In the middle of the town, as our author tells, upon the authority of Manship, there was formerly "a castle or military forefence." It stood near Row No. 99 (which still bears the name of The Castle Row), and consisted of a square building or keep, having a turret or watch-tower at each corner, of which the subjoined is an illustration.

for some time as a beacon-tower, it was finally demolished about the year 1620.

Prior to the introduction of gunpowder, the walls of the town, as they then stood, were deemed a sufficient protection to the inhabitants from all assaults that were likely to befall them; but upon the declaration of war against France and Scotland by Henry VIII., it was considered advisable to strengthen the fortification by the erection of several additional outworks, the walls of the east side being ramparted up, and backed with earth. These works were brought to a state of completion by Queen Elizabeth shortly before the coming of the Spanish Armada. After the alarm occasioned by the Spanish Armada had subsided, the burgesses of Yarmouth raised a huge mound of earth outside the southern gate to command the river and the South Denes, crowning it with large pieces of ordnance: the place is still known as South Mount. It was by this southern gate that William III. entered, when he landed at Yarmouth in 1692, on which occasion he was sumptuously entertained by the municipal authorities.

Along the broad esplanade known as the South Quay stand many of the mansions of the more wealthy inhabitants, and among them one formerly tenanted by Ireton or Bradshaw, which has a special interest on account of its large drawing-room having been the room in which the execution of Charles I. was resolved upon. This

house, which was restored to its original condition a few years since, was until lately occupied by Mr. Charles J. Palmer, F.S.A., the accomplished author of the book which forms the subject of this notice, who is well known as an antiquary, and as a man of great taste and public spirit; and to whose influence is mainly due the preservation of many antiquities relating to the borough and its immediate neighbourhood. Another building worthy of mention on the South Quay is the Star Hotel, which contains some very fine oak carving, affording evidence-if any were wanted-of the wealth of the town a century or so ago, when these mansions were occupied by the merchant princes of Yarmouth.

The Town Hall, which also stands upon the South Quay, was built in 1716, and the Naval Hospital (now occupied as a Naval Lunatic Asylum) was erected in 1809-11, at a cost of £120,000. Among the other public buildings of Yarmouth we may mention the Armoury and Naval Arsenal, built under Wyatt in 1806, when Yarmouth Roads were the head-quarters of the British fleet. The place was calculated to hold stores for six ships and six sloops, and 10,000 stand of arms; but the establishment was broken up about ten years ago, when the place was turned into a militia barrack. Then there are the Theatre, built in 1778; the Baths and Public Rooms adjoining; and the Custom House, a handsome building on the South Quay, formerly the residence of the Sayers family.

The parish church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a fine crossshaped building, of unusually large dimensions, and formerly contained sixteen chapels. Before the Reformation this church was rich in its decorations, and celebrated for the "Miracle Plays performed within its walls; but judging from the items entered in the church muniments still preserved, the chief glory of St. Nicholas's Church seemed to be a certain "Miraculous Star." One of the items in these accounts mentions the "leading in" of the Miraculous Star, and the making of a new one; and another, the making of a "thread line" and a new "forelock" for the "Paschal." This church is said to have been formerly rich in monumental brasses; but these relics of other days were all removed in 1551, and "sent up to London to be cast into weights for the use of the town." Within the last few years the church has been to a very great extent restored.

The vestry of the old unrestored Church of St. Nicholas was removed in 1846; it stood at the north-west corner of the north aisle, and was approached by stairs as in the annexed engraving. The library belonging to the church was kept in this vestry, and was a very extensive and valuable one.

