OLD MANNERS AND CUSTOMS--SOLDIERS, ELECTIONS AND VOTERS--"STATTIES,"
MAGIC AND SPELLS.
In glancing at the manners and customs which prevailed during the later
Georgian era, I find several matters arising out of what has gone
before, waiting for notice.
Prison discipline was evidently very different from our notion of it,
for in 1803 we find prisoners in the Cambridge County Gaol stating that
they "beg leave to express their gratitude to the Right Hon. Charles
Yorke for a donation of five guineas."
If these little indulgences could be obtained in a county gaol it may
be imagined that the parochial cage sometimes lent itself to stratagems
for the benefit of the prisoner. At the old cage on the west side of
the present Parish-room in Royston, Herts., many persons living
remember some curious expedients of this kind. While the prisoner was
waiting {93} for removal to the Buntingford Bridewell (situate in the
Wyddial Lane not far from the river bridge) to undergo his fortnight of
such hard labour as the rules of that curious establishment
exacted--while waiting in the Cage the prisoner's friends would help
him in this way. Above the door of the Cage were some narrow upright
openings, and through this a saucer was inserted edgewise, the prisoner
took it and held it, while, by means of a teapot and the thrusting the
spout through the openings, a good "drink" could be administered,
according to the appetite of the prisoner!
In a former chapter, reference was made to the penal side of obtaining
men for the Army, and I may here mention that an instance of the
all-powerful operations of the Press-gang was actually brought home to
an old Roystonian, who, while crossing London Bridge, was seized and
made to serve his seven years! Though the regular mode of enlistment
had less of this arbitrary character it was, nevertheless, often very
burdensome in our rural districts and led to some curious expedients
for meeting its demands. The Chief Constable of the hundred served a
notice upon the Overseers, and sometimes the number required was not
one for each parish, but a demand was made upon two parishes. As in
1796 the Chief Constable served an order upon Barkway and Little
Hormead acquainting them that one man was to be raised between them,
and that the Overseers were to call a meeting of the principal
inhabitants to consider "the most speedy and effectual means of raising
the said man."
This system of allowing discretion as to how the said man, or men, were
to be provided, sometimes did not answer, for in 1796 the parishes of
Little Hormead and Barkway are jointly credited with paying "the sum of
L31 0s. 0d., being the average bounty and fine for their default in not
providing their quota of men for His Majesty's Army."
The following, under date 1796, will show how the parish generally set
about raising the said "man."
"TWENTY-FIVE GUINEAS BOUNTY.
Wanted immediately, one man for the parish of W----, Cambridgeshire, to
serve either in the Army or the Navy. Apply to the Overseers of the
parish."
In some cases twenty-five pounds and a silver watch were offered.
Under more urgent circumstances when men had to be drawn by lot, the
hardship which must often be occasioned was got over by men joining a
sort of insurance society against compulsory service. With
head-quarters in London and agents in the provinces, this society, upon
the payment of 5s. 6d., gave a receipt guaranteeing to provide the
requisite bounty to purchase a substitute in case the men so insuring
should be drawn for the Army or Navy, and a large number paid into it.
{94}
In 1812 a Ware notice reads: "A bounty of 16 guineas for men and L12
1s. 6d. for boys, offered for completing His Majesty's Royal marines."
Two entries in the Royston parish books show that in 1795 the sum of
L43 18s. 1d. was paid to defray expenses in providing two men for the
Navy; and in 1806, a further sum of L18 "for not providing a man for
the Army."
Sometimes cavalry were drawn for, but the system of drawing for men by
lot chiefly applied to the Militia, for which purpose the parish
constable was to present to the justices "a true list in writing of all
men between the ages of 18 and 45 years, distinguishing their ranks and
occupations, and such as laboured under any infirmities, in order that
the truth of such infirmity might be inquired into [for they frequently
did feign infirmities!] and the list amended." The drawing took place
at Arrington (at the "Tiger"), and at Buntingford, and the old
constable's accounts show frequent entries of "caring the list of the
milshe" (militia) to Buntingford or Arrington.
