Norfolk Annals, Vol. 2: A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth CenturyMackie, Charles
History
Norfolk Annals, Vol. 2: A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth Century
Mackie, Charles
Norfolk (England) -- History
5.—A largely advertised “monstre _fête_ and fancy fair,” under the
management of Mr. J. W. Hoffman, was held on the old Cricket Ground,
Norwich, under the patronage of the Mayor and Sheriff, the officers of
the 15th Hussars, &c. Hoffman, who had already visited Norwich as the
manager of an “organophonic” band, announced himself as the
representative of “the Society for the Promotion of Public Amusements”—an
entirely fictitious organization. Business was suspended in Norwich, the
railway companies ran excursion trains, and the streets were thronged by
many thousands of persons anxious to witness the “grand Middle-age
pageant.” This consisted of a procession of between thirty and forty
persons on foot and one horseman. It was everywhere received with groans
and hisses. Ten thousand persons were present on the Cricket Ground to
witness the “Old English Sports”; every item in the programme resulted in
failure, and a _bal champêtre_ was described as “a disgraceful affair,
which ended in indiscriminate fighting among the blackguards on the
ground.” For many years afterwards this “_fête_” was popularly known in
Norwich as “Hoffman’s Humbug.”
7.—The headquarters of the 15th Hussars marched from Norwich, and were
replaced, on Sept. 11th, by a detachment of Royal Horse Artillery, under
the command of Major Brandling, C.B.
30.—A cricket match, Norfolk and Norwich _v._ Oxford and Cambridge
Universities, was played on the Norwich ground. Norfolk and Norwich,
148—79; Oxford and Cambridge (1st innings), 122. The return match was
played at Gunton Park on August 9th. Universities, 96—45; Norfolk and
Norwich (first innings), 138.
AUGUST.
3.—The Mayor and Corporation of Lynn claimed, under the privileges
extended by ancient charter, their right to a sturgeon weighing twelve
stones, captured on the previous day by a fisherman named Norris. The
man compounded with the Mayor by payment of the nominal sum of one penny.
5.—The residence of the Rev. Sir George Stracey, Bart., deceased, with
eleven acres of land, at Thorpe, was sold by Messrs. Spelman, at the
Norfolk Hotel, Norwich, for £6,035.
7.*—“The date of the present harvest will be remembered as the year in
which reaping machines were fully established in Norfolk. It was only
last year that they were introduced, for although there had been one or
two in the county previously, they were not of the right sort, and it was
not until M’Cormick’s reaper, as now made by Burgess and Key, that their
number increased or their merits were appreciated by Norfolk farmers.
The fact that the chief part of the Hussey machines, with their back
delivery, have been returned or laid aside, and that on most large farms
there was _one_ of Burgess and Key’s last year there are two this
harvest, will at once point out which machine is best adapted to Norfolk
agriculture.”
16.—Died at Oulton Hall, Suffolk, Ann Borrow, widow of Captain Thomas
Borrow, aged 87.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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