ISO ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



towns and colonies ; the women followed. Probably 

 this exodus of the best people the natural leaders 

 was the cause of the final disappearance of the old 

 co-operative and social life. All that had survived 

 of the festivals and merrymakings so characteristic 

 of English rural life in the past was disappearing 

 during these years, whilst the great fairs also decayed. 

 Indeed, by the end of the period little social life 

 remained save the harvest home, the club day of the 

 village sick and benefit society, and such meetings of 

 friends as occurred at the country towns on market 

 days. 



In the North of England the conditions were some- 

 what different. There was a considerable improvement 

 in wages, which, in 1870, in some counties, were over 

 1 6s. a week. It was this increase that encouraged the 

 labourers in their final struggle. This struggle, of 

 which the immediate cause was their desperate condition 

 during the exceptionally hard winter of 1871-2, was 

 led by Joseph Arch. Arch, born in 1828, was the son 

 of a labourer ; he had himself started life on the land 

 at nine years old, employed in bird-scaring, standing } 

 as he describes himself, " in a new-sown field shivering 

 for twelve hours a day on an empty stomach, whilst 

 the cold wind blew and chill rain poured down in 

 torrents." At ten he was a ploughboy, at sixteen a 

 mower at is. 6d. a day, working from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

 As he grew up he soon showed himself a man of 

 considerable ability, won a gold medal for hedging 

 and ditching, and became a contractor on a small scale 

 for agricultural work. He travelled much in this 

 capacity. He was also a Nonconformist preacher, and 

 later on showed himself to be a convincing speaker. 

 He was a man of what in these days would be called 



