Grain and Chaff from an English Manor 1 Grain and Chaff from an English Manor The Project Gutenberg EBook of Grain and Chaff from an English Manor by Arthur H. Savory This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re−use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Grain and Chaff from an English Manor Author: Arthur H. Savory Release Date: August 21, 2004 [EBook #13239] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO−8859−1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAIN AND CHAFF *** Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Team GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR By ARTHUR H. SAVORY OXFORD BASIL BLACKWELL 1920 PREFACE As a result of increased facilities within the last quarter of a century for the exploration of formerly inaccessible parts of the country, interest concerning our ancient villages has been largely awakened. Most of these places have some unwritten history and peculiarities worthy of attention, and an extensive literary field is thus open to residents with opportunities for observation and research. Such records have rarely been undertaken in the past, possibly because those capable of doing so have not recognized that what are the trivial features of everyday life in one generation may become exceptional in the next, and later still will have disappeared altogether. Gilbert White, who a hundred and thirty years ago published his _Natural History of Selborne_, was the first, and I suppose the most eminent, historian of any obscure village, and it is surprising, as his book has for so long been regarded as a classic, that so few have attempted a similar record. His great work remains an inspiring ideal which village historians can keep in view, not without some hope of producing a useful description of country life as they have seen it themselves. CHAPTER PAGE 2 It is a pleasure to acknowledge with grateful thanks the kind help of friends and correspondents which I have received in writing this book. Mr. Warde Fowler was good enough to look through the chapters while still in manuscript, and I have also received great help from Mr. Herbert A. Evans, who has read through the proofs. The help of others−−besides those whose names I give in the text−−has been less general and mostly confined to some details in the historical part of the first chapter, and to portions of the subject−matter of the last. Mr. Hugh Last, Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, most kindly gave much valuable time to the examination of the Roman coins and assigning them to their respective reigns; he contributed also the notes on the Emperors, with special reference to the events in Britain which occurred during their reigns. Mr. Dudley F. Nevill of Burley helped me in a variety of ways, and Mr. C.A. Binyon of Badsey supplied some of the historical details and information about the ancient roads. Looking back over the years I spent at Aldington, I see much more sunshine and blue sky than cloud and storm, notwithstanding the difficulties of the times. It is a continual source of pleasure to go over the familiar fields in imagination and to recall the kindly faces of my loyal and willing labourers. I trust that what I have written of them will make plain my grateful remembrance of their unfailing sympathy and ready help.−−ARTHUR H. SAVORY. BURLEY, HANTS. _January_, 1920. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. ALDINGTON VILLAGE−−THE MANOR HOUSE−−THE FARM.......... 1 II. THE FARM BAILIFF...................................... 11 III. THE HOP FOREMAN AND THE HOP DRIER..................... 23 IV. THE HEAD CARTER−−THE CARPENTER........................ 35 V. AN OLD−FASHIONED SHEPHERD−−OLD THICKER−−A GARDENER−−MY SECOND HEAD CARTER−−A LABOURER......... 46 VI. CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND VILLAGERS........................................... 57 VII. MACHINERY−−VILLAGE POLITICS−−ASPARAGUS................ 80 VIII. MY THREE VICARS−−CHURCH RESTORATION−−CHURCHWARDEN EXPERIENCES−−CLERICAL AND OTHER STORIES............. 89 IX. THE SCHOOL BOARD−−RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION−−SCHOOL INSPECTORS−−DEAN FARHAR−−COMPULSORY EDUCATION....... 106 X. VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS: CRICKET−−FOOTBALL−−FLOWER−SHOW −−BAND−−POSTMAN−−CONCERTS........................... 119 CHAPTER PAGE 3 XI. DEALERS−−LUCK MONEY−−FAIRS−−SALES−−EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON CATTLE AND SHEEP−−AGRICULTURAL SHOWS..... 126 XII. FARM SPECIALISTS...................................... 141 XIII. THE DAIRY−−CATTLE−−SHEEP−−LAMBS−−PIGS−−POULTRY........ 153 XIV. ORCHARDS−−APPLES−−CIDER−−PERRY........................ 167 XV. PLUMS−−CHERRIES....................................... 182 XVI. TREES: ELM−−OAK−−BEECH−−WILLOW−−SCOTS−FIR............. 187 XVII. CORN−−WHEAT−−RIDGE AND FURROW−−BARLEY−−FARMERS NEWSTYLE AND OLDSTYLE............................... 207 XVIII. HOPS−−INSECT ATTACKS−−HOP FAIRS....................... 220 XIX. METEOROLOGY−−ETON AND HARROW AT LORD'S−−"RUS IN URBE"............................................... 