our Lady? and whether they bileved the parties owne reporte therin, or toke witnes, and howe they toke the deposicions of the same? 18. Item, whether our Lady's milke be liquid or no? and yf it be, interrogatur ut infra. 19. Item, who was Sextene upon a x. yeres agoo or therabout, and lett hym be exactely examined whether he hath not renewed that they calle our Lady's milke whan it was like to be dried up; and whether ever he hymself invented any relique for the augmentacion of his prouffit; and whether the house over the welles were not made within tyme of remembrance, or at the lest-wise renewed. LETTER OF RICHARD SOUTHWELL TO LORD CROMWELL, AFTER THE VISITATION OF WALSINGHAM IN 1536. (MS. Cotton. Cleop. E. IV. fol. 231.) It maye please your good lordshipe to be advertised that sir Thomas Lestrange and Mr. Hoges, accordinge unto the sequestratyon delegate unto them, have bene at Walsingham, and ther sequestred all suche monney, plate, juelles, and stuff, as ther wasse inventyd and founde. Emoung other thinges the same sir Thomas Lestrange and Mr. Hoges dyd there fynd a secrete privye place within the howse, where no channon nor annye other of the howse dyd ever come, as they saye, in wiche there were instrewmentes, pottes, belowes, flyes of suche strange colers as the lick none of us had seene, with poyses, and other thinges to sorte, and denyd gould and sylver,* nothing there wantinge that should belonge to the arrte of multyplyeng. Off all wiche they desyred me by lettres to advertyse you, and alsoo that frome the Satredaye at night tyll the Sondaye next folowinge was offred at their now beinge xxxiijs. iiijd. over and besyd waxe. Of this moultiplyeng it maye please you to cawse hem to be examyned, and so to advertyse unto them your further pleasure. Thus I praye God send your good lordshipe hartye helthe. Frome my pore howse, this xxv. of Julij, a° xxviijo. To the right honorable and my syngular good lord, my lord privye seale. humblye yours to commande, RIC. SOUTHwell. * denied gold and silver, i. e. probably foreign and prohibited coins. FATE OF THE ABBEY ON THE DISSOLUTION. (From Sir John Spelman's History of Sacrilege.) One [Thomas] Sydney, governor of the spital there, as was commonly reported when I was a scholar at Walsingham, was by the townsmen employed to have bought the site of the abbey to the use of the town, but obtained and kept it to himself. He had issue Thomas, and a daughter, mother to Robin Angust,* the footpost, of Walsingham. Thomas, by the advancement of sir Francis Walsingham, brother to his wife, grew to great wealth, was customer of Lynn, and about a miscarriage of that place was long harrowed in law by Mr. Farmer of Barsham, and died leaving two sons. Thomas, the eldest, having the abbey, &c. married, and died without issue male. Sir Henry succeeded to the abbey, &c. married, and died without issue. His lady, a virtuous woman, now hath it for life; the remainder being given for name-sake by sir Henry to Robert Sydney, the second son of the earl of Leicester. * Robert Anguish, to whom a singular monumental tablet, of which there is an etching by Cotman, still remains in Walsingham church. LAMENT FOR WALSINGHAM. (From the Gentleman's Magazine for May 1839.) In the wrackes of Walsingam Whom should I chuse, But the Queene of Walsingam, Then, thou Prince of Walsingam, Bitter plaintes to rewe thy wronge, Bitter wo for thy name. Bitter was it, oh, to see The sely sheepe Murdred by the raveninge wolves While the sheepharde did sleep. Bitter was it, oh, to viewe The sacred vyne, Whiles the gardiners plaied all close, Rooted up by the swine. Bitter, bitter, oh, to behoulde The grasse to growe Where the walles of Walsingam So stately did shewe. Such were the worth of Walsingam While she did stand, Such are the wrackes as now do shewe Of that [so] holy lande.* * As ye came from the holy lande Of blessed Walsingham.-PERCY'S RELICS. Levell, levell, with the ground The towres doe lye, Which with their golden, glittring tops Pearsed oute to the skeye. Where weare gates noe gates are nowe, The waies unknowen Where the presse of freares did passe, Oules doe scrike where the sweetest himnes Lately wear songe, Toades and serpents hold ther dennes Where the palmers did throng. Weepe, weepe, O Walsingam, Sinne is where our Lady sate, Heaven turned is to helle, Sathan sitte where our Lord did swaye, Walsingam, oh, farewell! This ballad is in the Bodleian, in a small 4to. volume, the principal part of which is occupied with a long penitential poem by Philip Earl of Arundel, eldest son of the Duke of Norfolk, who suffered in Elizabeth's time. P |