Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 



did throwe stones and duste at the heade and face of the said Mr. 

 Harpe." It is just to the county to say that this "perturber o£ 

 the peace of our lorde the Kinge " came from " Southcerney in the 

 County of Glouc' a myle distant from Shorncott," and it is fair to 

 Browne himself to add that his accusers described him as beinp* 

 "distracted of his wittes." When taken before Mr. Warneford, 

 a magistrate, Browne " did deliver these wordes to his [Air. Harpe' s] 

 face Thou Harpe hast deserved to have thy heade of from thy body 

 any tyme this sixteene yeeres past .... So Mr. Warneford 

 in course of J ustice comaunded the Tythingman and others assisting 

 him to convey the said Jo: Browne to the Goale for the said County 

 of Wiltes which was done accordingly, wher he now remayneth." 

 The inhabitants of Shorncote were content with these arrangements : 

 they prayed that "the said Jo Browne .... may be restrayned 

 of his libertye and remayne wher he no we is." 



And there came, now and then, a time when the minister himself 

 was unable to restrain his, no doubt, righteous, indignation. Mr. 

 Kendall, the Vicar of Swindon, was indicted at the Hilary Sessions, 

 1603-4, for an assault on Elizabeth, the wife of Nicholas Vylett, in 

 " the pewe of the said Nicholas/'' in the chancel of Swindon Church. 



Few offences gave occasion for such voluminous depositions as did 

 the repeated breaches of the game laws. These depositions, though 

 sometimes terribly tedious, generally contain something illustrative 

 of topography and woodcraft. 



Trinity, 1604 



" Examination of Thomas Hoinber. First he confesseth that the last evenynge 

 aboute eight of the clock this ex* and one Mr. Lawrence Weeks of Motcombe 

 findeing a Gapp where Dere did use to come into a grounde of Mr. Bowers in 

 Motcombe aforesaid within the Forest of Gillingham they did sett a halter in 

 the same gapp, purposeing to take a deare. And accordingly they did the last 

 night hang a deare being a Buck of the first hed. They came to the place 

 aboute one houre and halfe before day this mornyng where they founde the seyd 

 Buck hanged— where this ex* was taken by Will™ Morgan the keper of the 

 woodes ende. And the sayd Lawrence Weeks did run away. 



####### 



" Hit is (sithence the takeing of this examinacon) founde owte that the said 

 Homber is to be charged for dyv's coursings and misdemeano" by him done 



