WHEN THE POLICEMAN CAME.--WHEN THE RAILWAY CAME.--CURIOUS AND MEMORABLE
EVENTS.
With the abolition of the old Poor-law the Parish Constable, as he was
understood in the Georgian era, found a large part of his occupation
gone. Those important journeys of Dogberry on the delicate errand of
marrying off young couples who promised otherwise to be a trouble to
his parish, with all the pleasant suppers, breakfasts, dinners, and
beer at inns on the road, of which the reader has been afforded some
evidence in the parish accounts of the last century--all this
interesting part of the village Dogberry's parochial dignity passed
away, and there were even rumours that the constable would no longer be
entrusted with the hue-and-cry after criminals into neighbouring
parishes. Verily the world was getting turned upside down in these
reforming days!
But before we come to the actual disestablishment of Dogberry there are
a few other matters affecting parish life which were getting ready to
be reformed. There were, for instance, tramps even in those {175}
days, and, like paupers, they knew upon which side their bread was
buttered, and how to turn the prevailing system to the best account.
They were accommodated at the public houses, and the publicans sent in
their bills to the Overseers. If a tramp wished to take it easy and
stay a few days at a comfortable hostelry he did so, and it went down
in the publican's bill against the Overseer. Sometimes this sort of
thing was carried a little too far, as at Royston in 1829, when the
Vestry:--
"Ordered that W. Wilson's bill be paid and caution him, with others who
lodge vagrants, that in future their bills will not be allowed if they
suffer them [that is of course the vagrants and not the bills] to
remain more than one night without an order from the Overseer."
But to return to Dogberry and his blue-coated successor. There was a
good deal of opposition at first to the idea of a police force under
the management of a county body. The idea of disestablishing the
parish beadle and the constable was distasteful in itself, and the
notion that they could be improved upon was rather laughed at. For
years after the "men in blue" came upon the scene they were known as
"Peelers," and have hardly got rid of the "Bobby" part of Sir Robert
Peel's name even yet.
So divided was public opinion on the subject that the Hertfordshire
Quarter Sessions only adopted the new system by one vote--the vote, as
it turned out, of Mr. John George Fordham, of Royston, who had been but
recently appointed a magistrate, and, I think, went on this occasion
and voted for the first time in this division. No man knew better the
need of a change, or the general ineffectiveness of the parish
constable in the face of the disturbances which had for some years
previously been witnessed in many villages. What the first cost of the
"man in blue" was I am unable to say, but the first report of the
Constabulary Force Commissioners contained the following estimate for a
police force for Hertfordshire:--
1 Superintendent at L200 per annum
8 Sergeants at L1 2s. 6d. per week
80 Constables at 17s. 0d. " "
Clothing for 88 men at L5 16s. 5d. per annum
Total cost . . . . L5,132 4s. 8d. " "
1 man to 4,480 acres, and 1,610 persons.
It may be of interest here to make a comparison with to-day, and this
shows, I think, that in place of one superintendent there are seven,
besides a chief constable, that there are 7 inspectors, a rank unknown
in the above estimate, 19 sergeants against 8 fifty years ago, and 136
constables against 80 of fifty years ago, with a considerable
improvement in pay, viz., from the 17s. estimate of fifty years ago to
the 21s. 7d. to 27s. 5d., according to class--the present pay for
constables in the Herts. Constabulary.
{176}
We are sometimes reminded of a tendency to extravagance in county
expenditure in Hertfordshire compared with Cambridgeshire. I do not
know how far this may have held good historically, but certainly there
is evidence of it when the policeman came. A few years after the
establishment of the forces for Herts. and Cambs. the latter county had
70 police at an annual cost of L4,359 3s. 1d., and Hertfordshire had 71
police at a cost of L5,697 8s. 0d.
The new system was not so sudden a commencement as we may suppose, and
at first depended upon the inhabitants meeting the expense if they
wished for the luxury of a policeman in their midst. Hence in 1837 it
was recorded that "in consequence of petty thefts and depredations
committed in Baldock, it has been proposed that a police officer should
be stationed there and a subscription has been set on foot by the
inhabitants for that purpose."
In 1839 four policemen were sworn in for Royston and the neigbourhood,
and yet two years afterwards, in 1841, some persons in Royston appear
to have signed a petition against having a force of rural
police--against allowing to the village the same police protection that
the town and neighbourhood had already obtained for itself. These
were, however, exceptional cases, and the system of a county force soon
became general. The fact is that the old parish constable was a rough
and ready means of dealing with the social and domestic sides of law
and order, but on the criminal side he was of little use. He could
clap a brawling man in the stocks, or use his good offices in marrying
a pauper and getting her off the rates on to those of another parish,
but when it came to a question of serious crime he was useless beyond
carrying forward the "hue and cry" from his own to the next parish.
