24 A FARMER'S YEAR 



When the news was brought to London town, 



How Sir Bigod did jest and sing, 



Say you to Lord Hew of Norfolk, 



Said Henry, our English King, 



Though you be in your castle of Bungay, 



Upon the River of Waveney, 



I'll make you care for the King of Cockney. 



At last comes the lamentable end of Sir Bigod's boasting : 



Sir Hugh took three score sacks of gold, 



And flung them over the wall. 



Says go your ways in the Devil's name, 



Yourself and your merry men all ! 



But leave me my castle of Bungay, 



Upon the River of Waveney, 



And I'll pay my shot to the King of Cockney. 



His shot he paid sure enough — one thousand marks of gold 

 and the destruction of his ' castle of Bungay.' This, however, was 

 rebuilt by his descendant, Roger Bigod, in 1289, about a hundred 

 years after its demolition, under special license from Edward I., 

 and it is the ruins of the second castle which we see to-day. 



There was also a Benedictine Nunnery at Bungay dedicated to 

 God and the Holy Cross, of which some few fragments still remain, 

 founded in the year 11 60 by Roger de Glanville and his wife 

 Gudruda, the widow of Roger Bigod. I have in my possession a 

 deed executed by Roger de Huntingfeld about 1295, under which 

 he ' settles, gives, and concedes, and by this charter confirms to 

 God and the Church of the Holy Cross of Bungaie and the holy 

 people who serve God in it, Alveva, the wife of Roger Brunllan, 

 and Thomas, his firstborn son, with the tenement which he holds 

 of me in this town of Medefeld ... for the health of the souls of 

 my father and mother and of my ancestors and successors.' 



Here I append a translation of the full text of this document, 

 which is worth transcribing, although the original Latin, with its 

 curious contractions beautifully written out by some thirteenth- 

 century lawyer, is interesting only to anticjuaries : 



