The value of the “goods” lost by the fire is put at £3,066. This amount of property was owned by some 60 out of the three or four hundred householders which the town contained. The loss of Mr. Josiah Wilde was put at £280; the loss of Mr. Robert Bits at £370. As the small sum of £2 is given as the value of the goods lost by some of the smaller sufferers, we must regard the valuation of goods destroyed as sufficiently trustworthy to give an idea of the value of the stock in trade and furniture possessed by the merchants and tradesmen of the town at this period. A comparison of this valuation with the £790 returned as the value of the “movabyll goods” possessed by our townspeople in 1524, shews how largely the wealth of our merchants had increased since that time, notwithstanding the decay of their fisheries, and the other adverse circumstances against which they had been struggling, and how great had been the increase in the furniture and other commodities of life, which was noticed by Holinshed as commencing in Elizabeth’s time. But even so the inhabitants generally must have been very poor and badly housed compared with the present day. Putting 1,500 acres (nearly the whole acreage of the Parish) as the quantity of land valued in 1642 at £447. 11. 8. we have an annual value at that time of about 6 shillings an acre. The quantity of land in the Parish now rated as agricultural land is about 760 acres, and the rateable value £994 or about 28 shillings per acre; not 5 times its value in 1642. Putting 400 as the number of houses having an aggregate value in 1642 of £412 we should have an average annual value of about £1 per house. The number of houses now in the parish (of course apart from Kirkley), is 4,867 and the rateable value £77,680, giving an average value of about £16 per house, or 16 times that of 1642. This very great increase of value represents in the main the difference in the character of the dwellings in which our ancestors lived, and of those required by an advanced civilization. Writing in 1790 Gillingwater gives the following description of the town at that time:— “Lowestoft is about a mile in length, and consists chiefly of one principal street, running in a gradual descent from north to south, which is intersected by several smaller streets or lanes from the west. It is well paved, particularly High street, and consists of about 445 houses, exclusive of fish-houses, which are chiefly built of brick. Several of the houses have been lately rebuilt in the modern style, and make a handsome appearance. _It is probable that the town consists of much the same number of houses now as it had many years ago_; _there being very few houses erected upon new foundations_, _but only rebuilt upon the old ones_. _Lowestoft contains about 2,231 inhabitants_.” {92} PART II.—IN THE TIME OF CHARLES II. THIRD AND LAST CONTEST WITH YARMOUTH ABOUT THEIR CHARTER.—CONCLUSION.