dred years, and to this time, no doubt, we may attribute the erection of the Norman church, of which a remnant is still to be seen in the south doorway. The rectory was given to Old Buckenham Priory by William, second Earl of Arundel, who died in 1176, his father having founded that house. The manor came to the Montalt family, by marriage with the heiress of Albini, from about 1260 to 1330; and after reverting to the Crown, and passing through several other changes, recorded in Blomefield, it came through Elizabeth Fitzalan, wife of Thomas, Lord Mowbray, to the Dukes of Norfolk. Thomas Howard, third duke, "the Great Duke" as Blomefield calls him, so celebrated as a statesman in the reign of Henry VIII., and who married the Princess Anne daughter of Edward IV., was the one who pulled down the old hall, at the original site already mentioned as East Hall, and built, about the year 1525, a magnificent house a little to the north-east, afterwards known as Kenninghall Palace or Place, because, on his attainder in 1546, the estate was seized by the King and settled on the Princess Mary, afterwards Queen, who occasionally resided here. It was a very extensive and ornamental building, in the form of the letter H, surrounded by a park of seven hundred acres. When Mary succeeded to the throne, she restored the attainted Duke to his honours and estates, and he came and died here in 1554; and the manor has since passed with that of Fersfield, the Duke of Norfolk being still the owner. It is rather remarkable that there has been no print or drawing preserved, that I can learn, of this the chief seat of the Dukes of Norfolk in the county; and very little reference to it occurs in any contemporary writings. Yet it must have been the meeting-place of many historical characters in the stirring times of Mary, Elizabeth, and James I. Mary came here when her brother Edward VI. died, July 6th, 1553, and on the 9th of July,

7 Misprinted in Blomefield 1547.

7

she wrote a letter to the Lords of the Council, dated "at our manor of Kenninghall," in which she asserts her title to the Crown, and states that she had learned from an advertisement that the King, her brother, had died on Thursday at night, last past. In the Chronicle of Queen Jane, printed by the Camden Society from the Harleian MSS., the writer says, after recording the death of Edward VI., "The 12th of July, word was brought to the Councell, being then at the Tower with the Lady Jane, that the Lady Mary was at Kenninghall Castle in Norfolk, and with her the Earle of Bath, Sir Thomas Warton sonne to the Lord Warton, Sir John Mordaunt sonne to the Lord Mordaunt, Sir William Drury, Sir John Shelton, Sir Henry Bedingfield, Master Henry Jerningham, Master John Sulierde, Master Richard Freston, Master Sergeant Morgan, Master Clement Higham of Lincolnes Inne, and divers others; and also that the Earle of Sussex, and Master Henry Ratcliffe his sonne, were comming towards her whereupon by speedy councell it was there concluded that the Duke of Suffolk, with certain other noblemen, should goe towards the Lady Mary, to fetch her up to London." Blomefield says, in a vague way, that Queen Elizabeth was "often here," and makes out that the Palace belonged to her. This could hardly be, if Queen Mary restored it to the Howards. Blomefield also says that Elizabeth ordered "her tenant Chapman, who then lived in Fersfield Lodge, to lay out the way now called Chapman's Entry, out of her own ground, the old way being so strait that the Queen could not conveniently pass through it, it is now (he says) disused, and is called Queen Bess's Lane, from her being scratched with the brambles in riding through it, as tradition tells us." It seems pretty evident that Elizabeth came here on her progress into Norfolk in 1578: a long contemporary account of this progress, by B. Goldingham

8 Printed by Foxe, Holinshed, and Heylyn.

9 Chronicle of Queen Jane, p. 3.

and Thomas Churchyard, is printed by Blomefield, iii. 317, from Stow's Holinshed. She visited Suffolk in great state, and on leaving Bury the Queen came here, when "the Earl of Surrey did show most sumptuous chear, in whose park at Kenninghall were speeches well set out, and a special devise much commended; and the rest, as a number of jolly gentlemen, were no whit behind to the uttermost of their abilities, in all that might be done and devised." From hence she went on to Lady Stile's at Bracon Ash, and then to Norwich.

