Before we conclude this chapter, and this first part the work, it may not be improper, or unacceptable to the reader, to take some notice of a few of the most remarkable places on this side, that have been omitted in the preceding pages. We shall begin with

Sechey, [201] commonly called Sech, a small market town, which lies about three miles from Lynn, to the south, on the Downham and London road. Anciently it belonged to the Lords Bardolf, as apart of their manor of north Runcton. In 33. Hen. III. the then Lord Bardolf had a charter of free warren here, with a weekly market on Mondays, and two fairs annually. Afterwards it passed, with the rest of the said manor, to the Earl of Warwick, who in the reign of James I. had a grant of a market here every fortnight, on Tuesdays, for fat cattle. It seems rather doubtful, if these markets were originally kept every other Tuesday throughout the year: at least it is said not to have been the case for many years past, but only for some of the latter months of the year. They begin at the dawn of day, and are generally over pretty early in the morning. They are also said to be well attended by butchers and graziers from different parts of the country, and sometimes from a considerable distance, even as far as Norwich, or further, and also from Lincolnshire.—The river is navigable, for lighters, a considerable way up into the country beyond this place. Sechey is in the parish of North Runcton; some miles from which, in a southerly direction lies the church of South Runcton, now in a dilapidated state. This ruin presents a semicircular east end of what has been thought an ancient Saxon church, and is believed to be the remains of one given to St. Edmund, in the reign of Canute.—Of the reasonableness and tenability of this belief, some doubts, perhaps, may be justly entertained. The said ruin has certainly the appearance of considerable antiquity, but that appearance, together with its uncommon and semicircular form, will not be quite sufficient to satisfy every one, that it is altogether as old as the days of Canute, or that it has actually stood the brunt and braved the blasts of near a thousand winters.—A few miles further on, in the same direction, is

Downham, or Market Downham, as it is sometimes called. [203] It is pleasantly situated on the side of a hill, and upon the Ouse, over which it has a good bridge. It had heretofore two weekly markets, Mondays and Saturdays, but that is no longer the case; the latter only are now to be considered as its proper market days, on which the town is said to be well supplied with fish and wild fowl, from the adjacent fens. Downham was formerly celebrated for its great butter market, which used to be kept near the bridge, every Monday, and which it seems, has before now supplied London with the immense quantity of ninety thousand firkins in a year. From its being sent by way of Cambridge, it obtained the name of Cambridge butter. These markets have been discontinued, and the butter is now taken for sale to Swaffham. It is said that the privilege of a market was granted to Downham by Edward the confessor, and that its principal manor, with the whole hundred, were given by king Edgar to Ramsey Abbey, whose abbot, as we are further informed, was authorized by King John to hold a fair here. By Henry III. he was invested with the additional authority to try and execute malefactors at his “gallows of Downham.”—Some monastic buildings, and particularly a priory of Benedictine monks, stood formerly near the church.—There is in this town a small dissenting congregation, the chapel belonging to which, was erected in the early part of the last century. In 1801 the town and whole parish of Downham contained 278 houses, and 1512 inhabitants.

Further on, in a low situation, is Denver, a large village, noted as the birth place of Dr. Robert Brady, the English historian. The church is a mean structure, built of Car, or rag-stone, camerated with wooden pannells, and covered with reed, or thatch. Near to this place is Denver Sluice, termed the grand erratum in our fen improvements.—Not far from Denver and Downham lies the village of Helgay, said by some authors [204] to be regularly infested, every six or seven years, by an incredible number of field mice, which, like locusts, would infallibly devour all the corn of every kind, but for the friendly, seasonable, and effectual interposition of a prodigious flight of owls from Norway, which never fail to arrive that year, and stay till they have totally destroyed those mischievous vermin: after which they quietly depart, re-cross the seas, and return to their native forests, attended by the veneration and benediction of all the good people of Helgay, who had derived from them, the most essential benefit, without the least mixture of detriment; as they had, during their whole stay, meddled with no one thing in the place, but the mice.—Such is the substance and purport of this curious story, whose questionable and improbable appearance might be supposed more than sufficient to prevent its being ever passed upon the public as a matter of fact. That, however, has not been the case: it has been therefore introduced here for the purpose of exhibiting it in its true light, as a lying tale, that those credulous people who have been imposed upon, and misled by others, may be undeceived.

Beyond Helgay are the villages of Southery, Feltwell, Methwold, Northwold, Stoke-ferry, Wereham, West Dereham, &c. some of them of pretty large size and population. West Dereham Abbey was formerly a place of no small note, and founded as early as 1188. At the dissolution it went into private hands, and about the close of the 17th. century it was the seat of Sir Thomas Dereham, a diplomatic character. More recently it has successively been the seat of Sir Simeon Stuart, and Lord Montrath. Wereham in former times was possessed by the Clares, who then ranked high among the English barons; and it was the head lordship of what was, and still is called the honor of Clare, of which several neighbouring manors were held. Those great lords had here a prison, and of course a gallows also; which indicate the great sway they once bore in these parts.—These places lie in and about a remarkable drainage tract, called the Feltwell new fen district, which, like the river Nene, has proved a very unfortunate concern to many of those whose property had been unhappily entrusted in the hands of its commissioners. Suspicions of some disreputable doings are said to have been entertained respecting both the above concerns, which will probably deter many from affording any pecuniary aid to the projected Eau-brink Cut, lest it should turn out, or be managed as badly:—if indeed the present formidable opposition to it should finally fail to effect its entire relinquishment: an event which many seem to consider as not at all improbable.—Northerly from these parts is the village and parish of Fincham. In that parish church is a square font, supposed to have belonged to the old church, which is mentioned in Domesday-book.—Further on, in the same direction, and the most considerable place that way, is

