The harvest has long been recognized as the central drama of the agricultural calendar, and historians have painstakingly reconstructed the levels of manpower and skill required to bring crops in from the fields.  Through a close reading of an eighteenth century landscape painting, this lecture will pursue an art-historical approach to the study of the hay harvest.
 
            Steve Hindle is Director of Research at the Huntington Library. Previously he directed the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick. His books include On the Parish? The Micro-Politics of Poor Relief in Rural England c. 1550-1640 (2004); and The State and Social Change in Early Modern England c. 1550-1640 (2000). He is a former editor of the Economic History Review.