held by Hagen in the Confessor's time; but was afterwards bestowed on the first Roger Bigod. Robert Vallibus held this place of Bigod, and founded here the priory for the soul of Agnes his wife, and their children, and dedicated it to the honour of the Holy Trinity, the blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Mary Magdalen. It was situate in the isle of Eya, for canons regular, of the order of St. Augustine; and was endowed with the manor of Pentney. At the time of the suppression, here was a prior with thirteen canons. Robert Jodde was prior in 1526: he was the last prior, and with Richard Lynne, and twelve other canons, subscribed to the king's supremacy, September 9th, 1534; and had pensions for life. Henry VIII. granted this to Thomas Mildmay, esq. auditor of the Exchequer. After passing through various hands, it came to Lord, esq., of Epping, Essex. The site of this priory is about a mile westward of the church. The gatehouse, which is a building in the pointed style, is still standing, and covered with lead.-See Cotman's Antipuities of Norfolk. The seal of this priory, was the figure of St. Mary Magdalen, with the the legend

"SIGILLVM SCE MARIE MAGDALENE DE PENTNEIA."

See an impression of this seal in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum. The church of Pentney was appropriated to the prior, and valued at 5s. per annum, beside the pensions. Here is Pentney manor.*-Inclosure act, 107. Draining act,

1815.

ROYDON (or Reydon). Thirty miles. All Saints. P. 205. Was in king Edward's time a beruite, or berwick, belonging to the capital lordship of Snettisham. In the reign of king Edward III. it was in the Wodehouse family.+ Blomefield once saw a brass coin of queen Isabel, mother of king Ed

* Letter missive. Temp. Edward III. From the Prior and Convent of Pentneye, in Norfolke), to the King. Dated in their Chapter at Pentneye, pridie Idus Marcij, A. D., 1334.-They are extremely sorry that it is not in the power to satisfy the subsidy demanded by the king's letters, (on account of the marriage of his sister Eleanor), but send him 40s., entreating that His Majesty would not be offended at their offering so small a sum.-Abstract of Letters Missive, written in Latin, in Forsyth's Antiq. Portfolio, p. 172.

↑ From the MS. of William de Worcester we are informed that this John Wodehouse built here a most royal and beautiful manor house, called the Rey, on the river hereby; which cost him above two thousand marks sterling, with stately offices, &c., about a mile from Rising, in which he died, 1430, and that this noble edifice was entirely destroyed and pulled down to the ground, by the advice and assistance of Thomas lord Scales, about September 21st, 1454, by the consent of the heir of the

ward III. when she resided here and held this lordship in capite. It was something larger than our present shilling; on it were these arms: quarterly an antique ship on the sea, the old arms of this borough, though the modern arms, as represented, is a castle triple towered, the legend obscure; reverse, in a lozenge the arms of Isabel, as a widow, four fleur-de-lis of France; at that time the kings of France bore semi de lys; the legend is obscure, but R. A. for Regina is plainly to be seen.

ELISHA SMITH, A. M., rector in 1707, wrote in 1740, Sermons," in two volumes; and a treatise, "The Cure of Deism."

RUNGTON, (or Runcton) NORTH. Thirty-seven miles. All Saints. P. 314. This town was held by Turchetel in the Confessor's time, and afterwards by the Hurmeruses or the Wirmegays, from whom it came to the family of Bardolf, until the death of Thomas, lord Bardolf, who was attainted and beheaded for his rebellion against Henry IV., when that king granted it to his brother, Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter. In 1701, the old church was destroyed by the fall of the tower, but rebuilt about 1710. Here are inscriptions to the memory of Rolle, Atwell, Hopes, the Cremers, &c.

THOMAS HOPES, rector of this church, by his will, dated 1615, gave to his brother Richard Hopes, and Cuthbert Norris, D. D., his uncle, an acre of land near the churchyard, having divers buildings on it, also a portion of tithes called Notley tithes, with the advowson of the church of North Runcton, to the intent that they should convey them to Trinity college, Cambridge, of which he had formerly been a member. The college to present the brother or kindred of Hopes, the rector to have the acre with the buildings on it for a parsonage-house, keeping it in repair; and the Notley tithes paying a fee-farm rent of 40s. per annum, and 117. 128. per annum, viz. 31. 8s. 8d. to the vice-master of

founder, and his particular friend. The reason assigned is—That Thomas Danyel, esq. of Lancashire, late sheriff of Norfolk, by the assistance and power of John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, on account of his marrying a kinswoman of the said duke, pretending a right and title to the said lordship, falsely asserting that Wodehouse, the heir to his father the founder, had given it to him. On this pretence he several times entered the same by force, and a great army of the duke's. And this the lord Scales did ont of a good intention, though much to the loss and damage of the Wodehouse's heir. On the death of lord Scales and earl Rivers, it probably returned to the Wodehouses, Roger Wodehouse, esq., being lord in the reign of Henry VIII.

Trinity college, towards the maintenance of a poor scholar, to enjoy it five years after his admission, to be chosen by the vice-master and mayor of Lynn, out of Lynn free school; 31. 8s. 8d. to the churchwardens and overseers of North Runcton; 31. 88. 8d. to the churchwardens and overseers of Geyton; 6s. to Middleton poor; 10s. to East Winch; 3s. 4d. to East Walton; 3s. 4d. to Dudlington; and 3s. 4d. to Colveston poor: to be given to them who come to church, and in groats; and if the officers do not distribute it, the parish to lose their share for next year, and then to be paid to the chamberlain of Lynn, for the prisoners there.

