JANUARY.
6.—At a meeting of the Norfolk Agricultural Association, held at the Swan Hotel, Norwich, it was decided to abandon the annual show for that year, “because the bringing of cattle from all parts of the country would be inconsistent with what is being done to prevent the transit of cattle during the prevalence of the cattle plague.”
8.—The Prince and Princess of Wales, accompanied by the Hon. T. de Grey, arrived at Holkham, on a visit to the Earl and Countess of Leicester. “Their Royal Highnesses de facto opened the new line of the West Norfolk Junction Railway, which had been pushed forward by the contractor so as to be ready for the purpose.” It was by this line that the Prince and Princess travelled to Holkham. Their Royal Highnesses returned to Sandringham on the 13th.
11.—The first wintry weather of the season was experienced on this date, when there was a considerable fall of snow, accompanied by showers of rain and sleet, followed by a sharp wind frost. Telegraphic communication with London was suspended, in consequence of the blowing down of several miles of the telegraph line.
—Lost in the Bay of Biscay, by the wreck of the steamship London, on her voyage to Australia, the Rev. John Woolley, D.C.L., formerly headmaster of Norwich Grammar School, Fellow of University College, Oxford, and principal and professor of classics and logic in the University of Sydney. Mr. G. V. Brooke, the actor, formerly a member of the Norwich Company, went down in the same ill-fated vessel.
13.—The new building, then known as the Consolidated Bank, London Street, Norwich, was opened for the transaction of business. It was designed by Mr. R. M. Phipson, of Norwich and Ipswich, and built by Mr. Hall, of Pottergate Street, at the cost of £4,000. It is now known as the National Provincial Bank.
—A vessel running through Yarmouth Roads was observed to be flying a “waif.” Two lifeboats, the Rescuer, belonging to the Ranger Company, and the Friend of All Nations, the property of the Young Company of Beachmen, put off to her assistance. The Rescuer, in attempting to pass through the rough water at the bar, unshipped her rudder, was capsized, and twelve of her crew of sixteen were drowned.
15.—Judgment was given in the Arches Court by Dr. Lushington, in the action, Edwards and Mann v. Hatton, otherwise known as the “Mattishall Church Rate case.” The plaintiffs were the churchwardens, and the defendant a parishioner of Mattishall. Hatton having refused to pay the Church Rate, proceedings were taken in the Arches Court to enforce it. The whole sum in dispute was 6s. 8d., but it had given rise to many months of litigation, to much unpleasantness and ill-feeling in the parish, and to rioting and disturbance. Two objections were urged against the rate: (1) That proper notice had not been given on the church doors, as provided by the Act of Parliament; and (2) that the rate was unequal and unjust. The Court entered judgment for the churchwardens, and condemned the defendant in the costs of the protracted proceedings.
FEBRUARY.
1.—Under the Prisons Act, 1865, the old borough jail at Lynn ceased to be used as a prison.