CHICHESTER 269 



just one penny to make up the sum of fourpence to 

 pay for a bed at the hotel. 



A Midhurst man, a moderate drinker, with whom 

 I had some conversation, told me that he had been 

 all his life in the town, and that a great improvement 

 in the drinking habits of the people had come about 

 during the last twenty years. Notwithstanding that 

 the population had been increasing, and a good deal 

 of building going on, some of the old inns had been 

 given up and no new ones had been opened, while 

 others still open were in the degraded bankrupt state 

 of those I have described. The brewers were pro- 

 bably not making anything out of houses kept up in 

 this way; such houses may even be a loss to them, 

 but being capitalists they can afford to hold on and 

 wait for better times. A glorious wave of drunken- 

 ness may yet be witnessed in the land. The improve- 

 ment noted had thus been brought about in spite of 

 all that the brewers and their zealous and faithful 

 friends and helpers, the licensing authorities, had been 

 able to do to prevent it. 



My interlocutor's belief was that this better state 

 of things had resulted from the Education Act. Lads 

 and young men now had interests, amusements, and 

 ways of passing their leisure time which did not exist 

 for their fathers. Newspapers and periodicals to read ; 

 cheap non-intoxicating drinks, and tea and coffee when 

 wanted; indoor games, and field sports, the love of 

 which is fostered at school, have served to make them 



