"Under it on a shield a chevron, and in base an eagle with a label inscribed,

Benedictus Deus in donis ejus.”

There is little doubt that the person here commemorated was a Vicar of East Dereham. It happens that his name does not occur in Blomefield's list of Vicars; but it is there mentioned that Henry Edyal, the Rector, presented Roger Balkewell to the vicarage in 1503, the year of Eagle's death. But the amusing part of the matter is, that the bird which Blomefield calls an eagle proves to be a duck.

To the west of the church of East Dereham is St. Withburga's well, a spring which is said to have taken its rise at the spot where the royal prioress was first buried. It is supposed to have been formerly used as a baptistery, and that there was a small chapel over it. Blomefield says it was arched over and converted into a cold bath in 1752; but at the eastern side an ancient pointed arch still remains, beneath which the spring rises. Our Oxynford pilgrim, on a former visit, thought he had here detected "Norman bases;" but on having the water let off, on this occasion, he came to the conclusion that the arch was more modern by some centuries.

This done, our company was again mustered, and again we started, having impressed all the horses (and they were too few) that the landlords of East Dereham could supply. Our pilgrimage had to be completed in one day. Some rode in carriages, but more outside. Every one, however, was content to fare as best he might; and if good fellowship and good-humour were ever the characteristics of the old pilgrims, we might claim in these

* Withburga, daughter of Anna, king of the East Angles, was the first prioress of East Dereham, a nunnery which her father founded in 650. When her body was found uncorrupted in 798, it was stolen away by the monks of Ely.

band of "merry mourners" returning from a country funeral, their duties performed and their minds relieved from their load of factitious gloom, were ever more inclined to enjoy their ride, than our archæological pilgrims, perched much in the same fashion along the roofs of the omnibus's, their dependent limbs enveloped in every variety of costume, offering to the ladies within an endless source of conjecture and speculation, with respect to their due appropriation. No doubt, the mere act of riding rapidly through the air on a fine summer's day, has a considerable effect in raising the animal spirits; and we are sure that in this expedition all were resolved to "leave dull care behind them."†

At Fakenham we again stopped to look at the church. It is dedicated, says Blomefield, to St. Peter-qu. St. Peter and St. Paul? for, on the fascia above the western door in the tower are carved a succession of crowned Ps, with a shield of keys in saltire on one side, and one of swords in saltire on the other. The stem of the font has the same crowned initial; but which was not understood by Blomefield, who calls it "the letter H, or L, in an old character, and a crown over it, to represent it as being in the dutchy of Lancaster, or built in King Henry the VIth's reign." What is still more extraordinary, it is called "an N ducally crowned," by Mr. Gough in the Archæologia, xv. 193, mistakes which must be attributed to the carver's aim to fill up the whole of his surface by a swelling capital. The bowl of the font, which is octagonal, has on four sides the emblems of the evangelists, alternated with shields of the Trinity, the Passion, the Royal arms, and one blank side.

On the gravestone in this church of Henry Keys, a Rector, and Archdeacon of Norfolk, who died about 1428, is a shield of the Pelican, a bird

+ We quote the following testimony to the accuracy of our report. "Passing through the villages, the inhabitants were not a little astonished at the cavalcade, the omnibus [es], drawn by four horses, being full in front, full inside, and with six gentlemen on each side, all in a right merry humour."-Norfolk Chronicle.

used as a religious emblem of the blood-shedding of our Lord upon the cross. Blomefield says this stone had also formerly a shield, bearing the cross-keys of St. Peter.

It was our good fortune to be under the special guidance of the pilgrim from Oxynford, who did not allow any architectural antiquities within our reach to escape us. We next stopped at Little Snoring," a very singular little church, with a detached round tower." This was the subject of a plate in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1825 (XCV. i. 577). The impression of the architectural critics present seemed to be that the date of this tower could not be carried higher than the other Norman features with which it was surrounded, though still there was some room for doubt.

We proceeded to the church of Great Snoring, the most interesting object in which is the stone bearing the mutilated brasses of Ralph Shelton esquire and his lady (date 1421), engraved in Cotman's Norfolk Brasses. But a more unusual curiosity is the rectory-house, built of moulded bricks of the time of Henry VIII.

We now came to the Priory of Binham, which was a church of Benedictine monks, a cell of the abbey of St. Alban's. As at Malmesbury and elsewhere, the nave is now the parish church, whilst the rest of the edifice is in ruins. An interior view will be found in the "Beauties of England and Wales." The north aisle is preserved, but that on the south de. stroyed, the arches being built up, and windows inserted. The ruined portions are chiefly Norman.

"The nave (says Mr. Parker) consists of seven bays, all originally pure Norman, rather early, with massive square piers having shafts in nooks at

the angles; the outer arch moulded, the inner plain. The triforium arches are the same as the lower ones. The clerestory is also Norman, each window having small arches on the sides, with detached shafts, bold and good; the centre arch stilted with small shafts in the angles, on the caps of the large ones. On the exterior the windows are plain, with a nebule corbel table over them.

