RURAL PSYCHOLOGY. 171 



the dominant note was British common sense which is 

 largely the sum of these ingrained ideas. 



In the Life of the late Lord Salisbury, who would probably 

 be accepted as a notable exponent of British common sense, 

 is a passage from one of his letters, in which he protests 

 against the idea that there is any particular difference in 

 the vices and virtues of different classes of the community, 

 though they may find expression in different ways. The 

 general tenour of his protest was very much that whimsically 

 expressed by W. S. Gilbert : 



"Hearts just as pure and fair 

 May beat in Belgrave Square 

 As in the lowly air 



Of Seven Dials." 



or, as Kipling expresses it : 



"The colonel's lady an' Judy O'Grady 

 Are sisters under their skins." 



Perhaps the chief characteristic of agricultural labourers 

 is reserve or reticence. It is typical of all Englishmen and 

 largely accounts for the misunderstanding of the English 

 which is so prevalent among more emotional and demon- 

 strative peoples. In the man or woman born and bred on 

 the land it is aggravated by a lack of the facility of self- 

 expression and the limitations of a vocabulary restricted to 

 the needs of everyday life. But it is also largely the product 

 of generations of economic dependence and social sub- 

 servience. It is the natural defence against intrusive 

 observation- and oversight. All the details of their lives are 

 so blatantly exposed that they can conceal nothing but their 

 thoughts, and these they guard as private possessions. A 

 more amiable trait, on which one or two of the rural workers 

 at the Club repeatedly insisted, is their local patriotism and 

 their love of the land. Affection for the native village is 

 almost stronger than attachment to the cottage home 

 a survival possibly of the communal or manorial life of the 

 Middle Ages, or even of the tribal instinct. 



In this country more perhaps than in any other the term 

 farmer has an extraordinarily wide range. It is indeed not 



