, running perhaps in long narrow strips of land for
two or three miles. Although he employs a head-shepherd, and even a
bailiff, he finds it necessary, if he would succeed in making a profit,
to be pretty well ubiquitous. They all want looking after sharply. Not
that there is much actual dishonesty; but would any manufacturer endure
to have his men sitting doing nothing on their benches for fifteen
minutes out of every hour of the working day, just because his back was
turned? The hill farmer has, perhaps, a preferable life in some respects
to the agriculturist in the vale. He has not so much actual manual
labour to get through. On the other hand, he is at a great distance
from any town, or even large village; he sees no one during the day, and
he has to run great risks. Wool may fall, so may the price of mutton,
either of which would derange his calculations; or the fly may destroy
his turnips, or the season may be exceptionally dry and unfavourable.
His house is lonely, perched on the side of a hill, and exposed to the
bitter blasts of winter which sweep over the downs with resistless fury,
and which no doors nor windows can exclude. If there should be snow, it
is sure to fall in greater quantities on the hills, and, driving before
the wind, fills up the hollows, till the roads are impassable for weeks.

Taking all the year round, the work of the agriculturist begins and ends
with the rising and setting of the sun. There is an exception, because
the cows must be milked and foddered nearly as early in the winter, when
the sun rises very late, as at other seasons; but then, to make up for
that, work ends earlier in the afternoon. In the spring, as the evenings
draw out, there is almost always something to be done even after the
labourers have left. In harvest time, the superintendence of work
continues till late, and in the autumn labour is not unfrequently
prolonged into the moonlight, in order to carry the corn. It is a life,
on the whole, of hard work.

In all this I speak of the ordinary middle-class farmer. The life of the
higher class of agriculturists, who possess large capital, and employ
bailiffs and all kinds of machinery, is of course not by any means so
onerous. It is in general character pretty much that of an independent
gentleman, with the addition of the sporting element, and a certain
freedom from drawing-room trammels.

To get at the physique of the agriculturists, the best plan is to pay a
visit to