Rambles in an Old City Part 5

Sir Thomas Tuddenham, and two other persons, went with her, also disguised; and they, to take their disports, went out of the city one evening, near night, so disguised, towards a hovel called Lakenham Wood, to take the air, and disport themselves, beholding the said city. One Thomas Ailmer, of Norwich, esteeming in his conceit that the said d.u.c.h.ess and Sir Thomas had been other persons, met them, and opposed their going out in that wise, and fell at variance with the said Sir Thomas, so that they fought; whereby the said d.u.c.h.ess was sore afraid; by cause whereof the said d.u.c.h.ess and Sir Thomas took a displeasure against the city, notwithstanding that the mayor of the city at that time being, arrested Thomas Ailmer, and held him in prison more than thirty weeks without bail; to the intent thereby both to chastise Ailmer, and to appease the displeasure of the said d.u.c.h.ess and Sir Thomas; and also the said mayor arrested and imprisoned all other persons which the said d.u.c.h.ess and Sir Thomas could understand had in any way given favour or comfort to the said Ailmer, in making the affray. Notwithstanding which punishment, the displeasure of the d.u.c.h.ess and Sir Thomas was not appeased. And it is so, moreover, that one John Haydon, late was recorder of the city, taking of the mayor and citizens a reasonable fee, as the recorder is accustomed; he, being so recorded, had interlaced himself with the prior of Norwich, at that time being _in travers_ with the said mayor and commonality, and discovered the privity of the evidence of the said city to the said prior, because whereof the mayor and commons of the said city discharged the said Haydon of the condition of recorder; for which Haydon took a displeasure against the said city.

By malice of these displeasures of the said d.u.c.h.ess, Sir Thomas Tuddenham, and John Haydon, the Duke of Suffolk, then earl, in his person, upon many suggestions by the said Tuddenham and Haydon to him made, that the mayor, aldermen, and commonality aforesaid, should have misgoverned the city, laboured and made to be taken out of the chancery a commission of over determiner. And thereupon, at a sessions holden at Thetford, the Thursday next after the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, the said Sir Thomas and John Haydon, finding in their conceit no manner or matter of truth whereof they might cause the said mayor and commonality there to be indicted, imagined thus as ensueth: first, they _sperde an inquest_, _then taken_ in a chamber, at one Spilmer's house; in which chamber the said T. _lodged_, _and so kept them sperde_.

"And it was so, that one John Gladman, of Norwich, which was then, and at this hour, is a man of 'sad' dispositions, and true and faithful to G.o.d and to the king, of disport, as is and hath been accustomed in any city or borough through all this realm, on fasting Tuesday made a disport with his neighbours, having his horse trapped with tinsel, and otherwise disguising things, crowned as King of Christmas, in token that all mirth should end with the twelve months of the year; afore him went each month, disguised after the season thereof; and Lent clad in white, with red-herring's skins, and his horse trapped with oyster sh.e.l.ls after him, in token that sadness and abstinence of mirth should follow, and an holy time; and so rode in divers streets of the city, with other people with him disguised, making mirth, and disport, and plays.

"The said Sir Thomas and John Haydon, among many other full strange and untrue presentments, made by perjury at the said inquest, caused the said mayor and commonality, and the said John Gladman, to be indicted of that, that they should have imagined to have made a common rising, and have crowned the said John Gladman as king, with crown, sceptre and diadem, (when they never meant it), nor such a thing imagined, as in the said presentiment it showeth more plain, and by that presentiment, with many other horrible articles therein comprised, so made by perjury, thay caused the franchise of the said city to be seized into the king's hands, to the harm and cost of the said mayor and commonality."

And now we take a long stride from the reign of Henry V. to that of Charles II., omitting the intermediate century that was marked by the royal visit of the maiden queen, chronicled at length among the "pageantries;" and pa.s.sing over the troubled era of the Commonwealth, the Reformation, and "Kett's rebellion," all of which have found a place for notice elsewhere, we find ourselves once more in the smooth waters of peace, with the tide of prosperity at the full within the walls of the old city; and we ask no pardon for making copious extracts from the journal that furnished Macaulay with materials to serve up the rich banquet that lies condensed in the few lines devoted to this period of the city's history, in his unrivalled work. The diary of Dr. Edward Browne gives a picture of the society and habits of the citizens in his time, perhaps not to be met with elsewhere. His father, Sir Thomas Browne, then tenanted the house now known by the t.i.tle of the "Star," and in the winter of 16634 was visited by his son Edward, who, during his stay, made the entries in his journal which we have extracted. At that time, Henry, afterwards Lord Howard, of Castle Rising, subsequently Earl of Norwich, and Marshal of England, resided in the city, at the palace of his brother, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, who was an invalid, on the continent, suffering from disease of the brain.

