We might, however, have fallen into the hands of highway
robbers, for many were about the roads in that neighbourhood then, and
many stage-coaches had been held up and the passengers robbed.
There was a rather imposing County Hall at Abingdon, built towards the
close of the seventeenth century, at which an ancient custom was
performed on the coronation of a king. The mayor and corporation on
those occasions threw buns from the roof of the market-house, and a
thousand penny cakes were thus disposed of at the coronation of George
IV, and again at the accession of William IV and of Queen Victoria.
An apprentice of a cordwainer in the town ran away in 1764, or, as it
was worded on the police notice, "did elope from service." He was
described as a "lusty young fellow, wearing a light-coloured surtout
coat, a snuff-coloured undercoat, a straw-coloured waistcoat, newish
leather breeches, and wears his own dark brown hair tied behind," so it
appeared to us that he had not left his best clothes at home when he
"did elope," and would be easily recognised by his smart appearance. We
also noticed that about the same period "Florists' Feasts" were held at
Abingdon, perhaps the forerunners of the "Flower Shows" held at a later
period.
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