TUNSTALL. The manor of Banyard in this parish is now vested in Dudley Long North, esq. In the church according to Dowsing, 60 pictures were broken down by the parliamentary visitors. 653 inhabitants.

WANTISDEN,-Manor and rectory belonged to Butley abbey, and were granted to Lionel Talmach 36 Henry VIII. They are now vested in J. W. Sheppard esq. 128 inhabitants.

This parish contains

BLITHING.

THE hundred of Blithing is bounded on the east by the ocean, on the west and south by the hundred of Hoxne and Plomesgate, and on the north by Wangford and Mutford. In this are contained 48 parishes, and 6 hamlets, viz.

ALDRINGHAM, at present a mean village, of which Hamo de Masey seems to have been lord in the reign of king Edward II. for in the 12th year of that king he obtained a grant for a market and fair to be held here; and there is still a little fair on a green within this parish on St. Andrew's day. The church was given to the abbey of Leiston by Ranulf Glanvile, the founder; and the impropriation, which was granted 28 Henry VIII. to Charles duke of Suffolk, belongs now to the heirs of the late Daniel Hervey, esq. This parish contains 315 inhabitants.

BENACRE, anciently the lordship and demesne of Simon de Pierpoint. About the year 1400 it came to sir William Bowet, and soon after to Fines lord Dacres, in which family it continued till about the middle of queen Elizabeth's reign, when William Playters and Henry Yarmouth had it. Henry North of Laxfield, purchased

it in king Charles the first's time; and it now belongs to sir Thomas Sherlock Gooch, bart.

In 1786, one of the workmen employed in making a new turnpike road at this place, struck his pickaxe against a stone bottle, containing upwards of 900 pieces of silver coin in general in good preservation, but none older than the time of Vespasian. They were all about the size of a sixpence, 8 of them weighed an ounce, Near 700 were purchased by sir Thomas Gooch bart., others were bought by different persons and the remainder sold to a jew, who retailed them at a low price in the neighbourhood. This parish contains 224 inhabitants.

BLITHBOROUGH, though now a mean village, seems to have been of great antiquity and note; for several Roman urns were here dug up about the year 1678. Anna king of the east-angles and Firminius his son, who were slain fighting against Penda king of the Mercians, in 654, or 655, were here buried: so says Cambden, and almost all our historians; but it may be doubted, whether the tomb now shewn at Blithburg for king Anno's, be really his; for the present church is certainly a modern building. There are several legacies in wills between the years 1450 and 1480, towards building the chancel at Blithburgh; and yet it seems to be exactly the same kind of building with the church, so that probably it is little more than 300 years old. The body of Firminus was afterwards transla

ted to Bury. The sessions for the division of Beccles, were certainly held here formerly; and John de Clavering (so called from his manor in Essex of that name,) who was lord of this manor 17 Edward II. obtained a grant for a weekly market on Mondays, and two yearly fairs; one on the eve and feast day of the annunciation, February 2nd, the other on the eve and day of the nativity of the virgin Mary, September 8th. The name of the town by its termination Burgh, which signifies a town or castle, and the stateliness of its church, argue its former greatness; and as late as the year 1677, there was a collection made for a loss by fire, to the amount of £1803. Here was a priory of Black Canons, a cell to the abbey of St. Osith in Essex, founded in the time of Henry I, and valued at the dissolution at £48. 8s. 10d. per annum. This was granted 30 Henry VIII, to sir Arthur Hopton, knt. then lord of the manor; considerable remains of which are standing near the church. The manors of Blybro" late priory, Blybro with Walberswick, are vested in sir Charles Blois, bart. In Stow's annals is an account of a terrible thunder-storm, which happened here on Sunday 4th August 1577, in the time of divine service, when the lightning damaged the church; struck down and scorched several persons, and killed one man and a boy. This parish contains 1048 inhabitants.

After the suppression of the priory of Blithburgh, the town fell to decay, which was accelerated by the choking up of the river, and the consequent decline of the fishery. Subsequent to the fire above mentioned, it appears that several of the inhabitants, being unable to rebuild their houses, notwithstanding the collection made for the place, were induced to leave it, and settle elsewhere.

The church of Blithburgh, which is of considerable antiquity, is 127 feet in length, and 54 feet wide. The numerous windows were once very beautiful; and the edifice was highly ornamented both within and without. The beautiful tracery has certainly been destroyed or removed from the outside of the windows, since miserably patched up with bricks and mortar, which have been even introduced into the chasms in the painted glass. The fine carved work in the interior has also been daubed with a coat of whitewash, and the carvings on the roof, consisting of angels bearing shields on which are painted the arms of various benefactors to the church, falling from time to time, have not been restored. Upon the ceiling of the porch was formerly the sculptured figure of a man in a sitting attitude, of which Gardner has given a representation, and round it a label, with this inscription, 'Orate pro aiabz Johne Masin et Katerine uxoris eiu'. Some writers suppose this figure to have been a representation of