neighbours began to carry off the fence for firewood.
Orders were given to take the fence down, to
prevent this thieving. It was broad daylight on
an afternoon in spring, when an old man set to
work to execute the order. The surrounding-
cottagers, seeing their spoil vanishing from their
grasp, seized upon the man, and snatched the
wood from him. The old man, in describing
the scene, said, " They nearly killed me; and
what was worse, they almost broke the
window."

To enclose the ground with a good brick wall
was the next thing to be done. Bricks were
ordered in; a quantity were stolen in the night.
The Police said, " Unless we keep a regular
watchman on, they will be taken between times,
and one person screens another, so that it is
impossible to discover the thief down there."

The children did much harm by throwing the
bricks about and breaking them; having once
been tolerated on the ground, they could not
understand the rights of private property. One
great dirty urchin set his back doggedly against
a wall, and said to me: " I've been on the
place oftener nor you, and I shan't move for
you."

I visited the court very often while the wall
was building, and I saw the habits of the people.
They were very late in the morning. Those
women who were not milk-carriers lounged about,
gossiping, during much of the day; they sat or
stood at their doors doing nothing for whole
hours together. Even great boys played at
pitch and toss at mid-day. Many of the children
never entered a school, and were in every one's
way, and always in mischief. Towards evening
the court would become more lively. It often
reminded me of a place inhabited by animals
that prey at night. A greater activity and
watchfulness seemed gradually to animate the people,
and they came buzzing out in numbers. They
seemed, too, as if living in a land of savages,
being obliged to hold their own by strength and
violence. In reply to my questions why the front
doors of two of the cottages were shattered, and
the windows and plaster broken, while the two
next were, comparatively speaking, in good
repair, the answer was given that rather more
decent tenants inhabited the less dilapidated
houses, and also that one woman in them
"wouldn't let the boys touch her place."
Particular people were pointed out to me as being
"a match" or "not a match" for the boys.

The wall being built, and the ground levelled,
invitations were issued to the girls of the
neighbourhood to attend on a given day, when
the place was to be opened as a play-ground.
A maypole was procured, and covered with
flowers; flags were hung on the walls, and
they were also decorated with great green
boughs. The roofs and windows of the
surrounding houses were crowded with
spectators, and the fortunate possessors of tickets
entered the play-ground. The clergyman of
the district had signified his interest in the
scheme, but was unable to attend at the
opening. A short address was given to the
children by a clergyman from a neighbouring
parish, in which he explained the object of the
plan, and the regulations which had been made.
The play-ground was to be open when the
neighbouring schools were closed; during the summer
months from four to eight o'clock, and all day
on Saturday. A ticket of admission was to be
given to any girl paying a penny, which ticket
was available for a week. Tickets were
transferable, but would be forfeited by children
behaving ill.

So slight was the knowledge of any regular
games among these children, so ignorant were
they of songs, so small was their power of self-
control, that it was well-nigh impossible to amuse
them. A game of the simplest kind would be
started one minute, the next minute it would be
abandoned, and a fresh game was commenced,
to be as speedily discontinued. It was the same
with songs. One song begun by a small fraction
of the party would be lost in a discordant
fragment of another song commenced by another
fraction. Still the bright flowers, the gala look
of the place, the never-ending delight of
skipping, and the wonder and joy the toys awakened,
made the children happy.

At departure, it had been arranged to give
each girl a cake and orange as she passed out.
But the surging crowd swarmed round me like
an eager troop of wolves. I clapped my hands
and bade them stand back. No visible effect
was made by the command. Then I recollected
that there were a few of the children of my
own tenants in the crowd, so I said, "I am
astonished you should press forward like this.
Let those who know and trust me, go at once
to the back and set an example." In a moment
my own girls fell back ashamed. Others caught
the spirit and retreated, and the whole
distribution was managed easily.

At first there was no regular superintendent
of the play-ground. We had no choice but to
nominate as doorkeeper, a woman who lived on
the spot, but whom we knew to be utterly
incapable of being any way the guide and guard of
the children. The wild disorder which, ensued
when the few ladies left who were able to
visit the ground, was dreadful. The girls knew
vulgar tricks and low songs, and how to tyrannise
over those smaller than themselves, and how
to tease those better dressed, and how to fight
and swear, and knew little else. Within a
fortnight it was found necessary at any cost to
engage a woman who would really be a good
superintendent. Fears were entertained that the
person selected might have too little authority, as
she was eminently gentle; but she has really
gained the hearts of her little subjects, and they
obey her more than we had believed possible.
She invariably appeals to good motives in the
children to their honour, gratitude, affection,
duty. Life among such people is apt to deaden
our faith in gentle or generous feeling; it seems
so hopeless to appeal to it when there is so little
sign of its presence. Vanity and fear seem
such easy motives to work with, until at last,
when we have strengthened them by repeated
appeals, they rise like giants to war against all
those right actions in behalf of which we have