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diff --git a/33724.txt b/33724.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d3a00d --- /dev/null +++ b/33724.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8721 @@ +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*** + + +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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