Queen Elizabeth made a progress through Suffolk and Norfolk, from the 16th to the 22nd August, 1578. She came on horseback from Ipswich to Norwich, though she had several coaches in her train; and she lodged in the Bishop’s Palace. For several days she was entertained by splendid pageantries, principally allusive to the trade and manufactures of the city. Whilst here she dined publicly in the North Alley of the Cathedral Cloister, and often went a hunting on horseback, and to witness wrestling and shooting on Mousehold heath. The city records contain full details of the pageantries on the occasion of the royal visit. In no other city was the Queen received with greater cordiality and pageantry than in Norwich. The corporation, the inhabitants, the clergy, with the nobility and gentry of the county, contributed largely to afford the royal lady as pleasant and costly a reception as should be pleasing to her as a spectacle, and demonstrative of exuberant loyalty. This joy was soon turned into mourning; for, says a record known as the _Norwich Roll_, “The trains of Her Majesty’s carriage being many of them infected, left the plague behind them, which afterwards increased and contynued, as it raged about a year and three quarters.” Nearly 5000 fell victims to this dreadful malady. In 1578, Matthew Hamond, of Hethersett, wheelwright, a heretic and blasphemer, being convicted of reviling the queen and of denying the authority of the Scriptures, the Godhead, the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the existence of the Holy Ghost, was set in the pillory on May 13th, and both his ears were nailed. Afterwards, on May 20th, he was burnt in the castle ditch. In 1587 and 1588 Francis Knight and Peter Cole, of Ipswich, were burnt in the same place for their deistical sentiments.