The traveller cannot fail to notice the large number of square pits in
the green fields of Cheshire, which are very different from the round
drinking ponds of the southern shires.
These “pits” are excavations from which marl has been dug to place on
the surface of the surrounding land as manure, and some curious old
customs and words are connected with “marling.” After breakfast on the
pit bank, the “head man,” who was termed the “Lord of the soil,” called
out in a loud voice three times:
“‘O! Yez! O! Yez! O! Yez! This is to give notice that Mr. ---- has
given to us Marlers part of a thousand pounds, and to whomsoever
will do the same we will return thanks and shout.’ The men then
joined hands, and, putting their heads together, shouted ‘Largesse!
Largesse!’”
Should any one pass through the field, the “Lord” walked up, having a
marl clod on his shoulder. This was so well understood that sixpence or
a shilling was usually given. If the former, it was proclaimed as “part
of one hundred pounds”; if the latter, “part of one thousand pounds.”
At the close of the season they assembled in front of the village inn,
and repeated the oration.
“Ladling and slutching” is the clearing out the water and mud from a
pit. “Fea” is the soil covering the marl. “Setting” is spreading the
marl over the land; “Mid-feather,” the space between the pits.
The Cheshire rhyme says:
“He that marls sand may buy the land,
He that marls moss shall have no loss,
He that marls clay flings all away.”