258 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



workmen might be carried out to a much greater extent 

 in agriculture than it is at present, with very beneficial 

 results ; but then I am, it is true, speaking of the 

 halcyon days of farming, and not of the depressed 

 industry, as it now exists, in all parts of the country. 



In the period from the year 1830 onwards will be found 

 most of the great alterations that have taken place in 

 the science and practice and position of agriculture ; 

 the discoveries of chemical science as to manures, the 

 invention of the steam cultivator, the introduction of 

 the mowing and reaping-machine, the rise of the vast 

 establishments for the manufacturing of every variety 

 of agricultural machinery, the abolition of the Corn 

 Laws, the fearful outbreaks of the cattle plague or 

 rinderpest, the great improvement in the breeds of cattle, 

 especially of shorthorns, the influence of railways on agri- 

 culture — all these circumstances have had an important 

 bearing on country life. Yet, notwithstanding the 

 lamentable depression of agriculture just now, men who 

 can remember the years of 1831-32, and look back on 

 the troubles which the farmers surmounted then, may 

 hope the time is not far distant when success will again 

 crown their efforts. 



When I was at school in 1831, every farm in the parish 

 of Aylesbury was untenanted and in the hands of the 

 landlord, whilst the pitiably bad management of the Poor 

 Law had pauperized nearly the whole working population 

 of the kingdom. In this year I was accustomed to look 

 from my bed-room window at Uxbridge School and see, 

 on many a night, three or four blazing homesteads. 

 These troublous times culminated in the rising of the 



