be so distinguishing a feature of our national greatness. Among +the foreigners who established themselves in this district, we find the +name of _Wimer_, a name yet prefixed to one of the great wards or +districts of the city--the Wimer ward. At this period, perhaps the most +prominent characteristic of the secular history of the times, especially +in connection with trade, is the important position held by the Jews. + +The Norman duke had brought with him a great number of this race of +people, and although their religion was despised and bitterly hated, they +monopolized almost every branch of trade, and so much of the learning of +the day, that they took a high place both in commercial and civil +transactions. In this city they successively had two extensive +synagogues and colleges, where medicine and rabbinical divinity were +taught together. + +Pharmacy, education, and all monetary transactions of any importance, +seem to have come within their province, their utility and wealth +preserving them, for the time at least, from anything more than petty +persecution. The history, however, of little St. William, given +elsewhere, and other similar records that have been handed down, betray +the jealousy and ill-will that existed between them and the Christians, +even during the season of their prosperity, when royalty, as in the time +of Rufus, patronized them. + +Meantime the city had become a bishopric; a monastery, three friaries, +and a nunnery sprung up in quick succession, betraying the growth of +ecclesiastical power, and the presence of a great rival to the secular +authority claimed by the ministers of civil justice; itinerant judges had +been established for trying great crimes, such as murder or theft, and +coroners had been instituted to hold inquests upon any persons dying +suddenly, or found dead; either to acquit them of self murder, or seize +their goods; the citizens were also exempted from the judgment of the law +by single combat by Richard I. Among the events of interest bearing very +early date is the royal visit of the first Henry, in the day when the +king was his own tax-gatherer, and when, failing to receive his dues in +lawful coin of the realm, he was wont to take them in kind, and to tarry +until himself and suite had eaten up the hogs and sheep, and cows and +geese, whose addition to his retinue would have been otherwise very +burdensome. So liberal was the entertainment afforded the royal visitor +here, that his majesty was pleased to confer upon the citizens many +privileges as a mark of gratitude, among which exemption from such like +visitations in future was included. + +The next visit of royalty is attributed to Edward the First, whose +generosity was evidenced by the command issued speedily after his return +thither, that the Jews throughout the kingdom should be charged with +unlawfully clipping and adulterating the coin of the realm, as an excuse +for their persecution, imprisonment, and final extermination. The +religious antipathies of the zealous crusader would not suffice to +explain these atrocities; but the ambition of the warlike monarch seeking +to replenish his exhausted treasury, that he might prosecute expensive +foreign enterprises, gives a more satisfactory clue to the origin of +cruelties, that led to such important confiscations being made to the +crown. In obedience to the royal will, the beautiful college of the Jews +in this city was plundered and burnt, its coffers emptied into the royal +exchequer, and its tenants banished or imprisoned. An inn, called +"Abraham's Hall," was soon after raised in the immediate neighbourhood, +to memorialize the event; but an old ricketty gable or two, hidden away +behind fair modern frontings of brickwork and stucco, is all that remains +of this monument. St. George in combat with the Dragon, now figures on +the sign board affixed to the inn that occupies one portion of its site. + +It is some credit to the ministers of justice in the city, that we find +upon their records, traces of the efforts made to bring to punishment +some of the actual perpetrators of the outrages in Jewry, albeit they +could perhaps only be deemed instruments in the hands of higher powers. +Extracts from the "Coroners' Rolls," containing accounts of robberies and +street frays in this reign and the preceding, prove this fact, and afford +in addition curious evidence of the state of society at that period. For +the quaint and amusing details they give, we must render thanks to the +learned and skilled in antiquarian lore, obsolete orthography, black +letter type, &c., but, for whose assistance in rescuing them from +obscurity, and interpreting their meaning, they must to us have remained +veiled in an impenetrable incognita. + +Amongst them is the record of an "inquisition made of the fire raised in +Jewry," and a "precept given to apprehend all the felons concerned." +Another is so graphic, that we feel able to see the whole picture it +gives at a glance--the widow sitting beside the bier of her husband, the +sanctity of her sorrow invaded by brute violence, the house pillaged, and +the corpse plundered and burnt in the agonised wife's presence. The +words of the roll say, "Katharina, the wife of Stephen Justice, accused +Ralph, son of Robert Andrew, the gaoler, William Kirby Gaunter, William +Crede, Walter de Hereham, John, servant of Nicholas de Ingham, and +Nicholas sometime servant of Nicholas de Sopham, and Nicholas de Gayver, +that when she was at peace with God and the king, in the house of Stephen +Justice her husband, and the Thursday night after the feast of King +Edmund, in the forty-eighth year of the reign of King Henry, the son of +King John (1263), they came in the town of Norwich, in Fybriggate, St. +Clement's, and broke the oaken gates, and the hooks and the hinges of +iron, with hatchets, bars, wedges, swords, knives, and maces, and flung +them down into the court, and feloniously entered; that they then broke +the pine wood doors of the hall, and the hinges and iron work of them, +and the chains, bolts, and oaken boards of the windows. Afterwards they +entered the door of the hall chamber towards the south, and robbed that +chamber of two swords, value 3_s._ 6_d._, one ivory handled anlace, value +12_d._, one iron head piece, value 10_d._, an iron staff, value 4_d._; +one cow leather quirre (cuirass) with iron plates, value half a mark; and +one wambeis (a body garment stuffed with cotton, wool, or tow), and +coming thence into the hall, they burnt the body of her husband, as it +there lay upon a bier, together with a blanket of 'reins,' value 3_s._; +and took away with them a linen cloth, value 18_d._ The said Katharina +immediately raised hue and cry, from street to street, from parish to +parish, and from house to house, until she came into the presence of the +bailiffs and coroners. They also stole a lined cloth of the value of +5_s._, and one hood of _Pers_ (Persian) with squirrel's fur, value +10_s._" + +A writer in the Archaeological Journal describes the houses of this +period as possessing only a ground floor, of which the principal +apartment was the aire, aitre, or hall, into which the principal door +opened, and which was the room for cooking, eating, receiving visitors, +and the other ordinary uses of domestic life. Adjacent to this, was the +chamber which was by day the private apartment and resort of the female +portion of the household, and by night the bed room. Strangers and +visitors generally slept in the hall, beds being made for them on the +floor. A stable was frequently adjacent to the hall, probably on the +side opposite to the chamber or bed-room. + +Another memorandum on the rolls, records the deaths of Henry Turnecurt +and Stephen de Walsham, who "were killed in the parish of St. George, +before the gate of the Holy Trinity, St. Philip and James' day, in the +same year. The coroners and bailiffs went and made inquisition. +Inquisition then made was set forth in a certain schedule. Afterwards +came master Marc de Bunhale, clerk, and Ralph Knict, with many others, +threatening the coroners to cut them to pieces, unless the schedule was +given up, and then they took Roger the coroner, and by force led him to +his own house, with swords and axes, until the said Roger took the +schedule from his chest; and then they took him with the schedule to St. +Peter of Mancroft church, and there the aforesaid Ralph tore away the +schedule from the hands of Roger, and bore it away, and before his +companions, in the manner of fools, cut it into small pieces; and with +much ado, Roger the coroner escaped from their hands in great fear and +tremor. The coroners say they cannot make inquisition, by reason of the +imminence of the war." The disturbances alluded to were the dissensions +going on between the king and barons. + +Another describes an attack of four men, one of them a priest, upon one +man in his shop in the market, where he was killed. Among many other +similar accounts of these troubled times, stands the description of +various felons, who sheltered themselves within the walls of the +sanctuary, a privilege permitted from the time of Alfred, whose laws +granted protection for three days and nights to any within the walls of a +church; William the Conqueror confirmed and extended the privilege. In +the times of feudal tyranny, this refuge was oftentimes of considerable +advantage to innocent persons falsely accused, but as frequently was the +shelter of crime. + +In a case quoted from this authority, the felon professes to have sought +refuge from punishment awaiting robberies, of which he acknowledges +himself guilty. Upon the church of St. Gregory there yet remains a +curious escutcheon, a part of the knocker, always then placed upon the +door of a church, for the purpose of aiding those who sought refuge in +sanctuary. A curious account of the ceremony of abjuration of the realm +by one who had taken refuge in Durham Cathedral, is given in the York +volume of the Archaeological Institute. + + "A man from Wolsingham is committed to prison for theft. He escapes, + and seeks refuge in the Cathedral. He takes his stand before the + shrine of St. Cuthbert, and begs for a coroner. John Rachet, the + coroner of Chester ward, goes to him, and hears his confession. The + culprit, in the presence of the sacrist, sheriff, under-sheriff, and + others, by a solemn oath renounces the kingdom. He then strips + himself to his shirt, and gives up his clothing to the sacrist as his + fee. The sacrist restores the clothing--a white cross of wood is put + into his hand, and he is consigned to the under-sheriff, who commits + him to the care of the nearest constable, who hands him over to the + next, and he to the next, in the direction of the coast. The last + constable puts him into a ship, and he bids an eternal farewell to + his country." + +There were usually chambers over the porches of churches, in which two +men slept, for the purpose of being ready at all hours to admit +applicants. In proof of the expense attending the maintaining of persons +in the sanctuary, it is said that "in 1491, the burgesses in parliament +acquainted the assembly that they had been at great expense in getting an +ordinance of parliament to authorize them in a quiet way to take one John +Estgate out of sanctuary, the said John having entered the churchyard of +St. Simon and St. Jude, and there remained for a long time past, during +which time, the city being compelled to keep watch on him day and night, +lest he should escape, was at great charge and trouble. The ordinance +being passed, John Pynchamour, one of the burgessess, went to the +sanctuary and asked John Estgate whether he would come out and submit to +the law, or no; and upon his answering he 'would not,' he in a quiet +manner went to him, led him to the Guildhall, and committed him to +prison." + +Another entry of an event that transpired during the troubled reign of +Henry III., bears reference to the memorable disputes between the +citizens and the monks of the priory, of which the Ethelbert gateway, +leading into the Cathedral Close, is a monument; the citizens having had +the penance of erecting it, imposed upon them for their destructive +attacks upon the monastery, a great portion of which, including parts of +the cathedral, they pillaged and burnt. The record states that "one John +Casmus was found slain on the Tuesday next after the feast of St. +Laurence, by William de Brunham, prior of Norwich, at the gates of St. +Trinity, on the eastern side; the said prior having struck him with a +certain 'fanchone' on the head, from which blow he instantly died. The +coroners are afraid to make inquisition, for fear of a felonious assault; +a result rendered very probable by the known temper of the prior, who, by +his violent conduct, is said to have contributed materially to the +unhappy disturbances." + +Long-cherished bitterness and jealousies respecting their several limits +of jurisdiction, had found occasion for outbreak the preceding week to +that mentioned in the record, at the annual fair, held on Trinity Sunday, +before the gates of the cathedral, on the ground known as Tombland, from +having anciently been a burial place. The servants of the monastery, and +the citizens, had come into collision at some games that were going on +upon the Tuesday, and a violent conflict ensued, which lasted for a +considerable time. The writers of the time are divided as to the +blameable parties; the monks being accused of aiding and abetting their +servants in doing wrong, and _vexing_ the people; the citizens, in their +turn, being condemned for transgressing the recognized laws which existed +concerning the boundaries of the prior's jurisdiction. + +The animosities never fairly could be said to have ceased until the +general destruction of all monastic power at the period of the +Reformation. + +One more curious extract we will make from these coroner's rolls, +remarkable as being one of the very few authentic accounts to be met with +of a person being restored to life after execution. + + "Walter Eye was condemned in the court of Norwich, and hung, and + appeared dead, but was afterwards discovered to be alive by William, + the son of Thomas Stannard; and the said Walter was carried in a + coffin to the church of St. George's, before the gate of St. Trinity, + where he recovered in fifteen days, and then fled from that church to + the church of the Holy Trinity, and there was, until the king upon + his suit pardoned him." + +It was formerly a prevalent idea that felons could only be suspended for +a certain time, but this was not really the case; so far from it, Hale's +"Pleas of the Crown" asserts, "that, in case a man condemned to die, come +to life after he is hanged, as the judgment is not executed till he is +_dead_, he ought to be hung up again." + +Another anecdote, extracted from the books of the corporation, bearing a +more recent date, possesses a double interest, from being connected with +a memorable disturbance, dignified in local history by the title of +Gladman's Insurrection, and also from the name and rank of the lady +concerned, who was grand-daughter to Chaucer, the poet, and wife of +William de la Pole, who succeeded to the earldom of Suffolk upon the +death of his brother Michael, A.D. 1415, the second year of the reign of +King Henry V. + +The only liberty we shall take with the original account is to slightly +abridge it, and render it in modern orthography. + +Item. It was so, that Alice, Duchess, that time Countess of Suffolk, +lately in person came to this city, disguised like a country house-wife. +Sir Thomas Tuddenham, and two other persons, went with her, also +disguised; and they, to take their disports, went out of the city one +evening, near night, so disguised, towards a hovel called Lakenham Wood, +to take the air, and disport themselves, beholding the said city. One +Thomas Ailmer, of Norwich, esteeming in his conceit that the said duchess +and Sir Thomas had been other persons, met them, and opposed their going +out in that wise, and fell at variance with the said Sir Thomas, so that +they fought; whereby the said duchess was sore afraid; by cause whereof +the said duchess and Sir Thomas took a displeasure against the city, +notwithstanding that the mayor of the city at that time being, arrested +Thomas Ailmer, and held him in prison more than thirty weeks without +bail; to the intent thereby both to chastise Ailmer, and to appease the +displeasure of the said duchess and Sir Thomas; and also the said mayor +arrested and imprisoned all other persons which the said duchess and Sir +Thomas could understand had in any way given favour or comfort to the +said Ailmer, in making the affray. Notwithstanding which punishment, the +displeasure of the duchess and Sir Thomas was not appeased. And it is +so, moreover, that one John Haydon, late was recorder of the city, taking +of the mayor and citizens a reasonable fee, as the recorder is +accustomed; he, being so recorded, had interlaced himself with the prior +of Norwich, at that time being _in travers_ with the said mayor and +commonality, and discovered the privity of the evidence of the said city +to the said prior, because whereof the mayor and commons of the said city +discharged the said Haydon of the condition of recorder; for which Haydon +took a displeasure against the said city. + +By malice of these displeasures of the said duchess, Sir Thomas +Tuddenham, and John Haydon, the Duke of Suffolk, then earl, in his +person, upon many suggestions by the said Tuddenham and Haydon to him +made, that the mayor, aldermen, and commonality aforesaid, should have +misgoverned the city, laboured and made to be taken out of the chancery a +commission of over determiner. And thereupon, at a sessions holden at +Thetford, the Thursday next after the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, +the said Sir Thomas and John Haydon, finding in their conceit no manner +or matter of truth whereof they might cause the said mayor and +commonality there to be indicted, imagined thus as ensueth: first, they +_sperde an inquest_, _then taken_ in a chamber, at one Spilmer's house; +in which chamber the said T. _lodged_, _and so kept them sperde_. + + "And it was so, that one John Gladman, of Norwich, which was then, + and at this hour, is a man of 'sad' dispositions, and true and + faithful to God and to the king, of disport, as is and hath been + accustomed in any city or borough through all this realm, on fasting + Tuesday made a disport with his neighbours, having his horse trapped + with tinsel, and otherwise disguising things, crowned as King of + Christmas, in token that all mirth should end with the twelve months + of the year; afore him went each month, disguised after the season + thereof; and Lent clad in white, with red-herring's skins, and his + horse trapped with oyster shells after him, in token that sadness and + abstinence of mirth should follow, and an holy time; and so rode in + divers streets of the city, with other people with him disguised, + making mirth, and disport, and plays. + + "The said Sir Thomas and John Haydon, among many other full strange + and untrue presentments, made by perjury at the said inquest, caused + the said mayor and commonality, and the said John Gladman, to be + indicted of that, that they should have imagined to have made a + common rising, and have crowned the said John Gladman as king, with + crown, sceptre and diadem, (when they never meant it), nor such a + thing imagined, as in the said presentiment it showeth more plain, + and by that presentiment, with many other horrible articles therein + comprised, so made by perjury, thay caused the franchise of the said + city to be seized into the king's hands, to the harm and cost of the + said mayor and commonality." + +And now we take a long stride from the reign of Henry V. to that of +Charles II., omitting the intermediate century that was marked by the +royal visit of the maiden queen, chronicled at length among the +"pageantries;" and passing over the troubled era of the Commonwealth, the +Reformation, and "Kett's rebellion," all of which have found a place for +notice elsewhere, we find ourselves once more in the smooth waters of +peace, with the tide of prosperity at the full within the walls of the +old city; and we ask no pardon for making copious extracts from the +journal that furnished Macaulay with materials to serve up the rich +banquet that lies condensed in the few lines devoted to this period of +the city's history, in his unrivalled work. The diary of Dr. Edward +Browne gives a picture of the society and habits of the citizens in his +time, perhaps not to be met with elsewhere. His father, Sir Thomas +Browne, then tenanted the house now known by the title of the "Star," and +in the winter of 1663-4 was visited by his son Edward, who, during his +stay, made the entries in his journal which we have extracted. At that +time, Henry, afterwards Lord Howard, of Castle Rising, subsequently Earl +of Norwich, and Marshal of England, resided in the city, at the palace of +his brother, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, who was an invalid, on the +continent, suffering from disease of the brain. + + "Jan. 1st. (1663-4.) I was at Mr. Howard's, brother to the Duke of + Norfolk, who kept his Christmas this year at the Duke's palace in + Norwich, so magnificently that the like hath scarce been seen. They + had dancing every night, and gave entertainments to all that would + come; _hee_ built up a room on purpose to dance in, very large, and + hung with the bravest hangings I ever saw; his candlesticks, + snuffers, _tongues_, fire-shovel, and and-irons, were silver; a + banquet was given every night after dancing; and three coaches were + employed every afternoon to fetch ladies, the greatest of which would + holde fourteen persons, and coste five hundred pounde, without the + harnesse, which cost six score more; I have seen of his pictures, + which are admirable; he hath prints and draughts, done by most of the + great masters' own hands. Stones and jewels, as onyxes, sardonyxes, + jacinths, jaspers, amethysts, &c. more and better than any prince in + Europe. Ringes and seales, all manner of stones, and limnings beyond + compare. These things were most of them collected by the old Earl of + Arundel (the Duke's grandfather). + + "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. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +GUILDHALL. + + +THE GUILDHALL.--_Visit to its dungeons_.--_Bilney_.--_St. Barbara's +chapel_.--_Legend of St. Barbara_.--_Assize court_.--_Old +document_.--_Trial by Jury_.--_Council chamber_.--_Old record +room_.--_Guilds_.--_St. George's company_.--_History of St. +George_.--_Legend of St. Margaret_. + +Our rambles have now brought us to the threshold of that quaint, but +beautiful old "studwork" chamber, the guildhall; the seat of civic +honour, power, and glory, with its many appendages of courts and cells, +the witnesses of those multiplied alternations of tragedy, comedy, and +melodrama, that may be looked for to have been enacted during centuries, +beneath a roof covering a council chamber, an assize court, and a prison. +Once again, we avow that we aim not to be complete topographers, or +guides to all the strange old carvings, and grotesque remains of ancient +sculpture, that may be found in such rich abundance around the pathways +of a venerable city, neither do we profess to furnish all the historic +details that may be gleaned concerning these relics of antiquity; are +they not chronicled elsewhere, in many mighty tomes, readable and +unreadable, in "guides," and "tours," and manifold "directories?" We +look and think, and odd associations weave our thinkings sometimes, +perhaps, into a queer mottled garb, though we would solemnly aver the +woof through which the shuttle of our fancy plays is every fibre of it +truth. + +Such a preface is needed to our sketch of this fine old ornament of the +city's market-place, lest disappointment should attend the hopes of the +inquisitive investigator of sights and relics. + +The guildhall, once like the municipal body it represents, was but a tiny +little thing compared with what it since has grown, and when bailiffs and +burgesses were the only distinctive titles and offices, a simple chamber +thatched, and commonly used to collect the market dues, sufficed for the +seat of civic government; but when, in the reign of the third Henry, the +citizens received from him a charter for a mayor and sheriffs, they took +off the thatched roof of their little toll-booth, and built upon it, and +round about it, spacious rooms and courts, to accommodate and do honour +to their newly acquired municipal dignitaries; for which purpose a +warrant was obtained, to press all carpenters, builders, and bricklayers, +into active service, from eight o'clock in the morning until eight +o'clock at night, as long as occasion might require; and by such +compulsory process, the design was completed some fifty years from the +date of its commencement. The tower, wherein was the treasury, fell down +in Bluff King Harry's reign, whose matrimonial exploits have given him +notoriety, in addition to the grand event of history, the Reformation, +with which they bore so intimate a connection. Decay, renovation, +change, and reformation, have been so busy with this seat of government, +from the era of its infancy until the present time, that no small degree +of ingenuity must be needed to unravel the twistings and turnings, and +comprehend the inharmonious groupings that have sprung up about it, the +divers offsprings of various ages, that mark the progress and growth of +the municipal constitution. + +Without doubt, the first claim to antiquity is justly assigned to the +lower dungeons and cells, some of which still serve as _lock ups_ for +offenders awaiting magisterial examination; and a remarkably unpleasant +situation must the individual find himself in, who is there for ever so +brief a space in "durance vile;" the convicted transgressor certainly +makes an exchange for the better, when he reaches his ultimate +destination, the city prison cell; dark, damp, underground coal-cellars, +may be deemed _fair_ illustrations of the accommodation there offered to +those whom the "_law deems innocent_", as it professes to do all +unconvicted persons. One degree darker, and more horrible, are the +_dungeons_, which receive no light whatever, save from a jet of gas +without the gratings of the doors; into these refractory guests are +stowed, that their rebellious sounds may not disturb the ears of any +passers-by above ground. + +"Deeper, and deeper still," down beneath the very foundations of the +building, at the foot of a dark narrow winding stair, fast crumbling to +decay, is yet another dungeon, long since closed for any practical +purposes; the eye of curiosity alone happily is permitted to penetrate +its depths. Dark and damp, however, as it is, it would seem preferable +to the dismal "_lock ups_," a light, of modern introduction, from the +street above, giving it a less intensely black look. Here it was that +poor old Bilney spent his last hours of life; and the groined and vaulted +roof, constructed upon the plan of so many of the cellars of that period +of civil and domestic architecture, gives to the place a strangely +ecclesiastical look in these days, and imagination has little difficulty +in calling up the priest of the subterranean temple, who has been +pictured to our eyes as there testing the powers of his endurance, by +holding his finger in the lighted flame of the candle, to satisfy his +friends that he should not shrink from the bodily pangs that were on the +morrow to earn for him the crown of martyrdom. Solemn and sad are the +memories clustered around these dreary tombs of liberty, nor is their +atmosphere tempting to linger in, even upon a visit of curiosity. + +The winding stair from _the dungeon_ leads into what is now a porch-way, +but which must once have been the site of the old chapel, built for the +use of the prisoners. This chapel was dedicated to St. Barbara, the +prisoner's saint, who, according to the legend of the Romish church, "was +imprisoned by her father, in a high strong tower, to the end that no man +should behold her," and therefore St. Barbara is always represented with +a tower. She is commemorated on the fourth of December, as St. Barbara, +the Virgin and Martyr. Here, were formerly kept all the goods and +chattels appertaining to the mayorality and civic feasts, in addition to +the services belonging to the chapel itself; but about the era of the +Reformation the chapel was pulled down, to make way for secular offices. +How busy those good reformers were in abolishing every place dedicated to +worship, that their judgment deemed supernumerary! When the treasury +tower fell in, it crushed a prison, known by the name of "_Little Ease_;" +the full details of whose attractions we are left in ignorance of. Upon +the first floor, near the site of the chapel, was once the large chamber, +where the sealing of the cloths manufactured in the city was carried on, +since converted into an assize court, where the notorious lawmongers of +this city, with their brother dignitaries of the bar, join forces to +promote the ends of justice, their clients, and their own. There is a +queer old document extant, wherein the number of learned gentlemen +permitted to follow the profession of the law in this city was limited, +"because," as the preamble states, "when there were no more than six or +eight attorneys at the most coming to the king's courts, great +tranquillity reigned in the city and county, and little trouble or +vexation was made by untrue and foreign suits; and now, so it is, that in +the said city and county there be fourscore attornies, or more, the more +part having nothing to live upon but only his gain by the practice of +attorneyship, and also the more part of them not being of sufficient +knowledge to be an attorney, &c. &c., whereby proceed many suits more of +evil will and malice than of the truth of the thing, to the manifold +vexations, and no little damage of the inhabitants of the said city and +county." Wherefore it was enacted, that there should be but six +attorneys in the county, and two in the city, for the future. When this +admirable statute was repealed, we know not, but conceive it must have +been long, long ago, for so many brass-plate signs to have sprung up in +evidence of a numerous progeny taking place of the solitary two. Whether +the repeal was a _reform_ calculated to benefit the city, experience best +can prove; but if the character of the "common folk" in these parts is +faithfully given by the author of "English Worthies," we may presume them +to have been considerably inconvenienced by the scarcity of tools with +which to play their favourite game. He says, "that the common folks of +Norfolk are possessed of such skill in the law, that they are said to +study the law at the plough's tail, and some would persuade us that they +will enter an action for their neighbour's horse only looking over the +fence." + +In later times, evidences of the law mania exist in manifold forms; and +the fact of individuals consulting a lawyer before calling in a doctor, +in physical ailments, is by no means an uncommon occurrence among a +certain class. Some men think and judge with their lawyer's heads, who, +in return, of course, in justice live upon their purses. + +Some few amusing facts connected with the boasted English privilege of +"Trial by Jury," may serve to illustrate the growth of "purity" in our +courts of law. The jurisdiction exercised over jurors by the +"Star-chamber" is a notorious matter of history; but the curious and +graphic description of the nature and constitution of a jury in the +thirteenth century, as given by Sir Francis Palgrave, in his "Tale of the +Merchant and Friar," may not be quite so familiar, and is far too good to +be omitted. + + "A trial was about to commence. 'Sheriff, is your inquest in court?' + said the Mayor. 