SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



merchants who had made their money in the cloth-fairs of Antwerp or the 

 markets of the Levant bought land in Suffolk and settled down to found a 

 family. Such, for example, was Sir Thomas Kytson, ' the merchant,' citizen 

 and mercer of London, who bought the manor of Hengrave in 1521 from the 

 Duke of Buckingham, and on the dissolution of Bury Abbey added to his 

 already extensive estates the manors of Risby, Westley, Chevington, Har- 

 grave, and the Fornhams, for which he paid £i,jio is. 8^'."° Between 1525 

 and 1538 Kytson built Hengrave Hall, with its gateway, one of the most 

 beautiful specimens of the architecture of the period.'" John Eldred, citizen 

 of London, bought the manor of Great Saxham in 1597 ; '" Hakluyt gives 

 the record of his voyages to Tripoli and Babylon. Thomas Spring, known as 

 the rich clothier, who died in 15 10, owned large estates in Lavenham."* 

 Fuller estimates the former prosperity of the cloth trade by the * many marbles 

 richly inlaid with brass to the memory of clothiers in foregoing ages,' which 

 he observed in the churches of Suffolk, adding (168 i), 'and not one in these 

 later seasons.'"* In 161 3 Sir John Suckling, father of the poet, bought the 

 manor and advowson of Barsham for ^^4,000, ' confident that ere long lands 

 will have a better and a higher price.' "' 



In some cases the fine monastic buildings were taken over and adapted 

 for private use. An interesting example is Mettingham Castle, which, from 

 1393 till the Dissolution, had been occupied by the master and priests of 

 Raveningham College, Norfolk."' When Sir Nicholas Bacon came into pos- 

 session of the property by purchase in 1562, the dwelling house had fallen 

 into complete disrepair owing to thefts of lead from the roof. The parlour, 

 a room 25 ft. by 18 ft., which possessed a large bay window, glazed, opening 

 into a little court, is described as ' very fair, sealed with wainscot, carved with 

 knops fair gilt hanging down, and with two fair benches of wainscot and the 

 floor boarded with oak. And the arms of the last master of the college round 

 about the same parlour, fair gilt.' "^ A few ruins and a freestone chimney 

 also remained of an earlier feudal castle. The orchards, divided into sundry 

 parts with quickset hedges and set with divers fruit trees, pears, apples, and 

 warden plums, are carefully detailed, as well as the ' friday ponds,' and the 

 river well replenished with pike, perch, roach, tench, and other kinds of fish, 

 where the monks had been accustomed to boat and fish at their pleasure. 

 Sir Nicholas succeeded also to their swannery (the birds marked in the bill 

 with M for Mettingham), and the woods abounding in all kinds of wild 

 fowl and very commodious for hawking, pheasants, and partridges ; besides 

 which, the warren of conies, black and grey, only needed careful preserving 

 to afford him good sport. This passion for sport is thoroughly typical of the 

 social life of the period, and there is ample evidence to show that the gentry 

 of Suffolk appreciated to the full the peculiar advantages of their county in this 

 respect. 



Although Suffolk was never a battle-ground during the Civil War, the 

 houses of the gentry suffered considerably at the hands of the soldiery 

 who were arbitrarily quartered upon them. Some idea of their conduct may 



"• Gage, Thingoe Hun J. 182. 

 '" Kirby, Suff. Traveller, 225. 

 '" Suckling, Hist, of Suff. i, 37. 

 '" Add. MS. 14850, fol. 151. 



I 



"' Ibid. 213. 



'" Fuller, IVorthies, 159, 



'" Ibid. 175. 



m 



673 



Ibid. 107. 



8S 



