A Sixteenth- CentiLvy Farm. 325 



drink, and wages, and to set apart a cow or two and some 

 fatted crone ewes for their food. The men worked under a 

 sober steady foreman, called a " lord," who led the swarth both 

 in reaping and mowing. Every man was furnished with 

 gloves, and had the privilege at the end of the harvest to go 

 round the neighbourhood crying largesse, which custom still 

 clings to the Eastern counties. Before the corn was garnered 

 the hogs were already in the infield, and the word "hoy" was 

 used to frighten the animals from under the carts before moving 

 forward each time along the mows. When reaped with the 

 sickle, the stubble remained long enough to allow of a second 

 mowing, a process which was deprecated amongst good farmers 

 as impoverishing the soil. Barley was generally mown, then 

 either raked and set up in cocks or tied into shocks. The 

 latter custom prevailed when, as in Devonshire, it was carried 

 out of the field on horseback, or in Northumberland, where it 

 was conveyed to the barn in sledges. The parson of course 

 took his tithe either in the swarth or shock, as the case might 

 be, prior to the removal of the crop. Peas, according to 

 Tusser, were not turned before carried ; but the side that has 

 lain long next the ground is sure to be too moist, and such a 

 practice cannot pass unchallenged. The stubbles now bared 

 of the crop were left to the gleaners, the community's horses 

 and swine. By Michaelmas the superfluous grain, having had 

 time to sprout up into green shoots, afforded an excellent food 

 for the cows. 



The harvest all gathered in, it was high time for a short 

 rest and jollification. A good supper was provided for all 

 hands ; ribbons, laces and pins distributed amongst the young 

 folk ; the best beer (of which there were three sorts brewed 

 for harvesters) served out to the men. So much has been said 

 about the work of the farm that one may well begin to won- 

 der whether any time was left for holiday making. Yet there 

 were several widely recognised periods for festivity and fun. 

 From Christmas day to Twelfth night the gentry feasted the 

 farmers and the farmers their labourers. Plough Monday was 

 the occasion for reminding all agriculturalists of the stern work 

 before them. On that day men and maids endeavoured to 



