80 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



ants : and remember it takes astonishingly few 

 generations to reach back a trifle of three 

 hundred and fifty years. The institution of 

 bonfiring suits Lewes and vicinity, and is harmless 

 enough, take it all round, if you do your 

 "remembering" wisely and insist on not for- 

 getting that the bearings of uncomplimentary 

 sectarian remarks lie in their application to Sir 

 Guido Fawkes's era. Those who call the tune pay 

 the piper. The Bonfire Boys take possession of 

 the borough in their — well, hundreds is too few, and 

 thousands is perhaps too many. They to a great 

 extent take over the functions of the police as 

 well. There is very great method of order in 

 the apparent disorder which they control : a grand 

 raree show is organised for an enormous con- 

 stituency who enjoy themselves, and what to the 

 inexperienced appears terribly dangerous is proved 

 to be very otherwise. Time was, says my friend 

 Mr G. F. Verrall — chairman of a bench of 

 magistrates, if you please, and an ardent Bon- 

 f^rer — that a good deal of rioting was incidental 

 to the performances. That was mainly because 

 of police interference and unwise attempts at 

 repression. This led to trouble, out of which 

 undesirable outsiders made opportunity after the 

 manner of their kind. But now the Boys are 

 allowed to do pretty much as they like, and by 

 consequence ensure order, also respect property 

 on their own account. 



The best proof that the organisers and 

 conductors know what they are about and can be 

 trusted — it is desirable to recollect this when you 

 behold flaming barrels dragged full tilt down the 

 steep pitch of School Hill — lies in the simple fact 

 that the Cliffe bonfire has never yet burnt up the 



