Through East Anglia in a Motor CarVincent, James Edmund
General
Through East Anglia in a Motor Car
Vincent, James Edmund
Norfolk (England) -- Description and travel; Suffolk (England) -- Description and travel
The whole distance from Wells to King's Lynn, by way of Fakenham, which was
our way, is a generous thirty miles; but the going was so good and the
roads were so clear that we entered the great square of the old-fashioned
Lynn a little too early for luncheon, having regard to the fact that
engagements in the world which we had put out of sight began to bulk rather
large in the near future. The single town of any interest we passed through
before reaching Lynn was Fakenham; and we agreed with Mr. Rye that it is "a
particularly clean and pleasant market town, with several good
old-fashioned inns, especially the 'Crown.'" That is to say the first
statement is endorsed from experience; as to the second the responsibility
rests with Mr. Rye. Here also, for those who care to halt, is a singularly
fine church showing many a crowned "L" in stone to testify that Fakenham
was once the head-quarters in Norfolk of the Duchy of Lancaster. As for
Lynn, some of us had visited it before, one had sojourned in it long (but
his tale is postponed), and time, as has been mentioned, began to press a
little. Drifting on the roads, careless of where you shall eat or where
sleep, is delightful, but for most of us it cannot go on indefinitely, and
therein, probably, consists its chief charm. It is of the essence of a
"treat," to use the good old word of childhood, that it should be more or
less exceptional. So, at King's Lynn, we did but halt for a space at the
"Globe" in the corner of the wide and cobbled square and, although a little
rain began to fall, compel the new-comers to walk about a little, and look
at the narrow streets, the estuary of the Ouse, and the Custom-house. The
compulsion had better have been omitted, for Lynn with its streets empty of
people, with the rain falling, and with the tide out, assuredly does not
allure, and that was the state of things on this Sunday morning in April.
In other circumstances, as it is hoped to prove ere long, Lynn and its
people are much more attractive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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