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diff --git a/30717.txt b/30717.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e78fd9b --- /dev/null +++ b/30717.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7117 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, East Anglia, by J. Ewing Ritchie + + +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: East Anglia + Personal Recollections and Historical Associations + + +Author: J. Ewing Ritchie + + + +Release Date: December 20, 2009 [eBook #30717] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EAST ANGLIA*** + + +Transcribed from the 1893 Jarrold & Sons edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + +_PRESS NOTICES OF THE FIRST EDITION_. + + + 'We cordially recommend Mr. Ritchie's book to all who wish to pass an + agreeable hour and to learn something of the outward actions and + inner life of their predecessors. It is full of sketches of East + Anglian celebrities, happily touched if lightly limned.'--_East + Anglian Daily Times_. + + 'A very entertaining and enjoyable book. Local gossip, a wide range + of reading and industrious research, have enabled the author to + enliven his pages with a wide diversity of subjects, specially + attractive to East Anglians, but also of much general + interest.'--_Daily Chronicle_. + + 'The work is written in a light gossipy style, and by reason both of + it and of the variety of persons introduced is interesting. To a + Suffolk or Norfolk man it is, of course, especially attractive. The + reader will go through these pages without being wearied by + application. They form a pleasant and entertaining contribution to + county literature, and "East Anglia" will, we should think, find its + way to many of the east country bookshelves.'--_Suffolk Chronicle_. + + 'The book is as readable and attractive a volume of local chronicles + as could be desired. Though all of our readers may not see "eye to + eye" with Mr. Ritchie, in regard to political and theological + questions, they cannot fail to gain much enjoyment from his excellent + delineation of old days in East Anglia.'--_Norwich Mercury_. + + '"East Anglia" has the merit of not being a compilation, which is + more than can be said of the great majority of books produced in + these days to satisfy the revived taste for topographical gossip. + Mr. Ritchie is a Suffolk man--the son of a Nonconformist minister of + Wrentham in that county--and he looks back to the old neighbourhood + and the old times with an affection which is likely to communicate + itself to its readers. Altogether we can with confidence recommend + this book not only to East Anglians, but to all readers who have any + affinity for works of its class.'--_Daily News_. + + 'Mr. Ritchie's book belongs to a class of which we have none too + many, for when well done they illustrate contemporary history in a + really charming manner. What with their past grandeur, their present + progress, their martyrs, patriots, and authors, there is plenty to + tell concerning Eastern counties: and one who writes with native + enthusiasm is sure to command an audience.'--_Baptist_. + + 'Mr. Ritchie, known to the numerous readers of the _Christian World_ + as "Christopher Crayon," has the pen of a ready, racy, refreshing + writer. He never writes a dull line, and never for a moment allows + our interest to flag. In the work before us, which is not his first, + he is, I should think, at his best. The volume is the outcome of + extensive reading, many rambles over the districts described, and of + thoughtful observation. We seem to live and move and have our being + in East Anglia. Its folk-lore, its traditions, its worthies, its + memorable events, are all vividly and charmingly placed before us, + and we close the book sorry that there is no more of it, and + wondering why it is that works of a similar kind have not more + frequently appeared.'--_Northern Pioneer_. + + 'It has yielded us more gratification than any work that we have read + for a considerable time. The book ought to have a wide circulation + in the Eastern counties, and will not fail to yield profit and + delight wherever it finds its way.'--_Essex Telegraph_. + + 'Mr. Ritchie has here written a most attractive chapter of + autobiography. He recalls the scenes of his early days, and whatever + was quaint or striking in connection with them, and finds in his + recollections ready pegs on which to hang historical incident and + antiquarian curiosities of many kinds. He passes from point to point + in a delightfully cheerful and contagious mood. Mr. Ritchie's + reading has been as extensive and careful as his observation is keen + and his temper genial; and his pages, which appeared in _The + Christian World Magazine_, well deserve the honour of book-form, with + the additions he has been able to make to them.'--_British Quarterly + Review_. + + * * * * * + + + + + + EAST ANGLIA. + + + _PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS_ + AND + _HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS_. + + * * * * * + + BY + J. EWING RITCHIE. + + * * * * * + + 'Behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem.' + + MATTHEW. + + * * * * * + + _SECOND EDITION_, + REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED. + + * * * * * + + LONDON: + JARROLD & SONS, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C. + 1893. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. + + +The chapters of which this little work consists originally appeared in +the _Christian World Magazine_, where they were so fortunate as to +attract favourable notice, and from which they are now reprinted, with a +few slight additions, by permission of the Editor. In bringing out a +second edition, I have incorporated the substance of other articles +originally written for local journals. It is to be hoped, touching as +they do a theme not easily exhausted, but always interesting to East +Anglians, that they may help to sustain that love of one's county which, +alas! like the love of country, is a matter reckoned to be of little +importance in these cosmopolitan days, but which, nevertheless, has had +not a little share in the formation of that national greatness and glory +in which at all times Englishmen believe. + +One word more. I have retained some strictures on the clergy of East +Anglia, partly because they were true at the time to which I refer, and +partly because it gives me pleasure to own that they are not so now. The +Church of England clergyman of to-day is an immense improvement on that +of my youth. In ability, in devotion to the duties of his calling, in +intelligence, in self-denial, in zeal, he is equal to the clergy of any +other denomination. If he has lost his hold upon Hodge, that, at any +rate, is not his fault. + +CLACTON-ON-SEA, + _January_, 1893. + + + CONTENTS. + CHAPTER I. + + A SUFFOLK VILLAGE. +Distinguished people born there--Its Puritans and 1 +Nonconformists--The country round +Covehithe--Southwold--Suffolk dialect--The Great Eastern +Railway + CHAPTER II. + + THE STRICKLANDS. +Reydon Hall--The clergy--Pakefield--Social life in a village 37 + CHAPTER III. + + LOWESTOFT. +Yarmouth bloaters--George Borrow--The town fifty years 54 +ago--The distinguished natives + CHAPTER IV. + + POLITICS AND THEOLOGY. +Homerton academy--W. Johnson Fox, M.P.--Politics in 89 +1830--Anti-Corn Law speeches--Wonderful oratory + CHAPTER V. + + BUNGAY AND ITS PEOPLE. +Bungay Nonconformity--Hannah More--The Childses--The Queen's 122 +Librarian--Prince Albert + CHAPTER VI. + + A CELEBRATED NORFOLK TOWN. +Great Yarmouth Nonconformists--Intellectual life--Dawson 153 +Turner--Astley Cooper--Hudson Gurney--Mrs. Bendish + CHAPTER VII. + + THE NORFOLK CAPITAL. +Brigg's Lane--The carrier's cart--Reform demonstration--The 185 +old dragon--Chairing M.P.'s--Hornbutton Jack--Norwich artists +and literati--Quakers and Nonconformists + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE SUFFOLK CAPITAL. +The Orwell--The Sparrows--Ipswich 226 +notabilities--Gainsborough--Medical men--Nonconformists + CHAPTER IX. + + AN OLD-FASHIONED TOWN. +Woodbridge and the country round--Bernard Barton--Dr. 252 +Lankester--An old Noncon. + CHAPTER X. + + MILTON'S SUFFOLK SCHOOLMASTER. +Stowmarket--The Rev. Thomas Young--Bishop Hall and the 283 +Smectymnian divines--Milton's mulberry-tree--Suffolk +relationships + CHAPTER XI. + + IN CONSTABLE'S COUNTY. +East Bergholt--The Valley of the Stour--Painting from 311 +nature--East Anglian girls + CHAPTER XII. + + EAST ANGLIAN WORTHIES. +Suffolk cheese--Danes, Saxons, and Normans--Philosophers and 320 +statesmen--Artists and literati + + +CHAPTER I. +A SUFFOLK VILLAGE. + + +Distinguished people born there--Its Puritans and Nonconformists--The +country round Covehithe--Southwold--Suffolk dialect--The Great Eastern +Railway. + +In his published Memoirs, the great Metternich observes that if he had +never been born he never could have loved or hated. Following so +illustrious a precedent, I may observe that if I had not been born in +East Anglia I never could have been an East Anglian. Whether I should +have been wiser or better off had I been born elsewhere, is an +interesting question, which, however, it is to be hoped the public will +forgive me if I decline to discuss on the present occasion. + +In a paper bearing the date of 1667, a Samuel Baker, of Wattisfield Hall, +writes: 'I was born at a village called Wrentham, which place I cannot +pass by the mention of without saying thus much, that religion has there +flourished longer, and that in much piety; the Gospel and grace of it +have been more powerfully and clearly preached, and more generally +received; the professors of it have been more sound in the matter and +open and steadfast in the profession of it in an hour of temptation, have +manifested a greater oneness amongst themselves and have been more +eminently preserved from enemies without (albeit they dwell where Satan's +seat is encompassed with his malice and rage), than I think in any +village of the like capacity in England; which I speak as my duty to the +place, but to my particular shame rather than otherwise, that such a dry +and barren plant should spring out of such a soil.' I resemble this +worthy Mr. Baker in two respects. In the first place, I was born at +Wrentham, though at a considerably later period of time than 1667; and, +secondly, if he was a barren plant--he of whom we read, in Harmer's +Miscellaneous Works, that 'he was a gentleman of fortune and education, +very zealous for the Congregational plan of church government and +discipline, and a sufferer in its bonds for a good conscience'--what am +I? + +Nor was it only piety that existed in this distant parish. If the reader +turns to the diary of John Evelyn, under the date of 1679, he will find +mention made of a child brought up to London, 'son of one Mr. Wotton, +formerly amanuensis to Dr. Andrews, Bishop of Winton, who both read and +perfectly understood Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic and Syriac, and most of +the modern languages, disputed in divinity, law and all the sciences, was +skilful in history, both ecclesiastical and profane; in a word, so +universally and solidly learned at eleven years of age that he was looked +on as a miracle. Dr. Lloyd, one of the most deep-learned divines of this +nation in all sorts of literature, with Dr. Burnet, who had severely +examined him, came away astonished, and told me they did not believe +there had the like appeared in the world. He had only been instructed by +his father, who being himself a learned person, confessed that his son +knew all that he himself knew. But what was more admirable than his vast +memory was his judgment and invention, he being tried with divers hard +questions which required maturity of thought and experience. He was also +dexterous in chronology, antiquities, mathematics. In sum, an +_intellectus universalis_ beyond all that we reade of Picus Mirandula, +and other precoce witts, and yet withal a very humble child.' This +prodigy was the son of the Rev. Henry Wotton, minister of Wrentham, +Suffolk. Sir William Skippon, a parishioner, in a letter yet extant, +describes the wonderful achievements of the little fellow when but five +years old. He was admitted at Katherine Hall, Cambridge, some months +before he was ten years old. In after-years he was the friend and +defender of Bentley and the antagonist of Sir William Temple in the great +controversy about ancient and modern learning. He died in 1726, and was +buried at Buxted, in Sussex. It is clear that there was no such +intellectual phenomenon in all London under the Stuarts as that little +Wrentham lad. + +Of that village, when I came into the world, my father was the honoured, +laborious and successful minister. The meeting-house, as it was called, +which stood in the lane leading from the church to the highroad, was a +square red brick building, vastly superior to any of the ancient +meeting-houses round. It stood in an enclosure, one side of which was +devoted to the reception of the farmers' gigs, which, on a Sunday +afternoon, when the principal service was held, made quite a respectable +show when drawn up in a line. By the side of it was a cottage, in which +lived the woman who kept the place tidy, and her husband, who looked +after the horses as they were unharnessed and put in the stable close by. +The backs of the gigs were sheltered from the road by a hedge of lilacs, +and over the gateway a gigantic elm kept watch and ward. The house in +which we lived was also part of the chapel estate, and, if it was a +little way off, it was, at any rate, adapted to the wants of a family of +quiet habits and simple tastes. On one side of the house was a +water-butt, and I can well remember my first sad experience of the +wickedness of the world when, getting up one morning to look after my +rabbits and other live stock, I found that water-butt had gone, and that +there were thieves in a village so rural and renowned for piety as ours. +I say renowned, and not without reason. Years and years back there was a +pious clergyman of the name of Steffe, who had a son in Dr. Doddridge's +Academy, at Daventry, and it is a fact that the great Doctor himself, at +some time or other, had been a guest in the village. + +In 1741 the Doctor thus records his East Anglian recollections, in a +letter to his wife: 'You have great reason to confide in that very kind +Providence which has hitherto watched over us, and has, since the date of +my last, brought us about sixty miles nearer London. From Yarmouth we +went on Friday morning to Wrentham, where good Mrs. Steffe lives, and +from thence to a gentleman's seat, near Walpole, where I was most +respectfully entertained. As I had twenty miles to ride yesterday +morning, he, though I had never seen him before last Tuesday, brought me +almost half-way in his chaise, to make the journey easier. I reached +Woodbridge before two, and rode better in the cool of the evening, and +had the happiness to be entertained in a very elegant and friendly +family, though perfectly a stranger; and, indeed, I have been escorted +from one place to another in every mile of my journey by one, and +sometimes by two or three, of my brethren in a most respectful and +agreeable manner.' Dr. Doddridge's East Anglian recollections seem to +have been uncommonly agreeable, owing quite as much, I must candidly +confess, to the presence of the sisters as of the brethren. Writing to +his wife an account of a little trip on the river, he adds: 'It was a +very pleasant day, and I concluded it in the company of one of the finest +women I ever beheld, who, though she had seven children grown up to +marriageable years, or very near it, is still herself almost a beauty, +and a person of sense, good breeding, and piety, which might astonish one +who had not the happiness of being intimately acquainted with you.' What +a sly rogue was Dr. Doddridge! How could any wife be jealous when her +husband finishes off with such a compliment to herself? + +But to return to the good Mrs. Steffe, of whom I am, on my mother's side, +a descendant. I must add that as there were great men before Agamemnon, +so there were good people in the little village of Wrentham before Mrs. +Steffe appeared upon the scene. The Brewsters, who were an ancient +family, which seems to have culminated under the glorious usurpation of +Oliver Cromwell, were eminently good people in Dr. Doddridge's +acceptation of the term, and I fancy did much as lords of the manor--and +as inhabitants of Wrentham Hall, a building which had ceased to exist +long before my time--to leaven with their goodness the surrounding lump. +It seems to me that these Brewsters must have been more or less connected +with Brewster the elder--of Robinson's Church at Leyden, who, we are +told, came of a wealthy and distinguished family--who was well trained at +Cambridge, and, says the historian, 'thence, being first seasoned with +the seeds of grace and virtue, he went to the Court, and there served +that religious and godly Mr. Davison divers years, when he was Secretary +of State, who found him so discreet and faithful as he trusted him, above +all others that were about him, and only employed him in matters of great +trust and secrecy; he esteemed him rather as a son than a servant, and +for his wisdom and godliness in private, he would converse with him more +like a familiar than a master.' When evil times came, this Brewster was +living in the big Manor House at Scrooby, and how he and his godly +associates were driven into exile by a foolish King and cruel priests is +known, or ought to be known, to everyone. Of these Wrentham Brewsters, +one served his country in Parliament, or I am very much mistaken. It was +to their credit that they sought out godly men, to whom they might +entrust the cure of souls. In this respect, when I was a lad, their +example certainly had not been followed, and Dissent flourished mainly +because the moral instincts of the villagers and farmers and small +tradesmen were shocked by hearing men on the Sunday reading the Lessons +of the Church, leading the devotions of the people, and preaching +sermons, who on the week-days got drunk and led immoral lives. As to the +right of the State to interfere in matters of religion, as to the danger +to religion itself from the establishment of a State Church, as to the +liberty of unlicensed prophesying, such topics the simple villagers +ignored. All that they felt was that there came to them more of a +quickening of the spiritual life, a fuller realization of God and things +divine, in the meeting-house than in the parish church. They were not +what pious Churchmen so much dread nowadays--Political Dissenters; how +could they be such, having no votes, and never seeing a newspaper from +one year's end to the other? + +It was to the Brewsters that the village was indebted for the ministry of +the Rev. John Phillip, who married the sister of the pious and learned +Dr. Ames, Professor of the University of Franeker. Calamy tells us that +by means of Dr. Ames, Mr. Phillip had no small furtherance in his +studies, and intimate acquaintance with him increased his inclination to +the Congregational way. Archbishop Abbot, writing to Winwood, 1611, +says: 'I have written to Sir Horace Vere touching the English preacher at +the Hague. We heard what he was that preceded, and we cannot be less +cognisant what Mr. Ames is, for by a Latin printed book he hath laden the +Church and State of England with a great deal of infamous contumely, so +that if he were amongst us he would be so far from receiving preferment, +that some exemplary punishment would be his reward. His Majesty had been +advertised how this man is entertained and embraced at the Hague, and how +he is a fit person to breed up captains and soldiers there in mutiny and +faction.' One of Dr. Ames's works, which got him into trouble, was +entitled 'A Fresh Suit against Ceremonies,' a work which we may be sure +would be as distasteful to the Ritualists of our day as it was to the +Ritualists of his own. One of his works, his 'Medulla Theologiae,' I +believe, adorned the walls of the paternal study. There is, belonging to +the Wrentham Congregational Church Library, a volume of tracts, +sixty-seven in number, of six or eight pages each, printed in 1622, +forming a series of theses on theological topics, maintained by different +persons, under the presidency of Dr. Ames; and I believe a son of the +Doctor is buried in Wrentham Churchyard, as I recollect my father, on one +occasion, had an old gravestone done up and relettered, which bore +testimony to the virtues and piety and learning of an Ames. Thus if Mr. +Phillip was chased out of Old England into New England for his +Nonconformity, some of the good old Noncons remained to uphold the lamp +which was one day to cast a sacred light on all quarters of the land. +That some did emigrate with their pastor is probable, since we learn that +there is a town called Wrentham across the Atlantic, said to have +received that name because some of the first settlers came from Wrentham +in England. + +Touching Mr. Phillip, a good deal has been written by the Rev. John +Browne, the painstaking author of 'The History of Congregationalism in +Suffolk and Norfolk.' It appears that his arrival in America was not +unexpected, as the Christian people of Dedham had invited him to that +plantation beforehand. He did not, however, accept their invitation, but +being much in request, 'and called divers ways, could not resolve; but, +at length, upon weighty reasons concerning the public service and +foundations of the college, he was persuaded to attend to the call of +Cambridge;' and, adds an American writer, 'he might have been the first +head of that blessed institution.' On the calling of the Long +Parliament, he and his wife returned to England, and in 1642 we find him +ministering to his old flock. So satisfied were the neighbouring +Independents of his Congregationalism, that when, in 1644, members of Mr. +Bridge's church residing in Norwich desired to form themselves into a +separate community, they not only consulted with their brethren in +Yarmouth, but with Mr. Phillip also, as the only man then in their +neighbourhood on whose judgment and experience they could rely. In 1643 +Mr. Phillip was appointed one of the members of the Assembly of Divines, +and was recognised by Baillie in his Letters as one of the Independent +men there. The Independents, as we know, sat apart, and were a sad thorn +in the Presbyterians' side. Five of them, more zealous than the rest, +formally dissented from the decisions of the Assembly, and afraid that +toleration would not be extended to them, appealed to Parliament, 'as the +most sacred refuge and asylum for mistaken and misjudged innocence.' Mr. +Phillip's name, however, I do not find in that list; and possibly he was +too old to be very active in the matter. He lived on till 1660, when he +died at the good old age of seventy-eight. In the later years of his +ministry he was assisted by his nephew, W. Ames, who in 1651 preached a +sermon at St. Paul's, before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, 'On the Saint's +Security against Seducing Sports, or the Anointing from the Holy One.' +It is to be feared, in our more enlightened age, a good Wrentham +Congregational minister would have little chance of preaching before a +London Lord Mayor. Talent is supposed to exist only in the crowded town, +where men have no time to think of anything but of the art of getting on. + +Other heroic associations--of men who had suffered for the faith, who +feared God rather than man, who preferred the peace of an approving +conscience to the vain honours of the world--also were connected with the +place. I remember being shown a bush in which the conventicle preacher +used to hide himself when the enemy, in the shape of the myrmidons of +Bishop Wren, of Norwich, were at his heels. That furious prelate, as +many of us know, drove upwards of three thousand persons to seek their +bread in a foreign land. Indeed, to such an extent did he carry out his +persecuting system, that the trade and manufactures of the country +materially suffered in consequence. However, in my boyish days I was not +troubled much about such things. Dissent in Wrentham was quite +respectable. If we had lost the Brewster family, whose arms were still +to be seen on the Communion plate, a neighbouring squire attended at the +meeting-house, as it was then the fashion to call our chapel, and so did +the leading grocer and draper of the place, and the village doctor, the +father of six comely daughters; and the display of gigs on a Sunday was +really imposing. Alas! as I grew older I saw that imposing array not a +little shorn of its splendour. The neighbouring baronet, Sir Thomas +Gooch, M.P., added as he could farm to farm, and that a Dissenter was on +no account to have one of his farms was pretty well understood. I fancy +our great landlords have, in many parts of East Anglia, pretty well +exterminated Dissent, to the real injury of the people all around. I +write this advisedly. I dare say the preaching in the meeting-house was +often very miserably poor. The service, I must own, seemed to me often +peculiarly long and unattractive. There was always that long prayer +which was, I fear, to all boys a time of utter weariness; but, +nevertheless, there was a moral and intellectual life in our Dissenting +circle that did not exist elsewhere. It was true we never attended +dinners at the village public-house, nor indulged in card-parties, and +regarded with a horror, which I have come to think unwholesome, the +frivolity of balls or the attractions of a theatre; but we had all the +new books voted into our bookclub, and, as a lad, I can well remember how +I revelled in the back numbers of the _Edinburgh Review_, though even +then I could not but feel the injustice which it did to what it called +the Lake school of poets, and more especially to Coleridge and +Wordsworth. Shakespeare also was almost a sealed book, and perhaps we +had a little too much of religious reading, such as Doddridge's 'Rise and +Progress,' or Baxter's 'Saint's Rest,' or Alleine's 'Call to the +Unconverted,' or Fleetwood's 'Life of Christ'--excellent books in their +way, undoubtedly, but not remarkably attractive to boys redolent of +animal life, who had thriven and grown fat in that rustic village, on +whose vivid senses the world that now is produced far more effect than +the terrors or splendours of the world to come. + +The country round, if flat, was full of interesting associations. At the +back of us--that is, on the sea--was the village of Covehithe, and when a +visitor found his way into the place--an event which happened now and +then--our first excursion with him or her--for plenty of donkeys were to +be had which ladies could ride--was to Covehithe, known to literary men +as the birthplace of John Bale, Bishop of Ossory, in Ireland. In +connection with donkeys, I have this interesting recollection, that one +of the old men of the village told me. At the time of the Bristol riots, +he remembered Sir Charles Wetherall, the occasion of them, as a boy at +Wrentham much given to donkey-riding. In the history of the drama John +Bale takes distinguished rank. He was one of those by whom the drama was +gradually evolved, and all to whom it is a study and delight must +remember him with regard. His play of 'Kynge John' is described by Mr. +Collier as occupying an intermediate place between moralities and +historical plays--and it is the only known existing specimen of that +species of composition of so early a date. Bale, who was trained at the +monastery of White Friars, in Norwich, thence went to Jesus College, +Cambridge, and was expelled in consequence of the zeal with which he +exposed the errors of Popery. However, Bale had a friend and protector +in Cromwell, Henry VIII.'s faithful servant. On the death of that +nobleman Bale proceeded to Germany, where he appears to have been well +received and hospitably entertained by Luther and Melancthon, and on the +accession of Edward VI. he returned to England. In Mary's reign +persecution recommenced, and Bale fled to Frankfort. He again returned +at the commencement of Elizabeth's reign, and was made prebend of +Canterbury, at which place he died at the age of sixty-three. Covehithe +nowadays is not interesting so much as the birthplace of Bale, as on +account of its ecclesiastical ruins, which are covered with ivy and +venerable in their decay. The church was evidently almost a cathedral, +and surely at one time or other there must have been an enormous +population to worship in such a sanctuary; and yet all you see now is a +public-house just opposite the church, a few cottages, and a farmhouse. +A few steps farther bring you to the low cliff, and there is the sea ever +encroaching on the land in that quarter and swallowing up farmhouse and +farm. Miss Agnes Strickland, who lived at Reydon Hall--a few miles +inland--has thus sung the melancholy fate of Covehithe: + + 'All roofless now the stately pile, + And rent the arches tall, + Through which with bright departing smile + The western sunbeams fall. + + * * * * * + + 'Tradition's voice forgets to tell + Whose ashes sleep below, + And Fancy here unchecked may dwell, + And bid the story flow.' + +Ah! what was that story? How the question puzzled my young head, as I +walked in the sandy lane that led from my native village! How +insignificant looked the little church built up inside! What had become +of the crowds that at one time must have filled that ancient fane? How +was it that no trace of them remained? They had vanished in the +historical age, and yet no one could tell how or when. Nature was, then, +stronger than man. He was gone, but the stars glittered by night and the +sun shone by day, and the ivy had spread its green mantle over all. Yes! +what was man, with his pomp and glory, but dust and ashes, after all! +How I loved to go to Covehithe and climb its ruins, and dream of the +distant past! + +Here in that eastern point of England it seemed to me there was a good +deal of decay. Sometimes, on a fine summer day, we would take a boat and +sail from the pretty little town of Southwold, about four miles from +Wrentham, to Dunwich, another relic of the past. According to an old +historian, it was a city surrounded with a stone wall having brazen +gates; it had fifty-two churches, chapels, and religious houses; it also +boasted hospitals, a huge palace, a bishop's seat, a mayor's mansion, and +a Mint. Beyond it a forest appears to have extended some miles into what +is now the sea. One of our local Suffolk poets, James Bird (I saw him +but once, when I walked into his house, about twelve miles from Wrentham, +having run away from home at the ripe age of ten, and told him I had come +to see him, as he was a poet; and I well remember how then, much to my +chagrin, he gave me plum-pudding for dinner, and sent me to play with his +boys till a cart was found in which the prodigal was compelled to +return), wrote and published a poetical romance, called 'Dunwich; or, a +Tale of the Splendid City;' and Agnes Strickland also made it the subject +of her melodious verse, commencing: + + 'Oft gazing on thy craggy brow, + We muse on glories o'er. + Fair Dunwich! Thou art lonely now, + Renowned and sought no more.' + +Never has a splendid city more utterly collapsed. After a long ride over +sandy lanes and fields, you come to the edge of a cliff, on which stand a +few houses. There is all that remains of the Dunwich where the first +Bishop of East Anglia taught the Christian faith, and where was born John +Daye, the printer of the works of Parker, Latimer, and Fox, who, in the +reign of Mary, became, as most real men did then, a prisoner and an exile +for the truth. He has also the reputation of being the first in England +who printed in the Saxon character. In the records of type-founding the +name of Daye stands with that of the most illustrious. When the Company +of Stationers obtained their charter from Philip and Mary, he was the +first person admitted to their livery. In 1580 he was master of the +company, to which he bequeathed property at his death. The following is +the inscription which marks the place of his burial in Little Bradley, +Suffolk: + + 'Here lyes the DAYE that darkness could not blynd, + When Popish fogges had overcast the sunne; + This DAYE the cruel night did leave behind, + To view and show what bloudie actes were donne. + He set a FOX to write how martyrs runne + By death to lyfe, FOX ventured paynes and health. + To give them light Daye spent in print his wealth, + But GOD with gayne returned his wealth agayne, + And gave to him as he gave to the poore. + Two wyfes he had partakers of his payne: + Each wyfe twelve babes, and each of them one more, + Als was the last increaser of his store; + Who, mourning long for being left alone, + Sett up this tombe, herself turned to a stone.' + +Unlike Covehithe, Dunwich has a history. In the reign of Henry II., a +MS. in the British Museum tells us, the Earl of Leicester came to attack +it. 'When he came neare and beheld the strength thereof, it was terror +and feare unto him to behold it; and so retired both he and his people.' +Dunwich aided King John in his wars with the barons, and thus gained the +first charter. In the time of Edward I. it had sixteen fair ships, +twelve barks, four-and-twenty fishing barks, and at that time there were +few seaports in England that could say as much. It served the same King +in his wars with France with eleven ships of war, well furnished with men +and munition. In most of these ships were seventy-two men-at-arms, who +served thirteen weeks at their own cost and charge. Dunwich seems to +have suffered much by the French wars. Four of the eleven ships already +referred to were captured by the French, and in the wars waged by Edward +III. Dunwich lost still more shipping, and as many as 500 men. Perhaps +it might have flourished till this day had if not been for the curse of +war. But the sea also served the town cruelly. That spared nothing--not +the King's Forest, where there were hawking and hunting--not the homes +where England nursed her hardy sailors--not even the harbour whence the +brave East Anglians sailed away to the wars. In Edward III.'s time, at +one fell swoop, the remorseless sea seems to have swallowed up '400 +houses which payde rente to the towne towards the fee-farms, besydes +certain shops and windmills.' Yet, when I was a lad, this wreck of a +place returned two members to Parliament, and Birmingham, Manchester and +Sheffield not one. Between Covehithe and Dunwich stood, and still +stands, the charming little bathing-place of Southwold. Like them, it +has seen better days, and has suffered from the encroachments of the +ever-restless and ever-hungry sea. It was at Southwold that I first saw +the sea, and I remember naturally asking my father, who showed me the +guns on the gun-hill--pointing seaward--whether that was where the +enemies came from. + +Southwold appears to have initiated an evangelical alliance, which may +yet be witnessed if ever a time comes of reasonable toleration on +religious matters. In many parts of the Continent the same place of +worship is used by different religious bodies. In Brussels I have seen +the Episcopalians, the Germans, the French Protestants, all assembling at +different times in the same building. There was a time when a similar +custom prevailed in Southwold, and that was when Master Sharpen, who had +his abode at Sotterley, preached at Southwold once a month. There were +Independents in the towns in those days, and 'his indulgence,' writes a +local historian, 'favoured the Separatists with the liberty and free use +of the church, where they resorted weekly, or oftener, and every fourth +Sunday both ministers met and celebrated divine service alternately. He +that entered the church first had the precedency of officiating, the +other keeping silence until the congregation received the Benediction +after sermon.' Most of the people attended all the while. It was before +the year 1680 that these things were done. After that time there came to +the church 'an orthodox man, who suffered many ills, and those not the +lightest, for his King and for his faith, and he compelled the +Independents not only to leave the church, but the town also. We read +they assembled in a malt-house beyond the bridge, where, being disturbed, +they chose more private places in the town until liberty of conscience +was granted, when they publicly assembled in a fish-house converted to a +place of worship.' At that time many people in the town were Dissenters; +but it was not till 1748 that they had a church formed. Up to that time +the Southwold Independents were members of the Church at Wrentham, one of +the Articles of Association of the new church being to take the Bible as +their sole guide, and when in difficulties to resort to the neighbouring +pastor for advice and declaration. Such was Independency when it +flourished all over East Anglia. + +A writer in the _Harleian Miscellany_ says that 'Southwold, of sea-coast +town, is the most beneficial unto his Majesty of all the towns in +England, by reason all their trade is unto Iceland for lings.' In the +little harbour of Southwold you see nowadays only a few colliers, and I +fear that the place is of little advantage to her Majesty, however +beneficial it may be as a health-resort for some of her Majesty's +subjects. It is a place, gentle reader, where you can wander undisturbed +at your own sweet will, and can get your cheeks fanned by breezes unknown +in London. The beach, I own, is shingly, and not to be compared with the +sands of Yarmouth and Lowestoft; but, then, you are away from the Cockney +crowds that now infest these places at the bathing season, and you are +quiet--whether you wander on its common, till you come to the Wolsey +Bridge, getting on towards Halesworth, where, if tradition be +trustworthy, Wolsey, as a butcher's boy, was nearly drowned, and where he +benevolently caused a bridge to be erected for the safety of all future +butcher-boys and others, when he became a distinguished man; or ramble by +the seaside to Walberswick, across the harbour, or on to Easton +Bavent--another decayed village, on the other side. Southwold has its +historical associations. Most of my readers have seen the well-known +picture of Solebay Fight at Greenwich Hospital. Southwold overlooks the +bay on which that fight was won. Here, on the morning of the 28th May, +1672, De Ruyter, with his Dutchmen, sailed right against those wooden +walls which have guarded old England in many a time of danger, and found +to his cost how invincible was British pluck. James, Duke of York--not +then the drivelling idiot who lost his kingdom for a Mass, but James, +manly and high-spirited, with a Prince's pride and a sailor's heart--won +a victory that for many a day was a favourite theme with all honest +Englishmen, and especially with the true and stout men who, alarmed by +the roar of cannon, as the sound boomed along the blue waters of that +peaceful bay, stood on the Southwold cliff, wishing that the fog which +intercepted their view might clear off, and that they might welcome as +victors their brethren on the sea. I can remember how, when an old +cannon was dragged up from the depths of the sea, it was supposed to be, +as it might have been, used in that fight, and now is preserved at one of +the look-out houses on the cliff as a souvenir of that glorious struggle. +The details of that fight are matters of history, and I need not dwell on +them. Our literature, also, owes Southwold one of the happiest effusions +of one of the wittiest writers of that age; and in a county history I +remember well a merry song on the Duke's late glorious success over the +Dutch, in Southwold Bay, which commences with the writer telling-- + + 'One day as I was sitting still + Upon the side of Dunwich Hill, + And looking on the ocean, + By chance I saw De Ruyter's fleet + With Royal James's squadron meet; + In sooth it was a noble treat + To see that brave commotion.' + +The writer vividly paints the scene, and ends as follows: + + 'Here's to King Charles, and here's to James, + And here's to all the captains' names, + And here's to all the Suffolk dames, + And here's to the house of Stuart.' + +Well, as to the house of Stuart, the less said the better; but as to the +Suffolk dames, I agree with the poet, that they are all well worthy of +the toast, and it was at a very early period of my existence that I +became aware of that fact. But the course of true love never does run +smooth, and from none--and they were many--with whom I played on the +beach as a boy, or read poetry to at riper years, was it my fate to take +one as wife for better or worse. In the crowded city men have little +time to fall in love. Besides, they see so many fresh faces that +impressions are easily erased. It is otherwise in the quiet retirement +of a village where there is little to disturb the mind--perhaps too +little. I can well remember a striking illustration of this in the +person of an old farmer, who lived about three miles off, and at whose +house we--that is, the whole family--passed what seemed to me a very +happy day among the haystacks or harvest-fields once or twice a year. +The old man was proud of his farm, and of everything connected with it. +'There, Master James,' he was wont to say to me after dinner, 'you can +see three barns all at once!' and sure enough, looking in the direction +he pointed, there were three barns plainly visible to the naked eye. +Alas! the love of the picturesque had not been developed in my bucolic +friend, and a good barn or two--he was an old bachelor, and, I suppose, +his heart had never been softened by the love of woman--seemed to him +about as beautiful an object as you could expect or desire. One emotion, +that of fear, was, however, I found, strongly planted in the village +breast. The boys of the village, with whom, now and then, I stole away +on a birds'-nesting expedition, would have it that in a little wood about +a mile or two off there were no end of flying serpents and dragons to be +seen; and I can well remember the awe which fell upon the place when +there came a rumour of the doings of those wretches, Burke and Hare, who +were said to have made a living by murdering victims--by placing pitch +plasters on their mouths--and selling them to the doctors to dissect. At +this time a little boy had not come home at the proper time, and the +mother came to our house lamenting. The good woman was in tears, and +refused to be comforted. There had been a stranger in the village that +day; he had seen her boy, he had put a pitch plaster on his mouth, and no +doubt his dead body was then on its way to Norwich to be sold to the +doctor. Unfortunately, it turned out that the boy was alive and well, +and lived to give his poor mother a good deal of trouble. Another thing, +of which I have still a vivid recollection, was the mischief wrought by +Captain Swing. In Kent there had been an alarming outbreak of the +peasantry, ostensibly against the use of agricultural machinery. They +assembled in large bodies, and visited the farm buildings of the +principal landed proprietors, demolishing the threshing machines then +being brought into use. In some instances they set fire to barns and +corn-stacks. These outrages spread throughout the county, and fears were +entertained that they would be repeated in other agricultural districts. +A great meeting of magistrates and landed gentry was held in Canterbury, +the High Sheriff in the chair, when a reward was offered of 100 pounds +for the discovery of the perpetrators of the senseless mischief, and the +Lords of the Treasury offered a further reward of the same amount for +their apprehension; but all was in vain to stop the growing evil. The +agricultural interest was in a very depressed state, and the number of +unemployed labourers so large, that apprehensions were entertained that +the combinations for the destruction of machinery might, if not at once +checked, take dimensions it would be very difficult for the Government to +control. When Parliament opened in 1830, the state of the agricultural +districts had been daily growing more alarming. Rioting and incendiarism +had spread from Kent to Suffolk, Norfolk, Surrey, Hampshire, Wiltshire, +Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Huntingdonshire, and Cambridgeshire, and a +great deal of very valuable property had been destroyed. A mystery +enveloped these proceedings that indicated organization, and it became +suspected that they had a political object. Threatening letters were +sent to individuals signed 'Swing,' and beacon fires communicated from +one part of the country to the other. With the object of checking these +outrages, night patrols were established, dragoons were kept in readiness +to put down tumultuous meetings, and magistrates and clergymen and landed +gentry were all at their wits' ends. Even in our out-of-the-way corner +of East Anglia not a little consternation was felt. We were on the +highroad nightly traversed by the London and Yarmouth Royal Mail, and +thus, more or less, we had communications with the outer world. Just +outside of our village was Benacre Hall, the seat of Sir Thomas Gooch, +one of the county members, and I well remember the boyish awe with which +I heard that a mob had set out from Yarmouth to burn the place down. +Whether the mob thought better of it, or gave up the walk of eighteen +miles as one to which they were not equal, I am not in a position to say. +All I know is, that Benacre Hall, such as it is, remains; but I can never +forget the feeling of terror with which, on those dark and dull winter +nights, I looked out of my bedroom window to watch the lurid light +flaring up into the black clouds around, which told how wicked men were +at their mad work, how fiendish passion had triumphed, how some honest +farmer was reduced to ruin, as he saw the efforts of a life of industry +consumed by the incendiary's fire. It was long before I ceased to +shudder at the name of 'Swing.' + +The dialect of the village was, I need not add, East Anglian. The people +said 'I woll' for 'I will'; 'you warn't' for 'you were not,' and so on. +A girl was called a 'mawther,' a pitcher a 'gotch,' a 'clap on the +costard' was a knock on the head, a lad was a 'bor.' Names of places +especially were made free with. Wangford was 'Wangfor,' Covehithe was +'Cothhigh,' Southwold was 'Soul,' Lowestoft was 'Lesteff,' Halesworth was +'Holser,' London was 'Lunun.' People who lived in the midland counties +were spoken of as living in the shires. The 'o,' as in 'bowls,' it is +specially difficult for an East Anglian to pronounce. A learned man was +held to be a 'man of larnin',' a thing of which there was not too much in +Suffolk in my young days. A lady in the village sent her son to school, +and great was the maternal pride as she called in my father to hear how +well her son could read Latin, the reading being reading alone, without +the faintest attempt at translation. Sometimes it was hard to get an +answer to a question, as when a Dissenting minister I knew was sent for +to visit a sick man. 'My good man,' said he, 'what induced you to send +for me?' 'Hey, what?' said the invalid. 'What induced you to send for +me?' Alas! the question was repeated in vain. At length the wife +interfered: 'He wants to know what the deuce you sent for him for.' And +then, and not till then, came an appropriate reply. This story, I +believe, has more than once found its way into _Punch_; but I heard it as +a Suffolk boy years and years before _Punch_ had come into existence. + +One of the prayers familiar to my youth was as follows: + + 'Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, + Bless the bed that I lie on; + Four corners to my bed, + Four angels at my head; + Two to watch and one to pray, + And one to carry my soul away.' + +An M.P., who shall be nameless, supplies me with an apt illustration of +East Anglian dialect. It was at the anniversary of a National School, +with the great M.P. in the chair, surrounded by the benevolent ladies and +the select clergy of the district. The subject of examination was +Christ's entry into Jerusalem on an ass's colt. 'Why,' said the +M.P.--'why did they strew rushes before the Saviour? can any of you +children tell me?' Profound silence. The M.P. repeated the question. A +little ragamuffin held up his hand. The M.P. demanded silence as the apt +scholar proceeded with his answer. 'Why were the rushes strewed?' said +the M.P. in a condescending tone. I don't know,' replied the boy, +'unless it was to hull the dickey down.' + +Roars of laughter greeted the reply, as all the East Anglians present +knew that 'hull' meant 'throw,' and 'dickey' is Suffolk for 'donkey,' but +some of the Cockney visitors present were for a while quite unable to +enjoy the joke. + +It is to be feared the three R's were not much patronized in East Anglia, +if it be true that some forty or fifty years ago, in such a respectable +town as Sudbury, it was the fashion for some fifty of the leading +inhabitants to meet in the large bar-parlour of the old White Horse to +hear the leading paper of the eastern counties read out by a scholar and +elocutionist known as John. For the discharge of this important duty he +was paid a pound a year, and provided with as much free liquor as he +liked, and there were people who considered that the Saturday +newspaper-reading did them more good than what they heard at church the +next day. + +In some cases our East Anglian dialect is merely a survival of old +English, as when we say 'axe' for 'ask.' We find in Chaucer: + + 'It is but foly and wrong wenging + To axe so outrageous thing.' + +In his 'Envious Man,' Gowing made 'axeth' to rhyme with 'taxeth.' No +word is more common in Suffolk than 'fare'; a pony is a 'hobby'; a thrush +is a 'mavis'; a chest is a 'kist'; a shovel is a 'skuppet'; a chaffinch +is a 'spink.' If a man is upset in his mind, he tells us he is 'wholly +stammed,' and the Suffolk 'yow' is at least as old as Chaucer, who wrote: + + 'What do you ye do there, quod she, + Come, and if it lyke yow + To daucen daunceth with us now.' + +An awkward lad is 'ungain.' A good deal may be written to show that our +Suffolk dialect is the nearest of all provincial dialects to that of +Chaucer and the Bible, and if anyone has the audacity to contradict me, +why, then, in Suffolk phraseology, I can promise him--'a good hiding.' + +I am old enough to remember how placid was the county, how stay-at-home +were the people, what a sensation there was created when anyone went to +London, or any stranger appeared in our midst. From afar we heard of +railways; then we had a railway opened from London to Brentwood; then the +railways spread all over the land, and there were farmers who did think +that they had something to do with the potato disease. The change was +not a pleasant one: the turnpikes were deserted; the inns were void of +customers; no longer did the villagers hasten to see the coach change +horses, and the bugle of the guard was heard no more. For a time the +Eastern Counties Railway had a somewhat dolorous career. It was thought +to be something to be thankful for when the traveller by it reached his +journey's end in decent time and without an accident. Now the change is +marvellous. The Great Eastern Railway stands in the foremost rank of the +lines terminating in London. It now runs roundly 20,000,000 of train +miles in the course of a year. It carries a larger number of passengers +than any other line. It carries the London working man twelve miles in +and twelve miles out for twopence a day. It is the direct means of +communication with all the North of Europe by its fine steamers from +Harwich. It has yearly an increased number of season-ticket-holders. On +a Whit Monday it gives 125,000 excursionists a happy day in the country +or by the seaside. In 1891 the number of passengers carried was +81,268,661, exclusive of season-ticket-holders. It is conspicuous now +for its punctuality and freedom from accidents. It is, in short, a model +of good management, and it also deserves credit for looking well after +the interests of its employes, of whom there are some 25,000. It +contributes to the Accident Fund, to the Provident Society, to the +Superannuation Fund, and to the Pension Fund, to which the men also +subscribe, in the most liberal manner, and besides has established a +savings bank, which returns the men who place their money in it four per +cent. It is a liberal master. It does its duty to its men, who deserve +well of the public as of the Great Eastern Railway itself; but its main +merit, after all, is that it has been the making of East Anglia. