journeyed to it, he knows this ancient seaport well; not as a port or
as a town at all, but only as a name. The name of Lynn, in short, is
rooted in his memory ever since he read Hood's poem, the "Dream of
Eugene Aram."
Aram was no mere creation of a poet's brain, but a very real person.
His story is a tragic one, and appealed not only to Hood, but to Bulwer
Lytton, who weaved much romance out of his career. Aram was born in
1704, in Yorkshire, and adopted the profession of a schoolmaster. It
was at Knaresborough, in 1745, that the events happened that made him a
wanderer, and finally brought him to the scaffold.
How a scholar, a cultured man of Aram's remarkable attainments (for
he was a philologist and student of the Celtic and Aryan languages)
could have stooped to commit a vulgar murder is not easily to be
explained, and it has not been definitely ascertained how far the
motive of revenge, or in what degree that of robbery, prompted him
to join with his accomplice, Houseman, in slaying Daniel Clarke. The
unfortunate Clarke had been too intimate a friend of Aram's wife, and
this may explain his share in the murder, although it does not account
for Houseman's part in it. Clarke was not certainly known to have been
murdered when he suddenly disappeared in 1745, and when Aram himself
left Knaresborough, although there may have been suspicions, he was not
followed up. It was only when some human bones were found in 1758 at
Knaresborough that Houseman himself was suspected. His peculiar manner
when they were found, and his assertions that they "could not be Dan
Clarke's" because Dan Clarke's were somewhere else, of course led to
his arrest. And, as a matter of fact, they were _not_ Clarke's, as
Houseman's confession under arrest sufficiently proved.
Whose they were does not appear. He told how he and Aram had killed
that long-missing man and had buried his body in St. Robert's Cave;
and, on the floor of that place being dug up, a skeleton was in due
course discovered.
Aram was traced to King's Lynn and arrested. Tried at York, he defended
himself with extraordinary ability, but in vain, and was sentenced to
death. Before his execution at York he confessed his part, and so to
this sombre story we are at least spared the addition of a mystery and
doubt of the justice of his sentence.
Hood's poem makes Aram, conscience-struck, declare his crime to one of
his Lynn pupils, in the form of a horrible dream. How does it begin,
that ghastly poem? Pleasantly enough--
"'Twas in the prime of summer time,
An evening calm and cool;
And four-and-twenty happy boys
Came bounding out of school."
The Grammar School of those young bounders was pulled down and rebuilt
many years ago, and so much of association lost.
"Pleasantly shone the setting sun
Over the town of Lynn,"
but Eugene Aram, the Usher, on this particular evening,
"Sat remote from all,
A melancholy man."
Presently, Hood tells us, he espied, apart from the romping boys, one
who sat and "pored upon a book." This morbid youngster was reading the
"Death of Abel," and Aram improved the occasion, and "talked with
him of Cain." With such facilities for entering intimately into Cain's
feelings of blood-guiltiness, he conjured up so many terrors that, if
we read the trend of Hood's verses correctly, the boy thought there was
more in this than the recital of some particularly vivid nightmare, and
informed the authorities, with the well-known result--
"Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn,
Through the cold and heavy mist,
And Eugene Aram walked between,
With gyves upon his wrist."
[Illustration: JOSEPH BEETON IN THE CONDEMNED CELL.]
Twenty-five years later, Lynn turned off a local criminal on its own
account, Joseph Beeton being executed, February 22, 1783, on the spot
where a few weeks previously he had robbed the North Mail, on what
is called the "Saddlebow Road." This spot, now commonplace enough,
was long marked by a clump of trees known as "Beeton's Bush." An old
engraving shows poor Joseph in the condemned hold, and represents
him of an elegant slimness, heavily shackled and wearing what, under
the circumstances, must be described as an extraordinarily cheerful
expression of countenance. A contemporary account of his execution
makes interesting, if gruesome, reading--
"The culprit was conveyed from Lynn Gaol in a mourning coach to the
place of execution near the South Gates, and within a few yards of the
spot where the robbery took place, attended by two clergymen:--the
Rev. Mr. Horsfall and the Rev. Mr. Merrist. After praying some time
with great fervency, and a hymn being sung by the singers from St.