'Yes, my lord,' replied the sheriff, 'and, I am + proud to say, it will be an excellent jury for the crown. I myself + have picked and chosen every man upon the panel. I have spoken to + them all; and there is not one whom I have not examined carefully, + not only as to his knowledge of the offences of which the prisoner + stands charged, but of all the circumstances from which his guilt can + be collected, suspected, or inferred. All the jurors were acquainted + with him; eight out of the twelve have often been heard to declare + upon their oath, that they were sure one day he would come to the + gallows; and the remainder are fully of opinion that he deserves the + halter. My lord, I should ill have performed my duty, if I should + have allowed my bailiffs to summon the jury at hap-hazard, and + without previously ascertaining the extent of their testimony. Some + perhaps know more, and some less; but the least informed of them have + taken great pains to go up and down every corner of Westminster, they + and their wives, and to know all that they could hear concerning his + past and present life and conversation. Never had any culprit a + chance of a fairer trial.'" + +An extract from the archives of the Record room, gives another specimen +of the mode of dealing with jurymen, if they proved refractory or +obstinate. It bears the date of the 8th year of King Henry VIII., and is +to the purport that the jury that "acquitted Walter, James, and John Doo, +Benet Bullok, and Edmund Stuttlie, notwithstanding that they had good and +substantial evidence given against the said felons, at the last gaol +delivery of Norwich; as the chief Justice of the King's Bench, the Lord +Edmund Howard, and William Ellis, one of the justices of the peace there, +openly declared before the lords, in the presence of the said jury; for +the which perjury so by them committed, it is by the lords' most +honourable council adjudged and decreed, that the said jury shall do the +penance following, that is to say, they shall be committed to the Fleet, +there to remain till to-morrow, and that then, at six of the clock, they +shall be brought by the warden of the Fleet into Westminster Hall, with +papers on their heads, whereon shall be written in great letters, 'these +men be wilfully perjured;' and with the same papers on their heads they +shall be led thrice about the hall of Westminster aforesaid, and then to +be led by the warden of the Fleet to the Fleet again, there to remain +till Monday; and on Monday, in the morning, to be had into Cheapside, and +there shall go about the cross in Chepe thrice, and then they shall +return to the Fleet, and there to remain till Tuesday, and then to be +brought again before the lords, to be bound by recognizances to do the +same penance at home, in their county at Norwich; and that a precept +shall be directed to the mayor and sheriffs of the city of Norwich +aforesaid, to see the said parties do the said penance in the said city, +upon Saturday, the 22d day of this present month of November, openly in +the market-place there, with papers on their heads, whereupon shall be +written the same words above written." + +The old mode of trial by ordeal, consisting as it did of an appeal to +Heaven for judgment, either directly by miraculous interference, as in +the ordeals of fire and water, or indirectly, in the ordeals of single +combat, might well have had their charms in the memory of culprit and +jurors both, when such a substitute alone was offered by the courts of +justice that had superseded them. There are, however, two extremes that +may be gone to about every thing; and we believe a little wholesome +penance might, even in the nineteenth century, not come amiss to stir up +the wits of many a sleepy juror. Certes, they often richly merit it. + +From the assize court we bend our steps upward, to the region where we +may feel at no loss in our search for objects of genuine antiquity, and +find ourselves in the _Council Chamber_; and here we arrive at the very +pinnacle of magisterial dignity--the zenith of municipal glory--the seat +of mayoralty and aldmermanship and common councilship, once broadly +separate and distinct in their grades of rank and power, in very truth an +upper and a lower house, a peerage and a commons--assembling themselves +in chambers becomingly graduated in their degrees of splendour--but now, +alas! in these degenerate days of reformation and democratic sovereignty, +as some might please to call them, all merged into one conglomerated body +corporate--shall we add, of _order Gothic composite_? + +The old chamber looks as if it had seen better days; two or three +patched-up windows of variegated colours, still retaining many quaint and +curious devices, bear witness of the taste and liberality of our +forefathers; and imagination, by the aid of history's pen, can fill up +the unsophisticated plain glass lights at the side, with the old subjects +that once occupied their space, but which have fallen a sacrifice to the +despoiler's barbarous hand;--one of the unjust judge, who, being flayed +alive, was succeeded in office by his son, and the picture, so they tell +us, was elucidated by some very characteristic specimens of antique +poetry--to wit, the first two lines of general advice, addressed to all +who may ever be in a position to profit by it,-- + + "Let alle men se, stedfast you be, + Justice do ye, or else like you fle;" + +and an additional verse to the unfortunate son who succeeded him in +office:-- + + "You that sittyst now in place, + See hange before thy face + Thyn own Fader's skyn, + For falsehood; this ded he wyn." + +Another equally original specimen of the judgment of Solomon is thus +explained:-- + + "The trewe and counterfeit to trye, + She had rather lose her Ryght-- + Saying, the Soulders ware redy + To clyve, with all their myght." + +These, as I said, have disappeared; but we were unwilling in our sketch +to lose sight altogether of such very interesting reliques of our +ancestor's skill, in conveying moral lessons by the light of their +window-panes, as were to be found here a century or two ago. Those good +old folks did not seem to be wanting in a certain kind of wit; here, as +in many other parts of the city, we have traces of their love of a fair +rebus--without a slight knowledge of which propensity, we might look long +ere we could understand the hieroglyphical appearance of a barrel set on +end, with N. E. C. written above--history, however, elucidates the +mystery, by explaining it as the rebus of one THOS. NECTON, who aided by +his wealth the filling in of one of the little gothic windows with +stained glass. The curiously carved old desk in the centre was once the +reading-desk in fair St. Barbara's chapel down below,--could it speak, we +wonder whether it would glory in its _elevation_. But now we really can +resist no longer a good hearty laugh at those comical little +unmakeoutable animals, seated so demurely all round the room, on the tops +of the high-backed benches, with their queer little faces struggling to +keep down a grin. Whatever were they put there for? Was it to chronicle +up in their little wooden pates the doings and undoings, the sayings and +unsayings, that they have been looking at, and listening to, so patiently +and wonderingly, for these four centuries past? What would we give to +hear them tell the tale of all they have seen and heard go on, since +first the royal charter granted to our citizens the long-sought privilege +of a real _bona fide_ mayor! how, at first this dignitary used to sit in +solemn majesty upon his throne of state, surrounded by his aristocracy of +chosen peers, deliberating gravely on the affairs of their little state; +how, reverently and orderly the subordinate commons used to come into +their presence at their bidding, and do as they were told by the supreme +authorities; and how, as time and years passed, the heads of these same +commons began to lift themselves a little and a little higher, till they +really seemed as much _real men_ as those who occupied the chairs of +state; how, when at last their struggles had gained the great municipal +reform, some sixteen years ago, they took their seats in the very midst +of the aldermanic autocrats, with all the coolness of precocious +intellect, usurping dignities reserved for high-sounding names or +well-lined purses. Could they not tell a few more tales of how the +ethereal blue and whites,--remembering the day when their opponents, clad +in purple, numbered nine out of twelve of the industrious nominees who +were to choose their fellow-workers in the field of city usefulness, had +traded with their talents till they had gained nine and thirty more +purples to sit by their side, and smile at the twelve blue-looking +occupants of the opposition benches,--did, in later times, effectually +turn the tables on the oppressors' heads, and sit above them in triumph, +looking down on fallen greatness; how this revolution had scarce become +familiar to their little sapiencies, when from the very centre of the +rival factions sprang another party; and the dogs, and dragons, and +what-nots, felt ready to jump from their seats, when their ears heard a +city youth avow himself an independent man, neither a _blue_ nor +_purple_--a man of _principle_--didn't they wonder what it meant, and +whether he really had enough of it to buy up both the other bidders in +this marketable borough, or whether it would pay the interest of all the +sums that they had severally spent in the good city's cause, and how they +longed to laugh outright when he avowed that honesty and truth were all +the _principal_ he traded with, and how they began by-and-bye to think +there might be something in it, and to comprehend a little of the theory, +but somehow the working of it seemed to puzzle and perplex them, it +seemed to be so complicated by the interference of expediency. But it +will not do to tarry longer, conjecturing what might be the confessions +of the little carved images; who does not, or has not read the brilliant +comedies that have been, and are yet being, enacted perpetually within +this chamber? + +But there are more objects of interest to be examined within its walls; +and among them pre-eminently stands forth the sword of Admiral Don Xavier +Francisco Winthuysen, transmitted by Horatio Nelson to the mayor of the +city, from the Irresistible, off Lisbon, Feb. 26th, A.D. 1797. The +sword, with its white vellum sheath ornamented with silver, is enclosed +in a glass case, with the original letter from Admiral Nelson, relating +the particulars of its capture. In these days of railways and universal +travelling, the trophy might prudently, we conceive, hold less +conspicuous place. No great stretch of the bounds of probability might +suggest the chance of some relative or descendant of Don Xavier Francisco +standing face to face with the uncomfortable memento of past misfortunes. +Leading from this chamber is a door-way, that opens out upon leads, where +in olden times the ladies and friends of the aldermen were wont to enjoy +the various spectacles offered by the processions and pageants then so +frequently displayed. + +The other principal chamber, formerly used by the common-councilmen, and +now appropriated to sundry legal purposes, is adorned with the various +quaint and significant emblems that once figured in the guild +processions, in attendance upon his majesty, Snap, who, from the dignity +of his elevation upon the landing-place without, looks down with proud +and silent scorn upon all the modern innovations and reformations that +have swept away the glories that surrounded his throne;--but of him more +by-and-bye. + +Beyond the council-chamber is the way of access to the old Record room, +whence, now and then, some "Old Mortality" may be seen emerging, laden +with treasures rescued from the mouldering heaps of antiquarian lore, +there lying buried beneath the accumulated dust and cobwebs of centuries. +All praise and thanks be given, as due, to these patient and industrious +workers, the fruits of whose labours so liberally are placed at the +command of all less learned and recondite scribblers, who scruple not to +gather of the crumbs that fall from the rich intellectual banquets they +have spread before the lovers of history, antiquity, or science. + +An armoury room, where weapons of divers sorts and multiform invention +are stored, all bearing evidence of long disuse by rust and decay, and a +treasury of gold and silver, maces and sceptres, in their various +departments, claim notice; but as such things possess neither very great +intrinsic worth, or any peculiarly interesting historical interest, save +the little sceptre of Queen Elizabeth, a passing word may be enough to +devote to them; it is time to turn attention to the subject more +intimately associated with the very name of the building itself. A +Guildhall instantly suggests the question of guilds, their origin, +character, and the features of history connected with those whose +existence are memorialized by this particular edifice and its appendages. + +Guilds were societies of persons confederated together for the common +cause of trade, charity, and religion. They were very numerous; in this +county alone 907 were enumerated by Taylor in his Index Monasticus, as +existing at the time of the Reformation. + +The Parochial guilds were often too poor to afford to hire a room for +their meetings, but assembled at each other's houses; but when such was +not the case, they usually hired a house near the church, which was +called a Guildhall, or church house; the situation being chosen as +convenient, their business being to pray as well as to eat. The Guild +consisted of an alderman, brethren and sisters, the parson of the parish +and the principal persons of the neighbourhood being members. They held +lands, received legacies, and frequently met; but their grand assembly +was on the day of their patron saint, when they went to church and +offered up prayers at his altar for all the members of the society, +living and dead. From their saint they took their distinctive titles, as +St. George's, St. Luke's Guild, &c. They bestowed alms annually upon the +poor, received travelling strangers, and did other acts of charity, as +far as their revenues allowed. + +Their meetings were usually crowned by a dinner, and terminated often in +a manner not altogether consistent with their commencement. Some of the +guilds in large towns were wealthy and influential. The bill for giving +their possessions to the king, when sent to the lower house in 1547, was +much opposed by the burgesses, who represented that the boroughs could no +longer maintain their churches and other public works, if the rents +belonging to the guilds were transferred to the king. The act passed, +upon a pledge that the lands should be restored. It was the last act of +Henry the Eighth's reign, and was put in execution by his successor; but +the promise was ill performed, many of the revenues being seized, upon +the plea of their being free chapel or chantry endowments. + +This brief sketch of the nature and origin of guilds, may suffice to +introduce more particularly the history of the great Guild of St. George, +the most important of all the fraternities that existed in this city, and +from being connected with the municipal body from an early date, +intimately associated with the history of the Guildhall. The following +copious account of the company, with the copy of one of the charters +granted to them, is extracted from the papers of the Norfolk and Norwich +Archaeological Society. + + COPY OF CHARTER. + + "Henry, by the grace of God, (King) of England, France, and lord of + Ireland, &c., to whom these present letters shall come greeting: + + "Know ye that, whereas we have understood a certain Fraternity, and + Gild of the glorious martyr St. George, in our city of Norwich, for + thirty years past, and more, continually have been, and are, still + honestly governed, and the brethren and sisters of the Gylde + aforesaid, for the same time have found a chaplain duly celebrating + divine service in the Cathedral church of the said city, and diverse + and great cost for the worship of God, and the same glorious martyr, + have made and do purpose to do more, if we should vouchsafe to assist + them in the behalf. Wee, in consideration of the premises, and for + the augmentation of the same of our people, to the said glorious + martyr, do, for us, our heirs (as much as in us lye), accept, ratify, + and confirm the said Fraternity and Gylde, and we have granted that + the said Fraternity and Gylde be perpetually a community in time + succession for ever. And that the Fraternity and Gylde aforesaid + have the name of the Gylde of Saint George in Norwich, for ever. And + that the brethren and sisters aforesaid, and their successors yearly + by themselves, at their will choose and create one alderman and two + masters successively, and make honest and reasonable ordinances and + constitutions to the better government of the said Fraternity and + Gylde. + + "Also cloath themselves with one suit of cloaths, and yearly make a + feast for eating and drinking, in a convenient place within the said + city, to be by them assigned. + + "And also the aldermen and masters, brethren and sisters of the + Fraternity and Gylde aforesaid, and their successors, be able and + capable persons to purchase land, tenements, rents and services, to + have, receive, and hold to them and their successors for ever, to the + aldermen, masters, brothers and sisters of the Gyld of St. George in + Norwich; and may in all courts and places for ever sue and be sued, + answer and be answered, and gain and lose, and have a common seal for + the business of the Fraternity and Gylde aforesaid to be transacted. + + "And further of our special favour we have granted and given license + for us and our heirs, (as much as in us lyes), to the aforesaid + alderman, masters, brethren and sisters, that they and their + successors may purchase and hold to them and their successors lands + and tenements, rents and services, within the said city aforesaid, up + to the value of ten pounds, which are held of us in burgage, as well + for the support of one chaplain to celebrate divine service dayly in + the church aforesaid, to pray for us and the said brethren and + sisters, their healthful state while we shall live, and for our + souls, and the souls of the said brethren and sisters when we shall + die. And also for the sowlles of our renowned ancestors, and of all + the faithful deceased, as for the support of the Fraternity and Gylde + aforesaid. And other works and charges of piety made thereof, + according to the ordinances of the same alderman, brethren and + sisters for ever; the statute made against giving lands or tenements + in mortmain, or any other statute or ordinance made to the contrary, + or for that the then lands and tenements aforesaid are held of us in + burgage notwithstanding. + + "And moreover, to the setting aside the maintenance, confederacy, and + conspiracy which by means of the Fraternity and Gylde aforesaid we + have granted to the prior of the church aforesaid and to the mayor + and to the sheriffs of the said city; also to the alderman and + Fraternity of the Gylde aforesaid, which shall be for the time being, + sufficient power and authority of expelling, discarding and removing + according to their discretion, all brethren and sisters of the + Fraternity and Gylde, aforesaid, from the Fraternity and Gylde, and + from all the benefits and franchises thereof for ever, who shall be + the cause of supporting or upholding such like maintenance, + confederacy, or conspiracy aforesaid. + + "In testimony whereof, we have caused these letters to be made + patent. Witness myself at Reading, the ninth day of May, in the + fifth year of our reign, by the King himself, and for 40 pounds paid + into the hamper, 1417. + + "WYNDHAM." + (Here was affixed the great seal of England.) + +Another charter of much greater length is still extant; but we pass on to +the next important feature in the history of the society,--its union with +the corporate body of the city,--set forth in a voluminous indenture, +known as Judge Yelverton's mediation, which we transcribe, adapting the +orthography to suit the general readers of the nineteenth century. + + "The Mayor, Sheriffs, and Commonality of the City first united to the + Fraternity of the Gylde of St. George, by the mediation of + + JUDGE YELVERTON. + + "This writing indented, made the 27th day of March, the year of the + reign of King Henry VI. the 30th, betwixt the mayor, sheriffs, and + commonality of the city of Norwich, on the one part, and the alderman + and brethren of the gylde of the glorious martyr, St. George, of the + said city, of the other part, by the mediation and diligency of + William Yelverton, Justice of our Lord the King, of his own place. + Witnesseth that, as well the said mayor, sheriffs, and commonality, + as the aforesaid aldermen and brethren of the said gylde, both + according of all matters had or moved betwixt them, before this in + manner and form, as in the articles hereafter shewing:-- + + "First, for to begin to the worship of God, our Lady, and of the + glorious martyr, St. George, forasmuch as the Cathedral church of the + Holy Trinity, of Norwich, is the most worshipful and convenient + place, that the glorious martys, St. George, be worshipped by the + aldermen and brethren of the said guild, that therefore in the said + place, after the forms and effect of the old use had afore this time, + the said alderman and brethren be there on the feast of St. George, + or some other day in the manner accustomed, there to hear the first + even-song, and on the morrow following, to go in procession and hear + mass, and offer there in the worship of God and the said martyr; and + also there for to hear the second even-song and placebo, and dirige, + for the brethren and sisters' souls of the said guild; and on the day + next following be at the mass of requiem, and offer there for the + souls of all the brethren and sisters of the said guild and all + Christians; and that a priest be continued there in the form + accustomed, for to sing and pray for the prosperity, welfare, and + honourable estate of the most Christian prince, King Henry VI., our + sovereign lord, and also for the welfare of William Yelverton, + Justice, by whose mediation and diligence the said accord and + appointments have been advised and engrossed. + + "And then, for the welfare of all the brethren and sisters of the + said guild and fraternity living, and also for the souls of King + Henry V., first founder of the said guild, and for all other souls of + all the brethren and sisters of the said guild, that be passed out of + the world, and all Christian souls; and if ever afterwards the + possessions of the said guild will stretch to sustain and find + another priest, that then such priest shall be found for to pray in + like form, and that poor men and women of the said guild be found and + relieved by the said guild, as hath been accustomed, as the goods + will stretch to save other charges and necessary expenses, to the + worship of God and of the said martyr, and to the good conservation + and continuance of the said brethren. + + "Also, on the morning next after the solemnity of the said guild, + kept in the worship of the glorious martyr, Saint George, the + brethren of the said guild, and their successors, shall yearly choose + the mayor of the said city, and that time being a brother of the said + guild, for to be alderman of the said guild for all the next year + following, after his discharge of his office of mayoralty, then + forthwith to take the charge and occupation of the said office of + aldermanship of the said fraternity and guild; and so every person + chosen to be mayor yearly, after he hath occupied mayoralty for an + whole year, to occupy the said aldermanship of the said guild; and in + case he refuse to occupy the said aldermanship after his mayoralty, + to pay unto the said fraternity 100_s._ to the use of the said guild, + and that the old alderman stand still alderman, unto the time another + be chosen unto the said office of alderman to the said guild; and if + the alderman of the said guild happen to die within the year, that + then the mayor for the time being, occupy that office of alderman for + his time, and so forth the next year following, according to this + act. + + "And that all the aldermen of the said city, that now are, and shall + be in time coming, shall be made brethren of the said guild, without + charge of the feast. + + "Also, that every man that is, or shall be chosen to be, of the + common council of the said city, be admitted also to be a brother of + the said guild if he like; and that by great diligence and + deliberation had, as well for the worship of the said city as the + said guild, that no man be chosen to the said common council, but + such as are and seem for to be able and sufficient of discretion and + good disposition, and that every man that shall be received a brother + into the said guild, shall be sworn, and receive his oath in form + that followeth:-- + + "'This hear, ye alderman and brethren of this fraternity and guild of + the glorious martyr, St. George, in this city of Norwich, that from + this day forward, the honour, prosperity, worships, profits, welfare, + and surety of the fraternity and guild, after my power, I shall + sustain, lawfully maintain and defend, and all lawful ordinances made + or to be made, with all the circumstances and dependancies thereto + belonging, truly and duly pay my dues after the said ordinances, + without trouble or grievance of the said brethren and sisters, or of + any officer of them, and Buxum to you aldermen and all your + successors in all lawful commandments, to my power and cunning, so + that this oath stretch not to any thing against the laws of God, nor + against the laws of the land, nor against the liberties or + franchises, the welfare, good peace, and rest of this city, nor + against any panel of the oath that I have made afore to the king, and + to the said city.' + + "Also, the said aldermen and common council of the guild, shall + choose when they list, from henceforward, other men and women of the + said city, beside the said alderman and common council, such as they + may think convenient by their discretion, and able thereto for to be + brethren and sisters of the said guild. + + "Also, that there be no man chosen nor received from henceforth into + the said guild, dwelling out of the said city, but if he be a knight + or a squire, or else notably known for a gentleman of birth, or else + that he be a person of great worship by his virtue, and by his truth + and great cunning, or be some great notable means and cause of great + worship, and yet that all manner of thing that shall appertain to the + governance of the said guild, or to any possessions or goods thereof, + or choosing of any brother into the said guild, or correction of any + default done to any brother, or by any brother thereof, and all other + things that appertaineth to the rules of the said guild, or by the + more part of them dwelling within the said city. + + "Also, that all the possessions and moveable goods, that now or + hereafter shall appertain to the said guild, be all only employed and + applied to the worship of God and our Lady, and of the glorious + martyr, St. George, and to the worship of the brethren of the said + guild, and for the health of the souls of all those that have been + brethren and sisters of the said guild, are and shall be in time + coming, and in none otherwise; and hereto every man be sworn at his + coming in specially, that henceforward shall be any other brother in + the said guild, that he shall here do all that is in his power, and + in no wise give his assent nor his favour to the contrary. + + "Also, that every year be chosen surveyors, and such convenient + officers as shall be thought necessary by the discretion of the + aldermen and brethren of the said guild; and that every year the said + alderman and four brethren of the said guild, whereof two be aldermen + of the said city, be chosen for to see a reckoning, and to know the + disposition and governance of all the possessions, moveables, and + goods appertaining to the said guild, and to make a writing of the + estate thereof, and shew that to the brethren of the said guild + yearly, or else to a certain number of brethren, resident in the said + city thereto named. + + "Also, that every four years, once be given hoods or liveries of suit + to each of the brethren of the said guild, and them honestly to be + kept and worn to the worship of the glorious martyr, St. George, and + of the brotherhood, if it seemeth to the said alderman and common + council convenient. + + "Also, although the aldermen of the city, and every person of common + council of the same city, be brethren of the same guild, yet if it + happen that any of them, or any other citizen or brother of the said + guild, be discharged of his aldermanship, or put out of the said + common council, or _discomynyd_ against his will, for a great and + notable cause against his worship, that then forthwith he be + discharged of the said guild; or else, whosoever be once a brother of + the said guild, that he be a brother still, paying his duties, till + he will wilfully serve his own discharge, or else for notable causes + be reasonably discharged. + + "Also it is ordained that the alderman and twenty of the brethren, + aforesaid, be for the assembly, and the common council of the said + guild, and that it needeth not to have no greater number thereto; and + that the alderman name thereof six, by his oath, that he choose no + person by no manner persuaded, nor private means, nor for favour nor + friendship of no person, nor of no parties, but such as to his + conscience are most indifferent and best disposed, and best willed to + the worship and welfare, rest, peace, and profit of all the city, and + the said guild; and in like form, the six so chosen shall, by their + taking the same oath, choose six of such persons of the said guild, + according to their said oath; then the alderman, by his said oath, + such other two which be aldermen of the said guild, of which two of + the aldermen, and the more part of them, shall be and make the common + council, and the assembly of the said guild; and if any of them + should be warned to come to the said common council, if he then be + resident in the said city, and come not, but if he hath reasonable + excusation, that he pay 20_d._ for every day. + + "And that all the old rules and ordinances of the said guild shall be + seen by the aldermen, and the said common council of the said guild, + and all those that be good, reasonable, and convenient to the worship + of God, our Lady, and the glorious martyr St. George, and to the weal + and peace within the said city, shall be kept, with reasonable + additions put thereto, if it need; and if any ambiguity or doubt + hereafterwards fall for the understanding or execution of the said + article, in case that the said alderman, and more part of the said + common council cannot accord therein, that then it be reformed and + determined by the advice of the said William Yelverton. + + "And if any brother now being, or in time coming shall be, do + conspire or labour to attempt to do in any thing the contrary of any + of these appointments, or any other in time coming, by the aldermen + or more part of the common council to be made, and that reasonably + proved upon him before the said alderman, and the more part of the + said common council, that then he be forthwith discharged of the said + guild, and that notified by the said alderman to the mayor, in the + common council of the said city, that then, it done, he be discharged + of his liberties and franchises of the said city, and unable ever to + be citizen of the said city, or brother of the said guild, and taken + and had as a forsworn man shamed and reproved, and _reune_ in the + pain of infamy. + + "Also, that all these articles abovesaid, be every year, once, or + oftener if it be needed, be openly read before the said alderman, and + all the brethren, or the most part of them. In witness of these + premises to the one part of this indenture remaining towards the said + mayor and commonality, the alderman and brethren of the said + fraternity and guild have set their common seal; and to the other + part of the said indenture, abiding toward the said alderman and + brethren of the said guild, the mayor and commonality of the said + city have set their common seal. Given and done at Norwich, the day + and year aforesaid, in the time of the mayoralty of Ralph Segrim, + when William Baily and John Gilbert were sheriffs, Thomas Allen, + alderman of the aforesaid guild, according to the tenour of this + agreement. + + "From thenceforth, the court of mayorality, justices, alderman, + sheriffs, and common councilmen, were admitted and united to the + fraternity of the glorious martyr St. George. The rank and + importance of the members of the society may be inferred from the + fact, of their admitting from the country none beneath the rank of + _notable gentlemen_. The union of the two bodies took place fourteen + years after the substitution of mayor and sheriffs for bailiffs." + +Among the entries in their book occur the following: + + "At George's Inn, Fybriggate, at an asssembly there, holden the + Monday next before the feast of All Saints, in the ninth year of King + Henry IV., A.D. 1408; it was agreed to furnish priests with copes, + "and the George shall go in procession and make a conflict with the + dragon, and keep his estate both days." + + "Item. It is ordained that two new jackets of fustian and red + buckram be bought for the henchmen (servitors upon George). + + "A.D. 1408, auditors were chosen to survey the accounts of the + company, a bellman to the company to have 2_s._ a year salary; a + beadle 1_s._ 3_d._, and for all those that are admitted and sworn, + 2_d._ for each entry; and the minstrel waytes of the city 5_s._, the + beadle for warning the brethren at any 'obite,' 6_d._; and twelve + poor men to be fed at a table by themselves every year, on St. + George's day. + + "Item. It is ordained by the common assent, that forasmuch as before + this time, the dirige, and mass of requiem, have been so rudely and + dishonestly kept, and sung by aggregate persons, and children + standing in temporal clothing, for remedy whereof to