Accommodating soldiers on the march was more burdensome to the civil
population than now, because they were not only billeted in the town
but their baggage had to be conveyed from place to place by farmers'
wagons, &c., requisitioned by the chief constable, through the petty
constables, who frequently went as far as Wallington and outlying
parishes to "press a waggon" for this purpose, a system which was
responsible for such curious entries as these:
Paid the cunspel for hiern of the bagges wagon for 82 Rigt. to
Hunting [Huntingdon] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5 0
Other entries were such as
Going to Wallington to Press a Waggon to Carry the Baggage
from Royston to Stotfold, a part of the 14th Redgment . . 0 5 0
Going to Bygrave to Press a Cart to Carry three Deserters
from Royston to Weare, Belonginge to the Gards . . . . . . 0 5 0
It was customary not merely for soldiers to be billeted in our old town
_en route_, but they were quartered here for much longer periods. Thus
in 1779 we learn that Regiments from Warley Camp were ordered into
winter quarters--the West Suffolk at Hitchin, Stevenage and Baldock,
and the West Kent at Royston, Stotfold and Walden, and in 1780 the
Cambridgeshire Militia were ordered into winter quarters at Royston and
Baldock.
Coming to matters more affecting the civil population, elections,
voters and voting afforded as great a contrast compared with the
present as in anything that has gone before. Possibly the ripest stage
of the old wine of political life was during the last ten years of the
old pre-Reform era, just before the new wine began to crack the old
{95} bottles; but though the best glimpses of actual election work
should be deferred to a later chapter, there are some incidents
belonging to the early years of the century which cannot be well passed
over.
At the first glimpse of the old order one is struck with the intensely
personal end of political life, if such a word may be used. What
therefore by courtesy was called an election of a member of Parliament,
was more a question of who a man was than of what opinion he held, if
any.
This was how an election was often managed in the old time, when a man
needed a large fortune to face a contested election:--
"At a very respectable and numerous meeting of the freeholders of the
county [Cambridge] at the Shirehall on Monday last, in pursuance of
advertisement, for the High Sheriff to consider the proper persons to
represent them in Parliament, Sir John Hynde Cotton proposed Charles
Yorke, Esq., brother of the Earl of Hardwicke, and was seconded in a
very elegant speech by William Vachell, Esq. General Adeane was next
nominated by Jeremy Pemberton, Esq., who was seconded by the Rev. Mr.
Jenyns, of Bottisham, and both nominations were carried unanimously."
The address returning thanks for the election was inserted in the same
paper as the above account of the meeting, and the affair was ended!
If a candidate had thoughts of contesting an election he had to
consider not merely whether he held political opinions likely to
command a greater support from the electors than his opponent's, but
whether he could afford to spend as much money upon the contest! It
was not customary to hold meetings in every place as now. County
meetings were the order of the day, but Roystonians were not shut out
of the fray which attended elections. The candidates, or their
friends, came round to secure the vote and interest of the voter; at
the same time giving the latter a ticket for himself and several for
his friends. On going to Cambridge or Hertford, as the case might be,
the holders of the tickets found any of the public-houses of _their
colour_ open to them, and the Royston voter and his friends, or the
village voter, often did not return till after several days'
jollification, and other accompaniments of an election in the good old
times, when beer and wine flowed like a fountain!
The old style of election address was a very different thing from the
political catechism which the unfortunate candidate has to put himself
through in these days.
"If I should be so happy as to succeed in this the highest object of my
ambition, I will faithfully discharge the important duties of the great
trust reposed in me, by promoting to the utmost of my power your
Welfare and Prosperity. I am, &c."
