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position from what they are at present. The wages they then got were 

 less than a third of what they receive now ; and when at the end of the 

 half-year, they had paid their shoemaker's and tailor's bills, the few 

 shillings which remained were too often squandered before the term was 

 over. They then commenced another half-year of toil and drudgery, 

 during which time they seldom left the farm, having neither the oppor- 

 tunity nor the means of going away in search of excitement or pleasure. 

 It would be difficult to imagine a rougher set of people than most of the 

 farm servants were fifty or sixty years since. Thoroughly uncultivated 

 in appearance and in manners, while at the same time many of them 

 were overflowing with animal spirits and rollicking fun, which seldom 

 found a free outlet at any other time, it is scarcely to be wondered at, if 

 when they got to the fair, they threw off all restraint and rushed into 

 every kind of excess. While, however, we are looking at this dark view 

 of the subject, and cannot help lamenting such excesses, and the immo- 

 rality which they undoubtedly sometimes led to, we must not forget that 

 the picture had a bright side too. Among the poorer families, many of 

 the members of which were out at service in different parts of the country, 

 and who seldom or never met at any other time, the hiring day being 

 the only opportunity they had to form a reunion during the six months, 

 on that account was always looked forward to with the brightest 

 anticipation. It was a kind of oasis in the desert of labour and servitude, 

 where father, mother, sisters and brothers all met together to shake hands 

 and exchange affectionate greetings, after a half-year's separation. The 

 mother went shopping with her grown-up children, advising them how to 

 lay out their wages to the best advantage, and in return, having her 

 basket filled with fairings for herself and the children at home. The 

 hiring fairs are still kept up to some extent, but are altogether modernized 

 in character. The march of improvement is nowhere more perceptible 

 than among the agricultural servants of the northern counties. It in the 

 manufacturing and mining districts high wages have led to reckless 

 extravagance and intemperance, they have had the very opposite effect 

 upon farm servants. When at the end of the half-year, they found that, 

 after making their necessary purchases, they had a few pounds to spare, 



