CH. I.] CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY. 129 



they wear none. Those who are the best off carry them in 

 their -hand when they go to church, and put them on when 

 they enter it. All the witnesses state that the above cost 

 for dress is that only of the richest farmers ; but that in 

 this class, as well as in the lower ones, the children go 

 about absolutely naked till the age of ten. 



It is very seldom that the people purchase new clothes, 

 they buy all the old clothes they can find. If a man 

 has money enough to procure a fleece, his wife spins the 

 wool, and they get it made into cloth by a weaver. The 

 farmers holding above twenty acres, having generally two 

 sheep, have their cloth made at their own homes. 



The witnesses proceeded to say, that many of the pea- 

 santry abstain from going to mass, to avoid exposing their 

 extreme misery ; and a great number of them would have 

 attended the sittings of the Commissioners if they had 

 dared to appear in tatters. The clergymen present con- 

 firmed these statements, and added that scarcely a third of 

 the inhabitants of the parishes go to church, from want of 

 clothes ; they take it by turn to attend, and lend one- 

 another their clothes for that purpose. 



The Commissioners state that, without exception, they 

 found the children quite naked. 



With respect to the furniture, the following facts were 

 confirmed by the testimony of various persons, and by the 

 visits of the Commissioners to the dwellings. 



Scarcely a third of the families of the small farmers and 

 labourers have a wooden bedstead. Those in use cost 5s., 

 and ought to last ten years ; but from the extreme damp- 

 ness of the cabins, they last only half that time. 



A whole family sleep in one bed; for they have no- 

 thing to cover them, and they thus keep one another 



K 



