370 The Baron Court of Little Brought-in. 



there were other cracks besides. The old women and all the idle 

 fellows about the barony took up the echo of the cry, *' The 

 Church is in danger ; " and the geese and pigs were often fright- 

 ened by the noise. 



The parish officers, in many instances, went off in a huff, and in 

 others they were turned adrift by the people. New ones came in 

 who were mostly for the Muttons, especially in the large parishes ; 

 and many thought that this would in time alter both the Baron 

 Court and the pills, for the Porks still lay on the catch to get gam- 

 bouge into every pill if they could. Several of the Porks went to a 

 good many places to administer the " conserve of hips" and some 

 are said to have pawned their bibs, and brass buttons, and bits of 

 tape, in order to raise the money ; but the people generally took 

 little interest in the matter, the ex-parish officers had the gripes as 

 bad as ever, and the parsons, the old women, and the idle fellows 

 redoubled their cry about the danger of the Church. 



Among the great farmers, those who had lately risen from nothing, 

 and those who were falling to nothing, were almost to a man on the 

 side of the Porks. The latter, no doubt, had the broken meat of 

 the baron's kitchen in their eye ; and there were also " whys and 

 wherefores" in the case of the former. A former baron took a per- 

 fect craze for field sports, both in his own barony and in all those 

 about. He would have the game preserved in his way all over the 

 world ; and he never minded how many gamekeepers he employed, 

 or at what expense. So he ran up scores for weasel-traps, and fox- 

 traps, and man-traps, and all sorts of game-keepers' engines ; and 

 the folks he employed had many a hard bout with the poachers. 

 The master-poacher was, however, "nabbed" at last by Lord 

 Nostoppinghim Nosey, the baron's head game-keeper, and sent to 

 quod. The nabbing of this poacher was a world's wonder, as no- 

 body expected it ; but some said it was because he had for some 

 time taken to " coney-catching" upon the flats. However, there 

 never was such fiddling and feasting upon earth as there was in 

 Little Brought-in upon the occasion. But when the cost came to be 

 counted, it was found that the baron was minus in a good many 

 hundreds, while the kitchen was literally crammed with superan- 

 nuated game-keepers, and the wives and families of those who had 

 fallen in the scuffles with the poachers. The tradesmen who had 

 supplied the traps and trappings had feathered their nests to some 

 purpose, and many of them had got large farms and big names, and 

 even been in the privy-council. Others pressed for their balances, and 

 were put on the same footing. These were the characters that had 

 lately got large farms, and many got them who had not breeding 

 enough for behaving themselves like gentlemen. They of course 

 went with the Porks. 



Latterly, a good many lawyers, of whom there was of course no 

 lack in the barony, had joined the Porks ; and as they could say a 

 great deal without being very particular as to the sense or truth of 

 it, they were welcomed, and well feed for all that they said, which 

 was, of course, their only object in being there. Those who pre- 

 tended to see farther into futurity than their neighbours, augured 



