112 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



rude, but he has not the faintest conception that polite- 

 ness demands a little yielding. He has to be shoved, 

 and makes no objection. A city crowd is to a certain 

 extent mobile each recognizes that he must give way. 

 A country crowd stands stock-still. 



The thumping of drums, the blaring of trumpets, 

 the tootling of pan-pipes in front of the shows, fill the 

 air with a din which may be heard miles away, and 

 seem to give the crowd intense pleasure far more 

 than the crack band of the Coldstream Guards could 

 impart. Nor are they ever weary of gazing at the 

 " pelican of the wilderness " as the showman describes 

 it a mournful bird with draggled feathers standing 

 by the entrance, a traditional part of his stock-in-trade. 

 One attraction perhaps the strongest may be found 

 in the fact that all the countryside is sure to be there. 

 Each labourer or labouring woman will meet acquaint- 

 ances from distant villages they have not seen or 

 heard of for months. The rural gossip of half a county 

 will be exchanged. 



In the autumn after the harvest the gleaning is still 

 an important time to the cottager, though nothing like 

 it used to be. Reaping by machinery has made rapid 

 inroads, and there is not nearly so much left behind 

 as in former days. Yet half the women and children 

 of the place go out and glean, but very few now bake 

 at home ; they have their bread from the baker, who 

 comes round in the smallest hamlets. Possibly they 

 had a more -wholesome article in the olden time, when 

 the wheat from their gleanings was ground at the 



