124 The Fishing-rod not a Favorite. 



longer the characteristic country liquor. With the 

 sherry cigars are handed round another change. 

 It is true the elderly men stick to their long clay 

 pipes, and it is observable that some of the younger 

 after a while go back to the yard of clay ; but on the 

 whole the cigar is now the proper thing. 



Then follow a couple of toasts, the stock-owner's 

 and auctioneer's usually short and an adjourn- 

 ment takes place if it be stock, to the }*ards ; if 

 corn, the cloth is cleared of all but the wine, and the 

 sale proceeds there and then. In either case the 

 sherry and the cigars go round persons being em- 

 ployed to press them freely upon all ; and altogether 

 a very jovial afternoon is spent. Some of the com- 

 pany do not separate till long after the conclusion of 

 the sale : the American or colonial agent perhaps 

 staj-s a night at the farmstead. In the house itself 

 there is all this time yet more liberal hospitality 

 proffered : it is quite open-house hospitality, master 

 and mistress vying in their efforts to make every one 

 feel at home. These gatherings do much to promote 

 a friendly spirit in the neighborhood. 



In the summer the farmer is too much occupied to 

 think of amusement. It is a curious fact that very 

 few really downright country people care for fishing ; 

 a ^gun and a horse are as necessarj* as air and light, 

 but the rod is not a favorite. There seems to be 

 greater enthusiasm than ever about horses ; whether 

 people bet or not, they talk and think and read more 

 of horses than they ever did before. 



In this locality Clerk's Ale, which used to be 

 rather an event, is quite extinct. The Court Leet 

 is still held, but partakes slightly of the nature of a 



