Hodge and His Masters


Hodge and His Masters, by Richard Jefferies

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Title: Hodge and His Masters
Author: Richard Jefferies
Release Date: April 3, 2004 [eBook #11874]
Language: English
Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
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HODGE AND HIS MASTERS
BY
RICHARD JEFFERIES
Author of 'The Gamekeeper at Home,' 'Wild Life in a Southern County,' 'The Amateur Poacher,' 'Round About A Great Estate,' Etc.

PREFACE
The papers of which this volume is composed originally appeared in the Standard, and are now republished by permission of the Editor.
In manners, mode of thought, and way of life, there is perhaps no class of the community less uniform than the agricultural. The diversities are so great as to amount to contradictions. Individuality of character is most marked, and, varying an old saw, it might be said, so many farmers so many minds.
Next to the tenants the landowners have felt the depression, to such a degree, in fact, that they should perhaps take the first place, having no one to allow them in turn a 20 per cent, reduction of their liabilities. It must be remembered that the landowner will not receive the fruits of returning prosperity when it comes for some time after they have reached the farmer. Two good seasons will be needed before the landowner begins to recoup.
Country towns are now so closely connected with agriculture that a description of the one would be incomplete without some mention of the other. The aggregate capital employed by the business men of these small towns must amount to an immense sum, and the depreciation of their investments is of more than local concern.
Although the labourer at the present moment is a little in the background, and has the best of the bargain, since wages have not much fallen, if at all; yet he will doubtless come to the front again. For as agriculture revives, and the sun shines, the organisations by which he is represented will naturally display fresh vigour.
But the rapid progress of education in the villages and outlying districts is the element which is most worthy of thoughtful consideration. On the one hand, it may perhaps cause a powerful demand for corresponding privileges; and on the other, counteract the tendency to unreasonable expectations. In any case, it is a fact that cannot be ignored. Meantime, all I claim for the following sketches is that they are written in a fair and impartial spirit.
RICHARD JEFFERIES.

CONTENTS
I. THE FARMERS' PARLIAMENT
II. LEAVING HIS FARM
III. A MAN OF PROGRESS
IV. GOING DOWNHILL
V. THE BORROWER AND THE GAMBLER
VI. AN AGRICULTURAL GENIUS--OLD STYLE
VII. THE GIG AND THE FOUR-IN-HAND. A BICYCLE FARMER
VIII. HAYMAKING. 'THE JUKE'S COUNTRY'
IX. THE FINE LADY FARMER. COUNTRY GIRLS
X. MADEMOISELLE, THE GOVERNESS
XI. FLEECEBOROUGH. A 'DESPOT'
XII. THE SQUIRE'S 'ROUND ROBIN'
XIII. AN AMBITIOUS SQUIRE
XIV. THE PARSON'S WIFE
XV. A MODERN COUNTRY CURATE
XVI. THE SOLICITOR
XVII. 'COUNTY COURT DAY'
XVIII. THE BANK. THE OLD NEWSPAPER
XIX. THE VILLAGE FACTORY. VILLAGE VISITORS. WILLOW-WORK
XX. HODGE'S FIELDS
XXI. A WINTER'S MORNING
XXII. THE LABOURER'S CHILDREN, COTTAGE GIRLS
XXIII. THE LOW 'PUBLIC' IDLERS
XXIV. THE COTTAGE CHARTER, FOUR-ACRE FARMERS
XXV. LANDLORDS' DIFFICULTIES, THE LABOURER AS A POWER. MODERN CLERGY
XXVI. A WHEAT COUNTRY
XXVII. GRASS COUNTRIES
XXVIII. HODGE'S LAST MASTERS, CONCLUSION
CHAPTER I

THE FARMERS' PARLIAMENT
The doorway of the Jason Inn at Woolbury had nothing particular to distinguish it from the other doorways of the same extremely narrow street. There was no porch, nor could there possibly be one, for an ordinary porch would reach half across the roadway. There were no steps to go up, there was no entrance hall, no space specially provided for crowds of visitors; simply nothing but an ordinary street-door opening directly on the street, and very little, if any, broader or higher than those of the private houses adjacent. There was not even the usual covered way or archway leading into the courtyard behind, so often found at old country inns; the approach to the stables and coach-houses was through a separate and even more narrow and winding street, necessitating a detour of some quarter of a mile. The dead, dull wall was worn smooth in places by the involuntary rubbings it had received from the shoulders of foot-passengers thrust rudely against it as the market-people came pouring in or out, or both together.
Had the spot been in the most crowded district of the busiest part of the metropolis, where every inch of ground is worth an enormous sum, the buildings could not have been more jammed together, nor the inconvenience greater. Yet the little town was in the very midst of one of the most purely agricultural counties, where