The Life of Roger Langdon Part 2

I grew a good deal during the next year, when I was fourteen. I was determined to bear Jim's cruelty no longer, and I knew I was now tall enough for the Army. So I made preparations for a start. I was receiving four s.h.i.+llings and sixpence a week, which was good wages at that time; but of course this all went for my maintenance. I went to my master, however, and asked him to keep my wages for three or four weeks, so that I might take it all in a lump, but I shrewdly held my tongue as to why.

It was the only occasion on which I did not act quite openly with my mother, but in my mind I knew I should make it up to her later. So when my wages amounted to nearly 1, I asked Mr. Greenham for it and then made a start. I put together what few clothes I had and got up at three o'clock in the morning, with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow secretly bidding adieu to mother, father, brothers and sisters.

On arriving at the end of the village I glanced back to take a last look at the church and steeple, which were just discernible in the grey dawn.

I thought of Mr. Cornwall, and Miss Brown, some of whose teaching again came into my mind. I remembered that I had so often repeated the words, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want," and "I will lay me down in peace and take my rest, for it is Thou, O Lord, that makest me to dwell in safety." I now began to make tracks for Weymouth, thirty-three miles distant, and beyond the first seven miles I did not know an inch of the way.

I trudged on, however, like a snail, carrying all I possessed on my back. After about nine or ten hours' sharp walking I arrived at the quaint old town of Dorchester, where I walked leisurely through the streets, looking at the old-fas.h.i.+oned houses, and such things as took my attention. Just as I was going to turn into a shop to get some bread and cheese, a smart recruiting sergeant came striding up the street towards me. He clapped his hand upon my shoulder and said, "Here, young man, will you enlist?" I do not know whether the perversity I showed is a characteristic of human nature, or whether it belonged to me individually, but if he had asked me to take a dose of poison, I could not have felt more vexed and annoyed; and when he showed me the s.h.i.+lling, the disgust I felt was beyond description. Perhaps the fact of my being very hungry had something to do with it, but at any rate the idea of being a soldier went entirely out of my head for ever.

After an hour's rest in Dorchester, I travelled forward I still had about eight miles to go, and my feet were already blistered. I scarcely felt it, however, as I had often had them blistered when ploughing, with Jim's ill-usage into the bargain; but now I had freed myself for ever from his cruelty, and I went along with a light heart.

I reached Weymouth about five o'clock in the afternoon. I had done the thirty-three miles, including stoppages, in fourteen hours. I walked round the harbour and asked every skipper I could find if he would take me on board his vessel in any capacity, but from all came the same answer, "No." So I began to think that the world and its inhabitants were not exactly what I had always thought or fancied they were. All the sea-songs I had heard, "The poor Sailor Boy," "The Cabin Boy," and others, had led me to believe that the skippers of vessels were only too glad to get hold of a boy when the chance offered; but now I found out my mistake. But one man told me that a s.h.i.+powner in Jersey was in want of hands. I made inquiries and soon found out that a steamer would start for Jersey at nine o'clock the same evening.

I went on board, paid ten s.h.i.+llings for my pa.s.sage, and was soon off towards Jersey.

I cannot describe how much I enjoyed the view of the sea, especially when we began to lose sight of Portland. The moon was s.h.i.+ning and I could look around and see a great expanse of water. The sea was not rough, although there was a swell which was sufficient to toss the vessel up and down in what I soon found to be a very disagreeable manner. I soon began in right earnest to feel what the French call "mal de mer."

After a twelve-hours' pa.s.sage, which was considered good work at that time, we landed in Jersey. I at once found my way to the s.h.i.+powner, and he set me to work there and then unloading salt from a s.h.i.+p at one s.h.i.+lling and sixpence a day. The salt was not in lumps, but in the form of small grain. It was at that time used in England for manure; but in Jersey and France it was used for salting b.u.t.ter, meat and fish. To any whose shoes have been worn off their feet, and their feet blistered and made sore with walking, I need hardly say that the salt soon found its way into my boots and made me nearly faint with pain. However, it was soon over, and in a couple of days I believe my feet were hard enough to walk upon flints without any inconvenience.

