FOOD, DRESS, AND " CREDIT." 289 



week more than the current rate of wages prevailing 

 in his district ; so that the dietary he details was ex- 

 ceptionally good. Concluding a most interesting com- 

 munication, the same correspondent said 



" Very much may yet be done to improve the food of the 

 peasantry by systematic instruction in the rules of simple 

 cookery. Few, if any, of the labourers' wives here know 

 how to make the best of the plentiful supply of vegetables 

 abundantly raised by their husbands and sons on the un- 

 usually large and good gardens attached to the cottages, 

 or on the plots of land which can be rented at about eight 

 shillings per annum, either of the Great Western Railway 

 Company, who let, in allotments, the waste pieces of ground 

 along the sides of their line, or of the vicar of the parish 

 plots which, under the hands of an ordinary farm labourer, 

 produce enough vegetables (including potatoes) to supply 

 any average family during the year. Unhappily, however, 

 none of the women here seem to know how to prepare the 

 dainty soups and other simply-made but appetising dishes, 

 which are so well known to the peasantry of France, and 

 which are very cheap, and, at the same time, highly 

 nutritious." 



The picturesqueness of dress which distinguishes the 

 peasantry of some other countries is very conspicuous 

 by its absence amongst our native field - labourers. 

 To a certain extent the " smock-frock " and the " cor- 

 duroy " trousers linger in outlying districts that have 

 not been brought under the influence of modern changes. 

 The wearers of the " smock frock," however, were 

 chiefly shepherds though even they seemed to be 

 giving it up at the period under review but as regards 

 other labourers, it was almost a thing of the past. The 

 poverty of the class is probably the reason for the dis- 

 continuance of costume, the material for which had to 

 be purchased, whilst old pairs of trousers, old coats and 

 waistcoats had to be used because they were " gifts " 

 from the labourers' employers and others. When he did 

 not obtain clothes in this way, he obtained them from 

 the second-hand shops, and would be compelled to 

 select not what was most attractive, but what was most 

 serviceable and of any shape or any colour both 

 '9 



