At the same house, or that of a neighbouring farmer, a similar scene
is renewed, beginning between eight and nine o'clock in the morning
following, and so continued through the precious season of the wheat
harvest in this county. It must be observed that the labourers thus
employed in reaping receive no wages; but in lieu thereof they have an
invitation to the farmer's house to partake of a harvest frolic, and at
Christmas, during the whole of which time, and which seldom continues
less than three or four days, the house is kept open night and day to
the guests, whose behaviour during the time may be assimilated to the
frolics of a bear-garden.
* * * * *
SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
* * * * *
THE BULL-FIGHTS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
The following particulars were communicated to the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ of this month by a witness to a recent bull-fight in the
city of Lisbon. Speaking without reference to its humane character or
moral tendency, the writer remarks that no spectacle in the world can be
compared, for interest and effect, to a Spanish bull-fight, every part
of which is distinguished for striking parade or alarming danger.
The grand sweep of the amphitheatre in Cadiz, Seville, or Madrid,
crowded with a gay and variegated mass of eager and shouting spectators,
and garnished at distances with boxes for the judges, the court, or the
music--the immense area in which the combats take place, occupied with
the _picadors_ in silk jackets, on horses richly caparisoned, and
with the light skipping and elastic _bandarilleros_, carrying their
gaudy silk flags to provoke the rage and to elude the attack of the
bull, form of themselves a fine sight before the combat begins.
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