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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13239-0.txt b/13239-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f6b1d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/13239-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11758 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13239 *** + +GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR + + +By ARTHUR H. SAVORY + + + +OXFORD + +BASIL BLACKWELL + +1920 + + + + +PREFACE + +As a result of increased facilities within the last quarter of a +century for the exploration of formerly inaccessible parts of the +country, interest concerning our ancient villages has been largely +awakened. Most of these places have some unwritten history and +peculiarities worthy of attention, and an extensive literary field is +thus open to residents with opportunities for observation and +research. + +Such records have rarely been undertaken in the past, possibly because +those capable of doing so have not recognized that what are the +trivial features of everyday life in one generation may become +exceptional in the next, and later still will have disappeared +altogether. + +Gilbert White, who a hundred and thirty years ago published his +_Natural History of Selborne_, was the first, and I suppose the most +eminent, historian of any obscure village, and it is surprising, as +his book has for so long been regarded as a classic, that so few have +attempted a similar record. His great work remains an inspiring ideal +which village historians can keep in view, not without some hope of +producing a useful description of country life as they have seen it +themselves. + +It is a pleasure to acknowledge with grateful thanks the kind help of +friends and correspondents which I have received in writing this book. +Mr. Warde Fowler was good enough to look through the chapters while +still in manuscript, and I have also received great help from Mr. +Herbert A. Evans, who has read through the proofs. The help of +others--besides those whose names I give in the text--has been less +general and mostly confined to some details in the historical part of +the first chapter, and to portions of the subject-matter of the last. +Mr. Hugh Last, Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, most kindly gave +much valuable time to the examination of the Roman coins and assigning +them to their respective reigns; he contributed also the notes on the +Emperors, with special reference to the events in Britain which +occurred during their reigns. Mr. Dudley F. Nevill of Burley helped me +in a variety of ways, and Mr. C.A. Binyon of Badsey supplied some of +the historical details and information about the ancient roads. + +Looking back over the years I spent at Aldington, I see much more +sunshine and blue sky than cloud and storm, notwithstanding the +difficulties of the times. It is a continual source of pleasure to go +over the familiar fields in imagination and to recall the kindly faces +of my loyal and willing labourers. I trust that what I have written of +them will make plain my grateful remembrance of their unfailing +sympathy and ready help.--ARTHUR H. SAVORY. + +BURLEY, HANTS. + +_January_, 1920. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. ALDINGTON VILLAGE--THE MANOR HOUSE--THE FARM.......... 1 + + II. THE FARM BAILIFF...................................... 11 + + III. THE HOP FOREMAN AND THE HOP DRIER..................... 23 + + IV. THE HEAD CARTER--THE CARPENTER........................ 35 + + V. AN OLD-FASHIONED SHEPHERD--OLD THICKER--A + GARDENER--MY SECOND HEAD CARTER--A LABOURER......... 46 + + VI. CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND + VILLAGERS........................................... 57 + + VII. MACHINERY--VILLAGE POLITICS--ASPARAGUS................ 80 + + VIII. MY THREE VICARS--CHURCH RESTORATION--CHURCHWARDEN + EXPERIENCES--CLERICAL AND OTHER STORIES............. 89 + + IX. THE SCHOOL BOARD--RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION--SCHOOL + INSPECTORS--DEAN FARHAR--COMPULSORY EDUCATION....... 106 + + X. VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS: CRICKET--FOOTBALL--FLOWER-SHOW + --BAND--POSTMAN--CONCERTS........................... 119 + + XI. DEALERS--LUCK MONEY--FAIRS--SALES--EFFECT OF + CLIMATE ON CATTLE AND SHEEP--AGRICULTURAL SHOWS..... 126 + + XII. FARM SPECIALISTS...................................... 141 + + XIII. THE DAIRY--CATTLE--SHEEP--LAMBS--PIGS--POULTRY........ 153 + + XIV. ORCHARDS--APPLES--CIDER--PERRY........................ 167 + + XV. PLUMS--CHERRIES....................................... 182 + + XVI. TREES: ELM--OAK--BEECH--WILLOW--SCOTS-FIR............. 187 + + XVII. CORN--WHEAT--RIDGE AND FURROW--BARLEY--FARMERS + NEWSTYLE AND OLDSTYLE............................... 207 + +XVIII. HOPS--INSECT ATTACKS--HOP FAIRS....................... 220 + + XIX. METEOROLOGY--ETON AND HARROW AT LORD'S--"RUS IN + URBE"............................................... 230 + + XX. CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS--DEWPONDS--A WET + HARVEST--WEATHER PHENOMENA--WILL-O'-THE- + WISP--VARIOUS....................................... 239 + + XXI. BIRDS: PEACOCKS--A WHITE PHEASANT--ROOKS' ARITHMETIC.. 253 + + XXII. PETS: SUSIE--COCKY--TRUMP--CHIPS--WENDY--TAFFY........ 264 + +XXIII. BUTTERFLIES--MOTHS--WASPS............................. 271 + + XXIV. CYCLING--PAGEANTS OF THE ROADS--ROADSIDE + CREATURES--HARMONIOUS BUILDING--COLLECTING OLD + FURNITURE AND CHINA................................. 278 + + XXV. DIALECT--LOCAL PHRASEOLOGY IN SHAKESPEARE--NAMES + --STUPID PLACES..................................... 288 + + XXVI. Is ALDINGTON THE ROMAN ANTONA?........................ 294 + + INDEX....................................................... 306 + + + + + "Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! + Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade + To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, + Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy + To kings that fear their subjects' treachery!" + _3 King Henry VI_. + + + + "When I paused to lean on my hoe, these sounds and sights + I heard and saw anywhere in the row, a part of the inexhaustible + entertainment which the country offers." + --THOREAU. + + + "Life is sweet, brother.... There's night and day, brother, + both sweet things; sun, moon and stars, brother, all sweet + things; there's likewise the wind on the heath. Life is very + sweet, brother; who would wish to die?" + --BORROW: _Jasper Petulengro_. + + + + +GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + +ALDINGTON VILLAGE--THE MANOR HOUSE--THE FARM. + + "There's a divinity that shapes our ends." + --_Hamlet_. + + "Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns." + --_Morte d'Arthur_. + + +In recalling my earliest impressions of the village of Aldington, near +Evesham, Worcestershire, the first picture that presents itself is of +two chestnut-trees in full bloom in front of the Manor House which +became my home, and their welcome was so gracious on that sunny May +morning that it inclined me to take a hopeful view of the inspection +of the house and land which was the object of my visit. + +The village took its name from the Celtic _Alne_, white river; the +Anglo-Saxon, _ing_, children or clan; and _ton_, the enclosed place. +The whole name, therefore, signified "the enclosed place of the +children, or clan, of the Alne." There are many other Alnes in England +and Scotland, also Allens and Ellens as river names, probably +corruptions of Alne, and we have many instances of the combination of +a river name with _ing_ and _ton_, such as Lymington and Dartington. +The Celtic _Alne_ points to the antiquity of the place, and there were +extensive traces of Roman occupation to which I shall refer later. + +The village was really no more than a hamlet ecclesiastically attached +to the much larger village of Badsey. In addition to Celtic, Roman, +and Anglo-Saxon associations, it figured before the Norman Conquest in +connection with the Monastery and Abbey of Evesham, the Manor and the +mill being mentioned in the Abbey records; and they were afterwards +set down in Domesday Survey. + +The Vale of Evesham, in which Aldington is situated, lies at the foot +of the Cotswold Hills, and when approached from them a remarkable +change in climate and appearance is at once noticeable. Descending +from Broadway or Chipping Campden--that is, from an altitude of about +1,000 feet to one of 150 or less--on a mid-April day, one exchanges, +within a few miles, the grip of winter, grey stone walls and bare +trees, for the hopeful greenery of opening leaves and thickening +hedges, and the withered grass of the Hill pastures for the luxuriance +of the Vale meadows. + +The earliness of the climate and the natural richness of the land is +the secret of the intensive cultivation which the Vale presents, and +year by year more and more acres pass out of the category of farming +into that of market-gardening and fruit-growing. The climate, however, +though invaluable for early vegetable crops, is a source of danger to +the fruit. After a few days of the warm, moist greenhouse temperature +which, influenced by the Gulf Stream, comes from the south-west up the +Severn and Avon valleys, between the Malverns and the Cotswolds, and +which brings out the plum blossom on thousands of acres, a bitter +frost sometimes occurs, when the destruction of the tender bloom is a +tragedy in the Vale, while the Hills escape owing to their more +backward development. + +The Manor House had been added to and largely altered, but many years +had brought it into harmony with its surroundings, while Nature had +dealt kindly with its colouring, so that it carried the charm of long +use and continuous human habitation. Behind the house an old walled +garden, with flower-bordered grass walks under arches of honeysuckle +and roses, gave vistas of an ample mill-pond at the lower end, forming +one of the garden boundaries. The pond was almost surrounded by tall +black poplars which stretched protecting arms over the water, forming +a wide and lofty avenue extending to the faded red-brick mill itself, +and whispering continuously on the stillest summer day. The mill-wheel +could be seen revolving and glittering in the sunlight, and the hum of +distant machinery inside the mill could be heard. The brook, which fed +the pond, was fringed by ancient pollard willows; it wound through +luxuriant meadows with ploughed land or cornfields still farther back. +The whole formed a peaceful picture almost to the verge of drowsiness, +and reminded one of the "land in which it seemèd always afternoon." + +The space below the house and the upper part of the garden immediately +behind it was occupied by the rickyard, reaching to the mill and pond, +and a long range of mossy-roofed barns divided it from the farmyard +with its stables and cattle-sheds. + +The village occupied one side only of the street, as it was +called--the street consisting of two arms at a right angle, with the +Manor House near its apex. The cottages were built, mostly in pairs, +of old brick, and tiled, having dormer windows, and gardens in front +and at the sides, well stocked with fruit-trees and fruit-bushes, and +this helped the cottagers towards the payment of their very moderate +rents, which had remained the same, I believe, for the best part of +half a century. + +Throughout all the available space not so occupied, on either side of +the two arms of the street, and again behind the cottages themselves, +beautiful old orchards, chiefly of apple-trees, formed an unsurpassed +setting both when the blossom was out in pink and white, or the fruit +was ripening in gold and crimson, and even in winter, when the grey +limbs and twisted trunks of the bare trees admitted the level rays of +the sun. + +The farm consisted of about 300 acres of mixed arable and grass land +on either side of two shallow valleys, along which wandered the main +brook and its tributary, uniting, where the valleys joined, into one +larger stream, so that all the grass land was abundantly supplied with +water for the stock. These irregular brooks, bordered throughout their +whole course with pollard willows, made a charming feature and gave +great character to the picture. + +In the records of Evesham Abbey we find the Manor, including the lands +comprised therein, among the earliest property granted for its +endowment. The erection of the Abbey commenced about 701, and William +of Malmesbury, writing of the loneliness of the spot, tells us that a +small church, probably built by the Britons, had from an early date +existed there. In 709 sixty-five manses were given by Kenred, King of +Mercia, leagued with Offa, King of the East Angles, including one in +Aldinton _(sic)_, and Domesday Survey mentions one hide of land +(varying from 80 to 120 acres in different counties) in Aldintone +_(sic)_ as among the Abbey possessions at the time of the Norman +Conquest. + +Abbot Randulf, who died in 1229, built a grange at Aldington, and +bought Aldington mill, in the reign of Henry III., when the hamlet was +a _berewic_ or corn farm held by the Abbey; and at the time of the +Dissolution it was granted to Sir Philip Hoby, who appears to have +been an intimate of Henry VIII., together with the Abbey buildings +themselves and much of its other landed property. The Manor remained +in the hands of the Hoby family for many years, and was one of Sir +Philip's principal seats. Freestone from the Abbey ruins seems to have +been largely used for additions probably made in the reign of Queen +Elizabeth, for in some alterations I made about 1888, I found many +carved and moulded stones, built into the walls, evidently the remains +of arches from an ecclesiastical building, and Sir Philip Hoby is +known to have treated the Abbey ruins as if they were nothing better +than a stone quarry. + +Leland, who by command of Henry VIII. visited Evesham very soon after +the Dissolution, says that there was "noe towene" at Evesham before +the foundation of the Abbey, and the earliest mention of a bridge +there is recorded in monastic chronicles in 1159. + +There is a notice of a Mr. Richard Hoby, youngest brother of Sir +Philip, as churchwarden in 1602, and a monument, much dilapidated, is +to be seen in the chancel of Badsey Church, erected to the memory of +his wife and that of her first husband by Margaret Newman, their +daughter, who married Richard Delabere of Southam, Warwickshire, in +1608. Aldington afterwards became the property of Sir Peter Courtene, +who was created a baronet in 1622. + +Another explanation of the origin of the carved and moulded stones +mentioned above may be found in the former existence of a chapel at +Aldington, for there is evidence that a chapel existed there +immediately before the Dissolution. In an article in Badsey Parish +Magazine by Mr. E.A.B. Barnard, F.S.A., brought to my notice by the +editor, the Rev. W.C. Allsebrook, Vicar, details are given of the will +of Richard Yardley of Awnton (Aldington), dated January 22, 1531, in +which the following bequests are made: + + To the Mother Church of Evesham, 2s. + To the Church of Badsey, a strike of wheat. + To the Church of Wykamford, one strike of barley. + To the Chappell at Awnton, one hog, one strike of wheat, and + one strike of barley. + +The chapel, however, disappeared, and seems to have been superseded by +the assignment of the transept of Badsey Church as the Aldington +Chapel, and in 1561-62 the first churchwarden for Aldington was +elected at Badsey. The assignment may, however, have been only a +return to a much earlier similar arrangement when the transept was +added to Badsey Church about the end of the thirteenth century, +possibly expressly as a chapel for Aldington. + +That it was an addition is proved by the remains of the arch over a +small Norman window in the north wall of the nave, which had to be cut +into to allow of the opening into the new transept. A shelf or ledge +is still to be seen in the east wall of the transept, probably the +remains of a super-altar, and, to the right of it, a piscina on the +north side of the chancel arch, and therefore inside the transept. + +A large square pew and a smaller one behind it in the transept were +for centuries the recognized seats of the Aldington Manor family and +their servants, and so remained until the restoration of the church in +1885, when the pews were taken down and a row of chairs as near as +possible to the old position was allotted for the use of the same +occupants. + +In 1685 the Jarrett monument was placed immediately over the larger +pew in the east wall of the transept, bearing the following +inscription: + + Near this place lies interred in hope + of a joyful Resurrection the bodies of + + WILLIAM JARRETT + + of Aldington in this Parish Gent, aged 73 + years, who died Anno Domini 1681 + and of Jane his wife the daughter of William + Wattson of Bengeworth Gent, who died + Anno Domini 1683, aged 73 years, + by whom he had Issue three Sons + and two Daughters. Thomas Augustin and + Jane ley buried here with them and + Mary the youngest Daughter Married + Humphrey Mayo of hope in the County + of Herreford Gent, and William + the Eldest Son Marchant in London + set this Monument in a dutiful + and affectionate memory of them 1685. + +It is pleasant to think of William, the eldest son, "marchant," +returning in his prosperity to the quiet old village, braving the +dangers and inconveniences of unenclosed and miry roads, and riding +the 100 odd miles on horseback, to revisit the scenes of his +childhood, in order to do honour to the memories of his father and +mother. What a contrast to the crowded streets of London the old place +must have presented, and one has an idea that perhaps he regretted, in +spite of his success in commerce, that he had not elected in his +younger days to pursue the simple life. + +The monument is a somewhat elaborate white marble tablet with a plump +cherub on guard, and with many of the scrolls and convolutions typical +of the Carolean and later Jacobean taste. This monument was removed to +the north wall of the nave two centuries later, in 1885, when the +church was restored, to allow of access to the new vestry then added. + +William Jarrett, senr., and his wife lived through the very stirring +times of the Civil War in the reign of Charles I., about twenty miles +only from Edgehill, where, in 1642, twelve hundred men are reported to +have fallen. It is said that on the night of the anniversary of the +battle, October 23, in each succeeding year the uneasy ghosts of the +combatants resume the unfinished struggle, and that the clash of arms +is still to be heard rising and falling between hill and vale. The +worthy couple must have almost heard the echoes of the Battle of +Worcester in 1651, only eighteen miles distant, and have been well +acquainted with the details of the flight of Charles II., who, after +he left Boscobel, passed very near Aldington on his way to the old +house at Long Marston, where he spent a night, and, to complete his +disguise, turned the kitchen spit. This old house is still standing, +and is regarded with reverence. + +The cherub on the Jarrett tablet bears a strong resemblance to two +similar cherubs which support a royal crown carved on the back of an +old walnut chair which I bought in the village in a cottage near the +Manor House. The design is well known as commemorating the restoration +of Charles II. in 1660, and I like to think that in bringing it back I +restored it to its old home, and that William Jarrett, senr., who was +doubtless a Royalist, enjoyed a peaceful pipe on many a winter's night +therein enthroned. I noticed, lately, in a description of a similar +chair in the _Connoisseur_, that the cherubs are spoken of as +_amorini_; I have always understood that they are angelic beings +supporting or guarding the sacred crown of the martyred King, though +possibly the appellation is not unsuitable if they are to be regarded +in connection with Charles II. alone. + +There is a story of a hosiery factory established by refugee Huguenots +at the date of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, and the +Jacobean building adjoining the east end of the Manor House is +probably the place referred to. Later it became a malthouse, and later +still was converted into hop-kilns by me. Being of Huguenot descent +myself, I take a special interest in this tradition. + +In 1715 Aldington took its part in preparing to resist the Jacobites, +and the following record is copied from an old manuscript: + + A BILL FOR Y^e CONSTABLE OF ANTON DUN BY ME WM. PHIPPS. + + _£ s. d._ + 1 musket and bayonet.................................. 0 0 + 1 cartridg box at..................................... 0 3 6 + 1 belt at............................................. 0 5 0 + for 1 scabard and cleaning y^e blad and + blaking y^e hilt.................................... 0 3 6 + ------- + 1 12 0 + (_On the back_.) + Three days pay........................................ 0 7 6 + half A pound of pouder................................ 0 0 8 + for y^e muster master ................................ 0 0 6 + for listing money..................................... 0 1 0 + for drums and cullers................................. 0 3 0 + ------- + 2 4 8 + Thos Rock Con^{ble} 0 12 8 + + (IN) A TRUE ACCOUNT OF Y^e CONS^{BL} OF ALDINGTON CHARGES FOR Y^e + YEARE 1716/5 NOV. Y^e 7 & 8 1715 Y^e CHARGES FOR ATENDING AS + CONS^{BL} + + _s. d._ + + bringing in y^e Train souldiers....................... 3 0 + spent when y^e soulders whent to Worcester............ 1 6 + + One can picture the scene in the little hamlet as Thomas Rock + collected his forces at the gossip corner; the little crowd of + admiring villagers and the martial bearing of the one recruit, as + with "cullers" flying and drums beating he marched away, followed by + the village children to the end of the lane. + +William Tindal, in his _History of Evesham_, 1794, records the fact +that in 1790 Aldington belonged to Lord Foley, but history is silent +as to local events from that date until modern times, when, in the +first half of the next century, the Manor became the property of an +ancestor of the present owner. There is a tradition that the Manor +House was a small but beautiful old building, with a high-pitched +stone-slate roof and three gables in line at the front; but these +disappeared, the pitch of the roof was reduced, and about 1850 the +modern part of the house was added at the southern extremity of the +old structure. + +As the neighbouring parish of Wickhamford is referred to in connection +with Badsey and Aldington several times in these pages, it may not be +out of place to give the following inscription on the tombstone of a +member of the Washington family. It is particularly of interest at the +present time, more especially to Americans, and it has not, as far as +I am aware, previously appeared in any other book. + + INSCRIPTION + + ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH + SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH + OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE + COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND. + M.S. + + _PENELOPES_ + + Filiæ perillustris & militari virtute clarissimi + Henrici Washington, collonelli, + Gulielmo Washington ex agro Northampton + Milite prognati; + ob res bellicosas tam Angl: quam Hiberniâ + fortiter, & feliciter gestas, + Illustrissimis Principib: & Regum optimis + Carolo primo et secundo charissimi: + Qui duxit uxorem Elizabetham ex antiquâ, et + Generosâ prosapiâ Packingtoniensium + De Westwood; + Familiâ intemeratae fidei in principes, + et amoris in patriam. + Ex praeclaris hisce natalibus Penelope oriunda, + Divini Numinis summâ cum religione + Cultrix assidua; + Genetricis (parentum solæ superstitis) + Ingens Solatium; + Aegrotantib. et egentib. mirâ promptitudine + Liberalis et benefica; + Humilis & casta, et soli Christo nupta; + Ex hac vitâ caducâ ad sponsum migravit + Febr. 27 An. Dom. 1697. + +[_Translation_] + + INSCRIPTION + + ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH + SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH + OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE + COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND. + M.S. + + + Sacred to the memory of + + PENELOPE, + + daughter of that renowned and distinguished + soldier, Colonel Henry Washington. He was + descended from Sir William Washington, + Knight, of the county of Northampton, who + was highly esteemed by those most illustrious + Princes and best of Kings, Charles the First + and Second, for his valiant and successful warlike + deeds both in England and in Ireland: + he married ELIZABETH, of the ancient and + noble stock of the _Packingtons_ of Westwood, + a family of untarnished fidelity to its Prince + and love to its country. Sprung from such + illustrious ancestry, PENELOPE was a diligent + and pious worshipper of her Heavenly Father. + She was the consolation of her mother, her + only surviving parent; a prompt and liberal + benefactress of the sick and poor; humble and + pure in spirit, and wedded to Christ alone. + + From this fleeting life she migrated + to her Spouse, + _February 27, Anno Domini. 1697_. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + + +THE FARM BAILIFF. + +"If a job _has_ to be done you may as well do it first as last." + --WILLIAM BELL. + +The labourers born and bred in the Vale of Evesham are mostly tall and +powerful men, and mine were no exception; where the land is good the +men compare favourably in size and strength with those in less +favoured localities, and the same applies to the horses, cattle, and +sheep; but the Vale, with its moist climate, does not produce such +ruddy complexions as the clear air of the Hills, and even the apples +tell the same story in their less brilliant colouring, except after an +unusually sunny summer. In the days of the Whitsuntide gatherings for +games of various kinds, sports, and contests of strength, the Vale men +excelled, and certain parishes, famous for the growth of the best +wheat, are still remembered as conspicuously successful. + +My men, though grown up before education became compulsory, could all +read and write, and they were in no way inferior to the young men of +the present day. They were highly skilled in all the more difficult +agricultural operations, and it was easy to find among them good +thatchers, drainers, hedgers, ploughmen, and stockmen; they were, +mostly, married, with families of young children, and they lived close +to their work in the cottages that went with the farm. They exhibited +the variations, usual in all communities, of character and +disposition, and though somewhat prejudiced and wedded to old methods +and customs they were open to reason, loyal, and anxious to see the +land better farmed and restored to the condition in which the late +tenant found it, when entering upon his occupation seven years +previously. + +The late tenant, my predecessor, though a gentleman and a pleasant man +to deal with, was no farmer for such strong and heavy land as the farm +presented; it was no fault of his, for the farmer, like the poet, is +born, not made, and, as I was often told, he was "nobody's enemy but +his own." His wife came of a good old stock of shorthorn breeders +whose name is known and honoured, not only at home, but throughout the +United States of America, our Dominions, and wherever the shorthorn +has established a reputation; and my men were satisfied that she was +the better farmer of the two. + +I had scarcely bargained for the foul condition of the stubbles, +disclosed when the corn was harvested shortly before I took possession +at Michaelmas; they were overrun with couch grass--locally called +"squitch"--and the following summer I had 40 acres of bare-fallow, +repeatedly ploughed, harrowed, and cultivated throughout the whole +season, which, of course, produced nothing by way of return. My +predecessor had found that his arable land was approaching a condition +in which it was difficult to continue the usual course of cropping, +and had expressed his wish to one of the men that all the arable was +grass. He was answered, I was told: + + "If you goes on as you be a-going it very soon will be!" I + heard, moreover, that a farming relative of his, on + inspecting the farm, shortly before he gave it up, had + pronounced his opinion that it was "all going to the devil + in a gale of wind!" + +I soon recognized that I had a splendid staff of workers, and, under +advice from the late tenant, I selected one to be foreman or bailiff. +Blue-eyed, dark-haired, tall, lean, and muscular, he was the picture +of energy, in the prime of life. Straightforward, unselfish, a natural +leader of men, courageous and untiring, he immediately became devoted +to me, and remained my right hand, my dear friend, and adviser in the +practical working of the farm, throughout the twenty years that +followed. Like many of the agricultural labourers, his remote +ancestors belonged to a class higher in the social scale, and there +were traditions of a property in the county and a family vault in +Pershore Abbey Church. However this might be, William Bell was one of +Nature's gentlemen, and it was apparent in a variety of ways in his +daily life. + +Shortly before my coming to Aldington he had received a legacy of +£150, which, without any legal necessity or outside suggestion, he had +in fairness, as he considered it, divided equally between his brother, +his sister and himself--each--and his share was on deposit at a bank. +Seeing that I was young--I was then twenty-two--and imagining that +some additional capital would be useful after all my outlay in +stocking the farm and furnishing the house, he, greatly to my surprise +and delight, offered in a little speech of much delicacy to lend me +his £50. I was immensely touched at such a practical mark of sympathy +and confidence, but was able to assure him gratefully that, for the +present at any rate, I could manage without it. On another occasion, +after a bad season, he voluntarily asked me to reduce his wages, to +which of course I did not see my way to agree. + +Bell was always ready with a smart reply to anyone inclined to rally +him, or whom he thought inclined to do so; but his method was +inoffensive, though from most men it would have appeared impertinent. +In the very earliest days of my occupation the weather was so dry for +the time of year--October and November--that fallowing operations, +generally only possible in summer, could be successfully carried on, a +very unusual circumstance on such wet and heavy land. Meeting the +Vicar, a genial soul with a pleasant word for everyone, the latter +remarked that it was "rare weather for the new farmers." Bell, highly +sensitive, fancied he scented a quizzing reference to himself and to +me, and knowing that the Vicar's own land--he was then farming the +glebe with a somewhat unskilful bailiff--was getting out of hand, +replied: "Yes, sir; and not so bad for some of the old uns." Bell +happened to pass one day when I was talking to the Vicar at my gate. +"Hullo! Bell," said he, "hard at work as usual; nothing like hard +work, is there?" "No, sir," said Bell; "I suppose that's why you chose +the one-day-a-week job!" + +Labourers have great contempt for the work of parsons, lawyers, and +indoor workers generally; a farmer who spends much time indoors over +correspondence and comes round his land late in the day is regarded as +an "afternoon" or "armchair" farmer, and a tradesman who runs a small +farm in addition to his other business is an "apron-string" farmer. +With some hours daily employed on letter-writing, accounts and labour +records, which a farm and the employment of many hands entails, and +with frequent calls from buyers and sellers, I was sometimes unable to +visit men working on distant fields until twelve o'clock or after, and +I was told that it had been said of me by some new hands, "why don't +'e come out and do some on it?" + +It was remarked of the late tenant, "I reckon there was a good parson +spoiled when 'e was made a farmer." And of a lawyer, who combined +legal practice with the hobby of a small farm, that there was no doubt +that "Lawyer G----s kept farmer G----s." + +Bell's favourite saying was, "If a job _has_ to be done you may as +well do it first as last," and it was so strongly impressed upon me by +his example that I think I have been under its influence, more or +less, all my life. He was certain to be to the fore in any emergency +when promptitude, courage, and resource were called for; he it was who +dashed into the pool below the mill and rescued a child, and when I +asked if he had no sense of the danger simply said that he never +thought about it. It was Bell who tackled a savage bull which, by a +mistaken order, was loose in the yard, and which, in the exuberance of +unwonted liberty, had smashed up two cow-cribs, and was beginning the +destruction of a pair of new barn doors, left open, and offering +temptation for further activity. The bull, secured under Bell's +leadership and manacled with a cart-rope, was induced to return to its +home in peace. When felling a tall poplar overhanging the mill-pond, +it was necessary to secure the tree with a rope fixed high up the +trunk and with a stout stake driven into the meadow, to prevent the +tree falling into the pond. Bell was the volunteer who climbed the +tree with one end of the rope tied round his body and fixed it in +position. He was always ready to undertake any specially difficult, +dirty, or hazardous duty, and in giving orders it was never "Go and do +it," but "Come on, let's do it." An example of this sort was not lost +upon the men; they could never say they were set to work that nobody +else would do, and their willing service acknowledged his tact. + +One day a widow tenant asked me to read the will at the funeral of an +old woman lying dead at the cottage next her own. I consented, and +reached the cottage at the appointed time. It was the custom among the +villagers, when there was a will, to read it before, not after, the +ceremony, as, I believe, is the usual course. I found the coffin in +the living-room and the funeral party assembled, and the will, on a +sheet of notepaper, signed and witnessed in legal form, was put into +my hands. Looking it through, I could see that there would be trouble, +as all the money and effects were left to one person to the exclusion +of the other members of the family, all of whom were present. It was +quite simply expressed, and, after reading it slowly, I inquired if +they all understood its provisions. "Oh yes," they understood it "well +enough." I could see that the tone of the reply suggested some kind of +reservation; I asked if I could do anything more for them. The reply +was, "No," with their grateful thanks for my attendance; so, not being +expected to accompany the funeral, I retired. I was no sooner gone +than the trouble I had anticipated began, and the disappointed +relatives expressed their disapproval of the terms of the will, some +going so far as to decline to remain for the ceremony. Bell was not +among the guests or the bearers, but, hearing raised voices at the +cottage and guessing the cause, he boldly went to the spot, and in a +few moments had, with the approval of the sole legatee, arranged an +equal division of the money and goods; whereupon the whole party +proceeded in procession to the church. I think no one else in the +village could so easily have persuaded the favoured individual to +forgo the legal claim; but Bell was no ordinary man, and his simple +sincerity of purpose was so apparent, that his influence was not to be +resisted. Later in the evening a plain, but very useful, old oak chest +was sent to me, when the division of the furniture was arranged, as an +acknowledgment of my services and in recognition of the saving of a +lawyer's attendance and fee, with the thanks of the persons concerned. +I was loath to accept it, but it was of course impossible to refuse +such a delicate attention. + +Bell's cheerfulness and his habit of making light of difficulties were +very contagious. I had early recognized the seriousness of the problem +presented by the foul condition of the land, but, as we gradually +began to reduce it to better order, I remarked that the prospect was +not so alarming after all. His reply was that when once the land was +clean, and in regular cropping, "a man might farm it with all the +playsure in life." + +Though no "scholard," his wonderful memory stood him in good stead, +and was most valuable to me. He came in for a talk every evening, to +report the events of the day and arrange the work for the morrow. +After a long day spent with one of the carters delivering such things +as faggots--locally "kids"--of wood, he would recall the names of the +recipients, and the exact quantities delivered at each house without +the slightest effort. His only memoranda for approximate land +measurements would be produced on a stick with a notch denoting each +score yards or paces. This primitive method is particularly +interesting, the numeral a _score_ being derived from the Anglo-Saxon +_sciran_, to divide. Similar words are plough _share, shire, shears_, +and _shard_. He could keep the daily labour record when I was away +from home; but though I could always decipher his writing, he found it +difficult to read himself. A letter was a sore trial, and he often +told me that he would sooner walk to "Broddy" (Broadway) and back, ten +or eleven miles, than write to the veterinary surgeon there, whose +services we sometimes required. + +We had a simple method of disposing of small pigs; it was an +understood thing that no pig was to be sold for less than a pound. I +had a good breed, always in demand by the cottagers, who never failed +to apply, sometimes, perhaps, before the pound size was quite reached, +as it was a case of first come first served, and there was the danger +that the best would be snapped up before an intending buyer could have +his choice. Bell's face was wreathed in smiles when he came in and +unloaded a pocketful of sovereigns on my study table, saying, when +trade was brisk, "I could sell myself if I was little pigs!" + +Many and anxious were the deliberations we held in the early days of +my farming; the whole system of the late tenant was condemned by my +theoretical and Bell's practical knowledge, but they did not +invariably coincide, and, after a long discussion on some particular +point, he would yield, though I could see that he was not convinced, +with, "Well, I allows you to know best." + +When, a few years later, I introduced hop-growing as a complete +novelty on the farm, he regarded it at first as an extravagant and +unprofitable hobby, akin to the hunters my predecessor kept. He +"reckoned," he said, that my hop-gardens were my "hunting horse," and +I heard that my neighbours quoted the old saw about "a fool and his +money." Bell was not so enlightened as to be quite proof against local +superstitions; I had to consult his almanac and find out when the +"moon southed," and when certain planets were in favourable +conjunction, before he would undertake some quite ordinary farm +operations. + +He was a clever and courageous bee-master, and "took" all my +neighbours' swarms as well as my own, my gardener not being _persona +grata_ to bees. The job is not a popular one, and he would, when +accompanied by the owner, always ask, "Will you hold the ladder or +hive 'em?" The invariable answer was, "Hold the ladder." He firmly +believed in the necessity of telling the bees in cases where the owner +had died, the superstition being that unless the hive was tapped after +dark, when all were at home, and a set form of announcement repeated, +the bees would desert their quarters. I had an alarming experience +once with bees when cycling between Ringwood and Burley in the New +Forest, my present home. As I passed a house close to the road, a +swarm crossed my path, rising from their hive just as I reached the +hedge before the garden. There was a mighty humming, and I felt the +bees, with which I was colliding, striking my hands and face with some +violence. I expected a sting each moment, but my greatest fear was +lest the queen should have settled on my coat amongst the bees it had +collected, and that presently I should have the whole swarm in +possession. It was dangerous to stop, so I raced on some distance, +dismounted, discarded my coat, shaking off my unwelcome +fellow-travellers, and I was much surprised to find that none of them +retaliated. + +Bell was an excellent brewer, and with good malt and some of our own +hops could produce a nice light bitter beer at a very moderate cost. +In years when cider was scarce we supplemented the men's short +allowance with beer, 4 bushels of malt to 100 gallons; and for years +he brewed a superior drink for the household, which, consumed in much +smaller quantities and requiring to be kept longer, was double the +strength. His methods were not scientific, and he scorned the use of a +"theometer," his rule being that the hot water was cool enough for the +addition of the malt when the steam was sufficiently gone off to allow +him "to see his face" on the surface. + +Owing to his having lived so long in such a quiet place, and the +limited outlook which his surroundings had so far afforded, Bell was +somewhat wanting in the sense of proportion, and when I had a field of +10 acres planted with potatoes, he told me quite seriously that he +doubted if the crop could ever be sold, as he didn't think there were +enough people in the country to eat them! I remember a parallel +incident at the first auction sale of stock ever held at Chipping +Campden, a lovely old town and, for centuries now long past, a leading +centre of the Cotswold wool trade. The pens, in the wide spaces +between the road and the footways, were, as I stood watching, rapidly +filling with fat sheep, and, I suppose, the scene being so novel and +so animated, the interest of the inhabitants was greatly excited, as +they stood in little groups at the house doors looking on. I heard an +ancient dame marvelling at the numbers of sheep collected--probably +only 1,000 or 1,200 all told--and expressing her certainty of the +impossibility of rinding mouths enough to consume such a mass of +mutton. As a matter of fact, there were, I suppose, four or five large +dealers present, any one of whom would have bought every sheep, could +he have seen a fair chance of a possible profit of threepence a head; +to say nothing of innumerable smaller dealers and retail butchers, +good for a score or two apiece. What I may call the parochial horizon +is well illustrated, too, by the announcement of a domestic economist: +"Farmer Jones lost two calves last week; I reckon we shall have beef a +lot dearer." And again by the recommendation of a shrewd and ancient +husbandman of my acquaintance that it was desirable for any young +farmer to get away from home and visit the county town sometimes, at +any rate on market days, and attend the "ordinary" dinner, even if it +cost him a few shillings--"for there," he added, "you med stick and +stick and stick at home until you knows nothin' at all." Shakespeare +puts the matter more tersely, if less forcibly, "Home-keeping youth +have ever homely wits." I cannot forbear, too, the temptation to +recall _Punch's_ picture at the time of King George's coronation. The +scene depicted two rustics gossiping at the parish pump, as to the +forthcoming village festivities, and the squire's carriage with the +squire and his family, followed by the luggage cart, on their way to +the railway station: + +_First Rustic_. Where be them folks a-goin' to; I wonder? + +_Second Rustic_. Off to Lunnon, I reckon, but they'll be back for the +Cor-o-nation. + +Soon after the reopening of the church I overtook Bell as we were +returning from Sunday morning service. It was a dark day, and the +pulpit, having been moved from the south to the north side of the +nave--farther from the windows--the clerk lighted the desk candles +before the Vicar began his sermon. I asked Bell how he liked the +service, referring to the new choir and music; he hesitated, not +wanting, as I was the Vicar's churchwarden, to appear critical, but +being too conscientious to disguise his feelings. I could see that he +was troubled, and asked what was the matter. Then it came out; it was +"them candles!" which he took to be part of the ritual, and he added, +"But you ain't a-goin' to make a Papist of me!" + +Bell was proof against attempted bribery, and often came chuckling to +me over his refusals of dishonest proposals. A man from whom I used to +buy large quantities of hop-poles required some withy "bonds" for +tying faggots; they are sold at a price per bundle of 100, and the +applicant suggested that 120 should be placed in each bundle. Bell was +to receive a recognition for his complicity in the fraud, and he +agreed on condition that in my next deal for hop-poles 100 should be +represented by 120 in like manner. The bargain did not materialize. + +I found Bell a very amusing companion in walks and excursions we took +to fairs and sales for the purchase of stock. He knew the histories +and peculiarities of all the farmers and country people whose land or +houses we passed, and his stories made the miles very short. I often +helped with driving sheep and cattle home, and their persistence in +taking all the wrong turnings or in doubling back was surprising; but +two drovers are much more efficient than one, and we got to know +exactly where they would need circumventing. When we visited a town I +always took him to an inn or restaurant and gave him a good dinner. +Visiting what was then a much-frequented dining-place--Mountford's, at +Worcester, near the cathedral--we sat next to a well-known hon. and +rev. scholar of eccentric habits. He would read abstractedly, +forgetting his food for several minutes, then suddenly would make a +noisy dash for knife and fork, resuming the meal with great energy for +a while, and as suddenly relinquish the implements and return to his +reading, and so on continuously. I noticed Bell watching with great +surprise, much shocked at such unusual table manners, and presently he +could not forbear very gently nudging my elbow to draw my attention to +the performance. + +Mountford's was celebrated for succulent veal cutlets with fried bacon +and tomato sauce, also for Severn salmon and lamperns; visitors to the +cathedral and china works generally refreshed themselves there, and it +was amusing to watch their exhausted and grim looks when entering and +waiting, in comparison with their beaming smiles when confessing their +indulgences on leaving; for no bills were rendered, and guests were +trusted to remember the details consumed. You will always find the +best eating-houses near the cathedrals; vergers' recitals are apt to +be long-winded, and visitors require speedy refreshment after a +complete round. + +It was a popular village belief that bad luck follows if a woman was +the first to enter a house on Christmas morning, and Bell always made +a point of being the first over my threshold, shouting loudly his +greetings up the staircase. + +Bell's wife survived him, living on in the same cottage in which he +was born and had passed his life. She was a hard-working woman, and +came over to my house once a week for some years to bake the bread, +made from my own wheat ground at the village mill. It was somewhat +dark in colour, owing to the most nutritious parts of the grain being +retained in the flour, but it was deliciously sweet and kept fresh for +the whole week. I only wish everyone could enjoy the same sort; the +modern bread is poor stuff by comparison, and its lack of nutritive +value is undoubtedly the cause of much of the poor physique of our +rural and urban population at the present time. + +I had a very human dog, Viper, partly fox-terrier; though not very +"well bred," his manners were unexceptionable and his cleverness +extraordinary. One summer afternoon Mrs. Bell was greatly surprised by +Viper coming to her house much distressed and trying to tell her the +reason; he was not to be put off or comforted, and, seizing her +skirts, he dragged her to the door and outside. She guessed at once +that her two boys were in some danger, and she followed the dog. He +kept turning round to make sure that she was close behind, and led her +down a lane, for perhaps 300 yards, to a gate leading into a 12-acre +pasture. They pursued the footpath across the field, through another +gate and over the bridge which spanned the brook, into a meadow +beyond. There she found the children in fear of their lives from the +antics of two mischievous colts which were capering round them with +many snorts and much upturning of heels. It was really only play, but +the boys were alarmed, and Viper, who had accompanied them, had +evidently concluded that they were in danger. + +Before the days of the safety bicycle an excellent tricycle, called +the "omnicycle," was put on the market; and the villagers were greatly +excited over one I purchased, of course only for road work, expecting +me to use it on my farming rounds; and Mrs. Bell was heard to say, "I +knows I shall laugh when I sees the master a-coming round the farm on +that thing." + +Bell always spoke of her as "my 'ooman," and, referring to the +depletion of their exchequer on her returns from marketing in Evesham, +often said, "I don't care who robs my 'ooman this side of the elm"--a +notable tree about halfway between the town and the village--knowing +that she would then have very little change left. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + + +THE HOP FOREMAN AND THE HOP DRIER. + + "Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, + + * * * * * + + How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke." + --GRAY'S _Elegy_. + + +Jarge was one of the most prominent characters among my men. He was +not a native of the Vale, coming from the Lynches, a hilly district to +the north of Evesham. He was a sturdy and very excellent workman. He +did with his might whatsoever his hand found to do, and everything he +undertook was a success. The beautifully trimmed hedge in front of his +cottage-garden proclaimed his method and love of order at a glance. +Jarge was a wag; he was the man who, like Shakespeare's clowns, +stepped on to the stage at the critical moment and saved a serious +situation with a quaint or epigrammatic expression. + +He was very scornful of the condition of the farm when I came, and it +was he, whose reply to the late tenant that his arable land would soon +be all grass, I have already quoted. In speaking to me, at almost our +first interview, he could not refrain from an allusion to the foulness +of the land; some peewits were circling over those neglected fields, +and it was far from reassuring to be told--though he did not intend to +discourage me--that "folks say, when you sees them things on the land, +the farm's broke!" + +From the natural history point of view he was perfectly correct, as +peewits generally frequent wild and uncultivated places where the +ploughman and the labourer are rarely seen. + +Owing to the somewhat unconvincing fact of his wife's brother being a +gamekeeper on the Marquis's estate near Jarge's native village, he had +acquired, and retained through all the years of my farming, a sporting +reputation; he was always the man selected for trapping any evil beast +or bird that might be worrying us; and when the cherries were +beginning to show ruddy complexions in the sunshine, and the starlings +and blackbirds were becoming troublesome, armed with an old +muzzle-loader of mine, he made incessant warfare against them, and his +gun could be heard as early as five o'clock in the morning, while the +shots would often come pattering down harmlessly on my greenhouse. +There came a time when some thieving carrion crows were robbing my +half-tame wild duck's nests of their eggs, and Jarge was, of course, +detailed to tackle them. Weeks elapsed without any result; the +depredations continued, and the men began to chaff him; finally Bell +"put the lid on," as people say nowadays, by the following sally: "Ah, +Jarge, if ever thee catches a craw 'twill be one as was hatched from +an addled egg!" + +For weeks before harvest Jarge patrolled my wheatfields, crowds of +sparrows rising and dispersing for a time after every shot, only, I +fear, to foregather again very soon on another field, perhaps half a +mile distant. No doubt he sent some to my neighbours in return for +those which they sent to me. + +Jarge was an instance of superior descent; his surname was that of an +ancient and prominent county family in former days; he carried himself +with dignity and was generally respected; he possessed the power of +very minute observation, and was of all others the man to find coins +or other small leavings of Roman and former occupiers of my land. His +eldest daughter was a charming girl, and, when Jarge became a widower, +she made a most efficient mistress of his household. She showed, too, +quite unmistakably her descent from distinguished ancestry. Tall, +clear-complexioned, graceful, dignified, and rather serious, but with +a sweet smile, she was a daughter of whom any man might have been +proud. To my thinking, she was the belle of the village, and she made +a very pretty picture in her sun-bonnet, among the green and golden +tracery of the hop-bine in the hopping season accompanied by the +smaller members of the family. At the "crib" into which the hops are +picked, many bushels proved their industry, and there were no leaves +or rubbish to call for rebuke at the midday and evening measurings. + +I selected Jarge for foreman of the hop-picking as a most responsible +and trustworthy man; it was then that his sense of humour was most +conspicuous, a very important and valuable trait when 300 women and +children, and the men who supplied them with hops on the poles, have +to be kept cheerful and good-tempered every day and all day for three +weeks or a month, sometimes under trying conditions. For though +hop-picking is a fascinating occupation when the sun shines and the +sky is blue, it is otherwise when the mornings are damp or the hops +dripping with dew, and when heavy thunder-rains have left the ground +wet and cold. + +He had a cheery word for all who were working steadily, and a +semi-sarcastic remark for the careless and unmethodical; a keen eye +for hops wasted and trodden into the ground, or for poles of +undersized hops, unwelcome to the pickers and hidden beneath those +from which the hops had been picked. He acted as buffer between +capital and labour, smoothing troubles over, telling me of the +pickers' difficulties, and explaining my side to the pickers when the +quality was poor and prices discouraging, so that the work went with a +swing and with happy faces and good-humoured chaff. + +I was always pleased to hear the pickers singing, for I knew then that +all was well. Sometimes, after a trying day, when Jarge had been +called upon to expostulate, or "to talk" more than usual, the corners +of his mouth would take a downward turn, and he complained, perhaps, +of gipsies or tramps whom I was obliged to employ when the crop was +heavy, though they were kept in a gang apart from the villagers; but +he always came up happy again next morning, the mouth corners tending +upwards, and his broad and beaming smile with a radiance like the +rising sun on a midsummer morning. + +Jarge was a man of discrimination. When we were forced to inaugurate a +School Board on account of the growing difficulty, owing to the bad +times, of collecting voluntary subscriptions, all the old school +managers, including my second Vicar--I served under three Vicars as +church-warden--refused to join the Board. Jarge, who was much +exercised in his mind as to the possibility of future bad management, +came to me, and referring to a proposal to place working-men on the +Board, said: "We wants men like you, sir, for members; what's the good +of sending we dunderyeads there?" + +Going round the farm on his daughter's wedding-day, I was surprised to +find him at work; and when I asked him why he was not at the ceremony, +"Well," he replied, "I don't think much of weddings--the fittel +(victuals) ain't good enough; give me a jolly good fu-ner-ral!" + +Jarge wore a brown velveteen coat on high-days and holidays by virtue +of his sporting reputation, and looked exceedingly smart with special +corduroy breeches and gaiters and a wide-awake felt hat. He was much +annoyed in Birmingham, whither I had sent all the men to an +agricultural show, at hearing a man say to a companion, "There's +another of them Country Johnnies." When I told him what a swell he +looked, he replied somewhat ruefully, "No! that's what I never could +be," as though he felt that his appearance was disappointingly rustic. + +Though a most industrious man, he had dreams of the enjoyment of +complete leisure; he told me that if ever he possessed as much as +fifty pounds he would never do another day's work as long as he lived. +I answered that when that ideal was reached he would postpone his +projected ease until he had made it a hundred, and so on ad infinitum; +and this proved a correct forecast, for in time, by the aid of a +well-managed allotment and regular wages, he saved a good bit of +money. When I sold my fruit crops by auction, on the trees, for the +buyers to pick, just before I gave up my land, as I should not be +present to harvest the late apples and cider fruit after Michaelmas, +he came forward with a bid of one hundred pounds for one of the +orchards, though it was sold eventually for a higher price. + +He was not well versed in finance, however, for when the owner of his +cottage offered, at his request, to build a new pigsty if he would pay +a rent of 5 per cent, annually on the cost--a very fair +proposal--Jarge declined with scorn, being, I think, under the +impression that the owner was demanding the complete sum of five +pounds annually, and I found it impossible to disabuse his mind of the +idea. He felt aggrieved also by the fact that, having paid rent for +twenty-five or thirty years, he was no nearer ownership of his cottage +than when he began. His argument was that, as he had paid more than +the value of the cottage, it should be his property; the details of +interest on capital and all rates and repairs paid by the owner did +not appeal to him. + +On the occasion of a concert at Malvern, which my wife and her sister +organized for the benefit of our church restoration fund, I gave all +my men a holiday, and sent them off by train at an early hour; they +were to climb the Worcestershire Beacon--the highest point of the +Malvern range--in the morning, and attend the concert in the +afternoon. It was a lovely day, and the programme was duly carried +out. Next morning I found Jarge and another man, who had been detailed +for the day's work to sow nitrate of soda on a distant wheat-field, +sitting peacefully under the hedge; they told me that the excitement +and the climb had completely tired them out, but that they would stop +and complete the job, no matter how late at night that might be. It +was the hill-climbing, I think, that had brought into play muscles not +generally used in our flat country. I sympathized, and left them +resting, but the work was honourably concluded before they left the +field. + +When there was illness in Jarge's house and somebody told him that the +doctor had been seen leaving, he answered that he "Would sooner see +the butcher there any day"--not, perhaps, a very happy expression in +the circumstances, but intended to convey that a butcher's bill, for +good meat supplied, was more satisfactory than a doctor's account, +which represented nothing in the way of commissariat. + +Among the annual trips to which I treated my men, I sent them for a +long summer day to London, and one of my pupils kindly volunteered to +act as conductor to the sights. They had a very successful day, and +the principal streets and shows were visited; among the latter the +Great Wheel, then very popular, was the one that seemed to interest +them most. + +Next morning some of the travellers were hoeing beans in one of my +fields; I interviewed them on my round, and inquired what they thought +of London. They had much enjoyed the day, and were greatly struck by +the fact that the barmaid, at the place where they had eaten the lunch +they took with them, had recognized them as "Oostershire men"; they +had demanded their beer in three or four quart jugs, which could be +handed round so that each man could take a pull in turn, instead of +the usual fashion of separate glasses, and it appeared that this +indicated the locality from whence they came. Probably she had noticed +their accent, and, being a native of Worcestershire, remembered their +intimate drinking custom as a county peculiarity. The men proceeded to +describe the sights of London, and one of them added that there was +one thing they could not find there, stopping suddenly in some +confusion. I pressed him to explain. He still hesitated, and, turning +to the others, said: "_You_ tell the master, Bill." Bill was not so +diffident. "Well," he said, "we couldn't see a good-looking 'ooman in +Lunnon; for Jarge here, 'e was judge over 'em for a bit, and then Tom +'e took it, nor 'e couldn't see one neither!" + +Jarge was somewhat of a _bon vivant_, and much appreciated my annual +present of a piece of Christmas beef. When thanking me and descanting +upon its tenderness and acceptability, on one occasion, he continued, +"It ain't like the sort of biff we folks has to put up with, that +tough you has to set in the middle of the room at dinner, for fear you +might daish your brains out agen the wall a-tuggin' at it with your +teeth!" + +Jarge had one song and only one that I ever heard, and he was always +called upon for it at harvest suppers and other jollifications; it was +not a classic, but he rendered it with characteristic drollery, and +always brought down the house. I conclude my sketch of him by +mentioning it because it is almost my last impression of his vivid +personality, trotted out with great energy at my farewell supper, a +day or two before I left Aldington. + +Among the men who were bequeathed to me, so to speak, by my +predecessor, Tom was one of whom I always had a high opinion. Tall, +vigorous, and well made, one recognized at once his possibilities as a +valuable man. He was somewhat cautious, taciturn, very sensitive and +reserved, but would open out in conversation when alone with me. As +quite a young man he had worked at the building of the branch line +from Oxford to Wolverhampton, via Worcester, the "O.W. and W.," or +"Old Wusser and Wusser," as it was called, until taken over by the +Great Western Railway. The latter, extending from London to Oxford, +was, I believe, one of Brunell's masterly conceptions, being without a +tunnel the whole way. But the new line had to pierce the Cotswolds +before reaching the Vale of Evesham, and Tom had many yarns about the +construction of the long Mickleton tunnel. Among them was a tradition +of the cost, so great that guineas laid edgeways throughout its length +would not pay for it. + +In my time there was a splendid service of express trains running from +London to Worcester without a stop, and coming downhill into the Vale, +through the tunnel and towards Evesham, the speed approximated to a +mile a minute. I was talking to one of my men, a hedger, working near +the line which bounded a portion of my land, when one of the express +trains came dashing along and passed us with a roar in a few seconds. +"My word," said he, "I reckon that's a co-rider." I was puzzled, but +presently it came to me that he meant "corridor"; he had probably seen +the word in the local paper without having heard it pronounced. + +It was a treat to watch Tom's magnificent physique when felling a big +tree, stripped to his shirt, with sleeves rolled up, and his gleaming +axe slowly raised and poised for a second above him before it fell +with the gathered impetus of its own weight and his powerful stress. +Biting time after time into the exact place aimed at, and at the most +effective angle possible, the clean chips would fly in all directions +until the necessary notch was cut and the basal outgrowths, close to +the ground around the sturdy column, were reduced, so that the +cross-cut saw could complete its downfall with a mighty crash. There +is always something sad about the felling of an ancient tree; one +feels it is a venerable creature that has passed long years of +unchallenged dominion on the spot occupied, and one can scarcely avoid +an idea of its intelligence and its silent record of passing +generations, who have welcomed its shade at blazing summer noontides, +or crept close to its warm touch for shelter from the winter's +chilling blast and the hissing hail. + +Tom was always the leader of my team of mowers when the grass was cut, +for, with the large staff I employed on purpose for the all-important +hop-gardens, I never wanted, till towards the end of my time, to make +use of a machine. The steady swing of his scythe, with scarcely an +apparent effort, the swish, as the swathe fell beneath its keen edge, +and the final lift of the severed grasses at the end of the stroke, +all in regular rhythmic action, were very fascinating to watch. At +intervals came a halt for "whetting" the blade, and the musical sound +of rubber (sharpening stone) against steel, equally adroitly +accomplished, proved the artist at his work, with a delicacy of touch +which, perhaps in different circumstances, might have produced the +thrills with which Pachmann's velvet caress or Paderewski's refined +expression enchant a vast and rapturous audience. + +As a land-drainer, too, I loved to watch him standing in the slippery +trench, with not an inch more soil moved than was necessary, lifting +out the decreasing "draws," and leaving a bottom nicely rounded +exactly to fit the pipes, and finally the methodical adjustment of +each pipe, with the concluding tap to bring it close to the last one +laid. Draining is an art which taxes the ability of the best of men, +for it must be remembered that, like the links of a chain, its +efficiency is no greater than that of its weakest part. + +When I had to arrange for the harvesting of my first hop crop, it was +necessary to find a man who could be entrusted with the critical work +of drying the hops, and Tom was the man I chose. I had my kiln ready, +constructed in an old malthouse, on the latest principles, and in time +for the first crop. The kiln consisted of a space about 20 feet +square, walled off at one end of the old building, but with entrances +on the ground and first floors. Beneath, in the lower compartment, was +the fireplace, a yard square, and 16 feet above was the floor on which +the hops were dried. Anthracite coal was used for fuel, the fire being +maintained day and night throughout the picking--the morning's picking +drying between 1 p.m. and 12 midnight, and the afternoon's picking +between 1 a.m. and 12 o'clock noon. Tom was therefore on duty for the +whole twenty-four hours, with what snatches of sleep he could catch in +the initial stage of each drying and at odd moments. + +The process requires great skill and attention; at first he and I, +with what little knowledge I had, puzzled it out together, he having +had no previous experience, and night after night I sat up with him +till the load came off the kiln at midnight. A slight excess of heat, +or an irregular application of it, will spoil the hops, the principle +being to raise the temperature, very gradually at first, to 30 or 40 +degrees higher at the finish. Hops should be _blown_ dry by a blast of +hot air, not baked by heat alone. The drier, of course, has to keep a +watchful eye on the thermometer on the upper floor among the hops--Tom +always called it the "theometer"--regulating his fire accordingly and +the admission of cold air through adjustable ventilators on the +outside walls. This regulation varies according to the weather, the +moisture of the air, and the condition of the hops, and calls for +critical judgment and accuracy. Often, tired out with the previous +ordinary day's work, we had much ado to keep awake at night, and it +was fatal to arrange a too comfortable position with the warmth of the +glowing fire and the soporific scent of the hops. Then Tom would +announce that it was "time to get them little props out," which, in +imagination, were to support our wearied eyelids. + +When we decided that the hops were ready to be cooled down, to prevent +breaking when being taken off the drying floor, all doors, windows, +and ventilators were thrown open and the fire banked up, and, while +they were cooling, he went to neighbouring cottages to rouse the men +who came nightly to unload and reload the kiln, and then I could +retire to bed. + +Tom was devoted to duty, and was so successful as a hop-drier that he +soon became capable of managing two more kilns in the same building, +which I enlarged as I gradually increased my acreage. In a good season +he would often have £100 worth of hops through his hands in the +twenty-four hours, sometimes more. He was the only man I ever employed +at this particular work, and throughout those years he turned out hops +to the value of nearly £30,000 without a single mishap or spoiled +kiln-load--a better proof of his devotion to duty than anything else I +could say. + +He was a very picturesque figure when, "crowned with the sickle and +the wheaten sheaf, Autumn comes jovial on," and he was cutting wheat, +his head covered with a coloured handkerchief, knotted at the corners, +to protect the back of his neck from the sun, which must have been +much cooler than the felt hat--a kind of "billycock" with a flat +top--which he habitually wore. I have noticed that the labourer's +style of hat is a matter of great conservatism, probably due to the +fancy that he would "look odd" in any other, and would be liable to +chaff from his fellow-workers. + +Tom had a tremendous reach, and got through a big day's work in the +harvest-field, but nearly always knocked himself up after two or three +days in the broiling sun, developing what he called, "Tantiddy's fire +" in one forearm; this is the local equivalent of St. Anthony's fire, +an ailment termed professionally erysipelas, but I have never heard +how it is connected with the saint. + +Harvesters often work in pairs, and they are then "butties" +(partners), but not infrequently a harvester will be accompanied by +his wife or daughter to tie up the sheaves; and their active figures +among the golden corn, backed by a horizon of blue sky, make a +charming picture. The mind goes back to the old Scripture references +to the time of harvest, and the idea impresses itself that one is +looking at almost exactly the same scene as it appeared to the old +writers, and which they described in all the dignity of their stately +language. + +Tom was not much given to the epigrammatic expression of his thoughts, +like some of the other men, but he had a vein of humour. A relative of +his used to come over from Evesham to sing in our church choir, and I +remember a special occasion when the choir was somewhat _piano_ until +this singer's part came in; he had a strong and not very melodious +voice, and the effort and the effect alike were startling. Tom was in +church at the time, and had evidently been watching expectantly for +the _fortissimo_ climax; he told me afterwards that "when S. opened +his mouth I knew it was sure to come." It did! + +I have mentioned Tom's cautiousness; he had a way of assenting to a +statement without committing himself to definite agreement. I once +asked him who the leaders had been in a disorderly incident, being +aware that he knew; I suggested the names, but the nearest approach to +assent which I could extract was, "If you spakes again you'll be +wrong." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + + +THE HEAD CARTER--THE CARPENTER. + + "There's a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and folks + most in general chooses the wrong un." + --TOM G. + +Jim was my first head carter, and he dearly loved a horse. He had, as +the saying is, forgotten more about horses than most men ever knew, +and what he didn't know wasn't worth knowing. + +He was a cheery man, and when I went to Aldington was about to be +married. Not being much of a "scholard," his first request was that I +would write out his name and that of his intended, for the publication +of the banns. A group of men was standing round at the time, and I +asked him how his somewhat unusual name was spelt. Seeing that he was +puzzled, I hazarded a guess myself, repeating the six letters in order +slowly. He was greatly surprised and pleased to recognize that my +attempt was correct, and, turning to the bystanders, remarked with the +utmost sincerity, "There ain't many as could have done that, mind +you!" I felt that my reputation for scholarship was established. + +Jim was a fisherman, and was no representative of "a worm at one end +and a fool at the other." I gave him leave to fish in my brooks; he +was wily, patient, and successful, and one day brought me a nice +salmon-trout, by no means common in these streams. In thanking him, I +made him a standing offer of a shilling a pound for any more he could +catch, but he never got another. Writing of fishing, I cannot forbear +quoting Thomson's lines on the subject, under "Spring," the most vivid +description of the sport I have ever read: + + "When with his lively ray the potent sun + Has pierced the streams, and roused the finny race, + Then, issuing cheerful, to thy sport repair; + Chief should the western breezes curling play, + And light o'er ether bear the shadowy clouds. + High to their fount, this day, amid the hills, + And woodlands warbling round, trace up the brooks; + The next, pursue their rocky-channel'd maze, + Down to the river, in whose ample wave + Their little naiads love to sport at large. + Just in the dubious point, where with the pool + Is mix'd the trembling stream, or where it boils + Around the stone, or from the hollow'd bank + Reverted plays in undulating flow, + There throw, nice-judging, the delusive fly; + And as you lead it round in artful curve, + With eye attentive mark the springing games + Straight as above the surface of the flood + They wanton rise, or urged by hunger leap, + Then fix, with gentle twitch, the barbed hook: + Some lightly tossing to the grassy bank, + And to the shelving shore slow-dragging some, + With various hand proportion'd to their force. + If yet too young, and easily deceived, + A worthless prey scarce bends your pliant rod, + Him, piteous of his youth and the short space + He has enjoy'd the vital light of heaven, + Soft disengage, and back into the stream + The speckled captive throw. But should you lure + From his dark haunt, beneath the tangled roots + Of pendant trees, the monarch of the brook, + Behoves you then to ply your finest art. + Long time he following cautious, scans the fly; + And oft attempts to seize it, but as oft + The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear. + At last, while haply yet the shaded sun + Passes a cloud, he desperate takes the death, + With sullen plunge. At once he darts along, + Deep-struck, and runs out all the lengthen'd line; + Then seeks the furthest ooze, the sheltering weed, + The cavern'd bank, his old secure abode; + And flies aloft, and flounces round the pool, + Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand, + That feels him still, yet to his furious course + Gives way, you, now retiring, following now + Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage: + Till floating broad upon his breathless side, + And to his fate abandon'd, to the shore + You gaily drag your unresisting prize." + +Horses were scarce and dear when I went to Aldington, and many French +animals were being imported. I got an old acquaintance in the South of +England to send me four or five; they were all greys, useful workers, +but wanting the spirit and stamina of the English horse; and they +would always wait for the Englishman to start a heavy standing load +before throwing their weight into the collar. Jim told me that they +were "desperate ongain" (very awkward), and, as foreigners, well they +might be, for I myself had some difficulty in understanding the local +words of command, more especially in ploughing, when, with a team of +four, he shouted his orders, addressing the new horses by names with +which they were quite unfamiliar. + +I admired Jim's loyalty to his late master, if not his veracity, at +the valuation of the stock, which I took over as it stood. Being aware +that there was a lame one or two among the horses, I warned my valuer +beforehand. We entered the stable, and my valuer, thinking to catch +Jim off his guard, asked casually which they were. Jim was quite ready +for him, and answered without a moment's hesitation, "Nerrun, sir" +(never a one). They were, however, easily detected when trotted out on +the road. + +Jim was a capital hand at "getting up" a horse for sale; an extra sack +or two of corn, constant grooming, and rest in the stable, with the +aid of some mysterious powders, which, I think, contained arsenic, +soon brought out the "dapples," which he called "crown-pieces," on +their coats, and in a couple of months' time one scarcely recognized +the somewhat angular beast upon which his labours had wrought a +miracle, and put a ten-pound note at least on the value. We had an +ancient and otherwise doubtful mare, "Bonny," ready for Pershore Fair, +and the previous day Jim wanted to know if I intended to be present. I +told him, "No! I should have to tell too many lies." "Oh!" said he, +"I'll do all that, sir!" He sold the mare to a big dealer for all she +was worth, I think, though not a large figure. Soon afterwards I had +to expostulate with him about some fault. He explained the +circumstances from his point of view, adding, "And that's the truth, +sir, and the truth _is_ the truth, and"--triumphantly--"that's what'll +carry a man through the world!" I could say no more, but could not +help remembering his willingness to testify to Sonny's doubtful merits +at Pershore Fair. + +Jim became a widower, but eventually married again; a good woman, who +made a capital wife. Shortly before the wedding, when he came to see +me on some business, my wife happened to be present; she was very +anxious to find out the date in order that we might attend. Jim was +shy, not wishing it to be generally known, and nothing could be got +out of him. On leaving, however, he repented and, looking back over +his shoulder, made the announcement, "Our job comes off next +Thursday," then closing the door quickly, he was gone. + +He got my permission to visit his mother and son, both ailing in +Birmingham, and on his return I made inquiries. The boy was better, +but about his mother he said, "I don't take so much notice of she, for +her be regular weared out"--not unkindly or undutifully intended, but +just a plain statement of fact, simply put; for she was a very old +woman, and could not in the course of nature be expected to live much +longer. + +That Jim had a tender heart I know, for when we lost a very favourite +horse, one which "you could not put at the wrong job," I found him +weeping and much distressed. Later he said, "When you lose a horse I +reckon it's a double loss, for you haven't got the horse or the +money." My mind being dominated by the unanswerable accuracy of the +latter part of the statement, I did not, for a moment, see that the +first part was fallacious, because, of course, one could not have both +at one and the same time. + +He was an excellent ploughman, and considerable skill is demanded to +manage the long wood plough, locally made, and still the best +implement of the sort on the adhesive land of the Vale of Evesham. It +has no wheels, like the ordinary iron plough has, to regulate the +depth and width of the furrow-slice, because in wet weather, if tried +on this almost stoneless land, the wheels become so clogged with mud +and refuse, such as stubble from the previous crop, that they will not +revolve, sliding helplessly involved along the ground. Even the +mould-board is wood, generally pear-tree, to which the mud does not +adhere, as happens with iron. As an old neighbour explained to me, +"You can cut the newest bread with a wooden knife, whereas the doughy +crumb of the bread would stick to a steel one." Pear-tree wood is used +because it wears "slick" (smooth), and does not splinter like wood +which is longer in the grain. + +With these long wood ploughs the ploughman himself regulates the depth +and width of the furrow-slice--_i.e.,_ each strip that is severed and +turned over--by holding the handles firmly in the correct position as +the plough travels along, for it cannot be left for a moment to its +own inclination. This entails strict attention and much muscular +effort, and, of course, the latter comes into play also in turning at +each end of the field. The result is very effective; the flat +mould-board offers the least possible resistance to the inversion of +the soil, whereas the iron plough, with a curling mould-board, presses +the crest of the furrow-slice into regularity of form, and gives a +more finished appearance at the expense of much extra friction and +labour for the horses. + +A carter-boy accompanies each team, as driver, to keep the horses up +to their work and turn them at the ends. A farmer I knew in Hampshire +would not, if possible, employ a boy unless he could whistle--of +course the ability and degree of excellence is a guide to character, +and indicates to some extent a harmonious disposition; he always said, +"Now whistle," when engaging a new boy. + +There are few more pleasant agricultural operations to watch and to +follow than a lusty team, a skilful ploughman, and a whistling boy at +work, on a glowing autumn day, when the stubble is covered with +gossamers gleaming with iridescent colours in the sunshine. The +upturned earth is fragrant, the fresh soil looks rich and full of +promise, there is the feeling that old mistakes and disappointments +are being buried out of sight, and the hope and anticipation of the +future. + +On a Lincolnshire farm where I was a pupil, an incident occurred +illustrating the anxiety of a carter for the welfare of his horses, in +combination with no small cunning. The owner, in the stable one Sunday +morning, noticed an open Bible in the manger; having doubts as to the +reliability of the carter, he regarded the Bible, so prominently +displayed, with some suspicion. Looking carefully all round he could +see nothing to find fault with, until he glanced upward at the floor +over the manger, where he discovered a protruding cork. He remembered +that a heap of oats was stored in the loft, from which the bailiff +gave out the rations for their teams to each man weekly. Getting the +key of the loft, he found that the cork was nicely adjusted to a hole +beneath the oats, so that the carter in question could exceed the +recognized ration whenever inclined. The fault was, of course, more +one of disobedience than of robbery, as the corn was consumed by his +master's horses, and the prominence of the Bible was perhaps the worst +feature, evidently a deceptive device to arrest suspicion, though it +proved to have exactly the opposite effect. + +Very few of my men suffered from rheumatism, but Jim was an exception. +I think he applied horse embrocation to himself; he would extol its +efficacy, and would tell how, when the pain attacked his shoulder, the +remedy "druv it" to his back; applied to the latter, "it druv it" to +his legs; and so on indefinitely. + +I kept about a dozen working horses besides colts; the latter are +broken at two years old, but only very lightly worked, and, when quiet +and handy, they are turned out again till a year older. Our method of +maintaining the full capacity of horse-power on the farm was to breed, +or buy at six months old, two colts, and sell off two of the oldest +horses every year. As two colts could be bought for forty or fifty +pounds at that age, and the two old horses sold for a hundred and +twenty pounds or thereabouts, a good balance was left on the +transaction, while the full strength of the teams was maintained. + +Jim had sufficient foresight to view with alarm the gradual dispersion +of most of the oldest and best farmers in the neighbourhood, and the +conversion to grass of the arable land, owing to the unfair and +dangerous competition of American wheat. When we discussed the subject +and foretold the straits to which the country would be reduced in the +event of war with a great European Power, he concluded these +forebodings with the habitual remark, "Well, what I says is, them as +lives longest will see the most." A truism, no doubt, but, as time has +proved, by no means an incorrect view. + +There was always plenty of employment for an estate carpenter on my +farms, as I had a vast number of buildings, including four separate +sets of barn, stable, sheds, and yard, away from the village, as well +as those near the Manor House, and many repairs were necessary. There +were, too, very many gates, repairs to fences, hurdle-making, and odd +jobs, to keep a man employed for months at a time. The building of +three hop-kilns, with the necessary storerooms for green and dried +hops, as the hop acreage increased, the preparation of hop-poles, and +the erection of wire-work on larger poles, which gradually superseded +the ordinary pole system, all demanded a great deal of regular work. + +I was most fortunate in obtaining the services of a man living in a +neighbouring village, not only as estate carpenter, but as a skilled +joiner, and possessing all the knowledge and efficiency of an +experienced builder. When I first met him, or very soon afterwards, +Tom G. was a teetotaller, and I have always had immense admiration for +the strength of will which enabled him to conquer completely the drink +habit, for he freely admitted that he was entirely mastered by it in +his younger days. He told me, and it proves what a kindly word will +sometimes do, that the Squire of his village, who also employed him +largely, said to him, after praising some of his work, "There's only +one thing the matter with you, Tom, and that's the drink." "I went +home," said Tom, "and I thought to myself, if the drink is all that's +wrong with me, what a fool I must be to continue it. Next day I went +to Evesham and signed the pledge, and I've never touched a drop since, +though the smell and the sight of a public-house have been so sore a +temptation that many a time after a long day's work, and with money in +my pocket, I've gone a mile or two out of my way in order not to pass +a place of the sort." + +His training as a carpenter had induced habits of great accuracy, +exact method, and lucid thought, and a chat with him, and watching his +quick and clever workmanship, was an educational opportunity. I have +always been fascinated by such work, and one of my earliest +recollections is of being taken by my father to interview a carpenter +about some small household job. His name was Snewin--I am not sure of +the spelling, for I was only about eight years old at the time--and we +found him in his workshop vigorously using a long plane on some red +deal boards, his feet buried in beautifully curled shavings, and the +whole place redolent of the delicious scent of turpentine. Every time +his plane travelled along the edge, to my childish fancy, the board +said in plaintive tones of remonstrance, _in crescendo_, his name, +"Snewin, _Snewin_," and again, "SNEWIN," and even now the scent and +action of planing a deal board always brings back the scene clearly to +my mind. + +I suppose, therefore, it was partly old associations that induced the +fascination of watching Tom G. at his work, but there were other +reasons. With his axe, the edge beautifully ground and sharpened to a +razor-like finish, he could trim a piece of wood, or shape it, so +neatly that it presented almost the appearance of having been planed; +his saw, with no apparent effort, raced from end to end of a board or +across the grain of a piece of "quartering," and his chisels and plane +irons were ground to the correct concave bevel that relieves the +parting of a chip or shaving, and gives what he called "sweetness" to +the cutting action. He was a strong Conservative, good at an argument, +and had many heated discussions with some of my men whose tendencies +leaned to the opposite side; but his sound logic and common sense were +observable in all his ideas, and I think he generally came off best as +a shrewd and clear-headed debater, for from his employment in various +places his horizon was wider than that of the ordinary farm labourers. + +Tom G. had considerable knowledge of the Bible, which he sometimes +employed in conversation; alluding to the work that was nearly always +waiting for him at Aldington, he told a friend of mine that there was +"earn (corn) in Egypt"; and when he had a written contract with me for +a special piece of work, and wished to suggest that as time went on we +might think of some improvement, and that there was no necessity to +adhere to the original specifications, he announced that "we bean't +Mades, nor we bean't Piersians" (we're not Medes, nor are we +Persians). + +No necessary measurement was ever guessed at, his "rule" was always +handy in a special pocket, but in cases where a rough guess was +sufficient he would hazard it by what he called "scowl of brow" +(intently regarding it). The agricultural labourer is inclined, both +with weights and measures, to be inaccurate, "reckoning it's near +enough." I found soon after I came to Aldington that the weighing +machine which had been in use throughout the whole of my predecessor's +time, and had weighed up hundreds of pounds of wool at 2s. and 2s. 6d. +a pound, cheese at 8d., and thousands of sacks of wheat, barley, and +beans, was about a pound in each hundredweight _against the seller_, +so that he must have lost a considerable sum in giving overweight. + +Tom G. was scornful about weather signs, and summed up his doubts in +such matters with sarcasm: "I reckon that the indications for rain are +very similar to the indications for fine weather!" But the best +epigram I ever heard from him was, "There's a right way and a wrong +way to do everything, and folks most in general chooses the wrong un!" +I should like to see those words of wisdom on the title-page of every +school book, and blazoned up in letters of gold on the wall of every +classroom in every school in the kingdom. + +I have referred to the hop-kilns I built. Throughout the work of +erecting them, and it was no small one, Tom G. was the leading spirit; +it gave scope for his abilities, I think, on a larger scale than any +building he had previously undertaken. We began with a kiln sufficient +for the first 6 acres planted; it was necessary, with the gradual +extinction of British corn-growing, to find something to supersede it, +and to compensate for the falling off in farm receipts. I had seen +something of hops as a pupil on a large farm near Alton, Hampshire, +where they occupied an area of over a hundred acres, but at that time +I had no intention of growing them myself, and had not been infected +with the glamour, formerly attaching to hops beyond any other crop, +that came to me later. + +I visited the old Alton farm, and obtained all particulars of the +latest kind of hop-kiln in the neighbourhood from the inventor, and +instructed him to prepare plans and specifications for the conversion +of an old malthouse close to the Manor. I contracted with Tom G. for +all the carpenter's work, and with an excellent stonemason or +bricklayer for that belonging to his department. They both entered +with enthusiasm upon the job, and we had many interesting discussions +as to improvement, as it proceeded. Tom G. was a man of great +resource, and could always find a way out of every difficulty; he told +me, before we began, that he could see the completed building as if +actually finished, just as a great sculptor once said how easy it was +to produce a statue from a block of marble, for all he had to do was +to cut away the superfluous material! + +The alterations entailed a new roof from end to end of the old +building, and a new floor for the upper part, the length being about +70 and the width about 20 feet. The old roof was covered mostly with +stone-slates--flakes of limestone from the Cotswolds--very uneven in +size and rough as to surface, and in part with ordinary blue slates. +The latter lie much more closely on the laths, the stone slates +allowing the passage of more air between them, and it was interesting +to find that while the ancient laths under the stone slates were +fairly well preserved, those beneath the blue slates were much +decayed, evidently from the fact of the damp in an unheated building +remaining longer where the air was excluded, though one would have +expected the close-lying blue slates to be the better protection of +the two. + +Much expense was saved by Tom G.'s economical use of materials; +wherever the old oak beams could be used again they were incorporated +with the new work. He never cut sound old or new pieces of timber to +waste; almost every scrap came in somewhere, for he worked with his +head as well as his hands. + +The difference in this respect is very noticeable in different men; an +old plumber once told me that he had been employed upon a pump on a +neighbouring farm, where the slot in which the handle works was so +worn on one side that the bolt which carries the handle had given way, +owing to the man, who had used it for years, not keeping it running +truly in the centre. He called the man's attention to the cause of the +damage, and, being a sententious old fellow, asked him why he didn't +think what he was doing. The answer was, "I'm not paid to think." + +The hop-kiln was a great success, and later, with the same workmen, I +added two more, as my hopyards extended, on exactly the same lines. +They would probably have been annually in use in the picking season up +to the present time had it not been that the low prices ruling +latterly have rendered a crop which requires so much labour, +knowledge, and supervision, not worth growing. + +I hear, however, with much satisfaction, that these old hop-kilns and +storerooms have been of great service during the war for drying +medicinal herbs, chiefly belladonna and henbane, and that in 1917 the +turnover exceeded £6,000. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + +AN OLD FASHIONED SHEPHERD--OLD TRICKER--A GARDENER--MY SECOND HEAD +CARTER--A LABOURER. + + "Along the cool sequester'd vale of life + They kept the noiseless tenor of their way." + --GRAY'S _Elegy_. + +I had experiences of various shepherds, and the man I remember best +was John C. Short, sturdy, strong, and willing, he was somewhat +prejudiced and old-fashioned, with many traditions and inherited +convictions as to remedies and the treatment of sheep. John had a +knowing expression; his nose projected and his forehead and chin +retreated, so that his profile was angular. He wore the old-fashioned +long smock-frock--not the modern short linen jacket which goes by the +name of smock, but a garment that reached to his knees, with a +beautifully worked front over the chest. It is a pity that these old +smock-frocks are no longer in vogue: I never see one now; they were +most picturesque, and afforded great protection from the rough weather +which a shepherd has constantly to face. His hat was of soft felt, +placed well towards the back of his head, and, behind it, he wore a +wealth of curls overlapping the collar of his smock. John was very +proud of his curls; he told a group of men, who were sheep-dipping +with him, that the parasites of the sheep, which are formidable in +appearance, never troubled him until they reached his head. "Into them +curls, I suppose, John?" said a flippant bystander. John was pleased +that his most attractive feature should receive even this recognition. + +Altogether he presented a notable figure, and one quite typical of his +profession, especially when armed with his staff of office, his crook. +He was inclined to superstitious beliefs, and told me when I noticed +the matted condition of the manes of some colts domiciled in a distant +set of buildings that he reckoned "Old P. G."--an ancient dame in a +neighbouring cottage with a reputation for witchcraft--"had been +a-ridin' of 'em on moonlight nights." This matted appearance of colts' +manes, which is only the natural result of their not being groomed or +combed when young and unbroken, was known in many country places as +"hag-ridden." Such superstitions are now nearly, if not quite, +extinct, but still linger in old place-names, for it was usual in +former times to attribute any uncommon or surprising physical +appearance to supernatural agency. Thus we have such names as "Devil's +Dyke," "Devil's Punchbowl," "Puck Pits," "Pokes-down" (Puck's Down), +and many others. + +The fairy rings, too, which puzzled our ancestors, are explicable by a +natural process. The starting-point is a fungus, _Marasmius oreades_, +which in due course sheds its spores in a tiny circle around it; the +decay of the fungus supplies nitrogen to the grass, and renders it +dark green in colour. The circle expands, always outwards, more and +more fungi appearing every year; it does not return inwards because +the mineral constituents of the soil are exhausted by the growth of +the fungus and of the grass, under the stimulus of the abundant +nitrogen left by the former, so that the dark ring of grass extends +its diameter year by year. + +In the _Tempest_ Shakespeare refers to the fairies: + + "... That + By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, + Whereof the ewe not bites." + + +John carried a magic bottle of caustic liniment for application to the +feet of sheep affected with the complaint called "foot-rot." The cause +of this troublesome disease is excessive development of the walls of +the hoof, owing to the animals grazing exclusively on wet pasture, the +surface of which is too soft to keep them worn down; the walls +gradually double over and collect wet mud, which causes inflammation. +It never occurred on my arable land, either among ewes or younger +sheep, but whenever I bought sheep from the flint stones of Hampshire +and grazed them on soft pasture, it soon made its appearance. The +remedy is timely and constant paring of the hoof before any tendency +to lameness is observed, and when this is properly attended to no +caustic application is necessary. Lame sheep indicate an inefficient +shepherd, and the disorder has been well called "Shepherd's Neglect." + +An eminent breeder of prize Hampshire Down sheep told me that, when +contemplating the exhibition of sheep, the first necessity is to get a +"prize shepherd," a man with a presence, and a reputation which he +would not risk in the show-ring without something worth exhibiting. I +started a flock of pedigree Shropshires, but my land was too good and +grew them too big and coarse for showing, and I soon found that it was +useless to try, though I succeeded in taking a prize at the +Warwickshire county show. It so happened that when my shepherd (not +John) returned in great triumph from the show, he found his first-born +son, who had arrived in his absence, awaiting him. "Well done, +shupperd," said a neighbour, "got him a son and a prize the same day!" + +John was jealous of any interference in his remedial measures for +ailing sheep, but my wife, who doctored the village generally, was +anxious to try her hand, having little faith in his skill; so we +arranged that the next time he had what he considered a hopeless case +it was to be given over to her exclusively. The opportunity soon +occurred; a ewe was found caught by the fleece in some rough briars in +an old hedge, where it had been some hours in great distress, and, +with much struggling to free itself, it was quite exhausted. Pneumonia +supervened, and when John thought it impossible to save its life he +handed the case over to my wife. She succeeded, chiefly, I think, by +careful nursing, in pulling it through, much to John's surprise; +doubtless he thought its recovery a lucky fluke. John was given to +occasional alcoholic lapses; on one occasion I found him aimlessly +driving sheep across a field of growing mangolds! I could see that he +was muddled, and on reaching home later I sought an interview. He was +not to be found, but at his cottage his wife told me that John was not +very well. I postponed my reckoning till the following day, when, with +great readiness, he explained how it happened. "The day before," he +said, "I frained my fittle (refrained from my victuals) all day, and +when I got up yesterday I didn't feel justly righteous (quite right) +ov my inside; so I gets a bit of 'bacca, just about as much as _you_ +med put in your pipe (this, apparently, to incriminate me), and I +putts it at the bottom of a tay-cup, with a drop ov rum; then I fills +it up with hot tay and drinks it off, and very soon I felt it a coming +over (overcoming) mer (me)." + +Sheep-breeding was not one of the most important branches of farming +in my part of Worcestershire: the land is too stiff and wet, they +thrive much better on the Cotswolds or the chalk downs of Hampshire. +At one time I visited the latter county every summer, attending the +big fairs like Overton or Alresford, for the purpose of buying 100 +draft ("full-mouthed") ewes from one of the best flocks. It was very +interesting in the early morning, reaching Overton by rail from +Basingstoke, where I had passed the night at the Red Lion with £300 in +bank-notes under my pillow, to see the gipsies in the village asleep +on the ground under their vans, the girls sometimes awake, combing +their hair, and beautifying themselves in readiness for the pleasure +fair where they were to appear in charge of the shooting-galleries and +competitions. A short walk, with only time for a passing glance at the +speckled trout near the bridge over the Itchen, which I never omitted, +took me to the sheep-pens on the hill-top where the fair is held. One +could see the flocks, with their shepherds always _in front_ and the +dogs behind, winding along the narrow lanes, which, from all +directions, lead to the hill, in a cloud of chalky dust, flock after +flock with only a few dividing yards between them. It is advisable to +reach the fairground thus early, to see the sheep before they are +penned; they can be much better inspected in the open than when packed +close together, and a more reliable opinion of their condition can be +formed. From the aesthetic point of view the grand old shepherds +interested me most, dignified, patriarchal men, with a reserve of +strength of character evident in their rugged features, and the +patience and hardihood that takes little heed of exposure to every +variety of weather. + +The sheep were sold by auction, and when I had bought a pen of 100, +generally from Lord Ashburton's flock, paid the auctioneer's clerk as +soon as possible and received a ticket permitting the release of the +sheep, as the roads in all directions are soon crowded, I induced the +shepherd to help in driving them to the railway-station. He was always +a dear old fellow, and full of interesting information. On reaching +the station we packed the sheep into three open trucks, so close that +they could not jump out, and despatched them to Worcestershire, +whither they would arrive about noon the following day. We never had a +mishap with them on the journey, but they were terribly thirsty on +reaching Aldington, and made straight for water immediately. + +Old Tricker came to Worcestershire originally with a farmer who +migrated from Suffolk, which proves him to have been a valuable man. +But he was worn out even when he first came to work for me, though as +willing and industrious as ever. My bailiff often praised him--for his +work was excellent, if somewhat slow on account of his age--and used +to tell him that "All as be the matter with you, Tricker, is that you +was born too soon," which was only too true, for he must have been the +oldest man on the farm by at least twenty years. He was a steady +worker, and was often so absorbed in his job, such as hoeing, that, +being, moreover, somewhat deaf, he was not aware of my approach until +I was quite close. On such occasions, with a violent start, he always +said: "My word, how you did frighten I, to be sure! Shows I don't look +about me much, however, don't it?" + +He was fond of fairs, wakes, and "mops"--no doubt they were +reminiscent of old days, for he lived in the past--and he would often +beg a day off for such outings; he was a subject for the chaff of the +other men for his gaiety when these jaunts took place. They pretended +that, as a widower for many years, it was time for him to think of +another courtship. On a festive occasion, when we were giving a dinner +to all the men and their wives, great amusement was caused by +crackers, which the guests, I think, had never seen before, containing +paper caps and imitation jewellery; and it was a merry scene when all +around the tables were decorated in the most incongruous fashion. Old +Tricker happened to become possessed of a plain gilt wedding-ring, and +of course chaff was levelled at him from all sides: "Ah, Tricker; sly +dog, sly dog!" and so on. He was greatly pleased, accepting +good-naturedly the part of pantaloon of the piece; and I am sure, from +his beaming smiles, he felt, for a time at least, dozens of years +younger. + +Years before, when still able to do a good day's work, he walked to +Ipswich to revisit his old home, a distance of about 160 miles, which +he accomplished in four days, and returned in the same time. He had +been specially struck by the building of a new post-office there--this +must have been at least thirty years before the time of which I am +writing. One of my brothers who lived near Ipswich was visiting me, +and I introduced him to the old man, knowing that they would have +common interests. No sooner did Tricker hear that my brother had just +come from Ipswich than he inquired anxiously if the new post-office +was finished. "Oh yes, and pulled down some years ago, and a new one +built!" Tricker was astonished; the years had evidently slipped by him +unnoticed, and no record of dates remained in his memory. + +Tricker often got a little mixed in the names of novelties or in +unusual words. I chanced to pass him one day along the road, on my +omnicycle, and next time I saw him he referred to it, adding: "I +didn't know as you'd got a phlorsopher (velocipede and philosopher)"! +Some of my land had been occupied by the Romans in very distant days, +and coins and pottery were frequently found. Tricker, having heard of +the Romans, also of Roman Catholics, jumbled them together, and +"reckoned" that the former inhabitants of these fields were "some of +those old Romans or Cartholics." + +This mixture of words, generally bearing some relation to each other, +was not infrequently carried still further by making one word of two. +With some of the villagers "conservatory" stood for conservative and +tory, and "containment" for concert and entertainment. A messenger who +was asked to bring _Daniel Deronda_ from the Evesham library returned +with the announcement that "Dannel Deronomy" was not available; this +appeared to be a confusion between the books of Daniel and +Deuteronomy. A cook (not a Worcestershire person) was asked if the +papers had come. "Yes; the _Standard_ has arrived, but not the Condy's +fluid _(Connoisseur)_ "! The regatta at Evesham was always "the +regretta." An old sexton working in a churchyard, from whom I inquired +if there was a bridge over the river, replied: "Only a temperance +bridge (temporary bridge)." + +Tricker, as a very typical representative of the agricultural labourer +in old age, was engaged as model for a figure in a picture by Mr. +Chevalier Taylor, then staying in Badsey. He sat in this capacity when +work was not very pressing, and day by day used to repair to the +artist's lodgings with his tools on his shoulder. His remuneration was +half a crown a day--ordinary day wages for an able-bodied man--but he +told me that the inaction was very trying, and that a day as model was +much more exacting than a day's work on the farm. + +When the old man could no longer complete even a short day's work, and +suffered from the cold in winter, he decided to go to the workhouse +for a time, but he was out again before the cuckoo was singing, and we +found him light jobs "by the piece," so that he could work for as long +or as short a time as suited him. He was most grateful for any +assistance, and told me that "A little help is worth a deal of +sympathy." Eventually he became a permanent inmate of the workhouse, +much to my grief; but it is, of course, impossible to run a farm on +which heavy poor-rate has to be paid, as a philanthropic institution. +The difficulty with aged and infirm persons is not so much food and +maintenance as the necessity for nursing and supervision, which are +expensive and difficult to arrange. Tricker told me that he could live +on sixpence a day, and if it had been a question of food only, and our +village could have cut itself adrift from the Union and the rates it +entailed, we could easily have more than kept the poor old man to the +end of his days in comfort. For years he was the only parishioner +receiving any help from the immense sum the parish annually paid in +rates. I have heard it said that out of every shilling of the +ratepayer's contributions the poor people only get twopence or its +equivalent, the officials and administration expenses absorbing the +remaining tenpence. + +My first gardener had been employed at the Manor, when I came, for +very many years, and at the end of ten more he was obliged to resign +through old age. He had planted the poplars round the mill-pond in his +earliest days, and, among other trees, the beautiful weeping wych-elm +on the lawn behind the house. The weeping effect he produced by +beheading the tree when quite small and grafting it with a slip of the +weeping variety, and the junction was still plainly visible. It was a +symmetrical and, especially when in bloom, a lovely tree, but as the +blossoms died and scattered themselves all over the grass, they +worried the methodical old man, and every spring he wished it had +never been planted. It had flourished amazingly, and we could +comfortably find sitting room at tea for sixty or seventy people at a +garden-party in its shade. + +He was an excellent gardener, but did not care about novelties in +flowers, though at one time he made a hobby of raising new kinds of +potatoes. His greatest success was the original Ashleaf variety, the +stock of which he sold to Mr. Myatt for a guinea, and which was +afterwards introduced to the public as "Myatt's Early Ashleaf." It was +one of the best potatoes ever grown, very early, and splendid in +quality, and it was unfortunate that he parted with it so cheaply, +though, of course, the purchaser of the first few tubers had no idea +of its immense potential value, and possibly, like so many novelties, +it might have proved a failure. It is still in cultivation, though its +constitution is impaired, like that of all potatoes of long standing. +Later on I shall have more to say about this unfortunate tendency to +deterioration. + +J.E. was one of my most reliable men, working for me, first as +under-carter and afterwards as head carter, for, I think, altogether +twenty-six years; he was well educated and a great reader, quiet and +somewhat reserved, and though his humour did not lie on the surface, +he could appreciate a joke. My recollections of him, after his +steadiness and reliability, are chiefly of his personal mishaps, for +he was an unlucky man in this particular. + +I was on my round one morning when I met a breathless carter-boy +making for the village. Asked where he was off to, "Please, sir," he +replied, "I be to fetch Master E. another pair of trowsers!" +"Trousers," said I; "what on earth for?" "Please, sir, the bull ha' +ripped 'em!" I hurried on, and soon saw that it was no laughing +matter, for I found poor E. in a terrible plight of rags and tatters, +sitting in a cart-shed in some outlying buildings, on a roller. The +cowman was standing by holding a Jersey bull. The story was soon told. +The cowman, having to go into the yard, had asked E. to hold the bull +a minute. Unfortunately, the animal had only a halter on him, the +cowman having omitted to bring the stick, with hook and swivel, to +attach to the bull's nose-ring. No sooner was the cowman out of sight +than the bull began to fret, and, turning upon E., knocked him down +between a mangoldbury and the outside wall of the yard. In this +position he was unable to get a direct attack upon the man, but he +managed to gore him badly and tear his clothes to pieces. The cowman, +hearing E. calling, came back and rescued him, the bull becoming quite +docile with his regular attendant. Poor E. was black and blue when he +got home in the pony-cart, and was laid up for many weeks afterwards. +He undoubtedly had a very narrow escape. It is curious that, though +the Jersey cows are the most docile of any kind, the bulls are the +most uncertain and, when annoyed, savage; I had trouble with two or +three, and one became so dangerous that he had to be killed in his +stall. + +E.'s bad luck overtook him again when returning from Evesham with, +fortunately, an empty waggon and team; one of the horses was startled, +and E. ran forwards to catch the reins. By some means he fell, and the +waggon-wheels passed over him; had it been full, as it was on the +outward journey, with a heavy load of beans, it would have been a +serious matter, but nevertheless he suffered a great deal for some +time afterwards. + +J.E. must have walked many hundreds of miles among my hops with the +horses drawing "the mistifier," a syringing machine which pumped a +mist-like spray of soft soap and quassia solution upon the under-side +of the hop-leaves, when attacked by the aphis blight; and he must have +destroyed many millions of aphides, for the blight was an annual +occurrence at Aldington, and taxed our energies to the utmost at one +of the busiest times of year. + +Mrs. J.E. was, and is, one of those kind persons always ready to do a +good turn to a neighbour. She and her husband brought up a large +family, all of whom have done well, and a son in the Grenadier Guards +especially distinguished himself in the war. She has a remarkable +memory for dates of birthdays, weddings, and such-like events, and +often writes us one of her interesting letters, full of information of +the old village. + +I had many experiences of the honesty of the agricultural labourer, +but one especially remains in my mind. I.P., a man living some two +miles from Aldington, regularly walked the four miles there and back +for many years, in addition to his day's work. He was an excellent +drainer, and a most useful all-round man, exceedingly strong and +willing, bright and cheerful in conversation, and I had a very high +opinion of him. I had just reached the end of a long pay when he +reappeared--having taken his wages earlier in the proceedings--and +asked if I had made a mistake in his money; a sovereign was missing, +and he could not remember actually taking it from the table with the +rest of the cash. I at once balanced my payments and receipts for the +evening, but they corresponded exactly. It was a serious matter, as a +half-year's rent was due to the owner of his cottage that day, and +I.P. was one of those men who take a pride in paying up with +punctuality. I could see, as he realized that the sovereign was lost, +how disappointed and worried he felt, and being glad of an opportunity +to do him a good turn, I gave him another, and sent him away very +grateful. Later still he returned again, placed a sovereign on my +table, and said that he had nearly reached home when he felt something +hard against his knee, inside his corduroys, where he found the +missing coin; there was a hole in his pocket, but the encircling +string which labourers tie below the knee had prevented its escape. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + +CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND VILLAGERS. + + "My crown is in my heart, not on my head: + Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones," + --_3 Henry VI_. + +The agricultural labourer, and the countryman generally, does not +recognize any form of property beyond land, houses, buildings, farm +stock, and visible chattels. A groom whom I questioned concerning a +new-comer, a wealthy man, in the neighbourhood, summed him up thus: +"Oh, not much account--only one hoss and a brougham!" A railway may +run through the parish, worth millions of invested capital, but the +labourer does not recognize it as such, and a farmer, employing a few +men and with two or three thousand pounds in farm stock, is a bigger +man in his eyes than a rich man whose capital is invisible. + +The labourer in the days of which I am writing was inclined to be +suspicious of savings banks and deposit accounts at a banker's; his +savings represented a vast amount of hard work and self-denial; and he +looked askance at security other than an old stocking or a teapot. He +had heard of banks breaking, and felt uncomfortable about them. A +story was current in my neighbourhood of a Warwickshire bank in +difficulties, where a run was in progress. A van appeared, from which +many heavy sacks were carried into the bank, in the presence of the +crowd waiting outside to draw out their money. Some of the sacks were +seen to be open, and apparently full of sovereigns; confidence was +restored, and the run ceased. Later, when all danger was over, it +transpired that these supposed resources were fictitious, for the open +sacks contained only corn with a thin layer of gold on the top. + +Formerly it was said of a certain street in Evesham, chiefly inhabited +by market-gardeners and their labourers, that the houses contained +more gold than both the banks in the town, and I have no doubt that, +even at the present day, there is an immense amount of hoarded money +in country places. Only a short while ago, long after the commencement +of the Great War, the sale of a small property took place in my +neighbourhood, when the purchaser paid down in gold a sum of £600, the +bulk of which had earned no interest during the years of collection. +No doubt people, as a rule, in these days of war bonds and +certificates, have a better idea of investment, but probably a vast +sum in possible loans has been lost to the Government through want of +previous information on the subject. It should have been a simple +matter, during the last fifty years of compulsory education, to teach +the rudiments of finance in the elementary schools, and I commend the +matter as worth the consideration of educational enthusiasts. + +The labourer's attitude, as I have said, is suspicious towards +lawyers. I was chatting with a man, specially taken on for harvest, +who expressed doubts of them; he continued, "If anybody were to leave +me a matter of fifty pounds or so, I'd freely give it 'em," meaning +that by the time all charges were paid he would not expect more than a +trifle, because he supposed stamps and duties to be a part of the +lawyer's remuneration, and that very little would be left when all was +paid. + +I was once discussing farming matters with a labourer when prospects +were looking very black, and ended by saying that I expected soon to +be in the workhouse. "Ah, sir," said he, "I wish I were no nearer the +workhouse nor you be!" It should not be forgotten that the +agricultural labourer's financial horizon does not extend much beyond +the next pay night, and were it not for the generosity of his +neighbours--for the poor are exceedingly good to each other in times +of stress--a few weeks' illness or unemployment, especially where the +children are too young to earn anything, may find him at the end of +his resources. + +Almost the first time I went to Evesham, in passing Chipping Norton +Junction--now Kingham--three or four men on the platform, in charge of +the police, attracted my attention. I was told that they were rioters, +guilty of a breach of the peace in connection with the National +Agricultural Labourers' Union, then under the leadership of Joseph +Arch. Being so close to my new neighbourhood, where I was just +beginning farming, the incident was somewhat of a shock. Arch +undoubtedly was the chief instrument in raising the agricultural +labourer's wages to the extent of two or three shillings a week, and +the increase was justified, as every necessity was dear at the time, +owing to the great activity of trade towards the end of the sixties. +The farmers resisted the rise only because, already in the early +seventies, the flood of American competition in corn-growing was +reducing values of our own produce; and as all manufactured goods +which the farmer required had largely increased in price, he did not +see his way to incur a higher labour bill. + +Arch sent a messenger to me a few years later, to ask permission to +hold a meeting in Aldington in one of my meadows. I saw at once that +opposition would only stimulate antagonism, and consented. The meeting +was held, but only a few labourers attended, and no farmers, and +agitation, so far as we were concerned, died down. One or two of my +men were, I think, members of the Union, but having already obtained +the increased wages there was nothing more to be gained for themselves +by so continuing, and they soon dropped out of the list. Eventually +the organization collapsed. Arch was a labourer himself, and +exceedingly clever at "laying" hedges, or "pleaching," as it is still +called, and was called by Shakespeare in _Much Ado About Nothing_: + + "Bid her steal into the pleached bower, + Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun, + Forbid the sun to enter." + +Pleaching is a method of reducing and renovating an overgrown hedge by +which all old and exhausted wood is cut out, leaving live vertical +stakes at intervals, and winding the young stuff in and out of them in +basket-making fashion, after notching it at the base to allow of +bending it down without breakage. Arch was a native of Warwickshire, +the home of this art; it takes a skilled man to ensure a good result, +but when well done an excellent hedge is produced after two or three +years' growth. The quickset or whitethorn (May) makes the strongest +and most impervious hedge, and it flourishes amazingly on the stiff +clay soils of the Lias formation in that county and its neighbour +Worcestershire. + +I have often wondered at, and admired, the labourer's resignation and +fortitude in adversity; a discontented or surly face is rarely seen +among them; they have, like most people, to live lives of +self-sacrifice, frugality, and industry, which doubtless bring their +own compensation, for the exercise and habit of these very virtues +tend to the cheerfulness and courage which never give up. Possibly, +too, the open-air life, the vitalizing sunshine, the sound sleep, and +the regularity of the routine, endows them with an enviable power of +enjoyment of what some would consider trifles. After a long day out of +doors in the natural beauty of the country, who shall say that the +labourer's appetite for his evening meal, his pipe of tobacco beside +his bright fireside, and his detachment from the outside world, do not +afford him as great or greater enjoyment than the elaborate luxury of +the millionaire, with his innumerable distractions and +responsibilities? + +The labourer has, as I have said, little appreciation of the invisible +or what does not appeal strongly to his senses; he cannot understand, +for instance, that a small bag of chemical fertilizer, in the form of +a grey, inoffensive powder, can contain as great a potentiality for +the nutrition of crops as a cartload of evil-smelling material from +the farmyard; nor is he aware that, in the case of the latter, he has +to load and unload 90 pounds or thereabouts of worthless water in +every 100 pounds with which he deals. Possibly, however, his +preference for the natural fertilizer is not wholly misplaced, for +there is, no doubt, much still to be learned concerning the relative +values of natural and artificial compounds with special reference to +the bacterial inoculation of the soil and its influence on vegetable +life. + +He is not without some aesthetic feeling for the glories of Nature +daily before him, and though like Peter Bell, of whom we are told that + + "A primrose by a river's brim + A yellow primrose was to him, + And it was nothing more," + +and putting aside the metaphysical analogy and the moral teaching +which are presented by every tree and plant, he enjoys, I know, the +simple beauty of the flower itself, the exhilarating freshness of the +bright spring morning, the prodigality of the summer foliage, the ripe +autumnal glow of the harvest-field, and the sparkling frost of a +winter's day. But he very rarely expresses his enthusiasm in +superlatives: "a usefulish lot," and "a smartish few," meaning in +Worcestershire "a very good lot," and "a great many," is about the +limit to which he will commit himself. His natural reticence in +serious situations and calamity, and his reserve in the outlet of +feeling by vocal expression, give a wrong impression of its real +depth, and may even convey the impression of callousness to anyone not +conversant with the working of his mind. + +To a nephew of mine who was surprised to see his gardener's little son +leaving the garden, the man explained: "That little fellow be come to +tell I a middlinish bit of news; 'e come to say as his little sister +be dead." Notice the "middlinish bit of news," where a much stronger +expression would have been justified, and note the restraint as to his +loss, suggesting an unfeeling mind, though in reality very far from +the grief he was shy of expressing. + +An old woman in a parish adjoining mine, having lost a child, received +the condolences of a visitor with, "Yes, mum; we seems to be regular +unlucky, for only a few weeks ago we lost a pig." + +A lady well known to me, the daughter of the Vicar of a Cumberland +parish, was calling on a woman whose husband had died a few days +previously, and expressing her sympathy with the widow in her +affliction, spoke of the sadness of the circumstances. The widow +thanked her visitor, and added: "You know, miss, we was to have killed +a pig that week, but there, we couldn't 'ave 'em both about at the +same time"! + +All these incidents suggest callousness, but in reality they were +plain statements of fact from persons with a limited vocabulary and +unskilled in the niceties of polished language. + +Another incident will illustrate how faulty expression may give an +unintended impression. A lady, calling at a cottage, exclaimed with +appreciation at the fragrant odour of frying bacon which greeted her. +The cottager was busy with it at the fire. "Yes, miss," she said, "it +_is_ nice to 'ave a bit of bacon as you've waited on yourself"--of +course, referring to the fact that she knew the animal was always fed +on really good food, an important and reassuring condition, though a +tender heart might have regretted the sacrifice of an intimate +creature which some would have regarded almost as a pet. + +The cottager does not look upon his pig in that light; it is fed well +and comfortably housed with a definite object, and very little love is +lost between the pig and his master. Children in some places in +Worcestershire were formerly kept at home in order to be present on +the great occasion of the pig's obsequies. A woman, asked why her +children were absent from school, replied: "Well, sir, you see, we +killed our pig that day, and I kept the children at home for a treat; +there's no harm in that, sir, I'm sure, for pigs allus dies without +malice!" + +Villagers accept the novel significations which time or fashion +gradually confer upon old words very unreadily. I could see, at first, +that they were puzzled by my use of the word "awful," now long adopted +generally to strengthen a statement, very much as they themselves make +use of "terrible," "desp'rate," or "de-adly." They connect the word +"friend" with the signification "benefactor" only; a man, speaking of +someone born with a little inherited fortune, said that "his friends +lived before him." I told an old labourer that my little daughter +considered him a great friend of hers. He looked puzzled, and replied: +"Well, I don't know as I ever gave her anything." They still +distinguish between two words now carrying the same meaning. I told a +man that I was afraid some work he had for me would give him a lot of +trouble. He corrected me: "'Twill be no _trouble_, master, only +_labour_." + +The labourer does not appreciate a sudden order or an unreasonable +change in work once commenced; he does not like being taken by +surprise in such matters: the necessary tool--for farm labourers find +their own hand implements--may not be readily available, may be out of +order, require grinding, or a visit to the blacksmith's for repair or +readjustment. The wise master introduces the subject, whenever +possible, gradually beforehand. "We shall have to think about +wheat-hoeing, mowing, potato-digging, next week," prepares the man for +the occasion, so that when the time comes he has his hoe, axe, scythe, +or bill-hook, as the case may be, ready. The job, too, may demand some +special clothing--hedging gloves, gaiters, new shoes, and so forth. + +He is often suspicious of new arrangements or alteration of hours, and +is inclined to attribute an ulterior motive to the proposer of any +change in the unwritten but long-accustomed laws which govern his +habits; he lives in a groove into which by degrees abuses may have +crept, and some alteration may have become imperative. + +When we introduced a coal club for the villagers, with the idea of +buying several trucks at lowest cash price, collecting their +contributions week by week during the previous summer, when good wages +were being earned, and delivering the coal gratis in my carts shortly +before winter, they seemed very doubtful as to the advantage of +joining. Some saw the advantage at once, knowing the high prices of +single half-tons or hundredweights delivered in coal-merchants' carts; +others would "let us know in a day or two," wanted time to consider +the matter, being taken "unawares"; others, assured that nobody would +undertake such a troublesome business without an eye to personal +profit, but anxious not to offend my daughter, who was visiting each +cottage, replied: "Oh yes, miss, if 'tis to do _you_ any good"! +Eventually, however, they were all satisfied and very grateful, +appreciating the fact that the cartage was not charged for, and that +they were getting much better coal than before at a lower price. + +Village people, I am afraid, are rather fond of horrors; the newspaper +accounts of events which come under that description, such as murders, +suicides, and sensational trials, afford, apparently, much interest. A +man was working for me on some repairs close to my door; as he was a +stranger, I tried, as usual, to induce him to talk whenever I passed. +I had no success and could not get a word out of him, until, one +morning, I chanced to see a sensational headline in a local paper +about a suicide in a neighbouring town. On passing my workman, he +immediately broke out in great excitement, "Did you read in the paper +about that bloke who went to his father's house at W----, sat down on +the doorstep, and cut his throat?" The account had evidently seized +upon his imagination, and had thoroughly roused him out of himself, +but the following day he was as silent as before. + +Births, marriages, and deaths are interesting topics in the village, +and perhaps with reason, for, after all, they are the most important +events in our lives, and in the villages most of the cottagers are +more or less related. All the inhabitants were much excited when a +poor old widow, living very near my house, sitting on a low circular +stone parapet round her well, lost her balance in some way, fell in, +and was drowned. I was foreman of the jury at the inquest, and after +hearing the evidence, which amounted to no more than the finding of +the body soon after the event, the coroner expressed his opinion that +it was a case of accidental death, with which I at once concurred. +With some reluctance, the other jurymen agreed; they had, I imagine, +as usual, made up their minds for a more sensational verdict, but +scarcely liked to suggest it, and a verdict of accidental death was +accordingly returned. Afterwards I heard that the villagers were +saying that it was very kind of me to bring in such an indulgent +verdict, but they "knowed very well it was suicide." + +I was invited to the wedding feast of my bailiff's daughter, and +being, I suppose, regarded as the principal guest, was, according to +custom, requested to carve the excellent leg of mutton which formed +the _pièce de résistance_. The parish clerk, considerably over eighty +at the time, was one of the most sprightly members of the company; he +kept us interested with historical recollections going back to the +Battle of Waterloo, and spoke of Wellington and Napoleon almost as +familiarly as we now speak of Earl Haig and the Kaiser. He had a +strong sense of humour, and, after a very hearty meal, announced that +he didn't know how it was, but he'd "sort of lost his appetite," +pretending to regard the fact as an injury, premeditated by the +hospitality of our host and hostess. + +The labourer dearly loves a grievance, not exactly for its own sake, +but because it affords an interesting topic of conversation. One +autumn, returning from a holiday in the Isle of Wight, I found the +whole village agog with the first County Council election. A +magistrate candidate, in the neighbouring village of Broadway, was to +be opposed by an Aldington man. I found a local committee holding +excited partisan meetings on behalf of the latter, active canvassing +going on, a villager appointed as secretary (always called +"seckert_ar_y" in these parts), and the election the sole topic of +conversation. The village people, always delighted in the possession +of a common enemy and a common cause, were making the election a +village affair, as opposed to the village of the other candidate; +popular feeling was running very high, Badsey, of course, joining up +with Aldington as strong allies. Some young men had lately been before +the magistrates at Evesham, and fined for obstructing the footpath, +and the magistrate candidate was selected as the scapegoat for the +affront to our united villages. At the election the Aldington man was +returned, and his supporters started with him on a triumphal progress +through the constituency. Of course, they visited Broadway, to crow +over the conquered village, but the wind was somewhat taken out of +their sails when the defeated candidate at once came forward, shook +hands with his opponent, and congratulated him upon his success! The +return journey was not so hilarious; one of the men of Broadway, +noticing a string of carts in the procession, conveying sympathizers +with the victor, in addition to the owners of the vehicles--thus +rendering the latter liable to the carriage duty of 15s. each--and +strongly resenting the spirit which brought the victorious party to +Broadway, sent a telegram to the Superintendent of Police at Evesham, +who met the returning procession and took down their names, with the +ultimate result of a substantial haul in fines for the excise! + +During the Boer War the common foe was, of course, "Old Kruger" (with +a soft _g_), and we hoisted the Union Jack in front of the Manor +whenever our side scored a substantial success. The news of Lord +Roberts's victory at Paardeburg reached Badsey in the morning, after +the papers, and, returning by road from my farm round, I heard great +rejoicings and cheering from the direction of the village. Meeting a +boy, I learned that "Old Cronje" was defeated and a prisoner, with +"'leven thousand men!"--a report which proved to be correct with the +trifling discount of 9,000 of the latter! The same spirit of union for +a common cause was almost as evident at that time as in the far more +strenuous struggle of 1914-1918, and so long as England to herself +remains but true, doubtless our enemies will fulfil the part assigned +to them by the greatest of English poets. + +A love of the marvellous is a common characteristic of country village +folks, and I have already referred to such beliefs in the supernatural +among my men. We had our own "white lady" on the highroad where it +turns off to Aldington, though I never met anyone who had seen her; +there were, too, signs and wonders before approaching deaths, and a +thrilling story of a headless calf in the neighbourhood. + +An old house at Badsey, once a _hospitium_ or sanatorium for sick +monks from Evesham Abbey in pre-Reformation days, was reported to be +haunted, and people told tales of "the old fellows rattling about +again" of a night. Probably these beliefs had been encouraged in +former times by the monks themselves, to prevent the villagers prying +too closely into their occupations; and no doubt the scattered +individuals of the same body originated the popular theory that the +Abbey lands of which they were dispossessed would never, owing to a +curse, pass by inheritance in the direct line from father to eldest +son--an event that in the course of nature often fails, though by no +means invariably. + +In recent years a startling story has been told, and even appeared in +a local paper, of a ghostly adventure near the Aldington turning. A +young lady (not a native), riding her bicycle to Evesham from Badsey, +passed, machine and all, right through an apparition which suddenly +crossed her path, without any resulting fall. + +In connection with the monk's _hospitium_ I lately made an interesting +discovery as to the origin of a curious name of one of my fields, +which had always puzzled me. The field adjoined the _hospitium_, and +was always known as "the Signhurst." Field-names are a very +interesting study, they usually bear some significance to a +peculiarity in the field itself, or its position with reference to its +surroundings, and it has always been a hobby of mine to trace their +derivations. The word "Signhurst" presented no clue to its origin +except the Anglo-Saxon "burst," signifying a wood, but there was no +appearance or tradition of any wood having ever occupied the spot, and +the land was so good, and so well situated as to aspect, that it was +unlikely to have been such a site, even in Anglo-Saxon days. I +stumbled upon a passage in May's _History of Evesham_ which mentioned +the "Seyne House," meaning "Sane House," the equivalent of the modern +word "sanatorium," and I saw at once the origin of the corrupted word +"Signhurst"--the field near the Seyne House. + +Wages are, of course, the crowning reward of the working-man's week; +throughout the whole of my time 15s. a week was the recognized pay for +six full summer days--"a very little to receive, but a good deal to +pay away," as a neighbour once said. During harvest, and at piecework, +more money was earned, and it always pleased me that I could pay much +better prices for piece-work among the hops than for piece-work at +wheat-hoeing or on similar unremunerative crops. The reason is +obvious: the hoeing of an acre of wheat, a crop which might possibly +return a matter of £10 per acre, takes no more manual effort than the +hoeing of an acre of hops, where a gross return of £70 or £80 per acre +is not unusual, and is sometimes considerably exceeded. + +As wages must eventually always depend upon prices of produce raised +by the labour for which such wages are expended, when the agricultural +labourer buys his bread he is only buying back his own labour in a +concrete form plus the other relative expenses on the farm, and the +cost of milling, baking, and distribution, so that when he gets a high +price for his labour he must expect to pay a high price for his food; +and when the price of food is reduced the price of his labour also +falls. Here, again, the rudiments of economics, taught in the schools, +would conduce to his understanding the position, and the eradication +of discontent. + +It is impossible, economically speaking, to defend the system of equal +wages to the most capable and industrious men on the one hand and to +inefficient slackers on the other; and as a graduated scale of +payment, according to results, is not practicable without arousing +ill-feeling and jealousy, the farmer's only remedy is to get rid of +the slackers. Inefficiency and slacking are often due to a man's +enfeebled mental and physical condition, owing to neglect in his +bringing up as a child, or to insufficient or unwholesome food +provided by an improvident wife in his home. + +I was fortunate in meeting with very few of these degenerates, but I +remember one tall, delicate-looking man who seemed unable to apply +either his strength or his attention to his work. He was denounced by +the foreman under whom he worked as not only useless, but "the +starvenest wretch as ever I see," intended to convey the impression, +and confirming my own conclusion, that cold and hunger were really the +cause of his inability to render a fair day's work. + +I remember, too, when some elderly women, with a younger one, were +hay-making, one of the old ladies, dragging the big "heel-rake" behind +the waggon in course of loading--always rather a tough job--tried to +induce the younger woman to take her place with, "Here, Sally, thee +take a turn at it; thee be a better 'ooman nor I be." My bailiff, +overhearing, at once interposed: "Be she a better 'ooman than thee, +Betsy, ov a Saturday night [pay-night]?" + +Hard-and-fast laws and fixed prices for agricultural labour will be +found very difficult to maintain as to piecework; no wage board can +fix just prices, because conditions are so variable. Of two men +cutting corn on separate plots in the same field, the one at 12s. an +acre may really earn more money _per diem_ than another man at 15s. an +acre on the other side of the field, owing to the difference in the +weight of the crop or its condition, it being, perhaps, erect in the +first case, and laid by heavy storms in the second. + +There is, too, a vast difference in the value of boys' work and +usefulness; one may easily be worth double another, yet no difference +is allowable by the new law; or one may demoralize another, so that +two are less effective than one. A good old saying puts the matter +very plainly: "One boy's a boy, two boys are half a boy, and three +boys are no boy at all!" + +It is, in fact, ridiculous for townspeople, lawyers, and manufacturers +to legislate for the labour of the farm; they do not understand that +indoor labour in the workshop or factory, under regular conditions and +with unvarying materials, is totally different from labour out of +doors, in constantly changing conditions of season, weather, and the +resulting crops dealt with. An old maxim of the Worcestershire +labourer who, without a fixed place, took on piece-work at specially +busy times, will confirm this: "Go to a good farmer for wheat-hoeing, +and to a bad one for harvesting." I may explain that the fields of the +good farmer are clean and nearly free from weeds, so that hoeing is a +comparatively light job; but the same, or nearly the same, price per +acre is paid by the bad farmer, whose corn is overrun with weeds, +entailing much more time and harder work. On the other hand, the good +farmer's wheat crop is much heavier than that of the bad, and, the +prices for cutting being again very similar, more money _per diem_ can +be earned at harvest on the farm of the latter. + +It is a sound old Worcestershire saying that "the time to hoe is when +there are no weeds"--apparently a paradox, but the meaning is simple: +when no weeds are to be seen above ground there are always millions of +tiny seedlings just below the surface ready to increase and multiply +wonderfully with a shower of rain; if attacked at the seedling stage, +these can be slaughtered in battalions, with far greater ease and +efficacy than when they become deep-rooted and established, and +dominate the crop. + +I have heard of farmers to whom pay-night was a sore trial; one such +was frequently known to mount his horse and gallop away just before +his men appeared: how he settled eventually I do not know. Some +farmers will pay out of doors on their rounds, having a rooted +objection to business of any kind under a roof; and one small farmer, +I was told, always passed the cash to his men behind his back so that +he might not have the agony of parting actually before his eyes. + +A labourer is supposed to come to work in his master's time and go +home in his own, thus sharing the necessary loss, and, as a rule, they +are fairly punctual; but one defaulter in this particular will waste +many moments of a whole gang working together, as it seems to be +etiquette not to begin till they are all present. I have often heard, +too, sarcastic comparisons made between the day-man and "the +any-time-of-day man." + +The cottagers have their feuds, and the use of joint wash-houses or +baking-ovens between two or more adjoining cottages is a frequent +source. I have had excited wives of tenants coming to me at +unseasonable hours to settle these differences, and I found it a very +difficult business to reconcile the disputants. I could only visit the +_locus in quo_ and arrange fixed and separate days and regulations; +but though the wisdom of Solomon may administer justice in a dispute, +it is impossible to ensure a really peaceful solution that will +endure. + +Sometimes feuds, originating in such or similar causes, were +maintained for years by neighbours living with only a 9-inch party +wall between them, and daily meetings outside, to the extent of not +even "passing the time of day." At last, however, in a day of distress +to one, the heart of the unafflicted other would melt, and after an +offer of help, or actual assistance, kind relations would be once more +established. Or a peace offering, in the shape of a dish of good +pig-meat, sent over with a kind message, would restore more genial +conditions, and they would return to happy and neighbourly +familiarity. + +I once employed an old Dorset labourer, a tall, slim, aristocratic +figure, with an elegant, refined nose to match; he bore the well-known +name of an ancient and distinguished Dorset family, and I have no +doubt was well descended. He was decidedly a canny, not to say crafty, +man. I gave him a holiday at Whitsuntide to visit his old home, but he +overran the time agreed upon and returned some days late. Before I +could begin the rebuke I proposed to administer, he produced a +charming photograph of a ruined abbey near his old locality, and +handed it to me as a present. "I thought upon you, master, while I was +away, and knowing as you was fond of ancient things I've brought you +this picture." I was completely disarmed, and the rebuke had to be +postponed _sine die_. + +As I was talking one day to my bailiff--one of the men who lived a +mile away standing near--he said: "Tom, here, is always the first man +to arrive in the morning; I have never known him to be late." I +congratulated Tom, and asked what time he went to bed: "Oh, about +seven o'clock!" He was, in fact, a lonely old bachelor, and, being "no +scholard," it saved lights and firing to be early to bed. + +This man, like many villagers, had very vague ideas of geography. To +save the trouble of cooking, he lived largely on American tinned beef, +and got chaffed about it by his fellow-workers. "How be you getting on +with the 'Merican biff?" Tom was asked. "Oh," said he, "never no more +'Merican biff for me." "How's that, Tom?" "Why, the other day I found +a trouser-button in it!" The point of this story lies in the fact that +the Russo-Turkish war was proceeding at the time. _Tempora mutantur_, +we were then encouraging Turkey against Russia, though the latter had +declared war to avenge the atrocities in Bulgaria of which the Turks +were guilty, while in the recent struggle the position was almost +exactly reversed. + +There was then a violent militant feeling here in Britain, and excited +crowds were singing: + +"We don't want to fight but, by Jingo, if we do, We've got the ships, +we've got the men, We've got the money too." + +Hence the expression "Jingoism," which we often hear to-day, though, +perhaps, the origin is now almost forgotten. + +It is not unusual to see villagers, as married couples, complete +contrasts to each other in appearance and character--one fat and +jolly, the other thin and miserable; one happy and contented, the +other grumbling and morose; one open-hearted and generous, the other +close and parsimonious. In matrimony people are said to choose their +opposites, and possibly, as time goes on, the difference in their +appearance and dispositions becomes still more definitely developed. + +The labourer understands sarcasm and makes use of it himself, but +irony is often lost upon him. Passing an old man on a pouring wet day, +I greeted him, adding, "Nice morning, isn't it?" He stared, hesitated, +and then, "Well, it would be if it wasn't for the rain!" I only +remember one surly man--not one of my workers or tenants. He was +scraping a very muddy road, and I remarked, for something to say, +"Makes it look better, doesn't it?" All I got in reply was, "I +shouldn't do it if it didn't!" + +It is important, in managing a mixed lot of farm labourers, to find +out each man's special gift, making him the responsible person when +the time or opportunity arrives for its application. There are men, +excellent with horses, who have no love of steam-driven machinery, and +_vice versa_; and there are men who are capable at small details, yet +unable to take comprehensive views. + +Responsibility is the life-blood of efficiency, and men can always be +found upon whom responsibility will act like a charm, producing +quickened perception, interest, foresight, economy, resource, +industry, and all the characteristics that responsibility demands. Put +the square peg in the square hole, the round peg in the round hole; +show the man you have confidence in him, teach him to act on his own +initiative in all the lesser matters that concern his job, coming only +to the master in those larger considerations to which the latter are +subordinate, and my experience is that your confidence will not be +betrayed, and that he will save you an immense amount of tiresome +detail. + +The most difficult man to deal with is the over-confident "know-all"; +he is always ready to oppose experience--often dearly bought--with his +superior knowledge, he can suggest a quicker or a cheaper way of doing +everything, and in his last place he "never saw" your system followed. +He is the penny-wise and pound-foolish individual, and his methods are +"near enough." It has been said that at twenty a man knows everything, +at forty he is not quite so sure, and at sixty he is certain that he +knows nothing at all; but there are exceptions even to this rule, who +continue all their lives thinking more and more of their own opinions, +and completely satisfied with their own methods. On the other hand, +the master will always find, among the more experienced, men from whom +much is to be learnt; they are generally diffident and not too ready +to hazard an opinion, but when consulted they can give very valuable +help. I willingly acknowledge my indebtedness to my old hands, their +well-founded convictions that were the fruit of long years of +practical experience, and their readiness to impart them in times of +doubt and difficulty. + +Just as bad-tempered grooms make nervous, bad-tempered horses; rough +and noisy cattle-men, fidgety cows; ill-trained dogs and savage +shepherds, sheep wild and difficult to approach; so does the +bad-tempered, impatient, or slovenly master make men with the same bad +qualities, when a smile or a kind word will bring out all that is good +in a man and produce the best results in his work. + +I began my farming with four dear old women, working on the land, when +wanted for light jobs; the youngest must have been fifty at least. +They received the time-honoured wage of tenpence a day, and worked, or +talked, about eight hours. They loved to work near the main road, +discussing the natural history of the occupants of passing carts or +carriages. They knew something comic, tragic, or compromising about +everybody, and expressed themselves with epigrammatic force. A farmer +occupant of a neighbouring farm in long-past days, was a favourite +subject of such recollections. After relating how "he were a random +duke," and recalling his habits, one old lady would conclude the +recital with an account of his last days, adding, as if everything was +thereby finally condoned: + + "But there, 'e was just as nice a carpse as ever I see, and + I was a'most minded to put his paddle [thistle-spud] beside + him in his coffin, for he was always a-diggin' and a-delvin' + about with it." + +One member of this quartet, when ill, had a dish of minced mutton sent +her in the hopes of tempting her appetite. She eyed the gift with +disfavour, and announced with scorn that "she preferred to chew her +meat herself!" + +In due course these old ladies retired from active service and younger +women took their places; women were especially necessary in the +hop-yards for the important operation of tying the selected bines to +the poles with rushes and pulling out those which were superfluous. It +was difficult, at first, to accustom them to the fact that the hop +always twines the way of the sun, whilst the kidney bean takes the +opposite course. And there was a problem which greatly exercised their +minds: How were they to reach the hops at the tops of the poles--14 +feet from the ground--when the time came? It did not occur to them +that it was possible to cut the bine and pull up the pole. They soon +became very quick and expert at the tying, and their well-worn +wedding-rings, telling of a busy life, would flash brightly in the +sunshine as they tenderly coaxed the brittle bines round the base of +the poles, securing them with the rush tied in a special slip-knot, so +that it easily expanded as the bine enlarged. + +Women are splendid at all kinds of light farm work whenever deftness +and gentle touch are required, such as hop-tying and picking, or +gathering small fruit like currants, raspberries, and strawberries; +but I do not consider them in the least capable of taking the place of +men in outdoor work which demands muscular strength and endurance and +the ability to withstand severe heat or bitter cold or wet ground +under foot, through all the varying seasons. Village women have, too, +their home duties to attend to, and it is most important that their +men-folk should be suitably fed and their houses kept clean and +attractive. + +On the farm of my son-in-law, in Warwickshire, I have seen something +of the work of land girls, to the number of seventy or more, for whom +he provided a well-organized camp with a competent lady Captain; and I +know how useful they proved in the emergency caused by the War, but I +still adhere to my former conclusion as to the more strenuous forms of +farm labour, without in the least detracting from my admiration for +the courage and patriotism that brought them forward. + +I know one woman, however, who quite successfully undertakes very +strenuous garden work, including digging, having been inured to it at +a very early age. If she could be spared from her own work to take the +position of instructress for young girls determined to make the land +their chief employment, they would be saved a vast amount of +unnecessary fatigue and labour by learning the art of using spades, +forks, hoes, and rakes in the way that experience teaches, relying +more upon the weight and designed capabilities of the tool to do the +work than upon their own untrained muscles. + +We could always get a supply of excellent maids for house-work from +among the village families; they began very young, coming in for a few +hours daily to help the regular staff, and, as these left or got +married, they were ready trained to take their places. These girls +were quite free from the self-importance of the present-day domestic, +but I remember one nice village girl about whom we inquired as a +likely maid who, it then appeared, was engaged to marry a thriving +small tradesman. The girl's mother, being over-elated at her +daughter's apparently brilliant prospects of independence, rejected +the proposal with some hauteur, adding that her daughter "would soon +be keeping her own maid." I fear, however, that she was disappointed, +as the course of true love did not run smooth. + +We preferred a married man as shepherd, because, when I had only a few +cows, he combined his duties with those of cowman; and, bringing in +the milk and doing the churning, he was much about the back premises. +On one occasion, however, I engaged a young bachelor, partly because +he replied, with a knowing smile, to a question as to whether he was +married, that he dared say he could be if he liked--which I +optimistically took to amount to an announcement of his engagement. + +Time went on and he remained a single man, but it was observable that +he lingered on his milky way, and was more in evidence in the dairy +than his duties appeared to warrant. We concluded that he was +attracted by the cook. One day my wife said to another maid: "I can't +think why the shepherd spends so much time in the house. I suppose +cook is the attraction?" The girl blushed, hesitated, and looked down, +but finally courageously murmured: "Please, mum, it's me, mum!" They +were married in due course, and we lost an excellent servant. + +Some of the village women and girls filled up spare moments with +"gloving"; the large kid-glove manufacturers in Worcester supplied the +material, cut into shape, and a stand, with a kind of vice divided +into spaces the exact size of each stitch, which held the work firmly +while the stitching was done by hand; they grew very quick at this +work, and turned out the gloves with beautifully even stitches, but I +don't think they could earn much at it in a day, and it must have been +rather monotonous. + +I was interested to read in Mr. Warde Fowler's _Kingham Old and New_ +an account of a peculiar ceremony--called "Skimmington," by Mr. Hardy, +in his _Mayor of Casterbridge_--which took place in Kingham village. I +have known of two similar cases, one in Surrey and one at Aldington, +under the name of "rough music." The Kingham case was quite parallel +with that at Aldington, being a demonstration of popular disapproval +of the conduct of a woman resident, in matters arising out of +matrimonial differences. + +The outraged neighbours collect near the dwelling of the delinquent, +having provided themselves with old trays, pots and pans, and anything +by means of which a horrible din can be raised, and proceed to +serenade the offender. To be the subject of such a demonstration is +regarded as a signal disgrace and a most emphatic mark of popular +odium. Mr. Warde Fowler tells me, on the authority of a German book on +marriage, etc., that "the same sort of din is made at marriage in some +parts of Europe to drive evil spirits away from the newly married +pair." Possibly, therefore, the custom among our own villagers may +have originated with the same idea, and they may formerly have taken +the charitable view that evil spirits were responsible for evil deeds, +and that their exorcism was a neighbourly duty. + +The holiday outings I gave my men were a _quid pro quo_ for some hours +of overtime in the hay-making, and included a day's wages, all +expenses, and a supply of food. They generally went to a large town +where an agricultural show was in progress, but I think the sea trips +to Ilfracombe and Weston-super-Mare were the most popular, offering as +they did much greater novelty. I have a vivid recollection of the +preparation of the rations on the previous night: a vast joint of beef +nicely roasted and got cold before operations commenced, my wife and +daughter making the sandwiches, while I cut up the beef in the +kitchen, sometimes in my shirt-sleeves on a hot summer night; +mountains of loaves of bread, great slices of cake, and pounds of +cheese, completed the provisions. The rations were wrapped in separate +papers and placed in a hipbath, covered with a cloth, and finally kept +in a cool building, whence each man took his portion at early dawn. +For the sea trips the train took the party to Gloucester and +Sharpness, where they embarked upon the steamer. + +Many and thrilling were the tales I heard next day; the sea was fairly +smooth until they reached the Bristol Channel, but then, if they met a +south-west wind, the vessel began to roll, and jovial faces looked +thoughtful. I must not dwell upon the delightful horrors of the voyage +on such occasions; they were accepted with good-humour and regarded as +part of the show, but it was curious that not one of the narrators +himself suffered the fate that he so graphically described as the +portion of the others. Arrived at their destination, they inspected +the town, watched the people on the piers and parades, and the +children playing on the sands. The latter created the greatest +interest, busy with their spades and buckets, or, as one man expressed +it, "little jobs o' draining and summat!" + +At Christmas the village children always came in small gangs to sing, +or rather chant, a peculiar and very ancient seasonable greeting: + + "I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, + A pocket full of money and a cellar full of beer, + A good fat pig to last you all the year. + May God bless all friends near! + A merry, merry Christmas and a happy New Year." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + +MACHINERY--VILLAGE POLITICS--ASPARAGUS. + + + "Last week came one to the county town + To preach our poor little army down." + --_Maud_. + + +Though machinery has lightened the labour of manual workers to some +extent, it entails much more trouble upon masters and foremen, for +breakages are frequent and always occur at the busiest time. What with +mowers, reapers, thrashing machines, chaff-cutters, root-pulpers, and +grain-mills run by steam-power or in connection with horse-gears; +hop-washers, separators, and other delicately adjusted novelties, the +master must of necessity be something of a mechanic himself. I doubt +if machinery is really quite the advantage claimed by theorists and +reconstructionists at the present day. Even the thrashing machine, +universally adopted, presents disadvantages in comparison with the +ancient flail, generally regarded as obsolete, though still to be +found in occasional use by the smallholder or allotment occupier. In +former times the farmer reserved his thrashing by hand, for the most +part, for winter work during severe frost or wet weather, when nothing +could be done outside. The immense barns, which still exist, were +filled almost to the roof at harvest; thatching was not necessary, and +every sheaf was absolutely safe from rain as soon as it was under +cover. Continuous winter work was provided for the men, and a daily +supply of fresh straw for chaff-cutting and bedding, besides fresh +chaff and rowens or cavings for stock throughout the winter. With the +thrashing machine in use for ricks, thatching is a necessity, and is +often difficult to arrange in the stress of harvest; the machine and +engine demand a day's work for two teams of horses to fetch them, and +the cartage and expense of much coal, now so dear. On a small farm +extra hands have to be engaged, the straw has to be stacked or carried +to the barns, and the same applies to the chaff and rowens. If the +weather is damp, straw, chaff, and rowens get stale, mouldy, and +unpalatable to the stock, a heavy charge is made for the hire of the +machine and the machine men, and the latter require food and drink or +payment instead. The machine breaks and bruises many grains of corn, +which are thereby damaged for seed or malting, whereas the less urgent +flail leaves them intact. + +The sound of the thrashing machine gives an impression to outsiders of +brisk and remunerative work, but it is cheerful to the farmer only +when high prices are ruling. Far otherwise was it for many years +before the War, when corn-growers heard only its moaning, despondent +note, telling anything but a flattering tale, only varied by an +occasional angry growl, when irregular feeding choked its satiated +appetite. + +From the aesthetic standpoint uncouth and noisy machines, such as +mowers and reapers, cannot be compared to a lusty team of men with +scythes, in their white shirts, backed by the flowering meadows; or a +sunny field of busy harvesters facing a golden wall of corn, and +leaving behind them the fresh-shorn stubble dotted with sheaves and +nicely balanced shocks. The rattle of the machines, too, is discordant +and out of harmony with the peaceful countryside. + +It is related of Ruskin that, hearing the insistent rattle of a mowing +machine in a meadow adjoining his home by the beautiful Coniston +Water, and his sense of the fitting being outraged, he interviewed the +owner, and, by an offer to pay the trifling difference between machine +and hand labour, induced him to discontinue the annoyance. + +As to the relative cost of machine and hand wheat-cutting, quite early +in my farming I obtained the opinion of a distinguished farmer, then +well known on the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, Mr. +Charles Randell, of Chadbury, near Evesham, on the subject: "If you +can get a good crop," he said, "cut, tied, and stocked by hand at +anything like 15s. an acre, don't use a machine. If the corn is ripe +it knocks out and wastes quite a bushel of wheat per acre" (worth at +that time about 5s., now nearer 9s. or 10s.). "I always bring out my +machines, and have them oiled and made ready, _but I don't want to use +them_." + +In a wet harvest the machine is unworkable on sticky clay soil, and +after a wet summer, when the corn is badly laid and twisted, it makes +very poor work, cutting off the ears and scattering them, and leaving +a quantity of uncut and untidy straw on the ground. + +In my own case my equanimity was never disturbed by a reaping machine, +with its unwieldy tossing arms, on my land, for I had to find +employment for my full staff of regular hands, specially required for +the much more important hop-picking a little later, and it pleased me +that they should get the extra pay for harvest work as well. + +The cream separator, I admit, is a wonderful invention, and its hum is +not unmusical; it provides fresh skim milk for the calves and pigs +morning and night, which, as well as the cream, is thoroughly cleansed +in the process. The aeration of the skim milk leaves it a most +wholesome and nourishing article of diet for the villagers if they +could be made to understand its value, and that the removal of the +cream takes away only the fat (heating material), leaving the bone and +muscle making constituents in the milk. I could never induce my +village folk to accept this rudimentary proposition; they fancied that +all the goodness was gone with the cream, and though I offered the +skim milk at the nominal price of one halfpenny a quart, very few +would send their children to fetch it, though they mostly lived within +a hundred yards of the dairy. + +The hay or straw elevator is one of the greatest helps, saving much +heavy overhand labour in rick-building. An old labourer, pointing to +one, with great appreciation, on a farm I was visiting, said: +"_That's_ a machine as will be always kept in the dry and took care +on." He spoke from experience of the arduous work of unloading and the +passing of heavy weights, sometimes from the bed of the waggon to the +summit of the rick; for, as my bailiff often said, "Nobody knows so +well where the shoe pinches as the man who has to wear it." + +Steam has not done all that was expected of it as an agricultural +slave. The steam plough is not a success on heavy land where the +ridges are high and irregular in width, and even the steam cultivator +has to be used with caution lest the soil should be carried from the +ridges to the furrows, and the "squitch" (couch) buried to a depth at +which it is difficult to eradicate. The great convenience of steam +cultivation is that full advantage can be taken of a short spell of +hot, dry weather for fallowing operations, and the soil is left so +hollow that it soon bakes and kills the weeds. I fully sympathize with +Tennyson's, _Northern Farmer, Old Style:_ + + "But summon 'ull come ater meä mayhap wi' 'is kittle o' steäm + Huzzin' an' maäzin' the blessed feälds wi' the Devil's oän teäm"; + +for, except on a large farm with immense fields, the ponderous and +ungainly steam, tackle gives one a sensation of intrusion. Such a +field can be found on a farm between Evesham and Alcester; it contains +300 acres. The occupier, speaking of it, mentioned that it was all +wheat that year except one corner. To a question as to the size of the +corner, it transpired that it was 50 acres, and growing peas. For +comparison there is a story of a Devonshire farmer who said he had +been very busy one winter making four fields into one. "Then you've +got a big field," said a friend. "Yes," was the reply; "it's just four +acres." + +When the farm labourer was enfranchised in 1885 he became an important +member of the electorate. Candidates and canvassers alike had a much +more strenuous time than ever before, the former were constrained to +hold meetings in every village, and the latter were obliged to visit +nearly every cottage. The late Sir Richard Temple after a +distinguished career in India, became Conservative candidate for our +division. The doctrine of "three acres and a cow," in opposition to +every tenet of rural economy, as well as the division of the land +among the labourers, were at the time paraded by theorists and paid +agitators, as bribes to purchase the votes of the new electors, and as +ensuring the salvation of the rural population, which was then +beginning to suffer from unemployment, resulting from the destruction +of corn-growing by foreign competition. + +The more credulous of the labourers were excited and unsettled by the +alluring prospect of independence thus held out to them, and it was +reported that some went so far as to survey the fields around their +villages and select the plots they proposed to cultivate, and that +others took baskets to the poll in which to bring home the +all-powerful magic of the mysterious vote! Among the new voters in a +neighbouring village, a man of very decided views found it puzzling to +decide by which candidate they were most nearly represented, and, +determined to make no mistake at the poll, he consulted a +fellow-labourer, inquiring: "Which way be the big uns a-going, because +I be agin they?" + +The Squire of an adjoining parish met an old villager with whom he had +always been on good terms; after mutual greetings, the man +sympathised: "I _be_ sorry for you, Squire." "Why?" was the rejoinder. +"Yes, I be regular sorry for you, Squire, that I be.." "What's the +matter?" asked the Squire. "Ay! about this here land; 'tis to be +divided amongst we working men." "Indeed," said the Squire; "but look +here, after a bit, some of you won't want to cultivate it any longer, +and some, with improvident habits, will sell their plots to others, so +that soon it will be all back again into the hands of a few; what will +you do then?" The man looked puzzled, scratched his head, and +cogitated deeply, until a simple solution presented itself: "Then, +Squire," said he, "we shall divide again!" + +Sir Richard Temple was undoubtedly an able man, but he was a complete +stranger to the local conditions of the constituency. The villagers of +Badsey especially, as well as of other adjoining parishes, were just +beginning to retrieve their position, threatened by the collapse of +corn-growing and consequent unemployment, by the adoption of +market-gardening and fruit-growing. The land, run down and full of +weeds and rubbish, had been cut up into allotments and offered to them +as tenants, their only choice lying between years of hard work in +redeeming its condition or emigration. Many young men chose the +latter, and did well in the States of America; but where there was a +wife and young children that course was scarcely possible, and the man +became an allotment tenant. Passing one of these on a plot full of +"squitch," which he was laboriously breaking up with a fork to expose +it in big clods to a baking sun, I asked if he had taken it. "Well," +said he, "I don't know whether I've taken _it_ or it's taken _me_!" + +These men, by unceasing labour and self-denial, were just beginning to +turn the corner; they had cleaned the land, ameliorated its mechanical +condition by application of soot and by deep digging with their +beloved forks, and, having discovered how wonderfully asparagus +nourished on this deep, rich soil, had planted large areas, as well as +plum-trees and other market-garden crops, and the well-merited return +was coming in increasingly year by year. + +Sir Richard Temple did not understand the difference between the small +holder, growing corn and ordinary crops in less favoured parts of the +countrymen the one hand, and market-gardeners in the Vale of Evesham, +with its early climate, splendid soil, and railway connection with +huge artisan populations, delivering the produce with punctuality and +despatch, on the other. He considered that small holders could not +make an economic success where the farmers had failed, and had made +his views well known in the constituency, but he did not distinguish +between the small holder and the market-gardener. + +The men of Badsey felt aggrieved, they knew better, and at a meeting +he held in the village they gave him a rather noisy hearing, with +interruptions such as, "Keep off them steel farks," "Mind them steel +farks, Sir Richard," and so on. + +Sir Richard came to ask for my support and assistance in our village, +and, as I was not at home, my wife entertained him in my absence, with +tea and wedding-cake. She innocently asked if he had come to canvass +me; her straightforward query surprised him, but, after a moment's +hesitation, he replied cautiously: "Well, something of that sort." + +He was eventually returned, and the men of Badsey continued to +flourish on asparagus-growing in spite of his warnings; new houses +sprang up in every direction, and available labour grew scarcer and +scarcer. Those splendid asparagus "sticks" or "buds," as they are +called, tied with osier or withy twigs, which may be seen in Covent +Garden Market and the large fruiterers' shops in Regent Street, are +grown in and around the parishes of Badsey and Aldington. They command +high prices, up to 15s. and 20s. a hundred for special stuff, and this +year (1919) I see that £21 was realized for the champion hundred at +the Badsey Asparagus Show. That, of course, must be regarded as quite +exceptional, and possibly there were special considerations which made +it worth the money to the purchaser. + +Later came difficulties; after successive dry summers the asparagus +was attacked by a fungoid complaint, called by the growers "rust." +Instead of growing vigorously after the crop had been gathered--which +is the time when the buds for next year's crop are developing on the +crowns of the plants--and finally dying off naturally in beautiful +feathery plumes of green and gold, it presented a dingy and rusty +appearance, eventually turning black. Asparagus cannot stand +long-continued summer and autumn drought; it likes plenty of moisture, +in free circulation but not stagnant. The crops that followed the +appearance I have described were very deficient, proving that the +growing season of one year's foliage is the time when next year's crop +is decided. + +The growth of asparagus is still a very important part of the +market-gardener's business in the parishes referred to, but it does +not continue to produce the best results indefinitely and continuously +on the same land, and the growers have been obliged to extend their +acreages and take fresh plots. I have little doubt that with the +scientific application of artificial fertilizers the yield would +continue satisfactory for a much longer period. Plant disease of any +kind is nearly always due to starvation for want of the chemical +constituents upon which the crop feeds, though sometimes caused by +unhealthy sap, the result of late spring frosts or unsuitable weather. + +The asparagus-growers relied too much upon soot as a fertilizer; it +has a marvellous effect upon the mechanical condition of heavy land; +its particles intervene between the particles of the almost impalpable +powder of which clay is composed, and the soil approximates to a +well-tilled garden plot after a few applications and careful +incorporation, and in the local phraseology, it becomes "all of a +myrtle." But as plant food soot contains nitrogen only, a great plant +stimulant, which quickly exhausts the soil of the other necessary +constituents. If the growers would make use of basic slag, +superphosphate, or bone dust to replace the phosphate of lime removed +by the crop, and of potash in one of its available forms, they would +soon experience a great improvement in the power of their asparagus to +resist disease and deterioration. + +I am aware that some of the smaller growers regard all kinds of +artificial fertilizers with suspicion, but they may be interested, +should they ever read these pages, in the following story. When +Peruvian guano was first introduced into this country, the farmers +could not be persuaded that it merited any reliance as a manure. The +importers, in despair, caused some of the despised stuff to be sown in +the form of huge letters spelling the word "FOOLS" upon a bare +hillside, visible from a great distance. The following spring, with +the beginning of growth, and throughout the summer, the word stared +the farmers in the face whenever they chanced to look that way, in +dark green outstanding characters upon the yellow background; after +this practical demonstration there was no difficulty in finding +purchasers. + +Sir Richard Temple was opposed by Mr. Arthur Chamberlain, one at least +of whose canvassers was not above stretching a point to obtain the +votes of the labourers. My men told me that they had been promised +roast beef and plum pudding every day of their lives should the +Liberal party be returned. These tactics were again resorted to in the +election of 1906, when walls were placarded with pictures of the +Chinese employed in the gold-mines of the Transvaal, driven in chains +by cruel overseers, presumably representing the Conservative +Government which had sanctioned their employment. I know from what I +heard in my new home, for I was no longer at Aldington, that this +misrepresentation decided the votes of many of the more ignorant +voters. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + +MY THREE VICARS--CHURCH RESTORATION--CHURCHWARDEN EXPERIENCES-- +CLERICAL AND OTHER STORIES. + + "Where many a generation's prayer, + Hath perfumed and hath blessed the air." + --GLADSTONE. + +I saw a good deal of my three successive Vicars, for I was Vicar's +churchwarden for a period of nearly twenty years, and was treasurer of +the fund for the restoration and enlargement of Badsey Church. My +first Vicar had held the living for over thirty years when we decided +upon this important undertaking; and not wishing to be burdened with +the correspondence which the work would entail, he invited me to act +for him. I was pleased, because I have always been interested in the +architecture of old buildings, especially churches, and readily +undertook the post. I had the constant and intimate co-operation of my +co-warden, Mr. Julius Sladden, of Badsey, and I may say that no two +people ever worked together with greater harmony. + +The restoration had been debated for many years; the ancient church +was sadly dilapidated, and disfigured by an ugly gallery at the west +end of the nave, which obscured the finest arch in the building, +leading into the tower; and the incident which brought the matter +within the range of possibility was romantic. The Vicar succeeded +quite unexpectedly to a large inheritance; the news reached him and +his wife, who was away from home at the time, simultaneously. The +letters they wrote to each other on their good fortune crossed in the +post, and characteristically each wrote "Badsey Church must now be +restored." Soon afterwards the Vicar came to my house and, sitting +down at my table, wrote me a cheque for £500 to start the fund. + +On the advice of the patrons of the living--the Dean and Chapter of +Christ Church, Oxford--we invited Mr. Thomas Graham Jackson, now Sir +Thomas Graham Jackson, R.A., to undertake the duties of architect. His +work was well known at Oxford at the time, as the beautiful New +Schools had just been completed from his designs; we were also most +fortunate in obtaining the services of Mr. Thomas Collins, of +Tewkesbury, as builder. Mr. Collins was devoted to church +architecture, and the financial consideration of such work was to him +quite secondary to the pleasure he experienced as a connoisseur in +restoring to the dignity and beauty of the past any ecclesiastical +building of distinguished interest. The first estimate was, I think, +£1,500, exclusive of architect's fees, but when the work was completed +we had expended in all a sum of over £2,130. We did not finally clear +off the debt until 1894, nine years after the reopening of the church, +and since then a considerable further sum has been expended in +rehanging the old bells and adding two new ones to make up the full +peal of eight. + +It was delightful to experience the willingness of everybody to help; +subscriptions, large and small, came in readily at the very outset, +and this part of the work never became arduous until the last few +hundreds had to be raised. Most of us experienced the truth of the +proverb _Bis dat qui cito dat_, but in a different sense from that +which usually commends it, for many who gave quickly not only +literally gave twice, but three times or more. Bazaars, concerts, and +entertainments of all kinds were undertaken by the parishioners, a sum +of £376 being raised by these means. Among them a bazaar at Badsey +realized £130; another, later, at Aldington in one of my old barns, +£80; and two concerts--afternoon and evening--at Malvern, organized by +my wife and her sister, Miss Poulton, £100. + +The Vicar received a notable letter from the late Lord Salisbury, the +Premier; they had been at Eton and Christ Church together, and Lord +Salisbury was godfather to the Vicar's eldest son. The Vicar had +written of the fortune he had inherited, and spoke of some rooks as +having brought the luck by building, for the first time, in an +elm-tree in the vicarage grounds. Lord Salisbury, in sending a +donation of £25 to the restoration fund, added: "I see a great many +rooks building near my house" (Hatfield), "but the luck has not come +to me yet." The Vicar's comment to me was: "If the luck has not yet +come to Lord Salisbury, I don't see how anyone can hope for it!" + +The Malvern concert was a strenuous undertaking; Badsey being a long +way from Malvern, it was necessary to interest the inhabitants and to +some extent to plead _in forma pauperis_, for we were really a poor +parish without any large resident landowners. The first thing was to +get a good list of influential local patrons; and as soon as Lady +Emily Foley consented, the promoters felt that the work was half done. +Lady Emily Foley was supreme at Malvern, a very distinguished old lady +and most popular, but perhaps a little alarming. + +On the day of the two concerts I was detailed with a troop of young +men, relatives of the patrons, to conduct the people to their seats, +and an elaborate plan of the large Assembly Room was given me, with +minute particulars of the lettered rows and numbered seats, presenting +the appearance, somewhat, of a labyrinth. I was studying it at the +doors, and arranging with the young stewards as to their individual +functions, when I heard an alarmed exclamation from one of them: "Look +out! here comes Lady Emily Foley!" In an instant the whole crowd took +to their heels and disappeared down the corridor. With some little +difficulty I succeeded in finding the seats of Lady Emily Foley's +party, but I could see that she regarded me as a rather feeble +cicerone. + +She was, however, exceedingly gracious after my wife's first solo, +which pleased her so much that we had to make an exception in this +case, and allow an encore by her special request, though it had been +arranged, owing to the length of the programme, that no encores were +to be given. Lady Alwyne Compton, wife of the Dean of Worcester, very +kindly assisted as a performer, my wife having frequently sung at +charity concerts and entertainments for her in Worcester and the +neighbourhood, among them a recital by Mr. Brandram of _A +Midsummer-Night's Dream_, when she undertook the soprano solos +occurring in the play, at the Worcester Guildhall. Lady Alwyne Compton +was very musical, and rehearsals were held in the stone-vaulted crypt +beneath the Deanery, a place of splendid acoustic properties, which +intensified the sound without coarsening it, and brought the voice +back to the singer in a way unknown on the usual platform, decorated +with screens, curtains, and flags, and obstructed by floral +impedimenta. + +Among the performers at the Malvern concerts some professionals had +been engaged from London, including Miss Margaret Wild, a well-known +pianist. I had given my men a holiday for the occasion and was anxious +to hear their opinion of the performances. They considered the music +rather too high class for them, but they thoroughly appreciated the +nimble fingers of Miss Margaret Wild; one of them adding +enthusiastically: "My word, her did make 'im (the piano) rottle!" Our +old parish clerk too, at the time over eighty years of age, who walked +three miles to Evesham Station in the morning, ascended the +Worcestershire Beacon--nearly 1,500 feet--and finally walked back from +Evesham to Badsey at night, was much struck by the recitations of Miss +Isabel Bateman at the concert. The dear old man was somewhat deaf, and +told me that, sitting towards the back of the room, "I couldn't hear +nothing, but I could see as the gesters [gestures] was all right." + +This old clerk was prominently devout in the church responses, and had +some original pronunciations of unusual words; in the Nicene Creed he +generally followed a few bars, so to speak, behind the Vicar, but one +never failed to catch the words "apost'lick church" towards the end. +He was very scornful of ghosts, and told me that he had been about the +churchyard very often at night for fifty years without seeing anything +like an apparition. But the whole village was alarmed, including the +clerk, one Sunday when, about midnight, the tenor bell was heard +solemnly tolling. The clerk, with some supporters and a lantern, +unlocked the door, and found the village idiot--silly C.--in the tower +ringing the bell. It appeared that, after service, the clerk had +extinguished the lights and locked up for the night about eight +o'clock. C., who had gone to sleep in the gallery with his head upon +his arms before him on the desk, slumbered on until he woke in alarm +some four hours later, to find himself alone and the church in total +darkness, but he was intelligent enough to remember the bell and get +his release. + +C. had a hand-to-hand fight in the church tower with Aldington's +special imbecile. After service the clerk invited me to the scene of +the battle, pointing out some crimson traces on the stone pavement. I +called upon our imbecile's parents on my way home, and the old father +was greatly shocked. "Here he be, sir," he said; "I hope you'll give +him a jolly good hiding." I told him I could hardly undertake the rôle +of executioner on a Sunday, in cold blood, and contented myself with a +severe reprimand. + +I was handing the collecting-bag one morning after service, and +finding it did not return from the end of the row of chairs as quickly +as usual, I discovered this same individual with his hand _in the +bag_. I signed to him impatiently to pass it back. After service he +came to the vestry and said that he had contributed a florin in +mistake for a penny, and was trying to retrieve it. I could generally +estimate pretty accurately the amount of the collection, as I handed +the bag, knowing the extent of each person's usual gift, and sure +enough, there was an extra florin among the coins, with which I sent +him away happy. + +The parish must have been an uncivilized place in former times; there +was an accusing record beneath the west window of the tower, in the +shape of a blocked up entrance. I was told that the ringers, not +wishing to enter or leave the tower through the church door during +service, and also to facilitate the smuggling in of unlimited cider +had, after strenuous efforts, cut an opening through the ancient wall +and base some feet in thickness, and that the achievement was +announced to the village by uproarious cheering when at last they +succeeded. A door was afterwards fitted to the aperture, but the +entrance was abolished later by a more reverent Vicar. + +The belfry was decorated with various bones of legs of mutton and of +joints of beef, hung up to commemorate notable weddings of prominent +parishioners--perhaps, too, as a hint to future aspirants to the state +of matrimony--when the ringers had enjoyed a substantial meal and +gallons of cider at the expense of the bridegroom. There seems to have +been a traditional connection between church bell-ringing and thirst, +for Gilbert White relates that when the bells of Selborne Church were +recast and a new one presented in 1735, "The day of the arrival of +this tuneable peal was observed as an high festival by the village, +and rendered more joyous by an order from the donor that the treble +bell should be fixed bottom upward in the ground and filled with +punch, of which all present were permitted to partake." + +The Vicar of Badsey told me that at the neighbouring church of +Wickhamford, then also in his jurisdiction, that when he first came, +in the early fifties, it was customary, as the men entered the church +by the chancel door, to pitch their hats in a heap on the altar. Also +that on his home-coming with his bride, he was, the same evening, +requisitioned to put a stop to a fight between two drunken reprobates +outside the vicarage gate. Badsey people can in these modern times +point with pride to a much higher standard of civilization, and they +fully recognize that "'Eave 'alf a brick at his 'ead; Bill," is a +method of welcome to a stranger not considered precisely etiquette at +the present day. + +There was no vestry before the restoration of Badsey Church; the +Vicar's surplice might be seen hanging over the side of one of the +square pews which obstructed the chancel, and when the Vicar appeared +he was followed by the clerk, who assisted at the public ceremony of +robing. Church decorations at Christmas consisted at that time of +sprigs of holly stuck upright in holes bored along the tops of the pew +partitions at regular intervals, and at the harvest thanksgiving an +historic miniature rick of corn annually made its appearance on the +altar. In those days, however, flowers, which are scarcely suitable +for a festival where the decorations should proclaim the abundance of +the matured season of growth, by corn and fruit, were not included. I +have seen too many of these, to the exclusion of corn, in modern town +churches, and even wild oats, which, though very pretty, are not +exactly typical of thanksgiving. + +It is surprising how much damage may be done to valuable old woodwork +by an enthusiastic band of decorators, assisted by an indiscriminating +curate, and how inharmonious may be the general effect of individual +labours--though charming taken separately--where a comprehensive +scheme is neglected. I have counted fourteen differing reds--not tones +or shades of the same colour--including the hood of the officiating +clergyman, in one chancel at the same time, bewildering to the eye and +distracting to the mind. And I once saw a beautiful and priceless old +Elizabethan table in a vestry, covered with a mouldy piece of purple +velvet secured with tin-tacks driven into the tortured oak. There are, +or were, two lovely old Chippendale chairs with the characteristic +backs and legs inside the altar-rails of Badsey Church; they are +valuable and no doubt duly appreciated, not only for their own sake, +but because they were the gift of dear old Barnard, the clerk, who +spent fifty years of his life in the service of the church. + +I once heard a curate preaching to an agricultural congregation at a +harvest thanksgiving after a disastrous season, when the earth had not +yielded much by way of increase, remarking that in such a time of +scarcity we might be thankful that plenty of foreign corn would be +available; good theology, perhaps, but scarcely expedient under the +circumstances. + +We found Sir Thomas Graham Jackson a purist in the matter of church +restoration, and in my capacity as churchwarden and treasurer, I was +fortunate in having to confer with a man of such pre-eminent good +taste. He would not allow some new oak panels, with which we had to +supplement the old linen-pattern panels of the pulpit, to be coloured +to match the old work. "Time," he said, "will bring them all +together." Possibly the lapse of two hundred years may do so, but I +saw at once that he was right in the principle that no sham should be +tolerated in honest work, more especially in a sacred building. We +objected also to a new chimney which surmounted the junction of the +nave and choir exteriorly: it seemed to smack of domestic detail; but +here again he satisfied us by saying that, as heating the building was +a modern necessity, there was no reason to be ashamed of such an +indispensable addition. As a matter of fact, this chimney long ago +became nicely toned down by its native soot, and is practically +unnoticeable. + +There is much American oak, I believe, now used in new churches and +public buildings; it appears to resemble chestnut much more than +English oak, and I doubt whether it will ever acquire the beautiful +tone which time confers upon the latter. It should, however, be +recognized that much of the depth of colour of old oak panelling is +really nothing but dirt, though the true dark brown tint of old age +can be found underneath, and right to the centre of each piece. +Spring-cleaning of the past consisted very much in polishing with +beeswax and turpentine, without removing the dirt produced by smoky +fires and constant handling, so that extraneous matter became coated +with the polish and preserved beneath it. I have had occasion, when +restoring old woodwork, to wash off this outside accretion, and when +removed, the tone of the wood remained still dark, though lighter than +before it lost its black and somewhat sticky appearance. + +The fakers of sham old furniture produce the intense darkness by +stains of various kinds. I once found myself at an inn in Devonshire +which contained a quantity of "delft" and "antique oak" furniture for +sale. While the attendant was bringing me some refreshment, I tested +the genuineness of the oak by a small chip with my pocket-knife, and, +as I anticipated, found perfectly white wood under the surface, and, I +believe, American oak. The irony of the transaction is striking; here +was a piece of wood imported from the States only a few months before, +converted in this country into Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Stuart +furniture, and then, it may be, bought by American visitors and taken +back to their own country. + +Some years before the church restoration could be taken in hand, a +piece of land, bordering the west side of the churchyard, and between +it and the highroad, and another similar piece on the east side of the +churchyard, were offered for sale by auction. They belonged to the old +Badsey Manor property and of course occupied important positions lying +in each case just between the churchyard and the adjoining roads. An +individual who had fallen out with the Vicar announced his intention +of purchasing these pieces and building cottages and a public-house +upon them, presumably "to spite the parson." + +The Vicar at once saw the absolute necessity of acquiring the land for +the church and enclosing it with suitable walls, as an addition to the +churchyard. It would have been a terrible eyesore from the village +street if ugly brick and blue-slated buildings were erected in front +of the beautiful old grey church, and the idea of an inn in such a +place was intolerable. He consulted the patrons of the living, who +agreed to help, and simultaneously a good old aunt gave him leave to +bid up to a certain sum on her behalf as a gift to the parish. + +The patrons sent a representative to the sale with an undisclosed +price, at which he was empowered to make the purchase. Absolute +secrecy was preserved, and, except the Vicar, no one knew the man or +whom he represented; he was to leave the train from Oxford at +Honeybourne Station so as not even to come through Evesham to Badsey. +The Vicar had arranged that the patrons' representative should also +bid on behalf of the aunt, but did not disclose the limit. The man was +not to bid until the Vicar himself stopped, and he was to go on +bidding until the Vicar removed a rose from his button-hole, which +would signify that the aunt's limit was reached. Whether the patrons' +representative could go any further or not, the Vicar did not know. + +Before the auction the two did not meet, and they sat apart during the +proceedings. The village malcontent was in great form, making certain +of success, and was delighted when the Vicar apparently gave up +bidding as if beaten. The rose was still in his button-hole, but +before long the aunt's limit was reached, and it had to be removed; he +was however relieved to find that the patrons' representative +continued to bid. His opponent was getting very fidgety as the price +rose, hesitating for some moments every time the bidding was against +him. Just as the hammer was about to fall he would arrest it with, +"Try 'im again," but the stranger instantly capped his reluctant bid, +always leaving him to consider a further advance in great discomfort. +At last in despair but quite certain that the Vicar at any rate was +knocked out he gave up, exclaiming, "'E med 'ave it, 'e med 'ave it"; +and the hammer fell. All eyes were fixed upon the unknown bidder, and +the auctioneer demanded "the name of the buyer"; very quietly came the +announcement, "The Dean and Chapter of Christ Church." Horribly +disgusted the malcontent fired a parting shot as he reached the door: +"If I'd a-knowed the pairson was a goin' to 'ave it, I'd a made 'im +pay a pretty penny more nor that." + +This Vicar was a very impressive reader, especially of dramatic +stories from the Old Testament. As he read the account of the +discomfiture of the priests of Baal by the Prophet Elijah one could +visualize the scene. Elijah's dripping sacrifice blazing to the skies, +the priests of Baal, mutilated by their own knives and lancets, in +vain imploring their god to send the fire to vindicate himself. The +heavens were black, and one could hear the rush of Ahab's chariot, the +roar of the thunder and the hissing torrent of rain, and see the +prophet running swiftly before him. The Vicar, however, was not an +actor like a clergyman I was told of, who got so excited over Agag and +his delicate approach to Samuel that he could not resist an +illustration to intensify the action by taking a mincing step or two +aside from the lectern. + +No village is complete without its curmudgeon or self-appointed +grumbler, just as every village has its special imbecile. The +curmudgeon originates in a class above the idiot; very often he is an +ex-churchwarden, guardian, way-warden, or other official, who has +resigned in dudgeon or been ousted from his post for some neglect or +failure. He is a man with whom the world has gone wrong, a sufferer, +perhaps, from some disaster which has become an obsession. He views +everything with distorted eyesight; nothing pleases him, and he wants +to put everybody right. He cherishes a perpetual grievance against +some individual or clique for a fancied slight, and goes about trying +to stir up ill-feeling among the ignorant by malicious insinuations. +In former times he was an adept at "parson-baiting" at the annual +Easter vestry meeting, when he would air his grievance against the +Vicar of the parish or any person in authority. + +At these vestries the Vicar is wise if he declares the curmudgeon to +be "out of order," and declines to hear him, for, legally, the +business does not include any matter which does not appear upon the +notice convening the meeting, signed by the Vicar and churchwardens. +This usually announces that churchwardens will be elected and the +accounts produced; the latter, since church rates were abolished, is +not obligatory, and only subscribers have a right to question them. +The proceedings are not legal unless three _full_ days have elapsed +since the publication of the notice on a Sunday before morning +service, the following Thursday being thus the earliest day on which +the meeting can take place. It is important to remember that no +churchwarden has a legal status before he has been formally admitted +by the Archdeacon. + +In former times, before the creation of Parish, District and County +Councils, the curmudgeon, after the reaction of the winter months, +became very prominent towards the time of the Easter vestry, when he +would appear, having enlisted a small band of supporters, with a +number of grievances relating to rates, parish officials, rights of +way, footpaths, and such-like debatable subjects. Of course, he should +have been promptly squashed by the chairman, but too often an +indulgent Vicar would allow him to have his fling. + +Now, however, the curmudgeon can easily get himself elected upon one +of the numerous councils; having mismanaged his own affairs until he +has none left to manage, he appears to regard himself as a fit and +proper person to mismanage the business of other people, and the brief +authority which his position confers gives him a welcome opportunity +of letting off superfluous steam. + +Parishioners sometimes combined and elected an unpopular person to a +troublesome post which nobody wanted. Such was the office of +way-warden, under whose jurisdiction came the management and repair of +parish roads, superintending and paying the roadmen, and keeping the +necessary records and accounts. A market-gardener, a canny Scot, who +had fallen into disfavour, had this office thrust upon him much +against his will. Once elected, the victim had no choice in the +matter, and, being a very busy man, he was thoroughly annoyed. He soon +discovered a weapon wherewith to avenge the wrong--one which his +opponents had put into his hands themselves; during his year of office +he restricted the road repairs to a lane adjoining his own land, +leading to the railway-station, which his carts traversed many times +daily. He gave it a thorough good coat of stones, and all the +available labour, as well as the cash chargeable on the rates of the +parish, was in this way expended, chiefly for his own benefit, though +the parish shared to the extent of the use they made of this +particular piece of road. Great was the outcry, but nothing could be +done till the year of office expired, and, naturally, he was never +elected again. + +The purchase of the land adjoining the churchyard had a remarkable +sequel; it was conveyed to the Vicar and churchwardens for the time +being, these original churchwardens having been long out of the office +before my appointment. After the restoration of the church my +co-warden and I, with the Vicar's consent, levelled the rough places +in the neglected churchyard, sowed it with grass seeds, and planted +various ornamental shrubs; we had the untidy southern boundary +carefully dug over, and set a man to plant a yew-hedge. He was thus +employed when a parishioner appeared in some excitement, and objected +to the planting of yew on account of possible damage to sheep grazing +in the churchyard, claiming the right--which, as a matter of fact, +belonged to the Vicar alone, though never exercised--to such grazing, +jointly with the Vicar. He proceeded to pull up some of the young yews +as a protest, and threw them uprooted on the ground. The man employed +reported the matter to my co-warden, living near, who was very soon at +my house. + +We decided to prosecute the offender, and obtained the Vicar's +consent, he being the legal prosecutor. The case was heard by a bench +of magistrates composed entirely of clergy and churchwarden squires, +who naturally sympathized with us, and, quite logically, convicted the +defendant in a fine, I think, of about 25s. and costs, or a term in +Worcester Gaol in default. The defendant refused to pay a farthing and +was removed in custody; but later our dear old Vicar, very generously, +came forward and paid the amount himself. + +Shortly before the church restoration I had a notice to attend an +archidiaconal visitation, and duly appeared at the church at the time +arranged. The Archdeacon made a careful inspection of the fabric and +property of the church, not too well pleased with its dilapidated +appearance. Nothing much was said till we reached the +fourteenth-century font, showing signs of long use. The Archdeacon +motioned to the clerk to remove the oak cover, and the old man, with +the air of an officious waiter, lifted it with a flourish, disclosing, +inside the cracked font, a white pudding-basin, inside which, again, +reposed a species of beetle known as a "devil's coach-horse." The +Archdeacon, peering in and evidently recognizing the insect and its +popular designation, and looking much shocked, exclaimed with some +warmth: "Dear me! I should scarcely have expected to find _that_ thing +in a font!" + +This story reminds me of a similar visitation depicted in _Punch_. The +Archdeacon was seen at the lych-gate of a country church in company +with a churchwarden farmer, the Vicar being unable to attend. The +contrast was well delineated--the Archdeacon tall, thin, and ascetic, +in a long black coat and archidiaconal hat; and the farmer of the John +Bull type, in ample breeches and gaiters. The churchyard presented a +magnificent crop of exuberant wheat: + +_Archdeacon_. I don't like this at all; I shall really have to speak +to the Vicar about it. + +_Churchwarden (thinking of the rotation of crops)_. Just what I told +un, sir--just what I told 'un. "You keeps on a-wheating of it and +a-wheating of it," I says; "why don't you tater it?" says I. + +At Badsey objections were soon heard to the innovation of the +surpliced choir and improved music in the restored church; one old +villager, living close by, expressed himself as follows concerning the +entry of the Vicar and choir, in procession, from the new vestry: + + "They come in with them boys all dressed up like a lot of + little parsons, and the parson behind 'em just like the old + Pope hisself. But there ain't no call for me to go to church + now, for I can set at home and hear 'em a baarlin' [noise + like a calf] and a harmenin [amening] in me own house." + +On a similar occasion, in another parish where more elaborate music +had been introduced, an old coachman, given to much devotional musical +energy, told me as a sore grievance: "You know, sir, I'd used to like +singin' a bit myself, but now, as soon as I've worked myself up to a +tidy old pitch, all of a sudden _they_ leaves off, and I be left a +bawlin'!" + +Among various special weekday services I remember a Confirmation when +an elderly Aldington parishioner had courageously decided to +participate in the rite. She was missing from the ceremony, and told +my wife afterwards, in answer to inquiries, that a bad headache had +prevented her from attending, adding: "But there, you can't stand agin +your 'ead!" + +I was at the house of a neighbouring Vicar where the Bishop of the +diocese had been lunching shortly before, when there was a dish of +very fine oranges on the table and another of Blenheim orange apples. +The Bishop was offered a Blenheim orange by the Vicar, who remarked +that they came from his own garden. The Bishop had probably never +heard of a Blenheim orange, and the latter word directed his attention +to the dish of oranges. He examined them with great surprise, and +exclaimed: "Dear me! I had no idea that oranges would come to such +perfection out of doors in this climate." + +A capital story was told by a Bishop of Worcester, in connection with +the efforts of the Church in that part of the country to alleviate the +lot of the hop-pickers, who flock into Worcestershire in September by +the thousand. One of the mission workers, who had gone down to the +hopyards, met a dilapidated individual in a country lane, who said he +was "a picker." Pressed for further particulars, the man responded: + + "In the summer I picks peas and fruit; when autumn comes I + picks hops; in the winter I picks pockets; and when I'm + caught I picks oakum. I'm kept nice and warm during the cold + months, and when the fine days come round once more I starts + pea-picking again." + +My second Vicar was a scholar, an excellent preacher of very condensed +sermons; he conducted the services with great dignity, but his manner +to the villagers was a little alarming. He found the old clerk +somewhat officious, I think. One evening, after service, when some +strangers from Evesham attended--for Badsey was a pleasant walk on a +summer evening--the clerk announced to the Vicar, with great +jubilation, that "the gentleman with the party from Evesham expressed +himself as very well satisfied with the service." No doubt the clerk +had received a practical proof of the satisfaction. The clerk +imagined, I believe, that he was as much responsible for the conduct +of the services as the Vicar, and thought the latter would be equally +pleased with the stranger's commendation. He was disappointed, I fear, +for the Vicar did not seem in the least impressed, showing, too, some +annoyance at what doubtless appeared to him great presumption. + +At the time of the Boer War, followed by the Boxers' revolt in China +and the Siege of Peking, when telegrams were exhibited in the +post-office every Sunday morning, I saw one day, on my way to church, +that Peking had been relieved. The Vicar--my third--preached on the +subject of the terrors of the siege--his sermon having been written on +the previous day--and drew a harrowing picture of the fate of the +defenders. After service I asked if he had not seen the telegram, and +told him the good news. "Good gracious!" said he; "I _am_ glad I +didn't know that before the service; what _should_ I have done about +my sermon?" I was a little surprised that the delivery of a sermon +which was no longer to the point should appear more important than the +announcement of the happy event; but perhaps the position would have +been somewhat undignified had he been obliged to explain, and dismiss +the congregation with apologies. + +An elderly Vicar, in a parish in the adjoining county, +Gloucestershire, found the morning service with a sermon very +fatiguing, and the patron, the Squire, suggested that the +ante-Communion service would be less tiring in place of the latter. He +was not a very interesting preacher, and the Squire was quite as well +pleased as the Vicar when he agreed. There was never a sermon at the +morning service thereafter. + +Other denominations besides the Church, of course, existed in the +parish and neighbourhood; we did not hear much about them, but the +following story was related as occurring in a neighbouring village. To +see the point it is necessary to introduce the actors; they consisted +of Daniel S. and Jim H., rival hedgers in the art of "pleaching," of +which Joseph Arch was such a notable exponent. Daniel had lately been +employed upon a job of this kind for a farmer, Mr. (locally Master) R. +The scene was the room that did duty for a chapel in the village. + +Daniel S. advanced to the reading-desk, and, turning over the leaves +of the Bible to find the Book of Daniel, announced sententiously: +"Let's see what Dannel done in his dai (day)." Up jumped Jim H. at the +back of the room: "Oh, I can tell tha (thee) what Dannel done in his +dai--cut a yedge (hedge) for Master R., and took whome all the best of +the 'ood (wood)!" + +A story was current too--nearer home this time--of a grand fete given +to the children. They marched in procession from one village to +another, in which the tea was to take place, under the leadership of +an ancient parishioner. Of this person it was said that he had +violated every article of the Decalogue, and that had the number been +twenty instead of ten he would have treated them with equal +indifference! As the children entered the second village with beaming +faces and banners waving, as he gave the word of command, they sang in +sweet trebles and in perfect innocence, "See the mighty host +advancing, Satan leading on!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + + +THE SCHOOL BOARD--RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION--SCHOOL INSPECTIONS--DEAN +FARRAR--COMPULSORY EDUCATION. + + "Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; + Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." + --COWPER. + +When I came to Aldington I found that by the energy of the Vicar an +elementary school had been built and equipped, and was working well +under the voluntary system. I accepted the post of treasurer at his +invitation, but as time went on financial difficulties arose, as the +Education Department increased their requirements. The large farmers +were being gradually ruined by foreign competition, and the small +market-gardeners, in occupation of the land as it fell vacant, could +not be induced to subscribe, although their own children were the sole +beneficiaries. A voluntary rate was suggested, but met with no general +response, one old parishioner announcing that she didn't intend "to +pay no voluntary rate until she was obliged"! + +Matters were getting desperate when Vicar No. 2 arrived, and it soon +became evident that the voluntary system had completely broken down. A +School Board was the only alternative, and, as all the old managers +refused to become members and no one else would undertake the +responsibility, a deadlock ensued. We were threatened by the Education +Department that, failing a Board of parishioners, they would appoint +for the post any outsiders, non-ratepayers, who could be induced to +volunteer. The prospect was not a pleasant one, and on the invitation +of a deputation of working men, I agreed to stand (chiefly, perhaps, +in my own interests, as the largest ratepayer in the parish, with the +exception of the Great Western Railway Company), and others eventually +came forward. + +The Board was constituted, and we were rather a three-cornered lot: my +co-warden; a boot and shoemaker in Evesham, with land in Badsey; a +carpenter and small builder; three small market-gardeners and myself. +I was elected chairman, and we obtained the services of an excellent +clerk, who held the same office for the Evesham Board of Guardians--a +capable man, and well up in the forms and idiosyncrasies of the Board +of Education. Our designation was "the United District School Board of +Badsey, Aldington, and Wickhamford." It was not easy to discover the +qualifications of all the members from an educational point of view; +some at least represented the village malcontent section, now getting +rather nervous as to School Board rates. And there was a talkative +section who illustrated the truth of the old proverb, "It is not the +loudest cackling hen that lays the biggest egg," and of, perhaps, the +still more expressive, "It's the worst wheel of the waggon that makes +the most noise." One, at any rate, was definitely qualified--"He +knowed summat about draining!" The majority were conspicuous as +economists in the matter of probable school expenditure, and it +appeared later that two, if not three, of the members were unable to +write their own names, so that sometimes we could not get the +necessary number of signatures to the cheques, when some of the more +efficient members happened to be absent. + +Early in our existence as a United Board, one of the economists made a +little speech in which he propounded the theory that "our first duty +is to the ratepayers"; but I could not help suggesting that, as a +legally appointed body, we were bound to obey the law beyond all other +considerations, and corrected his dictum, with all respect, by +substituting that "our first duty is to the children." I must do him +the justice to say that he accepted my suggestion in a complimentary +manner. + +It soon became evident that it is not always desirable to belong to a +parish grouped with others under a United District School Board. +Aldington possessed the largest rateable value with the lowest +population, which was about equal to Wickhamford with the lowest +rateable value; and Badsey, with by far the largest population, came +between Aldington and Wickhamford as to rateable value--the obvious +result being that Aldington was called upon to pay an excessive and +unfair share of the cost of educating Badsey's children. We did not, +however, want a school in our quiet village; it is something to get +rid of children when inclined to be noisy, so we did not grumble at a +little extra expense. + +We carried on the school at first in the old building, but very soon +the Department began to press for a larger and better-equipped +establishment. Many of their requirements we considered unnecessary in +a country village, and put off the evil day as long as possible, with +such phrases as, "The matter is under consideration," or, "Will +shortly be brought to the notice of the Board." Like "retribution," +however, the Education Department, "though leaden-footed, comes +iron-handed," and when all other methods failed they always put +forward as a final inducement to comply with their demands the threat +of withholding the Government grant; so that, in spite of the +shoemaker's encomium, that "Our chairman has plenty of +com_bat_iveness," we had eventually to give way. + +At the outset it was decided to admit the Press; our meetings were +generally expected to afford some spicy copy for readers of the local +papers, but I am pleased to think that both reporters and readers were +disappointed. Some of our neighbours had given us specially lively +specimens of the personalities indulged in at the meetings of their +local bodies, Boards of Guardians, and Councils--notably, at that +time, those of Winchcombe and Stow-on-the-Wold, where these +exhibitions appeared to form a favourite diversion. It is a mistake +for such a Board as ours to admit reporters; the noisy members are apt +to monopolize the speaking, to the exclusion of the more useful and +more thoughtful; the former play to the gallery to the extent of +visibly addressing themselves to the reporters instead of to the +chairman, as is proper. + +The first point we had to consider was the acquisition of a suitable +site for the new buildings, the old site not affording space to +enlarge the premises or for the addition of a master's house. We were +lucky to get the offer of an excellent position, allowing not only +space for all the buildings in contemplation, but ample room for +future enlargements, which it was evident would be needed before many +more years. I was requested, with another member, to interview the +vendor's solicitors, and we were empowered to make the best bargain we +could arrange for the site. + +We concluded the purchase, and congratulated ourselves upon the +acquisition of a central and in every way desirable site, with a long +road frontage, for the very moderate sum of, I think, £90. On +reporting to the Board at our next meeting, the sum appeared large to +some of the more simple members, and they were inclined to be +dissatisfied, until I told them that I was prepared to appropriate the +bargain myself, and they could find another for the school. This +settled the matter, and, I suppose, at the present time the site would +fetch two or three times what it cost us. + +Plans and specifications were now necessary, and from inquiries I had +made I was able to suggest an architect with much experience in school +buildings. He appeared before the Board later, and was subjected to +many questions from the members, of which I only remember one that +appealed to me as original: "Do you pose before this Board as an +economical architect?" We soon had the work in train, but, of course, +before any active steps were taken, all our proposals were submitted +to, and approved by the Education Department. + +The question of religious instruction became urgent, and I was pleased +and surprised at carrying a unanimous resolution through the +Board--although it included some Nonconformists--that the Vicar (No. +2), who had declined to be nominated as a candidate for election, +should be invited to undertake the religious instruction of the +school. The Vicar consented, and the arrangement worked smoothly for +some years. One day, later, a member rose, and inquired if the +children were receiving religious instruction. "Yes," I said. "Are the +children taught science?" "Yes," again. "Well," said he, "how do you +reconcile the fact, when religion and science are not in agreement?" +Fortunately, I had been lately taking a course of Darwin, and I was +able to refer him to the concluding lines of the _Origin of Species_. +We debated the matter with some energy, but having made his protest, +the member was satisfied to let the matter drop. + +All went well thereafter until we were settled in the new building, +and Vicar No. 3 was in possession of the living. He was young and +inexperienced in the conduct of a parish, and was imbued with ideas of +what he considered a more ornate and elaborate form of worship. +Innovations followed--lighted candles over the altar and the +appointment of a Server at the Communion Service. Almost immediately I +heard objections from the villagers; they could not understand the +necessity for a couple of dim candles in a church on a summer day, +when the whole world outside was ablaze with the glory of the sun. + +A member arose at a Board meeting, and began: "Mr. Chairman, I wish to +draw the attention of the Board to the question of religious +instruction in the school, for I reckon that our children are being +taught a lot of Popery." I could see that he had been in consultation +with other members of the Board, and that he had a majority behind +him. I tried hard to smooth matters over, but they had made up their +minds, and he carried his resolution that, in future, the new Vicar +should be authorized to enter the school for the purpose of religious +instruction only one day a week! I think this small indulgence was +accorded only as a result of my efforts in his favour, though I was by +no means pleased with the innovations myself. + +I put the matter before the Vicar, asking him if he thought his +novelties were worth while in the face of the opposition of the +village and the loss of his religious influence with the children. He +would not go back from what, he said, he regarded as a matter of +principle, and could not see that he was throwing away a unique +opportunity, but he agreed to withdraw the unwelcome Server. + +In spite of the fact that every detail of the new school building had +been submitted to, and approved by, the Education Department, trouble +began with an officious inspector, who on his first visit complained +of the ventilation. An elementary school is never exactly a bed of +roses, but we had a lofty building and classrooms, with plenty of +windows, which could be adjusted to admit as much or as little fresh +air as was requisite. We protested without result, and we had +eventually to pull the new walls about and spend £20 on what we +considered an uncalled-for alteration. + +Our inspectors of schools varied greatly: some were quiet with the +children and considerate with the teachers; others vindicated their +authority by unnecessary fault-finding, upsetting the teachers and +alarming the children. In the days of our voluntary school I have seen +a room full of children in a state of nervous tension, and the +mistress and pupil-teachers in tears, as the result of inconsiderate +reprimands and irritable speech. My sympathies have been strongly +aroused on such occasions with a child's terror of being made an +exhibition before the others. As a boy at Harrow, in the form of the +Rev. F.W. Farrar, afterwards Dean of Canterbury, I had an unpleasant +experience, though it was no fault of his and quite unintentional. The +Russian Government had sent a deputation of two learned professors to +England, to inquire into the educational system of the Public Schools, +with the view of sending a member of the Royal family for education in +this country. Among other schools, they visited Harrow, and Mr. +Farrar's form was one of those selected for inspection. It was the +evening of a winter's day, when, at the four o'clock school, we found +two very formidable-looking old gentlemen in spectacles and many furs +seated near the master's desk. Great was the consternation, but Mr. +Farrar was careful not to call upon any boy who would be likely to +exhibit himself as a failure. I was seated near Mr. Farrar, at one end +of a bench. He had a habit, when wanting to change his position, of +moving quite unconsciously across the intervening space between his +desk and this bench, and placing one foot on the bench close to the +nearest boy, he would, with one hand, play with the boy's hair, while +he held his book in the other. With horror, I found him approaching, +and shortly his hand was on my head, rubbing my hair round and round, +and ruffling it in a fashion very trying to any boy who was neat and +careful of his personal appearance. I could see the Russians staring +through their spectacles at these proceedings; possibly they thought +it a form of punishment unknown in Russia, and my feelings of +humiliation can be imagined. Finally he gave me a smack on the cheek +and retired to his desk, leaving my hair in a state of chaos, though +he had not the least idea of having done anything which might appear +unusual to the foreigners. + +Dear "old Farrar"!--as we irreverently called him--it was an education +in itself to be in his form. I had the uncommon privilege of moving +upwards in the School at very much the same rate as he did as a +master, though I fear for my school reputation none too quickly. He +first kindled my admiration for the classic giants of English +literature, more especially the poets, taught me to appreciate the +rolling periods of Homer, and even the beauty of the characters of the +Greek alphabet. He was a voluminous student of the best in every form +of ancient and modern literature. He always kept a copy of Milton, his +favourite poet I think, on his desk, and, whenever a passage in the +Greek or Latin classics occurred, for which he could produce a +parallel, quoted pages without reference to the book. + +I recall my delight and pride when I was sent on two occasions to the +headmaster, Dr. Butler, the late Master of Trinity, with copies of +original verses; and the honour I felt it to inscribe them, at Mr. +Farrar's request, in a MS. book he kept for the purpose of collecting +approved original efforts in the author's own writing. For it was his +habit once a week to give us subjects for verses or composition. A +unique effort of the Captain of the School cricket eleven, C.F. +Buller, comes back to me as I write; it did not however appear in the +MS. book. The School Chapel was the subject, full of interest and +stirring to the imagination, if only for the aisle to the memory of +Harrow officers who fell in the Crimea. Buller's flight of imagination +was as absurd as it was impertinent: + + "The things in the Chapel nonsense are, + Don't you think so dear Fa_rrar_!" + +Mr. Farrar, however, never took offence at such sallies. I remember, +when he was denouncing the old "yellow back" novels, murmurs becoming +audible, which were intended to reach him, of "Eric! Eric!"