An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

182 AUTOBIOGRAPHY greatly reassured hy his reporting my heart sound and nothing the matter with me, for I had feared my old sister's fate. The rest of the year was uneventful, except for a further investigation of the Hevingham roadway, and that we panelled our drawing-room. I voted for Dyson (Will Workman) at Norwich on the 5th, and at East Dereham on the 8th, and on the 14th at Coltishall for Meyer. A thorough investigation of the Hevingham Road in the pouring rain on the 15th gave me such a feverish cold that I was in the doctor's hands from the 16th to 23rd. At Christmas A.L.R. and his wife, and H.G.R. and his wife, and an athletic (old T.H.H.) man came down for Christmas, but I never lost my cold that year, and ended a most miserable year very wretchedly. This was indeed the worst year of my life in many ways. This year I published a long folio Calendar of Deeds enrolled at Norwich from 1377 to 1504, and indexes to the two Docquet Books _ of Norwich Deeds, which practically follows on and take the references down to comparatively recent times, and added a revised edition of the Index Rerum, &c., to Hudson and Tingay's Catalogue, which was a very bad and imperfect one. In January, 1911, I was the victim of a most unjust decision under the Norwich Local Act as to some property of mine at Norwich. The power given to the city officials under this iniquitous Act is enormous, and how it slipped through the House of Commons is inexplicable. In this case I was held liable for a large share of the paving and draining a yard solely because an adjoining property belonging to me (the main and only used entrance to which was in another street) had a narrow doorway, now never used, opening on to it. To have charged a propor– tion of the cost calculated on my frontage on the yard would have been all very well, but this was outrageous. During the month I was still very seedy, in fact. a short walk round Meyton Bridge and Buxton tired me so thoroughly that I had to sit down and rest by Buxton Mill, and I bought a light single brougham to take me to and from the station. On the 15th February I made a visit to the old "Spa" at Aylsham with Purdy, to whom its site belonged. The