258 A FARMER'S YEAR 



did not his fellows and subordinates did, for here at Ditchingham 

 they have broken off the heads of the sculptured saints at the foot 

 of the tower and defaced the sacred emblems of the Bleeding 

 Heart surrounded by a crown of thorns. Little wonder that the 

 poor clergymen of that generation took fright, and in some 

 instances, if time was given them, plastered up the fonts and hid 

 such of their treasures as were portable. For the most part, when 

 they were able to do this, the carved work escaped, as the icono- 

 clasts were in too great a hurry and had too much congenial sacri- 

 lege on hand to search for anything that was not plainly visible. 



In Woodton church there still exists a great part of the stair- 

 case which led to the niche whence, in pre- Reformation days, the 

 Host was elevated in the presence of the congregation. The place 

 can yet be seen also where the rood beam was built into the wall, and 

 the local tradition is that the rector was in the habit of preaching 

 from the centre of that beam. This legend I decline to believe, 

 since, having with some difficulty scrambled up the little stairway 

 and inspected the site, I am convinced that no elderly clergyman 

 could have crawled along a ten-inch baulk and spoken from the 

 centre of it, standing at a considerable elevation above the floor of 

 the church. Had he attempted it, vacancies in the cure of souls 

 at Woodton would have been frequent ; indeed, I doubt whether 

 any preacher accustomed to emphasise his points with appropriate 

 action would have survived a month. 



On the exterior of several of the windows of this church are 

 little sculptures of an exceptionally refined and charming character 

 representing the coiffed heads of nuns or queens. In the chancel 

 also is a very beautiful and quite perfect monument of alabaster, 

 for, having been wisely placed high up in the wall, it is out of reach 

 of easy ravage by boys and Puritans. This statue is erected to the 

 memory of Anne, wife of Robert Suckling, daughter of Sir Thomas 

 Wodehouse of Kimberly and Dame Blanche, daughter of the Lord 

 Carey, Baron of Hunsdon (query, Hunstanton). 1 The face of the 



1 A correspondent writing from Florida, U.S.A., informs me that this 

 conjecture is inaccurate. It seems that Sir Henry Gary, K.G., was created 



