“Here stood the Village Pound.”
In which pound I have seen many a disconsolate donkey, horse, or goat. I
never saw the Village Stocks, perhaps the villagers of Notting Hill were
always a sober, law-abiding people, and had no need of such civilizing
structures.
I remember, however, seeing a man in the stocks at Lewisham, placed there
for being drunk. As he was being well supplied with beer by his
companions, I think it probable the result of the punishment was that he
was more drunken after than before.
In 1844 there were only two shops in the village above one story high.
The exceptions are now numbered 150, 152; the latter house was then, as
now, a cheesemonger’s.
The shop windows were principally common glass. Plate glass had not come
into fashion. Some of the shops were lighted with oil lamps, and, I
think, some with candles.
I cannot speak for the intelligence of all the tradesmen of that time,
but remember a serious conversation with one who, at the conclusion, very
gravely remarked, “I suppose publicans in the time of the Saviour were a
bad sort of people. I go every night to the ‘Coach and Horses’ to have
one glass and a pipe, and the landlord is not a bad sort of a man, but in
old times publicans seem always somehow mixed up with sinners.”
Behind the south side of High Street, where a number of small houses are
now built, was a large brickfield, owned by a Mr. Clutterbuck. A single
street only was then built, called New Street. The proper name, however,
was Newcombe Street. At the south end of this street was