The Merry Past 



the last sheaf of wheat had been garnered, was the 

 most prolific of feasting and merrymaking. Much 

 good feeling prevailed between the landlord who 

 resided on his estates and a robust tenantry who on 

 such occasions came into touch with one another — 

 village life was more enlivening than it is to-day. 



Owing to various causes the pleasures of the humblest 

 class of the population have been considerably curtailed 

 within the last hundred years, during which time many 

 social diversions, that used to be so characteristic and 

 illustrative of " merrie England," as regards sports and 

 pastimes, have been gradually disappearing, until they 

 will soon cease to be anything but matter of tale and 

 story. This has already taken place as regards not a 

 few of the hardy and enlivening games and revels of 

 the lower classes ; and that the same spirit which has 

 consigned them to oblivion will not be tardy in inter- 

 fering with and finally upsetting those of the upper, 

 is well within the bounds of possibility. 



The enlightened public opinion which has within 

 a space of time a little less than a century swept away 

 a number of brutal sports and pastimes has, at the 

 same time, greatly augmented the flow of sturdy 

 countrymen into the large towns, for whilst sup- 

 pressing the somewhat uncivilised amusements of a 

 less sensitive age it has put nothing in their place 

 except board schools, which of necessity inculcate 

 contempt for the somewhat primitive joys of rural 

 existence. 



The rustic of the present day has not that feeling 

 for sport which animated his ancestors, and incident- 



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