d long before the days
of Queen Bess. It was built on the site of an old bishop's palace, and
in the cellars may be seen some traces of Norman masonry. One of the
most fruitful sources of information about social life in the
fifteenth century are the _Paston Letters_. In one written by John
Paston in 1472 to "Mestresse Margret Paston," he tells her of the
arrival of a visitor, and continues: "I praye yow make hym goode cheer
... it were best to sette hys horse at the Maydes Hedde, and I shall
be content for ther expenses." During the Civil War this inn was the
rendezvous of the Royalists, but alas! one day Cromwell's soldiers
made an attack on the "Maid's Head," and took for their prize the
horses of Dame Paston stabled here.

We must pass over the records of civic feasts and aldermanic
junketings, which would fill a volume, and seek out the old "Briton's
Arms," in the same city, a thatched building of venerable appearance
with its projecting upper storeys and lofty gable. It looks as if it
may not long survive the march of progress.

The parish of Heigham, now part of the city of Norwich, is noted as
having been the residence of Bishop Hall, "the English Seneca," and
author of the _Meditations_, on his ejection from the bishopric in
1647 till his death in 1656[43] The house in which he resided, now
known as the Dolphin Inn, still stands, and is an interesting
building with its picturesque bays and mullioned windows and
ingeniously devised porch. It has actually been proposed to pull down,
or improve out of existence, this magnificent old house. Its front is
a perfect specimen of flint and stone sixteenth-century architecture.
Over the main door appears an episcopal coat of arms with the date
1587, while higher on the front appears the date of a restoration (in
two bays):--

[43] It is erroneously styled Bishop Hall's Palace. An episcopal
palace is the official residence of the bishop in his cathedral
city. Not even a country seat of a bishop is correctly called a
palace, much less the residence of a bishop when ejected from his
see.

[Illustration: The "Briton's Arms," Norwich]

[Illustration: ANNO DOMINI 1615]

Just inside the doorway is a fine Gothic stoup into which bucolic
rustics now knock the fag-ends of their pipes. The staircase newel is
a fine piece of Gothic carving with an embattled moulding, a
poppy-head and heraldic lion. Pillared fire-places and other tokens of
departed greatness testif