fc>'


"  Having  the  opportunity  to  see  the  fair  at  Bury,"
he  wrote,  "  and  to  see  that  there  were,  indeed,  abund-
ance of  the  finest  ladies,  or  as  fine  as  any  in  Britain,
yet  I  must  own  that  the  number  of  the  ladies  at  the
comedy,  or  at  the  assembly,  is  in  no  way  equal  to  the
number  that  are  seen  in  the  town,  much  less  are  they


260  LITERARY  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  EAST  ANGLIA

equal  to  the  whole  body  of  the  ladies  in  the  three
counties  ;  and  I  must  also  add,  that  though  it  is  far
from  true  that  all  that  appear  at  the  assembly  are  there
for  matches  or  intrigues,  yet  I  will  venture  to  say  that
they  are  not  the  worst  of  the  ladies  who  stay  away,
neither  are  they  the  fewest  in  number  or  the  meanest
in  beauty,  but  just  the  contrary  ;  and  I  do  not  at  all
doubt  but  that  the  scandalous  liberty  some  take  at
those  assemblies  will  in  time  bring  them  out  of  credit
with  the  virtuous  part  of  the  sex  here,  as  it  has  done
already  in  Kent  and  other  places,  and  that  those  ladies
who  most  value  their  reputation  will  be  seen  less  there
than  they  have  been ;  for  though  the  institution  of
them  has  been  innocent  and  virtuous,  the  ill  use  of
them  will  in  time  arm  virtue  against  them,  and  they
will  be  laid  down  as  they  have  been  set  up  without
much  satisfaction."

Cox  Macro,  who  was  an  alderman  of  the  borough,
was  a  great  collector  of  curiosities  and  old  manuscripts,
among  the  latter  being  several  which  formerly  belonged
to  Sir  Henry  Spelman,  the  Elizabethan  antiquary,  and
to  the  library  of  the  Abbey  of  St. Edmundsbury. Some
of  these  are  now  in  the  possession  of  Mr. J. H. Gurney,
of  Keswick,  and  are  described  in  a  report  of  the
Historical  Manuscripts  Commission. Macro  was  in
frequent  correspondence  with  eminent  literary  men
and  artists  of  his  day,  and  a  collection  of  his  letters
is  preserved  in  the  British  Museum. His  rather  curious
name  was  a  frequent  occasion  of  witticisms  on  the  part
of  his  friends,  one  of  whom  suggested  as  an  appropriate
motto  for  his  family,  "Cocks  may  crow."  Contem-
porary with  him  was  the  eccentric  Messenger  Monsey,
the  freethinking  Whig  physician,  who  for  a  while
occupied  the  Manor  House. 