60 Wild Life in a Southern County 



the soles with nails and cover toe and heel with plates till 

 the huge boot is literally iron-clad. Even the children 

 wear boots which for their size are equally heavy : many of 

 the working farmers also send theirs to be repaired. The 

 only thing to be remembered in dealing with a village 

 cobbler is, if you want a pair of boots, to order them six 

 months beforehand, or you will be disappointed. The 

 business occupies him about as long as it takes a ship- 

 wright to build a ship. 



Under the trees of the lane that connects one part of 

 the village with another stands a wooden post, once stout, 

 now decaying; and opposite it at some distance the 

 remnants of a second. This was a rope-walk, but has long 

 since fallen into disuse ; the tendency of the age having 

 for a long time been to centralise industry of all kinds. 

 It is true that of late years many manufacturers have 

 found it profitable to remove their workshops from cities 

 into the country, the rent of premises being so much less, 

 water to be got by sinking a well, less rates, and wages a 

 little cheaper. They retain a shop and office in the cities, 

 but have the work done miles away. But even this is 

 distinctly associated with centralisation. The workmen 

 are merely paid human machines ; they do not labour for 

 their own hands in their own little shops at home, or as 

 the rope-maker slowly walked backwards here, twisting 

 the hemp under the elms of the lane, afterwards, doubtless, 

 to take the manufactured article himself to market and 

 offer his wares for sale from a stand in the street. 



The millwright used to be a busy man here and there 

 in the villages, but the railways take the wheat to the 

 steam mills of cities, and where the water-mills yet run, 

 ironwork has supplanted wood. In some few places still 

 the women and girls are employed making gloves of a 



