and the minority of Henry VI., and to his
last hour the safeguard of the whole nation, and darling of the
people, was basely murdered here; by whose death the gate was
opened to that dreadful war between the houses of Lancaster and
York, which ended in the confusion of that very race who are
supposed to have contrived that murder.
From St. Edmund's Bury I returned by Stowmarket and Needham to
Ipswich, that I might keep as near the coast as was proper to my
designed circuit or journey; and from Ipswich, to visit the sea
again, I went to Woodbridge, and from thence to Orford, on the sea
side.
Woodbridge has nothing remarkable, but that it is a considerable
market for butter and corn to be exported to London; for now begins
that part which is ordinarily called High Suffolk, which, being a
rich soil, is for a long tract of ground wholly employed in
dairies, and they again famous for the best butter, and perhaps the
worst cheese, in England. The butter is barrelled, or often
pickled up in small casks, and sold, not in London only, but I have
known a firkin of Suffolk butter sent to the West Indies, and
brought back to England again, and has been perfectly good and
sweet, as at first.
The port for the shipping off their Suffolk butter is chiefly
Woodbridge, which for that reason is full of corn factors and
butter factors, some of whom are very considerable merchants.
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