A CHAT BY THE WAY must not expect exactness from the average countryman. "Why, they be put there on account of the partridges. You see, the birds, when they be a-flying fast like, don't always see them wires, and lots of them gets hurt and killed by striking themselves against them. You know, sir, as how partridges is partridges, and has to be taken great care on; if the quality only took the same care of the poor working-man, we should be happy." The poor working-man, or labourer, in the present case did not appear very miserable or poorly clad, so we ventured to remark: "Well, you don't seem particularly unhappy anyhow." At the same moment a small coin of the realm changed ownership in return for the information imparted, and we went our way, and the man resumed his work, after promising to drink our very good healths that very night, and we saw no reason to doubt that the promise would be faithfully kept. The one thing you may positively rely upon the countryman doing, if you give him the opportunity, is "to drink your health."
I may note here that during my many chats with the English labourer, in different counties far apart from each other, I have found their chief complaint (when they have one and venture to express it) is not so much the lowness of their wage, or the hardness of their work, as the poorness of their dwellings. Even the farm-hand begins to expect something better than the too often cold, damp, and draughty cottages that for generations past, in some parts of the country more than others, his "rude forefathers" had to put up
