ncorrectly of Love, that it

'At sight of human ties
Spreads its soft wings and in a moment flies.'

The remark is truer of commerce, which is a law to itself, and which
defies Acts of Parliament and royal patronage. Hence it is the east
coast of Suffolk is so rich in melancholy remains of ancient cities, now
given over to decay. In my young days the chief town of this district
was Woodbridge. Manufactories were then unknown. The steam-engine had
not then been utilized for the everyday use of man, and farmers,
peasants, coal and corn merchants, solely inhabited the district, and in
Woodbridge especially the latter rose and flourished for a time.

How it was, I know not, but nevertheless such was the fact, that the
Ipswich of my youthful days seemed to have little, if any, literary
associations connected with it. The celebrated Mr. Fulcher published his
'Ladies' Pocket-book' at Sudbury, which had a great reputation in its
day, and for which very distinguished people used to write. It was, in
fact, more of an annual than a pocket-book, and was patronized
accordingly. Then there was James Bird, living at Yoxford, 'the garden
of Suffolk,' as it was called. Woodbridge had a still higher reputation.
James Bird kept a shop, and was supposed to be a Unitarian; but Bernard
Barton was in a bank, and, besides, he was a Quaker, and Quakers all the
world over are, or were, famous for their goodness and their wealth. The
fame of the Quaker-poet conferred quite a literary reputation on the
district, and the more so as no one at that time associated Quakerism
with literary faculty in any way. Now and then, it is true, the
Stricklands talked of a charming young Quaker, who indeed once or twice
called at our house to see Susanna when she was staying there; but Allan
Ransome--for it is to him I refer--did not pursue literature or poetry to
any great extent, and instead preferred to develop the manufacture of
agricultural implements--a manufacture which, carried on under the same
name, is now one of the chief industries of the busy and thriving town of
Ipswich, and employs quite a thousand men. Woodbridge then bore away the
palm from the county capital, as the home of literature and poetry and
romance. As a town, it is more prettily situated than are most East
Anglian villages and towns. The principal thoroughfare, as you rode
through it by one of the Yarmouth coaches, that connected it at that time
with the