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the Wash is both difficult and dangerous, and can be safely undertaken only by experienced pilots, who by long practice have made themselves acquainted with the position of the various banks.

On the 14th of October, 1266, as King John was attempting to ford the Wash at low water, and had already got across himself with the greater part of his army, the return of the tide suddenly swept away the carriages and horses which conveyed all his baggage and treasures, which so preyed upon the king's mind that that same night he was seized with a violent fever, from which he never recovered. The common account was that he was poisoned. Shakespeare, in his King John makes one of the characters tell

us

"Half my power this night,

Passing these flats, are taken by the tide ;
These Lincoln washes have devoured them;
Myself, well-mounted, hardly have escaped."

And again, the same person says :—

For, in a night, the best part of my power,
As I upon advantage did remove,
Were in the washes, all unwarily

Devoured by the unexpected flood."

On the southern side of the Wash, in the county of Norfolk, stands the very old town of Lynn. The old name of the town was Bishop's Lynn, but King Henry VIII. changed it into Lynn Regis, or King's Lynn. It occupies a place in our literature. It was in the grammar school of this town that Eugene Aram, whose story is familiar to every one, was acting as usher, when he was arrested on a charge of murder, committed many years before, brought to York, tried, condemned, and executed.

"That very night, while gentle sleep

The urchin eyelids kiss'd,

Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn,
Through the cold and heavy mist;
And Eugene Aram walked between,
With gyves upon his wrist."

HOOD.

At no great distance from Lynn stands Sandringham Hall, the country residence of the Prince of Wales, who spends many months of the year at this pleasant spot.

LESSON V.

The Wash to Yarmouth.

FROM Lynn the coast runs to the east, and then bends round to the south and south-west, and follows, in the main, this direction until we reach the mouth of the Thames. The greater part of this coast is low, and is exposed to continual encroachments from the sea. No part of our coast has undergone more remarkable changes than the part we are now describing. Many towns and villages have disappeared altogether, having been washed away by the sea; whilst, in other parts, the sea has retired, and dry land now exists where formerly there was sea.

Opposite Yarmouth, the shore is skirted by sand-banks. The channel between these sand-banks and the coast is called Yarmouth Roads, and affords a safe anchorage for vessels when overtaken by the storms which rage so frequently in the German Ocean. Charles Dickens has written a famous story,* a great part of the interest of which is connected with Yarmouth. He gives the following account of a storm on that coast :

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As we struggled on, nearer and nearer to the sea, from which this mighty wind was blowing dead on shore, its

"David Copperfield." Yarmouth was the home of little Emily, and of the Peggotties. The extract is from the description of the storm in which Steerforth was drowned.

upon us.

force became more and more terrific. Long before we saw the sea its spray was on our lips, and showered salt rain The water was out over miles and miles of the flat country adjacent to Yarmouth, and every sheet and puddle lashed its banks, and had its stress of little breakers setting heavily towards us. When we came within sight of the sea, the waves on the horizon, caught at intervals above the rolling abyss, were like glimpses of another shore with towers and buildings.

"I put up at the old inn, and went down to look at the sea, staggering along the street, which was strewn with sand and sea-weed, and with flying blotches of sea-foam. Coming near the beach I saw, not only the boatmen, but half the people of the town, lurking behind buildings, some, now and then, braving the fury of the storm to look away to sea, and blown sheer out of their course in trying to get zigzag back.

"Joining these groups, I found bewailing women, whose husbands were away in herring or oyster boats, which, there was too much reason to think, might have foundered before they could run in anywhere for safety. Grizzled old sailors were among the people, shaking their heads as they looked from water to sky, and muttering to one another; children, huddling together, and peering into older faces; even stout mariners, disturbed and anxious, levelling their glasses at the sea from behind places of shelter, as if they were surveying an enemy.

"The tremendous sea itself confounded me. As the high watery walls came rolling in, and at their highest tumbled into surf, they looked as if the least would engulf the town. As the receding wave swept back with a hoarse roar, it seemed to scoop out deep caves in the beach, as if its purpose were to undermine the earth."

Such is a storm on the Yarmouth coast, and we can easily

understand how, in such circumstances, the Roads will be crowded with vessels of all sorts and of all sizes, which have run in to find shelter. Large numbers of coasting vessels, chiefly occupied in the coal trade, pass Yarmouth on their way to London, and it is no uncommon sight to see hundreds of these riding in the Roads until the storm has blown over. During the great war against Napoleon towards the end of last, and at the beginning of this, century, the Roads was one of the stations for our North Sea fleet, employed to watch our shores against invasions from the Continent.

Yarmouth is one of the most important fishing stations in England. As many as 300 boats are employed in this trade during the season. Yarmouth "bloaters," which are dried herrings, are found all over the kingdom. Inland from Yarmouth, but having a sea connection by means of a canal from the river Waveney to the river Yare, is Norwich, the capital of the county of Norfolk, and one of the oldest towns in England. It seems pretty evident that in the time of the Romans, the site of Norwich was covered with water, and that, by the gradual accumulation of alluvial matter, islands were formed. This much is certain, that during the times of the Heptarchy, there was erected upon what was then a promontory a royal fortress, and that merchants and fishermen sought the protection of the castle, and thus laid the foundation of the town. Norwich, at the present day, carries on a considerable trade in the manufacture of silk and worsted goods; and, among its public buildings, the most important are the castle and the cathedral, the latter dating from the year 1094.

LESSON VI

Yarmouth to the Thames.

As we pass on from Yarmouth towards the south, the

coast retains its low and marshy character, with occasional cliffs of shingle, gravel, or red loam. In the northern part of Suffolk stands Lowestoft, built on the top of a cliff facing the sea, from which it is separated by a beach in some parts nearly half-a-mile wide. It is the most easterly point in England. As we pass the mouth of the Orwell, we may take a peep at Ipswich, one of the oldest towns in this part of England. It was the birth-place of the celebrated Cardinal Wolsey, who, in the reign of Henry VIII. attained to great power, and whose sudden fall has been the fruitful theme of many a warning against ambition. Shakespeare connects him with Ipswich in the following lines from his play of "Henry the Eighth":

"He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading.
And though he was unsatisfied in getting
(Which was a sin), yet in bestowing
He was most princely; ever witness for him.
Those twins of learning that he raised in you
Ipswich and Oxford; one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it."

Taking steamer at Ipswich we can run down to Harwich, in the northern extremity of Essex, situated at the end of a spit of land that runs into the estuary formed by the Orwell and Stour. It possesses one of the best harbours on the east coast of England. It has been made a harbour of refuge, is the only safe harbour on the coast, and is in the direct line of traffic between the Thames and the northern ports of the kingdom as well as of the trade from the north of Europe.

A little to the south of Harwich is the promontory called the Naze, the most easterly point of Essex. This point extended formerly much farther towards the east. The ruins of buildings have been found at considerable distances from the shore. A short distance south of the Naze, we

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