Part 9 (1/2)
Mr. Thomas Wortham, the treasurer to the Corps, found that the Royston people came out well with their money and equipment for {70} repelling the invader. E. K. Fordham's name appears in the list for L25; the Rev. Thomas s.h.i.+eld for L10 10s., and ”personal service”; William Nash L10 10s.; John and James Butler for L5 5s. each; Waresley and Fordham L5 5s.; Thomas c.o.c.kett ”two stands of arms and accoutrements complete”
[what kind, not specified], and others followed suit.
Royal reviews and grand hospitalities were common in the Metropolitan district, such as the Grand Review in Hyde Park, but perhaps the most memorable in which the Hertfords.h.i.+re Volunteers took a part was the Grand Review of the Militia, Yeomanry, and Volunteers in Hatfield Park, on the 14th June, 1800, in the presence of the King and Queen and other members of the Royal Family, Cabinet Ministers, and a host of distinguished people, whom the Marquis of Salisbury entertained at Hatfield House with such splendid hospitality that the entertainment cost L3,000. Forty beds were made up at Hatfield House for the accommodation of visitors. The general company must have been immense, for carriages and wagons, gaily decorated, ”extended in a line for three miles in length,” and the scene was brightened ”by the presence of the ladies wearing white dresses.” The hospitality for the men under arms was on the most generous and famous scale. About seventeen hundred men sat down at 17 tables, laid out on the Western side of the House. The following is a list of the good things placed upon the tables upon that memorable occasion:--80 hams, 8 rounds of beef, 100 joints of veal, 100 legs of lamb, 100 tongues, 100 meat pies, 25 edge-bones of beef, 100 joints of mutton, 25 rumps of beef roasted, 25 briskets, 71 dishes of other roast beef, 100 gooseberry tarts, &c., &c.
The commissariat appears to have been at the ”Salisbury Arms,” for this part of the hospitality, where we learn that there were killed for the occasion:--3 bullocks, 16 sheep, 25 lambs.
Inside the historic building of Hatfield House the scene was worthy of the occasion too, for here, in King James' Room, King George and the Royal Family sat down to a sumptuous dinner, while the banquet for the Cabinet Ministers and others extended to 38 covers, and the whole affair engaged the services of 60 regular servants, and 60 extra waiters were employed for the occasion besides. Such a gathering inside and outside the home of the Cecils as that of 1800 has scarcely been equalled since, excepting perhaps by that of royalty in the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria in 1887.
The following was the muster of Volunteers with their captains a.s.sembled at this memorable review:--
Royston and Barkway, captain, Rev. Thomas s.h.i.+eld, 70 men; Hertford, Captain Dimsdale, 103; Hatfield, Captain Penrose, 77; Ware, Captain d.i.c.kinson, 76; St. Albans, Captain Kinder, 74; {71} Hitchin, Captain Wilshere, 70; Bishop Stortford, Captain Winter, 58; Cheshunt, Captain Newd.i.c.k, 48; Hunsdon, Captain Calvert, 39; and Wormley, Captain Leach, 29.
In accordance with the plan of drafting the Volunteers out for permanent duty in other districts, we find in 1804 the Royston and Barkway Corps, under command of Captain s.h.i.+eld, doing 23 days permanent duty at Baldock, concluded by the firing of three excellent volleys in the Market Place. Having completed this patriotic duty, they were reviewed by Colonel Cotton, and afterwards dined together on the Bowling Green, and ”the day was concluded with the utmost conviviality and harmony.” The Ba.s.singbourn Corps (afterwards incorporated with Chesterton) in like manner went on permanent duty at Newmarket; an event which was followed by a review on Foxton Common by General Stewart, when, ”at the end of the town they all mounted in wagons stationed there to receive them, and drew together a great part of the beauty of the town to witness the scene,” and were afterwards hospitably entertained by Mr. Hurrell.
