20 A FARMER'S YEAR 



the assembly rooms in the Tuns Inn, also how gentle families 

 living so near as the Rectory at Hedenham, that is within three 

 miles, used to migrate to a town house at Bungay for the winter ! * 

 To return to the Bath Hills. Scenery is not the only advan- 

 tage of these slopes, which are also the warmest and most 

 sheltered spot in this part of Norfolk. It is no exaggeration to 

 say that there are days in spring when, here on the top of the 

 hill, a man needs an ulster, whereas he may sit in the Lodge garden 

 coatless, and listen to the east wind howling and moaning in the 

 Scotch firs on the crest of the hill above. Any farmer will under- 

 stand the value of such a place for sheltering early lambs in 

 spring, the only question being whether the land with its singular 

 advantages of situation could not be put to a better use. There 

 is little doubt but that one of the Earl Bigods had a vineyard here, 

 for the traditional name still lingers. Also that vineyard was 

 growing in the thirteenth century, as Blomefield quotes a deed 

 uuder which William de Pirnho, in the 24th of Henry III., re- 

 leased to Roger, Earl of Norfolk, by fine, his right of fishery 

 ' from the mill of Cliff and the Bridge of Bungay,' and the Earl 

 granted to him a fishery 'from Bungay Bridge to the Earl's 

 Vineyard.' Often I have wondered what kind of wine they made 

 at this vineyard, and who was so bold as to drink it ; but since I 

 have heard that some enterprising person has taken to the culti- 

 vation of the grape in Wales with such success that — so says the 

 wondrous tale — he sells his home-made champagne for 84^. the 

 dozen, it has occurred to me that the Bigods knew more than we 

 imagine about the possibilities of vine-growing in England. Or 

 it may chance that the climate was more genial in those days, 

 although this is very doubtful. 



It is, however, by no means certain that there was not a 

 vineyard on these slopes so late as 1738. In that year a certain 

 John King, an apothecary of Bungay, wrote a very curious essay 

 on hot and cold bathing. It appears from this scarce tract, of 



' Mrs. Jane Hartcup, 7iee Margitson, the lady alluded to above, died in 

 October i8q8. 



