We cannot pass from this part of our subject without noticing an interesting episode in the history of the town which belongs to this period. About the year 1571 the resident population of Lowestoft was temporarily enlarged by the hospitable reception of a number of “Dutch Folk,” as they are called in the register. These were refugees from the Low Countries, who sought shelter in this country, at the invitation of Elizabeth, from the ruthless persecution of the Duke of Alva. Thousands of these Protestant refugees were admitted into English towns—some 4,000 into Norwich. Swinden gives us a copy of a letter of Elizabeth written in 1568 to Yarmouth, asking them to admit 30 Dutch families to the privileges of their town. Whether a similar letter was written to Lowestoft we know not, but it is evident from the register that quite as large a number as this must have found asylum here, and made it their home for some three or four years. Marriages, christenings, and burials of “Dutch Folk” appear frequently in the register during these years, and the fact that among the burials for one year (1573) no less than 10 Dutch names appear, shews that there were a considerable number then living here. Among the names are some that seem to belong to families of rank. They left about the year 1574, when Alva had been recalled; and when the terror of his executions had been replaced by a patriotic eagerness to take part in the war which was soon to result in the Freedom of the Netherlands. The following account of the home comforts enjoyed by the less wealthy of our ancestors in the early part of the 16th century, as compared with the incipient luxury of the Elizabethan age, is given us by the author of the “Chronicles of Holinshed,” who lived during this period.