--the title +of his early school-boy story--he only smiled in acknowledgment. And +on an April 1st several boys who had plotted beforehand gazed +simultaneously and persistently at a spot on the ceiling, until his +eyes followed theirs unthinkingly in the same direction, when it +occurred to him, as nothing unusual was visible, that it was All +Fools' Day. He was very playful and indulgent; he kept a "squash" +racquet ball on his desk, and could throw it with accurate aim if he +noticed a boy dreaming or inattentive. He would never when scoring the +marks enter a 0, even after an abject failure, always saying, "Give +him a charity 1!" + +Boys are quick judges of sermons: if interested, they listen without +an effort; if not interested, they _cannot_ listen. Whenever Mr. +Farrar's turn came as preacher in the School Chapel there was a subtle +stir and whisper of appreciation, "It's Farrar to-day." He was a +natural orator. I can still hear his magnificent voice swelling in +tones of passionate denunciation decreasing to gentle appeal, and +dying away in tender pathos. This was education in the true sense of +the word, and though I have wandered a long way from my immediate +subject, I feel that the digression is not irrelevant in contrast with +the mechanical instruction that goes by the name of education in the +Board Schools. I cannot help recalling too that in the ancient IVth +Form Room at Harrow, the roughest of old benches were, and I believe +still are, considered good enough for future bishops, judges, and +statesmen; while in the Board Schools expensive polished desks and +seats have to be provided at the cost of the ratepayers to be shortly +kicked to pieces by hobnailed shoes. + +I was present at some amusing incidents in examinations at our village +school. A small boy was commanded by an inspector to read aloud, and +began in the usual child's high-keyed, expressionless, and +unpunctuated monotone: +"I-have-six-little-pigs-two-of-them-are-white-two-of-them-are-black-an +d-two-of-them-are-spotted." "That's not the way to read," interposed +the inspector. "Give me the book." He stood up, striking an attitude, +head thrown well back, and reading with great deliberation and +emphasis: "I have _six_ LITTLE PIGS; two of them are _white_! Two of +them are _black_! and (confidentially) two of them are spot_tered_!" + +I once picked up an elementary reading book in the school, and read as +follows: "Tom said to Jack, 'There is a hayrick down in the meadow; +shall we go and set it on fire?'" And so on, with an account of the +conflagration, highly coloured. So much for town ideas of the +education of country children; the suggestion was enough to bring +about the catastrophe, given the opportunity and a box of matches. + +Some of the inspectors were very agreeable men; they occasionally came +to luncheon at my house, and I once asked where the best-managed +schools were to be found. The reply was, "In parishes where the +voluntary schools still exist, and the feudal system is mildly +administered." + +Our villagers, reading of the large sums that we were obliged to +expend in response to the requirements of the Education Department, +and finding the consequent rates a burden, began to think of economy +and nothing but economy, so that though I had expected them to be only +too anxious to provide the very best possible education for their own +children, it came as a surprise that this was quite a subordinate aim +to that of keeping down the cost. And this was the more unexpected, as +the main cost fell upon the large ratepayers, like myself and the +railway company and the owners of land and cottages rented rate-free. +At the next election several of these economists became candidates, +with the result that many of the original members including myself +were not returned, in spite of the fact that our well-planned and +well-built schools were erected at a lower cost per child than any in +the neighbourhood. I was not sorry to escape from the monotony of +listening to interminable debates as to whether a necessary broom or +such-like trifle should be bought at one shilling or one and +threepence. For this was the kind of subject that the Board could +understand and liked to enlarge upon, while really important proposals +were carried with little consideration. As a matter of fact, members +of a School Board are no more than dummies in the hands of an +inflexible Department, and are appointed to carry out orders and +regulations without the power of modification, even when quite +unsuitable for a country village school. + +There was some little excitement at the election; one of the members +of the old Board had been called "an ignoramus," in the stress of +battle, and being much concerned and mystified asked a neighbour what +the term signified, adding, no doubt thinking of a hippopotamus, that +he believed it was some kind of animal! His knowledge of zoology was +probably as limited as that disclosed by the following story: + + A menagerie was on view at Evesham, to the great joy of many + juveniles as well as older people, for such exhibitions were + not very common in the town. Very early next morning, a + farmer, living about two miles from Aldington, was awakened + by a shower of small stones on his bedroom window. Looking + out he saw his shepherd in much excitement and alarm. "Oh + master, master, there's a beast with two tails, one in front + and one behind, a-pullin' up the mangolds, and a-eatin' of + 'em!" The farmer hurried to the spot and saw an African + elephant which had escaped during the night; he was + wondering how to proceed when two keepers appeared and the + strange beast was led quietly back to the town. + +As chairman of our School Board I early recognized among the members +discoverers of mare's-nests, who lost no opportunity of exhibiting +their own importance by intruding such matters into the already +overflowing _agenda_, and my method of dealing with them was so +successful, though I believe not original, that it may be found useful +by those called upon to preside over any of the multitudinous councils +now in existence. Whenever the member produced his cherished +discovery--generally very shadowy as to detail--I proposed the +appointment of a subcommittee, consisting of him and his sympathizers, +to inquire into the matter, and report at the next Board meeting. In +this way I shunted the bother of the investigation of usually some +trifle or unsubstantiated opinion on to his own shoulders, so that, +when he realized the time and trouble involved, he became much less +interested, and we heard very little more of the subject. + +I suppose that everybody living in a country parish, who can look back +over the period of fifty years of compulsory education, would agree +that the results are insignificant in comparison with the effort, and +one cannot help wondering whether, after all, they justify the +gigantic cost. We appear to have tried to build too quickly on an +insecure foundation. Nature produces no permanent work in a hurry, and +Art is a blind leader unless she submits to Nature's laws. The pace +has been too great, and the fabric which we have reared is already +showing the defects in its construction. + +How otherwise can we account for the littleness of the men +representing "the people," who have been rushed into the big +positions, and for the vulgarity of the present age? Vulgarity in +public worship; vulgarity in the manners, the speeches, and the ideals +of the House of Commons; vulgarity in "literature," on the stage, in +music, in the studio, and in a section of the Press; vulgarity in +building and the desecration of beautiful places; vulgarity in form +and colour of dress and decoration. We are far behind the design and +construction of the domestic furniture of 150 years ago, and we have +never equalled the architecture of the earliest periods, for stability +and stateliness. + +The skim milk seems to have come to the top and the cream has gone to +the bottom, as the result of the contravention of the laws of +evolution, and the failure to perceive the analogy between the +simplest methods of agriculture, and the cultivation of mentality. We +have expected fruit and flowers from waste and untilled soil; we sowed +the seed of instruction without even ploughing the land, or +eradicating the prominent weeds, and we are reaping a crop of thistles +where we looked for figs, and thorns where we looked for grapes. The +seed scattered so lavishly by the wayside was devoured by the fowls of +the air; that which was sown upon the stony places, where there was +not much earth, could not withstand the heat of summer; and that which +fell among thorns was choked by the unconquered possessors of the +field. A little, a very little, which "fell into good ground brought +forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold"; +and therein lies our only consolation. + +The educational enthusiasts of 1870 forgot that the material they had +to work upon did not come from inherited refinement and intelligence; +that it was evolved from a parentage content with a vocabulary of some +500 words; that there was little nobility of home influence to assist +in the process of development; they crammed it with matter which it +could not assimilate, they took it from the open country air and the +sunshine, confined it in close and crowded school-rooms, and produced +what we see everywhere at the present time, at the cost of physical +deterioration--a diseased and unsettled mentality. + +I am aware that there are those who decline to admit any influence of +mental heredity, and argue that environment is the only factor to be +considered. In a clever and well-reasoned work on the subject I lately +read, this proposition was substantiated by instances observable +especially among birds brought up in unnatural conditions. The writer, +however, entirely forgot the most conclusive piece of evidence in +favour of mental heredity which it is possible to adduce--namely, that +of the brood of ducklings, who, in spite of the unmistakable +manifestations of alarm on the part of a frantic foster-mother hen, +take to the water and enjoy it on the very first opportunity. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + + +VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS: CRICKET--FOOTBALL--FLOWERSHOW--BAND--POSTMAN-- +CONCERTS. + + "There is sweet music here that softer falls + Than petals from blown roses on the grass." + _The Lotus-Eaters_. + +Among village institutions a cricket club was started soon after I +first came, and I was able to lend a meadow in which the members could +play. I held the sinecure office of President. The members met, +discussed ways and means, drew up regulations, and instituted fines +for various delinquencies. Swearing was expensive at threepence each +time, but there was no definition of what were to be considered "swear +words." Locally, a usual expletive is, "daazz it," or, "I'll be +daazzed," and it was not long before a member making use of this +euphemism was accused of swearing. He protested that it was not +recognized by philological authorities as coming under the category, +but he had to pay up. + +A village cricket match was regarded more as a contest than a pastime; +each side feared the censure of his parish, if conquered, so nothing +had to be given away likely to prove an advantage to an opposing team. +I once saw a member snatch a bat belonging to his own club from one of +the other side who was about to appropriate it for his innings with, +"No you don't." How different is the feeling, and how ready to help, a +member of a really sporting team would have been in similar +circumstances! Referring to help or advice in cricket matters, a story +is told of the late Dr. W.G. Grace. The incident happened in an +adjoining county to Worcestershire. The great batsman, crossing +Clifton Down, came upon some boys at cricket. Three sticks represented +the wickets, arranged so wide apart that the ball could pass through +without disturbing them. Ever ready to help, Dr. Grace pointed out the +fault and readjusted the sticks; as he turned away he heard, "What +does 'e know about it, I wonder!" + +This carries me to a parallel happening at Stratford-on-Avon. The late +Sir Henry Irving and a friend fell in with a native on the outskirts +of the town, and being anxious to test the local reputation of the +poet asked the man if he had heard of a person named Shakespeare. The +man assented and volunteered the information that he was a writer. Did +he "know what Shakespeare had written?" Their informant could not say, +but, a moment after they had parted, he called back that he believed +he had written "part of the Bible." + +An ancient villager, who was secretary of our Club and always acted as +umpire, gave me "out," incorrectly, for accidentally touching the +wicket when the ball was "dead." I retired without contesting his +decision, as I had been taught. Next time we met he apologized, having +discovered his mistake, but he was greatly impressed by my practical +example of "playing the game." + +Cricket, though popular in my first years at Aldington, gradually +became difficult to arrange. As the market-garden industry superseded +farming, the young men found full employment for the long summer +evenings on their allotments and those of their parents. In the +winter, when horticultural work is not so pressing, they had plenty of +time on their hands, and a football club was formed. It flourished +exceedingly, and Badsey became almost invincible among the +neighbouring villages and even against the towns. They distinguished +themselves in the local League matches, and on one occasion, something +like two thousand spectators assembled to witness a final which Badsey +won, in the meadow I lent them; and I had the honour of presiding at a +grand dinner to celebrate the event. I notice in the local papers that +in spite of the interruption of the war they are now again thriving +and earning new laurels. + +Our most important fête day was that upon which the Badsey, Aldington, +and Wickhamford Flower Show was held. The credit, for the original +inception and organization of this popular festival, is almost +entirely due, I think, to the public spirit and determination of my +old friend and co-churchwarden, Mr. Julius Sladden, of Badsey, and it +gives me much pleasure to record the debt of gratitude which the three +villages still owe him. + +The Show is held as nearly as possible on the day of the ancient +Badsey wake, in most parishes still celebrated on the day of the +patron saint. In the case of Badsey the anniversary of the wake is the +25th of July (St. James's day). As a wake Badsey's observance is a +thing of the past; it was formerly a time of much cider-drinking, a +meeting-day for friends and relations, and for various trials of +strength and skill, though I believe the carousals outlasted the +sports by many years. + +Nothing happier, in the way of a revival, and more civilized +enjoyment, could have been devised than a flower show, and it is now +one of the most popular fixtures of the neighbourhood with exceedingly +keen competition. Besides fruit, flowers, and vegetables, the exhibits +include such produce as butter and eggs, and my wife was very +successful with these, but on one occasion was rather disappointed to +find a beautiful dish of Langshan eggs, almost preternaturally brown +and rich-looking, disqualified. The judges were not acquainted with +the peculiarities of the breed--then a new one--and the reason for +disqualification, as we afterwards discovered, was "artificially +coloured." I believe exhibitors have been known to use coffee for this +purpose, and the judges, who had not the exhibitors' names before +them, fancied this to be an instance. + +The children's exhibits of wild flower bouquets I always considered at +this and similar shows far the most interesting and beautiful among +the flowers; but, unfortunately, they very soon droop in a hot tent +and look rather unhappy. + +Aldington Band was the outcome of a desire for musical expression on +the part of a few parishioners with some skill and experience in such +matters; it included performers on wind instruments and a big drum. +The Band was unfortunate at first in purchasing instruments of +differing pitch, as was discovered by my wife on attending a practice +at the request of the members. She pointed out the fault, and found an +instructor from Evesham to give them a course of lessons, so that with +a new set of instruments they soon improved. It was difficult, at +first, to find a suitable place for practice. A neighbour, a little +doubtful as to their attainments, suggested the railway arch in one of +my meadows as a nice airy spot under cover, but later expressed doubts +as to the safety of the trains running overhead on account of the +violence of the commotion beneath! This, of course, was mere chaff, +for they soon became so efficient that a large room was found for them +in the village, and eventually they were annually engaged to perform +the musical programme at the Badsey, Aldington, and Wickhamford Flower +Show. My gardener was the leading spirit of the Band, a great optimist +and the most willing man of any who ever reigned in my garden. There +was nothing he would not cheerfully undertake, and when we had a +difficulty in finding a sweep as required, he volunteered for the work +and became quite an adept, with the set of rods and brushes I bought +for the purpose. + +Our postman, though not a villager, was quite an institution; he +walked a matter of ten miles a day from Evesham to Bretforton, taking +Aldington and Badsey on the way, and back at night. He filled up the +interval between the incoming and outgoing posts at Bretforton, +working at his trade as tailor. Entering our village each evening, he +announced his arrival by three blasts on his tin horn; he was very shy +of being observed in this performance, and the people had to catch him +as he passed and hand him their letters. He must have walked nearly +100,000 miles in the many years he was our postman, and he told me +before I left that more letters were addressed to the Manor when I +first came, than to all the rest of the houses in the village +together. When correspondence became more general a pillar-box was +erected, but I always regretted the loss of the familiar notes of the +tin horn. + +Among Aldington's amusements no account would be complete without a +reference to the numerous concerts and entertainments for charitable +objects which my wife organized, and in which her musical talent +enabled her to take a prominent part; and although I feel some +hesitation in dealing with so personal a matter, I am certain that +many of those who co-operated with her in the organization and the +performance of these affairs will be pleased to have their +recollections of her own part in them revived. + +She possessed a natural soprano voice of great sweetness and +flexibility, in combination with the sympathetic ability and clear +enunciation which add so much to the charm of vocal expression. She +was not allowed to begin singing, in earnest, before she was nineteen, +for fear of straining so delicate a voice, and she then had the +advantage of the tuition of Signor Caravoglia, one of the most +celebrated teachers of the time. + +His method included deliberation in taking breath, thorough opening of +the mouth, practice before a mirror to produce a pleasing effect, and +to avoid facial contortion; he would not allow any visible effort, the +aim being to sing as naturally and spontaneously as a bird. His wife +played the accompaniments, so that the master could give his whole +attention to the attitude, production, and facial expression of the +pupil. + +Signer Caravoglia only consented to teach her on the express condition +that she would not sing in choruses, on account of the danger of +strain and overexertion. She practised regularly, chiefly exercises, +two hours a day in separate half hours. Her talent was soon recognized +at Malvern, where she lived before her marriage, and her assistance +was in great demand for amateur charity concerts. + +I have a book full of newspaper reports of my wife's performances, +containing notices of concerts at Malvern repeatedly, Kidderminster, +Worcester, at Birmingham under the auspices of the Musical Section of +the Midland Institute--a very great honour before a highly critical +audience--Alcester, Pershore, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Evesham, Broadway, +Badsey, Wallingford, and a great many villages in the Evesham +district. At Moreton she sang for the local Choral Society, taking the +soprano solos in the first part of Haydn's _Spring_, and the local +paper reported that her "birdlike voice added much to the beauty of +the cantata." In the second part of the concert she gave _The Bird +that came in Spring_, by Sterndale Bennett. I was always a little +nervous during this song in anticipation of the upper C towards the +finale, but it never failed to come true and brilliant. As we were +leaving by train the following morning we met a dear old musician who +had taken part in the chorus of the cantata. He begged to be +introduced to her, and said in his hearty congratulations on her +performance, that never before had such a note been heard in Moreton. + +At one of the Broadway concerts my wife had the pleasure of meeting +Miss Maude Valerie White, who was playing the accompaniments for +performers of her own compositions, including _The Devout Lover_, +which, she told Miss White, she considered one of the best songs in +the English language, at the same time asking for her autograph. Miss +White was kind enough to write her signature with the MS. music of the +first phrase--notes and words--of the song in a book which my wife +kept for the autographs of distinguished musicians and celebrated +people. + +While at Malvern my wife once heard Jenny Lind in public, and she +describes it as a most memorable occasion. + +Jenny Lind had for some years retired from public performance, but +consented to reappear at the request of a deputation of railway +employees anxious to arrange a concert in aid of the widows and +orphans of officials killed in a recent railway accident. She +stipulated that she should sing in two duets only, choosing the other +voice herself, and she selected Miss Hilda Wilson, the well-known +contralto of that time. + +They sang two duets by Rubinstein, one being _The Song of the Summer +Birds_, full of elaborate execution. Her voice was so true, sweet and +flexible, trilling and warbling like a bird, and taking the A flat as +a climax of delight at the conclusion with the greatest ease, that +with closed eyes it might have been taken for the effort of a young +girl. + +Jenny Lind was over seventy at the time; she was erect, tall, and +graceful; she wore a black dress with a good deal of white lace, and a +white lace cap. She was then Madame Otto Goldschmidt, living at the +Wynd's Point on the Herefordshire Beacon of the Malvern Range, and had +long been known as the "Swedish Nightingale." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + + +DEALERS--LUCK MONEY--FAIRS--SALES--EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON CATTLE AND +SHEEP--AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. + + "I'll give thrice so much land + To any well-deserving friend; + But in the way of bargain, mark ye me, + I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair." + --_1 Henry IV_. + +Dealers of all kinds were much more frequent callers at farm-houses in +the early days of my farming, than latterly when auction sales, to +some extent, superseded private negotiations, but the horse-dealer +remained constant, because comparatively few horses were offered by +auction. The horse-dealers appeared to conform to an understanding +that it was a breach of etiquette to exceed certain well-marked +boundaries in their search for purchases, or to interfere in each +other's business. This principle was carried so far as to prevent +dealers from one of these "countries" purchasing a horse at a fair +coming from another dealer's "country," and the understanding of +course minimized competition likely to raise the price. The dealers +however I think, gave fair values, governed for the most part by the +prices obtainable by them in the large towns. + +Most of my horses, when for sale, were bought by a man in a +considerable way of business, a well-known breeder, too, of shire +horses, taking many prizes at the leading shows. A handsome man with a +presence, and an excellent judge, shrewd but straight. He would ask +the price after examining the animal, and make an offer which he would +very seldom exceed if refused at first; but he would spend some time +in conversation, apparently quite irrelevant and very amusing, though +always returning to the point at intervals with arguments in favour of +the acceptance of his bid. He was so genial and pleasant and such good +company, for no man was ever better acquainted with the ways of the +world, that he very rarely, I think, left the premises without a deal, +though sometimes he was in his gig before the final bargain was +struck. It is a custom of the trade for the seller to give something +back to the buyer by way of "luck money," and the last time I did +business with him I refused to give more than one shilling each on two +horses, as I never received more than that sum when a buyer myself. He +accepted cheerfully, telling me that a shilling each was quite worth +taking, as he had a thousand horses through his hands in the course of +every twelve months, and that a thousand shillings meant £50 a year. + +The best piece of horse-dealing I ever did, was the purchase of a six +months old colt for £26, winning £20 in prizes with him as a +two-year-old, working him regularly at three and four on the farm, and +selling him at five for eighty guineas to a large brewery firm. Eighty +guineas in those days was a big price for a cart horse, though, of +course, in modern times, owing to the war, much higher prices can be +obtained. + +I remember another dealer, who, a notable figure in a white top hat +with a deep black band, and large coloured spectacles, was to be seen +at all the fairs and principal sales. He, too, had an ingratiating +manner, and would accost a young farmer with a hearty, "Good-morning, +Squire," or some such flattering introduction. A wise dealer always +knows how to keep up amicable relations with a possible seller or +buyer, and never descends to abuse, or the assumption of a personal +injury if he cannot persuade a seller to accept his price, as is the +case with some dealers with less _savoir faire_. + +A successful cattle dealer I knew had similar tactics of fraternity, +always addressing his sellers as "Governor," with marked respect. But +the best instance of this diplomatic spirit occurred in the case of a +deal between an old Hampshire friend of mine and a well-known and +historic sheep dealer from the same county. My friend had lately +become the happy father of twins, the fact being widely known in the +neighbourhood, for he was a very prominent man. He had 100 sheep for +sale, and the dealer was inspecting them, in a pen near the house. As +the bargain proceeded, the front door opened, and a nurse-maid +appeared with the twins in their perambulator. The dealer noticed them +immediately, and was not slow to turn the incident to his advantage. +"There they be, there they be, the little darlings," he called out, "a +sovereign apiece nurse, a sovereign apiece." Diving into a capacious +pocket, he pulled out a handful of gold and silver, and selecting two +sovereigns he handed them to the nurse for the children. "After that," +my friend said, "what could I do but sell him the sheep, though he got +them at two shillings a head less than I ought to have made." Now two +shillings a head, on one hundred sheep, represents ten pounds, leaving +eight pounds which the dealer earned by his keen insight into human +nature. + +This dealer carried on business with a brother, and they were to be +seen for very many years at all the large Hampshire summer sheep +fairs, where indeed, sometimes, when prices were rising, they owned +nearly all the sheep offered for sale, having bought them up +beforehand. As in a favourable summer when there was plenty of keep +and a good prospect of abundant roots prices would rise as much as +10s. a head during the months of the big fairs, and as at a single +fair as many as 30,000 sheep would be for sale, the chances of profit +offered to the courageous dealer with capital are manifest. + +Though risen from small beginnings, these brothers amassed +considerable fortunes, all of which, it was said, they invested in +real estate, so that they were known at one time to be worth at least +£100,000; and, as they continued in business for some years after the +time of which I am writing, they must have exceeded that sum +considerably as a total, though the values of land began to fall away +towards the end of their active existence. + +The more energetic of the two used very original phrases, in which he +extolled the physical virtues of flocks he had to sell; referring to +their size, he would say, "Just look at their backs! look at their +backs! they be as long as a wet Sunday!" Watching him, you could see +that while giving full attention to his customer, and keeping him in a +good humour with pleasant chat, while a bargain was proceeding, his +glance perpetually wandered to the moving crowd around the pens, and +that he had not only eyes, but ears, open to catch any impression +bearing on the progress of the general trade. He knew everybody, and +intuition told him upon what business they were present. + +These two dealers combined money-lending with sheep-dealing; if a +buyer had not the ready cash they would give credit for the purchase +price, the sheep forming the security; it being understood that when +they were again for sale the lenders should have the selling of them +on commission. + +Speaking of horse-dealers I referred to the custom of giving "luck +money," otherwise called "chap money." The word "chap" takes its +derivation from the Anglo-Saxon _ceap_ price or bargain, and +_ceapean_, to bargain, whence come the words "chop," to exchange; +"cheap," "Cheapside," "Mealcheapen Street" in Worcester, "cheapjack," +etc. Also, the prefix in the names of market towns, such as Chipping +Campden, Chipping Norton, etc. There is a curious place-name here in +Burley, New Forest, where I am now living, spelt "Shappen," which +puzzled me until I chanced to meet with an ancient print of a village +merry-making, with dancing and a May-pole and found that the name +Shappen applied especially to the spot, and that not far away the +Forest ponies and cattle were formerly penned for sale at an annual +fair in a lane, still called Pound Lane "Pound" is from the +Anglo-Saxon _pund_, a fold or inclosure. Shappen is evidently, +therefore, derived from _ceap_ (and possibly _pund_) as a place in +which bargains were struck, and the name testifies to the extreme +antiquity of the New Forest pony and cattle fair formerly held there. + +There are several notable horse fairs still held near Evesham. Besides +the one at Pershore, already mentioned, the most important fairs are +held at Stow-on-the-Wold and Shipston-on-Stour, both very +out-of-the-way places; and many stories of the wiles of horse-copers +were related in connection therewith. I remember the following told as +occurring at Stow-on-the-Wold. A man approached a simple-looking young +farmer, and getting into conversation with him, pointed out a horse +not far off, telling him that he had quarrelled with the owner who +refused in consequence to sell him the horse which he wished to buy. +He promised the farmer £2 if he would undertake the negotiation, and +could buy the horse for £10. The farmer agreed, and after some +apparent difficulty succeeded in effecting the purchase at the sum +named, paid the money and returned with the horse to the place where +he had left his acquaintance. The latter, however, had disappeared, +and after searching the fair from one end to the other, the farmer +took back the horse, to repudiate the bargain. The owner had also +vanished, and the farmer found himself with an ancient screw, which +eventually he was glad to get rid of at a pound a leg, losing £6 on +the deal. + +There are small pig-dealers, in almost every village, on the lookout +for bargains, and very cute men they generally are. One of these +well-known at Aldington, though nearly blind, could tell the points +and value of any pig in a marvellous way almost by intuition; it was +said of him that, "though blind, he was a better judge of a pig than +most folks with their eyes open." + +At farm and other auction sales there are always anxious buyers who +make a practice of trying to depreciate ("crabbing," as it is called) +any article or property they particularly wish to purchase, by making +damaging statements or insinuations to anybody whom, they fear, is +also a probable buyer. At a sale of cottage property adjoining a +public-house, in a village not far from Aldington, a keen purchaser +remarked that there was no water on the premises. The auctioneer, +however, knowing that water was not his man's strong point, +immediately replied, "Oh, never mind the water, sir, there's plenty of +whisky to be had next door." At another property sale, the tenant of +the house on offer, gratuitously informed me that the roof was in a +very bad state; knowing my man, I was not surprised when the house was +knocked down to him, but I never saw any repairs to the roof in +progress afterwards. + +A friend of mine had a caretaker in an empty house, and, finding that +no applications to view ever got beyond that stage, called at the +house with his wife, ostensibly as intending tenants. He was not +personally known to the caretaker, and on making the usual inquiries, +found the man by no means enthusiastic as to the amenities of the +place, and particularly doubtful as to the drainage, so much so as to +make it plain that any otherwise likely tenant would be repelled. +Knowing that all the sanitary arrangements were in perfect order, he +disclosed his identity, much to the dismay of the caretaker who, of +course, was dismissed. + +The person who asks damaging questions of the auctioneer or solicitor +at a property sale, though perhaps not declared the buyer on the fall +of the hammer, not infrequently proves later to have been so, having +employed an agent to bid for him. + +At a sale of farm stock and implements I was examining a waggon +practically new, though with no intention of buying, when I was +surprised by a cousin of the vendor volunteering the statement that, +having lately borrowed the waggon, he noticed one of the wheels giving +out a suspicious noise when in use, as if something were wrong. This +was a particularly bad case of "crabbing," as the man eventually +became the purchaser at a high price. + +It is an alarming sensation to see one's name on a waggon for the +first time, especially when the vehicle has been wholly repainted in +blue or yellow to represent the owner's supposed political tendencies, +for such was the custom in Worcestershire; but perhaps one's name, +address, and crest on a hop-pocket is more alarming still, when we +remember that twenty or more of these pockets, all marked alike, will +form each of several loads to be carted from a London railway station +to the Borough, the seat of the hop-trade, on the way to the factor's +warehouses, for all beholders to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly +digest." + +In the delightful and now somewhat rare book _Talpa; or, The +Chronicles of a Clay Farm_, by Chandos Wren Hoskins, one of the few +agricultural works ever written by a scholar, he refers to his first +experience of this sort, when speaking of his difficulty in making up +his mind as to whether he should let the property into which he had +just come by inheritance, or occupy it himself, as follows: + + "What was to be done? Apostatize from all the promises and + vows made from my youth up, and take it _in hand_--that is, + in a bailiff's hand, which certain foregone experiences had + led me to conceive was of all things the most _out of hand_ + (if that may be called so, which empties the hand and the + pocket too). Such seemed the only alternative! At first it + was an impossibility--then an improbability--and then, as + the ear of bearded corn wins its forbidden way up the + schoolboy's sleeve, and gains a point in advance by every + effort to stop or expel it, so did every determination, + every reflection counteract the very purpose it was summoned + to oppose, and, in short, one fine morning I almost jumped a + yard backward at seeing--my own name on a waggon!" + +The reference to a bailiff reminds me of my father's illustration, one +evening at dessert, of the difference between a farmer selling his +produce personally, or doing so through the medium of a bailiff. +Taking three wine-glasses--No. 1 representing the farmer, No. 2 the +bailiff, and No. 3 the purchaser--he filled No. 1 with port and poured +the contents into No. 3; what few drops were left in No. 1 remained +the property of the farmer. But if the wine were poured into No. 2, +and from thence into No. 3, however much the complete transference was +attempted, some small portion always remained for the benefit of the +intermediary. + +I always conducted my sales personally, except in small matters, and +my experience in the latter proved an exception to the above rule, as +I have previously related (pp. 17 and 20). + +I commend _Talpa_, with George Cruikshank's clever illustrations, to +the attention of all readers of the curiosities of agriculture, as +well as to practical men; it is one of those uncommon books which +enters into the humorous side of farming under disadvantages--as, for +instance, prejudiced labourers who have long been employed upon such +work as draining. The author found one of the men, after instructions +to lay the pipes at a depth of three feet, cutting a drain about +eighteen inches deep, _laying in the tiles, one by one, and filling +the earth in over them as he went_. "I've been a-draining this forty +year and more--I ought to know summat about it." The author adds, +"Need I tell you who said this? or give you the whole of the colloquy +to which it furnished the epilogue?" _Talpa_ was published sixty-seven +years ago, but it contains much that might well be taken to heart by +our post-war amateur agricultural reconstructionists. + +The tactics of a combination of buyers at a sale of household goods, +with an arrangement for one man to buy everything they want, so as to +avoid competition, is well known as "the knock out." I saw a most +flagrant case at a sale of valuable books at an old Cotswold Manor +House. The books were tied up, quite promiscuously, in parcels of half +a dozen or more, and although the room was crowded with dealers who +had been examining them with interest beforehand, practically only one +bidder appeared, and nearly every lot was sold to him for a few +shillings. I noticed several men taking notes of the prices made, and, +immediately the book sale was finished, they removed them to the lawn, +where they were resold by one of the gang at greatly enhanced prices. +They would, of course, eventually deduct the original cost from the +amount now realized and divide the difference amongst the buyers at +the second sale, _pro rata_, according to the amount of each man's +total purchases. + +Cattle-dealers, with a reputation as judges of fat stock at auctions, +have to be very careful not to let inexperienced butchers see them +bidding, because the latter will bid on the strength of the dealer's +estimate of value, arguing that the animal must be worth more to +himself as a butcher, than to the dealer who has to sell again. I have +often watched the crafty ways of such dealers not to give themselves +away in this manner, and their methods of concealing their bids. One I +particularly noticed, whose habit was to stand just below the +auctioneer's rostrum, facing the animal in the ring, with his back to +the auctioneer. When he wished to bid he raised his head very +slightly, making a nod backwards to the auctioneer, who, knowing his +man, was looking out for this method of attracting his attention. + +Though the ordinary farm sale is by far the most amusing and +picturesque, the sale of pedigree stock is much more sensational. When +the shorthorn mania was at its height, and the merits of Bates and +Booth blood were hotly debated, when such phrases as "the sea-otter +touch," referring to the mossy coat of the red, white, or roan +shorthorn, were heard, and the Americans were competing with our own +breeders in purchasing the best stock they could find--prices were +hoisted to an extravagant height. There is no forming a "knock-out" at +a pedigree sale; sturdy competition is the only recognized method of +purchase, and the sporting spirit is a strong incentive, especially +when the vendor is known as a courageous buyer at the sales of the +leading breeders. + +I attended the dispersal of a herd where the owner had been for years +one of these sporting buyers; he had, however, gone more for catalogue +blue-blood than perceptible excellence, and the stock were brought +into the ring scarcely up to the exhibition form which a pedigree sale +demands. The American buyers were well represented, and the popularity +of the vendor brought a great crowd of home buyers, so that the sale +went off with spirit. I chanced to sit next to the veterinary surgeon +who attended my own stock as well as the herd on offer, and it was +amusing to hear his confidential communications as the animals were +sold at huge prices. He knew their faults and weaknesses +professionally, and it was no breach of confidence, when a cow had +passed through the ring and extracted a big figure from an American +buyer, to whisper them in my ear. I noticed that the Americans, no +doubt with commissions to buy a particular strain of pedigree, +appeared to pay more attention to the catalogue than to the cattle +themselves, and I saw some sold at fancy prices, which I should really +have been sorry to see in my own non-pedigree herd. The sale was a +great success, from the vendor's point of view at any rate, and I +think the average exceeded seventy guineas all round, including calves +only a few months old. + +Some years later I visited Shipston-on-Stour with two friends to +attend a shorthorn sale in that neighbourhood. Mr. Thornton, the +well-known pedigree salesman, was the auctioneer. He waited about for +a long time after the hour fixed for the sale, until it became evident +that something had gone wrong. It appeared that the sheriff's +representative had served a writ on the vendor restraining the sale, +and although it was stated that Thornton had offered a personal +guarantee that the proceeds should be handed over to the sheriff, the +representative could not exceed his instructions, and the sale was +abandoned. A large company, including many foreign buyers, had +assembled; it was difficult to get these together at a postponement, +and when the sale was proceeded with some weeks later, I fear the +result could scarcely have proved so satisfactory. + +The Vale of Evesham is particularly suitable for pedigree shorthorn +breeding, as the soil and climate are very favourable for their +production according to exhibition type. It is otherwise with the +Jersey, for they quickly adapt themselves to the difference in their +environment as compared with the conditions in their native Channel +Island. When I exchanged my shorthorns for Jerseys, owing to the +foreign competition in the production of beef, which at sevenpence a +pound compared unfavourably with butter at fifteenpence, I imported my +cows direct from the Island, and afterwards bred from their +descendants, selling the bull calves, and occasionally buying a young +bull from Jersey. The blood was therefore kept absolutely pure, and, +as I was a member of the English Jersey Society, all my stock were +entered in the Herd Book. + +As time went on my cattle presented a noticeable change from the +original type; they were larger, developing much more hair and bone, +and though they gained in strength of constitution, and were handsome +and profitable, they gradually lost the dainty deer-like appearance of +the imported stock; and though quite as valuable for the purposes of +the dairy, they would have been regarded in the show ring by +connoisseurs as having a tendency to coarseness. I was, at first, +successful at the shows, but as the character of my cattle altered I +recognized that they would stand no chance against Jerseys bred on +lighter land, and in a climate more nearly approximating to that of +their native country. + +Precisely the same thing happened with my pedigree Shropshire sheep; +environment altered their character and produced a different +type--bone, wool, and size all increased. The wool was coarser and +darker in colour; they were good, useful, hardy stock, but could not +compete in quality with the pedigree sheep bred in their own county. +No pedigree Shropshire breeder will, as a rule, buy rams bred outside +his own district, for fear of introducing coarseness and an alteration +of the established exhibition type. + +An amusing incident happened at Mr. Graham's sale at Yardley near +Birmingham, at which I was present. Mr. Graham had a reputation as a +Shropshire sheep-breeder; though not actually farming in the county, +his land was not unsuitable, and, on one occasion, I believe, he won +the first prize for a shearling ram at the show of the Royal +Agricultural Society of England. + +I noticed a very non-agricultural individual in a top hat, who tried +to get into conversation with me and who succeeded in getting a +luncheon ticket gratis. These sale luncheons were at the time very +bountiful spreads, including plenty of champagne, and the man under my +observation made a very hearty meal. Short speeches and toasts always +follow, but an adjournment is quickly made to the sale tent, before +the evaporation of the effects of the hospitality. It is the custom +for a glove to be passed round to collect subscriptions for the +shepherd, during the progress of the sale, and on this occasion two +young fellows undertook the duty of collectors. The man, who had done +himself so well at Mr. Graham's expense, was evidently not buying or +even making bids, and to each of the collectors he said he had already +contributed to the other. Being suspicious they compared notes, and +found that he had made the same excuse to both. Such meanness after +the hospitality he had received was intolerable; shouting, "He's a +Welsher," they lifted him bodily, protesting and struggling, rushed +him out of the tent into a neighbouring field, and cast him into a +dirty pond covered with green and slimy duckweed! A miserable object +he scrambled out, for the pond was shallow, and took his dishevelled +and bedraggled presence away as fast as he could limp along, amid the +laughter and jeers of the crowd. + +The Hampshire Down ram sales in the palmy days of farming were +organized upon the same scale of liberality, and while the sale was +proceeding steam was kept up by handing round boxes of sixpenny +cigars, and brandy and water in buckets. It is, of course, good policy +to keep a company of buyers in good humour, but I think it has long +since been recognized that hospitality was carried a little too far in +those times of prosperity, and, in these degenerate if more +business-like days, extravagance is much less evident, though there is +a hearty welcome and abundance for all. + +Agricultural shows under favourable weather conditions are always +popular and well-attended. The large exhibitions of the Royal +Agricultural Society of England, the Bath and West of England, and the +Royal Counties, especially attract immense crowds; much business in +novel implements, machinery, seeds, and artificial fertilizers, was +done when times were good, and the towns in which the shows are held +benefit by a large increase in general trade. The weather, however, is +the arbiter as to the attendance, upon which the financial result of +the show depends. + +In 1879, the last of the miserable decade that ruined thousands of +farmers all over the country with almost continuous wet seasons, poor +crops, and wretched prices, the Royal Agricultural Society held its +show at Kilburn. The ground had been carefully prepared and adapted +for the great show with the usual liberal outlay; the work for next +year's show always commencing as soon as the show of the current year +is over; but the site was situated on the stiff London clay, and, +after weeks of summer rains and the traffic caused by collecting the +heavy engines and machinery and the materials used in the construction +of the sheds and buildings, the ground was churned into a quagmire of +clay and water, so that in places it was impassable, and some of the +exhibits were isolated. Thousands of wattled hurdles were purchased in +Hampshire, and laid flat on the mud along the main routes to the tents +and sheds, but they were quickly trodden in out of sight. Many +ponderous engines were bogged on their way to their appointed places; +nothing could move them, and they remained looking like derelict +wrecks, plastered with mud, sunk unevenly above the axles of their +wheels. + +I attended the show and shall never forget the scene of disaster. One +afternoon the Prince of Wales--the late King Edward--and a Royal party +made a gallant attempt, in carriages, to see the principal exhibits, +and succeeded, by following a carefully selected and guarded route. +The crowd was dense by the side of the track, and people were making a +harvest by letting out chairs to stand on, so as to get a view of the +procession, with cries of, "'Ere you are, sir; 'ere you are, warranted +not to sink in more than a mile!" Outside the show-yard, too, the +streets were lined with long rows of nondescripts, scraping the +adhesive clay off the shoes of the people leaving the show. + +I had a pocket of my hops on exhibition entered in the Worcester +class, and had great difficulty in getting near it. I found the shed +at last, deserted and surrounded by water, with a pool below the +benches on which the hops were staged. My pocket was sold straight +from the show-yard, and when my factor sent in the account, I found +that the pocket had gained no less than seventeen pounds from the damp +to which it had been subjected since it left my premises, about ten +days previously; hops, at that time, were worth about 1s. a pound, so +that the increased value more than balanced all expenses. + +A story is told of Tennyson at the Royal Counties show at Guildford. +Accompanied by a lady and child he was walking round the exhibits, +closely followed by an ardent admirer, anxious to catch any nights of +fancy that might fall from his lips. Time passed, and the poet showed +no signs of inspiration until the party approached a refreshment tent; +then, to the lady he said, to the astonishment of the follower, "Just +look after this child a minute while I go and get a glass of beer!" I +cannot vouch for the truth of this story, but I tell the tale as 'twas +told to me. + +It is surprising how long farm implements will last if kept in the dry +and repaired when necessary. I remember a waggon at Alton in the +seventies, which bore the name of the original owner and the date +1795; it was still in use. When I decided to give up farming, or +rather, when farming had given up me, I disposed of my stock and +implements by the usual auction sale. The attraction of a pedigree +herd of Jerseys, and a useful lot of horses and implements, brought a +large company together, and Aldington was a lively place that day. I +was talking to my son-in-law some time afterwards, and spoke with +amusement about the price an old iron Cambridge roller had made, not +in the least knowing who was the purchaser, until he said, "And _I was +the mug_ who bought it!" I believe, however, that a year or two later +it fully maintained its price when valued to the next owner, and +probably to-day it must be worth at least three times the money. I can +trace its history for a period of fifty-three years, and I don't think +it was new at the beginning. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + + +FARM SPECIALISTS. + + "And who that knew him could forget + The busy wrinkles round his eyes." + --_The Miller's Daughter_. + +Many specialists, in distinct professions, visited the farm in the +course of every twelve months, and each appeared at the season when +his particular services were likely to be required. Among these an +ancient grafter was one of the most important, and April was the month +which brought him to Aldington. In January we had usually beheaded +some trees that we considered not worth leaving as they were: these +would be trees producing inferior and nondescript cider apples, or +perry pears. And we had already cut, and laid in a shady place, half +covered with soil, the young shoots of profitable sorts to furnish the +grafts for converting the beheaded trees into valuable producers. + +The old man's function was to prepare the grafts, and unite them in +deftly-cut notches with their new parents. His was a rosy-cheeked and +many-wrinkled face, reminding one of an apple stored all the winter, +and, in his brown velveteen coat, with immense pockets, he made a +notable figure. He loved a chat and was always happy and +communicative, and his arrival seemed as much a herald of spring as +that of the welcome cuckoo. He was paid "by the piece," +"three-halfpence a graft and cider," quantity not specified, but an +important part of the bargain because of a superstition that grafts +"unwetted" would not thrive! Some of these large trees would have ten +or more limbs requiring separate grafting, and therefore they earned +him a considerable sum, but it is surprising how soon they make a new +head, come into bearing, and repay with interest the cost of the work. + +He was a thoughtful old man and a moralist. I can see him now, +standing with his snuff-box open ready in his hand, and saying very +solemnly, "I often thinks as an apple-tree is very similar to a child, +for you know, sir, we're told to train up a child in the way he shall +go, and when he is old he will not depart therefrom." He then +refreshed himself with a mighty pinch of snuff, closing his box with a +snap that emphasized his air of complete conviction. + +I think the sheep-dipper was one of the early arrivals. He brings with +him an apparatus which provides a bath, and a kind of gangway, rising +at an angle from it, upon which the sheep can stand after immersion, +to allow the superfluous liquid to find its way back into the bath; +each sheep is lifted by two men into the bath containing insecticide, +and has an interval for dripping before it rejoins the flock. In the +days when Viper was young, he was introduced to the process and given +a dip himself, much to his disgust; but that was the only time, for +ever afterwards no sooner did the sheep-dipper and his weird-looking +apparatus appear at night, in readiness for the performance on the +morrow, than Viper remembered his undignified experience, and, before +even the overture of the play commenced, vanished for the day. Nobody +saw him go, or knew where he went, but it was useless to call or +whistle, he was nowhere to be found. + +I believe the active ingredient of the dip was a preparation of +arsenic, and upon one occasion I lost several sheep after the dipping, +presumably from arsenical poisoning absorbed through the skin. I met +the dipper a few days later, and he said with a beaming face that he +had "given 'em summat," meaning the parasites. His smiles disappeared +when I told him the result, and that the remedy had proved more fatal +than the disease. After this experience I used a more scientific dip +which was quite as effective and without the element of danger to the +sheep. + +Entries are to be found in the old parish records of sums paid and +chargeable to the parish for killing "woonts" (moles), but later +private enterprise was alone responsible. A mole-catcher had been +employed throughout the whole of my predecessor's time at Aldington, +with a yearly remuneration of 12s. On my arrival he called and asked +me to forward the account for the last year to his employer; it ran as +follows: "To dastroyin thay woonts, 12s." The man hoped that I should +continue the arrangement, but, as I had not seen a mole or a mole-hill +on the farm, I told him I would wait, and would send for him if I +found them troublesome. As a matter of fact I never saw a mole, or +heard of one on my land, throughout the twenty-eight years of my +occupation. + +Rat-catchers are necessary when rats are very numerous, but rats +appear to be very capricious, abounding in some seasons and scarce in +others. My particular rat-catcher was not a very highly evolved +specimen of humanity; he was thin and hungry-looking with an angular +face, bearing a strong resemblance to the creatures against whom he +waged warfare; he had a wandering, restless and furtive expression, +and appeared to be perpetually on the lookout for his prey, or for +manifestations of their cunning and other evil characteristics in the +humanity with which he came in contact. His terms were, "no cure, no +pay," which impressed one with his confidence in his own remedies; but +these were profound secrets, and I had to be content with the +assurance that he used nothing harmful to man or domestic animals. He +was certainly successful, and effectually cleared the ricks and +buildings at one of my outlying places previously badly infested; no +dead rats were ever found, but all disappeared very soon after I +engaged him. + +It is well known that rats will unexpectedly desert quarters which +they have occupied for a long time, and travel in large bodies to a +new locality. An old man told me that, in walking by the brook-side +footpath from Aldington to Badsey, he once encountered one of these +armies; they looked so threatening and were in such numbers, that he +had to turn aside to allow them to pass, as they showed no signs of +giving way for him. + +One morning my bailiff came in to say that a bean-rick had suddenly +been taken possession of by an immense number of rats, where shortly +before not one could have been found. A man going to the rick-yard +quite early had seen the roof of the rick black with them; they were +apparently drinking the dew hanging in drops on the straws of the +thatch. They were so close together, "so thick," as he expressed it, +that one was killed by a stone thrown "into the brown" of them. We +sent for the thrashing machine a day or two later, and killed over +seventy, and many escaped. Every dead rat was plastered with mud +underneath, especially on their tails, and it was evident that they +had only just arrived when first seen, and had travelled some +distance, probably the evening before, along the clayey overhanging +bank of the brook. + +We always had great numbers of water-rats about brook; they are no +relation of the land-rat, having blunter, noses, shorter tails, and +very soft fur. They have not the loathsome appearance of the land-rat, +and live, almost entirely, on water-weeds, rushes, and other vegetable +matter. It is pretty to see them swimming across a stream; they dive +when alarmed, and remain out of sight a long time; they never leave +the water or the bank, and are quite innocent of depredations on corn. + +In some counties, but not so far as I am aware in Worcestershire, one +of the harmless snappers up of unconsidered trifles is the +truffle-hunter. At Alton, in Hampshire, one of these men appeared in +summer; he carried an implement like a short-handled thistle spud, but +with a much longer blade, similar to that of a small spade but +narrower; he was accompanied by a frisky little Frenchified dog, +unlike any dog one commonly sees, and very alert. The hunting ground +was beneath the overhanging branches of beech-trees, growing on a +chalky soil; the man encouraged the dog by voice to hunt the surface +of the land regularly over; when the dog scented the truffles +underneath, he began to scratch, whereupon the implement came into +use, and they were soon secured. I have since been sorry that I did +not interview this truffle-hunter as to his methods and as to his dog, +for I believe he is no longer to be seen in his old haunts. But I did +get a pound or two to try, and was disappointed by the absence of +flavour. I have since read that the English truffle is considered very +inferior to the French, which is used in making _pâté de foie gras_. + +The wool-stapler makes his rounds as soon as shearing is completed; +his first call is to examine the fleeces, and if a deal results a +second visit follows for weighing and packing. He is of course well up +in market values, probably receiving a telegram every morning, when +trade is active, from the great wool-trade centre, Bradford. He is not +unwilling to give a special price for quality, but will sometimes +stipulate for secrecy as to the sum, because farmers, naturally, +compare notes, and everyone thinks himself entitled to the top price +no matter how inferior or badly washed his wool may be. The Bradford +stapler has the northern method of speech, which sounds unfamiliar in +the midland and southern counties, but it is not so cryptic as that of +the Scottish wool trade. The following colloquy is reported as having +passed between two Scots over a deal in woollen cloth. + +_Buyer_. "'Oo?" + +_Seller_. "Ay, 'oo." + +_Buyer_. "A' 'oo?" + +_Seller_. "Ay, a' 'oo." + +_Buyer_. "A' _a_ 'oo?" + +_Seller_. "Ay, a' _a_ 'oo." + +Which, being interpreted, is: "Wool?"--"Yes, wool." "All wool?"--"Yes, +all wool." "All one wool?"--"Yes, all one wool." + +When the stapler arrives for the weighing he brings his steelyards and +sheets; the wool is trod into the sheets, sewn up, and each sheet +weighed separately, an allowance being made for "tare" (the weight of +the sheet), and for "draught" (1/2 a pound in each tod, or 28 pounds). +This last is a survival of the old method of weighing wool, when only +enough fleeces were weighed at a time on the farmer's small machine to +come to a tod as nearly as possible. Buyers did not recognize anything +but level pounds (no quarters or halves), and consequently they got on +the average half a pound over the tod at each separate weighing, +gratis. + +Owing to the immense importations of Australian wool, the price of +English, which at one time was half-a-crown a pound, fell to the +miserable figure of sevenpence or thereabouts. When I was in +Lincolnshire, the tenant of the farm where I was a pupil clipped 14 +pounds each from 200 "hoggs" (yearling sheep), which at 2s. 6d. per +pound produced 35s. per sheep, equal to £350, so the fall of +three-quarters of the value was a serious loss. + +A story is told of a cunning wool buyer in the dim past weighing up +wool on an upper floor of some farm premises. As the fleeces passed +the machine they were thrown down an opening to the floor beneath in +readiness for packing. The pile of wool upstairs had been there some +time, and was full of rats. As the fleeces were moved a rat would +sometimes rush out trying to escape. No farm labourer can resist a rat +hunt, so the buyer being left alone beside the still unmoved fleeces, +whenever a rat appeared, and the men scattered in every direction in +pursuit, he took the opportunity to kick a few fleeces unweighed down +the opening. When the owner came to reckon the quantity the buyer +should have had, and compared it with the weight, the fraud was +discovered, and the deficiency had to be made good. + +I heard of a Hampshire farmer whose wife was anxious for a +drawing-room to be added to an inadequate farmhouse, and the tenant +with some difficulty persuaded the landlord to make the alteration. +When the work was complete the farmer expressed the great satisfaction +of his wife and himself with the addition, and the landlord was +anxious to see the new room. Every time he suggested a day, the farmer +objected that it would be inconvenient to his wife, or that he himself +would be away from home. Time went on, and the landlord, finding it +impossible to arrange a day that was not objected to, made a surprise +visit, when shooting over the farm. The farmer protested as to the +inconvenience, but the owner insisted, and was conducted to the new +drawing-room. The door was thrown open, and the room was seen to be +stacked from floor to ceiling with wool, without a stick of furniture +in the place! + +The veterinary surgeon is a necessary, but not very welcome visitor, +for, of course, his attendance means disease or accident to the stock. +He is not often mistaken in his diagnosis, though his patient cannot +detail his symptoms, or point to the position of the trouble. But the +vet is a man to be dispensed with as long as possible when epidemics, +like swine fever or foot and mouth disease, are raging in the +neighbourhood, because he may be a Government Inspector at such times, +and there is great danger to healthy stock if he has been officially +employed shortly before on an inspection. We had very little disease +at Aldington, being off the highroad, but we had one bad attack of +foot and mouth disease which I always thought was brought by a +veterinary surgeon. The complaint went all through my dairy cows and +fattening bullocks, and soon reduced them to lean beasts, but it was +surprising how quickly they picked up again in flesh and resumed their +normal appearance. It was curious to notice that, with the cows +standing side by side in the sheds, the disease would attack one and +miss the next two perhaps, then attack two and miss one, and so on; +doubtless it was a matter of predisposition on the part of those +affected. + +The veterinary lecturer at Cirencester College told me that during the +cattle plague in the sixties he had a coat well worth £50 to any +veterinary surgeon, so impregnated was it with the infection. This man +was fond of scoring off the students, and had a habit at the +commencement of each lecture of holding a short _vivâ voce_ +examination on the subject of the last. I remember when the tables +were turned upon him by a ready-witted student. The lecturer, who was +a superior veterinary surgeon, detailed a whole catalogue of +exaggerated symptoms exhibited by an imaginary horse, and selecting +his victim added, with a chuckle, "Now, Mr. K., perhaps you will +kindly tell us what treatment you would adopt under these +circumstances?" K. was not a very diligent student, and the lecturer +expected a display of ignorance, but his anticipated triumph was cut +short by the reply: "Well, if I had a horse as bad as all that _I_ +should send for the vet." The lecturer expostulated, but could get +nothing further out of K., and was forced to recognize that the +general laugh which followed was against himself. + +At a _post-mortem_, however, he was more successful in his choice of a +butt. A dead horse with organs exposed was the object before the +class, and the lecturer was asking questions as to their +identification. "Now, Mr. Jones, perhaps you will show us where his +lungs are?" Jones made an unsuccessful search. "Well, can we see where +his heart is?" and so on--all failures. Finally and scornfully, "Well, +perhaps you can show the gentlemen where his tail is!" + +The village thatcher, Obadiah B., was an ancient, but efficient +workman when engaged upon cottages or farm buildings, for ricks +require only a comparatively temporary treatment. He was paid by the +"square" of 100 feet, and, although he was "no scholard," and never +used a tape, he was quite capable of checking by some method I could +never fathom my own measurements with it. The finishing touches to his +work were adjusted with the skill of an artist and the accuracy of a +mathematician; and a beautiful bordering of "buckles" in an elaborate +pattern of angles and crosses--"Fantykes" (Van Dycks), his +hard-working daughter Sally called them--completed the job. He +"reckoned" that each thatching would last at least twenty years, and +being well stricken in years, or "getting-up-along" as they say in +Hampshire, he would add gloomily, "_I_ shall never do it no more." He +was a true prophet, for on every building he thatched for me the work +outlived him, and even after the lapse of thirty years is not +completely worn out. + +Passing him and his son in the village street, outside his house, when +he was packing fruit for market, I heard him, his voice raised for my +benefit, thus admonishing his son who was casually using some of the +newer hampers: "Allus wear out the old, fust." But I must not +attribute to his son the unfilial retort which another youth made +under similar circumstances, when told to fetch some more hampers from +a shed some distance away: "No, father, _you_ fetch them, allus wear +out the old fust, you know." + +Occasional visitors come with goods for sale in quest of orders, and +some are very persistent and difficult to get rid of. A man professing +to sell some artificial fertilizer called upon me with a small tin +sample box, containing a mixture which emitted a most villainous +odour. He sniffed with appreciation at the compound, probably +consisting of some nitrogenous material such as wool treated with +sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, and began his address. He had not gone +far before I remembered a story of a similar person in Hampshire. This +man had called upon the leading farmers, and offered them a bargain, +explaining that some trucks of artificial manure that he had consigned +to Walton Station had been sent by mistake to Alton. He sold many tons +in this way without any guarantee as to the analysis, but the buyers +found on using it that it was worthless. The seller tried his game on +again the following year, without success. One farmer whom he followed +from the farm-house to a turnip-field went so far as to show him his +hunting-crop, and pointing to the field gate at the same time, +intimated that if he did not with all speed place himself outside the +latter, he would make unpleasant acquaintance with the former. So now +when my caller mentioned a truck of the manure which had come by +mistake to Evesham Station, though consigned to Evershot in Somerset, +my suspicions were confirmed, and when I innocently remarked, "I think +I remember that truck, didn't it go to Alton once in mistake for +Walton?" his countenance fell, and he wished me "good-morning" in a +hurry. + +Hurdles in Worcestershire are generally made of "withy" (willow), and +it is interesting to watch the hurdle-maker at work. The poles have +first to be peeled, which can be done by unskilled labour, the pole +being fixed in an improvised upright vice made from the same material. +Then comes the skilled man, who cuts the poles into suitable lengths, +and splits the pieces into the correct widths. Next with an axe he +trims off the rough edges, shapes the ends of the rails, and pierces +the uprights with a centre-bit. Then he completes the mortise in a +moment with a chisel, the rails being laid in position as guides to +the size of the apertures. The rails are then driven home into the +mortise holes, and he skips backwards and forwards, over the hurdle +flat on the ground, as he nails the rails to the heads; two pieces, in +the form of a V reversed, connect the rails and keep them in place. + +In counties where hazel is grown in the coppices, a wattled or "flake" +hurdle is the favourite, and they afford much more shelter to sheep in +the fold than the open withy hurdle, but, being more lightly made, +they require stakes and "shackles" to keep them in position. The hazel +hurdle-maker may be seen in the coppice surrounded by his material and +the clean fresh stacks of the work completed. The process of +manufacture differs from that of the open-railed hurdle: he has an +upright framework fixed to the ground with holes bored at the exact +places for the vertical pieces, and indicating the correct length of +the hurdle, when finished. The horizontal pieces or rods are +comparatively slender and easily twisted, and so can be bent back +where they reach the outside uprights, and they are interlaced with +the others in basket-making fashion. At this stage the hurdle presents +an unfinished appearance, with the ends of the horizontal rods +protruding from the face of the hurdle. Then the maker with a special +narrow and exceedingly sharp hatchet chops off at one blow each of the +projecting ends, with admirable accuracy, never missing his aim or +exceeding the exact degree of strength necessary to sever the +superfluous bit without injuring the hurdle itself. The hurdle-maker +is paid at a price per dozen, and he earns and deserves "good money." + +The art of making wattled hurdles is passed on and carried down from +father to son for generations; the hurdle-maker is usually a cheery +man and receives a gracious welcome from the missus and the maids when +he calls at the farm-house, often emphasized by a pint of home-brewed. +He combines the accuracy of the draughtsman with the delicate touch of +the accomplished lawn-tennis player. His exits and his entrances from +and to the scene of his labours are made in the remote mysterious +surroundings of the seldom-trodden woods; overhead is the brilliant +blue of the clear spring sky; the sunshine lights up the quiet hazel +tones of his simple materials, his highly finished work, and his heaps +of clean fresh chips; and his stage is the newly cut coppice, carpeted +with primroses and wild hyacinths. I have never seen a representation +of this charming scene, and I commend the subject to the +country-loving artist as full of interest and colour, and as a theme +of natural beauty. + +Our blacksmith came twice a week to the village when work was still +plentiful in the early days of my farming, and I was not yet the only +practical farmer in the place. I need not describe the forge: it has +been sung by Longfellow, made music of by Handel, and painted by +Morland; everybody knows its gleaming red-hot iron, its cascades of +sparks, and the melodious clank of the heavy hammer as it falls upon +the impressionable metal. In all pursuits which entail the use of an +open fire at night, its fascination attracts both busy and idle +villagers, and more especially in winter it becomes a centre for local +gossip. At that season the time-honoured gossip corner, close to the +Manor gate, was deserted for the warmth and action of the forge. +Blacksmiths, like other specialists, vary, and the difference may be +expressed as that between the man who fits the shoe to the hoof, and +the man who fits the hoof to the shoe--in other words, the workman and +the sloven. Doubtless many a slum-housed artisan in the big town, +driven from his country home by the flood of unfair foreign +competition, looks back with longing to the bright old cottage garden +of his youth and in his dreams hears the music of the forge, sees the +blazing fire, and sniffs the pungency of scorching hoof. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + + +THE DAIRY--CATTLE--SHEEP--LAMBS--PIGS--POULTRY. + + "And brushing ankle-deep in flowers, + We heard behind the woodbine veil + The milk that bubbled in the pail, + And buzzings of the honied hours." + --_In Memoriam_. + +My farm had the reputation of being a good cheese farm, but a bad +butter farm; in spite, however, of this tradition I determined to +establish a pedigree Jersey herd for butter-making. For early in my +occupation I had abandoned the cheese manufacture of my predecessor +and later the production of unprofitable beef. My wife attended +various lectures and demonstrations and was soon able to prove that +the bad character of the farm for this purpose was not justified. +Within a few years she covered one wall of the dairy with prize cards +won at all the leading shows, and found a ready market for the +produce, chiefly by parcel post to friends. The butter, although it +commanded rather a better price than ordinary quality, was considered +not only by them but by the villagers more economical, as owing to its +solidity and freedom from butter milk, it would keep good +indefinitely, and "went much further." + +The cream from my Jerseys was so thick that the cream crock could be +lifted up by the wooden spoon used for stirring, by merely plunging it +into the crock full of cream and raising it, without touching the +crock in any other way. With fifteen cows and heifers in milk on an +average, the Jerseys brought me in quite £300 a year in butter and +cream, without considering the value of the calves, and of the +skim-milk for the pigs, and they were worth a good deal besides from +the æsthetic point of view. I think that the word "dainty" describes +the Jersey better than any other adjective; their beautiful lines and +colouring in all shades of fawn and silver grey make them a continual +delight to behold. After all, however, the shorthorn is a magnificent +creature; they, too, have their aesthetic side; the outline is more +robust, their colouring more pronounced, and I think that "stately" is +the best description to apply to their distinguished bearing. + +At Worcester, on market days, a great deal of butter is brought in by +the country people and retailed in the Market Hall, and many of these +farmers' wives and daughters have regular customers, who come each +week for their supply. On one occasion when the inspector of weights +and measures was making a surprise visit, and testing the weights of +the goods on offer, a man, standing near a stall where only one pound +of butter was left unsold, noticed that as soon as the owner became +aware of the inspector's entrance, she slipped two half-crowns into +the pat, obliterating the marks where they had been inserted. She was +evidently aware that the butter was not full weight, but with the +addition it satisfied the inspector's test, the two half-crowns just +balancing the one ounce short. No sooner was he gone than the +spectator came forward to buy the butter. She guessed that he had seen +the trick, and dared not refuse to sell, although she tried hard to +avoid doing so; so the cunning buyer walked off with fifteen ounces of +butter worth 1s. 2d., and 5s. in silver for his outlay of 1s. 3d. + +In farm-houses where old-fashioned ways of butter-making are still +followed, and the thermometer is ignored, it happens sometimes that +after some hours' churning the butter does not "come." The traditional +remedy is then tried of introducing one or two half-crowns into the +churn, partly, I think, as a kind of charm, and partly with the idea +of what is called "cutting the curd." The remedy is certainly +sometimes successful, probably the coins set up a new movement in the +rotating cream, which causes an almost immediate appearance of the +butter. On the outside of the framework of the windows in some of +these old places, the word "dairy" or "cheese-room" may still be seen, +painted or incised. This is a survival from the days of the window +tax, and was necessary to claim the exemption which these rooms as +places of business enjoyed by law. + +My former tutor, the late vicar of Old Basing in Hampshire, decided to +keep a cow on his glebe, and consulted the old parish clerk as to the +kind of cow he would recommend. The old man was the oracle of the +village on all matters secular as well as those connected with his +calling. "Well," he said, "what you wants is a nice pretty little cow, +not a great big beast as'll stand a-looking and a-staring at you all +day long." The vicar followed his advice, avoided the stony regard of +an unintelligent animal, and purchased a charming little tender-eyed +Brittany, which was quite an ornament to his meadow. + +People were very shy of American beef when first imported but, being +lower in price than English it was bought by those who were willing to +sacrifice quality to cheapness. It was said that the most inferior +English was sold under the name of American, the best of the American +doing duty for medium quality English. I remember seeing a very +ancient and poverty-stricken cow knocked down to a Birmingham dealer, +who exclaimed exultingly as the hammer fell, "I'll make 'em some +'Merican biff in Brummagem this week." + +The neglected and overgrown hedges, now so often seen on what was +formerly good wheat-growing land, have a useful side as shelter when +surrounding pasture. In the bitter winds which often occur in May, +when the cattle are first turned out after a winter in the yards well +littered with clean straw, they can be seen on the southern side +protected from the blast. Referring to the May blossom of the +white-thorn, an old proverb says, with a faulty rhyme: + + "May come early or May come late + 'Tis sure to make the old cow quake." + +May Day has always been the customary date for turning out cattle to +grass, but people forget that old May Day was nearly a fortnight +later, which makes a great difference as to warmth and keep at that +time of year. + +With changes of dates and times old customs and sayings lose their +force. Under the "daylight saving" arrangement we should alter, "Rain +before seven, fine before eleven," to "Rain before eight, fine before +twelve," which spoils the rhyme. And "Between one and two, you'll see +what the day means to do," into, "Between two and three, you'll see +what the day means to be." + +A few years ago, when _Antony and Cleopatra_ was reproduced at a +London theatre by an eminent actor-manager, it was reported that his +mind was much exercised over the lines referring to the flight of +Pompey's galley: + + "The breese upon her, like a cow in June, + Hoists sails and flies." + +It was suggested that for "cow," the correct reading should be "crow," +who might very well spread her wings to the breeze and fly. The +difficulty was caused by the word "breese" (the gad-fly)--no doubt +presumed to be an archaic spelling of "breeze." Shakespeare knew all +about farming, as about nearly everything else, and a year on a farm +would illustrate many of his allusions which the ordinary reader finds +somewhat cryptic; anyone who has seen the terrified stampede of cattle +with their tails erect when attacked by the gad-fly, will recognize +the force of the simile. The gad-fly pierces the skin of the animal, +laying its eggs beneath, just as the ichneumon makes use of a +caterpillar to provide a host for its progeny. No doubt the operation +is a painful one, but the caterpillar may survive, even into its +chrysalis stage, and the cow in due time is relieved, after an +uncomfortable experience, by the exit of the maggot or fly. + +A branch of the Roman road, Ryknield Street, commonly called Buckle +Street, leaving the former near Bidford-on-Avon and running over the +Cotswolds via Weston Subedge, was known in former times as Buggilde or +Buggeld Street, derived possibly from the Latin _buculus_, a young +bullock. No doubt vast herds of cattle traversed the road from the +vale to the hills, or vice versa, according to the abundance of keep +and the time of year. Similar roads in Dorset and Wiltshire are still +known as "ox droves," and in the former county, at least, both young +heifers and bullocks are known as "bullicks." + +Cattle are subject to all manner of disorders which, though puzzling +to the owner to diagnose, are not as a rule beyond the skill of a good +veterinary surgeon to alleviate; but there are also accidents which +are much more annoying, being impossible to foresee. I had occasional +losses from the latter causes: once in the night when a cow was thrown +on her back into a deep brick manger; and once when a small piece of +sacking, part of a decorticated cotton-cake bag, was somehow mixed in +with the food, and induced internal inflammation. + +It is a difficult matter for a farmer when selling fat cattle direct +to the butcher, to compete with him in a correct estimate of the +weight, and it is therefore advisable to sell at a price per pound of +the dead weight when dressed; this, however, is not always feasible, +and a very close estimate can be arrived at by measurement of the +girth and length of the live animal, following rules laid down in the +handbooks on the subject of fat stock. It is a mistake to suppose that +the fattening of stock is a profitable undertaking _per se_. On all +arable farms there is a certain amount of food, hay, straw, chaff, +roots, etc., which must be consumed on the premises for the sake of +keeping up the fertility of the land, but I believe that only under +very exceptional circumstances can a shilling's-worth of food and +attendance be converted into a shilling's-worth of meat, so that if in +the future the price of corn is to fall back into anything approaching +pre-war values, the corn crops, as well as the intermediate green +crops, which are only a means for producing corn, must be +discontinued, and the land will again become inferior pasture. +Old-fashioned farmers recognized the absence of direct profit in the +winter of fattening cattle especially on the produce of arable land, +and the saying is well known that, "the man who fattens many bullocks +never wants much paper on which to make his will." + +There are few pleasanter sights about farm premises than to see, as +the short winter day is drawing to an end, and the twilight is +stealing around the ricks and buildings, a nicely sheltered yard full +of contented cattle deeply bedded down in clean bright wheat straw, +and settling themselves comfortably for the night; and, when one pulls +the bed-clothes up to one's ears, one can go to sleep thinking happily +that they too are enjoying a refreshing sleep. Cattle and sheep can +stand severe cold, if they are sheltered from bitter winds and have +dry quarters in which to lie; even lambs are none the worse for coming +into the world in a snow-covered pasture; and an opened stable window +without a draught will often cure a horse of a long-standing chronic +cough. It was pitiful in the early days of the war to see the Indian +troops with their mountain batteries at Ashurst, near Lyndhurst, in +the New Forest, the mules up to their knees and hocks in black mud, +owing to the unfortunate selection of an unsound site for the camp. + +A "deadly man for ship"--one of those expressions not uncommon in +Worcestershire, on the _lucus a non lucendo_ principle--signifies a +celebrated sheep breeder; the word "deadly," in this sense, is akin to +the Hampshire and Dorset "terrible," or, "turrble," as a term of +admiration or the appreciation of excellence; but there are occasions +even in the most carefully tended flocks where accidents cannot be +anticipated. Such an event occurred to a Cotswold ram, which after +washing was placed in an orchard near my house to dry before shearing. +The ram had an immense fleece on him, nineteen pounds as it afterwards +proved, and the wool round the neck was somewhat ragged. As he lay +asleep with his head turned round and muzzle pointing backwards, some +little movement caused his head to become entangled in the loose wool, +and he was found hanged in his own fleece. + +I was watching, with my bailiff, a splendid lot of lambs fat and ready +for the butcher; two of them were having a game--walking backwards +from each other, and suddenly rushing together like two knights in a +medieval tournament, their heads meeting with a concussion and a +resounding smack--when one instantly fell to the ground with a broken +neck. Had no one been present the meat would have been worthless, but +my man was equal to the occasion, and, borrowing my pocket knife, +produced the flow of blood necessary to render the meat fit for human +food. My villagers had a feast that week, and my own table was graced +by an excellent joint of real English lamb. Of course we never +attempted to consume any of the meat from animals which had been +killed when suffering from a doubtful complaint, though some people +are by no means particular in this matter. + +A doctor told me that when attending a case at a farmhouse he was +invited to join the family at their midday meal, and was surprised to +see a nice fore-quarter of lamb on the table. His host gave him an +ample helping, and he had just made a beginning with it and the mint +sauce, green peas, and new potatoes, when the founder of the feast +announced by way of excusing the indulgence in such a luxury: "This +un, you know was a bit casualty, so we thought it better to make sure +of un." My informant told me that then and there his appetite +completely failed, and, to the dismay of his host he had to relinquish +his knife and fork. + +It is always policy to kill a sheep to save its life, as the saying +is, and the way to make the most of it is to send any fat animal, +which is off its feed and looking somewhat thoughtful, to the butcher +at once. He knows quite well whether the sheep is fit for food, and if +he decides against it, all one expects is the value of the skin. But +people are very shy of buying meat about which they have any +misgiving, and my butcher once told me not to send him an "emergency +sheep" _in one of my own carts_, but to ask him to fetch it himself: +"It's like this," he explained, "when a customer comes in for a nice +joint of mutton, if he is a near neighbour, he will perhaps add, 'I +would rather not have a bit of the sheep that came in a day or two ago +in one of Mr. S.'s carts'!" + +It was always cheering in February, "fill dyke, be it black or be it +white," on a dark morning, to hear the young lambs and their mothers +calling to each other in the orchards, where there is some grass all +the year round under the shelter of the apple trees; or when a +springlike morning appears, about the time of St. Valentine's Day, and +the thrushes are singing love-songs to their mates, and the first +brimstone butterfly has dared to leave his winter seclusion for the +fickle sunshine, to realize that Spring is coming, and the active work +of the farm is about to recommence. There is a superstition that when +the master sees the firstling of the flock, if its head is turned +towards him, good luck for the year will follow, but it is most +unlucky if its head is turned away. + +After the disastrous wet season of 1879 immense losses ensued from the +prevalence of the fatal liver rot; many thousands of sheep were sold +at the auctions for 3s. or 4s. apiece, and sound mutton was +exceedingly scarce and dear. It was represented to a very August +personage, that if the people could be induced to forgo the +consumption of lamb, these in due course would grow into sheep, and +the price of mutton would be reduced. Accordingly an order was issued +forbidding the appearance of lamb on the Court tables. It had not +occurred to the proposer of this scheme that a scarcity of food for +the developing lambs would result, nor was it understood that the +producers of fat lambs make special cropping arrangements for their +keep, with the object of clearing out their stock about Easter, in +time to plough the ground, and follow the roots where the ewes and +lambs have been feeding, with barley. The "classes" copied the example +of the Court, as in duty bound, and the demand fell to zero. But the +lambs had to be sold for the reasons mentioned, and, in the absence of +the usual demand, the unfortunate producers offered them at almost any +price. The miners and the pottery workers in Staffordshire were not so +loyal as the "classes"; they welcomed the unusual opportunity of +buying early lamb at 9d. a pound, and trains composed entirely of +trucks full of lambs from the south of England to the Midlands +supplied them abundantly. + +The edict, when its effect was apparent, was therefore revoked, but it +was too late, the lambs were gone, and as everybody was hungry for his +usual Easter lamb, the demand was immense, and the price rose in +proportion. I had thirty or forty lambs intended for the Easter +markets, and had, with great difficulty and the sacrifice of grass +which should have stood for hay, managed to keep them on, scarcely +knowing what to do with them. But the sudden demand arose just in +time, and I sent them to the Alcester auction sale, where buyers from +Birmingham and the neighbourhood attend in large numbers. A capital +sale resulted, the price going as high as 60s., in those days a big +figure for lambs about four months old. I was so pleased with the +result and my deliverance from the dilemma, that, passing through the +town on my way home, and spying an old Worcester china cup and saucer, +and a bowl o£ the same, all with the rare square mark, I invested some +of my plunder in what time has proved an excellent speculation, and my +cabinet is still decorated with these mementoes, which I never see +without calling to mind the story of the lamb edict and its result. + +During the Great War some controlling wiseacre evolved precisely the +same scheme for bringing about an imaginary increase in the supply of +mutton, by prohibiting the slaughter of any lambs until June. The +Dorset breeders, who buy in ewes at high prices for the special +production of early lamb--the lambs of this breed are born in October +and November--were more particularly affected, and the absurdity of +the prohibition having been later represented to the authorities, the +order was withdrawn, though not before great loss and difficulty were +inflicted upon the unfortunate producers. It goes to prove the +necessity of the administration of such matters by competent men, and +how easily apparently sound theory in inexperienced hands may conflict +with economical practice. + +Of late years the competition of the importations of New Zealand lamb +has reduced the price of English lamb to an unremunerative level. This +thin dry stuff bears about the same resemblance to real fat home-grown +lamb, as do the proverbial chalk and cheese to each other; but it is +good enough for the restaurants and eating-houses; and the consumer +who lacks the critical faculty of the connoisseur in such matters, +devours his "Canterbury" lamb, well disguised with mint sauce, in +sublime ignorance, and, apparently, without missing the succulence of +the real article--convinced as he is that it was produced in the +neighbourhood of the cathedral city of the same name, and unaware of +the existence of such a place as Canterbury in New Zealand, or that +the name, if not exactly a fraud, is calculated to mislead. Doubtless +it is the mint sauce that satisfies the uncritical palate. Just as the +boy who, when asked after a treat of oysters how he liked them, said +with gusto, "The oysters was good, but the vinegar and pepper was +_de_licious!" + +It is well known that there is a tendency among men in charge of +special kinds of domestic animals gradually to approximate to them in +appearance, and we are told that men sometimes gradually acquire a +resemblance to men they admire. I knew a pedigree-pig herdsman, very +successful in the show-ring, who was curiously like his charges, and I +had at least two shepherds whose profiles were extraordinarily +sheepish--though not in the ordinary acceptation of the term. Such an +appearance confers a singularly simple expression. It must have been a +man whose character justified such a facial peculiarity, who, having +to bring the flock of one of my neighbours over a railway crossing +between two of his fields, neglected to open the further gate first, +drove the sheep on to the rails, and proceeded to do so, only to find +the sheep, in the meantime, had wandered down the line. Before he +could collect them a train dashed into them, and many were killed and +others injured. The railway company not only repudiated all liability, +but sent in a counterclaim for damage to their engine! + +But the tables were turned morally, if not actually, by a friend of +mine, who certainly scored off a railway company. My friend's waggon, +with two horses and a load of hay, was passing over a level crossing +on his land, when the London express came into view slinging downhill +in all the majesty of triumphant speed, but far enough away to be +brought up in time, ignominiously and abruptly. The railway company +wrote my friend a letter of remonstrance suggestive of pains and +penalties, and telling him that his waggoner should have made sure of +the safety of crossing before attempting it--not an easy thing to do +at this particular place. My friend replied that his right of way +existed centuries before the railway was dreamed of, that the crossing +was a concession for the company's convenience, it had saved the +expense of a bridge, and that his hay was an urgent matter in view of +the weather; and that uninterrupted harvesting was of more importance +than the punctuality of their passengers. + +I have sometimes passed through a remote village on a Sunday where the +obsequies of a pig were to be seen in full view from the road; these +were usually places where the church was in an adjoining +mother-parish, and of course there are times when, for reasons of +health or perhaps more correctly ill-health, it is impossible to defer +the ceremony. As a rule, I should imagine that greater privacy is +sought, at any rate so far as the public point of view is concerned. +One remembers the story of the man doing some Sunday carpentering; his +wife expostulated with him as a Sabbath breaker; he replied that in +driving in the nails he could not help making some noise; "then why," +said she, "don't you use screws?" + +An old Dorset labourer who helped with the removal of the pig-wash, +and did other small jobs for successive tenants of mine at a furnished +cottage on my land in Hampshire, invariably estimated the social +status and resources of each new tenant by the consistency of the +wash. When some rather extravagant occupiers were in possession, he +reported them as, "Quite the right sort; their wash is real good, +thick stuff." The villagers at Aldington did not smoke their bacon, +but, as it usually hung in the kitchen not far from the big open +hearth, and as the place was often full of fragrant wood smoke, the +bacon acquired a pleasant suggestion of the smoked article of the +southern counties. The cottagers rarely complained of the smoky state +of their kitchens, consoling themselves with the saying, "'Tis better +to be smoke-dried nor starred [starved with the cold] to death." Bacon +naturally suggests eggs; many of the villagers kept a few fowls which +sometimes strayed into my orchards; as a rule, I made no objection, +but it was not pleasing, when the apples were over-ripe and dropping +from the trees, to notice the destructive marks of their beaks on some +extra fine Blenheim oranges. + +My wife determined to take over our fowls into her own jurisdiction; +hitherto they had been under my bailiff's care, and he rather resented +the change as an implication on his management, until it was explained +that she was anxious to undertake the poultry as a hobby. One of the +carter boys was detailed to collect the eggs, as some of the +hen-houses were in out-of-the-way corners of the yards and difficult +to approach. My wife thought the middleman was appropriating most of +the profit; she was determined to get as directly to the consumer as +possible and, among others, she arranged with the head of a large +school for a weekly supply of dairy and poultry produce. All went well +for a time until one day the boy, anxious to produce as many eggs as +possible, as he received a royalty per dozen for collecting, +discovered some nests which my man had set for hatching before he +retired from the post. The boy, not recognizing this important fact, +came in greatly pleased with an unusually large quantity, and it so +happened that the school received the eggs from this special lot. Next +morning forty eggs appeared at the boys' breakfast table, and forty +boys simultaneously suffered a terrible shock on the discovery of +forty incomplete chickens. The head wrote an aggrieved letter of +complaint, and though my wife was by that time able to explain the +matter, and regret her own loss too of forty chickens, he removed his +custom to a more reliable source. + +This schoolmaster was a collector of antique furniture and china, and, +knowing that I was interested, he asked me to come and see some +Chippendale chairs he had just acquired. It happened that some months +before I had declined to buy four or five chairs that were offered at +10s. apiece. I had not then fully developed the taste for the antique, +which once acquired forbids the connoisseur to refuse anything good, +whether really wanted or not, and at that time there was much more +choice in such matters than at the present day. The chairs were very +dilapidated and I did not recognize their possibilities, but I noticed +the arms of the elbow chairs were particularly good, being carved at +the junction of the horizontal and vertical pieces with eagles' heads. +Deciding that I did not want them I sent a dealer to the house and +forgot all about the matter. The schoolmaster took me into his +drawing-room, and I instantly recognized the set I had refused; they +were quite transformed, nicely cleaned, lightly polished, and the +seats newly covered. I duly admired them, and on inquiry found that he +had purchased them in Worcester from the dealer I had sent to look at +them; they cost him £5 each, and I suppose at the present time they +would be worth £20 apiece at least. + +I have previously mentioned old Viper as a family friend, but like all +dogs he had his faults. He acquired a liking for new laid eggs and +hunted the rickyard for nests in the straw. My bailiff determined to +cure him; he carefully blew an egg, and filled it with a mixture of +which mustard was the chief component. Viper was tempted to sample the +egg, which he accepted with a great show of innocence; the effect when +he had broken the shell was electrical; he fled with downcast tail and +complete dejection, and nothing would ever induce him to touch an egg +again. + +The whirligig of time has indeed brought its revenge in the matter of +the market value of eggs. In Worcestershire we have had to give them +away at eighteen or twenty for a shilling; last (1918-1919) winter we +sold some at 7s. a dozen, and many more at 5s. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + + +ORCHARDS--APPLES--CIDER--PERRY. + + "Lo! sweetened with the summer light, + The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow + Drops in a silent autumn night." + --_The Lotus-Eaters_. + +A curious old punning Latin line, illustrating various meanings of the +word _malus_, an apple, seems appropriate, as a commencement, to +writing about apples; it is I think very little known, and too good to +be forgotten. _Malo, malo, malo, malo_; it is translated thus: + + "_Malo_, I would rather be, + _Malo_, in an apple-tree, + _Malo_, than a bad boy, + _Malo_, in adversity." + +The fruit was an important item on the Aldington Manor Farm, and when +later I bought an adjoining farm of seventy acres with orcharding, and +had planted nine acres of plum trees, my total fruit area amounted to +about thirty acres. There was a saying in the neighbourhood which +pleased me greatly, that "it was always harvest at Aldington"; it was +not so much intended to signify that there was always something coming +in, as to convey an impression of the constant activity and employment +of labour that continued throughout the seasons without intermission, +though it was true that with the diversity of my crops and stock, +there was a more or less continuous return. I had a shock when an old +friend in a neighbouring village spoke of me as a "pomologist," the +title seemed much too distinguished, and personally I have never +claimed the right to anything better than the rather pretty old title +of "orchardist." + +The position of an orchard is of the utmost importance; shelter is +necessary, but it must be above the ordinary spring frost level of the +district. I should say that no orchard should be less than 150 feet +above sea-level, to be fairly safe, and 200 feet would in nearly any +ordinary spring be quite secure against frost. The climate has a +remarkable effect upon the colour of apples, and colour is one of the +most valuable of market properties, for the ordinary town buyer is a +poor judge of the merits of apples and prefers colour and size to most +other considerations. Here in the south of England seven miles from +the sea, in a dry and sunny climate, all apples develop a much more +brilliant colour than in the moist climate of the Vale of Evesham. + +I fear that very few planters of fruit trees think of following the +routine which Virgil describes in his second _Georgic_, as practised +by the careful orchardist, when transplanting. Dryden's translation is +as follows: + + "Some peasants, not t' omit the nicest care, + Of the same soil their nursery prepare + With that of their plantation; lest the tree, + Translated should not with the soil agree. + Beside, to plant it as it was, they mark + The heav'ns four quarters on the tender bark, + And to the north or south restore the side, + Which at their birth did heat or cold abide: + So strong is custom; such effects can use + In tender souls of pliant plants produce." + +Virgil was born in the year 70 B.C., and died, age 51, in 19 B.C., so +that over nineteen centuries have elapsed since these words were +written; as he was an excellent farmer, he would not have mentioned +the practice unless he considered the advice sound. It is quite +possible that the vertical cracking of the bark on one side of a young +transplanted tree may be due to a change from the cool north aspect to +the heat of the south. At any rate the experiment is well worth +trying, and nurserymen would not find it much trouble to run a chalk +line down the south side of each tree, when lifting them, as a guide +for the purchaser. + +As showing how conservative is the popular demand for apples, Cox's +Orange Pippin, which is absolutely unapproached for flavour, and is +perfectly sound and eatable from early in November till Easter if +carefully picked at the right moment and properly stored, was +cultivated thirty or forty years before the British public discovered +its extraordinary qualities! I find it described as one of the best +dessert apples in Dr. Hogg's _Fruit Manual_, and my copy is the third +edition published in 1866, so it must have been well known to him some +years previously, though we never heard much about it until after the +twentieth century came in. Though the colour, when well grown, is +highly attractive to the connoisseur, the ordinary buyer did not +readily take to it as it is rather small. In 1917 Cox's Orange Pippin, +however, really came into its own; I myself, here in the New Forest, +grew over 3,000 pounds on about 120 trees planted in 1906, each branch +pruned as a _cordon_, and very thinly dispersed, and the trees +restricted to a height of about 14 feet. The apples were mostly sold +in Covent Garden at 6d. a pound, clear of railway carriage and +salesmen's commission. In 1918, a year of great scarcity, these apples +were selling in the London shops up to 3s. 6d. apiece! Now that its +reputation is fully established, it is likely to be many years before +it becomes relatively low in price, as the foreign apples of this kind +cannot compare in flavour with those grown in our own orchards. I +appreciate the man whose attention was wholly given to some +particularly dainty dish, and, being bored at the table by a +persistent talker, gently said, "Hush! and let me _listen_ to the +flavour." + +As an early market apple there is none more popular than the Worcester +Pearmain, first grown in the early eighties by Messrs. R. Smith and +Co., of Worcester, and said to be a cross between King of the Pippins +and the old Quarrenden (nearly always called Quarantine). It is a most +attractive fruit--brilliant in colour, medium size, with pleasant +brisk flavour--and is an early and regular bearer. I recognized its +possibilities as soon as I saw it, and getting all the grafts I could +collect, and they were very scarce at the time, I had the branches of +some of my old worthless trees cut off, and set my old grafter to +convert them into Worcester Pearmains; they soon came into bearing and +produced abundant and profitable crops. + +This apple is not much use for keeping beyond a month or so, as it +soon loses its crisp texture and distinctive flavour, and it is its +earliness and colour that makes it so popular in its season. Its +regularity as a bearer is due to its early maturity; it can be picked +in August, which allows plenty of time, in favourable weather, for +next year's fruit buds to develop before winter; whereas with the late +sorts these buds have very little chance to mature while the current +year's fruit is ripening, with the result that a blank season nearly +always follows an abundant yield. The Worcester Pearmain is so highly +decorative, with its large pale pink and white blossoms in spring and +its glowing red fruit in autumn, that it would be worth growing for +these qualities alone in the amateur's garden, and in any case it is +an apple that nobody should be without. + +An old apple, not sufficiently known, is the Rosemary Russet; it has +the distinctive russet-bronze colouring, always indicative of flavour, +with a rosy flush on the sunny side, and Dr. Hogg describes it further +as, "flesh yellow, crisp, tender, very juicy, sugary and highly +aromatic--a first-rate dessert apple, in use from December to +February." In my opinion it comes next, though _longo intervallo_, to +Cox's Orange Pippin, but it wants good land to make the best of it. It +may with confidence be produced as a rarity across the walnuts and the +wine to the connossieur in apples. + +In Covent Garden Market King Pippins are known as "Kings"; Cox's +Orange Pippins as "C.O.P.'s"; Cellinis as "Selinas"; Kerry pippins as +"Careys"; _Court pendu plat_ as "Corpendus"; and the pear, _Joséphine +de Malines_ as "Joseph on the palings"! The Wellington is sold as +"Wellington," but in the markets of the large northern towns it is +known as "Normanton Wonder." + +In Worcestershire St. Swithin's Day, July 15, is called +"apple-christening day," when a good rain often gives a great impetus +to their growth, and a little later great quantities of small apples +may be seen under the trees; this is Nature's method of limiting the +crop to reasonable proportions, the weak ones falling off and the +fittest surviving. The inexperienced grower may be somewhat alarmed by +this apparent destruction of his prospects, but the older hand knows +better, and my bailiff always said: "When I sees plenty of apples +under the trees about midsummer, I knows there'll be plenty to pick +towards Michaelmas." + +The Blenheim Orange was the leading apple at Aldington; some kind +person had, sixty or seventy years before my time, planted a number of +trees which had thrived wonderfully on that rich land. The Blenheim is +a nice dessert apple and a splendid "cooker"; the trees take many +years to come into bearing, and then they make up for lost time. +Nature is never in a hurry to produce her best results. As a market +apple the Blenheim has a great reputation; if an Evesham fruit dealer +was asked if he could do with any apples, his first question was +always: "Be 'em Blemmins?" + +"September blow soft till the fruit's in the loft," is the prayer of +all apple growers; it is pitiful to see, after a roaring gale, the +ground strewn with beautiful fruit, bruised and broken, useless to +keep, and only suitable for carting away to the all-devouring +cider-mill, though, even for that purpose, the sweet Blenheim does not +produce nearly so good a drink as sourer accredited cider varieties. + +Many of the gardening papers will name apples if sent by readers for +identification; I was told of an enquirer who sent twelve apples from +the same tree, and received eleven different names and one "unknown"! +Apples off the same tree do differ wonderfully, but I can scarcely +credit this story. + +It was the custom formerly at Aldington to sell the fruit on the trees +by auction for the buyer to pick and market, growers as a rule being +too busy with corn-harvest to attend to the gathering. A considerable +sum was thereby often sacrificed, as the buyer allows an ample margin +for risks, and is not willing to give more than about half of what he +expects to receive ultimately. I discontinued the auction sales early +in my farming, preferring to take the risks myself, and having plenty +of labour available. It is instructive too to know how individual +trees are bearing, and the sorts which produce the best returns. + +Except for the choicest fruit, I consider London the worst market, and +I could do better, as a rule, by sending my consignments to +Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Glasgow; the latter especially +for large coarse stuff. London is more critical, pays well for the +very best, but requires apples to be carefully graded, and the grades +separately packed; London is, moreover, naturally well supplied by the +southern counties. + +At the auctions the competition was generally keen, there being much +rivalry between the buyers; and it was good for the sellers when +political parties were opposed to each other, for in those days +Evesham was inclined to be rather violent in such matters. I remember +a lively contest between Conservatives and Radicals, when my largest +orchard--about six acres--was sold to the champion of the former for +£210, and the Radical exclaimed, as the lot was knocked down, for +everybody to hear: "He offered me £10 before the sale to stand out, +now that £10 is in Mr. S.'s pocket!" + +A few strong gales in the winter are supposed to benefit apple-trees, +acting as a kind of root pruning; but sometimes, when they are getting +old, they come down bodily with a crash, partly uprooted, though even +then they may be resuscitated for a time. We had a powerful set of +pulley tackle by which, when made fast to a neighbouring tree, they +could be restored to the perpendicular, after enlarging the hole left +by the roots, making the ground firm again round the tree, and placing +a strong sloping prop to take the weight on the weak side; good yields +would then often continue for some years. + +When the pickers had gathered the crop, by an ancient custom all the +village children were allowed to invade the orchards for the purpose +of getting for themselves any apples overlooked. This practice is +called "scragging," but it is a custom that would perhaps be better +honoured in the breach than in the observance, for hob nails do not +agree with the tender bark of young trees. Like gleaning, or +"leasing," as it is called, it is nevertheless a pleasant old custom, +and seems to give the children huge delight. + +Mistletoe did not find my apple-trees congenial, there was only one +piece on all my fruit land, and it was regarded as something of a +curiosity. But in other parts of the neighbourhood it flourished +abundantly, though I noticed that it was most frequent where the land +was poorer and the trees not so luxuriant. It was also to be seen on +tall black poplars, and I have a piece--planted purposely--on a +hawthorn in my garden here. It grows in parts of the Forest, +especially on the white-beams in Sloden, in curiously small detached +pieces like lichen. The white-beam was a favourite tree of the Romans +for the wood-work of agricultural implements, being tough and strong. + +Mistletoe is quite easy to propagate by rubbing the glutinous berries +and their seeds on the under side of a small branch at the angle where +it joins a limb. There it will often flourish unless snapped up by a +wandering missel-thrush. It is very slow in growth, but, when it +attains a fair size, is strikingly pretty in winter when the tree is +otherwise bare, for its peculiar shade of faded green, with its white +and glistening berries, makes an unusual effect--quite different from +that of any other green thing. It is rare on the oak, and, possibly +for that reason, the Druids regarded the oak upon which it grew as +sacred. + +The transition from apples to cider is a natural one, and cider is a +great institution in Worcestershire. On all the larger farms, and in +every village, an ancient cider-mill can be found. It consists of a +circular block of masonry, perhaps ten feet in diameter, the outer +circumference of which is a continuous stone trough, about 18 inches +across, and 15 inches deep, called "the chase," in which a huge +grindstone, weighing about 15 cwt., revolves slowly, actuated by a +horse walking round the chase in an unending circle. The apples are +introduced in small quantities into the chase, and crushed into pulp +by the grindstone. The pulp is then removed and placed between hair +cloths, piled upon each other, until a stack is erected beneath a +powerful press, worked by a lever, on the principle of a capstan. As +the pressure increases, the liquor runs into a vessel below, from +whence it is carried in buckets, and poured into barrels in the +cellar. Fermentation begins almost immediately, by which the sugar is +converted in carbonic acid gas and alcohol; the gas escapes and the +spirit remains in the liquor. + +Such is the simplest method of cider-making, and it produces a drink +thoroughly appreciated by the men, for we made annually 1,500 to 2,000 +gallons, and there was very little left when next year's cider-making +began. Where cider is made for sale, much greater care is necessary; +only the soundest fruit is used, and the vinous fermentation is +allowed to begin in open vessels before the pulp is pressed. When the +extracted liquor is placed in the barrels every effort is made to +prevent the acetic fermentation, which produces vinegar, and spoils +the cider for discriminating palates. The stone mill has been +superseded to some extent by the steam "scratter"; but the cider is +not considered so good, as the kernels are left uncrushed, an +important omission, as they add largely to the flavour of the finished +product. After a hot dry summer, cider is unusually strong, because +the sugar in the apples is much more fully developed. It is recognized +that these hot summers produce what are known as vintage years for +cider, just as, on the Continent, they produce vintage wines. + +Jarge, of whom I have written, was the presiding genius in the +cider-mill, and his duties began as soon as hop-picking was over. All +traces of the downward inclination of the corners of his mouth, caused +by the delinquencies of recalcitrant hoppers, quite disappeared as +soon as his new duties commenced, and it was a pleasure to see his +jovial face beaming over a job which seemed to have no drawbacks. A +really Bacchanalian presence is the only one that should be tolerated +in a cider-maker; the lean and hungry character is quite out of place +amidst the fragrance of the crushed apples, and the generous liquor +running from the press. + +The cider-maker is always allowed a liberal quantity of last year's +produce, on the principle of "thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he +treadeth out the corn"--a principle that should always be recognized +in the labourer's hire, and one which is too often forgotten by the +public in its estimate of the necessities of the farmer himself. It is +usual for the man in possession, so to speak, of the cider-mill, to +mix, for his own consumption, some of the new unfermented liquor with +the old cider, which, after twelve months, is apt to be excessively +sour; but the quantity of the former must not be in too large a +proportion, as it has a powerful medicinal effect. + + "Wouldst thou thy vats with generous juice should froth? + Respect thy orchats: think not that the trees + Spontaneous will produce a wholesome draught, + Let art correct thy breed." + +So sang Philips in his _Cyder_ in the distant days of 1706, but the +advice is as sound as ever, for good cider can only be produced from +the right kinds of apples. The names of new sorts are legion, but some +of the old varieties are still considered to be very valuable. Among +these, the Foxwhelp has been a favourite for 200 years, and others in +great esteem are Skyrme's Kernal, Forest Styre, Hagloe Crab, Dymock +Red, Bromley, Cowarne Red, and Styre Wilding. It requires about twenty +"pots" (a local measure each weighing 64 pounds) to make a hogshead of +cider; a hogshead is roughly 100 gallons, and in Worcestershire is +hardly recognizable under the name of "oxsheard"--I have never seen +the word in print, but the local pronunciation is faithfully +represented by my spelling. Another local appellation which puzzled me +for some years was "crab varges," which I eventually discovered to +mean "verjuice," a terribly sour liquid, made in the same way as cider +from crab apples. It was considered a wonderfully stimulating specific +for sprains and strains, holding the same pre-eminent position as an +embrocation, as did "goose-grace" (goose-grease) as an ointment or +emollient. This substance is the melted fat of a goose, and was said +to be so powerful that, if applied to the back of the hand, it could +shortly be recognized on the palm! + +The value of alcohol as a food is generally denied in these days by +sedentary people, but very few who have seen its judicious use in +agricultural work will be inclined to agree; it is possible that +though it may be a carbo-hydrate very quickly consumed in the body, it +acts as an aid to digestion, and produces more nourishment from a +given quantity of food, than would be assimilated in its absence. The +giving out of the men's allowances is, however, a troublesome matter +and demands a firm and masterful bailiff or foreman, for "much" is +inclined to want "more," and the line should, of course, be drawn far +short of excess. It was related of an old lady farmer in the +neighbourhood, who always distributed her men's cider with her own +hands, that in her anxiety to be on the safe side after a season when +the cider was unusually strong, she mixed a proportion of water with +the beverage, before the arrival of the recipients. One of the men, +however, having discovered the dilution, arrived after the first day +with two jars. Asked the reason for the second jar, he answered that +he should prefer to have his cider and the water _separate_. + +My bailiff always said that sixpennyworth of cider would do more work +than a shilling in cash. He was undoubtedly correct, and, moreover, +the quantity worth sixpence in the farm cider store would cost a +shilling or more at the public-house, to supply an equivalent in +alcohol, and valuable time would be lost in fetching it. It is the +alcohol that commends it to the agricultural labourer more than any +consideration of thirst, and no one can see its effect without the +conviction that the men find it not only stimulating, but supporting. +A friend of mine, however, found so much satisfaction in a deep +draught of cider when he felt really "dry," that he said he would give +"a crown" any day for a "good thirst!" + +Excess in drink was rare at Aldington, and it was very exceptional for +a man to be seen in what were called his "crooked stockings." +Fortunately, we had no public-house in the village, and if the men had +a moderate allowance during a hard day's work, there was not much +temptation to tramp a mile and back at night to the nearest licensed +premises in order to sit and swill in the tap-room. I had one man who +lived near a place of the sort, and he occasionally took what my +bailiff called, "Saints' days," and did not appear for work. I notice +that this sort of day is now called by the more suitable name of +"alcoholiday." + +Well-fermented cider contains from 5 to 10 gallons of alcohol, and +perry about 7 gallons, to every 100 gallons of the liquor, which +compares with claret 13 to 17, sherry 15 to 20, and port 24 to 26 per +cent, of alcohol. I found the truth of the proverb _in vino veritas_; +after a quite small allowance of cider on the farm the open-hearted +man would become lively, the reserved man taciturn, the crabbed man +argumentative; but the work went with a will and a spirit that were +not so noticeable when no "tots" were going round. + +An old gentleman in the neighbourhood used to tell with much enjoyment +the following story of his younger days. "I found myself," he said, +"gradually increasing my allowance of whisky and water, as I sat alone +of an evening, and I said to myself: 'Now look here, H.W., you began +with one glass, very soon you got on to two, and now you're taking +three. I'll tell you what it is, H.W., you shan't have another drop of +whisky for a month';" "and," he added, "H.W. did it, too!" + +Shortly before I came to Aldington the men were suddenly seized with +what seemed an unaccountable epidemic; their symptoms were all +similar, and a doctor soon diagnosed the complaint as lead-poisoning. +Nobody could suggest its origin until the cider was suspected, and, on +enquiry, it was elicited that the previous year the stones of the +cider-mill chase, which had become loosened by long use, were repaired +with melted lead poured in between the joints. The malic acid of the +apples had dissolved the lead, and it remained in solution in the +cider. To the disgust of the men, the doctor advised removing the +bungs from the barrels and letting the cider run off into the drains, +but nobody had the heart to comply, for there was the whole year's +stock, and it meant a wait of twelve months before it could be +replaced. After some months the men got impatient, and told the master +they were prepared to take the risk. They began with great caution, +and finding no bad result, they gradually increased the dose, still +without harm, until the normal allowance was safely reached. It is +probable that the barrel which caused the symptoms was the first made +after the repairs, and contained an extra quantity of the lead, and +although the remainder was more or less contaminated, the poison was +in such small amount as to be harmless. + +There were many old apple-trees about the hedges and in odd corners, +which went by the name of "the roundabouts," and the fruit was +annually collected and brought to the cider-mill. Some of these were +immense trees, and not very desirable round arable land, owing to +their shade, but they were lovely when in bloom, for standing +separately, they seemed to develop richer colours than when close +together in an orchard. + +The story of Shakespeare's carouse, and his night passed under a +crab-tree near Bidford, about six miles from Aldington, is well known. +It is stated, but not without contradiction, that he excused himself +by explaining that he had been drinking with: + + Piping Pebworth, dancing Marston, + Haunted Hillborough, hungry Grafton, + Dudging Exhall, papist Wixford, + Beggarly Broom, and drunken Bidford. + +A carousal at all these places would have been a heavy day's work, and +I have often thought that if the lines can really be attributed to +him, he might have meant that he had met people from all the villages +at one of the Whitsuntide merry-makings annually held in the +neighbourhood, and passed a jovial time in their company. + +Perry is made in much the same way as cider, and when due care has +been taken in its manufacture, it is a most delicious and wholesome +drink. When bottled and kept to mature it pours out with a beautiful +creaming head, and is far superior to ordinary champagne. Both cider +and perry should be drunk out of a china or earthenware mug, whence +they taste much richer than from glass; but my men always used in the +field a small horn cup or "tot," holding about quarter of a pint. I +have a very interesting old cider cup, of Fulham or Lambeth +earthenware I think, holding about a quart, with three handles, each +of which is a greyhound with body bent to form the loop for the hand. +It was intended for the use of three persons sitting together at a +small three-cornered oak table, specimens of which are still, though +rarely, met with at furniture sales in farm-houses or cottages; the +cup was placed in the middle, and each person could take a pull by +using his particular handle with the adjacent place for his lips, +without passing the cup round or using the same drinking space as +another. + +There are numerous kinds of perry pears, but certain sorts have a +great reputation, such as Moorcroft, Barland, Malvern Hills, Longdon, +Red Horse, Mother Huff Cap, and Chate Boy (cheat boy), a particularly +astringent pear; these are all small, and require quickly grinding +when gathered. In the New Forest there is a perry pear similar to the +Chate Boy, called Choke Dog, which in its natural state, is quite as +rough on the palate as the former, but it differs in colour and is not +the same sort. I had a splendid specimen of the Chate Boy pear-tree at +an outlying set of buildings, said to be the father of all the trees +of that kind in the neighbourhood, and it was a landmark for miles, as +it stood on high ground. It was fitted with a ladder reaching to the +middle of the tree, where seats were arranged on a platform for eight +or nine people; but it was unfortunately blown down on the night of +the great gale of October 14, 1877, when twelve other trees on the +farm were likewise overthrown. + +Cider and perry drinkers were said to be more or less immune from many +human ailments, including rheumatic affections, though one would +expect the acetic acid they contain, unless very carefully made, would +have an opposite effect. Certainly my men suffered neither from gout +nor rheumatism, and there was a tradition that in 1832, when the +cholera was rife in the country, the plague was stayed as soon as the +cider districts were approached. + +These noble old pear-trees are a great feature of the Vale of Evesham, +especially in the more calcareous parts where the lias limestone is +not far from the surface; they are exquisite in spring in clouds of +pure white blossoms long before the apples are in bloom; in the autumn +the foliage presents every tint of crimson, green and gold all softly +subdued, and in winter, when the framework of the tree can be seen, it +is noticeable how far the massive limbs extend, carrying their girth +almost to the summit, in a way that not even the oak can excel. The +timber is short in the grain, and wears smooth in the long wood +ploughs, and is very suitable for carving quite small and elaborate +patterns for such articles as picture frames; but it is somewhat +liable to the attack of the woodworm. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + + +PLUMS--CHERRIES. + + "A right down hearty one he be as'll make some of our maids look + alive. + And the worst time of year for such work too, when the May-Dukes + is in, + and the Hearts a-colouring!" + --Crusty John in _Alice Lorraine_. + + +The Vale of Evesham has the credit of being the birthplace of two most +valuable plums--the Damascene, and the Pershore, or Egg plum. These +both grow on their own stocks, so require no grafting, and can readily +be propagated by severing the suckers which spring up around them from +the roots of the tree. The Damascene, as its name implies, is a +species of Damson, but coarser than the real Damson or the Prune +Damson. They are not so popular on the London market as in the markets +of the north, especially in Manchester, where they command prices +little inferior to the better sorts, as they yield a brilliant red dye +suitable for dying printed cotton goods. When really ripe they are +excellent for cooking, and are not to be despised, even raw, on a +thirsty autumn day. In years of scarcity these have fetched 30s. and +over per "pot" of 72 pounds. + +The Pershore is a very different plum, green when unripe, and +attaining a golden colour later; they are immense bearers and very +hardy, frequently saving the situation for the plum-growers when all +other kinds are destroyed by spring frosts. They are specially +valuable for bottling, and it is rumoured that in the hands of skilful +manufacturers they become "apricots" under certain conditions. As +"cookers," too, they are perhaps the most useful of plums, for they +can be used in a very green and hard state. It is a wonderful sight to +see them being despatched by tram at the Evesham stations, loaded +sometimes loose like coals in the trucks for the big preserving firms +in the north. The trees grow very irregularly and are difficult to +keep in shape by pruning, as they send forth suckers from all parts +when an attempt is made to keep them symmetrical. The only purpose for +which the fruit is of little use is for eating raw, they are not +unpleasant when just ripe, but that stage is soon passed and they +become woody and unpalatable. + +I planted a thousand of these trees in a new orchard, and took great +pains with the pruning myself, for it was curious that in that land of +fruit at the time no professional pruner could be found. I sought the +advice of a market-gardener and plum-grower, who, in the early stage +of their growth, gave me an object-lesson, cutting back the young +shoots rather hard to induce them to throw out more at the point of +incision, so as to produce eventually a fuller head; while he +reiterated the instruction, "It is no use being afraid of 'em." + +This young orchard adjoined the Great Western Railway, and one day +when pruning there I saw a remarkable sight, and I have never found +any one with a similar experience. The telegraph wires were magnified +into stout ropes by a coating of white rime, and I could see a +distinct series of waves approximating to the dots and dashes of the +Morse code running along them. The movement would run for a time up +towards London, cease for a moment, and then run downwards towards +Evesham, and so on almost continuously. I thought it might be caused +by the passage of electricity, but I cannot get a satisfactory +explanation. No trains were passing, there was no wind, the rime was +not thawing or falling off, and apparently there was nothing to +agitate either poles or wires. + +This orchard was not a lucky one; it was too low, having only one flat +meadow between it and the brook, and therefore very liable to spring +frosts. I have seen the trees well past the blossoming stage, with +young plums as large as peas, which after two nights' sharp frost +turned black and fell off to such an extent that there was scarcely a +plum left; but I had a few very good crops which gave employment to a +number of additional hands besides my regular people. + +A season came when the plum-trees in my new orchard were badly +attacked by the caterpillars of the winter-moth, but the cuckoos soon +found them out, and I could see half a dozen at once enjoying a +bountiful feast. When better plums are abundant the Pershore falls to +very low prices; I have sold quantities at 1s. or 1s. 3d. per pot of +72 pounds, at which of course there was a loss; but it is needless to +say that at such times the consumer never gets the benefit, 2d. a +pound being about the lowest figure at which they are ever seen on +offer in the shops. + +The Victoria is a very superior plum to the Pershore, and a local plum +called Jimmy Moore is also a favourite. I believe this plum is very +similar to, if not identical with, one sold as Emperor; both it and +the Victoria nearly always made good prices and bore well. The +Victoria, especially, was so prolific that in some seasons, if not +carefully propped, every branch would be broken off by, the weight of +fruit, and the tree left a wreck. Not discouraged, however, it would +shoot out again and in a few years bear as well as ever. + +My best plum was the greengage, rather a shy bearer but always in +demand. Living in a land of Goshen, like the Vale of Evesham, one gets +quite hypercritical (or "picksome," as the local expression is), and +scarcely cares to taste a fruit from a tree in passing; but I used to +visit my greengages at times when the pickers had done with them, for +they have to be gathered somewhat unripe to ensure travelling +undamaged. I often found, on the south side of the tree, a few that +had been overlooked which were fully ripe, beautifully mottled, full +of sunshine, and perfect in melting texture and ambrosial flavour. + +For restocking old worn-out apple orchards, in Worcestershire at any +rate, there is nothing to equal plum-trees; they flourished amazingly +at Aldington, and soon made up for the lost apples; they appeared to +follow the principle that dictates the rotation of ordinary crops, +just as the leguminous plants alternate satisfactorily with the +graminaceous, or, as I have read that in Norway, where a fir forest +has been cut, birch will spring up automatically and take its place. + +My predecessor always sold his plums on the trees for the buyer to +harvest, and I heard that when the former turned a flock of Dorset +ewes into one of these orchards, the buyer complained--the lower +branches being heavily laden, and within a few feet of the +ground--that he had watched, "Them old yows holding down bunches of +plums with their harns for t'others to eat." This I imagine was in the +nature of hyperbole, and not intended to be taken literally. + +I had about forty cherry trees in one of my orchards, and among them a +very early kind of black cherry, as well as Black Bigarreaus, White +Heart and Elton Heart. The early ones made particularly good prices, +but when the French cherries began to be imported, being on the market +a week or two before ours they "took the keen edge off the demand," +though wretched-looking things in comparison. The cherries from my +forty trees made £80 one year when the crop was good, but they are +expensive to pick as there is much shifting of heavy ladders, and the +work was done by men. In Kent, I believe, women are employed at +cherry-picking, ascending forty-round ladders in a gale of wind +without a sign of nervousness, but with a man in attendance to pack +the fruit and shift the ladders when required. I found Liverpool the +best market for cherries, where they were bought by the large +steamship companies for the Transatlantic liners, and where they were +in demand for the seaside and holiday places in North Wales and +Lancashire. Like the pear-trees, the cherry-trees are very beautiful +in spring, and again in autumn, and as mine could be seen from the +house and garden, they added a great charm to the place. + +I must put in a word here for the bullfinch, which is unreasonably +persecuted for its supposed destruction of the cherry crop when in +bloom; it undoubtedly picks many blossoms to pieces, but probably no +ultimate loss of weight follows; very few comparatively of the blooms +ever become fruits in any case, and even if some are thus nipped in +the bud, it is probable that the remainder mature into larger and +finer cherries in consequence. The advantage of thinning is recognized +in the case of all our fruits, and is indeed, the reason for pruning. +The vine-grower knows well the truth of the saying that, "You should +get your enemy to thin your grapes," and I would sacrifice many +cherries for a few of these beautiful birds in my garden, for man does +not live by bread alone. + +One of the old couplets, of which our forefathers were so fond, runs: + + "A cherry year is a merry year, + And a plum year is a dumb year." + +I have seen the explanation suggested that cherries being particularly +wholesome contributed to the happiness of mankind, but that the less +salubrious plum tended to depression of health and spirits. There is, +however, a small black cherry still grown in this and other parts of +Hampshire and Surrey called the "Merry," from the French _merise_, and +it was natural that when cherries were abundant the merry would also +be plentiful. The word "dumb" is an archaic synonym for "damson," and +the same rule would apply between it and the plum, as with the cherry +and the merry. My own small place here, in the New Forest, has been +known for centuries as "the Merry Gardens," and no doubt they were +once grown here, as at other places in the south of England, called +Merry Hills, Merry Fields, and Merry Orchards. Even now as I write, on +May Day, the buds on the wild cherries in my hedges are showing the +white bloom just ready to appear, and in a few days, these trees will +be spangled with their little bright stars. I imagine that they are no +very distant relation of the old merry-trees that once flourished +here. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + + +TREES: ELM--OAK--BEECH--WILLOW--SCOTS-FIR. + + "O flourish, hidden deep in fern, + Old oak, I love thee well; + A thousand thanks for what I learn + And what remains to tell." + --_The Talking Oak_. + +Keats tells us that + + "The trees + That whisper round a temple become soon + Dear as the temple's self," + +and had he included the trees around a dwelling-house, the epigram +would have been equally applicable. Sometimes, of course, it becomes +absolutely necessary to cut down an ancient tree that from its +proximity to one's home has become a part of the home itself, but it +is a matter for the gravest consideration, for one cannot foresee the +result, and to a person who has lived long with a noble tree as a near +neighbour, the place never again seems the same. + +The Elm is said to be the Worcestershire weed, as the oak is in +Herefordshire; the former attains a great size, but it is not very +deeply rooted, and a heavy gale will sometimes cause many unwelcome +gaps in a stately avenue. Big branches, too, have a way of falling +without the least notice, and on the whole it is safer not to have +elms near houses or cottages. One of the finest avenues of elms I +know, is to be seen at the Palace of the Bishop of Winchester at +Farnham in Surrey, but the land is quite exceptionally good, and in +the palmy days of hop-growing, the adjoining fields commanded a rent +of £20 an acre for what is known as the "Heart land of Farnham," where +hops of the most superlative quality were grown. When the dappled deer +are grouped under this noble avenue, in the light and shade beneath +the elms, they form an old English picture of country life not to be +surpassed. + +The elm is a sure sign of rich land, it is never seen on thin poor +soils. An intending purchaser, or tenant, of a farm should always +regard its presence as a certain indication of a likely venture. It is +a terrible robber, and therefore a nuisance round arable land, causing +a spreading shade, under which the corn will be found thin, +"scrawley," and "broken-kneed," with poor, shrivelled ears; and the +alternating green crops will also suffer in their way. In an orchard +it is still worse; I had several at one time surrounded by Blenheim +apples, which were always small, scanty, and colourless. Eventually, I +cut the elms down, the biggest, carrying perhaps 100 cubic feet of +timber at 9d. a foot at the time, was only worth 75s., though it must +have destroyed scores of pounds worth of fruit during its many years +of growth. The elm seems particularly liable to be struck by +lightning, possibly owing to its height, and several suffered in this +way during my time at Aldington. + +From the scarcity of oak in the Vale of Evesham elm was often used for +making the coffers or chests we generally see made from the former +wood. I have one of these, nicely carved with the scrolls and bold +devices of the Jacobean period, and it is so dark in colour as to pass +at first sight for old oak. The timber is not much used in building, +except for rough farm sheds; as boards it is liable to twist and +become what is called "cross-winding." The land in the New Forest is +mostly too poor for the elm, and this should warn the theorists, who +during the war have advocated reclaiming the open heaths and moors for +agricultural purposes, against such an ignorant proposition. I suppose +it would cost at least £100 an acre to clear, drain, fence, level, +make roads, and erect the necessary farm buildings, houses and +cottages, with the result that it would command less than £1 per acre +as annual rent; and I should be sorry to be compelled to farm it at +that. + +Oaks are somewhat scarce in Worcestershire, and are rarely found in +the Vale of Evesham. I had one remarkably fine specimen in a meadow on +Claybrook, the farm I owned, adjoining the Aldington land. It covered +an area measuring 22 yards by 22 yards = 484 square yards, the tenth +part of an acre. The trunk measured 12 feet in circumference, about 7 +feet from the ground. The rule for estimating the age of growing +oak-trees is to calculate 15 years to each inch of radius = 540 years +to a yard, therefore a tree 6 feet in diameter, and about 20 feet +round, including bark and knots, would be just that age. According to +this rule my tree would be not less than 330 years old, which of +course is young for an oak. + +The life of this oak was saved in a peculiar way by "a pint of drink," +and the story was told me by the agent of an old lady, the previous +owner. It had been decided to fell the tree, and two professional +sawyers, who were also "tree-fallers" (fellers), arrived one morning +for the purpose with their axes and cross-cut saw. They surveyed the +prospect and agreeing that it presented a tough job, an adjournment +was arranged to the neighbouring "Royal Oak" for a pint of drink +before commencing operations. Coming back, half an hour later, they +had just stripped and rolled up their shirt sleeves, when the agent +appeared on the road not far off. "Hullo," he shouted, "have you made +a start?" "Just about to begin," replied the head man. "Well then, +don't," said the agent, "the old lady died last night, and I must wait +till the new owners have considered the matter." So the tree was +saved, and curiously enough by its namesake the "Royal Oak." The new +owner spared it, and later when it became my property I did likewise, +for I should have considered it sacrilege to destroy the finest oak in +the neighbourhood. Some years after I had sold the farm I heard that +the tree was blown down in a gale, its enormous head and widespread +branches must have offered immense resistance to the wind, and the +fall of it must have been great. + +The most celebrated, if not the biggest oak in the New Forest is the +Knightwood oak, not far from Lyndhurst; it is 17 feet in +circumference, which would make it not less than 450 years old by the +above rule. It is strange to think that it may have been an acorn in +the year 1469, in the reign of Henry VI., and that 200 years later it +could easily have peeped over the heads of its neighbours in 1669, to +see Charles II., who probably went riding along the main Christchurch +road from Lyndhurst with a team of courtiers and court beauties, in +all the pomp of royalty. We know that in that year with reference to +the waste of timber in the Forest during his father's reign he was +especially interested in the planting of young oaks, and enclosed a +nursery of 300 acres for their growth. It is also recorded that he did +not forget the maids of honour of his court, upon whom he bestowed the +young woods of Brockenhurst. + + "Oak before ash--only a splash, + Ash before oak--a regular soak," + +is a very ancient proverb referring to the relative times of the +leaves of these trees appearing in the spring, and is supposed to be +prophetic of the weather during the ensuing summer. I have, however, +noticed for many years that the oak is invariably first, so that like +some other prognostications, it seems to be unreliable. + +The attitudes of oak trees are a very interesting study. There is the +oak which, bending forwards and stretching out a kindly hand, appears +to offer a hearty welcome; the oak that starts backward in +astonishment at any familiarity advanced by a passing stranger. The +oak that assumes an attitude of pride and self-importance; the oak +that approaches a superior neighbour with an air of humility and +abasement, listening subserviently to his commands. The shrinking oak +in dread of an enemy, and the oak prepared to offer a stout +resistance. The hopeful oak in the prime of life, and the oak that +totters in desolate and crabbed old age. The oak that enjoys in middle +age the good things of life, with well-fed and rounded symmetry; and +the oak that suggests decrepitude, with rough exterior, and a +life-experience of hardship; the sturdy oak, the ambitious oak, the +self-contained oak, and so on, through every phase of character. No +other tree is so human or so expressive, and no other tree bespeaks +such fortitude and endurance. To say that a well-grown oak typifies +the reserve and strength of the true-born Briton, is perhaps to sum up +its individuality in a word. + +There is one old fellow who throws back his head and roars with +laughter when I go by; what can be the joke? I must stop some day and +look to see if the sides of his rather tight jacket of Lincoln green +moss are really splitting, and perhaps, if I can catch the pitch of +his voice, I shall hear him whisper: + + "A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' the forest." + +I like to think that these old personalities are transmigrations, and +that each is now at leisure to correct some special mistake in a +previous existence. Perhaps, out there in the moonlight, they tell +their stories to each other, and to the owls I hear at midnight +performing an appropriately weird overture. + +These talking oaks can only be found where they have grown from acorns +naturally, and where they have survived the struggle of life against +their enemies, including the interference of man, the attacks of +grazing animals, the blasts of winter and the heavy burden of its +snows. The natural woods, as distinct from the plantations of the New +Forest, offer many examples of these varying trees and the lessons +they convey. Such a piece of old natural forest almost surrounds my +present home, and every time I pass through it I bless the memory of +William the Conqueror. Randolph Caldecott, that prince of illustrators +of rural life, evidently noticed the characteristic attitudes of +trees; look at the sympathetic dejection displayed by the two old +pollard willows in his sketch of the maiden all forlorn, in _The House +that Jack Built_. The maiden has her handkerchief to her eyes, and in +a few masterly strokes one of the trees is depicted with a falling +tear, and the other bent double is hobbling along with a crutch +supporting its withered and tottering frame. + +Far otherwise is it with the plantations where the oaks are +artificially cultivated for timber. These are planted close together +on purpose to draw each other upwards in the struggle for air and +sunlight, which prevents their branching so near the ground as the +natural trees, the object being to produce an extended length of +straight trunk that will eventually afford a long and regular cut of +timber, free from the knots caused by the branches. All round the +plantations Scots-firs are planted as "nurses," to keep off the rough +winds and prevent breakage; these also help to lengthen the trunks by +inducing upward development. As the trees get nearer together they are +repeatedly thinned out, and, eventually, only those left which are +intended to come to maturity. Under this artificial, though necessary +system, the trees lose all individuality, and they never regain it +because they are all more or less controlled when growing, and so +become uninteresting copies of each other. + +The motto of the natural oak is _festina lente_, mindful of the +proverb, "early maturity means early decay." It is well known that +oak, slowly and naturally grown on poor soil, is far more durable than +that which is run up artificially or produced on rich land. The +branches of oaks rarely cross or damage each other by friction, like +those of the beech, they are obstinate and will sooner break in a +gale, than give way. Where an oak and a beech grow side by side, close +together, the oak suffers more than the beech, from the dense shade of +the latter; and if they are so near as to touch and rub together in +the wind, the oak will throw out a plaster or protection of bark, to +act as a styptic to the wound in the first place, and eventually as a +solid barrier against further aggression. + +Paintings of landscape in which trees occur are rarely satisfactory; +if you look at children playing beneath timber trees, or passers-by, +the first thing that strikes you is the majesty and the height of the +tree, as compared with the human figure. In paintings this is not as a +rule expressed; the trees are too insignificant, and the figures too +important, so that the range and wealth of tree-life is lost. +Gainsborough's _Market Cart_ is a notable exception, but the cart is a +clumsy affair, and the shafts are much too low both on it and the +horse. Constable's _Valley Farm_, _The Haywain_, _The Cornfield_, and +_Dedham Mill_ are all striking examples of his sense of tree +proportion, lending no little to the nobility of his pictures, and +speaking eloquently of the reverence man should feel in the presence +of Nature, untainted by his own fancied importance. + +What is known as "heart of oak" in Worcestershire is called +"spine-oak" in the New Forest, and the latter is perhaps the better +name of the two as expressive of greater durability. The outer part of +the trunk is called "the sap," and whilst the heart or spine is almost +indestructible, the sap-wood quickly decays, and is rejected in using +the timber for any important purpose. Pieces of the sap adhering to +the heart-wood of which the old oak coffers were made, may often be +found riddled with worm holes and almost gone to dust, while the +remainder of the chest is as sound as the day it was made two or three +hundred years ago. + +It is interesting, too, to notice marks of charring on the edge of the +lids of these coffers; it is said that they were caused by placing the +rushlight in that position, the flame just overhanging the edge, to +give time to jump into bed by its light leaving it to be automatically +extinguished on reaching the wood; and that the charring occurred when +sometimes the flame continued to burn a little longer than expected. + +Oak is usually felled in the spring when the sap is rising, to allow +of the easier removal of the bark for tanning. It is a pretty sight to +see, amidst the greenery of the standing trees, the stripped and +gleaming trunks and larger limbs stretched upon the ground, with the +neatly piled stacks of bark arranged for the air to draw through and +dry them before removal. This is called "rining" in the New Forest, +and good wages are earned at it by the men employed. + +It is perhaps the only timber, with the exception of sweet chestnut, +that is worthy to be used for the roofs of ecclesiastical buildings. +At Badsey, when we removed the roof of the church prior to +restoration, we found the oak timbers on the north side as sound as +when placed there many years further back than living memory could +recall, and of which no record or tradition existed. These timbers +were all used again in the new roof, but those from the south side had +to be discarded, having been much more exposed to driving rain and +daily changes of temperature. + +I had a number of oak field-gates made, but as the timber was barely +seasoned, we were afraid shrinkage might take place in the mortises +and tenons, and it was an agreeable surprise to find in a year or two +that nothing of the kind had happened. The mortise hole had apparently +got smaller, and still fitted the shrunken tenon to perfection. Oak +gates will last, if kept occasionally painted, sixty or seventy years +in farm use, and there were gates on my land fully that age and still +quite serviceable. + +The acorns from oaks in pastures are a trouble, as cattle are very +fond of them and sometimes gorge themselves to such an extent as to +prove fatal, if allowed unrestricted access to them when really +hungry; but in the New Forest they are welcomed by the commoners +(occupiers of private lands), some of whom possess the right of +"pannage" (turning out pigs on the Crown property). + +In old days the oak timbers of which our battleships were constructed +were supplied from the New Forest; and the saw-pit in which the +timbers of the _Victory_ were sawn by hand is still to be seen in +Burley New Plantation. But Government methods appear to have been +generally conducted in later times somewhat on the independent lines +which distinguished them in the Great War. Some years ago it was said +that a department requiring oak timber advertised for tenders in a +newspaper, in which also appeared an advertisement of another +department offering oak for sale. A dealer who obtained an option to +purchase from the latter, submitted a tender to the former, succeeded +in obtaining the business, and cleared a large profit. + +The oak has figured repeatedly in English history and occupies a +unique place in our national tradition, commencing with its Druidical +worship as a sacred tree. It was from an oak that the arrow of Walter +Tyrrel which struck down William Rufus is said to have glanced, and +Magna Charta was signed beneath an oak by the unwilling hand of King +John. It is associated in all ages with preachings, political +meetings, and with parish and county boundaries. These boundary oaks +were called Gospel-trees, it is said, because the gospel for the day +was read beneath them by the parochial priest during the annual +perambulation of the parish boundaries by the leading inhabitants in +Rogation week. Herrick alludes to the practice in the lines addressed +to Anthea in _Hesperides_: + + "Dearest, bury me + Under that Holy-oke or Gospel-tree, + Where (though thou see'st not) thou may'st think upon + Me, when thou yeerly go'st Procession." + +But perhaps the oak that appeals most to the lively imagination +venerating old tales of merry England, and with whose story generous +hearts are most in sympathy, is that + + "Wherein the younger Charles abode + Till all the paths were dim, + And far below the Roundhead rode, + And hummed a surly hymn." + +The beech is not a common tree in the Vale of Evesham, preferring the +dryer soils of the Cotswold Hills. It is said to have been introduced +by the Romans, and is familiar as the tree mentioned by Virgil in the +opening line of his first Pastoral: + + "_Tityre tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi_;" + +the metre, and the words of which, apart from their signification, +suggest so accurately the pattering of the leaves of the tree in a +gentle breeze. This device like alliteration is a method of +intensifying the expression of a passage, and is frequently adopted by +the poets. + +In another famous onomatopoeic line-- + + "_Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum_" + +--Virgil imitates the sound of a galloping horse, and the shaking of +the ground beneath its hoofs. + +Tennyson renders very naturally the action of the northern farmer's +nag and the sound of its movement, by-- + + "Proputty, proputty sticks an' proputty, proputty graws." + +And an excellent example of the effect of well-chosen words, to +express the sound produced by the subject referred to, occurs in the +_Morte d'Arthur_: + + "The many-knotted waterflags, + That whistled stiff and dry about the marge." + +Blackmore's passage in _Lorna Doone_, describing the superlative ease +and speed of Tom Faggus's mare, when John Ridd as a boy was allowed to +ride her--after a rough experience at the beginning of the +venture--is, though printed as prose, perhaps better poetry than most +similar efforts. To emphasize its full force it may be allowable to +divide the phrases as follows: + + "I never had dreamed of such delicate motion, + Fluent, and graceful, and ambient, + Soft as the breeze flitting over the flowers, + But swift as the summer lightning. + I sat up again, but my strength was all spent, + And no time left to recover it, + And though she rose at our gate like a bird, + I tumbled off into the mixen." + +The last line is a delightful bathos, adding immensely to the +completeness of the catastrophe. + +In spring the beech is the most beautiful of forest trees, putting +forth individual horizontal sprays of tender green from the lower +branches about the end of April as heralds of the later full glory of +the tree. These increase day by day upwards in verdant clouds, until +the whole unites into a complete bower of dense greenery. The beech is +known as the "groaning tree," because the branches often cross each +other, and where the tree is exposed to the wind sometimes groan as +they rub together. The rubbing often causes a wound where one of the +branches will eventually break off, or occasionally automatic grafting +takes place, and they unite. In the Verderer's Hall at Lyndhurst +specimens are to be seen which have crossed and joined a second time, +so that a complete hollow oval, or irregular circle of the wood could +be cut out of the branch. + +Estates where extensive beech woods existed have been bought by +speculative timber dealers, who shortly installed a gang of wood +cutters and a steam saw, on which the timber was sawn into suitable +pieces, to be afterwards turned on a lathe into chair legs and other +domestic furniture, and very often finally dyed to represent mahogany. +There are beeches in the New Forest which vie with the oak for premier +place, measuring over 20 feet in circumference, and the mast together +with the acorns affords abundant harvest, or "ovest," as it is called, +for the commoners' pigs. + +There was a curious saying in use by persons on the road to Pershore, +when asked their destination. In a good plum year the reply was, +"Pershore, where d'ye think?" And in a year of scarcity, "Pershore, +God help us!" The same expressions were formerly current regarding +Burley in the New Forest referring to the abundance or scarcity of +beech-mast and acorns, called collectively "akermast." + +When the nation had presented the Duke of Wellington, after the Battle +of Waterloo, with Strathfieldsaye, an estate between Basingstoke and +Reading, the Duke wishing to commemorate the event planted a number of +beech trees as a lasting memorial, which were known as "the Waterloo +beeches." Some years later, the eminent arboricultural author, John +Loudon, writing on the subject of the relative ages and sizes of +trees, wrote to the Duke for permission to view his Waterloo beeches. +The Duke had never heard of Loudon, and his writing being somewhat +illegible he deciphered the signature "J. Loudon" as "J. London" (the +Bishop of London), and the word "beeches" as "breeches." "For what on +earth can the Bishop want to see the breeches I wore at Waterloo?" +said the Duke; but taking a charitable view of the matter he decided +that the poor old Bishop must be getting irresponsible and replied +that he was giving his valet instructions to show the Bishop the +garments in question, whenever it suited him to inspect them. The +Bishop was equally amazed, but took exactly the same view about the +Duke as the latter had decided upon concerning the Bishop. No doubt +the mystery was eventually cleared up, and Bishop and Duke must have +both enjoyed the joke. + +The shade of the beech is so dense that grass will not grow beneath +it; it gradually kills even holly, which is comparatively flourishing +under the oak. The beech woods in the Forest are thus quite free from +undergrowth, and the noble trees with their smooth ash-coloured stems +can be seen in perfection, giving a cathedral aisle effect, which is +erroneously said to have suggested the massive columns and groined +roofs of Gothic architecture. + + "Where thro' the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, + The pealing anthem swells the note of praise." + +There is, too, an unearthly effect at times to be seen beneath them, +so exaggerated as to remind one of the stage setting of a pastoral +play, with all the enhancing artificial contrivance of light and +shade. It is to be seen only on a brilliantly sunny day, where the +contour of the space around the stem and below the branches takes the +form of an arched cavern, flooded by a single shaft of sunlight, +piercing the foliage at one particular spot, lighting up the floor +carpeted with last year's red-brown leaves, and emphasizing the gloom +of the walls and roof. Imagination instantly supplies the players, for +a more perfect setting for Rosalind and Celia, Orlando and the +melancholy Jaques, it would be impossible to conceive. It is said that +the ancient Greeks could see with their ears and hear with their eyes, +a privilege doubtless granted to the nature lover in all ages. In the +Forest some of the most ancient and remarkable trees have borne for +generations descriptive names such as the King and Queen oaks at +Boldrewood, and the Eagle oak in Knightwood. The communion between +human and tree life is well illustrated by a passage from Thoreau's +_Walden_: "I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest +snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or +an old acquaintance among the pines." + +At Aldington a most valuable tree was the willow, or "withy," as it is +called in Worcestershire, though in Hampshire the latter name is given +to the Goat willow, or sallow ("sally," in Worcestershire), bearing +the pretty blossoms known as palms, which in former times were worn by +men and boys in country places on Palm Sunday. My brooks were bordered +on both sides by pollard withies, the whole being divided into seven +parts or annual cuts, so that, as they are lopped every seven years a +cut came in for lopping each year. They were then well furnished with +long and heavy poles, which were severed close to the head of the +pollard with a sharp axe. When on the ground, the brushwood was cut +off and tied into "kids" (faggots) for fire-lighting, the poles being +made into hurdles or sold to the crate-makers in the potteries for +crates in which to pack earthenware goods of all descriptions. The men +employed at the lopping had to stand on the heads of the pollards, and +it was sometimes quite an acrobatic feat to maintain their balance on +a small swaying tree, or on one which overhung the water. + +There was a local saying that "the withy tree would buy the horse, +while the oak would only buy the halter," and I believe it to be +perfectly true; for the uses of the withy are innumerable, and +throughout its seven years' growth from one lopping to another there +is always something useful to be had from it, with its final harvest +of full-grown poles. One year after lopping the superfluous shoots are +cut out and used or sold for "bonds" for tying up "kids" or the mouths +of corn sacks. As the shoots grow stronger more can be taken--with +ultimate benefit to the development of the full-grown poles--for use +as rick pegs and "buckles" in thatching. The buckles are the wooden +pins made of a small strip of withy, twisted at the centre so that it +can be doubled in half like a hairpin, and used to fix the rods which +secure the thatch by pressing the buckles firmly into it. In Hampshire +these are called "spars," and they are sold in bundles containing a +fixed number. + +I heard an amusing story about these spars. A certain thatcher, we may +call him Joe, was engaged upon the roof of a cottage, when the parson +of the parish chanced to pass that way. Joe had of late neglected his +attendance at church, and the vicar saw his way to a word of advice. +After "passing the time of day" he took Joe to task for his neglected +attendance and waxing warm expressed his fears that Joe had forgotten +all his Sunday-school lessons; he was doubtful even, he said, if Joe +could tell him the number of the Commandments. Joe confessed his +ignorance. "Dear me," said the vicar, "to think that in this +nineteenth century any man could be found so ignorant as not to know +the number of the Commandments!" Joe bided his time until the vicar's +attention had been called to the spars, when Joe asked him how many a +bundle contained. It was a problem that the vicar could not solve. +"Dear me," said Joe, "to think that in this 'ere nineteenth century +any man could be found so ignorant as not to know the number of spars +in a bundle!" Joe always added when telling the story, "But there," I +says, "every beggar," I says, "to his trade," I says. + +Sometimes a picturesque gipsy would come to the Manor House with +clothes-pegs for sale, and she generally negotiated a deal, for +everybody has a sneaking regard for the gipsies and their romantic +life _sub Jove_. Walking round the farm shortly afterwards I would +come upon the remains of their fire and deserted camp by the roadside +close to the brook, the ground strewn with the peel and refuse from +the materials with which they had supplied themselves gratis, and I +recognized that we had been buying goods made from my own withies. +Even so we did not complain, for no real harm was done to the trees. + +The heads of these old pollards are favourite places for birds'-nests, +and all kinds of plants and bushes take root in their decaying fibre, +the seeds having been carried by the birds; so that ivy, brambles, +wild gooseberries, currants, raspberries, nut bushes and elders, can +be seen growing there. Whenever the foxhounds ran a fox to Aldington +he was always lost near the brookside, and it was said that the +cunning beast eluded the hounds by mounting a pollard and jumping from +one to another, until the scent was dissipated. It was also a +tradition that when hunting began on the Cotswolds the experienced +foxes left for the Vale, leaving the less crafty to fight it out with +the hounds; for the Evesham district was seldom visited by the hunt, +owing to possible damage to the highly cultivated winter crops of the +market-gardeners. + +Jarge had a very narrow escape when grubbing out an old willow +overhanging a pool. He had been at work some hours, and had a deep +trench dug out all round the tree, to attack the roots with a +stock-axe. He had cut them all through except the tough tap-root, when +I reached him, and he was standing in the trench at work upon it. He +was certain that it would be some time before the tree fell, the +tap-root being very large; but, as I stood watching on the ground +above, I thought I saw a suspicious tremor pass over the tree, and an +instant later I was certain it was coming down. I shouted to him to +get out of the trench. It took a second or two to get clear, as the +trench was deep, and he was not a tall man, so he was scarcely out +when the tree fell with a crash on the exact spot where he had been at +work. Had I not been present it must have fallen upon him, for not +expecting the end was so near he had not been watching the signs. +Though not a tall tree, it was a very stout and heavy trunk, and the +tap-root on inspection proved to be partly rotten. + + + "Forth into the fields I went, + And Nature's living motion lent + The pulse of hope to discontent. + + "I wonder'd at the bounteous hours, + The slow result of winter showers: + You scarce could see the grass for flowers. + + "I wonder'd, while I paced along: + The woods were fill'd so full with song, + There seemed no room for sense of wrong." + +Such is Tennyson's description of a spring day in the fields and +woods, and nothing more beautiful could be written. And so it was with +joy that my men and carter boys with waggons and teams started early +on the spring mornings to bring home the newly purchased hop-poles +from the distant woods. These poles are sold by auction in stacks +where they are cut, and the buyer has to cart them home. Usually, +after a successful hop year they were in great demand; prices would +rise in proportion, and the early seller did well, but when the later +sales came sometimes, the demand being satisfied, there would be a +heavy fall in values, and as a cunning buyer expressed it, "The poles +lasted longer than the money." + +The dainty catkins of the hazel are the first sign of awakening life +in the woods; they are well out by the end of January or early in +February, and as they ripen, clouds of pollen are disseminated by the +wind. Tennyson speaks of "Native hazels tassel-hung." The female +bloom, which is the immediate precursor of the nut itself, is a pretty +little pink star, which can be found on the same branch as the catkin +but is much less conspicuous; and both are a very welcome sight, as +almost the earliest hint of spring. The hazel bloom is shortly +followed by the green leaves of the woodbine, which climbs so +exultingly to the tops of the highest trees and breathes its fragrance +on a summer evening. In the New Forest the green hellebore is early +and noticeable from its peculiar green blossoms, but I have not seen +it in Worcestershire. + +My men and teams were generally off to the hills, Blockley, Broadway, +Winchcombe, Farmcote, and suchlike out-of-the-way places, when the wet +"rides" in the woods were drying up. The boys especially revelled in +the flowers--primroses and wild hyacinths--and came home with huge +bunches; they enjoyed the novelty of the woods and the wild +hill-country, which is such a contrast to the flat and highly +cultivated Vale. + +When unloaded at home the poles have to be trimmed, cut to the proper +length, 12 to 14 feet, "sharped," "shaved" at the butt 2 or 3 feet +upwards, and finally boiled so far for twenty-four hours, standing +upright in creosote, which doubles the lasting period of their +existence. They were chiefly ash, larch, maple, wych elm, and sallow, +and the rough butts, when sawn off before the sharping, supplied the +firing for the boiling. Green ash is splendid for burning: "The ash +when green is fuel for a Queen." Later, when I adopted a Kentish +system of hop-growing on coco-nut yarn supported by steel wire on +heavy larch poles, our visits to the woods were less frequent, and +much wear and tear of horses and waggons was saved. Some of our +journeys, in the earlier days, took us to the estate of the Duc +d'Aumale, on the Worcester side of Evesham, where some excellent ash +poles were grown. In one lot of some thousands I bought, every pole +had a crook in it ("like a dog's hind leg," my men said), about 2 or 3 +feet from the ground, which was caused by the Duc having given orders +some years previously, on the occasion of a visit from the Prince of +Wales (the late King Edward), to have a large area of young coppice +cut off at that height, to make a specially convenient piece of +walking and pheasant shooting for the Prince. + +On this occasion many people went to Evesham Station to see the +arrival of the Prince and retinue, and their departure for Wood Norton +in the Duc's carriages. Our old vicar was returning full of loyalty, +and passing an ancient Badsey radical inquired if he had been to see +the Prince. "Noa, sir," was the reply, "I been a-working hard to get +some money to keep 'e with." In some of the Wood Norton woods there +are large numbers of fir trees, planted, it was said, as roosting +places for the pheasants, so that they might not be visible to the +night poacher; but it was found that the birds preferred the leafless +trees, where they offer an easy pot shot in the moonlight or in the +grey of the dawn. + +The Scots-fir is an interloper in the New Forest, and always looks out +of place; it was introduced as an experiment I believe, less than 150 +years ago, and has been found useful as I have explained for +sheltering young plantations of oaks. It grows rapidly, and has been +planted by itself on land too poor for more valuable timber, chiefly +for pit-props. During the war immense numbers of Canadians and +Portuguese have been employed in felling these trees and cutting them +up into stakes for wire entanglements, trench timbers, and sleepers +for light railways. Huge temporary villages have grown up for the +accommodation of the men employed, equipped with steam sawing-tackle, +canteens, offices and quarters, and with light railways running far +away into the plantations where the trees are cut. It was a wonderful +sight to see these busy centres alive with men and machinery, in +places where before there was nothing but the silence of the woods. +And it is curious that, as in the old days the New Forest provided the +oak timber for the battleships that fought upon the sea in Nelson's +time, so now, in the fighting on land, we have been able to export +from the same place hundreds of thousands of tons of fir for the use +of our troops in France and Belgium. + +Old railway sleepers are exceedingly useful for many purposes on +farms, and as they are soaked in creosote, they last many years, for +light bridges and rough shelters, after they are worn out for railway +purposes. The railway company adjoining my land discarded a quantity +of these partly defective sleepers, and left them, for a time, lying +beside the hedge which separated the line from my fields. I applied to +the Company for some, and suggested that they need only be put over +the hedge, and I would cart them away. But that is not the routine of +the working of such matters; though it appeals to the simple rustic +mind, it would be considered "irregular." They had to be loaded on +trucks sent specially on the railway, taken to Worcester sixteen miles +by train, unloaded, sorted, loaded again, sent back to my station, +unloaded, loaded again on to my waggons, and carted a mile and a half +on the waggons which had been sent empty the same distance to the +station! + +Overgrown old hedges are exceedingly pretty in autumn when hung with +clusters of "haws," the brilliant berries of the hawthorn, and the +"hips" of the wild rose. There is, too, the peculiar pink-hued berry +of the spindle wood, and, in chalky and limestone districts, the "old +man's beard" of the wild clematis, bright fresh hazel nuts, and golden +wreaths of wild hops. It is said that + + "Hops, reformation, bays and beer + Came into England all in a year." + +But it is certain that the wild hops at any rate must have been +indigenous, for one finds them in neighbourhoods far from districts +where hops are cultivated, and the couplet probably refers to the +Flemish variety, which would be the sort imported in the days of Henry +VIII., though at the present time our best varieties are far superior. + +The holly is only seen as garden hedges in the more sandy parishes of +Worcestershire, but here in the Forest it is a splendid feature, +growing to a great size and height. In winter its bright shining +leaves reflecting the sunlight enliven the woods, so that we never get +the bare and cheerless look of places where the elm and the whitethorn +hedge dominate the landscape. In spring its small white blossoms are +thickly distributed, and at Christmas its scarlet berries are ever +welcome. Its prickles protect it from browsing cattle and Forest +ponies, but it is interesting to notice that many of the leaves on the +topmost branches being out of reach of the animals are devoid of this +protection. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + + +CORN--WHEAT--RIDGE AND FURROW--BARLEY--FARMERS NEWSTYLE AND OLDSTYLE. + + "He led me thro' the short sweet-smelling lanes + Of his wheat-suburb, babbling as he went." + --_The Brook_. + +I do not propose to enter upon the ordinary details of arable farming, +as not of very general interest, except for those actually engaged +thereon. I am aiming especially at the more unusual crops, and what I +may call the curiosities of agriculture. It is most interesting to +turn to Virgil's _Georgics_ and see how they apply after the lapse of +nearly twenty centuries to the farm-work of the present day. Horace, +too, was a farmer, though perhaps more of an amateur; he exclaims at +the busy scene presented when men and horses are engaged in active +field work: + + "_Heu heu! quantus equis quantus adest viris Sudor!_" + +which, by the way, was rendered with Victorian propriety by a +well-known Oxford professor, "What a quantity of perspiration!" etc. +Probably Horace had been watching the sowing of barley or oats on a +fine March morning, "the peck of March dust," which we know is "worth +a King's ransom," flying behind the harrows. George Cruikshank gives a +very spirited and comic realization of Horace's lines, in Hoskin's +_Talpa_, where ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, harvesting, +thrashing, grinding and carting away the finished product, are all +actively proceeding in the same field. + +The origin of the word "field," still locally pronounced "feld," as in +"Badsey Feld," near Evesham, takes us back to primeval times when the +country was mostly forest, of which certain parts had been "felled," +and were thus distinguished as opposed to the untouched portions. We +may be sure that the best pieces of land were the first to be brought +under cultivation, and it is thus that the best land in most old +parishes, at the present day, is to be found close to the village, and +is generally a portion of the manor property. Later, where glebe was +allotted for the parson's benefit, the poorer parts were apparently +considered good enough for the purpose, so that we generally expect to +find the glebe on somewhat inferior land. + +Wheat-growing at Aldington and on most heavy soils was practically +killed by the vast importations from the United States, rendered +possible by the extraction of the natural fertility of her virgin +soils, and by the development of steam traction and transport, +resulting in the food crisis at home during the war. The loss of +arable land converted to inferior grass amounted, in the forty years +from 1874 to 1914, to no less than four million acres. I made such +changes in my own cropping that, where I formerly grew 100 acres of +wheat annually, I reduced the area to ten or twenty acres, mainly for +the sake of the straw for litter and thatching purposes. + +Wheat can be planted in what would be considered a very unsuitable +tilth for barley. We had often to follow the drills--where they had +cut into the clayey soil, leaving the seed uncovered, and where the +ground was so sticky and "unkind" that harrowing had very little +effect--with forks, turning the clods over the exposed seed, and +treading them down. Wheat seems to like as firm a seed-bed as +possible, for the best crop was always on the headland, where the +turning of the horses and implements had reduced the soil to the +condition of mortar. The seed would lie in the cold ground for many +weeks before the blade made its appearance, but the men always said, +"'Twill be heavy in the head when it lies long abed." It is cheering +in late autumn and early winter when no other young growth is to be +seen on the farm, suddenly to find the field covered with the fresh +shoots of the wheat in regular lines, and to notice how, after its +first appearance, it makes little further upright growth for a time, +but spreads laterally over the ground as the roots extend downwards. + +Nothing in the way of weather will kill wheat, except continuous heavy +rain in winter, where the land is undrained, and stagnant water +collects. I have seen it in May lying flat on the ground after a +severe spring frost, but in a day or two it would pick up again as if +nothing had happened. And I have seen beans, 2 feet high, cut down and +doubled up, revive and rear up their heads quite happily, though at +harvest the exact spot in every stalk could be seen where the wound +had taken place. + +In May, if the weather is cold and ungenial, wheat turns yellow; this +is the weaning time of the young plants, which have then exhausted the +nourishment contained in the seed, and in the absence of growing +weather they do not take kindly to the food in the land, upon which +they now become dependent. + + "The farmer came to his wheat in May, + And right sorrowfully went away, + The farmer came to his wheat in June, + And went away whistling a merry tune." + +His wheat was what is called "May-sick" the first time, but had +recovered on the second visit, for another old saw tells us that, "A +dripping June puts all in tune." + +May is said "Never to go out without a wheat-ear," but I do not think +this is invariably true, though by splitting open a young wheat stem +it is easy to find the embryo ear, only about half an inch long. I +have heard people exclaiming at the beautiful effect of the breezes +passing over a luxuriant field of growing wheat, giving the appearance +of waves on a lake; but when the wheat is in bloom, it is doubtful if +this is a reason for congratulation, as the blooms are rubbed off in +the process, which may be the cause of thin-chested ears at harvest, +when, instead of being set in full rows of four or five grains +abreast, only two or three can be found, reducing the total number in +an ear from a maximum of about seventy to fifty or less. + +"God makes the grass to grow greener while the farmer's at his +dinner," is a proverb which may be applied to almost any enterprise, +for optimism is largely a physical matter, and "it is ill talking with +a hungry man." + +I suppose that no man, even with the dullest imagination, can fail to +walk across a wheat field at harvest without being reminded of some of +the innumerable stories and allusions to corn fields in the Bible. He +will remember how, when the famine was sore in the land of Canaan, +Jacob sent his ten sons to Egypt to buy corn, and how Joseph knew his +brethren, but they knew him not; with the touching details of his +emotion, until he could no longer refrain himself, and, weeping, made +himself known. How he bade them return, and bring their aged father, +their little ones, and their flocks and herds, to dwell in the land of +Goshen. + +His mind, too, will revert to the commandment given to Moses, "When ye +reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners +of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest"; +so that he will meet the villagers with a word of welcome, when they +invade his fields for the same time-honoured purpose. + +He will remember the story of Ruth and Boaz, told in the exquisite +poetry of the Bible diction, than which nothing in the whole range of +literature can compare in noble simplicity. And the corn fields of the +New Testament, where the disciples plucked the ears of corn, and were +encouraged, and the accusing Pharisees rebuked; with the conclusive +declaration that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the +Sabbath. And, finally, the familiar chapter in the burial service, +which has brought comfort to thousands of mourners, and will so +continue till the last harvest, which is the end of the world, when +the angels will be the reapers. + +The word "gleaning" is never heard in Worcestershire for collecting +the scattered wheat stems and ears; it is invariably "leasing" from +the Old English, _lesan_, to gather or collect anything. When wheat +was fairly high in price the village women and children were in the +field as soon as it was cleared of sheaves, and they made a pretty +picture scattered about the golden stubble, and returning through the +meadows and lanes at twilight with their ample gatherings. + +The "leasings" would be thrashed by husband or brother with the old +flail, in one of my barns, to be then ground at the village mill, and +lastly baked into fragrant loaves of home-made bread--the "dusky +loaf," as Tennyson says, "that smelt of home." One good old soul +brought me every week, while the "leased corn" lasted, a small loaf +called "a batch cake," and continued the gift later, made from wheat +grown on the family allotment; her loaves were some of the best and +the sweetest bread I have ever tasted. + +"The man who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before" is +said to be a national benefactor, and, I suppose, the same adage +applies _a fortiori_ to wheat, but I have never seen a monument raised +to his memory or even the circulation of the national hat for his +benefit. Too often the only proof of his neighbour's recognition of +his improved crops is the notification of an increased assessment of +the amount of his liability to contribute to what is, still quite +unsuitably, called the poor rate. + +Wheat rejoices in a tropical summer, and it never succeeds better than +when stiff land like mine splits into deep cracks, locally called +"chawns." You can see the root-fibres crossing these cracks which go +so far into the earth that a walking-stick can be inserted to touch +the drain pipes in the furrows at a depth of 2-1/2 or 3 feet. +Apparently this cracking acts as a kind of root-pruning, and lets in +the heat of the sun to the lower roots of the corn, with the result +of, what is called, a great "cast" (yield) to the acre. + +In building wheat ricks the most important point is to arrange the +sheaves with the butts sloping outwards, so that should rain fall +before thatching, the water will run away from the centre. I remember +at Alton, where the rick-builder was an old and experienced man, he +neglected this precaution; some weeks of heavy rain followed, but in +time the thatching was completed, and nobody dreamed of any harm. When +the thrashing machine arrived, and the ricks were uncovered, the wheat +was found so damp that, in places, the ears had grown into solid mats, +and the sheaves could only be parted by cutting with a hay-knife. The +old man was so discomfited that the tears rolled down his cheeks, and +the master's loss amounted to something like £300. There was not a +sack of dry wheat on that particular farm that winter, though some was +saleable at a reduced price. He told me that it was a costly business +for him, but worth any money as a lesson to me. I took it to heart, +and we never left a rick uncovered at Aldington; as fast as one was +completed, and the builder descended the ladder, the thatcher took his +place, and temporarily "hung" it with straw, secured by partially +driven-in rick pegs until we could find time to attend to the regular +thatching. + +The high ridges and deep furrows, to be seen on the heavy arable lands +of the Vale of Evesham, are a source of wonderment to people who come +from light land districts, and who do not recognize how impervious is +the subsoil to the penetration of water. The origin of these highly +banked ridges dates from far-away days before land drain pipes were +obtainable, and it was the only possible arrangement to prevent the +perishing of crops from standing water in the winter. The rain quickly +found its way into the furrows from the ridges, and, as they always +sloped in the direction of the lowest part of the field, the +superfluous water soon disappeared. Even now, when drain pipes are +laid in the furrows, it is not advisable to level the ridges, because +the water would take much longer to find the drains, and the growing +crop would be endangered. It is not safe to drain this land deeper +than about 2-1/2 feet, and many thousands of pounds have been +misapplied where draining has been done on money borrowed from +companies who insist upon 3 feet as the minimum depth for any portion +of the drain, which would mean much more than that where the drain +occasionally passes through a stretch of rising ground. As proving my +statement that 2-1/2 feet is quite deep enough, I have seen great +pools of water after a heavy rain standing exactly over the drain in +the furrows, and we had sometimes to pierce the soil to the depth of +the pipes, with an iron rod made for the purpose, before the water +could get away. + +On light land, the subsoil of which is often full of water, the case +is quite different, and the pipes must be laid much deeper to relieve +its water-logged condition; but on our stiff clay the subsoil was +comparatively dry, and we had to provide only for the discharge of the +surface water as quickly as possible, where the solid clay beneath +prevented its sinking into the lower layers. + +In the subsoil of the lias clay there are large numbers of a fossil +shell, _Gryphea incurva_, known locally as "devils claws"; they +certainly have a demoniac claw-like appearance, and worry the drainers +by catching on the blade of the draining tool, and preventing its +penetration into the clay. + +I have heard the suggestion that our highly banked ridges were +intended to increase the surface of the land available for the crops, +just as it takes more cloth to cover a hump back than a normal one, +but of course the rounded ridge does not provide any more _vertical +position_ for the crop, and the theory cannot be maintained. Some of +these ridges, "lands" as they are called, are so wide and so elevated +that it was said that two teams could pass each other in the furrows, +on either side of a single "land," so hidden by the high ridge that +they could not see one another; and I myself have noticed them on +abandoned arable land that has been in grass from time immemorial, so +high as nearly to answer the description. Though the blue clay in the +Vale of Evesham is so tenacious, it works beautifully after a few +sharp frosts, splitting up into laminations that form a splendidly +mouldy seed bed, so that frost has been eloquently called "God's +plough." + +It is a very curious fact that many of these old "lands" take the form +of a greatly elongated [Illustration: (S backwards)], though not so +pronounced as that figure, for the curves are only visible towards the +ends, and these curves always turn to the left of anyone walking +towards the end. Various explanations have been given, and one by Lord +Avebury is the nearest approach to a correct solution which I have +seen, though not, I think, quite accurate. My own idea is that, as the +plough turns each furrow-slice only to the right, the beginning of the +ridge would be accomplished by two furrows thrown together on the top +of each other, and the remainder would be gathered around them by +continuing the process, until the "land" was formed with an open +furrow on each side. The eight oxen would be harnessed in pairs, or +the four horses tandem fashion. When they reached the end of each +furrow-slice, the plough-boy, walking on the near side, would have to +turn the long team on the narrow headland, and in order to get room to +reach a position for starting the next furrow-slice, he would have to +bear to the left before commencing the actual turn. In the meantime +the horse next the plough would be completing the furrow-slice alone, +and would, naturally, try to follow the other three horses towards the +left, so that the furrow-slice at its end would slightly deviate from +the straight line. When the horses were all turned, the second +furrow-slice would follow the error in the first, and the same +deviation would occur at each end of the ploughing, gradually becoming +more and more pronounced, until the curved form of each ridge became +apparent. Lord Avebury says that when the driver, walking on the near +side, reached the end of each furrow, he found it easier to turn the +team by pulling them round than by pushing them, thus accounting for +the slight curvature. + +The saying, + + "He that by the plough would thrive + Himself must either hold or drive," + +is largely true, but only the small farmer can comply with it. The man +of many acres cannot restrict his presence to one field, and must +adopt for his motto the equally true proverb, "The master's eye does +more than both his hands." + +The thrashing-machine is the ultimate test of the yield or cast of the +wheat crop, and it seems to have something itself to say about it. For +when the straw is short the cast is generally good, and _vice versa_. +In the first case the machine runs evenly, and gives out a contented +and cheerful hum, but in the second it remonstrates with intermittent +grunts and groans. Even when the yield is pretty good, the voice of +the machine is not nearly so encouraging to the imaginative farmer, +when prices are low, as when prices are up. + +Throughout the course of my farming the gloomy note of the machine was +that which predominated, but in the spring of 1877, on the prospect of +complications with Russia, when wheat rose to I think nearly 70s. a +quarter, it was again a cheerful sound, for I had several ricks of the +previous year's crop on hand. I do not remember that bread rose to +anything like the extent that occurred in the Great War. Forty years +has marvellously widened the gap between the raw material and the +finished product--that is, between producer and consumer; immense +increases have taken place in the cost of labour employed by miller +and baker, and rates and other expenses are much higher. + +Farmers do not lose much in "bad debts"; they have to lay out their +capital in cash payments so long before the return that they are not +expected to give extended credit when sales take place, and for corn +payment is made fourteen days after the sale is effected. I had one +rather narrow escape. I had sold 150 sacks of wheat to a miller, and +it had been delivered to the mill, but one evening I had a note from +him to say that his credit was in question on the local markets. "A +nod," I thought, "was as good as a wink to a blind horse"; so next +morning I sent all my teams and waggons, and by night had carted all +the wheat away, except twenty sacks, which had already been ground. +The miller paid eventually 10s. in the £, so my loss was only a matter +of about £10. + +A similar "chap money," or return of a trifle in cash from seller to +buyer, as that in vogue in horse-dealing, still exists in selling +corn; it goes by the indefinite name of "custom," and in +Worcestershire it was a fixed sum of 1s. in every sixty bushels of +wheat, and 1s. in every eighty bushels of barley; each of these +quantities formed the ancient load. I think the payment of "custom" +arose when tarpaulin sheets were first used instead of straw to cover +the waggon loads. The straw never returned; it was the miller's +perquisite, and its value paid for the beer to which the carters were +treated at the mill; but the tarpaulin comes back each time, so the +miller gets his _quid pro quo_ in the "custom." + +Barley was not an important crop at Aldington, the land was too stiff, +but I had some fields which contained limestone, where good crops +could be grown. Even there it was inclined to coarseness, but in dry +seasons sometimes proved a very nice bright and thin-skinned sample. +Before the repeal of the malt tax, which was accompanied by +legislation that permitted the brewers to use sugar, raw grain and +almost anything, including, as people said, "old boots and shoes" +instead of barley malt, good prices, up to 42s. a quarter and over, +could be made; but under the new conditions, the maltsters complained +that my barley was too good for them, and they could buy foreign stuff +at about 22s. or 24s., which, with the help of sugar, produced a class +of beer quite good enough for the Black Country and Pottery consumers. + +I heard an amusing story about barley in Lincolnshire, some years +before the repeal of the malt tax, which, I think, is worth recording. +A farmer, after a very hot summer and dry harvest, had a good piece of +barley which he offered by sample in Lincoln market. He could not make +his price, the buyers complaining that it was too hard and flinty. He +went home in disgust, but, after much pondering, thought he could see +his way to meet the difficulty. He had the sacks of barley "shut" on +his barn floor, in a heap, and several buckets of water poured over +it. The heap was turned daily for a time, until the grain had absorbed +all the water, and there was no sign of external moisture. The +appearance of the barley was completely changed: the hard flinty look +had vanished, and the grain presented a new plumpness and mellowness. +He took a fresh sample to Lincoln next market day, and made 2s. or 3s. +a quarter more than he had asked for it in its original condition. + +The following lines, which have never been published except in a local +newspaper, though written many years ago, apply quite well in these +days of the hoped-for revival of agriculture. I am not at liberty to +disclose the writer's identity beyond his initials, E.W. + +FARMER NEWSTYLE AND FARMER OLDSTYLE + + "Good day," said Farmer Oldstyle, taking Newstyle by the arm; + "I be cum to look aboit me, wilt 'ee show me o'er thy farm?" + Young Newstyle took his wideawake, and lighted a cigar, + And said, "Won't I astonish you, old-fashioned as you are! + + "No doubt you have an aneroid? ere starting you shall see + How truly mine prognosticates what weather there will be." + "I ain't got no such gimcracks; but I knows there'll be a flush + When I sees th'oud ram tak shelter wi' his tail agen a bush." + + "Allow me first to show you the analysis I keep, + And the compounds to explain of this experimental heap, + Where hydrogen and nitrogen and oxygen abound, + To hasten germination and to fertilize the ground." + + "A putty sight o' learning you have piled up of a ruck; + The only name it went by in my feyther's time was muck. + I knows not how the tool you call a nallysis may work, + I turns it when it's rotten pretty handy wi' a fork." + + "A famous pen of Cotswolds, pass your hand along the back, + Fleeces fit for stuffing the Lord Chancellor's woolsack! + For premiums e'en 'Inquisitor' would own these wethers _are_ fit, + If you want to purchase good uns you must go to Mr. Garsit.[1] + + "Two bulls first rate, of different breeds, the judges all + protest + Both are so super-excellent, they know not which is best. + Fair[1] could he see this Ayrshire, would with jealousy be riled; + That hairy one's a Welshman, and was bred by Mr. Wild."[1] + + "Well, well, that little hairy bull, he shanna be so bad: + But what be yonder beast I hear, a-bellowing like mad, + A-snorting fire and smoke out? be it some big Roosian gun! + Or be it twenty bullocks squez together into one?" + + "My steam factotum, that, Sir, doing all I have to do, + My ploughman and my reaper, and my jolly thrasher, too! + Steam's yet but in its infancy, no mortal man alive + Can tell to what perfection modern farming will arrive." + + "Steam as yet is but an infant"--he had scarcely said the word, + When through the tottering farmstead was a loud explosion heard; + The engine dealing death around, destruction and dismay; + Though steam be but an infant this indeed was no child's play. + + The women screamed like blazes, as the blazing hayrick burned, + The sucking pigs were in a crack, all into crackling turned; + Grilled chickens clog the hencoop, roasted ducklings choke the + gutter, + And turkeys round the poultry yard on devilled pinions flutter. + + Two feet deep in buttermilk the stoker's two feet lie, + The cook before she bakes it finds a finger in the pie; + The labourers for their lost legs are looking round the farm, + They couldn't lend a hand because they had not got an arm. + + Oldstyle all soot, from head to foot, looked like a big black + sheep, + Newstyle was thrown upon his own experimental heap; + "That weather-glass," said Oldstyle, "canna be in proper fettle, + Or it might as well a tow'd us there was thunder in the kettle." + + "Steam is so expansive." "Aye," said Oldstyle, "so I see. + So expensive, as you call it, that it winna do for me; + According to my notion, that's a beast that canna pay, + Who champs up for his morning feed a hundred ton of hay." + + Then to himself, said Oldstyle, as he homewards quickly went, + "I'll tak' no farm where doctors' bills be heavier than the rent; + I've never in hot water been, steam shanna speed my plough, + I'd liefer thrash my corn out by the sweat of my own brow. + + "I neither want to scald my pigs, nor toast my cheese, not I, + Afore the butcher sticks 'em or the factor comes to buy; + They shanna catch me here again to risk my limbs and loife; + I've nought at whoam to blow me up except it be my woif." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + + +HOPS--INSECT ATTACKS--HOP FAIRS. + + "Oft expectation fails, and most oft there + Where most it promises; and oft it hits + Where hope is coldest and despair most fits." + + --_All's Well that Ends Well_. + +In a very rare black-letter book on hop culture, _A Perfite Platforme +of a Hoppe Garden_, published in the year 1578 and therefore over 340 +years old, the author, Reynolde Scot, has the following quaint remarks +on one of the disorders to which the hop plant is liable: + +"The hoppe that liketh not his entertainment, namely his seat, his +ground, his keeper, or the manner of his setting, comith up thick and +rough in leaves, very like unto a nettle; and will be much bitten with +a little black flye, who, also, will not do harme unto good hoppes, +who if she leave the leaf as full of holes as a nettle, yet she +seldome proceedeth to the utter destruction of the Hoppe; where the +garden standeth bleake, the heat of summer will reform this matter." + +Thomas Tusser, who lived 1515 to 1580, in his _Five Hundred Points of +Good Husbandry_, included many seasonable verses on Hop-growing, among +which the following are worth quoting: + + MAY. + + Get into thy hop-yard for now it is time + To teach Robin Hop on his pole how to climb, + To follow the sun, as his property is, + And weed him and trim him if aught go amiss. + + JUNE. + + Whom fancy perswadeth among other crops, + To have for his spending sufficient of hops: + Must willingly follow of choices to chuse + Such lessons approved, as skilfull do use. + + Ground gravelly, sandy, and mixed with clay, + Is naughty for hops, any manner of way; + Or if it be mingled with rubbish and stone, + For dryness and barrenness let it alone. + + Chuse soil for the hop of the rottenest mould, + Well dunged and wrought as a garden plot should: + Not far from the water (but not overflown), + This lesson well noted is meet to be known. + + The sun in the south, or else southly and west, + Is joy to the hop, as welcomed ghest: + But wind in the north, or else northerly east, + To hop is as ill, as a fray in a feast. + + Meet plot for a hop-yard, once found as is told, + Make thereof account, as of jewell of gold: + Now dig it and leave it the sun for to burn, + And afterward fence it to serve for that turn. + + The hop for his profit, I thus do exalt, + It strengtheneth drink and it favoureth malt, + And being well brewed, long kept it will last, + And drawing abide, if ye draw not too fast. + +In Worcestershire and Herefordshire hop-gardens are always called +hop-yards, which seems to be only a local and more ancient form of the +same word, and from the same root. The termination occurs also in +"orchard"--from the Anglo-Saxon _ortgeard_ (a wort-yard) +--"olive-yard," and "vineyard." + +The quotation from the _Perfitie Platforme of a Hoppe Garden_ refers +to "a little black flye," now called "the flea" (Worcestershire plural +"flen"), really a beetle like the "turnip fly," and it is the first +pest that attacks the hop every year. + + "First the flea, then the fly, + Then the lice, and then they die," + +is a couplet repeated in all the hop districts to-day, but the damage +done by the flea is not to be compared to that caused by the next +pest, the fly. The latter is one of the numerous species of aphis +which begins its attack in the winged state, and after producing +wingless green lice in abundance--which further increase by the +process known as "gemmation"--reappears with wings in the final +generation of the lice, and hibernates in readiness for its visitation +in the spring next year. + +So long as the hop plant maintains its health the aphis is +comparatively harmless, for the plant is then able to elaborate to the +full the bitter principle which is its natural protection. On a really +hot day in July it is sometimes possible to detect the distinctive +scent of the hop quite plainly in walking through the plantation, long +before any hops appear, and when this is noticeable very little of the +aphis blight can be found. There is however nearly always a small +sprinkling lying in wait, and a few days of unsuitable weather will +reduce the vitality of the plant so that the blight immediately begins +to increase. + +There is little doubt that all the distinctive principles of plants or +trees have been evolved, and are in perfect health elaborated, as a +protection from their most destructive insect or fungoid enemies; just +as physical protective equipment, such as thorns, prickles, and +stinging apparatus, is produced by other plants or trees as safeguards +against more powerful foes. If it were not so, plants that are even +now seriously damaged and kept in check by such pests would long ago +have become extinct. + +Pursuing this theory it seems likely that the solanin of the potato is +its natural protection against the disease caused by the fungus +_Phytophthora infestans_. The idea is suggested by the invariably +increasing liability to the potato disease experienced as new sorts +become old. The new kinds of potatoes are produced from the seed--not +the tubers--of the old varieties, and the seed, when fully vitalized +and capable of germination, may be assumed to contain the maximum +potentiality for transmission of the active principle to the tubers +immediately descended from it. During the early years of their +existence these revitalized tubers contain so much solanin that they +are not only injurious, but more or less poisonous, to man, and it is +only after they have been cultivated, and have produced further +generations of tubers _from_ tubers, that they become eatable, showing +that in the tuber condition the plant gradually loses its efficient +protection. + +In the case of the hop the most effective remedy is a solution of +quassia and soft soap. The caustic potash in the soap neutralizes the +oily integument of the lice and dries them up, but the quassia +supplies a bitter principle not unlike that of the hop, though without +its grateful aroma, which acts as a protection in the absence of the +bitter of the hop itself. So closely does the hop bitter resemble that +of quassia, that in seasons of hop failure it is said to be employed +as a substitute in brewing, and at one time its use for that purpose +was prohibited by law. + +As a further proof that the bitter principle of the hop is distasteful +to the aphis, it is noticeable that when the fly first arrives it +always attacks the topmost shoots of the bine where the leaves have +not developed, and where the active principle is likely to be weakest. +The same position is selected by the aphis of the rose, the bean, and +every plant or tree subject to aphis attack--it is the undeveloped and +therefore unprotected part which is chosen. + +It is remarkable that when a destructive blight is +proceeding--generally in a wet and cold time--and a sudden change +occurs to really hot dry weather, the hop plant often recovers its +tone automatically, shakes off the disease, and the blight dies away, +a fact which strengthens the assumption that in normal weather the +plant can protect itself. Again, the blight is always most persistent +under the shade of trees or tall hedges, or where the bine is over +luxuriant, when owing to the exclusion of light and air the plant is +unable to elaborate its natural safeguard. + +Fertilizers not well balanced as to their constituents, and containing +an excess of nitrogen, act as stimulants without supplying the +minerals necessary for perfect health. The effect is the same as that +produced in man by an excess of alcohol and a deficiency of nourishing +food, the health of the subject suffers in both cases, leaving a +predisposition to disease. + +Reasoning by analogy, these causes affecting the success or failure of +plants give us the clue to the remedies for bacterial disease in man. +Disease is the consequence and penalty of life under unnatural or +unfavourable conditions, which should first receive attention and +improvement. When in spite of improved conditions disease persists, +specifics must be sought. The conditions which produce disease in the +vegetable world are fought by the active principle of each plant, and +inasmuch as the germ diseases of man are probably, though distantly, +related to those which affect vegetable life, the specific protections +of plants should be exploited for the treatment of human complaints. +This, of course, has for long been a practice, but possibly more +success might be achieved by careful research to identify each +distinct bacterial disease in man with its co-related distinct disease +in plants, so as to utilize as a remedy for the former the natural +protection which the latter indicates. + +Our artificially evolved domesticated plants are more subject to +disease than their wild prototypes, because they are not natural +survivals of the fittest. They are survivals only by virtue of the art +of man, inducing special properties pleasing to man's senses, and +therefore profitable for sale; but in the development of some such +special excellence, ability to elaborate protective defence is +generally neglected, and the special excellence produced may possibly +be antagonistic to the really sound constitution of the plant. It is +thus that cultivated plants are more in need of watchful care and +attention than their wild relations, and that, in the development of +quality, a sacrifice of quantity may be involved. + +The observant hop grower notices constant changes in the appearance of +his plants from day to day under varying weather influences and other +conditions: a retarded and unhappy expression in a cold, wet and rough +time; an eager and hopeful expansiveness under genial conditions; a +dark, plethoric and rampant growth where too much nitrogen is +available, and a brilliant and healthily-restrained normality when +properly balanced nourishment is provided. + +There should be sympathy between the grower and his plants, such as is +described by Blackmore in his _Christowell_; though in the following +passage with consummate art he puts the words into the mouth of the +sympathetic daughter of the amateur vine-grower, and gives the plant +the credit of the first advance: + +"'For people to talk about "sensitive plants,"' she says, 'does seem +such sad nonsense, when every plant that lives is sensitive. Just look +at this holly-leafed baby vine, with every point cut like a prickle, +yet much too tender and good to prick me. It follows every motion of +my hand; it crisps its little veinings up whenever I come near it; and +it feels in every fibre that I am looking at it.'" + +Blackmore was much more than a writer of fiction; I think he had a +deeper insight into the spirit of Nature and country character than +perhaps any writer of modern times; he combined the accuracy of the +scholar with the practical knowledge of the farmer and gardener; the +logic of the philosopher with the fancy and expression of the poet. I +regard the appreciation of his _Lorna Doone_--a book in which one can +smell the violets--as the test of a real country lover; I mean a +country lover who, besides the gift of acute observation, has the +deeper gift of imaginative perception. If only the book could have +been illustrated by the pencil of Randolph Caldecott, such a union of +sympathy between author and artist would have produced a work +unparalleled in rural literature. + +Like all insects the aphis has its special insect enemies, among which +the lady-bird ("lady-cow" in Worcestershire) is the most important. It +lays its eggs in clusters on the hop-leaf, and in a few days the larvæ +(called "niggers") are hatched, aggressive-looking creatures with +insatiable appetites. It is amusing to watch them hunting over the +lower side of the leaf like a sporting dog in a turnip field, and +devouring the lice in quantities. I knew an old hop grower in +Hampshire who had a standing offer of a guinea a quart for lady-birds, +but it is scarcely necessary to add that the reward was never claimed. + +The hop is dioecious (producing male and female blossoms on separate +plants), but very rarely both can be found on the same stem--the plant +thus becoming monoecious. In 1893, a very hot dry year, several +specimens were found, including one in Kent, one in Surrey, one in +Herefordshire, and one in my own hopyards at Aldington. It is curious +that the same unusual season should have produced the same abnormality +in places so far apart, practically representing all the hop districts +of the country. + + "Till James's Day be past and gone, + You might grow hops or you might grow none." + +St. James's Day is July 25, and so uncertain was the crop in the days +before insecticides were in use, that the saying fairly represents the +specially speculative nature of the crop in former times. As an +instance of the effects of varying years I had the uncommon experience +of picking two crops in twelve months: the first in a very late season +when the picking did not commence till after Worcester hop-fair day, +September 19th, and the second the following year when picking was +unusually early, and was completed before the fair day. At Farnham, +where many of the tradespeople indulged in a little annual flutter as +small hop growers, in addition to a more regular source of income from +their respective trades, it was said that the first question on +meeting each other was not, "How are you?" but "How are _they_?" + +Hop-picking is always somewhat reminiscent of the Saturnalia; with +hundreds of strangers from distant villages and a few gipsies and +tramps, it is not possible to enforce strict discipline, for it is +very necessary to keep the people in good-humour. On the final day of +the picking they expect to be allowed to indulge in a good deal of +horse-play, the great joke being suddenly to upset an unpopular +individual into a crib among the hops. Shrieks of laughter greet the +disappearance of the unlucky one, of whom nothing is to be seen except +a struggling leg protruding from the crib. + +The last operation in the hop garden is stacking the poles, and +burning the bine, a most inflammable material which makes a prodigious +blaze. As the men watch the leaping flames the same remark is made +year after year--"fire is a good servant, but a bad master." These +fires seem a great waste of good fibrous matter, as in former times +the bine was utilized for making coarse sacking and brown paper. +During the war I suggested to the National Salvage Council that, owing +to the scarcity of both these articles, it might be worth while to +attempt the resuscitation of the manufacture. The suggestion was +followed by experiments which produced quite a useful brown paper of +which I received a sample, but the cost of treatment was unfortunately +prohibitive from the commercial point of view. + +Worcester hop fair is the start of the trade, and the market is held +behind the Hop-Pole Hotel, where there are spacious stores and offices +for the merchants. When the crop is bountiful the stores are filled to +overflowing, and the ancient Guildhall built in 1721 has to be +requisitioned. On either side of the doorway stand the statues of +Carolus I. and Carolus II., who must have watched the entrance and the +exit of innumerable pockets. Worcester is distinguished as the +Faithful City, for like the County it had small use for Cromwell and +his Roundheads; and to this day, on the date of the restoration of +Charles II.--"the twenty-ninth of May, oak apple day"--a spray of oak +or an oak-apple is in some villages worn as a badge of loyalty, the +penalty for non-observance being a stroke on the hands with a +stinging-nettle. + +It was a great relief to get away from my 300 pickers and ride the +eighteen miles to Worcester on my bicycle, through the lovely river +scenery of the Vale of Evesham, the hedges drooping beneath the weight +of brilliant berries, the orchards loaded with apples, the clean +bright stubbles, and the cattle in the lush aftermath; then, after a +visit to the busy hop-market and a stroll among the curio shops in New +Street, to return by a different road as the shadows were lengthening +beside the copses and the hedgerow timber trees. + +In former times the October fair at Weyhill, near Andover, was the +market for the Hampshire and Farnham hops; it was the custom for the +growers to send them by road, and load back with cheese brought to the +fair by the Wiltshire farmers. I heard of a Hampshire grower, who in a +year of great scarcity had spent some time trying to sell several +pockets to an anxious but reluctant buyer, unwilling to give the price +asked--£20 a hundredweight. They continued the deal in the evening at +the inn at Andover, where both were staying, and said "Good-night" +without having concluded the bargain. The grower was in bed and almost +asleep when he heard a knock at his door, and a voice, "Give you £18," +which he refused. Next morning trade was dull and the buyer would not +repeat his offer, and at the end of the week the grower sent his hops +home again. Prices continued to fall, until two years later he sold +the same lot at 5s. a hundredweight to a cunning speculator, who took +them out to sea, after claiming a return of the duty (about £1 a +hundredweight originally paid by the grower), which the Excise +refunded on _exported_ hops. The hops went overboard of course, and +the buyer netted the difference between the price he paid and the +amount received for the refunded duty. + +At these old fairs the showmen and gipsies take large sums in the +"pleasure" departments for admission to their exhibitions--swings, +roundabouts, shooting-galleries, and coco-nut shies. In Evesham +Post-Office a gipsy woman once asked me to write a letter; she handed +me an order for £10, and instructed me to send it to a London firm for +£5 worth of best coco-nuts and £5 worth of seconds. They were for use +on the shies; it struck me as a large supply, and the economical +division of the qualities as ingenious. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + + +METEOROLOGY--ETON AND HARROW AT LORD'S--"RUS IN URBE." + + "But if I praised the busy town, + He loved to rail against it still, + For 'ground in yonder social mill + We rub each other's angles down, + + "'And merge,' he said, 'in form and gloss + The picturesque of man and man.'" + --_In Memoriam_. + +During the terribly wet summer of 1879 the following lines were +written--it was said by the then Bishop of Wakefield--in the visitors' +book at the White Lion Hotel at Bala, in Wales: + + "The weather depends on the moon, as a rule, + And I've found that the saying is true; + For at Bala it rains when the moon's at the full, + And it rains when the moon's at the new. + + "When the moon's at the quarter, then down comes the rain; + At the half it's no better I ween; + When the moon's at three-quarters it's at it again, + And it rains besides mostly between." + +Rather hard on Bala, for the summer was so abnormally wet that these +lines would have been true of any part of England. I suppose everybody +is more or less interested in the weather, but the custom of alluding +to the obvious, as an opening to conversation, is probably a survival +from the time when everyone was directly interested in its effect upon +agriculture. + +Nothing proves how completely town interests now dominate those of the +country so much as the innovation called "summer time." During the war +it was no doubt a boon to allotment holders, and of course it gives a +longer evening to those employed all day indoors; but it inflicts +direct loss on the farmer, who is practically forced to adopt it in +order to supply the towns with produce in time for their altered +habits. The farmer exchanges the last hour of the normal day, one of +the most valuable in the old working time, for the first hour of the +new day, one of the most useless, for owing to the dew which the sun +has not had time to dry up, many agricultural operations cannot be +properly performed or even commenced--hay-making and corn-hoeing for +instance are impossible. We may be sure that the former times of +beginning and ending farm-work, which I suppose had been customary for +at least 2,000 years in England, did not receive the sanction of such +a period without good reason, and it seems to me, that so far as +outdoor work is concerned the new arrangement savours of "teaching our +grandmothers to suck eggs." + +There is a saving of lighting requirements, no doubt, but in such a +six weeks of winterly mornings as we had, following the commencement +of "summer time" this first year of peace, there is a considerable +increase in the consumption of fuel. Wherever possible, I suppose, +most houses are built to face the south, and the breakfast-room would +be generally on that side, so that by 9 o'clock, old time, the sun had +warmed the room, but at 9 o'clock, new time, the sun has scarcely +looked in at the window; a fire is probably lighted and to save +trouble kept up all day. If the new arrangement is continued, and I +understand that it was tried more than 100 years ago and abandoned as +a mistake, it would be much better to begin it at least a month later. +Our present May Day is nearly a fortnight earlier than before the New +Style was introduced, which is the reason why old traditions of May +Day merry-makings appear unseasonable; and probably the promoters of +summer time have not heard of "blackthorn winter" and "whitethorn +winter," which, in the country, we experience regularly every year in +April and May. + + "When the grass grows in Janiveer + It grows the worse for it all the year," + +and + + "If Candlemas-Day be fine and fair + The half of winter's to come and mair; + If Candlemas-Day be wet and foul + The half of winter was gone at Yule," + +are both rhymes suggesting the probability of wintry weather to +follow, if the early weeks of the year are mild and unseasonable, and +they may be considered as generally correct prognostications. A +neighbouring village had the distinction of possessing a weather +prophet, with the reputation also of an astrologer; he could be seen +when the stars were gleaming brightly, late at night, gazing upwards +and making his deductions, though, in reality, I fancy, his +inspiration came from the study of almanacs which profess to foretell +the future. He was quiet and reserved, with a spare figure, dark +complexion, and an abstracted expression. Occasionally I could induce +him to talk, but he did not like to be "drawn." He told me, as one of +his original conceptions, that he thought the good people were +accommodated in the after-life within the limits of the stars of good +influence, and that the wicked had to be content with those of an +opposite character. + +The proverb about March dust, and "A dry March and a dry May for old +England," are both apposite, for they are busy months on the land, and +a wet March amounts to a national disaster; but everyone forgives +April when showery, for we all know that "April showers bring forth +May flowers." Shakespeare, too, says: + + "When daffodils begin to peer, + With heigh! the doxy over the dale, + Why, then comes in the sweet of the year." + +A charming sentiment and charmingly rendered, but possibly more +accurate when the Old Style was in vogue, and the seasons were nearly +a fortnight later than now. The modern "daffys" too, no doubt, "begin +to peer" somewhat earlier than those of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. + +During a very hot summer I suggested to the Board of Agriculture that +it might be worth while to experiment with explosions of artillery, +with a view of inducing the clouds to discharge the rain they +evidently contain when they keep passing day after day without +bursting. I had seen it stated that many great battles had ended in +tremendous downpours, and that it was believed that the rain was +caused by concussion from the explosions. The Board replied, however, +that experiments had been conducted in America for the purpose, +without in any way substantiating the theory; and the experiences of +the Great War have since conclusively proved that it has no +foundation. + +As to weather signs, I have already quoted the original pronouncement +of my carpenter, T.G., that "the indications for rain are very similar +to the indications for fine weather," and there is a good deal in his +words. My own conclusion, after fifty years of out-door life on the +farm, in the woods, in the garden, at out-door games, and on the +roads, is that fine weather brings fine weather, and wet weather +brings wet weather, in other words, it never rains but it pours, in an +extended sense. + +My impression is that when the ground is dry there is a minimum of +capillary attraction between it and the clouds, and though the sky may +look threatening they do not easily break into rain. On the other +hand, when the ground is thoroughly wet and evaporation is active, +capillary attraction tends to unite earth and clouds, and rain +results. We all know that hill-tops receive showers which frequently +pass over the vales without falling, probably because of the greater +proximity of the hills. In a long drought a violent thunderstorm, +which soaks the ground, will often be followed by a complete change of +weather, as the result of contact established between the earth and +the clouds. + +The best description I know of a really hot and cloudless day is that +by Coleridge in the _Ancient Mariner_: + + "The sun came up upon the left, + Out of the sea came he; + And he shone bright, and on the right + Went down into the sea." + +The succession of monosyllables expresses most forcibly the monotony +of a day of blazing sunshine, unruffled by a cloud; and the absence of +incident illustrates the remorseless march of the dominant sun across +the heavens. + +Very little of my time has been spent in London or any other town, and +my early recollections of passing through London on my way to or from +school after or before the holidays are of very depressing weather +conditions--fog, greasy streets and pavements, or a sun veiled in a +haze of smoky vapour. Even when I went to Lord's annually in July to +see the Eton and Harrow match my recollection of the weather is of +dull, sultry heat and oppression of spirits. Cricket never seemed the +same game as I knew and loved at Harrow, or in my own home in Surrey; +there was an unreality about it, and a black coat and top hat were +insufferably uncongenial. + +I am able, as an eye-witness on one of these occasions, to write of an +incident which, I think, has been almost forgotten. It was within a +year of the marriage of King Edward, then Prince of Wales, and Queen +Alexandra. A ball had been hit almost to the boundary, but was stopped +by a spectator close to the ropes, thrown in to the fielder, and +smartly returned to the wicket-keeper. The batsmen took it for granted +that it was a boundary hit, and were changing ends when, one man being +out of his ground, the wicket was put down, the wicket-keeper not +recognizing that the ball was "dead." The umpire gave the man "out." +The man demurred, and immediately shouts arose on all sides: "Out!" +"Not out!" "Out!" "Not out!" "Out!" "Not out!" rising _in crescendo_ +to a pitch of intense excitement. The boys watching the match, and the +other spectators, some agreeing with, and some disputing the verdict, +rushed into the centre of the ground, and completely blocked the open +space still shouting vociferously. When the turmoil was at its height +the carriage of the Prince and Princess was driven on to the ground; +one of the players rushed up excitedly, and asked the Prince to decide +the matter. The Prince had not seen the incident, and of course +declined, as no doubt he would have done under any circumstances, to +give an opinion. It was impossible to clear the ground and continue +the play that evening, and stumps were drawn for the day. Next morning +the fielding side offered the disgusted batsman to continue his +innings, but he decided to play the game and abide by the umpire's +decision. I forget whether Eton or Harrow was in the field at the +time, and after this lapse of years it does not matter. The headmaster +always sent a notice round, just before the match, to be read to every +form, that the boys were desired not to indulge in any "ironical +cheering" at Lord's; this was his euphemism for what we called +"chaff," and I fear that on this occasion the warning was disregarded +even more completely than usual. + +As a child, I generally paid a visit to London with my brothers and +sisters during the Christmas holidays to see a pantomime, and I +remember an occasion when returning from Covent Garden Theatre after a +matinee we all--nine of us--walked over Waterloo Bridge and paid nine +halfpennies toll--a circumstance that had never happened before, and +never happened again. + +In the days before the railway was made between Alton and Farnham the +old bailiff on the Will Hall Farm at Alton, who, though quite an +elderly man, had never visited London, expressed a wish to visit it +for once in his life. His master gave him a holiday and paid his +expenses, and the old man drove the ten miles to Farnham Station. +Arrived in London he started to walk over Waterloo Bridge, but the +further he got the more astonished he became at the traffic, and began +to wonder what "fair" all the people could be going to. Feeling very +much out of his element he reached the Strand, and looking up and down +he saw still greater crowds of passengers and the unending procession +of 'buses, cabs, and vans. He became so confused and alarmed that he +turned round, went straight back to Waterloo Station, and left by the +first available train. He came home disgusted with London, and in an +account of the traffic and the people, ended by saying, "I never saw +such a place in my life; I couldn't even get a bit of anything to eat +until I got back to Farnham." This old man was called "the Great +Western": I suppose his bulk and commanding figure were reminiscent of +the power and energy of one of the locomotives on that line. He wore a +very wide-brimmed straw hat, and a vast expanse of waistcoat with +sleeves, without a coat over it, and he had a very determined and +masterful habit of speech. Caldecott's sketch of Ready-Money Jack in +_Bracebridge Hall_ always recalls him to my mind. He must have been +born before the opening of the nineteenth century, for he could +remember the stirring events of its early years. Any remark about +unusual weather made in his hearing was at once put out of court by +his recollections of "eiteen-eiteen" (1818), which seems to have been +a very remarkable year for maxima and minima of meteorology. He could +remember the high price of wheat during the war which ended at +Waterloo, and how his old master, the grandfather of the tenant of the +farm in my time, would stand by the men in the barn as they measured +up the wheat, bushel by bushel, to fill the sacks, and exclaim as each +bushel was poured in, "There goes another guinea, boys!" This would +make the price 168s. a quarter; I find the average recorded for 1812 +was 126s. 6d., so that it is quite possible that for a time in that +year in places 168s. was realized; which leaves us little to grumble +at in the price of 80s. during the greatest war in history. + +His horizon must have been considerably widened by his brief visit to +London; previous to that event it might have been nearly as extensive +as that of the hero of a recent story of Pwllheli. Meeting a crony in +the town, he remarked that the streets of London would be pretty +crowded that day. "How's that?" said his friend. "Why, there's a trip +train gone up to-day with fourteen people from Pwllheli!" + +Bredon Hill, in the Vale of Evesham, is the direction in which many +people look for hints of coming changes of weather. + + "When Bredon Hill puts on his cap + Ye men of the vale beware of that" + +is a well-known proverb referring to the dark curtain of rain clouds +obscuring the top, which is generally followed by heavy rain and +floods in the Avon meadows and those of all the little streams which +join that river. The same purple curtain can be seen on the Cotswolds +above Broadway, and is likewise the forerunner of floods in the Vale: + + "When you see the rain on the hills + You'll shortly find it down by the mills." + +There is, too, the beautiful blue hazy distance one sees in very fine +weather, which gives a feeling of mystery and remoteness and +unexplored possibilities. I lately read somewhere of a man who had +passed his life without leaving his native village, though he had +often looked far away into the blue distance, and longed to start upon +a journey of discovery; for its invitation seemed an assurance that in +such beauty there must be something better than he had ever +experienced in his own home. There came a day when the appeal was so +insistent that he braced himself to the effort, and after many weary +miles reached the place of his dreams, only to find that the blue +distance had disappeared. Meeting a passer-by he told him of his +journey and its object, and of his disappointment, "Look behind you," +was the reply. He looked, and behold! over the very spot he had left +in the morning--over his own home--the blue haze hung, as a veil of +beauty, with its exquisite promise. There is a moral and there is +comfort in this tale for him who fancies that he is the victim of +circumstances and surroundings. That is the man who, as my bailiff +used to say in harvest, has always got a heavier cut of wheat than his +neighbour in the same field, and is always finding himself "at the +wrong job." