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An Agricultural Journalist on the “Great Depression”: Richard Jefferies*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

P. J. Perry
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Extract

Richard Jefferies is most often remembered and read as a writer on wild life and as the author of Bevis. His novels and strange autobiographical writings are largely forgotten; his agricultural writings — with the exception of Hodge and His Masters — are equally neglected. But it was with three letters on the Wiltshire labourer which appeared in the Times in 1872 that Jefferies first reached a more than local readership. During most of the 1870s he earned his living as an agricultural journalist, and such was his reputation that he was writing leading articles for a national farming weekly and essays on farming topics for the principal reviews when he was still only in his late twenties. Until his early death in 1887 he remained an occasional writer on fanning and the countryside.

The son of a not very successful small farmer, Jefferies was a realist rather than a romantic when writing on rural and agricultural topics. As a countryman he was both knowledgeable and exceptionally observant. His native north Wiltshire afforded him examples of several systems (and standards) of fanning and of a variety of views on the nature of the depression. His journalistic activity covered the last prosperous years of “high farming” in the late 1860s and the first decade of depression from the early 1870s to the early 1880s. This was a period of increasing difficulty for a large number of farmers and landowners, culminating in the almost universally disastrous summer of 1879.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , May 1970 , pp. 126 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1970

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Footnotes

*

The two standard biographies of Richard Jefferies are: W. J. Keith, Richard Jefferies: A Critical Study (London, 1965); S. J. Looker and Crichton Porteous, Richard Jefferies, Man of the Fields: A Biography and Letters (London, 1964). The latter has a very complete bibliography.

References

1. Reprinted in Jefferies, Richard, The Toilers of the Field (London, 1892)Google Scholar. All works by Jefferies used in the preparation of this paper are reprints from his numerous published and unpublished essays, with the exception of Hodge and His Masters (London, 1880)Google Scholar and The Note-books of Richard Jefferies, ed. Looker, S. J. (London, 1948)Google Scholar. Hodge and His Masters draws heavily on Jefferies's experiences as a newspaper reporter. (Hereafter all works by Jefferies will be cited without the author's name. As many of these books passed through several editions and as the essays are generally brief, page numbers will not be used.)

2. Jefferies wrote a number of leading articles for The Livestock Journal and Farmer's Guide: A Breeder's, Exhibitor's, and Country Gentleman's Chronicle between Jan. 1877 and Oct. 1878. For a checklist of these articles, which were his most important contributions to agricultural journalism, see Field and Farm, Essays Now First Collected, with Some from MSS, ed. Looker, S. J. (London, 1957)Google Scholar. A few of these pieces have been reprinted in ibid. and in Chronicles of the Hedges and Other Essays by Richard Jefferies, ed. Looker, S. J. (London, 1948)Google Scholar. Jefferies was also a contributor to Pall Mall Gazette, Longman's Magazine, Standard, and Fortnightly Review.

3. For the Reports of the Royal Commission, see the following Parliamentary Papers (Blue Books): Preliminary Report, 1881, XVGoogle Scholar; Final Report, 1882, XIV; Assistant Commissioners' Reports, 1880, XVIII, 1881, XVI, 1882, XV; Minutes of Evidence, 1881, XV, 1881, XVII, 1882, XIV; Digest of Evidence, 1881, XVI, 1882, XIV; Appendices, 1881, XVI, 1882, XIV.

4. Jefferies wrote for the Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Standard of Cirencester, mainly in the Swindon district, during the late 1860s and early 1870s. He had earlier spent two years with the conservative North Wiltshire Herald of Swindon. The politics of the former paper appear to be unknown. It may have been liberal, as it covered the same area as the more recently established and conservative North Wiltshire Herald. Some writers have evidently confused Jefferies's connection with the Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Standard with the national conservative weekly, the Standard. Jefferies, no political conservative, attacked the Primrose League in “Primrose Gold in Our Village,” Field and FarmGoogle Scholar.

5. Notably in Fletcher, T. W., “The Great Depression of English Agriculture, 1873–1896,” Econ. Hist. Rev., second series, XIII (1960–1961), 417–32Google Scholar.

6. Royal Commission on Agriculture. This body produced almost as much material as the Richmond Commission, and a great deal more political and public controversy. See ibid.; also Times, Apr. 27 to May 1, 1896.

7. The publication of wheat prices at the principal markets by the London Gazette is indicative of the importance of this branch of agriculture. There are no comparable statistics of the price of livestock products.

8. These were much discussed in evidence given before the Richmond Commission. See, e.g., G. Herriott, Land Steward to the Duchy of Cornwall (Minutes of Evidence), q. 1759, 1824-25, 1872.

9. “Minute Cultivation — A Silver Mine” (1878), Chronicles of the HedgesGoogle Scholar.

10. “Walks in the Wheat-fields,” Field and Hedgerow; Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies, Collected by His Widow (London, 1889)Google Scholar.

11. “A King of Acres. II. New Title Deeds,” The Hills and the Vale (London, 1909)Google Scholar.

