By the Red. A. C. Smith. 



331 



travelled with his son, by coach, from Melksham to London, and it 

 was on arrival at the latter place, that, after the father and the guard 

 had made an ineffectual search for a brown paper parcel, which, on 

 starting from Melksham, both had seen safely stowed away in the 

 hind boot, the boy exclaimed, "La, faather, I zeed un drap out 

 at Vize." 



I cannot however conclude this paper with such anecdotes as these, 

 lest, harmless as they are, they leave the impression on the minds of 

 any that I esteem the intellect of the Wiltshire labourer as below the 

 average of his fellows in other parts of England. Most emphatically 

 I declare that I do not : and in refutation of any such opinion, let 

 the statistics of the education of the several counties in England 

 conclusively declare. Granted that the Wiltshireman has something 

 to unlearn, as well as something to learn ; that he may be, and un- 

 doubtedly is too credulous ; and that there is still a considerable 

 leaning on his part towards charms and superstitions : still, I main- 

 tain that of the two extremes it is better to believe too much than 

 too little ; and I for one, far prefer such ignorant credulity as I have 

 described above, to that fatal scepticism and open infidelity, now 

 alas ! so prevalent in England. Moreover, if our "Wiltshireman is in 

 some respects ignorant, and dull, and slow, and heavy, I think we 

 may claim for him, at the same time, that he is generally honest 

 and straightforward, and upright and true. For good sterling worth, 

 and for hearty, trustworthy, genuine goodwill, commend me to our 

 average Wiltshireman ; and surely that is a character neither to be 

 despised nor ridiculed. He has his peculiarities of belief and of 

 habits, and he is somewhat prejudiced in favour of those peculiarities; 

 indeed he is generally tenacious, not to say obstinate in support of 

 them : but may we not say the the same of Archaeologists, and 

 indeed of most other — ologists, in regard to their respective 

 hobbies ? but for kindliness of heart, readiness to help his neighbour 

 in distress, large-hearted unaffected sympathy, ungrudging bestowal 

 of his time and energies, even his hard-earned money in the service 

 of a friend in trouble ; in short for his unselfishness and real charity , 1 

 have seen very many instances amongst ourWiltshirc labourers, which 

 would advantageously compare with similar traits in any class of life. 



