Francis Blomefield

“ In this year, Thomas de Brotherton, had a charter of the King in tail general, of the honours of Roger Bigod Marshal of England and Earl of Norfolk, by which he became constable of this castle during the King's pleasure, and it seems by his arms still remaining carved in stone on the walls, that it was he that fitted up the castle in the manner it now stands, for I think by his coat twice cut on the pilasters of the arch of the staircase, that he built that staircase, made that arch, and added the battlements which were on the top, and left the building much as we see it now. ”

“ Seldom, says Speed, hath so terrible a famine been heard of here; and what was as bad, the next year, the unwholesomeness of the food that they were forced to eat, occasioned a pestilence of which great numbers died, as also of the bloody-flux and fevers; and such was the murrain among the cattle, that people dared not eat their flesh, so that this plague and famine would have destroyed the greatest part of the people (as was thought) had not the King ordered that no wheat should be malted, a great deal of which in those times was consumed that way ”

“ But the scarcity still increasing, this order was obliged to be soon revoked, for such was the price of corn, that the King could scarce get bread to sustain his household. Fox says, that some stole children and eat them, and that many perished for hunger. ”