FARMERS’ CLUB

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 March 1933, Page 2

FARMERS’ CLUB

OLD KENTISH CUSTOM In tho Most End. chibs rise and fall. Hie night clubs falling with the rapidity of meteors, hut the Dorniers' Chib of v avcrsh.-iin goes on, it seems, for over. In that sleepy Kentish district redolent of bops and fruit, the Da versham farmers still follow the rules

d down by Giles Hilton, the yeoman rmer, who founded the club in 1727. fhe next, meeting of the club will be

held when the cold January moon is at. the full, because the old rules lay down:

‘•All meetings to be held on the Thursday nearest, to the full of the moon, so that members’ ways to their homes may be lighted.’’ | That, rule alone creates a picture of the eighteenth century days in which | the club was founded, the heavy drinking, the unlighted and unsafe roads, and the steady old horse bearing its muster home.

The club was founded for the purpose of mutual entertainment among twelve members, each of whom was to entertain the others to dinner once a year. In order to prevent competition in hospitality, only two joints and two sweets may be served at these dinners. The rules provide, however, that each person is to drink what quantity of liquor he pleases, and that no neighbour is to help him. He may comment, appreciatively or otherwise mi ihe host's wine.

One wonders if there exists in other parts of the world a club as old and as peculiar. Even the Farmers’ Club of Eaversham, however, is not. what it was. The feasting no longer lasts from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., and the members ’drive home afterwards in their, cars.