228 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



steeped in slumber made heavy by the toil of the preceding 

 week. Can aught but comfort, contentment, and happiness 

 exist under such roofs whose picturesqueness give so peculiar 

 and characteristic a feature to this Devonshire village ? We 

 must answer this question by the following record of a noble 

 work carried on during six years by Canon Girdlestone 

 in the village of Halberton the particulars of which 

 were furnished to us during a visit which, on the Canon's 

 invitation, we paid to him at Halberton in the month of 

 June 1872, shortly after we had commenced our first 

 tour of inquiry into the condition of the peasantry in 

 the West of England. Canon Girdlestone's invitation was 

 accompanied by the courteous offer to place us in possession 

 of all the facts connected with the system of peasant 

 migration which he had established and maintained from 

 1866 to 1872. The village of Halberton lies about midway 

 between the town of Tiverton and the Tiverton junction 

 of the Bristol and Exeter " (now the Great Western) 

 " Railway. Previous to his going there, Canon Girdlestone 

 had lived in Lancashire, and, in that county, had been 

 accustomed to see farm labourers who were well paid, well 

 housed, and in every respect well cared for. The condition 

 of the Devonshire peasants, when compared with that of 

 the peasantry of Lancashire, presented a painful contrast. 

 The first fact which the Canon ascertained, on taking up 

 his residence at Halberton vicarage, was that the wages of 

 the labourers amongst whom he had come to live able- 

 bodied, well-conducted men were, in some cases, only 

 seven, and seldom more than eight, shillings a week. He 

 at once naturally asked himself, ' How is it possible, on 

 such wretched wages, for a man to house, to feed and 

 clothe, not only himself, but his wife and children ; and 

 to pay, in addition, the doctor and the midwife when their 

 services were required ; to provide shoes, fuel, light, such 

 incidental expenses as school-fees, and, in fact, many 

 other items which cannot be enumerated, but which enter 

 nevertheless into the cost of living ? ' It was evidently 

 impossible to answer such a question. But Canon Girdle- 

 stone set himself closely to investigate the condition of 

 the North Devon peasant, in order to completely satisfy 

 himself as to the actual circumstances of his case. He 

 thus learnt the following facts : 



The system of agricultural labour prevailing at Hal- 

 berton was representative of the whole of North Devon, 

 with very few exceptions. In addition to the average 

 wages of able-bodied labourers, already stated to be between 

 seven and eight shillings a week, paid in money, there was 

 a daily allowance of, in some cases three pints, in other 

 cases two quarts, of cider, the quality of which ordinarily 

 rendered it unsaleable. Carters and shepherds being em- 

 ployed on different work, necessitating much longer hours 

 of attendance, were usually paid either one shilling a week 



