An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

AUTOBIOGRAPHY ·my sons, I came to the conclusion to chauce it, though m y only experience of civic life came from having been made a co-opted member of the Castle Museum and Public Library Committees. I certainly had taken a lot of t rouble in getting the City Records iu the Public Library in order, and had published "A Calendar of the Documents rel ating to the Corporation of Norwich" preserved there (Gibbs & Waller, 1908). I was not unaware that I was only asked as a stop ·gap because the Conservative party had been disappointed in prevailing on the Duke of Norfolk to fill the office, but thought the experience would be an interesting one. As, however, I knew I could not afford to fill the post with the lavishness of previous Mayors, I struck out a line of my own which met with the approval of the leaders on both sides. I issued a circular to the effect that I would not contribute to any fund or spend any money that could possibly be avoided, but would set aside a certain -amount of money to meet all necessary expenses, keep a rigid account, and at the end of my year of office, hand -over the balance to the " Miniature Rifle Club." This was a sore blow to the licensed cadgers, the fish– fo g clubs, the replacers of dead donkeys) the layers of stones of dissenting chapels, and the like, but I stuck to my guns, a nd had it not been for the unexpected, though very welcome visit of King Edward VII., which unavoidably increased my necessary expenses, I should have had a good round sum to hand over to the Club, instead of the r.elatively small balance that was left. The office of a City Mayor nowadays is little more than that of a figure head, as he has little, if any, power, and is practically a dummy in the hands of the two parties, ·and a cockshy for the Labour party. My offer to give the smaller ragged boys of the City, so many of whom were yearly drowned by trying to bathe at the unprotected ends of river-side courts, the site for a swimming bath next the Technical Institute was declined by the City Engineer, and my attempts to secure a rifle range for the City (and by so doing ample work for the unemployed) was effect– ually blocked by the War Office and Mr. John Burns. Some years before Mr. Burns had referred to officers. of the Army as "gilded popinjays," and in a speech he made in Battersea Park, he was reported to have