BROUGHTON HACKETT. 79

Broughton Hackett.

FIVE miles east of Worcester, on the Alcester road, lies a parish no bigger than a moderate-sized farm - that is to say, with an acreage of 360 and a population of 164. This is Broughton, to which Hackett was probably added from the name of its early possessors; for though there is no authentic account of this, it is probably so, from the Hacketts having had possessions in the adjoining parish of Crowle. Urso had it after the Conquest, and then the Beauchamps, Walshes, Blounts, and Pakingtons, seriatim. There are now eight or nine landowners in this small bit of territory. Lord Coventry owns the most ; squire Berkeley - famous for his rigid game preserving - owns an estate here ; as also do the executors of the late Colonel Clowes, master of the Worcestershire Hunt ; and the glebe is more than sixty acres. Crops: grass, corn, roots, and fruit. Some of the inhabitants are employed in lime-burning, there being a considerable quantity of limestone in the parish. The history of the place contains two or three noteworthy facts :

I. In the reign of Queen Anne the minister of this parish was tried, convicted, and executed for baking his shepherd's boy in an oven.

II. Some years ago the then curate, a Mr. Grice, was in the habit of dining on Sundays at a farm-house at Tibberton, near Broughton. One Sunday the farmer waited dinner for the clergyman till his goose was almost spoiled, and then, thinking he would not come, he and his family set to without him. At length his reverence appeared, puffing and blowing, and apologized for his unpunctuality by alleging that he had lost a great deal of time that morning through turning the pigs out of church ! ! .