The Old Park Road. ... Illustrated by H. French

Front matter

Part I. Price Sixpence.] June 1, 1870. [Registered for Transmission AbrtSl. fft Am *. -Ig -* S 'y*> . ' ' t -'- London : HENRY VICKERS. Strand. i by all BOOKSELLERS in the UNITED KINGDOM, and may be had by order of all COLONIAL and FOREIGN BOOKSELLERS, or sent (post-free) to any part of the United Kingdom or the Colonies for SEVENPEXCE. TIIB OLD PARK ROAD. — ADVERTISEMENTS. [Jnim l, _S7«. HIGHEST PRIZES AWARDED, 1S65, 1867, 1868, & 1869. Special Improvements. Great Reduction in Price. The ALBERTA Unequalled LOCK-STITCH SEWING MACHINE, With Plain Stand, 6 gs. ; Ornamental Bronze do., 63 gs< The Celebrated EXCELSIOR SEWING AND EMBROIDERING MACHINE, Price, 6 guineas. Lists free. Hand Machines in Great Variety, from 35s. First-Class Lock-stitch Machines from 70s. THE "ALBERTA." THE NEW PRINCESS, 84s. WHIGHT AND MANN, 143, HOLBORN HILL, LONDON, E.C. GEORGE REES, __> bMa ss&trciim ararawroras, .Framed Complete, from Is. to 40s. each.

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Chapter I. The Old Paek Road

TIME out of mind there have been three kinds of ways in England, known as a footway, a foot and horseway, and wliat our Saxon forefathers called a wainway, which is our common highway, including all the three, and open to everybody and everything that has motion. The Old Park Road, that led to and from Upper and Lower Reapham, was both footway and horseway, but had never been open to vehicles ; and never was there a greater commotion in that quiet village, and the homesteads of the surrounding neighbourhood, than that which arose a few years ago, through two notices, placed on poles, one at each end of the Park, announcing that the old bridleway and footpath would be stopped up, by order of the Justices, made at the Court of Quarter Sessions. Everybody was taken by surprise ; for there had been no threat from Lawyer Snareford, who had taken up his residence at the Hall, and the sole management of the estate, ever since the Squire was killed accidentally while out shooting.

There was no record of how old the road was, though tradition said, that it was a foot and bridleway centuries before tho estate was imparked ; so that it was no wonder the villagers murmured, and said, indignantly, that " all the Justices in England could not stop up their right of way, if tho law did what was just." Had all the bees hived for five miles around the flowery fields of Reapham swarmed at once, they could not have made a louder buzzing than that heard among the inhabitants, while hurrying in and out of one another's houses, and consulting what had best be done to prevent the stopping up of the Old Park Road. The woodman, who had no companion beside his dog, while toiling [Jfne 1, 1870. all day in a silent land of trees ; the hedger and ditcher, that worked by himself, in some far away solitary field ; the labourer, who tilled the soil in remote outlying farms ; and the shepherds, who were out early and late during the lambing season, were sure to find some one to exchange a word with, after they were jaded with a long day's work, when they reached the Old Park Road.

They used to say " it felt like iome when they once set foot on the old familiar path, and that on the darkest night they could feel their way across it, for, if half asleep, it wakened them up if they stepped aside, and trod on the rich, deep greensward of the Park, instead of the well-worn footway." The threatened enclosure affected all alike ; for even the well-to-do farmer found it as pleasant a cut, as he trotted to market with his sample-bag of wheat in his pocket, as the poor cottager, who wended in the same direction, to sell the little basket of new-laid eggs, or the earliest produce of the well-tilled rood of garden-ground, when Spring threw her first primrose-colour upon the sky. The horseman had no need to alight to open the old-fashioned double gates, but stooping in his saddle, just drew back the first one with his hand, or the hook of his riding whip, when his horse pushed back the second with a slight touch of his chest, and the two gates again closed without any help, and kept the deer and cattle safe within their allotted enclosures.

And a pleasant sound on a still, fine evening was the clapping-to of those old gates, and the tramp of the horse along the turf-covered bridleway, its foot steps half-muffled in the short greensward, which must have been even pleasant to the animal itself, after trotting over the brown, hard, dusty high road — for there was a broad margin of grass on both sides of the Old Park Road. There had never been any complaints of passengers crossing the deep-sunk ha-ha fence, in which was rooted the strong privet hedge, clipped so smooth as to be on a level with the lawn before the Hall, and scarcely distinguishable from it when seen at a distance. On the Hall side of this sunken boundary no encroachment had ever been made, nor, on the other hand, had the Old Park Road ever been a disputed territory.

