12.--The premises of Messrs. Sullivan and Co., wholesale confectioners,
West End Street, Norwich, were destroyed by fire.
19.--The Channel Squadron arrived in Yarmouth Roads. The vessels
included the Royal Sovereign (flagship of Vice-Admiral Lord Walter Kerr),
Empress of India, Resolution, and Repulse, battleships; the Blenheim,
Endymion, and Bellona, cruisers; the Halcyon, gunboat; and the Speedy,
torpedo gunboat. The officers and men numbered 4,500. Civic and public
entertainments were given in honour of the visit. The squadron steamed
south on the 24th.
23.--Climatic variations of a remarkable character were recorded. The
thermometer on the grass in the morning fell to freezing point (32
degrees), at two p.m. it stood at 77.2 degrees in the shade, one degree
higher than the point known as summer heat, and about seven degrees
higher than the average _maximum_ day readings for the month of July. In
the screen the thermometer fell to 38.4 degrees, the range of temperature
for the day being nearly 40 degrees. The _minimum_ was about 12 degrees
below, and the _maximum_ about 12 degrees above the usual standard for
September. On the 24th the _maximum_ shade temperature was 75.8 degrees.
25.--At the Guildhall, Norwich, the honorary freedom of the city was
conferred upon the Mayor (Sir Peter Eade). At the conclusion of the
proceedings the members of the Corporation proceeded to the Castle
Museum, where a portrait of the Mayor, painted by Mr. Stanhope A. Forbes,
was unveiled by Lord Walsingham.
27.--Died at Welborne Rectory, the Rev. George Robert Winter, Hon. Canon
of Norwich Cathedral, in his 69th year. He was a son of Mr. Roger
Winter, barrister-at-law, Calcutta, and grandson of Mr. John Winter, of
Acton, many years solicitor to the Bank of England. Educated at Eaton
and at Brasenose College, Oxford, Canon Winter was for many years vicar
of Swaffham. In his University days he was a famous athlete, president
of the Boat Club, stroke of the Brasenose boat, and a bold and fearless
horseman. In addition to his other accomplishments Canon Winter was a
very clever artist.
28.--Died at Ipswich, Dr. John Ellor Taylor, F.G.S., F.L.S., aged 60.
Dr. Taylor was the son of a foreman in a Lancashire cotton factory, and
early in life was sent to the engineer's shop of the London and
North-Western Railway, at Crewe. He subsequently removed to Manchester,
and contributed to the newspapers, and on adopting journalism as an
occupation secured an appointment on the "Norwich Mercury." During the
smallpox epidemic in 1872 he contributed a remarkable series of articles
to the "Eastern Daily Press" on "Haunts and Homes of Smallpox in
Norwich," the materials for which he obtained by personal visits to the
dwellings of the stricken people. Resolutely declining to be vaccinated,
he contracted the disease, which considerably marred his hitherto
handsome features. He left Norwich to become the curator of Ipswich
Museum and editor of "Hardwick's Science Gossip," and in 1885 visited
Australia on a lecturing tour. Dr. Taylor was the author of several
works, notably "Geological Stories," "The Playtime Naturalist,"
"Half-hours in the Green Lanes," "Half-hours at the Seaside," "The
Sagacity and Morality of Plants," &c.