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +THE STRICKLANDS. + + +Reydon Hall--The clergy--Pakefield--Social life in a village. + +As I write I have lying before me a little book called 'Hugh Latimer; or, +The School-boy's Friendship,' by Miss Strickland, author of the 'Little +Prisoner,' 'Charles Grant,' 'Prejudice and Principle,' 'The Little +Quaker.' It bears the imprint--'London: Printed for A. R. Newman and +Co., Leadenhall Street.' On a blank page inside I find the following: +'James Ewing Ritchie, with his friend Susanna's affectionate regards.' +Susanna was a sister of Miss Agnes Strickland, the authoress, and was as +much a writer as herself. The Stricklands were a remarkable family, +living about four or five miles from Wrentham, on the road leading from +Wangford to Southwold, at an old-fashioned residence called Reydon Hall. +They had, I fancy, seen better days, and were none the worse for that. +The Stricklands came over with William the Conqueror. One of them was +the first to land, and hence the name. A good deal of blue blood flowed +in their veins. Kate--to my eyes the fairest of the lot--was named +Katherine Parr, to denote that she was a descendant of one of the wives +of the too-much-married Henry VIII., and in the old-fashioned +drawing-room of Reydon Hall I heard not a little--they all talked at +once--of what to me was strange and rare. Mr. Strickland had deceased +some years, and the widow and the daughters kept up what little state +they could; and I well remember the feeling of surprise with which I +first entered their capacious drawing-room--a room the size of which it +had never entered into my head to conceive of. It is to the credit of +these Misses Strickland that they did not vegetate in that old house, but +held a fair position in the world of letters. Miss Strickland herself +chiefly resided in town. Agnes, the next, whose 'Queens of England' is +still a standard book, was more frequently at home. The only one of the +family who did not write was Sarah, who married one of the Radical +Childses of Bungay, and who not till after the death of her husband +became respectable and atoned for her sins by marrying a clergyman. +Kate, as I have said, the fairest of the whole, married an officer in the +army of the name of Traill, and went out to Canada, and wrote there a +book called 'The Backwoods of Canada,' which was certainly one of the +most popular of the four-and-sixpenny volumes published under the +auspices of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful and Entertaining +Knowledge. Our friend was Susanna, who wrote a volume of poems on +Enthusiasm, and who seemed to me, with her dark eyes and hair, a very +enthusiastic personage indeed. The reason of her friendship with our +family was her deeply religious nature, which impelled her to leave the +cold and careless service of the Church--not a little to the disgust of +her aristocratic sisters, who, as of ancient lineage, not a little +haughty, and rank Tories, had but little sympathy with Dissent.. Susanna +was much at our house, and when away scarcely a day passed on which she +did not write some of us a letter or send us a book. Then there was a +brother Tom, a midshipman--a wonderful being to my inexperienced +eyes--who once or twice came to our house seated in the family +donkey-chaise, which seemed to me, somehow or other, not to be an +ordinary donkey-chaise, but something of a far superior character. I +have pleasant recollections of them all, and of the annuals in which they +all wrote, and a good many of which fell to my share. Like her sister, +Susanna married an officer in the army--a Major Moodie--and emigrated to +Canada, where the Stricklands have now a high position, where she had +sons and daughters born to her, and wrote more than one novel which found +acceptance in the English market. The Stricklands gave me quite a +literary turn. When I was a small boy it was really an everyday +occurrence for me to write a book or edit a newspaper, and with about as +much success as is generally achieved by bookmakers and newspaper +editors, whose merit is overlooked by an unthinking public. Let me say +in the Stricklands I found an indulgent audience. On one occasion I +remember reciting some verses of my own composition, commencing, + +'I sing a song of ancient men, + Of warriors great and bold, +Of Hercules, a famous man, + Who lived in times of old. +He was a man of great renown, + A lion large he slew, +And to his memory games were kept, + Which now I tell to you,' + +which they got me to repeat in their drawing-room, and which, though I +say it that should not, evinced for a boy a fair acquaintance with +'Mangnall's Questions' and Pinnock's abridgment of Goldsmith's 'History +of Rome.' Happily, at that time, Niebuhr was unknown, and sceptical +criticism had not begun its deadly work. We had not to go far for truth +then. It was quite unnecessary to seek it--at any rate, so it seemed to +us--at the bottom of a well; there it was right underneath one's +nose--before one's very eyes in the printed pages of the printed book. + +Agnes Strickland did all she could to confer reputation on her native +county. The tall, dark, self-possessed lady from Reydon Hall was a lion +everywhere. On one occasion she visited the House of Lords, just after +she had written a violent letter against Lord Campbell, charging him with +plagiarism. Campbell tells us he had a conversation with her, which +speedily turned her into a friend. He adds: 'I thought Brougham would +have died with envy when I told him the result of my interview, and +Ellenborough, who was sitting by, lifted his hands in admiration. +Brougham had thrown me a note across the table, saying: "So you know your +friend Miss Strickland has come to hear you."' Miss Strickland often +visited Alison, the historian, at Possil House. He says of her that she +had strong talents of a masculine rather than feminine +character--indefatigable perseverance, and that ardour in whatever +pursuit she engaged in without which no one could undergo similar +fatigue. On one occasion she was descanting on the noble feeling of +Queen Mary, 'That may all be very true, Miss Strickland,' replied the +historian; 'but unfortunately she had an awkward habit of burning +people--she brought 239 men, women, and children to the stake in a reign +which did not extend beyond a few years!' 'Oh yes,' was her reply, 'it +was terrible, dreadful, but it was the fault of the age--the temper of +the times; Mary herself was everything that is noble and heroic.' Such +was her feminine tendency to hero-worship. Another tendency of a +feminine character was her love of talking. 'She did,' instances Sir +Archibald, 'not even require an answer or a sign of mutual intelligence; +it was enough if the one she was addressing simply remained passive. One +day when I was laid up at Possil on my library sofa from a wound in the +knee, she was kind enough to sit with me for two hours, and was really +very entertaining, from the number of anecdotes she remembered of queens +in the olden time. When she left the room she expressed herself kindly +to Mrs. Alison as to the agreeable time she had spent, and the latter +said to me on coming in, "What did you get to say to Miss Strickland all +this time? She says you were so agreeable, and she was two hours here." +"Say!" I replied with truth; "I assure you I did not say six words to her +the whole time."' Agnes was a terrible one to talk--as, indeed, all the +Stricklands were. In Suffolk such accomplished conversationalists were +rare. + +It must have been, now I come to think of it, a dismal old house, +suggestive of rats and dampness and mould, that Reydon Hall, with its +scantily furnished rooms and its unused attics and its empty barns and +stables, with a general air of decay all over the place, inside and out. +It had a dark, heavy roof and whitewashed walls, and was externally +anything but a showy place, standing, as it did, a little way from the +road. It must have been a difficulty with the family to keep up the +place, and the style of living was altogether plain; yet there I heard a +good deal of literary life in London, of Thomas Pringle, the poet, and +the Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, whose 'Residence in South +Africa' is still one of the most interesting books on that quarter of the +world, and of whom Josiah Conder, one of the great men of my smaller +literary world at that time, wrote an appreciative biographical sketch. +Mr. Pringle, let me remind my readers, was the original editor of +_Blackwood's Magazine_, a magazine which still maintains its reputation +as being the best of its class. Mr. Pringle, I believe, at some time or +other, had visited Wrentham; at any rate, the Stricklands, especially +Susanna, were among his intimate friends, and, from what I heard, I could +well believe, when, at a later period, I visited his grave in Bunhill +Fields, what I found recorded there--that 'In the walks of British +literature he was known as a man of genius; in the domestic circle he was +loved as an affectionate relative and faithful friend; in the wide sphere +of humanity he was revered as the advocate and protector of the +oppressed,' who 'left among the children of the African desert a memorial +of his philanthropy, and bequeathed to his fellow-countrymen an example +of enduring virtue.' At the home of the Pringles the Stricklands made +many literary acquaintances, such as Alaric Watts, and Mrs. S. C. Hall, +and others of whom I heard them talk. At that time, however, literature +was not, as far as women were concerned, the lucrative profession it has +since become, and I have a dim remembrance of their paintings--for in +this respect the Stricklands, like my own mother, were very +accomplished--being sold at the Soho Bazaar, a practice which helped to +maintain them in the respectability and comfort becoming their position +in life. But in London they never forgot the old home, and wrote so much +about it in their stories, that there was not a flower, or shrub, or +tree, or hedge, or mossy bank redolent in early spring of primroses and +violets, to which they had not given, to my boyish eyes, a glory and a +charm. This reference to painting reminds me of a feature of my young +days, not without interest, in connection with the name of Cunningham--a +name at one time well known in the religious world. + +The reader must be reminded that the reverend gentleman referred to was a +_rara avis_, and that between him and the neighbouring clergy there was +little sympathy--unless the common rallying cry of 'The Church in +Danger!' was raised as an electioneering dodge. The clergyman at +Wrentham at that time, who declared himself the appointed vessel of grace +for the parish, I have been led to believe, since I have become older, +was by no means a saint, and his brethren were notorious as evil-livers. +Some twenty years ago one of them had his effects sold off, and his +library was viewed with no little amusement by his parishioners, to many +of whom, if popular fame be an authority, he was more than a spiritual +father. The library contained only one book that could be called +theological, and the title of that wonderfully unique volume was, 'Die +and be Damned; or, An End of the Methodists.' All the other books were +exclusively sporting, while the pictures were such as would have been a +disgrace to Holywell Street. It was of him that the clerk said that +'next Sunday there would be no Divine sarvice, as maaster was going to +Newmarket.' Once upon a time after a sermon one of his flock approached +him, as he had been preaching on miracles, to ask him to explain what a +miracle really was. The reverend gentleman gave his rustic inquirer a +kick, adding, 'Did you feel that?' + +'Oh yes, sir; but what of that?' + +'Why,' said the reverend gentleman, 'if you had not felt it, it would +have been a miracle, that is all.' Yet that man was as popular as any +parson in the district, perhaps more so, and it was with some indignation +in certain quarters that the people learned that a new Bishop had come to +Norwich, and that the parson had been deprived of his living for immoral +conduct. Of another it is said that, calling on a poor villager, dying +and full of gloomy anticipations as to the future, all he could say was, +'Don't be frightened; I dare say you will meet a good many people you +know.' I have often heard old men talk of the time when they used to +take the parson home in a wheelbarrow--but that was before we had a +Sunday-school, at which I was a regular teacher. The church had a +Sunday-school, but not till after the one in the chapel had existed many +years. Of these ornaments of the Church and foes of Dissent, some had +apparently a sense of shame--one of them, at any rate, committed suicide. + +At Pakefield, some seven miles from Wrentham, and just on the borders of +Lowestoft, then, as now, the most eastern extremity of England, resided +the Rev. Francis Cunningham. He was a clergyman of piety and +philanthropy, rare at that time in that benighted district, and in this +respect he was aided by his wife, a little dark woman whom I well +remember, a sister of the far-famed John Joseph Gurney, of Earlham. It +is with pleasure I quote the following from the Journal of Caroline Fox: +'A charming story of F. Cunningham coming in to prayers just murmuring +something about the study being on fire, and proceeding to read a long +chapter and make equally long comments thereupon. When the reading was +over, and the fact became public, he observed, "Yes, I saw it was a +little on fire, but I opened the window on leaving the room."' Mr. +Cunningham had much to do with establishing a branch of the British and +Foreign Bible Society in Paris in connection with the Buxtons. In this +way, but on a smaller scale, the Cunninghams were equally distinguished, +and one of the things they had established at Pakefield was an infant +school, to which I, in company with my parents--indeed, I may add, the +whole family--was taken, in order, if possible, that our little village +should possess a similar institution. But my principal pilgrimages to +the Pakefield vicarage were in connection with some mission to aid +Oberlin in his grand work amongst the mountains and valleys of +Switzerland. It appeared Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham had visited the good +man, and watched him in his career, and had come back to England to gain +for him, if possible, sympathy and friends. Mrs. Cunningham had taken +drawings of the principal objects of interest, which had been +lithographed, and these lithographs my mother, who in her way was as +great an enthusiast as Susanna Strickland herself, was very anxious to +obtain; the financial position of the family, however, forbade any +thought of purchase. But she had a wonderful gift of painting, and she +painted while we children were learning the Latin grammar, or preparing +our lessons in the Delectus, much to my terror, as I had a habit of +restlessness which, by shaking the table, not only impaired her work, but +drew down upon me not a little of reproach; and with these paintings I +was despatched on foot to Pakefield, where, in return for them, I was +given the famous lithographs, which were to be preserved for many a year +in the spare room we called the parlour--drawing-rooms at that time in +East Anglia were, I think, unknown. What a joy it was to us children +when that parlour had its fire lit, and we found out that company was +coming--partly, I must add, for sensual reasons. We knew that the best +tea-things were to be used, that unusual delicacies were to be placed +upon the table, and I must do my mother the justice to say that she could +cook as well as she could paint; but for other and higher motives, and +not as an occasion of feasting or for the disuse of the economical +pinafore which was always worn to keep our clothes clean, did we rejoice +when we found there was to be tea in the parlour. If young people were +coming, we were sure to dissect puzzles, or play some game which combined +amusement with instruction; and if the party consisted of seniors, as on +the occasion of the Book Club--almost all Dissenting congregations had +their Book Clubs then--it was a pleasure to listen to my father's talk, +who was a well-read man, and who, being a Scotchman, had inherited his +full share of Scotch wit, which, however, was enlivened with quotations +from 'Hudibras,' the only poet, alas! in whom he seemed to take any +particular interest. There, in the parlour, were the fraternal meetings +attended by all the neighbouring Independent ministers, all clad in sober +black, and whose wildest exploits in rollicking debauchery were confined +to a pipe and a glass of home-made wine. Madeira, port and sherry were +unknown in ministers' houses, though now and then one got a taste of them +at the houses of men better to do, and who, perhaps, had been as far as +London once or twice in their lives. Of these neighbouring ministers, +one of the most celebrated at that time was the Rev. Edward Walford, then +of Yarmouth, who afterwards became tutor of Homerton College, and who, +after the death of a favourite and accomplished daughter--I can still +remember the gracefulness of her person--sank into a state of profound +melancholy, which led him to shut himself from his friends, to give up +all public preaching and tutorial work, and to consider himself as +hopelessly lost. It is a curious fact that he dated his return to reason +and happiness and usefulness after a visit paid him by my father, who +happened to be in town, and who naturally was drawn to see his afflicted +friend, with whom, in the days of auld lang syne, he had smoked many a +pipe and held many an argument respecting Edwards on Freedom of the Will, +and his favourite McKnight. Mrs. Walford, who was aware of my father's +intended visit, had thoughtfully prepared pipes and tobacco, and placed +them on the table of the room where the interview was to take place. My +father went and smoked his pipe and talked as usual, poor Mr. Walford +sitting sad and dejected, and refusing to be comforted all the while. +When my father had left--owing, I suppose, to the force of old +associations--actually the poor man approached the table, took up a pipe, +filled it with tobacco, and smoked it. From that hour, strange to say, +he recovered, wrote a translation of the Psalms, became a trustee of +Coward's College, and took charge of a church at Uxbridge. This is 'a +fac,' as Artemus Ward would say, and 'facs' are stubborn things. Of this +Mr. Walford, the well-known publisher of that name in St. Paul's +Churchyard was a son, and the firm of Hodder and Stoughton may be said to +carry on his business, though on a larger scale. + +Dressed in rusty black, with hats considerably the worse for wear, with +shoes not ignorant of the cobbler's art, unconscious of and careless for +the fashions of the world, rarely in London, except on the occasion of +the May Meetings--no one can tell, except those who, like myself, were +admitted behind the scenes, as it were, how these good men lived to keep +alive the traditions of freedom, civil and religious, in districts most +under the sway of the ignorant squire and the equally ignorant parson of +the parish. If there has been a decency and charm about our country life +it is due to them, and them alone. Perhaps, more in the country than in +the crowded city is the pernicious influence felt of sons of Belial, +flushed with insolence and wine. It is difficult to give the reader an +idea of the utter animalism, if I may so term it, of rural life some +fifty years ago. For small wages these Dissenting ministers did a noble +work, in the way of preserving morals, extending education, promoting +religion, and elevating the aim and tone of |the little community in +which they lived, and moved, and had their being. At home the +difficulties of such of them as had large families were immense. The +pocket was light, and too often there was but little in the larder. But +they laboured on through good and bad report, and now they have their +reward. Perhaps one of their failings was that they kept too much the +latter end in view, and were too indifferent to present needs and +requirements. They did not try to make the best of both worlds. I can +never forget a remark addressed to me by all the good men of the class +with whom I was familiar in my childhood as to the need of getting on in +life and earning an honest penny, and becoming independent in a pecuniary +point of view. I was to be a good boy, to love the Lord, to study the +Assembly's Catechism, to read the Bible, as if outside the village there +was no struggle into which sooner or later I should have to plunge--no +hard battle with the world to fight, no temporal victory to win. + + + + +CHAPTER III +LOWESTOFT. + + +Yarmouth bloaters--George Borrow--The town fifty years ago--The +distinguished natives. + +'I'm a-thinking you'll be wanting half a pint of beer by this time, won't +you?' + +Such were the first words I heard as I left the hotel where I was a +temporary sojourner about nine o'clock. Of course I turned to look at +the speaker. He wore an oilskin cap, with a great flap hanging over the +back of the neck; his oilskin middle was encased in a thick blue +guernsey; his trousers were hidden in heavy jack-boots, which came up +above his knees; his face was red, and his body was almost as round as +that of a porpoise. When I add that the party addressed was similarly +adorned and was of a similar build, the reader will guess at once that I +was amongst a seafaring community, and let me add that this supposition +is correct. I was, in fact, at Lowestoft, and Lowestoft just now is, +with Yarmouth, the headquarters of the herring fishery. The truth is, as +the poet tells us, 'Things are not what they seem,' and that many of the +Yarmouth bloaters which we are in the habit of indulging in at breakfast +in reality come from Lowestoft. + +It is worth going from London at the season of the year when the finest +bloaters are being caught, to realize the peril and the enterprise and +the industry connected with the herring trade, which employs some five +hundred boats, manned by seven to twelve men, who work the business on +the cooperative system, which, when the season is a good one, gives a +handsome remuneration to all concerned, and which drains the country of +young men for miles around. Each boat is furnished with some score of +nets, and each net extends more than thirty-two yards. The boat puts off +according to the tide, and if it gets a good haul, at once returns to the +harbour with its freight; if the catch is indifferent, the boat stays +out; the fish are salted as they are caught, and then the boat, generally +at a distance of about twenty miles from the shore, waits till a +sufficient number have been caught to complete the cargo. When that is +the case, the boat at once makes for Lowestoft, and the fish are unloaded +under a shed in heaps of about half a last (a last is professedly 10,000 +herrings, but really much more). At nine a bell rings and the various +auctioneers commence operations. A crowd is formed, and in a very few +minutes a lot is sold off to traders who are well known, and who pay at +the end of the week. The auctioneer then proceeds to the next group, +which is disposed of in a similar way. Other auctioneers in various +parts of the enormous shed erected for their accommodation do the same, +and then, as more boats arrive, other cargoes are sold, the sailors +bringing a hundred as a sample from the boat. And thus all day long the +work of selling goes on, and as soon as a lot are sold they are packed up +with ice, if fresh, or with more salt, if already salted, and despatched +by train to various quarters of England, where, it is to be presumed, +they meet with a speedy and immediate sale. In this way as many as one +hundred and ninety-eight trucks are sometimes sent off in a single day. +But in London we are familiar with the kipper, the red herring, and the +Yarmouth bloater, and to see how they are prepared for consumption I +leave the market--always wet and fishy and slippery--and make my way to +the extensive premises on the beach belonging to Mr. Thomas Brown--the +only Brown whose name is familiar to the fish-dealer in every market in +England, and the extent of whose business may be best realized by the +reader when I state that Mr. Brown sends off from his factory as many as +forty lasts a week. + +An intelligent foreman, after I have evaded the attack of a formidable +dog which keeps watch and ward over the premises, explains to me the +mystery of the trade. I find myself in the midst of a square. On one +side are a great stack of oak and many casks of old salt. The latter, I +gather, is sold to be used as manure. The former is applied to the fire, +which gently smokes the Yarmouth bloater. On one side, the herrings, as +they are received, are pickled--that is, first washed in fresh water, and +then immersed in great tubs in which the water is mixed with salt. The +next thing is to take them into a room in which several women are engaged +in spitting them--that is, hanging them on rods--and then they are +carried to the apartment where they are hung up, while oak logs are burnt +beneath. In twelve hours they are sufficiently smoked, and then you have +the real Yarmouth bloater. I am glad I have seen the process, as I have +a horrible suspicion that the costermonger manufactures many a Yarmouth +bloater in some filthy Whitechapel slum, the odour of which by no means +tends to improve the flavour of so delicate a fish. + +But we have to discuss the red-herring, not of the artful politician, +anxious to dodge his hearers, but of the breakfast-table. For this +purpose I am taken to a large oven filled with oak sawdust, gathered from +Ipswich, and oak shavings, which are also brought from a distance, +principally from Bass's Brewery, and, indeed, from all the great works +where oak is used; I see heaps of fire made from these ashes, which give +out much heat, and at the same time much smoke. In a loft above are hung +the herrings, and there they hang twelve days, till they gradually become +of the colour of a guinea, when they are packed up and sent away in +casks, while the bloaters go away in baskets of a hundred, in pots +holding a smaller number, and in barrels in which as many as three +hundred are stowed away. As to the kippered herring, he undergoes quite +a different treatment. Some twenty or thirty women get hold of him, cut +him open, take out his gut and wash him, and then he is hung over an oak +fire and smoked for twelve hours, and thus, saturated with smoke inside +and out, is regarded in many circles as a delicacy to be highly prized. +But he must be got off the premises. Well, if we climb to a loft, we +shall see a good many young women hard at work stripping the rods, on +which he and his fellows have been suspended, and stowing the fish away. +In the autumn especially the peculiar industries connected with the trade +are very considerably exercised. All day long carts come in with the +fish; all day long carts go out with the manufactured articles to the +railway-station; day and night the men and women are at work; in one +quarter the women make and mend the nets, which are then boiled in cutch +and put on board the boats; in another quarter coopers are at work making +boxes and casks and barrels. As to the baskets, the country is ransacked +for them, and as soon as they are filled they take the train and away +they go, to give a flavour to the potato dinner of the poor man, or to +form a tasty adjunct to the dishes under which the breakfast table of his +lord and master groans. In London we get the best--the smaller herrings +go to the North, as the dwellers in those parts will not pay the price +the Londoner does. Great is the joy and rejoicing, as well can be +imagined, at Lowestoft when the herring season comes on. It is true, the +Lowestoft fishers do not have it all to themselves. Yarmouth is a fierce +rival in the race, and, as it has now superior accommodation, many a boat +makes for that far-famed port. Then, the Scotch, when they have done +their fishing, make for the English coast, and manage, as Scotchmen ever +do, to gather a fair share of the spoil. As to the foreigners, they are +not such formidable rivals as sometimes we are apt to believe. The +Frenchman or the Dutchman comes, but that is when he is blown off by a +gale from his own happy hunting-ground, and then we know, all the world +over, the cry is, 'Any port in a storm.' + +Oh, these storms! how terrible they are! and how little, as we eat our +Yarmouth bloater of a morning, or spread the bloater-paste as a covering +to the thin slice of bread-and-butter, to tempt the languid appetite--how +little do we who sit at home at ease realize their fury and their power! +As I now write, twenty-one orphans are bewailing the loss of fathers who +went out in a craft during the last gale, and of whom no sign has been +seen, nor ever will. Hour by hour the women, weeping and watching on the +sandy shore, saw one and another familiar boat come, more or less +buffeted, into port. On more than one a hand had been washed away, but +the craft and the rest of the crew were saved somehow. But one boat yet +remained missing, and in vain the survivors were questioned as to what +had become of the _Skimmer of the Sea_. Day by day anxious eyes swept +the distant horizon. Day by day a sadder weight came down on weeping +child and broken-hearted wife; and now all hope is gone, and all felt +that in the fury of the gale the _Skimmer of the Sea_ foundered with all +her hands. Well, as the good old Admiral said, as he and his men were +about to perish, 'My lads, the way to heaven is as short by sea as by +land.' But the wounded heart in the agony of its grief is slow to +realize that fact. Sailors ought to be serious men; every halfpenny they +earn is won at the risk of a life. In Lowestoft, I am glad to find, many +of them are. 'The Salvation Army has done 'em a deal of good,' says a +decent woman, with whom I happened to scrape an acquaintance at the most +attractive coffee-house I have ever seen--the Coffee Pot at Mutford +Bridge. 'Not that I holds with the Salvation Army myself, sir, but +they've done the men a deal of good, and they don't spend their wages, as +they used to do, in drink.' + +Lowestoft, when I was there last, had just lost one of its heroes--I mean +the late Mr. George Borrow--whose 'Bible in Spain' was the talk of the +season in religious and worldly circles alike, and whose writings on +Gipsies and Wild Wales and the 'Bible in Spain' achieved at one time an +enormous popularity. He lived--I can still remember his tall form--on a +bank a couple of miles out of Lowestoft, sloping down to a large piece of +water known in those parts as Oulton Broad. The tourist, if he looks to +his right just after he has passed Mutford Bridge on the rail from +Lowestoft to Beccles, across the wide sheet of water, which, as I saw it +last, lay calm and blue in the fading glory of an autumnal sun, will +perhaps see a white house at a distance, nestled in among the +fir-trees--that was where George Borrow lived, and where he died, though +he was buried in Brompton Cemetery by the side of his wife. You cannot +make a mistake, for houses are rare in those parts. As his step-daughter +observed to me, the proper way is by water; to get to the house by +land--at least as I did--you walk along the rail for a couple of miles, +then break off across a bit of a swamp, to a little lane that conducts +you to Oulton Church--a very ancient one, which, however, is in a state +of good repair and is noted partly on account of the fact that the +steeple is built in the middle, and partly on account of its containing, +so it is said, the earliest example of a brass to an ecclesiastic which +is to be found in England. A narrow path from the church leads you to +Oulton Hall, which came into the possession of Borrow by marriage, really +a very plain, red-brick, capacious, comfortable-looking old farmhouse, +only of a superior class. Keeping the Hall to the right, you reach a +gate, which opens into a very narrow lane, full of mud in the winter and +dust in the summer. The lane loses itself in the marshland, on the +borders of Lake Lothing--a name supposed to have been derived from a +certain Danish prince, murdered on the spot by a jealous Court retainer; +and it is a fitting place for a murder, as in that lonely district there +was no eye to pity, no ear to hear, no hand to save. Even to-day, as you +look away from the train, there is little sign of life, save the sail of +a distant wherry as it makes sluggishly for Norwich or Beccles, as it +goes either into the Waveney or the Yare; or the gray wing of the heron +as it flies heavily along the marsh; and that is all. Far away, perhaps, +rises a ridge, with a house on it; or a steeple, with a few trees +struggling to yield the barren spot a shelter from the suns of summer or +the howling winds of winter; but all is still life there, and the +habitations of men are few and far between. In the particular lane to +which I have introduced the reader--there are but two--there is a little +cottage on your left, and beyond, under a group of trees, mostly fir, +which almost hide it from view, a home of a rather superior character, in +a very dilapidated condition, with everything around it more or less +untidy--that was where George Borrow lived and worked in his way for many +a long day. The step-daughter and her husband reside there now--very +ancient people, who are to be seen driving about Lowestoft in a little +wicker car, drawn by an amiable and active donkey, an aged dog guarding +the cottage during their temporary absence. The female, an ancient one, +who did for the house, lives in the little cottage which the tourist will +have already observed, and the interior of which presented, when I peeped +in, a far greater idea of comfort than did Oulton Cottage, the residence +of the late George Borrow. The picture one gets is rather a melancholy +one. 'He was a funny-tempered man'--that seems to have been the idea of +the few people around. Latterly he kept no company, and no one came to +see him. All who did call on him, however, tell me that he was well +dressed, but that all the interior of the house was dirty. Well, that +was to be expected of a man who loved to live with the gipsies, and +patter to them in Romany of Egyptian lore, for it could not have been +want of means. Borrow must have made a good deal of money by his books, +and I have heard his landed property estimated at five hundred per year. +The house looked like the residence of a miser who would not lay out a +penny in keeping up appearances or in repairs. It must be remembered, +however, that the grand old man had long become bowed with age; that for +some years before his death he was scarcely able to move himself without +help; that the grasshopper, as it were, had become a burden. In summer +time such a residence, in good repair and well furnished, would be +perfectly charming. The house contains a sitting-room on each side of +the entrance-hall. Behind is the kitchen, and above are four bedrooms +and two attics--none of them large, I own, but at any rate capable of +being made very cosy. On your right, in a little niche in the cliff, is +a small stable. Lower down is a large summer-house, then full of books +(amongst them, I believe, there were a hundred lexicons), where their +learned proprietor loved to write. Farther down the lawn you come to the +lake, where Borrow could enjoy his morning bath without fear of being +disturbed, and where any amount of fish can be got. Just previous to my +last visit to the spot a pike of more than twenty pounds' weight--I am +afraid to say how many pounds more, lest the reader should think I was +exaggerating--had been caught. For a real angler or sportsman such a +house as that in which George Borrow spent the latter years of his long +life must have been a perfect paradise. The world is utterly away from +you, and, what is better still, in such a spot the world has no chance of +finding you out. Approaching by road, you see no sign of the house till +you are in it, so completely is it hidden in the nook of trees in which +it stands. Only to the water is it open. It would be really beautiful +to live there in the summer, and have a gondola to row into Beccles or +Lowestoft or Bungay when you wanted to be gay. + +One good anecdote I heard of George Borrow the last time I was in the +neighbourhood, which is worth repeating. My informant was an Independent +minister, at that time supplying the pulpit at Lowestoft, and staying at +Oulton Hall, then inhabited by a worthy Dissenting tenant. One night a +meeting of the Bible Society was held at Mutford Bridge, at which the +party from the Hall attended, and where George Borrow was one of the +speakers. After the meeting was over, all the speakers went back to +supper at Oulton Hall, and my friend among them, who, in the course of +the supper, found himself attacked very violently by the clergyman for +holding Calvinistic opinions. Naturally my friend replied that the +clergyman was bound to do the same. 'How do you make that out?' 'Why, +the Articles of your Church are Calvinistic, and to them you have sworn +assent.' 'Oh yes, but there is a way of explaining them away.' 'How +so?' said my friend. 'Oh,' replied the clergyman, 'we are not bound to +take the words in their natural sense.' My friend, an honest, blunt East +Anglian, intimated that he did not understand that way of evading the +difficulty; but he was then a young man, and did not like to continue the +discussion further. However, George Borrow, who had not said a word +hitherto, entered into the discussion, opening fire on the clergyman in a +very unexpected manner, and giving him such a setting down as the +hearers, at any rate, never forgot. All the sophistry about the +non-natural meaning of terms was held up by Borrow to ridicule, even +contempt; and the clergyman was beaten at every point. 'Never,' says my +friend, 'did I hear one man give another such a dressing as on that +occasion.' It was not always, however, that Borrow thus shone. In the +neighbourhood of Bungay lived a gentleman much given to collect around +him men of literary taste and culture. A lecture was to be given in the +neighbourhood, and all the men of light and leading around were invited. +George Borrow was one of the earliest arrivals, and seated himself before +the fire with a book in his hand, over which he nodded superciliously, as +the host brought up all his guests in succession to be introduced to the +lion of the town. At dinner which followed, which was rather a jovial +one, and at which the bottle went round freely, so loud and general was +the conversation that my friend, a clever lawyer, with remarkably good +ears, was quite unable to catch a sentence from the great author's lips. +Perhaps Borrow really did say nothing, or next to nothing. It is quite +as likely that he did as not, as I have already informed the reader that +'he was a funny-tempered man.' + +'Catherine Gurney,' writes Caroline Fox, 'gave us a note to George +Borrow, so on him we called--a tall, ungainly man, with great physical +strength, quick, penetrating eye, a confident manner, and a disagreeable +tone and pronunciation.' We gather from the same lady that it was Joseph +John Gurney who recommended George Borrow to the Committee of the Bible +Society. 'So he stalked up to London, and they gave him a hymn to +translate into the Manchow language, and the same to one of their people +to translate also. When compared they proved to be very different. When +put before their reader, he had the candour to say that Borrow's was much +the better of the two. On this they sent him to Petersburg to get it +printed, and then gave him business in Portugal.' + +One thing is clear--that Borrow was a lonely man, and evidently one who +did not hold the resources of civilization in such esteem as Mr. +Gladstone does. He loved Nature and her ways, and people like the +gipsies, who are supposed to be of a similar way of thinking. He +eschewed the hum of cities and the roar of the 'madding crowd.' He was +big in body and in mind, and wanted elbow-room; and yet what would he +have been if he had not lived in a city, and come under the stimulative +influence of such men as Edward Taylor, of Norwich? It is idle to +complain of cities, however they sully the air, and deface the land, and +pollute the water, and rear the weak and vicious and the wicked--to +remind us how low and depraved human nature can become when it is cut off +from communion with Nature and Nature's God. Borrow owed much to cities, +and was best appreciated by the men who dwelt in them. There is often a +good deal of affectation about the love of rural solitude, nor does it +often last long when there is a wife to have a voice in the matter. Yet +in Borrow undoubtedly the feeling was sincere, and of him Wordsworth +might have written-- + + 'As in the eye of Nature he has lived, + So in the eye of Nature let him die.' + +Lowestoft was a frequent attraction for a youthful ramble--perhaps almost +too far, unless one could manage to get a lift in a little yellow-painted +black-bodied vehicle called a whisky, which was grandfather's property, +and into the shafts of which could be put any spare quadruped, whether +donkey, or mule, or pony, it mattered little, and which afforded a +considerable relief when a trip as far as Lowestoft was determined on. +At that time there was no harbour, and the town consisted simply of one +High Street, gradually rising towards the north, with a fine space for +boys to play in between the cliff and the sea, called the denes. I can +well remember being taken to view the works of the harbour before the +water was let in, and not a little astonished at what then was to me a +new world of engineering science and skill. In the High Street there was +a little old-fashioned and by no means flourishing Independent Chapel, +where at one time the preacher was the Rev. Mr. Maurice, the father of +the Mr. Maurice to whom many owe a great awakening of spiritual life, and +whose memory they still regard as that of a beloved and honoured teacher. +Mr. Maurice was a Unitarian, I believe, and, when he retired, handed over +the chapel to my father with the remark that it was no use his preaching +there any longer. The preacher in my time was the Rev. George Steffe +Crisp, a kindly, timid, tearful man, always in difficulties with his +people, and who often resorted to Wrentham for advice. Latterly he +retired from the ministry, and kept a shop and school. In this capacity +one day my old friend John Childs, of Bungay, the far-famed printer--of +whom I shall have much to say anon--called on him, when the following +dialogue took place: 'Good-morning, Mr. Crisp.' 'Good-morning, Mr. +Childs.' 'Well, how are you getting on?' 'Oh, very well; but there is +one thing that troubles me much.' 'What is that?' 'That I am getting +deaf, and can't hear my minister.' 'Oh,' was the cynical reply, 'you +ought to be thankful for your privileges.' + +Lowestoft is reported to have been a fishing station as early as the time +of the Romans; but the ancient town is supposed to have been long +engulfed by the resistless sea, for there was to be seen till the 25th of +Henry VIII. the remains of an old house upon an inundated spot--left dry +at low water about four furlongs east of the present beach. The town has +been the birthplace of many distinguished men--of Sir Thomas Allen, for +instance, who was steadily attached to the Royal cause, and who after the +Restoration rose high in command, and won many a victory over the Dutch +and the Algerines; of Sir Andrew Leake, who fell in the attack on +Gibraltar; of Rear-Admiral Richard Utbar, also a renowned fighter when +England and Holland were at war. To the same town also belong Admiral +Sir John Ashby, who died in 1693, and his nephew Vice-Admiral James +Mighells. Nor must we fail to do justice to Thomas Nash, a facetious +writer of considerable reputation in the latter part of the sixteenth +century. The most witty of his productions is a satirical pamphlet in +praise of red herrings, intended as a joke upon the great staple of +Yarmouth, and the pretensions of that place to superiority over +Lowestoft. It must be confessed that Nash is chiefly famous as a caustic +pamphleteer and an unscrupulous satirist. For illustration we may point +to his battle with Gabriel Harvey, the friend of Edmund Spenser, who +desired that he might be epitaphed the inventor of the not yet +naturalized English hexameter; and his other battle with Martin Mar +Prelate, or the writer or writers who passed under that name, and who +have acquired a reputation to which poor Nash can lay no claim. His one +conspicuous dramatic effort is 'Summer's Last Will and Testament.' Nash +wrote for bare existence--to use his own words, 'contending with the +cold, and conversing with scarcity.' Nash lived in an unpropitious age. +A recent French writer has placed him in the foremost rank of English +writers. Dr. Jusserand, the author referred to, in his accounts of the +English novel in the time of Shakespeare, tells us Nash was the most +successful exponent in England of the picturesque novel. The picturesque +novel is the forerunner of the realistic novel of modern times. It +portrays the life and fortunes of the picaro--the adventurer who tries +all roads to fortune. Spanish in its origin, it developed into a school +in which Defoe and Thackeray distinguished themselves. 'Nash,' writes +the French author, 'mingled serious scenes with his comedy, in order that +his romances might more nearly resemble real life.' In fact (he writes), +'Nash does not only possess the merit of learning how to observe the +ridiculous side of human nature, and of portraying in a full light +picturesque figures--now worthy of Teniers and now of Callot--some fat +and greasy, others lean and lank; he possesses a thing very rare with the +picturesque school, the faculty of being moved. He seems to have +foreseen the immense field of study which was to be opened later to the +novelist. A distant ancestor of Fielding, as Lilly and Sidney appear to +us to be distant ancestors of Richardson, he understands that a picture +of active life, reproducing only in the Spanish fashion scenes of comedy, +is incomplete and departs from reality. The greatest jesters, the most +arrogant, the most venturesome, have their days of anguish. No hero has +ever yet remained imprisoned from the cradle to the grave, and no one has +been able to live an irresponsible spectator, and not feel his heart +sometimes beat the quicker, nor bow his head unmoved. Nash caught a +glimpse of this.' As an illustration, Dr. Jusserand points to his 'Jack +Wilton'--'The best specimen of the picturesque tale in English literature +anterior to Defoe.' In Lowestoft they ought to keep his memory green. + +The writer well remembers the day when Mr., afterwards Sir, Morton Peto, +assembled the inhabitants of Lowestoft in the then dilapidated Town Hall, +and promised that if they would sell their ruined harbour works, and back +him in making a railway, their mackerel and herrings should be delivered +almost alive in Manchester, Liverpool, and London. The inhabitants +believed in the power of the enchanter, and Lowestoft is metamorphosed. +The old town remains upon its beautiful eminence, and memory clings to +the cliffs and to the denes, tenanted only, the one by wild rabbits, the +other by the merry children and the nets of the fishermen. But a new +town has grown up around the harbour--a grand hotel, excellent +lodging-houses, a new church; a great population have upset the romance, +and borne witness to the spirit of enterprise which characterizes this +generation. The new town has spread to Kirkley, has Londonized even +quiet Pakefield, and awakened a sleeping neighbourhood to what men call +life. + +At Lowestoft commence what are known to sailors as the Yarmouth Roads--a +grand stretch of sea protected by the sands, where an armada might anchor +secure; and it was a sight not to be seen now, when gigantic steamers do +all the business of the sea, to watch the hundreds of ships that would +come inside the Roads at certain seasons of the year. There, in the +winter-time--that is, from Lowestoft to Covehithe--I have seen the beach +strewed with wrecks, chiefly of rotten colliers, or ships in the corn +trade; but inside 'Lowestoft Roads,' to which they were guided by a +lighthouse on the cliff, they were supposed to be secure. Lowestoft at +that time, with its charming sands, was little known to the gay world, +and depended far more on the fishing than the bathing season. The former +was a busy time, and kept all the country round in a state of excitement. +Many were the men, for instance, who, even as far off as Wrentham, went +herring or mackerel fishing in the big craft, which, drawn up on the +beach when the season was over, seemed to me ships such as never had been +seen by the mariners of Tyre and Sidon; but the chief interest to me were +the vans in which the fish were carried from Lowestoft to London--light +spring-carts with four wheels and two horses, that, after changing horses +at our Spread Eagle, raced like lightning along the turnpike-road, at all +hours, and even on Sundays--a sad grievance to the godly--beating the +Yarmouth mail. + +Now and then, even at that remote period, when railways were not, and +when Lowestoft was no port, nothing but a fishing-station, distinguished +people came to Lowestoft, attracted by its bracing air and exceptional +bathing attractions. I can in this way recollect Sir Edward Parry and M. +Guizot. But there were other personages equally distinguished. One of +these was Mrs. Siddons, with whom an old Dissenting minister--the Rev. S. +Sloper, of Beccles, whom I can well remember--contracted quite an +intimacy. She had already passed the zenith of her celebrity. +'Providence,' writes my friend, Mr. Wilton Rix, of Beccles, in his 'East +Anglian Nonconformity,' published as far back as 1851, 'had repeatedly +and recently called her to tread in domestic life the path of sorrow, and +her religious advantages, however few, had taught her that + + '"That path alone + Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown." + +'"Sweet, sometimes," said she, "are the uses of adversity. It not only +strengthens family affection, but it teaches us all to walk humbly with +God." It is not surprising that she was disposed to cultivate the +society of those who could blend piety with cheerfulness, and with whom +she might be on friendly terms without ceremony. Such acquaintances she +found in Mr. Sloper's family. Mrs. Siddons, with unassuming kindness, +contributed to their amusement by specimens of her powerful reading. She +joined willingly in the worship of the family, and maintained the same +invaluable practice at her own lodgings.' Mr. Rix continues: 'Just at +that time Mr. Sloper was requested to preach to his own people on an +affecting and mournful occasion, the death of a suicide. Though he +keenly felt the delicacy and difficulty of the task, a sense of duty and +a possibility of usefulness overcame his scruples. He selected for his +text the impressive sentiment of the Apostle, "The sorrow of the world +worketh death." Mrs. Siddons was one of his auditors. She, who had been +the honoured guest of Royalty, who had been enthroned as the Tragic Muse, +and whose voice had charmed applauding multitudes, was seen in the humble +Dissenting meeting-house at Beccles shedding abundant and unaffected +tears at the plain and faithful exhibition of religious truth. Mr. +Sloper's preaching was as powerfully recommended to her by the delightful +illustration of Christian principles exhibited in his private character, +as by the intrinsic importance of those principles, and the simple +gravity and penetrating earnestness with which they were announced from +his lips. He afterwards procured for her, at her request, a copy of +Scott's admirable "Commentary on the Bible," which he accompanied with a +letter, warmly urging upon her attention the great realities her +profession had so manifest a tendency to exclude from her contemplations. +Mrs. Siddons,' again I quote Mr. Rix, 'more than once expressed her +gratitude for the interest Mr. Sloper had evinced in her eternal welfare; +she thanked him in writing for the advice he had given her, adding an +emphatic wish that God might enable her to follow it--a wish which her +pious and amiable correspondent echoed with all the fervour of his heart. +She returned into the glare of popularity, but a hope may easily be +indulged that the pressure of subsequent relative afflictions and of old +age were not permitted to come upon her unaccompanied by the impressions +and consolations of true religion. Her elegant biographer, Mr. Campbell, +draws a veil over the state of her mind during her last hours, which it +would be deeply interesting to penetrate. Would she not then, if reason +were undimmed, reflect upon the faithful counsel she received with +Scott's Bible as being of infinitely greater value than the applause of +myriads or the fame of ages?' + +Beccles, where this good Mr. Sloper lived, and where the writer of this +extract was a respectable solicitor--I believe the firm of Rix and Son +still exists--was a small market town about eight miles from Wrentham, +inland. At that time it ranked as the third town in Suffolk. Towards +the west it is skirted by a cliff, once washed by the estuary which +separated the eastern portions of Norfolk and Suffolk. There is every +reason to believe that ages back the mouth of the Yare was an estuary or +arm of the sea, and extended with considerable magnitude for many miles +up the country. The herring fishery was thus a principal source of +emolument to the inhabitants, and in the time of the Conqueror the fee +farm rent of the manor of Beccles to the King was 60,000 herrings, and in +the time of the Confessor 20,000. About 956 the manor and advowson of +Beccles were granted by King Edwy to the monks of Bury, and remained in +their possession until the dissolution of the religious houses under +Henry VIII. + +As I have said, and as I repeat, in these languid days--when the old +creeds have lost their power and the old bottles are bursting with new +wine--the glory of East Anglia was that it was the first to stand up in +the face of priest or king for the truth--or what it held to be such. +Amongst the early martyrs under Mary were three burnt at Beccles--Thomas +Spicer, of Winston, labourer, John Deny, and Edmond Poole. This was in +the year 1556. Their crime in the indictment, drawn up by Dr. Hopton, +Bishop of Norwich, and his Chancellor, Dunning, according to Fox, was: + +'1. First was articulate against them that they belieued not the Pope of +Rome to bee supreame head immediately in Christ on earth of the +Universall Catholike Church. + +'2. That they belieued not holie bread and holie water, ashes, palmes, +and all other like ceremonies used in the Church to bee good and laudable +for stirring up the people to devotion. + +'3. Item that they belieued not afterwards of consecration spoken by the +priest, the very naturall body of Christ, and no other substance of bread +and wine to bee in the Sacrament of the altar. + +'4. Item that they belieued it to bee idolatry to worship Christ in the +Sacrament of the altar. + +'5. Item that they tooke bread and wine in remembrance of Christ's +Passion. + +'6. Item that they would not followe the crosse in procession nor bee +confessed to a priest. + +'7. Item that they affirmed no mortal man to have in himself free will +to do good or evill.' + +It appears that the writ had not come down, nevertheless these brave men +were burnt at the stake. 