172 THE SQUIRE AND HIS VOLUN'TEERS. 



experience ; his entire sympathy and that of his 

 fox-hunting friends was enlisted in the warlike 

 movements everywhere going forward, for the 

 standards of the "Wenlock and Morfe Yolunteers 

 now drew around them men of all classes. Farmers 

 allowed their ploughs to stand still in the furrows, 

 that the peasant might hurry with the artisan, 

 musket on shoulder, to his rallying point in the 

 fields near "Wenlock, Broseley, or Bridgnorth. 

 Whigs and Tories stood beside each other in the 

 Volunteer ranks, heart-burnings and divisions as to 

 principles and policy were for the time forgotten, and 

 the Squire, although now unable to take the same 

 active part he formerly did, contributed materially 

 by his presence and advice to the zeal and alacrity 

 which distinguished his neighbours. 



