Chapter 28

THEN AND NOW.--CONCLUSION.

From our present stand-point there is just a touch of pathos in the thought of many aspiring Englishmen of the Georgian era passing away on the eve of momentous changes, privileged only to see indications of the coming times and not to enter into possession. But there is one element which qualifies this sentiment of regret in breaking with the anticipations of the good time coming. It must be so for all conditions of men. Have we not still to look forward, as we pass out of the age of steam into the more subtle and wonderful age of electricity, to a time when there may be greater wonders yet in store! And so to every man who reaps a harvest from other men's labours comes the old lesson of the responsibility for continuing the seed-sowing.

Of those whose lives have spread over the last eighty years it has been well said that "to be borne in one world, to die in another, is, in the case of very old people, scarcely a figure of speech," so marvellous is the difference between the surroundings of their cradle and their grave. Standing by the Janus at the portals of the two centuries, what a contrast was presented in the backward and forward views! Backward we have seen, in these glimpses of the past, men struggling with difficulties and passing away with the seed-sowing; forward, we see other men enter the promised land and reaping the harvest, for which others had toiled; backward we have seen in our villages, men passing toilsome lives in the circumscribed daily round of their native parish, from which it was almost impossible to break away, or within the few miles of that little world which seemed to end where the earth and sky appeared to meet, and beyond which was a _terra incognita_; forward we see the children from the same villages playing in merry groups on the sands of that wonderful sea-shore of which their fathers had only heard in song and story; and so through the many phases of the daily life of the people.

With much that is admittedly still lacking in the village life and its hold upon the people, the condition of the youth of an agricultural district presents as great a contrast to-day with that of the youth of eighty years ago, as any other condition of life can show. Then, he trudged from the farm house to his daily round of toil, in his stiff leather breeches, from the field back to the stable, from the stable to the kitchen fire-place, then to bed, and up again to the stable and the field--week in, week out, with, in many cases, not a penny to spend from year's end to year's end; hearing no music and seeing no {192} brightness excepting the fiddle and the dulcimer, and the dance and the shows at the neighbouring "statty" (statute fair) at Michaelmas once a year. His master had absolute control of his life and actions, and sometimes would enforce it with the whip-stock. But now the farm lad has the hardihood and the right to summon his employer before a magistrate, goes to "Lunnon" at holiday time, walks with a stick, wears a buttonhole in his _coat_, and, _mirabile dictu_! has been seen to ride home from his work on a "bone-shaker"! In place of the old bent figures in smock-frocks, there are spruce young fellows in black coats; in place of the old indoor farm service, its hearty living, but liberty to thrash a boy, there is freedom of contract, and, I daresay, sometimes an empty stomach; instead of an absolute indifference to the moral character of the labourer, the farmer is waking up to the fact that a steady sober man is worth more than the frequenter of the ale-house.

But there is a _per contra_ in all this. Bad as the times were at the beginning of the century, when the flint, steel, and tinder box, was the only means of striking a light, there were not seen so many boys in the street contracting a bad habit of smoking as may be seen to-day. There was of necessity much less smoking than now, for the habitual smoker was obliged to light up before leaving home, or go into a house, or trust to meeting a fellow smoker with a pipe alight on the road. But we have gained something in outward decency in the decrease of the filthy habit of chewing tobacco, and in the now still greater rarity of the habitual snuff-taker.

Perhaps the most remarkable, and certainly the most humiliating item, in the _per contra_ account set off against extraordinary advancements all round in the outward conditions of the life of the villager, is to be found in the fact that the cottage home--the fountain head of character--has in the great majority of cases absolutely stood still. The old cottage homes of England with all their poetic associations, have, in too many cases, not only not improved, but, with their low mud, or brick floors, cold-beds, rather than hot-beds, of rheumatism, have remained just as when they were occupied by the great-grandfathers of the present generation, excepting that they have grown older and more dilapidated. The evil of huddling families into such hovels is aggravated by the altered condition of life for the labourers' boys, who can no longer, as of yore, find a home in the more roomy farm-house. It may be a hard thing to say perhaps, but the evidence seems irresistible that though there may be notable instances to the contrary, in too many cases where the old clay-bat and thatched habitations have escaped the devouring element of fire, the housing of the labouring man's family is much worse than it was sixty years ago. Is it surprising that a spirited youth or girl, with all the stimulus of immensely improved conditions of life around them, should be drawn away from the old moorings?

