Gents Mag 1891 part 2 p.132
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Gentleman's Magazine 1891 part 2 p.132
wit and active energy, which adopt every advantage of chemistry, and adapt themselves to every demand of the townspeople who are close to his fields. I was about to obtain relief in somethings like Donald's method - "I shall tamm the Boat if you will, and the Trouts - and the Loch too!" - but it is better not. Perhaps the revelations which have been made in Ireland will prevent any strong representations appearing as to the dwellings which are thought suitable for some of the Yorkshire tenant-farmers. I can only judge from the limited number of instances which I have seen, and I must say that this fine old stronghold of the English yeoman is not without its tenements which are only partially roofed, destitute of every necessary adjunct of civilised life, and utterly uninviting. But even in the least luxurious farm-house, where the inmates one and all have a hard struggle to earn a living, there is much to interest and attract. The horse which makes its weekly journey to the market town carries generally an alluring assortment of produce. After an interval of decay, butter-making is improving rather than declining of late years; poultry-keeping is increasing; mushrooms and blackberries are becoming staple articles of sale; and we hope soon to see game and honey added to the list. Fruit has been neglected, although it would do much to assist the weekly income; vegetables and flowers are now very rarely grown. Let the traveller point out any human race throughout the world whose members are more naturally formed to bring about a perfect state of farming than the race of Yorkshire dalesmen. They are strong and active, careful, shrewd, and persevering. If once started and filled with a little cheerful confidence, some member of the family of the moorland farmer would know each bee, be familiar with the haunts of every hare, select good fruit trees, put in the most suitable vegetables, and have a plentiful supply of eggs and poultry at all times, besides being easily first in all the larger branches of the business - horse, cattle, and sheep. No one like a Yorkshireman can understand entirely the pleasure of "the trivial round, the common task"; and he would soon take earnestly to the only means of meeting foreign competition. To encourage and assist him would not be an unworthy effort of the landlord class and of the public. So much for the potentialities of this worthy tenant race. Some of their ways are strange. I do not find them very much at church. The question is worth asking - how far his necessary duties to his stock excuse this abstinence, and how far the clergy trouble themselves to interest and attract their parishioners. Their absence from |
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