230 XX. CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS−−DEWPONDS−−A WET HARVEST−−WEATHER PHENOMENA−−WILL−O'−THE− WISP−−VARIOUS....................................... 239 XXI. BIRDS: PEACOCKS−−A WHITE PHEASANT−−ROOKS' ARITHMETIC.. 253 XXII. PETS: SUSIE−−COCKY−−TRUMP−−CHIPS−−WENDY−−TAFFY........ 264 XXIII. BUTTERFLIES−−MOTHS−−WASPS............................. 271 XXIV. CYCLING−−PAGEANTS OF THE ROADS−−ROADSIDE CREATURES−−HARMONIOUS BUILDING−−COLLECTING OLD FURNITURE AND CHINA................................. 278 XXV. DIALECT−−LOCAL PHRASEOLOGY IN SHAKESPEARE−−NAMES −−STUPID PLACES..................................... 288 XXVI. Is ALDINGTON THE ROMAN ANTONA?........................ 294 INDEX....................................................... 306 "Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! Gives not the hawthorn−bush a sweeter shade To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy To kings that fear their subjects' treachery!" _3 King Henry VI_. "When I paused to lean on my hoe, these sounds and sights I heard and saw anywhere in the row, a part of the inexhaustible entertainment which the country offers." −−THOREAU. "Life is sweet, brother.... There's night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun, moon and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise the wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to die?" −−BORROW: Jasper Petulengro. GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR CHAPTER I 4 CHAPTER I . ALDINGTON VILLAGE−−THE MANOR HOUSE−−THE FARM. "There's a divinity that shapes our ends." −−Hamlet. "Deep−meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns." −−_Morte d'Arthur_. In recalling my earliest impressions of the village of Aldington, near Evesham, Worcestershire, the first picture that presents itself is of two chestnut−trees in full bloom in front of the Manor House which became my home, and their welcome was so gracious on that sunny May morning that it inclined me to take a hopeful view of the inspection of the house and land which was the object of my visit. The village took its name from the Celtic _Alne_, white river; the Anglo−Saxon, _ing_, children or clan; and _ton_, the enclosed place. The whole name, therefore, signified "the enclosed place of the children, or clan, of the Alne." There are many other Alnes in England and Scotland, also Allens and Ellens as river names, probably corruptions of Alne, and we have many instances of the combination of a river name with ing and _ton_, such as Lymington and Dartington. The Celtic Alne points to the antiquity of the place, and there were extensive traces of Roman occupation to which I shall refer later. The village was really no more than a hamlet ecclesiastically attached to the much larger village of Badsey. In addition to Celtic, Roman, and Anglo−Saxon associations, it figured before the Norman Conquest in connection with the Monastery and Abbey of Evesham, the Manor and the mill being mentioned in the Abbey records; and they were afterwards set down in Domesday Survey. The Vale of Evesham, in which Aldington is situated, lies at the foot of the Cotswold Hills, and when approached from them a remarkable change in climate and appearance is at once noticeable. Descending from Broadway or Chipping Campden−−that is, from an altitude of about 1,000 feet to one of 150 or less−−on a mid−April day, one exchanges, within a few miles, the grip of winter, grey stone walls and bare trees, for the hopeful greenery of opening leaves and thickening hedges, and the withered grass of the Hill pastures for the luxuriance of the Vale meadows. The earliness of the climate and the natural richness of the land is the secret of the intensive cultivation which the Vale presents, and year by year more and more acres pass out of the category of farming into that of market−gardening and fruit−growing. The climate, however, though invaluable for early vegetable crops, is a source of danger to the fruit. After a few days of the warm, moist greenhouse temperature which, influenced by the Gulf Stream, comes from the south−west up the Severn and Avon valleys, between the Malverns and the Cotswolds, and which brings out the plum blossom on thousands of acres, a bitter frost sometimes occurs, when the destruction of the tender bloom is a tragedy in the Vale, while the Hills escape owing to their more backward development. The Manor House had been added to and largely altered, but many years had brought it into harmony with its surroundings, while Nature had dealt kindly with its colouring, so that it carried the charm of long use and continuous human habitation. Behind the house an old walled garden, with flower−bordered grass walks under arches of honeysuckle and roses, gave vistas of an ample mill−pond at the lower end, forming one of the garden boundaries. The pond was almost surrounded by tall black poplars which stretched protecting arms over the water, forming a wide and lofty avenue extending to the faded red−brick mill itself, and whispering continuously on the stillest summer day.