Having obtained academical honors, he entered a student at Lincoln’s-Inn, and from thence practised at the Bar for some time, with great credit; but coming to a large fortune by the death of his father, he quitted the profession, and applied himself to scientific pursuits; he was particularly calculated for profound research; he had long been an active and useful member of both the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, and became vice president of the latter in 1781, and president in 1783; he resigned the latter the year following; his works were numerous and his observations on Ancient Castles, is in great repute. He died in London, April, 1807. There are some other eminent men, who (although not natives,) have spent the principal part of their time in Norwich, of whom a slight notice may not be unacceptable.
Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop Norwich was born in Normandy, from whence he was brought by William the II. towards the close of the 11th Century: Henry I. appointed him his chancellor. He is said to have been very loose and wild in his young time, although afterwards he became quite the reverse, he was an excellent scholar for the time in which he lived, to atone for the extravagancies of his early years, he founded the Cathedral, the Bishops Palace, &c.
Joseph Hall, was born in Leicestershire, in 1574; at the age of fifteen was sent to Cambridge, to finish his education, and at the age of twenty-three distinguished himself as a wit and a poet, he became successively Bishop of Exeter and Norwich, but was soon bereaved of
all his preferments and properly by religious persecution; in 1647, he retired to a little estate he rented at Heigham, where he died in September, 1656, and was buried in the chancel of the parish church there; he was by foreigners stiled the English Seneca; his works are numerous, which are collected and printed in three volumes, folio.
Norwich is 108 miles from London by Newmarket, 110 by Colchester, 114 by Bury St. Edmunds, and it is a remarkable fact, that Norwich, Bury and Lynn, form an equilateral triangle, each side measuring 42 miles, it is also 43 miles from Ipswich, and 24 from Yarmouth. The soil of Norwich is mixed the upper stratum is light of sufficient depth for the plough upon chalk, gravel and sand; the air is remarkably salubrious, it is screened from the easterly wind by Moushold Heath, and abound in springs of water of the purest kind.
There are five Banks in Norwich, which draw upon London, viz.—
Messrs. Gurney’s, St. Michael at Plea, upon Barclay’s, Tritton and Bevan, No. 56, Lombard-street.
Messrs. Harvey and Hudson’s, King-street, upon Hankey and Co. No. 7. Fenchurch-street.
Messrs. Ketts and Back, Orford-hill, upon Hoare, Barnetts and Co. No. 62, Lombard-street.
Starling, Day and Son, Pottergate-street, on Forster, Lubbock and Co. No. 11, Mansion-House-street.