An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 49 The autumn of 1880 was spent by me in continuing my notes of church and churchyard inscriptions of North Erpingham with my wife and children at North Walsham, where we made the acquaintance of Mrs. Shepheard, the mother-in-law of the Rev. Charles Black, who lived in a fine old house called the Scarburgh House. We stayed at the ' 1 Angel," and I remember most im– properly and suyreptitiously witnessing (thr~:mgh a removed tile in ithe roof) the installation of a free– mason, and being greatly grieved to find that it comprised none of the traditfonal hot poker business. Huhert Gould Rye, born 1st May, 1880, was baptized at Cromer 31st August, and my yvife went on to stay with the Beloes at Lynn. All the year I was improving at cycling and rode up the Church H 11 and got 24 miles for the first time. About this time I issued the first part of vol. ii. of the Norfolk Antiqu~rian Miscellany, the opening paper of which contained an expose of the Squire letters which had deceived Carlyle (this was afterwards expanded into a long article ill the English Historical Review), and another and very long one on the riot between the monks and citizens of Norwich in 1272, as to which I printed a mass of new matter from the Public Record Office. 1 1 This pa er was afterwards most unfairly ignored by tbe Rev. W. Hudson in his" Records of the City of orwich," in which he had the effrontery to refer the public only to the very sparse and imperfect .account given by Blomefield ! I was in effect made the subject of much petty jealousy at his bands, which was tile less deserved, as I had recognised and dilated on his ability from the :first. His idea obviously was to keep the Record Room at the Castle as a private preserve, and he did his best to keep me from working there. How– ever, I had sufficient influence to get a resolution passed to let me go on with my calendari11g, and I liad a key to the cases given me, and since he has left Norwich I have lJelped in publisliing a second part of the Norwich Deeds Calendar from 1307 to 134-1, and have issued at my own expense a folio catalogue or index of the later deeds from 1377 to 1504, including a new version of the Index Rerum to Mr. Hudson's "revised" Catalogue of the Norwich Records he issued iu 1898, which was a very incomplete one, for 1 was .ahle to show 225 omissions in its four pages. The positiou of searchers at the City Record Room is very unsatisfactory. o encouragement is giveu to the public who desire to search, and the hope I had tlJat the room would form an historical centre for local search will, I fear, uever be fulfilled. I had given the whole of my somewhat large collectiou of glossaries and reference books to such room, but it is no longer available to the public without trouble, and such books ought to be handed over to the Public Library for use there. E