Page:An Old English Home and Its Dependencies.djvu/239

Rh can force the holder of the tenure to put it in repair, but he is reluctant to put on the screw of the law, and he argues, "The houses were built to last three lives—no more. When they fall in to me, they will fall in altogether, and I will build decent, solid cottages in their place." Over the squatter's cottage he has no control whatever. Listen to the note of the agricultural, down-trodden labourer, his wail of anguish under the heel of the squire and farmer.

This is sung from one end of England to another, and always to the same very rude melody in a Gregorian tone, that shows it has expressed the sentiments of the ploughboy for at least two hundred years.