THE RURAL EXODUS.
r-rs THE EDITOR OF THZ "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Amongst the many explanations of the rural exodus I fail to find one mentioned. It begins with the girls. Labourers' daughters cannot remain at home, and on leaving school they look out for "a place." Formerly these " places " could be found in the parish or near neighbourhood. In this small parish, for instance, there were formerly four farmhouses and the rectory, each keeping, probably two, servant-girls. Now labourers inhabit two of these farms, and a third is empty. The last farmer who lived in it started seven years ago with two girls, then dropped to one, then none, and finally left. Bad times. The rectory has none either, for the same reason. So there are now twelve young fellows in this parish and five girls, three of whom are only here by accident, and may leave any time, when the girls would number two. A former man of ours now keeps a public-house in a large village near Bury St. Edmunds. He says there are ever so many men there "as old as you, Sir," addressing my husband, who is sixty, "unmarried." My husband said : "What are the women about ?" "There ain't none, Sir ; only the few as is married. So the men's mostly single, and ev'ry penny they get goes in beer." It is easy to see that this village must be depopulated in time without any "flight," nor would small holdings help
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