No one had ever been warned off it, or threatened to be prosecuted for trespass, or spoken angrily to by even the keepers, unless found driving the deer about, or chasing the cattle ; for the peaceful villagers who went to and fro kept within the well known ancient bounds, and had never given occasion to the owner of the freehold to defend his ancient rights. There was no other way of getting to or from Upper or Lower Reapham, as portions of the village were called, excepting by the common high road, which wound round the outside of the high Park JtJNE 1, 1S70.] palings, making a circuit of nearly two miles ; while the old right of way — narrowing to almost a neck of land where it crossed the Park — was not near a fourth of that distance. " One was going home," as the peasants said in their homely vernacular, " as the crow flies, straight to the point ; the other was circling round like a pigeon, that hadn't made its mind up where to go to at all."

Upper Reapham was the oldest portion of the park-divided village ; for there stood the gray, ancient church — a landmark of the far past — and the old grammar school its funds had formerly supported ; also the stocks, rarely used ; and the round-house, called by the villagers the "kid-cote," as they called all tramps, beggars, and suspected persons kidnappers — hence, no doubt, the name, as in it such characters were placed until taken before a Justice of the Peace, when they had broken the law. But in both portions of the village stood old timbered tenements, with pinnacled gables and diamond-shaped lattices, causing the beholder to conclude that in very remote times the Old Park Road had been the common highway, and that the present cart-road — outside the Park — was, in comparison, modern.

But of this there was no record, nor anything, excepting, as some imagined, faint traces of the marks of wheels, seen only in very dry summers, bordering the present bridle-path. One thing in favour of its having been a common highway was the fact of an old guide-post having been placed at th. upper end of the Park, in accordance with the " Act for the Preserva tion of Public Highways," passed in the thirteenth year of George the Third's reign, pointing out the road to the nearest market town, and having on it letters, in accordance to Act of Parliament, which read, " To Swainbuegh, 3 Miles." There are old men still living at Reapham who well remember seeing the finger-post ; but not any of their great-grandfathers — so far as could be traced back in the traditions handed down to the present generation — had ever heard, or made mention, of the Old Park Road having been a common highway for vehicles ; nor had it ever wanted repairing — a sure sign that it must have been a very old road, and the highway that now goes circling the Park, modern.

But if oral tradition had remained silent respecting the Old Park Road ever having been a wainway, or common cart-road, in remote times, it had handed down many pleasant memories of customs — still preserved — which endeared the Park to the neighbouring villagers, making them love it all the more, because, "being an old thing, it was still their own ;" valued the more — as all things are that we have T< [JVHE 1, 18.0. ■cherished, when we have fears that they will soon be lost to us. To many the old Park was as dear as hearth and home. It was like a great picture-gallery, filled with household treasures — portraits of the living and the beloved dead. Those dead and gone had been carried across the Old Park Road to be christened at that ancient church, which had not even retained the name of the saint to whom it was dedicated.

They, in turn, had grown up, and led their young brides along the same road to be married, while the good old squires and their ladies had crossed the lawn and come down to the Hall side of the ha-ha fence to wish them long Hfe and all happiness ; and rarely did they fail to send a wellfilled hamper to the wedding-feast. "When a funeral passed along this ■old right of way, the Hall blinds were always drawn down, though it was but in reverence to the body of some tiny baby, that had gone back as it came, stainless, from the hands of its Creator. And these little acts of courtesy and sympathy, Hke golden chains, bound closer the Hall to the hamlets, and caused the owners of the estate to rest in that security which all good men enjoy whose hearts are at peace with mankind, and whose consciences are unburthened.

Even the viUage children would run and quarrel as to which should open the gates for them when they rode round their wide domain, for they had always heard their parents speak with gratitude of the good Squire and his lady, who never sent anyone away empty from the Hall. To Lawyer Snareford, the village children bowed and curtsied, as they were taught to do to every well-dressed stranger ; but no eager feet ran pattering to open the gates for him, unless surlily commanded. The vast sweep of park land that was bounded by the common highway, and divided from the Hall side by the Old Park Road and ha-ha fence, had always been open to the villagers ; nor had there ever been any complaint of their misusing so great a privilege. And there, in green, secluded, and shady nooks were found the choicest and earliest wildflowers, snowdrops — which some forgotten lady of the HaU had, no doubt, caused to be planted — primroses, anemones, sweet violets, and Hlies of the vaUey; and these the villagers had gathered in the springs of departed years, to place in the coffins of their children, and in those of the youths and maidens who had died unmarried.

