“Next morning I went to see Sir Thomas Browne, with whom I had some time corresponded by letter, though I had never seen him before. His whole house and garden being a paradise and cabinet of rarities, and that of the best collections, especially medails, books, plants, and natural things. Amongst other curiosities, Sir Thomas had a collection of the eggs of all the foule and birds he could procure, that country (especially the promontory of Norfolk) being frequented, as he said, by severall kinds, which seldome or never go further into the land, as cranes, storkes, eagles, and a variety of water foule. He led me to see all the remarkable places in this ancient city, being one of the largest, and certainly, after London, one of the noblest in England for its venerable Cathedralle, number of stately churches, cleanesse of the streets, and buildings of flints so exquistely headed and squared, as I was much astonished at; but he told me they had lost the art of squaring the flints in which they once so much excelled, and of which the churches, best houses, and walls are built. The Castle is an antique extent of ground which now they call Marsfield, and would have been a fitting area to have placed the ducal palace in. The suburbs are large, the prospects are sweete, with other amenities, not omitting the flower gardens, in which all the inhabitants excel.” At that time the hamlets of Thorpe, Lakenham, and Heigham, were all fields or cultivated grounds and gardens, and the city was interspersed with gardens. _Dr. Samuel Clarke_.