236 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



character at all on account of their leaving their employ. 

 Canon Girdlestone, however, was naturally scrupulously 

 particular to ascertain the character of the men he sent 

 away, as he, of course, would be held responsible for any 

 failing in this respect. When, however, the character was 

 found to be satisfactory, the situation obtained and the 

 wages fixed, there was a considerable amount of labour 

 entailed in superintending in each case all the arrangements 

 preliminary to the start. The packing up and the prepara- 

 tions for the journey had to be seen to. The majority of 

 the peasants were perfectly helpless in this respect. Almost 

 everything had to be done for them, their luggage ad- 

 dressed, their railway tickets taken, and full and plain 

 directions given to the simple travellers. The plan adopted 

 when the labourers were leaving for their new homes 

 was to give them plain directions written on a piece of 

 paper in a large and legible hand. These were shown to 

 the officials on the several lines of railway, who, soon getting 

 to hear of Canon Girdlestone's system of migration, rendered 

 them all the assistance in their power by readily helping 

 the labourers out of their travelling difficulties and seeing 

 them safely booked for their destinations. Many of the 

 peasants of North Devon were so ignorant of the where- 

 abouts of the places to which they were about to be sent, 

 that they often asked when their destination, for instance, 

 was some well-known place in the North of England 

 whether they were going ' over the water.' It is really 

 difficult to estimate the immense amount of labour which, 

 during his six years of philanthropic work, was thrown 

 upon the hands of Canon Girdlestone. The only assistance 

 which he obtained was from the members of his own family, 

 who aided him in his increasing labours. But his work of 

 migration, large in itself, became the centre of a great 

 system. The men who went away, with very few excep- 

 tions, prospered ; and they in their turn procured situations 

 for their relations and friends in Devonshire, and under- 

 took the work of getting them removed without any 

 assistance from Canon Girdlestone. The total number of 

 peasants, therefore, removed from Devonshire to the north 

 of England was very considerable. But the stream which 

 began to flow from that county to the more prosperous 

 agricultural, mining, and manufacturing districts of 

 England soon had the effect of stirring the stagnation 

 which had before existed in neighbouring counties. Migra- 

 tions to the north set in from Devonshire, Wiltshire, and 

 Somersetshire, until at length the stream had acquired a 

 considerable volume. We were glad to find, on the occasion 

 of our visit to Canon Girdlestone at Halberton, that the 

 misfortunes which it had been predicted would over- 

 whelm the courageous vicar as the result of his advocacy 

 of the cause of the peasantry had not happened. We 

 attended the morning and afternoon services at the church, 



