Then comes a village—the first one since Coombe Bissett was passed, fifteen miles behind, and so more than usually welcome. A pretty village, too, Tarrant Hinton by name, lying in a hollow, with its little{243}
CRANBORNE CHASE
Image unavailable: TARRANT HINTON.
TARRANT HINTON.
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street of cottages, along a road running at right angles to the Exeter highway, with its church tower peeping above the orchards4 and thick coppices, and a sparkling stream flowing down from the hillside. In this and other respects, it bears a striking similarity to Middle and Over Wallop.
The quiet, not to say sleepy, Dorsetshire villager who, lounging at the bend of the road, replies to your query5 by saying that this is ‘Tarnt Hinton,’ is the peaceable descendant of very desperate and bloody6-minded men, and the like circumstances that, a mere7 hundred years ago, rendered them savages8, would do the same by him, were they revived. The peasantry are what the law and social conditions make them. Oppress the sturdy rustic9 and you render him a brutal10 and resentful rebel, who, having an unbroken spirit, will give trouble. Treat him fairly, and he will live a life of quiet industry, tempered by gossipy evenings in the village ‘pub.’; and although he will never rise to be the mincing11 Strephon imagined by the eighteenth-century poets of rurality, he will raise gigantic potatoes, and cultivate flowers for the local Horticultural Society, and do nothing more tragical12 in all his life than the sticking of the domestic porker, or the twisting of a fowl’s neck.
The civilising of the rustic in these parts dates from the disfranchising of Cranborne Chase in 1830. The Chase, which took its name from the town of Cranborne, eight miles distant from this spot, was originally a vast deer-forest, extending far into Hants, Wilts13, and Dorset. The great western highway entered it at Salisbury and did not pass out of its bounds{246} until Blandford was reached; while Shaftesbury to the north, and Wimborne to the south, marked its extent in another direction. Belonging anciently to great feudal14 lords or to the Sovereign, it was Crown property from the time of Edward the Fourth to the reign15 of James the First. James delighted in killing16 the buck17 here, but that Royal prig granted the Chase to the Earl of Pembroke, from whom, shorn of its oppressive laws, it has descended18 to Lord Rivers; while the Earl of Shaftesbury also owns great tracts20 of woodlands here. But, singularly enough, that part of the Chase which still retains the wildest and densest21 aspect lies quite away from Cranborne, and in the county of Wilts, around Tollard Royal. The nature of the country and the character of the soil must needs always keep this vast tract19 wild, and, in an agricultural sense, unproductive. Game will always abound22 here in the thickets23, and indeed the weird-looking hill-top plantations24, called by the rustics25 ‘hats of trees,’ are especially planted as cover, wherever the country is open and unsheltered.
DEER-STEALERS
The severity of the laws which governed a Chase and punished deer-stealers was simply barbarous. Cranborne had its courts and Chase Prison where offenders26 and deer-stealers were punished by mutilation, imprisonment28, or fine, according to the crime, the status of the offender27, or the comparative state of civilisation29 of the period in which the offence was committed. But whether the punishment for stealing deer was the striking off of a hand, or imprisonment in a noisome30 dungeon31, or merely being mulcted in a larger or smaller sum, there were always those who{247} unlawfully killed the buck in these romantic glades32. Sometimes, for the devilment of it, the dashing young blades of the countryside—sons of the squires33 and others—would hunt the deer.
‘From four to twenty assembled in the evening, dressed in cap and jack34 and quarter-staff, with dogs and nets. Having set the watchword for the night and agreed whether they should stand or run if they should meet the keepers, they proceeded to the Chase, set their nets, and let slip their dogs to drive the deer into the nets; a man standing35 at each net, to strangle the deer as soon as they were entangled36. Frequent desperate and bloody battles took place; the keepers, and sometimes the hunters, were killed.’
Other law-breakers were of a humbler stamp, and ferocious38 enough to murder keepers at sight. Thus, in 1738, a keeper named Tollerfield was murdered on his way home from Fontmell Church; and another at Fernditch, near ‘Woodyates Inn.’ For the latter crime a man named Wheeler was convicted, and suffered the extreme penalty of the law; his body being hanged in chains at the scene of the murder. His friends, however, in the course of a few nights cut the body down, and threw it into a very deep well, some distance away. The weight of the irons caused it to sink, and it was not discovered until long afterwards.