Swaffham. This respectable town stands on high ground, upon a dry gravelly soil, and in a situation that seems greatly favourable to health and longevity. Its streets are wide and airy, and the buildings distributed over a considerable space of ground. The houses are generally neat, and many of them large and handsome, inhabited by wealthy and genteel families. The market-hill is pleasant and spacious, on which was erected in 1783 an elegant cross, by the Lord Orford of that time. The market is on Saturday, and plentifully supplied with good provisions. The great butter-market, formerly kept at Downham, is now kept here. The town stands so high, that some of the wells are said to be fifty-yards deep. A handsome assembly-room has been erected on the west side of the market-hill, in which subscription assemblies are held every month. But the chief public structure of the town is the Church, a large and fine edifice, built at different times, in the reigns of Henry VI. Edward IV. and Henry VII. It is in the form of a cathedral, and consists of a nave and two ailes, with two transepts on the south side, one to the north, and a lofty well proportioned tower, which is surmounted with enriched embrasures, and purfled pinnacles. The nave is very lofty, having twenty-six cleristory windows, and its inner roof ornamented with carved wood, figures of angels, bosses, &c. The north aile and steeple, are said to have been built by one John Chapman, stated, but erroneously it seems, to have been a travelling tinker; and who is also reported to have been Church-warden in 1460.—In 1800 the houses of Swaffham amounted to 452, and the population to 2220. Formerly there was here a rector and a vicar; the latter presented by the former; so that the rectory was a Sinecure, and probably a very rich one. The patronage of the vicarage is in the bishop of Norwich.—Near this town is an extensive heath, which forms a convenient race-ground. The races here are held about michaelmas. Coursing matches are also frequent here, and the greyhounds are as regularly entered for the purpose, and placed under the same restrictions as running-horses. [207a]

Further on, between Swaffham and the sea-coast, there are not many places that seem to demand very particular notice. Babingley and Sharnborne, which both lie that way, are traditionally reported to contain the sites of the two first christian places of worship among the East-Anglians, and supposed to have been erected in the seventh century. In the same way lies Snettisham, a large village, said to have been formerly a town, with a weekly market on Fridays. Here also have been dug up several of those instruments, in the shape of hatchet-heads, with handles to them, usually denominated celts, [207b] which, if taken to be British, as is most generally thought, or even Roman, as has been judged by others, most denote that Snettisham is a place of no inconsiderable antiquity. Brancaster has been already noticed, as once a famous Roman station; and it may be here added, that it has of late years attracted no small attention on account of its great malt house, built with a view to the export trade, and supposed to be the largest edifice of that kind in the kingdom; being 312 feet in length, by 31 in breadth, and furnished with all the necessary offices and conveniences for conducting the malting process on a large scale: 420 quarters of barley, are said to have been there wetted weekly, during the malting season.

To the west of Brancaster and the said great malt-house, and not far off, is the village of Hunstanton, or Hunston, as it is most commonly called: near to which, on a cliff, overlooking Lynn Roads and the entrance into Lynn Haven, and elevated ninety feet above high-water mark, stands the Hunston Light-house, which is upon a different construction from other English light-houses, and supposed superior to any of them. It is lighted by lamps and reflectors, instead of coals, on a much improved and very judicious plan, the merit of which is due to Mr. Walker of Lynn, by whom it was invented, and under whose direction it was here executed in 1778.—This light is communicated by 18 concave reflectors, each of eighteen inches diameter. They are fixed upon two shelves, one placed over the other in such a manner that the strongest light may be seen where it is most wanted. In the N by E direction a strong light is necessary for ships to avoid the dangerous sands and shoals on the Lincolnshire coast; here therefore are placed seven reflectors in the space of two points of the compass, which will appear at some distance as one light. In other directions a weaker light is sufficient. A single reflector, with a lamp of ten single threads of cotton placed in the focus of the curve, which is a parabola, will appear, at 15 miles distance, larger than a star of the first magnitude:—that is, if the glass be kept clean, and the lamp trimmed; otherwise, instead of light, there will no doubt be found obscurity, for which no blame can attach to the projector. [209]

This house remained for many years the only one of the kind in the United Kingdom; but about the year 1787, several others, on the same plan, were erected on the coast of Scotland, as appears by the following extracts from one of the provincial papers of that time.—

“Northern Light-houses. An Act of Parliament was obtained a few years ago, by some gentlemen in Edinburgh, impowering them to erect four Light-houses on the Northern parts of Great Britain. In consequence of which the Trustees made diligent enquiry into the several modes of erecting lights for the use of mariners, at sea. These enquiries were made not only in this kingdom, but in foreign parts, that their intended erection might be made on the best principles. In September, 1786, the then Lord Provost of Edinburgh applied to Mr. Ezekiel Walker of Lynn in Norfolk, for his opinion in the construction of them. Mr. Walker’s answer to his lordship’s enquiry, and the plan projected in it, gave such general satisfaction to the Trustees, that they unanimously resolved on constructing and lighting them on his principle; and in the spring of 1787, the work was begun accordingly. The first of these lights stands on Kinnard’s Head, [in the county of Aberdeen;] the second on north Ranaldshaw, the northernmost of the Orkney Islands; the third on the point of Scalpa in the isle of Herris; and the fourth on the Mull of Kyntire, which may be seen in Ireland.” [211]

Cumberland Packet of Sept. 10. 1788.