In the course of the year 1798, the fear of an invasion from France became very strong and general in this part of the kingdom; which occasioned our armed associations to be considerably multiplied. Among the new armed companies which sprung up, or were formed that year in this country, we read of the Holkham Yeomanry Cavalry, commanded by T. W. Coke Esq. and E. Rolfe Esq. The Freebridge Smithdon Yeomanry Cavalry, commanded by H. Styleman Esq. The Freebridge Lynn Yeomanry Cavalry, commanded by Joseph Taylor Esq. and the Swaffham ditto, commanded by J. Micklethwaite Esq. &c. &c. The very _clergy_ discovered a readiness and strong desire to learn the use of arms, and one of them appears actually to have become commandant of one of these new raised corps; for among the military officers then enumerated the name of the _revd. T. Lloyd_ appeared as captain of the _North Walsham Volunteer company_. This clerical ardour for taking up arms was said to be sometime after checked by episcopal authority, otherwise we might have had before now a very great number of _reverend_ captains, and majors, and colonels. The Freebridge Lynn Yeomanry Cavalry remain still undisbanded under the orders of their original leader.—An Act passed this year for draining &c. the lands and fen grounds in Outwell, Stow Bardolph, Wimbotsham, and Downham; which it is to be hoped has answered much better than the _Feltwell_ new drainage act, which we have already noticed.—On the 29th. of December this same year, at 11 P.M. the thermometer was said to be at 3 below 0: a degree of cold never before noticed in this island—if we may rely on the authority of the _Norfolk Remembrancer_. The year 1799 was rendered somewhat remarkable here by an attempt to establish a Newspaper, under the name of the _Lynn and Wisbech Packet_; but it did not finally succeed, though persevered in for several years. Lynn seems not favourably situated for the success of such an undertaking, placed as it is in a corner of the country, and the adjacent parts well supplied with provincial papers of established repute and extensive circulation. It was therefore, perhaps, a rash and hopeless attempt, so that its relinquishment at last need not to excite any great surprise. The projector hoped, when he resolved to try this experiment, that it would prove a source of much gain, but he found in the end that what he gained by it was only a pretty heavy loss, which placed him in the list of unfortunate adventurers. {982}