Handbook for Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire [By Richard J. King.] With maps and plans

Front matter

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Preface

. The Handbook for the four Eastern Counties, — Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire, — is arranged on the same plan as those Handbooks for other parts of England which have already been published, and is based upon personal know ledge of those counties. The Editor desires to acknowledge the ready kindness with which assistance and information have been supplied to him. In all four counties he has received such help as is necessary to ensure the accuracy of any Handbook for Travellers. It is requested that notices of errors or omissions may be sent to the Editor, care of Mr. Murray, 50a, Albemarle Street. Since the greater part of this Handbook was in type, it has been officially stated that the number of unenclosed acres, within the old limits of Epping Forest, has been reduced to 3000.

This will account for the difference between the statement in Rte. 10, that 7000 acres remain unenclosed, and that in the Introduction, § 2, where the true number is given ; the former number was adopted from the Parliamentary Report on Royal Forests, printed in 1863. ( V ) CONTENTS.

Introduction

. PAGF. Essex vii East Anglia (Norfolk and Suffolk) xxii Cambridgeshire liii Skeleton Tours lxxiii Section I.— ESSEX. ROUTES. The names of places are printed in italics only in those routes where the places are described. PAGE I ROC ROUTE ROUTE PAGE 1. London to Southend (by rail). Barking, Grays - Thurrock, Tilbury, Hadleigh, Shoeburyness 2 2. London to Ipswich. Havering, Mount nessing, Ingatestone, Chelmsford,Boreham, Witham, Kelvedon, Coggeshall, Layer Marney, Lexden, Colchester 17 3. London to Braintree. Braintree by Dunmow to Bishop's Stortford. [Thaxted].. .. 42 4. London to Maldon. [Othona] 49 5. London to Southend, by Brentwood, Bayleigh, and Rochford. [Ashington] .. . . 52 6. Colchester to Brightlmgsea and Walton-on-the- Naze. Mersea Island. [Wivenhoe, St. Osyth's] 56 7. London to Harwich. [Dovercourt] 60 8.

Colchester to Sudbury .. .. 64 9. Colchester to Haverhill, by Halstead and Castle Hedingham. [Earl's Colne, Gosfield, Little Maplestead] .. .. 66 10. London to Chipping Ongar. Ongar to Dunmow. [ Woodford, Chigixell, Epping Forest, Greenstead, Fleshy'] . . . . 76 1 1 . London to Cambridge by Waltham aud Bishop's Stortford. \_Enfield, Waltham Abbey, High Lover, Audley End, Saffron Walden] 86 Section II.— SUFFOLK. ROUTES. BOUTE PAGE 12. London to Ipswich, the Orwell 107 13. Bentley Junction to Hadleigh. Little Wenham 118 14. Sudbury to Thetford by Bury St. Edmund's. Long Melford, Lavenham, Ickworth, Hengrave, Barton 120 15. Sudbury to Cambridge by Clare and Haverhill 145 16. Ipswich to Yarmouth, by Woodbridge and Loivestoft. Orford, Framlingham, Alclborough, ROUTE PAGE Dunwich, Southicold, Somerleytony Burgh Castle .. .. 150 17.

Ipswich to Newmarket by Bury St. Edmund's. Stowmarket, Woolpit 173 18. Ipswich to Norwich by Debenham, Eye, and Diss .. .. 177 19. Ipswich to Norwich by Stowmarket, Finingham, and Mellis 180 20. Bury St. Edmund's to Bung ay and Beccles. Oakley, Wingfield, Mettingham ( vi ) Section III.— NOEFOLK. ROUTES. BOUTE PAGE by Swaffham. Castle Acre, Oxburgh, Narford, Houyhton 281 28. East Dereham to Wells by Fakenham and Walsingham. Rainham, East Barsham . . 296 29. King's Lynn to Wells by Hwnstanton. Castle Rising, Sandringham, Snettisham, Brancaster 304 30. Lynn to Wisbech. The Marshland, Terrington, Tilney, Walpole, Sutton Bridge .. 311 31. Lynn to Ely by Bownham Market. Eau Brink Cut .. 316 32. Norwich to Ely by Attleborough aniThetford. Buckenrham, Northwold, Mildenhall 318 ROUTE PAGE 21. London to Norwich by Ipswich 191 22.

