[30a] Armstrong, it seems, ascribed the silting of Lynn Haven, and of the river above, to the hundredfoot drain.—See Kinderley p. 29.
[30b] Hence we hear of manufacturers of Bays, Dyers, Dyehouses, Falling-mills, Button-makers, and worsted-weavers at Lynn, with some thousands employed in knitting stockings, &c.—In behalf of the latter, a petition against the worsted-weavers was presented to parliament in 1689.—See Town Book, No. 10.—Mackerell, about 70 years ago, makes the population of Lynn to amount to upwards of 20,000—if his estimate was right, even within 5 or 6,000, (and he published it under the auspices of the Corporation) the town must have been far more populous than it is at present. See Mackerell, p. 93.—From the great, and increasing number of empty houses now in the town, it may be concluded, that its population is at this time decreasing. The rapid decay of trade, the prospect of an endless war, and the daily increase of the public burdens, are doubtless among the causes of this depopulation. Neither the paving, nor yet the new poor’s rate laws, are likely to realize the vast benefits promised or held out by the promoters of them, and fondly expected by many of the inhabitants. On the contrary, those very Acts are said to be severely felt by a large portion of the householders, many of whom, it seems, have already broken up housekeeping, and many more are expected to take the same course. Upon the whole, it does not seem to appear, either from the Registers of Births and Burials, or from any other known circumstances or sources of information, that the population of Lynn, within the last twenty or thirty years (as generally supposed) has exceeded that of former periods. This subject, however, shall be reserved for future consideration.
[35a] They are still called, The Roman Banks.
[35b] See Badeslade, p. 15.
[36] See Carte’s History of England, vol. 1, p. 115, 119, 122.
[49] Philosophical Transactions, No. 481—also Beauties of England, volume XI, p. 94.
[53a] Vita Agricola.
[53b] Compare Dugdale’s maps of this tract in its morassy and improved states p. 375, 416.
[54] History of Embanking.
[60] No, surely, not sufficient proofs that the surface was lower; but rather, or only, that the country was once dry and woody, and long remained so: for upon the reasonable supposition of an Earthquake, as was before repeatedly suggested, the probability would be, that the surface was anciently as high at least, if not higher than at present, but was considerably lowered by that convulsive event, which would make way for the violent bursting in of the sea.