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due and proper remonstrances have been given from the
Pulpit, yet the poor and lower class of People have shown
no disposition of submitting to the alteration in the mixture of
Bread.
That the Vestries humbly conceive that unless a positive Law is
passed to prevent the making of any other but mixed Bread, no
remedy in these Parishes will prove effectual.
That a Copy of these Resolutions be signed by the Vestry Clerk
and transmitted to the Right Honorable the Lords of His
Majesty's most Honble Privy Council.
Friday, 11th December, 1800.—These Vestries were summoned for
the purpose of taking into consideration His Majesty's most
Gracious Proclamation when the following
Resolutions were unanimously agreed to viz.:—
That our best Endeavours shall be exerted towards carrying into
full and immediate effect the salutory injunctions contained
in His Majesty's most gracious Proclamation. We do therefore
in conformity thereto hereby agree that we will at the
utmost, restrict the consumption of Bread in our respective
Families to two thirds of the quantity consumed in ordinary
times, and that we will in no case suffer the same to exceed
One Quartern Loaf for each Person in each week.
That we will abstain from the Use of Pastry and will carefully
restrict the Use of Flour in all other Articles than Bread.
That we will adopt and promote, to the utmost of our power, the
use of Substitutes for Wheaten Bread and a strict Economy
in the consumption of every Article of Subsistence.
That we will confine the allowance of Oats for Horses to five
Pecks at the utmost per Week for each Horse and reduce it
as far below as circumstances will admit.
That these Resolutions shall continue in force until the first day
of October One thousand Eight hundred and one.
That the above Resolutions be made public by Advertisements in
the Newspapers and be circulated throughout the Parishes,
and that they be left in Saint Margaret's Vestry Room for
Signature of such of the Inhabitants as may be disposed to
subscribe thereto from Eleven O'clock in the Morning until
two in the Afternoon.
A chapter might be devoted to the history of
Fields! Tothill Fields—a history by no means void of
interest. The establishment of markets and
fairs six hundred years ago, the sports, the duels, the maze,
the Volunteer Reviews (14,000 of the trained band were
drawn out in the Fields in 1651), the royal entertainments,
the interment of the victims of the great plague, the