Margaret's Church, the rope was fixed about his neck, which was no
sooner done than he instantly threw himself off and died amidst the
pitying tears of upwards of 5000 spectators. His behaviour was devout
and excellent. This unfortunate youth had just attained his 20th
year, and is said to have been a martyr to the villainy of a man whom
he looked upon as his sincere friend. Indeed, so sensible were the
gentlemen of Lynn that he was betrayed into the commission of the
atrocious crime for which he suffered by the villainy of this supposed
friend, that a subscription was entered into and money collected to
employ counsel to plead for him at his trial."
[Illustration: THE GUILDHALL, LYNN.]
The barbarous method of execution in those days placed the condemned
in the dreadful alternative of slow strangulation, or what was
practically suicide. To save themselves from the lingering agonies of
strangulation, those who were possessed of the slightest spirit flung
themselves from the ladder and so ended, swiftly and mercifully.
The old account of Beeton's execution ends curiously like a depraved
kind of humour: "The spirit of the prisoner, the constancy of his
friends, and the church-parade made bright episodes in a dreadful
scene."
XLVII
IT is a long, long way from the entrance through the South Gates,
on the London road, into the midst of the town, where, by the Ouse
side, along the wharves of the harbour, and in the maze of narrow
streets between the Tuesday and the Saturday market-places, old Lynn
chiefly lies. In the Tuesday market-place, Losinga's great church of
St. Margaret stands; that church whose twin towers are prominent in
all views of the town. Many of the old merchants and tradesmen lie
there, but many more in the vast church of St. Nicholas, less well
known to the casual visitor. On the floor of that noble nave, looked
down upon by the beautiful aisle and clerestory windows, and by the
winged angels that support the open timber roof, you may read the
epitaphs of many an oversea trader and merchant prince, as well as
those of humbler standing. Crusos are there, and among others a certain
Simon Duport "Marchand, Né en l'Isle de Ré en France," whose epitaph
is presented bi-lingually, in French and English, for the benefit of
those not learned in both. That of "Mr. Thomas Hollingworth, an Eminent
Bookseller," is worth quoting. He, it appears, was "a Man of the
Strictest Integrity In His Dealings and much esteemed by Gentlemen of
Taste For the neatness and Elegance of his Binding."
The merchants of Lynn are an extinct race, and most of their old
mansions are gone. Yet in the old days, when Lynn supplied seven
counties with coals, timber, and wine from the North of England, from
the Baltic, and from many a port in Holland, France, Italy, and Spain,
to be a Lynn merchant was no mean or inconsiderable thing. They lived,
these princely traders, in mansions of the most noble architectural
character, furnished with the best that money could buy and hung with
tapestry and stamped leather from the most artistic looms and workshops
of France and Spain. It never occurred to them that trade was a thing
despicable and to be disowned. Instead of disconnecting themselves
from their business, they lived with it; their residences and their
warehouses in one range of buildings.
[Illustration: THE TOWN AND HARBOUR OF LYNN, FROM WEST LYNN.]
A typical mansion of this old period is Clifton's House. The Cliftons
and their old business are alike gone, and many of the beautiful
fittings of their mansion have been torn out and sold, but the
house itself stands, a grand memorial of their importance and of the
patronage they and their kind extended to art. It faces Queen Street,
at the corner of King's Staith Lane, and its courts and warehouses
extend back to those quays where Clifton's ships, richly laden, once
came to port from many a foreign clime. How anxiously those vessels
were awaited may perhaps be judged from the tall red-brick tower rising
in many storeys from the first courtyard, and commanding panoramic
views down the river, out to the Wash, and away to the open sea at Lynn
Deeps; so that from the roof-top the coming of Clifton's argosies might
early be made known.
This house owes its fine Renaissance design to a Lynn architect whose
name deserves to be remembered. Henry Bell, who built it in 1707,
and whose works still enrich the town in many directions, flourished
between 1655 and 1717. To him is due the beautiful Custom House
overlooking the river and harbour, a work of art that in its Dutch-like
character seems to have been brought bodily from some old Netherlands
town and set down here by the quay. It was built as an Exchange, in the
time of Charles the Second, whose statue still occupies an alcove; but
very shortly afterwards was taken over by the Customs.
[Illustration: "CLIFTON'S HOUSE."]
