This is not one of our ordinary posts.
I understand that this picture is from around 1905 and is from the Bull and Bush tavern in Hampstead, England. I don't know if that's correct or not, but these people do seem to be having fun. It is easy to believe that these were working-class people enjoying themselves after having worked hard in the mills or factories, and it is easy to imagine that this was a day that they remembered and talked about for many years afterwards.
Florrie Forde had a famous song about the Bull and Bush. Listen to it here. I know that our Primitive Methodist and Methodist ancestors were dismayed by this kind of behavior. They lived in the same world as these men and women and shared their sorrows and joys. Perhaps these men and women carried in their genetic memories something of their pagan pasts or memories of a time when their ancestors lived in the forests or on land that was not enclosed. Perhaps there was in this an opportunity to flirt and find romance and companionship. Perhaps they found an ecstasy in dancing. Bless them one and all.
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