DIRECTORY. J NORFOLK. :METHWOLD. 255 esq. of Thickthorn Hall, are the principal landowners. & 4·45 p.m. & are dispatched at I & 6.Io p.m.; sun­ The soil is of a mixed nature ; sub.5oil, brick earth. The days, 6.10 p.m. Bawburgh is the nearest money order chief crops are wheat, barley, turnips and hay. The area & Hethersett, 3 miles distant, the nearest telegraph is 681 acres; rateable value, £1,082; the population in o:ffi.c:e 1901 was 284. Parish Clerk, Samuel Sword. Public Elementary School (mixed), built in I874• at a Po:>t & Postal Order Office. Samuel Sword, sub-post- coThetford, 2 miles in 1851 by Lord Walsingham, is I! miles north-east of south from Watton station on the Bury, Thetford and the church,. The rents of 5 acres of town land and 4 cot­ Swaffham section of the Great Eastern railway, 10 north tages are applied to parochial purposes, and there are 12 from Thetford and 12 north-west from Attleborough, in free allotments of 10 rods each for the poor. Merton the South Western division of the county, hundred, petty Hall, the seat of l..ord Walsingham, is a noble mansion sessional division and union of Wayland, county court pf red brick, in the Jacobean style, built about the district of Watton and Attleborough, rural deanery of year 1613, on the site of a house which had been in the Breccles, archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Nor- possession of the de Grey family since the middle of the wich. Th111 church of St. Peter. situated in the park, 14th century, and previously of their ancestors by the about 300 yards north-east from the Hall, is a struc- female line, the Baynards, to whom the property was ture of flint, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, granted at the Conquest: some portions of the older north and south porches and a circular Norman western ouildings still Temain; extensive stabling and a coach­ tower containing 3 bells : the chancel and nave are Deco- man's house, from designs by Milne and Hall, architects, rated, and have windows witll elegant tracery : the nave of London, have been recently erected. The house stand~ is divided from the chancel by a carved oak screen, on in a park about 2 miles in length, which, near the man­ which is an iron bracket for holding an hour glass : the sion, is studded with fine timber: the grounds are chiefly pews ~re of oak, with carved poppy heads: the chancel Temarkable for the lar~e collection of pines and firs; a retains a double piscina and gTaduated sedilia ~ the door- noble oak of great antiquity, which measured 23 feet 4 WilY' and steps ta the rood-loft still remain, and there is inches in circumference at 6 feet from the ground, fell in a fine hagioscope: many of the windows are filled with Jan. 1892, and proved to be hollow. The Merton Hall modern stained glass: there are two very fine brass shields, estate comprises the whole village of Merton, with the with the de Grey quarterings, and tablets to Edmund adja«ent villages of Tottington, Sturston, Stanford and d~ Grey, ob. 1548, and Thomas de Grey, ob. 1556, and parts of the parishes of Thompson, Watton, Griston, his wife Elimbeth, as well as a mutilated brass effigy, Stow Bedan, Caston and Great Ellingham. Lord Wal­ with inscription, and one shield out of three to Thomas singham is lord of the manor and sole landowner. The de Grey esq. ~562, and his two wives Anne (Everode) & land is generally of a somewhat light character, with a Temperance (Oarewe ). A portion of the inscription is marl and clay subsoil; but by bringing clay to the sur­ palimpsest and exhibits on the reverse, the feet of a man face (for which purpose there is a clay pit in nearly every resting on a lion, c. 1390: it is pro!Jable that the whole field) the soil has been much improved in the past, but brass, which is made up of fragments is palimpsest; the practice has been discontinued of late years. Th& there are besides the bla.nk matrices of many other parish comprises 1,888 acres of land and 6 of water~ brasses: the handsome font canopy of carved oak, exe- rateable value, £1,773; the population in 1901 was 161. cuted by Captain Kitto in 1843, and presented by the late Parish Clerk, John Buckle. Lord Walsingham, reaches nearly to the Toof, and is a Letter Box cleared at 6. 45 a.m. & 6. 30 p.m. week days copy of the old cover, which had fallen to decay: in 188.), & 9_15 a. m. on sundays. Letters through Thetford, a carved oak reredos, with a representation of the Last via Watton, which is the nearest money order &; tela- Supper, was erected by Lord and Lady Walsingham, as a graph office, about 2 miles distant memorial to the Rev. George Crabbe B.A. rector of this pari1h for 33 years: over the north doorway is an angelic Merton Hall is connected with the Estate office & with figure, erected as a memorial of Mrs. Locke, mother of Watton Post office by government telephone Lady Walsingham, by her daughter: in 1889 a new organ Public Elementary School (infants'), erected by Lord was presented by Lady Walsingham: there are 174 sit- Walsingham in 1874, for 30 children; average attend- tin~s. The register dates .from the year 1564. The ance, 14; Mrs. Kate Kirk, mistress living "is a rectory, net yearly value £135, including 16 The elder boys of this place attend Watton school, the acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of Lord Walsing- girls attending the school at Thompson Walaingham Lord M.A., LL.D.Oamb., !.mea Charlea, eatate office clerk Matthew• Martha & Charlotte(Miases). P'.R.S., P.L.S., F.Z.S., F.E.S.,D.L., Carrier Amos, coachman to Lord Wal- farmen J.P. Merton hall; Walsingham singham Reynolds Alfred, blacksmith house, Pic~adilly W; 66a, Eaton Cook Edward, shepherd to Lord lVal- Riddell William, gardenel," ta Lord square SW ; Carlton club SW & singham W alsingham Isthmian club W. London . Crane James, estate office clerk Stringer John, head gamekeeper to Dnrrant John Hartley P'.E.S. (private Harding Reginald Paxton, mb-agent Lord Walsingham see. to Lord Walsingham), The Uot- to Lord Walaingham Wade Arthur John & Lewis William, tage, Merton hall Menzies Robt.agt.to Lord Walaingharn farmera, Broom bffi METHWOLD is a parish and small town on the road the latter lmpported by angels bearing wreaths, crowns or from Brandon to Lynn, 4 miles south-west from Stoke other emblems: the roof of the north aisle has handsomely Ferry terminal station on a. branch of the Great Eastern moulded principals on grotesque carved corbels : the railway and 6 north-west from Brandon, in the South chancel retains a Decorated piscina and in the north Western division of the county, Grimshoe hundred and aisle is one of Perpendicular date: there is a brass dated petty sessional division, Thetford union and county court r367, to Sir Adam de Clifton: the church affords 370 district, rural deanery of Cranwich (south division), arch- sittings, 120 being free. The register dates from the deaconrv of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich. The church year 1683. The living is a discharged vicarage, net yearly of St. George is an edifice of clunch and freestone, with value [18o, with residence, in the gift of the Lord a tower of flint and freestone and consists of chancel, nave, Chancellor, and held sinre 1902 by the Rev. Ernest ,tisles, south porch and a western tower, with a. square Edward Matravers M.A. of St. Catharine's College, Cam­ lower stage and an octagonal belfry, smmounted by an bridge, and diocesan inspector of schools. There was elegant stone spire and containing a clock and 6 bells : t;he once on .older church situated at the edge of the close chancel is Decorated, but has Perpendicular windows : on which still stands the tithe-barn of the Augustinian the nave and tower are both Perpendicular, and the latter priory of Brumwell {later Broomhill), founded by Siz; retains at its angles the bases of pinnacles: the roof is of H. de Plaiz, in the rmgn vf King John, and dedicated to the 15th century, with alternate tie and hammer beams: SS. Mary and Thomas, of which various remains have the former are adorned with shields and figures of cherubs, been disinterred: it was probably the church of the