Transcribed from the 1897 Edward J. Lupson edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org, using scans from the British Library. WRITTEN FOR VISITORS. THE ANCIENT ROWS OF GREAT YARMOUTH: Their Names. Why so Constructed, AND What Visitors have written about them, ALSO A DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH OF YARMOUTH BEACH. [Picture: Signature of E. J. Lupson] “And the Rows! them long bars of the gridiron, That Dickens hev wrote on—so quare; Them ere Rows are a great institution, In the town at the mouth of the Yare.” ———:o——— ILLUSTRATED: PRICE TWOPENCE. ———:o——— Yarmouth: EDWARD J. LUPSON, CHURCH PLAIN. * * * * * ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL. THE ROWS OF GREAT YARMOUTH. [Picture: Entrance to row 117] THE two most remarkable and noteworthy features of the ancient Borough of Great Yarmouth, that remain unchanged to the present day, are the Parish Church, and the unique series of long, narrow passages, known by the general name of Rows. The wonderful proportions and interesting features of the renowned Church having been duly examined, these singularly confined thoroughfares next claim the attention of the intelligent visitor. On seeing them for the first time, the query naturally arises in the mind, why were they constructed in this peculiar manner, so opposed to all prevailing ideas? Thoughtful minds have ingeniously surmised sundry motives; but the preponderating belief is probably the most correct one, viz., the builders’ desire to economise the limited area at their disposal within the walls of the fortifications. In early times the population of Yarmouth grew apace; numbers of enterprising persons from various places being attracted thither by the flourishing fishing operations that were carried on here. Manship, in his History of Yarmouth, states that within four hundred years from the time when “from a sand in the sea, by the deflection of the tides, Yarmouth grew dry and firm land, whereby it became habitable; the population grew to a great multitude, over whom, at the beginning of the Reign of Henry I., a Provost was appointed.” It may be mentioned, by the way, that it was in this reign the Parish Church of St. Nicholas was built. The population of Yarmouth, in the year 1348, numbered ten thousand. We can, therefore, without difficulty, understand how valuable space would be in those early times, and how general the desire to make the most of it.