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the disciples were endued by the Holy Spirit with wit and wisdom to 

 teach and instruct the people in the Christian religion. Still another 

 writer informs us, that it was pagan in origin, and did not become 

 identified with the Christian holiday of Pentecost till after the Norman 

 conquest, and that its original name was Wittentide, because it was the 

 time when the Wittenagemote, or Saxon Parliament, assembled. What- 

 ever may have been its origin, or the derivation of its name, it is best 

 known to Cumbrians as a hiring term for farm servants, and the time at 

 which, in conjunction with Martinmas, the statute fairs are held. It is 

 difficult to understand why Whitsuntide should have been chosen for 

 such a purpose, as, being a moveable feast, whilst Martinmas is fixed, it 

 very rarely happens that the two divisions of the year are of the same 

 length, and not unfrequently the winter half-year, as it is called, is thirty 

 weeks, leaving the summer division only twenty-two. It was formerly 

 the custom for all masters requiring servants, to attend some or other of 

 these fairs, and there to hire such as seemed most suitable to them. The 

 servants, male and female, stood promiscuously in the market place, with 

 pieces of straw in their mouths, as badges of servitude, or signs that they 

 were open to engagements ; and the masters went among them in much 

 the same manner as they might have done among a herd of cattle, out of'', 

 which they wished to purchase two or three heifers, and their mode of 

 ■ choice was exactly the same, the judgment in both cases being guided by 

 the physical appearance of the animal to be bought or hired. Having 

 made a selection, and a bargain as to the amount of wages to be paid at 

 the end of the next half-year, the master gave the servant a shilling, which 

 was understood to make the agreement binding. This money was called 

 " Yearls," probably from a custom once common, of hiring servants by 

 the year ; thus when a master hired a servant for a year, and gave him 

 the shilling, he was said to yearl him, or bind him for a year. 



A great deal has from time to time been written and said in con- 

 demnation of the half-yearly hirings, and at one time they possibly 

 deserved all the odium which has been attached to them. However, to 

 judge of them impartially, it will be necessary to go back some forty or 

 fifty years, to a time when country servants were in a very different 



