New-York tribune., 1901-04-07
ENGLISH HIRING FAIRS
AN OLD AND PICTURESQUE CUSTOM
DYING OUT.
From The Pail Mall Gazette.

From The Pail Mall Gazette.
Among the passing phases of country life. as
one is reminded by the advent of March. IS the
hiring that once throughout all England was the
ordinary means of engaging farm servants. us
name and date varied with the locality. In the
LOuth district of Lincolnshire 1t Is customary 10
hold stats statute fair as early in the
year January. the servants entering on thelr
engagements on April Ii The Cambrfdgeshlre
hirings take place at WSbech during Septem-
her The 'mopS' of the midland and western
counties were held some in May, but most in
the autumn. But in every one of them the SyS-
tenn is dying out and the hiring fair IS going
the way of the horse and sheep and general
fairs-that is to say it is ceasng To exist. Like
a great many other old institutions II has been
ruined by the cheap press. Your rustic Is we'll
aware that for a siXpenny advertisement ne can
at any time make known his wish for a change.
The ancient custom dies hardest among the
tenacious Northmen ard hear that the Irst or
the March hringS very we'll attended IN
deed Ploughmen. naturally rnOugh, were in
high spirits. the wages commanded being salts
factory to them. Sixteen Shillings week was
given in cash. and OF course this was in addi-
tion the payments in kind which have al
ways bulked largely in the North. and include
such solid perqusites rent free cottage
from a thousand to fifteen hundred yards of po
tatoes. and various measures of corn Payment
in kind is always tending toward disuse. and
the feeling is that hours of labor should he very
definitely fixed and remuneration be IN money
the bond between master and man being only
what Carlyle called the cash nexus. 1t is quite
a new deal in agriculture.
If We remember that it was the loss of indi-
rect ADVANTAGES such as that Of common graz
ing that ended the career of the famous
British yeoman and compelled 50 many sales IN
the late eighteenth and early nineteenth CEN
turieS. may we'll look with suspicion upon
this general craving for hard cash one would
not like To the Northern rustic spoiled. In
age which shows 50 many signs Of decadence
il is good 10 see that his tSure Is as burly. MS
voice as strong ever: it is good To hear him at
those hrinss cxclaming with pleased surprise.
the while energetically shaking hands. LIST
md lin y1if
variations You saunter down whore master
and man have been negotiating is that ee.
Johnny" "Eh. Mary hinny; surely that's no
'er?' Throughout the year they do not depend
50 much cider (which is nearly always hard
and Of great alcoholic strength and beer. ths
home brrWed four-llr varying as the Southern
rustic. Cider is very good drinking but not th'
cider they drink-"IIer be good zider,
muster thick and bitter and ale not To be de-
spised. but not the Mayside home hrewed Oh ne
Eastern counties. The northrrner IS safer with
his milk all the year round varied 10y "A bit ot
a burst at IN" hrings
The Northern peasant woman has very great
~ changed in recent years 'NrTdant Green
scarcely be, called an ancient work. ana Z
seems u thr writer that the hondager remained
up - quite recently as she was described IN
that amusing volume. remember her as
very buX0m woman. supported on legs like tive
stout pillars. her frock very short showing her
leEeiugs and wooden clogs. She Wore a bon
grace. too. that from certain ballads in the Rox
hurEh collection seems AT one time to have been
common all over England. 1t was funny
shaped bonnet. with projection that reSemblei
the hood of carriage. and for short it was
called an ugly But the bondager OF to-day.
who calls herself outwOrker. has departed
sadly from this model. Not in the fields
will she wear an ugly. and she to the
fair with genteel hat and Veil 10 it. while
her hair is over her ears and Curled round her
eyebrows quite in the manner Of a Gcntcel shop
girl or harmaid And this not the worst #
il one of my correspondents who is a most
trustworthy observer of peasant life draws at
tenton To a silly and pcruiCiOuS habit of theirs
following i
quarter Of the women looked healthy. and these
nearly all the middle-aged ones. They are
in the most frightfully anaemiC and dySp"ptIc
condition and very few but had most II their
teeth They looked more delicate than the
town girls Many OF them had the most eNqui-
site CompleXiOnS Imaginable. but not of the kind
associate with good health. To get the eN
traOrdinary pallor and the faint pink they eat
quantities of oatmeal starch, rice, etc. III!
il is impossible for them To digest tiSCeI.;
meal