COUNTRY LITERATURE. 221 



tion. After the local gossip has been looked at the 

 purchasers of these prints are sure to turn to these 

 pieces, which serve them and theirs the most of the 

 week to absorb. 



II. SCARCITY OF BOOKS. 



Some little traffic in books, or rather pamphlets, goes 

 on now in rural places through the medium of pedlars. 

 There are not so many pedlars as was once the case, 

 and those that remain are not men of such substance 

 as their predecessors who travelled on foot with 

 jewellery, laces, watches, and similar articles. The 

 packmen who walk round the villages for tradesmen 

 are a different class altogether : the pedlar does not 

 confine himself to one district, and he sells for his 

 own profit. In addition to the pins and ribbons, 

 Birmingham jewellery, dream-books, and penny ballads, 

 the pedlar now produces a bundle of small books, 

 which are practically pamphlets, though in more 

 convenient form than the ancient quartos. They are 

 a miscellaneous lot, from fifty to one hundred and 

 fifty pages ; little monographs on one subject, tales, 

 and especially such narratives as are drawn up and 

 printed after a great calamity like the loss of the 

 Atalanta. It is a curious fact that country people 

 are much attracted to the sea, and the story of a 

 shipwreck known to be true easily tempts the six- 

 pences from their pockets. Dream-books and ballads 

 sell as they always did sell, but for the rest the 

 pedlar's bundle has nothing in it, as a rule, more 

 pernicious than may be purchased at any little shop. 



