254 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



that ensues when turf piled up ready for removal cannot 

 be moved because it is not " convenient " for the farmer 

 to lend his horses when required ; the consequence being 

 that it gets spoilt by rain. There was a further small 

 privilege the ash, excellent for manure, resulting from 

 the burnt turf. This ash the farmer would buy from the 

 labourer. Another small concession was the " gleaning " 

 privilege after wheat harvests the scattered fragments, 

 so to speak, left on the cornfields after the bulk of the 

 crops had been carted away. 



Children were sometimes put to do this work, and their 

 parents if employes of the farmer were allowed to get 

 what could be raked up. Generally the " gleaning " 

 had to be done at the end of the day after the corn 

 waggons had got all they could out of the fields ; and 

 the process of raking up had often to be extended to very 

 late hours and performed under the light of the " harvest 

 moon." But there was, of course, a dark side for the 

 labourer to the " gleaning " privilege. It must be the 

 very last thing attended to the primary function being 

 to get the bulk of the crops off the ground ; and this 

 being the case the rain which had " held up " for the 

 big crop, often descended pitilessly upon the straggling 

 remainder and soaking it, continued perhaps to soak it 

 until it got spoilt rotten and unusable. 



Another little privilege was in the gathering of the 

 wild but wholesome fruit the whortleberry, which in some 

 seasons grows in large quantities on the moors, in the 

 wide stretches of moor country. This fruit, commonly 

 called " worts," was mostly gathered by children, and by 

 them hawked round the district for sale ; also inthe towns, 

 where " worts " proved a nice change to other fruits. 

 Cranberries, too, are another wild fruit contrasting 

 against the black " worts " by the scarlet hue that lends 

 quite a feature to moorland scenery. Sometimes a 

 " market overt " may be established by greengrocers 

 in the whortleberry and cranberry districts these 