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + + +CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS--DEWPONDS--A WET HARVEST--WEATHER +PHENOMENA--WILL-O'-THE-WISP--VARIOUS. + + "There rolls the deep where grew the tree. + O Earth, what changes hast thou seen!" + --_In Memoriam_. + + "With many a curve my banks I fret + By many a field and fallow, + And many a fairy foreland set + With willow-weed and mallow. + + "I chatter, chatter, as I flow + To join the brimming river, + For men may come and men may go, + But I go on for ever." + _The Brook_. + +Living so many years in one place I had unusual opportunities, as my +rounds nearly always took me beside my brooks, of watching their +slowly changing courses. The roots of the pollard willows helped to +keep them to their regular path by holding up the banks, but sometimes +when an old tree fell into the water it had an opposite result. A +fallen tree, reaching partly across the stream, has the immediate +effect of damming the flow of the water on the side of its growth and +diverting the current towards the opposite bank in a narrowed but more +powerful advance, so that the bank is worn away and the beginning of a +bend is formed. As the breach increases, the water, momentarily +retarded there by the new concavity, rushes forward again in the +direction of the bank from which the tree fell. So that a second +concavity is produced on that side some little way below the tree, +resulting in the slow formation of an extended S-like figure, or hook +with a double bend. The collection of rubbish and sediment retained by +the fallen tree helps to form a new bank on that side, extending +further into the stream than the bank on which the tree originally +stood. + +As this process continues it is easy to see that a straight stretch of +stream will in time assume a winding course, and the stream will be +continually altering its path, so that large areas of flat meadows +will be formed, every part of which has at times been the stream's +course. How many ages, then, must it have taken to produce the level +meadows we see extending for immense distances on either side of our +big rivers, and even those adjoining quite small streams? The level +surface thus created by the river or brook's course perpetually +deflected and reflected, is finally completed by the floods bringing +down a deposit of soil in solution, which is precipitated and settles +into any surface irregularities left by the wanderings of the stream. +A faint conception of an absolutely illimitable cycle of years, during +which the whole extent of visible flat meadow has been again and again +eroded and restored, is thus conveyed. + +Confirmation of this alteration of their courses by streams is +afforded when we cut a main drain through one of these meadows, to +carry the water from the connected furrow drains of adjoining arable +land. The alluvial soil can be found as deep as the depth of the +present brook, free from the stones found in the arable land, and +containing, to the same depth as the brook, fresh water shells similar +to those in the brook to-day. There was a bend in course of formation +in one of my brooks, where the stump of a tree, whose fall was the +starting-point, could be seen standing in the newly-formed ground, a +yard or more from the stream when I left, though I can remember when +it was so near as almost to touch the water. + +If we form an S from a piece of wire, and pinch it together from top +to bottom, the loops become so flattened, [S], that one of them may +almost unite with the central curve. The same thing often happens in +the loops of a brook, and, in time, the stream will complete the +junction, forming a short circuit.[2] Thus an island may be formed; or +when the old loop opposite the short circuit gets filled up with +deposit or falling banks--the water preferring the short circuit--a +piece of land may be cut off from one of the former sides of the brook +and transferred to the other, so that where the brook is a boundary +between two owners or parishes one owner or parish may be robbed and +the other owner or parish becomes a receiver of stolen goods. There +was an instance of this on the farm I owned and occupied adjoining the +Aldington Manor property, and the owner and the tenant of the piece +transferred to my side could not reach it without walking through the +brook. In this case, however, the tenant had wisely planted the ground +with withies, which he managed to get at for lopping when its turn +came round every seven years. Thus we have an example of the necessity +of the ancient practice of beating the bounds, which, at least before +the days of ordnance surveys, was not merely an opportunity for a +holiday. + +Another proof of the creation of new land by the meanderings of a +stream is found in the ancient "carrs" of North Lincolnshire, near +Brigg, where the hollowed-out logs of black bog oak, which formed the +canoes of the ancient inhabitants, are sometimes discovered many feet +below the surface, and long distances from the present course of the +Ancholme. These having sunk to the bottom of the river in past ages, +and gradually become covered with alluvium, were left behind as the +river changed its course. In some cases however these canoes may have +sunk to the bottom of the water when it formed a lake, and the lake +having gradually silted up, the river receded to something like its +present width. + +The floods in the Vale of Evesham from the Avon and even from my +brooks, often converted the adjoining flat meadows into lakes, and +they rose so suddenly after heavy rains or the melting of deep +snowfalls on the hills, that they were attended with danger to the +stock. + +In the summer of 1879 one of these sudden floods occurred, and people +standing on Evesham bridge, saw fallen trees and hay-cocks floating +down the stream. A pollard willow was noticed with a crew of about +twenty land rats, which had found refuge there until the tree itself +was lifted by the rising water and carried down the stream; and a +floating hay-cock supported a man's jacket, his jar of cider, and his +"shuppick." The local word "shuppick," a corruption of "sheaf-pike," +means a pike used for loading the sheaves of wheat in the harvest +field on to the waggon, and is the "fork" in general use at +hay-making. During another summer flood the whole of the pleasure +ground at Evesham, beside the Avon, was under water several feet deep; +the water poured in at the lower windows of the adjoining hotel, and +the proprietor's casks of beer and cider in the cellars, ready for the +regatta, were lifted from their stands and bumped against walls and +ceilings. + +Every parish has its Council in these days, and in country places +almost every other person one meets is a councillor of some sort, and +inclined to be proud of the distinction. These Councils are excellent +safety-valves for parochial malcontents who thus harmlessly let off +superfluous steam which might otherwise ruffle the abiding calm of +peaceful inhabitants, but their powers are really very limited. In a +village in Worcestershire where an approach road crossed a brook by a +ford, during floods the current was sometimes so strong as to +constitute a danger to horses and carts. The village pundits +therefore, in council duly assembled, considered the matter, and after +an extended debate the following resolution was carried unanimously, +"That a notice board be erected on the spot bearing the inscription: +When this board _is covered with water_ it is dangerous to attempt to +cross the ford." + +The numerous brooks in the Vale of Evesham supply ample water for the +stock, but in more elevated parts, especially on the chalk Downs of +Sussex, Hants, Wilts, and Dorset, provision is made for an artificial +water supply by what are called "dewponds." A shallow saucer-shaped +depression is dug out on the open Down, the bottom being made +water-tight by puddling with a well-rammed layer of impervious clay. +The first heavy rainfall fills the pond, and, the water being colder +than the air, the dew or mist condenses on its surface sufficiently, +in ordinary weather, to maintain the supply. In a dry time the sheep +can always reach the water, the pond having no banks, by the shelving +formation of the bottom. Sometimes a few trees are allowed to grow +round it; they also act as condensers, and their drip helps to fill +the pond. It is only in an abnormal drought that these dewponds really +fail, and a thunderstorm, followed by ordinary weather, will soon +refill them. Gilbert White, in _The Natural History of Selborne_, +refers to these ponds in a very interesting letter on the subject, +including details of condensation by trees, in which he gives an +instance of a particular pond, high up on the Down, 300 feet above his +house, and situated in such a position that it was impossible for it +to receive any water from springs or drainage, which "though never +above three feet deep in the middle, and not more than thirty feet in +diameter, and containing, perhaps, not more than two or three hundred +hogsheads of water, yet never is known to fail, though it affords +drink for three hundred or four hundred sheep, and for at least twenty +head of large cattle besides." + +The natural well-water in the Vale of Evesham is exceedingly hard, and +in the town and some villages was formerly much contaminated. After +great opposition from obstructive ratepayers, a splendid supply was +obtained from the Cotswolds above Broadway, about six miles away, of +much softer and really pure spring water. It comes in pipes by +gravitation, so there is no expense of pumping; but it was difficult +to get recalcitrant ratepayers to lay the water on from the mains to +their houses, as that part of the cost had to be borne by them +individually; and, before compulsion could be resorted to, the Council +had to prove contamination of the wells and close them. To get the +evidence samples were submitted to a London analyst, and they were +invariably condemned. One of the Councillors suggested sending, with a +number of well samples, a sample of the new supply "for a fad." The +samples were numbered, but had no other distinguishing mark, and in +due course the usual condemnations were received, including that of +the new town supply! + +During the wet harvest of 1879, when what was called by townspeople +the agricultural depression, was becoming acute, it was impossible to +get a whole day on which wheat could be carried. The position was +serious, because the grain was sprouting in the sheaves in the field, +and time after time a fairly dry Saturday would have allowed carrying +the following day, though Monday was always as wet as ever. At last at +Aldington we faced the situation and decided to proceed with the work +whenever possible, Sunday or no Sunday. A fine drying Saturday +occurred, and my bailiff told the men what we proposed, adding that we +did not wish anyone to help who had scruples as to the day. They all +appeared on Sunday morning, a brilliant day, except one "conscientious +objector," who, as I heard later, spent most of the day at the +public-house. We got up two ricks from about ten acres, which +eventually proved to be some of the driest wheat we had that year, and +which I was able to sell for seed at a good price, to go into +districts where no dry seed wheat could be found. + +My old vicar was somewhat scandalized at this Sunday work, and some of +my neighbours fancied themselves shocked, but a day or two later I +happened to meet another clergyman friend, who farmed a little +himself. "I was _so_ pleased," he said, "to hear that you were +carrying wheat last Sunday; when I was preaching I was strongly +disposed to conclude by telling my people--'Now you have been to +church, go home to your dinners, and then off with your jackets and +carry wheat for the rest of the day.'" Next Sunday all my neighbours +were busy with their wheat, but I had managed to complete my harvest +during the previous week, on the 8th of October, quite a month or six +weeks later than usual, and an extraordinary contrast to the very dry +year 1868, when all the corn on the farm, I was told, was carried +before the last day of July. + +I attended a neighbour's sale that autumn; the wet seasons and the low +prices had been too much for him, and he was leaving for the United +States; his rick-yard was empty, all the corn sold, and nothing but +straw left. I heard him remark, "Folks are saying that I'm very +backward with my payments, but I'm very forward with my thrashing, +anyway!" Before the following spring nearly all the rick-yards were +empty, and wheat-ricks, it was said, were as scarce as churches--one +in each parish. The situation was summed up later in a phrase which +passed into a proverb: "In 1879 farmers lived on faith, in 1880 they +are living on hope, and in 1881 they will have to live on charity." + +The attitude of the towns was one of apathy and indifference, like +that of the General in _Bracebridge Hall_, which, published in 1822, +proves how history repeats itself in agricultural as in other matters: + +"He is amazingly well-contented with the present state of things, and +apt to get a little impatient at any talk about national ruin and +agricultural distress. 'They talk of public distress,' said the +General this day to me at dinner, as he smacked a glass of rich +burgundy and cast his eyes about the ample board: 'They talk of public +distress, but where do we find it, sir? I see none; I see no reason +anyone has to complain. Take my word for it, sir, this talk about +public distress is all humbug!'" + +At Evesham, long before the depression grew into a debacle, the +shadows of coming events could easily be detected. There was the +disappearance of the long rows of farmers' conveyances at the inns in +the town on market-days; there was the eclipse of shops--for other +than necessities--such as a little fish shop, opposite the corner at +the cross roads; a corner where much business was formerly transacted +in the open street, and where I myself have sold by sample some +thousands of sacks of wheat. A tempting little shop it used to be, +displaying shining Severn salmon; and it was here that the farmers, +after the market, obtained the supplies commanded by the missus at +home. + +And there was the abandonment of the Corn Market proper, for the class +of farmers who survived hated to transact their business indoors. The +attendance of millers and dealers, except of those who had cargoes of +foreign corn at Gloucester or Bristol to dispose of, became irregular. +Sales of farm stock and implements took place in every village on +farms which had passed from father to son for generations, coupled +with the sacrifice of valuable implements and machinery for want of +buyers. There followed the stage when landowners who could find no +tenants, and had heavily mortgaged estates, essayed to make the best +of them by laying away the arable land to pasture, undertaking the +management themselves with, perhaps, an old broken-down tenant as +bailiff. The politicians and the general public did not apprehend the +danger of the situation, in spite of innumerable warnings, until the +German submarines were sending our foreign food supplies to the bottom +of the sea; and now that the immediate danger of starvation has +passed, they appear already to have lapsed again into an attitude of +apathy. + +We hear the blessed word "reconstruction" on every side, but the only +official propositions for the permanent establishment of agricultural +prosperity that I have heard are utterly inadequate. It is ridiculous +to suppose that a few thousand acres of special crops, like tobacco, +for instance, only possible in favoured spots, can in any way +compensate for the loss of millions of acres of arable land under +rotations of corn and green crops. Under present conditions nothing is +more certain than the abandonment of arable land as such; and it is +folly to talk of novel systems of transport for a dwindling output, or +of building labourers' cottages at an unjustifiable cost, which are +never likely to be wanted by a dying industry. + +Among my experiences of abnormal weather, I have a note of a +remarkable summer flood on July 21, 1875, when my hay was lying in the +meadows beside the brooks, and had to be removed to higher ground in +pouring rain to prevent its disappearance with the current. On the +following day, July 22, the highest flood since 1845 occurred at +Evesham. + +October 14, 1877, was memorable for the most terrific south-west gale +that happened in all the years I passed at Aldington; thirteen trees, +mostly old apple trees and elms, were blown down, including the +splendid veteran "Chate boy" pear tree at Blackminster, an exceedingly +sad and irreparable loss. The gale blew hardest in special tracks, the +course of which could be followed by the destruction of trees and +branches in distinct lanes, cut through woods and plantations. + +The winter of 1880-1881 was very severe, the mean temperature of +January, 1881, being 27.8 degrees F., the coldest January since 1820. +Ten years later, 1890-1891, another very prolonged winter occurred: +the frost began on the 6th of December, and, with scarcely a break, +continued till well into February. The feature of this frost was the +fine settled weather, and the warmth of the midday sun in the +brilliant air, when skaters could sit on the river banks and enjoy +their rest and lunch in its rays. I took my elder daughter back to +school at Richmond at the end of January, and in London we saw the +Thames choked by huge hummocks of ice, on which people were crossing +the river. An ox was roasted whole on the Avon at Evesham, and, when +the frost broke up, the ice on our millpond was 17 inches thick. + +Another great frost happened in 1894-1895, beginning late in December, +and lasting till the end of February, with a single intervening week +of thaw; and in March the ground, in places, was too hard to plough. +It was the only time that I was completely at a loss to find work for +my men; all the carting was finished in the early days of the frost, +and all the thrashing possible followed; ploughing and all working of +the land, or draining, were impracticable. The men, seeing that there +would be no employment for them until the frost broke up, told me that +if they might get what wood they could from fallen trees in the brook, +and if I would lend them horses and carts to get it home, they would +be glad to work in that way for themselves for a time. Just as they +had cleared both brooks from end to end of the farm which occupied +them about ten days, the thaw came and I was able to find them plenty +to do. + +We suffered very little from droughts at Aldington, the land was +naturally so retentive of moisture, but 1893 was a dry year, not +easily forgotten; no rain fell from early in March to July 13; the hay +crop was the lightest in remembrance, and straw was so short and +scarce that the hay-ricks of the following year, 1894, had to go +unthatched until the harvest of that year provided the necessary +straw. + +The spring of 1895 was remarkable for a plague of the caterpillars of +the winter-moth, due to the destruction of insect-eating birds by the +great frost; the caterpillars devoured the young leaves of the +plum-trees, so that whole orchards were completely stripped. The +balance between insectivorous birds and caterpillar life was destroyed +for a time, and the caterpillars conquered the plum-trees. In 1917, +during the persistent north-east blasts of February, March, and part +of April, the destruction of birds was terrible; all the tit tribe +suffered greatly, and the charming little golden-crested wren, which +here in the Forest was quite common, has scarcely been seen since. +Caterpillars again were a plague in my apple trees that spring, but +were not really destructive, and in the autumn the apples escaped +their usual punishment from the birds and wasps. Tits are often very +troublesome; they peck holes in the fruit, apparently in search of the +larvae of the codlin moth, leaving an opening for wasps and flies. I +find the berries of the laurel, which is a species of cherry, very +attractive to blackbirds, and as long as there are any left they seem +to prefer them to the apples. In 1895 cuckoos came to the rescue of my +young plum orchard; there were dozens of them at work on the nine +acres at once, and they must have cleared away an immense number of +the grubs. + +The most remarkable season we have had since I left Aldington was the +great drought of 1911. There was no rain here worth mention from June +22, the Coronation of King George V., until August 30, and the +pastures on this thin land were burnt up. On August 30 we had some +friends for tennis, and we had not been playing long before a mighty +cloud-burst occurred; the rain fell in torrents. "It didn't stop to +rain, it tumbled down," as my men used to say, and in about half an +hour the lawn was a sheet of water, the ground being so hard, that it +could not soak away. It was all over in an hour, and a neighbour with +a rain-gauge registered 0.66 of an inch of rain, equal to 66 tons on +an acre, or 330 tons on my five acres. + +One of my ambitions has always been to see a Will-o'-the-wisp, and I +am still hoping; but that hot summer, had I known it at the time, they +were quite common within an easy walk of my house in the New Forest. +There was some correspondence on the subject in _The Observer_, and +the following is extracted from one of the letters: + +"As none of your correspondents seem to be aware of a comparatively +recent instance, I write to say that there were enough indubitable +Will-o'-the-wisps to convince the most incredulous during the +extremely hot weather of July, 1911. + +"From July 18 to 22 I was at Thorney Hill in the New Forest, some +seven miles behind Christchurch. Owing to the abnormal drought the +bogs and bog-streams at the foot of the hill westward were all but +dry; a dense mist, however, sometimes rose from them at night. On July +19, and the three following nights, the Will-o'-the-wisps were in +great form over the bog. They were like small balls of bluish fire, +which projected themselves with hops and jerks across the most +inaccessible parts of the bog, starting always, so far as could be +told, from where a little stagnant moisture still remained. They moved +with an erratic velocity, so to speak, appearing and reappearing at +distances of several hundred yards. There wasn't the slightest doubt +of their authenticity. + +"The inhabitants of Thorney Hill, I believe, regarded these +appearances with alarm, as being, though not exactly novelties, +harbingers of much misfortune. But the drought was quite bad enough, +without having the Jack-o'-lanterns to accentuate it!" + +This instance was the more remarkable as I have never succeeded in +finding anyone, even among people who are constantly on duty in the +Forest, who could testify to having seen a Will-o'-the-wisp. + +Waterspouts are, I believe, more frequently seen at sea than on land, +but I have an account from my brother, Mr. F.E. Savory, of one he saw +many years ago in Wiltshire. He writes: + +"When I was at Manningford Bruce in 1873 or 1874, I saw a dense black +cloud travelling towards the southeast, the lower part of which became +pointed like a funnel in shape, waving about as it descended until, I +suppose, the attraction of the earth overcame the cohesion of the +cloud's vapour, and it discharged itself. I could see it looking +lighter and lighter, from the middle outwards, until it was entirely +dispersed. I heard that the water fell on the side of the Down near +Collingbourne, about five miles off, and washed some of the soil away, +but I did not see that. The weather was stormy, but I do not remember +the time of year or any other particulars." + +It would seem that a waterspout is caused by a whirlwind entering a +cloud and gathering vapour together by its rotary action into such a +heavy mass that it descends in the funnel shape described. We are all +familiar with the small whirlwinds that travel across a road in +summer, carrying the dust round and round with them; these are called +"whirly-curlies" in Worcestershire, and are regarded as a sign of fine +weather. I have sometimes seen quite a strong one crossing rows of hay +just ready to carry, cutting a clean track through each row, and +leaving the ground bare where it passed. The hay is often carried to a +great height, and sometimes dropped in an adjoining field. + +On a bright morning in summer one often sees, a little distance away, +a tremulous or flickering movement in the air, not far from the +ground, which Tennyson refers to in _In Memoriam_, as, "The landscape +winking thro' the heat"; and again in _The Princess_: + + "All the rich to come + Reels, as the golden Autumn woodland reels + Athwart the smoke of burning weeds." + +I am told that this appearance is "due to layers of air of different +degrees of refracting power, in motion, relative to one another. Air +at different temperatures will refract light differently." In +Hampshire this phenomenon is known by the pretty name of "the summer +dance." + +Since I came to the Forest I have seen two very curious and, I think, +unusual natural appearances. As I was cycling one rather dull +afternoon from Wimborne to Ringwood, I noticed a colourless rainbow, +or perhaps I should say, "mist-bow," for there was no rain, and the +sun was partially obscured. The sun was about south-west, and the bow +was north-east; it was merely a series of well-defined but colourless +segments of circles, close to each other but shaded so as to make them +distinguishable, arranged exactly like a rainbow but without a trace +of colour beyond a grey uniformity. It was on my left for several +miles, perhaps half of the total distance of nine miles between the +two towns. + +Cycling another day between Lyndhurst and Burley, I reached the east +entrance of Burley Lodge, which is on higher ground than the farm +spread out to the right in the valley. The whole valley was filled +with thick white mist, as level as a lake, so that nothing could be +seen of the fields. The setting sun was low down at the further +extremity of the valley, and the surface of the mist-lake reflected +its rays in a rosy sheen, with a track of brighter light in the +middle, stretching from the far end of the lake in a broad path almost +to where I was standing; just as we see the track of sunlight or +moonlight, sometimes, on the sea, from the shore. This phenomenon is +not uncommon when one is looking down from the top of a hill in the +sunshine, upon a valley full of mist, but I have never seen it before +from comparatively low ground, as on this occasion. + +My summers at Aldington were nearly always too busy to allow me to +take a holiday, except for a very few days, but when the urgent work +of the year was over, the harvest completed, and the hops and the +fruit picked, we always had a clear month away from home, about the +middle of October to the middle of November; and, as we found the +autumn much less advanced in the south than in the midlands, we often +spent the time on the south coast or in the Isle of Wight, and we were +nearly always favoured by fine weather. On one of these occasions, +when we were exploring the whole island on bicycles, I never once +found it necessary to carry a waterproof cape, though in the course of +this visit we rode over 600 miles. + + +[Illustration: NOTE. THE CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + + +BIRDS: PEACOCKS--A WHITE PHEASANT--ROOKS' ARITHMETIC. + + "Hail to thee, blithe spirit! + Bird thou never wert, + That from heaven or near it, + Pourest thy full heart." + --SHELLEY: _To a Skylark_. + +We read of the peacocks which Solomon's navy of Tarshish brought once +in three years with other rare and precious commodities to contribute +to the splendour of his court; and doubtless their magnificence added +a distinct feature even where so much that was beautiful was to be +seen; but, to show itself off to the best advantage, one cannot +imagine a better place for a peacock than a grey old English home, +round whose mellow stone walls time is lingering lovingly. The touch +of brilliant life beside the appeal of the venerable past adds +perfection to the picture. I have always had an immense admiration for +peacocks, and soon after I came to Aldington I bought a pair. The cock +we named Gabriel Junks, after the famous bird in one of Scrutator's +books; he was a grand presence, and loved to display the huge fan of +his gorgeously-eyed tail, quivering his rattling quills in all the +glory of its greens and blues, and cinnamon-coloured wing feathers, on +the little piece of lawn under the chestnut trees in front of the +Manor. + +He learned to come to the window every morning at breakfast-time for a +piece of bread-and-butter, and if the window was closed he would rap +impatiently upon it with his beak. He roosted in the orchard just +across the road on the trunk of an ancient leaning apple-tree. One +night Bell heard a terrible fluttering, and looking out saw a fox +making off with the peacock; he shouted and the fox dropped the +peacock and bolted. Gabriel was not hurt, but sadly ruffled inwardly +and outwardly, though, next day, he was quite happy and apparently +unconscious of his narrow escape. But alas! some months later Reynard +paid another visit, and poor Gabriel was never seen again. Some years +after we bought another pair, not nearly so tame as the first, and +sometimes flying on to the cottage roofs and scraping holes in the +thatch in which to bask in the sun. The villagers complained that the +birds sat under their black currant bushes, and devoured the currants +as fast as they ripened! We could not keep them within bounds, and +later sold them to St. John's College, Oxford, where we saw them soon +afterwards in good plumage, and exactly in keeping with their +beautiful surroundings. + +One of my neighbours appeared to find these birds a special +infliction, and complained of the invasion of his premises by "them +paycocks." The word "pea" is always rendered "pay" in Worcestershire, +and, like "tay" for "tea," is probably the old correct pronunciation. +I lately saw a notice on some tumble-down premises near Southampton, +"Pay and bane stiks for sale." Another notice, not too happily +composed, is to be seen at a Forest village; after the owner's name, +"Carpenter, builder and undertaker--_repairs neatly executed_." + +The neighbour referred to was exercised in his mind as to my position +in various unwelcome parochial offices, but I was completely mystified +when he told me that he had read in history of a King Alfred, but had +never heard of a King Arthur. I did not grasp the force of his remark, +possibly because King Arthur was a familiar character to me, until I +was nearly at my own door, when it dawned upon me to my intense +enjoyment. If the reader fails, like me, to see the point, let him +turn to the title-page of this book, and read the name of the writer. + +The only real objection to peacocks, under ordinary conditions, is the +discordance of their cries, especially in thundery weather, when they +scream in answer to every thunder-clap. Cock pheasants, relatives of +the peacock, crow loudly at any unusual noise; and I have known them +expostulate at the report of a gun; they took flight, after running to +a safe distance, and their crow appeared to be in the nature of a +challenge or defiance, just as a barn-door cock will exult if you give +him the idea that he has driven you away. + +When the vessel which carried the coffin of Queen Victoria was +crossing the Solent, in 1901, some very heavy salutes were fired from +the battleships, and, the day being still and the air clear, the +detonations carried to an immense distance. They were distinctly heard +at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, only fourteen miles from Aldington and a +distance of nearly one hundred miles from the guns, in a direct line. +The reports were so loud at Woodstock, near Oxford, that the pheasants +began crowing in the Blenheim preserves. + +At Alton there were some extensive woods and coppices on the farm, +which were favourite breeding-places for pheasants, being dry and +sunny. Some months before October 1, when pheasant shooting begins, a +white pheasant was seen, and although he disappeared for a time, he +fell eventually to the gun of the tenant. He was a beautiful bird, and +was considered worth stuffing as a rarity. Albinism is not uncommon in +the blackbird; I have seen two partial instances lately; one was +constantly visible in my garden and meadows, with head nearly all +white, and the other I saw in the public garden at Bournemouth, with +the peculiarity still more developed. A white martin, or swallow, came +into the house of a friend near Aldington, and was regarded as an +unfavourable omen. Melanism, the opposite of albinism, is rarer, and +the only instance I have seen was that of a black bullfinch at +Aldington; it had evidently been mobbed as a stranger by other birds +of its kind, as it was injured and nearly dead when captured. I had +the specimen stuffed as a curiosity, though I am not fond of stuffed +birds. It is said that hemp-seed, if given in undue quantities to cage +bullfinches, will produce the black colour, even upon a bird of quite +natural plumage originally, and a case of the kind is mentioned by +Gilbert White. + +Aldington, with its quiet apple orchards and the "island" and +shrubberies below my garden, was a happy refuge for birds of all +kinds, and the old pollard-willow heads a favourite nesting-place. +Worcestershire people have some very curious names for birds, and some +of these are also heard in Hampshire and Dorset. The green woodpecker +is the "stock-eagle," "ekal," or "hickle," both in Worcestershire and +Hampshire, and the word survives too in "Hickle Brook" in the Forest, +and in "Hickle Street," a part of Buckle Street in Worcestershire. As +a boy I once marked a green woodpecker into one of the round holes we +see quite newly cut by the bird in an oak; getting a butterfly net I +clapped it over the hole, caught the bird, took it home and placed it +in a wicker cage. Then, returning to the tree with a chisel and +mallet, I cut a hole about a foot below the entrance to the nest, only +to find young birds instead of the eggs for which I had hoped. I went +home to see how my captive was getting on; she was gone, and her +method of escape was plain, one or two of the wicker bars being neatly +cut through. I had forgotten the power of "stocking" of a +"stock-eagle," for that is the meaning of the prefix in the name. + +The laughing cry of the green woodpecker, or "yaffle," as the bird is +by onomatopoeia called in some parts, is regarded as a sign of rain. I +doubt whether it should be always so interpreted, for I know it is +sometimes a sign of distress or call for help, having heard it from +one in full flight from a pursuing hawk. Other curious local names of +birds in Worcestershire are "Blue Isaac" for hedge sparrow, +"mumruffin" for long-tailed tit, "maggot" for magpie, and the heron is +always called "bittern" (really quite a distinct bird). There are +innumerable rhymes as to the signification of numbers where magpies +are concerned, but the most complete I have heard runs thus: + + "One's joy, two's grief, + Three's marriage, four's death, + Five's heaven, six is hell, + Seven's the devil his own sel'." + +Other rhymes make "one" an unlucky number, and there are many people +in Worcestershire who never see a solitary magpie without touching +their hats to avert the omen, and convert it to one of good-luck; as a +man once said to me, "It is as well not to lose a chance." + +The kingfisher, I suppose the most beautiful of British birds, was, +with all my brooks, a common bird at Aldington. Its steady flight, +following the course of a stream, and its brilliant colouring make it +very conspicuous, its turquoise blue varying to dark green, and its +orange breast flashing in the sun. I found a nest in a water-rat's old +hole, with six very transparent white eggs, deriving a rosy tint from +the yolk, almost visible, within the shell. The hole had an entrance +above the bank, descended vertically, turned at a right angle where +the nest, merely a layer of small fish-bones, was placed, and ended +horizontally on the side of the bank. I once saw six young kingfishers +sitting side by side on a dead branch, close together, evidently just +out of the nest. And I was fortunate in seeing a kingfisher dart upon +the water, hover for an instant like a hawk-moth over honeysuckle, +and, having caught a small gudgeon, fly away with it in its beak. +They, like the martin, always perch on leafless wood, so that the +leaves shall not impede their flight when pouncing upon a fish, and no +doubt this is the reason they sometimes perch on the top joint of the +rod of a hidden fisherman. + +The nuthatch, called here the "mud-dauber," from its habit of +narrowing the hole of a starling's old nest, with mud, for its own use +as a nesting-place, is a more common bird in the Forest than in +Worcestershire. It is a provident bird, firmly wedging hazel nuts in +the autumn into crevices of the Scots-fir, for a winter store, Bewick +mentions that it uses these crevices as vices, to hold the nut +securely, while it cracks it; but he does not recognize the fact that +they have been stored long previously. I have seen a great number of +nuts so stored and quite sound. + +Bewick, by the way, who wrote his _History of British Birds_ in 1797, +presents in one of his inimitable "tailpiece" wood-cuts a prevision of +the aeroplane. The picture shows the airman seated in a winged car, +guiding with reins thirteen harnessed herons as the motive power, and +mounting upwards, apparently very near the moon. If he can see the +modern interpretation of his dream he must be pleasantly surprised. +Bewick's woodcock is one of the most beautiful portraits in the book: +the accurate detail of the feather markings of the wings and back and +the softer tone of the breast are as nearly perfection as possible. A +woodcock visited Aldington in one of the very severe winters but +managed to elude all pursuers. It has been said, and also +contradicted, that the woodcock when rising from the ground uses its +long bill as a lever to assist its starting, just as an oarsman pushes +off from the bank with a boat-hook or oar; I myself have seen one +rising from a bare and marshy place, and the position of its bill +certainly gave me the impression that the idea was well founded. + +The woodcock often breeds in the south of England, but is usually a +migrating bird, arriving during the first moon in November; it is not +difficult to shoot when it first rises, but when steam is really up +and it is zig-zagging between the branches of an oak, it takes a good +shot to make sure of it. I shall never forget the first woodcock I +shot as a boy; it was a thick misty day in November, I fired, and +though I felt certain I had not missed, the smoke hung and the air was +too thick to see, and, after a long search, I left the wood and was +going home when our old spaniel, Flush, turned his head to examine +something in a deep cart rut. Following the direction of his eyes, I +saw my woodcock; it must have flown 100 yards or more after I fired. I +was still more pleased with the last shot I fired in our old Surrey +covers at a woodcock going like an express train--and faster, for they +are said to fly at the rate of 150 miles an hour--with all his tricks, +through thick branches in the adjoining cover, where he fell at least +65 yards from where I stood. A friend of mine had the good-fortune to +see an old woodcock, which had evidently bred in his woods, flying, +followed by five or six young ones; he said it was one of the +prettiest bits of natural history he had ever seen. + + "If a woodcock had a partridge's breast + He'd be the best bird that ever was dressed; + If a partridge had a woodcock's thigh + He'd be the best bird that ever did fly." + +is a very old description, and fairly divides the honours between the +two birds. + +The hawfinch is very easily recognized by its distinct and beautiful +colouring; it is a shy bird, and though it bred regularly at +Aldington, we rarely saw it. It is commoner here, and is sometimes +very destructive, its powerful beak making havoc with the +"marrowfats"; but, though I am partial to green peas of this +description, I would sooner suffer some damage than have the +hawfinches shot. + +In 1918 the cuckoos were exceedingly numerous here, and round my house +they were calling all day long. Owing to the terrible winter and early +spring months of the previous year, so many of the insectivorous birds +had been destroyed, that the caterpillars had escaped, and were more +numerous than ever in the following spring. The oaks in places were +completely stripped of their foliage by the larvae of _Tortrix +viridana_, almost as soon as the leaves were out. The cuckoos +discovered them, but were not in sufficient numbers to keep them down, +and it was midsummer before the trees recovered. I have referred to +the damage in my plum orchard at Aldington from the attack of the +larvae of the winter-moth; the damage is not confined to the actual +year of its occurrence, the crop suffers the following year owing to +the previous defoliation of the tree, which is weakened and is unable +to mature healthy fruit buds. At Aldington, in a hot summer, the +cuckoos used to call nearly all night, and I have heard them when it +was quite dark. + +For some years, until 1918, goldfinches were quite common in Hampshire +and Dorsetshire. I have seen a flock of over forty together. I had +seven nests on my premises here one summer; they go on breeding very +late, and I have found their nests with young birds half-fledged while +summer-pruning apple trees in August. They come into my garden close +to the windows in May, after the ripening seeds of the myosotis +(forget-me-not) in the spring-bedding. I never remember seeing a +goldfinch at Aldington, which should show that the thistles were well +under control, for the seed is a great attraction. One often hears the +practice of allowing thistles to run to seed condemned as criminal, +for everybody knows that each thistle-down, carried by the wind, +contains a seed, and that the attachment of a light structure of +plumes is one of Nature's methods of ensuring dissemination. But, in +Worcestershire, it is always asserted that thistle seed will not +germinate--I am referring to _Cnicus arvensis_--and it is said that a +prize of £50 offered for a seedling thistle remains unclaimed to this +day. I failed, myself, in trying to obtain young plants from seeds +sown in a flower-pot, and I have never seen a seedling in all the +thousands of miles I must have walked over young cornfields when my +men were hoeing. + +I have heard an interesting story about rooks which were causing a +farmer much damage in a field newly sown with peas. He erected a small +shelter of hurdles, from which to shoot them, and for a time the +shelter was sufficient to scare them, until they got used to it; but, +when he entered it with his gun, they would not come near. Thinking to +deceive their sentinel, watching from a tree, he took a companion to +the shelter, who remained for a time and then left, but still no rooks +came near. The farmer then took two companions, and presently sent +them both away. The arithmetic was too much for the rooks, and the +scheme succeeded. He concluded that their powers of enumeration were +limited to counting "two," and that "three" was beyond them. + +Nightingales are scarce in the Forest; they do not like the solitude +of the great woods, apparently preferring to inhabit roadsides and +places where people and traffic are constantly passing. They are +specially abundant at the foot of the Cotswolds, and it is a treat to +cycle steadily along the road between Broadway and Weston Subedge on a +summer evening, where you no sooner lose the liquid notes of one, than +you enter the territory of another, so continuous is the song for +miles together. + +In severe winters wood-pigeons did much damage at Aldington to young +clover a few inches high; they roosted in "the island" adjoining my +garden. When they first descended they alighted in the wide-spreading +branches of the leafless black poplars, where they could see all +round, and reconnoitre the position; then, if all was quiet, in about +ten minutes they took to the shelter of the fir trees for the night +with much fluttering and beating of wings against the thick branches. +They devour the acorns in the Forest very greedily in the autumn, and +I have seen one with crop so full that on my approach it could only +with difficulty fly away to a short distance. I found it near a small +pond where, apparently, it had been drinking, and the acorns had +expanded to an inconvenient extent. + +The golden-crested wren was a common bird here before the severe +winter of 1916-1917, but it has since become comparatively rare; it is +the smallest of British birds, and could often be seen in the hedges +exploring every twig and crevice for insects, and it was a great +pleasure to watch the nimble movements of such a sweet little fairy. +Its first cousin, the fire-crest, which is almost its exact +counterpart, except for the flame-coloured crest, is much rarer; and I +only remember seeing one specimen, to which with great circumspection +I managed to approach quite closely, in the wood near my house. + +One morning, at Aldington, the gardener came in to say there was a +hawk in the greenhouse near the rickyard; we found a pane of glass +broken, where it had unintentionally entered in pursuit of a sparrow; +the hawk was uninjured, and flew away quite unconcernedly on the +opening of the door. Another hawk, here in Burley, was found dead near +my drawing-room bow-window. It had dashed itself against a pane of +thick plate-glass while in pursuit of a starling, I think; seeing the +light through the bow, it had not recognized the glass, and must have +collided with it in the act of swooping. I have several times seen +hawks descend like a flash from a tree, and select an unlucky starling +from a flock; one blow on the head settled the victim before I could +reach the spot, but sometimes the hawk had to leave its prize behind +it. + +I was watching a number of young chicks feeding outside the coops +containing the mother hens, when there suddenly arose a great +disturbance, and a hawk, which had pounced upon a chick, was seen +flying away with it in its talons. Its flight was impeded by the +weight of the chicken, and we gave chase shouting. Flying very low it +carried its prey to the further side of the meadow, but, seeing that +it could not get quickly through the trees there, it dropped the +chicken and escaped; we picked up the poor frightened infant, which +was not injured, and restored it to a perturbed but joyful mother. "As +yaller as a kite's claw," is a simile one hears in the country, and it +is common to both Hampshire and Worcestershire. + +I never saw the wheatear in Worcestershire, but here I notice several +pairs on the moors in summer. They were once very plentiful on the +Sussex Downs and seaside cliffs, and as a boy walking from my first +school at Rottingdean to visit my people at Brighton, from Saturday to +Sunday night, I have passed hundreds of traps consisting of +rectangular holes cut in the turf, having horsehair nooses inside, set +by the shepherds who took thousands of wheatears to the poulterers' +shops in the town. They were then considered a great delicacy. Other +professional bird-catchers operated with large clap-nets, and a string +attached in the hands of the catcher some distance away. When they +were after larks a revolving mirror, flashing in the sun, was +considered very attractive; I suppose the birds approached from +motives of curiosity.[3] Many thousands were caught for the London and +Brighton markets for lark pies and puddings, a wicked bathos, when we +remember Wordsworth's lines: + + "There is madness about thee, and joy divine + In that song of thine." + +One severe winter an immense flock of golden plovers haunted my land +and neighbouring farms for some weeks, but they were exceedingly shy, +and being perfect strangers, they were difficult to identify, until I +brought one down by a very long shot, and we could see what a +beautiful bird it was. We could always tell when really severe winter +weather was coming, by the flocks of wild geese that passed overhead +in V-shaped formation. They were said to be leaving the mouth of the +Humber and the East Coast for the warmer shores of the Bristol +Channel, evidently quite aware that the latter, within the influence +of the Gulf Stream, were more desirable as winter-quarters. Evesham is +in the direct line between the two places, and we often heard them +calling at night as they passed. In the early spring when the severe +weather was-over they returned by the same route. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +PETS: SUSIE--COCKY--TRUMP--CHIPS--WENDY--TAFFY. + + "The heart is hard in nature and unfit + For human fellowship, as being void + Of sympathy, and therefore dead alike + To love and friendship both, that is not pleased + With sight of animals enjoying life, + Nor feels their happiness augment his own." + --COWPER. + +There are many stories of the affection of the domestic goose for man, +and I knew of one which was very fond of a friend of mine. The goose +followed him like a dog, and would come with him on to the lawn where +we were playing tennis, and sitting close beside him on a garden seat +with great dignity would apparently watch the game with interest. My +friend was fond of unusual pets; he had a tame hedgehog, for whom he +made a most comfortable house with living-room downstairs and sleeping +apartment on the first floor. His pet's name was Jacob, suggested I +think by the ladder which night and morning he used for ascending to +or descending from his bedroom. Hedgehogs have a bad character as +robbers of partridges' nests, and in our old parish accounts, under +the name of "urchins," we find entries of payments for their +destruction at the rate of 4d. apiece. + +My younger daughter had a tame duck, Susie by name, who gravely +waddled behind her round the garden. In summer at tea-time Susie would +much enjoy the company under the wych-elm on the lawn, and took her +"dish of tea" out of the saucer in the antique and orthodox manner. +Another amusing pet was a jackdaw who had an outdoor residence, though +often allowed to be loose. He acquired an exact imitation of my old +gardener's chronic cough, and enjoyed the exhibition of his +achievement when the old man was working near the cage, somewhat to +the man's annoyance. He was full of mischief, and was not allowed in +the house; but he once got in at my study window, picked out every +sheet of notepaper from my stationery case, and scattered them in all +directions. + +A still more accomplished mimic, a lemon-crested cockatoo, reproduced +the voices of little hungry pigs. He lived indoors on a stand over a +tray, with a chain round one leg, and was very clever at mounting and +descending by the combined use of beak and claws, without complicating +himself with his chain. He got loose one day, and ascended one of the +chestnut trees, and a volunteer went up after him by a ladder. Cocky +resented his interference, flew at him and bit his finger to the bone. +His beak was a very powerful weapon, and, until I made him a new tray +with a zinc-covered ledge, he demolished any unprotected wood or even +furniture within reach. + +This spring we had a blackbird's nest in some ivy near the house, and +many times each day the cock bird came to watch over his household, +and discourse sweet music from a neighbouring tree. A pair of jays +however appeared, and seemed too much interested in the nest for the +parents' comfort, approaching so near one morning that first the cock +blackbird, and then the hen attacked them; and though they returned +again during the day, evidently bent on mischief, the courageous +parents eventually drove them from the field, and they were seen no +more. Owing to the cutting of great fir woods in the Forest for timber +supplies for the war, jays have become much more common here than +formerly, and seem to have migrated from their former haunts and taken +to the beeches and oaks in the undisturbed woods. + +Birds as a rule are not well represented in books, though the drawing +is more correct than the colouring. Examine Randolph Caldecott's _Sing +a Song for Sixpence_ for a really clever sketch of the four and twenty +blackbirds, every one a characteristic likeness, and a different +attitude; and look at his rookery in _Bracebridge Hall_, where, in +three sketches he shows some equally exact rooks. + +I always walked when on my farming rounds, for one of the first +lessons I learned at Alton was that for that purpose "one walk is +better than three rides." My predecessor being a hunting man and fond +of horses, generally rode, but for careful observation, especially in +the matter of plant diseases, one wants to "potter about" with a +magnifying glass sometimes, and of course in entomology and +ornithology there is no room for a horse. One of the remarks made by +my men about me on my arrival was, "His mother larned him to walk," +with quite a note of admiration to emphasize it. It is really +remarkable how farmers and country people scorn the idea of walking +either for pleasure or business, if "a lift" can be had. I was at +Cheltenham with a brother, and finding we had done our business in +good time, we decided to walk to the next station--Cleeve--instead of +waiting for the train at Cheltenham. We asked a native the way, who +replied with great contempt, "Cleeve station? Oh, I wouldn't walk to +Cleeve to save tuppence!" + +One of our ventures in the way of pets was a well-bred poodle; he was +very amiable, handsome, and clever, but exceedingly mischievous. He +thought it great fun to pull up neatly written and carefully disposed +garden labels and carry them away to the lawn, for which, though a +nuisance, he was forgiven; but his next achievement was a more serious +matter. Finding his way about the village he would take advantage of +an open door to explore the cottage larders and when a chance offered, +would make off with half a pound of butter or a cherished piece of +meat and bring his plunder to my house in triumph. He was succeeded by +"Trump," a Dandie Dinmont, a very charming dog with a delightful +disposition, and perfectly honest until my elder daughter acquired a +fox terrier, "Chips," well-bred but highly nervous. Chips was a born +sportsman and most useful so long as he confined his activities to +rats and was busy when the thrashing-machine was at work, but when he +took to corrupting Trump's morals he required watching. Trump would be +lying quietly in the house or garden as good as possible, when the +insinuating tempter would find him, whisper a few words in his ear, +and off they went together. It was plainly an invitation, and later a +dead duckling or chicken would show where they had spent their time. +Trump became as bad as Chips and had to be given away. Chips was very +sensitive to discordant sounds, he must have had a musical ear; his +chief aversion was the sound of a gong, the beater for which was too +hard and, unless very carefully manipulated, produced a jangle. My +hall was paved with hexagonal stone sections called "quarries," which +appeared to intensify the discordance. Chips felt it keenly, and would +stand quite rigid for some minutes until the last reverberation and +its effect had passed off. He was uncertain in temper and disliked +some of the villagers. An old man complained that he had been bitten, +and told me with great feeling, "Folks say that if ever the dog goes +mad, I shall go mad too." I had much difficulty in appeasing him and +assuring him that there was no truth in the statement. + +How shall I do justice to the infinite variety of "Wendy," the dainty +little Chinese princess who now rules my household? There are people +who cannot see in an old Worcester tea-cup and saucer the +eighteenth-century beauty, fastidiously sipping, what she called in +the same language as the Aldington cottager of to-day, her dish of +"tay." There are people who regard with indifference an ancient chair, +except as an object to be sat upon, and who fail to realize its +historical charm, or even the credit due to the maker of a piece of +furniture that has survived two hundred and fifty spring cleanings. + +And there are people who can see nothing in the Pekingese, nothing of +the distinction and "the claims of long descent," nothing of the +possibilities of transmigration, or of present ever-changing and human +moods. Such are the people who suppose that the "dulness of the +country," and the attraction of the shams and inanities of the picture +palace induced the starving agricultural labourer willingly to +exchange the blue vault of heaven for the leaden pall of London fogs, +cool green pastures for the scorching pavement, and the fragrant +shelter of the hedgerow blossoms for the stifling slum and the crowded +factory. + +There is nothing of the democrat about Wendy; watch her elevate an +already tip-tilted nose at displeasing food, or a tainted dish, and +notice her look of abject contempt for the giver as she turns away in +disgust. No lover of the Pekingese should be without a charming little +book _Some Pekingese Pets_ by M.N. Daniel, with delightful sketches by +the author, in which we are told that, "Until the year, 1860, so far +as is known, no 'Foreign Devil' had ever seen one of these Imperial +Lion Dogs. In that year, however, the sacking of the Imperial Palace +at Pekin took place, and amongst the treasures looted and brought to +England were five little Lion or Sun Dogs." + +The author also says: "It is certain that the same type of Lion Dog as +our Western Pekingese must have existed in China for at least a +thousand years: that they were regarded as sacred or semi-sacred is +proved by the Idols and Kylons (many of them known to be at least a +thousand years old) representing the same type of Lion Dog." I have an +old Nankin blue teapot, the lid of which is surmounted by one of these +Kylons. + +I can only describe Wendy's moods and characteristics by giving a bare +catalogue: she is mirthful, hopeful, playful, despairing, bored, +defiant, roguish, cunning, penitent, sensitive, aggressive, offended, +reproachful, angry, pleased, trustful, loving, disobedient, +determined, puzzled, faithful, naughty, dignified, impudent, proud, +luxurious, fearless, disappointed, docile, fierce, independent, +mischievous; and she often illustrates the rhyme: + + "The dog will come when he's called, + And the cat will stay away, + But the Pekingese will do as he please + Whatever you do or say." + +Wendy is cat-like in some of her habits, prefers fish to meat, sleeps +all day in wet weather but is lively towards night, is very particular +about her toilet and washes her face with moistened paws passed over +her ears. She is very sensitive to the weather, loves the sun, lying +stretched at full length on the hot gravel so that she can enjoy the +comforting warmth to her little body. She is wretched in a +thunderstorm, shivering and taking refuge beneath a table or sofa; +then she comes to me for sympathy, and lies on my knee, covered with a +rug or a newspaper, but after a bad storm she is not herself for many +hours. Anyone who does not know her may think the moods I have +detailed an impossible category, but there is not one which we have +not personally witnessed again and again, and no one can see her +loving caresses of my wife without being assured of the soul that +animates her mind and body. + +Wendy is never allowed to "sit in damp clothes," or even with feet wet +with rain or dew, and looks very reproachful if not attended to at +once with a rough towel on coming indoors. "Why _don't_ you dry me?" +is exactly the expression her looks convey. She has a lined basket, on +four short legs to keep her from draughts when sleeping, but she is +often uneasy alone at night, evidently "seeing things," and, in +Worcestershire language, finding it "unked," so she is now always +allowed a night-light. + +It is said that the dog's habit of turning round several times before +settling to sleep is a survival from remote ages when they made +themselves a comfortable bed by smoothing down the grass around them, +but I am quite sure that Wendy does the same thing to get her coat +unruffled, and in the best condition to protect her from draughts. She +likes to lie curled up into a circle, so that her hind paws may come +under her chin for warmth, and support her head, as her neck is so +short that without a pillow of some sort she could not rest in +comfort; as an alternative, she will sometimes arrange the rug in her +sleeping basket to act in the same way. + +We had various cobs and ponies from time to time; quite a good pony +could be bought at six months old for about £12, and one of the best +we had was Taffy, from a drove of Welsh. Returning from Evesham +Station with my man we passed a labourer with something in a hamper on +his shoulder that rattled, just as we reached the Aldington turning; +Taffy started, swerved across the road in the narrowest part, and +jumped through the hedge, taking cart and all; we found ourselves in a +wheat-field, but were not overturned, and reached a gate in safety +none the worse. + +On an old May Day (May 12) I was at Bretforton Manor playing tennis +and shooting rooks. About 10.30 p.m. the cart and Taffy were brought +round; I had all my things in and was about to mount when, the pony +fidgeting to be off, my friend's groom caught at the rein, but he had +omitted to buckle it on one side of the bit. In an instant pony and +trap had disappeared, and the man was lying in the drive with a broken +leg. We had to carry him home on a door, and then went in search of +the pony, expecting every moment to find it and the trap in a ditch; +about half a mile from Aldington we met my own man who had come in +search of my remains. He told us that the pony and trap were quite +safe and uninjured. The clever animal had trotted the whole distance, +over two miles, with the reins dragging behind him, taken the turning +from the highroad, and again at my gate, and pulled up in front of the +house, where someone passing saw him and brought my man out to the +rescue. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + + +BUTTERFLIES--MOTHS--WASPS. + + "How like a rainbow, sparkling as a dewdrop, + Glittering as gold, and lively as a swallow, + Each left his grave-shroud and in rapture winged him + Up to the heavens." + --ANON. + +I have always been fascinated by the beauty of butterflies and moths, +and I think I began collecting when I was about eleven, as I remember +having a net when I was at school at Rottingdean. My first exciting +capture was a small tortoiseshell, and I was much disappointed when I +discovered that it was quite a common insect. In 1917 some nettles +here were black with the larvæ of this species, but I think they must +have been nearly all visited by the ichneumons, which pierce the skin, +laying their eggs in the living body of the larva, as the butterflies +were not specially common later. I was, however, fortunate in +identifying a specimen of the curious variety figured in Newman's +_British Butterflies_, variety 2, from one in Mr. Bond's collection; +it has a dark band crossing the middle of the upper wings, but, though +interesting, it is not so handsome as the type. I did not catch this +specimen, as I do not like killing butterflies now, but I had ample +leisure to observe it quite closely on the haulm of potatoes. It was +decidedly smaller than the type. + +The old garden at Aldington in the repose of a June evening was a +place of fragrant joy from honeysuckle on poles and arches, and just +as the light was fading the huge privet hawk-moths, with quivering +wings and extended probosces, used to sip the honey from the long +blossoms. I could catch them in a net, but these specimens were nearly +all damaged from their energetic flight among the flowers, and perfect +ones are easy to rear from the larvæ, feeding in autumn on privet in +the hedges. + +Later in the summer the Ghost Swift appeared about twilight, the white +colour of the male making it very conspicuous. Twilight at Aldington +is called "owl light," and moths of all kinds are "bob-owlets," from +their uneven flight when trying to evade the owls in pursuit. We often +see these birds "hawking" at nightfall in my meadows round the edge of +the Forest after moths. + +The martagon lily flourished in the Aldington garden, and when they +were blooming the overpowering scent was particularly attractive to +moths of the _Plusia_ genus, including the Burnished Brass, the Golden +Y, and the Beautiful Golden Y, all exhibiting very distinctive +markings of burnished gold; and other _Noctuæ_ in great variety. The +latter are best taken by "sugaring"--painting patches of mixed beer +and sugar on a series of tree trunks, and making several rounds at +twilight with a lantern and a cyanide bottle. We had a sugaring range +of about seventy pollard withies by the brook side, and being well +sheltered, it was such a favourite place for moths, that it was often +difficult to select from each patch, swarming with sixty or seventy +specimens, those really worth taking. At sugaring moths are found in a +locality where they are never seen at other times, and rarities occur +quite unexpectedly. I took some specimens of _Cymatophora ocularis_ +(figure of 80). Newman says: "It is always esteemed a rarity," and +mentions Worcester as a locality. _Mamestra abjecta_ was quite a +common catch, of which Newman writes: + + "It seems to be very local, and so imperfectly known that + the recorded habitats must be received with great doubt; it + is certainly abundant on the banks of the Thames, near + Gravesend, and also on the Irish coast, near Waterford." + +The marks of sugaring remain on tree trunks for many years. I lately +saw the faint remains on about sixty trees in Set Thorns plantation, +in the Forest, which a friend and I painted on nearly forty years ago. +This friend was fortunate in capturing the black variety of the White +Admiral, in which the white markings are entirely absent on the upper +side; and, thirty years later, his son took another near Burley. The +son also caught a Camberwell Beauty on one of his sugared patches in +the day-time. I believe this to be the only recorded instance of the +occurrence of this rare and beautiful insect in the Forest. + +The Hornet Clearwing (_Sesia Apiformis_) is a very interesting moth, +and it was common at Aldington; the larva feeds on the wood of the +black poplar. The colouring of the moth so resembles the hornet, that +at first sight it is easily mistaken for the latter. It is an +excellent example of "mimicry," whereby a harmless insect acquires the +distinctive appearance of a harmful one, and so secures immunity from +the attacks of its natural enemies. + +The larva of the Death's Head was not uncommon at Aldington and Badsey +on potatoes; I had a standing offer of threepence each for any that +the village children could bring me. These large caterpillars require +very careful handling, and I fear the children were not gentle enough +with them, as I only had one perfect specimen moth from all the larvae +they brought. + +One of my hop-pickers captured and presented me with a very fine +specimen of the Convolvulus Hawk-moth at Aldington; they were +generally comparatively common that year (1901) and a collector took +no less than seventeen in a few days in the public garden at +Bournemouth. + +The Clouded Yellow butterfly, whose appearance is very capricious, +occurred one summer in Worcestershire in considerable numbers; it is +strong on the wing and could easily reach the Midlands in fine weather +from the south of England, where it is more often seen. Those I saw +were flying high over clover fields, apparently in a hurry to get +further north-west. + +The Marbled White is a somewhat local butterfly; there was a spot +along the Terrace on Cleeve Hill, near North Littleton and Cleeve +Prior, where, at the proper time, this insect was plentiful, but I +never saw it anywhere else in the neighbourhood. + +One of the entomological prizes of the New Forest is the Purple +Emperor; it is impossible to do justice to the wonderful sheen of its +powerful wings. It inhabits the tops of lofty oaks, but does not +disdain to come down for a drink of water, sometimes from a muddy +pool, or even to feast on dead vermin which the keepers have +destroyed. + +The Comma, so called from the C-mark on the under side of the hind +wings, is fairly plentiful in Worcestershire and Herefordshire in the +hop-districts, for the hop is its food plant; but it is curious that, +with the abundance of hops in Kent, Sussex, and Hants, it is quite a +rare insect in the south of England. The ragged edge of its hind wings +is probably an arrangement to baffle birds in pursuit, offering more +difficulty to securing a sure hold than is afforded by the even margin +of the hind wings of most butterflies. + +In some years wasps were exceedingly troublesome at Aldington, and +fruit picking became a hazardous business. One of my men ploughed up a +nest in an open field, and was badly stung, though the horses, being +further from the nest when turned up, escaped. It is quite necessary +to destroy any nests on or near land where fruit is grown, as the +insects increase in numbers at a surprising rate, and they travel +great distances after food for the grubs. I had an instructive walk +over the fruit farm of my son-in-law, Mr. C.S. Martin, of Dunnington +Heath, near Alcester, with his cousin, Mr. William Martin, who is +extraordinarily clever at locating the nests. He quickly recognizes a +line of flight in which numbers of wasps can be seen going backwards +and forwards, in a well-defined cross-country track, follows it up and +locates the nest a long distance from where he first perceived the +line. In this way during our walk he found a dozen or more nests. In +the evening, when the inmates were at home, they were treated with a +strong solution of cyanide of potassium to destroy the winged insects; +and the next day the nests were dug out and the grubs destroyed, which +otherwise would become perfect wasps. + +Lately it has become a custom to pay a half-penny each for all queen +wasps in the spring, but Mr. C.S. Martin, who had many years' +experience on the fruit plantations of the Toddington Orchard Company, +extending to about 700 acres, as well as on his own plantations at +Dunnington, writes to me as follows on the subject: + + "To catch the queens in the spring is to my mind a waste of + time, and I discontinued paying for their capture, as the + number visible in the spring appeared to bear no relation to + the resulting summer nests. In the first place, the number + of queens in spring is always greatly in excess of the + numbers of nests, and to attempt to catch all the queens is + a hopeless job. As a rule, I don't think one per cent, ever + gets as far as a nest unless the weather conditions are very + favourable. Heavy rain, when the broods begin, may easily + wipe out 99 per cent., and only those on a dry bank will + survive. To pay a halfpenny per queen may be equivalent to + the payment of four and twopence per nest!" + +Referring to the payment of school-children for the destruction of +white butterflies he writes: + + "The white butterfly is extraordinarily prolific, and to + catch a few in the garden is a complete waste of time. + Again, weather conditions are largely responsible for the + occurrence of a bad attack, and the only possible time to + reduce the plague is in the caterpillar stage, with + hellebore powder, or one of the proprietary remedies, + applied to the young plants. Scientists recommend the + catching of queen wasps, and also butterflies, but I regard + this as a case where science is not strictly practical." + +There is, of course, the danger, too, that children will not recognize +the difference between the female of the Orange Tip butterfly, which +is practically colourless, and the cabbage whites, and it would be +worse than a crime to destroy so joyous and welcome a creature, whose +advent is one of the pleasantest signs that summer is nigh at hand. I +have watched these fairy sprites dancing along the hedge sides at +Aldington year by year, and in May they were extraordinarily abundant +here, happily coursing round and round my meadow, and chasing each +other in the sunshine. The Orange Tip is quite innocent of designs +upon the homely cabbage, the food-plant of the caterpillar being +_Cardamine pratensis_ (the cuckoo flower), which Shakespeare speaks of +so prettily in the lines: + + "When daisies pied and violets blue, + And lady-smocks all silver-white." + +Possibly Hood was thinking of the Orange Tip when he wrote the lines +that seem so well suited to them: + + "These be the pretty genii of the flowers + Daintily fed with honey and pure dew." + +A story is told of an undergraduate who united the hind wings of a +butterfly to the body and fore wings of one of a different species, +and, thinking to puzzle Professor Westwood, then the entomological +authority at Oxford, asked if the Professor could tell him "what kind +of a bug" it was. "Yes," was the immediate reply--"a humbug!" + +One of my schoolfellows, a boy about eleven, at Rottingdean school, +and quite a novice at butterfly collecting, met a professional +"naturalist" on the Warren at Folkestone, who inquired what he had +taken. "Only a few whites," said the boy. The man looked at them and, +eventually, they negotiated an exchange, the boy accepting three or +four others for an equal number of the whites. On reaching home he +found that he had parted with specimens of the rare Bath White, +_Pieris daplidice_, for some quite common butterflies. The Bath White +is not recognized as a British species, Newman supposing the specimens +taken in this country to have been blown over or migrated from the +northern coast of France, as they have been rarely met with away from +the shores of Kent and Sussex. + +It is surprising to find so many people who seem unable to exercise +their powers of observation to the extent of noticing the butterflies +they daily pass in the garden, or along the roads. One would expect +that the marvellous colouring of even our common butterflies would +arrest attention, and that interest in the names and life-history +would follow. + +In June in the Forest the rather alarming stag-beetle is to be seen on +the wing on a warm evening; though really harmless, its size and habit +of buzzing round frightens people who are not acquainted with its +ways. They are called locally, "pinch-bucks," as their horns resemble +the antlers of a buck, and they can nip quite hard by pressing them +together. I once saw a fight between a stag-beetle and a toad, it had +evidently been proceeding for some time as both combatants were +exhausted, but neither had gained any special advantage. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + + +CYCLING--PAGEANTS OF THE ROADS--ROADSIDE CREATURES--HARMONIOUS +BUILDING--COLLECTING OLD FURNITURE AND CHINA. + + "I may soberly confess that sometimes, walking abroad after + my studies, I have been almost mad with pleasure--the effect + of nature upon my soul having been inexpressibly ravishing + and beyond what I can convey to you." + --JOHN INGLESANT. + +I suppose that the bicycle has given, and gives, as much pleasure to +fairly active people as any machine ever invented. I must have been +one of the first cyclists in England, as my experience dates from the +days when bicycles were first imported from France. The high bicycle +appeared later, but the earlier machines were about the height of the +present safety, with light wooden wheels and iron tyres. The safety, +with pneumatic tyres, did not arrive till nearly thirty years later, +and it was the latter invention that brought about the popularity of +cycling. + +The difference between cycling and walking has been stated thus: + + "When a man walks a mile he takes on an average 2,263 steps, + lifting the weight of his body with each step. When he rides + a bicycle of the average gear he covers a mile with the + equivalent of 627 steps, bears no burden, and covers the + same distance in less than one third of the time." + +People constantly tell me that cycling is all very well for getting +from place to place, but otherwise they don't care about it, which I +can only account for by supposing that they find it a labour more or +less irksome, or that they have never developed their perceptive +faculties, and have no real sympathy with the life of woods and fields +or the spirit of the ancient farms and villages. + +Cycling to me is a very easy and pleasant exercise, but it is far more +than that; it is like passing through an endless picture-gallery +filled with masterpieces of form and colour. The roads of England not +only present these delights to the physical sense, but they stir the +imagination with historic visions from the earliest times. There are +the ancient camps, now silent and deserted, which become at the +bidding of fancy peopled with the unkempt and savage British, and +later with their well-disciplined and well-equipped Roman conquerers: +archers and men in armour appear; pilgrims' processions such as we +read of in Chaucer; knights and ladies on their stately steeds. There +are the ghosts of royal progresses, kings and queens, and wonderful +pageantry gorgeous in array; decorously ambling cardinals and abbots +with their trains of servitors; hawking parties with hawks and +attendants; soldiers after Sedgemoor in pursuit of Monmouth's +ill-fated followers; George IV. and his gay courtiers on the Brighton +road; beaux and beauties in their well-appointed carriages bound for +Tunbridge Wells, Cheltenham, or Bath; splendid teams with crowded +coaches, and great covered waggons laden with merchandise; the +highwayman at dusk in quest of belated travellers, and companies of +farmers and cattle-dealers riding home from market together for +safety. + +I often see a vision here in the ancient Forest tracks of a gang of +wild and armed smugglers, and among them still more savage-looking +foreign sailors. They have two or three Forest trucks, made especially +to fit the ruts in the little-used tracks, laden with casks of spirits +and drawn by rough Forest ponies. I can hear the shouts of the drivers +as they urge them forward, and I can see the steaming sides of the +ponies in the misty moonlight of a winter night. The spirits were +landed at Poole or Christchurch, and they are on their way to Burley +where, under the old house I bought with my land, there is still the +cellar, then cleverly concealed, where the casks were stored in safety +from the watchful eyes of the Excise; a quaint old place built of the +local rock. + +There is one vision of the roads in the Forest which nobody who saw it +can ever forget: the companies of infantry, the serious officers, the +ruddy-faced men, and the then untried guns of the glorious Seventh +Division, on their route marches, with fife and drum to cheer the way +with the now classic strains of "It's a long, long way to Tipperary." +There are spots where I met them in the autumn of 1914 that I never +pass without feeling that for all time these places are sacred to the +memory of heroes. + +Besides the fancied pageantry of the roads there are the natural +objects of the woods, the lanes, and the fields; the blossoming +hawthorn and the wild roses trailing from the hedges, the hares and +rabbits, the birds, the butterflies, and the flowers; sturdy teams +with the time-honoured ploughs and harrows, the sowing of the seed, +the young gleaming corn, the scented hayfields or the golden harvest; +every man at his honourable labour, happy children dashing out of +school; noble timber, hazel coppices, grey old villages; cattle in the +pastures, or enjoying the cool waters of shallow pools or brooks; +sheep in the field or the fold, the shepherd and his dog; apple +blossom, or the ripe and ruddy fruit, bowery hop-gardens, mellow old +cottages, country-folk going to market, fat beasts, cows and calves, +carriers' carts full of gossips. + +Pictures, real pictures, everywhere, endless in variety. Steady! go +steady past these woods; see the blue haze of wild hyacinths, the cool +carpet of primroses. Look at the cowslips yellowing that meadow; do +you see the heron standing patiently in the marsh? Look overhead, +watch the hovering hawk; hark! there is the nightingale. Stop a moment +at the bridge; can you see the speckled beauties with their heads +upstream? Thank God for the blue, blue sky! thank God for the glory of +the sun, for the lights and shadows beneath the trees! Thank God for +the live air, the growth, the life of plant and tree, the fragrance +and the beauty! Thank God for rural England! + +One can tell the most ancient, apart from the scientifically made +Roman roads, by the way they were worn down from the original level, +especially on hillsides, by the constant and heavy traffic. Every +passing wheel abraded a portion of the surface, and the next rain +carried the _débris_ down the hill, forming in time a deep depression, +between banks at the sides, often many feet deep, and giving the +impression of the track having been purposely dug out to lessen the +gradient. In places where the road became impassable from long use and +wet, deviations on either side were made, so that ten or a dozen +disused tracks can be seen side by side, often extending laterally +quite a long distance from the existing road in unenclosed +surroundings. + +A great charm of the bicycle is its noiselessness which, with its +speed, affords peeps of wild creatures under natural conditions. +Cycling on the Cotswolds I came upon two hares at a boxing match; they +were so absorbed that I was able to get quite close, and it was +amusing to watch them standing upright on their hind legs, and +sparring with their little fists like professionals. I have often seen +the pursuit of a rabbit by a persistent stoat; the rabbit has little +chance of escape, as the stoat can follow it underground as well as +over; finally the rabbit appears to be paralyzed with fright, lies +down and makes no further effort. Weasels, which probably make up for +depredations of game by their destruction of rats, often cross the +road, and sometimes whole families may be seen playing by the +roadside. I was shooting in Surrey when I once had an excellent view +of an ermine--the stoat in its winter dress. I did not recognize it +until it was out of sight, but I should not have shot it in any case, +for the ermine is a very rare occurrence in the south of England. I +believe that further north it is not unusual, as is natural where the +light colour would protect it from observation in snow, but as far +south as Surrey this would be a danger, and I should scarcely have +noticed it in the thick undergrowth had it been normal in colour. + +We had a squirrel's nest, or "drey," as it is called, near my house +last year, and the squirrels have been about my lawn and the Forest +trees ever since. It was charming, in the summer, to watch them +nibbling the fleshy galls produced on the young oaks by a gall-fly +_(Cynips)_. They chattered to each other all the time, holding the +galls between their fore feet, fragments dropping to the ground +beneath the trees. Squirrels are fond of animal food, and I wondered, +as there was so much apparent waste, whether they were not really +searching for the grubs in the galls. Of late years squirrels have +been scarce here; they were formerly abundant, but their numbers were +much reduced by an epidemic. They seem to be increasing again, +possibly the felling of so many Scots-firs has driven them from their +former haunts into adjoining oak and beech woods, such as those which +almost surround my land. + +During lunch in a meadow by the roadside, on a cycling ride, we found +a snake with a toad almost down its throat; the snake disgorged the +toad and escaped, but before we had finished lunch it returned and +repeated the process. This time I carried the toad, none the worse for +the adventure, some distance away, where I hope it was safe. Hedgehogs +are said to eat toads, frogs, beetles, and snakes, as well as the eggs +of game, to which I have already referred (p. 264); it is curious that +the old name "urchin" has been superseded in some places by +"hedgehog," but still survives in the "sea-urchin," and is also used +for a troublesome boy. + +It is very interesting, when cycling, to notice the changes in passing +from one geological formation to another, and in railway travelling, +with a geological map, one can quickly observe the transition; the +cuttings give an immediate clue, and the contours of the surface and +the agriculture are further guides. The alteration in the flora is +particularly marked in passing from the Bagshot Sands, for instance, +to the Chalk, or from the Lias Clay to the Lias Limestone or the +Oolite; the lime-loving plants appear on the Chalk and Limestone, and +disappear on the Sands and Clays. + +The sunken appearance of the old roads is one of the best proofs of +their antiquity, and one is inclined to wonder at their windings, but +in following the tracks across the Forest moors one gets an insight +into the way roads originated. The ancients simply adopted the line of +least resistance by avoiding hills, boggy places, and the deep parts +of streams, choosing the shallow fordable spots for crossing. The +winding road is, of course, much more interesting and beautiful than +the later straight roads of the Romans, though no doubt many of the +former were improved by the invaders for their more important traffic. +It is to be regretted that the formal lines of telegraph and telephone +poles and wires have vulgarized so many of our beautiful roads, and +destroyed their retired and venerable expression; more especially as +in many places these were erected against the will of the inhabitants, +and under the mistaken idea that the farmer's business is retail, and +that he is prepared to deal in and deliver small quantities of goods +daily, receiving urgent orders and enquiries by telephone. + +The villages in the Vale of Evesham and the Cotswolds afford an +excellent illustration of building in harmony with surroundings, and +the suitability of making use of local materials. Thus, in the Vale we +find mellow old brick, has limestone, half timber and thatch; while on +the Cotswolds, oolite freestone and "stone slates" of the same +freestone seem the only suitable material. Where the ugly pink bricks +and blue slates have of late years been introduced, they appear out of +place and contemptible. There is an immense charm about these old +villages of hill and vale, and it is curious to think that Aldington +was an established community with, probably, as many inhabitants as at +the present day, when London and Westminster were divided by green +fields. + +A story is told of the time before the line to Oxford from +Wolverhampton and Worcester was built, when persons visiting Oxford +from the Vale of Evesham had to travel by road. An old yeoman family, +having decided upon the Church as the vocation for one of the sons, +sent him, in the year 1818, on an old pony, under the protection of an +ancient retainer for his matriculation examination. On their return, +in reply to the question, "Well, did you get the young master +through?" "Oh, yes," he said, "and we could have got the old pony +passed too, if we'd only had enough money!" + +Partly as an excuse for a bicycle ride I used often to visit distant +villages where auction sales at farm-houses were proceeding, and +sometimes I came home with old china and other treasures. Wherever +there are old villages with manor houses and long occupied rich land, +wealth formerly accumulated and evidenced itself in well-designed and +well-made furniture, upon which time has had comparatively little +destructive effect. As old fashions were superseded, as oak gave way +to walnut, and walnut to Spanish mahogany, the out-of-date furniture +found its way to the smaller farm-houses and cottages, in which it +descended from generation to generation. Now that the cottages have +been ransacked by dealers and collectors, the treasures have not only +been absorbed by wealthy townspeople, but are finding their way with +those of impoverished landowners and occupiers to the millionaire +mansions on the other side of the Atlantic. + +There is no limit to the temptation to collect when once the +fascination of such old things has made itself felt--furniture, china, +earthenware, glass, paintings, brass and pewter become an obsession. +If I had only filled my barns with Jacobean and Stuart oak and walnut, +William and Mary, and Queen Ann marquetry, and Chippendale, Sheraton +and Hepplewhite mahogany, instead of wheat for an unsympathetic +British public, and at the end of my time at Aldington offered a few +of the least interesting specimens for sale by auction, I might still +have carried away a houseful of treasures which would have cost me +less than nothing. + +An old friend of mine, who had been collecting for many years, and in +comparison with whom I was a novice, though my enthusiasm long +preceded the fashion of the last twenty-five years, told me that he +once discovered a warehouse in a Cotswold village crammed with +Chippendale, and that the owner, having no sale for it, was glad to +exchange a waggon-load for the same quantity of hay and straw chaff. + +Among the more interesting articles which my cycling excursions and +previous pilgrimages on foot produced, I have a charming blue and +white carnation pattern, Worcester china cider mug with the crescent +mark. These mugs are said to have been specially made for the +Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769 at Stratford-on-Avon when Garrick was +present. The date corresponds with the time when the mark was in use, +and establishes the age of the mug as 150 years. The china in my old +neighbourhood was naturally Worcester, Bristol and Salopian, of which +I have many specimens--of the Worcester more especially--ranging from +the earliest days of unmarked pieces through the Dr. Wall period, +Barr, Flight and Barr, down to the later Chamberlain. + +An old pair of bellows is a favourite of mine; it is made of pear-tree +wood, decorated with an incised pattern of thistles and foliage, +referring possibly to the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, or as +a Jacobite emblem of a few years later. The carving is surrounded by +the motto: + + "WITH MEE MY FREND MAY STILL BE FREE YET VSE MEE + NOT TILL COLD YOV BEE." + +These old bellows show unmistakable signs of their more than 200 years +of honourable service, and they have literally breathed their last +though still surviving; but it would be sacrilege to renew the +leather, and might disturb the ghosts of generations of old ladies who +blew the dying embers into a ruddy glow when awaiting, in the twilight +of a winter's evening, their good-men's return from the field or the +chase. + +One of my greatest finds was a pair of Chippendale chairs at a sale at +Mickleton at the foot of the Cotswolds; they belong to the early part +of the Chippendale period, before the Chinese style was abandoned. +That influence appears in incised fretted designs on the legs, and the +frieze below the seats. The seats are covered with the original +tapestry, adding much to the interest, and the backs present examples +of the most spirited carving of the maker. At the sale, when I went to +have a second look, I found two dealers sitting on them and chatting +quite casually; the intention was evidently to prevent possible +purchasers from noticing them, and more especially to hide the +tapestry coverings. The value of the chairs immediately rose in my +estimation, and I increased the limit which I had given to a bidder on +my behalf, so that I made sure of buying them. The old chairs looked +very shabby when they came out into the light of day, and they fell to +my representative's bid amid roars of laughter from the rustic crowd. +What a price for "them two old cheers"! they "never heard talk of such +a job!" It would surprise them to know that I have been offered five +times what they then cost. + +My wife has had to do with many parochial committees from time to +time, and I have often trembled for my Chippendale chairs when these +meetings, accompanied by tea, have been held at my house, for it is +not everybody who regards them with the reverence due to their +external beauty and true inwardness, or who recognizes in them the + + "Tea-cup times of hood and hoop, + Or while the patch was worn." + +A very successful afternoon was one I spent at a sale at North +Littleton. I remember the beautiful spring day, and the old +weather-worn grey house in an orchard of immense pear-trees covered +with sheets of snowy blossom. I secured a Jacobean elm chest with +well-carved panels, a Jacobean oak chest of drawers on a curious +stand, a complete tea set of Staffordshire ware, including twelve cups +and saucers, teapot, and other pieces, with Chinese decoration; four +Nankin blue handleless tea-cups, a Delft plate, and a Battersea enamel +patch-box. My bill was a very moderate one, but the executor who had +the matter of the sale in hand was well pleased that these old family +relics had passed into the possession of someone who would value them, +and not to careless and indifferent neighbours, and was more than +satisfied with the amount realized. Next morning, as a token of his +satisfaction, he brought me a charming old brass Dutch tobacco box, +with an oil painting inside the lid, of a smoker enjoying a pipe. + +I have seen some amusing incidents at sales of household goods in +remote places; incredulous smiles as to the possibility of the +usefulness of anything in the shape of a bath generally greeted the +appearance of such an article, and on one of these occasions an +ancient, with great gravity, and as an apology for its existence, +remarked that it was "A very good thing for an invalid!" I am reminded +thereby of an old-fashioned hunting man in Surrey, who was astonished +to hear from a friend of mine that he enjoyed a cold bath every +morning. He "didn't think," he said, "that cold water was at all a +good thing--_next to the skin_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + + +DIALECT--LOCAL PHRASEOLOGY IN SHAKESPEARE--NAMES--STUPID PLACES. + + "Our echoes roll from soul to soul." + --_The Princess_. + +Compulsory education has eliminated many of the old words and phrases +formerly in general use in Worcestershire, and is still striving to +substitute a more "genteel," but not always more correct, and a much +less picturesque, form of speech. When I first went to Aldington I +found it difficult to understand the dialect, but I soon got +accustomed to it, and used it myself in speaking to the villagers. +Farrar used to tell us at school, in one of the resounding phrases of +which he was rather fond, that "All phonetic corruption is due to +muscular effeminacy," which accounts for some of the words in use, but +does not alter the fact that many so-called corrupt words are more +correct than the modern accepted form. + +It is difficult to convey the peculiar intonation of the +Worcestershire villager's voice, and the _ipsissima verba_ I have +given in my anecdotes lose a good deal in reading by anyone +unacquainted with their method. Each sentence is uttered in a rising +scale with a drop on the last few words, forming, as a whole, a not +unmusical rhythmical drawl. As instances of "muscular effeminacy," two +fields of mine, where flax was formerly grown, went by the name of +"Pax grounds"; the words "rivet" and "vine," were rendered "ribet" and +"bine." "March," a boundary, became "Marsh," so that +Moreton-on-the-March became, most unjustly, "Moreton-in-the-Marsh." +"Do out," was "dout"; "pound," was "pun"; "starved," starred. The +Saxon plural is still in use: "housen" for houses, "flen" for fleas; +and I noticed, with pleasure, that a school inspector did not correct +the children for using the ancient form. Gilbert White, who died in +1793, writes in the section of his book devoted to the Antiquities of +Selborne, that "Within the author's memory the Saxon plurals, _housen_ +and _peason_," were in common use. So that Selborne more than a +hundred years ago had, in that particular at any rate, advanced to a +stage of dialect which in Worcestershire is still not fully +established. Certain words beginning with "h" seem a difficulty; a "y" +is sometimes prefixed, and the "h" omitted. Thus height becomes +"yacth," as nearly as I can spell it, and herring is "yerring." "N" is +an ill-treated letter sometimes, when it begins a word; nettles are +always "ettles," but when not wanted, and two consecutive words run +easier, it is added, as in "osier nait" for osier ait. + +The word "charm," from the Anglo-Saxon _cyrm_, is used both in +Worcestershire and Hampshire for a continuous noise, such as the +cawing of nesting rooks, or the hum of swarming bees. Similarly, a +witch's incantation--probably in monotone--is a charm, and then comes +to mean the object given by a witch to an applicant. "Charming" and +"bewitching" thus both proclaim their origins, but have now acquired a +totally different signification. + +There are an immense number of curious words and phrases in everyday +use, and they were collected by Mr. A. Porson, M.A., who published a +very interesting list with explanatory notes in 1875, under the title +of _Notes of Quaint Words and Sayings in the Dialect of South +Worcestershire_. I append a list of the local archaic words and +phrases which can also be found in Shakespeare's Plays. This list was +compiled by me some years ago, and appeared in the "Notes and Queries" +column of the _Evesham Journal_; I think all are still to be heard in +Evesham and the villages in that corner of Worcestershire. + +SHIP--sheep; cf. Shipton, Shipston, etc.; _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, +Act I., Scene 1; _Comedy of Errors_, Act IV., Scene 1. + +FALSING--the present participle of the verb "to false"; _Comedy of +Errors_, Act II., Scene 2; _Cymbeline_, Act II., Scene 3. + +FALL--verb active; _Comedy of Errors_, Act II., Scene 2; _Midsummer +Night's Dream_, Act V., Scene 1. + +CUSTOMERS--companions; _Comedy of Errors_, Act IV., Scene 4. + +KNOTS--flower beds; _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act I., Scene 1; _Richard +II_., Act III., Scene 4. + +TALENT--for talon; cf. "tenant" for tenon; _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act +IV., Scene 2. + +METHEGLIN--mead, a drink made from honey; _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act +V., Scene 2; _Merry Wives_, Act V., Scene 5. + +HANDKERCHER--handkerchief; _King John_, Act IV., Scene 1; _King +Henry V_., Act III., Scene 2. + +NOR NEVER SHALL--two negatives strengthening each other; _King John_, +Act IV., Scene 1, and Act V., Scene 7. + +CONTRARY--stress on the penultimate syllable; cf. "matrimony," +"secretary," "January," etc.; _King John_, Act IV., Scene 2. + +To RESOLVE--to dissolve; _King John_, Act V., Scene 4; _Hamlet_, Act +I., Scene 2. + +STROND--strand; cf. "hommer"--hammer, "opples"--apples, etc.; +_1 King Henry IV_., Act I., Scene 1. + +APPLE JOHN--John Apple (?); _1 King Henry IV_., Act III., Scene 3; +_2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +GULL--young cuckoo; _1 King Henry IV_., Act V., Scene 1. + +TO BUCKLE--to bend; _2 King Henry IV_., Act I., Scene 1. + +NICE--weak; cf. "naish"--weak; _2 King Henry IV_., Act I., Scene 1. + +OLD--extreme, very good; _2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +PEASCOD-TIME--peapicking time; _2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +WAS LIKE--had nearly; _King Henry V_., Act I., Scene 1. + +SCAMBLING--scrambling; _King Henry V_., Act I., Scene 1. + +MARCHES--boundaries; cf. Moreton-in-the-Marsh, _i.e._, March; _King +Henry V_., Act I., Scene 2. + +SWILLED--washed; _King Henry V_., Act III., Scene 1. + +To DRESS--to decorate with evergreens, etc.; _Taming of the Shrew_, +Act III., Scene 1. + +YELLOWS--jaundice; _Taming of the Shrew_, Act III., Scene 2. + +DRINK--ale; "Drink" is still used for ale as distinguished from cider; +_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 1. + +BARM--yeast; _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 1. + +LOFFE--laugh; _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 1. + +LEATHERN--(bats); cf. "leatherun bats," as distinguished from +"bats"--beetles; _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 3. + +EANING TIME--lambing time; _Merchant of Venice_, Act I., Scene 3. + +SPET--spit; cf. set--sit, sperit--spirit, etc.; _Merchant of Venice_, +Act I., Scene 3. + +FILL-HORSE--shaft horse; cf. "filler" and "thiller"; _Merchant of +Venice_, Act II., Scene 2. + +PROUD ON--proud of; _Much Ado_, Act IV., Scene 1 + +ODDS--difference; cf. "wide odds"; _As you Like It_, Act I., Scene 2. + +COME YOUR WAYS--come on; _As You Like It_, Act I., Scene 2. + +TO SAUCE--to be impertinent; _As You Like It_, Act III., Scene 5. + +THE MOTION--the usual form; _Winter's Tale_, Act IV., Scene 2. + +INCHMEAL--bit by bit; _Tempest_, Act II., Scene 2. + +FILBERDS--filberts; _Tempest_, Act II., Scene 2. + +TO LADE--to bale (liquid); _3 King Henry VI._, Act III., Scene 3. + +TO LAP--to wrap; _King Richard III._, Act II., Scene 1; _Macbeth_, Act +I., Scene 2. + +BITTER SWEETING--an apple of poor quality grown from a kernel; cf. +"bitter sweet"--the same; _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II., Scene 4. + +VARSAL WORLD--universal world; _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II., Scene 4. + +MAMMET--a puppet; cf. "mommet"--scarecrow; _Romeo and Juliet_, +Act III., Scene 5. + +TO GRUNT--to grumble; _Hamlet_, Act III., Scene 1. + +TO FUST--to become mouldy; _Hamlet_, Act IV., Scene 5. + +DOUT--do out; cf. "don"--do on; _Hamlet_, Act IV., Scene 7. + +MAGOT PIES--Magpies; _Macbeth_, Act III., Scene 4. + +SET DOWN--write down; _Macbeth_, Act V., Scene 1. + +TO PUN--to pound; _Troilus and Cressida_, Act II., Scene 1. + +NATIVE--place of origin; cf. "natif"; _Coriolanus_, Act III., Scene 1. + +SLEEK--bald; cf. "slick"; _Julius Cæsar_, Act I., Scene 2. + +WARN--summon; cf. "backwarn"--tell a person not to come; _Julius +Cæsar_, Act V., Scene 1. + +BREESE--gadfly; _Antony and Cleopatra_, Act III., Scene 8. + +WOO'T--wilt thou; _Antony and Cleopatra_, Act IV., Scene 13. + +URCHIN--hedgehog; _Titus Andronicus_, Act II., Scene 3. + +MESHED--mashed (a term used in brewing); _Titus Andronicus_, Act III., +Scene 2. + +All the above words and phrases the writer has frequently heard used +in the neighbourhood in the senses indicated, but to make the list +more complete the following are added on the authority of Mr. A. +Porson, in the pamphlet referred to: + +COLLIED--black; _Midsummer Nights Dream_, Act I., Scene 1. + +LIMMEL--limb from limb; cf. "inchmeal"--bit by bit; _Cymbeline_, Act +II., Scene 4. + +TO MAMMOCK--to tear to pieces; _Coriolanus_, Act I., Scene 3. + +TO MOIL--to dirty; _Taming of the Shrew_, Act IV., Scene 1. + +SALLET--salad; 2 _King Henry VI_., Act IV., Scene 10. + +UTIS--great noise; _2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +Place-names everywhere are a most interesting study; as a rule, people +do not recognize that every place-name has a meaning or reference to +some outstanding peculiarity or characteristic of the place, and that +much history can be gathered from interpretation. In cycling, it is +one of the many interests to unravel these derivations; merely as an +instance, I may mention that in Dorset and Wilts the name of +Winterbourne, with a prefix or suffix, often occurs; of course, +"bourne" means a stream, but until one knows that a "winterbourne" is +a stream that appears in winter only, and does not exist in summer, +the name carries no special signification. + +One hears some curious personal names in the Worcestershire villages; +scriptural names are quite common, and seem very suitable for the +older labourers engaged upon their honourable employment on the land. +We had a maid named Vashti, and she was quite shy about mentioning it +at her first interview with my wife. In all country neighbourhoods +there is a special place with the unenviable reputation of stupidity; +such was "Yabberton" (Ebrington, on the Cotswolds), and Vashti was +somewhat reluctant to admit that it was her "natif," as a birthplace +is called in the district. Among the traditions of Yabberton it is +related that the farmers, being anxious to prolong the summer, erected +hurdles to wall in the cuckoo, and that they manured the church tower, +expecting it to sprout into an imposing steeple! There is a place in +Surrey, Send, with a similar reputation, where the inhabitants had to +visit a pond before they could tell that rain was falling! + +But perhaps the best story of the kind is told in the New Forest, +where the Isle of Wight is regarded as the acme of stupidity. When the +Isle of Wight people first began to walk erect, instead of on all +fours, they are said to have waggled their arms and hands helplessly +before them, saying, "And what be we to do with these-um?" + +Classical names are very uncommon among villagers, but in my old +Surrey parish there was one which was the cause of much speculation. +The name was Hercules; it originated in a disagreement between the +parents, before the child was christened. The mother wanted his name +to be John, but the father insisted, that as an older son was Noah, +the only possible name for the new baby was "Hark" (Ark). They had a +lengthy argument, and there was no definite understanding before +reaching the church. The mother, when asked to "name this child," +being flustered, hesitated, but finally stammered out, "Hark, please." +The vicar was puzzled, and repeated the question with the same result; +a third attempt was equally unsuccessful, and the vicar, in despair, +falling back upon his classical knowledge, christened the child +Hercules. A few days later the vicar called at the cottage, and the +mother explained the matter, relating how indignant she was with her +husband, and how on the way home, "Hark, I says to him, ain't the name +of a Christian, it's the name of a barge!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + + +IS ALDINGTON (FORMER SITE) THE ROMAN ANTONA? + + "Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, + Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: + O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe + Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!" + --_Hamlet_. + +One of my fields--about five acres--called Blackbanks from its +extraordinarily black soil, over a yard deep in places, and the more +remarkable because the soil of the surrounding fields is stiff +yellowish clay, showed other indications of long and very ancient +habitation. Among the relics found was a stone quern, measuring about +21 inches by 12 by 7-3/4, and having, on each of two opposite sides, a +basin-shaped depression about 6 inches in diameter at the top, and +2-3/4 inches in depth; also a small stone ring, 1-1/4 inches in +diameter, and 3/8ths in thickness, with a hole in the centre 1/4 inch +across; the edges are rounded, and it is similar to those I have seen +in museums, called spindle whorls. The quern and the ring I imagine to +be British. This field and the fields adjacent on the north side of +the stream formed, I think, primarily a British settlement and area of +cultivation, afterwards appropriated by the Romans in the earliest +days of the Roman occupation of Britain, and inhabited by them as a +military station until they left the country. + +Among other relics found in Blackbanks and in the fields to the north, +called Blackminster, between Blackbanks and the present line of the +Great Western Railway, aggregating about a hundred acres, there were +found large quantities of fragments of pottery of several kinds, +including black, grey, and red, and among the latter the smoothly +glazed Samian. Many pieces are ornamented with patterns, some very +primitive, others geometrical; others are in texture like Wedgwood +basalt ware, and similar in colour and decoration. The Samian is +mostly plain, but a few pieces have patterns and representations of +human figures. + +The fields, but especially Blackbanks, contained quantities of bones, +the horns of sheep or goats, pieces of stags, horns, iron spear and +arrow-heads, horses' molar teeth, and flint pebbles worn flat on one +side by the passage of innumerable feet for many years. A millstone +showing marks of rotation on the surface, a bronze clasp or brooch +with fragments of enamel inlay, the ornamental bronze handle of an +important key, a glass lacrymatory (tear-bottle), numerous +coins--referred to below--and other objects in bronze and iron, were +also found. + +Only centuries of habitation and cultivation could have changed the +three feet of surface soil in Blackbanks from a stiff unworkable clay +to a black friable garden mould, and it is probable that the British +occupation had lasted for a very long period before the Romans took +possession. The settlement must have been a place of importance, +because it was approached from the north by a track, still existing +though practically disused, probably British, from a ford over the +Avon, near the present Fish and Anchor Inn. This track passes to the +west of South Littleton, on through the middle of the Blackminster +land, and immediately to the east of Blackbanks, joining what I +believe to be the Ryknield Street at the bridge over the stream on the +South Littleton road. Near the present Royal Oak Inn it formerly +crossed the present Evesham-Bretforton road, and became what is still +called Salter Street. It appears to have given access to two more +sites on which Roman coins and relics are found--Foxhill about 9-1/2 +acres, and Blackground about 4 acres--and passing east of the present +Badsey church, proceeded through Wickhamford, and by a well-defined +track to Hinton-on-the-Green, and on to Tewkesbury and Gloucester. + +The occurrence of the name Salter Street gives a clue to one of the +original uses of the road, at any rate in Roman times, for salt was an +absolute necessity in those days, as may be gathered from a passage in +_The Natural History of Selborne_, written in 1778: + + "Three or four centuries ago, before there were any + enclosures, sown grasses, field turnips, or field carrots, + or hay, all the cattle which had grown fat in summer, and + were not killed for winter use, were turned out soon after + Michaelmas to shift as they could through the dead months; + so that no fresh meat could be had in winter or spring. + Hence the vast stores of salted flesh found in the larder of + the elder Spencer in the days of Edward II., even so late in + the spring as the 3rd of May." A note adds that the store + consisted of "Six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef + and six hundred muttons." + +It is not difficult to trace the route over which the salt was carried +from Droitwich. Starting thence the track can be approximately +identified by the names of places in which the root, _sal_ (salt), +occurs, and we find Sale Way, Salding, Sale Green, and, further south, +Salford. Crossing the Worcester-Alcelster road at Radford, and +proceeding through Rouse Lench and Church Lench, we reach Harvington, +from whence the track takes us across the low-lying meadows to the +ferry and ford over the Avon, near the Fish and Anchor Inn mentioned +above. + +In recent times it has been assumed that the road from Bidford to +Weston Subedge, known as Buckle Street, is identical with Ryknield +Street, but I should prefer to call Buckle Street a branch of the +latter only, for the purpose of joining Ryknield Street and the Foss +Way near Burton-on-the-Water. I consider the real course of Ryknield +Street to be as described in Leland's _Itinerary_ (inserted by +Hearne), Edition III., 1768, in which he quotes, from R. Gale's _Essay +concerning the Four Great Roman Ways_, that "from Bitford on the +southern edge of Warwickshire it (Ryknield Street) runs into +Worcestershire, and taking its course thro' South Littleton goes on a +little to the east of Evesham, and then by Hinton and west of +Sedgebarrow into Gloucestershire, near Aston-under-Hill, and so by +Bekford, Ashchurch, and a little east of Tewksbury, thro' Norton to +Gloucester." + +Such a course for Ryknield Street would make it the connection between +the north, running through the Roman Alauna (Alcester) to Glevum +(Gloucester). It must be remembered that there was, in Roman times, +nothing at Evesham to take the road there, for Evesham did not exist +as a town until long after the Romans left. Leland says that there was +"noe towene at Eovesham before the foundation of the Abbey," which +took place about A.D. 701, about 250 years later, and there was no +road from Alcester to Gloucester except the one we are following. + +Another important road passed the northern extremity of Blackminster +and crossed the road just referred to so that the Blackminster area +was situated at the junction. This was the old road from Worcester, +passing the present site of Evesham a mile or more to the north, +crossing the Avon at Twyford, and the Ryknield Street at Blackminster, +and going onwards through Chipping Campden towards London. + +The following passage in the _Annals_ of Tacitus, Book XII., chapter +xxxi., _Ille (Ostorius) ... detrahere arma suspectis, cinctosque +castris Antonam et Sabrinam fluvios cohibere parat_, which refers to +the fortification of the Antona and Severn rivers by the Roman general +P. Ostorius Scapula, has been the subject of various readings and +controversy about the word _Antona_, no river of that name having been +identified. The reading given above may not be good Latin, but the +names of the rivers are quite plain. Another reading substitutes +_Avonam_ for _Antonam_; but probably Tacitus avoided the use of the +word Avon because it was then a Celtic term for rivers in general, and +confusion would arise between the Avon which joins the Severn at +Tewkesbury and the Avon a little further south which runs into the +Severn estuary at Bristol. To make his meaning quite clear he did +exactly what we do now in speaking of the Stratford Avon (_i.e._, +river) and the Bristol Avon(_i.e._, river) when he prefixed _Antonam_ +(_et Sabrinam_) to the word _fluvios_. + +If, therefore, we can find a place of importance with the name of +Antona, or a name that may fairly represent it, having regard to +subsequent corruptions, existing also in Roman times on or near the +Avon branch of the Severn, we shall be justified in assuming that this +particular Avon was the river he had in his mind. Such a place is the +area I have described as full of traces of long Roman and pre-Roman +occupation, situated at the junction of two ancient roads, very +important from the military point of view, and within a mile of the +Avon. + +On the supposition that Antona and Aldington may be identical, the +present site of the latter is perhaps a quarter of a mile from the +Roman area which I have described, but the original Aldington Mill, +traces of the foundations of which are still to be seen, was actually +on the Roman area. A better position for it was found later, away from +the difficulties of approach caused by floods, and it was moved to the +site occupied by the present mill just below the Manor House, probably +in Anglo-Saxon times. Although the name of the village became, in +Anglo-Saxon, Aldington, or something similar, the old name of Anton or +Aunton was evidently in common local use, as appears in the following +list of names which the present village has borne at different times. +It is specially interesting to notice that the more elaborate +"Aldington" and its variants appear in the more scholarly records, +such as those of Evesham Abbey and Domesday Survey, written by people +not living in the village; while the parish churchwardens 1527-1571, +the will of Richard Yardley 1531, the village constable 1715, and the +villagers at the present day, all living in the place itself, carry on +the old tradition in the names they use which approximate very closely +to the Roman Antona, and are indeed identical in their manuscripts, if +the Latin terminal _a_ is omitted. + + _Date_ + Aldintone, Charter of the Kings Kenred and Offa, + possessions of Evesham Abbey 709 + + Aldingtone } + Aldintun } Domesday Survey _circ._ 1086 + Aldintona } + + Aldringtona, An Adjudication; Evesham Abbey 1176 + + Aldetone, Institutes of Abbot Randulf, died 1229 + + Awnton, Will of Richard Yardley of Awnton 1531 + + Aunton, Churchwardens accounts 1527 to 1571 + + Anton, Old MS. "A Bill for ye Constable" 1715 + + Alne or Auln, Villagers present day + +As parallels of the local persistence of old names, the neighbouring +village of Wickhamford (present-day name) is still called Wicwon by +the villagers, the same name under which it appears in the Charter of +the Abbey possessions in 709. And the Celtic London still persists in +spite of the Roman attempt to confer upon it the grander name of +Augusta. + +The disappearance of anything in the shape of foundations of former +buildings is accounted for by the fact that the whole area was +quarried many years ago for the building stone and limestone beneath, +and any surface stone would have been removed at the same time. One of +the fields still bears the name of the "Quar Ground," and the remains +of lime-kilns can be found in several places. + +It is right to add that Blackbanks as the site of Antona was suggested +to me many years ago by the late Canon Winnington Ingram, Rector of +Harvington; in discussing the matter, however, we got no further than +the bare suggestion derived from the appearance of long habitation and +the occurrence of Roman coins and pottery in Blackbanks only, and +without reference to the much larger area of Blackminster. Canon +Winnington Ingram was not familiar with the place, and I had not +apprehended the importance of the track from the "Fish and Anchor" as +a salt way starting from Droitwich, nor was I aware of Salter Street, +its continuation after passing Blackbanks. Neither had I distinguished +between Buckle Street as the junction between Ryknield Street and the +Foss Way, and Ryknield Street itself as the direct road from the north +through Birmingham, Alcester, Bidford, Antona(?) Hinton, and +Gloucester. + +Virgil, in his first _Georgic_, refers to the possible future +discovery of Roman remains, and Dryden translates the passage thus: + + "Then after lapse of time, the lab'ring swains, + Who turn the turfs of these unhappy plains, + Shall rusty piles from the plough'd furrows take, + And over empty helmets pass the rake." + +Such is almost prophetic of my Roman site to-day; little did Virgil +imagine that his lines would apply so nearly in Britain two thousand +years later. + + +A LIST OF THE COINS FOUND AND NAMES OF THE EMPERORS TO WHOSE REIGNS +THEY BELONG, WITH SHORT NOTES ON THE LEADING INCIDENTS IN CONNECTION +WITH BRITAIN WHICH OCCURRED IN THEIR REIGNS: + + 1. A Denarius, 88 B.C. + + 2. A Denarius, 88 B.C. plated. As consular denarii passed + out of circulation soon after A.D. 70, these two coins + suggest that the site was under Roman influence by that date + at the latest. + + 3. Claudius, Emperor (A.D. 41-54). + + 4. Nerva, Emperor (96-98). + + 5. Antoninus Pius, Emperor (138-161). + + 6. Marcus Aurelius, Emperor (161-180). + + 7. Severus Alexander, Emperor (222-235). + + 8. The Thirty Tyrants (211-284). Several coins of this + period, badly defaced. + + 9. Etruscilla, wife of Traianus Decius (249-251). + + 10. Gallienus, Emperor (253-268). + + 11. Postumus, Gallic Emperor (258-268) + + 12. Claudius Gothicus, Emperor (268-270) + + 13. Tetricus, Gallic Emperor (270-273). + + 14. Tacitus, Emperor (275-276) + + 15. Diocletianus, Emperor (284-305). + + 16. Carausius, Emperor in Britain (286-294). + + 17. Allectus, Emperor in Britain (294-296). + + 18. Theodora, second wife of Constantius I. (Chlorus, Cæsar, + 293-305; Augustus, 305-6). + + 19. Licinius, Emperor (307-324). + + 20. Constantinus Emperor (306-337); (Constantine the Great). + + 21. Coin with head of Constantinopolis (City Deity)(_circ._ 330). + + 22. Constantinus II., Emperor (337-340). + + 23. Constantius II., Emperor (337-361). + + 24. Gratianus, Emperor (367-383). + +BRITISH COIN. + + 25. Antedrigus, British Prince (_circ._ 50). + +The figures in brackets in the following notes refer to the coins as +numbered in the above list: + +(3) The Claudian invasion of Britain was begun in A.D. 43 by an army +under the command of Aulus Plautius Silvanus. He led his army from the +coast of Kent, where he probably landed, to the Thames, and waited for +Claudius himself, in whose presence the advance to Camulodunum +(Colchester) was made during the latter part of 43. Claudius +apparently left Rome in July, and was absent for six months, but his +stay in Britain is said to have lasted only sixteen days. + +In the pacification which occupied the next three years there are two +points of interest to notice. The first is a series of minor campaigns +conducted by Vespasian--Emperor 69-79--who subdued the Isle of Wight +and penetrated from Hampshire, perhaps, to the Mendip Hills. The +second is the submission of Prasutagus, the British philo-Roman prince +of the Iceni. + +It is conjectured that his policy led a certain number of patriots +under a rival prince, Antedrigus, to migrate towards the unoccupied +west. A coin (25) of Antedrigus, with an extremely barbarous head in +profile on the obverse and a horse on the reverse, was found on the +Roman area at Aldington. The types of this coin are ultimately derived +from those on the gold staters struck by Philip of Makedon, father of +Alexander the Great. The original had a young male head (? of Apollo) +on obverse and a two-horse chariot as reverse type. The influence came +to Britain from Gaul, where the coins of Makedon may have arrived by +the valleys of Danube and Rhine; but it is not improbable that the +types reached Gaul through Massilia (Marseilles). + +In 47 Plautius was succeeded by P. Ostorius Scapula, who pressed +westwards and fought a great battle with the nationalist army of +Caratacus in 51. Camulodunum became a colonia in 50, and the military +organization of Britain then began to take shape by the establishment +of four legionary headquarters--Isca Silurum (Caerleon-on-Usk), +Viroconium (Wroxeter), Deva (Chester) and Lindum (Lincoln). This +disposition, which faced north and west, came near to breaking down in +61, when the east rose under Boudicca (Boadicea), queen of the Iceni, +partly in protest against the usury of Seneca, the philosopher and +tutor of Nero. + +(4) It was in the year 97, during the principate of Nerva, that +Tacitus the historian was consul. By this time the IXth Hispana legion +had been transferred from Lindum to Eburacum (York). + +(5) Under Antoninus Pius a revolt of the Brigantes (between Humber and +Mersey) was put down by A. Lollius Urbicus in A.D. 140. Lollius also +completed the northern defences, begun by Hadrian, with a new wall +further north between the Firth and the Clyde. + +(6) While Marcus Aurelius was emperor, according to a tradition +preserved by Bede, the British Church came into close connection with +Rome and received what he calls a mission--more probably a band of +fugitives from persecution. Though the tale is doubtful in details, it +is evidence to show that Christianity was strong in the island by this +time. + +(9) Decius, husband of Etruscilla, was responsible for the great +persecution of Christians in 250-51; the occasion was the 1,000th +anniversary of Rome's foundation. + +(10) Gallienus, son of Valerian, was entrusted with the west on his +father's accession in 253 and defended the Rhine frontier until he was +left sole Emperor in 258, when Valerian was captured by Shapur of +Persia. Various usurpations compelled Gallienus to enter Italy, and he +left the Rhine defences in charge of a general--M. Cassianius Latinius +Postumus. + +(11) Postumus at once had to face a great invasion of Franks. He +gained some successes and was therefore proclaimed emperor by the +armies of Gaul and Britain. Before long dissensions broke out in the +Gallic empire and several commanders rose and fell in rapid +succession. It is conceivable that some of these are represented in +the coins found in Blackbanks, but these specimens are too badly +weathered for certain identification to be possible. + +(12) On March 4, 268, Gallienus was assassinated. His successor was M. +Aurelius Claudius, afterwards surnamed Gothicus, a skilful general who +did the empire great service by his victories over invaders from +Switzerland and the Tyrol by the shores of the Lago di Garda, and over +the Goths at Naissus (Nish). + +(13) Tetricus is of interest only because his surrender to Aurelian in +273 marks the collapse of the Gallic empire. + +(15-18) Diocletian became Augustus in 284, and co-opted Maximian as +his colleague two years later. About the same time Carausius, +commander of the Channel fleet, crossed to Britain and had himself +proclaimed independent emperor. In 290 he was acknowledged as third +colleague by the Augusti, but no place was found for him when in 293 +the government of the Roman world was divided between Diocletian, +Maximian, and two newly chosen Cæsars--Galerius and Flavius Valerius +Constantius, later called Chlorus. By this arrangement the recovery of +Britain from Allectus--who had murdered Carausius about 294--fell to +Constantius, and he accomplished this by a sudden attack in 296. +Constantius was twice married. His first wife, Helena, bore him a son, +Constantine the Great; his second was a step-daughter of Maximian, +named Theodora, to whom coin 18 belongs. + +Britain was now divided into four Diocletian provinces, to which a +fifth--Valentia--was later added when the country north of Hadrian's +wall was re-occupied. The only other event of Diocletian's reign to be +noticed is the persecution of Christians in which, according to +tradition, St. Alban lost his life at Verulam about 303. + +(19-20) On May 1, 305, Diocletian and Maximian abdicated. Constantius +and Galerius now became Augusti. Trouble arose over the two vacant +Cæsarships. It was the aim of Galerius to exclude Constantine, but the +latter escaped to his father's camp at York, a few weeks before +Constantius died on July 25, 306, after a victory over the Picts and +Scots. Constantine was in power under various titles in Gaul and +Britain for five years until, in 311, when Galerius died, he began his +march on Rome, during which he is said to have had his vision of the +cross with the words [Greek: en toutô nika]. In 314 the bishops of +York, London, and some other uncertain British see attended the +Council of Arles which sat to deal with the Donatist schism. The +British Church was also represented at the Council of Nicæa, called by +Constantine in 325 to consider the Arian heresy, when the Nicene Creed +in its original form was authorized; the British vote was orthodox. It +was Constantine who in 321 first made Sunday a holiday, but whether +Christianity or Mithraism prompted him to this is doubtful. + +(22-23) When Constantine the Great died in 337 the empire was divided +between his sons. Constantius II. received the east; Constans, Africa, +Italy, and the Danuvian region; Constantine II., Gaul and Spain. In +340 Constantine II. attacked Constans and was killed. Constans then +ruled the united west; it seems that Constans and Constantius II. +visited Britain in 343. Constans was assassinated in 350; this left +Constantius II. alone. His policy of toleration towards the Arians led +to a great Church Council in 359. The eastern bishops met at Seleucia, +the western at Ariminum, where Britain was represented. By a certain +amount of coercion Constantius forced his views on the Western +Council. At this time the prosperity of Britain was great and corn was +exported in large quantities. + +(24) In 367 Valentinian I. made his son Gratian, Augustus. Gratian was +later married to Constantia, daughter of Constantius II. Roman power +was now asserted once more against the Picts and Scots, and also +against the Saxon raiders by Theodosius, whose son became Augustus in +379. Gratian himself was occupied on the Continent. In 383 Magnus +Maximus was proclaimed emperor in Britain, and Gratian was murdered on +August 25. + +The coins were not a hoard; they were found all over the Roman area I +have described, but especially in Blackbanks, and they became visible +generally when the surface was fallow and had broken down into fine +mould from the action of the weather. Their scattered occurrence, and +the period they cover, suggest continuous habitation throughout the +most important part of the Roman occupation of Britain, and, with +their related history, they occupy a distinguished place in a record +of the harvest of Grain and Chaff from an English Manor. + + + + +NOTES + + +[1: Celebrated breeders of the respective sorts.] + +[2: Fig. 1 shows the flattened _S_ formed by the stream. +Fig. 2 shows the short circuit formed later at _A_ and the island _B_ +When the old bed of the stream round _B_ gets filled up, the island +_B_ disappears, and its area and that part of the old bed formerly on +the west side of the stream is transferred to the east side.] + +[3: Mr. H.A. Evans sends me a very interesting note on this subject. +He refers me to Shakespeare, _Henry VIII., III., II., 282_, where +Surrey, alluding to Wolsey, says: + + "If we live thus tamely, + To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet, + Farewell nobility; let his grace go forward, + And dare us with his cap like larks." + +The verb _dare_ here used is quite a distinct word from _dare_ = to +venture to do. It means to daze or render helpless with the sight of +something. To dare larks is to fascinate or daze them in order to +catch them. The "dare" is made of small bits of looking-glass fastened +on scarlet cloth. Shakespeare's use of the word in the passage quoted +is evidently an allusion to the scarlet biretta of the cardinal. In +Hogarth's "Distressed Poet" a "dare" is suspended above the +chimney-piece.] + + + + +INDEX + + +"AKERMAST," 197. +. +Albinism, 255. + +"Alcoholiday," 177. + +Aldington, 1; + band, 122; + chapel, 5; + concerts, 123; + constable, 8; + derivation, 1; + farm, 3; + hosiery factory, 7; + manor, 2; + prepares to resist Jacobites, 7; + variants, 5, 8, 298, 299; + village, 3. + +Allsebrook, Rev. W.C., 5. + +Alresford fair, 49. + +Antona, 294, 297, 298. + +Apples, 103, 169, 170, 171. + +Archdeacon's visitations, 101, 102. + +Arch, Joseph, 59. + +Asparagus, 85, 86, 87. + +Avebury, Lord, 214. + +Avon, meaning of, 297. + +Bad debts, farmers', 215. + +Badsey, 1; + church innovations, 102, 110; + church restoration, 89, 90; + churchyard, 97, 98, 101; + "Feld," 207; + market gardeners, 85. + +Barley, 216, 217. + +Barnard, Mr. E.A.B., 5. + +Barnard, parish clerk, 65, 92, 93, 95. + +Bateman, Miss Isabel, 92. + +Beech, 195, 196, 197; + "groaning tree," 197; + stage effect, 198, 199; + Waterloo beeches, 197, 198. + +Beef, American, 72, 155. + +Bees, 17, 18. + +Bell, William, + farm bailiff, 12; + bee-master, 17; + brewer, 18; + courage, 14, 15; + generosity, 13; + honesty, 20; + limited outlook, 18; + memory, 16; + peace-maker, 15; + quoted, 11, 14; + repartee and wit, 13, 24; + salesman, 17. + +Bell, Mrs. William, 21. + +Bellows, antique, 285. + +Bell-ringers, 94. + +Bewick, 258. + +Bible, cunning use of, 40. + +Blackbanks, 294. + +Blackbirds, 265. + +Blackminster, 294, 299. + +Blackmore quoted, 182, 196, 225. + +Blacksmith, 151, 152. + +Blue distance, 237, 238. + +Boer War, 66. + +Boys at farm work, 39, 69. + +Brandram, Mr., 92. + +Bredon Hill, 237. + +"Breese," 156. + +Brigg, 241. + +Brooks, + changing course, 239, 241; + diagram of, 252. + +Buckle Street, 166, 296. + +Buggilde Street, 157. + +Bull, 54. + +Bullfinch, 185, 186. + +Buller, C.F., 113. + +Butterflies, 273, 274, 275, 276. + +Caldecott, Randolph, 191, 225, 236, 265. + +Caravoglia, Signor, 123. + +Carter boys, 39. + +Caterpillars, 184, 248, 259. + +Cattle, 153, 154, 157. + +Chamberlain, Mr. Arthur, 88. + +"Chap-money," 127, 129, 216. + +Charles II., 7, 190, 227. + +Charley, "silly," 93. + +"Chawns," 211. + +Cherries, 185. + +China, old, 285, 286, 287. + +Chinese slavery, 88. + +Chippendale furniture, 95, 165, 285. + +Chipping Campden, 18, 129. + +Christ Church, Oxford, 90, 98. + +Christmas, 21, 79, 95. + +Church music, 102, 103. + +Churning, 154. + +Cider, 174-177; + apples, 176; + lead poisoning, 178. + +Cirencester College, 147, 148. + +Climate, effects on animals, 135, 136. + +Cloud-burst, 249. + +Coal-club, 63, 64. + +Cockatoo, 265. + +Coffers, antique, 193. + +Coins, Roman, 300. + +Coleridge quoted, 234. + +Collins, Mr. Thomas, 90. + +Colour, discordant, 95. + +Competition, American, 59, 208. + +Compton, Lady Alwyne, 92. + +Confirmation, 103. + +Constable, John, painter, 193. + +"Co-rider," 30. + +Coroner's jury, 64, 65. + +Cotswolds, 2, 19, 29. + +Cottagers, _see_ Labourers; + married couples, 72. + +Council, County, election, 65. + +Councils, parish, etc., 100. + +Courtene, Sir Peter, 5. + +Cowper quoted, 106, 264. + +"Crabbing," 130. + +Cream separator, 82. + +Cricket, 119, 120; + Eton and Harrow match, 234, 235. + +Cromwell, 227. + +Cronje, 66. + +Cruikshank, George, 133, 207. + +Cuckoo, 184, 249, 259. + +Curmudgeon, village, 99. + +Cycling, 278; + geology, 282; + pageants of the roads, 279; + pictures, real, 280; + roadside creatures, 281, 282. + +Dairy, 153, 154, 155. + +Damsons, 182. + +Dandie Dinmont, 266. + +Daniel, M.N., on Pekingese, 268. + +Daniel, S., 105. + +D'Aumale, Duc, 203. + +Dealers, + artificial fertilizers, 149, 150; + cattle, 127, 134, 135; + horse, 126, 127; + pig, 130; + sheep, 127, 128, 129; + wool, 145, 146. + +Dewponds, 242. + +Dialect, 158, 288-291. + +Disease, human and plant, analogy, 224. + +Dorset labourer, a, 71, 72. + +Draining, 212, 213. + +Duck, pet, 264. + +Edgehill, Battle of, 6, 7. + +Education, compulsory, 58, 116, 117, 118. + +Eggs, + disqualified, 121; + hens', 164, 165, 166. + +Elephant, African, 115, 116. + +Elevator, 82. + +Elms, 187, 188. + +Emperors, Roman, 300-305. + +Ermine, 281. + +Evans, Mr. Herbert A, 263. + +Evesham, + Abbey, 1, 4; + agricultural depression, 245, 246; + Vale of, 2; + water supply, 243, 244. + +Fairs, 37, 49, 130, 227, 228. + +Fairy rings, 47. + +Farmers Newstyle and Oldstyle, 217, 218, 219. + +Farrar, Dean, 111, 112, 113, 114, 288. + +Fields, + derivation, 207; + large and small, 83. + +Finance, 58, 68. + +Fishing, 35, 36. + +Flail, 80. + +Floods, 241, 242. + +Flower show, village, 121. + +Foley, Lady Emily, 91. + +Football, 120. + +Forks, steel, 85, 86. + +Foxes, 201, 254. + +Fox terrier, "Chips," 266. + +Fruit markets, 172. + +Furniture, + antique, 284; + Chippendale, 285, 286; + faked, 97. + +Gainsborough, market cart, 193. + +Gardener, an old, 53. + +Ghosts, 67, 93. + +Gipsies, 49, 200, 228. + +Gladstone quoted, on ancient church, 89. + +Gleaning, 211. + +"Gloving," 77. + +Goldfinch, 260. + +Gold, hoarded, 58. + +Goose, pet, 264. + +Grace, Dr. W.G., 119. + +Grafter, a, 141, 142. + +Gray's _Elegy_ quoted, 23, 46, 198. + +_Gryphea incurva_, 213. + +"Hag-ridden," 47. + +Hardy, Mr. Thomas, 77. + +Harrow School, 111; + chapel, 113; + fourth form room, 114; + cricket match at Lords, 234, 235. + +Harvest, 33, 244. + +Hawfinch, 259. + +Hawks, 202. + +Hay-making, 69. + +Hazel, 202. + +Hedges, + overgrown, 205; + "pleaching," 59. + +Heredity, 117, 118. + +Herrick, reference to Gospel Oak, 195. + +_History of Evesham_, May's, 68; + Tindal's, 8. + +Hoarding gold, 58. + +Hoby, Sir Philip, 4. + +Holiday outings, 78, 79. + +Holly, 205. + +Hood, reference to butterflies, 276. + +Hops, + aphis, 221; + dioescious, 226; + drying, 31, 32; + introduction of Flemish, 205; + natural protection, 222; + pocket at R.A.S.E. show, 139; + Saturnalia, 227; + tying, 75. + +Hop-poles, 202, 203. + +Hop-yards, derivation, 221. + +Horace, reference to farm work, 207. + +Horizon, parochial, 18, 19. + +Horses, 36, 40. + +Hoskins, Chandos Wren, _Talpa_, + on farming, 132; + draining, 133; + illustrates Horace's lines, 207. + +Hospitium at Badsey, 67. + +Huguenots, 7. + +Hurdle-making, 150, 151. + +Indian troops at Lyndhurst, 158. + +Ingram, Canon Winnington, 300. + +Inquest, 64, 65. + +I.P., honesty, 56. + +Irving, Sir Henry, 120. + +Irving, Washington, _Bracebridge Hall_, on public distress, 245. + +Jackdaw, pet, 264. + +Jackson, Sir Thomas Graham, 90,96. + +Jacobites, 7, 8. + +Jarge, 23; + _bon vivant_, 28; + cider-maker, 175; + daughter, 24, 26; + discrimination, 26; + hop foreman, 25; + London trip, 28; + narrow escape, 201; + soloist, 29; + sporting reputation, 24. + +Jarrett monument, 6. + +Jays, 265. + +J.E., + carter, accidents, 54, 55; + hop-washing, 55. + +J.E., Mrs., 55. + +Jim, + carter, 35; + angler, 35; + foresight, 41; + French horses, 37; + loyalty, 37; + ploughman, 38; + rheumatism, 40; + salesman, 37; + tender-hearted, 38. + +"Jingoism," derivation, 72. + +John C., shepherd, 46. + +Keats, reference to trees, 187. + +"King Arthur," 254. + +King Edward VII., 138, 203, 234. + +Kingfisher, 257. + +King George V., 19, 249. + +_Kingham Old and New_, 77. + +Kingham Station, 59. + +"Know-all," the, 73, 74. + +Kruger, 66. + +Labourers, + agricultural: bad temper, effect on animals, 74; + aesthetic feeling, 61; + enfranchised, 83; + enjoyment of grievance, 65; + feuds, 71; + honesty, 56; + interest in horrors, 64; + limited vocabulary, 62; + literal use of words, 62, 63; + not callous, 62; + "not paid to think," exceptional, 45; + recognize visible property only, 57; + resignation and fortitude, 60; + responsibility, effect of, 73; + reticence, 61; + savings, 57; + seldom slackers, 69; + suspicious of change, 63; + sympathetic, 58; + understand sarcasm, seldom irony, 73. + +Ladybirds, 225. + +Lamb, New Zealand, 162. + +Lambs not to be killed, 160, 161, 162. + +Land, division of, 84. + +Land girls, 76. + +"Leasing," derivation of, 211. + +Leland, 4, 296. + +Lind, Jenny, 124, 125. + +Liver-rot, 160. + +London, Bishop of, a former, 198. + +Long Marston, 7. +Loudon, John, 197. + +Machinery, 80. + +Magpies, 256. + +Maid-servants, 76. + +Malvern concerts, 27, 90, 91, 92. + +Martin, Mr. C.S., 139, 140; + on cabbage butterflies, 275; + wasps, 275. + +Martin, Mr. Wm., on finding wasps' nests, 274. + +Matriculation, young yeoman's, 283, 284. + +May's _History of Evesham_, 68. + +May, shelter during, 155. + +Medicinal herbs during war, 45. + +Melanism, 255. + +"'Merican beef," 72, 155. + +Merry gardens, derivation, 186. + +Meteorology, 230-234, 237. + +Mickleton tunnel, 29. + +"Mist-bow,", 251. + +Mistifier, 55. + +Mist-lake, 252. + +Mistletoe, 173. + +Mole-catcher, 143. + +Moths, 271, 272, 273. + +Mountford's restaurant, 20, 21. + +Mowing machines, 81. + +"Mug," a, 140. + +Names, + place, 291-292; + villagers, 292-293. + +New Forest, + "commoners," 194; + communion between man and trees, 199; + land mostly poor, 188; + oaks, 189, 190, 199; + timber during war, 194, 204. + +Nightingales, 261. + +Nuthatch, 257. + +Oak, 188, 189; + American, 96, 97; + attitudes of, 190; + bark, 193; + "Gospel," 195; + history in, 195; + heart of, 193; + plantations, 192. + +Obadiah B., thatcher, 148. + +Onomatopoeia, use of, 196, 256. + +Omnicycle, 22, 61. + +Orchards, 167, 168. + +Overton fair, 49. + +"Ox-droves," 157. + +Pageants of the roads, 279. + +Parochial horizon, 18, 19. + +Peacocks, 253, 254. + +Pear trees, 179, 180. + +Peking, relief of, 104. + +Pekingese, 267, 268, 269. + +Perry, 179, 180. + +Pershore, 37, 197. + +Peruvian guano, 87. + +Pheasants, 204, 255. + +Philips, _Cyder_, 175. + +Picker, a, 103. + +"Pleaching," 59. + +Ploughing, 38, 39, 213, 214. + +Plumber's story, 45. + +Plums, 182, 183, 184. + +Pony, "Taffy," 270. + +Poodle, 266. + +"Popery," 20, 110. + +Postman, 122. + +Potatoes, 18; + disease, 222; + Myatt's ashleaf, origin, 54. + +Poulton, Miss, 90. + +Poultry, 164. + +_Punch_ quoted, 19, 102. + +Queen Victoria, 255. + +Railway accident, 163; + sleepers, 204-205. + +Randell, Mr. Charles, 81. + +Randulf, Abbot, 4. + +Rat-catcher, 143. + +Rats, 143. + +"Reconstruction," 246. + +Ridge and furrow, 213, 214. + +Rival hedgers, 105. + +Roads, ancient, 279-280, 283, 296-297. + +Roberts, Lord, 66. + +Roman coins, 300; + Emperors, 301-305; + remains, 294, 295. + +Rooks' arithmetic, 260; + building, 91. + +Rottingdean, 262, 271, 276. + +Rough music, 77, 78. + +Royal Agricultural Society of England, 138, 139. + +_Rus in urbe_, 234-237. + +Ruskin, 81. + +Ryknield Street, 156, 295-297, 300. + +Sabbath-breaking, 163, 164. + +Sales, + by bailiff, 132, 133; + books, 133; + fruit, 172; + sheep, 136, 137; + short-horns, 134, 135. + +Salisbury, Lord, 90, 91. + +Salter Street, 296. + +"Satan leading on," 105. + +Savory, Mrs. A.H., 86, 90, 122-124, 153, 164. + +Savory, Mr. F.E., 250. + +Selborne (see White), Church, 94. + +Seventh Division in New Forest, 280. + +Scapula, P. Ostorius, 297. + +School Board, + Badsey, 106; + chairman, 107; + economy, 115; + "first duty" of members, 107; + grouped parishes, 108; + "ignoramus," an, 115; + inspectors, 111, 114; + mares' nests, 116; + reading-book, 114; + religious instruction, 109-111; + reporters at meetings, 108; + site for building, 109; + "six little pigs," 114. + +"Score," derivation of, 16. + +Scots-fir, 204. + +Scottish wool trade, 145. + +Scot, Reynolde, on hops, 220. + +Scrutator, 253. + +Shakespeare, + local phraseology, 289, 290; + local reputation, 120. + +Shakespeare quoted, + on bargains, 126; + carouse at Bidford, 179; + content, 57; + "daring" larks, 263; + England if true to self, 66; + fairy rings, 47; + fool i' the forest, 191; + gadfly, 156; + hope and despair, 220; + lady-smocks, 276; + narrow outlook, 19; + "pleaching," 59; + Providence, 1; + sweet of the year, 232. + +Shappen, derivation, 129. + +Sheep, 47-50, 158-160. + +Sheep dipper, 142. + +Shelley on skylark, 253. + +Shepherds, 46, 50, 76, 77. + +"Shepherd's neglect," 48. + +Signhurst, derivation, 67. + +Skylark, 263. + +Sladden, Mr. Julius, 89, 121. + +Snake and Toad, 282. + +Snewin, carpenter, 42. + +Squirrels, 281. + +Stag-beetles, 277. + +Steam power, 83. + +Stockmen often resemble their animals, 162. + +Stupid places, 292. + +"Summer dance," 251. + +"Summer-time," 230, 231. + +Sunday work, 244. + +Superstition, 18, 21, 46, 47, 67. + +Tacitus, 297. + +"Tantiddy's fire," 33. + +Taylor, Chevalier, 52. + +Telegraph wires in frost, 183. + +Tennyson quoted, + on apples, 167; + business men, 141; + changes of earth's surface, 239; + dairy, 153; + farming walk, 207; + hazels, 202; + home-made bread, 211; + _Morte d'Arthur_, 1; + music, 119; + old oaks, 187; + onomatopoeic lines, 196; + our echoes, 288; + politics, 80; + royal oak, 195; + spring-time, 202; + steam cultivation, 83; + "summer dance," 251; + tea-cup times, 286; + town and country, 230. + +Tennyson at agricultural show, 139. + +Temper, effect on animals, 74. + +Temple, Sir Richard, 83-86, 88. + +Thatching, 148, 149, 200. + +Thistles, 260. + +Thomson quoted, 36. + +Thoreau quoted, 199. + +Thrashing, 80, 81, 215. + +"Three acres and a cow," 84. + +Tom, 29; + caution, 33, 34; + draining, 31; + harvesting, 32, 33; + hop-drying, 31; + mowing, 30; + musical critic, 33; + tree-felling, 30. + +Tom G., 41; + accuracy, 42; + builder, 44; + carpenter, 41; + efficiency, 45; + epigram, 43, 44; + teetotal, 41. + +Trees, paintings of, 192, 193. + +Tricker, 50, 51, 52. + +Trout, 35, 36, 49. + +Truffle-hunter, 144, 145. + +Tusser, Thomas, on hop-growing, 220, 221. + +Urchins, 264, 282, 291. + +Valentine's Day, St., 160. + +Vestry meetings, 99, 100. + +Veterinary surgeons, 147, 148. + +Vicar (my first) + as prosecutor, 101; + former ways of parishioners, 94, 95; + impressive reader, 98, 99; + "new farmers," 13; + procession with choir, 102; + restoration of church, 89, 90. + +Vicar (my second) + declines to act on School Board, 109; + religious instruction, 110; + scholar, 104. + +Vicar (my third), + innovations, 110; + relief of Peking, 104; + religious instruction, 110, 111. + +Vicar, a Gloucestershire, 104. + +Vicar of Old Basing, 165. + +_Victory_, old battleship, 194. + +Villagers, see Labourers, funeral, 15. + +Villages, Cotswold and Vale of Evesham, 283. + +"Viper," + egg-eater, 166; + rescues children, 21, 22; + avoids "dipping," 142. + +Virgil, _Georgics_, + and farm work, 207; + onomatopoeic lines, 195, 196; + on planting trees, 168; + prophetic lines, 300. + +Wages, 68, 69, 70. + +Waggon, + an ancient, 139; + name on a, 131, 132. + +Wakefield, Bishop of, 230. + +Walnut chair, 7. + +War, great, 45, 161, 227. + +Warde Fowler, Mr., 77, 78. + +Washington, Penelope, 9, 10. + +Wasps, 274, 275. + +Water-rats, 144. + +Waterspouts, 250. + +Way-warden, 100. + +Weather, abnormal, 247, 248, 249; + signs, 233. + +Wedding feast, a village, 65. + +Weeds, 70. + +Weighing machine, incorrect, 43. + +Wellington, Duke of, 197. + +"Welsher," a, 137. + +"Wendy," Pekingese, 267. + +Westwood, Professor, 276. + +Weyhill Fair, 228. + +Wickhamford, 8, 94, 299. + +Wild geese, 263. + +Wild, Miss Margaret, 92. + +Will Hall farm, 235. + +Will-o'-the-wisp, 249. + +Willow ("withy"), 199, 201. + +Wheatear, bird, 262. + +Wheat: + growing, ruined by importations, 208; + harvest, 210; + hoeing, 70; + rick building, 212. + +Whisky, 131, 178. + +White, Gilbert, + black bullfinch, 257; + dew-ponds, 243; + salted flesh, 296; + Saxon plurals, 289; + Selborne Church bells, 94. + +White, Miss Maude V., 124. + +Women on the land, 74, 75, 76. + +Woodcock, 258, 259. + +Woodpecker, green, 256. + +Woodpigeons, 261. + +Wool, 146, 147; + staplers, 145. + +"Woonts," 143. + +Worcester, + Battle of, 7; + Bishops of, 103; + butter market, 154; + china, 161; + hop-fair, 227. + +Words, confusion of, 51, 52. + +Wordsworth quoted, 61, 263. + +Wren, golden-crested, 261. + +"Wusser and wusser, old," 29. + +Wych-elm, 53. + +Yardley, Richard, will of, 5. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Grain and Chaff from an English Manor +by Arthur H. Savory + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13239 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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Savory + +Release Date: August 21, 2004 [EBook #13239] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAIN AND CHAFF *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Team + + + + + +GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR + + +By ARTHUR H. SAVORY + + + +OXFORD + +BASIL BLACKWELL + +1920 + + + + +PREFACE + +As a result of increased facilities within the last quarter of a +century for the exploration of formerly inaccessible parts of the +country, interest concerning our ancient villages has been largely +awakened. Most of these places have some unwritten history and +peculiarities worthy of attention, and an extensive literary field is +thus open to residents with opportunities for observation and +research. + +Such records have rarely been undertaken in the past, possibly because +those capable of doing so have not recognized that what are the +trivial features of everyday life in one generation may become +exceptional in the next, and later still will have disappeared +altogether. + +Gilbert White, who a hundred and thirty years ago published his +_Natural History of Selborne_, was the first, and I suppose the most +eminent, historian of any obscure village, and it is surprising, as +his book has for so long been regarded as a classic, that so few have +attempted a similar record. His great work remains an inspiring ideal +which village historians can keep in view, not without some hope of +producing a useful description of country life as they have seen it +themselves. + +It is a pleasure to acknowledge with grateful thanks the kind help of +friends and correspondents which I have received in writing this book. +Mr. Warde Fowler was good enough to look through the chapters while +still in manuscript, and I have also received great help from Mr. +Herbert A. Evans, who has read through the proofs. The help of +others--besides those whose names I give in the text--has been less +general and mostly confined to some details in the historical part of +the first chapter, and to portions of the subject-matter of the last. +Mr. Hugh Last, Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, most kindly gave +much valuable time to the examination of the Roman coins and assigning +them to their respective reigns; he contributed also the notes on the +Emperors, with special reference to the events in Britain which +occurred during their reigns. Mr. Dudley F. Nevill of Burley helped me +in a variety of ways, and Mr. C.A. Binyon of Badsey supplied some of +the historical details and information about the ancient roads. + +Looking back over the years I spent at Aldington, I see much more +sunshine and blue sky than cloud and storm, notwithstanding the +difficulties of the times. It is a continual source of pleasure to go +over the familiar fields in imagination and to recall the kindly faces +of my loyal and willing labourers. I trust that what I have written of +them will make plain my grateful remembrance of their unfailing +sympathy and ready help.--ARTHUR H. SAVORY. + +BURLEY, HANTS. + +_January_, 1920. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. ALDINGTON VILLAGE--THE MANOR HOUSE--THE FARM.......... 1 + + II. THE FARM BAILIFF...................................... 11 + + III. THE HOP FOREMAN AND THE HOP DRIER..................... 23 + + IV. THE HEAD CARTER--THE CARPENTER........................ 35 + + V. AN OLD-FASHIONED SHEPHERD--OLD THICKER--A + GARDENER--MY SECOND HEAD CARTER--A LABOURER......... 46 + + VI. CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND + VILLAGERS........................................... 57 + + VII. MACHINERY--VILLAGE POLITICS--ASPARAGUS................ 80 + + VIII. MY THREE VICARS--CHURCH RESTORATION--CHURCHWARDEN + EXPERIENCES--CLERICAL AND OTHER STORIES............. 89 + + IX. THE SCHOOL BOARD--RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION--SCHOOL + INSPECTORS--DEAN FARHAR--COMPULSORY EDUCATION....... 106 + + X. VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS: CRICKET--FOOTBALL--FLOWER-SHOW + --BAND--POSTMAN--CONCERTS........................... 119 + + XI. DEALERS--LUCK MONEY--FAIRS--SALES--EFFECT OF + CLIMATE ON CATTLE AND SHEEP--AGRICULTURAL SHOWS..... 126 + + XII. FARM SPECIALISTS...................................... 141 + + XIII. THE DAIRY--CATTLE--SHEEP--LAMBS--PIGS--POULTRY........ 153 + + XIV. ORCHARDS--APPLES--CIDER--PERRY........................ 167 + + XV. PLUMS--CHERRIES....................................... 182 + + XVI. TREES: ELM--OAK--BEECH--WILLOW--SCOTS-FIR............. 187 + + XVII. CORN--WHEAT--RIDGE AND FURROW--BARLEY--FARMERS + NEWSTYLE AND OLDSTYLE............................... 207 + +XVIII. HOPS--INSECT ATTACKS--HOP FAIRS....................... 220 + + XIX. METEOROLOGY--ETON AND HARROW AT LORD'S--"RUS IN + URBE"............................................... 230 + + XX. CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS--DEWPONDS--A WET + HARVEST--WEATHER PHENOMENA--WILL-O'-THE- + WISP--VARIOUS....................................... 239 + + XXI. BIRDS: PEACOCKS--A WHITE PHEASANT--ROOKS' ARITHMETIC.. 253 + + XXII. PETS: SUSIE--COCKY--TRUMP--CHIPS--WENDY--TAFFY........ 264 + +XXIII. BUTTERFLIES--MOTHS--WASPS............................. 271 + + XXIV. CYCLING--PAGEANTS OF THE ROADS--ROADSIDE + CREATURES--HARMONIOUS BUILDING--COLLECTING OLD + FURNITURE AND CHINA................................. 278 + + XXV. DIALECT--LOCAL PHRASEOLOGY IN SHAKESPEARE--NAMES + --STUPID PLACES..................................... 288 + + XXVI. Is ALDINGTON THE ROMAN ANTONA?........................ 294 + + INDEX....................................................... 306 + + + + + "Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! + Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade + To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, + Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy + To kings that fear their subjects' treachery!" + _3 King Henry VI_. + + + + "When I paused to lean on my hoe, these sounds and sights + I heard and saw anywhere in the row, a part of the inexhaustible + entertainment which the country offers." + --THOREAU. + + + "Life is sweet, brother.... There's night and day, brother, + both sweet things; sun, moon and stars, brother, all sweet + things; there's likewise the wind on the heath. Life is very + sweet, brother; who would wish to die?" + --BORROW: _Jasper Petulengro_. + + + + +GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + +ALDINGTON VILLAGE--THE MANOR HOUSE--THE FARM. + + "There's a divinity that shapes our ends." + --_Hamlet_. + + "Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns." + --_Morte d'Arthur_. + + +In recalling my earliest impressions of the village of Aldington, near +Evesham, Worcestershire, the first picture that presents itself is of +two chestnut-trees in full bloom in front of the Manor House which +became my home, and their welcome was so gracious on that sunny May +morning that it inclined me to take a hopeful view of the inspection +of the house and land which was the object of my visit. + +The village took its name from the Celtic _Alne_, white river; the +Anglo-Saxon, _ing_, children or clan; and _ton_, the enclosed place. +The whole name, therefore, signified "the enclosed place of the +children, or clan, of the Alne." There are many other Alnes in England +and Scotland, also Allens and Ellens as river names, probably +corruptions of Alne, and we have many instances of the combination of +a river name with _ing_ and _ton_, such as Lymington and Dartington. +The Celtic _Alne_ points to the antiquity of the place, and there were +extensive traces of Roman occupation to which I shall refer later. + +The village was really no more than a hamlet ecclesiastically attached +to the much larger village of Badsey. In addition to Celtic, Roman, +and Anglo-Saxon associations, it figured before the Norman Conquest in +connection with the Monastery and Abbey of Evesham, the Manor and the +mill being mentioned in the Abbey records; and they were afterwards +set down in Domesday Survey. + +The Vale of Evesham, in which Aldington is situated, lies at the foot +of the Cotswold Hills, and when approached from them a remarkable +change in climate and appearance is at once noticeable. Descending +from Broadway or Chipping Campden--that is, from an altitude of about +1,000 feet to one of 150 or less--on a mid-April day, one exchanges, +within a few miles, the grip of winter, grey stone walls and bare +trees, for the hopeful greenery of opening leaves and thickening +hedges, and the withered grass of the Hill pastures for the luxuriance +of the Vale meadows. + +The earliness of the climate and the natural richness of the land is +the secret of the intensive cultivation which the Vale presents, and +year by year more and more acres pass out of the category of farming +into that of market-gardening and fruit-growing. The climate, however, +though invaluable for early vegetable crops, is a source of danger to +the fruit. After a few days of the warm, moist greenhouse temperature +which, influenced by the Gulf Stream, comes from the south-west up the +Severn and Avon valleys, between the Malverns and the Cotswolds, and +which brings out the plum blossom on thousands of acres, a bitter +frost sometimes occurs, when the destruction of the tender bloom is a +tragedy in the Vale, while the Hills escape owing to their more +backward development. + +The Manor House had been added to and largely altered, but many years +had brought it into harmony with its surroundings, while Nature had +dealt kindly with its colouring, so that it carried the charm of long +use and continuous human habitation. Behind the house an old walled +garden, with flower-bordered grass walks under arches of honeysuckle +and roses, gave vistas of an ample mill-pond at the lower end, forming +one of the garden boundaries. The pond was almost surrounded by tall +black poplars which stretched protecting arms over the water, forming +a wide and lofty avenue extending to the faded red-brick mill itself, +and whispering continuously on the stillest summer day. The mill-wheel +could be seen revolving and glittering in the sunlight, and the hum of +distant machinery inside the mill could be heard. The brook, which fed +the pond, was fringed by ancient pollard willows; it wound through +luxuriant meadows with ploughed land or cornfields still farther back. +The whole formed a peaceful picture almost to the verge of drowsiness, +and reminded one of the "land in which it seemèd always afternoon." + +The space below the house and the upper part of the garden immediately +behind it was occupied by the rickyard, reaching to the mill and pond, +and a long range of mossy-roofed barns divided it from the farmyard +with its stables and cattle-sheds. + +The village occupied one side only of the street, as it was +called--the street consisting of two arms at a right angle, with the +Manor House near its apex. The cottages were built, mostly in pairs, +of old brick, and tiled, having dormer windows, and gardens in front +and at the sides, well stocked with fruit-trees and fruit-bushes, and +this helped the cottagers towards the payment of their very moderate +rents, which had remained the same, I believe, for the best part of +half a century. + +Throughout all the available space not so occupied, on either side of +the two arms of the street, and again behind the cottages themselves, +beautiful old orchards, chiefly of apple-trees, formed an unsurpassed +setting both when the blossom was out in pink and white, or the fruit +was ripening in gold and crimson, and even in winter, when the grey +limbs and twisted trunks of the bare trees admitted the level rays of +the sun. + +The farm consisted of about 300 acres of mixed arable and grass land +on either side of two shallow valleys, along which wandered the main +brook and its tributary, uniting, where the valleys joined, into one +larger stream, so that all the grass land was abundantly supplied with +water for the stock. These irregular brooks, bordered throughout their +whole course with pollard willows, made a charming feature and gave +great character to the picture. + +In the records of Evesham Abbey we find the Manor, including the lands +comprised therein, among the earliest property granted for its +endowment. The erection of the Abbey commenced about 701, and William +of Malmesbury, writing of the loneliness of the spot, tells us that a +small church, probably built by the Britons, had from an early date +existed there. In 709 sixty-five manses were given by Kenred, King of +Mercia, leagued with Offa, King of the East Angles, including one in +Aldinton _(sic)_, and Domesday Survey mentions one hide of land +(varying from 80 to 120 acres in different counties) in Aldintone +_(sic)_ as among the Abbey possessions at the time of the Norman +Conquest. + +Abbot Randulf, who died in 1229, built a grange at Aldington, and +bought Aldington mill, in the reign of Henry III., when the hamlet was +a _berewic_ or corn farm held by the Abbey; and at the time of the +Dissolution it was granted to Sir Philip Hoby, who appears to have +been an intimate of Henry VIII., together with the Abbey buildings +themselves and much of its other landed property. The Manor remained +in the hands of the Hoby family for many years, and was one of Sir +Philip's principal seats. Freestone from the Abbey ruins seems to have +been largely used for additions probably made in the reign of Queen +Elizabeth, for in some alterations I made about 1888, I found many +carved and moulded stones, built into the walls, evidently the remains +of arches from an ecclesiastical building, and Sir Philip Hoby is +known to have treated the Abbey ruins as if they were nothing better +than a stone quarry. + +Leland, who by command of Henry VIII. visited Evesham very soon after +the Dissolution, says that there was "noe towene" at Evesham before +the foundation of the Abbey, and the earliest mention of a bridge +there is recorded in monastic chronicles in 1159. + +There is a notice of a Mr. Richard Hoby, youngest brother of Sir +Philip, as churchwarden in 1602, and a monument, much dilapidated, is +to be seen in the chancel of Badsey Church, erected to the memory of +his wife and that of her first husband by Margaret Newman, their +daughter, who married Richard Delabere of Southam, Warwickshire, in +1608. Aldington afterwards became the property of Sir Peter Courtene, +who was created a baronet in 1622. + +Another explanation of the origin of the carved and moulded stones +mentioned above may be found in the former existence of a chapel at +Aldington, for there is evidence that a chapel existed there +immediately before the Dissolution. In an article in Badsey Parish +Magazine by Mr. E.A.B. Barnard, F.S.A., brought to my notice by the +editor, the Rev. W.C. Allsebrook, Vicar, details are given of the will +of Richard Yardley of Awnton (Aldington), dated January 22, 1531, in +which the following bequests are made: + + To the Mother Church of Evesham, 2s. + To the Church of Badsey, a strike of wheat. + To the Church of Wykamford, one strike of barley. + To the Chappell at Awnton, one hog, one strike of wheat, and + one strike of barley. + +The chapel, however, disappeared, and seems to have been superseded by +the assignment of the transept of Badsey Church as the Aldington +Chapel, and in 1561-62 the first churchwarden for Aldington was +elected at Badsey. The assignment may, however, have been only a +return to a much earlier similar arrangement when the transept was +added to Badsey Church about the end of the thirteenth century, +possibly expressly as a chapel for Aldington. + +That it was an addition is proved by the remains of the arch over a +small Norman window in the north wall of the nave, which had to be cut +into to allow of the opening into the new transept. A shelf or ledge +is still to be seen in the east wall of the transept, probably the +remains of a super-altar, and, to the right of it, a piscina on the +north side of the chancel arch, and therefore inside the transept. + +A large square pew and a smaller one behind it in the transept were +for centuries the recognized seats of the Aldington Manor family and +their servants, and so remained until the restoration of the church in +1885, when the pews were taken down and a row of chairs as near as +possible to the old position was allotted for the use of the same +occupants. + +In 1685 the Jarrett monument was placed immediately over the larger +pew in the east wall of the transept, bearing the following +inscription: + + Near this place lies interred in hope + of a joyful Resurrection the bodies of + + WILLIAM JARRETT + + of Aldington in this Parish Gent, aged 73 + years, who died Anno Domini 1681 + and of Jane his wife the daughter of William + Wattson of Bengeworth Gent, who died + Anno Domini 1683, aged 73 years, + by whom he had Issue three Sons + and two Daughters. Thomas Augustin and + Jane ley buried here with them and + Mary the youngest Daughter Married + Humphrey Mayo of hope in the County + of Herreford Gent, and William + the Eldest Son Marchant in London + set this Monument in a dutiful + and affectionate memory of them 1685. + +It is pleasant to think of William, the eldest son, "marchant," +returning in his prosperity to the quiet old village, braving the +dangers and inconveniences of unenclosed and miry roads, and riding +the 100 odd miles on horseback, to revisit the scenes of his +childhood, in order to do honour to the memories of his father and +mother. What a contrast to the crowded streets of London the old place +must have presented, and one has an idea that perhaps he regretted, in +spite of his success in commerce, that he had not elected in his +younger days to pursue the simple life. + +The monument is a somewhat elaborate white marble tablet with a plump +cherub on guard, and with many of the scrolls and convolutions typical +of the Carolean and later Jacobean taste. This monument was removed to +the north wall of the nave two centuries later, in 1885, when the +church was restored, to allow of access to the new vestry then added. + +William Jarrett, senr., and his wife lived through the very stirring +times of the Civil War in the reign of Charles I., about twenty miles +only from Edgehill, where, in 1642, twelve hundred men are reported to +have fallen. It is said that on the night of the anniversary of the +battle, October 23, in each succeeding year the uneasy ghosts of the +combatants resume the unfinished struggle, and that the clash of arms +is still to be heard rising and falling between hill and vale. The +worthy couple must have almost heard the echoes of the Battle of +Worcester in 1651, only eighteen miles distant, and have been well +acquainted with the details of the flight of Charles II., who, after +he left Boscobel, passed very near Aldington on his way to the old +house at Long Marston, where he spent a night, and, to complete his +disguise, turned the kitchen spit. This old house is still standing, +and is regarded with reverence. + +The cherub on the Jarrett tablet bears a strong resemblance to two +similar cherubs which support a royal crown carved on the back of an +old walnut chair which I bought in the village in a cottage near the +Manor House. The design is well known as commemorating the restoration +of Charles II. in 1660, and I like to think that in bringing it back I +restored it to its old home, and that William Jarrett, senr., who was +doubtless a Royalist, enjoyed a peaceful pipe on many a winter's night +therein enthroned. I noticed, lately, in a description of a similar +chair in the _Connoisseur_, that the cherubs are spoken of as +_amorini_; I have always understood that they are angelic beings +supporting or guarding the sacred crown of the martyred King, though +possibly the appellation is not unsuitable if they are to be regarded +in connection with Charles II. alone. + +There is a story of a hosiery factory established by refugee Huguenots +at the date of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, and the +Jacobean building adjoining the east end of the Manor House is +probably the place referred to. Later it became a malthouse, and later +still was converted into hop-kilns by me. Being of Huguenot descent +myself, I take a special interest in this tradition. + +In 1715 Aldington took its part in preparing to resist the Jacobites, +and the following record is copied from an old manuscript: + + A BILL FOR Y^e CONSTABLE OF ANTON DUN BY ME WM. PHIPPS. + + _£ s. d._ + 1 musket and bayonet.................................. 0 0 + 1 cartridg box at..................................... 0 3 6 + 1 belt at............................................. 0 5 0 + for 1 scabard and cleaning y^e blad and + blaking y^e hilt.................................... 0 3 6 + ------- + 1 12 0 + (_On the back_.) + Three days pay........................................ 0 7 6 + half A pound of pouder................................ 0 0 8 + for y^e muster master ................................ 0 0 6 + for listing money..................................... 0 1 0 + for drums and cullers................................. 0 3 0 + ------- + 2 4 8 + Thos Rock Con^{ble} 0 12 8 + + (IN) A TRUE ACCOUNT OF Y^e CONS^{BL} OF ALDINGTON CHARGES FOR Y^e + YEARE 1716/5 NOV. Y^e 7 & 8 1715 Y^e CHARGES FOR ATENDING AS + CONS^{BL} + + _s. d._ + + bringing in y^e Train souldiers....................... 3 0 + spent when y^e soulders whent to Worcester............ 1 6 + + One can picture the scene in the little hamlet as Thomas Rock + collected his forces at the gossip corner; the little crowd of + admiring villagers and the martial bearing of the one recruit, as + with "cullers" flying and drums beating he marched away, followed by + the village children to the end of the lane. + +William Tindal, in his _History of Evesham_, 1794, records the fact +that in 1790 Aldington belonged to Lord Foley, but history is silent +as to local events from that date until modern times, when, in the +first half of the next century, the Manor became the property of an +ancestor of the present owner. There is a tradition that the Manor +House was a small but beautiful old building, with a high-pitched +stone-slate roof and three gables in line at the front; but these +disappeared, the pitch of the roof was reduced, and about 1850 the +modern part of the house was added at the southern extremity of the +old structure. + +As the neighbouring parish of Wickhamford is referred to in connection +with Badsey and Aldington several times in these pages, it may not be +out of place to give the following inscription on the tombstone of a +member of the Washington family. It is particularly of interest at the +present time, more especially to Americans, and it has not, as far as +I am aware, previously appeared in any other book. + + INSCRIPTION + + ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH + SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH + OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE + COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND. + M.S. + + _PENELOPES_ + + Filiæ perillustris & militari virtute clarissimi + Henrici Washington, collonelli, + Gulielmo Washington ex agro Northampton + Milite prognati; + ob res bellicosas tam Angl: quam Hiberniâ + fortiter, & feliciter gestas, + Illustrissimis Principib: & Regum optimis + Carolo primo et secundo charissimi: + Qui duxit uxorem Elizabetham ex antiquâ, et + Generosâ prosapiâ Packingtoniensium + De Westwood; + Familiâ intemeratae fidei in principes, + et amoris in patriam. + Ex praeclaris hisce natalibus Penelope oriunda, + Divini Numinis summâ cum religione + Cultrix assidua; + Genetricis (parentum solæ superstitis) + Ingens Solatium; + Aegrotantib. et egentib. mirâ promptitudine + Liberalis et benefica; + Humilis & casta, et soli Christo nupta; + Ex hac vitâ caducâ ad sponsum migravit + Febr. 27 An. Dom. 1697. + +[_Translation_] + + INSCRIPTION + + ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH + SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH + OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE + COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND. + M.S. + + + Sacred to the memory of + + PENELOPE, + + daughter of that renowned and distinguished + soldier, Colonel Henry Washington. He was + descended from Sir William Washington, + Knight, of the county of Northampton, who + was highly esteemed by those most illustrious + Princes and best of Kings, Charles the First + and Second, for his valiant and successful warlike + deeds both in England and in Ireland: + he married ELIZABETH, of the ancient and + noble stock of the _Packingtons_ of Westwood, + a family of untarnished fidelity to its Prince + and love to its country. Sprung from such + illustrious ancestry, PENELOPE was a diligent + and pious worshipper of her Heavenly Father. + She was the consolation of her mother, her + only surviving parent; a prompt and liberal + benefactress of the sick and poor; humble and + pure in spirit, and wedded to Christ alone. + + From this fleeting life she migrated + to her Spouse, + _February 27, Anno Domini. 1697_. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + + +THE FARM BAILIFF. + +"If a job _has_ to be done you may as well do it first as last." + --WILLIAM BELL. + +The labourers born and bred in the Vale of Evesham are mostly tall and +powerful men, and mine were no exception; where the land is good the +men compare favourably in size and strength with those in less +favoured localities, and the same applies to the horses, cattle, and +sheep; but the Vale, with its moist climate, does not produce such +ruddy complexions as the clear air of the Hills, and even the apples +tell the same story in their less brilliant colouring, except after an +unusually sunny summer. In the days of the Whitsuntide gatherings for +games of various kinds, sports, and contests of strength, the Vale men +excelled, and certain parishes, famous for the growth of the best +wheat, are still remembered as conspicuously successful. + +My men, though grown up before education became compulsory, could all +read and write, and they were in no way inferior to the young men of +the present day. They were highly skilled in all the more difficult +agricultural operations, and it was easy to find among them good +thatchers, drainers, hedgers, ploughmen, and stockmen; they were, +mostly, married, with families of young children, and they lived close +to their work in the cottages that went with the farm. They exhibited +the variations, usual in all communities, of character and +disposition, and though somewhat prejudiced and wedded to old methods +and customs they were open to reason, loyal, and anxious to see the +land better farmed and restored to the condition in which the late +tenant found it, when entering upon his occupation seven years +previously. + +The late tenant, my predecessor, though a gentleman and a pleasant man +to deal with, was no farmer for such strong and heavy land as the farm +presented; it was no fault of his, for the farmer, like the poet, is +born, not made, and, as I was often told, he was "nobody's enemy but +his own." His wife came of a good old stock of shorthorn breeders +whose name is known and honoured, not only at home, but throughout the +United States of America, our Dominions, and wherever the shorthorn +has established a reputation; and my men were satisfied that she was +the better farmer of the two. + +I had scarcely bargained for the foul condition of the stubbles, +disclosed when the corn was harvested shortly before I took possession +at Michaelmas; they were overrun with couch grass--locally called +"squitch"--and the following summer I had 40 acres of bare-fallow, +repeatedly ploughed, harrowed, and cultivated throughout the whole +season, which, of course, produced nothing by way of return. My +predecessor had found that his arable land was approaching a condition +in which it was difficult to continue the usual course of cropping, +and had expressed his wish to one of the men that all the arable was +grass. He was answered, I was told: + + "If you goes on as you be a-going it very soon will be!" I + heard, moreover, that a farming relative of his, on + inspecting the farm, shortly before he gave it up, had + pronounced his opinion that it was "all going to the devil + in a gale of wind!" + +I soon recognized that I had a splendid staff of workers, and, under +advice from the late tenant, I selected one to be foreman or bailiff. +Blue-eyed, dark-haired, tall, lean, and muscular, he was the picture +of energy, in the prime of life. Straightforward, unselfish, a natural +leader of men, courageous and untiring, he immediately became devoted +to me, and remained my right hand, my dear friend, and adviser in the +practical working of the farm, throughout the twenty years that +followed. Like many of the agricultural labourers, his remote +ancestors belonged to a class higher in the social scale, and there +were traditions of a property in the county and a family vault in +Pershore Abbey Church. However this might be, William Bell was one of +Nature's gentlemen, and it was apparent in a variety of ways in his +daily life. + +Shortly before my coming to Aldington he had received a legacy of +£150, which, without any legal necessity or outside suggestion, he had +in fairness, as he considered it, divided equally between his brother, +his sister and himself--each--and his share was on deposit at a bank. +Seeing that I was young--I was then twenty-two--and imagining that +some additional capital would be useful after all my outlay in +stocking the farm and furnishing the house, he, greatly to my surprise +and delight, offered in a little speech of much delicacy to lend me +his £50. I was immensely touched at such a practical mark of sympathy +and confidence, but was able to assure him gratefully that, for the +present at any rate, I could manage without it. On another occasion, +after a bad season, he voluntarily asked me to reduce his wages, to +which of course I did not see my way to agree. + +Bell was always ready with a smart reply to anyone inclined to rally +him, or whom he thought inclined to do so; but his method was +inoffensive, though from most men it would have appeared impertinent. +In the very earliest days of my occupation the weather was so dry for +the time of year--October and November--that fallowing operations, +generally only possible in summer, could be successfully carried on, a +very unusual circumstance on such wet and heavy land. Meeting the +Vicar, a genial soul with a pleasant word for everyone, the latter +remarked that it was "rare weather for the new farmers." Bell, highly +sensitive, fancied he scented a quizzing reference to himself and to +me, and knowing that the Vicar's own land--he was then farming the +glebe with a somewhat unskilful bailiff--was getting out of hand, +replied: "Yes, sir; and not so bad for some of the old uns." Bell +happened to pass one day when I was talking to the Vicar at my gate. +"Hullo! Bell," said he, "hard at work as usual; nothing like hard +work, is there?" "No, sir," said Bell; "I suppose that's why you chose +the one-day-a-week job!" + +Labourers have great contempt for the work of parsons, lawyers, and +indoor workers generally; a farmer who spends much time indoors over +correspondence and comes round his land late in the day is regarded as +an "afternoon" or "armchair" farmer, and a tradesman who runs a small +farm in addition to his other business is an "apron-string" farmer. +With some hours daily employed on letter-writing, accounts and labour +records, which a farm and the employment of many hands entails, and +with frequent calls from buyers and sellers, I was sometimes unable to +visit men working on distant fields until twelve o'clock or after, and +I was told that it had been said of me by some new hands, "why don't +'e come out and do some on it?" + +It was remarked of the late tenant, "I reckon there was a good parson +spoiled when 'e was made a farmer." And of a lawyer, who combined +legal practice with the hobby of a small farm, that there was no doubt +that "Lawyer G----s kept farmer G----s." + +Bell's favourite saying was, "If a job _has_ to be done you may as +well do it first as last," and it was so strongly impressed upon me by +his example that I think I have been under its influence, more or +less, all my life. He was certain to be to the fore in any emergency +when promptitude, courage, and resource were called for; he it was who +dashed into the pool below the mill and rescued a child, and when I +asked if he had no sense of the danger simply said that he never +thought about it. It was Bell who tackled a savage bull which, by a +mistaken order, was loose in the yard, and which, in the exuberance of +unwonted liberty, had smashed up two cow-cribs, and was beginning the +destruction of a pair of new barn doors, left open, and offering +temptation for further activity. The bull, secured under Bell's +leadership and manacled with a cart-rope, was induced to return to its +home in peace. When felling a tall poplar overhanging the mill-pond, +it was necessary to secure the tree with a rope fixed high up the +trunk and with a stout stake driven into the meadow, to prevent the +tree falling into the pond. Bell was the volunteer who climbed the +tree with one end of the rope tied round his body and fixed it in +position. He was always ready to undertake any specially difficult, +dirty, or hazardous duty, and in giving orders it was never "Go and do +it," but "Come on, let's do it." An example of this sort was not lost +upon the men; they could never say they were set to work that nobody +else would do, and their willing service acknowledged his tact. + +One day a widow tenant asked me to read the will at the funeral of an +old woman lying dead at the cottage next her own. I consented, and +reached the cottage at the appointed time. It was the custom among the +villagers, when there was a will, to read it before, not after, the +ceremony, as, I believe, is the usual course. I found the coffin in +the living-room and the funeral party assembled, and the will, on a +sheet of notepaper, signed and witnessed in legal form, was put into +my hands. Looking it through, I could see that there would be trouble, +as all the money and effects were left to one person to the exclusion +of the other members of the family, all of whom were present. It was +quite simply expressed, and, after reading it slowly, I inquired if +they all understood its provisions. "Oh yes," they understood it "well +enough." I could see that the tone of the reply suggested some kind of +reservation; I asked if I could do anything more for them. The reply +was, "No," with their grateful thanks for my attendance; so, not being +expected to accompany the funeral, I retired. I was no sooner gone +than the trouble I had anticipated began, and the disappointed +relatives expressed their disapproval of the terms of the will, some +going so far as to decline to remain for the ceremony. Bell was not +among the guests or the bearers, but, hearing raised voices at the +cottage and guessing the cause, he boldly went to the spot, and in a +few moments had, with the approval of the sole legatee, arranged an +equal division of the money and goods; whereupon the whole party +proceeded in procession to the church. I think no one else in the +village could so easily have persuaded the favoured individual to +forgo the legal claim; but Bell was no ordinary man, and his simple +sincerity of purpose was so apparent, that his influence was not to be +resisted. Later in the evening a plain, but very useful, old oak chest +was sent to me, when the division of the furniture was arranged, as an +acknowledgment of my services and in recognition of the saving of a +lawyer's attendance and fee, with the thanks of the persons concerned. +I was loath to accept it, but it was of course impossible to refuse +such a delicate attention. + +Bell's cheerfulness and his habit of making light of difficulties were +very contagious. I had early recognized the seriousness of the problem +presented by the foul condition of the land, but, as we gradually +began to reduce it to better order, I remarked that the prospect was +not so alarming after all. His reply was that when once the land was +clean, and in regular cropping, "a man might farm it with all the +playsure in life." + +Though no "scholard," his wonderful memory stood him in good stead, +and was most valuable to me. He came in for a talk every evening, to +report the events of the day and arrange the work for the morrow. +After a long day spent with one of the carters delivering such things +as faggots--locally "kids"--of wood, he would recall the names of the +recipients, and the exact quantities delivered at each house without +the slightest effort. His only memoranda for approximate land +measurements would be produced on a stick with a notch denoting each +score yards or paces. This primitive method is particularly +interesting, the numeral a _score_ being derived from the Anglo-Saxon +_sciran_, to divide. Similar words are plough _share, shire, shears_, +and _shard_. He could keep the daily labour record when I was away +from home; but though I could always decipher his writing, he found it +difficult to read himself. A letter was a sore trial, and he often +told me that he would sooner walk to "Broddy" (Broadway) and back, ten +or eleven miles, than write to the veterinary surgeon there, whose +services we sometimes required. + +We had a simple method of disposing of small pigs; it was an +understood thing that no pig was to be sold for less than a pound. I +had a good breed, always in demand by the cottagers, who never failed +to apply, sometimes, perhaps, before the pound size was quite reached, +as it was a case of first come first served, and there was the danger +that the best would be snapped up before an intending buyer could have +his choice. Bell's face was wreathed in smiles when he came in and +unloaded a pocketful of sovereigns on my study table, saying, when +trade was brisk, "I could sell myself if I was little pigs!" + +Many and anxious were the deliberations we held in the early days of +my farming; the whole system of the late tenant was condemned by my +theoretical and Bell's practical knowledge, but they did not +invariably coincide, and, after a long discussion on some particular +point, he would yield, though I could see that he was not convinced, +with, "Well, I allows you to know best." + +When, a few years later, I introduced hop-growing as a complete +novelty on the farm, he regarded it at first as an extravagant and +unprofitable hobby, akin to the hunters my predecessor kept. He +"reckoned," he said, that my hop-gardens were my "hunting horse," and +I heard that my neighbours quoted the old saw about "a fool and his +money." Bell was not so enlightened as to be quite proof against local +superstitions; I had to consult his almanac and find out when the +"moon southed," and when certain planets were in favourable +conjunction, before he would undertake some quite ordinary farm +operations. + +He was a clever and courageous bee-master, and "took" all my +neighbours' swarms as well as my own, my gardener not being _persona +grata_ to bees. The job is not a popular one, and he would, when +accompanied by the owner, always ask, "Will you hold the ladder or +hive 'em?" The invariable answer was, "Hold the ladder." He firmly +believed in the necessity of telling the bees in cases where the owner +had died, the superstition being that unless the hive was tapped after +dark, when all were at home, and a set form of announcement repeated, +the bees would desert their quarters. I had an alarming experience +once with bees when cycling between Ringwood and Burley in the New +Forest, my present home. As I passed a house close to the road, a +swarm crossed my path, rising from their hive just as I reached the +hedge before the garden. There was a mighty humming, and I felt the +bees, with which I was colliding, striking my hands and face with some +violence. I expected a sting each moment, but my greatest fear was +lest the queen should have settled on my coat amongst the bees it had +collected, and that presently I should have the whole swarm in +possession. It was dangerous to stop, so I raced on some distance, +dismounted, discarded my coat, shaking off my unwelcome +fellow-travellers, and I was much surprised to find that none of them +retaliated. + +Bell was an excellent brewer, and with good malt and some of our own +hops could produce a nice light bitter beer at a very moderate cost. +In years when cider was scarce we supplemented the men's short +allowance with beer, 4 bushels of malt to 100 gallons; and for years +he brewed a superior drink for the household, which, consumed in much +smaller quantities and requiring to be kept longer, was double the +strength. His methods were not scientific, and he scorned the use of a +"theometer," his rule being that the hot water was cool enough for the +addition of the malt when the steam was sufficiently gone off to allow +him "to see his face" on the surface. + +Owing to his having lived so long in such a quiet place, and the +limited outlook which his surroundings had so far afforded, Bell was +somewhat wanting in the sense of proportion, and when I had a field of +10 acres planted with potatoes, he told me quite seriously that he +doubted if the crop could ever be sold, as he didn't think there were +enough people in the country to eat them! I remember a parallel +incident at the first auction sale of stock ever held at Chipping +Campden, a lovely old town and, for centuries now long past, a leading +centre of the Cotswold wool trade. The pens, in the wide spaces +between the road and the footways, were, as I stood watching, rapidly +filling with fat sheep, and, I suppose, the scene being so novel and +so animated, the interest of the inhabitants was greatly excited, as +they stood in little groups at the house doors looking on. I heard an +ancient dame marvelling at the numbers of sheep collected--probably +only 1,000 or 1,200 all told--and expressing her certainty of the +impossibility of rinding mouths enough to consume such a mass of +mutton. As a matter of fact, there were, I suppose, four or five large +dealers present, any one of whom would have bought every sheep, could +he have seen a fair chance of a possible profit of threepence a head; +to say nothing of innumerable smaller dealers and retail butchers, +good for a score or two apiece. What I may call the parochial horizon +is well illustrated, too, by the announcement of a domestic economist: +"Farmer Jones lost two calves last week; I reckon we shall have beef a +lot dearer." And again by the recommendation of a shrewd and ancient +husbandman of my acquaintance that it was desirable for any young +farmer to get away from home and visit the county town sometimes, at +any rate on market days, and attend the "ordinary" dinner, even if it +cost him a few shillings--"for there," he added, "you med stick and +stick and stick at home until you knows nothin' at all." Shakespeare +puts the matter more tersely, if less forcibly, "Home-keeping youth +have ever homely wits." I cannot forbear, too, the temptation to +recall _Punch's_ picture at the time of King George's coronation. The +scene depicted two rustics gossiping at the parish pump, as to the +forthcoming village festivities, and the squire's carriage with the +squire and his family, followed by the luggage cart, on their way to +the railway station: + +_First Rustic_. Where be them folks a-goin' to; I wonder? + +_Second Rustic_. Off to Lunnon, I reckon, but they'll be back for the +Cor-o-nation. + +Soon after the reopening of the church I overtook Bell as we were +returning from Sunday morning service. It was a dark day, and the +pulpit, having been moved from the south to the north side of the +nave--farther from the windows--the clerk lighted the desk candles +before the Vicar began his sermon. I asked Bell how he liked the +service, referring to the new choir and music; he hesitated, not +wanting, as I was the Vicar's churchwarden, to appear critical, but +being too conscientious to disguise his feelings. I could see that he +was troubled, and asked what was the matter. Then it came out; it was +"them candles!" which he took to be part of the ritual, and he added, +"But you ain't a-goin' to make a Papist of me!" + +Bell was proof against attempted bribery, and often came chuckling to +me over his refusals of dishonest proposals. A man from whom I used to +buy large quantities of hop-poles required some withy "bonds" for +tying faggots; they are sold at a price per bundle of 100, and the +applicant suggested that 120 should be placed in each bundle. Bell was +to receive a recognition for his complicity in the fraud, and he +agreed on condition that in my next deal for hop-poles 100 should be +represented by 120 in like manner. The bargain did not materialize. + +I found Bell a very amusing companion in walks and excursions we took +to fairs and sales for the purchase of stock. He knew the histories +and peculiarities of all the farmers and country people whose land or +houses we passed, and his stories made the miles very short. I often +helped with driving sheep and cattle home, and their persistence in +taking all the wrong turnings or in doubling back was surprising; but +two drovers are much more efficient than one, and we got to know +exactly where they would need circumventing. When we visited a town I +always took him to an inn or restaurant and gave him a good dinner. +Visiting what was then a much-frequented dining-place--Mountford's, at +Worcester, near the cathedral--we sat next to a well-known hon. and +rev. scholar of eccentric habits. He would read abstractedly, +forgetting his food for several minutes, then suddenly would make a +noisy dash for knife and fork, resuming the meal with great energy for +a while, and as suddenly relinquish the implements and return to his +reading, and so on continuously. I noticed Bell watching with great +surprise, much shocked at such unusual table manners, and presently he +could not forbear very gently nudging my elbow to draw my attention to +the performance. + +Mountford's was celebrated for succulent veal cutlets with fried bacon +and tomato sauce, also for Severn salmon and lamperns; visitors to the +cathedral and china works generally refreshed themselves there, and it +was amusing to watch their exhausted and grim looks when entering and +waiting, in comparison with their beaming smiles when confessing their +indulgences on leaving; for no bills were rendered, and guests were +trusted to remember the details consumed. You will always find the +best eating-houses near the cathedrals; vergers' recitals are apt to +be long-winded, and visitors require speedy refreshment after a +complete round. + +It was a popular village belief that bad luck follows if a woman was +the first to enter a house on Christmas morning, and Bell always made +a point of being the first over my threshold, shouting loudly his +greetings up the staircase. + +Bell's wife survived him, living on in the same cottage in which he +was born and had passed his life. She was a hard-working woman, and +came over to my house once a week for some years to bake the bread, +made from my own wheat ground at the village mill. It was somewhat +dark in colour, owing to the most nutritious parts of the grain being +retained in the flour, but it was deliciously sweet and kept fresh for +the whole week. I only wish everyone could enjoy the same sort; the +modern bread is poor stuff by comparison, and its lack of nutritive +value is undoubtedly the cause of much of the poor physique of our +rural and urban population at the present time. + +I had a very human dog, Viper, partly fox-terrier; though not very +"well bred," his manners were unexceptionable and his cleverness +extraordinary. One summer afternoon Mrs. Bell was greatly surprised by +Viper coming to her house much distressed and trying to tell her the +reason; he was not to be put off or comforted, and, seizing her +skirts, he dragged her to the door and outside. She guessed at once +that her two boys were in some danger, and she followed the dog. He +kept turning round to make sure that she was close behind, and led her +down a lane, for perhaps 300 yards, to a gate leading into a 12-acre +pasture. They pursued the footpath across the field, through another +gate and over the bridge which spanned the brook, into a meadow +beyond. There she found the children in fear of their lives from the +antics of two mischievous colts which were capering round them with +many snorts and much upturning of heels. It was really only play, but +the boys were alarmed, and Viper, who had accompanied them, had +evidently concluded that they were in danger. + +Before the days of the safety bicycle an excellent tricycle, called +the "omnicycle," was put on the market; and the villagers were greatly +excited over one I purchased, of course only for road work, expecting +me to use it on my farming rounds; and Mrs. Bell was heard to say, "I +knows I shall laugh when I sees the master a-coming round the farm on +that thing." + +Bell always spoke of her as "my 'ooman," and, referring to the +depletion of their exchequer on her returns from marketing in Evesham, +often said, "I don't care who robs my 'ooman this side of the elm"--a +notable tree about halfway between the town and the village--knowing +that she would then have very little change left. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + + +THE HOP FOREMAN AND THE HOP DRIER. + + "Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, + + * * * * * + + How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke." + --GRAY'S _Elegy_. + + +Jarge was one of the most prominent characters among my men. He was +not a native of the Vale, coming from the Lynches, a hilly district to +the north of Evesham. He was a sturdy and very excellent workman. He +did with his might whatsoever his hand found to do, and everything he +undertook was a success. The beautifully trimmed hedge in front of his +cottage-garden proclaimed his method and love of order at a glance. +Jarge was a wag; he was the man who, like Shakespeare's clowns, +stepped on to the stage at the critical moment and saved a serious +situation with a quaint or epigrammatic expression. + +He was very scornful of the condition of the farm when I came, and it +was he, whose reply to the late tenant that his arable land would soon +be all grass, I have already quoted. In speaking to me, at almost our +first interview, he could not refrain from an allusion to the foulness +of the land; some peewits were circling over those neglected fields, +and it was far from reassuring to be told--though he did not intend to +discourage me--that "folks say, when you sees them things on the land, +the farm's broke!" + +From the natural history point of view he was perfectly correct, as +peewits generally frequent wild and uncultivated places where the +ploughman and the labourer are rarely seen. + +Owing to the somewhat unconvincing fact of his wife's brother being a +gamekeeper on the Marquis's estate near Jarge's native village, he had +acquired, and retained through all the years of my farming, a sporting +reputation; he was always the man selected for trapping any evil beast +or bird that might be worrying us; and when the cherries were +beginning to show ruddy complexions in the sunshine, and the starlings +and blackbirds were becoming troublesome, armed with an old +muzzle-loader of mine, he made incessant warfare against them, and his +gun could be heard as early as five o'clock in the morning, while the +shots would often come pattering down harmlessly on my greenhouse. +There came a time when some thieving carrion crows were robbing my +half-tame wild duck's nests of their eggs, and Jarge was, of course, +detailed to tackle them. Weeks elapsed without any result; the +depredations continued, and the men began to chaff him; finally Bell +"put the lid on," as people say nowadays, by the following sally: "Ah, +Jarge, if ever thee catches a craw 'twill be one as was hatched from +an addled egg!" + +For weeks before harvest Jarge patrolled my wheatfields, crowds of +sparrows rising and dispersing for a time after every shot, only, I +fear, to foregather again very soon on another field, perhaps half a +mile distant. No doubt he sent some to my neighbours in return for +those which they sent to me. + +Jarge was an instance of superior descent; his surname was that of an +ancient and prominent county family in former days; he carried himself +with dignity and was generally respected; he possessed the power of +very minute observation, and was of all others the man to find coins +or other small leavings of Roman and former occupiers of my land. His +eldest daughter was a charming girl, and, when Jarge became a widower, +she made a most efficient mistress of his household. She showed, too, +quite unmistakably her descent from distinguished ancestry. Tall, +clear-complexioned, graceful, dignified, and rather serious, but with +a sweet smile, she was a daughter of whom any man might have been +proud. To my thinking, she was the belle of the village, and she made +a very pretty picture in her sun-bonnet, among the green and golden +tracery of the hop-bine in the hopping season accompanied by the +smaller members of the family. At the "crib" into which the hops are +picked, many bushels proved their industry, and there were no leaves +or rubbish to call for rebuke at the midday and evening measurings. + +I selected Jarge for foreman of the hop-picking as a most responsible +and trustworthy man; it was then that his sense of humour was most +conspicuous, a very important and valuable trait when 300 women and +children, and the men who supplied them with hops on the poles, have +to be kept cheerful and good-tempered every day and all day for three +weeks or a month, sometimes under trying conditions. For though +hop-picking is a fascinating occupation when the sun shines and the +sky is blue, it is otherwise when the mornings are damp or the hops +dripping with dew, and when heavy thunder-rains have left the ground +wet and cold. + +He had a cheery word for all who were working steadily, and a +semi-sarcastic remark for the careless and unmethodical; a keen eye +for hops wasted and trodden into the ground, or for poles of +undersized hops, unwelcome to the pickers and hidden beneath those +from which the hops had been picked. He acted as buffer between +capital and labour, smoothing troubles over, telling me of the +pickers' difficulties, and explaining my side to the pickers when the +quality was poor and prices discouraging, so that the work went with a +swing and with happy faces and good-humoured chaff. + +I was always pleased to hear the pickers singing, for I knew then that +all was well. Sometimes, after a trying day, when Jarge had been +called upon to expostulate, or "to talk" more than usual, the corners +of his mouth would take a downward turn, and he complained, perhaps, +of gipsies or tramps whom I was obliged to employ when the crop was +heavy, though they were kept in a gang apart from the villagers; but +he always came up happy again next morning, the mouth corners tending +upwards, and his broad and beaming smile with a radiance like the +rising sun on a midsummer morning. + +Jarge was a man of discrimination. When we were forced to inaugurate a +School Board on account of the growing difficulty, owing to the bad +times, of collecting voluntary subscriptions, all the old school +managers, including my second Vicar--I served under three Vicars as +church-warden--refused to join the Board. Jarge, who was much +exercised in his mind as to the possibility of future bad management, +came to me, and referring to a proposal to place working-men on the +Board, said: "We wants men like you, sir, for members; what's the good +of sending we dunderyeads there?" + +Going round the farm on his daughter's wedding-day, I was surprised to +find him at work; and when I asked him why he was not at the ceremony, +"Well," he replied, "I don't think much of weddings--the fittel +(victuals) ain't good enough; give me a jolly good fu-ner-ral!" + +Jarge wore a brown velveteen coat on high-days and holidays by virtue +of his sporting reputation, and looked exceedingly smart with special +corduroy breeches and gaiters and a wide-awake felt hat. He was much +annoyed in Birmingham, whither I had sent all the men to an +agricultural show, at hearing a man say to a companion, "There's +another of them Country Johnnies." When I told him what a swell he +looked, he replied somewhat ruefully, "No! that's what I never could +be," as though he felt that his appearance was disappointingly rustic. + +Though a most industrious man, he had dreams of the enjoyment of +complete leisure; he told me that if ever he possessed as much as +fifty pounds he would never do another day's work as long as he lived. +I answered that when that ideal was reached he would postpone his +projected ease until he had made it a hundred, and so on ad infinitum; +and this proved a correct forecast, for in time, by the aid of a +well-managed allotment and regular wages, he saved a good bit of +money. When I sold my fruit crops by auction, on the trees, for the +buyers to pick, just before I gave up my land, as I should not be +present to harvest the late apples and cider fruit after Michaelmas, +he came forward with a bid of one hundred pounds for one of the +orchards, though it was sold eventually for a higher price. + +He was not well versed in finance, however, for when the owner of his +cottage offered, at his request, to build a new pigsty if he would pay +a rent of 5 per cent, annually on the cost--a very fair +proposal--Jarge declined with scorn, being, I think, under the +impression that the owner was demanding the complete sum of five +pounds annually, and I found it impossible to disabuse his mind of the +idea. He felt aggrieved also by the fact that, having paid rent for +twenty-five or thirty years, he was no nearer ownership of his cottage +than when he began. His argument was that, as he had paid more than +the value of the cottage, it should be his property; the details of +interest on capital and all rates and repairs paid by the owner did +not appeal to him. + +On the occasion of a concert at Malvern, which my wife and her sister +organized for the benefit of our church restoration fund, I gave all +my men a holiday, and sent them off by train at an early hour; they +were to climb the Worcestershire Beacon--the highest point of the +Malvern range--in the morning, and attend the concert in the +afternoon. It was a lovely day, and the programme was duly carried +out. Next morning I found Jarge and another man, who had been detailed +for the day's work to sow nitrate of soda on a distant wheat-field, +sitting peacefully under the hedge; they told me that the excitement +and the climb had completely tired them out, but that they would stop +and complete the job, no matter how late at night that might be. It +was the hill-climbing, I think, that had brought into play muscles not +generally used in our flat country. I sympathized, and left them +resting, but the work was honourably concluded before they left the +field. + +When there was illness in Jarge's house and somebody told him that the +doctor had been seen leaving, he answered that he "Would sooner see +the butcher there any day"--not, perhaps, a very happy expression in +the circumstances, but intended to convey that a butcher's bill, for +good meat supplied, was more satisfactory than a doctor's account, +which represented nothing in the way of commissariat. + +Among the annual trips to which I treated my men, I sent them for a +long summer day to London, and one of my pupils kindly volunteered to +act as conductor to the sights. They had a very successful day, and +the principal streets and shows were visited; among the latter the +Great Wheel, then very popular, was the one that seemed to interest +them most. + +Next morning some of the travellers were hoeing beans in one of my +fields; I interviewed them on my round, and inquired what they thought +of London. They had much enjoyed the day, and were greatly struck by +the fact that the barmaid, at the place where they had eaten the lunch +they took with them, had recognized them as "Oostershire men"; they +had demanded their beer in three or four quart jugs, which could be +handed round so that each man could take a pull in turn, instead of +the usual fashion of separate glasses, and it appeared that this +indicated the locality from whence they came. Probably she had noticed +their accent, and, being a native of Worcestershire, remembered their +intimate drinking custom as a county peculiarity. The men proceeded to +describe the sights of London, and one of them added that there was +one thing they could not find there, stopping suddenly in some +confusion. I pressed him to explain. He still hesitated, and, turning +to the others, said: "_You_ tell the master, Bill." Bill was not so +diffident. "Well," he said, "we couldn't see a good-looking 'ooman in +Lunnon; for Jarge here, 'e was judge over 'em for a bit, and then Tom +'e took it, nor 'e couldn't see one neither!" + +Jarge was somewhat of a _bon vivant_, and much appreciated my annual +present of a piece of Christmas beef. When thanking me and descanting +upon its tenderness and acceptability, on one occasion, he continued, +"It ain't like the sort of biff we folks has to put up with, that +tough you has to set in the middle of the room at dinner, for fear you +might daish your brains out agen the wall a-tuggin' at it with your +teeth!" + +Jarge had one song and only one that I ever heard, and he was always +called upon for it at harvest suppers and other jollifications; it was +not a classic, but he rendered it with characteristic drollery, and +always brought down the house. I conclude my sketch of him by +mentioning it because it is almost my last impression of his vivid +personality, trotted out with great energy at my farewell supper, a +day or two before I left Aldington. + +Among the men who were bequeathed to me, so to speak, by my +predecessor, Tom was one of whom I always had a high opinion. Tall, +vigorous, and well made, one recognized at once his possibilities as a +valuable man. He was somewhat cautious, taciturn, very sensitive and +reserved, but would open out in conversation when alone with me. As +quite a young man he had worked at the building of the branch line +from Oxford to Wolverhampton, via Worcester, the "O.W. and W.," or +"Old Wusser and Wusser," as it was called, until taken over by the +Great Western Railway. The latter, extending from London to Oxford, +was, I believe, one of Brunell's masterly conceptions, being without a +tunnel the whole way. But the new line had to pierce the Cotswolds +before reaching the Vale of Evesham, and Tom had many yarns about the +construction of the long Mickleton tunnel. Among them was a tradition +of the cost, so great that guineas laid edgeways throughout its length +would not pay for it. + +In my time there was a splendid service of express trains running from +London to Worcester without a stop, and coming downhill into the Vale, +through the tunnel and towards Evesham, the speed approximated to a +mile a minute. I was talking to one of my men, a hedger, working near +the line which bounded a portion of my land, when one of the express +trains came dashing along and passed us with a roar in a few seconds. +"My word," said he, "I reckon that's a co-rider." I was puzzled, but +presently it came to me that he meant "corridor"; he had probably seen +the word in the local paper without having heard it pronounced. + +It was a treat to watch Tom's magnificent physique when felling a big +tree, stripped to his shirt, with sleeves rolled up, and his gleaming +axe slowly raised and poised for a second above him before it fell +with the gathered impetus of its own weight and his powerful stress. +Biting time after time into the exact place aimed at, and at the most +effective angle possible, the clean chips would fly in all directions +until the necessary notch was cut and the basal outgrowths, close to +the ground around the sturdy column, were reduced, so that the +cross-cut saw could complete its downfall with a mighty crash. There +is always something sad about the felling of an ancient tree; one +feels it is a venerable creature that has passed long years of +unchallenged dominion on the spot occupied, and one can scarcely avoid +an idea of its intelligence and its silent record of passing +generations, who have welcomed its shade at blazing summer noontides, +or crept close to its warm touch for shelter from the winter's +chilling blast and the hissing hail. + +Tom was always the leader of my team of mowers when the grass was cut, +for, with the large staff I employed on purpose for the all-important +hop-gardens, I never wanted, till towards the end of my time, to make +use of a machine. The steady swing of his scythe, with scarcely an +apparent effort, the swish, as the swathe fell beneath its keen edge, +and the final lift of the severed grasses at the end of the stroke, +all in regular rhythmic action, were very fascinating to watch. At +intervals came a halt for "whetting" the blade, and the musical sound +of rubber (sharpening stone) against steel, equally adroitly +accomplished, proved the artist at his work, with a delicacy of touch +which, perhaps in different circumstances, might have produced the +thrills with which Pachmann's velvet caress or Paderewski's refined +expression enchant a vast and rapturous audience. + +As a land-drainer, too, I loved to watch him standing in the slippery +trench, with not an inch more soil moved than was necessary, lifting +out the decreasing "draws," and leaving a bottom nicely rounded +exactly to fit the pipes, and finally the methodical adjustment of +each pipe, with the concluding tap to bring it close to the last one +laid. Draining is an art which taxes the ability of the best of men, +for it must be remembered that, like the links of a chain, its +efficiency is no greater than that of its weakest part. + +When I had to arrange for the harvesting of my first hop crop, it was +necessary to find a man who could be entrusted with the critical work +of drying the hops, and Tom was the man I chose. I had my kiln ready, +constructed in an old malthouse, on the latest principles, and in time +for the first crop. The kiln consisted of a space about 20 feet +square, walled off at one end of the old building, but with entrances +on the ground and first floors. Beneath, in the lower compartment, was +the fireplace, a yard square, and 16 feet above was the floor on which +the hops were dried. Anthracite coal was used for fuel, the fire being +maintained day and night throughout the picking--the morning's picking +drying between 1 p.m. and 12 midnight, and the afternoon's picking +between 1 a.m. and 12 o'clock noon. Tom was therefore on duty for the +whole twenty-four hours, with what snatches of sleep he could catch in +the initial stage of each drying and at odd moments. + +The process requires great skill and attention; at first he and I, +with what little knowledge I had, puzzled it out together, he having +had no previous experience, and night after night I sat up with him +till the load came off the kiln at midnight. A slight excess of heat, +or an irregular application of it, will spoil the hops, the principle +being to raise the temperature, very gradually at first, to 30 or 40 +degrees higher at the finish. Hops should be _blown_ dry by a blast of +hot air, not baked by heat alone. The drier, of course, has to keep a +watchful eye on the thermometer on the upper floor among the hops--Tom +always called it the "theometer"--regulating his fire accordingly and +the admission of cold air through adjustable ventilators on the +outside walls. This regulation varies according to the weather, the +moisture of the air, and the condition of the hops, and calls for +critical judgment and accuracy. Often, tired out with the previous +ordinary day's work, we had much ado to keep awake at night, and it +was fatal to arrange a too comfortable position with the warmth of the +glowing fire and the soporific scent of the hops. Then Tom would +announce that it was "time to get them little props out," which, in +imagination, were to support our wearied eyelids. + +When we decided that the hops were ready to be cooled down, to prevent +breaking when being taken off the drying floor, all doors, windows, +and ventilators were thrown open and the fire banked up, and, while +they were cooling, he went to neighbouring cottages to rouse the men +who came nightly to unload and reload the kiln, and then I could +retire to bed. + +Tom was devoted to duty, and was so successful as a hop-drier that he +soon became capable of managing two more kilns in the same building, +which I enlarged as I gradually increased my acreage. In a good season +he would often have £100 worth of hops through his hands in the +twenty-four hours, sometimes more. He was the only man I ever employed +at this particular work, and throughout those years he turned out hops +to the value of nearly £30,000 without a single mishap or spoiled +kiln-load--a better proof of his devotion to duty than anything else I +could say. + +He was a very picturesque figure when, "crowned with the sickle and +the wheaten sheaf, Autumn comes jovial on," and he was cutting wheat, +his head covered with a coloured handkerchief, knotted at the corners, +to protect the back of his neck from the sun, which must have been +much cooler than the felt hat--a kind of "billycock" with a flat +top--which he habitually wore. I have noticed that the labourer's +style of hat is a matter of great conservatism, probably due to the +fancy that he would "look odd" in any other, and would be liable to +chaff from his fellow-workers. + +Tom had a tremendous reach, and got through a big day's work in the +harvest-field, but nearly always knocked himself up after two or three +days in the broiling sun, developing what he called, "Tantiddy's fire +" in one forearm; this is the local equivalent of St. Anthony's fire, +an ailment termed professionally erysipelas, but I have never heard +how it is connected with the saint. + +Harvesters often work in pairs, and they are then "butties" +(partners), but not infrequently a harvester will be accompanied by +his wife or daughter to tie up the sheaves; and their active figures +among the golden corn, backed by a horizon of blue sky, make a +charming picture. The mind goes back to the old Scripture references +to the time of harvest, and the idea impresses itself that one is +looking at almost exactly the same scene as it appeared to the old +writers, and which they described in all the dignity of their stately +language. + +Tom was not much given to the epigrammatic expression of his thoughts, +like some of the other men, but he had a vein of humour. A relative of +his used to come over from Evesham to sing in our church choir, and I +remember a special occasion when the choir was somewhat _piano_ until +this singer's part came in; he had a strong and not very melodious +voice, and the effort and the effect alike were startling. Tom was in +church at the time, and had evidently been watching expectantly for +the _fortissimo_ climax; he told me afterwards that "when S. opened +his mouth I knew it was sure to come." It did! + +I have mentioned Tom's cautiousness; he had a way of assenting to a +statement without committing himself to definite agreement. I once +asked him who the leaders had been in a disorderly incident, being +aware that he knew; I suggested the names, but the nearest approach to +assent which I could extract was, "If you spakes again you'll be +wrong." