220 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



class are in a state of ignorance, affecting the daily welfare 

 and the comfort of their families. Ignorance of the com- 

 monest things of needlework, cooking, and other matters 

 of domestic economy is described as nearly universally 

 prevalent ; and when any knowledge of such things is 

 possessed by the wife of a labourer, it is generally to be 

 traced to the circumstance of her having, before marriage, 

 lived as a servant in a farmhouse or elsewhere. A girl brought 

 up in a cottage until she marries, is generally ignorant of 

 nearly everything she ought to be acquainted with for the 

 comfortable and economical management of a cottage. The 

 effects of such ignorance are seen in many ways, but in no one 

 more striking than in its hindering girls from getting out to 

 service, as they are not capable of doing anything that is 

 required in a family of a better description. The further effect 

 of this is, that, not being able to find a place, a young woman 

 goes into the fields to labour, with which ends all chance 

 of improving her position ; she marries and brings up 

 her daughters in the same ignorance, and their lives are a 

 repetition of her own." 



As every penny that could be earned by the children 

 was required for the maintenance of the family living 

 in a semi-pauperised condition encouragement was 

 offered to the bad system of employment at a tender 

 age. Hence education this was long before the era 

 of compulsory legislation became totally neglected. 

 Both day and Sunday schools offered some meagre 

 instruction just a smattering of the rudiments of 

 education was the most that was acquired ; but it was 

 not possible to give more than a smattering of things 

 that should have been acquired, as the children could 

 not work and also attend school. Obviously, farm 

 work materially interfered with the labourers' children's 

 instruction, as it was so urgently necessary to send the 

 poor little creatures out to the fields for " bird scaring," 

 or other occupation that a child of tender years might 

 be able to manage, at the very earliest moment at 

 which they could earn even the merest pittance. The 

 Commissioners very properly pointed out that what 

 little a child might learn at school would generally 

 be forgotten by the time it returned, after the interrup- 

 tion of farm work. Even at the best the school period 



