ABSTRACT
One point of view is seriously under-represented in the tomes of evidence bequeathed to us by our Victorian predecessors – that of the humble labourer and his family. We are generally obliged to evaluate their way of life through the eyes of others: employers, officials, their 'betters'. The reason for this dearth of information is not hard to find. Even those men and women who had the ability to leave us their impressions rarely considered their simple lives worthy of recording for posterity. 'I feel that I have not done much that is worthy to be left on record,' commented one Kentish labourer who did try to write his autobiography in 1912. 1 Consequently he concentrates on the exceptional rather than the everyday occurrences, on detailed descriptions of places he remembers and on the personalities of local gentry with whom he came into contact. Many questions we would like to ask are left unanswered.
