they having no reason for not doing it, but want
of good nature and a little gratitude; though I
make no doubt but they will, some or other of
them, be so good natured as soon to come and
say, 'Come, do write this land-tax or window-tax
book for us;' then I always find good nature
enough to do it, and at the same time to find
them in beer, gin, pipes, and tobacco; and then
poor ignorant wretches, they sneak away, and
omit to pay for their paper; but, God bless
them, I'll think it proceeds more from ignorance
than ill nature. My wife having hired a horse
of John Watford, about four o'clock we set out
on our journey for Hartfield, and as we were
riding along near to Hastingford, no more than
a foot's pace, the horse stood still, and continued
kicking up until we was both off, in a very
dirty hole (but, thanks be to God, we
received no hurt). My wife was obliged to go
into Hastingford House, to clean herself. My
wife and I spent the even at my father Slater's.
We dined off some ratios of pork and green
sallard."

When there was a race of any sort at Lewes,
Mr. Turner went to see it, and came home in
such a state as to call for the reproach on
himself in his diary that he " behaved more like an
ass than any human being— doubtless not like
one that calls himself a Christian." On the
whole, however, he was a good church-going
householder. This is a Sunday record, for
example: "My whole family at church— myself,
wife, maid, and the two boys. We dined off a
piece of boiled beef and carrots, and currant
suet-pudding, and we had, I think, too extreme good
sermons this day preached unto us. Tho. Davey
at our house in the even, to whom I read five of
Tillotson's sermons." This unfortunate Thomas
Davey must have stood in very particular need of
edification; for Tillotson's sermons are poured
into him whenever he appears. Soon afterwards
we read of another Sunday: " Tho. Davey came
in the evening, to whom I read six of Tillotson's
sermons." This was a stormy time in the back
parlour. A little before we had read: " This
day how are my most sanguine hopes of happiness
frustrated! I mean the happiness between
myself and wife, which hath now continued for
some time; but, oh! this day it has become the
contrari!" And a little afterwards we read:
"Oh! how transient is all mundane bliss! I
who, on Sunday last" (when Thomas Davey had
the six sermons read to him), "was all calm and
serenity in my breast, am now nought but storm
and tempest. Well may the wise man say, 'It
were better to dwell in a corner of the house-top,
than with a contentious woman in a wide
house.' " On the following Christmas-day, " the
Widow Marchant, Hannah and James Marchant,
dined with us on a buttock of beef, and a plumb
suet-pudding. Tho. Davey at our house in the
even, to whom I read two nights of the
Complaint ." Thomas Davey had material for a
complaint of his own, we think; but Doctor Young's
Night Thoughts was a favourite work with
Mr. Turner.

Mrs. Porter, the clergyman's wife, was not
always civil to her friends in their character as
tradespeople, but when she was, it was a great
pleasure to serve her. " I went down to
Mrs. Porter's," writes the diarist one day, " and
acquainted her I could not get her gown before
Monday, who received me with all the affability,
courtesy, and good humour imaginable. Oh!
what a pleasure it would be to serve them was
they always in such a temper; it would even
induce me, almost, to forget to take a just profit.
In the even I read part of the New Whole Duty
of Man." A few days afterwards, he says,
"We supped at Mr. Fuller's, and spent the
evening with a great deal of mirth till between
one and two. Tho. Fuller brought my wife
home upon his back. I cannot say I came home
sober, though I was far from being bad company.
I think we spent the evening with a great deal
of pleasure." Sometimes there were drunken
fights between neighbours as they met each other
on their way home from their several merry
meetings. T. T. records a great fight with
Doctor Stone, the occasion of which he was
much puzzled to remember the next morning.
Another night there was a more considerable
fight, from which T. T. escaped on the
horse of a friend who was interposing in his
favour.

Mr. Porter, the clergyman, who was a man of
some substance, a Greek scholar and a pastor,
long kindly remembered in the parish, joined
with his wife in many of the festive riots that
were in those days looked upon as celebrations
of good fellowship, and from which he could not
easily have withdrawn himself without being
regarded as a churl. The wine-drinking among
the polite, good society, with its three-bottle-men,
was represented among village tradesmen
chiefly by the drinking of strong beer and
spirits. Here, for example, is the plan of a
merry-meeting at Whyly: " We played at
bragg the first part of the even. After ten we
went to supper, on four boiled chickens, four
boiled ducks, minced veal, sausages, cold roast
goose, chicken pastry, and ham. Our company,
Mr. and Mrs. Porter, Mr. and Mrs. Coates,
Mrs. Atkins, Mrs. Hicks, Mr. Piper and wife,
Joseph Fuller and wife, Tho. Fuller and wife,
Dame Durrant, myself and wife, and
Mr. French's family. After supper our behaviour
was far from that of serious, harmless mirth; it
was downright obstreperious, mixed with a great
deal of folly and stupidity. Our diversion was
dancing or jumping about, without a violin or
any musick, singing of foolish healths, and drinking
all the time as fast as it could be well poured
down; and the parson of the parish was one
among the mixed multitude." Mr. Turner
slipped away unobserved at three o'clock in the
morning, leaving his wife to make his excuse.
Though very far from sober, he came home
safely without tumbling, and at ten minutes past
five his wife was brought home by Mr. French's
servant. She was hardly got into bed when
some returning revellers, with the parson and
his wife at their head, beat at the outer door.
The parson's wife, Mrs. Porter, " pretended she