The great Tuesday market-place was once graced by a Renaissance
market-cross from Bell's designs, but it was swept away in 1831. The
Duke's Head Hotel, so originally named in honour of James, Duke of
York, is another of Bell's works, not improved of late by the plaster
that has been spread entirely over the old red-brick front.
[Illustration: THE DUKE'S HEAD, LYNN.]
The Duke's Head was in coaching days one of those highly superior
houses that refused to entertain anyone who did not arrive in a
carriage, or, at the very least of it, in a post-chaise. The principal
inns for those plebeian persons who travelled by coach were the Globe
and the Crown. It was to the Crown that old Thomas Cross and his "Lynn
Union" came. It is still standing, in Church Street, over against the
east end of St. Margaret's Church, but in a pitifully neglected and
out-at-elbows condition, as a Temperance House, its white plastered
front, contemporary with the coaching age, even now proclaiming it to
be a "Commercial and Family Hotel."
The coaching age ended, so far as Lynn was concerned, in 1847, when
the East Anglian Railway, from Ely to Lynn, with branches to Dereham,
Wisbeach, and Huntingdon, was opened. It was an unfortunate line, an
amalgamation of three separate undertakings: the Lynn and Dereham, the
Ely and Huntingdon, and the Lynn and Ely Railways. By its junction
with the Eastern Counties, now the Great Eastern, at Ely, a through
journey to London was first rendered possible. Three trains each way,
instead of the twenty now running, were then considered sufficient
for all needs. They were not, at that early date, either swift or
dignified journeys, for engine-power was often insufficient, and it was
a common thing for a train to be stopped for hours while engine-driver
and stoker effected necessary repairs. It was then, and on those
not infrequent occasions when trains ran by favour of the sheriff,
accompanied by a "man in possession" and plastered with ignominious
labels announcing the fact, that passengers lamented the coaches. The
East Anglian Railway, indeed, like the Great Eastern, which swallowed
it, had a very troubled early career.
Lynn in those early years of innovation still retained many of its
old-world ways. It was a sleepy time, as Mr. Thew, who has written
his reminiscences of it, testifies. For police the town possessed one
old watchman, who bore the old East Anglian name of Blanchflower, and
patrolled the streets "with one arm and a lantern." The posting of
letters was then a serious business, calling for much patience, for
you did not in those days drop them into a letter-box, but handed them
through a window at which you knocked. When the clerk in charge, one
John Cooper, had satisfied his official dignity and kept you waiting
long enough, he was graciously pleased to open the window and receive
the letters. The successor to this upholder of official traditions, was
one Charles Rix, addicted to declaiming Shakespeare from his window.
[Illustration: THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, LYNN.]
The postmaster of Lynn at this easy-going time was Mr. Robinson Cruso,
who also filled the miscellaneous occupations of auctioneer and estate
agent, and wine and spirit merchant, and was a member of the Town
Council. He was a descendant of an old Lynn family, many of whose
representatives lie in the church of St. Nicholas. This Cruso (they
spelled their name without the "e") was an upholsterer, and born ten
years after Defoe's famous book was published; hence the "Robinson."
There are still a number of the name in Norfolk and Suffolk.
XLVIII
WE must now make an end. Of Lynn's long municipal history, of the
treasures stored in its ancient Guildhall, of King John's disastrous
journey from the town across the Wash; of many another stirring scene
or historic pile this is not the place to speak. The Story of the Road
is told, and, that being done, the task is completed; but it is not
without regret that a place like Lynn, so rich in picturesque incident,
is thus left. Many a narrow, cobbled lane, lined with quaint houses,
calls aloud to be sketched; there, too, are the ancient Red Mount
Chapel, in the lovely park-like "walks" that extend into the very heart
of the town, and the ancient Greyfriars Tower to be noted; but Lynn
has been, and will be again, the subject of a book entirely devoted to
itself.
One pilgrimage, however, must be made ere these pages close: to
Islington, four miles away on the Wisbeach road, for it is to that
secluded place the sweet old ballad of the "Bailiff's Daughter of
Islington" refers, and not to the better known "merry Islington" now
swallowed up in London.
