Next we see the old method of thrashing corn. The man in the picture holds a flail, or rod jointed in the centre, with which he beats the corn, and so separates the grain from the straw.
24.
Old Man Digging.
And here we have an old rustic digging the ground with a spade. Probably he is a man who can neither write nor read; for when he was a boy the children of country villages were not obliged to go to school.
25.
Old Shepherd.
26.
Old Woman.
Here is another such old rustic, a shepherd, who has spent his life in tending sheep. Probably he never went to London, or, indeed, to any of the large towns which have now been brought by railways to within an hour or two of his home. But quite likely he often has letters from a son who is a sailor in the Fleet in the China Seas, from another son who is a soldier in India, and from a daughter who is married to a farmer in Australia. And here is his wife, seated in a corner of the village church.
27.
Mare and Foal.
28.
Shire Horse.
29.
Landseer’s “Blacksmith’s Shop.”
By far the most abundant crop in England is green grass, and the English farmer therefore keeps many animals to feed upon it. Here we have a mare and foal. The farm horses of England are much larger and thicker built than the small horses of most parts of the world. They are more powerful, but they are slower. Some of the English cart horses are nearly as large as an average elephant. Until modern times, when the steam engine was introduced, all the work of the farm was done by men and horses. Here is another grand horse, and here a picture painted by a great English artist, Landseer. It is owned by the English nation and hung in the National Gallery, which stands in Trafalgar Square. The picture is in the midst of London, but, as you see, it represents a country scene, the shop of a shoeing smith, who is putting an iron shoe on to the hoof of a horse in order that it may not be injured by the paved roads. Beside the horse you see two other of the animals that are common in every English countryside, a donkey, which is the poor man’s horse, and a dog. Among the northern nations, as you know, dogs are cared for and treated as companions.