WALSINGHAM, a market-town of the county of Norfolk, in the hundred of North Greenhoe, 117 miles from London, and four miles from the sea. It was formerly a large place, when the abbey, whose ruins remain to attest its former magnificence, contained an image of the Virgin Mary, much venerated, and visited by numerous pilgrims, and to which Henry VIII. once repaired barefooted, with the present of a valuable necklace. The reformation caused the town to decline. It has now a handsome church, and a good market on Friday. The country around it is highly fertile, and especially yields abundance of saffron. The population amounted in 1821 to 1067, and in 1831 to 1004.