THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT. in 



Harvest Home, nor of the Sheep-shearing Supper, nor the 

 Hay Harvest Supper. 



" The Union killed that," the farmers would tell him ; 

 but the Union also killed 73. a week for a man and his 

 family, half of it paid in unsaleable corn dealt out at a good 

 stiff profit. He found evidences in Oxfordshire, in spite 

 of the suspicion against agitators and the break-up of the 

 old " National Union," of a general desire for a new union, 

 and " that a young man from the Dockers' Union was 

 listened to eagerly." 



In Berkshire he visited the estate of Lord Wantage, who 

 owned about 22,000 acres of land, embracing the villages of 

 Lockinge and Ardington. Lord Wantage was perhaps the 

 finest type of the benevolent landlord to be found in Eng- 

 land. The cottages were good and charmingly designed. 

 Allotments were abundant. The villages not only had 

 their reading rooms, but also their co-operative stores 

 and bakery, and their own public houses, where the sale 

 of drink was not pushed and where soup in winter, and tea 

 and coffee were always to be had. 



Yet here wages were only los. a week and the profits 

 yielded by the farms only brought a bonus of 2s. a week 

 to the labourers. Everything on the estate was clean ar-:l 

 orderly, even the pig was considered an undesirable occupant 

 of a Wantage cottage-garden and was forbidden unless 

 kept on the allotment. Apparently, every one moved about 

 Lockinge and Ardington a model of respectability, but 

 with just the air of persons who had asked permission 

 to inhabit the earth. Politics were rigidly excluded from 

 the beautifully kept public house. " They durnt blow 

 their noses at Ard'n'ton without the bailiff's leave," re- 

 marked a labourer in the neighbourhood. 



Examples of benevolent despotism are given in the Red 

 Van Report of 1893. In Bulford, Wilts, an agreement 

 was enforced between the owner of the estate and the 

 cottagers which stipulated that 



" the landlord reserves the right for himself or his agent of 

 entering upon the said premises at any time between the hours 

 of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. to view the condition thereof, and, if found 



