A Guide to the Town, Abbey and Antiquities of Bury St. Edmunds: With Brief Notices of the Villages & Country Seats Within a Circuit of Eight Miles

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by R. Deck for the author, 1821 - 156 pages

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Page 115 - Her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, That one might almost say her body thought.
Page 86 - My bellows, too, have lost their wind, My fire's extinct, my forge decayed, And in the dust my vice is laid, My coals are spent, my irons gone, My nails are drove, my work is done.
Page 67 - ... in the least offensive, but, on being exposed to the air, it soon became putrid. The labourers, for the sake of the lead, removed the body from its receptacle, and threw it among the rubbish. It was soon ascertained, however, that the corpse was the remains of Thomas Beaufort, son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by his third duchess, Lady Catherine Swinford, grandson of King Edward III., half-brother to Henry IV., by whom he was created Duke of Exeter, knight of the garter, admiral and governor...
Page 42 - If they floated they were guilty of the crime of witchcraft, but their sinking was a proof of their innocence. This method he pursued, till some gentlemen, indignant at his barbarity, tied his own thumbs and toes, as he had been accustomed to tie those of other persons, and when put into the water, he himself swam, as many had done before him. By this expedient the country was soon cleared of him.
Page 57 - Herling, thirty-two priests, thirteen .women, and 138 other persons of the town, were outlawed ; and that some of these, to revenge the abbot's breach of promise, surprised him at the manor of Chevington. Having bound and shaved him, they conveyed him to London, and thence over the sea into Brabant, where they kept him a prisoner. He was at length rescued by his friends, who had discovered the place of his confinement.
Page 24 - This story, no doubt, repressed that curiosity which might otherwise have explored too minutely the clerical arcana. An ecclesiastic, however, was permitted, without incurring this awful fate, to have the satisfaction of seeing for himself, and for others also; the veracity of Bishop Theodored is adduced as a most unequivocal testimony to authenticate the fact.
Page 65 - ... called Haberdon, annexed this condition, that the tenant should provide a white bull, whenever a matron of rank, or any other should come out of devotion, or in consequence of a vow, to make the oblations of the white bull, as they were denominated, at the shrine of St.
Page 32 - Upon this occasion, each of the persons present went to the high altar of the church of St. Edmund, in which the assembly was held, and there swore, that if the king should refuse to abolish the arbitrary Norman laws, and restore those enacted by Edward the Confessor...
Page 40 - Monday, the quarter sessions was held at St. Edmund's, Bury, and by negligence, an out malt-house was set on fire, from whence, in a most strange and sudden manner, through fierce winds, the fire came to the farthest side of the town, and as it went, left some streets and houses safe and untouched. The flame flew...
Page 65 - ... great west gate, the lady all the while keeping close to him, and the monks and people forming a numerous cavalcade. Here the procession ended; the animal was conducted back to his pasture, while the lady repaired to St. Edmund's shrine to make her oblations, as a certain consequence of which she was soon to become a mother. As foreign ladies, desirous of issue, might have found it inconvenient to repair hither in person, to assist at these ceremonies, they were certain to prove equally efficacious...

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