JVillshire Q^iiarter Sessions. 28 



did throwe ptones and duste at the heade and face of the said Mr. 

 Harpe." It is just to tlie county to say that this "perturber of 

 the peace uf our lorde the Kinge " came from " Southceriiey in the 

 County of Glouc' a niyle distant from Shorncott," and it is fair to 

 Browne himself to add that his accusers described him as being 

 "distracted of his wittes." When taken before Mr. Warneford, 

 a magistrate, Browne " did deliver these wcrdes %> his [A/r, Harpe's'] 

 face Thou Harpe hast deserved to have thy heade of from thy body 

 any tyine this sixteeue yeeres past .... So Mr. Warneford 

 in course of Justice comaunded the Tythingman and others assisting 

 him to convey the said Jo: Browne to the Goale for the said County 

 of Wiltes which was done accordingly, wher he now remayneth." 

 The inhabitants of Shorncote were content with these arrangements : 

 they prayed that " the said Jo Browne .... may be restrayned 

 of his libcrtye and remayne wher he nowe is." 



And there came, now and then, a time when the minister himself 

 was unable to restrain his, no doubt, righteous, indignation. Mr. 

 Kendall, the Vicar of Swindon, was indicted at the Hilary Sessions, 

 1603-4, for an assault on Elizabeth, the wife of Nicholas Vylett, in 

 " the pewe of the said Nicholas," in the chancel of Swindon Church. 



Few offences gave occasion for such voluminous depositions as did 

 the repeated breaches of the game laws. These depositions, though 

 K sometimes terribly tedious, generally contain something illustrative 

 of topography and woodcraft. 



Trinity, 1604 :— 



» " Examination of Thomas Homber. First he confessetk that the last evenynge 



^m aboute eight of the clock this ex' and one Mr. Lawrence Weeks of Motcombe 



^m findeing a Gapp where Dere did use to come into a grounde of Mr. Bowers in 



^E Motcombe aforesaid within the Forest of Gillingham they did sett a halter in 



^P the same gapp, pnrposcing to take a deare. And accordingly they did the last 



K night hang a deare being a Buck of the first had. They came to the place 



^■^ aboute one houre and lialfe before day this mornyng where they founde the seyd 



^H Buck hanged— where this ex' was taken by Will™ Morgan the keper of the 



^^L woodes ende. And the sayd Lawrence Weeks did run away. 



^^H " Hit is (sithence the takeing of this esamiHacon) founde owte that the said 

 ^^H Homber is to be charged for dyv's coursings and misdemoano" by him done 



I 



