ight, still attended at the Old
Meeting. When I was a lad there still might be seen in the streets of
Norwich the venerable figure of William Taylor, who had first opened up
German literature to the intelligent public; and there had not long died
Mrs. Taylor, the friend of Sir James Mackintosh and other distinguished
personages. "She was the wife," writes Basil Montagu, "of a shopkeeper
in that city; mild and unassuming, quiet and meek, sitting amidst her
large family, always occupied with her needle and domestic occupations,
but always assisting, by her great knowledge, the advancement of kind and
dignified sentiment. Manly wisdom and feminine gentleness were united in
her with such attractive manners that she was universally loved and
respected. In high thoughts and gentle deeds she greatly resembled the
admirable Lucy Hutchinson, and in troubled times would have been
specially distinguished for firmness in what she thought right." Dr.
Sayers was also one of the stars of the Norwich literary circle, and I
recollect Mrs. Opie, who had given up the world of fashion and frivolity,
had donned the Quaker dress, and at whose funeral in the Quaker
Meeting-house I was present. The Quakers were at that time a power in
Norwich, and John Joseph Gurney, of Earlham, close by, enjoyed quite a
European reputation. It was not long that Harriet Martineau had turned
her back on the Norwich of her youth. The house where she was born was
in a court in Magdalen Street. But it never was her dwelling-place after
her removal from it when she was three months old. Harriet was given to
underrating everybody who had any sort of reputation, and she certainly
underrated Norwich society, which, when I was a lad, was superior to most
of our county towns. I caught now and then a few faint echoes of that
world into which I was forbidden to enter. Norwich ministers were yet
learned, and their people were studious. A dear old city was Norwich,
with much to interest a raw lad from the country, with its Cathedral,
which, as too often is the case, sadly interfered with the free life of
all within its reach, with its grand Market Place filled on a Saturday
with the country farmers' wives, who had come to sell the produce of
their dairy and orchard and chickenyard, and who returned laden with
their purchases in the way of grocery and drapery; and its Castle set
upon a hill. It was there that for the first time I saw judges in ermine
and crimson,