92 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF chap. V, 



the better gradually taking place. And their 

 growing affluence, co-operating with the gene- 

 ral progress of luxury and refinement through 

 the nation, have had a very visible effect upon 

 their manners and habits of life. Formerly it 

 was customary for the farmers to subject them- 

 selves to every kind of drudgery and hard la- 

 bour, undergoing the same toil, living upon the 

 same fare, and often eating at the same table, 

 with their servants. And in some instances this 

 may be the case still, especially where their farms 

 are small, their circumstances narrow, their rents 

 high, and consequently cannot afford to exempt 

 the master from personal labour. But many of 

 the farmers now occupy a more respectable and 

 important station. Their chief business is to 

 superintend. The operative and servile part 

 is committed to others : But the master's pre- 

 sence and direction are every where to conduct 

 and forward the various necessary operations, in 

 every department, and in their proper season. 

 These requisite attentions, together with the bu- 

 siness of the counting-room, and his attendance 

 on markets for the disposal of his grain and cat- 

 tle, a province which he usually reserves to him- 

 self, will afford little time for relaxation or idle- 

 ness, and are surely much more conducive to his 

 interest than holding the plough, threshing the 

 grain, or filling and driving his own dung cart. 

 The alteration in their style and manner of 

 living is equally remarkable. Their houses, in 

 general, are decently and substantially furnish- 

 ed, and the apartments so arranged, and the ge- 

 neral economy of the house so regulated, as to 

 produce a more marked distinction between mas- 



