To the North and South of the town there are large sandy plains, called the denes, which probably were originally covered by the sea. Towards Corton they are very extensive, and are covered with a peculiar vegetation: there, and near the beach, may be found amongst others, the following plants—
The Eryngium Maritimum | (Sea Eryngo) |
„ Glaucium Luteum | (Yellow-horned Poppy) |
„ Ononis Spinosa | (Prickly rest-harrow) |
,, Cochleria Anglica | (English scurvy Grass) |
„ Tussilago Farfara | (Colt’s Foot) |
and under the fish-houses and old walls, | |
The Urtica Pilulifera | (Roman Nettle) |
which is a rare plant of a noli-me-tangere character, having a very severe sting.
Lowestoft is the only market town in the island of Lothingland, which island is situated in the North-east corner of the county of Suffolk, and is formed by the German Ocean on the East, by the river Yare on the North, by the Waveney on the West, and Lake Lothing on the South. Its length from North to South is about ten miles; and its breadth, from East to West about six miles. It contains sixteen parishes, and during the Saxon heptarchy was part of the kingdom of the East Angles.
This last remark very naturally introduces us to consider some circumstances connected with
THE HISTORY OF LOWESTOFT.
And Lowestoft has materials for a history. That history, like all which worthily bears the name, reaches far back into the ages that are past. Old Romans, brave Saxons, fierce Danes, have left some vestiges of their connexion with the place, however faint they may, at this distance of time, have become. It has had its feuds with men who dwelt across the Yare, and nobly defended its own natural rights; it took no silent part in the civil commotions of the middle of the seventeenth century; and was no craven in the latter half of that century, in the wars with the Dutch and others.
Its religious history partakes of the various characteristics of the several ages as they have passed. Priories and candles are dimly seen in the dark ages; image worship in the time of popery; image breaking in the time of puritanism; learned dissent in the time when liberty arose; warm-hearted methodism in the time of revival; vicars varying in their tenets, from the unmitigated Romanism of Scroope, to the learned Arianism of Whiston; and from that, to the Evangelicism of the present regime.
Its domestic history contains notices of plagues, fires, and storms, among the more terrific incidents; and of royal visits, among its pageants. Among its improvements, we notice the erection of light-houses, the formation of the harbour, etc., all which will require more particular attention as we proceed.
But before we make any lengthened remarks on these points, it may not be amiss to make