APRIL.
2.—Loveday’s English Grand Opera Company commenced an engagement at Norwich Theatre. The principals included Madame Florence Lancia, Mdlle. Ella Miraldi, Miss Annie Leng, Miss Fanny Leng, Mr. Brookhouse Bowler, Mr. Grantham, Mr. Oliver Summers, and Mr. Henry Rowland. The repertory included “La Somnambula,” “Il Trovatore,” “Don Giovanni,” “Faust,” “Dinorah,” “Der Frieschutz,” “Lucrezia Borgia,” “Norma,” and “Satanella.”
3.—Died at Hethel Hall, John Davy Brett, formerly major in the 17th Lancers, and lieut.-colonel of the 1st Norfolk Battalion of Volunteers, aged 51.
5.—The marriage of the Right Hon. Charles Adolphus Murray, seventh Earl of Dunmore, and Lady Gertrude Coke, third daughter of the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk, took place at Holkham. The ceremony was honoured by the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, who arrived at the Hall on the 4th, as the private guests of the Earl and Countess of Leicester.
9.—Died at Chequers Court, Herts., aged 56, Lieut.-Col. Francis L’Estrange Astley, commandant of the Norfolk Militia Artillery. He was born in 1810, and married first in 1835, Charlotte, second daughter of Mr. N. Micklethwait, of Taverham; and secondly, in 1854, Rosalind Alicia, fifth daughter of Sir Robert Frankland Russell, Bart.
21.—The Norwich sewerage scheme was further considered by the Town Council. A scheme known as the Hope scheme, introduced at a previous meeting, was abandoned, and the future management of the matter referred to a committee selected from members opposed to the scheme. On May 12th appeared the announcement that preliminary steps had been taken in Chancery by the inhabitants of Thorpe and a bill filed against the Mayor and Corporation for an injunction to compel them to desist from emptying sewage into the river. On May 15th a special committee reported that certain attempts made to cleanse the river had been attended with considerable success, and at the same meeting a memorial was presented by the inhabitants of the city, expressing regret and disappointment at the abandonment of the proposed plan for diverting the sewage from the river, and stating that under no circumstances whatever should the stream be made use of as a sewer. Acting upon counsel’s opinion, the Corporation, on May 31st, determined that it was needful at once to take measures for the diversion of the sewage from the river. The Sewerage Committee resigned, and a new committee was appointed. This committee, on July 10th, recommended the hiring “of 1,300 acres of land on the Crown Point estate, for the purpose of irrigating the same with the Norwich sewage.” The recommendation was agreed to. On October 9th the Town Clerk was authorised, under the direction of the Special Sewerage Committee, to give the necessary notices to enable application to be made in the next Session of Parliament for an Act of Parliament for carrying out sewerage works, and for the preparation of the necessary plans to be deposited in conformity with the Standing Orders of the House. (See January 15th, 1867.)
22.—The Rev. John Alexander, minister of the Independent congregation meeting at Prince’s Street, Norwich, resigned the pastorate of the chapel, after a service of nearly half a century. Mr. Alexander came to Norwich on April 4th, 1817, and for a time officiated at the Tabernacle belonging to Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion. His small congregation next met at the Lancastrian School, and in order to retain his services they built the Prince’s Street chapel, where he ministered until the date of his resignation. He was succeeded by the Rev. G. S. Barrett, B.A., of the Lancashire Independent College.
24.—Died at Coltishall Hall, Mr. William Burroughes. The younger son of a family seated in Norfolk for considerably more than one hundred years, he was educated at Norwich Grammar School “in the palmy Valpeian days,” and at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He was upon the commission of the peace for the county, chairman of the visiting justices, and joint secretary of the Norfolk Agricultural Association.
30.—The Great Yarmouth Fish Wharves and Tramways Bill and the Great Yarmouth Haven, Port, and Rivers Bill, were before a Committee of the House of Commons. The first-named Bill went through Committee without opposition on May 7th, and the latter was ordered to be reported on May 28th. The Port and Haven Bill, among other matters, provided that the Commission should consist of thirteen members, namely, four for Yarmouth (two to be elected by the Corporation, one by the registered shipowners and payers of dues, and one by the owners of fishing vessels and payers of dues on fish); three elected by the justices of Norfolk; three by the justices of Suffolk; and three by the Corporation of Norwich, one of each set of Commissioners for Norfolk, Suffolk, and Norwich being a merchant residing and carrying on business within the district for which he was elected. (See October 28th, 1867.)