TNOTE:

[C] "Pagani editiorem locum praeoccupaverant. Christiani ab inferiori
loco aciem dirigebant. Erat quoque in eodem loco unica spinosa arbor,
brevis admodum (quam nos ipsi nostris propriis oculis vidimus). Circa
quam ergo hostiles inter se acies cum ingenti clamore hostiliter
conveniunt. Quo in loco alter de duobus Paganorum regibus et quinque
comites occisi occubuerunt, et multa millia Paganae partis in eodem loco.
Cecidit illic ergo Boegsceg Rex, et Sidroc ille senex comes, et Sidroc
Junior comes, et Obsbern comes," &c.--_Annales Rerum Gestarum AElfredi
Magni, Auctore Asserio. Recensuit Franciscus Wise. Oxford_, 1722, p. 23.

CHAPTER II.

THE VEAST.

"And the King commandeth and forbiddeth, that from
henceforth neither fairs nor markets be kept in
Church-yards, for the honour of the
Church."--STATUTES: 13 _Edw. I._ Stat. II. cap.
VI.

AS that venerable and learned poet (whose voluminous works we all think
it the correct thing to admire and talk about, but don't read often),
most truly says, "the child is father to the man;" _a fortiori_,
therefore, he must be father to the boy. So, as we are going at any rate
to see Tom Brown through his boyhood, supposing we never get any
further, (which, if you show a proper sense of the value of this
history, there is no knowing but what we may,) let us have a look at the
life and environments of the child, in the quiet country village to
which we were introduced in the last chapter.

Tom, as has been already said, was a robust and combative urchin, and at
the age of four began to struggle against the yoke and authority of his
nurse. That functionary was a good-hearted, tearful, scatter-brained
girl, lately taken by Tom's mother, Madam Brown, as she was called, from
the village school to be trained as nurserymaid. Madam Brown was a rare
trainer of servants, and spent herself freely in the profession; for
profession it was, and gave her more trouble by half than many people
take to earn a good income. Her servants were known and sought after for
miles round. Almost all the girls who attained a certain place in the
village school were taken by her, one or two at a time, as housemaids,
laundrymaids, nurserymaids, or kitchenmaids, and after a year or two's
drilling, were started in life amongst the neighbouring families, with
good principles and wardrobes. One of the results of this system was the
perpetual despa