'When they came,' continues Fox, 'to the +reciting of the creed, Sir John Silliard spake to them, "That is well +said, sirs. I am glad to heare you saie you do belieue the Catholike +Church; that is the best word I heard of you yet." + +'To which his sayings Edmond Poole answered, "Though they belieue the +Catholike Church, yet do they not belieue in their Popish Church, which +is no part of Christ's Catholike Church, and, therefore, no part of their +beliefe." + +'When they rose from praier they all went joyfullie to the stake, and, +being bound thereto, and the fire burning about them, they praised God in +such an audible voice that it was wonderful to all those who stood bye +and heard them. Then one Robert Bacon, dwelling in the said Beccles, a +very enemy to God's truth, and a persecutor of His people, being then +present, within the hearing thereof willed the tormentors to throwe on +faggots to stop the knaues breathes, as he termed them; so hot was his +burning charitie. But these good men, not regarding their malice, +confessed the truth, and yielded their lives to the death for the +testimonie of the same very gloriouslie and joyfullie.' + +These men were the precursors of that Nonconformity which has made +England the home of the free, and such men abounded in East Anglia. +Under Queen Elizabeth they had as bad a time of it almost as under Queen +Mary. For instance, we find under Dr. Freke, Bishop of Norwich, and in +the reign of glorious Queen Bess, as her admirers term her, Mathew +Hammond, a poor ploughwright, of Hethersett, was condemned as a heretic, +had his ears cut off, and after the lapse of a week was committed, in the +Castle ditch at Norwich, to the more agonizing torment of the flames. +The translation of Dr. Whitgift to the See of Canterbury was the signal +for augmented rigour. He was charged by his imperious mistress to +restore religious uniformity, which she confessed, notwithstanding all +her precautions, ran out of square. One of the first victims to this new +_regime_ was William Fleming, Rector of Beccles. The living of Beccles +at this period was vested in Lady Anne Gresham, the widow of Sir Thomas +Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange. Previously to her marriage, +she was the widow of William Rede, merchant, of London and Beccles. +Under James I. and Bishop Wren, men of integrity and conscience fared +worse than under Queen Elizabeth, and naturally the people thus +persecuted formed themselves into a Church. That in Beccles dated from +1652, and in the covenant drawn up on the occasion we find it was +resolved: + +'1. That we will for ever acknowledge and admit the Lord to be our God +in Jesus Christ, giving up ourselves to Him to be His people. + +'2. That we will alwaies endevour, through the grace of God assisting +us, to walke in all His waies and ordinances, according to His written +Word, which is the only sufficient rule of good life for every man. +Neither will we suffer ourselves to be polluted by any sinful waies, +either publike or private, but endeavour to abstaine from the very +appearance of evill, giving no offence to the Jew or Gentile, or the +Churches of Christ. + +'3. That we will humbly and willingly submit ourselves to the government +of Christ in this Church--in the administration of the Word, the seals, +and discipline. + +'4. That we will in all love approve our communion as brethren by +watching over one another, and as such shall be; counsel, administer, +relieve, assist, and bear with one another, serving one another in love. + +'5. Lastly, we do not covenant or promise these things in our own, but +in Christ's strength; neither do we confine ourselves to the words of +this covenant, but shall at all time account it our duty to embrace any +further light or covenant which shall be revealed to us out of God's +Word.' + +This covenant, however, was not to prevent in after time censure being +cast on others who, endeavouring to preserve its spirit, were led to +think differently from the majority. For instance, we find in 1656 two +persons, who had been members of the Independent church at Beccles, +received adult baptism, and in so doing were considered to have given +'offence' to the church, and were desired to appear and give an account +of their practices. + +At one time there was little of what we know as congregational singing. +In 1657 it was agreed by the Beccles church 'that they do put in practice +the ordinance of singing in the publick upon the forenoon and afternoon +of the Lord's daies, and that it be between praier and sermon; and also +it was agreed that the New England translation of the Psalmes be made use +of by the church at their times of breaking of bread, and it was agreed +that the next Lord's day, seventh night, might be the day to enter upon +the work of singing in publick.' It is interesting to note that one of +the pastors of the Beccles church was a Mr. Nokes, who had been +trained--where Calamy and many others were trained--at the University of +Utrecht, and that in the same year in which Dr. Watts accepted the +pastoral office, he addressed to Mr. Nokes a poem on 'Friendship,' which +is still included in the Doctor's works. Dissent, when I was a boy, was +considered low. We were contemptuously termed 'pograms,' a term of +reproach the origin of which I have never learnt. The landed gentry, the +small squires, the lawyers and the doctors, and the tradespeople who +pandered to their prejudices and fattened on their patronage, were slow +to say a word in favour of a Dissenter. The poor who went to chapel were +excluded from many benefits enjoyed by their fellow-parishioners. It was +the fashion to treat them with scorn, yet I have heard one of the most +excellent and finished gentlemen in the district declare that he heard +better talk in my father's parlour than he did anywhere else in the +neighbourhood, and I can well believe it, for the Dissenting minister, as +a rule, at that time, was a better read man, and a more studious one, +than the clergyman of the district, in spite of his University education; +and in matters affecting the welfare of the nation, and that came under +the denomination of politics, his views were far more rational than those +of Churchmen in general, and the clergy in particular. We learn from +Milton's State Papers that the churches of East Anglia petitioned Oliver +Cromwell that the three nations might enjoy the blessings of a godly, +upright magistracy; that they might have Courts of Judicature in their +own country; and that honest men of known fidelity and uprightness might +be authorized to determine trivial matters of debt or difference. +Assuredly the East Anglian saints--the latter term was, and, strange to +say, is still, used as a term of reproach--were wise and right-thinking +men where Church government and public policy were concerned. We love to +read the story of the Pilgrim Fathers. With what rapture Mrs. Hemans +wrote: + + 'What sought they thus afar? + Bright jewels of the mine? + The wealth of seas? the spoils of war? + They sought a faith's pure shrine. + + 'Ay, call it holy ground, + The soil where first they trod; + They left unstained what there they found-- + FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD.' + +But it seems to me that a greater glory was won by, and a greater honour +should be paid to, the men who did not cross the Atlantic; who did not +seek an asylum in a foreign land; who remained at home to suffer--to die, +if need be, to uphold the rights of conscience, and to fight the good +fight of faith. It is not even in our tolerant, and, as we deem it, more +enlightened day, that full justice is done to these men. In what calls +itself good society you meet men and women whose ancestors were +Dissenters, and yet who are ashamed of the fact--a fact of which no one +can be ashamed who feels how in East Anglia, at any rate, the religious +teaching of Dissent purified the life of the people, enlarged their +political views, and helped this great land of ours to sweep into a +better and a younger day. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +POLITICS AND THEOLOGY. + + +Homerton academy--W. Johnson Fox, M.P.--Politics in 1830--Anti-Corn Law +speeches--Wonderful oratory. + +About 1830 there was, if not a good deal of actual light let into such +dark places as our Suffolk village--where it was considered the whole +duty of man, as regards the poor, to attend church and make a bow to +their betters (a rustic ceremony generally performed by pulling the lock +of hair on the forehead with the right hand), and to be grateful for the +wretched station of life in which they were placed--at any rate, a great +shaking among the dry bones. One summer morning an awe fell on the +parish as it ran from one to another that the guard of the Yarmouth and +London Royal Mail had left word with the ostler at the Spread Eagle that +George the Fourth was dead; then a certain dull sound as of cannon firing +afar off had been wafted across the German Ocean, and had given rise to +mysterious speculations on the subject of Continental wars, in which +Suffolk lads might have to ''list' as 'sogers'; and last of all there +came that grand excitement when--North and South, East and West--the +nation rose as one man to demand political and Parliamentary Reform. It +was a delusion, perhaps, that cry, but it was a glorious one, +nevertheless; that the millennium could be delayed when we had +Parliamentary Reform no one for a moment doubted. The sad but undeniable +fact that mostly men are fools with whom beer is omnipotent had not then +entered into men's minds, and thus England and Scotland some sixty years +ago wore an aspect of activity and enthusiasm of which the present +generation can have no idea, and which, perhaps, can never occur again. + +Far away in the distant city which the Suffolk villagers called Lunnon, +there was a Suffolk lad, whose relations kept a very little shop just by +us, who was born at Uggeshall--pronounced Ouchell by the common +people--on a very small farm, and who, as Unitarian preacher and +newspaper writer, had been and was doing his best in the good cause; but +it was not the influence of W. Johnson Fox--for it is of him I +write--that did much in our little village to leaven the mass with the +leaven of Reform. While quite a lad the Foxes went to Norwich, where the +future preacher and teacher worked as a weaver boy. In after-years it +was often my privilege to meet Mr. Fox, who had then attained no small +share of London distinction, amongst whose hearers were men, often many +of the most distinguished _literati_ of the day--such as Dickens and +Forster--and who was actually to sit in Parliament as M.P. for Oldham, +where, old as he was--and Mr. Gladstone says, 'People who wish to succeed +in Parliament should enter it young'--he occupied a most respectable +position, all the more creditable when you remember that Parliament, even +at that recent date, was a far more select and aristocratic assembly than +any Parliament of our day, or of the future, can possibly be. Mr. Fox +had been educated at Homerton Academy--as such places were then termed +(college is the word we use now)--under the good and venerable Dr. +Pye-Smith, whose 'Scripture Testimony to the Messiah' was supposed to +have given Unitarianism a deadly blow, but whom I chiefly remember as a +very deaf old man, and one of the first to recognise the fact that the +Bible and geology were not necessarily opposed to each other, and to +welcome and proclaim the truth--at that time received with fear and +trembling, if received at all--that the God of Nature and the God of +Revelation were the same. There was a good deal of free inquiry at +Homerton Academy, which, however, Mr. Fox assured me, gradually subsided +into the right amount of orthodoxy as the time came for the student to +exchange his sure and safe retreat for the fiery ordeal of the deacon and +the pew. My father and Johnson Fox had been fellow-students, and for +some time corresponded together. The correspondence in due time, +however, naturally ceased, as it was chiefly controversial, and nothing +can be more irksome than for two people who have made up their minds, and +whom nothing can change, to be arguing continually, and the friendship +between them in some sense ceased as the one remained firm to, and the +other wandered farther and farther from, the modified Calvinism of the +Wrentham Church and pulpit, where, as in all orthodox pulpits at that +time, it was taught that men were villains by necessity, and fools, as it +were, by a Divine thrusting on; that for some a Saviour had been +crucified, that there might be a way of escape from the wrath of an angry +and unforgiving God; whilst for the vast mass--to whom the name of Christ +had never been made known, to whom the Bible had never been sent--there +was an impending doom, the awful horror of which no tongue could tell, no +imagination conceive. But to the last Mr. Fox--especially if you met him +with his old-fashioned hat on in the street--looked far more of a Puritan +divine than of the literary man, or the chief of the advanced thinkers in +Church and State, or an M.P. At a later time what pleasure it gave me to +listen to this distinguished East Anglian as he appeared at the crowded +Anti-Corn Law meetings held in Covent Garden or Drury Lane! Ungainly in +figure, monotonous in tone, almost without a particle of action, regarded +as free in his religious opinions by the vast majority of his audience, +who were, at that time, prone, even in London, to hold that Orthodoxy, +like Charity, covered a multitude of sins. What an orator he was! How +smoothly the sentences fell from his lips one after the other; with what +happy wit did he expose Protectionist fallacies, or enunciate Free Trade +principles, which up to that time had been held as the special property +of the philosopher, far too subtle to be understood and appreciated by +the mob! With what felicity did he illustrate his weighty theme; with +what clearness did he bring home to the people the wrong and injustice +done to every one of them by the landlord's attempt to keep up his rent +by a tax on corn; and then with what glowing enthusiasm did they wait and +listen for the climax, which, if studied, and perhaps artificial, seemed +like the ocean wave to grow grander and larger the nearer it came, till +it fell with resistless force on all around. It seems to me like a +dream, all that distant and almost unrecorded past. I see no such +meetings, I hear no such orators now. As Mr. Disraeli said of Lord +Salisbury when he was Lord Robert Cecil, there was a want of finish about +his style, and the remark holds good of the orator of to-day as +contrasted with the platform speaker of the past. It is impossible to +fancy anyone in our sober age attempting, to say nothing of succeeding in +the attempt (my remarks, of course, do not apply to Irish audiences or +Irish orators), to get an audience to rise _en masse_ and swear never to +fold their arms, never to relax their efforts, till their end was gained +and victory won; yet Mr. Fox did so, and long as I live shall I remember +the night when, in response to his impassioned appeal, the whole +house--and it was crowded to the ceiling--rose, ladies in the boxes, +decent City men in the pit, gods in the gallery--to swear never to tire, +never to rest, never to slacken, till the peasant at the plough, the +cotton-spinner in the mill, the collier in the mine, the lone widow +stitching for life far into the early morning in her wretched garret, and +the pauper in his still more wretched cellar, ate their untaxed loaf. As +the 'Publicola' of the _Weekly Dispatch_, Mr. Fox laboured to the end of +his life in the good cause of Peace, Retrenchment, and Reform. It is not +right that his memory should remain unrecorded--his life assuredly was an +interesting one. Harriet Martineau writes in her autobiography that 'his +editorial correspondence with me was unquestionably the reason, and in +great measure the cause, of the greatest intellectual progress I ever +made before the age of thirty.' + +But it was not from William Johnson Fox that at that time came to our +small village the grain of light that was to leaven the lump around. +Lecturing and oratory, and even public tea-meetings, were things almost +unknown. Now and then a deputation from the London Missionary Society +came to Wrentham, and in this way I remember William Ellis, then a +missionary from Madagascar, and Mr. George Bennett, who, in conjunction +with the Rev. Mr. Tyerman, had been on a tour of inspection to the +islands of the South Seas, and to whose tales of travel rustic audiences +listened with delight. Once upon a time--but that was later--the +Religious Tract Society sent a deputation in the shape of a well-known +travelling secretary, Mr. Jones. This Mr. Jones was inclined to +corpulency, and I can well remember how we all laughed when, on one +occasion, the daughter of a neighbouring minister, having opened the door +in reply to his knock, ran delightedly into her papa's study to announce +the arrival of the Tract Society! + +A great impression was also made in all parts of the country by the +occasional appearances of the Anti-Slavery Society's lecturers. In 1831, +as Sir G. Stephen tells us, the younger section of the Anti-Slavery body +resolved to stir up the country by sending lecturers to the villages and +towns of the country. The M.P.'s did not much like it. The idea was +novel to them. 'Trust to Parliament,' said they; the outsiders replied, +'Trust to the people.' This scheme of agitation, however, was rejected, +and would have fallen to the ground had not a benevolent Quaker of the +name of Cropper come forward. 'Friend S., what money dost thou want?' +'I want 20,000 pounds, but I will begin if I can get one.' 'Then, I will +give thee 500 pounds.' Joseph Sturge immediately followed with a promise +of 250 pounds, and Mr. Wilberforce twenty guineas; and 1,000 pounds was +raised, and competent agents sent out. It proved by no means an easy +matter to obtain these lecturers, for their duty was not confined to +lecturing; they had also to revive drooping anti-slavery societies and to +establish new ones. Also they were to have collections at the end of +every lecture. One of them who came to Wrentham was Captain Pilkington. +'Pilkington,' writes Sir George Stephen, 'was a pleasing lecturer, and +won over many by his amiable manners; but he wanted power, and resigned +in six months.' We in Wrentham, however, did not think so, and I can to +this day recall the sensation he created in our rustic minds as he +described the horrors of slavery, and showed us the whip and chains by +which those horrors were caused. To the Dissenting chapel most of these +lecturers were indebted for their audience, and if I ever worked hard as +a boy, it was to get signatures to anti-slavery petitions. Naturally, a +Church parson came to regard all that was attacked by Reformers as a +bulwark of the Establishment, and in our part the Meetingers' were the +sole friends of the slave. + +As was to be expected, the reading of the village was of the most limited +description. It is true we children jumped for joy as once a month came +the carrier's cart from Beccles, with the books for the club--the +_Evangelical Magazine_, for all the principal families of the +congregation, and the _Penny Magazine_ and _Chambers's Journal_--then but +in their infancy--for ourselves; but, apart from that, there was no +reading worth mentioning. That which most astonishes the tourist in +Ireland is the way in which people read the newspapers. In our Suffolk +village the very reverse was the case, partly because there were few +newspapers to read, partly because there were few to read them, and +partly because they were dear to buy. The one paper which we took in was +the _Suffolk Chronicle_, which made its appearance on Saturday morning, +the price of which was sixpence, and which was edited by a sturdy Radical +of the name of King, who to the last held to the belief that to have a +London letter full of literary or critical talk for the Suffolk farmers +was, not to put too fine a point on it, to throw pearls before swine. +And perhaps he was right. I can well remember, when one of my early +poetical contributions appeared in its columns, how a fear was expressed +to me by a farmer's widow in our parish, lest 'it had cost me a lot o' +money' to have that effort of my muse in print. Mr. Childs, of Bungay, +had many experiences, equally rustic and still more illustrative of the +simplicity of the class. Once upon a time one of them came in a great +state of excitement for a copy of the 'Life of Mr. General Gazetteer.' +On another occasion a farmer's wife came in search of a Testament. She +wanted it directly, and she wanted it of a large type. A specimen was +selected, which met with the worthy woman's approval. But the question +was, could she have it in half an hour, as she would be away for that +time shopping in the town, and would call for it on her return. She was +told that she could, and great was her astonishment when, on calling on +her return for the Testament, there it was, printed in the particular +type she had selected, ready for her use. + +I have a very strong idea that the calm of the country and the peaceful +occupations of the people had not a very rousing influence upon the +intellect. I may go further, and say that the cares of the farm, when +high farming was unknown, did not much lift at that time the master above +the man. The latter wore a smock-frock, while the former, perhaps, +sported a blue coat with brass buttons, and had rather a better kind of +head-dress, and ambled along on a little steady cob, that knew at which +ale-house to call for the regular allowance, quite as well as his master. +But as regards talk--which was chiefly of bullocks and pigs--well, there +really was no very great difference after all. To such religion was the +mainspring which kept the whole intellect going; and religion was to be +had at the meeting. And I can well remember how strange it seemed to me +that these rough, simple, untutored sons of the soil could speak of it +with enthusiasm, and could pray, at any rate, with astonishing fervour. +Away from the influence of the meeting-house there existed a Boeotian +state of mind, only to be excited by appeals to the senses of the most +palpable character, a state of mind in which faith--the evidence of +things not seen, according to Paul--was quite out of the question; and I +regret to say that, notwithstanding the activity of the last fifty years +and the praiseworthy and laborious efforts of the East Anglian clergy in +all quarters, suitably to rouse and feed the intellect of the East +Anglian peasantry, a good deal yet remains to be done. Only a year or +two ago, riding on an omnibus in a Suffolk village, the driver asked me +if people could go to America by land. 'Of course not,' was my reply. +'Why do you ask such a question?' Well, it came out that he had 'heerd +tell how people got to Americay in ten days; and he did not see how they +could do that unless they went by land, and had good hosses to get 'em +there at that time.' On my explaining the real state of affairs, he +admitted, by way of apology, that he was not much of a traveller himself. +Once he had been to Colchester; but that was a long time ago. + +But to return to the _Suffolk Chronicle_. It was my duty as a lad, when +it had been duly studied at home, to take it to the next subscriber, and +I fancy by the time the paper had gone its round it was not a little the +worse for wear. But there were other political impulses which tended to +create and feed the sacred flame of civil and religious liberty. In one +corner of the village lived a small shopkeeper, who stored away, among +his pots and pans of treacle and sugar and grocery, a few well-thumbed +copies, done up in dirty brown paper, of the squibs and caricatures +published by Hone, whom I can just remember, a red-faced old gentleman in +black, in the _Patriot_ office, and George Cruikshank, with whom I was to +spend many a merry hour in after-life. This small shopkeeper was one of +the chapel people--a kind of superintendent in the Sunday-school, for +which office he was by no means fitted, but there was no one else to take +the berth, and as the family also dealt with him in many ways, I had +often to repair to his shop. It was then our young eyes were opened as +to the wickedness in high places by the perusal of the 'Political House +that Jack built,' and other publications of a similar revolutionary +character. Nothing is sacred to the caricaturist, and half a century ago +bishops and statesmen and lords and kings were very fair subjects for the +exercise of his art. In our day things have changed for the better, +partly as the result of the Radical efforts, of which respectability at +that time stood so much in awe. London newspapers rarely reached so far +as Wrentham. It was the fashion then to look to Ipswich for light and +leading. However, as the cry for reform increased in strength, and the +debates inside the House of Commons and out waxed fiercer, now and then +even a London newspaper found its way into our house, and I can well +remember how our hearts glowed within us as some one of us read, while +father smoked his usual after-dinner pipe, previous to going out to spend +the afternoon visiting his sick and afflicted; and how such names as Earl +Grey, and Lord John Russell, and Lord Brougham--the people then called +him Harry Brougham; it was a pity that he was ever anything else--were +familiar in our mouths as household words. + +In another way also there came to the children in Wrentham the growing +perception of a larger world than that in which we lived, and moved, and +had our being. One of the historic sites of East Anglia is Framlingham, +a small market town, lying a little off the highroad to London, a few +miles from what always seemed to me the very uninteresting village of +Needham Market, though at one time Godwin, the author of 'Caleb +Williams,' preached in the chapel there. There is now a public school +for Suffolk boys at Framlingham, and it may yet make a noise in the +world. Framlingham in our time has given London Mr. Jeaffreson, a +successful man of letters, and Sir Henry Thompson, a still more +successful surgeon. In my young days it was chiefly noted for its +castle. The mother of that amiable and excellent lady, Mrs. Trimmer, +also came from Framlingham; and it is to be hoped that the old town may +have had something to do with the formation of the character of a woman +whom now we should sneer at, perhaps, as goody-goody, but who, when +George the Third was King, did much for the education and improvement of +the young. I read in Mrs. Trimmer's life 'that her father was a man of +an excellent understanding, and of great piety; and so high was his +reputation for knowledge of divinity, and so exemplary his moral conduct, +that, as an exception to their general rule, which admitted no laymen, he +was chosen member of a clerical club in the town (Ipswich) in which he +resided. From him,' continues the biographer of the daughter, 'she +imbibed the purest sentiments of religion and virtue, and learnt betimes +the fundamental principles of Christianity.' Well, it is hoped Mr. Kirby +did his best for his daughter; but, after all, how much more potent is +the influence of a mother! And hence I may claim for Framlingham a fair +share in the formation of even so burning and shining a light as Mrs. +Trimmer. + +The name Framlingham, say the learned, or did say--for what learned men +say at one time does not always correspond with what they say at +another--is composed of two Saxon words, signifying the habitation of +strangers; and to strangers the place is still rich in interest. In its +church sleeps the unfortunate, but heroic, Earl of Surrey, whose +harmonious verse still delights the students of English literature. Some +say he was born at Framlingham. This is matter of doubt; but there is no +doubt about the fact that he was buried there by his son, the Earl of +Northampton, who erected a handsome monument to his father's memory. The +monument is an elevated tomb, with the Earl's arms and those of his lady +in the front in the angles, and with an inscription in the centre. It +has his effigy in armour, with an ermined mantle, his feet leaning +against a lion couchant. On his left is his lady in black, with an +ermined mantle and a coronet. Both have their hands held up as in +prayer. On a projecting plinth in front is the figure of his second son, +the Earl of Northampton, in armour, with a mantle of ermine, kneeling in +prayer. Behind, in a similar plinth, kneeling with a coronet, and in +robes, is his eldest daughter, Jane, Countess of Westmoreland, on the +right; and his third daughter Catherine, the wife of Lord Henry Berkeley +on the left. The monument is kept in order, and painted occasionally, as +directed by the Earl of Northampton, out of the endowment of his hospital +at Greenwich. In repairing the monument in October, 1835, the Rev. +George Attwood, curate of Framlingham, discovered the remains of the Earl +lying embedded in clay, directly under his figure on his tomb. It is +difficult now to find what high treason the chivalrous and poetic and +gallant Earl had been guilty of; but at that time our eighth Henry ruled +the land, and if he wished anyone out of the way, he had not far to go +for witnesses or judge or jury ready to do his wicked and wanton will. +To the shame of England be it said, the Earl of Surrey was beheaded when +he was only thirty years of age. No particulars are preserved of his +deportment in prison or on the scaffold, but from the noble spirit he +evinced at his trial, and from his general character, it cannot be +doubted that he behaved in the last scene of his existence with fortitude +and dignity. On the barbarous injustice to which he was sacrificed +comment is unnecessary; but regret at his early fate is increased by the +circumstance that Henry was in extremities when he ordered his execution, +and that his swollen and enfeebled hands were unequal to the task of +signing his death-warrant. In this respect more fortunate was the father +of Surrey, the Duke of Norfolk, who is buried near the altar of the +church at Framlingham. He also was condemned to death, but in the +meanwhile the King died, and his victim was set free. Not far off is the +tomb of Henry Fitzroy, a natural son of King Henry. He was a friend of +Surrey, and was to have married his sister. The other monuments which +adorn the interior of this magnificent church are a table of black +marble, supported by angels, to the memory of Sir Robert Hitcham, a mural +monument by Roubillac, and others to commemorate virtues and graces, as +embodied in the lives of decent men and women in whom the world has long +ceased to take any interest. + +The venerable castle--here I quote Dr. Dugdale's 'British +Traveller'--with its eventful history, imparts the strongest interest to +the town of Framlingham. Tradition refers its origin to the sixth +century, and ascribes it to Redwald, one of the early Saxon monarchs. +St. Edmund the Martyr fled hither in 870, and was besieged by the Danes, +who took Framlingham and held it fifty years. The Norman King gave the +castle to the Bigods. The castle passed through many hands. It was +there Queen Mary took shelter when, after the death of Edward VI., Lady +Jane Grey was called to the throne, and thence she came to London, on the +capture of the former, to take possession of the crown. It was an evil +day for England when she came to Framlingham Castle and beguiled the +hearts of the Suffolk men. Old Fox tells us that when Mary had returned +to her castle at Framlingham there resorted to her 'the Suffolke men, +who, being alwayes forward in promoting the proceedings of the Gospel, +promised her their aid and help, so that she would not attempt the +alteration of the religion which her brother, King Edward, had before +established by laws and orders publickly enacted, and received by the +consent of the whole realm in his behalf. She afterwards agreed with +such promise made unto them that no innovation should be made of +religion, as that no man would or could then have misdoubted her. +"Victorious by the aid of the Suffolke men," Queen Mary soon forgot her +promise. They of course remonstrated. It was, methinks,' adds Fox, 'an +heavie word that she answered to the Suffolke men afterwards which did +make supplication unto her grace to performe her promise. "For so much," +saith she, "as you being but members desire to rule your head, you shall +one day perceive the members must obey their head, and not look to rule +over the same."' Well, Queen Mary was as good as her word. As Fox adds, +'What she performed on her part the thing itself and the whole story of +the persecution doth testifie.' But the stubborn Suffolk gospellers were +not to be put down, and a remnant had been left in Framlingham, as well +as in other parts of the country. At Framlingham we find a Richard +Goltie, son-in-law of Samuel Ward, of Ipswich, was instituted to the +rectory in 1630. In 1650 he refused the engagement to submit to the then +existing Government, and was removed, when Henry Sampson, M.A., a fellow +of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, was appointed by his college to the vacancy. +He continued there till the Restoration, when Mr. Goltie returned and +took possession of the living, which he continued to hold till his death. +Not being satisfied to conform, Mr. Sampson continued awhile preaching at +Framlingham to those who were attached to his ministry, in private houses +and other buildings, and by his labours laid the foundation of the +Congregational or Independent Church in that town, as appears from a note +in the Church Book belonging to the Dissenters meeting at Woodbridge, in +the Quay Lane. Mr. Sampson collected materials for a history of +Nonconformity, a great part of which is incorporated in Calamy and +Palmer's works. It was to him that John Fairfax, of Needham Market, +wrote, when he and some other ministers were shut up in Bury Gaol for the +crime of preaching the Gospel. It appears that they had met in the +parish church, at Walsham-le-Willows, where, after the liturgy was read +by the clergyman of the parish, a sermon was preached by a non-licensed +minister. The party were then taken and committed to prison, where they +remained till the next Quarter Sessions, when they were released upon +their recognisances to appear at the next Assizes. Then, it seems, +though not convicted upon any other offence, upon the suggestion of the +justices, to whom they were strangers, they were committed again to +prison, on the plea that _they were persons dangerous to the public +peace_. Thus were Dissenters treated in the good old times. Mr. Sampson +seems to have fared somewhat better. After his removal, he travelled on +the Continent, returned to London, entered himself at the College of +Physicians, and lived and died in good repute. The old congregation +having become Unitarian, a new one was formed, and of this Church a +pillar was Mr. Henry Thompson--a gentleman well known and widely honoured +in his day. This Mr. Thompson had a son, who was sent to Wrentham to be +educated for awhile with myself. An uncle of his, one of the most +amiable of men, lived at Southwold, close by, and I presume it was by his +means that the settlement was effected. Be that as it may, the change +was a welcome one, as it gave me a pleasant companion for nearly five +years of boyish life. I confess my two sisters--one of whom has, alas! +long been in her grave--did all they could in the way of sports and +pastimes to meet my wants and wishes, and act like boys; but the fact is, +though it may be doubted in these days of Women's Rights, girls are not +boys, nor can they be expected to behave as such. + +I confess the advent of this young Thompson from Framlingham was a great +event in our small family circle. In the first place he came from a +town, and that at once gave him a marked superiority. Then his father +kept a horse and gig, for it was thus young Thompson came to Wrentham, +and all the world over a gig has been a symbol of the respectability dear +to the British heart; and he had been for that time and as an only son +carefully and intelligently trained by one of the family who, in the +person of the late Edward Miall, founder of the _Nonconformist_, and M.P. +for Bradford, was supposed to be the incarnation of what was termed the +dissidence of Dissent. Young Thompson was also what would be called a +genteel youth, and gave me ideas as to wearing straps to my trousers, +oiling my hair, and generally adorning my person, which had never entered +into my unsophisticated head. He also had been to London, and as +Framlingham was some twenty miles nearer the Metropolis--the centre of +intelligence--than Wrentham, the intelligence of a Framlingham lad was of +course expected, _a fortiori_, to be of a stronger character than that of +one born twenty miles farther from the sun of London. There was also a +good deal of talent in the family on the mother's side. Mrs. Thompson +was a Miss Medley, and Mr. Medley was an artist of great merit, the son +of Mr. Medley, of Liverpool, a leading Baptist minister in his day, and a +writer of hymns still sung in Baptist churches. Mr. Medley was also +active as a Liberal, and was credited by us boys with a personal +acquaintance with no less illustrious an individual than the great +Brougham himself. Once or twice he came to lodge during the summer at +Southwold; naturally he was visited there by his grandson, who would +return well primed with political anecdote to our rustic circle, and was +deemed by me more of an authority than ever. Once or twice, too, I had +the honour of being a visitor, and heard Mr. Medley, a fine old +gentleman, who lived to a very advanced age, talk of art and artists and +other matters quite out of my usual sphere. It is not surprising, then, +that the grandson became in time quite an artist himself, though he is +better known to the world, not so much in that capacity, but as Sir Henry +Thompson, certainly not the least distinguished surgeon of our day. In +Lord Beaconsfield's last novel, 'Endymion,' we have a passing reference +to one Wrentham lad, Sir Charles Wetherell, as 'the eccentric and too +uncompromising Wetherell.' Assuredly the fame of another lad, Sir Henry +Thompson, connected with Wrentham, will longer live. + +This reference to Sir Henry Thompson reminds me of his early attempts at +rhyme, which I trust he will forgive me for rescuing from oblivion. Once +upon a time we captured a young cuckoo, and having carefully gorged it +with bread-and-milk, and left it in a nest in an outhouse, which we +devoted mainly to rabbits, the next morning the poor bird was found to be +dead. A prize was offered for the best couplet. Three of us contended. +My sister wrote: + + 'This lonely sepulchre contains + A little cuckoo's dead remains.' + +I wrote: + + 'To our grief, cuckoo sweet + Is lying underneath our feet.' + +Thompson took quite a different and, read by the light of his subsequent +career, a far more characteristic view of the case. He took care, as a +medical man, to dwell on the cause which had terminated the career of so +interesting a bird. According to him, + + 'It had a breast as soft as silk, + And died of eating bread-and-milk.' + +Assuredly in this case the child was father to the man. + +But the great awakening of the time, that which made the dry bones live, +and fluttered the dove-cotes of Toryism--we never heard the word +Conservative then--was the General Election. At that time we were always +having General Elections. We had one, of course, when George IV. died +and King William reigned in his stead; we had another when the Duke was +out and the Whigs came in; and then we had another when the cry ran +through the land, and reached even the most remote villages of East +Anglia, of 'The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill!' Voters +were brought down, or up, as the case might be, from all quarters of the +land. Coaches-full came tearing along, gorgeous with election flags, and +placarded all over with names of rival candidates. Gentlemen of ancient +lineage called to request of the meanest elector the favour of his vote +and influence. It was with pain the Liberals of our little village +resolved to vote against our Benacre neighbour, Sir Thomas Gooch, who had +long represented the county, but of whom the Radicals spoke derisively as +Gaffer Gooch, or the Benacre Bull, and chose in his stead a country +squire known as Robert Newton Shaw, utterly unknown in our quarter of the +county. + +It was rather a trying time for the Wrentham Liberals and Dissenters to +do their duty, for Sir Thomas was a neighbour, and always was a pleasant +gentleman in the parish, and had power to do anyone mischief who went +against him. Our medical man did not vote at all. Our squire actually, +I believe, supported Sir Thomas, and altogether respectable people found +themselves in an extremely awkward position. At Southwold the people +were a little more independent, for Gaffer Gooch rarely illuminated that +little town with his presence; and as my father, with the economy which +is part and parcel of the Scotchman as he leaves his native land, but +which rarely extends to his children, had, by teaching gentlemen's sons +and other ways, been able to save a little, which little had been devoted +to the purchase of cottage property in Southwold (well do I remember the +difficulty there was in collecting the rents; never, assuredly, were +people so much afflicted or so unfortunate when the time of payment +came), it was for Southwold that he claimed his vote. I, as the son, was +permitted to share in the glories of that eventful day. The election +took place at school-time, and my companion was Henry Thompson. We had +to walk betimes to Frostenden, where Farmer Downing lived, who was that +_rara avis_ a Liberal tenant farmer; but of course he did not vote tenant +farmer, but as a freeholder. It was with alarm that Mrs. Downing saw her +lord and master drive off with us two lads in the gig. There had been +riots at London, riots as near as Ipswich, and why not at Halesworth? A +mile or two after we had started we met, per arrangement, the Southwold +contingent, who joined us with flags flying and a band playing, and all +the pride and pomp and circumstance of war. We rode in a gig, and our +animal was a steady-going mare, and behaved as such; but all had not gigs +or steady-going mares. Some were in carts, some were on horseback, some +in ancient vehicles furbished up for the occasion; and as the band played +and the people shouted, some of the animals felt induced to dance, and +especially was this restlessness on the part of the quadrupeds increased +as we neared Halesworth, in the market-place of which was the +polling-booth, and in the streets of which we out-lying voters riding in +procession made quite a show. Halesworth, or Holser, as it was called, +was distant about nine miles, lying to the left of Yoxford, a village +which its admirers were wont to call the Garden of Suffolk. In 1809 the +Bishop of Norwich wrote from Halesworth: 'The church in this place is +uncommonly fine, and the ruins of an old castle (formerly the seat of the +Howards) are striking and majestic.' But when we went there the ruins +were gone--the more is the pity--and the church remained, at that time +held by no less a Liberal than Richard Whately, afterwards Archbishop of +Dublin. I used at times to meet with a country gentleman--a brother of a +noble lord--who after he had spent a fortune merrily, as country +gentlemen did in the good old times, came to live on a small annuity, +and, in spite of his enormous daily consumption of London porter at the +leading inn of the town, managed to reach a good old age. The hon. +gentleman and I were on friendly terms, and sometimes he would talk of +Whately, who had often been at his house. But, alas! he remembered +nothing of a man who became so celebrated in his day except that he would +eat after dinner any number of oranges, and was so fond of active +exercise that he would take a pitchfork and fill his tumbrels with +manure, or work just like a labourer on a farm. Of the Doctor's aversion +to church-bell ringing we have a curious illustration in a letter which +appeared in the _Suffolk Chronicle_ in 1825: 'A short time since a +wedding took place in the families of two of the oldest and most +respectable inhabitants of the town, when it was understood that the +Rector had, for the first time since his induction to his living, given +permission for the bells to greet the happy pair. After, however, +sounding a merry peal a short hour and a half, a message was received at +the belfry that the Rector thought they had rung long enough. The +tardiness with which this mandate was obeyed soon brought the rev. +gentleman in person to enforce his order, which was then reluctantly +complied with to the great disappointment of the inhabitants, and +mortification of the ringers, several of whom had come from a +considerable distance to assist in the festivities of the day.' The +Independent chapel was an old-fashioned meeting-house, full of heavy +pillars, which, as they intercepted the view of the preacher, were +favourable to that gentle sleep so peculiarly refreshing on a Sunday +afternoon--especially in hot weather--in the square and commodious family +pew. The minister was an old and venerable-looking divine of the name of +Dennant, who was always writing little poems--I remember the opening +lines of one, + + 'A while ago when I was nought, + And neither body, soul, nor thought'-- + +and whose 'Soul Prosperity,' a volume of sober prose, reached a second +edition. His grandson, Mr. J. R. Robinson, now the energetic manager of +the _Daily News_, may be said to have achieved a position in the world of +London of which his simple-hearted and deeply-devotional grandfather +could never have dreamed. As I was the son of a brother minister, Mr. +Dennant's house was open to myself and Thompson, though we did not go +there on the particular day of which I write. The leading tradesman of +the town was a Liberal, and had at least one pretty daughter, and there +we went. Most of the day, however, we mixed with the mob which crowded +round, while the voters--you may be sure, not all of them sober--were +brought up to vote. The excitement was immense; there was the hourly +publication of the state of the poll--more or less unreliable, but, +nevertheless, exciting; and what a tumult there was as one or other of +the rival candidates drove up to his temporary quarters in a carriage and +pair, or carriage and four, made a short speech, which was cheered by his +friends and howled at derisively by his foes, while the horses were being +changed, and then drove off at a gallop to make the same display and to +undergo the same ordeal elsewhere! To be sure, there was a little rough +play; now and then a rush was made by nobody in particular, and for no +particular reason; or, again, an indiscreet voter--rendered additionally +so by indulgence in beer--gave occasion for offence; but really, beyond a +scrimmage, a hat broken, a coat or two torn or bespattered with mud, a +cockade rudely snatched from the wearer, little harm was done. The +voters knew each other, and had come to vote, and had stayed to see the +fun. For the timid, the infirm, the old, the day was a trying one; but +there was an excitement and a life about the affair one misses now that +the ballot has come into play, and has made the voter less of a man than +ever. Of course the shops were shut up. All who could afford to do so +kept open house, and at every available window were the bright, beaming +faces of the Suffolk fair--oh, they were jolly, those election days of +old! Well, in East Anglia, as elsewhere, spite of the parsons, spite of +the landlords, spite of the slavery of old custom, spite of old +traditions, the freeholders voted Reform, and Reform was won, and +everyone believed that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. In ten years, +I heard people say, there would be no tithes for the farmer to pay, and +welcome was the announcement; for then, as now, the agricultural interest +was depressed, and the farmer was a ruined man. Now one takes but a +languid interest in the word Reform, but then it stirred the hearts of +the people; and how they celebrated their victory, how they hoisted flags +and got up processions and made speeches, and feasted and hurrahed, +'twere tedious to tell. All over the land the people rejoiced with +exceeding joy. Old things, they believed, had passed away--all things +had become new. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +BUNGAY AND ITS PEOPLE. + + +Bungay Nonconformity--Hannah More--The Childses--The Queen's +Librarian--Prince Albert. + +In the beginning of the present century, a disgraceful attack on +Methodism--by which the writer means Dissent in all its +branches--appeared in what was then the leading critical journal of the +age, the _Edinburgh Review_. 