Chapter I: Preface

The Reminiscences of a Citizen whose memory goes back in detail for over Seventy Years, as in the case of the Contributor of these Notes, cannot fail to be of paramount interest and of antiquarian value. Especially in this case, where the distinguished Narrator has held a very foremost place in the Professional life and Voluntary Public Service of the City. Additionally interesting must they prove in the case of a City which has developed from a comparatively small parish into a populous industrial, commercial and residential Centre. The Peterborough Archæological Society has in these circumstances undertaken the duty of preserving and circulating in compact form the very valuable personal Recollections of Mr. Andrew Percival. In doing so the Society acknowledges its indebtedness to that gentleman for his ready permission to entrust them to its charge. The writer of this Preface was present at the old Wentworth Rooms, at Peterborough, in the years 1883–4, when the addresses which formed the basis of this chronicle were delivered. He thus felt a continuity of interest when the manuscript was recently committed to him to prepare, with illustrations, for advance publication in the “Peterborough Advertiser,” in September, 1905, and in bringing up to date, during the indisposition of the Author, several of the chronological and statistical references. Otherwise the Notes remain exactly as set down and corrected by Mr. Percival. The Society expresses its thanks to Mr. A. C. Taylor for the use of the very excellent photo of Mr. Percival which forms the frontispiece; to Mr. T. N. Green (Ball & Co.) for the Photo of the Old Bridge; and to Mr. Geo. C. Caster for the use of “Whittlesey Mere” block, from “Fenland Notes & Queries”; most of the others having been specially taken and engraved for this Publication.

F. L.

_Peterborough_, _Oct._, _1905_.

INDEX.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. {5}

Portrait of Mr. Andrew Percival Title Page Peterborough Market Place in 1836 9 Sedan Chair 19 Cottages in Paston 20 The Old Bridge over the Nene 27 Sexton Barns 29 Peterborough Market Place in 1795 36 Map of Whittlesey Mere 47

* * * * *

PAGE. Advertisement, A peculiar 40 An Alibi 43

Balls 19 Barns 29, 31 Beacon, A lighted 22 Beadle, The City 16 Breweries 10 Bridge, The old wooden 27 Buckle’s Brewery 10, 11 Burglaries 43 Burial at Cross Roads 32 Burial Ground, The Old 34 Butcher’s Piece, The 41

Cabbage Row 31 Calculating Boy 10 Castor, Old system of farming at 22 Cattle Market 33 Cemetery, The 34 Coaches, Mail 11, 12, 13 Constables, Parish 17 Contrast, A 13 Cost of Travelling 12

Distemper, The 40 Draining the Great Level 23

Epitaphs 35 Executions 41 Extraordinary Medley 34

Fairs 19 Fen around Peterborough 23 Fen Drainage 23, 25 Fen Taxes 27 Franking Letters 16 Frisby’s Feat 12 Frog Hall 32

Gaols 17, 30 Gas Works started 32 Gates, Toll 9 God’s Acre 34 Guildhall, The 41

Hangings 41 Hostelry, The Thorpe Road 30

Infirmary, The 10 Intelligent Fenmen 27

Jaunt through the City 29

Ladies and the Cattle 33 Land, Improvement in value of 27 Level, The Great 23 Level, Draining the Great 23 Lock-up Story 43

Mail Coaches 11 Market, Cattle 33 ,, The old 33 „ Wednesday 34 Mere, Whittlesey 19 Mill, The Old 14, 27, 29 Mill system of Draining 25 Mud Case, The 44

Nene Outfall, The 25 Newspapers 38, 39, 40 Newtown 31 Notorious Family, A 17

Oasis in the Desert 21

Packets, River 15 Parish Constables 17 Paston 22 Ponds 31 Poor House 31 Poor Law 30 Post Office 37 Postal Charges 15

Railways 11, 14, 44 Railways and Earl Fitzwilliam 14 Retrospective 45 River Packets 15 Robbery at the Vicarage 43

Sedan Chairs 19 Sexton Barns 29 Smothering the Cathedral 14 Snatched from the Sea 25

Tales of the Coaching days 12 Theatre 17 Toll Gates 9 Tombstone Rhymes 35 Tythe Barn, Boroughbury 31

Value of land improved 27

Whalley, Mr. G. H. 15 Whittlesey Mere 19