16.—The nomination of representatives to serve in Parliament for the Western Division of the county took place at Swaffham, when Sir William Bagge, Bart., and the Hon. Thomas de Grey were re-elected without opposition.
17.—The nomination of candidates for the borough took place at King’s Lynn. Lord Stanley and the Hon. Robert Bourke were nominated by the Conservatives, and Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., by the Liberals. The poll was opened on the 18th, and resulted as follows:—Stanley, 1,265; Bourke, 1,125; Buxton, 1,012. (See March 16th, 1869.)
—Died at his residence, Surrey Street, Norwich, in his 82nd year, Mr. Thomas Brightwell. A native of Ipswich, he married the only daughter of Mr. W. M. Wilkin, of Costessey, and settled in Norwich, where he resided for 60 years, and practised as a solicitor. An earnest Nonconformist, he joined the congregation which assembled at the Old Meeting in St. Clement’s, where to the close of his life he officiated as one of the deacons. He was the author of a work on the Pentateuch, and his intellectual attainments and scientific pursuits gained him admission into the circle which included William Taylor, Doctors Sayers, Martineau, Rigby, and Barrow, Sir James Smith, and other Norwich celebrities. Men bearing historic names, and of widely different sentiments, had from time to time been entertained beneath his roof—Williams, Dr. Gary, Moffat, Doctors Philip and Wolff, of missionary fame; Joseph Kinghorn, the eloquent Irving, Belzoni, the Egyptian explorer; Professor Sedgwick, George Borrow, and many others who had done good service in the cause of religion, literature, and science. A close observer of nature, Mr. Brightwell gave much of his time to entomology, and a fine collection of insects in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum was formed by him. But the study to which, in his later years, he devoted especial attention was that of Infusoria. A treatise upon Infusoria, illustrated from drawings by his daughter, was written by Mr. Brightwell and printed for private circulation. At the Norwich Congress of the British Association, of which he was a vice-president, he was greatly amused by the anxious and ineffectual endeavours made by several of the scientific men present to procure copies of the work, then out of print. In 1821 Mr. Brightwell became a Fellow of the Linnæan Society, and he also rendered considerable assistance in the formation of the Norfolk and Norwich Literary Institution and of the Norfolk and Norwich Museum.
21.—The nomination of candidates for South Norfolk took place at the Shirehall, Norwich. The Conservative candidates were Mr. Edward Howes, of Morningthorpe, and Mr. Clare Sewell Read, of Honingham Thorpe. Mr. Henry Lombard Hudson, of Harleston, was nominated by the Liberals. The polling, on the 24th, resulted as follows: Read, 3,097; Howes, 3,055; Hudson, 1,679.
23.—The following gentlemen were nominated at Aylsham to contest the new constituency of North Norfolk:—Sir Edmund Knowles Lacon, Bart., and the Hon. Frederick Walpole, Conservatives; Mr. Edward Robert Wodehouse and Mr. Robert T. Gurdon, Liberals. The polling took place on the 26th, at nine polling-places—Aylsham, Cromer, Holt, North Walsham, Ormesby, Reepham, Stalham, Wells, and Yarmouth. The official declaration was made at Aylsham on the 28th, as follows:—Walpole, 2,630; Lacon, 2,563; Wodehouse, 2,235; Gurdon, 2,078. (See May 17th, 1869.)
DECEMBER.
19.*—“A club bearing the name of the Norwich Football Club has been started, and has already begun to play upon the Norfolk and Norwich Cricket Ground. Mr. Croker has been elected president, and Mr. Edward A. Field treasurer and secretary.” The members made their public début on February 5th, 1869, in a match against King Edward VI. School. (This is the first reference to football, as distinct from the old game of camp ball, made in the columns of the Norfolk Chronicle.)
26.—The pantomime produced at Norwich Theatre was entitled “The White Fawn, or the Loves of Buttercup and Daisy and the Fairies of the Coral Lake.” At Wombwell’s Menagerie (then owned by Mr. Fairgrieve, of Edinburgh) was exhibited, “Prince Bonta Workey, son of the late King Theodore, who held levées in his grand state saloon at stated intervals during the day.”
—Died at his residence, Chapel Field Road, Norwich, Mr. Trivet Allcock, in his 80th year. “He was an active politician and staunch Liberal, and had associated in his earlier life with men like William Taylor and others, whose superior learning formerly made Norwich celebrated.”