The ballad of the "Bailiff's Daughter" is of unknown origin. It is
certainly three hundred years old, and probably much older; and has
survived through all those centuries because of that sentiment of
true love, triumphant over long years and distance and hard-hearted
guardians, which has ever appealed to the popular imagination. Who was
that Marshland bailiff and who the squire's son we do not know. It is
sufficient to be told, in the lines of the sweet old song, that
"There was a youth, and a well belovèd youth,
And he was a Squire's son;
He loved the Bailiff's daughter dear
That lived at Islington."
She was coy and reluctant and rejected his advances; so that, in common
with many another, before and since, love-sickness claimed him for its
own. Then, for seven long years, he was sent away, bound apprentice in
London. Others in those circumstances would have forgotten the fair
maid of Islington, but our noble youth was constancy itself, and, when
his seven years had passed, came riding down the road, eager to see her
face again. With what qualities of face and head and heart that maid
must have been endowed!
[Illustration: THE FERRY INN, LYNN.]
[Illustration: ISLINGTON.]
Meanwhile, if we read the ballad aright, no one else came a-courting.
Seven years mean much in such circumstances, and our maid grew
desperate--
"She pulled off her gown of green,
And put on ragged attire,
And to fair London she would go,
Her true love to enquire.
And as she went along the high road
The weather being hot and dry,
She sat her down upon a green bank,
And her true love came riding by.
She started up, with a colour so red,
Caught hold of his bridle rein;
'One penny, one penny, kind sir,' she said,
'Will ease me of much pain.'
'Before I give you a penny, sweetheart,
Pray tell me where you were born.'
'At Islington, kind sir,' said she,
'Where I have had many a scorn.'
'Prythee, sweetheart, then tell to me,
Oh, tell me whether you know
The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington?'
'She is dead, sir, long ago.'
'If she be dead, then take my horse,
My saddle and bridle also;
For I will into some far countrye
Where no man shall me know.'
'Oh, stay, oh stay, thou goodly youth,
She is standing by thy side;
She is here alive, she is not dead,
But ready to be thy bride.'"
I cannot read those old lines, crabbed and uncouth though they be,
without something suspiciously like a mist before the eyes and a
certain difficulty in the throat. "God forbid I should grieve any young
hearts," says Miss Matty, in _Cranford_. Sentiment will have its way,
deny it though you will.
Islington itself is, for these reasons, a place for pious pilgrimage.
And a place difficult enough to find, for it is but an ancient church,
a Park and Hall, and two cottages, approached through a farmyard. That
is all of Islington, the sweet savour of whose ancient story of true
love has gone forth to all the world, and to my mind hallows these
miles more than footsteps of saints and pilgrims.
THE END
INDEX
Akeman Street, 5, 172, 181-183, 213, 231, 244 251.
Aldreth, 214, 225, 229, 243.
---- Causeway, 217-221.
Alfred the Great, 88-91, 263.
Amwell, Great, 86.
Aram, Eugene, 308-313.
Arnim, Count, 108-110.
Arrington Bridge, 4.
Balloon Stone, 100.
Barkway, 102-104.
Barley, 102, 107-110, 123.
Beggars' Bush, 251.
Bishopsgate Street, 8-10, 32.
Brandon Creek, 294.
Braughing, 81, 102.
Bread Riots, 273-287.
Broxbourne, 35, 81.
Bruce Grove, 40.
Buckland, 120.
Buntingford, 81, 110, 117-119, 157.
Cam, The, 153-155, 171, 172, 174, 177, 201, 235, 236, 239, 243.
Cambridge, 4, 14, 134-176, 226, 262.
---- Castle, 170-174.
Caxton, 4.
---- Gibbet, 127.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 135.
Cheshunt, 35, 67, 69, 72, 75-80.
---- Great House, 7, 77-80.
---- Wash, 75-79.
Chesterton, 176.
Chettisham, 288.
Chipping, 120.
Chittering, 233.
Clarkson, Thos., 98-100.
Coaches--
Bee Hive, 21, 32.
Cambridge Auxiliary Mail, 19.
---- Lynn, and Wells Mail, 20.
---- Mail, 15, 19, 21.
---- Stage, 14.
---- and Ely Stage, 19.
---- Telegraph, 16, 19, 21, 82, 103.
---- Union, 19.
Day (Cambridge and Wisbeach), 21.
