AGRICULTURAL POPULATION. 53 



into the fields. The drinking, in this country, with the lower 

 and laboring classes of people, seems, in a great degree, confined 

 to the licensed houses, of which, certainly, there is nowhere 

 any want. In passing through the village of Glossop, in Derby 

 shire, a modern and an exceedingly well-built village, in a dis 

 tance, I should judge, of less than three fourths of a mile, I 

 counted, as I passed along on the box of the coach, thirty-five 

 licensed retail shops, most of which were probably for the sale, 

 among other things, of intoxicating liquors. Indeed, the number 

 of licensed retailers in every village in England is quite remark 

 able, and would seem, in many cases, to include almost every 

 fourth house. 



I am not disposed to object to the employment of women in 

 some kinds of agricultural labor. The employment of them in 

 indiscriminate labor is liable to the most serious objections. 

 Nothing can be more animating, and, in its way, more beau 

 tiful, than, on a fine, clear day, when the golden and waving har 

 vest is ready for the sickle, to see, as I have several times seen, a 

 party of more than a hundred women and girls entering the 

 field, cutting the grain, or binding it up after the reapers. In 

 cultivating the turnips, they are likewise extremely expert. In 

 tending and making hay, and in various other agricultural labors, 

 they carry their end of the yoke even ; but in loading and lead 

 ing out dung, and especially, as I have seen them, in carrying 

 broken limestone in baskets on their heads, to be put into the 

 kilns, and in bearing heavy loads of coal from the pits, I have 

 felt that their strength was unnaturally taxed, and that, at least 

 in these cases, they were quite out of &quot; woman s sphere.&quot; I 

 confess, likewise, that my gallantry has often been severely 

 tried, when I have seen them at the inns acting as ostlers, bring 

 ing out the horses and assisting in changing the coach team, 

 while the coachman went into the inn to try the strength of 

 the ale. 



As far as health is concerned, the out-door employment of 

 women is altogether favorable. As far as virtue or moral purity 

 is concerned, out-door employment in itself is not more objec 

 tionable than employment within doors. Indeed, from the 

 inquiries which have been made into this matter, and the elabo 

 rate reports that have been given to the government, it does not 

 appear that the agricultural districts, where the custom of out 

 door employment for women prevails, are more immoral than the 

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