1.--The fares by the Royal Norwich mail from the Star, Haymarket, to the
Belle Sauvage, Ludgate Hill, were reduced from this date to 16s. inside
and 8s. outside.
4.--Mr. Charles Gill and Miss Vining, two popular performers with the
Norwich Company, eloped from the city. "The attachment between the
parties has been of long standing, but it was opposed by the young lady's
friends, on account of the disparity of years." Mr. and Mrs. Gill
appeared at Yarmouth Theatre on September 8th.
--Died at North Walsham, Captain Thomas Withers, R.N., aged 73. He
entered the service in 1793, joined Nelson in the Agamemnon, which formed
part of Lord Hood's fleet at the occupation of Toulon, and took part in
the reduction of Bastia and Calvi, and in the several actions in which
the ship was engaged. In 1796 he joined the Captain, and in the
following year, in the battle off Cape St. Vincent, had the distinguished
honour of commanding the division which boarded the San Nicolas, and from
that ship the San Josef. He was made lieutenant next day, and soon after
appointed to the Terrible, under the command of Sir Richard Bickerton,
and served during the expedition against the French in Egypt. In April,
1803, he was appointed to the command of the Expedition (44 guns), and
was chiefly engaged in the Mediterranean until 1804. In 1805 he accepted
employment under the Transport Board, and in 1809 received post rank.
8.--A whirlwind occurred at Blakeney. In its course it carried away
several yards of a wall two feet thick, took from some smacks the
hatchings, which were blown upon the marshes, and blew a man off the seat
of a threshing machine. The stable at the White Horse was unroofed, and
a quantity of Mr. Temple's hay was blown to the distance of a mile.
15.--Arising out of an assault case, a curious story about witchcraft was
told to the Norwich magistrates. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis alleged that a Mrs.
Bell had bewitched them three days after Tombland Fair, and they had been
bewitched ever since. "Mrs. Curtis saw Mrs. Bell light a candle and fill
it with pins. She then put some red dragon's blood, with some water,
into an oyster-shell, and having repeated a form of words over it, her
(Mr. Curtis') husband's arms and legs were set fast, and when he lay down
he could not get up again without somebody helping him." The man made a
similar statement, and said that to the dragon's blood and water Mrs.
Bell added some parings of her own nails, put the mixture over the fire,
and muttered an incantation.
19.--A young man named Robert Smithson "wagered that he would run over
the nine bridges in Norwich in twenty-five minutes." He performed the
distance, nearly four miles, in twenty-two minutes.
24.--Died at Shotley Parsonage, Ipswich, aged 91, the Rev. Samuel
Forster, D.D., formerly head-master of Norwich Free Grammar School. On
resigning, in 1811, Dr. Forster became private tutor to the son of the
Marquis of Bristol. Sir Edward Berry, Nelson's flag captain at the
Battle of the Nile, married the doctor's eldest daughter.
29.*--"In the melancholy list of passengers on board the Pegasus, lost
off the Fern Islands on July 19th, we are sorry to observe the name of
Mr. Elton, for many years a favourite tragedian in the Norwich Company,
and latterly holding a most respectable station on the London boards."
--The Assize week performances at Norwich Theatre opened with the
appearance of Miss Montague, of Drury Lane, as Juliet. On July 31st Miss
Clara Novello, Miss Sybella Novello, Mr. Manvers, and Mr. Stretton, of
Drury Lane, performed in Belleni's opera, "Norma," and in "Acis and
Galatea"; and on August 7th Madame Celeste and Mr. Webster commenced a
four nights' engagement in "St. Mary's Eve," "The Woman Hater," and "The
French Spy."