I could not, for the life of me, understand. Yet
there they were, quite a street of them, all in beautiful order, as if
they were the residences of wealthy citizens in the suburbs of a busy
town. They ought to have been filled with handsome girls, as Charles
Kingsley tells us East Anglia is famed for the beauty of its women; all I
can say, however, is that I saw none of them, or any sign of life
anywhere, beyond the inevitable tradesmen's carts. Independently of
Constable, East Bergholt claims to be worth a pilgrimage for its rustic
beauty, which, however, becomes tame and common as you get away from it.
The church is old, and has a history--of little consequence, however, to
anyone now. One of its rectors was burned at Ipswich in Queen Mary's
reign. His name, Samuel, ought to be preserved by a Church which, till
lately, had few martyrs of its own. East Bergholt has also a
Congregational and Primitive Methodist chapel, and a colony of
Benedictine nuns, driven away from France by the great Revolution. We
are a hospitable people, and we are proud to be so, but have we not just
at this time too many refugee nuns and monks in our midst?

CHAPTER XII.
EAST ANGLIAN WORTHIES.

Suffolk cheese--Danes, Saxons, and Normans--Philosophers and
statesmen--Artists and literati.

Abbo Floriacencis, who flourished in the year A.D. 910, describes East
Anglia as 'very noble, and particularly because of its being watered on
all sides. On the south and east it is encompassed by the ocean, on the
north by the moisture of large and wet fens which, arising almost in the
heart of the island, because of the evenness of the ground for a hundred
miles and more, descend in great rivers into the sea. On the west the
province is joyned to the rest of the island, and, therefore, may be
entered (by land); but lest it should be harassed by the frequent
incursions of the enemy it is fortifyed with an earthen rampire like a
high wall, and with a ditch. The inner parts of it is a pretty rich
soil, made exceeding pleasant by gardens and groves, rendered agreeable
by its convenience for hunting, famous for pasturage, and abounding with
sheep and all sorts of cattle. I do not insist upon its rivers full of
fish, considering that a tongue as it were of the sea itself licks it on
one side, and on the other side the large fens make a prodigious number
of lakes two or three miles over. These fens accommodate great numbers
of monks with their