It  is  yeiy  probable  tiiat  Sir  Thomaft  was  led  paiilv  by  his  residence  at
Norwich,  to  investigate  the  story  of  St.  George,  who  is  a  personage  of
no  small  importance  there.  Pegge  mentions  the  guild  of  St.  George  in
that  dty  (in  his  paper  in  the  Archseologia),  but  he  was  probably  not
aware  that  there  hM  been  ftom  time  immemorial,  on  ["Lord]  Mayor's
Pay"  at  Norwich,  an  annual  pageant,  the  sole  remnant  of  St.  George's
guild,  in  which  an  immense  dracon,  horrible  to  view,  with  hydra  head,
and  gaping  jaws  and  wings,  and  scales  bedecked  in  gold  and  green,  is
carried  about  by  a  luckless  wight^  whose  task  it  is,  the  livelongHlay,  by
string  and  pulley  firom  within,  to  ope  and  shut  the  monster's  jaws,  by
way  of  levying  contributions  on  the  gaping  multitude,  especially  of
youthful  gaaen,  with  whom  it  is  matter  of  hiSf  terror,  half  joy,  to  pop  a
half-penny  into  the  opened  mouth  of  snap  (so  is  he  called),  whose  bow
of  thanks,  wiUi  long  uid  forked  tail  high  waved  in  air,  acknowledges
the  gift.  Throughout  the  rest  of  the  year,  fell  Snap  lives  on  the  forage
of  that  memoiable  day:  quietly  reposing  in  the  hdOL  of  his  conqueror's
sainted  broUier,  St  Andrew,  where  the  civic  feast  is  held.
^  tome  conceive,  dErc]    First  added  in  2nd  edition.
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66  OF  THE   PICTUBB   OP  JEBOME.  [bOOK  T.
