254 ON THE PRICE OF LABOUR. 



shall find that some articles, probably purchased in the neigh- 

 bouring towns, were thus manufactured, and regularly procured 

 for ordinary wants. This is particularly the case with articles 

 like ploughshares, most nails, and frequently horseshoes, though 

 towards the end of the period before us the custom arose of 

 entering into contracts with the village smith for the supply 

 of shoes to horses during the year; a change which indicates 

 that a new state of things was at hand, and that the artizan 

 was in a small way becoming also a capitalist. 



It is probable too that most villages maintained a carpenter 

 for common work, such as for repairs of farm implements and 

 buildings, and for the manufacture of common carts and 

 waggons. But the higher branches of this occupation, those for 

 instance which were connected with home building, the manu- 

 facture of furniture and the like, were supplied, it appears, by 

 migratory workmen, some of whom are paid very considerable 

 wages for the time. Tilers and slaters were rarer, and could 

 have seldom, for the business which might be supplied them, 

 have resided on the spot, except it were in towns. Our fore- 

 fathers do not seem to have made bricks till long after the 

 period before us, not perhaps from ignorance, but from indif- 

 ference, for it is certain that they manufactured tiles, a much 

 more difficult art. Tiles were freely employed in covering 

 buildings when clay fit for the purpose was at hand, and stone 

 easily laminated into slates could not be procured. Whenever, 

 however, the latter convenience was supplied it was employed 

 for roofs ; and hupetiles, corner and gutter tiles, or similar means 

 to cover ridges and supply water-courses on the roof were 

 added to the former material, often, as we shall see below, at 

 considerable cost. Slater, or Slatter, is a common name in 

 Oxfordshire, in the greater part of which county stone slates 

 were procured more cheaply than tiles. On the other hand, 

 Tylor is a rare name. 



Along with carpenters we must reckon sawyers, who did not 

 at this time, in all likelihood, carry on a distinct business. 

 They are paid by the day, or by the 100 square feet sawn, and 



