Page:History of Norfolk 1.djvu/539

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place called St. George's Arm, he was taken violently ill, upon which, he immediately sent for his council, appointed Edmund his successour, and sent him his ring, which he received from the Bishop, when he was made King of the East-Angles; after he was dead, the Angles went to the King of Saxony, and demanded Edmund his son, and received him, as Offa's successour, and hastening home, they landed at Hunstanton, from whence they carried him to the ancient city called Atleburgh, where he lived a whole year, yielding himself up chiefly to devotion, here he perfected what he had begun in Saxony, namely, to repeat all the Psalms without a book, and at the year's end, he went to Suffolk, &c." From whence it appears, that it was certainly then a place of great repute, and might be afterwards refortified, upon the Danes coming to these parts; it is plain, that the hills of the fortification or burgh were very remarkable in Henry the Second's time, for then the family that dwelt within them took their sirname from them; William de Fossato de Atleburc lived at that time, and in 1285, William, son of William de Fossato lived there, who with his descendants, are called in old English, "atte the Dyke," (now Dikes, or Dix,) and all these things, being duly weighed and compared, I could not omit them, knowing how much the account of Atleburgh hath invalidated the rest of his history. And thus, having given you my thoughts of the original of this place, I shall proceed to treat of the several manors, &c. which have been, or now are, in this town.

Plasset, or Plassing Hall Manor

Belonged to Toradre, a Dane, in the Confessor's time, and another part to Turkill, one of that nation also; which shews us that the Danes had got possession of this place, and that its decay was owing to their seizing it. After Toradre's expulsion, or death, it belonged to the castle, and continued in the Crown till the Conqueror gave it to Roger Fitz-Renard, at whose death it was rejoined to the castle, to which it had belonged, almost ever since its foundation, which in all appearance was owing to the Danes forcing them hence; upon which, the castle was first erected, in order to oppose them, and accordingly, when they were forced to quit possession, the whole was seized, and added to the castle, with which it was given to William de Albany, and descended with the coheiress of that family to Sir Robert de Tateshale, and from him to the Bernaks, as Plassets in Besthorp did, which was a part of this manor, to which one third