JANUARY 55 



hopefully of signs of better fortune upon the horizon of the 

 year, if he can find any, and points out (which is perfectly true) 

 that the interests of the landlord, the tenant, and the labourer, 

 and indeed of all who live by the land, are one interest, whatever 

 agitators and mischief-makers may say to the contrary. Then he 

 gives some account of the farming of whatever country he may 

 last have visited, America, or Iceland, or Egypt, or the Hebrides, 

 or Mexico. This is generally the most popular part of the speech, 

 as there is a slight novelty about it, the rest being somewhat of a 

 formula. Finally he ends with the best peroration that occurs to 

 him and resumes his seat amidst the jingling of glasses, to rise 

 again presently and propose the health of the agent, to whose 

 many virtues he delicately alludes. 



Next the agent replies, paying him back full measure and 

 running over in the coin of compliment, and exhorting the 

 tenants to make up their minds that the bad times are done with, 

 and to pay their rent like men and Britons. Finally he ends by 

 proposing their healths, calling on two of them to respond. This 

 does not take long, for the average farmer is no great speaker, 

 and when the last of them sits down with a sigh of relief the 

 oratorical programme is exhausted. 



Then the songs begin — the pipes, long clay churchwardens, 

 have been lit already. These songs are generally three in number, 

 and always the same. One, a very long one, is of a local character, 

 for it describes the glories of Bungay, the chorus at the end of 

 each verse being, ' For old Bungay is a wonderful town.' Another 

 is a melancholy ditty descriptive of the ills of life and the 

 dangers and disasters that beset each profession ; even the lawyer, 

 who, so says the song, is invariably rich and happy in every other 

 way, must beware of the spite of Fate, since, while he is comfort- 

 ably fleecing his clients, his clerk ' is a-kissing of his wife.' The 

 third song is of a patriotic nature, and has for a refrain some- 

 thing about ' twisting the lion's tail.' Perhaps it was written in 

 America. 



While the sound of music lingers still the agent rises and. 



