Gainsborough (SK8190), Lincolnshire
T.Miller (1849)
Thomas Miller (Auth.)
THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON ALMANACK, 1849 [Plough Monday]
London: The Office of the Illustrated London News, pp.6-7,illus.
The chapter headed "January. - Plough Monday" give a long and somewhat poetic account
of plough trailing on Plough Monday over 20 years before, during Miller's "boyish youth".
The illustration shows a plough being drawn by men, accompanied by "Betsy"
(a man in a dress) with a collecting box, a fiddler and a drummer, and several men
carrying raised farm hand tools.
Miller was born in Gainsborough, Lincs., in 1807 and spent time on local farms before
becoming a basket maker. He spent his early manhood in Nottingham, before moving to
London in 1835. His account could relate to Nottingham but is more likely to relate
to his youth in Gainsborough in the years around 1820.
Given the publisher, is is probably that the account was published earlier in
the "Illustrated London News". It was much reproduced afterwards in other books
and publications.
"John Granby" (1953) quoted a later reproduction of this account but misidentified his source as
Miller's "Country Year Book" (1847 & 1856), which does not mention Plough Monday.
T.Miller (1855)
Thomas Miller (Auth.)
THE YEAR-BOOK OF COUNTRY LIFE
London: Houlston and Stoneman; Wm. S. Orr and Co., 1855, pp.7-10
A long account of plough trailing on Plough Monday, first published in T.Miller (1849) q.v.
It seems likely that "John Granby" (1953) quoted from this book, but misidentified it as
Miller's "Country Year Book" (1847 & 1856), which does not mention Plough Monday.
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