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organ pipes before them, and were cast into a fire provided for that purpose, with shouting and rejoicing: so that, at present, there is but one cope belonging to the church, which was presented thereunto by Philip Harbord, Esq., the present high sheriff of Norfolk, my honoured friend.

Before the late times, the combination sermons were preached in the summer time at the cross in the green-yard, where there was a good accommodation for the auditors. The mayor, aldermen, with their wives and officers, had a well-contrived place built against the wall of the bishop's palace, covered with lead; so that they were not offended by rain. Upon the north side of the church, places were built gallery-wise, one above another; where the dean, prebends, and their wives, gentlemen, and the better sort, very well heard the sermon: the rest either stood, or sat in the green, upon long forms provided for them, paying a penny, or halfpenny apiece, as they did at St. Paul's-cross in London. The bishop and chancellor heard the sermons at the windows of the bishop's palace: the pulpit had a large

the following curious account is given in Bishop Hall's Hard Measure, p. 63.

"It is tragical to relate the furious sacrilege committed under the authority of Linsey, Tofts the sheriff, and Greenwood; what clattering of glasses, what beating down of walls, what tearing down of monuments, what pulling down of seats, and wresting out of irons and brass from the windows and graves; what defacing of arms, what demolishing of curious stone-work, that had not any representation in the world, but of the cost of the founder and skill of the mason; what piping on the destroyed organ pipes; vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the leaden cross, which had been newly sawed down from over the greenyard pulpit, and the singing books and service books were carried to the fire in the public market-place; a lewd wretch walking before the train in his cope trailing in the dirt, with a service book in his hand, imitating, in an impious scorn, the tune, and usurping the words of the litany, the ordnance being discharged on the Guild-day, the cathedral was filled with musketeers, drinking and tobacconing as freely as if it had turned alehouse.'

• combination.] Dr. Littleton thus defines the word; "A combination, or circle of preachers in a cathedral or university church.”— Vide Lat. Dict.

The combination preachers were appointed by the bishops from the clergy of the diocese; to come and preach a sermon in the cathedral, or its preaching yard, at their own charges: the Suffolk preachers in the summer half-year and the Norfolk in the winter; which is still continued.

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covering of lead over it, and a cross upon it; and there were eight or ten stairs of stone about it, upon which the hospital boys and others stood. The preacher had his face to the south, and there was a painted board, of a foot and a half broad, and about a yard and a half long, hanging over his head before, upon which were painted the arms of the benefactors towards the combination sermon, which he par ticularly commemorated in his prayer, and they were these; Sir John Suckling, Sir John Pettus, Edward Nuttel, Henry Fasset, John Myngay. But when the church was sequestered, and the service put down, this pulpit was taken down, and placed in New Hall-green, which had been the artillery-yard, and the public sermon was there preached. But the heirs of the benefactors denying to pay the wonted beneficence for any sermon out of Christ-church (the cathedral being now commonly so called), some other ways were found to provide a minister, at a yearly salary, to preach every Sunday, either in that pulpit in the summer, or elsewhere in the winter.

I must not omit to say something of the shaft or spire of this church, commonly called the pinnacle, as being a handsome and well-proportioned fabric, and one of the highest in England, higher than the noted spires of Lichfield, Chichester, or Grantham, but lower than that of Salisbury (at a general chapter, holden June 4, 1633, it was agreed that the steeple should be mended"), for that spire being raised upon a very high tower, becomes higher from the ground; but this spire, considered by itself, seems, at least, to equal that. It is an hundred and five yards and two feet from the top of the pinnacle unto the pavement of the choir under it. The spire is very strongly built, though the inside be of brick. The upper aperture, or window, is the highest ascent inwardly; out of which, sometimes a long streamer hath been hanged, upon the guild, or mayor's day. But at his majesty's restoration, when the top was to be mended,

5 benefactors.] These gentlemen, in consideration of the expense necessarily incurred by the preachers in coming to Norwich, devised certain estates, &c. to the corporation in trust, out of which each preacher is paid one guinea towards his expenses.

6 at a general chapter, &c.] Christ-church pinnacle was re-edified 1636.-MS. Starling. Kirkp.

and a new gilded weathercock was to be placed upon it, there were stayings made at the upper window, and divers persons went up to the top of the pinnacle. They first went up into the belfry, and then by eight ladders, on the inside of the spire, till they came to the upper hole, or window; then went out unto the outside, where a staying was set, and so ascended up unto the top stone, on which the weathercock standeth.

The cock is three-quarters of a yard high, and one yard and two inches long; as is also the cross bar, and top stone of the spire, which is not flat, but consists of a half globe and channel about it; and from thence are eight leaves of stone spreading outward, under which begin the eight rows of crockets, which go down the spire at five feet distance.

