240 A FARMER'S YEAR 



me much of some that I have seen in Holland ; indeed, I think 

 that in it an old Dutch artist would have found many o[)por- 

 tunities. 



June 19.— Yesterday the morning was fine and warm, but in 

 the afternoon rain fell. We finished cutting the layer on All 

 Hallows, No. 37, and began the trefoil on Baker's, No. 45. Also 

 we drilled white turnips upon the strip left for them among the 

 beet and swedes on Baker's, No. 44. Peachey has been at work 

 all day with three horses, ' cultivating ' a portion of the land on 

 No. 24, where the mixed food has been fed off by the sheep, in 

 order to drag out the twitch grass with which it has become 

 infested. The implement employed is wooden-framed, and set 

 with a number of curved prongs of steel that tear up the soil as 

 they pass through it, drawing the grass and rubbish to the surface. 

 To-day, to make the teeth sink deeper, it was weighted with an 

 iron harrow laid atop. The land has been gone over three 

 times, first transversely, then longitudinally, and again trans- 

 versely, so I think that most of the grass must have been 

 destroyed. As soon as it is a Httle dry it will be raked into 

 heaps and burnt. 



This afternoon, after attending church at Bedingham, Mr. 

 Morgan, the vicar, kindly fetched the registers, and we looked 

 through them. They begin in 1555, the year, I believe, of the 

 Marian persecutions, and are kept in the usual form, baptisms, 

 marriages and burials being entered in one book. I imagine that 

 in those early days the usual practice was for the clergyman to 

 make rough notes of these events in a commonplace book, 

 which at any convenient time were entered uj) into the register 

 by a travelling clerk, who wrote what was considered a good 

 hand, and did such work for a fee — at least in several of the 

 registers hereabouts I have observed what seems to be the 

 same handwriting appearing contemporaneously. Most students 

 of registers will have noticed that the entries of burials in early 

 days seem to be much more numerous than those either of 



