The following particulars as to the farmer's expenses at harvest time are quoted by Mr. Skeat in his notes to Piers Plowman, C. Text, Passus ix. 104, from Sir J. Cullum's Hist. of Hawsted, Suffolk, 2nd ed.: "The outgoings [in harvest] were called the costs of autumn, and are thus stated. In 1388, [we find] the expences of a ploughman, head reaper, baker, cook, brewer, deye, 244½ reapers (sic) hired for 1 day; 30 bedrepes (days of work performed in harvest-time by the customary tenants, at the bidding of their lord), the men [being] fed, according to custom, with bread and herring; 3 qrs. 3 bu. of wheat from the stock; 5 qrs. 3 bu. of malt from the stock; meat bought, 10s. 10d.; 5 sheep from the stock; fish and herrings bought, 5s.; herrings bought for the customary tenants, 7d.; cheese, milk, and butter bought (the dairy being let), 9s. 6d.; salt, 3d.; candles, 5d.; pepper, 3d.; spoons, dishes, and faucets, 5d. 30 bedrepes, as before; 19 reapers, hired for 1 day, at their own board, 4d. each; 80 men, for 1 day, and kept at the lady's board, 4d. each: 40½ men (sic) hired for 1 day, at 3d. each; the wages of the head reaper, 6s. 8d.; of the brewer, 3s. 4d.; of the cook, 3s. 4d. 30 acres of oats tied up by the job (per taskam), 1s. 8d.; 6 acres of bolymong cut and tied up by the job, 3s. 4d.; 16 acres of pease, cut by the job, 8s.; 5 acres of pease and bolymong, cut and tied up by the job, 2s. 6d.; 3 acres of wheat, cut and tied up by the job, 1s. 11d." [Here follow similar details for 1389, including a mention of 5 pairs of harvest-gloves, 10d.] "What a scene of bustling industry was this! for, exclusive of the baker, cook, and brewer, who, we may presume, were fully engaged in their own offices, here were 553 persons employed in the first year; in the second, 520; and in a third, 538; yet the annual number of acres, of all sorts of corn, did not much exceed 200. From this prodigious number of hands, the whole business must have been soon finished. There were probably 2 principal days; for two large parties were hired, every year, for 1 day each.... These ancient harvest-days must have exhibited one of the most cheerful spectacles in the world. One can hardly imagine a more animated scene than that of between 200 and 300 harvest-people all busily employed at once, and enlivened with the expectation of a festivity, which perhaps they experienced but this one season in the year. All the inhabitants of the village, of both sexes, and all ages, that could work, must have been assembled on the occasion; a muster that, in the present state of things, would be impossible. The success of thus compressing so much business into so short a time must have depended on the weather. But dispatch seems to have been the plan of agriculture at this time, at least in this village. We have seen before, that 60 persons were hired for 1 day, to weed the corn. These throngs of harvest-people were superintended by a person who was called the head-reaper (supermessor or præpositus), who was annually elected, and presented to the lord, by the inhabitants; and it should seem that, in this village at least, he was always one of the customary tenants. The year he was in office, he was exempt from all or half of his usual rents and services, according to his tenure; he was to have his victuals and drink at the lord's table, if the lord kept house (si dominus hospitium tenuerit); if he did not, he was to have a livery of corn, as other domestics had; and his horse was to be kept in the manor-stable. He was next in dignity to the steward and bailiff. The hay-harvest was an affair of no great importance. There were but 30 acres of grass annually mown at this period. This was done or paid for by the customary tenants. The price of mowing an acre was 6d."
By an "Assessment of the Corporation of Canterbury," made in 1594, the following were the rates of wages declared payable:—"Every labourer from Easter to Michaelmas, with meat and drink, 4d. per day; finding himself, 10d.; and from Michaelmas to Easter, with meat and drink, 4d.; without, 8d. Mowers per day, with meat and drink, 8d.; finding themselves, 14d. By the acre, with meat and drink, 4d.; without, 8d. Reapers per day, with meat and drink, 6d.; finding themselves, 12d.; by the acre, with meat and drink, 14d.; without, 28d. Plashing and teeming of a quick hedge, 2d. per rod. Laying upon the band and binding and copping of oats, 8d., barley, 10d. Threshers by the quarter with meat and drink, for the quarter and making clean of wheat and rye, 5d., oats and barley, 3d.; without meat and drink, for the quarter and making clean of wheat and rye, 12d., oats and barley, 6d. Making talewood, the load, 4d.; billets, per 1000, 12d. A bailiff, with livery, £3 per annum; without livery, £3 6s. 8d."—Hasted's Antiquities of Canterbury, 1801, vol. ii. Appendix.
[E359] "Larges," "usually a shilling" (says Major Moor in his Suffolk Glossary). "For this the reapers will ask you if you 'chuse to have it hallered.' If answered, yes, they assemble in a ring, holding each other's hands, and inclining their heads to the centre. One of them, detached a few yards apart, calls loudly, thrice, 'Holla Lar!—Holla Lar!—Holla Lar!—j e e s.' Those in the ring lengthen out o-o-o-o with a low sonorous note and inclined heads, and then throwing the head up, vociferate 'a-a-a-ah.' This thrice repeated for a shilling is the established exchange in Suffolk." "Largesse bounty, handfuls of money cast among the people."—Cotgrave. "Crye a larges when a rewarde is geven to workemen, stipem vociferare."—Huloet's Dict. 1552. The phrase "crie a largesse" occurs in Piers Plowman, B Text, xiii. 449. As to the gloves given to harvest-men see above and note [E309].
[E360] Though barley is generally mown, it is a slovenly practice, unless when performed with a cradle scythe.—M. See note [E87].
[E361] "Dallops," patches of barley which have run to straw.—M.
[E362] Tidie means neat, proper, and in season.—M.
[E363] "There finding a smack," i.e. finding a pleasant repast.
[E364] "Doo perish," i.e. cause to perish, ruin: the use of "do" in this sense is very common in Early English.
[E365] "Lengthen" here is equivalent to increase the extent or produce of.
[E366] "Fill out the black boule," etc. I am quite unable to explain this line; the "boule of bleith" is evidently the "merry bowl," but the epithet black I do not understand.