Sunday soon came round, and I brushed myself up and went to St. James'

Church. As I glanced over my person I found that my only suit was very much the worse for wear after unloading, but I had no idea of staying away from church on this account. In the afternoon I went to the town church and saw the soldiers walk down from Fort Regent, with their fife and drum band playing "The girl I left behind me" right down to the church door. As soon as they were out again the band struck up "The Irish Washerwoman." I thought it was very wicked, and wondered what my father would have said about it. On the Monday morning, the judge of the island, who was my employer, came into the stores, where I was at work, racking brandy, and adding water and logwood and a drug, the name of which I do not remember, by which means we made three hogsheads out of two. Now the judge was one of the richest merchants in the island, and therefore thought it his duty to set a good example to the other merchants, and to all seafaring men. He was a large importer of wine, rum, brandy, and gin, and was always very particular to see that we did not put too much water and logwood into the brandy, and water and sulphuric acid into the gin. So that his spirits were always considered the best in the island. The judge went regularly to church, and as he was walking round the stores on this particular Monday morning he came up to me and said, "Young man, I was much pleased to see you at church yesterday. Are those the only clothes you have?" I confess that these remarks about my clothes did not please me, because on the Sunday I had gone to church feeling unhappy at not being able to change my garments, and hoped that no one would notice me; and when I found that the judge had noticed me, I must say I felt seriously annoyed. I answered him civilly, however, that it was my only suit, but that I should get a new one at the first opportunity. The judge raised my wages there and then to two s.h.i.+llings a day, and in the afternoon called me into his private office and told me to go to his house as his wife would like to see me.

During the rest of the day I was nearly beside myself, wondering what on earth such a great lady could want with a poor boy like me; therefore I was twisting and turning the thing over in my mind, wondering whether she could speak English, and what she would say to me and how I should answer her. At length evening came, and I went to the house and was presented to her. She was exceedingly plain in her dress, as all Jersey ladies were, and I could scarcely believe it was the wife of the judge.

However, she soon told me what she wanted me for. She said, "J'ai some clothes for de garcon; de coat was too much big, go to de tailor and have one gros cossack too make little from fit for yourself. Reste vous one little minute, je donne vous some-sing for to mange." The drift of all this was that she gave me a meal and a left-off suit of the judge's.

He was one of the largest men in the island. I was a mere stripling, and I believe I could have stood in one of the legs of the trousers. I could not get a tailor to do anything with such a suit unless I paid him more than a new suit of clothes, and I did not go to church for several Sundays, until I had saved enough to buy myself a decent suit.

Now the judge was known to be a very pious man. He would take hold of little dirty urchins in the street when he heard them using bad language and reprimand them. His own people had to pull a long face and a.s.sume a virtue if they had it not. And when the postman came round with a pet.i.tion to get off his Sunday duty, everybody in the district signed it except the judge. He could not forego the pleasure of receiving and reading a few letters and allow the poor postman to go free on a Sunday.

I have been greatly amused more than once on going into an a.s.size Hall and seeing the judge sitting in his chair, looking as grave and solemn as only a judge can look. The clerk of the court read the Queen's proclamation against vice and immorality; solemnly called upon the magistrates and sheriffs of counties to use all their power to suppress all kinds of vice and lewdness, especially Sabbath breaking; and yet the judge could not allow the double rap at his door to cease on a Sunday.

I got on capitally with this lady; we seemed to understand each other at first sight. But do what I would, I could not bring myself to feel the respect due to her, simply because she wore a pair of old and dirty wooden shoes, a short, rough woollen skirt, a great red-patterned kerchief over her shoulders, and a large, stiff, white muslin cap on her head. Altogether she cut such a figure, that I could not fancy she was the wife of a rich merchant and judge. But I found after a while that the ladies of Jersey were exceedingly plain and una.s.suming. They a.s.sisted in house and dairy work; they milked and fed the cows. It was a very common thing to see the farmers' wives and daughters milk cows into one can, and goats into another; then, tying the cans together and slinging them across an old horse's back, they would perch themselves on the top, and set off to town at five o'clock in the morning, to sell the milk from door to door. They returned to breakfast and spent the remainder of the day working in the fields. I saw them, both in Jersey and in France, actually ploughing, sowing, reaping and mowing; and yet these people were rich and had their thousands in the bank. After witnessing how hard the women had to work in Jersey and France, I was not surprised that Napoleon I. said that England was a paradise for women.

