WALK IN RURAL ENGLAND. 25 



equipment of the holding. They are of too 

 recent a creation to allow me to dwell on the 

 economic results,. except to say that they have 

 had the healthy effect of raising the labourer's 

 wages round about from 2s. to 2s. 6d. a day. 

 It is the small holder, not the large farmer, 

 who invariably pays the higher wage. 



It was only here at Winterslow, along the 

 whole range of the Hampshire and Wiltshire 

 Downs, that I obtained any evidence of the 

 rise of a new peasantry. 



Over the high ridge one can take a field- 

 path walk all the way across the Downs to 

 Clarendon Park. At the foot of the hill, lying 

 meekly at the gates of this princely park, is 

 the decaying village of Pitton, which forms 

 a woeful contrast to the prosperous, breezy, 

 repeopled uplands of Winterslow. Here 

 pheasants are at a premium, and men and 

 women who wish to live by tilling the soil 

 are held at a discount. To grow corn on the 

 confines of these preserves must be uphill 

 work, and the cottages and farm buildings 

 lying in this sleepy hollow indicate the entire 

 lack of agricultural enterprise. Here you 

 tread on a pheasant at nearly every step you 

 take. 



