As an illustration of a prevailing harvesting custom, peculiar to more
counties than one at this season, and at the opening of this month, we
subjoin the following letter which appeared in vol. xxxvii. of the
_Monthly Magazine_:--
The reaping and harvesting of the wheat is attended with so heavy an
expense, and with practices of so disorderly a nature, as to call for
the strongest mark of disapprobation, and their immediate
discontinuance, or at least a modification of the pastime after the
labours of the day. The wheat being ready to cut down, and amounting
from ten to twenty acres; notice is given in the neighbourhood that a
reaping is to be performed on a particular day, when, as the farmer may
be more or less liked in the village, on the morning of the day
appointed a gang, consisting of an indefinite number of men and women
assemble at the field, and the reaping commences after breakfast, which
is seldom over till between eight and nine o'clock. This company is open
for additional hands to drop in at any time before the twelfth hour to
partake of the frolic of the day. By eleven or twelve o'clock the ale or
cider has so much warmed and elevated their spirits that their noisy
jokes and ribaldry are heard to a considerable distance, and often serve
to draw auxiliary force within the accustomed time. The dinner,
consisting of the best meat and vegetables, is carried into the field
between twelve and one o'clock; this is distributed with copious
draughts of ale and cider, and by two o'clock the pastime of cutting and
binding the wheat is resumed, and continued, without other interruption
than the squabbles of the party, until about five o'clock; when what is
called the drinkings are taken into the field, and under the shade of a
hedge-row, or large tree, the panniers are examined, and buns, cakes,
and all such articles are found as the confectionary skill of the
farmer's wife could produce for gratifying the appetites of her
customary guests at this season. After the drinkings are over, which
generally consume from half to three quarters of an hour, and even
longer, if such can be spared from the completion of the field, the
amusement of the wheat harvest is continued, with such exertions as draw
the reaping and binding of the field together with the close of the
evening. This done, a small sheaf is bound up, and set upon the top of
one of the ridges, when the reapers retiring to a certain distance,
each throws his reap-hook at the sheaf, until one more fortunate, or
less inebriated, than the rest strikes it down; this achievement is
accompanied with the utmost stretch and power of the voices of the
company, uttering words very indistinctly, but somewhat to this
purpose--_we ha in! we ha in! we ha in!_--which noise and tumult
continue about half an hour, when the company retire to the farmhouse
to sup; which being over, large portions of ale and cider enable them
to carouse and vociferate until one or two o'clock in the morning.
At the same house, or that of a neighbouring farmer, a similar scene
is renewed, beginning between eight and nine o'clock in the morning
following, and so continued through the precious season of the wheat
harvest in this county. It must be observed that the labourers thus
employed in reaping receive no wages; but in lieu thereof they have an
invitation to the farmer's house to partake of a harvest frolic, and at
Christmas, during the whole of which time, and which seldom continues
less than three or four days, the house is kept open night and day to
the guests, whose behaviour during the time may be assimilated to the
frolics of a bear-garden.
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