The Toilers of the Field

This book is a collection of essays, articles and letters of Richard Jefferies on the topics of agriculture, farming, farming folk and labourers, and the rural lifestyle as it was in the late Victorian era in England. The daily life of the middle-class dairy farmer begins at five in the morning. Rising about that hour, his first duty is to see that the men have all appeared, and that they are engaged in milking the cows. He breakfasts at six, or half-past, and the whole family have finished breakfast before seven. By this time the day-labourers have come (the milkers are usually hired by the year), and the master has to go out and put them on to their jobs. Meantime the dairy is a scene of work and bustle.