14.--The Widow Steavenson, residing in St. Gregory's parish, Norwich,
completed her 101st year. "Several of the parishioners called upon her,
congratulated her on the event, and supplied her with all the needful
viands and wine to enable her to entertain several old friends. Her
daughter, now 77 years old, is a widow, having had to mourn the loss of
three husbands, but is on the point of marrying again." (_See_ January
2nd, 1874.)
24.--Mr. Sidney produced his "farewell pantomime" at Norwich Theatre. It
was entitled, "St. George, the Dragon, and the Seven Champions of
Christendom."
31.--The Prince of Wales, on his journey from Gunton to Sandringham,
lunched at the County Club, Norwich. The party travelled from Gunton to
Norwich in sleighs and closed carriages, and his Royal Highness
afterwards proceeded by rail from Thorpe station to Wolferton.
--Died at Merton Hall, the Right Hon. Thomas, Lord Walsingham. He was
the eldest son of Thomas, fourth Lord Walsingham, by his wife Lady
Elizabeth, fourth daughter of the Hon. and Right Rev. Brownlow North,
Bishop of Winchester, and was born July 5th, 1804. On the death of his
father, on September 8th, 1839, he succeeded to the barony, and married,
on August 6th, 1842, Augusta Louisa, eldest daughter of Sir Robert
Frankland Russell, Bart. Of this marriage he had issue a son, the Hon.
Thomas de Grey. Lady Walsingham died in 1844, and his lordship married,
secondly, on October 25th, 1847, the Horn Emily Elizabeth Julia
Thellusson, eldest daughter of John, second Lord Rendlesham, by whom he
left issue three sons and three daughters. His lordship was educated at
St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1824, was
called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1827, and in 1842 was made LL.D. of
his University. Although educated for the law, he devoted himself to
agriculture, the improvement of his estate, and of his cattle and sheep.
He was a member of the leading agricultural societies and of the
Smithfield Club, an excellent landlord, and one who carried out to the
fullest extent the motto of his house, "Excitari non hebescere." His
lordship was succeeded in his title and estates by his son, the Hon.
Thomas de Grey, M.P. for West Norfolk, who was born in 1843.
--*"The December of 1870 has been no less remarkable for its cold than
its heat. In the opening days of the month the temperature was unusually
high, and only a fortnight before winter made its appearance in stern
reality the thermometer registered in Norwich 55. On the 21st there were
four degrees of frost, and on the 23rd the thermometer fell as low as
8.5. On Christmas Eve the cold was so intense that the register on the
following morning was as low as 5.5. Christmas Day was the coldest
experienced since Christmas Day, 1860, when the cold was more intense by
some two or three degrees." There was a deep fall of snow throughout the
county.
1871.