Some of our East Coast Towns

ONE of the oldest towns in Suffolk is Hadleigh. You take the train at Liverpool-street; at Bentley change on to a branch line, and in twenty minutes you are there. If we are to believe the annalist Asser, its origin is to be traced as far back as Alfred the Great's time, or the latter half of the ninth century. Asser relates that the Danish Chief Guthrum, after having been defeated by King Alfred, embraced Christianity, was appointed governor of East Anglia; that he divided, cultivated, and inhabited the district, and that when he died he was buried in the royal town called Headlega. Be that as it may, in the ancient church of Hadleigh, according to popular belief, there still remains his tomb. The principal event in connection with Hadleigh is that there Dr. Taylor was burnt to death by the Roman Catholics. The little town, says Fox, first heard of the pure Gospel of Christ from the lips of the Rev. Thomas Bilney, who preached there with great earnestness, and whose work was greatly blessed, numbers of men and women becoming convinced of the errors and idolatries of Popery, and gladly embracing the Christian faith. After the martyrdom of Bilney, Dr. Rowland Taylor was appointed vicar. He possessed the friendship of Cranmer, and it was through him that he obtained his living. In Queen Mary's time the Church was no place for such as he. He was hauled up before Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester. The Bishop, with other bishops, sent him back to Hadleigh to burn to death. "On his way Dr. Taylor was very joyful; he spoke many things to the sheriff and yeomen of the guard that conducted him, and often moved them to weep by his earnest calling upon them to repent and turn to the true religion. " At Hadleigh he was burnt, much to the sorrow of his flock, who revered and loved him.

A very modest monument marks the site of the scene of the martyrdom and the triumph, as it then seemed, of Popery and arbitrary power. On the monument, which stands on a grass plot guarded by rails, is an inscription to the memory of Dr. Taylor, ending as follows: