uite true that in hundreds of farmhouses, just
at the time when the dairy is in full work in the morning, a piano may
be heard going. This is the governess instructing the girls when the
farmer is not sufficiently rich to send them to a school. But when once
these girls are grown up, and have finished their education, poor as it
is, and return home to take a part in the household duties, then the
piano is never heard in the morning when work is about. The farmer's
wife sees to that sharp enough. In the evening it may be heard--and why
not? If the agricultural labourer is to be polished up and refined, why
on earth should not his employer take a step in advance? It must be
remembered that there is very little society in the country; scarcely
any one even passing along the road. There are none of those cheap
sights and amusements so readily accessible to the poorest in a great
city. The wives and daughters of the mechanics and workmen in London can
once a week at least afford to enjoy themselves at some theatre or place
of amusement. They are far better off in this respect than the daughters
of agriculturists who may be worth thousands. These have nothing
whatever to amuse themselves with during the long evenings; they cannot
even take a stroll out and look at the shop windows. They are surely
entitled to the simple and inexpensive amusement of a piano. It is in
fact their only resource. There was a statement in the newspapers of
farmers taking their daughters to Paris. It is possible that some of the
upper class of farmers, who are in fact independent gentlemen, may have
done so; but as for the ordinary middle-class farmers, such a thing is
utterly unheard of. It is very few of them who even take their wives to
London or the seaside for a week. But even if they did, it is nothing
more than they are entitled to do. Half the tradesmen who do such things
do not possess anything like the income of the farmers. The fact is,
that the agriculturists are a singularly stay-at-home race of men. The
great majority never leave their farms to go farther than the
market-town from one year's end to the other. Above all classes they are
attached to their homes, and slow to go away even temporarily. To such a
length is this feeling carried that men have been known to go partially
insane for a while at the prospect of having to quit a farm through a
landlord's decease, even though no appreciable pecuniary loss was
involved.

The agricultu