and the reed thatches of the barns and cottages are warm and durable. Most of the churches are handsome, whose tall steeples are visible at a great distance, and though the country cannot boast of rural beauty, there is an air of neatness and of greater comfort than are usually to be seen in many other agricultural districts. The prosperity of a country is not altogether displayed in its fine arts, its literature, or its accomplishments: these, indeed, are the consequences of its prosperity, but its cause is to be found in the poorer classes being in a flourishing condition, and able to earn such a competency as shall not only meet their present wants, but enable them to lay up a little share of their earnings against old age and accidents: the great thing is to make the peasantry feel as their fathers have done,that the bread purchased by their own earnings is much sweeter than any that can be given them, It was observed in the early part of this work, that the town of Wisbech is situated at the northern extremity of the county,* on which side it borders upon Norfolk, and the canal running on the north-east side divides Wisbech from the parish of Walsoken, which lies in the latter county. The erection of a bridge over the canal has rendered an easy communication from thence with Wisbech, and has led to the building of not less than one hundred houses, so immediately adjoining as to constitute a sort of suburb to the town; we shall therefore conclude our account of the vicinity of Wisbech with a concise description of Walsoken, and a few towns adjoining in Norfolk. These neighbouring towns lie * See page 6. in that part called the country of Marshland, which contains thirty thousand acres of land, and is bounded on the east by the river Ouse, on the west by the Nene, on the north by the sea banks, and on the south by the county of Cambridge. Here are situated those tracts of common lands called Marshland smeeth, and Marshland fen, (about eight thousand acres) in the several parishes or townships of Walsoken, Emneth, before mentioned, and of West Walton, Walpole St. Peter, and Walpole St. Andrew, Terrington St. Clement and Terrington St. John, together with Tilney All Saints, Tilney St. Lawrence, Islington, and Clenchwarton; for the draining, improving, and inclosing whereof, an act of parliament was obtained in the year 1796. It has been before remarked, that the Saxons were invited to settle in these parts from the fertility of the soil,* which character it still sustains. The towns in Marshland have generally Saxons names, and the lords of many of those towns were accounted for with their fees and tenures, as held both in the time of king Edward the Confessor, and in that of the Conqueror. We shall commence with WALSOKEN. In this parish was a manor called Marshes, from the family of De Marisco, who held lands of the see of Ely, and which was some times called Ely manor. This lordship afterwards came to the Colviles; but the principal manor of Walsoken is called by the name of Popenhoe, and was given to the abbey of Ramsey, by Ailwin, duke of the East Angles,t and was confirmed to that house by king Edgar. On the dissolution of the abbey, it came to the crown, and was afterwards granted by king Henry VIII., in his 36th year, (1544) by the name of Popenhoe, alias Walsoken manor, with the advowson of the rectory, to Sir Thomas Wriothesley and Sir Richard Southwell, (the latter of whom was one of the king's visitors of the abbeys, &c.) who conveyed the same to Thomas Barrow, esq. and the estate passed by divers conveyances through the hands of Everard Buckworth, of Wisbech, and Thomas Oxburgh, trustees for Sir Thomas Hewar, of Emneth, to John Colvile, esq. who sold it to John Creed, esq. of Oundle, where it remained until 1762, when it came to the present worthy proprietor, William Walcot, esq. There are also two other small manors. The church is a handsome edifice, dedicated to All Saints, and has a nave, and north and south aisles, with a chancel covered with lead. At the west end is a handsome ornamented tower, with a spire of -freestone. The nave of the church is divided from the aisles by seven handsome semi-circular Saxon arches on each side, ornamented with the cheveron. Over the pillars is the like number of windows, with emblems of the twelve tribes of Judah underneath. The roof is supported by carved work, decorated with figures of angels placed in the niches. A very beautiful and elegant pointed Saxon arch separates the nave from the chancel, which is about forty feet in length, over which are the royal arms. The aisles extend the whole length of the church, to the extremity of the chancel, though separated by a screen on each side, where the arch, dividing the chancel from the nave, commences; and as there were formerly several guilds in the church, it is not improbable but the chapels or chantries were held within these divisions. One of such guilds was called |