XII.
Northumbrian Hinds and Cheviot Shepherds.
(Golden Hours, 1871.)
Notwithstanding the miserable condition of a large number of our fellow-countrymen who follow "the painful plough," there yet remains, even in England, a peasantry concerning whom a Royal Commission has given the following report:—"They are very intelligent, sober, and courteous in their manner. This courtesy, moreover, is not cringing, but coupled with a manly independence of demeanour. Crime is almost unknown in agricultural Northumberland."
During the present summer I sought to find out, as far as I could, what it was made the Northumberland peasantry so superior. I visited Wooler and its neighbourhood, walking along the base of the Cheviots as far as Rothbury, and during my rambles I took every opportunity of conversing with the people, and learning from their own mouths the true state of things.
First of all, the conditions of agricultural service in Northumberland are peculiar. The hind, an old Saxon name implying a household servant, is hired by the year, his term of service commencing on the 13th of May to the same date on the following year. Something like statute fairs are held about Lady-day in Wooler, Rothbury, Belford, Alnwick, and Morpeth, at which the hinds are hired. Unmarried hinds and domestic servants are, however, engaged only a few days before they go to a place.
Cottages are provided expressly for labourers on a farm, and their use considered as part of the wages. They are the property of the laird, as the landlord is called j are built by him, and included