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + + +THE HEAD CARTER--THE CARPENTER. + + "There's a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and folks + most in general chooses the wrong un." + --TOM G. + +Jim was my first head carter, and he dearly loved a horse. He had, as +the saying is, forgotten more about horses than most men ever knew, +and what he didn't know wasn't worth knowing. + +He was a cheery man, and when I went to Aldington was about to be +married. Not being much of a "scholard," his first request was that I +would write out his name and that of his intended, for the publication +of the banns. A group of men was standing round at the time, and I +asked him how his somewhat unusual name was spelt. Seeing that he was +puzzled, I hazarded a guess myself, repeating the six letters in order +slowly. He was greatly surprised and pleased to recognize that my +attempt was correct, and, turning to the bystanders, remarked with the +utmost sincerity, "There ain't many as could have done that, mind +you!" I felt that my reputation for scholarship was established. + +Jim was a fisherman, and was no representative of "a worm at one end +and a fool at the other." I gave him leave to fish in my brooks; he +was wily, patient, and successful, and one day brought me a nice +salmon-trout, by no means common in these streams. In thanking him, I +made him a standing offer of a shilling a pound for any more he could +catch, but he never got another. Writing of fishing, I cannot forbear +quoting Thomson's lines on the subject, under "Spring," the most vivid +description of the sport I have ever read: + + "When with his lively ray the potent sun + Has pierced the streams, and roused the finny race, + Then, issuing cheerful, to thy sport repair; + Chief should the western breezes curling play, + And light o'er ether bear the shadowy clouds. + High to their fount, this day, amid the hills, + And woodlands warbling round, trace up the brooks; + The next, pursue their rocky-channel'd maze, + Down to the river, in whose ample wave + Their little naiads love to sport at large. + Just in the dubious point, where with the pool + Is mix'd the trembling stream, or where it boils + Around the stone, or from the hollow'd bank + Reverted plays in undulating flow, + There throw, nice-judging, the delusive fly; + And as you lead it round in artful curve, + With eye attentive mark the springing games + Straight as above the surface of the flood + They wanton rise, or urged by hunger leap, + Then fix, with gentle twitch, the barbed hook: + Some lightly tossing to the grassy bank, + And to the shelving shore slow-dragging some, + With various hand proportion'd to their force. + If yet too young, and easily deceived, + A worthless prey scarce bends your pliant rod, + Him, piteous of his youth and the short space + He has enjoy'd the vital light of heaven, + Soft disengage, and back into the stream + The speckled captive throw. But should you lure + From his dark haunt, beneath the tangled roots + Of pendant trees, the monarch of the brook, + Behoves you then to ply your finest art. + Long time he following cautious, scans the fly; + And oft attempts to seize it, but as oft + The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear. + At last, while haply yet the shaded sun + Passes a cloud, he desperate takes the death, + With sullen plunge. At once he darts along, + Deep-struck, and runs out all the lengthen'd line; + Then seeks the furthest ooze, the sheltering weed, + The cavern'd bank, his old secure abode; + And flies aloft, and flounces round the pool, + Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand, + That feels him still, yet to his furious course + Gives way, you, now retiring, following now + Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage: + Till floating broad upon his breathless side, + And to his fate abandon'd, to the shore + You gaily drag your unresisting prize." + +Horses were scarce and dear when I went to Aldington, and many French +animals were being imported. I got an old acquaintance in the South of +England to send me four or five; they were all greys, useful workers, +but wanting the spirit and stamina of the English horse; and they +would always wait for the Englishman to start a heavy standing load +before throwing their weight into the collar. Jim told me that they +were "desperate ongain" (very awkward), and, as foreigners, well they +might be, for I myself had some difficulty in understanding the local +words of command, more especially in ploughing, when, with a team of +four, he shouted his orders, addressing the new horses by names with +which they were quite unfamiliar. + +I admired Jim's loyalty to his late master, if not his veracity, at +the valuation of the stock, which I took over as it stood. Being aware +that there was a lame one or two among the horses, I warned my valuer +beforehand. We entered the stable, and my valuer, thinking to catch +Jim off his guard, asked casually which they were. Jim was quite ready +for him, and answered without a moment's hesitation, "Nerrun, sir" +(never a one). They were, however, easily detected when trotted out on +the road. + +Jim was a capital hand at "getting up" a horse for sale; an extra sack +or two of corn, constant grooming, and rest in the stable, with the +aid of some mysterious powders, which, I think, contained arsenic, +soon brought out the "dapples," which he called "crown-pieces," on +their coats, and in a couple of months' time one scarcely recognized +the somewhat angular beast upon which his labours had wrought a +miracle, and put a ten-pound note at least on the value. We had an +ancient and otherwise doubtful mare, "Bonny," ready for Pershore Fair, +and the previous day Jim wanted to know if I intended to be present. I +told him, "No! I should have to tell too many lies." "Oh!" said he, +"I'll do all that, sir!" He sold the mare to a big dealer for all she +was worth, I think, though not a large figure. Soon afterwards I had +to expostulate with him about some fault. He explained the +circumstances from his point of view, adding, "And that's the truth, +sir, and the truth _is_ the truth, and"--triumphantly--"that's what'll +carry a man through the world!" I could say no more, but could not +help remembering his willingness to testify to Sonny's doubtful merits +at Pershore Fair. + +Jim became a widower, but eventually married again; a good woman, who +made a capital wife. Shortly before the wedding, when he came to see +me on some business, my wife happened to be present; she was very +anxious to find out the date in order that we might attend. Jim was +shy, not wishing it to be generally known, and nothing could be got +out of him. On leaving, however, he repented and, looking back over +his shoulder, made the announcement, "Our job comes off next +Thursday," then closing the door quickly, he was gone. + +He got my permission to visit his mother and son, both ailing in +Birmingham, and on his return I made inquiries. The boy was better, +but about his mother he said, "I don't take so much notice of she, for +her be regular weared out"--not unkindly or undutifully intended, but +just a plain statement of fact, simply put; for she was a very old +woman, and could not in the course of nature be expected to live much +longer. + +That Jim had a tender heart I know, for when we lost a very favourite +horse, one which "you could not put at the wrong job," I found him +weeping and much distressed. Later he said, "When you lose a horse I +reckon it's a double loss, for you haven't got the horse or the +money." My mind being dominated by the unanswerable accuracy of the +latter part of the statement, I did not, for a moment, see that the +first part was fallacious, because, of course, one could not have both +at one and the same time. + +He was an excellent ploughman, and considerable skill is demanded to +manage the long wood plough, locally made, and still the best +implement of the sort on the adhesive land of the Vale of Evesham. It +has no wheels, like the ordinary iron plough has, to regulate the +depth and width of the furrow-slice, because in wet weather, if tried +on this almost stoneless land, the wheels become so clogged with mud +and refuse, such as stubble from the previous crop, that they will not +revolve, sliding helplessly involved along the ground. Even the +mould-board is wood, generally pear-tree, to which the mud does not +adhere, as happens with iron. As an old neighbour explained to me, +"You can cut the newest bread with a wooden knife, whereas the doughy +crumb of the bread would stick to a steel one." Pear-tree wood is used +because it wears "slick" (smooth), and does not splinter like wood +which is longer in the grain. + +With these long wood ploughs the ploughman himself regulates the depth +and width of the furrow-slice--_i.e.,_ each strip that is severed and +turned over--by holding the handles firmly in the correct position as +the plough travels along, for it cannot be left for a moment to its +own inclination. This entails strict attention and much muscular +effort, and, of course, the latter comes into play also in turning at +each end of the field. The result is very effective; the flat +mould-board offers the least possible resistance to the inversion of +the soil, whereas the iron plough, with a curling mould-board, presses +the crest of the furrow-slice into regularity of form, and gives a +more finished appearance at the expense of much extra friction and +labour for the horses. + +A carter-boy accompanies each team, as driver, to keep the horses up +to their work and turn them at the ends. A farmer I knew in Hampshire +would not, if possible, employ a boy unless he could whistle--of +course the ability and degree of excellence is a guide to character, +and indicates to some extent a harmonious disposition; he always said, +"Now whistle," when engaging a new boy. + +There are few more pleasant agricultural operations to watch and to +follow than a lusty team, a skilful ploughman, and a whistling boy at +work, on a glowing autumn day, when the stubble is covered with +gossamers gleaming with iridescent colours in the sunshine. The +upturned earth is fragrant, the fresh soil looks rich and full of +promise, there is the feeling that old mistakes and disappointments +are being buried out of sight, and the hope and anticipation of the +future. + +On a Lincolnshire farm where I was a pupil, an incident occurred +illustrating the anxiety of a carter for the welfare of his horses, in +combination with no small cunning. The owner, in the stable one Sunday +morning, noticed an open Bible in the manger; having doubts as to the +reliability of the carter, he regarded the Bible, so prominently +displayed, with some suspicion. Looking carefully all round he could +see nothing to find fault with, until he glanced upward at the floor +over the manger, where he discovered a protruding cork. He remembered +that a heap of oats was stored in the loft, from which the bailiff +gave out the rations for their teams to each man weekly. Getting the +key of the loft, he found that the cork was nicely adjusted to a hole +beneath the oats, so that the carter in question could exceed the +recognized ration whenever inclined. The fault was, of course, more +one of disobedience than of robbery, as the corn was consumed by his +master's horses, and the prominence of the Bible was perhaps the worst +feature, evidently a deceptive device to arrest suspicion, though it +proved to have exactly the opposite effect. + +Very few of my men suffered from rheumatism, but Jim was an exception. +I think he applied horse embrocation to himself; he would extol its +efficacy, and would tell how, when the pain attacked his shoulder, the +remedy "druv it" to his back; applied to the latter, "it druv it" to +his legs; and so on indefinitely. + +I kept about a dozen working horses besides colts; the latter are +broken at two years old, but only very lightly worked, and, when quiet +and handy, they are turned out again till a year older. Our method of +maintaining the full capacity of horse-power on the farm was to breed, +or buy at six months old, two colts, and sell off two of the oldest +horses every year. As two colts could be bought for forty or fifty +pounds at that age, and the two old horses sold for a hundred and +twenty pounds or thereabouts, a good balance was left on the +transaction, while the full strength of the teams was maintained. + +Jim had sufficient foresight to view with alarm the gradual dispersion +of most of the oldest and best farmers in the neighbourhood, and the +conversion to grass of the arable land, owing to the unfair and +dangerous competition of American wheat. When we discussed the subject +and foretold the straits to which the country would be reduced in the +event of war with a great European Power, he concluded these +forebodings with the habitual remark, "Well, what I says is, them as +lives longest will see the most." A truism, no doubt, but, as time has +proved, by no means an incorrect view. + +There was always plenty of employment for an estate carpenter on my +farms, as I had a vast number of buildings, including four separate +sets of barn, stable, sheds, and yard, away from the village, as well +as those near the Manor House, and many repairs were necessary. There +were, too, very many gates, repairs to fences, hurdle-making, and odd +jobs, to keep a man employed for months at a time. The building of +three hop-kilns, with the necessary storerooms for green and dried +hops, as the hop acreage increased, the preparation of hop-poles, and +the erection of wire-work on larger poles, which gradually superseded +the ordinary pole system, all demanded a great deal of regular work. + +I was most fortunate in obtaining the services of a man living in a +neighbouring village, not only as estate carpenter, but as a skilled +joiner, and possessing all the knowledge and efficiency of an +experienced builder. When I first met him, or very soon afterwards, +Tom G. was a teetotaller, and I have always had immense admiration for +the strength of will which enabled him to conquer completely the drink +habit, for he freely admitted that he was entirely mastered by it in +his younger days. He told me, and it proves what a kindly word will +sometimes do, that the Squire of his village, who also employed him +largely, said to him, after praising some of his work, "There's only +one thing the matter with you, Tom, and that's the drink." "I went +home," said Tom, "and I thought to myself, if the drink is all that's +wrong with me, what a fool I must be to continue it. Next day I went +to Evesham and signed the pledge, and I've never touched a drop since, +though the smell and the sight of a public-house have been so sore a +temptation that many a time after a long day's work, and with money in +my pocket, I've gone a mile or two out of my way in order not to pass +a place of the sort." + +His training as a carpenter had induced habits of great accuracy, +exact method, and lucid thought, and a chat with him, and watching his +quick and clever workmanship, was an educational opportunity. I have +always been fascinated by such work, and one of my earliest +recollections is of being taken by my father to interview a carpenter +about some small household job. His name was Snewin--I am not sure of +the spelling, for I was only about eight years old at the time--and we +found him in his workshop vigorously using a long plane on some red +deal boards, his feet buried in beautifully curled shavings, and the +whole place redolent of the delicious scent of turpentine. Every time +his plane travelled along the edge, to my childish fancy, the board +said in plaintive tones of remonstrance, _in crescendo_, his name, +"Snewin, _Snewin_," and again, "SNEWIN," and even now the scent and +action of planing a deal board always brings back the scene clearly to +my mind. + +I suppose, therefore, it was partly old associations that induced the +fascination of watching Tom G. at his work, but there were other +reasons. With his axe, the edge beautifully ground and sharpened to a +razor-like finish, he could trim a piece of wood, or shape it, so +neatly that it presented almost the appearance of having been planed; +his saw, with no apparent effort, raced from end to end of a board or +across the grain of a piece of "quartering," and his chisels and plane +irons were ground to the correct concave bevel that relieves the +parting of a chip or shaving, and gives what he called "sweetness" to +the cutting action. He was a strong Conservative, good at an argument, +and had many heated discussions with some of my men whose tendencies +leaned to the opposite side; but his sound logic and common sense were +observable in all his ideas, and I think he generally came off best as +a shrewd and clear-headed debater, for from his employment in various +places his horizon was wider than that of the ordinary farm labourers. + +Tom G. had considerable knowledge of the Bible, which he sometimes +employed in conversation; alluding to the work that was nearly always +waiting for him at Aldington, he told a friend of mine that there was +"earn (corn) in Egypt"; and when he had a written contract with me for +a special piece of work, and wished to suggest that as time went on we +might think of some improvement, and that there was no necessity to +adhere to the original specifications, he announced that "we bean't +Mades, nor we bean't Piersians" (we're not Medes, nor are we +Persians). + +No necessary measurement was ever guessed at, his "rule" was always +handy in a special pocket, but in cases where a rough guess was +sufficient he would hazard it by what he called "scowl of brow" +(intently regarding it). The agricultural labourer is inclined, both +with weights and measures, to be inaccurate, "reckoning it's near +enough." I found soon after I came to Aldington that the weighing +machine which had been in use throughout the whole of my predecessor's +time, and had weighed up hundreds of pounds of wool at 2s. and 2s. 6d. +a pound, cheese at 8d., and thousands of sacks of wheat, barley, and +beans, was about a pound in each hundredweight _against the seller_, +so that he must have lost a considerable sum in giving overweight. + +Tom G. was scornful about weather signs, and summed up his doubts in +such matters with sarcasm: "I reckon that the indications for rain are +very similar to the indications for fine weather!" But the best +epigram I ever heard from him was, "There's a right way and a wrong +way to do everything, and folks most in general chooses the wrong un!" +I should like to see those words of wisdom on the title-page of every +school book, and blazoned up in letters of gold on the wall of every +classroom in every school in the kingdom. + +I have referred to the hop-kilns I built. Throughout the work of +erecting them, and it was no small one, Tom G. was the leading spirit; +it gave scope for his abilities, I think, on a larger scale than any +building he had previously undertaken. We began with a kiln sufficient +for the first 6 acres planted; it was necessary, with the gradual +extinction of British corn-growing, to find something to supersede it, +and to compensate for the falling off in farm receipts. I had seen +something of hops as a pupil on a large farm near Alton, Hampshire, +where they occupied an area of over a hundred acres, but at that time +I had no intention of growing them myself, and had not been infected +with the glamour, formerly attaching to hops beyond any other crop, +that came to me later. + +I visited the old Alton farm, and obtained all particulars of the +latest kind of hop-kiln in the neighbourhood from the inventor, and +instructed him to prepare plans and specifications for the conversion +of an old malthouse close to the Manor. I contracted with Tom G. for +all the carpenter's work, and with an excellent stonemason or +bricklayer for that belonging to his department. They both entered +with enthusiasm upon the job, and we had many interesting discussions +as to improvement, as it proceeded. Tom G. was a man of great +resource, and could always find a way out of every difficulty; he told +me, before we began, that he could see the completed building as if +actually finished, just as a great sculptor once said how easy it was +to produce a statue from a block of marble, for all he had to do was +to cut away the superfluous material! + +The alterations entailed a new roof from end to end of the old +building, and a new floor for the upper part, the length being about +70 and the width about 20 feet. The old roof was covered mostly with +stone-slates--flakes of limestone from the Cotswolds--very uneven in +size and rough as to surface, and in part with ordinary blue slates. +The latter lie much more closely on the laths, the stone slates +allowing the passage of more air between them, and it was interesting +to find that while the ancient laths under the stone slates were +fairly well preserved, those beneath the blue slates were much +decayed, evidently from the fact of the damp in an unheated building +remaining longer where the air was excluded, though one would have +expected the close-lying blue slates to be the better protection of +the two. + +Much expense was saved by Tom G.'s economical use of materials; +wherever the old oak beams could be used again they were incorporated +with the new work. He never cut sound old or new pieces of timber to +waste; almost every scrap came in somewhere, for he worked with his +head as well as his hands. + +The difference in this respect is very noticeable in different men; an +old plumber once told me that he had been employed upon a pump on a +neighbouring farm, where the slot in which the handle works was so +worn on one side that the bolt which carries the handle had given way, +owing to the man, who had used it for years, not keeping it running +truly in the centre. He called the man's attention to the cause of the +damage, and, being a sententious old fellow, asked him why he didn't +think what he was doing. The answer was, "I'm not paid to think." + +The hop-kiln was a great success, and later, with the same workmen, I +added two more, as my hopyards extended, on exactly the same lines. +They would probably have been annually in use in the picking season up +to the present time had it not been that the low prices ruling +latterly have rendered a crop which requires so much labour, +knowledge, and supervision, not worth growing. + +I hear, however, with much satisfaction, that these old hop-kilns and +storerooms have been of great service during the war for drying +medicinal herbs, chiefly belladonna and henbane, and that in 1917 the +turnover exceeded £6,000. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + +AN OLD FASHIONED SHEPHERD--OLD TRICKER--A GARDENER--MY SECOND HEAD +CARTER--A LABOURER. + + "Along the cool sequester'd vale of life + They kept the noiseless tenor of their way." + --GRAY'S _Elegy_. + +I had experiences of various shepherds, and the man I remember best +was John C. Short, sturdy, strong, and willing, he was somewhat +prejudiced and old-fashioned, with many traditions and inherited +convictions as to remedies and the treatment of sheep. John had a +knowing expression; his nose projected and his forehead and chin +retreated, so that his profile was angular. He wore the old-fashioned +long smock-frock--not the modern short linen jacket which goes by the +name of smock, but a garment that reached to his knees, with a +beautifully worked front over the chest. It is a pity that these old +smock-frocks are no longer in vogue: I never see one now; they were +most picturesque, and afforded great protection from the rough weather +which a shepherd has constantly to face. His hat was of soft felt, +placed well towards the back of his head, and, behind it, he wore a +wealth of curls overlapping the collar of his smock. John was very +proud of his curls; he told a group of men, who were sheep-dipping +with him, that the parasites of the sheep, which are formidable in +appearance, never troubled him until they reached his head. "Into them +curls, I suppose, John?" said a flippant bystander. John was pleased +that his most attractive feature should receive even this recognition. + +Altogether he presented a notable figure, and one quite typical of his +profession, especially when armed with his staff of office, his crook. +He was inclined to superstitious beliefs, and told me when I noticed +the matted condition of the manes of some colts domiciled in a distant +set of buildings that he reckoned "Old P. G."--an ancient dame in a +neighbouring cottage with a reputation for witchcraft--"had been +a-ridin' of 'em on moonlight nights." This matted appearance of colts' +manes, which is only the natural result of their not being groomed or +combed when young and unbroken, was known in many country places as +"hag-ridden." Such superstitions are now nearly, if not quite, +extinct, but still linger in old place-names, for it was usual in +former times to attribute any uncommon or surprising physical +appearance to supernatural agency. Thus we have such names as "Devil's +Dyke," "Devil's Punchbowl," "Puck Pits," "Pokes-down" (Puck's Down), +and many others. + +The fairy rings, too, which puzzled our ancestors, are explicable by a +natural process. The starting-point is a fungus, _Marasmius oreades_, +which in due course sheds its spores in a tiny circle around it; the +decay of the fungus supplies nitrogen to the grass, and renders it +dark green in colour. The circle expands, always outwards, more and +more fungi appearing every year; it does not return inwards because +the mineral constituents of the soil are exhausted by the growth of +the fungus and of the grass, under the stimulus of the abundant +nitrogen left by the former, so that the dark ring of grass extends +its diameter year by year. + +In the _Tempest_ Shakespeare refers to the fairies: + + "... That + By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, + Whereof the ewe not bites." + + +John carried a magic bottle of caustic liniment for application to the +feet of sheep affected with the complaint called "foot-rot." The cause +of this troublesome disease is excessive development of the walls of +the hoof, owing to the animals grazing exclusively on wet pasture, the +surface of which is too soft to keep them worn down; the walls +gradually double over and collect wet mud, which causes inflammation. +It never occurred on my arable land, either among ewes or younger +sheep, but whenever I bought sheep from the flint stones of Hampshire +and grazed them on soft pasture, it soon made its appearance. The +remedy is timely and constant paring of the hoof before any tendency +to lameness is observed, and when this is properly attended to no +caustic application is necessary. Lame sheep indicate an inefficient +shepherd, and the disorder has been well called "Shepherd's Neglect." + +An eminent breeder of prize Hampshire Down sheep told me that, when +contemplating the exhibition of sheep, the first necessity is to get a +"prize shepherd," a man with a presence, and a reputation which he +would not risk in the show-ring without something worth exhibiting. I +started a flock of pedigree Shropshires, but my land was too good and +grew them too big and coarse for showing, and I soon found that it was +useless to try, though I succeeded in taking a prize at the +Warwickshire county show. It so happened that when my shepherd (not +John) returned in great triumph from the show, he found his first-born +son, who had arrived in his absence, awaiting him. "Well done, +shupperd," said a neighbour, "got him a son and a prize the same day!" + +John was jealous of any interference in his remedial measures for +ailing sheep, but my wife, who doctored the village generally, was +anxious to try her hand, having little faith in his skill; so we +arranged that the next time he had what he considered a hopeless case +it was to be given over to her exclusively. The opportunity soon +occurred; a ewe was found caught by the fleece in some rough briars in +an old hedge, where it had been some hours in great distress, and, +with much struggling to free itself, it was quite exhausted. Pneumonia +supervened, and when John thought it impossible to save its life he +handed the case over to my wife. She succeeded, chiefly, I think, by +careful nursing, in pulling it through, much to John's surprise; +doubtless he thought its recovery a lucky fluke. John was given to +occasional alcoholic lapses; on one occasion I found him aimlessly +driving sheep across a field of growing mangolds! I could see that he +was muddled, and on reaching home later I sought an interview. He was +not to be found, but at his cottage his wife told me that John was not +very well. I postponed my reckoning till the following day, when, with +great readiness, he explained how it happened. "The day before," he +said, "I frained my fittle (refrained from my victuals) all day, and +when I got up yesterday I didn't feel justly righteous (quite right) +ov my inside; so I gets a bit of 'bacca, just about as much as _you_ +med put in your pipe (this, apparently, to incriminate me), and I +putts it at the bottom of a tay-cup, with a drop ov rum; then I fills +it up with hot tay and drinks it off, and very soon I felt it a coming +over (overcoming) mer (me)." + +Sheep-breeding was not one of the most important branches of farming +in my part of Worcestershire: the land is too stiff and wet, they +thrive much better on the Cotswolds or the chalk downs of Hampshire. +At one time I visited the latter county every summer, attending the +big fairs like Overton or Alresford, for the purpose of buying 100 +draft ("full-mouthed") ewes from one of the best flocks. It was very +interesting in the early morning, reaching Overton by rail from +Basingstoke, where I had passed the night at the Red Lion with £300 in +bank-notes under my pillow, to see the gipsies in the village asleep +on the ground under their vans, the girls sometimes awake, combing +their hair, and beautifying themselves in readiness for the pleasure +fair where they were to appear in charge of the shooting-galleries and +competitions. A short walk, with only time for a passing glance at the +speckled trout near the bridge over the Itchen, which I never omitted, +took me to the sheep-pens on the hill-top where the fair is held. One +could see the flocks, with their shepherds always _in front_ and the +dogs behind, winding along the narrow lanes, which, from all +directions, lead to the hill, in a cloud of chalky dust, flock after +flock with only a few dividing yards between them. It is advisable to +reach the fairground thus early, to see the sheep before they are +penned; they can be much better inspected in the open than when packed +close together, and a more reliable opinion of their condition can be +formed. From the aesthetic point of view the grand old shepherds +interested me most, dignified, patriarchal men, with a reserve of +strength of character evident in their rugged features, and the +patience and hardihood that takes little heed of exposure to every +variety of weather. + +The sheep were sold by auction, and when I had bought a pen of 100, +generally from Lord Ashburton's flock, paid the auctioneer's clerk as +soon as possible and received a ticket permitting the release of the +sheep, as the roads in all directions are soon crowded, I induced the +shepherd to help in driving them to the railway-station. He was always +a dear old fellow, and full of interesting information. On reaching +the station we packed the sheep into three open trucks, so close that +they could not jump out, and despatched them to Worcestershire, +whither they would arrive about noon the following day. We never had a +mishap with them on the journey, but they were terribly thirsty on +reaching Aldington, and made straight for water immediately. + +Old Tricker came to Worcestershire originally with a farmer who +migrated from Suffolk, which proves him to have been a valuable man. +But he was worn out even when he first came to work for me, though as +willing and industrious as ever. My bailiff often praised him--for his +work was excellent, if somewhat slow on account of his age--and used +to tell him that "All as be the matter with you, Tricker, is that you +was born too soon," which was only too true, for he must have been the +oldest man on the farm by at least twenty years. He was a steady +worker, and was often so absorbed in his job, such as hoeing, that, +being, moreover, somewhat deaf, he was not aware of my approach until +I was quite close. On such occasions, with a violent start, he always +said: "My word, how you did frighten I, to be sure! Shows I don't look +about me much, however, don't it?" + +He was fond of fairs, wakes, and "mops"--no doubt they were +reminiscent of old days, for he lived in the past--and he would often +beg a day off for such outings; he was a subject for the chaff of the +other men for his gaiety when these jaunts took place. They pretended +that, as a widower for many years, it was time for him to think of +another courtship. On a festive occasion, when we were giving a dinner +to all the men and their wives, great amusement was caused by +crackers, which the guests, I think, had never seen before, containing +paper caps and imitation jewellery; and it was a merry scene when all +around the tables were decorated in the most incongruous fashion. Old +Tricker happened to become possessed of a plain gilt wedding-ring, and +of course chaff was levelled at him from all sides: "Ah, Tricker; sly +dog, sly dog!" and so on. He was greatly pleased, accepting +good-naturedly the part of pantaloon of the piece; and I am sure, from +his beaming smiles, he felt, for a time at least, dozens of years +younger. + +Years before, when still able to do a good day's work, he walked to +Ipswich to revisit his old home, a distance of about 160 miles, which +he accomplished in four days, and returned in the same time. He had +been specially struck by the building of a new post-office there--this +must have been at least thirty years before the time of which I am +writing. One of my brothers who lived near Ipswich was visiting me, +and I introduced him to the old man, knowing that they would have +common interests. No sooner did Tricker hear that my brother had just +come from Ipswich than he inquired anxiously if the new post-office +was finished. "Oh yes, and pulled down some years ago, and a new one +built!" Tricker was astonished; the years had evidently slipped by him +unnoticed, and no record of dates remained in his memory. + +Tricker often got a little mixed in the names of novelties or in +unusual words. I chanced to pass him one day along the road, on my +omnicycle, and next time I saw him he referred to it, adding: "I +didn't know as you'd got a phlorsopher (velocipede and philosopher)"! +Some of my land had been occupied by the Romans in very distant days, +and coins and pottery were frequently found. Tricker, having heard of +the Romans, also of Roman Catholics, jumbled them together, and +"reckoned" that the former inhabitants of these fields were "some of +those old Romans or Cartholics." + +This mixture of words, generally bearing some relation to each other, +was not infrequently carried still further by making one word of two. +With some of the villagers "conservatory" stood for conservative and +tory, and "containment" for concert and entertainment. A messenger who +was asked to bring _Daniel Deronda_ from the Evesham library returned +with the announcement that "Dannel Deronomy" was not available; this +appeared to be a confusion between the books of Daniel and +Deuteronomy. A cook (not a Worcestershire person) was asked if the +papers had come. "Yes; the _Standard_ has arrived, but not the Condy's +fluid _(Connoisseur)_ "! The regatta at Evesham was always "the +regretta." An old sexton working in a churchyard, from whom I inquired +if there was a bridge over the river, replied: "Only a temperance +bridge (temporary bridge)." + +Tricker, as a very typical representative of the agricultural labourer +in old age, was engaged as model for a figure in a picture by Mr. +Chevalier Taylor, then staying in Badsey. He sat in this capacity when +work was not very pressing, and day by day used to repair to the +artist's lodgings with his tools on his shoulder. His remuneration was +half a crown a day--ordinary day wages for an able-bodied man--but he +told me that the inaction was very trying, and that a day as model was +much more exacting than a day's work on the farm. + +When the old man could no longer complete even a short day's work, and +suffered from the cold in winter, he decided to go to the workhouse +for a time, but he was out again before the cuckoo was singing, and we +found him light jobs "by the piece," so that he could work for as long +or as short a time as suited him. He was most grateful for any +assistance, and told me that "A little help is worth a deal of +sympathy." Eventually he became a permanent inmate of the workhouse, +much to my grief; but it is, of course, impossible to run a farm on +which heavy poor-rate has to be paid, as a philanthropic institution. +The difficulty with aged and infirm persons is not so much food and +maintenance as the necessity for nursing and supervision, which are +expensive and difficult to arrange. Tricker told me that he could live +on sixpence a day, and if it had been a question of food only, and our +village could have cut itself adrift from the Union and the rates it +entailed, we could easily have more than kept the poor old man to the +end of his days in comfort. For years he was the only parishioner +receiving any help from the immense sum the parish annually paid in +rates. I have heard it said that out of every shilling of the +ratepayer's contributions the poor people only get twopence or its +equivalent, the officials and administration expenses absorbing the +remaining tenpence. + +My first gardener had been employed at the Manor, when I came, for +very many years, and at the end of ten more he was obliged to resign +through old age. He had planted the poplars round the mill-pond in his +earliest days, and, among other trees, the beautiful weeping wych-elm +on the lawn behind the house. The weeping effect he produced by +beheading the tree when quite small and grafting it with a slip of the +weeping variety, and the junction was still plainly visible. It was a +symmetrical and, especially when in bloom, a lovely tree, but as the +blossoms died and scattered themselves all over the grass, they +worried the methodical old man, and every spring he wished it had +never been planted. It had flourished amazingly, and we could +comfortably find sitting room at tea for sixty or seventy people at a +garden-party in its shade. + +He was an excellent gardener, but did not care about novelties in +flowers, though at one time he made a hobby of raising new kinds of +potatoes. His greatest success was the original Ashleaf variety, the +stock of which he sold to Mr. Myatt for a guinea, and which was +afterwards introduced to the public as "Myatt's Early Ashleaf." It was +one of the best potatoes ever grown, very early, and splendid in +quality, and it was unfortunate that he parted with it so cheaply, +though, of course, the purchaser of the first few tubers had no idea +of its immense potential value, and possibly, like so many novelties, +it might have proved a failure. It is still in cultivation, though its +constitution is impaired, like that of all potatoes of long standing. +Later on I shall have more to say about this unfortunate tendency to +deterioration. + +J.E. was one of my most reliable men, working for me, first as +under-carter and afterwards as head carter, for, I think, altogether +twenty-six years; he was well educated and a great reader, quiet and +somewhat reserved, and though his humour did not lie on the surface, +he could appreciate a joke. My recollections of him, after his +steadiness and reliability, are chiefly of his personal mishaps, for +he was an unlucky man in this particular. + +I was on my round one morning when I met a breathless carter-boy +making for the village. Asked where he was off to, "Please, sir," he +replied, "I be to fetch Master E. another pair of trowsers!" +"Trousers," said I; "what on earth for?" "Please, sir, the bull ha' +ripped 'em!" I hurried on, and soon saw that it was no laughing +matter, for I found poor E. in a terrible plight of rags and tatters, +sitting in a cart-shed in some outlying buildings, on a roller. The +cowman was standing by holding a Jersey bull. The story was soon told. +The cowman, having to go into the yard, had asked E. to hold the bull +a minute. Unfortunately, the animal had only a halter on him, the +cowman having omitted to bring the stick, with hook and swivel, to +attach to the bull's nose-ring. No sooner was the cowman out of sight +than the bull began to fret, and, turning upon E., knocked him down +between a mangoldbury and the outside wall of the yard. In this +position he was unable to get a direct attack upon the man, but he +managed to gore him badly and tear his clothes to pieces. The cowman, +hearing E. calling, came back and rescued him, the bull becoming quite +docile with his regular attendant. Poor E. was black and blue when he +got home in the pony-cart, and was laid up for many weeks afterwards. +He undoubtedly had a very narrow escape. It is curious that, though +the Jersey cows are the most docile of any kind, the bulls are the +most uncertain and, when annoyed, savage; I had trouble with two or +three, and one became so dangerous that he had to be killed in his +stall. + +E.'s bad luck overtook him again when returning from Evesham with, +fortunately, an empty waggon and team; one of the horses was startled, +and E. ran forwards to catch the reins. By some means he fell, and the +waggon-wheels passed over him; had it been full, as it was on the +outward journey, with a heavy load of beans, it would have been a +serious matter, but nevertheless he suffered a great deal for some +time afterwards. + +J.E. must have walked many hundreds of miles among my hops with the +horses drawing "the mistifier," a syringing machine which pumped a +mist-like spray of soft soap and quassia solution upon the under-side +of the hop-leaves, when attacked by the aphis blight; and he must have +destroyed many millions of aphides, for the blight was an annual +occurrence at Aldington, and taxed our energies to the utmost at one +of the busiest times of year. + +Mrs. J.E. was, and is, one of those kind persons always ready to do a +good turn to a neighbour. She and her husband brought up a large +family, all of whom have done well, and a son in the Grenadier Guards +especially distinguished himself in the war. She has a remarkable +memory for dates of birthdays, weddings, and such-like events, and +often writes us one of her interesting letters, full of information of +the old village. + +I had many experiences of the honesty of the agricultural labourer, +but one especially remains in my mind. I.P., a man living some two +miles from Aldington, regularly walked the four miles there and back +for many years, in addition to his day's work. He was an excellent +drainer, and a most useful all-round man, exceedingly strong and +willing, bright and cheerful in conversation, and I had a very high +opinion of him. I had just reached the end of a long pay when he +reappeared--having taken his wages earlier in the proceedings--and +asked if I had made a mistake in his money; a sovereign was missing, +and he could not remember actually taking it from the table with the +rest of the cash. I at once balanced my payments and receipts for the +evening, but they corresponded exactly. It was a serious matter, as a +half-year's rent was due to the owner of his cottage that day, and +I.P. was one of those men who take a pride in paying up with +punctuality. I could see, as he realized that the sovereign was lost, +how disappointed and worried he felt, and being glad of an opportunity +to do him a good turn, I gave him another, and sent him away very +grateful. Later still he returned again, placed a sovereign on my +table, and said that he had nearly reached home when he felt something +hard against his knee, inside his corduroys, where he found the +missing coin; there was a hole in his pocket, but the encircling +string which labourers tie below the knee had prevented its escape. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + +CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND VILLAGERS. + + "My crown is in my heart, not on my head: + Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones," + --_3 Henry VI_. + +The agricultural labourer, and the countryman generally, does not +recognize any form of property beyond land, houses, buildings, farm +stock, and visible chattels. A groom whom I questioned concerning a +new-comer, a wealthy man, in the neighbourhood, summed him up thus: +"Oh, not much account--only one hoss and a brougham!" A railway may +run through the parish, worth millions of invested capital, but the +labourer does not recognize it as such, and a farmer, employing a few +men and with two or three thousand pounds in farm stock, is a bigger +man in his eyes than a rich man whose capital is invisible. + +The labourer in the days of which I am writing was inclined to be +suspicious of savings banks and deposit accounts at a banker's; his +savings represented a vast amount of hard work and self-denial; and he +looked askance at security other than an old stocking or a teapot. He +had heard of banks breaking, and felt uncomfortable about them. A +story was current in my neighbourhood of a Warwickshire bank in +difficulties, where a run was in progress. A van appeared, from which +many heavy sacks were carried into the bank, in the presence of the +crowd waiting outside to draw out their money. Some of the sacks were +seen to be open, and apparently full of sovereigns; confidence was +restored, and the run ceased. Later, when all danger was over, it +transpired that these supposed resources were fictitious, for the open +sacks contained only corn with a thin layer of gold on the top. + +Formerly it was said of a certain street in Evesham, chiefly inhabited +by market-gardeners and their labourers, that the houses contained +more gold than both the banks in the town, and I have no doubt that, +even at the present day, there is an immense amount of hoarded money +in country places. Only a short while ago, long after the commencement +of the Great War, the sale of a small property took place in my +neighbourhood, when the purchaser paid down in gold a sum of £600, the +bulk of which had earned no interest during the years of collection. +No doubt people, as a rule, in these days of war bonds and +certificates, have a better idea of investment, but probably a vast +sum in possible loans has been lost to the Government through want of +previous information on the subject. It should have been a simple +matter, during the last fifty years of compulsory education, to teach +the rudiments of finance in the elementary schools, and I commend the +matter as worth the consideration of educational enthusiasts. + +The labourer's attitude, as I have said, is suspicious towards +lawyers. I was chatting with a man, specially taken on for harvest, +who expressed doubts of them; he continued, "If anybody were to leave +me a matter of fifty pounds or so, I'd freely give it 'em," meaning +that by the time all charges were paid he would not expect more than a +trifle, because he supposed stamps and duties to be a part of the +lawyer's remuneration, and that very little would be left when all was +paid. + +I was once discussing farming matters with a labourer when prospects +were looking very black, and ended by saying that I expected soon to +be in the workhouse. "Ah, sir," said he, "I wish I were no nearer the +workhouse nor you be!" It should not be forgotten that the +agricultural labourer's financial horizon does not extend much beyond +the next pay night, and were it not for the generosity of his +neighbours--for the poor are exceedingly good to each other in times +of stress--a few weeks' illness or unemployment, especially where the +children are too young to earn anything, may find him at the end of +his resources. + +Almost the first time I went to Evesham, in passing Chipping Norton +Junction--now Kingham--three or four men on the platform, in charge of +the police, attracted my attention. I was told that they were rioters, +guilty of a breach of the peace in connection with the National +Agricultural Labourers' Union, then under the leadership of Joseph +Arch. Being so close to my new neighbourhood, where I was just +beginning farming, the incident was somewhat of a shock. Arch +undoubtedly was the chief instrument in raising the agricultural +labourer's wages to the extent of two or three shillings a week, and +the increase was justified, as every necessity was dear at the time, +owing to the great activity of trade towards the end of the sixties. +The farmers resisted the rise only because, already in the early +seventies, the flood of American competition in corn-growing was +reducing values of our own produce; and as all manufactured goods +which the farmer required had largely increased in price, he did not +see his way to incur a higher labour bill. + +Arch sent a messenger to me a few years later, to ask permission to +hold a meeting in Aldington in one of my meadows. I saw at once that +opposition would only stimulate antagonism, and consented. The meeting +was held, but only a few labourers attended, and no farmers, and +agitation, so far as we were concerned, died down. One or two of my +men were, I think, members of the Union, but having already obtained +the increased wages there was nothing more to be gained for themselves +by so continuing, and they soon dropped out of the list. Eventually +the organization collapsed. Arch was a labourer himself, and +exceedingly clever at "laying" hedges, or "pleaching," as it is still +called, and was called by Shakespeare in _Much Ado About Nothing_: + + "Bid her steal into the pleached bower, + Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun, + Forbid the sun to enter." + +Pleaching is a method of reducing and renovating an overgrown hedge by +which all old and exhausted wood is cut out, leaving live vertical +stakes at intervals, and winding the young stuff in and out of them in +basket-making fashion, after notching it at the base to allow of +bending it down without breakage. Arch was a native of Warwickshire, +the home of this art; it takes a skilled man to ensure a good result, +but when well done an excellent hedge is produced after two or three +years' growth. The quickset or whitethorn (May) makes the strongest +and most impervious hedge, and it flourishes amazingly on the stiff +clay soils of the Lias formation in that county and its neighbour +Worcestershire. + +I have often wondered at, and admired, the labourer's resignation and +fortitude in adversity; a discontented or surly face is rarely seen +among them; they have, like most people, to live lives of +self-sacrifice, frugality, and industry, which doubtless bring their +own compensation, for the exercise and habit of these very virtues +tend to the cheerfulness and courage which never give up. Possibly, +too, the open-air life, the vitalizing sunshine, the sound sleep, and +the regularity of the routine, endows them with an enviable power of +enjoyment of what some would consider trifles. After a long day out of +doors in the natural beauty of the country, who shall say that the +labourer's appetite for his evening meal, his pipe of tobacco beside +his bright fireside, and his detachment from the outside world, do not +afford him as great or greater enjoyment than the elaborate luxury of +the millionaire, with his innumerable distractions and +responsibilities? + +The labourer has, as I have said, little appreciation of the invisible +or what does not appeal strongly to his senses; he cannot understand, +for instance, that a small bag of chemical fertilizer, in the form of +a grey, inoffensive powder, can contain as great a potentiality for +the nutrition of crops as a cartload of evil-smelling material from +the farmyard; nor is he aware that, in the case of the latter, he has +to load and unload 90 pounds or thereabouts of worthless water in +every 100 pounds with which he deals. Possibly, however, his +preference for the natural fertilizer is not wholly misplaced, for +there is, no doubt, much still to be learned concerning the relative +values of natural and artificial compounds with special reference to +the bacterial inoculation of the soil and its influence on vegetable +life. + +He is not without some aesthetic feeling for the glories of Nature +daily before him, and though like Peter Bell, of whom we are told that + + "A primrose by a river's brim + A yellow primrose was to him, + And it was nothing more," + +and putting aside the metaphysical analogy and the moral teaching +which are presented by every tree and plant, he enjoys, I know, the +simple beauty of the flower itself, the exhilarating freshness of the +bright spring morning, the prodigality of the summer foliage, the ripe +autumnal glow of the harvest-field, and the sparkling frost of a +winter's day. But he very rarely expresses his enthusiasm in +superlatives: "a usefulish lot," and "a smartish few," meaning in +Worcestershire "a very good lot," and "a great many," is about the +limit to which he will commit himself. His natural reticence in +serious situations and calamity, and his reserve in the outlet of +feeling by vocal expression, give a wrong impression of its real +depth, and may even convey the impression of callousness to anyone not +conversant with the working of his mind. + +To a nephew of mine who was surprised to see his gardener's little son +leaving the garden, the man explained: "That little fellow be come to +tell I a middlinish bit of news; 'e come to say as his little sister +be dead." Notice the "middlinish bit of news," where a much stronger +expression would have been justified, and note the restraint as to his +loss, suggesting an unfeeling mind, though in reality very far from +the grief he was shy of expressing. + +An old woman in a parish adjoining mine, having lost a child, received +the condolences of a visitor with, "Yes, mum; we seems to be regular +unlucky, for only a few weeks ago we lost a pig." + +A lady well known to me, the daughter of the Vicar of a Cumberland +parish, was calling on a woman whose husband had died a few days +previously, and expressing her sympathy with the widow in her +affliction, spoke of the sadness of the circumstances. The widow +thanked her visitor, and added: "You know, miss, we was to have killed +a pig that week, but there, we couldn't 'ave 'em both about at the +same time"! + +All these incidents suggest callousness, but in reality they were +plain statements of fact from persons with a limited vocabulary and +unskilled in the niceties of polished language. + +Another incident will illustrate how faulty expression may give an +unintended impression. A lady, calling at a cottage, exclaimed with +appreciation at the fragrant odour of frying bacon which greeted her. +The cottager was busy with it at the fire. "Yes, miss," she said, "it +_is_ nice to 'ave a bit of bacon as you've waited on yourself"--of +course, referring to the fact that she knew the animal was always fed +on really good food, an important and reassuring condition, though a +tender heart might have regretted the sacrifice of an intimate +creature which some would have regarded almost as a pet. + +The cottager does not look upon his pig in that light; it is fed well +and comfortably housed with a definite object, and very little love is +lost between the pig and his master. Children in some places in +Worcestershire were formerly kept at home in order to be present on +the great occasion of the pig's obsequies. A woman, asked why her +children were absent from school, replied: "Well, sir, you see, we +killed our pig that day, and I kept the children at home for a treat; +there's no harm in that, sir, I'm sure, for pigs allus dies without +malice!" + +Villagers accept the novel significations which time or fashion +gradually confer upon old words very unreadily. I could see, at first, +that they were puzzled by my use of the word "awful," now long adopted +generally to strengthen a statement, very much as they themselves make +use of "terrible," "desp'rate," or "de-adly." They connect the word +"friend" with the signification "benefactor" only; a man, speaking of +someone born with a little inherited fortune, said that "his friends +lived before him." I told an old labourer that my little daughter +considered him a great friend of hers. He looked puzzled, and replied: +"Well, I don't know as I ever gave her anything." They still +distinguish between two words now carrying the same meaning. I told a +man that I was afraid some work he had for me would give him a lot of +trouble. He corrected me: "'Twill be no _trouble_, master, only +_labour_." + +The labourer does not appreciate a sudden order or an unreasonable +change in work once commenced; he does not like being taken by +surprise in such matters: the necessary tool--for farm labourers find +their own hand implements--may not be readily available, may be out of +order, require grinding, or a visit to the blacksmith's for repair or +readjustment. The wise master introduces the subject, whenever +possible, gradually beforehand. "We shall have to think about +wheat-hoeing, mowing, potato-digging, next week," prepares the man for +the occasion, so that when the time comes he has his hoe, axe, scythe, +or bill-hook, as the case may be, ready. The job, too, may demand some +special clothing--hedging gloves, gaiters, new shoes, and so forth. + +He is often suspicious of new arrangements or alteration of hours, and +is inclined to attribute an ulterior motive to the proposer of any +change in the unwritten but long-accustomed laws which govern his +habits; he lives in a groove into which by degrees abuses may have +crept, and some alteration may have become imperative. + +When we introduced a coal club for the villagers, with the idea of +buying several trucks at lowest cash price, collecting their +contributions week by week during the previous summer, when good wages +were being earned, and delivering the coal gratis in my carts shortly +before winter, they seemed very doubtful as to the advantage of +joining. Some saw the advantage at once, knowing the high prices of +single half-tons or hundredweights delivered in coal-merchants' carts; +others would "let us know in a day or two," wanted time to consider +the matter, being taken "unawares"; others, assured that nobody would +undertake such a troublesome business without an eye to personal +profit, but anxious not to offend my daughter, who was visiting each +cottage, replied: "Oh yes, miss, if 'tis to do _you_ any good"! +Eventually, however, they were all satisfied and very grateful, +appreciating the fact that the cartage was not charged for, and that +they were getting much better coal than before at a lower price. + +Village people, I am afraid, are rather fond of horrors; the newspaper +accounts of events which come under that description, such as murders, +suicides, and sensational trials, afford, apparently, much interest. A +man was working for me on some repairs close to my door; as he was a +stranger, I tried, as usual, to induce him to talk whenever I passed. +I had no success and could not get a word out of him, until, one +morning, I chanced to see a sensational headline in a local paper +about a suicide in a neighbouring town. On passing my workman, he +immediately broke out in great excitement, "Did you read in the paper +about that bloke who went to his father's house at W----, sat down on +the doorstep, and cut his throat?" The account had evidently seized +upon his imagination, and had thoroughly roused him out of himself, +but the following day he was as silent as before. + +Births, marriages, and deaths are interesting topics in the village, +and perhaps with reason, for, after all, they are the most important +events in our lives, and in the villages most of the cottagers are +more or less related. All the inhabitants were much excited when a +poor old widow, living very near my house, sitting on a low circular +stone parapet round her well, lost her balance in some way, fell in, +and was drowned. I was foreman of the jury at the inquest, and after +hearing the evidence, which amounted to no more than the finding of +the body soon after the event, the coroner expressed his opinion that +it was a case of accidental death, with which I at once concurred. +With some reluctance, the other jurymen agreed; they had, I imagine, +as usual, made up their minds for a more sensational verdict, but +scarcely liked to suggest it, and a verdict of accidental death was +accordingly returned. Afterwards I heard that the villagers were +saying that it was very kind of me to bring in such an indulgent +verdict, but they "knowed very well it was suicide." + +I was invited to the wedding feast of my bailiff's daughter, and +being, I suppose, regarded as the principal guest, was, according to +custom, requested to carve the excellent leg of mutton which formed +the _pièce de résistance_. The parish clerk, considerably over eighty +at the time, was one of the most sprightly members of the company; he +kept us interested with historical recollections going back to the +Battle of Waterloo, and spoke of Wellington and Napoleon almost as +familiarly as we now speak of Earl Haig and the Kaiser. He had a +strong sense of humour, and, after a very hearty meal, announced that +he didn't know how it was, but he'd "sort of lost his appetite," +pretending to regard the fact as an injury, premeditated by the +hospitality of our host and hostess. + +The labourer dearly loves a grievance, not exactly for its own sake, +but because it affords an interesting topic of conversation. One +autumn, returning from a holiday in the Isle of Wight, I found the +whole village agog with the first County Council election. A +magistrate candidate, in the neighbouring village of Broadway, was to +be opposed by an Aldington man. I found a local committee holding +excited partisan meetings on behalf of the latter, active canvassing +going on, a villager appointed as secretary (always called +"seckert_ar_y" in these parts), and the election the sole topic of +conversation. The village people, always delighted in the possession +of a common enemy and a common cause, were making the election a +village affair, as opposed to the village of the other candidate; +popular feeling was running very high, Badsey, of course, joining up +with Aldington as strong allies. Some young men had lately been before +the magistrates at Evesham, and fined for obstructing the footpath, +and the magistrate candidate was selected as the scapegoat for the +affront to our united villages. At the election the Aldington man was +returned, and his supporters started with him on a triumphal progress +through the constituency. Of course, they visited Broadway, to crow +over the conquered village, but the wind was somewhat taken out of +their sails when the defeated candidate at once came forward, shook +hands with his opponent, and congratulated him upon his success! The +return journey was not so hilarious; one of the men of Broadway, +noticing a string of carts in the procession, conveying sympathizers +with the victor, in addition to the owners of the vehicles--thus +rendering the latter liable to the carriage duty of 15s. each--and +strongly resenting the spirit which brought the victorious party to +Broadway, sent a telegram to the Superintendent of Police at Evesham, +who met the returning procession and took down their names, with the +ultimate result of a substantial haul in fines for the excise! + +During the Boer War the common foe was, of course, "Old Kruger" (with +a soft _g_), and we hoisted the Union Jack in front of the Manor +whenever our side scored a substantial success. The news of Lord +Roberts's victory at Paardeburg reached Badsey in the morning, after +the papers, and, returning by road from my farm round, I heard great +rejoicings and cheering from the direction of the village. Meeting a +boy, I learned that "Old Cronje" was defeated and a prisoner, with +"'leven thousand men!"--a report which proved to be correct with the +trifling discount of 9,000 of the latter! The same spirit of union for +a common cause was almost as evident at that time as in the far more +strenuous struggle of 1914-1918, and so long as England to herself +remains but true, doubtless our enemies will fulfil the part assigned +to them by the greatest of English poets. + +A love of the marvellous is a common characteristic of country village +folks, and I have already referred to such beliefs in the supernatural +among my men. We had our own "white lady" on the highroad where it +turns off to Aldington, though I never met anyone who had seen her; +there were, too, signs and wonders before approaching deaths, and a +thrilling story of a headless calf in the neighbourhood. + +An old house at Badsey, once a _hospitium_ or sanatorium for sick +monks from Evesham Abbey in pre-Reformation days, was reported to be +haunted, and people told tales of "the old fellows rattling about +again" of a night. Probably these beliefs had been encouraged in +former times by the monks themselves, to prevent the villagers prying +too closely into their occupations; and no doubt the scattered +individuals of the same body originated the popular theory that the +Abbey lands of which they were dispossessed would never, owing to a +curse, pass by inheritance in the direct line from father to eldest +son--an event that in the course of nature often fails, though by no +means invariably. + +In recent years a startling story has been told, and even appeared in +a local paper, of a ghostly adventure near the Aldington turning. A +young lady (not a native), riding her bicycle to Evesham from Badsey, +passed, machine and all, right through an apparition which suddenly +crossed her path, without any resulting fall. + +In connection with the monk's _hospitium_ I lately made an interesting +discovery as to the origin of a curious name of one of my fields, +which had always puzzled me. The field adjoined the _hospitium_, and +was always known as "the Signhurst." Field-names are a very +interesting study, they usually bear some significance to a +peculiarity in the field itself, or its position with reference to its +surroundings, and it has always been a hobby of mine to trace their +derivations. The word "Signhurst" presented no clue to its origin +except the Anglo-Saxon "burst," signifying a wood, but there was no +appearance or tradition of any wood having ever occupied the spot, and +the land was so good, and so well situated as to aspect, that it was +unlikely to have been such a site, even in Anglo-Saxon days. I +stumbled upon a passage in May's _History of Evesham_ which mentioned +the "Seyne House," meaning "Sane House," the equivalent of the modern +word "sanatorium," and I saw at once the origin of the corrupted word +"Signhurst"--the field near the Seyne House. + +Wages are, of course, the crowning reward of the working-man's week; +throughout the whole of my time 15s. a week was the recognized pay for +six full summer days--"a very little to receive, but a good deal to +pay away," as a neighbour once said. During harvest, and at piecework, +more money was earned, and it always pleased me that I could pay much +better prices for piece-work among the hops than for piece-work at +wheat-hoeing or on similar unremunerative crops. The reason is +obvious: the hoeing of an acre of wheat, a crop which might possibly +return a matter of £10 per acre, takes no more manual effort than the +hoeing of an acre of hops, where a gross return of £70 or £80 per acre +is not unusual, and is sometimes considerably exceeded. + +As wages must eventually always depend upon prices of produce raised +by the labour for which such wages are expended, when the agricultural +labourer buys his bread he is only buying back his own labour in a +concrete form plus the other relative expenses on the farm, and the +cost of milling, baking, and distribution, so that when he gets a high +price for his labour he must expect to pay a high price for his food; +and when the price of food is reduced the price of his labour also +falls. Here, again, the rudiments of economics, taught in the schools, +would conduce to his understanding the position, and the eradication +of discontent. + +It is impossible, economically speaking, to defend the system of equal +wages to the most capable and industrious men on the one hand and to +inefficient slackers on the other; and as a graduated scale of +payment, according to results, is not practicable without arousing +ill-feeling and jealousy, the farmer's only remedy is to get rid of +the slackers. Inefficiency and slacking are often due to a man's +enfeebled mental and physical condition, owing to neglect in his +bringing up as a child, or to insufficient or unwholesome food +provided by an improvident wife in his home. + +I was fortunate in meeting with very few of these degenerates, but I +remember one tall, delicate-looking man who seemed unable to apply +either his strength or his attention to his work. He was denounced by +the foreman under whom he worked as not only useless, but "the +starvenest wretch as ever I see," intended to convey the impression, +and confirming my own conclusion, that cold and hunger were really the +cause of his inability to render a fair day's work. + +I remember, too, when some elderly women, with a younger one, were +hay-making, one of the old ladies, dragging the big "heel-rake" behind +the waggon in course of loading--always rather a tough job--tried to +induce the younger woman to take her place with, "Here, Sally, thee +take a turn at it; thee be a better 'ooman nor I be." My bailiff, +overhearing, at once interposed: "Be she a better 'ooman than thee, +Betsy, ov a Saturday night [pay-night]?" + +Hard-and-fast laws and fixed prices for agricultural labour will be +found very difficult to maintain as to piecework; no wage board can +fix just prices, because conditions are so variable. Of two men +cutting corn on separate plots in the same field, the one at 12s. an +acre may really earn more money _per diem_ than another man at 15s. an +acre on the other side of the field, owing to the difference in the +weight of the crop or its condition, it being, perhaps, erect in the +first case, and laid by heavy storms in the second. + +There is, too, a vast difference in the value of boys' work and +usefulness; one may easily be worth double another, yet no difference +is allowable by the new law; or one may demoralize another, so that +two are less effective than one. A good old saying puts the matter +very plainly: "One boy's a boy, two boys are half a boy, and three +boys are no boy at all!" + +It is, in fact, ridiculous for townspeople, lawyers, and manufacturers +to legislate for the labour of the farm; they do not understand that +indoor labour in the workshop or factory, under regular conditions and +with unvarying materials, is totally different from labour out of +doors, in constantly changing conditions of season, weather, and the +resulting crops dealt with. An old maxim of the Worcestershire +labourer who, without a fixed place, took on piece-work at specially +busy times, will confirm this: "Go to a good farmer for wheat-hoeing, +and to a bad one for harvesting." I may explain that the fields of the +good farmer are clean and nearly free from weeds, so that hoeing is a +comparatively light job; but the same, or nearly the same, price per +acre is paid by the bad farmer, whose corn is overrun with weeds, +entailing much more time and harder work. On the other hand, the good +farmer's wheat crop is much heavier than that of the bad, and, the +prices for cutting being again very similar, more money _per diem_ can +be earned at harvest on the farm of the latter. + +It is a sound old Worcestershire saying that "the time to hoe is when +there are no weeds"--apparently a paradox, but the meaning is simple: +when no weeds are to be seen above ground there are always millions of +tiny seedlings just below the surface ready to increase and multiply +wonderfully with a shower of rain; if attacked at the seedling stage, +these can be slaughtered in battalions, with far greater ease and +efficacy than when they become deep-rooted and established, and +dominate the crop. + +I have heard of farmers to whom pay-night was a sore trial; one such +was frequently known to mount his horse and gallop away just before +his men appeared: how he settled eventually I do not know. Some +farmers will pay out of doors on their rounds, having a rooted +objection to business of any kind under a roof; and one small farmer, +I was told, always passed the cash to his men behind his back so that +he might not have the agony of parting actually before his eyes. + +A labourer is supposed to come to work in his master's time and go +home in his own, thus sharing the necessary loss, and, as a rule, they +are fairly punctual; but one defaulter in this particular will waste +many moments of a whole gang working together, as it seems to be +etiquette not to begin till they are all present. I have often heard, +too, sarcastic comparisons made between the day-man and "the +any-time-of-day man." + +The cottagers have their feuds, and the use of joint wash-houses or +baking-ovens between two or more adjoining cottages is a frequent +source. I have had excited wives of tenants coming to me at +unseasonable hours to settle these differences, and I found it a very +difficult business to reconcile the disputants. I could only visit the +_locus in quo_ and arrange fixed and separate days and regulations; +but though the wisdom of Solomon may administer justice in a dispute, +it is impossible to ensure a really peaceful solution that will +endure. + +Sometimes feuds, originating in such or similar causes, were +maintained for years by neighbours living with only a 9-inch party +wall between them, and daily meetings outside, to the extent of not +even "passing the time of day." At last, however, in a day of distress +to one, the heart of the unafflicted other would melt, and after an +offer of help, or actual assistance, kind relations would be once more +established. Or a peace offering, in the shape of a dish of good +pig-meat, sent over with a kind message, would restore more genial +conditions, and they would return to happy and neighbourly +familiarity. + +I once employed an old Dorset labourer, a tall, slim, aristocratic +figure, with an elegant, refined nose to match; he bore the well-known +name of an ancient and distinguished Dorset family, and I have no +doubt was well descended. He was decidedly a canny, not to say crafty, +man. I gave him a holiday at Whitsuntide to visit his old home, but he +overran the time agreed upon and returned some days late. Before I +could begin the rebuke I proposed to administer, he produced a +charming photograph of a ruined abbey near his old locality, and +handed it to me as a present. "I thought upon you, master, while I was +away, and knowing as you was fond of ancient things I've brought you +this picture." I was completely disarmed, and the rebuke had to be +postponed _sine die_. + +As I was talking one day to my bailiff--one of the men who lived a +mile away standing near--he said: "Tom, here, is always the first man +to arrive in the morning; I have never known him to be late." I +congratulated Tom, and asked what time he went to bed: "Oh, about +seven o'clock!" He was, in fact, a lonely old bachelor, and, being "no +scholard," it saved lights and firing to be early to bed. + +This man, like many villagers, had very vague ideas of geography. To +save the trouble of cooking, he lived largely on American tinned beef, +and got chaffed about it by his fellow-workers. "How be you getting on +with the 'Merican biff?" Tom was asked. "Oh," said he, "never no more +'Merican biff for me." "How's that, Tom?" "Why, the other day I found +a trouser-button in it!" The point of this story lies in the fact that +the Russo-Turkish war was proceeding at the time. _Tempora mutantur_, +we were then encouraging Turkey against Russia, though the latter had +declared war to avenge the atrocities in Bulgaria of which the Turks +were guilty, while in the recent struggle the position was almost +exactly reversed. + +There was then a violent militant feeling here in Britain, and excited +crowds were singing: + +"We don't want to fight but, by Jingo, if we do, We've got the ships, +we've got the men, We've got the money too." + +Hence the expression "Jingoism," which we often hear to-day, though, +perhaps, the origin is now almost forgotten. + +It is not unusual to see villagers, as married couples, complete +contrasts to each other in appearance and character--one fat and +jolly, the other thin and miserable; one happy and contented, the +other grumbling and morose; one open-hearted and generous, the other +close and parsimonious. In matrimony people are said to choose their +opposites, and possibly, as time goes on, the difference in their +appearance and dispositions becomes still more definitely developed. + +The labourer understands sarcasm and makes use of it himself, but +irony is often lost upon him. Passing an old man on a pouring wet day, +I greeted him, adding, "Nice morning, isn't it?" He stared, hesitated, +and then, "Well, it would be if it wasn't for the rain!" I only +remember one surly man--not one of my workers or tenants. He was +scraping a very muddy road, and I remarked, for something to say, +"Makes it look better, doesn't it?" All I got in reply was, "I +shouldn't do it if it didn't!" + +It is important, in managing a mixed lot of farm labourers, to find +out each man's special gift, making him the responsible person when +the time or opportunity arrives for its application. There are men, +excellent with horses, who have no love of steam-driven machinery, and +_vice versa_; and there are men who are capable at small details, yet +unable to take comprehensive views. + +Responsibility is the life-blood of efficiency, and men can always be +found upon whom responsibility will act like a charm, producing +quickened perception, interest, foresight, economy, resource, +industry, and all the characteristics that responsibility demands. Put +the square peg in the square hole, the round peg in the round hole; +show the man you have confidence in him, teach him to act on his own +initiative in all the lesser matters that concern his job, coming only +to the master in those larger considerations to which the latter are +subordinate, and my experience is that your confidence will not be +betrayed, and that he will save you an immense amount of tiresome +detail. + +The most difficult man to deal with is the over-confident "know-all"; +he is always ready to oppose experience--often dearly bought--with his +superior knowledge, he can suggest a quicker or a cheaper way of doing +everything, and in his last place he "never saw" your system followed. +He is the penny-wise and pound-foolish individual, and his methods are +"near enough." It has been said that at twenty a man knows everything, +at forty he is not quite so sure, and at sixty he is certain that he +knows nothing at all; but there are exceptions even to this rule, who +continue all their lives thinking more and more of their own opinions, +and completely satisfied with their own methods. On the other hand, +the master will always find, among the more experienced, men from whom +much is to be learnt; they are generally diffident and not too ready +to hazard an opinion, but when consulted they can give very valuable +help. I willingly acknowledge my indebtedness to my old hands, their +well-founded convictions that were the fruit of long years of +practical experience, and their readiness to impart them in times of +doubt and difficulty. + +Just as bad-tempered grooms make nervous, bad-tempered horses; rough +and noisy cattle-men, fidgety cows; ill-trained dogs and savage +shepherds, sheep wild and difficult to approach; so does the +bad-tempered, impatient, or slovenly master make men with the same bad +qualities, when a smile or a kind word will bring out all that is good +in a man and produce the best results in his work. + +I began my farming with four dear old women, working on the land, when +wanted for light jobs; the youngest must have been fifty at least. +They received the time-honoured wage of tenpence a day, and worked, or +talked, about eight hours. They loved to work near the main road, +discussing the natural history of the occupants of passing carts or +carriages. They knew something comic, tragic, or compromising about +everybody, and expressed themselves with epigrammatic force. A farmer +occupant of a neighbouring farm in long-past days, was a favourite +subject of such recollections. After relating how "he were a random +duke," and recalling his habits, one old lady would conclude the +recital with an account of his last days, adding, as if everything was +thereby finally condoned: + + "But there, 'e was just as nice a carpse as ever I see, and + I was a'most minded to put his paddle [thistle-spud] beside + him in his coffin, for he was always a-diggin' and a-delvin' + about with it." + +One member of this quartet, when ill, had a dish of minced mutton sent +her in the hopes of tempting her appetite. She eyed the gift with +disfavour, and announced with scorn that "she preferred to chew her +meat herself!" + +In due course these old ladies retired from active service and younger +women took their places; women were especially necessary in the +hop-yards for the important operation of tying the selected bines to +the poles with rushes and pulling out those which were superfluous. It +was difficult, at first, to accustom them to the fact that the hop +always twines the way of the sun, whilst the kidney bean takes the +opposite course. And there was a problem which greatly exercised their +minds: How were they to reach the hops at the tops of the poles--14 +feet from the ground--when the time came? It did not occur to them +that it was possible to cut the bine and pull up the pole. They soon +became very quick and expert at the tying, and their well-worn +wedding-rings, telling of a busy life, would flash brightly in the +sunshine as they tenderly coaxed the brittle bines round the base of +the poles, securing them with the rush tied in a special slip-knot, so +that it easily expanded as the bine enlarged. + +Women are splendid at all kinds of light farm work whenever deftness +and gentle touch are required, such as hop-tying and picking, or +gathering small fruit like currants, raspberries, and strawberries; +but I do not consider them in the least capable of taking the place of +men in outdoor work which demands muscular strength and endurance and +the ability to withstand severe heat or bitter cold or wet ground +under foot, through all the varying seasons. Village women have, too, +their home duties to attend to, and it is most important that their +men-folk should be suitably fed and their houses kept clean and +attractive. + +On the farm of my son-in-law, in Warwickshire, I have seen something +of the work of land girls, to the number of seventy or more, for whom +he provided a well-organized camp with a competent lady Captain; and I +know how useful they proved in the emergency caused by the War, but I +still adhere to my former conclusion as to the more strenuous forms of +farm labour, without in the least detracting from my admiration for +the courage and patriotism that brought them forward. + +I know one woman, however, who quite successfully undertakes very +strenuous garden work, including digging, having been inured to it at +a very early age. If she could be spared from her own work to take the +position of instructress for young girls determined to make the land +their chief employment, they would be saved a vast amount of +unnecessary fatigue and labour by learning the art of using spades, +forks, hoes, and rakes in the way that experience teaches, relying +more upon the weight and designed capabilities of the tool to do the +work than upon their own untrained muscles. + +We could always get a supply of excellent maids for house-work from +among the village families; they began very young, coming in for a few +hours daily to help the regular staff, and, as these left or got +married, they were ready trained to take their places. These girls +were quite free from the self-importance of the present-day domestic, +but I remember one nice village girl about whom we inquired as a +likely maid who, it then appeared, was engaged to marry a thriving +small tradesman. The girl's mother, being over-elated at her +daughter's apparently brilliant prospects of independence, rejected +the proposal with some hauteur, adding that her daughter "would soon +be keeping her own maid." I fear, however, that she was disappointed, +as the course of true love did not run smooth. + +We preferred a married man as shepherd, because, when I had only a few +cows, he combined his duties with those of cowman; and, bringing in +the milk and doing the churning, he was much about the back premises. +On one occasion, however, I engaged a young bachelor, partly because +he replied, with a knowing smile, to a question as to whether he was +married, that he dared say he could be if he liked--which I +optimistically took to amount to an announcement of his engagement. + +Time went on and he remained a single man, but it was observable that +he lingered on his milky way, and was more in evidence in the dairy +than his duties appeared to warrant. We concluded that he was +attracted by the cook. One day my wife said to another maid: "I can't +think why the shepherd spends so much time in the house. I suppose +cook is the attraction?" The girl blushed, hesitated, and looked down, +but finally courageously murmured: "Please, mum, it's me, mum!" They +were married in due course, and we lost an excellent servant. + +Some of the village women and girls filled up spare moments with +"gloving"; the large kid-glove manufacturers in Worcester supplied the +material, cut into shape, and a stand, with a kind of vice divided +into spaces the exact size of each stitch, which held the work firmly +while the stitching was done by hand; they grew very quick at this +work, and turned out the gloves with beautifully even stitches, but I +don't think they could earn much at it in a day, and it must have been +rather monotonous. + +I was interested to read in Mr. Warde Fowler's _Kingham Old and New_ +an account of a peculiar ceremony--called "Skimmington," by Mr. Hardy, +in his _Mayor of Casterbridge_--which took place in Kingham village. I +have known of two similar cases, one in Surrey and one at Aldington, +under the name of "rough music." The Kingham case was quite parallel +with that at Aldington, being a demonstration of popular disapproval +of the conduct of a woman resident, in matters arising out of +matrimonial differences. + +The outraged neighbours collect near the dwelling of the delinquent, +having provided themselves with old trays, pots and pans, and anything +by means of which a horrible din can be raised, and proceed to +serenade the offender. To be the subject of such a demonstration is +regarded as a signal disgrace and a most emphatic mark of popular +odium. Mr. Warde Fowler tells me, on the authority of a German book on +marriage, etc., that "the same sort of din is made at marriage in some +parts of Europe to drive evil spirits away from the newly married +pair." Possibly, therefore, the custom among our own villagers may +have originated with the same idea, and they may formerly have taken +the charitable view that evil spirits were responsible for evil deeds, +and that their exorcism was a neighbourly duty. + +The holiday outings I gave my men were a _quid pro quo_ for some hours +of overtime in the hay-making, and included a day's wages, all +expenses, and a supply of food. They generally went to a large town +where an agricultural show was in progress, but I think the sea trips +to Ilfracombe and Weston-super-Mare were the most popular, offering as +they did much greater novelty. I have a vivid recollection of the +preparation of the rations on the previous night: a vast joint of beef +nicely roasted and got cold before operations commenced, my wife and +daughter making the sandwiches, while I cut up the beef in the +kitchen, sometimes in my shirt-sleeves on a hot summer night; +mountains of loaves of bread, great slices of cake, and pounds of +cheese, completed the provisions. The rations were wrapped in separate +papers and placed in a hipbath, covered with a cloth, and finally kept +in a cool building, whence each man took his portion at early dawn. +For the sea trips the train took the party to Gloucester and +Sharpness, where they embarked upon the steamer. + +Many and thrilling were the tales I heard next day; the sea was fairly +smooth until they reached the Bristol Channel, but then, if they met a +south-west wind, the vessel began to roll, and jovial faces looked +thoughtful. I must not dwell upon the delightful horrors of the voyage +on such occasions; they were accepted with good-humour and regarded as +part of the show, but it was curious that not one of the narrators +himself suffered the fate that he so graphically described as the +portion of the others. Arrived at their destination, they inspected +the town, watched the people on the piers and parades, and the +children playing on the sands. The latter created the greatest +interest, busy with their spades and buckets, or, as one man expressed +it, "little jobs o' draining and summat!" + +At Christmas the village children always came in small gangs to sing, +or rather chant, a peculiar and very ancient seasonable greeting: + + "I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, + A pocket full of money and a cellar full of beer, + A good fat pig to last you all the year. + May God bless all friends near! + A merry, merry Christmas and a happy New Year." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + +MACHINERY--VILLAGE POLITICS--ASPARAGUS. + + + "Last week came one to the county town + To preach our poor little army down." + --_Maud_. + + +Though machinery has lightened the labour of manual workers to some +extent, it entails much more trouble upon masters and foremen, for +breakages are frequent and always occur at the busiest time. What with +mowers, reapers, thrashing machines, chaff-cutters, root-pulpers, and +grain-mills run by steam-power or in connection with horse-gears; +hop-washers, separators, and other delicately adjusted novelties, the +master must of necessity be something of a mechanic himself. I doubt +if machinery is really quite the advantage claimed by theorists and +reconstructionists at the present day. Even the thrashing machine, +universally adopted, presents disadvantages in comparison with the +ancient flail, generally regarded as obsolete, though still to be +found in occasional use by the smallholder or allotment occupier. In +former times the farmer reserved his thrashing by hand, for the most +part, for winter work during severe frost or wet weather, when nothing +could be done outside. The immense barns, which still exist, were +filled almost to the roof at harvest; thatching was not necessary, and +every sheaf was absolutely safe from rain as soon as it was under +cover. Continuous winter work was provided for the men, and a daily +supply of fresh straw for chaff-cutting and bedding, besides fresh +chaff and rowens or cavings for stock throughout the winter. With the +thrashing machine in use for ricks, thatching is a necessity, and is +often difficult to arrange in the stress of harvest; the machine and +engine demand a day's work for two teams of horses to fetch them, and +the cartage and expense of much coal, now so dear. On a small farm +extra hands have to be engaged, the straw has to be stacked or carried +to the barns, and the same applies to the chaff and rowens. If the +weather is damp, straw, chaff, and rowens get stale, mouldy, and +unpalatable to the stock, a heavy charge is made for the hire of the +machine and the machine men, and the latter require food and drink or +payment instead. The machine breaks and bruises many grains of corn, +which are thereby damaged for seed or malting, whereas the less urgent +flail leaves them intact. + +The sound of the thrashing machine gives an impression to outsiders of +brisk and remunerative work, but it is cheerful to the farmer only +when high prices are ruling. Far otherwise was it for many years +before the War, when corn-growers heard only its moaning, despondent +note, telling anything but a flattering tale, only varied by an +occasional angry growl, when irregular feeding choked its satiated +appetite. + +From the aesthetic standpoint uncouth and noisy machines, such as +mowers and reapers, cannot be compared to a lusty team of men with +scythes, in their white shirts, backed by the flowering meadows; or a +sunny field of busy harvesters facing a golden wall of corn, and +leaving behind them the fresh-shorn stubble dotted with sheaves and +nicely balanced shocks. The rattle of the machines, too, is discordant +and out of harmony with the peaceful countryside. + +It is related of Ruskin that, hearing the insistent rattle of a mowing +machine in a meadow adjoining his home by the beautiful Coniston +Water, and his sense of the fitting being outraged, he interviewed the +owner, and, by an offer to pay the trifling difference between machine +and hand labour, induced him to discontinue the annoyance. + +As to the relative cost of machine and hand wheat-cutting, quite early +in my farming I obtained the opinion of a distinguished farmer, then +well known on the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, Mr. +Charles Randell, of Chadbury, near Evesham, on the subject: "If you +can get a good crop," he said, "cut, tied, and stocked by hand at +anything like 15s. an acre, don't use a machine. If the corn is ripe +it knocks out and wastes quite a bushel of wheat per acre" (worth at +that time about 5s., now nearer 9s. or 10s.). "I always bring out my +machines, and have them oiled and made ready, _but I don't want to use +them_." + +In a wet harvest the machine is unworkable on sticky clay soil, and +after a wet summer, when the corn is badly laid and twisted, it makes +very poor work, cutting off the ears and scattering them, and leaving +a quantity of uncut and untidy straw on the ground. + +In my own case my equanimity was never disturbed by a reaping machine, +with its unwieldy tossing arms, on my land, for I had to find +employment for my full staff of regular hands, specially required for +the much more important hop-picking a little later, and it pleased me +that they should get the extra pay for harvest work as well. + +The cream separator, I admit, is a wonderful invention, and its hum is +not unmusical; it provides fresh skim milk for the calves and pigs +morning and night, which, as well as the cream, is thoroughly cleansed +in the process. The aeration of the skim milk leaves it a most +wholesome and nourishing article of diet for the villagers if they +could be made to understand its value, and that the removal of the +cream takes away only the fat (heating material), leaving the bone and +muscle making constituents in the milk. I could never induce my +village folk to accept this rudimentary proposition; they fancied that +all the goodness was gone with the cream, and though I offered the +skim milk at the nominal price of one halfpenny a quart, very few +would send their children to fetch it, though they mostly lived within +a hundred yards of the dairy. + +The hay or straw elevator is one of the greatest helps, saving much +heavy overhand labour in rick-building. An old labourer, pointing to +one, with great appreciation, on a farm I was visiting, said: +"_That's_ a machine as will be always kept in the dry and took care +on." He spoke from experience of the arduous work of unloading and the +passing of heavy weights, sometimes from the bed of the waggon to the +summit of the rick; for, as my bailiff often said, "Nobody knows so +well where the shoe pinches as the man who has to wear it." + +Steam has not done all that was expected of it as an agricultural +slave. The steam plough is not a success on heavy land where the +ridges are high and irregular in width, and even the steam cultivator +has to be used with caution lest the soil should be carried from the +ridges to the furrows, and the "squitch" (couch) buried to a depth at +which it is difficult to eradicate. The great convenience of steam +cultivation is that full advantage can be taken of a short spell of +hot, dry weather for fallowing operations, and the soil is left so +hollow that it soon bakes and kills the weeds. I fully sympathize with +Tennyson's, _Northern Farmer, Old Style:_ + + "But summon 'ull come ater meä mayhap wi' 'is kittle o' steäm + Huzzin' an' maäzin' the blessed feälds wi' the Devil's oän teäm"; + +for, except on a large farm with immense fields, the ponderous and +ungainly steam, tackle gives one a sensation of intrusion. Such a +field can be found on a farm between Evesham and Alcester; it contains +300 acres. The occupier, speaking of it, mentioned that it was all +wheat that year except one corner. To a question as to the size of the +corner, it transpired that it was 50 acres, and growing peas. For +comparison there is a story of a Devonshire farmer who said he had +been very busy one winter making four fields into one. "Then you've +got a big field," said a friend. "Yes," was the reply; "it's just four +acres." + +When the farm labourer was enfranchised in 1885 he became an important +member of the electorate. Candidates and canvassers alike had a much +more strenuous time than ever before, the former were constrained to +hold meetings in every village, and the latter were obliged to visit +nearly every cottage. The late Sir Richard Temple after a +distinguished career in India, became Conservative candidate for our +division. The doctrine of "three acres and a cow," in opposition to +every tenet of rural economy, as well as the division of the land +among the labourers, were at the time paraded by theorists and paid +agitators, as bribes to purchase the votes of the new electors, and as +ensuring the salvation of the rural population, which was then +beginning to suffer from unemployment, resulting from the destruction +of corn-growing by foreign competition. + +The more credulous of the labourers were excited and unsettled by the +alluring prospect of independence thus held out to them, and it was +reported that some went so far as to survey the fields around their +villages and select the plots they proposed to cultivate, and that +others took baskets to the poll in which to bring home the +all-powerful magic of the mysterious vote! Among the new voters in a +neighbouring village, a man of very decided views found it puzzling to +decide by which candidate they were most nearly represented, and, +determined to make no mistake at the poll, he consulted a +fellow-labourer, inquiring: "Which way be the big uns a-going, because +I be agin they?" + +The Squire of an adjoining parish met an old villager with whom he had +always been on good terms; after mutual greetings, the man +sympathised: "I _be_ sorry for you, Squire." "Why?" was the rejoinder. +"Yes, I be regular sorry for you, Squire, that I be.." "What's the +matter?" asked the Squire. "Ay! about this here land; 'tis to be +divided amongst we working men." "Indeed," said the Squire; "but look +here, after a bit, some of you won't want to cultivate it any longer, +and some, with improvident habits, will sell their plots to others, so +that soon it will be all back again into the hands of a few; what will +you do then?" The man looked puzzled, scratched his head, and +cogitated deeply, until a simple solution presented itself: "Then, +Squire," said he, "we shall divide again!" + +Sir Richard Temple was undoubtedly an able man, but he was a complete +stranger to the local conditions of the constituency. The villagers of +Badsey especially, as well as of other adjoining parishes, were just +beginning to retrieve their position, threatened by the collapse of +corn-growing and consequent unemployment, by the adoption of +market-gardening and fruit-growing. The land, run down and full of +weeds and rubbish, had been cut up into allotments and offered to them +as tenants, their only choice lying between years of hard work in +redeeming its condition or emigration. Many young men chose the +latter, and did well in the States of America; but where there was a +wife and young children that course was scarcely possible, and the man +became an allotment tenant. Passing one of these on a plot full of +"squitch," which he was laboriously breaking up with a fork to expose +it in big clods to a baking sun, I asked if he had taken it. "Well," +said he, "I don't know whether I've taken _it_ or it's taken _me_!" + +These men, by unceasing labour and self-denial, were just beginning to +turn the corner; they had cleaned the land, ameliorated its mechanical +condition by application of soot and by deep digging with their +beloved forks, and, having discovered how wonderfully asparagus +nourished on this deep, rich soil, had planted large areas, as well as +plum-trees and other market-garden crops, and the well-merited return +was coming in increasingly year by year. + +Sir Richard Temple did not understand the difference between the small +holder, growing corn and ordinary crops in less favoured parts of the +countrymen the one hand, and market-gardeners in the Vale of Evesham, +with its early climate, splendid soil, and railway connection with +huge artisan populations, delivering the produce with punctuality and +despatch, on the other. He considered that small holders could not +make an economic success where the farmers had failed, and had made +his views well known in the constituency, but he did not distinguish +between the small holder and the market-gardener. + +The men of Badsey felt aggrieved, they knew better, and at a meeting +he held in the village they gave him a rather noisy hearing, with +interruptions such as, "Keep off them steel farks," "Mind them steel +farks, Sir Richard," and so on. + +Sir Richard came to ask for my support and assistance in our village, +and, as I was not at home, my wife entertained him in my absence, with +tea and wedding-cake. She innocently asked if he had come to canvass +me; her straightforward query surprised him, but, after a moment's +hesitation, he replied cautiously: "Well, something of that sort." + +He was eventually returned, and the men of Badsey continued to +flourish on asparagus-growing in spite of his warnings; new houses +sprang up in every direction, and available labour grew scarcer and +scarcer. Those splendid asparagus "sticks" or "buds," as they are +called, tied with osier or withy twigs, which may be seen in Covent +Garden Market and the large fruiterers' shops in Regent Street, are +grown in and around the parishes of Badsey and Aldington. They command +high prices, up to 15s. and 20s. a hundred for special stuff, and this +year (1919) I see that £21 was realized for the champion hundred at +the Badsey Asparagus Show. That, of course, must be regarded as quite +exceptional, and possibly there were special considerations which made +it worth the money to the purchaser. + +Later came difficulties; after successive dry summers the asparagus +was attacked by a fungoid complaint, called by the growers "rust." +Instead of growing vigorously after the crop had been gathered--which +is the time when the buds for next year's crop are developing on the +crowns of the plants--and finally dying off naturally in beautiful +feathery plumes of green and gold, it presented a dingy and rusty +appearance, eventually turning black. Asparagus cannot stand +long-continued summer and autumn drought; it likes plenty of moisture, +in free circulation but not stagnant. The crops that followed the +appearance I have described were very deficient, proving that the +growing season of one year's foliage is the time when next year's crop +is decided. + +The growth of asparagus is still a very important part of the +market-gardener's business in the parishes referred to, but it does +not continue to produce the best results indefinitely and continuously +on the same land, and the growers have been obliged to extend their +acreages and take fresh plots. I have little doubt that with the +scientific application of artificial fertilizers the yield would +continue satisfactory for a much longer period. Plant disease of any +kind is nearly always due to starvation for want of the chemical +constituents upon which the crop feeds, though sometimes caused by +unhealthy sap, the result of late spring frosts or unsuitable weather. + +The asparagus-growers relied too much upon soot as a fertilizer; it +has a marvellous effect upon the mechanical condition of heavy land; +its particles intervene between the particles of the almost impalpable +powder of which clay is composed, and the soil approximates to a +well-tilled garden plot after a few applications and careful +incorporation, and in the local phraseology, it becomes "all of a +myrtle." But as plant food soot contains nitrogen only, a great plant +stimulant, which quickly exhausts the soil of the other necessary +constituents. If the growers would make use of basic slag, +superphosphate, or bone dust to replace the phosphate of lime removed +by the crop, and of potash in one of its available forms, they would +soon experience a great improvement in the power of their asparagus to +resist disease and deterioration. + +I am aware that some of the smaller growers regard all kinds of +artificial fertilizers with suspicion, but they may be interested, +should they ever read these pages, in the following story. When +Peruvian guano was first introduced into this country, the farmers +could not be persuaded that it merited any reliance as a manure. The +importers, in despair, caused some of the despised stuff to be sown in +the form of huge letters spelling the word "FOOLS" upon a bare +hillside, visible from a great distance. The following spring, with +the beginning of growth, and throughout the summer, the word stared +the farmers in the face whenever they chanced to look that way, in +dark green outstanding characters upon the yellow background; after +this practical demonstration there was no difficulty in finding +purchasers. + +Sir Richard Temple was opposed by Mr. Arthur Chamberlain, one at least +of whose canvassers was not above stretching a point to obtain the +votes of the labourers. My men told me that they had been promised +roast beef and plum pudding every day of their lives should the +Liberal party be returned. These tactics were again resorted to in the +election of 1906, when walls were placarded with pictures of the +Chinese employed in the gold-mines of the Transvaal, driven in chains +by cruel overseers, presumably representing the Conservative +Government which had sanctioned their employment. I know from what I +heard in my new home, for I was no longer at Aldington, that this +misrepresentation decided the votes of many of the more ignorant +voters. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + +MY THREE VICARS--CHURCH RESTORATION--CHURCHWARDEN EXPERIENCES-- +CLERICAL AND OTHER STORIES. + + "Where many a generation's prayer, + Hath perfumed and hath blessed the air." + --GLADSTONE. + +I saw a good deal of my three successive Vicars, for I was Vicar's +churchwarden for a period of nearly twenty years, and was treasurer of +the fund for the restoration and enlargement of Badsey Church. My +first Vicar had held the living for over thirty years when we decided +upon this important undertaking; and not wishing to be burdened with +the correspondence which the work would entail, he invited me to act +for him. I was pleased, because I have always been interested in the +architecture of old buildings, especially churches, and readily +undertook the post. I had the constant and intimate co-operation of my +co-warden, Mr. Julius Sladden, of Badsey, and I may say that no two +people ever worked together with greater harmony. + +The restoration had been debated for many years; the ancient church +was sadly dilapidated, and disfigured by an ugly gallery at the west +end of the nave, which obscured the finest arch in the building, +leading into the tower; and the incident which brought the matter +within the range of possibility was romantic. The Vicar succeeded +quite unexpectedly to a large inheritance; the news reached him and +his wife, who was away from home at the time, simultaneously. The +letters they wrote to each other on their good fortune crossed in the +post, and characteristically each wrote "Badsey Church must now be +restored." Soon afterwards the Vicar came to my house and, sitting +down at my table, wrote me a cheque for £500 to start the fund. + +On the advice of the patrons of the living--the Dean and Chapter of +Christ Church, Oxford--we invited Mr. Thomas Graham Jackson, now Sir +Thomas Graham Jackson, R.A., to undertake the duties of architect. His +work was well known at Oxford at the time, as the beautiful New +Schools had just been completed from his designs; we were also most +fortunate in obtaining the services of Mr. Thomas Collins, of +Tewkesbury, as builder. Mr. Collins was devoted to church +architecture, and the financial consideration of such work was to him +quite secondary to the pleasure he experienced as a connoisseur in +restoring to the dignity and beauty of the past any ecclesiastical +building of distinguished interest. The first estimate was, I think, +£1,500, exclusive of architect's fees, but when the work was completed +we had expended in all a sum of over £2,130. We did not finally clear +off the debt until 1894, nine years after the reopening of the church, +and since then a considerable further sum has been expended in +rehanging the old bells and adding two new ones to make up the full +peal of eight. + +It was delightful to experience the willingness of everybody to help; +subscriptions, large and small, came in readily at the very outset, +and this part of the work never became arduous until the last few +hundreds had to be raised. Most of us experienced the truth of the +proverb _Bis dat qui cito dat_, but in a different sense from that +which usually commends it, for many who gave quickly not only +literally gave twice, but three times or more. Bazaars, concerts, and +entertainments of all kinds were undertaken by the parishioners, a sum +of £376 being raised by these means. Among them a bazaar at Badsey +realized £130; another, later, at Aldington in one of my old barns, +£80; and two concerts--afternoon and evening--at Malvern, organized by +my wife and her sister, Miss Poulton, £100. + +The Vicar received a notable letter from the late Lord Salisbury, the +Premier; they had been at Eton and Christ Church together, and Lord +Salisbury was godfather to the Vicar's eldest son. The Vicar had +written of the fortune he had inherited, and spoke of some rooks as +having brought the luck by building, for the first time, in an +elm-tree in the vicarage grounds. Lord Salisbury, in sending a +donation of £25 to the restoration fund, added: "I see a great many +rooks building near my house" (Hatfield), "but the luck has not come +to me yet." The Vicar's comment to me was: "If the luck has not yet +come to Lord Salisbury, I don't see how anyone can hope for it!" + +The Malvern concert was a strenuous undertaking; Badsey being a long +way from Malvern, it was necessary to interest the inhabitants and to +some extent to plead _in forma pauperis_, for we were really a poor +parish without any large resident landowners. The first thing was to +get a good list of influential local patrons; and as soon as Lady +Emily Foley consented, the promoters felt that the work was half done. +Lady Emily Foley was supreme at Malvern, a very distinguished old lady +and most popular, but perhaps a little alarming. + +On the day of the two concerts I was detailed with a troop of young +men, relatives of the patrons, to conduct the people to their seats, +and an elaborate plan of the large Assembly Room was given me, with +minute particulars of the lettered rows and numbered seats, presenting +the appearance, somewhat, of a labyrinth. I was studying it at the +doors, and arranging with the young stewards as to their individual +functions, when I heard an alarmed exclamation from one of them: "Look +out! here comes Lady Emily Foley!" In an instant the whole crowd took +to their heels and disappeared down the corridor. With some little +difficulty I succeeded in finding the seats of Lady Emily Foley's +party, but I could see that she regarded me as a rather feeble +cicerone. + +She was, however, exceedingly gracious after my wife's first solo, +which pleased her so much that we had to make an exception in this +case, and allow an encore by her special request, though it had been +arranged, owing to the length of the programme, that no encores were +to be given. Lady Alwyne Compton, wife of the Dean of Worcester, very +kindly assisted as a performer, my wife having frequently sung at +charity concerts and entertainments for her in Worcester and the +neighbourhood, among them a recital by Mr. Brandram of _A +Midsummer-Night's Dream_, when she undertook the soprano solos +occurring in the play, at the Worcester Guildhall. Lady Alwyne Compton +was very musical, and rehearsals were held in the stone-vaulted crypt +beneath the Deanery, a place of splendid acoustic properties, which +intensified the sound without coarsening it, and brought the voice +back to the singer in a way unknown on the usual platform, decorated +with screens, curtains, and flags, and obstructed by floral +impedimenta. + +Among the performers at the Malvern concerts some professionals had +been engaged from London, including Miss Margaret Wild, a well-known +pianist. I had given my men a holiday for the occasion and was anxious +to hear their opinion of the performances. They considered the music +rather too high class for them, but they thoroughly appreciated the +nimble fingers of Miss Margaret Wild; one of them adding +enthusiastically: "My word, her did make 'im (the piano) rottle!" Our +old parish clerk too, at the time over eighty years of age, who walked +three miles to Evesham Station in the morning, ascended the +Worcestershire Beacon--nearly 1,500 feet--and finally walked back from +Evesham to Badsey at night, was much struck by the recitations of Miss +Isabel Bateman at the concert. The dear old man was somewhat deaf, and +told me that, sitting towards the back of the room, "I couldn't hear +nothing, but I could see as the gesters [gestures] was all right." + +This old clerk was prominently devout in the church responses, and had +some original pronunciations of unusual words; in the Nicene Creed he +generally followed a few bars, so to speak, behind the Vicar, but one +never failed to catch the words "apost'lick church" towards the end. +He was very scornful of ghosts, and told me that he had been about the +churchyard very often at night for fifty years without seeing anything +like an apparition. But the whole village was alarmed, including the +clerk, one Sunday when, about midnight, the tenor bell was heard +solemnly tolling. The clerk, with some supporters and a lantern, +unlocked the door, and found the village idiot--silly C.--in the tower +ringing the bell. It appeared that, after service, the clerk had +extinguished the lights and locked up for the night about eight +o'clock. C., who had gone to sleep in the gallery with his head upon +his arms before him on the desk, slumbered on until he woke in alarm +some four hours later, to find himself alone and the church in total +darkness, but he was intelligent enough to remember the bell and get +his release. + +C. had a hand-to-hand fight in the church tower with Aldington's +special imbecile. After service the clerk invited me to the scene of +the battle, pointing out some crimson traces on the stone pavement. I +called upon our imbecile's parents on my way home, and the old father +was greatly shocked. "Here he be, sir," he said; "I hope you'll give +him a jolly good hiding." I told him I could hardly undertake the rôle +of executioner on a Sunday, in cold blood, and contented myself with a +severe reprimand. + +I was handing the collecting-bag one morning after service, and +finding it did not return from the end of the row of chairs as quickly +as usual, I discovered this same individual with his hand _in the +bag_. I signed to him impatiently to pass it back. After service he +came to the vestry and said that he had contributed a florin in +mistake for a penny, and was trying to retrieve it. I could generally +estimate pretty accurately the amount of the collection, as I handed +the bag, knowing the extent of each person's usual gift, and sure +enough, there was an extra florin among the coins, with which I sent +him away happy. + +The parish must have been an uncivilized place in former times; there +was an accusing record beneath the west window of the tower, in the +shape of a blocked up entrance. I was told that the ringers, not +wishing to enter or leave the tower through the church door during +service, and also to facilitate the smuggling in of unlimited cider +had, after strenuous efforts, cut an opening through the ancient wall +and base some feet in thickness, and that the achievement was +announced to the village by uproarious cheering when at last they +succeeded. A door was afterwards fitted to the aperture, but the +entrance was abolished later by a more reverent Vicar. + +The belfry was decorated with various bones of legs of mutton and of +joints of beef, hung up to commemorate notable weddings of prominent +parishioners--perhaps, too, as a hint to future aspirants to the state +of matrimony--when the ringers had enjoyed a substantial meal and +gallons of cider at the expense of the bridegroom. There seems to have +been a traditional connection between church bell-ringing and thirst, +for Gilbert White relates that when the bells of Selborne Church were +recast and a new one presented in 1735, "The day of the arrival of +this tuneable peal was observed as an high festival by the village, +and rendered more joyous by an order from the donor that the treble +bell should be fixed bottom upward in the ground and filled with +punch, of which all present were permitted to partake." + +The Vicar of Badsey told me that at the neighbouring church of +Wickhamford, then also in his jurisdiction, that when he first came, +in the early fifties, it was customary, as the men entered the church +by the chancel door, to pitch their hats in a heap on the altar. Also +that on his home-coming with his bride, he was, the same evening, +requisitioned to put a stop to a fight between two drunken reprobates +outside the vicarage gate. Badsey people can in these modern times +point with pride to a much higher standard of civilization, and they +fully recognize that "'Eave 'alf a brick at his 'ead; Bill," is a +method of welcome to a stranger not considered precisely etiquette at +the present day. + +There was no vestry before the restoration of Badsey Church; the +Vicar's surplice might be seen hanging over the side of one of the +square pews which obstructed the chancel, and when the Vicar appeared +he was followed by the clerk, who assisted at the public ceremony of +robing. Church decorations at Christmas consisted at that time of +sprigs of holly stuck upright in holes bored along the tops of the pew +partitions at regular intervals, and at the harvest thanksgiving an +historic miniature rick of corn annually made its appearance on the +altar. In those days, however, flowers, which are scarcely suitable +for a festival where the decorations should proclaim the abundance of +the matured season of growth, by corn and fruit, were not included. I +have seen too many of these, to the exclusion of corn, in modern town +churches, and even wild oats, which, though very pretty, are not +exactly typical of thanksgiving. + +It is surprising how much damage may be done to valuable old woodwork +by an enthusiastic band of decorators, assisted by an indiscriminating +curate, and how inharmonious may be the general effect of individual +labours--though charming taken separately--where a comprehensive +scheme is neglected. I have counted fourteen differing reds--not tones +or shades of the same colour--including the hood of the officiating +clergyman, in one chancel at the same time, bewildering to the eye and +distracting to the mind. And I once saw a beautiful and priceless old +Elizabethan table in a vestry, covered with a mouldy piece of purple +velvet secured with tin-tacks driven into the tortured oak. There are, +or were, two lovely old Chippendale chairs with the characteristic +backs and legs inside the altar-rails of Badsey Church; they are +valuable and no doubt duly appreciated, not only for their own sake, +but because they were the gift of dear old Barnard, the clerk, who +spent fifty years of his life in the service of the church. + +I once heard a curate preaching to an agricultural congregation at a +harvest thanksgiving after a disastrous season, when the earth had not +yielded much by way of increase, remarking that in such a time of +scarcity we might be thankful that plenty of foreign corn would be +available; good theology, perhaps, but scarcely expedient under the +circumstances. + +We found Sir Thomas Graham Jackson a purist in the matter of church +restoration, and in my capacity as churchwarden and treasurer, I was +fortunate in having to confer with a man of such pre-eminent good +taste. He would not allow some new oak panels, with which we had to +supplement the old linen-pattern panels of the pulpit, to be coloured +to match the old work. "Time," he said, "will bring them all +together." Possibly the lapse of two hundred years may do so, but I +saw at once that he was right in the principle that no sham should be +tolerated in honest work, more especially in a sacred building. We +objected also to a new chimney which surmounted the junction of the +nave and choir exteriorly: it seemed to smack of domestic detail; but +here again he satisfied us by saying that, as heating the building was +a modern necessity, there was no reason to be ashamed of such an +indispensable addition. As a matter of fact, this chimney long ago +became nicely toned down by its native soot, and is practically +unnoticeable. + +There is much American oak, I believe, now used in new churches and +public buildings; it appears to resemble chestnut much more than +English oak, and I doubt whether it will ever acquire the beautiful +tone which time confers upon the latter. It should, however, be +recognized that much of the depth of colour of old oak panelling is +really nothing but dirt, though the true dark brown tint of old age +can be found underneath, and right to the centre of each piece. +Spring-cleaning of the past consisted very much in polishing with +beeswax and turpentine, without removing the dirt produced by smoky +fires and constant handling, so that extraneous matter became coated +with the polish and preserved beneath it. I have had occasion, when +restoring old woodwork, to wash off this outside accretion, and when +removed, the tone of the wood remained still dark, though lighter than +before it lost its black and somewhat sticky appearance. + +The fakers of sham old furniture produce the intense darkness by +stains of various kinds. I once found myself at an inn in Devonshire +which contained a quantity of "delft" and "antique oak" furniture for +sale. While the attendant was bringing me some refreshment, I tested +the genuineness of the oak by a small chip with my pocket-knife, and, +as I anticipated, found perfectly white wood under the surface, and, I +believe, American oak. The irony of the transaction is striking; here +was a piece of wood imported from the States only a few months before, +converted in this country into Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Stuart +furniture, and then, it may be, bought by American visitors and taken +back to their own country. + +Some years before the church restoration could be taken in hand, a +piece of land, bordering the west side of the churchyard, and between +it and the highroad, and another similar piece on the east side of the +churchyard, were offered for sale by auction. They belonged to the old +Badsey Manor property and of course occupied important positions lying +in each case just between the churchyard and the adjoining roads. An +individual who had fallen out with the Vicar announced his intention +of purchasing these pieces and building cottages and a public-house +upon them, presumably "to spite the parson." + +The Vicar at once saw the absolute necessity of acquiring the land for +the church and enclosing it with suitable walls, as an addition to the +churchyard. It would have been a terrible eyesore from the village +street if ugly brick and blue-slated buildings were erected in front +of the beautiful old grey church, and the idea of an inn in such a +place was intolerable. He consulted the patrons of the living, who +agreed to help, and simultaneously a good old aunt gave him leave to +bid up to a certain sum on her behalf as a gift to the parish. + +The patrons sent a representative to the sale with an undisclosed +price, at which he was empowered to make the purchase. Absolute +secrecy was preserved, and, except the Vicar, no one knew the man or +whom he represented; he was to leave the train from Oxford at +Honeybourne Station so as not even to come through Evesham to Badsey. +The Vicar had arranged that the patrons' representative should also +bid on behalf of the aunt, but did not disclose the limit. The man was +not to bid until the Vicar himself stopped, and he was to go on +bidding until the Vicar removed a rose from his button-hole, which +would signify that the aunt's limit was reached. Whether the patrons' +representative could go any further or not, the Vicar did not know. + +Before the auction the two did not meet, and they sat apart during the +proceedings. The village malcontent was in great form, making certain +of success, and was delighted when the Vicar apparently gave up +bidding as if beaten. The rose was still in his button-hole, but +before long the aunt's limit was reached, and it had to be removed; he +was however relieved to find that the patrons' representative +continued to bid. His opponent was getting very fidgety as the price +rose, hesitating for some moments every time the bidding was against +him. Just as the hammer was about to fall he would arrest it with, +"Try 'im again," but the stranger instantly capped his reluctant bid, +always leaving him to consider a further advance in great discomfort. +At last in despair but quite certain that the Vicar at any rate was +knocked out he gave up, exclaiming, "'E med 'ave it, 'e med 'ave it"; +and the hammer fell. All eyes were fixed upon the unknown bidder, and +the auctioneer demanded "the name of the buyer"; very quietly came the +announcement, "The Dean and Chapter of Christ Church." Horribly +disgusted the malcontent fired a parting shot as he reached the door: +"If I'd a-knowed the pairson was a goin' to 'ave it, I'd a made 'im +pay a pretty penny more nor that." + +This Vicar was a very impressive reader, especially of dramatic +stories from the Old Testament. As he read the account of the +discomfiture of the priests of Baal by the Prophet Elijah one could +visualize the scene. Elijah's dripping sacrifice blazing to the skies, +the priests of Baal, mutilated by their own knives and lancets, in +vain imploring their god to send the fire to vindicate himself. The +heavens were black, and one could hear the rush of Ahab's chariot, the +roar of the thunder and the hissing torrent of rain, and see the +prophet running swiftly before him. The Vicar, however, was not an +actor like a clergyman I was told of, who got so excited over Agag and +his delicate approach to Samuel that he could not resist an +illustration to intensify the action by taking a mincing step or two +aside from the lectern. + +No village is complete without its curmudgeon or self-appointed +grumbler, just as every village has its special imbecile. The +curmudgeon originates in a class above the idiot; very often he is an +ex-churchwarden, guardian, way-warden, or other official, who has +resigned in dudgeon or been ousted from his post for some neglect or +failure. He is a man with whom the world has gone wrong, a sufferer, +perhaps, from some disaster which has become an obsession. He views +everything with distorted eyesight; nothing pleases him, and he wants +to put everybody right. He cherishes a perpetual grievance against +some individual or clique for a fancied slight, and goes about trying +to stir up ill-feeling among the ignorant by malicious insinuations. +In former times he was an adept at "parson-baiting" at the annual +Easter vestry meeting, when he would air his grievance against the +Vicar of the parish or any person in authority. + +At these vestries the Vicar is wise if he declares the curmudgeon to +be "out of order," and declines to hear him, for, legally, the +business does not include any matter which does not appear upon the +notice convening the meeting, signed by the Vicar and churchwardens. +This usually announces that churchwardens will be elected and the +accounts produced; the latter, since church rates were abolished, is +not obligatory, and only subscribers have a right to question them. +The proceedings are not legal unless three _full_ days have elapsed +since the publication of the notice on a Sunday before morning +service, the following Thursday being thus the earliest day on which +the meeting can take place. It is important to remember that no +churchwarden has a legal status before he has been formally admitted +by the Archdeacon. + +In former times, before the creation of Parish, District and County +Councils, the curmudgeon, after the reaction of the winter months, +became very prominent towards the time of the Easter vestry, when he +would appear, having enlisted a small band of supporters, with a +number of grievances relating to rates, parish officials, rights of +way, footpaths, and such-like debatable subjects. Of course, he should +have been promptly squashed by the chairman, but too often an +indulgent Vicar would allow him to have his fling. + +Now, however, the curmudgeon can easily get himself elected upon one +of the numerous councils; having mismanaged his own affairs until he +has none left to manage, he appears to regard himself as a fit and +proper person to mismanage the business of other people, and the brief +authority which his position confers gives him a welcome opportunity +of letting off superfluous steam. + +Parishioners sometimes combined and elected an unpopular person to a +troublesome post which nobody wanted. Such was the office of +way-warden, under whose jurisdiction came the management and repair of +parish roads, superintending and paying the roadmen, and keeping the +necessary records and accounts. A market-gardener, a canny Scot, who +had fallen into disfavour, had this office thrust upon him much +against his will. Once elected, the victim had no choice in the +matter, and, being a very busy man, he was thoroughly annoyed. He soon +discovered a weapon wherewith to avenge the wrong--one which his +opponents had put into his hands themselves; during his year of office +he restricted the road repairs to a lane adjoining his own land, +leading to the railway-station, which his carts traversed many times +daily. He gave it a thorough good coat of stones, and all the +available labour, as well as the cash chargeable on the rates of the +parish, was in this way expended, chiefly for his own benefit, though +the parish shared to the extent of the use they made of this +particular piece of road. Great was the outcry, but nothing could be +done till the year of office expired, and, naturally, he was never +elected again. + +The purchase of the land adjoining the churchyard had a remarkable +sequel; it was conveyed to the Vicar and churchwardens for the time +being, these original churchwardens having been long out of the office +before my appointment. After the restoration of the church my +co-warden and I, with the Vicar's consent, levelled the rough places +in the neglected churchyard, sowed it with grass seeds, and planted +various ornamental shrubs; we had the untidy southern boundary +carefully dug over, and set a man to plant a yew-hedge. He was thus +employed when a parishioner appeared in some excitement, and objected +to the planting of yew on account of possible damage to sheep grazing +in the churchyard, claiming the right--which, as a matter of fact, +belonged to the Vicar alone, though never exercised--to such grazing, +jointly with the Vicar. He proceeded to pull up some of the young yews +as a protest, and threw them uprooted on the ground. The man employed +reported the matter to my co-warden, living near, who was very soon at +my house. + +We decided to prosecute the offender, and obtained the Vicar's +consent, he being the legal prosecutor. The case was heard by a bench +of magistrates composed entirely of clergy and churchwarden squires, +who naturally sympathized with us, and, quite logically, convicted the +defendant in a fine, I think, of about 25s. and costs, or a term in +Worcester Gaol in default. The defendant refused to pay a farthing and +was removed in custody; but later our dear old Vicar, very generously, +came forward and paid the amount himself. + +Shortly before the church restoration I had a notice to attend an +archidiaconal visitation, and duly appeared at the church at the time +arranged. The Archdeacon made a careful inspection of the fabric and +property of the church, not too well pleased with its dilapidated +appearance. Nothing much was said till we reached the +fourteenth-century font, showing signs of long use. The Archdeacon +motioned to the clerk to remove the oak cover, and the old man, with +the air of an officious waiter, lifted it with a flourish, disclosing, +inside the cracked font, a white pudding-basin, inside which, again, +reposed a species of beetle known as a "devil's coach-horse." The +Archdeacon, peering in and evidently recognizing the insect and its +popular designation, and looking much shocked, exclaimed with some +warmth: "Dear me! I should scarcely have expected to find _that_ thing +in a font!" + +This story reminds me of a similar visitation depicted in _Punch_. The +Archdeacon was seen at the lych-gate of a country church in company +with a churchwarden farmer, the Vicar being unable to attend. The +contrast was well delineated--the Archdeacon tall, thin, and ascetic, +in a long black coat and archidiaconal hat; and the farmer of the John +Bull type, in ample breeches and gaiters. The churchyard presented a +magnificent crop of exuberant wheat: + +_Archdeacon_. I don't like this at all; I shall really have to speak +to the Vicar about it. + +_Churchwarden (thinking of the rotation of crops)_. Just what I told +un, sir--just what I told 'un. "You keeps on a-wheating of it and +a-wheating of it," I says; "why don't you tater it?" says I. + +At Badsey objections were soon heard to the innovation of the +surpliced choir and improved music in the restored church; one old +villager, living close by, expressed himself as follows concerning the +entry of the Vicar and choir, in procession, from the new vestry: + + "They come in with them boys all dressed up like a lot of + little parsons, and the parson behind 'em just like the old + Pope hisself. But there ain't no call for me to go to church + now, for I can set at home and hear 'em a baarlin' [noise + like a calf] and a harmenin [amening] in me own house." + +On a similar occasion, in another parish where more elaborate music +had been introduced, an old coachman, given to much devotional musical +energy, told me as a sore grievance: "You know, sir, I'd used to like +singin' a bit myself, but now, as soon as I've worked myself up to a +tidy old pitch, all of a sudden _they_ leaves off, and I be left a +bawlin'!" + +Among various special weekday services I remember a Confirmation when +an elderly Aldington parishioner had courageously decided to +participate in the rite. She was missing from the ceremony, and told +my wife afterwards, in answer to inquiries, that a bad headache had +prevented her from attending, adding: "But there, you can't stand agin +your 'ead!" + +I was at the house of a neighbouring Vicar where the Bishop of the +diocese had been lunching shortly before, when there was a dish of +very fine oranges on the table and another of Blenheim orange apples. +The Bishop was offered a Blenheim orange by the Vicar, who remarked +that they came from his own garden. The Bishop had probably never +heard of a Blenheim orange, and the latter word directed his attention +to the dish of oranges. He examined them with great surprise, and +exclaimed: "Dear me! I had no idea that oranges would come to such +perfection out of doors in this climate." + +A capital story was told by a Bishop of Worcester, in connection with +the efforts of the Church in that part of the country to alleviate the +lot of the hop-pickers, who flock into Worcestershire in September by +the thousand. One of the mission workers, who had gone down to the +hopyards, met a dilapidated individual in a country lane, who said he +was "a picker." Pressed for further particulars, the man responded: + + "In the summer I picks peas and fruit; when autumn comes I + picks hops; in the winter I picks pockets; and when I'm + caught I picks oakum. I'm kept nice and warm during the cold + months, and when the fine days come round once more I starts + pea-picking again." + +My second Vicar was a scholar, an excellent preacher of very condensed +sermons; he conducted the services with great dignity, but his manner +to the villagers was a little alarming. He found the old clerk +somewhat officious, I think. One evening, after service, when some +strangers from Evesham attended--for Badsey was a pleasant walk on a +summer evening--the clerk announced to the Vicar, with great +jubilation, that "the gentleman with the party from Evesham expressed +himself as very well satisfied with the service." No doubt the clerk +had received a practical proof of the satisfaction. The clerk +imagined, I believe, that he was as much responsible for the conduct +of the services as the Vicar, and thought the latter would be equally +pleased with the stranger's commendation. He was disappointed, I fear, +for the Vicar did not seem in the least impressed, showing, too, some +annoyance at what doubtless appeared to him great presumption. + +At the time of the Boer War, followed by the Boxers' revolt in China +and the Siege of Peking, when telegrams were exhibited in the +post-office every Sunday morning, I saw one day, on my way to church, +that Peking had been relieved. The Vicar--my third--preached on the +subject of the terrors of the siege--his sermon having been written on +the previous day--and drew a harrowing picture of the fate of the +defenders. After service I asked if he had not seen the telegram, and +told him the good news. "Good gracious!" said he; "I _am_ glad I +didn't know that before the service; what _should_ I have done about +my sermon?" I was a little surprised that the delivery of a sermon +which was no longer to the point should appear more important than the +announcement of the happy event; but perhaps the position would have +been somewhat undignified had he been obliged to explain, and dismiss +the congregation with apologies. + +An elderly Vicar, in a parish in the adjoining county, +Gloucestershire, found the morning service with a sermon very +fatiguing, and the patron, the Squire, suggested that the +ante-Communion service would be less tiring in place of the latter. He +was not a very interesting preacher, and the Squire was quite as well +pleased as the Vicar when he agreed. There was never a sermon at the +morning service thereafter. + +Other denominations besides the Church, of course, existed in the +parish and neighbourhood; we did not hear much about them, but the +following story was related as occurring in a neighbouring village. To +see the point it is necessary to introduce the actors; they consisted +of Daniel S. and Jim H., rival hedgers in the art of "pleaching," of +which Joseph Arch was such a notable exponent. Daniel had lately been +employed upon a job of this kind for a farmer, Mr. (locally Master) R. +The scene was the room that did duty for a chapel in the village. + +Daniel S. advanced to the reading-desk, and, turning over the leaves +of the Bible to find the Book of Daniel, announced sententiously: +"Let's see what Dannel done in his dai (day)." Up jumped Jim H. at the +back of the room: "Oh, I can tell tha (thee) what Dannel done in his +dai--cut a yedge (hedge) for Master R., and took whome all the best of +the 'ood (wood)!" + +A story was current too--nearer home this time--of a grand fete given +to the children. They marched in procession from one village to +another, in which the tea was to take place, under the leadership of +an ancient parishioner. Of this person it was said that he had +violated every article of the Decalogue, and that had the number been +twenty instead of ten he would have treated them with equal +indifference! As the children entered the second village with beaming +faces and banners waving, as he gave the word of command, they sang in +sweet trebles and in perfect innocence, "See the mighty host +advancing, Satan leading on!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + + +THE SCHOOL BOARD--RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION--SCHOOL INSPECTIONS--DEAN +FARRAR--COMPULSORY EDUCATION. + + "Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; + Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." + --COWPER. + +When I came to Aldington I found that by the energy of the Vicar an +elementary school had been built and equipped, and was working well +under the voluntary system. I accepted the post of treasurer at his +invitation, but as time went on financial difficulties arose, as the +Education Department increased their requirements. The large farmers +were being gradually ruined by foreign competition, and the small +market-gardeners, in occupation of the land as it fell vacant, could +not be induced to subscribe, although their own children were the sole +beneficiaries. A voluntary rate was suggested, but met with no general +response, one old parishioner announcing that she didn't intend "to +pay no voluntary rate until she was obliged"! + +Matters were getting desperate when Vicar No. 2 arrived, and it soon +became evident that the voluntary system had completely broken down. A +School Board was the only alternative, and, as all the old managers +refused to become members and no one else would undertake the +responsibility, a deadlock ensued. We were threatened by the Education +Department that, failing a Board of parishioners, they would appoint +for the post any outsiders, non-ratepayers, who could be induced to +volunteer. The prospect was not a pleasant one, and on the invitation +of a deputation of working men, I agreed to stand (chiefly, perhaps, +in my own interests, as the largest ratepayer in the parish, with the +exception of the Great Western Railway Company), and others eventually +came forward. + +The Board was constituted, and we were rather a three-cornered lot: my +co-warden; a boot and shoemaker in Evesham, with land in Badsey; a +carpenter and small builder; three small market-gardeners and myself. +I was elected chairman, and we obtained the services of an excellent +clerk, who held the same office for the Evesham Board of Guardians--a +capable man, and well up in the forms and idiosyncrasies of the Board +of Education. Our designation was "the United District School Board of +Badsey, Aldington, and Wickhamford." It was not easy to discover the +qualifications of all the members from an educational point of view; +some at least represented the village malcontent section, now getting +rather nervous as to School Board rates. And there was a talkative +section who illustrated the truth of the old proverb, "It is not the +loudest cackling hen that lays the biggest egg," and of, perhaps, the +still more expressive, "It's the worst wheel of the waggon that makes +the most noise." One, at any rate, was definitely qualified--"He +knowed summat about draining!" The majority were conspicuous as +economists in the matter of probable school expenditure, and it +appeared later that two, if not three, of the members were unable to +write their own names, so that sometimes we could not get the +necessary number of signatures to the cheques, when some of the more +efficient members happened to be absent. + +Early in our existence as a United Board, one of the economists made a +little speech in which he propounded the theory that "our first duty +is to the ratepayers"; but I could not help suggesting that, as a +legally appointed body, we were bound to obey the law beyond all other +considerations, and corrected his dictum, with all respect, by +substituting that "our first duty is to the children." I must do him +the justice to say that he accepted my suggestion in a complimentary +manner. + +It soon became evident that it is not always desirable to belong to a +parish grouped with others under a United District School Board. +Aldington possessed the largest rateable value with the lowest +population, which was about equal to Wickhamford with the lowest +rateable value; and Badsey, with by far the largest population, came +between Aldington and Wickhamford as to rateable value--the obvious +result being that Aldington was called upon to pay an excessive and +unfair share of the cost of educating Badsey's children. We did not, +however, want a school in our quiet village; it is something to get +rid of children when inclined to be noisy, so we did not grumble at a +little extra expense. + +We carried on the school at first in the old building, but very soon +the Department began to press for a larger and better-equipped +establishment. Many of their requirements we considered unnecessary in +a country village, and put off the evil day as long as possible, with +such phrases as, "The matter is under consideration," or, "Will +shortly be brought to the notice of the Board." Like "retribution," +however, the Education Department, "though leaden-footed, comes +iron-handed," and when all other methods failed they always put +forward as a final inducement to comply with their demands the threat +of withholding the Government grant; so that, in spite of the +shoemaker's encomium, that "Our chairman has plenty of +com_bat_iveness," we had eventually to give way. + +At the outset it was decided to admit the Press; our meetings were +generally expected to afford some spicy copy for readers of the local +papers, but I am pleased to think that both reporters and readers were +disappointed. Some of our neighbours had given us specially lively +specimens of the personalities indulged in at the meetings of their +local bodies, Boards of Guardians, and Councils--notably, at that +time, those of Winchcombe and Stow-on-the-Wold, where these +exhibitions appeared to form a favourite diversion. It is a mistake +for such a Board as ours to admit reporters; the noisy members are apt +to monopolize the speaking, to the exclusion of the more useful and +more thoughtful; the former play to the gallery to the extent of +visibly addressing themselves to the reporters instead of to the +chairman, as is proper. + +The first point we had to consider was the acquisition of a suitable +site for the new buildings, the old site not affording space to +enlarge the premises or for the addition of a master's house. We were +lucky to get the offer of an excellent position, allowing not only +space for all the buildings in contemplation, but ample room for +future enlargements, which it was evident would be needed before many +more years. I was requested, with another member, to interview the +vendor's solicitors, and we were empowered to make the best bargain we +could arrange for the site. + +We concluded the purchase, and congratulated ourselves upon the +acquisition of a central and in every way desirable site, with a long +road frontage, for the very moderate sum of, I think, £90. On +reporting to the Board at our next meeting, the sum appeared large to +some of the more simple members, and they were inclined to be +dissatisfied, until I told them that I was prepared to appropriate the +bargain myself, and they could find another for the school. This +settled the matter, and, I suppose, at the present time the site would +fetch two or three times what it cost us. + +Plans and specifications were now necessary, and from inquiries I had +made I was able to suggest an architect with much experience in school +buildings. He appeared before the Board later, and was subjected to +many questions from the members, of which I only remember one that +appealed to me as original: "Do you pose before this Board as an +economical architect?" We soon had the work in train, but, of course, +before any active steps were taken, all our proposals were submitted +to, and approved by the Education Department. + +The question of religious instruction became urgent, and I was pleased +and surprised at carrying a unanimous resolution through the +Board--although it included some Nonconformists--that the Vicar (No. +2), who had declined to be nominated as a candidate for election, +should be invited to undertake the religious instruction of the +school. The Vicar consented, and the arrangement worked smoothly for +some years. One day, later, a member rose, and inquired if the +children were receiving religious instruction. "Yes," I said. "Are the +children taught science?" "Yes," again. "Well," said he, "how do you +reconcile the fact, when religion and science are not in agreement?" +Fortunately, I had been lately taking a course of Darwin, and I was +able to refer him to the concluding lines of the _Origin of Species_. +We debated the matter with some energy, but having made his protest, +the member was satisfied to let the matter drop. + +All went well thereafter until we were settled in the new building, +and Vicar No. 3 was in possession of the living. He was young and +inexperienced in the conduct of a parish, and was imbued with ideas of +what he considered a more ornate and elaborate form of worship. +Innovations followed--lighted candles over the altar and the +appointment of a Server at the Communion Service. Almost immediately I +heard objections from the villagers; they could not understand the +necessity for a couple of dim candles in a church on a summer day, +when the whole world outside was ablaze with the glory of the sun. + +A member arose at a Board meeting, and began: "Mr. Chairman, I wish to +draw the attention of the Board to the question of religious +instruction in the school, for I reckon that our children are being +taught a lot of Popery." I could see that he had been in consultation +with other members of the Board, and that he had a majority behind +him. I tried hard to smooth matters over, but they had made up their +minds, and he carried his resolution that, in future, the new Vicar +should be authorized to enter the school for the purpose of religious +instruction only one day a week! I think this small indulgence was +accorded only as a result of my efforts in his favour, though I was by +no means pleased with the innovations myself. + +I put the matter before the Vicar, asking him if he thought his +novelties were worth while in the face of the opposition of the +village and the loss of his religious influence with the children. He +would not go back from what, he said, he regarded as a matter of +principle, and could not see that he was throwing away a unique +opportunity, but he agreed to withdraw the unwelcome Server. + +In spite of the fact that every detail of the new school building had +been submitted to, and approved by, the Education Department, trouble +began with an officious inspector, who on his first visit complained +of the ventilation. An elementary school is never exactly a bed of +roses, but we had a lofty building and classrooms, with plenty of +windows, which could be adjusted to admit as much or as little fresh +air as was requisite. We protested without result, and we had +eventually to pull the new walls about and spend £20 on what we +considered an uncalled-for alteration. + +Our inspectors of schools varied greatly: some were quiet with the +children and considerate with the teachers; others vindicated their +authority by unnecessary fault-finding, upsetting the teachers and +alarming the children. In the days of our voluntary school I have seen +a room full of children in a state of nervous tension, and the +mistress and pupil-teachers in tears, as the result of inconsiderate +reprimands and irritable speech. My sympathies have been strongly +aroused on such occasions with a child's terror of being made an +exhibition before the others. As a boy at Harrow, in the form of the +Rev. F.W. Farrar, afterwards Dean of Canterbury, I had an unpleasant +experience, though it was no fault of his and quite unintentional. The +Russian Government had sent a deputation of two learned professors to +England, to inquire into the educational system of the Public Schools, +with the view of sending a member of the Royal family for education in +this country. Among other schools, they visited Harrow, and Mr. +Farrar's form was one of those selected for inspection. It was the +evening of a winter's day, when, at the four o'clock school, we found +two very formidable-looking old gentlemen in spectacles and many furs +seated near the master's desk. Great was the consternation, but Mr. +Farrar was careful not to call upon any boy who would be likely to +exhibit himself as a failure. I was seated near Mr. Farrar, at one end +of a bench. He had a habit, when wanting to change his position, of +moving quite unconsciously across the intervening space between his +desk and this bench, and placing one foot on the bench close to the +nearest boy, he would, with one hand, play with the boy's hair, while +he held his book in the other. With horror, I found him approaching, +and shortly his hand was on my head, rubbing my hair round and round, +and ruffling it in a fashion very trying to any boy who was neat and +careful of his personal appearance. I could see the Russians staring +through their spectacles at these proceedings; possibly they thought +it a form of punishment unknown in Russia, and my feelings of +humiliation can be imagined. Finally he gave me a smack on the cheek +and retired to his desk, leaving my hair in a state of chaos, though +he had not the least idea of having done anything which might appear +unusual to the foreigners. + +Dear "old Farrar"!--as we irreverently called him--it was an education +in itself to be in his form. I had the uncommon privilege of moving +upwards in the School at very much the same rate as he did as a +master, though I fear for my school reputation none too quickly. He +first kindled my admiration for the classic giants of English +literature, more especially the poets, taught me to appreciate the +rolling periods of Homer, and even the beauty of the characters of the +Greek alphabet. He was a voluminous student of the best in every form +of ancient and modern literature. He always kept a copy of Milton, his +favourite poet I think, on his desk, and, whenever a passage in the +Greek or Latin classics occurred, for which he could produce a +parallel, quoted pages without reference to the book. + +I recall my delight and pride when I was sent on two occasions to the +headmaster, Dr. Butler, the late Master of Trinity, with copies of +original verses; and the honour I felt it to inscribe them, at Mr. +Farrar's request, in a MS. book he kept for the purpose of collecting +approved original efforts in the author's own writing. For it was his +habit once a week to give us subjects for verses or composition. A +unique effort of the Captain of the School cricket eleven, C.F. +Buller, comes back to me as I write; it did not however appear in the +MS. book. The School Chapel was the subject, full of interest and +stirring to the imagination, if only for the aisle to the memory of +Harrow officers who fell in the Crimea. Buller's flight of imagination +was as absurd as it was impertinent: + + "The things in the Chapel nonsense are, + Don't you think so dear Fa_rrar_!" + +Mr. Farrar, however, never took offence at such sallies. I remember, +when he was denouncing the old "yellow back" novels, murmurs becoming +audible, which were intended to reach him, of "Eric! Eric!"--the title +of his early school-boy story--he only smiled in acknowledgment. And +on an April 1st several boys who had plotted beforehand gazed +simultaneously and persistently at a spot on the ceiling, until his +eyes followed theirs unthinkingly in the same direction, when it +occurred to him, as nothing unusual was visible, that it was All +Fools' Day. He was very playful and indulgent; he kept a "squash" +racquet ball on his desk, and could throw it with accurate aim if he +noticed a boy dreaming or inattentive. He would never when scoring the +marks enter a 0, even after an abject failure, always saying, "Give +him a charity 1!" + +Boys are quick judges of sermons: if interested, they listen without +an effort; if not interested, they _cannot_ listen. Whenever Mr. +Farrar's turn came as preacher in the School Chapel there was a subtle +stir and whisper of appreciation, "It's Farrar to-day." He was a +natural orator. I can still hear his magnificent voice swelling in +tones of passionate denunciation decreasing to gentle appeal, and +dying away in tender pathos. This was education in the true sense of +the word, and though I have wandered a long way from my immediate +subject, I feel that the digression is not irrelevant in contrast with +the mechanical instruction that goes by the name of education in the +Board Schools. I cannot help recalling too that in the ancient IVth +Form Room at Harrow, the roughest of old benches were, and I believe +still are, considered good enough for future bishops, judges, and +statesmen; while in the Board Schools expensive polished desks and +seats have to be provided at the cost of the ratepayers to be shortly +kicked to pieces by hobnailed shoes. + +I was present at some amusing incidents in examinations at our village +school. A small boy was commanded by an inspector to read aloud, and +began in the usual child's high-keyed, expressionless, and +unpunctuated monotone: +"I-have-six-little-pigs-two-of-them-are-white-two-of-them-are-black-an +d-two-of-them-are-spotted." "That's not the way to read," interposed +the inspector. "Give me the book." He stood up, striking an attitude, +head thrown well back, and reading with great deliberation and +emphasis: "I have _six_ LITTLE PIGS; two of them are _white_! Two of +them are _black_! and (confidentially) two of them are spot_tered_!" + +I once picked up an elementary reading book in the school, and read as +follows: "Tom said to Jack, 'There is a hayrick down in the meadow; +shall we go and set it on fire?'" And so on, with an account of the +conflagration, highly coloured. So much for town ideas of the +education of country children; the suggestion was enough to bring +about the catastrophe, given the opportunity and a box of matches. + +Some of the inspectors were very agreeable men; they occasionally came +to luncheon at my house, and I once asked where the best-managed +schools were to be found. The reply was, "In parishes where the +voluntary schools still exist, and the feudal system is mildly +administered." + +Our villagers, reading of the large sums that we were obliged to +expend in response to the requirements of the Education Department, +and finding the consequent rates a burden, began to think of economy +and nothing but economy, so that though I had expected them to be only +too anxious to provide the very best possible education for their own +children, it came as a surprise that this was quite a subordinate aim +to that of keeping down the cost. And this was the more unexpected, as +the main cost fell upon the large ratepayers, like myself and the +railway company and the owners of land and cottages rented rate-free. +At the next election several of these economists became candidates, +with the result that many of the original members including myself +were not returned, in spite of the fact that our well-planned and +well-built schools were erected at a lower cost per child than any in +the neighbourhood. I was not sorry to escape from the monotony of +listening to interminable debates as to whether a necessary broom or +such-like trifle should be bought at one shilling or one and +threepence. For this was the kind of subject that the Board could +understand and liked to enlarge upon, while really important proposals +were carried with little consideration. As a matter of fact, members +of a School Board are no more than dummies in the hands of an +inflexible Department, and are appointed to carry out orders and +regulations without the power of modification, even when quite +unsuitable for a country village school. + +There was some little excitement at the election; one of the members +of the old Board had been called "an ignoramus," in the stress of +battle, and being much concerned and mystified asked a neighbour what +the term signified, adding, no doubt thinking of a hippopotamus, that +he believed it was some kind of animal! His knowledge of zoology was +probably as limited as that disclosed by the following story: + + A menagerie was on view at Evesham, to the great joy of many + juveniles as well as older people, for such exhibitions were + not very common in the town. Very early next morning, a + farmer, living about two miles from Aldington, was awakened + by a shower of small stones on his bedroom window. Looking + out he saw his shepherd in much excitement and alarm. "Oh + master, master, there's a beast with two tails, one in front + and one behind, a-pullin' up the mangolds, and a-eatin' of + 'em!" The farmer hurried to the spot and saw an African + elephant which had escaped during the night; he was + wondering how to proceed when two keepers appeared and the + strange beast was led quietly back to the town. + +As chairman of our School Board I early recognized among the members +discoverers of mare's-nests, who lost no opportunity of exhibiting +their own importance by intruding such matters into the already +overflowing _agenda_, and my method of dealing with them was so +successful, though I believe not original, that it may be found useful +by those called upon to preside over any of the multitudinous councils +now in existence. Whenever the member produced his cherished +discovery--generally very shadowy as to detail--I proposed the +appointment of a subcommittee, consisting of him and his sympathizers, +to inquire into the matter, and report at the next Board meeting. In +this way I shunted the bother of the investigation of usually some +trifle or unsubstantiated opinion on to his own shoulders, so that, +when he realized the time and trouble involved, he became much less +interested, and we heard very little more of the subject. + +I suppose that everybody living in a country parish, who can look back +over the period of fifty years of compulsory education, would agree +that the results are insignificant in comparison with the effort, and +one cannot help wondering whether, after all, they justify the +gigantic cost. We appear to have tried to build too quickly on an +insecure foundation. Nature produces no permanent work in a hurry, and +Art is a blind leader unless she submits to Nature's laws. The pace +has been too great, and the fabric which we have reared is already +showing the defects in its construction. + +How otherwise can we account for the littleness of the men +representing "the people," who have been rushed into the big +positions, and for the vulgarity of the present age? Vulgarity in +public worship; vulgarity in the manners, the speeches, and the ideals +of the House of Commons; vulgarity in "literature," on the stage, in +music, in the studio, and in a section of the Press; vulgarity in +building and the desecration of beautiful places; vulgarity in form +and colour of dress and decoration. We are far behind the design and +construction of the domestic furniture of 150 years ago, and we have +never equalled the architecture of the earliest periods, for stability +and stateliness. + +The skim milk seems to have come to the top and the cream has gone to +the bottom, as the result of the contravention of the laws of +evolution, and the failure to perceive the analogy between the +simplest methods of agriculture, and the cultivation of mentality. We +have expected fruit and flowers from waste and untilled soil; we sowed +the seed of instruction without even ploughing the land, or +eradicating the prominent weeds, and we are reaping a crop of thistles +where we looked for figs, and thorns where we looked for grapes. The +seed scattered so lavishly by the wayside was devoured by the fowls of +the air; that which was sown upon the stony places, where there was +not much earth, could not withstand the heat of summer; and that which +fell among thorns was choked by the unconquered possessors of the +field. A little, a very little, which "fell into good ground brought +forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold"; +and therein lies our only consolation. + +The educational enthusiasts of 1870 forgot that the material they had +to work upon did not come from inherited refinement and intelligence; +that it was evolved from a parentage content with a vocabulary of some +500 words; that there was little nobility of home influence to assist +in the process of development; they crammed it with matter which it +could not assimilate, they took it from the open country air and the +sunshine, confined it in close and crowded school-rooms, and produced +what we see everywhere at the present time, at the cost of physical +deterioration--a diseased and unsettled mentality. + +I am aware that there are those who decline to admit any influence of +mental heredity, and argue that environment is the only factor to be +considered. In a clever and well-reasoned work on the subject I lately +read, this proposition was substantiated by instances observable +especially among birds brought up in unnatural conditions. The writer, +however, entirely forgot the most conclusive piece of evidence in +favour of mental heredity which it is possible to adduce--namely, that +of the brood of ducklings, who, in spite of the unmistakable +manifestations of alarm on the part of a frantic foster-mother hen, +take to the water and enjoy it on the very first opportunity. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + + +VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS: CRICKET--FOOTBALL--FLOWERSHOW--BAND--POSTMAN-- +CONCERTS. + + "There is sweet music here that softer falls + Than petals from blown roses on the grass." + _The Lotus-Eaters_. + +Among village institutions a cricket club was started soon after I +first came, and I was able to lend a meadow in which the members could +play. I held the sinecure office of President. The members met, +discussed ways and means, drew up regulations, and instituted fines +for various delinquencies. Swearing was expensive at threepence each +time, but there was no definition of what were to be considered "swear +words." Locally, a usual expletive is, "daazz it," or, "I'll be +daazzed," and it was not long before a member making use of this +euphemism was accused of swearing. He protested that it was not +recognized by philological authorities as coming under the category, +but he had to pay up. + +A village cricket match was regarded more as a contest than a pastime; +each side feared the censure of his parish, if conquered, so nothing +had to be given away likely to prove an advantage to an opposing team. +I once saw a member snatch a bat belonging to his own club from one of +the other side who was about to appropriate it for his innings with, +"No you don't." How different is the feeling, and how ready to help, a +member of a really sporting team would have been in similar +circumstances! Referring to help or advice in cricket matters, a story +is told of the late Dr. W.G. Grace. The incident happened in an +adjoining county to Worcestershire. The great batsman, crossing +Clifton Down, came upon some boys at cricket. Three sticks represented +the wickets, arranged so wide apart that the ball could pass through +without disturbing them. Ever ready to help, Dr. Grace pointed out the +fault and readjusted the sticks; as he turned away he heard, "What +does 'e know about it, I wonder!" + +This carries me to a parallel happening at Stratford-on-Avon. The late +Sir Henry Irving and a friend fell in with a native on the outskirts +of the town, and being anxious to test the local reputation of the +poet asked the man if he had heard of a person named Shakespeare. The +man assented and volunteered the information that he was a writer. Did +he "know what Shakespeare had written?" Their informant could not say, +but, a moment after they had parted, he called back that he believed +he had written "part of the Bible." + +An ancient villager, who was secretary of our Club and always acted as +umpire, gave me "out," incorrectly, for accidentally touching the +wicket when the ball was "dead." I retired without contesting his +decision, as I had been taught. Next time we met he apologized, having +discovered his mistake, but he was greatly impressed by my practical +example of "playing the game." + +Cricket, though popular in my first years at Aldington, gradually +became difficult to arrange. As the market-garden industry superseded +farming, the young men found full employment for the long summer +evenings on their allotments and those of their parents. In the +winter, when horticultural work is not so pressing, they had plenty of +time on their hands, and a football club was formed. It flourished +exceedingly, and Badsey became almost invincible among the +neighbouring villages and even against the towns. They distinguished +themselves in the local League matches, and on one occasion, something +like two thousand spectators assembled to witness a final which Badsey +won, in the meadow I lent them; and I had the honour of presiding at a +grand dinner to celebrate the event. I notice in the local papers that +in spite of the interruption of the war they are now again thriving +and earning new laurels. + +Our most important fête day was that upon which the Badsey, Aldington, +and Wickhamford Flower Show was held. The credit, for the original +inception and organization of this popular festival, is almost +entirely due, I think, to the public spirit and determination of my +old friend and co-churchwarden, Mr. Julius Sladden, of Badsey, and it +gives me much pleasure to record the debt of gratitude which the three +villages still owe him. + +The Show is held as nearly as possible on the day of the ancient +Badsey wake, in most parishes still celebrated on the day of the +patron saint. In the case of Badsey the anniversary of the wake is the +25th of July (St. James's day). As a wake Badsey's observance is a +thing of the past; it was formerly a time of much cider-drinking, a +meeting-day for friends and relations, and for various trials of +strength and skill, though I believe the carousals outlasted the +sports by many years. + +Nothing happier, in the way of a revival, and more civilized +enjoyment, could have been devised than a flower show, and it is now +one of the most popular fixtures of the neighbourhood with exceedingly +keen competition. Besides fruit, flowers, and vegetables, the exhibits +include such produce as butter and eggs, and my wife was very +successful with these, but on one occasion was rather disappointed to +find a beautiful dish of Langshan eggs, almost preternaturally brown +and rich-looking, disqualified. The judges were not acquainted with +the peculiarities of the breed--then a new one--and the reason for +disqualification, as we afterwards discovered, was "artificially +coloured." I believe exhibitors have been known to use coffee for this +purpose, and the judges, who had not the exhibitors' names before +them, fancied this to be an instance. + +The children's exhibits of wild flower bouquets I always considered at +this and similar shows far the most interesting and beautiful among +the flowers; but, unfortunately, they very soon droop in a hot tent +and look rather unhappy. + +Aldington Band was the outcome of a desire for musical expression on +the part of a few parishioners with some skill and experience in such +matters; it included performers on wind instruments and a big drum. +The Band was unfortunate at first in purchasing instruments of +differing pitch, as was discovered by my wife on attending a practice +at the request of the members. She pointed out the fault, and found an +instructor from Evesham to give them a course of lessons, so that with +a new set of instruments they soon improved. It was difficult, at +first, to find a suitable place for practice. A neighbour, a little +doubtful as to their attainments, suggested the railway arch in one of +my meadows as a nice airy spot under cover, but later expressed doubts +as to the safety of the trains running overhead on account of the +violence of the commotion beneath! This, of course, was mere chaff, +for they soon became so efficient that a large room was found for them +in the village, and eventually they were annually engaged to perform +the musical programme at the Badsey, Aldington, and Wickhamford Flower +Show. My gardener was the leading spirit of the Band, a great optimist +and the most willing man of any who ever reigned in my garden. There +was nothing he would not cheerfully undertake, and when we had a +difficulty in finding a sweep as required, he volunteered for the work +and became quite an adept, with the set of rods and brushes I bought +for the purpose. + +Our postman, though not a villager, was quite an institution; he +walked a matter of ten miles a day from Evesham to Bretforton, taking +Aldington and Badsey on the way, and back at night. He filled up the +interval between the incoming and outgoing posts at Bretforton, +working at his trade as tailor. Entering our village each evening, he +announced his arrival by three blasts on his tin horn; he was very shy +of being observed in this performance, and the people had to catch him +as he passed and hand him their letters. He must have walked nearly +100,000 miles in the many years he was our postman, and he told me +before I left that more letters were addressed to the Manor when I +first came, than to all the rest of the houses in the village +together. When correspondence became more general a pillar-box was +erected, but I always regretted the loss of the familiar notes of the +tin horn. + +Among Aldington's amusements no account would be complete without a +reference to the numerous concerts and entertainments for charitable +objects which my wife organized, and in which her musical talent +enabled her to take a prominent part; and although I feel some +hesitation in dealing with so personal a matter, I am certain that +many of those who co-operated with her in the organization and the +performance of these affairs will be pleased to have their +recollections of her own part in them revived. + +She possessed a natural soprano voice of great sweetness and +flexibility, in combination with the sympathetic ability and clear +enunciation which add so much to the charm of vocal expression. She +was not allowed to begin singing, in earnest, before she was nineteen, +for fear of straining so delicate a voice, and she then had the +advantage of the tuition of Signor Caravoglia, one of the most +celebrated teachers of the time. + +His method included deliberation in taking breath, thorough opening of +the mouth, practice before a mirror to produce a pleasing effect, and +to avoid facial contortion; he would not allow any visible effort, the +aim being to sing as naturally and spontaneously as a bird. His wife +played the accompaniments, so that the master could give his whole +attention to the attitude, production, and facial expression of the +pupil. + +Signer Caravoglia only consented to teach her on the express condition +that she would not sing in choruses, on account of the danger of +strain and overexertion. She practised regularly, chiefly exercises, +two hours a day in separate half hours. Her talent was soon recognized +at Malvern, where she lived before her marriage, and her assistance +was in great demand for amateur charity concerts. + +I have a book full of newspaper reports of my wife's performances, +containing notices of concerts at Malvern repeatedly, Kidderminster, +Worcester, at Birmingham under the auspices of the Musical Section of +the Midland Institute--a very great honour before a highly critical +audience--Alcester, Pershore, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Evesham, Broadway, +Badsey, Wallingford, and a great many villages in the Evesham +district. At Moreton she sang for the local Choral Society, taking the +soprano solos in the first part of Haydn's _Spring_, and the local +paper reported that her "birdlike voice added much to the beauty of +the cantata." In the second part of the concert she gave _The Bird +that came in Spring_, by Sterndale Bennett. I was always a little +nervous during this song in anticipation of the upper C towards the +finale, but it never failed to come true and brilliant. As we were +leaving by train the following morning we met a dear old musician who +had taken part in the chorus of the cantata. He begged to be +introduced to her, and said in his hearty congratulations on her +performance, that never before had such a note been heard in Moreton. + +At one of the Broadway concerts my wife had the pleasure of meeting +Miss Maude Valerie White, who was playing the accompaniments for +performers of her own compositions, including _The Devout Lover_, +which, she told Miss White, she considered one of the best songs in +the English language, at the same time asking for her autograph. Miss +White was kind enough to write her signature with the MS. music of the +first phrase--notes and words--of the song in a book which my wife +kept for the autographs of distinguished musicians and celebrated +people. + +While at Malvern my wife once heard Jenny Lind in public, and she +describes it as a most memorable occasion. + +Jenny Lind had for some years retired from public performance, but +consented to reappear at the request of a deputation of railway +employees anxious to arrange a concert in aid of the widows and +orphans of officials killed in a recent railway accident. She +stipulated that she should sing in two duets only, choosing the other +voice herself, and she selected Miss Hilda Wilson, the well-known +contralto of that time. + +They sang two duets by Rubinstein, one being _The Song of the Summer +Birds_, full of elaborate execution. Her voice was so true, sweet and +flexible, trilling and warbling like a bird, and taking the A flat as +a climax of delight at the conclusion with the greatest ease, that +with closed eyes it might have been taken for the effort of a young +girl. + +Jenny Lind was over seventy at the time; she was erect, tall, and +graceful; she wore a black dress with a good deal of white lace, and a +white lace cap. She was then Madame Otto Goldschmidt, living at the +Wynd's Point on the Herefordshire Beacon of the Malvern Range, and had +long been known as the "Swedish Nightingale." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + + +DEALERS--LUCK MONEY--FAIRS--SALES--EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON CATTLE AND +SHEEP--AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. + + "I'll give thrice so much land + To any well-deserving friend; + But in the way of bargain, mark ye me, + I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair." + --_1 Henry IV_. + +Dealers of all kinds were much more frequent callers at farm-houses in +the early days of my farming, than latterly when auction sales, to +some extent, superseded private negotiations, but the horse-dealer +remained constant, because comparatively few horses were offered by +auction. The horse-dealers appeared to conform to an understanding +that it was a breach of etiquette to exceed certain well-marked +boundaries in their search for purchases, or to interfere in each +other's business. This principle was carried so far as to prevent +dealers from one of these "countries" purchasing a horse at a fair +coming from another dealer's "country," and the understanding of +course minimized competition likely to raise the price. The dealers +however I think, gave fair values, governed for the most part by the +prices obtainable by them in the large towns. + +Most of my horses, when for sale, were bought by a man in a +considerable way of business, a well-known breeder, too, of shire +horses, taking many prizes at the leading shows. A handsome man with a +presence, and an excellent judge, shrewd but straight. He would ask +the price after examining the animal, and make an offer which he would +very seldom exceed if refused at first; but he would spend some time +in conversation, apparently quite irrelevant and very amusing, though +always returning to the point at intervals with arguments in favour of +the acceptance of his bid. He was so genial and pleasant and such good +company, for no man was ever better acquainted with the ways of the +world, that he very rarely, I think, left the premises without a deal, +though sometimes he was in his gig before the final bargain was +struck. It is a custom of the trade for the seller to give something +back to the buyer by way of "luck money," and the last time I did +business with him I refused to give more than one shilling each on two +horses, as I never received more than that sum when a buyer myself. He +accepted cheerfully, telling me that a shilling each was quite worth +taking, as he had a thousand horses through his hands in the course of +every twelve months, and that a thousand shillings meant £50 a year. + +The best piece of horse-dealing I ever did, was the purchase of a six +months old colt for £26, winning £20 in prizes with him as a +two-year-old, working him regularly at three and four on the farm, and +selling him at five for eighty guineas to a large brewery firm. Eighty +guineas in those days was a big price for a cart horse, though, of +course, in modern times, owing to the war, much higher prices can be +obtained. + +I remember another dealer, who, a notable figure in a white top hat +with a deep black band, and large coloured spectacles, was to be seen +at all the fairs and principal sales. He, too, had an ingratiating +manner, and would accost a young farmer with a hearty, "Good-morning, +Squire," or some such flattering introduction. A wise dealer always +knows how to keep up amicable relations with a possible seller or +buyer, and never descends to abuse, or the assumption of a personal +injury if he cannot persuade a seller to accept his price, as is the +case with some dealers with less _savoir faire_. + +A successful cattle dealer I knew had similar tactics of fraternity, +always addressing his sellers as "Governor," with marked respect. But +the best instance of this diplomatic spirit occurred in the case of a +deal between an old Hampshire friend of mine and a well-known and +historic sheep dealer from the same county. My friend had lately +become the happy father of twins, the fact being widely known in the +neighbourhood, for he was a very prominent man. He had 100 sheep for +sale, and the dealer was inspecting them, in a pen near the house. As +the bargain proceeded, the front door opened, and a nurse-maid +appeared with the twins in their perambulator. The dealer noticed them +immediately, and was not slow to turn the incident to his advantage. +"There they be, there they be, the little darlings," he called out, "a +sovereign apiece nurse, a sovereign apiece." Diving into a capacious +pocket, he pulled out a handful of gold and silver, and selecting two +sovereigns he handed them to the nurse for the children. "After that," +my friend said, "what could I do but sell him the sheep, though he got +them at two shillings a head less than I ought to have made." Now two +shillings a head, on one hundred sheep, represents ten pounds, leaving +eight pounds which the dealer earned by his keen insight into human +nature. + +This dealer carried on business with a brother, and they were to be +seen for very many years at all the large Hampshire summer sheep +fairs, where indeed, sometimes, when prices were rising, they owned +nearly all the sheep offered for sale, having bought them up +beforehand. As in a favourable summer when there was plenty of keep +and a good prospect of abundant roots prices would rise as much as +10s. a head during the months of the big fairs, and as at a single +fair as many as 30,000 sheep would be for sale, the chances of profit +offered to the courageous dealer with capital are manifest. + +Though risen from small beginnings, these brothers amassed +considerable fortunes, all of which, it was said, they invested in +real estate, so that they were known at one time to be worth at least +£100,000; and, as they continued in business for some years after the +time of which I am writing, they must have exceeded that sum +considerably as a total, though the values of land began to fall away +towards the end of their active existence. + +The more energetic of the two used very original phrases, in which he +extolled the physical virtues of flocks he had to sell; referring to +their size, he would say, "Just look at their backs! look at their +backs! they be as long as a wet Sunday!" Watching him, you could see +that while giving full attention to his customer, and keeping him in a +good humour with pleasant chat, while a bargain was proceeding, his +glance perpetually wandered to the moving crowd around the pens, and +that he had not only eyes, but ears, open to catch any impression +bearing on the progress of the general trade. He knew everybody, and +intuition told him upon what business they were present. + +These two dealers combined money-lending with sheep-dealing; if a +buyer had not the ready cash they would give credit for the purchase +price, the sheep forming the security; it being understood that when +they were again for sale the lenders should have the selling of them +on commission. + +Speaking of horse-dealers I referred to the custom of giving "luck +money," otherwise called "chap money." The word "chap" takes its +derivation from the Anglo-Saxon _ceap_ price or bargain, and +_ceapean_, to bargain, whence come the words "chop," to exchange; +"cheap," "Cheapside," "Mealcheapen Street" in Worcester, "cheapjack," +etc. Also, the prefix in the names of market towns, such as Chipping +Campden, Chipping Norton, etc. There is a curious place-name here in +Burley, New Forest, where I am now living, spelt "Shappen," which +puzzled me until I chanced to meet with an ancient print of a village +merry-making, with dancing and a May-pole and found that the name +Shappen applied especially to the spot, and that not far away the +Forest ponies and cattle were formerly penned for sale at an annual +fair in a lane, still called Pound Lane "Pound" is from the +Anglo-Saxon _pund_, a fold or inclosure. Shappen is evidently, +therefore, derived from _ceap_ (and possibly _pund_) as a place in +which bargains were struck, and the name testifies to the extreme +antiquity of the New Forest pony and cattle fair formerly held there. + +There are several notable horse fairs still held near Evesham. Besides +the one at Pershore, already mentioned, the most important fairs are +held at Stow-on-the-Wold and Shipston-on-Stour, both very +out-of-the-way places; and many stories of the wiles of horse-copers +were related in connection therewith. I remember the following told as +occurring at Stow-on-the-Wold. A man approached a simple-looking young +farmer, and getting into conversation with him, pointed out a horse +not far off, telling him that he had quarrelled with the owner who +refused in consequence to sell him the horse which he wished to buy. +He promised the farmer £2 if he would undertake the negotiation, and +could buy the horse for £10. The farmer agreed, and after some +apparent difficulty succeeded in effecting the purchase at the sum +named, paid the money and returned with the horse to the place where +he had left his acquaintance. The latter, however, had disappeared, +and after searching the fair from one end to the other, the farmer +took back the horse, to repudiate the bargain. The owner had also +vanished, and the farmer found himself with an ancient screw, which +eventually he was glad to get rid of at a pound a leg, losing £6 on +the deal. + +There are small pig-dealers, in almost every village, on the lookout +for bargains, and very cute men they generally are. One of these +well-known at Aldington, though nearly blind, could tell the points +and value of any pig in a marvellous way almost by intuition; it was +said of him that, "though blind, he was a better judge of a pig than +most folks with their eyes open." + +At farm and other auction sales there are always anxious buyers who +make a practice of trying to depreciate ("crabbing," as it is called) +any article or property they particularly wish to purchase, by making +damaging statements or insinuations to anybody whom, they fear, is +also a probable buyer. At a sale of cottage property adjoining a +public-house, in a village not far from Aldington, a keen purchaser +remarked that there was no water on the premises. The auctioneer, +however, knowing that water was not his man's strong point, +immediately replied, "Oh, never mind the water, sir, there's plenty of +whisky to be had next door." At another property sale, the tenant of +the house on offer, gratuitously informed me that the roof was in a +very bad state; knowing my man, I was not surprised when the house was +knocked down to him, but I never saw any repairs to the roof in +progress afterwards. + +A friend of mine had a caretaker in an empty house, and, finding that +no applications to view ever got beyond that stage, called at the +house with his wife, ostensibly as intending tenants. He was not +personally known to the caretaker, and on making the usual inquiries, +found the man by no means enthusiastic as to the amenities of the +place, and particularly doubtful as to the drainage, so much so as to +make it plain that any otherwise likely tenant would be repelled. +Knowing that all the sanitary arrangements were in perfect order, he +disclosed his identity, much to the dismay of the caretaker who, of +course, was dismissed. + +The person who asks damaging questions of the auctioneer or solicitor +at a property sale, though perhaps not declared the buyer on the fall +of the hammer, not infrequently proves later to have been so, having +employed an agent to bid for him. + +At a sale of farm stock and implements I was examining a waggon +practically new, though with no intention of buying, when I was +surprised by a cousin of the vendor volunteering the statement that, +having lately borrowed the waggon, he noticed one of the wheels giving +out a suspicious noise when in use, as if something were wrong. This +was a particularly bad case of "crabbing," as the man eventually +became the purchaser at a high price. + +It is an alarming sensation to see one's name on a waggon for the +first time, especially when the vehicle has been wholly repainted in +blue or yellow to represent the owner's supposed political tendencies, +for such was the custom in Worcestershire; but perhaps one's name, +address, and crest on a hop-pocket is more alarming still, when we +remember that twenty or more of these pockets, all marked alike, will +form each of several loads to be carted from a London railway station +to the Borough, the seat of the hop-trade, on the way to the factor's +warehouses, for all beholders to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly +digest." + +In the delightful and now somewhat rare book _Talpa; or, The +Chronicles of a Clay Farm_, by Chandos Wren Hoskins, one of the few +agricultural works ever written by a scholar, he refers to his first +experience of this sort, when speaking of his difficulty in making up +his mind as to whether he should let the property into which he had +just come by inheritance, or occupy it himself, as follows: + + "What was to be done? Apostatize from all the promises and + vows made from my youth up, and take it _in hand_--that is, + in a bailiff's hand, which certain foregone experiences had + led me to conceive was of all things the most _out of hand_ + (if that may be called so, which empties the hand and the + pocket too). Such seemed the only alternative! At first it + was an impossibility--then an improbability--and then, as + the ear of bearded corn wins its forbidden way up the + schoolboy's sleeve, and gains a point in advance by every + effort to stop or expel it, so did every determination, + every reflection counteract the very purpose it was summoned + to oppose, and, in short, one fine morning I almost jumped a + yard backward at seeing--my own name on a waggon!" + +The reference to a bailiff reminds me of my father's illustration, one +evening at dessert, of the difference between a farmer selling his +produce personally, or doing so through the medium of a bailiff. +Taking three wine-glasses--No. 1 representing the farmer, No. 2 the +bailiff, and No. 3 the purchaser--he filled No. 1 with port and poured +the contents into No. 3; what few drops were left in No. 1 remained +the property of the farmer. But if the wine were poured into No. 2, +and from thence into No. 3, however much the complete transference was +attempted, some small portion always remained for the benefit of the +intermediary. + +I always conducted my sales personally, except in small matters, and +my experience in the latter proved an exception to the above rule, as +I have previously related (pp. 17 and 20). + +I commend _Talpa_, with George Cruikshank's clever illustrations, to +the attention of all readers of the curiosities of agriculture, as +well as to practical men; it is one of those uncommon books which +enters into the humorous side of farming under disadvantages--as, for +instance, prejudiced labourers who have long been employed upon such +work as draining. The author found one of the men, after instructions +to lay the pipes at a depth of three feet, cutting a drain about +eighteen inches deep, _laying in the tiles, one by one, and filling +the earth in over them as he went_. "I've been a-draining this forty +year and more--I ought to know summat about it." The author adds, +"Need I tell you who said this? or give you the whole of the colloquy +to which it furnished the epilogue?" _Talpa_ was published sixty-seven +years ago, but it contains much that might well be taken to heart by +our post-war amateur agricultural reconstructionists. + +The tactics of a combination of buyers at a sale of household goods, +with an arrangement for one man to buy everything they want, so as to +avoid competition, is well known as "the knock out." I saw a most +flagrant case at a sale of valuable books at an old Cotswold Manor +House. The books were tied up, quite promiscuously, in parcels of half +a dozen or more, and although the room was crowded with dealers who +had been examining them with interest beforehand, practically only one +bidder appeared, and nearly every lot was sold to him for a few +shillings. I noticed several men taking notes of the prices made, and, +immediately the book sale was finished, they removed them to the lawn, +where they were resold by one of the gang at greatly enhanced prices. +They would, of course, eventually deduct the original cost from the +amount now realized and divide the difference amongst the buyers at +the second sale, _pro rata_, according to the amount of each man's +total purchases. + +Cattle-dealers, with a reputation as judges of fat stock at auctions, +have to be very careful not to let inexperienced butchers see them +bidding, because the latter will bid on the strength of the dealer's +estimate of value, arguing that the animal must be worth more to +himself as a butcher, than to the dealer who has to sell again. I have +often watched the crafty ways of such dealers not to give themselves +away in this manner, and their methods of concealing their bids. One I +particularly noticed, whose habit was to stand just below the +auctioneer's rostrum, facing the animal in the ring, with his back to +the auctioneer. When he wished to bid he raised his head very +slightly, making a nod backwards to the auctioneer, who, knowing his +man, was looking out for this method of attracting his attention. + +Though the ordinary farm sale is by far the most amusing and +picturesque, the sale of pedigree stock is much more sensational. When +the shorthorn mania was at its height, and the merits of Bates and +Booth blood were hotly debated, when such phrases as "the sea-otter +touch," referring to the mossy coat of the red, white, or roan +shorthorn, were heard, and the Americans were competing with our own +breeders in purchasing the best stock they could find--prices were +hoisted to an extravagant height. There is no forming a "knock-out" at +a pedigree sale; sturdy competition is the only recognized method of +purchase, and the sporting spirit is a strong incentive, especially +when the vendor is known as a courageous buyer at the sales of the +leading breeders. + +I attended the dispersal of a herd where the owner had been for years +one of these sporting buyers; he had, however, gone more for catalogue +blue-blood than perceptible excellence, and the stock were brought +into the ring scarcely up to the exhibition form which a pedigree sale +demands. The American buyers were well represented, and the popularity +of the vendor brought a great crowd of home buyers, so that the sale +went off with spirit. I chanced to sit next to the veterinary surgeon +who attended my own stock as well as the herd on offer, and it was +amusing to hear his confidential communications as the animals were +sold at huge prices. He knew their faults and weaknesses +professionally, and it was no breach of confidence, when a cow had +passed through the ring and extracted a big figure from an American +buyer, to whisper them in my ear. I noticed that the Americans, no +doubt with commissions to buy a particular strain of pedigree, +appeared to pay more attention to the catalogue than to the cattle +themselves, and I saw some sold at fancy prices, which I should really +have been sorry to see in my own non-pedigree herd. The sale was a +great success, from the vendor's point of view at any rate, and I +think the average exceeded seventy guineas all round, including calves +only a few months old. + +Some years later I visited Shipston-on-Stour with two friends to +attend a shorthorn sale in that neighbourhood. Mr. Thornton, the +well-known pedigree salesman, was the auctioneer. He waited about for +a long time after the hour fixed for the sale, until it became evident +that something had gone wrong. It appeared that the sheriff's +representative had served a writ on the vendor restraining the sale, +and although it was stated that Thornton had offered a personal +guarantee that the proceeds should be handed over to the sheriff, the +representative could not exceed his instructions, and the sale was +abandoned. A large company, including many foreign buyers, had +assembled; it was difficult to get these together at a postponement, +and when the sale was proceeded with some weeks later, I fear the +result could scarcely have proved so satisfactory. + +The Vale of Evesham is particularly suitable for pedigree shorthorn +breeding, as the soil and climate are very favourable for their +production according to exhibition type. It is otherwise with the +Jersey, for they quickly adapt themselves to the difference in their +environment as compared with the conditions in their native Channel +Island. When I exchanged my shorthorns for Jerseys, owing to the +foreign competition in the production of beef, which at sevenpence a +pound compared unfavourably with butter at fifteenpence, I imported my +cows direct from the Island, and afterwards bred from their +descendants, selling the bull calves, and occasionally buying a young +bull from Jersey. The blood was therefore kept absolutely pure, and, +as I was a member of the English Jersey Society, all my stock were +entered in the Herd Book. + +As time went on my cattle presented a noticeable change from the +original type; they were larger, developing much more hair and bone, +and though they gained in strength of constitution, and were handsome +and profitable, they gradually lost the dainty deer-like appearance of +the imported stock; and though quite as valuable for the purposes of +the dairy, they would have been regarded in the show ring by +connoisseurs as having a tendency to coarseness. I was, at first, +successful at the shows, but as the character of my cattle altered I +recognized that they would stand no chance against Jerseys bred on +lighter land, and in a climate more nearly approximating to that of +their native country. + +Precisely the same thing happened with my pedigree Shropshire sheep; +environment altered their character and produced a different +type--bone, wool, and size all increased. The wool was coarser and +darker in colour; they were good, useful, hardy stock, but could not +compete in quality with the pedigree sheep bred in their own county. +No pedigree Shropshire breeder will, as a rule, buy rams bred outside +his own district, for fear of introducing coarseness and an alteration +of the established exhibition type. + +An amusing incident happened at Mr. Graham's sale at Yardley near +Birmingham, at which I was present. Mr. Graham had a reputation as a +Shropshire sheep-breeder; though not actually farming in the county, +his land was not unsuitable, and, on one occasion, I believe, he won +the first prize for a shearling ram at the show of the Royal +Agricultural Society of England. + +I noticed a very non-agricultural individual in a top hat, who tried +to get into conversation with me and who succeeded in getting a +luncheon ticket gratis. These sale luncheons were at the time very +bountiful spreads, including plenty of champagne, and the man under my +observation made a very hearty meal. Short speeches and toasts always +follow, but an adjournment is quickly made to the sale tent, before +the evaporation of the effects of the hospitality. It is the custom +for a glove to be passed round to collect subscriptions for the +shepherd, during the progress of the sale, and on this occasion two +young fellows undertook the duty of collectors. The man, who had done +himself so well at Mr. Graham's expense, was evidently not buying or +even making bids, and to each of the collectors he said he had already +contributed to the other. Being suspicious they compared notes, and +found that he had made the same excuse to both. Such meanness after +the hospitality he had received was intolerable; shouting, "He's a +Welsher," they lifted him bodily, protesting and struggling, rushed +him out of the tent into a neighbouring field, and cast him into a +dirty pond covered with green and slimy duckweed! A miserable object +he scrambled out, for the pond was shallow, and took his dishevelled +and bedraggled presence away as fast as he could limp along, amid the +laughter and jeers of the crowd. + +The Hampshire Down ram sales in the palmy days of farming were +organized upon the same scale of liberality, and while the sale was +proceeding steam was kept up by handing round boxes of sixpenny +cigars, and brandy and water in buckets. It is, of course, good policy +to keep a company of buyers in good humour, but I think it has long +since been recognized that hospitality was carried a little too far in +those times of prosperity, and, in these degenerate if more +business-like days, extravagance is much less evident, though there is +a hearty welcome and abundance for all. + +Agricultural shows under favourable weather conditions are always +popular and well-attended. The large exhibitions of the Royal +Agricultural Society of England, the Bath and West of England, and the +Royal Counties, especially attract immense crowds; much business in +novel implements, machinery, seeds, and artificial fertilizers, was +done when times were good, and the towns in which the shows are held +benefit by a large increase in general trade. The weather, however, is +the arbiter as to the attendance, upon which the financial result of +the show depends. + +In 1879, the last of the miserable decade that ruined thousands of +farmers all over the country with almost continuous wet seasons, poor +crops, and wretched prices, the Royal Agricultural Society held its +show at Kilburn. The ground had been carefully prepared and adapted +for the great show with the usual liberal outlay; the work for next +year's show always commencing as soon as the show of the current year +is over; but the site was situated on the stiff London clay, and, +after weeks of summer rains and the traffic caused by collecting the +heavy engines and machinery and the materials used in the construction +of the sheds and buildings, the ground was churned into a quagmire of +clay and water, so that in places it was impassable, and some of the +exhibits were isolated. Thousands of wattled hurdles were purchased in +Hampshire, and laid flat on the mud along the main routes to the tents +and sheds, but they were quickly trodden in out of sight. Many +ponderous engines were bogged on their way to their appointed places; +nothing could move them, and they remained looking like derelict +wrecks, plastered with mud, sunk unevenly above the axles of their +wheels. + +I attended the show and shall never forget the scene of disaster. One +afternoon the Prince of Wales--the late King Edward--and a Royal party +made a gallant attempt, in carriages, to see the principal exhibits, +and succeeded, by following a carefully selected and guarded route. +The crowd was dense by the side of the track, and people were making a +harvest by letting out chairs to stand on, so as to get a view of the +procession, with cries of, "'Ere you are, sir; 'ere you are, warranted +not to sink in more than a mile!" Outside the show-yard, too, the +streets were lined with long rows of nondescripts, scraping the +adhesive clay off the shoes of the people leaving the show. + +I had a pocket of my hops on exhibition entered in the Worcester +class, and had great difficulty in getting near it. I found the shed +at last, deserted and surrounded by water, with a pool below the +benches on which the hops were staged. My pocket was sold straight +from the show-yard, and when my factor sent in the account, I found +that the pocket had gained no less than seventeen pounds from the damp +to which it had been subjected since it left my premises, about ten +days previously; hops, at that time, were worth about 1s. a pound, so +that the increased value more than balanced all expenses. + +A story is told of Tennyson at the Royal Counties show at Guildford. +Accompanied by a lady and child he was walking round the exhibits, +closely followed by an ardent admirer, anxious to catch any nights of +fancy that might fall from his lips. Time passed, and the poet showed +no signs of inspiration until the party approached a refreshment tent; +then, to the lady he said, to the astonishment of the follower, "Just +look after this child a minute while I go and get a glass of beer!" I +cannot vouch for the truth of this story, but I tell the tale as 'twas +told to me. + +It is surprising how long farm implements will last if kept in the dry +and repaired when necessary. I remember a waggon at Alton in the +seventies, which bore the name of the original owner and the date +1795; it was still in use. When I decided to give up farming, or +rather, when farming had given up me, I disposed of my stock and +implements by the usual auction sale. The attraction of a pedigree +herd of Jerseys, and a useful lot of horses and implements, brought a +large company together, and Aldington was a lively place that day. I +was talking to my son-in-law some time afterwards, and spoke with +amusement about the price an old iron Cambridge roller had made, not +in the least knowing who was the purchaser, until he said, "And _I was +the mug_ who bought it!" I believe, however, that a year or two later +it fully maintained its price when valued to the next owner, and +probably to-day it must be worth at least three times the money. I can +trace its history for a period of fifty-three years, and I don't think +it was new at the beginning. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + + +FARM SPECIALISTS. + + "And who that knew him could forget + The busy wrinkles round his eyes." + --_The Miller's Daughter_. + +Many specialists, in distinct professions, visited the farm in the +course of every twelve months, and each appeared at the season when +his particular services were likely to be required. Among these an +ancient grafter was one of the most important, and April was the month +which brought him to Aldington. In January we had usually beheaded +some trees that we considered not worth leaving as they were: these +would be trees producing inferior and nondescript cider apples, or +perry pears. And we had already cut, and laid in a shady place, half +covered with soil, the young shoots of profitable sorts to furnish the +grafts for converting the beheaded trees into valuable producers. + +The old man's function was to prepare the grafts, and unite them in +deftly-cut notches with their new parents. His was a rosy-cheeked and +many-wrinkled face, reminding one of an apple stored all the winter, +and, in his brown velveteen coat, with immense pockets, he made a +notable figure. He loved a chat and was always happy and +communicative, and his arrival seemed as much a herald of spring as +that of the welcome cuckoo. He was paid "by the piece," +"three-halfpence a graft and cider," quantity not specified, but an +important part of the bargain because of a superstition that grafts +"unwetted" would not thrive! Some of these large trees would have ten +or more limbs requiring separate grafting, and therefore they earned +him a considerable sum, but it is surprising how soon they make a new +head, come into bearing, and repay with interest the cost of the work. + +He was a thoughtful old man and a moralist. I can see him now, +standing with his snuff-box open ready in his hand, and saying very +solemnly, "I often thinks as an apple-tree is very similar to a child, +for you know, sir, we're told to train up a child in the way he shall +go, and when he is old he will not depart therefrom." He then +refreshed himself with a mighty pinch of snuff, closing his box with a +snap that emphasized his air of complete conviction. + +I think the sheep-dipper was one of the early arrivals. He brings with +him an apparatus which provides a bath, and a kind of gangway, rising +at an angle from it, upon which the sheep can stand after immersion, +to allow the superfluous liquid to find its way back into the bath; +each sheep is lifted by two men into the bath containing insecticide, +and has an interval for dripping before it rejoins the flock. In the +days when Viper was young, he was introduced to the process and given +a dip himself, much to his disgust; but that was the only time, for +ever afterwards no sooner did the sheep-dipper and his weird-looking +apparatus appear at night, in readiness for the performance on the +morrow, than Viper remembered his undignified experience, and, before +even the overture of the play commenced, vanished for the day. Nobody +saw him go, or knew where he went, but it was useless to call or +whistle, he was nowhere to be found. + +I believe the active ingredient of the dip was a preparation of +arsenic, and upon one occasion I lost several sheep after the dipping, +presumably from arsenical poisoning absorbed through the skin. I met +the dipper a few days later, and he said with a beaming face that he +had "given 'em summat," meaning the parasites. His smiles disappeared +when I told him the result, and that the remedy had proved more fatal +than the disease. After this experience I used a more scientific dip +which was quite as effective and without the element of danger to the +sheep. + +Entries are to be found in the old parish records of sums paid and +chargeable to the parish for killing "woonts" (moles), but later +private enterprise was alone responsible. A mole-catcher had been +employed throughout the whole of my predecessor's time at Aldington, +with a yearly remuneration of 12s. On my arrival he called and asked +me to forward the account for the last year to his employer; it ran as +follows: "To dastroyin thay woonts, 12s." The man hoped that I should +continue the arrangement, but, as I had not seen a mole or a mole-hill +on the farm, I told him I would wait, and would send for him if I +found them troublesome. As a matter of fact I never saw a mole, or +heard of one on my land, throughout the twenty-eight years of my +occupation. + +Rat-catchers are necessary when rats are very numerous, but rats +appear to be very capricious, abounding in some seasons and scarce in +others. My particular rat-catcher was not a very highly evolved +specimen of humanity; he was thin and hungry-looking with an angular +face, bearing a strong resemblance to the creatures against whom he +waged warfare; he had a wandering, restless and furtive expression, +and appeared to be perpetually on the lookout for his prey, or for +manifestations of their cunning and other evil characteristics in the +humanity with which he came in contact. His terms were, "no cure, no +pay," which impressed one with his confidence in his own remedies; but +these were profound secrets, and I had to be content with the +assurance that he used nothing harmful to man or domestic animals. He +was certainly successful, and effectually cleared the ricks and +buildings at one of my outlying places previously badly infested; no +dead rats were ever found, but all disappeared very soon after I +engaged him. + +It is well known that rats will unexpectedly desert quarters which +they have occupied for a long time, and travel in large bodies to a +new locality. An old man told me that, in walking by the brook-side +footpath from Aldington to Badsey, he once encountered one of these +armies; they looked so threatening and were in such numbers, that he +had to turn aside to allow them to pass, as they showed no signs of +giving way for him. + +One morning my bailiff came in to say that a bean-rick had suddenly +been taken possession of by an immense number of rats, where shortly +before not one could have been found. A man going to the rick-yard +quite early had seen the roof of the rick black with them; they were +apparently drinking the dew hanging in drops on the straws of the +thatch. They were so close together, "so thick," as he expressed it, +that one was killed by a stone thrown "into the brown" of them. We +sent for the thrashing machine a day or two later, and killed over +seventy, and many escaped. Every dead rat was plastered with mud +underneath, especially on their tails, and it was evident that they +had only just arrived when first seen, and had travelled some +distance, probably the evening before, along the clayey overhanging +bank of the brook. + +We always had great numbers of water-rats about brook; they are no +relation of the land-rat, having blunter, noses, shorter tails, and +very soft fur. They have not the loathsome appearance of the land-rat, +and live, almost entirely, on water-weeds, rushes, and other vegetable +matter. It is pretty to see them swimming across a stream; they dive +when alarmed, and remain out of sight a long time; they never leave +the water or the bank, and are quite innocent of depredations on corn. + +In some counties, but not so far as I am aware in Worcestershire, one +of the harmless snappers up of unconsidered trifles is the +truffle-hunter. At Alton, in Hampshire, one of these men appeared in +summer; he carried an implement like a short-handled thistle spud, but +with a much longer blade, similar to that of a small spade but +narrower; he was accompanied by a frisky little Frenchified dog, +unlike any dog one commonly sees, and very alert. The hunting ground +was beneath the overhanging branches of beech-trees, growing on a +chalky soil; the man encouraged the dog by voice to hunt the surface +of the land regularly over; when the dog scented the truffles +underneath, he began to scratch, whereupon the implement came into +use, and they were soon secured. I have since been sorry that I did +not interview this truffle-hunter as to his methods and as to his dog, +for I believe he is no longer to be seen in his old haunts. But I did +get a pound or two to try, and was disappointed by the absence of +flavour. I have since read that the English truffle is considered very +inferior to the French, which is used in making _pâté de foie gras_. + +The wool-stapler makes his rounds as soon as shearing is completed; +his first call is to examine the fleeces, and if a deal results a +second visit follows for weighing and packing. He is of course well up +in market values, probably receiving a telegram every morning, when +trade is active, from the great wool-trade centre, Bradford. He is not +unwilling to give a special price for quality, but will sometimes +stipulate for secrecy as to the sum, because farmers, naturally, +compare notes, and everyone thinks himself entitled to the top price +no matter how inferior or badly washed his wool may be. The Bradford +stapler has the northern method of speech, which sounds unfamiliar in +the midland and southern counties, but it is not so cryptic as that of +the Scottish wool trade. The following colloquy is reported as having +passed between two Scots over a deal in woollen cloth. + +_Buyer_. "'Oo?" + +_Seller_. "Ay, 'oo." + +_Buyer_. "A' 'oo?" + +_Seller_. "Ay, a' 'oo." + +_Buyer_. "A' _a_ 'oo?" + +_Seller_. "Ay, a' _a_ 'oo." + +Which, being interpreted, is: "Wool?"--"Yes, wool." "All wool?"--"Yes, +all wool." "All one wool?"--"Yes, all one wool." + +When the stapler arrives for the weighing he brings his steelyards and +sheets; the wool is trod into the sheets, sewn up, and each sheet +weighed separately, an allowance being made for "tare" (the weight of +the sheet), and for "draught" (1/2 a pound in each tod, or 28 pounds). +This last is a survival of the old method of weighing wool, when only +enough fleeces were weighed at a time on the farmer's small machine to +come to a tod as nearly as possible. Buyers did not recognize anything +but level pounds (no quarters or halves), and consequently they got on +the average half a pound over the tod at each separate weighing, +gratis. + +Owing to the immense importations of Australian wool, the price of +English, which at one time was half-a-crown a pound, fell to the +miserable figure of sevenpence or thereabouts. When I was in +Lincolnshire, the tenant of the farm where I was a pupil clipped 14 +pounds each from 200 "hoggs" (yearling sheep), which at 2s. 6d. per +pound produced 35s. per sheep, equal to £350, so the fall of +three-quarters of the value was a serious loss. + +A story is told of a cunning wool buyer in the dim past weighing up +wool on an upper floor of some farm premises. As the fleeces passed +the machine they were thrown down an opening to the floor beneath in +readiness for packing. The pile of wool upstairs had been there some +time, and was full of rats. As the fleeces were moved a rat would +sometimes rush out trying to escape. No farm labourer can resist a rat +hunt, so the buyer being left alone beside the still unmoved fleeces, +whenever a rat appeared, and the men scattered in every direction in +pursuit, he took the opportunity to kick a few fleeces unweighed down +the opening. When the owner came to reckon the quantity the buyer +should have had, and compared it with the weight, the fraud was +discovered, and the deficiency had to be made good. + +I heard of a Hampshire farmer whose wife was anxious for a +drawing-room to be added to an inadequate farmhouse, and the tenant +with some difficulty persuaded the landlord to make the alteration. +When the work was complete the farmer expressed the great satisfaction +of his wife and himself with the addition, and the landlord was +anxious to see the new room. Every time he suggested a day, the farmer +objected that it would be inconvenient to his wife, or that he himself +would be away from home. Time went on, and the landlord, finding it +impossible to arrange a day that was not objected to, made a surprise +visit, when shooting over the farm. The farmer protested as to the +inconvenience, but the owner insisted, and was conducted to the new +drawing-room. The door was thrown open, and the room was seen to be +stacked from floor to ceiling with wool, without a stick of furniture +in the place! + +The veterinary surgeon is a necessary, but not very welcome visitor, +for, of course, his attendance means disease or accident to the stock. +He is not often mistaken in his diagnosis, though his patient cannot +detail his symptoms, or point to the position of the trouble. But the +vet is a man to be dispensed with as long as possible when epidemics, +like swine fever or foot and mouth disease, are raging in the +neighbourhood, because he may be a Government Inspector at such times, +and there is great danger to healthy stock if he has been officially +employed shortly before on an inspection. We had very little disease +at Aldington, being off the highroad, but we had one bad attack of +foot and mouth disease which I always thought was brought by a +veterinary surgeon. The complaint went all through my dairy cows and +fattening bullocks, and soon reduced them to lean beasts, but it was +surprising how quickly they picked up again in flesh and resumed their +normal appearance. It was curious to notice that, with the cows +standing side by side in the sheds, the disease would attack one and +miss the next two perhaps, then attack two and miss one, and so on; +doubtless it was a matter of predisposition on the part of those +affected. + +The veterinary lecturer at Cirencester College told me that during the +cattle plague in the sixties he had a coat well worth £50 to any +veterinary surgeon, so impregnated was it with the infection. This man +was fond of scoring off the students, and had a habit at the +commencement of each lecture of holding a short _vivâ voce_ +examination on the subject of the last. I remember when the tables +were turned upon him by a ready-witted student. The lecturer, who was +a superior veterinary surgeon, detailed a whole catalogue of +exaggerated symptoms exhibited by an imaginary horse, and selecting +his victim added, with a chuckle, "Now, Mr. K., perhaps you will +kindly tell us what treatment you would adopt under these +circumstances?" K. was not a very diligent student, and the lecturer +expected a display of ignorance, but his anticipated triumph was cut +short by the reply: "Well, if I had a horse as bad as all that _I_ +should send for the vet." The lecturer expostulated, but could get +nothing further out of K., and was forced to recognize that the +general laugh which followed was against himself. + +At a _post-mortem_, however, he was more successful in his choice of a +butt. A dead horse with organs exposed was the object before the +class, and the lecturer was asking questions as to their +identification. "Now, Mr. Jones, perhaps you will show us where his +lungs are?" Jones made an unsuccessful search. "Well, can we see where +his heart is?" and so on--all failures. Finally and scornfully, "Well, +perhaps you can show the gentlemen where his tail is!" + +The village thatcher, Obadiah B., was an ancient, but efficient +workman when engaged upon cottages or farm buildings, for ricks +require only a comparatively temporary treatment. He was paid by the +"square" of 100 feet, and, although he was "no scholard," and never +used a tape, he was quite capable of checking by some method I could +never fathom my own measurements with it. The finishing touches to his +work were adjusted with the skill of an artist and the accuracy of a +mathematician; and a beautiful bordering of "buckles" in an elaborate +pattern of angles and crosses--"Fantykes" (Van Dycks), his +hard-working daughter Sally called them--completed the job. He +"reckoned" that each thatching would last at least twenty years, and +being well stricken in years, or "getting-up-along" as they say in +Hampshire, he would add gloomily, "_I_ shall never do it no more." He +was a true prophet, for on every building he thatched for me the work +outlived him, and even after the lapse of thirty years is not +completely worn out. + +Passing him and his son in the village street, outside his house, when +he was packing fruit for market, I heard him, his voice raised for my +benefit, thus admonishing his son who was casually using some of the +newer hampers: "Allus wear out the old, fust." But I must not +attribute to his son the unfilial retort which another youth made +under similar circumstances, when told to fetch some more hampers from +a shed some distance away: "No, father, _you_ fetch them, allus wear +out the old fust, you know." + +Occasional visitors come with goods for sale in quest of orders, and +some are very persistent and difficult to get rid of. A man professing +to sell some artificial fertilizer called upon me with a small tin +sample box, containing a mixture which emitted a most villainous +odour. He sniffed with appreciation at the compound, probably +consisting of some nitrogenous material such as wool treated with +sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, and began his address. He had not gone +far before I remembered a story of a similar person in Hampshire. This +man had called upon the leading farmers, and offered them a bargain, +explaining that some trucks of artificial manure that he had consigned +to Walton Station had been sent by mistake to Alton. He sold many tons +in this way without any guarantee as to the analysis, but the buyers +found on using it that it was worthless. The seller tried his game on +again the following year, without success. One farmer whom he followed +from the farm-house to a turnip-field went so far as to show him his +hunting-crop, and pointing to the field gate at the same time, +intimated that if he did not with all speed place himself outside the +latter, he would make unpleasant acquaintance with the former. So now +when my caller mentioned a truck of the manure which had come by +mistake to Evesham Station, though consigned to Evershot in Somerset, +my suspicions were confirmed, and when I innocently remarked, "I think +I remember that truck, didn't it go to Alton once in mistake for +Walton?" his countenance fell, and he wished me "good-morning" in a +hurry. + +Hurdles in Worcestershire are generally made of "withy" (willow), and +it is interesting to watch the hurdle-maker at work. The poles have +first to be peeled, which can be done by unskilled labour, the pole +being fixed in an improvised upright vice made from the same material. +Then comes the skilled man, who cuts the poles into suitable lengths, +and splits the pieces into the correct widths. Next with an axe he +trims off the rough edges, shapes the ends of the rails, and pierces +the uprights with a centre-bit. Then he completes the mortise in a +moment with a chisel, the rails being laid in position as guides to +the size of the apertures. The rails are then driven home into the +mortise holes, and he skips backwards and forwards, over the hurdle +flat on the ground, as he nails the rails to the heads; two pieces, in +the form of a V reversed, connect the rails and keep them in place. + +In counties where hazel is grown in the coppices, a wattled or "flake" +hurdle is the favourite, and they afford much more shelter to sheep in +the fold than the open withy hurdle, but, being more lightly made, +they require stakes and "shackles" to keep them in position. The hazel +hurdle-maker may be seen in the coppice surrounded by his material and +the clean fresh stacks of the work completed. The process of +manufacture differs from that of the open-railed hurdle: he has an +upright framework fixed to the ground with holes bored at the exact +places for the vertical pieces, and indicating the correct length of +the hurdle, when finished. The horizontal pieces or rods are +comparatively slender and easily twisted, and so can be bent back +where they reach the outside uprights, and they are interlaced with +the others in basket-making fashion. At this stage the hurdle presents +an unfinished appearance, with the ends of the horizontal rods +protruding from the face of the hurdle. Then the maker with a special +narrow and exceedingly sharp hatchet chops off at one blow each of the +projecting ends, with admirable accuracy, never missing his aim or +exceeding the exact degree of strength necessary to sever the +superfluous bit without injuring the hurdle itself. The hurdle-maker +is paid at a price per dozen, and he earns and deserves "good money." + +The art of making wattled hurdles is passed on and carried down from +father to son for generations; the hurdle-maker is usually a cheery +man and receives a gracious welcome from the missus and the maids when +he calls at the farm-house, often emphasized by a pint of home-brewed. +He combines the accuracy of the draughtsman with the delicate touch of +the accomplished lawn-tennis player. His exits and his entrances from +and to the scene of his labours are made in the remote mysterious +surroundings of the seldom-trodden woods; overhead is the brilliant +blue of the clear spring sky; the sunshine lights up the quiet hazel +tones of his simple materials, his highly finished work, and his heaps +of clean fresh chips; and his stage is the newly cut coppice, carpeted +with primroses and wild hyacinths. I have never seen a representation +of this charming scene, and I commend the subject to the +country-loving artist as full of interest and colour, and as a theme +of natural beauty. + +Our blacksmith came twice a week to the village when work was still +plentiful in the early days of my farming, and I was not yet the only +practical farmer in the place. I need not describe the forge: it has +been sung by Longfellow, made music of by Handel, and painted by +Morland; everybody knows its gleaming red-hot iron, its cascades of +sparks, and the melodious clank of the heavy hammer as it falls upon +the impressionable metal. In all pursuits which entail the use of an +open fire at night, its fascination attracts both busy and idle +villagers, and more especially in winter it becomes a centre for local +gossip. At that season the time-honoured gossip corner, close to the +Manor gate, was deserted for the warmth and action of the forge. +Blacksmiths, like other specialists, vary, and the difference may be +expressed as that between the man who fits the shoe to the hoof, and +the man who fits the hoof to the shoe--in other words, the workman and +the sloven. Doubtless many a slum-housed artisan in the big town, +driven from his country home by the flood of unfair foreign +competition, looks back with longing to the bright old cottage garden +of his youth and in his dreams hears the music of the forge, sees the +blazing fire, and sniffs the pungency of scorching hoof. