3.--A violent thunderstorm occurred. Several horses were killed by
lightning in different parts of the county; mills and barns were damaged,
and trees torn up by the roots.
4.--At the Norfolk and Norwich Assizes, the action, Palmer _v._ James and
William Bloomfield, was tried. It was an action for trespass, and the
plaintiff, a miller at Elsing, claimed 2,000 pounds damages because the
defendants, occupiers of land at Bylaugh, had cut away a large part of
the bank of the river Wensum, whereby a great quantity of water escaped
from the stream into an old river or drain, and he was deprived of its
service for the working of his mill. The hearing lasted ten hours, and
Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, who left the court at eleven p.m., received
the jury at his lodgings, when they returned a verdict for the
defendants. In the Court of Common Pleas, on November 12th, rule _nisi_
was taken for a new trial, but there is no further record of the case.
9.--Died, aged 83, the Rev. Robert Potter, M.A., Prebendary of Norwich
Cathedral, vicar of Lowestoft, and a translator of AEschylus and other
writers of Greek tragedy.
13.--The troops in the Eastern district received orders to hold
themselves in readiness to take the field at the shortest notice.
18.--The death was recorded, at Bungay, of Mr. Thomas Miller, who was
born at Norwich on August 14th, 1731. He was an extensive collector of
books and antiquities, and in 1795 issued the "Miller half-penny," of
which only twenty-three pieces were struck off.
22.--A threshing machine on an entirely new principle, invented by a
Devonshire engineer, named Ball, was tested at Norwich. At Hethersett,
on December 6th, in competition with another machine, built by John
Brown, a Norwich mechanic, it thrashed in 50 minutes 40 seconds about
29.5 coombs of barley, Brown's machine breaking down. Mutual
recriminations and threats of legal proceedings followed, but without
result.
Night signals were established along the coast, and special constables
sworn in at Yarmouth, Lynn, and elsewhere.
At the suggestion of Major-General Money, two companies of Sharpshooters
were raised, and, with a company of Cavalry Pioneers, were attached to
the East Norfolk Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry.