RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Day, 1538. Sir Roger Townsend, in 1564, 

 wrote to Cromwell, telling him of a poor woman 

 of Wells, who imagined a false tale of a miracle 

 done by the image of Our Lady after it had 

 been carried away to London. Sir Roger ex- 

 amined her, and as a result caused the poor old 

 thing on a wintry market day in January to be 

 set in the stocks very early in the morning. At 

 nine o'clock, when the market was fullest of 

 people, she was placed m a cart, with a paper 

 set about her head on which was written 

 ' A reporter of false tales,' and carried about 

 the market place and other streets, tarrying 

 wherever there was a crowd, ' young peoples and 

 boyes of the town castyng snowballes at her.' 

 Then the aged woman was again set in the 

 stocks and kept there till the market closed. It 

 is a sign of the times to find this worthy county 

 justice and tool of Cromwell's concluding 

 thus — 



Thys was her penans ; for I knewe no lawe other- 

 wyse to punyshe her butt by discretion ; trustyng itt 

 shall be a warnyng to other lyght persons in such 

 wj'se to order their self. Howebeitt, I cannot per- 

 ceyve but the seyd Image is not yett out of sum of 

 ther heddes.' 



An Elizabethan ballad entitled ' A Lament 

 for Walsingham,' thus concludes : — 



Level], levell with the ground 



The Towres doe lye, 

 Which with their golden glitt'ring tops 



Pearsed oute to the skeye. 



Where weare gates noe gates are new, 



The waies unknown, 

 Where the presse of freares did passe, 



While her fame far was blowen. 



Oules doe scrike where the sweetest himenes 



Lately wear songe, 

 Toades and serpents hold their dennes 



Where the palmers did throng. 



Weepe, weepe, O Walsingham, 



Whose dayes are nightes, 

 Blessings turned to blasphemies, 



Holy deeds to dispites. 



Sinne is where our Lady sate. 

 Heaven turned is to helle ; 

 Sathan sitte where our Lord did swaye, 

 Walsingham, oh, farewell ! 



The site of the priory, with the church- 

 yard and gardens, was granted by the crown 

 to Thomas Sidney, master of the hospital of 

 Little Walsingham, immediately after its dis- 

 solution, for the sum of ^^90. Sir Henry 

 Spelman, in his History of Sacrilege^ asserts that 

 he was employed by the townsmen to buy 

 the priory church and the site for the use of 

 the town, but having obtained it he kept it for 

 himself. 



Of the first seal, early thirteenth century, 

 there is an indistinct impression attached to an 

 undated charter, showing the priory church with 

 central tower, &c.^ 



The second seal, late thirteenth century, is a 

 circular seal (2f in.) of bold execution. Obverse : 

 The priory church, from the south, with round- 

 headed doorway containing the half-length figure 

 of an old man ; two round-headed windows, 

 each containing the bust of a saint, or canon ; a 

 crested roof; and a central tower, with two- 

 towers at each end. 



Legend : — 



SIGILLUM . ECCLIE : BEATE I 

 WALSINGHAM 



MARIE : DE 



Ellis, Orig. Letters (ser. 3), iii, 162. 



Reverse : The crowned Virgin, with nimbus, 

 seated, has the Holy Child with nimbus, on left 

 knee ; and a fleur-de-lis sceptre in the right 

 hand. Overhead and at the side are curtains. 

 Legend : — 



|J< AVE . MARIE : GRACIE : PLENA : 

 DOMINUS : TECUM ' 



* A list of priors, drawn up at the time when Prior 

 Lowth was compelled to resign (1514), is given in 

 the chartulary (Cott. MS. Nero, E. vii, fol. I49i5). 

 It is without dates, but gives the length of each rule ; 

 the year of Our Lord is supplied in some instances 

 by calculation, and in others from the episcopal 

 registers, &c. 



' A note at the end of the chartulary list states that 

 John Harford, the fourteenth prior, bore the name 

 and office of prior during part of the lifetime of 

 John Snoring. A plea was made before the bishop 

 that Harford had not received the major part of the 

 votes of the convent ; but though his election on 

 that account was not episcopally ratified, he was 

 accepted by the priory as their superior. 



' Add. Ch. 19275. 



" B.M. Ixix, 31,32; Ackn. ofSupr. (P.R.O.), 112.* 



401 



51 