'The sources,' said the writer, a clergyman +(to his shame be it recorded) of the Church of England--no less +distinguished a divine than the far-famed Sydney Smith--'from which we +shall derive our extracts are the Evangelical and Methodistical magazines +for the year 1807, works which are said to be circulated to the amount of +18,000 or 20,000 every month, and which contain the sentiments of +Arminian and Calvinistic Methodists, and of the Evangelical clergymen of +the Church of England. We shall use the general term of Methodism to +designate these three classes of fanatics, not troubling ourselves to +point out the finer shades and nicer discriminations of lunacy, but +treating them as all in one general conspiracy against common-sense and +rational orthodox Christianity.' To East Anglia came the reputed worthy +Canon for an illustration of what he termed their policy to have a great +change of ministers. Accordingly, he reprints from the _Evangelical +Magazine_ the following notice of an East Anglian Nonconformist +ordination, which, by-the-bye, in no degree affects the charge unjustly +laid at the door of these 'fanatics,' as engaged 'in one general +conspiracy against common-sense and rational orthodox Christianity.' +'Same day the Rev. W. Haward, from Hoxton Academy, was ordained over the +Independent Church at Rendham, Suffolk; Mr. Pickles, of Walpole, began +with prayer and reading; Mr. Price, of Woodbridge, delivered the +introductory discourse, and asked the questions; Mr. Dennant, of +Halesworth, offered the ordinary prayer; _Mr. Shufflebottom_ [the italics +are the Canon's], of Bungay, gave the charge from Acts xx. 28; Mr. +Vincent, of Deal, the general prayer; and Mr. Walford, of Yarmouth, +preached to the people from Phil. ii. 16.' As a lad, I saw a good deal +of Bungay, though I never knew the Shufflebottom whose name seems to have +been such a stumbling-block and cause of offence to the Reverend Canon of +St. Paul's. I say Reverend Canon of St. Paul's, because, though the +writer had not gained that honour when the review appeared, it was as +Canon he returned to the charge when he sanctioned the republication of +it in his collected works. It was at Bungay that I had my first painful +experience of the utter depravity of the human heart--a truth of which, +perhaps, for a boy, I learned too much from the pulpit. The river +Waveney runs through Bungay, and one day, fishing there, I lent a +redcoat--with whom, like most boys, I was proud to scrape an +acquaintance--my line, he promising to return it when I came back from +dinner. When I did so, alas! the red-coat was gone. + +Nonconformity in Bungay seems to have originated in the days of the Lord +Protector, in the person of Zephaniah Smith, who was the author of: (1) +'The Dome of Heretiques; or, a discovery of subtle Foxes who were tyed +tayle to tayle, and crept into the Church to do mischief'; (2) 'The +Malignant's Plot; or, the Conspiracie of the Wicked against the Just, +laid open in a sermon preached at Eyke, in Suffolk, January 23, 1697. +Preached and published to set forth the grounds why the Wicked lay such +crimes to the charge of God's people as they are cleare off'; (3) 'The +Skillful Teacher.' Beloe says of this Smith that 'he was a most singular +character, and among the first founders of the sect of the Antinomians.' +One of the first leaders of this sect is said by Wood to have been John +Eaton, who was a minister and preacher at Wickham Market, in which +situation and capacity Smith succeeded him. This Smith published many +other tracts and sermons, chiefly fanatical and with fantastical titles. +One is described by Wood, and is called 'Directions for Seekers and +Expectants, or a Guide for Weak Christians in these discontented times.' +'I shall not give an extract from these sermons,' writes Beloe, who is +clearly, like Wood, by no means a sympathetic or appreciative critic, +'though very curious, but they are not characterized by any peculiarity +of diction, and are chiefly remarkable for the enthusiasm with which the +doctrine of the sect to which the preacher belonged is asserted and +vindicated. The hearers also must have been endowed with an +extraordinary degree of patience, as they are spun out to a great +length.' Mr. Smith's ministry at Bungay led to a contention, which +resulted in an appeal to the young Protector, Richard Cromwell. Then we +find Mr. Samuel Malbon silenced by the Act of Uniformity, who is +described as a man mighty in the Scriptures, who became pastor to the +church in Amsterdam. In 1695 we hear of a conventicle in Bungay, with a +preacher with a regularly paid stipend of 40 pounds a year. Till 1700 +the congregation worshipped in a barn; but in that year the old +meeting-house was built, and let to the congregation at 10 pounds per +annum. In 1729 it was made over to the Presbyterians or Independents +worshipping there, 'for ever.' The founders of that conventicle seem to +have suffered for their faith; yet the glorious Revolution of 1688 had +been achieved, and William of Orange--who had come from a land which had +nobly sheltered the earlier Nonconformists--was seated on the throne. + +Bungay, till Sydney Smith made it famous, was not much known to the +general public. It was on the borders of the county and out of the way. +The only coach that ran through it, I can remember, was a small one that +ran from Norwich through Beccles and Bungay to Yarmouth; and, if I +remember aright, on alternate days. There was, at any rate, no direct +communication between it and London. Bungay is a well-built market town, +skirted on the east and west by the navigable river Waveney, which +divides it from Norfolk, and was at one time noted for the manufacture of +knitted worsted stockings and Suffolk hempen cloth; but those trades are +now obsolete. The great Roger Bigod--one of the men who really did come +over with the Conqueror--built its castle, the ruins of which yet remain, +on a bold eminence on the river Waveney. 'The castle,' writes Dugdale, +'once the residence and stronghold of the Bigods, and by one of them +conceived to be impregnable, has become the habitation of helpless +poverty, many miserable hovels having been reared against its walls for +the accommodation of the lowest class.' The form of the castle appears +to have been octangular. The ruins of two round fortal towers and +fortresses of the west and south-west angles are still standing, as also +three sides of the great tower or keep, the walls of which are from 7 to +11 feet thick and from 15 to 17 feet high. In the midst of the ruins, on +what is called the Terrace, is a mineral spring, now disused, and near it +is a vault, or dungeon, of considerable depth. Detached portions of the +wall and their foundations are spread in all directions in the castle +grounds, a ridge of which, about 40 yards long, forms the southern +boundary of a bowling-green which commands delightful prospects. The +mounds of earth raised for the defence of the castle still retain much of +their original character, though considerably reduced in height. One of +them, facing the south, was partly removed in 1840, with the intention of +forming a cattle market. As a boy I often heard of the proud boast of +Hugh Bigod, second Earl, one of King Stephen's most formidable opponents, +as recorded by Camden: + + 'Were I in my castle of Bungay, + Upon the river Waveney, + I would not care for the King of Cockeney.' + +In ancient times the Waveney was a much broader stream than it is now, +and Bungay was called _Le Bon Eye_, or the good island, then being nearly +surrounded by water. Hence the name, in the vulgar dialect, of Bungay. +To 'go to Bungay to get a new bottom' was a common saying in Suffolk. + +In 1777 we find Hannah More writing to Garrick from Bungay, which she +describes as 'a much better town than I expected, very clean and +pleasant.' 'You are the favourite bard of Bungay'--at that time the +tragedians of the city of Norwich were staying there--'and,' writes +Hannah, who at that time had not become serious and renounced the +gaieties of the great world, 'the dramatic furore rages terribly among +the people, the more so, I presume, from being allowed to vent itself so +seldom. Everybody goes to the play every night,--that is, every other +night, which is as often as they perform. Visiting, drinking, and even +card-playing, is for this happy month suspended; nay, I question if, like +Lent, it does not stop the celebration of weddings, for I do not believe +there is a damsel in the town who would spare the time to be married +during this rarely-occurring scene of festivity. It must be confessed, +however, the good folks have no bad taste.' It must be recollected that +Hannah More in reality belongs to East Anglia. She was the daughter of +Jacob More, who was descended from a respectable family at Harleston. He +was a High Churchman, but all his family were Nonconformists. His mother +used to tell young people that they would have known how to value Gospel +privileges had they lived like her, when at midnight pious worshippers +went with stealthy steps through the snow to hear the words of +inspiration delivered by a holy man at her father's house; while her +father, with a drawn sword, guarded the entrance from violent or profane +intrusion, adding that they boarded the minister and kept his horse for +10 pounds a year. An unfortunate lawsuit deprived the Mores of their +property, and thus it was that the celebrated Hannah was born at +Gloucestershire, and not in Suffolk or Norfolk. The family mansion was +at Wenhaston, not very far from Wrentham. + +In my young days Bungay owed all its fame and most of its wealth to the +far-famed John Childs, who was one of our first Church Rate martyrs, to +whom is due mainly the destruction of the Bible-printing monopoly, and to +whom the late Edward Miall was much indebted for establishing the +_Nonconformist_ newspaper. For many years it was the habit of Mr. Childs +to celebrate that event by a dinner, at which the wine was good and the +talk was better. Old John Childs, of Bungay, had a cellar of port which +a dean might have envied; and many was the bottle that I cracked with him +as a young man, after a walk from Wrentham to Bungay, a distance of +fourteen miles, to talk with him on things in general, and politics in +particular. He was emphatically a self-made man--a man who would have +made his way anywhere, and a man who had a large acquaintance with the +reformers of his day in all parts of the country. On one occasion the +great Dan O'Connell came to pay him a visit, much to the delight of the +Suffolk Radicals, and to the horror of the Tories. The first great +dinner at which I had the honour of being present, and to which I was +taken by my father, who was a great friend of Mr. Childs, was on the +occasion of the presentation to the latter of a testimonial by a +deputation of distinguished Dissenters from Ipswich in connection with +his incarceration in the county gaol at Ipswich, for having refused to +pay rates for the support of a Church in which he did not believe, and +for the performance of a service in which he took no part. At that time +'the dear old Church of England,' while it was compelled to tolerate +Dissent, insisted on Dissent being taxed to the uttermost farthing; and +that it does not do so now, and that it is more popular in consequence, +is due to the firm stand taken by such men as John Childs of Bungay. He +was a great phrenologist. In his garden he had a summer-house, which he +facetiously termed his scullery, where he had some three hundred plaster +casts, many of which he had taken himself of public individuals and +friends and acquaintances. My father was honoured in this way, as also +my eldest sister. Sir Henry Thompson and I escaped that honour, but I +have not forgotten his dark, piercing glance at our heads, when, as boys, +we first came into his presence, and how I trusted that the verdict was +satisfactory. Of course the Childses went to Meeting, but when I knew +Bungay Mr. Shufflebottom had been gathered to his fathers, and the Rev. +John Blaikie, a Scotchman, and therefore always a welcome guest at +Wrentham, reigned in his stead. Mr. Childs had a large and promising +family, few of whom now remain. His daughter was an exceptionally gifted +and glorious creature, as in that early day it seemed to me. She also +died early, leaving but one son, Mr. Crisp, a partner in the well-known +legal firm of Messrs. Ashurst, Morris, and Crisp. It was in the little +box by the window of the London Coffee House--now, alas! no more--where +Mr. Childs, on the occasion of his frequent visits to London, always +gathered around him his friends, that I first made the acquaintance of +Mr. Ashurst, the head of the firm--a self-made man, like Mr. Childs, of +wonderful acuteness and great public spirit. In religion Mr. Ashurst was +far more advanced than the Bungay printer. 'It is not a thing to reason +about,' said the latter; and so to the last he remained orthodox, +attended the Bungay Meeting-house, invited the divines of that order to +his house, put in appearance at ordination services, and openings of +chapels, and was to be seen at May Meetings when in town, where +occasionally his criticisms were of a freer order than is usually met +with at such places. + +'The Bungay Press,' wrote a correspondent of the _Bookseller_, on the +death of Mr. Charles Childs, who had succeeded his father in the +business, 'has been long known for its careful and excellent work. +Established some short time before the commencement of the present +century, its founder had, for twenty years, limited its productions to +serial publications and books of a popular and useful character, and in +the year 1823, soon after Mr. John Childs had taken control of the +business, upwards of twenty wooden presses were working, at long hours, +to supply the rapidly-increasing demand for such works as folio Bibles, +universal histories, domestic medicine books, and other publications then +issuing in one and two shilling numbers from the press.' Originally Mr. +Childs had been in a grocer's shop at Norwich. There he was met with by +a Mr. Brightley, a printer and publisher, who, originally a schoolmaster +at Beccles, had suggested to young Childs that he had better come and +help him at Bungay than waste his time behind a counter. Fortunately for +them both the young man acceded to the proposal, and travelled all over +England driving tandem, and doing everywhere what we should now call a +roaring trade. Then he married Mr. Brightley's daughter, and became a +partner in the firm, which was known as that of John and R. Childs, and, +latterly of Childs and Son. 'Uncle Robert,' as I used to hear him +called, was little known out of the Bungay circle. He had a nice house, +and lived comfortably, marrying, after a long courtship, the only one of +the Stricklands who was not a writer. Agnes was often a visitor at +Bungay, and not a little shocked at the atrocious after-dinner talk of +the Bungay Radicals. 'Do you not think,' said she, in her somewhat +stilted and tragic style of talk, one day, to a literary man who was +seated next her, author of a French dictionary which the Childses were +printing at the time--'Do you not think it was a cruel and wicked act to +murder the sainted and unfortunate Charles I.?' 'Why, ma'am,' stuttered +the author, while the dinner-party were silent, 'I'd have p-p-poisoned +him.' The gifted authoress talked no more that day. Naturally, as a +lad, seeing so much of Bungay, I wished to be a printer, but Mr. Childs +said there was no use in being a printer without plenty of capital, and +so that idea was renounced. + +But to return to Mr. John Childs. About the year 1826, in association +with the late Joseph Ogle Robinson, he projected and commenced the +publication of a series of books known in the trade as the 'Imperial +Edition of Standard Authors,' which for many years maintained an +extensive sale, and certainly then met an admitted literary want, +furnishing the student and critical reader, in a cheap and handsome form, +with dictionaries, histories, commentaries, biographies, and +miscellaneous literature of acknowledged value and importance, such as +Burke's works, Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall,' Howe's works, the writings of +Lord Bacon--books which are still in the market, and which, if I may +speak from a pretty wide acquaintance with students' libraries fifty +years ago, were in great demand at that time. The disadvantage of such a +series is that the books are too big to put in the pocket or to hold in +the hand. But I do not know that that is a great disadvantage to a real +student who takes up a book to master its contents, and not merely to +pass away his time. To study properly a man must be in his study. In +that particular apartment he is bound to have a table, and if you place a +book on a table to read, it matters little the size of the page, or the +number of columns each page contains. Mr. Childs set the fashion of +reprinting standard authors on a good-sized page, with a couple of +columns on each page. That fashion was followed by Mr. W. Smith--a Fleet +Street publisher, than whom a better man never lived--and by Messrs. +Chambers; but now it seems quite to have passed away. On the failure of +Mr. Robinson, Mr. Childs' valuable reprints were placed in the hands of +Westley and Davis, and subsequently with Ball, Arnold, and Co.; and +latterly, I think, the late Mr. H. G. Bohn reissued them at intervals. +As to his part publications, when Mr. Childs had given up pushing them, +he disposed of them all to Mr. Virtue, of Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, who +then secured almost a monopoly of the part-number trade, and thus made a +large fortune. 'I love books that come out in numbers,' says Lord +Montford in 'Endymion,' 'as there is a little suspense, and you cannot +deprive yourself of all interest by glancing at the last part of the last +volume.' And so I suppose in the same way there will always be a +part-number trade, though the reapers in the field are many, and the +harvest is not what it was. + +Active and fiery in body and soul, Mr. John Childs, at a somewhat later +period, with the sympathy and advocacy of Mr. Joseph Hume and other +members of Parliament, and aided to a large extent by Lord Brougham, +succeeded in procuring the appointment of a Committee of the House of +Commons to inquire into the existing King's Printers' Patent for printing +Bibles and Acts of Parliament, the period for the renewal of which was +near at hand. The principle upon which the patent was originally granted +appeared to be _correctness secured only by protection_--a fallacy which +the voluminous evidence of the Committee most completely exposed. The +late Alderman Besley, a typefounder, and a great friend of John Childs, +as well as Robert Childs, practical printers, gave conclusive evidence on +this head, and the result was that, although the patent was renewed for +thirty years, instead of sixty as before, the Scriptures were sold to the +public at a greatly reduced price, and the trade in Bibles, though +nominally protected, has ever since been practically free. + +Nor did Mr. Childs' labours end here. In Scotland the right of printing +Bibles had been granted exclusively to a company of private persons, +Blaire and Bruce, neither of whom had any practical knowledge of the art +of printing, or took any interest in the different editions of the Bible. +The same men also had the supplying all the public revenue offices of +Government with stationery, by which means they enjoyed an annual profit +of more than 6,000 pounds a year. When the Government, in an economical +mood, ordered them to relinquish the latter contract, not only were they +compensated for the loss, but were continued in their vested rights as +regards Bible-printing. In Scotland there was no one to interfere with +their rights. In England patents had been given not only to the firm of +Messrs. Strahan, Eyre and Spottiswoode, but to each of the two +Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. Up to 1821 the Bibles of the +English monopolists came freely into Scotland, but then a prohibition, +supported by decisions in the Court of Sessions and the House of Lords, +was obtained. In 1824 Dr. Adam Thompson, of Coldstream, and three +ministers were summoned to answer for the high crime and misdemeanour of +having, as directors of Bible societies, delivered copies of an edition +of Scriptures which had been printed in England, but which the Scotch +monopolists would not permit to circulate in Scotland. Bible societies +in Scotland had received, in return for their subscription to the London +society, copies of an octavo Bible in large type, to which the Scotch +patentees had no corresponding edition, and which was much prized by the +aged. And it was because Dr. Thompson and others helped to circulate it, +as agents of the London Bible Society, that they were proceeded against. +The Scotch Bible, in consequence of the monopoly, was as badly printed as +the English one. In order to show how monopoly had failed to secure good +work, a gentleman sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury an enormous list +of errors which he had found in the Oxford Nonpareil Bible. In an old +Scotch edition the apostle is made to say, 'Know ye not that the +righteous shall _not_ inherit the kingdom of God?' In another edition +'The four beasts of the Apocalypse' are '_sour_ beasts.' Dr. Lee, +afterwards Principal of Edinburgh University, felt deeply the injustice +done by the monopoly, and the heavy taxation consequently imposed upon +the British and Foreign Bible Society; but he was a man of the study +rather than of the street. Yet in 1837 the monopoly, powerfully defended +as it was by Sir Robert Inglis, who dreaded cheap editions of the Word of +God, as necessarily incorrect and leading to wickedness and infidelity of +all kinds, fell, and it was to John Childs, of Bungay, that in a great +measure the fall was due, while owing to the repeated labours of Dr. Adam +Thompson and others, we got cheaper Bibles and Testaments on the other +side of the Tweed. + +If you turn to the life of Dr. Adam Thompson, of Coldstream, the man who +had the most publicly to do with the fall of the monopoly, there can be +no doubt on this head. Though specially interested in the English +patents, Mr. Childs was aware that the one for Scotland fell, to be +renewed sooner by twenty years, and he kept dunning Joseph Hume on the +subject, who, Radical Reformer, at that time had his hands pretty full. +Mr. Childs had got so far as to have his Committee, and to get the +evidence printed. What was the next step? Dr. Thompson's biographer +shall tell us. 'Mr. Childs had been looking out for a Scottish +Dissenting minister of proved ability, zeal, and influence, who should +feel the immense and urgent importance of the question, and after +mastering the unjust principles and the injurious results of the +monopoly, should testify to these before the Committee, in a weighty and +pointed manner, and effectively bring them also before the ministers and +people of Scotland. He fixed upon Dr. Thompson, and the letter in which +he wrote to the Doctor to prepare for becoming a witness was the +beginning of a ten years' copious correspondence, the first in a series +of many hundreds of very lengthy letters, in which Mr. Childs, with great +shrewdness, sagacity, and vigour, and with perfect confidence of always +being in the right, acted as universal censor, pronouncing oracularly +upon all ecclesiastical and political men and organs, expressing +unqualified contempt for the House of Lords, and very small satisfaction +with the House of Commons, showing no mercy to Churchmen, and little but +asperity to Dissenters, and denouncing all British journals as base or +blind except the _Nonconformist_.' Only two of these letters are +published in Dr. Thompson's biography. I give one, partly because it is +interesting, and partly because it is characteristic. Unfortunately, of +all John Childs' letters to myself, written in a fine, bold hand, exactly +reproduced by his son and grandson, so that I could never tell one from +the other, I have preserved none. Childs thus wrote to Dr. Thompson, +July 15th, 1839: + + 'MY DEAR FRIEND, + + 'You will be happy to know that I went into Newgate this morning with + my friend Ashurst, and heard their pardon read to the Canadians. + They were released this afternoon, and Mr. Parker and Mr. Wixon have + been dining with me, and are gone to a lodging, taken for them by Mr. + A., where they may remain till their departure on Wednesday. I have + just sent to Mr. Tidman to inform him they will worship God and + return thanks in his place to-morrow, if all be well. How + wonderfully God has appeared for these people! My dear friend, when + I first saw them in January all things appeared to be against them, + but all has been overruled for good. + + 'At the time you left on Monday evening, Lord John was making known + to the House of Commons, in your own words, the plan proposed by + yourself, and adopted by him, to my amazement. Most heartily do I + congratulate you on the termination of the event, so decidedly + honourable to yourself in every way. I do not expect you will + approve of all that I have done, but I felt it to be my duty to + address a letter to the _Pilot_ on the subject, calling attention to + the liberty taken with you, and the manner in which you were + humbugged when in concert with the London societies, and the absolute + triumph of your cause when conducted with single-handed integrity, + intelligence, and energy. If it shall happen that you do not approve + of all I have said, I am sure you ought, because without you, and + with you, if you had left it to the fellows here, Scotland's + Dissenters would have now appeared the degraded things which, on the + Bible subject, the English Dissenters have appeared in my eyes for + some years past. It is due to you. I was fairly rejoiced when I saw + Lord John's declaration, because I could see from his answer to Sir + James Graham that he meant the thing should be done. Scotland ought + to have a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving, and as I said to a + friend to whom I wrote in Edinburgh, "You ought to have a + monument--the Thompson monument." "That, sir," the guide would say, + "is erected to honour a man by whose honest energy and zeal Scotland + was freed from the most degrading tyranny--that of a monopoly in + printing the Word of God." The tablet should bear that memorable + sentence of yours on the first day of your examination, "All + monopolies are bad." Of all monopolies religious monopolies are the + worst, and of all religious monopolies a monopoly of the Word of God + is the most outrageous.' Alas! I have heard nothing of the Thompson + monument. + +Such a man was John Childs. One more busy in body and brain I never +knew. That he was disposed to be cynical was natural. Most men who see +much of the world, and who do not wear coloured glasses, are so. Take +the history of the Bible monopoly. The work of its abolition was +commenced by John Childs, of Bungay, carried on and completed as far as +Scotland was concerned by Dr. Adam Thompson, while the British public in +its usual silliness awarded 3,000 pounds to Dr. Campbell, on the plea--I +quote the words of the late Dr. Morton Brown, of Cheltenham--that, 'God +gave the honour very largely to our friend, Dr. Campbell, to smite this +bloated enemy of God and man full in the forehead.' The bloated enemy, +as regards Scotland, was dead before Dr. Campbell had ever penned a line. +As regards England, I believe it still exists. + +It must have been about 1837 that the name of John Childs, of Bungay, was +made specially notorious by reason of his refusal to pay Church-rates, +and when he had the honour of being the first person imprisoned for their +non-payment. He was proceeded against in the Ecclesiastical Courts, and +as his refusal to pay was solely on conscientious grounds, he did not +contest the matter. The result was, he was sent to Ipswich Gaol for the +non-payment of a rate of 17s. 6d., the animus of the ecclesiastical +authorities being manifested by the endorsement of the writ, 'Take no +bail.' It was the first death-blow to Church-rates. The local +excitement it created was intense and unparalleled. In the House of +Commons Sir William Foulkes presented several petitions from Norfolk, and +Mr. Joseph Hume several from Suffolk, on the subject. One entire sitting +of the House of Commons was devoted to the Bungay Martyr, as Sir Robert +Peel ironically termed him. The Bungay Martyr had however, right on his +side. It was found that a blot had been hit, and it had to be removed. + +The excitement produced by putting Mr. Childs into gaol was intense at +that time all over the land. 'I beg to inform you,' wrote a Halesworth +Dissenter, Mr. William Lincoln, to the editor of the _Patriot_, at that +time the organ of Dissent, 'that my highly-esteemed and talented friend, +Mr. John Childs, of Bungay, has just passed through this town, in custody +of a sheriff's officer, on his way to our county gaol, by virtue of an +attachment, at the suit of Messrs. Bobbet and Scott, churchwardens of +Bungay, for non-payment of 17s. 6d. demanded of him as a Church-rate, and +subsequent refusal to obey a citation for appearance at the Bishop's +Court.' Naturally the writer remarked: 'It will soon be seen whether +proceedings so well in harmony with the days of fire and faggot are to be +tolerated in this advanced period of the nineteenth century.' When, in +due time, Mr. Childs obtained his release, the event was celebrated at +Bungay in fitting style. I find in a private diary the following note: +'This day week was a grand day at Bungay. I heard there were not less +than six or seven thousand people there to welcome his return, and the +request of the police, that the greatest order might be observed, was +fully acted up to. Miss C. did not enter Bungay with her father. I +suppose when she found so great a multitude of horsemen, gigs, +pedestrians and banners, they thought it better for the young lady and +the younger children to retire to the close carriages. Mr. C. during his +imprisonment had letters from all parts of the kingdom.' I remember the +leading Dissenters came to Bungay with a piece of plate, to present to +Mr. Childs, to commemorate his heroism. A dinner was given by Mr. Childs +in connection with the presentation. At that dinner, lad as I was, I was +permitted to be present. I had never seen anything so grand or stately +before; and that was my first interview with John Childs, a dark, +restless, eagle-eyed man, whom I was to know better and love more for +many a long day. I took to Radical writing, and nothing could have +pleased John Childs better. I owed much to his friendship in after-life. + +In 1833 the Church-rate question was originally raised in Bungay, and +many of the Dissenters refused to pay. The local authorities at once +took high ground, and put twelve of the recusants into the Ecclesiastical +Court. They caved in, leaving to John Childs the honour of martyrdom. +At the time of Mr. Childs' imprisonment he had recently suffered from a +severe surgical operation, and it was believed by his friends impossible +that he could survive the infliction of imprisonment. The Rev. John +Browne writes: 'A committee very generously formed at Ipswich undertook +the management of his affairs, and when they learned at the end of eleven +days' imprisonment that he had undergone a most severe attack, indicating +at least the possibility of sudden death, they sent a deputation to the +Court to pay the sum demanded. The Court, however, required, as well as +the money, the usual oath of canonical obedience, and this Mr. Childs +refused to give. He was told by his friends that he would surely die in +prison, but his reply was, 'That is not my business.' But it seems so +much had been made of the matter by the newspapers that Mr. Childs was +released without taking the oath. Charles Childs, the son, followed in +his father's steps. At Bungay the Churchmen seemed to have determined to +make Dissenters as uncomfortable as possible. Actually five years after +they had thrown the father into prison, the churchwardens proceeded +against the son, having been baffled in repeated attempts to distrain +upon his goods, and cited him into the Ecclesiastical Court, where it +took two and a half years to determine whether the sum of three shillings +and fourpence was due. At the end of that time the judge decided it was +not, and the churchwardens had to pay Mr. Childs' costs as well as their +own, which in the course of time amounted to a very respectable sum. +Charles Childs, who died suddenly a few years since, and who never seemed +to me to have aged a day since I first knew him, was truly a chip of the +old block. He was much in London, as he printed quite as much as his +father for the leading London publishers. An enlightened patriot, he was +in very many cases successful in resisting the obstacles raised from time +to time by party spirit or Church bigotry. On more than one occasion he +conducted a number of his workmen through an illegally-closed path, and +opened it by the destruction of the fences, repeated appeals to the +persistent obstructions having proved unavailing. He was a man of +scholarly and literary attainments, a clever talker, well able to hold +his own, and during the Corn Law and Currency agitation he contributed +one or more articles on these subjects to the _Westminster Review_, then +edited by his friend, the late General Perronet Thompson, a very foremost +figure in Radical circles forty years ago, always trying to get into +Parliament--rarely succeeding in the attempt. 'How can he expect it,' +said Mr. Cobden to me one day, 'when, instead of going to the principal +people to support him, he finds out some small tradesman--some little +tailor or shoemaker--to introduce him?' Once upon a time the _Times_ +furiously attacked Charles Childs. His reply, which was able and +convincing, was forwarded, but only procured admission in the shape of an +advertisement, for which Mr. Childs had to pay ten pounds. The corner of +East Anglia of which I write rarely produced two better men than the +Childs, father and son. They are gone, but the printing business still +survives, though no longer carried on under the well-known name. By +their noble integrity and public spirit they proved themselves worthy of +a craft to which light and literature and leading owe so much. It is to +such men that England is under lasting obligations, and one of the +indirect benefits of a State Church is that it gives them a grievance, +and a sense of wrong, which compels them to gird up their energies to act +the part of village Hampdens or guiltless Cromwells. All the manhood in +them is aroused and strengthened as they contend for what they deem right +and just, and against force and falsehood. Poets, we are told, by one +himself a poet, + + 'Are cradled into poetry by wrong; + They learn in suffering what they teach in song.' + +Nonconformists have cause especially to rejoice in the bigotry and +persecution to which they have been exposed, since it has led them by a +way they knew not, to become the champions of a broader creed and a more +general right than that of which their fathers dreamed. It is easy to +swim with the stream; it requires a strong man to swim against it. Two +hundred years of such swimming had made the Bungay Nonconformists strong, +and gave to the world two such exceptionally sturdy and strengthful men +as John and Charles Childs. I was proud to know them as a boy; in +advancing years I am prouder still to be permitted to bear this humble +testimony to their honest worth. It is because Nonconformity has raised +up such men in all parts of the land, that a higher tone has been given +to our public life, that politics mean something more than a struggle +between the ins and the outs, and that 'Onward' is our battle-cry. + +Of the young men more or less coming under the influence of the Childs's, +perhaps one of the most successful was the late Bernard Bolingbroke +Woodward, Librarian to her Majesty. When I first knew him he was in a +bank at Norwich. Thence he passed to Highbury College, and in due time, +after he had taken his B.A. degree, settled as the Independent minister +at Wortwell, near Harleston, in Norfolk. There he became connected with +John Childs, and, amidst much hard work, edited for the firm a new +edition of 'Barclay's Universal English Dictionary.' In 1860, on the +death of Mr. Glover, who had for many years filled the post of Librarian +to the Queen at Windsor Castle, Mr. Woodward's name was mentioned to the +Prince, in reply to inquiries for a competent successor. Acting on the +advice of a friend at head-quarters, Mr. Woodward forwarded to Prince +Albert the same printed testimonials which he had sent in when he was a +candidate for the vacant secretaryship of a large and popular society, +and to those alone he owed his appointment to the office of Librarian to +the Queen. An interview took place at Windsor Castle, which was highly +satisfactory; but before the appointment was finally made, Mr. Woodward +informed Her Majesty and the Prince that there was one circumstance which +he had omitted to mention, and which might disqualify him for the post. +'Pray, what is that disqualification?' asked the Prince. 'It is,' +replied Mr. Woodward, 'that I have been educated for, and have actually +conducted the services of an Independent congregation in the country.' +'And why should that be thought to disqualify you?' asked the Prince. +'It does nothing of the sort. If that is all, we are quite satisfied, +and feel perfectly safe in having you for a librarian.' Am I not +justified in saying that at one time Bungay influences reached far and +near? + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +A CELEBRATED NORFOLK TOWN. + + +Great Yarmouth Nonconformists--Intellectual life--Dawson Turner--Astley +Cooper--Hudson Gurney--Mrs. Bendish. + +When David Copperfield, Dickens tells us, first caught sight of Yarmouth, +it seemed to him to look rather spongy and soppy. As he drew nearer, he +remarks, 'and saw the whole adjacent prospect, lying like a straight, low +line under the sky, I hinted to Peggotty that a mound or so might have +improved it, and also that if the land had been a little more separated +from the sea, and the town and the tide had not been quite so much mixed +up, like toast-and-water, it would have been much nicer.' He adds: 'When +we got into the street, which was strange to me, and smelt the fish, and +pitch, and oakum, and tallow, and saw the sailors walking about, and the +carts jingling up and down over the stones, I felt that I had done so +busy a place injustice.' In this opinion his readers who know Yarmouth +will agree. Brighton and Hastings and Eastbourne might envy Yarmouth its +sandy beach, where you can lead an amphibious life, watching the +fishing-smacks as they come to shore with cargoes often so heavy as to be +sold for manure; watching the merchant-ships and yachts that lie securely +in the Roads, or the long trail of black smoke of Scotch or northern +steamers far away; watching the gulls ever skimming the surface of the +waves; or the children, as they build little forts and dwellings in the +sand to be rudely swept to destruction by the advancing tide. In the +golden light of summer, how blue is the sky, how green the sea, how +yellow the sand, how jolly look the men and handsome the women! What +health and healing are in the air, as it comes laden with ozone from the +North Sea! You have the sea in front and on each side to look at, to +walk by, to splash in, to sail on. The danger is, that you grow too fat, +too ruddy, too hearty, too boisterous. As we all know, Venus was born +out of the sea, and out there on that eastern peninsula, of which +Yarmouth is the pride and ornament, there used to flourish bonny lasses, +as if to show that the connection between the ocean and lovely woman is +as intimate as of yore. Yarmouth and Lowestoft owe a great deal to the +Great Eastern Railway, which has made them places of health-resort from +all parts of England; and truly the pleasure-seeker or the holiday-maker +may go farther and fare worse. + +I was a proud boy when first I set foot in Yarmouth. How I came to go +there I can scarcely remember, but it is to be presumed I accompanied my +father on one of those grand occasions--as far as Nonconformist circles +are concerned--when the brethren met together for godly comfort and +counsel. It is true Wrentham was in Suffolk, and Yarmouth was in +Norfolk, but the Congregational Churches of that quarter had always been +connected by Christian fellowship and sympathy, and hence I was taken to +Yarmouth--at that time far more like a Dutch than an English town--and +wonderful to me was the Quay, with its fine houses on one side and its +long line of ships on the other--something like the far-famed Bompjes of +Rotterdam--and the narrow rows in which the majority of the labouring +classes were accustomed to live. 'A row,' wrote Charles Dickens, 'is a +long, narrow lane or alley, quite straight, or as nearly so as may be, +with houses on each side, both of which you can sometimes touch with the +finger-tips of each hand by stretching out your arms to their full +extent. Many and many a picturesque old bit of domestic architecture is +to be hunted up among the rows. In some there is little more than a +blank wall for the double boundary. In others the houses retreat into +busy square courts, where washing and clear-starching are done, and +wonderful nasturtiums and scarlet-runners are reared from green boxes +filled with that scarce commodity, vegetable mould. Most of these rows +are paved with pebbles from the beach, and to traverse them a peculiar +form of low cart, drawn by a single horse, is employed.' This to me was +a great novelty, as with waggons and carts I was familiar, but not with a +Yarmouth cart--now, I find, replaced by wheelbarrows. In Amsterdam, at +the present day, you may see many such quaint old rows. But in Amsterdam +you have an evil-smelling air, while in Yarmouth it is ever fresh and +crisp, and redolent, as it were, of the neighbouring sea. The +market-place and the big church were at the back of this congeries of +quays and rows, and the sea and the old pier were at quite a respectable +distance from the town. I fancy the Yarmouth of the London bathers has +now extended down to the sandy beach, and the rough and rude old pier has +given place to one better adapted to the wants and requirements of an +increasingly well-to-do community. Far more Dutch than English was the +Yarmouth of half a century ago, I again say. + +As to the Yarmouth Independent parson, I shall never forget him. He was +a very big man, with great red cheeks that hung over his collar like +blown bladders, and was always on stilts. He preached in a big +meeting-house, now no more, the pillars of which intercepted alike the +view and the sound. One winter evening he was holding forth, in his +usual heavy style, to a few good people--with whom, evidently, all +pleasure was out of the question--who came there, as in duty bound, and +sat like martyrs all the while, and all were as grave as the preacher, +when a wicked boy rushed in and, in a hurried manner, called out, 'Fire! +fire!' The effect, I am told, was electrical. For once the good parson +was in a hurry, and moved as quickly and spoke as rapidly as his fellows; +but never had there been so much excitement in his chapel since he had +been its pastor. Once, I remember, he came to town, and dropped in at +the close of a party rather convivially inclined, in the Old London +Coffee House. As the reverend gentleman advanced to greet his friends, a +London lawyer, with all the impudence of his class, muttered, in a +whisper intended to be heard, and which was heard, by everyone, 'Yarmouth +bloater.' The good man said nothing, but it was evident he thought all +the more, as the group were more or less tittering over the fitness of +the comparison. The lawyer who made the remark was also the son of a +London minister, and, therefore, might have been expected to have known +better. I fear the Yarmouth minister never forgave him. Well, it only +served him right, as he had a horrible way of making young people very +uncomfortable. 'Well, Master James,' said he to me on one occasion, when +all the brethren had come to dine at Wrentham, and when I was admitted, +in conformity with the golden maxim in all well-regulated family circles, +that little children were to be seen and not heard (perhaps in our day +the fault is too much in an opposite direction), 'can you inform me which +is the more proper form of expression--a pair of new gloves, or a new +pair of gloves?' Of course I gave the wrong answer, as I blushed up to +the ears at finding myself the smallest personage in the room, publicly +appealed to by the biggest. He meant well, I dare say. His only object +was to draw me out; but the question and the questioner gave me a bad +quarter of an hour, and I never got over the unpleasant sensation of +which he had unconsciously been the originator in my youthful breast. + +At that time Yarmouth people were supposed to be a little superior. They +were well-to-do, and lived in good style, and, as was to be expected, +considering the sanitary advantages of the situation, were in good health +and spirits. They got a good deal of their intellectual character from +Norwich, which at the time set the fashion in such matters. In 1790 two +societies were established in that city for the private and amicable +discussion of miscellaneous questions. One of these, the Tusculan, seems +to have devoted the attention of its members exclusively to political +topics; while the Speculative, although it imposed no restrictions on the +range of inquiry, was of a more philosophical character. William Taylor +was a member of both, and it is difficult to say whether he distinguished +himself most by his ingenuity in debate, by the novelty of the +information which he brought to bear on every point, or by the lively +sallies of imagination with which he at once amused and excited his +hearers. The papers read by himself embraced an infinite variety of +subjects, from the theory of the earth, then unillumined by the +disclosures of modern geologists, to the most elaborate and refined +productions of its rational tenants, and he was seldom at a loss to place +on new ground or in a fresh light the matter of discussion introduced by +others. Writers of every tongue, studied by him with observant +curiosity, stored his retentive memory with materials ready to be applied +on every occasion, moulded by his Promethean talent into the most +animated and alluring forms. As a speaker and converser he was eminently +characterized by a constant flow of brilliant ideas, by a rapid +succession of striking images, and by a never-failing copiousness of +words, often quaint, but always correct. A similar society was formed at +Yarmouth, under the auspices of Dr. Aiken, at which William Taylor also +occasionally attended. The Rev. Thomas Compton has given the following +description of these visits: 'We were, moreover, sometimes gratified by +the presence of our literary friends from Norwich. I have there +repeatedly listened to the mild and persuasive eloquence of the late Dr. +Enfield. A gentleman, too, still living, who has lately added to his +literary fame by a biographical work of high repute (I scarcely need add +that I allude to Mr. W. Taylor) would sometimes instruct us by his +various and profound knowledge, or amuse us with his ingenious +paradoxes.' When we recollect how at this time the poetical puerilities +of Bath Easton flourished in the West, we may claim that Norwich and +Yarmouth, if not as favoured by fashion, had at any rate a claim to +intellectual reputation at least quite equal to that city of the _ton_. +Dr. Sayers, whose biography William Taylor had written, and whose +'Dramatic Sketches of Northern Mythology' had created a great sensation +at the time, was of Yarmouth extraction. + +The Rev. Mr. Compton writes: 'In Yarmouth, where I lived at this time, +and where Lord Chedworth was accustomed to pay an annual visit, there was +then a society of gentlemen who met once a fortnight for the purpose of +amicable discussion. Our members--alas! how few remain--were of all +parties and persuasions, and some of them of very distinguished +attainments. A society thus constituted was in those days as pleasant as +it was instructive. The most eager disputation was never found to +endanger the most perfect goodwill, nor did any bitter feuds arise from +this entire freedom of opinion till the prolific period of the French +Revolution. On this subject our controversies became very impassioned. +The present Sir Astley Cooper, then a very young man, was accustomed to +pass his vacations with his most excellent father, Dr. Cooper, a name +ever to be by me beloved and revered. It was the amusement of our young +friend to say things of the most irritating nature, I believe--like Lady +Florence Pemberton in the novel--merely to see who would make the ugliest +face. Thus circumstanced, it was not in my philosophy to be the coolest +of the party.' We can well imagine the consequences. There was a row, +and the literary society came to grief. As time went on matters became +worse instead of better, and the town was split up into parties--Liberal +or the reverse, Church or Dissent, but all of one mind as regards their +views being correct; and as to the weakness or wickedness of persons who +thought otherwise. The evil of this spirit knew no bounds, and the +demoralizing effect it produced was especially apparent at election +times. When Oldfield wrote his 'Origin of Parliaments,' the town, he +tells us, was under the influence of the Earl of Leicester, and was for +many years represented by some of his Lordship's family. The right of +election was in the burgesses at large, of whom there were at that time +one thousand. The Reform Bill did little to improve the state of +affairs; it led to greater bribery and corruption and intimidation than +ever, and now, as a Parliamentary borough, Yarmouth has ceased to exist. +'Sugar,' it seems, was the slang term used for money, and the honest +voters were too eager to get it. Alas! in none of our seaport towns is +the standard of morality very high. Yarmouth, at any rate, is not worse +than Deal. In old days the excitement of a Yarmouth election much +affected our village. It lasted some days. The out-voters were brought +from the uttermost parts of the earth. As there were no railways, +stage-coaches were hired to bring them down from town; and when they +changed horses at Wrentham, quite a crowd would assemble to look at the +flags, and the free and independents on their way to do their duty, +overflowing with enthusiasm and beer. + +Sir Astley Cooper was much connected with Yarmouth in his young days, +when his father was the incumbent of the parish church. Some of his +boyish pranks were peculiar. Here is one of them: 'Having taken two +pillows from his mother's bed, he carried them up the spire of Yarmouth +Church, at a time when the wind was blowing from the north-east; and as +soon as he had ascended as high as he could, he ripped them open, and, +shaking out their contents, dispersed them in the air. The feathers were +carried away by the wind, and fell far and wide over the surface of the +market-place, to the great astonishment of a large number of persons +assembled there. The timid looked upon it phenomenon predictive of some +calamity; the inquisitive formed a thousand conjectures; while some, +curious in natural history, actually accounted for it by a gale of wind +in the north blowing wild-fowl feathers from the island of St. Paul's.' +On another occasion he got into an old trunk, which the family had agreed +to get rid of as inconvenient in the house. In this case he had to pay +the penalty, when he emerged from the chest in the carpenter's shop. The +men, who had complained terribly of its weight, were not inclined to +allow young Astley to get off free. One of Astley's tricks had, however, +a good motive, as it was intended to cure an old woman of her besetting +sin--a tendency to take a drop too much. In order to cure the old woman +of this weakness, he dressed himself as well as he could to represent the +sable form of his satanic majesty. Alas! instead of being surprised, the +old lady was too far-gone for that, and listened with tipsy gravity to +the distinguished visitor's discourse. In her case it was true, as Burns +wrote: + + 'Wi' tipenny we fear nae evil; + Wi' usquebae we'll face the deevil.' + +One of his tricks nearly led to unpleasant consequences. Whilst out +shooting one day, near Yarmouth, he killed an owl--a bird familiarly +known in Yarmouth by the sobriquet of 'Brother Billy.' Having arrived at +home, he went up into his mother's room, with the bird concealed behind +his coat, and, assuming a countenance full of fear and sorrow, exclaimed, +'Mother, mother, I've shot my brother Billy!' but the alarm and distress +instantly depicted on the distracted countenance of his parent induced +him as quickly as possible to pull the owl from under his coat. This at +once exposed the truth and allayed the apprehensions of his mother's +mind, but the effects of the shock it caused did not so immediately pass +away. Dr. Cooper determined to punish his son, and he therefore confined +him, according to his usual mode of correction, in his own house. Astley +was, however, but little disposed to remain passive in his imprisonment, +and in the wantonness of his ever-active disposition amused himself by +climbing up the chimney, and having at length reached the summit, +endeavoured, by imitating the well-known tone of the chimney-sweeper, and +calling out as lustily as he could, 'Sweep, sweep!' to attract the +attention of the people below. Even on his father the incorrigible lad +seems on more than one occasion to have tried his little game. One day, +while the worthy Doctor was marrying a couple in the church, Master +Astley concealed himself in a turret close by the altar, and, imitating +his father's voice, repeated in a subdued tone the words of the +marriage-service as the ceremony proceeded, to the consternation of his +father, who said that he had never observed an echo in that place before. +Once or twice the lad's life was in peril, as when his foot slipped on +the top of the church, and he was unpleasantly suspended for some time +between the rafters of the ceiling and the floor of the chancel. On +another occasion he had a narrow escape from drowning. It seems that on +the Yare are little boats out together very slightly, for the purpose of +carrying a man, his gun, and dog over the shallows of Braydon, in pursuit +of the flights of wild-fowl which at certain seasons haunt these shoals. +When the boat is thus loaded, it only draws two or three inches of water, +and is quite unfit for sea. Young Astley nearly lost his life in +attempting to take one of these boats out to open sea. In this way young +Astley Cooper, from his fearless and enterprising disposition, soon +became a sort of leader of the Yarmouth boys, and at their head, for a +time, seems to have devoted himself to every kind of amusement within his +reach--riding, boating, fishing, and not unfrequently sports of a less +harmless character, such as breaking lamps and windows, ringing the +church bells at all hours, disturbing the people by frequent alterations +of the church clock, so that if any mischief were committed it was sure, +says his admiring biographer, to be set down to him. + +The two men who shed most literary fame on the Yarmouth of my childhood +were Dawson Turner and Hudson Gurney, who in this respect resembled each +other, that they were both bankers and both antiquarians more or less +distinguished. Dawson Turner was a man of middle height and of saturnine +aspect, who had the reputation of being a hard taskmaster to the ladies +of his family, who were quite as intelligent and devoted to literature as +himself. He published a 'Tour in Normandy'--at that time scarcely anyone +travelled abroad--and much other matter, and perhaps as an +autograph-collector was unrivalled. Most of his books, with his notes, +more or less valuable, are now in the British Museum. Sir Charles Lyell, +when a young man, visited the Turner family in 1817, and gives us a very +high idea of them all. 