66 Four-in-Hand in Britain, 



only benches around the table where the hinds sit at 

 night, drinking home-brewed beer, smoking their clay 

 pipes, and discussing not the political affairs of the 

 nation, but the affairs of their little world, bounded by 

 the hall at one end of the estate, and the parsonage 

 at the other. The merits of the gray mare, or the 

 qualities of the last breed of sheep at the home farm, 

 or the new-fangled plough which the squire has been 

 rash enough to order. The landlady told us that she 

 had recently moved from one of the midland towns 

 to this village to secure purer air for the children, who 

 had not been thriving well. Her husband was a 

 gardener and worked for the squire. Two pretty little 

 girls were brought in for us to see, true Saxons, with 

 blue eyes and light colored hair, but with less color 

 in their sweet innocent faces than usual — the result 

 of dirty, crowded Leeds, no doubt — but soon to be 

 changed by the country air. The eldest girl could 

 not have been more than six or seven years old, but 

 when she was given a few pence she went to the next 

 room and brought a sheet of paper upon which were 

 pasted some penny postage stamps. She was going at 

 once to the post ofiFice to buy more stamps with her 

 pennies. On inquiring we learned that the Post Office 

 Department receives deposits of a shilling in stamps 

 and allows two and a half per cent, interest I think, 

 upon them, and " the squire " God bless him ! had 

 promised all the children upon his estates, which I trust 



