48 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



" He carried a stick with a calf's tail at one end and an inflated 

 bladder at the other, with which he kept a clear space for the 

 dancers, bestowing hearty thwacks upon the backs and sides of 

 any among the crowd who encroached too much. He also 

 collected the bystanders' contributions in a tin box. Among the 

 dances performed was one with sticks, each man striking the 

 stick of the opposite dancer, keeping time to the music, something 

 after the manner of a melodramatic backsword combat, whilst 

 there were other dances in which handkerchiefs were prominent 

 features." J 



There were more ploughing matches and " Fairs " than 

 to-day, though very often the district Fair was the one 

 annual holiday allowed to the agricultural labourer. He 

 had other holidays, of course, such as those when he stood 

 off for wet days, but these gave him no joy and his wife less. 



In spite of the prosperity of farming, the Union had now 

 to face its biggest battle in the struggle to win a shilling or 

 two more wages, which resulted in the Great Agricultural 

 Lock-out of 1874. 



1 Fifty Years of a Showman's Life, by Thomas Plowman. 



