Goldwell Hall, Caldwell Hall, or, as it was afterwards designated on account of the frigidity of its stern and haughty bigot, Mistress Alice De Clinton, Cold Hall, was a spacious building, and stood upon an imposing eminence at the eastern boundary of Ipswich, being held by the Bishop of Norwich, as guardian of his niece, and afterwards appropriated to religious purposes by its proud possessor. It was there that, in the times of the persecution of the Protestants in Suffolk, many of those furious zealots who sat in conclave upon the Reformers used to meet and deliberate upon the best method of putting an end to the growing errors of enlightenment. Alice De Clinton had, like many haughty favorites, learned to hate the unfortunate Wolsey, when she found herself no longer supported in the dignity of her imperial influence in his house. Alice retired from the splendor of Wolsey's court, carried with her the keenest hatred of the Reformers, on the very account of Ellen's reception at York Place; but when she came to Goldwell Hall--when she found that Latimer, Ellen, and Lord De Freston, were the most popular friends of the heretics, and lived in Ipswich, beloved by thousands--it was said that even her cold, stern, and immoveable nature was roused to rage, and she exclaimed-- 'The fire shall burn them or me!' Strange language for a high-born dame; but in those days, as in these, unsubdued tempers, fed by superstition, will be guilty of any cruelties, and yet call them virtues. Alice was a compound of hatred, such a character as can scarcely be seen now-a-days; she would have pricked the dead tongue of Ellen with a savage joy, could she have had it plucked out and laid before her whilst she had a bodkin in her hand. She fed hatred in her own bosom very willingly, and the insidious priests of Rome found her hall so cold to anything like love, that they could induce her to believe and almost to do anything they bade her. Rome was an idol in her heart, because it suited the pride of her nature. The religion of Rome, which was corrupted so as to exalt the Virgin Mary into being styled the Queen of Heaven, was easily adapted to make a proud woman believe she was a sort of queen upon earth. The elevation it gave to female influence in the affairs of the church--the pretended excellence which it attributed to female devotion, when carried to external self-denials, instead of inward humility--all tended to puff up the owner of Goldwell Hall, and make her conceive that she had more influence in the church than the bishop, and much more dignity than if she had gone to Winton. She was closeted with Father Mortimer Duncan and Thomas Pountenay, priests of St. John the Baptist, in which chapelry stood the domain of Goldwell, and talking to them about the then unsettled state of affairs in the church; and something may be gathered very instructive from their conversation, as showing the kind of intrigue then going on under the garb of devotion.