A HISTORY OF NORFOLK as the villages desire to be rydd of for their lewd behavour,' Many earlier recruits when they reached the port of embarkation had run from their colours. In spite of this warning it was found in October that nearly a quarter had deserted before reaching their haven. The Council, who were probably rather weary of the shocking quality of the recruits and the lukewarmness of the justices, wrote ^ to the responsible parties, ' where we shall laye the faulte hereof we cannot readily tell, and we are apte to beleeve that you did your endevoures for the leavying of sufficient men, but a faulte there must needes be in the choyse, where so many have shewed themselves such lewde persons.' One consequence of these expeditions was apt to react disastrously on the efficiency of the county trained bands, as arms and harness once carried abroad had a tendency to become permanently alienated from the county, and in default of renewal the residue of the common armour was insufficient for supplying the chosen men, the result of ' an abuse commytted in lending of some of those arms from one band to another, so that yf there were occasion of service there would be great defect and want of armour found amongst those captaines.'^ The exemptions claimed by Norwich and other towns from mustering with the rest of the county often led to disputes which probably were no help to efficiency. In March, 1599, when Captain Bosom, whose colleague had gone to the Irish wars, was serving alone as muster- master in such an extensive county, Thomas Eliott was appointed to aid him, and the commissioners were admonished ^ by the Council to see that the forces of the shire should be more diligently and oftener viewed and mustered than of late they had been, as both in numbers and equipment there had been a considerable falling off. A return * early in the reign of James I for Norfolk, Norwich, and Lynn, evidently mustered separately but here for convenience taken together, gives a total of 13,400 able men, 6,085 armed men, 680 pioneers, 28 demilances, and 172 light horse. Elizabeth, dying in 1603, was succeeded by James in March at a time when the plague was raging in England — over 3,000^ '^J^^S ^^ Norwich alone — an ill omen for his reign which was unluckily fulfilled. The king's first visit to the county was in February, 1605, when he stayed some time hunting at Thetford. He was good enough to say that ' he liked exceeding well the country,' and seems to have given himself up entirely to the pleasures of the chase and to drinking strong Greek wine — so strong that it upset an ordinary man who tasted it for three days.* Practically the king kept his liking for Thetford and Newmarket all his life, but he seems to have made himself disliked by his arbitrary preservation of game, having in 1607^ given directions that all game within a radius of twelve miles should be preserved for him — an order which he was strictly speaking entitled to give, but which showed his arbitrary temper. Passing from the king's pleasures we may notice that he favoured, as well he might, the Howards who had suffered so much for his mother. Castle Rising and Kenninghall were restored to them, Henry Howard was ' Jc/i, P. C. xxix, 224. » Ibid, xxix, 665. Cf. xxiii, 40. ' Ibid, xxix, 639. * Stowe MS. 574, fol. 26. J Blomefield, op. cit. iii, 360. ' Roger Coke, Detection of the Court and State 0/ England, 78. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1603-10, pp. 3S7 (105), 203 (17). 504
