shepherds' meeting at the 'Dun Bull' at Mardale, near Hawes-Water, and after they are claimed, the men settle down to a strenuous day, or rather two nights and a day, of enjoyment; a fox hunt on foot, and a hound trail whatever the weather may be, followed by feasting and songs at night, keep them all "as merry as grigs." But where there are ten people at the Dun Bull there were one hundred or more at Brothertoft, people coming out from Boston for the day or even for the week, and all being lodged and fed in some thirty large tents.
GOOSETOFT John Taylor, 'the water poet,' wrote in 1640 an account of Goosetoft which is worth preserving:—
In Lincolnshire an ancient town doth stand
Called Goosetoft, that hath neither fallow'd land
Or woods or any fertile pasture ground,
But is with wat'ry fens incompast round.
The people there have neither horse nor cowe,
Nor sheep, nor oxe, nor asse, nor pig, nor sowe;
Nor cream, curds, whig, whey, buttermilk or cheese,
Nor any other living thing but geese.
The parson of the parish takes great paines,
And tythe-geese only are his labour's gaines;
If any charges there must be defrayed
Or imposition on the towne is lay'd,
As subsidies or fifteenes[1] for the King,
Or to mend bridges, churches, anything,
Then those that have of geese the greatest store
Must to these taxes pay so much the more.
Nor can a man be raised to dignity
But as his geese increase and multiply;
And as men's geese do multiply and breed
From office unto office they proceed.
A man that hath but with twelve geese began
In time hath come to be a tythingman;
And with great credit past that office thorough,
His geese increasing he hath been Headborough,
Then, as his flock in number are accounted,
Unto a Constable he hath been mounted;
And so from place to place he doth aspire,
And as his geese grow more hee's raisèd higher.
'Tis onely geese then that doe men prefer,
And 'tis a rule no geese no officer.
Fen Skating.
The Fen skaters of Lincolnshire have been famous for centuries. In the Peterborough Museum you may see two
- ↑ A tax of a fifteenth levied on merchants' goods in King John's reign.
