utmost solemnity confirmed this celebrated deed; binding himself by a public oath to regulate his conduct in strict conformity with the grand principles which it established.

Henry III. visited Bury several times, and in the year 1272 held a parliament here; after which he proceeded to Norwich, to punish the authors of a violent insurrection against the prior and monks of that city. Having accomplished the object of his journey, he returned to Bury, where he was seized with the disorder which soon after terminated his earthly reign.

In the year 1296 Edward I. held a parliament in this town for the purpose of demanding an aid of his clergy and people. The former, encouraged by a papal bull in their favour, refused to contribute any thing; and continuing to adhere pertinaciously to this determination, the king seized all the revenues of the abbey church, and confiscated the goods of the abbot and convent, together with all their manors, and the borough of Bury. After his retaining these possessions nearly two years, the clergy found no relief but in complete submission, and were obliged to grant the king a subsidy of one-fifteenth, or, according to some accounts, one-tenth of their goods and rents.

In the reign of Edward II. his queen being dissatisfied with the conduct of the two Spencers, the favourites of that weak monarch, she obtained the assistance of the Prince of Hainault, and landed with a force of 2700 men, provided by him, at Orwell haven. She afterwards marched to Bury, and continued there some time to refresh her troops, and collect her adhe rents. The deposition of her misguided husband, and its unhappy results to him in particular, are well known.

During the reign of Richard H. Bury experienced the mischievous effects of the spirit of rebellion in an infuriated mob, which then pervaded many parts of

the kingdom. In 1381, soon after the insurrection of the Kentish men under Wat Tyler, the people of Norfolk and Suffolk rose in great numbers under the conduct of Jack Straw, and committed numerous acts of outrage and wanton depredation. Proceeding in a body of not less than 50,000 to Cavendish, they there plundered and burned the house of Sir John de Cavendish, the lord chief justice, whom they seized and carried to Bury; here they struck off his head, and placed it on the pillory. They then attacked the monastery, when Sir John Cambridge, the prior, attempt. ing to escape by flight, was taken and executed near Mildenhall, and his head was set up near that of the lord chief justice. Sir John Lakenhythe, the keeper of the barony, shared the same fate. The insurgents then plundered the abbey of Bury, carrying off jewels to a considerable amount, and doing much mischief to the structure. Their career was, however, soon stopped by Henry Spencer, called the martial Bishop of Norwich, who meeting them at Barton Mills with a very inferior force, compelled them to return to their homes. This prelate was bred to the profession of arms, and highly distinguished himself in Italy, in the wars of Pope Adrian against the Duke of Milan. This pope, who was a native of England, to reward his services, conferred on him the bishopric of Norwich in the year 1370.

In 1433, Henry VI. then only twelve years old, kept his Christmas at the monastery of Bury, and remained there till the St. George's day following. In 1446, a parliament was held in this town, at which that monarch presided in person. This parliament was con vened under the influence of Cardinal Beaufort, the inveterate enemy of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle, and the popular and beloved regent of England. Hume observes, that this parliament was not assembled at London, which was supposed to

be too well affected to the duke; but at St. Edmund's Bury, where his enemies expected him to be entirely at their mercy. Their intrigues were but too successful; he was arrested on the second day of the sessions, all his servants taken from him, and his retinue sent to different prisons. Preparations were made for bringing him to a public trial; but his enemies, dreading the effects of the innocence and virtues of the good duke, as he was emphatically called, had recourse to a more certain method of ridding themselves of him than by a fair and open trial. Next morning, after his apprehension, he was found lifeless in his bed; and though an apoplexy was said to have been the cause of his death, yet all impartial persons ascribe it to the violence used by his enemies. Pitts relates that he was smothered with bolsters; and, according to local tradition, this atrocious deed was perpetrated by the Marquis of Suffolk, William de la Pole, in an apartment belonging to St. Saviour's Hospital, then an appendage to the monastery. The duke's body was conveyed to St. Alban's, and there interred.

In 1526, an alarming insurrection of the people of Lavenham, Hadleigh, Sudbury, and the adjacent country, was quelled by the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, who met for that purpose at Bury. Here many of the ringleaders were afterwards brought, and appeared before those noblemen in their shirts, and with halters round their necks; and in this state they received the royal pardon.

On the death of Edward VI. in 1553, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, having persuaded Lady Jane Grey to be declared heir to the crown, to the exclusion of the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, daughters of Henry VIII. he marched with an army into Suffolk to suppress any attempt that might be made to oppose his plans, and made Bury his place of rendezvous. Here he waited for reinforcements; but Mary being

proclaimed queen by the council, she ordered the duke to return to Cambridge. On the way to this place he was deserted by most of his men, and in a very short period this ill-judged enterprise terminated in his death upon the scaffold.

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Under the fanatical reign of Mary, Bury was the theatre of some of those horrible scenes that disgraced several other parts of the kingdom. On the 2d of August, 1555, James Abbes was burned here as a heretic Roger Clarke, of Mendlesham, in 1556; and Roger Bernard, Adam Forster, and Robert Lawson, on the 30th of June the same year. John Cooke, Robert Miles, Alexander Lane, and James Ashley, suffered for the same cause but a short time before the queen's last illness; and Philip Humphrey, and John and Henry David, brothers, were brought to the stake only a fortnight preceding Mary's death.

During the reign of James I. Bury was visited by a most destructive calamity. Stow relates, that " in the year 1608, April 11, being 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 end of the town, and as it went, left some streets and houses safe and untouched. The flame flew clean over many houses, and did great spoil to many fair buildings farthest off; and ceased not till it had consumed 160 dwelling houses, besides others; and in damage of wares and household stuff to the full value of 60,000 pounds." To this accident, however terrible and distressful in itself, the present beauty and regularity of the streets of Bury are probably owing. King James, who was a great benefactor to the town, contributed large quantities of timber towards rebuilding the houses destroyed by this fire.

The reign of Charles I. was distinguished by a vi

the world, by Sir Matthew, who, so far from being satisfied with the evidence, was very doubtful of it, and proceeded with such extreme caution, that he forbore to sum it up, leaving the matter to the jury, with a prayer to God to direct their hearts in so important an affair.

Leaving Bury St. Edmund's, at a small distance on the right of our road, is Hardwick House, inhabite by the Rev. T. G. Cullum; his father Sir T. Cullum, bart. who owns the seat, resides in Bury. This house is situated upon the line that divides the open and the woodland country, and commands a pleasing view of Bury and its vicinity, being considerably higher than that town. This estate is said to have been given to the abbey of Bury by King Stephen, and according to tradition it was the abbot's dairy, and the principal mansion was his occasional retreat; however, no part of the present building is of any great age excepting a spacious chimney now under ground. In the year 1610 it was purchased by Sir Robert Drury, and annexed for ever to the manor of Hawsted.

Hardwick Heath has the reputation of feeding some of the finest flocks of sheep in the county. They are horned, and have black faces and legs, and these are said to have come from one of the three flocks in the environs of Bury, that formerly belonged to the abbot. Sir Robert Drury, who died in 1615, founded an almshouse at Hardwick for six poor unmarried women, with a yearly revenue of five pounds each; two of them to be taken from the town of Bury, one from Hawsted, one from Whepsted, one from Brockley, and one alternately from Chedburgh and Reed.

ICKWORTH lies at about two miles distance from this place, and is distinguished by the celebrated seat of the Earl of Bristol, which formerly belonged to the abbot of Bury. The whole parish has since been converted into a park, in which stands the noble man