THE BEDFONT PEACOCKS 



79 



cut at the costs and charges of a former inhabitant of 

 the viUage, who, proposing in turn to two sisters also 

 living here, was scornfully refused by them. They 

 were, says the legend, ' as proud as peacocks,' and the 

 mortified suitor chose this spiteful method of 

 typifying the fact. Of course, the story was retailed 

 to travellers on passing through Bedfont by every 



EAST BEDFOXT. 



coachman and guard ; nor, indeed, would it be at all 

 surprising to learn that they, in fact, really invented 

 it, for they were masters in the art of romancing. So 

 the fame of the Peacocks orew. An old writer at 

 once celebrates them, and the then landlord of the 

 ' Black Doo',' in the rather neat verse : — 



Harvey, whose inn commands a view 

 Of Bedfont's church and churchyard too, 

 Where yew-trees into peacocks shorn, 

 In vegetable torture mourn. 



