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. 8 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.-Archeologia, 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 of whose deanery, 1681, the prebends were these: Mr. Joseph Loveland, Dr. William Smith, year (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. 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. 305 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. MISCELLANIES. CONCERNING THE TOO NICE CURIOSITY OF CENSURING THE PRESENT, OR JUDGING INTO FUTURE DISPENSATIONS.1 [POSTHUMOUS WORKS, p. 23. MS. SLOAN. 1885 & 1869.] WE have enough to do rightly to apprehend and consider things as they are, or have been, without amusing ourselves how they might have been otherwise, or what variations, consequences, and differences might have otherwise arisen upon a different face of things, if they had otherwise fallen out in the state or actions of the world. The learned King Alphonso would have had the calf of a man's leg placed before rather than behind: and thinks he could find many commodities from that position. If, in the terraqueous globe, all that now is land had been sea, and all that is sea were land, what wide difference there would be in all things, as to constitution of climes, tides, disparity of navigation, and many other concerns, were a long consideration. If Sertorius had pursued his designs to pass his days in the Fortunate Islands, who can tell but we might have had many noble discoveries of the neighbouring coasts of Africa; and perhaps America had not been so long unknown to us. 1 Concerning, &c.] This most incorrect title I strongly incline to suspect is not genuine. This piece and the following are mere extracts from Sir Thomas's Common Place Book.-Different copies of the first occur in two volumes of MSS. in the Sloanian Collection, from which I have inserted several additional passages. |