July from the Da Costa Hours
This image shows the common labor of July, haying, from the Morgan Library’s Da Costa Hours, MS M.399, fol. 8v. In the front on the right, two men are using scythes (note the long handles) to mow the grass. On the left is a wagon (or haywain) with a team of draft horses. I consulted a draft horse expert (Hi Jenni!) who tells me that “the tongue on the wagon is what’s called a ‘stiff tongue.” When the horses aren’t attached to it, the tip remains suspended in the air rather than drop to the ground. . . . The horses [in this image] don’t have to hold the end of the wagon tongue in the air via a neck yoke.”
The horse are wearing wooden neck yokes that are strikingly reminiscent of those used today, and blinders.
A man beside the horses is lifting a stack of dried hay up to the top of the wagon where a second man is placing it on the other hay. In the back, beyond the short fence, you can see mounds of hay that, after drying, have been raked into stacks—a woman is in the process of raking, in fact. In the middle a woman with a basket on her head and a jug on her hand (perhaps the bearer of lunch) is approaching.
In the distance a horse pulling a cart filled with grain sacks at the base of a hill is being driven from behind by a man on foot. They are followed by a man on horseback. Above them on the hill is a grain windmill, the ultimate destination of the cart. You can see more sacks at the base of the windmill, and a man at the foot of a ladder that leads up and inside the windmill. My assumption is that the sacks contain grain from the previous harvest to be ground into flour; but that’s an assumption. The mill was likely owned by the local lord; he owned most of the grain, and charged a percentage of the flour for any grain anyone else ground. The miller also charged a percentage for his services.
