its wide fifteenth-century fire-place, and its quaint lattice, through which the moonbeams play upon antique furniture and strange, fantastic carvings.  This oak-panelled room recalls memories of the Orfords, Walpoles, Howards, Wodehouses, and other distinguished guests whose names live in England’s annals.  The old inn was once known as the Murtel or Molde Fish, and some have tried to connect the change of name with the visit of Queen Elizabeth; unfortunately for the conjecture, the inn was known as the Maid’s Head 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 testify to the former beauty of this old dwelling-place.