173 



CO UNTR V PL A CES. 



I. 



High up and facing every one who enters a village 

 there still remains an old notice-board with the follow- 

 ing inscription : — ' All persons found wandering abroad, 

 lying, lodging, or being in any barn, outhouse, or in the 

 open air, and not giving a good account of themselves, 

 will be apprehended as rogues and vagabonds, and be 

 either publicly whipt or sent to the house of correction, 

 and afterwards disposed of according to law, by order 

 of the magistrates. Any person who shall apprehend 

 any rogue or vagabond will be entitled to a reward of 

 ten shillings.' It very often happens that we cannot see 

 the times in which we actually live. A thing must be 

 gone by before you can sec it, just as it must be printed 

 before it is read. This little bit of weather-stained board 

 may serve, perhaps, to throw up the present into a 

 picture so that it may be visible. For this inhuman law 

 still holds good, and is not obsolete or a mere relic of 

 barbarism. The whipping, indeed, is abrogated for very 

 shame's sake ; so is the reward to the informer ; but the 

 magistrate and the imprisonment and the offence remain. 

 You must not sleep in the open, either in a barn or a 

 cart-house or in a shed, in the country, or on a door-step 

 in a town, or in a boat on the beach ; and if you have 



