NORFOLK. NORFOLK hath the German Ocean on the north and east thereof; Suffolk, severed by the river Waveny, on the south side; Cambridgeshire, parted by the river Ouse, and a small part of Lincolnshire, on the west. It extendeth full fifty miles from east to west; but from north to south stretcheth not above thirty miles. All England may be carved out of Norfolk, represented therein, not only to the kind but degree thereof. Here are fens and heaths, and light and deep, and sand and clay-ground, and meadows and pasture, and arable and woody, and (generally) woodless land; so grateful is this shire with the variety thereof. Thus, as in many men, though perchance this or that part may justly be cavilled at, yet all put together complete a proper person: so Norfolk, collectively taken, hath a sufficient result of pleasure and profit; that being supplied in one part which is defective in another. This county hath the most churches of any in England (six hundred and sixty); and, though the poorest livings, yet (by some occult quality of their good husbandry, and God's blessing thereon) the richest clergymen. Nor can there be given a greater demonstration of the wealth and populousness of this county, than that in the late act for an assessment upon England, at the rate of sixty thousand pounds by the month, for three months, Norfolk, with the city of Norwich, is rated at three thousand two hundred sixty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, and fourpence, the highest proportion of any shire in England. And, though Norfolk hath little cause to please and less to pride itself in so dear purchased pre-eminence, yet it cannot but account it a credit to see itself not undervalued. NATURAL COMMODITIES. It shareth plentifully in all English commodities, and aboundeth with the best and most. RABBITS. These are an army of natural pioneers, whence men have learned "cuniculos agere," the art of undermining. They thrive NATURAL COMMODITIES. 445 best on barren ground, and grow fattest in the hardest frosts. Their flesh is fine and wholesome. If Scottish men tax our language as improper, and smile at our wing of a rabbit, let us laugh at their shoulder of a capon. Their skins were formerly much used, when furs were in fashion; till of late our citizens, of Romans are turned Grecians, have laid down their grave gowns, and taken up their light cloaks; men generally disliking all habits, though emblems of honour, if also badges of age. Their rich or silver-hair-skins, formerly so dear, are now levelled in prices with other colours; yea, are lower than black in estimation, because their wool is most used in making of hats, commonly (for the more credit) called half-beavers, though many of them hardly amount to the proportion of semi-demi-castors. HERRINGS. Great store and very good of these are caught nigh Yarmouth, where once every year, on the feast of Saint Michael, is a fair held for the sale of fish; and such the plenty of herrings there constantly vended, that incredible the sum which is raised thereby. Indeed, the fishing for herrings is a most gainful trade; fish, though contemptible in itself, considerable in its company, swimming in shoals, that what the whale hath in bigness the herring hath in number. (It may well mind such who excel in strength and valour, not to boast or be proud thereof, seeing the greatest courage may be soon pressed to death under unequal number.) Yea, red-herrings, in England mostly eaten for sauce to quicken the appetite, serve in Holland and elsewhere for food to satisfy hunger. I will conclude the natural commodities of this county, with this memorable passage, which I have read in a modern author.* "The lord F. W. assured me of a gentleman in Norfolk, that made above £10,000. sterling of a piece of ground not forty yards square; and yet there was neither mineral nor metal in it. He after told me, it was only a sort of fine clay, for the making a choice sort of earthenware; which some that knew it, seeing him dig up, discovered the value of it, and, sending it into Holland, received so much money for it." My belief tireth in coming up to the top of this story, suspecting the addition of a cipher. But, if it were so, how much would it have enriched us, if those mock-China dishes had been made in England! MANUFACTURES. WORSTEDS. These first took their name from Worstead†, a village in this • Hartlib's Legacy, p. 97. + Camden's Britannia, in this county. county. Originally it is nothing but woollen-thread spun very fine, and for the more strength twisted together. But oh! it surpasseth my skill to name the several stuffs (being worsted disguised with weaving and colouring) made thereof. It argueth the usefulness and public profit of this commodity (which first found a general repute in England toward the end of the reign of king Henry the Sixth) that there are no fewer than fourteen statutes now in force in the well-ordering thereof to merchantable proof; and appointing which of them may, which may not, be transported. Not to speak of four wardens of worsted weavers to be chosen yearly within the city of Norwich, and other four out of the county of Northfolk, with their solemn oath, office, and authority.