the honour of + God, and spiritual conservation of the souls departed to God, that + henceforth yearly shall be provided ten secular priests, that be not + brethren of this fraternity, to be there at dirige and mass of + requiem; each of them to have, when mass is done, 4_d._ of the obite + money. + + "A.D. 1469, ordained that an inventory of all the goods and jewels + appertaining to the said fraternity be taken." + + INVENTORY. + + "Imprimis. A precious relic; viz., an angel, silver-gilt, bearing + the arms of St. George, given by Sir John Fastolf. + + "One chalice, silver-gilt. + + "A manual, with two silver clasps. + + "A cheseble, of white diaper, powered with stars of gold. + + "A pax bread of timber. + + "A little chest, with charter of King Henry V. + + "A seal of silver, belonging to the fraternity, with an image of St. + George." + +Another charter of King Henry VI:-- + + "Two cloaths, of the martyrdom of St. George. + + "One gown of scarlet serge, for St. George. + + "A coat armour, beaten with silver, for St. George. + + "Four banners, with the arms of St. George, for the trumpeters. + + "One banner, with the image of St. George. + + "Two shafts for the banners, and one for the pennon. + + "A chaplet, for the George. + + "Two white gowns for the henchmen. + + "Three peyntrells, three croopers, three reins, three head-stalls of + red cloth, fringed and lined, with buckles, gilt, with the arms of + St. George thereon. + + "Eight torches, _a dragon_, a pair of gloves, of plate. + + "A sword, with a scabbard covered with velvet, the bosses gilt. + + "One russet gown, flowered and powdered with velvet spots. + + "A black cheseble, with an alb, with the arms of the Lord Bardolph, + by him given. + + "Lastly, one mass book, price twelve marks. + + "Also it is ordained, that the procession be done in copes, and all + the brethren to have hoods of sanguine, and a reed or wand in his + hand; and persons chosen to be aldermen, that every other of them + have a red cope, and every one a white cope; the next year shall be + clad in scarlet gowns, and parti-coloured hoods, scarlet and white + damask, on the forfeiture of the payment of 13_s._ 4_d._; and every + commoner to be clad in a long gown, red and white, on the forfeiture + of 6_s._ 8_d._; and every commoner to ride to the Wood (St. William's + shrine) on St. George's day, by the rules accustomed. + + "Also that a priest be paid a salary, amounting to eleven pounds ten + shillings. + + "Persons appointed to provide hoods for the aldermen and commoners, + to wear with their liveries at every entertainment hereafter." + +The manner of choosing persons to be members of the society, was thus, in +the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry VIII.:-- + + "The mayor chose three persons for the common council; the alderman + chose three other persons for the same; these six chose other six for + the same; and these twelve persons, with the advice of the four + feast-makers, chose two feast-makers for the next year." + +In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of King Henry VIII., A.D. 1545, at +the general dissolution of the abbeys, monasteries, convents, friaries, +&c., the large and beautiful nave of the church of the Black Friars was +converted into a common hall for the mayors, sheriffs, citizens, and +commonality, with all their guilds and fraternities, to meet and hold +their annual feasts in; but principally the guild of St. George, who +expended two hundred and ten pounds upon its improvement at that time. + + "Upon inviting persons to the feast, which was to be done by the + surveyors at the Whitsun holidays, all that promised to dine at the + feast paid their money down to the feast-maker beforehand. + + "In the first year of the reign of King Henry VI., all fraternities, + guilds, processions, &c., being thought useless, and tending to + promote superstition, were set aside, and by virtue of the act + passed, judged and deemed in the actual possession of the sovereign. + + "In the third year of the reign of King Edward VI., it was further + enacted, and agreed, that the twenty persons, hitherto known as the + St. George's assembly, should be henceforth called the assembly of + the feast of the mayor, sheriffs, citizens, and common council of the + city; and twenty persons were appointed to manage the guild feast, + now called the feast of the mayor, sheriffs, &c. &c. The + feast-makers to provide a supper also on the guild-day evening, and + the ordering of the charge to be referred to the mayor, sheriffs, &c. + &c. In the fourth year of this reign, the goods of the company were + appraised, and valued at 7 pounds 11_s._ 8_d._ + + "In the first year of the reign of Queen Mary, 1552, it was agreed, + that there should be neither George nor Margaret on the next feast + day in the procession; but the dragon to come and show himself as in + other years. + + "April 22d, second of Queen Mary, the laws since Henry VIII. + repealed, and the guild to be kept as before. + + "A.D. 1561; cordwainers admitted to office." + +Innumerable other entries betray the various changes of arrangement and +regulation; but we pass on to + + THE MANNER OF THE PROCESSION ON THE GUILD-DAY. + + "About eight o'clock in the morning, the whole body of the court, St. + George's company, and the livery, met at the new elect's, where they + were entertained with sugar rolls and sack; from whence they all + proceeded with the newly elected mayor to the old mayor's, in this + order; the court first, St. George's company next, and the livery + last. At the mayor's they had a breakfast provided for them, of + pasties and roast beef, and boiled legs of mutton; from whence, in + inverted order, (livery, St. George's company, and court), they + proceeded to the Cathedral Church, where a sermon was preached, + always by the minister of the parish in which the mayor resided; and + he was the chaplain during the mayoralty. + + "When the sermon was ended, the court had their horses taken, finely + caparisoned, which they mounted; and at the entrance into the Royal + Free School, which was curiously adorned with greens and flowers, in + a bower, stood one of the lads thereto belonging, who was ready + against the new mayor should come up, to address himself to him in an + oration of Latin, as did several others, in different places, on + horseback. As the court proceeded with their robes of justice, the + alderman in their scarlet, and the sheriffs in their violet gowns, + with each a white wand in his hand, with trumpet sounding, the city + music playing along the streets, with the standard of England carried + before them. Then followed St. George's standard and company, + supported by very tall stout men, who had dresses suitable and proper + for them; in this manner they proceeded, though but slowly, + occasioned by their stopping several times in different places, to + hear the speeches which were then spoken by the free-school boys, as + before mentioned. + + "Being arrived at the guildhall, in the market, the new-elected mayor + had his robe of justice put on him, the gold chain placed about his + neck, the key of the gates delivered to him according to custom: he + was then sworn; after which he generally made a speech to the + citizens. The whole body then remounted their horses, and proceeded + to the New Hall (or St. Andrew's Hall) to the dinner. As soon as the + court and their ladies, with the rest of the company, were seated, + the dinner was served up first to the mayor's table, next at St. + George's, and then, as fast as they could, all the rest of the tables + were plentifully filled with great variety of all kinds of good + eatables, but little or no butcher's meat, but as to pasties, tarts, + pickles, lobsters, salmon, sturgeon, hams, chickens, turkeys, ducks, + and pigeons, in great plenty, even to profusion; and these all served + up in order, and besides what beer every one chose to drink, either + small or strong, they had what quantity they pleased, besides a + bottle of wine, which every man had delivered to him to drink after + dinner. + +As soon as dinner was over, St George's company looked into their book to +see for the names of such as were eligible to be chosen as feast-makers; +and when they had selected four persons, they walked round the hall to +look for them; and no sooner was one of them espied, than he had a +garland of roses and greens thrown over his head, and was congratulated +upon being chosen as feast-maker for the next year. If any of the four +were absent, it sufficed to send the garland to them at their own houses, +to make the appointment sure. A pecuniary fine attended a refusal to +serve. + +After the choice of feast-makers was over, the "banquets" were given to +the ladies, and it growing towards evening the whole body rose from their +seats and waited upon the new mayor home, where all were again +entertained with sugar rolls and sack; and then concluded the day by +seeing the old mayor to his home, where they remained and drank as long +as it was proper. + +The great guns were discharged many times during the day. + +The whole street, sometimes the whole parish, in which the mayor resided +was decorated in the handsomest manner; the streets were all strewn with +rushes and planted with trees, variety of "garlands, ship, antients, and +streamers in abundance." The outside of the houses were hung with +tapestry and pictures. + + "The dragon (carried by a man in the body) gave great diversion to + the common people; they always seemed to fear it much when it was + near them, but looked upon it with pleasure when at a little + distance; it was so contrived as to spread its wings and move its + head. As there was always a multitude of people to see the + procession, it was necessary to have several persons to keep them + from coming too near, or breaking the ranks; for this purpose there + were six men called Whifflers, somewhat like the Roman gladiators, + who were neatly dressed, and who had the art of brandishing their + very sharp swords in the greatest crowds with such dexterity as to + harm no one, and of a sudden, to toss them high in the air and catch + them again by the hilts: to this purpose also a man or two in painted + canvas coats and vermilion red and yellow cloth caps, adorned with + cats' tails and small bells, went up and down to clear the way; their + weapons were only small wands. These were called or known by the + name of Dick Fools; even they had their admirers, but it was among + the children and mobility." + +The above curious and quaint description of the St. George's Company and +the procession, is an extract from Mackerell's "History of Norwich," +published by the Archaeological Society. From the same source the +further particulars added are collected. + +It would appear that the company, enjoying so many powers and privileges, +grew insolent and overbearing, and were wont to insult with impunity, and +tyrannize unmercifully over the pockets, purses, and freedom of their +fellow-citizens, until at length an individual named Clarke, an alderman, +to whom they had shown much discourtesy and injustice, by considerable +effort succeeded in bringing their career as a body to an end. Their +charter, books, regalia, and all that belonged to them were given up to +the Corporation, and arrangements made at the same time for the mayor's +procession and rejoicings upon a new footing. The dragon, the fools, and +whifflers, were continued and paid by the Corporation, but instead of the +St. George's company, the sixty common councilmen attended upon the newly +elected mayor on horseback in their gowns. The mayor was to make a guild +feast at his own charge, 150 pounds being given him towards the expenses +of his mayoralty. + + "Thus (using the words of the writer) fell this honourable tyrannical + company, who had lorded it over the rest of the citizens, by laws of + their own making, for an hundred and fourscore years; had made all + ranks of men submit to them; neither had they any regard to the + meanness of persons' circumstances, by which they had been the ruin + of many families, and had occasioned much rancour and uneasiness + every annual election of common-councilmen, when the conquerors + always put the vanquished on to the livery; thereby delivering them + over to the mercy of St. George, who was sure to have a pluck at them + as they assembled and met together; until this gentleman alderman + Clarke had the courage to oppose and withstand them; and having taken + a great deal of pains and time, at last effected this great work, and + brought this insolent company to a final period; for which good deed + he ought to have his name transmitted to the latest posterity." + +And now it behoves us to inquire who was St. George? Shall we be content +to hear of his mighty prowess, his renowned sanctity, and his eminent +exaltation as patron saint of our country, and the most famous guilds or +fraternities that have ever flourished in Christendom, and know nothing +of his origin, history, or reality? Shall we subscribe to the heretical +belief that St. George was neither more nor less than a soldier in the +army of Diocletian, who rewarded his great military exploits by cutting +off his head for advocating the cause of the Christians, and that +therefore he was elevated into the calendar of saints and martyrs in the +early church? Shall we deny that he ever went to war with an insatiable +dragon, who, having eaten up all the sheep and cattle in the +neighbourhood, was fed upon fair youths and maidens "from a city of +Libya, called Silene, and that he did mortally wound the said dragon and +led him through the streets of the city," as if it had been a meek beast +and debonnaire? or shall we give ear to the suggestion that St. George is +but another name for St Michael, who is always represented in combat with +the dragon? To whatever belief we may incline, the fact of the antiquity +of his claims upon Christendom for universal reverence cannot be +disputed. Long before he became the patron saint of England, many +eastern nations had adopted him in the same capacity; and to his personal +and miraculous interference in protecting Richard Coeur de Lion in his +conflict with Saladin, are we to attribute his elevation to that dignity +in this country? Many orders of knighthood besides that of England have +been distinguished by his name in Austria, Bavaria, Burgundy, Montesa, +Ravenna, Genoa, and Rome. The most authentic accounts that have come +down to us of the individual history and mortal career of this +semi-fabulous personage, resolve themselves into a few leading facts. He +was a saint of high repute in the eastern church at a very early date, a +Cappadocian of good family, and a commander of note in the army of +Diocletian, and that he suffered martyrdom at Raniel, on the 23d of +April, the day on which his festival was kept. He is mentioned in old +Saxon homilies as an ealder-man (or earl) of Cappadocia, and is mentioned +in a MS. Martyrologicum Saxonicum, in the library of Corpus Christi +College, Cambridge, as Georius Nobilis Martyr. The Greeks called him the +"Great Martyr." The Coptic Arabic MSS. mention him as of Cappadocia; +Constantine instituted a religious order of knighthood, under the title +of St. George, on which was borne a red cross; he is also said to have +erected a church near his tomb in Palestine, and others in his honour at +Constantinople. The red cross, usually attributed to St. George for an +armorial bearing, was possibly adopted from Constantine's order of +knighthood. The figure of the saint armed and on horseback, expresses +his martial character; and the dragon by many is conceived to be a symbol +of Paganism; the figure of the young lady sometimes introduced also is +regarded as a type of some city or province imploring aid, or may +possibly have been intended to memorialize the rescue of the damsel, whom +he is reported so gallantly to have saved from destruction. There is a +separate legend of a St. Margaret and a dragon related by Mrs. Jameson, +which says that the governor of Antioch, captivated by the beauty of the +fair Margaret, who inclined not to his highness, shut her up in a +dungeon, and subjected her to all kinds of torments, and that during her +imprisonment the devil, in the form of a dragon, appeared ready to devour +her, but she held up the cross and he fled. Many old prints represent +the dragon lying peaceably down, and Margaret with the cross standing by +unharmed. An old church at Canterbury is dedicated to this Saint +Margaret. Whether or not there exists any connection between her and the +heroine who usually is associated with St. George, we know not. + +We conclude this speculative inquiry with a curious extract from a work +by Dr. Sayer, a translation of a fragment annexed to the Vatican MS. of +Olfrid's Gospels, some say written in the fourth century:-- + + George went to judgement + With much honour + From the market-place, + And a great multitude following him, + He proceeded to the Rhine {223} + To perform the sacred duty, + Which then was highly celebrated, + And most acceptable to God. + He quitted the kingdoms of the earth, + And he obtained the kingdom of heaven. + Thus did he do, + The illustrious Count George, + Then hastened all + The kings who wished + To see this man entering, + (But) who did not wish to hear him. + The spirit of George was there honoured, + I speak truly from the report of these men, + (For) he obtained + What he sought from God. + Thus did he, + The Holy George. + Then they suddenly adjudged him + To prison; + Into which with him entered + Two beautiful angels + * * * * * + Then he became glad + When that sign was made (to him), + George then prayed; + My God granted every thing + To the words of George; + He made the dumb to speak, + The deaf to hear, + The blind to see, + The lame to walk. + * * * * * + Then began the powerful man + To be exceedingly enraged. + Tatian wished + To ridicule these miracles. + He said that George + Was an impostor; + He commanded George to come forth; + He ordered him to be unclothed; + He ordered him to be violently beaten + With a sword excessively sharp. + All this I know to be altogether true; + George then arose and recovered himself; + He wished to preach to those present, + And the Gentiles + Placed George in a conspicuous situation, + (Then) began that powerful man + To be exceedingly enraged. + He then ordered George to be bound + To a wheel, and to be whirled round. + I tell you what is fact; + The wheels were broken to pieces, + This I know to be altogether true; + George then arose and recovered himself, + He then wished (to preach); the Gentiles + Placed George in a conspicuous place, + Then he ordered George to be seized + And commanded him to be violently scourged; + Many desired that he should be beaten to pieces, + Or be burnt to a powder; + They at length thrust him into a well. + There was this son of beatitude, + Vast heaps of stones above him, + Pressed him down; + They took his acknowledgment; + They ordered George to rise; + He wrought many miracles, + As in fact he always does. + George rose and recovered himself. + He wished to preach to those Gentiles, + The Gentiles + Placed George in a conspicuous place. + * * * * * + They ordered him to rise, + They ordered him to proceed, + They ordered him instantly to preach. + Then he said, + I am assisted by faith. + (Then he said) when + Ye renounce the devil + Every moment * * * + * * * * * + This is what St. George himself may teach us. + Then he was permitted to go into the chamber + To the Queen; + He began to teach her, + She began to listen to him. + +The fragment ends here; the queen alluded to is deemed to be the wife of +Diocletian Alexandra, who has been canonized by the Romish Church. She +is said to have been converted to Christianity, and suffered martyrdom +with her teacher. + +We now beg to take leave of St. George and St. Margaret; Mr. Snap or the +Dragon in his coat of green and gold, at this present surmounted by an +outer coat of considerable thickness of dust, must permit us to make our +obeisance--trusting that the gleanings we have made of all these little +facts of history that contributed to his importance in the day of his +sovereignty and splendour, may have gained for us a parting good will. + +His days of pomp and majesty are ended--with the banishment of fun and +frolic, and folly, with the reformation of councils and committees, of +manners and municipalities--his glory has departed, and but for the +chronicles of the past, his presence slumbering in oblivion, or in +drooping despondency, hanging his head in attitude of grief, might be a +mystery insoluble, as also might be the annual exhibition of the shabby +counterfeit presentment of his person in the shape of a cumbrous +imitation of himself, that is paraded once a year through street and +suburb, to keep alive the shadow of the memory of "good old times," in +the hearts of the populace of a pleasure-loving city--but a sorrowful and +piteous spectacle is this walking ghost of the _Snap_ of the glorious +guild of St. George. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +PAGEANTRY. + + +_Pageantries_.--_Ancient_ "_Mysteries_."--_Origin of the religious +drama_.--_Moralities_.--_Oratorios_.--_Allegorical plays of Queen +Elizabeth's time_.--_The Pageants got up to do honour to her +visit_.--_Will Kempe_, _Morris dancer_, _his_ "_nine days +wonder_."--"_Hobby-horses_."--_Festivals_.--_St. Nicholas or Boy +Bishop_.--_Bishop Blaize_.--_Woolcombers' jubilee_.--_Southland +fair_.--_St. Valentine_.--_Mode of celebrating the festival_.--"_Chairing +the members_."--_Origin of the custom_. + +Among the many quaint specimens of the ways and doings of the ancient +respectable denizens of this present sober-minded city, that have been +rescued from the dim and dusty obscurity of the municipal record chamber, +has been found a curious minute of the proceedings of a solemn court held +on the Sabbath day of the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, in the +nineteenth year of King Henry VIII., when a petition was presented to the +mayor, sheriffs and common council of the city of Norwich, by the +aldermen and brethren of the guild of St. Luke, praying to be relieved +from the burthen of being sole purveyors of plays and pageants for the +people on Whitsun Monday and Tuesday; and it may safely serve as a text +for a few rambling sketches of the entertainments that were wont to +gratify the taste of the lovers of the drama, in the age before the +stream of imperishable philosophy had been poured forth from the waters +of Avon, or its banks had resounded to the harmony that was destined to +sweep over the length and breadth of the earth, vibrating through the +chords of every living heart that felt its breath. + +Deep in the human mind lies the yearning for amusement, great have been +those who, laying hold of this inherent principle of our nature, could +make it a means for enlightening and ennobling it; nor must we judge of +the sincerity of the attempts that were made in this work, by their +impotency or failure. In dark and barbarous times, what may seem gross +buffoonery to our refined senses, may have had power to convey a moral +lesson or excite a worthy impulse; and we may scarcely with any justice +withhold our meed of praise and admiration of the philosophy of those old +monks, who, seeing the immorality that characterized the exhibitions +provided by strolling players, jugglers, tumblers, dancers, and jesters, +journeying from town to town, and castle to castle, and filling the large +square court-yards provided for their express accommodation by every +house of any pretensions to rank, set their inventive powers to work, to +find a substitute for these recreations of dubious tendency, and +endeavoured to supersede the secular by the religious drama. +Appolonarius, and Gregory, Archbishop of Constantinople, had done +likewise, and dramatised scenes both from the Old and New Testament, as +substitutes for Euripides and Sophocles, when the study of Greek +philosophy was deemed heresy, and to have read Virgil required from St. +Augustine penitence and prayer for pardon. Hence priests turned +playwrights and actors, and instead of profane mummeries presented +scriptural stories, or legendary tales, which they at least deemed +improving and instructive. Most old cities present traces, more or less +distinct, of these specimens of clerical ingenuity. + +The Coventry and Chester mysteries have been preserved almost entire; +royalty honoured them with its presence, both in the person of Richard +III. and Henry VII. and his queen; York and London have contributed their +store of relics, and the performances of the company of Clerks that gave +the name to far-famed Clerkenwell, and the fraternity of the Holy +Trinity, St. Botolph's Aldersgate, have become matters of history. + +We have to borrow light from these richer stores, to comprehend the full +meaning of the few traces left among our chronicles, that bear evidence +of similar practices in the other localities; and here we return to the +petition of the St. Luke's guild or fraternity. Each branch of trade had +then its company, or guild, and was governed by laws of its own, under +general supervision of the municipal authorities. The St. Luke's guild +was composed of pewterers, braziers, bell-founders, plumbers, glaziers, +stainers, and other trades, and upon them it would seem that the whole +expense of the Whitsunside dramatic entertainments had fallen; wherefore +they besought their "discreet wisdoms" to enact, and ordain, and +establish, that every occupation within the city, should yearly, at the +procession on Monday in Pentecost week, set forth one pageant, by their +"discreet wisdoms" to be assigned and appointed of their costs and +charges, which should be "to the worship of the city, profit of the +citizens and inhabitants, and to the great sustentation, comfort and +relief as well of the said guild and brethren of the same;" which +favourable aid should bind them and their successors "daily to pray to +God for the prosperities long to endure of their discreet wisdoms." + +Which petition being heard and understood, it was agreed and enacted that +thenceforth every occupation in the said city should find and set forth +in the said procession one such pageant as should be appointed by master +mayor and his brethren aldermen. In the same hand-writing as the minute +to this effect is a list of pageants, probably arranged in consequence of +it. + + PAGEANTS. +1. Mercers, Drapers, Creation of the World. +Haberdashers. +2. Glasiers, Steyners, Helle carte. +Screveners, Pchemyters, +Carpenters, Gravers, Caryers, +Colermakers Whelewrights. +3. Grocers, Raffemen, Paradyse. +(Chandlers). +4. Shermen, Fullers, Abell and Cain. +Thikwollenweavers, +Covlightmakers, Masons, +Lymebrenrs. +5. Bakers, Bruers, Inkepers, Noyse Shipp. +Cooks, Millers, Vynteners, +Coupers. +6. Taillors, Broderers, Reders, Abraham and Isaak. +and Tylers. +7. Tanners, Coryors, Moises and Aaron with the +Cordwainers. children of Irael, and Pharo with + his Knyghts. +8. Smythes. Conflict of David and Golias. +9. Dyers, Calaunderers, The birth of Christ, with +Goldsmythes, Goldbeters, Shepherds and three Kyngs of +Saddlers, Pewterers and Brasyers. Colen. +10. Barbors, Wexchandlers, The Baptysme of Criste. +Surgeons, Fisitians, +Hardewaremen, Hatters, Cappers, +Skynners, Glovers, Pynnmakers, +Poyntemakers, Girdelers, Pursers, +Bagmakers, "Scepps," Wyredrawers, +Cardmakers. +11. Bochers, The Resurrection. +Fismongers,Watermen. +12. Worsted Wevers. The Holy Ghost. + + "These plays were performed on moveable stages constructed for the + purpose, described by Dugdale as 'theatres very large and high, + placed on wheels;' and Archdeacon Rogers, who died in 1595, and saw + the Whitsun plays performed at Chester, gives a very minute + description of the mode in which they were exhibited: 'They were + divided there into twenty-four pageants, according to the companies + of the city; every company brought forth its _pageant_, which was the + carriage or stage in which they played; these were wheeled about from + street to street, exchanging with each other, and repeating their + several plays in the different places appointed. The pageants, or + carriages, were high places made like two rooms, one above the other, + open at the top; the lower room was used as a dressing-room, the + higher room was the performing place." + +The first of the Norwich pageants, the Creation of the World, is similar +to one described by Hone, as performed at Bamberg, in Germany, so late as +1783; and its details so precisely accord with the stage directions still +extant of similar representations in this country, that it has been +adopted as a fair specimen of the play alluded to in the list. + +The description of the German representation is thus given in the words +of an eye-witness:--"The end of a barn being taken away, a dark hole +appeared, hung with tapestry the wrong side outwards; a curtain running +along, and dividing the middle. On this stage the Creation was +performed. A stupid-looking Capuchin personated the Creator. He entered +in a large full-bottomed wig, with a false beard, wearing over the rusty +dress of his order a brocade morning-gown, the lining of light blue silk +being rendered visible occasionally by the pride the wearer took in +showing it; and he eyed his slippers with the same satisfaction. He +first came on, making his way through the tapestry, groping about; and +purposely running his head against posts, exclaiming, with a sort of +peevish authority, 'Let there be light,' at the same time pushing the +tapestry right and left, and disclosing a glimmer through linen clothes +from candles placed behind them. The creation of the sea was represented +by the pouring of water along the stage; and the making of dry land by +the throwing of mould. Angels were personated by girls and young +priests, habited in dresses (hired from a masquerade shop), to which the +wings of geese were clumsily attached, near the shoulders. The angels +actively assisted the character in the flowered dressing-gown, in +producing the stars, moon, and sun. To represent winged fowl, a number +of cocks and hens were fluttered about; and for other living creatures, +some cattle were driven on the stage, with a well-shod horse, and two +pigs with rings in their noses. Soon after, Adam appeared. He was a +clumsy fellow, in a strangely-shaped wig; and being closely clad with a +sort of coarse stocking, looked quite as grotesque as in the worst of the +old woodcuts, and something like Orson, but not so decent. He stalked +about, wondering at every thing, and was followed from among the beasts +by a large ugly mastiff, with a brass collar on. When he reclined to +sleep, preparatory to the introduction of Eve, the mastiff lay down by +him. This occasioned some strife between the old man in brocade, Adam, +and the dog, who refused to quit his post; nor would he move when the +angels tried to whistle him off. The performance proceeded to the +supposed extraction of the rib from the dog's master; which being brought +forward and shewn to the audience, was carried back to be succeeded by +Eve, who, in order to seem rising from Adam's side, was dragged up from +behind his back, through an ill-concealed and equally ill-contrived +trap-door, by the performer in brocade. As he lifted her over, the dog, +being trod upon, frightened her by a sudden snap, so that she tumbled +upon Adam. This obtained a hearty kick from a clumsy angel to the dog, +who consoled himself by discovering the rib produced before, which, being +a beef bone, he tried his teeth upon." + +The second pageant was "Paradise," provided by the Grocers and Raffemen. +In the Grocers' books, now lost, were the items of expenditure about this +pageant, among others, for painting clothes for Adam and Eve, &c. In the +French collections, a legendary incident is introduced in this play: When +Adam attempts to swallow the apple, it will not stir; and, according to +the legend, this was the cause of the lump in the man's throat, which has +been preserved ever since. + +The third pageant, "Hell Carte," was brought forth by the Glaziers, &c. +One of a series of illuminated drawings of the eleventh century, +illustrative of the Old and New Testaments, part of the Cottonian Library +in the British Museum, gives an idea of the manner in which this subject +was represented. By no very complex machinery, the huge painted mouth +was made to open and shut, and demons are represented dragging into it a +variety of classes of dishonest people; thereby conveying a moral and +satirical admonition against some of the crying sins of the day, most +practised among, and most offensive to, the lower and middle classes of +society. One of these offenders was the ale-wife, who gave short +measure. In a _miserere_ in Ludlow church, there is set forth a demon +carrying an ale-wife, with her false measure and gay head-dress, to the +mouth, while two other demons play on the bagpipes, and read from a +scroll the catalogue of her sins. + +The fourth pageant, "Abel and Cain," was furnished by the Sheremen, &c. +Disputes between Cain and his man were comic scenes introduced into it, +and formed its chief attraction. + +The fifth, "Noyse Ship," was brought forth by the Bakers. A fragment of +a Newcastle play of the same name affords a specimen of its probable +character. The _dramatis persona_ are Noah, his wife, and Diabolus; and +a considerable portion of the play consists of disputes between Noah and +his wife, about entering the ark, as:-- + + NOAH. + + Good wife, doe now, as I thee bidd. + + NOAH'S WIFE. + + Not I, ere I see more need, + Though thou stande all day and stare. + + NOAH. + + . . . that women ben crabbed be, + And not are meek, I dare well say. + That is well seen by me to-day, + In witness of yet, eiehone. + Good wife, let be all this beare, + That thou mak'st in this place here, + For all they wene thou art master, + And soe thou art by St. John. + +Further rebellion on the part of the spouse compels Noah to carry out the +threat, + + Bot as I have blys, + I shall chastyse this. + +To which she replies:-- + + "Yet may ye mys + Nicholle Nedy." + +He stops beating her, for the reason, + + "That my bak is nere in two." + +To which she adds:-- + + "And I am bet so blo--" + +The sixth pageant was Abraham and Isaac. Of the details of this, and the +seventh and eighth, no records have been found. + +The ninth--the birth of Christ, with shepherds, and the three kings of +Colen,--was a very common subject. The scenes were, usually:--1st, Mary, +Joseph, the child, an ox and an ass, and angels speaking to +shepherds.--2nd, The shepherds speaking by turns, the star, an angel +giving joy to the shepherds.--3rd, The three kings coming from the East, +Herod asking about the child, with the son of Herod, two counsellors, and +a messenger.--4th, Mary, with the child and star above, and the kings +offering gifts. + +In the Townley and Coventry Mysteries, the play commences with a ranting +speech of King Herod, one of those which gave rise to Shakespeare's +saying of "out-heroding Herod." In the fifth volume of the Paston +Letters, J. Wheatley writes to Sir J. Paston, "and as for Haylesdon, my +lord of Suffolk was there on Wednesday; at his being there that day, +there was never no man that played _Herod_ in Corpus Christi better, and +more agreeable to his pageant, than he." + +Most of these pageants were founded upon scripture narrative; while of +those of Coventry several are founded on legendary history. + +The tenth pageant, having for its object the "Baptism of Christ," was +exhibited by the Barbers, &c. + +The eleventh pageant was the "Resurrection," brought forward by the +Butchers, &c. + +The twelfth and last pageant was the "Holy Ghost," and exhibited the +descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. + +In the well-known mystery, entitled _Corpus Christi_, or the Coventry +play, the prologue is delivered by three persons, who speak alternately, +and are called _vexillators_; it contains the arguments of the several +_pageants_ or _acts_ that constitute the piece, and they amount to no +less than forty, every one of which consists of a detached subject from +scripture, beginning with the Creation of the Universe, and concluding +with the "Last Judgment." In the first pageant or act, the Deity is +represented seated on a throne by himself; after a speech of some length, +the angels enter, singing from the church service portions of the Te +Deum. Lucifer then appears, and desires to know if the hymn was in +honour of God or himself, when a difference arises among the angels, and +the evil ones are with Lucifer expelled by force. + +The Reformation had not the effect of annihilating these observances in +many places; the Corpus Christi procession was kept up for years after, +as in Norwich; and it was not until the beginning of the reign of James +I. that they were finally suppressed in all the towns of the kingdom. + +John Bale, of the Carmelite Monastery, of Whitefriars, Norwich, +afterwards a convert to Protestantism, and made successively Bishop of +Ossory, Archbishop of Dublin, also a prebend of Canterbury, was a great +writer of mysteries; one of his compositions was entitled "The Chief +Promises of God to Man," its principal characters being God, Adam, Noah, +Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and John Baptist. + +Moralities were of later date than mysteries, and differed from them, as +consisting of dramatic allegories, in which the vices and virtues were +personified; the province of exciting laughter descended from the devil +in the _mystery_, to _vice_ or _iniquity_ in the _morality_, and was +personified by _pride_ or _gluttony_, or any other evil propensity; and +even when regular tragedies and comedies came upon the stage, we may +trace the descendants of this line in the clowns and fools who undertook +this portion of the entertainment, to the no small detriment of the more +serious parts of the best tragedies. In Hamlet's direction to the +players, allusion is made distinctly to this. The secular plays which +existed before mysteries were invented, differed very materially from +either them or moralities, and were far inferior to them in refinement +and delicacy; they retained their popularity, however, notwithstanding +their clerical rivals, and the efforts that were diligently made to do +away with them. + +_Interludes_ were a variety of these secular plays, and probably gave +birth to the _farce_ of later times; they were facetious or satirical +dialogues, calculated to promote mirth. A representation of this +character before Henry the Eighth, at Greenwich, is thus related by +Hall:--"Two persons played a dialogue, the effect whereof was to declare +whether riches were better than love; and when they could not agree upon +a conclusion, each knight called in three knights well armed; three of +them would have entered the gate of the arch in the middle of the +chamber, and the other three resisted; and suddenly between the six +knights, out of the arch fell down a bar all gilt, for the which bar the +six knights did battle, and then they departed; then came in an old man +with a silver beard, and he concluded that love and riches both be +necessary for princes; that is to say, by love to be obeyed and served, +and with riches to reward his lovers and friends." + +Another is described by the same author as performed at Windsor, when +"the Emperor Maximilian and King Henry, being present, there was a +disguising or play; the effect of it was, that there was a proud horse, +which would not be tamed or bridled; but _Amity_ sent _Prudence_ and +_Policy_, which tamed him, and _Force_ and _Puissance_ bridled him. The +horse was the French king, Amity the king of England, and the emperor and +other persons were their counsel and power." + +When regular plays became established, these motley exhibitions lost +their charm for all, save the vulgar; the law set its face against them, +performers were stigmatised as rogues and vagabonds, and it is highly +probable that necessity suggested to the _tragitour_ or juggler, who was +reduced to one solitary companion, the jester or jackpudding, to make up +his "company," the idea of substituting puppets to supply the place of +other living characters. The drama was in much the same state of +progress throughout the civilized portions of Europe; and to the Italians +and Spaniards the ingenuity of "Punchinello" has been attributed. In +England these wooden performers were called _motions_; and Mr. Punch took +among them the rank of _mirth-maker_. If there yet lives a being who has +not at some moment of his life felt a thrill of delight at the prospect +of a half-hour's exhibition of this gentleman's performance in his +miniature theatre, we pity him most heartily. + +The oratorio is a mystery or morality in music. The Oratorio commenced +with the priests of the Oratory, a brotherhood founded at Rome, 1540, by +St. Philip Neri, who, in order to attract the youthful and +pleasure-loving to church, had hymns, psalms, or spiritual songs, or +cantatas sung either in chorus or by a single favourite voice. These +pieces were divided into two parts, one sung before the other, after the +sermon. Sacred stories or events from Scripture, written in verse, and, +by way of dialogue, were set to music, and the first part being +performed, the sermon succeeded, which people were inclined to remain to +hear, that they might also hear the conclusion of the musical +performance. This ingenious device precluded the necessity, we presume, +of locking the doors to prevent the egress of the congregation after +prayers, and before the sermon, that has in some places since been +resorted to. + +The institutions of the Oratory required that corporal punishments should +be mingled with their religious harmony; and the custom would seem to +have been, that at certain seasons, of frequent occurrence, the brethren +went through severe castigation from their own hands, upon their own +bodies, with whips of small cords, delivered to them by officers +appointed for the purpose. This ceremony was performed in the dark, +while a priest recited the Miserere and De Profundis with several +prayers; after which, in silence and gloom, they were permitted to resume +their attire, and refrain from their self-inflictions. + +Mysteries and moralities ceased altogether about the year 1758 in this +country; a comedy by Lupton, bearing that date, being about the last +trace of the old school of dramatic writing. The same year is memorable +in this city for the gorgeous pageantries that marked the progress of +England's famous queen through its streets, on the occasion of her visit +to this then thriving metropolis of wealth and commerce; and a sketch of +the amusements provided for her entertainment, and the talents put into +requisition to do honour to her august presence, may not be out of place +here, containing, as they do, perhaps some of the latest specimens of the +allegorical dramatic writing that exist. They bear strong evidence of +the encouragement given to literature by Elizabeth, which had created the +fashion for classical allusion upon every possible occasion; and her +admiration of the compliment so conveyed, caused the mythology of ancient +learning to be introduced into the various shows and spectacles set forth +in her honour, until almost every pageant became a pantheon. + +But now for the royal visit, whose glorious memory has shed a halo over +worsted weaving, and bombazines, and stocking manufactures, and is now +enshrined in the magisterial closet of the Guildhall where the little +silver sceptre then bequeathed to the honoured city lingers as a memento +of the great event. + +It was in the year 1578, that her Most Gracious Majesty, by the grace of +God, Queen of England, France, and Ireland, was pleased to honour the +city by her royal presence for the space of six days and nights, during +which period the gaiety and magnificence of the doings would appear to +have surpassed all previous or subsequent experience. The civic +functionaries held preliminary meetings to 'determine the order of the +procession that should welcome her Majesty, and to decree what +preparations should be made for the event. Great excitement prevailed +throughout the city; streets were cleaned, dirt heaps removed, boats +converted into state barges, velvets and satins, and gold and silver +laces bought up to an immense extent, and, what we would appreciate more +highly still, a decree was passed, banishing for the time being from the +city streets all candle makers and scoutherers, who used unodoriferous +washes that might offend the olfactory nerves of royalty. This delicate +attention we do esteem most creditable to the good sense of the august +body whose care it was to provide for the comfort of the fair maiden +queen. Another generous resolution was passed by these same gentlemen, +that none of the attendants that might form the retinue of their +sovereign should be unfeasted, or unbidden to dinner and supper during +the whole period of the six days. A devisor, a sort of lord of misrule, +we presume, was chosen to devote himself exclusively to the gettings up +of pageants for the amusement of the visitors and public; and to his wit +and ingenuity we fancy her majesty was mainly indebted for the +enlivenment of her visit. + +The auspicious day arrived, and a gay procession started forth to meet +the royal party. First came in rank, two by two, three score comely +youths of the school of bachelors, arrayed in doublets of black satin, +black hose, black taffeta hats with yellow bands, and then, as livery, a +mandelin of purple taffeta, trimmed with silver lace. These were +followed by a figure fancifully attired with armour, and velvet hat and +plume, intended to represent King Gurgunt, the reputed founder of the +castle. This personage was attended by three henchmen, bearing his +helmet, staff, and target, and gaily decked out in livery of white and +green, all richly mounted. Next followed the noble company of gentlemen +and wealthy citizens, in velvet coats and other costly apparel. Then +came the officers of the city, every one in his place; then the +sword-bearer, with the sword and cap of maintenance, next the mayor in +full scarlet robes, lined and trimmed with fur, the aldermen in their +scarlet gowns, and those of them that had been mayors in cloaks also; +next came those who had been sheriffs, in violet gowns and satin tippets; +and lastly, the notorious whifflers, poising and throwing up their +weapons with dexterity, just sufficient to impart fear and maintain order +without doing mischief. Thus they proceeded some two miles forward on +the road to meet her majesty, King Gurgunt only excepted, who remained +behind, to welcome her majesty at her first view of his redoubted castle. +Then followed all the shouting and rejoicing usual on such occasions; and +when the royal train arrived, the exchanging of compliments in flowers of +speech, and more substantial coins of gold. The mayor presented a vase +of silver gilt, containing one hundred pounds of money, as a tribute of +loyalty to his sovereign liege, upon which her majesty exclaimed to her +footman, "Look to it! there is one hundred pounds;" and in return, the +city was presented with a mace or sceptre richly gemmed, so that on this +occasion, if history tells us true, her majesty made some return for +value received, as was not always her custom to do. Then followed the +speechifyings; first the mayor's and its answer, and afterwards King +Gurgunt's that _was to have been_, but fortunately we must think for her +majesty this forty-two lined specimen of poetry was deferred, in +consequence of an April shower. Triumphal arches welcomed her to the +city walls, and pageants met her eye at every turn. The first pageant +was upon a stage forty feet long and eight broad, with a wall at the +back, upon which was written divers sentences, viz. "The causes of the +Commonwealth are God truly preached;" "Justice truly executed;" "The +People obedient;" "Idleness expelled;" "Labour cherished;" "and universal +Concord preserved." In the front below, it was painted with +representations of various looms, with weavers working at them,--over +each the name of the loom, Worsted, Russels, Darnix, Mochado, Lace, +Caffa, Fringe. Another painting of a matron and several children, over +whom was written, "Good nurture changeth qualities." Upon the stage, at +one end, stood six little girls spinning worsted yarn, at the other end +the same number knitting worsted hose; in the centre stood a little boy, +gaily dressed, who represented the "COMMONWEALTH of the city," who made a +lengthened speech, commencing-- + + "Most gracious prince, undoubted sovereign queen, + Our only joy next God and chief defence; + In this small shew our whole estate is seen, + The wealth we have we find proceed from thence; + The idle hand hath here no place to feed, + The painsful wight hath still to serve his need; + Again our seat denies our traffick here, + The sea too near divides us from the rest. + So weak we were within this dozen year, + As care did quench the courage of the best; + But good advice hath taught these little hands + To rend in twain the force of pining bands. + From combed wool we draw the slender thread, + From thence the looms have dealing with the same, + And thence again in order do proceed, + These several works which skilful art doth frame, + And all to drive dame _Need_ into her cave + Our heads and hands together laboured have. + We bought before the things that now we sell. + These slender imps, their works do pass the waves, + Of every mouth the hands the charges saves, + Thus through thy help, and aid of power divine, + Doth Norwich live, whose hearts and goods are thine.'" + +This device gave her majesty much pleasure. + +Another very magnificent affair, with gates of jasper and marble, was +placed across the market-place, five female figures on the stage above +representing the _City_, _Deborah_, _Judith_, _Hester_, and _Martia_ (a +queen); whose chief, the _City_, was spokeswoman first, and was succeeded +by the others each in turn. All that they said we dare not tarry to +repeat; the City expressed herself in some hundred lines of poetry, the +rest rather more briefly. "Whom fame resounds with thundering trump;" +"Flower of Grace, Prince of God's Elect;" "Mighty Queen, finger of the +Lord," and such like hyperbole, made up the substance of their flattery. +We know the good Queen Bess was somewhat fond of such food, but we think +even her taste must have been somewhat palled with the specimens offered +on this occasion. Others of a similar character were scattered along her +pathway to the cathedral. After service she retired to her quarters at +the palace of the bishop. On the Monday the deviser planned a scheme by +which her majesty was enticed abroad by the invitation of Mercury, who +was sent in a coach covered with birds and little angels in the air and +clouds, a tower in the middle, decked with gold and jewels, topped by a +plume of feathers, spangled and trimmed most gorgeously; Mercury himself +in blue satin, lined with cloth of gold, with garments cut and slashed +according to the most approved fashion of the day, a peaked hat, made to +"_cut the wind_," a pair of wings on his head and his _heels_; in his +hand a golden rod with another pair of wings. The horses of his coach +were painted and furnished each with wings, and made to "drive with speed +that might resemble flying;" and in this guise did Mercury present +himself before the window at the palace, and tripping from his throne, +made his most humble obeisance and lengthy speech, all which most +graciously was received by her majesty. Thus ended this day's sport. + +On Tuesday, as her majesty proceeded to Cossey Park, for the purpose of +enjoying a day's hunt, another pageant was got up by the industrious +devisor, the subject of which was, Cupid in Search of a Home--not, +however, much worth detailing. Wednesday her majesty dined at Surrey +House with Lord Surrey, at which banquet the French ambassadors are said +to have been present; and a pageant was prepared for the occasion, but +the rooms seem to have been rather too small to admit the company of +performers, so it was of necessity deferred. On her road home, the +master of the grammar-school stayed the procession to deliver a +lengthened speech before the gates of the hospital for old men, to which +the queen graciously replied in flattering terms, presenting her hand to +be kissed. Thursday was marked by divers pageantries, prepared by order +of the Lord Chamberlain, by the devisor. The morning display, which was +to enliven her majesty's riding excursion, was made up of nymphs playing +in water, the space occupied for the same being a square of sixty feet, +with a deep hole four feet square in some part of it, to answer for a +cave. The ground was covered with canvas, painted like grass, with +running cords through the rings attached to its sides, which obeyed +another small cord in the centre, by which machinery, with two holes on +the ground, the earth was made to appear to open and shut. In the cave, +in the centre, was music, and the twelve water-nymphs, dressed in white +silk with green sedges, so cunningly stitched on them, that nothing else +could be seen. Each carried in her hand a bundle of bulrushes, and on +her head a garland of ivy and a crop of moss, from whence streamed their +long golden tresses over their shoulders. Four nymphs were to come forth +successively and salute her majesty with a speech, then all twelve were +to issue forth and dance with timbrels. + +The show of _Manhood and Desert_, designed for the entertainment at Lord +Surrey's, was also placed close by. _Manhood_, _Favour_, _Desert_, +striving for a boy called _Beauty_, who, however, was to fall to the +share of _Good fortune_. A battle should have followed, between six +gentlemen on either side, in which _Fortune_ was to be victorious; +_during the combat_, _legs and arms of men_ "_well and lively wrought_", +_were to be let __fall in numbers on the ground_ "_as bloody as might +be_." _Fortune_ marcheth off a conqueror, and a song for the death of +_Manhood_, _Favour_, and _Desert_, concluded the programme. But, alas! +all this preparation was rendered of no avail, by reason of a drenching +thunder-shower, which so "dashed and washed performers and spectators, +that the pastime was reduced to the display of a dripping multitude, +looking like half-drowned rats; and velvets, silks, tinsels, and cloth of +gold, to no end of an amount, fell a sacrifice to this caprice of the +weather." + +The evening entertainment at the guildhall was more successful, the +casualties of rain and wind having no power there, to disturb the +arrangements got up with so much labour and cost. After a magnificent +banquet in the common council chamber, above the assize court, a princely +masque of gods and goddesses, richly apparelled, was presented before her +majesty. + +_Mercury_ entered first, followed by two torch-bearers, in purple taffeta +mandillions, laid with silver lace; then the musicians, dressed in long +vestures of white silk girded about them, and garlands on their heads; +next came _Jupiter and Juno_, _Mars and Venus_, _Apollo and Pallas_, +_Neptune and Diana_, and lastly _Cupid_, between each couple two +torch-bearers. Thus they marched round the chamber, and Mercury +delivered his message to the queen. + + "The good-meaning mayor and all his brethren, with the rest, have not + rested from praying to the gods, to prosper thy coming hither; and + the gods themselves, moved by their unfeigned prayers, are ready in + person to bid thee welcome; and I, Mercury, the god of merchants and + merchandise, and therefore a favourer of the citizens, being thought + meetest am chosen fittest to signify the same. Gods there be, also, + which cannot come, being tied by the time of the year, as Ceres in + harvest, Bacchus in wines, Pomona in orchards. Only Hymeneus denieth + his good-will either in presence or in person; notwithstanding Diana + hast so counter-checked him, therefore, as he shall hereafter be at + your commandment. For my part, as I am a rejoicer at your coming, so + am I furtherer of your welcome hither, and for this time I bid you + farewell." + +All then marched about again, at the close of each circuit, stopping for +the gods to present each a gift to her majesty; Jupiter, a riding wand of +whalebone, curiously wrought; Mars, a _fair pair of knives_; Venus, a +white dove; Apollo, a musical instrument, called a bandonet; Pallas, a +book of _wisdom_; Neptune, a fish; Diana, a bow and arrows, of silver; +Cupid, an arrow of gold, with these lines on the shaft-- + + "My colour _joy_, my substance _pure_, + My _virtue_ such as shall endure." + +The queen received the gifts with gracious condescension, listening the +while to the verses recited by the gods as accompaniments. + +On Friday, being the day fixed for her majesty's departure, the devisor +prepared one last grand spectacle, water spirits, to the sound of whose +timbrels was spoken "her majesty's farewell to Norwich;" and thus +terminated this season of rejoicing, but not with it the results of the +royal visitation. + +The train of gay carriages that had formed the retinue of the fair queen, +were said to have left behind them the infection of the plague; and +scarcely had the last echoes of merriment and joy faded upon the ear, +when the deep thrilling notes of wailing and lamentation broke forth from +crushed hearts. Death held his reign of terror, threw his black mantle +of gloom over the stricken city, and wrapped its folds around each hearth +and home, and banquet chamber--sunshine was followed by clouds and storm, +and thunders of wrath--feast-makers, devisors, and players--Gurgunt, +Mercury, Cupid, and Apollo, laid down their trappings, and in their +stricken houses died alone. The finger-writing upon the door-posts +marked each smitten home with the touching prayer, "The Lord have mercy +upon us!" The insignia of the white wand borne by the infected ones, who +issued forth into the streets from their tainted atmospheres, warned off +communion with their fellow men, and sorrow filled all hearts;--a year of +sadness and gloom followed--men's hearts failing them for fear. Scarcely +had the plague lifted its hand from oppressing the people, ere the +benumbed faculties of the woe-begone mourners were roused to fresh +terror, by the grumbling murmurs of an earthquake;--storms, lightnings, +hailstones, and tempests spread desolation in their course through all +parts of the country in quick succession--a very age of trouble. + +But turning from dark scenes of history once more to the sports and +pastimes that gladdened the hearts and eyes of the good old citizens of +yore, we must not fail to chronicle the famous visit of Will Kempe, the +morris dancer, whose "nine days' wonder," or dance from London to Norwich +in nine days, has been recorded by himself in a merry little pamphlet +bearing internal evidence of a lightness of heart rivalling the lightness +of toe that gained for him his Terpsichorean fame. His name receives a +fresh halo of interest from its association with that of one of the great +ones of the earth, Will Shakespeare, in whose company of players at the +Globe, Blackfriars, he was a comedian; and his signature and that of the +dramatist's stand together at the foot of a counter petition presented at +the same time with one got up by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood +against the continuance of plays in that house. Kempe played Peter and +Dogberry in "Romeo and Juliet," and "Much Ado about Nothing;" also, +Launce, Touchstone, Gravedigger, Justice Shallow, and Launcelot. One +feels that the morris dancer has a fresh claim upon our interest by such +associations, and we look into the merry book dedicated to Mistress Anne +Fitton, maid of honour to England's maiden queen, prepared to relish +heartily the frolicsome account of how he tript it merrily to the music +of Thomas Slye, his taberer, gaining every where the admiration of the +wondering townsfolk and villagers upon his road, receiving, and +occasionally of necessity refusing, their profusely proffered +hospitalities, and now and then accepting their offers to tread a measure +with him at his pace, a feat that one brave and buxom lass alone was +found equal to perform--one can appreciate the quiet fun in which he +permits himself to indulge at the discomfiture of the followers who track +his flying steps, when their running accompaniment is interrupted by the +mud and mire of the unmacadamized mediaeval substitutes for turnpike +roads, where occasionally he dances on, leaving the volunteer corps up to +their necks in some slough of despond. Such a picture of the highways in +the good old times, is consolatory to the unfortunate generation of the +nineteenth century, who, among their many burdens and oppressions, can at +least congratulate themselves that in respect to locomotion, the lines +have fallen to them in pleasanter places. + +The morris dance in its original glory was most frequently joined to +processions and pageants, especially to those appropriated to the +celebration of the May games. The chief dancer was more superbly dressed +than his comrades, and on these occasions was presumed to personate Robin +Hood; the maid Marian, and others supposed to have been the outlaw's +companions, were the characters supported by the rest; and the +hobby-horse, or a dragon, sometimes both, made a part of the display. + +It was by some supposed to have been imported from the Moors, and was +probably a kind of Pyrrhic or military dance, usually performed with +staves and bells attached to the feet, each of which had its several tone +and name; the men who danced it, when in full character, were accompanied +by a boy dressed as a girl, and styled the maid _Marion_ (or Morian, +possibly from the Italian Moriane, a head piece, because his head was +generally gaily decked out). + +The hobby-horse was originally a necessary accompaniment of the morris +dance, but the Puritans had banished it before the time of the hero +Kempe,--why, or wherefore, it is difficult to imagine, as his presence, +with a ladle attached to his mouth to collect the douceurs of the +spectators, must have been as harmless, one would fancy, as that of the +_fool_ who succeeded him in the office. + +In Edward the Fourth's reign, we find mention made of _hoblers_, or +persons who were obliged by tenure to send a light swift horse to carry +tidings of invasion from the sea-side--light horsemen from this came to +be called hoblers--and doubtless from this origin sprang the term +hobby-horse--hence the allusion to men riding their hobby. + +Kempe's dance is alluded to by Ben Jonson, in his "Every Man out of his +Humour." In his own narrative he alludes to some other similar exploit +he had it in his mind to perform; but as no record exists of its +accomplishment, we are left to infer that the entrance made of the death +of one Will Kempe, at the time of the plague, November 1603, in the +parish books of one of the metropolitan churches, refers to the merry +comedian, and that his career was suddenly terminated by that unsightly +foe. + +In 1609, a tract with an account of a morris dance performed by twelve +individuals who had attained the age of a hundred, was published, "to +which," it was added, "Kempe's morris dance was no more than a galliord +on a common stage at the end of an old dead comedy, is to a caranto +danced on the ropes." + +Not long subsequent to these events, theatres became settled down into +stationary objects of attraction and amusement; and in most large cities, +companies were formed to conduct the business of the performances. Among +the epitaphs in the principal churchyard of the city, St. Peter's +Mancroft, are several to the memory of different individuals who had +belonged to the company. Among them, one + + IN MEMORY OF + WILLIAM WEST, COMEDIAN, + LATE MEMBER OF THE NORWICH COMPANY. + + OBIIT 17 JUNE, 1733. AGED 32. + + To me 'twas given to die, to thee 'tis given + To live; alas! one moment sets us even-- + Mark how impartial is the will of Heaven. + +Another:-- + + IN MEMORY OF + ANNE ROBERTS. + 1743. AGED 30. + + The world's a stage--at birth one play's begun, + And all find exits when their parts are done. + + HENRIETTA BRAY. + 1737. AGED 60. + A COMEDIAN. + + Here, reader, you may plainly see + That Wit nor Humour e'er could be + A proof against Mortality. + +The subject of Pageantry may not be fitly closed without notice of the +costly displays of magnificence that characterize the various processions +and ceremonies that have become classed under the same title, although +distinct altogether from the original dramatic representations to which +the name belonged. Some of these, in honour of saints and martyrs, long +since dead even to the memory of enlightened Protestantism, partake more +of the character of religious festivals than any thing else; and among +them the annual commemoration of St. Nicholas day, by the election of the +Boy Bishop, peculiarly deserves to be classed. In olden times, on the +6th of December, it was an invariable custom for the boys of every +cathedral choir to make choice of one of their number to maintain the +state and authority of a bishop, from that time until the 28th, or +Innocent's day, during which period he was habited in rich episcopal +robes, wore a mitre on his head, and carried a crosier in his hand; his +companions assumed the dress and character of priests, yielding to their +head all canonical obedience, and between them performing all the +services of the church excepting mass. On the eve of Innocent's day, the +Boy Bishop, and his youthful clergy in their caps, and with lighted +tapers in their hand, went in solemn procession, chaunting and singing +versicles, as they walked into the choir by the west door; the dean and +canons of the Cathedral went first, the chaplains followed, and the Boy +Bishop with his priests in the last and highest place. The Boy Bishop +then took his seat, and the rest of the juveniles dispersed themselves on +each side the choir on the uppermost ascent. The resident canons bearing +the incense and book, the minor canons the tapers, he afterwards +proceeded to the altar of the Trinity, which he censed, and then the +image of the Trinity, his priests all the while singing. They all then +joined in chaunting a service with prayers and responses, and in +conclusion the Boy Bishop gave his benediction to the people. After he +received the crosier, other ceremonies were performed, and he chaunted +the complyn, and turning towards the choir delivered an exhortation. If +any prebends fell vacant during his episcopal power, he had the power of +disposing of them; and if he died during the month he was buried in his +robes, his funeral was celebrated with great pomp, and a monument was +erected to his memory with his effigy. + +The discovery of a monument of this character, some hundred and seventy +years since, in Salisbury Cathedral, caused much amazement to the many +then unread in antiquarian lore, who marvelled much at the anomalous +affair, wondering however a bishop could have been so small, or a child +so rich in ecclesiastical garments. + +From this custom originated the but lately discontinued honours, annually +awarded to the head boy in most grammar schools, who had a place in grand +civic processions, and for a season at least was magnified into a great +personage. + +The origin of this festival, on St Nicholas day, is involved like most +others in much obscurity, and buried in heaps of legendary mysticism. +The tale upon which it is said to have been founded is, that in the +fourth century St. Nicholas was bishop of Myra, when two young gentlemen +arrived at that city on their road to Athens, whither they were going to +complete their education. By their father's desire they were to seek the +benediction of the bishop on their way, but as it was late at night when +they reached Myra, they deferred doing so till the next morning; but in +the meantime the host of the inn at which they were lodging, stimulated +by avarice to possess himself of their property, killed the young +gentlemen, cut them in pieces, salted them, and purposed to sell them for +pickled pork. + +St. Nicholas, the bishop, being favoured with a sight of these +proceedings in a vision, (or, as we should now-a-days express it, by +_clairvoyance_) went to the inn, reproached the cruel landlord for his +crime, who, confessing it, entreated the saint to pray to heaven for his +pardon. The bishop, moved by his entreaties, besought pardon for him, +and restoration of life to the children. He had scarcely finished, when +the pickled pieces re-united, and the animated youths threw themselves +from the brine-tub at the bishop's feet; he raised them up, exhorted them +to ascribe the praise to God alone, and sent them forward on their +journey, with much good counsel. + +Such is the miracle handed down as the cause of the adoption of Saint +Nicholas as the patron saint of children. The Eton Montem is considered +to be a corruption of the ceremony of electing a boy-bishop, probably +changed at the time of the suppression of the religious festivals at the +Reformation. + +One other pageant, more especially connected with the history of a +manufacturing city, is the procession of Bishop Blaize, or St. Blazius, +the great patron saint of wool-combers; in which usually figured Jason, +the hero of the "golden fleece," and forty Argonauts on horseback, the +emblems of the expedition, preceded by Hercules, Peace, Plenty, and +Britannia. These were followed by the bishop, dressed in episcopal +costume, crowned with a mitre of wool, drawn in an open chariot by six +horses, and attended by vergers, bands of music, the city standard, a +chaplain, and orators delivering, at intervals, grandiloquent speeches. +Seven companies of wool-combers on foot, and five on horseback, brought +up the rear; shepherds, shepherdesses, tastefully attired in fancy +costumes, added to the brilliancy of the display. Bishop Blazius, the +principal personage in the festivity, was Bishop of Sebesta, in Armenia, +and the reputed inventor of the art of combing wool. The Romish church +canonized the saint, and attributed to his miraculous interposition many +wondrous miracles. Divers charms, also, for extracting thorns from the +body, or a bone from the throat, were prescribed to be uttered in his +name. + +Among the festivals that lay claim to antiquity, of which some faint +traces, at least, are left in the observances of the nineteenth century, +are some few that belong as much to the history of the present as the +past, and must not be omitted in sketches of the characteristic features +of an old city. The Fair--the great annual gatherings of wooden houses +and wooden horses, tin trumpets, and spice nuts, Diss bread, and +gingerbread--menageries of wild natural history, and caravans of tame +_unnatural_ collections, giants, dwarfs, albinos, and _lusus naturae_ of +every conceivable deformity--of things above the earth and under the +earth, in the sea and out of the sea--of panoramas, dioramas--wax-works, +with severable heads and moving countenances--of Egyptian tents, with +glass factories in miniature concealed within their mystic folds, under +the guidance of the glass-wigged alchemist, the presiding +genius--performing canaries, doing the Mr. and Mrs. Caudle, and firing +off pistols--pert hares playing on the tambourine, and targets and guns +to be played with for prizes of nuts, and whirligigs and +rocking-boats--the avenues of sailcloth, with their linings of +confectionary, toys, basket-work, and ornamental stationery--the gong and +the drum, and the torrents of Cheap-Jack eloquence, mingling with the +music of the leopard-clad minstrels of the zoological departments;--dear +is the holiday to the hearts, and memories, and anticipations, of many an +_enlightened_ infant of this highly developed age;--as dear, and welcome, +and thrilling, in its confusion of noise, and bewilderment of colour, as +ever of old, to the children of larger growth, who, in the infancy of +civilization, were wont to find in them their primers of learning, arts, +and sciences. + +When trade was principally carried on by means of fairs, and they lasted +many days, the merchants who frequented them for business purposes, used +every art and means to draw people together, and were therefore +accompanied, we are told, by jugglers, minstrels, and buffoons; and as +then few public amusements or spectacles were established, either in +cities or towns, the fair-time was almost the only season of diversion. +The clergy, finding that the entertainments of dancing, music, mimicry, +&c. exhibited at them, drew people from their religious duties, in the +days of their power proscribed them--but to no purpose; and failing in +their efforts, with the ingenuity that characterized their age and +profession, changed their tastes, and took the recreations into their own +hands, turned actors and play-writers themselves, and substituted the +Religious Mysteries for the profane punchinellos and juggleries that have +since, in later times, resumed their sway, undisputed by any +ecclesiastical rivals for popular applause in the dramatic line. + +Among other sports that formed the attractions to the Fair in olden +times, was the Quintain, a game of contest, memorable in the annals of +the city, as having on one occasion, in the reign of Edward I., been made +the opportunity of commencing hostilities of a far more formidable nature +and protracted extent than the occasion itself could warrant, or be +presumed to cause. + +The Quintain was a post fixed strongly in the ground, with a piece of +wood, about six feet long, laid across it on the top, placed so as to +turn round; on one end of this cross-piece was hung a bag, containing a +hundred-weight of sand, which was called the _Quintal_; at the other end +was fixed a board about a foot square, at which the player, who was +mounted on horseback, with a truncheon, pole, or sort of tilting-spear, +ran direct with force; if he was skilful, the board gave way, and he +passed on before the bag reached him, in which feat lay success; but if +he hit the board, but was not expert enough to escape, the bag swung +round, and striking him, often dismounted him; to miss the board +altogether was, however, the greatest disgrace. The quarrel alluded to, +arose ostensibly about the truncheons, but it was supposed really to have +been at the instigation of other persons, both on the part of the +monastery and city. + +Tombland Fair stands not quite alone as a memorial of ancient festivals +held in honour of patron saints--one other day in the year stands forth +in the calendar of juvenile and mature enjoyments, unrivalled in its +claim upon our notice and our love. St. Valentine, that "man of most +admirable parts, so famous for his love and charity that the custom of +choosing valentines upon his festival took its rise from thence," as +Wheatley tells us,--is yet, even to this hour, held in high honour, and +most gloriously commemorated in this good old city, and in so unique a +fashion, that a few words may not suffice to give a true delineation of +it. The approach of the happy day is heralded, in these days of +steam-presses and local journals, by monster-typed advertisements, +gigantically headed "_Valentines_," or huge labels, bearing the same +mystic letters, carefully arranged in the midst of gorgeously-decked +windows, towards which young eyes turn in glistening hope and admiration; +and at sight of which little hearts beat high with eager expectation. +Not of Cupids, and hearts, and darts, and such like merry conceits on +fairy-mottoed note paper, doth the offerings of St. Valentine consist in +this good old mart of commerce;--far more real and substantial are the +samples of taste, ornament, and use, that rank themselves in the category +of his gifts. The jeweller's front, radiant with gold and precious gems, +and frosted silver, and ruby-eyed oxydized owls, Russian malachite +fashioned into every conceivable fantasy of invention, brooches, +bracelets, crosses, studs masculine and feminine, chatelaines ditto, and +not a few of _epicene_ characteristics, betokening the signs of the +times,--all claim to rank under the title. The Drapers--especially the +"French depots," with their large assortments on shew, in remote +_bazaars_ appropriated exclusively to the business of the festive season, +where labyrinths of dressing-cases, desks, work-boxes, inkstands, and +_portfeuilles_, usurp the place of lawful mercery, and haberdashery for +the time being yields place to stationery, perfumery, _bijouterie_, and +cutlery, proclaim the triumphs of his reign in their midst. But supreme +above all, are the glories that the toy-shops display, from the gay +balcony-fronted repository for all the choicest inventions science, +skill, or wit can devise, at once to please the fancy, help the brain, +tax the ingenuity of childhood, or dazzle the eye of babyhood, downwards +through the less _recherche_, but scarcely less thronged marts, a grade +below in price and quality, to the very huckster's stall or apple booth, +that shall for the time being add its quota of penny whips, tin trumpets, +and long-legged, brittle-jointed, high-combed Dutch ladies, whose +proportions exhibit any thing but the contour usually described as a +"Dutch build." Nor these alone--the shoemaker's, with its newly-acquired +treasures of gutta percha knick-knacks, flower-pots, card-trays, +inkstands, picture-frames, boxes, caddies, medallions, and what-not that +is useful and ornamental, in addition to shoe-soles with a propensity to +adhere to hot iron, and betray by deeply indented gutters the impress of +any new bright-topped fender on which they have chanced to trespass--all, +all, are offerings at the shrine of good St. Valentine; how, when, and +where, we have yet to see. + +One peep behind these plate-glassed drop scenes--one visit to the +toy-shop--it is an event--a circumstance to be chronicled--even the +quiet, mild, and self-possessed proprietress of all the wealth of fun and +fashion, use and ornament, and zoology, from the rocking-horse down to +the Chinese spider, and Noah's ark to lady-birds, for once looks heated +and tired; and one feels impelled to cheer the kind-hearted, gentle +matron, by reminding her, that her toil will be repaid tenfold, by +pleasant thoughts of the myriad shouts of welcome and heartfelt glee +that, ere long, will have been hymned forth in praise of the perfection +of her taste. + +Her labours and toils would seem scarcely to surpass those of her +purchasers. The perplexity and labyrinth of doubt and difficulty they +find themselves in is truly pitiable; the annual return of a festival +when every body, from grandpapa and grandmamma to baby bo, is expected to +receive and give some offering commemorative of the season, causes, in +time, a considerable difficulty in the choice of gifts, and added to the +mystifications of memory as to who has what? and what hasn't who? +produces a perfect bewilderment. The fluctuations between dominoes, bats +and traps, dolls, la grace, draughts, chess, rocks of Scilly, German +tactics, fox and geese, printing machines, panoramas, puzzles, +farmy-ards, battledores, doll's houses, compasses, knitting cases, and a +myriad others, seem interminable--but an end must come, and the purchaser +and seller find rest. + +But all this toil is but the prelude to the grand act of the drama; +Valentine's eve arrived, the play begins in earnest. The streets swarm +with carriers, and baskets laden with treasures--bang, bang, bang go the +knockers, and away rushes the banger, depositing first upon the door-step +some package from the basket of stores--again and again at intervals, at +every door to which a missive is addressed, is the same repeated till the +baskets are empty. Anonymously St. Valentine presents his gifts, +labelled only with "St. Valentine's" love, and "Good morrow, Valentine." + +Then within the houses of destination--the screams, the shouts, the +rushings to catch the bang bangs--the flushed faces, sparkling eyes, +rushing feet to pick up the fairy gifts--inscriptions to be interpreted, +mysteries to be unravelled, hoaxes to be found out--great hampers, heavy, +and ticketed "With care, this side upwards," to be unpacked, out of which +jump live little boys with St. Valentine's love to the little ladies +fair--the sham bang bangs, that bring nothing but noise and fun--the mock +parcels that vanish from the door step by invisible strings when the door +opens--monster parcels that dwindle to thread-papers denuded of their +multiplied envelopes, with pithy mottoes, all tending to the final +consummation of good counsel, "Happy is he who expects nothing, and he +will not be disappointed!" It is a glorious night, marvel not that we +would perpetuate so joyous a festivity. We love its mirth, the memory of +its smiles and mysteries of loving kindness, its tender reverential +tributes to old age, and time-tried friendship, amid the throng of +sprightlier festal offerings, that mark the season in our hearths and +homes, as sacred to a love so pure, so true, and holy, that good St. +Valentine himself may feel justly proud of such commemoration. + +How and when this peculiar mode of celebrating the festival arose it +would be difficult perhaps to discover. In olden times, as we find by +the diary of Dr. Browne, the more prevalent custom of drawing valentines +on the eve before Valentine day was in vogue; but Forby's "Vocabulary of +East Anglia" makes mention of a practice which doubtless has become +developed in the course of time into the elaborate and costly celebration +of the present day. He says, "In Norfolk it is the custom for children +to 'catch' each other for valentines; and if there are elderly persons in +the family who are likely to be liberal, great care is taken to catch +them. The mode of catching is by saying 'Good morrow, Valentine,' and if +they can repeat this before they are spoken to, they are rewarded with a +small present. It must be done, however, before sunrise; otherwise +instead of a reward, they are told they are _sunburnt_." He adds a +query--Does this illustrate the phrase _sunburned_, in "Much Ado about +Nothing"? + +The universal respect in which the anniversary of St. Valentine is held, +may perhaps be most justly estimated by the statistical facts that relate +to the post-office transactions for that day, in comparison with the +average amount of the daily transmissions; and each district has probably +some peculiar mode of celebrating it,--but nowhere, we imagine, does its +annual return leave behind it such pleasing and substantial memorials as +in our "Old City." Douce, in his "Illustrations of Shakespeare," would +have us believe that the observances of St. Valentine's day had their +origin in the festivals of ancient Rome during the month of February, +when they celebrated the "Lupercalia," or feasts in honour of Pan and +Juno, sometimes called Februalis, on which occasion, amidst a variety of +other ceremonies, the names of young men and maidens were put into a box, +and drawn as chance directed. The pastors of the early church, in their +endeavours to eradicate the vestiges of popular superstitions, +substituted the names of _saints_ for those of the young maidens, and as +the Lupercalia commenced in February, affixed the observance to the feast +of St. Valentine in that month, thus preserving the outline of the +ancient ceremony, to which the people were attached, modified by an +adaptation to the Christian system. + +Time, however, would seem to have restored the maidens to their original +position. Brande has given many curious details of the various modes of +celebrating the anniversary, in addition to the universal interchange of +illuminated letters and notes. In Oxfordshire the children go about +collecting pence, singing, + + "Good morrow, Valentine, + First 'tis yours, then 'tis mine, + So please give me a Valentine." + +In some other counties the poorer classes of children dress themselves +fantastically, and visit the houses of the great, singing, + + "Good morning to you, Valentine, + Curl your locks as I do mine, + Two before and three behind-- + Good morrow to you, Valentine." + +In other parts the first member of the opposite sex that is seen by any +individual is said to be his or her "Valentine." This is the case in +Berkshire and some other of the neighbouring counties. Pepys, in his +"Diary," says, "St. Valentine's day, 1667. This morning came up to my +wife's bedside, I being up dressing myself, little Will Mercer, to be her +Valentine, and brought her name written upon blue paper in gold letters +done by himself very pretty; and we were both well pleased with it. But +I am also this year my wife's Valentine, which will cost me 5 pounds--but +that I must have laid out if we had not been Valentines." He afterwards +adds, "I find that Mrs. Pierce's little girl is my Valentine, she having +drawn me, which I was not sorry for, it easing me of something more I +must have given to others. But here I do first observe the fashion of +drawing of mottoes as well as names; so that Pierce who drew my wife, did +also draw a mottoe, and this girl drew another for me. What mine was I +forget; but my wife's was, 'Most courteous and most fair.' One wonder I +observed to-day, that there was no music in the morning to call up our +new-married people, which is very mean methinks." The custom of +presenting gifts seems then to have been practised. + +In the "British Apollo," 1708, a sort of "Notes and Queries" of the day, +we read, + + "Why Valentine's a day to choose + A mistress, and our freedom lose? + May I my reason interpose, + The question with an answer close; + To imitate we have a mind, + And couple like the winged kind." + +In the same work, "1709, Query.--In choosing Valentines (according to +custom), is not the party choosing (be it man or woman) to make a present +to the party chosen? Answer.--We think it more proper to say drawing of +Valentines, since the most customary way is for each to take his or her +lot, and chance cannot be termed choice. According to this method the +obligations are equal, and, therefore, it was formerly the custom +mutually to present, but now it is customary only for the gentlemen." In +Scotland presents are reciprocally made on the day. + +Gay has given a poetical description of some rural ceremonies used in the +morning: + + "Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind + Their paramours with mutual chirpings find, + I early rose, just at the break of day, + Before the sun had chased the stars away; + A-field I went amid the morning dew, + To milk my kine (for so should house-wives do). + The first I spied, and the first swain we see, + In spite of Fortune shall our true love be." + +The following curious practice on Valentine's day or eve is mentioned in +the "Connoisseur." "Last Friday was Valentine's day, and the night +before I got five bay leaves, and pinned four of them to the corners of +my pillow, and the fifth in the middle; and then if I dreamt of my +sweetheart, Betty said we should be married before the year was out. But +to make it more sure, I boiled an egg hard, and took out the yolk and +filled it with salt; and when I went to bed, eat it shell and all, +without speaking or drinking after it. We also wrote the names of our +lovers upon bits of paper, and rolled them up in clay and put them into +water, and the first that rose up was to be our Valentine." + +The popular tradition, that the birds select mates on this day, is the +last subject to be mentioned. Shakespeare alludes to it in the +"Midsummer Night's Dream." + + "St. Valentine is past; + Begin these wood birds but to couple now." + +Cowper's "Fable," who cannot call to mind? and its moral may close our +notice of St. Valentine's day. + + "Misses, the tale that I relate, + This lesson seems to carry-- + Choose not alone a proper mate, + But proper time to marry?" + +The list of pageantries and festivals must now close, with an attempt to +chronicle the glories of a modern "chairing day;" and the more imperative +does it seem to find a place in history for this last stray sunbeam of +mediaeval splendour, that it bids fair, amidst the growth of sobriety in +this utilitarian age, to share all, too soon, the fate of its ancestors, +who found their grave in the first "dissolution" and after-flood of +Puritanism. There may be who would liken this relic of pageantry to a +lingering mote of feudalism, that the penetrating broom of reform had +done well to sweep from the pathway of a "free and enlightened people;" +who would hint that the old custom is more honoured in the breach than +the observance; and towards their opinion seems to incline that of the +chief performers in the modern "_mystery_"--the M.P. himself, whose +nerves, proprieties, and objections have unitedly rebelled against +submission to these antiquated practices of this antiquated place. It is +therefore scarcely what _is_, but what _has been_, that we have to +commemorate in our detail. + +When the onerous duty of selecting a representative of the people's +voice, wishes, and will in the councils of the nation has been completed +by the calm, deliberate, dispassionate, and disinterested decision of the +enfranchised tithe of the city's populace, the successful candidates are, +or _were_, wont to receive installation from the hands of their +constituents by a "toss up," not, we would inform our countrymen of the +"_sheeres_," (meaning all other counties save Norfolk, Suffolk, and +Kent)--not that they engage in any little gambling speculation, such as +is usually known under a similar name, but that they are required to +submit to be made shuttlecocks for some few hours, for the amusement of +the admiring multitude; and seeing that the fun and frolic thus afforded +is, or _was_, the sole share of nine-tenths of the population in the +transaction of electing the "unruly member" that is to speak the hopes, +wants, dissatisfactions, and grumblings of a large city, it may seem +somewhat hard to them that they should be deprived of it. The order of +carrying out this provincial mode of installation, consists in forming a +grand procession, as it is called, made up of as many carriages and +horsemen as the stables of the city and neighbourhood, private and +public, may contrive to turn out, the _colour_ and popularity of the +candidate of course exercising its influence upon _quantity_ and +_quality_. The days of velvet doublets and liveries of silver and gold +being passed, the candidate makes no pretensions to display in the +toilettes of the gentlemen--plain, sober black predominates throughout +the mass; no shadow of a variation, save and except in the "dramatis +personae," who take their stand upon the battledores provided for them, +arrayed in full court costume or regimentals, as the case may be. To +particularize more closely, it should be stated, that the battledores, as +we have chosen to designate them, are wooden platforms, borne upon the +shoulders of some two or three dozen men; the platform supports a chair +elaborately ornamented, blue and silver, or purple and orange, as the +successful candidates may be _blues_ or _purples_--Whigs or Tories. +Besides the chair, the platform supports the fortunate M.P. himself, +standing, aided in balancing himself in the elevated pinnacle of glory to +which he has attained, by the back or elbows of the chair, which piece of +luxury, we presume, must be intended solely as a symbol of the easy berth +in prospect, since throughout the long sunny scorching perambulations of +city streets and market-place, it may seldom, if ever, be ventured to be +indulged in as a resting place. Meantime, every window, balcony, +house-top, church-tower, and parapet-wall, has been lined with anxious +and eager lookers-on--every space and avenue leading to or adjoining the +line of march has been thronged; flags, banners, &c. &c., have been +marshalled into the procession, whose pathway is cleared and protected by +a locomotive body-guard of _posse men_, bearing horizontally in their +hands long poles, which are presumed to act as barriers to the +encroachments of the multitude without the pale. The line of procession +once formed, in due order they make their triumphal progress, bowing, +smiling, and trembling on their elevations, as they draw near to the +thronging frontage of any loyal constituent, whose colours are a signal +for the game to commence. Up, then, goes the M.P. high in the +air,--once, twice, thrice, again and again, fortunate and clever if he +comes down perpendicularly. Perfection and elegance in the peculiar _pas +de seal_ requires much practice and many experiments; but as the _move_ +is repeated very frequently, at very short intervals, during the progress +round the city, possibly one experience may suffice in a life-time. The +exhibition is occasionally closed by the bearers of the two candidates +making a match with each other as to who can toss longest and highest, +which done, the victimized shuttlecocks and the delighted spectators are +permitted to retire. The origin of this very singular act of homage is +not very clear; but as one or two recent outbursts of popular enthusiasm +have manifested themselves in a similar form--to wit, laying violent +hands upon a popular favourite and tossing him in the air, with neither +platform or chair to lend grace to the proceeding--we must suppose that +some traditionary virtue is attached to the act; and this supposition is +somewhat confirmed by the fact that a superstitious practice of "lifting" +or "heaving," very similar in its mode of operation, is still observed on +Easter Monday and Tuesday in some other English counties. The men and +women on these days alternately exercise the privilege of seizing and +"lifting" any member of the opposite sex that they may chance to meet, +and claim a fee for the honour. In the records of the Tower of London, +may be found a document purporting to set forth how such payment was made +to certain ladies and maids of honour for "taking" (or "lifting") King +Edward I. at Easter, a custom then prevalent throughout the kingdom. +Brande gives an amusing account of an occurrence in Shrewsbury, extracted +from a letter from Mr. Thomas Loggan, of Basinghall Street. He says, "I +was sitting alone last Easter Tuesday at breakfast, at the Talbot, in +Shrewsbury, when I was surprised by the entrance of all the female +servants of the house handing in an arm-chair, lined with white, and +decorated with ribbons and favours of all kinds. I asked them what they +wanted; they said they came to 'heave' me; it was the custom of their +place, and they hoped I would take a seat in the chair. It was +impossible not to comply with a request so modestly made by a set of +nymphs in their best apparel, and several of them under twenty. I wished +to see all the ceremony, and seated myself accordingly; the group then +lifted me from the ground, turned the chair about, and I had the felicity +of a salute from each. I told them I supposed there was a fee due, and +was answered in the affirmative; and having satisfied the damsels in this +respect, they retired to 'heave' others." + +The usage is said to be a vulgar commemoration of the event which the +festival of Easter celebrates. Lancashire, Staffordshire, and +Warwickshire still retain the Easter custom. + +Whether or not the notable Norfolk "chairing" takes its origin from the +same is open to question; _possibility_ there is without doubt that it +does so. Be it as it may, it must, we fear, be numbered among the +departed joys of the poor folks. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +SUPERSTITIONS. + + +_Superstitions_.--_Witchcraft_.--_Heard's Ghost_.--_Wise Men and +Women_.--_Sayings by Mrs. Lubbock_.--_Prophecies_.--_Treasure +Trove_.--_Confessions of Sir William Stapleton and Sir Edward +Neville_.--_Cardinal Wolsey supposed to have been conversant with +Magic_.