Wednesday 1 October 2008

Bucolic Frolics in 1904

Oh dear! Well, I should be finishing off my ironing and preparing a lasagne for tonight's tea, but yet again I have been distracted by the delights of the BFI films on Youtube...and yes, I intend to make you, gentle reader, complicit in my inattention to duty. Take a look at this, a wonderful film of a farming community during hay-making time. I know it's bit unseasonal, hay-making being a June activity, but it is very lovely. There's a bit about two minutes in where a mother plays in the hay with the community's children, we often think of childhood as being rather joyless in the late Victorian/early Edwardian period, but this seems to counter that notion. Also, as one Youtube commenter mentions, it is very sobering to think that the boys playing in the fields in 1904 would be the teenage soldiers killed on the fields of the Somme only 10 years later. What remarkable times these people lived through. Anyway, I'm off now to muster enough self-discipline to keep the family clothed and fed...a hot iron and the minced beef await. Anon, fellow huswives, anon!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I love that bit...they couldn't possibly be ALL her own children could they???

Gumbo Lily said...

Quite a contrast from the monotonous work of making hay to the jolly romp the children and mom had. It's a much easier job, making hay, nowadays.

Jody

Dulce Domum said...

Hi Sarah
You know, that was my very thought!

Hi Jody
Yes, hay making looked very labour intensive...no hay fever back then either, by the way the woman was playing with the children.

Anonymous said...

Wow...I really enjoyed that video. Thanks for finding it!

Those little ones must have been finding little pieces of hay in their hair for ages after that romp!

Shropshire Girl said...

Thank you for putting this on your wonderful blog - I really enjoyed watching it.

Dulce Domum said...

Hi Missvandroo
Cool name! Yes, bless 'em they looked so sweet!

Hi Shropshire Girl
I'm glad you're enjoying my blog, and the films. Thank you for visiting.