The Toilers of the Field by Richard Jefferies

Description

A wonderful book published after Jefferies death but made up of his thoughts and also of some of his letters to the Times in the 1870’s and early 1880’s. The first (and greatest) part of the book is taken up with observations on the life of agricultural labourers, men and women, their work, their habitations and their morals, and including a couple of fictional set pieces, which are designed to be a true reflection in generality of typical labourers. There is a section on the farmer himself (employer of the agricultural worker) and some letters to the Times in which he refutes arguments (unseen) sent into the Times which obviously paint the farmer in a scurrilous light.