this present year 1853, to see what a
century has done in orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody.

It must have been rather more than twenty years after the first
establishment of a local newspaper, that the Rev. Francis Blomefield, the
great historian of the county, first commenced printing his elaborate
"Topographical Essay," a work of five volumes folio, the materials for
which he is said to have begun to collect when only fifteen years of age.
Many beyond the limits of the locality more especially intended to profit
by this laborious undertaking, may feel interested in the facts connected
with its progress, contributing so much as they do to give a correct idea
of the difficulties attending the path of an author little more than a
century ago.

Blomefield was rector of the parish of Fersfield, in which also he was
born; in the summer months he was in the habit of making excursions in
search of materials for his work, and to test the accuracy of information
he had gained, by a method he had adopted, in furtherance of his object,
of distributing "queries," to be filled up with answers concerning any
historical or antiquarian subjects that may be known to the parties
applied to. In reference to this plan, he says himself, in a letter to a
friend, "It is impossible to tell you what great helps have come in by my
queries: sometimes having twenty or thirty sheets, besides books,
letters, records and papers for a single hundred;" (alluding to the
divisions of the county into hundreds).

It was after one of his collating rambles that he finally determined to
issue proposals for printing his work; and meeting with much
encouragement, he speedily looked about for a suitable printing
establishment. In a letter to Mr. Chase, a printer who lived next door
to "John o' all sorts," Cockey Lane, Norwich, on the 1st of July, 1733,
he says, "I have endeavoured to procure a set of Saxon types, but cannot
do it; and upon looking over my book find a good number of Greek
inscriptions, some Hebrew words, and some Gothic. So that I must print
it in London; it being impossible to have those types any where in the
country (!). I wish heartily I could have done it with you; for I like
your terms, and could have been glad to have corrected the press myself,
which I then could easily have done."

Eventually he decided upon printing the work upon his own premises, and
engaged a good workman, at a salary of 40 pounds a year, bought a p