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + + +THE DAIRY--CATTLE--SHEEP--LAMBS--PIGS--POULTRY. + + "And brushing ankle-deep in flowers, + We heard behind the woodbine veil + The milk that bubbled in the pail, + And buzzings of the honied hours." + --_In Memoriam_. + +My farm had the reputation of being a good cheese farm, but a bad +butter farm; in spite, however, of this tradition I determined to +establish a pedigree Jersey herd for butter-making. For early in my +occupation I had abandoned the cheese manufacture of my predecessor +and later the production of unprofitable beef. My wife attended +various lectures and demonstrations and was soon able to prove that +the bad character of the farm for this purpose was not justified. +Within a few years she covered one wall of the dairy with prize cards +won at all the leading shows, and found a ready market for the +produce, chiefly by parcel post to friends. The butter, although it +commanded rather a better price than ordinary quality, was considered +not only by them but by the villagers more economical, as owing to its +solidity and freedom from butter milk, it would keep good +indefinitely, and "went much further." + +The cream from my Jerseys was so thick that the cream crock could be +lifted up by the wooden spoon used for stirring, by merely plunging it +into the crock full of cream and raising it, without touching the +crock in any other way. With fifteen cows and heifers in milk on an +average, the Jerseys brought me in quite £300 a year in butter and +cream, without considering the value of the calves, and of the +skim-milk for the pigs, and they were worth a good deal besides from +the æsthetic point of view. I think that the word "dainty" describes +the Jersey better than any other adjective; their beautiful lines and +colouring in all shades of fawn and silver grey make them a continual +delight to behold. After all, however, the shorthorn is a magnificent +creature; they, too, have their aesthetic side; the outline is more +robust, their colouring more pronounced, and I think that "stately" is +the best description to apply to their distinguished bearing. + +At Worcester, on market days, a great deal of butter is brought in by +the country people and retailed in the Market Hall, and many of these +farmers' wives and daughters have regular customers, who come each +week for their supply. On one occasion when the inspector of weights +and measures was making a surprise visit, and testing the weights of +the goods on offer, a man, standing near a stall where only one pound +of butter was left unsold, noticed that as soon as the owner became +aware of the inspector's entrance, she slipped two half-crowns into +the pat, obliterating the marks where they had been inserted. She was +evidently aware that the butter was not full weight, but with the +addition it satisfied the inspector's test, the two half-crowns just +balancing the one ounce short. No sooner was he gone than the +spectator came forward to buy the butter. She guessed that he had seen +the trick, and dared not refuse to sell, although she tried hard to +avoid doing so; so the cunning buyer walked off with fifteen ounces of +butter worth 1s. 2d., and 5s. in silver for his outlay of 1s. 3d. + +In farm-houses where old-fashioned ways of butter-making are still +followed, and the thermometer is ignored, it happens sometimes that +after some hours' churning the butter does not "come." The traditional +remedy is then tried of introducing one or two half-crowns into the +churn, partly, I think, as a kind of charm, and partly with the idea +of what is called "cutting the curd." The remedy is certainly +sometimes successful, probably the coins set up a new movement in the +rotating cream, which causes an almost immediate appearance of the +butter. On the outside of the framework of the windows in some of +these old places, the word "dairy" or "cheese-room" may still be seen, +painted or incised. This is a survival from the days of the window +tax, and was necessary to claim the exemption which these rooms as +places of business enjoyed by law. + +My former tutor, the late vicar of Old Basing in Hampshire, decided to +keep a cow on his glebe, and consulted the old parish clerk as to the +kind of cow he would recommend. The old man was the oracle of the +village on all matters secular as well as those connected with his +calling. "Well," he said, "what you wants is a nice pretty little cow, +not a great big beast as'll stand a-looking and a-staring at you all +day long." The vicar followed his advice, avoided the stony regard of +an unintelligent animal, and purchased a charming little tender-eyed +Brittany, which was quite an ornament to his meadow. + +People were very shy of American beef when first imported but, being +lower in price than English it was bought by those who were willing to +sacrifice quality to cheapness. It was said that the most inferior +English was sold under the name of American, the best of the American +doing duty for medium quality English. I remember seeing a very +ancient and poverty-stricken cow knocked down to a Birmingham dealer, +who exclaimed exultingly as the hammer fell, "I'll make 'em some +'Merican biff in Brummagem this week." + +The neglected and overgrown hedges, now so often seen on what was +formerly good wheat-growing land, have a useful side as shelter when +surrounding pasture. In the bitter winds which often occur in May, +when the cattle are first turned out after a winter in the yards well +littered with clean straw, they can be seen on the southern side +protected from the blast. Referring to the May blossom of the +white-thorn, an old proverb says, with a faulty rhyme: + + "May come early or May come late + 'Tis sure to make the old cow quake." + +May Day has always been the customary date for turning out cattle to +grass, but people forget that old May Day was nearly a fortnight +later, which makes a great difference as to warmth and keep at that +time of year. + +With changes of dates and times old customs and sayings lose their +force. Under the "daylight saving" arrangement we should alter, "Rain +before seven, fine before eleven," to "Rain before eight, fine before +twelve," which spoils the rhyme. And "Between one and two, you'll see +what the day means to do," into, "Between two and three, you'll see +what the day means to be." + +A few years ago, when _Antony and Cleopatra_ was reproduced at a +London theatre by an eminent actor-manager, it was reported that his +mind was much exercised over the lines referring to the flight of +Pompey's galley: + + "The breese upon her, like a cow in June, + Hoists sails and flies." + +It was suggested that for "cow," the correct reading should be "crow," +who might very well spread her wings to the breeze and fly. The +difficulty was caused by the word "breese" (the gad-fly)--no doubt +presumed to be an archaic spelling of "breeze." Shakespeare knew all +about farming, as about nearly everything else, and a year on a farm +would illustrate many of his allusions which the ordinary reader finds +somewhat cryptic; anyone who has seen the terrified stampede of cattle +with their tails erect when attacked by the gad-fly, will recognize +the force of the simile. The gad-fly pierces the skin of the animal, +laying its eggs beneath, just as the ichneumon makes use of a +caterpillar to provide a host for its progeny. No doubt the operation +is a painful one, but the caterpillar may survive, even into its +chrysalis stage, and the cow in due time is relieved, after an +uncomfortable experience, by the exit of the maggot or fly. + +A branch of the Roman road, Ryknield Street, commonly called Buckle +Street, leaving the former near Bidford-on-Avon and running over the +Cotswolds via Weston Subedge, was known in former times as Buggilde or +Buggeld Street, derived possibly from the Latin _buculus_, a young +bullock. No doubt vast herds of cattle traversed the road from the +vale to the hills, or vice versa, according to the abundance of keep +and the time of year. Similar roads in Dorset and Wiltshire are still +known as "ox droves," and in the former county, at least, both young +heifers and bullocks are known as "bullicks." + +Cattle are subject to all manner of disorders which, though puzzling +to the owner to diagnose, are not as a rule beyond the skill of a good +veterinary surgeon to alleviate; but there are also accidents which +are much more annoying, being impossible to foresee. I had occasional +losses from the latter causes: once in the night when a cow was thrown +on her back into a deep brick manger; and once when a small piece of +sacking, part of a decorticated cotton-cake bag, was somehow mixed in +with the food, and induced internal inflammation. + +It is a difficult matter for a farmer when selling fat cattle direct +to the butcher, to compete with him in a correct estimate of the +weight, and it is therefore advisable to sell at a price per pound of +the dead weight when dressed; this, however, is not always feasible, +and a very close estimate can be arrived at by measurement of the +girth and length of the live animal, following rules laid down in the +handbooks on the subject of fat stock. It is a mistake to suppose that +the fattening of stock is a profitable undertaking _per se_. On all +arable farms there is a certain amount of food, hay, straw, chaff, +roots, etc., which must be consumed on the premises for the sake of +keeping up the fertility of the land, but I believe that only under +very exceptional circumstances can a shilling's-worth of food and +attendance be converted into a shilling's-worth of meat, so that if in +the future the price of corn is to fall back into anything approaching +pre-war values, the corn crops, as well as the intermediate green +crops, which are only a means for producing corn, must be +discontinued, and the land will again become inferior pasture. +Old-fashioned farmers recognized the absence of direct profit in the +winter of fattening cattle especially on the produce of arable land, +and the saying is well known that, "the man who fattens many bullocks +never wants much paper on which to make his will." + +There are few pleasanter sights about farm premises than to see, as +the short winter day is drawing to an end, and the twilight is +stealing around the ricks and buildings, a nicely sheltered yard full +of contented cattle deeply bedded down in clean bright wheat straw, +and settling themselves comfortably for the night; and, when one pulls +the bed-clothes up to one's ears, one can go to sleep thinking happily +that they too are enjoying a refreshing sleep. Cattle and sheep can +stand severe cold, if they are sheltered from bitter winds and have +dry quarters in which to lie; even lambs are none the worse for coming +into the world in a snow-covered pasture; and an opened stable window +without a draught will often cure a horse of a long-standing chronic +cough. It was pitiful in the early days of the war to see the Indian +troops with their mountain batteries at Ashurst, near Lyndhurst, in +the New Forest, the mules up to their knees and hocks in black mud, +owing to the unfortunate selection of an unsound site for the camp. + +A "deadly man for ship"--one of those expressions not uncommon in +Worcestershire, on the _lucus a non lucendo_ principle--signifies a +celebrated sheep breeder; the word "deadly," in this sense, is akin to +the Hampshire and Dorset "terrible," or, "turrble," as a term of +admiration or the appreciation of excellence; but there are occasions +even in the most carefully tended flocks where accidents cannot be +anticipated. Such an event occurred to a Cotswold ram, which after +washing was placed in an orchard near my house to dry before shearing. +The ram had an immense fleece on him, nineteen pounds as it afterwards +proved, and the wool round the neck was somewhat ragged. As he lay +asleep with his head turned round and muzzle pointing backwards, some +little movement caused his head to become entangled in the loose wool, +and he was found hanged in his own fleece. + +I was watching, with my bailiff, a splendid lot of lambs fat and ready +for the butcher; two of them were having a game--walking backwards +from each other, and suddenly rushing together like two knights in a +medieval tournament, their heads meeting with a concussion and a +resounding smack--when one instantly fell to the ground with a broken +neck. Had no one been present the meat would have been worthless, but +my man was equal to the occasion, and, borrowing my pocket knife, +produced the flow of blood necessary to render the meat fit for human +food. My villagers had a feast that week, and my own table was graced +by an excellent joint of real English lamb. Of course we never +attempted to consume any of the meat from animals which had been +killed when suffering from a doubtful complaint, though some people +are by no means particular in this matter. + +A doctor told me that when attending a case at a farmhouse he was +invited to join the family at their midday meal, and was surprised to +see a nice fore-quarter of lamb on the table. His host gave him an +ample helping, and he had just made a beginning with it and the mint +sauce, green peas, and new potatoes, when the founder of the feast +announced by way of excusing the indulgence in such a luxury: "This +un, you know was a bit casualty, so we thought it better to make sure +of un." My informant told me that then and there his appetite +completely failed, and, to the dismay of his host he had to relinquish +his knife and fork. + +It is always policy to kill a sheep to save its life, as the saying +is, and the way to make the most of it is to send any fat animal, +which is off its feed and looking somewhat thoughtful, to the butcher +at once. He knows quite well whether the sheep is fit for food, and if +he decides against it, all one expects is the value of the skin. But +people are very shy of buying meat about which they have any +misgiving, and my butcher once told me not to send him an "emergency +sheep" _in one of my own carts_, but to ask him to fetch it himself: +"It's like this," he explained, "when a customer comes in for a nice +joint of mutton, if he is a near neighbour, he will perhaps add, 'I +would rather not have a bit of the sheep that came in a day or two ago +in one of Mr. S.'s carts'!" + +It was always cheering in February, "fill dyke, be it black or be it +white," on a dark morning, to hear the young lambs and their mothers +calling to each other in the orchards, where there is some grass all +the year round under the shelter of the apple trees; or when a +springlike morning appears, about the time of St. Valentine's Day, and +the thrushes are singing love-songs to their mates, and the first +brimstone butterfly has dared to leave his winter seclusion for the +fickle sunshine, to realize that Spring is coming, and the active work +of the farm is about to recommence. There is a superstition that when +the master sees the firstling of the flock, if its head is turned +towards him, good luck for the year will follow, but it is most +unlucky if its head is turned away. + +After the disastrous wet season of 1879 immense losses ensued from the +prevalence of the fatal liver rot; many thousands of sheep were sold +at the auctions for 3s. or 4s. apiece, and sound mutton was +exceedingly scarce and dear. It was represented to a very August +personage, that if the people could be induced to forgo the +consumption of lamb, these in due course would grow into sheep, and +the price of mutton would be reduced. Accordingly an order was issued +forbidding the appearance of lamb on the Court tables. It had not +occurred to the proposer of this scheme that a scarcity of food for +the developing lambs would result, nor was it understood that the +producers of fat lambs make special cropping arrangements for their +keep, with the object of clearing out their stock about Easter, in +time to plough the ground, and follow the roots where the ewes and +lambs have been feeding, with barley. The "classes" copied the example +of the Court, as in duty bound, and the demand fell to zero. But the +lambs had to be sold for the reasons mentioned, and, in the absence of +the usual demand, the unfortunate producers offered them at almost any +price. The miners and the pottery workers in Staffordshire were not so +loyal as the "classes"; they welcomed the unusual opportunity of +buying early lamb at 9d. a pound, and trains composed entirely of +trucks full of lambs from the south of England to the Midlands +supplied them abundantly. + +The edict, when its effect was apparent, was therefore revoked, but it +was too late, the lambs were gone, and as everybody was hungry for his +usual Easter lamb, the demand was immense, and the price rose in +proportion. I had thirty or forty lambs intended for the Easter +markets, and had, with great difficulty and the sacrifice of grass +which should have stood for hay, managed to keep them on, scarcely +knowing what to do with them. But the sudden demand arose just in +time, and I sent them to the Alcester auction sale, where buyers from +Birmingham and the neighbourhood attend in large numbers. A capital +sale resulted, the price going as high as 60s., in those days a big +figure for lambs about four months old. I was so pleased with the +result and my deliverance from the dilemma, that, passing through the +town on my way home, and spying an old Worcester china cup and saucer, +and a bowl o£ the same, all with the rare square mark, I invested some +of my plunder in what time has proved an excellent speculation, and my +cabinet is still decorated with these mementoes, which I never see +without calling to mind the story of the lamb edict and its result. + +During the Great War some controlling wiseacre evolved precisely the +same scheme for bringing about an imaginary increase in the supply of +mutton, by prohibiting the slaughter of any lambs until June. The +Dorset breeders, who buy in ewes at high prices for the special +production of early lamb--the lambs of this breed are born in October +and November--were more particularly affected, and the absurdity of +the prohibition having been later represented to the authorities, the +order was withdrawn, though not before great loss and difficulty were +inflicted upon the unfortunate producers. It goes to prove the +necessity of the administration of such matters by competent men, and +how easily apparently sound theory in inexperienced hands may conflict +with economical practice. + +Of late years the competition of the importations of New Zealand lamb +has reduced the price of English lamb to an unremunerative level. This +thin dry stuff bears about the same resemblance to real fat home-grown +lamb, as do the proverbial chalk and cheese to each other; but it is +good enough for the restaurants and eating-houses; and the consumer +who lacks the critical faculty of the connoisseur in such matters, +devours his "Canterbury" lamb, well disguised with mint sauce, in +sublime ignorance, and, apparently, without missing the succulence of +the real article--convinced as he is that it was produced in the +neighbourhood of the cathedral city of the same name, and unaware of +the existence of such a place as Canterbury in New Zealand, or that +the name, if not exactly a fraud, is calculated to mislead. Doubtless +it is the mint sauce that satisfies the uncritical palate. Just as the +boy who, when asked after a treat of oysters how he liked them, said +with gusto, "The oysters was good, but the vinegar and pepper was +_de_licious!" + +It is well known that there is a tendency among men in charge of +special kinds of domestic animals gradually to approximate to them in +appearance, and we are told that men sometimes gradually acquire a +resemblance to men they admire. I knew a pedigree-pig herdsman, very +successful in the show-ring, who was curiously like his charges, and I +had at least two shepherds whose profiles were extraordinarily +sheepish--though not in the ordinary acceptation of the term. Such an +appearance confers a singularly simple expression. It must have been a +man whose character justified such a facial peculiarity, who, having +to bring the flock of one of my neighbours over a railway crossing +between two of his fields, neglected to open the further gate first, +drove the sheep on to the rails, and proceeded to do so, only to find +the sheep, in the meantime, had wandered down the line. Before he +could collect them a train dashed into them, and many were killed and +others injured. The railway company not only repudiated all liability, +but sent in a counterclaim for damage to their engine! + +But the tables were turned morally, if not actually, by a friend of +mine, who certainly scored off a railway company. My friend's waggon, +with two horses and a load of hay, was passing over a level crossing +on his land, when the London express came into view slinging downhill +in all the majesty of triumphant speed, but far enough away to be +brought up in time, ignominiously and abruptly. The railway company +wrote my friend a letter of remonstrance suggestive of pains and +penalties, and telling him that his waggoner should have made sure of +the safety of crossing before attempting it--not an easy thing to do +at this particular place. My friend replied that his right of way +existed centuries before the railway was dreamed of, that the crossing +was a concession for the company's convenience, it had saved the +expense of a bridge, and that his hay was an urgent matter in view of +the weather; and that uninterrupted harvesting was of more importance +than the punctuality of their passengers. + +I have sometimes passed through a remote village on a Sunday where the +obsequies of a pig were to be seen in full view from the road; these +were usually places where the church was in an adjoining +mother-parish, and of course there are times when, for reasons of +health or perhaps more correctly ill-health, it is impossible to defer +the ceremony. As a rule, I should imagine that greater privacy is +sought, at any rate so far as the public point of view is concerned. +One remembers the story of the man doing some Sunday carpentering; his +wife expostulated with him as a Sabbath breaker; he replied that in +driving in the nails he could not help making some noise; "then why," +said she, "don't you use screws?" + +An old Dorset labourer who helped with the removal of the pig-wash, +and did other small jobs for successive tenants of mine at a furnished +cottage on my land in Hampshire, invariably estimated the social +status and resources of each new tenant by the consistency of the +wash. When some rather extravagant occupiers were in possession, he +reported them as, "Quite the right sort; their wash is real good, +thick stuff." The villagers at Aldington did not smoke their bacon, +but, as it usually hung in the kitchen not far from the big open +hearth, and as the place was often full of fragrant wood smoke, the +bacon acquired a pleasant suggestion of the smoked article of the +southern counties. The cottagers rarely complained of the smoky state +of their kitchens, consoling themselves with the saying, "'Tis better +to be smoke-dried nor starred [starved with the cold] to death." Bacon +naturally suggests eggs; many of the villagers kept a few fowls which +sometimes strayed into my orchards; as a rule, I made no objection, +but it was not pleasing, when the apples were over-ripe and dropping +from the trees, to notice the destructive marks of their beaks on some +extra fine Blenheim oranges. + +My wife determined to take over our fowls into her own jurisdiction; +hitherto they had been under my bailiff's care, and he rather resented +the change as an implication on his management, until it was explained +that she was anxious to undertake the poultry as a hobby. One of the +carter boys was detailed to collect the eggs, as some of the +hen-houses were in out-of-the-way corners of the yards and difficult +to approach. My wife thought the middleman was appropriating most of +the profit; she was determined to get as directly to the consumer as +possible and, among others, she arranged with the head of a large +school for a weekly supply of dairy and poultry produce. All went well +for a time until one day the boy, anxious to produce as many eggs as +possible, as he received a royalty per dozen for collecting, +discovered some nests which my man had set for hatching before he +retired from the post. The boy, not recognizing this important fact, +came in greatly pleased with an unusually large quantity, and it so +happened that the school received the eggs from this special lot. Next +morning forty eggs appeared at the boys' breakfast table, and forty +boys simultaneously suffered a terrible shock on the discovery of +forty incomplete chickens. The head wrote an aggrieved letter of +complaint, and though my wife was by that time able to explain the +matter, and regret her own loss too of forty chickens, he removed his +custom to a more reliable source. + +This schoolmaster was a collector of antique furniture and china, and, +knowing that I was interested, he asked me to come and see some +Chippendale chairs he had just acquired. It happened that some months +before I had declined to buy four or five chairs that were offered at +10s. apiece. I had not then fully developed the taste for the antique, +which once acquired forbids the connoisseur to refuse anything good, +whether really wanted or not, and at that time there was much more +choice in such matters than at the present day. The chairs were very +dilapidated and I did not recognize their possibilities, but I noticed +the arms of the elbow chairs were particularly good, being carved at +the junction of the horizontal and vertical pieces with eagles' heads. +Deciding that I did not want them I sent a dealer to the house and +forgot all about the matter. The schoolmaster took me into his +drawing-room, and I instantly recognized the set I had refused; they +were quite transformed, nicely cleaned, lightly polished, and the +seats newly covered. I duly admired them, and on inquiry found that he +had purchased them in Worcester from the dealer I had sent to look at +them; they cost him £5 each, and I suppose at the present time they +would be worth £20 apiece at least. + +I have previously mentioned old Viper as a family friend, but like all +dogs he had his faults. He acquired a liking for new laid eggs and +hunted the rickyard for nests in the straw. My bailiff determined to +cure him; he carefully blew an egg, and filled it with a mixture of +which mustard was the chief component. Viper was tempted to sample the +egg, which he accepted with a great show of innocence; the effect when +he had broken the shell was electrical; he fled with downcast tail and +complete dejection, and nothing would ever induce him to touch an egg +again. + +The whirligig of time has indeed brought its revenge in the matter of +the market value of eggs. In Worcestershire we have had to give them +away at eighteen or twenty for a shilling; last (1918-1919) winter we +sold some at 7s. a dozen, and many more at 5s. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + + +ORCHARDS--APPLES--CIDER--PERRY. + + "Lo! sweetened with the summer light, + The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow + Drops in a silent autumn night." + --_The Lotus-Eaters_. + +A curious old punning Latin line, illustrating various meanings of the +word _malus_, an apple, seems appropriate, as a commencement, to +writing about apples; it is I think very little known, and too good to +be forgotten. _Malo, malo, malo, malo_; it is translated thus: + + "_Malo_, I would rather be, + _Malo_, in an apple-tree, + _Malo_, than a bad boy, + _Malo_, in adversity." + +The fruit was an important item on the Aldington Manor Farm, and when +later I bought an adjoining farm of seventy acres with orcharding, and +had planted nine acres of plum trees, my total fruit area amounted to +about thirty acres. There was a saying in the neighbourhood which +pleased me greatly, that "it was always harvest at Aldington"; it was +not so much intended to signify that there was always something coming +in, as to convey an impression of the constant activity and employment +of labour that continued throughout the seasons without intermission, +though it was true that with the diversity of my crops and stock, +there was a more or less continuous return. I had a shock when an old +friend in a neighbouring village spoke of me as a "pomologist," the +title seemed much too distinguished, and personally I have never +claimed the right to anything better than the rather pretty old title +of "orchardist." + +The position of an orchard is of the utmost importance; shelter is +necessary, but it must be above the ordinary spring frost level of the +district. I should say that no orchard should be less than 150 feet +above sea-level, to be fairly safe, and 200 feet would in nearly any +ordinary spring be quite secure against frost. The climate has a +remarkable effect upon the colour of apples, and colour is one of the +most valuable of market properties, for the ordinary town buyer is a +poor judge of the merits of apples and prefers colour and size to most +other considerations. Here in the south of England seven miles from +the sea, in a dry and sunny climate, all apples develop a much more +brilliant colour than in the moist climate of the Vale of Evesham. + +I fear that very few planters of fruit trees think of following the +routine which Virgil describes in his second _Georgic_, as practised +by the careful orchardist, when transplanting. Dryden's translation is +as follows: + + "Some peasants, not t' omit the nicest care, + Of the same soil their nursery prepare + With that of their plantation; lest the tree, + Translated should not with the soil agree. + Beside, to plant it as it was, they mark + The heav'ns four quarters on the tender bark, + And to the north or south restore the side, + Which at their birth did heat or cold abide: + So strong is custom; such effects can use + In tender souls of pliant plants produce." + +Virgil was born in the year 70 B.C., and died, age 51, in 19 B.C., so +that over nineteen centuries have elapsed since these words were +written; as he was an excellent farmer, he would not have mentioned +the practice unless he considered the advice sound. It is quite +possible that the vertical cracking of the bark on one side of a young +transplanted tree may be due to a change from the cool north aspect to +the heat of the south. At any rate the experiment is well worth +trying, and nurserymen would not find it much trouble to run a chalk +line down the south side of each tree, when lifting them, as a guide +for the purchaser. + +As showing how conservative is the popular demand for apples, Cox's +Orange Pippin, which is absolutely unapproached for flavour, and is +perfectly sound and eatable from early in November till Easter if +carefully picked at the right moment and properly stored, was +cultivated thirty or forty years before the British public discovered +its extraordinary qualities! I find it described as one of the best +dessert apples in Dr. Hogg's _Fruit Manual_, and my copy is the third +edition published in 1866, so it must have been well known to him some +years previously, though we never heard much about it until after the +twentieth century came in. Though the colour, when well grown, is +highly attractive to the connoisseur, the ordinary buyer did not +readily take to it as it is rather small. In 1917 Cox's Orange Pippin, +however, really came into its own; I myself, here in the New Forest, +grew over 3,000 pounds on about 120 trees planted in 1906, each branch +pruned as a _cordon_, and very thinly dispersed, and the trees +restricted to a height of about 14 feet. The apples were mostly sold +in Covent Garden at 6d. a pound, clear of railway carriage and +salesmen's commission. In 1918, a year of great scarcity, these apples +were selling in the London shops up to 3s. 6d. apiece! Now that its +reputation is fully established, it is likely to be many years before +it becomes relatively low in price, as the foreign apples of this kind +cannot compare in flavour with those grown in our own orchards. I +appreciate the man whose attention was wholly given to some +particularly dainty dish, and, being bored at the table by a +persistent talker, gently said, "Hush! and let me _listen_ to the +flavour." + +As an early market apple there is none more popular than the Worcester +Pearmain, first grown in the early eighties by Messrs. R. Smith and +Co., of Worcester, and said to be a cross between King of the Pippins +and the old Quarrenden (nearly always called Quarantine). It is a most +attractive fruit--brilliant in colour, medium size, with pleasant +brisk flavour--and is an early and regular bearer. I recognized its +possibilities as soon as I saw it, and getting all the grafts I could +collect, and they were very scarce at the time, I had the branches of +some of my old worthless trees cut off, and set my old grafter to +convert them into Worcester Pearmains; they soon came into bearing and +produced abundant and profitable crops. + +This apple is not much use for keeping beyond a month or so, as it +soon loses its crisp texture and distinctive flavour, and it is its +earliness and colour that makes it so popular in its season. Its +regularity as a bearer is due to its early maturity; it can be picked +in August, which allows plenty of time, in favourable weather, for +next year's fruit buds to develop before winter; whereas with the late +sorts these buds have very little chance to mature while the current +year's fruit is ripening, with the result that a blank season nearly +always follows an abundant yield. The Worcester Pearmain is so highly +decorative, with its large pale pink and white blossoms in spring and +its glowing red fruit in autumn, that it would be worth growing for +these qualities alone in the amateur's garden, and in any case it is +an apple that nobody should be without. + +An old apple, not sufficiently known, is the Rosemary Russet; it has +the distinctive russet-bronze colouring, always indicative of flavour, +with a rosy flush on the sunny side, and Dr. Hogg describes it further +as, "flesh yellow, crisp, tender, very juicy, sugary and highly +aromatic--a first-rate dessert apple, in use from December to +February." In my opinion it comes next, though _longo intervallo_, to +Cox's Orange Pippin, but it wants good land to make the best of it. It +may with confidence be produced as a rarity across the walnuts and the +wine to the connossieur in apples. + +In Covent Garden Market King Pippins are known as "Kings"; Cox's +Orange Pippins as "C.O.P.'s"; Cellinis as "Selinas"; Kerry pippins as +"Careys"; _Court pendu plat_ as "Corpendus"; and the pear, _Joséphine +de Malines_ as "Joseph on the palings"! The Wellington is sold as +"Wellington," but in the markets of the large northern towns it is +known as "Normanton Wonder." + +In Worcestershire St. Swithin's Day, July 15, is called +"apple-christening day," when a good rain often gives a great impetus +to their growth, and a little later great quantities of small apples +may be seen under the trees; this is Nature's method of limiting the +crop to reasonable proportions, the weak ones falling off and the +fittest surviving. The inexperienced grower may be somewhat alarmed by +this apparent destruction of his prospects, but the older hand knows +better, and my bailiff always said: "When I sees plenty of apples +under the trees about midsummer, I knows there'll be plenty to pick +towards Michaelmas." + +The Blenheim Orange was the leading apple at Aldington; some kind +person had, sixty or seventy years before my time, planted a number of +trees which had thrived wonderfully on that rich land. The Blenheim is +a nice dessert apple and a splendid "cooker"; the trees take many +years to come into bearing, and then they make up for lost time. +Nature is never in a hurry to produce her best results. As a market +apple the Blenheim has a great reputation; if an Evesham fruit dealer +was asked if he could do with any apples, his first question was +always: "Be 'em Blemmins?" + +"September blow soft till the fruit's in the loft," is the prayer of +all apple growers; it is pitiful to see, after a roaring gale, the +ground strewn with beautiful fruit, bruised and broken, useless to +keep, and only suitable for carting away to the all-devouring +cider-mill, though, even for that purpose, the sweet Blenheim does not +produce nearly so good a drink as sourer accredited cider varieties. + +Many of the gardening papers will name apples if sent by readers for +identification; I was told of an enquirer who sent twelve apples from +the same tree, and received eleven different names and one "unknown"! +Apples off the same tree do differ wonderfully, but I can scarcely +credit this story. + +It was the custom formerly at Aldington to sell the fruit on the trees +by auction for the buyer to pick and market, growers as a rule being +too busy with corn-harvest to attend to the gathering. A considerable +sum was thereby often sacrificed, as the buyer allows an ample margin +for risks, and is not willing to give more than about half of what he +expects to receive ultimately. I discontinued the auction sales early +in my farming, preferring to take the risks myself, and having plenty +of labour available. It is instructive too to know how individual +trees are bearing, and the sorts which produce the best returns. + +Except for the choicest fruit, I consider London the worst market, and +I could do better, as a rule, by sending my consignments to +Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Glasgow; the latter especially +for large coarse stuff. London is more critical, pays well for the +very best, but requires apples to be carefully graded, and the grades +separately packed; London is, moreover, naturally well supplied by the +southern counties. + +At the auctions the competition was generally keen, there being much +rivalry between the buyers; and it was good for the sellers when +political parties were opposed to each other, for in those days +Evesham was inclined to be rather violent in such matters. I remember +a lively contest between Conservatives and Radicals, when my largest +orchard--about six acres--was sold to the champion of the former for +£210, and the Radical exclaimed, as the lot was knocked down, for +everybody to hear: "He offered me £10 before the sale to stand out, +now that £10 is in Mr. S.'s pocket!" + +A few strong gales in the winter are supposed to benefit apple-trees, +acting as a kind of root pruning; but sometimes, when they are getting +old, they come down bodily with a crash, partly uprooted, though even +then they may be resuscitated for a time. We had a powerful set of +pulley tackle by which, when made fast to a neighbouring tree, they +could be restored to the perpendicular, after enlarging the hole left +by the roots, making the ground firm again round the tree, and placing +a strong sloping prop to take the weight on the weak side; good yields +would then often continue for some years. + +When the pickers had gathered the crop, by an ancient custom all the +village children were allowed to invade the orchards for the purpose +of getting for themselves any apples overlooked. This practice is +called "scragging," but it is a custom that would perhaps be better +honoured in the breach than in the observance, for hob nails do not +agree with the tender bark of young trees. Like gleaning, or +"leasing," as it is called, it is nevertheless a pleasant old custom, +and seems to give the children huge delight. + +Mistletoe did not find my apple-trees congenial, there was only one +piece on all my fruit land, and it was regarded as something of a +curiosity. But in other parts of the neighbourhood it flourished +abundantly, though I noticed that it was most frequent where the land +was poorer and the trees not so luxuriant. It was also to be seen on +tall black poplars, and I have a piece--planted purposely--on a +hawthorn in my garden here. It grows in parts of the Forest, +especially on the white-beams in Sloden, in curiously small detached +pieces like lichen. The white-beam was a favourite tree of the Romans +for the wood-work of agricultural implements, being tough and strong. + +Mistletoe is quite easy to propagate by rubbing the glutinous berries +and their seeds on the under side of a small branch at the angle where +it joins a limb. There it will often flourish unless snapped up by a +wandering missel-thrush. It is very slow in growth, but, when it +attains a fair size, is strikingly pretty in winter when the tree is +otherwise bare, for its peculiar shade of faded green, with its white +and glistening berries, makes an unusual effect--quite different from +that of any other green thing. It is rare on the oak, and, possibly +for that reason, the Druids regarded the oak upon which it grew as +sacred. + +The transition from apples to cider is a natural one, and cider is a +great institution in Worcestershire. On all the larger farms, and in +every village, an ancient cider-mill can be found. It consists of a +circular block of masonry, perhaps ten feet in diameter, the outer +circumference of which is a continuous stone trough, about 18 inches +across, and 15 inches deep, called "the chase," in which a huge +grindstone, weighing about 15 cwt., revolves slowly, actuated by a +horse walking round the chase in an unending circle. The apples are +introduced in small quantities into the chase, and crushed into pulp +by the grindstone. The pulp is then removed and placed between hair +cloths, piled upon each other, until a stack is erected beneath a +powerful press, worked by a lever, on the principle of a capstan. As +the pressure increases, the liquor runs into a vessel below, from +whence it is carried in buckets, and poured into barrels in the +cellar. Fermentation begins almost immediately, by which the sugar is +converted in carbonic acid gas and alcohol; the gas escapes and the +spirit remains in the liquor. + +Such is the simplest method of cider-making, and it produces a drink +thoroughly appreciated by the men, for we made annually 1,500 to 2,000 +gallons, and there was very little left when next year's cider-making +began. Where cider is made for sale, much greater care is necessary; +only the soundest fruit is used, and the vinous fermentation is +allowed to begin in open vessels before the pulp is pressed. When the +extracted liquor is placed in the barrels every effort is made to +prevent the acetic fermentation, which produces vinegar, and spoils +the cider for discriminating palates. The stone mill has been +superseded to some extent by the steam "scratter"; but the cider is +not considered so good, as the kernels are left uncrushed, an +important omission, as they add largely to the flavour of the finished +product. After a hot dry summer, cider is unusually strong, because +the sugar in the apples is much more fully developed. It is recognized +that these hot summers produce what are known as vintage years for +cider, just as, on the Continent, they produce vintage wines. + +Jarge, of whom I have written, was the presiding genius in the +cider-mill, and his duties began as soon as hop-picking was over. All +traces of the downward inclination of the corners of his mouth, caused +by the delinquencies of recalcitrant hoppers, quite disappeared as +soon as his new duties commenced, and it was a pleasure to see his +jovial face beaming over a job which seemed to have no drawbacks. A +really Bacchanalian presence is the only one that should be tolerated +in a cider-maker; the lean and hungry character is quite out of place +amidst the fragrance of the crushed apples, and the generous liquor +running from the press. + +The cider-maker is always allowed a liberal quantity of last year's +produce, on the principle of "thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he +treadeth out the corn"--a principle that should always be recognized +in the labourer's hire, and one which is too often forgotten by the +public in its estimate of the necessities of the farmer himself. It is +usual for the man in possession, so to speak, of the cider-mill, to +mix, for his own consumption, some of the new unfermented liquor with +the old cider, which, after twelve months, is apt to be excessively +sour; but the quantity of the former must not be in too large a +proportion, as it has a powerful medicinal effect. + + "Wouldst thou thy vats with generous juice should froth? + Respect thy orchats: think not that the trees + Spontaneous will produce a wholesome draught, + Let art correct thy breed." + +So sang Philips in his _Cyder_ in the distant days of 1706, but the +advice is as sound as ever, for good cider can only be produced from +the right kinds of apples. The names of new sorts are legion, but some +of the old varieties are still considered to be very valuable. Among +these, the Foxwhelp has been a favourite for 200 years, and others in +great esteem are Skyrme's Kernal, Forest Styre, Hagloe Crab, Dymock +Red, Bromley, Cowarne Red, and Styre Wilding. It requires about twenty +"pots" (a local measure each weighing 64 pounds) to make a hogshead of +cider; a hogshead is roughly 100 gallons, and in Worcestershire is +hardly recognizable under the name of "oxsheard"--I have never seen +the word in print, but the local pronunciation is faithfully +represented by my spelling. Another local appellation which puzzled me +for some years was "crab varges," which I eventually discovered to +mean "verjuice," a terribly sour liquid, made in the same way as cider +from crab apples. It was considered a wonderfully stimulating specific +for sprains and strains, holding the same pre-eminent position as an +embrocation, as did "goose-grace" (goose-grease) as an ointment or +emollient. This substance is the melted fat of a goose, and was said +to be so powerful that, if applied to the back of the hand, it could +shortly be recognized on the palm! + +The value of alcohol as a food is generally denied in these days by +sedentary people, but very few who have seen its judicious use in +agricultural work will be inclined to agree; it is possible that +though it may be a carbo-hydrate very quickly consumed in the body, it +acts as an aid to digestion, and produces more nourishment from a +given quantity of food, than would be assimilated in its absence. The +giving out of the men's allowances is, however, a troublesome matter +and demands a firm and masterful bailiff or foreman, for "much" is +inclined to want "more," and the line should, of course, be drawn far +short of excess. It was related of an old lady farmer in the +neighbourhood, who always distributed her men's cider with her own +hands, that in her anxiety to be on the safe side after a season when +the cider was unusually strong, she mixed a proportion of water with +the beverage, before the arrival of the recipients. One of the men, +however, having discovered the dilution, arrived after the first day +with two jars. Asked the reason for the second jar, he answered that +he should prefer to have his cider and the water _separate_. + +My bailiff always said that sixpennyworth of cider would do more work +than a shilling in cash. He was undoubtedly correct, and, moreover, +the quantity worth sixpence in the farm cider store would cost a +shilling or more at the public-house, to supply an equivalent in +alcohol, and valuable time would be lost in fetching it. It is the +alcohol that commends it to the agricultural labourer more than any +consideration of thirst, and no one can see its effect without the +conviction that the men find it not only stimulating, but supporting. +A friend of mine, however, found so much satisfaction in a deep +draught of cider when he felt really "dry," that he said he would give +"a crown" any day for a "good thirst!" + +Excess in drink was rare at Aldington, and it was very exceptional for +a man to be seen in what were called his "crooked stockings." +Fortunately, we had no public-house in the village, and if the men had +a moderate allowance during a hard day's work, there was not much +temptation to tramp a mile and back at night to the nearest licensed +premises in order to sit and swill in the tap-room. I had one man who +lived near a place of the sort, and he occasionally took what my +bailiff called, "Saints' days," and did not appear for work. I notice +that this sort of day is now called by the more suitable name of +"alcoholiday." + +Well-fermented cider contains from 5 to 10 gallons of alcohol, and +perry about 7 gallons, to every 100 gallons of the liquor, which +compares with claret 13 to 17, sherry 15 to 20, and port 24 to 26 per +cent, of alcohol. I found the truth of the proverb _in vino veritas_; +after a quite small allowance of cider on the farm the open-hearted +man would become lively, the reserved man taciturn, the crabbed man +argumentative; but the work went with a will and a spirit that were +not so noticeable when no "tots" were going round. + +An old gentleman in the neighbourhood used to tell with much enjoyment +the following story of his younger days. "I found myself," he said, +"gradually increasing my allowance of whisky and water, as I sat alone +of an evening, and I said to myself: 'Now look here, H.W., you began +with one glass, very soon you got on to two, and now you're taking +three. I'll tell you what it is, H.W., you shan't have another drop of +whisky for a month';" "and," he added, "H.W. did it, too!" + +Shortly before I came to Aldington the men were suddenly seized with +what seemed an unaccountable epidemic; their symptoms were all +similar, and a doctor soon diagnosed the complaint as lead-poisoning. +Nobody could suggest its origin until the cider was suspected, and, on +enquiry, it was elicited that the previous year the stones of the +cider-mill chase, which had become loosened by long use, were repaired +with melted lead poured in between the joints. The malic acid of the +apples had dissolved the lead, and it remained in solution in the +cider. To the disgust of the men, the doctor advised removing the +bungs from the barrels and letting the cider run off into the drains, +but nobody had the heart to comply, for there was the whole year's +stock, and it meant a wait of twelve months before it could be +replaced. After some months the men got impatient, and told the master +they were prepared to take the risk. They began with great caution, +and finding no bad result, they gradually increased the dose, still +without harm, until the normal allowance was safely reached. It is +probable that the barrel which caused the symptoms was the first made +after the repairs, and contained an extra quantity of the lead, and +although the remainder was more or less contaminated, the poison was +in such small amount as to be harmless. + +There were many old apple-trees about the hedges and in odd corners, +which went by the name of "the roundabouts," and the fruit was +annually collected and brought to the cider-mill. Some of these were +immense trees, and not very desirable round arable land, owing to +their shade, but they were lovely when in bloom, for standing +separately, they seemed to develop richer colours than when close +together in an orchard. + +The story of Shakespeare's carouse, and his night passed under a +crab-tree near Bidford, about six miles from Aldington, is well known. +It is stated, but not without contradiction, that he excused himself +by explaining that he had been drinking with: + + Piping Pebworth, dancing Marston, + Haunted Hillborough, hungry Grafton, + Dudging Exhall, papist Wixford, + Beggarly Broom, and drunken Bidford. + +A carousal at all these places would have been a heavy day's work, and +I have often thought that if the lines can really be attributed to +him, he might have meant that he had met people from all the villages +at one of the Whitsuntide merry-makings annually held in the +neighbourhood, and passed a jovial time in their company. + +Perry is made in much the same way as cider, and when due care has +been taken in its manufacture, it is a most delicious and wholesome +drink. When bottled and kept to mature it pours out with a beautiful +creaming head, and is far superior to ordinary champagne. Both cider +and perry should be drunk out of a china or earthenware mug, whence +they taste much richer than from glass; but my men always used in the +field a small horn cup or "tot," holding about quarter of a pint. I +have a very interesting old cider cup, of Fulham or Lambeth +earthenware I think, holding about a quart, with three handles, each +of which is a greyhound with body bent to form the loop for the hand. +It was intended for the use of three persons sitting together at a +small three-cornered oak table, specimens of which are still, though +rarely, met with at furniture sales in farm-houses or cottages; the +cup was placed in the middle, and each person could take a pull by +using his particular handle with the adjacent place for his lips, +without passing the cup round or using the same drinking space as +another. + +There are numerous kinds of perry pears, but certain sorts have a +great reputation, such as Moorcroft, Barland, Malvern Hills, Longdon, +Red Horse, Mother Huff Cap, and Chate Boy (cheat boy), a particularly +astringent pear; these are all small, and require quickly grinding +when gathered. In the New Forest there is a perry pear similar to the +Chate Boy, called Choke Dog, which in its natural state, is quite as +rough on the palate as the former, but it differs in colour and is not +the same sort. I had a splendid specimen of the Chate Boy pear-tree at +an outlying set of buildings, said to be the father of all the trees +of that kind in the neighbourhood, and it was a landmark for miles, as +it stood on high ground. It was fitted with a ladder reaching to the +middle of the tree, where seats were arranged on a platform for eight +or nine people; but it was unfortunately blown down on the night of +the great gale of October 14, 1877, when twelve other trees on the +farm were likewise overthrown. + +Cider and perry drinkers were said to be more or less immune from many +human ailments, including rheumatic affections, though one would +expect the acetic acid they contain, unless very carefully made, would +have an opposite effect. Certainly my men suffered neither from gout +nor rheumatism, and there was a tradition that in 1832, when the +cholera was rife in the country, the plague was stayed as soon as the +cider districts were approached. + +These noble old pear-trees are a great feature of the Vale of Evesham, +especially in the more calcareous parts where the lias limestone is +not far from the surface; they are exquisite in spring in clouds of +pure white blossoms long before the apples are in bloom; in the autumn +the foliage presents every tint of crimson, green and gold all softly +subdued, and in winter, when the framework of the tree can be seen, it +is noticeable how far the massive limbs extend, carrying their girth +almost to the summit, in a way that not even the oak can excel. The +timber is short in the grain, and wears smooth in the long wood +ploughs, and is very suitable for carving quite small and elaborate +patterns for such articles as picture frames; but it is somewhat +liable to the attack of the woodworm. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + + +PLUMS--CHERRIES. + + "A right down hearty one he be as'll make some of our maids look + alive. + And the worst time of year for such work too, when the May-Dukes + is in, + and the Hearts a-colouring!" + --Crusty John in _Alice Lorraine_. + + +The Vale of Evesham has the credit of being the birthplace of two most +valuable plums--the Damascene, and the Pershore, or Egg plum. These +both grow on their own stocks, so require no grafting, and can readily +be propagated by severing the suckers which spring up around them from +the roots of the tree. The Damascene, as its name implies, is a +species of Damson, but coarser than the real Damson or the Prune +Damson. They are not so popular on the London market as in the markets +of the north, especially in Manchester, where they command prices +little inferior to the better sorts, as they yield a brilliant red dye +suitable for dying printed cotton goods. When really ripe they are +excellent for cooking, and are not to be despised, even raw, on a +thirsty autumn day. In years of scarcity these have fetched 30s. and +over per "pot" of 72 pounds. + +The Pershore is a very different plum, green when unripe, and +attaining a golden colour later; they are immense bearers and very +hardy, frequently saving the situation for the plum-growers when all +other kinds are destroyed by spring frosts. They are specially +valuable for bottling, and it is rumoured that in the hands of skilful +manufacturers they become "apricots" under certain conditions. As +"cookers," too, they are perhaps the most useful of plums, for they +can be used in a very green and hard state. It is a wonderful sight to +see them being despatched by tram at the Evesham stations, loaded +sometimes loose like coals in the trucks for the big preserving firms +in the north. The trees grow very irregularly and are difficult to +keep in shape by pruning, as they send forth suckers from all parts +when an attempt is made to keep them symmetrical. The only purpose for +which the fruit is of little use is for eating raw, they are not +unpleasant when just ripe, but that stage is soon passed and they +become woody and unpalatable. + +I planted a thousand of these trees in a new orchard, and took great +pains with the pruning myself, for it was curious that in that land of +fruit at the time no professional pruner could be found. I sought the +advice of a market-gardener and plum-grower, who, in the early stage +of their growth, gave me an object-lesson, cutting back the young +shoots rather hard to induce them to throw out more at the point of +incision, so as to produce eventually a fuller head; while he +reiterated the instruction, "It is no use being afraid of 'em." + +This young orchard adjoined the Great Western Railway, and one day +when pruning there I saw a remarkable sight, and I have never found +any one with a similar experience. The telegraph wires were magnified +into stout ropes by a coating of white rime, and I could see a +distinct series of waves approximating to the dots and dashes of the +Morse code running along them. The movement would run for a time up +towards London, cease for a moment, and then run downwards towards +Evesham, and so on almost continuously. I thought it might be caused +by the passage of electricity, but I cannot get a satisfactory +explanation. No trains were passing, there was no wind, the rime was +not thawing or falling off, and apparently there was nothing to +agitate either poles or wires. + +This orchard was not a lucky one; it was too low, having only one flat +meadow between it and the brook, and therefore very liable to spring +frosts. I have seen the trees well past the blossoming stage, with +young plums as large as peas, which after two nights' sharp frost +turned black and fell off to such an extent that there was scarcely a +plum left; but I had a few very good crops which gave employment to a +number of additional hands besides my regular people. + +A season came when the plum-trees in my new orchard were badly +attacked by the caterpillars of the winter-moth, but the cuckoos soon +found them out, and I could see half a dozen at once enjoying a +bountiful feast. When better plums are abundant the Pershore falls to +very low prices; I have sold quantities at 1s. or 1s. 3d. per pot of +72 pounds, at which of course there was a loss; but it is needless to +say that at such times the consumer never gets the benefit, 2d. a +pound being about the lowest figure at which they are ever seen on +offer in the shops. + +The Victoria is a very superior plum to the Pershore, and a local plum +called Jimmy Moore is also a favourite. I believe this plum is very +similar to, if not identical with, one sold as Emperor; both it and +the Victoria nearly always made good prices and bore well. The +Victoria, especially, was so prolific that in some seasons, if not +carefully propped, every branch would be broken off by, the weight of +fruit, and the tree left a wreck. Not discouraged, however, it would +shoot out again and in a few years bear as well as ever. + +My best plum was the greengage, rather a shy bearer but always in +demand. Living in a land of Goshen, like the Vale of Evesham, one gets +quite hypercritical (or "picksome," as the local expression is), and +scarcely cares to taste a fruit from a tree in passing; but I used to +visit my greengages at times when the pickers had done with them, for +they have to be gathered somewhat unripe to ensure travelling +undamaged. I often found, on the south side of the tree, a few that +had been overlooked which were fully ripe, beautifully mottled, full +of sunshine, and perfect in melting texture and ambrosial flavour. + +For restocking old worn-out apple orchards, in Worcestershire at any +rate, there is nothing to equal plum-trees; they flourished amazingly +at Aldington, and soon made up for the lost apples; they appeared to +follow the principle that dictates the rotation of ordinary crops, +just as the leguminous plants alternate satisfactorily with the +graminaceous, or, as I have read that in Norway, where a fir forest +has been cut, birch will spring up automatically and take its place. + +My predecessor always sold his plums on the trees for the buyer to +harvest, and I heard that when the former turned a flock of Dorset +ewes into one of these orchards, the buyer complained--the lower +branches being heavily laden, and within a few feet of the +ground--that he had watched, "Them old yows holding down bunches of +plums with their harns for t'others to eat." This I imagine was in the +nature of hyperbole, and not intended to be taken literally. + +I had about forty cherry trees in one of my orchards, and among them a +very early kind of black cherry, as well as Black Bigarreaus, White +Heart and Elton Heart. The early ones made particularly good prices, +but when the French cherries began to be imported, being on the market +a week or two before ours they "took the keen edge off the demand," +though wretched-looking things in comparison. The cherries from my +forty trees made £80 one year when the crop was good, but they are +expensive to pick as there is much shifting of heavy ladders, and the +work was done by men. In Kent, I believe, women are employed at +cherry-picking, ascending forty-round ladders in a gale of wind +without a sign of nervousness, but with a man in attendance to pack +the fruit and shift the ladders when required. I found Liverpool the +best market for cherries, where they were bought by the large +steamship companies for the Transatlantic liners, and where they were +in demand for the seaside and holiday places in North Wales and +Lancashire. Like the pear-trees, the cherry-trees are very beautiful +in spring, and again in autumn, and as mine could be seen from the +house and garden, they added a great charm to the place. + +I must put in a word here for the bullfinch, which is unreasonably +persecuted for its supposed destruction of the cherry crop when in +bloom; it undoubtedly picks many blossoms to pieces, but probably no +ultimate loss of weight follows; very few comparatively of the blooms +ever become fruits in any case, and even if some are thus nipped in +the bud, it is probable that the remainder mature into larger and +finer cherries in consequence. The advantage of thinning is recognized +in the case of all our fruits, and is indeed, the reason for pruning. +The vine-grower knows well the truth of the saying that, "You should +get your enemy to thin your grapes," and I would sacrifice many +cherries for a few of these beautiful birds in my garden, for man does +not live by bread alone. + +One of the old couplets, of which our forefathers were so fond, runs: + + "A cherry year is a merry year, + And a plum year is a dumb year." + +I have seen the explanation suggested that cherries being particularly +wholesome contributed to the happiness of mankind, but that the less +salubrious plum tended to depression of health and spirits. There is, +however, a small black cherry still grown in this and other parts of +Hampshire and Surrey called the "Merry," from the French _merise_, and +it was natural that when cherries were abundant the merry would also +be plentiful. The word "dumb" is an archaic synonym for "damson," and +the same rule would apply between it and the plum, as with the cherry +and the merry. My own small place here, in the New Forest, has been +known for centuries as "the Merry Gardens," and no doubt they were +once grown here, as at other places in the south of England, called +Merry Hills, Merry Fields, and Merry Orchards. Even now as I write, on +May Day, the buds on the wild cherries in my hedges are showing the +white bloom just ready to appear, and in a few days, these trees will +be spangled with their little bright stars. I imagine that they are no +very distant relation of the old merry-trees that once flourished +here. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + + +TREES: ELM--OAK--BEECH--WILLOW--SCOTS-FIR. + + "O flourish, hidden deep in fern, + Old oak, I love thee well; + A thousand thanks for what I learn + And what remains to tell." + --_The Talking Oak_. + +Keats tells us that + + "The trees + That whisper round a temple become soon + Dear as the temple's self," + +and had he included the trees around a dwelling-house, the epigram +would have been equally applicable. Sometimes, of course, it becomes +absolutely necessary to cut down an ancient tree that from its +proximity to one's home has become a part of the home itself, but it +is a matter for the gravest consideration, for one cannot foresee the +result, and to a person who has lived long with a noble tree as a near +neighbour, the place never again seems the same. + +The Elm is said to be the Worcestershire weed, as the oak is in +Herefordshire; the former attains a great size, but it is not very +deeply rooted, and a heavy gale will sometimes cause many unwelcome +gaps in a stately avenue. Big branches, too, have a way of falling +without the least notice, and on the whole it is safer not to have +elms near houses or cottages. One of the finest avenues of elms I +know, is to be seen at the Palace of the Bishop of Winchester at +Farnham in Surrey, but the land is quite exceptionally good, and in +the palmy days of hop-growing, the adjoining fields commanded a rent +of £20 an acre for what is known as the "Heart land of Farnham," where +hops of the most superlative quality were grown. When the dappled deer +are grouped under this noble avenue, in the light and shade beneath +the elms, they form an old English picture of country life not to be +surpassed. + +The elm is a sure sign of rich land, it is never seen on thin poor +soils. An intending purchaser, or tenant, of a farm should always +regard its presence as a certain indication of a likely venture. It is +a terrible robber, and therefore a nuisance round arable land, causing +a spreading shade, under which the corn will be found thin, +"scrawley," and "broken-kneed," with poor, shrivelled ears; and the +alternating green crops will also suffer in their way. In an orchard +it is still worse; I had several at one time surrounded by Blenheim +apples, which were always small, scanty, and colourless. Eventually, I +cut the elms down, the biggest, carrying perhaps 100 cubic feet of +timber at 9d. a foot at the time, was only worth 75s., though it must +have destroyed scores of pounds worth of fruit during its many years +of growth. The elm seems particularly liable to be struck by +lightning, possibly owing to its height, and several suffered in this +way during my time at Aldington. + +From the scarcity of oak in the Vale of Evesham elm was often used for +making the coffers or chests we generally see made from the former +wood. I have one of these, nicely carved with the scrolls and bold +devices of the Jacobean period, and it is so dark in colour as to pass +at first sight for old oak. The timber is not much used in building, +except for rough farm sheds; as boards it is liable to twist and +become what is called "cross-winding." The land in the New Forest is +mostly too poor for the elm, and this should warn the theorists, who +during the war have advocated reclaiming the open heaths and moors for +agricultural purposes, against such an ignorant proposition. I suppose +it would cost at least £100 an acre to clear, drain, fence, level, +make roads, and erect the necessary farm buildings, houses and +cottages, with the result that it would command less than £1 per acre +as annual rent; and I should be sorry to be compelled to farm it at +that. + +Oaks are somewhat scarce in Worcestershire, and are rarely found in +the Vale of Evesham. I had one remarkably fine specimen in a meadow on +Claybrook, the farm I owned, adjoining the Aldington land. It covered +an area measuring 22 yards by 22 yards = 484 square yards, the tenth +part of an acre. The trunk measured 12 feet in circumference, about 7 +feet from the ground. The rule for estimating the age of growing +oak-trees is to calculate 15 years to each inch of radius = 540 years +to a yard, therefore a tree 6 feet in diameter, and about 20 feet +round, including bark and knots, would be just that age. According to +this rule my tree would be not less than 330 years old, which of +course is young for an oak. + +The life of this oak was saved in a peculiar way by "a pint of drink," +and the story was told me by the agent of an old lady, the previous +owner. It had been decided to fell the tree, and two professional +sawyers, who were also "tree-fallers" (fellers), arrived one morning +for the purpose with their axes and cross-cut saw. They surveyed the +prospect and agreeing that it presented a tough job, an adjournment +was arranged to the neighbouring "Royal Oak" for a pint of drink +before commencing operations. Coming back, half an hour later, they +had just stripped and rolled up their shirt sleeves, when the agent +appeared on the road not far off. "Hullo," he shouted, "have you made +a start?" "Just about to begin," replied the head man. "Well then, +don't," said the agent, "the old lady died last night, and I must wait +till the new owners have considered the matter." So the tree was +saved, and curiously enough by its namesake the "Royal Oak." The new +owner spared it, and later when it became my property I did likewise, +for I should have considered it sacrilege to destroy the finest oak in +the neighbourhood. Some years after I had sold the farm I heard that +the tree was blown down in a gale, its enormous head and widespread +branches must have offered immense resistance to the wind, and the +fall of it must have been great. + +The most celebrated, if not the biggest oak in the New Forest is the +Knightwood oak, not far from Lyndhurst; it is 17 feet in +circumference, which would make it not less than 450 years old by the +above rule. It is strange to think that it may have been an acorn in +the year 1469, in the reign of Henry VI., and that 200 years later it +could easily have peeped over the heads of its neighbours in 1669, to +see Charles II., who probably went riding along the main Christchurch +road from Lyndhurst with a team of courtiers and court beauties, in +all the pomp of royalty. We know that in that year with reference to +the waste of timber in the Forest during his father's reign he was +especially interested in the planting of young oaks, and enclosed a +nursery of 300 acres for their growth. It is also recorded that he did +not forget the maids of honour of his court, upon whom he bestowed the +young woods of Brockenhurst. + + "Oak before ash--only a splash, + Ash before oak--a regular soak," + +is a very ancient proverb referring to the relative times of the +leaves of these trees appearing in the spring, and is supposed to be +prophetic of the weather during the ensuing summer. I have, however, +noticed for many years that the oak is invariably first, so that like +some other prognostications, it seems to be unreliable. + +The attitudes of oak trees are a very interesting study. There is the +oak which, bending forwards and stretching out a kindly hand, appears +to offer a hearty welcome; the oak that starts backward in +astonishment at any familiarity advanced by a passing stranger. The +oak that assumes an attitude of pride and self-importance; the oak +that approaches a superior neighbour with an air of humility and +abasement, listening subserviently to his commands. The shrinking oak +in dread of an enemy, and the oak prepared to offer a stout +resistance. The hopeful oak in the prime of life, and the oak that +totters in desolate and crabbed old age. The oak that enjoys in middle +age the good things of life, with well-fed and rounded symmetry; and +the oak that suggests decrepitude, with rough exterior, and a +life-experience of hardship; the sturdy oak, the ambitious oak, the +self-contained oak, and so on, through every phase of character. No +other tree is so human or so expressive, and no other tree bespeaks +such fortitude and endurance. To say that a well-grown oak typifies +the reserve and strength of the true-born Briton, is perhaps to sum up +its individuality in a word. + +There is one old fellow who throws back his head and roars with +laughter when I go by; what can be the joke? I must stop some day and +look to see if the sides of his rather tight jacket of Lincoln green +moss are really splitting, and perhaps, if I can catch the pitch of +his voice, I shall hear him whisper: + + "A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' the forest." + +I like to think that these old personalities are transmigrations, and +that each is now at leisure to correct some special mistake in a +previous existence. Perhaps, out there in the moonlight, they tell +their stories to each other, and to the owls I hear at midnight +performing an appropriately weird overture. + +These talking oaks can only be found where they have grown from acorns +naturally, and where they have survived the struggle of life against +their enemies, including the interference of man, the attacks of +grazing animals, the blasts of winter and the heavy burden of its +snows. The natural woods, as distinct from the plantations of the New +Forest, offer many examples of these varying trees and the lessons +they convey. Such a piece of old natural forest almost surrounds my +present home, and every time I pass through it I bless the memory of +William the Conqueror. Randolph Caldecott, that prince of illustrators +of rural life, evidently noticed the characteristic attitudes of +trees; look at the sympathetic dejection displayed by the two old +pollard willows in his sketch of the maiden all forlorn, in _The House +that Jack Built_. The maiden has her handkerchief to her eyes, and in +a few masterly strokes one of the trees is depicted with a falling +tear, and the other bent double is hobbling along with a crutch +supporting its withered and tottering frame. + +Far otherwise is it with the plantations where the oaks are +artificially cultivated for timber. These are planted close together +on purpose to draw each other upwards in the struggle for air and +sunlight, which prevents their branching so near the ground as the +natural trees, the object being to produce an extended length of +straight trunk that will eventually afford a long and regular cut of +timber, free from the knots caused by the branches. All round the +plantations Scots-firs are planted as "nurses," to keep off the rough +winds and prevent breakage; these also help to lengthen the trunks by +inducing upward development. As the trees get nearer together they are +repeatedly thinned out, and, eventually, only those left which are +intended to come to maturity. Under this artificial, though necessary +system, the trees lose all individuality, and they never regain it +because they are all more or less controlled when growing, and so +become uninteresting copies of each other. + +The motto of the natural oak is _festina lente_, mindful of the +proverb, "early maturity means early decay." It is well known that +oak, slowly and naturally grown on poor soil, is far more durable than +that which is run up artificially or produced on rich land. The +branches of oaks rarely cross or damage each other by friction, like +those of the beech, they are obstinate and will sooner break in a +gale, than give way. Where an oak and a beech grow side by side, close +together, the oak suffers more than the beech, from the dense shade of +the latter; and if they are so near as to touch and rub together in +the wind, the oak will throw out a plaster or protection of bark, to +act as a styptic to the wound in the first place, and eventually as a +solid barrier against further aggression. + +Paintings of landscape in which trees occur are rarely satisfactory; +if you look at children playing beneath timber trees, or passers-by, +the first thing that strikes you is the majesty and the height of the +tree, as compared with the human figure. In paintings this is not as a +rule expressed; the trees are too insignificant, and the figures too +important, so that the range and wealth of tree-life is lost. +Gainsborough's _Market Cart_ is a notable exception, but the cart is a +clumsy affair, and the shafts are much too low both on it and the +horse. Constable's _Valley Farm_, _The Haywain_, _The Cornfield_, and +_Dedham Mill_ are all striking examples of his sense of tree +proportion, lending no little to the nobility of his pictures, and +speaking eloquently of the reverence man should feel in the presence +of Nature, untainted by his own fancied importance. + +What is known as "heart of oak" in Worcestershire is called +"spine-oak" in the New Forest, and the latter is perhaps the better +name of the two as expressive of greater durability. The outer part of +the trunk is called "the sap," and whilst the heart or spine is almost +indestructible, the sap-wood quickly decays, and is rejected in using +the timber for any important purpose. Pieces of the sap adhering to +the heart-wood of which the old oak coffers were made, may often be +found riddled with worm holes and almost gone to dust, while the +remainder of the chest is as sound as the day it was made two or three +hundred years ago. + +It is interesting, too, to notice marks of charring on the edge of the +lids of these coffers; it is said that they were caused by placing the +rushlight in that position, the flame just overhanging the edge, to +give time to jump into bed by its light leaving it to be automatically +extinguished on reaching the wood; and that the charring occurred when +sometimes the flame continued to burn a little longer than expected. + +Oak is usually felled in the spring when the sap is rising, to allow +of the easier removal of the bark for tanning. It is a pretty sight to +see, amidst the greenery of the standing trees, the stripped and +gleaming trunks and larger limbs stretched upon the ground, with the +neatly piled stacks of bark arranged for the air to draw through and +dry them before removal. This is called "rining" in the New Forest, +and good wages are earned at it by the men employed. + +It is perhaps the only timber, with the exception of sweet chestnut, +that is worthy to be used for the roofs of ecclesiastical buildings. +At Badsey, when we removed the roof of the church prior to +restoration, we found the oak timbers on the north side as sound as +when placed there many years further back than living memory could +recall, and of which no record or tradition existed. These timbers +were all used again in the new roof, but those from the south side had +to be discarded, having been much more exposed to driving rain and +daily changes of temperature. + +I had a number of oak field-gates made, but as the timber was barely +seasoned, we were afraid shrinkage might take place in the mortises +and tenons, and it was an agreeable surprise to find in a year or two +that nothing of the kind had happened. The mortise hole had apparently +got smaller, and still fitted the shrunken tenon to perfection. Oak +gates will last, if kept occasionally painted, sixty or seventy years +in farm use, and there were gates on my land fully that age and still +quite serviceable. + +The acorns from oaks in pastures are a trouble, as cattle are very +fond of them and sometimes gorge themselves to such an extent as to +prove fatal, if allowed unrestricted access to them when really +hungry; but in the New Forest they are welcomed by the commoners +(occupiers of private lands), some of whom possess the right of +"pannage" (turning out pigs on the Crown property). + +In old days the oak timbers of which our battleships were constructed +were supplied from the New Forest; and the saw-pit in which the +timbers of the _Victory_ were sawn by hand is still to be seen in +Burley New Plantation. But Government methods appear to have been +generally conducted in later times somewhat on the independent lines +which distinguished them in the Great War. Some years ago it was said +that a department requiring oak timber advertised for tenders in a +newspaper, in which also appeared an advertisement of another +department offering oak for sale. A dealer who obtained an option to +purchase from the latter, submitted a tender to the former, succeeded +in obtaining the business, and cleared a large profit. + +The oak has figured repeatedly in English history and occupies a +unique place in our national tradition, commencing with its Druidical +worship as a sacred tree. It was from an oak that the arrow of Walter +Tyrrel which struck down William Rufus is said to have glanced, and +Magna Charta was signed beneath an oak by the unwilling hand of King +John. It is associated in all ages with preachings, political +meetings, and with parish and county boundaries. These boundary oaks +were called Gospel-trees, it is said, because the gospel for the day +was read beneath them by the parochial priest during the annual +perambulation of the parish boundaries by the leading inhabitants in +Rogation week. Herrick alludes to the practice in the lines addressed +to Anthea in _Hesperides_: + + "Dearest, bury me + Under that Holy-oke or Gospel-tree, + Where (though thou see'st not) thou may'st think upon + Me, when thou yeerly go'st Procession." + +But perhaps the oak that appeals most to the lively imagination +venerating old tales of merry England, and with whose story generous +hearts are most in sympathy, is that + + "Wherein the younger Charles abode + Till all the paths were dim, + And far below the Roundhead rode, + And hummed a surly hymn." + +The beech is not a common tree in the Vale of Evesham, preferring the +dryer soils of the Cotswold Hills. It is said to have been introduced +by the Romans, and is familiar as the tree mentioned by Virgil in the +opening line of his first Pastoral: + + "_Tityre tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi_;" + +the metre, and the words of which, apart from their signification, +suggest so accurately the pattering of the leaves of the tree in a +gentle breeze. This device like alliteration is a method of +intensifying the expression of a passage, and is frequently adopted by +the poets. + +In another famous onomatopoeic line-- + + "_Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum_" + +--Virgil imitates the sound of a galloping horse, and the shaking of +the ground beneath its hoofs. + +Tennyson renders very naturally the action of the northern farmer's +nag and the sound of its movement, by-- + + "Proputty, proputty sticks an' proputty, proputty graws." + +And an excellent example of the effect of well-chosen words, to +express the sound produced by the subject referred to, occurs in the +_Morte d'Arthur_: + + "The many-knotted waterflags, + That whistled stiff and dry about the marge." + +Blackmore's passage in _Lorna Doone_, describing the superlative ease +and speed of Tom Faggus's mare, when John Ridd as a boy was allowed to +ride her--after a rough experience at the beginning of the +venture--is, though printed as prose, perhaps better poetry than most +similar efforts. To emphasize its full force it may be allowable to +divide the phrases as follows: + + "I never had dreamed of such delicate motion, + Fluent, and graceful, and ambient, + Soft as the breeze flitting over the flowers, + But swift as the summer lightning. + I sat up again, but my strength was all spent, + And no time left to recover it, + And though she rose at our gate like a bird, + I tumbled off into the mixen." + +The last line is a delightful bathos, adding immensely to the +completeness of the catastrophe. + +In spring the beech is the most beautiful of forest trees, putting +forth individual horizontal sprays of tender green from the lower +branches about the end of April as heralds of the later full glory of +the tree. These increase day by day upwards in verdant clouds, until +the whole unites into a complete bower of dense greenery. The beech is +known as the "groaning tree," because the branches often cross each +other, and where the tree is exposed to the wind sometimes groan as +they rub together. The rubbing often causes a wound where one of the +branches will eventually break off, or occasionally automatic grafting +takes place, and they unite. In the Verderer's Hall at Lyndhurst +specimens are to be seen which have crossed and joined a second time, +so that a complete hollow oval, or irregular circle of the wood could +be cut out of the branch. + +Estates where extensive beech woods existed have been bought by +speculative timber dealers, who shortly installed a gang of wood +cutters and a steam saw, on which the timber was sawn into suitable +pieces, to be afterwards turned on a lathe into chair legs and other +domestic furniture, and very often finally dyed to represent mahogany. +There are beeches in the New Forest which vie with the oak for premier +place, measuring over 20 feet in circumference, and the mast together +with the acorns affords abundant harvest, or "ovest," as it is called, +for the commoners' pigs. + +There was a curious saying in use by persons on the road to Pershore, +when asked their destination. In a good plum year the reply was, +"Pershore, where d'ye think?" And in a year of scarcity, "Pershore, +God help us!" The same expressions were formerly current regarding +Burley in the New Forest referring to the abundance or scarcity of +beech-mast and acorns, called collectively "akermast." + +When the nation had presented the Duke of Wellington, after the Battle +of Waterloo, with Strathfieldsaye, an estate between Basingstoke and +Reading, the Duke wishing to commemorate the event planted a number of +beech trees as a lasting memorial, which were known as "the Waterloo +beeches." Some years later, the eminent arboricultural author, John +Loudon, writing on the subject of the relative ages and sizes of +trees, wrote to the Duke for permission to view his Waterloo beeches. +The Duke had never heard of Loudon, and his writing being somewhat +illegible he deciphered the signature "J. Loudon" as "J. London" (the +Bishop of London), and the word "beeches" as "breeches." "For what on +earth can the Bishop want to see the breeches I wore at Waterloo?" +said the Duke; but taking a charitable view of the matter he decided +that the poor old Bishop must be getting irresponsible and replied +that he was giving his valet instructions to show the Bishop the +garments in question, whenever it suited him to inspect them. The +Bishop was equally amazed, but took exactly the same view about the +Duke as the latter had decided upon concerning the Bishop. No doubt +the mystery was eventually cleared up, and Bishop and Duke must have +both enjoyed the joke. + +The shade of the beech is so dense that grass will not grow beneath +it; it gradually kills even holly, which is comparatively flourishing +under the oak. The beech woods in the Forest are thus quite free from +undergrowth, and the noble trees with their smooth ash-coloured stems +can be seen in perfection, giving a cathedral aisle effect, which is +erroneously said to have suggested the massive columns and groined +roofs of Gothic architecture. + + "Where thro' the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, + The pealing anthem swells the note of praise." + +There is, too, an unearthly effect at times to be seen beneath them, +so exaggerated as to remind one of the stage setting of a pastoral +play, with all the enhancing artificial contrivance of light and +shade. It is to be seen only on a brilliantly sunny day, where the +contour of the space around the stem and below the branches takes the +form of an arched cavern, flooded by a single shaft of sunlight, +piercing the foliage at one particular spot, lighting up the floor +carpeted with last year's red-brown leaves, and emphasizing the gloom +of the walls and roof. Imagination instantly supplies the players, for +a more perfect setting for Rosalind and Celia, Orlando and the +melancholy Jaques, it would be impossible to conceive. It is said that +the ancient Greeks could see with their ears and hear with their eyes, +a privilege doubtless granted to the nature lover in all ages. In the +Forest some of the most ancient and remarkable trees have borne for +generations descriptive names such as the King and Queen oaks at +Boldrewood, and the Eagle oak in Knightwood. The communion between +human and tree life is well illustrated by a passage from Thoreau's +_Walden_: "I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest +snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or +an old acquaintance among the pines." + +At Aldington a most valuable tree was the willow, or "withy," as it is +called in Worcestershire, though in Hampshire the latter name is given +to the Goat willow, or sallow ("sally," in Worcestershire), bearing +the pretty blossoms known as palms, which in former times were worn by +men and boys in country places on Palm Sunday. My brooks were bordered +on both sides by pollard withies, the whole being divided into seven +parts or annual cuts, so that, as they are lopped every seven years a +cut came in for lopping each year. They were then well furnished with +long and heavy poles, which were severed close to the head of the +pollard with a sharp axe. When on the ground, the brushwood was cut +off and tied into "kids" (faggots) for fire-lighting, the poles being +made into hurdles or sold to the crate-makers in the potteries for +crates in which to pack earthenware goods of all descriptions. The men +employed at the lopping had to stand on the heads of the pollards, and +it was sometimes quite an acrobatic feat to maintain their balance on +a small swaying tree, or on one which overhung the water. + +There was a local saying that "the withy tree would buy the horse, +while the oak would only buy the halter," and I believe it to be +perfectly true; for the uses of the withy are innumerable, and +throughout its seven years' growth from one lopping to another there +is always something useful to be had from it, with its final harvest +of full-grown poles. One year after lopping the superfluous shoots are +cut out and used or sold for "bonds" for tying up "kids" or the mouths +of corn sacks. As the shoots grow stronger more can be taken--with +ultimate benefit to the development of the full-grown poles--for use +as rick pegs and "buckles" in thatching. The buckles are the wooden +pins made of a small strip of withy, twisted at the centre so that it +can be doubled in half like a hairpin, and used to fix the rods which +secure the thatch by pressing the buckles firmly into it. In Hampshire +these are called "spars," and they are sold in bundles containing a +fixed number. + +I heard an amusing story about these spars. A certain thatcher, we may +call him Joe, was engaged upon the roof of a cottage, when the parson +of the parish chanced to pass that way. Joe had of late neglected his +attendance at church, and the vicar saw his way to a word of advice. +After "passing the time of day" he took Joe to task for his neglected +attendance and waxing warm expressed his fears that Joe had forgotten +all his Sunday-school lessons; he was doubtful even, he said, if Joe +could tell him the number of the Commandments. Joe confessed his +ignorance. "Dear me," said the vicar, "to think that in this +nineteenth century any man could be found so ignorant as not to know +the number of the Commandments!" Joe bided his time until the vicar's +attention had been called to the spars, when Joe asked him how many a +bundle contained. It was a problem that the vicar could not solve. +"Dear me," said Joe, "to think that in this 'ere nineteenth century +any man could be found so ignorant as not to know the number of spars +in a bundle!" Joe always added when telling the story, "But there," I +says, "every beggar," I says, "to his trade," I says. + +Sometimes a picturesque gipsy would come to the Manor House with +clothes-pegs for sale, and she generally negotiated a deal, for +everybody has a sneaking regard for the gipsies and their romantic +life _sub Jove_. Walking round the farm shortly afterwards I would +come upon the remains of their fire and deserted camp by the roadside +close to the brook, the ground strewn with the peel and refuse from +the materials with which they had supplied themselves gratis, and I +recognized that we had been buying goods made from my own withies. +Even so we did not complain, for no real harm was done to the trees. + +The heads of these old pollards are favourite places for birds'-nests, +and all kinds of plants and bushes take root in their decaying fibre, +the seeds having been carried by the birds; so that ivy, brambles, +wild gooseberries, currants, raspberries, nut bushes and elders, can +be seen growing there. Whenever the foxhounds ran a fox to Aldington +he was always lost near the brookside, and it was said that the +cunning beast eluded the hounds by mounting a pollard and jumping from +one to another, until the scent was dissipated. It was also a +tradition that when hunting began on the Cotswolds the experienced +foxes left for the Vale, leaving the less crafty to fight it out with +the hounds; for the Evesham district was seldom visited by the hunt, +owing to possible damage to the highly cultivated winter crops of the +market-gardeners. + +Jarge had a very narrow escape when grubbing out an old willow +overhanging a pool. He had been at work some hours, and had a deep +trench dug out all round the tree, to attack the roots with a +stock-axe. He had cut them all through except the tough tap-root, when +I reached him, and he was standing in the trench at work upon it. He +was certain that it would be some time before the tree fell, the +tap-root being very large; but, as I stood watching on the ground +above, I thought I saw a suspicious tremor pass over the tree, and an +instant later I was certain it was coming down. I shouted to him to +get out of the trench. It took a second or two to get clear, as the +trench was deep, and he was not a tall man, so he was scarcely out +when the tree fell with a crash on the exact spot where he had been at +work. Had I not been present it must have fallen upon him, for not +expecting the end was so near he had not been watching the signs. +Though not a tall tree, it was a very stout and heavy trunk, and the +tap-root on inspection proved to be partly rotten. + + + "Forth into the fields I went, + And Nature's living motion lent + The pulse of hope to discontent. + + "I wonder'd at the bounteous hours, + The slow result of winter showers: + You scarce could see the grass for flowers. + + "I wonder'd, while I paced along: + The woods were fill'd so full with song, + There seemed no room for sense of wrong." + +Such is Tennyson's description of a spring day in the fields and +woods, and nothing more beautiful could be written. And so it was with +joy that my men and carter boys with waggons and teams started early +on the spring mornings to bring home the newly purchased hop-poles +from the distant woods. These poles are sold by auction in stacks +where they are cut, and the buyer has to cart them home. Usually, +after a successful hop year they were in great demand; prices would +rise in proportion, and the early seller did well, but when the later +sales came sometimes, the demand being satisfied, there would be a +heavy fall in values, and as a cunning buyer expressed it, "The poles +lasted longer than the money." + +The dainty catkins of the hazel are the first sign of awakening life +in the woods; they are well out by the end of January or early in +February, and as they ripen, clouds of pollen are disseminated by the +wind. Tennyson speaks of "Native hazels tassel-hung." The female +bloom, which is the immediate precursor of the nut itself, is a pretty +little pink star, which can be found on the same branch as the catkin +but is much less conspicuous; and both are a very welcome sight, as +almost the earliest hint of spring. The hazel bloom is shortly +followed by the green leaves of the woodbine, which climbs so +exultingly to the tops of the highest trees and breathes its fragrance +on a summer evening. In the New Forest the green hellebore is early +and noticeable from its peculiar green blossoms, but I have not seen +it in Worcestershire. + +My men and teams were generally off to the hills, Blockley, Broadway, +Winchcombe, Farmcote, and suchlike out-of-the-way places, when the wet +"rides" in the woods were drying up. The boys especially revelled in +the flowers--primroses and wild hyacinths--and came home with huge +bunches; they enjoyed the novelty of the woods and the wild +hill-country, which is such a contrast to the flat and highly +cultivated Vale. + +When unloaded at home the poles have to be trimmed, cut to the proper +length, 12 to 14 feet, "sharped," "shaved" at the butt 2 or 3 feet +upwards, and finally boiled so far for twenty-four hours, standing +upright in creosote, which doubles the lasting period of their +existence. They were chiefly ash, larch, maple, wych elm, and sallow, +and the rough butts, when sawn off before the sharping, supplied the +firing for the boiling. Green ash is splendid for burning: "The ash +when green is fuel for a Queen." Later, when I adopted a Kentish +system of hop-growing on coco-nut yarn supported by steel wire on +heavy larch poles, our visits to the woods were less frequent, and +much wear and tear of horses and waggons was saved. Some of our +journeys, in the earlier days, took us to the estate of the Duc +d'Aumale, on the Worcester side of Evesham, where some excellent ash +poles were grown. In one lot of some thousands I bought, every pole +had a crook in it ("like a dog's hind leg," my men said), about 2 or 3 +feet from the ground, which was caused by the Duc having given orders +some years previously, on the occasion of a visit from the Prince of +Wales (the late King Edward), to have a large area of young coppice +cut off at that height, to make a specially convenient piece of +walking and pheasant shooting for the Prince. + +On this occasion many people went to Evesham Station to see the +arrival of the Prince and retinue, and their departure for Wood Norton +in the Duc's carriages. Our old vicar was returning full of loyalty, +and passing an ancient Badsey radical inquired if he had been to see +the Prince. "Noa, sir," was the reply, "I been a-working hard to get +some money to keep 'e with." In some of the Wood Norton woods there +are large numbers of fir trees, planted, it was said, as roosting +places for the pheasants, so that they might not be visible to the +night poacher; but it was found that the birds preferred the leafless +trees, where they offer an easy pot shot in the moonlight or in the +grey of the dawn. + +The Scots-fir is an interloper in the New Forest, and always looks out +of place; it was introduced as an experiment I believe, less than 150 +years ago, and has been found useful as I have explained for +sheltering young plantations of oaks. It grows rapidly, and has been +planted by itself on land too poor for more valuable timber, chiefly +for pit-props. During the war immense numbers of Canadians and +Portuguese have been employed in felling these trees and cutting them +up into stakes for wire entanglements, trench timbers, and sleepers +for light railways. Huge temporary villages have grown up for the +accommodation of the men employed, equipped with steam sawing-tackle, +canteens, offices and quarters, and with light railways running far +away into the plantations where the trees are cut. It was a wonderful +sight to see these busy centres alive with men and machinery, in +places where before there was nothing but the silence of the woods. +And it is curious that, as in the old days the New Forest provided the +oak timber for the battleships that fought upon the sea in Nelson's +time, so now, in the fighting on land, we have been able to export +from the same place hundreds of thousands of tons of fir for the use +of our troops in France and Belgium. + +Old railway sleepers are exceedingly useful for many purposes on +farms, and as they are soaked in creosote, they last many years, for +light bridges and rough shelters, after they are worn out for railway +purposes. The railway company adjoining my land discarded a quantity +of these partly defective sleepers, and left them, for a time, lying +beside the hedge which separated the line from my fields. I applied to +the Company for some, and suggested that they need only be put over +the hedge, and I would cart them away. But that is not the routine of +the working of such matters; though it appeals to the simple rustic +mind, it would be considered "irregular." They had to be loaded on +trucks sent specially on the railway, taken to Worcester sixteen miles +by train, unloaded, sorted, loaded again, sent back to my station, +unloaded, loaded again on to my waggons, and carted a mile and a half +on the waggons which had been sent empty the same distance to the +station! + +Overgrown old hedges are exceedingly pretty in autumn when hung with +clusters of "haws," the brilliant berries of the hawthorn, and the +"hips" of the wild rose. There is, too, the peculiar pink-hued berry +of the spindle wood, and, in chalky and limestone districts, the "old +man's beard" of the wild clematis, bright fresh hazel nuts, and golden +wreaths of wild hops. It is said that + + "Hops, reformation, bays and beer + Came into England all in a year." + +But it is certain that the wild hops at any rate must have been +indigenous, for one finds them in neighbourhoods far from districts +where hops are cultivated, and the couplet probably refers to the +Flemish variety, which would be the sort imported in the days of Henry +VIII., though at the present time our best varieties are far superior. + +The holly is only seen as garden hedges in the more sandy parishes of +Worcestershire, but here in the Forest it is a splendid feature, +growing to a great size and height. In winter its bright shining +leaves reflecting the sunlight enliven the woods, so that we never get +the bare and cheerless look of places where the elm and the whitethorn +hedge dominate the landscape. In spring its small white blossoms are +thickly distributed, and at Christmas its scarlet berries are ever +welcome. Its prickles protect it from browsing cattle and Forest +ponies, but it is interesting to notice that many of the leaves on the +topmost branches being out of reach of the animals are devoid of this +protection. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + + +CORN--WHEAT--RIDGE AND FURROW--BARLEY--FARMERS NEWSTYLE AND OLDSTYLE. + + "He led me thro' the short sweet-smelling lanes + Of his wheat-suburb, babbling as he went." + --_The Brook_. + +I do not propose to enter upon the ordinary details of arable farming, +as not of very general interest, except for those actually engaged +thereon. I am aiming especially at the more unusual crops, and what I +may call the curiosities of agriculture. It is most interesting to +turn to Virgil's _Georgics_ and see how they apply after the lapse of +nearly twenty centuries to the farm-work of the present day. Horace, +too, was a farmer, though perhaps more of an amateur; he exclaims at +the busy scene presented when men and horses are engaged in active +field work: + + "_Heu heu! quantus equis quantus adest viris Sudor!_" + +which, by the way, was rendered with Victorian propriety by a +well-known Oxford professor, "What a quantity of perspiration!" etc. +Probably Horace had been watching the sowing of barley or oats on a +fine March morning, "the peck of March dust," which we know is "worth +a King's ransom," flying behind the harrows. George Cruikshank gives a +very spirited and comic realization of Horace's lines, in Hoskin's +_Talpa_, where ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, harvesting, +thrashing, grinding and carting away the finished product, are all +actively proceeding in the same field. + +The origin of the word "field," still locally pronounced "feld," as in +"Badsey Feld," near Evesham, takes us back to primeval times when the +country was mostly forest, of which certain parts had been "felled," +and were thus distinguished as opposed to the untouched portions. We +may be sure that the best pieces of land were the first to be brought +under cultivation, and it is thus that the best land in most old +parishes, at the present day, is to be found close to the village, and +is generally a portion of the manor property. Later, where glebe was +allotted for the parson's benefit, the poorer parts were apparently +considered good enough for the purpose, so that we generally expect to +find the glebe on somewhat inferior land. + +Wheat-growing at Aldington and on most heavy soils was practically +killed by the vast importations from the United States, rendered +possible by the extraction of the natural fertility of her virgin +soils, and by the development of steam traction and transport, +resulting in the food crisis at home during the war. The loss of +arable land converted to inferior grass amounted, in the forty years +from 1874 to 1914, to no less than four million acres. I made such +changes in my own cropping that, where I formerly grew 100 acres of +wheat annually, I reduced the area to ten or twenty acres, mainly for +the sake of the straw for litter and thatching purposes. + +Wheat can be planted in what would be considered a very unsuitable +tilth for barley. We had often to follow the drills--where they had +cut into the clayey soil, leaving the seed uncovered, and where the +ground was so sticky and "unkind" that harrowing had very little +effect--with forks, turning the clods over the exposed seed, and +treading them down. Wheat seems to like as firm a seed-bed as +possible, for the best crop was always on the headland, where the +turning of the horses and implements had reduced the soil to the +condition of mortar. The seed would lie in the cold ground for many +weeks before the blade made its appearance, but the men always said, +"'Twill be heavy in the head when it lies long abed." It is cheering +in late autumn and early winter when no other young growth is to be +seen on the farm, suddenly to find the field covered with the fresh +shoots of the wheat in regular lines, and to notice how, after its +first appearance, it makes little further upright growth for a time, +but spreads laterally over the ground as the roots extend downwards. + +Nothing in the way of weather will kill wheat, except continuous heavy +rain in winter, where the land is undrained, and stagnant water +collects. I have seen it in May lying flat on the ground after a +severe spring frost, but in a day or two it would pick up again as if +nothing had happened. And I have seen beans, 2 feet high, cut down and +doubled up, revive and rear up their heads quite happily, though at +harvest the exact spot in every stalk could be seen where the wound +had taken place. + +In May, if the weather is cold and ungenial, wheat turns yellow; this +is the weaning time of the young plants, which have then exhausted the +nourishment contained in the seed, and in the absence of growing +weather they do not take kindly to the food in the land, upon which +they now become dependent. + + "The farmer came to his wheat in May, + And right sorrowfully went away, + The farmer came to his wheat in June, + And went away whistling a merry tune." + +His wheat was what is called "May-sick" the first time, but had +recovered on the second visit, for another old saw tells us that, "A +dripping June puts all in tune." + +May is said "Never to go out without a wheat-ear," but I do not think +this is invariably true, though by splitting open a young wheat stem +it is easy to find the embryo ear, only about half an inch long. I +have heard people exclaiming at the beautiful effect of the breezes +passing over a luxuriant field of growing wheat, giving the appearance +of waves on a lake; but when the wheat is in bloom, it is doubtful if +this is a reason for congratulation, as the blooms are rubbed off in +the process, which may be the cause of thin-chested ears at harvest, +when, instead of being set in full rows of four or five grains +abreast, only two or three can be found, reducing the total number in +an ear from a maximum of about seventy to fifty or less. + +"God makes the grass to grow greener while the farmer's at his +dinner," is a proverb which may be applied to almost any enterprise, +for optimism is largely a physical matter, and "it is ill talking with +a hungry man." + +I suppose that no man, even with the dullest imagination, can fail to +walk across a wheat field at harvest without being reminded of some of +the innumerable stories and allusions to corn fields in the Bible. He +will remember how, when the famine was sore in the land of Canaan, +Jacob sent his ten sons to Egypt to buy corn, and how Joseph knew his +brethren, but they knew him not; with the touching details of his +emotion, until he could no longer refrain himself, and, weeping, made +himself known. How he bade them return, and bring their aged father, +their little ones, and their flocks and herds, to dwell in the land of +Goshen. + +His mind, too, will revert to the commandment given to Moses, "When ye +reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners +of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest"; +so that he will meet the villagers with a word of welcome, when they +invade his fields for the same time-honoured purpose. + +He will remember the story of Ruth and Boaz, told in the exquisite +poetry of the Bible diction, than which nothing in the whole range of +literature can compare in noble simplicity. And the corn fields of the +New Testament, where the disciples plucked the ears of corn, and were +encouraged, and the accusing Pharisees rebuked; with the conclusive +declaration that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the +Sabbath. And, finally, the familiar chapter in the burial service, +which has brought comfort to thousands of mourners, and will so +continue till the last harvest, which is the end of the world, when +the angels will be the reapers. + +The word "gleaning" is never heard in Worcestershire for collecting +the scattered wheat stems and ears; it is invariably "leasing" from +the Old English, _lesan_, to gather or collect anything. When wheat +was fairly high in price the village women and children were in the +field as soon as it was cleared of sheaves, and they made a pretty +picture scattered about the golden stubble, and returning through the +meadows and lanes at twilight with their ample gatherings. + +The "leasings" would be thrashed by husband or brother with the old +flail, in one of my barns, to be then ground at the village mill, and +lastly baked into fragrant loaves of home-made bread--the "dusky +loaf," as Tennyson says, "that smelt of home." One good old soul +brought me every week, while the "leased corn" lasted, a small loaf +called "a batch cake," and continued the gift later, made from wheat +grown on the family allotment; her loaves were some of the best and +the sweetest bread I have ever tasted. + +"The man who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before" is +said to be a national benefactor, and, I suppose, the same adage +applies _a fortiori_ to wheat, but I have never seen a monument raised +to his memory or even the circulation of the national hat for his +benefit. Too often the only proof of his neighbour's recognition of +his improved crops is the notification of an increased assessment of +the amount of his liability to contribute to what is, still quite +unsuitably, called the poor rate. + +Wheat rejoices in a tropical summer, and it never succeeds better than +when stiff land like mine splits into deep cracks, locally called +"chawns." You can see the root-fibres crossing these cracks which go +so far into the earth that a walking-stick can be inserted to touch +the drain pipes in the furrows at a depth of 2-1/2 or 3 feet. +Apparently this cracking acts as a kind of root-pruning, and lets in +the heat of the sun to the lower roots of the corn, with the result +of, what is called, a great "cast" (yield) to the acre. + +In building wheat ricks the most important point is to arrange the +sheaves with the butts sloping outwards, so that should rain fall +before thatching, the water will run away from the centre. I remember +at Alton, where the rick-builder was an old and experienced man, he +neglected this precaution; some weeks of heavy rain followed, but in +time the thatching was completed, and nobody dreamed of any harm. When +the thrashing machine arrived, and the ricks were uncovered, the wheat +was found so damp that, in places, the ears had grown into solid mats, +and the sheaves could only be parted by cutting with a hay-knife. The +old man was so discomfited that the tears rolled down his cheeks, and +the master's loss amounted to something like £300. There was not a +sack of dry wheat on that particular farm that winter, though some was +saleable at a reduced price. He told me that it was a costly business +for him, but worth any money as a lesson to me. I took it to heart, +and we never left a rick uncovered at Aldington; as fast as one was +completed, and the builder descended the ladder, the thatcher took his +place, and temporarily "hung" it with straw, secured by partially +driven-in rick pegs until we could find time to attend to the regular +thatching. + +The high ridges and deep furrows, to be seen on the heavy arable lands +of the Vale of Evesham, are a source of wonderment to people who come +from light land districts, and who do not recognize how impervious is +the subsoil to the penetration of water. The origin of these highly +banked ridges dates from far-away days before land drain pipes were +obtainable, and it was the only possible arrangement to prevent the +perishing of crops from standing water in the winter. The rain quickly +found its way into the furrows from the ridges, and, as they always +sloped in the direction of the lowest part of the field, the +superfluous water soon disappeared. Even now, when drain pipes are +laid in the furrows, it is not advisable to level the ridges, because +the water would take much longer to find the drains, and the growing +crop would be endangered. It is not safe to drain this land deeper +than about 2-1/2 feet, and many thousands of pounds have been +misapplied where draining has been done on money borrowed from +companies who insist upon 3 feet as the minimum depth for any portion +of the drain, which would mean much more than that where the drain +occasionally passes through a stretch of rising ground. As proving my +statement that 2-1/2 feet is quite deep enough, I have seen great +pools of water after a heavy rain standing exactly over the drain in +the furrows, and we had sometimes to pierce the soil to the depth of +the pipes, with an iron rod made for the purpose, before the water +could get away. + +On light land, the subsoil of which is often full of water, the case +is quite different, and the pipes must be laid much deeper to relieve +its water-logged condition; but on our stiff clay the subsoil was +comparatively dry, and we had to provide only for the discharge of the +surface water as quickly as possible, where the solid clay beneath +prevented its sinking into the lower layers. + +In the subsoil of the lias clay there are large numbers of a fossil +shell, _Gryphea incurva_, known locally as "devils claws"; they +certainly have a demoniac claw-like appearance, and worry the drainers +by catching on the blade of the draining tool, and preventing its +penetration into the clay. + +I have heard the suggestion that our highly banked ridges were +intended to increase the surface of the land available for the crops, +just as it takes more cloth to cover a hump back than a normal one, +but of course the rounded ridge does not provide any more _vertical +position_ for the crop, and the theory cannot be maintained. Some of +these ridges, "lands" as they are called, are so wide and so elevated +that it was said that two teams could pass each other in the furrows, +on either side of a single "land," so hidden by the high ridge that +they could not see one another; and I myself have noticed them on +abandoned arable land that has been in grass from time immemorial, so +high as nearly to answer the description. Though the blue clay in the +Vale of Evesham is so tenacious, it works beautifully after a few +sharp frosts, splitting up into laminations that form a splendidly +mouldy seed bed, so that frost has been eloquently called "God's +plough." + +It is a very curious fact that many of these old "lands" take the form +of a greatly elongated [Illustration: (S backwards)], though not so +pronounced as that figure, for the curves are only visible towards the +ends, and these curves always turn to the left of anyone walking +towards the end. Various explanations have been given, and one by Lord +Avebury is the nearest approach to a correct solution which I have +seen, though not, I think, quite accurate. My own idea is that, as the +plough turns each furrow-slice only to the right, the beginning of the +ridge would be accomplished by two furrows thrown together on the top +of each other, and the remainder would be gathered around them by +continuing the process, until the "land" was formed with an open +furrow on each side. The eight oxen would be harnessed in pairs, or +the four horses tandem fashion. When they reached the end of each +furrow-slice, the plough-boy, walking on the near side, would have to +turn the long team on the narrow headland, and in order to get room to +reach a position for starting the next furrow-slice, he would have to +bear to the left before commencing the actual turn. In the meantime +the horse next the plough would be completing the furrow-slice alone, +and would, naturally, try to follow the other three horses towards the +left, so that the furrow-slice at its end would slightly deviate from +the straight line. When the horses were all turned, the second +furrow-slice would follow the error in the first, and the same +deviation would occur at each end of the ploughing, gradually becoming +more and more pronounced, until the curved form of each ridge became +apparent. Lord Avebury says that when the driver, walking on the near +side, reached the end of each furrow, he found it easier to turn the +team by pulling them round than by pushing them, thus accounting for +the slight curvature. + +The saying, + + "He that by the plough would thrive + Himself must either hold or drive," + +is largely true, but only the small farmer can comply with it. The man +of many acres cannot restrict his presence to one field, and must +adopt for his motto the equally true proverb, "The master's eye does +more than both his hands." + +The thrashing-machine is the ultimate test of the yield or cast of the +wheat crop, and it seems to have something itself to say about it. For +when the straw is short the cast is generally good, and _vice versa_. +In the first case the machine runs evenly, and gives out a contented +and cheerful hum, but in the second it remonstrates with intermittent +grunts and groans. Even when the yield is pretty good, the voice of +the machine is not nearly so encouraging to the imaginative farmer, +when prices are low, as when prices are up. + +Throughout the course of my farming the gloomy note of the machine was +that which predominated, but in the spring of 1877, on the prospect of +complications with Russia, when wheat rose to I think nearly 70s. a +quarter, it was again a cheerful sound, for I had several ricks of the +previous year's crop on hand. I do not remember that bread rose to +anything like the extent that occurred in the Great War. Forty years +has marvellously widened the gap between the raw material and the +finished product--that is, between producer and consumer; immense +increases have taken place in the cost of labour employed by miller +and baker, and rates and other expenses are much higher. + +Farmers do not lose much in "bad debts"; they have to lay out their +capital in cash payments so long before the return that they are not +expected to give extended credit when sales take place, and for corn +payment is made fourteen days after the sale is effected. I had one +rather narrow escape. I had sold 150 sacks of wheat to a miller, and +it had been delivered to the mill, but one evening I had a note from +him to say that his credit was in question on the local markets. "A +nod," I thought, "was as good as a wink to a blind horse"; so next +morning I sent all my teams and waggons, and by night had carted all +the wheat away, except twenty sacks, which had already been ground. +The miller paid eventually 10s. in the £, so my loss was only a matter +of about £10. + +A similar "chap money," or return of a trifle in cash from seller to +buyer, as that in vogue in horse-dealing, still exists in selling +corn; it goes by the indefinite name of "custom," and in +Worcestershire it was a fixed sum of 1s. in every sixty bushels of +wheat, and 1s. in every eighty bushels of barley; each of these +quantities formed the ancient load. I think the payment of "custom" +arose when tarpaulin sheets were first used instead of straw to cover +the waggon loads. The straw never returned; it was the miller's +perquisite, and its value paid for the beer to which the carters were +treated at the mill; but the tarpaulin comes back each time, so the +miller gets his _quid pro quo_ in the "custom." + +Barley was not an important crop at Aldington, the land was too stiff, +but I had some fields which contained limestone, where good crops +could be grown. Even there it was inclined to coarseness, but in dry +seasons sometimes proved a very nice bright and thin-skinned sample. +Before the repeal of the malt tax, which was accompanied by +legislation that permitted the brewers to use sugar, raw grain and +almost anything, including, as people said, "old boots and shoes" +instead of barley malt, good prices, up to 42s. a quarter and over, +could be made; but under the new conditions, the maltsters complained +that my barley was too good for them, and they could buy foreign stuff +at about 22s. or 24s., which, with the help of sugar, produced a class +of beer quite good enough for the Black Country and Pottery consumers. + +I heard an amusing story about barley in Lincolnshire, some years +before the repeal of the malt tax, which, I think, is worth recording. +A farmer, after a very hot summer and dry harvest, had a good piece of +barley which he offered by sample in Lincoln market. He could not make +his price, the buyers complaining that it was too hard and flinty. He +went home in disgust, but, after much pondering, thought he could see +his way to meet the difficulty. He had the sacks of barley "shut" on +his barn floor, in a heap, and several buckets of water poured over +it. The heap was turned daily for a time, until the grain had absorbed +all the water, and there was no sign of external moisture. The +appearance of the barley was completely changed: the hard flinty look +had vanished, and the grain presented a new plumpness and mellowness. +He took a fresh sample to Lincoln next market day, and made 2s. or 3s. +a quarter more than he had asked for it in its original condition. + +The following lines, which have never been published except in a local +newspaper, though written many years ago, apply quite well in these +days of the hoped-for revival of agriculture. I am not at liberty to +disclose the writer's identity beyond his initials, E.W. + +FARMER NEWSTYLE AND FARMER OLDSTYLE + + "Good day," said Farmer Oldstyle, taking Newstyle by the arm; + "I be cum to look aboit me, wilt 'ee show me o'er thy farm?" + Young Newstyle took his wideawake, and lighted a cigar, + And said, "Won't I astonish you, old-fashioned as you are! + + "No doubt you have an aneroid? ere starting you shall see + How truly mine prognosticates what weather there will be." + "I ain't got no such gimcracks; but I knows there'll be a flush + When I sees th'oud ram tak shelter wi' his tail agen a bush." + + "Allow me first to show you the analysis I keep, + And the compounds to explain of this experimental heap, + Where hydrogen and nitrogen and oxygen abound, + To hasten germination and to fertilize the ground." + + "A putty sight o' learning you have piled up of a ruck; + The only name it went by in my feyther's time was muck. + I knows not how the tool you call a nallysis may work, + I turns it when it's rotten pretty handy wi' a fork." + + "A famous pen of Cotswolds, pass your hand along the back, + Fleeces fit for stuffing the Lord Chancellor's woolsack! + For premiums e'en 'Inquisitor' would own these wethers _are_ fit, + If you want to purchase good uns you must go to Mr. Garsit.[1] + + "Two bulls first rate, of different breeds, the judges all + protest + Both are so super-excellent, they know not which is best. + Fair[1] could he see this Ayrshire, would with jealousy be riled; + That hairy one's a Welshman, and was bred by Mr. Wild."[1] + + "Well, well, that little hairy bull, he shanna be so bad: + But what be yonder beast I hear, a-bellowing like mad, + A-snorting fire and smoke out? be it some big Roosian gun! + Or be it twenty bullocks squez together into one?" + + "My steam factotum, that, Sir, doing all I have to do, + My ploughman and my reaper, and my jolly thrasher, too! + Steam's yet but in its infancy, no mortal man alive + Can tell to what perfection modern farming will arrive." + + "Steam as yet is but an infant"--he had scarcely said the word, + When through the tottering farmstead was a loud explosion heard; + The engine dealing death around, destruction and dismay; + Though steam be but an infant this indeed was no child's play. + + The women screamed like blazes, as the blazing hayrick burned, + The sucking pigs were in a crack, all into crackling turned; + Grilled chickens clog the hencoop, roasted ducklings choke the + gutter, + And turkeys round the poultry yard on devilled pinions flutter. + + Two feet deep in buttermilk the stoker's two feet lie, + The cook before she bakes it finds a finger in the pie; + The labourers for their lost legs are looking round the farm, + They couldn't lend a hand because they had not got an arm. + + Oldstyle all soot, from head to foot, looked like a big black + sheep, + Newstyle was thrown upon his own experimental heap; + "That weather-glass," said Oldstyle, "canna be in proper fettle, + Or it might as well a tow'd us there was thunder in the kettle." + + "Steam is so expansive." "Aye," said Oldstyle, "so I see. + So expensive, as you call it, that it winna do for me; + According to my notion, that's a beast that canna pay, + Who champs up for his morning feed a hundred ton of hay." + + Then to himself, said Oldstyle, as he homewards quickly went, + "I'll tak' no farm where doctors' bills be heavier than the rent; + I've never in hot water been, steam shanna speed my plough, + I'd liefer thrash my corn out by the sweat of my own brow. + + "I neither want to scald my pigs, nor toast my cheese, not I, + Afore the butcher sticks 'em or the factor comes to buy; + They shanna catch me here again to risk my limbs and loife; + I've nought at whoam to blow me up except it be my woif." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + + +HOPS--INSECT ATTACKS--HOP FAIRS. + + "Oft expectation fails, and most oft there + Where most it promises; and oft it hits + Where hope is coldest and despair most fits." + + --_All's Well that Ends Well_. + +In a very rare black-letter book on hop culture, _A Perfite Platforme +of a Hoppe Garden_, published in the year 1578 and therefore over 340 +years old, the author, Reynolde Scot, has the following quaint remarks +on one of the disorders to which the hop plant is liable: + +"The hoppe that liketh not his entertainment, namely his seat, his +ground, his keeper, or the manner of his setting, comith up thick and +rough in leaves, very like unto a nettle; and will be much bitten with +a little black flye, who, also, will not do harme unto good hoppes, +who if she leave the leaf as full of holes as a nettle, yet she +seldome proceedeth to the utter destruction of the Hoppe; where the +garden standeth bleake, the heat of summer will reform this matter." + +Thomas Tusser, who lived 1515 to 1580, in his _Five Hundred Points of +Good Husbandry_, included many seasonable verses on Hop-growing, among +which the following are worth quoting: + + MAY. + + Get into thy hop-yard for now it is time + To teach Robin Hop on his pole how to climb, + To follow the sun, as his property is, + And weed him and trim him if aught go amiss. + + JUNE. + + Whom fancy perswadeth among other crops, + To have for his spending sufficient of hops: + Must willingly follow of choices to chuse + Such lessons approved, as skilfull do use. + + Ground gravelly, sandy, and mixed with clay, + Is naughty for hops, any manner of way; + Or if it be mingled with rubbish and stone, + For dryness and barrenness let it alone. + + Chuse soil for the hop of the rottenest mould, + Well dunged and wrought as a garden plot should: + Not far from the water (but not overflown), + This lesson well noted is meet to be known. + + The sun in the south, or else southly and west, + Is joy to the hop, as welcomed ghest: + But wind in the north, or else northerly east, + To hop is as ill, as a fray in a feast. + + Meet plot for a hop-yard, once found as is told, + Make thereof account, as of jewell of gold: + Now dig it and leave it the sun for to burn, + And afterward fence it to serve for that turn. + + The hop for his profit, I thus do exalt, + It strengtheneth drink and it favoureth malt, + And being well brewed, long kept it will last, + And drawing abide, if ye draw not too fast. + +In Worcestershire and Herefordshire hop-gardens are always called +hop-yards, which seems to be only a local and more ancient form of the +same word, and from the same root. The termination occurs also in +"orchard"--from the Anglo-Saxon _ortgeard_ (a wort-yard) +--"olive-yard," and "vineyard." + +The quotation from the _Perfitie Platforme of a Hoppe Garden_ refers +to "a little black flye," now called "the flea" (Worcestershire plural +"flen"), really a beetle like the "turnip fly," and it is the first +pest that attacks the hop every year. + + "First the flea, then the fly, + Then the lice, and then they die," + +is a couplet repeated in all the hop districts to-day, but the damage +done by the flea is not to be compared to that caused by the next +pest, the fly. The latter is one of the numerous species of aphis +which begins its attack in the winged state, and after producing +wingless green lice in abundance--which further increase by the +process known as "gemmation"--reappears with wings in the final +generation of the lice, and hibernates in readiness for its visitation +in the spring next year. + +So long as the hop plant maintains its health the aphis is +comparatively harmless, for the plant is then able to elaborate to the +full the bitter principle which is its natural protection. On a really +hot day in July it is sometimes possible to detect the distinctive +scent of the hop quite plainly in walking through the plantation, long +before any hops appear, and when this is noticeable very little of the +aphis blight can be found. There is however nearly always a small +sprinkling lying in wait, and a few days of unsuitable weather will +reduce the vitality of the plant so that the blight immediately begins +to increase. + +There is little doubt that all the distinctive principles of plants or +trees have been evolved, and are in perfect health elaborated, as a +protection from their most destructive insect or fungoid enemies; just +as physical protective equipment, such as thorns, prickles, and +stinging apparatus, is produced by other plants or trees as safeguards +against more powerful foes. If it were not so, plants that are even +now seriously damaged and kept in check by such pests would long ago +have become extinct. + +Pursuing this theory it seems likely that the solanin of the potato is +its natural protection against the disease caused by the fungus +_Phytophthora infestans_. The idea is suggested by the invariably +increasing liability to the potato disease experienced as new sorts +become old. The new kinds of potatoes are produced from the seed--not +the tubers--of the old varieties, and the seed, when fully vitalized +and capable of germination, may be assumed to contain the maximum +potentiality for transmission of the active principle to the tubers +immediately descended from it. During the early years of their +existence these revitalized tubers contain so much solanin that they +are not only injurious, but more or less poisonous, to man, and it is +only after they have been cultivated, and have produced further +generations of tubers _from_ tubers, that they become eatable, showing +that in the tuber condition the plant gradually loses its efficient +protection. + +In the case of the hop the most effective remedy is a solution of +quassia and soft soap. The caustic potash in the soap neutralizes the +oily integument of the lice and dries them up, but the quassia +supplies a bitter principle not unlike that of the hop, though without +its grateful aroma, which acts as a protection in the absence of the +bitter of the hop itself. So closely does the hop bitter resemble that +of quassia, that in seasons of hop failure it is said to be employed +as a substitute in brewing, and at one time its use for that purpose +was prohibited by law. + +As a further proof that the bitter principle of the hop is distasteful +to the aphis, it is noticeable that when the fly first arrives it +always attacks the topmost shoots of the bine where the leaves have +not developed, and where the active principle is likely to be weakest. +The same position is selected by the aphis of the rose, the bean, and +every plant or tree subject to aphis attack--it is the undeveloped and +therefore unprotected part which is chosen. + +It is remarkable that when a destructive blight is +proceeding--generally in a wet and cold time--and a sudden change +occurs to really hot dry weather, the hop plant often recovers its +tone automatically, shakes off the disease, and the blight dies away, +a fact which strengthens the assumption that in normal weather the +plant can protect itself. Again, the blight is always most persistent +under the shade of trees or tall hedges, or where the bine is over +luxuriant, when owing to the exclusion of light and air the plant is +unable to elaborate its natural safeguard. + +Fertilizers not well balanced as to their constituents, and containing +an excess of nitrogen, act as stimulants without supplying the +minerals necessary for perfect health. The effect is the same as that +produced in man by an excess of alcohol and a deficiency of nourishing +food, the health of the subject suffers in both cases, leaving a +predisposition to disease. + +Reasoning by analogy, these causes affecting the success or failure of +plants give us the clue to the remedies for bacterial disease in man. +Disease is the consequence and penalty of life under unnatural or +unfavourable conditions, which should first receive attention and +improvement. When in spite of improved conditions disease persists, +specifics must be sought. The conditions which produce disease in the +vegetable world are fought by the active principle of each plant, and +inasmuch as the germ diseases of man are probably, though distantly, +related to those which affect vegetable life, the specific protections +of plants should be exploited for the treatment of human complaints. +This, of course, has for long been a practice, but possibly more +success might be achieved by careful research to identify each +distinct bacterial disease in man with its co-related distinct disease +in plants, so as to utilize as a remedy for the former the natural +protection which the latter indicates. + +Our artificially evolved domesticated plants are more subject to +disease than their wild prototypes, because they are not natural +survivals of the fittest. They are survivals only by virtue of the art +of man, inducing special properties pleasing to man's senses, and +therefore profitable for sale; but in the development of some such +special excellence, ability to elaborate protective defence is +generally neglected, and the special excellence produced may possibly +be antagonistic to the really sound constitution of the plant. It is +thus that cultivated plants are more in need of watchful care and +attention than their wild relations, and that, in the development of +quality, a sacrifice of quantity may be involved. + +The observant hop grower notices constant changes in the appearance of +his plants from day to day under varying weather influences and other +conditions: a retarded and unhappy expression in a cold, wet and rough +time; an eager and hopeful expansiveness under genial conditions; a +dark, plethoric and rampant growth where too much nitrogen is +available, and a brilliant and healthily-restrained normality when +properly balanced nourishment is provided. + +There should be sympathy between the grower and his plants, such as is +described by Blackmore in his _Christowell_; though in the following +passage with consummate art he puts the words into the mouth of the +sympathetic daughter of the amateur vine-grower, and gives the plant +the credit of the first advance: + +"'For people to talk about "sensitive plants,"' she says, 'does seem +such sad nonsense, when every plant that lives is sensitive. Just look +at this holly-leafed baby vine, with every point cut like a prickle, +yet much too tender and good to prick me. It follows every motion of +my hand; it crisps its little veinings up whenever I come near it; and +it feels in every fibre that I am looking at it.'" + +Blackmore was much more than a writer of fiction; I think he had a +deeper insight into the spirit of Nature and country character than +perhaps any writer of modern times; he combined the accuracy of the +scholar with the practical knowledge of the farmer and gardener; the +logic of the philosopher with the fancy and expression of the poet. I +regard the appreciation of his _Lorna Doone_--a book in which one can +smell the violets--as the test of a real country lover; I mean a +country lover who, besides the gift of acute observation, has the +deeper gift of imaginative perception. If only the book could have +been illustrated by the pencil of Randolph Caldecott, such a union of +sympathy between author and artist would have produced a work +unparalleled in rural literature. + +Like all insects the aphis has its special insect enemies, among which +the lady-bird ("lady-cow" in Worcestershire) is the most important. It +lays its eggs in clusters on the hop-leaf, and in a few days the larvæ +(called "niggers") are hatched, aggressive-looking creatures with +insatiable appetites. It is amusing to watch them hunting over the +lower side of the leaf like a sporting dog in a turnip field, and +devouring the lice in quantities. I knew an old hop grower in +Hampshire who had a standing offer of a guinea a quart for lady-birds, +but it is scarcely necessary to add that the reward was never claimed. + +The hop is dioecious (producing male and female blossoms on separate +plants), but very rarely both can be found on the same stem--the plant +thus becoming monoecious. In 1893, a very hot dry year, several +specimens were found, including one in Kent, one in Surrey, one in +Herefordshire, and one in my own hopyards at Aldington. It is curious +that the same unusual season should have produced the same abnormality +in places so far apart, practically representing all the hop districts +of the country. + + "Till James's Day be past and gone, + You might grow hops or you might grow none." + +St. James's Day is July 25, and so uncertain was the crop in the days +before insecticides were in use, that the saying fairly represents the +specially speculative nature of the crop in former times. As an +instance of the effects of varying years I had the uncommon experience +of picking two crops in twelve months: the first in a very late season +when the picking did not commence till after Worcester hop-fair day, +September 19th, and the second the following year when picking was +unusually early, and was completed before the fair day. At Farnham, +where many of the tradespeople indulged in a little annual flutter as +small hop growers, in addition to a more regular source of income from +their respective trades, it was said that the first question on +meeting each other was not, "How are you?" but "How are _they_?" + +Hop-picking is always somewhat reminiscent of the Saturnalia; with +hundreds of strangers from distant villages and a few gipsies and +tramps, it is not possible to enforce strict discipline, for it is +very necessary to keep the people in good-humour. On the final day of +the picking they expect to be allowed to indulge in a good deal of +horse-play, the great joke being suddenly to upset an unpopular +individual into a crib among the hops. Shrieks of laughter greet the +disappearance of the unlucky one, of whom nothing is to be seen except +a struggling leg protruding from the crib. + +The last operation in the hop garden is stacking the poles, and +burning the bine, a most inflammable material which makes a prodigious +blaze. As the men watch the leaping flames the same remark is made +year after year--"fire is a good servant, but a bad master." These +fires seem a great waste of good fibrous matter, as in former times +the bine was utilized for making coarse sacking and brown paper. +During the war I suggested to the National Salvage Council that, owing +to the scarcity of both these articles, it might be worth while to +attempt the resuscitation of the manufacture. The suggestion was +followed by experiments which produced quite a useful brown paper of +which I received a sample, but the cost of treatment was unfortunately +prohibitive from the commercial point of view. + +Worcester hop fair is the start of the trade, and the market is held +behind the Hop-Pole Hotel, where there are spacious stores and offices +for the merchants. When the crop is bountiful the stores are filled to +overflowing, and the ancient Guildhall built in 1721 has to be +requisitioned. On either side of the doorway stand the statues of +Carolus I. and Carolus II., who must have watched the entrance and the +exit of innumerable pockets. Worcester is distinguished as the +Faithful City, for like the County it had small use for Cromwell and +his Roundheads; and to this day, on the date of the restoration of +Charles II.--"the twenty-ninth of May, oak apple day"--a spray of oak +or an oak-apple is in some villages worn as a badge of loyalty, the +penalty for non-observance being a stroke on the hands with a +stinging-nettle. + +It was a great relief to get away from my 300 pickers and ride the +eighteen miles to Worcester on my bicycle, through the lovely river +scenery of the Vale of Evesham, the hedges drooping beneath the weight +of brilliant berries, the orchards loaded with apples, the clean +bright stubbles, and the cattle in the lush aftermath; then, after a +visit to the busy hop-market and a stroll among the curio shops in New +Street, to return by a different road as the shadows were lengthening +beside the copses and the hedgerow timber trees. + +In former times the October fair at Weyhill, near Andover, was the +market for the Hampshire and Farnham hops; it was the custom for the +growers to send them by road, and load back with cheese brought to the +fair by the Wiltshire farmers. I heard of a Hampshire grower, who in a +year of great scarcity had spent some time trying to sell several +pockets to an anxious but reluctant buyer, unwilling to give the price +asked--£20 a hundredweight. They continued the deal in the evening at +the inn at Andover, where both were staying, and said "Good-night" +without having concluded the bargain. The grower was in bed and almost +asleep when he heard a knock at his door, and a voice, "Give you £18," +which he refused. Next morning trade was dull and the buyer would not +repeat his offer, and at the end of the week the grower sent his hops +home again. Prices continued to fall, until two years later he sold +the same lot at 5s. a hundredweight to a cunning speculator, who took +them out to sea, after claiming a return of the duty (about £1 a +hundredweight originally paid by the grower), which the Excise +refunded on _exported_ hops. The hops went overboard of course, and +the buyer netted the difference between the price he paid and the +amount received for the refunded duty. + +At these old fairs the showmen and gipsies take large sums in the +"pleasure" departments for admission to their exhibitions--swings, +roundabouts, shooting-galleries, and coco-nut shies. In Evesham +Post-Office a gipsy woman once asked me to write a letter; she handed +me an order for £10, and instructed me to send it to a London firm for +£5 worth of best coco-nuts and £5 worth of seconds. They were for use +on the shies; it struck me as a large supply, and the economical +division of the qualities as ingenious. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + + +METEOROLOGY--ETON AND HARROW AT LORD'S--"RUS IN URBE." + + "But if I praised the busy town, + He loved to rail against it still, + For 'ground in yonder social mill + We rub each other's angles down, + + "'And merge,' he said, 'in form and gloss + The picturesque of man and man.'" + --_In Memoriam_. + +During the terribly wet summer of 1879 the following lines were +written--it was said by the then Bishop of Wakefield--in the visitors' +book at the White Lion Hotel at Bala, in Wales: + + "The weather depends on the moon, as a rule, + And I've found that the saying is true; + For at Bala it rains when the moon's at the full, + And it rains when the moon's at the new. + + "When the moon's at the quarter, then down comes the rain; + At the half it's no better I ween; + When the moon's at three-quarters it's at it again, + And it rains besides mostly between." + +Rather hard on Bala, for the summer was so abnormally wet that these +lines would have been true of any part of England. I suppose everybody +is more or less interested in the weather, but the custom of alluding +to the obvious, as an opening to conversation, is probably a survival +from the time when everyone was directly interested in its effect upon +agriculture. + +Nothing proves how completely town interests now dominate those of the +country so much as the innovation called "summer time." During the war +it was no doubt a boon to allotment holders, and of course it gives a +longer evening to those employed all day indoors; but it inflicts +direct loss on the farmer, who is practically forced to adopt it in +order to supply the towns with produce in time for their altered +habits. The farmer exchanges the last hour of the normal day, one of +the most valuable in the old working time, for the first hour of the +new day, one of the most useless, for owing to the dew which the sun +has not had time to dry up, many agricultural operations cannot be +properly performed or even commenced--hay-making and corn-hoeing for +instance are impossible. We may be sure that the former times of +beginning and ending farm-work, which I suppose had been customary for +at least 2,000 years in England, did not receive the sanction of such +a period without good reason, and it seems to me, that so far as +outdoor work is concerned the new arrangement savours of "teaching our +grandmothers to suck eggs." + +There is a saving of lighting requirements, no doubt, but in such a +six weeks of winterly mornings as we had, following the commencement +of "summer time" this first year of peace, there is a considerable +increase in the consumption of fuel. Wherever possible, I suppose, +most houses are built to face the south, and the breakfast-room would +be generally on that side, so that by 9 o'clock, old time, the sun had +warmed the room, but at 9 o'clock, new time, the sun has scarcely +looked in at the window; a fire is probably lighted and to save +trouble kept up all day. If the new arrangement is continued, and I +understand that it was tried more than 100 years ago and abandoned as +a mistake, it would be much better to begin it at least a month later. +Our present May Day is nearly a fortnight earlier than before the New +Style was introduced, which is the reason why old traditions of May +Day merry-makings appear unseasonable; and probably the promoters of +summer time have not heard of "blackthorn winter" and "whitethorn +winter," which, in the country, we experience regularly every year in +April and May. + + "When the grass grows in Janiveer + It grows the worse for it all the year," + +and + + "If Candlemas-Day be fine and fair + The half of winter's to come and mair; + If Candlemas-Day be wet and foul + The half of winter was gone at Yule," + +are both rhymes suggesting the probability of wintry weather to +follow, if the early weeks of the year are mild and unseasonable, and +they may be considered as generally correct prognostications. A +neighbouring village had the distinction of possessing a weather +prophet, with the reputation also of an astrologer; he could be seen +when the stars were gleaming brightly, late at night, gazing upwards +and making his deductions, though, in reality, I fancy, his +inspiration came from the study of almanacs which profess to foretell +the future. He was quiet and reserved, with a spare figure, dark +complexion, and an abstracted expression. Occasionally I could induce +him to talk, but he did not like to be "drawn." He told me, as one of +his original conceptions, that he thought the good people were +accommodated in the after-life within the limits of the stars of good +influence, and that the wicked had to be content with those of an +opposite character. + +The proverb about March dust, and "A dry March and a dry May for old +England," are both apposite, for they are busy months on the land, and +a wet March amounts to a national disaster; but everyone forgives +April when showery, for we all know that "April showers bring forth +May flowers." Shakespeare, too, says: + + "When daffodils begin to peer, + With heigh! the doxy over the dale, + Why, then comes in the sweet of the year." + +A charming sentiment and charmingly rendered, but possibly more +accurate when the Old Style was in vogue, and the seasons were nearly +a fortnight later than now. The modern "daffys" too, no doubt, "begin +to peer" somewhat earlier than those of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. + +During a very hot summer I suggested to the Board of Agriculture that +it might be worth while to experiment with explosions of artillery, +with a view of inducing the clouds to discharge the rain they +evidently contain when they keep passing day after day without +bursting. I had seen it stated that many great battles had ended in +tremendous downpours, and that it was believed that the rain was +caused by concussion from the explosions. The Board replied, however, +that experiments had been conducted in America for the purpose, +without in any way substantiating the theory; and the experiences of +the Great War have since conclusively proved that it has no +foundation. + +As to weather signs, I have already quoted the original pronouncement +of my carpenter, T.G., that "the indications for rain are very similar +to the indications for fine weather," and there is a good deal in his +words. My own conclusion, after fifty years of out-door life on the +farm, in the woods, in the garden, at out-door games, and on the +roads, is that fine weather brings fine weather, and wet weather +brings wet weather, in other words, it never rains but it pours, in an +extended sense. + +My impression is that when the ground is dry there is a minimum of +capillary attraction between it and the clouds, and though the sky may +look threatening they do not easily break into rain. On the other +hand, when the ground is thoroughly wet and evaporation is active, +capillary attraction tends to unite earth and clouds, and rain +results. We all know that hill-tops receive showers which frequently +pass over the vales without falling, probably because of the greater +proximity of the hills. In a long drought a violent thunderstorm, +which soaks the ground, will often be followed by a complete change of +weather, as the result of contact established between the earth and +the clouds. + +The best description I know of a really hot and cloudless day is that +by Coleridge in the _Ancient Mariner_: + + "The sun came up upon the left, + Out of the sea came he; + And he shone bright, and on the right + Went down into the sea." + +The succession of monosyllables expresses most forcibly the monotony +of a day of blazing sunshine, unruffled by a cloud; and the absence of +incident illustrates the remorseless march of the dominant sun across +the heavens. + +Very little of my time has been spent in London or any other town, and +my early recollections of passing through London on my way to or from +school after or before the holidays are of very depressing weather +conditions--fog, greasy streets and pavements, or a sun veiled in a +haze of smoky vapour. Even when I went to Lord's annually in July to +see the Eton and Harrow match my recollection of the weather is of +dull, sultry heat and oppression of spirits. Cricket never seemed the +same game as I knew and loved at Harrow, or in my own home in Surrey; +there was an unreality about it, and a black coat and top hat were +insufferably uncongenial. + +I am able, as an eye-witness on one of these occasions, to write of an +incident which, I think, has been almost forgotten. It was within a +year of the marriage of King Edward, then Prince of Wales, and Queen +Alexandra. A ball had been hit almost to the boundary, but was stopped +by a spectator close to the ropes, thrown in to the fielder, and +smartly returned to the wicket-keeper. The batsmen took it for granted +that it was a boundary hit, and were changing ends when, one man being +out of his ground, the wicket was put down, the wicket-keeper not +recognizing that the ball was "dead." The umpire gave the man "out." +The man demurred, and immediately shouts arose on all sides: "Out!" +"Not out!" "Out!" "Not out!" "Out!" "Not out!" rising _in crescendo_ +to a pitch of intense excitement. The boys watching the match, and the +other spectators, some agreeing with, and some disputing the verdict, +rushed into the centre of the ground, and completely blocked the open +space still shouting vociferously. When the turmoil was at its height +the carriage of the Prince and Princess was driven on to the ground; +one of the players rushed up excitedly, and asked the Prince to decide +the matter. The Prince had not seen the incident, and of course +declined, as no doubt he would have done under any circumstances, to +give an opinion. It was impossible to clear the ground and continue +the play that evening, and stumps were drawn for the day. Next morning +the fielding side offered the disgusted batsman to continue his +innings, but he decided to play the game and abide by the umpire's +decision. I forget whether Eton or Harrow was in the field at the +time, and after this lapse of years it does not matter. The headmaster +always sent a notice round, just before the match, to be read to every +form, that the boys were desired not to indulge in any "ironical +cheering" at Lord's; this was his euphemism for what we called +"chaff," and I fear that on this occasion the warning was disregarded +even more completely than usual. + +As a child, I generally paid a visit to London with my brothers and +sisters during the Christmas holidays to see a pantomime, and I +remember an occasion when returning from Covent Garden Theatre after a +matinee we all--nine of us--walked over Waterloo Bridge and paid nine +halfpennies toll--a circumstance that had never happened before, and +never happened again. + +In the days before the railway was made between Alton and Farnham the +old bailiff on the Will Hall Farm at Alton, who, though quite an +elderly man, had never visited London, expressed a wish to visit it +for once in his life. His master gave him a holiday and paid his +expenses, and the old man drove the ten miles to Farnham Station. +Arrived in London he started to walk over Waterloo Bridge, but the +further he got the more astonished he became at the traffic, and began +to wonder what "fair" all the people could be going to. Feeling very +much out of his element he reached the Strand, and looking up and down +he saw still greater crowds of passengers and the unending procession +of 'buses, cabs, and vans. He became so confused and alarmed that he +turned round, went straight back to Waterloo Station, and left by the +first available train. He came home disgusted with London, and in an +account of the traffic and the people, ended by saying, "I never saw +such a place in my life; I couldn't even get a bit of anything to eat +until I got back to Farnham." This old man was called "the Great +Western": I suppose his bulk and commanding figure were reminiscent of +the power and energy of one of the locomotives on that line. He wore a +very wide-brimmed straw hat, and a vast expanse of waistcoat with +sleeves, without a coat over it, and he had a very determined and +masterful habit of speech. Caldecott's sketch of Ready-Money Jack in +_Bracebridge Hall_ always recalls him to my mind. He must have been +born before the opening of the nineteenth century, for he could +remember the stirring events of its early years. Any remark about +unusual weather made in his hearing was at once put out of court by +his recollections of "eiteen-eiteen" (1818), which seems to have been +a very remarkable year for maxima and minima of meteorology. He could +remember the high price of wheat during the war which ended at +Waterloo, and how his old master, the grandfather of the tenant of the +farm in my time, would stand by the men in the barn as they measured +up the wheat, bushel by bushel, to fill the sacks, and exclaim as each +bushel was poured in, "There goes another guinea, boys!" This would +make the price 168s. a quarter; I find the average recorded for 1812 +was 126s. 6d., so that it is quite possible that for a time in that +year in places 168s. was realized; which leaves us little to grumble +at in the price of 80s. during the greatest war in history. + +His horizon must have been considerably widened by his brief visit to +London; previous to that event it might have been nearly as extensive +as that of the hero of a recent story of Pwllheli. Meeting a crony in +the town, he remarked that the streets of London would be pretty +crowded that day. "How's that?" said his friend. "Why, there's a trip +train gone up to-day with fourteen people from Pwllheli!" + +Bredon Hill, in the Vale of Evesham, is the direction in which many +people look for hints of coming changes of weather. + + "When Bredon Hill puts on his cap + Ye men of the vale beware of that" + +is a well-known proverb referring to the dark curtain of rain clouds +obscuring the top, which is generally followed by heavy rain and +floods in the Avon meadows and those of all the little streams which +join that river. The same purple curtain can be seen on the Cotswolds +above Broadway, and is likewise the forerunner of floods in the Vale: + + "When you see the rain on the hills + You'll shortly find it down by the mills." + +There is, too, the beautiful blue hazy distance one sees in very fine +weather, which gives a feeling of mystery and remoteness and +unexplored possibilities. I lately read somewhere of a man who had +passed his life without leaving his native village, though he had +often looked far away into the blue distance, and longed to start upon +a journey of discovery; for its invitation seemed an assurance that in +such beauty there must be something better than he had ever +experienced in his own home. There came a day when the appeal was so +insistent that he braced himself to the effort, and after many weary +miles reached the place of his dreams, only to find that the blue +distance had disappeared. Meeting a passer-by he told him of his +journey and its object, and of his disappointment, "Look behind you," +was the reply. He looked, and behold! over the very spot he had left +in the morning--over his own home--the blue haze hung, as a veil of +beauty, with its exquisite promise. There is a moral and there is +comfort in this tale for him who fancies that he is the victim of +circumstances and surroundings. That is the man who, as my bailiff +used to say in harvest, has always got a heavier cut of wheat than his +neighbour in the same field, and is always finding himself "at the +wrong job." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + + +CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS--DEWPONDS--A WET HARVEST--WEATHER +PHENOMENA--WILL-O'-THE-WISP--VARIOUS. + + "There rolls the deep where grew the tree. + O Earth, what changes hast thou seen!" + --_In Memoriam_. + + "With many a curve my banks I fret + By many a field and fallow, + And many a fairy foreland set + With willow-weed and mallow. + + "I chatter, chatter, as I flow + To join the brimming river, + For men may come and men may go, + But I go on for ever." + _The Brook_. + +Living so many years in one place I had unusual opportunities, as my +rounds nearly always took me beside my brooks, of watching their +slowly changing courses. The roots of the pollard willows helped to +keep them to their regular path by holding up the banks, but sometimes +when an old tree fell into the water it had an opposite result. A +fallen tree, reaching partly across the stream, has the immediate +effect of damming the flow of the water on the side of its growth and +diverting the current towards the opposite bank in a narrowed but more +powerful advance, so that the bank is worn away and the beginning of a +bend is formed. As the breach increases, the water, momentarily +retarded there by the new concavity, rushes forward again in the +direction of the bank from which the tree fell. So that a second +concavity is produced on that side some little way below the tree, +resulting in the slow formation of an extended S-like figure, or hook +with a double bend. The collection of rubbish and sediment retained by +the fallen tree helps to form a new bank on that side, extending +further into the stream than the bank on which the tree originally +stood. + +As this process continues it is easy to see that a straight stretch of +stream will in time assume a winding course, and the stream will be +continually altering its path, so that large areas of flat meadows +will be formed, every part of which has at times been the stream's +course. How many ages, then, must it have taken to produce the level +meadows we see extending for immense distances on either side of our +big rivers, and even those adjoining quite small streams? The level +surface thus created by the river or brook's course perpetually +deflected and reflected, is finally completed by the floods bringing +down a deposit of soil in solution, which is precipitated and settles +into any surface irregularities left by the wanderings of the stream. +A faint conception of an absolutely illimitable cycle of years, during +which the whole extent of visible flat meadow has been again and again +eroded and restored, is thus conveyed. + +Confirmation of this alteration of their courses by streams is +afforded when we cut a main drain through one of these meadows, to +carry the water from the connected furrow drains of adjoining arable +land. The alluvial soil can be found as deep as the depth of the +present brook, free from the stones found in the arable land, and +containing, to the same depth as the brook, fresh water shells similar +to those in the brook to-day. There was a bend in course of formation +in one of my brooks, where the stump of a tree, whose fall was the +starting-point, could be seen standing in the newly-formed ground, a +yard or more from the stream when I left, though I can remember when +it was so near as almost to touch the water. + +If we form an S from a piece of wire, and pinch it together from top +to bottom, the loops become so flattened, [S], that one of them may +almost unite with the central curve. The same thing often happens in +the loops of a brook, and, in time, the stream will complete the +junction, forming a short circuit.[2] Thus an island may be formed; or +when the old loop opposite the short circuit gets filled up with +deposit or falling banks--the water preferring the short circuit--a +piece of land may be cut off from one of the former sides of the brook +and transferred to the other, so that where the brook is a boundary +between two owners or parishes one owner or parish may be robbed and +the other owner or parish becomes a receiver of stolen goods. There +was an instance of this on the farm I owned and occupied adjoining the +Aldington Manor property, and the owner and the tenant of the piece +transferred to my side could not reach it without walking through the +brook. In this case, however, the tenant had wisely planted the ground +with withies, which he managed to get at for lopping when its turn +came round every seven years. Thus we have an example of the necessity +of the ancient practice of beating the bounds, which, at least before +the days of ordnance surveys, was not merely an opportunity for a +holiday. + +Another proof of the creation of new land by the meanderings of a +stream is found in the ancient "carrs" of North Lincolnshire, near +Brigg, where the hollowed-out logs of black bog oak, which formed the +canoes of the ancient inhabitants, are sometimes discovered many feet +below the surface, and long distances from the present course of the +Ancholme. These having sunk to the bottom of the river in past ages, +and gradually become covered with alluvium, were left behind as the +river changed its course. In some cases however these canoes may have +sunk to the bottom of the water when it formed a lake, and the lake +having gradually silted up, the river receded to something like its +present width. + +The floods in the Vale of Evesham from the Avon and even from my +brooks, often converted the adjoining flat meadows into lakes, and +they rose so suddenly after heavy rains or the melting of deep +snowfalls on the hills, that they were attended with danger to the +stock. + +In the summer of 1879 one of these sudden floods occurred, and people +standing on Evesham bridge, saw fallen trees and hay-cocks floating +down the stream. A pollard willow was noticed with a crew of about +twenty land rats, which had found refuge there until the tree itself +was lifted by the rising water and carried down the stream; and a +floating hay-cock supported a man's jacket, his jar of cider, and his +"shuppick." The local word "shuppick," a corruption of "sheaf-pike," +means a pike used for loading the sheaves of wheat in the harvest +field on to the waggon, and is the "fork" in general use at +hay-making. During another summer flood the whole of the pleasure +ground at Evesham, beside the Avon, was under water several feet deep; +the water poured in at the lower windows of the adjoining hotel, and +the proprietor's casks of beer and cider in the cellars, ready for the +regatta, were lifted from their stands and bumped against walls and +ceilings. + +Every parish has its Council in these days, and in country places +almost every other person one meets is a councillor of some sort, and +inclined to be proud of the distinction. These Councils are excellent +safety-valves for parochial malcontents who thus harmlessly let off +superfluous steam which might otherwise ruffle the abiding calm of +peaceful inhabitants, but their powers are really very limited. In a +village in Worcestershire where an approach road crossed a brook by a +ford, during floods the current was sometimes so strong as to +constitute a danger to horses and carts. The village pundits +therefore, in council duly assembled, considered the matter, and after +an extended debate the following resolution was carried unanimously, +"That a notice board be erected on the spot bearing the inscription: +When this board _is covered with water_ it is dangerous to attempt to +cross the ford." + +The numerous brooks in the Vale of Evesham supply ample water for the +stock, but in more elevated parts, especially on the chalk Downs of +Sussex, Hants, Wilts, and Dorset, provision is made for an artificial +water supply by what are called "dewponds." A shallow saucer-shaped +depression is dug out on the open Down, the bottom being made +water-tight by puddling with a well-rammed layer of impervious clay. +The first heavy rainfall fills the pond, and, the water being colder +than the air, the dew or mist condenses on its surface sufficiently, +in ordinary weather, to maintain the supply. In a dry time the sheep +can always reach the water, the pond having no banks, by the shelving +formation of the bottom. Sometimes a few trees are allowed to grow +round it; they also act as condensers, and their drip helps to fill +the pond. It is only in an abnormal drought that these dewponds really +fail, and a thunderstorm, followed by ordinary weather, will soon +refill them. Gilbert White, in _The Natural History of Selborne_, +refers to these ponds in a very interesting letter on the subject, +including details of condensation by trees, in which he gives an +instance of a particular pond, high up on the Down, 300 feet above his +house, and situated in such a position that it was impossible for it +to receive any water from springs or drainage, which "though never +above three feet deep in the middle, and not more than thirty feet in +diameter, and containing, perhaps, not more than two or three hundred +hogsheads of water, yet never is known to fail, though it affords +drink for three hundred or four hundred sheep, and for at least twenty +head of large cattle besides." + +The natural well-water in the Vale of Evesham is exceedingly hard, and +in the town and some villages was formerly much contaminated. After +great opposition from obstructive ratepayers, a splendid supply was +obtained from the Cotswolds above Broadway, about six miles away, of +much softer and really pure spring water. It comes in pipes by +gravitation, so there is no expense of pumping; but it was difficult +to get recalcitrant ratepayers to lay the water on from the mains to +their houses, as that part of the cost had to be borne by them +individually; and, before compulsion could be resorted to, the Council +had to prove contamination of the wells and close them. To get the +evidence samples were submitted to a London analyst, and they were +invariably condemned. One of the Councillors suggested sending, with a +number of well samples, a sample of the new supply "for a fad." The +samples were numbered, but had no other distinguishing mark, and in +due course the usual condemnations were received, including that of +the new town supply! + +During the wet harvest of 1879, when what was called by townspeople +the agricultural depression, was becoming acute, it was impossible to +get a whole day on which wheat could be carried. The position was +serious, because the grain was sprouting in the sheaves in the field, +and time after time a fairly dry Saturday would have allowed carrying +the following day, though Monday was always as wet as ever. At last at +Aldington we faced the situation and decided to proceed with the work +whenever possible, Sunday or no Sunday. A fine drying Saturday +occurred, and my bailiff told the men what we proposed, adding that we +did not wish anyone to help who had scruples as to the day. They all +appeared on Sunday morning, a brilliant day, except one "conscientious +objector," who, as I heard later, spent most of the day at the +public-house. We got up two ricks from about ten acres, which +eventually proved to be some of the driest wheat we had that year, and +which I was able to sell for seed at a good price, to go into +districts where no dry seed wheat could be found. + +My old vicar was somewhat scandalized at this Sunday work, and some of +my neighbours fancied themselves shocked, but a day or two later I +happened to meet another clergyman friend, who farmed a little +himself. "I was _so_ pleased," he said, "to hear that you were +carrying wheat last Sunday; when I was preaching I was strongly +disposed to conclude by telling my people--'Now you have been to +church, go home to your dinners, and then off with your jackets and +carry wheat for the rest of the day.'" Next Sunday all my neighbours +were busy with their wheat, but I had managed to complete my harvest +during the previous week, on the 8th of October, quite a month or six +weeks later than usual, and an extraordinary contrast to the very dry +year 1868, when all the corn on the farm, I was told, was carried +before the last day of July. + +I attended a neighbour's sale that autumn; the wet seasons and the low +prices had been too much for him, and he was leaving for the United +States; his rick-yard was empty, all the corn sold, and nothing but +straw left. I heard him remark, "Folks are saying that I'm very +backward with my payments, but I'm very forward with my thrashing, +anyway!" Before the following spring nearly all the rick-yards were +empty, and wheat-ricks, it was said, were as scarce as churches--one +in each parish. The situation was summed up later in a phrase which +passed into a proverb: "In 1879 farmers lived on faith, in 1880 they +are living on hope, and in 1881 they will have to live on charity." + +The attitude of the towns was one of apathy and indifference, like +that of the General in _Bracebridge Hall_, which, published in 1822, +proves how history repeats itself in agricultural as in other matters: + +"He is amazingly well-contented with the present state of things, and +apt to get a little impatient at any talk about national ruin and +agricultural distress. 'They talk of public distress,' said the +General this day to me at dinner, as he smacked a glass of rich +burgundy and cast his eyes about the ample board: 'They talk of public +distress, but where do we find it, sir? I see none; I see no reason +anyone has to complain. Take my word for it, sir, this talk about +public distress is all humbug!'" + +At Evesham, long before the depression grew into a debacle, the +shadows of coming events could easily be detected. There was the +disappearance of the long rows of farmers' conveyances at the inns in +the town on market-days; there was the eclipse of shops--for other +than necessities--such as a little fish shop, opposite the corner at +the cross roads; a corner where much business was formerly transacted +in the open street, and where I myself have sold by sample some +thousands of sacks of wheat. A tempting little shop it used to be, +displaying shining Severn salmon; and it was here that the farmers, +after the market, obtained the supplies commanded by the missus at +home. + +And there was the abandonment of the Corn Market proper, for the class +of farmers who survived hated to transact their business indoors. The +attendance of millers and dealers, except of those who had cargoes of +foreign corn at Gloucester or Bristol to dispose of, became irregular. +Sales of farm stock and implements took place in every village on +farms which had passed from father to son for generations, coupled +with the sacrifice of valuable implements and machinery for want of +buyers. There followed the stage when landowners who could find no +tenants, and had heavily mortgaged estates, essayed to make the best +of them by laying away the arable land to pasture, undertaking the +management themselves with, perhaps, an old broken-down tenant as +bailiff. The politicians and the general public did not apprehend the +danger of the situation, in spite of innumerable warnings, until the +German submarines were sending our foreign food supplies to the bottom +of the sea; and now that the immediate danger of starvation has +passed, they appear already to have lapsed again into an attitude of +apathy. + +We hear the blessed word "reconstruction" on every side, but the only +official propositions for the permanent establishment of agricultural +prosperity that I have heard are utterly inadequate. It is ridiculous +to suppose that a few thousand acres of special crops, like tobacco, +for instance, only possible in favoured spots, can in any way +compensate for the loss of millions of acres of arable land under +rotations of corn and green crops. Under present conditions nothing is +more certain than the abandonment of arable land as such; and it is +folly to talk of novel systems of transport for a dwindling output, or +of building labourers' cottages at an unjustifiable cost, which are +never likely to be wanted by a dying industry. + +Among my experiences of abnormal weather, I have a note of a +remarkable summer flood on July 21, 1875, when my hay was lying in the +meadows beside the brooks, and had to be removed to higher ground in +pouring rain to prevent its disappearance with the current. On the +following day, July 22, the highest flood since 1845 occurred at +Evesham. + +October 14, 1877, was memorable for the most terrific south-west gale +that happened in all the years I passed at Aldington; thirteen trees, +mostly old apple trees and elms, were blown down, including the +splendid veteran "Chate boy" pear tree at Blackminster, an exceedingly +sad and irreparable loss. The gale blew hardest in special tracks, the +course of which could be followed by the destruction of trees and +branches in distinct lanes, cut through woods and plantations. + +The winter of 1880-1881 was very severe, the mean temperature of +January, 1881, being 27.8 degrees F., the coldest January since 1820. +Ten years later, 1890-1891, another very prolonged winter occurred: +the frost began on the 6th of December, and, with scarcely a break, +continued till well into February. The feature of this frost was the +fine settled weather, and the warmth of the midday sun in the +brilliant air, when skaters could sit on the river banks and enjoy +their rest and lunch in its rays. I took my elder daughter back to +school at Richmond at the end of January, and in London we saw the +Thames choked by huge hummocks of ice, on which people were crossing +the river. An ox was roasted whole on the Avon at Evesham, and, when +the frost broke up, the ice on our millpond was 17 inches thick. + +Another great frost happened in 1894-1895, beginning late in December, +and lasting till the end of February, with a single intervening week +of thaw; and in March the ground, in places, was too hard to plough. +It was the only time that I was completely at a loss to find work for +my men; all the carting was finished in the early days of the frost, +and all the thrashing possible followed; ploughing and all working of +the land, or draining, were impracticable. The men, seeing that there +would be no employment for them until the frost broke up, told me that +if they might get what wood they could from fallen trees in the brook, +and if I would lend them horses and carts to get it home, they would +be glad to work in that way for themselves for a time. Just as they +had cleared both brooks from end to end of the farm which occupied +them about ten days, the thaw came and I was able to find them plenty +to do. + +We suffered very little from droughts at Aldington, the land was +naturally so retentive of moisture, but 1893 was a dry year, not +easily forgotten; no rain fell from early in March to July 13; the hay +crop was the lightest in remembrance, and straw was so short and +scarce that the hay-ricks of the following year, 1894, had to go +unthatched until the harvest of that year provided the necessary +straw. + +The spring of 1895 was remarkable for a plague of the caterpillars of +the winter-moth, due to the destruction of insect-eating birds by the +great frost; the caterpillars devoured the young leaves of the +plum-trees, so that whole orchards were completely stripped. The +balance between insectivorous birds and caterpillar life was destroyed +for a time, and the caterpillars conquered the plum-trees. In 1917, +during the persistent north-east blasts of February, March, and part +of April, the destruction of birds was terrible; all the tit tribe +suffered greatly, and the charming little golden-crested wren, which +here in the Forest was quite common, has scarcely been seen since. +Caterpillars again were a plague in my apple trees that spring, but +were not really destructive, and in the autumn the apples escaped +their usual punishment from the birds and wasps. Tits are often very +troublesome; they peck holes in the fruit, apparently in search of the +larvae of the codlin moth, leaving an opening for wasps and flies. I +find the berries of the laurel, which is a species of cherry, very +attractive to blackbirds, and as long as there are any left they seem +to prefer them to the apples. In 1895 cuckoos came to the rescue of my +young plum orchard; there were dozens of them at work on the nine +acres at once, and they must have cleared away an immense number of +the grubs. + +The most remarkable season we have had since I left Aldington was the +great drought of 1911. There was no rain here worth mention from June +22, the Coronation of King George V., until August 30, and the +pastures on this thin land were burnt up. On August 30 we had some +friends for tennis, and we had not been playing long before a mighty +cloud-burst occurred; the rain fell in torrents. "It didn't stop to +rain, it tumbled down," as my men used to say, and in about half an +hour the lawn was a sheet of water, the ground being so hard, that it +could not soak away. It was all over in an hour, and a neighbour with +a rain-gauge registered 0.66 of an inch of rain, equal to 66 tons on +an acre, or 330 tons on my five acres. + +One of my ambitions has always been to see a Will-o'-the-wisp, and I +am still hoping; but that hot summer, had I known it at the time, they +were quite common within an easy walk of my house in the New Forest. +There was some correspondence on the subject in _The Observer_, and +the following is extracted from one of the letters: + +"As none of your correspondents seem to be aware of a comparatively +recent instance, I write to say that there were enough indubitable +Will-o'-the-wisps to convince the most incredulous during the +extremely hot weather of July, 1911. + +"From July 18 to 22 I was at Thorney Hill in the New Forest, some +seven miles behind Christchurch. Owing to the abnormal drought the +bogs and bog-streams at the foot of the hill westward were all but +dry; a dense mist, however, sometimes rose from them at night. On July +19, and the three following nights, the Will-o'-the-wisps were in +great form over the bog. They were like small balls of bluish fire, +which projected themselves with hops and jerks across the most +inaccessible parts of the bog, starting always, so far as could be +told, from where a little stagnant moisture still remained. They moved +with an erratic velocity, so to speak, appearing and reappearing at +distances of several hundred yards. There wasn't the slightest doubt +of their authenticity. + +"The inhabitants of Thorney Hill, I believe, regarded these +appearances with alarm, as being, though not exactly novelties, +harbingers of much misfortune. But the drought was quite bad enough, +without having the Jack-o'-lanterns to accentuate it!" + +This instance was the more remarkable as I have never succeeded in +finding anyone, even among people who are constantly on duty in the +Forest, who could testify to having seen a Will-o'-the-wisp. + +Waterspouts are, I believe, more frequently seen at sea than on land, +but I have an account from my brother, Mr. F.E. Savory, of one he saw +many years ago in Wiltshire. He writes: + +"When I was at Manningford Bruce in 1873 or 1874, I saw a dense black +cloud travelling towards the southeast, the lower part of which became +pointed like a funnel in shape, waving about as it descended until, I +suppose, the attraction of the earth overcame the cohesion of the +cloud's vapour, and it discharged itself. I could see it looking +lighter and lighter, from the middle outwards, until it was entirely +dispersed. I heard that the water fell on the side of the Down near +Collingbourne, about five miles off, and washed some of the soil away, +but I did not see that. The weather was stormy, but I do not remember +the time of year or any other particulars." + +It would seem that a waterspout is caused by a whirlwind entering a +cloud and gathering vapour together by its rotary action into such a +heavy mass that it descends in the funnel shape described. We are all +familiar with the small whirlwinds that travel across a road in +summer, carrying the dust round and round with them; these are called +"whirly-curlies" in Worcestershire, and are regarded as a sign of fine +weather. I have sometimes seen quite a strong one crossing rows of hay +just ready to carry, cutting a clean track through each row, and +leaving the ground bare where it passed. The hay is often carried to a +great height, and sometimes dropped in an adjoining field. + +On a bright morning in summer one often sees, a little distance away, +a tremulous or flickering movement in the air, not far from the +ground, which Tennyson refers to in _In Memoriam_, as, "The landscape +winking thro' the heat"; and again in _The Princess_: + + "All the rich to come + Reels, as the golden Autumn woodland reels + Athwart the smoke of burning weeds." + +I am told that this appearance is "due to layers of air of different +degrees of refracting power, in motion, relative to one another. Air +at different temperatures will refract light differently." In +Hampshire this phenomenon is known by the pretty name of "the summer +dance." + +Since I came to the Forest I have seen two very curious and, I think, +unusual natural appearances. As I was cycling one rather dull +afternoon from Wimborne to Ringwood, I noticed a colourless rainbow, +or perhaps I should say, "mist-bow," for there was no rain, and the +sun was partially obscured. The sun was about south-west, and the bow +was north-east; it was merely a series of well-defined but colourless +segments of circles, close to each other but shaded so as to make them +distinguishable, arranged exactly like a rainbow but without a trace +of colour beyond a grey uniformity. It was on my left for several +miles, perhaps half of the total distance of nine miles between the +two towns. + +Cycling another day between Lyndhurst and Burley, I reached the east +entrance of Burley Lodge, which is on higher ground than the farm +spread out to the right in the valley. The whole valley was filled +with thick white mist, as level as a lake, so that nothing could be +seen of the fields. The setting sun was low down at the further +extremity of the valley, and the surface of the mist-lake reflected +its rays in a rosy sheen, with a track of brighter light in the +middle, stretching from the far end of the lake in a broad path almost +to where I was standing; just as we see the track of sunlight or +moonlight, sometimes, on the sea, from the shore. This phenomenon is +not uncommon when one is looking down from the top of a hill in the +sunshine, upon a valley full of mist, but I have never seen it before +from comparatively low ground, as on this occasion. + +My summers at Aldington were nearly always too busy to allow me to +take a holiday, except for a very few days, but when the urgent work +of the year was over, the harvest completed, and the hops and the +fruit picked, we always had a clear month away from home, about the +middle of October to the middle of November; and, as we found the +autumn much less advanced in the south than in the midlands, we often +spent the time on the south coast or in the Isle of Wight, and we were +nearly always favoured by fine weather. On one of these occasions, +when we were exploring the whole island on bicycles, I never once +found it necessary to carry a waterproof cape, though in the course of +this visit we rode over 600 miles. + + +[Illustration: NOTE. THE CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + + +BIRDS: PEACOCKS--A WHITE PHEASANT--ROOKS' ARITHMETIC. + + "Hail to thee, blithe spirit! + Bird thou never wert, + That from heaven or near it, + Pourest thy full heart." + --SHELLEY: _To a Skylark_. + +We read of the peacocks which Solomon's navy of Tarshish brought once +in three years with other rare and precious commodities to contribute +to the splendour of his court; and doubtless their magnificence added +a distinct feature even where so much that was beautiful was to be +seen; but, to show itself off to the best advantage, one cannot +imagine a better place for a peacock than a grey old English home, +round whose mellow stone walls time is lingering lovingly. The touch +of brilliant life beside the appeal of the venerable past adds +perfection to the picture. I have always had an immense admiration for +peacocks, and soon after I came to Aldington I bought a pair. The cock +we named Gabriel Junks, after the famous bird in one of Scrutator's +books; he was a grand presence, and loved to display the huge fan of +his gorgeously-eyed tail, quivering his rattling quills in all the +glory of its greens and blues, and cinnamon-coloured wing feathers, on +the little piece of lawn under the chestnut trees in front of the +Manor. + +He learned to come to the window every morning at breakfast-time for a +piece of bread-and-butter, and if the window was closed he would rap +impatiently upon it with his beak. He roosted in the orchard just +across the road on the trunk of an ancient leaning apple-tree. One +night Bell heard a terrible fluttering, and looking out saw a fox +making off with the peacock; he shouted and the fox dropped the +peacock and bolted. Gabriel was not hurt, but sadly ruffled inwardly +and outwardly, though, next day, he was quite happy and apparently +unconscious of his narrow escape. But alas! some months later Reynard +paid another visit, and poor Gabriel was never seen again. Some years +after we bought another pair, not nearly so tame as the first, and +sometimes flying on to the cottage roofs and scraping holes in the +thatch in which to bask in the sun. The villagers complained that the +birds sat under their black currant bushes, and devoured the currants +as fast as they ripened! We could not keep them within bounds, and +later sold them to St. John's College, Oxford, where we saw them soon +afterwards in good plumage, and exactly in keeping with their +beautiful surroundings. + +One of my neighbours appeared to find these birds a special +infliction, and complained of the invasion of his premises by "them +paycocks." The word "pea" is always rendered "pay" in Worcestershire, +and, like "tay" for "tea," is probably the old correct pronunciation. +I lately saw a notice on some tumble-down premises near Southampton, +"Pay and bane stiks for sale." Another notice, not too happily +composed, is to be seen at a Forest village; after the owner's name, +"Carpenter, builder and undertaker--_repairs neatly executed_." + +The neighbour referred to was exercised in his mind as to my position +in various unwelcome parochial offices, but I was completely mystified +when he told me that he had read in history of a King Alfred, but had +never heard of a King Arthur. I did not grasp the force of his remark, +possibly because King Arthur was a familiar character to me, until I +was nearly at my own door, when it dawned upon me to my intense +enjoyment. If the reader fails, like me, to see the point, let him +turn to the title-page of this book, and read the name of the writer. + +The only real objection to peacocks, under ordinary conditions, is the +discordance of their cries, especially in thundery weather, when they +scream in answer to every thunder-clap. Cock pheasants, relatives of +the peacock, crow loudly at any unusual noise; and I have known them +expostulate at the report of a gun; they took flight, after running to +a safe distance, and their crow appeared to be in the nature of a +challenge or defiance, just as a barn-door cock will exult if you give +him the idea that he has driven you away. + +When the vessel which carried the coffin of Queen Victoria was +crossing the Solent, in 1901, some very heavy salutes were fired from +the battleships, and, the day being still and the air clear, the +detonations carried to an immense distance. They were distinctly heard +at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, only fourteen miles from Aldington and a +distance of nearly one hundred miles from the guns, in a direct line. +The reports were so loud at Woodstock, near Oxford, that the pheasants +began crowing in the Blenheim preserves. + +At Alton there were some extensive woods and coppices on the farm, +which were favourite breeding-places for pheasants, being dry and +sunny. Some months before October 1, when pheasant shooting begins, a +white pheasant was seen, and although he disappeared for a time, he +fell eventually to the gun of the tenant. He was a beautiful bird, and +was considered worth stuffing as a rarity. Albinism is not uncommon in +the blackbird; I have seen two partial instances lately; one was +constantly visible in my garden and meadows, with head nearly all +white, and the other I saw in the public garden at Bournemouth, with +the peculiarity still more developed. A white martin, or swallow, came +into the house of a friend near Aldington, and was regarded as an +unfavourable omen. Melanism, the opposite of albinism, is rarer, and +the only instance I have seen was that of a black bullfinch at +Aldington; it had evidently been mobbed as a stranger by other birds +of its kind, as it was injured and nearly dead when captured. I had +the specimen stuffed as a curiosity, though I am not fond of stuffed +birds. It is said that hemp-seed, if given in undue quantities to cage +bullfinches, will produce the black colour, even upon a bird of quite +natural plumage originally, and a case of the kind is mentioned by +Gilbert White. + +Aldington, with its quiet apple orchards and the "island" and +shrubberies below my garden, was a happy refuge for birds of all +kinds, and the old pollard-willow heads a favourite nesting-place. +Worcestershire people have some very curious names for birds, and some +of these are also heard in Hampshire and Dorset. The green woodpecker +is the "stock-eagle," "ekal," or "hickle," both in Worcestershire and +Hampshire, and the word survives too in "Hickle Brook" in the Forest, +and in "Hickle Street," a part of Buckle Street in Worcestershire. As +a boy I once marked a green woodpecker into one of the round holes we +see quite newly cut by the bird in an oak; getting a butterfly net I +clapped it over the hole, caught the bird, took it home and placed it +in a wicker cage. Then, returning to the tree with a chisel and +mallet, I cut a hole about a foot below the entrance to the nest, only +to find young birds instead of the eggs for which I had hoped. I went +home to see how my captive was getting on; she was gone, and her +method of escape was plain, one or two of the wicker bars being neatly +cut through. I had forgotten the power of "stocking" of a +"stock-eagle," for that is the meaning of the prefix in the name. + +The laughing cry of the green woodpecker, or "yaffle," as the bird is +by onomatopoeia called in some parts, is regarded as a sign of rain. I +doubt whether it should be always so interpreted, for I know it is +sometimes a sign of distress or call for help, having heard it from +one in full flight from a pursuing hawk. Other curious local names of +birds in Worcestershire are "Blue Isaac" for hedge sparrow, +"mumruffin" for long-tailed tit, "maggot" for magpie, and the heron is +always called "bittern" (really quite a distinct bird). There are +innumerable rhymes as to the signification of numbers where magpies +are concerned, but the most complete I have heard runs thus: + + "One's joy, two's grief, + Three's marriage, four's death, + Five's heaven, six is hell, + Seven's the devil his own sel'." + +Other rhymes make "one" an unlucky number, and there are many people +in Worcestershire who never see a solitary magpie without touching +their hats to avert the omen, and convert it to one of good-luck; as a +man once said to me, "It is as well not to lose a chance." + +The kingfisher, I suppose the most beautiful of British birds, was, +with all my brooks, a common bird at Aldington. Its steady flight, +following the course of a stream, and its brilliant colouring make it +very conspicuous, its turquoise blue varying to dark green, and its +orange breast flashing in the sun. I found a nest in a water-rat's old +hole, with six very transparent white eggs, deriving a rosy tint from +the yolk, almost visible, within the shell. The hole had an entrance +above the bank, descended vertically, turned at a right angle where +the nest, merely a layer of small fish-bones, was placed, and ended +horizontally on the side of the bank. I once saw six young kingfishers +sitting side by side on a dead branch, close together, evidently just +out of the nest. And I was fortunate in seeing a kingfisher dart upon +the water, hover for an instant like a hawk-moth over honeysuckle, +and, having caught a small gudgeon, fly away with it in its beak. +They, like the martin, always perch on leafless wood, so that the +leaves shall not impede their flight when pouncing upon a fish, and no +doubt this is the reason they sometimes perch on the top joint of the +rod of a hidden fisherman. + +The nuthatch, called here the "mud-dauber," from its habit of +narrowing the hole of a starling's old nest, with mud, for its own use +as a nesting-place, is a more common bird in the Forest than in +Worcestershire. It is a provident bird, firmly wedging hazel nuts in +the autumn into crevices of the Scots-fir, for a winter store, Bewick +mentions that it uses these crevices as vices, to hold the nut +securely, while it cracks it; but he does not recognize the fact that +they have been stored long previously. I have seen a great number of +nuts so stored and quite sound. + +Bewick, by the way, who wrote his _History of British Birds_ in 1797, +presents in one of his inimitable "tailpiece" wood-cuts a prevision of +the aeroplane. The picture shows the airman seated in a winged car, +guiding with reins thirteen harnessed herons as the motive power, and +mounting upwards, apparently very near the moon. If he can see the +modern interpretation of his dream he must be pleasantly surprised. +Bewick's woodcock is one of the most beautiful portraits in the book: +the accurate detail of the feather markings of the wings and back and +the softer tone of the breast are as nearly perfection as possible. A +woodcock visited Aldington in one of the very severe winters but +managed to elude all pursuers. It has been said, and also +contradicted, that the woodcock when rising from the ground uses its +long bill as a lever to assist its starting, just as an oarsman pushes +off from the bank with a boat-hook or oar; I myself have seen one +rising from a bare and marshy place, and the position of its bill +certainly gave me the impression that the idea was well founded. + +The woodcock often breeds in the south of England, but is usually a +migrating bird, arriving during the first moon in November; it is not +difficult to shoot when it first rises, but when steam is really up +and it is zig-zagging between the branches of an oak, it takes a good +shot to make sure of it. I shall never forget the first woodcock I +shot as a boy; it was a thick misty day in November, I fired, and +though I felt certain I had not missed, the smoke hung and the air was +too thick to see, and, after a long search, I left the wood and was +going home when our old spaniel, Flush, turned his head to examine +something in a deep cart rut. Following the direction of his eyes, I +saw my woodcock; it must have flown 100 yards or more after I fired. I +was still more pleased with the last shot I fired in our old Surrey +covers at a woodcock going like an express train--and faster, for they +are said to fly at the rate of 150 miles an hour--with all his tricks, +through thick branches in the adjoining cover, where he fell at least +65 yards from where I stood. A friend of mine had the good-fortune to +see an old woodcock, which had evidently bred in his woods, flying, +followed by five or six young ones; he said it was one of the +prettiest bits of natural history he had ever seen. + + "If a woodcock had a partridge's breast + He'd be the best bird that ever was dressed; + If a partridge had a woodcock's thigh + He'd be the best bird that ever did fly." + +is a very old description, and fairly divides the honours between the +two birds. + +The hawfinch is very easily recognized by its distinct and beautiful +colouring; it is a shy bird, and though it bred regularly at +Aldington, we rarely saw it. It is commoner here, and is sometimes +very destructive, its powerful beak making havoc with the +"marrowfats"; but, though I am partial to green peas of this +description, I would sooner suffer some damage than have the +hawfinches shot. + +In 1918 the cuckoos were exceedingly numerous here, and round my house +they were calling all day long. Owing to the terrible winter and early +spring months of the previous year, so many of the insectivorous birds +had been destroyed, that the caterpillars had escaped, and were more +numerous than ever in the following spring. The oaks in places were +completely stripped of their foliage by the larvae of _Tortrix +viridana_, almost as soon as the leaves were out. The cuckoos +discovered them, but were not in sufficient numbers to keep them down, +and it was midsummer before the trees recovered. I have referred to +the damage in my plum orchard at Aldington from the attack of the +larvae of the winter-moth; the damage is not confined to the actual +year of its occurrence, the crop suffers the following year owing to +the previous defoliation of the tree, which is weakened and is unable +to mature healthy fruit buds. At Aldington, in a hot summer, the +cuckoos used to call nearly all night, and I have heard them when it +was quite dark. + +For some years, until 1918, goldfinches were quite common in Hampshire +and Dorsetshire. I have seen a flock of over forty together. I had +seven nests on my premises here one summer; they go on breeding very +late, and I have found their nests with young birds half-fledged while +summer-pruning apple trees in August. They come into my garden close +to the windows in May, after the ripening seeds of the myosotis +(forget-me-not) in the spring-bedding. I never remember seeing a +goldfinch at Aldington, which should show that the thistles were well +under control, for the seed is a great attraction. One often hears the +practice of allowing thistles to run to seed condemned as criminal, +for everybody knows that each thistle-down, carried by the wind, +contains a seed, and that the attachment of a light structure of +plumes is one of Nature's methods of ensuring dissemination. But, in +Worcestershire, it is always asserted that thistle seed will not +germinate--I am referring to _Cnicus arvensis_--and it is said that a +prize of £50 offered for a seedling thistle remains unclaimed to this +day. I failed, myself, in trying to obtain young plants from seeds +sown in a flower-pot, and I have never seen a seedling in all the +thousands of miles I must have walked over young cornfields when my +men were hoeing. + +I have heard an interesting story about rooks which were causing a +farmer much damage in a field newly sown with peas. He erected a small +shelter of hurdles, from which to shoot them, and for a time the +shelter was sufficient to scare them, until they got used to it; but, +when he entered it with his gun, they would not come near. Thinking to +deceive their sentinel, watching from a tree, he took a companion to +the shelter, who remained for a time and then left, but still no rooks +came near. The farmer then took two companions, and presently sent +them both away. The arithmetic was too much for the rooks, and the +scheme succeeded. He concluded that their powers of enumeration were +limited to counting "two," and that "three" was beyond them. + +Nightingales are scarce in the Forest; they do not like the solitude +of the great woods, apparently preferring to inhabit roadsides and +places where people and traffic are constantly passing. They are +specially abundant at the foot of the Cotswolds, and it is a treat to +cycle steadily along the road between Broadway and Weston Subedge on a +summer evening, where you no sooner lose the liquid notes of one, than +you enter the territory of another, so continuous is the song for +miles together. + +In severe winters wood-pigeons did much damage at Aldington to young +clover a few inches high; they roosted in "the island" adjoining my +garden. When they first descended they alighted in the wide-spreading +branches of the leafless black poplars, where they could see all +round, and reconnoitre the position; then, if all was quiet, in about +ten minutes they took to the shelter of the fir trees for the night +with much fluttering and beating of wings against the thick branches. +They devour the acorns in the Forest very greedily in the autumn, and +I have seen one with crop so full that on my approach it could only +with difficulty fly away to a short distance. I found it near a small +pond where, apparently, it had been drinking, and the acorns had +expanded to an inconvenient extent. + +The golden-crested wren was a common bird here before the severe +winter of 1916-1917, but it has since become comparatively rare; it is +the smallest of British birds, and could often be seen in the hedges +exploring every twig and crevice for insects, and it was a great +pleasure to watch the nimble movements of such a sweet little fairy. +Its first cousin, the fire-crest, which is almost its exact +counterpart, except for the flame-coloured crest, is much rarer; and I +only remember seeing one specimen, to which with great circumspection +I managed to approach quite closely, in the wood near my house. + +One morning, at Aldington, the gardener came in to say there was a +hawk in the greenhouse near the rickyard; we found a pane of glass +broken, where it had unintentionally entered in pursuit of a sparrow; +the hawk was uninjured, and flew away quite unconcernedly on the +opening of the door. Another hawk, here in Burley, was found dead near +my drawing-room bow-window. It had dashed itself against a pane of +thick plate-glass while in pursuit of a starling, I think; seeing the +light through the bow, it had not recognized the glass, and must have +collided with it in the act of swooping. I have several times seen +hawks descend like a flash from a tree, and select an unlucky starling +from a flock; one blow on the head settled the victim before I could +reach the spot, but sometimes the hawk had to leave its prize behind +it. + +I was watching a number of young chicks feeding outside the coops +containing the mother hens, when there suddenly arose a great +disturbance, and a hawk, which had pounced upon a chick, was seen +flying away with it in its talons. Its flight was impeded by the +weight of the chicken, and we gave chase shouting. Flying very low it +carried its prey to the further side of the meadow, but, seeing that +it could not get quickly through the trees there, it dropped the +chicken and escaped; we picked up the poor frightened infant, which +was not injured, and restored it to a perturbed but joyful mother. "As +yaller as a kite's claw," is a simile one hears in the country, and it +is common to both Hampshire and Worcestershire. + +I never saw the wheatear in Worcestershire, but here I notice several +pairs on the moors in summer. They were once very plentiful on the +Sussex Downs and seaside cliffs, and as a boy walking from my first +school at Rottingdean to visit my people at Brighton, from Saturday to +Sunday night, I have passed hundreds of traps consisting of +rectangular holes cut in the turf, having horsehair nooses inside, set +by the shepherds who took thousands of wheatears to the poulterers' +shops in the town. They were then considered a great delicacy. Other +professional bird-catchers operated with large clap-nets, and a string +attached in the hands of the catcher some distance away. When they +were after larks a revolving mirror, flashing in the sun, was +considered very attractive; I suppose the birds approached from +motives of curiosity.[3] Many thousands were caught for the London and +Brighton markets for lark pies and puddings, a wicked bathos, when we +remember Wordsworth's lines: + + "There is madness about thee, and joy divine + In that song of thine." + +One severe winter an immense flock of golden plovers haunted my land +and neighbouring farms for some weeks, but they were exceedingly shy, +and being perfect strangers, they were difficult to identify, until I +brought one down by a very long shot, and we could see what a +beautiful bird it was. We could always tell when really severe winter +weather was coming, by the flocks of wild geese that passed overhead +in V-shaped formation. They were said to be leaving the mouth of the +Humber and the East Coast for the warmer shores of the Bristol +Channel, evidently quite aware that the latter, within the influence +of the Gulf Stream, were more desirable as winter-quarters. Evesham is +in the direct line between the two places, and we often heard them +calling at night as they passed. In the early spring when the severe +weather was-over they returned by the same route. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +PETS: SUSIE--COCKY--TRUMP--CHIPS--WENDY--TAFFY. + + "The heart is hard in nature and unfit + For human fellowship, as being void + Of sympathy, and therefore dead alike + To love and friendship both, that is not pleased + With sight of animals enjoying life, + Nor feels their happiness augment his own." + --COWPER. + +There are many stories of the affection of the domestic goose for man, +and I knew of one which was very fond of a friend of mine. The goose +followed him like a dog, and would come with him on to the lawn where +we were playing tennis, and sitting close beside him on a garden seat +with great dignity would apparently watch the game with interest. My +friend was fond of unusual pets; he had a tame hedgehog, for whom he +made a most comfortable house with living-room downstairs and sleeping +apartment on the first floor. His pet's name was Jacob, suggested I +think by the ladder which night and morning he used for ascending to +or descending from his bedroom. Hedgehogs have a bad character as +robbers of partridges' nests, and in our old parish accounts, under +the name of "urchins," we find entries of payments for their +destruction at the rate of 4d. apiece. + +My younger daughter had a tame duck, Susie by name, who gravely +waddled behind her round the garden. In summer at tea-time Susie would +much enjoy the company under the wych-elm on the lawn, and took her +"dish of tea" out of the saucer in the antique and orthodox manner. +Another amusing pet was a jackdaw who had an outdoor residence, though +often allowed to be loose. He acquired an exact imitation of my old +gardener's chronic cough, and enjoyed the exhibition of his +achievement when the old man was working near the cage, somewhat to +the man's annoyance. He was full of mischief, and was not allowed in +the house; but he once got in at my study window, picked out every +sheet of notepaper from my stationery case, and scattered them in all +directions. + +A still more accomplished mimic, a lemon-crested cockatoo, reproduced +the voices of little hungry pigs. He lived indoors on a stand over a +tray, with a chain round one leg, and was very clever at mounting and +descending by the combined use of beak and claws, without complicating +himself with his chain. He got loose one day, and ascended one of the +chestnut trees, and a volunteer went up after him by a ladder. Cocky +resented his interference, flew at him and bit his finger to the bone. +His beak was a very powerful weapon, and, until I made him a new tray +with a zinc-covered ledge, he demolished any unprotected wood or even +furniture within reach. + +This spring we had a blackbird's nest in some ivy near the house, and +many times each day the cock bird came to watch over his household, +and discourse sweet music from a neighbouring tree. A pair of jays +however appeared, and seemed too much interested in the nest for the +parents' comfort, approaching so near one morning that first the cock +blackbird, and then the hen attacked them; and though they returned +again during the day, evidently bent on mischief, the courageous +parents eventually drove them from the field, and they were seen no +more. Owing to the cutting of great fir woods in the Forest for timber +supplies for the war, jays have become much more common here than +formerly, and seem to have migrated from their former haunts and taken +to the beeches and oaks in the undisturbed woods. + +Birds as a rule are not well represented in books, though the drawing +is more correct than the colouring. Examine Randolph Caldecott's _Sing +a Song for Sixpence_ for a really clever sketch of the four and twenty +blackbirds, every one a characteristic likeness, and a different +attitude; and look at his rookery in _Bracebridge Hall_, where, in +three sketches he shows some equally exact rooks. + +I always walked when on my farming rounds, for one of the first +lessons I learned at Alton was that for that purpose "one walk is +better than three rides." My predecessor being a hunting man and fond +of horses, generally rode, but for careful observation, especially in +the matter of plant diseases, one wants to "potter about" with a +magnifying glass sometimes, and of course in entomology and +ornithology there is no room for a horse. One of the remarks made by +my men about me on my arrival was, "His mother larned him to walk," +with quite a note of admiration to emphasize it. It is really +remarkable how farmers and country people scorn the idea of walking +either for pleasure or business, if "a lift" can be had. I was at +Cheltenham with a brother, and finding we had done our business in +good time, we decided to walk to the next station--Cleeve--instead of +waiting for the train at Cheltenham. We asked a native the way, who +replied with great contempt, "Cleeve station? Oh, I wouldn't walk to +Cleeve to save tuppence!" + +One of our ventures in the way of pets was a well-bred poodle; he was +very amiable, handsome, and clever, but exceedingly mischievous. He +thought it great fun to pull up neatly written and carefully disposed +garden labels and carry them away to the lawn, for which, though a +nuisance, he was forgiven; but his next achievement was a more serious +matter. Finding his way about the village he would take advantage of +an open door to explore the cottage larders and when a chance offered, +would make off with half a pound of butter or a cherished piece of +meat and bring his plunder to my house in triumph. He was succeeded by +"Trump," a Dandie Dinmont, a very charming dog with a delightful +disposition, and perfectly honest until my elder daughter acquired a +fox terrier, "Chips," well-bred but highly nervous. Chips was a born +sportsman and most useful so long as he confined his activities to +rats and was busy when the thrashing-machine was at work, but when he +took to corrupting Trump's morals he required watching. Trump would be +lying quietly in the house or garden as good as possible, when the +insinuating tempter would find him, whisper a few words in his ear, +and off they went together. It was plainly an invitation, and later a +dead duckling or chicken would show where they had spent their time. +Trump became as bad as Chips and had to be given away. Chips was very +sensitive to discordant sounds, he must have had a musical ear; his +chief aversion was the sound of a gong, the beater for which was too +hard and, unless very carefully manipulated, produced a jangle. My +hall was paved with hexagonal stone sections called "quarries," which +appeared to intensify the discordance. Chips felt it keenly, and would +stand quite rigid for some minutes until the last reverberation and +its effect had passed off. He was uncertain in temper and disliked +some of the villagers. An old man complained that he had been bitten, +and told me with great feeling, "Folks say that if ever the dog goes +mad, I shall go mad too." I had much difficulty in appeasing him and +assuring him that there was no truth in the statement. + +How shall I do justice to the infinite variety of "Wendy," the dainty +little Chinese princess who now rules my household? There are people +who cannot see in an old Worcester tea-cup and saucer the +eighteenth-century beauty, fastidiously sipping, what she called in +the same language as the Aldington cottager of to-day, her dish of +"tay." There are people who regard with indifference an ancient chair, +except as an object to be sat upon, and who fail to realize its +historical charm, or even the credit due to the maker of a piece of +furniture that has survived two hundred and fifty spring cleanings. + +And there are people who can see nothing in the Pekingese, nothing of +the distinction and "the claims of long descent," nothing of the +possibilities of transmigration, or of present ever-changing and human +moods. Such are the people who suppose that the "dulness of the +country," and the attraction of the shams and inanities of the picture +palace induced the starving agricultural labourer willingly to +exchange the blue vault of heaven for the leaden pall of London fogs, +cool green pastures for the scorching pavement, and the fragrant +shelter of the hedgerow blossoms for the stifling slum and the crowded +factory. + +There is nothing of the democrat about Wendy; watch her elevate an +already tip-tilted nose at displeasing food, or a tainted dish, and +notice her look of abject contempt for the giver as she turns away in +disgust. No lover of the Pekingese should be without a charming little +book _Some Pekingese Pets_ by M.N. Daniel, with delightful sketches by +the author, in which we are told that, "Until the year, 1860, so far +as is known, no 'Foreign Devil' had ever seen one of these Imperial +Lion Dogs. In that year, however, the sacking of the Imperial Palace +at Pekin took place, and amongst the treasures looted and brought to +England were five little Lion or Sun Dogs." + +The author also says: "It is certain that the same type of Lion Dog as +our Western Pekingese must have existed in China for at least a +thousand years: that they were regarded as sacred or semi-sacred is +proved by the Idols and Kylons (many of them known to be at least a +thousand years old) representing the same type of Lion Dog." I have an +old Nankin blue teapot, the lid of which is surmounted by one of these +Kylons. + +I can only describe Wendy's moods and characteristics by giving a bare +catalogue: she is mirthful, hopeful, playful, despairing, bored, +defiant, roguish, cunning, penitent, sensitive, aggressive, offended, +reproachful, angry, pleased, trustful, loving, disobedient, +determined, puzzled, faithful, naughty, dignified, impudent, proud, +luxurious, fearless, disappointed, docile, fierce, independent, +mischievous; and she often illustrates the rhyme: + + "The dog will come when he's called, + And the cat will stay away, + But the Pekingese will do as he please + Whatever you do or say." + +Wendy is cat-like in some of her habits, prefers fish to meat, sleeps +all day in wet weather but is lively towards night, is very particular +about her toilet and washes her face with moistened paws passed over +her ears. She is very sensitive to the weather, loves the sun, lying +stretched at full length on the hot gravel so that she can enjoy the +comforting warmth to her little body. She is wretched in a +thunderstorm, shivering and taking refuge beneath a table or sofa; +then she comes to me for sympathy, and lies on my knee, covered with a +rug or a newspaper, but after a bad storm she is not herself for many +hours. Anyone who does not know her may think the moods I have +detailed an impossible category, but there is not one which we have +not personally witnessed again and again, and no one can see her +loving caresses of my wife without being assured of the soul that +animates her mind and body. + +Wendy is never allowed to "sit in damp clothes," or even with feet wet +with rain or dew, and looks very reproachful if not attended to at +once with a rough towel on coming indoors. "Why _don't_ you dry me?" +is exactly the expression her looks convey. She has a lined basket, on +four short legs to keep her from draughts when sleeping, but she is +often uneasy alone at night, evidently "seeing things," and, in +Worcestershire language, finding it "unked," so she is now always +allowed a night-light. + +It is said that the dog's habit of turning round several times before +settling to sleep is a survival from remote ages when they made +themselves a comfortable bed by smoothing down the grass around them, +but I am quite sure that Wendy does the same thing to get her coat +unruffled, and in the best condition to protect her from draughts. She +likes to lie curled up into a circle, so that her hind paws may come +under her chin for warmth, and support her head, as her neck is so +short that without a pillow of some sort she could not rest in +comfort; as an alternative, she will sometimes arrange the rug in her +sleeping basket to act in the same way. + +We had various cobs and ponies from time to time; quite a good pony +could be bought at six months old for about £12, and one of the best +we had was Taffy, from a drove of Welsh. Returning from Evesham +Station with my man we passed a labourer with something in a hamper on +his shoulder that rattled, just as we reached the Aldington turning; +Taffy started, swerved across the road in the narrowest part, and +jumped through the hedge, taking cart and all; we found ourselves in a +wheat-field, but were not overturned, and reached a gate in safety +none the worse. + +On an old May Day (May 12) I was at Bretforton Manor playing tennis +and shooting rooks. About 10.30 p.m. the cart and Taffy were brought +round; I had all my things in and was about to mount when, the pony +fidgeting to be off, my friend's groom caught at the rein, but he had +omitted to buckle it on one side of the bit. In an instant pony and +trap had disappeared, and the man was lying in the drive with a broken +leg. We had to carry him home on a door, and then went in search of +the pony, expecting every moment to find it and the trap in a ditch; +about half a mile from Aldington we met my own man who had come in +search of my remains. He told us that the pony and trap were quite +safe and uninjured. The clever animal had trotted the whole distance, +over two miles, with the reins dragging behind him, taken the turning +from the highroad, and again at my gate, and pulled up in front of the +house, where someone passing saw him and brought my man out to the +rescue. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + + +BUTTERFLIES--MOTHS--WASPS. + + "How like a rainbow, sparkling as a dewdrop, + Glittering as gold, and lively as a swallow, + Each left his grave-shroud and in rapture winged him + Up to the heavens." + --ANON. + +I have always been fascinated by the beauty of butterflies and moths, +and I think I began collecting when I was about eleven, as I remember +having a net when I was at school at Rottingdean. My first exciting +capture was a small tortoiseshell, and I was much disappointed when I +discovered that it was quite a common insect. In 1917 some nettles +here were black with the larvæ of this species, but I think they must +have been nearly all visited by the ichneumons, which pierce the skin, +laying their eggs in the living body of the larva, as the butterflies +were not specially common later. I was, however, fortunate in +identifying a specimen of the curious variety figured in Newman's +_British Butterflies_, variety 2, from one in Mr. Bond's collection; +it has a dark band crossing the middle of the upper wings, but, though +interesting, it is not so handsome as the type. I did not catch this +specimen, as I do not like killing butterflies now, but I had ample +leisure to observe it quite closely on the haulm of potatoes. It was +decidedly smaller than the type. + +The old garden at Aldington in the repose of a June evening was a +place of fragrant joy from honeysuckle on poles and arches, and just +as the light was fading the huge privet hawk-moths, with quivering +wings and extended probosces, used to sip the honey from the long +blossoms. I could catch them in a net, but these specimens were nearly +all damaged from their energetic flight among the flowers, and perfect +ones are easy to rear from the larvæ, feeding in autumn on privet in +the hedges. + +Later in the summer the Ghost Swift appeared about twilight, the white +colour of the male making it very conspicuous. Twilight at Aldington +is called "owl light," and moths of all kinds are "bob-owlets," from +their uneven flight when trying to evade the owls in pursuit. We often +see these birds "hawking" at nightfall in my meadows round the edge of +the Forest after moths. + +The martagon lily flourished in the Aldington garden, and when they +were blooming the overpowering scent was particularly attractive to +moths of the _Plusia_ genus, including the Burnished Brass, the Golden +Y, and the Beautiful Golden Y, all exhibiting very distinctive +markings of burnished gold; and other _Noctuæ_ in great variety. The +latter are best taken by "sugaring"--painting patches of mixed beer +and sugar on a series of tree trunks, and making several rounds at +twilight with a lantern and a cyanide bottle. We had a sugaring range +of about seventy pollard withies by the brook side, and being well +sheltered, it was such a favourite place for moths, that it was often +difficult to select from each patch, swarming with sixty or seventy +specimens, those really worth taking. At sugaring moths are found in a +locality where they are never seen at other times, and rarities occur +quite unexpectedly. I took some specimens of _Cymatophora ocularis_ +(figure of 80). Newman says: "It is always esteemed a rarity," and +mentions Worcester as a locality. _Mamestra abjecta_ was quite a +common catch, of which Newman writes: + + "It seems to be very local, and so imperfectly known that + the recorded habitats must be received with great doubt; it + is certainly abundant on the banks of the Thames, near + Gravesend, and also on the Irish coast, near Waterford." + +The marks of sugaring remain on tree trunks for many years. I lately +saw the faint remains on about sixty trees in Set Thorns plantation, +in the Forest, which a friend and I painted on nearly forty years ago. +This friend was fortunate in capturing the black variety of the White +Admiral, in which the white markings are entirely absent on the upper +side; and, thirty years later, his son took another near Burley. The +son also caught a Camberwell Beauty on one of his sugared patches in +the day-time. I believe this to be the only recorded instance of the +occurrence of this rare and beautiful insect in the Forest. + +The Hornet Clearwing (_Sesia Apiformis_) is a very interesting moth, +and it was common at Aldington; the larva feeds on the wood of the +black poplar. The colouring of the moth so resembles the hornet, that +at first sight it is easily mistaken for the latter. It is an +excellent example of "mimicry," whereby a harmless insect acquires the +distinctive appearance of a harmful one, and so secures immunity from +the attacks of its natural enemies. + +The larva of the Death's Head was not uncommon at Aldington and Badsey +on potatoes; I had a standing offer of threepence each for any that +the village children could bring me. These large caterpillars require +very careful handling, and I fear the children were not gentle enough +with them, as I only had one perfect specimen moth from all the larvae +they brought. + +One of my hop-pickers captured and presented me with a very fine +specimen of the Convolvulus Hawk-moth at Aldington; they were +generally comparatively common that year (1901) and a collector took +no less than seventeen in a few days in the public garden at +Bournemouth. + +The Clouded Yellow butterfly, whose appearance is very capricious, +occurred one summer in Worcestershire in considerable numbers; it is +strong on the wing and could easily reach the Midlands in fine weather +from the south of England, where it is more often seen. Those I saw +were flying high over clover fields, apparently in a hurry to get +further north-west. + +The Marbled White is a somewhat local butterfly; there was a spot +along the Terrace on Cleeve Hill, near North Littleton and Cleeve +Prior, where, at the proper time, this insect was plentiful, but I +never saw it anywhere else in the neighbourhood. + +One of the entomological prizes of the New Forest is the Purple +Emperor; it is impossible to do justice to the wonderful sheen of its +powerful wings. It inhabits the tops of lofty oaks, but does not +disdain to come down for a drink of water, sometimes from a muddy +pool, or even to feast on dead vermin which the keepers have +destroyed. + +The Comma, so called from the C-mark on the under side of the hind +wings, is fairly plentiful in Worcestershire and Herefordshire in the +hop-districts, for the hop is its food plant; but it is curious that, +with the abundance of hops in Kent, Sussex, and Hants, it is quite a +rare insect in the south of England. The ragged edge of its hind wings +is probably an arrangement to baffle birds in pursuit, offering more +difficulty to securing a sure hold than is afforded by the even margin +of the hind wings of most butterflies. + +In some years wasps were exceedingly troublesome at Aldington, and +fruit picking became a hazardous business. One of my men ploughed up a +nest in an open field, and was badly stung, though the horses, being +further from the nest when turned up, escaped. It is quite necessary +to destroy any nests on or near land where fruit is grown, as the +insects increase in numbers at a surprising rate, and they travel +great distances after food for the grubs. I had an instructive walk +over the fruit farm of my son-in-law, Mr. C.S. Martin, of Dunnington +Heath, near Alcester, with his cousin, Mr. William Martin, who is +extraordinarily clever at locating the nests. He quickly recognizes a +line of flight in which numbers of wasps can be seen going backwards +and forwards, in a well-defined cross-country track, follows it up and +locates the nest a long distance from where he first perceived the +line. In this way during our walk he found a dozen or more nests. In +the evening, when the inmates were at home, they were treated with a +strong solution of cyanide of potassium to destroy the winged insects; +and the next day the nests were dug out and the grubs destroyed, which +otherwise would become perfect wasps. + +Lately it has become a custom to pay a half-penny each for all queen +wasps in the spring, but Mr. C.S. Martin, who had many years' +experience on the fruit plantations of the Toddington Orchard Company, +extending to about 700 acres, as well as on his own plantations at +Dunnington, writes to me as follows on the subject: + + "To catch the queens in the spring is to my mind a waste of + time, and I discontinued paying for their capture, as the + number visible in the spring appeared to bear no relation to + the resulting summer nests. In the first place, the number + of queens in spring is always greatly in excess of the + numbers of nests, and to attempt to catch all the queens is + a hopeless job. As a rule, I don't think one per cent, ever + gets as far as a nest unless the weather conditions are very + favourable. Heavy rain, when the broods begin, may easily + wipe out 99 per cent., and only those on a dry bank will + survive. To pay a halfpenny per queen may be equivalent to + the payment of four and twopence per nest!" + +Referring to the payment of school-children for the destruction of +white butterflies he writes: + + "The white butterfly is extraordinarily prolific, and to + catch a few in the garden is a complete waste of time. + Again, weather conditions are largely responsible for the + occurrence of a bad attack, and the only possible time to + reduce the plague is in the caterpillar stage, with + hellebore powder, or one of the proprietary remedies, + applied to the young plants. Scientists recommend the + catching of queen wasps, and also butterflies, but I regard + this as a case where science is not strictly practical." + +There is, of course, the danger, too, that children will not recognize +the difference between the female of the Orange Tip butterfly, which +is practically colourless, and the cabbage whites, and it would be +worse than a crime to destroy so joyous and welcome a creature, whose +advent is one of the pleasantest signs that summer is nigh at hand. I +have watched these fairy sprites dancing along the hedge sides at +Aldington year by year, and in May they were extraordinarily abundant +here, happily coursing round and round my meadow, and chasing each +other in the sunshine. The Orange Tip is quite innocent of designs +upon the homely cabbage, the food-plant of the caterpillar being +_Cardamine pratensis_ (the cuckoo flower), which Shakespeare speaks of +so prettily in the lines: + + "When daisies pied and violets blue, + And lady-smocks all silver-white." + +Possibly Hood was thinking of the Orange Tip when he wrote the lines +that seem so well suited to them: + + "These be the pretty genii of the flowers + Daintily fed with honey and pure dew." + +A story is told of an undergraduate who united the hind wings of a +butterfly to the body and fore wings of one of a different species, +and, thinking to puzzle Professor Westwood, then the entomological +authority at Oxford, asked if the Professor could tell him "what kind +of a bug" it was. "Yes," was the immediate reply--"a humbug!" + +One of my schoolfellows, a boy about eleven, at Rottingdean school, +and quite a novice at butterfly collecting, met a professional +"naturalist" on the Warren at Folkestone, who inquired what he had +taken. "Only a few whites," said the boy. The man looked at them and, +eventually, they negotiated an exchange, the boy accepting three or +four others for an equal number of the whites. On reaching home he +found that he had parted with specimens of the rare Bath White, +_Pieris daplidice_, for some quite common butterflies. The Bath White +is not recognized as a British species, Newman supposing the specimens +taken in this country to have been blown over or migrated from the +northern coast of France, as they have been rarely met with away from +the shores of Kent and Sussex. + +It is surprising to find so many people who seem unable to exercise +their powers of observation to the extent of noticing the butterflies +they daily pass in the garden, or along the roads. One would expect +that the marvellous colouring of even our common butterflies would +arrest attention, and that interest in the names and life-history +would follow. + +In June in the Forest the rather alarming stag-beetle is to be seen on +the wing on a warm evening; though really harmless, its size and habit +of buzzing round frightens people who are not acquainted with its +ways. They are called locally, "pinch-bucks," as their horns resemble +the antlers of a buck, and they can nip quite hard by pressing them +together. I once saw a fight between a stag-beetle and a toad, it had +evidently been proceeding for some time as both combatants were +exhausted, but neither had gained any special advantage. