THE
BURGH OF THETFORD.
the following lines, which I met with in a poem composed some years since, may serve for an Introduction to the history of this place:
Of all the elogies at which I aim,
Antiquity does the precedence claim,
By me, with order, and with air inspir’d,
The oldest glories shall be first admir’d.
Thetford, thy age shall introduce my rhymes,
I honour all thy joys in ancient times,
And wish thee happy, in what now appears
The relicts of above a thousand years.
Next, I congratulate thy charming site,
Fit for accommodation and delight,
On Ousa’s banks conveniently placed,
With all her troops of wanton Naiads graced,
No situation but may envy thee,
Holding such intimacy with the sea,
Many do that, but my delighted muse
Says, Neptune's fairest daughter is the Little Ouse.
CHAPTER I.
OF THE NAME AND ORIGIN OF THE CITY
Sitomagus, Deodford, Deodford, Tedford, Tetford, Tefford, Theford, and Thetford, as it is now called, was a place formerly of great redown, and now to be taken notice of for its great antiquity; who were the first wise people that made choice of its commodious situation, whether a colony of the Senones, an ancient people of Gaul, or the Sitones, an ancient people of Germany, I cannot certainly learn; but am apt to conclude that it was a place of note before the coming of the Romans into this isle, and doubt not but the name Sitomagus was given it long before they ever set foot in the place; for