* As for worsted stockings, they were first made in England, anno 1564, by William Rider,† an ingenious apprentice living against Saint Magnus church, at the foot of London bridge. This William chancing to see a pair of knit worsted stockings in the lodging of an Italian merchant, who had brought them from Mantua, borrowed them; and, making the like by that pattern, presented them to William earl of Pembroke, who first wore them in England. "Norfolk dumplings."] PROVERBS. This cannot be verified of any dwarfish or diminutive stature of people in this county, being as tall of their bodies, and as tall of their arms too, I assure you, as any in England. But it relates to the fare they commonly feed on, so generally called. I wish, much good may it do them, and that their bodies thereby may be enabled for all natural, civil, and spiritual performances. "Norfolk wiles."] Such the skill of the common people hereof in our common law, wherein they are so versed," ut si nihil sit litium, lites tamen ex juris apicibus serere callent. If I must go to law, I wish them rather of my counsel than my adversary's; for whereas "pedibus ambulando" is accounted but a vexatious suit in other counties, here (where men are said to study law as following the plough-tail) some would persuade us, that they will enter an action for their neighbour's horse but looking over their hedge. Now, although we listen to this but as a jeer, yet give me leave to observe two parts in wiles; wittiness, which all must commend; wickedness, which all must condemn. Sure I am, that in Scripture§ a wile always "malè audit," is taken in an evil sense, as wherein the simplicity of the dove is stung to death by the subtilty of the serpent. But no more * Stat. 7 Edward IV. c. 3. + Stow's Chronicles, p. 869. Camden's Britannia, in this County. Numbers xxv. 18. Ephesians vi. 11. Joshua ix. 4. PROVERBS-PRINCES-PRELATES. 447 hereof, lest Norfolk men commence a suit against me, though I verily believe many therein are of as peaceable dispositions as any in other places. "A Yarmouth Capon."] That is, a red-herring. No news for creatures to be thus disguised under other names; seeing critics by a Libyan bear, "sub pelle Libystidis ursæ," understand a lion, no bears being found in the land of Libya. And I believe few capons (save what have more fins than feathers) are bred in Yarmouth. But, to countenance this expression, I understand that the Italian friar (when disposed to eat flesh on Fridays) calls a capon "piscem è corte," (a fish out of the coop.) "He is arrested by the Bailie of Marshland."] The air of Marshland in this county is none of the wholesomest, being surrounded with the sea and fens on all sides. Hence it is that strangers coming hither are clapt on the back with an ague, which sometimes lasts them longer than a stuff suit. The best is, when such prisoners have paid the bailiff's fees and garnish, and with time and patience have weathered out the brunt of that disease, they become habited to the air of the country, and arrive in health at a very great age. PRINCES. I meet with no prince since the Conquest taking his first breath in this county; probably, because so remote from the principal place of royal residence. PRELATES. GILBERT BERKELEY was born in this county ;* but descended from the ancient barons of that name, as appeareth by his arms. He was consecrated bishop of Bath and Wells in the first of queen Elizabeth, and sate therein twenty-two years. He died of a lethargy, being eighty years of age, 1581; and is buried on the north-side of the communion-table of his own cathedral. JOHN AYLMER, brother to Sir Robert Aylmer, knight, was born, at Aylmer-hall, in the parish of Tilseley, in this county as his nearest surviving relations have informed me, from whom I have received the following information. When he was but a child, going toward school, Henry Gray, duke of Suffolk, having some discourse with, took so much liking unto him, that, after he had been bred some years in the university of Cambridge, he made him his chaplain, and committed his daughter the lady Jane Gray to his tuition. In the reign of queen Mary he fled over beyond sea, and was little less than miraculously saved from the searchers of the ship by the ingenuity of a merchant, who put him into a great winebut, which had a partition in the middle; so that master Aylmer sate in the hind part, whilst the searchers drank of the wine which they saw drawn out of the head or other end thereof. Returning into England, he was made archdeacon of Lincoln, and at last bishop of London. He was happy in a meet yokefellow, having a gracious matron to his wife, by whom he had many children, and one son, to which archbishop Whitgift was godfather, and named him Tob-el; that is, The Lord is good, in memorial of a great deliverance bestowed on this child's mother; for, when she was cast out of her coach in London (by a mastiff casually seizing upon the horses), she received no harm at all, though very near to the time of her travail. Bishop Aylmer was well learned in the languages, a ready disputant, and deep divine. He was eighteen years bishop of London; and, dying anno 1594, in the 73d year of his age, had this for part of his epitaph, which bishop Vaughan (sometime his chaplain, afterwards his successor) made upon him: Ter senos annos præsul, semel exul, et idem "Eighteen years bishop, and once banished hence, I understand it thus: once a champion in suffering, when an exile for religion, and again in doing, when chosen one of the disputants at Westminster against the popish bishops primo Elizabethæ; except any expound it thus: once champion of the doctrine against papists, and afterwards against the discipline of the non-conformists, none more stoutly opposing, or more foully belibelled, of them. God blessed him with a great estate, the main whereof he left unto Samuel Aylmer, his eldest son (high sheriff of Suffolk in the reign of king Charles). And amongst his youngest sons (all well provided for) Doctor Aylmer, rector of Haddam in Hertfordshire, was one of the most learned and reverend divines in his generation. JOHN TOWERS was born in this county, bred fellow of Queen's College in Cambridge, and became chaplain to William earl of Northampton, who bestowed on him the benefice of CastleAshby in Northamptonshire. He was preferred dean, and at last bishop, of Peterborough. He was a good actor when he was young, and a great sufferer when he was old; dying (about the year 1650) rich only in children and patience. Nothing but sin is a shame in itself; and poverty as poverty (especially since our Saviour hath sanctified it by suffering it) is no disgrace. |