four o'clock
This part of the story is all quite true , and I am not putting into Rose 's lips , in her conversation with Mr Tyrrel , one word which she did not really utter . The whole population of Much Bentley seemed to have turned out to witness the arrest at the Blue Bell . Some were kindly and sympathising , some bitter and full of taunts ; but the greater number were simply inquisitive , neither friendly nor hostile , but gossipping . It was now four o'clock , a time at which half the people were up in the village , and many a woman rose an hour earlier than her wont , in order to see the strange sight . There were the carpenters with baskets of tools slung over their shoulders ; the gardeners with rake or hoe ; the labourers with their spades ; the fishermen with their nets . The Colne oyster-fishery is the oldest of all known fisheries in England , and its fame had reached imperial Rome itself , nearly two thousand years ago , when the Emperor Caligula came over to England partly for the purpose of tasting the Colchester oyster . The oysters are taken in the Colne and placed in pits , where they are fattened till they reach the size of a silver oyster preserved among the town treasures .