on the sermon . . . Bad as he was, however, in regard to in-
temperance, he does not seem to have been much worse than
most of his neighbours. Whether they met for business or for
pleasure" the ordinary result was that "the company broke up
in a state of intoxication."

Here are some of Mr. Turner's confessions:--

" April 21, 1756. Went to the audit, and came home
drunk . . . Nov. 25. The curate of Laughton came to the
shop . . . and also stayed in the afternoon till he got in liquor,
and being so complaisant as to keep him company I was quite
drunk. A party of 15 people, including the vicar of the parish,
Mr. Porter, and his wife, meet at four in the afternoon. After
supper . . . 'drinking all the time as fast as it could be well
poured down.' About three o'clock in the morning he manages
to get home 'without even tumbling.' His wife is brought
back two hours later." And then, at the instigation of Mrs.
Porter, the vicar's wife, the carouse is resumed next morning.
On Sunday "'we had as good a sermon as I ever heard Mr.
Porter preach, it being against swearing.'" Only a few
days afterwards the same party of people met at Mr. Porter's.
"'We continued,' he says, 'drinking like horses, and singing
till many of us were very drunk.'"

One further extract shows in an instructive manner
the social sanction, or something more, which these
usages had. Making note of an invitation he has re-
ceived, the diarist writes:--

"'If I go I must drink just as they please, or otherwise I
shall be called a poor, singular fellow. If I stay at home I
shall be stigmatized with the name of being a poor, proud, ill-
natured wretch.' . . . So he resolves to go . . . 'Before I
came away I think I may say there was not one sober person
in the company.'"

Another diarist, a Mr. Walter Gane, schoolmaster,
makes similar confessions; and other details given

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