BENEVOLENCE. 247 



widows or children of labourers. It would, in fact, be 

 probably difficult in any village to find a large propor- 

 tion of its poorest residents who had not some connec- 

 tion with present or former tillers of the soil. These 

 charities, supplemented by the " benevolence " extended 

 by aid of the poor rates and administered by the guar- 

 dians of the various unions, have done a great deal to 

 prevent an absolute collapse of the whole agricultural 

 system in the poorest paid districts. Referring to his 

 own experience in the west of England, Canon Girdlestone 

 once remarked that the " labourers of North Devon did 

 not ' live ' in the proper sense of the word. They merely 

 ' didn't die ! ' ' and it is quite certain that in a very 

 large number of instances it was only private and public 

 " benevolence " that kept the poor creatures from 

 starving ! 



As illustrative of the kindness and generosity of many 

 of the clergy we may mention one worthy rector, a 

 retired colonial bishop, who kept a number of cows and 

 gave all the milk to the poor farm labourers in his village. 

 He and his curate were always active in good work of this 

 kind, and never failed to render speedy aid in any case 

 of distress. The land in this particular district was 

 owned by four principal proprietors, and before the slight 

 rise in wages that followed the period of the famous 

 " strike " in Warwickshire the maximum of wage was 

 eight shillings ^ a week, with two pints, daily, of cider, 

 set down in value at a shilling a week. Putting the total 

 earnings, therefore, at nine shillings a week, there was 

 the deduction from that sum of a shilling a week for 

 cottage rents. The " cottages " were mostly two- 

 roomed hovels in a majority of cases, one room over 

 the other, the whole family, often a long one, having to 

 herd in the lower or sitting room, and to sleep in the 

 single bedroom both rooms being often very tiny ones. 

 One farmer in the village referred to was paying his men 

 only six shillings a week in money, but in addition to this 



