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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Ipswich
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(119,000 in 1991)
County town and administrative centre of Suffolk, at the head of the estuary of the river Orwell. Its position as a safe harbour on an inlet of the North Sea has caused it to be much involved with the continent of Europe, from the early days of Danish settlements and *Viking raids to the extensive shipping activities of its modern docks. It was the birthplace of Cardinal *Wolsey (Wolsey's Gateway is all that survives of the college he established here in 1536) and it was where *Gainsborough had his first studio in the 1750s.
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The town's best-known link with the 19C is in fiction; the Great White Horse Hotel, still in business, features prominently in *Pickwick Papers (Mr Pickwick has an adventure there with a lady in yellow curlpapers). The Ancient House in Buttermarket, also known as Sparrowe's House, was built in the 1560s and has on its exterior an excellent 17C example of East Anglia's decorative speciality, *pargeting. Christchurch Mansion, a Tudor mansion of 1548–50 in a parkland setting, has interiors of the 17–18C; it contains a display of decorative art and paintings with a local emphasis, including work by the area's two great painters, *Gainsborough and *Constable.
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