208 Some Account of the Parish of Monhton Farleigh. 



wild, if they will, and are shot in hot corners and in flocks like 

 fowls — proh pudor ! 



Lawn Tennis is another institution of the day, and as it does not 

 oust the more manly game of cricket, and on the other hand is a 

 game in which both sexes may indulge, and which promotes a 

 sensible sociality, replacing to some extent the dull and costly dinner 

 party, long may it flourish. 



Our rustics play cricket and rounders, and have besides their 

 annual festivals : — one, the club feast, at which they dine and dance ; 

 another, the school feast, given by the Rector to the children ; and 

 two others, the village concert and the Christmas tree, given usually 

 in Christmas week and managed by the manor house. There is 

 also a reading room for males above 13 years of age, where news- 

 papers, a few books and periodicals, drafts, dominos, and bagatelle 

 are found. The subscription is Is. a quarter, and this includes the 

 above and fire, lights, and the room. The institution does not pay, 

 and the attendance is in summer next to nil, but in winter a con- 

 siderable proportion of the youth of the parish is attracted. 



A curious custom still lingers in the parish, which has its uses. 

 When man and woman are taken "flagrante delictu " their effigies 

 are made up in straw and dressed in the nearest approach possible 

 to the usual costume of the delinquents. These effigies are then 

 placed on a hurdle and paraded three nights in succession throughout 

 the village. Halts are made and unparliamentary remarks passed 

 at the doors of the delinquents, and on the third night the effigies 

 are burnt with all honors. Justice, in the shape of the parish 

 policeman, is for once judiciously blind, and as no actual disturbance 

 of the peace takes place, the custom, as I have said, has its uses. 



If our amusements were and are still, circumscribed, we were in 

 our occupations a busy community. We tilled the land, we built, 

 we carpentered, we tinkered, we wove, we tailored, we baked, and 

 in short we found ourselves in all our ordinary wants, and we had 

 our public duties also. We had our courts baron and leet, our views 

 of frankpledge, and our duties as jurors. We had our constables, 

 our tithingman, our hey wards, and no doubt our ale -tasters, and our 

 sheep- tellers. We adjudged copyholds, heriots, burglaries, evil 