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Perhaps in no respect have the changes of time been greater than in the political world, and yet there is a little of the _per contra_ even here. Not only are political opinions freely uttered now for which a man would have found himself in Newgate a hundred years ago, but Bills of all kinds are introduced into Parliament with perfect safety to the person of the member proposing them, such as our forefathers would never have dreamed of advocating, even though they were sometimes called bad names for their advanced political views. In the old days the rural voter got a jollification, a drinking bout, and some hard cash for his vote; now he can almost obtain an Act of Parliament. Still, it is better than bribery, I suppose.

In writing this I do not in any sense hold a brief for the past as against the present, but in contrasting these different phases of life one is bound to acknowledge that we have lost a few things which would have been well worth preserving. We have gained untold social advantages, but we have in too many cases lost the priceless treasure of individual contentment; we have gained a great many things that have been labelled with the sacred name of freedom, but only too often to bow down to false notions of respectability; we have been emancipated as communities from the brutal display of sport and pastimes which have been referred to in the earlier part of these pages, but in too many cases only to substitute a more subtle form of gambling about names of things printed in the newspapers, without any such excuse for the interest taken as our forefathers had in the excitement which was actually before their eyes; we have gained untold advantage in the spread of knowledge, and the means of access to a wealth of intellectual treasures such as our forefathers never dreamed of, but have too often allowed our reading tastes to degenerate into nothing more solid than the newspaper and a few literary _bon-bons_.

There has been both a levelling up and a levelling down in the matter of education, for it is doubtful whether tradesmen and others called middle-class people are so well educated--I mean so thoroughly educated, for they know more things but fewer things well--as men were a generation ago, if we consider education on the abstract and intellectual side.

We are perhaps a little too apt to think that there is nothing for us of to-day, but to bless our stars that we were born in the 19th century; yet if we who carry "the torch of experience lighted at the ashes of past delusions" have escaped from the mists and the shadows along the way which our grandfathers toiled, the responsibility for bettering their work is all the greater.

We may not be able to close this wonderful 19th century with any practical realization of all the dreams of ideal citizenship which made up the last expiring breath of the 18th century. But we have {194} gone a long way in that direction, and happily it has been along a roadway, toilsome and rough at times, upon which there is no need for going back to retrace our steps. Standing now, on the higher ground to which the exertions of our fathers, and the forces which their work set in motion for our benefit, have brought us, we see down into the valley, along the rugged way we have come, abundant reason why men often misunderstood each other--they could not see each other in any true and just light. But just as the heavy material roadway along which the old locomotion was shifting a hundred years ago, from horses' backs on to wheels, has become firmer, broader, lighter, and freer by the cutting down of hedge rows and hindrances which shut out the sweetening influence of light and air; so along the highways of men's thoughts and actions there has been an analogous process of cutting down boundaries and removing hindrances which divided men in the past, until we see one another face to face.

It may be that some few distinctions will be preserved after all the modern political programmes have been played out, but let us hope that the hedges which divide men will be kept well trimmed and low. For, after all, it is impossible to gather up these old voices of a past time, or to look back over such a period as that which has been passed in review by these sketches without recognizing that if men will only stand upright, whatever their station, and not stoop to narrow the horizon of their view, they must see how broad, and how fertile in all human, homely and kindly attraction, are the common heritage, the common work, the common rest and the common hopes of men, compared with the narrow paths within high party walls--whether of religious creeds, social grades, or false notions of what is respectable--within which men have too often in the past sought to hide themselves from one another. The hard lot of the village labourer to-day is not what it was, is not what it will be; the discomforts for all classes remaining from those of seventy years ago look now very small, and may yet look smaller; and history, even the local history of a country town and its neighbouring villages, though it moves slowly, shows foot-prints for the most part tending one way and justifying the old hopeful belief that--

Life shall on and upward go, Th' eternal step of progress beats, To that great anthem, calm and slow, Which God repeats.

