_Plague Stones_ (Vol. v., p. 226.).--One of these stones is (I believe)
still standing at Bury Saint Edmunds. In a paper read to the Bury and
West Suffolk Arch. Inst. (vide vol. i. p. 42. of the _Society's
Proceedings_) Mr. S. Tymms says:
"The small-pox has been a frequent visitor of Bury in its most
terrible forms. In 1677, says Gillingwater (_Hist. Bury_, 226.),
it was so prevalent that the people resorting to the market by the
Rislygate Road, were accustomed to dip their money in water
(tradition says vinegar) which had been placed in _the cavity of
the ruined base of the boundary cross_ situate at the bottom of
Chalk Lane, with the view of preventing any infection being
conveyed to the neighbouring towns and villages."
My attention has been frequently called to a stone of similar
description standing in the parish of Stuston in this county, by the
side of the Ipswich and Norwich turnpike; it is called in Kirby's
_Suffolk Traveller_, 1st ed. pp. 52-3., a "Stuston Stone" and "The White
Stone," and is nearly equidistant from Diss and Eye, between two and
three miles.