'Mr. Turner,' he says, in a letter to his father, +'surprises me as much as ever. He wrote twenty-two letters last night +after he had wished us "Good-night." It kept him up till two o'clock +this morning.' Again Sir Charles writes: 'What I see going on every hour +in this family makes me ashamed of the most active day I ever spent at +Midhurst. Mrs. Turner has been etching with her daughters in the parlour +every morning at half-past six.' Of Hudson Gurney in his youth we get a +flattering portrait in one of the charming 'Remains of the Late Mrs. +Trench,' edited by her son, Archbishop of Dublin. Writing from Yarmouth +in 1799, she says: 'I have been detained here since last Friday, waiting +for a fair wind, and my imprisonment would have been comfortless enough +had it not have been for the attention of Mr. Hudson Gurney, a young man +on whom I had no claims except from a letter of Mr. Sanford's, who, +without knowing him, or having any connection with him, recommended me to +his care, feeling wretched that I should be unprotected in the first part +of my journey. He has already devoted to me one evening and two +mornings, assisted me in money matters, lent me books, and enlivened my +confinement to a wretched room by his pleasant conversation. Mr. Sanford +having described me as a person travelling about _for her health_, he +says his old assistant in the Bank fancied I was a decrepit elderly lady +who might safely be consigned to his youthful partner. His description +of his surprise thus prepared was conceived in a very good strain of +flattery. He is almost two-and-twenty, understands several languages, +seems to delight in books, and to be uncommonly well informed.' Little +credit, however, is due to Mr. Hudson Gurney for his politeness in this +case. The lovely and lively widow--she had married Colonel St. George at +the age of eighteen, and the marriage only lasted two or three years, the +Colonel dying of consumption--must have possessed personal and mental +attractions irresistible to a cultivated young man of twenty-two. Had +she been old and ugly, it is to be feared his business engagements would +have prevented the youthful banker devoting much time to her ladyship's +service. + +Yarmouth is intimately connected with literature and the fine arts. It +was off Yarmouth that Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked; and the testimony +he bears to the character of the people shows how kindly disposed were +the Yarmouth people of his day. 'We,' he writes, 'got all safe on shore, +and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as unfortunate men, we +were used with great humanity, not only by the magistrates of the town, +who assigned us good quarters, but also by particular merchants and +owners of ships, and had money given us, sufficient to carry us either to +London or back to Hull, as we thought fit.' It was from Yarmouth that +Wordsworth and Coleridge sailed away to Germany, then almost a _terra +incognita_. Leman Blanchard was born at Yarmouth, as well as Sayers, the +first, if not the cleverest, of our English caricaturists. One of the +most brilliant men ever returned to Parliament was Winthrop Mackworth +Praed, M.P. for Yarmouth, whose politics as a boy I detested as much as +in after-years I learned to admire his genius. One of the most fortunate +men of our day, Sir James Paget, the great surgeon, was a Yarmouth lad, +and the See of Chester was filled by an accomplished divine, also a +Yarmouth lad. Southey, when at Yarmouth, where his brother was a student +for some time, was so much struck with the uniqueness of the epitaphs in +the Yarmouth Church, that he took the trouble to copy many of them. One +was as follows: + + 'We put him out to nurse; + Alas! his life he paid, + But judge not; he was overlaid.' + +And hence it may be inferred that in Yarmouth the custom of baby-farming +has long flourished. Possibly thence it may have extended itself to +London. Amongst the truly great men who have lived and died in Yarmouth, +honourable mention must be made of Hales, the Norfolk Giant. In times +past soldiers and sailors and royal personages were often to be seen at +Yarmouth. It was at Yarmouth the heroes, returning from many a distant +battle-field, often landed. Nelson on one occasion--that is, after the +affair of Copenhagen--when he landed, at once made his way to the +hospital to see his men. To one of them, who had lost his arm, he said, +'There, Jack, you and I are spoiled for fishermen.' + +A good deal of Puritanism seems to have come into England by way of +Yarmouth. In Queen Elizabeth's time, 300 Flemings settled there, who had +fled from Popery and Spain in their native land. In Norwich the Dutch +Church remains to this day. Some of them seem to have been the friends +and teachers of the far-famed, and I believe unjustly maligned, Robert +Browne. In Norfolk the seed fell upon good soil. While sacerdotalism +was more or less being developed in the State Church, the Norfolk men +boldly protested against Papal abominations, as they deemed them, and +swore to maintain the gospel of Geneva and Knox. One of the men +imprisoned when Bancroft was Archbishop of Canterbury, for attending a +conventicle, was Thomas Ladd, 'a merchant of Yarmouth.' The writ ran: +'Because that, on the Sabbath days, after the sermons ended, sojourning +in the house of Mr. Jachler, in Yarmouth, who was late preacher in +Yarmouth, joined with him in repeating the substance and heads of the +sermons that day made in the church, at which Thomas Ladd was usually +present.' In 1624 the penal laws for suppressing Separatists were +strictly enforced in Yarmouth, and one of the teachers of a small society +of Anabaptists was cast into prison, and the Bishop of Norwich wrote a +letter of thanks to the bailiffs for their activity in this matter, which +is preserved to this day. But, nevertheless, people still continued to +worship God according to the dictates of conscience; we find the Earl of +Dorset in his reply to the town of Yarmouth, as to the way in which the +town should be governed, adds: 'I should want in my care of you if I +should not let you know that his Majesty is not only informed, but +incensed against you for conniving at and tolerating a company of +Brownists among you. I pray you remember there was no seam in the +Saviour's garment.' Bridge was the founder of the Yarmouth +Congregational Church, somewhere about the time of the commencement of +the Civil War. The people declared for the Parliament. Colonel Goffe +was one of its representatives in the House of Commons. All along, the +town seems to have been puritanically inclined, and to have been in this +matter more independent than neighbouring towns. At one time they were +so tolerant that the Independents seem to have worshipped in one end of +the church while the regular clergyman performed the service in the +other; but that did not last long, and when the Independents had a place +of worship of their own, they were not a little troubled by Friends and +Papists claiming for themselves the liberty the Independents had sought +and won. In 1655 the peace of the Church was disturbed by Quaker +doctrines. It appears two females, members of the Church, had joined +them, and refused to return. We read: 'The messenger appointed to visit +May Rouse, brought in an account of her disowning and despising the +Church; she would not come at all unless she had a message from the +Spirit moving her.' She came, however, a week after (December 11), but +by reason of the cold weather was desired to come in again the next +Tuesday. She did so, and gave in these two reasons why she forsook the +Church: 1. Because the doctrine of the Gospel of Faith was not holden +forth; 2. Because there wanted the right administration of baptism. + +In 1659 the Church at Yarmouth, feeling the times to be full of trouble +and of peril, said: + +'1. We judge a Parliament to be expedient for the preservation of the +peace of these nations; and withal, we do desire that all due care be +taken that the Parliament be such as may preserve the interests of Christ +and His people in these nations. + +'2. As touching the magistrates' power in matters of faith and worship, +we have declared our judgments in our late (Free Savoy) confession, and +though we greatly prize our Christian liberties, yet we profess our utter +dislike and abhorrence of a universal toleration, as being contrary to +the mind of God in His Word. + +'3. We judge that the taking away of tithes for the maintenance of +ministers until as full a maintenance be equally secured and as legally +settled, tends very much to the destruction of the ministry, and the +preaching of the Gospel in these nations. + +'4. It is our desire that countenance be not given unto, nor trust +reposed in, the hand of Quakers, they being persons of such principles as +are destructive to the Gospel, and inconsistent with the peace of modern +societies.' + +In five years the Yarmouth people had a Roland for their Oliver; the King +had got his own again, and he and the Parliament of the day looked upon +the Independents or Presbyterians as mischievous as the Quakers; and as +to tithes, they were quite as much resolved, the only difference being +that King and Parliament insisted on their being paid to Episcopalians +alone. In 1770 Lady Huntingdon writes: 'Success has crowned our labours +in that wicked place, Yarmouth.' + +Mrs. Bendish, in whom the Protector was said to have lived again, was +quite a character in Yarmouth society. Bridget Ireton, the granddaughter +of the Protector, married in 1669 Mr. Thomas Bendish, a descendant of Sir +Thomas Bendish, baronet, Ambassador from Charles I. to the Sultan. She +died in 1728, removing, however, in the latter years of her life to +Yarmouth. Her name stands among the members of the church in London of +which Caryl had been pastor, and over which Dr. Watts presided. To her +the latter addressed at any rate one copy of verses to be found in his +collected works. She recollected her grandfather, and standing, when six +years old, between his knees at a State Council, she heard secrets which +neither bribes nor whippings could extract from her. Her grandfather she +held to be a saint in heaven, and only second to the Twelve Apostles. +Asked one day whether she had ever been at Court, her reply was, 'I have +never been at Court since I was waited upon on the knee.' Yet she +managed to dispense with a good deal of waiting, and never would suffer a +servant to attend her. God, she said, was a sufficient guard, and she +would have no other. She is described as loquacious and eloquent and +enthusiastic, frequenting the drawing-rooms and assemblies of Yarmouth, +dressed in the richest silks, and with a small black hood on her head. +When she left, which would be at one in the morning, perched on her +old-fashioned saddle, she would trot home, piercing the night air with +her loud, jubilant psalms, in which she described herself as one of the +elect, in a tone more remarkable for strength than sweetness. In the +daytime she would work with her labourers, taking her turn at the +pitchfork or the spade. The old Court dresses of her mother and Mrs. +Cromwell were bequeathed by her to Mrs. Robert Luson, of Yarmouth, and +were shown as recently as 1834, at an exhibition of Court dresses held at +the Somerset Gallery in the Strand. As was to be expected, Mrs. Bendish +was enthusiastic in the cause of the Revolution of 1688, and the printed +sheets relating to it were dropped by her secretly in the streets of +Yarmouth, to prepare the people for the good time coming. Her son was a +friend of Dr. Watts as well as his mother. He died at Yarmouth, +unmarried, in the year 1753, and with him the line of Bendish seems to +have come to an end. Another daughter of Ireton was married to Nathaniel +Carter, who died in 1723, aged 78. His father, John Carter, was +commander-in-chief of the militia of the town in 1654. He subscribed the +Solemn League and Covenant, being then one of the elders of the +Independent congregation. He was also bailiff of the town, and an +intimate friend of Ireton. He died in 1667. On his tombstone we read: + + 'His course, his fight, his race, + Thus finished, fought, and run, + Death brings him to the place + From whence is no return.' + +He lived at No. 4, South Quay, and it was there, so it is said, that the +resolve was made that King Charles should die. + +He is gone, but his room still remains unaltered--a large wainscoted +upper chamber, thirty feet long, with three windows looking on to the +quay, with carved and ornamented chimney-piece and ceiling. A great +obscurity, as was to be expected, hangs over the transaction, as even now +there are men who shrink from lifting up a finger against the Lord's +anointed. Dinner had been ordered at four, but it was not till eleven, +that it was served, and that the die had been cast. The members of the +Secret Council, we are told, 'after a very short repast, immediately set +off by post--many for London, and some for the quarters of the army.' +Such is the account given in a letter, written in 1773, by Mr. Mewling +Luson, a well-known resident in Yarmouth, whose father, Mr. William +Luson, was nearly connected the Cromwell family. Nathaniel Carter, the +son-in-law of Ireton, was in the habit of showing the room, and relating +the occurrence connected with it, which happened when he was a boy. +Cromwell was not at that council. He never was in Yarmouth; but that +there was such consultation there is more than probable. Yarmouth was +full of Cromwellites. In the Market Place, now known as the Weavers' +Arms, to this day is shown the panelled parlour whence Miles Corbet was +used to go forth to worship in that part of the church allotted to the +Independents. Miles Corbet was the son of Sir Thomas Corbet, of +Sprouston, who had been made Recorder of Yarmouth in the first year of +Charles, and who was one of the representatives of the town in the Long +Parliament. The son was an ardent supporter of the policy of Cromwell, +and, like him, laboured that England might be religious and free and +great, as she never could be under any king of the Stuart race; and he +met with his reward. 'See, young man,' said an old man to Wilberforce, +as he pointed to a figure of Christ on the cross, 'see the fate of a +Reformer.' It was so emphatically with Miles Corbet. Under the date of +1662 there is the following entry in the church-book: + + '1662.--Miles Corbet suffered in London.' + +He was a member of the church there, and was one of the judges who sat on +the trial of King Charles I. His name stands last on the list of those +who signed the warrant for that monarch's execution. Corbet fled into +Holland at the Restoration, with Colonels Okey and Barkstead. George +Downing--a name ever infamous--had been Colonel Okey's chaplain. He +became a Royalist at the Restoration, and was despatched as Envoy +Extraordinary into Holland, where, under a promise of safety, he +trepanned the three persons above named into his power, and sent them +over to England to suffer death for having been members of the Commission +for trying King Charles I. For this service he was created a baronet. +The King sent an order to the Sheriffs of London on April 21, 1662, that +Okey's head and quarters should have Christian burial, as he had +manifested some signs of contrition; but Barkstead's head was directed to +be placed on the Traitor's Gate in the Tower, and Corbet's head on the +bridge, and their quarters on the City gates. + +Foremost amongst the noted women of the Independent Church must be +mentioned Sarah Martin, of whose life a sketch appeared in the _Edinburgh +Review_ as far back as 1847. A life of her was also published by the +Religious Tract Society. Sarah, who joined the Yarmouth church in 1811, +was born at Caistor. From her nineteenth year she devoted her only day +of rest, the Sabbath, to the task of teaching in a Sunday-school. She +likewise visited the inmates of the workhouse, and read the Scriptures to +the aged and the sick. But the gaol was the scene of her greatest +labours. In 1819, after some difficulty, she obtained admission to it, +and soon seems to have acquired an extraordinary influence over the minds +of the prisoners. She then gave up one day in the week to instruct them +in reading and writing. At length she attended the prison regularly, and +kept an exact account of her proceedings and their results in a book, +which is now preserved in the public library of the town. As there was +no chaplain, she read and preached to the inmates herself, and devised +means of obtaining employment for them. She continued this good work +till the end of her days in 1843, when she died, aged fifty-three. A +handsome window of stained glass, costing upwards of 100 pounds, raised +by subscription, has been placed to her memory in the west window of the +north aisle of St. Nicholas Church. But her fame extends beyond local +limits, and is part of the inheritance of the universal Church. It was +in Mr. Walford's time that Sarah Martin commenced her work. Mr. Walford +tells us, in his Autobiography, that the Church had somewhat degenerated +in his day, that the line of thought was worldly, and not such as became +the Gospel. It is clear that in his time it greatly revived, and, even +as a lad, the intelligence of the congregation seemed to lift me up into +quite a new sphere, so different were the merchants and ship-owners of +Yarmouth from the rustic inhabitants of my native village. In this +respect, if I remember aright, the family of Shelley were particularly +distinguished. One dear old lady, who lived at the Quay, was +emphatically the minister's friend. She had a nice house of her own and +ample means, and there she welcomed ministers and their wives and +children. It is to be hoped, for the sake of poor parsons, that such +people still live. I know it was a great treat to me to enjoy the +hospitality of the kind-hearted Mrs. Goderham, for whose memory I still +cherish an affectionate regard. To live in one of the best houses on the +Quay, and to lie in my bed and to see through the windows the masts of +the shipping, was indeed to a boy a treat. + +A little while ago I chanced to be at Norwich, when the thought naturally +occurred to me that I would take a run to Yarmouth--a journey quickly +made by the rail. In my case the journey was safely and expeditiously +accomplished, and I hastened once more to revisit the scenes and +associations of my youth. Alas! wherever I went I found changes. A new +generation had arisen that knew not Joseph. The wind was howling down +the Quay; the sand was blown into my mouth, my nose, my ears; I could +scarcely see for the latter, or walk for the former; but, nevertheless, I +made my way to the pier. Only one person was on it, and his back was +turned to me. As he stood at the extreme end, with chest expanded, with +mouth wide open, as if prepared to swallow the raging sea in front and +the Dutch coast farther off, I thought I knew the figure. It was a +reporter from Fleet Street and he was the only man to greet me in the +town I once knew so well. Yes; the Yarmouth of my youth was gone. Then +a reporter from Fleet Street was an individual never dreamt of. And so +the world changes, and we get new men, fresh faces, other minds. The +antiquarian Camden, were he to revisit Yarmouth, would not be a little +astonished at what he would see. He wrote: 'As soon as the Yare has +passed Claxton, it takes a turn to the south, that it may descend more +gently into the sea, by which means it makes a sort of little tongue or +slip of land, washt on one side by itself, on the other side by the sea. +In this slip, upon an open shore, I saw Yarmouth, a very neat harbour and +town, fortified both by the nature of the place and the contrivance of +art. For, though it be almost surrounded with water, on the west with a +river, over which there is a drawbridge, and on either side with the sea, +except to the north, where it is joined to the continent; yet it is +fenced with strong, stately walls, which, with the river, figure it into +an oblong quadrangle. Besides the towers upon these, there is a mole or +mount, to the east, from whence the great guns command the sea (scarce +half a mile distant) all round. It has but one church, though very large +and with a stately high spire, built near the north gate by Herbert, +Bishop of Norwich.' In only one respect the Yarmouth of to-day resembles +that of Camden's time. Then the north wind played the tyrant and plagued +the coast, and it does so still. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +THE NORFOLK CAPITAL. + + +Brigg's Lane--The carrier's cart--Reform demonstration--The old +dragon--Chairing M.P.'s--Hornbutton Jack--Norwich artists and +literati--Quakers and Nonconformists. + +Many, many years ago, when wandering in the North of Germany, I came to +an hotel in the Fremden Buch, of which (Englishmen at that time were far +more patriotic and less cosmopolitan than in these degenerate days) an +enthusiastic Englishman had written--and possibly the writing had been +suggested by the hard fare and dirty ways of the place: + + 'England, with all thy faults, I love thee still.' + +Underneath, a still more enthusiastic Englishman had written: 'Faults? +What faults? I know of none, except that Brigg's Lane, Norwich, wants +widening.' For the benefit of the reader who may be a stranger to the +locality, let me inform him that Brigg's Lane leads out of the fine +Market Place, for which the good old city of Norwich is celebrated all +the world over, and that on a recent visit to Norwich I found that the +one fault which could be laid at the door of England had been +removed--that Brigg's Lane had been widened--that, in fact, it had ceased +to be a lane, and had been elevated into the dignity of a street. + +My first acquaintance with Norwich, when I was a lad of tender years and +of limited experience, was by Brigg's Lane. I had reached it by means of +a carrier's cart--the only mode of conveyance between Southwold, +Wrentham, Beccles and Norwich--a carrier's cart with a hood drawn by +three noble horses, and able to accommodate almost any number of +travellers and any amount of luggage. As the driver was well known to +everyone, there was also a good deal of conversation of a more or less +friendly character. The cart took one day to reach Norwich--which was, +and it may be is, the commercial emporium of all that district--and +another day to return. The beauty of such a conveyance, as compared with +the railway travelling of to-day, was that there was no occasion to be in +a flurry if you wanted to travel by it. Goldsmith--for such was the +proprietor and driver's name--when he came to a place was in no hurry to +leave it. All the tradesmen in the village had hampers or boxes to +return, and it took some time to collect them; or messages and notes to +send, and it took some time to write them; and at the alehouse there was +always a little gossip to be done while the horses enjoyed their pail of +water or mouthful of hay. Even at the worst there was no fear of being +left behind, as by dint of running and holloaing you might get up with +the cart, unless you were very much behind indeed. But you may be sure +that when the day came that I was to visit the great city of Norwich I +was ready for the carrier's cart long before the carrier's cart was ready +for me. Why was it, you ask, that the Norwich journey was undertaken? +The answer is not difficult to give. The Reform agitation at that time +had quickened the entire intellectual and social life of the people. At +length had dawned the age of reason, and had come the rights of man. The +victory had been won all along the line, and was to be celebrated in the +most emphatic manner. We Dissenters rejoiced with exceeding joy; for we +looked forward, as a natural result, to the restoration of that religious +equality in the eye of the law of which we had been unrighteously +deprived, and in consequence of which we had suffered in many ways. We +joined, as a matter of course, in the celebration of the victory which we +and the entire body of Reformers throughout the land had gained; and how +could that be done better than by feeding the entire community on old +English fare washed down by old English ale? And this was done as far as +practicable everywhere. For instance, at Bungay there was a public feast +in the Market Place, and on the town-pump the Messrs. Childs erected a +printing-press, which they kept hard at work all day printing off papers +intended to do honour to the great event their fellow-townsmen were +celebrating in so jovial a manner. In Norwich the demonstration was to +be of a more imposing character, and as an invitation had come to the +heads of the family from an old friend, a minister out of work, and +living more or less comfortably on his property, it seemed good to them +to accept it, and to take me with them, deeming, possibly, that of two +evils it was best to choose the least, and that I should be safer under +their eye at Norwich than with no one to look after me at home. At any +rate, be that as it may, the change was not a little welcome, and much +did I see to wonder at in the old Castle, the new Gaol, the size of the +city, the extent of the Market Place, the smartness of the people, and +the glare of the shops. It well repaid me for the ride of twenty-six +miles and the jolting of the carrier's cart along the dusty roads. + +As I look into the mirror of the past, I see, alas! but a faded picture +of that wonderful banquet in Norwich to celebrate Reform. There was a +procession with banners and music, which seemed to me endless, as it +toiled along in the dust under the fierce sun of summer, the spectators +cheering all the way. There were speeches, I dare say, though no word of +them remains; but I have a distinct recollection of peeping into the +tents or tent, where the diners were at work, and of receiving from some +one or other of them a bit of plum-pudding prepared for that day, which +seemed to me of unusual excellence. I have a distinct recollection also +of the fireworks in the evening, the first I had ever seen, on the Castle +plain, and of the dense crowd that had turned out to see the sight; but I +can well remember that I enjoyed myself much, and that I was awfully +tired when it was all over. + +Another memory also comes to me in connection with the old Dragon,--not +of Revelation, but of Norwich--a huge green monster, which was usually +kept in St. Andrew's Hall, and dragged out at the time of city +festivities. Men inside of it carried it along the street, and the sight +was terrible to see, as it had a ferocious head and a villainous tail, +and resembled nothing that is in the heaven above or the earth beneath or +the waters under the earth. I fancy, however, since the schoolmaster has +gone abroad, that kind of dragon has ceased to roar. I think it was at a +Norwich election that I saw it for the first and the only time, and it +followed in the procession formed to chair the Members--the Members being +seated in gorgeous array on chairs, borne on the heads of people, and +every now and then, much to the delight of the mob, though I should +imagine very little to his own, the chair, with the Member in it, was +tossed up into the air, and by this means it was supposed the general +public were able to get a view of their M.P. and to see what manner of +man he was. It was in some such way that I, as a lad, realized, as I +never else should have done, the red face and the pink-silk stockings of +the Hon. Mr. Scarlett, the happy candidate who pretended to enjoy the +fun, as with the best grace possible under the circumstances he smiled on +the ladies in the windows of the street, as he was borne along and bowed +to all. From my recollection of the chairing I saw that time, I am more +inclined to admire the activity of Wilberforce, of whom we read, when +elected for Hull, 'When the procession reached his mother's house, he +sprang from the chair, and, presenting himself with surprising quickness +at a projecting window--it was that of the nursery in which his childhood +had been passed--he addressed the populace with such complete effect that +he was afterwards able to decide the election of its successor.' At +Norwich the Hon. Mr. Scarlett did well in not attempting a similar +display of agility. Perhaps, however, it is quite as well that we have +got rid of the chairing and the humour--Heaven help us!--to which it gave +rise on the part of an English mob. + +There was a delightful flavour of antiquity about the Norwich of that +day--its old fusty chapels and churches, its old bridges and narrow +streets. All the people with whom I came into contact on that festival +seemed to me well stricken in years. It was not so very long since, old +Hornbutton Jack had been seen threading his way along its ancient +streets. With a countenance much resembling the portraits of Erasmus, +with gray hair hanging about his shoulders, with his hat drawn over his +eyes and his hands behind him, as if in deep meditation; John Fransham, +the Norwich metaphysician and mathematician, might well excite the +curiosity of the casual observer, especially when I add that he was +bandy-legged, that he was short of stature, that he wore a green jacket, +a broad hat, large shoes, and short worsted stockings. A Norwich weaver +had helped to make Fransham a philosopher. Wright said Fransham could +discourse well on the nature and fitness of things. He possessed a +purely philosophical spirit and a soul well purified from vulgar errors. +Fransham made himself famous in his day. There is every reason to +believe that he had been for some time tutor to Mr. Windham. He is once +recorded to have spent a day with Dr. Parr. Many of his pupils became +professional men; with one of them, Dr. Leeds, the reader of Foote's +comedies, if such a one exists, may be acquainted. The tutor and his +pupil, as Johnny Macpherson and Dr. Last, were actually exhibited on the +stage. But to return to Norwich antiquities. I have a dim memory of +some old place where the Dutch and Huguenot refugees were permitted to +meet for worship, and even now I can recognise there the possibility of +another Sir Thomas Browne--unless the Norwich of my boyhood has undergone +the destructive process we love to call improvement--not even disturbed +in his quiet study by the storm of civil war, inditing his thoughts as +follows: 'That crystal is nothing else but ice strongly congealed; that a +diamond is softened or broken by the blood of a goat; that bays preserve +from the mischief of lightning and thunder; that the horse hath no gall; +that a kingfisher hanged by the bill showeth where the wind lay; that the +flesh of peacocks corrupteth not;' and so on--questions, it may be, as +pertinent as those learnedly discussed in half-crown magazines at the +present day. + +As a boy, I was chiefly familiar with Norwich crapes and bombazines and +Norwich shawls, which at that time were making quite a sensation in the +fashionable world. It was at a later time that I came to hear of Old +Crome and the Norwich school. Of him writes Mr. Wedmore, that 'he died +in a substantial square-built house, in what was a good street then, in +the parish of St. George, Colegate, having begun as a workman, and ended +as a bourgeois. He was a simple man, of genial company. To the end of +his life he used to go of an evening to the public-house as to an +informal club. In the privileged bar-parlour, behind the taps and +glasses, he sat with his friends and the shopkeepers, talking of local +things. But it is not to be supposed that because his life was from end +to end a humble one, though prosperous even outwardly after its kind, +Crome was deprived of the companionship most fitted to his genius, the +stimulus that he most needed. The very existence of the Norwich Society +of Artists settles that question. The local men hung on his words; he +knew that he was not only making pictures, but a school. And in the +quietness of a provincial city a coterie had been formed of men bent on +the pursuit of an honest and homely art, and of these he was the chief.' +Dying, his last words were, 'Hobbema, oh, Hobbema, how I loved thee!' In +my young days Mr. John Sell Cotman chiefly represented Norwich, although +in later times he became connected with King's College, London. A lady +writes to me: 'I think it was in the summer of 1842 Mr. Cotman came down +to Norwich to visit his son John, who at that time was occupying a house +on St. Bennet's Road. He visited us at Thorpe several times, and was +unusually well and in good spirits, with sketchbook or folio always in +hand. His father and sisters, too, were then living in a small house at +Thorpe, and from the balcony of their house, which looked over the valley +of the Wensum, he made one of his last interesting sketches, twelve of +which, after his death, the following year, were selected by his sons for +publication.' + +Evelyn gives us a pleasant picture of Norwich when he went there 'to see +that famous scholar and physitian, Dr. T. Browne, author of the "Religio +Medici" and "Vulgar Errors," etc., now lately knighted.' Evelyn +continues: 'Next morning I went to see Sir Thomas Browne, with whom I had +corresponded by letter, though I had never seen him before, his whole +house and garden being a Paradise and cabinet of rarities, and that of +the best collection, especially medals, books, plants and natural things. +Amongst other curiosities, Sir Thomas has a collection of all the eggs of +all the foule and birds he could procure; that country, especially the +promonotary of Norfolck, being frequented, as he said, by severall kinds, +which seldom or never go further into the land, as cranes, storkes, +eagles, and a variety of water-foule. He led me to see all the +remarkable places of this ancient citty, being one of the largest and +certainly, after London, one of the noblest of England, for its venerable +cathedrall, number of stately churches, cleannesse of the streetes and +building of flints so exquisitely headed and squared, as I was much +astonished at; but he told me they had lost the art of squaring the +flints, in which at one time they so much excelled, and of which the +churches, best houses, and walls are built.' Further, Evelyn tells us: +'The suburbs are large, the prospect sweete with other amenities, not +omitting the flower-gardens, in which all the inhabitants excel. The +fabric of stuffs brings a vast trade to this populous towne.' + +Long has Norwich rejoiced in clever people. In the life of William +Taylor, one of her most distinguished sons, we have a formidable array of +illustrious Norwich personages, in whom, alas! at the present time the +world takes no interest. Sir James Edward Smith, founder and first +President of the Linnaean Society, ought not to be forgotten. Of Taylor +himself Mackintosh wrote: 'I can still trace William Taylor by his +Armenian dress, gliding through the crowd in Annual Reviews, Monthly +Magazines, Athenaeums, etc., rousing the stupid public by paradox, or +correcting it by useful and seasonable truth. It is true that he does +not speak the Armenian or any other tongue but the Taylorian, but I am so +fond of his vigour and originality, that for his sake I have studied and +learned the language. As the Hebrew is studied by one book, so is the +Taylorian by me for another. He never deigns to write to me, but in +print I doubt whether he has many readers who so much understand, relish, +and tolerate him, for which he ought to reward me by some of his +manuscript esoteries.' More may be said of William Taylor. It was he +who made Walter Scott a poet. Taylor's spirited translation of Burger's +'Leonore' with the two well-known lines-- + + 'Tramp, tramp along the land they rode, + Splash, splash along the sea,' + +opened up to Scott a field in which for a time he won fame and wealth. + +Of Mrs. Taylor, wife of the grandson of the eminent Hebraist, Mackintosh +declared that she was the Madame Roland of Norwich. We owe to her Mrs. +Austen and Lady Duff Gordon. Mr. Reeve, the translator of De +Tocqueville's 'Democracy,' has preserved the memory of his father, Dr. +Henry Reeve, by the republication of his 'Journal of a Tour on the +Continent.' Let me also mention that Dr. Caius, the founder of Caius +College, Cambridge, was a Norwich man. + +To Noncons Norwich offers peculiar attractions. We have in Dr. +Williams's library 'The Order of the Prophesie in Norwich'; and Robinson, +the leader of the Pilgrim Fathers, had a Norwich charge. Even in a later +day some of the Norwich divines had a godly zeal for freedom, worthy of +Milton himself, and on which the Pilgrim Fathers would have smiled +approval. It is told of Mark Wilks, the brother of Matthew, and the +grandfather of our London Mark Wilks, that when a deputation went from +Norwich during the Thelwall and Horne Tooke trials, when, if the +Castlereagh gang had had their will, there would have been found a short +and easy way with the Dissenters, and came back on the Sunday morning, +entering the place after the service had commenced, that he called out, +'What's the news?' as he saw them enter. 'Acquitted,' was the reply. +'Thank God!' said the parson, as they all joined in singing + + 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow.' + +It is a fact that Wilks's first sermon in the Countess of Huntingdon's +Chapel at Norwich was from the text, 'There is a lad here with five +barley loaves and a few small fishes.' Let me tell another story, this +time in connection with that Old Meeting which has so much to attract the +visitor at Norwich. It had a grand old man, William Youngman, amongst +its supporters; I see him now, with his choleric face, his full fat +figure, his black knee-breeches and silk stockings, his gold-headed cane. +He was an author, a learned man, as well as a Norwich merchant, the very +Aristarchus of Dissent--a kind-hearted, hospitable man withal, if my +boyish experience may be relied on. One Sunday there came to preach in +the Old Meeting a young man named Halley from London, who lived to be +honoured as few of our Dissenting D.D.'s have been. He was young, and he +felt nervous as he looked from the pulpit on the austere critic in his +great square pew just beneath. Well, thought the young preacher, a +sermon on keeping the Sabbath will be safe, and he selected that for his +morning discourse. The service over, up comes the grand old man. 'The +next time, young man, you preach, preach on something you understand;' +and, having said so, he bought a pennyworth of apples of a woman in the +street, leaving the young man to digest his remarks as best he could. +Again the service was to be carried on. The young man was in the pulpit, +the grand old man below. There was singing and prayer, but no sermon, +the young man having bolted after opening the service. I like better the +picture of Norwich I get in Sir James Mackintosh's Life, where Basil +Montague tells us how he and Mackintosh, when travelling the Norfolk +circuit, always hastened to Norwich to spend their evenings in the circle +of which Mrs. Taylor was the attraction and the centre. The wife of a +Norwich tradesman, we see her sitting sewing and talking in the midst of +her family, the companion of philosophers, who compared her to Lucy +Hutchinson, and a model wife. Far away in India Sir James writes to her: +'I know the value of your letters. They rouse my mind on subjects which +interest us in common--friends, children, literature, and life. Their +moral tone cheers and braces me. I ought to be made permanently happy by +contemplating a mind like yours; which seems more exclusively to derive +its gratifications from its duties than almost any other.' It was in the +Norwich Octagon that these Taylors worshipped. Their Unitarianism seemed +to have affected them more favourably than it did Harriet Martineau, +whose family also attended there. I remember Edward Taylor, who was the +Gresham Professor of Music. But theologically, I presume, the palm of +excellence in connection with the Octagon is to be awarded to Dr. Taylor, +the great Hebrew scholar. He wrote to old Newton: 'I have been looking +through my Bible, and can't find your doctrine of the Atonement.' 'Last +night I could not see to get into bed,' replied old Newton, 'because I +found I had my extinguisher on the candle. Take off the extinguisher, +and then you will see.' + +Leaving theology, let us get up on the gray old castle, which is to be +turned into a museum, and look round on the city lying at our feet. +Would you have a finer view? Cross the Yare and walk up the new road +(made by the unemployed one hard winter) to Mousehold Heath, and after +you have done thinking of Kitt's rebellion--an agrarian one, by-the-bye, +and worth thinking about just at this time--and of the Lollards, who were +burnt just under you, look across to the city in the valley, with its +heights all round, more resembling the Holy City, so travellers say, than +any other city in the world. In the foreground is the cathedral, right +beyond rises the castle on the hill; church spires, warehouses, public +buildings, private dwellings, manufactories, chimneys' smoke, complete +the landscape fringed by the green of the distant hills. There are a +hundred thousand people there--to be preached to and saved. + +Windham was rather hard on the Norwich of his day. In his diary, in +1798, he records a visit to Norwich, of which city he was the +representative. On October 9 he dined at the Swan--'dinner, like the +sessions dinner, but ball in the evening distinguished by the presence of +Mrs. Siddons.' On the 10th he dined at the Bishop's--'A party, of, I +suppose, fifty, chiefly clergy. I felt the same enjoyment that I +frequently do at large dinners--they afford, in general, what never fails +to be pleasant--solitude in a crowd.' On the 11th he writes: 'Dined with +sheriffs at King's Head. Robinson, the late sheriff, was there, and much +as he may be below his own opinion of himself, he is more to talk to than +the generality of those who are found on those occasions. I could not +help reflecting on the very low state of talents or understanding in +those who compose the whole, nearly, of the society of Norwich. The +French are surely a more enlightened and polished people.' Perhaps +Windham would have fared better had he dined with some of the leading +Dissenters. Few of the clergy of East Anglia at that time would have +been fitting company for the friend of Johnson and Burke. In Norwich, +Mr. Windham often managed to make himself unpopular. For instance, +towards the end of the session of 1788, Mr. Windham called the attention +of Government to a requisition from France, which was then suffering the +greatest distress from a scarcity of grain. The object of this +requisition was to be supplied with 20,000 sacks of flour from this +country. So small a boon ought, he thought, to be granted from motives +of humanity; but a Committee of the House of Commons having decided +against it, the Ministers, though they professed themselves disposed to +afford the relief sought for, could not, after such a decision, undertake +to grant it upon their own responsibility. The leading part which Mr. +Windham took in favour of this requisition occasioned, amongst some of +his constituents at Norwich, considerable clamour. He allayed the storm +by a private letter addressed to those citizens of Norwich who were most +likely to be affected by a rise in the price of provisions; but the fact +that Norwich should thus have backed up the inhuman policy of refusing +food to France showed how strong at that time was the force of passion, +and how hard it is to break down hereditary animosity. As a further +illustration of manners and habits of the East Anglian clergy, let me +mention that when, in 1778, Windham made the speech which pointed him out +to be a man of marked ability in connection with the call made on the +country for carrying on the American War, one of the Canons of the +cathedral, and a great supporter of the war, exclaimed: 'D--n him! I +could cut his tongue out!' + +In my young days, in serious circles, there was no name dearer than that +of Joseph Gurney--a fine-looking man with a musical voice, always ready +to aid with money, or in other ways, all that was right and good, or what +seemed to him such. In the 'Memorials of a Quaker Lady' he is described +thus: 'He sat on the end seat of the first cross-form, and both preached +and supplicated. I was very much struck with him. His fine person, his +beautiful dark, glossy hair, his intelligent, benign, and truly amiable +countenance, made a deep impression upon me. And as he noticed me most +kindly, as I was introduced to him by Elizabeth Fry, as the little girl +his sister Priscilla wanted to bring to England, I felt myself greatly +honoured.' The Gurneys have an ancient lineage, and had their home in +Gourney, in Upper Normandy. One of them, of course, fought in the ranks +of the winners at the battle of Hastings. Another was a crusader. +Another had done good service at Acre, as a follower of Richard of the +Lion Heart. When the main line came to an end, one branch settled in +Norfolk. Gurney's Bank at Norwich was one of the institutions of the +city, and was as famous in my day as at a later time was the great house +of Overend and Gurney, which, when it fell, created a panic in financial +circles all the world over. + +At Earlham, the home of the Gurneys, we learn how much may be done by a +family, and how widespread its influence for good or evil may become. +Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton certainly stands foremost, not alone amongst the +East Anglians, but the philanthropists of later years. At the age of +sixteen young Buxton went to Earlham as a guest. His biographer writes: +'They received him as one of themselves, early appreciating his masterly, +though still uncultivated mind; while, on his side, their cordial and +encouraging welcome seemed to draw out all his latent powers. He at once +joined with them in reading and study, and from this visit may be dated a +remarkable change in the whole tone of his character; he received a +stimulus not merely in the acquisition of knowledge, but in the formation +of studious habits and intellectual tastes. Nor could the same influence +fail of extending to the refinement of his disposition and manners.' At +that time Norwich--the Buxtons being witnesses--was distinguished for +good society, and Earlham was celebrated for its hospitality. Mr. +Gurney, the father, belonged to the Society of Friends, but his family +was not brought up with any strict regard to its peculiarities. He put +little restraint on their domestic amusements, and music and dancing were +among their favourite recreations. The third daughter, Mrs. Fry, had, +indeed, united herself more closely with the Society of Friends; but her +example had not then been followed by any of her brothers and sisters. +'I know,' wrote Sir Thomas, in later years, 'no blessing of a temporal +nature--and it is not only temporal--for which I ought to render so many +thanks as my connection with the Earlham family. It has given a colour +to my life. Its influence was most positive, and pregnant with good at +that critical period between school and manhood. They were eager to +improve; I caught the infection. I was resolved to please them, and in +the college at Dublin, at a distance from all my friends and all control, +their influence and the desire to please them kept me hard at my books, +and sweetened the task they gave. The distinctions I gained at college +(little valuable as distinctions, but valuable because habits of +industry, perseverance and resolution were necessary to attain +them)--these boyish distinctions were exclusively the result of the +animating passion in my mind to carry back to them the prizes which they +prompted and enabled me to win.' + +Wilberforce, when he was staying at Lowestoft in 1816, wrote: 'I am still +full of Earlham and its excellent inhabitants. One of our great +astronomers stated it as probable there may be stars whose light has been +travelling to us from the Creation, and has not yet reached our little +planet. In the Earlham family a new constellation has broken in upon us, +for which you must invent a name, as you are fond of star-gazing, and if +it indicates a little monstrosity (as they are apt to give the collection +of stars the names of strange creatures--dragons, bears, etc.), the +various stars of which the Earlham assemblage is made,' continues +Wilberforce, 'will include also much to be respected and loved.' At that +time Mrs. Opie was one of the Norwich stars. Caroline Fox, who went to +dine with her described her as in great force and really jolly. 'She is +enthusiastic about Father Mathew, reads Dickens voraciously, takes to +Carlyle, but thinks his appearance rather against him--talks much and +with great spirit of people, but never ill-naturedly.' + +'Norwich,' as described by Camden, 'on account of its wealth, +populousness, neatness of buildings, beautiful churches, with the number +of them--for it has a matter of fifty parishes--as also the industry of +its citizens, loyalty to their Prince, is to be reckoned among the most +considerable cities in Britain. It was fortified with walls that have a +great many turrets and eleven gates.' Camden, quoting one writer after +another, adds the eulogy of Andrew Johnston, a Scotchman, as follows: + + 'A town whose stately piles and happy seat + Her citizens and strangers both delight; + Whose tedious siege and plunder made her bear + In Norman battles an unhappy share, + And feel the sad effects of dreadful war. + These storms o'erblown, now blest with constant peace, + She saw her riches and her trade increase. + State here by wealth, by beauty yet undone, + How blest if vain excess be yet unknown! + So fully is she from herself supplied + That England while she stands can never want a head.' + +From Norwich went Robinson to help to build up in Amsterdam that Church +of the Pilgrim Fathers which was to be in its turn the mother of a great +Republic such as the world had never seen. He has been styled the Father +of Modern Congregationalism; be that as it may, when he bade farewell in +that quaint old harbour, Delfhaven--which looks as if not a brick or a +building had been touched since--he was doing a work from which neither +himself nor those who stood with him could ever have expected such +wonderful results. That emigration to Holland in Wren's time was a great +loss of money and men to England, and was an indication of Nonconformist +strength which wise Churchmen would have conciliated rather than driven +to extremities. 'In sooth it was,' wrote Heylin, 'that the people in +many great trading towns which were near the sea, having long been +discharged of the bond of ceremonies, no sooner came to hear the least +noise of a conformity, but they began to spurn against it; and when they +found that all their striving was in vain, that they had lost the comfort +of their lecturers and that their ministers began to shrink at the very +name of a visitation, it was no hard matter for those ministers and +lecturers to persuade them to remove their dwellings and transport their +trades.' 'The sun of heaven,' say they, 'doth shine as comfortably in +other places; the Sun of Righteousness much brighter.' 