--_Effect of Superstition on the Great and Noble in Early Times_. + +Forby, in his "Vocabulary of East Anglia," has described the whole of +this district of the country as barren of superstitions or legendary +lore. Its characteristics are adverse to the growth of that natural +poetry in the minds of the people which gives birth to nymphs, +water-sprites, elves, or demons. It has neither woods, mountains, rocks, +caverns, nor waterfalls, to be the nurseries of such genii; its plains +are cultivated, its rivers navigable, its hills and valleys furrowed by +the plough, even to the very basement of any lingering ruin of tower or +steeple that may be scattered amongst them. How much more, therefore, +may we expect to find a dearth of such literature in the heart of the +great city, where the struggles of working-day life among looms and +factories, leave little time or room for aught else than the stern +_realities_ of existence to be known or felt? + +But every where there exist some fragments of superstition, poetical or +uncouth; and we may not feel surprise that among such a people as the +lower orders of society, in an East Anglian manufacturing city, they +should bear little trace of the refinement which beautiful and romantic +scenery and occupation are wont in other scenes to throw over them. +Rarely do we hear of a haunted house, or a walking ghost; but not +unseldom do we see the horse-shoe nailed over the door-way of the +cottage, as an antidote to the power of witchcraft,--nor is it uncommon +to hear among the poor, of charms to cure diseases, of divinations by +_wise men_ and _wise women_, who by mystic rites pretend to discover lost +or stolen property,--nor even of animals bewitched, exercising direful +influence over the lives and health of human beings. Within the limits +of this age of enlightenment and civilization, many are the recorded +facts of this nature, and many more of continual recurrence might be +added, in illustration of the truth, that the lowest and grossest forms +of vulgar superstition yet lurk about in the purlieus and by-ways of the +old city. + +Not long since, a woman, holding quite a respectable rank among the +working classes, and in her way a perfect "_character_" avowed herself +determined "to _drown'd_ the cat," as soon as ever her baby, which was +lying ill, should die; for which determination the only explanation she +could offer was, that the cat jumped upon the nurse's lap, as the baby +lay there, soon after it was born, from which time it ailed, and ever +since that time, the cat had regularly gone under its bed once a day and +coughed twice. These mysterious actions of poor "Tabby," were assigned +as the cause of the baby wasting, and its fate was to be sealed as soon +as that of the poor infant was decided. That the baby happened to be the +twenty-fourth child of his mother, who had succeeded in rearing four only +of the two dozen, was a fact that seemed to possess no weight whatever in +her estimation. The same strong-minded individual, for in many respects +she _is_ wonderfully strong-minded, scruples not to avow greater faith in +the magical properties of red wool, tied round a finger or an arm, in +curing certain ailments of the frame, than in many a remedy prescribed by +"doctor's" skill; nor has the theoretical belief been altogether +unsupported by practice; on more than one occasion, she will aver, her +own life has thus been saved. + +As for divinations and charms, to doubt their faith in them would be to +discredit the evidence of our senses. A poor washerwoman, but a few +years since, who possessed more honesty than wisdom, happened to lose +some linen belonging to one of her employers. _Suspecting_ it to have +been stolen, she repaired to a _wise man_, who, of course, succeeded in +convincing her, upon the payment of half-a-crown, that her surmise was +correct; but as it helped her no further towards its recovery, it only +added to the expense her honesty prompted her to go to, to replace it, +which she secretly contrived to do, and offered it to her employer, with +a statement of the facts. + +These are but faint specimens of the "vulgar errors" that are every day +to be met with among the citizens, oftentimes attested more by deeds than +words; for many will in secret consult the _wise_ people, and pay them +well, who would still shrink from openly acknowledging faith in their +revelations or predictions. + +Though haunted houses are rare, there still are some known to exist;--one +respectable, elderly maiden, yet amongst us, has veritable tales of +refractory spirits, that took twelve clergymen to read them down, and of +one who haunted some particular closet, where at last he submitted to +priestly authority, a cable and a hook being firmly fixed in the floor of +the closet to bind him. We rather fancy some of the other legends that +we have heard from the same authority, are but variations of the story of +Heard's spirit, that haunted the Alder Carr Fen Broad, which assumed the +appearance of a Jack-o'-Lantern, and refused to be "laid!" the gentlemen +who attempted it failing, because he always kept a verse ahead of them, +until a boy brought a couple of pigeons, and laid down before the +Will-o'-the-wisp, who, looking at them, lost his verse, and then they +succeeded in binding his spirit. + +_This_, and many other tales, have been collected by the rector of the +parish of Irstead, from an old woman living there; and they contain so +much that is amusing, that we cannot forbear repeating them for the +benefit of those who have not had the opportunity of seeing the papers of +the Archaeological Society. Mrs. Lubbock is an old washerwoman, who, +left a widow with several children, has maintained herself +"independently" up to her eightieth year, without applying even for +out-door parish relief, until the cold winter of 1846 made her, as she +expresses it, _sick_ for crumbs like the birds. Education she has had +none, that is, of book learning, but she seems to have had a father, +given to anecdote, from whom she professes to have heard most of the +"saws" and tales of which she has such a profusion. She mentions the +practice, among her acquaintance, of watching the church porch on St. +Mark's eve, when, at midnight, the watcher may see all his acquaintance +enter the church: those who were to die remained, those who were to marry +went in couples and came out again. This, one Staff had seen; but he +would not tell the names of those who were to die or be married. + +On Christmas-eve, she says, at midnight the cows and cattle rise and turn +to the east; and the horses in the stable, as far as their halters +permit. She says that a farmer once observing the reverent demeanour of +the horse, who will leisurely stay some time upon his knees moving his +head about and blowing over the manger, remarked, "Ah, they have more wit +than we;" which brings to mind an anecdote, related by an ear witness, of +a controversy that took place in this city among some cattle-drovers, +when an Irishman and Roman Catholic supported the claims of his religion +by commenting upon the invariable practice amongst those of his own +class, of saying their prayers before retiring to rest; whereas, added +he, "among you Protestants the _horse_ is the only real Christian that I +ever met with, who kneels before he goes to sleep and when he gets up." +That there is too much ground for the satire no one can doubt. + +The Rosemary is said to flower on old Christmas-day, and Mrs. Lubbock +says that she recollects, on one occasion, a great argument about which +was the real Christmas-day, and to settle the point three men agreed to +decide by watching that plant. They gathered a bunch at eleven o'clock +at night of the old Christmas-day; it was then in bud. They threw it +upon the table, and did not look at it until after midnight, when they +went in, and found the bloom just dropping off. + +Concerning the weather, she says, when a sundog (or two black spots to be +seen by the naked eye) comes on the south side of the sun, there will be +fair weather; when on the north, there will be foul. "The sun then fares +to be right muddled and crammed down by the dog." + +Of the moon, she says-- + + "Saturdays new and Sundays full + Never was good, and never _wull_. + +"If you see the old moon with the new, there will be stormy weather. + + "If it rains on a Sunday before mass, + It rains all the week, more or less. + +"If it rains on a Sunday before the church doors are open, it will rain +all the week, more or less; or else we shall have three rainy Sundays. + +"If it rains the first Thursday after the moon comes in, it will rain, +more or less, all the while the moon lasts, especially on Thursdays. + +"If there be bad weather, and the sun does not shine all the week, it +will always show forth some time on the Saturday. + +"It will not be a hard winter when acorns abound, and there are no hips +nor haws: + + "If _Noah's Ark shows_ many days together, + There will be foul weather. + +"On three nights in the year it never lightens (_i.e._ clears up) +anywhere; and if a man knew those nights, he would not turn a dog out. + +"We shall have a severe winter when the swallows and martins take great +pains to teach their young ones to fly; they are going a long journey, to +get away from the cold that is coming. It is singular they should know +this, but they do. + +"The weather will be fine when the rooks play pitch-halfpenny--_i.e._ +when, flying in flocks, some of them stoop down and pick up worms, +imitating the action of a boy playing pitch-halfpenny. + +"There will be severe winter and deep snow when snow-banks (_i.e._ white +fleecy clouds) hang about the sky." + +In 1845, she knew there would be a failure of some crop, "because the +evening star _rode so low_. The leading star (_i.e._ the last star in +the Bear's Tail) was above it all the summer the potato blight occurred." +She feared the failure would have been in the wheat, till she saw the +_man's face_ in it, and then she was comfortable, and did not think of +any other crop. Her opinion was, that the potato blight was caused by +the lightning, because the turf burnt so _sulphurously_. "The +lightning," she says, "carries a burr round the moon, and makes the +_roke_ (fog) rise in the marshes, and smell strong." + +A failure in the "Ash Keys," she pronounces a sign of a change in the +government. + + "If the hen moult before the cock, + We get a winter as hard as a rock; + If the cock moult before the hen, + We get a winter like a spring. + +"She put plenty of salt in the water while washing clothes, to keep the +thunder out, and to keep away foul spirits." + +Of Good Friday, she says, + +"If work be done on that day, it will be so unlucky, that it will have to +be done over again." + +The story of Heard's Ghost she accompanies by an anecdote of one Finch, +of Neatishead, who was walking along the road after dark, and saw a dog +which he thought was Dick Allard's, that had snapped and snarled at him +at different times. Thinks he, "you have _upset_ me two or three times; +I will upset you now. You will not turn out of the road for me; and I +will not turn out of the road for you." Along came the dog, straight in +the middle of the road, and Finch kicked at him, and his foot went +through him, as through a sheet of paper--he could compare it to nothing +else; he was quite astounded, and nearly fell backwards from the force of +the kick. + +She says that she has heard that the spirits of the dead haunt the places +where treasures were hid by them when living, and that those of the Roman +Catholics still frequent the spots where their remains were disturbed, +and their graves and monuments destroyed. Alas! what a ghost-besieged +city must poor Norwich be in such a case! + +Of the cuckoo, she says, "When evil is coming, he sings low among the +bushes, and can scarcely get his "cuckoo" out. In the last week before +he leaves, he always tells all that will happen in the course of the year +till he comes again--all the shipwrecks, storms, accidents, and +everything. If any one is about to die suddenly, or to lose a relation, +he will light upon touchwood, or a rotten bough, and "cuckoo." + +"He is always here three months to a day, and sings all the while. The +first of April is the proper day for him to come, and when he does so, +there is sure to be a good and early harvest. If he does not come till +May, then the harvest is into October. If he sings long after midsummer, +there will be a Michaelmas harvest. If any one hears the cuckoo first +when in bed, there is sure to be illness or death to him or one of his +family." + +Among her saws are-- + + "Them that ever mind the world to win, + Must have a black cat, a howling dog, and a crowing hen. + + "If youth could know what age do crave, + _Sights_ of pennies youth would save. + + "They that wive + Between sickle and scythe, + Shall never thrive." + +With reference to howling dogs, she says, "Pull off your left shoe and +turn it, and it will quiet him. I always used to do so when I was in +service. I hated to hear the dogs howl. There was no tax then, and the +farmers kept a _heap_ of them. They won't howl three times after the +turning the shoe; if you are in bed, turn the shoe upside down by the +bedside." + +Among the historical prophecies of Mother Shipton and Mother Bunch, her +sister, as remembered by her, are-- + +That Mrs. Shipton foretold that the time should come when ships should go +without sails, and carriages without horses, and the sun should shine +upon hills that never _see_ the sun before; all which are fulfilled, Mrs. +Lubbock thinks, by steamers, railways, and cuttings through hills, which +let in upon them the light of the sun. + +Mrs. Shipton also foretold that we should know the summer from the winter +only by the green leaves, it should be so cold. "That the Roman +Catholics shall have this country again, and make England a nice place +once more. But as for these folks, they scarce know how to build a +church, nor yet a steeple. + +"That England shall be won and lost three times in one day; and that, +principally, through an embargo to be laid upon vessels. + +"That there is to come a man who shall have three thumbs on one hand, who +is to hold the king's horse in battle; he is to be born in London, and be +a miller by business. The battle is to be fought at Rackheath-stone +Hill, on the Norwich road. Ravens shall carry the blood away, it will be +so clotted. + +"That the men are to be killed, so that one man shall be left to seven +women; and the daughters shall come home, and say to their mothers, +"Lawk, mother, I have seen a man!" The women shall have to finish the +harvest. + +"That the town of Yarmouth shall become a nettle-bush; that the bridges +shall be pulled up, and small vessels sail to Irstead and Barton Broads. + +"That blessed are they that live near Potter Heigham, and double-blessed +them that live in it." (That parish seems destined to be the scene of +some great and glorious events.) May the blessing prove true! + +We here close our extracts from Mrs. Lubbock's Norfolk sayings, and now +go back to superstitions of earlier date, that are so connected with +Kett's rebellion as to make them peculiarly interesting as matters of +history. During the wars of the Roses, predictions of wars and +rebellions, not unfrequently proclaiming hostility towards the privileged +classes, were very common. Both persons and places were often designated +by strange hieroglyphical symbols, frequently taken from heraldic badges +and bearings, or analogies extremely puzzling to explain. They are +alluded to in Shakespeare's "Henry the Fourth," among the incitements +that urged Hotspur to anger, and Owen Glendower to rebellion, and +recorded by Hall, who says in his Chrouicle, "that a certain writer +writeth that the Earl of March, the Lord Percy, and Owen Glendower, were +made believe, by a Welsh prophecier, that King Henry was the _moldewarpe_ +(mole) _cursed of God's own mouth_, and that they three were the dragon, +the lion, and the wolf which should divide the realm between them." This +prophecy was doubtless identical with that published in 1652, under the +title of "Strange Prophecies of Merlin," where it is said, "Then shall +the proudest prince in all Christendom go through Shropham Dale to Lopham +Ward, where the White Lion shall meet with him, and fight in a field +under Ives Minster, at South Lopham, where the prince aforesaid shall be +slain under the minster wall, _to the great grief of the priests all_; +then there shall come out of Denmark a Duke, and he shall bring with him +the King of Denmark and sixteen great lords in his company, by whose +consent he shall be crowned king in a town of Northumberland, and he +shall reign three months and odd days. They shall land at _Waborne +Stone_; they shall be met by the Red Deere, the Heath Cock, the Hound, +and the Harrow: between _Waborne_ and _Branksbrim_, a forest and a church +gate, there shall be fought so mortal a battle, that from Branksbrim to +Cromer Bridge it shall run blood; then shall the King of Denmark be +slain, and all the perilous fishes in his company. Then shall the duke +come forth manfully to Clare Hall, where the _bare_ and the _headlesse +men_ shall meet him and slay all his lords, and take him prisoner, and +send him to _Blanchflower_, and chase his men to the sea, where twenty +thousand of them shall be drowned without dint of the sword. Then shall +come in the French king, and he shall land at Waborne Hope, eighteen +miles from Norwich: there he shall be let in by a false mayor, and that +shall he keep for his lodging for awhile; then at his return shall he be +met at a place called Redbanke, thirty miles from Westchester, where at +the first affray shall be slain nine thousand Welchmen and the double +number of enemies." + +These sort of predictions, often accompanied by symbolical illustrations, +continued to gain popularity, and were made use of at various periods to +serve the purposes of the people. Sir Walter Scott's "Essays on the +Prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer," shew the application made of them in +the time of the Stuarts. In the reign of Henry VIII., they excited so +much alarm, as to cause an act to be passed, which declared, "that if any +person should print, write, speak, sing, or declare to any other person, +of the king or any other person, any such false prophecies upon occasion +of any arms, fields, beasts, fowls, or such like things, they shall be +deemed guilty of felony, without benefit of the clergy." + +The confession of Richard Byshop, of Bungay, when arraigned before the +Privy Council a few years prior to the date of the above act, shews upon +what grounds the fear it expresses was founded. + + THE CONFESSION OF RICHARD BYSHOP, OF BUNGAY. + + "Memorandum: that the said Richard Byshop saith, that he met with one + Robert Seyman, at Tyndale Wood, the 11th day of May, about nine of + the clock, in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of our sovereign + lord King Henry the Eighth, and after such salutation as they had + then, the said Richard Byshop said to the said Robert, 'What tythings + hear you? Have you any musters about you?' And the said Robert said + 'No.' Then the said Richard said, 'This is a hard world for poor + men.' And the said Robert said, 'Truly it is so.' Then the said + Richard said, 'Ye seem to be an honest man, and such a one as a man + may open his mind unto.' And the said Robert said, 'I am a plain + man; ye may say to me what ye woll.' And then the said Richard said, + 'We are so used now-a-days at Bungay as was never seen afore this; + for if two or three good fellows be walking together, the constables + come to them, and woll know what communication they have had, or else + they shall be stocked. And as I have heard lately at Walsingham, the + people had risen if one person had not been. And as I hear say, some + of them now be in Norwich Castle, and others be sent to London.' And + further, the said Richard said, 'If two men were gathered together, + one might say to another what he would as long as the third man was + not there; _and if three men were together_, _if two of them were + absent_, the third might say what he would in surety enough.' And he + said he knew there was a certain prophecy, which if the said Robert + would come to Bungay, he should hear it read; and that one man had + taken pains to watch in the night to write the copy of the same. And + if so be, as the prophecy saith, there shall be a rising of the + people this year or never. And that the prophecy saith the king's + grace was signified by a mowle, and that the mowle should be subduyt + and put down. And that the said Richard did hear that the Earl of + Derby was up with many; and that he should be proclaimed traitor in + those parts where he dwelleth. And also he heard, as he saith, that + a great company was fled out of the land. And that the Duke of + Norfolk's grace was in the north parts, and was so to be set about, + as he heard say, that he might not come away when he would. I pray + God that it be not so. Also he said that the prophecy saith that + three kings shall meet on Mousehold Heath, and the proudest prince in + Christendom be their subject. And that the White Lion should stay + all that business at length, and should obtain. And said, 'Farewell, + my friend, and know me another day if ye can, and God send us a quiet + world.'" + +The same prophecies here alluded to were revived and repeated, together +with many doggrel rhymes, at the time of the famous Kett's rebellion. +The historian of the event says that they were rung in the ears of the +people every hour, such as + + "The county Gnoffes, Hob, Dick, and Hick, + With clubbs and clowted shoon, + Shall fill the vale + Of Duffin's dale + With slaughtered bodies soon." + +And also + + "The headless men within the dale, + Shall there be slain both great and small." + +So positively were these sort of prophecies applied to the circumstances +of the time, that the rebels who had possession of a favourable position +on the heights of the common, forsook it in expectation of realizing the +prediction by coming into the valley, "believing themselves," as the +historian has it, "to be the _upholsterers_ that were to make Duffin's +Dale a large soft pillow for death to rest on, whereas they proved only +the _stuffing to fill the same_." + +The common phrase, "A cock and bull story," took its origin from these +symbolical prophecies, in which the figures of animals were so often +introduced. + +Among the records of other mediaeval superstitions, are many curious +details of the "invocation of spirits" to aid the searchers after +"Treasure Trove," as it was called. In the days when "banking" was +unknown, wealth oftentimes accumulated in the hands of its owners, to a +degree that rendered its safe keeping a perilous task; and in very early +ages it would seem to have been a common practice to commit it to the +bosom of mother earth, until such time as its owner might have need of +it. The changes wrought upon the land by the several conquests that +succeeded the departure of the Romans, the reputed depositors of these +hidden treasures, caused the ownership to be forgotten and obscure, and +by degrees all such property became the right of the crown; and to +conceal any discovery of it was made an act of felony, at first +punishable by death, but afterwards subjecting the perpetrator only to a +pecuniary fine. + +It seems, however, that in the sixteenth century, it was customary to +grant licenses to individuals, to engage in the search after these hidden +stores of precious stones, metal, or coins; also permission to invoke the +aid of spirits in their pursuit. Among many other quaint stories upon +the subject, two especially connected with the localities in this +neighbourhood claim attention here: the first is the confession of +William Stapleton, a monk in the abbey of St. Bennet in the Holm, +addressed to Cardinal Wolsey, and many very curious illustrations it +gives of the superstitious feeling of the time; the other is that of Sir +Edward Neville, who was arraigned, tried, and executed for high treason, +as an accomplice of Cardinal Pole, in the thirtieth year of Henry the +Eighth. The extracts are taken from the papers of the Norfolk +Archaeological Society. + +Stapleton seems to have been an idle monk, often punished "for not rising +to matins, and doing his duty in the church, which led to his desire to +purchase a dispensation." Being too poor to do so at once, he obtained +six months' license to obtain the means, and set about searching for +"Treasure Trove," by the help of some books on Necromancy, which had been +previously lent to him. After some rambles about the county, he says, "I +went to Norwich, and there remained by the space of a month, and thence +to a town called Felmingham, and one Godfrey and his boy with me, which +Godfrey had a "_shower_," called Anthony Fular, and his said boy did +"scry" unto him (which said spirit I had after myself); but +notwithstanding as we could find nothing, we departed to Norwich again, +where we met one unbeknown to us, and he brought us to a man's house in +Norwich, where he supposed we should have found treasure, whereupon we +called the spirit of the treasure to appear--but he did not, for I +suppose of a truth there was none there." + +Stapleton goes on to say that, failing in his efforts, he borrowed money +to buy his dispensation of "his Grace" to be a hermit, and then went to +the "diggings" again. He was then informed that one Leech had a book to +which the parson of Lesingham had bound a spirit, called Andrew Malchus; +"whereupon," he says, "I went to Leech concerning the same, and upon our +communication he let me have all his instruments to the said book, and +shewed me that if I could get the book that the said instruments were +made by, he would bring me to him that should speed my business shortly. +And then he shewed me that the parson of Lesingham and Sir John of +Leiston, with other to me unknown, had called up of late Andrew Malchus, +Oberion, and Inchubus. And when they were all raised, Oberion would not +speak. And the then parson of Lesingham did demand of Andrew Malchus why +it was. And Andrew Malchus made answer, it was because he was bound to +the Lord Cardinal. And they did entreat the parson of Lesingham to let +them depart at that time, and whensoever it should please them to call +them up again, they would gladly do them any service they could. + +"And when I had all the said instruments, I went to Norwich, where I had +remained but a season, when there came to me a glazier, which, as he +said, came from the Lord Leonard Marquess, for to search for one that was +expert in such business. And thereupon one Richard Tynny came and +instanced me to go to Walsingham with him, where we met with the said +Lord Leonard, the which Lord Leonard had communicated with me concerning +the said art of digging, and thereupon promised me that if I would take +pains in the exercising the same art, that he would sue out a +dispensation for me that I should be a secular priest, and so would make +me his chaplain. And, for a trial to know what I could do in the same +art, he caused his servant to go hide a certain money in the garden, and +I showed for the same. And one Jackson 'scryed' unto me, but we could +not accomplish our purpose. + +"Sir John Shepe, Sir Robert Porter, and I, departed to a place beside +Creke Abbey, where we supposed treasure should be found. And the said +Sir John Shepe called the spirit of the treasure, and I showed to him; +but all came to no purpose. + +"And then there came one Cook of Calkett Hall, and showed me that there +was much money about his place, and in especial in the Bell Hill, and +desired me to come thither; and then I went to Richard Tynny, and showed +him what the said Cook had said, whereupon Tynny brought me to one +William Rapkyn, took me the book that the Duke's Grace of Norfolk of late +took away from me; which Rapkyn said to me that forasmuch as I had all +the instruments that were made for the said book, and if I could get Sir +John of Leiston unto me, that then we should soon speed our purpose, for +the said Sir John of Leiston was with the parson of Lesingham when the +spirits appeared to the said book; and so I went to Colkett Hall, and +took the said book and instruments with me; but he" (Sir John) "came not; +wherefore, when I had tarried three or four days, I and the parish priest +of Gorleston went about the said business, but of truth we could bring +nothing to effect." + +His lengthened confession then goes into details of other expeditions +aided by Lord Leonard, which ended in his imprisonment for deserting Lord +Leonard, but he was afterwards pardoned and set at liberty. He then goes +on to say in his letter, "and whereas your noble Grace here of late was +informed of certain things by the Duke's Grace of Norfolk, as touching to +your Grace and him, I faithfully ascertain that the truth thereof is as +herein followeth, that is to say, one Wright, servant to the said Duke, +at a certain season showed me that the Duke's Grace, his master, was sore +vexed with a spirit by the enchantment of your Grace; to the which I made +answer that his communication might be left, for it was too high a +subject to meddle with. Whereupon Wright went into the Duke's presence +and showed things to me unknown, which caused the Duke's Grace to send +for me; and at such time as I was before his Grace I required his grace +to show me what his pleasure was, and he said I knew well myself, and I +answered 'Nay.' Then he demanded of Wright whether he had showed me +anything or nay, and he answered he durst not, for because his Grace gave +so strait commandment unto the contrary. And so then was I directed to +the said Wright unto the next day, that he should show me the intention +of the Duke's Grace." + +Wright seems then to have suggested to Stapleton that he should pretend +power to rid the Duke of the troublesome spirit; and being strongly +tempted by hopes of reward, he consented, "and feigned to him," when he +sent for him again, that he had forged an image of wax of his similitude, +and sanctified it--but whether it did any good for his sickness he could +not tell. + +"Whereupon the said Duke desired me that I should go about to know +whether the Lord Cardinal's Grace had a spirit, and I showed him that I +could not skill thereof. And the Duke then said if I would take pains +therein, he would appoint me to a cunning man, Dr. Wilson. And so the +said Dr. Wilson was sent for, and they examined me, and the Duke's Grace +commanded me to write all these things, and so I did. Whereupon, +considering the great folly which hath rested in me, I humbly beseech +your Grace to be a good and gracious lord unto me, and to take me to your +mercy." + +The case of Sir Edward Neville, quoted from the same authority, commences +by a statement of the treasonable words laid to his charge, which were, +"The King is a beast, and worse than a beast; and I trust knaves shall be +put down, and lords reign one day, and that the world will amend one +day." He was found guilty, hanged, drawn and quartered. + +He is suspected to have been connected with Stapleton the monk, who has +already appeared as a necromancer. At all events, his confession shows +again how much Wolsey was supposed to be conversant with magic; and +indeed the 'ring' by which the Cardinal was thought to have won the fatal +favour of the king, was noticed in the accusations against him when he +fell. + +In seeking for treasure, Sir Edward fully acknowledges being led to it by +"foolish fellows of the country." + +In his account of his own dealings with spirits and magic, there is much +curious mixture of half-doubting marvel and self deceit, probably not +unconnected with influences baffling the human intellect, so apparent in +the kindred delusions of Mesmerism, that strange development of the age +of civilization, in no respect differing from the superstitions usually +considered as the peculiar characteristics of the Middle ages. He was +also a practitioner of alchemy. He would jeopard his life to make the +philosopher's stone if the king pleased, aye, and was willing to be kept +in prison till he had: in a year he would make silver, and in a year and +a half, gold, which would be better to the king than a thousand men. But +Henry was too shrewd thus to be allured into mercy; and Neville perished +in the prolonged agonies which his sentence involved. He appears, from +other documents, to have been of a light-hearted and merry temper; not +very wise, but wholly innocent of any crime, except a few idle words. + + THE CONFESSION OF SIR EDWARD NEVILLE. + + "Honourable Lords, I take God to record, that I did never commit nor + reconcile treason sith I was born, nor imagined the destruction of no + man or woman, as God shall save my soul; He knows my heart, for it is + He that 'scrutator cordium,' and in Him is all trust. I will not + danger my soul for fear of worldly punishment; the joy of Heaven is + eternal, and incomparable to the joy of this wretched world: + therefore, good lords, do by me as God shall put in your minds; for + another day ye shall suffer the judgment of God, when ye cannot start + from it, no more than I can start from yours at this time. Now to + certify all that I can:--William Neville did send for me to Oxford, + that I should come and speak with him at 'Weke,' and to him I went; + it was the first time I ever saw him; I would I had been buried that + day. + + "When I came, he took me to a _littell_ room, and went to his garden, + and there demanded of me many questions, and among all others, asked + if it were not possible to have a ring made that should bring a man + in favour with his Prince; seeing my Lord Cardinal had such a ring, + that whatsoever he asked of the King's Grace, that he had; and Master + Cromwell, when he and I were servants in my Lord Cardinal's house, + did haunt to the company of one that was seen in your faculty; and + shortly after, no man so great with my Lord Cardinal as Master + Cromwell was; and I have spoke with all them that has any name in + this realm; and all they showed me that I should be great with my + Prince; and this is the cause that I did send for you, to know + whether your saying be agreeable to theirs, or no. And I, at the + hearty desire of him, shewed him that I had read many books, and + specially the works of Solomon, and how his ring should be made, and + of what metal; and what virtues they have after the canon of Solomon. + And then he desired me instantly to take the pains to make him one of + them; and I told him that I could make them, but I made never none of + them, nor I cannot tell that they have such virtues or no, but by + hearing say. Also he asked what other works had I read. And I told + him that I had read the magical works of Hermes, which many men doth + prize; and thus departed at that time. And one fortnight after, + William Neville came to Oxford, and said that he had one Wayd at + home, at his house, that did shew him more than I did shew him; for + the said Wayd did shew him that he should be a great lord, nigh to + the partes that he dwelt in. And in that lordship should be a fair + castle; and he could not imagine what it should be, except it were + the castle of Warwick." + + "And I answered and said to him, that I dreamed that an angel took + him and me by the hands, and led us to a high tower, and there + delivered him a shield, with sundry arms, which I cannot rehearse, + and this is all I ever shewed him, save at his desire, I went thither + with him; and as concerning any other man, save at the desire of Sir + Gr. Done, Knt. I made the moulds that ye have, to the intent he + should have had Mistress Elizabeth's gear. If any man or woman can + say and prove by me, otherwise than I have writed, except that I + have, at the desire of some of my friends, '_cauled to stone_,' for + things stolen, let me die for it. And touching Master William + Neville, all the country knows more of his matters than I do, save + that I wrote a foolish letter or two, according to his foolish + desire, to make pastime to laugh at." + + "Also concerning treasure trove, I was oft-times desired unto it, by + foolish fellows of the country, but I never meddled with it at all; + but to make the philosopher's stone, I will jeopard my life, so to do + it, if it please the king's good grace to command me to do it, or any + other nobleman under the king's good grace; and, of surety to do it, + to be kept in prison till I have done it. And I desire no longer + space, but twelve months upon silver, and twelve and a half upon + gold, which is better to the king's good grace than a thousand men; + for it is better able to maintain a thousand men for evermore, + putting the king's good grace, nor the realm, to no cost nor charge." + + "Also, concerning our sovereign lord the king's going over, this I + said, 'If I had been worthy to be his grace's council, I would + counsel his grace not to have gone over at that time of year.'" + +One mode of consulting spirits was by the Beryl, by means of a speculator +or seer. Having repeated the necessary charms and adjurations, with the +invocation peculiar to the spirit or angel he wished to call (for each +had his peculiar form of invocation), the seer looked into a crystal or +beryl, to see his answer, represented generally by some type or figure; +sometimes, though rarely, the angels were heard to speak articulately. + +Different kinds of stone were also employed, and occasionally a piece of +coal. In Stapleton's confession, he mentions the _plate_ he used being +left in the possession of Sir Thomas Moore. + +Other records of similar proceedings, that have been extracted from the +archives of the Record-chamber, make frequent mention of the magic +crystals or stones. + +The great names mixed up with the curious transactions described in these +two documents, give additional interest to them as matters of history, +and specimens of the enlightenment prevalent among the very highest +circles of society, in the period that so immediately preceded the +Elizabethan age. A runaway monk, turning necromancer, was received into +communion with some of the noblest of the land; and an educated +gentleman, as Sir Edward Neville may be presumed to have been, hoped to +win favour by promises to discover the philosopher's stone. + +Three centuries have passed, and the only traces that may be found of +these high-born credulities, lurk in the darkest corners of the darkest +alleys of poverty and ignorance. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +CONVENTUAL REMAINS. + + +_Conventual Remains_.--_St. Andrew's Hall_.--_The Festival_.--_Music_: +_Dr. Hook_, _Dr. Crotch_.--_Churches_.--_Biographical Sketches_: +_Archbishop Parker_, _Sir J. E. Smith_, _Taylor_, _Hooker_, _Lindley_, +_Joseph John Gurney_. + +The sketch of the Cathedral has embraced so much of the early history of +the various religious "orders," as to render but little necessary +respecting the origin of the "freres," or friars, whose settlements, in +the city and neighbourhood, once occupied such important place in its +limits and history. + +The Black Friars, or Preachers, White Friars, or Carmelites, Grey Friars, +or Minors, and the Austin Friars, all had at one period, from the +thirteenth century to the era of the Reformation, large establishments +within its precincts; besides which, there was a nunnery, and divers +hospitals, as they were called, such as the Chapel of the Lady in the +Fields, Norman's Spital, and Hildebrand's Hospital; and hermitages +without number lurked about the corners of its churchyards, or perched +themselves above the gateways of its walls. The greater portion of these +have left but a name, or a few scattered fragments, behind to mark their +site; but one magnificent relic of the Black Friars monastery, comprising +the whole of the nave and chancel of their beautiful church, yet stands +in an almost perfect state of preservation,--a noble witness of the +wealth and taste of the poor "mendicant" followers of Friar +Dominick,--which was rescued from destruction at the period of the +general "dissolution," by the zeal and practical expediency of municipal +authorities. Of the two friaries that have ceased to exist even in +outline, it may suffice to record, that the Carmelites numbered among +them the eminent writer, "John Bale, the antiquary," as he is wont to be +called; the Austin Friars seem to have possessed few particular claims +for notice, save their less rigorous injunctions for fasting, but the +Friars Minors were the great rivals of the Preachers, and both together, +the sore troublers of the peace of the "Regulars," who looked upon the +growing power of this "_secular_" priesthood with a jealousy and hatred +to be conceived only by those who appreciate duly the "loaves and +fishes." As a sample of the feeling existing, the account of Matthew +Paris, the monk of St. Albans, may fairly be cited. He says, "The +'friars preachers' having obtained privileges from Pope Gregory IX. and +Innocent IV. being rejoiced and magnified, they talked malapertly to the +prelates of churches, bishops and archdeacons, presiding in their synods; +and where many persons of note were assembled, showed openly the +privileges indulged to them, proudly requiring that the same may be +recited, and that they may be received with veneration by the churches; +and intruding themselves oft-times impertinently, they asked many +persons, even the religious, 'Are you confessed?' And if they were +answered 'Yes,' 'By whom?' 'By my priest.' 'And what idiot is he? He +never learned divinity, never studied the devices, never learned to +resolve one question; they are blind leaders of the blind; come to us, +who know how to distinguish one leprosy from another, to whom the secrets +of God are manifest.' Many therefore, especially nobles, despising their +own priests, confessed to these men, whereby the dignity of the +ordinaries was not a little debased." + +Another says: "Now they have created two new fraternities, to which they +have so generally received people of both sexes, that scarce one of +either remains, whose name is not written in one of them, who, therefore, +all assembling in their churches, we cannot have our own parishioners, +especially on solemn days, to be present at divine service, &c.; whence +it is come to pass that we, being deprived of the due tithes and +oblations, cannot live unless we should turn to some manual labour. What +else remaineth therefore? except that we should demolish our churches, in +which nothing else remaineth for service or ornament but a bell and an +old image, covered with soot.' But these preachers and minors, who begun +from cells and cottages, have erected royal houses and palaces, supported +on high pillars, and distinguished into various offices, the expenses +whereof ought to have been bestowed upon the poor; these, while they have +nothing, possess all things; but we, who are said to have something, are +beggars." Alas! how many a poor curate of this nineteenth century, upon +30 pounds a-year, might subscribe to a like pitiful complaint. + +Another accusation against these mendicant friars, in their days of +maturity, was that they used to steal children under fourteen years of +age, or receive them without the consent of their friends, and refuse to +restore them, embezzling or conveying them away to "other cloisters," +where they could not be found. A statute of Henry IV. subjected these +friars to punishment for this offence; and the provincials of the four +orders were sworn before the parliament, for themselves and successors, +to be obedient to this statute. + +Kirkpatrick, from whom the above is quoted, says elsewhere, that in 1242, +a great controversy arose between the friars minors and preachers, about +the greatest worthiness, most decent habit, the strictest, humblest, and +holiest life; for the preachers challenged pre-eminence in these--the +minors contradicted, and great scandal arose. And because they were +learned men, it was the more dangerous to the church. + +"These are they," says he, "who in sumptuous edifices, and lofty walls, +expose to view inestimable treasures, impudently transgressing the limits +of poverty, and the fundamentals of their profession; who diligently +apply themselves to lords and rich persons, that they may gape after +wealth; extorting confessions and clandestine wills, commending +themselves and their order only, and extolling them above all others. So +that no Christian now believes he can be saved, unless he be governed by +the councils of the preachers and minors. In obtaining privileges, they +are solicitors; in the courts of kings and potentates, they are +councillors, gentlemen of the chamber, treasurers, match-makers, +matrimony-brokers; executioners of papal extortions; in their sermons, +either flatterers or stinging backbiters, discoverers of confession, or +impudent rebukers." + +Making all due allowance for the party feeling of the historian, thus +commemorating the factions of the "Mother Church," enough may be seen of +the truth, to form a general idea of the condition of the brotherhoods, +one of whose "palaces, supported by high pillars," is now left us as a +subject for our investigation. + +The order of Black Friars owe their origin to the famous Dominick, +notorious for his zeal in the persecution of the Albigenses. He figures +also in the "Golden Legend," as a miraculously endowed infant; his +god-mother perceiving on his forehead a star, which made the whole world +light. The common seal of the Black Friars, still preserved, +commemorates another miracle concerning him: "Being grown to man's +estate, he became a great preacher against heretics; and once upon a +time, he put his authorities against them in writing, and gave the +schedule into the hands of a heretic, that he might ponder over its +contents. The same night, a party being met at a fire, the man produced +the schedule, upon which he was persuaded to cast it into the flames, to +test its truth; which doing, the schedule sprung back again, after a few +minutes, unburnt; the experiment was repeated thrice, with the same +results; but the heretics refused to be convinced, and pledged themselves +not to reveal the matter;--but one of them, it seems, afterwards did so." + +Many other marvellous tales are extant of holy St. Dominick, but we +hasten on to take a look at the church of his followers. The present +building bears date of the fifteenth century, and would seem to have been +materially enriched by the famous Sir Thomas Erpingham, who takes such +prominent place in the city, and church walls, and gateways, his arms +figuring here in the stone-work between every two of the upper story of +windows. In its primitive condition the church boasted of three chapels, +one of them subterranean, three altars, two lights, and an image of St. +Peter of Malayn; the choir was decorated with panel paintings, which +found their way at the Reformation to the parlour of some private +dwelling-house close by, whose walls they yet adorn. Two guilds were +held there, the guild of St. William and the Holy Rood. In 1538, when +the axes and hammers of King Henry were busy over the face of the land, +and bonfires of libraries were being made in the precincts of every +monastery, the house and church of the Black Friars was saved. +Deputations to his majesty from the corporation of the city, successfully +negotiated the transfer of the building to its possession, on +consideration of the sum of eighty-one pounds being paid into the Royal +Treasury. Mention is made in old records of a handsome library belonging +to this as well as the Carmelite Monastery; their fate perhaps may be +conjectured by that of many others of the time. Bale mentions the fact +of a merchant buying the contents of two noble libraries for forty +shillings, to be used as waste paper, and ten years were occupied in thus +consuming them. The chancel of the church has retained its character as +a place of worship almost unvaryingly until the present day, at one time +being leased to the Dutch, and in later times used as a chapel by the +inmates of the workhouse; occasionally, however, it has served the +purpose of a playhouse; as we find on record, injuries sustained by the +breaking down of partitions at the performance of "interludes" in it upon +Sundays, in the thirty-eighth of Henry the Eighth. The king's players we +also find similarly occupying the nave or hall in Edward the Sixth's +reign, during Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before Christmas. The +cloisters and other portions of the monastery were in the reign of Anne, +upon the first establishment of workhouses for the poor, appropriated to +that purpose, the groined roofings to this day forming the ceilings of +pauper kitchens and outhouses. The sole trace of ecclesiastical +furniture lingering in the nave is a stone altar in one corner, much more +noted as the place of gathering in after-times for the brethren of the +St. George's Guild than for any religious associations in the minds of +the people. A gallery, now hidden by the gigantic orchestra built over +it, savours also strongly of the primitive dedication of the building, +else it has retained little more than its architectural beauties of +outline to testify its original consecration. And now to trace its +history, since, wrested from the mendicants, and deprived of its rights +as a cemetery for the wealthy and beneficent dead, it first became the +banquet chamber for municipal feasts, its walls shone gorgeously with +tapestry hangings, and its tables groaned beneath the weight of luscious +dainties. The kitchens and monster chimneys, with their long rows of +spit-hooks and fire-places, that now stand gaping in silent desolation at +the empty larders and boiling-houses in out-of-the-way corners of the +premises, look like giant ghosts of ancient civic gastronomy, lurking +about in dark places, mocking the shadowy forms of latter-day epicurism, +that may be satisfied with the achievements to be performed by modern +"ranges," on ever so improved a scale. But the glories of the St. +George's feast are likewise departed from it; the corn-merchants, to whom +its limits were awhile devoted, have built unto themselves an exchange; +the assizes, once held in it, have been transferred to the little +castellated encrustation that has grown out of one side of the real +castle mound, and reft of all regular employment, the Hall now stands at +the mercy of the city mayor, by him to be lent to whom he wills, for any +or every purpose his judgment may deem consistent with propriety; hence +the same walls echo one day the eloquent pleadings of a league advocate, +the next to the cries of the distressed agriculturist; now to the +advantages of temperance or peace societies, and the musical streams of +eloquence that an Elihu Burritt can send forth, or witness the fires of +enthusiasm a Father Matthew can elicit. Another week shall see it +thronged with eager listeners to the reports of missionary societies, +Church, London, or Baptist; the next with ready auditors to the claims of +the Jews and the heathen calls for Bibles; interspersed among them shall +be lectures on every branch of art and science, and every fashionable or +unfashionable doctrine under the sun that can find advocates, down to +Mormonism or Bloomerism itself. But prior to all in its claims upon the +services of the magnificent old structure stands _music_--why else are +its proportions hid by the unsightly tiers of benches that, empty, make +one long for magic power to waft them all away, but which, once tenanted +by their legitimate occupants, banish every murmur from one's heart and +mind? + +Thanks to the enterprise and spirit of the lovers of harmony, this is not +seldom; concerts for the rich and concerts for the poor, for the hundreds +and the "millions," have risen up to meet the calls of humanity for +heart-culture by other inspirations than may be got from alphabets and +primers, or intellectual disquisitions. And, triennially, arrive the +great epochs of the city's glory, when she asserts her claims upon the +world of music, to be classed high among the nursing mother of genius, +and foster-parents of art. Then is the hour of triumph for the Black +Friars' solemn and grand old nave, when its roofs and pillars tremble at +the thunders of the Messiah's "Hallelujah," and resound to the +electrifying crash, uttering "Wonderful;" or when they echo the sweet +melodies of Haydn, Mozart, and Spohr; the refined harmonies of a +Mendellsohn's "Elijah," the magic strains of his "Loreley," or reflect +the wondrous landscape painting of the mystic Beethoven. Nor was the day +a small one when its orchestra gave utterance to the outpourings of a +genius cradled and nurtured in its bosom, whose work is acknowledged to +be great and good, _albeit_ "a prophet" is not without honour save in his +own country. And all praise be given as due to the generous help yielded +to the son of the stranger as to the son of the soil. The world may yet +live to be grateful to the city that in one year brought before it two +such conceptions and creations as "Israel Restored" and "Jerusalem." And +so would we take our farewell of the old "Hall," while our eyes are yet +dazzled with the bright glitter of its thronged benches, galleries, and +aisles, and our ears and hearts vibrating to the mighty "concert of sweet +sounds" and peals of harmony poured forth from the almost matchless +orchestra and benches of choristers, that lend their powers to complete +the glories of the great "Festival." + +The festival suggests thoughts on music, its history and progress, and of +the minds that have fostered and directed its growth in this particular +region, so successfully as to have gained for the "Old City" its present +high position in the musical world. + +Music and devotion have gone hand-in-hand from the era of the earliest +singing men and singing women of Israel, and the timbrel of Miriam; the +Jewish temple echoed the lofty strains of "David's harp" and the songs of +the "Chief Musician;" from the pagan worship of the Greeks sprung the +Ambrosian chant, and the Christian Church has been the birthplace and +nursery of the grandest conceptions that have flowed from the pen of +inspired genius in every later age. The _antiphonal_ singing of the +earliest choirs, where a phrase of melody, after being sung by one +portion of the choristers, was echoed by others at certain distances, at +a higher or lower pitch, gave rise to the modern fugue. The Pope from +his throne lent his aid to improve the ecclesiastical chant, and gave it +his name. + +The oratorio was the Phoenix that arose from the ashes of the "mystery," +the masses of Palestrina, Handel, Haydn, and Mozart, and Hummel were +responses to the calls of the church. The Reformation made no effort to +sever music from the services of religion; Luther was an enthusiastic +lover of harmony, and himself a composer of psalmody. The annihilations +of the works of art, that banished painting and defaced sculpture, could +not blot out music from the worship of the church. The "Te Deum" and +"Jubilate" outlived the persecution of bishops and clergy, and the nasal +whine of the Puritan conventicle was in itself a recognition of the true +power and place of that noblest of nature's gifts and sciences. + +The quiet "Friends" nominally banish it from their form of worship; can +any that have heard the flowing melodies that clothe their exhortations +and prayers, say that it is so? Can any one that ever heard the voice of +Elizabeth Fry doubt that poetry and music are innate gifts, that, once +possessed, no human laws can sever from the utterances of a devotional +spirit? No marvel is it, therefore, that a Cathedral city at all times +is more or less the cradle of musical genius, or that scarce a record of +a great master-spirit of harmony exists, but the office of +"Kapellmeister," or "Organist," is attached to his name. + +The Organ, that almost inseparable associate of ecclesiastical music, +seems to have been an instrument of great antiquity; that one of the +Constantines presented one to King Pepin in 757, appears to be an +established fact, and that during the tenth century the use of the organ +became general in Germany, Italy, and England. In Mason's "Essay on +Church Music" is a homely translation of some lines written by Wolstan, a +monk of that period, descriptive of the instrument then known under that +name. + + "Twelve pair of bellows ranged in stately row + Are joined above, and fourteen more below; + These the full force of seventy men require, + Who ceaseless toil, and plenteously perspire: + Each aiding each, till all the winds be prest + In the close confines of the incumbent chest, + On which four hundred pipes in order rise, + To bellow forth the blast that chest supplies." + +It is presumed that the seventy men did not continue to blow throughout +the performance on this monster engine, but laid in a stock of wind, +which was gradually expended as the organist played; the keys were five +or six inches broad, and must have been played upon by blows of the fist; +the compass did not then exceed more than two octaves; half notes were +not introduced until the beginning of the twelfth century, stops, not +until the sixteenth; from which we may infer, that a real genuine organ, +deserving the name, could not have been manufactured many years prior to +the Reformation; but from the date of its first introduction may be +ascribed the first attempts at the invention of harmony. + +It is curious, however, in these days of penny concerts and music for the +million, to look back to that time when the only probable entertainments +of a secular character in which music bore a part, were such as could be +furnished by the _hautboys_, sackbuts, and _recorders_ of half-a-dozen +"waytes," as we find to have been the case in this city in the sixteenth +century, when permission was first granted these performers to play +comedies, interludes, plays and tragedies. Will Kempe mentions these +same _waytes_ with great praise, and their renown may be inferred from +the fact of their being solicited by Sir Francis Drake "to accompany him +on his intended voyage" in 1589, upon which occasion the city provided +them with new instruments, new cloaks, and a waggon to convey their +chattels. The inventory of musical instruments in the possession of the +city in 1622, forms a rather striking contrast to a "band" of the +nineteenth century, consisting as it did of only four "sackbuts," four +"hautboys" (one broken), two tenor cornets, one tenor "recorder," two +counter tenor "recorders," five "chaynes," and five "flagges." + +In the seventeenth century, when the country was deluged with civil war, +and overrun with Royalist and Puritan soldiers, music declined, and we +read little concerning it, here or elsewhere, until that age of strife +and commotion had passed away. + +In 1709, one of the city "waytes" advertised himself as teacher of the +violin and hautboy, and in 1734 there appeared another advertisement of a +concert to be given, tickets 2_s._ 6_d._, country dancing to be given +gratis after the concert, doors to be open at four o'clock, the +performance to commence at six, "_by reason of the country dancing_." + +In the course of the sixteenth century, the psalmody of the Protestant +Church was brought nearly to its present state, and towards the end of +that and commencement of the next century, shone that constellation of +English musicians, whose inimitable madrigals are still the delight of +every lover of vocal harmony. A madrigal differs from a glee, inasmuch +as each of its parts should be sung by several voices; its name +originated in Italy, and was applied to compositions in four, five, or +six vocal parts, adapted to words of a tender character; neither madrigal +nor glee should be accompanied by instruments. + +In the Elizabethan age to sing in parts was an accomplishment held to be +indispensable in a well-educated lady or gentleman; and at a social +meeting, when the madrigal books were laid on the table, every body was +expected to take part in the harmony; any person declining from +inability, was regarded with contempt, as rude and ill-bred. + +The rapid improvement of music in all its branches during the last +century has been promoted mainly by the various societies, clubs, and +other associations that have sprung up in the metropolis and many large +cities, among which Norwich stands prominently; these have formed a bond +of union between professional musicians and amateurs, mutually +advantageous, by establishing among them a combination of talent and +taste, that tends materially to cultivate the art to which they are +attached. Norwich has produced many great minds, that have done much +towards this work. In the last century the musical world were astonished +by the wonderful precocity of the two young children, Hook and Crotch; +the name of the former as notorious perhaps as much through the literary +fame of his son Theodore, as for his own musical attainments. + +It is said that young Hook was able to play pieces at four years of age, +and at six to perform a concerto at a concert, and to have composed the +music for an opera with thirty-six airs, before he was eight years old. +In the course of his life he is said to have written two thousand four +hundred songs, one hundred and forty complete works or operas, one +oratorio, and many odes and anthems. He died in 1813, leaving two sons, +Dr. James Hook, the Dean of Worcester, who died 1828, and Theodore Edward +Hook, the author. + +William Crotch, whose name has attained a wider celebrity, was also a +native of the city, the son of a carpenter. His early displays of +musical talent exceed in wonder even those of his fellow-citizen and +co-temporary, Hook; and many curious anecdotes are related of its +manifestation during his infancy. His father seems to have been a +self-taught musician, who without any scientific knowledge had built +himself an organ, upon which he had learned to play a few common tunes, +such as "God save the King," and "Let Ambition fire the mind." About +Christmas 1776, his child William, then only a year and a half old, was +observed frequently to leave his food or play, to listen to his father, +and would even then touch the key note of the tunes he wished to be +played. Not long afterwards, a musical lady came to try the organ, and +after her visit he seems to have made his first attempt to play a +tune--her playing excited him to a painful degree, his mother describing +him as so peevish that she could "do nothing with him." Music had +charms, however, to soothe his baby breast, and he consoled himself by +picking out the air of "God save the King," which in addition to being +his father's most frequent performance, had been also frequently sung as +a lullaby by his maternal nurse. At this time he was _two years and +three weeks old_, truly an infant prodigy! The report of his precocity +gained little credence, until accident confirmed what had previously been +deemed the exaggerations of parental fondness. + +His father's employer, passing the house at a time when the elder Crotch +was absent from work on the plea of indisposition, heard the organ, and +fancied that his workman was idle instead of ill; to convince himself, he +went in, and found little Master William performing, and his brother +blowing the bellows. The marvel spread, and attracted such crowds of +auditors, that from that time the hours of his performance were obliged +to be limited. As he grew older his musical attainments rapidly +increased, while at the same time he discovered symptoms of a genius for +drawing, almost equal to that which he had already displayed for music. + +When he was twelve years old he did the duty of organist at several +chapels in Cambridge, whence he removed to Oxford, with a view to +entering the church; but he afterwards resumed the musical profession, +and was appointed organist of Christ Church, in 1790. In 1797, he became +professor of music in that university; and in 1799, obtained the degree +of doctor of music. On the establishment of the Royal Academy, in 1823, +he was nominated Principal of that institution, but retired from the +office before his death. Dr. Crotch's great work is the oratorio of +"Palestine," the poetry of which is the prize poem of Bishop Heber. He +was also the author of several anthems, and other pieces of sacred music. + +His death occurred suddenly, at the dinner-table, on the 29th of +September, 1847, in the seventy-third year of his age, at the residence +of his son, the Rev. W. R. Crotch, Master of the Grammar School at +Taunton, where he had spent the later years of his life. + +There are two points worthy of notice connected with the name and works +of this great man. The country has raised no monument in any of its +cathedrals or churches to his memory, and his greatest work, "Palestine," +is an oratorio almost entirely neglected. May it not be possible for the +"Old City" that gave him birth to set an example to the rest of the +musical world, by attention to these facts? + +Most of the leading minds whose zeal and energy directed the earlier +movements of the various musical societies in this district, are yet +among the living, and the natural dictates of refinement cause us to +shrink from any attempts at their biographies; it is, therefore, with the +deference due to real genius, which needs no praise, that we pass in +silence over the names of the most earnest promoters of the growth and +cultivation of music, especially as developed in the workings of the +Festival Committee, and its important adjunct, the Choral Society. The +names and fame of Sir George Smart and Mr. Edward Taylor, professor of +music at Gresham College, are already too much the property of the world +at large to be reckoned among those whose privacy might be invaded by +comment in these pages; but there are many more, who with them, may from +the centre of that magnificent hall, and the midst of the greatest +triumphs of music that have ever been achieved by its almost unrivalled +choruses and orchestra, feel that "for their monument we must look +around." + +And now it might seem but just and right that among the lions of the "Old +City" we should find a place for the manifold ecclesiastical structures +still surviving the downfall of "superstition," and retaining their +legitimate right, as houses of worship. To do justice to the antiquities +or beauties that abound among them is a task beyond our powers, or the +limit of such a work as this; their traceries, their curiously cut flint +work, old carvings, rood lofts, chambers of sanctuary within, and +heaped-up grave-yards without, verily burying the pathways of the +streets, they line in such close succession--their monuments and +epitaphs, quaint, grim, chaste, and uncouth; their steeples, spires, and +towers, round, square, buttressed and bare--their bells musical and +grand, cracked and jangling--their roofs slated, tiled, leaded, patched, +perfect, or crumbling--their names and saintships a labyrinth of mystery +in themselves--would it not fill a volume alone to chronicle even their +leading features, to say nought of the changes they have undergone, the +barter among goods and chattels, the chopping and changing, and massacres +in the painted glass departments,--part of an Abraham and his ass left in +a St. Andrews, the other portions transported to the windows of St. +Stephens; of the ghostly outlines left of old brasses torn up and melted +down by Puritan soldiers and coppersmiths--or the legends that hang about +their shrines and mutilated images? We dare not venture upon the +well-beaten track of archaeologians, topographers, and tourists; our +glance must be cursory and superficial, content to ascertain by its +sweeping survey that treasures of knowledge and stores of information +await the patient and diligent investigations of more learned and +scientific enquirers. + +A visit to St. Stephens rewards the archaeologist by a sight of a few old +stalls and a font of early date, while the historian associates with it +the memory of the celebrated Parker, second Archbishop of Canterbury, who +was a native of Norwich, and some say of this parish, but at any rate was +singing pupil of the priest and clerk of this church. Parker's life +occupies an important position in history. The son of "a calenderer of +stuffs," in this city, he was at a very early age left fatherless, and +dependent upon a mother's guidance and direction for his education. Her +superintending care provided him with a variety of masters for the +several branches of learning--reading, writing, singing, and +grammar--each being acquired under a separate teacher. He afterwards +entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, whence he was invited to the +magnificent foundation of Cardinal Wolsey's (now Christ Church) College, +Oxford, but preferring to remain at Cambridge, he declined. In 1553, he +was made chaplain to Queen Anne Boleyn, and received from her a special +commission to superintend the education of her daughter Elizabeth. He +was made chaplain to King Henry VIII., after the death of Anne Boleyn, +and continued the same office in his successor's reign; added to which, +he was Rector of Stoke in Essex, Prebend of Ely Cathedral, and +successively Rector of Ashen in Essex, and Birlingham All Saints, in +Norfolk. He was chosen Master of Corpus Christi College in 1544, and +Vice-Chancellor of the University. Happening to be in Norfolk during the +celebrated "Kett's rebellion," he had the courage to go to the rebels' +camp and preach to them out of the oak of Reformation, exhorting them to +moderation, temperance, and submission, which expedition, as we have seen +elsewhere, had well nigh terminated fatally. + +In 1550-1, he was put in the commission for correcting and punishing the +new sect of Anabaptists, then sprung up. In Mary's reign he was deprived +of most of his dignities, upon the plea of his being married, and retired +into Norfolk amongst his friends; but upon the succession of his old +pupil, Elizabeth, he was exalted to the dignity of Archbishop of +Canterbury. Her Majesty made several visits to his house at Canterbury. +His efforts to suppress the vague prophecies that were continually being +set up in the various dioceses, and exciting the minds of the people, +made him many enemies among the Puritans, but he still enjoyed the favour +of the Queen. He died in 1576, leaving, amongst numerous charitable +bequests, a legacy to be applied to keeping his parents' monument, in St. +Clement's church-yard, in repair. + +St. Peter's Mancroft, the brightest star in the constellation of churches +that illumine the "Old City," has beauties and curiosities of almost +every variety and character to offer for investigation; but perhaps none +so loudly appeal to the senses of the citizens at large as the eloquent +"changes" rung upon its magnificent set of bells, whenever occasion +offers for a display of the fulness and richness of their tone; and, +possibly, their melody is never more appreciated than when it comes forth +in the softened echo of the beautiful muffled peal. + +Touching the presence of bells in the church, we have noticed elsewhere +that they were introduced among the incrustations of Pagan worship that +grew up around the early Christian forms, and owed their origin to the +superstition that the sound of metal preserved the soul from the danger +of evil spirits; but there are other curious facts connected with their +history. The Roman Catholic baptised the bell, using holy water, incense +and prayers in the ceremony and according to the missal of Salisbury, +there were godfathers and godmothers, who gave them names. + +A strange allegorical signification of bells after their baptism was +written by Durandus, the great Catholic authority, for the mysterious +services of the church. "The bell," he says, "denotes the preacher's +mouth, the hardness of the metal implies the fortitude of his mind; the +clapper striking both sides, his tongue publishing both testaments, and +that the preacher should on one side correct the vice in himself, and on +the other reprove it in his hearers; the band that ties the clapper +denotes the moderation of the tongue; the wood on which the bell hangs +signifies the wood of the cross; the iron that ties it to the wood +denotes the charity of the preacher; the bell-rope denotes the humility +of the preacher's life," &c. &c. The description goes on yet further +into detail; but the analogies between the subjects and their allegorical +representations are so undiscernible, as to make it a somewhat tedious +task to follow it throughout. + +But St. Peter's has manifold attractions beyond its bells. It has +brasses and effigies, and monuments of every variety, commemorating the +pious deeds of clergy and laity, warriors and comedians. Its vestry has +pictures and tapestry and quaint alabaster carvings; little chapels +jutting out from the nave like transepts, perpetuate the memory of old +benefactors; and beneath its pavement lie the remains of the great +philosopher Sir Thomas Browne, whose words of rebuke to the sepulchral +ambition of the nameless tenants of monuments that make no record of +those that lie beneath, involuntarily arise to the mind while +contemplating the spot chosen for his last resting place. "Had they made +so good a provision for their names as they have done for their relics, +they had not so grossly erred in the act of perpetuation; but to subsist +in bones, to be but pyramidically extant, is a fallacy of duration." And +again, "to live indeed is to be again ourselves, which being not only our +hope, but an evidence in noble believers; 'tis all one to lie in St. +Innocent's church-yard or the sands of Egypt. Ready to be anything in +the ecstacy of being ever, as content with six foot as the moles of +Adrianus." + +Happy philosophy, that could permit him calmly to contemplate the +vicissitudes to which his bones might be subjected, even to the +legitimate possibility of the sanctuary chosen for their resting-place +being actually invaded by the blows of the workmen's pickaxe, as +veritably did occur some few years since, when the curious of the present +generation were thus accidentally afforded an opportunity of cultivating +a personal acquaintance with the anatomical outlines and phrenological +developments of one whose intellectual offspring had been canonized, and +enshrined among the household gods of the learned and the great for more +than a century. + +The very slight sketches of eminent characters that are suitable for so +light and general a book as this, may perhaps be legitimately introduced +in the course of a tour among the churches, their _parochial headships_ +affording the best facilities for arrangement; but it seems almost +sacrilege to hash up into abridgements or synopses, biographies so +fraught with national and European interest, as are many of those whose +birth-place has been the Old City of Norwich, yet more is impossible +within the compass of the _Rambler's_ pen; and to adopt the alternative +of omitting all mention of such names, would be to blot out some of the +brightest pages from the annals of its history. + +Among them, and perhaps the highest upon the pinnacle of fame, is that of +Sir James Edward Smith, the Linnaeus of our country, the concentration of +whose "life and Correspondence" into two bulky volumes, evinces wondrous +powers of discriminating selection, and condensation, in the biographer +who has undertaken the important and onerous task. What, then, can be +effected in the hasty notices of a mere rambler's gleanings? Little +more, if so much, as a bare outline of the leading features in the life +of this brilliant ornament of our city and country, but enough, we trust, +to lead any who have not already acquired a more intimate knowledge of +his personal history, to feel earnest to repair the omission. He was a +native of the parish of St. Peter's Mancroft; and of his education, it is +worthy of note, that he never left the parental roof to enter either a +public or private boarding-school: he is one of the many favourable +testimonies to the advantages of a strictly domestic education, conducted +by aid of the most efficient masters, under the immediate superintendence +of parental care. About the age of eighteen, he devoted himself to the +study of botany as a science, and says himself, "the only book he could +then procure was 'Berkenhout,' Hudson's 'Flora' having become extremely +scarce." He received "Berkenhout" on the 9th of January, 1778, and on +the 11th began to examine the _Ule curopaeus_ (common furze), and then +first comprehended the nature of systematic arrangement, little aware +that, at _that instant_, the world was losing the great genius who was to +be to him so important a future guide, and whose vacant place in the +world of science he was destined so ably to fill. Linnaeus died that +night, January 11th, 1778. + +In 1780 Mr. Smith went to Edinburgh, and from thence to London, with a +view to study for the medical profession. During his stay there, he +became intimate with Sir Joseph Banks, an eminent patron of natural +science, through whom he heard that the library and museum of Linnaeus +were for sale, and immediately he entered into negotiations with Dr. +Acrel, of Upsal, concerning it, which ended in his becoming the purchaser +of the whole collection at the price of nine hundred guineas. From +London he went to Leyden, and graduated as a physician at the university +there. From thence he proceeded on a tour, visiting most of the +classical spots and celebrated places in Italy and France, and upon his +return to London devoted himself almost exclusively to pursuits connected +with his favourite science, botany. By the assistance of his personal +friend, the Bishop of Carlisle, one among the many great minds with whom +he held constant communion, he set about establishing the Linnaean +Society. Its first meeting was held in April, 1788, when an introductory +address, "On the Rise and Progress of Natural History," was read by Sir +James, then Dr. Smith, which paper formed the first article in the +"Transactions of the Linnaean Society," a work which has since extended +itself to twenty quarto volumes. In 1792 Dr. Smith was invited to give +instructions in botany to the queen and princesses at Frogmore; and in +1814, received the honour of knighthood from the Prince Regent. + +Ill health caused Sir James to return to his native county to recruit his +strength, and there he continued to pursue his literary avocations in +comparative privacy. His "English Botany" is a work consisting of +thirty-six octavo volumes, and contains 2592 figures of British plants. +It is a curious and melancholy coincidence, that the fourth volume of his +"English Flora" reached him on the very last day he ever entered his +library; and he thus had the gratification of seeing the completion of a +work which, in his own estimation, was calculated, beyond all the other +labours of his pen, to establish his reputation as a botanist, and +confirm his erudition as an author. + +St. Giles, the next in order of the saintships, in addition to its +architectural beauties, with which we pretend not to "meddle," presents a +few legendary claims to our notice. The effigy of St. Christopher, of a +monstrous size, with his staff sprouting by his side, was originally +painted over the north door, as the patron saint of children presented +for baptism, who generally were brought in at that door. In most +churches where a north door existed, this image or painting of St. +Christopher was wont to appear, depicted on as large a scale as the wall +would permit, in conformity with the legend that he was a saint of noble +and large stature. In the aisle once stood a chapel, altar, and image of +St. Catherine, with a light burning before it, and against one of the +pillars stood a famous rood, called the Brown Rood. + +St. Benedict, the patron of monks, has his monument in the form of a +little ancient church with a little tower, round at the bottom and +octagonal at the top, where three little jingling bells give notice of +the hours of prayer. + +St. Swithin, that famous prophet of wet weather, has his memorial, too, +not far distant. More have heard the old adage, "If it rain on St. +Swithin's day, there will be rain more or less for forty succeeding +days," than may have cared to trace its origin, which seems involved in +some mystery. One authority tells us that St. Swithin was Bishop of +Winchester, to which rank he was raised by Ethelwulf, the Dane; and when +he died in 865, he was canonized by the pope. He had expressed a desire +to be buried in the open church-yard, and not, as was usual with bishops, +within the walls of the church: his request was complied with; but upon +his being canonized, the monks took it into their heads that it was +disgraceful for a saint to lie in the open church-yard, and resolved to +remove his body into the choir, which was to be done in solemn procession +on the 15th of July. It rained, however, so violently on that day, and +for forty days succeeding, as "had hardly ever been seen," which made +them set aside their design as heretical and blasphemous; and instead, +they erected a chapel over his grave, at which many miracles are said to +have been wrought. + +Another writer tells us that "St. Swithin, a holy bishop of Winchester, +about the year 860, was called the weeping St. Swithin, for that, about +his feast, Praesepe and Aselli, rainy constellations, arise _cosmically_, +and commonly cause rain." The legend attached to its name is perhaps +almost the only particular attraction of this little church. + +The church of the holy St. Lawrence stands upon the spot of ground that +in ancient days, when Norwich was a fishing town, was the quay or +landing-place for all the herrings brought hither, the tithe of which was +so considerable when it belonged to the bishops of the East Angles, that +when Alfric, the bishop, granted the key staithe, with the adjoining +mansion, to Bury Abbey, about 1038, the abbey, upon building the church, +had a last of herrings reserved to it, to be paid them yearly. This last +of herrings was compounded for by the celerer of the convent, about the +time of Henry the Third, for a pension of forty shillings, which was +annually paid until the time of Henry the Seventh, and then done away +with, on account of the meanness of its profits. + +On the sides of the arch of the door in the west are two carvings, one +representing the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, the other that of St. Edmund, +who is seen in a rather mutilated condition, (in more senses than one) +his head lying at some distance in a parcel of bushes, while the Danes +are shooting arrows into his body, alluding to that portion of the legend +which says that when they could not kill him with arrows, Hunguar the +Danish leader ordered them to smite off his head, and carry and throw it +among the thickest thorns of the adjacent wood, which they did; but a +wolf finding it, instead of devouring it, kept it from all beasts and +birds of prey, till it was found by the Christians and buried with his +body, and that in a surprising manner. + +In the fifteenth century, three "Sisters of Charity," called the Sisters +of St. Lawrence, dwelt in a tenement by the churchyard. In 1593, the +copes were turned into pall cloths, and in 1643 the painted glass of the +windows was smashed, and other considerable damage done to the ornamental +fittings up of the building. + +Near to the church is the well of St. Lawrence, the water of which is now +conveyed to a pump; bearing this inscription upon it:-- + + This water here caught + In sort, as you see, + From a spring is brought + Three score foot and three. + + Gybson hath it sought + From St. Lawrence's well, + And his charge this wrought + Who _now_ here doth dwell. + + Thy ease was his cost, not small-- + Vouchsafed well of those + Which thankful be, his work to see, + And thereto be no foes. + +From St. Lawrence's belfry, the curfew is rung at eight each evening. + +St. Gregory's contains an altar tomb, with a long Latin inscription to +the memory of Sir Francis Bacon, a judge in the court of King's bench, in +the time of Charles II. + +On the communion table is an inscription to Francis Watson, a pedlar, who +painted and marbled all the pillars of the altar, adorned it, and railed +the front. + +St. John's _Madder Market_ owes its distinctive name to the market +formerly held on its north side, for the sale of _madder_, an article +used in dying. Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk, the widow of Thomas Duke of +Norfolk, beheaded by the command of Queen Elizabeth, lies buried in the +choir of the church. + +St. Andrews, the second church in point of architectural beauty, stands +upon the site of one founded prior to the Conquest. Its eastern window +bears traces of sad havoc having gone on in the midst of the scriptural +scenes it was intended to depict. + +At the east end of the two aisles are doors entering from the porches, +and over them verses. + +Over the south aisle door-- + + This church was builded of Timber, Stone and Bricks, + In the year of our Lord XV hundred and six, + And lately translated from extreme Idolatry + A thousand five hundred and seven and forty. + And in the first year of our noble King Edward + The Gospel in parliament was mightily set forward. + Thanks be to God. Anno Dom. 1547, December. + +Over the north aisle door-- + + As the good king Josiah, being tender of age, + Purged the realm from all idolatry, + Even so our noble Queen, and counsel sage, + Set up the Gospel and banished Popery. + At twenty-four years she began her reign, + And about forty four did it maintain. + Glory be given to God. + +There were formerly brass effigies of John Gilbert and his wife, with +_seventeen_ of their children. + +St. Peter's Hungate, or Hounds' Gate, owes its name to the fact of the +hounds belonging to the bishop being formerly kept close by. The old +church was demolished in 1458, and the new one, commenced the same year, +was finished in 1460, as appears by the date in a stone on the buttress +of the north door, where there is an old trunk of an oak, represented +without any leaves, to signify the decayed church; and from the root +springs a fresh branch with acorns on it, to denote the new one raised +where the old one stood. + +St. Michael at Plea takes its name from the Archdeacon of Norwich holding +his pleas or courts in the parish; it has some curious panel paintings of +the Crucifixion, Resurrection, the Lady of Pity, Judas, John and the +Virgin, St. Margaret and the Dragon, St. Benedict and St. Austin. + +In the church of St. Simon and St. Jude, is a curious monument of a +knight in armour, with a number of other figures grouped around the altar +on which he lies. In this parish is the bridge where the "cucking stool" +was wont to be kept, an instrument of punishment for "scolding and +unquiet women," of as ancient origin as the time of the Anglo Saxons; the +offender was seated in a kind of chair, fixed at the end of a plank, and +then _ducked_ in the water; a cheating brewer or baker subjected himself +to a similar degradation. + +St. George's Tombland, so called from the burial ground upon which it +stood, has also some curious monuments; near it is a house, commonly +called Sampson and Hercules Court, from two figures that formerly +supported the portico, but which now stand in the court. The house was +formerly owned by Sir John Fastolf, afterwards by the Countess of +Lincoln, and in the time of Henry VII., by the Duchess of Suffolk. + +"St. Martin's at the Plain" stands close by the scene of the memorable +battle between the rebels under Kett, where Lord Sheffield fell, and many +other gentlemen and soldiers: the conflict lasted from nine o'clock on +Lammas morning until noon. The World's End lane leads hence to the +dwelling of Sir Thomas Erpingham, long since transformed from a sumptuous +mansion into the abode of poverty, its chambers subdivided and parcelled +out, defaced and disguised by whitewash and plaster, and yet more by the +accumulations of dirt and decay; until it needs the microscopic vision of +an archaeologist to trace even its outline, among such a mass of +confusion and rubbish. + +"St. Helen's," which belonged to the monks, is now cut up into three +parts, the choir being turned into lodgings for poor women, part of the +nave and aisles into the same for poor men, while the intermediate +portion is used for divine services. A charity that owns an annual +income of 10,000 pounds, might, we think, find some better arrangements +possible to be made. Kirkpatrick, the celebrated antiquarian, lies +buried here. Over the south entrance to the church are these lines-- + + The house of God + King Henry the Eight of noble Fame + Bequeathed the City this commodious place, + With lands and rents he did endow the same, + To help decrepit age in woful case, + Edward the Sixth, that prince of royal stem, + Performed his father's generous bequest. + Good Queen _Eliza_, imitating them, + Ample endowments added to the rest; + Their pious deeds we gratefully record, + While Heaven them crowns with glorious reward. + +St. Giles' Hospital, to which the church of St. Helen has been united by +the appropriation of its nave and chancel, is a relic of great +antiquity--a memorial of the liberality of Bishop Suffield, who in 1249 +founded it, appointing four chaplains to celebrate service there for his +soul, and all poor and decrepit chaplains in the diocese, endowing it +with means to support the same number perpetually, and to lodge thirteen +poor people with one meal a day. There were also appointed afterwards +four sisters, above fifty years of age, to take care of the clothing, &c. +&c. The master and chaplains were to eat, drink and sleep, in one room, +and daily, after grace at dinner before any one drank, the bell was to +ring and the chaplains to go into the choir and sing _Miserere mei Deus_. +There was also an _Archa Domini_, or Lords' Box, from which the poor that +passed by, were daily to be relieved as far as the funds permitted. From +Lady day to the Assumption, at a certain hour the bell was to ring and a +quantity of bread, "enough to repel hunger," to be given to the poor then +present; and "because the house should be properly 'Domus Dei,' or the +house of God, and of the Bishops of Norwich," it was ordained that "as +often as any bishop of the see should pass by, he should go in and give +his blessing to the sick." Edward VI. dissolved the Hospital and gave it +to the city as a house for the poor. A school was also established, +which was afterwards transferred to the Free School. The cloisters of +the old hospital still remain almost entire, and serve as walks for the +pensioners. + +St. Edmund, St. James, St. Paul, St. Margaret, all the Saints, _St. +Saviour_, St. Clements the Martyr, _St. Peter Southgate_, and per +_Mountergate_, St. Julian, St. Michael at Plea, at _Thorn_, and +_Coslany_, St. Ethelred, St. John's Sepulchre, and St. John's Timberhill, +St. George, and St. Augustine, fill up the register of ecclesiastical +edifices; each possesses some particular claim to notice, down to the +legend of the Lady in the Oak, that gave a distinctive title to the +church of St. Martin at Oak, where her image once figured in an oak tree +in the churchyard, and wrought wondrous miracles, which caused so much +adoration to be paid to the graven image, that the purgers of idolatry in +good young King Edward's reign, found it needful to displace it from its +high position, and cut down the tree in which it stood. + +Among the biographies associated with the various districts over which +these patron saints may be said to hold their reign, are those of the +eminent divine, Dr. Samuel Clarke, of the seventeenth century; Kay, or +Caius, the founder of Caius College, Cambridge; Professors Hooker and +Lindley, the great botanists; William Taylor, Sayer, Sedgwick, Gurney, +Opie, and Borrow, among the literary celebrities of the age; Professor +Taylor and Dr. Bexfield, names known well in the musical world, and many +others, whose lives and works entitle them to be ranked among the leading +characters of their time; while in the medical profession, the names and +fame of Martineau and Crosse have become European. Few of these can we +pause to sketch--many of them are among the number of those whose work is +not yet done; and of others it may be said that their memory is too fresh +in the hearts of those bound to them by chords of affection and +friendship, for a "stranger to intermeddle" therewith. + +William Taylor was the friend and correspondent of Southey. It is said, +in his "Life," that he once jocosely remarked, "If ever I write my own +life, I shall commence it in the following grandiloquent manner; 'Like +Plato, like Sir Isaac Newton, like Frederick Leopold, Count Stolberg, I +was born on the 7th of November, and, like Mrs. Opie and Sir James Edward +Smith, I was baptized by the Rev. Samuel Bourn, then the Presbyterian +minister of the Octagon chapel.'" His attainments as a German scholar +were notorious, and his metaphysical writings earned for him a +widely-extended fame. His translations of German theological works, may +be regarded as the first introduction of that school of literature, that +is at this moment deluging our country with the copious streams of +philosophy, whose deep and subtle waters, whether invigorating or +noxious, are spreading themselves through every channel of society in our +land. + +William Jackson Hooker, the son of a manufacturer of Norwich, rose to the +rank of Regius Professor of Botany, in the University of Glasgow. In +early life he was spoken of by Sir James Smith as the first cryptogamic +botanist of the time, and his after-works proved the accuracy of the +opinion. His "Muscologia Brittannica," and "Monograph on the Genus +Jungermannia," are unrivalled as guides to the scientific enquirer, and, +with his other works, may be classed among the gems of English +literature. In the course of his rambles in the neighbourhood of his +native city, he discovered, in a fir-wood near Sprowston, that quaint, +curious, one-sided looking little moss, called _Buxbaumia aphylla_, +which, destitute of any visible foliage, rears its little club-like +seed-vessels upon its foot-stalks in the most eccentric possible manner. +The muscologist may search long and often ere a specimen may meet his +eye, even within the precincts of the grove where Dr. Hooker first +discovered it; but many another rare and beautiful contribution to a moss +herbarium shall reward him for his pains, especially the elegant +_Bartramia_, with its exquisitely soft velvet foliage, and globular +seed-vessels, to be met with in such rich abundance in few other soils. + +Lindley, the Professor of Botany in the London University, is another +genius raised from the nursery grounds of the Old City; his father having +followed the profession of horticulture at Catton, one of the suburbs of +Norwich. + +One more biographical notice must close our list, and with it we make an +end of our chronicles and "Rambles in an Old City." + +To those who were among the privileged number of friends, acquaintances, +or even fellow-citizens of Joseph John Gurney, it will be easy to imagine +why so beautiful a subject has been chosen for the closing sketch of our +"pencillings by the way;" and the world at large will see in the name of +the great philanthropist, whose memory sheds a sacred halo over every +spot familiar with the deeds of gentle loving-kindness, tender mercy, and +active benevolence, that marked his earthly career--a meet theme from +which to borrow a ray of glory to brighten the scene of our "Ramblings," +as the landscape borrows a golden tint from the lingering beams of the +sun that has set beneath the horizon. + +As the brother of Elizabeth Fry, her fellow-worker in the field of +usefulness, and her companion in her memorable visits to the prisons of +England, Ireland, Scotland, and the Continent, his history could not have +failed to possess a deep interest, even apart from the individual +characteristics of his bright and beautiful home-life, and the lustre +shed upon his name by its familiar association with those of Clarkson, +Wilberforce, and Buxton, in the cause of slave emancipation. + +The third son of John and Catherine Gurney, and sister of Priscilla +Wakefield, he was born at Earlham Hall, August 2d, 1788. It is a +singular fact connected with the name, that one of his ancestors, in +1653, was sent a prisoner to the Norwich gaol, for refusing to take the +oath, and that Waller Bacon, of Earlham, who committed him, resided at +the time in the very Hall which the descendants of the prisoner +afterwards occupied. When Joseph was only four years of age, the family +of eleven children lost the superintending care of their mother, and his +home education mainly devolved upon his three elder sisters, among whom +was Mrs. Fry. Their home was the scene of rich hospitality, dealt out by +their liberal-minded father; and the literary tastes, intellectual +pursuits, and elegant accomplishments, in which every member of the +social group delighted, drew around them a brilliant circle of the +choicest society, to which the late Duke of Gloucester was a frequent and +welcome addition. + +The scholastic instruction of Joseph John was at first superintended by a +clergyman, and afterwards matured at Oxford, where he attended the +professor's lectures, and enjoyed many of the advantages of the +university, without becoming a member or subscribing to the thirty-nine +articles. + +Such an education naturally tended to create some doubts as to the system +of Quakerism; but after much examination and consideration, his +preference became settled in favour of the views and profession of his +old "Friends;" and consistently with them he lived and died, by no means +finding in them any barrier to the fullest and freest association with +any other body of Christians, or to a personal friendship with the +ecclesiastical bishops of the diocese, with one of whom, Bishop Bathurst, +he was a frequent and esteemed guest; while to Bishop Stanley was left +the melancholy opportunity of bearing a testimony to his public and +private character, in the memorable form of a funeral sermon from the +cathedral pulpit, a tribute of respect unexampled since the days of +George Fox. His life spent in doing good, in preaching as the minister +of the society to which he belonged, in England, Ireland, upon the +Continent, and in America, was full of interest. In the legislative +hall, at Washington, before the assembled members of Congress, his voice +was heard. Louis Philippe, Guizot, and De Stael, were among his auditors +in France; the King of Holland abandoned, through his counsel, the +importation of slave soldiers from the Gold Coast; Vinet at Lausanne, +D'Aubigne in Geneva, and the King of Wirtemberg, held council with him. +To attempt to chronicle his deeds of pecuniary munificence, public and +private, would be an herculean task. The great sums lavished upon public +societies, the world of necessity was made acquainted with, but they +formed but a moiety of the aids furnished from his abundance to the wants +of the needy. He was truly one whose left hand was not suffered to know +the deeds of its fellow. The sick and the poor, at home and abroad, the +industrious and the struggling, the aged and the young--each and all +shared his bounty and loving help, for he was one who _gave_, and did not +_fling_ his charities down from the proud heights of opulence, so that +poverty might blush to pick them up. But the record of his life was +inscribed upon the page of history in characters indelible by the tears +that watered his pathway to the tomb. We have made a faint effort to +paint the last solemn scene that marked the close of the lamented Bishop +Stanley's career, and were almost tempted to place side by side with it +the shade of grief that hung over the city when the great "_Friend_" was +suddenly called home from his labours of usefulness and love upon earth. +Few will ever be able to forget the scene of mourning and sorrow that +followed the unlooked-for event, or the almost unparalleled silence of +woe that was written upon every heart and countenance among the thronging +thousands that attended to pay the last tributes of respect at the grave +of the beloved and honoured philanthropist; when Magistrates and +Artizans, Clergymen and Dissenting Ministers, Churchmen, Independents, +Baptists, Methodists, and Friends, representatives of every grade of +society and shade of religious opinion that the Old City could send +forth, gathered around that lowly spot of earth to drop a tear, and seek +inspiration from the spirit of love that seemed to breathe around the +silent tomb. And who will forget the thrilling prayer offered up from +the lips of the widowed mourner, who fulfilled, in the midst of that +heart-stricken multitude, her measure of obedience to the will of Heaven +and the duty of self-government, by public prayer and thanksgiving. Who +does not rank among the noblest of the many noble sermons of the good +Bishop Stanley, the far-sounding appeal that was sent forth from the +pulpit of his cathedral, "Watchman, what of the night?"--the +commemorating words that have been inseparably linked with the name and +memory of Joseph John Gurney from that hour. + +Years have passed since these events occurred, but the remembrance of +them is vivid; the rich legacy bequeathed to the Old City by the holy +life, walk, and conversation of such a man is not soon expended; but +treasured in the sanctuary of many loving hearts, it is nurtured, and +brings forth fruit, fifty, seventy, and a hundred-fold, to the honour and +glory of God, and to immortalize the memory of a faithful servant in the +vineyard of souls. + + * * * * * + + THE END. + + * * * * * + + J. BILLING, PRINTER, WOKING, SURREY. + + + + +Footnotes + + +{0} These corrections have been applied in this Project Gutenberg +eText.--DP. + +{5} Erasmus Earle, a celebrated lawyer. + +{223} A place of judgment. + + + + + + NEW WORKS + PUBLISHED BY + MR. NEWBY, + 30, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. + + + * * * * * + + In One Vol. 5s. Second Edition. + THE ROCK OF ROME. + BY + AUTHOR OF "VIRGINIUS," &c. + +"Mr. Knowles appears to be only a believer in his Bible, as he comes +forward in this work with an earnestness which all true-hearted men will +appreciate."--_Examiner_. + +"It is a vivid and eloquent exposure of the lofty pretensions of the +Church of Rome."--_Morning Herald_. + +"It should be in the libraries of all Protestants."--_Morning Post_. + + * * * * * + + In Two Vols. 1 pound 1s. cloth. + THE LIFE OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. + BY + Captain Medwin, + AUTHOR OF "CONVERSATIONS WITH LORD BYRON." + +"This book must be read by every one interested in literature."--_Morning +Post_. + +"A complete life of Shelley was a desideratum in literature, and there +was no man so competent as Captain Medwin to supply it."--_Inquirer_. + +"This book is sure of exciting much discussion."--_Literary Gazette_. + + * * * * * + + In Two Vols. demy 8vo. 1 pound 10s. cloth. + _With numerous plates_. + THE SHRINES AND SEPULCHRES OF THE + OLD AND NEW WORLD. + BY + R. 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