4.--The first meetings of Parish and District Councils elected under the
new Local Government Act, 1894, were held. The percentage of unopposed
returns at the elections in Norfolk was 72.4. The first election of
Guardians for Norwich under the Act took place on the 17th.
6.--Died at his residence, 6, Cavendish Square, in his 82nd year, Horatio
Walpole, fourth Earl of Orford. He was educated at Eton and Trinity
College, Cambridge, and afterwards when reading for the Bar occupied the
same chambers as Disraeli, who took great interest in him. His lordship
married, in 1841, Harriet Bettina Frances, daughter of the Hon. Sir
Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew. He was succeeded by his nephew,
Robert Horace Walpole, elder son of the Hon. Frederick Walpole.
13.--The officers of the 1st King's Dragoon Guards gave an amateur
dramatic performance of "The Area Belle" and Burnand's burlesque,
"Black-eyed Susan," at Norwich Theatre, in aid of the Soldiers' Widows
Fund. The performance was repeated on the 14th and 15th.
21.--A gale of great violence occurred and lasted throughout the 22nd.
Much damage was done in the county to farm buildings and other premises.
At Brundall the river Yare overflowed its banks and flooded the railway;
at Mundesley the tide was higher than was ever before known, and at
Yarmouth the low-lying parts of the town were submerged, and the water
entered many granaries and stores. Another high tide and gale were
recorded at Yarmouth on the 29th. "The barometric fall accompanying the
gale was most remarkable, the mercury having descended 1.26 inches in
twenty-four hours."
26.--"The Midsummer Night's Dream" was produced upon a magnificent scale
as the Christmas attraction at Norwich Theatre, by Mr. Ben Greet's
company.
29.--Died at Torquay, Colonel Dickson, who was Conservative candidate for
Norwich with the Marquis of Douro in 1852. Colonel Dickson was in his
89th year.
1895.