{96}
Such was the sum and substance of nearly all the election addresses in
the pre-Reform Bill period. As easy as applying for a situation as a
butler or confidential clerk was obtaining a seat in Parliament, given
plenty of money and a few backers.
It is possible to read through whole columns of these addresses without
finding expressions of opinion upon political questions, or any
reflection of what was taking place in public life at the time! Happy
candidates! whose political capital was all sugar and plums; and who,
haunted by no dread of that old scarecrow of a printed address with a
long string of opinions bound to come home to roost, looking out in
judgment upon you in faded but still terribly legible printer's ink
from every dead wall--at least, had only to get past that rough batch
of compliments, "the tempest of rotten eggs, cabbages, onions, and
occasional dead cats," at the hustings, and you were a legislator
pledged simply to "vote straight!"
Fortunately for the candidate the freeholders, who were entitled to
vote and could at a pinch put their own price upon their votes, and get
it, were not numerous. The poll for the county of Cambridge would, at
a General Election, now, I suppose, be about 25,000, but in 1802, at a
very warm contest, the poll was only 2,624. In the General Election
that year, which was contested in Cambridgeshire, the parish of Great
Abington, out of 47 inhabited houses, sent three freeholders to record
their votes at Cambridge, and Little Abington, out of 34 inhabited
houses, polled four freeholders at the same election.
In the old days of "vote and interest" the canvass was regarded as a
much more certain criterion than to-day. Thus in 1796 a Hertfordshire
candidate issued an address in which he candidly stated, "After a
success upon my first Day's Canvass equal to my most sanguine
Expectations, I had determined to stand the Poll, but finding myself
yesterday less fortunate, I have resolved to decline," &c., &c.
One advantage about an old fourteen days' contest was therefore that if
a candidate found that he could not secure enough votes he could retire
from the contest and "needn't buy any."
Before the passing of the Reform Bill, Elections were not only
protracted and attended with open bribery, revelry, rowdyism, and
popular excitement, but the machinery for arriving at the wish of the
constituency was also of a very rough and ready kind. If, for
instance, a voter was objected to, the sheriff's assessor, a barrister,
was found sitting in a room adjoining the hustings for the pin-rose of
hearing and deciding the claim, the objecting and affirming party being
allowed to appear before such assessor by counsel. The following
incident is, I imagine, almost, if not quite, unique in electioneering
annals, and could only have been possible under the protracted
contests, and the system of revision of claims which has just been
mentioned. It occurred in {97} the Cambs. contested election for 1802,
and is thus recorded in the _Cambridge Chronicle_ for that year.
"At the late election for this county a very singular circumstance
happened. A voter died immediately after his return home, and his son
came the third day [of the Election] and voted for the same freehold,
which was allowed by both parties."
The condition of the rural peasantry a hundred years ago fell
immeasurably short of the opportunities for recreation afforded at the
present time, but there were not a few bright spots in the year, which,
whatever we may think of the manner of the enjoyment, did afford very
pleasant anticipations and memories to even the peasant folk in the
villages. By custom these periodical feasts, for they generally
resolved themselves into that, became associated with certain seasons,
and of these none held a more important place than the annual
Michaelmas "Statty," that is, the annual statute fair, of some central
village or town where, to quote an old Hertfordshire ballad,
There's dancing and singing
And fiddling and ringing,
With good beef and pudding,
And plenty of beer.
Hither came the lads and lasses just free from a year's hiring and--the
lads with whip-cord or horse-hair banding round their hats to indicate
their accomplishments with horses, &c.--ready to enter upon a fresh
engagement with the old or with a new master for the coming twelve
months. Sturbitch fair is not the only place which has been proclaimed
by dignified officials, for in the old time many country fairs, which
had no Mayor and Corporation to fall back upon, were thought of
sufficient importance to engage the services of the Town Crier or
Beadle, and in some places this was the kind of proclamation that
ushered in the fair:--
O yez! O yez! the fair is begun,
There shall be no arrest, till the fair is done.