And all these time-honoured customs would have to be done away with, if their right of way through the Park was enclosed, and an end put to those pious pilgrimages, which purified the heart, whfle they gathered flowers for their beloved dead parents for children, children for parents, wife, husband, sister, brother, ".CUE 1. 1870.] and all those endeared to each other, who had only gone on a Httle way before, and whom they trusted to meet again in that great mustering ground beyond the grave. Then there was My Lady's Thorn, the only one in that part of the Park that bore red May blossoms ; and had a naturalist told them that the colour of the bloom was owing to the deep red clay in which it was rooted, they would not have believed him. No; there was a secret love-charm in My Lady's May, the sprays from which must be cut, and never broken : and this continuous pruning caused the old thorn to flourish, and be covered, in spring and the early days of summer, with one sheet of crimson May-buds.

The rustic maidens gathered the sprays with tender hands, and kept them alive as long as they could, if presented by their lovers, wearing them in church as "posies," and not ashamed to let aU Reapham know that they had found a sweetheart — for My Lady's May, so worn, was as sure a sign of a pHghted troth as the wearing of an engaged ring by more refined lovers. It was beHeved that those who gave or received My Lady's May as a pledge of love never prospered if unfaithful to their vow, so powerful was its hidden charm. It grew near My Lady's Well, as a Httle, covered ground spring was called, to which the maidens came early on May mornings to bathe their faces, that they might become fair. They also carried Httle bottles of it home, to use secretly in their chambers, believing it possessed the power of giving a softer brightness to their eyes.

They said that nowhere did so many nightingales congregate as around My Lady's May, and that this was owing to the quantity of sweet-brier bushes that grew there. And there lovers lingered in the moonlight, as they said, to listen to the singing of the nightingales, though, no doubt, they found sweeter music in their own voices while exchanging vows of love. It was the haunt of love. These were among the many pleasant memories associated with the old Park, and such as neither old nor young would willingly let die. Gray-headed grandmothers loved to tell how, when they were giddy girls, they gathered My Lady's May, and bathed their now wrinkled faces in My Lady's WeU ; and it was whispered that even the beautiful daughters of the Hall had done the same reverence. Far back as memory went, with even the garrulous gossip of old age, none of these ancient customs had ever been interfered with, nor had any prosecution of trespassers ever been remembered, unless it was that of some greedy poacher, or the daring depredations of the gipsies, when they ventured to pitch their camps within the Park.

If cattle entered, the village Pinder was communicated with, and he drove them into the pound, got [Jfhe 1, 1870. his fee, and the owner had his own again, and no more was heard of the damage. The Wellbecks had ever been good landlords, never losing an opportunity of making both their tenants and labourers as happy and comfortable as laid within their power. But aU this had altered for the worse since the last Squire was kdled, and Lawyer Snareford instaUed himself in Reapham Hall ; and now men began to inquire of one another for the authority by which the lawyer had got the whole management of affairs into his own hands, since it was weU known that the Squire died intestate. Rumours, which had all but died away, once more came to Hfe ; and suspicious whispers, which had scarcely before been heard, were now syllabled as loudly as men's names, when they shout to one another, which would perhaps never have found utterance only " with bated breath," had not the lawyer made appUcation at the Court of Quarter Sessions to stop up the Old Park Road.

Chapter II. The Old Bull's Head

THE Old Bull's head at Swainburgh, was known as the Farmers' Market House, through so many of them "putting up " there, and frequently dining together at what was caUed the " Market Dinner." These comfortable and social old-fashioned dinners are more thinly attended since railroads run through so many of our market towns ; and where formerly it was difficult at times to find a seat at the crowded table, there are now great gaps between the chairs. Though the Bull's Head was a timber-and-plaster house, and had been an inn as far back as there was any mention of it, it still bore away the ball from its more modern rivals, in the exceUency of its dinners. It was a great Reapham house; and, as maybe supposed, the chief subject of conversation, after the notices had been put up, was the threatened stoppage of the right of way ; for those who Hved at the outlying farms and vUlages beyond Reapham, always came across the Old Park Road on their way to or from market, unless they drove some vehicle.