12. “A Man of Progress,” Hodge and His Masters.

13. E.g., before the Richmond Commission. See S. B. L. Druce, Assistant Commissioner for the Eastern Counties (Mins. of Evid.), q. 30554.

14. “The Farmer at Home” (1874), Toilers of the FieldGoogle Scholar.

15. “Haymaking — ‘The Juke's Country,’” Hodge and His Masters. Nevertheless, the secure and expanding urban market could make hay a profitable and attractive crop. See “Hay Harvest Notes” (1877), Chronicles of the HedgesGoogle Scholar.

16. “Spring Prospects and Farm Work” (1878), ibid.

17. “On the Farm,” Field and Farm.

18. E.g., in comparing prices paid to the farmer with retail meat prices without considering the waste, bones, and offal in the carcase. See “Food: Eggs, Pigs, Rabbits, Meat” (1878), ibid.

19. “Haymaking — ‘The Juke's Country,’” Hodge and His Masters.

20. “Leaving His Farm,” ibid.

21. “The Idle Earth,” Hills and Vale. But sometimes belatedly. “Churchyard Pheasants: Before the Bench,” The Amateur Poacher (London, 1879)Google Scholar.

22. “A Man of Progress” and “An Agricujtural Genius — Old Style,” Hodge and His Masters. Labourers were also usually in debt. “County Court Day,” ibid.

23. Especially and most acidly in “Mademoiselle, the Governess,” ibid.

24. “The Fine Lady Farmer — Country Girls,” ibid.

25. “A Wheat Country,” ibid.

26. “Leaving His Farm,” ibid.

27. “The Bank — An Old Newspaper,” ibid.

28. “The Borrower and the Gambler,” ibid.

29. “A Man of Progress,” ibid.

30. “Minute Cultivation — A Silver Mine,” Chronicles of the Hedges.

31. “Weeds and Waste,” ibid.

32. “Going Downhill,” Hodge and His Masters.

33. “Leaving His Farm,” ibid.

34. “Weeds and Waste,” Chronicles of the Hedges.

35. “A Man of Progress,” Hodge and His Masters.

36. “The Dairy,” Field and Farm.

37. “A King of Acres. II. New Title Deeds,” Hills and Vale.

38. July 20, 1879, Note-books.

39. “Nutty Autumn,” Nature near London (London, 1883)Google Scholar.

40. “The Decline of Partridge Shooting,” Chronicles of the Hedges.

41. “Weeds and Waste,” ibid.

42. For details see Jones, Eric L., Seasons and Prices: The Role of the Weather in English Agricultural History (London, 1964), pp. 173–75Google Scholar.

43. “IX. The Water Mill — Field Names,” Round about a Great Estate (London, 1880)Google Scholar.

44. As was pointed out by many witnesses before the Richmond Commission. E.g., Charles Gore, Commissioner of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues (Mins. of Evid.), q. 362-63.

45. “The Farmers' Parliament,” Hodge and His Masters.

46. E.g., T. Huskisson, a farmer, landowner, and land agent in eastern England (Mins. of Evid.), q. 4482.

47. “An Ambitious Squire,” Hodge and His Masters.

48. “Midsummer” (1879), Chronicles of the HedgesGoogle Scholar.

49. “The Squire's Round Robin,” Hodge and His Masters.

50. “Rural Dynamite,” The Life of the Fields (London, 1884)Google Scholar.

51. “In the Field — April 1, 1881,” Chronicles of the Hedges.

52. “Spring Prospects and Farm Work,” ibid.

53. “VI. A Farmer of the Olden Times,” Round about a Great Estate.

54. “The Squire and the Land,” The Old House at Coate and Other Hitherto Unpublished Essays by Richard Jefferies, ed. Looker, S. J. (London, 1948)Google Scholar.

55. “On the Farm,” Field and Farm.

56. “A Man of Progress,” Hodge and His Masters. The extent and severity of the general depression has also recently been questioned. See, e.g., Wilson, C. H., “Economy and Society in Late Victorian Britain,” Econ. Hist. Rev., second series, XVIII (1965), 183–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57. “Haymaking — ‘The Juke's Country,‘” Hodge and His Masters.

58. See, e.g., almost the entire evidence of the Marquis of Huntly, May 27, 1880. Several railway managers and shipping agents were called as witnesses to give evidence on this subject.

59. For a general discussion, see Pratt, E. A., A History of Inland Transport and Communication in England (London, 1912)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ch. xxv, “Railway Rates and Charges.”

60. “Steam on Country Roads,” Field and Hedgerow. The title suggests a solution. The continuance of droving in 1883 from as far afield as Scotland is implied in “Nightingale Road,” Nature near London.

61. “After the County Franchise,” Hills and Vale.

62. “A King of Acres. III. A Ring Fence: Conclusion,” ibid.

63. “The Farmer at Home,” Toilers of the Field.

