230 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



ing them. Potato-ground could only be rented by the 

 labourer from the farmer at a rack rent very frequently 

 at four and five times the rent paid by the farmer to his 

 landlord. The food of the North Devon agricultural 

 labourer was stated by Canon Girdlestone to consist of, for 

 breakfast, what was called ' tea-kettle broth.' This was 

 made by putting into a basin several slices of dry bread, 

 which was then soaked by having hot water poured upon it, 

 after which the sop was seasoned with a sprinkling of salt, 

 and now and then an onion in addition ; sometimes, 

 however, with half a teaspoonful of milk. But milk could 

 only be obtained on rare occasions, as the surplus milk was 

 almost invariably given by the farmers to their pigs. The 

 peasants' - forenoons,' or luncheon, usually consisted of 

 bread and hard, dry pieces of skim-milk cheese. The 

 same fare constituted his dinner. The - forenoons ' and 

 the dinner, being taken during the intervals of work, were 

 not enjoyed with so much zest as was the labourer's supper, 

 which was the last as well as the best meal of the day, and 

 was always taken at the conclusion of the day's work. The 

 supper, as a rule, consisted of potatoes and cabbage, flav- 

 oured and made rich, when the labourer was allowed to 

 keep a pig, by a tiny piece of bacon. Butchers' meat found 

 its way sometimes on Sundays but only on very rare occa- 

 sions to the peasant's table. When by any chance it 

 could be obtained it was always in very small quantities. 

 At the age of about forty-five or fifty the peasant was 

 usually found to be - crippled up ' by rheumatism occa- 

 sioned by exposure to cold, and by being frequently obliged 

 to remain in wet clothes, either when there was no change 

 to be had, or when there was no fire by which the clothes 

 could be dried. At all times feeble from lack of a proper 

 amount of food, the North Devon agricultural labourer, 

 necessarily unable out of his miserable wages to make any 

 provision either for times of sickness or for old age, had, 

 during illness, and also finally, when totally incapacitated for 

 work, to come upon the rates. 



The general sanitary condition of the village was very 



bad. Picturesque as they were externally, many of the 



peasants' cottages were unfit for the housing of pigs. Pools 



of stagnant water stood in different parts of the parish, 



many of the ditches of which were offensively odorous. 



Not infrequently heaps of manure were thrown up just 



under dwelling-house windows. The whole village was 



badly drained ; open sewers ran through it, frequently 



trickling down from the cottages into the village brook, 



from which cattle slaked their thirst and the villagers and 



their children often drank ! From such a practice ensued 



'the natural result disease and death. The sanitary 



,< government was in the hands of the Board of Guardians, 



/ consisting chiefly of farmers. Disliking to incur expense in 



uch matters a^s drainage, because, as principal ratepayers, 



