26 



A FARMER'S YEAR 



Bungay in the old days was famous as the seat of an industry 

 for the copper bottoming of ships, though what sort of ships they 

 were that could sail up the Waveney to Bungay staithe I know not. 

 Certainly they could not have drawn much water ; but then, even 



the ocean-going vessels of three 

 hundred years ago were very 

 small. Had they not been so 

 Queen Elizabeth could scarcely 

 have spoken of her ' seaport of 

 Norwich,' as she does when 

 giving leave to Hollanders of the 

 reformed faith to take refuge 

 therefrom religious persecution. 

 The stranger of to-day, con- 

 templating the muddy waters of 

 the Wensum, with its burden of 

 wherries, would scarcely think 

 of describing Norwich as a 

 seaport. But the ships that used 

 it in those times were large 

 enough to help to beat back 

 the Armada. 



There still lingers, or lingered 

 a few years ago, a vague belief 

 that the devil is on rare occasions 

 to be met with in these parts, 

 and especially on Hollow Hill in 

 this parish, in the concrete shape 

 of the black dog of Bungay. 

 Indeed, once I met him myself at this very spot, looking saucer- 

 eyed in the twilight and clanking an appropriate chain, but he 

 turned out to be an escaped retriever. The original animal, 

 however, was a dog or a devil of mettle. His most striking 

 recorded appearance was in the midst of a terrific thunderstorm 

 on Sunday, August 4, 1577, in the church of St. Mary. Hear 



SEAL OF ROGER DE HUNTINGKEI.D 



