“I’LL tell thee, country fellow, last night I dreamed that I was at Swaffham, in Norfolk, a place utterly unknown to me, where, methought behind a pedlar’s house, in a certain orchard, and under a great oak tree, if I digged, I should find a vast treasure! Now think you,” says he, “that I am such a fool to take such a long jorney upon me upon the instigation of a silly dream? No, no, I’m wiser. Therefore, good fellow, get you home, and mind your business.”
The pedlar observing his words, what he said he had dreamed, and knowing that they concentred in him, glad of such joyful news, went speedily home, and digged, and found a prodigious great treasure, with which he grew exceeding rich; and Swaffham church, being for the most part fallen down, he set on workmen, and re-edified it most sumptuously, at his own charges; and to this day there is his statue therein, with his pack at his back, and his dog at his heels.*
abridged
The church was substantially rebuilt in 1454-1465 after it had fallen into a ruinous state; the tower was added between 1507 and 1510. The Rector of the time records that a certain John Chapman paid for the north aisle. There is no stone statue today, but pew-carvings around the church include not only flowers and animals but the Pedlar and his dog.