NOTABLE CENTENARIAN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13608, 30 May 1908, Page 3

NOTABLE CENTENARIAN.

At Wellington, a small village near (jiantham, Mrs. Hannah Bursuall, a wonderful old lady, kept her ICOth birthday on April 6th last. Born at Wymondham. Leicestershire, Mrs. Bursuall 'married at 23, enjoyed isixty years of wedded life, and had fourteen children. ' Altogether her descendants now number close on 100. Her faculties are astonishingly well preserved,; and she'has a most retentive memory. She recalls the fact that the clergyman of her native village was taken prisoner at the battle of Waterloo, and for two years Wymondham had ho rector. She recollects the famous prize-fight at Thistlcton Gap between. Crib and Molyneaux. Her aunt, she boasts, was the first person to make the famous Grantham gingerbread. ' In the summer of 1905 Mrs. Bursuall was delight'ed with a twenty-two miles ride in a motor-car through the kindness of the then mayor. On that a.uspicious occasion she had tea Wiu. the mayoress at that lady's own house. Th:i3 is a memory thai is dearly cherished. Needlework and knit-ring are favourite occupations of Mrs. Bursuall —and without the aid of glasses. She even takes digging exercise in the garden in the early morning. Her health, indeed, is remarkably good, and she is as active as many people decadtij her junior. One of her most valuable possessions is a letter received from the King 011 her 101 st birthday.