The fletcher—or maker of bows and arrows—represented a trade soon to become obsolete, except for supplying bows and arrows for the sport of archery, which was very much in fashion at this time and took the place of cricket and football matches of our day. Pistols and arquebuses were already in use as firearms for military purposes, and fowling-pieces were beginning to be used by sportsmen, who could afford to buy them. We have evidence of their having already reached Lowestoft in the entry of a burial of a person who “met his death with a gun.” Bows and arrows, were, however, not altogether discarded for military purposes. In 1569. Elizabeth sent an order to Yarmouth to provide 50 bows and 50 sheaves of arrows, amongst other preparations to be made against the coming war with Spain, or France, or both together, with which England was threatened all through Elizabeth’s reign; and in the reports to the Government of the piratical proceedings of our sea hawks (which we have spoken of before) we hear of a case where they attacked their quarry, not only “by shooting of cannon at them, but by firing at them flights of innumerable arrows.” Bows and arrows were probably still to be found in the houses of farmers and peasants in Lothingland, to be used for sporting as well as fighting purposes. The Queen herself was very fond of hunting, and often shot small deer with the long bow, as well as with the arblast or crossbow. The person described as a Proctor must have been a local lawyer, affiliated to Doctors’ Commons, and endowed with some special authority in the matter of wills. Only one person’s name appears in our period described as a surgeon. He died in 1585, one of those terrible years when Lowestoft was visited by the plague or some infectious disease, to which he apparently fell a victim. We only notice the name of one chymney-sweeper. There may have been more. But as we shall see further on, chimneys were only now coming into fashion and were as yet only to be found in the newer or best houses. This sketch, imperfect as it is, of the trades and occupations of the inhabitants of our town, will, I think, leave no doubt in your minds that Lowestoft was at this time a very respectable little town—well represented by residents of every grade in the social scale—and frequented by the inhabitants of Lothingland, and the adjoining parishes in the south, for shopping and business purposes. Indeed, that the neighbourhood was more dependent on Lowestoft for shopping purposes than now, we can understand, when we bear in mind the absence or extreme badness of the roads, which rendered communication with any town beyond Beccles difficult and expensive. Yarmouth was not far off; but Yarmouth although richer and more populous, could not afford counter attractions to Lowestoft as a shopping town, at all events for the residents on the Suffolk side of the water. LOWESTOFT AS A MARKET TOWN.