SCOLE WHITE HART.

THE NORWICH
ROAD: AN EAST
ANGLIAN HIGHWAY

By Charles G. Harper

Author of "The Brighton Road," "The PortsmouthRoad,"
"The Dover Road," "The Bath Road,"
"The Exeter Road," and "The Great North Road."

Illustrated by the Author, and from
Old-Time Prints and Pictures.

London: Chapman & Hall ltd. 1901

[All Rights reserved.]

[Pg vii]

PREFACE

THE author of a little book published in 1818,called A Journey to London, which is nearlyall "London" with very little "journey," remarksthat "it is as uncommon for a book to go into theworld without a preface, as a man without a hat.They are both convenient coverings." Here, then, isthe customary covering.

Introducing this, the seventh in a series of bookstelling the story of our great highways, it mayperhaps be as well to re-state the methods used, andobjects aimed at. The chief intention is to providea readable book which shall avoid the style either ofa Guide-Book or a History. It is the better fortuneto be in the reader's hands than in the dusty seclusionof those formidable works, the County Histories;or disregarded among the guide-books of forgottenholidays. To the antiquary it will, of course, beobvious that this and other volumes of the series"contain many omissions," as the Irish reviewersaid; but such things as find no place here have, asa general rule, been disregarded because they notonly do not help the Story of the Road along,but rather hinder its progression.

[Pg viii]

The Norwich Road, in its one hundred and twelvemiles, passes by many an historic site and throughdistricts distinguished for their quiet pastoralbeauty. In being historic it is not singular, for,as Oliver Wendell Holmes very truly said,"England is one vast museum," and the old roadwould be remarkable indeed, that, like Canning's"Needy Knife Grinder," had no story to tell.It is, however, in the especial characteristicsof East Anglian scenery, speech, customs, andarchitecture that this road stands apart and ishighly individualised. "East Anglia" is no merelyarbitrary and meaningless term, as those who travelit, if only on the highway, will speedily find.

But this shall be no trumpet-blast; nor indeed dothe charms of Eastern England require such a fanfare,for who has not yet heard of that lovely valleyof the Stour, so widely known as "Constable'sCountry," by whose exquisite water-meadows andshady lanes the old turnpike