Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-08
ENGLISH HARVEST HOME
A Quaint Old Custom That is Too Rapidly
Becoming Obsolete.
When the Sheaves of Golden Corn
Have Been Gathered fn-Then
Come the Festivities.
From the London Mail,

From the London Mail.
Machinery. model farms and the spread
of education, which has tended to make
farm laborers' children intent on better
ing themselves. have dealt a serious blow
to the old-fashioned festivities which a few
years ago marked the end Of the harvest.
Then, when the sheayes of golden corn
had been safely garnered and the ''last load
home" was the occasion for mild al fresco
merrymaking, the farmer, his wife and
daughters. with every man. woman and
child on the farm, looked eagerly forward
to the harvest supper and dance which
should mark the farmers gratitude for the
gccd things a bright harvest had promised.
Little by little this old custom has died
out. and one fnds but few places in Eng
land nowadays where master and man give
themselves up to pleasure for one night in
the year. at least, together
Such gatherings, however, exist yet, and q
Daily Mail representative has Just been a
guest at one. In the most picturesque por-
ton of Surrey, on the estate of a north
country peer, which stretches for miles
amid rolling hillocks, glorious woodlands
and stubble fields where already the plough
is turning great ridges of warm, hard soil,
the tenants and laborers were in a keen
state or excitement on the day preceding
their annual harvest supper. Wondrous
tales of the viands the cook was preparing
up In the big house made ones mouth
water and hurly laborers smiled even more
expansiveiy than is the wont of their kind
as they told of the beer and 'baccy which
was free to all corners.
The scene in the village institute on the
night of this annual dissipation was quaint
enough. The long room, decked with a
wealth or green boughs and placards bear
ing somewhat fulsome eulogies Of the vir-
tues of the lord of the manor and his fam
lily, was ranged with long tables literally
sroaning under the weight of the viands.
cot trir ~ q
pies-and such pies!-lay amid banks of
mowers and ferns. A dozen or more rudy
FACED villagers, with hair oiled down until
IL seemed to have been painted on their
heads, their Sunday clothes covered with
spotless white aprons. stood ready to act
their part as walters. son of the house
was at the head Of the center table, and the
others were presided over by the steward,
pallln, local ecclesiastical dignitaries, and
other men Of weight and standing in the
little community, while the seats were filed
with appie-cheeked lasses and sturdy men
and bowed and wrinkled "granfers.' How
they did eat. Pie followed beef, and beef
gave way to chicken and ham, and then
huge plum buildings melted like snownakes
in the sun before this onslaught There
was little talking. the rattle of steel against
china and the clink of glasses were all we
heard until the wreck only of the array of
viaHds remained, and a great unanimous
sigh OF contentment went up to the rafters
Then another hour was devoted to speech
and song, and the serious business of the
evening was over. Tables We're cleared like
magic, a. dais for the orchestral piano, a
cornet and fddle-was erected, and then
baSketfuls of Scraped candles were trodden
into the floor to prepare for dancing
When all was ready the guests began to
arrfVe-the rector with his daughters; local
worthless, in morning dress and pumps;
their female relatives, decked in dainty din
ner blouses, which lent a touch of color
ana fesuVity to the scene and village
r1aidens, whose ffnery ran to little more
than a new ribbon on church-going frocks,
or a knot of flowers in their hair. One
young man was decked in a painfully new
dress suit cut in model of perhaps forty
years antiquity, and he looked exceedingly
proud of his isolation.
The dances were curious enough; the
young lady visitors had managed to coax a
few waltzes into the program but square
ana country dances predominated. These
last, with names such as would strike won
der into the heart of a fashionable Young
man, were not without their picturesque
ness. They We're generally modelled on 'Sir
Roger, and were danced with a yigor that
Was commendable, the couples from each
end of the Timetables one side men the
other-down the center back again. courte
sylng and Jigging merrily for an interval
which would suffice for three ordinary
dances.
While the young ones danced the elders
sat and gossiped, and the men folk alb
SCI bed beer and tobacco in gigantic quaint
ues IN an adjoining room. to the accompa-
niment of doieful and interminable songs,
generally sung with the least possible re-
gard to tune. But they enjoyed themselves,
as did every one. Enjoyment was the key
note of the whole affair, bright eyes and
smiling lips testified to the happiness of
men and maidens and 1t was with a siuh
OF regret that they at last stood to sing
Cod save the Queen" and then melted
slowly away into the shadows cast by the
snver moon shining brightly in the hazy
lights that told of the approach of dawn.