Of the father, it might be said when the appointed time had arrived, the summons was executed more speedily. After only three days severe illness, although favoured with consciousness even to the last. On the morning of that day, April 9th, he made this observation to his daughter. “My dear I’m going to leave you, but Christ will be with you.” During the day a dear friend came in, and in conversation suggested, “Mr. Cox the pearly gates are ajar for you,” he smilingly replied, “not ajar, they stand wide open”; then singing “There are Angels hovering round,” and “Rock of Ages cleft for me” for me. Again he said to his beloved daughter, “My dear this is victory over death: I am passing over the river dry shod, my end is peace, Jesus hath wiped away all tears.” Then urging all to love Jesus and meet him in heaven, he requested all present to kneel in earnest and humble prayer around his bed, and afterwards raising his hands calmly replied “I am coming, I am coming,” and his happy spirit took its flight to be for ever with the Lord. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
Charles Flaxman, another of my old neighbours, died at Lowestoft on the above date, April 9th, 1877. And also yet another taken in the same week, Mrs. Sarah Morris (late Suggate,) fell down the stairs in her house, and was afterwards found quite dead. But the most joyous testimony is, they all died in the faith, and through that grace having obtained a good report, have now entered into possession of what they here held in reversion, a promise of the life to come. The children of God have sometimes comfortable anticipations of the glory that shall be revealed when faith pierces within the veil, whither Jesus our forerunner is gone before, and as in the language of the spies of old, “We have seen the land and behold it is very good, when shall we go up and take possession.” “When shall we get through the desert.”
Mr. John Knights, of whom I had bought my piece of land, died December 2nd, 1877.
When shall we receive the end of our faith, even the full salvation of our souls? How long, O Lord, holy and true? why tarry the wheels of thy chariot? return unto thy rest, O my soul, the Lord deals bountifully.
Inquest held at the “Lady of the Lake” Inn, on the body of Emily Charlotte, daughter of William Scarll, aged 5 years, who was mortally injured by the wheel of a cart passing over her body, on the 12th of August, 1878, during a sharp thunderstorm, she died on the 18th, and the inquest was held on the 20th, before C. W. Chaston, Esq., coroner. The parents are sorrowful.
“When virtuous sorrow clouds the face,
And tears bedim the eye;
The soul is led to solemn thought,
And wafted to the sky.”
The new board school was opened May 27th of this year, Mr. Gray, master.
James Knights, the elder, died the latter end of May. His son John died on the 2nd of August, aged 56 years; he had been for many weeks afflicted. My good old neighbour, Mrs. Phebe Adams, died at Yarmouth, at the house of her younger son Alfred, on the 16th of October, aged 86 years (this was the fortieth anniversary of my marriage). She was brought to Oulton and laid beside her husband who had died eight years earlier. Mr. Woolterton (called Dr.) had resided here about twenty years, and departed this life on the 17th of October, aged 32 years, and was buried at Oulton. Two more of my neighbours are called away: David Bullen, on the 15th of August, 1879, aged 82 years, after a long affliction; and also Mrs. High, on the 21st of August, also after years of suffering, aged 78 years. “Thou turnest man to destruction, again thou sayest come again ye children of men.”
During the autumn of the past year Mr. Robertson and his tenant built sheds and piggeries adjoining my dwelling. I stated my disapproval thereof, and requested that a course of bricks should be put up, as nothing short of that would keep me quiet, as rats from his side had found their way under the floor of my bedroom. He did not meet my views, and I thereupon told Mr. Robertson I should take down my wall and it would be placed twenty-one inches from his line of boundary; and so it came to pass for on the 29th of April, 1879, I proceeded to take down the wall and built another more substantial, and now the rats are kept back from troubling on my side, and having raised my roof and made chambers over, I have not regretted the inflexibility of my neighbour, for although he has fixed boarding to intercept my view on that side, yet there is plenty of light and air from the other, and the additional conveniences more than compensate for the outlay, and thus we see working for good many things that at a first glance wears a very unfavourable aspect. My dear wife has fallen into a state of affliction, and is being attended by Mr. Smith, of Carlton. She is able to get about, but almost shattered by a dreadful wrecking cough, her niece came to attend upon her, but it soon became evident that her end was approaching as the medicines and applications had but little effect. Early on Sunday morning the 3rd of August, a dreadful thunderstorm came on; being greatly alarmed I sprang up in sleep and asked the poor sufferer what was it that had fallen down, she replied that nothing had fallen but that it was a sharp tempest. It proved to be indeed severe, the Church at Wells, in Norfolk, was struck and wrecked at the same time. She lived exactly four weeks after that event, lingering on until the morning of Sunday, the 31st of August, at half-past four o’clock, when she breathed her last, having been married forty years and ten months, twenty-seven years of which she had been mistress of the village school, which office she relinquished when the newly-established board school came into operation, in May of the preceding year. Another of my neighbours, Hannah Patrick, died suddenly two days after my wife, her husband, William, surviving her about six months, when he also died and was brought from London and buried. On the 6th of January, 1880, two other of my aged neighbours were called away: Richard Rowe, many years station master here, and John Pinkney who lived and died near the church, where his body now rests. Another visitation befel the town of Wells, a terrible gale occurred on the 29th of October, the lifeboat had gone off to the attempted rescue of a vessel in distress, that boat capsized and nearly all its occupants were drowned, beside a great many others who were cut off by the violence of the storm, among the latter was one whom we called Captain Hiles, whom I had many times met in the house of prayer, when he was ashore, and on the last Sabbath of his life was engaged in exhorting sinners and warning them to fly to Jesus for pardon and salvation.
The few weeks with which the past year closed were remarkably mild, and sometimes pleasant gentleness marked the passing year. The year 1881 was ushered in mild, and we were beginning to think that the time for sharp weather was getting past for the season, when lo! on the 18th of January, a violent gale from the east with almost blinding snow set in during the evening, the intensity of the frost was almost unparalleled, almost to freeze the blood in the veins of those who were exposed to its fury. Deplorable was the destruction and loss of life on the Eastern coast; at Yarmouth the lifeboat was capsized, and nearly all her brave men drowned, together with a shipwrecked sailor whom they had taken off from a stranded vessel. The visitation will be long and sorrowfully remembered by the inhabitants of Yarmouth and its vicinity. Before the month had passed away and while many embankments of snow continued even after the thaw had set in, another of my neighbours, George Bullen, the eldest son of David, is called to his rest, on the 26th of January. He had been many months afflicted, and during his long illness many prayers were offered to the Lord on his behalf, that he might obtain pardon and peace and lively hope through our Lord Jesus Christ, which we believe was realized.