The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-08-27 00:00:00

LITERARY EXTRACTS.

SruitT Ls:Wt.—Flat foot can be produced in Miami
wheii children are induced b., stalk hefure the 1/1111ell and
ligaments are stroug enough to bear the weight of the
body. Parents wiser be in a burry to act
children on their legs, but IA them roll mid kick until
they a ilk of tin-jr owit all . .tgaiu, it lime age of at,omt
of the arch of the loot sole, wlseum pi'e,'l re on the ('ml.
too great ...r too lunf comitllilleil. Ii I. eO"ltllO11 an.ullg
our farm labouicia, who strangle all the movetuento of
the feet iii their laced high loot, mel co accustom
themselves to it sort of stilt-welking that they liarillv
know how to use their feet, mud want the stip port of
their work-a-day clumpia when they put on their
Sunday shoes. There ate Limpet jointa of the foot, and
of nll of them movement is crippled in such high-lows
113 are worn by the English labourer. Men who are no
shod that they walk somewhat as if they bad cork
legs, and do not execute the proper movements of the
(yet, have the muscles of the leg and foot ill-developed,
and the :anal and shapeless leg of an English egricul•
turn! !sheerer thus be:eines • direct consequence of
the make of his high-lows. " Look," says Sir Charles
"at the legs of a poor Irishman travelling to the
harvest with bare feet; the thickens and roundness of
the c:Of show that the foot end toes are free to permit
tl,,' exercise of the muscle... of the legs. Li de, ap..dn. at
of our Eteglicli peacmit, whoa, tout and onkle
lamel in a elioe wi:11 a Wotalell alate• 0011 YOO
Mill pet-mire from the manner in wide!i lie lilts his
leg. that the play of the ankle, foot. and t 01.3, i., lost as
much es if he went on 'ditto ; therefore are Ida legs
moan anti shape-leas. We know that, according to old
tradition, footmen are still judged by their calvts.
When they hail real emoting to do the tleveletoneht
of that esaceitial muscle of the calf was looked to as
evidence of their ability for footmen's service. —All thr
Y.( ar Roared.
PkirttlClAN TestNlNG.—Autotig the Parliamentary
Papers recently issued are two small volumes contain'
ilug some information collected by Mr. Edwin Chad-
wick during the recent education inquiry. Mr. Chad-
wick shows in these papers that the present practice of
long hours of teaching is a wide cause of enervation and
predieposition to disease, and lollUCell sleek-hits of Ind-
ies-mosso and ilawdliug. The half-time system is found
to give neerly, if not quite, as good education as the
whole time ; and common sense tells 0.1 that the boy
who has acquired the IMMO amount of knowledge in
111 I the time muff another boy inast have obtained • pro-
portionately superior habit of mental activity. It is
this alertness, combined with the bodily aptitudes
created by drill, that gives the comparatively stunted
buys of the town a preference over the strong robust
lads from the coma. Good echoolusasters say that
tlsout three hours a day are as long as • bright, volun•
lazy attention on the part of children can he secured,
and that in that period they may be really taught as
they can receive ; all beyond the profitable limit is
waste. Hence it is urged that part of the present long
school hours be devoted to gymnastic exercises or drill,
as part of the aysteui of education, or that the half•tinie
system be more adopted. It is a frequent complaint
by ruuaway apprcntiees and vagrant children, that the
work to which they were first put was really very
painful to them ; but children, while at school, might
he gradually intioduced and accustomed to labour and
exeition. Early phecical training would remove or
mliiiilnlsh congenital defects or bodily eeekneu. It is
estimated that an additiun of at le:At a fifth might be
made to the efficiency and value of a boy as a labourer
in after life—an additiou equivalent, in the mass, to
the produce of the labour of one-fiftli noire of impute.
tiun, without the expense of additional food, clothes.
or alielter to insintein them. Drill is very strongly
recommended by many eminent men, who give their
trwtioniiiy in these papers. It improves the health,
the carnage, the matinees, even the diameter; shorpeus
the atteetieta, gives balet ef obedience, prouipitneu,
regularity, and siddreatraint. Sir F. 11. Head writes :
'• No minted, whether on four legs or two, can be of
hay use ill the workshop of man until he has been
oufficielitly divested of that portion of his natural in-
lieritanee called ' a will of his own.' What's the use of
a tam if she won't allow either man or maid to milk
hart— what's the use of a horse if he won't put his bead
into • collar, or suffer • middle on his buck? A system
of military drill in our schools would pees* 6o beneficial
that, if once adopted, an undrilled young man,
like a raw unbroken horse, would be considered un-
oerviceahle." " I should consider a youth of douVe
value," says Mr. Whitworth, "who has had the train.
lug of the nature of • drill ; he attends to commando ;
lie keeps everything lie hes to do with in • high elate of
cleanliness ; defects are corrected, and epeeistl qualifica.
tenni brought out," "We find the drilled men tory
superior," says Mr. Fairbairn. "They are constantly
mm readiness for the pmtection of the country," save
Lieut. General Shaw Kennedy. "Men are frequerily
required," says Mr. II IRawlinson, CE., "to nae their
strength iii concert, for which they must have cone-
deem in cm° another; I have frequently sere trained
iiieu weed out unskilled men where heavy lifting has
been t gaited, because they dare not risk the danger
arising from unskilled strength." Here, therefore, is a
special adventage over and above the uses of education
generally. "I would not," said an eminent mantic-
terer, "take leas than L'7ooo for my whole set of
workmen in exchange for the uneducated, ill-trained,
and ill-conditioned workmen of the manufacturer
oppooite. The steadineso of the eduiated men induces
cteadiness of work and comparative certainty in the
quality and quantity of the_producti.*
Tile H•er ma W•Lett.—llie barp-playitig hi Wales
ill always more or less good, and, from its characteristic
uxtionality, is pleasant to hear. The Welsh harp,
however, appears to have denved Its origin from
I island ; for, as late as the eleventh century, the Welch
were accustomed to pmes over into that country to
receive instruction in the harp and the bardie profession
nerally; and it is said that Gryffydd ap Cynan
brought over from thence "divers curious muoiciane,"
from whom was derived • great part of the instrutnental
music. The harps used at the performance of the
Eisteddfods, as eleswbere in the Principality, are not
the large pedal harps which are turned out all gold and
ernainent from Erard's factory, but are rather suiall,
triple-stringed instrumento, which to any one but a
si Aive, would be perplexing in the extreme. Many of
them, however, are of very great sweetness, and'are
lapted before all others for the simple pathos of the
Weleh airs. The moat peculiar performative connected
with the harp is the style of aceouipanied singing known
at " pennillion singing," whit; hi certainly, I thin k
nobody but a %Velslinian could ever himprine Of execute.
'lle singer does not begin with the strain, hut strikes
up +hoover he likes, at the third, fourth or fifth bar,
slthough at whatever point he comment*. lie is in duty
hound to end with the Strain. which coutains eight
liars. The great p7iiit Miele, to lie in the number of
words that they can cram in, so as to bring the air and
stanzas to a simultaneous condusion. To Judge by the
frequent applause which peimillion singing always
rvolces, it is evidently the favowite portion of the
programme with the Welsh hearers, who I fancy, care
more for the music and englynion than anything else.
Indeed, nobody who has ever lived in the Principality
ran fail to remark the univereal love of music in the
Welsh character. in- some case. amounting almost to •
passion.—Once a Week.
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