19.*—“A telegraph or signal station is on the point of being erected upon the hills leading from Norwich to Thorpe. It is to be commanded by a naval officer, and the object of it is to open and maintain a prompt communication with Yarmouth on the one side, and with the telegraphs between Norwich and London on the other.” Messages were afterwards sent from the Admiralty to Yarmouth in 17 minutes. The chain of communication was by Strumpshaw, Thorpe Hills, Honingham, Carlton, and Harling, and thence by way of Thetford and Bury St. Edmund’s, across Newmarket Heath, to London.
21.—Experiments were made at Norwich, with the view of testing the practicability of General Money’s proposal to Government for mounting cannon on waggons for the protection of vessels on the coast. The Artillery officers at Woolwich gave General Money credit for his invention, and many ship owners and masters of vessels approved the plan.
An Act was passed this year for enabling Rear-Admiral Bentinck, tenant for life under the will of his late father, Mr. John Albert Bentinck, to charge his estates in the county of Norfolk with the sums therein mentioned, for embanking, improving, and increasing the same estates by the means therein mentioned.
1808.
JANUARY.
9.*—“Capt. Manby’s invention for rescuing persons from vessels stranded on a lee shore has received the approbation of the Lords of the Admiralty.” On February 12th the apparatus was successfully employed in saving the crew of a vessel named the Elizabeth of Plymouth. In May, the Society of Arts awarded their gold medal to Capt. Manby for his invention; and Parliament at different times rewarded him with grants amounting to £6,000, and adopted his apparatus at various stations on dangerous parts of the coast.
10.—Lord Hutchinson and Lord L. Gower arrived at Norwich from Yarmouth, where they had landed from the Belette sloop of war, on their return from St. Petersburgh.
14.—During a heavy gale several vessels were stranded between Blakeney and Sheringham. Much damage was done by an inundation at Cley-next-the-Sea.
17.—Died, of typhus fever, in his 20th year, Viscount Trafalgar, only son of Earl Nelson.
23.*—“In consequence of the anniversary of King Charles’s martyrdom, the nights of performance at the Theatre Royal, Norwich, next week, will be Monday, the 25th, Wednesday, the 27th, Thursday, 28th, and Friday, 29th.”