Let us end the chapter with something recreative, to wit, William Kemp's Nine Days' Wonder (an expression which has become proverbial) performed in a dance from London to Norwich, in February and March, 1600. He started on the first Monday in Lent, February 11, stayed two days at Romford, took his second and third days consecutively to Ingatestone and Chelmsford, got to Braintree a week after his start, and entered Suffolk at Sudbury on Wednesday, February 20. Here a very kind gentleman, Master Foskew (Fortescue ?), who had once walked from London to Berwick, gave him good advice about his diet and company, and a lusty tall fellow, a butcher, offered to morrice with him as far as Bury. In a short time the challenger gave in amidst derisive cries from the spectators, a country lass calling out: 'Faint-hearted lout! If I had begun to dance, I would have held out one mile, though it had cost my life.' At which words many laughed. Nay,' saith she,

'if the dancer will lend me a leash of his bells, I'll venture to head one mile with him myself.' And so she did, to Melford, being a mile, in a 'piteous heat,' at the end thereof. Kemp's narrative, as might be expected, is more forcible than elegant, and some 'immortal verse by a 'good fellow, my friend' is quite on a par with Kemp's unvarnished prose. Master Colts, a very kind and worshipful gentleman, entertained the dancer at Melford till the Saturday, whence he proceeded by Clare to Bury. It was a long day's work, but between Clare and Bury he was received at the house of a bountiful widow of a rich yeoman named Everet. As he entered Bury at one gate, Chief Justice Popham entered at another, and the wondering and regardless multitude made clear way for his honour to gape at the dancer. On Saturday, February 23, fell a great snow, and Kemp did not resume his journey till Friday, the 29th, when he danced over the heaths in grand style, reaching Thetford in about three hours. I fared,' says he, 'like one that had escaped the stocks, and tried the use of his

legs to outrun the constable; so light were my heels, that I counted the ten miles no better than a leap.' At Thetford we leave this merry fellow to enjoy the hospitality of Sir Edwin Rich, to pursue his course by Rockland, Hingham, and Barford Bridge to Norwich.

Those who want detail as to the hardship of royal purveyances will know where to find it. Times were hard enough in all respects. On Christmas Day, 1594, the Rector of Halesworth could not thaw his ink to write down the names of his communicants, and the constant apprehension of a repetition of the Spanish Armada cost the parishes large sums for armour, for watching Sizewell Beacon, for the saltpetre monopolist, and for trainings at Bulcamp Heath and elsewhere.

N

CHAPTER XV.

EARLY STUART PERIOD.

EWMARKET, as many of my readers will know, is a town sacred to that animal which is counted but a vain thing to save a man. It is situated partly in Suffolk and partly in Cambridgeshire, the main street being the county boundary. The north parish, St. Mary's, and the village of Exning, which is possibly the 'old market,' form a little Suffolk island in Cambridgeshire. Indeed there is, I believe, one point where this insulated fragment touches the main county. The open country all round it has always made it a great place for sport, and so it was in the days of the first Stuart King, before sport was sullied by that quasi-financial element which has caused gold and silver to flow on the whole less from knaves to fools than from fools to knaves.

James I. loved Newmarket as he loved flattery, theological discussion in which he was bound to win, and much else. On one occasion, hunting the buck, he roamed over the Freckenham-Icklingham-Elveden district till he reached the very parts over which we have just seen William Kemp performing his morrice, and came to Thetford. Royal visits to Suffolk have not been so numerous as to allow us to omit this one, little as there is to be said about it.

Of course, these journeys of royal personages were performed in the most comfortable and luxurious style that the age could afford-very different from the mode of

travelling experienced by the King's subjects. Carriers, whose carts formed the chief means of locomotion, were, in consequence, men of great importance, and well known in districts through which they worked. Besides conveying passengers, delivering parcels and letters, they brought the news from the great metropolis by word of mouth. One can easily imagine groups of men, anxious about political affairs, waiting in the yard of some inn to pick up some scraps of news from the carrier.

No doubt many an otherwise weary hour has been happily spent by passengers on their way to London in discussing the probable state of affairs in the political world on their arrival; or, on the return journey, in airing opinions as to how matters ought to have been carried out.

We may remember Milton's two monographs on the Cambridge carrier, 'Old Hobson, who sickened in the Time of his Vacancy; being forbid to go to London, by reason of the Plague.' The termination of each is full of suggestion:

and

""Hobson has supt, and's newly gone to bed,"

"His letters are deliver'd all and gone,

Only remains this superscription."'

John Taylor, 'for the good use of the whole commonwealth,' published in 1637 the 'Carrier's Cosmography,' so that 'if a man at Constantinople or some other remote part or region shall chance to send a letter to his parents, master, or friends that dwell at Nottingham, Derby, or any other town in England; then this book shall give instructions where the Carriers do lodge that may convey the said letter, which could not easily be done without it.'

In the whole of Suffolk he mentions but seven places from which carriers start for London, namely, Bury, Coggeshall,1 Hadley, Ipswich, Melford, Sudbury, and Wallingfield.

1 It is in Essex, though Taylor calls it in Suffolk.

'The Carriers of Bury, or St. Edmund's Bury, in Suffolk, do lodge at the Dolphin without Bishopsgate Street. They come on Thursdays.

'The Waggons of Bury, or Berry, in Suffolk, do come every Thursday to the sign of the Four Swans in Bishopsgate Street.

'A Foot Post doth come from the said Bury every Wednesday to the Green Dragon in Bishopsgate Street; by whom letters may be conveyed to and fro.

'The Carrier of Coggeshall in Suffolk doth lodge at the Spread Eagle in Gracious Street. He comes and goes on Thursdays and Fridays.

'Carriers from Hadley in Suffolk do lodge at the George in Lombard Street. They come on Thursdays.

'The Carriers of Ipswich in Suffolk do lodge at the sign of the George in Lombard Street. They do come on Thursdays.

'The Post of Ipswich doth lodge at the Cross Keys in Gracious Street. He comes on Thursdays, and goes on Fridays.

'The Carriers of Melford in Suffolk do lodge at the Spread Eagle in Gracious Street. They come and go on Thursdays and Fridays.

'The Carriers of Sudbury in Suffolk do lodge at the Saracen's Head in Gracious Street. They do come and

go on Thursdays and Fridays.

'The Carriers of Wallingfield in Suffolk do lodge at the Spread Eagle in Gracious Street. They come and go on Thursdays and Fridays.'

A further direction about Ships, Barks, Hoys and Passage Boats gives the following information: 'He that will send to Ipswich in Suffolk, or Lynn in Norfolk, let him go to Dice Key, and there his turn may be served.'

John Jegon, D.D., was Bishop of Norwich from 1602 to 1618. He had ruled the unruly spirits at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, with something more than persuasion. The union of repair of building and corporal punishment once brought forth this epigram, written on the screen :