Through East Anglia in a Motor CarVincent, James Edmund
General
Through East Anglia in a Motor Car
Vincent, James Edmund
Norfolk (England) -- Description and travel; Suffolk (England) -- Description and travel
As to the next extract some doubts are felt, on the ground of relevancy
only, but still the "Battle of Harwich," as my old friend liked to call it,
was fought there, and the manner of fighting was eminently characteristic
of the age, after all only sixty years ago; and, if relevance be granted,
the little yarn is, at any rate, entertaining.
"THE BATTLE OF HARWICH.
"There was a fine show of yachts at Harwich at this time, and there was a
great assemblage of yachtsmen in the prime of life, many, like myself,
young fellows of about twenty-three. As there was time before the next port
we were to visit, Yarmouth, we had an idle day at Harwich, and, as Dr.
Watts says, 'Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.' As the
yachts' cabins had the sails, etc., in them ready for changing jibs,
top-sails, etc., we were almost all living ashore at the Three Cups Hotel,
and there this memorable battle was fought under these circumstances. My
pleasant companion, Michael Parker Smith, and I went for a long walk up
country, and on our return were met in front of the hotel by some of our
brother yachtsmen, who said they had been in search of us to see if we
would join and make a party of eleven, and they had ordered dinner for that
number, calculating that we would join, which we gladly did. Another lot of
nine had just sat down to dinner in an adjoining room, and the windows of
both rooms, which were upstairs, looked over a lower part of the hotel, so
that any one going out of the window of one room could go along the roof of
the lower building to the window of the other room. It was somewhat curious
that not only were we numerically superior, but we were all the biggest
men. While we were at dinner, one of the nine going out of their window
crept under ours, and threw a squib right along our table. He was a man
with a curious head of hair, and was known amongst us as 'Old Frizzlewig,'
_alias_ 'Door-mat.' Frizzlewig beat a retreat after delivering his shot,
two of us lay in wait for him on each side of our window, and while he was
launching another squib we got hold of him; a detachment of the other army
got out on the lower roof, and it was soon a case of 'pull devil, pull
baker.' We had his upper half inside the room, and his party the lower end
outside. As the other side were being reinforced, the cry on our side was,
'Shut the window,' the result being that to avoid the guillotining of poor
Frizzlewig in the centre, the other side had to let go his legs. We took
him prisoner, and fastened the window, and the other army going back
through their room came to the rescue through our door. Then arose the din
of this memorable engagement, recorded in humorous lines soon after, but
now lost by me. My chum Smith was very neatly dressed, so much so that I
had a light suit made afterwards like it for myself. When the battle
commenced the puddings and pies were on the table. The blood was apparently
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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