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which the men and women sung and danced until they came to the barn. These and many other remains of the old nature worships that preceded Christianity have now entirely disappeared.

A word about the laws and punishments under the four Georges. These were frightfully severe. At the beginning of this nineteenth century there were more than a hundred offences for which a man could be hanged, and the gallows had a busy time of it. Seven men were hanged at different times for robbing the henroosts of George III, at Windsor. Many punishments, now unknown, were in constant use. There was the pillory, the parish stocks, and the whipping post; the last two being much used for vagrants, beggars, and drunkards. Then there was the ducking stool for scolding women; this seems to have been a popular outbreak rather than a legal punishment, and yet it was provided everywhere. You see in this picture that the crowd are having a high old time of it, as they half-drown the poor woman. They have put a cat in a bowl and set it afloat on the water to increase the fun. Mr. Cowell informs me that there is an old order of the Liverpool Town Council for the repair of a ducking stool, to be fixed near the pool, in Mr. Crosse's field, on which Cross Hall Street now stands.

At Poulton-in-the-Fylde, a little town on the way to Fleetwood, there were once two of these ducking stools. This is a curious out-of-the-way place, which remained for years untouched by railways and modern progress. Here is a picture of its quaint old market place as it now exists.* In the centre you see the parish stocks, then comes the market cross, and next are the "fish stones," on which, after a plentiful catch, the fish were displayed for public

* The illustration has been most kindly contributed by our valued member, Mr. George Curwen.

sale. A lady friend of mine remembers having heard the old bellman at Ulverston crying, "Twelve o'clock at the fish stones to-day. Morts and sprods! Morts and sprods!" Morts were young salmon. Next to the fish stones is the whipping post, which must have been often used, for it bears the marks of the ropes by which the poor wretches were bound. Next comes the lamp, but gas has at length replaced the poor glimmering oil lamp of by-gone times. At the end of the last century this market place was surrounded by low thatched buildings, except one stone mansion, the residence of the Walmsleys. The streets were unpaved, mere mud, the inhabitants holding communication with each other in bad weather by means of stepping-stones. Here are pictures of the cries of London in 1800, and you may see that the streets were lighted with oil lamps, which at night cast forth a miserable light, and seemed only to make the darkness more visible. We could not have a better proof of the doggedness with which our forefathers clung to their old ways than the story of gaslighting. It was invented by Murdock so far back as 1792, yet the first company for lighting London with gas was not formed until 1810, eighteen years after. Even then a host of caricatures were put forth ridiculing the project as impracticable. I exhibit one, dated 1812. People are vomiting, others are holding their noses, whilst a merry-andrew steals their money under the pretence of being able to light their streets with smoke. I can remember when I was a lad the smaller streets were still without gas, and miserably dark with oil lamps. What with the darkness and the mud, the streets were unfit for ladies to walk in during the winter, and they usually hired sedan chairs for visiting. These are still well remembered by some of us, and are frequently mentioned in Dickens' Pickwick Papers, 1836. In the houses the only artificial

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