"The west front (shown in the accompanying Plate) is very fine EarlyEnglish. On the ground is a rich arcade, with perforated panels in the spandrels and under the heads of the side arches; the centre arch is a rich varieties of the enriched tooth ornadoorway, with fine mouldings and ment. Over this arcade is a magnificent west window of two principal lights and a foliated circle in the head, each light subdivided in the same window is now bricked up.* The ends manner a great part of this fine west front, have each a small good of the aisles, which form part of the doorway, and over it a tall window of arches, and a foliated circle in the two lights, with transoms and subhead: the cusps of the large circle and some of the small have flowered points. On the gable is an EarlyThe font is rich Perpendicular, octagon, English bell-cot, with the bell in it.t panelled, each panel filled with sculpture now mutilated. It stands on a broad step with a panelled edge; the sculptures the seven sacraments and the Trinity; in the upper panels were the lower ones single figures of saints in niches. There are some remains of with white paint, texts from Scripture a screen, the figures of saints covered being placed upon it in large bold characters. There are some good open backs, some of the patterns resembling seats with poppies and perforated

* In the view in Britton's Architectural

Antiquities this window is represented with tracery, but we believe this was given without authority, as the window was bricked up long before. It was so when visited by Mr. Gough in the year 1762.

We observed that the coping belonging to this belfry does not take exactly the same angle as the coping of the gable itself; seeming to show that the belfry was brought from some other part of the church.

Decorated work, but they are Perpendicular. There are also a few good Perpendicular stalls. The east wall and the roof are modern."

So many of our party were struck with the aspect of these beautiful ruins, that many a pencil was in requisition. Not the least industrious among the draughtsmen was a noble Marquess, who is second to no archæological pilgrim in zeal or in taste; whilst a Very Reverend dignitary was scrutinising, after his wont, the nature of the materials, and others were intently watching an excavation made on the ruined site of the south aisle. On the adjoining farm resides a farmer named England, a noble specimen of the intelligent agriculturists of the vicinity of Holkham, and a truly English entertainment did he offer to his antiquarian visitors.

We now approached the main object of our pilgrimage. But we first stopped at the church of Old Walsingham, or Great Walsingham as it is sometimes called, though the little town eventually became the greater. We again refer to Mr. Parker's pamphlet for architectural details; remarking only that this church is distinguished by some very beautiful decorated tracery in the windows, and by some nice open seats, adorned with little statuettes of the apostles, &c. An inscription reads from seat to seat, intelligible for some distance, but the latter part baffled us: OR .P IMA J' ᏞᎥ W WR AT'

AN BVS CO AC TV CSTU

We now entered the streets of WALSINGHAM, which presented a very different aspect to their appearance at the visit of Erasmus. The occupation of the place had been gone for more than three centuries. There were no busy hostelries, no throng of strangers, except our own company; the town was now a quiet village; the glittering shrine was levelled to the dust, and its site restored to the hands of nature.

"The remains of this once celebrated place (remarks Mr. Parker) are now very small. Of the Chapel of our Lady we have only part of a fine Perpendicular east front, consisting of two stair-turrets covered with panelling of flint and stone, with rich niches, &c. and fine buttresses connected by the GENT. MAG. VOL. XXVIII.

arch and gable over the east window; but the window itself is destroyed. In the gable is a small round window, with flowing tracery, set in the middle of a very thick wall." This striking feature of the Walsingham ruins will be found represented in most of the engraved views of the place, of which the two best are that by Coney in the New Monasticon, and that in Britton's Architectural Antiquities. Mr. Parker has followed former writers in calling this a part of the Chapel of our Lady; but we think it must have belonged to the larger Priory Church.

The dimensions of the several churches at Walsingham are preserved by William of Worcestre. The writer of the description in Mr. Britton's work charges Parkin (the continuator of Blomefield) with having confounded the New Work and the Chapel of the Virgin. This he has not exactly done: and, if he had, he would have been right. Parkin incorrectly conjectured that the New Work was "probably at the east end of the choir," instead of its being a separate building as Erasmus tells us. But Mr. Britton's author has himself gone wider astray; for he has confused the church of the Franciscan Friars of Walsingham with that of the Canons: and this although Worcestre had inserted the dimensions of the church of Scottow between the

two.

Worcestre says, the length of the New Work of Walsingham was sixteen yards, its interior width ten yards. The length of the chapel of the blessed Virgin (that is, the wooden chapel) was seven yards, thirty inches; its width four yards, ten inches. The length of the whole church of Walsingham from the end of the chancel was 136 of Worcestre's paces, its breadth 36 paces; the length of the nave from the west door to the tower in the middle of the church 70 paces; the square of the tower 16 paces; the breadth of the nave without the two ailes 16 paces. The length of the quire was 50 paces, and the breadth 17.

