Both these worthies were wealthy clothiers, and the first-named built the beautiful manor house which we may still see near by.

But the manufacturing celebrity of Lavenham has dwindled to spinning woollen yarn, and making calimancoes and hempen cloth; the opulent clothiers have shuffled off their mortal coil, and proved that "the web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.

Contynuall prayse these lynes in brasse, Of Allaine Dister here, A clothier, vertuous while he was In Lavenham many a yeare.

His house still stands, although greatly altered to outward appearance; in its old rooms Henry VIII was received as a guest and proffered to the worthy clothier a knighthood in recognition of his services to the state, an honour which Smallwood sturdily refused.