A HISTORY OF DORSET 



Edwards was unable 'to go or stand' on the last fast day, and in 1658 

 Mary Wood was presented for ' living an idle course of life out of service, 

 therefore it is ordered that she be sent to Bridewell if taken at home again ' ; 

 and a similar order was issued with regard to Susan Welman's daughter, 'a 

 masterless person.' '" 



Another outcome of the triumph of Puritanism was the growing tendency 

 to interfere with the amusements of the people. Unlawful games had indeed been 

 punishable as early as the fifteenth century,"' but the Puritan even attempted 

 to put down strolling players. In Dorchester, a Parliamentarian stronghold, 

 this attitude towards them lingered on after the Restoration. On 6 October, 

 1660, a certain William Darrant who came 'to this towne, to shew the 

 dauncing of divers creatures on ropes, and dogs,' was refused although he 

 brought a licence purporting to be from General Monck.'" Another applica- 

 tion made in the following November to ' make shew of a puppet-shew called 

 Patient Grizell, with music and six servants,' met with no better success, nor 

 one of three months later to show ' Crispin and Crispianus.' In one instance 

 a reason was alleged. Richard Pavey of London, of St. Giles in the fields, 

 ' coming to shew a motion of the witches of the north,' was told ' that we 

 have noe waste mony for such idle things.' '" 



But the early years of the eighteenth century seem to have witnessed a 

 serious outbreak of disorder in Weymouth and Melcombe at least. In 1700 

 three constables of the borough found Captain Harding and Mr. Leslie, 

 aldermen, 'gaming and wrangling' in the 'Bear' at 10 p.m., and in 1701 two 

 individuals were presented because they ' drancke punch to a greate hight,' 

 after which at 8 p.m. they went to ' Melcombe town-end and fought with 

 swords.' John Palmer was presented for blasphemous swearing in 1701, and 

 in 1703 he swore four oaths for which he 'sate in the stocks.'"' The repre- 

 sentatives of the law seem, moreover, to have been powerless to enforce their 

 authority at this time, for the gambling aldermen refused to leave the ' Bear ' 

 at the constables' order, and when the watchman entered the ' Bay Tree ' to 

 inquire into the cause of ' a great noise and swearing ' which issued from it, 

 the landlady 'took him by the shoulders and turned him out.''" 



At this time, to judge from the Weymouth documents, Dorset towns 

 were typical instances of that English provincial life immortalized by 

 Miss Austen ; some of the extracts from the minute books of the corporation 

 printed by Mr. Moule might well be episodes taken from the pages of Pride and 

 Prejudice. My lady was ' carried ' to church by her servants, or driven about 

 the town in her coach. The gentlemen resorted to the post-house to read 

 the news. Letters were brought to the town by the ' diligence Privateer,' 

 who apparently did not hesitate to open and read any that he thought might 

 contain seditious matter ; the post-boy journeyed between Weymouth and 

 Dorchester, but unfortunately he was a wayward youth, and when charged 

 by the postmaster with irregularity in his work and not blowing his horn, 

 he assaulted that official in his own house and challenged him to fight. 



338 



"' Moule, Dacrift'we Catalogue, 76, 78, 81. 



'" See a Ct. R. of Shaftesbury quoted in Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 89, where presentments were made 

 for dice-throwing and playing ad pilam manualem, in the reign of Henry VI. 

 "* T. Hearn, Dorset, Co. Chron. See Roberts, Social Hist. 44. 



'" Ibid. »-' Moule, Descriptive Catalogue, 86. 



"' Ibid. »" Ibid. 86, 88-9. 



254 



