Binning at the Hop Picking

Hop picking was the great work of September in the Kentish hop gardens, where pickers raced to fill the bin. Hone quotes Christopher Smart’s poem The Hop Garden, which describes the custom when a young man and woman strayed off together in the evening. The rest of the pickers seized the girl and buried her in the bin, then put the youth in beside her, and demanded a largess from them both.