Cromer Is A Market Town Close To The Shore Of This Dangerous Coast.
I Know Nothing It Is Famous For
(Besides it being thus the terror
of the sailors) except good lobsters, which are taken on that coast
in great
Numbers and carried to Norwich, and in such quantities
sometimes too as to be conveyed by sea to London.
Farther within the land, and between this place and Norwich, are
several good market towns, and innumerable villages, all diligently
applying to the woollen manufacture, and the country is exceedingly
fruitful and fertile, as well in corn as in pastures; particularly,
which was very pleasant to see, the pheasants were in such great
plenty as to be seen in the stubbles like cocks and hens--a
testimony though, by the way, that the county had more tradesmen
than gentlemen in it; indeed, this part is so entirely given up to
industry, that what with the seafaring men on the one side, and the
manufactures on the other, we saw no idle hands here, but every man
busy on the main affair of life, that is to say, getting money;
some of the principal of these towns are:- Alsham, North Walsham,
South Walsham, Worsted, Caston, Reepham, Holt, Saxthorp, St.
Faith's, Blikling, and many others. Near the last, Sir John
Hobart, of an ancient family in this county, has a noble seat, but
old built. This is that St. Faith's, where the drovers bring their
black cattle to sell to the Norfolk graziers, as is observed above.
From Cromer we ride on the strand or open shore to Weyburn Hope,
the shore so flat that in some places the tide ebbs out near two
miles. From Weyburn west lies Clye, where there are large salt-
works and very good salt made, which is sold all over the county,
and sometimes sent to Holland and to the Baltic. From Clye we go
to Masham and to Wells, all towns on the coast, in each whereof
there is a very considerable trade carried on with Holland for
corn, which that part of the county is very full of. I say nothing
of the great trade driven here from Holland, back again to England,
because I take it to be a trade carried on with much less honesty
than advantage, especially while the clandestine trade, or the art
of smuggling was so much in practice: what it is now, is not to my
present purpose.
Near this town lie The Seven Burnhams, as they are called, that is
to say, seven small towns, all called by the same name, and each
employed in the same trade of carrying corn to Holland, and
bringing back,--etc.
From hence we turn to the south-west to Castle Rising, an old
decayed borough town, with perhaps not ten families in it, which
yet (to the scandal of our prescription right) sends two members to
the British Parliament, being as many as the City of Norwich itself
or any town in the kingdom, London excepted, can do.
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