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.