h nearly two miles distant from his house, through which
was carried a canal, affording water communication in some intricate
way both to London and Bristol. And on the brink of this canal there
had sprung up a colony of brickmakers, the nature of the earth in
those parts combining with the canal to make brickmaking a suitable
trade. The workmen there assembled were not, for the most part,
native-born Hogglestockians, or folk descended from Hogglestockian
parents. They had come thither from unknown regions, as labourers of
that class do come when they are needed. Some young men from that and
neighbouring parishes had joined themselves to the colony, allured by
wages, and disregarding the menaces of the neighbouring farmers; but
they were all in appearance and manners nearer akin to the race of
navvies than to ordinary rural labourers. They had a bad name in the
country; but it may be that their name was worse than their deserts.
The farmers hated them, and consequently they hated the farmers. They
had a beershop, and a grocer's shop, and a huxter's shop for their
own accommodation, and were consequently vilified by the small
old-established tradesmen around them. They got drunk occasionally,
but I doubt whether they drank more than did the farmers themselves
on market-day. They fought among themselves sometimes, but they
forgave each other freely, and seemed to have no objection to black
eyes. I fear that they were not always good to their wives, nor
were their wives always good to them; but it should be remembered
that among the poor, especially when they live in clusters, such
misfortunes cannot be hidden as they may amidst the decent belongings
of more wealthy people. That they worked very hard was certain; and
it was certain also that very few of their number ever came upon the
poor rates. What became of the old brickmakers no one knew. Who ever
sees a worn-out aged navvy?

Mr. Crawley, ever since first coming into Hogglestock, had been very
busy among these brickmakers, and by no means without success. Indeed
the farmers had quarrelled with him because the brickmakers had so
crowded the parish church, as to leave but scant room for decent
people. "Doo they folk pay tithes? That's what I want 'un to tell
me?" argued one farmer,--not altogether unnaturally, believing as he
did that Mr. Crawley was paid by tithes out of his own pocket. But
Mr. Crawley had done his best to make the brickmakers welcome at the
church, s