278 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
thcir horses to understand the usual words cf command 
backwards. If they were driving pack-horses along at 
night with a load of brandy landed from a lugger, and 
were met by the revenue men, who ordered them to stop 
that the packs might be searched, the smugglers, like 
good and loyal subjects, called ‘Whoa! whoa!’ In- 
stantly the horses set off at a tearing gallop, for they 
understood ‘ Whoa!’ as ‘Gee-up!’ 
By a farmer’s door I found a tall branch of oak lying 
against the porch. The bark was dry, and the leaves 
were shrivelled, but the bough had been originally taken 
green from the tree. These boughs are discovered 
against the door on the morning of the 29th of May, and 
are in memory of the escape of King Charles from his 
enemies by hiding in an oak. The village ringers leave 
them, and then go to the church and ring a peal, for 
which they expect cider or small coin from each loyal 
person honoured with an oak branch. Another custom, ~ 
infinitely more ancient, is that of singing to the apple 
trees in early spring, so that the orchards may be in- 
duced to bear a good crop. The singers come round 
and visit each orchard ; they have a rhyme specially 
for the purpose, part of the refrain of which is that a cup 
of good cider cannot do any one harm—a hint which 
brings out a canful. In strange contrast to these genial 
customs, which accord so well with flowery fields, I 
heard an instance of the coldest indifference. An old 
couple lived for many years in a cottage; at last the 
wife died, and the husband, while the body was in the 
house, had his meals on the coffin as a table. 
A hundred years since, before steam, the corn was 
threshed out by the flail—a slow, and consequently 
expensive process. Many efforts were made to thresh 
quicker. Among others, wooden machines were put up 
