JULY 257 



remain of it now but the well, part of the stables, used as a 

 keeper's cottage, the crumbling walls of the ancient garden, and a 

 tangled woodland still known as the Lady's Walk. Alas, poor 

 Lady, you cannot be more forgotten and dilapidated than is your 

 earthly home to-day ! 



The tower of the church (I speak entirely from local informa- 

 tion and without guarantee, being myself ignorant on the point) 

 is what is called a 'Thane's tower,' that is a tower such as, 

 according to tradition, Thanes alone were allowed to build. The 

 peculiarity of Thanes' towers seems to be that, like this at 

 Woodton, they have four little windows in them looking to the 

 cardinal points of the compass. Possibly the Thanes sat behind 

 them and watched for their enemies, or possibly they were put to 

 some other purpose ; at any rate, after the Thanes and their 

 regime were done with, the Normans finished the tower in a 

 different style of flint work. The font, which is square in shape, 

 with carved panels and supported on moulded pillars, is pure 

 Norman. For more than two hundred years it was supposed to 

 be quite plain stonework, till, in a happy hour, Miss Long, the 

 daughter of the present rector, chanced to examine it, and found 

 that it had been bricked or plastered up, doubtless to avoid the 

 destructive zeal of the infamous William Dowsing or one of his 

 associates. 



Dowsing was appointed ' visitor ' to the Suffolk churches 

 by the Earl of Manchester in 1643, and raged through them 

 terribly, destroying whatever beautiful thing could be found, 

 whether it were carving, or statuary, or pictured glass, or 

 paintings, upon the plea that they were popish and superstitious. 

 Indeed, this pious wrecker and ruffian kept a journal of his per- 

 formances, which is sorry reading for us to-day ; but still more 

 sorry is it to see where his hammer has been at work, as, for 

 instance, on the lovely fane of Blythborough, in Suffolk. From 

 church to church this Vandal rushed, wrecking as he went ; it is 

 recorded, indeed, that he ruined eleven of them in one day. 

 Whether he himself came into Norfolk I am not certain, but if he 



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