is situate to the south of, and adjoins the said parish of Standish and the parish of Randwick." The parish of Moreton Valence will have those parts of Standish which lie to the west of the said imaginary line. Moreton Valence will also take three detached parts of Saul parish which adjoin isolated and detached parts of Standish. A detached part of Standish, about three acres, will be amalgamated with Longney parish.

To make the new parish of Harescombe, a portion of Haresfield parish, situate at Haresfield Hill, will be taken therefrom, but Haresfield will receive from Standish the separated part known as Colthorpe Tything, containing 504 acres or thereabouts.

The parish of Saul was found to be divided into twelve parts, such parts being isolated and detached from each other. This parish is to be eliminated entirely, and, with the exception of the small portions before mentioned which go to Moreton Valence, the various parts of Saul are to be amalgamated with the parish of Fretherne. There are four detached parts of Eastington situate at Framilode, and containing about 34 acres, which are to be united to one of the before-mentioned parts of Saul, and then amalgamated with the parish of Fretherne.

Two parts of Hardwicke parish, known as Farleigh's End, and containing respectively 218 acres, and 1a. 2r. or thereabouts, are to be amalgamated with the parish of Elmore, which is in the Gloucester Union.

There is also a new arrangement of parishes in the Gloucester Union, which will have the effect of reducing the number of parishes, townships, and hamlets in that Union, and constituting two new parishes, to be designated “Longford” and “Wotton Saint Mary without.

THI

Recollections of Cooper's Hill Wake.

HIS short note appeared in the Gloucestershire Chronicle, 25 January and 8 February, 1890:

In looking over an old scrap-book to-day, I came upon the following copy of a paper sent to the Crier of the city of Gloucester "to make proclamation of the annual sports of Whitsuntide, 1836:"-" Cooper's Hill Weke to commence on Wits Monday per sisly at 3 o'clock. 2 cheeses to be ron for. I Plain

Cake to be green for.

I do. do. to be jumpt in the bag for. Horings to be Dipt in the toob for. Set of ribons to be dansed for. Shimey to be ron for. Belt to be rosled for. A bladder of snuff to be chatred for by hold wimming." -J. G.

The second communication was as follows:

I was amused when I read in your columns a fortnight ago the copy of the bill announcing Cooper's Hill wake. The master of the ceremonies usually employed the Gloucester town crier to "bawl" the proclamation through the streets. The orthography of these original announcements is invaluable, because it affords a kind of phonograph of the old Gloucestershire or Cotswold dialect.

Some of my earliest recollections are associated with Cooper's Hill wake, which, in old days, was a festivity of some magnitude. Old John Jones, of Cooper's Hill, and the late Sir William Hicks, of Witcomb Park, were great patrons of the annual saturnalia. I can recollect Organ, the master of the ceremonies, who was a fine, tall, handsome fellow. He used to appear upon the summit of the hill, dressed in a white linen chemise, adorned with ribbons of all the colours of the rainbow. His hat was also decked with ribbons, and around his waist he wore the belt for which the wrestlers were to struggle, the winner claiming honour as champion wrestler for the year. Organ's advent was hailed with shouts by the hilarious multitude; and no Cæsar attired in Imperial robe of Tyrian dye could have been more proud than he was of his milk-white "smock," for the old English name, and not the Frenchified "chemise," was that by which the garment was known to all. "Old Gipsey Jack" was always there, with his Asiatic face and his old black fiddle; his wife, with eyes like the eagle's, a face as brown as a "bannut" bud, and hair as black as a thundercloud, was there also, with her dingy tambourine; and to the tum-tum of the fiddle and the jingle of the tambourine the country lads and lasses danced to their hearts' content. Organ was the judge of merit in these exercises, and I think the most graceful dancer generally won most of the ribbons. It was a pretty spectacle, and I never witnessed any impropriety. The peasantry were not so learned or so "refined" as they are now supposed to be; but they were contented and happy when—

"At the wake of Cooper's Hill

Each Jack appeared with charming Jill."

In days of yore, not only the daughters of the peasants, but those also of the farmers, mingled in the throng of merry

dancers, and how proud were "Jane" and "Mary" of the ribbons they had won by their agility and endurance! The wrestling was not a pleasant spectacle, despite its ardent admirers and votaries. A man of pugilistic build and character formed a human circle by beating the turf, and alternately the toes of the crowd, with a long ground-ash stick, and shouted "A ring! A ring!" When the arena was formed, the struggle commenced. I have seen a couple of stalwart fellows, with sinew and tendon of iron, struggle fiercely, not to say ferociously, for the mastery. What a shout of exultation went up when the victor landed his opponent fairly on his back on the sward! It was surprising how human limbs could be so strained and kicked without the thews cracking and the bones breaking. These brutal trials of strength may have made the race hardy, tough, and valiant. To me, however, the spectacle was brutal and inhuman. I once met an aged athlete, who had been the champion at Cooper's Hill, but had become a cripple. "John," I asked, "what is the matter?" "Why, Mayster Harry, I ha' got a nashun bod leg." "How is that, John?" "Mayster Harry, the follies o' my youth. If I had my days to go over agen, I'd never stond up to ha' my legs kicked to pieces at Cooper's Hill wake. I ha' larned this, thot our blessed Meeker nivver made our precious limbs to be kicked at vor other volks' amusement." The grinning through "hosses collards" was a grand amusement. Some of the faces distorted to produce the "best grin" would have puzzled Lavater and delighted Hogarth. Dipping in a tub of water for oranges and apples, and bobbing for penny loaves smeared with hot treacle, need no description.

