SEPTEMBER 331 



grizzly remnants which it covers will once more excite the interest 

 and wonder of the antiquaries of the future. 



There was a great castle at Mettingham, whereof the gateway 

 and some fragments of the keep still stand. It was founded by 

 Sir John de Norwich, under a license granted by Edward III. in 

 1342. Later it became a monastery, and the keep was converted 

 into a residence for the masters of Mettingham College, and after- 

 wards, about 1750, into a farmhouse. Suckling quotes an entry 

 from the register of Mettingham dating from the Commonwealth, 

 when the custody of such documents appears to have been trans- 

 ferred to laymen. It is worth transcribing, showing, as it does, 

 what was the bucolic idea of a joke in the year 1653 : 



' Mettingham Register Booke, 



' Wherein are written all the Marriages, Burths, and Burialls, 

 according to the late Act of Parliament made the 22 day of 

 September, 1653. 



' Richard Stannard, of the same towne, in the Countie of Suff. 

 Gent., approved by us, whose handes are here under subscribed 

 accordinge to the choice of him made by the Inhabitants of the 

 said Parish, to have the keeping of the Booke, and sworne to 

 performe the Office of a Register accordinge to an Act of Parlia- 

 ment made in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand sixe hun- 

 dred fifty and three. 



Simon Suckboytle Jumping Jones 



Nasty Nan Bounty Bridg 



John Gingerbread Dick Devill 

 Halfbrickt Man 



Inhabitants of Utopia.' 



The reader will please observe the signatures. 

 The difference between the bulk of the crops this year and 

 last year is extraordinary. So plentiful is the straw that, as 



