The Leather Plater. 



There was not a tree of any size in the whole parish, excepting the 

 wood, which lay about half a mile on the other side of the village, 

 and a few old elms which stood close into the church, and served 

 in some degree to shelter the parsonage from the biting east wind, 

 which, when it did blow, seemed to expend all its fury upon 

 Holliwell. The village consisted of one long, straggling street, from 

 the wretched hovels on each side of which hang-dog, poaching- 

 looking scoundrels, with the eternal short black pipe in their mouths, 

 and slatternly half-dressed women, would peer out upon the stran- 

 ger with sullen scowling looks, without ever offering him the 

 slightest recognition of civility which the English labourer usually 

 bestows on his betters. In fact, the village of Holliwell bore the 

 worst repute of any village round us a nest of sheep-stealers and 

 poachers ; and I cannot describe the Holliwell villagers better than 

 in the words of poor Tom Hood : 



" The women the wretches had soiled and marr'd, 

 Whatever to womanly nature belongs. 

 For the marriage tie they had no regard ; 

 And as for drinking, they drank so hard 

 That they drank their flat-irons, pokers, and tongs. 

 The men, they fought and gambled at fairs, 

 And poached, and did not respect grey hairs ; 

 Stole linen, money, plate, poultry, and corses, 

 And broke in houses as well as horses ; 

 Unfolded folds to kill their own mutton, 

 And would sell their own mothers and wives for a button. 

 But, not to repeat the deeds they did 

 Backsliding, in spite of each moral skid 

 If all was true that fell from the tongue, 

 There was not a villager, old or young, 

 But deserved to be whipt, imprisoned, or hung, 

 Or sent on those travels which nobody hurries 

 To publish at Colburn's, or Longman's, or Murray's." 



Of course there was one public-house in the village " The Five 

 Rells," kept by the village blacksmith, a bloated, blear-eyed, tun- 

 bellied old sinner (in every sense of the word), who was never seen 

 with either coat or hat on, whose highlows were always unlaced, his 