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + + +CYCLING--PAGEANTS OF THE ROADS--ROADSIDE CREATURES--HARMONIOUS +BUILDING--COLLECTING OLD FURNITURE AND CHINA. + + "I may soberly confess that sometimes, walking abroad after + my studies, I have been almost mad with pleasure--the effect + of nature upon my soul having been inexpressibly ravishing + and beyond what I can convey to you." + --JOHN INGLESANT. + +I suppose that the bicycle has given, and gives, as much pleasure to +fairly active people as any machine ever invented. I must have been +one of the first cyclists in England, as my experience dates from the +days when bicycles were first imported from France. The high bicycle +appeared later, but the earlier machines were about the height of the +present safety, with light wooden wheels and iron tyres. The safety, +with pneumatic tyres, did not arrive till nearly thirty years later, +and it was the latter invention that brought about the popularity of +cycling. + +The difference between cycling and walking has been stated thus: + + "When a man walks a mile he takes on an average 2,263 steps, + lifting the weight of his body with each step. When he rides + a bicycle of the average gear he covers a mile with the + equivalent of 627 steps, bears no burden, and covers the + same distance in less than one third of the time." + +People constantly tell me that cycling is all very well for getting +from place to place, but otherwise they don't care about it, which I +can only account for by supposing that they find it a labour more or +less irksome, or that they have never developed their perceptive +faculties, and have no real sympathy with the life of woods and fields +or the spirit of the ancient farms and villages. + +Cycling to me is a very easy and pleasant exercise, but it is far more +than that; it is like passing through an endless picture-gallery +filled with masterpieces of form and colour. The roads of England not +only present these delights to the physical sense, but they stir the +imagination with historic visions from the earliest times. There are +the ancient camps, now silent and deserted, which become at the +bidding of fancy peopled with the unkempt and savage British, and +later with their well-disciplined and well-equipped Roman conquerers: +archers and men in armour appear; pilgrims' processions such as we +read of in Chaucer; knights and ladies on their stately steeds. There +are the ghosts of royal progresses, kings and queens, and wonderful +pageantry gorgeous in array; decorously ambling cardinals and abbots +with their trains of servitors; hawking parties with hawks and +attendants; soldiers after Sedgemoor in pursuit of Monmouth's +ill-fated followers; George IV. and his gay courtiers on the Brighton +road; beaux and beauties in their well-appointed carriages bound for +Tunbridge Wells, Cheltenham, or Bath; splendid teams with crowded +coaches, and great covered waggons laden with merchandise; the +highwayman at dusk in quest of belated travellers, and companies of +farmers and cattle-dealers riding home from market together for +safety. + +I often see a vision here in the ancient Forest tracks of a gang of +wild and armed smugglers, and among them still more savage-looking +foreign sailors. They have two or three Forest trucks, made especially +to fit the ruts in the little-used tracks, laden with casks of spirits +and drawn by rough Forest ponies. I can hear the shouts of the drivers +as they urge them forward, and I can see the steaming sides of the +ponies in the misty moonlight of a winter night. The spirits were +landed at Poole or Christchurch, and they are on their way to Burley +where, under the old house I bought with my land, there is still the +cellar, then cleverly concealed, where the casks were stored in safety +from the watchful eyes of the Excise; a quaint old place built of the +local rock. + +There is one vision of the roads in the Forest which nobody who saw it +can ever forget: the companies of infantry, the serious officers, the +ruddy-faced men, and the then untried guns of the glorious Seventh +Division, on their route marches, with fife and drum to cheer the way +with the now classic strains of "It's a long, long way to Tipperary." +There are spots where I met them in the autumn of 1914 that I never +pass without feeling that for all time these places are sacred to the +memory of heroes. + +Besides the fancied pageantry of the roads there are the natural +objects of the woods, the lanes, and the fields; the blossoming +hawthorn and the wild roses trailing from the hedges, the hares and +rabbits, the birds, the butterflies, and the flowers; sturdy teams +with the time-honoured ploughs and harrows, the sowing of the seed, +the young gleaming corn, the scented hayfields or the golden harvest; +every man at his honourable labour, happy children dashing out of +school; noble timber, hazel coppices, grey old villages; cattle in the +pastures, or enjoying the cool waters of shallow pools or brooks; +sheep in the field or the fold, the shepherd and his dog; apple +blossom, or the ripe and ruddy fruit, bowery hop-gardens, mellow old +cottages, country-folk going to market, fat beasts, cows and calves, +carriers' carts full of gossips. + +Pictures, real pictures, everywhere, endless in variety. Steady! go +steady past these woods; see the blue haze of wild hyacinths, the cool +carpet of primroses. Look at the cowslips yellowing that meadow; do +you see the heron standing patiently in the marsh? Look overhead, +watch the hovering hawk; hark! there is the nightingale. Stop a moment +at the bridge; can you see the speckled beauties with their heads +upstream? Thank God for the blue, blue sky! thank God for the glory of +the sun, for the lights and shadows beneath the trees! Thank God for +the live air, the growth, the life of plant and tree, the fragrance +and the beauty! Thank God for rural England! + +One can tell the most ancient, apart from the scientifically made +Roman roads, by the way they were worn down from the original level, +especially on hillsides, by the constant and heavy traffic. Every +passing wheel abraded a portion of the surface, and the next rain +carried the _débris_ down the hill, forming in time a deep depression, +between banks at the sides, often many feet deep, and giving the +impression of the track having been purposely dug out to lessen the +gradient. In places where the road became impassable from long use and +wet, deviations on either side were made, so that ten or a dozen +disused tracks can be seen side by side, often extending laterally +quite a long distance from the existing road in unenclosed +surroundings. + +A great charm of the bicycle is its noiselessness which, with its +speed, affords peeps of wild creatures under natural conditions. +Cycling on the Cotswolds I came upon two hares at a boxing match; they +were so absorbed that I was able to get quite close, and it was +amusing to watch them standing upright on their hind legs, and +sparring with their little fists like professionals. I have often seen +the pursuit of a rabbit by a persistent stoat; the rabbit has little +chance of escape, as the stoat can follow it underground as well as +over; finally the rabbit appears to be paralyzed with fright, lies +down and makes no further effort. Weasels, which probably make up for +depredations of game by their destruction of rats, often cross the +road, and sometimes whole families may be seen playing by the +roadside. I was shooting in Surrey when I once had an excellent view +of an ermine--the stoat in its winter dress. I did not recognize it +until it was out of sight, but I should not have shot it in any case, +for the ermine is a very rare occurrence in the south of England. I +believe that further north it is not unusual, as is natural where the +light colour would protect it from observation in snow, but as far +south as Surrey this would be a danger, and I should scarcely have +noticed it in the thick undergrowth had it been normal in colour. + +We had a squirrel's nest, or "drey," as it is called, near my house +last year, and the squirrels have been about my lawn and the Forest +trees ever since. It was charming, in the summer, to watch them +nibbling the fleshy galls produced on the young oaks by a gall-fly +_(Cynips)_. They chattered to each other all the time, holding the +galls between their fore feet, fragments dropping to the ground +beneath the trees. Squirrels are fond of animal food, and I wondered, +as there was so much apparent waste, whether they were not really +searching for the grubs in the galls. Of late years squirrels have +been scarce here; they were formerly abundant, but their numbers were +much reduced by an epidemic. They seem to be increasing again, +possibly the felling of so many Scots-firs has driven them from their +former haunts into adjoining oak and beech woods, such as those which +almost surround my land. + +During lunch in a meadow by the roadside, on a cycling ride, we found +a snake with a toad almost down its throat; the snake disgorged the +toad and escaped, but before we had finished lunch it returned and +repeated the process. This time I carried the toad, none the worse for +the adventure, some distance away, where I hope it was safe. Hedgehogs +are said to eat toads, frogs, beetles, and snakes, as well as the eggs +of game, to which I have already referred (p. 264); it is curious that +the old name "urchin" has been superseded in some places by +"hedgehog," but still survives in the "sea-urchin," and is also used +for a troublesome boy. + +It is very interesting, when cycling, to notice the changes in passing +from one geological formation to another, and in railway travelling, +with a geological map, one can quickly observe the transition; the +cuttings give an immediate clue, and the contours of the surface and +the agriculture are further guides. The alteration in the flora is +particularly marked in passing from the Bagshot Sands, for instance, +to the Chalk, or from the Lias Clay to the Lias Limestone or the +Oolite; the lime-loving plants appear on the Chalk and Limestone, and +disappear on the Sands and Clays. + +The sunken appearance of the old roads is one of the best proofs of +their antiquity, and one is inclined to wonder at their windings, but +in following the tracks across the Forest moors one gets an insight +into the way roads originated. The ancients simply adopted the line of +least resistance by avoiding hills, boggy places, and the deep parts +of streams, choosing the shallow fordable spots for crossing. The +winding road is, of course, much more interesting and beautiful than +the later straight roads of the Romans, though no doubt many of the +former were improved by the invaders for their more important traffic. +It is to be regretted that the formal lines of telegraph and telephone +poles and wires have vulgarized so many of our beautiful roads, and +destroyed their retired and venerable expression; more especially as +in many places these were erected against the will of the inhabitants, +and under the mistaken idea that the farmer's business is retail, and +that he is prepared to deal in and deliver small quantities of goods +daily, receiving urgent orders and enquiries by telephone. + +The villages in the Vale of Evesham and the Cotswolds afford an +excellent illustration of building in harmony with surroundings, and +the suitability of making use of local materials. Thus, in the Vale we +find mellow old brick, has limestone, half timber and thatch; while on +the Cotswolds, oolite freestone and "stone slates" of the same +freestone seem the only suitable material. Where the ugly pink bricks +and blue slates have of late years been introduced, they appear out of +place and contemptible. There is an immense charm about these old +villages of hill and vale, and it is curious to think that Aldington +was an established community with, probably, as many inhabitants as at +the present day, when London and Westminster were divided by green +fields. + +A story is told of the time before the line to Oxford from +Wolverhampton and Worcester was built, when persons visiting Oxford +from the Vale of Evesham had to travel by road. An old yeoman family, +having decided upon the Church as the vocation for one of the sons, +sent him, in the year 1818, on an old pony, under the protection of an +ancient retainer for his matriculation examination. On their return, +in reply to the question, "Well, did you get the young master +through?" "Oh, yes," he said, "and we could have got the old pony +passed too, if we'd only had enough money!" + +Partly as an excuse for a bicycle ride I used often to visit distant +villages where auction sales at farm-houses were proceeding, and +sometimes I came home with old china and other treasures. Wherever +there are old villages with manor houses and long occupied rich land, +wealth formerly accumulated and evidenced itself in well-designed and +well-made furniture, upon which time has had comparatively little +destructive effect. As old fashions were superseded, as oak gave way +to walnut, and walnut to Spanish mahogany, the out-of-date furniture +found its way to the smaller farm-houses and cottages, in which it +descended from generation to generation. Now that the cottages have +been ransacked by dealers and collectors, the treasures have not only +been absorbed by wealthy townspeople, but are finding their way with +those of impoverished landowners and occupiers to the millionaire +mansions on the other side of the Atlantic. + +There is no limit to the temptation to collect when once the +fascination of such old things has made itself felt--furniture, china, +earthenware, glass, paintings, brass and pewter become an obsession. +If I had only filled my barns with Jacobean and Stuart oak and walnut, +William and Mary, and Queen Ann marquetry, and Chippendale, Sheraton +and Hepplewhite mahogany, instead of wheat for an unsympathetic +British public, and at the end of my time at Aldington offered a few +of the least interesting specimens for sale by auction, I might still +have carried away a houseful of treasures which would have cost me +less than nothing. + +An old friend of mine, who had been collecting for many years, and in +comparison with whom I was a novice, though my enthusiasm long +preceded the fashion of the last twenty-five years, told me that he +once discovered a warehouse in a Cotswold village crammed with +Chippendale, and that the owner, having no sale for it, was glad to +exchange a waggon-load for the same quantity of hay and straw chaff. + +Among the more interesting articles which my cycling excursions and +previous pilgrimages on foot produced, I have a charming blue and +white carnation pattern, Worcester china cider mug with the crescent +mark. These mugs are said to have been specially made for the +Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769 at Stratford-on-Avon when Garrick was +present. The date corresponds with the time when the mark was in use, +and establishes the age of the mug as 150 years. The china in my old +neighbourhood was naturally Worcester, Bristol and Salopian, of which +I have many specimens--of the Worcester more especially--ranging from +the earliest days of unmarked pieces through the Dr. Wall period, +Barr, Flight and Barr, down to the later Chamberlain. + +An old pair of bellows is a favourite of mine; it is made of pear-tree +wood, decorated with an incised pattern of thistles and foliage, +referring possibly to the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, or as +a Jacobite emblem of a few years later. The carving is surrounded by +the motto: + + "WITH MEE MY FREND MAY STILL BE FREE YET VSE MEE + NOT TILL COLD YOV BEE." + +These old bellows show unmistakable signs of their more than 200 years +of honourable service, and they have literally breathed their last +though still surviving; but it would be sacrilege to renew the +leather, and might disturb the ghosts of generations of old ladies who +blew the dying embers into a ruddy glow when awaiting, in the twilight +of a winter's evening, their good-men's return from the field or the +chase. + +One of my greatest finds was a pair of Chippendale chairs at a sale at +Mickleton at the foot of the Cotswolds; they belong to the early part +of the Chippendale period, before the Chinese style was abandoned. +That influence appears in incised fretted designs on the legs, and the +frieze below the seats. The seats are covered with the original +tapestry, adding much to the interest, and the backs present examples +of the most spirited carving of the maker. At the sale, when I went to +have a second look, I found two dealers sitting on them and chatting +quite casually; the intention was evidently to prevent possible +purchasers from noticing them, and more especially to hide the +tapestry coverings. The value of the chairs immediately rose in my +estimation, and I increased the limit which I had given to a bidder on +my behalf, so that I made sure of buying them. The old chairs looked +very shabby when they came out into the light of day, and they fell to +my representative's bid amid roars of laughter from the rustic crowd. +What a price for "them two old cheers"! they "never heard talk of such +a job!" It would surprise them to know that I have been offered five +times what they then cost. + +My wife has had to do with many parochial committees from time to +time, and I have often trembled for my Chippendale chairs when these +meetings, accompanied by tea, have been held at my house, for it is +not everybody who regards them with the reverence due to their +external beauty and true inwardness, or who recognizes in them the + + "Tea-cup times of hood and hoop, + Or while the patch was worn." + +A very successful afternoon was one I spent at a sale at North +Littleton. I remember the beautiful spring day, and the old +weather-worn grey house in an orchard of immense pear-trees covered +with sheets of snowy blossom. I secured a Jacobean elm chest with +well-carved panels, a Jacobean oak chest of drawers on a curious +stand, a complete tea set of Staffordshire ware, including twelve cups +and saucers, teapot, and other pieces, with Chinese decoration; four +Nankin blue handleless tea-cups, a Delft plate, and a Battersea enamel +patch-box. My bill was a very moderate one, but the executor who had +the matter of the sale in hand was well pleased that these old family +relics had passed into the possession of someone who would value them, +and not to careless and indifferent neighbours, and was more than +satisfied with the amount realized. Next morning, as a token of his +satisfaction, he brought me a charming old brass Dutch tobacco box, +with an oil painting inside the lid, of a smoker enjoying a pipe. + +I have seen some amusing incidents at sales of household goods in +remote places; incredulous smiles as to the possibility of the +usefulness of anything in the shape of a bath generally greeted the +appearance of such an article, and on one of these occasions an +ancient, with great gravity, and as an apology for its existence, +remarked that it was "A very good thing for an invalid!" I am reminded +thereby of an old-fashioned hunting man in Surrey, who was astonished +to hear from a friend of mine that he enjoyed a cold bath every +morning. He "didn't think," he said, "that cold water was at all a +good thing--_next to the skin_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + + +DIALECT--LOCAL PHRASEOLOGY IN SHAKESPEARE--NAMES--STUPID PLACES. + + "Our echoes roll from soul to soul." + --_The Princess_. + +Compulsory education has eliminated many of the old words and phrases +formerly in general use in Worcestershire, and is still striving to +substitute a more "genteel," but not always more correct, and a much +less picturesque, form of speech. When I first went to Aldington I +found it difficult to understand the dialect, but I soon got +accustomed to it, and used it myself in speaking to the villagers. +Farrar used to tell us at school, in one of the resounding phrases of +which he was rather fond, that "All phonetic corruption is due to +muscular effeminacy," which accounts for some of the words in use, but +does not alter the fact that many so-called corrupt words are more +correct than the modern accepted form. + +It is difficult to convey the peculiar intonation of the +Worcestershire villager's voice, and the _ipsissima verba_ I have +given in my anecdotes lose a good deal in reading by anyone +unacquainted with their method. Each sentence is uttered in a rising +scale with a drop on the last few words, forming, as a whole, a not +unmusical rhythmical drawl. As instances of "muscular effeminacy," two +fields of mine, where flax was formerly grown, went by the name of +"Pax grounds"; the words "rivet" and "vine," were rendered "ribet" and +"bine." "March," a boundary, became "Marsh," so that +Moreton-on-the-March became, most unjustly, "Moreton-in-the-Marsh." +"Do out," was "dout"; "pound," was "pun"; "starved," starred. The +Saxon plural is still in use: "housen" for houses, "flen" for fleas; +and I noticed, with pleasure, that a school inspector did not correct +the children for using the ancient form. Gilbert White, who died in +1793, writes in the section of his book devoted to the Antiquities of +Selborne, that "Within the author's memory the Saxon plurals, _housen_ +and _peason_," were in common use. So that Selborne more than a +hundred years ago had, in that particular at any rate, advanced to a +stage of dialect which in Worcestershire is still not fully +established. Certain words beginning with "h" seem a difficulty; a "y" +is sometimes prefixed, and the "h" omitted. Thus height becomes +"yacth," as nearly as I can spell it, and herring is "yerring." "N" is +an ill-treated letter sometimes, when it begins a word; nettles are +always "ettles," but when not wanted, and two consecutive words run +easier, it is added, as in "osier nait" for osier ait. + +The word "charm," from the Anglo-Saxon _cyrm_, is used both in +Worcestershire and Hampshire for a continuous noise, such as the +cawing of nesting rooks, or the hum of swarming bees. Similarly, a +witch's incantation--probably in monotone--is a charm, and then comes +to mean the object given by a witch to an applicant. "Charming" and +"bewitching" thus both proclaim their origins, but have now acquired a +totally different signification. + +There are an immense number of curious words and phrases in everyday +use, and they were collected by Mr. A. Porson, M.A., who published a +very interesting list with explanatory notes in 1875, under the title +of _Notes of Quaint Words and Sayings in the Dialect of South +Worcestershire_. I append a list of the local archaic words and +phrases which can also be found in Shakespeare's Plays. This list was +compiled by me some years ago, and appeared in the "Notes and Queries" +column of the _Evesham Journal_; I think all are still to be heard in +Evesham and the villages in that corner of Worcestershire. + +SHIP--sheep; cf. Shipton, Shipston, etc.; _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, +Act I., Scene 1; _Comedy of Errors_, Act IV., Scene 1. + +FALSING--the present participle of the verb "to false"; _Comedy of +Errors_, Act II., Scene 2; _Cymbeline_, Act II., Scene 3. + +FALL--verb active; _Comedy of Errors_, Act II., Scene 2; _Midsummer +Night's Dream_, Act V., Scene 1. + +CUSTOMERS--companions; _Comedy of Errors_, Act IV., Scene 4. + +KNOTS--flower beds; _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act I., Scene 1; _Richard +II_., Act III., Scene 4. + +TALENT--for talon; cf. "tenant" for tenon; _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act +IV., Scene 2. + +METHEGLIN--mead, a drink made from honey; _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act +V., Scene 2; _Merry Wives_, Act V., Scene 5. + +HANDKERCHER--handkerchief; _King John_, Act IV., Scene 1; _King +Henry V_., Act III., Scene 2. + +NOR NEVER SHALL--two negatives strengthening each other; _King John_, +Act IV., Scene 1, and Act V., Scene 7. + +CONTRARY--stress on the penultimate syllable; cf. "matrimony," +"secretary," "January," etc.; _King John_, Act IV., Scene 2. + +To RESOLVE--to dissolve; _King John_, Act V., Scene 4; _Hamlet_, Act +I., Scene 2. + +STROND--strand; cf. "hommer"--hammer, "opples"--apples, etc.; +_1 King Henry IV_., Act I., Scene 1. + +APPLE JOHN--John Apple (?); _1 King Henry IV_., Act III., Scene 3; +_2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +GULL--young cuckoo; _1 King Henry IV_., Act V., Scene 1. + +TO BUCKLE--to bend; _2 King Henry IV_., Act I., Scene 1. + +NICE--weak; cf. "naish"--weak; _2 King Henry IV_., Act I., Scene 1. + +OLD--extreme, very good; _2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +PEASCOD-TIME--peapicking time; _2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +WAS LIKE--had nearly; _King Henry V_., Act I., Scene 1. + +SCAMBLING--scrambling; _King Henry V_., Act I., Scene 1. + +MARCHES--boundaries; cf. Moreton-in-the-Marsh, _i.e._, March; _King +Henry V_., Act I., Scene 2. + +SWILLED--washed; _King Henry V_., Act III., Scene 1. + +To DRESS--to decorate with evergreens, etc.; _Taming of the Shrew_, +Act III., Scene 1. + +YELLOWS--jaundice; _Taming of the Shrew_, Act III., Scene 2. + +DRINK--ale; "Drink" is still used for ale as distinguished from cider; +_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 1. + +BARM--yeast; _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 1. + +LOFFE--laugh; _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 1. + +LEATHERN--(bats); cf. "leatherun bats," as distinguished from +"bats"--beetles; _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 3. + +EANING TIME--lambing time; _Merchant of Venice_, Act I., Scene 3. + +SPET--spit; cf. set--sit, sperit--spirit, etc.; _Merchant of Venice_, +Act I., Scene 3. + +FILL-HORSE--shaft horse; cf. "filler" and "thiller"; _Merchant of +Venice_, Act II., Scene 2. + +PROUD ON--proud of; _Much Ado_, Act IV., Scene 1 + +ODDS--difference; cf. "wide odds"; _As you Like It_, Act I., Scene 2. + +COME YOUR WAYS--come on; _As You Like It_, Act I., Scene 2. + +TO SAUCE--to be impertinent; _As You Like It_, Act III., Scene 5. + +THE MOTION--the usual form; _Winter's Tale_, Act IV., Scene 2. + +INCHMEAL--bit by bit; _Tempest_, Act II., Scene 2. + +FILBERDS--filberts; _Tempest_, Act II., Scene 2. + +TO LADE--to bale (liquid); _3 King Henry VI._, Act III., Scene 3. + +TO LAP--to wrap; _King Richard III._, Act II., Scene 1; _Macbeth_, Act +I., Scene 2. + +BITTER SWEETING--an apple of poor quality grown from a kernel; cf. +"bitter sweet"--the same; _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II., Scene 4. + +VARSAL WORLD--universal world; _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II., Scene 4. + +MAMMET--a puppet; cf. "mommet"--scarecrow; _Romeo and Juliet_, +Act III., Scene 5. + +TO GRUNT--to grumble; _Hamlet_, Act III., Scene 1. + +TO FUST--to become mouldy; _Hamlet_, Act IV., Scene 5. + +DOUT--do out; cf. "don"--do on; _Hamlet_, Act IV., Scene 7. + +MAGOT PIES--Magpies; _Macbeth_, Act III., Scene 4. + +SET DOWN--write down; _Macbeth_, Act V., Scene 1. + +TO PUN--to pound; _Troilus and Cressida_, Act II., Scene 1. + +NATIVE--place of origin; cf. "natif"; _Coriolanus_, Act III., Scene 1. + +SLEEK--bald; cf. "slick"; _Julius Cæsar_, Act I., Scene 2. + +WARN--summon; cf. "backwarn"--tell a person not to come; _Julius +Cæsar_, Act V., Scene 1. + +BREESE--gadfly; _Antony and Cleopatra_, Act III., Scene 8. + +WOO'T--wilt thou; _Antony and Cleopatra_, Act IV., Scene 13. + +URCHIN--hedgehog; _Titus Andronicus_, Act II., Scene 3. + +MESHED--mashed (a term used in brewing); _Titus Andronicus_, Act III., +Scene 2. + +All the above words and phrases the writer has frequently heard used +in the neighbourhood in the senses indicated, but to make the list +more complete the following are added on the authority of Mr. A. +Porson, in the pamphlet referred to: + +COLLIED--black; _Midsummer Nights Dream_, Act I., Scene 1. + +LIMMEL--limb from limb; cf. "inchmeal"--bit by bit; _Cymbeline_, Act +II., Scene 4. + +TO MAMMOCK--to tear to pieces; _Coriolanus_, Act I., Scene 3. + +TO MOIL--to dirty; _Taming of the Shrew_, Act IV., Scene 1. + +SALLET--salad; 2 _King Henry VI_., Act IV., Scene 10. + +UTIS--great noise; _2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +Place-names everywhere are a most interesting study; as a rule, people +do not recognize that every place-name has a meaning or reference to +some outstanding peculiarity or characteristic of the place, and that +much history can be gathered from interpretation. In cycling, it is +one of the many interests to unravel these derivations; merely as an +instance, I may mention that in Dorset and Wilts the name of +Winterbourne, with a prefix or suffix, often occurs; of course, +"bourne" means a stream, but until one knows that a "winterbourne" is +a stream that appears in winter only, and does not exist in summer, +the name carries no special signification. + +One hears some curious personal names in the Worcestershire villages; +scriptural names are quite common, and seem very suitable for the +older labourers engaged upon their honourable employment on the land. +We had a maid named Vashti, and she was quite shy about mentioning it +at her first interview with my wife. In all country neighbourhoods +there is a special place with the unenviable reputation of stupidity; +such was "Yabberton" (Ebrington, on the Cotswolds), and Vashti was +somewhat reluctant to admit that it was her "natif," as a birthplace +is called in the district. Among the traditions of Yabberton it is +related that the farmers, being anxious to prolong the summer, erected +hurdles to wall in the cuckoo, and that they manured the church tower, +expecting it to sprout into an imposing steeple! There is a place in +Surrey, Send, with a similar reputation, where the inhabitants had to +visit a pond before they could tell that rain was falling! + +But perhaps the best story of the kind is told in the New Forest, +where the Isle of Wight is regarded as the acme of stupidity. When the +Isle of Wight people first began to walk erect, instead of on all +fours, they are said to have waggled their arms and hands helplessly +before them, saying, "And what be we to do with these-um?" + +Classical names are very uncommon among villagers, but in my old +Surrey parish there was one which was the cause of much speculation. +The name was Hercules; it originated in a disagreement between the +parents, before the child was christened. The mother wanted his name +to be John, but the father insisted, that as an older son was Noah, +the only possible name for the new baby was "Hark" (Ark). They had a +lengthy argument, and there was no definite understanding before +reaching the church. The mother, when asked to "name this child," +being flustered, hesitated, but finally stammered out, "Hark, please." +The vicar was puzzled, and repeated the question with the same result; +a third attempt was equally unsuccessful, and the vicar, in despair, +falling back upon his classical knowledge, christened the child +Hercules. A few days later the vicar called at the cottage, and the +mother explained the matter, relating how indignant she was with her +husband, and how on the way home, "Hark, I says to him, ain't the name +of a Christian, it's the name of a barge!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + + +IS ALDINGTON (FORMER SITE) THE ROMAN ANTONA? + + "Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, + Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: + O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe + Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!" + --_Hamlet_. + +One of my fields--about five acres--called Blackbanks from its +extraordinarily black soil, over a yard deep in places, and the more +remarkable because the soil of the surrounding fields is stiff +yellowish clay, showed other indications of long and very ancient +habitation. Among the relics found was a stone quern, measuring about +21 inches by 12 by 7-3/4, and having, on each of two opposite sides, a +basin-shaped depression about 6 inches in diameter at the top, and +2-3/4 inches in depth; also a small stone ring, 1-1/4 inches in +diameter, and 3/8ths in thickness, with a hole in the centre 1/4 inch +across; the edges are rounded, and it is similar to those I have seen +in museums, called spindle whorls. The quern and the ring I imagine to +be British. This field and the fields adjacent on the north side of +the stream formed, I think, primarily a British settlement and area of +cultivation, afterwards appropriated by the Romans in the earliest +days of the Roman occupation of Britain, and inhabited by them as a +military station until they left the country. + +Among other relics found in Blackbanks and in the fields to the north, +called Blackminster, between Blackbanks and the present line of the +Great Western Railway, aggregating about a hundred acres, there were +found large quantities of fragments of pottery of several kinds, +including black, grey, and red, and among the latter the smoothly +glazed Samian. Many pieces are ornamented with patterns, some very +primitive, others geometrical; others are in texture like Wedgwood +basalt ware, and similar in colour and decoration. The Samian is +mostly plain, but a few pieces have patterns and representations of +human figures. + +The fields, but especially Blackbanks, contained quantities of bones, +the horns of sheep or goats, pieces of stags, horns, iron spear and +arrow-heads, horses' molar teeth, and flint pebbles worn flat on one +side by the passage of innumerable feet for many years. A millstone +showing marks of rotation on the surface, a bronze clasp or brooch +with fragments of enamel inlay, the ornamental bronze handle of an +important key, a glass lacrymatory (tear-bottle), numerous +coins--referred to below--and other objects in bronze and iron, were +also found. + +Only centuries of habitation and cultivation could have changed the +three feet of surface soil in Blackbanks from a stiff unworkable clay +to a black friable garden mould, and it is probable that the British +occupation had lasted for a very long period before the Romans took +possession. The settlement must have been a place of importance, +because it was approached from the north by a track, still existing +though practically disused, probably British, from a ford over the +Avon, near the present Fish and Anchor Inn. This track passes to the +west of South Littleton, on through the middle of the Blackminster +land, and immediately to the east of Blackbanks, joining what I +believe to be the Ryknield Street at the bridge over the stream on the +South Littleton road. Near the present Royal Oak Inn it formerly +crossed the present Evesham-Bretforton road, and became what is still +called Salter Street. It appears to have given access to two more +sites on which Roman coins and relics are found--Foxhill about 9-1/2 +acres, and Blackground about 4 acres--and passing east of the present +Badsey church, proceeded through Wickhamford, and by a well-defined +track to Hinton-on-the-Green, and on to Tewkesbury and Gloucester. + +The occurrence of the name Salter Street gives a clue to one of the +original uses of the road, at any rate in Roman times, for salt was an +absolute necessity in those days, as may be gathered from a passage in +_The Natural History of Selborne_, written in 1778: + + "Three or four centuries ago, before there were any + enclosures, sown grasses, field turnips, or field carrots, + or hay, all the cattle which had grown fat in summer, and + were not killed for winter use, were turned out soon after + Michaelmas to shift as they could through the dead months; + so that no fresh meat could be had in winter or spring. + Hence the vast stores of salted flesh found in the larder of + the elder Spencer in the days of Edward II., even so late in + the spring as the 3rd of May." A note adds that the store + consisted of "Six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef + and six hundred muttons." + +It is not difficult to trace the route over which the salt was carried +from Droitwich. Starting thence the track can be approximately +identified by the names of places in which the root, _sal_ (salt), +occurs, and we find Sale Way, Salding, Sale Green, and, further south, +Salford. Crossing the Worcester-Alcelster road at Radford, and +proceeding through Rouse Lench and Church Lench, we reach Harvington, +from whence the track takes us across the low-lying meadows to the +ferry and ford over the Avon, near the Fish and Anchor Inn mentioned +above. + +In recent times it has been assumed that the road from Bidford to +Weston Subedge, known as Buckle Street, is identical with Ryknield +Street, but I should prefer to call Buckle Street a branch of the +latter only, for the purpose of joining Ryknield Street and the Foss +Way near Burton-on-the-Water. I consider the real course of Ryknield +Street to be as described in Leland's _Itinerary_ (inserted by +Hearne), Edition III., 1768, in which he quotes, from R. Gale's _Essay +concerning the Four Great Roman Ways_, that "from Bitford on the +southern edge of Warwickshire it (Ryknield Street) runs into +Worcestershire, and taking its course thro' South Littleton goes on a +little to the east of Evesham, and then by Hinton and west of +Sedgebarrow into Gloucestershire, near Aston-under-Hill, and so by +Bekford, Ashchurch, and a little east of Tewksbury, thro' Norton to +Gloucester." + +Such a course for Ryknield Street would make it the connection between +the north, running through the Roman Alauna (Alcester) to Glevum +(Gloucester). It must be remembered that there was, in Roman times, +nothing at Evesham to take the road there, for Evesham did not exist +as a town until long after the Romans left. Leland says that there was +"noe towene at Eovesham before the foundation of the Abbey," which +took place about A.D. 701, about 250 years later, and there was no +road from Alcester to Gloucester except the one we are following. + +Another important road passed the northern extremity of Blackminster +and crossed the road just referred to so that the Blackminster area +was situated at the junction. This was the old road from Worcester, +passing the present site of Evesham a mile or more to the north, +crossing the Avon at Twyford, and the Ryknield Street at Blackminster, +and going onwards through Chipping Campden towards London. + +The following passage in the _Annals_ of Tacitus, Book XII., chapter +xxxi., _Ille (Ostorius) ... detrahere arma suspectis, cinctosque +castris Antonam et Sabrinam fluvios cohibere parat_, which refers to +the fortification of the Antona and Severn rivers by the Roman general +P. Ostorius Scapula, has been the subject of various readings and +controversy about the word _Antona_, no river of that name having been +identified. The reading given above may not be good Latin, but the +names of the rivers are quite plain. Another reading substitutes +_Avonam_ for _Antonam_; but probably Tacitus avoided the use of the +word Avon because it was then a Celtic term for rivers in general, and +confusion would arise between the Avon which joins the Severn at +Tewkesbury and the Avon a little further south which runs into the +Severn estuary at Bristol. To make his meaning quite clear he did +exactly what we do now in speaking of the Stratford Avon (_i.e._, +river) and the Bristol Avon(_i.e._, river) when he prefixed _Antonam_ +(_et Sabrinam_) to the word _fluvios_. + +If, therefore, we can find a place of importance with the name of +Antona, or a name that may fairly represent it, having regard to +subsequent corruptions, existing also in Roman times on or near the +Avon branch of the Severn, we shall be justified in assuming that this +particular Avon was the river he had in his mind. Such a place is the +area I have described as full of traces of long Roman and pre-Roman +occupation, situated at the junction of two ancient roads, very +important from the military point of view, and within a mile of the +Avon. + +On the supposition that Antona and Aldington may be identical, the +present site of the latter is perhaps a quarter of a mile from the +Roman area which I have described, but the original Aldington Mill, +traces of the foundations of which are still to be seen, was actually +on the Roman area. A better position for it was found later, away from +the difficulties of approach caused by floods, and it was moved to the +site occupied by the present mill just below the Manor House, probably +in Anglo-Saxon times. Although the name of the village became, in +Anglo-Saxon, Aldington, or something similar, the old name of Anton or +Aunton was evidently in common local use, as appears in the following +list of names which the present village has borne at different times. +It is specially interesting to notice that the more elaborate +"Aldington" and its variants appear in the more scholarly records, +such as those of Evesham Abbey and Domesday Survey, written by people +not living in the village; while the parish churchwardens 1527-1571, +the will of Richard Yardley 1531, the village constable 1715, and the +villagers at the present day, all living in the place itself, carry on +the old tradition in the names they use which approximate very closely +to the Roman Antona, and are indeed identical in their manuscripts, if +the Latin terminal _a_ is omitted. + + _Date_ + Aldintone, Charter of the Kings Kenred and Offa, + possessions of Evesham Abbey 709 + + Aldingtone } + Aldintun } Domesday Survey _circ._ 1086 + Aldintona } + + Aldringtona, An Adjudication; Evesham Abbey 1176 + + Aldetone, Institutes of Abbot Randulf, died 1229 + + Awnton, Will of Richard Yardley of Awnton 1531 + + Aunton, Churchwardens accounts 1527 to 1571 + + Anton, Old MS. "A Bill for ye Constable" 1715 + + Alne or Auln, Villagers present day + +As parallels of the local persistence of old names, the neighbouring +village of Wickhamford (present-day name) is still called Wicwon by +the villagers, the same name under which it appears in the Charter of +the Abbey possessions in 709. And the Celtic London still persists in +spite of the Roman attempt to confer upon it the grander name of +Augusta. + +The disappearance of anything in the shape of foundations of former +buildings is accounted for by the fact that the whole area was +quarried many years ago for the building stone and limestone beneath, +and any surface stone would have been removed at the same time. One of +the fields still bears the name of the "Quar Ground," and the remains +of lime-kilns can be found in several places. + +It is right to add that Blackbanks as the site of Antona was suggested +to me many years ago by the late Canon Winnington Ingram, Rector of +Harvington; in discussing the matter, however, we got no further than +the bare suggestion derived from the appearance of long habitation and +the occurrence of Roman coins and pottery in Blackbanks only, and +without reference to the much larger area of Blackminster. Canon +Winnington Ingram was not familiar with the place, and I had not +apprehended the importance of the track from the "Fish and Anchor" as +a salt way starting from Droitwich, nor was I aware of Salter Street, +its continuation after passing Blackbanks. Neither had I distinguished +between Buckle Street as the junction between Ryknield Street and the +Foss Way, and Ryknield Street itself as the direct road from the north +through Birmingham, Alcester, Bidford, Antona(?) Hinton, and +Gloucester. + +Virgil, in his first _Georgic_, refers to the possible future +discovery of Roman remains, and Dryden translates the passage thus: + + "Then after lapse of time, the lab'ring swains, + Who turn the turfs of these unhappy plains, + Shall rusty piles from the plough'd furrows take, + And over empty helmets pass the rake." + +Such is almost prophetic of my Roman site to-day; little did Virgil +imagine that his lines would apply so nearly in Britain two thousand +years later. + + +A LIST OF THE COINS FOUND AND NAMES OF THE EMPERORS TO WHOSE REIGNS +THEY BELONG, WITH SHORT NOTES ON THE LEADING INCIDENTS IN CONNECTION +WITH BRITAIN WHICH OCCURRED IN THEIR REIGNS: + + 1. A Denarius, 88 B.C. + + 2. A Denarius, 88 B.C. plated. As consular denarii passed + out of circulation soon after A.D. 70, these two coins + suggest that the site was under Roman influence by that date + at the latest. + + 3. Claudius, Emperor (A.D. 41-54). + + 4. Nerva, Emperor (96-98). + + 5. Antoninus Pius, Emperor (138-161). + + 6. Marcus Aurelius, Emperor (161-180). + + 7. Severus Alexander, Emperor (222-235). + + 8. The Thirty Tyrants (211-284). Several coins of this + period, badly defaced. + + 9. Etruscilla, wife of Traianus Decius (249-251). + + 10. Gallienus, Emperor (253-268). + + 11. Postumus, Gallic Emperor (258-268) + + 12. Claudius Gothicus, Emperor (268-270) + + 13. Tetricus, Gallic Emperor (270-273). + + 14. Tacitus, Emperor (275-276) + + 15. Diocletianus, Emperor (284-305). + + 16. Carausius, Emperor in Britain (286-294). + + 17. Allectus, Emperor in Britain (294-296). + + 18. Theodora, second wife of Constantius I. (Chlorus, Cæsar, + 293-305; Augustus, 305-6). + + 19. Licinius, Emperor (307-324). + + 20. Constantinus Emperor (306-337); (Constantine the Great). + + 21. Coin with head of Constantinopolis (City Deity)(_circ._ 330). + + 22. Constantinus II., Emperor (337-340). + + 23. Constantius II., Emperor (337-361). + + 24. Gratianus, Emperor (367-383). + +BRITISH COIN. + + 25. Antedrigus, British Prince (_circ._ 50). + +The figures in brackets in the following notes refer to the coins as +numbered in the above list: + +(3) The Claudian invasion of Britain was begun in A.D. 43 by an army +under the command of Aulus Plautius Silvanus. He led his army from the +coast of Kent, where he probably landed, to the Thames, and waited for +Claudius himself, in whose presence the advance to Camulodunum +(Colchester) was made during the latter part of 43. Claudius +apparently left Rome in July, and was absent for six months, but his +stay in Britain is said to have lasted only sixteen days. + +In the pacification which occupied the next three years there are two +points of interest to notice. The first is a series of minor campaigns +conducted by Vespasian--Emperor 69-79--who subdued the Isle of Wight +and penetrated from Hampshire, perhaps, to the Mendip Hills. The +second is the submission of Prasutagus, the British philo-Roman prince +of the Iceni. + +It is conjectured that his policy led a certain number of patriots +under a rival prince, Antedrigus, to migrate towards the unoccupied +west. A coin (25) of Antedrigus, with an extremely barbarous head in +profile on the obverse and a horse on the reverse, was found on the +Roman area at Aldington. The types of this coin are ultimately derived +from those on the gold staters struck by Philip of Makedon, father of +Alexander the Great. The original had a young male head (? of Apollo) +on obverse and a two-horse chariot as reverse type. The influence came +to Britain from Gaul, where the coins of Makedon may have arrived by +the valleys of Danube and Rhine; but it is not improbable that the +types reached Gaul through Massilia (Marseilles). + +In 47 Plautius was succeeded by P. Ostorius Scapula, who pressed +westwards and fought a great battle with the nationalist army of +Caratacus in 51. Camulodunum became a colonia in 50, and the military +organization of Britain then began to take shape by the establishment +of four legionary headquarters--Isca Silurum (Caerleon-on-Usk), +Viroconium (Wroxeter), Deva (Chester) and Lindum (Lincoln). This +disposition, which faced north and west, came near to breaking down in +61, when the east rose under Boudicca (Boadicea), queen of the Iceni, +partly in protest against the usury of Seneca, the philosopher and +tutor of Nero. + +(4) It was in the year 97, during the principate of Nerva, that +Tacitus the historian was consul. By this time the IXth Hispana legion +had been transferred from Lindum to Eburacum (York). + +(5) Under Antoninus Pius a revolt of the Brigantes (between Humber and +Mersey) was put down by A. Lollius Urbicus in A.D. 140. Lollius also +completed the northern defences, begun by Hadrian, with a new wall +further north between the Firth and the Clyde. + +(6) While Marcus Aurelius was emperor, according to a tradition +preserved by Bede, the British Church came into close connection with +Rome and received what he calls a mission--more probably a band of +fugitives from persecution. Though the tale is doubtful in details, it +is evidence to show that Christianity was strong in the island by this +time. + +(9) Decius, husband of Etruscilla, was responsible for the great +persecution of Christians in 250-51; the occasion was the 1,000th +anniversary of Rome's foundation. + +(10) Gallienus, son of Valerian, was entrusted with the west on his +father's accession in 253 and defended the Rhine frontier until he was +left sole Emperor in 258, when Valerian was captured by Shapur of +Persia. Various usurpations compelled Gallienus to enter Italy, and he +left the Rhine defences in charge of a general--M. Cassianius Latinius +Postumus. + +(11) Postumus at once had to face a great invasion of Franks. He +gained some successes and was therefore proclaimed emperor by the +armies of Gaul and Britain. Before long dissensions broke out in the +Gallic empire and several commanders rose and fell in rapid +succession. It is conceivable that some of these are represented in +the coins found in Blackbanks, but these specimens are too badly +weathered for certain identification to be possible. + +(12) On March 4, 268, Gallienus was assassinated. His successor was M. +Aurelius Claudius, afterwards surnamed Gothicus, a skilful general who +did the empire great service by his victories over invaders from +Switzerland and the Tyrol by the shores of the Lago di Garda, and over +the Goths at Naissus (Nish). + +(13) Tetricus is of interest only because his surrender to Aurelian in +273 marks the collapse of the Gallic empire. + +(15-18) Diocletian became Augustus in 284, and co-opted Maximian as +his colleague two years later. About the same time Carausius, +commander of the Channel fleet, crossed to Britain and had himself +proclaimed independent emperor. In 290 he was acknowledged as third +colleague by the Augusti, but no place was found for him when in 293 +the government of the Roman world was divided between Diocletian, +Maximian, and two newly chosen Cæsars--Galerius and Flavius Valerius +Constantius, later called Chlorus. By this arrangement the recovery of +Britain from Allectus--who had murdered Carausius about 294--fell to +Constantius, and he accomplished this by a sudden attack in 296. +Constantius was twice married. His first wife, Helena, bore him a son, +Constantine the Great; his second was a step-daughter of Maximian, +named Theodora, to whom coin 18 belongs. + +Britain was now divided into four Diocletian provinces, to which a +fifth--Valentia--was later added when the country north of Hadrian's +wall was re-occupied. The only other event of Diocletian's reign to be +noticed is the persecution of Christians in which, according to +tradition, St. Alban lost his life at Verulam about 303. + +(19-20) On May 1, 305, Diocletian and Maximian abdicated. Constantius +and Galerius now became Augusti. Trouble arose over the two vacant +Cæsarships. It was the aim of Galerius to exclude Constantine, but the +latter escaped to his father's camp at York, a few weeks before +Constantius died on July 25, 306, after a victory over the Picts and +Scots. Constantine was in power under various titles in Gaul and +Britain for five years until, in 311, when Galerius died, he began his +march on Rome, during which he is said to have had his vision of the +cross with the words [Greek: en toutô nika]. In 314 the bishops of +York, London, and some other uncertain British see attended the +Council of Arles which sat to deal with the Donatist schism. The +British Church was also represented at the Council of Nicæa, called by +Constantine in 325 to consider the Arian heresy, when the Nicene Creed +in its original form was authorized; the British vote was orthodox. It +was Constantine who in 321 first made Sunday a holiday, but whether +Christianity or Mithraism prompted him to this is doubtful. + +(22-23) When Constantine the Great died in 337 the empire was divided +between his sons. Constantius II. received the east; Constans, Africa, +Italy, and the Danuvian region; Constantine II., Gaul and Spain. In +340 Constantine II. attacked Constans and was killed. Constans then +ruled the united west; it seems that Constans and Constantius II. +visited Britain in 343. Constans was assassinated in 350; this left +Constantius II. alone. His policy of toleration towards the Arians led +to a great Church Council in 359. The eastern bishops met at Seleucia, +the western at Ariminum, where Britain was represented. By a certain +amount of coercion Constantius forced his views on the Western +Council. At this time the prosperity of Britain was great and corn was +exported in large quantities. + +(24) In 367 Valentinian I. made his son Gratian, Augustus. Gratian was +later married to Constantia, daughter of Constantius II. Roman power +was now asserted once more against the Picts and Scots, and also +against the Saxon raiders by Theodosius, whose son became Augustus in +379. Gratian himself was occupied on the Continent. In 383 Magnus +Maximus was proclaimed emperor in Britain, and Gratian was murdered on +August 25. + +The coins were not a hoard; they were found all over the Roman area I +have described, but especially in Blackbanks, and they became visible +generally when the surface was fallow and had broken down into fine +mould from the action of the weather. Their scattered occurrence, and +the period they cover, suggest continuous habitation throughout the +most important part of the Roman occupation of Britain, and, with +their related history, they occupy a distinguished place in a record +of the harvest of Grain and Chaff from an English Manor. + + + + +NOTES + + +[1: Celebrated breeders of the respective sorts.] + +[2: Fig. 1 shows the flattened _S_ formed by the stream. +Fig. 2 shows the short circuit formed later at _A_ and the island _B_ +When the old bed of the stream round _B_ gets filled up, the island +_B_ disappears, and its area and that part of the old bed formerly on +the west side of the stream is transferred to the east side.] + +[3: Mr. H.A. Evans sends me a very interesting note on this subject. +He refers me to Shakespeare, _Henry VIII., III., II., 282_, where +Surrey, alluding to Wolsey, says: + + "If we live thus tamely, + To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet, + Farewell nobility; let his grace go forward, + And dare us with his cap like larks." + +The verb _dare_ here used is quite a distinct word from _dare_ = to +venture to do. It means to daze or render helpless with the sight of +something. To dare larks is to fascinate or daze them in order to +catch them. The "dare" is made of small bits of looking-glass fastened +on scarlet cloth. Shakespeare's use of the word in the passage quoted +is evidently an allusion to the scarlet biretta of the cardinal. In +Hogarth's "Distressed Poet" a "dare" is suspended above the +chimney-piece.] + + + + +INDEX + + +"AKERMAST," 197. +. +Albinism, 255. + +"Alcoholiday," 177. + +Aldington, 1; + band, 122; + chapel, 5; + concerts, 123; + constable, 8; + derivation, 1; + farm, 3; + hosiery factory, 7; + manor, 2; + prepares to resist Jacobites, 7; + variants, 5, 8, 298, 299; + village, 3. + +Allsebrook, Rev. W.C., 5. + +Alresford fair, 49. + +Antona, 294, 297, 298. + +Apples, 103, 169, 170, 171. + +Archdeacon's visitations, 101, 102. + +Arch, Joseph, 59. + +Asparagus, 85, 86, 87. + +Avebury, Lord, 214. + +Avon, meaning of, 297. + +Bad debts, farmers', 215. + +Badsey, 1; + church innovations, 102, 110; + church restoration, 89, 90; + churchyard, 97, 98, 101; + "Feld," 207; + market gardeners, 85. + +Barley, 216, 217. + +Barnard, Mr. E.A.B., 5. + +Barnard, parish clerk, 65, 92, 93, 95. + +Bateman, Miss Isabel, 92. + +Beech, 195, 196, 197; + "groaning tree," 197; + stage effect, 198, 199; + Waterloo beeches, 197, 198. + +Beef, American, 72, 155. + +Bees, 17, 18. + +Bell, William, + farm bailiff, 12; + bee-master, 17; + brewer, 18; + courage, 14, 15; + generosity, 13; + honesty, 20; + limited outlook, 18; + memory, 16; + peace-maker, 15; + quoted, 11, 14; + repartee and wit, 13, 24; + salesman, 17. + +Bell, Mrs. William, 21. + +Bellows, antique, 285. + +Bell-ringers, 94. + +Bewick, 258. + +Bible, cunning use of, 40. + +Blackbanks, 294. + +Blackbirds, 265. + +Blackminster, 294, 299. + +Blackmore quoted, 182, 196, 225. + +Blacksmith, 151, 152. + +Blue distance, 237, 238. + +Boer War, 66. + +Boys at farm work, 39, 69. + +Brandram, Mr., 92. + +Bredon Hill, 237. + +"Breese," 156. + +Brigg, 241. + +Brooks, + changing course, 239, 241; + diagram of, 252. + +Buckle Street, 166, 296. + +Buggilde Street, 157. + +Bull, 54. + +Bullfinch, 185, 186. + +Buller, C.F., 113. + +Butterflies, 273, 274, 275, 276. + +Caldecott, Randolph, 191, 225, 236, 265. + +Caravoglia, Signor, 123. + +Carter boys, 39. + +Caterpillars, 184, 248, 259. + +Cattle, 153, 154, 157. + +Chamberlain, Mr. Arthur, 88. + +"Chap-money," 127, 129, 216. + +Charles II., 7, 190, 227. + +Charley, "silly," 93. + +"Chawns," 211. + +Cherries, 185. + +China, old, 285, 286, 287. + +Chinese slavery, 88. + +Chippendale furniture, 95, 165, 285. + +Chipping Campden, 18, 129. + +Christ Church, Oxford, 90, 98. + +Christmas, 21, 79, 95. + +Church music, 102, 103. + +Churning, 154. + +Cider, 174-177; + apples, 176; + lead poisoning, 178. + +Cirencester College, 147, 148. + +Climate, effects on animals, 135, 136. + +Cloud-burst, 249. + +Coal-club, 63, 64. + +Cockatoo, 265. + +Coffers, antique, 193. + +Coins, Roman, 300. + +Coleridge quoted, 234. + +Collins, Mr. Thomas, 90. + +Colour, discordant, 95. + +Competition, American, 59, 208. + +Compton, Lady Alwyne, 92. + +Confirmation, 103. + +Constable, John, painter, 193. + +"Co-rider," 30. + +Coroner's jury, 64, 65. + +Cotswolds, 2, 19, 29. + +Cottagers, _see_ Labourers; + married couples, 72. + +Council, County, election, 65. + +Councils, parish, etc., 100. + +Courtene, Sir Peter, 5. + +Cowper quoted, 106, 264. + +"Crabbing," 130. + +Cream separator, 82. + +Cricket, 119, 120; + Eton and Harrow match, 234, 235. + +Cromwell, 227. + +Cronje, 66. + +Cruikshank, George, 133, 207. + +Cuckoo, 184, 249, 259. + +Curmudgeon, village, 99. + +Cycling, 278; + geology, 282; + pageants of the roads, 279; + pictures, real, 280; + roadside creatures, 281, 282. + +Dairy, 153, 154, 155. + +Damsons, 182. + +Dandie Dinmont, 266. + +Daniel, M.N., on Pekingese, 268. + +Daniel, S., 105. + +D'Aumale, Duc, 203. + +Dealers, + artificial fertilizers, 149, 150; + cattle, 127, 134, 135; + horse, 126, 127; + pig, 130; + sheep, 127, 128, 129; + wool, 145, 146. + +Dewponds, 242. + +Dialect, 158, 288-291. + +Disease, human and plant, analogy, 224. + +Dorset labourer, a, 71, 72. + +Draining, 212, 213. + +Duck, pet, 264. + +Edgehill, Battle of, 6, 7. + +Education, compulsory, 58, 116, 117, 118. + +Eggs, + disqualified, 121; + hens', 164, 165, 166. + +Elephant, African, 115, 116. + +Elevator, 82. + +Elms, 187, 188. + +Emperors, Roman, 300-305. + +Ermine, 281. + +Evans, Mr. Herbert A, 263. + +Evesham, + Abbey, 1, 4; + agricultural depression, 245, 246; + Vale of, 2; + water supply, 243, 244. + +Fairs, 37, 49, 130, 227, 228. + +Fairy rings, 47. + +Farmers Newstyle and Oldstyle, 217, 218, 219. + +Farrar, Dean, 111, 112, 113, 114, 288. + +Fields, + derivation, 207; + large and small, 83. + +Finance, 58, 68. + +Fishing, 35, 36. + +Flail, 80. + +Floods, 241, 242. + +Flower show, village, 121. + +Foley, Lady Emily, 91. + +Football, 120. + +Forks, steel, 85, 86. + +Foxes, 201, 254. + +Fox terrier, "Chips," 266. + +Fruit markets, 172. + +Furniture, + antique, 284; + Chippendale, 285, 286; + faked, 97. + +Gainsborough, market cart, 193. + +Gardener, an old, 53. + +Ghosts, 67, 93. + +Gipsies, 49, 200, 228. + +Gladstone quoted, on ancient church, 89. + +Gleaning, 211. + +"Gloving," 77. + +Goldfinch, 260. + +Gold, hoarded, 58. + +Goose, pet, 264. + +Grace, Dr. W.G., 119. + +Grafter, a, 141, 142. + +Gray's _Elegy_ quoted, 23, 46, 198. + +_Gryphea incurva_, 213. + +"Hag-ridden," 47. + +Hardy, Mr. Thomas, 77. + +Harrow School, 111; + chapel, 113; + fourth form room, 114; + cricket match at Lords, 234, 235. + +Harvest, 33, 244. + +Hawfinch, 259. + +Hawks, 202. + +Hay-making, 69. + +Hazel, 202. + +Hedges, + overgrown, 205; + "pleaching," 59. + +Heredity, 117, 118. + +Herrick, reference to Gospel Oak, 195. + +_History of Evesham_, May's, 68; + Tindal's, 8. + +Hoarding gold, 58. + +Hoby, Sir Philip, 4. + +Holiday outings, 78, 79. + +Holly, 205. + +Hood, reference to butterflies, 276. + +Hops, + aphis, 221; + dioescious, 226; + drying, 31, 32; + introduction of Flemish, 205; + natural protection, 222; + pocket at R.A.S.E. show, 139; + Saturnalia, 227; + tying, 75. + +Hop-poles, 202, 203. + +Hop-yards, derivation, 221. + +Horace, reference to farm work, 207. + +Horizon, parochial, 18, 19. + +Horses, 36, 40. + +Hoskins, Chandos Wren, _Talpa_, + on farming, 132; + draining, 133; + illustrates Horace's lines, 207. + +Hospitium at Badsey, 67. + +Huguenots, 7. + +Hurdle-making, 150, 151. + +Indian troops at Lyndhurst, 158. + +Ingram, Canon Winnington, 300. + +Inquest, 64, 65. + +I.P., honesty, 56. + +Irving, Sir Henry, 120. + +Irving, Washington, _Bracebridge Hall_, on public distress, 245. + +Jackdaw, pet, 264. + +Jackson, Sir Thomas Graham, 90,96. + +Jacobites, 7, 8. + +Jarge, 23; + _bon vivant_, 28; + cider-maker, 175; + daughter, 24, 26; + discrimination, 26; + hop foreman, 25; + London trip, 28; + narrow escape, 201; + soloist, 29; + sporting reputation, 24. + +Jarrett monument, 6. + +Jays, 265. + +J.E., + carter, accidents, 54, 55; + hop-washing, 55. + +J.E., Mrs., 55. + +Jim, + carter, 35; + angler, 35; + foresight, 41; + French horses, 37; + loyalty, 37; + ploughman, 38; + rheumatism, 40; + salesman, 37; + tender-hearted, 38. + +"Jingoism," derivation, 72. + +John C., shepherd, 46. + +Keats, reference to trees, 187. + +"King Arthur," 254. + +King Edward VII., 138, 203, 234. + +Kingfisher, 257. + +King George V., 19, 249. + +_Kingham Old and New_, 77. + +Kingham Station, 59. + +"Know-all," the, 73, 74. + +Kruger, 66. + +Labourers, + agricultural: bad temper, effect on animals, 74; + aesthetic feeling, 61; + enfranchised, 83; + enjoyment of grievance, 65; + feuds, 71; + honesty, 56; + interest in horrors, 64; + limited vocabulary, 62; + literal use of words, 62, 63; + not callous, 62; + "not paid to think," exceptional, 45; + recognize visible property only, 57; + resignation and fortitude, 60; + responsibility, effect of, 73; + reticence, 61; + savings, 57; + seldom slackers, 69; + suspicious of change, 63; + sympathetic, 58; + understand sarcasm, seldom irony, 73. + +Ladybirds, 225. + +Lamb, New Zealand, 162. + +Lambs not to be killed, 160, 161, 162. + +Land, division of, 84. + +Land girls, 76. + +"Leasing," derivation of, 211. + +Leland, 4, 296. + +Lind, Jenny, 124, 125. + +Liver-rot, 160. + +London, Bishop of, a former, 198. + +Long Marston, 7. +Loudon, John, 197. + +Machinery, 80. + +Magpies, 256. + +Maid-servants, 76. + +Malvern concerts, 27, 90, 91, 92. + +Martin, Mr. C.S., 139, 140; + on cabbage butterflies, 275; + wasps, 275. + +Martin, Mr. Wm., on finding wasps' nests, 274. + +Matriculation, young yeoman's, 283, 284. + +May's _History of Evesham_, 68. + +May, shelter during, 155. + +Medicinal herbs during war, 45. + +Melanism, 255. + +"'Merican beef," 72, 155. + +Merry gardens, derivation, 186. + +Meteorology, 230-234, 237. + +Mickleton tunnel, 29. + +"Mist-bow,", 251. + +Mistifier, 55. + +Mist-lake, 252. + +Mistletoe, 173. + +Mole-catcher, 143. + +Moths, 271, 272, 273. + +Mountford's restaurant, 20, 21. + +Mowing machines, 81. + +"Mug," a, 140. + +Names, + place, 291-292; + villagers, 292-293. + +New Forest, + "commoners," 194; + communion between man and trees, 199; + land mostly poor, 188; + oaks, 189, 190, 199; + timber during war, 194, 204. + +Nightingales, 261. + +Nuthatch, 257. + +Oak, 188, 189; + American, 96, 97; + attitudes of, 190; + bark, 193; + "Gospel," 195; + history in, 195; + heart of, 193; + plantations, 192. + +Obadiah B., thatcher, 148. + +Onomatopoeia, use of, 196, 256. + +Omnicycle, 22, 61. + +Orchards, 167, 168. + +Overton fair, 49. + +"Ox-droves," 157. + +Pageants of the roads, 279. + +Parochial horizon, 18, 19. + +Peacocks, 253, 254. + +Pear trees, 179, 180. + +Peking, relief of, 104. + +Pekingese, 267, 268, 269. + +Perry, 179, 180. + +Pershore, 37, 197. + +Peruvian guano, 87. + +Pheasants, 204, 255. + +Philips, _Cyder_, 175. + +Picker, a, 103. + +"Pleaching," 59. + +Ploughing, 38, 39, 213, 214. + +Plumber's story, 45. + +Plums, 182, 183, 184. + +Pony, "Taffy," 270. + +Poodle, 266. + +"Popery," 20, 110. + +Postman, 122. + +Potatoes, 18; + disease, 222; + Myatt's ashleaf, origin, 54. + +Poulton, Miss, 90. + +Poultry, 164. + +_Punch_ quoted, 19, 102. + +Queen Victoria, 255. + +Railway accident, 163; + sleepers, 204-205. + +Randell, Mr. Charles, 81. + +Randulf, Abbot, 4. + +Rat-catcher, 143. + +Rats, 143. + +"Reconstruction," 246. + +Ridge and furrow, 213, 214. + +Rival hedgers, 105. + +Roads, ancient, 279-280, 283, 296-297. + +Roberts, Lord, 66. + +Roman coins, 300; + Emperors, 301-305; + remains, 294, 295. + +Rooks' arithmetic, 260; + building, 91. + +Rottingdean, 262, 271, 276. + +Rough music, 77, 78. + +Royal Agricultural Society of England, 138, 139. + +_Rus in urbe_, 234-237. + +Ruskin, 81. + +Ryknield Street, 156, 295-297, 300. + +Sabbath-breaking, 163, 164. + +Sales, + by bailiff, 132, 133; + books, 133; + fruit, 172; + sheep, 136, 137; + short-horns, 134, 135. + +Salisbury, Lord, 90, 91. + +Salter Street, 296. + +"Satan leading on," 105. + +Savory, Mrs. A.H., 86, 90, 122-124, 153, 164. + +Savory, Mr. F.E., 250. + +Selborne (see White), Church, 94. + +Seventh Division in New Forest, 280. + +Scapula, P. Ostorius, 297. + +School Board, + Badsey, 106; + chairman, 107; + economy, 115; + "first duty" of members, 107; + grouped parishes, 108; + "ignoramus," an, 115; + inspectors, 111, 114; + mares' nests, 116; + reading-book, 114; + religious instruction, 109-111; + reporters at meetings, 108; + site for building, 109; + "six little pigs," 114. + +"Score," derivation of, 16. + +Scots-fir, 204. + +Scottish wool trade, 145. + +Scot, Reynolde, on hops, 220. + +Scrutator, 253. + +Shakespeare, + local phraseology, 289, 290; + local reputation, 120. + +Shakespeare quoted, + on bargains, 126; + carouse at Bidford, 179; + content, 57; + "daring" larks, 263; + England if true to self, 66; + fairy rings, 47; + fool i' the forest, 191; + gadfly, 156; + hope and despair, 220; + lady-smocks, 276; + narrow outlook, 19; + "pleaching," 59; + Providence, 1; + sweet of the year, 232. + +Shappen, derivation, 129. + +Sheep, 47-50, 158-160. + +Sheep dipper, 142. + +Shelley on skylark, 253. + +Shepherds, 46, 50, 76, 77. + +"Shepherd's neglect," 48. + +Signhurst, derivation, 67. + +Skylark, 263. + +Sladden, Mr. Julius, 89, 121. + +Snake and Toad, 282. + +Snewin, carpenter, 42. + +Squirrels, 281. + +Stag-beetles, 277. + +Steam power, 83. + +Stockmen often resemble their animals, 162. + +Stupid places, 292. + +"Summer dance," 251. + +"Summer-time," 230, 231. + +Sunday work, 244. + +Superstition, 18, 21, 46, 47, 67. + +Tacitus, 297. + +"Tantiddy's fire," 33. + +Taylor, Chevalier, 52. + +Telegraph wires in frost, 183. + +Tennyson quoted, + on apples, 167; + business men, 141; + changes of earth's surface, 239; + dairy, 153; + farming walk, 207; + hazels, 202; + home-made bread, 211; + _Morte d'Arthur_, 1; + music, 119; + old oaks, 187; + onomatopoeic lines, 196; + our echoes, 288; + politics, 80; + royal oak, 195; + spring-time, 202; + steam cultivation, 83; + "summer dance," 251; + tea-cup times, 286; + town and country, 230. + +Tennyson at agricultural show, 139. + +Temper, effect on animals, 74. + +Temple, Sir Richard, 83-86, 88. + +Thatching, 148, 149, 200. + +Thistles, 260. + +Thomson quoted, 36. + +Thoreau quoted, 199. + +Thrashing, 80, 81, 215. + +"Three acres and a cow," 84. + +Tom, 29; + caution, 33, 34; + draining, 31; + harvesting, 32, 33; + hop-drying, 31; + mowing, 30; + musical critic, 33; + tree-felling, 30. + +Tom G., 41; + accuracy, 42; + builder, 44; + carpenter, 41; + efficiency, 45; + epigram, 43, 44; + teetotal, 41. + +Trees, paintings of, 192, 193. + +Tricker, 50, 51, 52. + +Trout, 35, 36, 49. + +Truffle-hunter, 144, 145. + +Tusser, Thomas, on hop-growing, 220, 221. + +Urchins, 264, 282, 291. + +Valentine's Day, St., 160. + +Vestry meetings, 99, 100. + +Veterinary surgeons, 147, 148. + +Vicar (my first) + as prosecutor, 101; + former ways of parishioners, 94, 95; + impressive reader, 98, 99; + "new farmers," 13; + procession with choir, 102; + restoration of church, 89, 90. + +Vicar (my second) + declines to act on School Board, 109; + religious instruction, 110; + scholar, 104. + +Vicar (my third), + innovations, 110; + relief of Peking, 104; + religious instruction, 110, 111. + +Vicar, a Gloucestershire, 104. + +Vicar of Old Basing, 165. + +_Victory_, old battleship, 194. + +Villagers, see Labourers, funeral, 15. + +Villages, Cotswold and Vale of Evesham, 283. + +"Viper," + egg-eater, 166; + rescues children, 21, 22; + avoids "dipping," 142. + +Virgil, _Georgics_, + and farm work, 207; + onomatopoeic lines, 195, 196; + on planting trees, 168; + prophetic lines, 300. + +Wages, 68, 69, 70. + +Waggon, + an ancient, 139; + name on a, 131, 132. + +Wakefield, Bishop of, 230. + +Walnut chair, 7. + +War, great, 45, 161, 227. + +Warde Fowler, Mr., 77, 78. + +Washington, Penelope, 9, 10. + +Wasps, 274, 275. + +Water-rats, 144. + +Waterspouts, 250. + +Way-warden, 100. + +Weather, abnormal, 247, 248, 249; + signs, 233. + +Wedding feast, a village, 65. + +Weeds, 70. + +Weighing machine, incorrect, 43. + +Wellington, Duke of, 197. + +"Welsher," a, 137. + +"Wendy," Pekingese, 267. + +Westwood, Professor, 276. + +Weyhill Fair, 228. + +Wickhamford, 8, 94, 299. + +Wild geese, 263. + +Wild, Miss Margaret, 92. + +Will Hall farm, 235. + +Will-o'-the-wisp, 249. + +Willow ("withy"), 199, 201. + +Wheatear, bird, 262. + +Wheat: + growing, ruined by importations, 208; + harvest, 210; + hoeing, 70; + rick building, 212. + +Whisky, 131, 178. + +White, Gilbert, + black bullfinch, 257; + dew-ponds, 243; + salted flesh, 296; + Saxon plurals, 289; + Selborne Church bells, 94. + +White, Miss Maude V., 124. + +Women on the land, 74, 75, 76. + +Woodcock, 258, 259. + +Woodpecker, green, 256. + +Woodpigeons, 261. + +Wool, 146, 147; + staplers, 145. + +"Woonts," 143. + +Worcester, + Battle of, 7; + Bishops of, 103; + butter market, 154; + china, 161; + hop-fair, 227. + +Words, confusion of, 51, 52. + +Wordsworth quoted, 61, 263. + +Wren, golden-crested, 261. + +"Wusser and wusser, old," 29. + +Wych-elm, 53. + +Yardley, Richard, will of, 5. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Grain and Chaff from an English Manor +by Arthur H. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Grain and Chaff from an English Manor + +Author: Arthur H. Savory + +Release Date: August 21, 2004 [EBook #13239] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAIN AND CHAFF *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Team + + + + + +GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR + + +By ARTHUR H. SAVORY + + + +OXFORD + +BASIL BLACKWELL + +1920 + + + + +PREFACE + +As a result of increased facilities within the last quarter of a +century for the exploration of formerly inaccessible parts of the +country, interest concerning our ancient villages has been largely +awakened. Most of these places have some unwritten history and +peculiarities worthy of attention, and an extensive literary field is +thus open to residents with opportunities for observation and +research. + +Such records have rarely been undertaken in the past, possibly because +those capable of doing so have not recognized that what are the +trivial features of everyday life in one generation may become +exceptional in the next, and later still will have disappeared +altogether. + +Gilbert White, who a hundred and thirty years ago published his +_Natural History of Selborne_, was the first, and I suppose the most +eminent, historian of any obscure village, and it is surprising, as +his book has for so long been regarded as a classic, that so few have +attempted a similar record. His great work remains an inspiring ideal +which village historians can keep in view, not without some hope of +producing a useful description of country life as they have seen it +themselves. + +It is a pleasure to acknowledge with grateful thanks the kind help of +friends and correspondents which I have received in writing this book. +Mr. Warde Fowler was good enough to look through the chapters while +still in manuscript, and I have also received great help from Mr. +Herbert A. Evans, who has read through the proofs. The help of +others--besides those whose names I give in the text--has been less +general and mostly confined to some details in the historical part of +the first chapter, and to portions of the subject-matter of the last. +Mr. Hugh Last, Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, most kindly gave +much valuable time to the examination of the Roman coins and assigning +them to their respective reigns; he contributed also the notes on the +Emperors, with special reference to the events in Britain which +occurred during their reigns. Mr. Dudley F. Nevill of Burley helped me +in a variety of ways, and Mr. C.A. Binyon of Badsey supplied some of +the historical details and information about the ancient roads. + +Looking back over the years I spent at Aldington, I see much more +sunshine and blue sky than cloud and storm, notwithstanding the +difficulties of the times. It is a continual source of pleasure to go +over the familiar fields in imagination and to recall the kindly faces +of my loyal and willing labourers. I trust that what I have written of +them will make plain my grateful remembrance of their unfailing +sympathy and ready help.--ARTHUR H. SAVORY. + +BURLEY, HANTS. + +_January_, 1920. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. ALDINGTON VILLAGE--THE MANOR HOUSE--THE FARM.......... 1 + + II. THE FARM BAILIFF...................................... 11 + + III. THE HOP FOREMAN AND THE HOP DRIER..................... 23 + + IV. THE HEAD CARTER--THE CARPENTER........................ 35 + + V. AN OLD-FASHIONED SHEPHERD--OLD THICKER--A + GARDENER--MY SECOND HEAD CARTER--A LABOURER......... 46 + + VI. CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND + VILLAGERS........................................... 57 + + VII. MACHINERY--VILLAGE POLITICS--ASPARAGUS................ 80 + + VIII. MY THREE VICARS--CHURCH RESTORATION--CHURCHWARDEN + EXPERIENCES--CLERICAL AND OTHER STORIES............. 89 + + IX. THE SCHOOL BOARD--RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION--SCHOOL + INSPECTORS--DEAN FARHAR--COMPULSORY EDUCATION....... 106 + + X. VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS: CRICKET--FOOTBALL--FLOWER-SHOW + --BAND--POSTMAN--CONCERTS........................... 119 + + XI. DEALERS--LUCK MONEY--FAIRS--SALES--EFFECT OF + CLIMATE ON CATTLE AND SHEEP--AGRICULTURAL SHOWS..... 126 + + XII. FARM SPECIALISTS...................................... 141 + + XIII. THE DAIRY--CATTLE--SHEEP--LAMBS--PIGS--POULTRY........ 153 + + XIV. ORCHARDS--APPLES--CIDER--PERRY........................ 167 + + XV. PLUMS--CHERRIES....................................... 182 + + XVI. TREES: ELM--OAK--BEECH--WILLOW--SCOTS-FIR............. 187 + + XVII. CORN--WHEAT--RIDGE AND FURROW--BARLEY--FARMERS + NEWSTYLE AND OLDSTYLE............................... 207 + +XVIII. HOPS--INSECT ATTACKS--HOP FAIRS....................... 220 + + XIX. METEOROLOGY--ETON AND HARROW AT LORD'S--"RUS IN + URBE"............................................... 230 + + XX. CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS--DEWPONDS--A WET + HARVEST--WEATHER PHENOMENA--WILL-O'-THE- + WISP--VARIOUS....................................... 239 + + XXI. BIRDS: PEACOCKS--A WHITE PHEASANT--ROOKS' ARITHMETIC.. 253 + + XXII. PETS: SUSIE--COCKY--TRUMP--CHIPS--WENDY--TAFFY........ 264 + +XXIII. BUTTERFLIES--MOTHS--WASPS............................. 271 + + XXIV. CYCLING--PAGEANTS OF THE ROADS--ROADSIDE + CREATURES--HARMONIOUS BUILDING--COLLECTING OLD + FURNITURE AND CHINA................................. 278 + + XXV. DIALECT--LOCAL PHRASEOLOGY IN SHAKESPEARE--NAMES + --STUPID PLACES..................................... 288 + + XXVI. Is ALDINGTON THE ROMAN ANTONA?........................ 294 + + INDEX....................................................... 306 + + + + + "Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! + Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade + To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, + Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy + To kings that fear their subjects' treachery!" + _3 King Henry VI_. + + + + "When I paused to lean on my hoe, these sounds and sights + I heard and saw anywhere in the row, a part of the inexhaustible + entertainment which the country offers." + --THOREAU. + + + "Life is sweet, brother.... There's night and day, brother, + both sweet things; sun, moon and stars, brother, all sweet + things; there's likewise the wind on the heath. Life is very + sweet, brother; who would wish to die?" + --BORROW: _Jasper Petulengro_. + + + + +GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + +ALDINGTON VILLAGE--THE MANOR HOUSE--THE FARM. + + "There's a divinity that shapes our ends." + --_Hamlet_. + + "Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns." + --_Morte d'Arthur_. + + +In recalling my earliest impressions of the village of Aldington, near +Evesham, Worcestershire, the first picture that presents itself is of +two chestnut-trees in full bloom in front of the Manor House which +became my home, and their welcome was so gracious on that sunny May +morning that it inclined me to take a hopeful view of the inspection +of the house and land which was the object of my visit. + +The village took its name from the Celtic _Alne_, white river; the +Anglo-Saxon, _ing_, children or clan; and _ton_, the enclosed place. +The whole name, therefore, signified "the enclosed place of the +children, or clan, of the Alne." There are many other Alnes in England +and Scotland, also Allens and Ellens as river names, probably +corruptions of Alne, and we have many instances of the combination of +a river name with _ing_ and _ton_, such as Lymington and Dartington. +The Celtic _Alne_ points to the antiquity of the place, and there were +extensive traces of Roman occupation to which I shall refer later. + +The village was really no more than a hamlet ecclesiastically attached +to the much larger village of Badsey. In addition to Celtic, Roman, +and Anglo-Saxon associations, it figured before the Norman Conquest in +connection with the Monastery and Abbey of Evesham, the Manor and the +mill being mentioned in the Abbey records; and they were afterwards +set down in Domesday Survey. + +The Vale of Evesham, in which Aldington is situated, lies at the foot +of the Cotswold Hills, and when approached from them a remarkable +change in climate and appearance is at once noticeable. Descending +from Broadway or Chipping Campden--that is, from an altitude of about +1,000 feet to one of 150 or less--on a mid-April day, one exchanges, +within a few miles, the grip of winter, grey stone walls and bare +trees, for the hopeful greenery of opening leaves and thickening +hedges, and the withered grass of the Hill pastures for the luxuriance +of the Vale meadows. + +The earliness of the climate and the natural richness of the land is +the secret of the intensive cultivation which the Vale presents, and +year by year more and more acres pass out of the category of farming +into that of market-gardening and fruit-growing. The climate, however, +though invaluable for early vegetable crops, is a source of danger to +the fruit. After a few days of the warm, moist greenhouse temperature +which, influenced by the Gulf Stream, comes from the south-west up the +Severn and Avon valleys, between the Malverns and the Cotswolds, and +which brings out the plum blossom on thousands of acres, a bitter +frost sometimes occurs, when the destruction of the tender bloom is a +tragedy in the Vale, while the Hills escape owing to their more +backward development. + +The Manor House had been added to and largely altered, but many years +had brought it into harmony with its surroundings, while Nature had +dealt kindly with its colouring, so that it carried the charm of long +use and continuous human habitation. Behind the house an old walled +garden, with flower-bordered grass walks under arches of honeysuckle +and roses, gave vistas of an ample mill-pond at the lower end, forming +one of the garden boundaries. The pond was almost surrounded by tall +black poplars which stretched protecting arms over the water, forming +a wide and lofty avenue extending to the faded red-brick mill itself, +and whispering continuously on the stillest summer day. The mill-wheel +could be seen revolving and glittering in the sunlight, and the hum of +distant machinery inside the mill could be heard. The brook, which fed +the pond, was fringed by ancient pollard willows; it wound through +luxuriant meadows with ploughed land or cornfields still farther back. +The whole formed a peaceful picture almost to the verge of drowsiness, +and reminded one of the "land in which it seemed always afternoon." + +The space below the house and the upper part of the garden immediately +behind it was occupied by the rickyard, reaching to the mill and pond, +and a long range of mossy-roofed barns divided it from the farmyard +with its stables and cattle-sheds. + +The village occupied one side only of the street, as it was +called--the street consisting of two arms at a right angle, with the +Manor House near its apex. The cottages were built, mostly in pairs, +of old brick, and tiled, having dormer windows, and gardens in front +and at the sides, well stocked with fruit-trees and fruit-bushes, and +this helped the cottagers towards the payment of their very moderate +rents, which had remained the same, I believe, for the best part of +half a century. + +Throughout all the available space not so occupied, on either side of +the two arms of the street, and again behind the cottages themselves, +beautiful old orchards, chiefly of apple-trees, formed an unsurpassed +setting both when the blossom was out in pink and white, or the fruit +was ripening in gold and crimson, and even in winter, when the grey +limbs and twisted trunks of the bare trees admitted the level rays of +the sun. + +The farm consisted of about 300 acres of mixed arable and grass land +on either side of two shallow valleys, along which wandered the main +brook and its tributary, uniting, where the valleys joined, into one +larger stream, so that all the grass land was abundantly supplied with +water for the stock. These irregular brooks, bordered throughout their +whole course with pollard willows, made a charming feature and gave +great character to the picture. + +In the records of Evesham Abbey we find the Manor, including the lands +comprised therein, among the earliest property granted for its +endowment. The erection of the Abbey commenced about 701, and William +of Malmesbury, writing of the loneliness of the spot, tells us that a +small church, probably built by the Britons, had from an early date +existed there. In 709 sixty-five manses were given by Kenred, King of +Mercia, leagued with Offa, King of the East Angles, including one in +Aldinton _(sic)_, and Domesday Survey mentions one hide of land +(varying from 80 to 120 acres in different counties) in Aldintone +_(sic)_ as among the Abbey possessions at the time of the Norman +Conquest. + +Abbot Randulf, who died in 1229, built a grange at Aldington, and +bought Aldington mill, in the reign of Henry III., when the hamlet was +a _berewic_ or corn farm held by the Abbey; and at the time of the +Dissolution it was granted to Sir Philip Hoby, who appears to have +been an intimate of Henry VIII., together with the Abbey buildings +themselves and much of its other landed property. The Manor remained +in the hands of the Hoby family for many years, and was one of Sir +Philip's principal seats. Freestone from the Abbey ruins seems to have +been largely used for additions probably made in the reign of Queen +Elizabeth, for in some alterations I made about 1888, I found many +carved and moulded stones, built into the walls, evidently the remains +of arches from an ecclesiastical building, and Sir Philip Hoby is +known to have treated the Abbey ruins as if they were nothing better +than a stone quarry. + +Leland, who by command of Henry VIII. visited Evesham very soon after +the Dissolution, says that there was "noe towene" at Evesham before +the foundation of the Abbey, and the earliest mention of a bridge +there is recorded in monastic chronicles in 1159. + +There is a notice of a Mr. Richard Hoby, youngest brother of Sir +Philip, as churchwarden in 1602, and a monument, much dilapidated, is +to be seen in the chancel of Badsey Church, erected to the memory of +his wife and that of her first husband by Margaret Newman, their +daughter, who married Richard Delabere of Southam, Warwickshire, in +1608. Aldington afterwards became the property of Sir Peter Courtene, +who was created a baronet in 1622. + +Another explanation of the origin of the carved and moulded stones +mentioned above may be found in the former existence of a chapel at +Aldington, for there is evidence that a chapel existed there +immediately before the Dissolution. In an article in Badsey Parish +Magazine by Mr. E.A.B. Barnard, F.S.A., brought to my notice by the +editor, the Rev. W.C. Allsebrook, Vicar, details are given of the will +of Richard Yardley of Awnton (Aldington), dated January 22, 1531, in +which the following bequests are made: + + To the Mother Church of Evesham, 2s. + To the Church of Badsey, a strike of wheat. + To the Church of Wykamford, one strike of barley. + To the Chappell at Awnton, one hog, one strike of wheat, and + one strike of barley. + +The chapel, however, disappeared, and seems to have been superseded by +the assignment of the transept of Badsey Church as the Aldington +Chapel, and in 1561-62 the first churchwarden for Aldington was +elected at Badsey. The assignment may, however, have been only a +return to a much earlier similar arrangement when the transept was +added to Badsey Church about the end of the thirteenth century, +possibly expressly as a chapel for Aldington. + +That it was an addition is proved by the remains of the arch over a +small Norman window in the north wall of the nave, which had to be cut +into to allow of the opening into the new transept. A shelf or ledge +is still to be seen in the east wall of the transept, probably the +remains of a super-altar, and, to the right of it, a piscina on the +north side of the chancel arch, and therefore inside the transept. + +A large square pew and a smaller one behind it in the transept were +for centuries the recognized seats of the Aldington Manor family and +their servants, and so remained until the restoration of the church in +1885, when the pews were taken down and a row of chairs as near as +possible to the old position was allotted for the use of the same +occupants. + +In 1685 the Jarrett monument was placed immediately over the larger +pew in the east wall of the transept, bearing the following +inscription: + + Near this place lies interred in hope + of a joyful Resurrection the bodies of + + WILLIAM JARRETT + + of Aldington in this Parish Gent, aged 73 + years, who died Anno Domini 1681 + and of Jane his wife the daughter of William + Wattson of Bengeworth Gent, who died + Anno Domini 1683, aged 73 years, + by whom he had Issue three Sons + and two Daughters. Thomas Augustin and + Jane ley buried here with them and + Mary the youngest Daughter Married + Humphrey Mayo of hope in the County + of Herreford Gent, and William + the Eldest Son Marchant in London + set this Monument in a dutiful + and affectionate memory of them 1685. + +It is pleasant to think of William, the eldest son, "marchant," +returning in his prosperity to the quiet old village, braving the +dangers and inconveniences of unenclosed and miry roads, and riding +the 100 odd miles on horseback, to revisit the scenes of his +childhood, in order to do honour to the memories of his father and +mother. What a contrast to the crowded streets of London the old place +must have presented, and one has an idea that perhaps he regretted, in +spite of his success in commerce, that he had not elected in his +younger days to pursue the simple life. + +The monument is a somewhat elaborate white marble tablet with a plump +cherub on guard, and with many of the scrolls and convolutions typical +of the Carolean and later Jacobean taste. This monument was removed to +the north wall of the nave two centuries later, in 1885, when the +church was restored, to allow of access to the new vestry then added. + +William Jarrett, senr., and his wife lived through the very stirring +times of the Civil War in the reign of Charles I., about twenty miles +only from Edgehill, where, in 1642, twelve hundred men are reported to +have fallen. It is said that on the night of the anniversary of the +battle, October 23, in each succeeding year the uneasy ghosts of the +combatants resume the unfinished struggle, and that the clash of arms +is still to be heard rising and falling between hill and vale. The +worthy couple must have almost heard the echoes of the Battle of +Worcester in 1651, only eighteen miles distant, and have been well +acquainted with the details of the flight of Charles II., who, after +he left Boscobel, passed very near Aldington on his way to the old +house at Long Marston, where he spent a night, and, to complete his +disguise, turned the kitchen spit. This old house is still standing, +and is regarded with reverence. + +The cherub on the Jarrett tablet bears a strong resemblance to two +similar cherubs which support a royal crown carved on the back of an +old walnut chair which I bought in the village in a cottage near the +Manor House. The design is well known as commemorating the restoration +of Charles II. in 1660, and I like to think that in bringing it back I +restored it to its old home, and that William Jarrett, senr., who was +doubtless a Royalist, enjoyed a peaceful pipe on many a winter's night +therein enthroned. I noticed, lately, in a description of a similar +chair in the _Connoisseur_, that the cherubs are spoken of as +_amorini_; I have always understood that they are angelic beings +supporting or guarding the sacred crown of the martyred King, though +possibly the appellation is not unsuitable if they are to be regarded +in connection with Charles II. alone. + +There is a story of a hosiery factory established by refugee Huguenots +at the date of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, and the +Jacobean building adjoining the east end of the Manor House is +probably the place referred to. Later it became a malthouse, and later +still was converted into hop-kilns by me. Being of Huguenot descent +myself, I take a special interest in this tradition. + +In 1715 Aldington took its part in preparing to resist the Jacobites, +and the following record is copied from an old manuscript: + + A BILL FOR Y^e CONSTABLE OF ANTON DUN BY ME WM. PHIPPS. + + _L s. d._ + 1 musket and bayonet.................................. 0 0 + 1 cartridg box at..................................... 0 3 6 + 1 belt at............................................. 0 5 0 + for 1 scabard and cleaning y^e blad and + blaking y^e hilt.................................... 0 3 6 + ------- + 1 12 0 + (_On the back_.) + Three days pay........................................ 0 7 6 + half A pound of pouder................................ 0 0 8 + for y^e muster master ................................ 0 0 6 + for listing money..................................... 0 1 0 + for drums and cullers................................. 0 3 0 + ------- + 2 4 8 + Thos Rock Con^{ble} 0 12 8 + + (IN) A TRUE ACCOUNT OF Y^e CONS^{BL} OF ALDINGTON CHARGES FOR Y^e + YEARE 1716/5 NOV. Y^e 7 & 8 1715 Y^e CHARGES FOR ATENDING AS + CONS^{BL} + + _s. d._ + + bringing in y^e Train souldiers....................... 3 0 + spent when y^e soulders whent to Worcester............ 1 6 + + One can picture the scene in the little hamlet as Thomas Rock + collected his forces at the gossip corner; the little crowd of + admiring villagers and the martial bearing of the one recruit, as + with "cullers" flying and drums beating he marched away, followed by + the village children to the end of the lane. + +William Tindal, in his _History of Evesham_, 1794, records the fact +that in 1790 Aldington belonged to Lord Foley, but history is silent +as to local events from that date until modern times, when, in the +first half of the next century, the Manor became the property of an +ancestor of the present owner. There is a tradition that the Manor +House was a small but beautiful old building, with a high-pitched +stone-slate roof and three gables in line at the front; but these +disappeared, the pitch of the roof was reduced, and about 1850 the +modern part of the house was added at the southern extremity of the +old structure. + +As the neighbouring parish of Wickhamford is referred to in connection +with Badsey and Aldington several times in these pages, it may not be +out of place to give the following inscription on the tombstone of a +member of the Washington family. It is particularly of interest at the +present time, more especially to Americans, and it has not, as far as +I am aware, previously appeared in any other book. + + INSCRIPTION + + ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH + SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH + OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE + COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND. + M.S. + + _PENELOPES_ + + Filiae perillustris & militari virtute clarissimi + Henrici Washington, collonelli, + Gulielmo Washington ex agro Northampton + Milite prognati; + ob res bellicosas tam Angl: quam Hibernia + fortiter, & feliciter gestas, + Illustrissimis Principib: & Regum optimis + Carolo primo et secundo charissimi: + Qui duxit uxorem Elizabetham ex antiqua, et + Generosa prosapia Packingtoniensium + De Westwood; + Familia intemeratae fidei in principes, + et amoris in patriam. + Ex praeclaris hisce natalibus Penelope oriunda, + Divini Numinis summa cum religione + Cultrix assidua; + Genetricis (parentum solae superstitis) + Ingens Solatium; + Aegrotantib. et egentib. mira promptitudine + Liberalis et benefica; + Humilis & casta, et soli Christo nupta; + Ex hac vita caduca ad sponsum migravit + Febr. 27 An. Dom. 1697. + +[_Translation_] + + INSCRIPTION + + ON THE TOMBSTONE LYING ON THE NORTH + SIDE OF THE ALTAR, IN THE PARISH CHURCH + OF WICKHAMFORD, NEAR EVESHAM, IN THE + COUNTY OF WORCESTER, ENGLAND. + M.S. + + + Sacred to the memory of + + PENELOPE, + + daughter of that renowned and distinguished + soldier, Colonel Henry Washington. He was + descended from Sir William Washington, + Knight, of the county of Northampton, who + was highly esteemed by those most illustrious + Princes and best of Kings, Charles the First + and Second, for his valiant and successful warlike + deeds both in England and in Ireland: + he married ELIZABETH, of the ancient and + noble stock of the _Packingtons_ of Westwood, + a family of untarnished fidelity to its Prince + and love to its country. Sprung from such + illustrious ancestry, PENELOPE was a diligent + and pious worshipper of her Heavenly Father. + She was the consolation of her mother, her + only surviving parent; a prompt and liberal + benefactress of the sick and poor; humble and + pure in spirit, and wedded to Christ alone. + + From this fleeting life she migrated + to her Spouse, + _February 27, Anno Domini. 1697_. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + + +THE FARM BAILIFF. + +"If a job _has_ to be done you may as well do it first as last." + --WILLIAM BELL. + +The labourers born and bred in the Vale of Evesham are mostly tall and +powerful men, and mine were no exception; where the land is good the +men compare favourably in size and strength with those in less +favoured localities, and the same applies to the horses, cattle, and +sheep; but the Vale, with its moist climate, does not produce such +ruddy complexions as the clear air of the Hills, and even the apples +tell the same story in their less brilliant colouring, except after an +unusually sunny summer. In the days of the Whitsuntide gatherings for +games of various kinds, sports, and contests of strength, the Vale men +excelled, and certain parishes, famous for the growth of the best +wheat, are still remembered as conspicuously successful. + +My men, though grown up before education became compulsory, could all +read and write, and they were in no way inferior to the young men of +the present day. They were highly skilled in all the more difficult +agricultural operations, and it was easy to find among them good +thatchers, drainers, hedgers, ploughmen, and stockmen; they were, +mostly, married, with families of young children, and they lived close +to their work in the cottages that went with the farm. They exhibited +the variations, usual in all communities, of character and +disposition, and though somewhat prejudiced and wedded to old methods +and customs they were open to reason, loyal, and anxious to see the +land better farmed and restored to the condition in which the late +tenant found it, when entering upon his occupation seven years +previously. + +The late tenant, my predecessor, though a gentleman and a pleasant man +to deal with, was no farmer for such strong and heavy land as the farm +presented; it was no fault of his, for the farmer, like the poet, is +born, not made, and, as I was often told, he was "nobody's enemy but +his own." His wife came of a good old stock of shorthorn breeders +whose name is known and honoured, not only at home, but throughout the +United States of America, our Dominions, and wherever the shorthorn +has established a reputation; and my men were satisfied that she was +the better farmer of the two. + +I had scarcely bargained for the foul condition of the stubbles, +disclosed when the corn was harvested shortly before I took possession +at Michaelmas; they were overrun with couch grass--locally called +"squitch"--and the following summer I had 40 acres of bare-fallow, +repeatedly ploughed, harrowed, and cultivated throughout the whole +season, which, of course, produced nothing by way of return. My +predecessor had found that his arable land was approaching a condition +in which it was difficult to continue the usual course of cropping, +and had expressed his wish to one of the men that all the arable was +grass. He was answered, I was told: + + "If you goes on as you be a-going it very soon will be!" I + heard, moreover, that a farming relative of his, on + inspecting the farm, shortly before he gave it up, had + pronounced his opinion that it was "all going to the devil + in a gale of wind!" + +I soon recognized that I had a splendid staff of workers, and, under +advice from the late tenant, I selected one to be foreman or bailiff. +Blue-eyed, dark-haired, tall, lean, and muscular, he was the picture +of energy, in the prime of life. Straightforward, unselfish, a natural +leader of men, courageous and untiring, he immediately became devoted +to me, and remained my right hand, my dear friend, and adviser in the +practical working of the farm, throughout the twenty years that +followed. Like many of the agricultural labourers, his remote +ancestors belonged to a class higher in the social scale, and there +were traditions of a property in the county and a family vault in +Pershore Abbey Church. However this might be, William Bell was one of +Nature's gentlemen, and it was apparent in a variety of ways in his +daily life. + +Shortly before my coming to Aldington he had received a legacy of +L150, which, without any legal necessity or outside suggestion, he had +in fairness, as he considered it, divided equally between his brother, +his sister and himself--each--and his share was on deposit at a bank. +Seeing that I was young--I was then twenty-two--and imagining that +some additional capital would be useful after all my outlay in +stocking the farm and furnishing the house, he, greatly to my surprise +and delight, offered in a little speech of much delicacy to lend me +his L50. I was immensely touched at such a practical mark of sympathy +and confidence, but was able to assure him gratefully that, for the +present at any rate, I could manage without it. On another occasion, +after a bad season, he voluntarily asked me to reduce his wages, to +which of course I did not see my way to agree. + +Bell was always ready with a smart reply to anyone inclined to rally +him, or whom he thought inclined to do so; but his method was +inoffensive, though from most men it would have appeared impertinent. +In the very earliest days of my occupation the weather was so dry for +the time of year--October and November--that fallowing operations, +generally only possible in summer, could be successfully carried on, a +very unusual circumstance on such wet and heavy land. Meeting the +Vicar, a genial soul with a pleasant word for everyone, the latter +remarked that it was "rare weather for the new farmers." Bell, highly +sensitive, fancied he scented a quizzing reference to himself and to +me, and knowing that the Vicar's own land--he was then farming the +glebe with a somewhat unskilful bailiff--was getting out of hand, +replied: "Yes, sir; and not so bad for some of the old uns." Bell +happened to pass one day when I was talking to the Vicar at my gate. +"Hullo! Bell," said he, "hard at work as usual; nothing like hard +work, is there?" "No, sir," said Bell; "I suppose that's why you chose +the one-day-a-week job!" + +Labourers have great contempt for the work of parsons, lawyers, and +indoor workers generally; a farmer who spends much time indoors over +correspondence and comes round his land late in the day is regarded as +an "afternoon" or "armchair" farmer, and a tradesman who runs a small +farm in addition to his other business is an "apron-string" farmer. +With some hours daily employed on letter-writing, accounts and labour +records, which a farm and the employment of many hands entails, and +with frequent calls from buyers and sellers, I was sometimes unable to +visit men working on distant fields until twelve o'clock or after, and +I was told that it had been said of me by some new hands, "why don't +'e come out and do some on it?" + +It was remarked of the late tenant, "I reckon there was a good parson +spoiled when 'e was made a farmer." And of a lawyer, who combined +legal practice with the hobby of a small farm, that there was no doubt +that "Lawyer G----s kept farmer G----s." + +Bell's favourite saying was, "If a job _has_ to be done you may as +well do it first as last," and it was so strongly impressed upon me by +his example that I think I have been under its influence, more or +less, all my life. He was certain to be to the fore in any emergency +when promptitude, courage, and resource were called for; he it was who +dashed into the pool below the mill and rescued a child, and when I +asked if he had no sense of the danger simply said that he never +thought about it. It was Bell who tackled a savage bull which, by a +mistaken order, was loose in the yard, and which, in the exuberance of +unwonted liberty, had smashed up two cow-cribs, and was beginning the +destruction of a pair of new barn doors, left open, and offering +temptation for further activity. The bull, secured under Bell's +leadership and manacled with a cart-rope, was induced to return to its +home in peace. When felling a tall poplar overhanging the mill-pond, +it was necessary to secure the tree with a rope fixed high up the +trunk and with a stout stake driven into the meadow, to prevent the +tree falling into the pond. Bell was the volunteer who climbed the +tree with one end of the rope tied round his body and fixed it in +position. He was always ready to undertake any specially difficult, +dirty, or hazardous duty, and in giving orders it was never "Go and do +it," but "Come on, let's do it." An example of this sort was not lost +upon the men; they could never say they were set to work that nobody +else would do, and their willing service acknowledged his tact. + +One day a widow tenant asked me to read the will at the funeral of an +old woman lying dead at the cottage next her own. I consented, and +reached the cottage at the appointed time. It was the custom among the +villagers, when there was a will, to read it before, not after, the +ceremony, as, I believe, is the usual course. I found the coffin in +the living-room and the funeral party assembled, and the will, on a +sheet of notepaper, signed and witnessed in legal form, was put into +my hands. Looking it through, I could see that there would be trouble, +as all the money and effects were left to one person to the exclusion +of the other members of the family, all of whom were present. It was +quite simply expressed, and, after reading it slowly, I inquired if +they all understood its provisions. "Oh yes," they understood it "well +enough." I could see that the tone of the reply suggested some kind of +reservation; I asked if I could do anything more for them. The reply +was, "No," with their grateful thanks for my attendance; so, not being +expected to accompany the funeral, I retired. I was no sooner gone +than the trouble I had anticipated began, and the disappointed +relatives expressed their disapproval of the terms of the will, some +going so far as to decline to remain for the ceremony. Bell was not +among the guests or the bearers, but, hearing raised voices at the +cottage and guessing the cause, he boldly went to the spot, and in a +few moments had, with the approval of the sole legatee, arranged an +equal division of the money and goods; whereupon the whole party +proceeded in procession to the church. I think no one else in the +village could so easily have persuaded the favoured individual to +forgo the legal claim; but Bell was no ordinary man, and his simple +sincerity of purpose was so apparent, that his influence was not to be +resisted. Later in the evening a plain, but very useful, old oak chest +was sent to me, when the division of the furniture was arranged, as an +acknowledgment of my services and in recognition of the saving of a +lawyer's attendance and fee, with the thanks of the persons concerned. +I was loath to accept it, but it was of course impossible to refuse +such a delicate attention. + +Bell's cheerfulness and his habit of making light of difficulties were +very contagious. I had early recognized the seriousness of the problem +presented by the foul condition of the land, but, as we gradually +began to reduce it to better order, I remarked that the prospect was +not so alarming after all. His reply was that when once the land was +clean, and in regular cropping, "a man might farm it with all the +playsure in life." + +Though no "scholard," his wonderful memory stood him in good stead, +and was most valuable to me. He came in for a talk every evening, to +report the events of the day and arrange the work for the morrow. +After a long day spent with one of the carters delivering such things +as faggots--locally "kids"--of wood, he would recall the names of the +recipients, and the exact quantities delivered at each house without +the slightest effort. His only memoranda for approximate land +measurements would be produced on a stick with a notch denoting each +score yards or paces. This primitive method is particularly +interesting, the numeral a _score_ being derived from the Anglo-Saxon +_sciran_, to divide. Similar words are plough _share, shire, shears_, +and _shard_. He could keep the daily labour record when I was away +from home; but though I could always decipher his writing, he found it +difficult to read himself. A letter was a sore trial, and he often +told me that he would sooner walk to "Broddy" (Broadway) and back, ten +or eleven miles, than write to the veterinary surgeon there, whose +services we sometimes required. + +We had a simple method of disposing of small pigs; it was an +understood thing that no pig was to be sold for less than a pound. I +had a good breed, always in demand by the cottagers, who never failed +to apply, sometimes, perhaps, before the pound size was quite reached, +as it was a case of first come first served, and there was the danger +that the best would be snapped up before an intending buyer could have +his choice. Bell's face was wreathed in smiles when he came in and +unloaded a pocketful of sovereigns on my study table, saying, when +trade was brisk, "I could sell myself if I was little pigs!" + +Many and anxious were the deliberations we held in the early days of +my farming; the whole system of the late tenant was condemned by my +theoretical and Bell's practical knowledge, but they did not +invariably coincide, and, after a long discussion on some particular +point, he would yield, though I could see that he was not convinced, +with, "Well, I allows you to know best." + +When, a few years later, I introduced hop-growing as a complete +novelty on the farm, he regarded it at first as an extravagant and +unprofitable hobby, akin to the hunters my predecessor kept. He +"reckoned," he said, that my hop-gardens were my "hunting horse," and +I heard that my neighbours quoted the old saw about "a fool and his +money." Bell was not so enlightened as to be quite proof against local +superstitions; I had to consult his almanac and find out when the +"moon southed," and when certain planets were in favourable +conjunction, before he would undertake some quite ordinary farm +operations. + +He was a clever and courageous bee-master, and "took" all my +neighbours' swarms as well as my own, my gardener not being _persona +grata_ to bees. The job is not a popular one, and he would, when +accompanied by the owner, always ask, "Will you hold the ladder or +hive 'em?" The invariable answer was, "Hold the ladder." He firmly +believed in the necessity of telling the bees in cases where the owner +had died, the superstition being that unless the hive was tapped after +dark, when all were at home, and a set form of announcement repeated, +the bees would desert their quarters. I had an alarming experience +once with bees when cycling between Ringwood and Burley in the New +Forest, my present home. As I passed a house close to the road, a +swarm crossed my path, rising from their hive just as I reached the +hedge before the garden. There was a mighty humming, and I felt the +bees, with which I was colliding, striking my hands and face with some +violence. I expected a sting each moment, but my greatest fear was +lest the queen should have settled on my coat amongst the bees it had +collected, and that presently I should have the whole swarm in +possession. It was dangerous to stop, so I raced on some distance, +dismounted, discarded my coat, shaking off my unwelcome +fellow-travellers, and I was much surprised to find that none of them +retaliated. + +Bell was an excellent brewer, and with good malt and some of our own +hops could produce a nice light bitter beer at a very moderate cost. +In years when cider was scarce we supplemented the men's short +allowance with beer, 4 bushels of malt to 100 gallons; and for years +he brewed a superior drink for the household, which, consumed in much +smaller quantities and requiring to be kept longer, was double the +strength. His methods were not scientific, and he scorned the use of a +"theometer," his rule being that the hot water was cool enough for the +addition of the malt when the steam was sufficiently gone off to allow +him "to see his face" on the surface. + +Owing to his having lived so long in such a quiet place, and the +limited outlook which his surroundings had so far afforded, Bell was +somewhat wanting in the sense of proportion, and when I had a field of +10 acres planted with potatoes, he told me quite seriously that he +doubted if the crop could ever be sold, as he didn't think there were +enough people in the country to eat them! I remember a parallel +incident at the first auction sale of stock ever held at Chipping +Campden, a lovely old town and, for centuries now long past, a leading +centre of the Cotswold wool trade. The pens, in the wide spaces +between the road and the footways, were, as I stood watching, rapidly +filling with fat sheep, and, I suppose, the scene being so novel and +so animated, the interest of the inhabitants was greatly excited, as +they stood in little groups at the house doors looking on. I heard an +ancient dame marvelling at the numbers of sheep collected--probably +only 1,000 or 1,200 all told--and expressing her certainty of the +impossibility of rinding mouths enough to consume such a mass of +mutton. As a matter of fact, there were, I suppose, four or five large +dealers present, any one of whom would have bought every sheep, could +he have seen a fair chance of a possible profit of threepence a head; +to say nothing of innumerable smaller dealers and retail butchers, +good for a score or two apiece. What I may call the parochial horizon +is well illustrated, too, by the announcement of a domestic economist: +"Farmer Jones lost two calves last week; I reckon we shall have beef a +lot dearer." And again by the recommendation of a shrewd and ancient +husbandman of my acquaintance that it was desirable for any young +farmer to get away from home and visit the county town sometimes, at +any rate on market days, and attend the "ordinary" dinner, even if it +cost him a few shillings--"for there," he added, "you med stick and +stick and stick at home until you knows nothin' at all." Shakespeare +puts the matter more tersely, if less forcibly, "Home-keeping youth +have ever homely wits." I cannot forbear, too, the temptation to +recall _Punch's_ picture at the time of King George's coronation. The +scene depicted two rustics gossiping at the parish pump, as to the +forthcoming village festivities, and the squire's carriage with the +squire and his family, followed by the luggage cart, on their way to +the railway station: + +_First Rustic_. Where be them folks a-goin' to; I wonder? + +_Second Rustic_. Off to Lunnon, I reckon, but they'll be back for the +Cor-o-nation. + +Soon after the reopening of the church I overtook Bell as we were +returning from Sunday morning service. It was a dark day, and the +pulpit, having been moved from the south to the north side of the +nave--farther from the windows--the clerk lighted the desk candles +before the Vicar began his sermon. I asked Bell how he liked the +service, referring to the new choir and music; he hesitated, not +wanting, as I was the Vicar's churchwarden, to appear critical, but +being too conscientious to disguise his feelings. I could see that he +was troubled, and asked what was the matter. Then it came out; it was +"them candles!" which he took to be part of the ritual, and he added, +"But you ain't a-goin' to make a Papist of me!" + +Bell was proof against attempted bribery, and often came chuckling to +me over his refusals of dishonest proposals. A man from whom I used to +buy large quantities of hop-poles required some withy "bonds" for +tying faggots; they are sold at a price per bundle of 100, and the +applicant suggested that 120 should be placed in each bundle. Bell was +to receive a recognition for his complicity in the fraud, and he +agreed on condition that in my next deal for hop-poles 100 should be +represented by 120 in like manner. The bargain did not materialize. + +I found Bell a very amusing companion in walks and excursions we took +to fairs and sales for the purchase of stock. He knew the histories +and peculiarities of all the farmers and country people whose land or +houses we passed, and his stories made the miles very short. I often +helped with driving sheep and cattle home, and their persistence in +taking all the wrong turnings or in doubling back was surprising; but +two drovers are much more efficient than one, and we got to know +exactly where they would need circumventing. When we visited a town I +always took him to an inn or restaurant and gave him a good dinner. +Visiting what was then a much-frequented dining-place--Mountford's, at +Worcester, near the cathedral--we sat next to a well-known hon. and +rev. scholar of eccentric habits. He would read abstractedly, +forgetting his food for several minutes, then suddenly would make a +noisy dash for knife and fork, resuming the meal with great energy for +a while, and as suddenly relinquish the implements and return to his +reading, and so on continuously. I noticed Bell watching with great +surprise, much shocked at such unusual table manners, and presently he +could not forbear very gently nudging my elbow to draw my attention to +the performance. + +Mountford's was celebrated for succulent veal cutlets with fried bacon +and tomato sauce, also for Severn salmon and lamperns; visitors to the +cathedral and china works generally refreshed themselves there, and it +was amusing to watch their exhausted and grim looks when entering and +waiting, in comparison with their beaming smiles when confessing their +indulgences on leaving; for no bills were rendered, and guests were +trusted to remember the details consumed. You will always find the +best eating-houses near the cathedrals; vergers' recitals are apt to +be long-winded, and visitors require speedy refreshment after a +complete round. + +It was a popular village belief that bad luck follows if a woman was +the first to enter a house on Christmas morning, and Bell always made +a point of being the first over my threshold, shouting loudly his +greetings up the staircase. + +Bell's wife survived him, living on in the same cottage in which he +was born and had passed his life. She was a hard-working woman, and +came over to my house once a week for some years to bake the bread, +made from my own wheat ground at the village mill. It was somewhat +dark in colour, owing to the most nutritious parts of the grain being +retained in the flour, but it was deliciously sweet and kept fresh for +the whole week. I only wish everyone could enjoy the same sort; the +modern bread is poor stuff by comparison, and its lack of nutritive +value is undoubtedly the cause of much of the poor physique of our +rural and urban population at the present time. + +I had a very human dog, Viper, partly fox-terrier; though not very +"well bred," his manners were unexceptionable and his cleverness +extraordinary. One summer afternoon Mrs. Bell was greatly surprised by +Viper coming to her house much distressed and trying to tell her the +reason; he was not to be put off or comforted, and, seizing her +skirts, he dragged her to the door and outside. She guessed at once +that her two boys were in some danger, and she followed the dog. He +kept turning round to make sure that she was close behind, and led her +down a lane, for perhaps 300 yards, to a gate leading into a 12-acre +pasture. They pursued the footpath across the field, through another +gate and over the bridge which spanned the brook, into a meadow +beyond. There she found the children in fear of their lives from the +antics of two mischievous colts which were capering round them with +many snorts and much upturning of heels. It was really only play, but +the boys were alarmed, and Viper, who had accompanied them, had +evidently concluded that they were in danger. + +Before the days of the safety bicycle an excellent tricycle, called +the "omnicycle," was put on the market; and the villagers were greatly +excited over one I purchased, of course only for road work, expecting +me to use it on my farming rounds; and Mrs. Bell was heard to say, "I +knows I shall laugh when I sees the master a-coming round the farm on +that thing." + +Bell always spoke of her as "my 'ooman," and, referring to the +depletion of their exchequer on her returns from marketing in Evesham, +often said, "I don't care who robs my 'ooman this side of the elm"--a +notable tree about halfway between the town and the village--knowing +that she would then have very little change left. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + + +THE HOP FOREMAN AND THE HOP DRIER. + + "Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, + + * * * * * + + How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke." + --GRAY'S _Elegy_. + + +Jarge was one of the most prominent characters among my men. He was +not a native of the Vale, coming from the Lynches, a hilly district to +the north of Evesham. He was a sturdy and very excellent workman. He +did with his might whatsoever his hand found to do, and everything he +undertook was a success. The beautifully trimmed hedge in front of his +cottage-garden proclaimed his method and love of order at a glance. +Jarge was a wag; he was the man who, like Shakespeare's clowns, +stepped on to the stage at the critical moment and saved a serious +situation with a quaint or epigrammatic expression. + +He was very scornful of the condition of the farm when I came, and it +was he, whose reply to the late tenant that his arable land would soon +be all grass, I have already quoted. In speaking to me, at almost our +first interview, he could not refrain from an allusion to the foulness +of the land; some peewits were circling over those neglected fields, +and it was far from reassuring to be told--though he did not intend to +discourage me--that "folks say, when you sees them things on the land, +the farm's broke!" + +From the natural history point of view he was perfectly correct, as +peewits generally frequent wild and uncultivated places where the +ploughman and the labourer are rarely seen. + +Owing to the somewhat unconvincing fact of his wife's brother being a +gamekeeper on the Marquis's estate near Jarge's native village, he had +acquired, and retained through all the years of my farming, a sporting +reputation; he was always the man selected for trapping any evil beast +or bird that might be worrying us; and when the cherries were +beginning to show ruddy complexions in the sunshine, and the starlings +and blackbirds were becoming troublesome, armed with an old +muzzle-loader of mine, he made incessant warfare against them, and his +gun could be heard as early as five o'clock in the morning, while the +shots would often come pattering down harmlessly on my greenhouse. +There came a time when some thieving carrion crows were robbing my +half-tame wild duck's nests of their eggs, and Jarge was, of course, +detailed to tackle them. Weeks elapsed without any result; the +depredations continued, and the men began to chaff him; finally Bell +"put the lid on," as people say nowadays, by the following sally: "Ah, +Jarge, if ever thee catches a craw 'twill be one as was hatched from +an addled egg!" + +For weeks before harvest Jarge patrolled my wheatfields, crowds of +sparrows rising and dispersing for a time after every shot, only, I +fear, to foregather again very soon on another field, perhaps half a +mile distant. No doubt he sent some to my neighbours in return for +those which they sent to me. + +Jarge was an instance of superior descent; his surname was that of an +ancient and prominent county family in former days; he carried himself +with dignity and was generally respected; he possessed the power of +very minute observation, and was of all others the man to find coins +or other small leavings of Roman and former occupiers of my land. His +eldest daughter was a charming girl, and, when Jarge became a widower, +she made a most efficient mistress of his household. She showed, too, +quite unmistakably her descent from distinguished ancestry. Tall, +clear-complexioned, graceful, dignified, and rather serious, but with +a sweet smile, she was a daughter of whom any man might have been +proud. To my thinking, she was the belle of the village, and she made +a very pretty picture in her sun-bonnet, among the green and golden +tracery of the hop-bine in the hopping season accompanied by the +smaller members of the family. At the "crib" into which the hops are +picked, many bushels proved their industry, and there were no leaves +or rubbish to call for rebuke at the midday and evening measurings. + +I selected Jarge for foreman of the hop-picking as a most responsible +and trustworthy man; it was then that his sense of humour was most +conspicuous, a very important and valuable trait when 300 women and +children, and the men who supplied them with hops on the poles, have +to be kept cheerful and good-tempered every day and all day for three +weeks or a month, sometimes under trying conditions. For though +hop-picking is a fascinating occupation when the sun shines and the +sky is blue, it is otherwise when the mornings are damp or the hops +dripping with dew, and when heavy thunder-rains have left the ground +wet and cold. + +He had a cheery word for all who were working steadily, and a +semi-sarcastic remark for the careless and unmethodical; a keen eye +for hops wasted and trodden into the ground, or for poles of +undersized hops, unwelcome to the pickers and hidden beneath those +from which the hops had been picked. He acted as buffer between +capital and labour, smoothing troubles over, telling me of the +pickers' difficulties, and explaining my side to the pickers when the +quality was poor and prices discouraging, so that the work went with a +swing and with happy faces and good-humoured chaff. + +I was always pleased to hear the pickers singing, for I knew then that +all was well. Sometimes, after a trying day, when Jarge had been +called upon to expostulate, or "to talk" more than usual, the corners +of his mouth would take a downward turn, and he complained, perhaps, +of gipsies or tramps whom I was obliged to employ when the crop was +heavy, though they were kept in a gang apart from the villagers; but +he always came up happy again next morning, the mouth corners tending +upwards, and his broad and beaming smile with a radiance like the +rising sun on a midsummer morning. + +Jarge was a man of discrimination. When we were forced to inaugurate a +School Board on account of the growing difficulty, owing to the bad +times, of collecting voluntary subscriptions, all the old school +managers, including my second Vicar--I served under three Vicars as +church-warden--refused to join the Board. Jarge, who was much +exercised in his mind as to the possibility of future bad management, +came to me, and referring to a proposal to place working-men on the +Board, said: "We wants men like you, sir, for members; what's the good +of sending we dunderyeads there?" + +Going round the farm on his daughter's wedding-day, I was surprised to +find him at work; and when I asked him why he was not at the ceremony, +"Well," he replied, "I don't think much of weddings--the fittel +(victuals) ain't good enough; give me a jolly good fu-ner-ral!" + +Jarge wore a brown velveteen coat on high-days and holidays by virtue +of his sporting reputation, and looked exceedingly smart with special +corduroy breeches and gaiters and a wide-awake felt hat. He was much +annoyed in Birmingham, whither I had sent all the men to an +agricultural show, at hearing a man say to a companion, "There's +another of them Country Johnnies." When I told him what a swell he +looked, he replied somewhat ruefully, "No! that's what I never could +be," as though he felt that his appearance was disappointingly rustic. + +Though a most industrious man, he had dreams of the enjoyment of +complete leisure; he told me that if ever he possessed as much as +fifty pounds he would never do another day's work as long as he lived. +I answered that when that ideal was reached he would postpone his +projected ease until he had made it a hundred, and so on ad infinitum; +and this proved a correct forecast, for in time, by the aid of a +well-managed allotment and regular wages, he saved a good bit of +money. When I sold my fruit crops by auction, on the trees, for the +buyers to pick, just before I gave up my land, as I should not be +present to harvest the late apples and cider fruit after Michaelmas, +he came forward with a bid of one hundred pounds for one of the +orchards, though it was sold eventually for a higher price. + +He was not well versed in finance, however, for when the owner of his +cottage offered, at his request, to build a new pigsty if he would pay +a rent of 5 per cent, annually on the cost--a very fair +proposal--Jarge declined with scorn, being, I think, under the +impression that the owner was demanding the complete sum of five +pounds annually, and I found it impossible to disabuse his mind of the +idea. He felt aggrieved also by the fact that, having paid rent for +twenty-five or thirty years, he was no nearer ownership of his cottage +than when he began. His argument was that, as he had paid more than +the value of the cottage, it should be his property; the details of +interest on capital and all rates and repairs paid by the owner did +not appeal to him. + +On the occasion of a concert at Malvern, which my wife and her sister +organized for the benefit of our church restoration fund, I gave all +my men a holiday, and sent them off by train at an early hour; they +were to climb the Worcestershire Beacon--the highest point of the +Malvern range--in the morning, and attend the concert in the +afternoon. It was a lovely day, and the programme was duly carried +out. Next morning I found Jarge and another man, who had been detailed +for the day's work to sow nitrate of soda on a distant wheat-field, +sitting peacefully under the hedge; they told me that the excitement +and the climb had completely tired them out, but that they would stop +and complete the job, no matter how late at night that might be. It +was the hill-climbing, I think, that had brought into play muscles not +generally used in our flat country. I sympathized, and left them +resting, but the work was honourably concluded before they left the +field. + +When there was illness in Jarge's house and somebody told him that the +doctor had been seen leaving, he answered that he "Would sooner see +the butcher there any day"--not, perhaps, a very happy expression in +the circumstances, but intended to convey that a butcher's bill, for +good meat supplied, was more satisfactory than a doctor's account, +which represented nothing in the way of commissariat. + +Among the annual trips to which I treated my men, I sent them for a +long summer day to London, and one of my pupils kindly volunteered to +act as conductor to the sights. They had a very successful day, and +the principal streets and shows were visited; among the latter the +Great Wheel, then very popular, was the one that seemed to interest +them most. + +Next morning some of the travellers were hoeing beans in one of my +fields; I interviewed them on my round, and inquired what they thought +of London. They had much enjoyed the day, and were greatly struck by +the fact that the barmaid, at the place where they had eaten the lunch +they took with them, had recognized them as "Oostershire men"; they +had demanded their beer in three or four quart jugs, which could be +handed round so that each man could take a pull in turn, instead of +the usual fashion of separate glasses, and it appeared that this +indicated the locality from whence they came. Probably she had noticed +their accent, and, being a native of Worcestershire, remembered their +intimate drinking custom as a county peculiarity. The men proceeded to +describe the sights of London, and one of them added that there was +one thing they could not find there, stopping suddenly in some +confusion. I pressed him to explain. He still hesitated, and, turning +to the others, said: "_You_ tell the master, Bill." Bill was not so +diffident. "Well," he said, "we couldn't see a good-looking 'ooman in +Lunnon; for Jarge here, 'e was judge over 'em for a bit, and then Tom +'e took it, nor 'e couldn't see one neither!" + +Jarge was somewhat of a _bon vivant_, and much appreciated my annual +present of a piece of Christmas beef. When thanking me and descanting +upon its tenderness and acceptability, on one occasion, he continued, +"It ain't like the sort of biff we folks has to put up with, that +tough you has to set in the middle of the room at dinner, for fear you +might daish your brains out agen the wall a-tuggin' at it with your +teeth!" + +Jarge had one song and only one that I ever heard, and he was always +called upon for it at harvest suppers and other jollifications; it was +not a classic, but he rendered it with characteristic drollery, and +always brought down the house. I conclude my sketch of him by +mentioning it because it is almost my last impression of his vivid +personality, trotted out with great energy at my farewell supper, a +day or two before I left Aldington. + +Among the men who were bequeathed to me, so to speak, by my +predecessor, Tom was one of whom I always had a high opinion. Tall, +vigorous, and well made, one recognized at once his possibilities as a +valuable man. He was somewhat cautious, taciturn, very sensitive and +reserved, but would open out in conversation when alone with me. As +quite a young man he had worked at the building of the branch line +from Oxford to Wolverhampton, via Worcester, the "O.W. and W.," or +"Old Wusser and Wusser," as it was called, until taken over by the +Great Western Railway. The latter, extending from London to Oxford, +was, I believe, one of Brunell's masterly conceptions, being without a +tunnel the whole way. But the new line had to pierce the Cotswolds +before reaching the Vale of Evesham, and Tom had many yarns about the +construction of the long Mickleton tunnel. Among them was a tradition +of the cost, so great that guineas laid edgeways throughout its length +would not pay for it. + +In my time there was a splendid service of express trains running from +London to Worcester without a stop, and coming downhill into the Vale, +through the tunnel and towards Evesham, the speed approximated to a +mile a minute. I was talking to one of my men, a hedger, working near +the line which bounded a portion of my land, when one of the express +trains came dashing along and passed us with a roar in a few seconds. +"My word," said he, "I reckon that's a co-rider." I was puzzled, but +presently it came to me that he meant "corridor"; he had probably seen +the word in the local paper without having heard it pronounced. + +It was a treat to watch Tom's magnificent physique when felling a big +tree, stripped to his shirt, with sleeves rolled up, and his gleaming +axe slowly raised and poised for a second above him before it fell +with the gathered impetus of its own weight and his powerful stress. +Biting time after time into the exact place aimed at, and at the most +effective angle possible, the clean chips would fly in all directions +until the necessary notch was cut and the basal outgrowths, close to +the ground around the sturdy column, were reduced, so that the +cross-cut saw could complete its downfall with a mighty crash. There +is always something sad about the felling of an ancient tree; one +feels it is a venerable creature that has passed long years of +unchallenged dominion on the spot occupied, and one can scarcely avoid +an idea of its intelligence and its silent record of passing +generations, who have welcomed its shade at blazing summer noontides, +or crept close to its warm touch for shelter from the winter's +chilling blast and the hissing hail. + +Tom was always the leader of my team of mowers when the grass was cut, +for, with the large staff I employed on purpose for the all-important +hop-gardens, I never wanted, till towards the end of my time, to make +use of a machine. The steady swing of his scythe, with scarcely an +apparent effort, the swish, as the swathe fell beneath its keen edge, +and the final lift of the severed grasses at the end of the stroke, +all in regular rhythmic action, were very fascinating to watch. At +intervals came a halt for "whetting" the blade, and the musical sound +of rubber (sharpening stone) against steel, equally adroitly +accomplished, proved the artist at his work, with a delicacy of touch +which, perhaps in different circumstances, might have produced the +thrills with which Pachmann's velvet caress or Paderewski's refined +expression enchant a vast and rapturous audience. + +As a land-drainer, too, I loved to watch him standing in the slippery +trench, with not an inch more soil moved than was necessary, lifting +out the decreasing "draws," and leaving a bottom nicely rounded +exactly to fit the pipes, and finally the methodical adjustment of +each pipe, with the concluding tap to bring it close to the last one +laid. Draining is an art which taxes the ability of the best of men, +for it must be remembered that, like the links of a chain, its +efficiency is no greater than that of its weakest part. + +When I had to arrange for the harvesting of my first hop crop, it was +necessary to find a man who could be entrusted with the critical work +of drying the hops, and Tom was the man I chose. I had my kiln ready, +constructed in an old malthouse, on the latest principles, and in time +for the first crop. The kiln consisted of a space about 20 feet +square, walled off at one end of the old building, but with entrances +on the ground and first floors. Beneath, in the lower compartment, was +the fireplace, a yard square, and 16 feet above was the floor on which +the hops were dried. Anthracite coal was used for fuel, the fire being +maintained day and night throughout the picking--the morning's picking +drying between 1 p.m. and 12 midnight, and the afternoon's picking +between 1 a.m. and 12 o'clock noon. Tom was therefore on duty for the +whole twenty-four hours, with what snatches of sleep he could catch in +the initial stage of each drying and at odd moments. + +The process requires great skill and attention; at first he and I, +with what little knowledge I had, puzzled it out together, he having +had no previous experience, and night after night I sat up with him +till the load came off the kiln at midnight. A slight excess of heat, +or an irregular application of it, will spoil the hops, the principle +being to raise the temperature, very gradually at first, to 30 or 40 +degrees higher at the finish. Hops should be _blown_ dry by a blast of +hot air, not baked by heat alone. The drier, of course, has to keep a +watchful eye on the thermometer on the upper floor among the hops--Tom +always called it the "theometer"--regulating his fire accordingly and +the admission of cold air through adjustable ventilators on the +outside walls. This regulation varies according to the weather, the +moisture of the air, and the condition of the hops, and calls for +critical judgment and accuracy. Often, tired out with the previous +ordinary day's work, we had much ado to keep awake at night, and it +was fatal to arrange a too comfortable position with the warmth of the +glowing fire and the soporific scent of the hops. Then Tom would +announce that it was "time to get them little props out," which, in +imagination, were to support our wearied eyelids. + +When we decided that the hops were ready to be cooled down, to prevent +breaking when being taken off the drying floor, all doors, windows, +and ventilators were thrown open and the fire banked up, and, while +they were cooling, he went to neighbouring cottages to rouse the men +who came nightly to unload and reload the kiln, and then I could +retire to bed. + +Tom was devoted to duty, and was so successful as a hop-drier that he +soon became capable of managing two more kilns in the same building, +which I enlarged as I gradually increased my acreage. In a good season +he would often have L100 worth of hops through his hands in the +twenty-four hours, sometimes more. He was the only man I ever employed +at this particular work, and throughout those years he turned out hops +to the value of nearly L30,000 without a single mishap or spoiled +kiln-load--a better proof of his devotion to duty than anything else I +could say. + +He was a very picturesque figure when, "crowned with the sickle and +the wheaten sheaf, Autumn comes jovial on," and he was cutting wheat, +his head covered with a coloured handkerchief, knotted at the corners, +to protect the back of his neck from the sun, which must have been +much cooler than the felt hat--a kind of "billycock" with a flat +top--which he habitually wore. I have noticed that the labourer's +style of hat is a matter of great conservatism, probably due to the +fancy that he would "look odd" in any other, and would be liable to +chaff from his fellow-workers. + +Tom had a tremendous reach, and got through a big day's work in the +harvest-field, but nearly always knocked himself up after two or three +days in the broiling sun, developing what he called, "Tantiddy's fire +" in one forearm; this is the local equivalent of St. Anthony's fire, +an ailment termed professionally erysipelas, but I have never heard +how it is connected with the saint. + +Harvesters often work in pairs, and they are then "butties" +(partners), but not infrequently a harvester will be accompanied by +his wife or daughter to tie up the sheaves; and their active figures +among the golden corn, backed by a horizon of blue sky, make a +charming picture. The mind goes back to the old Scripture references +to the time of harvest, and the idea impresses itself that one is +looking at almost exactly the same scene as it appeared to the old +writers, and which they described in all the dignity of their stately +language. + +Tom was not much given to the epigrammatic expression of his thoughts, +like some of the other men, but he had a vein of humour. A relative of +his used to come over from Evesham to sing in our church choir, and I +remember a special occasion when the choir was somewhat _piano_ until +this singer's part came in; he had a strong and not very melodious +voice, and the effort and the effect alike were startling. Tom was in +church at the time, and had evidently been watching expectantly for +the _fortissimo_ climax; he told me afterwards that "when S. opened +his mouth I knew it was sure to come." It did! + +I have mentioned Tom's cautiousness; he had a way of assenting to a +statement without committing himself to definite agreement. I once +asked him who the leaders had been in a disorderly incident, being +aware that he knew; I suggested the names, but the nearest approach to +assent which I could extract was, "If you spakes again you'll be +wrong." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + + +THE HEAD CARTER--THE CARPENTER. + + "There's a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and folks + most in general chooses the wrong un." + --TOM G. + +Jim was my first head carter, and he dearly loved a horse. He had, as +the saying is, forgotten more about horses than most men ever knew, +and what he didn't know wasn't worth knowing. + +He was a cheery man, and when I went to Aldington was about to be +married. Not being much of a "scholard," his first request was that I +would write out his name and that of his intended, for the publication +of the banns. A group of men was standing round at the time, and I +asked him how his somewhat unusual name was spelt. Seeing that he was +puzzled, I hazarded a guess myself, repeating the six letters in order +slowly. He was greatly surprised and pleased to recognize that my +attempt was correct, and, turning to the bystanders, remarked with the +utmost sincerity, "There ain't many as could have done that, mind +you!" I felt that my reputation for scholarship was established. + +Jim was a fisherman, and was no representative of "a worm at one end +and a fool at the other." I gave him leave to fish in my brooks; he +was wily, patient, and successful, and one day brought me a nice +salmon-trout, by no means common in these streams. In thanking him, I +made him a standing offer of a shilling a pound for any more he could +catch, but he never got another. Writing of fishing, I cannot forbear +quoting Thomson's lines on the subject, under "Spring," the most vivid +description of the sport I have ever read: + + "When with his lively ray the potent sun + Has pierced the streams, and roused the finny race, + Then, issuing cheerful, to thy sport repair; + Chief should the western breezes curling play, + And light o'er ether bear the shadowy clouds. + High to their fount, this day, amid the hills, + And woodlands warbling round, trace up the brooks; + The next, pursue their rocky-channel'd maze, + Down to the river, in whose ample wave + Their little naiads love to sport at large. + Just in the dubious point, where with the pool + Is mix'd the trembling stream, or where it boils + Around the stone, or from the hollow'd bank + Reverted plays in undulating flow, + There throw, nice-judging, the delusive fly; + And as you lead it round in artful curve, + With eye attentive mark the springing games + Straight as above the surface of the flood + They wanton rise, or urged by hunger leap, + Then fix, with gentle twitch, the barbed hook: + Some lightly tossing to the grassy bank, + And to the shelving shore slow-dragging some, + With various hand proportion'd to their force. + If yet too young, and easily deceived, + A worthless prey scarce bends your pliant rod, + Him, piteous of his youth and the short space + He has enjoy'd the vital light of heaven, + Soft disengage, and back into the stream + The speckled captive throw. But should you lure + From his dark haunt, beneath the tangled roots + Of pendant trees, the monarch of the brook, + Behoves you then to ply your finest art. + Long time he following cautious, scans the fly; + And oft attempts to seize it, but as oft + The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear. + At last, while haply yet the shaded sun + Passes a cloud, he desperate takes the death, + With sullen plunge. At once he darts along, + Deep-struck, and runs out all the lengthen'd line; + Then seeks the furthest ooze, the sheltering weed, + The cavern'd bank, his old secure abode; + And flies aloft, and flounces round the pool, + Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand, + That feels him still, yet to his furious course + Gives way, you, now retiring, following now + Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage: + Till floating broad upon his breathless side, + And to his fate abandon'd, to the shore + You gaily drag your unresisting prize." + +Horses were scarce and dear when I went to Aldington, and many French +animals were being imported. I got an old acquaintance in the South of +England to send me four or five; they were all greys, useful workers, +but wanting the spirit and stamina of the English horse; and they +would always wait for the Englishman to start a heavy standing load +before throwing their weight into the collar. Jim told me that they +were "desperate ongain" (very awkward), and, as foreigners, well they +might be, for I myself had some difficulty in understanding the local +words of command, more especially in ploughing, when, with a team of +four, he shouted his orders, addressing the new horses by names with +which they were quite unfamiliar. + +I admired Jim's loyalty to his late master, if not his veracity, at +the valuation of the stock, which I took over as it stood. Being aware +that there was a lame one or two among the horses, I warned my valuer +beforehand. We entered the stable, and my valuer, thinking to catch +Jim off his guard, asked casually which they were. Jim was quite ready +for him, and answered without a moment's hesitation, "Nerrun, sir" +(never a one). They were, however, easily detected when trotted out on +the road. + +Jim was a capital hand at "getting up" a horse for sale; an extra sack +or two of corn, constant grooming, and rest in the stable, with the +aid of some mysterious powders, which, I think, contained arsenic, +soon brought out the "dapples," which he called "crown-pieces," on +their coats, and in a couple of months' time one scarcely recognized +the somewhat angular beast upon which his labours had wrought a +miracle, and put a ten-pound note at least on the value. We had an +ancient and otherwise doubtful mare, "Bonny," ready for Pershore Fair, +and the previous day Jim wanted to know if I intended to be present. I +told him, "No! I should have to tell too many lies." "Oh!" said he, +"I'll do all that, sir!" He sold the mare to a big dealer for all she +was worth, I think, though not a large figure. Soon afterwards I had +to expostulate with him about some fault. He explained the +circumstances from his point of view, adding, "And that's the truth, +sir, and the truth _is_ the truth, and"--triumphantly--"that's what'll +carry a man through the world!" I could say no more, but could not +help remembering his willingness to testify to Sonny's doubtful merits +at Pershore Fair. + +Jim became a widower, but eventually married again; a good woman, who +made a capital wife. Shortly before the wedding, when he came to see +me on some business, my wife happened to be present; she was very +anxious to find out the date in order that we might attend. Jim was +shy, not wishing it to be generally known, and nothing could be got +out of him. On leaving, however, he repented and, looking back over +his shoulder, made the announcement, "Our job comes off next +Thursday," then closing the door quickly, he was gone. + +He got my permission to visit his mother and son, both ailing in +Birmingham, and on his return I made inquiries. The boy was better, +but about his mother he said, "I don't take so much notice of she, for +her be regular weared out"--not unkindly or undutifully intended, but +just a plain statement of fact, simply put; for she was a very old +woman, and could not in the course of nature be expected to live much +longer. + +That Jim had a tender heart I know, for when we lost a very favourite +horse, one which "you could not put at the wrong job," I found him +weeping and much distressed. Later he said, "When you lose a horse I +reckon it's a double loss, for you haven't got the horse or the +money." My mind being dominated by the unanswerable accuracy of the +latter part of the statement, I did not, for a moment, see that the +first part was fallacious, because, of course, one could not have both +at one and the same time. + +He was an excellent ploughman, and considerable skill is demanded to +manage the long wood plough, locally made, and still the best +implement of the sort on the adhesive land of the Vale of Evesham. It +has no wheels, like the ordinary iron plough has, to regulate the +depth and width of the furrow-slice, because in wet weather, if tried +on this almost stoneless land, the wheels become so clogged with mud +and refuse, such as stubble from the previous crop, that they will not +revolve, sliding helplessly involved along the ground. Even the +mould-board is wood, generally pear-tree, to which the mud does not +adhere, as happens with iron. As an old neighbour explained to me, +"You can cut the newest bread with a wooden knife, whereas the doughy +crumb of the bread would stick to a steel one." Pear-tree wood is used +because it wears "slick" (smooth), and does not splinter like wood +which is longer in the grain. + +With these long wood ploughs the ploughman himself regulates the depth +and width of the furrow-slice--_i.e.,_ each strip that is severed and +turned over--by holding the handles firmly in the correct position as +the plough travels along, for it cannot be left for a moment to its +own inclination. This entails strict attention and much muscular +effort, and, of course, the latter comes into play also in turning at +each end of the field. The result is very effective; the flat +mould-board offers the least possible resistance to the inversion of +the soil, whereas the iron plough, with a curling mould-board, presses +the crest of the furrow-slice into regularity of form, and gives a +more finished appearance at the expense of much extra friction and +labour for the horses. + +A carter-boy accompanies each team, as driver, to keep the horses up +to their work and turn them at the ends. A farmer I knew in Hampshire +would not, if possible, employ a boy unless he could whistle--of +course the ability and degree of excellence is a guide to character, +and indicates to some extent a harmonious disposition; he always said, +"Now whistle," when engaging a new boy. + +There are few more pleasant agricultural operations to watch and to +follow than a lusty team, a skilful ploughman, and a whistling boy at +work, on a glowing autumn day, when the stubble is covered with +gossamers gleaming with iridescent colours in the sunshine. The +upturned earth is fragrant, the fresh soil looks rich and full of +promise, there is the feeling that old mistakes and disappointments +are being buried out of sight, and the hope and anticipation of the +future. + +On a Lincolnshire farm where I was a pupil, an incident occurred +illustrating the anxiety of a carter for the welfare of his horses, in +combination with no small cunning. The owner, in the stable one Sunday +morning, noticed an open Bible in the manger; having doubts as to the +reliability of the carter, he regarded the Bible, so prominently +displayed, with some suspicion. Looking carefully all round he could +see nothing to find fault with, until he glanced upward at the floor +over the manger, where he discovered a protruding cork. He remembered +that a heap of oats was stored in the loft, from which the bailiff +gave out the rations for their teams to each man weekly. Getting the +key of the loft, he found that the cork was nicely adjusted to a hole +beneath the oats, so that the carter in question could exceed the +recognized ration whenever inclined. The fault was, of course, more +one of disobedience than of robbery, as the corn was consumed by his +master's horses, and the prominence of the Bible was perhaps the worst +feature, evidently a deceptive device to arrest suspicion, though it +proved to have exactly the opposite effect. + +Very few of my men suffered from rheumatism, but Jim was an exception. +I think he applied horse embrocation to himself; he would extol its +efficacy, and would tell how, when the pain attacked his shoulder, the +remedy "druv it" to his back; applied to the latter, "it druv it" to +his legs; and so on indefinitely. + +I kept about a dozen working horses besides colts; the latter are +broken at two years old, but only very lightly worked, and, when quiet +and handy, they are turned out again till a year older. Our method of +maintaining the full capacity of horse-power on the farm was to breed, +or buy at six months old, two colts, and sell off two of the oldest +horses every year. As two colts could be bought for forty or fifty +pounds at that age, and the two old horses sold for a hundred and +twenty pounds or thereabouts, a good balance was left on the +transaction, while the full strength of the teams was maintained. + +Jim had sufficient foresight to view with alarm the gradual dispersion +of most of the oldest and best farmers in the neighbourhood, and the +conversion to grass of the arable land, owing to the unfair and +dangerous competition of American wheat. When we discussed the subject +and foretold the straits to which the country would be reduced in the +event of war with a great European Power, he concluded these +forebodings with the habitual remark, "Well, what I says is, them as +lives longest will see the most." A truism, no doubt, but, as time has +proved, by no means an incorrect view. + +There was always plenty of employment for an estate carpenter on my +farms, as I had a vast number of buildings, including four separate +sets of barn, stable, sheds, and yard, away from the village, as well +as those near the Manor House, and many repairs were necessary. There +were, too, very many gates, repairs to fences, hurdle-making, and odd +jobs, to keep a man employed for months at a time. The building of +three hop-kilns, with the necessary storerooms for green and dried +hops, as the hop acreage increased, the preparation of hop-poles, and +the erection of wire-work on larger poles, which gradually superseded +the ordinary pole system, all demanded a great deal of regular work. + +I was most fortunate in obtaining the services of a man living in a +neighbouring village, not only as estate carpenter, but as a skilled +joiner, and possessing all the knowledge and efficiency of an +experienced builder. When I first met him, or very soon afterwards, +Tom G. was a teetotaller, and I have always had immense admiration for +the strength of will which enabled him to conquer completely the drink +habit, for he freely admitted that he was entirely mastered by it in +his younger days. He told me, and it proves what a kindly word will +sometimes do, that the Squire of his village, who also employed him +largely, said to him, after praising some of his work, "There's only +one thing the matter with you, Tom, and that's the drink." "I went +home," said Tom, "and I thought to myself, if the drink is all that's +wrong with me, what a fool I must be to continue it. Next day I went +to Evesham and signed the pledge, and I've never touched a drop since, +though the smell and the sight of a public-house have been so sore a +temptation that many a time after a long day's work, and with money in +my pocket, I've gone a mile or two out of my way in order not to pass +a place of the sort." + +His training as a carpenter had induced habits of great accuracy, +exact method, and lucid thought, and a chat with him, and watching his +quick and clever workmanship, was an educational opportunity. I have +always been fascinated by such work, and one of my earliest +recollections is of being taken by my father to interview a carpenter +about some small household job. His name was Snewin--I am not sure of +the spelling, for I was only about eight years old at the time--and we +found him in his workshop vigorously using a long plane on some red +deal boards, his feet buried in beautifully curled shavings, and the +whole place redolent of the delicious scent of turpentine. Every time +his plane travelled along the edge, to my childish fancy, the board +said in plaintive tones of remonstrance, _in crescendo_, his name, +"Snewin, _Snewin_," and again, "SNEWIN," and even now the scent and +action of planing a deal board always brings back the scene clearly to +my mind. + +I suppose, therefore, it was partly old associations that induced the +fascination of watching Tom G. at his work, but there were other +reasons. With his axe, the edge beautifully ground and sharpened to a +razor-like finish, he could trim a piece of wood, or shape it, so +neatly that it presented almost the appearance of having been planed; +his saw, with no apparent effort, raced from end to end of a board or +across the grain of a piece of "quartering," and his chisels and plane +irons were ground to the correct concave bevel that relieves the +parting of a chip or shaving, and gives what he called "sweetness" to +the cutting action. He was a strong Conservative, good at an argument, +and had many heated discussions with some of my men whose tendencies +leaned to the opposite side; but his sound logic and common sense were +observable in all his ideas, and I think he generally came off best as +a shrewd and clear-headed debater, for from his employment in various +places his horizon was wider than that of the ordinary farm labourers. + +Tom G. had considerable knowledge of the Bible, which he sometimes +employed in conversation; alluding to the work that was nearly always +waiting for him at Aldington, he told a friend of mine that there was +"earn (corn) in Egypt"; and when he had a written contract with me for +a special piece of work, and wished to suggest that as time went on we +might think of some improvement, and that there was no necessity to +adhere to the original specifications, he announced that "we bean't +Mades, nor we bean't Piersians" (we're not Medes, nor are we +Persians). + +No necessary measurement was ever guessed at, his "rule" was always +handy in a special pocket, but in cases where a rough guess was +sufficient he would hazard it by what he called "scowl of brow" +(intently regarding it). The agricultural labourer is inclined, both +with weights and measures, to be inaccurate, "reckoning it's near +enough." I found soon after I came to Aldington that the weighing +machine which had been in use throughout the whole of my predecessor's +time, and had weighed up hundreds of pounds of wool at 2s. and 2s. 6d. +a pound, cheese at 8d., and thousands of sacks of wheat, barley, and +beans, was about a pound in each hundredweight _against the seller_, +so that he must have lost a considerable sum in giving overweight. + +Tom G. was scornful about weather signs, and summed up his doubts in +such matters with sarcasm: "I reckon that the indications for rain are +very similar to the indications for fine weather!" But the best +epigram I ever heard from him was, "There's a right way and a wrong +way to do everything, and folks most in general chooses the wrong un!" +I should like to see those words of wisdom on the title-page of every +school book, and blazoned up in letters of gold on the wall of every +classroom in every school in the kingdom. + +I have referred to the hop-kilns I built. Throughout the work of +erecting them, and it was no small one, Tom G. was the leading spirit; +it gave scope for his abilities, I think, on a larger scale than any +building he had previously undertaken. We began with a kiln sufficient +for the first 6 acres planted; it was necessary, with the gradual +extinction of British corn-growing, to find something to supersede it, +and to compensate for the falling off in farm receipts. I had seen +something of hops as a pupil on a large farm near Alton, Hampshire, +where they occupied an area of over a hundred acres, but at that time +I had no intention of growing them myself, and had not been infected +with the glamour, formerly attaching to hops beyond any other crop, +that came to me later. + +I visited the old Alton farm, and obtained all particulars of the +latest kind of hop-kiln in the neighbourhood from the inventor, and +instructed him to prepare plans and specifications for the conversion +of an old malthouse close to the Manor. I contracted with Tom G. for +all the carpenter's work, and with an excellent stonemason or +bricklayer for that belonging to his department. They both entered +with enthusiasm upon the job, and we had many interesting discussions +as to improvement, as it proceeded. Tom G. was a man of great +resource, and could always find a way out of every difficulty; he told +me, before we began, that he could see the completed building as if +actually finished, just as a great sculptor once said how easy it was +to produce a statue from a block of marble, for all he had to do was +to cut away the superfluous material! + +The alterations entailed a new roof from end to end of the old +building, and a new floor for the upper part, the length being about +70 and the width about 20 feet. The old roof was covered mostly with +stone-slates--flakes of limestone from the Cotswolds--very uneven in +size and rough as to surface, and in part with ordinary blue slates. +The latter lie much more closely on the laths, the stone slates +allowing the passage of more air between them, and it was interesting +to find that while the ancient laths under the stone slates were +fairly well preserved, those beneath the blue slates were much +decayed, evidently from the fact of the damp in an unheated building +remaining longer where the air was excluded, though one would have +expected the close-lying blue slates to be the better protection of +the two. + +Much expense was saved by Tom G.'s economical use of materials; +wherever the old oak beams could be used again they were incorporated +with the new work. He never cut sound old or new pieces of timber to +waste; almost every scrap came in somewhere, for he worked with his +head as well as his hands. + +The difference in this respect is very noticeable in different men; an +old plumber once told me that he had been employed upon a pump on a +neighbouring farm, where the slot in which the handle works was so +worn on one side that the bolt which carries the handle had given way, +owing to the man, who had used it for years, not keeping it running +truly in the centre. He called the man's attention to the cause of the +damage, and, being a sententious old fellow, asked him why he didn't +think what he was doing. The answer was, "I'm not paid to think." + +The hop-kiln was a great success, and later, with the same workmen, I +added two more, as my hopyards extended, on exactly the same lines. +They would probably have been annually in use in the picking season up +to the present time had it not been that the low prices ruling +latterly have rendered a crop which requires so much labour, +knowledge, and supervision, not worth growing. + +I hear, however, with much satisfaction, that these old hop-kilns and +storerooms have been of great service during the war for drying +medicinal herbs, chiefly belladonna and henbane, and that in 1917 the +turnover exceeded L6,000. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + +AN OLD FASHIONED SHEPHERD--OLD TRICKER--A GARDENER--MY SECOND HEAD +CARTER--A LABOURER. + + "Along the cool sequester'd vale of life + They kept the noiseless tenor of their way." + --GRAY'S _Elegy_. + +I had experiences of various shepherds, and the man I remember best +was John C. Short, sturdy, strong, and willing, he was somewhat +prejudiced and old-fashioned, with many traditions and inherited +convictions as to remedies and the treatment of sheep. John had a +knowing expression; his nose projected and his forehead and chin +retreated, so that his profile was angular. He wore the old-fashioned +long smock-frock--not the modern short linen jacket which goes by the +name of smock, but a garment that reached to his knees, with a +beautifully worked front over the chest. It is a pity that these old +smock-frocks are no longer in vogue: I never see one now; they were +most picturesque, and afforded great protection from the rough weather +which a shepherd has constantly to face. His hat was of soft felt, +placed well towards the back of his head, and, behind it, he wore a +wealth of curls overlapping the collar of his smock. John was very +proud of his curls; he told a group of men, who were sheep-dipping +with him, that the parasites of the sheep, which are formidable in +appearance, never troubled him until they reached his head. "Into them +curls, I suppose, John?" said a flippant bystander. John was pleased +that his most attractive feature should receive even this recognition. + +Altogether he presented a notable figure, and one quite typical of his +profession, especially when armed with his staff of office, his crook. +He was inclined to superstitious beliefs, and told me when I noticed +the matted condition of the manes of some colts domiciled in a distant +set of buildings that he reckoned "Old P. G."--an ancient dame in a +neighbouring cottage with a reputation for witchcraft--"had been +a-ridin' of 'em on moonlight nights." This matted appearance of colts' +manes, which is only the natural result of their not being groomed or +combed when young and unbroken, was known in many country places as +"hag-ridden." Such superstitions are now nearly, if not quite, +extinct, but still linger in old place-names, for it was usual in +former times to attribute any uncommon or surprising physical +appearance to supernatural agency. Thus we have such names as "Devil's +Dyke," "Devil's Punchbowl," "Puck Pits," "Pokes-down" (Puck's Down), +and many others. + +The fairy rings, too, which puzzled our ancestors, are explicable by a +natural process. The starting-point is a fungus, _Marasmius oreades_, +which in due course sheds its spores in a tiny circle around it; the +decay of the fungus supplies nitrogen to the grass, and renders it +dark green in colour. The circle expands, always outwards, more and +more fungi appearing every year; it does not return inwards because +the mineral constituents of the soil are exhausted by the growth of +the fungus and of the grass, under the stimulus of the abundant +nitrogen left by the former, so that the dark ring of grass extends +its diameter year by year. + +In the _Tempest_ Shakespeare refers to the fairies: + + "... That + By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, + Whereof the ewe not bites." + + +John carried a magic bottle of caustic liniment for application to the +feet of sheep affected with the complaint called "foot-rot." The cause +of this troublesome disease is excessive development of the walls of +the hoof, owing to the animals grazing exclusively on wet pasture, the +surface of which is too soft to keep them worn down; the walls +gradually double over and collect wet mud, which causes inflammation. +It never occurred on my arable land, either among ewes or younger +sheep, but whenever I bought sheep from the flint stones of Hampshire +and grazed them on soft pasture, it soon made its appearance. The +remedy is timely and constant paring of the hoof before any tendency +to lameness is observed, and when this is properly attended to no +caustic application is necessary. Lame sheep indicate an inefficient +shepherd, and the disorder has been well called "Shepherd's Neglect." + +An eminent breeder of prize Hampshire Down sheep told me that, when +contemplating the exhibition of sheep, the first necessity is to get a +"prize shepherd," a man with a presence, and a reputation which he +would not risk in the show-ring without something worth exhibiting. I +started a flock of pedigree Shropshires, but my land was too good and +grew them too big and coarse for showing, and I soon found that it was +useless to try, though I succeeded in taking a prize at the +Warwickshire county show. It so happened that when my shepherd (not +John) returned in great triumph from the show, he found his first-born +son, who had arrived in his absence, awaiting him. "Well done, +shupperd," said a neighbour, "got him a son and a prize the same day!" + +John was jealous of any interference in his remedial measures for +ailing sheep, but my wife, who doctored the village generally, was +anxious to try her hand, having little faith in his skill; so we +arranged that the next time he had what he considered a hopeless case +it was to be given over to her exclusively. The opportunity soon +occurred; a ewe was found caught by the fleece in some rough briars in +an old hedge, where it had been some hours in great distress, and, +with much struggling to free itself, it was quite exhausted. Pneumonia +supervened, and when John thought it impossible to save its life he +handed the case over to my wife. She succeeded, chiefly, I think, by +careful nursing, in pulling it through, much to John's surprise; +doubtless he thought its recovery a lucky fluke. John was given to +occasional alcoholic lapses; on one occasion I found him aimlessly +driving sheep across a field of growing mangolds! I could see that he +was muddled, and on reaching home later I sought an interview. He was +not to be found, but at his cottage his wife told me that John was not +very well. I postponed my reckoning till the following day, when, with +great readiness, he explained how it happened. "The day before," he +said, "I frained my fittle (refrained from my victuals) all day, and +when I got up yesterday I didn't feel justly righteous (quite right) +ov my inside; so I gets a bit of 'bacca, just about as much as _you_ +med put in your pipe (this, apparently, to incriminate me), and I +putts it at the bottom of a tay-cup, with a drop ov rum; then I fills +it up with hot tay and drinks it off, and very soon I felt it a coming +over (overcoming) mer (me)." + +Sheep-breeding was not one of the most important branches of farming +in my part of Worcestershire: the land is too stiff and wet, they +thrive much better on the Cotswolds or the chalk downs of Hampshire. +At one time I visited the latter county every summer, attending the +big fairs like Overton or Alresford, for the purpose of buying 100 +draft ("full-mouthed") ewes from one of the best flocks. It was very +interesting in the early morning, reaching Overton by rail from +Basingstoke, where I had passed the night at the Red Lion with L300 in +bank-notes under my pillow, to see the gipsies in the village asleep +on the ground under their vans, the girls sometimes awake, combing +their hair, and beautifying themselves in readiness for the pleasure +fair where they were to appear in charge of the shooting-galleries and +competitions. A short walk, with only time for a passing glance at the +speckled trout near the bridge over the Itchen, which I never omitted, +took me to the sheep-pens on the hill-top where the fair is held. One +could see the flocks, with their shepherds always _in front_ and the +dogs behind, winding along the narrow lanes, which, from all +directions, lead to the hill, in a cloud of chalky dust, flock after +flock with only a few dividing yards between them. It is advisable to +reach the fairground thus early, to see the sheep before they are +penned; they can be much better inspected in the open than when packed +close together, and a more reliable opinion of their condition can be +formed. From the aesthetic point of view the grand old shepherds +interested me most, dignified, patriarchal men, with a reserve of +strength of character evident in their rugged features, and the +patience and hardihood that takes little heed of exposure to every +variety of weather. + +The sheep were sold by auction, and when I had bought a pen of 100, +generally from Lord Ashburton's flock, paid the auctioneer's clerk as +soon as possible and received a ticket permitting the release of the +sheep, as the roads in all directions are soon crowded, I induced the +shepherd to help in driving them to the railway-station. He was always +a dear old fellow, and full of interesting information. On reaching +the station we packed the sheep into three open trucks, so close that +they could not jump out, and despatched them to Worcestershire, +whither they would arrive about noon the following day. We never had a +mishap with them on the journey, but they were terribly thirsty on +reaching Aldington, and made straight for water immediately. + +Old Tricker came to Worcestershire originally with a farmer who +migrated from Suffolk, which proves him to have been a valuable man. +But he was worn out even when he first came to work for me, though as +willing and industrious as ever. My bailiff often praised him--for his +work was excellent, if somewhat slow on account of his age--and used +to tell him that "All as be the matter with you, Tricker, is that you +was born too soon," which was only too true, for he must have been the +oldest man on the farm by at least twenty years. He was a steady +worker, and was often so absorbed in his job, such as hoeing, that, +being, moreover, somewhat deaf, he was not aware of my approach until +I was quite close. On such occasions, with a violent start, he always +said: "My word, how you did frighten I, to be sure! Shows I don't look +about me much, however, don't it?" + +He was fond of fairs, wakes, and "mops"--no doubt they were +reminiscent of old days, for he lived in the past--and he would often +beg a day off for such outings; he was a subject for the chaff of the +other men for his gaiety when these jaunts took place. They pretended +that, as a widower for many years, it was time for him to think of +another courtship. On a festive occasion, when we were giving a dinner +to all the men and their wives, great amusement was caused by +crackers, which the guests, I think, had never seen before, containing +paper caps and imitation jewellery; and it was a merry scene when all +around the tables were decorated in the most incongruous fashion. Old +Tricker happened to become possessed of a plain gilt wedding-ring, and +of course chaff was levelled at him from all sides: "Ah, Tricker; sly +dog, sly dog!" and so on. He was greatly pleased, accepting +good-naturedly the part of pantaloon of the piece; and I am sure, from +his beaming smiles, he felt, for a time at least, dozens of years +younger. + +Years before, when still able to do a good day's work, he walked to +Ipswich to revisit his old home, a distance of about 160 miles, which +he accomplished in four days, and returned in the same time. He had +been specially struck by the building of a new post-office there--this +must have been at least thirty years before the time of which I am +writing. One of my brothers who lived near Ipswich was visiting me, +and I introduced him to the old man, knowing that they would have +common interests. No sooner did Tricker hear that my brother had just +come from Ipswich than he inquired anxiously if the new post-office +was finished. "Oh yes, and pulled down some years ago, and a new one +built!" Tricker was astonished; the years had evidently slipped by him +unnoticed, and no record of dates remained in his memory. + +Tricker often got a little mixed in the names of novelties or in +unusual words. I chanced to pass him one day along the road, on my +omnicycle, and next time I saw him he referred to it, adding: "I +didn't know as you'd got a phlorsopher (velocipede and philosopher)"! +Some of my land had been occupied by the Romans in very distant days, +and coins and pottery were frequently found. Tricker, having heard of +the Romans, also of Roman Catholics, jumbled them together, and +"reckoned" that the former inhabitants of these fields were "some of +those old Romans or Cartholics." + +This mixture of words, generally bearing some relation to each other, +was not infrequently carried still further by making one word of two. +With some of the villagers "conservatory" stood for conservative and +tory, and "containment" for concert and entertainment. A messenger who +was asked to bring _Daniel Deronda_ from the Evesham library returned +with the announcement that "Dannel Deronomy" was not available; this +appeared to be a confusion between the books of Daniel and +Deuteronomy. A cook (not a Worcestershire person) was asked if the +papers had come. "Yes; the _Standard_ has arrived, but not the Condy's +fluid _(Connoisseur)_ "! The regatta at Evesham was always "the +regretta." An old sexton working in a churchyard, from whom I inquired +if there was a bridge over the river, replied: "Only a temperance +bridge (temporary bridge)." + +Tricker, as a very typical representative of the agricultural labourer +in old age, was engaged as model for a figure in a picture by Mr. +Chevalier Taylor, then staying in Badsey. He sat in this capacity when +work was not very pressing, and day by day used to repair to the +artist's lodgings with his tools on his shoulder. His remuneration was +half a crown a day--ordinary day wages for an able-bodied man--but he +told me that the inaction was very trying, and that a day as model was +much more exacting than a day's work on the farm. + +When the old man could no longer complete even a short day's work, and +suffered from the cold in winter, he decided to go to the workhouse +for a time, but he was out again before the cuckoo was singing, and we +found him light jobs "by the piece," so that he could work for as long +or as short a time as suited him. He was most grateful for any +assistance, and told me that "A little help is worth a deal of +sympathy." Eventually he became a permanent inmate of the workhouse, +much to my grief; but it is, of course, impossible to run a farm on +which heavy poor-rate has to be paid, as a philanthropic institution. +The difficulty with aged and infirm persons is not so much food and +maintenance as the necessity for nursing and supervision, which are +expensive and difficult to arrange. Tricker told me that he could live +on sixpence a day, and if it had been a question of food only, and our +village could have cut itself adrift from the Union and the rates it +entailed, we could easily have more than kept the poor old man to the +end of his days in comfort. For years he was the only parishioner +receiving any help from the immense sum the parish annually paid in +rates. I have heard it said that out of every shilling of the +ratepayer's contributions the poor people only get twopence or its +equivalent, the officials and administration expenses absorbing the +remaining tenpence. + +My first gardener had been employed at the Manor, when I came, for +very many years, and at the end of ten more he was obliged to resign +through old age. He had planted the poplars round the mill-pond in his +earliest days, and, among other trees, the beautiful weeping wych-elm +on the lawn behind the house. The weeping effect he produced by +beheading the tree when quite small and grafting it with a slip of the +weeping variety, and the junction was still plainly visible. It was a +symmetrical and, especially when in bloom, a lovely tree, but as the +blossoms died and scattered themselves all over the grass, they +worried the methodical old man, and every spring he wished it had +never been planted. It had flourished amazingly, and we could +comfortably find sitting room at tea for sixty or seventy people at a +garden-party in its shade. + +He was an excellent gardener, but did not care about novelties in +flowers, though at one time he made a hobby of raising new kinds of +potatoes. His greatest success was the original Ashleaf variety, the +stock of which he sold to Mr. Myatt for a guinea, and which was +afterwards introduced to the public as "Myatt's Early Ashleaf." It was +one of the best potatoes ever grown, very early, and splendid in +quality, and it was unfortunate that he parted with it so cheaply, +though, of course, the purchaser of the first few tubers had no idea +of its immense potential value, and possibly, like so many novelties, +it might have proved a failure. It is still in cultivation, though its +constitution is impaired, like that of all potatoes of long standing. +Later on I shall have more to say about this unfortunate tendency to +deterioration. + +J.E. was one of my most reliable men, working for me, first as +under-carter and afterwards as head carter, for, I think, altogether +twenty-six years; he was well educated and a great reader, quiet and +somewhat reserved, and though his humour did not lie on the surface, +he could appreciate a joke. My recollections of him, after his +steadiness and reliability, are chiefly of his personal mishaps, for +he was an unlucky man in this particular. + +I was on my round one morning when I met a breathless carter-boy +making for the village. Asked where he was off to, "Please, sir," he +replied, "I be to fetch Master E. another pair of trowsers!" +"Trousers," said I; "what on earth for?" "Please, sir, the bull ha' +ripped 'em!" I hurried on, and soon saw that it was no laughing +matter, for I found poor E. in a terrible plight of rags and tatters, +sitting in a cart-shed in some outlying buildings, on a roller. The +cowman was standing by holding a Jersey bull. The story was soon told. +The cowman, having to go into the yard, had asked E. to hold the bull +a minute. Unfortunately, the animal had only a halter on him, the +cowman having omitted to bring the stick, with hook and swivel, to +attach to the bull's nose-ring. No sooner was the cowman out of sight +than the bull began to fret, and, turning upon E., knocked him down +between a mangoldbury and the outside wall of the yard. In this +position he was unable to get a direct attack upon the man, but he +managed to gore him badly and tear his clothes to pieces. The cowman, +hearing E. calling, came back and rescued him, the bull becoming quite +docile with his regular attendant. Poor E. was black and blue when he +got home in the pony-cart, and was laid up for many weeks afterwards. +He undoubtedly had a very narrow escape. It is curious that, though +the Jersey cows are the most docile of any kind, the bulls are the +most uncertain and, when annoyed, savage; I had trouble with two or +three, and one became so dangerous that he had to be killed in his +stall. + +E.'s bad luck overtook him again when returning from Evesham with, +fortunately, an empty waggon and team; one of the horses was startled, +and E. ran forwards to catch the reins. By some means he fell, and the +waggon-wheels passed over him; had it been full, as it was on the +outward journey, with a heavy load of beans, it would have been a +serious matter, but nevertheless he suffered a great deal for some +time afterwards. + +J.E. must have walked many hundreds of miles among my hops with the +horses drawing "the mistifier," a syringing machine which pumped a +mist-like spray of soft soap and quassia solution upon the under-side +of the hop-leaves, when attacked by the aphis blight; and he must have +destroyed many millions of aphides, for the blight was an annual +occurrence at Aldington, and taxed our energies to the utmost at one +of the busiest times of year. + +Mrs. J.E. was, and is, one of those kind persons always ready to do a +good turn to a neighbour. She and her husband brought up a large +family, all of whom have done well, and a son in the Grenadier Guards +especially distinguished himself in the war. She has a remarkable +memory for dates of birthdays, weddings, and such-like events, and +often writes us one of her interesting letters, full of information of +the old village. + +I had many experiences of the honesty of the agricultural labourer, +but one especially remains in my mind. I.P., a man living some two +miles from Aldington, regularly walked the four miles there and back +for many years, in addition to his day's work. He was an excellent +drainer, and a most useful all-round man, exceedingly strong and +willing, bright and cheerful in conversation, and I had a very high +opinion of him. I had just reached the end of a long pay when he +reappeared--having taken his wages earlier in the proceedings--and +asked if I had made a mistake in his money; a sovereign was missing, +and he could not remember actually taking it from the table with the +rest of the cash. I at once balanced my payments and receipts for the +evening, but they corresponded exactly. It was a serious matter, as a +half-year's rent was due to the owner of his cottage that day, and +I.P. was one of those men who take a pride in paying up with +punctuality. I could see, as he realized that the sovereign was lost, +how disappointed and worried he felt, and being glad of an opportunity +to do him a good turn, I gave him another, and sent him away very +grateful. Later still he returned again, placed a sovereign on my +table, and said that he had nearly reached home when he felt something +hard against his knee, inside his corduroys, where he found the +missing coin; there was a hole in his pocket, but the encircling +string which labourers tie below the knee had prevented its escape. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + +CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND VILLAGERS. + + "My crown is in my heart, not on my head: + Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones," + --_3 Henry VI_. + +The agricultural labourer, and the countryman generally, does not +recognize any form of property beyond land, houses, buildings, farm +stock, and visible chattels. A groom whom I questioned concerning a +new-comer, a wealthy man, in the neighbourhood, summed him up thus: +"Oh, not much account--only one hoss and a brougham!" A railway may +run through the parish, worth millions of invested capital, but the +labourer does not recognize it as such, and a farmer, employing a few +men and with two or three thousand pounds in farm stock, is a bigger +man in his eyes than a rich man whose capital is invisible. + +The labourer in the days of which I am writing was inclined to be +suspicious of savings banks and deposit accounts at a banker's; his +savings represented a vast amount of hard work and self-denial; and he +looked askance at security other than an old stocking or a teapot. He +had heard of banks breaking, and felt uncomfortable about them. A +story was current in my neighbourhood of a Warwickshire bank in +difficulties, where a run was in progress. A van appeared, from which +many heavy sacks were carried into the bank, in the presence of the +crowd waiting outside to draw out their money. Some of the sacks were +seen to be open, and apparently full of sovereigns; confidence was +restored, and the run ceased. Later, when all danger was over, it +transpired that these supposed resources were fictitious, for the open +sacks contained only corn with a thin layer of gold on the top. + +Formerly it was said of a certain street in Evesham, chiefly inhabited +by market-gardeners and their labourers, that the houses contained +more gold than both the banks in the town, and I have no doubt that, +even at the present day, there is an immense amount of hoarded money +in country places. Only a short while ago, long after the commencement +of the Great War, the sale of a small property took place in my +neighbourhood, when the purchaser paid down in gold a sum of L600, the +bulk of which had earned no interest during the years of collection. +No doubt people, as a rule, in these days of war bonds and +certificates, have a better idea of investment, but probably a vast +sum in possible loans has been lost to the Government through want of +previous information on the subject. It should have been a simple +matter, during the last fifty years of compulsory education, to teach +the rudiments of finance in the elementary schools, and I commend the +matter as worth the consideration of educational enthusiasts. + +The labourer's attitude, as I have said, is suspicious towards +lawyers. I was chatting with a man, specially taken on for harvest, +who expressed doubts of them; he continued, "If anybody were to leave +me a matter of fifty pounds or so, I'd freely give it 'em," meaning +that by the time all charges were paid he would not expect more than a +trifle, because he supposed stamps and duties to be a part of the +lawyer's remuneration, and that very little would be left when all was +paid. + +I was once discussing farming matters with a labourer when prospects +were looking very black, and ended by saying that I expected soon to +be in the workhouse. "Ah, sir," said he, "I wish I were no nearer the +workhouse nor you be!" It should not be forgotten that the +agricultural labourer's financial horizon does not extend much beyond +the next pay night, and were it not for the generosity of his +neighbours--for the poor are exceedingly good to each other in times +of stress--a few weeks' illness or unemployment, especially where the +children are too young to earn anything, may find him at the end of +his resources. + +Almost the first time I went to Evesham, in passing Chipping Norton +Junction--now Kingham--three or four men on the platform, in charge of +the police, attracted my attention. I was told that they were rioters, +guilty of a breach of the peace in connection with the National +Agricultural Labourers' Union, then under the leadership of Joseph +Arch. Being so close to my new neighbourhood, where I was just +beginning farming, the incident was somewhat of a shock. Arch +undoubtedly was the chief instrument in raising the agricultural +labourer's wages to the extent of two or three shillings a week, and +the increase was justified, as every necessity was dear at the time, +owing to the great activity of trade towards the end of the sixties. +The farmers resisted the rise only because, already in the early +seventies, the flood of American competition in corn-growing was +reducing values of our own produce; and as all manufactured goods +which the farmer required had largely increased in price, he did not +see his way to incur a higher labour bill. + +Arch sent a messenger to me a few years later, to ask permission to +hold a meeting in Aldington in one of my meadows. I saw at once that +opposition would only stimulate antagonism, and consented. The meeting +was held, but only a few labourers attended, and no farmers, and +agitation, so far as we were concerned, died down. One or two of my +men were, I think, members of the Union, but having already obtained +the increased wages there was nothing more to be gained for themselves +by so continuing, and they soon dropped out of the list. Eventually +the organization collapsed. Arch was a labourer himself, and +exceedingly clever at "laying" hedges, or "pleaching," as it is still +called, and was called by Shakespeare in _Much Ado About Nothing_: + + "Bid her steal into the pleached bower, + Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun, + Forbid the sun to enter." + +Pleaching is a method of reducing and renovating an overgrown hedge by +which all old and exhausted wood is cut out, leaving live vertical +stakes at intervals, and winding the young stuff in and out of them in +basket-making fashion, after notching it at the base to allow of +bending it down without breakage. Arch was a native of Warwickshire, +the home of this art; it takes a skilled man to ensure a good result, +but when well done an excellent hedge is produced after two or three +years' growth. The quickset or whitethorn (May) makes the strongest +and most impervious hedge, and it flourishes amazingly on the stiff +clay soils of the Lias formation in that county and its neighbour +Worcestershire. + +I have often wondered at, and admired, the labourer's resignation and +fortitude in adversity; a discontented or surly face is rarely seen +among them; they have, like most people, to live lives of +self-sacrifice, frugality, and industry, which doubtless bring their +own compensation, for the exercise and habit of these very virtues +tend to the cheerfulness and courage which never give up. Possibly, +too, the open-air life, the vitalizing sunshine, the sound sleep, and +the regularity of the routine, endows them with an enviable power of +enjoyment of what some would consider trifles. After a long day out of +doors in the natural beauty of the country, who shall say that the +labourer's appetite for his evening meal, his pipe of tobacco beside +his bright fireside, and his detachment from the outside world, do not +afford him as great or greater enjoyment than the elaborate luxury of +the millionaire, with his innumerable distractions and +responsibilities? + +The labourer has, as I have said, little appreciation of the invisible +or what does not appeal strongly to his senses; he cannot understand, +for instance, that a small bag of chemical fertilizer, in the form of +a grey, inoffensive powder, can contain as great a potentiality for +the nutrition of crops as a cartload of evil-smelling material from +the farmyard; nor is he aware that, in the case of the latter, he has +to load and unload 90 pounds or thereabouts of worthless water in +every 100 pounds with which he deals. Possibly, however, his +preference for the natural fertilizer is not wholly misplaced, for +there is, no doubt, much still to be learned concerning the relative +values of natural and artificial compounds with special reference to +the bacterial inoculation of the soil and its influence on vegetable +life. + +He is not without some aesthetic feeling for the glories of Nature +daily before him, and though like Peter Bell, of whom we are told that + + "A primrose by a river's brim + A yellow primrose was to him, + And it was nothing more," + +and putting aside the metaphysical analogy and the moral teaching +which are presented by every tree and plant, he enjoys, I know, the +simple beauty of the flower itself, the exhilarating freshness of the +bright spring morning, the prodigality of the summer foliage, the ripe +autumnal glow of the harvest-field, and the sparkling frost of a +winter's day. But he very rarely expresses his enthusiasm in +superlatives: "a usefulish lot," and "a smartish few," meaning in +Worcestershire "a very good lot," and "a great many," is about the +limit to which he will commit himself. His natural reticence in +serious situations and calamity, and his reserve in the outlet of +feeling by vocal expression, give a wrong impression of its real +depth, and may even convey the impression of callousness to anyone not +conversant with the working of his mind. + +To a nephew of mine who was surprised to see his gardener's little son +leaving the garden, the man explained: "That little fellow be come to +tell I a middlinish bit of news; 'e come to say as his little sister +be dead." Notice the "middlinish bit of news," where a much stronger +expression would have been justified, and note the restraint as to his +loss, suggesting an unfeeling mind, though in reality very far from +the grief he was shy of expressing. + +An old woman in a parish adjoining mine, having lost a child, received +the condolences of a visitor with, "Yes, mum; we seems to be regular +unlucky, for only a few weeks ago we lost a pig." + +A lady well known to me, the daughter of the Vicar of a Cumberland +parish, was calling on a woman whose husband had died a few days +previously, and expressing her sympathy with the widow in her +affliction, spoke of the sadness of the circumstances. The widow +thanked her visitor, and added: "You know, miss, we was to have killed +a pig that week, but there, we couldn't 'ave 'em both about at the +same time"! + +All these incidents suggest callousness, but in reality they were +plain statements of fact from persons with a limited vocabulary and +unskilled in the niceties of polished language. + +Another incident will illustrate how faulty expression may give an +unintended impression. A lady, calling at a cottage, exclaimed with +appreciation at the fragrant odour of frying bacon which greeted her. +The cottager was busy with it at the fire. "Yes, miss," she said, "it +_is_ nice to 'ave a bit of bacon as you've waited on yourself"--of +course, referring to the fact that she knew the animal was always fed +on really good food, an important and reassuring condition, though a +tender heart might have regretted the sacrifice of an intimate +creature which some would have regarded almost as a pet. + +The cottager does not look upon his pig in that light; it is fed well +and comfortably housed with a definite object, and very little love is +lost between the pig and his master. Children in some places in +Worcestershire were formerly kept at home in order to be present on +the great occasion of the pig's obsequies. A woman, asked why her +children were absent from school, replied: "Well, sir, you see, we +killed our pig that day, and I kept the children at home for a treat; +there's no harm in that, sir, I'm sure, for pigs allus dies without +malice!" + +Villagers accept the novel significations which time or fashion +gradually confer upon old words very unreadily. I could see, at first, +that they were puzzled by my use of the word "awful," now long adopted +generally to strengthen a statement, very much as they themselves make +use of "terrible," "desp'rate," or "de-adly." They connect the word +"friend" with the signification "benefactor" only; a man, speaking of +someone born with a little inherited fortune, said that "his friends +lived before him." I told an old labourer that my little daughter +considered him a great friend of hers. He looked puzzled, and replied: +"Well, I don't know as I ever gave her anything." They still +distinguish between two words now carrying the same meaning. I told a +man that I was afraid some work he had for me would give him a lot of +trouble. He corrected me: "'Twill be no _trouble_, master, only +_labour_." + +The labourer does not appreciate a sudden order or an unreasonable +change in work once commenced; he does not like being taken by +surprise in such matters: the necessary tool--for farm labourers find +their own hand implements--may not be readily available, may be out of +order, require grinding, or a visit to the blacksmith's for repair or +readjustment. The wise master introduces the subject, whenever +possible, gradually beforehand. "We shall have to think about +wheat-hoeing, mowing, potato-digging, next week," prepares the man for +the occasion, so that when the time comes he has his hoe, axe, scythe, +or bill-hook, as the case may be, ready. The job, too, may demand some +special clothing--hedging gloves, gaiters, new shoes, and so forth. + +He is often suspicious of new arrangements or alteration of hours, and +is inclined to attribute an ulterior motive to the proposer of any +change in the unwritten but long-accustomed laws which govern his +habits; he lives in a groove into which by degrees abuses may have +crept, and some alteration may have become imperative. + +When we introduced a coal club for the villagers, with the idea of +buying several trucks at lowest cash price, collecting their +contributions week by week during the previous summer, when good wages +were being earned, and delivering the coal gratis in my carts shortly +before winter, they seemed very doubtful as to the advantage of +joining. Some saw the advantage at once, knowing the high prices of +single half-tons or hundredweights delivered in coal-merchants' carts; +others would "let us know in a day or two," wanted time to consider +the matter, being taken "unawares"; others, assured that nobody would +undertake such a troublesome business without an eye to personal +profit, but anxious not to offend my daughter, who was visiting each +cottage, replied: "Oh yes, miss, if 'tis to do _you_ any good"! +Eventually, however, they were all satisfied and very grateful, +appreciating the fact that the cartage was not charged for, and that +they were getting much better coal than before at a lower price. + +Village people, I am afraid, are rather fond of horrors; the newspaper +accounts of events which come under that description, such as murders, +suicides, and sensational trials, afford, apparently, much interest. A +man was working for me on some repairs close to my door; as he was a +stranger, I tried, as usual, to induce him to talk whenever I passed. +I had no success and could not get a word out of him, until, one +morning, I chanced to see a sensational headline in a local paper +about a suicide in a neighbouring town. On passing my workman, he +immediately broke out in great excitement, "Did you read in the paper +about that bloke who went to his father's house at W----, sat down on +the doorstep, and cut his throat?" The account had evidently seized +upon his imagination, and had thoroughly roused him out of himself, +but the following day he was as silent as before. + +Births, marriages, and deaths are interesting topics in the village, +and perhaps with reason, for, after all, they are the most important +events in our lives, and in the villages most of the cottagers are +more or less related. All the inhabitants were much excited when a +poor old widow, living very near my house, sitting on a low circular +stone parapet round her well, lost her balance in some way, fell in, +and was drowned. I was foreman of the jury at the inquest, and after +hearing the evidence, which amounted to no more than the finding of +the body soon after the event, the coroner expressed his opinion that +it was a case of accidental death, with which I at once concurred. +With some reluctance, the other jurymen agreed; they had, I imagine, +as usual, made up their minds for a more sensational verdict, but +scarcely liked to suggest it, and a verdict of accidental death was +accordingly returned. Afterwards I heard that the villagers were +saying that it was very kind of me to bring in such an indulgent +verdict, but they "knowed very well it was suicide." + +I was invited to the wedding feast of my bailiff's daughter, and +being, I suppose, regarded as the principal guest, was, according to +custom, requested to carve the excellent leg of mutton which formed +the _piece de resistance_. The parish clerk, considerably over eighty +at the time, was one of the most sprightly members of the company; he +kept us interested with historical recollections going back to the +Battle of Waterloo, and spoke of Wellington and Napoleon almost as +familiarly as we now speak of Earl Haig and the Kaiser. He had a +strong sense of humour, and, after a very hearty meal, announced that +he didn't know how it was, but he'd "sort of lost his appetite," +pretending to regard the fact as an injury, premeditated by the +hospitality of our host and hostess. + +The labourer dearly loves a grievance, not exactly for its own sake, +but because it affords an interesting topic of conversation. One +autumn, returning from a holiday in the Isle of Wight, I found the +whole village agog with the first County Council election. A +magistrate candidate, in the neighbouring village of Broadway, was to +be opposed by an Aldington man. I found a local committee holding +excited partisan meetings on behalf of the latter, active canvassing +going on, a villager appointed as secretary (always called +"seckert_ar_y" in these parts), and the election the sole topic of +conversation. The village people, always delighted in the possession +of a common enemy and a common cause, were making the election a +village affair, as opposed to the village of the other candidate; +popular feeling was running very high, Badsey, of course, joining up +with Aldington as strong allies. Some young men had lately been before +the magistrates at Evesham, and fined for obstructing the footpath, +and the magistrate candidate was selected as the scapegoat for the +affront to our united villages. At the election the Aldington man was +returned, and his supporters started with him on a triumphal progress +through the constituency. Of course, they visited Broadway, to crow +over the conquered village, but the wind was somewhat taken out of +their sails when the defeated candidate at once came forward, shook +hands with his opponent, and congratulated him upon his success! The +return journey was not so hilarious; one of the men of Broadway, +noticing a string of carts in the procession, conveying sympathizers +with the victor, in addition to the owners of the vehicles--thus +rendering the latter liable to the carriage duty of 15s. each--and +strongly resenting the spirit which brought the victorious party to +Broadway, sent a telegram to the Superintendent of Police at Evesham, +who met the returning procession and took down their names, with the +ultimate result of a substantial haul in fines for the excise! + +During the Boer War the common foe was, of course, "Old Kruger" (with +a soft _g_), and we hoisted the Union Jack in front of the Manor +whenever our side scored a substantial success. The news of Lord +Roberts's victory at Paardeburg reached Badsey in the morning, after +the papers, and, returning by road from my farm round, I heard great +rejoicings and cheering from the direction of the village. Meeting a +boy, I learned that "Old Cronje" was defeated and a prisoner, with +"'leven thousand men!"--a report which proved to be correct with the +trifling discount of 9,000 of the latter! The same spirit of union for +a common cause was almost as evident at that time as in the far more +strenuous struggle of 1914-1918, and so long as England to herself +remains but true, doubtless our enemies will fulfil the part assigned +to them by the greatest of English poets. + +A love of the marvellous is a common characteristic of country village +folks, and I have already referred to such beliefs in the supernatural +among my men. We had our own "white lady" on the highroad where it +turns off to Aldington, though I never met anyone who had seen her; +there were, too, signs and wonders before approaching deaths, and a +thrilling story of a headless calf in the neighbourhood. + +An old house at Badsey, once a _hospitium_ or sanatorium for sick +monks from Evesham Abbey in pre-Reformation days, was reported to be +haunted, and people told tales of "the old fellows rattling about +again" of a night. Probably these beliefs had been encouraged in +former times by the monks themselves, to prevent the villagers prying +too closely into their occupations; and no doubt the scattered +individuals of the same body originated the popular theory that the +Abbey lands of which they were dispossessed would never, owing to a +curse, pass by inheritance in the direct line from father to eldest +son--an event that in the course of nature often fails, though by no +means invariably. + +In recent years a startling story has been told, and even appeared in +a local paper, of a ghostly adventure near the Aldington turning. A +young lady (not a native), riding her bicycle to Evesham from Badsey, +passed, machine and all, right through an apparition which suddenly +crossed her path, without any resulting fall. + +In connection with the monk's _hospitium_ I lately made an interesting +discovery as to the origin of a curious name of one of my fields, +which had always puzzled me. The field adjoined the _hospitium_, and +was always known as "the Signhurst." Field-names are a very +interesting study, they usually bear some significance to a +peculiarity in the field itself, or its position with reference to its +surroundings, and it has always been a hobby of mine to trace their +derivations. The word "Signhurst" presented no clue to its origin +except the Anglo-Saxon "burst," signifying a wood, but there was no +appearance or tradition of any wood having ever occupied the spot, and +the land was so good, and so well situated as to aspect, that it was +unlikely to have been such a site, even in Anglo-Saxon days. I +stumbled upon a passage in May's _History of Evesham_ which mentioned +the "Seyne House," meaning "Sane House," the equivalent of the modern +word "sanatorium," and I saw at once the origin of the corrupted word +"Signhurst"--the field near the Seyne House. + +Wages are, of course, the crowning reward of the working-man's week; +throughout the whole of my time 15s. a week was the recognized pay for +six full summer days--"a very little to receive, but a good deal to +pay away," as a neighbour once said. During harvest, and at piecework, +more money was earned, and it always pleased me that I could pay much +better prices for piece-work among the hops than for piece-work at +wheat-hoeing or on similar unremunerative crops. The reason is +obvious: the hoeing of an acre of wheat, a crop which might possibly +return a matter of L10 per acre, takes no more manual effort than the +hoeing of an acre of hops, where a gross return of L70 or L80 per acre +is not unusual, and is sometimes considerably exceeded. + +As wages must eventually always depend upon prices of produce raised +by the labour for which such wages are expended, when the agricultural +labourer buys his bread he is only buying back his own labour in a +concrete form plus the other relative expenses on the farm, and the +cost of milling, baking, and distribution, so that when he gets a high +price for his labour he must expect to pay a high price for his food; +and when the price of food is reduced the price of his labour also +falls. Here, again, the rudiments of economics, taught in the schools, +would conduce to his understanding the position, and the eradication +of discontent. + +It is impossible, economically speaking, to defend the system of equal +wages to the most capable and industrious men on the one hand and to +inefficient slackers on the other; and as a graduated scale of +payment, according to results, is not practicable without arousing +ill-feeling and jealousy, the farmer's only remedy is to get rid of +the slackers. Inefficiency and slacking are often due to a man's +enfeebled mental and physical condition, owing to neglect in his +bringing up as a child, or to insufficient or unwholesome food +provided by an improvident wife in his home. + +I was fortunate in meeting with very few of these degenerates, but I +remember one tall, delicate-looking man who seemed unable to apply +either his strength or his attention to his work. He was denounced by +the foreman under whom he worked as not only useless, but "the +starvenest wretch as ever I see," intended to convey the impression, +and confirming my own conclusion, that cold and hunger were really the +cause of his inability to render a fair day's work. + +I remember, too, when some elderly women, with a younger one, were +hay-making, one of the old ladies, dragging the big "heel-rake" behind +the waggon in course of loading--always rather a tough job--tried to +induce the younger woman to take her place with, "Here, Sally, thee +take a turn at it; thee be a better 'ooman nor I be." My bailiff, +overhearing, at once interposed: "Be she a better 'ooman than thee, +Betsy, ov a Saturday night [pay-night]?" + +Hard-and-fast laws and fixed prices for agricultural labour will be +found very difficult to maintain as to piecework; no wage board can +fix just prices, because conditions are so variable. Of two men +cutting corn on separate plots in the same field, the one at 12s. an +acre may really earn more money _per diem_ than another man at 15s. an +acre on the other side of the field, owing to the difference in the +weight of the crop or its condition, it being, perhaps, erect in the +first case, and laid by heavy storms in the second. + +There is, too, a vast difference in the value of boys' work and +usefulness; one may easily be worth double another, yet no difference +is allowable by the new law; or one may demoralize another, so that +two are less effective than one. A good old saying puts the matter +very plainly: "One boy's a boy, two boys are half a boy, and three +boys are no boy at all!" + +It is, in fact, ridiculous for townspeople, lawyers, and manufacturers +to legislate for the labour of the farm; they do not understand that +indoor labour in the workshop or factory, under regular conditions and +with unvarying materials, is totally different from labour out of +doors, in constantly changing conditions of season, weather, and the +resulting crops dealt with. An old maxim of the Worcestershire +labourer who, without a fixed place, took on piece-work at specially +busy times, will confirm this: "Go to a good farmer for wheat-hoeing, +and to a bad one for harvesting." I may explain that the fields of the +good farmer are clean and nearly free from weeds, so that hoeing is a +comparatively light job; but the same, or nearly the same, price per +acre is paid by the bad farmer, whose corn is overrun with weeds, +entailing much more time and harder work. On the other hand, the good +farmer's wheat crop is much heavier than that of the bad, and, the +prices for cutting being again very similar, more money _per diem_ can +be earned at harvest on the farm of the latter. + +It is a sound old Worcestershire saying that "the time to hoe is when +there are no weeds"--apparently a paradox, but the meaning is simple: +when no weeds are to be seen above ground there are always millions of +tiny seedlings just below the surface ready to increase and multiply +wonderfully with a shower of rain; if attacked at the seedling stage, +these can be slaughtered in battalions, with far greater ease and +efficacy than when they become deep-rooted and established, and +dominate the crop. + +I have heard of farmers to whom pay-night was a sore trial; one such +was frequently known to mount his horse and gallop away just before +his men appeared: how he settled eventually I do not know. Some +farmers will pay out of doors on their rounds, having a rooted +objection to business of any kind under a roof; and one small farmer, +I was told, always passed the cash to his men behind his back so that +he might not have the agony of parting actually before his eyes. + +A labourer is supposed to come to work in his master's time and go +home in his own, thus sharing the necessary loss, and, as a rule, they +are fairly punctual; but one defaulter in this particular will waste +many moments of a whole gang working together, as it seems to be +etiquette not to begin till they are all present. I have often heard, +too, sarcastic comparisons made between the day-man and "the +any-time-of-day man." + +The cottagers have their feuds, and the use of joint wash-houses or +baking-ovens between two or more adjoining cottages is a frequent +source. I have had excited wives of tenants coming to me at +unseasonable hours to settle these differences, and I found it a very +difficult business to reconcile the disputants. I could only visit the +_locus in quo_ and arrange fixed and separate days and regulations; +but though the wisdom of Solomon may administer justice in a dispute, +it is impossible to ensure a really peaceful solution that will +endure. + +Sometimes feuds, originating in such or similar causes, were +maintained for years by neighbours living with only a 9-inch party +wall between them, and daily meetings outside, to the extent of not +even "passing the time of day." At last, however, in a day of distress +to one, the heart of the unafflicted other would melt, and after an +offer of help, or actual assistance, kind relations would be once more +established. Or a peace offering, in the shape of a dish of good +pig-meat, sent over with a kind message, would restore more genial +conditions, and they would return to happy and neighbourly +familiarity. + +I once employed an old Dorset labourer, a tall, slim, aristocratic +figure, with an elegant, refined nose to match; he bore the well-known +name of an ancient and distinguished Dorset family, and I have no +doubt was well descended. He was decidedly a canny, not to say crafty, +man. I gave him a holiday at Whitsuntide to visit his old home, but he +overran the time agreed upon and returned some days late. Before I +could begin the rebuke I proposed to administer, he produced a +charming photograph of a ruined abbey near his old locality, and +handed it to me as a present. "I thought upon you, master, while I was +away, and knowing as you was fond of ancient things I've brought you +this picture." I was completely disarmed, and the rebuke had to be +postponed _sine die_. + +As I was talking one day to my bailiff--one of the men who lived a +mile away standing near--he said: "Tom, here, is always the first man +to arrive in the morning; I have never known him to be late." I +congratulated Tom, and asked what time he went to bed: "Oh, about +seven o'clock!" He was, in fact, a lonely old bachelor, and, being "no +scholard," it saved lights and firing to be early to bed. + +This man, like many villagers, had very vague ideas of geography. To +save the trouble of cooking, he lived largely on American tinned beef, +and got chaffed about it by his fellow-workers. "How be you getting on +with the 'Merican biff?" Tom was asked. "Oh," said he, "never no more +'Merican biff for me." "How's that, Tom?" "Why, the other day I found +a trouser-button in it!" The point of this story lies in the fact that +the Russo-Turkish war was proceeding at the time. _Tempora mutantur_, +we were then encouraging Turkey against Russia, though the latter had +declared war to avenge the atrocities in Bulgaria of which the Turks +were guilty, while in the recent struggle the position was almost +exactly reversed. + +There was then a violent militant feeling here in Britain, and excited +crowds were singing: + +"We don't want to fight but, by Jingo, if we do, We've got the ships, +we've got the men, We've got the money too." + +Hence the expression "Jingoism," which we often hear to-day, though, +perhaps, the origin is now almost forgotten. + +It is not unusual to see villagers, as married couples, complete +contrasts to each other in appearance and character--one fat and +jolly, the other thin and miserable; one happy and contented, the +other grumbling and morose; one open-hearted and generous, the other +close and parsimonious. In matrimony people are said to choose their +opposites, and possibly, as time goes on, the difference in their +appearance and dispositions becomes still more definitely developed. + +The labourer understands sarcasm and makes use of it himself, but +irony is often lost upon him. Passing an old man on a pouring wet day, +I greeted him, adding, "Nice morning, isn't it?" He stared, hesitated, +and then, "Well, it would be if it wasn't for the rain!" I only +remember one surly man--not one of my workers or tenants. He was +scraping a very muddy road, and I remarked, for something to say, +"Makes it look better, doesn't it?" All I got in reply was, "I +shouldn't do it if it didn't!" + +It is important, in managing a mixed lot of farm labourers, to find +out each man's special gift, making him the responsible person when +the time or opportunity arrives for its application. There are men, +excellent with horses, who have no love of steam-driven machinery, and +_vice versa_; and there are men who are capable at small details, yet +unable to take comprehensive views. + +Responsibility is the life-blood of efficiency, and men can always be +found upon whom responsibility will act like a charm, producing +quickened perception, interest, foresight, economy, resource, +industry, and all the characteristics that responsibility demands. Put +the square peg in the square hole, the round peg in the round hole; +show the man you have confidence in him, teach him to act on his own +initiative in all the lesser matters that concern his job, coming only +to the master in those larger considerations to which the latter are +subordinate, and my experience is that your confidence will not be +betrayed, and that he will save you an immense amount of tiresome +detail. + +The most difficult man to deal with is the over-confident "know-all"; +he is always ready to oppose experience--often dearly bought--with his +superior knowledge, he can suggest a quicker or a cheaper way of doing +everything, and in his last place he "never saw" your system followed. +He is the penny-wise and pound-foolish individual, and his methods are +"near enough." It has been said that at twenty a man knows everything, +at forty he is not quite so sure, and at sixty he is certain that he +knows nothing at all; but there are exceptions even to this rule, who +continue all their lives thinking more and more of their own opinions, +and completely satisfied with their own methods. On the other hand, +the master will always find, among the more experienced, men from whom +much is to be learnt; they are generally diffident and not too ready +to hazard an opinion, but when consulted they can give very valuable +help. I willingly acknowledge my indebtedness to my old hands, their +well-founded convictions that were the fruit of long years of +practical experience, and their readiness to impart them in times of +doubt and difficulty. + +Just as bad-tempered grooms make nervous, bad-tempered horses; rough +and noisy cattle-men, fidgety cows; ill-trained dogs and savage +shepherds, sheep wild and difficult to approach; so does the +bad-tempered, impatient, or slovenly master make men with the same bad +qualities, when a smile or a kind word will bring out all that is good +in a man and produce the best results in his work. + +I began my farming with four dear old women, working on the land, when +wanted for light jobs; the youngest must have been fifty at least. +They received the time-honoured wage of tenpence a day, and worked, or +talked, about eight hours. They loved to work near the main road, +discussing the natural history of the occupants of passing carts or +carriages. They knew something comic, tragic, or compromising about +everybody, and expressed themselves with epigrammatic force. A farmer +occupant of a neighbouring farm in long-past days, was a favourite +subject of such recollections. After relating how "he were a random +duke," and recalling his habits, one old lady would conclude the +recital with an account of his last days, adding, as if everything was +thereby finally condoned: + + "But there, 'e was just as nice a carpse as ever I see, and + I was a'most minded to put his paddle [thistle-spud] beside + him in his coffin, for he was always a-diggin' and a-delvin' + about with it." + +One member of this quartet, when ill, had a dish of minced mutton sent +her in the hopes of tempting her appetite. She eyed the gift with +disfavour, and announced with scorn that "she preferred to chew her +meat herself!" + +In due course these old ladies retired from active service and younger +women took their places; women were especially necessary in the +hop-yards for the important operation of tying the selected bines to +the poles with rushes and pulling out those which were superfluous. It +was difficult, at first, to accustom them to the fact that the hop +always twines the way of the sun, whilst the kidney bean takes the +opposite course. And there was a problem which greatly exercised their +minds: How were they to reach the hops at the tops of the poles--14 +feet from the ground--when the time came? It did not occur to them +that it was possible to cut the bine and pull up the pole. They soon +became very quick and expert at the tying, and their well-worn +wedding-rings, telling of a busy life, would flash brightly in the +sunshine as they tenderly coaxed the brittle bines round the base of +the poles, securing them with the rush tied in a special slip-knot, so +that it easily expanded as the bine enlarged. + +Women are splendid at all kinds of light farm work whenever deftness +and gentle touch are required, such as hop-tying and picking, or +gathering small fruit like currants, raspberries, and strawberries; +but I do not consider them in the least capable of taking the place of +men in outdoor work which demands muscular strength and endurance and +the ability to withstand severe heat or bitter cold or wet ground +under foot, through all the varying seasons. Village women have, too, +their home duties to attend to, and it is most important that their +men-folk should be suitably fed and their houses kept clean and +attractive. + +On the farm of my son-in-law, in Warwickshire, I have seen something +of the work of land girls, to the number of seventy or more, for whom +he provided a well-organized camp with a competent lady Captain; and I +know how useful they proved in the emergency caused by the War, but I +still adhere to my former conclusion as to the more strenuous forms of +farm labour, without in the least detracting from my admiration for +the courage and patriotism that brought them forward. + +I know one woman, however, who quite successfully undertakes very +strenuous garden work, including digging, having been inured to it at +a very early age. If she could be spared from her own work to take the +position of instructress for young girls determined to make the land +their chief employment, they would be saved a vast amount of +unnecessary fatigue and labour by learning the art of using spades, +forks, hoes, and rakes in the way that experience teaches, relying +more upon the weight and designed capabilities of the tool to do the +work than upon their own untrained muscles. + +We could always get a supply of excellent maids for house-work from +among the village families; they began very young, coming in for a few +hours daily to help the regular staff, and, as these left or got +married, they were ready trained to take their places. These girls +were quite free from the self-importance of the present-day domestic, +but I remember one nice village girl about whom we inquired as a +likely maid who, it then appeared, was engaged to marry a thriving +small tradesman. The girl's mother, being over-elated at her +daughter's apparently brilliant prospects of independence, rejected +the proposal with some hauteur, adding that her daughter "would soon +be keeping her own maid." I fear, however, that she was disappointed, +as the course of true love did not run smooth. + +We preferred a married man as shepherd, because, when I had only a few +cows, he combined his duties with those of cowman; and, bringing in +the milk and doing the churning, he was much about the back premises. +On one occasion, however, I engaged a young bachelor, partly because +he replied, with a knowing smile, to a question as to whether he was +married, that he dared say he could be if he liked--which I +optimistically took to amount to an announcement of his engagement. + +Time went on and he remained a single man, but it was observable that +he lingered on his milky way, and was more in evidence in the dairy +than his duties appeared to warrant. We concluded that he was +attracted by the cook. One day my wife said to another maid: "I can't +think why the shepherd spends so much time in the house. I suppose +cook is the attraction?" The girl blushed, hesitated, and looked down, +but finally courageously murmured: "Please, mum, it's me, mum!" They +were married in due course, and we lost an excellent servant. + +Some of the village women and girls filled up spare moments with +"gloving"; the large kid-glove manufacturers in Worcester supplied the +material, cut into shape, and a stand, with a kind of vice divided +into spaces the exact size of each stitch, which held the work firmly +while the stitching was done by hand; they grew very quick at this +work, and turned out the gloves with beautifully even stitches, but I +don't think they could earn much at it in a day, and it must have been +rather monotonous. + +I was interested to read in Mr. Warde Fowler's _Kingham Old and New_ +an account of a peculiar ceremony--called "Skimmington," by Mr. Hardy, +in his _Mayor of Casterbridge_--which took place in Kingham village. I +have known of two similar cases, one in Surrey and one at Aldington, +under the name of "rough music." The Kingham case was quite parallel +with that at Aldington, being a demonstration of popular disapproval +of the conduct of a woman resident, in matters arising out of +matrimonial differences. + +The outraged neighbours collect near the dwelling of the delinquent, +having provided themselves with old trays, pots and pans, and anything +by means of which a horrible din can be raised, and proceed to +serenade the offender. To be the subject of such a demonstration is +regarded as a signal disgrace and a most emphatic mark of popular +odium. Mr. Warde Fowler tells me, on the authority of a German book on +marriage, etc., that "the same sort of din is made at marriage in some +parts of Europe to drive evil spirits away from the newly married +pair." Possibly, therefore, the custom among our own villagers may +have originated with the same idea, and they may formerly have taken +the charitable view that evil spirits were responsible for evil deeds, +and that their exorcism was a neighbourly duty. + +The holiday outings I gave my men were a _quid pro quo_ for some hours +of overtime in the hay-making, and included a day's wages, all +expenses, and a supply of food. They generally went to a large town +where an agricultural show was in progress, but I think the sea trips +to Ilfracombe and Weston-super-Mare were the most popular, offering as +they did much greater novelty. I have a vivid recollection of the +preparation of the rations on the previous night: a vast joint of beef +nicely roasted and got cold before operations commenced, my wife and +daughter making the sandwiches, while I cut up the beef in the +kitchen, sometimes in my shirt-sleeves on a hot summer night; +mountains of loaves of bread, great slices of cake, and pounds of +cheese, completed the provisions. The rations were wrapped in separate +papers and placed in a hipbath, covered with a cloth, and finally kept +in a cool building, whence each man took his portion at early dawn. +For the sea trips the train took the party to Gloucester and +Sharpness, where they embarked upon the steamer. + +Many and thrilling were the tales I heard next day; the sea was fairly +smooth until they reached the Bristol Channel, but then, if they met a +south-west wind, the vessel began to roll, and jovial faces looked +thoughtful. I must not dwell upon the delightful horrors of the voyage +on such occasions; they were accepted with good-humour and regarded as +part of the show, but it was curious that not one of the narrators +himself suffered the fate that he so graphically described as the +portion of the others. Arrived at their destination, they inspected +the town, watched the people on the piers and parades, and the +children playing on the sands. The latter created the greatest +interest, busy with their spades and buckets, or, as one man expressed +it, "little jobs o' draining and summat!" + +At Christmas the village children always came in small gangs to sing, +or rather chant, a peculiar and very ancient seasonable greeting: + + "I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, + A pocket full of money and a cellar full of beer, + A good fat pig to last you all the year. + May God bless all friends near! + A merry, merry Christmas and a happy New Year." