WALK IN RURAL ENGLAND. 28 



Those who cultivated their land best were 

 those who had an acre of garden and worked 

 chiefly at other trades. The one-acre man, for 

 instance, who paid perhaps £30 for his acre, 

 and borrowed money to build his cottage, at 

 3 per cent from the surplus sum acquired by 

 the Land Court, would buy about five acres of 

 wood from the large woods near by, owned by 

 Mr. Singer of sewing - machine fame. He 

 would buy the right to cut this underwood at 

 a public auction held in the early autumn ; 

 that is, he would buy a " lot " at about oOs. an 

 acre and make of this hurdles, wattles, sheep- 

 cribs, etc. Another man with seven and a half 

 acres, in his way a small capitalist, possessing 

 a waggon and a couple of horses, will act as 

 carman to one or two of the woodmen, carry- 

 ing as many as 10,000 faggots in a season, 

 mostly to country bakers. Some of these 

 men are very skilful woodmen, and their sheep- 

 cribs, hurdles, and rakes find their way as far 

 afield as Sussex and Essex. 



The handicraft of the men in the woods is 

 supplemented by the handicraft of the women 

 at the spinning-wheel, for here wool, sheared 

 from the sheep of the Downs, is spun by the 

 cottage women, and weaved into beautiful clotli 



