In the East Country with Sir Thomas Browne

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IN THE EAST COUNTRY. In the East Country WITH Sir Thomas Browne, Kt. Physician and Philosopher of the City of NORWICH By Emma Marshall Aut/ior of Im Colston's Days Life's Aftermath, &*c\ LONDON SEELEY & CO. 46 47 S* 48 ESSEX STREET, STRAND (Late of 54 Fleet Street) 1885 All Rights Resemed. TO THE DEAR MEMORY 01 MY FATHER AND MOTHER, WHO WERE BOTH HORN IN THE ANCIENT CITY OF NORWICH, I DEDICATE, WITH TENDER AFFECTION, THIS STORY OF THE FAST COUNTRY. CONTENTS.

Part I. Pace Out In The Storm

3 IN THE CRINGLEFORD COTTAGE 23 TRUE OR FALSE ? so TWILIGHT DREAMS 78 IN THE PHYSICIAN'S HOME 107 THE ERPINGHAM GATEWAY 130 WAS IT ALL A DREAM ? 160 OUTAVARD BOUND 183 A GREAT VICTORY 206 TWO HEROES 231

Introduction

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THE central figure in this Story of the East Country in the reign of Charles the Second, is that of the author of the "Religio Medici," who practised as a physician in the city of Norwich for manyyears. The do mestic incidents of Sir Thomas Browne's life are gathered from his works and letters, edited by Simon Wilkin, of Norwich, in 1836, and re-published in 1852 in Bohn's Antiquarian Library. To these volumes I am indebted for the particulars of his two sons — Edward, who settled in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, as a physician, and attained to great eminence in his profession ; and

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. X Thomas, " Honest Tom," as his father delighted to call him. Tom was a sailor, and distinguished himself by his undaunted courage and noble conduct in the war with the Dutch in the years 1665 and 1666. No trace of this young sailor appears in the family records after 1667. But I have filled in the outline of his splendid career, and early death, with such details as imagination suggested to me as possible, if not probable. While the salient points in the life of the learned Physician are in the main correct, I need hardly say many of the circumstances and people, which surround him are wholly fictitious. It is remarkable that Sir Thomas Browne published his " Religio Medici " in 1642, a year memorable for the first scene in that long struggle between the King and the people, when fierce strife was raging in the country, and the nation was split up into parties, without regard to family ties ; when brother lifted his sword against brother, and father and son were often divided — the one giving in his allegiance to the King, the other to the Parliament.

But, although a Royalist, and loyal son of the Church of England, Sir Thomas Browne was by no means diverted from his philosophical research or literary work by the tumult around him. His LXTRODUCTION. XI museum of " natural curiosities," his garden, his flowers, and later, all the sweet interests of home, were not affected by the storm without. No one can read his letters to his sons, without being touched by the depth of his paternal love and care for their advancement, and education, in its best sense, of which they tell. Sir Thomas Browne sent his sons at a very early age to see the world, encouraging them to cultivate habits of observation, and to let nothing pass by unnoticed. His daughters, also, appear to have travelled in France again and again, and he followed his children with his thoughts and prayers, and kept up a constant correspondence with them during their travels.

As these letters are read, and the figure of the philosopher and physician takes shape — as the wise head of his household, the tender husband and father — it seems that a somewhat cold and distant appreciation of the author's quaint works belonging to a past age, changes into a sympathetic, and even affectionate regard. The study of his writings, more especially of that work by which he is best known, the " Religio Medici," is a labour of love which meets a rich reward. The colloquy with God — with which Sir Thomas Browne

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. XII says he took his farewell of the world every night — is to be found in its twelfth section, and is so beautiful that it deserves to be preserved. Bishop Ken's evening hymn contains many of its thoughts and aspirations, and it is interesting to compare them. " The night is come, like to the day ; Depart not thou, Great God, away. Let not my sins, black as the Night, Eclipse the Lustre of thy Light. Keep still in my Horizon ; for to me The Sun makes not the day, but thee. Thou whose nature cannot sleep, On my temples centry keep ; Guard me 'gainst those watchful Foes, Whose eyes are open while mine close. Let no Dreams my Head infest, But such as Jacob's Temples blest. While I do rest, my Soul advance : Make my sleep a Holy Trance : That I may, my rest being wrought. Awake into some holy thought, And with as active vigour ran My course as doth the Nimble Sun.

