of the animal be taken into account. The sheep of this district, where sheep are kept, which is by no means general, are usually a cross between the South-down and Norfolk breeds, and the Down and Leicester: their wool is fine, and for the quality of the mutton, and their activity in bearing hard folding, particularly the former, they are much esteemed.

Though the horses of Suffolk are in general excellent, yet the farmers of this district are certainly not celebrated for their cart horses: they are now however improving, and more attention is paid to breeding them than formerly. The carriages used are four-inch wheel waggons, and a very heavy six-inch wheel cart; but on many farms they have substituted a smaller carriage, named a tumbril, which will ultimately be brought into general use. The greater part of the corn is thrashed by machines of four-horse power, which will each thrash from thirty to sixty coombs of wheat per day; there are also small tread-mill machines, worked by men, capable of thrashing from fifteen to thirty coombs per day. The use of the flail, however, is not wholly discontinued by a certain class of the agriculturists, and wherever this is practised, it is constantly task-work.

The hours of labour for servants throughout the half-hundred, are from six till eleven in the morning, and from two till seven in the evening, during the summer; and in the winter half-year, from day-light till half-past eleven, and from half

past one till dark. The day labourers receive from 15d. to 18d. per day, in the winter season, and from 20d. to 2s. during the summer, except in the months of July, August, and September, when they are chiefly at task-work in hay-making, turnip-hoeing, and harvest. The yearly servants, of both sexes, are frequently hired at petty sessions, held by the chief constables of the villages, on Old Michaelmas day: the wages of the men are from £5. to £12. per annum, and the females have from 50s. to £6. 6s. with their board and lodging.

Q Q

THE

PRINCIPAL EVENTS

OF

YARMOUTH HISTORY

IN A SERIES OF

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES,

FROM THE SAXON INVASION TO THE PRESENT PERIOD.

A. D.

495 The landing of the Saxons upon Cerdic Shore. These people

were composed of three nations, the Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes, all branches of the same stock, and exactly agreeing in their language, religion, and customs. They were first led, under the conduct of Woden, from Scythia and Cimmeria into the northern parts of Germany, whence they distributed themselves along the coasts of the Baltic ocean, and so round to Belgium and Batavia. These people subsisted chiefly by their piracies, and were much dreaded by the neighbouring nations for their valour and fierceness, and even the Romans themselves were apprehensive of them as a dangerous enemy. On their first voyage to Britain, they came in three long ships, which Verstegan (who is confirmed by John Pomarius) informs us they themselves called

A. D.

495

&c.

Keelers, and that their number was 9000 men, 3000 to each ship; but this is very improbable, if not impossible, unless their ships were built of different materials to those described by Lucan and other authors. Their boats are known to have been of a very light construction; the keels and ribs were of wood, covered with leather. First, says the same author, they were made of osiers, twisted and interwoven with each other, and covered with strong hides; and in these fragile barks they ventured out to sea in rough and boisterous weather, though some learned men have supposed they had larger vessels for war and traffic.* This conjecture is probable, for it would else appear very strange that they should have been so formidable, when we consider that their boats were made of the same light materials with those of the Britons mentioned by Cæsar. The Saxon warrior was armed with a long sword or sear, bending like a scythe, having its edge the contrary way, or according to Verstegan, with a dagger or hand seax, kept in a sheath by itself. This last was the sort of weapon used by Hengist and his followers on Salisbury Plain, when he met Vortigern, King of the Britons, and a long train of the nobles of his realm, in order, as the Britons supposed, to conclude an amicable peace. The unsuspecting Britons came unarmed to the meeting, while the treacherous Saxons had each a dagger or hand sear con

*In support of this opinion, the following passage is quoted from the Histoire du Commerce et de la Navigation des Anciens, page 202.-"Ou si outre ces vaisseaux, qui étoient pour leur usage journalier, ils n'en avoient point d'autres, de gros bois, et de matiere solide, comme Selden l'a cru, pour les voyages de long cours, & pour la guerre. Il est certain qu'on ne trouve aucun passage dans les livres des anciens, qui marque qu'ils eussent de grand vaisseaux bâtis de bois solide, selon la fabrique ordinaire."

cealed under his garment. In a moment of surprise, their leader gave the words "Nemeth yure seax, draw your daggers," which they suddenly did, and inhumanly butchered the unhappy natives. The Saxon soldiers also bore small shields upon their left arms, with which they were very dexterous in defending themselves from the lances of their enemies; they are also said to have used spears and cross-bows, but for the latter we have no certain authority. Their religion was paganism and idolatry; and among their gods, Thor, the son of Woden, who first brought the Saxons into Germany, and Woden, and Frea, his wife, were their principal deities, with a variety of others. Speed, from Adamı Bremansis, gives us the following account of a Saxon temple, erected in honor of their three principal gods. "In a temple, in their native and vulgar speech called Ubsola, which was all wrought with gold, the people worship the statues of three gods, in the following manner: Thor, the mightiest of them, hath only a throne or bed on either hand of him; Woden and Frisco hold their places, and this is the signification of them: Thor, say they, beareth rule in the air, and governeth the thunder, lightning, winds, showers, fair weather, corn, and the fruits of the earth: the second, Woden, that is strongest, maketh wars, and ministereth manly valour against the enemy: the third is Frisco, bestowing largely upon mortal men peace and pleasure, whose image they represented with a large Priapus. Woden is seen armed like the Mars of the Romans."-Tacitus describes the habits

of the Saxons as "a kind of cassock, called sagum, clasped before, or for want of a clasp, fastened with a thorn." In the earlier periods they wore Pelts, or a sort of garment made with the skins of beasts. Paul Diaconus says they wore large loose gowns or cassocks, mostly of linen, trimmed and set out with very broad guards or welts, and em