The clipping in St John’s Vale

A Table Book reader who had lived four years near Keswick described the Cumberland clipping, or sheep-shearing. A few days before, on a fine day at the beginning of June, several farmers washed their sheep together in a beck, with men in the water rolling the sheep, the women handing round mountain dew and the boys pushing each other in. On the clipping day neighbours gathered at the farm for hung beef, curds and home-brewed ale, then sheared all day while the girls played tricks and were paid in kisses. The evening was spent in singing and drinking until daylight, and the writer never saw a quarrel at any of them.