But the greatest of all the forces at work, breaking the life of the
Reform period from its old moorings, had already begun, and
Stephenson's triumph over Chat Moss had determined the great transition
in the social life and customs between the Georgian and Victorian eras.
At first the nearest railway station to Royston was Broxbourne on the
Great Eastern, and in order to shorten the driving journey to London,
gentlemen and tradesmen rose early in the morning and drove from places
in Cambs. and North Herts, to Broxbourne to join the new conveyance,
the engine of which frightened the passengers as it drew up at the
station! It was not an uncommon sight I am told to see a muster of all
kinds of vehicles drawn up in rows at Broxbourne from all parts of the
north-east of Hertfordshire, and there left to await their owners'
return. The start had, of course, to be made at a very early hour in
the morning to get to Broxbourne by eight or nine o'clock--"30 m.p. 8"
(30 minutes past 8), was the manner of printing the first time tables.
{177}
As to the accommodation, at first the guard of a train in some cases
sat perched on a back seat of the last carriage outside! like a cab
driver, but things had already begun to improve a little at the time I
am writing of. Here is a description by one of the old Royston
travellers of a journey from Broxbourne to London.
"At first the 3rd class carriages were open, like cattle trucks, and
without seats, and when seats were added they were very rough ones.
Later on the open carriages were improved by placing iron hoops over
the top and tarpauling over these, something after the fashion of a
railway van in our streets now. A smartly-dressed young man in his
Sunday best, desiring to appear to great advantage in London, would
find his white waistcoat--which was generally worn in those days--a
very sorry spectacle, after standing in an open carriage and catching
the smoke of the engine, from which there was no protection! On one
occasion there was a very great pressure in the train up from
Broxbourne to London, and one of these 3rd class carriages with the
iron hoop and tarpauling roof over it was so full that the pressure on
the wheels and consequent friction began to produce sparks and then
smoke! All the passengers were in a terrified state! Some of them set
to work trying to tear the tarpauling away from the roof in order to
communicate with the guard, but unfortunately the tarpauling seemed to
be the strongest part of the carriage, and it appeared to be a case of
all being burned to death before the train stopped! At last one young
fellow becoming more desperate, got his head through the top of the
carriage--that is through the tarpauling--and had his high top hat
carried away by the breeze; but succeeded in getting sight of the guard
perched on behind. When the train came to the next station there was a
general stampede and most of the passengers refused to go any further.
A few of them were obliged to go on, and the reduced weight and
lessened friction removed all further danger."
After the above period the Great Northern Company came upon the scene
in Hertfordshire; but frightened not a few people by the formidable
character of its undertaking near Welwyn, for before the famous
Digswell Viaduct had spanned the picturesque valley of Tewin, or the
tunnels had pierced the last barrier of the hills, it is said that many
persons who had invested heavily in Great Northern shares, began to
tremble in their shoes, owing to the enormous expense, and a person
with enough foresight and judgment might have bought up, for a small
amount, shares enough to have made him a wealthy man for the rest of
his life!
The railway did not touch the neighbourhood of Royston until much of
the novelty of the change, and also of the opposition to it had passed
away. The opposition to it here was therefore one of a competitive and
interested character, rather than of prejudice against {178} George
Stephenson and his iron horse. Owing to the opposition of Lord
Mornington in the interest of the Great Eastern Railway Company, the
Royston and Hitchin Railway was prevented running into Cambridge, and
ran only as far as Shepreth, hence the joint use of a part of the line,
after it was carried on to Cambridge.
The first effect of a railway in any neighbourhood was felt upon the
conveyance and upon the price of the necessities of life. Reference
has already been made in an earlier sketch to the difficulties of
getting coals from Cambridge, thirteen miles along bad roads to
Royston, and it may be added that the first year after the railway to
Royston was opened, the price of coal was so much reduced that the gain
to the townspeople was calculated to be sufficient to pay all the rates
for the year!
The shares of the Royston and Hitchin Company, whose work of
construction involved much less difficulty than the part of the main
line already referred to, were at one time sold at a discount though
carrying a guaranteed six per cent. dividend, and they are now worth, I
suppose, about 80 per cent. more than they cost.
