Note 257c — HISTORY OF LYNN, PART II.

“Directly opposite the Irish coast, (says William of Malmsbury) there is a seaport town, called Bristol, the inhabitants of which frequently sail into Ireland, to sell there people whom they had bought up throughout all England. They expose to sale maidens in a state of pregnancy, with whom they had made a sort of mock-marriages. There you might see with grief, fastened together by ropes, whole rows of wretched beings, of both sexes, of elegant forms, and in the very bloom of youth, (a sight sufficient to excite pity, even in barbarians,) daily offered for sale to the first purchaser. Accursed deed! Infamous disgrace! that men, acting in a manner which brutal instinct alone would have forbidden, should sell into slavery their relations, nay even their offspring!”—Life of Wolstan, bishop of Worcester, B. ii, C. 20.—[see Edinburgh Review, July, 1808.]