In July 1469, Elizabeth Woodville, the queen of Edward IV., visited Norwich and remained here several days. Her majesty, with a great retinue, entered the city through “Westwyk Gate,” which was decorated for the occasion. John Parnell was brought from Ipswich to exercise his skill in ornamentation; and under his superintendence, a stage covered with red-and-green worsted was erected, adorned with figures of angels, escutcheons, and banners of the royal lady and the king, with a profusion of crowns, roses, fleur-de-lys, &c. Gilbert Spurling exhibited a fragment of the salutation of Mary and Elizabeth, which required from him a speech in explanation. In 1486, being the 1st Henry VII., on the rebellion of Lambert Simnel, who assumed the name of Edward Plantagenet, the king, expecting an invasion of the eastern parts of his kingdom, made a progress through Norfolk and Suffolk to confirm the inhabitants in their loyalty, and spent his Christmas at Norwich, when the city made him a handsome present. Hence he went a pilgrimage to Walsingham, so famous for its pretended miracles, where he made his vows; and after he returned victorious, he sent his banner to be offered there as an acknowledgment of his prayers having been heard. The monastic institutions of this city might claim the honour of having some learned men connected with them in the 15th century. Thomas Brinton, or Brampton, a monk of Norwich, attained to such an eminence in the schools of England that his fame was spread abroad, and he was sent for by the pope to Rome. He often preached before the pope in Latin, and being first made his penitentiary was afterwards raised to the see of Rochester. His sermons preached before the pope were published, with some others. John Stow, who flourished in 1440, was a Benedictine monk of the monastery of St. Saviour, in Norwich, and doctor of divinity of Oxford. It appears, by his works, that he was at the council of Basil. His works were _The Acts of the Council_ at Basil; various _Collections_; and _Solemn Disputations_, &c. John Mear, a monk of Norwich, and D.D. of Oxford, was a person of subtle art for explaining difficulties. He was divinity reader at several monasteries, and the author of several works, which have all been lost. CHAPTER XI. Norwich in the Sixteenth Century. AT the commencement of this century most of the houses in the city were built of wood with thatched roofs. This accounts for the number of fires which broke out at different times, and which, in 1507 and 1509, reduced a large portion of the city to ashes, no fewer than 718 houses being consumed in the latter year. These conflagrations induced the corporation, in 1509, to issue an order that no newly-erected buildings in the city should be covered with thatch, but this injunction not extending to those previously erected, some few still retain this dangerous covering.