"
We meet with the sad doings of this wretch Dowsing in various places
in East Anglia. He left his hideous mark on many a fair church. Thus
the churchwardens of Walberswick, in Suffolk, record in their
accounts:--
"1644, April 8th, paid to Martin Dowson, that came with the
troopers to our church, about the taking down of Images and
Brasses off Stones 6 0."
"1644 paid that day to others for taking up the brasses of grave
stones before the officer Dowson came 1 0."
[Illustration: St. George's Church, Great Yarmouth]
The record of the ecclesiastical exploits of William Dowsing has been
preserved by the wretch himself in a diary which he kept. It was
published in 1786, and the volume provides much curious reading. With
reference to the church of Toffe he says:--
"Will: Disborugh Church Warden Richard Basly and John Newman
Cunstable, 27 Superstitious pictures in glass and ten other in
stone, three brass inscriptions, Pray for y^{e} Soules, and a
Cross to be taken of the Steeple (6s. 8d.) and there was divers
Orate pro Animabus in ye windows, and on a Bell, Ora pro Anima
Sanctae Catharinae."
"_Trinity Parish, Cambridge_, M. Frog, Churchwarden, December 25,
we brake down 80 Popish pictures, and one of Christ and God y^{e}
Father above.
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