Note 556 — HISTORY OF LYNN. PART III. (continued 4)

“What led to the great celebrity which this place obtained for centuries, was the widow lady of Ricoldie Faverches founding, about 1061, a small chapel in honour of the virgin Mary, similar to the Sancta Casa, at Nazareth. Her son confirmed the endowments, made an additional foundation of a Priory for Augustine canons, and erected a conventual church. At the dissolution, the annual revenues of the monastery were valued, according to Speed, at 446l. 14s. 4d. That its wealth should have been immensely great, is not surprising, when the fame of the image of our Lady of Walsingham is taken into the account; for it was as much frequented, if not more, than the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket, at Canterbury. Foreigners of all nations came thither on pilgrimage; many kings and queens of England also paid their devoirs to it; so that the number and quality of her devotees appeared to equal those of the Lady of Loretto, in Italy.—The celebrated Erasmus represents it as a place of such transcendent splendor as would lead one to suppose it the seat of the gods. The monks had contrived to persuade many, that the galaxy in the heavens was a miraculous indication of the way to this place: hence that was called Walsingham Way.”—See Beaut. Engl. xi. 313.