Parliament, this town declared for the latter, but the inhabitants were greatly averse to its being garrisoned. Yarmouth Castle was dismantled and pulled down in 1621. This town was originally an important naval station, and was made a borough by King John. It sent members to parliament in the reign of Edward the First. King James the First granted a charter, incorporating it by the name of a bailiff, aldermen, and common council. King Charles the Second granted a new charter by which they were in future to be governed by a mayor, seven aldermen, a recorder, and thirty-six common-council.

The corporation has particular and extensive privileges; it has a court of record and admiralty. In the court of record are tried civil causes for unlimited sums; in the court of admiralty authority is given to try, condemn, and execute, in some cases, without waiting for a warrant. The mayor and aldermen are conservators of the river Ouse in this county; the Humber, the Derwent, the Wherse, the Air, and the Dun rivers in Yorkshire. By a charter granted by Henry the Third, this town is bound to send to the sheriffs of Norwich every year one hundred herrings, baked in twenty-four pasties, which the sheriffs are to deliver to the lord of the manor of East Carlton, a village near New Buckenham ; the lord of the manor gives a receipt for them, and by his tenure is obliged to present them to his Majesty, wherever he may be resident.

Yarmouth is admirably situated for commerce, particularly to the north of Europe. The sagacious Dr. Campbell, in his Political Survey of Great Britain, observes, that "Harwich and Yarmouth are now the great marts, from their being capacious and commodious harbours; but one may, notwithstanding, take the liberty to doubt whether it would not have been an act of national policy to have preserved (while practicable) these ports by a sea-dike.

This (adds the Dr.) arose probably from not having a just notion of the benefits arising from commerce, from the difficulty of establishing an adequate fund, and from the great uncertainty and confusion of the times." Immense expences have been incurred in methods adopted to preserve the harbour from decay. In 1800 an act of parliament was passed, by virtue of which an harbour-tax, of one shilling on every chaldron of coals, also on every last of grain and wey of salt, is levied; the same tax operates also on every ton of goods of a different description, fish excepted, which are unladen in the harbour of Yarmouth. The plan of the new harbour was executed under the direction of Joas Johnson, a native of Holland, who came from that country to conduct the works. A pier and a jetty was erected for preventing the haven from being overflowed, and preserving at all states of tide a sufficient depth of water for the ships to float at their moorings. These piers have been considerably improved since their erection. Dr. Campbell observes, "whether it is yet too late by an extensive sea wall to retrieve this port, and recover a part at least of the lands the ocean has devoured, and of course restore her port to the town of Orford, is a question I venture to propose, but must leave it to wiser heads to determine; but if this be attempted in any future period it should be at the public expence, and not by taxes on the trade and navigation of particular places."

Yarmouth Roads form a grand rendezvous for the North Sea fleet, and also for the numerous colliers coming from Shields, Sunderland, and Newcastle, to London. These roads are accounted the most dangerous coast in Britain. A melancholy event occurred 1692, when a fleet of 200 sail of colliers, having left the roads with a fair wind, were assailed with a furious tempest. Some of the vessels tacked and arrived safe in the roads, the remainder pushed out to sea, some rode it out at a distance, but

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the rest, amounting to more than 140 sail, were driven ashore, wrecked, and scarcely any of the crews were saved. Some coasting vessels laden with grain, and bound to Holland, experienced the same disaster; in fine, more than 200 sail of vessels, and 1,000 persons, perished. In 1790, a similar disaster occurred.

