East Anglia: Personal Recollections and Historical Associations — John Shaqi
East Anglia: Personal Recollections and Historical AssociationsRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
History
East Anglia: Personal Recollections and Historical Associations
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
East Anglia (England)
Lowestoft was a frequent attraction for a youthful ramble—perhaps almost
too far, unless one could manage to get a lift in a little yellow-painted
black-bodied vehicle called a whisky, which was grandfather’s property,
and into the shafts of which could be put any spare quadruped, whether
donkey, or mule, or pony, it mattered little, and which afforded a
considerable relief when a trip as far as Lowestoft was determined on.
At that time there was no harbour, and the town consisted simply of one
High Street, gradually rising towards the north, with a fine space for
boys to play in between the cliff and the sea, called the denes. I can
well remember being taken to view the works of the harbour before the
water was let in, and not a little astonished at what then was to me a
new world of engineering science and skill. In the High Street there was
a little old-fashioned and by no means flourishing Independent Chapel,
where at one time the preacher was the Rev. Mr. Maurice, the father of
the Mr. Maurice to whom many owe a great awakening of spiritual life, and
whose memory they still regard as that of a beloved and honoured teacher.
Mr. Maurice was a Unitarian, I believe, and, when he retired, handed over
the chapel to my father with the remark that it was no use his preaching
there any longer. The preacher in my time was the Rev. George Steffe
Crisp, a kindly, timid, tearful man, always in difficulties with his
people, and who often resorted to Wrentham for advice. Latterly he
retired from the ministry, and kept a shop and school. In this capacity
one day my old friend John Childs, of Bungay, the far-famed printer—of
whom I shall have much to say anon—called on him, when the following
dialogue took place: ‘Good-morning, Mr. Crisp.’ ‘Good-morning, Mr.
Childs.’ ‘Well, how are you getting on?’ ‘Oh, very well; but there is
one thing that troubles me much.’ ‘What is that?’ ‘That I am getting
deaf, and can’t hear my minister.’ ‘Oh,’ was the cynical reply, ‘you
ought to be thankful for your privileges.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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