Norwich to Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The Broads, Caister Castle 229 23. Norwich to North Walsham. Worsted, Mundesley, Bromholm 244 24. Norwich to Cromer by Aylsham. Cawston, Salle, Blichling, Felbrigge 249 25. Cromer to Wells by Holt. Binham, Holliham, Burnham Thorpe 261 26. Norwich to East Dereham by Wymondham. Ketteringham, Kimberley, Hingham, Elsing 272 27. East Dereham to King's Lynn Section IV.— CAMBEIDGESHIEE. ROUTES. ROUTE PAGE 33. London to Cambridge by Chesterford 328 34. Cambridge to Newmarket . . 398 35. Cambridge to Elg. The Isle of Ely 405 36. Ely to Peterborough by March aud Whittlcsea. \_Thorncy Abbey] 442 Index ROUTE PAGE 37. Cambridge to Wisbech, by St. Ives, Chatteris, and March .. 446 3S. London to Cambridge bv Hitchin and Soyston .. .. 452 39. Royston to Huntingdon. [ TOwpole] 454 40.

Cambridge to Bedford . . . . 458 41. Cambridge to Sudbury bv Haverhill. [Bartloui] .. -.459 462 Map and Plans. PAGE Plan of Colchester 33 „ Cambridge 330 Travelling Map at end. ( ™ )

INTRODUCTION.

. The sour counties, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire, described in the present Handbook, have been, chiefly in the earlier period of English history, more or less connected. But while Norfolk and Suffolk form together a very distinct natural division, Essex and Cambridgeshire are geographically more isolated, and have their own characteristic features. Essex, separated from Suffolk by the broad estuary of the Stour, was anciently covered for the most part with forest. Cambridgeshire is the country of the fens. Each of these divisions therefore requires separate notice. I. ESSEX. Page Page Extent and General Chabacj Antiquities xv ter vii Geology xix History ix Traveller's View xxi Extent and General Character. § 1. Essex, the tenth in size of English counties, contains 1,055,133 statute acres.

Its greatest length from N.E. to S.W. is 63 m. From N. to. S. (from Bartlow to Tilbury Fort) it measures 50 m. The population of the county in 1871 was 466,436 — a considerable increase since 1861, when it was 379,705. Essex is very irregularly shaped ; and its low coast-line is broken by three considerable estuaries, — those of the Crouch, the Blackwater, and the Colne. Numerous friths and creeks break the land, especially near the mouths of these estuaries, into low, marshy islands. On the S. the Thames divides Essex from Kent. On the N. the river Stour, through out its course, forms the boundary from the neighbourhood of Clare to Harwich, and divides Essex from Suffolk. The rest of the Northern boundary, between Essex and Cambridgeshire, is very irregular, and partly follows the course of ancient roads and dykes.

On the W., where Essex borders on Middlesex and Hertfordshire, the limit is partly marked by the rivers Lea and Stort ; and N. of Bishop's Stortford, by a line running along the chalk hills. Excepting the low lands of the eastern coast, Essex is not a flat country, although the hills no where rise to any important height. High Beech (Rte. 10), in Epping Forest Extent and General Character. Essex. VIII near Walthamstow, is the highest ground (388 ft.) m the county. Danbury (Rte. 2), toward the centre of the county, a very conspicuous hill (380 ft.), forms the S. end of a short ridge of high land. The N.W corner of Essex is broken into steep chalk hills, of no great height, intersected by winding valleys. "The shire," writes Norden, in 1594, "is most fatt, frutefull, and full of profitable thmges^exceed ing (as far as I can flnde) anie other shire, for the generall comodeties, and the plentie.

Though Suffolke be more highlie comended of some, wherwyth I am not yet acquaynted. But this shire seemeth to me to deserve the title of the Englishe Goshen, the fattest of the lande ; comparable to Palestina, that flowed with milke and hunnye. But 1 cannot cofflende the healthfulness of it ; and especially near the sea wastes, Rochford, Denge, Tenderinge hundreds, and other lowe places about the creekes, which gave me a most cruell quarterne fever. IJut the manie and sweete comodeties countervayle the daunger. A fair country," writes Fuller (1662, 'Worthies,' Essex), " plentifully affording all thino-s necessary to man's subsistence." Essex is described as " enclosed "—that is, its cultivated lan'ds were duly fenced, unlike part of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire at a much later period— when Morant published his ' History of the County in 1768, " makin" it," he says, " much more comfortable to live and travel in than such as is quite open, exposed, without the least shelter to all the inclemencies of wind and weather." § 2.

