parish pump politics

Thomas Bardel Brindley (1875) Hints, Humorous and Satirical, to all the world and his wife (Wit and humor), Simpkin, Marshall&Company, page 6: “7.—Never avoid bars or smoke-rooms, because in the former case you miss the chance of marrying a flirt, and in the latter of having your mind improved by local parish-pump politics, and your head broken by a fool in his cups.”