632 LABOUR AND WAGES. 



ordinary.' So in 1637, the wages paid by the same College 

 for carpenters' and joiners' work about the organ is far in 

 excess of customary prices. Again, when unskilled labour 

 gets as a rule $d. a day, a man engaged in scouring a sink by 

 night is paid at the rate of is. 6d. In 1649, when an ordinary 

 labourer is paid by Eton College is. a day, others who are 

 said to be scouring a ditch, which is described as ' a noisome 

 work,' are paid at the rate of is. 5^., a broken sum, which 

 looks like a bargain. In the next year, several men are 

 engaged to scour ditches, which the College account describes 

 as * a most filthy work,' and get is. 6d. a day for their labour. 

 The cleansing of foricae, by which is no doubt meant the 

 emptying of cesspools, is not always well paid. In 1649, 

 Winchester pays is. a day; in 1651, only y\d.\ in 1653, is. yd.; 

 in 1655, 1663, and 1684, is. 6d. The last two entries are from 

 Eton. Still in 1631, a man who works at a cesspool gets icd. ; 

 in 1635, is. ; while one who scours 'vaults' is paid is. 6d. in 

 1648. 



The first four assessments, on which comment has been 

 made, are from the Northern counties. The wages paid in the 

 Midland and Eastern are fully fifty per cent, higher than the 

 Northern rates, and such a difference appears to be regularly 

 maintained between the Northern and other parts of the 

 kingdom. As regards the rates actually paid, there seems to 

 be a tendency upwards, in the case of the ordinary carpenter 

 and the ordinary mason, when the actual wages earned are 

 contrasted with those which twenty years before (vol. iv. 120) 

 were set out in Rutlandshire, for the guidance I am persuaded 

 of all England south of the Trent. Nor for the first twenty 

 years of the period before me do the wages of the master or 

 superior carpenter rise materially, though the three harvests 

 of 1595-97 were times of famine, rye in 1596, the worst of 

 the three, being nearly as dear as wheat, and the decennial 

 average steadily increasing up to 1643-52, a period which was 

 only a little dearer than 1653-62. During the first decade, it 

 will be seen that the average wages of the master carpenter 