The accommodation at first was not as luxurious as it is now. Some of
the carriages on this line, were at first open at the sides like cattle
trucks, and at a pinch on market day cattle trucks were attached and
the passengers stood up in them!
* * * * * * * *
Having already exceeded the bounds of time and space contemplated for
these Sketches, and travelled a little beyond the period indicated by
the title, the writer might here, in a few words, have taken leave of
his task, but for the fact that he finds himself still in possession of
a small collection of troublesome "fragments," some of them of peculiar
interest, which would not lend themselves very readily to being
classified or blended together into any of the foregoing chapters.
These fragments are chiefly short paragraph records of local events, on
a multitude of topics, and therefore must be treated as such, and
thrown as far as possible into chronological order.
1745. Cooper Thornhill, of the Bell Inn, Stilton, near Huntingdon--in
whose house, from the hands of a relative, Mistress Paulet, originated
Stilton cheese--this year achieved a remarkable feat of horsemanship by
way of Royston to London; riding for 500 guineas from Stilton to
London, 71 miles, in 3 hours and 52 minutes.
1748. In this year, on August 18th, occurred a fire which is memorable
in the annals of Barkway. The record preserved in the parish papers
consists chiefly of the accounts of the losses, but it is sufficient to
show that there must have been nineteen houses burned, {179} and, as
the losses were for small amounts, probably nearly all of them cottages.
I give a few of the articles and items of loss and expense--
A publican and farmer lost "hogsheads bare"; L9 in wine, L16 in "sider"
(cider), 42 cheeses, silver spoons, "a chest of lining [linen] L20,"
and claimant's sister lost in "lining" and other things L7, and there
are "30 trenchers," earthenware and wooden dishes, &c., &c.
John Sharp--my Lost at the fier as Folows--
In weat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 7 0
housal goods to the valuer . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 0
In wood to valuer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 12 0
L3 19 0
Expense at Royston for two Engins and Buckets 1 10 0
Expense at Buntingford for Engine and Bucketts 0 15 0
L2:05: 0
1785. On the 16th June, 1785, there was a fire at Biggleswade, which
in the space of less than five hours burnt down one hundred and three
dwelling-houses and nine maltings. The want of water and the rapidity
of the flames, with the falling of the houses, being so dreadful,
little good could be done till evening, when the fire was happily
stopped. Upwards of 60 houses in the middle of the town were burnt
down, with all the shops, warehouses, stables, &c., adjoining. It is
generally supposed to have been wilfully occasioned.
1786. June 3rd, the Roy-stone, at Royston, was removed from the Cross
to the Market Hill by order of G. Wortham, surveyor. [Removed to
present site in Institute Garden, 1856.]
There was a remarkable frost in 1786, when among other fatal results of
the rigour of the season, a maltster named Pyman, of Royston, when
returning home from Kelshall, was frozen to death, and a butcher's boy
taking meat from Royston to Morden met with the same fate.
1787. In 1787 the following awful visitation of divine vengeance
befell a man near Hitchin, in Hertfordshire. He had applied to a
Magistrate, and informed him that he had been robbed by such a
gentleman.--"The Magistrate told him that he was committing perjury,
but the miscreant calling God to witness, that if what he had advanced
was not true, he wished that his jaws might be locked and his flesh rot
on his bones; and, shocking to relate, his jaws were instantly
arrested, and after lingering nearly a fortnight in great anguish, he
expired in horrible agonies, his flesh literally rotting on his bones."
1788. A burial ground as a present for winning a law-suit may seem an
odd acknowledgment, but this was what happened in Royston {180} during
last century, when, in 1788, the following obituary notice was
published which explains itself--
"Died in the Workhouse in Royston, Thomas Keightly, and on the
following Friday his remains were interred in the family burying ground
in the Churchyard of that parish. He was the eldest son of the late
Wm. Keightley, Esq., of that place, who some years ago, to his immortal
honour, stood forward on behalf of the parish, and at his own expense
supported a very litigious and expensive law-suit, which he gained and
for which the said parish as an acknowledgment made him and his
posterity a present of the aforesaid burying ground."
What the law-suit was about I am unable to say.
