Mayor-Elect—John Baker, Esq.
Chamberlain—Mr. R. Ferrier.
Churchwardens—John Preston and Charles Symonds, Esqs.
Auditors—I. Preston, John Danby-Palmer, T. F. Garwood, and Charles J.
Palmer, Esqs.
Collectors—John Danby-Palmer, Esq., and Mr. Henry Costerton.
Sept. 6th.—The Races had been held and proved very successful.
Sept 13th.—Mr. C. E. Rumbold (Col. Anson being detained in Derbyshire by
illness) made a public entry into this town, when the carriage containing
the Hon. Member and N. B. Palmer, Esq., had supported on its roof a most
elegant silk flag bearing the words “Gorleston and Southtown Voters” upon
it.
Sept. 20th.—A public dinner had been given by the Gorleston voters to
Messrs. Anson and Rumbold, when 52 gentlemen attended, and W. Barth,
Esq., occupied the chair.
Oct. 4th.—The inaugural dinner to the Mayor was held at the Town Hall,
and was attended by “nearly 500 guests, among whom were a large number of
the nobility and gentry residing in or near Yarmouth.”
Oct. 11th.—The herring fishing had been very unsuccessful. This was
attributed to warm weather.
Oct. 18th.—The following notice as to the Wandering Piper appears:—“The
Wandering Piper, who has attracted so much notoriety, is expected to
visit Yarmouth in the course of a very few days. He is of a rank in life
which few suspect who are not acquainted with his private history. He
was for a considerable time an officer in the Army, served under Sir John
Moore and the Duke of Wellington, and sold his commission after the
battle of Waterloo. His opponent is Count Bender, a French Nobleman, but
educated in Scotland at the same school with the piper, and betwixt him a
great friendship subsisted. They met in London in 1825, when a dispute
arose between them concerning the hospitality of different nations, which
ended in both parties finally agreeing, for the sum of £5,000, to travel
in disguise, the one as a fiddler in France and Belgium, and the other
(our hero) as a piper in Britain and Ireland, to subsist upon what the
public might be pleased to give them unsolicited, and whoever should have
most money in the end was to gain the prize. They both commenced their
wanderings in the summer of 1825, but an uncle of the piper’s, who then
held a high official situation, having got notice of the freak, put a
stop to the proceedings before the end of three months; this gentleman,
however, died in 1827, which left both parties free from restraint, in
consequence of which they started in August, 1828, the one from
Stonehaven, in Scotland, and the other from Calais, in France. This
important campaign was only intended to last three years, and would have
been finished before now had not the piper received a severe hurt from
the upsetting of a stage coach in Ireland, which confined him for fifteen
months—during which time there was a secession of hostilities on both
sides. The piper during his illness lay at the house of Sir Thomas
Butler, Bart., Ballintemple, county Carlow, where he met with the
greatest kindness; indeed, the Irish, high and low, seem to have
completely entered into the spirit of the undertaking. He was never
allowed in any one instance to pay anything at the hotels where he put
up, waiter, chambermaid, boots, and porter all refused to accept of any
remuneration for their services, nay, the very beggar wished his ‘honour
good luck and a safe journey,’ without laying him under further
contribution. He says that he has been charged in all instances to the
very utmost extent in England; we could have wished it had been
otherwise, for the honour of our national character. During his rambles,
it is said he had given £550 to different charities, that receipts for
which are lodged for safety with John Stuart, Esq., of 19, Cleveland Row,
Finsbury Square, London.”
Oct. 25th.—The wandering piper had begun his rounds and had lunched with
the Mayor.
Nov. 8th—Electioneering partizanship was displaying itself. A “True Red
Committee (composed of the lowest order of beer-loving Burgesses) had
been formed” and Andrew Colville, Esq., had been requested to stand for
the Borough in that interest.
Nov. 15th.—Mr. Colville had arrived in the Borough and addressed the
electors from the “Star” balcony.