The town is home to a number of important landmarks, including Bury St Edmunds Abbey, which is one of the most important monasteries in England. Bury St Edmunds is also home to a number of museums and art galleries, as well as a number of shops and restaurants. The town is a popular tourist destination, and it is easy to see why.
“Beg your pardon, sir,’ said Sam, suddenly breaking off in his loquacious discourse. “Is this Bury St. Edmunds?” ‘It is,” replied Mr Pickwick.
The coach rattled through the well-paved streets of a handsome little town, of thriving and cleanly appearance, and stopped before a large inn situated in a wide-open street, nearly facing the old abbey.
“And this,” said Mr Pickwick, looking up, “is the Angel! We alight here, Sam.” Charles Dickens – The Pickwick Papers (1836)
“That clean, quiet, antiquated … town, that always puts me in mind of an old maid dressed for a party; that slowest and dreariest of boroughs, where the streets are as full of grass as an acre of pasture land, and the inhabitants are driven to ring their own door-bells lest they should rust from disuse”
Marie Louise de la Ramée also known as Ouida was born in Bury St Edmunds in 1839. She wrote over 40 novels during her lifetime.
She had quite definite views on the town she left behind.