There was no mincing of matters at that large dining-table, which often seated as many as thirty, so that those who sat at one end had to speak pretty loud to be heard by their friends at the other. Some of the old farmers spoke in that broad, plain Doric, which it is as refreshing at times to listen to as to linger in a green lane fiUed with the singing of wild birds. " But it wasn't known to any of the rest of the Justices at Quarter Sessions, that such an order was applied for. I saw Squire North- JCHE I, 1S70._ holm t'other day, and he's on the bench, and said he knowed nowt at all about it till he saw the notices stuck up," said a broad-shouldered farmer, holding the great mouthful of underdone roast beef on his fork, and the whole of a new potato on his knife, while speaking in reply to some previous observation.

"It doan't want a whole bench of Justices to do a mischief," was the reply of a thin, inteUigent-looking farmer, who had been overseer of the highway, and understood the Highway Act. " The law says two or more Justices may sign the order ; two have, and that's one too many for us Reaphamites, as it's aU the law requires, an' we mun lose the Old Park Road, I'm afeared, unless we stir our stumps pretty nimbly. Notice of appeal mun be sent in ten days afore th' next Sessions, or th' lawyer wiU be too sharp for us, as he was for everybody, when he walked into the Hall an' hung his hat up, then sat down an' caUed for what he liked." Every word was listened to and understood ; and, after a few moments' sUence, a wealthy farmer, who cultivated his own freehold, said : " From whom did Snareford obtain authority to make appUcation for stopping up our old right of way ?

He is neither the Lord of the Manor nor Owner ofthe estate." " Tou know, Squire, that possession is said to be nine points of the law," answered the man who had just before spoken. "An' that he's got, somehow, by hook or by crook. Goe axe him how he got hold of the Hall, an' he'U order you out, good a man as you are. What a lawyer gets fast owd of, he always sticks to, and this one isn't a man to leave go easUy, I am sure." " But he wUl, though, when he begins to find it burning his fingers," said another ; " an' I think, among us, if he stops up our right o' way, we shall make the inside a Httle bit too hot to hold him in with any comfort." " I hope from my heart he will burn his fingers," said another, speaking boldly. " It will serve him right, an' I for one should look at it as a judgment on him.

An' I've been looking out for one to overtake him for some time past ; for though I was on the Crowner's 'quest, an' we brought in a vardict 'accidental death,' when the Squire was shot, I never felt satisfied about the evidence of that gamekeeper, the only witness, save Snareford, when it happened." A deep inward groan or two, and a few deep sighs, and just ono " Ah, it was very shocking !" was all that was heard for a minute or two, ex cepting " twenty feeding Hke one," as if each felt that it was dangerous to approach nearer to such a man as Snareford was known to be, who, THE OLD PARK EOAD. [Joke 1, 1S70. as they expressed it, " would have the law on a man if he only happened to sneeze at the wrong time." "I was on the jury, too," said another, "and I remember the Coroner threatening to commit WiUiam, the keeper, because ho wasn't quite sober when he came to give us his evidence.

It was plain as a pikestaff to me that the Squire got first through the fence aster thc dogs ; that the lawyer called to him to take his gun while he got through ; that a bramble, or something or another, caught the trigger as the Squire got hold of the barrel, and he was shot as dead as a door nail through the heart." " Every word of that's as true as the gospel," said another farmer, " for I was also on the jury. But I never could make out how it was that the gamekeeper — who was always a very decent sort of a chap up to that time — never seemed right any more after the Squire was killed, but took to drinking and skulking about, untU he went off to some of those outlandish parts, and has never, I believe, been heard of since. I have often wondered what made him take on so." " So have a good many more beside you, neighbour," said a grave looking farmer, dressed in drab, " though there's nothing in it.

For my part, I think he took on a-fretting in'ardly, for He was a great favourite of the Squire's, who always liked to take WflHam out with him, better than any other of the keepers. And they say he had a few words with her that is now Httle "Winny's maid, after the funeral — that he was engaged to Jinny, and it was all broken off, somehow or another. Then he took to drink, and at last took himself off, happen to Hst for a soldier, for aught I know, as many a young man has done before him, and as one of my brothers did long years ago." " People always do try to make a mountain out of a mole-hiU," said the farmer who, by courtesy, was caUed Squire, because he was a large freeholder. " It was a very sudden, and a very shocking, death — shooting himself clean through the heart by accident — and if WiUiam did take to drink, it's only what hundreds of men have done who have had a great sorrow, and wUl do again, for he was as true and faithful to the Squire as a good dog, and as much valued by his master.