Yarmouth is celebrated for its extensive fishery, there being 60,000 barrels of herrings generally taken and cured in the year. One hundred and fifty vessels are employed in this trade, and between forty and fifty sail in the exportation. The herrings are generally exported by the merchants of Yarmouth, the rest by those of London, to Italy, Spain, and Portugal; which with the camblets, crapes, and other Norwich stuffs, which the merchants of this town export, occasions much bustle of commerce, employs many hands, and much shipping. The fishing fair, or season for catching herrings, begins at Michaelmas, and continues all the month of October, during which time every vessel that comes to fish for the merchants from any part of England, as many do from the coast of Kent, Sussex, and other counties, is allowed to catch, bring in, and sell their fish, free of all duty and toll. The red herrings are denominated Yarmouth Capons. In the spring there is great fishing for mackarel; besides which this town has a fishing trade to the North Seas, for white fish called North Sea Cod. There is a considerable traffic carried on with Norway and the Baltic, for deals, oak, pitch, tar, and all naval stores, which are mostly consumed in this port, where a great many ships are built every year. Except Hull, in Yorkshire, Yarmouth has more trade than any other town on the east coast of England.

Among the singularities of this place is the peculiar mode of conveying goods through the narrow lanes of the town, by a vehicle formed like a wheelbarrow, and drawn by onę horse. Some of these machines

machines are also made use of for carrying people from one place to another, and from the sea side. This vehicle is called "a Yarmouth coach."

The town of Yarmouth, which makes a fine appearance from the sea, is more compact, neat, and well-built, than any town in England, the streets be ing strait and parallel to each other; and there is a view across all the streets from the quay to the sea, the town standing in a peninsula between the sea and the harbour. It extends more than a mile in length, and half a mile in breadth, and contains four principal streets, in a direction from north to south, and 156 narrow lanes intersecting them; it contains 3,081 houses, and 14,845 inhabitants.

The Market-place is extensive, and is admirably well furnished, and the quay is superior to that of Marseilles, and the finest in Europe, Seville in Spain alone excepted. It is so commodious that persons may step directly from the shore into any of the ships, and walk from one to another as over a bridge, sometimes for a quarter of a mile in length; it is also so spacious that in some places it is near an hundred yards from the houses to the wharf.On the wharf is a Custom House and Town Hall, with several merchants houses, nearly as magnificent as palaces.

The Quay is a fashionable promenade, and among the fine range of buildings which embellish it the assembly room has a superb effect. The Church dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron of fisherman, is a magnificent edifice; the steeple was of such an altitude as to serve as a mark for mariners. This church was built in the reign of King Henry the First; it is 250 feet in length, and including the aisles 180 in breadth. The wooden steeple, which was 136 feet high, is now taken down.

Near the centre of the town is an elegant Chapel dedicated to St. George. The Theatre, a modern building erected 1778, is a neat edifice, rising out

of the ruins of the Dutch chapel; it has the peculiar advantages of having an assembly room and bowling green attached to it. On the north side of St. Nicholas church, Bishop Herbert established a priory of Black Monks, subordinate to the monastery at Norwich. The Black Friars had also a monastic establishment, founded in the reign of Henry the Third. In the reign of his son, Edward the First, Thomas Falstaff founded an hospital, which consisted of a warden, eight brethren, and eight sisters. There were also two Lazar-houses for the reception of indigent lepers. The Bath-house was erected in 1759, it stands on the beach. This bath is fifteen feet by eight, appropriated for gentlemen, and a similar one assigned for ladies. The sea-water is raised every tide by a horse mill into a reservoir fifty yards from the bath, to which it is conveyed by pipes. Adjoining the north end of the bath-house is a public room, erected 1788, which has become a fashionable lounge. There is a fine hospital in this town which is of a quadrangular forma, containing twenty rooms on the ground floor. There are also two charity schools for 35 boys, and 32 girls, who are cloathed, and the boys instructed to make nets, and the girls to knit, spin, and work plain work.

Yarmouth is in the hundred of East Flegg. The great market is on Saturday, a smaller one is kept on Wednesday. A barge sails to Norwich twice a week. This town gave title of viscount and earl to Sir Robert Paston, of Paston, in this country, 1678, which titles expired with his son William, 1733. It was revived in Madam Amelia Sophia Walmoden, who was created Countess of Yarmouth, 1740, and again expired with her 1765. The title has been again revived.

ous.

The coast about Yarmouth is extremely dangerMost of the sheds, out-houses, &c. for twenty miles upon the shore, from Winterton Ness to Cromer and further, are made of the wrecks of ships,

and