his 'terpreter, and who scorned to higgle about such an hanimal,
because Jack is a gentleman, though bred a dickey-boy, whilst 'tother,
though bred a lord, is a screw, and a whitefeather. Every one says the
cove was right, and I says so too; I likes spirit, and if the cove were
here, and in your place, measter, I would invite him to drink a pint of
beer. Good horses are scarce now, measter, ay, and so are good men,
quite a different set from what there were when I was young; that was the
time for men and horses. Lord bless you, I know all the breeders about
here; they are not a bad set, and they breed a very fairish set of
horses, but they are not like what their fathers were, nor are their
horses like their fathers' horses. Now, there is Mr. ---, the great
breeder, a very fairish man, with very fairish horses; but, Lord bless
you, he's nothing to what his father was, nor his steeds to his father's;
I ought to know, for I was at the school here with his father, and
afterwards for many a year helped him to get up his horses; that was when
I was young, measter--those were the days. You look at that monument,
measter,' said he, as I stopped and looked attentively at a monument on
the southern side of the church near the altar; 'that was put up for a
rector of this church, who lived a long time ago, in Oliver's time, and
was ill-treated and imprisoned by Oliver and his men; you will see all
about it on the monument. There was a grand battle fought nigh this
place, between Oliver's men and the Royal party, and the Royal party had
the worst of it, as I'm told they generally had; and Oliver's men came
into the town and did a great deal of damage, and ill-treated people. I
can't remember anything about the matter myself, for it happened just one
hundred years before I was born, but my father was acquainted with an old
countryman, who lived not many miles from here, who said he remembered
perfectly well the day of the battle; that he was a boy at the time, and
was working in a field near the place where the battle was fought; and he
heard shouting, and noise of firearms, and also the sound of several
balls, which fell in the field near him. Come this way, measter, and I
will show you some remains of that day's field.' Leaving the monument,
on which was inscribed an account of the life and sufferings of the
Royalist Rector of Horncastle, I followed the sexton to the western end
of the church, where, hanging against the wal