50 KifKjton St. Michael. 



the begluniug of Q,. Elizabeth's reign." The "Peterman" seems 

 to have been the person chosen by the parish at the festival of the 

 Dedication of the Chapel, to collect money for charitable purposes. 

 Such was the primitive custom at the yearly village feast, founded 

 probably on a still more ancient precept : " Gro your way, eat the 

 fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom 

 nothing is prepared." [Nehem. viii. 10.] These rural meetings, 

 when dissociated from the religious character, lost one element of 

 respectability ; and a Wake or Eevel (from the French reveiller, to 

 waken), signifying originally a vigil, or night-fast, observed before 

 the da}^ of Dedication, is now obliged to be defined in our dictionaries, 

 as a feast with loose and noisy jollity. Sometimes it leads to worse, 

 and in the year 1822 Kington Langley Revel was the occasion of, 

 what Aubrey might have called, one of the eminentest riots in 

 those parts. Some offence having been given to the villagers at 

 the feast by a party of young men from Chippenham, several 

 meetings were afterwards held for the purpose of planning revenge, 

 and it was ultimately resolved that a grand attempt should be made 

 on the 7th of September. Accordingly in the course of that even- 

 ing about 30 or 40 men assembled at Chippenham, and about half- 

 past 10 o'clock commenced their outrage by appearing in the street 

 armed with bludgeons, and attacking all who came in their way ; 

 Mr. Joseph Hall, a saddler, was so severely bruised as to expire 

 within a few hours. Mr. Reynolds, a brazier, died shortly after- 

 wards. Constables were knocked down and beaten, and in short 

 not less than thirty-one men, women, and children were more or 

 less wounded. 



The hamlet contains a population of about 600 and is a mile 

 and a half from the Parish Church. This distance from Clerical 

 superintendence and the wholesome discipline of Church and School, 

 having been found to produce the usual ill effect of ignorance and 

 irreligion, testified by numerous and increasing cases brought 

 before magistrates and boards of guardians, as well as by 

 Sabbath breaking and irregularities of various kinds, the attention 

 of the neighbourhood was called to the subject in the year 1853. 

 Uy the exertions of some gentlemen, and especially Mr. E. L. 