THE END.

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APPENDIX.

In the following table is given the population of 45 parishes in the Royston district, viz., of the Royston and Buntingford Poor-law Unions, situated in the counties of Herts., Cambs., and Essex, for each decade from 1801 to 1891. In them the reader will be able to trace the growth of the rural population during the middle of the century, and its remarkable decline during the last twenty years, the economic effects of which have led to the cry for bringing back the labourer on to the land, instead of his drifting away to aggravate the social problem in London and other populous centres.

ROYSTON SUB-DISTRICT.

1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 Ashwell 715 754 915 1072 1235 1425 1507 1576 1568 1556 Barkway 699 686 771 859 1002 986 940 932 782 761 Barley 494 593 695 704 789 870 808 714 614 574 Chishill, Great 309 298 353 371 466 532 473 432 129 140 Chishill, Little 71 55 71 106 96 105 110 110 129 140 Heydon 246 272 272 259 324 368 270 265 257 221 Hinxworth 228 243 247 295 328 347 320 313 297 289 Kelshall 179 180 208 251 276 326 318 286 249 241 Morden, Guilden 428 489 570 675 808 931 906 1059 959 819 Morden, Steeple 430 483 614 645 788 889 912 1018 981 810 Nuthampstead 152 172 222 249 289 302 281 254 217 207 Reed 164 158 214 232 260 277 224 224 189 206 Royston, Herts. 975 1309 1474 1272 1431 1529 1387 1348 1272 1262 Royston, Cambs. 356 * * 485 566 532 495 453 440 439 Therfield 707 692 872 974 1224 1335 1222 1237 1175 996

* In the Census of 1801 and 1811 Royston, Cambs., was taken with Royston, Herts.

MELBOURN SUB-DISTRICT.

Abington Pigotts 177 201 233 259 232 238 228 197 180 169 Barrington 348 343 483 485 533 596 563 727 621 583 *Bassingbourn 828 878 1042 1255 1419 1919 1933 2239 2121 1828 Fowlmere 420 448 541 547 609 597 560 603 542 543 Foxton 322 304 368 408 452 459 405 413 415 436 Kneesworth 120 104 171 191 191 229 280 491 596 801 Litlington 350 418 505 622 722 790 693 768 674 568 *Melbourn 819 972 1179 1474 1724 1931 1637 1759 1803 1649 Meldreth 444 452 643 643 723 776 735 757 781 713 Shepreth 202 253 320 .. 353 321 339 376 373 375 Shingay 42 50 86 112 137 142 128 118 90 74 Thriplow 334 319 371 417 477 521 502 522 463 442 Wendy 109 111 134 125 151 154 128 136 136 127 Whaddon 221 213 318 339 345 340 319 384 348 341

* Parts of these parishes are in the township of Royston.

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BUNTINGFORD UNION.

1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 Austey 387 371 440 417 465 473 412 391 * Ardeley 484 563 617 599 630 574 563 495 464 Aspeden 364 367 455 560 539 577 671 613 658 Broadfield 31 26 23 10 8 19 26 19 ** Buckland 300 288 343 373 384 385 362 358 367 Cottered 339 343 410 436 437 470 456 379 357 Hormead, Great 467 513 564 576 601 660 631 519 431 Hormead, Little 103 94 112 107 87 103 143 127 116 Layston 799 907 1014 1093 1220 998 1086 1071 889 Meesden 122 138 164 158 185 163 181 189 * Rushden 253 287 333 342 321 291 276 270 225 Sandon 595 580 646 716 770 771 809 763 728 Throcking 58 45 69 76 54 97 63 74 ** Wakeley 7 8 9 7 9 4 4 10 *** Wallington 224 219 210 213 254 238 250 191 133 Westmill 328 365 415 418 380 353 337 361 348 Wyddial 181 175 225 243 245 213 199 202 289

* in the Census of 1891, Anstey and Meesden were taken together, and had a population of 574, or 6 less than the two parishes together in 1881.

