A quibble on the name of this truly great and eminent man has been raised by some authors, who supposed him to be the Sir John Falstaff, whom our immortal bard Shakspeare delineated in the humorous but abandoned character as constantly lounging about the court of Prince Henry (afterwards Henry the Vth. of England).—The poetical Falstaff was nearly threescore years of age at the battle of Shrewsbury, A.D. 1403, when the Norfolk hero was not more than twenty-five. The former ended his career soon after Prince Henry ascended the throne—the latter survived Henry the Vth. thirty-seven years, and died at Caistor in 1459.
Cromer, formerly a small market town, is situated nine miles N.N.W. of North Walsham, and on the verge of the German Ocean. At the Doomsday survey Cromer formed part of the lordship and parish of Shipden, a considerable village, which, with its church, dedicated to St. Peter, appears to have been swallowed up by the sea about the time of Henry the 4th. A patent to collect certain dues for the erection of a pier was granted in the 14th of Richard II. At neap tides, in calm weather, are still to be seen, about half a mile distant from the shore, large masses of wall, which are supposed to have belonged to the church alluded to.
Many large portions of land were washed away in 1611, previous to which the inhabitants expended considerable sums of money and ingenuity in a fruitless attempt to maintain a small harbour. In the winter of 1799, the light-house cliffs, projecting from the beach three hundred and twenty feet, made several remarkably large shoots, one of which brought with it half an acre of ground, and extended into the sea beyond low water mark. On January 15th, 1825, another large mass of earth was detached from the light-house hills, and fell with great force on the beach, extending in breadth above three hundred yards from the cliffs, covering an area of twelve acres, and containing, it was supposed, not less than half a million of cubic yards of earth. The fall of this enormous body was sudden and unexpected. A large stream of water issued from the bank immediately after its fall, and discharged itself down upon the beach with great noise and violence. Early in the morning of August 19th, 1832, another large shoot of the cliffs occurred near the light-house, which threatened the destruction of that useful edifice. It was deemed expedient to erect another on the hill, two hundred and fifty yards inland; but the remains of the old one are still standing about three-quarters of a mile east of the town, where it was built of brick in 1719.