"Jan. 1st. (16634.) I was at Mr. Howard's, brother to the Duke of Norfolk, who kept his Christmas this year at the Duke's palace in Norwich, so magnificently that the like hath scarce been seen. They had dancing every night, and gave entertainments to all that would come; _hee_ built up a room on purpose to dance in, very large, and hung with the bravest hangings I ever saw; his candlesticks, snuffers, _tongues_, fire-shovel, and and-irons, were silver; a banquet was given every night after dancing; and three coaches were employed every afternoon to fetch ladies, the greatest of which would holde fourteen persons, and coste five hundred pounde, without the harnesse, which cost six score more; I have seen of his pictures, which are admirable; he hath prints and draughts, done by most of the great masters' own hands. Stones and jewels, as onyxes, sardonyxes, jacinths, jaspers, amethysts, &c. more and better than any prince in Europe. Ringes and seales, all manner of stones, and limnings beyond compare. These things were most of them collected by the old Earl of Arundel (the Duke's grandfather).

"This Mr. Howard hath lately bought a piece of ground of Mr. Mingay, in Norwich, by the waterside in Cunisford, which hee intends for a place of walking and recreation, having made already walkes round and across it, forty feet in breadth; if the quadrangle left be s.p.a.cious enough, he intends the first of them for a bowling-green, the third for a wildernesse, and the fourth for a garden. These and the like n.o.ble things he performeth, and yet hath paid 100,000 pounds of his ancestors' debts.

"Jan. 6th. I dined at my Aunt Bendish's, and made an end of Christmas at the Duke's palace, with dancing at night and a great banquet. His gates were opened, and such a number flocked in, that all the beer they could set out in the streets could not divert the stream of the mult.i.tude.

"Jan. 7th. I opened a dog.

"Jan. 9th. Mr. Osborne sent my father a calf, whereof I observed the knee joint, and the neat articulation of the put-bone, which was here very perfect.

"This day Monsieur b.u.t.tet, who plays most admirably on the flageolet, bagpipe, and sea-trumpet, a long three-square instrument, having but one string, came to see me.

"Jan. 11th. This day, being Mr. Henry Howard's birthday, we danced at Mr. Howard's, till 2 of the clock in the morning.

"Jan. 12th. Cutting up a turkey's heart. A monkey hath 36 teeth: 23 molares, 4 canini, and 8 incisores.

"Jan. 13th. This day I met Mr. Howard at my Uncle Bendish's, where he taught me to play at _l'hombre_, a Spanish game at cards.

"Jan. 21st. I shewed Dr. De Veau about the town; I supped with him at the Duke's palace, where he shewed a powder against agues, which was to be given in white wine, to the quant.i.ty of three grains. He related to me many things of the Duke of Norfolk, that lives at Padua, _non compos mentis_, and of his travailes in France and Italy.

"Jan. 23rd. Don Francisco de Melo came from London, with Mr. Philip Howard (third grandson of the Earl of Arundel), to visit his honour, Mr. Henry Howard. I met them at Mr. Deyes the next day, in Madam Windham's chamber.

"I boyled the right fore-foot of a monkey, and took out all the bones, which I keep by me. In a put-bone, the unfortunate casts are outward, the fortunate inward.

"Jan. 26th. I saw a little child in an ague, upon which Dr. De Veau was to try his febrifuge powder; but the ague being but moderate, and in the declension, it was thought too mean a disease to try the efficacy of his extolled powder.

"Feb. 2nd. I saw c.o.c.k-fighting at the White Horse, in St. Stephen's.

"Feb. 5th. I went to see a _serpent_, that a woman, living in St.

Gregory's church-yard, vomited up, but she had burnt it before I came.

"Feb. 16th. I went to visit Mr. Edward Ward, an old man in a fever, where Mrs. Anne Ward gave me my first fee, 10_s._

"Feb. 22nd. I set forward for my journey to London."

This quaint admixture of scientific research, pleasure-seeking, and superst.i.tious credulity, blended with intellectual enquiry, affords a curious picture of the domestic and professional habits of a physician of the seventeenth century. The father of the writer, the eminent Dr.

