Page:The English Peasant.djvu/141

 is amenable to his parson, and has a good word for the squire. He is neither sad nor suspicious. He makes the most of his joys, and bears his sorrows as best he may.

Thus in 1847, after the potato famine, when the people were suffering much more than usual, so that they were thankful to buy undressed flour and pea-meal, the children were as bright and merry, and the people as cheerful as under ordinary circumstances.

Like all simple, true-hearted natures, they are very susceptible to love and friendship. Walking down the road in twilight, or meetings in the woody hollow, are institutions as faithfully observed by the young men and maidens here as elsewhere.

Most frequently the fair is the place where the attraction is first felt. Then the young labourer, arrayed in his holiday costume, is emboldened to try his fortune, and overcome the shamefacedness so natural to him.

It is perhaps in dress and behaviour one sees more than in anything else the gentle breeding of the Dorset peasant. On Sunday the men mostly wear tidy coats of black or blue, with tall beavers, while the women are simply but neatly attired. What can be more charming or fit than the dress of a Dorset maiden as described by Mr Barnes?—