I continued in the employ of the judge all the summer. My usual work was to adulterate the wine, brandy, gin, rum, and whisky; and though constantly amongst this firewater, I am thankful to say I did not acquire the taste for any of it. Yet all who worked there could have what they liked. The judge gave carte blanche. I often thought what a paradise this would have been for Jim, how he would have made himself a perfect walking swill-tub; but it would have soon killed him. I watched many strong st.u.r.dy fellows from Devon and Cornwall actually kill themselves with the accursed stuff. Not that they were drunkards; nothing of the sort. But because brandy could be purchased at sixpence a bottle, so they would constantly be sipping it. They did not get drunk, but would take a little in winter to keep the cold out, and a little more in summer to keep out the heat; they would soon get "brain fever,"

or as some people would say, sunstroke, and die ramping mad. I have seen and known this in many cases both of men and women.

CHAPTER V

LIFE IN JERSEY

THE judge had a fleet of s.h.i.+ps of his own trading to nearly every corner of the globe, and in the months of September and October several vessels returned from the Newfoundland fishery, laden with codfish, whalebone, sperm oil, and seal, beaver, fox, and other skins. He made me a sort of deputy-clerk, and I had to note down every article with its number and weight. This I did so much to his satisfaction that at Christmas he actually gave me a sovereign as a present over and above my wages; and a few kind and complimentary words that he spoke made me feel as if I had suddenly grown an inch taller. Now I began to feel very pleased and glad I was born.

I began to think myself surpa.s.singly rich, for I had three good suits of clothes, and six golden sovereigns in my pocket, and I thought of poor Jim the ploughman, who used to go to bed early on Sat.u.r.day night to give his mother the opportunity to wash his one and only ragged s.h.i.+rt, so that he might have it clean on Sunday morning. All this time I had thought greatly about my poor mother, for she had not the slightest idea of what had become of me. I had been away from April until Christmas. I had never up to that time any idea of writing a letter as I had never been to a week-day school, but somehow or other I had acquired the art of writing. Of course I could not realize how very deep her grief must have been, being only a male. We as men love our children, but our love at best cannot be measured or weighed against the deep and constant love of a mother for her child. Now I thought how pleased she would be if I could only just put these six sovereigns into her hands. I thought whether I could manage to go for a week to see her, and return again; but on second thoughts I decided that would not do at all. So at last I wrote a letter, and told my mother that I was well and flouris.h.i.+ng, but could not come to see her. If she would come and see me, however, I would send her the funds to pay her pa.s.sage. She answered my letter by return of post to say that she would come, and so in the course of a few weeks I had the pleasure of meeting her on the pier, as she landed from the _Atlantic_. The judge gave me as many holidays as I wanted, and so I was able to show my mother about the Island.

The first thing that surprised her was to see the French women wheeling heavy barrows of luggage about, while their lords and masters were swelling about with their gold-laced caps, gingham blouses, patent leather boots, and the everlasting pipe in their mouths.

Mother would gaze at the women in the street, and say, "Well, I have worked hard in my time, but I am very glad I am not a Frenchwoman." She was not surprised, she said, that the Duke of Wellington was able with a handful of Englishmen to go over and thrash them Frenchmen on their own ground.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself during the five weeks mother stayed with me.

Father had given her four weeks, but I must confess to playing a trick on her so that she could stay with me another week. On the day that she was to leave I went down to the steams.h.i.+p office to ascertain at what time the packet started, and found it was timed to start at nine o'clock in the evening. But my mother did not trust quite to that, for she went herself to learn the hour of departure, so it was no fault of her own that she was left behind. Well, we had high tea at six o'clock, and got a few friends together just to talk away the hours until nine o'clock.

So while the ladies were thus employed, and helping my mother put her things together, I put the clock back three-quarters of an hour. No one noticed it, as the clock was in another room, and it turned out exactly as I desired. We went off, my mother and I, she shaking hands and bidding her friends good-bye and I laughing up my sleeve, knowing full well that the steam-packet would have left. When we arrived at the pier and she found it had gone without her she could scarcely believe her own senses. I knew that she had never been away from her home for twenty-four hours before, and I also knew that my father would be dreadfully vexed, especially as he would have to walk a long way to the Foxwell turnpike to meet the Weymouth coach. I ought to have been put in the stocks for practising such a joke, but somehow I felt it might be years before I should see her again.

I took her over to Elizabeth Castle, and she stood close by the great gun when it was fired off, bearing the deafening noise and the vibration under our feet like a real old soldier; and then we went to Goree Castle and saw the oyster fis.h.i.+ng; and she was very much amused to see the oysters as they lay in heaps upon their sh.e.l.ls, and to watch the mice, that swarmed around trying to get a nibble from the open oysters, which would close up their sh.e.l.ls upon them. Then I took her down to St.