Thomas Browne, received the order of knighthood from his majesty, King Charles II., on the occasion of his visiting the city in 1671, when he dined in state at the New Hall (St. Andrew's); the same honour was pressed upon the acceptance of the mayor, who, however, ventured to decline the proffered dignity. In the reign of James II., we find record of Henry, then Duke of Norfolk, riding into the market-place at the head of 300 knights, to declare a free parliament, the mayor and sheriffs meeting him there, and consenting to the act. But the glory of the palace, once the scene of such regal splendour and magnificence, was not of long duration. A dispute between the grandson of the Duke Henry and the mayor of the city, concerning the entrance of some comedians into the city, playing their trumpets, &c. on the way to the palace, caused its owner, Thomas, then Duke, to destroy the greater portion of it, and leave the remainder untenanted; and among divers trans.m.u.tations of property that characterized the era of Queen Anne, we find the appropriation of its vestiges to the purpose of a workhouse, when those inst.i.tutions first sprang into existence-a fate shared at the same period by the cloisters of the old Black Friars monastery.

The river, that once reflected the gorgeous displays of wealth that glittered upon the margin of its waters, in the palace of the Dukes, now flows darkly and silently on, through crowded thoroughfares and gloomy wharfs, and staiths; corn and coal depots, red brick factories, with their tiers of low window-ranges and tall chimneys, have usurped the place of banquetting halls and palace gardens; a toll bridge adds silence to the gloom, by its prohibitory tax on pa.s.sers-by, a stillness, oppressive by its sudden contrast to the activity of neighbouring thoroughfares, pervades the whole region round about; and the spot that once was the nucleus of wealth, riches, and grandeur, now seems the very seat and throne of melancholy.

Coeval with the rise of workhouses, in the reign of Anne, is another event of local history-the introduction of street-lighting. An act of parliament of William III., confirmed in the 10th of Anne, enacted "that every householder charged with 2_d._ a week to the poor, whose dwelling-house adjoined any streets, market-places, public lanes, or pa.s.sages in the city, should every night, yearly, from Michaelmas to Lady-day, as it should grow dark, hang out, on the outside of their houses, _a candle_, _or visible and convenient lights_, and continue the same until eleven o'clock at night, for enlightening the streets, and convenience of pa.s.sengers, under penalty of 2_s._ for every neglect."

Lamps, at the cost of the community in general, were soon afterwards subst.i.tuted, but their shape, and distance from each other, would seem to have rendered them but indifferent subst.i.tutes for the illuminations that preceded them; and if memory is faithful to us, in recalling the progenitors of the gas-lights of the present day, we may form some slight conception of the pigmy race of ancestors from which they sprung.

Meantime, during these years of progress and prosperity, while Time was tracing its finger-marks upon the walls of men's houses, and writing its lessons on their hearts and minds, there stood, in the centre of the old market-place, a little silent symbol of the religious feeling of the pa.s.sing ages,-the market-cross, and oratory within the little octagonal structure, whose external corners bore upon all of them the emblem of hope and salvation-the crucifix. In its earliest days, its oratory was tenanted by a priest, supported by the alms of the busy market-folks, who could find means, in the midst of all their worldly callings, to pay some tribute in time and money to religion. And was it such a very foolish practice of our ignorant old forefathers, thus to bring the sanctuary into the very midst of the business of life?-was it a great proof of childish simplicity, to seek to sanctify the scenes of merchandize by the presence and teaching of Christianity? Is it indeed needful that the elements of our nature, spirit, soul, and body, should be rent asunder, and fed and nurtured in distinct and separate schools, until each one of us becomes almost conscious of two separate existences-the Sabbath-day life, within the church or meeting walls, and the week-day business life abroad in the world? Or shall the union be p.r.o.nounced more beautiful and consonant with the laws of harmony, that carries the world into the sanctuary, and desecrates the house of G.o.d by the presence of sordid pa.s.sions, crusted round the heart by daily exercise in the great marts of commerce, or in the intercourse of political or even social life, that not the one day's rest in seven, spent in listening to some favourite theologian's intellectual teachings of doctrinal truths, or controversial dogmas, can suffice to rub off, to purify, or make clean? A market-cross and priest may not be the remedies for this disease of later times, but they were outer symbols of the reality needed-Christianity, to be carried out into the every-day actions of the world, mingling with the dealings of man with man, master and workman, capitalist and consumer,-that there may no longer exist those monstrous anomalies that are to be met with in almost every phase of society in this Christian land, among a people professing to be guided by the light of "Truth," to walk according to the law of "Charity," and to obey the precept, "Love thy neighbour as thyself."

