The existence of Burgh Castle at the northern extremity of Lothingland is also strong evidence that the detached portion of the mainland was no more an island then than it is now. Such a fortress would be absurdly out of place to protect the country from an invader, if there was another open water-way at Lowestoft through which he could enter. From these and the other considerations to which I have called your attention we may feel certain that the estuarine condition of the interior had ceased to exist as long ago as the Roman period, and that our marshland area was already in a condition of fen and bog, through which the Yare, and the Waveney, and the Bure flowed in their present channels to their joint outfall between Burgh and Caister, some thousand years before any historic Norwich or Beccles existed. The hill on which Lowestoft was destined to rise in after ages, was probably often visited by the Roman soldiers as they passed to and fro between their fortress at Burgh and their camp in the interior, but no relics have as yet been discovered bearing testimony to either Roman or British occupation of the site of our town, though Roman coins have been found at Kirkley, and Carlton and other places in our neighbourhood. PART II.—DOMESDAY BOOK. The most ancient record in which we find any mention of Lowestoft is Domesday Book. As this is the case with nearly every other town and parish in England, Lowestoft is not behind other places in evidence of antiquity. But Lowestoft not only appears in Domesday as a parish and a village, but it appears as a Royal manor—or at least as one of the numerous estates or demesnes held by William the Conqueror, as his private property—as the successor of Edward the Confessor and Canute. On the strength of this archæological distinction, the town in the time of Elizabeth and Charles I., claimed the privileges of lands in ‘ancient demesne.’ These privileges were that the town was excused from contributing to the expenses of the members of Parliament for the county, and its inhabitants were not to be called upon to go to Beccles or Bury as jurymen, but only to their own Manor Courts at Corton. The exercise of these privileges has, I understand, been abandoned for some time, and we have condescended to take part in the judicial and political system of the country like other places. What this ancient “demesne of the Crown” was we shall see presently. You have all, I doubt not, heard of Domesday Book, but you will be able to appreciate better the value and meaning of the information it gives us if I remind you shortly of its history.