64. Between 1881 and 1901, the last and severest twenty years of the depression, about one ninth of the arable land of 1881 was grassed down. Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, Report on the Decline of the Agricultural Population of Great Britain, 1881-1906, in Parliamentary Papers (Blue Books), 1906, XCVI, 118Google Scholar, Table II. This report equates the two million acres grassed down with sixty thousand to eighty thousand labourers.

65. “Grass Countries,” Hodge and His Masters.

66. “The Decline of Partridge Shooting,” Chronicles of the Hedges.

67. “Grass Countries,” Hodge and His Masters.

68. Ibid.

69. “Food: Eggs, Pigs, Rabbits, Meat,” Field and Farm.

70. “Sheep and Cattle,” ibid.

71. “Mademoiselle, the Governess,” Hodge and His Masters.

72. “Haymaking — ‘The Juke's Country,’” ibid.

73. “Field-faring Women,” Toilers of the Field.

74. Discussed more generally in “The Borrower and the Gambler,” Hodge and His Masters.

75. “The Dairy,” Field and Farm.

76. “The Squire and the Land,” Old House at Coate.

77. “On the Farm,” Field and Farm. The evidence heard by the Richmond Commission indicates considerable regional variation in the demand for farms, from negligible to very competitive.

78. Ibid. This essay incorporates material from both 1881 and 1883.

79. “Minute Cultivation — A Silver Mine,” Chronicles of the Hedges.

80. “The Wiltshire Labourer,” Hills and Vale.

81. “On the Farm,” Field and Farm.

82. “Wiltshire Labourers,” Toilers of the Field.

83. “A King of Acres. III. A Ring Fence: Conclusion,” Hills and Vale.

84. “Fleeceborough — A ‘Despot,’” Hodge and His Masters. Fleeceborough is almost certainly Cirencester.

85. Quoted by John Coxon, tenant farmer of Lichfield, Staffordshire (Mins. of Evid.), q. 34297. As a result of this policy the farm was given up, and the landlord could not find a new tenant.

86. “The Squire and the Land,” Old House at Coate.

87. “Haymaking — ‘The Juke's Country,’” Hodge and His Masters.

88. “The Labourer's Daily Life,” Toilers of the Field.

89. “The Cottage Charter — Four-acre Farmers,” Hodge and His Masters.

90. “The ‘Low Public’ — Idlers,” ibid.

91. “Landlords' Difficulties — The Labourer as a Power,” ibid.

92. Ibid.

93. “Grass Countries,” ibid.

94. “Field-faring Women,” Toilers of the Field. This essay of 1874 notes a considerable increase in the wages of women haymakers.

95. “Midsummer” (1879), Chronicles of the HedgesGoogle Scholar.

96. Ibid.

97. “Field Words and Ways,” Field and Hedgerow.

98. “April Gossip,” ibid.

99. “The Village,” Wild Life in a Southern County (London, 1879)Google Scholar.

100. “Travelling Labour,” Chronicles of the Hedges. Shepherds were the least mobile group. “Village Architecture,” Wild Life.

101. Landlords' Difficulties — The Labourer as a Power,” Hodge and His Masters.

102. “Travelling Labour,” Chronicles of the Hedges.

103. Ibid.

104. Ibid.

105. April 16, 1879, Note-books.

106. “A King of Acres. I. James Thardover,” Hills and Vale.

107. “In the Fields,” Field and Farm.

108. “The Decline of Partridge Shooting,” Chronicles of the Hedges.

109. “Nutty Autumn,” Nature near London. Jefferies usually mentions pheasants when discussing weeds.

110. “The Village Factory — Village Visitors — Willow Work,” Hodge and His Masters.

111. “The Farmers' Parliament,” ibid.

112. “The Squire's Round Robin,” ibid.

113. “Looking Back,” Field and Farm.

114. “Going Downhill,” Hodge and His Masters.

115. “A Lesson in Lent,” Chronicles of the Hedges.

116. “Walks in the Wheat-fields,” Field and Hedgerow.

117. “The Coombe Bottom — Conclusion,” Round about a Great Estate. Jefferies ascribed a decline in honey consumption to the cheapness of sugar.

118. “Minute Cultivation — A Silver Mine,” Chronicles of the Hedges. “The Village,” Wild Life.

119. “Food: Eggs, Pigs, Rabbits, Meat,” Field and Farm.

120. “On the Farm,” ibid.

121. “Food: Eggs, Pigs, Rabbits, Meat,” ibid.

122. “Walks in the Wheat-fields,” Field and Hedgerow. But Jefferies very much admired French peasant agriculture. He certainly exaggerated its virtues.

123. “Food: Eggs, Pigs, Rabbits, Meat,” Field and Farm.

124. See, e.g., James Melvin, tenant farmer of Bonnington near Edinburgh (Mins. of Evid.), q. 40967.

125. “Bad Harvest in Sussex,” Chronicles of the Hedges. Written in 1881 but not in reference to that particular year only.

126. “Looking Back,” Field and Farm.

127. “Going Downhill,” Hodge and His Masters.