a Grant of the Tolls and Government of this Fair to the Guild of Merchants and Alderman; but this instrument, drawn up by commission, was declared void by the King's Manual Seal, and the Abbat restored to his privileges. This Fair was since kept by prescription, and the Monks, taking advantage of the credulous superstition of the times, made a considerable collection in Vows, Masses, and Offerings to St. Edmund's Shrine amongst his votaries. The Abbat kept an open table whilst the fair lasted for noble guests; and persons of inferior rank were daily entertained in the Refectory with the Monks. There were different Rows assigned for the Manufacturers of Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, the Londoners, and the Dutch: the Jewellers, Silversmiths, Toymen, and Silk Mercers, occupied all the Avenues to the Abbat's Palace. Minstrels, Juglers, and Mountibanks were commonly allowed to perform their feats of dexterity during the Fair, which brought thither a great concourse of gentlemen and ladies from Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex.

Mary Tudor, Queen of France, relict of Louis XII, and Sister of Henry VIII, who married afterwards Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, went every year from her Manor of Westhorp to this Fair; she had a magnificent tent, with a splendid retinue and a band of music, to attend, and to recreate the persons of distinction, who came to pay her homage. The Duke, who was the most dexterous man of his age, in tilting, engaged, from all parts of the kingdom, several armed Knights to these martial exercises, which made this Fair for some years frequented by many noble personages.

John Melford, the last Abbat, surrendered the Abbey at the dissolution; the Alderman received the Toll, and assumed the government of this Fair. King James 1st, in the 6th year of his reign, gave the reversion of the Fairs and Markets of Bury in Fee Farm to the Corporation.

The Market Cross is converted into a Theatre, used only during this Fair by the Norwich Comedians. This Fair has considerably decreased for forty years past, and is now become rather a place of amusement than a temporary Mart, as most

of the Merchandises now brought hither are chiefly articles of luxury and curiosity.

John Lydgate, the famous poet, who was a Monk of St. Edmund's, wrote an elegant Latin Poem upon Bury Fair, in 1435.

This Fair is held on a spacious PLAIN, betwixt the magnificent Gate of the Abbey and the Town; it begins the 21st of September, and lasts fourteen days; it is the rendezvous of the Beau Monde every afternoon, who conclude their evenings by the Plays or Assemblies. This Fair consists chiefly of several Rows of Haberdashers, Milliners, Mercers, Jewellers, Silversmiths, and Toy-shops, which make a fine shew.

MIDSUMMER FAIR is of much more ancient date than Sturbridge. Fuller attributes its institution to children frequently playing on the very spot where it is kept at this day; their parents and relations often accompanied them, to prevent any danger from the vicinity of the water, or to keep them off hurt and mischief. This Field being more and more resorted to in the summer season, booths were erected for the accommodation and entertainment of the company, and at last some pedlars began to sell their wares as early as the year 1106.

This Fair now chiefly consists of Earthen-wares; a China Warehouse, where gentlemen and ladies raffle every evening for some useful and ornamental China, and some booths for refreshment: it lasts about three weeks."

* Near Cambridge.

WETHERINGSET.

HAKLUYT, THE NAVAL HISTORIAN.

By virtue of residence, not the accident of birth, does the author whose name heads this memoir, rank among the Suffolk worthies. He was born at Eyton in Herefordshire, in 1553, and during a period of eleven years closing with his life, held the rectory of Wetheringset, in this county. He early showed a remarkable taste for cosmographical, and nautical sciences, applying himself diligently to the study of ancient and modern languages, in order to read in the original tongues, any accounts of voyages, discoveries, naval enterprises and adventures, that might be accessible to him. So eminent did he soon become in this science, that he was appointed to lecture on naval affairs at Oxford. Hakluyt did not, however, confine his exertions for the diffusion of his favourite study to the university, but introduced into the common schools, maps, spheres, globes and other instruments of geographical use.

In 1582, he published his first work, a "Collection of Voyages and Travels," dedicated to Mr. Philip Sidney, and soon after received from Secretary Walsingham, a commission to confer with a company of merchants at Bristol, who were about undertaking a naval expedition to Newfoundland. Being then without church preferment, he joined Sir Edward Stafford's embassy to France, in character of chaplain, and in that country continued

his indefatigable exertions in the cause of navigation. He particularly directed his attention to the discoveries and adventures of our English voyagers, and used every means in his power to excite others to nautical discoveries. During his absence abroad, he was made a prebendary of Bristol. At his own expence, he published an account of the discovery of Florida, in the original French. This was in 1586, and in the following year, translated it into English, dedicating the translation to Sir Walter Raleigh.

In 1588, when the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the consequently confirmed superiority of England on the seas, had roused all persons to a sense of the advantages of naval science, Hakluyt, gratified the public, by presenting them with a compendious digest of the Naval History of England, in one volume folio. In the course of a few years, this industrious writer added two additional folio volumes to the first, forming the first complete history of the kind, which had ever appeared in this country.

With the liberality of a generous mind, Hakluyt, was ever ready to communicate his knowledge, and to encourage others to acts of enterprize—and in acknowledgement of the many benefits thus conferred by him, the northern discoverers affixed his name to a headland, on the coast of Greenland, and to a newly discovered river, in the north of Russia. There seems a peculiar appropriateness in giving the name of Hakluyt to a river, for of all natural objects, it might be selected as an emblem of his actions, and his works. Ever active, collecting from various sources fresh supplies of knowledge, readily yielding his treasures, to every applicant, and hastening to pour the fulness of his stores into the ocean of the world, Richard Hakluyt ran his useful course; and though no longer present to our eyes, his works fraught with the energetic spirit of their author will continue to delight so long as the relation of deeds of enterprise, and zeal for knowledge can awake a responsive echo in English hearts. He died in 1616, and his remains were honourably interred in Westminster Abbey.

It is a singular circumstance that a landsman, as the Rector of Wetheringset essentially was-for the extent of his own travels by sea was confined to crossing the channel-should have contributed so extensively as he did to nautical experience and maritime discoveries. Yet so it is. The fact however seems closely akin to a philosopher who had never seen ought but books upon the stars, tracing their distances, and the laws governing their motions with such truth, as if he had gathered his knowledge of astronomical science from the open page of the everlasting heaven itself.