Just to put my two penn'orth into what has been an extremely fascinating thread to read:
Quote:
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"Bilbo was too weak to help, and anyway he was not much good at skinning rabbits or cutting up meat, being used to having it delivered by the butcher all ready to cook" From 'The Hobbit': Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire.
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As 'not nice' as the word is, it's there and it's an accepted part of Hobbit life. I think that sometimes, we perhaps look on the Shire as being 'perfect'. Sanitised and squeaky clean, the town-dwellers ideal of a country life. It is, though, a real place and Hobbit society is not primitive or basic. They would have had trades folk of many descriptions, just because we don't notice them in the story doesn't mean that they aren't there.