The following remarkable incident is taken from an old newspaper, the
_Cambridge Intelligencer_--
1794. June 15th. On Wednesday last a son and two daughters of the
Widow Curtis, of Wimpole, in this county, were returning from Royston
Fair in a one-horse tilted cart. They were stopped in the street at
Royston by a concourse of people surrounding some recruiting sergeants
who had been parading the streets with a flag and playing "God Save the
King." The young man, being in liquor, attempted to drive through the
crowd. The horse reared up, being frightened by a musket let off close
to him, the young man whipped the horse and struck some persons who
obstructed the cart. This aroused the courage of the sons of Mars, who
thrust their swords through the tilt of the cart, which alarmed the
young women who leaped from the cart, and, fainting away, were carried
to a house at a trifling distance. The soldiers, not satisfied with
the exploit, wreaked their anger upon the horse by stabbing it with a
bayonet in such a manner that the poor animal died in a few minutes.
During the tumult, one of the sergeants threatened a tradesman in the
town, a person of unsuspected loyalty, that if he did not say "God Save
the King," he would run him through the body. To which he replied with
the spirit of a Briton--"You may stab me if you dare, but no man shall
make me say 'God Save the King' only when I please."
1797. Among the numerous parishes in Cambridgeshire which, at the
close of last century, adopted Enclosure Acts was the parish of
Harston, and in this case the preliminary formalities were attended
with an extraordinary manifestation of feeling. The owners of the
property in the parish gave notice of their intention of applying to
Parliament for an Act to allot and divide the parish. A person of the
name of Brand was sent over on horseback from Cambridge to post the
requisite notice on the Church door at Harston. But a crowd of persons
assembled to prevent this being carried out. The man was roughly
handled, his horse kicked, and his coat torn, and he "found it
necessary to get away as fast as he could." A warrant was issued for
{181} the leader named Norden who assaulted Brand, and a great crowd of
persons assembled to prevent Norden's apprehension. The officer of the
law on the one side was protected by nine cavalry who were around, and
on the other hand the rioters were armed with pitchforks and whatever
they could lay their hands upon. The officer and his cavalry escort
got hold of Norden when in the field, but were followed on the road to
Cambridge by the rioters, who, however, were afraid of the fire of the
soldiers, and no lives were lost. Norden was committed to the Quarter
Sessions, and on acknowledging his offence he got off with three
months' imprisonment.
1799. On the 8th of February, 1799, there was a tremendous snowstorm
which caused much suffering to travellers. Coaches and wagons were
buried in the snow and lives were lost. It was the same storm that
overtook Elizabeth Woodcock on her way from Cambridge Market to
Impington, and buried her alive for eight days. The snow was drifted
so high in the neighbourhood of Baldock that fifty men were employed on
the North Road to dig out several wagons and carriages buried there.
Passengers by coach had a fearful time of it, and what it was like in
the neighbourhood of Royston may be gathered from the following
testimony to the action of a Roystonian--
"The humanity of Mr. John Phillips, common brewer of Royston, during
the late severe weather deserves the highest commendation, particularly
on Saturday last. Being informed that the York and Wisbech Mail
Coaches were set fast in the snow two miles from Royston, about five
o'clock in the morning, he despatched several of his men and sixteen
horses to their relief, and in the course of three hours conveyed the
coaches safe to Royston, to the great joy of the passengers, coachmen,
and guards, some of whom would probably have perished had it not been
for Mr. Phillips' humane assistance."--_Cambridge Chronicle_, February
14th, 1799.
1807. Between this year and 1814, for the particular year is
uncertain, Louis XVIII. of France paid a visit to Royston and descended
into the Old Cave. Louis, while in exile in England from 1808 to 1814,
a part of the time occupied Gosfield Hall, near Braintree, Essex, and
it was while here, apparently, that he came over to Royston to see the
Cave.
On the 25th October, 1809, was the Jubilee of the reign of George III.
I am not aware of anything being done in Royston, but if there was it
was probably a half-hearted affair and contrasting greatly with the
happy augury of the Jubilee of the reign of Queen Victoria in 1887.
1809. In June, 1809, Daniel Lambert, the famous fat man, was weighed
at Huntingdon and was found to weigh 52 stone, 1 lb.--14 lb. to the
stone. A few days afterwards he arrived from Huntingdon at {182}
Stamford where he was announced for exhibition, but he died about nine
o'clock the following morning.
1814. On January 14th, the deepest snow that had been known for 40
years began--was some days falling--and continued on the ground for
five weeks, and in places drifts were 15 feet deep. The frost
continued for 12 weeks, till March 20th. On the 8th of the month of
January the frost was of almost unexampled severity. A fair was held
on the Thames where a sheep was roasted. A card printed on the Thames
during that strange winter fair is now in the Royston Institute Museum.
