Fragments of Two Centuries | Page 5

France, failed miserably and deservedly of realising the
great romantic dream-world of human happiness without parchments

and formularies, it had at least this distinction, that it was in a sense the
birth-hour of the individual with regard to civil life, just as Luther's
bursting the bonds of Monasticism had been the birth-hour of the {5}
individual in religious life. The birth, however, was a feeble one, and in
this respect, and for the social and domestic drawbacks of a trying time,
it is interesting to look back and see how our fathers carried what to
them were often felt to be heavy burdens, and how bravely and even
blithely they travelled along what to us now seems like a weary
pilgrimage towards the light we now enjoy. Carrying the tools of the
pioneer which have ever become the hands of Englishmen so well, they
worked, with such means as they had, for results rather than sentiment,
and, cherishing that life-germ planted by Adam Smith, earned, not from
the lips of Napoleon as is commonly supposed, but from one of the
Revolutionary party--Bertrand Barrère in the National Assembly in
1794, when the tide of feeling had been turned by events the
well-known taunt--"let Pitt then boast of his victory to a nation of
shop-keepers." The instinct for persistent methodical plodding work
which extracted this taunt, afterwards vanquished Napoleon at
Waterloo, and enabled the English to pass what, when you come to
gauge it by our present standard, was one of the darkest and most trying
crises in our modern history. We who are on the light side of that great
cloud which brooded over the death and birth of two centuries may
possibly learn something by looking back along the pathway which our
forefathers travelled, and by the condition of things and the actions of
men in those trying times--learn something of the comparative
advantages we now enjoy in our public, social, and domestic life, and
the corresponding extent of our responsibilities.
In the following sketches it is proposed to give, not a chapter of local
history, as history is generally understood, but what may perhaps best
be described by the title adopted--glimpses of the condition of things
which prevailed in Royston and its neighbourhood, in regard to the life,
institutions, and character of its people, during the interesting period
which is indicated at the head of this sketch--with some fragments
illustrative of the general surroundings of public affairs, where the local
materials may be insufficient to complete the picture. Imperfect these
"glimpses" must necessarily be, but with the advantage of kindly help

from those whose memories carry their minds back to earlier times, and
his own researches amongst such materials, both local and general, as
seemed to promise useful information, the writer is not without hope
that they may be of interest. The interest of the sketches will
necessarily vary according to the taste of the reader
From grave to gay, From lively to severe.
The familiar words "When George III. was King," would, if strictly
interpreted, limit the survey to the period from 1760 to 1820, but it may
be necessary to extend these "glimpses" up to the {6} commencement
of the Victorian Era, and thus cover just that period which may be
considered of too recent date to have hitherto found a place in local
history, and yet too far away for many persons living to remember. Nor
will the sketches be confined to Royston. In many respects it is hoped
they may be made of equal interest to the district for many miles round.
The first thing that strikes one in searching for materials for attempting
such a survey, is the enormous gulf which in a few short years--almost
bounded by the lifetime of the oldest individual--has been left between
the old order and the new. There has been no other such transition
period in all our history, and in some respects perhaps never may be
again.
CHAPTER II.
GETTING ON WHEELS--OLD COACHES, ROADS AND
HIGHWAYMEN--THE ROMANCE OF THE ROAD.
It is worthy of notice how locomotion in all ages seems to have
classified itself into what we now know as passenger and goods train,
saloon and steerage. Away back in the 18th century when men were
only dreaming of the wonders of the good time coming, when carriages
were actually to "travel without horses," the goods train was simply a
long line or cavalcade of Pack-horses. This was before the age of "fly
waggons," distinguished for carrying goods, and sometimes passengers
as well, at the giddy rate of two miles an hour under favourable
circumstances! Fine strapping broad-chested Lincolnshire animals were

these Pack-horses, bearing on either side their bursting packs of
merchandise to the weight of half-a-ton. Twelve or fourteen in a line,
they would thus travel the North