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consisting of four wings, has spacious and airy courts about 37 feet by 45 attached to it, and three smaller about 44 feet, in one of which a fire engine is kept. The chapel is up one pair of stairs in the gaoler's house; and here, as well as in the prison, the persons confined, both debtors and felons, are kept separate.

THE BOROUGH GAOL-Stands in an airy situation in the Rope Walk, and is surrounded by a wall 17 feet high. It contains three court yards, each 50 feet by 30, and has a chapel in the keeper's house. The house of correction is in Foundation street, and is a commodious place.

CHARITIES, &c. Among the benevolent institutions of this town are three charity schools, in two of which are seventy boys, and in the third, forty girls. Besides these it has a school on the plan of Mr. Lancaster, opened July 8th, 1811, with 200 boys.

An excellent charity for the relief and support of the widows and orphans of poor clergymen in the county was begun here in 1704, by the voluntary subscriptions of a few gentlemen of Ipswich and Woodbridge, and their vicinity; an institution which has since been eminently successful in effecting the laudable purpose for which it was designed.

A small distance from the town, on the Woodbridge road, some extensive barracks

were erected for infantry and cavalry, but since the peace they have been taken down. Towards Nacton is the race-course, forming part of an extensive common, which being the property of the corporation, was sold in 1811 to several private individuals; so that the sports of the turf will probably soon be supplanted by more beneficial pursuits. Ipswich contained, in 1821, 3378 houses, and 17,186 inhabitants; it has six annual fairs. This town was formerly famous for its manufactures of broad cloth, and the best canvas for sail-cloth, called Ipswich double. While those manufactories.continued to flourish, it had several companies of traders incorporated by charter, as clothiers, merchant-tailors, merchant-adventurers, and others. About the middle of the seventeenth century the woollen trade began to decline here, and gradually dwindled entirely away. Its loss was so severely felt for a long time, that Ipswich acquired the character of being "a town without people." Favourably seated for commercial speculations, it has at length recovered this shock, and is now rapidly increasing in consequence and population. Its principal traffic at present is in malting and corn, the exportation of which by sea is facilitated by the æstuary of the Orwell, navigable for light vessels up to the town itself, while those of greater burden are obliged to bring to at

Downham Reach, three or four miles lower down. This port is almost dry at ebb; but the returning tide, generally rising about twelve feet, converts it into a magnificient sheet of water. Here are two yards employed in ship. building; and though the number of vessels belonging to Ipswich is said to have declined from the decrease of the coal-trade, yet more than 30,000 chaldrons are annually imported into this town.

Vessels fitted up for the accommodation of passengers, like the Gravesend boats at London, sail every tide from Ipswich to Harwich, and back again; an excursion that is rendered truly delightful by the beauty of the surrounding scenery.

In a word, the banks of the Orwell are, in general, highly picturesque, especially when it becomes the æstuary at Downham Reach, about three or four miles below Ipswich; to which place it is navigable for ships of considerable burden. The banks there rise into pleasing elevations, clothed with a rich luxuriance of wood, and adorned with several good seats; and the river assumes the feature of a large lake, being to all appearance, land-locked on every side. On the left are the seats of Sir R. Harland, and Sir P. Broke; and on the right that of C. Burness, Esq. We must now leave Ipswich, but not without borrowing a tribute to

this highly-favoured town and its beautiful river. for which we must be indebted to the taste and industry of one of its ingenious inhabitants, though the tribute be only a simple flower from the richly variegated wreaths that composed The Suffolk Garland,

Orwell, delightful stream, whose waters flow,
Fring'd with luxuriant beauty on the main!
Amid thy woodlands taught, the Muse would fain
On thee her grateful eulogy bestow;

Smooth and majestic though thy current glide,
And bustling commerce plough thy liqnid plain ;
Though grac'd with loveliness thy verdant side,
While all around enchantment seems to reign;

These glories still with filial love I taste, And feel their praise, yet thou hast one beside To me more sweet; for on thy banks reside

Friendship and truth combin'd, whose union chaste Has sooth'd my soul, and these shall bloom sublime, When fade the fleeting charms, of Nature and of Time.

SAMFORD.

THE hundred of Samford is bounded by the Stour on the south, on the west by the hundreds of Babergh and Cosford, on the east by the Orwell, and on the north by the liberties of Ipswich.

The villages in this hundred are:

ARWERTON. The lordship of this place belonged anciently to the family of Davellers, from whom it descended to sir Robert Bacon, by marriage about 1330. In 1345, he had the grant of a market and fair here. It came afterwards to the Calthorpes, and was purchased by sir Philip Parker, knt. of sir Drue Drury, about the year 1577. Philip Parker, was created a Baronet July 16th, 1661. It is now the property of Charles Berners, esq. of Wolverston; Arwerton contains 157 inhabitants.

LITTLE BELSTEAD. In king John's time, or that of Henry II. at the latest, William de Goldingham paid fines to Ipswich, for freedom from toll for himself and villains, in Belstead. This same family continued to present to the church till after the year 1560; when the manor was purchased by Mr. Bloss, a wealthy clothier of Ipswich; it is now the property of

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