Friday 14 August 2015

The East Anglian Perambulator: MR James' 'Suffolk and Norfolk'

I live and wander in East Anglia. None of these are new, but these pictures are all of locations visited by ghost story master M R James in his ‘Suffolk and Norfolk: A Perambulation of the Two Counties with Notices of Their History and Their Ancient Buildings.’

Perhaps no overtly supernatural leanings, but hopefully a vibe of the landscape that impacted him so. All captions are taken from James’ wonderful guide.






"Aldeburgh...has a special charm for those who, like myself, have known it since childhood; but I do not find it easy to put that charm into words."



"The good town of Aylsham would make a convenient centre for exploring much of the country with which I have been dealing."


"The vast dead inland flats from Yarmouth are very impressive."


(Castle Acre): "...no finer ruin is to be found in Norfolk."


(Attleborough): "Here legend says that St. Edmund resided for a year, and learnt the Psalter..."


(Dunwich): "How much of this once populous city with ''fifty-two churches' is left at the moment I will not undertake to say."


"Of the many modern attractions of Lowestoft I need not speak."


(Norwich): "...I imagine that both this [panel] and the other at St Peter Mancroft belong to a Last Judgement."


"A merman was caught at Orford in the thirteenth century, and kept for some time."


"Walberswick, a haunt of artists, also had a very large church."


(Watton): "Undistinguished except that near it the death of the Babes in the Wood is located, in Wayland or Wailing Wood."