18.—An officer of the Shropshire Militia decided in his favour a wager of ten guineas, “to pick up 100 stones laid in Chapel Field, Norwich, at a distance of a yard from each other, and to deposit them in two baskets placed at the extremities of the line, in the space of one hour.” Another person, a few weeks afterwards, performed the same feat in 44 minutes.
25.—Married, by special licence by the Bishop of Norwich, at his lordship’s house in Manchester-square, London, Mr. Benjamin Bathurst, secretary of legation to the Court of Stockholm, to Miss Call, daughter of Sir John Call, Bart. (In November, 1809, when travelling to England with important despatches as envoy to the Court of Vienna, Bathurst mysteriously disappeared in the town of Perleberg, and was never more seen or heard of.)
—*“A street, 26 feet wide, is about to be opened, forming an entrance, which has long been most desirable, from Chapel Field directly into Bethel Street, Norwich.”
The several battalions of Volunteer Infantry in the county performed a month’s garrison duty in Yarmouth. The Norwich Volunteers were on duty in the city.
JUNE.
1.—Lord Frederick Beauclerk and the Hon. Edward Harbord ran a hundred yards race on Lord’s Cricket Ground, London. Mr. Harbord
was beaten by two yards. He afterwards ran the same distance against Mr. Lambert, and won easily.
4.—The King’s birthday was celebrated in Norwich by the garrison and Volunteers, who paraded to the number of 1,800 and fired a feu de joie on the Castle Meadow. The weather was very cold, and at nine o’clock at night the thermometer registered 36 degrees, only four degrees above freezing point.
8.—William Carter, a private in the City of Norwich Battalion of Infantry Volunteers, convicted, before a regimental court martial, of absenting himself from parade on four successive days, was publicly disgraced and dismissed the battalion.
22.*—“Gabriel Swallow, aged 13, son of a gamekeeper to the Hon. Col. Harbord at Hunworth, shot 21 bullets at a target 80 yards distant for a bet of two guineas. With the exception of three shots, they were all placed within 5½ inches of the centre; three bullets were one inch from the centre; five ditto, two inches; six ditto, three inches; one ditto, four inches; two ditto, five inches; one ditto, 5½ inches.”