The earlier condition of Essex was very different. Almost the whole county was within the bounds of a Royal Forest, which, according to a perambulation made in 1228 (12th Hen. III.), extended from Stratford bridge " usque ad pontem de Cattawad " (Morant, Introd. p. iv., note C. In Morant's map Cattawade bridge is marked near the mouth of the Stour, adjoining Manningtree. It was thus on the Northern border of Tendring Hundred), and from the Thames to the Stane Street (the Roman road running from Colchester to Bishop's Stortford). The portions of the county excepted in this perambulation had been disafforested — Tendring Hundred, the peninsula between the rivers Colne and Stour, lying E. of Colchester, by King Stephen, and all the country N. of the Stane Street by King John. Smaller portions were disafforested at different times ; but in the reign of Charles I. a court was held at Stratford which asserted the right of the Crown to exercise " forest law " over the whole county within the limits of Hen.

III.'s perambulation (see ' Stafford's Letters,' i. 335). Extreme dissatisfaction was the result of this decision, and the royal rights were not strictly enforced, though much oppression was complained of until an act of the " Long Parliament " (16th Charles I.) determined that the extent of the royal forests should remain according to their boundaries in the 20th year of James I., annulling all the perambulations and inquests by which they had subsequently been enlarged. The great Forest of Waltham was at that time held to comprise what are now the Forests of Epping and Hainault. The portion called Hainault Forest was disafforested in 1851 (see Rte, 10). Epping alone Introd., §§ 3, 4. History. IX (Rte. 10) now represents the old royal forest of Essex ; and the unenclosed portion does not at present exceed 3000 acres.

The De Veres, Earls of Oxford (see Rte. 9) were for many generations Stewards of the Forest of Essex — succeeding the Clares, who were Stewards from the reign of Henry III. to that of Edward III. They had considerable rights within its boundaries ; and were always keepers of the palace at Havering. The office of King's Forester was long held by the Auchers of Copped Hall. § 3. Besides Epping Forest, great part of Essex retains much wood ; and the extensive and unusual employment of timber for church towers (see Mountnessing and Margaretting, Rte. 2), and even for the piers of churches (Shenfield, Rte. 2), besides the wood-framed cottages, once scattered over the country (some of which were very picturesque), indicate the great plenty of timber anciently to be found in Essex, and, as distinctly, the want of good building stone.

The most important of the Essex rivers — the Stour, the Colne, the Pant or Blackwater, the Chelmer, and the Rodon or Roding, rise among the chalk hills in the N.W. corner [of the county, and traverse nearly its entire breadth before reaching the sea. The Crouch rises near the Langdon Hills (Rte. 1) in the S. of Essex. The sea coast of Essex, and the low land called the " Hundreds," the malaria of which so greatly afflicted Master Norden, have, owing to improved drainage and more careful management, become far more healthy than they were even within the present century. History. § 4. The country afterwards known as Essex first appears in history as a portion of the territory of the Trinobantes (which may also have been extended over part of the present Middlesex). Dr. Guest, how ever, has suggested that the larger part of the metropolitan county was in those early times a march of the Catuvellauni (the tribe which adjoined the Trinobantes on the E.), " a common, through which ran a wide trackway, but in which was neither town, village, nor inhabited house." — Campaign of Auhts Plautius, 'Archæol.

Journal,' vol. xxiii. At the time of Cæsar's invasion the " kingdom " of the Trinobantes had been seized by the famous Cassivellaunus, chief of the Catuvellauni, who had become the master of all the neighbouring tribes. Mandubratius, the young chief of the Trinobantes, fled to Cæsar ; and after the first defeat of Cassivellaunus the Trinobantes sent messengers to Cæsar, offering to submit to him on condition that he would restore Mandu bratius to the sovereignty of bis tribe. This was accordingly done ; and Mandubratius returned to rule as a Roman tributary, while the Trinobantes, besides giving hostages, supplied the Roman army with corn — a proof that some portion of their territory was already under cultivation. Thus much we gather from the ' Commentaries.' From the time of Cæsar to that of Claudius, there is little information con cerning Britain.

Tasciovanus seems to have succeeded to the power a History. Essex. X of Cassivellaunus, and to have fixed his capital at Verulamium (St. Alban's). His son Cunobeline — the Cymbeline of Shakespeare — esta blished his chief town at Camulodunum (Colchester), as is proved by numerous coins struck there, bearing the names of Cunobeline, and of the town. Cunobeline was clearly a powerful chieftain ; but it does not appear whether he belonged to the tribe of the Trinobantes, or whether he had established himself in the territory of that tribe by conquest. One of his sons was Caractacus, defeated by Aulus Plautius, the lieutenant of Claudius, during that campaign in Britain which began in the year 43 (Caractacus was captured in the year 50). After the first defeat of Caractacus, Togidumnus, his brother, was killed in a battle, which possibly took place in Essex, near the mouth of the Thames.

