306 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



" Oh, very well then," said the parson 

 cheerfully ; " which way are you riding ? 

 Come and have a glass of beer with me." 



A labourer who hedges for me told me the 

 other day that our parson was popular because 

 he knows his manners — apparently a rare 

 gift — *' He never visits you without knockin', 

 and he won't come at meal times, neither." 



I remember once hearing an author, dis- 

 tinguished for his knowledge of rural England, 

 telling a company of friends that, after making 

 minute inquiries into the lineage of families 

 in the two counties that he knew best — Kent 

 and Sussex — he found that the descendants 

 of the old English aristocracy were in the 

 main living in labourers' cottages. This may 

 account for that quality of dignity, of pride 

 in one's manhood, which is the distinguishing 

 mark of our country poor. This may seem 

 a strange assertion in the face of the touching 

 of forelocks or of hat-brims, but those arts 

 are almost mechanical, and as much a matter 

 of tradition as it is with the soldier in the 

 army to salute his superior officer. 



The quality is sometimes an ignoble one, 

 but it does, at any rate, distinguish the 

 labourer from the tradesman class, which 



