Harvesting the Hedges 
try to seize the cushion. She resists till the right man 
comes forward, when he is allowed to kneel on the cushion 
and claim her for the round dance that follows. Other 
dances were the “ Triumph,” a sort of march round, which 
generally opened the proceedings ; and country dances, 
such as “ Sir Roger de Coverley,” “ Patronella,” “ Circassian 
Circle,” and Reels, played, however, by the local fiddler. 
But now, at many of these local dances, Polkas and Vaises 
are the fashion; and at a country christening the other 
day I heard of a “ Pas de Quatre ” being performed under 
the name of “ Pardycater.” Curiously enough, this dance 
is said to be a combination of an old Scotch lilt and the 
old-fashioned Schottische. The dressing, too, like the 
dancing, has followed after foreign fashions, and the young 
women are not so picturesque as they used to be, while, 
although the Kirn Dance still survives as an institution, 
old Kirn customs are dying out, and soon there will be, I 
fear, but few left who will know how to dance a Ring 
dance or “ ken a Cornbabby.” A steam threshing- 
machine, called “ Puffing Billy,” pays periodical visits to 
all the farms, and a “ binder ” machine has made good 
its footing at the Gatehouse Farm, despite the “boycotting ” 
it received from some of the farm-folk, who refused at first 
to have anything to do with it. Reapers and gleaners are 
well-nigh visions of the past, and a red-wheeled reaping- 
machine does the work instead. It is, perhaps, more 
thorough, but is certainly less picturesque. Tales of horror 
accompany its progress through the land ; of sundry 
too inquisitive bairns whose members it has swept off, 
and careless drivers who have come to grief. Reaping 
and gleaning are not the only customs which have died 
out. Foresters’ corn, which was one of the dues paid 
yearly by some landowners to others holding superior rights 
over the same property, is now commuted to money. The 
Crab-apples are lying thickly under the trees in the lane ; 
they were so pretty, those crooked little trees, in the spring, 
all covered with waxen bloom! Sometimes the country 
children gather them to roast at the fire ; but, as a rule, no 
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