YARMOUTH. 



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and looms were brought over from the Continent, and spinning was commenced at Worstead, 

 a small town which gave to the yarn the name it still bears. The old town of Yarmouth 

 was formerly defended by walls of which the ruins still remain. 



Among the features of Yarmouth are the great broad quays, extending about a mile- 

 and-a-quarter, the principal streets running parallel with them. There are several substantial 

 bridges across the Yare and Bure rivers, one over the latter having been erected on the spot 

 where nearly eighty people were suddenly precipitated into the water by the fall of the old 





YARMOUTH. 



bridge some thirty-eight years ago. There are several small docks and shipyards. Yarmouth 

 Roads afford safe anchorage, and are constantly resorted to by vessels in distress, the captains 

 of which do not dare to brave the elements outside. Forty thousand sail, exclusive of 

 fishing boats, annually pass this part of the coast. The Roads are formed by several very 

 dangerous sands, which, in foggy weather, or when heavy gales sweep the coasts, occasion many 

 fearful shipwrecks. More than 500 vessels have been stranded, wrecked, or utterly lost off this 

 coast in the short period of three years ; as a necessary consequence, the loss of life is also 

 considerable, and the number of shipwrecked mariners who are landed at Yarmouth year after 

 year is very large. The Shipwrecked Mariners' Society has an important branch there. There 

 is a fine Sailors' Home, which has lodged 600 to 700 poor seamen in a single year. It was 

 established to provide a home for the mariners of all nations, when wrecked, detained by stress 

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