Clement's Bay, where her grandfather, a sergeant-major in one of the English regiments, landed when he was sent to the island to clear out the French. At the death of Major Peirson in the Royal Square the command fell upon my great-grandfather, who drove the French out of the town at the point of the bayonet literally into the sea, and at the time of our visit the guns which were used in that fight were stuck into the ground along the beach as a memorial of the occasion.

At the time of my sojourn in Jersey from 1839 to 1847 it contained twelve parishes. The capital town of St. Heliers contained six or seven churches besides two Roman Catholic chapels, and several Dissenting places of wors.h.i.+p. There was a fine theatre, and a Court-house in the Royal Square. This house did duty as the House of Commons, Guildhall, a.s.size hall, and I know not what besides. I have seen great doings there when a new judge was being elected. I have also seen prisoners tried for various offences, but whether the prisoners were French or English or of any other nation, the whole of the business was carried on in the French language. If the prisoner at the Bar did not happen to understand that language so much the worse for him. There was no such person as an interpreter, and I often heard sentence pa.s.sed upon a prisoner who was quite ignorant of the nature of the trial or sentence until some kind friend who could speak both languages would tell him what he was to expect.

Mr. Charles Carus Wilson, a man over seven feet in height and a member of the English Bar, on one occasion stood up and told the judge that the prisoner had not had a fair trial, that he protested against it, and that he would report the circ.u.mstances to Lord Denman, the Lord Chief Justice. The judge thereupon told Mr. Wilson that he had insulted the court and must pay a penalty of 10, and apologise to the court for such an insult. "Indeed, I shall do neither one nor the other," replied Mr.

Wilson. "Then," said the judge, "you must go to prison during Her Majesty's pleasure." "Very well," replied Mr. Wilson, "here's off to jail." So he walked through the streets in charge of a constable, his head and shoulders towering above the heads of the crowd which had gathered round. In prison they had to put two bedsteads and beds together to make it long enough for him to lie down.

Mr. Wilson, however, took it very quietly and courteously and reported the whole matter to Lord Denman, who sent over a writ of habeas corpus.

Of course I wondered whatever that could be, but the steam packet arrived on a Sunday morning, covered with flags and banners, and thousands of people went down to see the sight and wondered what was going to happen next. I do not know if the judges knew the meaning of it, but they were nearly frightened out of their wits. Messengers were sent all over the island to call all the judges together. On Monday morning they met and consulted, and the result of their deliberations was that they went themselves and opened the prison doors and asked Mr.

Wilson if he would please to walk out. Charles Carus Wilson, however, did not please to walk out. He merely replied, "You have sent me here for I know not what, and I do not feel disposed to be sent to prison and taken out again just as it suits your whims."

So the upshot of it all was that they had to pay Mr. Wilson's fare and their own to London, and all had to appear before a judge of the Queen's Bench, and the Jersey judges were fined 100 each, and the poor woman, whose trial and sentence of seven years' transportation for stealing a hen and chicken had caused all the trouble, was freed.

My employer had often told me that if I had been a few years older, he would have sent me to Newfoundland to superintend his business there. As I was too young to fill such a responsible position, he proposed that I should join the _Anchor_, a fine bark of 600 tons. The captain, he said, was a "very nice gentleman," and on that vessel I should have an opportunity of learning the art of navigation, so that eventually I should be able to take charge of any s.h.i.+p belonging to the merchant service. I thought this was exceedingly kind, especially as he said he would provide me with an outfit, and I then and there closed with the bargain. The _Anchor_ was in the harbour and I went on board and a.s.sisted in putting in a stock of provisions, ready for the voyage to the Brazils. She was to sail in a fortnight, and I was rather glad that I was born, to fall in luck's way in the manner I had. There now appeared a prospect of my being placed in a position worth struggling for, which I knew was not usually the lot of one such as I. So I looked forward daily and hourly for the kind-hearted judge to supply me with the outfit. When, lo and behold, one morning, a day or two before the _Anchor_ was ready to start, the judge told me that he intended to place Jim Drake in my place, because his father was dead, and he was a poor, friendless lad. "Just as if I were not a poor, friendless lad," thought I. I don't think I wished Jim Drake dead, but I did wish that he had never been born. That he should step in and just open his mouth and catch the blessing that was intended for me was almost more than I could bear.