Arrest for debt should, I suppose, be understood, for the Stocks
invariably received as much company as they could hold on such
occasions.
In some cases the "Statty," or fair, was proclaimed by printed notice
issued by the chief constable of the hundred, and others even by those
responsible for obtaining situations for pauper children, to whose
interest it was that such a convenient means of bringing people
together should be kept up. In the year 1788 I find the Royston Parish
Committee passing this resolution:--
"Ordered that for the future such Boys and Girls as are in the
Workhouse and fit for service be taken to the Neighbouring Statutes for
the purpose of letting them for service."
{98}
Generally each printed announcement by the Chief Constable of
a statute fair for hiring within his hundred concluded with the
intimation--"Dinner on Table at two o'clock, price 2s. 6d. each." From
the last named item I conclude that the dinner on the table was
intended for employers who could afford the 2s. 6d., and also, I
believe, for the parish constables of the hundred whose "2s. 6d. for
the constabel's fest" so frequently occurs in parish accounts. A
number of these announcements before me all end in a similar strain,
but I give one specimen below--
PUCKERIDGE STATUTE
FOR HIRING SERVANTS,
will be held at the
BELL INN,
On FRIDAY, the 23RD of SEPTEMBER, 1796,
_THOMAS PRIOR, Chief Constable._
Dinner on the Table at Two o'clock.
May-day observances may perhaps appear a too hackneyed topic for a
place in these Glimpses, and yet they were very different from present
day observances. The "May-dolling" by children in the streets of
Royston as every first of May comes round is clearly a survival of the
more picturesque mummeries of the past. There is this in common, in
all the procession of Mayers through the ages, that their outward
equipment has always sought some little bit of promise of greenery from
nature's springtide, and rather a large piece of the human nature which
runs to seed in the oriental "backsheesh"--a picturesque combination of
blessing and begging. The "Mayers' song," and its setting in this
district, was something like the following:--At an early hour in the
morning a part of the townspeople would parade the town singing the
Mayers' song, carrying large branches of may or other greenery, a piece
of which was affixed to the door of the most likely houses to return
the compliment. Sometimes delicate compliments or otherwise were paid
to the servants of the house, and, if not in favour with the Mayers,
the former would find on opening the door in the morning, not the
greeting of a branch of "may" but a spiteful bunch of stinging
nettles!--a circumstance which caused servants to take a special
interest in what they would find at their door as an omen of good
fortune.
During the day the Mayers' procession went on in a more business-like
form, with sundry masked figures, men with painted faces--one wearing
an artificial hump on his back, with a birch broom in his hand, and the
other in a woman's dress in tatters and carrying a ladle--acting the
parts of "mad Moll and her husband." Two other men, one gaudily
dressed up in ribbons and swathed in coloured bandages and {99}
carrying a sword, and another attired as a lady in a white dress and
ribbons, played the part of the "Lord and Lady." Other attendants upon
these followed in similar, but less imposing, attire. With fiddle,
clarionet, fife and drum, a substantial contribution from the
townspeople was acknowledged with music and dancing, and a variety of
clownish tricks of Mad Moll and her Husband.
We thus see that the chubby-fisted little fellows who, not possessing
even a doll, rig out a little stump of an old sailor or soldier, or
even a bunch of greenery on a stick, as well as the girls who now
promenade their dolls of varying degrees of respectability, have an
historical background of some dignity, when, on the morning of the
first of May, they line our streets and reflect the glories of the past
to an unsentimental generation which knows nothing of "Mad Moll and her
husband."
The following are some verses of the Mayers' song--
Remember us poor Mayers all,
And thus we do begin,
To lead our lives in righteousness,
Or else we die in sin.
* * * *
A branch of May we have brought you,
And at your door it stands,
It is but a sprout,
But it's well budded out.
by the work of our Lord's hands.