But the busy hands of zealous reformers long since began their work upon this little outward expression of "superst.i.tion;" the priest disappeared, the crucifixes fell beneath the murmurs of "_true Protestants_," and the oratory was transferred to the "masters, and searchers, and sellers of leather;" but, in process of time, falling to decay, the little monument was pulled down, and all traces of its existence obliterated from the scene of its former dominion.

And now a word upon manufactures. The great parent of English looms, and English weavers of wool, claims it; the city, that has for centuries robed the priesthood of Christendom in its camlets; that has invented c.r.a.pes, and bombazines, and paramattas, to clothe one-half of the world in the sable "livery of woe;" that has draped the fair daughters of every clime in the graceful folds of its far-famed "filover;" that has in later years shod the feet of no small proportion of the nation's population; whose every court and alley echoes the throw of the shuttle and rattle of the loom; whose every cellar and hovel has its winding frame for childhood and old age to earn their mite upon; whose garrets pour forth their pale sickly wool-combers, with faces blanched by the fumes of charcoal; that has its districts of "cord-wainers," and colonies of "binders;" its hidden timber-yards, where thousands of square feet are rapidly being transformed into "vestas" and "lucifers," and "silent lights;" and its tall factories, whose heaped-up stories send down their streams of human working bees, from the cells of their monster queen, the steam-engine, and the task of making produce to supply the rich man's wants-has, we say, a claim upon us in her character of a manufacturing place. The venerable city, once the summit of the pyramid of our nation's commercial glory, stands no longer in isolated grandeur, the mistress of trade, but for long has had to look up at a vast ma.s.s of capital and labour, acc.u.mulated above her head by the energies and activities of younger rivals. India has gorged with its raw material the markets once fed with the wool of home-grown sheep, and cotton towns have risen up and outgrown the old woollen mart of the country. Fashion and its fluctuations, machinery and its progressions, iron and coal in their partial distribution, have each and all helped to lay the head of the mighty low; but there is strong vitality left within her-powerful talents and great resources; she is even now rising from the lethargy that had crept over her. Would our s.p.a.ce permit, how fain would we trace the workings yet going on in her midst: the progress of the shearer's wool from the wool-sack to the rich brocaded cashmere; through its "combing"

with irons heated over charcoal furnaces, that poison the atmosphere around, and shorten the lives of the operatives engaged in it, forsooth, because the foreman of the manufactory has a perquisite of selling charcoal,-thence to the huge factory with giant engines, and labyrinths of spinning-wheels; away, again, to the spider-looking winding-frame, that children and old women may turn to help to fill the shuttles of the abler workers at the loom; thence to the dyers, and then to the loom itself, where manhood, youth, and woman's feebler strength alike find exercise and room for labour. How many histories have been woven into the fabric-what tears or smiles have cast their light or shade upon the tints,-what notes of harmony or love, or wailings of sorrow and sickness have echoed the shuttle's throw,-how many tales of stern heart griefs, pining wants, wasting penury, or disease, are wrapped in the luxurious folds that minister to the comfort and enjoyment of the unconscious wearer.

But we dare not tarry amid these scenes, richly fraught as they may be with subject for graphic sketching; we may not pause to visit the great gatherings in factory chambers, or linger amongst the home labours of the industrious artisan; can barely hint at traits of heroism, lives of gentle loving duty going on amid the rattling noise of looms that trench upon the narrow limits of the sick bed; deeds of good Samaritanism that grace the weary weaver's home, or dwell upon the Christian lessons they have power to teach. If the anatomy of a manufacturing city does revolt the senses and sensibilities in the pictures of suffering and poverty it seldom fails to abound with, there is yet much beauty in the deep, earnest, truthful poetry to be read in the page it lays open. Mary Barton is no fiction; scarce a district in a manufacturing province that could not furnish a heroine like her; nor need we, perhaps, look to the other side of the Atlantic, to find the prototype of "Uncle Tom."