** Throcking and Broadfield were also taken together, giving a population of 73, or 20 less than in 1881.

*** Wakeley has ceased to be a separate parish.

[Transcriber's note: there were no entries in the 1841 column.]

The population of the town of Royston can only be arrived at by adding together the number of the parts of surrounding parishes making up the township of Royston. At the last two Censuses these parts have been enumerated separately, but not in the earlier decades, with the exception of 1801 and 1831, particulars of which are given below.

1801. Houses. Houses empty. Persons.

Royston, Herts. 193 13 975 " Cambs. 77 3 356 Bassingbourn 25 0 120 Kneesworth 3 0 9 Therfield 4 1 24 --- -- ---- Totals 302 17 1484

There were no inhabitants in Melbourn parish, Royston, at the above Census of ninety years ago, and it will be seen that all the inhabitants within 153 were in Royston parish proper.

1811.--The Census of this period showed very little difference from the figures for 1801, and of that of 1821, I have only the particulars for the two parishes of Royston, Herts., and Cambs., which gave 1,479 persons against 1,331 for these two parishes in 1801.

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The most interesting and complete Census of the town was that of the year

Houses Houses 1831. Houses. empty. building. Persons.

Royston, Herts. 244 3 4 1272 " Cambs. 102 4 0 485 Bassingbourn 35 1 0 157 Kneesworth 6 1 0 49 Therfield 9 0 0 44 Melbourn 1 0 0 1 --- - - ---- Totals 397 9 4 2008

The following are the Census returns for the township of Royston for 1881 and 1891.

1881. 1891. Increase. Decrease. Royston, Herts. 1272 1262 -- 10 " Cambs. 440 439 -- 1 Bassingbourn part 445 472 27 -- The Workhouse 145 101 -- 44 Kneesworth part 461 682 221 -- Melbourn part 190 213 23 -- Therfield part 183 150 -- 33 ---- ---- --- -- Totals 3136 3319 183 --

The interest of the foregoing figures lies in the fact that there was during the first thirty years of the century a great increase in the Hertfordshire part of the town, and scarcely any increase in the Cambridgeshire part, whereas the tendency has now been reversed in so remarkable a manner that against only 9 persons in Kneesworth parish, Royston, in 1801, there are now 682.

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INDEX.

Allotments, 114 Andrews, Hy., astronomer, 34, 107 Anstey Fair, Rural Sports at, 100 Arrington, coaching at, 144 Arrington-hill, 154

"Bacca" and snuff for paupers, 41 Banks stopping payment, 56 Barkway, Day School at, 121 --Milestones near, 15, 16 --Terrible fire at, 178, 179 --Volunteers of, 68 --Whipping post at, 83 --Workhouse at, 40 Barley, "Fox and Hounds" at, 18 Bassingbourn, 24, 65 --Incendiary fires at, 170 --Strange narrative of horse-stealing at, 89 --Volunteers of, 71 Beacon fires, 66, 67 Beadle, dignity and duties of, 53, 54 --The, and Bastardy laws, 163 --Emoluments of, 55 Beldam, Joseph, senr., 28 --Valentine, 27 Biggleswade, dreadful fire at, 179 Bishop Stortford, Volunteers of, 71 Blucher at Cambridge, 72 Body-snatching, horrors of, 81 Bowling Greens, 24, 69 Bow Street Runner, 170 Buntingford, Bridewell at, 93 --Mails from, 115 --Pauper Weddings at, 50 --Queen & Prince Albert at, 187 --Roads, 12 Burying at four cross-roads, 86 Butler, Henry, woolstapler, 105 --John, 27 --W. Warren, and his rhymes, 132-135 Butcher, the, and the Baronet, 136

