text:  So he set to work to frighten the women of the village with stories as to the monsters whom the Squire would send among them as ushers who would do nothing but teach their children drinking chuck-farthing and cock-fighting; to the schoolboys themselves talked of the length breadth and thickness of the usher's birch which he assured them was dipped in vinegar every evening in order to afford a more agreeable stimulus to the part affected; he plied them with halfpence and strong beer; exhorted them to insurrections and barrings-out; taught them how to mock at any usher who would not submit to be Jack's humble servant; and by gibes and scurril ballads which he would publish in the newspapers try to make his life a burden to him