CHAPTER XXXI. 

 WEST COUNTRY PEASANTS. 



ALTHOUGH this volume deals more particularly in its 

 preceding section with the condition of the British 

 peasant generally, this portion of it is largely 

 concerned with the wages, dwellings, and general cir- 

 cumstances of the West Country labourers. The condi- 

 tion of the West Country peasant is, to a considerable 

 extent, typical of the conditions elsewhere, except in 

 the important matter of degree doubtless a very 

 important exception. 



In connection with what may be called the " uprising " 

 of the British peasant, the movement commenced in 

 Warwickshire in 1872, and, heralded by the famous 

 " strike," the present writer may claim to have pioneered 

 the cause of the West Country men. So far as he knows, 

 not a word as to the condition of the latter had been 

 printed in any London paper of prominence until he 

 recalling the distressful circumstances prior to 1862 of 

 the men of Dorset, Devon, Somerset and Wilts deter- 

 mined to go down, as the correspondent of a London 

 " daily." The " strike " in Warwickshire was chronicled 

 by the late Archibald Forbes, the famous war corre- 

 spondent of The Daily News : and the late Sir John 

 Robinson, for many years manager of that paper, told 

 the present writer that it was he who had requested 

 Forbes to do what he did ; and the clever war corre- 

 spondent performed his task with a graphic ability that 



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