INTRODUCTION. 3 



as he uses his skill, is able to visualise where the full-grown 

 grass will ripple with wavelets when caressed by the wind in 

 June. He knows, too, where it will be so meagre that it will 

 scarcely conceal a hare. 



But it is in judging the actual time for mowing, by noting 

 on his leggings the dust of the pollen from the bents, and the 

 colour of the bronzing clover that he will show his cunning 

 as a hay-maker ; and yet when he comes to build the stack 

 then it is that he displays his supreme craft as a rural archi- 

 tect . With conscious pride casting his eyes over the meadow, 

 mentally envisaging the probable weight of hay, he will 

 mark out his foundation or steading without having passed 

 the ordeal of the Mathematical Tripos. And as the hay is 

 unloaded from the wagon, he, with the cunning of his eye 

 and hand, will build his fragrant edifice so that it stands 

 flawlessly symmetrical. As designer and executant and as 

 one who works without the aid of pencil or paper he should 

 as a craftsman satisfy the most fastidious of Guilds. 



Finally, as a thatcher, when he crowns his edifice with 

 a roof of golden straw, he will, if he takes pride in his work, 

 fashion a cock out of wisps of twisted straw, and place it on 

 the apex of the roof as an outward and visible sign of the 

 joy he took in his work. 



He will have to be deft with the adze in splitting thatching 

 rods ; and that brings us to review the artistry and the skill 

 of the labourer who is woodman as well as farm worker. 

 It is surprising, considering how our woods have been left 

 to the mercies of the head gamekeeper, rather than to the 

 forester, that we have any skilled woodmen left in our coun- 

 tryside. In nearly every county are to be found men 

 who can not only shave hoops, make hurdles and wattles, 

 and sheepcribs during the winter months, but also work 

 as skilled agricultural labourers on the farm in the summer. 



The swinger of the scythe nowadays is indubitably a 

 rare workman. He is more than that : he is an artist. In 

 the peculiar bend of the sneath or handle, and in the curve 

 of the reaping blade, one can see that it is the craftsman 

 whose brain and muscle have been working together in 

 perfect harmony that has eventually shaped this implement 