Claudius himself then appeared on the scene. Again the Britons were defeated, and Claudius, advancing with his famous elephants, took Camulodimum, which was occupied by the Roman legions. Under Ostorius Scapula, who afterwards arrived as Proprætor of Britain, Camulodunum was raised to the rank of a Colonia, and made the head-quarters of the Roman power. Veteran soldiers were established there, among whom the conquered lands were divided. Camulodunum was adorned with numerous public buildings, including a theatre and a temple of Claudius. It is clear that in dignity and architectural importance it was not, until long afterwards, exceeded by any city of Roman Britain. When the lceni revolted, after the death of Prasutagus, and the savage treatment of Boadicea (see ' East Anglia,' post), the Trino bantes joined them.

They hated their Roman masters ; and they looked, says Tacitus, " upon the temple dedicated to Claudius as a kind of citadel to hold them in perpetual bondage." Signs of the coming outbreak were not wanting, according to the same historian. " At Camulodunum the statue of Nero fell to the ground, and turned its back where the face had been, as if it fled before the enemy. Women were seen as if mad, singing wild songs, in which they foretold the destruction of the colony. Strange noises were heard in the House of Assembly, and loud bowlings in the theatre. In the estuary of the Thames there was an appearance like that of a sunken town. The sea assumed the colour of blood, and human forms appeared to be left on the shore by the ebbing tide." The Colonists applied to the Procurator for troops.

Only 200 men were sent. The insurrection broke out. " Everything but the temple was plundered and burnt at the first attack ; and the temple itself, in which the soldiers had taken refuge, was captured after a siege of two days." The ninth legion, under Petilius Cerealis, hastened to the relief of Camulodunum, but arrived too late. The insurgents attacked and utterly defeated him, completely destroying his infantry. The cavalry with Cerealis himself, fled to their stationary camp, which seems to have been in, or close to, the Trinobantine country. It has been thought that a remarkable mound and sepulchral deposit at Worming ford (Rte. 8) may indicate the place of this great defeat. In trod., § 5. History. XI The lceni and the Trinobantes, their allies, were reduced to entire submission — if, indeed, they were not almost extirpated — by the great battle, in which Suetonius defeated Boadicea (see ' East Anglia,' post).

It has been suggested that this battle may have been fought at Messing (see Essex, Rte. 1). Camulodunum was restored. It had hitherto been without walls ; and it is probable that the massive walls, of which so much still remains, were constructed at this period. The town recovered more than its former importance ; and until the extinc tion of the Roman power in Britain, was one of the principal strong holds in the S. ofthe Island. During the later Roman period the coast of Essex was under the control of the " Count of the Saxon Shore." The name of " the Saxon Shore," no doubt, indicates that at the end of the fourth, and the beginning of the fifth centuries, Britain was occasionally attacked by Saxon pirates. But it does not necessarily imply that any Teutonic settlements had been then made in this island; and the Roman fortresses, built for the defence of the shore (Othona in Essex, see Rte. 4 ; Burgh Castle in Suffolk ; Brancaster in Norfolk ; Reculver and Richborough in Kent), seem to prove that the name was given to the " shore," as the AVelsh March was named in England, from its lying near to the Saxons, and exposed to their ravages (see Freeman, ' Norman Conquest,' i., pp. 11, 12).

At any rate, if any such settlements existed, they must have been of a very different character from those which resulted in the formation of the kingdom of Essex. § 5. While the country of the " North and South folk " was colonised by Anglians, Essex, as its name imports (the country of the " East Sexe " = Saxons), and as Bede (i. c. 15) expressly tells us, was one of the three Saxon kingdoms (the others were Sussex and Wessex), peopled from Old Saxony on the continent. The first recorded king is Ercon wine (circ. 526) ; and the East Saxon kings seem to have retained their independent condition until the year 823, when, like the people of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, the East Saxons " turned to " Egbert of Wessex, submitting to him as a deliverer from the power of Mercia (' A.-S. Chronicle,' ad ann.).

