WEST COUNTRY PEASANTS. 193 



at once focussed public attention and aroused wide- 

 spread sympathy. 



But much more sympathy was deserved and aroused 

 when it became known through the present writer's 

 articles and volumes that the Warwickshire labourers 

 were getting fifty per cent, more wages than their 

 compatriots in Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wilts 

 the average twelve weekly shillings in the Midlands 

 being little more than an average eight in the South- 

 western Counties. Moreover, it is significant to note 

 that, whilst the men of Warwickshire had " struck " 

 for more, the Western men were patiently and uncom- 

 plainingly bearing their much harder lot. 



The general public may well have doubted the ex- 

 ceptional poverty of the West Country labourers. The 

 beauty of the country itself, its great fertility, and the 

 prominence and abounding display of its harvests of 

 all kinds distracted attention, perhaps naturally, from 

 the tillers of the soil. Wide areas of luxuriant grass, 

 the exuberant " fatness " of root crops, the golden 

 richness of cornfields, the plethora of autumnal fruits 

 arresting and compelling attention by their glowing 

 colours all attested a wealth that suggested abundance 

 for the toilers who, though worthy of their hire, and of 

 liberal hire, very rarely obtained what they well had 

 earned. 



There were many persons of course who knew what 

 was the condition of the ingatherers of the most bountiful 

 of British harvests ; but these were not what is called 

 " the public at large," and when their misery was 

 brought, so to speak, under the limelight of that stage, 

 which is another name for public opinion, it naturally 

 created astonishment. 



