A HISTORY OF NORFOLK second in his memorable duel at Barn Elms with the duke of Buckingham, who had for a long while intrigued with the countess, so at least Pepys tells us. How it came about that Howard, if he were on Shrewsbury's side, should have wounded him and his other second is extremely difficult to under- stand. Jenkins was certainly on the side of the duke of Buckingham. The king visited Norfolk in September, 1671, coming from Newmarket to Scole, where he breakfasted at the famous ' White Hart,' and then on to Yarmouth, where he was well received, >C 1,000 being spent in entertaining him, and ^250 in making four gold herrings and a chain to present to him. He ' fed heartily ' on the local herrings and proceeded to Norwich, where he was nobly lodged by Lord Howard in the duke's palace. There is a most interesting account^ of the whole reception, but it is too long to print here. Two incidents strike the modern as curious, viz. that some one dropped a valuable pearl necklace, and that the finder who was 'a poor cavalier courtier' actually called out and returned it to its owner, ' such a surprising act of generous virtue that it has for ever gained him immortal fame and reputation in this city,'^ and that Howard's butler averred that in about jr5,ooo worth of plate ' they have not lost one ounce.' ^ From Norwich the king went to Sir Robert Paston's at Oxnead and thence back to Euston. The most memorable event of the visit was the knighting of Sir Thomas Browne. Possibly as some reward for his welcome in Norwich, Lord Henry Howard was created earl of Norwich and duke of Norfolk the next year.* Some time after 1680 a most extraordinary story ^ was told by one John Mendham of Thetford, who alleged that William Harbord, M.P. for Thet- ford, endeavoured to get him to join a party which was supposed to consist of so many members of both Houses that they were worth >r5oo,ooo a year, and were determined to go well armed to Oxford and have a skirmish with the king and his guards, for they were resolved to know what the king would be at, and they must have better security than his word, which he had broken so often they would not take it for a groat. This was supposed to be pointed against the accession of the duke of York, but it is extremely doubtful if there was any truth in the tale. The informant goes on to say that Harbord had shown him a double-barrelled gun, and was going to have more made, saying that he would soon be at the head of a regiment, and that they would never get on until they had hanged most of the bishops. Nothing came of the information, which may either have been pure invention or the malicious report of the ravings of a disappointed cavalier. In 1 68 1* the duke of York visited Norwich while on his way from Yarmouth to Newmarket. He was received with much ceremony and firing of cannon and other demonstrations of loyalty, and was lodged in the bishop's palace. The result of this visit was seen soon afterwards in the address sent up by the city to the king, approving of the dissolution of Parliament and abusing the House of Commons in such terms that it was actually presented by the grand jury of Middlesex as a public libel, though the court of King's Bench took no notice of the presentation. The interests of the court were well looked after at this time both in the city of Norwich and in the county ' D. Turner, Fisit of King Charles to Notivkh. ' Ibid. 17. ' Ibid.
- Cal. S. P. Dom. 1672, p. 667.
' Mason, op. cit. 366. ' Blomefield, op. cit. iii, 417. 516
