7.--A fire occurred on the premises of Mr. W. C. Aberdein, pastry cook,
Dove Street, Norwich. The outbreak itself was not of a serious
character, but in a room upon the adjoining premises of Mr. Cubitt,
ironmonger, was stored upwards of 400 lbs. of gunpowder, which was safely
removed in wet blankets. The circumstance caused much sensation, and the
practicability of establishing a public powder magazine was discussed by
the magistrates.
20.--Died at King's Lynn, Mr. J. F. Reddie, many years organist at St.
Margaret's church, in that town.
24.--A petition against the return of Sir Edmund Lacon and Sir H.
Stracey, as members of Parliament for Great Yarmouth, in April, 1859,
commenced before a Special Committee of the House of Commons. The
petitioners, Mr. Joseph Bayly, surgeon, and Mr. Robert Pilgrim, linen
draper, alleged bribery, undue influence, treating, and intimidation. On
March 1st the Committee declared the members to have been duly elected,
and were of opinion that one of the witnesses, Henry Fayerman, had been
guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury. The members were received with
great enthusiasm on their return to Yarmouth, and were entertained at a
public dinner, given at the Theatre, on April 12th. At the Westminster
Police Court, on June 11th, Fayerman was committed for trial on the
charge of perjury, but at the Old Bailey, on July 12th, the jury gave a
verdict of acquittal.
28.--A terrible gale raged throughout the country. At Norwich, between
ten o'clock and noon, the thermometer rose from 36 degrees to 47 degrees;
at two o'clock it registered 45 degrees. The wind blew from the west,
veering occasionally to the north and to W.N.W., but during the height of
the gale it blew west by north. Great damage was done to buildings,
trees were uprooted, and "locomotion was extremely difficult and
laborious, and, indeed, quite out of the question to those of the fair
sex whose fashionable expanded dresses, assuming the properties of
parachutes, compelled them to undertake a species of aerial voyage for a
distance of a few yards, or exposed them to the still more unpleasant
predicament of having their parachute garments inverted." There were
many disasters along the coast, and several lives were lost.