The Norwich Public Library.
The Norwich Public Library is located in a spacious room built for the purpose at the end of an avenue opposite the Guildhall. The first meeting of subscribers was held there on September 7th, 1837. The library contains about 30,000 volumes, including many old books of divinity and archæology. The yearly subscription is one guinea paid by shareholders, and 26s. paid by others; and subscribers are entitled to borrow two sets of books at a time. The library is open from 10 a.m. till 9 p.m. Besides the large room which contains the books, there are smaller rooms for the convenience of readers. Mr. Langton is the librarian.
The Norfolk and Norwich Museum
is a fine building, erected in 1839, in Broad Street, St. Andrew’s. It contains very valuable collections in geology, ethnology, and entomology, but chiefly in ornithology. The specimens in ornithology comprise nearly all the varieties of the raptores or birds of prey, mostly supplied by J. H. Gurney, Esq. A large new room in the adjoining building is filled with specimens of British birds, also contributed by J. H. Gurney, Esq., whose portrait adorns the room. The fossil remains of mammalia, for the most part discovered in Norfolk, are extremely interesting. Two other spacious rooms have just been added to the Museum, one of which is filled with Elephantine Remains, contributed by the Rev. Jno. Gunn; and the botanical department has been enriched by the late J. D. Salmon’s well-arranged specimens, bequeathed by him to this institution, which is open free on Mondays and Saturdays.