The efficiency of the men got together in defence of their homes and kindred was generally spoken highly of in the records of the times, but I am sorry to add that in one case a drummer belonging to the Royston Volunteers was tried by Court Martial and sentenced to receive 50 lashes for absenting himself without leave, but the rev. captain, though a stern disciplinarian, had a tender heart and fatherly interest in his men, for we further learn that ”when the proceedings of the Court had been read to the Corps, and everything prepared for the execution of the sentence, Captain s.h.i.+eld the commandant, after an impressive address to the Corps and the prisoner, was pleased to remit the punishment.”
Upon the subject of Volunteer marksmans.h.i.+p a little piece of statistical information in the British Museum, referring to the Boston Volunteers, shows the capacity of the men for hitting the target (no question of Bullseyes!) The total number of men firing was 108 and, after several rounds each, the number of men who had actually hit the target was 37, the number of those who did not hit the target 71--not quite Wimbledon or Bisley form!
Though the immediate danger of an invasion pa.s.sed away by Boney having other work on his hands, the French were afterwards in evidence in a different capacity, for as many as 23,600 French prisoners were at one time maintained in different parts of England, a famous centre for them being Norman Cross, between Huntingdon and Caxton. They lingered here, now amusing their hosts with representations of Moliere's plays; now making fancy articles in straw, &c., some of which are still to be found in many houses in Cambridges.h.i.+re. {72} Companies of them were even so far indulged as to be shown over the University buildings at Cambridge previous to resuming their march through Royston, en route for Chatham and Tilbury, to be returned home to France!
At last, Buonaparte's reign of fighting seemed over, and with his retirement to Elba there was such a peace-rejoicing as comes only once or twice in a century.
Come forth ye old men, now in peaceful show, And greet your sons! drums beat and trumpets blow!
Make merry, wives! ye little children stun Your grandames ears with pleasure of your noise!
At Cambridge, Marshall Blucher was lionized, and here, as elsewhere, the celebrations were on a grand scale. At Royston it was one of the social land-marks of the first quarter of the century. The peace rejoicings took place here on June 29th and 30th, 1814. On Wednesday, about 12 o'clock, the Under Sheriff of the county, preceded by a band of music--and such a band of music! made up of some thirty or forty players on instruments--followed by a numerous cavalcade, proceeded first from the Bull Hotel to the Cross, and there the proclamation was first read. The procession then returned to the Market Hill, where it was read a second time, and from thence to the top of the High Street, where it was read for the last time. In the evening, ”brilliant illuminations” took place with transparencies and variegated lamps. On the following day (Thursday) the bells rang merry peals, and at one o'clock about nine hundred of the inhabitants sat down to a good dinner on the Market Hill. At four o'clock the gentlemen and tradesmen sat down to an excellent luncheon on the Bowling Green at the Green Man Inn, after which many appropriate toasts were given by the chairman, Hale Wortham, Esq. At intervals the Royston Band, ”who very politely offered their services,” played some popular pieces. To conclude the day's festivities, a ball was given at the a.s.sembly Room at the Red Lion. I believe the only person now living who remembers sitting down to that famous dinner on the Market Hill is Mr. James Jacklin, who was then a very little boy with his parents.
The rejoicings were unbounded and images of ”Boney” were carried about in almost every village on donkeys or men's shoulders, and afterwards burned on the village green. No one dreamed that Waterloo was still in store, but alas it soon appeared as if all this patriotic eloquence, and peace rejoicing, would have to be _un_said, for in a short time there came the alarming news that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was returning to France! He did return, and so did Wellington!
Waterloo was fought and won, but, the English people having, as the Americans say, been a little too previous with {73} their rejoicings over Elba, made less of the greatest battle of the century than they might otherwise have done.
So pa.s.sed away a figure which had troubled the peace and conscience of Europe for a generation, the tradition of whose expected advent on our sh.o.r.es did for many a year after discolour the pages of our country life, like some old stain through the leaves of a book, and the old Bogie which frightened children in dame schools only disappeared with the Russian scare which set up the Russian for the Frenchman in Crimean days.
