Condition of the English Agricultural Labourer, 1871. 055 
—Beds, 2725 ; Bucks, 8442 ; Oxford, 16,53G ; Berlcs, 25,7G2 ; 
and Herts, 7714. 
From these tables, and from Mr. Henley's report, we must 
conclude that the school age of children in the Northern Counties, 
■where adult unmarried female labour is employed, is prolonged 
considerably farther than in the generality of agricultural coun- 
ties in ! England, where the age of ten is almost universally 
suggested by employers, labourers, and indeed by many of the 
clergy themselves, as the inferior limit at which the children 
should be set to work. Nor in the North does the employment 
of young women in the fields appear so repulsive or distasteful 
to public opinion as it does farther South. Mr. Henley says 
of the Northumbrian women, " Physically they are a splendid 
race ; there are many who hold the opinion that field-work is 
degrading, but I should be glad if they would visit these women 
in their own homes after they become wives and mothers. They 
would be received with a natural courtesy and good manners 
which would astonish them. Let the visitor ask to see the 
house ; he will be taken over it, with many apologies that he 
should have seen it not " redd up." He will then be offered a 
chair in front of a large fire, with the never absent pot and 
oven, the mistress, meanwhile, continuing her unceasing family 
duties, baking, cooking, cleaning, &c. Not one word of com- 
plaint will he hear; but he will be told, that though "working- 
people," they are not poor ; and a glance at the substantial 
furniture, the ample supply of bacon over his head, the variety 
of cakes and bread on the board, and the stores of butter, 
cheese, and meal in the house, will convince him of the fact. 
When he inquires about the children, he will hear that though 
they have not much to give them, the parents feel it to be their 
sacred duty to secure them the best instruction in their power, 
and ' that they are determined they shall have.' The visitor will 
leave that cottage with the conviction that field-work has had no 
degrading effect, but that he has been in the presence of a 
thoughtful, contented, and unselfish woman." * 
On the other hand. Bishop Fraser says that female labour in 
the fields, " almost unsexes a woman in dress, gait, manners, 
and character ; everywhere women are found to be less and less 
disposed to go out to work upon the land." In Lincolnshire 
" there is a growing disinclination on the part of the women them- 
selves to go out to field work, and when all the families are well 
off and the children in great demand, the respectable women have 
almost ceased to go." j In Northamptonshire, Mr. Norman says. 
* First Eeport, 1868, p. 54. 
t Ibid., p. 76. 