There is little doubt that woollen manufactures of some kind existed in this neighbourhood from a very early period. Sheep were here in great abundance, and as soon as there were ships to send them in, were exported to other countries from these parts. Doomsday Book mentions numerous "sheep-walks," covering many acres of ground; whether these "walks"

comprised such lands as we now term "meadows or pastures," is not explained, but most probably such is the interpretation to be put upon the term, and _not_, as at first sight might seem to be implied, that the sheep had narrow strips of "esplanade," or promenade, all to themselves, upon which they marched up and down in regimental order. About these same sheep it has been said, in these our times, that there exists strong presumptive evidence that the fine Spanish "merino" is a lineal descendant of the family, and that the wool now imported as of foreign extraction, is literally and truly the growth of the offspring of respectable English forefathers, some members of whose domestic circle were honoured by being made presents of to Spanish princes by the sovereign of England, in the days when the office and t.i.tle of shepherd was coveted by n.o.bles in that country. The hypothesis we pretend not to establish, so "revenons _a nos_ moutons."

The preparing of wool was a favourite occupation of the British ladies of rank; and soon after the settlement of the Romans, it is recorded by Dionysius Alexandrinus, that "the wool of Britain was often spun so fine, that it was in a manner comparable to a spider's thread." The mother of Alfred is described as being skilled in the spinning of wool, and busied in training her daughters to similar occupations. The advent of the various workmen who followed in the train of the conqueror from Normandy, caused fresh energy to be infused into this, as all other branches of manufactures; but the main stimulus was given by a colony of Dutch, who, driven from their own country by inundations in the reign of Henry the First, crossed the channel, and selecting the convenient promontory of Norfolk, settled themselves down at a little village called _Worsted_, about thirteen miles from Norwich, whence the name of the wool first spun there by them.

In the reign of Stephen the woollen manufactures were so flourishing in many large towns, that the merchants pet.i.tioned for power to form themselves into distinct guilds or corporations,-the earliest development of the principle of joint stock companies, borrowed by the Normans from the free cities of Italy, where trade and manufactures had long flourished, and where this combination of mercantile influence had been employed by the Roman monarchs as a check upon the feudal power of the barons. The inconvenience, however, that attended the monopolies that sprung from this source were soon manifest; and disturbances were continually arising, until free trade was in a measure restored. The sumptuary laws of Edward the Third, and the inducements held out by him to foreigners to settle in his dominions,-the fixing of the _staples_, that obliged all merchants to bring their wool and woollen cloths for sale to Norwich, forbidding any to offer such articles in any other part of Norfolk or Suffolk,-tended materially to the commercial prosperity of the city; but in the reign of Richard the Second, discontent spread itself throughout the working population of the kingdom, and the insurrection of Wat Tyler was followed by an open rebellion in Suffolk, when 80,000 men marched upon Norwich, and committed divers acts of devastation and plunder, headed by John Litester, a dyer. This, united to the jealousies that existed between the native and foreign artisans, caused a decline in the local manufactures for some time. In Elizabeth's reign they revived, through the invitation given to the Dutch and Walloons, then fleeing from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva. By the advice of the Duke of Norfolk, thirty of these, all experienced workmen, were invited to attend in Norwich, each bringing with him ten servants, to be maintained at the expense of the duke. These speedily multiplied, until their number exceeded five thousand. No matter of surprise, therefore, is it that the Old City retains so many quaint traces of Flemish taste and Flemish architecture, or that strangers, one and all, should be struck with the peculiarly foreign outline of its quaint old market-place. Soon after the settlement of these strangers in the neighbourhood, new articles of manufacture were introduced; in addition to the "worsteds," "saies," and "stamins," hitherto the sole articles of commerce, and the admixture of mohair and silk with the wool, produced a total change in the quality of the goods. Bombazine, that staple "mourning garb," was the first result of the experiments made in silk and wool combined. The ladies of Spain were thenceforth supplied with the material for that indispensable article of their costume, the mantilla.

Camlets, too, were woven for the religious orders of priests and monks, as also calimancoes, tabinets, brocaded satins, florettes, and damasks, of which the legends of our grandmothers, and occasionally their wardrobes, bear trace; c.r.a.pe, the celebrated Norwich c.r.a.pe, now almost a forgotten fabric, was of later invention; but its fame is chronicled in Ministerial mandates during Walpole's administration, 1721, when court mourning was ordered to consist of nothing but that pre-eminent material.

Long since, the paramatta cloth has superseded both bombazine and Norwich c.r.a.pe; nor must we be unmindful that this superfine invention owes its origin to the skill and ingenuity of a manufacturer of the same city.

