36 Nates and Sketches. 



the yoke, and securely pinned in that position. A 

 " brecham," or pad of dried " sprots," rushes, straw, 

 or strips " tyave" of moss fir roots, intervened between 

 the neck of the ox and the bow, to prevent friction in 

 the draught. The more important animals in the team 

 were the "fit owsen" and the "wyners." Connected 

 with the yoke of the former pair, which, of course, 

 were nearest the plough, was a short series of 

 elongated links, or staffs, for raising or lowering the 

 "soam" according as more or less "yird" was required by 

 the ploughman. And a " fit o' Ian'" ox was not con- 

 sidered fully trained in his function till he had learnt 

 to lower his neck when the ploughman cried " jouk," 

 at such times as he wanted the plough to go a little 

 deeper for the moment. The wyners again occupied 

 an important position, in so far as the turning of the 

 unwieldy team on a moderate width of end-rig 

 depended on their easing the draught off gradually 

 and featly. And then, as the young oxen were 

 always trained in the steer draught immediately behind ' 

 them, it depended chiefly upon the trustworthiness of 

 the veteran wyners that these juniors should be kept 

 steady, and prevented running into untimeous and 

 uncanny escapades, even to the extent of breaking 

 their harness at times, and scampering off from the 

 draught altogether. 



A tolerably vivid idea of the harnessing and draught 

 equipments of the time will be obtained, when it is 

 kept in mind that, apart from the plough soam, there 

 was no iron chain ordinarily in use. The " theets," 

 or traces, used in harrowing, were made either of 

 dried " sprots" or rushes, or of twisted fir roots 

 hempen rope being a little-known commodity. Thin 

 " splits" of fir taken off logs that had been dug up in 

 mosses and twisted into a sort of rope, because they 

 stood wet well without rotting, were " preferred above 

 all others for tethering horses in the field," as well as 

 for draught purposes. " These ropes of a proper 



