Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/753

 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY merchants who had made their money in the cloth-fairs of Antwerp or the markets of the Levant bought land in Suffolk and settled down to found a family. Such, for example, was Sir Thomas Kytson, ' the merchant,' citizen and mercer of London, who bought the manor of Hengrave in 1521 from the Duke of Buckingham, and on the dissolution of Bury Abbey added to his already extensive estates the manors of Risby, Westley, Chevington, Har- grave, and the Fornhams, for which he paid £i,jio is. 8^'."° Between 1525 and 1538 Kytson built Hengrave Hall, with its gateway, one of the most beautiful specimens of the architecture of the period.'" John Eldred, citizen of London, bought the manor of Great Saxham in 1597 ; '" Hakluyt gives the record of his voyages to Tripoli and Babylon. Thomas Spring, known as the rich clothier, who died in 15 10, owned large estates in Lavenham."* Fuller estimates the former prosperity of the cloth trade by the * many marbles richly inlaid with brass to the memory of clothiers in foregoing ages,' which he observed in the churches of Suffolk, adding (168 i), 'and not one in these later seasons.'"* In 161 3 Sir John Suckling, father of the poet, bought the manor and advowson of Barsham for ^^4,000, ' confident that ere long lands will have a better and a higher price.' "' In some cases the fine monastic buildings were taken over and adapted for private use. An interesting example is Mettingham Castle, which, from 1393 till the Dissolution, had been occupied by the master and priests of Raveningham College, Norfolk."' When Sir Nicholas Bacon came into pos- session of the property by purchase in 1562, the dwelling house had fallen into complete disrepair owing to thefts of lead from the roof. The parlour, a room 25 ft. by 18 ft., which possessed a large bay window, glazed, opening into a little court, is described as ' very fair, sealed with wainscot, carved with knops fair gilt hanging down, and with two fair benches of wainscot and the floor boarded with oak. And the arms of the last master of the college round about the same parlour, fair gilt.' "^ A few ruins and a freestone chimney also remained of an earlier feudal castle. The orchards, divided into sundry parts with quickset hedges and set with divers fruit trees, pears, apples, and warden plums, are carefully detailed, as well as the ' friday ponds,' and the river well replenished with pike, perch, roach, tench, and other kinds of fish, where the monks had been accustomed to boat and fish at their pleasure. Sir Nicholas succeeded also to their swannery (the birds marked in the bill with M for Mettingham), and the woods abounding in all kinds of wild fowl and very commodious for hawking, pheasants, and partridges ; besides which, the warren of conies, black and grey, only needed careful preserving to afford him good sport. This passion for sport is thoroughly typical of the social life of the period, and there is ample evidence to show that the gentry of Suffolk appreciated to the full the peculiar advantages of their county in this respect. Although Suffolk was never a battle-ground during the Civil War, the houses of the gentry suffered considerably at the hands of the soldiery who were arbitrarily quartered upon them. Some idea of their conduct may "• Gage, Thingoe Hun J. 182. '" Kirby, Suff. Traveller, 225. '" Suckling, Hist, of Suff. i, 37. '" Add. MS. 14850, fol. 151. I "' Ibid. 213. '" Fuller, IVorthies, 159, '" Ibid. 175. m 673 Ibid. 107. 8S