xiv] FIRST LITERARY EFFORTS 215 



upright carriage and good figure, though rather inclined to the corpulency 

 of Dutch beauties. On their necks they usually wear a gay silk kerchief 

 or flannel shawl, a neat white cap under the hat ; laced boots and 

 black worsted stockings complete their attire. In Carmarthenshire 

 a jacket with sleeves is frequently worn by the women, in other respects 

 their dress does not much differ from what I have described. 



The women and girls carry (as before mentioned) great loads upon 

 their heads, fifty or sixty pounds weight, and often much more. Large 

 pitchers (like Grecian urns) of water or milk are often carried for long 

 distances on uneven roads, with both hands full at the same time. 

 They may be often seen turning round their heads to speak to an 

 acquaintance and tripping along with the greatest unconcern, but never 

 upsetting the pitcher. The women are almost invariably stout and 

 healthy looking, notwithstanding their hard work and poor living. These 

 circumstances, however, make them look much older than they really 

 are. The girls are often exceedingly pretty when about fifteen to twenty, 

 but after that, hard work and exposure make their features coarse, so that 

 a girl of five-and-twenty would often be taken for nearer forty. 



All, but more especially the young ones, ride most fearlessly, and at 

 fairs they may be seen by dozens racing like steeple-chasers. 



Many of these farmers are freeholders, cultivating their own land and 

 living on the produce ; but they are generally little, if any, better off than 

 the tenants, leaving the land in the same manner, thus showing that it is 

 not altogether want of leases and good landlords that makes them so, 

 but the complete ignorance in which they pass their lives. 



All that I have hitherto said refers solely to the poorer class, known 

 as hill farmers. In the valleys and near the town where the land is 

 better, there are frequently better educated farmers, who assimilate more 

 to the English in their agricultural operations, mode of living, and dress. 



In all the mining districts, too, there is another class — the colliers 

 and furnacemen, smiths, etc., who are as different from the farmers in 

 everything as one set of men can be from another. When times are 

 good their wages are such as to afford them many luxuries, which the 

 poor farmer considers far too extravagant. Instead of living on vege- 

 table diet with cheese and buttermilk, they luxuriate on flesh and fowl, 

 and often on game too, of their own procuring. But in their dress is the 

 greatest difference. The farmer is almost always dressed the same, except 

 that on Sundays and market-day it is newer. But the difference between 

 the collier or furnaceman at his work — when he is half naked, begrimed 

 from head to foot, labouring either in the bowels of the earth or among 

 roaring fires, and looking more like demon than man — and on holidays 

 dressed in a suit of clothes that would not disgrace an English 

 gentleman, is most remarkable. It is nothing uncommon to see these 

 men dressed in coat and trousers of fine black cloth, elegant waistcoat, 

 fine shirt, beaver hat, Wellington boots, and a fine silk handkerchief in 

 his pocket ; and instead of being ridiculous, as the clumsy farmer would 

 be in such a dress, wearing it with a quiet, unconcerned, and gentlemanly 



