140 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
jovial afternoon is spent. Some of the company do 
not separate till long after the conclusion of the sale: 
the American or colonial agent perhaps stays a night 
at the farmstead. In the house itself there is all this 
time yet more liberal hospitality proffered : it is quite 
open-house hospitality, master and mistress vying in 
their efforts to make everyone feel at home. These 
gatherings do much to promote a friendly spirit in 
the neighbourhood. 
In the summer the farmer is too much occupied to 
think of amusement. It is a curious fact that very few 
really downright country people care for fishing ; a 
gun and a horse are as necessary as air and light, 
but the rod is not a favourite. There seems to be 
greater enthusiasm than ever about horses ; whether 
people bet or not, they talk and think and read more 
of horses than they ever did before. 
In this locality Clerk’s Ale, which used to be 
rather an event, is quite extinct. The Court Leet is 
still held, but partakes slightly of the nature of a 
harmless farce. The lord of the manor’s court is no 
terror now. A number of gentlemen, more for the 
custom’s sake than anything, sit in solemn conclave 
to decide whether or no an old pollard tree may be 
cut down, how much an old woman shall pay in quit- 
rent for her hovel, or whether there was or was not a 
gateway in a certain hedge seventy years ago. How- 
ever, it brings neighbours together, and causes the 
inevitable sherry to circulate briskly. 
