JUNE 243 



were doubtless thatched. As I mentioned in my first chapter, 

 Bungay was once entirely destroyed by such a fire, and from the 

 above entry it seems that Southwold suffered in the same way.) 



This is the next note : ' Collected in the parish of Bedingham 

 August the 5th 1665 towards the relief of the poor of Great 

 Yarmouth and of other parts of ye diocese being in affliction of a 

 grievous plague, ye sufne of one pound which accordingly was 

 paid unto ye bishop.' 



It will be noticed that the amount subscribed is the smallest 

 recorded in any of these entries of collections. Perhaps the reason 

 of this was that Bedingham itself suffered from the plague, though, 

 if so, no record of it remains. Certainly it was at Bungay, for the 

 pest-house stood upon the common, and it is said that the dead 

 were buried in a pit-hole now sacred to a golf-green. I suppose 

 that this entry was made by the Rev. William Copping, or Coping. 

 Probably it was one of his last, since a monument in the church 

 informs us that he died at the early age of twenty-seven, and 

 ' hinc migravit ad aureolam coelestem ^Junij 1666.' Perhaps the 

 plague took him off, as chanced to so many of the clergy in 

 Norfolk. (Vide the researches of Dr. Jessopp on the Black 

 Death.) 



The next note, made, I suppose, by John Lathom, since Mr. 

 Copping had been four months dead, is : ' Collected in ye parish 

 of Bedingham October 10 (being ye fast for ye fire of London) 

 towards ye relief of ye poor sufferers by ye fire ye sum of two 

 pounds three shillings and fourpence paid to Mr. Augustus Cullien 

 by order from ye Bishop.' 



It would appear from this and the former entry that the collec- 

 tions for the plague and the fire of London were made throughout 

 the diocese by the request or command of the bishop. This I 

 hope to verify by searching other registers. 



The next note which I shall quote is as follows I suppose that it 

 was made by John Brown, who was vicar in 1680, John Lathom 

 having departed, whether to another parish or ad aureolam coelestem 

 I know not : ' Collected in ye parish of Bedingham January ye i6 th 



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