pillar of it the king's arms, also the letter H or L, in the old character, and a crown over it, to represent its being in the duchy of Lancaster, or built in king Henry VI.'s reign. Around the cover is

"Orate pro aia Ade Plowryte et Alicie uxoris ejus, et omnium benefactor, suor qui istud opus fieri fecerunt in honore Dei omnipotentis." Amen.

Here is also a cleristory, a piscina, and screen; and inscriptions to the memory of Payn, Gwin, Smith, the Calthorpes, and Wortley. The following inscription, on an altar-tomb on the south side of the churchyard, is well worth transcribing :

"Hic jacet Johannes, quem prope dilecta sua Catherina Wortley, quos amor et ecclesia conjunsit: seperavit et rerum, et hominum, edax tempus et tumulus rapuit. Hanc Anno Domini, 1665, ætate integram. Hunc anno Dni. 1695, senectute fractum vicit facilis victoria. Veniet veniet tamen dies, quæ raptam dabit, quæ victum invictum reddet. Vis plura lector, scias honestis ortas parentibus et quondam hujus locis nunc beatoris incolas."

In the middle of the chancel lays a large grey stone, whereon has been the portraiture, in brass, of a priest, the stone rimmed with the same metal; the upper part of the portrait remained in the time of Blomefield; with part of the rim, and these words-sexti qui obiit die Sabbati. There have also been four shields, one at each corner, of which the two lowest only remain, viz. a pelican vulning himself, with two keys, in saltire, round which-Aperite mihi portas justitie. Blomefield takes this monument to be in memory of Henry Keys, admitted rector of this church 1405, &c. Here is also a singular brass, in the shape of a heart, with the sacramental cup represented in the centre. It is to the memory of Henry Newman. Mr. Cotman, who has represented this in his Brasses, says "I have added this, because it is a brass of an unusual shape; it is the memorial too of a rector of Penthorp, who has no other, his name not being enumerated in the list of rectors of that parish. By the form of the cup, he probably lived towards the end of the fifteenth century." On the south side of the chancel are three stalls or arches, of stone, for the bishop, archdeacon, and rector. The church porch, by the date thereon, appears to have been built in 1497: it was used as a magazine for the hundred of Gallow in 1602, and on the twenty-third of

June in that year, "xxvii. lbs., xxix. lbs., and xxiiii. lbs. of powder, to be lodged there, with quantities of matches, pickaxes, axes, &c." On the belfry, which was built and painted at the charge of one Salmon, are the arms of Gourney, also Or, three escutcheons, azure, each charged with a lion rampant, argent. The east end of the south aisle has been an old chapel; on the pavement lies a black marble. At the east end of the north aisle, (an ancient chapel dedicated to St. Mary, so called 1441), lies a grey stone. John Coole, by his will, dated 1494, desires to be buried in the chapel of St. Thomas the martyr, and gives his messuage in Fakenham mercate, with the garden, &c., sixty acres of land, and a cottage called Barbors, to be sold, with a close called Fox yard, to find a priest in St. Thomas's chapel, for his soul, &c.

The sessions-house or market-cross has been pulled down and removed. A factory has recently been established here, which promises to be of great importance in giving employment to the youth of its town and neighbourhood.

Fakenham is a small town, with a good corn market, attended by buyers from Wells, and other contiguous ports. The general market here is on Thursdays, when a large quantity of barley and wheat are sold by samples. The annual fairs are on Ash Wednesday, and November 11th.

The quarter-sessions for this part of the county were formerly held alternately at this town and at Walsingham; but since the turn of this place has been removed to Holt, the sessions-house has been appropriated to a school. On a neighbouring hill is still kept the sheriff's court for the whole county. In 1741, several coins of Henry VI. and VII., were dug up here. Fakenham was greatly damaged by fire, August 4th, 1738, when twenty-six houses were destroyed. This is not the Fakenham celebrated by Bloomfield, the village mentioned in the 'Farmer's Boy,' is in Suffolk. There are three good schools here, one for young gentlemen, and two for females. A relation of the late professor Porson, superintended the Latin and French department. Fakenham is distant from Lynn twenty-two, Swaffham sixteen, from Holt twelve, from Wells ten, and from London one hundred and eleven miles.

A very laudable Institution, called the "Fakenham Provident Society," established here for the benefit of the widows and orphans of deceased members, was first instituted

in 1795, from which the widow of any member who shall have been a subscriber for the space of two years, is entitled to an annuity of 25l. increasable at the direction of the general committee, and according as the fund, which agreeably to the yearly statement, March 1825, amounted to the sum of 24,1141. 2s. 5d. shall grow in prosperity. It is also provided, that in case a member leaves no widow, or the widow dies, marries again, or bears an illegitimate child, the annuity is then payable to the child or children of the deceased member, until the youngest child attain the age of eighteen years. The management is vested in four trustees, and a committee of twenty-two members; assisted by subdivision committees in Norwich, Lynn, Yarmouth, Dereham, Holt, Swaffham, North Walsham, Downham, Docking, &c. Treasurers for the society, Messrs. Gurney and Co.; secretary Mr. N. Raven, Wissonsett. The number of widows at present receiving annuities, is ninety-seven; orphans, fourteen. The increase of the funds from March, 1824, to March, 1825, was 2,118l. 5s. 3d. The present number of members of this society, is 1,516.

The Wensum, which flows through the meadows of this town, has been supposed capable of being made navigable to Norwich and Yarmouth, and some meetings for this purpose have taken place, but without effect.

Althorpe.-A small hamlet, lying about two miles to the north-east of Fakenham. The inhabitants pay both small and great tythes to the rector of Fakenham, and come to that church. Formerly, (in 1419), it had a chapel dedicated to All Saints. Similarly situated and circumstanced with Althorpe, is the village of Thorpland.

FULMONDESTON with Croxton. Nineteen miles. St. Mary. P. 331.-William de Grancourt,* who was lord here in the forty-fifth of Henry III., and in the fifty-second of that king was witness to several writs, dated November 21, directed to the sheriff of Norfolk, and several other sheriffs, reciting that whereas the king had great occasion for mo

• The family of the Graucourts were early enfeoffed of this manor; Walter, son of William de Grancourt, was lord in the eleventh year of king John, when he gave to that mouarch a good hawk, to be exempt from any assize, exeept between barons; and in the fourteenth of that king, William de Bellomonte gave to the king sixty marks to have the custody of William de Grancourt, who was indicted for killing a man, but was rectus in curia. In the third of Henry III. when he gave a mark to have a pone against William de Burnham.

L L

ney, by reason of his foreign and domestic affairs, that, as he would avoid corporal punishment, loss of his goods, and the king's anger, he should speedily pay four hundred marks of the money due on the summons of the last iter of the justices in that county; otherwise, he should know that the king would chastise his neglect in such a manner that his punishment should teach others how to perform the king's commands. There is a manor in the parish of Fulmondeston, independent of the manor in the Holkham family.

Croxton and Clipston accounted as hamlets to Fulmondeston, having the same lords. The chapel or church of Croxton is without a steeple, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist. Here are inscriptions to the memory of Daniel Green,* A. M., and Fassett.-Inclosure act, 1808.

HELHOUGHTON, (or Helgheton). Twenty-four miles. All Saints. P. 322.-Formerly written Halgatun, from Hal or Al, and Ga, in Saxon, a town all by the water. Here was the guild of St. Thomas. Here is the manor of St. Faith's, or Horsham Priory.-Inclosure act, 1819.

HEMPTON. Twenty-four miles. No church. P. 299. A church, dedicated to St. Andrew, was standing in the twelfth of Henry VII.

