APPENDIX III. 



LETTER TO THE TIMES, NOVEMBER, 1872. 



SIB, The Wiltshire agricultural labourer is not so 

 highly paid as those of Northumberland, nor so low as 

 those of Dorset ; but in the amount of his wages, as 

 in intelligence and general position, he may fairly be 

 taken as an average specimen of his class throughout 

 a large portion of the kingdom. 



As a man, he is usually strongly built, broad- 

 shouldered, and massive in frame, but his appearance 

 is spoilt by the clumsiness of his walk and the want of 

 grace in his movements. Though quite as large in 

 muscle, it is very doubtful if he possesses the strength 

 of the seamen who may be seen lounging about the 

 ports. There is a want of firmness, a certain dis- 

 jointed style, about his limbs, and the muscles them- 

 selves have not the hardness and tension of the sailor's. 

 The labourer's muscle is that of a cart-horse, his 

 motions lumbering and slow. His style of walk is 

 caused by following the plough in early childhood, 

 when the weak limbs find it a hard labour to pull the 

 heavy-nailed boots from the thick clay soil. Ever 

 afterwards he walks as if it were an exertion to lift 

 his legs. His food may, perhaps, have something to 



