Further on, between Swaffham and the sea-coast, there are not many places that seem to demand very particular notice. _Babingley_ and _Sharnborne_, which both lie that way, are traditionally reported to contain the sites of the two first christian places of worship among the East-Anglians, and supposed to have been erected in the seventh century. In the same way lies _Snettisham_, a large village, said to have been formerly a town, with a weekly market on Fridays. Here also have been dug up several of those instruments, in the shape of hatchet-heads, with handles to them, usually denominated celts, {207b} which, if taken to be British, as is most generally thought, or even Roman, as has been judged by others, most denote that Snettisham is a place of no inconsiderable antiquity. _Brancaster_ has been already noticed, as once a famous Roman station; and it may be here added, that it has of late years attracted no small attention on account of its _great malt house_, built with a view to the export trade, and supposed to be the largest edifice of that kind in the kingdom; being 312 feet in length, by 31 in breadth, and furnished with all the necessary offices and conveniences for conducting the malting process on a large scale: 420 quarters of barley, are said to have been there wetted weekly, during the malting season. To the west of Brancaster and the said great malt-house, and not far off, is the village of _Hunstanton_, or _Hunston_, as it is most commonly called: near to which, on a cliff, overlooking Lynn Roads and the entrance into Lynn Haven, and elevated ninety feet above high-water mark, stands the _Hunston Light-house_, which is upon a different construction from other English light-houses, and supposed superior to any of them. It is lighted by lamps and reflectors, instead of coals, on a much improved and very judicious plan, the merit of which is due to MR. WALKER _of Lynn_, by whom it was invented, and under whose direction it was here executed in 1778.—This light is communicated by 18 concave reflectors, each of eighteen inches diameter. They are fixed upon two shelves, one placed over the other in such a manner that the strongest light may be seen where it is most wanted. In the N by E direction a strong light is necessary for ships to avoid the dangerous sands and shoals on the Lincolnshire coast; here therefore are placed seven reflectors in the space of two points of the compass, which will appear at some distance as one light. In other directions a weaker light is sufficient. A single reflector, with a lamp of ten single threads of cotton placed in the focus of the curve, which is a parabola, will appear, at 15 miles distance, larger than a star of the first magnitude:—that is, if the glass be kept clean, and the lamp trimmed; otherwise, instead of light, there will no doubt be found obscurity, for which no blame can attach to the projector. {209}