If I do not weary you, I would now like to claim your attention for a very few minutes to what may fairly be termed my “Home Circle,” that is, to the events which I have witnessed immediately around me in _recent_ times. Several of these have been closely connected with the neighbouring “_Chapel Field_,” formerly a real and open field, but now a charming recreation garden, and one of the beauty spots of our city, with the present handsome palisading around it, erected in 1866. The avenues of trees which adorn this field are, or were, one of its great features. And it is worth noting that Norwich history relates that the main west avenue was planted in 1746 by Sir Thomas Churchman, then a resident in St. Giles’s parish and an important citizen. The ordinary age of elm trees is (I believe) not greatly more than a century and a-half, and consequently some of these trees have decayed in their branches or trunks. But until a few months ago a long row of the elms towered up to their eighty or ninety feet of height, in great beauty and apparent vigour. I need not say with what pain I looked down upon the process of lopping and topping which was carried out upon these, or how I grieved over such a dire necessity for this operation as was alleged to exist. One other example of tree grandeur existed until the other day in the northern avenue, namely, a splendid specimen of the _Aspen Poplar_, towering nearly one hundred feet high, and an object of extreme beauty to all who could appreciate such arboreal grandeur. Even so long ago as 1841 this tree was figured by _Grigor_ in his work on “The Remarkable Trees of Norfolk,” as a fine example of this poplar. And we may well feel how the further sixty-three years of its life had added to its size, its dignity, and its grandeur. I greatly regret that since the late great gale it has been thought necessary to remove several of its upper branches, and so destroy all its grandeur. But the old line, “Woodman, spare that tree” for the greatest possible length of time was, I hope, fully in the minds of those who presided over its fate. The splendid _Horse-Chestnut_ tree near the centre of the field is familiar to us all, and I have watched its growth and circular uniformity with pleasure and interest. This Chapel Field, as you may know, takes it name from a Chapel of St. Mary, which formerly existed on the site of the present Theatre and High School buildings. At that time the ground was really an open field; and it seems to have been acquired by the Corporation in the sixteenth century.