ITS YALTJE. 71 



to go out as a servant, or a gardener, or to follow any 

 other handicraft, and subsequently finds those fail him, 

 as they will sometimes, he can always return to his 

 scutching work, and earn, if not a luxurious livelihood, 

 always enough to keep him from starvation abroad, or 

 the workhouse in England. In the French flax-growing 

 village, with which we are best acquainted, a population 

 amounting to nine hundred inhabitants, amongst them 

 annually grow, and send forth, flax to the amount of 

 eight thousand pounds sterling, even in the imperfect 

 state in which it leaves their hands, that is, merely 

 scutched. But not only are these villagers industrious men ; 

 the topographical features of the place are peculiar. The 

 soil is a rich alluvial loam ; and the leading points of the 

 landscape are pollard willows, rich meadows, intermingled 

 with patches of arable land, productive cottage-gardens, 

 and plots of ground that have been dug with the spade. 

 Little streams of soft and clear water wander hither and 

 thither throughout the place, thereby affording plentiful 

 opportunities of steeping the flax upon the spot. The 

 humblest of workshops are all that is necessary. Where- 

 ever you go, you observe that almost every tenement has 

 one or more rude clay buildings attached to it, in whose 

 walls, instead of windows, a row of squarish holes are 

 broken, at about the height of a man, through which you 

 can see daylight from the other side. These wretched- 

 looking hovels are the ecouclieries, or scutcheries, in 

 which the flax is prepared ; and they not only are the 

 sources of considerable wealth, but they also shelter a 

 good deal of fun and merriment. The scutchers, to earn 

 wages enough to keep themselves and their families alive, 

 are obliged, in winter, to begin working long before day- 

 light, and to continue their task some time after it has de- 

 parted. The introduction of lamps or candles amongst 

 such inflammable material is carefully avoided ; nor are 

 they necessary, as the operations can be conducted, though 

 not with equal rapidity, as well by the aid of feeling as 

 by sight. This fact suggests the hint that flax-scutching 

 would be a profitable task on which to employ the blind 



