_PRESS NOTICES OF THE FIRST EDITION_.
'We cordially recommend Mr. Ritchie's book to all who wish to pass an agreeable hour and to learn something of the outward actions and inner life of their predecessors. It is full of sketches of East Anglian celebrities, happily touched if lightly limned.'--_East Anglian Daily Times_.
'A very entertaining and enjoyable book. Local gossip, a wide range of reading and industrious research, have enabled the author to enliven his pages with a wide diversity of subjects, specially attractive to East Anglians, but also of much general interest.'--_Daily Chronicle_.
'The work is written in a light gossipy style, and by reason both of it and of the variety of persons introduced is interesting. To a Suffolk or Norfolk man it is, of course, especially attractive. The reader will go through these pages without being wearied by application. They form a pleasant and entertaining contribution to county literature, and "East Anglia" will, we should think, find its way to many of the east country bookshelves.'--_Suffolk Chronicle_.
'The book is as readable and attractive a volume of local chronicles as could be desired. Though all of our readers may not see "eye to eye" with Mr. Ritchie, in regard to political and theological questions, they cannot fail to gain much enjoyment from his excellent delineation of old days in East Anglia.'--_Norwich Mercury_.
'"East Anglia" has the merit of not being a compilation, which is more than can be said of the great majority of books produced in these days to satisfy the revived taste for topographical gossip. Mr. Ritchie is a Suffolk man--the son of a Nonconformist minister of Wrentham in that county--and he looks back to the old neighbourhood and the old times with an affection which is likely to communicate itself to its readers. Altogether we can with confidence recommend this book not only to East Anglians, but to all readers who have any affinity for works of its class.'--_Daily News_.
'Mr. Ritchie's book belongs to a class of which we have none too many, for when well done they illustrate contemporary history in a really charming manner. What with their past grandeur, their present progress, their martyrs, patriots, and authors, there is plenty to tell concerning Eastern counties: and one who writes with native enthusiasm is sure to command an audience.'--_Baptist_.
'Mr. Ritchie, known to the numerous readers of the _Christian World_ as "Christopher Crayon," has the pen of a ready, racy, refreshing writer. He never writes a dull line, and never for a moment allows our interest to flag. In the work before us, which is not his first, he is, I should think, at his best. The volume is the outcome of extensive reading, many rambles over the districts described, and of thoughtful observation. We seem to live and move and have our being in East Anglia. Its folk-lore, its traditions, its worthies, its memorable events, are all vividly and charmingly placed before us, and we close the book sorry that there is no more of it, and wondering why it is that works of a similar kind have not more frequently appeared.'--_Northern Pioneer_.
'It has yielded us more gratification than any work that we have read for a considerable time. The book ought to have a wide circulation in the Eastern counties, and will not fail to yield profit and delight wherever it finds its way.'--_Essex Telegraph_.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: East Anglia by J. Ewing Ritchie
- 2: I have retained some strictures on the clergy of East Anglia
- 3: Woodbridge and the country round Bernard Barton Dr
- 4: Writes 'I was born at a village called Wrentham
- 5: I found that water butt had gone
- 6: Steffe appeared upon the scene
- 7: Belonging to the Wrentham Congregational Church Library
- 8: Pretty well exterminated Dissent
- 9: How I loved to go to Covehithe and climb its ruins
- 10: Between Covehithe and Dunwich stood
- 11: Preached at Southwold once a month
- 12: Southwold has its historical associations
- 13: Just outside of our village was Benacre Hall
- 14: Supplies me with an apt illustration of East Anglian dialect
- 15: ' and the Suffolk 'yow' is at least as old as Chaucer
- 16: At an old fashioned residence called Reydon Hall
- 17: ' Miss Strickland often visited Alison
- 18: The clergyman at Wrentham at that time
- 19: And these lithographs my mother
- 20: Walford sitting sad and dejected
