not quite a recantation, and so the old lady had to
go to Hertford gaol for seven days, and a crowd of people saw her off
out of the town--one of the first victims of that law of compulsion of
the individual for the public good which was to be a characteristic of
the coming legislation.

1833. In this year the Royston Institute was founded under the name of
the Royston Mechanics Institute. In 1855 the present building was
erected partly on the site of the old turn-pike house, and it was
opened in 1856.

1834. The lowering of Burleigh's, or Burloe's, Hill, Royston, by
digging a cutting through, was begun about this time. The trustees of
the Baldock and Bournbridge Turnpike Trust made a special contract by
{184} which the parish contracted to do the work for L250, the parish
taking any risk of loss and any chance of profit on the transaction,
and the work to extend over two years. Men who applied to the Overseer
were set upon it, and there was a strike against 4d. per yard, the
price fixed for the labour by Mr. Wm. Smith, the surveyor for one part
of the work, and the Vestry stood by the Surveyor and decided that any
men who refused to do it at that price should not be employed by the
parish.

The labourers refused to work at it, and "as the magistrates sanctioned
the offer of work at this hill as an answer to applicants for relief,
the labourers who would have been relieved for want of employment have
found work from private employers instead of living on compulsory
relief from the parish. Labourers living out of the parish, and
_threatening to come home_ unless out-allowance was paid them, having
been answered that there was two years' work provided for them, have
altered their intention of coming home and have subsisted on their own
resources." And so the Parochial Pharaohs, as the paupers regarded
them, by practical common sense and a strong grip of the handle,
managed to make the rough places plain, and the sturdy vagabonds--for
many of the old paupers of these times deserved the name--with their
threats to "come home to their parish," were kept at a safe distance on
the horizon by the ring of picks and mattocks!

1835. In this year occurred the fire at Hatfield House in which the
Marchioness of Salisbury was burnt to death; an event which created a
great sensation in all parts of the county, the Marchioness having been
quite a public character, and was, in fact, at one time mistress of the
Hertfordshire