So I had the mortification of seeing Jim Drake go off in the _Anchor_, and I felt more disgusted than I can tell, especially as the skipper was a "very nice gentleman." But I afterwards found out that after all this happened for the best. The judge offered me more than one good situation. He had several other vessels, besides the _Anchor_, but to all his offers I turned a deaf ear. If he had ill-used me, or kicked me and boxed my ears, I should have forgiven him; but he had deceived me, and for that offence I could not respect him. So I left him and sought other employment.

I found work in a large blacksmith's shop, and here I had to work very hard indeed. I stayed for a time, and then engaged myself to another merchant. I went on board his vessel, which was a small sloop trading between France and the Channel Islands and occasionally visiting some English port, Plymouth, Poole or Southampton. Now this old merchant used to go over to Havre or Granville, proceed a few miles into the country, buy cows at from 5 to 8 each, and send them on board the _Medora_, ordering them to be taken to St. Aubin, Jersey, while he himself went on before in the steam packet.

The _Medora_ in due course ran into harbour, and there would be the old sinner waiting to order the cows to Poole, and at the next tide we would set sail for Poole, where he again would be waiting to meet us, and the cattle would be unloaded and he would take them to the market or drive them round to the farmers and sell them for pure Jersey cows, thereby gaining an enormous profit.

One Sat.u.r.day afternoon when the wind was blowing a hurricane and the sea rolling and seething in all its majestic fury, as we were scudding along somewhere between Guernsey and the Isle of Wight, we saw a fine bark in the distance, and on nearer approach we found it was the _Anchor_, returning from the West Indies laden with sugar. We got near enough to speak to each other, and I looked to see if I could make out Jim Drake, but I failed to do so. The vessel had encountered some very bad weather for nearly all the bulwarks were gone, and almost everything that is usually carried on deck had been washed away. The men were, like ourselves, tied fast with a rope's end to prevent their being washed overboard. After two or three days and nights in the Channel, we at last found ourselves in Weymouth harbour. We had been soaking wet and had had no sleep or food, nor did we seem to require any, but I went to an inn and got to bed and slept for ten hours. On arriving back in Jersey the first thing I heard was that Jim Drake, who had just returned in the _Anchor_, had summoned his skipper for cruelly ill-using him while at sea. It appeared that the _Anchor_ was no sooner out of Jersey than poor Jim Drake began to be sea-sick. So this skipper, the "very nice gentleman," took a rope, and the chief mate took another, and between them they belaboured poor Jim, one hitting on one side and one on the other. So this nice pair seem to have taken a delight in ill-using the poor lad during the whole of the voyage.

One day Jim committed the awful crime of whistling. No one was allowed to whistle on board except the commander, and he only under extraordinary circ.u.mstances, such as when there was a dead calm he might whistle for a breeze. Superst.i.tion ran so high on board that if a man whistled he was considered an evil genius; storm and tempest, fire and famine, aye, the devil himself would visit that s.h.i.+p, and from the moment Jim Drake whistled every man on board became his enemy. The skipper cursed, and the mate swore, and poor Jim cried for mercy and said he did not know he was committing an offence. But they tied him to the mast and both took a rope and hammered away as if the subject they were operating upon had been a piece of cast-iron or a block of granite; and at last one took a handspike and gave Jim a blow which broke his arm, and as there was no surgeon the limb was never set. This was the complaint brought before the court, and when I saw Jim there I cried for pity as the poor lad stood there with his hand twisted round, the back being towards his thigh, the palm outwards, and the whole dangling useless by his side. Now Jim was an English lad, and the skipper a Jerseyman, and all the business of the court was carried on in French. Jim stated his evidence, but there was not a man amongst that crew who would corroborate it, and the skipper and the mate were two very respectable men. Moreover the skipper was such a kind-hearted gentleman that he had actually given his men a double allowance of grog on their homeward voyage; so of course, as in duty bound, they all to a man spoke of his kind and generous conduct. So poor Jim's complaint fell to the ground. And not only that, but the skipper took proceedings against him for trying to defame his fair character, and poor Jim was sent to prison for three weeks. I cried with anguish for Jim, yet thanked my lucky stars that I did not go on board the _Anchor_.

