T.Miller (1849)


Source:

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.

Index Terms:

Locations: Gainsborough, Lincs. (SK8190); Nottingham, Notts. (SK5739)
Years: Publ. 1849; Perf. about 1820
Subjects: Plough Monday; Plough Trailing
Archives: TDRG Archive, Ref. TD00735;
Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/illustratedlondo1849unse, Accessed 15th Feb.2018

Last Updated Feb 2018 by Peter Millington.