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + +MACHINERY--VILLAGE POLITICS--ASPARAGUS. + + + "Last week came one to the county town + To preach our poor little army down." + --_Maud_. + + +Though machinery has lightened the labour of manual workers to some +extent, it entails much more trouble upon masters and foremen, for +breakages are frequent and always occur at the busiest time. What with +mowers, reapers, thrashing machines, chaff-cutters, root-pulpers, and +grain-mills run by steam-power or in connection with horse-gears; +hop-washers, separators, and other delicately adjusted novelties, the +master must of necessity be something of a mechanic himself. I doubt +if machinery is really quite the advantage claimed by theorists and +reconstructionists at the present day. Even the thrashing machine, +universally adopted, presents disadvantages in comparison with the +ancient flail, generally regarded as obsolete, though still to be +found in occasional use by the smallholder or allotment occupier. In +former times the farmer reserved his thrashing by hand, for the most +part, for winter work during severe frost or wet weather, when nothing +could be done outside. The immense barns, which still exist, were +filled almost to the roof at harvest; thatching was not necessary, and +every sheaf was absolutely safe from rain as soon as it was under +cover. Continuous winter work was provided for the men, and a daily +supply of fresh straw for chaff-cutting and bedding, besides fresh +chaff and rowens or cavings for stock throughout the winter. With the +thrashing machine in use for ricks, thatching is a necessity, and is +often difficult to arrange in the stress of harvest; the machine and +engine demand a day's work for two teams of horses to fetch them, and +the cartage and expense of much coal, now so dear. On a small farm +extra hands have to be engaged, the straw has to be stacked or carried +to the barns, and the same applies to the chaff and rowens. If the +weather is damp, straw, chaff, and rowens get stale, mouldy, and +unpalatable to the stock, a heavy charge is made for the hire of the +machine and the machine men, and the latter require food and drink or +payment instead. The machine breaks and bruises many grains of corn, +which are thereby damaged for seed or malting, whereas the less urgent +flail leaves them intact. + +The sound of the thrashing machine gives an impression to outsiders of +brisk and remunerative work, but it is cheerful to the farmer only +when high prices are ruling. Far otherwise was it for many years +before the War, when corn-growers heard only its moaning, despondent +note, telling anything but a flattering tale, only varied by an +occasional angry growl, when irregular feeding choked its satiated +appetite. + +From the aesthetic standpoint uncouth and noisy machines, such as +mowers and reapers, cannot be compared to a lusty team of men with +scythes, in their white shirts, backed by the flowering meadows; or a +sunny field of busy harvesters facing a golden wall of corn, and +leaving behind them the fresh-shorn stubble dotted with sheaves and +nicely balanced shocks. The rattle of the machines, too, is discordant +and out of harmony with the peaceful countryside. + +It is related of Ruskin that, hearing the insistent rattle of a mowing +machine in a meadow adjoining his home by the beautiful Coniston +Water, and his sense of the fitting being outraged, he interviewed the +owner, and, by an offer to pay the trifling difference between machine +and hand labour, induced him to discontinue the annoyance. + +As to the relative cost of machine and hand wheat-cutting, quite early +in my farming I obtained the opinion of a distinguished farmer, then +well known on the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, Mr. +Charles Randell, of Chadbury, near Evesham, on the subject: "If you +can get a good crop," he said, "cut, tied, and stocked by hand at +anything like 15s. an acre, don't use a machine. If the corn is ripe +it knocks out and wastes quite a bushel of wheat per acre" (worth at +that time about 5s., now nearer 9s. or 10s.). "I always bring out my +machines, and have them oiled and made ready, _but I don't want to use +them_." + +In a wet harvest the machine is unworkable on sticky clay soil, and +after a wet summer, when the corn is badly laid and twisted, it makes +very poor work, cutting off the ears and scattering them, and leaving +a quantity of uncut and untidy straw on the ground. + +In my own case my equanimity was never disturbed by a reaping machine, +with its unwieldy tossing arms, on my land, for I had to find +employment for my full staff of regular hands, specially required for +the much more important hop-picking a little later, and it pleased me +that they should get the extra pay for harvest work as well. + +The cream separator, I admit, is a wonderful invention, and its hum is +not unmusical; it provides fresh skim milk for the calves and pigs +morning and night, which, as well as the cream, is thoroughly cleansed +in the process. The aeration of the skim milk leaves it a most +wholesome and nourishing article of diet for the villagers if they +could be made to understand its value, and that the removal of the +cream takes away only the fat (heating material), leaving the bone and +muscle making constituents in the milk. I could never induce my +village folk to accept this rudimentary proposition; they fancied that +all the goodness was gone with the cream, and though I offered the +skim milk at the nominal price of one halfpenny a quart, very few +would send their children to fetch it, though they mostly lived within +a hundred yards of the dairy. + +The hay or straw elevator is one of the greatest helps, saving much +heavy overhand labour in rick-building. An old labourer, pointing to +one, with great appreciation, on a farm I was visiting, said: +"_That's_ a machine as will be always kept in the dry and took care +on." He spoke from experience of the arduous work of unloading and the +passing of heavy weights, sometimes from the bed of the waggon to the +summit of the rick; for, as my bailiff often said, "Nobody knows so +well where the shoe pinches as the man who has to wear it." + +Steam has not done all that was expected of it as an agricultural +slave. The steam plough is not a success on heavy land where the +ridges are high and irregular in width, and even the steam cultivator +has to be used with caution lest the soil should be carried from the +ridges to the furrows, and the "squitch" (couch) buried to a depth at +which it is difficult to eradicate. The great convenience of steam +cultivation is that full advantage can be taken of a short spell of +hot, dry weather for fallowing operations, and the soil is left so +hollow that it soon bakes and kills the weeds. I fully sympathize with +Tennyson's, _Northern Farmer, Old Style:_ + + "But summon 'ull come ater meae mayhap wi' 'is kittle o' steaem + Huzzin' an' maaezin' the blessed feaelds wi' the Devil's oaen teaem"; + +for, except on a large farm with immense fields, the ponderous and +ungainly steam, tackle gives one a sensation of intrusion. Such a +field can be found on a farm between Evesham and Alcester; it contains +300 acres. The occupier, speaking of it, mentioned that it was all +wheat that year except one corner. To a question as to the size of the +corner, it transpired that it was 50 acres, and growing peas. For +comparison there is a story of a Devonshire farmer who said he had +been very busy one winter making four fields into one. "Then you've +got a big field," said a friend. "Yes," was the reply; "it's just four +acres." + +When the farm labourer was enfranchised in 1885 he became an important +member of the electorate. Candidates and canvassers alike had a much +more strenuous time than ever before, the former were constrained to +hold meetings in every village, and the latter were obliged to visit +nearly every cottage. The late Sir Richard Temple after a +distinguished career in India, became Conservative candidate for our +division. The doctrine of "three acres and a cow," in opposition to +every tenet of rural economy, as well as the division of the land +among the labourers, were at the time paraded by theorists and paid +agitators, as bribes to purchase the votes of the new electors, and as +ensuring the salvation of the rural population, which was then +beginning to suffer from unemployment, resulting from the destruction +of corn-growing by foreign competition. + +The more credulous of the labourers were excited and unsettled by the +alluring prospect of independence thus held out to them, and it was +reported that some went so far as to survey the fields around their +villages and select the plots they proposed to cultivate, and that +others took baskets to the poll in which to bring home the +all-powerful magic of the mysterious vote! Among the new voters in a +neighbouring village, a man of very decided views found it puzzling to +decide by which candidate they were most nearly represented, and, +determined to make no mistake at the poll, he consulted a +fellow-labourer, inquiring: "Which way be the big uns a-going, because +I be agin they?" + +The Squire of an adjoining parish met an old villager with whom he had +always been on good terms; after mutual greetings, the man +sympathised: "I _be_ sorry for you, Squire." "Why?" was the rejoinder. +"Yes, I be regular sorry for you, Squire, that I be.." "What's the +matter?" asked the Squire. "Ay! about this here land; 'tis to be +divided amongst we working men." "Indeed," said the Squire; "but look +here, after a bit, some of you won't want to cultivate it any longer, +and some, with improvident habits, will sell their plots to others, so +that soon it will be all back again into the hands of a few; what will +you do then?" The man looked puzzled, scratched his head, and +cogitated deeply, until a simple solution presented itself: "Then, +Squire," said he, "we shall divide again!" + +Sir Richard Temple was undoubtedly an able man, but he was a complete +stranger to the local conditions of the constituency. The villagers of +Badsey especially, as well as of other adjoining parishes, were just +beginning to retrieve their position, threatened by the collapse of +corn-growing and consequent unemployment, by the adoption of +market-gardening and fruit-growing. The land, run down and full of +weeds and rubbish, had been cut up into allotments and offered to them +as tenants, their only choice lying between years of hard work in +redeeming its condition or emigration. Many young men chose the +latter, and did well in the States of America; but where there was a +wife and young children that course was scarcely possible, and the man +became an allotment tenant. Passing one of these on a plot full of +"squitch," which he was laboriously breaking up with a fork to expose +it in big clods to a baking sun, I asked if he had taken it. "Well," +said he, "I don't know whether I've taken _it_ or it's taken _me_!" + +These men, by unceasing labour and self-denial, were just beginning to +turn the corner; they had cleaned the land, ameliorated its mechanical +condition by application of soot and by deep digging with their +beloved forks, and, having discovered how wonderfully asparagus +nourished on this deep, rich soil, had planted large areas, as well as +plum-trees and other market-garden crops, and the well-merited return +was coming in increasingly year by year. + +Sir Richard Temple did not understand the difference between the small +holder, growing corn and ordinary crops in less favoured parts of the +countrymen the one hand, and market-gardeners in the Vale of Evesham, +with its early climate, splendid soil, and railway connection with +huge artisan populations, delivering the produce with punctuality and +despatch, on the other. He considered that small holders could not +make an economic success where the farmers had failed, and had made +his views well known in the constituency, but he did not distinguish +between the small holder and the market-gardener. + +The men of Badsey felt aggrieved, they knew better, and at a meeting +he held in the village they gave him a rather noisy hearing, with +interruptions such as, "Keep off them steel farks," "Mind them steel +farks, Sir Richard," and so on. + +Sir Richard came to ask for my support and assistance in our village, +and, as I was not at home, my wife entertained him in my absence, with +tea and wedding-cake. She innocently asked if he had come to canvass +me; her straightforward query surprised him, but, after a moment's +hesitation, he replied cautiously: "Well, something of that sort." + +He was eventually returned, and the men of Badsey continued to +flourish on asparagus-growing in spite of his warnings; new houses +sprang up in every direction, and available labour grew scarcer and +scarcer. Those splendid asparagus "sticks" or "buds," as they are +called, tied with osier or withy twigs, which may be seen in Covent +Garden Market and the large fruiterers' shops in Regent Street, are +grown in and around the parishes of Badsey and Aldington. They command +high prices, up to 15s. and 20s. a hundred for special stuff, and this +year (1919) I see that L21 was realized for the champion hundred at +the Badsey Asparagus Show. That, of course, must be regarded as quite +exceptional, and possibly there were special considerations which made +it worth the money to the purchaser. + +Later came difficulties; after successive dry summers the asparagus +was attacked by a fungoid complaint, called by the growers "rust." +Instead of growing vigorously after the crop had been gathered--which +is the time when the buds for next year's crop are developing on the +crowns of the plants--and finally dying off naturally in beautiful +feathery plumes of green and gold, it presented a dingy and rusty +appearance, eventually turning black. Asparagus cannot stand +long-continued summer and autumn drought; it likes plenty of moisture, +in free circulation but not stagnant. The crops that followed the +appearance I have described were very deficient, proving that the +growing season of one year's foliage is the time when next year's crop +is decided. + +The growth of asparagus is still a very important part of the +market-gardener's business in the parishes referred to, but it does +not continue to produce the best results indefinitely and continuously +on the same land, and the growers have been obliged to extend their +acreages and take fresh plots. I have little doubt that with the +scientific application of artificial fertilizers the yield would +continue satisfactory for a much longer period. Plant disease of any +kind is nearly always due to starvation for want of the chemical +constituents upon which the crop feeds, though sometimes caused by +unhealthy sap, the result of late spring frosts or unsuitable weather. + +The asparagus-growers relied too much upon soot as a fertilizer; it +has a marvellous effect upon the mechanical condition of heavy land; +its particles intervene between the particles of the almost impalpable +powder of which clay is composed, and the soil approximates to a +well-tilled garden plot after a few applications and careful +incorporation, and in the local phraseology, it becomes "all of a +myrtle." But as plant food soot contains nitrogen only, a great plant +stimulant, which quickly exhausts the soil of the other necessary +constituents. If the growers would make use of basic slag, +superphosphate, or bone dust to replace the phosphate of lime removed +by the crop, and of potash in one of its available forms, they would +soon experience a great improvement in the power of their asparagus to +resist disease and deterioration. + +I am aware that some of the smaller growers regard all kinds of +artificial fertilizers with suspicion, but they may be interested, +should they ever read these pages, in the following story. When +Peruvian guano was first introduced into this country, the farmers +could not be persuaded that it merited any reliance as a manure. The +importers, in despair, caused some of the despised stuff to be sown in +the form of huge letters spelling the word "FOOLS" upon a bare +hillside, visible from a great distance. The following spring, with +the beginning of growth, and throughout the summer, the word stared +the farmers in the face whenever they chanced to look that way, in +dark green outstanding characters upon the yellow background; after +this practical demonstration there was no difficulty in finding +purchasers. + +Sir Richard Temple was opposed by Mr. Arthur Chamberlain, one at least +of whose canvassers was not above stretching a point to obtain the +votes of the labourers. My men told me that they had been promised +roast beef and plum pudding every day of their lives should the +Liberal party be returned. These tactics were again resorted to in the +election of 1906, when walls were placarded with pictures of the +Chinese employed in the gold-mines of the Transvaal, driven in chains +by cruel overseers, presumably representing the Conservative +Government which had sanctioned their employment. I know from what I +heard in my new home, for I was no longer at Aldington, that this +misrepresentation decided the votes of many of the more ignorant +voters. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + +MY THREE VICARS--CHURCH RESTORATION--CHURCHWARDEN EXPERIENCES-- +CLERICAL AND OTHER STORIES. + + "Where many a generation's prayer, + Hath perfumed and hath blessed the air." + --GLADSTONE. + +I saw a good deal of my three successive Vicars, for I was Vicar's +churchwarden for a period of nearly twenty years, and was treasurer of +the fund for the restoration and enlargement of Badsey Church. My +first Vicar had held the living for over thirty years when we decided +upon this important undertaking; and not wishing to be burdened with +the correspondence which the work would entail, he invited me to act +for him. I was pleased, because I have always been interested in the +architecture of old buildings, especially churches, and readily +undertook the post. I had the constant and intimate co-operation of my +co-warden, Mr. Julius Sladden, of Badsey, and I may say that no two +people ever worked together with greater harmony. + +The restoration had been debated for many years; the ancient church +was sadly dilapidated, and disfigured by an ugly gallery at the west +end of the nave, which obscured the finest arch in the building, +leading into the tower; and the incident which brought the matter +within the range of possibility was romantic. The Vicar succeeded +quite unexpectedly to a large inheritance; the news reached him and +his wife, who was away from home at the time, simultaneously. The +letters they wrote to each other on their good fortune crossed in the +post, and characteristically each wrote "Badsey Church must now be +restored." Soon afterwards the Vicar came to my house and, sitting +down at my table, wrote me a cheque for L500 to start the fund. + +On the advice of the patrons of the living--the Dean and Chapter of +Christ Church, Oxford--we invited Mr. Thomas Graham Jackson, now Sir +Thomas Graham Jackson, R.A., to undertake the duties of architect. His +work was well known at Oxford at the time, as the beautiful New +Schools had just been completed from his designs; we were also most +fortunate in obtaining the services of Mr. Thomas Collins, of +Tewkesbury, as builder. Mr. Collins was devoted to church +architecture, and the financial consideration of such work was to him +quite secondary to the pleasure he experienced as a connoisseur in +restoring to the dignity and beauty of the past any ecclesiastical +building of distinguished interest. The first estimate was, I think, +L1,500, exclusive of architect's fees, but when the work was completed +we had expended in all a sum of over L2,130. We did not finally clear +off the debt until 1894, nine years after the reopening of the church, +and since then a considerable further sum has been expended in +rehanging the old bells and adding two new ones to make up the full +peal of eight. + +It was delightful to experience the willingness of everybody to help; +subscriptions, large and small, came in readily at the very outset, +and this part of the work never became arduous until the last few +hundreds had to be raised. Most of us experienced the truth of the +proverb _Bis dat qui cito dat_, but in a different sense from that +which usually commends it, for many who gave quickly not only +literally gave twice, but three times or more. Bazaars, concerts, and +entertainments of all kinds were undertaken by the parishioners, a sum +of L376 being raised by these means. Among them a bazaar at Badsey +realized L130; another, later, at Aldington in one of my old barns, +L80; and two concerts--afternoon and evening--at Malvern, organized by +my wife and her sister, Miss Poulton, L100. + +The Vicar received a notable letter from the late Lord Salisbury, the +Premier; they had been at Eton and Christ Church together, and Lord +Salisbury was godfather to the Vicar's eldest son. The Vicar had +written of the fortune he had inherited, and spoke of some rooks as +having brought the luck by building, for the first time, in an +elm-tree in the vicarage grounds. Lord Salisbury, in sending a +donation of L25 to the restoration fund, added: "I see a great many +rooks building near my house" (Hatfield), "but the luck has not come +to me yet." The Vicar's comment to me was: "If the luck has not yet +come to Lord Salisbury, I don't see how anyone can hope for it!" + +The Malvern concert was a strenuous undertaking; Badsey being a long +way from Malvern, it was necessary to interest the inhabitants and to +some extent to plead _in forma pauperis_, for we were really a poor +parish without any large resident landowners. The first thing was to +get a good list of influential local patrons; and as soon as Lady +Emily Foley consented, the promoters felt that the work was half done. +Lady Emily Foley was supreme at Malvern, a very distinguished old lady +and most popular, but perhaps a little alarming. + +On the day of the two concerts I was detailed with a troop of young +men, relatives of the patrons, to conduct the people to their seats, +and an elaborate plan of the large Assembly Room was given me, with +minute particulars of the lettered rows and numbered seats, presenting +the appearance, somewhat, of a labyrinth. I was studying it at the +doors, and arranging with the young stewards as to their individual +functions, when I heard an alarmed exclamation from one of them: "Look +out! here comes Lady Emily Foley!" In an instant the whole crowd took +to their heels and disappeared down the corridor. With some little +difficulty I succeeded in finding the seats of Lady Emily Foley's +party, but I could see that she regarded me as a rather feeble +cicerone. + +She was, however, exceedingly gracious after my wife's first solo, +which pleased her so much that we had to make an exception in this +case, and allow an encore by her special request, though it had been +arranged, owing to the length of the programme, that no encores were +to be given. Lady Alwyne Compton, wife of the Dean of Worcester, very +kindly assisted as a performer, my wife having frequently sung at +charity concerts and entertainments for her in Worcester and the +neighbourhood, among them a recital by Mr. Brandram of _A +Midsummer-Night's Dream_, when she undertook the soprano solos +occurring in the play, at the Worcester Guildhall. Lady Alwyne Compton +was very musical, and rehearsals were held in the stone-vaulted crypt +beneath the Deanery, a place of splendid acoustic properties, which +intensified the sound without coarsening it, and brought the voice +back to the singer in a way unknown on the usual platform, decorated +with screens, curtains, and flags, and obstructed by floral +impedimenta. + +Among the performers at the Malvern concerts some professionals had +been engaged from London, including Miss Margaret Wild, a well-known +pianist. I had given my men a holiday for the occasion and was anxious +to hear their opinion of the performances. They considered the music +rather too high class for them, but they thoroughly appreciated the +nimble fingers of Miss Margaret Wild; one of them adding +enthusiastically: "My word, her did make 'im (the piano) rottle!" Our +old parish clerk too, at the time over eighty years of age, who walked +three miles to Evesham Station in the morning, ascended the +Worcestershire Beacon--nearly 1,500 feet--and finally walked back from +Evesham to Badsey at night, was much struck by the recitations of Miss +Isabel Bateman at the concert. The dear old man was somewhat deaf, and +told me that, sitting towards the back of the room, "I couldn't hear +nothing, but I could see as the gesters [gestures] was all right." + +This old clerk was prominently devout in the church responses, and had +some original pronunciations of unusual words; in the Nicene Creed he +generally followed a few bars, so to speak, behind the Vicar, but one +never failed to catch the words "apost'lick church" towards the end. +He was very scornful of ghosts, and told me that he had been about the +churchyard very often at night for fifty years without seeing anything +like an apparition. But the whole village was alarmed, including the +clerk, one Sunday when, about midnight, the tenor bell was heard +solemnly tolling. The clerk, with some supporters and a lantern, +unlocked the door, and found the village idiot--silly C.--in the tower +ringing the bell. It appeared that, after service, the clerk had +extinguished the lights and locked up for the night about eight +o'clock. C., who had gone to sleep in the gallery with his head upon +his arms before him on the desk, slumbered on until he woke in alarm +some four hours later, to find himself alone and the church in total +darkness, but he was intelligent enough to remember the bell and get +his release. + +C. had a hand-to-hand fight in the church tower with Aldington's +special imbecile. After service the clerk invited me to the scene of +the battle, pointing out some crimson traces on the stone pavement. I +called upon our imbecile's parents on my way home, and the old father +was greatly shocked. "Here he be, sir," he said; "I hope you'll give +him a jolly good hiding." I told him I could hardly undertake the role +of executioner on a Sunday, in cold blood, and contented myself with a +severe reprimand. + +I was handing the collecting-bag one morning after service, and +finding it did not return from the end of the row of chairs as quickly +as usual, I discovered this same individual with his hand _in the +bag_. I signed to him impatiently to pass it back. After service he +came to the vestry and said that he had contributed a florin in +mistake for a penny, and was trying to retrieve it. I could generally +estimate pretty accurately the amount of the collection, as I handed +the bag, knowing the extent of each person's usual gift, and sure +enough, there was an extra florin among the coins, with which I sent +him away happy. + +The parish must have been an uncivilized place in former times; there +was an accusing record beneath the west window of the tower, in the +shape of a blocked up entrance. I was told that the ringers, not +wishing to enter or leave the tower through the church door during +service, and also to facilitate the smuggling in of unlimited cider +had, after strenuous efforts, cut an opening through the ancient wall +and base some feet in thickness, and that the achievement was +announced to the village by uproarious cheering when at last they +succeeded. A door was afterwards fitted to the aperture, but the +entrance was abolished later by a more reverent Vicar. + +The belfry was decorated with various bones of legs of mutton and of +joints of beef, hung up to commemorate notable weddings of prominent +parishioners--perhaps, too, as a hint to future aspirants to the state +of matrimony--when the ringers had enjoyed a substantial meal and +gallons of cider at the expense of the bridegroom. There seems to have +been a traditional connection between church bell-ringing and thirst, +for Gilbert White relates that when the bells of Selborne Church were +recast and a new one presented in 1735, "The day of the arrival of +this tuneable peal was observed as an high festival by the village, +and rendered more joyous by an order from the donor that the treble +bell should be fixed bottom upward in the ground and filled with +punch, of which all present were permitted to partake." + +The Vicar of Badsey told me that at the neighbouring church of +Wickhamford, then also in his jurisdiction, that when he first came, +in the early fifties, it was customary, as the men entered the church +by the chancel door, to pitch their hats in a heap on the altar. Also +that on his home-coming with his bride, he was, the same evening, +requisitioned to put a stop to a fight between two drunken reprobates +outside the vicarage gate. Badsey people can in these modern times +point with pride to a much higher standard of civilization, and they +fully recognize that "'Eave 'alf a brick at his 'ead; Bill," is a +method of welcome to a stranger not considered precisely etiquette at +the present day. + +There was no vestry before the restoration of Badsey Church; the +Vicar's surplice might be seen hanging over the side of one of the +square pews which obstructed the chancel, and when the Vicar appeared +he was followed by the clerk, who assisted at the public ceremony of +robing. Church decorations at Christmas consisted at that time of +sprigs of holly stuck upright in holes bored along the tops of the pew +partitions at regular intervals, and at the harvest thanksgiving an +historic miniature rick of corn annually made its appearance on the +altar. In those days, however, flowers, which are scarcely suitable +for a festival where the decorations should proclaim the abundance of +the matured season of growth, by corn and fruit, were not included. I +have seen too many of these, to the exclusion of corn, in modern town +churches, and even wild oats, which, though very pretty, are not +exactly typical of thanksgiving. + +It is surprising how much damage may be done to valuable old woodwork +by an enthusiastic band of decorators, assisted by an indiscriminating +curate, and how inharmonious may be the general effect of individual +labours--though charming taken separately--where a comprehensive +scheme is neglected. I have counted fourteen differing reds--not tones +or shades of the same colour--including the hood of the officiating +clergyman, in one chancel at the same time, bewildering to the eye and +distracting to the mind. And I once saw a beautiful and priceless old +Elizabethan table in a vestry, covered with a mouldy piece of purple +velvet secured with tin-tacks driven into the tortured oak. There are, +or were, two lovely old Chippendale chairs with the characteristic +backs and legs inside the altar-rails of Badsey Church; they are +valuable and no doubt duly appreciated, not only for their own sake, +but because they were the gift of dear old Barnard, the clerk, who +spent fifty years of his life in the service of the church. + +I once heard a curate preaching to an agricultural congregation at a +harvest thanksgiving after a disastrous season, when the earth had not +yielded much by way of increase, remarking that in such a time of +scarcity we might be thankful that plenty of foreign corn would be +available; good theology, perhaps, but scarcely expedient under the +circumstances. + +We found Sir Thomas Graham Jackson a purist in the matter of church +restoration, and in my capacity as churchwarden and treasurer, I was +fortunate in having to confer with a man of such pre-eminent good +taste. He would not allow some new oak panels, with which we had to +supplement the old linen-pattern panels of the pulpit, to be coloured +to match the old work. "Time," he said, "will bring them all +together." Possibly the lapse of two hundred years may do so, but I +saw at once that he was right in the principle that no sham should be +tolerated in honest work, more especially in a sacred building. We +objected also to a new chimney which surmounted the junction of the +nave and choir exteriorly: it seemed to smack of domestic detail; but +here again he satisfied us by saying that, as heating the building was +a modern necessity, there was no reason to be ashamed of such an +indispensable addition. As a matter of fact, this chimney long ago +became nicely toned down by its native soot, and is practically +unnoticeable. + +There is much American oak, I believe, now used in new churches and +public buildings; it appears to resemble chestnut much more than +English oak, and I doubt whether it will ever acquire the beautiful +tone which time confers upon the latter. It should, however, be +recognized that much of the depth of colour of old oak panelling is +really nothing but dirt, though the true dark brown tint of old age +can be found underneath, and right to the centre of each piece. +Spring-cleaning of the past consisted very much in polishing with +beeswax and turpentine, without removing the dirt produced by smoky +fires and constant handling, so that extraneous matter became coated +with the polish and preserved beneath it. I have had occasion, when +restoring old woodwork, to wash off this outside accretion, and when +removed, the tone of the wood remained still dark, though lighter than +before it lost its black and somewhat sticky appearance. + +The fakers of sham old furniture produce the intense darkness by +stains of various kinds. I once found myself at an inn in Devonshire +which contained a quantity of "delft" and "antique oak" furniture for +sale. While the attendant was bringing me some refreshment, I tested +the genuineness of the oak by a small chip with my pocket-knife, and, +as I anticipated, found perfectly white wood under the surface, and, I +believe, American oak. The irony of the transaction is striking; here +was a piece of wood imported from the States only a few months before, +converted in this country into Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Stuart +furniture, and then, it may be, bought by American visitors and taken +back to their own country. + +Some years before the church restoration could be taken in hand, a +piece of land, bordering the west side of the churchyard, and between +it and the highroad, and another similar piece on the east side of the +churchyard, were offered for sale by auction. They belonged to the old +Badsey Manor property and of course occupied important positions lying +in each case just between the churchyard and the adjoining roads. An +individual who had fallen out with the Vicar announced his intention +of purchasing these pieces and building cottages and a public-house +upon them, presumably "to spite the parson." + +The Vicar at once saw the absolute necessity of acquiring the land for +the church and enclosing it with suitable walls, as an addition to the +churchyard. It would have been a terrible eyesore from the village +street if ugly brick and blue-slated buildings were erected in front +of the beautiful old grey church, and the idea of an inn in such a +place was intolerable. He consulted the patrons of the living, who +agreed to help, and simultaneously a good old aunt gave him leave to +bid up to a certain sum on her behalf as a gift to the parish. + +The patrons sent a representative to the sale with an undisclosed +price, at which he was empowered to make the purchase. Absolute +secrecy was preserved, and, except the Vicar, no one knew the man or +whom he represented; he was to leave the train from Oxford at +Honeybourne Station so as not even to come through Evesham to Badsey. +The Vicar had arranged that the patrons' representative should also +bid on behalf of the aunt, but did not disclose the limit. The man was +not to bid until the Vicar himself stopped, and he was to go on +bidding until the Vicar removed a rose from his button-hole, which +would signify that the aunt's limit was reached. Whether the patrons' +representative could go any further or not, the Vicar did not know. + +Before the auction the two did not meet, and they sat apart during the +proceedings. The village malcontent was in great form, making certain +of success, and was delighted when the Vicar apparently gave up +bidding as if beaten. The rose was still in his button-hole, but +before long the aunt's limit was reached, and it had to be removed; he +was however relieved to find that the patrons' representative +continued to bid. His opponent was getting very fidgety as the price +rose, hesitating for some moments every time the bidding was against +him. Just as the hammer was about to fall he would arrest it with, +"Try 'im again," but the stranger instantly capped his reluctant bid, +always leaving him to consider a further advance in great discomfort. +At last in despair but quite certain that the Vicar at any rate was +knocked out he gave up, exclaiming, "'E med 'ave it, 'e med 'ave it"; +and the hammer fell. All eyes were fixed upon the unknown bidder, and +the auctioneer demanded "the name of the buyer"; very quietly came the +announcement, "The Dean and Chapter of Christ Church." Horribly +disgusted the malcontent fired a parting shot as he reached the door: +"If I'd a-knowed the pairson was a goin' to 'ave it, I'd a made 'im +pay a pretty penny more nor that." + +This Vicar was a very impressive reader, especially of dramatic +stories from the Old Testament. As he read the account of the +discomfiture of the priests of Baal by the Prophet Elijah one could +visualize the scene. Elijah's dripping sacrifice blazing to the skies, +the priests of Baal, mutilated by their own knives and lancets, in +vain imploring their god to send the fire to vindicate himself. The +heavens were black, and one could hear the rush of Ahab's chariot, the +roar of the thunder and the hissing torrent of rain, and see the +prophet running swiftly before him. The Vicar, however, was not an +actor like a clergyman I was told of, who got so excited over Agag and +his delicate approach to Samuel that he could not resist an +illustration to intensify the action by taking a mincing step or two +aside from the lectern. + +No village is complete without its curmudgeon or self-appointed +grumbler, just as every village has its special imbecile. The +curmudgeon originates in a class above the idiot; very often he is an +ex-churchwarden, guardian, way-warden, or other official, who has +resigned in dudgeon or been ousted from his post for some neglect or +failure. He is a man with whom the world has gone wrong, a sufferer, +perhaps, from some disaster which has become an obsession. He views +everything with distorted eyesight; nothing pleases him, and he wants +to put everybody right. He cherishes a perpetual grievance against +some individual or clique for a fancied slight, and goes about trying +to stir up ill-feeling among the ignorant by malicious insinuations. +In former times he was an adept at "parson-baiting" at the annual +Easter vestry meeting, when he would air his grievance against the +Vicar of the parish or any person in authority. + +At these vestries the Vicar is wise if he declares the curmudgeon to +be "out of order," and declines to hear him, for, legally, the +business does not include any matter which does not appear upon the +notice convening the meeting, signed by the Vicar and churchwardens. +This usually announces that churchwardens will be elected and the +accounts produced; the latter, since church rates were abolished, is +not obligatory, and only subscribers have a right to question them. +The proceedings are not legal unless three _full_ days have elapsed +since the publication of the notice on a Sunday before morning +service, the following Thursday being thus the earliest day on which +the meeting can take place. It is important to remember that no +churchwarden has a legal status before he has been formally admitted +by the Archdeacon. + +In former times, before the creation of Parish, District and County +Councils, the curmudgeon, after the reaction of the winter months, +became very prominent towards the time of the Easter vestry, when he +would appear, having enlisted a small band of supporters, with a +number of grievances relating to rates, parish officials, rights of +way, footpaths, and such-like debatable subjects. Of course, he should +have been promptly squashed by the chairman, but too often an +indulgent Vicar would allow him to have his fling. + +Now, however, the curmudgeon can easily get himself elected upon one +of the numerous councils; having mismanaged his own affairs until he +has none left to manage, he appears to regard himself as a fit and +proper person to mismanage the business of other people, and the brief +authority which his position confers gives him a welcome opportunity +of letting off superfluous steam. + +Parishioners sometimes combined and elected an unpopular person to a +troublesome post which nobody wanted. Such was the office of +way-warden, under whose jurisdiction came the management and repair of +parish roads, superintending and paying the roadmen, and keeping the +necessary records and accounts. A market-gardener, a canny Scot, who +had fallen into disfavour, had this office thrust upon him much +against his will. Once elected, the victim had no choice in the +matter, and, being a very busy man, he was thoroughly annoyed. He soon +discovered a weapon wherewith to avenge the wrong--one which his +opponents had put into his hands themselves; during his year of office +he restricted the road repairs to a lane adjoining his own land, +leading to the railway-station, which his carts traversed many times +daily. He gave it a thorough good coat of stones, and all the +available labour, as well as the cash chargeable on the rates of the +parish, was in this way expended, chiefly for his own benefit, though +the parish shared to the extent of the use they made of this +particular piece of road. Great was the outcry, but nothing could be +done till the year of office expired, and, naturally, he was never +elected again. + +The purchase of the land adjoining the churchyard had a remarkable +sequel; it was conveyed to the Vicar and churchwardens for the time +being, these original churchwardens having been long out of the office +before my appointment. After the restoration of the church my +co-warden and I, with the Vicar's consent, levelled the rough places +in the neglected churchyard, sowed it with grass seeds, and planted +various ornamental shrubs; we had the untidy southern boundary +carefully dug over, and set a man to plant a yew-hedge. He was thus +employed when a parishioner appeared in some excitement, and objected +to the planting of yew on account of possible damage to sheep grazing +in the churchyard, claiming the right--which, as a matter of fact, +belonged to the Vicar alone, though never exercised--to such grazing, +jointly with the Vicar. He proceeded to pull up some of the young yews +as a protest, and threw them uprooted on the ground. The man employed +reported the matter to my co-warden, living near, who was very soon at +my house. + +We decided to prosecute the offender, and obtained the Vicar's +consent, he being the legal prosecutor. The case was heard by a bench +of magistrates composed entirely of clergy and churchwarden squires, +who naturally sympathized with us, and, quite logically, convicted the +defendant in a fine, I think, of about 25s. and costs, or a term in +Worcester Gaol in default. The defendant refused to pay a farthing and +was removed in custody; but later our dear old Vicar, very generously, +came forward and paid the amount himself. + +Shortly before the church restoration I had a notice to attend an +archidiaconal visitation, and duly appeared at the church at the time +arranged. The Archdeacon made a careful inspection of the fabric and +property of the church, not too well pleased with its dilapidated +appearance. Nothing much was said till we reached the +fourteenth-century font, showing signs of long use. The Archdeacon +motioned to the clerk to remove the oak cover, and the old man, with +the air of an officious waiter, lifted it with a flourish, disclosing, +inside the cracked font, a white pudding-basin, inside which, again, +reposed a species of beetle known as a "devil's coach-horse." The +Archdeacon, peering in and evidently recognizing the insect and its +popular designation, and looking much shocked, exclaimed with some +warmth: "Dear me! I should scarcely have expected to find _that_ thing +in a font!" + +This story reminds me of a similar visitation depicted in _Punch_. The +Archdeacon was seen at the lych-gate of a country church in company +with a churchwarden farmer, the Vicar being unable to attend. The +contrast was well delineated--the Archdeacon tall, thin, and ascetic, +in a long black coat and archidiaconal hat; and the farmer of the John +Bull type, in ample breeches and gaiters. The churchyard presented a +magnificent crop of exuberant wheat: + +_Archdeacon_. I don't like this at all; I shall really have to speak +to the Vicar about it. + +_Churchwarden (thinking of the rotation of crops)_. Just what I told +un, sir--just what I told 'un. "You keeps on a-wheating of it and +a-wheating of it," I says; "why don't you tater it?" says I. + +At Badsey objections were soon heard to the innovation of the +surpliced choir and improved music in the restored church; one old +villager, living close by, expressed himself as follows concerning the +entry of the Vicar and choir, in procession, from the new vestry: + + "They come in with them boys all dressed up like a lot of + little parsons, and the parson behind 'em just like the old + Pope hisself. But there ain't no call for me to go to church + now, for I can set at home and hear 'em a baarlin' [noise + like a calf] and a harmenin [amening] in me own house." + +On a similar occasion, in another parish where more elaborate music +had been introduced, an old coachman, given to much devotional musical +energy, told me as a sore grievance: "You know, sir, I'd used to like +singin' a bit myself, but now, as soon as I've worked myself up to a +tidy old pitch, all of a sudden _they_ leaves off, and I be left a +bawlin'!" + +Among various special weekday services I remember a Confirmation when +an elderly Aldington parishioner had courageously decided to +participate in the rite. She was missing from the ceremony, and told +my wife afterwards, in answer to inquiries, that a bad headache had +prevented her from attending, adding: "But there, you can't stand agin +your 'ead!" + +I was at the house of a neighbouring Vicar where the Bishop of the +diocese had been lunching shortly before, when there was a dish of +very fine oranges on the table and another of Blenheim orange apples. +The Bishop was offered a Blenheim orange by the Vicar, who remarked +that they came from his own garden. The Bishop had probably never +heard of a Blenheim orange, and the latter word directed his attention +to the dish of oranges. He examined them with great surprise, and +exclaimed: "Dear me! I had no idea that oranges would come to such +perfection out of doors in this climate." + +A capital story was told by a Bishop of Worcester, in connection with +the efforts of the Church in that part of the country to alleviate the +lot of the hop-pickers, who flock into Worcestershire in September by +the thousand. One of the mission workers, who had gone down to the +hopyards, met a dilapidated individual in a country lane, who said he +was "a picker." Pressed for further particulars, the man responded: + + "In the summer I picks peas and fruit; when autumn comes I + picks hops; in the winter I picks pockets; and when I'm + caught I picks oakum. I'm kept nice and warm during the cold + months, and when the fine days come round once more I starts + pea-picking again." + +My second Vicar was a scholar, an excellent preacher of very condensed +sermons; he conducted the services with great dignity, but his manner +to the villagers was a little alarming. He found the old clerk +somewhat officious, I think. One evening, after service, when some +strangers from Evesham attended--for Badsey was a pleasant walk on a +summer evening--the clerk announced to the Vicar, with great +jubilation, that "the gentleman with the party from Evesham expressed +himself as very well satisfied with the service." No doubt the clerk +had received a practical proof of the satisfaction. The clerk +imagined, I believe, that he was as much responsible for the conduct +of the services as the Vicar, and thought the latter would be equally +pleased with the stranger's commendation. He was disappointed, I fear, +for the Vicar did not seem in the least impressed, showing, too, some +annoyance at what doubtless appeared to him great presumption. + +At the time of the Boer War, followed by the Boxers' revolt in China +and the Siege of Peking, when telegrams were exhibited in the +post-office every Sunday morning, I saw one day, on my way to church, +that Peking had been relieved. The Vicar--my third--preached on the +subject of the terrors of the siege--his sermon having been written on +the previous day--and drew a harrowing picture of the fate of the +defenders. After service I asked if he had not seen the telegram, and +told him the good news. "Good gracious!" said he; "I _am_ glad I +didn't know that before the service; what _should_ I have done about +my sermon?" I was a little surprised that the delivery of a sermon +which was no longer to the point should appear more important than the +announcement of the happy event; but perhaps the position would have +been somewhat undignified had he been obliged to explain, and dismiss +the congregation with apologies. + +An elderly Vicar, in a parish in the adjoining county, +Gloucestershire, found the morning service with a sermon very +fatiguing, and the patron, the Squire, suggested that the +ante-Communion service would be less tiring in place of the latter. He +was not a very interesting preacher, and the Squire was quite as well +pleased as the Vicar when he agreed. There was never a sermon at the +morning service thereafter. + +Other denominations besides the Church, of course, existed in the +parish and neighbourhood; we did not hear much about them, but the +following story was related as occurring in a neighbouring village. To +see the point it is necessary to introduce the actors; they consisted +of Daniel S. and Jim H., rival hedgers in the art of "pleaching," of +which Joseph Arch was such a notable exponent. Daniel had lately been +employed upon a job of this kind for a farmer, Mr. (locally Master) R. +The scene was the room that did duty for a chapel in the village. + +Daniel S. advanced to the reading-desk, and, turning over the leaves +of the Bible to find the Book of Daniel, announced sententiously: +"Let's see what Dannel done in his dai (day)." Up jumped Jim H. at the +back of the room: "Oh, I can tell tha (thee) what Dannel done in his +dai--cut a yedge (hedge) for Master R., and took whome all the best of +the 'ood (wood)!" + +A story was current too--nearer home this time--of a grand fete given +to the children. They marched in procession from one village to +another, in which the tea was to take place, under the leadership of +an ancient parishioner. Of this person it was said that he had +violated every article of the Decalogue, and that had the number been +twenty instead of ten he would have treated them with equal +indifference! As the children entered the second village with beaming +faces and banners waving, as he gave the word of command, they sang in +sweet trebles and in perfect innocence, "See the mighty host +advancing, Satan leading on!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + + +THE SCHOOL BOARD--RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION--SCHOOL INSPECTIONS--DEAN +FARRAR--COMPULSORY EDUCATION. + + "Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; + Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." + --COWPER. + +When I came to Aldington I found that by the energy of the Vicar an +elementary school had been built and equipped, and was working well +under the voluntary system. I accepted the post of treasurer at his +invitation, but as time went on financial difficulties arose, as the +Education Department increased their requirements. The large farmers +were being gradually ruined by foreign competition, and the small +market-gardeners, in occupation of the land as it fell vacant, could +not be induced to subscribe, although their own children were the sole +beneficiaries. A voluntary rate was suggested, but met with no general +response, one old parishioner announcing that she didn't intend "to +pay no voluntary rate until she was obliged"! + +Matters were getting desperate when Vicar No. 2 arrived, and it soon +became evident that the voluntary system had completely broken down. A +School Board was the only alternative, and, as all the old managers +refused to become members and no one else would undertake the +responsibility, a deadlock ensued. We were threatened by the Education +Department that, failing a Board of parishioners, they would appoint +for the post any outsiders, non-ratepayers, who could be induced to +volunteer. The prospect was not a pleasant one, and on the invitation +of a deputation of working men, I agreed to stand (chiefly, perhaps, +in my own interests, as the largest ratepayer in the parish, with the +exception of the Great Western Railway Company), and others eventually +came forward. + +The Board was constituted, and we were rather a three-cornered lot: my +co-warden; a boot and shoemaker in Evesham, with land in Badsey; a +carpenter and small builder; three small market-gardeners and myself. +I was elected chairman, and we obtained the services of an excellent +clerk, who held the same office for the Evesham Board of Guardians--a +capable man, and well up in the forms and idiosyncrasies of the Board +of Education. Our designation was "the United District School Board of +Badsey, Aldington, and Wickhamford." It was not easy to discover the +qualifications of all the members from an educational point of view; +some at least represented the village malcontent section, now getting +rather nervous as to School Board rates. And there was a talkative +section who illustrated the truth of the old proverb, "It is not the +loudest cackling hen that lays the biggest egg," and of, perhaps, the +still more expressive, "It's the worst wheel of the waggon that makes +the most noise." One, at any rate, was definitely qualified--"He +knowed summat about draining!" The majority were conspicuous as +economists in the matter of probable school expenditure, and it +appeared later that two, if not three, of the members were unable to +write their own names, so that sometimes we could not get the +necessary number of signatures to the cheques, when some of the more +efficient members happened to be absent. + +Early in our existence as a United Board, one of the economists made a +little speech in which he propounded the theory that "our first duty +is to the ratepayers"; but I could not help suggesting that, as a +legally appointed body, we were bound to obey the law beyond all other +considerations, and corrected his dictum, with all respect, by +substituting that "our first duty is to the children." I must do him +the justice to say that he accepted my suggestion in a complimentary +manner. + +It soon became evident that it is not always desirable to belong to a +parish grouped with others under a United District School Board. +Aldington possessed the largest rateable value with the lowest +population, which was about equal to Wickhamford with the lowest +rateable value; and Badsey, with by far the largest population, came +between Aldington and Wickhamford as to rateable value--the obvious +result being that Aldington was called upon to pay an excessive and +unfair share of the cost of educating Badsey's children. We did not, +however, want a school in our quiet village; it is something to get +rid of children when inclined to be noisy, so we did not grumble at a +little extra expense. + +We carried on the school at first in the old building, but very soon +the Department began to press for a larger and better-equipped +establishment. Many of their requirements we considered unnecessary in +a country village, and put off the evil day as long as possible, with +such phrases as, "The matter is under consideration," or, "Will +shortly be brought to the notice of the Board." Like "retribution," +however, the Education Department, "though leaden-footed, comes +iron-handed," and when all other methods failed they always put +forward as a final inducement to comply with their demands the threat +of withholding the Government grant; so that, in spite of the +shoemaker's encomium, that "Our chairman has plenty of +com_bat_iveness," we had eventually to give way. + +At the outset it was decided to admit the Press; our meetings were +generally expected to afford some spicy copy for readers of the local +papers, but I am pleased to think that both reporters and readers were +disappointed. Some of our neighbours had given us specially lively +specimens of the personalities indulged in at the meetings of their +local bodies, Boards of Guardians, and Councils--notably, at that +time, those of Winchcombe and Stow-on-the-Wold, where these +exhibitions appeared to form a favourite diversion. It is a mistake +for such a Board as ours to admit reporters; the noisy members are apt +to monopolize the speaking, to the exclusion of the more useful and +more thoughtful; the former play to the gallery to the extent of +visibly addressing themselves to the reporters instead of to the +chairman, as is proper. + +The first point we had to consider was the acquisition of a suitable +site for the new buildings, the old site not affording space to +enlarge the premises or for the addition of a master's house. We were +lucky to get the offer of an excellent position, allowing not only +space for all the buildings in contemplation, but ample room for +future enlargements, which it was evident would be needed before many +more years. I was requested, with another member, to interview the +vendor's solicitors, and we were empowered to make the best bargain we +could arrange for the site. + +We concluded the purchase, and congratulated ourselves upon the +acquisition of a central and in every way desirable site, with a long +road frontage, for the very moderate sum of, I think, L90. On +reporting to the Board at our next meeting, the sum appeared large to +some of the more simple members, and they were inclined to be +dissatisfied, until I told them that I was prepared to appropriate the +bargain myself, and they could find another for the school. This +settled the matter, and, I suppose, at the present time the site would +fetch two or three times what it cost us. + +Plans and specifications were now necessary, and from inquiries I had +made I was able to suggest an architect with much experience in school +buildings. He appeared before the Board later, and was subjected to +many questions from the members, of which I only remember one that +appealed to me as original: "Do you pose before this Board as an +economical architect?" We soon had the work in train, but, of course, +before any active steps were taken, all our proposals were submitted +to, and approved by the Education Department. + +The question of religious instruction became urgent, and I was pleased +and surprised at carrying a unanimous resolution through the +Board--although it included some Nonconformists--that the Vicar (No. +2), who had declined to be nominated as a candidate for election, +should be invited to undertake the religious instruction of the +school. The Vicar consented, and the arrangement worked smoothly for +some years. One day, later, a member rose, and inquired if the +children were receiving religious instruction. "Yes," I said. "Are the +children taught science?" "Yes," again. "Well," said he, "how do you +reconcile the fact, when religion and science are not in agreement?" +Fortunately, I had been lately taking a course of Darwin, and I was +able to refer him to the concluding lines of the _Origin of Species_. +We debated the matter with some energy, but having made his protest, +the member was satisfied to let the matter drop. + +All went well thereafter until we were settled in the new building, +and Vicar No. 3 was in possession of the living. He was young and +inexperienced in the conduct of a parish, and was imbued with ideas of +what he considered a more ornate and elaborate form of worship. +Innovations followed--lighted candles over the altar and the +appointment of a Server at the Communion Service. Almost immediately I +heard objections from the villagers; they could not understand the +necessity for a couple of dim candles in a church on a summer day, +when the whole world outside was ablaze with the glory of the sun. + +A member arose at a Board meeting, and began: "Mr. Chairman, I wish to +draw the attention of the Board to the question of religious +instruction in the school, for I reckon that our children are being +taught a lot of Popery." I could see that he had been in consultation +with other members of the Board, and that he had a majority behind +him. I tried hard to smooth matters over, but they had made up their +minds, and he carried his resolution that, in future, the new Vicar +should be authorized to enter the school for the purpose of religious +instruction only one day a week! I think this small indulgence was +accorded only as a result of my efforts in his favour, though I was by +no means pleased with the innovations myself. + +I put the matter before the Vicar, asking him if he thought his +novelties were worth while in the face of the opposition of the +village and the loss of his religious influence with the children. He +would not go back from what, he said, he regarded as a matter of +principle, and could not see that he was throwing away a unique +opportunity, but he agreed to withdraw the unwelcome Server. + +In spite of the fact that every detail of the new school building had +been submitted to, and approved by, the Education Department, trouble +began with an officious inspector, who on his first visit complained +of the ventilation. An elementary school is never exactly a bed of +roses, but we had a lofty building and classrooms, with plenty of +windows, which could be adjusted to admit as much or as little fresh +air as was requisite. We protested without result, and we had +eventually to pull the new walls about and spend L20 on what we +considered an uncalled-for alteration. + +Our inspectors of schools varied greatly: some were quiet with the +children and considerate with the teachers; others vindicated their +authority by unnecessary fault-finding, upsetting the teachers and +alarming the children. In the days of our voluntary school I have seen +a room full of children in a state of nervous tension, and the +mistress and pupil-teachers in tears, as the result of inconsiderate +reprimands and irritable speech. My sympathies have been strongly +aroused on such occasions with a child's terror of being made an +exhibition before the others. As a boy at Harrow, in the form of the +Rev. F.W. Farrar, afterwards Dean of Canterbury, I had an unpleasant +experience, though it was no fault of his and quite unintentional. The +Russian Government had sent a deputation of two learned professors to +England, to inquire into the educational system of the Public Schools, +with the view of sending a member of the Royal family for education in +this country. Among other schools, they visited Harrow, and Mr. +Farrar's form was one of those selected for inspection. It was the +evening of a winter's day, when, at the four o'clock school, we found +two very formidable-looking old gentlemen in spectacles and many furs +seated near the master's desk. Great was the consternation, but Mr. +Farrar was careful not to call upon any boy who would be likely to +exhibit himself as a failure. I was seated near Mr. Farrar, at one end +of a bench. He had a habit, when wanting to change his position, of +moving quite unconsciously across the intervening space between his +desk and this bench, and placing one foot on the bench close to the +nearest boy, he would, with one hand, play with the boy's hair, while +he held his book in the other. With horror, I found him approaching, +and shortly his hand was on my head, rubbing my hair round and round, +and ruffling it in a fashion very trying to any boy who was neat and +careful of his personal appearance. I could see the Russians staring +through their spectacles at these proceedings; possibly they thought +it a form of punishment unknown in Russia, and my feelings of +humiliation can be imagined. Finally he gave me a smack on the cheek +and retired to his desk, leaving my hair in a state of chaos, though +he had not the least idea of having done anything which might appear +unusual to the foreigners. + +Dear "old Farrar"!--as we irreverently called him--it was an education +in itself to be in his form. I had the uncommon privilege of moving +upwards in the School at very much the same rate as he did as a +master, though I fear for my school reputation none too quickly. He +first kindled my admiration for the classic giants of English +literature, more especially the poets, taught me to appreciate the +rolling periods of Homer, and even the beauty of the characters of the +Greek alphabet. He was a voluminous student of the best in every form +of ancient and modern literature. He always kept a copy of Milton, his +favourite poet I think, on his desk, and, whenever a passage in the +Greek or Latin classics occurred, for which he could produce a +parallel, quoted pages without reference to the book. + +I recall my delight and pride when I was sent on two occasions to the +headmaster, Dr. Butler, the late Master of Trinity, with copies of +original verses; and the honour I felt it to inscribe them, at Mr. +Farrar's request, in a MS. book he kept for the purpose of collecting +approved original efforts in the author's own writing. For it was his +habit once a week to give us subjects for verses or composition. A +unique effort of the Captain of the School cricket eleven, C.F. +Buller, comes back to me as I write; it did not however appear in the +MS. book. The School Chapel was the subject, full of interest and +stirring to the imagination, if only for the aisle to the memory of +Harrow officers who fell in the Crimea. Buller's flight of imagination +was as absurd as it was impertinent: + + "The things in the Chapel nonsense are, + Don't you think so dear Fa_rrar_!" + +Mr. Farrar, however, never took offence at such sallies. I remember, +when he was denouncing the old "yellow back" novels, murmurs becoming +audible, which were intended to reach him, of "Eric! Eric!"--the title +of his early school-boy story--he only smiled in acknowledgment. And +on an April 1st several boys who had plotted beforehand gazed +simultaneously and persistently at a spot on the ceiling, until his +eyes followed theirs unthinkingly in the same direction, when it +occurred to him, as nothing unusual was visible, that it was All +Fools' Day. He was very playful and indulgent; he kept a "squash" +racquet ball on his desk, and could throw it with accurate aim if he +noticed a boy dreaming or inattentive. He would never when scoring the +marks enter a 0, even after an abject failure, always saying, "Give +him a charity 1!" + +Boys are quick judges of sermons: if interested, they listen without +an effort; if not interested, they _cannot_ listen. Whenever Mr. +Farrar's turn came as preacher in the School Chapel there was a subtle +stir and whisper of appreciation, "It's Farrar to-day." He was a +natural orator. I can still hear his magnificent voice swelling in +tones of passionate denunciation decreasing to gentle appeal, and +dying away in tender pathos. This was education in the true sense of +the word, and though I have wandered a long way from my immediate +subject, I feel that the digression is not irrelevant in contrast with +the mechanical instruction that goes by the name of education in the +Board Schools. I cannot help recalling too that in the ancient IVth +Form Room at Harrow, the roughest of old benches were, and I believe +still are, considered good enough for future bishops, judges, and +statesmen; while in the Board Schools expensive polished desks and +seats have to be provided at the cost of the ratepayers to be shortly +kicked to pieces by hobnailed shoes. + +I was present at some amusing incidents in examinations at our village +school. A small boy was commanded by an inspector to read aloud, and +began in the usual child's high-keyed, expressionless, and +unpunctuated monotone: +"I-have-six-little-pigs-two-of-them-are-white-two-of-them-are-black-an +d-two-of-them-are-spotted." "That's not the way to read," interposed +the inspector. "Give me the book." He stood up, striking an attitude, +head thrown well back, and reading with great deliberation and +emphasis: "I have _six_ LITTLE PIGS; two of them are _white_! Two of +them are _black_! and (confidentially) two of them are spot_tered_!" + +I once picked up an elementary reading book in the school, and read as +follows: "Tom said to Jack, 'There is a hayrick down in the meadow; +shall we go and set it on fire?'" And so on, with an account of the +conflagration, highly coloured. So much for town ideas of the +education of country children; the suggestion was enough to bring +about the catastrophe, given the opportunity and a box of matches. + +Some of the inspectors were very agreeable men; they occasionally came +to luncheon at my house, and I once asked where the best-managed +schools were to be found. The reply was, "In parishes where the +voluntary schools still exist, and the feudal system is mildly +administered." + +Our villagers, reading of the large sums that we were obliged to +expend in response to the requirements of the Education Department, +and finding the consequent rates a burden, began to think of economy +and nothing but economy, so that though I had expected them to be only +too anxious to provide the very best possible education for their own +children, it came as a surprise that this was quite a subordinate aim +to that of keeping down the cost. And this was the more unexpected, as +the main cost fell upon the large ratepayers, like myself and the +railway company and the owners of land and cottages rented rate-free. +At the next election several of these economists became candidates, +with the result that many of the original members including myself +were not returned, in spite of the fact that our well-planned and +well-built schools were erected at a lower cost per child than any in +the neighbourhood. I was not sorry to escape from the monotony of +listening to interminable debates as to whether a necessary broom or +such-like trifle should be bought at one shilling or one and +threepence. For this was the kind of subject that the Board could +understand and liked to enlarge upon, while really important proposals +were carried with little consideration. As a matter of fact, members +of a School Board are no more than dummies in the hands of an +inflexible Department, and are appointed to carry out orders and +regulations without the power of modification, even when quite +unsuitable for a country village school. + +There was some little excitement at the election; one of the members +of the old Board had been called "an ignoramus," in the stress of +battle, and being much concerned and mystified asked a neighbour what +the term signified, adding, no doubt thinking of a hippopotamus, that +he believed it was some kind of animal! His knowledge of zoology was +probably as limited as that disclosed by the following story: + + A menagerie was on view at Evesham, to the great joy of many + juveniles as well as older people, for such exhibitions were + not very common in the town. Very early next morning, a + farmer, living about two miles from Aldington, was awakened + by a shower of small stones on his bedroom window. Looking + out he saw his shepherd in much excitement and alarm. "Oh + master, master, there's a beast with two tails, one in front + and one behind, a-pullin' up the mangolds, and a-eatin' of + 'em!" The farmer hurried to the spot and saw an African + elephant which had escaped during the night; he was + wondering how to proceed when two keepers appeared and the + strange beast was led quietly back to the town. + +As chairman of our School Board I early recognized among the members +discoverers of mare's-nests, who lost no opportunity of exhibiting +their own importance by intruding such matters into the already +overflowing _agenda_, and my method of dealing with them was so +successful, though I believe not original, that it may be found useful +by those called upon to preside over any of the multitudinous councils +now in existence. Whenever the member produced his cherished +discovery--generally very shadowy as to detail--I proposed the +appointment of a subcommittee, consisting of him and his sympathizers, +to inquire into the matter, and report at the next Board meeting. In +this way I shunted the bother of the investigation of usually some +trifle or unsubstantiated opinion on to his own shoulders, so that, +when he realized the time and trouble involved, he became much less +interested, and we heard very little more of the subject. + +I suppose that everybody living in a country parish, who can look back +over the period of fifty years of compulsory education, would agree +that the results are insignificant in comparison with the effort, and +one cannot help wondering whether, after all, they justify the +gigantic cost. We appear to have tried to build too quickly on an +insecure foundation. Nature produces no permanent work in a hurry, and +Art is a blind leader unless she submits to Nature's laws. The pace +has been too great, and the fabric which we have reared is already +showing the defects in its construction. + +How otherwise can we account for the littleness of the men +representing "the people," who have been rushed into the big +positions, and for the vulgarity of the present age? Vulgarity in +public worship; vulgarity in the manners, the speeches, and the ideals +of the House of Commons; vulgarity in "literature," on the stage, in +music, in the studio, and in a section of the Press; vulgarity in +building and the desecration of beautiful places; vulgarity in form +and colour of dress and decoration. We are far behind the design and +construction of the domestic furniture of 150 years ago, and we have +never equalled the architecture of the earliest periods, for stability +and stateliness. + +The skim milk seems to have come to the top and the cream has gone to +the bottom, as the result of the contravention of the laws of +evolution, and the failure to perceive the analogy between the +simplest methods of agriculture, and the cultivation of mentality. We +have expected fruit and flowers from waste and untilled soil; we sowed +the seed of instruction without even ploughing the land, or +eradicating the prominent weeds, and we are reaping a crop of thistles +where we looked for figs, and thorns where we looked for grapes. The +seed scattered so lavishly by the wayside was devoured by the fowls of +the air; that which was sown upon the stony places, where there was +not much earth, could not withstand the heat of summer; and that which +fell among thorns was choked by the unconquered possessors of the +field. A little, a very little, which "fell into good ground brought +forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold"; +and therein lies our only consolation. + +The educational enthusiasts of 1870 forgot that the material they had +to work upon did not come from inherited refinement and intelligence; +that it was evolved from a parentage content with a vocabulary of some +500 words; that there was little nobility of home influence to assist +in the process of development; they crammed it with matter which it +could not assimilate, they took it from the open country air and the +sunshine, confined it in close and crowded school-rooms, and produced +what we see everywhere at the present time, at the cost of physical +deterioration--a diseased and unsettled mentality. + +I am aware that there are those who decline to admit any influence of +mental heredity, and argue that environment is the only factor to be +considered. In a clever and well-reasoned work on the subject I lately +read, this proposition was substantiated by instances observable +especially among birds brought up in unnatural conditions. The writer, +however, entirely forgot the most conclusive piece of evidence in +favour of mental heredity which it is possible to adduce--namely, that +of the brood of ducklings, who, in spite of the unmistakable +manifestations of alarm on the part of a frantic foster-mother hen, +take to the water and enjoy it on the very first opportunity. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + + +VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS: CRICKET--FOOTBALL--FLOWERSHOW--BAND--POSTMAN-- +CONCERTS. + + "There is sweet music here that softer falls + Than petals from blown roses on the grass." + _The Lotus-Eaters_. + +Among village institutions a cricket club was started soon after I +first came, and I was able to lend a meadow in which the members could +play. I held the sinecure office of President. The members met, +discussed ways and means, drew up regulations, and instituted fines +for various delinquencies. Swearing was expensive at threepence each +time, but there was no definition of what were to be considered "swear +words." Locally, a usual expletive is, "daazz it," or, "I'll be +daazzed," and it was not long before a member making use of this +euphemism was accused of swearing. He protested that it was not +recognized by philological authorities as coming under the category, +but he had to pay up. + +A village cricket match was regarded more as a contest than a pastime; +each side feared the censure of his parish, if conquered, so nothing +had to be given away likely to prove an advantage to an opposing team. +I once saw a member snatch a bat belonging to his own club from one of +the other side who was about to appropriate it for his innings with, +"No you don't." How different is the feeling, and how ready to help, a +member of a really sporting team would have been in similar +circumstances! Referring to help or advice in cricket matters, a story +is told of the late Dr. W.G. Grace. The incident happened in an +adjoining county to Worcestershire. The great batsman, crossing +Clifton Down, came upon some boys at cricket. Three sticks represented +the wickets, arranged so wide apart that the ball could pass through +without disturbing them. Ever ready to help, Dr. Grace pointed out the +fault and readjusted the sticks; as he turned away he heard, "What +does 'e know about it, I wonder!" + +This carries me to a parallel happening at Stratford-on-Avon. The late +Sir Henry Irving and a friend fell in with a native on the outskirts +of the town, and being anxious to test the local reputation of the +poet asked the man if he had heard of a person named Shakespeare. The +man assented and volunteered the information that he was a writer. Did +he "know what Shakespeare had written?" Their informant could not say, +but, a moment after they had parted, he called back that he believed +he had written "part of the Bible." + +An ancient villager, who was secretary of our Club and always acted as +umpire, gave me "out," incorrectly, for accidentally touching the +wicket when the ball was "dead." I retired without contesting his +decision, as I had been taught. Next time we met he apologized, having +discovered his mistake, but he was greatly impressed by my practical +example of "playing the game." + +Cricket, though popular in my first years at Aldington, gradually +became difficult to arrange. As the market-garden industry superseded +farming, the young men found full employment for the long summer +evenings on their allotments and those of their parents. In the +winter, when horticultural work is not so pressing, they had plenty of +time on their hands, and a football club was formed. It flourished +exceedingly, and Badsey became almost invincible among the +neighbouring villages and even against the towns. They distinguished +themselves in the local League matches, and on one occasion, something +like two thousand spectators assembled to witness a final which Badsey +won, in the meadow I lent them; and I had the honour of presiding at a +grand dinner to celebrate the event. I notice in the local papers that +in spite of the interruption of the war they are now again thriving +and earning new laurels. + +Our most important fete day was that upon which the Badsey, Aldington, +and Wickhamford Flower Show was held. The credit, for the original +inception and organization of this popular festival, is almost +entirely due, I think, to the public spirit and determination of my +old friend and co-churchwarden, Mr. Julius Sladden, of Badsey, and it +gives me much pleasure to record the debt of gratitude which the three +villages still owe him. + +The Show is held as nearly as possible on the day of the ancient +Badsey wake, in most parishes still celebrated on the day of the +patron saint. In the case of Badsey the anniversary of the wake is the +25th of July (St. James's day). As a wake Badsey's observance is a +thing of the past; it was formerly a time of much cider-drinking, a +meeting-day for friends and relations, and for various trials of +strength and skill, though I believe the carousals outlasted the +sports by many years. + +Nothing happier, in the way of a revival, and more civilized +enjoyment, could have been devised than a flower show, and it is now +one of the most popular fixtures of the neighbourhood with exceedingly +keen competition. Besides fruit, flowers, and vegetables, the exhibits +include such produce as butter and eggs, and my wife was very +successful with these, but on one occasion was rather disappointed to +find a beautiful dish of Langshan eggs, almost preternaturally brown +and rich-looking, disqualified. The judges were not acquainted with +the peculiarities of the breed--then a new one--and the reason for +disqualification, as we afterwards discovered, was "artificially +coloured." I believe exhibitors have been known to use coffee for this +purpose, and the judges, who had not the exhibitors' names before +them, fancied this to be an instance. + +The children's exhibits of wild flower bouquets I always considered at +this and similar shows far the most interesting and beautiful among +the flowers; but, unfortunately, they very soon droop in a hot tent +and look rather unhappy. + +Aldington Band was the outcome of a desire for musical expression on +the part of a few parishioners with some skill and experience in such +matters; it included performers on wind instruments and a big drum. +The Band was unfortunate at first in purchasing instruments of +differing pitch, as was discovered by my wife on attending a practice +at the request of the members. She pointed out the fault, and found an +instructor from Evesham to give them a course of lessons, so that with +a new set of instruments they soon improved. It was difficult, at +first, to find a suitable place for practice. A neighbour, a little +doubtful as to their attainments, suggested the railway arch in one of +my meadows as a nice airy spot under cover, but later expressed doubts +as to the safety of the trains running overhead on account of the +violence of the commotion beneath! This, of course, was mere chaff, +for they soon became so efficient that a large room was found for them +in the village, and eventually they were annually engaged to perform +the musical programme at the Badsey, Aldington, and Wickhamford Flower +Show. My gardener was the leading spirit of the Band, a great optimist +and the most willing man of any who ever reigned in my garden. There +was nothing he would not cheerfully undertake, and when we had a +difficulty in finding a sweep as required, he volunteered for the work +and became quite an adept, with the set of rods and brushes I bought +for the purpose. + +Our postman, though not a villager, was quite an institution; he +walked a matter of ten miles a day from Evesham to Bretforton, taking +Aldington and Badsey on the way, and back at night. He filled up the +interval between the incoming and outgoing posts at Bretforton, +working at his trade as tailor. Entering our village each evening, he +announced his arrival by three blasts on his tin horn; he was very shy +of being observed in this performance, and the people had to catch him +as he passed and hand him their letters. He must have walked nearly +100,000 miles in the many years he was our postman, and he told me +before I left that more letters were addressed to the Manor when I +first came, than to all the rest of the houses in the village +together. When correspondence became more general a pillar-box was +erected, but I always regretted the loss of the familiar notes of the +tin horn. + +Among Aldington's amusements no account would be complete without a +reference to the numerous concerts and entertainments for charitable +objects which my wife organized, and in which her musical talent +enabled her to take a prominent part; and although I feel some +hesitation in dealing with so personal a matter, I am certain that +many of those who co-operated with her in the organization and the +performance of these affairs will be pleased to have their +recollections of her own part in them revived. + +She possessed a natural soprano voice of great sweetness and +flexibility, in combination with the sympathetic ability and clear +enunciation which add so much to the charm of vocal expression. She +was not allowed to begin singing, in earnest, before she was nineteen, +for fear of straining so delicate a voice, and she then had the +advantage of the tuition of Signor Caravoglia, one of the most +celebrated teachers of the time. + +His method included deliberation in taking breath, thorough opening of +the mouth, practice before a mirror to produce a pleasing effect, and +to avoid facial contortion; he would not allow any visible effort, the +aim being to sing as naturally and spontaneously as a bird. His wife +played the accompaniments, so that the master could give his whole +attention to the attitude, production, and facial expression of the +pupil. + +Signer Caravoglia only consented to teach her on the express condition +that she would not sing in choruses, on account of the danger of +strain and overexertion. She practised regularly, chiefly exercises, +two hours a day in separate half hours. Her talent was soon recognized +at Malvern, where she lived before her marriage, and her assistance +was in great demand for amateur charity concerts. + +I have a book full of newspaper reports of my wife's performances, +containing notices of concerts at Malvern repeatedly, Kidderminster, +Worcester, at Birmingham under the auspices of the Musical Section of +the Midland Institute--a very great honour before a highly critical +audience--Alcester, Pershore, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Evesham, Broadway, +Badsey, Wallingford, and a great many villages in the Evesham +district. At Moreton she sang for the local Choral Society, taking the +soprano solos in the first part of Haydn's _Spring_, and the local +paper reported that her "birdlike voice added much to the beauty of +the cantata." In the second part of the concert she gave _The Bird +that came in Spring_, by Sterndale Bennett. I was always a little +nervous during this song in anticipation of the upper C towards the +finale, but it never failed to come true and brilliant. As we were +leaving by train the following morning we met a dear old musician who +had taken part in the chorus of the cantata. He begged to be +introduced to her, and said in his hearty congratulations on her +performance, that never before had such a note been heard in Moreton. + +At one of the Broadway concerts my wife had the pleasure of meeting +Miss Maude Valerie White, who was playing the accompaniments for +performers of her own compositions, including _The Devout Lover_, +which, she told Miss White, she considered one of the best songs in +the English language, at the same time asking for her autograph. Miss +White was kind enough to write her signature with the MS. music of the +first phrase--notes and words--of the song in a book which my wife +kept for the autographs of distinguished musicians and celebrated +people. + +While at Malvern my wife once heard Jenny Lind in public, and she +describes it as a most memorable occasion. + +Jenny Lind had for some years retired from public performance, but +consented to reappear at the request of a deputation of railway +employees anxious to arrange a concert in aid of the widows and +orphans of officials killed in a recent railway accident. She +stipulated that she should sing in two duets only, choosing the other +voice herself, and she selected Miss Hilda Wilson, the well-known +contralto of that time. + +They sang two duets by Rubinstein, one being _The Song of the Summer +Birds_, full of elaborate execution. Her voice was so true, sweet and +flexible, trilling and warbling like a bird, and taking the A flat as +a climax of delight at the conclusion with the greatest ease, that +with closed eyes it might have been taken for the effort of a young +girl. + +Jenny Lind was over seventy at the time; she was erect, tall, and +graceful; she wore a black dress with a good deal of white lace, and a +white lace cap. She was then Madame Otto Goldschmidt, living at the +Wynd's Point on the Herefordshire Beacon of the Malvern Range, and had +long been known as the "Swedish Nightingale." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + + +DEALERS--LUCK MONEY--FAIRS--SALES--EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON CATTLE AND +SHEEP--AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. + + "I'll give thrice so much land + To any well-deserving friend; + But in the way of bargain, mark ye me, + I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair." + --_1 Henry IV_. + +Dealers of all kinds were much more frequent callers at farm-houses in +the early days of my farming, than latterly when auction sales, to +some extent, superseded private negotiations, but the horse-dealer +remained constant, because comparatively few horses were offered by +auction. The horse-dealers appeared to conform to an understanding +that it was a breach of etiquette to exceed certain well-marked +boundaries in their search for purchases, or to interfere in each +other's business. This principle was carried so far as to prevent +dealers from one of these "countries" purchasing a horse at a fair +coming from another dealer's "country," and the understanding of +course minimized competition likely to raise the price. The dealers +however I think, gave fair values, governed for the most part by the +prices obtainable by them in the large towns. + +Most of my horses, when for sale, were bought by a man in a +considerable way of business, a well-known breeder, too, of shire +horses, taking many prizes at the leading shows. A handsome man with a +presence, and an excellent judge, shrewd but straight. He would ask +the price after examining the animal, and make an offer which he would +very seldom exceed if refused at first; but he would spend some time +in conversation, apparently quite irrelevant and very amusing, though +always returning to the point at intervals with arguments in favour of +the acceptance of his bid. He was so genial and pleasant and such good +company, for no man was ever better acquainted with the ways of the +world, that he very rarely, I think, left the premises without a deal, +though sometimes he was in his gig before the final bargain was +struck. It is a custom of the trade for the seller to give something +back to the buyer by way of "luck money," and the last time I did +business with him I refused to give more than one shilling each on two +horses, as I never received more than that sum when a buyer myself. He +accepted cheerfully, telling me that a shilling each was quite worth +taking, as he had a thousand horses through his hands in the course of +every twelve months, and that a thousand shillings meant L50 a year. + +The best piece of horse-dealing I ever did, was the purchase of a six +months old colt for L26, winning L20 in prizes with him as a +two-year-old, working him regularly at three and four on the farm, and +selling him at five for eighty guineas to a large brewery firm. Eighty +guineas in those days was a big price for a cart horse, though, of +course, in modern times, owing to the war, much higher prices can be +obtained. + +I remember another dealer, who, a notable figure in a white top hat +with a deep black band, and large coloured spectacles, was to be seen +at all the fairs and principal sales. He, too, had an ingratiating +manner, and would accost a young farmer with a hearty, "Good-morning, +Squire," or some such flattering introduction. A wise dealer always +knows how to keep up amicable relations with a possible seller or +buyer, and never descends to abuse, or the assumption of a personal +injury if he cannot persuade a seller to accept his price, as is the +case with some dealers with less _savoir faire_. + +A successful cattle dealer I knew had similar tactics of fraternity, +always addressing his sellers as "Governor," with marked respect. But +the best instance of this diplomatic spirit occurred in the case of a +deal between an old Hampshire friend of mine and a well-known and +historic sheep dealer from the same county. My friend had lately +become the happy father of twins, the fact being widely known in the +neighbourhood, for he was a very prominent man. He had 100 sheep for +sale, and the dealer was inspecting them, in a pen near the house. As +the bargain proceeded, the front door opened, and a nurse-maid +appeared with the twins in their perambulator. The dealer noticed them +immediately, and was not slow to turn the incident to his advantage. +"There they be, there they be, the little darlings," he called out, "a +sovereign apiece nurse, a sovereign apiece." Diving into a capacious +pocket, he pulled out a handful of gold and silver, and selecting two +sovereigns he handed them to the nurse for the children. "After that," +my friend said, "what could I do but sell him the sheep, though he got +them at two shillings a head less than I ought to have made." Now two +shillings a head, on one hundred sheep, represents ten pounds, leaving +eight pounds which the dealer earned by his keen insight into human +nature. + +This dealer carried on business with a brother, and they were to be +seen for very many years at all the large Hampshire summer sheep +fairs, where indeed, sometimes, when prices were rising, they owned +nearly all the sheep offered for sale, having bought them up +beforehand. As in a favourable summer when there was plenty of keep +and a good prospect of abundant roots prices would rise as much as +10s. a head during the months of the big fairs, and as at a single +fair as many as 30,000 sheep would be for sale, the chances of profit +offered to the courageous dealer with capital are manifest. + +Though risen from small beginnings, these brothers amassed +considerable fortunes, all of which, it was said, they invested in +real estate, so that they were known at one time to be worth at least +L100,000; and, as they continued in business for some years after the +time of which I am writing, they must have exceeded that sum +considerably as a total, though the values of land began to fall away +towards the end of their active existence. + +The more energetic of the two used very original phrases, in which he +extolled the physical virtues of flocks he had to sell; referring to +their size, he would say, "Just look at their backs! look at their +backs! they be as long as a wet Sunday!" Watching him, you could see +that while giving full attention to his customer, and keeping him in a +good humour with pleasant chat, while a bargain was proceeding, his +glance perpetually wandered to the moving crowd around the pens, and +that he had not only eyes, but ears, open to catch any impression +bearing on the progress of the general trade. He knew everybody, and +intuition told him upon what business they were present. + +These two dealers combined money-lending with sheep-dealing; if a +buyer had not the ready cash they would give credit for the purchase +price, the sheep forming the security; it being understood that when +they were again for sale the lenders should have the selling of them +on commission. + +Speaking of horse-dealers I referred to the custom of giving "luck +money," otherwise called "chap money." The word "chap" takes its +derivation from the Anglo-Saxon _ceap_ price or bargain, and +_ceapean_, to bargain, whence come the words "chop," to exchange; +"cheap," "Cheapside," "Mealcheapen Street" in Worcester, "cheapjack," +etc. Also, the prefix in the names of market towns, such as Chipping +Campden, Chipping Norton, etc. There is a curious place-name here in +Burley, New Forest, where I am now living, spelt "Shappen," which +puzzled me until I chanced to meet with an ancient print of a village +merry-making, with dancing and a May-pole and found that the name +Shappen applied especially to the spot, and that not far away the +Forest ponies and cattle were formerly penned for sale at an annual +fair in a lane, still called Pound Lane "Pound" is from the +Anglo-Saxon _pund_, a fold or inclosure. Shappen is evidently, +therefore, derived from _ceap_ (and possibly _pund_) as a place in +which bargains were struck, and the name testifies to the extreme +antiquity of the New Forest pony and cattle fair formerly held there. + +There are several notable horse fairs still held near Evesham. Besides +the one at Pershore, already mentioned, the most important fairs are +held at Stow-on-the-Wold and Shipston-on-Stour, both very +out-of-the-way places; and many stories of the wiles of horse-copers +were related in connection therewith. I remember the following told as +occurring at Stow-on-the-Wold. A man approached a simple-looking young +farmer, and getting into conversation with him, pointed out a horse +not far off, telling him that he had quarrelled with the owner who +refused in consequence to sell him the horse which he wished to buy. +He promised the farmer L2 if he would undertake the negotiation, and +could buy the horse for L10. The farmer agreed, and after some +apparent difficulty succeeded in effecting the purchase at the sum +named, paid the money and returned with the horse to the place where +he had left his acquaintance. The latter, however, had disappeared, +and after searching the fair from one end to the other, the farmer +took back the horse, to repudiate the bargain. The owner had also +vanished, and the farmer found himself with an ancient screw, which +eventually he was glad to get rid of at a pound a leg, losing L6 on +the deal. + +There are small pig-dealers, in almost every village, on the lookout +for bargains, and very cute men they generally are. One of these +well-known at Aldington, though nearly blind, could tell the points +and value of any pig in a marvellous way almost by intuition; it was +said of him that, "though blind, he was a better judge of a pig than +most folks with their eyes open." + +At farm and other auction sales there are always anxious buyers who +make a practice of trying to depreciate ("crabbing," as it is called) +any article or property they particularly wish to purchase, by making +damaging statements or insinuations to anybody whom, they fear, is +also a probable buyer. At a sale of cottage property adjoining a +public-house, in a village not far from Aldington, a keen purchaser +remarked that there was no water on the premises. The auctioneer, +however, knowing that water was not his man's strong point, +immediately replied, "Oh, never mind the water, sir, there's plenty of +whisky to be had next door." At another property sale, the tenant of +the house on offer, gratuitously informed me that the roof was in a +very bad state; knowing my man, I was not surprised when the house was +knocked down to him, but I never saw any repairs to the roof in +progress afterwards. + +A friend of mine had a caretaker in an empty house, and, finding that +no applications to view ever got beyond that stage, called at the +house with his wife, ostensibly as intending tenants. He was not +personally known to the caretaker, and on making the usual inquiries, +found the man by no means enthusiastic as to the amenities of the +place, and particularly doubtful as to the drainage, so much so as to +make it plain that any otherwise likely tenant would be repelled. +Knowing that all the sanitary arrangements were in perfect order, he +disclosed his identity, much to the dismay of the caretaker who, of +course, was dismissed. + +The person who asks damaging questions of the auctioneer or solicitor +at a property sale, though perhaps not declared the buyer on the fall +of the hammer, not infrequently proves later to have been so, having +employed an agent to bid for him. + +At a sale of farm stock and implements I was examining a waggon +practically new, though with no intention of buying, when I was +surprised by a cousin of the vendor volunteering the statement that, +having lately borrowed the waggon, he noticed one of the wheels giving +out a suspicious noise when in use, as if something were wrong. This +was a particularly bad case of "crabbing," as the man eventually +became the purchaser at a high price. + +It is an alarming sensation to see one's name on a waggon for the +first time, especially when the vehicle has been wholly repainted in +blue or yellow to represent the owner's supposed political tendencies, +for such was the custom in Worcestershire; but perhaps one's name, +address, and crest on a hop-pocket is more alarming still, when we +remember that twenty or more of these pockets, all marked alike, will +form each of several loads to be carted from a London railway station +to the Borough, the seat of the hop-trade, on the way to the factor's +warehouses, for all beholders to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly +digest." + +In the delightful and now somewhat rare book _Talpa; or, The +Chronicles of a Clay Farm_, by Chandos Wren Hoskins, one of the few +agricultural works ever written by a scholar, he refers to his first +experience of this sort, when speaking of his difficulty in making up +his mind as to whether he should let the property into which he had +just come by inheritance, or occupy it himself, as follows: + + "What was to be done? Apostatize from all the promises and + vows made from my youth up, and take it _in hand_--that is, + in a bailiff's hand, which certain foregone experiences had + led me to conceive was of all things the most _out of hand_ + (if that may be called so, which empties the hand and the + pocket too). Such seemed the only alternative! At first it + was an impossibility--then an improbability--and then, as + the ear of bearded corn wins its forbidden way up the + schoolboy's sleeve, and gains a point in advance by every + effort to stop or expel it, so did every determination, + every reflection counteract the very purpose it was summoned + to oppose, and, in short, one fine morning I almost jumped a + yard backward at seeing--my own name on a waggon!" + +The reference to a bailiff reminds me of my father's illustration, one +evening at dessert, of the difference between a farmer selling his +produce personally, or doing so through the medium of a bailiff. +Taking three wine-glasses--No. 1 representing the farmer, No. 2 the +bailiff, and No. 3 the purchaser--he filled No. 1 with port and poured +the contents into No. 3; what few drops were left in No. 1 remained +the property of the farmer. But if the wine were poured into No. 2, +and from thence into No. 3, however much the complete transference was +attempted, some small portion always remained for the benefit of the +intermediary. + +I always conducted my sales personally, except in small matters, and +my experience in the latter proved an exception to the above rule, as +I have previously related (pp. 17 and 20). + +I commend _Talpa_, with George Cruikshank's clever illustrations, to +the attention of all readers of the curiosities of agriculture, as +well as to practical men; it is one of those uncommon books which +enters into the humorous side of farming under disadvantages--as, for +instance, prejudiced labourers who have long been employed upon such +work as draining. The author found one of the men, after instructions +to lay the pipes at a depth of three feet, cutting a drain about +eighteen inches deep, _laying in the tiles, one by one, and filling +the earth in over them as he went_. "I've been a-draining this forty +year and more--I ought to know summat about it." The author adds, +"Need I tell you who said this? or give you the whole of the colloquy +to which it furnished the epilogue?" _Talpa_ was published sixty-seven +years ago, but it contains much that might well be taken to heart by +our post-war amateur agricultural reconstructionists. + +The tactics of a combination of buyers at a sale of household goods, +with an arrangement for one man to buy everything they want, so as to +avoid competition, is well known as "the knock out." I saw a most +flagrant case at a sale of valuable books at an old Cotswold Manor +House. The books were tied up, quite promiscuously, in parcels of half +a dozen or more, and although the room was crowded with dealers who +had been examining them with interest beforehand, practically only one +bidder appeared, and nearly every lot was sold to him for a few +shillings. I noticed several men taking notes of the prices made, and, +immediately the book sale was finished, they removed them to the lawn, +where they were resold by one of the gang at greatly enhanced prices. +They would, of course, eventually deduct the original cost from the +amount now realized and divide the difference amongst the buyers at +the second sale, _pro rata_, according to the amount of each man's +total purchases. + +Cattle-dealers, with a reputation as judges of fat stock at auctions, +have to be very careful not to let inexperienced butchers see them +bidding, because the latter will bid on the strength of the dealer's +estimate of value, arguing that the animal must be worth more to +himself as a butcher, than to the dealer who has to sell again. I have +often watched the crafty ways of such dealers not to give themselves +away in this manner, and their methods of concealing their bids. One I +particularly noticed, whose habit was to stand just below the +auctioneer's rostrum, facing the animal in the ring, with his back to +the auctioneer. When he wished to bid he raised his head very +slightly, making a nod backwards to the auctioneer, who, knowing his +man, was looking out for this method of attracting his attention. + +Though the ordinary farm sale is by far the most amusing and +picturesque, the sale of pedigree stock is much more sensational. When +the shorthorn mania was at its height, and the merits of Bates and +Booth blood were hotly debated, when such phrases as "the sea-otter +touch," referring to the mossy coat of the red, white, or roan +shorthorn, were heard, and the Americans were competing with our own +breeders in purchasing the best stock they could find--prices were +hoisted to an extravagant height. There is no forming a "knock-out" at +a pedigree sale; sturdy competition is the only recognized method of +purchase, and the sporting spirit is a strong incentive, especially +when the vendor is known as a courageous buyer at the sales of the +leading breeders. + +I attended the dispersal of a herd where the owner had been for years +one of these sporting buyers; he had, however, gone more for catalogue +blue-blood than perceptible excellence, and the stock were brought +into the ring scarcely up to the exhibition form which a pedigree sale +demands. The American buyers were well represented, and the popularity +of the vendor brought a great crowd of home buyers, so that the sale +went off with spirit. I chanced to sit next to the veterinary surgeon +who attended my own stock as well as the herd on offer, and it was +amusing to hear his confidential communications as the animals were +sold at huge prices. He knew their faults and weaknesses +professionally, and it was no breach of confidence, when a cow had +passed through the ring and extracted a big figure from an American +buyer, to whisper them in my ear. I noticed that the Americans, no +doubt with commissions to buy a particular strain of pedigree, +appeared to pay more attention to the catalogue than to the cattle +themselves, and I saw some sold at fancy prices, which I should really +have been sorry to see in my own non-pedigree herd. The sale was a +great success, from the vendor's point of view at any rate, and I +think the average exceeded seventy guineas all round, including calves +only a few months old. + +Some years later I visited Shipston-on-Stour with two friends to +attend a shorthorn sale in that neighbourhood. Mr. Thornton, the +well-known pedigree salesman, was the auctioneer. He waited about for +a long time after the hour fixed for the sale, until it became evident +that something had gone wrong. It appeared that the sheriff's +representative had served a writ on the vendor restraining the sale, +and although it was stated that Thornton had offered a personal +guarantee that the proceeds should be handed over to the sheriff, the +representative could not exceed his instructions, and the sale was +abandoned. A large company, including many foreign buyers, had +assembled; it was difficult to get these together at a postponement, +and when the sale was proceeded with some weeks later, I fear the +result could scarcely have proved so satisfactory. + +The Vale of Evesham is particularly suitable for pedigree shorthorn +breeding, as the soil and climate are very favourable for their +production according to exhibition type. It is otherwise with the +Jersey, for they quickly adapt themselves to the difference in their +environment as compared with the conditions in their native Channel +Island. When I exchanged my shorthorns for Jerseys, owing to the +foreign competition in the production of beef, which at sevenpence a +pound compared unfavourably with butter at fifteenpence, I imported my +cows direct from the Island, and afterwards bred from their +descendants, selling the bull calves, and occasionally buying a young +bull from Jersey. The blood was therefore kept absolutely pure, and, +as I was a member of the English Jersey Society, all my stock were +entered in the Herd Book. + +As time went on my cattle presented a noticeable change from the +original type; they were larger, developing much more hair and bone, +and though they gained in strength of constitution, and were handsome +and profitable, they gradually lost the dainty deer-like appearance of +the imported stock; and though quite as valuable for the purposes of +the dairy, they would have been regarded in the show ring by +connoisseurs as having a tendency to coarseness. I was, at first, +successful at the shows, but as the character of my cattle altered I +recognized that they would stand no chance against Jerseys bred on +lighter land, and in a climate more nearly approximating to that of +their native country. + +Precisely the same thing happened with my pedigree Shropshire sheep; +environment altered their character and produced a different +type--bone, wool, and size all increased. The wool was coarser and +darker in colour; they were good, useful, hardy stock, but could not +compete in quality with the pedigree sheep bred in their own county. +No pedigree Shropshire breeder will, as a rule, buy rams bred outside +his own district, for fear of introducing coarseness and an alteration +of the established exhibition type. + +An amusing incident happened at Mr. Graham's sale at Yardley near +Birmingham, at which I was present. Mr. Graham had a reputation as a +Shropshire sheep-breeder; though not actually farming in the county, +his land was not unsuitable, and, on one occasion, I believe, he won +the first prize for a shearling ram at the show of the Royal +Agricultural Society of England. + +I noticed a very non-agricultural individual in a top hat, who tried +to get into conversation with me and who succeeded in getting a +luncheon ticket gratis. These sale luncheons were at the time very +bountiful spreads, including plenty of champagne, and the man under my +observation made a very hearty meal. Short speeches and toasts always +follow, but an adjournment is quickly made to the sale tent, before +the evaporation of the effects of the hospitality. It is the custom +for a glove to be passed round to collect subscriptions for the +shepherd, during the progress of the sale, and on this occasion two +young fellows undertook the duty of collectors. The man, who had done +himself so well at Mr. Graham's expense, was evidently not buying or +even making bids, and to each of the collectors he said he had already +contributed to the other. Being suspicious they compared notes, and +found that he had made the same excuse to both. Such meanness after +the hospitality he had received was intolerable; shouting, "He's a +Welsher," they lifted him bodily, protesting and struggling, rushed +him out of the tent into a neighbouring field, and cast him into a +dirty pond covered with green and slimy duckweed! A miserable object +he scrambled out, for the pond was shallow, and took his dishevelled +and bedraggled presence away as fast as he could limp along, amid the +laughter and jeers of the crowd. + +The Hampshire Down ram sales in the palmy days of farming were +organized upon the same scale of liberality, and while the sale was +proceeding steam was kept up by handing round boxes of sixpenny +cigars, and brandy and water in buckets. It is, of course, good policy +to keep a company of buyers in good humour, but I think it has long +since been recognized that hospitality was carried a little too far in +those times of prosperity, and, in these degenerate if more +business-like days, extravagance is much less evident, though there is +a hearty welcome and abundance for all. + +Agricultural shows under favourable weather conditions are always +popular and well-attended. The large exhibitions of the Royal +Agricultural Society of England, the Bath and West of England, and the +Royal Counties, especially attract immense crowds; much business in +novel implements, machinery, seeds, and artificial fertilizers, was +done when times were good, and the towns in which the shows are held +benefit by a large increase in general trade. The weather, however, is +the arbiter as to the attendance, upon which the financial result of +the show depends. + +In 1879, the last of the miserable decade that ruined thousands of +farmers all over the country with almost continuous wet seasons, poor +crops, and wretched prices, the Royal Agricultural Society held its +show at Kilburn. The ground had been carefully prepared and adapted +for the great show with the usual liberal outlay; the work for next +year's show always commencing as soon as the show of the current year +is over; but the site was situated on the stiff London clay, and, +after weeks of summer rains and the traffic caused by collecting the +heavy engines and machinery and the materials used in the construction +of the sheds and buildings, the ground was churned into a quagmire of +clay and water, so that in places it was impassable, and some of the +exhibits were isolated. Thousands of wattled hurdles were purchased in +Hampshire, and laid flat on the mud along the main routes to the tents +and sheds, but they were quickly trodden in out of sight. Many +ponderous engines were bogged on their way to their appointed places; +nothing could move them, and they remained looking like derelict +wrecks, plastered with mud, sunk unevenly above the axles of their +wheels. + +I attended the show and shall never forget the scene of disaster. One +afternoon the Prince of Wales--the late King Edward--and a Royal party +made a gallant attempt, in carriages, to see the principal exhibits, +and succeeded, by following a carefully selected and guarded route. +The crowd was dense by the side of the track, and people were making a +harvest by letting out chairs to stand on, so as to get a view of the +procession, with cries of, "'Ere you are, sir; 'ere you are, warranted +not to sink in more than a mile!" Outside the show-yard, too, the +streets were lined with long rows of nondescripts, scraping the +adhesive clay off the shoes of the people leaving the show. + +I had a pocket of my hops on exhibition entered in the Worcester +class, and had great difficulty in getting near it. I found the shed +at last, deserted and surrounded by water, with a pool below the +benches on which the hops were staged. My pocket was sold straight +from the show-yard, and when my factor sent in the account, I found +that the pocket had gained no less than seventeen pounds from the damp +to which it had been subjected since it left my premises, about ten +days previously; hops, at that time, were worth about 1s. a pound, so +that the increased value more than balanced all expenses. + +A story is told of Tennyson at the Royal Counties show at Guildford. +Accompanied by a lady and child he was walking round the exhibits, +closely followed by an ardent admirer, anxious to catch any nights of +fancy that might fall from his lips. Time passed, and the poet showed +no signs of inspiration until the party approached a refreshment tent; +then, to the lady he said, to the astonishment of the follower, "Just +look after this child a minute while I go and get a glass of beer!" I +cannot vouch for the truth of this story, but I tell the tale as 'twas +told to me. + +It is surprising how long farm implements will last if kept in the dry +and repaired when necessary. I remember a waggon at Alton in the +seventies, which bore the name of the original owner and the date +1795; it was still in use. When I decided to give up farming, or +rather, when farming had given up me, I disposed of my stock and +implements by the usual auction sale. The attraction of a pedigree +herd of Jerseys, and a useful lot of horses and implements, brought a +large company together, and Aldington was a lively place that day. I +was talking to my son-in-law some time afterwards, and spoke with +amusement about the price an old iron Cambridge roller had made, not +in the least knowing who was the purchaser, until he said, "And _I was +the mug_ who bought it!" I believe, however, that a year or two later +it fully maintained its price when valued to the next owner, and +probably to-day it must be worth at least three times the money. I can +trace its history for a period of fifty-three years, and I don't think +it was new at the beginning. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + + +FARM SPECIALISTS. + + "And who that knew him could forget + The busy wrinkles round his eyes." + --_The Miller's Daughter_. + +Many specialists, in distinct professions, visited the farm in the +course of every twelve months, and each appeared at the season when +his particular services were likely to be required. Among these an +ancient grafter was one of the most important, and April was the month +which brought him to Aldington. In January we had usually beheaded +some trees that we considered not worth leaving as they were: these +would be trees producing inferior and nondescript cider apples, or +perry pears. And we had already cut, and laid in a shady place, half +covered with soil, the young shoots of profitable sorts to furnish the +grafts for converting the beheaded trees into valuable producers. + +The old man's function was to prepare the grafts, and unite them in +deftly-cut notches with their new parents. His was a rosy-cheeked and +many-wrinkled face, reminding one of an apple stored all the winter, +and, in his brown velveteen coat, with immense pockets, he made a +notable figure. He loved a chat and was always happy and +communicative, and his arrival seemed as much a herald of spring as +that of the welcome cuckoo. He was paid "by the piece," +"three-halfpence a graft and cider," quantity not specified, but an +important part of the bargain because of a superstition that grafts +"unwetted" would not thrive! Some of these large trees would have ten +or more limbs requiring separate grafting, and therefore they earned +him a considerable sum, but it is surprising how soon they make a new +head, come into bearing, and repay with interest the cost of the work. + +He was a thoughtful old man and a moralist. I can see him now, +standing with his snuff-box open ready in his hand, and saying very +solemnly, "I often thinks as an apple-tree is very similar to a child, +for you know, sir, we're told to train up a child in the way he shall +go, and when he is old he will not depart therefrom." He then +refreshed himself with a mighty pinch of snuff, closing his box with a +snap that emphasized his air of complete conviction. + +I think the sheep-dipper was one of the early arrivals. He brings with +him an apparatus which provides a bath, and a kind of gangway, rising +at an angle from it, upon which the sheep can stand after immersion, +to allow the superfluous liquid to find its way back into the bath; +each sheep is lifted by two men into the bath containing insecticide, +and has an interval for dripping before it rejoins the flock. In the +days when Viper was young, he was introduced to the process and given +a dip himself, much to his disgust; but that was the only time, for +ever afterwards no sooner did the sheep-dipper and his weird-looking +apparatus appear at night, in readiness for the performance on the +morrow, than Viper remembered his undignified experience, and, before +even the overture of the play commenced, vanished for the day. Nobody +saw him go, or knew where he went, but it was useless to call or +whistle, he was nowhere to be found. + +I believe the active ingredient of the dip was a preparation of +arsenic, and upon one occasion I lost several sheep after the dipping, +presumably from arsenical poisoning absorbed through the skin. I met +the dipper a few days later, and he said with a beaming face that he +had "given 'em summat," meaning the parasites. His smiles disappeared +when I told him the result, and that the remedy had proved more fatal +than the disease. After this experience I used a more scientific dip +which was quite as effective and without the element of danger to the +sheep. + +Entries are to be found in the old parish records of sums paid and +chargeable to the parish for killing "woonts" (moles), but later +private enterprise was alone responsible. A mole-catcher had been +employed throughout the whole of my predecessor's time at Aldington, +with a yearly remuneration of 12s. On my arrival he called and asked +me to forward the account for the last year to his employer; it ran as +follows: "To dastroyin thay woonts, 12s." The man hoped that I should +continue the arrangement, but, as I had not seen a mole or a mole-hill +on the farm, I told him I would wait, and would send for him if I +found them troublesome. As a matter of fact I never saw a mole, or +heard of one on my land, throughout the twenty-eight years of my +occupation. + +Rat-catchers are necessary when rats are very numerous, but rats +appear to be very capricious, abounding in some seasons and scarce in +others. My particular rat-catcher was not a very highly evolved +specimen of humanity; he was thin and hungry-looking with an angular +face, bearing a strong resemblance to the creatures against whom he +waged warfare; he had a wandering, restless and furtive expression, +and appeared to be perpetually on the lookout for his prey, or for +manifestations of their cunning and other evil characteristics in the +humanity with which he came in contact. His terms were, "no cure, no +pay," which impressed one with his confidence in his own remedies; but +these were profound secrets, and I had to be content with the +assurance that he used nothing harmful to man or domestic animals. He +was certainly successful, and effectually cleared the ricks and +buildings at one of my outlying places previously badly infested; no +dead rats were ever found, but all disappeared very soon after I +engaged him. + +It is well known that rats will unexpectedly desert quarters which +they have occupied for a long time, and travel in large bodies to a +new locality. An old man told me that, in walking by the brook-side +footpath from Aldington to Badsey, he once encountered one of these +armies; they looked so threatening and were in such numbers, that he +had to turn aside to allow them to pass, as they showed no signs of +giving way for him. + +One morning my bailiff came in to say that a bean-rick had suddenly +been taken possession of by an immense number of rats, where shortly +before not one could have been found. A man going to the rick-yard +quite early had seen the roof of the rick black with them; they were +apparently drinking the dew hanging in drops on the straws of the +thatch. They were so close together, "so thick," as he expressed it, +that one was killed by a stone thrown "into the brown" of them. We +sent for the thrashing machine a day or two later, and killed over +seventy, and many escaped. Every dead rat was plastered with mud +underneath, especially on their tails, and it was evident that they +had only just arrived when first seen, and had travelled some +distance, probably the evening before, along the clayey overhanging +bank of the brook. + +We always had great numbers of water-rats about brook; they are no +relation of the land-rat, having blunter, noses, shorter tails, and +very soft fur. They have not the loathsome appearance of the land-rat, +and live, almost entirely, on water-weeds, rushes, and other vegetable +matter. It is pretty to see them swimming across a stream; they dive +when alarmed, and remain out of sight a long time; they never leave +the water or the bank, and are quite innocent of depredations on corn. + +In some counties, but not so far as I am aware in Worcestershire, one +of the harmless snappers up of unconsidered trifles is the +truffle-hunter. At Alton, in Hampshire, one of these men appeared in +summer; he carried an implement like a short-handled thistle spud, but +with a much longer blade, similar to that of a small spade but +narrower; he was accompanied by a frisky little Frenchified dog, +unlike any dog one commonly sees, and very alert. The hunting ground +was beneath the overhanging branches of beech-trees, growing on a +chalky soil; the man encouraged the dog by voice to hunt the surface +of the land regularly over; when the dog scented the truffles +underneath, he began to scratch, whereupon the implement came into +use, and they were soon secured. I have since been sorry that I did +not interview this truffle-hunter as to his methods and as to his dog, +for I believe he is no longer to be seen in his old haunts. But I did +get a pound or two to try, and was disappointed by the absence of +flavour. I have since read that the English truffle is considered very +inferior to the French, which is used in making _pate de foie gras_. + +The wool-stapler makes his rounds as soon as shearing is completed; +his first call is to examine the fleeces, and if a deal results a +second visit follows for weighing and packing. He is of course well up +in market values, probably receiving a telegram every morning, when +trade is active, from the great wool-trade centre, Bradford. He is not +unwilling to give a special price for quality, but will sometimes +stipulate for secrecy as to the sum, because farmers, naturally, +compare notes, and everyone thinks himself entitled to the top price +no matter how inferior or badly washed his wool may be. The Bradford +stapler has the northern method of speech, which sounds unfamiliar in +the midland and southern counties, but it is not so cryptic as that of +the Scottish wool trade. The following colloquy is reported as having +passed between two Scots over a deal in woollen cloth. + +_Buyer_. "'Oo?" + +_Seller_. "Ay, 'oo." + +_Buyer_. "A' 'oo?" + +_Seller_. "Ay, a' 'oo." + +_Buyer_. "A' _a_ 'oo?" + +_Seller_. "Ay, a' _a_ 'oo." + +Which, being interpreted, is: "Wool?"--"Yes, wool." "All wool?"--"Yes, +all wool." "All one wool?"--"Yes, all one wool." + +When the stapler arrives for the weighing he brings his steelyards and +sheets; the wool is trod into the sheets, sewn up, and each sheet +weighed separately, an allowance being made for "tare" (the weight of +the sheet), and for "draught" (1/2 a pound in each tod, or 28 pounds). +This last is a survival of the old method of weighing wool, when only +enough fleeces were weighed at a time on the farmer's small machine to +come to a tod as nearly as possible. Buyers did not recognize anything +but level pounds (no quarters or halves), and consequently they got on +the average half a pound over the tod at each separate weighing, +gratis. + +Owing to the immense importations of Australian wool, the price of +English, which at one time was half-a-crown a pound, fell to the +miserable figure of sevenpence or thereabouts. When I was in +Lincolnshire, the tenant of the farm where I was a pupil clipped 14 +pounds each from 200 "hoggs" (yearling sheep), which at 2s. 6d. per +pound produced 35s. per sheep, equal to L350, so the fall of +three-quarters of the value was a serious loss. + +A story is told of a cunning wool buyer in the dim past weighing up +wool on an upper floor of some farm premises. As the fleeces passed +the machine they were thrown down an opening to the floor beneath in +readiness for packing. The pile of wool upstairs had been there some +time, and was full of rats. As the fleeces were moved a rat would +sometimes rush out trying to escape. No farm labourer can resist a rat +hunt, so the buyer being left alone beside the still unmoved fleeces, +whenever a rat appeared, and the men scattered in every direction in +pursuit, he took the opportunity to kick a few fleeces unweighed down +the opening. When the owner came to reckon the quantity the buyer +should have had, and compared it with the weight, the fraud was +discovered, and the deficiency had to be made good. + +I heard of a Hampshire farmer whose wife was anxious for a +drawing-room to be added to an inadequate farmhouse, and the tenant +with some difficulty persuaded the landlord to make the alteration. +When the work was complete the farmer expressed the great satisfaction +of his wife and himself with the addition, and the landlord was +anxious to see the new room. Every time he suggested a day, the farmer +objected that it would be inconvenient to his wife, or that he himself +would be away from home. Time went on, and the landlord, finding it +impossible to arrange a day that was not objected to, made a surprise +visit, when shooting over the farm. The farmer protested as to the +inconvenience, but the owner insisted, and was conducted to the new +drawing-room. The door was thrown open, and the room was seen to be +stacked from floor to ceiling with wool, without a stick of furniture +in the place! + +The veterinary surgeon is a necessary, but not very welcome visitor, +for, of course, his attendance means disease or accident to the stock. +He is not often mistaken in his diagnosis, though his patient cannot +detail his symptoms, or point to the position of the trouble. But the +vet is a man to be dispensed with as long as possible when epidemics, +like swine fever or foot and mouth disease, are raging in the +neighbourhood, because he may be a Government Inspector at such times, +and there is great danger to healthy stock if he has been officially +employed shortly before on an inspection. We had very little disease +at Aldington, being off the highroad, but we had one bad attack of +foot and mouth disease which I always thought was brought by a +veterinary surgeon. The complaint went all through my dairy cows and +fattening bullocks, and soon reduced them to lean beasts, but it was +surprising how quickly they picked up again in flesh and resumed their +normal appearance. It was curious to notice that, with the cows +standing side by side in the sheds, the disease would attack one and +miss the next two perhaps, then attack two and miss one, and so on; +doubtless it was a matter of predisposition on the part of those +affected. + +The veterinary lecturer at Cirencester College told me that during the +cattle plague in the sixties he had a coat well worth L50 to any +veterinary surgeon, so impregnated was it with the infection. This man +was fond of scoring off the students, and had a habit at the +commencement of each lecture of holding a short _viva voce_ +examination on the subject of the last. I remember when the tables +were turned upon him by a ready-witted student. The lecturer, who was +a superior veterinary surgeon, detailed a whole catalogue of +exaggerated symptoms exhibited by an imaginary horse, and selecting +his victim added, with a chuckle, "Now, Mr. K., perhaps you will +kindly tell us what treatment you would adopt under these +circumstances?" K. was not a very diligent student, and the lecturer +expected a display of ignorance, but his anticipated triumph was cut +short by the reply: "Well, if I had a horse as bad as all that _I_ +should send for the vet." The lecturer expostulated, but could get +nothing further out of K., and was forced to recognize that the +general laugh which followed was against himself. + +At a _post-mortem_, however, he was more successful in his choice of a +butt. A dead horse with organs exposed was the object before the +class, and the lecturer was asking questions as to their +identification. "Now, Mr. Jones, perhaps you will show us where his +lungs are?" Jones made an unsuccessful search. "Well, can we see where +his heart is?" and so on--all failures. Finally and scornfully, "Well, +perhaps you can show the gentlemen where his tail is!" + +The village thatcher, Obadiah B., was an ancient, but efficient +workman when engaged upon cottages or farm buildings, for ricks +require only a comparatively temporary treatment. He was paid by the +"square" of 100 feet, and, although he was "no scholard," and never +used a tape, he was quite capable of checking by some method I could +never fathom my own measurements with it. The finishing touches to his +work were adjusted with the skill of an artist and the accuracy of a +mathematician; and a beautiful bordering of "buckles" in an elaborate +pattern of angles and crosses--"Fantykes" (Van Dycks), his +hard-working daughter Sally called them--completed the job. He +"reckoned" that each thatching would last at least twenty years, and +being well stricken in years, or "getting-up-along" as they say in +Hampshire, he would add gloomily, "_I_ shall never do it no more." He +was a true prophet, for on every building he thatched for me the work +outlived him, and even after the lapse of thirty years is not +completely worn out. + +Passing him and his son in the village street, outside his house, when +he was packing fruit for market, I heard him, his voice raised for my +benefit, thus admonishing his son who was casually using some of the +newer hampers: "Allus wear out the old, fust." But I must not +attribute to his son the unfilial retort which another youth made +under similar circumstances, when told to fetch some more hampers from +a shed some distance away: "No, father, _you_ fetch them, allus wear +out the old fust, you know." + +Occasional visitors come with goods for sale in quest of orders, and +some are very persistent and difficult to get rid of. A man professing +to sell some artificial fertilizer called upon me with a small tin +sample box, containing a mixture which emitted a most villainous +odour. He sniffed with appreciation at the compound, probably +consisting of some nitrogenous material such as wool treated with +sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, and began his address. He had not gone +far before I remembered a story of a similar person in Hampshire. This +man had called upon the leading farmers, and offered them a bargain, +explaining that some trucks of artificial manure that he had consigned +to Walton Station had been sent by mistake to Alton. He sold many tons +in this way without any guarantee as to the analysis, but the buyers +found on using it that it was worthless. The seller tried his game on +again the following year, without success. One farmer whom he followed +from the farm-house to a turnip-field went so far as to show him his +hunting-crop, and pointing to the field gate at the same time, +intimated that if he did not with all speed place himself outside the +latter, he would make unpleasant acquaintance with the former. So now +when my caller mentioned a truck of the manure which had come by +mistake to Evesham Station, though consigned to Evershot in Somerset, +my suspicions were confirmed, and when I innocently remarked, "I think +I remember that truck, didn't it go to Alton once in mistake for +Walton?" his countenance fell, and he wished me "good-morning" in a +hurry. + +Hurdles in Worcestershire are generally made of "withy" (willow), and +it is interesting to watch the hurdle-maker at work. The poles have +first to be peeled, which can be done by unskilled labour, the pole +being fixed in an improvised upright vice made from the same material. +Then comes the skilled man, who cuts the poles into suitable lengths, +and splits the pieces into the correct widths. Next with an axe he +trims off the rough edges, shapes the ends of the rails, and pierces +the uprights with a centre-bit. Then he completes the mortise in a +moment with a chisel, the rails being laid in position as guides to +the size of the apertures. The rails are then driven home into the +mortise holes, and he skips backwards and forwards, over the hurdle +flat on the ground, as he nails the rails to the heads; two pieces, in +the form of a V reversed, connect the rails and keep them in place. + +In counties where hazel is grown in the coppices, a wattled or "flake" +hurdle is the favourite, and they afford much more shelter to sheep in +the fold than the open withy hurdle, but, being more lightly made, +they require stakes and "shackles" to keep them in position. The hazel +hurdle-maker may be seen in the coppice surrounded by his material and +the clean fresh stacks of the work completed. The process of +manufacture differs from that of the open-railed hurdle: he has an +upright framework fixed to the ground with holes bored at the exact +places for the vertical pieces, and indicating the correct length of +the hurdle, when finished. The horizontal pieces or rods are +comparatively slender and easily twisted, and so can be bent back +where they reach the outside uprights, and they are interlaced with +the others in basket-making fashion. At this stage the hurdle presents +an unfinished appearance, with the ends of the horizontal rods +protruding from the face of the hurdle. Then the maker with a special +narrow and exceedingly sharp hatchet chops off at one blow each of the +projecting ends, with admirable accuracy, never missing his aim or +exceeding the exact degree of strength necessary to sever the +superfluous bit without injuring the hurdle itself. The hurdle-maker +is paid at a price per dozen, and he earns and deserves "good money." + +The art of making wattled hurdles is passed on and carried down from +father to son for generations; the hurdle-maker is usually a cheery +man and receives a gracious welcome from the missus and the maids when +he calls at the farm-house, often emphasized by a pint of home-brewed. +He combines the accuracy of the draughtsman with the delicate touch of +the accomplished lawn-tennis player. His exits and his entrances from +and to the scene of his labours are made in the remote mysterious +surroundings of the seldom-trodden woods; overhead is the brilliant +blue of the clear spring sky; the sunshine lights up the quiet hazel +tones of his simple materials, his highly finished work, and his heaps +of clean fresh chips; and his stage is the newly cut coppice, carpeted +with primroses and wild hyacinths. I have never seen a representation +of this charming scene, and I commend the subject to the +country-loving artist as full of interest and colour, and as a theme +of natural beauty. + +Our blacksmith came twice a week to the village when work was still +plentiful in the early days of my farming, and I was not yet the only +practical farmer in the place. I need not describe the forge: it has +been sung by Longfellow, made music of by Handel, and painted by +Morland; everybody knows its gleaming red-hot iron, its cascades of +sparks, and the melodious clank of the heavy hammer as it falls upon +the impressionable metal. In all pursuits which entail the use of an +open fire at night, its fascination attracts both busy and idle +villagers, and more especially in winter it becomes a centre for local +gossip. At that season the time-honoured gossip corner, close to the +Manor gate, was deserted for the warmth and action of the forge. +Blacksmiths, like other specialists, vary, and the difference may be +expressed as that between the man who fits the shoe to the hoof, and +the man who fits the hoof to the shoe--in other words, the workman and +the sloven. Doubtless many a slum-housed artisan in the big town, +driven from his country home by the flood of unfair foreign +competition, looks back with longing to the bright old cottage garden +of his youth and in his dreams hears the music of the forge, sees the +blazing fire, and sniffs the pungency of scorching hoof. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + + +THE DAIRY--CATTLE--SHEEP--LAMBS--PIGS--POULTRY. + + "And brushing ankle-deep in flowers, + We heard behind the woodbine veil + The milk that bubbled in the pail, + And buzzings of the honied hours." + --_In Memoriam_. + +My farm had the reputation of being a good cheese farm, but a bad +butter farm; in spite, however, of this tradition I determined to +establish a pedigree Jersey herd for butter-making. For early in my +occupation I had abandoned the cheese manufacture of my predecessor +and later the production of unprofitable beef. My wife attended +various lectures and demonstrations and was soon able to prove that +the bad character of the farm for this purpose was not justified. +Within a few years she covered one wall of the dairy with prize cards +won at all the leading shows, and found a ready market for the +produce, chiefly by parcel post to friends. The butter, although it +commanded rather a better price than ordinary quality, was considered +not only by them but by the villagers more economical, as owing to its +solidity and freedom from butter milk, it would keep good +indefinitely, and "went much further." + +The cream from my Jerseys was so thick that the cream crock could be +lifted up by the wooden spoon used for stirring, by merely plunging it +into the crock full of cream and raising it, without touching the +crock in any other way. With fifteen cows and heifers in milk on an +average, the Jerseys brought me in quite L300 a year in butter and +cream, without considering the value of the calves, and of the +skim-milk for the pigs, and they were worth a good deal besides from +the aesthetic point of view. I think that the word "dainty" describes +the Jersey better than any other adjective; their beautiful lines and +colouring in all shades of fawn and silver grey make them a continual +delight to behold. After all, however, the shorthorn is a magnificent +creature; they, too, have their aesthetic side; the outline is more +robust, their colouring more pronounced, and I think that "stately" is +the best description to apply to their distinguished bearing. + +At Worcester, on market days, a great deal of butter is brought in by +the country people and retailed in the Market Hall, and many of these +farmers' wives and daughters have regular customers, who come each +week for their supply. On one occasion when the inspector of weights +and measures was making a surprise visit, and testing the weights of +the goods on offer, a man, standing near a stall where only one pound +of butter was left unsold, noticed that as soon as the owner became +aware of the inspector's entrance, she slipped two half-crowns into +the pat, obliterating the marks where they had been inserted. She was +evidently aware that the butter was not full weight, but with the +addition it satisfied the inspector's test, the two half-crowns just +balancing the one ounce short. No sooner was he gone than the +spectator came forward to buy the butter. She guessed that he had seen +the trick, and dared not refuse to sell, although she tried hard to +avoid doing so; so the cunning buyer walked off with fifteen ounces of +butter worth 1s. 2d., and 5s. in silver for his outlay of 1s. 3d. + +In farm-houses where old-fashioned ways of butter-making are still +followed, and the thermometer is ignored, it happens sometimes that +after some hours' churning the butter does not "come." The traditional +remedy is then tried of introducing one or two half-crowns into the +churn, partly, I think, as a kind of charm, and partly with the idea +of what is called "cutting the curd." The remedy is certainly +sometimes successful, probably the coins set up a new movement in the +rotating cream, which causes an almost immediate appearance of the +butter. On the outside of the framework of the windows in some of +these old places, the word "dairy" or "cheese-room" may still be seen, +painted or incised. This is a survival from the days of the window +tax, and was necessary to claim the exemption which these rooms as +places of business enjoyed by law. + +My former tutor, the late vicar of Old Basing in Hampshire, decided to +keep a cow on his glebe, and consulted the old parish clerk as to the +kind of cow he would recommend. The old man was the oracle of the +village on all matters secular as well as those connected with his +calling. "Well," he said, "what you wants is a nice pretty little cow, +not a great big beast as'll stand a-looking and a-staring at you all +day long." The vicar followed his advice, avoided the stony regard of +an unintelligent animal, and purchased a charming little tender-eyed +Brittany, which was quite an ornament to his meadow. + +People were very shy of American beef when first imported but, being +lower in price than English it was bought by those who were willing to +sacrifice quality to cheapness. It was said that the most inferior +English was sold under the name of American, the best of the American +doing duty for medium quality English. I remember seeing a very +ancient and poverty-stricken cow knocked down to a Birmingham dealer, +who exclaimed exultingly as the hammer fell, "I'll make 'em some +'Merican biff in Brummagem this week." + +The neglected and overgrown hedges, now so often seen on what was +formerly good wheat-growing land, have a useful side as shelter when +surrounding pasture. In the bitter winds which often occur in May, +when the cattle are first turned out after a winter in the yards well +littered with clean straw, they can be seen on the southern side +protected from the blast. Referring to the May blossom of the +white-thorn, an old proverb says, with a faulty rhyme: + + "May come early or May come late + 'Tis sure to make the old cow quake." + +May Day has always been the customary date for turning out cattle to +grass, but people forget that old May Day was nearly a fortnight +later, which makes a great difference as to warmth and keep at that +time of year. + +With changes of dates and times old customs and sayings lose their +force. Under the "daylight saving" arrangement we should alter, "Rain +before seven, fine before eleven," to "Rain before eight, fine before +twelve," which spoils the rhyme. And "Between one and two, you'll see +what the day means to do," into, "Between two and three, you'll see +what the day means to be." + +A few years ago, when _Antony and Cleopatra_ was reproduced at a +London theatre by an eminent actor-manager, it was reported that his +mind was much exercised over the lines referring to the flight of +Pompey's galley: + + "The breese upon her, like a cow in June, + Hoists sails and flies." + +It was suggested that for "cow," the correct reading should be "crow," +who might very well spread her wings to the breeze and fly. The +difficulty was caused by the word "breese" (the gad-fly)--no doubt +presumed to be an archaic spelling of "breeze." Shakespeare knew all +about farming, as about nearly everything else, and a year on a farm +would illustrate many of his allusions which the ordinary reader finds +somewhat cryptic; anyone who has seen the terrified stampede of cattle +with their tails erect when attacked by the gad-fly, will recognize +the force of the simile. The gad-fly pierces the skin of the animal, +laying its eggs beneath, just as the ichneumon makes use of a +caterpillar to provide a host for its progeny. No doubt the operation +is a painful one, but the caterpillar may survive, even into its +chrysalis stage, and the cow in due time is relieved, after an +uncomfortable experience, by the exit of the maggot or fly. + +A branch of the Roman road, Ryknield Street, commonly called Buckle +Street, leaving the former near Bidford-on-Avon and running over the +Cotswolds via Weston Subedge, was known in former times as Buggilde or +Buggeld Street, derived possibly from the Latin _buculus_, a young +bullock. No doubt vast herds of cattle traversed the road from the +vale to the hills, or vice versa, according to the abundance of keep +and the time of year. Similar roads in Dorset and Wiltshire are still +known as "ox droves," and in the former county, at least, both young +heifers and bullocks are known as "bullicks." + +Cattle are subject to all manner of disorders which, though puzzling +to the owner to diagnose, are not as a rule beyond the skill of a good +veterinary surgeon to alleviate; but there are also accidents which +are much more annoying, being impossible to foresee. I had occasional +losses from the latter causes: once in the night when a cow was thrown +on her back into a deep brick manger; and once when a small piece of +sacking, part of a decorticated cotton-cake bag, was somehow mixed in +with the food, and induced internal inflammation. + +It is a difficult matter for a farmer when selling fat cattle direct +to the butcher, to compete with him in a correct estimate of the +weight, and it is therefore advisable to sell at a price per pound of +the dead weight when dressed; this, however, is not always feasible, +and a very close estimate can be arrived at by measurement of the +girth and length of the live animal, following rules laid down in the +handbooks on the subject of fat stock. It is a mistake to suppose that +the fattening of stock is a profitable undertaking _per se_. On all +arable farms there is a certain amount of food, hay, straw, chaff, +roots, etc., which must be consumed on the premises for the sake of +keeping up the fertility of the land, but I believe that only under +very exceptional circumstances can a shilling's-worth of food and +attendance be converted into a shilling's-worth of meat, so that if in +the future the price of corn is to fall back into anything approaching +pre-war values, the corn crops, as well as the intermediate green +crops, which are only a means for producing corn, must be +discontinued, and the land will again become inferior pasture. +Old-fashioned farmers recognized the absence of direct profit in the +winter of fattening cattle especially on the produce of arable land, +and the saying is well known that, "the man who fattens many bullocks +never wants much paper on which to make his will." + +There are few pleasanter sights about farm premises than to see, as +the short winter day is drawing to an end, and the twilight is +stealing around the ricks and buildings, a nicely sheltered yard full +of contented cattle deeply bedded down in clean bright wheat straw, +and settling themselves comfortably for the night; and, when one pulls +the bed-clothes up to one's ears, one can go to sleep thinking happily +that they too are enjoying a refreshing sleep. Cattle and sheep can +stand severe cold, if they are sheltered from bitter winds and have +dry quarters in which to lie; even lambs are none the worse for coming +into the world in a snow-covered pasture; and an opened stable window +without a draught will often cure a horse of a long-standing chronic +cough. It was pitiful in the early days of the war to see the Indian +troops with their mountain batteries at Ashurst, near Lyndhurst, in +the New Forest, the mules up to their knees and hocks in black mud, +owing to the unfortunate selection of an unsound site for the camp. + +A "deadly man for ship"--one of those expressions not uncommon in +Worcestershire, on the _lucus a non lucendo_ principle--signifies a +celebrated sheep breeder; the word "deadly," in this sense, is akin to +the Hampshire and Dorset "terrible," or, "turrble," as a term of +admiration or the appreciation of excellence; but there are occasions +even in the most carefully tended flocks where accidents cannot be +anticipated. Such an event occurred to a Cotswold ram, which after +washing was placed in an orchard near my house to dry before shearing. +The ram had an immense fleece on him, nineteen pounds as it afterwards +proved, and the wool round the neck was somewhat ragged. As he lay +asleep with his head turned round and muzzle pointing backwards, some +little movement caused his head to become entangled in the loose wool, +and he was found hanged in his own fleece. + +I was watching, with my bailiff, a splendid lot of lambs fat and ready +for the butcher; two of them were having a game--walking backwards +from each other, and suddenly rushing together like two knights in a +medieval tournament, their heads meeting with a concussion and a +resounding smack--when one instantly fell to the ground with a broken +neck. Had no one been present the meat would have been worthless, but +my man was equal to the occasion, and, borrowing my pocket knife, +produced the flow of blood necessary to render the meat fit for human +food. My villagers had a feast that week, and my own table was graced +by an excellent joint of real English lamb. Of course we never +attempted to consume any of the meat from animals which had been +killed when suffering from a doubtful complaint, though some people +are by no means particular in this matter. + +A doctor told me that when attending a case at a farmhouse he was +invited to join the family at their midday meal, and was surprised to +see a nice fore-quarter of lamb on the table. His host gave him an +ample helping, and he had just made a beginning with it and the mint +sauce, green peas, and new potatoes, when the founder of the feast +announced by way of excusing the indulgence in such a luxury: "This +un, you know was a bit casualty, so we thought it better to make sure +of un." My informant told me that then and there his appetite +completely failed, and, to the dismay of his host he had to relinquish +his knife and fork. + +It is always policy to kill a sheep to save its life, as the saying +is, and the way to make the most of it is to send any fat animal, +which is off its feed and looking somewhat thoughtful, to the butcher +at once. He knows quite well whether the sheep is fit for food, and if +he decides against it, all one expects is the value of the skin. But +people are very shy of buying meat about which they have any +misgiving, and my butcher once told me not to send him an "emergency +sheep" _in one of my own carts_, but to ask him to fetch it himself: +"It's like this," he explained, "when a customer comes in for a nice +joint of mutton, if he is a near neighbour, he will perhaps add, 'I +would rather not have a bit of the sheep that came in a day or two ago +in one of Mr. S.'s carts'!" + +It was always cheering in February, "fill dyke, be it black or be it +white," on a dark morning, to hear the young lambs and their mothers +calling to each other in the orchards, where there is some grass all +the year round under the shelter of the apple trees; or when a +springlike morning appears, about the time of St. Valentine's Day, and +the thrushes are singing love-songs to their mates, and the first +brimstone butterfly has dared to leave his winter seclusion for the +fickle sunshine, to realize that Spring is coming, and the active work +of the farm is about to recommence. There is a superstition that when +the master sees the firstling of the flock, if its head is turned +towards him, good luck for the year will follow, but it is most +unlucky if its head is turned away. + +After the disastrous wet season of 1879 immense losses ensued from the +prevalence of the fatal liver rot; many thousands of sheep were sold +at the auctions for 3s. or 4s. apiece, and sound mutton was +exceedingly scarce and dear. It was represented to a very August +personage, that if the people could be induced to forgo the +consumption of lamb, these in due course would grow into sheep, and +the price of mutton would be reduced. Accordingly an order was issued +forbidding the appearance of lamb on the Court tables. It had not +occurred to the proposer of this scheme that a scarcity of food for +the developing lambs would result, nor was it understood that the +producers of fat lambs make special cropping arrangements for their +keep, with the object of clearing out their stock about Easter, in +time to plough the ground, and follow the roots where the ewes and +lambs have been feeding, with barley. The "classes" copied the example +of the Court, as in duty bound, and the demand fell to zero. But the +lambs had to be sold for the reasons mentioned, and, in the absence of +the usual demand, the unfortunate producers offered them at almost any +price. The miners and the pottery workers in Staffordshire were not so +loyal as the "classes"; they welcomed the unusual opportunity of +buying early lamb at 9d. a pound, and trains composed entirely of +trucks full of lambs from the south of England to the Midlands +supplied them abundantly. + +The edict, when its effect was apparent, was therefore revoked, but it +was too late, the lambs were gone, and as everybody was hungry for his +usual Easter lamb, the demand was immense, and the price rose in +proportion. I had thirty or forty lambs intended for the Easter +markets, and had, with great difficulty and the sacrifice of grass +which should have stood for hay, managed to keep them on, scarcely +knowing what to do with them. But the sudden demand arose just in +time, and I sent them to the Alcester auction sale, where buyers from +Birmingham and the neighbourhood attend in large numbers. A capital +sale resulted, the price going as high as 60s., in those days a big +figure for lambs about four months old. I was so pleased with the +result and my deliverance from the dilemma, that, passing through the +town on my way home, and spying an old Worcester china cup and saucer, +and a bowl oL the same, all with the rare square mark, I invested some +of my plunder in what time has proved an excellent speculation, and my +cabinet is still decorated with these mementoes, which I never see +without calling to mind the story of the lamb edict and its result. + +During the Great War some controlling wiseacre evolved precisely the +same scheme for bringing about an imaginary increase in the supply of +mutton, by prohibiting the slaughter of any lambs until June. The +Dorset breeders, who buy in ewes at high prices for the special +production of early lamb--the lambs of this breed are born in October +and November--were more particularly affected, and the absurdity of +the prohibition having been later represented to the authorities, the +order was withdrawn, though not before great loss and difficulty were +inflicted upon the unfortunate producers. It goes to prove the +necessity of the administration of such matters by competent men, and +how easily apparently sound theory in inexperienced hands may conflict +with economical practice. + +Of late years the competition of the importations of New Zealand lamb +has reduced the price of English lamb to an unremunerative level. This +thin dry stuff bears about the same resemblance to real fat home-grown +lamb, as do the proverbial chalk and cheese to each other; but it is +good enough for the restaurants and eating-houses; and the consumer +who lacks the critical faculty of the connoisseur in such matters, +devours his "Canterbury" lamb, well disguised with mint sauce, in +sublime ignorance, and, apparently, without missing the succulence of +the real article--convinced as he is that it was produced in the +neighbourhood of the cathedral city of the same name, and unaware of +the existence of such a place as Canterbury in New Zealand, or that +the name, if not exactly a fraud, is calculated to mislead. Doubtless +it is the mint sauce that satisfies the uncritical palate. Just as the +boy who, when asked after a treat of oysters how he liked them, said +with gusto, "The oysters was good, but the vinegar and pepper was +_de_licious!" + +It is well known that there is a tendency among men in charge of +special kinds of domestic animals gradually to approximate to them in +appearance, and we are told that men sometimes gradually acquire a +resemblance to men they admire. I knew a pedigree-pig herdsman, very +successful in the show-ring, who was curiously like his charges, and I +had at least two shepherds whose profiles were extraordinarily +sheepish--though not in the ordinary acceptation of the term. Such an +appearance confers a singularly simple expression. It must have been a +man whose character justified such a facial peculiarity, who, having +to bring the flock of one of my neighbours over a railway crossing +between two of his fields, neglected to open the further gate first, +drove the sheep on to the rails, and proceeded to do so, only to find +the sheep, in the meantime, had wandered down the line. Before he +could collect them a train dashed into them, and many were killed and +others injured. The railway company not only repudiated all liability, +but sent in a counterclaim for damage to their engine! + +But the tables were turned morally, if not actually, by a friend of +mine, who certainly scored off a railway company. My friend's waggon, +with two horses and a load of hay, was passing over a level crossing +on his land, when the London express came into view slinging downhill +in all the majesty of triumphant speed, but far enough away to be +brought up in time, ignominiously and abruptly. The railway company +wrote my friend a letter of remonstrance suggestive of pains and +penalties, and telling him that his waggoner should have made sure of +the safety of crossing before attempting it--not an easy thing to do +at this particular place. My friend replied that his right of way +existed centuries before the railway was dreamed of, that the crossing +was a concession for the company's convenience, it had saved the +expense of a bridge, and that his hay was an urgent matter in view of +the weather; and that uninterrupted harvesting was of more importance +than the punctuality of their passengers. + +I have sometimes passed through a remote village on a Sunday where the +obsequies of a pig were to be seen in full view from the road; these +were usually places where the church was in an adjoining +mother-parish, and of course there are times when, for reasons of +health or perhaps more correctly ill-health, it is impossible to defer +the ceremony. As a rule, I should imagine that greater privacy is +sought, at any rate so far as the public point of view is concerned. +One remembers the story of the man doing some Sunday carpentering; his +wife expostulated with him as a Sabbath breaker; he replied that in +driving in the nails he could not help making some noise; "then why," +said she, "don't you use screws?" + +An old Dorset labourer who helped with the removal of the pig-wash, +and did other small jobs for successive tenants of mine at a furnished +cottage on my land in Hampshire, invariably estimated the social +status and resources of each new tenant by the consistency of the +wash. When some rather extravagant occupiers were in possession, he +reported them as, "Quite the right sort; their wash is real good, +thick stuff." The villagers at Aldington did not smoke their bacon, +but, as it usually hung in the kitchen not far from the big open +hearth, and as the place was often full of fragrant wood smoke, the +bacon acquired a pleasant suggestion of the smoked article of the +southern counties. The cottagers rarely complained of the smoky state +of their kitchens, consoling themselves with the saying, "'Tis better +to be smoke-dried nor starred [starved with the cold] to death." Bacon +naturally suggests eggs; many of the villagers kept a few fowls which +sometimes strayed into my orchards; as a rule, I made no objection, +but it was not pleasing, when the apples were over-ripe and dropping +from the trees, to notice the destructive marks of their beaks on some +extra fine Blenheim oranges. + +My wife determined to take over our fowls into her own jurisdiction; +hitherto they had been under my bailiff's care, and he rather resented +the change as an implication on his management, until it was explained +that she was anxious to undertake the poultry as a hobby. One of the +carter boys was detailed to collect the eggs, as some of the +hen-houses were in out-of-the-way corners of the yards and difficult +to approach. My wife thought the middleman was appropriating most of +the profit; she was determined to get as directly to the consumer as +possible and, among others, she arranged with the head of a large +school for a weekly supply of dairy and poultry produce. All went well +for a time until one day the boy, anxious to produce as many eggs as +possible, as he received a royalty per dozen for collecting, +discovered some nests which my man had set for hatching before he +retired from the post. The boy, not recognizing this important fact, +came in greatly pleased with an unusually large quantity, and it so +happened that the school received the eggs from this special lot. Next +morning forty eggs appeared at the boys' breakfast table, and forty +boys simultaneously suffered a terrible shock on the discovery of +forty incomplete chickens. The head wrote an aggrieved letter of +complaint, and though my wife was by that time able to explain the +matter, and regret her own loss too of forty chickens, he removed his +custom to a more reliable source. + +This schoolmaster was a collector of antique furniture and china, and, +knowing that I was interested, he asked me to come and see some +Chippendale chairs he had just acquired. It happened that some months +before I had declined to buy four or five chairs that were offered at +10s. apiece. I had not then fully developed the taste for the antique, +which once acquired forbids the connoisseur to refuse anything good, +whether really wanted or not, and at that time there was much more +choice in such matters than at the present day. The chairs were very +dilapidated and I did not recognize their possibilities, but I noticed +the arms of the elbow chairs were particularly good, being carved at +the junction of the horizontal and vertical pieces with eagles' heads. +Deciding that I did not want them I sent a dealer to the house and +forgot all about the matter. The schoolmaster took me into his +drawing-room, and I instantly recognized the set I had refused; they +were quite transformed, nicely cleaned, lightly polished, and the +seats newly covered. I duly admired them, and on inquiry found that he +had purchased them in Worcester from the dealer I had sent to look at +them; they cost him L5 each, and I suppose at the present time they +would be worth L20 apiece at least. + +I have previously mentioned old Viper as a family friend, but like all +dogs he had his faults. He acquired a liking for new laid eggs and +hunted the rickyard for nests in the straw. My bailiff determined to +cure him; he carefully blew an egg, and filled it with a mixture of +which mustard was the chief component. Viper was tempted to sample the +egg, which he accepted with a great show of innocence; the effect when +he had broken the shell was electrical; he fled with downcast tail and +complete dejection, and nothing would ever induce him to touch an egg +again. + +The whirligig of time has indeed brought its revenge in the matter of +the market value of eggs. In Worcestershire we have had to give them +away at eighteen or twenty for a shilling; last (1918-1919) winter we +sold some at 7s. a dozen, and many more at 5s. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + + +ORCHARDS--APPLES--CIDER--PERRY. + + "Lo! sweetened with the summer light, + The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow + Drops in a silent autumn night." + --_The Lotus-Eaters_. + +A curious old punning Latin line, illustrating various meanings of the +word _malus_, an apple, seems appropriate, as a commencement, to +writing about apples; it is I think very little known, and too good to +be forgotten. _Malo, malo, malo, malo_; it is translated thus: + + "_Malo_, I would rather be, + _Malo_, in an apple-tree, + _Malo_, than a bad boy, + _Malo_, in adversity." + +The fruit was an important item on the Aldington Manor Farm, and when +later I bought an adjoining farm of seventy acres with orcharding, and +had planted nine acres of plum trees, my total fruit area amounted to +about thirty acres. There was a saying in the neighbourhood which +pleased me greatly, that "it was always harvest at Aldington"; it was +not so much intended to signify that there was always something coming +in, as to convey an impression of the constant activity and employment +of labour that continued throughout the seasons without intermission, +though it was true that with the diversity of my crops and stock, +there was a more or less continuous return. I had a shock when an old +friend in a neighbouring village spoke of me as a "pomologist," the +title seemed much too distinguished, and personally I have never +claimed the right to anything better than the rather pretty old title +of "orchardist." + +The position of an orchard is of the utmost importance; shelter is +necessary, but it must be above the ordinary spring frost level of the +district. I should say that no orchard should be less than 150 feet +above sea-level, to be fairly safe, and 200 feet would in nearly any +ordinary spring be quite secure against frost. The climate has a +remarkable effect upon the colour of apples, and colour is one of the +most valuable of market properties, for the ordinary town buyer is a +poor judge of the merits of apples and prefers colour and size to most +other considerations. Here in the south of England seven miles from +the sea, in a dry and sunny climate, all apples develop a much more +brilliant colour than in the moist climate of the Vale of Evesham. + +I fear that very few planters of fruit trees think of following the +routine which Virgil describes in his second _Georgic_, as practised +by the careful orchardist, when transplanting. Dryden's translation is +as follows: + + "Some peasants, not t' omit the nicest care, + Of the same soil their nursery prepare + With that of their plantation; lest the tree, + Translated should not with the soil agree. + Beside, to plant it as it was, they mark + The heav'ns four quarters on the tender bark, + And to the north or south restore the side, + Which at their birth did heat or cold abide: + So strong is custom; such effects can use + In tender souls of pliant plants produce." + +Virgil was born in the year 70 B.C., and died, age 51, in 19 B.C., so +that over nineteen centuries have elapsed since these words were +written; as he was an excellent farmer, he would not have mentioned +the practice unless he considered the advice sound. It is quite +possible that the vertical cracking of the bark on one side of a young +transplanted tree may be due to a change from the cool north aspect to +the heat of the south. At any rate the experiment is well worth +trying, and nurserymen would not find it much trouble to run a chalk +line down the south side of each tree, when lifting them, as a guide +for the purchaser. + +As showing how conservative is the popular demand for apples, Cox's +Orange Pippin, which is absolutely unapproached for flavour, and is +perfectly sound and eatable from early in November till Easter if +carefully picked at the right moment and properly stored, was +cultivated thirty or forty years before the British public discovered +its extraordinary qualities! I find it described as one of the best +dessert apples in Dr. Hogg's _Fruit Manual_, and my copy is the third +edition published in 1866, so it must have been well known to him some +years previously, though we never heard much about it until after the +twentieth century came in. Though the colour, when well grown, is +highly attractive to the connoisseur, the ordinary buyer did not +readily take to it as it is rather small. In 1917 Cox's Orange Pippin, +however, really came into its own; I myself, here in the New Forest, +grew over 3,000 pounds on about 120 trees planted in 1906, each branch +pruned as a _cordon_, and very thinly dispersed, and the trees +restricted to a height of about 14 feet. The apples were mostly sold +in Covent Garden at 6d. a pound, clear of railway carriage and +salesmen's commission. In 1918, a year of great scarcity, these apples +were selling in the London shops up to 3s. 6d. apiece! Now that its +reputation is fully established, it is likely to be many years before +it becomes relatively low in price, as the foreign apples of this kind +cannot compare in flavour with those grown in our own orchards. I +appreciate the man whose attention was wholly given to some +particularly dainty dish, and, being bored at the table by a +persistent talker, gently said, "Hush! and let me _listen_ to the +flavour." + +As an early market apple there is none more popular than the Worcester +Pearmain, first grown in the early eighties by Messrs. R. Smith and +Co., of Worcester, and said to be a cross between King of the Pippins +and the old Quarrenden (nearly always called Quarantine). It is a most +attractive fruit--brilliant in colour, medium size, with pleasant +brisk flavour--and is an early and regular bearer. I recognized its +possibilities as soon as I saw it, and getting all the grafts I could +collect, and they were very scarce at the time, I had the branches of +some of my old worthless trees cut off, and set my old grafter to +convert them into Worcester Pearmains; they soon came into bearing and +produced abundant and profitable crops. + +This apple is not much use for keeping beyond a month or so, as it +soon loses its crisp texture and distinctive flavour, and it is its +earliness and colour that makes it so popular in its season. Its +regularity as a bearer is due to its early maturity; it can be picked +in August, which allows plenty of time, in favourable weather, for +next year's fruit buds to develop before winter; whereas with the late +sorts these buds have very little chance to mature while the current +year's fruit is ripening, with the result that a blank season nearly +always follows an abundant yield. The Worcester Pearmain is so highly +decorative, with its large pale pink and white blossoms in spring and +its glowing red fruit in autumn, that it would be worth growing for +these qualities alone in the amateur's garden, and in any case it is +an apple that nobody should be without. + +An old apple, not sufficiently known, is the Rosemary Russet; it has +the distinctive russet-bronze colouring, always indicative of flavour, +with a rosy flush on the sunny side, and Dr. Hogg describes it further +as, "flesh yellow, crisp, tender, very juicy, sugary and highly +aromatic--a first-rate dessert apple, in use from December to +February." In my opinion it comes next, though _longo intervallo_, to +Cox's Orange Pippin, but it wants good land to make the best of it. It +may with confidence be produced as a rarity across the walnuts and the +wine to the connossieur in apples. + +In Covent Garden Market King Pippins are known as "Kings"; Cox's +Orange Pippins as "C.O.P.'s"; Cellinis as "Selinas"; Kerry pippins as +"Careys"; _Court pendu plat_ as "Corpendus"; and the pear, _Josephine +de Malines_ as "Joseph on the palings"! The Wellington is sold as +"Wellington," but in the markets of the large northern towns it is +known as "Normanton Wonder." + +In Worcestershire St. Swithin's Day, July 15, is called +"apple-christening day," when a good rain often gives a great impetus +to their growth, and a little later great quantities of small apples +may be seen under the trees; this is Nature's method of limiting the +crop to reasonable proportions, the weak ones falling off and the +fittest surviving. The inexperienced grower may be somewhat alarmed by +this apparent destruction of his prospects, but the older hand knows +better, and my bailiff always said: "When I sees plenty of apples +under the trees about midsummer, I knows there'll be plenty to pick +towards Michaelmas." + +The Blenheim Orange was the leading apple at Aldington; some kind +person had, sixty or seventy years before my time, planted a number of +trees which had thrived wonderfully on that rich land. The Blenheim is +a nice dessert apple and a splendid "cooker"; the trees take many +years to come into bearing, and then they make up for lost time. +Nature is never in a hurry to produce her best results. As a market +apple the Blenheim has a great reputation; if an Evesham fruit dealer +was asked if he could do with any apples, his first question was +always: "Be 'em Blemmins?" + +"September blow soft till the fruit's in the loft," is the prayer of +all apple growers; it is pitiful to see, after a roaring gale, the +ground strewn with beautiful fruit, bruised and broken, useless to +keep, and only suitable for carting away to the all-devouring +cider-mill, though, even for that purpose, the sweet Blenheim does not +produce nearly so good a drink as sourer accredited cider varieties. + +Many of the gardening papers will name apples if sent by readers for +identification; I was told of an enquirer who sent twelve apples from +the same tree, and received eleven different names and one "unknown"! +Apples off the same tree do differ wonderfully, but I can scarcely +credit this story. + +It was the custom formerly at Aldington to sell the fruit on the trees +by auction for the buyer to pick and market, growers as a rule being +too busy with corn-harvest to attend to the gathering. A considerable +sum was thereby often sacrificed, as the buyer allows an ample margin +for risks, and is not willing to give more than about half of what he +expects to receive ultimately. I discontinued the auction sales early +in my farming, preferring to take the risks myself, and having plenty +of labour available. It is instructive too to know how individual +trees are bearing, and the sorts which produce the best returns. + +Except for the choicest fruit, I consider London the worst market, and +I could do better, as a rule, by sending my consignments to +Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Glasgow; the latter especially +for large coarse stuff. London is more critical, pays well for the +very best, but requires apples to be carefully graded, and the grades +separately packed; London is, moreover, naturally well supplied by the +southern counties. + +At the auctions the competition was generally keen, there being much +rivalry between the buyers; and it was good for the sellers when +political parties were opposed to each other, for in those days +Evesham was inclined to be rather violent in such matters. I remember +a lively contest between Conservatives and Radicals, when my largest +orchard--about six acres--was sold to the champion of the former for +L210, and the Radical exclaimed, as the lot was knocked down, for +everybody to hear: "He offered me L10 before the sale to stand out, +now that L10 is in Mr. S.'s pocket!" + +A few strong gales in the winter are supposed to benefit apple-trees, +acting as a kind of root pruning; but sometimes, when they are getting +old, they come down bodily with a crash, partly uprooted, though even +then they may be resuscitated for a time. We had a powerful set of +pulley tackle by which, when made fast to a neighbouring tree, they +could be restored to the perpendicular, after enlarging the hole left +by the roots, making the ground firm again round the tree, and placing +a strong sloping prop to take the weight on the weak side; good yields +would then often continue for some years. + +When the pickers had gathered the crop, by an ancient custom all the +village children were allowed to invade the orchards for the purpose +of getting for themselves any apples overlooked. This practice is +called "scragging," but it is a custom that would perhaps be better +honoured in the breach than in the observance, for hob nails do not +agree with the tender bark of young trees. Like gleaning, or +"leasing," as it is called, it is nevertheless a pleasant old custom, +and seems to give the children huge delight. + +Mistletoe did not find my apple-trees congenial, there was only one +piece on all my fruit land, and it was regarded as something of a +curiosity. But in other parts of the neighbourhood it flourished +abundantly, though I noticed that it was most frequent where the land +was poorer and the trees not so luxuriant. It was also to be seen on +tall black poplars, and I have a piece--planted purposely--on a +hawthorn in my garden here. It grows in parts of the Forest, +especially on the white-beams in Sloden, in curiously small detached +pieces like lichen. The white-beam was a favourite tree of the Romans +for the wood-work of agricultural implements, being tough and strong. + +Mistletoe is quite easy to propagate by rubbing the glutinous berries +and their seeds on the under side of a small branch at the angle where +it joins a limb. There it will often flourish unless snapped up by a +wandering missel-thrush. It is very slow in growth, but, when it +attains a fair size, is strikingly pretty in winter when the tree is +otherwise bare, for its peculiar shade of faded green, with its white +and glistening berries, makes an unusual effect--quite different from +that of any other green thing. It is rare on the oak, and, possibly +for that reason, the Druids regarded the oak upon which it grew as +sacred. + +The transition from apples to cider is a natural one, and cider is a +great institution in Worcestershire. On all the larger farms, and in +every village, an ancient cider-mill can be found. It consists of a +circular block of masonry, perhaps ten feet in diameter, the outer +circumference of which is a continuous stone trough, about 18 inches +across, and 15 inches deep, called "the chase," in which a huge +grindstone, weighing about 15 cwt., revolves slowly, actuated by a +horse walking round the chase in an unending circle. The apples are +introduced in small quantities into the chase, and crushed into pulp +by the grindstone. The pulp is then removed and placed between hair +cloths, piled upon each other, until a stack is erected beneath a +powerful press, worked by a lever, on the principle of a capstan. As +the pressure increases, the liquor runs into a vessel below, from +whence it is carried in buckets, and poured into barrels in the +cellar. Fermentation begins almost immediately, by which the sugar is +converted in carbonic acid gas and alcohol; the gas escapes and the +spirit remains in the liquor. + +Such is the simplest method of cider-making, and it produces a drink +thoroughly appreciated by the men, for we made annually 1,500 to 2,000 +gallons, and there was very little left when next year's cider-making +began. Where cider is made for sale, much greater care is necessary; +only the soundest fruit is used, and the vinous fermentation is +allowed to begin in open vessels before the pulp is pressed. When the +extracted liquor is placed in the barrels every effort is made to +prevent the acetic fermentation, which produces vinegar, and spoils +the cider for discriminating palates. The stone mill has been +superseded to some extent by the steam "scratter"; but the cider is +not considered so good, as the kernels are left uncrushed, an +important omission, as they add largely to the flavour of the finished +product. After a hot dry summer, cider is unusually strong, because +the sugar in the apples is much more fully developed. It is recognized +that these hot summers produce what are known as vintage years for +cider, just as, on the Continent, they produce vintage wines. + +Jarge, of whom I have written, was the presiding genius in the +cider-mill, and his duties began as soon as hop-picking was over. All +traces of the downward inclination of the corners of his mouth, caused +by the delinquencies of recalcitrant hoppers, quite disappeared as +soon as his new duties commenced, and it was a pleasure to see his +jovial face beaming over a job which seemed to have no drawbacks. A +really Bacchanalian presence is the only one that should be tolerated +in a cider-maker; the lean and hungry character is quite out of place +amidst the fragrance of the crushed apples, and the generous liquor +running from the press. + +The cider-maker is always allowed a liberal quantity of last year's +produce, on the principle of "thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he +treadeth out the corn"--a principle that should always be recognized +in the labourer's hire, and one which is too often forgotten by the +public in its estimate of the necessities of the farmer himself. It is +usual for the man in possession, so to speak, of the cider-mill, to +mix, for his own consumption, some of the new unfermented liquor with +the old cider, which, after twelve months, is apt to be excessively +sour; but the quantity of the former must not be in too large a +proportion, as it has a powerful medicinal effect. + + "Wouldst thou thy vats with generous juice should froth? + Respect thy orchats: think not that the trees + Spontaneous will produce a wholesome draught, + Let art correct thy breed." + +So sang Philips in his _Cyder_ in the distant days of 1706, but the +advice is as sound as ever, for good cider can only be produced from +the right kinds of apples. The names of new sorts are legion, but some +of the old varieties are still considered to be very valuable. Among +these, the Foxwhelp has been a favourite for 200 years, and others in +great esteem are Skyrme's Kernal, Forest Styre, Hagloe Crab, Dymock +Red, Bromley, Cowarne Red, and Styre Wilding. It requires about twenty +"pots" (a local measure each weighing 64 pounds) to make a hogshead of +cider; a hogshead is roughly 100 gallons, and in Worcestershire is +hardly recognizable under the name of "oxsheard"--I have never seen +the word in print, but the local pronunciation is faithfully +represented by my spelling. Another local appellation which puzzled me +for some years was "crab varges," which I eventually discovered to +mean "verjuice," a terribly sour liquid, made in the same way as cider +from crab apples. It was considered a wonderfully stimulating specific +for sprains and strains, holding the same pre-eminent position as an +embrocation, as did "goose-grace" (goose-grease) as an ointment or +emollient. This substance is the melted fat of a goose, and was said +to be so powerful that, if applied to the back of the hand, it could +shortly be recognized on the palm! + +The value of alcohol as a food is generally denied in these days by +sedentary people, but very few who have seen its judicious use in +agricultural work will be inclined to agree; it is possible that +though it may be a carbo-hydrate very quickly consumed in the body, it +acts as an aid to digestion, and produces more nourishment from a +given quantity of food, than would be assimilated in its absence. The +giving out of the men's allowances is, however, a troublesome matter +and demands a firm and masterful bailiff or foreman, for "much" is +inclined to want "more," and the line should, of course, be drawn far +short of excess. It was related of an old lady farmer in the +neighbourhood, who always distributed her men's cider with her own +hands, that in her anxiety to be on the safe side after a season when +the cider was unusually strong, she mixed a proportion of water with +the beverage, before the arrival of the recipients. One of the men, +however, having discovered the dilution, arrived after the first day +with two jars. Asked the reason for the second jar, he answered that +he should prefer to have his cider and the water _separate_. + +My bailiff always said that sixpennyworth of cider would do more work +than a shilling in cash. He was undoubtedly correct, and, moreover, +the quantity worth sixpence in the farm cider store would cost a +shilling or more at the public-house, to supply an equivalent in +alcohol, and valuable time would be lost in fetching it. It is the +alcohol that commends it to the agricultural labourer more than any +consideration of thirst, and no one can see its effect without the +conviction that the men find it not only stimulating, but supporting. +A friend of mine, however, found so much satisfaction in a deep +draught of cider when he felt really "dry," that he said he would give +"a crown" any day for a "good thirst!" + +Excess in drink was rare at Aldington, and it was very exceptional for +a man to be seen in what were called his "crooked stockings." +Fortunately, we had no public-house in the village, and if the men had +a moderate allowance during a hard day's work, there was not much +temptation to tramp a mile and back at night to the nearest licensed +premises in order to sit and swill in the tap-room. I had one man who +lived near a place of the sort, and he occasionally took what my +bailiff called, "Saints' days," and did not appear for work. I notice +that this sort of day is now called by the more suitable name of +"alcoholiday." + +Well-fermented cider contains from 5 to 10 gallons of alcohol, and +perry about 7 gallons, to every 100 gallons of the liquor, which +compares with claret 13 to 17, sherry 15 to 20, and port 24 to 26 per +cent, of alcohol. I found the truth of the proverb _in vino veritas_; +after a quite small allowance of cider on the farm the open-hearted +man would become lively, the reserved man taciturn, the crabbed man +argumentative; but the work went with a will and a spirit that were +not so noticeable when no "tots" were going round. + +An old gentleman in the neighbourhood used to tell with much enjoyment +the following story of his younger days. "I found myself," he said, +"gradually increasing my allowance of whisky and water, as I sat alone +of an evening, and I said to myself: 'Now look here, H.W., you began +with one glass, very soon you got on to two, and now you're taking +three. I'll tell you what it is, H.W., you shan't have another drop of +whisky for a month';" "and," he added, "H.W. did it, too!" + +Shortly before I came to Aldington the men were suddenly seized with +what seemed an unaccountable epidemic; their symptoms were all +similar, and a doctor soon diagnosed the complaint as lead-poisoning. +Nobody could suggest its origin until the cider was suspected, and, on +enquiry, it was elicited that the previous year the stones of the +cider-mill chase, which had become loosened by long use, were repaired +with melted lead poured in between the joints. The malic acid of the +apples had dissolved the lead, and it remained in solution in the +cider. To the disgust of the men, the doctor advised removing the +bungs from the barrels and letting the cider run off into the drains, +but nobody had the heart to comply, for there was the whole year's +stock, and it meant a wait of twelve months before it could be +replaced. After some months the men got impatient, and told the master +they were prepared to take the risk. They began with great caution, +and finding no bad result, they gradually increased the dose, still +without harm, until the normal allowance was safely reached. It is +probable that the barrel which caused the symptoms was the first made +after the repairs, and contained an extra quantity of the lead, and +although the remainder was more or less contaminated, the poison was +in such small amount as to be harmless. + +There were many old apple-trees about the hedges and in odd corners, +which went by the name of "the roundabouts," and the fruit was +annually collected and brought to the cider-mill. Some of these were +immense trees, and not very desirable round arable land, owing to +their shade, but they were lovely when in bloom, for standing +separately, they seemed to develop richer colours than when close +together in an orchard. + +The story of Shakespeare's carouse, and his night passed under a +crab-tree near Bidford, about six miles from Aldington, is well known. +It is stated, but not without contradiction, that he excused himself +by explaining that he had been drinking with: + + Piping Pebworth, dancing Marston, + Haunted Hillborough, hungry Grafton, + Dudging Exhall, papist Wixford, + Beggarly Broom, and drunken Bidford. + +A carousal at all these places would have been a heavy day's work, and +I have often thought that if the lines can really be attributed to +him, he might have meant that he had met people from all the villages +at one of the Whitsuntide merry-makings annually held in the +neighbourhood, and passed a jovial time in their company. + +Perry is made in much the same way as cider, and when due care has +been taken in its manufacture, it is a most delicious and wholesome +drink. When bottled and kept to mature it pours out with a beautiful +creaming head, and is far superior to ordinary champagne. Both cider +and perry should be drunk out of a china or earthenware mug, whence +they taste much richer than from glass; but my men always used in the +field a small horn cup or "tot," holding about quarter of a pint. I +have a very interesting old cider cup, of Fulham or Lambeth +earthenware I think, holding about a quart, with three handles, each +of which is a greyhound with body bent to form the loop for the hand. +It was intended for the use of three persons sitting together at a +small three-cornered oak table, specimens of which are still, though +rarely, met with at furniture sales in farm-houses or cottages; the +cup was placed in the middle, and each person could take a pull by +using his particular handle with the adjacent place for his lips, +without passing the cup round or using the same drinking space as +another. + +There are numerous kinds of perry pears, but certain sorts have a +great reputation, such as Moorcroft, Barland, Malvern Hills, Longdon, +Red Horse, Mother Huff Cap, and Chate Boy (cheat boy), a particularly +astringent pear; these are all small, and require quickly grinding +when gathered. In the New Forest there is a perry pear similar to the +Chate Boy, called Choke Dog, which in its natural state, is quite as +rough on the palate as the former, but it differs in colour and is not +the same sort. I had a splendid specimen of the Chate Boy pear-tree at +an outlying set of buildings, said to be the father of all the trees +of that kind in the neighbourhood, and it was a landmark for miles, as +it stood on high ground. It was fitted with a ladder reaching to the +middle of the tree, where seats were arranged on a platform for eight +or nine people; but it was unfortunately blown down on the night of +the great gale of October 14, 1877, when twelve other trees on the +farm were likewise overthrown. + +Cider and perry drinkers were said to be more or less immune from many +human ailments, including rheumatic affections, though one would +expect the acetic acid they contain, unless very carefully made, would +have an opposite effect. Certainly my men suffered neither from gout +nor rheumatism, and there was a tradition that in 1832, when the +cholera was rife in the country, the plague was stayed as soon as the +cider districts were approached. + +These noble old pear-trees are a great feature of the Vale of Evesham, +especially in the more calcareous parts where the lias limestone is +not far from the surface; they are exquisite in spring in clouds of +pure white blossoms long before the apples are in bloom; in the autumn +the foliage presents every tint of crimson, green and gold all softly +subdued, and in winter, when the framework of the tree can be seen, it +is noticeable how far the massive limbs extend, carrying their girth +almost to the summit, in a way that not even the oak can excel. The +timber is short in the grain, and wears smooth in the long wood +ploughs, and is very suitable for carving quite small and elaborate +patterns for such articles as picture frames; but it is somewhat +liable to the attack of the woodworm. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + + +PLUMS--CHERRIES. + + "A right down hearty one he be as'll make some of our maids look + alive. + And the worst time of year for such work too, when the May-Dukes + is in, + and the Hearts a-colouring!" + --Crusty John in _Alice Lorraine_. + + +The Vale of Evesham has the credit of being the birthplace of two most +valuable plums--the Damascene, and the Pershore, or Egg plum. These +both grow on their own stocks, so require no grafting, and can readily +be propagated by severing the suckers which spring up around them from +the roots of the tree. The Damascene, as its name implies, is a +species of Damson, but coarser than the real Damson or the Prune +Damson. They are not so popular on the London market as in the markets +of the north, especially in Manchester, where they command prices +little inferior to the better sorts, as they yield a brilliant red dye +suitable for dying printed cotton goods. When really ripe they are +excellent for cooking, and are not to be despised, even raw, on a +thirsty autumn day. In years of scarcity these have fetched 30s. and +over per "pot" of 72 pounds. + +The Pershore is a very different plum, green when unripe, and +attaining a golden colour later; they are immense bearers and very +hardy, frequently saving the situation for the plum-growers when all +other kinds are destroyed by spring frosts. They are specially +valuable for bottling, and it is rumoured that in the hands of skilful +manufacturers they become "apricots" under certain conditions. As +"cookers," too, they are perhaps the most useful of plums, for they +can be used in a very green and hard state. It is a wonderful sight to +see them being despatched by tram at the Evesham stations, loaded +sometimes loose like coals in the trucks for the big preserving firms +in the north. The trees grow very irregularly and are difficult to +keep in shape by pruning, as they send forth suckers from all parts +when an attempt is made to keep them symmetrical. The only purpose for +which the fruit is of little use is for eating raw, they are not +unpleasant when just ripe, but that stage is soon passed and they +become woody and unpalatable. + +I planted a thousand of these trees in a new orchard, and took great +pains with the pruning myself, for it was curious that in that land of +fruit at the time no professional pruner could be found. I sought the +advice of a market-gardener and plum-grower, who, in the early stage +of their growth, gave me an object-lesson, cutting back the young +shoots rather hard to induce them to throw out more at the point of +incision, so as to produce eventually a fuller head; while he +reiterated the instruction, "It is no use being afraid of 'em." + +This young orchard adjoined the Great Western Railway, and one day +when pruning there I saw a remarkable sight, and I have never found +any one with a similar experience. The telegraph wires were magnified +into stout ropes by a coating of white rime, and I could see a +distinct series of waves approximating to the dots and dashes of the +Morse code running along them. The movement would run for a time up +towards London, cease for a moment, and then run downwards towards +Evesham, and so on almost continuously. I thought it might be caused +by the passage of electricity, but I cannot get a satisfactory +explanation. No trains were passing, there was no wind, the rime was +not thawing or falling off, and apparently there was nothing to +agitate either poles or wires. + +This orchard was not a lucky one; it was too low, having only one flat +meadow between it and the brook, and therefore very liable to spring +frosts. I have seen the trees well past the blossoming stage, with +young plums as large as peas, which after two nights' sharp frost +turned black and fell off to such an extent that there was scarcely a +plum left; but I had a few very good crops which gave employment to a +number of additional hands besides my regular people. + +A season came when the plum-trees in my new orchard were badly +attacked by the caterpillars of the winter-moth, but the cuckoos soon +found them out, and I could see half a dozen at once enjoying a +bountiful feast. When better plums are abundant the Pershore falls to +very low prices; I have sold quantities at 1s. or 1s. 3d. per pot of +72 pounds, at which of course there was a loss; but it is needless to +say that at such times the consumer never gets the benefit, 2d. a +pound being about the lowest figure at which they are ever seen on +offer in the shops. + +The Victoria is a very superior plum to the Pershore, and a local plum +called Jimmy Moore is also a favourite. I believe this plum is very +similar to, if not identical with, one sold as Emperor; both it and +the Victoria nearly always made good prices and bore well. The +Victoria, especially, was so prolific that in some seasons, if not +carefully propped, every branch would be broken off by, the weight of +fruit, and the tree left a wreck. Not discouraged, however, it would +shoot out again and in a few years bear as well as ever. + +My best plum was the greengage, rather a shy bearer but always in +demand. Living in a land of Goshen, like the Vale of Evesham, one gets +quite hypercritical (or "picksome," as the local expression is), and +scarcely cares to taste a fruit from a tree in passing; but I used to +visit my greengages at times when the pickers had done with them, for +they have to be gathered somewhat unripe to ensure travelling +undamaged. I often found, on the south side of the tree, a few that +had been overlooked which were fully ripe, beautifully mottled, full +of sunshine, and perfect in melting texture and ambrosial flavour. + +For restocking old worn-out apple orchards, in Worcestershire at any +rate, there is nothing to equal plum-trees; they flourished amazingly +at Aldington, and soon made up for the lost apples; they appeared to +follow the principle that dictates the rotation of ordinary crops, +just as the leguminous plants alternate satisfactorily with the +graminaceous, or, as I have read that in Norway, where a fir forest +has been cut, birch will spring up automatically and take its place. + +My predecessor always sold his plums on the trees for the buyer to +harvest, and I heard that when the former turned a flock of Dorset +ewes into one of these orchards, the buyer complained--the lower +branches being heavily laden, and within a few feet of the +ground--that he had watched, "Them old yows holding down bunches of +plums with their harns for t'others to eat." This I imagine was in the +nature of hyperbole, and not intended to be taken literally. + +I had about forty cherry trees in one of my orchards, and among them a +very early kind of black cherry, as well as Black Bigarreaus, White +Heart and Elton Heart. The early ones made particularly good prices, +but when the French cherries began to be imported, being on the market +a week or two before ours they "took the keen edge off the demand," +though wretched-looking things in comparison. The cherries from my +forty trees made L80 one year when the crop was good, but they are +expensive to pick as there is much shifting of heavy ladders, and the +work was done by men. In Kent, I believe, women are employed at +cherry-picking, ascending forty-round ladders in a gale of wind +without a sign of nervousness, but with a man in attendance to pack +the fruit and shift the ladders when required. I found Liverpool the +best market for cherries, where they were bought by the large +steamship companies for the Transatlantic liners, and where they were +in demand for the seaside and holiday places in North Wales and +Lancashire. Like the pear-trees, the cherry-trees are very beautiful +in spring, and again in autumn, and as mine could be seen from the +house and garden, they added a great charm to the place. + +I must put in a word here for the bullfinch, which is unreasonably +persecuted for its supposed destruction of the cherry crop when in +bloom; it undoubtedly picks many blossoms to pieces, but probably no +ultimate loss of weight follows; very few comparatively of the blooms +ever become fruits in any case, and even if some are thus nipped in +the bud, it is probable that the remainder mature into larger and +finer cherries in consequence. The advantage of thinning is recognized +in the case of all our fruits, and is indeed, the reason for pruning. +The vine-grower knows well the truth of the saying that, "You should +get your enemy to thin your grapes," and I would sacrifice many +cherries for a few of these beautiful birds in my garden, for man does +not live by bread alone. + +One of the old couplets, of which our forefathers were so fond, runs: + + "A cherry year is a merry year, + And a plum year is a dumb year." + +I have seen the explanation suggested that cherries being particularly +wholesome contributed to the happiness of mankind, but that the less +salubrious plum tended to depression of health and spirits. There is, +however, a small black cherry still grown in this and other parts of +Hampshire and Surrey called the "Merry," from the French _merise_, and +it was natural that when cherries were abundant the merry would also +be plentiful. The word "dumb" is an archaic synonym for "damson," and +the same rule would apply between it and the plum, as with the cherry +and the merry. My own small place here, in the New Forest, has been +known for centuries as "the Merry Gardens," and no doubt they were +once grown here, as at other places in the south of England, called +Merry Hills, Merry Fields, and Merry Orchards. Even now as I write, on +May Day, the buds on the wild cherries in my hedges are showing the +white bloom just ready to appear, and in a few days, these trees will +be spangled with their little bright stars. I imagine that they are no +very distant relation of the old merry-trees that once flourished +here. