OLD VILLAGE JOKES AND GAMES. 9 



One day he was at work at Armswell Farm, and there chanced 

 to be two Mappowder men at work there as well. W.M. put 

 up his trap in the cart -house in which a dead lamb was hung up, 

 from which the shepherd fed his dog. When W.M. returned 

 to his cart at dinner time he found a leg of this " Ba-lamb " 

 carefully wrapped up in paper and placed under the seat. 

 W.M. at once spotted the practical joker, and he told me " 1 

 made up my mind to be up-zides wi'n for this, zo I knocks off 

 me work a bit earlier and drives back through Mappowder. I 

 knocks at the door of his cottage and out comes his missus. 

 Good evenen', Mam, says I, look'ee here, I owes yer man a 

 turn zo I 've brought 'en a leg o'lamb and you'll let 'en hav' it 

 when he comes home." Of course the poor soul was pro- 

 foundly thankful for so handsome a present, and W.M. drove 

 on. The sequel is hidden in mystery, but let us hope that the 

 Mappowder man did not find the leg ready cooked for his supper 

 on his return from Armswell. 



The term " Gip " does not seem to have been so resented. 

 One day an old inhabitant was explaining to me that he was 

 not a Mappow T der man, but a Sherburnian w r ho had been sent to 

 Mappowder by " Old Squire Digby," when he bought the 

 estate. I asked him where his Missus came from, and his reply 

 was, " Oh, she w r er' a true Gip." 



HASELBURY BA-LAMBS. 



I have had some difficulty in tracing the origin of this. My 

 friend W.M. x who would yarn to me as long as I liked to listen 

 about Mappowder hedge -pigs, became delightfully ignorant 

 directly I touched on the origin of Haselbury Ba-lambs, and 

 it was only recently that I have been able to ascertain this 

 through the assistance of Mrs. Topp, who obtained it from 

 Martha Legg, an old bed-ridden woman of Mappowder. 



This was her statement : " In an old house that was next to 

 Mr. Carter's shop near the Antelope there lived a man by the 

 name of C., who had been a gentleman's servant, but he had 

 lost his character and situation and was very lazy. One day 



