380 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



petty dealing with pigs and calves, till they save suffi- 

 cient to rent a small farm, and make that the basis of 

 larger dealing operations. I question very much 

 whether a clerk in a firm would not find it much more 

 difficult, as requiring larger capital, to raise himself to 

 a level with his employer than an agricultural 

 labourer does to the level of a farmer. 



Many labourers now wander far and wide as 

 navvies, etc., and perhaps when these return home, as 

 most of them do, to agricultural labour, they are the 

 most useful and intelligent of their class, from a readi- 

 ness they possess to turn their hand to anything. I 

 know one at this moment who makes a large addition 

 to his ordinary wages by brewing for the small inns, 

 and very good liquor he brews, too. They pick up a 

 large amount of practical knowledge. 



The agricultural women are certainly not handsome ; 

 I know no peasantry so entirely uninviting. -Occa- 

 sionally there is a girl whose nut-brown complexion 

 and sloe-black eyes are pretty, but their features are 

 very rarely good, and they get plain quickly, so 

 soon as the first flush of youth is past. Many have 

 really good hair in abundance, glossy and rich, per- 

 haps from its exposure to the fresh air. But on Sun- 

 days they plaster it with strong-smelling pomade and 

 hair-oil, which scents the air for yards most un- 

 pleasantly. As a rule, it may safely be laid down that 

 the agricultural women are moral, far more so than 

 those of the town. Eough and rude jokes and 

 language are, indeed, too common ; but that is all. 

 No evil comes of it. The fairs are the chief cause of 

 immorality. Many an honest, hard-working servant- 

 girl owes her ruin to these fatal mops and fairs, when 



