MOODLAW TO ARKLETON. 371 



trusted friend of Wellington^ and the other had, on 

 the authority of Napoleon, ^' the true face of an Eng- 

 lishman/^ Hard by him there hangs the mostDraconic 

 code of bye-laws on the clock-house that ever town- 

 clerk penned or provost pondered. Swine-scalding, 

 bull and "furious animal driving,^^ carpet-beating, 

 water across foot-paths, ashes, cart driving, are all 

 regulated by it. If your chimney is on fire you're 

 fined, and if you're a parent you're answerable for 

 your child, and for each oifence you may be fined 

 20s., or have twenty-four hours in quod. The spirit 

 of Jamie Ferguson's "proclamation" does, indeed, 

 linger in that terrible edict. Before we had been 

 there two minutes, we had all but broken a bye-law, 

 as you " mayn't attach your animal to a house," and 

 we had hung ours for a minute on the statue-rails, so 

 we thought it high time to decamp down Ewesdale, 

 and consult " Terrona" as to the consequences. 



Had it been race-time, the Langholm Lodge 

 meadow would have been a sure find for him, either 

 at the cords or the wrestling-ring. Tom Sayers 

 came there to watch the science of the " Cumber- 

 land chip," with a view to its use in his own more 

 bloody fray with Heenan, and received divers atten- 

 tions from his newly-found " Uncle." Scott, Ivison, 

 Ben Cooper, and Dick Wright have all been cham- 

 pions on this velvet sward. It is said that in the 

 New Forest the married women play the lasses at 

 cricket, and deliver " shooters" and " run like mad" 

 between the wickets to the shout of '^ Well hit, mo- 



2 B B 2 



