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It seems his lordship had been quite happy for his staff to hound anyone who committed trespasses against him, even carrying out beatings and other violent acts. (We suspect this was probably mainly for poaching). Perhaps he was turning over a new leaf, or had heard reports of the level of violence and decided to act, at last. One of the gamekeepers was dismissed and another thought to be in line for the same.

“We are informed that the Marquis of Exeter is relenting in the course he has long pursued in giving encouragement to the gamekeepers and lurchers in his employ to commit outrages upon persons who have chanced to be guilty of even the most trifling trespass : Donworth, of Eaton, the fellow who so nearly killed a poor man from Ketton in Easton Wood (as noticed in our last), was on Monday discharged from his situation. It is expected that a similar result may follow against another person in his lordship’s service for a violent assault will come on for judgment.”

The Stamford Mercury, 24th May, 1850.

Now known as Vence Walk, following Stamford’s twinning with the French town of Vence, this was one of several attempts to build a raised footway across the meadows. It appears in records as a public right of way since at least the 19th century following the Enclosure Act of 1871.

“The money subscribed in Stamford some months ago for the construction of a raised footway across the meadows between the Sheep-square and St. Martin’s, and for a new and more convenient bridge at the Lammas ford, has been subscribed; but the plans produced by the surveyor to the Marquis of Exeter, and approved of by his lordship, (he claiming a right to the soil on either side of the present path,) more than 100l. was necessary, and as the parishioners of St. Martins’s set their faces against the proposed improvement, and decided at a vestry that they would not reconstruct their bridge near the George close, it was thought useless to persevere in the matter. Some of the principal inhabitants of All Saints’ parish had been at great trouble to promote the undertaking; and they feel regret that their fellow-townsmen on the other side of the river should assign interested reasons for not co-operating with them.”

The Stamford Mercury, 24th May, 1850.

A merchant from Corby became involved in a nasty knife fight and was then accused of assault by one of the poachers.

“At Bourn petty Sessions on Saturday last, an information for an assault was preferred by Clement Corton, a watcher in the employ of Lord Willoughby, against Mr. Wm. Collingwood, merchant, of Corby. The case has caused a good deal of talk and excitement in the neighbourhood. Four poachers, who were trespassing in pursuit of game in Grimsthorpe Park, were seen by two hedge-cutters, who went after them with their long knives, and a regular chase ensued: three of the men escaped, but the fourth was hunted down at Corby, having been found concealed in some straw in a hovel belonging to Mrs. Cox. The defendant was passing at the time, and finding the two lurchers with their knives jobbing in the straw, and uttering very foul language and threats, went into the yard, where he observed Corton dragging a man our of the straw, his face bleedin from a cut with a knife; the man asked for fair play, and made some resistance, but the other lurcher (Henry Glen) approached in a state of excitement, held his knife over Corton, and swore he would cut him down if he made further resistance: Corton at the time exclaimed to Glen, ‘D— him, do not flinch him: cut his arm off;’ and just as Glen was aiming a blow at him, Mr. Collingwood interfered, and kept off the blow, telling the man he would not allow blood to be shed, and that if the other man had committed any offence he should be properly taken into custody, without the use of weapons of so dangerous a nature. Glen immediately threatened Mr. Collingwood, and brandished the knife over him; consequently, finding his own life was in danger, he left – Corton afterwards preferred an information against Mr. Collingwood for an assault, and now endeavored to support it by the testimony of himself and two companions: they swore that defendant took up the knife, and threatened to strike Corton: this was denied by Mr. Collingwood: he was confirmed by the evidence of four respectable witnesses, who were present and saw the whole transaction, and proved the facts as above stated. Mr. Atter having addresses the magistrates on behalf of the defendant, General Johnson (chairman) said, ‘There is not the slightest ground for the charge against Mr. Collingwood, and we dismiss the case at once.’ – Mr. Atter applied for the costs incurred by the defendant, which were immediately allowed.- Gen. Johnson then severely reprimanded the men for carrying hedge knives in hunting men, and pointed out the duty of keepers and others employed to protect game.”

The Stamford Mercury, 26th April, 1850.

Martha had saved all the money she made from presents from the local fishermen in Montrose and she died a weathly woman. Suddenly a lot of her ‘family’ appeared.

