rly as eleven or twelve, so much ale and cider had been drunk
that the shouts and ribald jokes of the company were heard to a
considerable distance, attracting more helpers, who came from far and
near, but none were allowed to come after 12 o'clock. Between 12 and 1
came dinner, with copious libations of ale and cider, which lasted
till 2, when reaping was resumed and went on without interruption
except from the squabbles of the company till 5, when what were called
'drinkings', or more food and drink, were taken into the field and
consumed. After this the corn reaped was bound into sheaves till
evening, when after the sport of throwing their reaping hooks at a
sheaf which had been set up as a mark for a prize, all proceeded to
supper and more ale and cider till the small hours.[609]

No wages were paid at these harvestings, but the unlimited amount of
eating and drinking was very expensive, and about this date the
practice of using hired labour had largely superseded this old custom.

The close of this period was marked by two Acts of great benefit to
farmers: the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 (4 & 5 Wm. IV, c. 76),
which reduced the rates,[610] and marked 'the beginning of a period
of slow recovery in the labourer's standard of life, moral and
material, though at first it brought him not a little adversity'[611];
and the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 (6 & 7 Wm. IV, c. 71), which
substituted for the tithe paid in kind or the fluctuating commuted
tithe, a tithe rent charge equivalent to the market value, on a
septennial average, of the exact quantities of wheat, barley, and
oats, which made up the legal tithes by the estimate in 1836. Thus was
removed a perpetual source of dispute and antagonism between
tithe-payer and tithe-owner. The system hitherto pursued, moreover,
was wasteful. In exceptionally favourable circumstances the clergy did
not receive more than two-thirds of the value of the tithe in kind.
The delays were a frequent source of loss. In rainy weather, when the
farmer desired to get his crops in quickly, he was obliged to shock
his crops, give the tithe-owners notice to set out their tithes, and
wait for their arrival; in the meantime the crop, perhaps, being badly
damaged.[612]

FOOTNOTES:

[585] Walpole, _History of England_, i. 161.

[586] _Inquiry into Agricultural Distress_ (1822), p. 40.

[587] Walpole, _op. cit._ ii. 22.

[588] _A Letter to the Earl of Liverpool by an Old Tory_, 1822. The