Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/306

 squire was a mere vegetable "which grew up and rotted on the same spot of ground" was somewhat exaggerated, yet it is true that the "career of one was the career of a hundred.' Their lives were spent in scampering after foxes, leaping five-barred gates, trampling on the farmer's corn, and drinking incredible quantities of ale.

A familiar figure in the eighteenth century was the country squire: familiar the long wig, long coat, silver buttons, breeches and top-boots, the bluff, red face, the couple of greyhounds and the pointer at heel. When not hunting the fox, the popular sport of the day—for hawking had quite gone out of fashion—he settled the disputes of the parish or repaired to the nearest alehouse to get drunk in as short a space of time as possible. Usually he only drank ale, but on festive occasions a bowl of strong brandy punch, with toast and nutmeg, added to his already boisterous spirits. On Sundays he donned his best suit, which often descended from father to son through several generations, and with his wife and family repaired to the parish church, and entered the family pew, where he slumbered during a great part of the somewhat dismal service. He seldom went further than his own country town, for a journey