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HISTORY OF SUFFOLK.

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CHAPTER I.

PHYSIOGRAPHIC AND PREHISTORIC.

HERE is hardly a county in England which surpasses Suffolk in simplicity of form and boundary. Save for a considerable deflexion in the northeast, now containing three hundreds, the form of the county is an irregular oblong, about sixty miles by thirty, diversified in most parts by gentle undulations, and containing many varieties of soil. Along the east side it is washed by the German Ocean, and there is but little of the artificial element in the boundaries which divide it from Norfolk on the north, Essex on the south, and Cambridgeshire on the west; for Nature has supplied as limits the Waveney and Little Ouse on the north, and the Stour on the south; while even on the west the Lark and its tributary the Kennet divide Suffolk from Cambridgeshire for some miles. In the ancient morass at the northwest corner of the county, and along the south-west border, the demarcations are of man's making, and there are occasional small deviations from the line of the rivers. The coast line has suffered, and still suffers, from the constant undergnaw of the German Ocean, but boasts yet of the most eastern point of Great Britain-Lowestoft Ness.

Of the rainfall, about three-fourths finds its way quietly into the German Ocean by the Waveney, the Blyth, the Alde, the Deben, the Orwell, and the Stour, to which catalogue may be added a few small independent streams. The remaining fourth trickles more gently still to Lynn and the Wash, by the channels of the Little Ouse and the Lark. The inconspicuous watershed which divides these two main portions runs generally south through the western part of the hundred of Hartismere, turns westward for some six miles, then south-westward to Lawshall, and curves north-westerly and westerly in the upper part of Risbridge Hundred to the Cambridgeshire border. Slow as is the current of most of these rivers and rivulets, they are by no means destitute of a sleepy, home-like beauty of their own. As they deliver their tribute waves to the great ocean-beds of the globe, they slip and slide and gloom and glance,' like their little Lincolnshire sisters immortalized by Tennyson, by the same 'fairy forelands,' through the same thorpes, though not always enjoying that special termination, and little towns, under the same one-arched bridges, through which, as of old, the swallow darts, swift dipping her dappled wing in the merry April weather. The banks often fall sharp to the water edge, pleasantly bushed and flowered. Old locks and mills, as well as reed-beds and fords, have given words to the poet and drawn colour from the palette.

The Waveney, or Wanney, and the Little Ouse, or Dune,1 rise, if it may be called a rise, at the same spot between South Lopham and Redgrave, where the highroad from Kenninghall to Botesdale crosses the valley. The motion is hardly, if at all, perceptible; but as both counties continue to pour in surface-water, the volume augments, and a stream is generated. As we work eastward, we find a brook coming down from Burgate, and reaching the Waveney between Palgrave and Stuston, then just above Hoxne another which has united in itself 1 So called in Mr. G. Josselyn's MS., of which the original is stated to have been in the possession of John Anstis, Esq., Garter.

two, one coming through Eye, and said to bear that name,1 and the other, called the Dove, from Worlingworth. The fall from Hoxne Mill to Yarmouth Harbour is only 80 feet, a fact which speaks for itself. In Weybread parish enters another brook, bringing a supply from Upper Linstead, Laxfield, and Stradbroke, through Fressingfield and Wingfield. The Elmham district next sends its quotum by Middleton Hall. Hitherto there have been occasional little rippling rapids, as at Shotford Bridge and Homersfield Bridge; but all in front of lovely Flixton Park, the Waveney, if not majestic, is certainly slow. Here there is actually no fall. At Bungay the river turns sharp to the north, with a slight drop in level, nearly enclosing a large extent of alluvial gravel, called Outney Common; then, resuming its easterly course, it crosses an ancient road-whereof more anon-at 'Wanneyford' hodie Wainford Bridge, first feels the pulse of the North Sea at spring-tide about Shipmeadow Lock, takes in a brook from Ilketshall St. Andrew's, winds along the scarp at Beccles, half embraces that common, at Oulton receives, or ought to receive, some supply from that Broad, afterwards unquestionably receives that from Fritton Broad, and works mainly north and north-east, till opposite the Roman cap at Burgh Castle it joins the Wensum from Norwich. Then the two enter the rough Garw or Hierus, are reinforced by the waters of the Bure and Ant from north-east Norfolk, and finally enter the North Sea, leaving behind them the quay and fish - wharf of Yarmouth. With regard to the fall from Oulton Broad, which, though slight, is important, it may be remarked that there was some controversy as to whether the Waveney ever entered the sea by Lowestoft. The arguments adduced by the late Mr. George Edwards of Carlton Colville, in a valuable pamphlet,2 from previous writers, silting of the estuary, motion of the beach, exist

