Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 



215 



It may well be imagined that John Cheney, of Everley, the 

 principal actor in the scene next described, was " distracted of his 

 wits/'' Threatening mortal mischief to the family of John Brown, 

 of Upavon, he was gallantly encountered by Mrs. Margery Brown, 

 an admirable woman, whom simple piety did not deter from de- 

 livering a "last thrust in tierce," which reached the intelligence of 

 even the insensate Cheney. She testifies (Michaelmas, 1609,) to 

 some threats from Cheney : — 



"xv en daies before Myddsomer last she the said M'gerie being at hir neighbour 

 Buttler's house in Ev'ley a spinning a yarne in Godd's peace and the King's." 



Then she proceeds to state : — 



" That upon Satterday before S* Jeames' eve last about ten of the oclock of 

 the same night hir husband hir self and all her littel children being a bedd and a 

 sleepe he the s d John Cheney • . , • brake open the doore and entered the 

 house most outragiously swearing y* he would kill them all or dryve them out 

 lyke a sight * of Egiptians .... and hir husband being sick a bedd She 

 hirself did aryse and took a cutting knyfe in her hands .... and thrust 

 at him w th the knyfe and made him stepp back over the thresholde and shutt the 

 doore upon him by w ch meanes especially and by the helpe of Almightie God 

 all there lyves were saved as she verely thinketh." 



The temptation to multiply such extracts must be resisted, not- 

 withstanding that few of them are so merely tedious as not to present 

 some illustration of contemporary manners or diction. 



Two specimens only shall be here intruded of the homely versifi- 

 cation with which rustic satirists enlivened the monotony of village 

 life. 



The first is an effusion from Wroughton : — 



"Giles Francklyn is an honest man 

 And so is old Pannell now and than 



All the towne over and never a house misse 



And see who can make such a rime like unto this 



John Crooke is full of floutes and mocks 



And old mother Whitborne is good to throwe in the wood and blocks 

 All the towne, &c. 



• Quite the right word in the mouth of a Wiltshire maniac. 



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