England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign TravelCook, Joel
History
England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel
Cook, Joel
England -- Description and travel
Norwich Castle is a massive block of masonry crowning the summit of a
mound. Who first built it is unknown, but he is said by popular
tradition to sit buried in his chair and full armed deep down in the
centre of this mound, and "ready for all contingencies." But the castle
has degenerated into a jail, and the great square tower or keep,
ninety-five feet square and seventy feet high, is the only part of the
original structure remaining. It has been refaced with new stone, and
the interior has also been completely changed. The moat is planted with
trees, and on the outside slope the cattle-market is held every
Saturday. Norwich has some historical structures. In its grammar school
Nelson was a scholar, and his statue stands on the green. On the edge of
Tombland stands the house of Sir John Falstaff, a brave soldier and
friend of literature, whose memory is greatly prized in Norfolk, but
whose name has been forgotten by many in the shadow of Shakespeare's
"Fat Jack." The chief centre of the town, however, is the market-place,
on the slope of a hill, where modernized buildings have replaced some of
the more antique structures. Here stands the ancient Guildhall, which in
1413 replaced the old Tolbooth where the market-dues were paid. Within
is the sword surrendered to Nelson by Admiral Winthuysen at the battle
of St. Vincent, and by him presented to the chief city of his native
county of Norfolk. In the olden time the glory of Norwich was the Duke
of Norfolk's palace, but it was destroyed at the end of the seventeenth
century by the then duke in a fit of anger because the mayor would not
permit his troop of players to march through the town with trumpets
blowing. Not a brick of it now stands, the site being covered with small
houses. Norwich was formerly famous for its trade in woollens, the Dutch
introducing them at the neighboring village of Worsted, whence the name.
Now, the coal-mines have aided the spinning-jenny, but the worsteds are
overshadowed by other Norwich manufactures. Colman's mustard-factories
cover ten acres, and Barnard's ornamental iron-work from Norwich is
world-renowned. Norwich also contains an enormous brewery, but in this
the city is not singular, for what is a Briton without his beer?
BURGHLEY HOUSE.
[Illustration: BURGHLEY HOUSE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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