Essex, like the other small kingdoms, was then closely incorporated with Wessex. Middlesex, containing the great city of London, seems to have been an offshoot from Essex ; but London, at all events, soon became an independent commonwealth and afterwards a dependency of the Mercian kings. After the great Danish invasion of 870, when King Edmund of East Anglia died a martyr (see ' East Anglia,' post), it appears that Essex was speedily overrun and conquered by the Northmen. The terms of the peace of Wedmore (a.d. 880), which laid down the boundaries of the territories of Alfred and of the Danish King Guthrum, assigned Essex to the latter, and thus placed it within the Denalagu, the region where the Danish law was in force. (The boundary ran from the Thames along the river Lea to its source (see Rte. 11), thence to Bedford, aud along the Ouse to Watling Street, and so to the Welsh border).

Essex, no doubt, received at this time a certain infusion of Danish History. Essex XII blood ; but judging from the local nomenclature, the colony does not appear to have been in any way so numerous or so important as those which were settled in a small part of East Anglia, in Mercia, and in Northumbria. Edward the Elder, son of the great Alfred, recovered Essex from the Danish yoke, and built many fortresses in it (see Witham, Rte. 2, and Maldon, Rte. 4). In the later Danish invasions, beginning circ. 980 — invasions which led to the submission of all England to Sweyne — Essex was mercilessly plundered by the Northmen. In 991 occurred the great fight of Maldon (see Rte. 4); and the last great battle fought between Cnut and Edmund Ironside, in 1016, no doubt took place close to Ashington on the Crouch (see Rte. 5).

The situation of Essex, with its many creeks and estuaries, where the vessels of the Northmen could lie in safety, laid the country specially open to their attacks ; and it suffered accordingly at all periods of the Danish ravages. In 1045 Essex formed part of tbe Earldom of Harold. At a later period, before the death of Edward, it was included in that of Harold's brother, Leofwine (see the maps in Freeman's History of the Norman Conquest, vol. iii., and his Appendix, note G.). § 6. The East Saxons were converted to Christianity by Mellitus, consecrated bishop by St. Augustine in 604 — the place of his see being fixed at London — which Bede describes as at that time the East Saxon metropolis (" quorum metropolis Lundonia civitas est." — H. E. ii. 3). Essex was then under the control of Ethelbert of Kent (so far as the power of the Bretwalda implies control).

Its king was Sabert, nephew of Ethelbert. Sabert, like Ethelbert, became a Christian, and protected Mellitus, for Ethelbert (acting as Bretwalda) built the church of St. Paul in London. On the death of Sabert (circ. 616), his sons, who had remained heathen, expelled Mellitus, who refused to give to them, being unbaptized, the " fair bread " (panis nitidus) of the Eucharist, such as they had seen received by their father. Essex returned to the old heathenism, and remained without Christian teachers until 653 ; when Sigeberht, King of the East Saxons, was baptized in Northumbria, then ruled by the Bretwalda Oswi. Oswi sent Cedd, a brother of Ceadda (St. Chad of Lichfield), to preach the faith throughout Essex. Cedd was consecrated bishop at Lindisfarne by Finan and two other bishops (Bede, iii. 22) ; and two churches in Essex are recorded as having been built by him ; — at Tilaburg or Tillaburg (Tilbury, Rte. 1), and at Ythancaestre, the Roman Othona (see post, § 9, and Rte. 4).

" Fecit per loca ecclesias, presbyteros et diaconos ordinavit, qui se in verbo fidei et ministerio baptizandi adjuvarent, maxime in civitate quæ lingua Saxonum Ythancaestir appellatur ; sed et in ilia quæ Tilaburg cognominatur ; quorum prior locus est in ripa Pentæ amnis " (the Panta or Blackwater) " secundus in ripa Tamensis ; in quibus collecto examine famulorum Christi, disciplinam vitæ regularis, in quantum rudes adhuc capere poterant, custodire docuit." — Bede, ' Hist. Eccles.' iii. 22. But heathenism seems to have been powerful in Essex. On the death of Swithelm, the successor of Sigeberht, the kingdom was divided, its two portions being ruled by the Kings Sighere and Sebbi. A pesti- Introd., § 7. History. XIII lence was devastating the country. Sebbi remained Christian. Sighere and his people, supposing that the mortality was sent by their" old, offended gods, restored their temples, and became again followers of Woden.

