MARLING
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.”