and sweetened the task they gave. The distinctions I gained at college
(little valuable as distinctions, but valuable because habits of
industry, perseverance and resolution were necessary to attain
them)--these boyish distinctions were exclusively the result of the
animating passion in my mind to carry back to them the prizes which they
prompted and enabled me to win.'

Wilberforce, when he was staying at Lowestoft in 1816, wrote: 'I am still
full of Earlham and its excellent inhabitants. One of our great
astronomers stated it as probable there may be stars whose light has been
travelling to us from the Creation, and has not yet reached our little
planet. In the Earlham family a new constellation has broken in upon us,
for which you must invent a name, as you are fond of star-gazing, and if
it indicates a little monstrosity (as they are apt to give the collection
of stars the names of strange creatures--dragons, bears, etc.), the
various stars of which the Earlham assemblage is made,' continues
Wilberforce, 'will include also much to be respected and loved.' At that
time Mrs. Opie was one of the Norwich stars. Caroline Fox, who went to
dine with her described her as in great force and really jolly. 'She is
enthusiastic about Father Mathew, reads Dickens voraciously, takes to
Carlyle, but thinks his appearance rather against him--talks much and
with great spirit of people, but never ill-naturedly.'

'Norwich,' as described by Camden, 'on account of its wealth,
populousness, neatness of buildings, beautiful churches, with the number
of them--for it has a matter of fifty parishes--as also the industry of
its citizens, loyalty to their Prince, is to be reckoned among the most
considerable cities in Britain. It was fortified with walls that have a
great many turrets and eleven gates.' Camden, quoting one writer after
another, adds the eulogy of Andrew Johnston, a Scotchman, as follows:

'A town whose stately piles and happy seat
Her citizens and strangers both delight;
Whose tedious siege and plunder made her bear
In Norman battles an unhappy share,
And feel the sad effects of dreadful war.
These storms o'erblown, now blest with constant peace,
She saw her riches and her trade increase.
State here by wealth, by beauty yet undone,
How blest if vain excess be yet unknown!
So fully is she from herself supplied
That England while she stands can never want a head.'

Fro