64 Workers in Iron. 



Sometimes he combines the trade of a builder with 

 it — if he has a little capital — and puts up cottages, 

 barns, sheds, &c., and his 3'ard is strewn with tim- 

 ber. There is generally a mason, who goes about 

 from farm to farm mending walls and pig-sties, and 

 all such odd jobs, working for his own hand. 



The blacksmith of course is there — sometimes 

 more than one — usually with plenty to do ; for 

 modern agriculture uses three times as much ma- 

 chinery and ironwork as was formerly the case. At 

 first the blacksmiths did not understand how to 

 mend many of these new-fangled machines, but they 

 have learned a good deal, though some of the pieces 

 still have to be replaced from the implement factories 

 if broken. Horses come trooping in to have new 

 shoes put on. Sometimes a village blacksmith ac- 

 quires a fame for shoeing horses which extends far 

 beyond his forge, and gentlemen residing in the 

 market towns send out their horses to him to be 

 shod. He still uses a ground-ash sapling to hold 

 the short chisel with which he cuts off the glowing 

 iron on the anvil. He keeps bundles of the j'oung, 

 pliant ground-ash sticks, which twist easilj- and are 

 peculiarly tough; and, taking one of these, with 

 a few turns of his wrist winds it round the chisel so 

 as to have a long handle. One advantage of the 

 wood is that it ' gives ' a little and does not jar when 

 struck. 



The tinker, notwithstanding his vagrant habits, is 

 sometimes a man of substance, owning two or more 

 small cottages, built out of his savings by the village 

 mason — the materials perhaps carted for him free by 

 a friendly' farmer. When sober and steady, he has 



