AN ENGLISH SQUIRE 57 



agricultural chemistry have been pressed into the 

 capitalist's service ; and in the course of a walk over 

 his ground you may study the best and most practical 

 of modern mechanical inventions. Yet the introduction 

 of steam would not seem to have materially reduced the 

 number of hands in the farmer's employment, nor those 

 teams of sleek and powerful horses whose work appears 

 to agree with them so well, But steam and skill and 

 science have conspired to bring the land to the highest 

 pitch of cultivation ; the waving fields of golden grain 

 are a sight to gladden the eye and heart, as is the straw 

 in the bulging stack-yard, when the best of them have 

 been cut and carried ; and as for the turnips and 

 mangels, as compared to what you see in the southern 

 counties, they are as Indian jungle to an English 

 pheasant-cover. Notwithstanding which, in point of 

 picturesqueness and climate, and cheery surroundings, a 

 man of aesthetic temperament might not unnaturally 

 prefer the south ; but as we have already passed some 

 time there with the parson and the squire, we must not 

 go back on a visit to the farmers. 



Nor, after all we have been saying of farming and 

 shooting, do we care to loiter among shepherds and 

 keepers. Yet the men who have betaken themselves 

 to such healthy occupations are much to be envied, 

 since their tastes and the manner of their bringing up 

 has kept them below disturbing ambitions. Contrast 

 their happy circumstances with those of the most highly 

 paid labourers and mechanics the colliers who may be 

 in the habit of working all day and sleeping all night ; 



