OLD SHEPHERD OF THE BROADCAST

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 83, 2 January 1935, Page 8

OLD SHEPHERD OF THE BROADCAST

Fellow Villager at Hutt

LINKS WITH BIRTHPLACE FORGED ANEW

When the old shepherd, of the Cotswold Hills, in the heart’ of England, made his descriptive contribution the other day to the Empire Christmas broadcast, none of the millions who hoard him was more touched by it than Mr. J. Purser, of Main Road, Upper Hutt. ’

It was from the village of Ilmlngton, nestling in the Cotswolds, reposeful, changeless amid changing England, typical.of rural life in its most charming mood, (hat the: shepherd spoke across the 6eenus be had never seen. His words found response in Mr. Purser. for he, too, is a native of Ilmington, and had-been brought up with the shepherd. As far as he is aware, he is the ouly native of the .tillage now resident in New Zealand, so it was a« though the broadcast bad been addressed specially to him, and that a link once severed had been forged anew. ■, ' ,• -’ v

In talking with a’ representative of “The Dominion,” Mr. Purser added to the brief sketch of. the England of “long and long ago” that he had known as a boy. “I believe that the name of the old shepherd L Handy,” he said. “I did not just catch whether his Christian name was Walter, ..If it was, then I knew him. There was'a large family, and I was brought up-wlth them. llmington is tucked in the Costwold Hills, eight miles from StratforjJ-on-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace. Tlie village is as near as possible in the centre of England, and its staple industry is agriculture. I lived there from 1870 to .1899, and Jaave been back several times, but not for 14 years.” Strangers- to the Sea. There was a reason why the shepherd had never seen the sea or London, Mr. Purser continued. To have only 10/- to 12/- a week on which to bring up a family, as his and the shepherd’s parents did, was to have sufficient for the bare necessities of life alone. Up to the years 1880 to 1890, the poorer families knew little of luxuries for Christmas dinner, unless a farmer for whom such families Worked was generous enough to kill a sheep for distribu-. tlon among his workmen. As for himself, up to the time he was ten or twelve he did not know the taste of fresh butter, or of mutton or beef. Milk in the tea or puddings was very rare, the explanation being that the district was wholly agricultural, and there was little dairying.

Christmas pudding consisted of a flour roly-poly into which a housewife would push a few raisins with her thumb, so scarce was this fruit that is now considered an indispensable ingredient in a modern Christmas pudding, Most of the villagers at this time had not been away from their homes, as a holiday was out of the question. A blacksmith who. lived to be' more than 70 never left the roof under which he was«born.

It was uncommon to see agricultural labourers (who formed the largo proportion of the village) with a new suit of clothes Or two pairs of boots. On Saturday nights they would clean their solitary pair of hobnails for church, on the Sunflay morning. ' They Become Small Holders.

A few years later, thanks to Mr. Gladstone’s Allotment ‘Act, the villagers were allowed to take up a little land. On this they gbew sufficient wheat to feed their families and potatoes and grain for the cottage pig or /two. Then would come the luxury of a flitch for Christmas.

With'the expansion of manufacturing industry in the great cities nearby, notably Binmingham, numbers of the young* folk drifted from the villages . because work in the factories was plentiful and wages higher than the pittance to be earned in agriculture. Thus set in the decline in agriculture and the rise in food imports. Today the reverse process was operating and we in New Zealand wondered why it was increasingly difficult to sell produce in Great Britain. Mr. Purser said he was one who packed his few belonging and, with only sufficient money for his railway fare, set out into the big world beyond the Cotswolds. Those who decided to marry usually settled for life in tlie village apd brought up their families and lived as the bld shepherd of his acquaintance. Happy in Thc-jr Way. Asked if there was happiness under conditions which to-day seemed harsh, Mr. Purser said simply: “We were exceedingly happy—in our own way. We never knew anything better and looked for nothing different.” It was only fair to mention, he added, that although wages were very low the cdst of living was cheap on the whole. -For example, the two and three-roomed cottages with their picturesque roofs of thatch were let at a rental of about £5 a year.' The bells which pealed as a preliminary to the shepherd’s broadcast were those of the old village church -which Mr. Purser had attended as a boy, and their music carried over half the world had revived poignant memories. “I have cabled the villagers telling them of my pleasure at the broadcast, congratulating them on its success, and sending them Christmas greetings,” said Mr. Purser.