140 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



also then as now good markets at Hitchin, Royston, 

 Bishop's Stortford, Tring and Watford. 



Here we see modern agriculture in its beginnings. 

 Young remarked also on one feature which is pecu- 

 liarly modern an experiment in intensive culture, then 

 being carried out by the Marchioness of Salisbury. 



Although Young included in his book some infor- 

 mation on the condition of labour, his description gave 

 rural life as it appeared to the landlords and farmers. 



The position of the other classes has also to be 

 considered. 



The larger villages must have contained then as now 

 a considerable class intermediate between farmers and 

 labourers. There were the village artisans, 

 The artisans, blacksmith, wheelwright, saddler and car- 

 holders, etc. penter, the shoemaker and the tailor. 

 These men, not having to face the sharp 

 competition that subsequently sprang up, doubtless 

 prospered more than did their successors in the latter 

 years of the century. In the same rank of life were 

 a few small shopkeepers and dealers. In addition 

 there remained, in most places, some small holders, a 

 remnant of the older life; these small men had lost or 

 were losing the spinning, weaving and other industries 

 which had supplemented their purely agricultural work, 

 but where commons remained, they would usually have 

 had rights of grazing for their stock, and many of the 

 artisans would have the same advantages. All these 

 people must have formed an independent class even 

 in those days. Many of them were Nonconform- 

 ists, Methodists perhaps, and often gave sympathy and 

 support to the labourers, who formed the bulk of the 

 population. 



