122 The New Festivals. 



go. An additional a personal interest attaches 

 to many of the races because the horses are local 

 horses, and the riders known to the spectators. 

 Some of these meetings are movable ; they are held 

 near one town one year and another the next, so as 

 to travel round the whole hunting district : return- 

 ing, say, the fourth year to the first place. Most 

 of the market towns of any importance have their 

 annual agricultural show now, which is well at- 

 tended. 



In the spring comes the rook-shooting ; the date 

 varies a week or so according to the season, whether 

 it has been mild and favorable or hard and late. 

 This still remains a favorite occasion for a party. 

 Sheep-shearing in sheep districts, as the Downs, is 

 also remembered ; some of the old folk make much 

 of it ; but as a general rule this ancient festival has 

 fallen a good deal into disuse. It is not made the 

 grand feast it once was for master and man alike 

 at least, not in these parts. With the change that 

 has come across agriculture at large a variation has 

 taken place in the life of the people. New festivals, 

 and of a different character, have sprung up. 



The most important of these is the annual auction 

 on the farm : the system of selling by auction which 

 has become so widely diffused has, indeed, quite revo- 

 lutionized agriculture in many ways. Where the 

 farm is celebrated for a special breed of sheep, the 

 great event of the year is the annual auction at home 

 of ram lambs. Where the farm is famous for cattle, 

 the chief occasion is the yearly sale of young short- 

 horns. And recently, since steam plough and arti- 

 ficial manure and general high pressure have been 



