CHAPTER VII. 



OW that the agricultural labourer has obtained a 



vote, the eyes of politicians are turned towards him. 



Orators whose tall hats proclaim that they hail 



from the metropolis, have interviewed us here, and 



-attempted to demonstrate, not only to ourselves, 



but to all the world, that village life is " remote, 



melancholy, slow." No excitement, no music hall, 



not even a hurdy-gurdy, by whose enlivening strains we might tread 



an occasional measure with our friends. 



But this is merely a Londoner's way of looking at it. Is there no 

 excitement in hiving a swarm of bees, or breaking in a refractory 

 colt ? and although the midnight chorus, and perfume of rum are 

 wanting ; when we open our windows at early morning during this 

 season of the year, we inhale the fragance of new-mown hay, and 

 hear the blackbird whistle. 



What advantages the children of labourers enjoy ! They are 

 placed in harness directly they arrive at the age when nature does 

 its best to make them troublesome, not only to themselves but to 

 everybody else, and they are spared the dreadful infliction meeted 

 out to many a young gentleman with nothing on earth to do, and 

 who is "Lord of himself; that heritage of woe." Neither are they 



