126 THE HUNTING FIELD 



individual merits, without reference or regard to what is done 

 or allowed at another. No master ought to allow a servant 

 to quote the doings of another place to him. These observa- 

 tions are peculiarly applicable at the present time, for the 

 increased and increasing facilities of communication, as well 

 by post as by railway, have brought about such a system 

 of note comparing and laying heads together, that half the 

 servants are agog to know what the other half have. Then 

 if Tom Brown linds out that Harry Jones has a couple of 

 pounds a year more than himself, he feels it a point of honour 

 to ask to have his wages raised, forgetful very likely of the 

 fact that he is in possession of a couple of pounds a-year 

 more than Giles Scroggins at some other place. A servant's 

 sliding scale only knows the ascendant. The breed of old 

 attached family servants, so beautifully described by Washing- 

 ton Irving, will be almost extinct with their generation. Few 

 new ones are rising up to supply their places. It may save 

 annuities to expectant heirs, but we much question whether 

 the new system is better for the general interest of families. 



There are no people under the sun so well done by as 

 gentlemen's servants. They live on the fat of the land, have 

 no cares, no anxieties, and are paid out of all proportion to 

 their labouring brethren. An inflated beef and beer bursting 

 bragger will assert that he can do what a labouring man 

 cannot ; but a handy labouring man will do his own work 

 and the braggart's at his leisure hours. What are the 

 generality of servants, in fact, but part and parcel of the 

 labouring population ? They are not a bit better educated ; if 

 they were, they would aspire to clerkships or shopmen's 

 places. All the difference is that one lights on his legs in a 

 gentleman's service, the other sticks to the spade, the axe, or 

 the trowel, and, we believe, is oftener the richer and the happier 

 man of the two. Gentlemen's servants are often sadly im- 

 provident. They have great temptations, it is true, but few, 