Defiance (Cambridge and Wisbeach), 21.
Diligence (Cambridge), 13, 15.
Fly (Cambridge), 14, 15, 19.
Hobson's Stage (Cambridge), 15.
Lord Nelson (Lynn), 20.
Lynn and Fakenham Post Coach, 20.
---- Post Coach, 20.
---- Union, 20, 26, 29, 31, 107, 321.
Night Post Coach (Cambridge), 16.
Norfolk Hero (Lynn and Wells), 21.
Prior's Stage (Cambridge), 15.
Rapid (Cambridge and Wisbeach), 21.
Red Rover (Lynn), 21, 254.
Rocket (Cambridge), 21, 32.
Royal Regulator (Cambridge), 19, 21.
Safety (Cambridge, Lynn, and Wells), 19, 31.
Star of Cambridge (Cambridge), 16-19, 21, 31.
Tally Ho (Cambridge), 19.
Telegraph (Cambridge), 16, 19, 21, 82, 103.
Times (Cambridge), 21.
York Mail, 69.
Coaching, 12-32, 69, 133.
Notabilities--
Briggs, --, 32.
Clark, William, 32.
Cross, John, 22-25.
Cross, Thomas, 22-31, 107, 256, 321.
Elliott, George, 30.
Goodwin, Jack, 254.
Pryor, --, 31.
"Quaker Will," 30.
Reynolds, James, 31.
Vaughan, Richard, 30.
Walton, Jo, 31.
Denny Abbey, 231.
Denver, 301-303.
---- Sluice, 14, 302.
Dismal Hall, 231.
Downham Market, 192, 270, 275, 283, 303, 306.
Edmonton, Lower, 5, 34, 35, 36, 46-52.
----, Upper, 6, 34, 36, 43-46.
Eleanor, Queen, 56-68.
Ely, 4, 190, 195, 225, 230, 241, 258, 270, 281-288, 321, 322.
---- Cathedral, 254, 256-270.
----, Isle of, 3, 182, 189, 212-226, 230, 243, 289.
Enfield Highway, 54.
---- Wash, 54.
Ermine Street, 3, 4-7, 75, 122.
Etheldreda, Saint, 229, 260-264.
Fens, The, 176, 182-208, 214-223, 233-235, 239-248, 253, 275, 291-298.
Fielder, Richard Ramsay, 237-239.
Fordham, 183, 298, 301.
Fowlmere, 110, 112-115.
Foxton, 132.
Freezywater, 54.
Gog Magog Hills, 140-142, 151.
Granta, The, 133, 172.
Grantchester, 135, 172.
Gray, Thomas, 148, 154.
Great Amwell, 86.
---- Eastern Railway, 31-34, 120, 132, 236, 322.
---- Northern Railway, 120, 132.
---- Shelford, 133, 140.
Guthlac, Saint, 196-198.
Haddenham, 230, 262.
Hardwick Bridge, 306.
Hare Street, 102.
Harston, 117, 133.
Hauxton, 133.
Hereward the Wake, 172, 208-214, 221-223, 226-229.
High Cross, 100.
Highwaymen (in general), 54.
Highwaymen--
Beeton, Joseph, 313-315.
Gatward, --, 125-127.
King, Tom, 55.
Shelton, Dr. Wm., 80.
Turpin, Dick, 55.
Hilgay, 297.
Hobson, Thomas, 10-12, 32, 140, 157-166.
Hobson's Conduit, 140, 167.
Hoddesdon, 7, 37, 82-86.
Hogge's Bridge, 305.
Iceni, The, 185.
Inns (mentioned at length)--
Bath Hotel, Cambridge, 6, 170.
Bell, Edmonton, 45, 49.
Blue Boar, Cambridge, 15, 19, 168.
Bull, Bishopsgate Street Within, 8-10, 12, 15, 158, 161.
Bull, Cambridge, 19, 167.
Bull, Hoddesdon, 82.
Castle, Downham Market, 303.
Chequers, Fowlmere, 115.
Crown, Downham Market, 276, 302, 304.
----, King's Lynn, 321.
Duke's Head, King's Lynn, 319-321.
Eagle, Cambridge, 16, 19, 170.
Falcon, Cambridge, 169.
