3-017-272 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Harvest-Home at Bywell, Northumberland, 1865. 'The pleasant and rational custom of holding a village festival to accompany the due thanksgiving service in the parish church on the completion of harvest is spreading widely, of late years...[After the service at St. Peter's Church, Bywell,] ...all went in procession to the field where the dances and games were to take place, beginning with a country dance to the tune of "Corn Rigs," the next dance being a reel to the tune of "Speed the Plough." Running-races, hurdle-races, and leaping-matches, for such prizes as a pig, a spade, a flannel shirt, a wideawake hat, a knife, a teapot, and a pair of blankets, excited the valour and agility of the young men of Bywell; there was also a race of jumping in sacks, the prize for which, given by Mr. F. Ayton, was an elegant paraffin lamp, fit for the drawing-room table. At five o'clock there was a substantial tea, or what is called in the north "a thick tea," provided for the whole company in a spacious marquee erected near the school-house' depicted here. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.