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + + +TREES: ELM--OAK--BEECH--WILLOW--SCOTS-FIR. + + "O flourish, hidden deep in fern, + Old oak, I love thee well; + A thousand thanks for what I learn + And what remains to tell." + --_The Talking Oak_. + +Keats tells us that + + "The trees + That whisper round a temple become soon + Dear as the temple's self," + +and had he included the trees around a dwelling-house, the epigram +would have been equally applicable. Sometimes, of course, it becomes +absolutely necessary to cut down an ancient tree that from its +proximity to one's home has become a part of the home itself, but it +is a matter for the gravest consideration, for one cannot foresee the +result, and to a person who has lived long with a noble tree as a near +neighbour, the place never again seems the same. + +The Elm is said to be the Worcestershire weed, as the oak is in +Herefordshire; the former attains a great size, but it is not very +deeply rooted, and a heavy gale will sometimes cause many unwelcome +gaps in a stately avenue. Big branches, too, have a way of falling +without the least notice, and on the whole it is safer not to have +elms near houses or cottages. One of the finest avenues of elms I +know, is to be seen at the Palace of the Bishop of Winchester at +Farnham in Surrey, but the land is quite exceptionally good, and in +the palmy days of hop-growing, the adjoining fields commanded a rent +of L20 an acre for what is known as the "Heart land of Farnham," where +hops of the most superlative quality were grown. When the dappled deer +are grouped under this noble avenue, in the light and shade beneath +the elms, they form an old English picture of country life not to be +surpassed. + +The elm is a sure sign of rich land, it is never seen on thin poor +soils. An intending purchaser, or tenant, of a farm should always +regard its presence as a certain indication of a likely venture. It is +a terrible robber, and therefore a nuisance round arable land, causing +a spreading shade, under which the corn will be found thin, +"scrawley," and "broken-kneed," with poor, shrivelled ears; and the +alternating green crops will also suffer in their way. In an orchard +it is still worse; I had several at one time surrounded by Blenheim +apples, which were always small, scanty, and colourless. Eventually, I +cut the elms down, the biggest, carrying perhaps 100 cubic feet of +timber at 9d. a foot at the time, was only worth 75s., though it must +have destroyed scores of pounds worth of fruit during its many years +of growth. The elm seems particularly liable to be struck by +lightning, possibly owing to its height, and several suffered in this +way during my time at Aldington. + +From the scarcity of oak in the Vale of Evesham elm was often used for +making the coffers or chests we generally see made from the former +wood. I have one of these, nicely carved with the scrolls and bold +devices of the Jacobean period, and it is so dark in colour as to pass +at first sight for old oak. The timber is not much used in building, +except for rough farm sheds; as boards it is liable to twist and +become what is called "cross-winding." The land in the New Forest is +mostly too poor for the elm, and this should warn the theorists, who +during the war have advocated reclaiming the open heaths and moors for +agricultural purposes, against such an ignorant proposition. I suppose +it would cost at least L100 an acre to clear, drain, fence, level, +make roads, and erect the necessary farm buildings, houses and +cottages, with the result that it would command less than L1 per acre +as annual rent; and I should be sorry to be compelled to farm it at +that. + +Oaks are somewhat scarce in Worcestershire, and are rarely found in +the Vale of Evesham. I had one remarkably fine specimen in a meadow on +Claybrook, the farm I owned, adjoining the Aldington land. It covered +an area measuring 22 yards by 22 yards = 484 square yards, the tenth +part of an acre. The trunk measured 12 feet in circumference, about 7 +feet from the ground. The rule for estimating the age of growing +oak-trees is to calculate 15 years to each inch of radius = 540 years +to a yard, therefore a tree 6 feet in diameter, and about 20 feet +round, including bark and knots, would be just that age. According to +this rule my tree would be not less than 330 years old, which of +course is young for an oak. + +The life of this oak was saved in a peculiar way by "a pint of drink," +and the story was told me by the agent of an old lady, the previous +owner. It had been decided to fell the tree, and two professional +sawyers, who were also "tree-fallers" (fellers), arrived one morning +for the purpose with their axes and cross-cut saw. They surveyed the +prospect and agreeing that it presented a tough job, an adjournment +was arranged to the neighbouring "Royal Oak" for a pint of drink +before commencing operations. Coming back, half an hour later, they +had just stripped and rolled up their shirt sleeves, when the agent +appeared on the road not far off. "Hullo," he shouted, "have you made +a start?" "Just about to begin," replied the head man. "Well then, +don't," said the agent, "the old lady died last night, and I must wait +till the new owners have considered the matter." So the tree was +saved, and curiously enough by its namesake the "Royal Oak." The new +owner spared it, and later when it became my property I did likewise, +for I should have considered it sacrilege to destroy the finest oak in +the neighbourhood. Some years after I had sold the farm I heard that +the tree was blown down in a gale, its enormous head and widespread +branches must have offered immense resistance to the wind, and the +fall of it must have been great. + +The most celebrated, if not the biggest oak in the New Forest is the +Knightwood oak, not far from Lyndhurst; it is 17 feet in +circumference, which would make it not less than 450 years old by the +above rule. It is strange to think that it may have been an acorn in +the year 1469, in the reign of Henry VI., and that 200 years later it +could easily have peeped over the heads of its neighbours in 1669, to +see Charles II., who probably went riding along the main Christchurch +road from Lyndhurst with a team of courtiers and court beauties, in +all the pomp of royalty. We know that in that year with reference to +the waste of timber in the Forest during his father's reign he was +especially interested in the planting of young oaks, and enclosed a +nursery of 300 acres for their growth. It is also recorded that he did +not forget the maids of honour of his court, upon whom he bestowed the +young woods of Brockenhurst. + + "Oak before ash--only a splash, + Ash before oak--a regular soak," + +is a very ancient proverb referring to the relative times of the +leaves of these trees appearing in the spring, and is supposed to be +prophetic of the weather during the ensuing summer. I have, however, +noticed for many years that the oak is invariably first, so that like +some other prognostications, it seems to be unreliable. + +The attitudes of oak trees are a very interesting study. There is the +oak which, bending forwards and stretching out a kindly hand, appears +to offer a hearty welcome; the oak that starts backward in +astonishment at any familiarity advanced by a passing stranger. The +oak that assumes an attitude of pride and self-importance; the oak +that approaches a superior neighbour with an air of humility and +abasement, listening subserviently to his commands. The shrinking oak +in dread of an enemy, and the oak prepared to offer a stout +resistance. The hopeful oak in the prime of life, and the oak that +totters in desolate and crabbed old age. The oak that enjoys in middle +age the good things of life, with well-fed and rounded symmetry; and +the oak that suggests decrepitude, with rough exterior, and a +life-experience of hardship; the sturdy oak, the ambitious oak, the +self-contained oak, and so on, through every phase of character. No +other tree is so human or so expressive, and no other tree bespeaks +such fortitude and endurance. To say that a well-grown oak typifies +the reserve and strength of the true-born Briton, is perhaps to sum up +its individuality in a word. + +There is one old fellow who throws back his head and roars with +laughter when I go by; what can be the joke? I must stop some day and +look to see if the sides of his rather tight jacket of Lincoln green +moss are really splitting, and perhaps, if I can catch the pitch of +his voice, I shall hear him whisper: + + "A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' the forest." + +I like to think that these old personalities are transmigrations, and +that each is now at leisure to correct some special mistake in a +previous existence. Perhaps, out there in the moonlight, they tell +their stories to each other, and to the owls I hear at midnight +performing an appropriately weird overture. + +These talking oaks can only be found where they have grown from acorns +naturally, and where they have survived the struggle of life against +their enemies, including the interference of man, the attacks of +grazing animals, the blasts of winter and the heavy burden of its +snows. The natural woods, as distinct from the plantations of the New +Forest, offer many examples of these varying trees and the lessons +they convey. Such a piece of old natural forest almost surrounds my +present home, and every time I pass through it I bless the memory of +William the Conqueror. Randolph Caldecott, that prince of illustrators +of rural life, evidently noticed the characteristic attitudes of +trees; look at the sympathetic dejection displayed by the two old +pollard willows in his sketch of the maiden all forlorn, in _The House +that Jack Built_. The maiden has her handkerchief to her eyes, and in +a few masterly strokes one of the trees is depicted with a falling +tear, and the other bent double is hobbling along with a crutch +supporting its withered and tottering frame. + +Far otherwise is it with the plantations where the oaks are +artificially cultivated for timber. These are planted close together +on purpose to draw each other upwards in the struggle for air and +sunlight, which prevents their branching so near the ground as the +natural trees, the object being to produce an extended length of +straight trunk that will eventually afford a long and regular cut of +timber, free from the knots caused by the branches. All round the +plantations Scots-firs are planted as "nurses," to keep off the rough +winds and prevent breakage; these also help to lengthen the trunks by +inducing upward development. As the trees get nearer together they are +repeatedly thinned out, and, eventually, only those left which are +intended to come to maturity. Under this artificial, though necessary +system, the trees lose all individuality, and they never regain it +because they are all more or less controlled when growing, and so +become uninteresting copies of each other. + +The motto of the natural oak is _festina lente_, mindful of the +proverb, "early maturity means early decay." It is well known that +oak, slowly and naturally grown on poor soil, is far more durable than +that which is run up artificially or produced on rich land. The +branches of oaks rarely cross or damage each other by friction, like +those of the beech, they are obstinate and will sooner break in a +gale, than give way. Where an oak and a beech grow side by side, close +together, the oak suffers more than the beech, from the dense shade of +the latter; and if they are so near as to touch and rub together in +the wind, the oak will throw out a plaster or protection of bark, to +act as a styptic to the wound in the first place, and eventually as a +solid barrier against further aggression. + +Paintings of landscape in which trees occur are rarely satisfactory; +if you look at children playing beneath timber trees, or passers-by, +the first thing that strikes you is the majesty and the height of the +tree, as compared with the human figure. In paintings this is not as a +rule expressed; the trees are too insignificant, and the figures too +important, so that the range and wealth of tree-life is lost. +Gainsborough's _Market Cart_ is a notable exception, but the cart is a +clumsy affair, and the shafts are much too low both on it and the +horse. Constable's _Valley Farm_, _The Haywain_, _The Cornfield_, and +_Dedham Mill_ are all striking examples of his sense of tree +proportion, lending no little to the nobility of his pictures, and +speaking eloquently of the reverence man should feel in the presence +of Nature, untainted by his own fancied importance. + +What is known as "heart of oak" in Worcestershire is called +"spine-oak" in the New Forest, and the latter is perhaps the better +name of the two as expressive of greater durability. The outer part of +the trunk is called "the sap," and whilst the heart or spine is almost +indestructible, the sap-wood quickly decays, and is rejected in using +the timber for any important purpose. Pieces of the sap adhering to +the heart-wood of which the old oak coffers were made, may often be +found riddled with worm holes and almost gone to dust, while the +remainder of the chest is as sound as the day it was made two or three +hundred years ago. + +It is interesting, too, to notice marks of charring on the edge of the +lids of these coffers; it is said that they were caused by placing the +rushlight in that position, the flame just overhanging the edge, to +give time to jump into bed by its light leaving it to be automatically +extinguished on reaching the wood; and that the charring occurred when +sometimes the flame continued to burn a little longer than expected. + +Oak is usually felled in the spring when the sap is rising, to allow +of the easier removal of the bark for tanning. It is a pretty sight to +see, amidst the greenery of the standing trees, the stripped and +gleaming trunks and larger limbs stretched upon the ground, with the +neatly piled stacks of bark arranged for the air to draw through and +dry them before removal. This is called "rining" in the New Forest, +and good wages are earned at it by the men employed. + +It is perhaps the only timber, with the exception of sweet chestnut, +that is worthy to be used for the roofs of ecclesiastical buildings. +At Badsey, when we removed the roof of the church prior to +restoration, we found the oak timbers on the north side as sound as +when placed there many years further back than living memory could +recall, and of which no record or tradition existed. These timbers +were all used again in the new roof, but those from the south side had +to be discarded, having been much more exposed to driving rain and +daily changes of temperature. + +I had a number of oak field-gates made, but as the timber was barely +seasoned, we were afraid shrinkage might take place in the mortises +and tenons, and it was an agreeable surprise to find in a year or two +that nothing of the kind had happened. The mortise hole had apparently +got smaller, and still fitted the shrunken tenon to perfection. Oak +gates will last, if kept occasionally painted, sixty or seventy years +in farm use, and there were gates on my land fully that age and still +quite serviceable. + +The acorns from oaks in pastures are a trouble, as cattle are very +fond of them and sometimes gorge themselves to such an extent as to +prove fatal, if allowed unrestricted access to them when really +hungry; but in the New Forest they are welcomed by the commoners +(occupiers of private lands), some of whom possess the right of +"pannage" (turning out pigs on the Crown property). + +In old days the oak timbers of which our battleships were constructed +were supplied from the New Forest; and the saw-pit in which the +timbers of the _Victory_ were sawn by hand is still to be seen in +Burley New Plantation. But Government methods appear to have been +generally conducted in later times somewhat on the independent lines +which distinguished them in the Great War. Some years ago it was said +that a department requiring oak timber advertised for tenders in a +newspaper, in which also appeared an advertisement of another +department offering oak for sale. A dealer who obtained an option to +purchase from the latter, submitted a tender to the former, succeeded +in obtaining the business, and cleared a large profit. + +The oak has figured repeatedly in English history and occupies a +unique place in our national tradition, commencing with its Druidical +worship as a sacred tree. It was from an oak that the arrow of Walter +Tyrrel which struck down William Rufus is said to have glanced, and +Magna Charta was signed beneath an oak by the unwilling hand of King +John. It is associated in all ages with preachings, political +meetings, and with parish and county boundaries. These boundary oaks +were called Gospel-trees, it is said, because the gospel for the day +was read beneath them by the parochial priest during the annual +perambulation of the parish boundaries by the leading inhabitants in +Rogation week. Herrick alludes to the practice in the lines addressed +to Anthea in _Hesperides_: + + "Dearest, bury me + Under that Holy-oke or Gospel-tree, + Where (though thou see'st not) thou may'st think upon + Me, when thou yeerly go'st Procession." + +But perhaps the oak that appeals most to the lively imagination +venerating old tales of merry England, and with whose story generous +hearts are most in sympathy, is that + + "Wherein the younger Charles abode + Till all the paths were dim, + And far below the Roundhead rode, + And hummed a surly hymn." + +The beech is not a common tree in the Vale of Evesham, preferring the +dryer soils of the Cotswold Hills. It is said to have been introduced +by the Romans, and is familiar as the tree mentioned by Virgil in the +opening line of his first Pastoral: + + "_Tityre tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi_;" + +the metre, and the words of which, apart from their signification, +suggest so accurately the pattering of the leaves of the tree in a +gentle breeze. This device like alliteration is a method of +intensifying the expression of a passage, and is frequently adopted by +the poets. + +In another famous onomatopoeic line-- + + "_Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum_" + +--Virgil imitates the sound of a galloping horse, and the shaking of +the ground beneath its hoofs. + +Tennyson renders very naturally the action of the northern farmer's +nag and the sound of its movement, by-- + + "Proputty, proputty sticks an' proputty, proputty graws." + +And an excellent example of the effect of well-chosen words, to +express the sound produced by the subject referred to, occurs in the +_Morte d'Arthur_: + + "The many-knotted waterflags, + That whistled stiff and dry about the marge." + +Blackmore's passage in _Lorna Doone_, describing the superlative ease +and speed of Tom Faggus's mare, when John Ridd as a boy was allowed to +ride her--after a rough experience at the beginning of the +venture--is, though printed as prose, perhaps better poetry than most +similar efforts. To emphasize its full force it may be allowable to +divide the phrases as follows: + + "I never had dreamed of such delicate motion, + Fluent, and graceful, and ambient, + Soft as the breeze flitting over the flowers, + But swift as the summer lightning. + I sat up again, but my strength was all spent, + And no time left to recover it, + And though she rose at our gate like a bird, + I tumbled off into the mixen." + +The last line is a delightful bathos, adding immensely to the +completeness of the catastrophe. + +In spring the beech is the most beautiful of forest trees, putting +forth individual horizontal sprays of tender green from the lower +branches about the end of April as heralds of the later full glory of +the tree. These increase day by day upwards in verdant clouds, until +the whole unites into a complete bower of dense greenery. The beech is +known as the "groaning tree," because the branches often cross each +other, and where the tree is exposed to the wind sometimes groan as +they rub together. The rubbing often causes a wound where one of the +branches will eventually break off, or occasionally automatic grafting +takes place, and they unite. In the Verderer's Hall at Lyndhurst +specimens are to be seen which have crossed and joined a second time, +so that a complete hollow oval, or irregular circle of the wood could +be cut out of the branch. + +Estates where extensive beech woods existed have been bought by +speculative timber dealers, who shortly installed a gang of wood +cutters and a steam saw, on which the timber was sawn into suitable +pieces, to be afterwards turned on a lathe into chair legs and other +domestic furniture, and very often finally dyed to represent mahogany. +There are beeches in the New Forest which vie with the oak for premier +place, measuring over 20 feet in circumference, and the mast together +with the acorns affords abundant harvest, or "ovest," as it is called, +for the commoners' pigs. + +There was a curious saying in use by persons on the road to Pershore, +when asked their destination. In a good plum year the reply was, +"Pershore, where d'ye think?" And in a year of scarcity, "Pershore, +God help us!" The same expressions were formerly current regarding +Burley in the New Forest referring to the abundance or scarcity of +beech-mast and acorns, called collectively "akermast." + +When the nation had presented the Duke of Wellington, after the Battle +of Waterloo, with Strathfieldsaye, an estate between Basingstoke and +Reading, the Duke wishing to commemorate the event planted a number of +beech trees as a lasting memorial, which were known as "the Waterloo +beeches." Some years later, the eminent arboricultural author, John +Loudon, writing on the subject of the relative ages and sizes of +trees, wrote to the Duke for permission to view his Waterloo beeches. +The Duke had never heard of Loudon, and his writing being somewhat +illegible he deciphered the signature "J. Loudon" as "J. London" (the +Bishop of London), and the word "beeches" as "breeches." "For what on +earth can the Bishop want to see the breeches I wore at Waterloo?" +said the Duke; but taking a charitable view of the matter he decided +that the poor old Bishop must be getting irresponsible and replied +that he was giving his valet instructions to show the Bishop the +garments in question, whenever it suited him to inspect them. The +Bishop was equally amazed, but took exactly the same view about the +Duke as the latter had decided upon concerning the Bishop. No doubt +the mystery was eventually cleared up, and Bishop and Duke must have +both enjoyed the joke. + +The shade of the beech is so dense that grass will not grow beneath +it; it gradually kills even holly, which is comparatively flourishing +under the oak. The beech woods in the Forest are thus quite free from +undergrowth, and the noble trees with their smooth ash-coloured stems +can be seen in perfection, giving a cathedral aisle effect, which is +erroneously said to have suggested the massive columns and groined +roofs of Gothic architecture. + + "Where thro' the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, + The pealing anthem swells the note of praise." + +There is, too, an unearthly effect at times to be seen beneath them, +so exaggerated as to remind one of the stage setting of a pastoral +play, with all the enhancing artificial contrivance of light and +shade. It is to be seen only on a brilliantly sunny day, where the +contour of the space around the stem and below the branches takes the +form of an arched cavern, flooded by a single shaft of sunlight, +piercing the foliage at one particular spot, lighting up the floor +carpeted with last year's red-brown leaves, and emphasizing the gloom +of the walls and roof. Imagination instantly supplies the players, for +a more perfect setting for Rosalind and Celia, Orlando and the +melancholy Jaques, it would be impossible to conceive. It is said that +the ancient Greeks could see with their ears and hear with their eyes, +a privilege doubtless granted to the nature lover in all ages. In the +Forest some of the most ancient and remarkable trees have borne for +generations descriptive names such as the King and Queen oaks at +Boldrewood, and the Eagle oak in Knightwood. The communion between +human and tree life is well illustrated by a passage from Thoreau's +_Walden_: "I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest +snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or +an old acquaintance among the pines." + +At Aldington a most valuable tree was the willow, or "withy," as it is +called in Worcestershire, though in Hampshire the latter name is given +to the Goat willow, or sallow ("sally," in Worcestershire), bearing +the pretty blossoms known as palms, which in former times were worn by +men and boys in country places on Palm Sunday. My brooks were bordered +on both sides by pollard withies, the whole being divided into seven +parts or annual cuts, so that, as they are lopped every seven years a +cut came in for lopping each year. They were then well furnished with +long and heavy poles, which were severed close to the head of the +pollard with a sharp axe. When on the ground, the brushwood was cut +off and tied into "kids" (faggots) for fire-lighting, the poles being +made into hurdles or sold to the crate-makers in the potteries for +crates in which to pack earthenware goods of all descriptions. The men +employed at the lopping had to stand on the heads of the pollards, and +it was sometimes quite an acrobatic feat to maintain their balance on +a small swaying tree, or on one which overhung the water. + +There was a local saying that "the withy tree would buy the horse, +while the oak would only buy the halter," and I believe it to be +perfectly true; for the uses of the withy are innumerable, and +throughout its seven years' growth from one lopping to another there +is always something useful to be had from it, with its final harvest +of full-grown poles. One year after lopping the superfluous shoots are +cut out and used or sold for "bonds" for tying up "kids" or the mouths +of corn sacks. As the shoots grow stronger more can be taken--with +ultimate benefit to the development of the full-grown poles--for use +as rick pegs and "buckles" in thatching. The buckles are the wooden +pins made of a small strip of withy, twisted at the centre so that it +can be doubled in half like a hairpin, and used to fix the rods which +secure the thatch by pressing the buckles firmly into it. In Hampshire +these are called "spars," and they are sold in bundles containing a +fixed number. + +I heard an amusing story about these spars. A certain thatcher, we may +call him Joe, was engaged upon the roof of a cottage, when the parson +of the parish chanced to pass that way. Joe had of late neglected his +attendance at church, and the vicar saw his way to a word of advice. +After "passing the time of day" he took Joe to task for his neglected +attendance and waxing warm expressed his fears that Joe had forgotten +all his Sunday-school lessons; he was doubtful even, he said, if Joe +could tell him the number of the Commandments. Joe confessed his +ignorance. "Dear me," said the vicar, "to think that in this +nineteenth century any man could be found so ignorant as not to know +the number of the Commandments!" Joe bided his time until the vicar's +attention had been called to the spars, when Joe asked him how many a +bundle contained. It was a problem that the vicar could not solve. +"Dear me," said Joe, "to think that in this 'ere nineteenth century +any man could be found so ignorant as not to know the number of spars +in a bundle!" Joe always added when telling the story, "But there," I +says, "every beggar," I says, "to his trade," I says. + +Sometimes a picturesque gipsy would come to the Manor House with +clothes-pegs for sale, and she generally negotiated a deal, for +everybody has a sneaking regard for the gipsies and their romantic +life _sub Jove_. Walking round the farm shortly afterwards I would +come upon the remains of their fire and deserted camp by the roadside +close to the brook, the ground strewn with the peel and refuse from +the materials with which they had supplied themselves gratis, and I +recognized that we had been buying goods made from my own withies. +Even so we did not complain, for no real harm was done to the trees. + +The heads of these old pollards are favourite places for birds'-nests, +and all kinds of plants and bushes take root in their decaying fibre, +the seeds having been carried by the birds; so that ivy, brambles, +wild gooseberries, currants, raspberries, nut bushes and elders, can +be seen growing there. Whenever the foxhounds ran a fox to Aldington +he was always lost near the brookside, and it was said that the +cunning beast eluded the hounds by mounting a pollard and jumping from +one to another, until the scent was dissipated. It was also a +tradition that when hunting began on the Cotswolds the experienced +foxes left for the Vale, leaving the less crafty to fight it out with +the hounds; for the Evesham district was seldom visited by the hunt, +owing to possible damage to the highly cultivated winter crops of the +market-gardeners. + +Jarge had a very narrow escape when grubbing out an old willow +overhanging a pool. He had been at work some hours, and had a deep +trench dug out all round the tree, to attack the roots with a +stock-axe. He had cut them all through except the tough tap-root, when +I reached him, and he was standing in the trench at work upon it. He +was certain that it would be some time before the tree fell, the +tap-root being very large; but, as I stood watching on the ground +above, I thought I saw a suspicious tremor pass over the tree, and an +instant later I was certain it was coming down. I shouted to him to +get out of the trench. It took a second or two to get clear, as the +trench was deep, and he was not a tall man, so he was scarcely out +when the tree fell with a crash on the exact spot where he had been at +work. Had I not been present it must have fallen upon him, for not +expecting the end was so near he had not been watching the signs. +Though not a tall tree, it was a very stout and heavy trunk, and the +tap-root on inspection proved to be partly rotten. + + + "Forth into the fields I went, + And Nature's living motion lent + The pulse of hope to discontent. + + "I wonder'd at the bounteous hours, + The slow result of winter showers: + You scarce could see the grass for flowers. + + "I wonder'd, while I paced along: + The woods were fill'd so full with song, + There seemed no room for sense of wrong." + +Such is Tennyson's description of a spring day in the fields and +woods, and nothing more beautiful could be written. And so it was with +joy that my men and carter boys with waggons and teams started early +on the spring mornings to bring home the newly purchased hop-poles +from the distant woods. These poles are sold by auction in stacks +where they are cut, and the buyer has to cart them home. Usually, +after a successful hop year they were in great demand; prices would +rise in proportion, and the early seller did well, but when the later +sales came sometimes, the demand being satisfied, there would be a +heavy fall in values, and as a cunning buyer expressed it, "The poles +lasted longer than the money." + +The dainty catkins of the hazel are the first sign of awakening life +in the woods; they are well out by the end of January or early in +February, and as they ripen, clouds of pollen are disseminated by the +wind. Tennyson speaks of "Native hazels tassel-hung." The female +bloom, which is the immediate precursor of the nut itself, is a pretty +little pink star, which can be found on the same branch as the catkin +but is much less conspicuous; and both are a very welcome sight, as +almost the earliest hint of spring. The hazel bloom is shortly +followed by the green leaves of the woodbine, which climbs so +exultingly to the tops of the highest trees and breathes its fragrance +on a summer evening. In the New Forest the green hellebore is early +and noticeable from its peculiar green blossoms, but I have not seen +it in Worcestershire. + +My men and teams were generally off to the hills, Blockley, Broadway, +Winchcombe, Farmcote, and suchlike out-of-the-way places, when the wet +"rides" in the woods were drying up. The boys especially revelled in +the flowers--primroses and wild hyacinths--and came home with huge +bunches; they enjoyed the novelty of the woods and the wild +hill-country, which is such a contrast to the flat and highly +cultivated Vale. + +When unloaded at home the poles have to be trimmed, cut to the proper +length, 12 to 14 feet, "sharped," "shaved" at the butt 2 or 3 feet +upwards, and finally boiled so far for twenty-four hours, standing +upright in creosote, which doubles the lasting period of their +existence. They were chiefly ash, larch, maple, wych elm, and sallow, +and the rough butts, when sawn off before the sharping, supplied the +firing for the boiling. Green ash is splendid for burning: "The ash +when green is fuel for a Queen." Later, when I adopted a Kentish +system of hop-growing on coco-nut yarn supported by steel wire on +heavy larch poles, our visits to the woods were less frequent, and +much wear and tear of horses and waggons was saved. Some of our +journeys, in the earlier days, took us to the estate of the Duc +d'Aumale, on the Worcester side of Evesham, where some excellent ash +poles were grown. In one lot of some thousands I bought, every pole +had a crook in it ("like a dog's hind leg," my men said), about 2 or 3 +feet from the ground, which was caused by the Duc having given orders +some years previously, on the occasion of a visit from the Prince of +Wales (the late King Edward), to have a large area of young coppice +cut off at that height, to make a specially convenient piece of +walking and pheasant shooting for the Prince. + +On this occasion many people went to Evesham Station to see the +arrival of the Prince and retinue, and their departure for Wood Norton +in the Duc's carriages. Our old vicar was returning full of loyalty, +and passing an ancient Badsey radical inquired if he had been to see +the Prince. "Noa, sir," was the reply, "I been a-working hard to get +some money to keep 'e with." In some of the Wood Norton woods there +are large numbers of fir trees, planted, it was said, as roosting +places for the pheasants, so that they might not be visible to the +night poacher; but it was found that the birds preferred the leafless +trees, where they offer an easy pot shot in the moonlight or in the +grey of the dawn. + +The Scots-fir is an interloper in the New Forest, and always looks out +of place; it was introduced as an experiment I believe, less than 150 +years ago, and has been found useful as I have explained for +sheltering young plantations of oaks. It grows rapidly, and has been +planted by itself on land too poor for more valuable timber, chiefly +for pit-props. During the war immense numbers of Canadians and +Portuguese have been employed in felling these trees and cutting them +up into stakes for wire entanglements, trench timbers, and sleepers +for light railways. Huge temporary villages have grown up for the +accommodation of the men employed, equipped with steam sawing-tackle, +canteens, offices and quarters, and with light railways running far +away into the plantations where the trees are cut. It was a wonderful +sight to see these busy centres alive with men and machinery, in +places where before there was nothing but the silence of the woods. +And it is curious that, as in the old days the New Forest provided the +oak timber for the battleships that fought upon the sea in Nelson's +time, so now, in the fighting on land, we have been able to export +from the same place hundreds of thousands of tons of fir for the use +of our troops in France and Belgium. + +Old railway sleepers are exceedingly useful for many purposes on +farms, and as they are soaked in creosote, they last many years, for +light bridges and rough shelters, after they are worn out for railway +purposes. The railway company adjoining my land discarded a quantity +of these partly defective sleepers, and left them, for a time, lying +beside the hedge which separated the line from my fields. I applied to +the Company for some, and suggested that they need only be put over +the hedge, and I would cart them away. But that is not the routine of +the working of such matters; though it appeals to the simple rustic +mind, it would be considered "irregular." They had to be loaded on +trucks sent specially on the railway, taken to Worcester sixteen miles +by train, unloaded, sorted, loaded again, sent back to my station, +unloaded, loaded again on to my waggons, and carted a mile and a half +on the waggons which had been sent empty the same distance to the +station! + +Overgrown old hedges are exceedingly pretty in autumn when hung with +clusters of "haws," the brilliant berries of the hawthorn, and the +"hips" of the wild rose. There is, too, the peculiar pink-hued berry +of the spindle wood, and, in chalky and limestone districts, the "old +man's beard" of the wild clematis, bright fresh hazel nuts, and golden +wreaths of wild hops. It is said that + + "Hops, reformation, bays and beer + Came into England all in a year." + +But it is certain that the wild hops at any rate must have been +indigenous, for one finds them in neighbourhoods far from districts +where hops are cultivated, and the couplet probably refers to the +Flemish variety, which would be the sort imported in the days of Henry +VIII., though at the present time our best varieties are far superior. + +The holly is only seen as garden hedges in the more sandy parishes of +Worcestershire, but here in the Forest it is a splendid feature, +growing to a great size and height. In winter its bright shining +leaves reflecting the sunlight enliven the woods, so that we never get +the bare and cheerless look of places where the elm and the whitethorn +hedge dominate the landscape. In spring its small white blossoms are +thickly distributed, and at Christmas its scarlet berries are ever +welcome. Its prickles protect it from browsing cattle and Forest +ponies, but it is interesting to notice that many of the leaves on the +topmost branches being out of reach of the animals are devoid of this +protection. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + + +CORN--WHEAT--RIDGE AND FURROW--BARLEY--FARMERS NEWSTYLE AND OLDSTYLE. + + "He led me thro' the short sweet-smelling lanes + Of his wheat-suburb, babbling as he went." + --_The Brook_. + +I do not propose to enter upon the ordinary details of arable farming, +as not of very general interest, except for those actually engaged +thereon. I am aiming especially at the more unusual crops, and what I +may call the curiosities of agriculture. It is most interesting to +turn to Virgil's _Georgics_ and see how they apply after the lapse of +nearly twenty centuries to the farm-work of the present day. Horace, +too, was a farmer, though perhaps more of an amateur; he exclaims at +the busy scene presented when men and horses are engaged in active +field work: + + "_Heu heu! quantus equis quantus adest viris Sudor!_" + +which, by the way, was rendered with Victorian propriety by a +well-known Oxford professor, "What a quantity of perspiration!" etc. +Probably Horace had been watching the sowing of barley or oats on a +fine March morning, "the peck of March dust," which we know is "worth +a King's ransom," flying behind the harrows. George Cruikshank gives a +very spirited and comic realization of Horace's lines, in Hoskin's +_Talpa_, where ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, harvesting, +thrashing, grinding and carting away the finished product, are all +actively proceeding in the same field. + +The origin of the word "field," still locally pronounced "feld," as in +"Badsey Feld," near Evesham, takes us back to primeval times when the +country was mostly forest, of which certain parts had been "felled," +and were thus distinguished as opposed to the untouched portions. We +may be sure that the best pieces of land were the first to be brought +under cultivation, and it is thus that the best land in most old +parishes, at the present day, is to be found close to the village, and +is generally a portion of the manor property. Later, where glebe was +allotted for the parson's benefit, the poorer parts were apparently +considered good enough for the purpose, so that we generally expect to +find the glebe on somewhat inferior land. + +Wheat-growing at Aldington and on most heavy soils was practically +killed by the vast importations from the United States, rendered +possible by the extraction of the natural fertility of her virgin +soils, and by the development of steam traction and transport, +resulting in the food crisis at home during the war. The loss of +arable land converted to inferior grass amounted, in the forty years +from 1874 to 1914, to no less than four million acres. I made such +changes in my own cropping that, where I formerly grew 100 acres of +wheat annually, I reduced the area to ten or twenty acres, mainly for +the sake of the straw for litter and thatching purposes. + +Wheat can be planted in what would be considered a very unsuitable +tilth for barley. We had often to follow the drills--where they had +cut into the clayey soil, leaving the seed uncovered, and where the +ground was so sticky and "unkind" that harrowing had very little +effect--with forks, turning the clods over the exposed seed, and +treading them down. Wheat seems to like as firm a seed-bed as +possible, for the best crop was always on the headland, where the +turning of the horses and implements had reduced the soil to the +condition of mortar. The seed would lie in the cold ground for many +weeks before the blade made its appearance, but the men always said, +"'Twill be heavy in the head when it lies long abed." It is cheering +in late autumn and early winter when no other young growth is to be +seen on the farm, suddenly to find the field covered with the fresh +shoots of the wheat in regular lines, and to notice how, after its +first appearance, it makes little further upright growth for a time, +but spreads laterally over the ground as the roots extend downwards. + +Nothing in the way of weather will kill wheat, except continuous heavy +rain in winter, where the land is undrained, and stagnant water +collects. I have seen it in May lying flat on the ground after a +severe spring frost, but in a day or two it would pick up again as if +nothing had happened. And I have seen beans, 2 feet high, cut down and +doubled up, revive and rear up their heads quite happily, though at +harvest the exact spot in every stalk could be seen where the wound +had taken place. + +In May, if the weather is cold and ungenial, wheat turns yellow; this +is the weaning time of the young plants, which have then exhausted the +nourishment contained in the seed, and in the absence of growing +weather they do not take kindly to the food in the land, upon which +they now become dependent. + + "The farmer came to his wheat in May, + And right sorrowfully went away, + The farmer came to his wheat in June, + And went away whistling a merry tune." + +His wheat was what is called "May-sick" the first time, but had +recovered on the second visit, for another old saw tells us that, "A +dripping June puts all in tune." + +May is said "Never to go out without a wheat-ear," but I do not think +this is invariably true, though by splitting open a young wheat stem +it is easy to find the embryo ear, only about half an inch long. I +have heard people exclaiming at the beautiful effect of the breezes +passing over a luxuriant field of growing wheat, giving the appearance +of waves on a lake; but when the wheat is in bloom, it is doubtful if +this is a reason for congratulation, as the blooms are rubbed off in +the process, which may be the cause of thin-chested ears at harvest, +when, instead of being set in full rows of four or five grains +abreast, only two or three can be found, reducing the total number in +an ear from a maximum of about seventy to fifty or less. + +"God makes the grass to grow greener while the farmer's at his +dinner," is a proverb which may be applied to almost any enterprise, +for optimism is largely a physical matter, and "it is ill talking with +a hungry man." + +I suppose that no man, even with the dullest imagination, can fail to +walk across a wheat field at harvest without being reminded of some of +the innumerable stories and allusions to corn fields in the Bible. He +will remember how, when the famine was sore in the land of Canaan, +Jacob sent his ten sons to Egypt to buy corn, and how Joseph knew his +brethren, but they knew him not; with the touching details of his +emotion, until he could no longer refrain himself, and, weeping, made +himself known. How he bade them return, and bring their aged father, +their little ones, and their flocks and herds, to dwell in the land of +Goshen. + +His mind, too, will revert to the commandment given to Moses, "When ye +reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners +of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest"; +so that he will meet the villagers with a word of welcome, when they +invade his fields for the same time-honoured purpose. + +He will remember the story of Ruth and Boaz, told in the exquisite +poetry of the Bible diction, than which nothing in the whole range of +literature can compare in noble simplicity. And the corn fields of the +New Testament, where the disciples plucked the ears of corn, and were +encouraged, and the accusing Pharisees rebuked; with the conclusive +declaration that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the +Sabbath. And, finally, the familiar chapter in the burial service, +which has brought comfort to thousands of mourners, and will so +continue till the last harvest, which is the end of the world, when +the angels will be the reapers. + +The word "gleaning" is never heard in Worcestershire for collecting +the scattered wheat stems and ears; it is invariably "leasing" from +the Old English, _lesan_, to gather or collect anything. When wheat +was fairly high in price the village women and children were in the +field as soon as it was cleared of sheaves, and they made a pretty +picture scattered about the golden stubble, and returning through the +meadows and lanes at twilight with their ample gatherings. + +The "leasings" would be thrashed by husband or brother with the old +flail, in one of my barns, to be then ground at the village mill, and +lastly baked into fragrant loaves of home-made bread--the "dusky +loaf," as Tennyson says, "that smelt of home." One good old soul +brought me every week, while the "leased corn" lasted, a small loaf +called "a batch cake," and continued the gift later, made from wheat +grown on the family allotment; her loaves were some of the best and +the sweetest bread I have ever tasted. + +"The man who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before" is +said to be a national benefactor, and, I suppose, the same adage +applies _a fortiori_ to wheat, but I have never seen a monument raised +to his memory or even the circulation of the national hat for his +benefit. Too often the only proof of his neighbour's recognition of +his improved crops is the notification of an increased assessment of +the amount of his liability to contribute to what is, still quite +unsuitably, called the poor rate. + +Wheat rejoices in a tropical summer, and it never succeeds better than +when stiff land like mine splits into deep cracks, locally called +"chawns." You can see the root-fibres crossing these cracks which go +so far into the earth that a walking-stick can be inserted to touch +the drain pipes in the furrows at a depth of 2-1/2 or 3 feet. +Apparently this cracking acts as a kind of root-pruning, and lets in +the heat of the sun to the lower roots of the corn, with the result +of, what is called, a great "cast" (yield) to the acre. + +In building wheat ricks the most important point is to arrange the +sheaves with the butts sloping outwards, so that should rain fall +before thatching, the water will run away from the centre. I remember +at Alton, where the rick-builder was an old and experienced man, he +neglected this precaution; some weeks of heavy rain followed, but in +time the thatching was completed, and nobody dreamed of any harm. When +the thrashing machine arrived, and the ricks were uncovered, the wheat +was found so damp that, in places, the ears had grown into solid mats, +and the sheaves could only be parted by cutting with a hay-knife. The +old man was so discomfited that the tears rolled down his cheeks, and +the master's loss amounted to something like L300. There was not a +sack of dry wheat on that particular farm that winter, though some was +saleable at a reduced price. He told me that it was a costly business +for him, but worth any money as a lesson to me. I took it to heart, +and we never left a rick uncovered at Aldington; as fast as one was +completed, and the builder descended the ladder, the thatcher took his +place, and temporarily "hung" it with straw, secured by partially +driven-in rick pegs until we could find time to attend to the regular +thatching. + +The high ridges and deep furrows, to be seen on the heavy arable lands +of the Vale of Evesham, are a source of wonderment to people who come +from light land districts, and who do not recognize how impervious is +the subsoil to the penetration of water. The origin of these highly +banked ridges dates from far-away days before land drain pipes were +obtainable, and it was the only possible arrangement to prevent the +perishing of crops from standing water in the winter. The rain quickly +found its way into the furrows from the ridges, and, as they always +sloped in the direction of the lowest part of the field, the +superfluous water soon disappeared. Even now, when drain pipes are +laid in the furrows, it is not advisable to level the ridges, because +the water would take much longer to find the drains, and the growing +crop would be endangered. It is not safe to drain this land deeper +than about 2-1/2 feet, and many thousands of pounds have been +misapplied where draining has been done on money borrowed from +companies who insist upon 3 feet as the minimum depth for any portion +of the drain, which would mean much more than that where the drain +occasionally passes through a stretch of rising ground. As proving my +statement that 2-1/2 feet is quite deep enough, I have seen great +pools of water after a heavy rain standing exactly over the drain in +the furrows, and we had sometimes to pierce the soil to the depth of +the pipes, with an iron rod made for the purpose, before the water +could get away. + +On light land, the subsoil of which is often full of water, the case +is quite different, and the pipes must be laid much deeper to relieve +its water-logged condition; but on our stiff clay the subsoil was +comparatively dry, and we had to provide only for the discharge of the +surface water as quickly as possible, where the solid clay beneath +prevented its sinking into the lower layers. + +In the subsoil of the lias clay there are large numbers of a fossil +shell, _Gryphea incurva_, known locally as "devils claws"; they +certainly have a demoniac claw-like appearance, and worry the drainers +by catching on the blade of the draining tool, and preventing its +penetration into the clay. + +I have heard the suggestion that our highly banked ridges were +intended to increase the surface of the land available for the crops, +just as it takes more cloth to cover a hump back than a normal one, +but of course the rounded ridge does not provide any more _vertical +position_ for the crop, and the theory cannot be maintained. Some of +these ridges, "lands" as they are called, are so wide and so elevated +that it was said that two teams could pass each other in the furrows, +on either side of a single "land," so hidden by the high ridge that +they could not see one another; and I myself have noticed them on +abandoned arable land that has been in grass from time immemorial, so +high as nearly to answer the description. Though the blue clay in the +Vale of Evesham is so tenacious, it works beautifully after a few +sharp frosts, splitting up into laminations that form a splendidly +mouldy seed bed, so that frost has been eloquently called "God's +plough." + +It is a very curious fact that many of these old "lands" take the form +of a greatly elongated [Illustration: (S backwards)], though not so +pronounced as that figure, for the curves are only visible towards the +ends, and these curves always turn to the left of anyone walking +towards the end. Various explanations have been given, and one by Lord +Avebury is the nearest approach to a correct solution which I have +seen, though not, I think, quite accurate. My own idea is that, as the +plough turns each furrow-slice only to the right, the beginning of the +ridge would be accomplished by two furrows thrown together on the top +of each other, and the remainder would be gathered around them by +continuing the process, until the "land" was formed with an open +furrow on each side. The eight oxen would be harnessed in pairs, or +the four horses tandem fashion. When they reached the end of each +furrow-slice, the plough-boy, walking on the near side, would have to +turn the long team on the narrow headland, and in order to get room to +reach a position for starting the next furrow-slice, he would have to +bear to the left before commencing the actual turn. In the meantime +the horse next the plough would be completing the furrow-slice alone, +and would, naturally, try to follow the other three horses towards the +left, so that the furrow-slice at its end would slightly deviate from +the straight line. When the horses were all turned, the second +furrow-slice would follow the error in the first, and the same +deviation would occur at each end of the ploughing, gradually becoming +more and more pronounced, until the curved form of each ridge became +apparent. Lord Avebury says that when the driver, walking on the near +side, reached the end of each furrow, he found it easier to turn the +team by pulling them round than by pushing them, thus accounting for +the slight curvature. + +The saying, + + "He that by the plough would thrive + Himself must either hold or drive," + +is largely true, but only the small farmer can comply with it. The man +of many acres cannot restrict his presence to one field, and must +adopt for his motto the equally true proverb, "The master's eye does +more than both his hands." + +The thrashing-machine is the ultimate test of the yield or cast of the +wheat crop, and it seems to have something itself to say about it. For +when the straw is short the cast is generally good, and _vice versa_. +In the first case the machine runs evenly, and gives out a contented +and cheerful hum, but in the second it remonstrates with intermittent +grunts and groans. Even when the yield is pretty good, the voice of +the machine is not nearly so encouraging to the imaginative farmer, +when prices are low, as when prices are up. + +Throughout the course of my farming the gloomy note of the machine was +that which predominated, but in the spring of 1877, on the prospect of +complications with Russia, when wheat rose to I think nearly 70s. a +quarter, it was again a cheerful sound, for I had several ricks of the +previous year's crop on hand. I do not remember that bread rose to +anything like the extent that occurred in the Great War. Forty years +has marvellously widened the gap between the raw material and the +finished product--that is, between producer and consumer; immense +increases have taken place in the cost of labour employed by miller +and baker, and rates and other expenses are much higher. + +Farmers do not lose much in "bad debts"; they have to lay out their +capital in cash payments so long before the return that they are not +expected to give extended credit when sales take place, and for corn +payment is made fourteen days after the sale is effected. I had one +rather narrow escape. I had sold 150 sacks of wheat to a miller, and +it had been delivered to the mill, but one evening I had a note from +him to say that his credit was in question on the local markets. "A +nod," I thought, "was as good as a wink to a blind horse"; so next +morning I sent all my teams and waggons, and by night had carted all +the wheat away, except twenty sacks, which had already been ground. +The miller paid eventually 10s. in the L, so my loss was only a matter +of about L10. + +A similar "chap money," or return of a trifle in cash from seller to +buyer, as that in vogue in horse-dealing, still exists in selling +corn; it goes by the indefinite name of "custom," and in +Worcestershire it was a fixed sum of 1s. in every sixty bushels of +wheat, and 1s. in every eighty bushels of barley; each of these +quantities formed the ancient load. I think the payment of "custom" +arose when tarpaulin sheets were first used instead of straw to cover +the waggon loads. The straw never returned; it was the miller's +perquisite, and its value paid for the beer to which the carters were +treated at the mill; but the tarpaulin comes back each time, so the +miller gets his _quid pro quo_ in the "custom." + +Barley was not an important crop at Aldington, the land was too stiff, +but I had some fields which contained limestone, where good crops +could be grown. Even there it was inclined to coarseness, but in dry +seasons sometimes proved a very nice bright and thin-skinned sample. +Before the repeal of the malt tax, which was accompanied by +legislation that permitted the brewers to use sugar, raw grain and +almost anything, including, as people said, "old boots and shoes" +instead of barley malt, good prices, up to 42s. a quarter and over, +could be made; but under the new conditions, the maltsters complained +that my barley was too good for them, and they could buy foreign stuff +at about 22s. or 24s., which, with the help of sugar, produced a class +of beer quite good enough for the Black Country and Pottery consumers. + +I heard an amusing story about barley in Lincolnshire, some years +before the repeal of the malt tax, which, I think, is worth recording. +A farmer, after a very hot summer and dry harvest, had a good piece of +barley which he offered by sample in Lincoln market. He could not make +his price, the buyers complaining that it was too hard and flinty. He +went home in disgust, but, after much pondering, thought he could see +his way to meet the difficulty. He had the sacks of barley "shut" on +his barn floor, in a heap, and several buckets of water poured over +it. The heap was turned daily for a time, until the grain had absorbed +all the water, and there was no sign of external moisture. The +appearance of the barley was completely changed: the hard flinty look +had vanished, and the grain presented a new plumpness and mellowness. +He took a fresh sample to Lincoln next market day, and made 2s. or 3s. +a quarter more than he had asked for it in its original condition. + +The following lines, which have never been published except in a local +newspaper, though written many years ago, apply quite well in these +days of the hoped-for revival of agriculture. I am not at liberty to +disclose the writer's identity beyond his initials, E.W. + +FARMER NEWSTYLE AND FARMER OLDSTYLE + + "Good day," said Farmer Oldstyle, taking Newstyle by the arm; + "I be cum to look aboit me, wilt 'ee show me o'er thy farm?" + Young Newstyle took his wideawake, and lighted a cigar, + And said, "Won't I astonish you, old-fashioned as you are! + + "No doubt you have an aneroid? ere starting you shall see + How truly mine prognosticates what weather there will be." + "I ain't got no such gimcracks; but I knows there'll be a flush + When I sees th'oud ram tak shelter wi' his tail agen a bush." + + "Allow me first to show you the analysis I keep, + And the compounds to explain of this experimental heap, + Where hydrogen and nitrogen and oxygen abound, + To hasten germination and to fertilize the ground." + + "A putty sight o' learning you have piled up of a ruck; + The only name it went by in my feyther's time was muck. + I knows not how the tool you call a nallysis may work, + I turns it when it's rotten pretty handy wi' a fork." + + "A famous pen of Cotswolds, pass your hand along the back, + Fleeces fit for stuffing the Lord Chancellor's woolsack! + For premiums e'en 'Inquisitor' would own these wethers _are_ fit, + If you want to purchase good uns you must go to Mr. Garsit.[1] + + "Two bulls first rate, of different breeds, the judges all + protest + Both are so super-excellent, they know not which is best. + Fair[1] could he see this Ayrshire, would with jealousy be riled; + That hairy one's a Welshman, and was bred by Mr. Wild."[1] + + "Well, well, that little hairy bull, he shanna be so bad: + But what be yonder beast I hear, a-bellowing like mad, + A-snorting fire and smoke out? be it some big Roosian gun! + Or be it twenty bullocks squez together into one?" + + "My steam factotum, that, Sir, doing all I have to do, + My ploughman and my reaper, and my jolly thrasher, too! + Steam's yet but in its infancy, no mortal man alive + Can tell to what perfection modern farming will arrive." + + "Steam as yet is but an infant"--he had scarcely said the word, + When through the tottering farmstead was a loud explosion heard; + The engine dealing death around, destruction and dismay; + Though steam be but an infant this indeed was no child's play. + + The women screamed like blazes, as the blazing hayrick burned, + The sucking pigs were in a crack, all into crackling turned; + Grilled chickens clog the hencoop, roasted ducklings choke the + gutter, + And turkeys round the poultry yard on devilled pinions flutter. + + Two feet deep in buttermilk the stoker's two feet lie, + The cook before she bakes it finds a finger in the pie; + The labourers for their lost legs are looking round the farm, + They couldn't lend a hand because they had not got an arm. + + Oldstyle all soot, from head to foot, looked like a big black + sheep, + Newstyle was thrown upon his own experimental heap; + "That weather-glass," said Oldstyle, "canna be in proper fettle, + Or it might as well a tow'd us there was thunder in the kettle." + + "Steam is so expansive." "Aye," said Oldstyle, "so I see. + So expensive, as you call it, that it winna do for me; + According to my notion, that's a beast that canna pay, + Who champs up for his morning feed a hundred ton of hay." + + Then to himself, said Oldstyle, as he homewards quickly went, + "I'll tak' no farm where doctors' bills be heavier than the rent; + I've never in hot water been, steam shanna speed my plough, + I'd liefer thrash my corn out by the sweat of my own brow. + + "I neither want to scald my pigs, nor toast my cheese, not I, + Afore the butcher sticks 'em or the factor comes to buy; + They shanna catch me here again to risk my limbs and loife; + I've nought at whoam to blow me up except it be my woif." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + + +HOPS--INSECT ATTACKS--HOP FAIRS. + + "Oft expectation fails, and most oft there + Where most it promises; and oft it hits + Where hope is coldest and despair most fits." + + --_All's Well that Ends Well_. + +In a very rare black-letter book on hop culture, _A Perfite Platforme +of a Hoppe Garden_, published in the year 1578 and therefore over 340 +years old, the author, Reynolde Scot, has the following quaint remarks +on one of the disorders to which the hop plant is liable: + +"The hoppe that liketh not his entertainment, namely his seat, his +ground, his keeper, or the manner of his setting, comith up thick and +rough in leaves, very like unto a nettle; and will be much bitten with +a little black flye, who, also, will not do harme unto good hoppes, +who if she leave the leaf as full of holes as a nettle, yet she +seldome proceedeth to the utter destruction of the Hoppe; where the +garden standeth bleake, the heat of summer will reform this matter." + +Thomas Tusser, who lived 1515 to 1580, in his _Five Hundred Points of +Good Husbandry_, included many seasonable verses on Hop-growing, among +which the following are worth quoting: + + MAY. + + Get into thy hop-yard for now it is time + To teach Robin Hop on his pole how to climb, + To follow the sun, as his property is, + And weed him and trim him if aught go amiss. + + JUNE. + + Whom fancy perswadeth among other crops, + To have for his spending sufficient of hops: + Must willingly follow of choices to chuse + Such lessons approved, as skilfull do use. + + Ground gravelly, sandy, and mixed with clay, + Is naughty for hops, any manner of way; + Or if it be mingled with rubbish and stone, + For dryness and barrenness let it alone. + + Chuse soil for the hop of the rottenest mould, + Well dunged and wrought as a garden plot should: + Not far from the water (but not overflown), + This lesson well noted is meet to be known. + + The sun in the south, or else southly and west, + Is joy to the hop, as welcomed ghest: + But wind in the north, or else northerly east, + To hop is as ill, as a fray in a feast. + + Meet plot for a hop-yard, once found as is told, + Make thereof account, as of jewell of gold: + Now dig it and leave it the sun for to burn, + And afterward fence it to serve for that turn. + + The hop for his profit, I thus do exalt, + It strengtheneth drink and it favoureth malt, + And being well brewed, long kept it will last, + And drawing abide, if ye draw not too fast. + +In Worcestershire and Herefordshire hop-gardens are always called +hop-yards, which seems to be only a local and more ancient form of the +same word, and from the same root. The termination occurs also in +"orchard"--from the Anglo-Saxon _ortgeard_ (a wort-yard) +--"olive-yard," and "vineyard." + +The quotation from the _Perfitie Platforme of a Hoppe Garden_ refers +to "a little black flye," now called "the flea" (Worcestershire plural +"flen"), really a beetle like the "turnip fly," and it is the first +pest that attacks the hop every year. + + "First the flea, then the fly, + Then the lice, and then they die," + +is a couplet repeated in all the hop districts to-day, but the damage +done by the flea is not to be compared to that caused by the next +pest, the fly. The latter is one of the numerous species of aphis +which begins its attack in the winged state, and after producing +wingless green lice in abundance--which further increase by the +process known as "gemmation"--reappears with wings in the final +generation of the lice, and hibernates in readiness for its visitation +in the spring next year. + +So long as the hop plant maintains its health the aphis is +comparatively harmless, for the plant is then able to elaborate to the +full the bitter principle which is its natural protection. On a really +hot day in July it is sometimes possible to detect the distinctive +scent of the hop quite plainly in walking through the plantation, long +before any hops appear, and when this is noticeable very little of the +aphis blight can be found. There is however nearly always a small +sprinkling lying in wait, and a few days of unsuitable weather will +reduce the vitality of the plant so that the blight immediately begins +to increase. + +There is little doubt that all the distinctive principles of plants or +trees have been evolved, and are in perfect health elaborated, as a +protection from their most destructive insect or fungoid enemies; just +as physical protective equipment, such as thorns, prickles, and +stinging apparatus, is produced by other plants or trees as safeguards +against more powerful foes. If it were not so, plants that are even +now seriously damaged and kept in check by such pests would long ago +have become extinct. + +Pursuing this theory it seems likely that the solanin of the potato is +its natural protection against the disease caused by the fungus +_Phytophthora infestans_. The idea is suggested by the invariably +increasing liability to the potato disease experienced as new sorts +become old. The new kinds of potatoes are produced from the seed--not +the tubers--of the old varieties, and the seed, when fully vitalized +and capable of germination, may be assumed to contain the maximum +potentiality for transmission of the active principle to the tubers +immediately descended from it. During the early years of their +existence these revitalized tubers contain so much solanin that they +are not only injurious, but more or less poisonous, to man, and it is +only after they have been cultivated, and have produced further +generations of tubers _from_ tubers, that they become eatable, showing +that in the tuber condition the plant gradually loses its efficient +protection. + +In the case of the hop the most effective remedy is a solution of +quassia and soft soap. The caustic potash in the soap neutralizes the +oily integument of the lice and dries them up, but the quassia +supplies a bitter principle not unlike that of the hop, though without +its grateful aroma, which acts as a protection in the absence of the +bitter of the hop itself. So closely does the hop bitter resemble that +of quassia, that in seasons of hop failure it is said to be employed +as a substitute in brewing, and at one time its use for that purpose +was prohibited by law. + +As a further proof that the bitter principle of the hop is distasteful +to the aphis, it is noticeable that when the fly first arrives it +always attacks the topmost shoots of the bine where the leaves have +not developed, and where the active principle is likely to be weakest. +The same position is selected by the aphis of the rose, the bean, and +every plant or tree subject to aphis attack--it is the undeveloped and +therefore unprotected part which is chosen. + +It is remarkable that when a destructive blight is +proceeding--generally in a wet and cold time--and a sudden change +occurs to really hot dry weather, the hop plant often recovers its +tone automatically, shakes off the disease, and the blight dies away, +a fact which strengthens the assumption that in normal weather the +plant can protect itself. Again, the blight is always most persistent +under the shade of trees or tall hedges, or where the bine is over +luxuriant, when owing to the exclusion of light and air the plant is +unable to elaborate its natural safeguard. + +Fertilizers not well balanced as to their constituents, and containing +an excess of nitrogen, act as stimulants without supplying the +minerals necessary for perfect health. The effect is the same as that +produced in man by an excess of alcohol and a deficiency of nourishing +food, the health of the subject suffers in both cases, leaving a +predisposition to disease. + +Reasoning by analogy, these causes affecting the success or failure of +plants give us the clue to the remedies for bacterial disease in man. +Disease is the consequence and penalty of life under unnatural or +unfavourable conditions, which should first receive attention and +improvement. When in spite of improved conditions disease persists, +specifics must be sought. The conditions which produce disease in the +vegetable world are fought by the active principle of each plant, and +inasmuch as the germ diseases of man are probably, though distantly, +related to those which affect vegetable life, the specific protections +of plants should be exploited for the treatment of human complaints. +This, of course, has for long been a practice, but possibly more +success might be achieved by careful research to identify each +distinct bacterial disease in man with its co-related distinct disease +in plants, so as to utilize as a remedy for the former the natural +protection which the latter indicates. + +Our artificially evolved domesticated plants are more subject to +disease than their wild prototypes, because they are not natural +survivals of the fittest. They are survivals only by virtue of the art +of man, inducing special properties pleasing to man's senses, and +therefore profitable for sale; but in the development of some such +special excellence, ability to elaborate protective defence is +generally neglected, and the special excellence produced may possibly +be antagonistic to the really sound constitution of the plant. It is +thus that cultivated plants are more in need of watchful care and +attention than their wild relations, and that, in the development of +quality, a sacrifice of quantity may be involved. + +The observant hop grower notices constant changes in the appearance of +his plants from day to day under varying weather influences and other +conditions: a retarded and unhappy expression in a cold, wet and rough +time; an eager and hopeful expansiveness under genial conditions; a +dark, plethoric and rampant growth where too much nitrogen is +available, and a brilliant and healthily-restrained normality when +properly balanced nourishment is provided. + +There should be sympathy between the grower and his plants, such as is +described by Blackmore in his _Christowell_; though in the following +passage with consummate art he puts the words into the mouth of the +sympathetic daughter of the amateur vine-grower, and gives the plant +the credit of the first advance: + +"'For people to talk about "sensitive plants,"' she says, 'does seem +such sad nonsense, when every plant that lives is sensitive. Just look +at this holly-leafed baby vine, with every point cut like a prickle, +yet much too tender and good to prick me. It follows every motion of +my hand; it crisps its little veinings up whenever I come near it; and +it feels in every fibre that I am looking at it.'" + +Blackmore was much more than a writer of fiction; I think he had a +deeper insight into the spirit of Nature and country character than +perhaps any writer of modern times; he combined the accuracy of the +scholar with the practical knowledge of the farmer and gardener; the +logic of the philosopher with the fancy and expression of the poet. I +regard the appreciation of his _Lorna Doone_--a book in which one can +smell the violets--as the test of a real country lover; I mean a +country lover who, besides the gift of acute observation, has the +deeper gift of imaginative perception. If only the book could have +been illustrated by the pencil of Randolph Caldecott, such a union of +sympathy between author and artist would have produced a work +unparalleled in rural literature. + +Like all insects the aphis has its special insect enemies, among which +the lady-bird ("lady-cow" in Worcestershire) is the most important. It +lays its eggs in clusters on the hop-leaf, and in a few days the larvae +(called "niggers") are hatched, aggressive-looking creatures with +insatiable appetites. It is amusing to watch them hunting over the +lower side of the leaf like a sporting dog in a turnip field, and +devouring the lice in quantities. I knew an old hop grower in +Hampshire who had a standing offer of a guinea a quart for lady-birds, +but it is scarcely necessary to add that the reward was never claimed. + +The hop is dioecious (producing male and female blossoms on separate +plants), but very rarely both can be found on the same stem--the plant +thus becoming monoecious. In 1893, a very hot dry year, several +specimens were found, including one in Kent, one in Surrey, one in +Herefordshire, and one in my own hopyards at Aldington. It is curious +that the same unusual season should have produced the same abnormality +in places so far apart, practically representing all the hop districts +of the country. + + "Till James's Day be past and gone, + You might grow hops or you might grow none." + +St. James's Day is July 25, and so uncertain was the crop in the days +before insecticides were in use, that the saying fairly represents the +specially speculative nature of the crop in former times. As an +instance of the effects of varying years I had the uncommon experience +of picking two crops in twelve months: the first in a very late season +when the picking did not commence till after Worcester hop-fair day, +September 19th, and the second the following year when picking was +unusually early, and was completed before the fair day. At Farnham, +where many of the tradespeople indulged in a little annual flutter as +small hop growers, in addition to a more regular source of income from +their respective trades, it was said that the first question on +meeting each other was not, "How are you?" but "How are _they_?" + +Hop-picking is always somewhat reminiscent of the Saturnalia; with +hundreds of strangers from distant villages and a few gipsies and +tramps, it is not possible to enforce strict discipline, for it is +very necessary to keep the people in good-humour. On the final day of +the picking they expect to be allowed to indulge in a good deal of +horse-play, the great joke being suddenly to upset an unpopular +individual into a crib among the hops. Shrieks of laughter greet the +disappearance of the unlucky one, of whom nothing is to be seen except +a struggling leg protruding from the crib. + +The last operation in the hop garden is stacking the poles, and +burning the bine, a most inflammable material which makes a prodigious +blaze. As the men watch the leaping flames the same remark is made +year after year--"fire is a good servant, but a bad master." These +fires seem a great waste of good fibrous matter, as in former times +the bine was utilized for making coarse sacking and brown paper. +During the war I suggested to the National Salvage Council that, owing +to the scarcity of both these articles, it might be worth while to +attempt the resuscitation of the manufacture. The suggestion was +followed by experiments which produced quite a useful brown paper of +which I received a sample, but the cost of treatment was unfortunately +prohibitive from the commercial point of view. + +Worcester hop fair is the start of the trade, and the market is held +behind the Hop-Pole Hotel, where there are spacious stores and offices +for the merchants. When the crop is bountiful the stores are filled to +overflowing, and the ancient Guildhall built in 1721 has to be +requisitioned. On either side of the doorway stand the statues of +Carolus I. and Carolus II., who must have watched the entrance and the +exit of innumerable pockets. Worcester is distinguished as the +Faithful City, for like the County it had small use for Cromwell and +his Roundheads; and to this day, on the date of the restoration of +Charles II.--"the twenty-ninth of May, oak apple day"--a spray of oak +or an oak-apple is in some villages worn as a badge of loyalty, the +penalty for non-observance being a stroke on the hands with a +stinging-nettle. + +It was a great relief to get away from my 300 pickers and ride the +eighteen miles to Worcester on my bicycle, through the lovely river +scenery of the Vale of Evesham, the hedges drooping beneath the weight +of brilliant berries, the orchards loaded with apples, the clean +bright stubbles, and the cattle in the lush aftermath; then, after a +visit to the busy hop-market and a stroll among the curio shops in New +Street, to return by a different road as the shadows were lengthening +beside the copses and the hedgerow timber trees. + +In former times the October fair at Weyhill, near Andover, was the +market for the Hampshire and Farnham hops; it was the custom for the +growers to send them by road, and load back with cheese brought to the +fair by the Wiltshire farmers. I heard of a Hampshire grower, who in a +year of great scarcity had spent some time trying to sell several +pockets to an anxious but reluctant buyer, unwilling to give the price +asked--L20 a hundredweight. They continued the deal in the evening at +the inn at Andover, where both were staying, and said "Good-night" +without having concluded the bargain. The grower was in bed and almost +asleep when he heard a knock at his door, and a voice, "Give you L18," +which he refused. Next morning trade was dull and the buyer would not +repeat his offer, and at the end of the week the grower sent his hops +home again. Prices continued to fall, until two years later he sold +the same lot at 5s. a hundredweight to a cunning speculator, who took +them out to sea, after claiming a return of the duty (about L1 a +hundredweight originally paid by the grower), which the Excise +refunded on _exported_ hops. The hops went overboard of course, and +the buyer netted the difference between the price he paid and the +amount received for the refunded duty. + +At these old fairs the showmen and gipsies take large sums in the +"pleasure" departments for admission to their exhibitions--swings, +roundabouts, shooting-galleries, and coco-nut shies. In Evesham +Post-Office a gipsy woman once asked me to write a letter; she handed +me an order for L10, and instructed me to send it to a London firm for +L5 worth of best coco-nuts and L5 worth of seconds. They were for use +on the shies; it struck me as a large supply, and the economical +division of the qualities as ingenious. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + + +METEOROLOGY--ETON AND HARROW AT LORD'S--"RUS IN URBE." + + "But if I praised the busy town, + He loved to rail against it still, + For 'ground in yonder social mill + We rub each other's angles down, + + "'And merge,' he said, 'in form and gloss + The picturesque of man and man.'" + --_In Memoriam_. + +During the terribly wet summer of 1879 the following lines were +written--it was said by the then Bishop of Wakefield--in the visitors' +book at the White Lion Hotel at Bala, in Wales: + + "The weather depends on the moon, as a rule, + And I've found that the saying is true; + For at Bala it rains when the moon's at the full, + And it rains when the moon's at the new. + + "When the moon's at the quarter, then down comes the rain; + At the half it's no better I ween; + When the moon's at three-quarters it's at it again, + And it rains besides mostly between." + +Rather hard on Bala, for the summer was so abnormally wet that these +lines would have been true of any part of England. I suppose everybody +is more or less interested in the weather, but the custom of alluding +to the obvious, as an opening to conversation, is probably a survival +from the time when everyone was directly interested in its effect upon +agriculture. + +Nothing proves how completely town interests now dominate those of the +country so much as the innovation called "summer time." During the war +it was no doubt a boon to allotment holders, and of course it gives a +longer evening to those employed all day indoors; but it inflicts +direct loss on the farmer, who is practically forced to adopt it in +order to supply the towns with produce in time for their altered +habits. The farmer exchanges the last hour of the normal day, one of +the most valuable in the old working time, for the first hour of the +new day, one of the most useless, for owing to the dew which the sun +has not had time to dry up, many agricultural operations cannot be +properly performed or even commenced--hay-making and corn-hoeing for +instance are impossible. We may be sure that the former times of +beginning and ending farm-work, which I suppose had been customary for +at least 2,000 years in England, did not receive the sanction of such +a period without good reason, and it seems to me, that so far as +outdoor work is concerned the new arrangement savours of "teaching our +grandmothers to suck eggs." + +There is a saving of lighting requirements, no doubt, but in such a +six weeks of winterly mornings as we had, following the commencement +of "summer time" this first year of peace, there is a considerable +increase in the consumption of fuel. Wherever possible, I suppose, +most houses are built to face the south, and the breakfast-room would +be generally on that side, so that by 9 o'clock, old time, the sun had +warmed the room, but at 9 o'clock, new time, the sun has scarcely +looked in at the window; a fire is probably lighted and to save +trouble kept up all day. If the new arrangement is continued, and I +understand that it was tried more than 100 years ago and abandoned as +a mistake, it would be much better to begin it at least a month later. +Our present May Day is nearly a fortnight earlier than before the New +Style was introduced, which is the reason why old traditions of May +Day merry-makings appear unseasonable; and probably the promoters of +summer time have not heard of "blackthorn winter" and "whitethorn +winter," which, in the country, we experience regularly every year in +April and May. + + "When the grass grows in Janiveer + It grows the worse for it all the year," + +and + + "If Candlemas-Day be fine and fair + The half of winter's to come and mair; + If Candlemas-Day be wet and foul + The half of winter was gone at Yule," + +are both rhymes suggesting the probability of wintry weather to +follow, if the early weeks of the year are mild and unseasonable, and +they may be considered as generally correct prognostications. A +neighbouring village had the distinction of possessing a weather +prophet, with the reputation also of an astrologer; he could be seen +when the stars were gleaming brightly, late at night, gazing upwards +and making his deductions, though, in reality, I fancy, his +inspiration came from the study of almanacs which profess to foretell +the future. He was quiet and reserved, with a spare figure, dark +complexion, and an abstracted expression. Occasionally I could induce +him to talk, but he did not like to be "drawn." He told me, as one of +his original conceptions, that he thought the good people were +accommodated in the after-life within the limits of the stars of good +influence, and that the wicked had to be content with those of an +opposite character. + +The proverb about March dust, and "A dry March and a dry May for old +England," are both apposite, for they are busy months on the land, and +a wet March amounts to a national disaster; but everyone forgives +April when showery, for we all know that "April showers bring forth +May flowers." Shakespeare, too, says: + + "When daffodils begin to peer, + With heigh! the doxy over the dale, + Why, then comes in the sweet of the year." + +A charming sentiment and charmingly rendered, but possibly more +accurate when the Old Style was in vogue, and the seasons were nearly +a fortnight later than now. The modern "daffys" too, no doubt, "begin +to peer" somewhat earlier than those of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. + +During a very hot summer I suggested to the Board of Agriculture that +it might be worth while to experiment with explosions of artillery, +with a view of inducing the clouds to discharge the rain they +evidently contain when they keep passing day after day without +bursting. I had seen it stated that many great battles had ended in +tremendous downpours, and that it was believed that the rain was +caused by concussion from the explosions. The Board replied, however, +that experiments had been conducted in America for the purpose, +without in any way substantiating the theory; and the experiences of +the Great War have since conclusively proved that it has no +foundation. + +As to weather signs, I have already quoted the original pronouncement +of my carpenter, T.G., that "the indications for rain are very similar +to the indications for fine weather," and there is a good deal in his +words. My own conclusion, after fifty years of out-door life on the +farm, in the woods, in the garden, at out-door games, and on the +roads, is that fine weather brings fine weather, and wet weather +brings wet weather, in other words, it never rains but it pours, in an +extended sense. + +My impression is that when the ground is dry there is a minimum of +capillary attraction between it and the clouds, and though the sky may +look threatening they do not easily break into rain. On the other +hand, when the ground is thoroughly wet and evaporation is active, +capillary attraction tends to unite earth and clouds, and rain +results. We all know that hill-tops receive showers which frequently +pass over the vales without falling, probably because of the greater +proximity of the hills. In a long drought a violent thunderstorm, +which soaks the ground, will often be followed by a complete change of +weather, as the result of contact established between the earth and +the clouds. + +The best description I know of a really hot and cloudless day is that +by Coleridge in the _Ancient Mariner_: + + "The sun came up upon the left, + Out of the sea came he; + And he shone bright, and on the right + Went down into the sea." + +The succession of monosyllables expresses most forcibly the monotony +of a day of blazing sunshine, unruffled by a cloud; and the absence of +incident illustrates the remorseless march of the dominant sun across +the heavens. + +Very little of my time has been spent in London or any other town, and +my early recollections of passing through London on my way to or from +school after or before the holidays are of very depressing weather +conditions--fog, greasy streets and pavements, or a sun veiled in a +haze of smoky vapour. Even when I went to Lord's annually in July to +see the Eton and Harrow match my recollection of the weather is of +dull, sultry heat and oppression of spirits. Cricket never seemed the +same game as I knew and loved at Harrow, or in my own home in Surrey; +there was an unreality about it, and a black coat and top hat were +insufferably uncongenial. + +I am able, as an eye-witness on one of these occasions, to write of an +incident which, I think, has been almost forgotten. It was within a +year of the marriage of King Edward, then Prince of Wales, and Queen +Alexandra. A ball had been hit almost to the boundary, but was stopped +by a spectator close to the ropes, thrown in to the fielder, and +smartly returned to the wicket-keeper. The batsmen took it for granted +that it was a boundary hit, and were changing ends when, one man being +out of his ground, the wicket was put down, the wicket-keeper not +recognizing that the ball was "dead." The umpire gave the man "out." +The man demurred, and immediately shouts arose on all sides: "Out!" +"Not out!" "Out!" "Not out!" "Out!" "Not out!" rising _in crescendo_ +to a pitch of intense excitement. The boys watching the match, and the +other spectators, some agreeing with, and some disputing the verdict, +rushed into the centre of the ground, and completely blocked the open +space still shouting vociferously. When the turmoil was at its height +the carriage of the Prince and Princess was driven on to the ground; +one of the players rushed up excitedly, and asked the Prince to decide +the matter. The Prince had not seen the incident, and of course +declined, as no doubt he would have done under any circumstances, to +give an opinion. It was impossible to clear the ground and continue +the play that evening, and stumps were drawn for the day. Next morning +the fielding side offered the disgusted batsman to continue his +innings, but he decided to play the game and abide by the umpire's +decision. I forget whether Eton or Harrow was in the field at the +time, and after this lapse of years it does not matter. The headmaster +always sent a notice round, just before the match, to be read to every +form, that the boys were desired not to indulge in any "ironical +cheering" at Lord's; this was his euphemism for what we called +"chaff," and I fear that on this occasion the warning was disregarded +even more completely than usual. + +As a child, I generally paid a visit to London with my brothers and +sisters during the Christmas holidays to see a pantomime, and I +remember an occasion when returning from Covent Garden Theatre after a +matinee we all--nine of us--walked over Waterloo Bridge and paid nine +halfpennies toll--a circumstance that had never happened before, and +never happened again. + +In the days before the railway was made between Alton and Farnham the +old bailiff on the Will Hall Farm at Alton, who, though quite an +elderly man, had never visited London, expressed a wish to visit it +for once in his life. His master gave him a holiday and paid his +expenses, and the old man drove the ten miles to Farnham Station. +Arrived in London he started to walk over Waterloo Bridge, but the +further he got the more astonished he became at the traffic, and began +to wonder what "fair" all the people could be going to. Feeling very +much out of his element he reached the Strand, and looking up and down +he saw still greater crowds of passengers and the unending procession +of 'buses, cabs, and vans. He became so confused and alarmed that he +turned round, went straight back to Waterloo Station, and left by the +first available train. He came home disgusted with London, and in an +account of the traffic and the people, ended by saying, "I never saw +such a place in my life; I couldn't even get a bit of anything to eat +until I got back to Farnham." This old man was called "the Great +Western": I suppose his bulk and commanding figure were reminiscent of +the power and energy of one of the locomotives on that line. He wore a +very wide-brimmed straw hat, and a vast expanse of waistcoat with +sleeves, without a coat over it, and he had a very determined and +masterful habit of speech. Caldecott's sketch of Ready-Money Jack in +_Bracebridge Hall_ always recalls him to my mind. He must have been +born before the opening of the nineteenth century, for he could +remember the stirring events of its early years. Any remark about +unusual weather made in his hearing was at once put out of court by +his recollections of "eiteen-eiteen" (1818), which seems to have been +a very remarkable year for maxima and minima of meteorology. He could +remember the high price of wheat during the war which ended at +Waterloo, and how his old master, the grandfather of the tenant of the +farm in my time, would stand by the men in the barn as they measured +up the wheat, bushel by bushel, to fill the sacks, and exclaim as each +bushel was poured in, "There goes another guinea, boys!" This would +make the price 168s. a quarter; I find the average recorded for 1812 +was 126s. 6d., so that it is quite possible that for a time in that +year in places 168s. was realized; which leaves us little to grumble +at in the price of 80s. during the greatest war in history. + +His horizon must have been considerably widened by his brief visit to +London; previous to that event it might have been nearly as extensive +as that of the hero of a recent story of Pwllheli. Meeting a crony in +the town, he remarked that the streets of London would be pretty +crowded that day. "How's that?" said his friend. "Why, there's a trip +train gone up to-day with fourteen people from Pwllheli!" + +Bredon Hill, in the Vale of Evesham, is the direction in which many +people look for hints of coming changes of weather. + + "When Bredon Hill puts on his cap + Ye men of the vale beware of that" + +is a well-known proverb referring to the dark curtain of rain clouds +obscuring the top, which is generally followed by heavy rain and +floods in the Avon meadows and those of all the little streams which +join that river. The same purple curtain can be seen on the Cotswolds +above Broadway, and is likewise the forerunner of floods in the Vale: + + "When you see the rain on the hills + You'll shortly find it down by the mills." + +There is, too, the beautiful blue hazy distance one sees in very fine +weather, which gives a feeling of mystery and remoteness and +unexplored possibilities. I lately read somewhere of a man who had +passed his life without leaving his native village, though he had +often looked far away into the blue distance, and longed to start upon +a journey of discovery; for its invitation seemed an assurance that in +such beauty there must be something better than he had ever +experienced in his own home. There came a day when the appeal was so +insistent that he braced himself to the effort, and after many weary +miles reached the place of his dreams, only to find that the blue +distance had disappeared. Meeting a passer-by he told him of his +journey and its object, and of his disappointment, "Look behind you," +was the reply. He looked, and behold! over the very spot he had left +in the morning--over his own home--the blue haze hung, as a veil of +beauty, with its exquisite promise. There is a moral and there is +comfort in this tale for him who fancies that he is the victim of +circumstances and surroundings. That is the man who, as my bailiff +used to say in harvest, has always got a heavier cut of wheat than his +neighbour in the same field, and is always finding himself "at the +wrong job." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + + +CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS--DEWPONDS--A WET HARVEST--WEATHER +PHENOMENA--WILL-O'-THE-WISP--VARIOUS. + + "There rolls the deep where grew the tree. + O Earth, what changes hast thou seen!" + --_In Memoriam_. + + "With many a curve my banks I fret + By many a field and fallow, + And many a fairy foreland set + With willow-weed and mallow. + + "I chatter, chatter, as I flow + To join the brimming river, + For men may come and men may go, + But I go on for ever." + _The Brook_. + +Living so many years in one place I had unusual opportunities, as my +rounds nearly always took me beside my brooks, of watching their +slowly changing courses. The roots of the pollard willows helped to +keep them to their regular path by holding up the banks, but sometimes +when an old tree fell into the water it had an opposite result. A +fallen tree, reaching partly across the stream, has the immediate +effect of damming the flow of the water on the side of its growth and +diverting the current towards the opposite bank in a narrowed but more +powerful advance, so that the bank is worn away and the beginning of a +bend is formed. As the breach increases, the water, momentarily +retarded there by the new concavity, rushes forward again in the +direction of the bank from which the tree fell. So that a second +concavity is produced on that side some little way below the tree, +resulting in the slow formation of an extended S-like figure, or hook +with a double bend. The collection of rubbish and sediment retained by +the fallen tree helps to form a new bank on that side, extending +further into the stream than the bank on which the tree originally +stood. + +As this process continues it is easy to see that a straight stretch of +stream will in time assume a winding course, and the stream will be +continually altering its path, so that large areas of flat meadows +will be formed, every part of which has at times been the stream's +course. How many ages, then, must it have taken to produce the level +meadows we see extending for immense distances on either side of our +big rivers, and even those adjoining quite small streams? The level +surface thus created by the river or brook's course perpetually +deflected and reflected, is finally completed by the floods bringing +down a deposit of soil in solution, which is precipitated and settles +into any surface irregularities left by the wanderings of the stream. +A faint conception of an absolutely illimitable cycle of years, during +which the whole extent of visible flat meadow has been again and again +eroded and restored, is thus conveyed. + +Confirmation of this alteration of their courses by streams is +afforded when we cut a main drain through one of these meadows, to +carry the water from the connected furrow drains of adjoining arable +land. The alluvial soil can be found as deep as the depth of the +present brook, free from the stones found in the arable land, and +containing, to the same depth as the brook, fresh water shells similar +to those in the brook to-day. There was a bend in course of formation +in one of my brooks, where the stump of a tree, whose fall was the +starting-point, could be seen standing in the newly-formed ground, a +yard or more from the stream when I left, though I can remember when +it was so near as almost to touch the water. + +If we form an S from a piece of wire, and pinch it together from top +to bottom, the loops become so flattened, [S], that one of them may +almost unite with the central curve. The same thing often happens in +the loops of a brook, and, in time, the stream will complete the +junction, forming a short circuit.[2] Thus an island may be formed; or +when the old loop opposite the short circuit gets filled up with +deposit or falling banks--the water preferring the short circuit--a +piece of land may be cut off from one of the former sides of the brook +and transferred to the other, so that where the brook is a boundary +between two owners or parishes one owner or parish may be robbed and +the other owner or parish becomes a receiver of stolen goods. There +was an instance of this on the farm I owned and occupied adjoining the +Aldington Manor property, and the owner and the tenant of the piece +transferred to my side could not reach it without walking through the +brook. In this case, however, the tenant had wisely planted the ground +with withies, which he managed to get at for lopping when its turn +came round every seven years. Thus we have an example of the necessity +of the ancient practice of beating the bounds, which, at least before +the days of ordnance surveys, was not merely an opportunity for a +holiday. + +Another proof of the creation of new land by the meanderings of a +stream is found in the ancient "carrs" of North Lincolnshire, near +Brigg, where the hollowed-out logs of black bog oak, which formed the +canoes of the ancient inhabitants, are sometimes discovered many feet +below the surface, and long distances from the present course of the +Ancholme. These having sunk to the bottom of the river in past ages, +and gradually become covered with alluvium, were left behind as the +river changed its course. In some cases however these canoes may have +sunk to the bottom of the water when it formed a lake, and the lake +having gradually silted up, the river receded to something like its +present width. + +The floods in the Vale of Evesham from the Avon and even from my +brooks, often converted the adjoining flat meadows into lakes, and +they rose so suddenly after heavy rains or the melting of deep +snowfalls on the hills, that they were attended with danger to the +stock. + +In the summer of 1879 one of these sudden floods occurred, and people +standing on Evesham bridge, saw fallen trees and hay-cocks floating +down the stream. A pollard willow was noticed with a crew of about +twenty land rats, which had found refuge there until the tree itself +was lifted by the rising water and carried down the stream; and a +floating hay-cock supported a man's jacket, his jar of cider, and his +"shuppick." The local word "shuppick," a corruption of "sheaf-pike," +means a pike used for loading the sheaves of wheat in the harvest +field on to the waggon, and is the "fork" in general use at +hay-making. During another summer flood the whole of the pleasure +ground at Evesham, beside the Avon, was under water several feet deep; +the water poured in at the lower windows of the adjoining hotel, and +the proprietor's casks of beer and cider in the cellars, ready for the +regatta, were lifted from their stands and bumped against walls and +ceilings. + +Every parish has its Council in these days, and in country places +almost every other person one meets is a councillor of some sort, and +inclined to be proud of the distinction. These Councils are excellent +safety-valves for parochial malcontents who thus harmlessly let off +superfluous steam which might otherwise ruffle the abiding calm of +peaceful inhabitants, but their powers are really very limited. In a +village in Worcestershire where an approach road crossed a brook by a +ford, during floods the current was sometimes so strong as to +constitute a danger to horses and carts. The village pundits +therefore, in council duly assembled, considered the matter, and after +an extended debate the following resolution was carried unanimously, +"That a notice board be erected on the spot bearing the inscription: +When this board _is covered with water_ it is dangerous to attempt to +cross the ford." + +The numerous brooks in the Vale of Evesham supply ample water for the +stock, but in more elevated parts, especially on the chalk Downs of +Sussex, Hants, Wilts, and Dorset, provision is made for an artificial +water supply by what are called "dewponds." A shallow saucer-shaped +depression is dug out on the open Down, the bottom being made +water-tight by puddling with a well-rammed layer of impervious clay. +The first heavy rainfall fills the pond, and, the water being colder +than the air, the dew or mist condenses on its surface sufficiently, +in ordinary weather, to maintain the supply. In a dry time the sheep +can always reach the water, the pond having no banks, by the shelving +formation of the bottom. Sometimes a few trees are allowed to grow +round it; they also act as condensers, and their drip helps to fill +the pond. It is only in an abnormal drought that these dewponds really +fail, and a thunderstorm, followed by ordinary weather, will soon +refill them. Gilbert White, in _The Natural History of Selborne_, +refers to these ponds in a very interesting letter on the subject, +including details of condensation by trees, in which he gives an +instance of a particular pond, high up on the Down, 300 feet above his +house, and situated in such a position that it was impossible for it +to receive any water from springs or drainage, which "though never +above three feet deep in the middle, and not more than thirty feet in +diameter, and containing, perhaps, not more than two or three hundred +hogsheads of water, yet never is known to fail, though it affords +drink for three hundred or four hundred sheep, and for at least twenty +head of large cattle besides." + +The natural well-water in the Vale of Evesham is exceedingly hard, and +in the town and some villages was formerly much contaminated. After +great opposition from obstructive ratepayers, a splendid supply was +obtained from the Cotswolds above Broadway, about six miles away, of +much softer and really pure spring water. It comes in pipes by +gravitation, so there is no expense of pumping; but it was difficult +to get recalcitrant ratepayers to lay the water on from the mains to +their houses, as that part of the cost had to be borne by them +individually; and, before compulsion could be resorted to, the Council +had to prove contamination of the wells and close them. To get the +evidence samples were submitted to a London analyst, and they were +invariably condemned. One of the Councillors suggested sending, with a +number of well samples, a sample of the new supply "for a fad." The +samples were numbered, but had no other distinguishing mark, and in +due course the usual condemnations were received, including that of +the new town supply! + +During the wet harvest of 1879, when what was called by townspeople +the agricultural depression, was becoming acute, it was impossible to +get a whole day on which wheat could be carried. The position was +serious, because the grain was sprouting in the sheaves in the field, +and time after time a fairly dry Saturday would have allowed carrying +the following day, though Monday was always as wet as ever. At last at +Aldington we faced the situation and decided to proceed with the work +whenever possible, Sunday or no Sunday. A fine drying Saturday +occurred, and my bailiff told the men what we proposed, adding that we +did not wish anyone to help who had scruples as to the day. They all +appeared on Sunday morning, a brilliant day, except one "conscientious +objector," who, as I heard later, spent most of the day at the +public-house. We got up two ricks from about ten acres, which +eventually proved to be some of the driest wheat we had that year, and +which I was able to sell for seed at a good price, to go into +districts where no dry seed wheat could be found. + +My old vicar was somewhat scandalized at this Sunday work, and some of +my neighbours fancied themselves shocked, but a day or two later I +happened to meet another clergyman friend, who farmed a little +himself. "I was _so_ pleased," he said, "to hear that you were +carrying wheat last Sunday; when I was preaching I was strongly +disposed to conclude by telling my people--'Now you have been to +church, go home to your dinners, and then off with your jackets and +carry wheat for the rest of the day.'" Next Sunday all my neighbours +were busy with their wheat, but I had managed to complete my harvest +during the previous week, on the 8th of October, quite a month or six +weeks later than usual, and an extraordinary contrast to the very dry +year 1868, when all the corn on the farm, I was told, was carried +before the last day of July. + +I attended a neighbour's sale that autumn; the wet seasons and the low +prices had been too much for him, and he was leaving for the United +States; his rick-yard was empty, all the corn sold, and nothing but +straw left. I heard him remark, "Folks are saying that I'm very +backward with my payments, but I'm very forward with my thrashing, +anyway!" Before the following spring nearly all the rick-yards were +empty, and wheat-ricks, it was said, were as scarce as churches--one +in each parish. The situation was summed up later in a phrase which +passed into a proverb: "In 1879 farmers lived on faith, in 1880 they +are living on hope, and in 1881 they will have to live on charity." + +The attitude of the towns was one of apathy and indifference, like +that of the General in _Bracebridge Hall_, which, published in 1822, +proves how history repeats itself in agricultural as in other matters: + +"He is amazingly well-contented with the present state of things, and +apt to get a little impatient at any talk about national ruin and +agricultural distress. 'They talk of public distress,' said the +General this day to me at dinner, as he smacked a glass of rich +burgundy and cast his eyes about the ample board: 'They talk of public +distress, but where do we find it, sir? I see none; I see no reason +anyone has to complain. Take my word for it, sir, this talk about +public distress is all humbug!'" + +At Evesham, long before the depression grew into a debacle, the +shadows of coming events could easily be detected. There was the +disappearance of the long rows of farmers' conveyances at the inns in +the town on market-days; there was the eclipse of shops--for other +than necessities--such as a little fish shop, opposite the corner at +the cross roads; a corner where much business was formerly transacted +in the open street, and where I myself have sold by sample some +thousands of sacks of wheat. A tempting little shop it used to be, +displaying shining Severn salmon; and it was here that the farmers, +after the market, obtained the supplies commanded by the missus at +home. + +And there was the abandonment of the Corn Market proper, for the class +of farmers who survived hated to transact their business indoors. The +attendance of millers and dealers, except of those who had cargoes of +foreign corn at Gloucester or Bristol to dispose of, became irregular. +Sales of farm stock and implements took place in every village on +farms which had passed from father to son for generations, coupled +with the sacrifice of valuable implements and machinery for want of +buyers. There followed the stage when landowners who could find no +tenants, and had heavily mortgaged estates, essayed to make the best +of them by laying away the arable land to pasture, undertaking the +management themselves with, perhaps, an old broken-down tenant as +bailiff. The politicians and the general public did not apprehend the +danger of the situation, in spite of innumerable warnings, until the +German submarines were sending our foreign food supplies to the bottom +of the sea; and now that the immediate danger of starvation has +passed, they appear already to have lapsed again into an attitude of +apathy. + +We hear the blessed word "reconstruction" on every side, but the only +official propositions for the permanent establishment of agricultural +prosperity that I have heard are utterly inadequate. It is ridiculous +to suppose that a few thousand acres of special crops, like tobacco, +for instance, only possible in favoured spots, can in any way +compensate for the loss of millions of acres of arable land under +rotations of corn and green crops. Under present conditions nothing is +more certain than the abandonment of arable land as such; and it is +folly to talk of novel systems of transport for a dwindling output, or +of building labourers' cottages at an unjustifiable cost, which are +never likely to be wanted by a dying industry. + +Among my experiences of abnormal weather, I have a note of a +remarkable summer flood on July 21, 1875, when my hay was lying in the +meadows beside the brooks, and had to be removed to higher ground in +pouring rain to prevent its disappearance with the current. On the +following day, July 22, the highest flood since 1845 occurred at +Evesham. + +October 14, 1877, was memorable for the most terrific south-west gale +that happened in all the years I passed at Aldington; thirteen trees, +mostly old apple trees and elms, were blown down, including the +splendid veteran "Chate boy" pear tree at Blackminster, an exceedingly +sad and irreparable loss. The gale blew hardest in special tracks, the +course of which could be followed by the destruction of trees and +branches in distinct lanes, cut through woods and plantations. + +The winter of 1880-1881 was very severe, the mean temperature of +January, 1881, being 27.8 degrees F., the coldest January since 1820. +Ten years later, 1890-1891, another very prolonged winter occurred: +the frost began on the 6th of December, and, with scarcely a break, +continued till well into February. The feature of this frost was the +fine settled weather, and the warmth of the midday sun in the +brilliant air, when skaters could sit on the river banks and enjoy +their rest and lunch in its rays. I took my elder daughter back to +school at Richmond at the end of January, and in London we saw the +Thames choked by huge hummocks of ice, on which people were crossing +the river. An ox was roasted whole on the Avon at Evesham, and, when +the frost broke up, the ice on our millpond was 17 inches thick. + +Another great frost happened in 1894-1895, beginning late in December, +and lasting till the end of February, with a single intervening week +of thaw; and in March the ground, in places, was too hard to plough. +It was the only time that I was completely at a loss to find work for +my men; all the carting was finished in the early days of the frost, +and all the thrashing possible followed; ploughing and all working of +the land, or draining, were impracticable. The men, seeing that there +would be no employment for them until the frost broke up, told me that +if they might get what wood they could from fallen trees in the brook, +and if I would lend them horses and carts to get it home, they would +be glad to work in that way for themselves for a time. Just as they +had cleared both brooks from end to end of the farm which occupied +them about ten days, the thaw came and I was able to find them plenty +to do. + +We suffered very little from droughts at Aldington, the land was +naturally so retentive of moisture, but 1893 was a dry year, not +easily forgotten; no rain fell from early in March to July 13; the hay +crop was the lightest in remembrance, and straw was so short and +scarce that the hay-ricks of the following year, 1894, had to go +unthatched until the harvest of that year provided the necessary +straw. + +The spring of 1895 was remarkable for a plague of the caterpillars of +the winter-moth, due to the destruction of insect-eating birds by the +great frost; the caterpillars devoured the young leaves of the +plum-trees, so that whole orchards were completely stripped. The +balance between insectivorous birds and caterpillar life was destroyed +for a time, and the caterpillars conquered the plum-trees. In 1917, +during the persistent north-east blasts of February, March, and part +of April, the destruction of birds was terrible; all the tit tribe +suffered greatly, and the charming little golden-crested wren, which +here in the Forest was quite common, has scarcely been seen since. +Caterpillars again were a plague in my apple trees that spring, but +were not really destructive, and in the autumn the apples escaped +their usual punishment from the birds and wasps. Tits are often very +troublesome; they peck holes in the fruit, apparently in search of the +larvae of the codlin moth, leaving an opening for wasps and flies. I +find the berries of the laurel, which is a species of cherry, very +attractive to blackbirds, and as long as there are any left they seem +to prefer them to the apples. In 1895 cuckoos came to the rescue of my +young plum orchard; there were dozens of them at work on the nine +acres at once, and they must have cleared away an immense number of +the grubs. + +The most remarkable season we have had since I left Aldington was the +great drought of 1911. There was no rain here worth mention from June +22, the Coronation of King George V., until August 30, and the +pastures on this thin land were burnt up. On August 30 we had some +friends for tennis, and we had not been playing long before a mighty +cloud-burst occurred; the rain fell in torrents. "It didn't stop to +rain, it tumbled down," as my men used to say, and in about half an +hour the lawn was a sheet of water, the ground being so hard, that it +could not soak away. It was all over in an hour, and a neighbour with +a rain-gauge registered 0.66 of an inch of rain, equal to 66 tons on +an acre, or 330 tons on my five acres. + +One of my ambitions has always been to see a Will-o'-the-wisp, and I +am still hoping; but that hot summer, had I known it at the time, they +were quite common within an easy walk of my house in the New Forest. +There was some correspondence on the subject in _The Observer_, and +the following is extracted from one of the letters: + +"As none of your correspondents seem to be aware of a comparatively +recent instance, I write to say that there were enough indubitable +Will-o'-the-wisps to convince the most incredulous during the +extremely hot weather of July, 1911. + +"From July 18 to 22 I was at Thorney Hill in the New Forest, some +seven miles behind Christchurch. Owing to the abnormal drought the +bogs and bog-streams at the foot of the hill westward were all but +dry; a dense mist, however, sometimes rose from them at night. On July +19, and the three following nights, the Will-o'-the-wisps were in +great form over the bog. They were like small balls of bluish fire, +which projected themselves with hops and jerks across the most +inaccessible parts of the bog, starting always, so far as could be +told, from where a little stagnant moisture still remained. They moved +with an erratic velocity, so to speak, appearing and reappearing at +distances of several hundred yards. There wasn't the slightest doubt +of their authenticity. + +"The inhabitants of Thorney Hill, I believe, regarded these +appearances with alarm, as being, though not exactly novelties, +harbingers of much misfortune. But the drought was quite bad enough, +without having the Jack-o'-lanterns to accentuate it!" + +This instance was the more remarkable as I have never succeeded in +finding anyone, even among people who are constantly on duty in the +Forest, who could testify to having seen a Will-o'-the-wisp. + +Waterspouts are, I believe, more frequently seen at sea than on land, +but I have an account from my brother, Mr. F.E. Savory, of one he saw +many years ago in Wiltshire. He writes: + +"When I was at Manningford Bruce in 1873 or 1874, I saw a dense black +cloud travelling towards the southeast, the lower part of which became +pointed like a funnel in shape, waving about as it descended until, I +suppose, the attraction of the earth overcame the cohesion of the +cloud's vapour, and it discharged itself. I could see it looking +lighter and lighter, from the middle outwards, until it was entirely +dispersed. I heard that the water fell on the side of the Down near +Collingbourne, about five miles off, and washed some of the soil away, +but I did not see that. The weather was stormy, but I do not remember +the time of year or any other particulars." + +It would seem that a waterspout is caused by a whirlwind entering a +cloud and gathering vapour together by its rotary action into such a +heavy mass that it descends in the funnel shape described. We are all +familiar with the small whirlwinds that travel across a road in +summer, carrying the dust round and round with them; these are called +"whirly-curlies" in Worcestershire, and are regarded as a sign of fine +weather. I have sometimes seen quite a strong one crossing rows of hay +just ready to carry, cutting a clean track through each row, and +leaving the ground bare where it passed. The hay is often carried to a +great height, and sometimes dropped in an adjoining field. + +On a bright morning in summer one often sees, a little distance away, +a tremulous or flickering movement in the air, not far from the +ground, which Tennyson refers to in _In Memoriam_, as, "The landscape +winking thro' the heat"; and again in _The Princess_: + + "All the rich to come + Reels, as the golden Autumn woodland reels + Athwart the smoke of burning weeds." + +I am told that this appearance is "due to layers of air of different +degrees of refracting power, in motion, relative to one another. Air +at different temperatures will refract light differently." In +Hampshire this phenomenon is known by the pretty name of "the summer +dance." + +Since I came to the Forest I have seen two very curious and, I think, +unusual natural appearances. As I was cycling one rather dull +afternoon from Wimborne to Ringwood, I noticed a colourless rainbow, +or perhaps I should say, "mist-bow," for there was no rain, and the +sun was partially obscured. The sun was about south-west, and the bow +was north-east; it was merely a series of well-defined but colourless +segments of circles, close to each other but shaded so as to make them +distinguishable, arranged exactly like a rainbow but without a trace +of colour beyond a grey uniformity. It was on my left for several +miles, perhaps half of the total distance of nine miles between the +two towns. + +Cycling another day between Lyndhurst and Burley, I reached the east +entrance of Burley Lodge, which is on higher ground than the farm +spread out to the right in the valley. The whole valley was filled +with thick white mist, as level as a lake, so that nothing could be +seen of the fields. The setting sun was low down at the further +extremity of the valley, and the surface of the mist-lake reflected +its rays in a rosy sheen, with a track of brighter light in the +middle, stretching from the far end of the lake in a broad path almost +to where I was standing; just as we see the track of sunlight or +moonlight, sometimes, on the sea, from the shore. This phenomenon is +not uncommon when one is looking down from the top of a hill in the +sunshine, upon a valley full of mist, but I have never seen it before +from comparatively low ground, as on this occasion. + +My summers at Aldington were nearly always too busy to allow me to +take a holiday, except for a very few days, but when the urgent work +of the year was over, the harvest completed, and the hops and the +fruit picked, we always had a clear month away from home, about the +middle of October to the middle of November; and, as we found the +autumn much less advanced in the south than in the midlands, we often +spent the time on the south coast or in the Isle of Wight, and we were +nearly always favoured by fine weather. On one of these occasions, +when we were exploring the whole island on bicycles, I never once +found it necessary to carry a waterproof cape, though in the course of +this visit we rode over 600 miles. + + +[Illustration: NOTE. THE CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + + +BIRDS: PEACOCKS--A WHITE PHEASANT--ROOKS' ARITHMETIC. + + "Hail to thee, blithe spirit! + Bird thou never wert, + That from heaven or near it, + Pourest thy full heart." + --SHELLEY: _To a Skylark_. + +We read of the peacocks which Solomon's navy of Tarshish brought once +in three years with other rare and precious commodities to contribute +to the splendour of his court; and doubtless their magnificence added +a distinct feature even where so much that was beautiful was to be +seen; but, to show itself off to the best advantage, one cannot +imagine a better place for a peacock than a grey old English home, +round whose mellow stone walls time is lingering lovingly. The touch +of brilliant life beside the appeal of the venerable past adds +perfection to the picture. I have always had an immense admiration for +peacocks, and soon after I came to Aldington I bought a pair. The cock +we named Gabriel Junks, after the famous bird in one of Scrutator's +books; he was a grand presence, and loved to display the huge fan of +his gorgeously-eyed tail, quivering his rattling quills in all the +glory of its greens and blues, and cinnamon-coloured wing feathers, on +the little piece of lawn under the chestnut trees in front of the +Manor. + +He learned to come to the window every morning at breakfast-time for a +piece of bread-and-butter, and if the window was closed he would rap +impatiently upon it with his beak. He roosted in the orchard just +across the road on the trunk of an ancient leaning apple-tree. One +night Bell heard a terrible fluttering, and looking out saw a fox +making off with the peacock; he shouted and the fox dropped the +peacock and bolted. Gabriel was not hurt, but sadly ruffled inwardly +and outwardly, though, next day, he was quite happy and apparently +unconscious of his narrow escape. But alas! some months later Reynard +paid another visit, and poor Gabriel was never seen again. Some years +after we bought another pair, not nearly so tame as the first, and +sometimes flying on to the cottage roofs and scraping holes in the +thatch in which to bask in the sun. The villagers complained that the +birds sat under their black currant bushes, and devoured the currants +as fast as they ripened! We could not keep them within bounds, and +later sold them to St. John's College, Oxford, where we saw them soon +afterwards in good plumage, and exactly in keeping with their +beautiful surroundings. + +One of my neighbours appeared to find these birds a special +infliction, and complained of the invasion of his premises by "them +paycocks." The word "pea" is always rendered "pay" in Worcestershire, +and, like "tay" for "tea," is probably the old correct pronunciation. +I lately saw a notice on some tumble-down premises near Southampton, +"Pay and bane stiks for sale." Another notice, not too happily +composed, is to be seen at a Forest village; after the owner's name, +"Carpenter, builder and undertaker--_repairs neatly executed_." + +The neighbour referred to was exercised in his mind as to my position +in various unwelcome parochial offices, but I was completely mystified +when he told me that he had read in history of a King Alfred, but had +never heard of a King Arthur. I did not grasp the force of his remark, +possibly because King Arthur was a familiar character to me, until I +was nearly at my own door, when it dawned upon me to my intense +enjoyment. If the reader fails, like me, to see the point, let him +turn to the title-page of this book, and read the name of the writer. + +The only real objection to peacocks, under ordinary conditions, is the +discordance of their cries, especially in thundery weather, when they +scream in answer to every thunder-clap. Cock pheasants, relatives of +the peacock, crow loudly at any unusual noise; and I have known them +expostulate at the report of a gun; they took flight, after running to +a safe distance, and their crow appeared to be in the nature of a +challenge or defiance, just as a barn-door cock will exult if you give +him the idea that he has driven you away. + +When the vessel which carried the coffin of Queen Victoria was +crossing the Solent, in 1901, some very heavy salutes were fired from +the battleships, and, the day being still and the air clear, the +detonations carried to an immense distance. They were distinctly heard +at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, only fourteen miles from Aldington and a +distance of nearly one hundred miles from the guns, in a direct line. +The reports were so loud at Woodstock, near Oxford, that the pheasants +began crowing in the Blenheim preserves. + +At Alton there were some extensive woods and coppices on the farm, +which were favourite breeding-places for pheasants, being dry and +sunny. Some months before October 1, when pheasant shooting begins, a +white pheasant was seen, and although he disappeared for a time, he +fell eventually to the gun of the tenant. He was a beautiful bird, and +was considered worth stuffing as a rarity. Albinism is not uncommon in +the blackbird; I have seen two partial instances lately; one was +constantly visible in my garden and meadows, with head nearly all +white, and the other I saw in the public garden at Bournemouth, with +the peculiarity still more developed. A white martin, or swallow, came +into the house of a friend near Aldington, and was regarded as an +unfavourable omen. Melanism, the opposite of albinism, is rarer, and +the only instance I have seen was that of a black bullfinch at +Aldington; it had evidently been mobbed as a stranger by other birds +of its kind, as it was injured and nearly dead when captured. I had +the specimen stuffed as a curiosity, though I am not fond of stuffed +birds. It is said that hemp-seed, if given in undue quantities to cage +bullfinches, will produce the black colour, even upon a bird of quite +natural plumage originally, and a case of the kind is mentioned by +Gilbert White. + +Aldington, with its quiet apple orchards and the "island" and +shrubberies below my garden, was a happy refuge for birds of all +kinds, and the old pollard-willow heads a favourite nesting-place. +Worcestershire people have some very curious names for birds, and some +of these are also heard in Hampshire and Dorset. The green woodpecker +is the "stock-eagle," "ekal," or "hickle," both in Worcestershire and +Hampshire, and the word survives too in "Hickle Brook" in the Forest, +and in "Hickle Street," a part of Buckle Street in Worcestershire. As +a boy I once marked a green woodpecker into one of the round holes we +see quite newly cut by the bird in an oak; getting a butterfly net I +clapped it over the hole, caught the bird, took it home and placed it +in a wicker cage. Then, returning to the tree with a chisel and +mallet, I cut a hole about a foot below the entrance to the nest, only +to find young birds instead of the eggs for which I had hoped. I went +home to see how my captive was getting on; she was gone, and her +method of escape was plain, one or two of the wicker bars being neatly +cut through. I had forgotten the power of "stocking" of a +"stock-eagle," for that is the meaning of the prefix in the name. + +The laughing cry of the green woodpecker, or "yaffle," as the bird is +by onomatopoeia called in some parts, is regarded as a sign of rain. I +doubt whether it should be always so interpreted, for I know it is +sometimes a sign of distress or call for help, having heard it from +one in full flight from a pursuing hawk. Other curious local names of +birds in Worcestershire are "Blue Isaac" for hedge sparrow, +"mumruffin" for long-tailed tit, "maggot" for magpie, and the heron is +always called "bittern" (really quite a distinct bird). There are +innumerable rhymes as to the signification of numbers where magpies +are concerned, but the most complete I have heard runs thus: + + "One's joy, two's grief, + Three's marriage, four's death, + Five's heaven, six is hell, + Seven's the devil his own sel'." + +Other rhymes make "one" an unlucky number, and there are many people +in Worcestershire who never see a solitary magpie without touching +their hats to avert the omen, and convert it to one of good-luck; as a +man once said to me, "It is as well not to lose a chance." + +The kingfisher, I suppose the most beautiful of British birds, was, +with all my brooks, a common bird at Aldington. Its steady flight, +following the course of a stream, and its brilliant colouring make it +very conspicuous, its turquoise blue varying to dark green, and its +orange breast flashing in the sun. I found a nest in a water-rat's old +hole, with six very transparent white eggs, deriving a rosy tint from +the yolk, almost visible, within the shell. The hole had an entrance +above the bank, descended vertically, turned at a right angle where +the nest, merely a layer of small fish-bones, was placed, and ended +horizontally on the side of the bank. I once saw six young kingfishers +sitting side by side on a dead branch, close together, evidently just +out of the nest. And I was fortunate in seeing a kingfisher dart upon +the water, hover for an instant like a hawk-moth over honeysuckle, +and, having caught a small gudgeon, fly away with it in its beak. +They, like the martin, always perch on leafless wood, so that the +leaves shall not impede their flight when pouncing upon a fish, and no +doubt this is the reason they sometimes perch on the top joint of the +rod of a hidden fisherman. + +The nuthatch, called here the "mud-dauber," from its habit of +narrowing the hole of a starling's old nest, with mud, for its own use +as a nesting-place, is a more common bird in the Forest than in +Worcestershire. It is a provident bird, firmly wedging hazel nuts in +the autumn into crevices of the Scots-fir, for a winter store, Bewick +mentions that it uses these crevices as vices, to hold the nut +securely, while it cracks it; but he does not recognize the fact that +they have been stored long previously. I have seen a great number of +nuts so stored and quite sound. + +Bewick, by the way, who wrote his _History of British Birds_ in 1797, +presents in one of his inimitable "tailpiece" wood-cuts a prevision of +the aeroplane. The picture shows the airman seated in a winged car, +guiding with reins thirteen harnessed herons as the motive power, and +mounting upwards, apparently very near the moon. If he can see the +modern interpretation of his dream he must be pleasantly surprised. +Bewick's woodcock is one of the most beautiful portraits in the book: +the accurate detail of the feather markings of the wings and back and +the softer tone of the breast are as nearly perfection as possible. A +woodcock visited Aldington in one of the very severe winters but +managed to elude all pursuers. It has been said, and also +contradicted, that the woodcock when rising from the ground uses its +long bill as a lever to assist its starting, just as an oarsman pushes +off from the bank with a boat-hook or oar; I myself have seen one +rising from a bare and marshy place, and the position of its bill +certainly gave me the impression that the idea was well founded. + +The woodcock often breeds in the south of England, but is usually a +migrating bird, arriving during the first moon in November; it is not +difficult to shoot when it first rises, but when steam is really up +and it is zig-zagging between the branches of an oak, it takes a good +shot to make sure of it. I shall never forget the first woodcock I +shot as a boy; it was a thick misty day in November, I fired, and +though I felt certain I had not missed, the smoke hung and the air was +too thick to see, and, after a long search, I left the wood and was +going home when our old spaniel, Flush, turned his head to examine +something in a deep cart rut. Following the direction of his eyes, I +saw my woodcock; it must have flown 100 yards or more after I fired. I +was still more pleased with the last shot I fired in our old Surrey +covers at a woodcock going like an express train--and faster, for they +are said to fly at the rate of 150 miles an hour--with all his tricks, +through thick branches in the adjoining cover, where he fell at least +65 yards from where I stood. A friend of mine had the good-fortune to +see an old woodcock, which had evidently bred in his woods, flying, +followed by five or six young ones; he said it was one of the +prettiest bits of natural history he had ever seen. + + "If a woodcock had a partridge's breast + He'd be the best bird that ever was dressed; + If a partridge had a woodcock's thigh + He'd be the best bird that ever did fly." + +is a very old description, and fairly divides the honours between the +two birds. + +The hawfinch is very easily recognized by its distinct and beautiful +colouring; it is a shy bird, and though it bred regularly at +Aldington, we rarely saw it. It is commoner here, and is sometimes +very destructive, its powerful beak making havoc with the +"marrowfats"; but, though I am partial to green peas of this +description, I would sooner suffer some damage than have the +hawfinches shot. + +In 1918 the cuckoos were exceedingly numerous here, and round my house +they were calling all day long. Owing to the terrible winter and early +spring months of the previous year, so many of the insectivorous birds +had been destroyed, that the caterpillars had escaped, and were more +numerous than ever in the following spring. The oaks in places were +completely stripped of their foliage by the larvae of _Tortrix +viridana_, almost as soon as the leaves were out. The cuckoos +discovered them, but were not in sufficient numbers to keep them down, +and it was midsummer before the trees recovered. I have referred to +the damage in my plum orchard at Aldington from the attack of the +larvae of the winter-moth; the damage is not confined to the actual +year of its occurrence, the crop suffers the following year owing to +the previous defoliation of the tree, which is weakened and is unable +to mature healthy fruit buds. At Aldington, in a hot summer, the +cuckoos used to call nearly all night, and I have heard them when it +was quite dark. + +For some years, until 1918, goldfinches were quite common in Hampshire +and Dorsetshire. I have seen a flock of over forty together. I had +seven nests on my premises here one summer; they go on breeding very +late, and I have found their nests with young birds half-fledged while +summer-pruning apple trees in August. They come into my garden close +to the windows in May, after the ripening seeds of the myosotis +(forget-me-not) in the spring-bedding. I never remember seeing a +goldfinch at Aldington, which should show that the thistles were well +under control, for the seed is a great attraction. One often hears the +practice of allowing thistles to run to seed condemned as criminal, +for everybody knows that each thistle-down, carried by the wind, +contains a seed, and that the attachment of a light structure of +plumes is one of Nature's methods of ensuring dissemination. But, in +Worcestershire, it is always asserted that thistle seed will not +germinate--I am referring to _Cnicus arvensis_--and it is said that a +prize of L50 offered for a seedling thistle remains unclaimed to this +day. I failed, myself, in trying to obtain young plants from seeds +sown in a flower-pot, and I have never seen a seedling in all the +thousands of miles I must have walked over young cornfields when my +men were hoeing. + +I have heard an interesting story about rooks which were causing a +farmer much damage in a field newly sown with peas. He erected a small +shelter of hurdles, from which to shoot them, and for a time the +shelter was sufficient to scare them, until they got used to it; but, +when he entered it with his gun, they would not come near. Thinking to +deceive their sentinel, watching from a tree, he took a companion to +the shelter, who remained for a time and then left, but still no rooks +came near. The farmer then took two companions, and presently sent +them both away. The arithmetic was too much for the rooks, and the +scheme succeeded. He concluded that their powers of enumeration were +limited to counting "two," and that "three" was beyond them. + +Nightingales are scarce in the Forest; they do not like the solitude +of the great woods, apparently preferring to inhabit roadsides and +places where people and traffic are constantly passing. They are +specially abundant at the foot of the Cotswolds, and it is a treat to +cycle steadily along the road between Broadway and Weston Subedge on a +summer evening, where you no sooner lose the liquid notes of one, than +you enter the territory of another, so continuous is the song for +miles together. + +In severe winters wood-pigeons did much damage at Aldington to young +clover a few inches high; they roosted in "the island" adjoining my +garden. When they first descended they alighted in the wide-spreading +branches of the leafless black poplars, where they could see all +round, and reconnoitre the position; then, if all was quiet, in about +ten minutes they took to the shelter of the fir trees for the night +with much fluttering and beating of wings against the thick branches. +They devour the acorns in the Forest very greedily in the autumn, and +I have seen one with crop so full that on my approach it could only +with difficulty fly away to a short distance. I found it near a small +pond where, apparently, it had been drinking, and the acorns had +expanded to an inconvenient extent. + +The golden-crested wren was a common bird here before the severe +winter of 1916-1917, but it has since become comparatively rare; it is +the smallest of British birds, and could often be seen in the hedges +exploring every twig and crevice for insects, and it was a great +pleasure to watch the nimble movements of such a sweet little fairy. +Its first cousin, the fire-crest, which is almost its exact +counterpart, except for the flame-coloured crest, is much rarer; and I +only remember seeing one specimen, to which with great circumspection +I managed to approach quite closely, in the wood near my house. + +One morning, at Aldington, the gardener came in to say there was a +hawk in the greenhouse near the rickyard; we found a pane of glass +broken, where it had unintentionally entered in pursuit of a sparrow; +the hawk was uninjured, and flew away quite unconcernedly on the +opening of the door. Another hawk, here in Burley, was found dead near +my drawing-room bow-window. It had dashed itself against a pane of +thick plate-glass while in pursuit of a starling, I think; seeing the +light through the bow, it had not recognized the glass, and must have +collided with it in the act of swooping. I have several times seen +hawks descend like a flash from a tree, and select an unlucky starling +from a flock; one blow on the head settled the victim before I could +reach the spot, but sometimes the hawk had to leave its prize behind +it. + +I was watching a number of young chicks feeding outside the coops +containing the mother hens, when there suddenly arose a great +disturbance, and a hawk, which had pounced upon a chick, was seen +flying away with it in its talons. Its flight was impeded by the +weight of the chicken, and we gave chase shouting. Flying very low it +carried its prey to the further side of the meadow, but, seeing that +it could not get quickly through the trees there, it dropped the +chicken and escaped; we picked up the poor frightened infant, which +was not injured, and restored it to a perturbed but joyful mother. "As +yaller as a kite's claw," is a simile one hears in the country, and it +is common to both Hampshire and Worcestershire. + +I never saw the wheatear in Worcestershire, but here I notice several +pairs on the moors in summer. They were once very plentiful on the +Sussex Downs and seaside cliffs, and as a boy walking from my first +school at Rottingdean to visit my people at Brighton, from Saturday to +Sunday night, I have passed hundreds of traps consisting of +rectangular holes cut in the turf, having horsehair nooses inside, set +by the shepherds who took thousands of wheatears to the poulterers' +shops in the town. They were then considered a great delicacy. Other +professional bird-catchers operated with large clap-nets, and a string +attached in the hands of the catcher some distance away. When they +were after larks a revolving mirror, flashing in the sun, was +considered very attractive; I suppose the birds approached from +motives of curiosity.[3] Many thousands were caught for the London and +Brighton markets for lark pies and puddings, a wicked bathos, when we +remember Wordsworth's lines: + + "There is madness about thee, and joy divine + In that song of thine." + +One severe winter an immense flock of golden plovers haunted my land +and neighbouring farms for some weeks, but they were exceedingly shy, +and being perfect strangers, they were difficult to identify, until I +brought one down by a very long shot, and we could see what a +beautiful bird it was. We could always tell when really severe winter +weather was coming, by the flocks of wild geese that passed overhead +in V-shaped formation. They were said to be leaving the mouth of the +Humber and the East Coast for the warmer shores of the Bristol +Channel, evidently quite aware that the latter, within the influence +of the Gulf Stream, were more desirable as winter-quarters. Evesham is +in the direct line between the two places, and we often heard them +calling at night as they passed. In the early spring when the severe +weather was-over they returned by the same route. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +PETS: SUSIE--COCKY--TRUMP--CHIPS--WENDY--TAFFY. + + "The heart is hard in nature and unfit + For human fellowship, as being void + Of sympathy, and therefore dead alike + To love and friendship both, that is not pleased + With sight of animals enjoying life, + Nor feels their happiness augment his own." + --COWPER. + +There are many stories of the affection of the domestic goose for man, +and I knew of one which was very fond of a friend of mine. The goose +followed him like a dog, and would come with him on to the lawn where +we were playing tennis, and sitting close beside him on a garden seat +with great dignity would apparently watch the game with interest. My +friend was fond of unusual pets; he had a tame hedgehog, for whom he +made a most comfortable house with living-room downstairs and sleeping +apartment on the first floor. His pet's name was Jacob, suggested I +think by the ladder which night and morning he used for ascending to +or descending from his bedroom. Hedgehogs have a bad character as +robbers of partridges' nests, and in our old parish accounts, under +the name of "urchins," we find entries of payments for their +destruction at the rate of 4d. apiece. + +My younger daughter had a tame duck, Susie by name, who gravely +waddled behind her round the garden. In summer at tea-time Susie would +much enjoy the company under the wych-elm on the lawn, and took her +"dish of tea" out of the saucer in the antique and orthodox manner. +Another amusing pet was a jackdaw who had an outdoor residence, though +often allowed to be loose. He acquired an exact imitation of my old +gardener's chronic cough, and enjoyed the exhibition of his +achievement when the old man was working near the cage, somewhat to +the man's annoyance. He was full of mischief, and was not allowed in +the house; but he once got in at my study window, picked out every +sheet of notepaper from my stationery case, and scattered them in all +directions. + +A still more accomplished mimic, a lemon-crested cockatoo, reproduced +the voices of little hungry pigs. He lived indoors on a stand over a +tray, with a chain round one leg, and was very clever at mounting and +descending by the combined use of beak and claws, without complicating +himself with his chain. He got loose one day, and ascended one of the +chestnut trees, and a volunteer went up after him by a ladder. Cocky +resented his interference, flew at him and bit his finger to the bone. +His beak was a very powerful weapon, and, until I made him a new tray +with a zinc-covered ledge, he demolished any unprotected wood or even +furniture within reach. + +This spring we had a blackbird's nest in some ivy near the house, and +many times each day the cock bird came to watch over his household, +and discourse sweet music from a neighbouring tree. A pair of jays +however appeared, and seemed too much interested in the nest for the +parents' comfort, approaching so near one morning that first the cock +blackbird, and then the hen attacked them; and though they returned +again during the day, evidently bent on mischief, the courageous +parents eventually drove them from the field, and they were seen no +more. Owing to the cutting of great fir woods in the Forest for timber +supplies for the war, jays have become much more common here than +formerly, and seem to have migrated from their former haunts and taken +to the beeches and oaks in the undisturbed woods. + +Birds as a rule are not well represented in books, though the drawing +is more correct than the colouring. Examine Randolph Caldecott's _Sing +a Song for Sixpence_ for a really clever sketch of the four and twenty +blackbirds, every one a characteristic likeness, and a different +attitude; and look at his rookery in _Bracebridge Hall_, where, in +three sketches he shows some equally exact rooks. + +I always walked when on my farming rounds, for one of the first +lessons I learned at Alton was that for that purpose "one walk is +better than three rides." My predecessor being a hunting man and fond +of horses, generally rode, but for careful observation, especially in +the matter of plant diseases, one wants to "potter about" with a +magnifying glass sometimes, and of course in entomology and +ornithology there is no room for a horse. One of the remarks made by +my men about me on my arrival was, "His mother larned him to walk," +with quite a note of admiration to emphasize it. It is really +remarkable how farmers and country people scorn the idea of walking +either for pleasure or business, if "a lift" can be had. I was at +Cheltenham with a brother, and finding we had done our business in +good time, we decided to walk to the next station--Cleeve--instead of +waiting for the train at Cheltenham. We asked a native the way, who +replied with great contempt, "Cleeve station? Oh, I wouldn't walk to +Cleeve to save tuppence!" + +One of our ventures in the way of pets was a well-bred poodle; he was +very amiable, handsome, and clever, but exceedingly mischievous. He +thought it great fun to pull up neatly written and carefully disposed +garden labels and carry them away to the lawn, for which, though a +nuisance, he was forgiven; but his next achievement was a more serious +matter. Finding his way about the village he would take advantage of +an open door to explore the cottage larders and when a chance offered, +would make off with half a pound of butter or a cherished piece of +meat and bring his plunder to my house in triumph. He was succeeded by +"Trump," a Dandie Dinmont, a very charming dog with a delightful +disposition, and perfectly honest until my elder daughter acquired a +fox terrier, "Chips," well-bred but highly nervous. Chips was a born +sportsman and most useful so long as he confined his activities to +rats and was busy when the thrashing-machine was at work, but when he +took to corrupting Trump's morals he required watching. Trump would be +lying quietly in the house or garden as good as possible, when the +insinuating tempter would find him, whisper a few words in his ear, +and off they went together. It was plainly an invitation, and later a +dead duckling or chicken would show where they had spent their time. +Trump became as bad as Chips and had to be given away. Chips was very +sensitive to discordant sounds, he must have had a musical ear; his +chief aversion was the sound of a gong, the beater for which was too +hard and, unless very carefully manipulated, produced a jangle. My +hall was paved with hexagonal stone sections called "quarries," which +appeared to intensify the discordance. Chips felt it keenly, and would +stand quite rigid for some minutes until the last reverberation and +its effect had passed off. He was uncertain in temper and disliked +some of the villagers. An old man complained that he had been bitten, +and told me with great feeling, "Folks say that if ever the dog goes +mad, I shall go mad too." I had much difficulty in appeasing him and +assuring him that there was no truth in the statement. + +How shall I do justice to the infinite variety of "Wendy," the dainty +little Chinese princess who now rules my household? There are people +who cannot see in an old Worcester tea-cup and saucer the +eighteenth-century beauty, fastidiously sipping, what she called in +the same language as the Aldington cottager of to-day, her dish of +"tay." There are people who regard with indifference an ancient chair, +except as an object to be sat upon, and who fail to realize its +historical charm, or even the credit due to the maker of a piece of +furniture that has survived two hundred and fifty spring cleanings. + +And there are people who can see nothing in the Pekingese, nothing of +the distinction and "the claims of long descent," nothing of the +possibilities of transmigration, or of present ever-changing and human +moods. Such are the people who suppose that the "dulness of the +country," and the attraction of the shams and inanities of the picture +palace induced the starving agricultural labourer willingly to +exchange the blue vault of heaven for the leaden pall of London fogs, +cool green pastures for the scorching pavement, and the fragrant +shelter of the hedgerow blossoms for the stifling slum and the crowded +factory. + +There is nothing of the democrat about Wendy; watch her elevate an +already tip-tilted nose at displeasing food, or a tainted dish, and +notice her look of abject contempt for the giver as she turns away in +disgust. No lover of the Pekingese should be without a charming little +book _Some Pekingese Pets_ by M.N. Daniel, with delightful sketches by +the author, in which we are told that, "Until the year, 1860, so far +as is known, no 'Foreign Devil' had ever seen one of these Imperial +Lion Dogs. In that year, however, the sacking of the Imperial Palace +at Pekin took place, and amongst the treasures looted and brought to +England were five little Lion or Sun Dogs." + +The author also says: "It is certain that the same type of Lion Dog as +our Western Pekingese must have existed in China for at least a +thousand years: that they were regarded as sacred or semi-sacred is +proved by the Idols and Kylons (many of them known to be at least a +thousand years old) representing the same type of Lion Dog." I have an +old Nankin blue teapot, the lid of which is surmounted by one of these +Kylons. + +I can only describe Wendy's moods and characteristics by giving a bare +catalogue: she is mirthful, hopeful, playful, despairing, bored, +defiant, roguish, cunning, penitent, sensitive, aggressive, offended, +reproachful, angry, pleased, trustful, loving, disobedient, +determined, puzzled, faithful, naughty, dignified, impudent, proud, +luxurious, fearless, disappointed, docile, fierce, independent, +mischievous; and she often illustrates the rhyme: + + "The dog will come when he's called, + And the cat will stay away, + But the Pekingese will do as he please + Whatever you do or say." + +Wendy is cat-like in some of her habits, prefers fish to meat, sleeps +all day in wet weather but is lively towards night, is very particular +about her toilet and washes her face with moistened paws passed over +her ears. She is very sensitive to the weather, loves the sun, lying +stretched at full length on the hot gravel so that she can enjoy the +comforting warmth to her little body. She is wretched in a +thunderstorm, shivering and taking refuge beneath a table or sofa; +then she comes to me for sympathy, and lies on my knee, covered with a +rug or a newspaper, but after a bad storm she is not herself for many +hours. Anyone who does not know her may think the moods I have +detailed an impossible category, but there is not one which we have +not personally witnessed again and again, and no one can see her +loving caresses of my wife without being assured of the soul that +animates her mind and body. + +Wendy is never allowed to "sit in damp clothes," or even with feet wet +with rain or dew, and looks very reproachful if not attended to at +once with a rough towel on coming indoors. "Why _don't_ you dry me?" +is exactly the expression her looks convey. She has a lined basket, on +four short legs to keep her from draughts when sleeping, but she is +often uneasy alone at night, evidently "seeing things," and, in +Worcestershire language, finding it "unked," so she is now always +allowed a night-light. + +It is said that the dog's habit of turning round several times before +settling to sleep is a survival from remote ages when they made +themselves a comfortable bed by smoothing down the grass around them, +but I am quite sure that Wendy does the same thing to get her coat +unruffled, and in the best condition to protect her from draughts. She +likes to lie curled up into a circle, so that her hind paws may come +under her chin for warmth, and support her head, as her neck is so +short that without a pillow of some sort she could not rest in +comfort; as an alternative, she will sometimes arrange the rug in her +sleeping basket to act in the same way. + +We had various cobs and ponies from time to time; quite a good pony +could be bought at six months old for about L12, and one of the best +we had was Taffy, from a drove of Welsh. Returning from Evesham +Station with my man we passed a labourer with something in a hamper on +his shoulder that rattled, just as we reached the Aldington turning; +Taffy started, swerved across the road in the narrowest part, and +jumped through the hedge, taking cart and all; we found ourselves in a +wheat-field, but were not overturned, and reached a gate in safety +none the worse. + +On an old May Day (May 12) I was at Bretforton Manor playing tennis +and shooting rooks. About 10.30 p.m. the cart and Taffy were brought +round; I had all my things in and was about to mount when, the pony +fidgeting to be off, my friend's groom caught at the rein, but he had +omitted to buckle it on one side of the bit. In an instant pony and +trap had disappeared, and the man was lying in the drive with a broken +leg. We had to carry him home on a door, and then went in search of +the pony, expecting every moment to find it and the trap in a ditch; +about half a mile from Aldington we met my own man who had come in +search of my remains. He told us that the pony and trap were quite +safe and uninjured. The clever animal had trotted the whole distance, +over two miles, with the reins dragging behind him, taken the turning +from the highroad, and again at my gate, and pulled up in front of the +house, where someone passing saw him and brought my man out to the +rescue. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + + +BUTTERFLIES--MOTHS--WASPS. + + "How like a rainbow, sparkling as a dewdrop, + Glittering as gold, and lively as a swallow, + Each left his grave-shroud and in rapture winged him + Up to the heavens." + --ANON. + +I have always been fascinated by the beauty of butterflies and moths, +and I think I began collecting when I was about eleven, as I remember +having a net when I was at school at Rottingdean. My first exciting +capture was a small tortoiseshell, and I was much disappointed when I +discovered that it was quite a common insect. In 1917 some nettles +here were black with the larvae of this species, but I think they must +have been nearly all visited by the ichneumons, which pierce the skin, +laying their eggs in the living body of the larva, as the butterflies +were not specially common later. I was, however, fortunate in +identifying a specimen of the curious variety figured in Newman's +_British Butterflies_, variety 2, from one in Mr. Bond's collection; +it has a dark band crossing the middle of the upper wings, but, though +interesting, it is not so handsome as the type. I did not catch this +specimen, as I do not like killing butterflies now, but I had ample +leisure to observe it quite closely on the haulm of potatoes. It was +decidedly smaller than the type. + +The old garden at Aldington in the repose of a June evening was a +place of fragrant joy from honeysuckle on poles and arches, and just +as the light was fading the huge privet hawk-moths, with quivering +wings and extended probosces, used to sip the honey from the long +blossoms. I could catch them in a net, but these specimens were nearly +all damaged from their energetic flight among the flowers, and perfect +ones are easy to rear from the larvae, feeding in autumn on privet in +the hedges. + +Later in the summer the Ghost Swift appeared about twilight, the white +colour of the male making it very conspicuous. Twilight at Aldington +is called "owl light," and moths of all kinds are "bob-owlets," from +their uneven flight when trying to evade the owls in pursuit. We often +see these birds "hawking" at nightfall in my meadows round the edge of +the Forest after moths. + +The martagon lily flourished in the Aldington garden, and when they +were blooming the overpowering scent was particularly attractive to +moths of the _Plusia_ genus, including the Burnished Brass, the Golden +Y, and the Beautiful Golden Y, all exhibiting very distinctive +markings of burnished gold; and other _Noctuae_ in great variety. The +latter are best taken by "sugaring"--painting patches of mixed beer +and sugar on a series of tree trunks, and making several rounds at +twilight with a lantern and a cyanide bottle. We had a sugaring range +of about seventy pollard withies by the brook side, and being well +sheltered, it was such a favourite place for moths, that it was often +difficult to select from each patch, swarming with sixty or seventy +specimens, those really worth taking. At sugaring moths are found in a +locality where they are never seen at other times, and rarities occur +quite unexpectedly. I took some specimens of _Cymatophora ocularis_ +(figure of 80). Newman says: "It is always esteemed a rarity," and +mentions Worcester as a locality. _Mamestra abjecta_ was quite a +common catch, of which Newman writes: + + "It seems to be very local, and so imperfectly known that + the recorded habitats must be received with great doubt; it + is certainly abundant on the banks of the Thames, near + Gravesend, and also on the Irish coast, near Waterford." + +The marks of sugaring remain on tree trunks for many years. I lately +saw the faint remains on about sixty trees in Set Thorns plantation, +in the Forest, which a friend and I painted on nearly forty years ago. +This friend was fortunate in capturing the black variety of the White +Admiral, in which the white markings are entirely absent on the upper +side; and, thirty years later, his son took another near Burley. The +son also caught a Camberwell Beauty on one of his sugared patches in +the day-time. I believe this to be the only recorded instance of the +occurrence of this rare and beautiful insect in the Forest. + +The Hornet Clearwing (_Sesia Apiformis_) is a very interesting moth, +and it was common at Aldington; the larva feeds on the wood of the +black poplar. The colouring of the moth so resembles the hornet, that +at first sight it is easily mistaken for the latter. It is an +excellent example of "mimicry," whereby a harmless insect acquires the +distinctive appearance of a harmful one, and so secures immunity from +the attacks of its natural enemies. + +The larva of the Death's Head was not uncommon at Aldington and Badsey +on potatoes; I had a standing offer of threepence each for any that +the village children could bring me. These large caterpillars require +very careful handling, and I fear the children were not gentle enough +with them, as I only had one perfect specimen moth from all the larvae +they brought. + +One of my hop-pickers captured and presented me with a very fine +specimen of the Convolvulus Hawk-moth at Aldington; they were +generally comparatively common that year (1901) and a collector took +no less than seventeen in a few days in the public garden at +Bournemouth. + +The Clouded Yellow butterfly, whose appearance is very capricious, +occurred one summer in Worcestershire in considerable numbers; it is +strong on the wing and could easily reach the Midlands in fine weather +from the south of England, where it is more often seen. Those I saw +were flying high over clover fields, apparently in a hurry to get +further north-west. + +The Marbled White is a somewhat local butterfly; there was a spot +along the Terrace on Cleeve Hill, near North Littleton and Cleeve +Prior, where, at the proper time, this insect was plentiful, but I +never saw it anywhere else in the neighbourhood. + +One of the entomological prizes of the New Forest is the Purple +Emperor; it is impossible to do justice to the wonderful sheen of its +powerful wings. It inhabits the tops of lofty oaks, but does not +disdain to come down for a drink of water, sometimes from a muddy +pool, or even to feast on dead vermin which the keepers have +destroyed. + +The Comma, so called from the C-mark on the under side of the hind +wings, is fairly plentiful in Worcestershire and Herefordshire in the +hop-districts, for the hop is its food plant; but it is curious that, +with the abundance of hops in Kent, Sussex, and Hants, it is quite a +rare insect in the south of England. The ragged edge of its hind wings +is probably an arrangement to baffle birds in pursuit, offering more +difficulty to securing a sure hold than is afforded by the even margin +of the hind wings of most butterflies. + +In some years wasps were exceedingly troublesome at Aldington, and +fruit picking became a hazardous business. One of my men ploughed up a +nest in an open field, and was badly stung, though the horses, being +further from the nest when turned up, escaped. It is quite necessary +to destroy any nests on or near land where fruit is grown, as the +insects increase in numbers at a surprising rate, and they travel +great distances after food for the grubs. I had an instructive walk +over the fruit farm of my son-in-law, Mr. C.S. Martin, of Dunnington +Heath, near Alcester, with his cousin, Mr. William Martin, who is +extraordinarily clever at locating the nests. He quickly recognizes a +line of flight in which numbers of wasps can be seen going backwards +and forwards, in a well-defined cross-country track, follows it up and +locates the nest a long distance from where he first perceived the +line. In this way during our walk he found a dozen or more nests. In +the evening, when the inmates were at home, they were treated with a +strong solution of cyanide of potassium to destroy the winged insects; +and the next day the nests were dug out and the grubs destroyed, which +otherwise would become perfect wasps. + +Lately it has become a custom to pay a half-penny each for all queen +wasps in the spring, but Mr. C.S. Martin, who had many years' +experience on the fruit plantations of the Toddington Orchard Company, +extending to about 700 acres, as well as on his own plantations at +Dunnington, writes to me as follows on the subject: + + "To catch the queens in the spring is to my mind a waste of + time, and I discontinued paying for their capture, as the + number visible in the spring appeared to bear no relation to + the resulting summer nests. In the first place, the number + of queens in spring is always greatly in excess of the + numbers of nests, and to attempt to catch all the queens is + a hopeless job. As a rule, I don't think one per cent, ever + gets as far as a nest unless the weather conditions are very + favourable. Heavy rain, when the broods begin, may easily + wipe out 99 per cent., and only those on a dry bank will + survive. To pay a halfpenny per queen may be equivalent to + the payment of four and twopence per nest!" + +Referring to the payment of school-children for the destruction of +white butterflies he writes: + + "The white butterfly is extraordinarily prolific, and to + catch a few in the garden is a complete waste of time. + Again, weather conditions are largely responsible for the + occurrence of a bad attack, and the only possible time to + reduce the plague is in the caterpillar stage, with + hellebore powder, or one of the proprietary remedies, + applied to the young plants. Scientists recommend the + catching of queen wasps, and also butterflies, but I regard + this as a case where science is not strictly practical." + +There is, of course, the danger, too, that children will not recognize +the difference between the female of the Orange Tip butterfly, which +is practically colourless, and the cabbage whites, and it would be +worse than a crime to destroy so joyous and welcome a creature, whose +advent is one of the pleasantest signs that summer is nigh at hand. I +have watched these fairy sprites dancing along the hedge sides at +Aldington year by year, and in May they were extraordinarily abundant +here, happily coursing round and round my meadow, and chasing each +other in the sunshine. The Orange Tip is quite innocent of designs +upon the homely cabbage, the food-plant of the caterpillar being +_Cardamine pratensis_ (the cuckoo flower), which Shakespeare speaks of +so prettily in the lines: + + "When daisies pied and violets blue, + And lady-smocks all silver-white." + +Possibly Hood was thinking of the Orange Tip when he wrote the lines +that seem so well suited to them: + + "These be the pretty genii of the flowers + Daintily fed with honey and pure dew." + +A story is told of an undergraduate who united the hind wings of a +butterfly to the body and fore wings of one of a different species, +and, thinking to puzzle Professor Westwood, then the entomological +authority at Oxford, asked if the Professor could tell him "what kind +of a bug" it was. "Yes," was the immediate reply--"a humbug!" + +One of my schoolfellows, a boy about eleven, at Rottingdean school, +and quite a novice at butterfly collecting, met a professional +"naturalist" on the Warren at Folkestone, who inquired what he had +taken. "Only a few whites," said the boy. The man looked at them and, +eventually, they negotiated an exchange, the boy accepting three or +four others for an equal number of the whites. On reaching home he +found that he had parted with specimens of the rare Bath White, +_Pieris daplidice_, for some quite common butterflies. The Bath White +is not recognized as a British species, Newman supposing the specimens +taken in this country to have been blown over or migrated from the +northern coast of France, as they have been rarely met with away from +the shores of Kent and Sussex. + +It is surprising to find so many people who seem unable to exercise +their powers of observation to the extent of noticing the butterflies +they daily pass in the garden, or along the roads. One would expect +that the marvellous colouring of even our common butterflies would +arrest attention, and that interest in the names and life-history +would follow. + +In June in the Forest the rather alarming stag-beetle is to be seen on +the wing on a warm evening; though really harmless, its size and habit +of buzzing round frightens people who are not acquainted with its +ways. They are called locally, "pinch-bucks," as their horns resemble +the antlers of a buck, and they can nip quite hard by pressing them +together. I once saw a fight between a stag-beetle and a toad, it had +evidently been proceeding for some time as both combatants were +exhausted, but neither had gained any special advantage. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + + +CYCLING--PAGEANTS OF THE ROADS--ROADSIDE CREATURES--HARMONIOUS +BUILDING--COLLECTING OLD FURNITURE AND CHINA. + + "I may soberly confess that sometimes, walking abroad after + my studies, I have been almost mad with pleasure--the effect + of nature upon my soul having been inexpressibly ravishing + and beyond what I can convey to you." + --JOHN INGLESANT. + +I suppose that the bicycle has given, and gives, as much pleasure to +fairly active people as any machine ever invented. I must have been +one of the first cyclists in England, as my experience dates from the +days when bicycles were first imported from France. The high bicycle +appeared later, but the earlier machines were about the height of the +present safety, with light wooden wheels and iron tyres. The safety, +with pneumatic tyres, did not arrive till nearly thirty years later, +and it was the latter invention that brought about the popularity of +cycling. + +The difference between cycling and walking has been stated thus: + + "When a man walks a mile he takes on an average 2,263 steps, + lifting the weight of his body with each step. When he rides + a bicycle of the average gear he covers a mile with the + equivalent of 627 steps, bears no burden, and covers the + same distance in less than one third of the time." + +People constantly tell me that cycling is all very well for getting +from place to place, but otherwise they don't care about it, which I +can only account for by supposing that they find it a labour more or +less irksome, or that they have never developed their perceptive +faculties, and have no real sympathy with the life of woods and fields +or the spirit of the ancient farms and villages. + +Cycling to me is a very easy and pleasant exercise, but it is far more +than that; it is like passing through an endless picture-gallery +filled with masterpieces of form and colour. The roads of England not +only present these delights to the physical sense, but they stir the +imagination with historic visions from the earliest times. There are +the ancient camps, now silent and deserted, which become at the +bidding of fancy peopled with the unkempt and savage British, and +later with their well-disciplined and well-equipped Roman conquerers: +archers and men in armour appear; pilgrims' processions such as we +read of in Chaucer; knights and ladies on their stately steeds. There +are the ghosts of royal progresses, kings and queens, and wonderful +pageantry gorgeous in array; decorously ambling cardinals and abbots +with their trains of servitors; hawking parties with hawks and +attendants; soldiers after Sedgemoor in pursuit of Monmouth's +ill-fated followers; George IV. and his gay courtiers on the Brighton +road; beaux and beauties in their well-appointed carriages bound for +Tunbridge Wells, Cheltenham, or Bath; splendid teams with crowded +coaches, and great covered waggons laden with merchandise; the +highwayman at dusk in quest of belated travellers, and companies of +farmers and cattle-dealers riding home from market together for +safety. + +I often see a vision here in the ancient Forest tracks of a gang of +wild and armed smugglers, and among them still more savage-looking +foreign sailors. They have two or three Forest trucks, made especially +to fit the ruts in the little-used tracks, laden with casks of spirits +and drawn by rough Forest ponies. I can hear the shouts of the drivers +as they urge them forward, and I can see the steaming sides of the +ponies in the misty moonlight of a winter night. The spirits were +landed at Poole or Christchurch, and they are on their way to Burley +where, under the old house I bought with my land, there is still the +cellar, then cleverly concealed, where the casks were stored in safety +from the watchful eyes of the Excise; a quaint old place built of the +local rock. + +There is one vision of the roads in the Forest which nobody who saw it +can ever forget: the companies of infantry, the serious officers, the +ruddy-faced men, and the then untried guns of the glorious Seventh +Division, on their route marches, with fife and drum to cheer the way +with the now classic strains of "It's a long, long way to Tipperary." +There are spots where I met them in the autumn of 1914 that I never +pass without feeling that for all time these places are sacred to the +memory of heroes. + +Besides the fancied pageantry of the roads there are the natural +objects of the woods, the lanes, and the fields; the blossoming +hawthorn and the wild roses trailing from the hedges, the hares and +rabbits, the birds, the butterflies, and the flowers; sturdy teams +with the time-honoured ploughs and harrows, the sowing of the seed, +the young gleaming corn, the scented hayfields or the golden harvest; +every man at his honourable labour, happy children dashing out of +school; noble timber, hazel coppices, grey old villages; cattle in the +pastures, or enjoying the cool waters of shallow pools or brooks; +sheep in the field or the fold, the shepherd and his dog; apple +blossom, or the ripe and ruddy fruit, bowery hop-gardens, mellow old +cottages, country-folk going to market, fat beasts, cows and calves, +carriers' carts full of gossips. + +Pictures, real pictures, everywhere, endless in variety. Steady! go +steady past these woods; see the blue haze of wild hyacinths, the cool +carpet of primroses. Look at the cowslips yellowing that meadow; do +you see the heron standing patiently in the marsh? Look overhead, +watch the hovering hawk; hark! there is the nightingale. Stop a moment +at the bridge; can you see the speckled beauties with their heads +upstream? Thank God for the blue, blue sky! thank God for the glory of +the sun, for the lights and shadows beneath the trees! Thank God for +the live air, the growth, the life of plant and tree, the fragrance +and the beauty! Thank God for rural England! + +One can tell the most ancient, apart from the scientifically made +Roman roads, by the way they were worn down from the original level, +especially on hillsides, by the constant and heavy traffic. Every +passing wheel abraded a portion of the surface, and the next rain +carried the _debris_ down the hill, forming in time a deep depression, +between banks at the sides, often many feet deep, and giving the +impression of the track having been purposely dug out to lessen the +gradient. In places where the road became impassable from long use and +wet, deviations on either side were made, so that ten or a dozen +disused tracks can be seen side by side, often extending laterally +quite a long distance from the existing road in unenclosed +surroundings. + +A great charm of the bicycle is its noiselessness which, with its +speed, affords peeps of wild creatures under natural conditions. +Cycling on the Cotswolds I came upon two hares at a boxing match; they +were so absorbed that I was able to get quite close, and it was +amusing to watch them standing upright on their hind legs, and +sparring with their little fists like professionals. I have often seen +the pursuit of a rabbit by a persistent stoat; the rabbit has little +chance of escape, as the stoat can follow it underground as well as +over; finally the rabbit appears to be paralyzed with fright, lies +down and makes no further effort. Weasels, which probably make up for +depredations of game by their destruction of rats, often cross the +road, and sometimes whole families may be seen playing by the +roadside. I was shooting in Surrey when I once had an excellent view +of an ermine--the stoat in its winter dress. I did not recognize it +until it was out of sight, but I should not have shot it in any case, +for the ermine is a very rare occurrence in the south of England. I +believe that further north it is not unusual, as is natural where the +light colour would protect it from observation in snow, but as far +south as Surrey this would be a danger, and I should scarcely have +noticed it in the thick undergrowth had it been normal in colour. + +We had a squirrel's nest, or "drey," as it is called, near my house +last year, and the squirrels have been about my lawn and the Forest +trees ever since. It was charming, in the summer, to watch them +nibbling the fleshy galls produced on the young oaks by a gall-fly +_(Cynips)_. They chattered to each other all the time, holding the +galls between their fore feet, fragments dropping to the ground +beneath the trees. Squirrels are fond of animal food, and I wondered, +as there was so much apparent waste, whether they were not really +searching for the grubs in the galls. Of late years squirrels have +been scarce here; they were formerly abundant, but their numbers were +much reduced by an epidemic. They seem to be increasing again, +possibly the felling of so many Scots-firs has driven them from their +former haunts into adjoining oak and beech woods, such as those which +almost surround my land. + +During lunch in a meadow by the roadside, on a cycling ride, we found +a snake with a toad almost down its throat; the snake disgorged the +toad and escaped, but before we had finished lunch it returned and +repeated the process. This time I carried the toad, none the worse for +the adventure, some distance away, where I hope it was safe. Hedgehogs +are said to eat toads, frogs, beetles, and snakes, as well as the eggs +of game, to which I have already referred (p. 264); it is curious that +the old name "urchin" has been superseded in some places by +"hedgehog," but still survives in the "sea-urchin," and is also used +for a troublesome boy. + +It is very interesting, when cycling, to notice the changes in passing +from one geological formation to another, and in railway travelling, +with a geological map, one can quickly observe the transition; the +cuttings give an immediate clue, and the contours of the surface and +the agriculture are further guides. The alteration in the flora is +particularly marked in passing from the Bagshot Sands, for instance, +to the Chalk, or from the Lias Clay to the Lias Limestone or the +Oolite; the lime-loving plants appear on the Chalk and Limestone, and +disappear on the Sands and Clays. + +The sunken appearance of the old roads is one of the best proofs of +their antiquity, and one is inclined to wonder at their windings, but +in following the tracks across the Forest moors one gets an insight +into the way roads originated. The ancients simply adopted the line of +least resistance by avoiding hills, boggy places, and the deep parts +of streams, choosing the shallow fordable spots for crossing. The +winding road is, of course, much more interesting and beautiful than +the later straight roads of the Romans, though no doubt many of the +former were improved by the invaders for their more important traffic. +It is to be regretted that the formal lines of telegraph and telephone +poles and wires have vulgarized so many of our beautiful roads, and +destroyed their retired and venerable expression; more especially as +in many places these were erected against the will of the inhabitants, +and under the mistaken idea that the farmer's business is retail, and +that he is prepared to deal in and deliver small quantities of goods +daily, receiving urgent orders and enquiries by telephone. + +The villages in the Vale of Evesham and the Cotswolds afford an +excellent illustration of building in harmony with surroundings, and +the suitability of making use of local materials. Thus, in the Vale we +find mellow old brick, has limestone, half timber and thatch; while on +the Cotswolds, oolite freestone and "stone slates" of the same +freestone seem the only suitable material. Where the ugly pink bricks +and blue slates have of late years been introduced, they appear out of +place and contemptible. There is an immense charm about these old +villages of hill and vale, and it is curious to think that Aldington +was an established community with, probably, as many inhabitants as at +the present day, when London and Westminster were divided by green +fields. + +A story is told of the time before the line to Oxford from +Wolverhampton and Worcester was built, when persons visiting Oxford +from the Vale of Evesham had to travel by road. An old yeoman family, +having decided upon the Church as the vocation for one of the sons, +sent him, in the year 1818, on an old pony, under the protection of an +ancient retainer for his matriculation examination. On their return, +in reply to the question, "Well, did you get the young master +through?" "Oh, yes," he said, "and we could have got the old pony +passed too, if we'd only had enough money!" + +Partly as an excuse for a bicycle ride I used often to visit distant +villages where auction sales at farm-houses were proceeding, and +sometimes I came home with old china and other treasures. Wherever +there are old villages with manor houses and long occupied rich land, +wealth formerly accumulated and evidenced itself in well-designed and +well-made furniture, upon which time has had comparatively little +destructive effect. As old fashions were superseded, as oak gave way +to walnut, and walnut to Spanish mahogany, the out-of-date furniture +found its way to the smaller farm-houses and cottages, in which it +descended from generation to generation. Now that the cottages have +been ransacked by dealers and collectors, the treasures have not only +been absorbed by wealthy townspeople, but are finding their way with +those of impoverished landowners and occupiers to the millionaire +mansions on the other side of the Atlantic. + +There is no limit to the temptation to collect when once the +fascination of such old things has made itself felt--furniture, china, +earthenware, glass, paintings, brass and pewter become an obsession. +If I had only filled my barns with Jacobean and Stuart oak and walnut, +William and Mary, and Queen Ann marquetry, and Chippendale, Sheraton +and Hepplewhite mahogany, instead of wheat for an unsympathetic +British public, and at the end of my time at Aldington offered a few +of the least interesting specimens for sale by auction, I might still +have carried away a houseful of treasures which would have cost me +less than nothing. + +An old friend of mine, who had been collecting for many years, and in +comparison with whom I was a novice, though my enthusiasm long +preceded the fashion of the last twenty-five years, told me that he +once discovered a warehouse in a Cotswold village crammed with +Chippendale, and that the owner, having no sale for it, was glad to +exchange a waggon-load for the same quantity of hay and straw chaff. + +Among the more interesting articles which my cycling excursions and +previous pilgrimages on foot produced, I have a charming blue and +white carnation pattern, Worcester china cider mug with the crescent +mark. These mugs are said to have been specially made for the +Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769 at Stratford-on-Avon when Garrick was +present. The date corresponds with the time when the mark was in use, +and establishes the age of the mug as 150 years. The china in my old +neighbourhood was naturally Worcester, Bristol and Salopian, of which +I have many specimens--of the Worcester more especially--ranging from +the earliest days of unmarked pieces through the Dr. Wall period, +Barr, Flight and Barr, down to the later Chamberlain. + +An old pair of bellows is a favourite of mine; it is made of pear-tree +wood, decorated with an incised pattern of thistles and foliage, +referring possibly to the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, or as +a Jacobite emblem of a few years later. The carving is surrounded by +the motto: + + "WITH MEE MY FREND MAY STILL BE FREE YET VSE MEE + NOT TILL COLD YOV BEE." + +These old bellows show unmistakable signs of their more than 200 years +of honourable service, and they have literally breathed their last +though still surviving; but it would be sacrilege to renew the +leather, and might disturb the ghosts of generations of old ladies who +blew the dying embers into a ruddy glow when awaiting, in the twilight +of a winter's evening, their good-men's return from the field or the +chase. + +One of my greatest finds was a pair of Chippendale chairs at a sale at +Mickleton at the foot of the Cotswolds; they belong to the early part +of the Chippendale period, before the Chinese style was abandoned. +That influence appears in incised fretted designs on the legs, and the +frieze below the seats. The seats are covered with the original +tapestry, adding much to the interest, and the backs present examples +of the most spirited carving of the maker. At the sale, when I went to +have a second look, I found two dealers sitting on them and chatting +quite casually; the intention was evidently to prevent possible +purchasers from noticing them, and more especially to hide the +tapestry coverings. The value of the chairs immediately rose in my +estimation, and I increased the limit which I had given to a bidder on +my behalf, so that I made sure of buying them. The old chairs looked +very shabby when they came out into the light of day, and they fell to +my representative's bid amid roars of laughter from the rustic crowd. +What a price for "them two old cheers"! they "never heard talk of such +a job!" It would surprise them to know that I have been offered five +times what they then cost. + +My wife has had to do with many parochial committees from time to +time, and I have often trembled for my Chippendale chairs when these +meetings, accompanied by tea, have been held at my house, for it is +not everybody who regards them with the reverence due to their +external beauty and true inwardness, or who recognizes in them the + + "Tea-cup times of hood and hoop, + Or while the patch was worn." + +A very successful afternoon was one I spent at a sale at North +Littleton. I remember the beautiful spring day, and the old +weather-worn grey house in an orchard of immense pear-trees covered +with sheets of snowy blossom. I secured a Jacobean elm chest with +well-carved panels, a Jacobean oak chest of drawers on a curious +stand, a complete tea set of Staffordshire ware, including twelve cups +and saucers, teapot, and other pieces, with Chinese decoration; four +Nankin blue handleless tea-cups, a Delft plate, and a Battersea enamel +patch-box. My bill was a very moderate one, but the executor who had +the matter of the sale in hand was well pleased that these old family +relics had passed into the possession of someone who would value them, +and not to careless and indifferent neighbours, and was more than +satisfied with the amount realized. Next morning, as a token of his +satisfaction, he brought me a charming old brass Dutch tobacco box, +with an oil painting inside the lid, of a smoker enjoying a pipe. + +I have seen some amusing incidents at sales of household goods in +remote places; incredulous smiles as to the possibility of the +usefulness of anything in the shape of a bath generally greeted the +appearance of such an article, and on one of these occasions an +ancient, with great gravity, and as an apology for its existence, +remarked that it was "A very good thing for an invalid!" I am reminded +thereby of an old-fashioned hunting man in Surrey, who was astonished +to hear from a friend of mine that he enjoyed a cold bath every +morning. He "didn't think," he said, "that cold water was at all a +good thing--_next to the skin_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + + +DIALECT--LOCAL PHRASEOLOGY IN SHAKESPEARE--NAMES--STUPID PLACES. + + "Our echoes roll from soul to soul." + --_The Princess_. + +Compulsory education has eliminated many of the old words and phrases +formerly in general use in Worcestershire, and is still striving to +substitute a more "genteel," but not always more correct, and a much +less picturesque, form of speech. When I first went to Aldington I +found it difficult to understand the dialect, but I soon got +accustomed to it, and used it myself in speaking to the villagers. +Farrar used to tell us at school, in one of the resounding phrases of +which he was rather fond, that "All phonetic corruption is due to +muscular effeminacy," which accounts for some of the words in use, but +does not alter the fact that many so-called corrupt words are more +correct than the modern accepted form. + +It is difficult to convey the peculiar intonation of the +Worcestershire villager's voice, and the _ipsissima verba_ I have +given in my anecdotes lose a good deal in reading by anyone +unacquainted with their method. Each sentence is uttered in a rising +scale with a drop on the last few words, forming, as a whole, a not +unmusical rhythmical drawl. As instances of "muscular effeminacy," two +fields of mine, where flax was formerly grown, went by the name of +"Pax grounds"; the words "rivet" and "vine," were rendered "ribet" and +"bine." "March," a boundary, became "Marsh," so that +Moreton-on-the-March became, most unjustly, "Moreton-in-the-Marsh." +"Do out," was "dout"; "pound," was "pun"; "starved," starred. The +Saxon plural is still in use: "housen" for houses, "flen" for fleas; +and I noticed, with pleasure, that a school inspector did not correct +the children for using the ancient form. Gilbert White, who died in +1793, writes in the section of his book devoted to the Antiquities of +Selborne, that "Within the author's memory the Saxon plurals, _housen_ +and _peason_," were in common use. So that Selborne more than a +hundred years ago had, in that particular at any rate, advanced to a +stage of dialect which in Worcestershire is still not fully +established. Certain words beginning with "h" seem a difficulty; a "y" +is sometimes prefixed, and the "h" omitted. Thus height becomes +"yacth," as nearly as I can spell it, and herring is "yerring." "N" is +an ill-treated letter sometimes, when it begins a word; nettles are +always "ettles," but when not wanted, and two consecutive words run +easier, it is added, as in "osier nait" for osier ait. + +The word "charm," from the Anglo-Saxon _cyrm_, is used both in +Worcestershire and Hampshire for a continuous noise, such as the +cawing of nesting rooks, or the hum of swarming bees. Similarly, a +witch's incantation--probably in monotone--is a charm, and then comes +to mean the object given by a witch to an applicant. "Charming" and +"bewitching" thus both proclaim their origins, but have now acquired a +totally different signification. + +There are an immense number of curious words and phrases in everyday +use, and they were collected by Mr. A. Porson, M.A., who published a +very interesting list with explanatory notes in 1875, under the title +of _Notes of Quaint Words and Sayings in the Dialect of South +Worcestershire_. I append a list of the local archaic words and +phrases which can also be found in Shakespeare's Plays. This list was +compiled by me some years ago, and appeared in the "Notes and Queries" +column of the _Evesham Journal_; I think all are still to be heard in +Evesham and the villages in that corner of Worcestershire. + +SHIP--sheep; cf. Shipton, Shipston, etc.; _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, +Act I., Scene 1; _Comedy of Errors_, Act IV., Scene 1. + +FALSING--the present participle of the verb "to false"; _Comedy of +Errors_, Act II., Scene 2; _Cymbeline_, Act II., Scene 3. + +FALL--verb active; _Comedy of Errors_, Act II., Scene 2; _Midsummer +Night's Dream_, Act V., Scene 1. + +CUSTOMERS--companions; _Comedy of Errors_, Act IV., Scene 4. + +KNOTS--flower beds; _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act I., Scene 1; _Richard +II_., Act III., Scene 4. + +TALENT--for talon; cf. "tenant" for tenon; _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act +IV., Scene 2. + +METHEGLIN--mead, a drink made from honey; _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act +V., Scene 2; _Merry Wives_, Act V., Scene 5. + +HANDKERCHER--handkerchief; _King John_, Act IV., Scene 1; _King +Henry V_., Act III., Scene 2. + +NOR NEVER SHALL--two negatives strengthening each other; _King John_, +Act IV., Scene 1, and Act V., Scene 7. + +CONTRARY--stress on the penultimate syllable; cf. "matrimony," +"secretary," "January," etc.; _King John_, Act IV., Scene 2. + +To RESOLVE--to dissolve; _King John_, Act V., Scene 4; _Hamlet_, Act +I., Scene 2. + +STROND--strand; cf. "hommer"--hammer, "opples"--apples, etc.; +_1 King Henry IV_., Act I., Scene 1. + +APPLE JOHN--John Apple (?); _1 King Henry IV_., Act III., Scene 3; +_2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +GULL--young cuckoo; _1 King Henry IV_., Act V., Scene 1. + +TO BUCKLE--to bend; _2 King Henry IV_., Act I., Scene 1. + +NICE--weak; cf. "naish"--weak; _2 King Henry IV_., Act I., Scene 1. + +OLD--extreme, very good; _2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +PEASCOD-TIME--peapicking time; _2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +WAS LIKE--had nearly; _King Henry V_., Act I., Scene 1. + +SCAMBLING--scrambling; _King Henry V_., Act I., Scene 1. + +MARCHES--boundaries; cf. Moreton-in-the-Marsh, _i.e._, March; _King +Henry V_., Act I., Scene 2. + +SWILLED--washed; _King Henry V_., Act III., Scene 1. + +To DRESS--to decorate with evergreens, etc.; _Taming of the Shrew_, +Act III., Scene 1. + +YELLOWS--jaundice; _Taming of the Shrew_, Act III., Scene 2. + +DRINK--ale; "Drink" is still used for ale as distinguished from cider; +_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 1. + +BARM--yeast; _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 1. + +LOFFE--laugh; _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 1. + +LEATHERN--(bats); cf. "leatherun bats," as distinguished from +"bats"--beetles; _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act II., Scene 3. + +EANING TIME--lambing time; _Merchant of Venice_, Act I., Scene 3. + +SPET--spit; cf. set--sit, sperit--spirit, etc.; _Merchant of Venice_, +Act I., Scene 3. + +FILL-HORSE--shaft horse; cf. "filler" and "thiller"; _Merchant of +Venice_, Act II., Scene 2. + +PROUD ON--proud of; _Much Ado_, Act IV., Scene 1 + +ODDS--difference; cf. "wide odds"; _As you Like It_, Act I., Scene 2. + +COME YOUR WAYS--come on; _As You Like It_, Act I., Scene 2. + +TO SAUCE--to be impertinent; _As You Like It_, Act III., Scene 5. + +THE MOTION--the usual form; _Winter's Tale_, Act IV., Scene 2. + +INCHMEAL--bit by bit; _Tempest_, Act II., Scene 2. + +FILBERDS--filberts; _Tempest_, Act II., Scene 2. + +TO LADE--to bale (liquid); _3 King Henry VI._, Act III., Scene 3. + +TO LAP--to wrap; _King Richard III._, Act II., Scene 1; _Macbeth_, Act +I., Scene 2. + +BITTER SWEETING--an apple of poor quality grown from a kernel; cf. +"bitter sweet"--the same; _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II., Scene 4. + +VARSAL WORLD--universal world; _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II., Scene 4. + +MAMMET--a puppet; cf. "mommet"--scarecrow; _Romeo and Juliet_, +Act III., Scene 5. + +TO GRUNT--to grumble; _Hamlet_, Act III., Scene 1. + +TO FUST--to become mouldy; _Hamlet_, Act IV., Scene 5. + +DOUT--do out; cf. "don"--do on; _Hamlet_, Act IV., Scene 7. + +MAGOT PIES--Magpies; _Macbeth_, Act III., Scene 4. + +SET DOWN--write down; _Macbeth_, Act V., Scene 1. + +TO PUN--to pound; _Troilus and Cressida_, Act II., Scene 1. + +NATIVE--place of origin; cf. "natif"; _Coriolanus_, Act III., Scene 1. + +SLEEK--bald; cf. "slick"; _Julius Caesar_, Act I., Scene 2. + +WARN--summon; cf. "backwarn"--tell a person not to come; _Julius +Caesar_, Act V., Scene 1. + +BREESE--gadfly; _Antony and Cleopatra_, Act III., Scene 8. + +WOO'T--wilt thou; _Antony and Cleopatra_, Act IV., Scene 13. + +URCHIN--hedgehog; _Titus Andronicus_, Act II., Scene 3. + +MESHED--mashed (a term used in brewing); _Titus Andronicus_, Act III., +Scene 2. + +All the above words and phrases the writer has frequently heard used +in the neighbourhood in the senses indicated, but to make the list +more complete the following are added on the authority of Mr. A. +Porson, in the pamphlet referred to: + +COLLIED--black; _Midsummer Nights Dream_, Act I., Scene 1. + +LIMMEL--limb from limb; cf. "inchmeal"--bit by bit; _Cymbeline_, Act +II., Scene 4. + +TO MAMMOCK--to tear to pieces; _Coriolanus_, Act I., Scene 3. + +TO MOIL--to dirty; _Taming of the Shrew_, Act IV., Scene 1. + +SALLET--salad; 2 _King Henry VI_., Act IV., Scene 10. + +UTIS--great noise; _2 King Henry IV_., Act II., Scene 4. + +Place-names everywhere are a most interesting study; as a rule, people +do not recognize that every place-name has a meaning or reference to +some outstanding peculiarity or characteristic of the place, and that +much history can be gathered from interpretation. In cycling, it is +one of the many interests to unravel these derivations; merely as an +instance, I may mention that in Dorset and Wilts the name of +Winterbourne, with a prefix or suffix, often occurs; of course, +"bourne" means a stream, but until one knows that a "winterbourne" is +a stream that appears in winter only, and does not exist in summer, +the name carries no special signification. + +One hears some curious personal names in the Worcestershire villages; +scriptural names are quite common, and seem very suitable for the +older labourers engaged upon their honourable employment on the land. +We had a maid named Vashti, and she was quite shy about mentioning it +at her first interview with my wife. In all country neighbourhoods +there is a special place with the unenviable reputation of stupidity; +such was "Yabberton" (Ebrington, on the Cotswolds), and Vashti was +somewhat reluctant to admit that it was her "natif," as a birthplace +is called in the district. Among the traditions of Yabberton it is +related that the farmers, being anxious to prolong the summer, erected +hurdles to wall in the cuckoo, and that they manured the church tower, +expecting it to sprout into an imposing steeple! There is a place in +Surrey, Send, with a similar reputation, where the inhabitants had to +visit a pond before they could tell that rain was falling! + +But perhaps the best story of the kind is told in the New Forest, +where the Isle of Wight is regarded as the acme of stupidity. When the +Isle of Wight people first began to walk erect, instead of on all +fours, they are said to have waggled their arms and hands helplessly +before them, saying, "And what be we to do with these-um?" + +Classical names are very uncommon among villagers, but in my old +Surrey parish there was one which was the cause of much speculation. +The name was Hercules; it originated in a disagreement between the +parents, before the child was christened. The mother wanted his name +to be John, but the father insisted, that as an older son was Noah, +the only possible name for the new baby was "Hark" (Ark). They had a +lengthy argument, and there was no definite understanding before +reaching the church. The mother, when asked to "name this child," +being flustered, hesitated, but finally stammered out, "Hark, please." +The vicar was puzzled, and repeated the question with the same result; +a third attempt was equally unsuccessful, and the vicar, in despair, +falling back upon his classical knowledge, christened the child +Hercules. A few days later the vicar called at the cottage, and the +mother explained the matter, relating how indignant she was with her +husband, and how on the way home, "Hark, I says to him, ain't the name +of a Christian, it's the name of a barge!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + + +IS ALDINGTON (FORMER SITE) THE ROMAN ANTONA? + + "Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, + Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: + O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe + Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!" + --_Hamlet_. + +One of my fields--about five acres--called Blackbanks from its +extraordinarily black soil, over a yard deep in places, and the more +remarkable because the soil of the surrounding fields is stiff +yellowish clay, showed other indications of long and very ancient +habitation. Among the relics found was a stone quern, measuring about +21 inches by 12 by 7-3/4, and having, on each of two opposite sides, a +basin-shaped depression about 6 inches in diameter at the top, and +2-3/4 inches in depth; also a small stone ring, 1-1/4 inches in +diameter, and 3/8ths in thickness, with a hole in the centre 1/4 inch +across; the edges are rounded, and it is similar to those I have seen +in museums, called spindle whorls. The quern and the ring I imagine to +be British. This field and the fields adjacent on the north side of +the stream formed, I think, primarily a British settlement and area of +cultivation, afterwards appropriated by the Romans in the earliest +days of the Roman occupation of Britain, and inhabited by them as a +military station until they left the country. + +Among other relics found in Blackbanks and in the fields to the north, +called Blackminster, between Blackbanks and the present line of the +Great Western Railway, aggregating about a hundred acres, there were +found large quantities of fragments of pottery of several kinds, +including black, grey, and red, and among the latter the smoothly +glazed Samian. Many pieces are ornamented with patterns, some very +primitive, others geometrical; others are in texture like Wedgwood +basalt ware, and similar in colour and decoration. The Samian is +mostly plain, but a few pieces have patterns and representations of +human figures. + +The fields, but especially Blackbanks, contained quantities of bones, +the horns of sheep or goats, pieces of stags, horns, iron spear and +arrow-heads, horses' molar teeth, and flint pebbles worn flat on one +side by the passage of innumerable feet for many years. A millstone +showing marks of rotation on the surface, a bronze clasp or brooch +with fragments of enamel inlay, the ornamental bronze handle of an +important key, a glass lacrymatory (tear-bottle), numerous +coins--referred to below--and other objects in bronze and iron, were +also found. + +Only centuries of habitation and cultivation could have changed the +three feet of surface soil in Blackbanks from a stiff unworkable clay +to a black friable garden mould, and it is probable that the British +occupation had lasted for a very long period before the Romans took +possession. The settlement must have been a place of importance, +because it was approached from the north by a track, still existing +though practically disused, probably British, from a ford over the +Avon, near the present Fish and Anchor Inn. This track passes to the +west of South Littleton, on through the middle of the Blackminster +land, and immediately to the east of Blackbanks, joining what I +believe to be the Ryknield Street at the bridge over the stream on the +South Littleton road. Near the present Royal Oak Inn it formerly +crossed the present Evesham-Bretforton road, and became what is still +called Salter Street. It appears to have given access to two more +sites on which Roman coins and relics are found--Foxhill about 9-1/2 +acres, and Blackground about 4 acres--and passing east of the present +Badsey church, proceeded through Wickhamford, and by a well-defined +track to Hinton-on-the-Green, and on to Tewkesbury and Gloucester. + +The occurrence of the name Salter Street gives a clue to one of the +original uses of the road, at any rate in Roman times, for salt was an +absolute necessity in those days, as may be gathered from a passage in +_The Natural History of Selborne_, written in 1778: + + "Three or four centuries ago, before there were any + enclosures, sown grasses, field turnips, or field carrots, + or hay, all the cattle which had grown fat in summer, and + were not killed for winter use, were turned out soon after + Michaelmas to shift as they could through the dead months; + so that no fresh meat could be had in winter or spring. + Hence the vast stores of salted flesh found in the larder of + the elder Spencer in the days of Edward II., even so late in + the spring as the 3rd of May." A note adds that the store + consisted of "Six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef + and six hundred muttons." + +It is not difficult to trace the route over which the salt was carried +from Droitwich. Starting thence the track can be approximately +identified by the names of places in which the root, _sal_ (salt), +occurs, and we find Sale Way, Salding, Sale Green, and, further south, +Salford. Crossing the Worcester-Alcelster road at Radford, and +proceeding through Rouse Lench and Church Lench, we reach Harvington, +from whence the track takes us across the low-lying meadows to the +ferry and ford over the Avon, near the Fish and Anchor Inn mentioned +above. + +In recent times it has been assumed that the road from Bidford to +Weston Subedge, known as Buckle Street, is identical with Ryknield +Street, but I should prefer to call Buckle Street a branch of the +latter only, for the purpose of joining Ryknield Street and the Foss +Way near Burton-on-the-Water. I consider the real course of Ryknield +Street to be as described in Leland's _Itinerary_ (inserted by +Hearne), Edition III., 1768, in which he quotes, from R. Gale's _Essay +concerning the Four Great Roman Ways_, that "from Bitford on the +southern edge of Warwickshire it (Ryknield Street) runs into +Worcestershire, and taking its course thro' South Littleton goes on a +little to the east of Evesham, and then by Hinton and west of +Sedgebarrow into Gloucestershire, near Aston-under-Hill, and so by +Bekford, Ashchurch, and a little east of Tewksbury, thro' Norton to +Gloucester." + +Such a course for Ryknield Street would make it the connection between +the north, running through the Roman Alauna (Alcester) to Glevum +(Gloucester). It must be remembered that there was, in Roman times, +nothing at Evesham to take the road there, for Evesham did not exist +as a town until long after the Romans left. Leland says that there was +"noe towene at Eovesham before the foundation of the Abbey," which +took place about A.D. 701, about 250 years later, and there was no +road from Alcester to Gloucester except the one we are following. + +Another important road passed the northern extremity of Blackminster +and crossed the road just referred to so that the Blackminster area +was situated at the junction. This was the old road from Worcester, +passing the present site of Evesham a mile or more to the north, +crossing the Avon at Twyford, and the Ryknield Street at Blackminster, +and going onwards through Chipping Campden towards London. + +The following passage in the _Annals_ of Tacitus, Book XII., chapter +xxxi., _Ille (Ostorius) ... detrahere arma suspectis, cinctosque +castris Antonam et Sabrinam fluvios cohibere parat_, which refers to +the fortification of the Antona and Severn rivers by the Roman general +P. Ostorius Scapula, has been the subject of various readings and +controversy about the word _Antona_, no river of that name having been +identified. The reading given above may not be good Latin, but the +names of the rivers are quite plain. Another reading substitutes +_Avonam_ for _Antonam_; but probably Tacitus avoided the use of the +word Avon because it was then a Celtic term for rivers in general, and +confusion would arise between the Avon which joins the Severn at +Tewkesbury and the Avon a little further south which runs into the +Severn estuary at Bristol. To make his meaning quite clear he did +exactly what we do now in speaking of the Stratford Avon (_i.e._, +river) and the Bristol Avon(_i.e._, river) when he prefixed _Antonam_ +(_et Sabrinam_) to the word _fluvios_. + +If, therefore, we can find a place of importance with the name of +Antona, or a name that may fairly represent it, having regard to +subsequent corruptions, existing also in Roman times on or near the +Avon branch of the Severn, we shall be justified in assuming that this +particular Avon was the river he had in his mind. Such a place is the +area I have described as full of traces of long Roman and pre-Roman +occupation, situated at the junction of two ancient roads, very +important from the military point of view, and within a mile of the +Avon. + +On the supposition that Antona and Aldington may be identical, the +present site of the latter is perhaps a quarter of a mile from the +Roman area which I have described, but the original Aldington Mill, +traces of the foundations of which are still to be seen, was actually +on the Roman area. A better position for it was found later, away from +the difficulties of approach caused by floods, and it was moved to the +site occupied by the present mill just below the Manor House, probably +in Anglo-Saxon times. Although the name of the village became, in +Anglo-Saxon, Aldington, or something similar, the old name of Anton or +Aunton was evidently in common local use, as appears in the following +list of names which the present village has borne at different times. +It is specially interesting to notice that the more elaborate +"Aldington" and its variants appear in the more scholarly records, +such as those of Evesham Abbey and Domesday Survey, written by people +not living in the village; while the parish churchwardens 1527-1571, +the will of Richard Yardley 1531, the village constable 1715, and the +villagers at the present day, all living in the place itself, carry on +the old tradition in the names they use which approximate very closely +to the Roman Antona, and are indeed identical in their manuscripts, if +the Latin terminal _a_ is omitted. + + _Date_ + Aldintone, Charter of the Kings Kenred and Offa, + possessions of Evesham Abbey 709 + + Aldingtone } + Aldintun } Domesday Survey _circ._ 1086 + Aldintona } + + Aldringtona, An Adjudication; Evesham Abbey 1176 + + Aldetone, Institutes of Abbot Randulf, died 1229 + + Awnton, Will of Richard Yardley of Awnton 1531 + + Aunton, Churchwardens accounts 1527 to 1571 + + Anton, Old MS. "A Bill for ye Constable" 1715 + + Alne or Auln, Villagers present day + +As parallels of the local persistence of old names, the neighbouring +village of Wickhamford (present-day name) is still called Wicwon by +the villagers, the same name under which it appears in the Charter of +the Abbey possessions in 709. And the Celtic London still persists in +spite of the Roman attempt to confer upon it the grander name of +Augusta. + +The disappearance of anything in the shape of foundations of former +buildings is accounted for by the fact that the whole area was +quarried many years ago for the building stone and limestone beneath, +and any surface stone would have been removed at the same time. One of +the fields still bears the name of the "Quar Ground," and the remains +of lime-kilns can be found in several places. + +It is right to add that Blackbanks as the site of Antona was suggested +to me many years ago by the late Canon Winnington Ingram, Rector of +Harvington; in discussing the matter, however, we got no further than +the bare suggestion derived from the appearance of long habitation and +the occurrence of Roman coins and pottery in Blackbanks only, and +without reference to the much larger area of Blackminster. Canon +Winnington Ingram was not familiar with the place, and I had not +apprehended the importance of the track from the "Fish and Anchor" as +a salt way starting from Droitwich, nor was I aware of Salter Street, +its continuation after passing Blackbanks. Neither had I distinguished +between Buckle Street as the junction between Ryknield Street and the +Foss Way, and Ryknield Street itself as the direct road from the north +through Birmingham, Alcester, Bidford, Antona(?) Hinton, and +Gloucester. + +Virgil, in his first _Georgic_, refers to the possible future +discovery of Roman remains, and Dryden translates the passage thus: + + "Then after lapse of time, the lab'ring swains, + Who turn the turfs of these unhappy plains, + Shall rusty piles from the plough'd furrows take, + And over empty helmets pass the rake." + +Such is almost prophetic of my Roman site to-day; little did Virgil +imagine that his lines would apply so nearly in Britain two thousand +years later. + + +A LIST OF THE COINS FOUND AND NAMES OF THE EMPERORS TO WHOSE REIGNS +THEY BELONG, WITH SHORT NOTES ON THE LEADING INCIDENTS IN CONNECTION +WITH BRITAIN WHICH OCCURRED IN THEIR REIGNS: + + 1. A Denarius, 88 B.C. + + 2. A Denarius, 88 B.C. plated. As consular denarii passed + out of circulation soon after A.D. 70, these two coins + suggest that the site was under Roman influence by that date + at the latest. + + 3. Claudius, Emperor (A.D. 41-54). + + 4. Nerva, Emperor (96-98). + + 5. Antoninus Pius, Emperor (138-161). + + 6. Marcus Aurelius, Emperor (161-180). + + 7. Severus Alexander, Emperor (222-235). + + 8. The Thirty Tyrants (211-284). Several coins of this + period, badly defaced. + + 9. Etruscilla, wife of Traianus Decius (249-251). + + 10. Gallienus, Emperor (253-268). + + 11. Postumus, Gallic Emperor (258-268) + + 12. Claudius Gothicus, Emperor (268-270) + + 13. Tetricus, Gallic Emperor (270-273). + + 14. Tacitus, Emperor (275-276) + + 15. Diocletianus, Emperor (284-305). + + 16. Carausius, Emperor in Britain (286-294). + + 17. Allectus, Emperor in Britain (294-296). + + 18. Theodora, second wife of Constantius I. (Chlorus, Caesar, + 293-305; Augustus, 305-6). + + 19. Licinius, Emperor (307-324). + + 20. Constantinus Emperor (306-337); (Constantine the Great). + + 21. Coin with head of Constantinopolis (City Deity)(_circ._ 330). + + 22. Constantinus II., Emperor (337-340). + + 23. Constantius II., Emperor (337-361). + + 24. Gratianus, Emperor (367-383). + +BRITISH COIN. + + 25. Antedrigus, British Prince (_circ._ 50). + +The figures in brackets in the following notes refer to the coins as +numbered in the above list: + +(3) The Claudian invasion of Britain was begun in A.D. 43 by an army +under the command of Aulus Plautius Silvanus. He led his army from the +coast of Kent, where he probably landed, to the Thames, and waited for +Claudius himself, in whose presence the advance to Camulodunum +(Colchester) was made during the latter part of 43. Claudius +apparently left Rome in July, and was absent for six months, but his +stay in Britain is said to have lasted only sixteen days. + +In the pacification which occupied the next three years there are two +points of interest to notice. The first is a series of minor campaigns +conducted by Vespasian--Emperor 69-79--who subdued the Isle of Wight +and penetrated from Hampshire, perhaps, to the Mendip Hills. The +second is the submission of Prasutagus, the British philo-Roman prince +of the Iceni. + +It is conjectured that his policy led a certain number of patriots +under a rival prince, Antedrigus, to migrate towards the unoccupied +west. A coin (25) of Antedrigus, with an extremely barbarous head in +profile on the obverse and a horse on the reverse, was found on the +Roman area at Aldington. The types of this coin are ultimately derived +from those on the gold staters struck by Philip of Makedon, father of +Alexander the Great. The original had a young male head (? of Apollo) +on obverse and a two-horse chariot as reverse type. The influence came +to Britain from Gaul, where the coins of Makedon may have arrived by +the valleys of Danube and Rhine; but it is not improbable that the +types reached Gaul through Massilia (Marseilles). + +In 47 Plautius was succeeded by P. Ostorius Scapula, who pressed +westwards and fought a great battle with the nationalist army of +Caratacus in 51. Camulodunum became a colonia in 50, and the military +organization of Britain then began to take shape by the establishment +of four legionary headquarters--Isca Silurum (Caerleon-on-Usk), +Viroconium (Wroxeter), Deva (Chester) and Lindum (Lincoln). This +disposition, which faced north and west, came near to breaking down in +61, when the east rose under Boudicca (Boadicea), queen of the Iceni, +partly in protest against the usury of Seneca, the philosopher and +tutor of Nero. + +(4) It was in the year 97, during the principate of Nerva, that +Tacitus the historian was consul. By this time the IXth Hispana legion +had been transferred from Lindum to Eburacum (York). + +(5) Under Antoninus Pius a revolt of the Brigantes (between Humber and +Mersey) was put down by A. Lollius Urbicus in A.D. 140. Lollius also +completed the northern defences, begun by Hadrian, with a new wall +further north between the Firth and the Clyde. + +(6) While Marcus Aurelius was emperor, according to a tradition +preserved by Bede, the British Church came into close connection with +Rome and received what he calls a mission--more probably a band of +fugitives from persecution. Though the tale is doubtful in details, it +is evidence to show that Christianity was strong in the island by this +time. + +(9) Decius, husband of Etruscilla, was responsible for the great +persecution of Christians in 250-51; the occasion was the 1,000th +anniversary of Rome's foundation. + +(10) Gallienus, son of Valerian, was entrusted with the west on his +father's accession in 253 and defended the Rhine frontier until he was +left sole Emperor in 258, when Valerian was captured by Shapur of +Persia. Various usurpations compelled Gallienus to enter Italy, and he +left the Rhine defences in charge of a general--M. Cassianius Latinius +Postumus. + +(11) Postumus at once had to face a great invasion of Franks. He +gained some successes and was therefore proclaimed emperor by the +armies of Gaul and Britain. Before long dissensions broke out in the +Gallic empire and several commanders rose and fell in rapid +succession. It is conceivable that some of these are represented in +the coins found in Blackbanks, but these specimens are too badly +weathered for certain identification to be possible. + +(12) On March 4, 268, Gallienus was assassinated. His successor was M. +Aurelius Claudius, afterwards surnamed Gothicus, a skilful general who +did the empire great service by his victories over invaders from +Switzerland and the Tyrol by the shores of the Lago di Garda, and over +the Goths at Naissus (Nish). + +(13) Tetricus is of interest only because his surrender to Aurelian in +273 marks the collapse of the Gallic empire. + +(15-18) Diocletian became Augustus in 284, and co-opted Maximian as +his colleague two years later. About the same time Carausius, +commander of the Channel fleet, crossed to Britain and had himself +proclaimed independent emperor. In 290 he was acknowledged as third +colleague by the Augusti, but no place was found for him when in 293 +the government of the Roman world was divided between Diocletian, +Maximian, and two newly chosen Caesars--Galerius and Flavius Valerius +Constantius, later called Chlorus. By this arrangement the recovery of +Britain from Allectus--who had murdered Carausius about 294--fell to +Constantius, and he accomplished this by a sudden attack in 296. +Constantius was twice married. His first wife, Helena, bore him a son, +Constantine the Great; his second was a step-daughter of Maximian, +named Theodora, to whom coin 18 belongs. + +Britain was now divided into four Diocletian provinces, to which a +fifth--Valentia--was later added when the country north of Hadrian's +wall was re-occupied. The only other event of Diocletian's reign to be +noticed is the persecution of Christians in which, according to +tradition, St. Alban lost his life at Verulam about 303. + +(19-20) On May 1, 305, Diocletian and Maximian abdicated. Constantius +and Galerius now became Augusti. Trouble arose over the two vacant +Caesarships. It was the aim of Galerius to exclude Constantine, but the +latter escaped to his father's camp at York, a few weeks before +Constantius died on July 25, 306, after a victory over the Picts and +Scots. Constantine was in power under various titles in Gaul and +Britain for five years until, in 311, when Galerius died, he began his +march on Rome, during which he is said to have had his vision of the +cross with the words [Greek: en touto nika]. In 314 the bishops of +York, London, and some other uncertain British see attended the +Council of Arles which sat to deal with the Donatist schism. The +British Church was also represented at the Council of Nicaea, called by +Constantine in 325 to consider the Arian heresy, when the Nicene Creed +in its original form was authorized; the British vote was orthodox. It +was Constantine who in 321 first made Sunday a holiday, but whether +Christianity or Mithraism prompted him to this is doubtful. + +(22-23) When Constantine the Great died in 337 the empire was divided +between his sons. Constantius II. received the east; Constans, Africa, +Italy, and the Danuvian region; Constantine II., Gaul and Spain. In +340 Constantine II. attacked Constans and was killed. Constans then +ruled the united west; it seems that Constans and Constantius II. +visited Britain in 343. Constans was assassinated in 350; this left +Constantius II. alone. His policy of toleration towards the Arians led +to a great Church Council in 359. The eastern bishops met at Seleucia, +the western at Ariminum, where Britain was represented. By a certain +amount of coercion Constantius forced his views on the Western +Council. At this time the prosperity of Britain was great and corn was +exported in large quantities. + +(24) In 367 Valentinian I. made his son Gratian, Augustus. Gratian was +later married to Constantia, daughter of Constantius II. Roman power +was now asserted once more against the Picts and Scots, and also +against the Saxon raiders by Theodosius, whose son became Augustus in +379. Gratian himself was occupied on the Continent. In 383 Magnus +Maximus was proclaimed emperor in Britain, and Gratian was murdered on +August 25. + +The coins were not a hoard; they were found all over the Roman area I +have described, but especially in Blackbanks, and they became visible +generally when the surface was fallow and had broken down into fine +mould from the action of the weather. Their scattered occurrence, and +the period they cover, suggest continuous habitation throughout the +most important part of the Roman occupation of Britain, and, with +their related history, they occupy a distinguished place in a record +of the harvest of Grain and Chaff from an English Manor. + + + + +NOTES + + +[1: Celebrated breeders of the respective sorts.] + +[2: Fig. 1 shows the flattened _S_ formed by the stream. +Fig. 2 shows the short circuit formed later at _A_ and the island _B_ +When the old bed of the stream round _B_ gets filled up, the island +_B_ disappears, and its area and that part of the old bed formerly on +the west side of the stream is transferred to the east side.] + +[3: Mr. H.A. Evans sends me a very interesting note on this subject. +He refers me to Shakespeare, _Henry VIII., III., II., 282_, where +Surrey, alluding to Wolsey, says: + + "If we live thus tamely, + To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet, + Farewell nobility; let his grace go forward, + And dare us with his cap like larks." + +The verb _dare_ here used is quite a distinct word from _dare_ = to +venture to do. It means to daze or render helpless with the sight of +something. To dare larks is to fascinate or daze them in order to +catch them. The "dare" is made of small bits of looking-glass fastened +on scarlet cloth. Shakespeare's use of the word in the passage quoted +is evidently an allusion to the scarlet biretta of the cardinal. In +Hogarth's "Distressed Poet" a "dare" is suspended above the +chimney-piece.] + + + + +INDEX + + +"AKERMAST," 197. +. +Albinism, 255. + +"Alcoholiday," 177. + +Aldington, 1; + band, 122; + chapel, 5; + concerts, 123; + constable, 8; + derivation, 1; + farm, 3; + hosiery factory, 7; + manor, 2; + prepares to resist Jacobites, 7; + variants, 5, 8, 298, 299; + village, 3. + +Allsebrook, Rev. W.C., 5. + +Alresford fair, 49. + +Antona, 294, 297, 298. + +Apples, 103, 169, 170, 171. + +Archdeacon's visitations, 101, 102. + +Arch, Joseph, 59. + +Asparagus, 85, 86, 87. + +Avebury, Lord, 214. + +Avon, meaning of, 297. + +Bad debts, farmers', 215. + +Badsey, 1; + church innovations, 102, 110; + church restoration, 89, 90; + churchyard, 97, 98, 101; + "Feld," 207; + market gardeners, 85. + +Barley, 216, 217. + +Barnard, Mr. E.A.B., 5. + +Barnard, parish clerk, 65, 92, 93, 95. + +Bateman, Miss Isabel, 92. + +Beech, 195, 196, 197; + "groaning tree," 197; + stage effect, 198, 199; + Waterloo beeches, 197, 198. + +Beef, American, 72, 155. + +Bees, 17, 18. + +Bell, William, + farm bailiff, 12; + bee-master, 17; + brewer, 18; + courage, 14, 15; + generosity, 13; + honesty, 20; + limited outlook, 18; + memory, 16; + peace-maker, 15; + quoted, 11, 14; + repartee and wit, 13, 24; + salesman, 17. + +Bell, Mrs. William, 21. + +Bellows, antique, 285. + +Bell-ringers, 94. + +Bewick, 258. + +Bible, cunning use of, 40. + +Blackbanks, 294. + +Blackbirds, 265. + +Blackminster, 294, 299. + +Blackmore quoted, 182, 196, 225. + +Blacksmith, 151, 152. + +Blue distance, 237, 238. + +Boer War, 66. + +Boys at farm work, 39, 69. + +Brandram, Mr., 92. + +Bredon Hill, 237. + +"Breese," 156. + +Brigg, 241. + +Brooks, + changing course, 239, 241; + diagram of, 252. + +Buckle Street, 166, 296. + +Buggilde Street, 157. + +Bull, 54. + +Bullfinch, 185, 186. + +Buller, C.F., 113. + +Butterflies, 273, 274, 275, 276. + +Caldecott, Randolph, 191, 225, 236, 265. + +Caravoglia, Signor, 123. + +Carter boys, 39. + +Caterpillars, 184, 248, 259. + +Cattle, 153, 154, 157. + +Chamberlain, Mr. Arthur, 88. + +"Chap-money," 127, 129, 216. + +Charles II., 7, 190, 227. + +Charley, "silly," 93. + +"Chawns," 211. + +Cherries, 185. + +China, old, 285, 286, 287. + +Chinese slavery, 88. + +Chippendale furniture, 95, 165, 285. + +Chipping Campden, 18, 129. + +Christ Church, Oxford, 90, 98. + +Christmas, 21, 79, 95. + +Church music, 102, 103. + +Churning, 154. + +Cider, 174-177; + apples, 176; + lead poisoning, 178. + +Cirencester College, 147, 148. + +Climate, effects on animals, 135, 136. + +Cloud-burst, 249. + +Coal-club, 63, 64. + +Cockatoo, 265. + +Coffers, antique, 193. + +Coins, Roman, 300. + +Coleridge quoted, 234. + +Collins, Mr. Thomas, 90. + +Colour, discordant, 95. + +Competition, American, 59, 208. + +Compton, Lady Alwyne, 92. + +Confirmation, 103. + +Constable, John, painter, 193. + +"Co-rider," 30. + +Coroner's jury, 64, 65. + +Cotswolds, 2, 19, 29. + +Cottagers, _see_ Labourers; + married couples, 72. + +Council, County, election, 65. + +Councils, parish, etc., 100. + +Courtene, Sir Peter, 5. + +Cowper quoted, 106, 264. + +"Crabbing," 130. + +Cream separator, 82. + +Cricket, 119, 120; + Eton and Harrow match, 234, 235. + +Cromwell, 227. + +Cronje, 66. + +Cruikshank, George, 133, 207. + +Cuckoo, 184, 249, 259. + +Curmudgeon, village, 99. + +Cycling, 278; + geology, 282; + pageants of the roads, 279; + pictures, real, 280; + roadside creatures, 281, 282. + +Dairy, 153, 154, 155. + +Damsons, 182. + +Dandie Dinmont, 266. + +Daniel, M.N., on Pekingese, 268. + +Daniel, S., 105. + +D'Aumale, Duc, 203. + +Dealers, + artificial fertilizers, 149, 150; + cattle, 127, 134, 135; + horse, 126, 127; + pig, 130; + sheep, 127, 128, 129; + wool, 145, 146. + +Dewponds, 242. + +Dialect, 158, 288-291. + +Disease, human and plant, analogy, 224. + +Dorset labourer, a, 71, 72. + +Draining, 212, 213. + +Duck, pet, 264. + +Edgehill, Battle of, 6, 7. + +Education, compulsory, 58, 116, 117, 118. + +Eggs, + disqualified, 121; + hens', 164, 165, 166. + +Elephant, African, 115, 116. + +Elevator, 82. + +Elms, 187, 188. + +Emperors, Roman, 300-305. + +Ermine, 281. + +Evans, Mr. Herbert A, 263. + +Evesham, + Abbey, 1, 4; + agricultural depression, 245, 246; + Vale of, 2; + water supply, 243, 244. + +Fairs, 37, 49, 130, 227, 228. + +Fairy rings, 47. + +Farmers Newstyle and Oldstyle, 217, 218, 219. + +Farrar, Dean, 111, 112, 113, 114, 288. + +Fields, + derivation, 207; + large and small, 83. + +Finance, 58, 68. + +Fishing, 35, 36. + +Flail, 80. + +Floods, 241, 242. + +Flower show, village, 121. + +Foley, Lady Emily, 91. + +Football, 120. + +Forks, steel, 85, 86. + +Foxes, 201, 254. + +Fox terrier, "Chips," 266. + +Fruit markets, 172. + +Furniture, + antique, 284; + Chippendale, 285, 286; + faked, 97. + +Gainsborough, market cart, 193. + +Gardener, an old, 53. + +Ghosts, 67, 93. + +Gipsies, 49, 200, 228. + +Gladstone quoted, on ancient church, 89. + +Gleaning, 211. + +"Gloving," 77. + +Goldfinch, 260. + +Gold, hoarded, 58. + +Goose, pet, 264. + +Grace, Dr. W.G., 119. + +Grafter, a, 141, 142. + +Gray's _Elegy_ quoted, 23, 46, 198. + +_Gryphea incurva_, 213. + +"Hag-ridden," 47. + +Hardy, Mr. Thomas, 77. + +Harrow School, 111; + chapel, 113; + fourth form room, 114; + cricket match at Lords, 234, 235. + +Harvest, 33, 244. + +Hawfinch, 259. + +Hawks, 202. + +Hay-making, 69. + +Hazel, 202. + +Hedges, + overgrown, 205; + "pleaching," 59. + +Heredity, 117, 118. + +Herrick, reference to Gospel Oak, 195. + +_History of Evesham_, May's, 68; + Tindal's, 8. + +Hoarding gold, 58. + +Hoby, Sir Philip, 4. + +Holiday outings, 78, 79. + +Holly, 205. + +Hood, reference to butterflies, 276. + +Hops, + aphis, 221; + dioescious, 226; + drying, 31, 32; + introduction of Flemish, 205; + natural protection, 222; + pocket at R.A.S.E. show, 139; + Saturnalia, 227; + tying, 75. + +Hop-poles, 202, 203. + +Hop-yards, derivation, 221. + +Horace, reference to farm work, 207. + +Horizon, parochial, 18, 19. + +Horses, 36, 40. + +Hoskins, Chandos Wren, _Talpa_, + on farming, 132; + draining, 133; + illustrates Horace's lines, 207. + +Hospitium at Badsey, 67. + +Huguenots, 7. + +Hurdle-making, 150, 151. + +Indian troops at Lyndhurst, 158. + +Ingram, Canon Winnington, 300. + +Inquest, 64, 65. + +I.P., honesty, 56. + +Irving, Sir Henry, 120. + +Irving, Washington, _Bracebridge Hall_, on public distress, 245. + +Jackdaw, pet, 264. + +Jackson, Sir Thomas Graham, 90,96. + +Jacobites, 7, 8. + +Jarge, 23; + _bon vivant_, 28; + cider-maker, 175; + daughter, 24, 26; + discrimination, 26; + hop foreman, 25; + London trip, 28; + narrow escape, 201; + soloist, 29; + sporting reputation, 24. + +Jarrett monument, 6. + +Jays, 265. + +J.E., + carter, accidents, 54, 55; + hop-washing, 55. + +J.E., Mrs., 55. + +Jim, + carter, 35; + angler, 35; + foresight, 41; + French horses, 37; + loyalty, 37; + ploughman, 38; + rheumatism, 40; + salesman, 37; + tender-hearted, 38. + +"Jingoism," derivation, 72. + +John C., shepherd, 46. + +Keats, reference to trees, 187. + +"King Arthur," 254. + +King Edward VII., 138, 203, 234. + +Kingfisher, 257. + +King George V., 19, 249. + +_Kingham Old and New_, 77. + +Kingham Station, 59. + +"Know-all," the, 73, 74. + +Kruger, 66. + +Labourers, + agricultural: bad temper, effect on animals, 74; + aesthetic feeling, 61; + enfranchised, 83; + enjoyment of grievance, 65; + feuds, 71; + honesty, 56; + interest in horrors, 64; + limited vocabulary, 62; + literal use of words, 62, 63; + not callous, 62; + "not paid to think," exceptional, 45; + recognize visible property only, 57; + resignation and fortitude, 60; + responsibility, effect of, 73; + reticence, 61; + savings, 57; + seldom slackers, 69; + suspicious of change, 63; + sympathetic, 58; + understand sarcasm, seldom irony, 73. + +Ladybirds, 225. + +Lamb, New Zealand, 162. + +Lambs not to be killed, 160, 161, 162. + +Land, division of, 84. + +Land girls, 76. + +"Leasing," derivation of, 211. + +Leland, 4, 296. + +Lind, Jenny, 124, 125. + +Liver-rot, 160. + +London, Bishop of, a former, 198. + +Long Marston, 7. +Loudon, John, 197. + +Machinery, 80. + +Magpies, 256. + +Maid-servants, 76. + +Malvern concerts, 27, 90, 91, 92. + +Martin, Mr. C.S., 139, 140; + on cabbage butterflies, 275; + wasps, 275. + +Martin, Mr. Wm., on finding wasps' nests, 274. + +Matriculation, young yeoman's, 283, 284. + +May's _History of Evesham_, 68. + +May, shelter during, 155. + +Medicinal herbs during war, 45. + +Melanism, 255. + +"'Merican beef," 72, 155. + +Merry gardens, derivation, 186. + +Meteorology, 230-234, 237. + +Mickleton tunnel, 29. + +"Mist-bow,", 251. + +Mistifier, 55. + +Mist-lake, 252. + +Mistletoe, 173. + +Mole-catcher, 143. + +Moths, 271, 272, 273. + +Mountford's restaurant, 20, 21. + +Mowing machines, 81. + +"Mug," a, 140. + +Names, + place, 291-292; + villagers, 292-293. + +New Forest, + "commoners," 194; + communion between man and trees, 199; + land mostly poor, 188; + oaks, 189, 190, 199; + timber during war, 194, 204. + +Nightingales, 261. + +Nuthatch, 257. + +Oak, 188, 189; + American, 96, 97; + attitudes of, 190; + bark, 193; + "Gospel," 195; + history in, 195; + heart of, 193; + plantations, 192. + +Obadiah B., thatcher, 148. + +Onomatopoeia, use of, 196, 256. + +Omnicycle, 22, 61. + +Orchards, 167, 168. + +Overton fair, 49. + +"Ox-droves," 157. + +Pageants of the roads, 279. + +Parochial horizon, 18, 19. + +Peacocks, 253, 254. + +Pear trees, 179, 180. + +Peking, relief of, 104. + +Pekingese, 267, 268, 269. + +Perry, 179, 180. + +Pershore, 37, 197. + +Peruvian guano, 87. + +Pheasants, 204, 255. + +Philips, _Cyder_, 175. + +Picker, a, 103. + +"Pleaching," 59. + +Ploughing, 38, 39, 213, 214. + +Plumber's story, 45. + +Plums, 182, 183, 184. + +Pony, "Taffy," 270. + +Poodle, 266. + +"Popery," 20, 110. + +Postman, 122. + +Potatoes, 18; + disease, 222; + Myatt's ashleaf, origin, 54. + +Poulton, Miss, 90. + +Poultry, 164. + +_Punch_ quoted, 19, 102. + +Queen Victoria, 255. + +Railway accident, 163; + sleepers, 204-205. + +Randell, Mr. Charles, 81. + +Randulf, Abbot, 4. + +Rat-catcher, 143. + +Rats, 143. + +"Reconstruction," 246. + +Ridge and furrow, 213, 214. + +Rival hedgers, 105. + +Roads, ancient, 279-280, 283, 296-297. + +Roberts, Lord, 66. + +Roman coins, 300; + Emperors, 301-305; + remains, 294, 295. + +Rooks' arithmetic, 260; + building, 91. + +Rottingdean, 262, 271, 276. + +Rough music, 77, 78. + +Royal Agricultural Society of England, 138, 139. + +_Rus in urbe_, 234-237. + +Ruskin, 81. + +Ryknield Street, 156, 295-297, 300. + +Sabbath-breaking, 163, 164. + +Sales, + by bailiff, 132, 133; + books, 133; + fruit, 172; + sheep, 136, 137; + short-horns, 134, 135. + +Salisbury, Lord, 90, 91. + +Salter Street, 296. + +"Satan leading on," 105. + +Savory, Mrs. A.H., 86, 90, 122-124, 153, 164. + +Savory, Mr. F.E., 250. + +Selborne (see White), Church, 94. + +Seventh Division in New Forest, 280. + +Scapula, P. Ostorius, 297. + +School Board, + Badsey, 106; + chairman, 107; + economy, 115; + "first duty" of members, 107; + grouped parishes, 108; + "ignoramus," an, 115; + inspectors, 111, 114; + mares' nests, 116; + reading-book, 114; + religious instruction, 109-111; + reporters at meetings, 108; + site for building, 109; + "six little pigs," 114. + +"Score," derivation of, 16. + +Scots-fir, 204. + +Scottish wool trade, 145. + +Scot, Reynolde, on hops, 220. + +Scrutator, 253. + +Shakespeare, + local phraseology, 289, 290; + local reputation, 120. + +Shakespeare quoted, + on bargains, 126; + carouse at Bidford, 179; + content, 57; + "daring" larks, 263; + England if true to self, 66; + fairy rings, 47; + fool i' the forest, 191; + gadfly, 156; + hope and despair, 220; + lady-smocks, 276; + narrow outlook, 19; + "pleaching," 59; + Providence, 1; + sweet of the year, 232. + +Shappen, derivation, 129. + +Sheep, 47-50, 158-160. + +Sheep dipper, 142. + +Shelley on skylark, 253. + +Shepherds, 46, 50, 76, 77. + +"Shepherd's neglect," 48. + +Signhurst, derivation, 67. + +Skylark, 263. + +Sladden, Mr. Julius, 89, 121. + +Snake and Toad, 282. + +Snewin, carpenter, 42. + +Squirrels, 281. + +Stag-beetles, 277. + +Steam power, 83. + +Stockmen often resemble their animals, 162. + +Stupid places, 292. + +"Summer dance," 251. + +"Summer-time," 230, 231. + +Sunday work, 244. + +Superstition, 18, 21, 46, 47, 67. + +Tacitus, 297. + +"Tantiddy's fire," 33. + +Taylor, Chevalier, 52. + +Telegraph wires in frost, 183. + +Tennyson quoted, + on apples, 167; + business men, 141; + changes of earth's surface, 239; + dairy, 153; + farming walk, 207; + hazels, 202; + home-made bread, 211; + _Morte d'Arthur_, 1; + music, 119; + old oaks, 187; + onomatopoeic lines, 196; + our echoes, 288; + politics, 80; + royal oak, 195; + spring-time, 202; + steam cultivation, 83; + "summer dance," 251; + tea-cup times, 286; + town and country, 230. + +Tennyson at agricultural show, 139. + +Temper, effect on animals, 74. + +Temple, Sir Richard, 83-86, 88. + +Thatching, 148, 149, 200. + +Thistles, 260. + +Thomson quoted, 36. + +Thoreau quoted, 199. + +Thrashing, 80, 81, 215. + +"Three acres and a cow," 84. + +Tom, 29; + caution, 33, 34; + draining, 31; + harvesting, 32, 33; + hop-drying, 31; + mowing, 30; + musical critic, 33; + tree-felling, 30. + +Tom G., 41; + accuracy, 42; + builder, 44; + carpenter, 41; + efficiency, 45; + epigram, 43, 44; + teetotal, 41. + +Trees, paintings of, 192, 193. + +Tricker, 50, 51, 52. + +Trout, 35, 36, 49. + +Truffle-hunter, 144, 145. + +Tusser, Thomas, on hop-growing, 220, 221. + +Urchins, 264, 282, 291. + +Valentine's Day, St., 160. + +Vestry meetings, 99, 100. + +Veterinary surgeons, 147, 148. + +Vicar (my first) + as prosecutor, 101; + former ways of parishioners, 94, 95; + impressive reader, 98, 99; + "new farmers," 13; + procession with choir, 102; + restoration of church, 89, 90. + +Vicar (my second) + declines to act on School Board, 109; + religious instruction, 110; + scholar, 104. + +Vicar (my third), + innovations, 110; + relief of Peking, 104; + religious instruction, 110, 111. + +Vicar, a Gloucestershire, 104. + +Vicar of Old Basing, 165. + +_Victory_, old battleship, 194. + +Villagers, see Labourers, funeral, 15. + +Villages, Cotswold and Vale of Evesham, 283. + +"Viper," + egg-eater, 166; + rescues children, 21, 22; + avoids "dipping," 142. + +Virgil, _Georgics_, + and farm work, 207; + onomatopoeic lines, 195, 196; + on planting trees, 168; + prophetic lines, 300. + +Wages, 68, 69, 70. + +Waggon, + an ancient, 139; + name on a, 131, 132. + +Wakefield, Bishop of, 230. + +Walnut chair, 7. + +War, great, 45, 161, 227. + +Warde Fowler, Mr., 77, 78. + +Washington, Penelope, 9, 10. + +Wasps, 274, 275. + +Water-rats, 144. + +Waterspouts, 250. + +Way-warden, 100. + +Weather, abnormal, 247, 248, 249; + signs, 233. + +Wedding feast, a village, 65. + +Weeds, 70. + +Weighing machine, incorrect, 43. + +Wellington, Duke of, 197. + +"Welsher," a, 137. + +"Wendy," Pekingese, 267. + +Westwood, Professor, 276. + +Weyhill Fair, 228. + +Wickhamford, 8, 94, 299. + +Wild geese, 263. + +Wild, Miss Margaret, 92. + +Will Hall farm, 235. + +Will-o'-the-wisp, 249. + +Willow ("withy"), 199, 201. + +Wheatear, bird, 262. + +Wheat: + growing, ruined by importations, 208; + harvest, 210; + hoeing, 70; + rick building, 212. + +Whisky, 131, 178. + +White, Gilbert, + black bullfinch, 257; + dew-ponds, 243; + salted flesh, 296; + Saxon plurals, 289; + Selborne Church bells, 94. + +White, Miss Maude V., 124. + +Women on the land, 74, 75, 76. + +Woodcock, 258, 259. + +Woodpecker, green, 256. + +Woodpigeons, 261. + +Wool, 146, 147; + staplers, 145. + +"Woonts," 143. + +Worcester, + Battle of, 7; + Bishops of, 103; + butter market, 154; + china, 161; + hop-fair, 227. + +Words, confusion of, 51, 52. + +Wordsworth quoted, 61, 263. + +Wren, golden-crested, 261. + +"Wusser and wusser, old," 29. + +Wych-elm, 53. + +Yardley, Richard, will of, 5. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Grain and Chaff from an English Manor +by Arthur H. 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