THE PLOUGHMAN'S REST. 27 



and friends with a feeling of honest pride ; and while 

 they look up to him as a sort of superior being, they are 

 encouraged in their own endeavours to become skilful 

 workmen in their several departments of labour. " I 

 never knew a ploughing-match meeting established in 

 any rural district," says an agriculturist,* "without very 

 beneficial effects being produced on the characters of 

 the peasantry. It never fails to elevate the ploughman 

 in his own opinion ; it induces him to strive to excel in 

 his honourable vocation, to please his employer, and to 

 stand well in the estimation of his richer neighbours. 

 The very assemblage of the neighbouring farmers and 

 gentry to witness the trial of skill, brings out all the 

 latent pride of the roughest ploughman. The flowers in 

 his horses' bridles, the network on their ears, the new 

 gay-coloured tape, with which their manes and tails are 

 braided, betray the little feelings of honest pride in the 

 ploughman's bosom. * * * Such meetings, moreover, 

 teach even the most ignorant the importance of such 

 affairs, that there is a strange difference in the neatness, 

 style, and profit to the farmer, in the manner in which 

 the ploughmen execute their work ; and they are pretty 

 sure to convince even the most listless that there is more 

 skill required in a ploughman than many persons would 

 readily believe." 



Thus it seems plain that a ploughman has many good 

 reasons to be contented and happy in the station God has 

 placed him in, and many great encouragements to be 

 sober, honest, and industrious. If his toils are arduous, 

 he has his seasons of rest, and especially the weekly day 

 of rest, so mercifully appointed for man. It is one of 

 the pleasantest of country sights to witness the clean, 

 well-dressed labourers repairing with their families to 

 the village church. Traversing the high-road, or lane, 

 or bye-path, they come from various quarters to the 

 house of God ; their honest sun-burnt faces gladdening 

 one's heart to look upon. The reverent air with which 



* Johnson. 



