On happy frugal peasants (see earlier postings):
It happens that my bedtime reading recently has been the great engraver Thomas Bewick's Memoir (written 1820s). His father was a farmer and tenant collier, according to my Oxford paperback edition. I will quote at some length (the book is available online) -- see if this doesn't sound like hobbits to you.
Here and there on this common were to be seen the cottage, or rather hovel, of some labouring man, built at his own expense, and mostly with his own hands; and to this he always added a garth and a garden, upon which great pains and labour were bestowed to make both produc- tive; and for this purpose not a bit of manure was suffered to be wasted away on the "lonnings" or public roads. These various concerns excited the attention and industry of the hardy occupants, which enabled them to prosper, and made them despise being ever numbered with the parish poor. These men, whose children were neither pampered nor spoiled, might truly be called " A bold peasantry, their country's pride ;" and to this day I think I see their broad shoulders and their hardy sun-burnt looks, which altogether bespoke the vigour of their constitutions. These cottagers (at least those of them I knew) were of an honest and independent character, while at the same time they held the neighbouring gentry in the greatest estimation and respect;
and these, again, in return, did not over-look them, but were interested in knowing that they were happy and well. Most of these poor men, from their having little intercourse with the world, were in all their actions and behaviour truly ori- ginal; and, except reading the Bible, local his- tories, and old ballads, their knowledge was gene- rally limited. And yet one of these " Will Bewick" from being much struck with my performances, which he called pictures, became exceedingly kind to me, and was the first person from whom I gathered a sort of general knowledge of astronomy and of the magnitude of the uni- verse. He had, the year through, noticed the appearances of the stars and the planets, and would discourse "largely" on the subject. I think I see him yet, sitting on a mound, or seat, by the hedge of his garden, regardless of the cold, and intent upon viewing the heavenly bodies ; pointing to them with his large hands, and eagerly imparting his knowledge to me with a strong voice such as one now seldom hears. I well remember being much struck with his appearance his stern-looking brows, high cheek bones, quick eye, and longish visage ; and at his resolution (upon another occa- sion) when he determined upon risking his own life to save that of another man. .....
Another of our fell-side neighbours, Anthony Liddell, was a man of a very singular character, and was noticed as such by the whole neighbour- hood ; but a full account of him would far exceed the bounds I wish to set to my narrative. .... The whole cast of his character was formed by the Bible, which he had read with attention, through and through. Acts of Parliament which appeared to him to clash with the laws laid down in it, as the Word of God, he treated with con- tempt. He maintained that the fowls of the air and the fish of the sea were free for all men ; consequently, game laws, or laws to protect the fisheries, had no weight with him. He would not, indeed, take a salmon out of the locks on any account, but what he could catch with his "click-hook," in the river, he deemed his own. ............His deportment and behaviour were generally the reverse of anything like sauciness ; but, except in ability and acquirements, which, indeed, commanded his respect, he treated all men as equals.....
Thomas Forster was a man of a different cha- racter from the last, but singular enough in his way. He was distinguished for his frugality and industry, and always showed a wish to be looked upon in a respectable light. He used to call at our house on a Sunday afternoon, for the purpose of having a bit of chat with my father and mother. He took a liking to me, and would observe that, though I was mischievous enough, yet he never could find that I was " parrentory," that is, impudent or saucy with any one. Besides this part of the good opinion he had formed, he must have had confidence as to my keeping any secrets he might impart to me. He kept a few sheep on the fell ; but his secret and main business there was looking after his bees. He had a great number of hives placed
in very hidden and curious situations. Some of them were concealed under the boundary hedge of the common, and were surrounded by a great extent of whin bushes. Other hives were shel- tered under the branches of old thorns, and almost covered or overhung by brambles, wood- bine, and hip briars, which, when in blossom, looked beautifully picturesque, while at the same time they served to keep the eye from viewing the treasures thus concealed beneath. Others, again, were placed in the midst of a " whin rush" that is, a great extent of old whins, the stems of which were about the thickness of a man's arm. The entrance to these last was always by a "smout hole," or small opening, through which we crept on hands and knees to the hives, and which, on leaving, was stopped up by a bushy- topped whin. By way of taking off the at- tention of the " over-inquisitive" as to his stock of honey, he kept hives in his garden at home, and sold the produce of these to his neighbours ; but the greater part of his stock was sold at distant parts of the country. In this way, and by his industry and good management, he be- came what was accounted very rich .....
Before taking leave of these hardy inhabitants of the fells and wastes, whose cottages were sur- rounded with whins and heather, I must observe that they always appeared to me, notwithstand- ing their apparent poverty, to enjoy health and happiness in a degree surpassing that of most other men. Their daily fare was coarse bread, potatoes, oatmeal porridge, and milk, only varied by their boiling the pot with animal food, cab- bage, or other succulent vegetables, and broth, on Sundays. When tired, at night, with labour, having few cares to perplex them, they lay down and slept soundly, and arose refreshed from their hard beds early in the morning. I have always felt much pleasure in revisiting them, and, over a tankard of ale, in listening to their discourse. It was chiefly upon local biography, in which they sometimes traced the pedigree of their
neighbours a long way back. (etc.)
