Grinning through a Horse-collar

When his Dorset village celebrated the peace in August 1814, W. Barnes watched the old country sports that went with a public dinner. Men raced tied up to the neck in sacks, girls ran for a holland shift, and a pig with a greased tail belonged to whoever could catch and hold it. In the grinning match the prize went to the man who could push his head through a horse’s collar and pull the ugliest face. An effigy of Bonaparte was carried about, then hanged, shot and burnt.