141

A SUMMER DAY AT GREAT

YARMOUTH.

ALTHOUGH the scenery of the eastern counties, as a rule, is far from attractive, I know not of a more interesting place or one more worthy of a visit than the 'ancient borough of Great Yarmouth.' Its historical associations are neither few nor poor; and in its corporate capacity it has a character quite its own, as also have its inhabitants, who are composed of the old Saxon stock planted here by Cerdic and his followers, with a strong infusion of the Danish 1 element. As you stand upon its long and handsome quay, you might easily fancy that you were in some seaport town of Belgium, were it not for the simple fact that such a quay is not to be found in Europe, except only at Seville.

We will leave it to antiquaries to settle the old dispute as to what place is the veritable Garianonum

1 Many Danish terms are still in use along this coast. For instance the deep water between the sandbanks is called a 'gatt,' just as in Denmark.

of the Roman era, and whether that name in reality belongs to Burgh Castle or to Caistor-both villages in the immediate neighbourhood of Yarmouth. Garianonum is placed by Spelman at Caistor, instead of at Burgh, on the alleged ground that the latter is too far from the sea. Spelman, however, did not know that the sea really washed its walls in former times, and that a wide estuary penetrated inland nearly as far as Norwich. Camden identifies Garianonum with Burgh Castle; and in support of his view it should be mentioned that anchors, buoys, and sea-shells have been found there, together with Roman coins, from Domitian downwards. Moreover, the western side is open, the Romans considering that it was sufficiently protected by their ships. At Caistor, or Castra, were probably the 'æstiva' or summer quarters of the Roman legions. The castle there was erected in the first half of the fifteenth century, by the family of Falstolf, and it was for some .centuries the residence of the Pastons, Earls of Yarmouth. Sir John Falstolf was esquire to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and distinguished himself at Agincourt, and at the Battle of the Herrings, so called from the salt fish which he was convoying. It would be almost superfluous to add that these Falstolfs were in no way connected with Shakspeare's Falstaff, had not the confusion been repeatedly made. Enough to state that both at Burgh and at Caistor, great quantities of coins and other relics of the Roman

empire from Galba to Constantine, have been dug up, and that the name of Caistor and the massive ruins at Burgh remain to this day as standing proofs that the vicinity of Yarmouth was an important station for the legions of Rome.

There could have been no Roman station at Yarmouth itself, for the very good reason that while the Roman eagles waved over Britain, the spot on which Yarmouth stands was not land, but sea. Like many other places situated at the mouth of rivers, Yarmouth has sprung up on soil partly alluvial and partly deposited by the tides and currents of the German ocean. It is not a little singular that while at Aldborough and Dunwich to the south, and at Cromer to the north, we have been losing acres of terra firma, year by year for centuries, and while old Neptune, by eating away the cliffs, has contrived to swallow whole a bishop's see and the metropolis of the East Angles, here, on the contrary, he has rejoiced to give back his stolen property, and yearly to deposit some yards of the cleanest and firmest sand which he had been holding in solution. This process has been going on gradually but surely for nearly two thousand years.

The fact is that the Yare, the Waveney, and the Bure, which intersect Norfolk and divide it from Suffolk, appeared to have entered into a conspiracy either with or against the god of the sea. Flowing through a fertile, gravelly, and loamy soil, they each

bring down from the interior rich deposits; and these being beaten back by the tidal action of the sea, in the course of many centuries have formed a large inland estuary called the Breydon waters. At length they blocked up their own mouths, and formed what would have been a delta, if the northern channel had not become dried up, leaving their waters to find their way into the ocean by a narrow bed to the south. The result has been that a long tongue of dry land sprang into existence during the Roman, Saxon, and Danish eras, reaching from the old Castrum or Caistor to Gorlestone. Thus arose out of the waters the firm sandy beach upon which, nearly 1,400 years ago, Cerdic the Saxon leapt from his primitive ship of war, and from which he forced his way into the country of the East Angles, and settled amongst their northern and southern 'folk.' If we may believe the local traditions, it was only a few years before the Norman Conquest that houses began to be built upon what now is the old town of Yarmouth, then a very narrow island. Soon after the Conquest the northern outlet of the three rivers became choked up, and the island grew into a part of the solid mainland. Yarmouth soon became an important place, and it numbered as many as seventy burgesses in the time of Edward the Confessor.

The rest of the early history of the town is soon told. Within half a century, Herbert de Losynga, Bishop of Norwich, in compassion for the fishermen

who had built their huts on this lonely spot, founded a church on the north side of the present town, and dedicated it to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of fishers. In consequence of the concourse of fishermen from different parts of England, and especially (so say the records of the borough) from the Cinque Ports, to catch herrings at certain seasons of the year, and of the convenience of the open sand for drying and curing what they caught, the Barons of the Cinque Ports sent their bailiffs to attend the fishery for forty days in each year, and ultimately contrived to exercise a jurisdiction of their own. The town, however, was too independent to play second fiddle to the 'Men of Kent'; and so, at the request of its citizens, King Henry I. was pleased to invest one of their number with the authority of provost, who was annually chosen by the burgesses.

The good town of Yarmouth continued to flourish under this kind of government until the reign of King John, who, with several bad points in his character, united one virtue—a taste for incorporating the rising towns in his dominions, and more especially the seaports. He granted the burgesses of Yarmouth a charter, the original of which, still in existence, is kept in the Guildhall. The borough soon rose in tonnage and independence, and in the course of a few years became the most important seaport between the Thames and the Humber. Henry III. granted to the burgesses of Yarmouth leave and licence to

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