Wiltshire Quarter Sessio?is. 



S3 



" She saieth M 9 Gawen at harvest was twelvemonth sayd that my lord Chiefe 

 Justice of England that now is was a * ... . Justice. 



" She further saieth that about Whitsuntyde was twelvemonth M r Gowen at 

 one tyme offered her 20 nobles at another tyme 20 marks to fier the howse 

 wherein Richard Kevell dwelt." 



The King could hardly be held responsible in person for the 

 complex conditions which served to keep up the price of grain, but 

 William Baker, of Imber, when fortified with liquor, expressed some 

 such opinion, for (Trinity, 1608) : — 



" Certain seditious malicious and scandalous words of our most serene lord the 

 King and most serene Lady Queen Anne, in the presence of diverse liege subjects 

 of our said lord the King he proclaimed and published videlt ' Yt were noe matter 

 yf the Kiuge and Queene \_dcos dnum Regem nunc et dcam dnam Annam 

 Reginam consortem i/pius dni Regis] and all were hanged unles the price of 

 corne doe fall." 



This offence was treated as one of drunkenness only, and Baker 

 was sentenced to stand in the pillory during the sessions with 

 a paper over his head. 



A too festive inhabitant of Codford St. Peter is presented by the 

 jury of Warminster Hundred that he : — 



" Was so drunck .... that he could neyther sitt upon his horse nor 

 speak playne words but with very vile and outragious speeches did abuse himself 

 against the Peace of Sov'aigne Lord the King," &c. 



The justices, in the course of their magisterial duties, encountered 

 now and then some uncomplimentary criticism. Specially did one 

 Edward Dismer (of a family already noted as expert in wielding 

 a singularly forcible vocabulary) oppose himself to Sir Giles 

 Wroughton. Some of his excesses are thus described. 



20th July, 1605 



" About a Fortnight before Whitsontide last past John Layland and Nicholas 

 Layland sonne of the said John of Lockeridge .... yeomen beinge a 

 flshinge by the River side, Edward Dismere came to the said John Layland and 

 quarrelled w th him and used very foule speeche to the said Layland and the said 

 Layland . . . , tould him hee was taught better manners lately at Marie- 

 borough before y e Justices nameinge S r Gyles Wroughton Knight and div's 



• The \alue of Mrs. Gawen's criticism is lost in the illegibility of the adjective which she bestowed 

 on the Lord Chief Justice. 



VOL. XXII. — NO. LXIV. D 



