Over all the brown ploughlands, and under
all the leafless hedgerows, there was a stout piece of labour abroad,
and, as it were, a spirit of picnic. The horses smoked and the men
laboured and shouted and drank in the sharp autumn morning; so that
one had a strong effect of large, open-air existence. The fellow who
drove me was something of a humourist; and his conversation was all
in praise of an agricultural labourer's way of life. It was he who
called my attention to these jugs of ale by the hedgerow; he could
not sufficiently express the liberality of these men's wages; he told
me how sharp an appetite was given by breaking up the earth in the
morning air, whether with plough or spade, and cordially admired this
provision of nature. He sang O FORTUNATOS AGRICOLAS! indeed, in
every possible key, and with many cunning inflections, till I began
to wonder what was the use of such people as Mr. Arch, and to sing
the same air myself in a more diffident manner.
Tring was reached, and then Tring railway-station; for the two are
not very near, the good people of Tring having held the railway, of
old days, in extreme apprehension, lest some day it should break
loose in the town and work mischief.
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