Cambridge "Chronicle," 15 --Coach, 10 --Undergraduates and village rows, 138, 139 Cambridgeshire Members of Parliament, 157 Cannon, Mrs., Old Matt and the Burglars, 182 Capital punishment, painful case of, 91 --Sentence of death for theft at Melbourn, 91 Carter, Valentine, stage-coach driver, 150 Caxton, 71 --Coaching to, 144 --Gibbet, 13 --Mail robbery, 48 --Turnpike, the, 153, 154 Cave Estate, Royston, 35, 37 Census, manner of taking, 116 --Returns of, in Appendix, 195, 196, 197 Charles I. at Royston, 7 Chartism at Royston, 127 Chimney sweeps' climbing boys, 78 Chipping, 12 Cholera-morbus, the, alarm in Royston 60 years ago, 182, 183 Coaching Accidents, 149, 150 Coaches, begging from, 152 --London to Edinburgh, 145 --Palmy days and speed of, 146 Coals brought from Cambridge to Royston, 75 Cock-fighting, 23 Cooper Thornhill's Ride, 178 Cottage homes of England, dilapidation of, 192 Crabb Robinson's Diary, 27 Cricket in the 18th Century, 130 Cross, Thos, stage-coach driver, 150 --Autobiography of, 136-141 Cruikshank, 67

Dacre, Lord, 110 --Lord and Lady, 121 Daintry, Mrs. and Thomas, 115 Day Schools, 120 Death Sentences 100 years ago, 88 Dogberry, Marrying the Paupers, 49, 50, 51 --Reporting nuisances, 55, 66 Dogs and Pedlars' Carts, 153

Education in Villages, 117 Electioneering in Herts., 156

Farmers and the Labourers, 58 --and Famine prices, 59 Fire Brigade of last Century, 44 Fly Wagons, 6 --Journey to London, by, 143 Flower, Benjamin, 27 Food, Prices of, 75 Fordham, E. K., 70 --Edward Snow, 75 --Henry, 7, 31, 78 --John George, 168, 169, 175 Forgery, Death sentences for, 92 Fowlmere, Riot at, 169 Foxton, Volunteers at, 71 Free Trade, First meetings in Royston, 112 French prisoners, 71

Gallows, The, 88 Gamlingay, Overseers and paupers at, 162 Gas, first prices of, 114 Gatward, James, and the Gibbet, 12, 13 George III., his reign, 1 --Fashions in times of, 76 --Hooted and mobbed, 56 --Jubilee of, 181 George IV., and his Queen--Kingites and Queenites, 127 Gransden, Pauper tyranny at, 166 Guilden Morden, incendiary fires at, 167

Hall, Robert, at Royston, 27 Hardwicke, the Earl of, and the Queen's visit, 188, 189, 190 --and Royston Races, 133 --Lady, 21, 68 Harston, enclosure riot at, 180, 181 Hatfield, Royal Review at, 70 Hauxton, sheep stealing at, 89 Hertford, pillory at, 83 Heydon Grange, prize-fighting near, 137 Highwaymen, 151 Highways, condition of, 8, 10 Highway robbery, 90 Hinxton, burning Pain's effigy at, 26 Hinxworth, labourers' earnings, 59 Hitchin, awful visitation at, 179 Hue and cry, 48

Influenza, following great frost in 1836, 186 Inoculation, 80

Jacobin, 4, 26 Jacklin, James, 72 James I. at Royston, 8 "John Ward, beadle," 55

Kellarman, alchemist of Lilley, 102 Kneesworth and Caxton toll proceeds of, 154

Lambert, Daniel, the fat man, 181 Letters, postage of, 115 Louis XVIII., at Royston, 181

McAdam and the North Road, 154 Mail coach driver killed, 186 Market ordinary, the, 109 Melbourn, the Queen and Prince Albert at, 188 Meldreth and its Stocks, 86 Memorable year of scarcity, 57 Mordens, the, 24

Napoleon Buonaparte, 5 --Shadow of, 56 --Threatened invasion by, 61 Nash, William, 7, 27 Newspapers, how obtained, 77 Noon's Folly, and its prize-fights, 136, 139 Nuthamstead "Sparrow hill," 47

