THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



15 



CHRISTMAS TIME 



Christmas comes upon us once more with a hard, 

 hearty, old-fashioned grasp. It is really '' seasonable 

 weather." The ice bears, the snow-flakes fall as we 

 write, and the very railway-trains — like the stage- 

 coaches of another age — are hours if not days " behind 

 time." To the affluent, the hale, and the young there 

 are many charms in such a chauae of scene ; and that 

 long-looked-for twentieth, " when our vacation will 

 commence," is ushered in with skates, snow-balls, 

 duck-guns, and other as characteristic insignia of a 

 hard winter. But, fortunately, it is the especial pecu- 

 liarity of an English Cliristmas that the more severe 

 the season, the more only does the genial influence of 

 that great and holy day seem to tell upon our feelings. 

 Under an Italian sky, and in a warmer clime, it could 

 not be half as "jolly" or generous, a feast, as we 

 make it, with our nipping breezes and hanging icicles 

 without, and our blazhig fires and smoking boards 

 withhi. There is good in everything; and even a hard 

 winter is not without a moral — perhaps the most practi- 

 cal of all. As we feel it ourselves, so do we learn to 

 feel for others ; and " my Lady" distributes her blankets, 

 while her Lord cuts up his bullock ; and a pang goes 

 to the heart, when we remember any that are uncared 

 for, at such a merry-making. 



As a rule, we are all apt to associate Christmas 

 "proper" with a rural life. It is true that as we 

 hurry along the slippery pavement we stay for a mi- 

 nute to note the glories of the butcher's window, where 

 there are more sheep " hung all in a row" tlian we can 

 stay to count — backed by magnificent sides of beef be- 

 decked with rosettes and ribbons, and coquettishly 

 half-showing and half-hiding in the layers of fat 

 the Smithfield Club Card, which tells that this was 

 Mr. Heath's Devon Steer, or the Duke of 

 Beaufort's Prize Scot. Almost every other 

 shop is as suggestive of the occasion. The pastry- 

 cooks tempt you with plum puddings positively black 

 in the face from the way in which they have been 

 stuffing themselves ; the grocer is as prodigal of his 

 dried fruits and candies and spices ; while Covent 

 Garden tells you at every stall, how the whole world 

 has been ransacked of its riches to do fitting honour to 

 the Englishman's high-day. Like Mark Tapley, the 

 citizen makes himself as happy as he can " under such 

 circumstances" ; but it is still to the country we turn 

 when we would keep Chi'istmas as we should do. 

 Here people are knit together by closer ties, and there 

 is not a man in the parish church, on this most solemn 

 of services, but that the vicar should know byname, 

 and the squire give a greeting to, as they join each 

 other in the porch. It is this close association between 

 the rich and poor that rightly hallows such a day ; 

 and it is upon this that we would still depend for the 

 due celebration of the festival. At such a time a man's 

 duties must be essentially active and practical; and 

 we all have them one to each other. Let the landlord re- 

 fleet, as he rides with his boys round his estate, or follows 

 with them the winding stream in search of a snipe or a 

 moor-hen — let him ask of himself how such a season 

 tries his tenants and dependants ? Let him now remem- 

 ber, the rather, how long the seasons have been against 

 them, and what he may do for them in their trouble. 

 It would be altogether idle to attempt to say but that 

 the tenant-farmers of the kingdom have had immense 

 difficulties to contend against, and that these are even 

 by this time anything but overcome. The position, 



in fact, is still a critical one. There are many 

 claims to be met — chiefly by a product just at present 

 in an almost unsaleable condition. We need not say 

 which is amongst the heaviest of these demands, nor is 

 it likely that the sufferer will himself offer to do so. 

 Like the gladiator of old, he has a heroism which would 

 prompt him rather to die in silence than to cry out for 

 mercy. Any such act of grace then, to carry the good 

 it should do with it, must be spontaneous and self- 

 suggested. Already, however, it is not without prece- 

 dent, and we have only to hope that the names of Lord 

 Tredegar, Lord Lonsdale, and Mr. Benyon will but 

 lead us on to find many as worthy and as considerate 

 amongst the landlords of England. They must know 

 as well .as we do how much their consideration is 

 required. 



But Cliristmas time points still more directly to the 

 care of the labouring man ; and, curiously enough, he 

 is just now everyone's care. The Premier of England, ' 

 simply as " the good man " of his own home, takes 

 him by the hand, and encourages him to better things. 

 There are few more thoroughly national pictures than 

 that of Lord Palmerston at Romsey, distributing 

 amongst the rural population prizes for good conduct, 

 skilled workmanship, sobriety, economy, and the de- 

 velopment of other such domestic virtues as the idle 

 and the ignorant have so impotently essayed to turn 

 into ridicule. What a commentary does the Prime 

 Minister of England offer on all this abuse, as he 

 stands in the Town-hall of Romsey, the ministering 

 hand of this much-maligned system I His Lordship, 

 however, does not stand alone ; and the workman 

 — his home — his morals — and his welfare — are topics 

 we are all talking upon. Country magistrates 

 are writing letters and Poor Law guardians are 

 answering them, while The Times looks on with the 

 thunder-bolt ready poised to deal out destruction on the 

 offender. But it is not needed, at least not in the quarter 

 more frequently referred to. Never was the case of 

 the agricultural labourer more his master's thought 

 than it is at present. On that very day when cottage 

 accommodation was made the world's talk, the far- 

 mers were talking of it quite as earnestly amongst 

 themselves. Over-stated as we believe the subject 

 to have been in I'he Times correspondence, it will be 

 seen that those most directly interested were as little 

 inclined to pass it over. A comfortable decent home 

 is one of the first points insisted upon by Mr. Scott 

 Burn in the able paper he read at the last meeting 

 of the Farmers' Club, and which we shall give 

 in full next month. The labourers' morals and 

 comforts were equally the aim of those who followed 

 him. The Club has often had the credit of discussing 

 matters at the right moment ; but nothing, as it has 

 happened, could have come more opportunely than 

 " The condition of the Labourer." It is everywhere 

 alike in good time and place. We may compare the 

 essay with what Lord Palmerston has since said in 

 Hampshire ; we may " prove" it by the many 

 charges and statements published almost simul- 

 taneously; and we may dwell over " the points" as 

 peculiarly applicable at Christmas time. It is then 

 that " home" becomes, indeed, a sacred word, and 

 when it is our first duty to see how such a word 

 is being interpreted amongst us. Without the decent 

 comforts of a home, '* A happy Christmas !" sounds 

 but as a mockery. 



