The first occasion was in the period of which we write, when the Taylors and the Gurneys flourished in a region of ideas; the second was during the years from 1837 to 1849, when Edward Stanley held the bishopric.

This later period does not come into our story, as by that time Borrow had all but left Norwich.

But of the earlier period, the period of Borrow's more or less fitful residence in Norwich--1814 to 1833--we are tempted to write at some length.

There were three separate literary and social forces in Norwich in the first decades of the nineteenth century--the Gurneys of Earlham, the Taylor-Austin group, and William Taylor, who was in no way related to Mrs.John Taylor and her daughter, Sarah Austin.

The Gurneys were truly a remarkable family, destined to leave their impress upon Norwich and upon a wider world.