An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

AUTOBIOGRAPHY W. Purdy, and though it was wet he enjoyed himself immensely among the new fauna and flora, so much so,.. that he afterwards went there again with his daughter. On the 21st November I went to Lynn, and began searching the records for Chaucer clues, and was rewarded by finding the name of John Chaucer on the Bede Roll there. At the Globe was my old acquaintance Gruner of the Quatuor Coronati sed quantum mutatus, &c. The 29th was a capital Scotch dinner at Norwich, haggis and all the rest of it. On the nth December I saw Munnings, the artist, for the first time, and on the 22nd was recovered and well enough to walk over to Barrett Lennard's at Horsford. This Christmas was another lonely one, for I was at Lammas by myself, the others not coming till Boxing Day. On the 27th we bad a regal beanfeast of the Woodpeckers. at the cottage, about 25 picnicing with self-cooked oysters, sausages and baked potatoes. They went home by them– selves having, as I afterwards heard, an impromptu concert in the waiting room at Buxton Lammas station, in which Munnings and Miss N. both distinguished themselves. During 1907 the only work I brought out was ·' The State papers relating to Musters, Beacons, Shipmoney, etc., from 1626 to the beginning of the Civil War," issued by the Norfolk and Norwich Archreological Society. In January, 1908, I was working at the Burgh and Bigod papers (Norf. Antiq. Misc. (n.s.) iii., pp. 90 and 104) and experimented on godwbit's as a food, but they were oily and unsatisfying. Still at Burgh on 26th nd 27th and found pottery,and some good flint instruments. This was the time of the appearance of the luminous owls at Foulsham, and I made two attempts to see them without success, though the enormous weight of independent evidence convinced me they existed. So it did Mr. J. H. Gurney, the greatest local ornithologist, but not the little yapping persons who disbelieve anything they have not seen themselves. Of course there was much good-natured chaff about it, of which the following may serve as a sample. A jolly old sportsman one night on the prowl, Saw a very strange bird, 'twas a luminous owl ; So he got many friends to come with him and see, And they, one and all, with the verdict agree; That they'd never seen such a" fearsome wild fowl," As the luminous, luminous, luminous owl.