Dr. Nott, in his Life of the Poet Earl of Surrey, says, "some idea may be formed of the magnitude of the house at Kenninghall, when we find that besides a suit of apartments for the duke and another for the duchess, there were separate apartments also for the Earl of Surrey, for the Countess of Surrey, for the children, for the master of the children, for the Duchess of Richmond, for the Lord Thomas Howard, for Mrs. Holland, for Mr. Holland, the Duke's secretary, and Mr. Adryan (Adrian Junius) the physician of the household. We meet also with Sir John Colborne's chambers, the chambers of the children of the chapel, those for the almoners, the auditor, the master of the horse, the treasurer, hunter, and the comptroller. There were, besides these, apartments in the tennis court, and in the offices." The Palace was completely taken down in the year 1650, and the materials sold. The numerous remains of ornamental brickwork in the walls and houses of the neighbouring villages are believed to be part of the spoils of this mansion. I myself possess a three-quarter portrait, perhaps by Zucchero, of Thomas, fourth duke, beheaded in 1572, which is said to have come from the palace here. The only remains on the spot consist of a small farm house, with some pointed windows in brick, of the time of Henry VIII.

1 Dr. Nott has printed some Inventories, &c., from papers in the Land Revenue Office.

The claim of the Duke of Norfolk to be chief butler on the coronation day, in right of the manor of Kenninghall, was allowed at the coronation of James II., with the fee of a gold cup and ewer.?

Kenninghall church does not present so many objects of interest as we might have expected from the long residence here of a great family. The south doorway, already men. tioned, is the only remaining part of the Norman church, and is a good specimen of the style. It is remarkable for having a sculpture of a horse half-way down the jamb, supposed to be a representation of the white horse of Hengist. This door has been engraved in the Excursions through Norfolk, but the horse is omitted. The next earliest parts of the church are the chancel and the single row of nave pillars, for there is only a north aisle. These are of early Decorated work, about 1270. Blomefield's statement that the chancel was built by John Millgate, Prior of Buckenham, is evidently wrong, for he was the last prior at the Dissolution, 270 years too late. He took his information from Weever, who speaks of the prior's tomb in the chancel as showing that he built it; but he calls him Shildgate, Prior of Wymondham. A recessed tomb, which seems to have taken the place of the old sedilia, may be the tomb of Prior Millgate of Buckenham, for it is very late. There is another interesting tomb on the north side of the chancel detached from the wall. It is of diminutive size, and the sides are panelled with tracery and shields, and the Purbeck marble slab has a small indent of a brass of a man in armour. Blomefield says that one of the shields had the arms of Audley quartering Touchet painted on it, and supposes it to be the one mentioned by Weever in memory of "George Lord Audley and his wife, daughter of the Earl of Bath." The date is about 1500.

2 Blount's Ancient Tenures.

In the nave the only Decorated work, besides the pillars, is one of the clerestory windows which is a quatrefoil, and shows what the rest were. The church appears to have had considerable alterations made at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The windows are mostly of that date, and also the tower, which Blomefield says "was designed to be carried to a greater height, but was never finished, its head being shortened by the misfortunes of its founder, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, whose crest remains on the buttresses."

The oak seats of the church are of this date, and have been very fine. fine. Blomefield records some inscriptions which were formerly to be seen on them. The last two bays of the nave roof towards the east are also very good; and there are some fine bosses in the roof of the aisle. A small

bracket on the jamb of the chancel arch has a carving of an oak-leaf and acorn, with the letters [ye, for some benefactor named Oakley, who is thought by Blomefield to have erected the rood-screen 3 and the font cover, which has been a lofty late Perpendicular one. Some remains of the lower panels of a parclose are in the aisle, with painting of a late and rough character. At the end of the aisle is a chapel, opening by an arch into the chancel; an outer doorway has the initials W. B. in the spandrils, thought to be for William Blenerhasset.