xiv PREFACE DEDICATORY. 



in brewing), although their great country- 

 man's line, 



" While greasy Joan doth kele the pot," 

 was, of course, so familiar to all of them ! 



But it is not my purpose to discuss at 

 length the changes to which our tongue 

 has yielded, nor to weary you with elabo- 

 rate attempts at philological illustration ; 

 nor need I desire to enlist YOUR sympathy 

 for a too much neglected and too often 

 despised race. We know well that though 

 the rustic has sometimes a woodbine at 

 his cottage-door, he has more frequently 

 penury and want, and disease within; and 

 that though, unlike the artisan, he at cer- 

 tain seasons of the year may trudge to his 

 labour with the lark above his head, he 

 at others returns hungry, and cold, and 

 weary, to a cheerless home where food and 

 fuel are scanty. 



Should the day happily arrive when the 

 condition of the agricultural labourer may 



