I fear no threats from

An infernal crew;

My day is past, and I bid

The world “Adieu.”

LIII

It was somewhere about the beginning of the nineteenth century, contemporaneously with the general rise of seaside resorts, that the invigorating air of Cromer first began to attract attention, and so early as 1806 an anonymous visitor, seeking health here, published Cromer: a Descriptive Poem, a wearisome production of several hundred lines, in blank—very blank—verse. The reader shall be spared his rhapsodies on the sea, but his circuitous description of a taxed cart, typical of his literary method, is not without its unconscious humour:—

Quiet the steady Sociable proceeds,

No danger in its course, and in the rear

The humbler vehicle, that bears displayed,

In letters legible to ev’ry eye,