* * * *
The moon shines bright and the stars give light,
A little before it is day;
So God bless you all, both great and small,
And send you a joyful May!
Plough Monday and its interesting connection with the return of the
season for field work of the husbandman, and its modern relic of
perambulating the streets with a plough for largess, has practically
passed away as a custom and has long since lost its sentiment. Another
curious observance connected with the harvest was in full swing at the
time of which I am writing; viz., the "hockey" load, or harvest home.
Many persons living remember the intense excitement which centred
around the precincts of the farmhouse and its approaches, when it was
known that the last load of corn was coming home! Generally a small
portion, enough to fill the body of the cart, was left for the last
load. Upon this the men rode home, shouting "merry, merry, harvest
home," which was a well understood challenge to all and sundry to bring
out their water! Through the village the light load rattled along at a
great pace, while from behind every wall, tree, or gatepost along the
route, men, women and even children, armed with such utensils as came
ready to hand, sent after the flying rustics a shower of water {100}
which continually increased in volume as the hockey load reached the
farm-yard, where capacious buckets and pails charged from the horse
pond brought up a climax of indescribable fun and merriment!
The next in order of the seasons, manners, and customs are the summer
and autumn feasts and fairs. Of the fair held at Anstey, the following
is an announcement of seventy years ago--
ANSTEY FAIR,
ON THURSDAY, JULY 15TH, 1817.
A Tea Kettle to be Bowled for by Women.
A Gown to be Smoked for by Women.
A Shift to be Run for by Women.
A Share to be Ploughed for by Men, at Mr. Hoy's
at the Bell, at Anstey.
How far smoking by women was a habit, or how far it was a device
to contribute to the fun of the fair, cannot very well be
determined--probably there was in it a little of both. The following
poetical announcement is another type--
_A Muslin Gown-piece_, with needle work in,
For Girls to run for; for the first that comes in:
To _Sing for Ribbons_, and _Bowl for a Cheese_;
To _Smoke for Tobacco_, and _Shoot_--if you please;
For a _Waistcoat_ or _Bridle_, there's Asses to run;
And a _Hog to be Hunted_, to make up the fun!
The regulation of licensed houses was not quite so strictly attended to
under the Dogberry _régime_ as we have it to-day. On the occasion of
the Royston fairs, more particularly Ash Wednesday, and I think
Michaelmas, a tippler could obtain beer at almost any house around the
bottom of the Warren, and even when the supervision became less lax,
within the memory of many persons living, the private residents had got
so much accustomed to the practice, that they kept it up by a
colourable deference to the law which led them to sell a person a piece
of straw for the price of a pint of beer and then give them the beer!
So rooted had this habit become under the laxity of the old system that
many persons, I believe, deluded themselves with the belief that
somehow or other they were only exercising their birthright conferred
by charter in ages that are gone! Charters did sometimes grant some
curious things, but I believe I am right in saying that the charters
conferred upon the monks, who were the original governors of Royston,
contain no such easy way of evading the licensing laws of the 19th
century! This kind of thing happened at other "feasts" and looks a
little more like barter than charter.
In some other respects, however, the old Dogberry _régime_ was more
strict than the present. Thus for the Fifth of November in {101} the
first quarter of this century we find the following for Royston--
"Ordered that notice be given that the law will be enforced against all
persons detected in letting off squibs, crackers, or other fireworks in
the street or any other part of this town, and that the constable be
ordered to inform against any person so offending."
Stage plays were not unknown, and whether by strolling players or some
local thespians "She stoops to Conquer" was a favourite among ambitious
flights, with a lively tail end of such tit-bits as "Bombastes
Furioso," "The Devil to pay," and "The transformations of Mad Moll," &c.
Intimately bound up with manners and customs was, of course, the
lingering belief in witches, fairies, brownies, drolls, and all the
uncanny beings which George Stephenson's "puffing billy" has frightened
away into the dark corners of the earth! The subject is too broad for
general reference here, but there are a few local remnants of the
"black arts" which stamped their devotees as being in league with the
evil one.
