27 FEBRUARY 1892, Page 18

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND " THE BASTILLE."

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

Sin,—In your review of Mr. Kebbel's " The Old and New Country Life," you express your surprise " at Mr. Kebbel's recollections of labourers who talked of the Bastille." When I was a curate in a South Yorkshire mining parish, less than five years ago, I frequently heard the Union workhouse spoken of by old men and women in receipt of outdoor relief as the " Bastille."—I am, Sir, &c., R. H. L.