WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 107 



The young men for weeks previously have been 

 practising for the mumming a kind of rude drama 

 requiring, it would seem, as much rehearsal before- 

 hand as the plays at famous theatres. They dress in 

 a fantastic manner, with masks and coloured ribbons ; 

 anything grotesque answers, for there is little attempt 

 at dressing in character. They stroll round to each 

 farmhouse in the parish, and enact the play in the 

 kitchen or brewhouse ; after which the whole com- 

 pany are refreshed with ale, and, receiving a few coins, 

 go on to the next homestead. Mumming, however, 

 has much deteriorated, even in the last fifteen or 

 twenty years. On nights when the players were 

 known to be coming, in addition to the farmer's house- 

 hold and visitors at that season, the cottagers residing 

 near used to assemble, so that there was quite an 

 audience. Now it is a chance whether they come 

 round or not. 



A more popular pastime with the young men, and 

 perhaps more profitable, is the formation of a brass 

 band. They practise vigorously before Christmas, 

 and sometimes attain considerable proficiency. At the 

 proper season they visit the farms in the evening, and 

 as the houses are far apart, so that only a few can be 

 called at in the hours available after work, it takes them 

 some time to perambulate the parish ; so that for 

 two or three weeks about the end of the old and the 

 beginning 'of the new year, if one chances to be out at 

 night, every now and then comes the unwonted note 

 of a distant trumpet sounding over the fields. The 



