94 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



which he governed with a firm hand. " If he 

 is worth a penny," said a Moulton man to me, 

 "he is worth £30,000." We passed the field 

 where four young men were hoeing in a row. 

 Three of these were his sons, who had to work 

 doggedly like day-labourers. 



In the evening, at the local inn not far 

 from Moulton, a dozen men walked into the 

 coffee - room. Most of them were large 

 farmers, though amongst them I noticed a 

 man evidently not of the same class, for his 

 clothes and boots were of rougher material, 

 and he rarely spoke. The conversation 

 centred round potatoes, and the advantages 

 or disadvantages of spraying, when to spray, 

 and how to spray, or whether " Dates " were 

 not a played-out variety. 



The conversation reminded me of others 

 that I had heard in bar-parlours in Norfolk, 

 where bullocks were discussed incessantly, or 

 among the Downs, where "yoes" and "tegs" 

 formed the chief topic of conversation, and of 

 a little village inn in Wiltshire where I had 

 to seek my bed by passing through the tap- 

 room. " Well," I said to the landlord, as I 

 bade him good-night, " what has it been 

 to-night ? Mangolds again ? " This was at 



