18.--The annual show of the Royal Agricultural Society of England was
opened at Norwich. The show ground, which comprised about fifteen acres,
was on the old Heath, near Ipswich Road; the trials of implements took
place on Mr. Parker's land at Bixley. H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge
attended the show, and during his one night's stay in the city was the
guest of the Mayor. The society's dinner, attended by 900 noblemen and
gentlemen, was held at St Andrew's Hall on the 19th, under the presidency
of the Earl of Chichester. The show, which lasted two days, was visited
by 22,000 persons.
20.--"A gentleman well known as Champion of the Yare" undertook to row
100 miles in twenty-four hours. He started at 12.35 a.m., and rowed to
Beccles Bridge, a distance of 40 miles, and returned to Carrow Bridge; he
then pulled down the river to Rockland Dyke, and back, a distance of 20
miles, finishing at 8.28 p.m., and completing the whole distance in 19
hrs. 53 mins. He rowed the last 20 miles under three hours.
23.--Mr. Martin William ffolkes, eldest son of Sir William ffolkes,
Bart., of Hillington Hall, whilst fishing at Castle Rising, was killed by
lightning. "His hands were not closed, and part of a cigar he had been
smoking was in his mouth."
24.--A lecture was given at St. Andrew's Hall, by Professor Isham Baggs,
of the Polytechnic Institution, London, on "The Economy and Philosophy of
the Electric Light, and its present and prospective bearing on the vested
interests of Gas Companies." The electric light was shown by the aid of
a powerful voltaic battery. It was described as "a light of dazzling
lustre and surpassing brilliancy, on which no eye can steadily gaze. The
figures on the various paintings in the Hall appeared to start from the
canvas, and every living face displayed an almost supernatural brilliancy
and expression. The gas seemed extinguished amid the new blaze of
light."
27.--Lieut. Gale, R.N., "of Cremorne celebrity," made a balloon ascent
from the Cellar Gardens, Pockthorpe, Norwich, accompanied by Mr. A. W.
Pashley, of Harleston, and Mr. Nevey. "There was a second car or fake
bottom attached by a rope to the balloon, and when at the altitude of
about a mile this was lowered thirty or forty feet. A rope ladder was
fixed to it from a trap door in the car, and by that the gallant aeronaut
descended into the lower car, from which he discharged shells and other
pyrotechnics." The descent was made in a field near Coldham Hall.