—The nomination of candidates for the election in the Northern Division of the county, consequent upon the death of the Hon. Frederick Walpole, M.P., took place at Aylsham. The candidates were Lieut.-Colonel James Duff, of Westwick House, and Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., of Warlies, Waltham Abbey. The polling, which took place on the 21st, resulted as follows: Duff, 2,302; Buxton, 2,192. Colonel Duff, during the election campaign, was confined to his house by sickness.
29.—A meeting of gentlemen interested in the field sports of the county was held at the Royal Hotel, Norwich, to consider the advisability of accepting the offer made by Mr. Angerstein, namely, that he would give to the county his pack of staghounds and deer, on condition that the county subscribed a sufficient sum “to hunt them in a proper manner.” The meeting agreed to take over the hounds if adequate funds were forthcoming.
MAY.
15.—Mdlle. Beatrice’s Comedy-Drama Company commenced an engagement at Norwich Theatre. The repertory included “The School for Scandal,” “Mary Stuart,” “Frou-frou,” “Nos Intimes,” “The Ticket-of-Leave Man,” “John Jasper’s Wife,” and “East Lynne.”
18.—Died at his residence, Theatre Street, Norwich, in his 82nd year, Mr. William Butcher, a well-known land surveyor and auctioneer. He was a native of Brooke, and entered the office of Mr. Robert Corby, of Kirstead, a land surveyor, who had one of the largest practices in the district, if not in the kingdom. Mr. Butcher had unusual opportunities of acquiring a practical knowledge of the business at the time when enclosures of commons in Norfolk and Suffolk were being carried out, for Mr. Corby was the surveyor employed. For nearly sixty years he carried on a most lucrative practice, which was not confined to local limits, but extended throughout the kingdom, from the remotest parts of Scotland to the Land’s End. Mr. Butcher served one term as an alderman of the city, and was Sheriff of Norwich in 1870–71.
24.—The Queen’s birthday was celebrated in Norwich by an entertainment given to the inmates of the Workhouse by the Sheriff (Mr. Stevenson). It was stated that the Easter Monday and Whit Monday holidays provided by the Bank Holidays Act had affected the public observance of the day, and Volunteer reviews, sham fights, and civic feasts were no longer held to commemorate the occasion.
27.*—“The early closing of our shops on Thursdays in the summer months seems now to be the universal custom in Norwich, with the solitary exception of the chemists and druggists.” (See March 26th, 1879.)
—*“Some days since some men at work on Feltwell Fen found a quantity of Roman silver coins, many of them distinctly bearing the names of Hadrian, Antoninus, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Divas Antoninus, Vespasian, &c. They were contained in a vessel which was broken to pieces by the plough which turned it up.”
31.—The ceremony of laying the foundation-stone of the new building in Little Orford Street, of the Norwich Church of England Young Men’s Society, was performed by the President, Mr. F. E. Watson. The building, which was designed by Mr. Edward Boardman, architect, and erected by Mr. G. E. Hawes, was formally opened on December 6th.