----, Waltham Cross, 67-69.
Four Swans, Bishopsgate Street Within, 8.
----, Waltham Cross, 68.
Fox and Hounds, Barley, 107.
Green Dragon, Bishopsgate Street Within, 8, 12, 15, 19.
Hoop, Cambridge, 170.
Lamb, Ely, 256.
Lion, Cambridge, 14, 168.
Lord Nelson, Upware, 235-239.
Lynn Arms, Setchey, 306.
Pickerel, Cambridge, 170.
Red Lion, Reed Hill, 120.
----, Royston, 14, 120, 125-127.
Roman Urn, Crossbrook Street, 75.
Rose and Crown, Upper Edmonton, 51.
Saracen's Head, Ware, 92, 94.
Sun, Cambridge, 14, 15, 16.
Three Tuns, Cambridge, 168.
Two Brewers, Ponder's End, 53.
Upware Inn, 235-239.
White Horse, Fetter Lane, 13, 16.
Woolpack, Cambridge, 168.
Wrestlers, Cambridge, 168.
Islington, 326-331.
Kett's Oak, 298-300.
Kingsland Road, 27.
King's Lynn, 4, 34, 306-326.
Lamb, Charles, 36, 47-51, 53, 86.
Landbeach, 177, 180, 189.
Layston, 119.
Littleport, 182, 189, 243, 244, 276-281, 283, 284, 289-292.
Melbourn, 123, 128-131.
Milestones, Early examples of, 103, 110, 136.
Milton, 176, 177.
----, John, 155, 163.
Modney Bridge, 183, 297.
Newton, 115.
Nine Wells, The, 140.
Old-time travellers--
Cobbett, Richard, 34, 122, 184, 244, 258.
Gilpin, John, 36, 38, 43-46, 87, 96.
James the First, 36, 46, 71-75.
Pepys, Samuel, 12, 112-115.
Prior, Matthew, 82-85.
Thoresby, Ralph, 76-79.
Walton, Izaak, 36-38, 43.
Ouse, The, 180, 182, 198, 201, 205, 218-221, 229, 236, 243, 257, 289,
292, 294, 302, 315.
Pasque Flower, The, 121.
Ponder's End, 35, 47, 48, 52-54.
Puckeridge, 102, 117.
Quinbury, 102.
Railways, 22, 28, 32-34, 95, 120, 132, 236, 321.
Rampton, 214.
Roman roads, 34-37, 75, 122, 172, 181-183, 213, 231, 244, 251.
Royston, 4, 7, 117, 119, 120, 122-128.
---- Cave, 124.
---- Crow, 121.
---- Downs, 117, 119-122.
Ryston, 298, 300.
Scotland Green, 42.
Setchey, 305.
Seven Sisters Road, 40.
Shelford, Great, 133, 140.
Shepreth, 131-133, 229.
Shoreditch Church, 10, 34, 35, 48.
Southery, 183, 189, 275, 295-297.
South Runcton, 305.
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, 179.
Stamford Hill, 34, 35, 36.
Standon Green End, 100.
Stoke Newington, 35.
Stow Bardolph, 304.
Stretham, 182, 253.
---- Bridge, 182, 243, 247-251.
Theobalds, 7, 67, 72-75.
Thetford, 255.
Thriplow Heath, 115.
Tottenham, 36, 38-43.
---- High Cross, 35, 37, 38-43.
Trumpington, 134-136.
Turner's Hill, 75.
Turnford, 80.
Turnpike Acts, 119.
---- Trusts, 119.
Upware, 235-240, 243.
Wade's Mill, 97, 119.
Walsingham, Alan of, 267.
Waltham Cross, 34, 54-70, 79.
Ware, 5, 6, 7, 34, 36, 87-97.
----, Great Bed of, 86, 87, 93.
Waterbeach, 177-180, 189.
West Mill, 117.
West Winch, 306.
Wicken Fen, 198, 233-235, 240.
William the Conqueror, 3, 170-173, 209, 212-215, 217, 221-227, 230,
270.
Wimbotsham, 304.
Witchford, 225, 230.
Wormley, 81.
PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
Transcriber's Notes:
Inconsistent hyphenation is retained.
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Bold is shown thus: =strong=.
Small capitals have been capitalised.