216 A Walk from 



women bending almost double to cut their sheaves 

 close to the ground, I longed to walk through a 

 barley-field with one of our American cradles, and 

 show them how we do that sort of thing. As yet 

 I have seen no reaping machines in operation, and 

 I doubt if they will ever come into such extensive 

 use here as with us, owing to the abundance of 

 cheap labor in this country. I saw on this day's 

 walk the heaviest crop of wheat that I have noticed 

 since I left London. It must have averaged sixty 

 bushels to the acre for the whole field. 



Late in the afternoon it began to rain ; and I was 

 glad to find shelter and entertainment at a comfort- 

 able village inn, under the patronage of " The Green 

 Man," perhaps a brother or near relative of Mermadam 

 my hostess that entertained me the preceding night. 

 It was a unique old building, or rather a concrete of 

 a great variety of buildings devoted to a remarkable 

 diversity of purposes, including brewing, farming and 

 other occupations. The large, low, dark kitchen was 

 flanked by one of the old-fashioned fire-places, with 

 space for a large family between the jambs, and the 

 hollow of the chimney ample enough to show one of 

 the smaller constellations at the top of it in a clear 

 night. A seat on the brick or stone floor before one 

 of these kitchen fire-places is to me the focus of the 



