mology of the name Hadleigh, and to ferret out proofs of its greatness in early times. Enough for us to know that the Rev. Hugh Pigot, who goes fully into the question in his 'History of Hadleigh,' is strongly of opinion that the word is a compound of two Saxon words, (head and leaga), which mean the 'chief town,' though others more fancifully interpret it as meaning . 'the extended valley,' in allusion to its situation, already referred to.

The old annalist, Asser, claims for Hadleigh an antiquity that reaches as far back as the reign of Alfred, who having defeated Guthrum, the Danish chief, at a battle in Wiltshire, persuaded him to become a Christian, and gave him a sort of feudal dominion over the East Angles. It is said that Guthrum governed this district, which included Norfolk and Suffolk, and probably Essex, too; and that when he died, he was buried in the church at Hadleigh, where what is called his tomb, though clearly of far more recent date, is still pointed out to strangers, in a canopied recess in the wall of the south aisle.

There was a time, as the visitor will see at a glance, when Hadleigh was a much more important place than it is in these degenerate days. Some four, or possibly even five, centuries ago it lay in the centre of the woollen trade in the eastern counties, into which that branch of commerce was introduced by the Flemings, who took refuge in England in the

reign of Edward III. As early as the beginning of the fourteenth century, in a survey of the manor of Hadleigh, mention is made of a 'Fulling Mill'; and two centuries later, Holinshed speaks in his 'Chronicles' of a rebellion in Suffolk, in which the clothiers of Hadleigh and the neighbouring town of Sudbury took a prominent part: a few years later also Foxe, in his 'Book of Martyrs' speaks of Hadleigh as 'a town of cloth-making and labouring people.' The importance of the place, however, suffered severely from the troubles of the seventeenth century; and it received its coup de grace by the improvement of inland communication between London and the north of England, where the trade which had been the source of its prosperity was largely aided by the superior advantages arising from the possession of coal, iron, limestone, and abundance of water, which in their turn helped on the making and working of machinery.

The last relic of the wool-trade in the town was a procession of the local magnates through the streets on Bishop Blaise's day (February 3), which is within the remembrance of a few, and of a few only, of the oldest inhabitants. In the immediate neighbourhood, however, of Hadleigh are the two villages of Lindsey and Kersey, whose names will recall to very many Londoners the ideas of warm and substantial clothing, which was originally manufactured in this district.

A few years ago the seal of an Alnager or Inspec

tor of Cloth for the district was found in a garden near the town. It is now in the Ipswich Museum. It bears this inscription:-'S. Ulnag. Pannorum in Commitatu Suffolcie;' with the device of a leopard's head and a fleur-de-lis, representing the arms of England and France.

In the season of its prosperity, Hadleigh enjoyed the privilege of a charter, granted by James I., and had its mayor and aldermen and civic mace, like other Eatanswills, though it never returned members to Parliament. The charter, however, was revoked by James II., and was never subsequently restored, though various attempts were made to obtain a re-grant of it. In old times the town appears to have been governed by its guilds or religious confraternities, of which there were at least five, named respectively after the Trinity, Corpus Christi, St. John, the Saviour, and Our Lady. Some idea of the wealth of these guilds may be formed from the fact that the plate and vestments belonging to them were sold in the first year of Edward VI., and fetched about 270l. The old Guildhall, in which the members of these guilds held their meetings, still stands on the south side of the churchyard: it is a quaint and substantial building, and its timbers must be four hundred years old at least. The Hall itself has passed through several changes; in the last century it was used as a dormitory for the inmates of the workhouse,

D

and more recently it has had to do duty as a national and infant school.

As a proof that 'Ichabod' is written on Hadleigh, may be mentioned the fact that no stranger can walk down the main street of Hadleigh without remarking the number of old mansions which still remain. Some of them have been refronted according to the precise, stiff rules of modern masonry; but at the back of these, the quaint gables of former times have been in many instances preserved; and there, and on the walls and ceilings of the rooms within, are to be found excellent examples of ornamental plaster-work. Sometimes, also, when repairs are being done, the ends of beams, which once projected over the foundations, and remnants of richly carved work, are found imbedded in the walls. Still even now there are many private houses of much interest in the town, built chiefly of timber, with the interstices filled up with wattle-work and plaster, and bearing traces of the sixteenth, fifteenth, and probably also of the fourteenth, centuries; and several, as might be expected, are of the seventeenth century, having carved wooden corbels, supporting windows, or the wide eaves, characteristic of the period. The fronts of many of the houses are pargetted—that is, are covered with plaster, and ornamented with raised patterns, the favourite devices being the Tudor rose, and the royal arms, supported by a lion and a unicorn, which mark the period during which this mode of ornamentation prevailed,

the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. It is much to be regretted that the surfaces, which the original builders took so much pains to relieve and beautify, are now covered with monotonous colours of paint or whitewash. If the timber-work were 'picked out' with black or a dark brown, as in the old Cheshire manor houses, while the level plaster was whitewashed, and if the raised parts and figures were coloured according to the nature of their subjects, the appearance of the several houses, and of the whole town indeed, would be wonderfully improved.

But the glory of Hadleigh, beyond all dispute, is its church, a fair and goodly structure, chiefly of the Perpendicular period, with a noble tower and spire. The church is thought to stand on the site of a more ancient building, in which it is possible that Guthrum's bones were interred. It is built of flint, with stone quoins and dressings, and consists of a lofty and spacious nave and chancel, with north and south aisles running the whole distance from east to west. The windows are large, and nearly uniform in plan, and by the absence of painted glass and carving show unmistakable traces of 'Will Dowsing's' zeal in the Puritan cause in this part of England, when the Saints of the Lord,' as they profanely called themselves, brake down,' (for money) all the carved work' of their Master's edifice 'with axes and hammers.'

The tower, which is of somewhat older date,