Shawls of every variety have held a prominent place among the manufactures; indeed, may be considered as nominally the staple produce of the Norwich looms, though in reality such is not the fact, an infinite variety of materials, bearing as many new and fashionable t.i.tles, being in truth the result of the labour of its artisans, silk-satins, brocades, alpaccas, bareges, and many more; and of late years the shoe manufactory has so vastly increased, that it may fairly take a place henceforth among the const.i.tuents of the "fame" of the capital of Norfolk. It may not be out of place here also to give some little sketch of the rise and progress of that most important of all inventions and arts, printing, in these particular parts,-more especially as William Caxton, the first English printer, was one of the agents, and a princ.i.p.al one, in opening the commerce between this country and Flanders in 1464, when that port was appointed a staple for English goods as well as Calais, a measure fraught with immense advantages to the manufacturing districts of the country, and of course pre-eminently to this city. When he, the mercer's apprentice, first stamped the "merchants' mark" upon his master's bales, he little thought that by this same process of stamping, carried forward by the ingenuity of many men into a new art, the whole aspect of the world's history would be changed. The origin of these distinctive "marks," still to be seen engraved on bra.s.ses, painted in church windows, and here and there carved on the doors and panels of old houses, is about as obscure as most of the other customs of those ages. They were undoubtedly used to distinguish the property of one merchant from another; and if their owners gave money towards the building or restoration of churches, their marks were placed in the windows, in honour of their liberality. Similar marks are to this day used by some of the merchants of Oporto and Lisbon, stamped upon their pipes of wine.

Their forms seemed to depend on fancy, but a certain geometrical precision pervaded all; sometimes they were composed of a circle with a cross, or a shield with crosses laid over each other, of angles of every possible direction grouped into a figure, now and then the figure of a bird or animal added, but each differing essentially from every other, that it may retain its distinctive characteristics. Printing, however, though introduced into this country by Caxton, was for some centuries seldom, if ever, practised, save in London and the two universities. To the Dutch and Walloons, who came over at the invitation of Elizabeth, is ascribed its first introduction in this city. In 1568, a Dutch metrical version of the Psalms was issued from the press. No great progress, however, would seem to have been made during the next century, but in 1736 was printed anonymously the "Records of Norwich," containing the monuments of the cathedral, the bishops, the plagues, friars, martyrs, hospitals, &c., in two parts, price three halfpence each; and in 1738, an "Authentic History of the Ancient City of Norwich, from its Foundation to its Present State, &c. (the like not extant), by Thomas Eldridge, T.C.N., printed for the author in St. Gregory's ch. yd., where may be had neat Jamaica rum, fine brandy, Geneva and cordial waters, all sorts of superfine snuffs and tobaccos at the lowest price!!!" This work, the author presumes, from its bulk (thirty-two pages), to be the "_completest work ever yet published_." Alas for the literature of the day! From this period, however, Norwich kept pace with other places; a newspaper had been established even earlier, a quarto foolscap, at a penny a number. Among the advertis.e.m.e.nts from this "_Gazette_" bearing date July 16, 1709, are these-

"This is to give notice to all persons in the city, that right over against the three Feathers in St. Peter's of Hungate, there is one lately come from London, who teacheth all sorts of Pastry and Cookery, all sorts of jellies, creams, and pickles, also all sorts of Collering and Potting, and to make rich cakes of all sorts, and everything of that nature. She teaches for a crown down, and a crown when they are fully learned, that her teaching so cheap may encourage very many to learn."

June 5, 1708.

"Mr. Augustine de Clere, of Norwich Thorpe, have now very good malt for retail as he formerly had; if any of his customers have a mind to take of him again, they shall be kindly used with good malt, and as cheap as any body sell.-You may leave your orders with Mr. John de Clere, Hot-presser, living right over the Ducking stool, in St.

Martin's of the palace of Norwich."

Among the Queries from Correspondents occur the following-

Norwich Gazette, April 9, 1709.

"Mr. Crossgrove,

You are desired to give an answer to this question, 'Did the soul pre-exist in a separate state, before it came into the body, as many learned men have thought it did; and as that question in the ninth chapter of St. John's gospel seems to insinuate. Your answer to this query will very much oblige your constant customer, T. R."

This query is replied to at some length satisfactorily by Mr. Crossgrove.

This department of the paper is headed "The Accurate Intelligencer," and in its columns are sundry other rather peculiar interrogatories, such as-

"Mr. Crossgrove,

Pray tell me where Moses was buried, and you will very much oblige your constant customer, B. S."

Answer.

"Mr. B. S.