Rural life in 1850. On the ground reporting in Victorian England - with personal accounts from the labouring poor. In this volume Alexander Mackay and Shirley Brooks take us into the Northern and Midland counties and further explore the South Eastern and Eastern counties of England. From hop-picking in Kent, to opium-eating in Cambridgeshire, we traverse these counties and discover a vast range of places, occupations, and people. We look at education, crime, and destitution in the northern counties. We visit the hop growing, straw-plait, and lace-making districts and spend time with the boot and shoemakers of Northampton. Along our journey through the various counties we again enter the abodes of the agricultural labourers, discovering just how they lived. "Labour and the Poor", the acclaimed investigation into the poor of England and Wales, was undertaken from 1849 to 1851 by The Morning Chronicle , a leading London-based newspaper of the period. This remarkable series will take you into the cities, towns, and villages, into the mills, the factories, and the mines, hearing from the people themselves about their lives, their occupations, and their struggles for survival amidst the overwhelming poverty of the period. Brought to you in its entirety, for the very first time, this extraordinary and unsurpassed investigation will show what life was really like in the mid-19th century - on the ground reporting at its very best. In this series: Volume I: The Metropolitan Districts. Henry Mayhew. Volume II: The Metropolitan Districts. Henry Mayhew. Volume III: The Metropolitan Districts. Henry Mayhew. Volume IV: The Metropolitan Districts. Henry Mayhew. Volume V: The Manufacturing Districts. Angus B. Reach. Volume VI: The Rural Districts. Alexander Mackay and Shirley Brooks. Volume VII: The Rural Districts. Alexander Mackay and Shirley Brooks. Volume VIII: Wales. Special Correspondent. Volume IX: Birmingham. Charles Mackay. Volume X: Liverpool. Charles Mackay.