e that
helped him. The feeling was that he belonged to a set of people rather
apart from the rest of the world--a people necessarily different from
others in their manners, and perhaps poorer and ruder than most, but yet
fully entitled to respect and consideration. The usage was just the
whole series or body of customs to which his own people conformed; or,
more exactly, the accepted idea in the village of what ought to be done
in any contingency, and of the proper way to do it. In short, it was
that unwritten code I spoke of just now--a sort of _savoir vivre_--which
became part of the rural labourer's outlook, and instructed him through
his days and years. It was hardly reduced to thoughts in his
consciousness, but it always swayed him. And it was consistent
with--nay, it implied--many strong virtues: toughness to endure long
labour, handiness, frugality, habits of early rising. It was consistent
too--that must be admitted--with considerable hardness and "coarseness"
of feeling; a man might be avaricious, loose, dirty, quarrelsome, and
not offend much against the essential peasant code. Nor was its
influence very good upon his intellectual development, as I shall show
later on. Yet whatever its defects, it had those qualities which I have
tried to outline; and where it really flourished it ultimately led to
gracefulness of living and love of what is comely and kindly. You can
detect as much still, in the flavour of many a mellow folk-saying, not
to mention folk-song; you may divine it yet in all kinds of little
popular traits, if once you know what to look for.

In this particular valley, where the barren soil challenged the people
to a severer struggle for bare subsistence, the tradition could not put
forth its fairer, its gentler, features; nevertheless the backbone of
the village life was of the genuine peasant order. The cottagers had to
"rough it," to dispense with softness, to put up with ugliness; but by
their own skill and knowledge they forced the main part of their living
out of the soil and materials of their own neighbourhood. And in doing
this they won at least the rougher consolations which that mode of life
had to offer. Their local knowledge was intensely interesting to them;
they took pride in their skill and hardihood; they felt that they
belonged to a set of people not inferior to others, albeit perhaps
poorer and ruder; and all the customs which their situation required
them to follow sustained thei