350 A Sketch of the Parish of Yatesbury. 



were so relieved in the course of a year, though how sailors came to 

 be so often on the tramp through this unfrequented parish, with no 

 thoroughfare through it, passes my comprehension. Again " gave 

 to the briefe three shillings " ; " gave to the briefs two shillings " ; 

 appear occasionally : and once in 1760, ^' gave to the Brief of Hagon 

 Church in the King of Prusos dominions one shilling " ; a strange 

 way of contributing from parochial funds to objects however worthy! 

 But the chief entry of all, which generally occupies three-fourths o£ 

 every page, and for whose extermination one would suppose, on 

 perusal of this book, that church rates were chiefly levied, is the 

 item of " Sparrows/^ They were massacred at the rate of fourpence 

 a dozen for old, and twopence a dozen for young birds ; and fifty, 

 sixty, eighty, and even on some occasions up to nearly two hundred 

 dozens in the year were thus destroyed in this parish alone: and 

 this prominent tale of sparrows continued till the year 1843, when 

 the charge was finally, but not without difficulty, banished from the 

 church rates. It was however discovered some years later cropping 

 up in the highway rate-book, disguised under the name of " sundries," 

 and it was only after earnest remonstrance against the enormity of 

 mending the roads with sparrows that the abuse was done away. 

 The annual expenses of the Church are still defrayed by voluntary 

 rate, and no instance has yet occurred of this being refused by any 

 ratepayer. 



Hard by the churchyard, indeed abutting on it at its south-eastern 

 comer, stood the old rectory, for many years used as a cottage, and 

 inhabited by the parish clerk : here too the Sunday school was held, 

 till in 1855 it was pulled down, and in its place, or rather more to 

 the south, the school and school-mistress's house were built by the 

 Rector and his friends. At that period, and when the school was 

 first opened in April, 1856, the total number of scholars — though 

 the list included all the children of fitting age in the parish — 

 amounted to no more than seventeen, but then there was a remarkable 

 absence of large families in the village, not a single house containing 

 more than four children. Since that time however a very different 

 state of things has prevailed, and the day school has an average of 

 about 33, the Sunday school of about 53, and the night school^ 



