*YARMOUTH-GREAT, (Norfolk) 6 leagues N. from Solbay, 27 mm. E. of Norwich, 92 cm. 122 mm. from London, stands at the mouth of the Yare, which is navigable from hence to Norwich. There is a navigation from it in 2 streams, viz. by the Waveney to Beccles, whereby it has trade with the N. part of Suffolk and the S. of Norfolk; and by the Thyrne, whereby it trades to the N. part of this Co. Above 1100 vessels bel. to this port, near 50 years ago, besides what the merchants were owners of, or concerned in at others. Though the T. is not so big as Norwich, it is vastly fuperior to that city in traffick and wealth, by its commodious situation on the German-ocean. It is the chief rendezvous of the colliers bet. Newcastle and London, the roads on the E. side of the T. being reckoned so safe, that it is very much frequented by vessels, that pass and repass bet. the N. parts of the world and London, or farther S. though there are some dangerous banks of sand in the neighbourhood, on which ships have often been cast away in storms, and it costs the inh. 2 or 3000 l. a year, to keep the harbour clear of the sands and mud. Its being the centre of the coal-trade and its great commerce to France, Holland and the N. and E. seas, and above all its herring-fishery, in which it employs 150 vessels, and bet. 40 and 50 sail in the exportation, make it the greatest T. of trade on all the E. coast of England, except Hull; for besides all its other commerce, particularly the exportation of corn and malt, which is said to have amounted of late years to above 220,000 quarters a year, it has the whole herring-fishery of this coast; where (including Leostoff) 50,000 barrels, which some magnify to 40,000 lasts, containing no less than 40 millions of herrings, are generally taken and cured in a year. Spelman says it was affirmed in Pt. 35 of Q. Eliz. that the fishermen spread their nets from hence all the way to London, i.e. 100 m. and that they then had so many nets, as were valued at 50,000 l. and if spread from one vessel to another, would extend to the Dutch coast. Their herrings are for most part exported by the merchants of Yarmouth, the rest by those of London to Italy, Spain, and Portugal; which, with the camlets, crapes, and other Norwich stuffs, that they export to those and other parts, especially Holland to which they send a vast quantity of woollen goods every year, occasions large business, and employs abundance of hands and shipping. Besides the fishing-vessels above-mentioned, the inh. are owners of about 250 ships. Their red-herrings are nick-named Yarmouth-Capers, with just as much propriety as the Italian friars, when they have a mind to eat flesh on F. call a capon, Piscem e Corte, i.e. a Fish out of the Coop. The fishing-fair here, or season for catching herrings, is at Michaelmas, and all the month of October; during which, all the vessels that come to fish for the merchants from, any part of England, as great numbers do from the coasts of Kent and Sussex, Scarborough, Whitby, &c. are allowed to catch, bring in, and sell their fish free of all duty, or toll, as the burghers of Yarmouth are. This T. is bound by its charter granted by Henry III. to send to the sheriff of Norwich every year, 100 herrings baked in 24 pasties, which are to be delivered to the Ld. of the manor of East-Carlton, who is to give a receipt for them, and then to carry them to the K. In the spring, here is almost as great a fishing for mackarel. Besides the merchants, &c. here have a fishing-trade to the N. seas for white fish, called the N. Sea-Cod; and a considerable trade to Norway and the Baltic for deals, oak, pitch, tar, and all naval stores, which they consume mostly in their own port, where a great many ships are built every year. A small platform of guns, on a ship of land at the entrance of the harbour, is all its security, the great guns that were round the walls of the T. being removed by Cha. II. The seamen employed by the merchants here are reckoned the best in England. This T. was the station for the packet-boat to and from Holland, till it was removed to Harwich, and had several mons. It was anciently a member of the Cinque-Ports; which, by an old custom, appoint certain bailiffs, as commissaries, who, in conjunction with the magistrates of the T. hold a court during the Herring-Fair, to determine all controversies, execute justice, and keep the peace. It had a provost granted it by Henry I. and was made a Bor. by K. John, who granted it in fee-farm to the burgesses, paying 55 l. a year to the crown. It was walled and ditched round in the time of Henry III. and in that of Edw. III. it sent 43 ships and 1075 seamen to the siege of Calais, which was more than any of our ports did, except Fowey. King Rich. II. gave it leave to build a quay, after which it had great quarrels with Leostoff, and with the Cinque-ports, because it was excluded out of their number, and consequently deprived of their privileges; but at length the differences were ended by the royal authority of Henry IV. or, as some think, by a plague, which, in the year 1341, swept away 7000 of the inh. By a charter of Henry III. it was governed by 2 bailiffs and a recorder, who were justices of the peace. The inh. were about 5000 at the accession of James I. who incorporated it by the name of a bailiff ald. and C. C. who were so loyal in the days of abhorring and giving up charters, that K. Charles II. granted them a new one, by which the bailiffs were changed into a mayor; but by virtue of a proclamation for corps. issued out by Ja. II. in 1688, the T. was glad to take its old charter again. And 'tis now governed by a mayor, 7 ald. a recorder, and 36 C. C. The mayor returns its members to Pt. who are elected by the freemen, in number above 500. It began to send them in the R. of Edward I. The corp. has particular and extensive privileges. It has a court of record and admiralty; in the first are tried civil causes for unlimited sums; in the other, they can try, condemn, and execute in some cases, without waiting for a warrant from above. The mayor and ald. are conservators of the Ouse, Humber, Wherfe, Derwent, Air, and Dun, within certain limits of each r. The Sabbath is said to be as strictly observed here as any where in England. It has 2 p.-Chs. of which St. Nicholas, built in the R. of Henry I. has so high a steeple, that it serves as a sea-mark. Here are a fine hos. and 2 ch. scs. for 35 boys and 32 girls, all cloathed and taught, the boys to make nets, and the girls spinning, knitting, and plain-work, besides reading, writing, &c. People are carried here all over the T. and from the sea-side, for 6 d. in what they call a coach, but 'tis only a wheelbarrow drawn by one horse, without any covering. The T. which makes a very good appearance from the sea, is the neatest, compactest, and most regular built in England, the streets being strait and parallel with one another; and there is a view cross all the streets from the quay to the sea, it standing in a peninsula, bet. the sea and the harbour. 'Tis walled, but its chief strength by land is the haven, or r. which lies on the W. side, with a drawbridge over it; the port, or entrance secures the S. and the sea the E. but the N. end, which joins it to the main land of Norfolk, is open, and only covered with a single wall, and some old demolished works. The beauties of Yarmouth are its Mt.-place, the finest and best furnished of any T. in England of its bigness; and its quay, the fairest, largest and longest of any, perhaps, in Europe, that of Seville in Spain only excepted, it being so commodious, that people may step directly from the shore into any of the ships, and walk from one to another, as over a bridge, sometimes for a quarter of a m. together, and withal so spacious, that in some places 'tis near 100 yards from the houses to the wharf. On this stand the custom-house and T.- hall, with several merchants houses that look like palaces. The Mts. here are on W. and S. the Fairs on Th. before Lady- day, April 23, and Oct. 8. In the R. of Charles II. this T. gave title of Earl to the family of Paston, which being extinct, it now gives title of Countess to a German lady, of the family of Stainberg,