A KENTISH PARISH 



descending scale! The first is the resort of the smallest 

 tradesfolk ; the second, of the steadier labourers and 

 carriers and waggoners in transit ; the third, of all the 

 village ne'er-do-wells, of tramps, and of the travellers 

 who are under the surveillance of the police. As for the 

 " Fighting Cocks," it is an unmitigated nuisance. In 

 broad daylight, the benches before the door are often 

 crowded with roisterers who remind you of the 

 Borrachos of Velasquez or one of Jordaen's Flemish 

 pictures. There is the gross laugh and the coarse 

 language, the foul oath and sometimes the savage blow. 

 Bold women with weather-battered faces and tangled 

 hair exchange rough ribaldry with their lords and 

 masters, who pass them the pewter-pots in their more 

 generous moments, as the Bedouin throws the leavings 

 of his feast to his wives. The dingy little drinking- 

 dens within doors are the horror of the gamekeepers 

 for though, as we have said, there is but little poaching 

 in the parish, it is here that anything of the kind is 

 planned. And if the keepers were called as evidence 

 to the landlord's character, unquestionably his licence 

 would be promptly cancelled. One is familiar with 

 the aspect of these rural boozing kens. A low-browed 

 door, as repulsive to reputable customers as the similarly 

 forbidding feature in the landlord ; a dirty window, 

 with curtains of faded crimson, to screen the question- 

 able doings within doors ; with a wooden stand at the 

 corner, that bears by way of fruit clusters of battered 

 and indented beer-pots. The place does a tremendous 

 trade in the hopping-time, when messengers from all the 



