134 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



shortlived amusement to Louis XVI. and Marie Antoin- 

 ette, but Queen Victoria and Prince Albert take a real 

 pleasure in farming. The Prince has a farm at Windsor, 

 where the finest cattle in the three kingdoms are bred and 

 fattened. His produce generally gains the first prizes at 

 the agricultural shows. At Osborne, where she spends the 

 greatest part of the year, the Queen herself takes great inte- 

 rest in her poultry-yard ; and the newspapers have lately 

 announced a cure which her Majesty has discovered for a 

 particular disease among turkeys. We may laugh at 

 this, but our neighbours take it very seriously, and they 

 have good reason for doing so too. Happy and wise 

 among nations is the people which loves to see its princes 

 engaged in useful relaxations ! 



The beneficial effects produced upon the land by the 

 habitual residence of families at their country places 

 may easily be conceived. While, in France, field-labour 

 goes to pay for town luxury, in England town-work pays 

 for the luxury of the country. Almost everything which 

 the most industrious nation in the world can produce 

 is there consumed, to the benefit of farming. The more 

 a proprietor lives on his property, the more disposed is 

 he to keep it in good order. Pride is the great stimulus. 

 A man does not like to let his neighbours see buildings 

 in ruins, bad roads, defective harness, ill-conditioned 

 cattle, neglected fields : he therefore lays out his pride 

 productively, just as elsewhere it is spent in folly from 

 the force of example. In England, a man has his pretty 

 country place just as in Paris they have their fine hotels 

 and rich furniture. 



Taxation itself, which, in France, has an exhausting 

 influence upon the land, has quite a different effect in 

 England. All direct taxes are spent upon the spot where 

 they are collected. The poor-rate and tithes are scarcely 



