talents soon attracted the notice of that discerning monarch, Henry VII. who promoted him to the situation of domestic chaplain. We shall forbear to follow him through his splendid political career, during the reign of Henry VIII., but refer our readers to the pages of English history. It is not only as a churchman and politician that he was conspicuous, but as a promoter of literature and science. No one but himself could have been able to procure the dissolution of forty-one monasteries, in order to raise a fund for the erection of new seminaries for learning; for in 1524, he obtained this object of his desire-but not without much murmuring against such obnoxious and daring innovations. He had already secured students in progress, for his projected college at Oxford, in his native town at Ipswich; where, two years before, he had erected a school: for which he himself drew up rules and regulations, and wrote a preface to the grammar intended for its use. He was afterwards able to add the revenue of twenty-four more small monasteries to the means already stated, and the first stone of his college at Ipswich was laid 1528, as previously related in pages 27 and 251; where a full account is to be found of this munificent establishment of which only one solitary gateway now remains, fast falling to decay. This college-the remembrance of which the pen of Shakspeare has immortalised -was scarcely completed when its founder fell under the king's displeasure, and his implacable enemies assiduously hastened his ruin. He was deprived of nearly all his wealth and possessions, and soon after arrested for high treason, at his palace of Cawood, about seven miles from York; whither he had retreated to spend the remainder of his days in the duties of his diocese: but his ill treatment and disgrace so preyed upon his mind, that his con : stitution gave way under the shock. On his journey to London, to take his trial, he departed this life at Leicester abbey, where he had halted, and his body was interred in the abbey church of that town; and all that remained of the man who had lately been the arbiter of the fate of Europe, the corpse of Thomas Wolsey, was there deposited in the grave, by torch-light, between four and five o'clock in the morning of St. Andrew's day, November 30th, 1530, without the slightest memorial to mark the spot where his bones are laid-and there is now scarcely one stone left upon another, to indentify the scite where the abbey stood. His life has been written by so many able hands, and his character so well represented and defined, that it would be folly to attempt it here. The frailties of human nature inherent in his composition, were, however, thrown into the shade by the vastness of his conceptions, and the skill and celerity with which he carried them into execution. His cupidity and his personal ambition seldom led him to compromise the dignity of his king and country; for England, under his administration, held a high degree of importance in the scale of European policy: and never was there a subject of these realms, who, from so lowly an origin, raised himself to so high a pitch of power, both in church and state, as did Thomas Wolsey. His munificent intentions towards his native town ought never to be forgotten; and as his name is for ever immortalised in the pages of Shakspeare, so will the name of Ipswich be handed down to remotest posterity, as having been the birth-place of Cardinal Wolsey. ADDENDA. As we promised our readers the result of the chemical analysis which had been undertaken by Mr. John T. Barry, we submit the following report of his examination of the water from a well, situated on premises belonging to Dykes Alexander, esq. Ipswich. "This is a chalybeate water, holding proto-carbonate of iron in solution, the proportion being rather more than half a grain of prot-oxide of iron in the pint. As the specific gravity of the water is only 1.00082, it contains but little saline matter; one part only remains on evaporating 1200. to dryness. "There are some circumstances regarding this water, which render it a little remarkable. The first is, that when pumped from the well, it contains a minute quantity of black powder, which is found to be sulphuret of iron. This, possibly, arises from decomposition, within the well, of a portion of the carbonate of iron previously held in solution; and which may happen by the influx of other water containing sulphuretted hydrogen, or by the proximity of decomposing pyrites, evolving that gas. In consequence of this precipitation of sulphuret of iron taking place, as well as from the slow access of atmospheric air to the well, the proportion of chalybeate matter in the water, must be supposed to vary a little at different periods. "Another remarkable circumstance is that the well water holds some bituminous matter in solution. To this must be attributed its peculiar smell, which is not, as has been supposed, owing to the presence of sulphur; for the sulphuretted hydrogen presumed to have entered the well, must have been entirely decomposed by the excess of dissolved carbonate of iron, aided by the earthy carbonates, and, in fact, none of this gas is found remaining in the water. "A third point deserving notice, is the absence of sulphates, a description of salts usually present in springwater. The other substances found in solution, are not materially different from those met with in our common wells. They consist, principally, of the bases-lime, magnesia, and soda-in combination with the carbonic and muriatic acids, together with a little silica." This analysis only refers to one particular spring, but there are several others whose waters have various powers and properties, and from the opinions we have obtained from several eminent medical practitioners, we have no doubt but that they might be rendered serviceable, and by a little perseverance and exertion brought into general use. We cannot close our labors better than by giving the following account of the town, in the words of a highly popular writer who has visited Ipswich since the commencement of this work: "I know of no town to be compared with Ipswich except it be Nottingham, and there is this difference in the two, Nottingham stands high, and on one side looks over a very fine country, whereas Ipswich is in a dell, meadows running up above it, and a beautiful arm of the sea below it. The town itself is substantially built, well paved, every thing good and solid, and no wretched dwellings to be seen on its outskirts. From the town itself you can see nothing; but you can in no direction go from it a quarter of a mile without finding views that a painter might crave." GENERAL INDEX. As the biographical department is alphabetically arranged, the names are not inserted in the Index. Alnesborn priory, 371. Annals of Ipswich, by Bacon, 7. Anti-slavery Society, 426. Archdeacon's gate, 352. Assembly of the corporation, 428. Assembly-rooms, 163, 352, 416. Assizes, 66, 71, 74, 133. Austin, St. 261, 262. Bacon, Francis, 238. Bacon, Nathaniel, 7. Bagual, John, 215. Bailiffs, 6, 10, 17, 46, 65, 97, 147, 155, 156, 164, 341, 342; list of, 443. Baldwyn, John, 200. Barnard's gift, 287. Barnardiston, Sir Samuel, 293. Barracks, Horse, 192. Barracks in the Woodbridge road, 320. Baring, Henry, 141, 142. Barton, Bernard, Poem on Tonkard Room, 226. Batley, William, 7, 269. Bayley, George & Co. 259, 409, Bayley, Jabez, 406. Beech tree in the Park, 329; stanzas on it, 326. Bible societies, 426. Biographical catalogue, 444, Bird, James, his poem on Wolsey's gate, 253; extract from, 382. Bixley, 371. Blaise, Bishop, procession in honour of, 417. Bottold, John, 200, Bourn bridge, 405. Blake, town clerk, carried away the records, 12. Bridewell, 250. Bridgman, Orlando, 307. Bristol, Marquis of, 353, 360, 363. Broke, Sir Philip B. V., bart., 365, 374. Broke's Hall, 183, Brunton, manager, 228. Brunton, Miss, 228, Burgesses, 5, 11, 41, 109, 159 125. SSS |