poverty which prevails in the Weald of Sussex, it is impossible for me to give any adequate idea. I will relate a few facts in illustration of these points; no doubt those who dwell in the district could relate many others still more striking
In a parish contiguous to Mayfield the clergyman told me that an old woman came to him, and having informed him that her little grand-daughter was ill, she said in an insinuating way, "I think, sir, it 'ud do her good if she were to have little of the sacrament wine."
In another Wealden parish a minister said that it was his impression that not more than half of the population could read fluently; a few of the remainder very imperfectly, the rest not at all. On a jury, on which I think he said he had occasion to be present, composed of farmers, most of whom were well-to-do, only six could sign their names; on another, only one witness out of five could write.
Passing over Crowborough Common, I came upon a little cot not much higher than a man, and about ten or twelve feet in length. I looked in at the open door, and found it papered with odd bits of paper, and ornamented with a sheet of the Police News. My tap aroused a recumbent figure on a bed, which just filled up the whole of one end of the cottage. The gruff voice assured me that its owner was not ill, but merely taking a rest, as he worked hard all the week. He was a sweep, and lived here alone with his boy.
Grimes was not sullen, but very genial. He came and sat on a stool in front of an old fireplace, all burnt out and rusty. He could not read, nor his boy either. What was the use? His father and mother hadn't been able to read, and yet they pulled along, and went to America. He hadn't been able to read, and yet he had pulled along; indeed, he was in such repute, that if I was to offer to sweep his chimney ever so well, his customers wouldn't have me. What more, then, could his boy want than to be trusted and believed in, and allowed to sweep these same chimneys, until he in his turn could make the next generation of boys do it for him?
From what he said, it appeared that boys still climb chimneys in this Dart of the country. He had a machine, but it wag
