From Burnham Thorpe on the way to Norwich are the scant ruins of the priory of Walsingham.  In its palmy days this was one of the richest in the world, and it is said that it was visited by more pilgrims than was the shrine of Becket at Canterbury.  In every instance a gift was expected from the visitor, and as a consequence the monks fared sumptuously.  Among these pilgrims were many of the nobility and even kings, including Henry VIII, who, after visiting the priory as a votary in the early part of his reign, ordered its complete destruction in 1539.  This order was evidently carried out, for only shattered fragments of the ruins remain to show how splendid the buildings must once have been.

Walsingham is an unusually quaint little village, with a wonderful, ancient town pump of prodigious height and a curious church with a tall spire bent several degrees from the perpendicular.  Near the priory are two springs, styled Wishing Wells, which were believed to have miraculous power, the legend being that they sprang into existence at the command of the Virgin.  This illustrates one of the queer and not unpleasing features of motoring in England.  In almost every out-of-the-way village, no matter how remote or small and how seldom visited by tourists, one runs across no end of quaint landmarks and historic spots with accompanying incidents and legends.  Twenty miles more through a beautiful country brought us in sight of the cathedral spire of Norwich.  This city has a population of about one hundred and twenty thousand and there is a unique charm in its blending of the mediaeval and modern.  It is a progressive city with large business and manufacturing interests, but these have not swept away the charm of the old-time town.  The cathedral is one of the most imposing in England, being mainly of Norman architecture and surmounted by a graceful spire more than three hundred feet in height.  Norwich also presents the spectacle of a modern cathedral in course of building, a thing that we did not see elsewhere in England.  The Roman Catholic Church is especially strong in this section, and under the leadership of the Duke of Norfolk has undertaken to build a structure that will rival in size and splendor those of the olden time.  No doubt the modern Catholics bear in mind that their ancestors built all the great English churches and cathedrals and that these were lost to them at the time of the so-called Reformation of Henry VIII.  Religious toleration does not prevail to any such extent in England as in the United States and there is considerable bitterness between the various sects.