by the steps of the altar, bears the following ARMS and INSCRIPTION :

66

Argent, a saltier, and on a chief azure, three woolpacks of

the field.

CREST, a hand, holding a dagger, proper.

MOTTO, I make sure.

"Here resteth, in hopes of a joyful resurrection, the body of JOHN KIRKPATRICK of this city, Merchant, and Treasurer to this Hospital. He was a man of a sound judgment, good understanding, and extensive knowledge; industrious in his own business, and indefatigable in that of the Corporation, in which he was constantly employed. He died very much lamented by all that knew him, on the 20th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1728, aged 42.”

The farther particulars touching Mr. Kirkpatrick that the editor has found it possible at this period to collect, are few, and principally extracted from a letter written by the late Mr. Woodward, himself no less persevering and successful an inquirer in the same line. His father was a native of the village of Closeburn in Dumfries-shire, a fact recorded by the son in his will, and farther proved by the arms just mentioned upon his tomb, which are those of the baronet's family of Kirkpatrick, of Closeburn. From Scotland he removed to Norwich, where he resided in the parish of St. Stephen. His son, John, was apprenticed in that of St. Clement, and subsequently established himself in business as a linen-merchant in St. Andrew's, in premises opposite Bridewell Alley. He was here in partnership with Mr. John Custance, who was mayor in 1726, and was the founder of the present family of that name at Weston. In the year of his partner's mayoralty, Mr. Kirkpatrick was

appointed Treasurer of the Great Hospital in St. Helen'san office which his premature decease allowed him to occupy only for two years. He married the youngest daughter of Mr. John Harvey, great-grandfather of the late LieutenantColonel Harvey, of Thorpe Lodge, where his portrait was preserved during the life-time of that gentleman. It has since been engraved in the very interesting series of portraits of the more eminent inhabitants of Norfolk, of whom no likenesses have yet appeared; a work now in the course of publication, under the superintendence of Mr. Ewing. With such, Kirkpatrick is deservedly associated. He died childless. Of his family nothing more is known, than that he had a brother of the name of Thomas, who is mentioned by Blomefield as being Chamberlain of Norwich at the time he wrote. The account-books of the Corporation contain several entries in reference to both the one and the other, but not of sufficient interest to warrant the quoting of them at length. Of the latter, they show that he was elected chamberlain with a salary of thirty pounds per annum, in the room of Matthew King, in 1732; that in the same year the freedom of the city was conferred upon him; and that twelve years subsequently he was removed from his office, by reason of irregularity in his accounts. To the antiquary their testimony is invariably honorable; the most frequent notices being votes of money for the services he had rendered in adjusting the different accounts of the city.

As concerns the manuscript, more immediately the object before us, the following extract from Mr. Kirkpatrick's Will, will place, in the clearest point of view, his wishes and intentions regarding it, as well as regarding his other

papers of a similar description:-"I give to my brother, Thomas Kirkpatrick, all my manuscripts, books, and papers, (which I have with no small pains and expense collected and purchased) relating to the History of Norwich, to enjoy the same during his natural life. And, after his death, I give them all to the mayor, sheriffs, citizens, and commonalty of the said city, to be kept in the city treasury, in the Guild-Hall there; as well for their use and service on occasion, as that some citizen hereafter, being a skilful antiquary, may from the same have an opportunity of completing and publishing the said history, or such part of it as my said brother shall not publish.-I farther give to the mayor, sheriffs, citizens, and commonalty aforesaid, all my ancient manuscripts, and ancient coins of silver and brass, to be deposited in the library of the New Hall.-Also, all my printed books in the Anglo-Saxon language, and all such of my books as were printed before the year of our Lord 1660 and are not already in the said library; together with Montfaucon's Antiquities, and Madox's Firma Burgi lately printed. And I will and desire that all these things be kept there, for the same purposes as the other books in the said library are and shall be appointed by the said corporation."

Of the manuscripts referred to in the will, which bears date July 17, 1729, and is in Mr. Kirkpatrick's own handwriting, the following were safe in the custody of the corporation, about thirty years ago, when Mr. De Hague held the office of town-clerk. They have now disappeared, as mentioned above, with the exception of the volume here

printed (No. 3), and of a portion of the papers included under the last number.

No. 1. A thick folio volume of the Early History and Jurisdiction of the City; date 1720.

2. A similar folio volume; being an account of the Military State of the City-its walls, towers, ponds, pits, wells, pumps, &c.; date 1722.

3. A thick quarto.

4. Several large bundles, foolscap folio ;-Annals of Norwich. 5. A fasciculus, foolscap folio;-Origin of Charities, and Wills relating thereto, in each parish.

6. Memorandum-Books of Monuments.

7. Ditto of Merchants' Marks.

8. Ditto of Plans of Churches.

9. Paper, containing Drawings of the City Gates and a Plan of Norwich.-This is said to have been in the possession of the Friars' Society.

10. Drawings of all the Churches.-These Mr. Woodward has seen in the possession of Mr. William Matthews, Mr. De Hague's clerk.

11. An immense number of small pieces of paper, containing notes of the tenure of each house in Norwich.

In turning from the author to his subject-matter, it needs scarcely be mentioned that the points here selected by Mr. Kirkpatrick have already been described in the History of Norfolk, or that, as that portion of his work was completed and published by Mr. Blomefield himself, they are there treated of with knowledge and judgment. But his notices of them are necessarily scanty: the materials before him were too comprehensive and varied, to allow of his dwelling upon any particular one in its full

details. And yet both the first and the last deserve to be thus handled; and they are so in the present work, which, in reference to the topography of a County or a Hundred, may be regarded as the monograph of a botanist-describing the Lily or the Rose, with its many species and varieties, and the peculiarities of each-as compared with the Species Plantarum or the Flora Britannica. In the part devoted to the Religious Communities, our author gives an account of the establishment at Norwich of the four principal orders of Mendicant Friars, the Minors, the Augustins, the Dominicans, and the Carmelites; of the foundation of their monasteries and churches, their guilds and schools, and other dependencies; of the continual increase of their lands and possessions; of the benefactions they received; of the different modes whereby individuals of importance became connected with them; and of the eagerness shown by wealth and power to secure interment within their precincts. He also points out the widely-extended influence obtained by means of their Letters of Confraternity; and, he, on the other hand, draws in strong colors the reverse of the picture, when the wisdom of the Almighty, through the agency of human pride and violence, and perversity and lust, annihilated at a blow the mighty fabric. Their churches fell, and their lands were sold, and their property confiscated, and the eager hand of unsparing rapine was every where extended against them. Yet still the popish services and vestments and sacred vessels lingered; and the fires in Smithfield, kindled by the bigotry of Mary, for a while relumed the ancient rites, till "the Gospel light that first had dawned from Boleyn's eyes,"