One of the most exciting of these encounters between the deer-stealers and the keepers took place on the night of 16th December 1781. Chettle Common, away at the back of the ‘Cashmoor Inn,’ was the scene of this battle. The stealers, assembling in disguise at{248} Pimperne, marched up the road through the night, and headed by a Sergeant40 of Dragoons, then quartered at Blandford, poured through the Thickthorn Toll-gate, armed with weapons called ‘swindgels,’ which appear to have been hinged cudgels, like flails41. It would seem that the object of this expedition was the bludgeoning of a few keepers, rather than the stealing of deer. At any rate, the keepers expected them, and armed with sticks and hangers43, awaited the attack. The fight was by no means a contemptible44 one, for in the result one keeper was killed and several disabled, while the stealers were so badly knocked about that the whole expedition surrendered, together with the Sergeant of Dragoons, who had a hand sliced off at the wrist by a hanger42. The hand was subsequently buried, with military honours, in Pimperne churchyard.
Leader and followers45 alike were committed to Dorchester Gaol46, and were eventually sentenced to seven years’ penal39 servitude, reduced to a nominal47 term, in consideration of the severe wounds from which they were suffering. One wonders how far mercy, and to what extent the wish not to be at the expense of medically attending the prisoners, influenced this decision. As for the Dr. Jameson of this raid, he retired48 from the Dragoons on half-pay, and, coming to London, set up shop as a dealer49 in game and poultry50!
WILTSHIRE MOONRAKERS
Ten years later, a keeper killed a stealer, and another murderous encounter took place on 7th December 1816 near Tarrant Gunville, at a gate in the woods which the melodramatic instincts of the{249} peasantry have named ‘Bloody Shard,’ while the wood itself is known as ‘Blood-way Coppice.’
Cranborne Chase was also at this time a haunt of smugglers, who found its tangled37 recesses51 highly convenient for storing their ‘Free Trade’ merchandise on its way up from the sea-coast. Whether or not the original ‘Wiltshire moonrakers’ belonged to the Wilts portion of the Chase or to some other part of the county, tradition does not say.
That Wiltshire folk are called ‘moonrakers’ is generally known, and it is usually supposed that they obtained this name for stupidity, according to the story which tells how a party of travellers crossing a bridge in this county observed a number of rustics raking in the stream in which the great yellow harvest-moon was shining. Asked what they were doing, the reply was that they were trying to rake ‘that cheese’ out of the water. The travellers went on their way, laughing at the idiotcy of the yokels52. One tale, however, only holds good until the other is told. The facts seem to be that the rustics were smugglers who were raking in the river for the brandy-kegs they had deposited there in the gray of the morning, and that the ‘travellers’ were really revenue-officers; those ‘gaugers,’ or ‘preventive men’ who were employed to check the smuggling53 which was rife54 a hundred years ago. It may be thought that the seaside was the only place where smuggling could be carried on, but a moment’s reflection will show that the goods had to be conveyed inshore for inland customers. Smuggling, in fact, was so extensive, and brought to such a perfection of{250} system that forwarding agents were established everywhere. Kegs of spirits, being bulky, were hidden for the day in ponds and watercourses, wherever possible, and removed at night for another stage towards their destination, being deposited in a similar hiding-place at the break of day, and so forth55 until they reached their consignees. Thus the ‘moonrakers’ by this explanation are acquitted56 of being monumental simpletons, at the expense of losing their reputation in another way. But everyone smuggled57, or received or purchased smuggled goods, in those times, and no one was thought the worse for it.
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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shuddery
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ekes
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| v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的第三人称单数 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日 | |
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orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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mincing
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| adj.矫饰的；v.切碎；切碎 | |
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tragical
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| adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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wilts
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| （使）凋谢，枯萎( wilt的第三人称单数 ) | |
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feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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17
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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densest
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| 密集的( dense的最高级 )； 密度大的； 愚笨的； （信息量大得）难理解的 | |
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abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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rustics
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| n.有农村或村民特色的( rustic的名词复数 )；粗野的；不雅的；用粗糙的木材或树枝制作的 | |
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offenders
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| n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物） | |
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offender
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| n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者 | |
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imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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noisome
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| adj.有害的，可厌的 | |
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dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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33
squires
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| n.地主，乡绅( squire的名词复数 ) | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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flails
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| v.鞭打( flail的第三人称单数 )；用连枷脱粒；（臂或腿）无法控制地乱动；扫雷坦克 | |
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hanger
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| n.吊架，吊轴承；挂钩 | |
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hangers
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| n.衣架( hanger的名词复数 )；挂耳 | |
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contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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gaol
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| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
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nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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49
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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poultry
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| n.家禽，禽肉 | |
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51
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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52
yokels
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| n.乡下佬，土包子( yokel的名词复数 ) | |
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53
smuggling
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| n.走私 | |
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54
rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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56
acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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smuggled
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| 水货 | |
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