• “Two gentlemen belonging to Montrose have just returned from the kingdom of Fife, and have communicated the following curious particulars regarding a supposed witch, who lived near the seat of the far-famed Maggie Lauder, and died only a few days ago: – Martha More was a woman well advanced in years, and had been long in the practice of calling at Anstruther and the neighbouring villages, where she received a half-cod from the fishers, who fully believed in the supernatural powers of Martha, and were fully persuaded that good luck depended upon giving her a cod when she came to the boat’s side. A short time ago Martha was taken ill; but independently of being supposed to be a witch, she was reported to be suffering from cholera, and none of the neighbours went to see her. One of her neighbours, a kind, half-witted man, gave her potatoes and herrings boiled together as a medicine, putting a lititle brandy into the mess. Whether this was Martha’s bane or not, it may be hard to say; but she died, and the news of her death produced a very deep sensation, many of the fishermen lamenting that they would never again have an opportunity of giving poor Martha a lucky half-cod. When Martha’s poor and thinly attended funeral was over, her house was cleaned our, and, among other things, her chest was examined, when, tied up in one bag, 2000 sixpenses were found; in another, 1020 shillings; in another 9 gold sovereigns; and in another, 7l, in bank notes. After finding this, it may well be believed that every hole and corner were earnestly searched; and such was the success that, in addition to the 117l just mentioned, other 40l was discovered, making in all 157l., which Martha had saved by her lucky half-cods which she got from the superstitious fishermen. It is also worthy of observation that, although Martha had no friends before her death, not even so much as a feeling neightbour to attend her deathbed, friends and relations are now pouring in, showing how nearly they are related by blood to Martha More.” – Montrose Standard.

The Stamford Mercury, 26th October, 1849.

A letter to their british relatives from migrants who had settled ‘over the water’, caused much amusement to inhabitants of the fens. The relatives had moved to a lead mining settlement located in Wisconsin.

• “With our Grandmothers in the Fen Villages, ‘over the water’ meant the opposite shores of the river Welland : as civilisation advanced, ‘other side of the water’ implied the opposite of Fosdyke wash : an anxious mother at Moulton this week says, she has just heard from her daughter ‘over the water,’ meaning the Atlantic ocean. The letter is dated from the Blackleg Diggins, Wisconsin, and it states that emigrants are doing well there, though all had been seized with the gold fever, and large companies were continually venturing from Wisconsin across the yet unexplored continent of America. The letter is addressed to a poor woman named Marriott: its off-hand style is amusing: as for instance, ‘We have sold the smithey, and are going to Californy : we shall pass through tracts where the inhabitants wear no clothes, and live in holes in the earth like rabbits. We have to be armed with daggers and pistols.'”

The Stamford Mercury, 3rd May, 1850.

Some strange goings-on in Henton. However, there appear to several places named Henton or Hinton, and we can’t be sure which one this was – or perhaps it didn’t really exist . . .!

“There is in the neighbourhood of Henton and its vicinity a population of about 200, and curious enough it is to hear the different tales of the people of the pranks played by this wonderful class of being. Some of the inhabitants sit up by night, three or four together, for several nights following. using some peculiar charm, instructed, they say, by the wise men of the west. There they sit praying to themselves, they must not hear each other speak, that the witch may not any longer have power to scratch the children, as they do by some invisible means; and about midnight they generally hear some terrible unearthly noises. One person has even attempted suicide under fear; some, they say are hag-ridden, other (sic) dream wonderful dreams, and have cramps, all of which are attributed to the same cause. One person asserts that she actually, at night, saw one of those wonderful beings come into her room three times.” – Sherbourne Journal. –

[Such is the condition of the West of England in the 19th centruy. Of course the People know nothing of Bishops and Clergy, and Bishops and Clergy know as little of the People! The fleece is the thing cared for, and not the flock.]

Stamford Mercury Archive, 28th September, 1849.

The death of the romantic poet was very sad news, although he had been in poor health and had recently lost his daughter, Dora. Most people will know at least the first line of his poem Daffodils. And what, I wonder, would Horace Rumpole have made of the news that his ‘dear old sheep of the Lake District‘ had died?

