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JUNE. 



and two hundred cakes of figs : and it is added, 

 " Behold Nabal held a feast in his house, like 

 the feast of a king." Samuel ch. xxv. 



Such was the custom in this country in the 

 old-fashioned days. It was a time of merry- 

 making : the maidens, in their best attire, wait- 

 ed on the shearers to receive and roll up the 

 fleeces. A feast was made, and king and queen 

 elected ; or, according to Drayton's Polyolbion, 

 the king was pre-elected by a fortunate cir- 

 cumstance. 



The Shepherd-king, 

 Whose flock hath chanced that year the earliest lamb to 



bring, 



In his gay baldric sits at his low, grassy board, 

 With flawns, curds, clouted cream, and country dainties 



stored ; 



And while the bagpipes play, each lusty, jocund swain 

 Quaffs syllabubs in cans, to all upon the plain ; 

 And to their country girls, whose nosegays they do wear ; 

 Some roundelays do sing, the rest the burden bear. 



Like most of our old festivities, however, this 

 has, of late years, declined; yet two instances 

 in which it has been attempted to keep it alive, 

 on a noble scale, worthy of a country so re- 

 nowned for its flocks and fleeces, will occur to 

 the reader those of Holkham and Woburn : 

 and in the wilds of Scotland, and the more 



