“On Friday last the Market Cross was sold by public tender for £55
6s., and on Monday morning workmen commenced pulling it down. It has
now entirely disappeared, to the gratification of the residents in
the Market Place, to whom it had long been a great annoyance, in
consequence of its having become a rendezvous for idle and dissolute
persons. The Tories lament the loss of it, and call the Corporation
destructives for having removed a public nuisance! We know not what
claim it had upon their sympathies, except in being a fit emblem of
the late Body Corporate, for like that it perhaps was of service at
some bygone period of time, but having long ceased to be useful, it
had fallen to abuse and rottenness, and to complete the resemblance
it has, after some struggles, been swept away by the current of
public opinion.”
August 9th.—The Hon. and Rev. E. Pellew had been presented with plate of
the value of £100 by the parishioners.
August 25th.—The Races had been held, the Stewards being the Earl of
Orford, Lord Henniker, and T. Baring, Esq., M.P. About 160 ladies and
gentlemen attended the Race Ball, and 2,000 persons patronized the
Vauxhall Gardens.
Sept. 1st.—The Regatta had been held, and the Theatre had been well
filled on the Stewards’ bespeak, when an attempt to get up a cry of
“Baring and Rumbold” proved a failure.
Sept. 22nd.—172 persons holding Corporation leaseholds had intimated
their desire to purchase the freehold of their properties, at prices
amounting to £6,911.
Oct. 6th.—The price of herrings was £23 to £24 per last.
Oct. 13th.—The compensation awarded to the Town Clerk for loss of his
offices of Magistrates’ Clerk and Clerk of the Peace had been settled at
£222 per annum.