Replies.

NORWICH, KIRKPATRICK COLLECTION MSS. FOR THE HISTORY OF.

(Vol. ix., p. 515.)

Your correspondent T. A. T. can find a full, but in one respect a most unsatisfactory reply to his inquiry, in the preface to a History of the Religious Orders and Communities, and of the Hospital and Castle of Norwich, by Mr. John Kirkpatrick, Treasurer of the Great Hospital, bearing the names of Edwards and Hughes, London, and Stevenson and Hatchett, Norwich, as publishers, and dated 1845. This volume was printed at the expense of Hudson Gurney, Esq., whose "well-known liberality and laudable desire to perpetuate the knowledge of the antiquities of his native city," the preface fitly records; but it was not, in the commercial sense of the word, published; and, therefore, the information it gives may not be generally accessible. The following is the list of the collections which were "safe in the custody of the corporation about thirty years ago (say between 1800 and 1810), when M. de Hague held the office of town-clerk."

"1. A thick volume of the early history and jurisdiction of the city; date 1720.

2. A similar folio volume, being an account of the military state of the city, its walls, towns, ponds, pits, wells, pumps, &c.; date 1722.

3. A thick quarto.

4. Several large bundles, foolscap folio; Annals of Norwich.

5. A fasciculus, foolscap folio; origin of charities and wills relating thereto, in each parish.

6. Memorandum books of monuments.

7. Ditto of merchants' marks.

8. Ditto of plans of churches.

9. Paper containing drawings of the city gates, and a plan of Norwich.

10. Drawings of all the churches.

11. An immense number of small pieces of paper, containing notes of the tenures of each house in Norwich."

No portion of these collections remains at present in the hands of the legatees, and the greater number of them is not so much as known to be in existence. The "thick quarto," marked "3" in the list, is that which Mr. Gurney's zeal has caused to be printed; and it is now the property of the representatives of the late Mr. William Herring of Hethersett, whose father purchased it many years ago of a bookseller. The paper marked "9" was "said to have been in the possession of the Friars' Society," which was discovered some twenty years ago. My father had tracings of the "Drawings of the City Gates;" but I am not sure that they are made from Kirkpatrick's original. The collection marked "10," my father saw "in the possession of Mr. William Matthews, Mr. De Hague's clerk." And "a portion of the papers included under the last number" was said to be existence in 1845; but Mr. Dawson Turner, who compiled the "Preface," was "not fully informed" respecting them, and I can throw no light upon the subject. It is very remarkable that the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Association has done nothing for the recovery or discovery of the remainder of this invaluable bequest; perhaps the inquiry of T. A. T. may incite them to attempt both, and in this hope I trouble you with this reply.

B. B. Woodward.

Bungay, Suffolk.

In the year 1845, one of the MSS. of Mr. John Kirkpatrick was printed at Yarmouth, edited by Mr. Dawson Turner, at the expense of Mr. Hudson Gurney. This MS. is the History of the Religious Orders and Communities, and of the Hospital and Castle of Norwich, and filled a quarto of 258 folios in the handwriting of the author. In a very interesting preface, the editor states that no portion of Kirkpatrick's bequest remains at present in the hands of the corporation of Norwich, or is even known to be in existence, except the volume thus edited, and perhaps some fragments of the "small pieces of paper," described in the will as "containing notes of the tenure of each house in Norwich," which, if such do exist, are, it is to be feared, so scattered and injured as to be useless. The editor enumerates and describes eleven MSS. which, he says, were safe in the custody of the corporation about forty years ago from the present time: but, he adds, they have now disappeared, with the exception of the volume which he has edited. This MS. is the property of the representatives of the late Mr. William Herring, of Hethersett, whose father purchased it of a bookseller.