- 21: The boat at once makes for Lowestoft
- 22: Which gently smokes the Yarmouth bloater
- 23: As we eat our Yarmouth bloater of a morning
- 24: A far greater idea of comfort than did Oulton Cottage
- 25: All the speakers went back to supper at Oulton Hall
- 26: The preacher in my time was the Rev
- 27: And Lowestoft is metamorphosed
- 28: Distinguished people came to Lowestoft
- 29: That they belieued not holie bread and holie water
- 30: Though they belieue the Catholike Church
- 31: Who had been members of the Independent church at Beccles
- 32: In which Suffolk lads might have to ''list' as 'sogers'
- 33: There was a good deal of free inquiry at Homerton Academy
- 34: All that distant and almost unrecorded past
- 35: One of them who came to Wrentham was Captain Pilkington
- 36: And Lord Brougham the people then called him Harry Brougham
- 37: Some say he was born at Framlingham
- 38: At Framlingham we find a Richard Goltie
- 39: For it was thus young Thompson came to Wrentham
- 40: It was for Southwold that he claimed his vote
- 41: And sometimes he would talk of Whately
- 42: While the voters you may be sure
- 43: Shufflebottom the italics are the Canon's
- 44: On a bold eminence on the river Waveney
- 45: After a walk from Wrentham to Bungay
- 46: Attended the Bungay Meeting house
- 47: Agnes was often a visitor at Bungay
- 48: In consequence of the monopoly
- 49: And little but asperity to Dissenters
- 50: Of all monopolies religious monopolies are the worst
- 51: Did not enter Bungay with her father
- 52: The churchwardens proceeded against the son
- 53: First caught sight of Yarmouth
- 54: It is true Wrentham was in Suffolk
- 55: We may claim that Norwich and Yarmouth
- 56: Were not inclined to allow young Astley to get off free
- 57: In this way young Astley Cooper
- 58: Leman Blanchard was born at Yarmouth
- 59: Who was late preacher in Yarmouth
- 60: A descendant of Sir Thomas Bendish
- 61: Miles Corbet suffered in London
- 62: Who joined the Yarmouth church in 1811
- 63: The Yarmouth of my youth was gone
- 64: First acquaintance with Norwich
- 65: But of Norwich a huge green monster
- 66: John Sell Cotman chiefly represented Norwich
- 67: So is the Taylorian by me for another
- 68: To Noncons Norwich offers peculiar attractions
- 69: Windham often managed to make himself unpopular
- 70: And Earlham was celebrated for its hospitality
- 71: The various stars of which the Earlham assemblage is made
- 72: Calamy writes of one of the Norwich ministers
- 73: Alderson questioned him as to his age
- 74: ' If Joseph Gurney sent for W
- 75: Recently Hansard has been carried on by a company
- 76: There are few lovelier rivers in England than the Orwell
- 77: Ipswich is inseparably connected
- 78: His lordship's legacies to Ipswich ladies and others
- 79: 'In the main street of Ipswich
- 80: Glyde has preserved an anecdote
- 81: From my experiences of Suffolk life
- 82: One of the Congregational churches of Ipswich
- 83: In 1636 Prynne published his 'Newes from Ipswich
- 84: Firmin exerted himself powerfully on their behalf
- 85: Except in Sudbourne Park and about Orford
- 86: And the lately deceased Lord Hatherley
- 87: Martlesham Red Lion has justice done to it at last
- 88: And this gives me occasion to speak of Thomas Seckford
- 89: Whom he had known as a lad at Playford
- 90: Bought and owned by a Woodbridge man
- 91: When Bernard Barton was announced
- 92: 'He was a hearty old yeoman of eighty six
- 93: Woodbridge is one of the churches which Mr
- 94: Thomas Young became Vicar of Stowmarket in due time
- 95: A capital work against Episcopacy
- 96: To have been born at Stowmarket
- 97: Stowmarket was one of the places he visited
- 98: 'was the Eastern Empire polluted with execrable Arianism
- 99: The Stowmarket Vicar was placed there in his stead
- 100: Milton had become a Cambridge student
- 101: Did Milton carry out this intention
- 102: I was one autumn in Constable's county
- 103: His studies were chiefly Dedham
- 104: There is little in East Bergholt to remind one of Constable
- 105: Describes East Anglia as 'very noble
- 106: The Danish governor of Suffolk
- 107: There is much picturesque scenery around Cromer
- 108: Having already alluded to the Windhams and Felbrigg
- 109: Inhabited that splendid Holkham
- 110: I was the other day at Haverhill
- 111: Inchbald and her husband had to drink of the cup of poverty
- 112: In the immediate neighbourhood of Honington
