The Bettesworth book : talks with a Surrey peasant
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The Bettesworth book : talks with a Surrey peasant
（Cambridge library collection, . History）
Cambridge University Press, 2009
- : [pbk.]
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Note
"This digitally printed version 2009"--T.p. verso
Reprint. Originally published: London : Lamley, 1901
"By George Bourne [pseud.]"--Original t.p
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In 1901, George Sturt (using the pen-name George Bourne) published this biography of his gardener, Frederick Bettesworth. This unusual ethnographic account, written in a modified dialect, uniquely captures rural life in late nineteenth-century England. The book bridges the class divide between 'master and man' as Sturt, through many interviews, gets to know his down-to-earth day labourer, and comes to understand peasant life and poverty as seen through the eyes of Bettesworth. In the introduction, Sturt precisely lays out his interviewing methodology, which allows the reader to understand both men as the conversations, and the book, progress. Through 35 chapters, he opens a window on the social relationships between the classes amid descriptions of the work, childhood, education, and family life of the region's agricultural workers. Sturt is humbled and enriched by his friendship with Bettesworth, calling him the 'voice of Britain', a man 'rugged, unresting, irresistible'.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introductory
- 2. Boyhood and youth
- 3. A roaming commission
- 4. Youth
- 5. Wanderings
- 6. Harvest talk
- 7. Sundry appreciations
- 8. A favourite horse
- 9. Other horses
- 10. 'Much have I seen' - and done
- 11. Further observations on well-sinking
- 12. How the harvesters travel
- 13. Practical jokes
- 14. Nicknames
- 15. Pigs and the weather
- 16. Christmas - and after
- 17. Gypsies
- 18. Old Biggs
- 19. Laying turf
- 20. From bees to April fools
- 21. Contains a story of Weyhill fair
- 22. Concerning many matters
- 23. Exasperation
- 24. Weather and toothache
- 25. Pets
- 26. Of pigs and cats
- 27. Cricket
- 28. A shifty employer
- 29. Gypsies again
- 30. Our dominant topic
- 31. The book-learned
- 32. One of the old school
- 33. Philosophy
- 34. Hops
- 35. A wet hop-picking - conclusion.
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