I am assured, however, that remarkable care may often be noticed among them to avoid the ill effects of overcrowding, such as sending out the young men at nights to lodge with neighbours; and that in some cases, where too many have occupied one room, it would be difficult to trace the slightest symptoms of want of modesty. But this, as my informant tells me, depends almost entirely on the character of the parents. However the fact may be, that it should be possible at all under the circumstances speaks well for the innate delicacy of the Dorset peasant.
In the neighbourhood of Dorchester the cottagers kill a pig now and then, but they too commonly, if not mainly, live on bread and cheese and potatoes. Thus in a little poem on the father's return at eventime, Mr Barnes makes the wife say—
"Your supper's nearly ready. I've a-got
Some teäties here a-doèn in the pot;
I wish wi' all my heart I had some meat.
I got a little ceake, too, here a-beaken on
Upon the vier. 'Tis done by this time, though;
He's nice and moist; vor when I were a-meäkèn o'n,
I stuck some bits ov apple in the dough."
But what better fare can be hoped for with wages such as the Dorset peasant gets—wages too of which the greater part is sometimes paid in kind? Many farmers keep a running account with their men. There is the grist-corn, that is the barley or second wheat, which they sell their labourers at the market rate. There is skim-milk, wash for the pig, the occasional bits of dead meat; and in the Vale of Blackmore a quantity of beer and cider; so that when the time comes for the settlement of accounts the labourer finds he has very little cash to receive.
It is a miserable system, liable to great abuse, only working well under masters who are both prosperous and generous. As to prosperity, the modern farmer is driven by high rents and heavy taxes to closer dealings with his men than was the case with his predecessors; he cannot afford to be so generous as they were. In those days there was a community of feeling between the farmer and his men which made such a system work satisfactorily for both parties. The patriarchal idea still held sway in rural life.
Nevertheless the Dorset peasant speaks well of his employers,
