MR HARDY ON BOWLING. 63 



grossing preparations. The ground for the barley crop, indeed, re- 

 quired to bo twice, or, at the utmost, thrice ploughed ;* once in the 

 back end, and again in spring, — ^the latter process being termed ** steer- 

 ing the barley seed." But the farms at that period were of insigni- 

 ficant size, — and even though tillage, effected by the unnecessary en- 

 cumbrance of two oxen and two horses yoked to a single plough, was 

 slow, clumsy, and protracted, — yet the crop not being sown till tlie be- 

 ginning of June,t a large interval at the end of the year could, with- 

 out inconvenience, be assigned to the cultivation of the sports of the field. 

 So much were the labourers, on some occasions during the months suc- 

 ceeding the harvest, unengaged with out-door occupations, that, accord- 

 ing to an informant, the ploughs have been laid up from that period, 

 till the near approach of spring gave the signal for renewed exertion.} 



*' It groweth muche among rye ; wherefore, I thynke, that good ry, in an euill and 

 vnseasonable yere doth go out of kynde into thys wede." And of the fourth kind of 

 Poppy or Chesbovde, he says, " Thys kynde is called in English, corn-rose or red 

 corn-rose, and with us it groweth much amongest the rye and barley.'* At that 

 time " bigge barley" grew " muche in the north country.'' He also speaks of rye 

 bread, called by the " Northerne men" "aussem brede," as a familiar thing. In- 

 termediate between this period and that alluded to above, John Ray, the naturalist, 

 in 1660, took his simpling itinerary along the eastern coasts. His observations, 

 made with philosophic deliberation, attest, likewise, the scarcity of wheat. " The 

 ground in the valleys and plains bears very good corn, but especially bear-barley, 

 or bigge, and oats, but rarely wheat and rye." (Select Remains.) 



♦ It was generally remarked, that it was the worse of the third ploughing, for by 

 Iwsening and breaking the roots of the quicken-grass (and probably also of Holctu 

 mollis confounded with it under the name of wrack), with which the grounds at that 

 period of careless husbandry were replete to an excessive degree ; in a moist season 

 it became so luxuriant as to shock the crop, and usurp the mastery of the field. When 

 this circumstance happened. Nature was allowed to " play her virgin fancies," as by 

 that means the expense of buying grass seeds was obviated. 



t Linnaeus makes the patriotic boast, that in Sweden, " grain of all sorts is ob- 

 •3rved to spring forth sooner, grow quicker, and ripen in less time than in any other 

 part of the world." (Oration concerning Travelling in one's own country, 1741.) 

 In the Flora Lapponica, ho says, ** that at Purkyaur, in Lapland, anno 1732, barlej 

 sown May 31, was ripe July 28, t. e. in 58 days." (Stillingfleet's MisceU. Tracts, p. 

 Vh) In the champaign of Scania, whether the spring be early or not, the barley is 

 •own about May the 29th. It would appear that oar old people in the eastern part 

 of the shire, while they observed the period of sowing, both expected and enjoyed 

 the precocity of the sadden and ardent summer of Sweden and Lapland. We 

 readily contradict statements derived from single instances of very forward 

 that make a deep impreesicm, are long remembered, and, in the decay of intellect, are 

 apt to be cited as general facts. They affirm that a little after the barley was under 

 the dod, the dew was standing upon the tender blade, and that it was reckoned a 

 common thing for only six weeks to intervene between the grain's being out of the 

 bag, and its waving yellow, ready for the sickle. 



X A similar custom prevailed in the Orkney islands in the 10th century. " They 



