The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-05
WHAT is A TEAM?

engaged in defining what "a team" meant. The
case was as fOllows: A Duke made an agree
ment with one of his tenants in 0xtordshlre
concerning the occupancy of farm, and por-
ton of the agreement was expressed in the fol- |
lowing terms:-"The tenant to perform each |
year for the Duke Of -, at the rate of one |
days teamwork, with two horses and one pro- |
per person, for every ESQ of rent, when required
Except at hay and corn harvest), without being |
paid for the same" In other words the rent of the
farm was made up of two portions, the larger
being money payment and the former certain
amount OF farm service. All went on smoothly
until one day. when the dukes bailiff desired the
farmer to send cart TO fetch Goals from rail-
way station to the ducal mansion. Certainly
not" said the farmer, "Ill send the horses and
man, but you must find the cart" "Pooh, pooh!
what do you mean? Does not your agreement
bind you to do teamwork occasionally for his
Grace" eyes, and here's the team: two horses
and a careful man to drive them" 'But there
can't be team without a cart or wagon!n "0h,
yes, there Can the horses are the team" mo
the horses and cart together are the team"
The question which a whole row of learned
judges were called upon to decide was-what is a
team? The form in which the inquiry came on
was that OF electment; the duke seeking to eject
the farmer on the ground of alleged forfeiture,
because the latter had refused to interpret team
work" as including the supply of cart as we'll
as horses and driver. In all probability both
parties were sincere, and both obstinate; each
believed himself to be right, and SO believing,
determined not to yield an inch to the other.
The case was at first tried at Oxford besore
common Jury, who gave verdict substantially
for the duke. A rule was afterwards obtained,
with a view to bring the question of definition
before the judges at the Court of Queens Bench.
The counsel for the duke contended that as
team work cannot be done by horses without
cart or wagon 1t is obvious that team must
include vehicle as well as the horses by which
it is to be drawn.
One Judge said that Gin the course of his read
ing he had met with some lines which tend to
show that the team is separate from the CART
"Giles Jelt was sleeping, in his cart ne lay;
Giles Wakes and crie1 obs bodkns, S wSSsShereq
Why how now am Giles or not9
If he, I've lost six geldings to my smart
II not. DDS bodkins I'VE found a Cart"
Another justice quoted a line from Words
"My Jolly team will work alone for me-"
as proving the farmers Interpretation, seeing
that though horses might possibly be jolly,
cart cannot. The counsel for his Grace urged
that the dictionaries of johnson and Walker
both speak of team as "a number of horses
drawing the same carriage" "True," said JUS
tice A., "do not these citations prove that
the team and the carriage are distinct things ?n
"No," replied the counsel on the Dukes side;
because team without cart would be of no
use." He cited the description given by Caesar
of the mode OF fighting in chariots, adopted by
the ancient Britons, and of the particular use
and meaning of the word tendnenl. From Caesar
he came down to Gray, the English poet, and
cited the lines:-
ION did the harvest TO their sickle YIELD
The iurrow @ of & their stG6b3rn gie6e hath broke;
How bow ID the Wood beneath their sturdy stroke;'!
and from Gray he came down to the far-famed
''Bulls Run" affair in the recent American civil
war, graphic account of which told that 1.-THE
teamsters cut the traces of the horses
The counsel for the farmer, on the other hand,
referred to Richardson's English dictionary, and
to BoswoTth's AnglO-SaXon dictionary, for sup
akt,z hat fNnv, ,lfna ,IxV
the horses, not the vehicle also; and he then
gave the following citations to the same effect
from Spenser;-
''Thee ploughman all unmeeting found
AS he his toilsome team that way did guide,
And brought thee up ploughman's state TO bide"
From Shakespeare:-
1--WE fairies that do run,
BY the triple Hecate's team,
Following darkness like a dream"
Again from Shakespeare
- am in love, but a team OF horse shall
Not pluck that from me nor who It's love"
From Roscommon:-
'After the declining sun
Had changed the shadows and tneir task was done,
Home with their weary team they took their way"
From Dryden;-
"He heaved with more than human force to move
A weighty straw the labor of team"
Again from Dryden:-
'Any number, and passing in a line:
Like long team of snowy swans on high,
Which clap their wings and cleave the liquid
sky"
From Spenser's "Virgil:"-
"By this the night forth from the darksome
bower
or Ere6us her teamed steed you call"
From Martineau:-
"In stiff days they may plough an acre of wheat
with a team of horse"
The GLORIOUS uncertainty OF the law" threw
the duke and the farmer into further litigation
before they could settle the question. The jury
of Oxford decided for the duke; the judges o.
Westminster decided 1.-TWO against Onel for the
farmer; but then it was determined (more tC
the advantage of the lawyers than OF the parties
concerned) that the case should be heard ovel
again on some other plea, or under some othel
egal aspect.