Hansel Craig - Allan Fraser
Written in the late 1930s but covering the year 1916 - 17, it starts with the 17 y.o. protagonist getting off the local St. Boswalls to Kelso train (less than 10 miles) and meeting the farmer he's going to work for at Hansel Craig.
Fascinating look at Borders country life and attitudes a hundred years ago, with mixed farming with oats, wheat, cattle, sheep, hens in the yard and vegetables in patches of the kitchen garden. Sheep and their care get the most attention in the book, with descriptions of lambing, shearing and other seasonal tasks, etc.
The farmhouse is 7 miles outside Kelso but in those days that was a long way and any trips outside the farm were rare.
Horses were still a major mode of transport although the richer gentry, etc. were acquiring motor cars. No motorised farm vehicles, though. At one point he and the farmer go to a charity event at one of the big houses a few miles away and, because they don't know if there will be room for the pony & trap among all the gentry's carriages and cars, they both ride bicycles there and leave them in a hedgerow nearby!
At the end, he's once again on Kelso station platform dressed in his best clothes but this time it's because he's turned 18 and been called up and is off to join the army...
It's fiction, but the author has obviously got a great love for the old country life and knows it well.
____
Published in 1937 but this edition is the cheaper 2nd reprint from July 1939. Still a hardcover with dustjacket, though.
Also several b&w line drawings of the country in different seasons by L. M. Dufty, who also did the cover art.
Hansel Craig - Allan Fraser
Written in the late 1930s but covering the year 1916 - 17, it starts with the 17 y.o. protagonist getting off the local St. Boswalls to Kelso train (less than 10 miles) and meeting the farmer he's going to work for at Hansel Craig.
Fascinating look at Borders country life and attitudes a hundred years ago, with mixed farming with oats, wheat, cattle, sheep, hens in the yard and vegetables in patches of the kitchen garden. Sheep and their care get the most attention in the book, with descriptions of lambing, shearing and other seasonal tasks, etc.
The farmhouse is 7 miles outside Kelso but in those days that was a long way and any trips outside the farm were rare.
Horses were still a major mode of transport although the richer gentry, etc. were acquiring motor cars. No motorised farm vehicles, though. At one point he and the farmer go to a charity event at one of the big houses a few miles away and, because they don't know if there will be room for the pony & trap among all the gentry's carriages and cars, they both ride bicycles there and leave them in a hedgerow nearby!
At the end, he's once again on Kelso station platform dressed in his best clothes but this time it's because he's turned 18 and been called up and is off to join the army...
It's fiction, but the author has obviously got a great love for the old country life and knows it well.
____
Published in 1937 but this edition is the cheaper 2nd reprint from July 1939. Still a hardcover with dustjacket, though.
Also several b&w line drawings of the country in different seasons by L. M. Dufty, who also did the cover art.