The grand climax to the annual revel was running down the frightful declivity of the hill after a cheese. It was a perilous feat; but young fellows were ever willing to risk the danger. An old man described the cheese as being "Hard as Fayrur's heart, or the nether millstone." I have seen the cheese bound down the hill and over a stone wall into the ground beyond. I have seen it in the hands of the winner without the symptom of a crack in it or the sign of an abrasion. To have run down the terrible descent was perilous; to have eaten the trophy must have been a more dangerous feat than its capture.

Racing for the prize chemise was to me the most degrading part of the revel; but there were plenty of girls eager for the contest, until a sad catastrophe occurred. On one occasion a young woman outpaced her competitors, and reached the goal first-and there dropped dead!

After the wake was over, ruffianism commenced. The village feuds, grudges, and personal quarrels were then settled. Hats were thrown into the air, rings were formed, and sanguinary and prolonged fights followed. It should be mentioned to the credit of the "fair sex" that they usually left the hill before these displays began; but sometimes a poor girl lingered to implore her sweetheart not to fight.

The Maypole around which the villagers and the visitors danced was usually supplied by the late Sir William Hicks. In fact, a pole from Witcomb Wood was regarded as a legitimate perquisite of the wake. Happily, the schoolmaster has been abroad among our rural as well as our town populations; the village flower-show has superseded the bouts at wrestling and grinning; and Cooper's Hill wake is numbered among the things that have been, and is now only a memory to those who have crossed the summit of life's journey.-H. Y. J. T.

A

Tewkesbury Politics in 1753.

CURIOUS letter, written by Viscount Gage, M.P. for Tewkesbury, to his constituents, appeared in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal for January 20, 1753. After observing that he had represented the town for thirty years, and had neither bought his constituents nor sold them for selfish purposes, he proceeds:" But I must own myself greatly mortified to find many of my friends engaged in a scheme, which, if persisted in, must deprive me of the honour of representing them; although I flatter myself their resolution to choose no member but such as will give £1,500 each towards mending their roads, does not proceed from any personal dislike to me, but from the benefit they conceive the trade of Tewkesbury will receive by it." His lordship, it seems, had been informed of this movement by its promoters, who sought to cover the intended illegality by asking for a "subscription," but Lord Gage had responded that no mere change of name would alter the corrupt character of the transaction. He would contribute in a legal way to the repair of

the roads, by paying £200 a year to the treasurer of the turnpikes as soon as the work was begun, and to shew that this proposal involved no personal ends, he would undertake to carry it out even if not returned at the next election. But this offer having been rejected, his lordship now appealed to the electors generally to disapprove of the course taken by some of their body. They would not, he hoped, prostitute the town by selling it "to the first man who offers the price of its infamy;" nor would it be easy, while he was in the House of Commons, to get "a Turnpike Bill grafted on corruption and designed as a cloak to bribery" through Parliament. In any case he was resolved to contest the borough at the next election, and trusted that before that time those who had set up the illegal confederacy would see the error of their ways. The only effect of this remonstrance seems to have been to defer the introduction of the Turnpike Bill. The condition of the roads was deplorable. Some of them were so narrow that two horses could scarcely pass each other; others were so deep in mud that the travelling public made tracks in the adjoining fields. At length the general election took place in April, 1754, when Lord Gage and his son were defeated, and Messrs. John Martin and Nicholson Calvert returned. The ejected noblemen forthwith petitioned the Commons to investigate the case. The petition stated that the sale of the seats had been devised by a few persons of property in the borough in ease of themselves and their estates, and that they had publicly canvassed the electors, pointing out the advantage of making such a compact. Party politics do not appear to have entered into the arrangement. The promoters were ready to accept the £3,000 from anyone. After two gentlemen had been found prepared to pay this price for the seats, the Corporation was solicited to exercise its influence in their behalf; but the majority of the members, abhorring the project, refused to attend a meeting called by the promoters, and no resolution could be passed. Undeterred by this repulse, the projectors convened a meeting of the inhabitants, who were formed into a club meeting monthly, and soon induced to look with approval on the promised golden stream, though the names of the candidates were still kept in the dark. "After the projectors had thus settled and prepared matters, the sitting members made their public entry into the town, with pickaxes and shovels carried before them, and flags, with inscriptions thereon, of "Calvert and Martin" on one side, and "good roads" on the other, in order to give the town