The cloister was square, 54 paces in each walk: the length of the chapter-house 20 paces, its breadth 10 paces, but the length of the entrance of the chapter-house from the cloister was 10 paces, so in all it was 30 paces. Few traces of these buildings now

2 M

exist. The ruins were more considerable when described by Parkin in Blomefield's Norfolk, and when a view of them was published in the Vetusta Monumenta in 1720; but they have given way to trees, and walks, a trim fawn, and all the agremens of modern pleasure grounds. Some ruins close adjoining to the modern mansion are a portion of the refectory: they consist of a range of four early Decorated windows, with the staircase to a pulpit in the wall. There is also a doorway and vault of another apartment. In the contrary direction (west of the church) are the Holy Wells, lined with plain ashlar stone; on one side of them is a square bath (perhaps altered since the days of the canons); on the other, a small early-English doorway.

The family of Lee Warner have owned this beautiful estate from the time of Dr. Warner, Bishop of Rochester, by whom it was purchased in 1766; and before we quit its embowered shades we must make our acknowledgments for the liberal hospitality with which the archæological pilgrims (who, like their prototypes, seemed to be subsistent on those whom they visited), were received by the present Mr. Lee Warner in his dining room. His son the Rev. James Lee Warner afterwards conducted them over the parish church of St. Mary, a spacious Perpendicular structure, containing the beautiful font already mentioned, and a grand Elizabethan monument to Sir Henry Sidney, a cousin of the Sidneys of Penshurst, whose father was the grantee of the priory at its dissolution. There is here a funeral slab (now bare) in the pavement, of the largest dimensions, namely 11 feet 4 inc. long by four feet wide; and here, loose upon the floor, we were shewn one of those external tombs or massive coffin lids, which have not often been preserved. It was brought from the churchyard, and has no other figures but this shield of arms on each side, A chevron charged with three roses between two roses in chief and a holly-leaf in base.

We also visited the ruins of the Franciscan Friary of Walsingham. They consist of flint walls of no very early date nor very interesting character, inclosing a garden; and appear to have been chiefly, as at present, the

domestic buildings of the establish

ment.

Our conductors now sounded the signal for our return, and we were soon pursuing our flight as rapidly as we came. But suddenly they cried halt, as we came to a cross road, which led to the little Chapel of Houghton in the Dale. A kind of foot race now took place, for it was desired that we should lose no time. The labour was rewarded by the sight of a little architectural gem, of which we offer the opposite view.

Of the history of this building nothing has been ascertained. It is unnoticed in the History of Norfolk; unless it be unconsciously in the following line: "In 1509 a legacy was given to the hermite of St. Catharine in this town." The architecture is styled "good Decorated" by Mr. Parker, and he notices the fine east window." To our eyes it is a model of elegance, and a model worthy of imitation. The battlemented turrets, with angles facing the spectator, are paralleled in the later part of the front of Croyland abbey church. The chapel itself is used as an outhouse or barn; a cottage is built behind, against the east window.

The last object of our attention was the Hall of East Bursham,—that hall, it will be remembered, from which Henry VIII. took his pilgrimage barefoot to Walsingham. It has been often noticed, but it is not the less interesting, as one of the finest existing specimens of fictile architecture. Those who do not understand us will do so by referring to the plates given in the IVth volume of Vetusta Monumenta, from drawings by Mr. John Ady Repton, F.S.Å. There are also two views in Britton's Architectural Antiquities, and others, we believe, in one of Mr. Pugin's works. It will be seen that it appears highly enriched with sculpture, but this is produced by the repetition of moulded tiles, or bricks, of which there is a great variety. In the gatehouse even the shields of arms, the royal supporters, and two great statues of armed guards or porters, are produced (perhaps partially carved ?) in brick. The only exceptions are said to be the arms of Henry VII. on the porch of the house, the windows over it, which are carved in chalk-stone,

and also the jambs of the arch of the gatehouse. The property came to the family of Fermor about the 11th Hen. VII. The house seems to have been erected in that reign; the arms of the monarch supported by a dragon and greyhound being over the door. The magnificent gatehouse was added in the following reign. It has outside, in a very large panel, the royal arms, supported by a dragon and lion, flanking which are shields of Fermor, in one case impaling Argent, three pallets gules; in the other a lion rampant . These coats (the tinctures of which are supplied from stained glass formerly in the windows of the mansion, and which was removed by Sir John Fenn the antiquary to his house at East Dereham,) are supposed to have been those of the two wives of Sir Henry Fermor the founder; who first married Margaret, widow of Sir John Wode, Speaker of the House of Commons; and secondly Winefred, widow of Henry Dynne, of Heydon, and daughter of Thomas Cawse, al

derman of Norwich. Sir Henry was sheriff of Norfolk in 24 Henry VIII.

The coat of the rampant lion is attributed by Parkin to Stapleton, but it would seem to have belonged to Cawse.

This lion and the saltire out of the shield of Fermor form an ornamental frieze running round the house, showing that it was built during Sir Henry's second marriage.

On the inner front of the Gatehouse (that which faces the mansion) are other shields, one of them bearing the arms of Fermor alone differenced by a label, and the other the same impaling Knevett, quarterly of six coats. These therefore belong to Henry the heir apparent of Sir William, who married Katharine, daughter of Sir Thomas Knevett. He was afterwards knighted, and served sheriff of Norfolk in 32 Hen. VIII.

The arms of this family of Fermor were, Argent, on a saltire azure between four lion's heads erased gules, a martlet or and four bezants, a chief of the second