20 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



a labourer being 135. 6d. to 145. 6d. per week. In Northamp- 

 tonshire boys were employed as early as eight years of age, 

 the man getting from us. to 135., and the woman from 8d. 

 to is. a day. Lincoln and Nottingham presented a con- 

 trast. There were men employed at yearly contracts of from 

 40 to 45 and a lower stratum of men, almost paupers, 

 irregularly employed, moving about on the gang system, 

 under which were also found children of the tenderest years. 

 In one half of Nottinghamshire gangs of children went 

 stone-picking practically all the summer, and even through 

 part of the winter, and at eight years of age were con- 

 sidered old enough to lead plough horses ! 



In Leicestershire the standard of life was very low. 

 Wages ranged from us. to 135., and boys of nine to twelve 

 years of age were regularly employed for ploughing, whilst 

 those even younger were put into the fields to scare birds. 



In Oxfordshire and Berkshire wages were said to 

 range from I2s. 6d. to 145. 6d., though this statement has 

 been qualified by another that young men of eighteen or 

 twenty received from 8s. to us. per week, 1 lads of fifteen 

 and upwards, 55. to ios., whilst boys of ten or twelve 

 received 35. to 45. 



As glove-making and the slop clothing trade were in com- 

 petition with agriculture in these counties it seems strange 

 that women could be found to work for Sd. per day, which 

 was the usual rate ; but possibly, as elsewhere, pressure 

 was brought to bear upon the husbands. 



Shropshire presented a picture of serfdom similar to that 

 which flourished in Dorset. Wages or allowances seemed 

 to be a matter which depended upon the goodwill of the 

 farmer. No contract seems to have been entered into 

 between master and man. Hours were unlimited, and the 

 payment for overtime took the form of a meal given or not 

 at the pleasure of the employer. So bad were the cottages 

 that married labourers were often boarded in the farmhouses. 



In Surrey wages varied as much as from ias. in western 

 Surrey, to 155. in the neighbourhood of London ; in War- 



1 It was the custom in some districts in the Midlands to pay a married 

 man a little more than a single man. 



