Some of Our East Coast TownsRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
History
Some of Our East Coast Towns
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
East Anglia (England) -- Description and travel
WE have heard a good deal of Norwich. When the summer comes, some
enterprising journalist manages to find his way there, and if he has a
copy of Evelyn, waxes eloquent over its gardens, and market-place, and
ancient castle, and its memories of Sir Thomas Browne. I write of the
Norwich of to-day—of living Norwich—a city with a population of more than
a hundred thousand—that has renewed its youth—that is marching on like
John Brown’s soul; a Norwich that was, as I first remember it, a seat of
Parliamentary and political corruption, of vice and ignorance, of apathy
and sloth. It is a grand old city, none grander anywhere in England. It
is a place to me of pleasant memories, and the stranger within its gates
must admit the charm of its grey towers and churches, its cathedral, its
well-wooded suburbs extending over a wide range of hills. In that
respect some claim for Norwich that it resembles Jerusalem. From all I
can make out I should be inclined to give Norwich the preference. It has
fewer Jews and not so many fleas.
And first let me speak of living Norwich religiously. One of our wise
kings said that the spire of Harrow was an outward and visible sign of
the Church. Norwich rejoices in many such signs. Perhaps one of the
most prominent at this time is the new Roman Catholic Cathedral at the
end of St. Giles’s, which has been nine years in building, which is being
erected regardless of expense, and which is far from completed yet. I
heard Cardinal Manning, who was the most complete exemplification of the
union of the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove I
ever saw, in one of his sermons compare the Church of Rome to a lamb in
the midst of wolves. At Norwich, as in most parts of England, the lamb
is by no means a little one, and it may be in time it will develop into a
ram, and a ram can do not a little mischief. What sign of life does the
State Church give? Norwich is full of parsons; are any of them men of
note? It had one it borrowed from dissent, Dr. Cunningham Geikie, but he
could not stand the climate, and now lives at Bournemouth. What sign of
life, again I ask, does the Norwich State Church exhibit? Alas, the
reply is not satisfactory. With the exception of its new Dean, there is
no clergyman of note among them. Dean Lefroy is able, earnest, active, a
worker in many ways, social as well as religious, and on Sunday evening
fills the nave of the Cathedral, where he conducts a service minus the
Church prayers, and plus Moody and Sankey hymns. He is Evangelical, and
is making that influence felt. He is an Irishman, and as a matter of
coarse fervid and eloquent. When he came to Norwich, I am told, he
expressed his hope that he should soon empty some of its many chapels.
At present he has not succeeded in the attempt. I don’t think his church
understands the way to go to work aright in that respect. When I was
last in Norwich the Primitive Methodists were in full conference. All
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account