Bury St Edmunds

Bury St Edmunds, or ST EDMUNDSBURY, a clean, well-built town of West Suffolk, pleasantly situated on the little river Lark, 26 miles NW. of Ipswich, and 76 NNE. of London. The Villa Faustini perhaps of the Romans, it received its name from Edmund the Martyr, who on Christmas-day 856 was crowned here king of the East Angles, and who in 870 was shot to death at Hoxne by the Danes. His relics were translated hither in 903, and in 1020 Canute reared a Benedictine abbey in his honour, which in time became the richest and most important in England, Glastonbury only excepted. At the dissolution its annual income was equivalent to £200,000 of our money. Of this magnificent establishment little now remains but the noble Abbey Gate (1327-77), Decorated in style, and 62 feet high; and the Norman Tower or Church Gate (circa 1090), a quadrangular tower of massive simplicity, 86 feet high. The cruciform church itself, which measured 512 by 212 feet, is represented only by the west front and the piers of the central tower, one of which bears the inscription: 'Near this spot, on 20th November 1214, Cardinal Langton and the Barons swore at St Edmund's altar that they would obtain from King John the ratification of Magna Charta.' Among the many religious and charitable institutions connected with the abbey, of which portions still exist, is St Saviour's Hospital, founded by that notable abbot, Samson, whose life and actions, as recorded by Jocelin (q.v.) de Brake-londe, Carlyle has so vividly recalled in his Past and Present. The poet Lydgate was a monk of Bury St Edmunds; and Bishops Gardiner and Blomfield and Sir Nicholas Bacon were natives. Parliaments were held here in 1272, 1296, and 1446, the last of which ordered the arrest of Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester, who was found dead in his bed the morning after his arrest; and sovereigns as late as Elizabeth's time were often nobly entertained at Bury St Edmunds. St Mary's and St James's churches are both fine Gothic edifices of the 15th century; in the former is the tomb of Mary Tudor, the widow of Louis XII. of France. The grammar-school, founded in 1550 by Edward VI., was rebuilt on a new site in 1883 in Queen Anne style at a cost of £12,000. Donaldson was one of its head-masters, and amongst its scholars have been Sancroft, Cumberland, Blomfield, Fitzgerald, and Spedding. Defoe, Wollaston, and 'Mr Pickwick' were residents. Bury St Edmunds, indeed, is richer in memories than, perhaps, any town of its size. The very police-office is an old Norman house, a synagogue once, and known still as Moysse's Hall; whilst the guildhall has interesting remains of antiquity. Among modern buildings may be noticed the corn exchange (1862), the Suffolk General Hospital (1826; rebuilt 1864), the new barracks (1878), and the Mechanics' Institute (1853-78). Three miles SW. is Ickworth House (1792), the seat of the Marquis of Bristol. Since 1883 Bury returns only one member to parliament. Pop. (1801) 7655; (1841) 12,538; (1891) 16,630. See Gillingwater's History of St Edmundsbury (1804); Memorials of St Edmund's Abbey, edited by Thos. Arnold (Rolls series, 1890 et seq.).