Evelyn's Diary. 10 Sep 1677. To divert me, my Lord (age 59) would needs carry me to see Ipswich, Suffolk [Map], when we dined with one Mr. Mann by the way, who was Recorder of the town. There were in our company my Lord Huntingtower (age 28), son to the [his mother] Duchess of Lauderdale (age 50), Sir Edward Bacon, a learned gentleman of the family of the great Chancellor Verulam, and Sir John Felton, with some other knights and gentlemen. After dinner came the bailiff and magistrates in their formalities with their maces to compliment my Lord (age 59), and invite him to the town-house, where they presented us a collation of dried sweetmeats and wine, the bells ringing, etc. Then, we went to see the town, and first, the Lord Viscount Hereford's (age 3) house, which stands in a park near the town, like that at Brussels, in Flanders; the house not great, yet pretty, especially the hall. The stews for fish succeeded one another, and feed one the other, all paved at bottom. There is a good picture of the blessed virgin in one of the parlors, seeming to be of Holbein, or some good master. Then we saw the Haven, seven miles from Harwich [Map]. The tide runs out every day, but the bedding being soft mud, it is safe for shipping and a station. The trade of Ipswich, Suffolk [Map] is for the most part Newcastle upon Tyne [Map] coals, with which they supply London; but it was formerly a clothing town. There is not any beggar asks alms in the whole place, a thing very extraordinary, so ordered by the prudence of the magistrates. It has in it fourteen or fifteen beautiful churches: in a word, it is for building, cleanness, and good order, one of the best towns in England. Cardinal Wolsey was a butcher's son of Ipswich, but there is little of that magnificent Prelate's foundation here, besides a school and I think a library, which I did not see. His intentions were to build some great thing. We returned late to Euston, Suffolk, having traveled about fifty miles this day.