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LADY OF THE LAND |
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(d) This game no doubt originates from the country practice of hiring servants at fairs, or from a dramatic " Hirings " being acted at Harvest Homes. The " Good-bye" of mother and daughters belongs, no doubt, to the original game and early versions, and is consistent with the departure of a servant to her new home. The "lover" incident is an interpolation, but there may have been a request on the part of the "mother" to the "lady" not to allow the girl followers or sweethearts too soon. As to the old practice of hiring servants, Miss Burne has noted how distinctly it stamps itself upon local custom (Shropshire Folklore, pp. 461, 464). That the practice forms the groundwork of this game is well illustrated by the following descriptive passage. " They stay usually two or three dayes with theire friends, and then aboute the fifth or sixth day after Martynmasse will they come to theire newe masters; they will depart from theire olde services any day in the weeke, but theire desire (hereaboutes) is to goe to theire newe masters eyther on a Tewsday or on a Thursday; for on a Sunday they will seldome remoove, and as for Monday, they account it ominous, for they say—
Monday flitte,
Neaver sitte;
but as for the other dayes in the weeke they make no greate
matter. I heard a servant asked what hee could doe, whoe
made this answeare—
I can sowe, I can mowe, And I can stacke; And I can doe, My master too, When my master turnes his backe."
—Best's Rural Eco7io?ny of Yorks., 1641 ; Surges Society, pp. 135-136.
In Long Ago, ii. 130, Mr. Scarlett Potter mentions that in South Warwickshire it was customary at harvest-homes to give a kind of dramatic performance. One piece, called " The Hiring," represents a farmer engaging a man, in which work done by the man, the terms of service, and food to be supplied, are stated in rhymes similar to the above. See "Lammas." |
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