During the last century, when such large numbers of felons for various
crimes found their way to the gallows, there appears to have been an
idea prevalent that if any woman would agree to marry a man under the
gallows he would be entitled to pardon, and under the influence of this
curious notion, a man executed at Cambridge in 1787, just before the
fatal moment arrived, seeing a woman in the crowd whom he knew, called
out to her "Won't you save my life?" This tragic fashion of popping
the question was not effectual in this case, for the man was hung!
The use of charms for curing diseases was of course in operation.
Perhaps the most unique of these was the plan apparently adopted by the
"celebrated skilful woman at Shepreth." Who the skilful woman of
Shepreth was I am unable to say, but we may perhaps infer the nature of
her fame and skill from the fact on record that a man, who was said to
be one of her descendants, did in 1774, when called in to see a butcher
who had run a meat hook into his hand, carefully dress the offending
hook from day to day with healing ointment, &c., and left the man's
hand alone till it got so bad that a surgeon was called in and had to
perform an operation!
There were later examples of the remarkably skilful woman of
Shepreth--the "wise woman" at Fulbourn; "The wise woman in the Falcon
Yard," at Cambridge; and I have no doubt almost every village had at
least by repute its wise woman who could, for a consideration, unravel
all mysteries about stolen property, malicious injuries, and a host of
things amenable to the black art often vulgarly called witchcraft, in
the name of which perfectly innocent creatures had in a previous age
got a ducking in a horse pond, if nothing worse!
{102}
When pretenders of this stamp, and more innocent and less designing
individuals, who were guilty of nothing worse than an imperfect use of
herbal medicine, were suspected of evil influences, it is not
surprising that the studious who ventured to investigate the mysteries
lying beyond the common run of information should get a share of that
peculiar homage which ignorance paid to knowledge. There were, here
and there, individuals, the record of whose eccentricity opens up for
us vistas into the marvellous domain of magic and mystery which cast
its glamour of romance over the old world of the alchemist in pursuit
of the philosopher's stone. One of the most remarkable of latter-day
disciples of Peter Woulfe, of whom some interesting particulars are
given in Timbs' _Modern Eccentrics_, has a peculiar claim to notice
here, if only for having for many years pursued his studies and
experiments in the neighbourhood of Hitchin.
As late as 1825, twenty years after the death of Peter Woulfe, who was
thought to be the last of the true believers in alchemy, Sir Richard
Phillips visited an alchemist at Lilley, near Hitchin, named Kellerman,
who was believed by some of his neighbours to have discovered the
philosopher's stone, and the universal solvent! His room was a
realization of Tenier's "Alchemist." The floor was strewed with
retorts, crucibles, alembics, jars, and bottles of various shapes,
inter-mingled with old books. This worthy had not only bettered all
the work of his predecessors, but had, after repeated failures, at last
made gold; and, what was more, he could make as much more as he
pleased, even to the extent of paying off the National Debt! In
justification of his singular pursuits, Kellerman quoted Roger and
Francis Bacon, Paracelsus, Boyle, Boerhave, Woulfe, and others, and
claimed that he had discovered the "blacker than black" of Appollonious
Tyanus, which was the powder of projection for producing gold! It
further appeared that Kellerman had lived in these premises at Lilley
twenty-three years, during fourteen of which he had pursued his
alchemical studies, keeping eight assistants to superintend his
crucibles, two at a time relieving each other every six hours; that he
had exposed some preparation to intense heat for many months at a time,
but that all his crucibles had burst except one, which Kellerman said
contained the "Blacker than Black." One of his assistants, however,
protested that no gold had ever been found; and so, even persevering
old Kellerman, the last of his race, who dared to speculate with the
iron horse just behind him, disappears from the scene, discredited by
the Phillistines, who calculate but never dream!
{103}