“On Tuesday, Mr. Wordsworth died at his house, Rydal Mount, near Ambleside. He was very well, and vigorous for his age, during the last autumn, and was, in some degree, recovering his spirits, which had suffered a severe shock in the death of his only daughter. About a month since he was attacked with serious illness, from which he never more than partially rallied, and at last he died – so far as such a man can die – on Tuesday, at noon. He had lately completed his 80th year. In losing him, the country lost one of the noblest minds which, in these times, have been devoted to poetry. In the present century, rich as its earlier years were in poetry, there has been no poet combining such purity with such elevation of thought as Wordworth. But he was, in every way, a valuable man – a man of strictly moral life and of noble simplicity of manners. Though his work in this world is done, and well done, we cannot but mourn the loss of so great a man.”

The Stamford Mercury, 23rd April, 1850.

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“Funeral of the Poet Laureate

The remains of Wordsworth were consigned to the earth, at the little church of Grasmere, on Saturday last. The funeral was intended to be as private as possible, but the attendance of ladies and gentlemen assembled to pay honour to the reamins of the illustrious dead was very large. There was a long procession of carriages and horsemen, and the church was filled with ladies and gentlemen of the neighbourhood, attired in deep mourning.” – Westmorland Gazette.

The Stamford Mercury, 26th April, 1850.

Long before the ‘speaking tubes’ used in the fictional Kingdom of Rubovia (you don’t remember it?! – click here), a similar invention was shown and demonstrated at the British Association by a Mr. Whishaw.

–“Good News for Pluralists –

At a recent meeting of the British Association, Mr. Whishaw exhibited the Telakouphanon, or speaking-trumpet; and in doing so said that speaking tubes of gutta percha were quite new, as were also the means of calling attention by them of the person at a distance, which was accomplished by the insertion of a whistle, which being blown sounded at the other end quite shrilly.  Attention having been thus obtained, you remove the whistle, and by simply whispering the voice would be conveyed quite audibly for at least three quarters of a mile, and a conversation kept up.  He then amused the auditors by causing the end of the tube, which was of the length of 100 feet, to be inserted into the mouth-piece of a flute held in a person’s hand, regulated the notes, and placing his own mouth to the other end of the tube, ‘God save the Queen’ was played at a distance of 100 feet from the person giving the flute breath.  Turning to the Bishop of St. David’s, he said that, in the event of a clergyman’s having three livings, he might, by the aid of three of these tubes, preach the same sermon in three different churches at the same time!”

The Stamford Mercury, 26th January, 1894.

Here is a landlord with a good eye to the wishes of his customers and`all the other people who have to work on Sunday. Steam is the powering force for bellows, bells and warmth, thus allowing them to spend more time in this Hotel. Even better if he can sell the patent for his invention!

“Mr. Whiteley, ‘mine host’ of the Star Hotel, Sowerby, near Halifax, informs us that he has invented a machine for ringing changes on church bells, warming the interior of the church, and blowing the organ bellows, by the aid of a two-horse power steam -engine. By his invention, he proposes to save that excellent class of persons, bell-ringers, from working on Sundays; at the same time that he releases the organ-blower from his bellows, and comfortably warms the toes of the congregation whilst the good clergyman is essaying to warm their hearts. And all these things are to be effected at an expense infinitely less than he believes he can sell the patent right for. If we undertand his letter aright, he contemplates making the ringers, organ-blower, and congregation of Sowerby church a present of his invention, if he can sell tha patent right for what he thinks it is worth; and, in return, they can do no less than make his hostelrie the first ‘Star’ in the firmament of Sowerby. – Leeds Times.

The Stamford Mercury, 19th January, 1849.

Disgruntled ‘commoners’ were not happy when (not for the first time) the Marquis of Exeter moved some fish from the River Welland to his own pond. Perhaps they didn’t understand – after all, they probably used the fish for food, rather than sport!

“The water in the river Welland at Stamford has been this week drawn off, and a large capture of fish has been made by men in the employment of the Marquis of Exeter. Formerly there was very good rod-fishing in this neighbourhood, but of late years the Marquis has coveted all the amusement for himself, and frequently has had the river dragged to supply the pond in Burghley Park. It is understood tha the recent netting has been to stock a pond on the premises at Ketton occupied by Lord Burghley. No one would wish to debar the young legislator from proper recreation, after the heavy fatigue consequent upon close attention to his Parliamentary duties; but those who are denominated the ‘public at large’ think it not quite the thing that they should be deprived of their share of recreation in order to increase that of a single individual.”

The Stamford Mercury, 12th April, 1850.