COUNTIES OF EDINBUEGH AND LINLITHGOW. 47 



coals driven, or at pit price; and a month's meat in harvest. 

 Total, L.o2 to L.54. Servant women have L.7 to L.9 per half 

 year with food. Happily, there is no bothy system, the young 

 men being hired by the half year, and boarded in the farm 

 house. 



In the Carriden district, ploughmen get L.35 to L.36 in cash ; 

 6J bolls oatmeal, worth say L.7, 10s. ; lUOO yards of potatoes in 

 the drill, value, L.4 ; free house and garden, L.4 ; coals driven, L.l ; 

 and a month's meat in harvest, L.l. Total. L.o2 to L.o3. In many 

 cases, a pig is kept in addition to the above perquisites, and milk 

 allowed at a low rate. 



With the exception of a little uneasiness now and then, caused 

 by a desire to leave farm work and obtain employment in other 

 spheres of industry, the labourers of this district are a contented 

 and happy race of people. With most of the necessaries of life 

 already provided for them, they have comparatively little care and 

 anxiety, and not a few families lay by part of their earnings for the 

 proverbial "rainy day." The majority take great delight in their 

 homes. The little patch of garden affords them occupation for their 

 leisure moments, and here and there are beds of flowers neatly 

 and tastefully arranged. Literature seems to be in the ascendant, for 

 almost every family has its weekly newspaper. The children 

 are fairly — some of them well — educated, and many, in vi'pev 

 years, do good service in the commercial walks of life. Often the 

 labourer stays upon one farm during the whole of his days, be- 

 coming as it were rooted to the soil, and when old age and infir- 

 mity creep on, has the satisfaction of seeing his place filled by 

 one of his offspring. All in all, we rarely, if ever, saw a more 

 thriving or contented race of peasantry, and this causes us to 

 regret that year by year the ranks of the labouring classes are 

 becomim:^ thinner. 



Before leaving this subject, we believe it will be interesting to 

 state the amount of remuneration given three-quarters of a cen- 

 tury ago. In Cranston, the wages of a ploughman were L.2, 15s. 

 to L.3, Gs. for the half-year ; for a hind, L.5 to L.5, lUs. for the 

 year, with grass for a cow, and two pecks of meal per week. 

 Extra labourers (men) received lOd. to Is. per day in winter, and 

 Is. 2d. in summer. In Kirknewton, labouring men i^ot Is. 

 to Is. 2d. per day in summer, and lOd. in winter, and females 

 ()d : wages of maid servants, L.3 per year. In the parish of 

 Stow, in 1759, hired men received L.3, 4s. per annum ; women, 

 L.2 ; and extra labourers, 4d. per day, with food, in winter, and 

 6d. in summer. In 1795, wages for hir(?d men had risen to LG, 

 10s. for the year, and women Iv.3, lOs.; day labourers receiving 

 6d. in winter and 8d. in summer, with victuals, and higher rates 

 in harvest, but even then Is. to Is. 3d. was seldom exceeded. 

 The wages of the present day present a womlerful contnust to 



