326 History of the English Landed Interest. 



prove their diligence in rising earliest. The ploughman 

 strove to collect his whip, staff and hatchet, and be by the 

 fireside before the maid could get her kettle there, and the 

 Shrovetide cock was the prize of the winner. A good supper 

 and strong drink in the evening of this day terminated the 

 feasting. 



At Shrovetide the fun was renewed, when the lads, blind- 

 folded by their sweethearts' aprons, chased one of their fellows 

 at whose back dangled a plump hen. Bedecked with horse 

 bells, the latter led his comrades a merry dance, and some 

 time elapsed before the hen was captured, relegated to the 

 spit, and served up with bacon and pancakes for supper. The 

 AVakeday was another occasion for jollification, on which was 

 celebrated the dedication of the parish church, A morning 

 service and afternoon's frolic commemorated the event. As 

 after harvest, so after seed-sowing there was joviality, though 

 in a less degree. The seed-cake, pasties and furmenty pot 

 afforded a pleasant and additional relish to the ordinary fare 

 of supper. Except after bad harvests, the farming community 

 were not stinted in their diet, and on some farms even the 

 labourers expected and received roast joints on Thursday 

 evenings and Sunday mornings throughout the 3'ear. Many 

 of this class were privileged to keep a pig, all were entitled to 

 board and lodgings as well as wages, and such a system should 

 have spurred all hands to perform the tasks of husbandry 

 effectually and without waste of time. It was in fact an 

 arrangement in which the co-operative system is clearly re- 

 cognisable. A harvest strike, not unheard of in nineteenth- 

 century agriculture, would have meant loss and deterioration 

 not only of the master's winter food supply, but also of the 

 strikers. A robbed hen-roost, lost, stolen or strayed cattle, 

 neglectful herding, all signified so much less meat for the farm 

 garrison during the approaching winter ; and as for an incle- 

 ment season, it was a disaster in which everything that drew 

 breath participated. Under such circumstances one might 

 almost imagine that nobody would require much supervision. 

 It was however, though an accident, still a feature of the 

 farmer's position, that he should be the centre of a critical 



