The Inland Country Is That Which They
Properly Call High Suffolk, And Is Full Of Rich Feeding Grounds And
Large Farms, Mostly Employed In Dairies For Making The Suffolk
Butter And Cheese, Of Which I Have Spoken Already.
Among these
rich grounds stand some market towns, though not of very
considerable note; such as Framlingham, where was
Once a royal
castle, to which Queen Mary retired when the Northumberland
faction, in behalf of the Lady Jane, endeavoured to supplant her.
And it was this part of Suffolk where the Gospellers, as they were
then called, preferred their loyalty to their religion, and
complimented the Popish line at expense of their share of the
Reformation. But they paid dear for it, and their successors have
learned better politics since.
In these parts are also several good market towns, some in this
county and some in the other, as Beccles, Bungay, Harlston, etc.,
all on the edge of the River Waveney, which parts here the counties
of Suffolk and Norfolk. And here in a bye-place, and out of common
remark, lies the ancient town of Hoxon, famous for being the place
where St. Edmund was martyred, for whom so many cells and shrines
have been set up and monasteries built, and in honour of whom the
famous monastery of St. Edmundsbury, above mentioned, was founded,
which most people erroneously think was the place where the said
murder was committed.
Besides the towns mentioned above, there are Halesworth,
Saxmundham, Debenham, Aye, or Eye, all standing in this eastern
side of Suffolk, in which, as I have said, the whole country is
employed in dairies or in feeding of cattle.
This part of England is also remarkable for being the first where
the feeding and fattening of cattle, both sheep as well as black
cattle, with turnips, was first practised in England, which is made
a very great part of the improvement of their lands to this day,
and from whence the practice is spread over most of the east and
south parts of England to the great enriching of the farmers and
increase of fat cattle. And though some have objected against the
goodness of the flesh thus fed with turnips, and have fancied it
would taste of the root, yet upon experience it is found that at
market there is no difference, nor can they that buy single out one
joint of mutton from another by the taste. So that the complaint
which our nice palates at first made begins to cease of itself, and
a very great quantity of beef and mutton also is brought every year
and every week to London from this side of England, and much more
than was formerly known to be fed there.
I cannot omit, however little it may seem, that this county of
Suffolk is particularly famous for furnishing the City of London
and all the counties round with turkeys, and that it is thought
there are more turkeys bred in this county and the part of Norfolk
that adjoins to it than in all the rest of England, especially for
sale, though this may be reckoned, as I say above, but a trifling
thing to take notice of in these remarks; yet, as I have hinted,
that I shall observe how London is in general supplied with all its
provisions from the whole body of the nation, and how every part of
the island is engaged in some degree or other of that supply. On
this account I could not omit it, nor will it be found so
inconsiderable an article as some may imagine, if this be true,
which I received an account of from a person living on the place,
viz., that they have counted three hundred droves of turkeys (for
they drive them all in droves on foot) pass in one season over
Stratford Bridge on the River Stour, which parts Suffolk from
Essex, about six miles from Colchester, on the road from Ipswich to
London. These droves, as they say, generally contain from three
hundred to a thousand each drove; so that one may suppose them to
contain five hundred one with another, which is one hundred and
fifty thousand in all; and yet this is one of the least passages,
the numbers which travel by Newmarket Heath and the open country
and the forest, and also the numbers that come by Sudbury and Clare
being many more.
For the further supplies of the markets of London with poultry, of
which these countries particularly abound, they have within these
few years found it practicable to make the geese travel on foot
too, as well as the turkeys, and a prodigious number are brought up
to London in droves from the farthest parts of Norfolk; even from
the fen country about Lynn, Downham, Wisbech, and the Washes; as
also from all the east side of Norfolk and Suffolk, of whom it is
very frequent now to meet droves with a thousand, sometimes two
thousand in a drove. They begin to drive them generally in August,
by which time the harvest is almost over, and the geese may feed in
the stubbles as they go. Thus they hold on to the end of October,
when the roads begin to be too stiff and deep for their broad feet
and short legs to march in.
Besides these methods of driving these creatures on foot, they have
of late also invented a new method of carriage, being carts formed
on purpose, with four stories or stages to put the creatures in one
above another, by which invention one cart will carry a very great
number; and for the smoother going they drive with two horses
abreast, like a coach, so quartering the road for the ease of the
gentry that thus ride. Changing horses, they travel night and day,
so that they bring the fowls seventy, eighty, or, one hundred miles
in two days and one night. The horses in this new-fashioned
voiture go two abreast, as above, but no perch below, as in a
coach, but they are fastened together by a piece of wood lying
crosswise upon their necks, by which they are kept even and
together, and the driver sits on the top of the cart like as in the
public carriages for the army, etc.
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