I don't wonder at the poor chap taking to bad ways, especially after his sweet heart turning round upon him, in the thick of all his trouble — for he was to have married Winny's maid, and lived rent free in that cottage behind the HaU stables in the Park. But that's all over and gone, like many another good promise that never came to a head, and as we all shaU go some day or another, when it pleases Godamighty to call us." JCKE 1, 1870.] THE OLD PAEK EOAD. 9 After this remark the farmers feU into conversation with one another— here two, there three; but aU discussing the same subject in one form or another, and aU leading to one point: "By what authority had Lawyer Snareford appHed to the Justices to 6_gn an order to stop up tho right of way?" Then the characters of the only two Justices of the Peace who had given legahty to the notice were canvassed ; and one was found to be Captain Cracrost, who had only recently, and not without great opposition, been made a Justice of the Peace ; and the other was found to be that of the old Justice whose daughter the Captain had married.

" And who is this Captain Cracrost?" was the next question; "and what was he before he was brought here by Lawyer Snareford ?" So the discovery was made, that instead of the order for closing the right of way being sanctioned by the majority of the Justices at the Court of Quarter Sessions, it was never even brought before them, though it was true that the two who signed it had remained to finish some trifling business connected with the session, but, no doubt, as the farmers suspected, their great object was to sign the notice within the time Hmited to the sitting of the Court. The father-in-law was a good, inoffensive old gentleman, who dozed away half the time he sat on the bench, doing everything that the Captain wished him to do ; and, apparently, the latter received all his instructions from Snareford, and executed them to the utmost of his power.

It was not the first time that the question had been asked : " Who is this Captain Cracrost, now Justice of the Peace ?" though it is very likely his name would never have been mentioned at that social market dinner, had not his signature and that of Justice Mortram rendered legal the notice signed for stopping up the Old Park Road. As for old Justice Mortram, he was best known among the country people by the name of BiUy-go-Easy, through his kind manner of speaking to the culprits brought before him, as he encouraged them to speak, bidding them to " make themselves easy, as he was in no hurry, and disliked hurrying." Everybody liked, and spoke kindly, of old Justice Mortram, until they found his name appended to the notice for stopping up the Old Park Road. But he swore at times. Then the subject was discussed, over their pipes and glasses, when dinner was cleared away, of how Squire "Wellbeck died intestate, and deeply embarrassed, according to the showing of Lawyer Snareford ; that he had been a betting man, and was "hit heavily" at the great .June i, 1S70.

St. Leger, just before he was killed, and that, to pay his gambling debts, the lawyer had got his acceptances discounted for thousands of pounds, though nobody before knew he was much in debt ; how Winifred, the girHsh heiress, couldn't bear the sight of the HaU aster her father was kUled, and did nothing but cry all day, until they allowed her to go with her maternal grandfather, and Hve at the old Grange, near the Park entrance, which had for years been the residence of the farm bailiffs. Then Lawyer Snareford consulted with Winifred's grandfather — who he said had not the shadow of a claim on the estate, as it descended through general entaU — and thought the HaU had better be let for a little time, as the money received would help to reduce the Squire's debts. And when the old grandfather named it to little Wmifred, she dried her eyes, and said " She would live on bread and water, until every shilling he had owed was paid, so much had she loved her dear father."

Then a tenant was found in Captain Cracrost, who brought with him his sister — a lady, it was said, divorced from her husband — and when the Captain married Justice Mortram's beautiful daughter, Lawyer Snareford removed to the Hall, in which the Captain's sister still remained, to do the honours of the lawyer's table. So things had gone on, and so matters might have remained — talked about now and then, but that would have been aU — had not the lawyer given notice that he was about to stop up the Old Park Road. Through all these changes, Winifred "Wellbeck, now sixteen, had Hved with her fond old grandfather, at the ancient Grange, beloved by all who knew her. The Captain and his wife resided at the HaU. CHAPTER HI. WINIFEED WELLBECK. WINIFRED, her fond father's darling, was only about twelve years of age at the time his body was borne by sorrowftil servants into the Hall.