Essex was at this time dependent to some extent on Mercia. Wulfhere, King of Mercia, sent Bishop Jaruman, who then occupied the see of St. Chad, at Lichfield, to re-convert the people of Sighere. Jaruman laboured effectually, as a priest who was his companion re ported to Bede ; and Essex from that time remained Christian, until a new heathenism was introduced by the Danes. § 7. The history of Essex, after the Norman Conquest, is almost identified with that of its great baronial houses, and of the monasteries, which were either founded after that event, or rose into greater importance. The Mandevilles, and the Bohuns, who succeeded them in the Earldom of Essex, were very powerful in the county until the latter part of the 14th century. In the N. of Essex the De Veres, Earls of Oxford, ranked among the most powerful barons of England, and played a distinguished part in the history of the country from the Conquest to the beginning of the 17th centy.

(see Castle Hedingham, Rte. 9). There were royal castles at Colchester (Rte. 2) and Hadleigh (Rte. 1). Castle Hedingham was the chief stronghold of De Vere. The Mandevilles and Bohuns possessed castles at Saffron Walden (Rte. 11) and at Pleshy (Rte. 10), the latter of which is historically interesting from its connection with the fall in 1307 of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the uncle of Richard II. (see Rte. 10). Other castles, such as Clavering (Rte. 11), anciently held by Hugh of Essex, and Ongar, a stronghold of the Lucys (Rte. 10) fell into ruin at an early period, and were never perhaps of great importance. In monastic nouses, Essex was specially rich; and two Abbeys — the Benedictine house of St. John's, Colchester (Rte. 2) and the Abbey of regular or Augustinian canons at Waltham (Rte. 11) were mitred, and ranked among the wealthiest houses of their orders.

(The early history of Waltham, including its foundation by Harold as a house of secular canons, is of considerable interest. See Rte. 11.) Of the other abbeys and priories, numbering more than 30, the most noticeable are the Cistercian Abbey at Coggeshall (Rte. 2), St. Botulph's Priory at Col chester (Augustinian Canons, — it was the head of its order in England — Rte. 2) ; and, from its associations, the Augustinian Priory of Little Dunmow (Rte. 3.) Besides these monasteries, there were three nun neries, one of which, Barking Abbey, for Benedictine nuns (Rte. 1) was of great wealth and importance, the Abbess ranking as a Baroness. Essex also possessed nine hospitals, three collegiate churches, and two preceptories of Templars, the church of one of which, at Little Maple stead (Rte. 9) is among the most interesting in the country.

The number of these monastic houses, although many of them were comparatively small, must have given them no small influence through out Essex : and the abbots of Waltham and St. John's at Colchester were in effect powerful barons. In the gTeat rising of the Commons in 1381, Essex was not less dis- History. Essex. XIV turbed than the neighbouring districts of Kent and East Anglia. The famous Jack Straw began the outbreak at Fobbing (Rte. 1); and the Essex insurgents, passing westward through the county, at last joined the main body under Wat Tyler. (Fobbing is mentioned by Stow. Walsingham, the great authority for all the events of this period, and especially for this outbreak — see his ' Historica Anglicana,' edited by H. T. Riley in the Rolls series — does not mention the place at which Jack Straw began his work).

The remains of the Essex insurgents, after the death of Wat Tyler, and the revocation of the charters granted to him, were, it is said, cut to pieces in the woods near Billericay. Essex plays no very conspicuous part during the wars of the Roses, although the house of De Vere suffered greatly ; and John, the 12th Earl, an ardent Lancastrian, was, with his eldest son Aubrey, beheaded by Edward IV. in 1461. (This is the Earl whose shattered fortunes — of course with a liberal allowance of romance — are woven into the plot of Scott's ' Anne of Geierstein.') In the great civil war of the 17th cent, the country was for the most part Parliamentarian. The " Eastern Association for the Parliament," formed at an early period ofthe war, with the object of raising troops, was largely reinforced from Essex.

The most striking event of this period is, of course, the siege of Col chester in 1648 (see Rte. 2), followed by the memorable deaths of Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle. But although Johnson spoke with honour of Colchester, as having sustained a siege for King Charles, the town was in reality a hotbed of sectarians, and was strongly in favour of the Parliament. The royalists were compeUed to take refuge in Colchester by Fairfax. Essex has had little later history. Colchester, its principal town, rose early to importance, and was famous as a " clothing town " — especially for its manufacture of " bays and says " from the reign of Eliza beth, when many Walloons settled in it, and if they did not introduce, at least greatly improved, the manufacture — to the middle of the last century, when, as in Suffolk and Norfolk, the cloth trade gradually de clined, and at last was entirely transferred to the N. of England.