An extract from ‘Jottings’ by EHL Reeve written in 1881 and now available in a booklet entitled ‘After Dinner Anecdotes’.
The rector of Stondon Massey who succeeded Mr Oldham and immediately preceded my father, was the Revd Thos Hubbard [rector, 1841- 1849] – a brother of John Gellibrand Hubbard Esquire of the Privy Council. He only lived about seven or eight years at Stondon, his wife voting the place dull.
He was rather unfortunate, it would seem, in his endeavours to exact the outward forms of respect from the juvenile proportion of the population. On one occasion he met a boy who did not make his obeisance to the rector of the parish, and who, on being reprimanded, replied, “I keeps my bows for Mr Page” (one of the principal farmers).
On another occasion Mr Hubbard met a boy carrying a heavy basket on his head, and seeing his predicament as he supposed, kindly said, “You need not touch your hat to me today my boy”. “I wasn’t a-going to” replied the ungrateful juvenile.
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