Houses were in many cases snowed up, and the difficulties of traffic
were enormous. Large gangs of labourers toiled at mountains of snow in
order to open up the coaching routes. When the frost was 20 deg. below
freezing point, Benjamin Dunham, seventy years of age, was found frozen
to death between Barrington and Harlton.
The armed burglar was in evidence during the last and early years of
the present century as a terror to householders, with this difference
from the present system, that the offenders generally went in gangs.
One notable event of this kind is connected with the residence of
Squire Wortham (now Mr. J. E. Phillips) in Melbourn Street, Royston.
The party, approaching from the Dog Kennel Lane in rear of the
premises, disturbed the housekeeper, a Mrs. Cannon. She in her turn
called out to Old Matt, the huntsman, but that worthy slept so soundly
that she could not wake him; meanwhile the burglars seemed about to
effect an entrance, when the redoubtable Mrs. Cannon secured a
blunderbuss and, firing out of the window in the direction of the
visitors, they made off. It was generally believed that the
housekeeper shot one of the burglars, and years afterwards this was
verified in a curious way by one of the party who, just before he died,
made a confession to Mr. Stamford, then living at the Old Palace, to
the effect that he was one of the party and that one of them was shot.
1826. On December 16th, a woman 61 years of age, "undertook for what
the public of Royston chose to give her, to walk 92 miles in 24
consecutive hours--that is, starting from the White Lion in the High
Street and walking through the town, half-a-mile in and half-a-mile
out. She began her journey at 9 minutes after 4 on Friday afternoon
(the weather unfavourable, the street excessively dirty and the boys
rather troublesome) and completed her task at 3 minutes after 4 the
next afternoon, having 6 minutes to spare."
1831. In 1831, with the uneasiness caused by the appearance of the
cholera morbus at Sunderland and elsewhere, a great scare was
occasioned in Royston, and the sanitary state of the town at last got
an overhauling, when the result showed what a terrible state of things
had prevailed in the town during the first decades of the century.
{183} Mr. E. K. Fordham, the veteran banker and reformer, was the first
to set the ball rolling, and a regular scheme of house to house
visitation was resorted to. A committee was appointed, and the town
was divided into four parts, each committee to report to the Select
Vestry. The state of things disclosed by that report now seems almost
inconceivable. The Committee's work had a salutary effect, and this
burst of zeal for the public health proceeded so far that a proposal
was carried unanimously that a Board of Health be formed "for the more
effectual removal of nuisances, and obtaining assistance from the
Central Board should the cholera morbus unfortunately break out in this
town." With the disappearance of all danger of the cholera morbus
however the "Board of Health" fell through, but the effect of the
enlightenment which it led to as to the condition of the town was not
altogether lost. The cholera was then considered a new epidemic, and
it broke out at Sunderland and carried off many thousand lives in the
year. Hence the alarm spread to inland towns, the inhabitants of
which, like Royston, had their eyes opened to things little thought of
before, and that great principle of cause and effect took root in
regard to public health, which led up to the Public Health Acts of the
present day. It was on this visitation that Kingsley in his "Two Years
Ago" gives such a graphic description of the terror caused by the
appearance of the cholera, in the treatment of which he makes his hero
Tom Thurnall take a notable part. Whether cholera actually appeared in
the district I am unable to say, but I find an item for Royston, Cambs,
"Cholera bills, &c., 14s. 3d." Probably this was part of the expense
of the steps above described.
Some years after the above date, when vaccination had got established,
a valiant Royston champion of the good old cause inoculated her family
with small-pox. She was brought up at the Bull before the magistrates,
who, evidently reluctant to punish her, asked if she would promise not
to do the like again, to which she adroitly made answer that she could
promise them this, that if she did do it again she would not tell
anyone. This was not quite a recantation, and so the old lady had to
go to Hertford gaol for seven days, and a crowd of people saw her off
out of the town--one of the first victims of that law of compulsion of
the individual for the public good which was to be a characteristic of
the coming legislation.
1833. In this year the Royston Institute was founded under the name of
the Royston Mechanics Institute. In 1855 the present building was
erected partly on the site of the old turn-pike house, and it was
opened in 1856.
1834. The lowering of Burleigh's, or Burloe's, Hill, Royston, by
digging a cutting through, was begun about this time. The trustees of
the Baldock and Bournbridge Turnpike Trust made a special contract by
{184} which the parish contracted to do the work for L250, the parish
taking any risk of loss and any chance of profit on the transaction,
and the work to extend over two years. Men who applied to the Overseer
were set upon it, and there was a strike against 4d. per yard, the
price fixed for the labour by Mr. Wm. Smith, the surveyor for one part
of the work, and the Vestry stood by the Surveyor and decided that any
men who refused to do it at that price should not be employed by the
parish.
The labourers refused to work at it, and "as the magistrates sanctioned
the offer of work at this hill as an answer to applicants for relief,
the labourers who would have been relieved for want of employment have
found work from private employers instead of living on compulsory
relief from the parish. Labourers living out of the parish, and
_threatening to come home_ unless out-allowance was paid them, having
been answered that there was two years' work provided for them, have
altered their intention of coming home and have subsisted on their own
resources." And so the Parochial Pharaohs, as the paupers regarded
them, by practical common sense and a strong grip of the handle,
managed to make the rough places plain, and the sturdy vagabonds--for
many of the old paupers of these times deserved the name--with their
threats to "come home to their parish," were kept at a safe distance on
the horizon by the ring of picks and mattocks!
1835. In this year occurred the fire at Hatfield House in which the
Marchioness of Salisbury was burnt to death; an event which created a
great sensation in all parts of the county, the Marchioness having been
quite a public character, and was, in fact, at one time mistress of the
Hertfordshire Hounds, then called "_Lady Salisbury's_."
One of the strangest incidents connected with the old highway traffic
of sixty years ago, was the mishap which occurred to an old stage wagon
with three horses abreast, a team of eight, at Royston about 1835 or
1836, on a Saturday night, or rather Sunday morning, in November. The
incident was cleverly described by a versifier in the columns of the
_Herts. and Cambs. Reporter_ some years ago, but it is only necessary
here to say that the wagon was travelling up to London, and reached
Melbourn all right. Here, however, the sleepy teamster got his
ponderous team too near a huge sign-post in the village, when
The ornamental sign by tricks,
Amongst the ropes came firmly fixed.
The sign-post was torn up and fixed immovably between the wheels and
the wagon, and in that position was carried aloft, as "slowly the eight
big Lincoln steeds" continued their wonted course towards Royston.
Before day-light that town was reached, the driver still unconscious of
the curious appendage to his load. "Rounding the {185} corner at the
Cross" the strange projection crashed into the windows of the shops to
the consternation of the inhabitants, as
House after house was ripp'd and torn.
* * * *
Plant-pots and plants alike were strown,
And gilded names in swaths were mown.
Some thought it was an earthquake, and others that the end of all
things had come. Amongst the terrified shopkeepers, George Rivers, the
witty thespian, is credited with exclaiming:--
"The windows and the frames are gone,
And all the house is tumbling down"!
Not till the wagon reached the Warren did that and the old sign-post
part company, and even then the sleepy driver wended his ponderous way
towards Buntingford in blissful ignorance of the devastation he had
wrought upon the shop windows! "Nor did he learn the strange affray
till he returned another day."
1836. The great snowstorm of 1836 was even more memorable than the two
preceding storms of 1799 and 1814, for its suddenness, its extent, and
the greatly increased number of stage-coaches "on the road" at that
time, which suffered from the interruption of traffic. It commenced to
snow on the night of Christmas Eve (Saturday) and snowed all day on
Sunday, and the next day. No snowstorm in Great Britain for the
previous hundred years equalled it in violence and extent. On the
evening of the 26th, after it had been snowing for 48 hours, the wind
increased to a hurricane, and in the night the fall of snow was from
four to six feet, while the drifts were from 20 to 30 feet in depth,
and the condition of all exposed to it was appalling! The storm spread
all over Europe, and in this island all communication was cut off for
nearly a week. No coach got through from Cambridge till the following
Thursday. Many a Christmas party that Christmas were minus their
guests, for coaches were "snowed up" all over the land, and, but for
the timely shelter of inns and private houses, many of the passengers
must have perished. There were three coaches almost within sight of
each other placed _hors de combat_ in and near Royston. One coach was
actually stuck fast in the snow at the Cross, in the centre of the
town; another just below the present railway bridge, and another at the
bottom of the Kneesworth Hill. These coaches were the Edinburgh Mail,
the Boston Mail, and the Stamford Coach, and were all on their way to
London at the time. The unfortunate passengers were obliged to spend
the Christmas holidays in Royston as best they could, and the mails
were sent forward on horseback as soon as practicable. For a whole
week no mail coach went into, or came from, London through Buntingford
and Royston. Between Royston and Wadesmill, on the portion of the
North Road known as the {186} Wadesmill Turnpike Trust, the
difficulties of opening up communication were of the most formidable
character.