Odsey Races, the, 22 Old Matt, the huntsman, 131 Old music and musicians, 128, 129 Old Poor-law, the, 32 Open corn markets, 110

Packhorses, 6, 7 Parish Clerks, 122 --Constable, and his accounts, 46 --Herdsman, the, 105 --Leaving without certificate, 43 --Workhouse, how managed, 39 Parliamentary Reform, 29, 156 --Rejoicings at Royston, 157 Parochial Assessment, 34 --Parliament, the, 32 Pattens and Clogs, 113 Paupers, 40, 41, 42, 44, 46 Peachey, the Hon. Mrs., 68 Pedestrian feat by a woman, 182 Phillips, John, 181 Pickering, Miss, 27 Pillion, the use of, 7 Police, the new, 174, 175, 176 Poor-law Reform, 159 --Making up wages, 161 --Memorable scene on Royston Heath, 172, 173 --Objection to Central Workhouse, 170 Poor-law Pauper tyranny, 166 --Riots and stack firing, 167, 168 Poor-rate of 22s. in the L at Royston, 61 Posting and Posthorses, 146 Press Gang, and terrors of, 86, 88 Prize-fighting, 135, 136 --Melbourn Champion, 137, 138 --Brighton Bill, 138 --Ward and Crawley fighting for the Championship on Royston Heath, 137 Public Worship, 122 Puckeridge Statute Fair, 98

Queen Victoria's Coronation, rejoicings at Royston, 186 --Jubilee, 70 --and Prince Albert at Royston, 187, 188

Radical Royston, 126 Railway, first use of, 176, 177 Revolution, the French, 2, 3, 4 Richardson, James, 151 Royal Show, Cambridge, 1840, 186 Royston, Badger-baiting at, 23 --Book Club and Debates at, 26, 31, 79 --Burloes Hill cut through, 183, 184 --Cave opened, 36, 37 --Coaching at, 143-145, 148 --Early Temperance work, 127 --18th Century bye-laws in, 25 --Fair tippling at, 100 --King James' stables at, 22 --Market, 67, 108 --Old Royston Club and its members at, 19, 20 --Pillory at, 83 --Races, 133 --Red Lion, social gatherings, 21 --Stocks at, 83 --Volunteers of, 70 --Whipping post at, 83 Rushden, A. Meetkerke of, 122

Salisbury, Marchioness, burnt to death, 184 Semaphore on Royston Heath, 66 Sheep stealing, death sentences for, 89 Shelford fires, death sentence for, 168 Shepreth, skilful woman of, 101 Shield, Capt., the Rev. Thomas, 68, 71 Small-pox, a recommendation, 44 Snelgar, Rev. J., 186 Snowstorms, memorable, 181, 182, 185 Soame, Sir Peter, 131, 132, 136 Stocks, a Lord Chief Justice in, 85

"Tally-ho" and "Safety" Coaches, 146, 148 Taxes on marriages, &c., 78 Therfield, searching for mail, 49 Threshing machines, breaking of, 166 Thurnall, Henry, and the highwayman, 90 --Commended by Poor-law Commissioners, 171 Thurnall, H. J., picture by, 18 Thurtle and Hunt, trial of, 49 Tinder Box, the, 73, 74 Tithes collected in kind, 124 Turpin, Dick, traditions of, 13, 14

Velocipede, the, 152 Volunteers, associations of, 67

Wadesmill Turnpike, 155 Wagon and sign post, the, 184, 185 Walton, Joe, coachdriver, 148, 149 Warren, J., 68, 157 Window tax, 79 Witches, 101 Wheat, 28s. a bushel, 60 "Wheatbarn tasker," the, 166 Woodcock, Elizabeth, buried alive in the snow, 181 Wortham, Lady, 77 Wortham, Squire, 131 Wrestling matches, 24

End of Project Gutenberg's Fragments of Two Centuries, by Alfred Kingston