T 1 2 Wild Life in a Southern County 



prepared, and everybody who likes to come is welcome. 

 If there happens to be a great barn near the homestead it 

 is usually used for the dinner. The marquee has yet to 

 be invented which will keep out a thunderstorm that 

 common interruption of country meetings like an old 

 barn. But barns are not always available, and a tent is 

 then essential. Though the spot may be lonely and several 

 miles from a town or station, a large number of persons 

 are sure to be there ; and if it is an auction of sheep or 

 cattle with a pedigree, many of them will be found to have 

 come from the other end of the kingdom, and sometimes 

 agents are present from America or the colonies. Much 

 time is consumed in an examination of the stock, and 

 then the dinner begins at least two hours later than 

 was announced. But this little peculiarity is so well 

 understood by all interested as to cause no inconvenience. 



Scarcely any ale is to be seen ; it is there if asked for ; 

 but the great majority now drink sherry. The way in 

 which this wine has supplanted the old-fashioned October 

 ale is remarkable, and a noticeable sign of the times. At 

 home the farmer may still have his foaming jug, but 

 whenever farmers congregate together on occasions like 

 this, sherry is the favourite. When calling at the inns in 

 the towns on market days much business is transacted 

 at the inns spirits are usually taken, so that ale is no 

 longer the characteristic country liquor. With the sherry 

 cigars are handed round another change. It is true the 

 elderly men stick to their long clay pipes, and it is 

 observable that some of the younger after a while go back 

 to the yard of clay ; but on the whole the cigar is now the 

 proper thing. 



Then follow a couple of toasts, the stockowner's and 

 auctioneer's usually short and an adjournment takes 



