CLEY, a parish and market-town and sea-port (small), in the hundred of HOLT, county of NORFOLK, 26 miles (N.N.'W.) from Norwich, and 124 (N.N.E.) from London, containing 742 inhabitants. In 1406, Prince James of Scotland, on his voyage to France, to receive his education, was driven by stress of weather upon this coast; and being detained here, he was sent to London by order of Henry IV., who committed him and his attendant, the Earl of Orkney, to the Tower, where they remained for seventeen years in confinement; they were released in the 3rd of Henry VI., and the prince ascended the Scottish throne. The town is situated on the banks of a small river which falls into the harbour, at the northeastern extremity of the county, and consists principally of one street, in the centre of which is the customhouse, a neat and commodious edifice, containing apartments for a resident collector, comptroller, &c.: it is plentifully supplied with water from springs. The trade of the port (of which the jurisdiction extends for thirty miles along the coast, from Morston on the west, to Barton Coal Gap on the east), consists principally in corn, coal, timber and deals, hemp, iron, tar, tallow, oil-cakes, &c., of which the importation is considerable; a small trade is also carried on in malt: the exports are comparatively trifling, consisting principally of salt, for the manufacture of which there are considerable works in the neighbourhood. The haven is good, but the channel leading from it to the town abounds with shoals, to the exclusion of ships of large burden. Under an act of enclosure obtained in 1822, a considerable quantity of land has been rescued from the sea by an embankment. The market is on Saturday; and a fair for hor'ses is held annually on the last Friday in July. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Norwich, rated in the king's books at £22. 13. 4., and in the patronage of John Winn Thomlinson, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. John, is a fine spacious structure in the early style of English architecture, and contains an ancient stone font, adorned with sculptured representations of the seven Sacraments of the church of Rome. Here is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists.