H04064 HELP WITH COW DROPPINGS QUOTE - 10/04/04 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES
From: John Farrell (jackfar@mail.utexas.edu
Date: 10/4/04 2:21pm
Subject: help with cow droppings
I wonder if anyone can gloss the following passage for me (Tess, XXV--2 0r
3 pages into the chapter). I assume court-patched is a variant of
court-plastered. But I wonder about the folk medicine: a common (country)
remedy or really quite as odd as it seems?
She was great at Antinomianism and Bible- classes, and was plainly going to
hold a class now. Clare's mind flew to the impassioned, summer-steeped
heathens in the Var Vale, their rosy faces court-patched with
cow-droppings; and to one the most impassioned of them all.
Many thanks,
Jack Farrell
Univ. of Texas
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Re: help with cow-droppings
Date: October 4, 2004 2:14:03 PM PDT
A note in my Bantam Classic edition says of "court-patched"
"That is, decorated, as with the 'beauty spots' used by court ladies."
And F.B.Pinion in _A Thomas Hardy Dictionary_, defines it as "spotted
(from splashings) as if with beauty patches, once facial adornments for
ladies of fashion."
I am a city girl myself, but I suppose working around the rear end of cows
could result in this kind of unwelcome splattering.
Betty Cortus
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From: patrick@prassociates.co.uk
Subject: RE: help with cow-droppings
Date: October 5, 2004 2:12:05 AM PDT
As one who grew up on a dairy farm in southern England, I can vouch for the
fact that people who work among cows get liberally splattered with cow dung.
Mostly this happens when one is milking and close both to the rear end of
the animal and the ground. It is also the case that grazing on summer
grass, rather than winter-dry hay, produces a much more liquid, splashy dung
(Oh the happy memories this is bringing back!).
I am sure that in Hardy's day people would often milk cows out in the
countryside rather than bring them back to a stall. I have seen this done
in the Falklands in modern times. The woman of the house wanted some milk,
so she went outside (in the pouring rain), sent a sheepdog after a cow which
was procured in about half a minute. She then tied the animal to a fence
post, milked it into a bucket and the product was in our tea much more
quickly than it would have been if one had had to walk to a store.
In the old bucket days, of course, the aforementioned cow dung would also
splash into the milk, though I am sure it never did much harm. My father
used to tell me that when pasteurisation became compulsory in Britain, round
the time of Hardy's death I think, everyone in the farming community hated
it. Indeed, as a child he said he always spurned milk more than a day old
which was known in the local vernacular as 'weasel's piss'.
Patrick Roper
A note in my Bantam Classic edition says of "court-patched"
"That is, decorated, as with the 'beauty spots' used by court ladies."
And F.B.Pinion in _A Thomas Hardy Dictionary_, defines it as "spotted
(from splashings) as if with beauty patches, once facial adornments for
ladies of fashion."
I am a city girl myself, but I suppose working around the rear end of cows
could result in this kind of unwelcome splattering.
==========
From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: RE: help with cow-droppings
Date: October 5, 2004 5:49:47 AM PDT
Reply-To: HARDY-L@csusm.edu
Oh Patrick! What memories you bring back.
Luckily my older sister had this chore - of milking the cow. Among other things the barn cats would line up for a "squirt" (and so would we) --but I never saw droppings go into the milk pail. It was always believed (and seemed a reliable fact) that a cow doesn't defecate when being milked. But I suppose the odd tail swish might do it. However, the positioning of the pail with the milker's back to the cow's rear end blocks off any unwanted debris flying into the pail - my father was strict about this as also about scalding the pail with boiling water before and after use (yes, we too all spurned the idea of pasteurising milk -- ugh!).
From a nostalgic Wessex lassie,
Rosemarie
She then tied the animal to a fence
post, milked it into a bucket and the product was in our tea much more
quickly than it would have been if one had had to walk to a store.
==========
From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: Re: help with cow-droppings
Date: October 5, 2004 6:42:18 AM PDT
Perhaps at Talbothays they played "frisbee" (as we did as children), with the cow-dung in the fields which dries to a rough spherical shape!
Rosemarie
Clare's mind flew to the impassioned, summer-steeped
>heathens in the Var Vale, their rosy faces court-patched with
>cow-droppings; and to one the most impassioned of them all.
>
>Many thanks,
>Jack Farrell
>Univ. of Texas
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From: jackfar@mail.utexas.edu
Subject: thanks for cow-droppings
Date: October 5, 2004 8:59:45 AM PDT
As a Brooklyn boy, I am much illuminated by the collective country wisdom. Thanks to all
Jack Farrell
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From: patrick@prassociates.co.uk
Subject: RE: help with cow-droppings
Date: October 5, 2004 12:01:30 PM PDT
But I suppose the odd tail swish might do it. However, the
positioning of
the pail with the milker's back to the cow's rear end blocks off any
unwanted debris flying into the pail
I wonder if there were different milking positions in different places. We
always used a milking stool so, with its three legs, we could move backwards
and forwards with the cow, especially if she kicked. One's head was thrust
into the animal's side in the hollow between hip and belly. I still have my
old milking stool - a most treasured possession.
Normally our cows (in the 1950s) were milked by machine, but we had to
hand-milk often for a variety of reasons. I don't recall the cows not
defecating while being milked, but would be happy to be proved wrong as
memory sometimes lends a certain colour to the past (khaki in this case).
The cows must, of course, often go if not during, then immediately before or
after milking when one is still within range.
Whatever the case, we normally ended the milking sessions well splattered
with cow-dung.
Patrick Roper
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From: Rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu
Subject: RE: help with cow-droppings
Date: October 5, 2004 12:49:20 PM PDT
Sounds familiar ... milking stool, head in groin and all and yes! the pail would get kicked over sometimes (boy! then there was trouble). Sounds as if you had a herd --we only had a few for family and workers -- so maybe ours were toilet -trained! "Now-- girls! Raise that tail real slow...." (just kidding--).
I bow to your better-splatterers, Patrick!
Cheers,
Rosemarie
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