he magistrates for the place to be registered
as a preaching place.

Something of the old Puritanic feeling still prevailed in the town
among the Dissenters against amusements as late as the end of the first
quarter of the present century. Whether it was from the recollection
of what popular amusements had been, or against worldliness in general,
I know not, but there is a curious instance on record, where, in 1825,
a townsman named Johnson, had his membership at the New Meeting called
in question for having joined a cricket club in the town! The
offending member defended himself from what he considered the injustice
of expulsion, by stating that he saw no evil in cricket, and that the
members of the club were "moral men," and that ministers and others had
been known to join cricket clubs. The general body of members in
meeting assembled, however, refused to relax their view of it, and
decided upon his expulsion, but afterwards relented so far as to allow
Brother Johnson to resign, which he did.

Political meetings belonged more to large centres than they do
now--chiefly to the county town--but lest there should be any doubt
about what was the prevailing political bias in the town during the
first quarter of the century, it has been placed on record that Royston
was called "Radical Royston." This soubriquet was probably earned by
the large amount of "reforming" spirit which we have seen was thrown
into the discussion of abstract questions by Roystonians of the time.
They probably earned it by their protests rather than by their policy.
Politics in public meeting were in fact in a bad way at the end of the
reign of George III., when it was made unlawful for anyone to call a
public meeting exceeding fifty persons, for the purpose of deliberating
upon any public question excepting such meetings were called by the
Lord Lieutenant, Sheriff, Mayor, or other officials responsible for
good order.

{127}

When George IV. came to the throne and divided the opinion of the
country upon the subject of his treatment of Queen Caroline, the boys
shared the prevailing differences of sentiment and became "Kingites" or
"Queenites," and occasionally settled their differences in pitched
battles after the manner of boys in all ages, in some cases actually
wearing their colours--purple for the King and white for the Queen.
The prevailing sentiment was, however, in Royston so much for the
Queen, that "the first gentleman in Europe," n