Near the gates at the entrance to Coles Park, Westmill (now the
residence of R. P. Greg, Esq.), there were drifts 20 feet deep, and the
labour of cutting through the snow between Royston and Wadesmill, was
believed to have cost no less than L400, and so great was the loss to
the toll-keepers that the Turnpike Trust found it necessary to
compensate Mr. Flay, the lessee, to the extent of L200 for the loss of
toll through this unexampled interruption of traffic. It may be of
interest just now to mention that the above remarkable storm was
followed by a serious epidemic of influenza.
1837. Following the important undertaking of cutting through Burloes
Hill on the Newmarket Road, came the great work of cutting through the
hill on the London Road, south of Royston. The undertaking was begun
in 1836, the contract price for the work in this case being L1,723.
This work proved more difficult in one sense than that of the Newmarket
Road, from the fact that the coaching and other traffic was so much
greater along this road and that the work had to be adapted to the
continuation of this heavy traffic. The passage of coaches over the
temporary roadway was not of the smoothest, and it is said that one
passenger became so alarmed that he jumped from the coach, being afraid
it would upset, and in doing so broke his leg. The Turnpike Trust,
being responsible for the state of the road, though not for the
passenger's want of courage, made him a compensation of L50 for the
injury.
In 1837 the coronation of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, was worthily
celebrated in Royston. There were free dinners for the townspeople on
the Market Hill, with bands of music, and the principal residents dined
together at the Bull Hotel afterwards--much the same as in the
celebration of the jubilee of Her Majesty's reign fifty years
afterwards in 1887.
1840. In this year the Royal Agricultural Society held their second
annual show on Parker's Piece, Cambridge, and, as an illustration of
how such exhibitions have advanced since then, it may be mentioned that
at the show of the "Royal" at Oxford in the previous year there were
only fifty exhibits of live stock and twenty-three of implements, and
the exhibition at Cambridge brought not very many more.
1842. During the winter months of this year a mail-coach driver was
killed near the turnpike, Mill Road, Royston, by the coach being
overthrown owing to the snow.
In the same year the Rev. J. Snelgar, vicar of Royston, hung himself in
his own rooms at the residence (now Mr. Walter --ale's) [Transcriber's
note: several characters missing from Walter's surname] near the Sun
Inn, at the top of Back Street.
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[Illustration: TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT BUNTINGFORD.]
1843. Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Consort visited Wimpole and
Cambridge this year, passing through Royston on their way to Cambridge.
Triumphal arches and other signs of welcome were erected in most of the
towns and villages on the road from London to Cambridge. Of these
outward manifestations of loyalty, the illustrations here given
appeared at the time in the _Illustrated London News_, which, now
claiming to be the father of illustrated journals, was then in its
infancy and only about one year old. Three triumphal arches were
erected in Royston; one at the entrance into Royston opposite the
residence of Mr. Hale Wortham, one at the Cross, and another at the
Institute, with no end of bunting down the streets. Goods were removed
from shop windows and spectators took their places. There was an
enormous concourse of people to see the young Queen and her royal
consort. It had been arranged to run up a flag upon a flag-staff on
the top of the London Cutting as soon as the royal carriage was seen
coming down Reed Hill, as a signal for the bells to commence ringing.
This was in charge of Mr. Hale Wortham, in whose absence for a few
minutes some mischievous boys ran up the flag signal, which set the
Church bells ringing, and placed the whole concourse of people on the
tiptoe of expectation and excitement long before the Queen's arrival,
with a corresponding tax upon their patience. A tremendous gale was
blowing, which played havoc with the linen and devices on the arches
and tore down the flag-staff and pinnacle to which it was attached on
the tower of the Parish Church. When the carriage came, however, {188}
it was at a very great speed. By the arrangement of the Earl of
Hardwicke a regular military escort was dispensed with as soon as the
county of Cambridge was reached. In Melbourn Street a large body of
horsemen, including many gentlemen of Royston, was assembled, which was
in fact lined by them, for the purpose of falling in by threes as the
royal carriage passed. During a pause the Earl of Hardwicke went up to
the carriage and spoke to the Queen and the Prince Consort. The royal
carriage was escorted by soldiers and members of the Herts. Yeomanry as
far as the borders of Herts. at Royston, where members of the Cambs.
