esser's shop up to the end
of last century was also different in appearance from one to-day, and
was furnished with perukes, or wigs for all sorts of heads. At Upwell,
in the Fen, in 1791, a wig caught fire in such a shop and "before the
fire could be put out thirty-six wigs were destroyed."

Luxuries were much more limited than now, and many things then regarded
as such have since got placed in a different category. At the end of
the last century a pianoforte had not figured in any Royston household,
but it came at the beginning of this century when Lady Wortham as she
was always styled--as the daughter of Sir Thomas Hatton, Bart., and
wife of Hale Wortham, Esq.--became the owner of the first piano at
their house in Melbourn Street (now Mr. J. E. Phillips').

Newspapers were among the luxuries of the household, and their
circulation was of a very limited character. When, for a town of the
size of Royston, two or three copies did arrive by a London coach the
subscribers were generally the principal innkeepers--the Red Lion, the
Crown, and the Bull--and to these inns tradesmen and the leading
inhabitants were wont to repair. The only alternative of getting a
sight of the paper was that they could, on ordinary occasions, have it
away with them at their own homes upon paying a penny an hour for its
use. On special occasions when any great foreign event became
known--for papers contained but little home news--the competition for
the paper was an exciting event, the above arrangement was hardly
elastic enough to meet requirements, and crowds gathered about in the
inn yards on the arrival of a coach to learn some momentous piece of
intelligence with more or less accuracy from post-boys and others, who
in their turn had heard it from somebody else whose friend had been
able to communicate it with the authority of having actually "seen it
in the paper." The essence of the news required was generally victory
or defeat in battle, or trials at Assizes, and could soon be told. The
supply of papers was limited pretty much to the _Times_ and _Morning
Chronicle_ from London, while the _Cambridge Chronicle_ was then the
principal local newspaper.

As the Chancellor of the Exchequer derived a revenue from the stamp
required for each newspaper (as well as upon advertisements) the
lending of a newspaper was looked upon in the light of smuggling, and
an Act was passed providing that "any person who lends out a newspaper
for hire