Читать книгу Norfolk Annals (Vol. 1&2) - Charles Mackie - Страница 207

10.—The annual exhibition of “The Norfolk and Norwich Society of Artists” was advertised to open on this date at the “New Room,” Theatre Plain, Norwich. It was announced that “this Society consists of the principal part of the original artists.” On the same day was advertised “The 12th annual exhibition of the Norwich Original Society of Artists, established 1803.” The exhibition was to take place during the Assize week, “in their great room, Sir Benjamin Wrenche’s Court, Cockey Lane.” The Norfolk Chronicle makes this comment:—“The schism which has taken place among the exhibiting artists appears to have been productive of increased exertions on the part of the respective members of both societies. Our sincere wish to promote their fame and prosperity, and to heal rather than to ferment their differences, induces us earnestly to recommend their performances to the attention and patronage of the public which they highly deserve.”

12.—Mr. Kemble appeared in the part of Cato at Norwich Theatre. On succeeding evenings he took the characters of Penruddock (“Wheel of Fortune”), King Lear, Shylock, Sir Giles Overreach (“A New Way to Pay Old Debts”), and Macbeth.

18.—The Judges of Assize on leaving Norwich passed through Attleborough, and attended service at the parish church. The Lord Chief Justice, Sir Vicary Gibbs, in walking through the nave, discovered a stone on which were his own crest and arms; the inscription thereon was to the memory of Capt. John Gibbs, who died October 22, 1695. “Mr. Le Neve,” says Blomfield, “calls him the famous Capt Gibbs. He was a celebrated man on the turf in King Charles the Second’s time. He laid a wager of 500 guineas that he drove his light chaise and four horses up and down the deepest place of the Devil’s Ditch on Newmarket Heath, which he performed by making a very light chaise with a jointed perch, and without any pole, to the surprise of the spectators.”

24.*—“Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte has graciously expressed her determination not only to wear but to introduce and recommend the coloured bombazins, manufactured in Norwich.” Mr. William Williment was appointed manufacturer to her Royal Highness.

25.—A woman named Fox, 100 years old, walked from Norwich to Plumstead, a distance of nearly five miles. “She commenced her journey at eight o’clock in the morning, rested three hours at her friend’s house, and walking home arrived at Norwich at seven o’clock in the evening.”

31.*—“The stupendous undertaking of the tunnel of Tavistock canal, communicating the Tavy and the Tamar, was engineered by Mr. John Taylor, jun., of Norwich.”

—Thomas Moy was executed on the Castle Hill, Norwich, for sheep stealing. “He was 33 years of age, farmed 100 acres of land at Binham, and has left a wife and seven young children.”