Yeomanry were to take their places. The carriage travelled at such
great speed that though the Herts. Yeomanry, mostly farmers and others
used to hunting and well mounted, easily kept their places, yet the
Cambs. men, including Fen men more heavily mounted, soon found
themselves actually dropping off, and many of them were left hopelessly
behind when the journey was renewed en route for Trinity College,
Cambridge. Those left behind were able to come up at Melbourn where
there was a change of horses.
[Illustration: TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT ROYSTON.]
At Melbourn the scene was a memorable one as the mounted horsemen and a
vast crowd of people from the whole neighbourhood gathered around the
old historic elm tree, where the change of horses took place. Such a
crush of mounted horsemen had never been seen in the village. Upon the
gigantic branch of the old elm tree, which then extended right across
the road, some loyal Melbournites, short of bright coloured flags
usually employed on such occasions, had spread a huge tarpauling upon
which was a loyal motto of welcome. This curious piece {189} of
bunting naturally attracted some attention, and some of the yeomanry
escort attending Her Majesty and the Prince, were heard to remark that
it was "a very coarse piece of loyalty," but evidently the young Queen
and her royal consort, accepted it at its intended worth, and what was
wanting in elegance, was made up by sincerity and the enthusiasm of the
people. It is fair to add that Melbourn had its triumphal arch as
appears by the contemporary illustrations in the journal from which
those at Royston and Buntingford have been obtained.
[Illustration: WIMPOLE MANSION.]
The following reference to this event occurs in a book entitled
"Recollections of Military Life and Society," by Lieut.-Col. B. D. W.
Ramsay:--"In the autumn of 1843 we were despatched on escort duty with
Her Majesty and Prince Albert, between Hertford, Cambridge, Royston,
and Wimpole, Lord Hardwicke's place. On arrival at Wimpole, where I
commanded the escort, I received a despatch from the Horse Guards
directing me to give up the escorting of Her Majesty from Royston to
Wimpole to whatever yeomanry might present themselves. This I received
one afternoon, and on the following day Her Majesty was to arrive, and
no yeomanry had made their appearance. I therefore determined to ride
out to Wimpole and see Lord Hardwicke. * * * On arriving there I saw
Lord Hardwicke standing in front of the house with his agent, an old
naval officer and shipmate. Lord Hardwicke frantically waved me off
saying, 'I do not want to see you. Why do you come to torment me
before my time? To-morrow you must all come.' This he said in a
melancholy voice. Upon which I deemed it advisable to introduce myself
as he had evidently forgotten me. The Dowager Lady Hardwicke was my
grand aunt. * * * When I made myself known nothing could exceed his
kindness. 'God bless you {190} my boy,' he said, 'Come and stay as
long as you can, and drink all my champagne; but don't bother me about
military matters. You know I am a blue-coat, and don't care about
them.' I said, however, 'I must know if any yeomanry are coming, in
order to make the necessary arrangements.' 'Of course they'll come;
don't bother me,' was all I could get out of him. And then he snatched
a book out of his agent's hands, and said 'Look here; here are my
accounts balanced for the year--not a penny to spare; and here are all
you fellows coming. However, you are all welcome. Enjoy yourselves;
but for goodness sake don't bother me.' So I decamped. I returned to
Royston late in the evening but still no yeomanry." The yeomanry
arrived about ten o'clock at night, however, and the writer gives an
amusing account of the dispute over changing escorts, the yeomanry
officer insisting that the change should be made at the Inn where the
change of horses was made, and the writer states that he with all the
dignity of a cornet of twenty years of age, said he would do no such
thing, but that the change should be made on the confines of the county
some distance outside the town. The yeomanry officer remonstrated
saying that the Queen's carriage would then be travelling at a great
rate and it would be difficult to change escorts as his men had never
practised it. The young cornet said that that was his affair, and
insisting upon the letter of his instructions, the change of escort was
made at the county boundary, the leaders of the Queen's carriage were
thrown down in the process, and the only consolation that could be
offered to Prince Albert's inquiry for the cause was the instruction
from the Horse Guards, and that the spot was the confines of the county
of Cambridge, and the struggling mass of horsemen His Royal Highness
saw were the yeomanry who had presented themselves! The writer adds
"My orders being explicit there could be no answer to this. But query,
ought I to have been so particular as to the letter of the law?
Certainly the Lord Lieutenant of the County, Lord Hardwicke, thought
_not_, as he slapped me on the back and called me an impudent
young----(something)."
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