Easter Revels

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The Stamford Mercury tells us that there were, on Good Friday and Easter Monday, various entertainments provided for the public to suit the respective tastes of the Peterborians, neighbours and visitors. I wondered what these may have been and tried to investigate. Well, on this day - Good Friday - in Peterborough town, the recreation ground was well filled while 'various sports were indulged in'. What these 'various sports' were is not recorded so I'll let your imagination bring these to life. There were also several large tea parties, one of which was held at the Grand Hotel in Wentworth Street - a significant establishment then vying for central Peterborough ascendancy with the Angel just round the corner - while another was at the Drill Hall. One I would like to have attended was the 'monster' tea party at New England. I'm not too sure, though, that I would have liked to have rounded off the day sitting through the lecture by Mr George Goodwin, which was 'remarkably well delivered and much appreciated, there being a fashionable platform and a very good audience in the body of the room'. The Mercury tells of the platform and the audience, but nothing about the lecture. Perhaps the journalist went to sleep!

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

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Richard Howland Becomes Bishop

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Richard Howland finally fulfilled his ambition of becoming a Bishop when he was appointed bishop of Peterborough. However, he soon discovered how poverty-stricken the diocese was, thanks to the acts of his predecessor Bishop Scrambler. He had sold large tracts of the cathedral's estates and all its judicial rights to Queen Elizabeth, pleading the cause of his diocese and in particular trying to ease the excessive tax liability it carried for furnishing light horses for the army. Scrambler was chaplain to William Cecil, Lord Burghley - the man to whom the Queen had given virtually everything she had received from Scrambler! As bishop, Howland took first place at the funeral of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was committed to her burial place without any service although, it is claimed, he was prepared to take one. Howland had aimed higher than Peterborough so, on the death of its archbishop in 1594, Howland was strongly recommended for the see of York by the lord president Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, as well as many others. The post, unfortunately, went to another. Howland died unmarried at Castor, near Peterborough, on 23 June 1600, and was buried in his cathedral without any memorial or epitaph. (Carnell, Geoffrey, The Bishops of Peterborough, RJL Smith & Associates, 1993) Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.