The garden ground

adjoining the church-yard of St. Nicholas once formed part of the monastic demesne-a priory and church for monks of the Benedictine

order, founded here in 1100 by Bishop
Herbert de Losinga. In these grounds
are still standing many a pear and
mulberry tree planted by the monks of
old, and one of the latter is said to
be the largest in the east of England.
Towards the end of the last and begin-
ning of the present century a consider.
able addition was made to the importance
of Yarmouth: for it became the chief
rendezvous for the fleet, and Nelson
(himself a Norfolk man) was frequently
staying there.
In honour of the great
hero a column was erected on

naval

the South Denes in 1817-18, by a public subscription in the county of Norfolk.

The narrow lanes, or rows," which form the greater part of Yarmouth, are upwards of 150 in number, and very many of them have a particularly foreign appearance. They are mostly unpaved, and so narrow that common waggons and carts cannot go up or down them; but the people use instead a curious vehicle, called a

Yarmouth cart, consisting of a narrow frame, of which the front part constitutes the shafts, while the hinder part rests upon a single pair of wheels. One of these vehicles is here represented; the cut being kindly lent to us by Mr. Palmer.

Mr. Palmer tells us in a foot-note to his notice of the merchant princes of Yarmouth that it was the practice during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries for the principal merchants to adopt a peculiar mark, by which their respective goods were distinguished, and with which they sealed them, as with a coat of arms, after the manner of the trade-marks of our own time. These devices were generally a combination of a cross and the user's initials, thus serving as monograms. Amongst others, Mr. Palmer gives representations of the merchants' marks used by the families of Bartilmew, Smith, Ellis, and Fen, which we here reproduce.

# 1 + ✰

Some of the merchants' marks appear to have been more elaborately worked out, as the accompanying device will show; it is engraved on a ring found at Yarmouth, and bears the merchant's mark, with the initials, "C. G.," and is supposed to have been the signet of Charles Gooch, who died in 1650. The monogram used by George Ward, another merchant, and ap

parently a man of some note in Yarmouth, was also engraved and used as a seal: a representation of it is here given.

It is unnecessary in this brief notice of the town of Yarmouth to do more than give a passing allusion to

its fisheries, which are of ancient celebrity; suffice it G

to say that the mackerel fishery realises many thousands annually, and employs a large number of

vessels; whilst the herring fishery is even a greater source of profit to the town, as nearly double the number of boats and hands are engaged in it.

Just now, when people are trying to make up their minds where to go, let one who knows the Yarmouth waters advise a tour through this most interesting district.

OLD LOVES AND OLD LETTERS.

A REMARKABLE FAMILY HISTORY.

BY A LADY OF QUALITY.

HEN follows the passionate prayer I have referred to, for an interview with his "beloved," and to that end he invokes my grandmother's presence in London. This question of her coming to town had been mooted before, simply for the variety of the trip, and not in any way in connection with Miss Collins; but now Rotch not only seeks to hasten her movements, but to turn them to his own account.

"But now, my dear aunt," he proceeds, "about your visit to London. You must come before my beloved leaves London. If I do not see her to have some little conversation with her before she leaves London I am certain my feelings will prove fatal to my intellects.

"Indeed I am serious when I say so-I knew not how susceptible they were till I saw my pet in Bond Street last Saturday; and the perfect derangement of my ideas that followed on that glimpse (for I can call it no more) convinces me that I cannot long continue in the state I am at present.

"Could I have but one hour's uninterrupted conversation with J-a (an opportunity which has never but once occurred through the whole course of our acquaintance) I feel confident neither her health nor mine would be affected as it now is; but if matters are suffered to continue as they now are, without our having such an interview, much indeed have you to dread for BOTH OF US. If we could only have such an interview everything might stand as it now does, and we should still be happy and in health! To YOU, my dear, dear aunt, I look for this necessary bliss! I have not the beseeching countenance of my adored Jemima to place before you; but, if there be any language of entreaty more urgent than another, let me use it for this end. There are a thousand channels of appeal open to a tender heart like yours, but I will refrain from using them to your distress if you will only grant me this one request without it-an interview with my Femima! This I must have! indeed I must! and if you do not assist me to it I shall really dread the consequences. I am not rash;