CHAPTER VI

RETURN AND MARRIAGE

I HAD now been in Jersey eight years and things began to get rather dead there. Work was scarce and wages very low, and if any one wanted a small job done, there were always about a dozen men ready to do it for almost nothing; and what made it so was the number of Irish pensioners. They had their pensions, and of course they would do any kind of work for less wages than any other man who had to live entirely by his labour. In fact, things were in a state of stagnation everywhere. I went across to France, and the people there were quarrelling with King Louis Philippe and casting all the blame of their poverty upon his shoulders, and saying how much better they should get on if they could only have a Napoleon to rule over them. They were chalking _Vive Napoleon_ upon the pavements and walls.

I went back to England and found things were not much better there.

Thousands of poor people were half-starved and half-clothed, and when they asked for work and wages to buy bread for themselves and their little ones, the Commander-in-Chief was ready to fire a volley of grape shot down the street. England and some of the continental nations were at very low water in 1846-7, and I think at their very lowest ebb in 1848. Some monarchs were obliged to abdicate, and in London in April of that year riot and rebellion were rampant. Several thousand people paraded the streets starving. In the House of Commons some one declared that it would be a wholesome proceeding to hang a few rebels. Up jumped Fergus O'Connor, and cried, "Whenever you hang a rebel you should make a point of hanging a tyrant too, and rebellion would soon die a natural death." Soldiers were placed in every town in England, lest the owners of hungry stomachs should show too much anxiety to fill them with bread.

At the same time it was said that millions of quarters of foreign grain were brought within sight of the sh.o.r.es of England, but were thrown into the sea by order of rich merchants rather than that corn should be brought in to reduce the price. Such is the greed of man.

The only work that I could get after I left Jersey was in a canvas manufactory in Somersets.h.i.+re at eight s.h.i.+llings a week, and this was considered very good wages then. Here I found poverty and wretchedness and oppression supreme. There were about four hundred people employed in the various departments of this business; old men and women, nearing four score, and little boys and girls from five years of age and upwards. Some worked in the factory, and some who had hand-looms took their work to their homes. Several of them had to walk four miles carrying their woof with them, where they had handlooms; and so these poor toilers worked from early dawn until ten o'clock at night weaving their woof into sail-cloth or canvas. When these poor slaves came to the factory for their work, the foreman would weigh out to each person so many pounds of chain and as many of woof to each person. The weaver had to take it home on his back and produce exactly forty-six yards length of canvas two feet wide. Now if he happened to put a little too much energy or muscular strength into the work, all the woof would be used up before forty-six yards were made. Consequently he would have to send to the factory for a few ounces more woof to finish the pieces, and the cloth therefore would be a trifle too stout, and consequently the weaver would be fined to the tune of any amount, according to the greed and temper of the master, from sixpence up to five s.h.i.+llings and sixpence, which was the wage due for weaving the whole piece. On the other hand if the weaver happened to be weakly and unable to use the strength required, he would come to his forty-six yards' length before he had shot in all his woof. The cloth therefore would not be quite stout enough, and the poor weaver would be fined. Any frivolous pretext was resorted to to fine the workers.

Many a time have I seen poor men or women after toiling hard all the week coming to the pay office for their wages, but instead of receiving any being cursed at and told that it was a very great favour on their employers' part to give them work at all. And so these poor slaves would have to do without the "weaver's ox" (red herring) for their Sunday dinner. A red herring was the greatest luxury these poor people could indulge in, and thrice blest was he who could afford three red herrings a week. There were many other pretexts for fining the weaver besides those mentioned. Another was what was called in weaving a "gout"; that is, in the course of weaving there were some thick and gouty parts in the woof, where the thread was twice or thrice as thick as it should be. If the weaver was not careful, and allowed one of these thick gouty threads into the texture of the cloth, he was heavily fined.

The cloth was also examined under a magnifying gla.s.s, and if found pin-holey or spotted, the weaver was fined. All these were certainly very superficial excuses for fining the people, for the masters themselves would throw the canvas down on the floor and walk over it.

The cottages where these poor people had to live and do this weaving were shocking hovels.

This firm was carried on by a man and his three sons. Each of the sons took up a certain department. One superintended the spinning department, another the bleaching, and the third the weaving. On a certain Whit Monday at the village club festival an old farmer, in an after-dinner speech, took the liberty to tell the three young men that it was very shabby and mean of them to fine these poor weavers in the manner they did, and he thought it amounted to little less than downright robbery.