Occasionally we came to sections of the downs
that were being brought under cultivation, the farms appearing very
large. In one place we saw four ploughs at work each with three horses,
while the farmer was riding about on horseback. We inquired about the
wages from one of the farm hands, who told us the men got about 9s. per
week, and the women who worked in the fields were paid eightpence per
day. Possibly they got some perquisites in addition, as it seemed a very
small amount, scarcely sufficient to make both ends meet.
We had been walking quickly for more than four hours without
encountering a single village, and were becoming famished for want of
food; but the farmer's man told us we should come to one where there was
a public-house when we reached the River Avon by following the
directions he gave us. At Milston, therefore, we called for the
refreshments which we so badly needed, and quite astonished our
caterers, accustomed even as they were to country appetites, by our
gastronomical performances on that occasion.
We were very much surprised when we learned that the small but pretty
village of Milston, where we were now being entertained, was the
birthplace of Joseph Addison, the distinguished essayist and politician,
who, with his friend Steele, founded the _Spectator_, and contributed
largely to the _Tatler_, and whose tragedy _Cato_ aroused such
enthusiasm that it held the boards of Drury Lane for thirty-five
nights--a great achievement in his time.
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