Thursday 12 September 2013

Raise your cups...



Harvests are nearly all done and the merriment begins...

'I've bin to Plymouth and I've bin to Dover
I've bin a-rambling over, boys, all the world over
Over and over and over and over
Drink up yur liquor and turn yur cup over
over and over and over and over
The liquor's drunk'd up and the cup is turned over.'

This was popular song for the harvest festivities in the south of England.
 During the song a cup of beer is placed on the flat crown of a hat. Holding it by 
the brim with both hands, the player has to raise the cup to his mouth and drink 
all the beer before the fourth line of the song. Then he has to flick up the cup and
 catch it in the hat. If he fails or spills any beer he has to try again.
I suspect that there would have been a lot of spilled beer by the end of the evening!

We didn't drink beer at the end of our harvest, we had scrumpy, which is a very 
rough cider, and believe me it was very rough! I remember my dad sat on a bale 
of hay getting very drunk with this stuff, he wasn't a drinker!

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