AUGUST.
7.—The prisoners at the old City Gaol at Norwich were removed to the new Gaol at St. Giles’ Gates.
28.—Ten thousand persons were attracted to the neighbourhood of St. James’s Hill, Norwich, to witness the performances of “Signor Carlo Cram Villecrop, the celebrated Swiss Mountain Flyer from Geneva and Mont Blanc,” who was to exhibit “with the Tyrolese pole, 50 feet long, the most astonishing gymnastic flights never before witnessed in this country.” It was a hoax.
29.—The election of the freemen’s Sheriff at Norwich was attended with great excitement. The candidates were Mr. J. Bennett and Mr. T. O. Springfield. “Complimentary half-crowns were paid to the ‘friends of independence,’” and it was mentioned as a circumstance highly creditable to the poor freemen of the “Purple and Orange” interest, that “they contented themselves with a fee of 5s. each from their own party.” The poll was declared as follows: Bennett, 1,164; Springfield, 1,079.
—The North Walsham and Dilham Canal was formally opened by a grand procession of vessels which started from Wayford Bridge accompanied by a band of music and filled with company, among whom were Lord Suffield and many of the principal residents in the district. At Antingham the company landed, formed in procession, and marched to North Walsham, where a dinner was held at the King’s Arms Inn, under the presidency of Col. the Hon. John Wodehouse.
SEPTEMBER.
4.—The Ven. Archdeacon Oldershaw preached at Pulham Market church on the occasion of the opening of the newly-erected organ, built by Mr. Bullen, “an ingenious mechanic of that place.”
9.*—“The aged inhabitants residing in the alms-houses in St. Gregory’s, bequeathed by Alderman Thomas Pye to the poor people belonging to St. Giles’, were removed this week into their newly-erected and comfortable dwellings in West Pottergate Street.”
13.—A man named Gibson, for a wager of £50, undertook to walk from Norwich to Yarmouth in seven and a half hours carrying £4 worth of copper coins, weighing four stones four pounds. He started from Bishop Bridge at five o’clock in the morning, accomplished the first twelve miles in three hours, and arrived at Yarmouth half an hour within the stipulated time.
18.—A prize fight, “one of those revolting scenes, which are equally an outrage on every feeling of humanity as well as a scandal to civilised society,” took place at Bramerton. The combatants were prevented by a magistrate from bringing off the affair at Surlingham; and the parish constable at Bramerton on attempting to stop the fight was almost killed in the execution of his duty.