54 A FARMER'S YEAR 



range themselves in solemn lines on either side, in order of 

 seniority and social precedence. Then grace is said and the meal 

 begins ; and an excellent meal it is, by the way, though perhaps it 

 would not recommend itself to the guests at a London dinner 

 party. Here is the menu, which never varies from year to year : 



Clear Ox-tail Soup. 



Fried Soles. Boiled Cod. 



Roast Beef. Boiled Mutton. 



Chicken and Tongue. 



Roast Turkey. 



(For this festival is always celebrated early in January. ) 

 Plum Pudding. Mince Pies. 



Cheese. 

 Beer, Port, and Sherry. 



Such is the feast, most admirably cooked in the good old English 

 fashion with the old English accessories, and it is one to which 

 hungry men who have eaten nothing since the morning certainly 

 do justice. 



After the meal is finished glasses are filled and the landlord 

 proposes ' The Queen,' which is loyally drunk, but in silence, as 

 though to her Majesty's memory. Then comes a solemn pause, 

 till the largest tenant present at the feast as regards his holding, 

 not his person his eyes fixed sternly upon vacancy, rises and 

 proposes the health of the landlord in a few brief but kindly 

 sentences. 



Another pause and the landlord rises to reply. How well he 

 knows that speech ! It begins invariably with a solemn wail or 

 lament over the shocking bad times, which, as a general rule, he 

 is obliged to confess are even worse than they were at the last 

 gathering. Then, while his audience shake their heads and sigh, 

 he rises to a more cheerful note and talks of the inherent pluck 

 and nobility of the character of Englishmen, which, as he firmly 

 believes, will, if persisted in, enable them in the end to put up the 

 price of corn how, he prefers not to specify. He also discourses 