1 See the aforesaid Anstis MS.

"'The River Waveney: Did it ever reach the Sea vid Lowestoft?' by George Edwards. Lowestoft, 1879.

ing boundaries, and sea breaches, have conclusively negatived the Lowestoft theory. It will be necessary

hereafter to refer to them.

Passing over a little direct ocean-flow, we come to the basin of the Blyth, which drains, roughly speaking, a circle of which Halesworth is the centre. One brook by Westhall and Wangford meets at Walberswick Quay the main stream, which runs by Lower or Little Linstead, Chediston, Halesworth, Blythford, where it is crossed by an important road, and Blythburgh.

The width of this valley as compared with the insignificance of the stream, though not a solitary instance, is to be specially remarked. The Alde is a trifurcated stream. The middle and largest branch comes from Brundish by Bruisyard and Rendham to Stratford St. Andrew's, on the road just mentioned. There are two minor affluents, one by Kelsale and Saxmundham,1 the other by Framlingham and Marlesford. These, after passing through the land-locked water at the back of Aldeburgh, are turned southward by the accumulation of shingle along the great straggling spit of beach, and terminate their course at Hollesley Bay. Many will doubt whether this stream is rightly named. Aldeburgh certainly suggests another derivation, and there is no priority of antiquity in this instance.

The Deben claims a higher importance, giving its name to the little town which stands near its source, as we find elsewhere. It flows by stately homes and pretty houses, Brandeston and Hoo, Letheringham, once the seat of the Wingfields, the ducal hall at Easton, Glevering and Ufford, past Woodbridge town. On the right bank enter two small tributaries joined in one, from Clopton and Ashbocking respectively. Then in a wider channel it splits the heath-covered shingly soil, and forms a little haven between Bawdsey and Felixstowe.

1 This in the Anstis MS. is called the Fromus.

2 Called the Deave in the Anstis MS.

Although the river on which the present county town stands has, in this respect, a certain priority, it does not drain a very large extent of ground, being rather contracted on each side by the basins of the Deben and the Stour, in this way, on a small scale, resembling the mighty Volga.

In Speed's map (1610) the right-hand stream, rising near Rattlesden, is called the Orwell, the left-hand stream clearly being identical in name with the village of Gipping, near its head. After the junction of the two, both names are found in Morden's map, though Gippesvic comes from the latter. A small stream enters on the right side below Ipswich, and then the water gradually expands into a beautiful estuary, which is too well known to need a line of description here.

But the Stour is the queen of these Suffolk waters, both in respect of scenery, and area drained, which is chiefly on the Suffolk side, the basin being closely hemmed in by the Coln on the south. The upper supply comes principally from the line of chalk. More soon comes in from the Bradleys, then a bifurcated stream at Clare,2 another brook starting from about Rede, by way of Boxstead, and a rivulet from above Groton. Then appears the considerable reinforcement of the Bret, or Breton, a three-headed stream, the middle tributary rising near Brettenham, all joining below Chelsworth, and meandering down its pleasantly diversified valley past Hadleigh. Thus, at Stratford St. Mary there is a respectable body of water, widening out before Catawade Bridge is reached, soon after which place the estuary assumes good dimensions, joining the Orwell opposite Harwich.

3

These are the eastward-flowing streams. The Little Ouse, of which mention has been made, soon reaches the light-land country, and its banks often have the charming

1 Ure in the Anstis MS.

2 The stream through Poslingford was called Ceuxis, but more truly Clarus.'-Anstis MS.

3 'The stream at Chelsworth is called Walsam's river.'-Anstis MS.

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