SECTION I. CONTENTS. Situation of the town of Cromer.-The old church. -The present church a beautiful specimen of architecture in the time of Henry the Fourth. The beauty of its proportions injured by the manner in which it has been repaired.—Singular accident.-View from the tower.-Anecdote of Robert Bacon.-Free School.-Inns.-The fishery the chief support of the lower class of inhabitants. The migration of herrings. —The fishery a great source of picturesque amusement. -Boat upset.-Cromer fair.-Mercantile trade. Cromer an eligible situation for retirement.Description of the bathing machines, cliffs, and beach.-Seashore a constant amusement to the artist.-Picturesque effects of the storm and calm compared.-Moonlight.-Light-house, by whom erected.-Overstand.-Cromer Hall.-Poetical fragment. B SECTION I. THE HE town of Cromer is situated on the north-east part of the county of Norfolk, upon the edge of the British Ocean, from which it is defended by cliffs of considerable height. It must formerly have been a place of much more consequence than it is at present; as that which is now called Cromer was, in the survey made by the Conqueror, accounted for under the town and lordship of Shipdon, which has long given way to the encroachments of the sea, together with the parish church, dedicated to Saint Peter. 2 At low water there are many large masses of old wall to be seen, which appear evidently to have belonged to some of the buildings of the old town; and at very low tides a piece of building is discernable, which the fisher B 2 fishermen call the Church Rock, it being generally supposed to have been a part of the old church of Shipdon, and, I think, with some probability of truth; though others have doubted it, supposing it impossible but that the constant action of the sea for so many ages, must, long 'ere this, have dissolved all traces of it. The old church at Shipdon, says Blomfield, seems to have been destroyed by the sea, in, or about the reign of Henry the Fourth. In the 14th of Richard the Second, a patent was granted for five years, for certain duties to be paid for the erection of a pier for a defence against the sea; and, in the 16th of that King, Sir William Beauchamp, &c. aliened to the Prior of the Carthusians a piece of land in Shipdon, adjoining to the Rectory, with lands and tenements, to the value of ten marks per annum; so that about this time, the present church, called Cromer Church, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, was probably erected. It is a very handsome pile, built with flint and free-stone, consisting consisting of a body and two aisles, covered with slate. The tower, which is square, with an embattled top, richly ornamented with free-stone sculpture, is an hundred and fiftynine feet in height. The entrance at the west end is a beautiful specimen of Gothic architecture, now in ruins; as is the porch on the north side, and the chancel. The flinting in many parts, particularly on the south side, for the beauty of its execution, is, perhaps, scarcely any where to be excelled. The entrance at the west door must for merly have been extremely grand. The whole length of the building, to the extent of 200 feet, was seen in perspective, through two arches of great magnificence. The roof, and every other part, was most profusely ornamented with carved work, of which, time, and the barbarous ravages of Cromwell's troops (who are said to have converted the church into barracks) have left but few traces. The building, though much curtailed, and deprived of its magnificent ornaments, |