'Better to go and +dwell in Goshen, find it where we can, than tarry in the midst of such an +Egyptian darkness as is now falling on the land.' One of the preachers +who gave that advice and acted in accordance with it was William Bridge, +M.A. Against him Wren was so furious that he fled to Holland and settled +down as one of the pastors of the church at Rotterdam. In 1643 we find +him pastor of the church at Norwich and Yarmouth, and one of the Assembly +of Divines. In 1644 the church was separated--a part meeting at Yarmouth +and a part at Norwich. This was done on the advice of Mr. John Phillip, +of Wrentham--a godly minister of great influence in his denomination in +his day. + +As was to be expected, I was taken to the Old Meeting House at Norwich, +where many learned men had preached, and where many men almost as learned +listened. The gigantic pews, in which a small family might have lived, +filled me with amazement. And equally appalling to me was the +respectability of the people, of a very different class from that of our +Wrentham chapel. Close by was the Octagon Chapel, where the Unitarians +worshipped, equally impressive in its respectability. But what struck me +most was the new and fashionable Baptist chapel of St. Mary's, where the +venerable and learned Kinghorn preached--a great Hebrew scholar and the +champion of strict communion--against Robert Hall, and other degenerate +Baptists, who were ready to admit to the Lord's Table any Christians, +whether properly baptized--that is, by immersion when adults--or merely +sprinkled as infants. Up to this day I confound the worthy man with John +the Baptist, probably because he looked so lank and long and lean. He +was a man of singularly precise habits, so much so that I heard of an old +lady who always regulated her cooking by his daily walk, putting the +dumplings into the pot to boil when he went, and taking them out when he +returned. I could write much about him, but _cui bono_? who cares about +a dead Baptist lion? Not even the Baptists themselves. On going into +their library in Castle Street the other day, to look at Kinghorn's life, +I found no one had taken the trouble to cut the pages. In the front +gallery of St. Mary's, Mr. Brewer, the Norwich schoolmaster, had sittings +for the boys of his school, including his own sons, who, at King's +College and elsewhere, have done much to illustrate our national history +and literature. If I remember aright, one of the congregation was a +jolly-looking old gentleman who, as Uncle Jerry, laid the foundation of a +mustard manufactory, which has placed one of the present M.P.'s for +Norwich at the head of a business of unrivalled extent. When Mr. +Kinghorn died, his place was taken by Mr. Brock, better known as Dr. +Brock, of Bloomsbury Chapel, London. Under Mr. Brock's preaching the +reputation of St. Mary's Chapel was increased rather than diminished. As +a young man himself at that time, he was peculiarly attractive to the +young, and the singing was very different from the rustic psalmody of my +native village, in spite of the fact that we had a bass-viol at all +times, and on highly-favoured occasions such an array of flutes and +clarionets as really astonished the natives and delighted me. + +But to return to the Old Meeting. Calamy writes of one of the Norwich +ministers, of the name of Cromwell, that 'he enjoyed but one peaceable +day after his settlement, being on the second forced out of his +meeting-house, the licenses being called in, and then for nine years +together he was never without trouble. Sometimes he was pursued with +indictments at sessions, at assizes, and then with citations of the +ecclesiastical courts; and at other times feigned letters, rhymes or +libels were dropped in the streets or church and fathered upon him, so +that he was forced to make his house his prison. At length that was +broken open, and he absconded into the houses of his friends, till he +contracted his old disease' a second time. It is said that he was +invited on one occasion to dine with Bishop Reynolds, when several young +clergy were present. When Mr. Cromwell retired, the Bishop rose and +attended him, and then a general laugh ensued. On his return his +lordship rebuked his guests for their unmannerly conduct, and told them +that Mr. Cromwell had more solid divinity in his little finger than all +of them had in their bodies. It must be remembered that, like most of +the early Independent ministers, Mr. Cromwell had a University training; +and even in my young days the respect shown to a learned ministry kept up +not a little of the high standard which had been laid down by the fathers +and founders of Dissent. In these more degenerate days it is to be +questioned whether as much can be said. The Old Meeting House at Norwich +was finished as far back as 1643. The only pastor of the church who was +not an author was the Rev. Dr. Scott, who died in 1767. In the Octagon +Chapel the preachers had been still more distinguished. One of them was +the Rev. Dr. Taylor, author of the famous Hebrew Concordance, which was +published in two volumes folio, and was the labour of fourteen years. He +left Norwich to become tutor at the newly-erected Academy at Warrington; +but his son, Mr. Edward Taylor, the Gresham Professor of Music, was often +a visitor at Wrentham, where he had a little property, which he valued, +as it gave him a vote. Another of the preachers at the Octagon was the +Rev. R. Alderson, who afterwards became Recorder of Norwich. The Mr. +Edward Taylor of whom I have just written was baptized by him. One day, +being under examination as a witness in court, Alderson questioned him as +to his age. 'Why,' said Taylor, a little nettled, 'you ought to know, +for you baptized me.' 'I baptized you!' exclaimed Alderson. 'What do +you mean?' The Recorder never liked to be reminded of his having been a +preacher. The Marchioness of Salisbury is of this family. Perhaps, of +these Unitarian preachers, one of the most distinguished was Dr. William +Enfield, whose 'Speaker' was one of the books placed in the hands of +ingenuous youth, and whose 'History of Philosophy' was one of the works +to be studied in their riper years. Norwich, indeed, was full of learned +men. Its aged Bishop, Bathurst, was the one voter for Reform, much to +the delight of William IV., who said that he was a fine fellow, and +deserved to be the helmsman of the Church in the rough sea she would soon +have to steer through. His one offence in the eyes of George III. was +that he voted against the King--that is, in favour of justice to the +Catholics. With such a Bishop a Reformer, no wonder that all Norwich +went wild with joy when the battle of Reform was fought and won. Bishop +Stanley, who succeeded, was also in his way a great Liberal, and invited +Jenny Lind to stay with him at the palace. I often used to see him at +Exeter Hall, where his activity as a speaker afforded a remarkable +contrast to the quieter style of his more celebrated son. + +Accidentally looking into the life of Bishop Bathurst, I find printed in +the Appendix some interesting conversations at Earlham, where Joseph John +Gurney lived. On one occasion, when Dr. Chalmers was staying there, +Joseph John Gurney writes: 'W. Y. breakfasted with us, and with his usual +strong sense and talent called forth the energies of Chalmers' mind. +They conversed on the subject of special Providence, and of the unseen +yet unceasing superintendence of the Creator of all the events which +occur in this lower world. Said W. Y.: "Mr. Barbauld, the husband of the +authoress, was once a resident in my house. He was a man of low opinions +in religion, and denied the agency of an unseen spirit on the mind of +man." I remarked that when the mind was determined to a certain right +action by a combination of circumstances productive of the adequate +motives, and meeting from various quarters precisely at the right point +for the purpose in view, this was in itself a sufficient evidence of an +especial Providence, and might be regarded as the instrumentality through +which the Holy Spirit acts. Mr. Barbauld admitted the justice of this +argument.' Again I read: 'W. Y. supported the doctrine that nature is +governed through the means of general laws--laws which broadly and +obviously mark the wisdom and benevolence of God.' One extract more: 'W. +Y. expressed his admiration of the masterly manner in which Dr. Chalmers, +in his "Bridgewater Treatise," has fixed on the atheist a moral +obligation to inquire into the truth of religion; but, said he, might not +the disciples of Irving, by the same rule, oblige us to an inquiry into +the supposed evidences of their favourite doctrine that Christ is about +to appear and to reign personally on earth? Might not even the Mahometan +suppose in the Christian a similar necessity as it relates to the +pretensions of the false prophet?' If Joseph Gurney sent for W. Y. to +converse with Dr. Chalmers as a genial spirit, surely the name of one so +honourable and of one so friendly both to my father and myself should not +be omitted. W. Y. loved a joke. He was very stout, and wore tight black +knee breeches with shoes and silk stockings. I remember how he made me +laugh one day as he described what happened to his knee-breeches as he +stooped to tie up his shoes ere attending a place of worship. To cut a +long story short, I may add W. Youngman did not go to church that day. +Originally I think he was a dyer. + +Harriet Martineau, as all the world knows, was born at Norwich. In her +somewhat ill-natured autobiography she writes: 'Norwich, which has now no +social claims to superiority at all, was in my childhood a rival of +Lichfield itself, in the time of the Sewards, for literary pretensions +and the vulgarity of pedantry. William Taylor was then at his best, when +there was something like fulfilment of his early promise, when his +exemplary filial duty was a fine spectacle to the whole city, and before +the vice which destroyed him had coarsened his morale and destroyed his +intellect. During the war it was a great distinction to know anything of +German literature, and in Mr. Taylor's case it proved a ruinous +distinction. He was completely spoiled by the flatteries of shallow men, +pedantic women, and conceited lads.' Yet this man was the friend of +Southey and opened up a new world to the English intellect, and perhaps +in days to come will have a more enduring reputation than Harriet +Martineau herself. The lady does not err on the side of good nature in +her criticism. All she can say of Dr. Sayers is: 'I always heard of him +as a genuine scholar, and I have no doubt he was superior to his +neighbours in modesty and manners. Dr. Enfield, a feeble and superficial +man of letters, was gone also from the literary supper-table before my +time. There was Sir James Smith, the botanist, made much of and really +not pedantic and vulgar like the rest, but weak and irritable. There was +Dr. Alderson, Mrs. Opie's father, solemn and sententious and eccentric in +manner, but not an able man in any way;' and thus the leading lights of +Norwich are contemptuously dismissed. 'The great days of the Gurneys +were not come yet. The remarkable family from which issued Mrs. Fry and +Priscilla and Joseph John Gurney were then a set of dashing young people, +dressed in gay riding habits and scarlet boots, as Mrs. Fry told us +afterwards, and riding about the country to balls and gaieties of all +sorts. Accomplished and charming young ladies they were; and we children +used to overhear some whispered gossip about the effects of their charms +on heart-stricken young men; but their final characteristics were not yet +apparent.' + +It is to a Norwich man that we owe the publication of Hansard's +Parliamentary Debates. Luke Hansard, to whom they owe their name, was +born in Norwich, 1725, was trained as a printer, went to London with but +a guinea in his pocket, was employed by Hughes, the printer of the House +of Commons, succeeded to the business and became widely known for his +despatch and accuracy in printing Parliamentary papers and debates. He +died in 1828, but the business was continued by his family, and to refer +to Hansard became the invariable custom when an M.P. was to be condemned +out of his own mouth--as Hansard was supposed never to err. Recently +Hansard has been carried on by a company, but the old name still remains. + +Dr. Stoughton has in vain, in a number of the _Congregationalist_, +attempted to record the memory of a man well known and much honoured in +his day--the Rev. John Alexander, of Norwich. The portrait is a failure. +It gives us no idea of the man with his rosy face, his curly black hair, +his merry, twinkling eye, his joyous laugh, when mirth befitted the +occasion, or his tender sympathy where pain and sorrow and distress had +to be endured. Mr. Alexander's jubilee was celebrated in St. Andrew's +Hall in 1867, when the Mayor and a crowd of citizens did him honour, and +a sum of money for the purchase of an annuity was presented, thus +obviating the necessity of doing to him as on one occasion he in his +humorous way suggested should be done with old ministers when past +work--that they should be shot. In 1817 Mr. Alexander had come to +Norwich to preach in the old Whitfield Tabernacle in place of Mr. Hooper, +one of the tutors at Hoxton Academy. When I went to Norwich he had built +a fine chapel in Prince's Street, and amongst the hearers was Mr. Tillet, +then in a lawyer's office, a young man famous for his speeches at the +Mechanics' Institute and in connection with a literary venture, the +_Norwich Magazine_, not destined to set the Thames on fire; latterly an +M.P. for Norwich and proprietor and editor, I believe, of one of the most +popular of East Anglian journals, the _Norfolk News_. It was in Prince's +Street Chapel I first learned to realize how influential was the +Nonconformist public, of which I frankly admit in our little village, +with Churchmen all round, I had but a limited idea. It seemed to me that +we were rather a puny folk, but at Norwich, with its chapels and pastors +and people, I saw another sight. There was the Rev. John Alexander, with +an overflowing audience on the Sunday and an active vitality all the +week, now dining at the palace with the Bishop or breakfasting at Earlham +with the Gurneys, now meeting on terms of equality the literati of the +place (at that time Mrs. Opie was still living near the castle, and Mr. +Wilkins was writing his life of the far-famed Norwich doctor, the learned +and ingenious author of the 'Religio Medici'), now visiting the afflicted +and the destitute, now carrying consolation to the home of the mourner. +John Alexander was a man to whom East Anglian Nonconformity owes much. +In the old city there was a good deal of young intelligence, and a good +deal of it amongst the Noncons. Dr. Sexton was one of the Old Meeting +House congregation, as was Lucy Brightwell, a lady not unknown to the +present generation of readers. To a certain extent a Noncon. is bound to +be more or less intelligent. He finds a great State Establishment of +religion wherever he goes. It enjoys the favour of the Court. It is +patronized by the aristocracy. It enlists among its supporters all who +wish to rise in the world or to make a figure in society. By means of +the endowed schools of the land, it offers to the young, even of the +humblest birth, a chance of winning a prize. Conform, it says, and you +may be rich and respectable. It was said of a late Bishop of Winchester +that he would forgive a man anything so long as he were but a good +Churchman, and even now one meets in society with people who regard a +Dissenter as little better than a heathen or a publican. A man who can +thus voluntarily place himself at a disadvantage, to a certain extent, +must have exercised his intellect and be ready to give a reason for the +faith that is in him. Naturally, men are of the religion of the country +in which they are born--Roman Catholics in Italy, Mahometans in Turkey, +Buddhists in the East. It requires more power and strength of mind and +decision of character to dissent from the Church of the State than to +support it. 'How was it,' asked Dr. Storrar, Chairman of the Convocation +of the University of London, the other day, 'that the lads educated at +Mill Hill Grammar School had done so well at Cambridge and Oxford?' The +reply, said the Doctor, was--I don't give his words, merely the idea--to +be found in the fact that a couple of centuries ago there were men of +strong intellect and tender consciences who refused to renounce their +opinions at the command of a despotic power. They had been succeeded by +their sons with the same quickness of intellect and conscience. +Generations one after another had come and gone, and the children of +these old Nonconformists thus came to the school with an hereditary +intelligence, destined to win in the gladiatorship of the school, the +college, or the world. + +Let me now give an anecdote of Dr. Bathurst, the Lord Bishop of Norwich, +too good to be lost. It is told by Sir Charles Leman, who described him +in 1839 as gradually converting his enemies into friends by his uniform +straightforwardness and enlarged Christian principle. One of his clergy, +who had been writing most abusively in newspapers, had on one occasion +some favour to solicit, which he did with natural hesitation. The Bishop +promised all in his power and in the kindest manner, and when the +clergyman was about to leave the room he suddenly turned with, 'My lord, +I must say, however, I much regret the part I have taken against you; I +see I was quite in the wrong, and I beg your forgiveness.' This was +readily accorded. 'But how was it,' the clergyman continued, 'you did +not turn your back on me? I quite expected it.' 'Why, you forget that I +profess myself a Christian,' was the reply. + +Of a later Bishop--Stanley--whom I can well remember, a dark, energetic +little man, making a speech at Exeter Hall, we hear a little in Caroline +Fox's memories of old friends. In 1848 she writes: 'Dined very +pleasantly at the palace; the Bishop was all animation and good humour, +but too unsettled to leave any memorable impression. I like Mrs. Stanley +much--a shrewd, sensible, observing woman. She told me much about her +Bishop, how very trying his position was on first settling at Norwich; +for his predecessor was an amiable, indolent old man, who let things take +their course, and a very bad course too, all which the present man has to +correct as way opens, and continually sacrifice popularity to a sense of +right.' + +The following anecdote of Miss Fox and her friends calling at a cottage +in the neighbourhood of Norwich is too good to be lost. 'A young woman,' +she writes, 'told us that her father was nearly converted, and that a +little more teaching would complete the business,' adding, 'He quite +believes that he is lost, which is, of course, a great consolation to the +old man.' That story is racy of the soil. It is in that way the East +Anglian peasantry who have any religion at all talk; they have no hope of +a man who does not feel that he is lost. Well, there are many ways to +heaven, and that must comfort some of us who still believe that man was +made in the image of his Maker, a little lower than the angels, crowned +with glory and honour, and not destined to an eternity of misery for the +sins of a day. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE SUFFOLK CAPITAL. + + +The Orwell--The Sparrows--Ipswich notabilities--Gainsborough--Medical +men--Nonconformists. + +Those who imagine Suffolk to be a flat and uninteresting county, with no +charms for the eye and no associations worth speaking of, are much +mistaken. There are few lovelier rivers in England than the Orwell, on +which Ipswich stands, up which river the fiery Danes used to sail to +plunder all the country round, and on the banks of which Gainsborough +learned to love Nature and draw her in all her charms. The town itself +stands in a valley, but it has gradually crept up the hills on each side, +so that almost everywhere you have a pleasing prospect and breathe a +bracing air. A few miles, or, rather, a short walk, brings you to +Henley, which has the reputation of being the highest land in Suffolk, +and on the other side there is a railway that connects Ipswich with +Felixstowe, just as the Crystal Palace is connected with the City. +Ipswich may claim to be the most prosperous and enterprising of all the +Suffolk towns. It goes with the times. Its citizens are active and +pushing men of business, and have enlightened ideas as well. They are +also Liberal in politics and practical in religion, and are never behind +in coming forward when there is a chance of benefiting themselves or +their fellow-creatures. And yet Ipswich has a history as long as the +dullest cathedral town. It was a place of note during the existence of +the Saxon Heptarchy. Twice it had the honour of publicly entertaining +King John; and there is a tradition that in the curious and +beautifully-ornamented house in the Butter Market--formerly the residence +of Mr. Sparrow, the Ipswich coroner, whose old family portraits, +including one of the Jameses, presented to an ancestor of the family, +filled me not a little with youthful wonder--Charles II. was secreted by +one of the Sparrows of that day, when he came to hide in Ipswich after +the battle of Worcester. 'The house is now a shop,' but, observes Mr. +Glyde, a far-famed local historian, 'a concealed room in the upper story +of the house, which was discovered during some alterations in 1801, is +well adapted for such a purpose.' And, at any rate, the gay and +graceless monarch, in search of a hiding-place, might have gone farther +and fared worse. Be that as it may, Ipswich can rejoice in the fact that +it was the birthplace of Cardinal Wolsey; and that he was one of the +first educational reformers of the day must be admitted, at any rate, in +Ipswich, of which, possibly, he would have made a second Cambridge. +Alas! of his efforts in that direction, the only outward and visible sign +is the old gateway in what is called College Street, which remains to +this day. Ipswich fared well in the Elizabethan days, when her Gracious +Majesty condescended to visit the place. Sir Christopher Hatton, the +dancing Lord Chancellor, who led the brawls, when + + 'The seals and maces danced before him,' + +lived in a house near the Church of St. Mary-le-Tower. Sir Edward Coke +resided in a village not far off, and in 1597 the M.P. for Ipswich was no +other than the great Lord Bacon, who by birth and breeding was +emphatically a Suffolk man. From Windham's diary, it appears that at +Ipswich that distinguished statesman experienced a new sensation. In +1789 he writes: 'Left Ipswich not till near twelve. Saw Humphries there, +and was for the first time entertained with some sparring; felt much +amused with the whole of the business.' + +In the early part of the present century Miss Berry, on returning from +one of her Continental trips, paid Ipswich a visit, having landed at +Southwold. 'Appearance of Ipswich very pretty in descending towards it,' +is the entry in her diary. About the same time Bishop Bathurst made his +visitation tour, and he writes to one of his lady correspondents: 'You +will be glad that, during the three weeks I passed in Suffolk, I did not +meet a single unpleasant man, nor experience a single unpleasant +accident.' With the name of the Suffolk hero Captain Broke, of the +_Shannon_. (I can well remember the Shannon coach--which ran from +Yoxford to London--the only day-coach we had at that time), Ipswich is +inseparably connected. He was born at Broke Hall, just by, and there +spent the later years of his life. Another of our naval heroes, Admiral +Vernon, the victor of Porto Bello, resided in the same vicinity. At one +time there seems to have been an attempt to connect Ipswich with the Iron +Duke. In the memoir of Admiral Broke we have more than one reference to +the Duke's shooting in that neighbourhood, and actually it appears that, +unknown to himself, he was nominated as a candidate to the office of High +Steward. Ipswich, however, preferred a neighbour, in the shape of Sir +Robert Harland. At a later day the office was filled by Mr. Charles +Austin, the distinguished writer on Jurisprudence. + +One of the celebrated noblemen who lived in Ipswich was Lord Chedworth. +He wore top-boots, and wore them till they were not fit to be seen. When +new boots were sent home he was accustomed to set them on one side, and +get his manservant to wear them a short time to prepare them for his own +feet. Sometimes the man would tell his lordship that he thought the +boots were ready, but his lordship would generally reply, 'Never mind, +William; wear them another week.' While at Ipswich his lordship was +frequently consulted, owing to his legal attainments and well-known +generous disposition, by tradesmen and people in indigent circumstances. +The applicants were ushered into the library, where, surrounded by books, +they found his lordship. The chairs and furniture of the room, like his +lordship's clothes, had not merely seen their best days, but were +comparatively worthless, and the old red cloak which invariably enveloped +his shoulders made him look more like a gipsy boy than a peer of the +realm. His lordship's legacies to Ipswich ladies and others, especially +of the theatrical profession, were of the most liberal character. + +Ipswich in its old days had its share of witches. One of the most +notorious of them was Mother Hatheland, who in due course was tried, +condemned and executed. From her confession in 1645 it appears 'the said +Mother Hatheland hath been a professor of religion, a constant hearer of +the Word for these many years, yet a witch, as she confessed, for the +space of nearly twenty years. The devil came to her first between +sleeping and waking, and spake to her in a hollow voice, telling her that +if she would serve him she would want nothing. After often solicitations +she consented to him. Then he stroke his claw (as she confessed) into +her hands, and with her blood wrote the covenant.' Now, as the writer +gravely remarks, the subtlety of Satan is to be observed in that he did +not press her to deny God and Christ, as he did others, because she was a +professor, and he might have lost all his hold by pressing her too far. +Satan appears to have provided her with three imps, in the shape of two +little dogs and a mole. + +As the home of Gainsborough Ipswich has enduring claims on the English +nation and on lovers of art and artists everywhere. That must have been +a Suffolk man who passed the following criticism on Gainsborough's +celebrated picture of 'Girl and Pigs,' of which Sir Joshua Reynolds +became the purchaser at one hundred guineas, though the artist asked but +sixty: 'They be deadly like pigs; but who ever saw pigs feeding together, +but one on 'em had a foot in the trough?' Gainsborough had an +enthusiastic attachment to music. It was the favourite amusement of his +leisure hours, and his love for it induced him to give one or two +concerts to his most intimate acquaintances whilst living in Ipswich. He +was a member of a musical club, and painted some of the portraits of his +brother members in his picture of a choir. Once upon a time, +Gainsborough was examined as a witness on a trial respecting the +originality of a picture. The barrister on the other side said: 'I +observe you lay great stress on a painter's eye; what do you mean by that +expression?' 'A painter's eye,' replied Gainsborough, 'is to him what +the lawyer's eye is to you.' As a boy at the Grammar School of his +native town, it is to be feared he loved to play truant. One day he went +out to his usual sketching haunts to enjoy the nature which he loved +heartily, previously presenting to his uncle, who was master of the +school, the usual slip of paper, 'Give Tom a holiday,' in which his +father's handwriting was so exactly imitated that not the slightest +suspicion of the forgery ever entered the mind of the master. Alas! +however, the crime was detected, and his terrified parent exclaimed in +despair, 'Tom will one day be hanged.' When, however, he was informed +how the truant schoolboy had employed his truant hours, and the boy's +sketches were laid before him, forgetful of the consequences of forgeries +in a commercial society, he declared, with all the pride of a father, +'Tom will be a genius,' and he was right. + +Worthy Mr. Pickwick seems to have known Ipswich about the same time as +myself. 'In the main street of Ipswich,' wrote the biographer of that +distinguished individual, 'on the left-hand side of the way, a short +distance after you have passed through the open space fronting the Town +Hall, stands an inn known far and wide by the appellation of the Great +White Horse, rendered the more conspicuous by a stone statue of some +rapacious animal, with flowing mane and tail, distantly resembling an +insane carthorse, which is elevated above the principal door. The Great +White Horse is famous in the neighbourhood in the same degree as a prize +ox, a county paper chronicled turnip, or unwieldy pig, for its enormous +size. Never were such labyrinths of uncarpeted passages, such clusters +of mouldy, ill-lighted rooms, such huge numbers of small dens for eating +or sleeping in, beneath any one roof as are collected together between +the four walls of the Great White Horse of Ipswich.' This was the great +hotel of the Ipswich of my youth. As regards hotels, Ipswich has not +improved, but in every other way it has much advanced. One of the old +inns has been turned into a fine public hall, admirably adapted for +concerts and public meetings. The new Town Hall, Corn Exchange, and +Post-office are a credit to the town. The same may be said of the new +Museum and the Grammar School and the Working Men's College and that +health resort, the Arboretum; while by means of the new dock ships of +fifteen hundred tons burden can load and unload. Nowadays everybody says +Ipswich is a rising town, and what everyone says must be right. The +Ipswich people, at any rate, have firmly got that idea into their heads. +Its fathers and founders built the streets narrow, evidently little +anticipating for Ipswich the future it has since achieved. The Ipswich +of to-day is laid out on quite a different scale. It has a tram road +service evidently much in excess of the present population, and as you +wander in the suburbs you come to a sign-post bearing the name of a +street in which not even the enterprise of the speculative builder has +been able at present to plant a single dwelling. When Ipswich has +climbed up its surrounding hills, and taken up all the building sites at +present in the market, it will be a goodly and gallant town, almost +fitted to invite the temporary residence of holiday-making Londoners who +are fond of the water. At all times it is a pretty sail to Harwich and +thence to Felixstowe, that quiet watering-place, a seaside residence that +has still a pleasant flavour of rusticity about it, with a fine crisp +sea-sand floor for a promenade. + +When I was a boy Ipswich was resorted to by Londoners in the summer-time. +As an illustration, I give the case of Mr. Ewen, one of the deacons of +the Weigh House Chapel, when the Rev. John Clayton was the pastor. In +his memories of the Clayton family, the Rev. Dr. Aveling writes of Mr. +Ewen, that 'he was so sensitively conscientious in the discharge of his +official duties at the Weigh House, that he was never absent from town on +the days when the Lord's Supper was administered, and when he was +expected to assist in the administration of the elements. His London +residence was in Lincoln's Inn Fields, but having a house and property in +the town of Ipswich, he passed his summer months there. Yet so intent +was he upon duly filling his place in the sanctuary of God, that he +regularly travelled by post-chaise once in every month, and returned in +the same manner, that he might be present, together with his pastor and +the brethren, at the table of the Lord. The length and the expense of +the journey (and travelling was not then what it is now) did not deter +him from what he at least deemed to be a matter of Christian obligation.' +Dr. Aveling is quite right when he tells us travelling is not what it +was. It took almost a day to go from Ipswich to London when I was a boy, +and now the journey is done by means of the Great Eastern Railway in +about an hour and a half. It seems marvellous to one who, like myself, +remembers well the past, to leave Liverpool Street at 5.0 p.m. precisely, +and to find one's self landed safe and well in Ipswich soon after +half-past six. The present generation can have no conception of +travelling in England in the olden time. + +There were some wonderful old Radicals in Ipswich, though it was, and is, +the county town of the most landlord-ridden district in England. Some of +them got the great Dan O'Connell to pay the town a visit, and some of +them nobly stood by old John Childs when he became famous all the world +over as the Church-rate martyr. The lawyers and the doctors were mostly +Tories, but the tradesmen and the merchants were not a little leavened +with the leaven of Dissent. Mr. Hammond was, however, a Liberal surgeon, +and as such flourished. His Whig principles, writes Mr. Glyde, brought +him many patients, and his skill and sound qualities retained them. Dr. +Garrord, the well-known London practitioner, was an apprentice of Mr. +Hammond's; and this reminds me that among the Ipswich men who have risen +is Mr. Sprigg, the Premier of Cape Colony when Sir Bartle Frere was at +the head of affairs there. The father of Mr. Sprigg was the respected +pastor of a Baptist chapel in the town. The only Ipswich minister whom I +can remember was the Rev. Mr. Notcutt, who preached in the leading +Independent chapel, now pulled down to make way for a much more +attractive building. All I can recollect about him is, that once, when a +lad, I fainted away when he was preaching. No sermon ever affected me so +since; and that effect was due, it must be confessed, not to the +preacher, who seemed to me rather aged and asthmatic, but to the heat of +the place, in consequence of the crowd attracted to the meeting-house on +some special occasion. + +But to return to the doctors. Of one of them, who was famed for his love +of bleeding his patients, not metaphorically, but in the old-fashioned +way, with the lancet, it is recorded that on the occasion of his taking a +holiday two of his patients died. Lamenting the fact to a friend, the +following epigram was the result: + + 'B--- kills two patients while from home away-- + A clever fellow this same B---, I wot; + If absent thus his patients he can slay, + How he must kill them when he's on the spot!' + +Perhaps one of the noted physicians of my boyhood was Mr. Stebbing. 'He +was once,' writes Mr. Glyde, 'called in to see one of the Ipswich +Dissenting ministers, who had taken life very easily, and had grown +corpulent. After examining the patient and hearing his statement as to +bodily state, he replied: "You've no particular ailment; mind and keep +your eyes longer open, and your mouth longer shut, and you will do very +well in a short time."' On another occasion a raw and very poor-looking +young fellow called upon him for advice. The doctor told him to go home +and eat more pudding, adding, 'That's all you want; physic is a very good +thing for one to live by, but a precious bad thing for you to take.' One +of the Ipswich characters of my boyhood, of whom Mr. Glyde has preserved +an anecdote, was old Tuxford, the veterinary surgeon. He used to declare +that he never took more than one meal a day--a breakfast; but when asked +of what that consisted, he said, 'A pound of beefsteak, seven eggs, three +cups of tea, and a quartern of rum.' It may also be mentioned that +before Mrs. Garrett Anderson was born, Ipswich had a lady physician in +the person of Miss Stebbing, daughter of the doctor to whom I have +already referred. 'She was,' says one who knew her well, 'a woman of +general education, with more than ordinary tact and discernment, combined +with the true womanly power of analyzing and observing. She had good +physical powers, and, like her worthy father, was somewhat pungent in her +remarks and eccentric in her habits. She entered the ranks as a medical +practitioner during her father's life. The benefit of his advice so +aided her perceptive powers as to make her quite an expert in various +ways, and she continued to practise long after his decease, occasionally +attending males as well as females. Her knowledge of midwifery caused a +large number of ladies to engage her services. + +Of the Radicals of Ipswich, the only one with whom I came into contact +was Mr. John King, the proprietor and editor of what was then, at any +rate, a far-famed journal--the _Suffolk Chronicle_. Astronomy was his +hobby, and he had ideas on the subject which, unfortunately, I failed to +catch. He had built himself an observatory, if I remember aright, at his +residence on Rose Hill, where he would sweep the heavens nightly, to see +what could be seen. He was a Radical of the old type, a tall, dark, +bilious-looking man, a little hard and dry, perhaps, who seemed to think +that it was no use to throw pearls before swine, and to serve up for the +chaw-bacons a too rich intellectual treat, and his policy was a +successful one. Priest-ridden as Suffolk was, the _Suffolk Chronicle_ +was the leading paper of the county, and had a large circulation, and, +let me add, did good service in its day. Now I find Ipswich rejoices in +a well-conducted daily journal, the _East Anglian Times_, which I hear, +and am glad to hear, is a fine property, and I see all the leading towns +in Suffolk have a paper to themselves, even if they can't get up a decent +paragraph of local news--and some of them I know, from my experiences of +Suffolk life, are quite unequal to that--once a week. The plan is to +have some sheets already printed in London, at some great establishment, +whence perhaps a hundred little towns are supplied, and then the local +news and advertisements are added on, and Little Pedlington has its +_Observer_, and Eatanswill its _Gazette_. When I was a boy, such a thing +was out of the question, as to each paper a fourpenny-halfpenny stamp was +attached. As the stamps had to be paid for in advance, and as, besides, +there was an eighteen-penny duty on every advertisement, it was not quite +such an easy matter to run a paper then as it has since become. I fancy +the old-established journals suffered much by the change, which +completely revolutionized the newspaper trade; at any rate, so far as the +country was concerned. In this connection, let me add that it was to an +Ipswich journalist we owe the establishment of penny readings on anything +like a large and successful scale. They were originated by Mr. Sully, at +that time the proprietor and editor of the _Ipswich __Express_, a paper +intended to steer between the ferocious Toryism of the _Ipswich Journal_, +and the equally ferocious Radicalism of the _Suffolk Chronicle_. As was +to be expected, the attempt did not succeed. As in love and in war, so +in politics and theology, moderation is a thing hateful to gods and men. +The electioneering annals of Ipswich can testify to that fact. I have a +dim recollection of an election petition which ended in Sir Fitzroy +Kelly's admitting that he had stated what was not true, but he did it as +a lawyer, not as a gentleman, and in sending one of the finest old +gentlemen I ever knew to gaol, because he would not tell what he knew of +the matter. There was not much half-and-half work in the Ipswich +politics of my young days. + +When people fight fiercely in politics, it is natural to expect an equal +earnestness in religious matters. It was so emphatically with respect to +the Ipswich of the past. 'The Reformed religion, after those fiery days +of persecution,' writes John Quick, 'was now revived, and flourished +again in the country, under the auspicious name of our English Deborah, +Queen Elizabeth; and Ipswich, the capital town of Suffolk, was not more +famous for its spacious sheds, large and beautiful buildings, rich and +great trade, and honourable merchants, both at home and abroad, than it +was for its learned and godly ministers and its religious intolerants.' +Of the godly ministers, one of the most famous was Samuel Ward, who was +buried in St. Mary-le-Tower Church. In 1666 he preached a sermon at St. +Paul's Cross. But he meddled with politics. For instance, in 1621 he +published a caricature picture, entitled 'Spayne and Rome Defeated.' It +is thus described: The Pope and his Council are represented in the centre +of the piece, and beneath, on one side the Armada, and on the other the +Gunpowder Treason. Gondomar, the Spanish Ambassador, complained of it as +insulting to his master. Ward was placed in custody. Being +Puritanically inclined, he was, in addition, prosecuted in the Consistory +Court of Norwich by Bishop Harsnet for Nonconformity. Ten years later, +when 600 persons were contemplating a removal from Ipswich to New +England--as a place where they could worship God without fear of priest +or king--the blame was cast by Laud on Ward. Rushworth informs us that +the charges laid against him were that he preached against the common +bowing at the name of Jesus and against the King's 'Book of Sports,' and +further said that the Church of England was ready to ring changes in +England, and that the Gospel stood on tiptoe as ready to be gone; and for +this he was removed from his lectureship and sent to gaol. John Ward, +his brother, Rector of St. Clement's, was a member of the Assembly of +Divines, and was called to preach two sermons before the House of +Commons, for which he received the thanks of the House. At that time we +find a reference to Ipswich as a place which 'the Lord hath long made +famous and happy as a valley of Gospel vision.' Such places, alas! seem +to have been commoner formerly than they are now. + +One of the Congregational churches of Ipswich, at any rate, has very +interesting historical associations. 'Salem Chapel,' writes the Rev. +John Browne, in his 'History of Congregationalism in Suffolk and +Norfolk,' 'stands in St. George's Lane, opposite the place where St. +George's Chapel formerly stood, where Bilney was apprehended when +preaching in favour of the Reformation, and where he so enraged the monks +that they twice plucked him out of the pulpit.' The last time I was at +Ipswich I saw bricklayers at work at the old Presbyterian church in St. +Nicholas Street, which it would be a pity to see modernized, being such a +fine illustration of the old-fashioned Dissenting Meeting-house, before +it became the fashion to have a taste and to build Gothic chapels in +which it is difficult to see or hear, and the only advantage of which is +that they are an exact copy of the steeple-houses against which at one +time Nonconformist England waged remorseless war. One of the pastors of +this congregation removed to Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, where he succeeded +Dr. Priestley; another was the author of a 'History and Description of +Derbyshire'; while one of the supplies was the Rev. Robert Alderson, +afterwards of the Octagon Chapel, Norwich, who ultimately became a lawyer +and Recorder of Norwich. Perhaps one of the most singular scenes +connected with Dissenting chapels in Ipswich was that which took place in +the old chapel in Tackard, now Tacket, Street. In 1766 the minister +there was the Rev. Mr. Edwards, who, it appears, was sent for to the gaol +to see two men who had been found guilty of house-breaking, and who, +according to the law as it then stood, were to be hung. Mr. Edwards did +so, and stayed with them two hours. As the result of this visit they +were brought to a penitent state of mind. They had heard that Mr. +Edwards had prepared a sermon for them and desired them to attend. This +was a mistake, but notwithstanding they obtained permission to go to the +chapel, where Mr. Edwards was conducting a church meeting. A report of +the purpose got abroad, and many persons came to the meeting, upon which +it was thought most proper that the church business should be laid aside, +and that Mr. Edwards should go into the pulpit. This he did, and after +singing and prayer the prisoners came in with their shackles and fetters +on. Mr. Edwards, in describing the scene, says: + +'Many were moved at the sight. As for myself, I was obliged for some +time to stop to give vent to tears. When I recovered I gave out part of +a hymn suitable to the occasion, then prayed. The subject of discourse +was, "This is a faithful saying," and the poor prisoners shed abundance +of tears while I was explaining the several parts of the text, and +especially when I turned and addressed myself immediately to them. The +house was thronged, and I suppose not a dry eye in the whole +place--nothing but weeping and sorrow; and the floods of tears which +gushed from the eyes of the two prisoners were very melting.' + +The good man continues: 'When we had concluded I went and spoke some +encouraging words by way of supporting them under their sorrow. They +then desired I should see them in the evening, which I did, and called +upon Mr. Blindle on the way; the old gentleman went along with me to the +prison, and was one who prayed with them with much fervour and +enlargement of heart. We spent nearly two hours with them, and a crowd +of people were present.' On another occasion we find an American Indian +preaching in the pulpit--a novelty in 1767. He came over with a Dr. +Whitaker, of Norwich, in America, to collect money for the education and +conversion of Indians, and at Tackard Street the people raised the very +respectable sum of 80 pounds for the purpose. In 1561 Queen Elizabeth +paid Ipswich a visit. At that time the place was a little too Protestant +for her. Strype writes: 'Here Her Majesty took a great dislike to the +impudent behaviour of most of the ministers and readers, there being many +weak ones among them, and little or no order observed in the public +service, and few or none wearing the surplice, and the Bishop of Norwich +was thought remiss, and that he winked at schismatics. But more +particularly she was offended with the clergy's marriage, and that in +cathedrals and colleges there were so many wives and children and widows +seen, which, she said, was contrary to the intent of the founders, and so +much tending to the interruption of the studies of those who were placed +there. Therefore she issued an order to all dignitaries, dated August 9, +at Ipswich, to forbid all women to the lodgings of cathedrals or +colleges, and that upon pain of losing their ecclesiastical promotion.' +From this it is clear that when Elizabeth was Queen there was little +chance of the Women's Rights Question finding a favourable hearing. The +Queen was succeeded by monarchs after her own heart. In 1636 Prynne +published his 'Newes from Ipswich,' 'discovering certain late detestable +practices of some domineering Lordly Prelates to undermine the +established doctrine and discipline of our Church, extirpate all orthodox +sincere preachers and preaching of God's Word, usher in popery, idolatry +and superstition.' For this publication Prynne was sentenced to be fined +5,000 pounds to the King, to lose the remainder of his ears, to be +branded on both cheeks, and to be perpetually imprisoned in Carnarvon +Castle. At that time the Ipswich people were far too Liberal for the +powers existing. Ipswich news nowadays is little calculated to displease +anyone, and governments and kings are less prone to take offence at the +exercise of free thought and free speech. + +Ipswich people make their way. Miss Reeve--who wrote the 'Old English +Baron,' a popular tale years ago--was the daughter of the Rev. William +Reeve of St. Nicholas Church. Another Ipswich lady, Mrs. Keeley, who +lives on in her grand old age, was certainly one of the most popular +performers of her day. + +Two hundred years ago, no city man was better known than Thomas Firmin, +who was born at Ipswich, described in his biography as 'a very large and +populous town in the county of Suffolk,' in 1632. He was of Puritan +parentage, and bound apprentice in the city of London, and then began +business as a linen-draper on the modest capital of 100 pounds. In a +little while he married and was enabled to dispense a generous +hospitality, seeking all opportunities of becoming acquainted with +persons of worth, whether foreigners or his fellow-countrymen. Amongst +his special friends were Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, and Archbishop +Tillotson, at that time the afternoon lecturer at St. Lawrence's. During +the time of the plague he managed to secure work for the London poor, and +after the fire he erected a warehouse on the banks of the Thames, where +coal and corn were sold at cost price. In 1676 he built a great factory +in Little Britain, for the employment of the needy and industrious in the +linen manufacture; he also relieved poor debtors in prison. The great +work of his later years was in connection with the Blue Coat School. He +was also one of the Governors of St. Thomas's Hospital, which he did much +to rescue from the wretched condition in which he found it. When the +French refugees, in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, +were driven over to this country, Firmin exerted himself powerfully on +their behalf, and sent some of them to Ipswich to engage in manufacturing +there. He also had a good deal to do with Ireland, when, as now, the +country was torn by contending factions. At a large expense he also +educated many boys and set them up in trade. He was also one of the +first of the avowed and ardent friends and advocates of a free thought, +of which there were few supporters in England at that day--even among the +countrymen of Milton and John Locke. Unitarians were rare in the days +when Firmin proclaimed himself one. Altogether he was one of the best +men of his age, and well deserved to be buried in Christchurch, Newgate, +among the Bluecoat School boys, to whom he had ever been such a friend, +and to have the memorial pillar erected in his honour by Lady Clayton in +Marden Park, Surrey. It is to be hoped that the memorial remains, +though, alas! the noble mansion at one time inhabited by Wilberforce, and +where the great philanthropist's celebrated son, the Bishop of Oxford was +born, and where I have spent more than one pleasant day when Sir John +Puleston lived there, has been since burnt down. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +AN OLD-FASHIONED TOWN. + + +Woodbridge and the country round--Bernard Barton--Dr. Lankester--An old +Noncon. + +The traveller as he leaves the English coast for Antwerp or Rotterdam or +the northern ports of Germany, may remember that the last glimpse of his +native land is the light from Orford Ness, which is a guiding star to the +mariner as he ploughs his weary way along the deep. Of that part of +Suffolk little is known to the community at large. When I was a boy it +was looked upon as an _ultima Thule_, where the people were in a +primitive state of civilization; where shops and towns and newspapers and +good roads were unknown; where traditions of smuggling yet remained. Few +ever went into that region, and those who did, when they returned, did +not bring back with them encouraging reports. Barren sandy moors, along +which the bitter east wind perpetually blew, fatal alike to vegetation +and human life, were the chief characteristics of a district the natives +of which were not rich, at any rate as regards this world's goods. +Orford, like Dunwich, was once a place of some importance. 'A large and +populous town with a castle of reddish stone,' writes Camden, but in his +time a victim of the sea's ingratitude; 'which withdraws itself little by +little, and begins to envy it the advantages of a harbour.' In the time +of Henry I., writes Ralph de Coggeshall, when Bartholomew de Glanville +was Governor of its castle, some fishermen there caught a wild man in +their nets. 'All the parts of his body resembled those of a man. He had +hair on his head, a long-peaked beard, and about the breast was exceeding +hairy and rough. But at length he made his escape into the sea, and was +never seen more,' which was a pity, as undoubtedly he was the 'missing +link.' Besides, as Camden remarks, the fact was a confirmation of what +the common people of his time remarked. 