AUTHOR'S NOTES -
CHAPTER 18: VISIONS AND DREAMS
Craftsmen were there to show off their wares: potters, weavers, hurdlers, ropers, leather workers and many more. The sounds of livestock, penned at the periphery behind hazel-switch hurdles, mingled with the chattering of the crowd. Above it all came the raucous cries of vendors, wishing to attract custom.
A hurdle in the making
It was also the day loyalties ran high, as teams from the different inns around the Shire held their Bat and Trap tournament.
The game is played almost exclusively in Kent, but I used to watch the local Bat and Trap team playing in the neighbouring county of Sussex. The teams are usually associated with a pub.
Bat & Trap is an extremely ancient game possibly originating in the 12th century. In later centuries, it grew to be one of the favourite games of the agricultural workers of the area and is probably the ancestor of Cricket.
A brief description of the game:
Bat - shaped a bit like table tennis bat, only much sturdier and heavier.
Ball - Traditionally a wooden ball the size of a tennis ball, but very often these days it's played with a cricket ball.
Trap - the trap is basically, a 5.25 x 5.25 inch hollow wooden box with a hinged flap at one end and a bit in the middle on a pivot. The ball is placed at one end of the pivot. The batsman hits the pivot (or striker) and the ball flies up into the air, they then have to try and hit the ball to the other end of the Pitch.
Pitch - Usually about 21 yards long by 13.5 feet wide. The batsman stands at on end of the pitch and hits the ball to the other end. The Bowlers stand at the other end of the pitch and grab the ball throwing it back at the hinged target on the trap. If the target falls down the batsman is out. If a bowler catches the ball the batsman is out, they are also out if the ball doesn't reach the other end of the pitch or they miss the ball completely.
As well as falling in a leap year, the Fair of 1420 came at the end of the Mayor’s seven-year term of office...
Return of the King, Appendix B says that Frodo resigned office of Mayor at the Free Fair of 1420, and that Will Whitfoot was “restored”. However, Will stands down, and Sam is elected Mayor, in 1427, so by inference Will must have been re-elected in 1420. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Prologue: “The only real official in the Shire at this date was the Mayor of Michel Delving (or of the Shire) who was elected every seven years at the Free Fair on the White Downs at the Lithe, that is at Midsummer.”
Closer to home, as you might say, Mr. Baggins has also been very active in helping the poorer inhabitants of the West Farthing, and beyond, recover from the damage inflicted by Sharkey’s men. Not only has he used the legacy entrusted to him by the late, lamented Mrs. Sackville-Baggins, but he has also been very generous on his own account.’
The Return of the King, The Grey Havens: “When the poor creature died next Spring - she was after all more than a hundred years old - Frodo was surprised and much moved: she had left all that remained of her money and of Lotho’s for him to use in helping hobbits made homeless by the troubles.”
‘And last, but by no means least, I would like to thank Master Samwise for his tireless efforts in restoring the Shire to its former glory. Perhaps I should say: even better than its former glory. He has worked us a miracle, right here on our doorsteps. A Master Gardener indeed.’
Since Sam remains “Master Samwise” long after he has come of age, I like to think that is was a honorific used for Master Craftsmen in the Shire. Sam later becomes known as Sam Gardner (Return of the King, Appendix C: “In addition some genealogical information is provided concerning Samwise, the founder of the family of Gardner, later famous and influential.”). In All That I Had I have shown one way this might have come about.
I knew his father, you know, a decent and respectable hobbit...’
Fellowship of the Ring, A Long-Expected Party: “‘After all his father was a Baggins. A decent respectable hobbit was Mr. Drogo Baggins...’”
Frodo took pity on the roper. ‘I know the gossip, Hamson,’ he said quietly...
Return of the King, Appendix C tells us that Hamson joined his uncle the roper, presumably Andwise Roper of Tighfield.
‘The story is that I am dead, and that you and Rose have been hiding the fact, in order to stay in Bag End. There is a variant in which you’ve murdered me, rather than just concealed my death from natural causes.’ He shrugged. ‘Not so different from the rumours when Bilbo left. Then it was myself and Gandalf who were supposed to have plotted to spirit Bilbo away, and get his wealth.’
The Fellowship of the Ring, A Long-expected Party: “‘I shan’t often be visiting the Shire openly again. I find that I have become rather unpopular. They say I am a nuisance and a disturber of the peace. Some people are actually accusing me of spiriting Bilbo away, or worse. If you want to know, there is supposed to be a plot between you and me to get hold of his wealth.’”
‘And what may you be wanting Master Peregrin?’ she answered, dipping a curtsey and laughing.
Pippin was still not come of age in 1420, being 29 or 30 (depending on when in the year his birthday falls).
He spent some time with Saradoc and Paladin, and concluded his official business, with the requisite red ink and seven witnesses, while Sam was absent, judging the best entry in the horticultural show.
The Fellowship of the Rings, A Long Expected Party: “Otho would have been Bilbo’s heir, but for the adoption of Frodo. He read the will carefully and snorted. It was, unfortunately, very clear and correct (according to the legal customs of the hobbits, which demanded among other things seven signatures of witnesses in red ink).”
The merrymaking, that Overlithe, was the greatest in memory or record, as the hobbits celebrated the restoration of their traditional way of life, and the golden summer that had come to bless them. Fiddles and bodhran played late into the night, and it snowed food and rained drink, as hobbits are fond of saying.
The Return of the King, Appendix D: “The Overlithe was a day of special holiday... it occurred in 1420, the year of the famous harvest and wonderful summer, and the merrymaking that year is said to have been the greatest in memory or record.”
The Fellowship of the Ring, The Shadow of the Past: “...and the next year he gave a party in honour of Bilbo’s hundred-and-twelth birthday... and there were several meals where it snowed food and rained drink, as hobbits say.”
As for the greasy pole competition, which took place late in the afternoon, Mrs. Cotton forbade her family to have anything to do with it. Serious injuries had been known to occur. They all went to watch, though, since it made for unrivalled entertainment.
I initially wrote this in the style of the local greasy pole competition, that is over water. I gave the hobbits a dew pond to fall into, but a beta reminded me that most hobbits were unable to swim (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Prologue). I therefore remembered the variation we had at University, with straw to fall onto - not nearly as entertaining as the water version.