CHAPTER II.
down the yare. norwich to reedham.
“If you will give up a fortnight, I promise you that you will find it too short. You went to the Friesland Meres years ago, and enjoyed it. You will like these quite as well.”
So he promised to come for a fortnight, rather reluctantly, and when, on his arrival in Norwich, he took a preliminary canter by rail to Yarmouth, he refused to say anything about what he thought of the country, which looked ominous. We had hired a ten-ton cutter, and she was lying at Thorpe, a mile and a half below the city. The man we had engaged rowed the jolly-boat up for us, and as Wynne was enthusiastic about old buildings, we rowed him up the river to the New Mills, a very old mill, which spans the river Wensum near its entrance into the city. From thence we came back along the narrow sinuous river, overhung with buildings, many of them ancient and picturesque, under numerous bridges, wharves where wherries were loading or unloading, using the half-lowered mast as cranes, past the Boom Tower, still keeping watch and ward over the river; quaint Bishops’ Bridge; Pull’s Ferry, where there is a ruined water gate, often sketched and photographed; past the railway station, into the reach parallel with King Street, where gables, and archways, and courts delight the painter. Here, on the left bank, is another Boom Tower, built of flint, the universal building-stone of Norfolk, faced by another tower on the opposite bank, whence runs a fine piece of the old city wall up the hill to another and larger tower, in better preservation, on the summit. Then we next passed the very extensive works of Messrs. J. and J. Colman, and below them innumerable stacks of choice wood, out of which the boxes to contain the mustard, etc., are made.
