212 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



Henry Matthew Thomas William Stag Stacey, had 

 the utmost credit at Uppark (where he was Brewer, 

 &c.) for his honesty, and dying Ap. 17, 1875, aged 

 8 1, was buried at Compton. * Rev. David Morgan, 

 though doubtless a voluble Welshman, must have 

 found a difficulty in pronouncing this string of names 

 in one breath at the font. 



An old man, aged 82, now living, gives the following 

 graphic picture of a Harting labourer's work and fare 

 at harvest time, at the end of the last century : " Out 

 in morning at four o'clock. Mouthful of bread and 

 cheese and pint of ale. Then off to the harvest field. 

 Rippin and moen (reaping and mowing) till eight. 

 Then morning brakfast and small beer. Brakfast 

 a piece of fat pork as thick as your hat (a broad- 

 brimmed wideawake) is wide. Then work till ten 

 o'clock : then a mouthful of bread and cheese and a 

 pint of strong beer (" farnooner, i.e. forenooner, " far- 

 nooner's-lunch" we called it). Work till twelve. Then 

 at dinner in the farm-house ; sometimes a leg of 

 mutton, sometimes a piece of ham and plum pudding. 

 Then work till five : then a nunch and a quart of ale. 

 Nunch was cheese, 'twas skimmed cheese though. 

 Then work till sunset : then home and have supper 

 and a pint of ale. I never knew a man drunk in the 

 harvest field in my life. Could drink six quarts, and 

 believe that a man might drink two gallons in a day. 

 All of us were in the house* (i.e., the usual hired 

 servants, and those specially engaged for the harvest) : 

 the yearly servants used to go with the monthly 

 ones. 



" There were two thrashers : and the head thrasher 

 used always to go before the reapers. A man could 

 cut according to the goodness of the job, half-an-acre 

 a day. The terms of wages were 3 IDS. to 503. for 

 the month. 



" When the hay was in cock or the wheat in shock, 



For this anecdote I am indebted to Mr. Weaver. 



