From Dunwich we came to Southwold, the town above-named: this is a
small port town upon the coast, at the mouth of a little river
called the Blith. I found no business the people here were
employed in but the fishery, as above, for herrings and sprats,
which they cure by the help of smoke, as they do at Yarmouth.
There is but one church in this town, but it is a very large one
and well built, as most of the churches in this county are, and of
impenetrable flint; indeed, there is no occasion for its being so
large, for staying there one Sabbath day, I was surprised to see an
extraordinary large church, capable of receiving five or six
thousand people, and but twenty-seven in it besides the parson and
the clerk; but at the same time the meeting-house of the Dissenters
was full to the very doors, having, as I guessed, from six to eight
hundred people in it.
This town is made famous for a very great engagement at sea, in the
year 1672, between the English and Dutch fleets, in the bay
opposite to the town, in which, not to be partial to ourselves, the
English fleet was worsted; and the brave Montague, Earl of
Sandwich, Admiral under the Duke of York, lost his life. The ship
Royal Prince, carrying one hundred guns, in which he was, and which
was under him, commanded by Sir Edward Spragg, was burnt, and
several other ships lost, and about six hundred seamen; part of
those killed in the fight were, as I was told, brought on shore
here and buried in the churchyard of this town, as others also were
at Ipswich.
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