painful
one to contemplate, and their lives full of hardships; but field-labour
cannot be fairly accused as the cause of the evils they endure. Their
strength is overstrained in the cornfield; but what can you do? It is
their gold-mine--their one grand opportunity of getting a little money.
It would be cruel kindness to deny it to them; and, in point of fact,
except by interfering with the liberty of the subject, it would be
impossible to prevent them. Farm-labour is certainly to be preferred to
much of the work that women do in manufacturing districts. At least
there is no overcrowding; there is plenty of fresh air, and the woman
who works in the field looks quite as robust and healthy as her sister
sitting all day in a confined factory.

It used to be common to see women dressed in a kind of smock-frock; this
was in the days when they milked, and it is still occasionally worn. Now
they generally wear linsey dresses in the winter, and cotton in the
summer, at prices from 4-1/2d. to 6d. per yard. They wear boots nailed and
tipped much like the men, but not so heavy, and in rough weather
corduroy gaiters. Their cooking is rude and detestable to any one else's
ideas; but it appears exactly suited to the coarse tastes and hearty
appetite of their husbands. Being uneducated, and a large proportion
unable to read, their chief intellectual amusement consists in
tittle-tattle and gossip. They are generally inclined to be religious
after a fashion, and frequent the chapel or the cottage in which the
itinerant preacher holds forth. In summer this preacher will mount upon
a waggon placed in a field by the roadside, and draw a large audience,
chiefly women, who loudly respond and groan and mutter after the most
approved manner. Now and then an elderly woman may be found who is
considered to have a gift of preaching, and holds forth at great length,
quoting Scripture right and left. The exhibitions of emotion on the part
of the women at such meetings and in the services in their cottages are
not pleasant to listen to, but the impression left on the mind is that
they are in earnest.

They are a charitable race, and eager to help each other. They will
watch by the bedsides of their sick neighbours, divide the loaf of
bread, look after the children and trudge weary miles to the town for
medicine. On the other hand, they are almost childlike in imbibing
jealousies and hatreds, and unsparing in abuse and imputation towards a
supposed