The Mayor of the city received members of the Union and other friends in St. Andrew’s Hall on the Monday evening; and one afternoon Mr. Colman, M.P. for Norwich, had a large garden-party in his pleasure grounds. I availed myself of opportunities during the week for rambling about scenes of my boyhood, amidst many changes in architecture, manners and customs, including habits of religious life. The trade of the city had flowed into new channels; old families such as I knew in my boyhood were no more. New faces I saw everywhere, and pensive thoughts were naturally suggested when one traversed memories of seventy years. How different had been my lot from what it might have been! Church and Dissent did not stand in the same relations to each other as they had done once. There was more mutual charity, more, I believe and trust, of real religion. Certainly, Evangelicalism had made way in the Establishment, and was not regarded as it had been in days gone by. I took a ramble outside the old city, and called on young friends; and so caught glimpses touching borders of auld lang syne. It fell to my lot to occupy a bedroom in the palace exactly to my taste. It is described by Blomefield in his “History of Norwich.” Lined with carved wainscot brought from the demolished abbey of St. Bennet in the Holm, retaining still the arms of that abbey—of the Veres, and others, particularly those of Sir John Fastolff, their great benefactor. There were also busts of heroes and remarkable men and women, “brought hither by Bishop Rugg.” The place recalled images of old, and stories which had interested me in youth; if they did not people my dreams, they coloured my meditations. My “Recollections of a Long Life” began with a notice of being born in Norwich; and as the last visit to my birthplace was at the time now indicated, I think it is a fitting point for terminating my narrative. CHAPTER XVI IN completing this volume I propose to take a survey of what I have seen and noticed, amongst distinct religious denominations, during seventy years.