'Whatever is produced in any +part of nature is in the sea,' and shows 'that not all is fabulous what +Pliny has written about the Triton on the coasts of Portugal, and the sea +man in the Straits of Gibraltar.' Nor is that the only wonder connected +with the district. Close by is Aldborough, where the poet Crabbe learned +to become, as Byron calls him, + + 'Nature's sternest painter, but the best;' + +and as Camden writes, 'Hard by, when in the year 1555 all the corn +throughout England was choakt in the ear by unseasonable weather, the +inhabitants tell you that in the beginning of autumn there grew peas +miraculously among the rocks, and that they relieved the dearth in those +parts. But the more thinking people affirm that pulse cast upon the +shore by shipwreck used to grow there now and then, and so quite exclude +the miracle.' At the present the crag-beds are the most interesting +feature to the visitor, especially if he be of a geological turn. These +are so rich in fossil shells that you may find some of the latter in +almost every house in Ipswich. The Coralline Crag is the oldest bed; but +this formation does not occur in an undisturbed state, except in +Sudbourne Park and about Orford. A drive thither from Ipswich, through +Woodbridge, conveys the traveller through some of the loveliest scenery +in Suffolk, and the numerous exposures of Coralline Crag in Sudbourne +Park, which is about two miles from Orford, will amply repay the +traveller, on account of the number of fossils which he can there obtain, +and the ease with which he can extract them. In this neighbourhood live +the far-famed Garrett family, one of whom, as Mrs. Dr. Anderson, is well +known in London society, as is also her sister, Mrs. Fawcett, the wife of +the late popular M.P. for Hackney. Close by is Leiston Abbey, originally +one of Black Canons, consisting of several subterranean chapels, various +offices and a church, which appears to have been a handsome structure, +faced with flint and freestone. The interior was plain and undecorated, +yet massive. A large extent of the neighbouring fields was enclosed with +walls, which have been demolished, as was to be expected, for the sake of +the materials. We hear much of the dead cities of the Zuyder Zee. On +her eastern coast England has her dead cities. Dunwich, of which I have +already spoken, is one. Orford, now known solely by its lighthouse, is +another; Blythburgh, in the church of which is the tomb of Anna, King of +the East Angles, who was slain in 654, is a third. Like Tyre and Sidon, +these places had their merchant princes, who lived delicately, and whose +ships traded far and near. It is said incorrectly of Love, that it + + 'At sight of human ties + Spreads its soft wings and in a moment flies.' + +The remark is truer of commerce, which is a law to itself, and which +defies Acts of Parliament and royal patronage. Hence it is the east +coast of Suffolk is so rich in melancholy remains of ancient cities, now +given over to decay. In my young days the chief town of this district +was Woodbridge. Manufactories were then unknown. The steam-engine had +not then been utilized for the everyday use of man, and farmers, +peasants, coal and corn merchants, solely inhabited the district, and in +Woodbridge especially the latter rose and flourished for a time. + +How it was, I know not, but nevertheless such was the fact, that the +Ipswich of my youthful days seemed to have little, if any, literary +associations connected with it. The celebrated Mr. Fulcher published his +'Ladies' Pocket-book' at Sudbury, which had a great reputation in its +day, and for which very distinguished people used to write. It was, in +fact, more of an annual than a pocket-book, and was patronized +accordingly. Then there was James Bird, living at Yoxford, 'the garden +of Suffolk,' as it was called. Woodbridge had a still higher reputation. +James Bird kept a shop, and was supposed to be a Unitarian; but Bernard +Barton was in a bank, and, besides, he was a Quaker, and Quakers all the +world over are, or were, famous for their goodness and their wealth. The +fame of the Quaker-poet conferred quite a literary reputation on the +district, and the more so as no one at that time associated Quakerism +with literary faculty in any way. Now and then, it is true, the +Stricklands talked of a charming young Quaker, who indeed once or twice +called at our house to see Susanna when she was staying there; but Allan +Ransome--for it is to him I refer--did not pursue literature or poetry to +any great extent, and instead preferred to develop the manufacture of +agricultural implements--a manufacture which, carried on under the same +name, is now one of the chief industries of the busy and thriving town of +Ipswich, and employs quite a thousand men. Woodbridge then bore away the +palm from the county capital, as the home of literature and poetry and +romance. As a town, it is more prettily situated than are most East +Anglian villages and towns. The principal thoroughfare, as you rode +through it by one of the Yarmouth coaches, that connected it at that time +with the Metropolis, was long and narrow. If you turned off to the right +you came to the Market-place, where were the leading shops. On your left +you reached the Quay and the river, where a few coasters were employed, +chiefly in the coal and corn trade. In our time Woodbridge has done its +duty to the State. Dr. Edwin Lankester the well-known coroner for +Middlesex, came from Melton, close by, the High Street of which gradually +terminates in the Woodbridge thoroughfare; and the lately deceased Lord +Hatherley, one of England's most celebrated lawyers, was educated in that +district, and took his wife from the same happy land. The body of the +late Lord Hatherley, the great Whig Lord Chancellor, we were told the +other day, was interred in the family vault of Great Bearings, Suffolk. +His mother was a Woodbridge lady, a Miss Page. Lord Hatherley's father +was the far-famed Liberal Alderman, Sir Matthew Wood, for many years M.P. +for the City of London, and Queen Caroline's trusted friend and +counsellor. Lord Hatherley married, in 1830, Charlotte, the only +daughter of the late Major Edward Moore, of Great Bealings, Suffolk, but +was left a widower in 1878. He devoted much time to religious work, so +long as he had the strength to undertake it. He was the author of a work +entitled 'The Continuity of Scripture, as declared by the Testimony of +Our Lord and the Evangelists and the Apostles', which has passed through +three or four editions. He was created an Hon. D.C.L. of Oxford in 1851, +was an Hon. Student of Christ Church, Oxford, a Governor of the +Charterhouse, and a member of the Fishmongers' Company, of which his +father had at one time been Prime Warden. Major Moore himself was a +great authority on Suffolk literature and antiquities, and published more +than one book--now very scarce--on the interesting theme. + +As to Dr. Lankester, all Woodbridge was scandalized when it was announced +that he was articled to a medical man. 'What, make a doctor of him!' +said the local gossips at the time. 'They had much better make a butcher +of him.' And not a little were the good people astonished when he came +to town, and was signally successful as a medical lecturer, and as an +advocate of the sanitary principles which in our day have come to be +recognised as essential to the welfare of the State. Dr. Lankester was +in great request as a writer on medical subjects in a popular manner, and +did undoubtedly much good in his day. A good many genteel people lived +in the neighbourhood of Woodbridge, and it had a society to which it can +lay no claim at the present time. Edward Fitzgerald, the friend of +Thackeray and Carlyle, himself an author of no mean repute, lived close +by. + +That genteel people should have pitched their tents in or around +Woodbridge is not much to be wondered at, as the neighbourhood was +certainly attractive and convenient at the same time. The scenery around +is as interesting as any that could be found, at any rate, in that part +of England. The drive from Tuddenham to Woodbridge, says Mr. Taylor, in +his 'Ipswich Handbook,' is perhaps unequalled in Suffolk. On the road +you pass through the villages of Little and Great Bealings, and if you +are on the look-out for spots which an artist would love to study, you +may make a very short detour to Playford. The churches, both of Little +and of Great Bealings, are very ancient, and well deserve a visit; but +the Woodbridge Road itself passes through some very pretty scenery. +Rushmere Heath, in the early summer time, when the gorse is in bloom, is +one mass of yellow, in the cleared spaces of which may usually be seen a +gipsy encampment. The gibbet once stood on this heath, and in former +times it seems to have been the place where executions usually took +place. It was here that in 1783 a woman, named Bedingfield, was burnt +for murdering her husband. In the early part of this century, when there +were many alarms as to a French invasion, and it was the firm belief of +the old ladies that one fine morning Bony would land upon our shores, and +carry them all away captive, many were the reviews of soldiers held there +by the Duke of Cambridge--whose house has been pointed out to me at +Woodbridge--and the Duke of Kent. At that time it was the fashion to +exercise the volunteers on a Sunday, a practice which would not be +sanctioned in our more religious age. It is a beautiful ride through +Kesgrave. Dense plantations abound on both sides, and in May the chorus +of nightingales is described as something wonderful. In the word +'Kesgrave' we have an allusion to the barrows or tumuli to be seen on +Kesgrave Heath. There are several of these erections remaining to this +day, and perhaps tradition is warranted in speaking of the spot as the +site whereon the Danes and Saxons met in deadly fight. It is certain +that the former frequently came up the Deben and the Orwell. At +Martlesham you see a creek, richly wooded on both sides, which flows up +from the River Deben. It is a striking object at high water, but by no +means so striking as the sign of the village public-house--the head of a +huge wooden lion painted with the brightest of reds. It was originally +the figure-head of a Dutch man-of-war, one of the fleet defeated at the +famous battle of Sole Bay. Be that as it may, no sign is better known +than that of Martlesham Red Lion. 'As red as Martlesham Lion' is still a +common figure of speech throughout East Suffolk, and I am glad to see +that in the beautiful East Anglian etchings of Mr. Edwards, a Suffolk +lawyer, who turned artist, Martlesham Red Lion has justice done to it at +last. + +Woodbridge, which the guide-book in 1844 described as a thriving town and +port--I question whether it is thriving now--is situated on the western +bank of the Deben, about nine miles above the mouth of the river, and +about eight miles to the north of Ipswich. In Domesday Book the place is +called Udebridge, of which its present name is no doubt a corruption. +Mr. William White, whom I have already quoted, says: 'Fifty years ago +only one daily coach and a weekly waggon passed through the town to and +from London; but more than twelve conveyances (coaches, omnibuses and +carriers' waggons) now pass daily between the hours of six in the morning +and twelve at noon, and persons may travel from Woodbridge to London in a +few hours for ten shillings, instead of paying three times that amount, +and being thirteen hours on the road, as was formerly the case.' The +railway has now rendered it possible for people to travel at a quicker +speed and at a cheaper rate. In London we have a Woodbridge Street, in +the neighbourhood of Clerkenwell Green, which points to a connection +between the poorer part of the City and the picturesque Suffolk town on +the banks of the Deben, and this gives me occasion to speak of Thomas +Seckford, Esq., one of the masters of the Court of Requests, and Surveyor +of the Court of Wards and Liveries in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He +was not less distinguished in the profession of the law than in the other +polite accomplishments of the age in which he lived, and to his patronage +of his servant, Christopher Saxton, the public were indebted for the +first set of county maps, which were engraved by his encouragement and at +his request. He represented Ipswich in three Parliaments, and died +without issue in 1588, aged seventy-two. In Woodbridge his name is +perpetuated by a handsome pile of buildings known as the Seckford +Almshouses and Schools, to which the property in Clerkenwell is devoted. +At the time of his decease that property produced about 112 pounds a +year; in 1768 it was said to be of the yearly value of 563 pounds. In +1826 an Act of Parliament was obtained to enable the governors of the +almshouses to grant building and other leases, to take down many of the +old buildings, to erect new premises, and repair and alter old ones, and +to lay out new streets on the charity estate in Clerkenwell, and, in +consequence, we find in 1830 the estate producing a rental of more than +3,000 pounds a year. In 1844 the yearly rental had risen to 4,000 +pounds. Since then it has much increased, and all this is devoted to the +benefit of the Woodbridge poor. + +In 1806 Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet, came to live at Woodbridge. +When fourteen years old he was apprenticed to Mr. Samuel Jessup, a +shopkeeper in Halstead, Essex. 'There I stood,' he writes, 'for eight +years behind the counter of the corner shop at the top of Halstead Hill, +kept to this day (November 9, 1828) by my old master and still worthy +uncle, S. Jessup.' In Woodbridge he married a niece of his old master, +and went into partnership with her brother as corn and coal merchant. +But she died in giving birth to the Lucy Barton whose name still, unless +I am mistaken, adorns our literature. Bernard gave up business and +retired into the bank of the Messrs. Alexander, where he continued for +forty years, working within two days of his death. He had always been +fond of books, and was one of the most active members of a Woodbridge +Book Club, and had been in the habit of writing and sending to his +friends occasional copies of verse. In 1812 he published his first +volume, called 'Metrical Effusions,' and began a correspondence with +Southey. A complimentary copy of verses which he had addressed to the +author of the 'Queen's Wake,' just then come into notice, brought him +long and vehement letters from the Ettrick--letters full of thanks to +Barton and praises of himself, and a tragedy 'that will astonish the +world ten times more than the "Queen's Wake,"' to which justice could not +be done in Edinburgh, and which Bernard Barton was to try to get +represented in London. In 1825 one of Bernard's volumes of poems had run +into a fifth edition, and of another George IV. had accepted the +dedication. Thus prompted to exertion, he worked too hard; banking all +day and writing poetry all night were too much for him. Lamb, however, +cheered up the dyspeptic poet. 'You are too much apprehensive about your +complaint,' he wrote. 'I know many that are always writing of it and +live on to a good old age. I knew a merry fellow--you partly know him, +too--who, when his medical adviser told him he had drunk all _that part_, +congratulated himself, now his liver was gone, that he should be the +longest liver of the two.' Southey wrote in a soberer vein. 'My friend, +go to bed early; and if you eat suppers, read afterwards, but never +compose, that you may lie down with a quiet intellect. There is an +intellectual as well as a religious peace of mind, and without the former +be assured there can be no health for a poet.' + +At times Bernard Barton seems to have been troubled about money matters. +On one occasion he appears to have made up his mind to have done with +banking and devote himself to literature. 'Keep to your bank,' wrote +Lamb, 'and the bank will keep you. Trust not to the public: you may +hang, starve, drown yourself, for anything that worthy personage cares. +I bless every star that Providence, not seeing good to make me +independent, has seen it next good to settle me on the stable foundation +of Leadenhall. Sit down, good B. B., in the banking office. What! is +there not from six to eleven p.m. six days in the week? and is there not +all Sunday?' Fortunately for B. B., friends came to his rescue. A few +members of his Society, including some of the wealthier of his own +family, raised among them 1,200 pounds for his benefit. The scheme +originated with Joseph John Gurney, of Norwich, and in 1824 when the +money was collected, it was felt that 1,200 pounds was a great deal for a +poet to receive. Bernard Barton's daughter married a Suffolk gentleman, +well-to-do in the world, but the lady and gentleman had not congenial +minds, and parted almost as soon as the honeymoon was over. + +B. B. was a great correspondent. As a banker's clerk, necessarily his +journeys were few and far between. Once or twice he visited Charles +Lamb. He once also met Southey at Thomas Clarkson's, at Playford Hall, +perhaps the most picturesque old house in East Anglia, where the latter +resided, and of which I have a distinct recollection, as, on the terrace +before the moat with which it was surrounded, I once saw the venerable +philanthropist and his grandchildren. Now and then B. B. also visited +the Rev. Mr. Mitford at Benhall, a village between Woodbridge and +Saxmundham, who was then engaged in editing the Aldine edition of the +English Poets. But B. B.'s correspondents were numerous. Poor, +unfortunate L. E. L. sent him girlish letters. Mrs. Hemans was also a +correspondent, as were the Howitts and Mrs. Opie and Dr. Drake, of +Hadley, whose literary disquisitions are now, alas! forgotten; and poor +Charles Lloyd, whose father wrote of his son's many books 'that it is +easier to write them than to gain numerous readers.' Dr. Bowring and +Josiah Conder were also on writing terms with the Quaker poet. His +excursions, his daughter tells us, rarely extended beyond a few miles +round Woodbridge, to the vale of Dedham, Constable's birthplace and +painting-room; or to the neighbouring seacoast, including Aldborough, +doubly dear to him from its association with the memory and poetry of +Crabbe. Once upon a time he dined with Sir Robert Peel, when he had the +pleasure of meeting Airy, the late Astronomer Royal, whom he had known as +a lad at Playford. The dinner with Sir Robert Peel ended satisfactorily, +as it resulted in the bestowal by the Queen on the poet of a pension of +100 pounds a year. He was now beyond the fear of being tempted to commit +forgery, and being hung in consequence--a possibility, which was the +occasion of one of Lamb's wittiest letters. The gentle Elia made merry +over the chance of a Quaker poet being hung. + +Amiable and liberal as was Bernard Barton, he could and did strike hard +when occasion required. In East Anglia, when I was a lad, there was a +great deal of intolerance--almost as much as exists in society circles at +the present day--and that is saying a great deal. Churchmen, in their +ignorance, were ready to put down Dissent in every way, and occasionally, +by their absurdity, they roused the righteous ire of the Quaker poet. +One of them, for instance, had said at a public meeting: 'This was the +opinion he had formed of Dissenters, that they were wolves in sheep's +clothing.' Whereupon B. B. wrote: + + 'Wolves in sheep's clothing! bitter words and big; + But who applies them? first the speaker scan; + A suckling Tory! an apostate Whig! + Indeed a very silly, weak young man! + + 'What such an one may either think or say, + With sober people matters not one pin; + In _their_ opinion his own senseless bray + Proves _him_ the ASS WRAPT IN A LION'S SKIN!' + +Better is the following address to a certain Dr. E.: + + 'A bullying, brawling, champion of the Church, + Vain as a parrot screaming on her perch; + And like that parrot screaming out by rote, + The same stale, flat, unprofitable note; + Still interrupting all debate + With one eternal cry of "Church and State!" + With all the High Tory's ignorance increased, + By all the arrogance that makes the priest; + One who declares upon his solemn word + The Voluntary system is absurd; + He well may say so, for 'twere hard to tell + Who would support him did not law compel.' + +A prophet, it is said, is not honoured in his own country. Bernard +Barton was happily the rare exception that proves the rule. I remember +being at the launching of a vessel, bought and owned by a Woodbridge man, +called the _Bernard Barton_; it was the first time I had ever seen a ship +launched, and I was interested accordingly. The ultimate fate of the +craft is unknown to history. On one occasion she was reported in the +shipping list amongst the arrivals at some far-off port as the _Barney +Burton_. Such is fame! + +Of his local reputation Bernard was not a little proud. His little town +was vain of him. It was something to go into the bank and get a cheque +cashed by the poet. The other evening I went to the house of a +Woodbridge man who has done well in London, and lives in one of the few +grand old houses which yet adorn Stoke Newington Green--just a stone's +throw from where Samuel Rogers dwelt--and there in the drawing-room were +Bernard Barton's own chair and cabinet preserved with as much pious care +as if he had been a Shakespeare or a Milton. Bernard Barton made no +secret of his vocation, and when the time had come that he had delivered +himself of a new poem, it was his habit to call on one or other of his +friends and discuss the matter over a bottle of port--port befitting the +occasion; no modern liquor of that name-- + + 'Not such as that + You set before chance comers, + But such whose father grape grew fat + On Lusitanian summers.' + +And then there was a good deal of talk, as was to be expected, on things +in general, for B. B. loved his joke and was full of anecdote--anecdote, +perhaps, not always of the most refined character. But what could you +expect at such happy times from a man brimful of human nature, who had to +pose all life under the double weight of decorum imposed on him, in the +first place as a Quaker, and in the second place as a banker's clerk? + +Bernard Barton, as I recollect him, was somewhat of a dear old man--short +in person, red in face, with dark brown hair. He was, as I have said, a +clerk in a bank, but his poetry had elevated him, somehow, to the rank of +a provincial lion, and at certain houses, where the dinner was good and +the wine was ditto, he ever was a welcome guest. I dined with him at the +house of a friend in Woodbridge, and it seemed to me that he cared more +for good feeding and a glass of wine and a pinch of snuff than the sacred +Nine. Of course at that time I had not been educated up to the fitting +state of mind with which the philosopher of our day proceeds to the +performance of the mysteries of dinner. Dining had at that time not been +elevated to the rank of a science, to the study of which the most acute +intellects devote their highest energies; nor had flowers then been +invoked to lend an additional grace to the dining-table. Besides, +dinners such as Mr. Black gives at Brighton, scientific dinners, such as +those feasts with which Sir Henry Thompson regales his friends, were +unknown. Nevertheless, now and then we managed to dine comfortably off +roast beef or lamb, a slice of boiled or roast fowl, a bit of +plum-pudding or fruit tart, a crust of bread and cheese, with--tell it +not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askalon--sherry and Madeira +at dinner, and a few glasses of fine old fruity port after. Some +Shakespearian quotations--unknown to me then, for Shakespeare was little +quoted in purely evangelical circles, either in Church or Dissent--a +reference to Sir Walter Scott's earlier German translations, formed about +the sum and substance of the conversation which took place between the +poet and my host; all the rest was principally social gossip and an +exchange of pleasantries between the poet and his friend, whom he +addressed familiarly as 'mine ancient.' It was a great treat to me, of +course, to dine with Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet. Once upon a time a +Quaker minister had come to Woodbridge on a preaching tour, and all the +Quakers, male and female, small and great, rich and poor, were ranged +before him. When Bernard Barton was announced, the good old man said, +'Barton--Barton--that's a name I don't recollect.' The bearer of the +name replied it would be strange if he did, seeing that they had never +met before. Suddenly looking up, the minister exclaimed, 'Art thou the +versifying man?' Unlike the venerable stranger, I had no need to ask the +question, as in my mother's album there was more than one letter from the +genial B. B. + +I can well recall the room in which I dined with the poet. My host had +come into a handsome fortune by marrying a wealthy widow--one of the +possibilities of a Dissenting minister's situation--and he had retired +from the ministry to cultivate literature and literary men. As I think +of that room and that dinner, I am reminded of the wonderful contrast +effected within the last age. At that time the dinner-table presented a +far less picturesque appearance than it does now. We had always pudding +before meat; the latter was solid, and in the shape of a joint. Nor was +it handed round by servants, but carved by the host or his lady. Silver +forks were unknown, and electro-plate had not then been invented. +Vegetables, also, were deficient as regards quantity and quality compared +with the supply at a respectable dinner nowadays. In manners the change +is equally remarkable. It was said of a nobleman, a personal friend of +George III., and a model gentleman of his day, that he had made the tour +of Europe without ever touching the back of his travelling carriage. +That includes an idea of self-denial utterly unknown to all the young +people of to-day. The study now is how to make our houses more +comfortable, and to furnish them most luxuriously. Then, perhaps, there +was but one sofa in the house, and that was repellent rather than +attractive. Easy-chairs were few and far between. Lounging of any kind +was out of the question. In the drawing-room, the furniture was of the +same uncomfortable description, and there were none of the modern +appliances which exist to make ladies and gentlemen happy. Couches, +antimacassars, photographs, were unknown. One picture invariably to be +seen was a painting of a favourite steed, with the owner looking at it in +a state of intense admiration; and a few family portraits might be +ostentatiously displayed. As to pianos, there never was but one in the +house; and a billiard-table would have been considered as the last refuge +of human depravity. In sitting-rooms and bedrooms and passages there was +a great deficiency of carpets and of oilcloth. But furniture was +furniture then, and could stand a good deal of wear and tear; while as to +the spare bed in the best room, with its enormous four posts and its +gigantic funereal canopy and its heavy curtains, through which no breath +of fresh air could penetrate, all I can say is that people slept in it +and survived the operation--so wonderfully does nature adapt itself to +circumstances the most adverse. + +This reference to Bernard Barton reminds me of a portrait he has left in +one of his pleasant letters of a Suffolk yeoman, a class of whose virtues +I can testify from personal experience. 'He was a hearty old yeoman of +eighty-six, and had occupied the farm in which he lived and died about +fifty-five years. Social, hospitable, friendly, a liberal master to his +labourers, a kind neighbour, and a right merry companion within the +limits of becoming mirth. In politics a stanch Whig, in his theological +creed as sturdy a Dissenter; yet with no more party spirit in him than a +child. He and I belonged to the same book-club for about forty years. +. . . Not that he greatly cared about books or was deeply read in them, but +he loved to meet his neighbours and get them round him on any occasion or +no occasion at all. As a fine specimen of the true English yeoman, I +have met with few to equal, if any to surpass him, and he looked the +character as well as he acted it, till within a few years, when the +strong man was bowed by bodily infirmity. About twenty-six years ago, in +his dress costume of a blue coat and yellow buckskins, a finer sample of +John Bullism you would rarely see. It was the whole study of his long +life to make the few who revolved round him in his little orbit as happy +as he seemed to be himself. Yet I was gravely queried when I happened to +say that his children had asked me to write a few lines to his memory, +whether I could do this in keeping with the general tone of my +poetry--the speaker doubted if he was a decidedly pious character! He +had at times in his altitude been known to vociferate a song, of which +the chorus was certainly not teetotalism: + + '"Sing old Rose, and burn the bellows, + Drink and drive dull care away."' + +Bernard Barton goes on to describe the deceased yeoman as a diligent +attendant at the meeting-house, a frequent and serious reader of the +Bible, and the head of an orderly and well-regulated house. He is +described as knowing Dr. Watts' hymns almost by heart, and as singing +them on Sunday at meeting with equal fervour and unction. Bernard Barton +feared in 1847--the date of his epistle--the breed of such men was dying +out. It is to be feared in East Anglia the race is quite extinct. In +our meeting-house at Wrentham, when I was a lad, there were several such. +I am afraid there is not one there now. The sons and daughters have left +the old rustic houses, and gone out into the world. They have become +respectable, and go to church, and have lost a good deal of the vigour +and independence of their forefathers. In all the East Anglian +meeting-houses fifty years ago such men abounded. Of a Sunday, with +their blue coats and kerseymere knee-breeches, and jolly red laces, they +looked more like country squires than common farmers. They drove up to +the meeting-house yard with very superior gigs and cattle. In their +houses creature comforts of all known kinds were to be found. Tea--a +hearty meal, not of mere bread-and-butter, but of ham and cake as +well--was served up in the parlour, with a glass or two of real +home-brewed ale, amber-coloured, of a quality now unknown, and which was +wonderfully refreshing after a long walk or drive. Then, if it were +summer, there was a stroll in the big garden, well planted with +fruit-trees and strawberry-beds, and adorned with flowers--old-fashioned, +perhaps, but rich, nevertheless, in colour and perfume. In one corner +there was sure to be an arbour, all covered with honeysuckle, such as +Izaak Walton himself would have approved; and there, while the seniors +over their long pipes discussed politics and theology, and corn and +cattle, the younger ones would make their first feeble efforts, all +unconsciously, perhaps, to conjugate the verb 'to love.' Outside the +church organizations these old yeomen lived and died. There was a +flavour of the world about them. They would dine at market ordinaries, +and perhaps would stop an hour in the long room of the public-house, +where they put up their horses, to smoke a pipe and take a drop of +brandy-and-water for the good of the landlord. Now and then--sometimes +to the sorrow of their wives, who were often church-members--they would +join, as I have indicated, in a song of an objectionable character when +severely criticised. Perhaps their parson would be much exercised on +their behalf; but surely the noble spirit of humanity in these old +yeomen, at any rate, was as worthy of admiration as the Puritanic faith +of the past--or as the honest doubt of the present age. If I mistake +not, the fine old yeoman to whom Bernard Barton referred lived not far +from Seckford Hall. + +Woodbridge has some claim to consideration from the Nonconformist point +of view. In 1648 a schoolmistress, Elizabeth Warren, published a +pamphlet, 'The Old and Good Way Vindicated, in a Treatise, wherein Divers +Errours, both in Judgment and Practice incident to these Declining Days, +are Unmasked for the Caution of humble Christians.' From the same town +also there issued 'The Preacher Sent: a Vindication of the Liberty of +Public Preaching by Some Men not Ordained.' The author of this book, or +one of the authors of it, was the Rev. Frederick Woodall, the first +pastor of the Free Church--'a man of learning, ability, and piety, a +strict Independent, zealous for the fifth monarchy, and a considerable +sufferer after his ejectment.' He had, we are told, to contend with a +tedious embarrassment, through the persecuting spirit that for many years +prevailed, and considerably cramped the success of his ministry. +Woodbridge is one of the churches which Mr. Harmer refers to in his +'Miscellaneous Works,' as being rigidly Congregationalist, and which +conducted its affairs rather according to the heads of Savoy Confession +than the heads of Agreement. When I was a boy the pastor was a Mr. +Pinchback, who seems to have been a worthy successor of godly men, +equally attractive and successful. He had previously settled at Ware. +It is recorded of the good divine that on one occasion he had to leave +his wife at the point of death, as it seemed, to go to chapel. In the +course of the service he mentioned the fact of her illness, and announced +in consequence that he would preach her funeral sermon on the following +Sunday. But when the following Sunday came the lady was better, and +lived for many years to assist her husband in his godly work. In the +rural districts the Baptists flourished immensely. + +At Grundisburgh there preached for many years to a large congregation a +worthy man of the name of Collins, who was one of the leading lights of +the body which rejoiced in a John Foreman and a Brother Wells. People +who live in London cannot have forgotten Jemmy Wells, of the Surrey +Tabernacle, and his grotesque and telling anecdotes. One can scarcely +imagine how people could ever believe the things Wells used to say as to +the Lord's dealings with him; but they did, and his funeral--in South +London, at any rate--was almost as numerously attended as that of Arthur, +Duke of Wellington. I expect high-and-dry Baptists have been not a +little troublesome in their day, and in East Anglia they were more +numerous than in London. It may be that they have helped to weaken +Dissent in that part of the world. Men of independent intellect must +have been not a little shocked by that unctuous familiarity with God and +the devil which is the characteristic of that class. On a Sunday morning +Jemmy Wells, as his admirers called him, would describe in the most +graphic manner what the devil had said to him in the course of the week; +and on one memorable occasion, at any rate, described with much force the +shame he felt at having to tell the gentleman in black that his people's +memories, unfortunately, were somewhat remiss in the matter of pew-rents. +Brother Collins avoided such flights, but he was an attractive preacher +to all the country round, nevertheless. Truly such a one was needed in +that district. At Rendham, a village near Saxmundham, lived a godly +minister of the Church of England. In 1844, speaking to a friend of the +writer, he said that when he came into the county, between thirty and +forty years before, there was only one other clergyman and himself +between Ipswich and Great Yarmouth who preached the Gospel, and that +sometimes the squire of the parish would hold up his watch to him to bid +him close his sermon. In some places where he went to preach he had to +have a body-guard to prevent his being mobbed and pelted with rotten eggs +on account of his evangelical principles. + + + + +CHAPTER X. +MILTON'S SUFFOLK SCHOOLMASTER. + + +Stowmarket--The Rev. Thomas Young--Bishop Hall and the Smectymnian +divines--Milton's mulberry-tree--Suffolk relationships. + +'My father destined me,' writes John Milton, in his 'Defensio Secunda,' +'while yet a little boy, for the study of humane letters, which I served +with such eagerness that, from the twelfth year of my age, I scarcely +ever went from my lessons to bed before midnight, which, indeed, was the +first cause of injury to my eyes, to whose natural weakness there were +also added frequent headaches; all which not retarding my natural +impetuosity in learning, he caused me to be instructed both at the +Grammar School and under other masters at home.' Of the latter, the best +known was the Rev. Thomas Young, the Puritan minister, of Stowmarket, +Suffolk. + +It is generally claimed for Young that he was an East Anglian. Professor +Masson has, however, settled the question that he was a Scotchman, of the +University of Aberdeen. Be that as it may, like most Scotchmen, he made +his way to England, and was employed by Mr. Milton, the scrivener of +Bread Street, to teach his gifted son. As he seems to have been married +at the time, it is not probable that he resided with his pupil, but only +visited him daily. Never had master a better pupil, or one who rewarded +him more richly by the splendour of his subsequent career. The poet, +writing to him a few years after he ceased to be his pupil, speaks of +'the incredible and singular gratitude he owed him on account of the +services he had done him,' and calls God to witness that he reverenced +him as his father. In a Latin elegy, after implying that Young was +dearer to him than Socrates to Alcibiades, or than the great Stagyrite to +his generous pupil, Alexander, he goes on to say: 'First, under his +guidance, I explored the recesses of the Muses, and beheld the sacred +green spots of the cleft summit of Parnassus and quaffed the Pierian +cups, and, Clio favouring me, thrice sprinkled my joyful mouth with +Castalian wine;' from which it is clear that Young had done his duty to +his pupil, and that the latter ever regarded him with an affection as +beautiful as rare. Never did a Rugby lad write of Arnold as Milton of +Thomas Young. How long the latter's preceptorship lasted cannot be +determined with precision. 'It certainly closed,' writes Professor +Masson, in that truly awful biography of his, 'when Young left England at +the age of thirty-five, and became pastor of the congregation of British +merchants settled at Hamburg.' + +As one of the leaders of the Presbyterian party, Dr. Thomas Young became +Vicar of Stowmarket in due time. He was one of the Smectymnian divines. +As it is not every schoolboy who knows what the term means, let me +explain who they were. Two or three hundred years ago people were much +more controversial than they are now, and very fierce was the battle on +the subject of the relative claims, from a Scriptural point of view, of +Prelacy or Presbytery. One of the most distinguished champions of the +former was Dr. Hall, Bishop of Norwich--a simple, godly, learned man, who +deserves to be held in remembrance, if only for the way in which he got +married. 'Being now settled,' he writes, 'in that sweet and civil county +of Suffolk, the uncouth solitariness of my life, and the extreme +incommodity of that single housekeeping, drew my thoughts, after two +years, to condescend to the necessity of a married state, which God no +less strangely provided for me; for walking from the church on Monday, in +the Whitsun week, with a grave and reverend minister, I saw a comely and +modest gentlewoman standing at the door of that house where we were +invited to a wedding-dinner, and inquiring of that worthy friend whether +he knew her, "Yes," quoth he, "I know her well, and have bespoken her for +your wife." When I further demanded an account of that answer, he told +me she was the daughter of a gentleman whom he much respected--Mr. George +Whinniff, of Brettenham; that out of an opinion he had of the fitness of +that match for me he had already treated with her father about it, whom +he found very apt to entertain it. Advising me not to neglect the +opportunity, and not concealing the just praises of the modesty, piety, +good disposition, and other virtues that were lodged in that seemly +presence, I listened to the motion as sent from God, and at last, upon +due prosecution, happily prevailed, enjoying the comfortable society of +that meet-help for the space of forty-nine years.' A young clergyman so +good and amiable ought to have fared better as regards the days in which +his lot was passed. Hall should have lived in some theological Arcadia. +As it was, he had to fight much and suffer much. In those distracted +times he was all for peace. When the storm was brewing in Church and +State, which for a time swept away Bishop and King, he published--but, +alas! in vain--his 'Via Media.' 'I see,' he wrote, 'every man to rank +himself unto a side, and to draw in the quarrel he affecteth. I see no +man either holding or joining their hands for peace.' Bishop Hall was +the most celebrated writer of his time in defence of the Church of +England. Archbishop Laud got him to write on 'The Divine Right of +Episcopacy,' nor could he have well placed the subject in abler hands. +This was followed, after Laud had fallen, with 'An Humble Remonstrance to +the High Court of Parliament,' in which treatise he vindicated the +antiquity of liturgies and Episcopacy with admirable skill, meekness, and +simplicity, yet with such strength of argument that five Presbyterian +divines clubbed their wits together to frame an answer. These +Presbyterian ministers were--Stephen Marshal, then lecturer at St. +Margaret's, whom Baillie terms the best of the preachers in England; +Edmund Calamy, who had long been a celebrated East Anglian preacher, +first at Swaffham, then at Bury St. Edmunds, who, as we all know, refused +a bishopric when offered him, and whom, therefore, at any rate, his +adversaries must allow to have been sincere; Thomas Young, Matthew +Newcomen, and William Spurstow. To this reply was given the name of +Smectymnuus--a startling word, as Calamy calls it, made up of the initial +letters of these names. This work, which was published in 1641, gave, +says Dr. M'Crie, the first serious blow to Prelacy. It was composed in a +style superior to that of the Puritans in general, and was, by the +confession of the learned Bishop Wilkins, a capital work against +Episcopacy. Dr. Kippis says, 'This piece is certainly written with great +fierceness and asperity of language,' and quotes, as evidence, some +strong things said against the practice of the prelates. But Neal, who +has given a long account of the work, states that, if the rest of the +clergy had been of the same temper and spirit with Bishop Hall, the +controversy between him and the Smectymnian divines might have been +compromised. + +Stowmarket, as I have said, had the honour of being placed under the +pastoral care of one of these Smectymnian divines. He came there in +March, 1628, on the presentation of Mr. John Howe, a gentleman then +residing in the town, and a man of wealth, whose ancestors had been great +cloth-manufacturers in that place and neighbourhood. Since the time of +Edward III. the cloth manufacture had been very active in Suffolk, and it +is little to the credit of its merchants that we find them, in 1522, +petitioning for the repeal of a royal law which inflicted a penalty +against those who sold cloth which, when wetted, shrunk up, on the plea +that, as such goods were made for a foreign market, the home-consumer was +not injured. Stowmarket, when I was a lad, had reached its climax in a +pecuniary sense. In the early part of the present century it was spoken +of as a rising town. Situated as it was in the centre of the county, it +was a convenient mart for barley, and great quantities of malt were made. +Its other manufactures were sacking, ropes, and twine. Its tanneries +were of a more recent date, as also its manufactory of gun-cotton, +connected with which at one time there was an explosion of a most fatal +and disastrous character. In 1763 it was connected with Ipswich by means +of a canal, which was a great source of prosperity to the town. Up to +the time of the great Reform Bill, it was the great place for county +meetings, and for the nomination of the county representatives. In our +day it has a population of 4,052. When I was a lad it was one of the +first towns to welcome the Plymouth Brethren into Suffolk, and they are +there still. The Independent Chapel for awhile suffered much from them. +The pastor was a very worthy but somewhat dry preacher. His favourite +quotation in the pulpit, when he would describe the attacks of the enemy +of God and man, was + + 'He worries whom he can't devour + With a malicious joy.' + +Suffolk had its great lawyers as well as Norfolk. The first to head the +list is Ranulph de Glanville, a man of great parts, deep learning, for +the times, eminent alike for his legal abilities and energetic mind. He +was said, by one account, to have been born at Stowmarket. It is certain +he founded Leiston Abbey, near Aldborough, and Bentley Priory. As Chief +Justice under Henry II. he naturally was no favourite with Richard I., +who deprived him of his office and made use of his wealth. He lived, +however, to accompany Richard to the Holy Land, and died at the siege of +Acre. His treatise on our laws is one of the earliest on record. It +must be remembered also that Godwin, the author of 'Political Justice,' +and 'Caleb Williams,' a novel still read--the husband of one gifted +woman, and the father of another--was at one time an Independent minister +at Stowmarket. + +But to return to Dr. Young. He, like Mr. Newcomen, had become an East +Anglian, and Smectymnuus may therefore more or less be said to have an +East Anglian original. As the living of Stowmarket was at that time +worth 300 pounds a year, and as 300 pounds a year then was quite equal to +600 pounds a year now, Dr. Young must have been in comfortable +circumstances while at Stowmarket. A likeness of him is hung up, or was +preserved, in Stowmarket Vicarage. 'It,' wrote an old observer, +'possesses the solemn, faded yellowness of a man much given to austere +meditation, yet there is sufficient energy in the eye and mouth to show, +as he is preaching in Geneva gown and bands, that he is a man who could +write and think, and speak with great vigour.' One of Milton's +biographers terms him, contemptuously, a Puritan who cut his hair short. +The Rev. Mr. Hollingsworth writes that it is an error to suppose that +Young remained long as chaplain to merchants abroad. 'He must have +remained generally in constant residence, because we possess his +signature to the vestry accounts, in a curious quarto book, which +contains the annual accounts of Stow upland Parish for eighty-four years. +At the parish meetings, and at the audit of each year's accounts Vicar +Young presided, with some exceptions, from the year 1629 to 1655, and his +autograph is attached to each page.' As an author, Dr. Young had +distinguished himself before he appeared as one of the Smectymnians. In +1639, while the Stuarts and the Bishops were doing all they could to +break down the sanctity of the Sabbath, and to make it a day of vulgar +revelry and rustic sport, Dr. Young published a thin quarto in Latin, +entitled 'Dies Dominica,' containing a history of the institution of the +Sabbath, and its vindication from all common and profane uses. There is +no place of publication named, the signature is feigned, 'Theophilus +Philo Kunaces Loncardiensis,' and in the copy reserved at Stowmarket is +added, in characters by no means unlike that of the handwriting of the +Vicar himself, 'Dr. Thos. Young, of Jesus.' The tractate is described as +a very elaborate and learned compilation from the Fathers upon the +sanctity of the Sabbath. A spirit of laborious and determined energy +pervades it, nor is it unworthy the abilities and erudition of the +author. The work was written at Stowmarket, and may have been published +in Ipswich. Its paper and type are coarse; the name of the author was +concealed, because at that time a man who reverenced the Sabbath had a +good chance of being brought before the Star Chamber, and of being +roughly treated by Archbishop Laud, as an enemy to Church and State. +About ten years before, Dr. Young had heard how, for writing his plea +against Prelacy, Dr. Alexander Leighton had been cast into Newgate, +dragged before the Star Chamber, where he was sentenced to have his ears +cut off, to have his nose slit, to be branded in the face, to stand in +the pillory, to be whipped at the post, to pay a fine of 10,000 pounds, +and to suffer perpetual imprisonment. Dr. Young might well shrink from +exposing himself to similar torture. But Dr. Young had other warnings, +and much nearer home. + +Dr. Young, like most of the men of that time, persecuted witches. These +latter were supposed to have existed in great numbers, and a roving +commission for their discovery was given to one Matthew Hopkins, of +Manningtree, in Essex, to find them out in the eastern counties and +execute the law upon them. It was a brutal business, and Hopkins +followed it for three or four years. He proceeded from town to town and +opened his courts. Stowmarket was one of the places he visited. The +Puritans are said to have hung sixty witches in Suffolk, but the Puritans +were not alone responsible. It is a fact that, up to fifty years ago two +supposed witches lived in Stowmarket. + +Dr. Young escaped the Star Chamber, but, like most good men who would be +free at that time he had to fly his native land for awhile. Milton +refers to this exile in his Latin elegy: + + 'Meantime alone + Thou dwellest, and helpless on a soil unknown, + Poor, and receiving from a foreign hand + The aid denied thee in thy native land.' + +It seems from this that the living at Stowmarket was under sequestration. +A little while after Young is back in Stowmarket, and Milton thus +describes his daily life--a personal experience of the poet's, not a +flight of fancy: + + 'Now, entering, thou shalt haply seated see + Besides his spouse, his infants on his knee; + Or, turning page by page with studious look + Some bulky paper or God's holy Book.' + +Good times came to Dr. Young. The seed he had sown bore fruit. For +awhile England had woke up to attack the Stuart doctrine of royal +prerogative in Church and State. The men of Suffolk had been the +foremost in the fight, and in 1643 we find the Doctor in Duke's Place, +London. A sermon was preached by him before the House of Commons, and +printed by order of the House. A Stowmarket Rector speaks of it +naturally as a very prolix, learned, somewhat dull and heavy effort to +encourage them to persevere in their civil war against the King; but he +has the grace to add: 'There is much less of faction in it than many +others, and it is rather the production of a contemplative than of an +active partisan.' 'One of his examples,' writes Mr. Hollingsworth, 'is +from 2 Sam. xiii. 28, where the command of Absalom was to kill Amnon: +"Could the command of a _mortal man_ infuse that courage and valour into +the hearts _of his servants_ as to make them adventure upon a _desperate_ +design? And shall not the command of the _Almighty God_ raise up the +hearts of His people employed by Him in any work to which _He_ calls +them, raise up their hearts in following at His command!"' The Doctor +had not cleared himself of all the errors of his times. He urged on his +hearers, by the example of the Emperors, the necessity of maintaining the +doctrine of the Trinity uncorrupt, by the aid of the civil power. He +urged, however, on them personal holiness, in order that the reformation +of the Church might be more easily accomplished. The two legislative +enactments he wished them to pass were to confer a power upon the +Presbyterian clergy to exclude men from the Sacrament, and enforce a +better observance of the Sabbath-day. The sermon is scarce, but is bound +up with others in the Library at Cambridge, preached at the monthly fasts +before the House of Commons. + +In the library of the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, where assuredly +the portrait of the Stowmarket Rector should find a place, there is a +copy of this sermon, which was preached at the last solemn fast. +February 28, 1643, with the notice that 'It is this day ordered by the +Commoners' House of Parliament that Sir John Trevor and Mr. Rous do from +this House give thanks to Mr. Young for the great paines hee tooke in the +sermon hee preached that day at the intreaty of the said House of Commons +at St. Margaret's, Westminster, it being the day of publike humiliation, +and to desire him to print this sermon;' which accordingly was done, +under the title of 'Hope's Encouragement.' The motto on the outside was: +'Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, and +entereth into that which is within the veil.' The sermon was printed in +London for Ralph Smith, at the sign of the Bible, in Cornhill, near the +Royal Exchange. In his sermon the preacher took for his text: 'Be of +good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that wait upon +the Lord.' The three propositions established are: First, that God's +people are taught by the Lord in all their troubles to wait patiently on +Him. The second is that such as wait patiently upon the Lord must rouse +themselves with strength and courage to further wait upon Him; and that, +thirdly, when God's people wait upon Him, He will increase their courage. +The preacher quotes the Hebrew and Augustine, and reasons in a most +undeniable manner in support of his propositions; but above all things he +is practical. 'The work you are now called on to do,' he says to the +M.P.'s, 'is a work of great concernment. It is the purging of the Lord's +floor. As it hath reference both to the Church and the Commonwealth, a +work sure enough to be encountered with great opposition. Yet I must say +it is a work with the managing whereof God hath not so honoured others +which have gone before you in your places, but hath reserved it to make +you the instruments of His glory in advancing it, and that doth much add +unto your honour. Was it an honour to the Tyrians that they were counted +amongst the builders of the Temple when Hiram sent to Solomon things +necessary for that work? How, then, hath God honoured you, reserving to +you the care of re-edifying His Church (the throne of the living God) and +the repairing of the shattered Commonwealth, so far borne down before He +raised you to support it, that succeeding ages may with honour to your +names, say, "This was the Reforming Parliament," a work which God, by His +blessing on your unwearied pains, hath much furthered already, whilst He, +by you, hath removed the rubbish that might hinder the raising up of that +godly structure appointed and prescribed by the Lord in His Word.' They +were to stick to the truth, contended the preacher, quoting the edict of +the Emperor Justinian in the Arian controversy, and the reply of Basil +the Great to the Emperor's deputy: 'That none trained up in Holy +Scriptures would suffer one syllable of Divine truth to be betrayed; but +were ready, if it be required, to suffer any death in the defence +thereof.' People, he maintained, are ever carried on by the example of +their governors. 