174 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



colleges are rarely less than £60 or £70, 

 rising to £120 or more. There is, indeed, no 

 agricultural college in England where the fees 

 are low enough, as in Denmark and Ireland, 

 to admit without a scholarship the son of the 

 poor farmer or the small holder, let alone the 

 agricultural labourer. 



The difference between the mental alertness 

 of the Irish jarvie and the London cabman 

 was brought home to me as I drove on an 

 outside car to Glasnevin College. The jarvie 

 discussed the merits or demerits of the two 

 vice-presidents of the Board of Agriculture, 

 and especially as to their knowledge of horses, 

 in a way that one would never dream of 

 hearing from the lips of a London cabman. 

 Moreover, during the time he waited for 

 me outside the College, he had thoroughly 

 mastered the contents of an article of mine 

 which had just appeared in a magazine that I 

 had left lying on the seat of the car. 



This incident was to me illuminating, as it 

 immediately indicated the world of difference 

 I should find between the Connaught peasant 

 and the Sussex labourer. Among the bogs of 

 Mayo you will find tattered peasants fervently 

 discussing albuminoid ratios, and percentages 