CHAPTER VII.
DOMESTIC LIFE AND THE TAX-GATHERER--THE DOCTOR AND THE BODY-s.n.a.t.c.hER.
By the fireside, in health and disease, and in the separations and contingencies of family life, we must look for the drawbacks which our great-grandfathers had to put up with during that remarkable period which closed and opened the two centuries, when great changes ever seemed on the eve of being born, yet ever eluded the grasp of the reformer. What a sluggish, silent, nerveless world, it must have been as we now think! On the other side of the cloud, which shut out the future, were most of the contributories to the noisy current of our modern life--from express trains and steam hammers to lucifer matches and tram cars! Steel pens, photographs, postage stamps, and even envelopes, umbrellas, telegrams, pianofortes, ready-made clothes, public opinion, gas lamps, vaccination, and a host of other things which now form a part of our daily life, were all unknown or belonged to the future. But there were a few other things which found a place in the home which are not often met with now--the weather-house (man for foul weather and woman for fine)--bellows, child's pole from ceiling to floor with swing, candlestick stands, chimney pot-hook, spinning wheel, bottle of leeches, flint gun, pillow and bobbins for lace, rush-lights, leather breeches, and a host of other things now nearly obsolete. In the better cla.s.s houses there was a grandfather's clock, and possibly a ”windmill” clock, but in many villages if you could not fix the time by the sun ”you might have to run half over the village to find a clock.”
One of the primal fountains of our grandfathers' domestic comforts was the tinder-box and flint and steel. Without this he could neither have basked in the warmth of the Yule-log nor satisfied the baby in {74} the night time. But even this was not sufficient without matches, and, as Bryant and May had not been heard of, this article was made on the spot. In Royston, as in other places, matches were made and sold from door to door by the paupers from the Workhouse, by pedlars driving dog carts, or by gipsies, and the trade of match-makers obtained the dignified t.i.tle of ”Carvers and Gilders.” At by-ways where a tramp, a pedlar, or a pauper, did not reach, paterfamilias, or materfamilias, became ”carver and gilder” to the household, and made their own matches. In one case I find the Royston Parish Authorities setting up one of the paupers with a supply of wood ”to make skewers and matches to sell.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: TINDER-BOX, FLINT, STEEL, AND MATCHES.]
The tinder-box, like other household requisites in all ages, was sometimes very homely, sometimes of ”superior” make. The above ill.u.s.tration is of one rather out of the common, and the artist has brought the different parts together rather than showing the process, for the lid would have to be removed before the tinder beneath could be fired. The most common form of tinder-box was an oblong wooden box, of two compartments, one for the tinder and the other for flint and {75} steel. At Elbrook House, Ashwell, is one, in the possession of Edward Snow Fordham, Esq., said to be two hundred years old. The process of getting a light by means of the tinder-box involved a little manual dexterity and mental philosophy--if the fugitive spark from the striking of the flint and steel set alight to the tinder, well; you then had simply to light your clumsy sulphur-tipped skewer-like ”match,” and there you were! If the tinder happened to be damp, as it sometimes was, and the spark wouldn't lay hold, you were not one bit nearer quieting the baby, or meeting whatever might be the demand for a light in the night time, than was an ancient Briton ages ago! When the modern match was first introduced as the ”Congreve” the cost was 2s.
6d. for fifty, or about 1/2d. each, and when, a few years later, the lucifer match was introduced, they were sold at four a penny! Now you can get more than four well-filled boxes for a penny!
In the first quarter of the century the supply of fuel was very different from now. By slow and difficult means did coal arrive.
Cambridge was the nearest centre for this district, and thence the coal used in Royston was obtained. Tedious and troublesome was the process of dragging it along bad roads, and between Cambridge and Royston this made a difference of about 7s. per ton in the price. Farm labourers, when agreeing for their harvest month, generally obtained, either by bargain or by custom, the right of the use of one of their master's horses and carts after harvest for a day to fetch coals from Cambridge.