Page:Views in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Northamptonshire.djvu/50

 of flint: the foundations evince the monastery to have been of considerable extent.

On the Suffolk side of the Ouse is the ruin of another monastery, called : this was founded by Uvius, first abbot of Bury, in the time of King Canute, in memory of the English and Danes that were slain in the great battle, in which Edmund the Saxon was defeated: it was originally a house of regular canons, but was afterwards rebuilt by Hugh, abbot of Bury, and inhabited by nuns. Great part of this structure still remains, and is at present in a more perfect state than any other of the monasteries at Thetford; but being now appropriated to the housing of corn, and other purposes, it is suffering continual mutilations, and perhaps the date of its entire destruction is not very remote.

Thetford, as we have already intimated, has been the scene of many remarkable transactions, the seat of much contention and bloodshed; for an account of which the curious are referred to Blomefield's History of Norfolk. The adjacent country affords no materials for description; and it was rather unfortunate that the poet's observations, as detailed in his "Barnham Water," should have