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
On the very same day the party of explorers--I find they were not the
Norwich Society, but the Yarmouth branch of the Norfolk Archæological
Society on a pilgrimage--had visited the old Foundry Bridge, heard the
story of the loss of a Yarmouth packet hard by in 1817, learned that a
neighbouring yard, once known as Spring Gardens, was a resort of fashion in
the eighteenth century, seen the remains of the Austin Friars' Watergate,
visited the Devil's Tower, heard the history of the city walls and St.
Peter's, Southgate. Dr. Bensly had read a paper at Robert de Salle's house
aforesaid. Then St. Etheldreda's Church was visited, the plate was
examined, and Dr. Bensly read another paper in the crypt of the House of
Isaac the Jew, a Norman domestic cellar, clearly to be traced from the days
of William Rufus, to a house subsequently occupied by Sir John Paston and
Lord Chief Justice Coke. Next at St. Peter's, Permountergate, attention was
called to all manner of details--personal, historical, and architectural;
St. Andrew's and Blackfriar's halls were visited and explained; a paper was
read on sundry discoveries made in excavating under the Guildhall; King
Edward VI's Middle School (the one in the ancient convent) was seen; a
paper was read on St. Andrew's Church; and, after dinner at the "Maid's
Head," the vicar of St. Peter's, Permountergate, read a paper on the parish
records. Just a few of the entries it is impossible to resist, for they are
of imperishable interest.
"1798. October 19th. Form of Prayer on the victory obtained by Admiral Sir
Horatio Nelson over the French fleet off the Nile, 1st August /6."
"Nov. 12th. Form of prayer for general thanksgiving on 29 November 1/".
"1805. December 5th. Paid for a form of Prayer and Proclamation on account
of the late glorious victory over the combined fleets of France and Spain
by Lord Viscount Nelson off Cape Trafalgar on 21st October, 1/".
No bells were rung in Norfolk that day, for the calamity of Nelson's heroic
death saddened the heart of every man in his native county. But they were
rung at St. Peter's, Permountergate, merrily enough, no doubt, in 1814,
when there was the entry: "April 12. Putting flag upon the steeple on
Buonaparte's overthrow; beer ditto 7/6."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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