Hampton priory was first an hospital, and afterwards a priory for Black canons, of the Augustine order. In the second of king John, the archdeacon of Worcester, (probably Brancaster) gave a palfrey to the king for a fair, to be held yearly on Whit Tuesday, for the profit and uses of the brethren of the hospital of St Stephen, as then called, by the causey of Fakenham, which fair is held at this time in Hempton-green, and is considerable. Beside the fair

An elegant inscription to his memory, on the north wall of the chancel of this church, must not be passed over: he bears on a shield, argent, a cross, ingrailed gules, crest, a buck trippant, proper, with a laurel in his mouth. P. M.S. DANIEL GREEN, A. M. Coll. S. S. Trin. apud Cantab. quondam socius nuper eccles, de Fulmodeston, cum Croxton, annos plus quadriginta rector, omni literarum genere exornatus, singulis provinciæ quadruplicis muneribus, in officinis jure suis præclare functus, sacerdotis, pædagogi, mariti, et patris, posteris imitandum. Maximis fn Deam pietatis, et optimis in hominem virtutis, limatum officiis edidit exemplar. Et cum indigno de mundo bene diu meruisset, magno perdignus honore in cœlum, alumnos conjugem et sobolem, charus cœlestem, spretis mandanis benedictionem obnixe precatus, ultimum amicis dixit vale, et migravit defetus. Interim autem Deo clementissimo ingrato orbi et terræ, fœcundæ ad resurrectionem tandem aliquando sperans meliora, animam humillime famam provide, corpus libenter, foris juxta depositum, commisit impertivit, reliquit p. J. fi. S. Ao. Dom, 1700, Etat 71.

above mentioned, another on the vigil and feast of St. Martin, belonging to them, (still kept, remarkable for the sale of cattle), and held in the fourteenth of Edward I., when the prior also claimed a mercate on Tuesday, at Hempton. The common seal of this priory was, in 1449, oblong, of red wax, with the image of St. Peter standing in an arch, between two tapers, and under this the prior in an arch kneeling, with this legend

“Sigillum commune Sancti Stephani de Hempton."

HOUGHTON, (NEW). Thirty-three miles. St. Martin. P. 209. So called from its situation, which signifies high town. Why called Houghton in the Hole, we know not.Was held by the Cheyneys, the Belets, and the Walpoles. The latter family took their name from the town of Walpole in Marshland. Reginaldus de Walpole, who lived in the reign of Henry I. is thought to be the lineal ancestor of the present family; of whom Edward Walpole, esq., married Lucy, daughter of sir Terry Robsert, and heir to Amy, first wife of sir Robert Dudley, the great earl of Leicester, of which Amy see an account under the article Sydestrand. The church of Houghton, rebuilt by sir Robert Walpole, is a regular pile, with a steeple. At the west end of the nave is a monument raised about a foot from the pavement, in form of a coffin, on the lid or cover, which is an entire piece of grey marble, is carved an antique figure of a prior or abbot, in his robes, his hands spread on his breast, above them is a cross; his head is shaven, and a dæmon is represented crouchant at his feet. Blomefield thinks it to have been executed in the reign of Edward I. in memory of a prior of Coxford, from whence, as tradition reports, it was brought to Houghton after the dissolution. Here are inscriptions to the memory of Pyckard de Howeton, who died M,VC, X also to the Walpoles, Turner, &c.

Houghton Hall* is the seat of George James Cholmondeley, marquis of Cholmondeley. In the year 1722, sir Robert

I also saw Houghton, which is the most triste melancholy fine place I ever beheld. 'Tis a heavy, ugly, black building, with an ugly black stone. The hall, saloon, and gallery, very fine, the rest not in the least so. But the pictures-the most glorions collection, [since sent to Russia,] both for number and choice in this country, or perhaps in any other, those of the duke of Orleans' excepted. I stayed there but three hours, but could have given more weeks to have examined them thoroughly.-Vide Lepel's Letters.