From the top there is a prospect all about the country. Mousehold-hill seems low, and flat ground. The Castle hill, and high buildings, do very much diminish. The river looks like a ditch. The city, with the streets, make a pleasant show, like a garden with several walks in it.7

Though this church, for its spire, may compare, in a manner, with any in England, yet in its tombs and monuments it is exceeded by many.

No kings have honoured the same with their ashes, and but few with their presence. And it is not without some

7 walks in it.] The sea is also to be seen from the north-west towards Wells, to the south-east off the Suffolk coast; and with the aid of a telescope, vessels are to be seen sailing along the coast between Happisburgh and Lowestoft.

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presence.] This is certainly an error :—

Henry I. spent his Christmas at Norwich.-Sax. Chron. 1122.

Richard I. visited Norwich.-Kirkpatrick's MS. notes.

King John was at his castle in Norwich on the 12th and 13th of October, 1205.-Archæologia, vol. xxii. p. 142.

Henry III. visited Norwich, 1256 and 1272.-See Blomefield.

Edward I. kept his Easter at Norwich, 1277.-Stowe.

Edward II. was at Norwich in January 1327.—Blomefield.

Edward III. held a tournament at Norwich 1341, and was there again in 1342 and 1344.

Richard II. visited Norwich in 1383, according to Hollingshed.

Henry IV. visited the city in 1406, as appears by the Norwich Assembly Book.-Blomefield.

Henry V. visited Norwich.-Kirkpatrick's MS. notes.

Henry VI. visited Norwich in 1448 and 1449.—Blomefield.

wonder, that Norwich having been for a long time so considerable a place, so few kings have visited it; of which number, among so many monarchs since the conquest, we find but four, viz. King Henry III., Edward I., Queen Elizabeth, and our gracious sovereign now reigning, King Charles II., of which I had particular reason to take notice." The castle was taken by the forces of King William the Conqueror; but we find not that he was here. King Henry VII. by the way of Cambridge, made a pilgrimage unto Walsingham; but records tell us not that he was at Norwich. King James I. came sometimes to Thetford for his hunting recreation, but never vouchsafed to advance. twenty miles farther.

Not long after the writing of these papers, Dean Herbert Astley died, a civil, generous, and public-minded person, who had travelled in France, Italy, and Turkey, and was interred near the monument of Sir James Hobart: unto whom succeeded my honoured friend Dr. John Sharpe, a prebend of this church, and rector of St. Giles's in the fields, London; a person of singular worth, and deserved estimation, the honour and love of all men; in the first year of whose deanery, 1681, the prebends were these:

Mr. Joseph Loveland,
Dr. Hezekiah Burton,
Dr. William Hawkins,

Dr. William Smith,

Mr. Nathaniel Hodges,
Mr. Humphrey Prideaux.

(But Dr. Burton dying in that year, Mr. Richard Kidder succeeded), worthy persons, learned men, and very good preachers.

Edward IV. was in Norwich in 1469.-Blomefield.

Richard III. was in Norwich in 1483.-Ibid.

Henry VII. kept his Christmas at Norwich in 1486.—Ibid.

Elizabeth came on her progress to Norwich in 1578.-Ibid.

Charles II. visited Norwich in 1671, and is the last sovereign who visited that city.

9 Sir Thomas being then knighted.

1 but records, &c.] From the authorities cited by Blomefield (Norwich, part i. p. 174) there can be no doubt but that this sovereign visited Norwich in his way to Walsingham.

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ADDENDA.

I HAVE by me the picture of Chancellor Spencer, drawn when he was ninety years old, as the inscription doth declare, which was sent unto me from Colney.

Though Bishop Nix sat long in the see of Norwich, yet is not there much delivered of him: Fox in his Martyrology hath said something of him in the story of Thomas Bilney, who was burnt in Lollard's pit, without Bishopsgate, in his time.

Bishop Spencer lived in the reign of Richard II. and Henry IV., sat in the see of Norwich thirty-seven years: of a soldier made a bishop, and sometimes exercising the life of a soldier in his episcopacy; for he led an army into Flanders on the behalf of Pope Urban VI. in opposition to Clement the anti-pope; and also overcame the rebellious forces of Litster, the dyer, in Norfolk, by North Walsham, in the reign of King Richard II.

Those that would know the names of the citizens who were chief actors in the tumult in Bishop Skerewyng's time, may find them set down in the bull of Pope Gregory X.

Some bishops, though they lived and died here, might not be buried in this church, as some bishops probably of old, more certainly of later time.

Here concludes Sir Thomas Browne's MS.

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