30.—The Norfolk Chronicle announced the repeal of the advertisement duty and of the duty upon newspaper supplements.
31.*—Died at Shoreditch Workhouse, London, Benjamin Reeder, of Helhoughton, who was in many respects a very remarkable character. He had served sixteen years as a private in the 2nd Dragoon Guards. “Altho’ of an obtuse and somewhat forbidding appearance, he possessed an uncommon faculty for mathematical attainments. He had Euclid at his finger ends, while his knowledge of algebra and logarithms enabled him to solve in a few minutes the most difficult questions. He once had the management of a school, but his irregularities reduced him to the level of a common labourer, and eventually he ended his days in the union house.”
SEPTEMBER.
3.*—“The degree of Doctor of Music has been recently conferred on Mr. Buck, organist of Norwich Cathedral, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the exercise of the privilege possessed by his Grace as Primate of bestowing that and other degrees in divinity and arts upon persons of merit in any of those faculties.”
4.—An interesting ceremony took place in the tower of the dilapidated church of Eccles-next-the-Sea. The Rev. Edward Evans, of St. Stephen’s, Norwich, who had recently been presented to the vicarage, read himself in, and preached to a congregation of about 200 persons. “Owing to the want of the church, which has been destroyed upwards of 200 years by the encroachments of the ocean, this is a sinecure benefice, and the inhabitants use the neighbouring church of Hempstead. The tower of the church in which the ceremony took place is embedded in sand to the height of the former walls of the church.”
8.—George Borrow performed an intrepid act on Yarmouth beach. “The sea raged frantically, and a ship’s boat, endeavouring to land for water, was upset, and the men were engulfed in a wave some 30 feet high, and struggling with it in vain. The moment was an awful one, when George Borrow, the well-known author of ‘Lavengro’ and ‘The Bible in Spain,’ dashed into the surf and saved one life, and through his instrumentality the others were saved. We ourselves have known this brave and gifted man for years, and daring as was his deed, we have known him more than once risk his life for others.”
17*.—“If the rivalry of the different railway companies in this district has been agreeable to the public it has been attended with fearful loss to the shareholders. Excursionists are not expected to object to being carried from Norwich to London for half a crown, but we should suppose that the proprietors in the Eastern Union will have a decided objection to the great increase of their working expenses to 60 per cent. by the process. The ruinous competition now going on can only be terminated by a union of interests, and it appears, from the reports of the Eastern Counties’ and Eastern Union Companies, that an amalgamation is proposed.”
—The kitchen floor of a house, occupied by Mr. Bunting, on St. Giles’ Hill (near St. Giles’ Gates?), Norwich, suddenly gave way, and Mrs. and Miss Bunting, who were in the apartment, were precipitated with the chairs, table, and other furniture, into a funnel-shaped hole 27 feet in depth. When rescued they were insensible but uninjured. “Caves were some time since cut through the hill in different directions and of considerable length, and the whole of the hill has been at various periods excavated for chalk. Some of the caves were used for wine vaults, and it appears that one of these caves passed under the back of Mr. Bunting’s house. A water-pipe had been leaking for a long time, and it is supposed that the water descending through the soil caused the roof of the cave to give way, and the whole of the earth above to fall with it.”
24.—A young man named E. Elson completed the task of walking from Lynn to Dereham and back, a distance of 60 miles, for six successive days.
26.—A violent hurricane of wind and rain did great damage in the county. “The injury to orchards and gardens has been immense, and the apple crop, which was an abundant one, has been reduced probably one-half.” On the coast there were many shipping casualties, attended by loss of life.