76 PIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



THE COUNTRY SIDE : SUSSEX. 



1 



On the wall of an old barn by the great doors there still 

 remains a narrow strip of notice-board, much battered 



and weather-beaten : ' Beware of steel ' can be read, 



the rest has been broken off, but no doubt it was ' traps.' 

 * Beware of steel traps,' a caution to thieves — a reminis- 

 cence of those old days which many of our present 

 writers and leaders of opinion seem to think never 

 existed. When the strong labourer could hardly earn 

 ys. a week, when in some parishes scarcely half the 

 population got work at all, living, in the most literal 

 sense, on the parish, when bread was dear and the loaf 

 was really life itself, then that stern inscription had 

 meaning enough. The granaries were full, the people 

 half starved. The wheat was threshed by the flail in 

 full view of the wretched, who could gaze through the 

 broad doors at the golden grain ; the sparrows helped 

 themselves, men dare not. At night men tried to steal 

 the corn, and had to be prevented by steel traps, like 

 rats. To-day wheat is so cheap, it scarcely pays to carry 

 it to market. Some farmers have it ground, and sell 

 the flour direct to the consumer ; some have used it for 

 feeding purposes — actually for hogs. The contrast is 

 extraordinary. Better let the hogs eat the corn than 