'How,' he asks, 'was the Eastern Empire polluted with +execrable Arianism, whilst yet the Western continued in the truth? The +historians give the reason of it. Constantine, an Arian, ruled in the +East when at the same time Constans and Constantius, sons to Constantine +the Great, treading in the steps of their pious father, adhered to the +truth professed by him, and so did as far ennoble the Western Empire with +the truth as the other did defile the Eastern with his countenancing of +error and heresy.' The preacher here asks his hearers to make no laws +against religion and piety, and 'recall such as have been made in time of +ignorance against the same, and study to uphold and maintain such +profitable and wholesome laws as have been formerly enacted for God and +His people. Improve what was well begun by others before you, and not +perfected by them.' Under this latter head he dwelt on the possible +abuse of the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and the irreligious +profanation of the Lord's Day. + +In 1643 the Earl of Manchester ejected many of the Royalist clergymen +from their livings who were scandalous ministers. Dr. Sterne having been +deprived of the mastership of Jesus College, Cambridge, the Stowmarket +Vicar was placed there in his stead. He held the situation till 1654, +when, on his refusal of the engagement, Government deprived him of his +office. At the time the sermon was preached Dr. Young was one of the +far-famed Assembly of Divines which met in Henry VII.'s chapel in +accordance with the Solemn League and Covenant, which proposed three +grand objects: 'To endeavour the extirpation of Popery, Prelacy +superstition, heresy, and profaneness; to endeavour the preservation of +the reformed religion in Scotland and the reformation of religion in the +kingdoms of England and Ireland in doctrine, worship, discipline, and +government according to the Word of God and the example of the best +Reformed Church; and to endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the +three kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in +religion--confession of faith, form of Church government, directory for +worship and catechizing; that we and our posterity after us may as +brethren live in faith and love, and that the Lord may delight to dwell +in the midst of us.' A clause was inserted to the effect that it was +English prelacy which they contemned; and thus modified, after all due +solemnities, and with their right hands lifted to heaven, was the Solemn +League and Covenant sworn to by the English Parliament and by the +Assembly of Divines in St. Margaret's Church, September 25, 1643. It +was, writes a Presbyterian divine, too much the creature of the Long +Parliament who convoked the meeting, selected the members of Assembly, +nominated its president, prescribed its bye-laws, and kept a firm hold +and a vigilant eye on all their proceedings. Still, with all these +drawbacks, it must be admitted that Parliament could hardly have made a +selection of more pious, learned, and conscientious men. The Assembly +consisted of men nominated by the members for each county sending in +suitable names. The two divines appointed for Suffolk were Mr. Thomas +Young, of Stowmarket, and Mr. John Phillips, of Rentall. The Vicar, it +is said, sometimes acted as chairman, but this, as Mr. Hollingsworth +remarks, is doubtful. + +Mr. Young's claim to fame rests on something greater than his sermon, or +his position in the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, or his mastership +of Jesus College. He was, as we have said, Milton's schoolmaster. The +poet tells us: + + ''Tis education forms the common mind; + Just as a twig is bent the tree's inclined.' + +If so, much of Milton's piety and lofty principle and massive learning +must have come to him from the Stowmarket Vicar. In our day there is +little chance of a young scholar becoming imbued with Miltonian ideas on +the subject of civil and religious liberty. That sublime genius which +was to sing in immortal verse of + + 'Man's first disobedience, and the fruit + Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste + Brought death into the world, and all our woe,' + +must have owed much to Dr. Young--a debt which the poet acknowledged, as +we have already seen, in no niggardly way. Amongst Milton's Latin +letters is the following, which has been translated by Professor Masson +thus: 'Although I had resolved with myself, most excellent preceptor, to +send you a certain small epistle composed in metrical numbers, yet I did +not consider that I had done enough unless I also wrote something in +prose: for, truly, the singular and boundless gratitude of my mind which +your deserts justly claim from me was not to be expressed in that cramped +mode of speech, straitened by fixed feet and syllables, but in a free +oration--nay, rather, if it were possible, in an Asiatic exuberance of +words. To express sufficiently how much I owe you, were a work far +greater than my strength, even if I should call into play all those +commonplaces of argument which Aristotle or that dialectician of Paris +(Ramus) has collected, or even if I should exhaust all the fountains of +oratory. You complain as justly that my letters have been to you very +few and very short; but I, on the other hand, do not so much grieve that +I have been remiss in a duty so pleasant and so enviable, as I rejoice, +and all but exult, at having such a place in your friendship, as that you +should care to ask for frequent letters from me. That I should never +have written to you for over more than three years, I pray you will not +misconceive, but, in accordance with your wonderful indulgence and +candour, put the more charitable construction on it; for I call God to +witness how much, as a father, I regard you, with what singular devotion +I have always followed you in thought, and how I feared to trouble you +with my writings. In sooth, I make it my first care, that since there is +nothing else to commend my letters, that their rarity may commend them. +Next, as out of that most vehement desire after you which I feel, I +always fancy you with me, and speak to you, and beheld you as if you were +present, and so, as always happens in love, soothe my grief by a certain +vain imagination of your presence, it is, in truth, my fear, as soon as I +meditate sending you a letter, that it should suddenly come into my mind +by what an interval of earth you are distant from me, and so the grief of +your absence, already nearly lulled, should grow fresh and break up my +sweet dream. The Hebrew Bible, your truly most acceptable gift, I have +already received. These lines I have written in London, in the midst of +town distractions, not, as usual, surrounded by books; if, therefore, +anything in this epistle should please you less than might be, and +disappoint your expectations, it will be made up for by another more +elaborate one as soon as I have returned to the haunts of the Muses.' + +When the above letter was written, Milton had become a Cambridge student, +where he was to experience a new kind of tutor. Milton could not get on +with Chappell as he did with Young. The tie between the Stowmarket Vicar +and the poet was of a much more cordial character. + +Again the poet appears to have forwarded the following letter to the +Stowmarket Vicarage. It is to be feared that few such precious epistles +find their way there now. Milton writes to the Doctor: 'On looking at +your letter, most excellent preceptor, this alone struck me as +superfluous, that you excused your slowness in writing; for though +nothing could come to me more desirable than your letters, how could I or +ought I to hope that you should have so much leisure from serious and +more sacred affairs, especially as that is a matter entirely of kindness, +and not at all of duty? That, however, I should suspect that you had +forgotten me, your so many recent kindnesses to me would by no means +allow. I do not see how you could dismiss out of your memory one laden +with so great benefits by you. Having been invited by you to your part +of the country, as soon as spring has a little advanced I will gladly +come to enjoy the delights of the year, and not less of your +conversation, and will then withdraw myself from the din of town to your +Stoa of the Iceni, as to that most celebrated porch of Zeno or the +Tusculan Villa of Cicero, where you with moderate means, but regal +spirit, like some Serranus or Curius, placidly reign in your little farm, +and contemning fortune, hold as it were a triumph over riches, ambition, +pomp, luxury, and whatever the herd of man admire and are amazed by. But +as you have deprecated the blame of slowness, you will also, I hope, +pardon me the fault of haste; for having put off this letter, I preferred +writing little, and that rather in a slovenly manner, to not writing at +all. Farewell, much-to-be respected Sir.' + +The question is, Did Milton carry out this intention, and pay Stowmarket +a visit? Professor Masson thinks he may have been there in the memorable +summer and autumn of 1630. The Rev. Mr. Hollingsworth, the Stowmarket +historian argues that it is not unlikely that several, if not many, +visits, extending over a period of thirty years, while the tutor held the +living, were made by the poet to the place. Tradition has constantly +associated his name with the mulberry-trees of the Vicarage, which he +planted, but of these only one remains. 'This venerable relic of the +past,' continues the Vicar, 'is much decayed, and is still in vigorous +bearing. Its girth, before it breaks into branches, is ten feet, and I +have had in one season as much as ten gallons from the pure juices of its +fruits, which yields a highly flavoured and brilliant-coloured wine.' It +stands a few yards distant from the oldest part of the house, and +opposite the windows of an upstair double room, which was formerly the +sitting-parlour of the Vicar, and where, it is to be believed, the poet +and his friend had many a talk of the way to advance religion and liberty +in the land, to remove hirelings out of the Church, and to abolish the +Bishops. There too, perhaps, might have come to the guest visions of +'Paradise Lost.' In his first work Milton throws out something like a +hint of the great poem which he was in time to write. 'Then, amidst,' to +quote his own sonorous language, 'the hymns and hallelujahs of saints, +_someone_ may, perhaps, be heard offering in high strains, in new and +lofty measures, to sing and celebrate Thy Divine mercies and marvellous +judgments in this land throughout all ages.' We can easily believe how, +in the Stowmarket Vicarage, the plan of the poet may have been talked +over, and the heart of the poet encouraged to the work. Regarding Young +as Milton did, we may be sure that he would have been only too glad to +listen to his suggestions and adopt his advice. There must have been a +good deal of plain living and high thinking at the Stowmarket Vicarage +when Milton came there as an occasional guest. This is the more probable +as Milton's earliest publications were in support of the views of +Smectymnian divines. His friendship for Young probably led him into the +field of controversy, for he owns that he was not disposed to this manner +of writing 'wherein, knowing myself inferior to myself, led by the genial +power of nature to another task, I have the use, as I may account, but of +my left hand.' It is a fact that Milton was thus drawn into the +controversy, and what more natural than that he should have been induced +to do so by the Stowmarket Vicar in the Stowmarket Vicarage? The poet's +family were familiar with that part of Suffolk, and his brother, Sir +Christopher, who was a stanch Royalist and barrister, lived at Ipswich, +but twelve miles off. He went to see Milton, and Milton might have +visited Ipswich and Stowmarket at the same time. Be that as it may, +tradition and probability alike justify the belief that Milton came to +Stowmarket, and that he went away all the wiser and better, all the +stronger to do good work for man and God, for his age and all succeeding +ages. Young, as it may be inferred, was held in high honour by his +friends. He was spoken of by two neighbouring ejected Rectors as the +reverend, learned, orthodox, prudent, and holy Dr. Young. When he died, +an epitaph was inscribed with some care by a friendly hand, and an +unwilling admission is made of the opposition he had encountered. It is +now illegible, and some of its lines appear to have been carefully +erased--by some High Church chisel, probably. But the following copy was +made when the epitaph was fresh and legible: + + 'Here is committed to earth's trust + Wise, pious, spotlesse, learned dust, + Who living more adorned the place + Than the place him. Such was God's grace.' + +Is the verse of this epitaph from Milton's pen or not? Mr. Hollingsworth +writes: 'The probability is quite in favour that the pupil should write +the last memorial of one whom he so highly honoured and loved as his old +master. Nor is the verse itself, with the exception of the last line, +unlike the character of Milton's poetry, and this last may have been +mutilated and rendered inharmonious by the action of the stone-cutter, +who also confused the death of the father and son.' It is pleasant to +think, not only that Milton now and then came to the Stowmarket Vicarage, +but that in the church itself there is a slight record of his poetical +fame. Let me add, as a further illustration of the connection of the +great poet with the county of Suffolk, that I am informed one of the +family of the Meadowses, of Witnesham, was for a time one of his +secretaries. + +Young died, aged sixty-eight, in the year 1655, when Milton was fully +embarked in public life, when he could spare but little time; but we may +be sure that he would be the last at that time of life to forget all that +he owed to his tutor Young. Wife and son had predeceased the Vicar. It +seems as if there was no one left but the poet to record on the marble in +the middle aisle, in front of the present reading-desk, the virtues of a +character which had long exercised so beneficial an influence on his own, +and which he had loved so well. Milton's regret for the loss of such a +guide, philosopher, and friend must have been lasting and sincere. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. +IN CONSTABLE'S COUNTY. + + +East Bergholt--The Valley of the Stour--Painting from nature--East +Anglian girls. + +Charles Kingsley was wont to glorify the teaching of the hills, and to +maintain that the man of the mountain is more imaginative and poetical +than the man of the plain. There are many Scotch people, mostly those +born in the Highlands, who tell us much the same. If the theory be +true--and I am not aware that it is--the exceptions are striking and +many. Lincolnshire is rather a flat country, but it gave us (I can never +bring myself to call him Lord) Alfred Tennyson. Many of our greatest +poets and artists were cockneys; and Constable, that sweet painter of +cornfields and shady lanes and quiet rivers, used to say that the scenes +of his boyhood made him a painter. I was one autumn in Constable's +county, and I do not wonder at it. It is a wonderful district. I trod +all the while, it seemed to me, on enchanted ground: in the gilded mist +of autumn, with its river and its marsh lands, where the cows lazily +fed--or got under the pollards to be out of the way of the flies--where +laughing children swarmed along the hedges in pursuit of the ripe +blackberry, where every cottage front was a thing of beauty, with its ivy +creeping up the roof or over the wall; while the little garden was a mass +of flowers. We expected to see the old gods and goddesses again to +participate in the joyousness of an ancient mirth. + +Nor was it altogether a flat land, sacred to fat cattle and wheat and +turnips. All round me were the elements of romance. At one end of the +Vale of Dedham is a hill whence you may look all along the valley +(Constable has made it the subject of one of his pictures) as far as +Harwich; and as I lingered by the Stour--the river which divides Essex +and Suffolk--East Bergholt, clothed with woods and crowned with a church, +in which there is a stained-glass window put up in honour of Constable, +and a baptismal font, the gift of Constable's brother, unfolded to my +wondering eye all her rural charms. There are people who love to climb +hills; I hate to do so. It is all vanity and vexation of spirit; when +you get to the top of one hill the chances are all you see is another +hill, to the top of which you will have to climb. Give me a country +lane, with its luxuriant hedges, its shady trees, its flowers, its +richness of greensward, its pigs and poultry and farmyard; there is +poetry in such nooks and corners of the earth, as Burns and Bloomfield +and Gerald Massey found. No wonder the place made Constable an artist, +and an artist whose name will not speedily pass away. My dear sir or +madam, the next time you are on your way from London to Ipswich, don't +rush along at express speed; get out at Ardleigh, make your way to the +Vale of Dedham, then walk along the Stour, and cross it by a couple of +rustic bridges, and you are at East Bergholt, in Suffolk, where Constable +was born, and if you do so you will bless me evermore. Then, if you +like, rejoin the train at Manningtree, and resume your journey. Few East +Anglians even are aware of the wealth of beauty in that quiet corner. +'The beauty of the surrounding scenery,' writes Constable's biographer, +'its gentle declivities, its luxuriant meadows, flats sprinkled with +flocks and herds, its well-cultivated Uplands, its woods and rivers, with +mansions scattered, and churches, farms, and picturesque cottages--all +impart to this spot an amenity and elegance hardly anywhere else to be +found.' + +The Constables have been long in the district. The grandfather was a +farmer at a village close by. The father, who was well-to-do, purchased +a water-mill at Dedham and two windmills at East Bergholt, where he +lived. The great artist, his son John, was born in the last century, and +was educated at Lavenham and the Dedham Grammar School, and when the lad +had reached sixteen or seventeen became addicted to painting, his studio +being in the house of a Mr. John Dunthorne, a painter and glazier, with +whom he remained on terms of the greatest intimacy for many years. The +father would fain have made the son a farmer. He preferred to be a +miller, and in his young days was known in the district as the handsome +miller. His windmills, when he took to painting, were wonderful, and +well deserved the criticism of his brother, who used to say, 'When I look +at a windmill painted by John, I see that it will go round, which is not +always the case with those of other artists,' for the simple reason that +John knew what he was about, which the others did not. Again, his +industrial career helped him in another way. A miller learns to study +the clouds, and Constable's clouds were exceptionally life-like and real. +The handsome young miller soon acquired artistic friends, one of them +being Sir George Beaumont, the guide, philosopher, and friend of most of +the geniuses of that time. Said another to him, 'Do not trouble yourself +about inventing figures for a landscape; you cannot remain an hour in a +spot without the appearance of some living thing, that will in all +probability better accord with the scene and the time of day than any +invention of your own.' After a visit to his artist friends in London, +he resumed his mill life, and in 1779 he finally commenced his artistic +career, and painted all the country round. His studies were chiefly +Dedham, East Bergholt, the Valley of the Stour, and the neighbouring +village of Stratford. At Stoke Nayland he painted an altar-piece for the +church. There is also another altar-piece in a neighbouring church, but +his altar-pieces are not known or treasured like his other works. + +Cooper tells a good story of Constable. One day Stodart, the sculptor, +met Fuseli starting forth with an old umbrella. 'Why do you carry the +umbrella?' asked the sculptor. 'I am going to see Constable,' was the +reply, 'and he is always painting rain.' One can only remark that, if +Constable was always painting rain, he always did it well. + +Another good story was told Redgrave by Lee. 'I hear you sell all your +pictures,' said Constable to the younger landscape-painter. 'Why, yes,' +said Lee; 'I'm pretty fortunate. Don't you sell yours?' 'No,' said +Constable, 'I don't sell any of my pictures, and I'll tell you why: when +I paint a _bad_ picture I don't like to part with it, and when I paint a +_good_ one I like to keep it.' It is well known that one year when +Constable was on the Council of the Royal Academy, one of his own +pictures was passed by mistake before the judges. 'Cross it,' said one. +'It won't do,' said another. 'Pass on,' said a third. And the carpenter +was just about to chalk it with a cross, when he read the name of 'John +Constable.' Of course there were lame apologies, and the picture was +taken from the condemned heap and placed with the works of his brother +Academicians. But after work was over Constable took the picture under +his arm, and, despite the remonstrance of his brother colleagues, marched +off with it, saving: 'I can't think of its being hung after it has been +fairly turned out. The work so condemned was the 'Stream bordered in +with Willows,' now in the South Kensington Museum. Leslie once remarked +to Redgrave that he would give any work he had painted for it, so warmly +did he admire it. + +'Constable is the best landscape-painter we have,' wrote Frith to his +mother in 1835. 'He is a very merry fellow, and very rich. He told us +an anecdote of a man who came to look at his pictures; he was a gardener. +One day he called him into his painting-room to look at his pictures, +when the man made the usual vulgar remarks, such as, "Did you do all +this, sir?" "Yes." "What, all this?" "Yes." "What, frame and all?" +At last he came to an empty frame that was hung against the wall without +any picture in it, when he said to Constable, "But you don't call this +picture quite finished, do you, sir?" Constable said that quite sickened +him, and he never let any ignoramuses ever see his pictures again, or +frames either.' + +Constable's great merits, writes Mr. Frith, were first recognised in +France, with the result upon French landscape art that is felt at the +present time. His advice to Frith was: 'Never do anything without nature +before you if it be possible to have it. See those weeds and the dock +leaves? They are to come into the foreground of this picture. I know +dock leaves pretty well, but I should not attempt to introduce them into +a picture without having them before me.' + +Constable died very suddenly in 1837. His fame, now that he is dead, is +greater than when he was alive. His work abides in all its strength. + +There is little in East Bergholt to remind one of Constable, where his +reputation remains as that of a genial and kindly-hearted man; but the +landscape in all its essential features remains the same. The house in +which he was born was pulled down in 1841, which is a great pity, as it +is described as a large and handsome mansion. But I never saw a small +village with so many attractive residences, though why anybody should +live in any of them I could not, for the life of me, understand. Yet +there they were, quite a street of them, all in beautiful order, as if +they were the residences of wealthy citizens in the suburbs of a busy +town. They ought to have been filled with handsome girls, as Charles +Kingsley tells us East Anglia is famed for the beauty of its women; all I +can say, however, is that I saw none of them, or any sign of life +anywhere, beyond the inevitable tradesmen's carts. Independently of +Constable, East Bergholt claims to be worth a pilgrimage for its rustic +beauty, which, however, becomes tame and common as you get away from it. +The church is old, and has a history--of little consequence, however, to +anyone now. One of its rectors was burned at Ipswich in Queen Mary's +reign. His name, Samuel, ought to be preserved by a Church which, till +lately, had few martyrs of its own. East Bergholt has also a +Congregational and Primitive Methodist chapel, and a colony of +Benedictine nuns, driven away from France by the great Revolution. We +are a hospitable people, and we are proud to be so, but have we not just +at this time too many refugee nuns and monks in our midst? + + + + +CHAPTER XII. +EAST ANGLIAN WORTHIES. + + +Suffolk cheese--Danes, Saxons, and Normans--Philosophers and +statesmen--Artists and literati. + +Abbo Floriacencis, who flourished in the year A.D. 910, describes East +Anglia as 'very noble, and particularly because of its being watered on +all sides. On the south and east it is encompassed by the ocean, on the +north by the moisture of large and wet fens which, arising almost in the +heart of the island, because of the evenness of the ground for a hundred +miles and more, descend in great rivers into the sea. On the west the +province is joyned to the rest of the island, and, therefore, may be +entered (by land); but lest it should be harassed by the frequent +incursions of the enemy it is fortifyed with an earthen rampire like a +high wall, and with a ditch. The inner parts of it is a pretty rich +soil, made exceeding pleasant by gardens and groves, rendered agreeable +by its convenience for hunting, famous for pasturage, and abounding with +sheep and all sorts of cattle. I do not insist upon its rivers full of +fish, considering that a tongue as it were of the sea itself licks it on +one side, and on the other side the large fens make a prodigious number +of lakes two or three miles over. These fens accommodate great numbers +of monks with their desired retirement and solitude, with which, being +enclosed, they have no occasion for the privacy of a wilderness.' Before +the monks came the place was held by the Iceni--a stout and valiant +people, as Tacitus describes them. In the time of the Heptarchy, King +Uffa was their lord and master. In later times Suffolk, when explored by +Camden, was celebrated for its cheeses, which, to the great advantage of +the inhabitants, were bought up through all England, nay, in Germany +also, with France and Spain, as Pantaleon Medicus has told us, who +scruples not to set them against those of Placentia both in colour and +taste. To the Norfolk people, it must be admitted, Camden gives the +palm. The goodness of the soil of that country, he argues, 'may be +gathered from hence, that the inhabitants are of a bright, clear +complexion, not to mention their sharpness of wit and admirable quickness +in the study of our common law. So that it is at present, and always has +been, reputed the common nursery of lawyers, and even amongst the common +people you shall meet with a great many who (as one expresses it), if +they have no just quarrel, are able to raise it out of the very quirks +and niceties of the law.' In our time it is rather the fashion to run +down the East Anglians, yet that they have done their duty to their +country no one can deny. 'They say we are Norfolk fules,' said a waiter +at a Norfolk hotel, to me, a little while ago; 'but I ain't ashamed of my +county, for all that.' Why should he be, the reader naturally asks? + +The Saxons of East Anglia gave the name of England to this land of ours; +but before this time East Anglia had attained, by means of its sons and +daughters, to fame far and near. If we may believe Gildas, a Christian +church was planted in England in the time of Nero. Claudia, to whom Paul +refers in Philippians and Timothy, was a British lady of great wit and +greater beauty, celebrated by the poet Martial. She may have been +converted by Paul, argued the Rev. Mr. Hollingsworth, a local historian, +Rural Dean and Rector of Stowmarket; nor is it at all improbable, he +adds, 'that Claudia, the British beauty, may have been an Iceni, or East +Anglian lady, as her brilliant complexion, for which so many in these +counties are celebrated, had caused a vivid feeling of sensation and +curiosity and envy even among the haughty dames of the imperial city of +Rome.' The Romans were glad to make terms with the Iceni till the +unfortunate Boadicea perished in the revolt which she had so rashly +raised. The Saxons came after the Romans, and took possession of the +land. Saxon proprietors compelled the people, whose lives they spared, +to till the very lands on which their fathers had lived under the Roman +Government or their own chiefs. Pagan worship was reintroduced; but when +Sigberht, the son of Redwald, King of East Anglia, reigned, he sent to +France for Christian ministers, and one of them, Felix, a Burgundian, +landed at Felixstowe, and there commenced his Christian labours. Felix +was held in high repute by the Bishops in other parts of the kingdom. +His opinions were quoted and revered. The diocese was large, and the +fourth Bishop divided it into two parts, the second Bishop being planted +at North Elmham, in Norfolk. In 955 the see was again united, when +Erfastus, the twenty-second Bishop, removed to Thetford. A little while +after the Bishop's residence was removed to Norwich, and there it has +ever since remained; but the land was not long permitted to remain in +peace. In 870 a large party of Danes marched from Lincolnshire into +Suffolk, defeated King Edmund, near Hoxne, and, as he would not become an +idolater, shot him to death with arrows. Bury St. Edmunds still +preserves the name and fame of one of the most illustrious of our +Anglo-Saxon martyrs. King Alfred, with a policy worthy of his sagacity, +made Guthrum, the Danish governor of Suffolk, a Christian, and continued +him in his rule. The Danes in East Anglia were then an immense army, and +thus at once they were turned from foes into friends. Guthrum was +baptized, and it is to be hoped was all the better for it. At any rate, +he returned to Suffolk and divided many of the estates which had been +held by Saxon proprietors killed in war. He died in peace, and had a +fitting funeral at Hadleigh. The children of those Danish soldiers were +dangerous friends, and too frequently betrayed the Saxons. Blood is +thicker than water, and as each succeeding band of Danish adventurers +landed on our eastern coast, they were welcomed by such followers of +Guthrum as had settled in Suffolk as friends and allies. Nevertheless, +the Danes found the conquest of the island impossible. Divine +Providence, Mr. Hollingsworth tells us, did not suffer the Saxon race to +be vanquished by those who were connected with them by blood. +Nevertheless, the struggle was long and severe. The two races were +equally matched in courage, but the Saxon surpassed his foe in that +stern, unyielding endurance which enabled him to resist every defeat and +prepare again for the contest. The whole surface of the country became +studded with entrenchments, moats, and mounds, within whose line the +harassed Saxon defended his property and all he valued in his home. +History begins, as far as England is practically concerned, with the +Norman Conquest. It was then the Norsemen, blue-eyed, fair-haired, the +finest blood in Europe, planted themselves in Norfolk and Suffolk, and +brought with them feudalism and civilization. It was in 787 that, +according to the Saxon Chronicle, they first reached England; but it was +not till William the Conqueror made the land his own that they settled as +English lords, and divided between them the land in which their rapacious +forefathers had won many a precious treasure. + + 'The red gold and the white silver + He covets as a leech does blood,' + +wrote an old poet of the Norseman. + +Let us take, as an illustration of the county, a Norfolk family. In +Westminster Abbey there is monument to Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, who was +buried in the ruined chancel of the little church at Overstrand, near +Northrepps, 'a droll, irregular, unconventional-looking place,' as +Caroline Fox calls it, where he loved at all times to live, and where he +retired to die. The family from which Sir Thomas descended resided, +about the middle of the sixteenth century, at Sudbury, in Suffolk. It +was while at Earlham that he made his debut as a public speaker at one of +the earlier meetings of the Norfolk Bible Society. In the winter of 1817 +he went over to France with some of the Gurneys and the Rev. Francis +Cunningham, who was anxious to establish a Bible Society in Paris. He +was also anxious to inquire into the way in which the gaols at Antwerp +and Ghent were conducted. On his return he examined minutely into the +state of the London gaols, and, to use his own expression, his inquiries +developed a system of folly and wickedness which surpassed belief. In +the following year he published a work entitled 'An Inquiry whether Crime +be Produced or Prevented by our Present System of Penal Discipline,' +which ran through six editions, and tended powerfully to create a proper +public feeling on the subject. In 1819 we find him in Parliament +seconding Sir James Mackintosh in his efforts to promote a reform of our +criminal law--then the most sanguinary in Europe. One of his earliest +efforts was to get the House to abolish the burning of widows in India; +and in 1821 he received from Wilberforce the command to relieve him of a +responsibility too heavy for his advancing years and infirmities--the +care of the slave: a holy enterprise for which Mr. Buxton had been +qualifying himself by careful thought and study, and which he was spared +to carry to a successful end. At first he resided at Cromer Hall, an old +seat of the Windham family, which no longer exists, having been pulled +down and replaced by a modern residence. It was situated about a quarter +of a mile from the sea, but sheltered from the north winds by closely +surrounding hills and woods, and with its old buttresses, gables, and +porches clothed with roses and jessamine, and its famed lawn, where the +pheasants came down to feed, had a peculiar character of picturesque +simplicity. The interior corresponded with its external appearance, and +had little of the regularity of modern building. One attic chamber was +walled up, with no entrance save through the window: and at different +times large pits were discovered under the floor or in the thick +walls--used, it was supposed, in old times by the smugglers of the coast. +There is much picturesque scenery around Cromer, and large parties were +often made up for excursions to Sherringham--one of the most beautiful +spots in all the eastern counties, to the wooded dells of Felbrigg and +Runton, or to the rough heath ground by the beach beacon. One who was a +frequent guest at Cromer Hall wrote: 'I wish I could describe the +impression made upon me by the extraordinary power of interesting and +stimulating others which was possessed by Sir Fowell Buxton some thirty +years ago. In my own case it was like having powers of thinking, powers +of feeling, and, above all, the love of true poetry suddenly aroused +within me, which, though I had possessed them before, had been till then +unused. From Locke "On the Human Understanding," to "William of +Deloraine, good at need," _he_ woke up in me the sleeping principle of +taste, and, in giving me such objects of pursuit, has added immeasurably +to the happiness of my life.' On a Sunday afternoon, we are told, his +large dining-hall was filled with a miscellaneous audience of fishermen +and neighbours, as well as of his own household, to whom he would read +the Bible, commenting on it at the same time. Very simple and beautiful +seems to us that far-away Norfolk life; except that his hospitalities +were more bounded by want of room, his life at Northrepps was much the +same as it had been at Cromer Hall. It is one of the pleasures of my +life that I have heard Sir Thomas speak. In modern England the influence +of the Buxton family and name is yet a power. + +Having already alluded to the Windhams and Felbrigg, it remains to say +that the last of that illustrious line died in 1810. Felbrigg was +purchased by the Windhams as far back as 1461. The public life of +Windham, the statesman, may be considered as having commenced in 1783, +when he undertook the office of Principal Secretary to Lord Northington, +who was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The great Marquis of +Lansdowne, when he was last at Felbrigg, in 1861, said Mr. Windham had +the best Parliamentary address of any man he had ever seen, which was +enhanced by the grace of his person and the dignity of his manners. +Still more glowing was the testimony borne to Mr. Windham by Earl Grey +when he heard of his death. A mere glance at his diary is sufficient to +convince us that Windham, when in London, mixed with the first men and +women of his time. The late Lord Chief Justice Scarlett, on being asked +by his son-in-law to name the very best speech he had heard during his +life, and that which he thought most worthy of study, answered, without +hesitation, 'Windham's speech on the Law of Evidence.' In a conversation +with Lord Palmerston, Pitt observed of Windham: 'Nothing can be so +well-meaning or eloquent as he is. His speeches are the finest +productions possible of warm imagination and fancy.' In 1800 we read in +the Malmesbury Diaries that old George III. had meant Windham to be his +First Minister. As a friend of Burke and Johnson, Windham's name will +not easily fade away. It is to him we owe the most pathetic account of +the closing hours of the Monarch of Bolt Court. + +Sir Cloudesley Shovel may well claim to be one of Norfolk's heroes. Born +in an obscure village, an apprentice to a shoemaker, he obtained rank and +fame as one of Queen Anne's most honoured Admirals. It is denied that he +was in very humble circumstances, and it is a fact that his original +letters were so well worded as to indicate that he had received a fair +education. At any rate, he went to sea at ten years old with his friend +Sir John Hadough; and although not a cabin-boy in the modern acceptation +of that term, he undertook his captain's errands, swimming on one +occasion through the enemy's fire with some despatches for a distant +ship, carrying the papers in his mouth, displaying a courage worthy of +admiration. He distinguished himself in the Battle of Bantry Bay. As an +enemy of France and Spain, he triumphed in many a fierce fight. +Returning home flushed with victory, his ship and all on board were lost +on the Scilly Isles in an October gale. Some uncertainty hangs over his +last moments. It is asserted that he swam to shore alive, and that he +was put to death for the sake of his ring of emeralds and diamonds. An +ancient woman is stated to have confessed as much. For the honour of +human nature, we would fain believe the story to be untrue. A still +greater Norfolk hero was Lord Nelson, who is buried in St. Paul's +Cathedral. 'My principle,' said Nelson, on one occasion, 'is to assist +in driving the French to the devil, and in restoring peace and happiness +to mankind.' Whether he succeeded as regards the former we are not in a +position to state; but peace and happiness, alas! are still far from +being the common property of mankind. The rectory house at Burnham +Thorpe, where Nelson was born, exists no longer. Sir Cloudesley Shovel +lived in a castellated stone house in the small agricultural village of +Cockthorpe, originally fortified as a defence against the incursions of +smugglers. A room in this house, entered by a doorway arched over with +stone, is shown, which is still called by the villagers Sir Cloudesley's +drawing-room. + +A chapter might be written about the Norfolk Cokes. Sir Edward Coke, the +great lawyer, was buried at Tittleshale, in Norfolk. The well-known +Coke, the distinguished agriculturist, inhabited that splendid Holkham, +the fame of which exists in our day. It was begun by Lord Leicester in +1734, and finished by his Countess in 1764. Blomefield, the well-known +Norfolk historian, speaks of it as a noble, stately, and sumptuous +palace. Lord Coke and Lord Burlington were men of similar tastes and +pursuits, and were diligent students of classical and Italian art. The +Holkham Library still contains treasures rich and rare. Many of the +latter formed part of the library of Sir Edward Coke; the title-page of +the first edition of the 'Novum Organum,' published in 1620, bears the +design of a ship passing through the Pillars of Hercules into an +undulating sea. The Holkham copy is adorned by the inscription, 'Ex dono +auctoris.' + +Above the ship, in the handwriting of Coke, is the couplet: + + 'It deserveth not to be read in schools, + But to be freighted in the ship of fools.' + +Thomas Shadwell, the Poet Laureate and historiographer of William III., +was a Norfolk man. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. It is said by +Noble that he was an honest man. Of course he was. Chalmers accuses him +of indecent conversation, or Lord Rochester would not have said that he +had more wit and humour than any other poet. I am afraid he confers +little honour on his native county. 'Others,' wrote Dryden in one of his +satires, + + 'To some faint meaning make pretence, + But Shadwell never deviates into sense.' + +Sir Robert Walpole, who saved England from wooden shoes and slavery, was +of a Norfolk family, yet flourishing; as are the Townshends, to whom we +owe the introduction of the turnip. Norfolk also can boast of Sir Thomas +Gresham and Sir Francis Walsingham. In Norfolk was born that 'great +oracle of law, patron of the Church, and glory of England,' as Camden +calls him, Sir Henry Spelman. At Bickling, in the same county, was born +that ill-starred Anne Boleyn, of whom it is written that + + 'Love could teach a monarch to be wise, + And Gospel light first beamed from Boleyn's eyes.' + +In the same neighbourhood, also, was born John Baconthorpe, the resolute +doctor, of whom Pantias Pansa has written: 'This one resolute doctor has +furnished the Christian religion with armour against the Jews stronger +than that of Vulcan.' Pansa was a Norfolk man, and so was the great +botanist Sir W. Hooker. + +Who has not heard of Lynn, in Norfolk, where, when Eugene Aram was the +usher, + + 'Four-and-twenty happy boys + Came bounding out of school'? + +It was in that old town Fanny Burney, the friend of Mrs. Thrale and Dr. +Johnson, the author of novels like 'Evelina,' which people even read +nowadays, was born on the 13th of June, 1752. She grew up low of +stature, of a brown complexion. One of her friends called her the dove, +which she thought was from the colour of her eyes--a greenish-gray; her +last editor thinks it must have been from their kind expression. She was +very short-sighted, like her father. In her portrait, taken at the age +of thirty, merriment seems latent behind a demure look. At any rate, her +countenance was what might be called a speaking one. 'Poor Fanny!' said +her father, 'her face tells what she thinks, whether she will or no. I +long to see her honest face once more.' 'Poor Fanny' lived to a good old +age, and her gossiping diary is a mine of wealth as regards the Royal +Family, and Johnson, and Mrs. Thrale, and the cleverest men and women of +her time. + +Thomas Bilney, one of our Protestant martyrs, was a Norfolk man. It was +a Norfolk knight, Sir Thomas Erpingham, who gave signal for the archers +at Agincourt. Shakespeare refers to him in his 'King Henry V.' as +follows: + + 'KING.--Good-morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham; + A good soft pillow for that good white head + Were better than a churlish turf of France. + + 'ERP.--Not so, my liege; this lodging likes me better, + Since I may say, now lie I like a king.' + +Many East Anglians helped to win the battle of Agincourt. The Earl of +Kimberley still bears Agincourt on his shield. + +Let us now pass over into Suffolk. It is worth asking how Suffolk came +to earn the nickname of Silly Suffolk. 'Silly,' say the learned, is +derived from the German _selig_, meaning 'holy or blessed,' and is said +to have been applied to Suffolk on account of the number of beautiful +churches it contains; Suffolk, at any rate, is silly no longer. In the +present day it shows to advantage, if we may judge by the enterprise and +public spirit of such a town as Ipswich, for instance. Not long since, +as I landed on the docks at Hamburg, I had the pleasure of seeing some +dozen or more steam ploughs and agricultural implements waiting to be +transported into the interior. The ploughs and implements bore +well-known Suffolk names, such as Garrett and Sons or Ransomes, Sims and +Jefferies, and were open manifestations of Suffolk skill and energy, and +ability to hold its own against all comers. Amongst the women of the +present generation, where are to be met the superiors of Mrs. Garrett +Anderson or of Mrs. Fawcett, widow of the distinguished statesman, and +mother of a sweet girl-graduate who has beaten all the men at her +University? I was the other day at Haverhill, where Mr. D. Gurteen still +lives to enjoy, at the ripe old age of eighty-three, the fruits of an +energy on his part which has raised Haverhill from a village of paupers +into a flourishing community, whose manufactures are to be met with all +over the land. One day, as I was walking along Gray's Inn Road, a fine, +well-built man stopped me to ask me if I remembered him. When he +mentioned his name I did directly. He was of the poorest of the poor in +his home at Wrentham. He had done well in London. 'You know, sir,' he +said, 'how poor our family was. Well, I had enough of poverty, and I +made up my mind to come to London and be either a man or a mouse.' + +In the London of to-day the heads of some of our greatest establishments +are Suffolk men. We all know the stately pile in Holborn, once +Meekings', now Wallis's, where all the world and his wife go to buy. Mr. +Wallis hails from Stowmarket, and the man who fits up London shops in the +most tasty style, Mr. Sage, of Gray's Inn Road, was a Suffolk carpenter, +who, when out of work, with his last guinea got some cards printed, one +of which got him a job, which ultimately led on to fame and fortune. + +No, Suffolk has long ceased to be silly. It must have deserved the title +in the days which I can remember when a Conservative M.P., amidst +enthusiastic cheering, at Ipswich, intimated that it was quite as well +the sun and moon were placed high up in the heavens, else + + 'Some reforming ass + Would soon propose to pluck them down + And light the world with gas.' + +One of the oddest, most attractive, and most original women of the last +century was Elizabeth Simpson, a Suffolk girl, who ran away from her +home, where she was never taught anything, at the age of sixteen, to make +her fortune, and to win fame. In both cases she succeeded, though not so +soon as she could have wished. Failing to touch the hard heart of the +manager of the Norwich Theatre, a Welshman of the name of Griffiths, she +packed up her things in a bandbox, and, good-looking and audacious, +landed herself on the Holborn pavement. 'By the time you receive this,' +she wrote to her mother, 'I shall leave Standingfield perhaps for ever. +You are surprised, but be not uneasy; believe the step I have undertaken +is indiscreet, but by no means criminal, unless I sin by not acquainting +you with it. I now endure every pang, am not lost to every feeling, on +thus quitting the tenderest and best of parents, I would say most +beloved, too, but cannot prove my affection, yet time may. To that I +must submit my hope of retaining your regard. The censures of the world +I despise, as the most worthy incur the reproaches of that. Should I +ever think you will wish to hear from me I will write.' A pretty, +unprotected, unknown girl of sixteen, in London, had, we can well +believe, no easy time of it. Strangers followed her in the street, +people insulted her in the theatre, suspicious landladies looked her up. +Happily, a brother-in-law met her in a penniless state and took her home. +Unhappily, at his house she met Inchbald, an indifferent and badly-paid +actor. They were immediately married, and the girl rejoiced to think +that she was an actress, and about to realize the ambition of her youth. +It was no small part which the Suffolk girl felt herself qualified to +fill. On the 4th of September, 1772, she made her debut as Cordelia to +her husband's Lear. In 1821 Mrs. Inchbald, famed for her 'simple story,' +which took the town by storm, was buried in Kensington Churchyard. But +before she got there she had to endure much. At that time theatrical +performers were much worse paid than they are now, when, as Mr. Irving +tells us, any decent-looking young man, with a good suit of clothes, can +command his five or six pounds a week. Mrs. Inchbald and her husband had +to drink of the cup of poverty, and its consequent degradation, to the +dregs. On one occasion they took it into their heads to go to France, +believing that they could make money--he by painting, she by writing. +The scheme, as was to be expected, did not answer, and they were landed +on their return somewhere near Brighton, in the September of 1776, +literally without a crust of bread. On one occasion it was stated that +they dined off raw turnips, stolen from a field as they wandered past. +Next year, however, the world began to mend so far as they were +concerned. + +At Manchester they met the Siddonses and J. P. Kemble, and one result of +that meeting was peace and prosperity. At this time also the lady's +husband died, and that was no great loss, as the lady was far too +independent for a wife. Yet, if the great Kemble had proposed to her, as +she used to tell Fanny Kemble, she would have jumped at him. To the last +her habits of life were most penurious. She spent nothing on dress, she +was indifferent in the matter of eating and drinking, and when she was +making as much as from 500 to 900 pounds by a new play, in order to save +a trifle she would sit in the depth of winter without a fire. Only fancy +any of our later lady-novelists thus ascetic and self-denying. The idea +is absurd. She was to the last what Godwin described her, a mixture of +lady and milkmaid. And yet the lady had ambition. She had an idea that +she might be Lady Bunbury. However, she marred her chance, at the same +time missing a rich Mr. Glover, who offered a marriage settlement of 500 +pounds a year. Mrs. Inchbald, however, well knew how to take care of +herself. No one better. She had learned the art in rather a hard +school, and, besides, she knew how to take care of her poor relations. +None of her sisters seem to have done well, and she had to aid them all. + +Sudbury was the birthplace of that William Enfield, whose 'Speaker' was +the terror and delight of more than one generation of England's ingenuous +youth. Lord Chancellor Thurlow, of the rugged eyebrows and the savage +look, and fellow-clerk with the poet Cowper, was born at Ashfield, an +obscure village not far off. Robert Bloomfield, who wrote the 'Farmer's +Boy,' came from Honington, where his mother kept a village school, and +where he became a shoemaker. Capel Loft, an amiable gentleman of +literary sympathies and pursuits, and Bloomfield's warmest friend, +resided at Troston Hall, in the immediate neighbourhood of Honington. At +one time there was no writer better known than John Lydgate, called the +Monk of Bury, born at the village of Lydgate, in 1380. 'His language,' +writes a learned critic, 'is much less obsolete than Chaucer's, and a +great deal more harmonious.' Stephen Gardener, Bishop of Winchester, and +an enemy to the Reformation, was born at Bury. At Trinity St. Martin +lived Thomas Cavendish, the second Englishman who sailed round the globe. +Admiral Broke, memorable for his capture of the _Chesapeake_, when we +were at war with America, was born at Nacton. The great non-juring +Archbishop Sancroft was born at Fressingfield, where he retired to die, +and where he is buried under a handsome monument. The great scholar, +Robert Grossetete, Bishop of Lincoln, was born at Stradbrook. Of him +Roger Bacon wrote that he was the only man living who was in possession +of all the sciences. Wycliff, on innumerable occasions, refers to him +with respect. Arthur Young, the celebrated agriculturist, some of whose +sentences are preserved as golden ones--especially that which says, 'Give +a man the secure possession of a rock, and he will make a garden of +it'--and whose valuable works, I am glad to see, are republished, was +born and lived near Bury St. Edmunds. Echard, the historian, was born at +Barsham, in 1671. Porson was a Norfolk lad. + +Sir Thomas Hanmer was one of the most independent men that ever sat for +the county of Suffolk. Mr. Glyde, of Ipswich, terms him the Gladstone of +his age. Pope appears to stigmatize him as a Trimmer, + + 'Courtiers and patrols in two ranks divide; + Through both he passed, and bowed from side to side.' + +His garden at Mildenhall was celebrated for the quality of its grapes, +and Sir Thomas used to send every year hampers filled with these grapes, +and carried on men's shoulders, to London for the Queen. That stubborn +Radical and Freethinker, Tom Paine, was born at Thetford. Sir John +Suckling, a Suffolk poet, has written, at any rate, one verse never +excelled: + + 'Her feet beneath her petticoat, + Like little mice, stole in and out, + As if they feared the light. + But oh, she dances such a way, + No sun upon an Easter day + Is half so fine a sight.' + +England has in all parts of the world sons and daughters who have +deserved well of the State, and not a few of them are East Anglians by +birth and breeding. May their fame be cherished and their examples +followed by their successors in that calm, quiet, Eastern land--far from +the madding crowd--where the roar and rush of our modern life are almost +unknown--where farmers weep and wail but look jolly nevertheless! + + * * * * * + + THE END. + + * * * * * + + * * * * * + + BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EAST ANGLIA*** + + +******* This file should be named 30717.txt or 30717.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/7/1/30717 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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