Sleep is a death, O make me try, By sleeping what it is to die : And as gently lay my Head On my Grave, as now my Bed. Howe'er I rest, Great God, let me Awake again al last with thee.

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. XIII And thus assur'd, behold I lie Securely, or to wake or die. These are my drowsie days ; in vain I do now wake to sleep again : O come that hour, when I shall never Sleep again, but wake for ever." I may quote here what has been said by one of our highest authorities on the growth and develop ment of English literature — Professor John Nichol, of Glasgow University — in a lecture upon the authors of the seventeenth century : — " But the greatest master of the quaint style of this, or I may add, of any age, was Sir Thomas Browne, the eccentric physician of Norwich, author of the ' Religio Medici.' He seems to have lived wholly in the past among traditions and mysteries, and mediæval theories of life and death, mingling the moderate scepticism of his science with a credulity that embraces Astrology, Alchemy, and Witchcraft, in a train of desultory thought, which often vents itself in bursts of thrilling eloquence.

Turning from the history of his age to his own books, is like retreating from a battle-field to the interior of a Minster, where an organ is sounding to the chant of ancient Litanies." And again, we may say that turning from these books, to the home where he ruled so wisely and

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. XIV loved so well, to the letters he wrote to his absent children, to the glimpse we have here and there of the friendship existing between the father and his sons, we feel attracted to him by that touch of nature which makes the whole world of kin. The gulf, which the changes of laws and customs, and the rolling years may have brought, is bridged over ; and we feel that none of such changes can shadow the beauty of a life like his, in any time or age, illuminated as it was by the sun of an all pervading charity, and closing with the expression of a humble and unquestioning faith. I have here to acknowledge the kindness of Miss Emily Holt, who gave me much valuable informa tion, and of the Rev. R. H. Fox, M.A., of Bury St. Edmunds, who allowed me to read and make use of the many interesting details contained in a lecture on " Witchcraft and the Black Art," delivered by him in the Athenæum at Bury in 1871.

I have also been furnished with material, in extracts from Blomfield's " History of Norfolk," and in a letter, the original of which was in the possession of the late Dawson Turner, Esq., of Yarmouth, containing a naive and amusing account of Charles the Second's visit to Norwich, to which my attention was directed by my friend, J. H. Gurney, Esq., of

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. XV Northrepps Hall, to whose kindness I am also indebted for a copy of this letter. Henry Birkbeck, Esq., of Stoke Holy Cross, near Norwich, most kindly allowed me to have a photo graph of the beautiful mantelpiece now in his library, which was taken from the mansion of Sir Thomas Browne, when it was pulled down some years ago, and is, I believe, the only relic of any importance, which is left to tell of the stately proportions of the physician's house in Norwich. That house has now passed away, and not a trace remains of the famous gardens, with their terrace walks, and rare herbs and plants, which Evelyn describes as a " paradise and cabinet of rarities, and that of the best collections, especially medails, books, plants, and natural things." There is doubtless a feeling of sadness in the passing away of so much that has been accounted precious, and has been the source of so much pleasure to many people of cultured taste, and refinement.

But I think Sir Thomas Browne has left his " foot prints in the sands of time," and it may be that those who can trace them may take heart, and pursue their way more bravely than before, in diligent research and patient study. Remembering always, that the Norwich physician had fast hold of that Anchor which did not fail him when the death he had so often

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. XVI meditated on, drew near. Some of his last words were expressive of entire submission to the Will of God, and fearlessness of death, from the sharpness of which Christ had delivered him. In the hope of immortality he rests, who, in his own forcible style, said : " It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw at a man, to tell him he is at the end of his nature, or that there is no further state to come, unto which this seems progressional, and otherwise made in vain!' — From Hydriotaphia. \YOODSIDE, Leigh Woods, Clifton. All Saints' Day, 1884.