630 LABOUR AND WAGES. 



have learnt from those who have studied the local history of 

 Canterbury that good wages for labour have always been a 

 characteristic of that city. For example, in 1585 the wages 

 of no artisan in Oxford and Cambridge are above is. a day, 

 or 6s. a week, except those of two joiners at All Souls College, 

 who are engaged for a long time on some special work, 

 while the Canterbury carpenter and mason, for repairs to a 

 parish church, are paid Js. and upwards ; the mason and man 

 are paid at the rate of 1 2s. a week, the rate elsewhere being at 

 best los. ; and the pair of sawyers 2s. <\d. a day, when the 

 highest price elsewhere is 2J., and by the hundred (120) feet 

 superficial, even less. Even the carpenter's or mason's man, 

 who elsewhere gets 4s. a week, gets 5r. at Canterbury. Low 

 prices also rule at Eton. The King paid well, if indeed the 

 wages debited to him reached the workman. His neighbours 

 perhaps took advantage of the situation and got workmen at 

 less than ordinary wages. 



Let me take again rates in 1589. The Fellows of King's 

 College have no doubt some nice work on hand. They hire a 

 free mason for a short time at 2s. id. a. day, probably to deal 

 with something unsatisfactory in the chapel. But their other 

 labourers are paid at rather high rates. Carpenter and man, 

 mason and man, the pair of sawyers, and the plumber and 

 man, are paid at 2s. a day together. The plumber by himself 

 gets is. ^d. At Oxford the prices are lower, some of the 

 labourers are wretchedly paid in the more ancient University, 

 a number at only 2s. yd. the week. In 1589 wheat was 

 2,6s. n\d. the quarter, malt i$s. io|^., and oatmeal 2js. 4d. 

 At Kirtling, Lord North pays a carpenter only lod. a day, but 

 the hiring is in November. 



In the year 1606, to take another instance, King's College 

 pays i s. 2,d. to a carpenter, is. %d. to a plumber who is looking 

 to the chapel leads, the mason getting only the ordinary 

 wages of is. The prices at Eton and Oxford do not go 

 beyond the common rate. The New College plumber was on 

 the roof of chapel and hall, for those parts only of the College 