Setchy Magna and Hardwick. P. 94. Two hamlets belonging to North Runcton. Setchy Magna, commonly called Setch, is on the great road from London to Lynn on a navigable river, which, higher up from this place, takes the name of the Nar, but in an old record, Blomefield found the river here called the Eye, from which, he says, it is probable that Setchy took its name, as set on that river over which there is here a bridge. It was part of the lord Bardolf's manor of Runcton, and that lord had a charter of free warren at Magna Setchy, A° 33rd of Henry III., with a weekly market on Monday, and two fairs in the year; and in the reign of James I., there was a grant for a market* every Tuesday fortnight, for the sale of fat cattle, to which, persons from all parts of the county, and from Lincolnshire, attended. The hamlets of Setchy and Hardwick, had their chapels standing in 1528.

SANDRINGHAM. Forty miles. St. Mary Magdalen. P. 72. Written Sant Dersingham in Domesday-book.Adjoins Dersingham to the north, and West Newton to the south; and lies about eight miles north of Lynn. In the twentieth Edward III. Roger de Sandringham held it; it came not long after into the family of the Cobbes,† the lord

• It seems rather doubtful if these markets were originally kept every other Tuesday throughout the year; at least it is said not to have been the case for many years past, but only for some of the latter months of the year These markets begin at the dawn of day, and are generally over pretty early in the morning.

+ William Cobbe, grandson of William and Mary his wife, daughter of sir Henry Bedingfield, of Oxborough, bart., and who was only ten years old at the death of his father Jeffery Cobbe, 1623, was a great loyalist, and a colonel in the army; he distinguished himself much in the civil wars, and suffered considerably for his attachment to the king's cause; but we find him after the restoration of Charles II. selling his estate.

chief-justice Atkins, the Hosts, &c. The church stands upon an eminence, and here are inscriptions to the Cobbes and the Hosts, &c. On Sandringham heath is dug up great quantities of car or iron stone, a great quarry of which may be seen at Snettisham, in a close, which is far superior to that found on Sandringham heath; the stones dug out are larger and more durable. Sir Robert Walpole built the stables at Houghton of this car stone. It is soft and crumbling at first, and has the appearance of brown sugar, which name it often bears. It hardens by exposure to the air, and grows durable from age. Sandringham hall is the residence of Henry Hoste Henley, esq.

WALTON, (EAST). Thirty-three miles. St. Mary. P. 174. This town borders upon Westacre. The church, together with the chapel of St. Andrew, was a rectory formerly; it was afterwards appropriated to Westacre priory. In the chapel are inscriptions to the memory of the Richardsons, also to Robert Purland, &c. The family seat of lord Richardson, was at Westacre. Here are the manors of West Dereham Abbey, Langley Abbey, Prior of Pentney's, Richmond Fee, West acre Priory, and Howard and Strange's.

The Rev. GEORGE WILLIAM LEMON, (of whom see some account at p. 399,) was vicar of this place. He died June 4th, 1797, in his seventieth year. He was of Queen's college, Camb., B. A. 1747, and upwards of forty years rector of Geytonthorpe, and ten years head master of Norwich freeschool. His "English Etymology, or a Derivative Dictionary of the English Language, in two Alphabets, tracing the Etymology of those English Words that are derived 1. from the Greek and Latin, 2. from the Saxon and other Northern Tongues," 1783, 4to., was published by subscription of one guinea. This industrious etymologist not only investigated the radical meaning of many obscure and almost unintelligible words, but exploded many vulgar errors, and illustrated many passages in our ancient writers. He added a chronological table of the most remarkable events in ancient and modern history, many of them calculated to throw light on the most interesting articles in his dictionary. If he did not trace every word to its original source, he collected an infinite variety of curious observations; and produced a work

acceptable to those who have a taste for etymological disquisitions, and a desire to understand their native language. -Critical Review, 1784. See also at page 1051 of this work.

WESTACRE. Thirty miles. All Saints. P. 362.Here was a celebrated Priory founded by Ralph de Tony, about 1200, and dedicated to St. Mary and All Saints, and by the consent of his wife and sons Roger and Ralph, they granted for their own souls, and their ancestors, the manor of Westacre, with the parish church, to Oliver the priest, or rector of it, and Walter his son. On this grant, Oliver and Walter, the sons of the priest, entered into the order of Cluniacs of this priory, with all their effects. Not only priests it seems, but even bishops were in this age married, and no restraint laid upon them; the Popes Boniface I. and Fœlix III., were sons of priests. King Edward IV., in his nineteenth year, July 7th, granted this convent an annual fair; being what was then called the feast or translation of St. Thomas the martyr. William Wingfield was the last prior, and he, with fifteen monks of this priory, subscribed to the king's supremacy, August 31st, 1534. On the 14th January, in the twenty-ninth of Henry VIII., he surrendered this priory to the king, with eight of his monks; who in return were pensioned for life. The prior's pension was 401. per annum, a considerable sum in those days. Wingfield the prior, and several of the monks, are said to have acknowledged to the king's visitors, that they had been guilty of the most flagrant acts of incontinency. The former, however, became a married priest, and was rector of Burnham Thorpe in this county, in the reign of Edward VI. The convent boasted that they had a piece of St. Andrew's finger, set in silver, which they had pawned for 401.; but the visitors did not think fit to redeem it at that price. According to Dugdale, their annual revenues amounted, at the time of the dissolution, to 2601. 13s. 7d.; but Speed makes them amount to 3081. 9s. 11d. The seal was large, oval, and of black wax. Under an arch is represented the Virgin Mary with the child Jesus in her left hand, seated and treading on the dragon; on each side of the arch stands a monk or religious, with his hands in a praying attitude. Over