148 Autumn 



for a hovel. And hovels these old Wiltshire cottages 

 must have been. Many thousands of cottages are 

 letting at a shilling a week ; in part of Wales the sum 

 is sixpence ; on outlandish farms in Berks and Oxon 

 cases occur where the labourer is mulcted in not more 

 than fourpence-halfpenny. For a bushel of ' whoats ' 

 Jonathan had to pay three and twopence, and submit 

 to the moulture. ' William Kemble his bill for bakon ' 

 came to 2s. ^d. for 4^ pounds ; and sixpence a pound 

 appears to have been the common price. 



Henery had an unfortunate method of so jotting 

 down his payments that they could be of use to 

 nobody but himself. Occasionally he seems to have 

 been seized with a desire to reckon up his disburse- 

 ments : and fills a whole page with the oddest items. 

 He has paid $is. $d. for ploughing and is. 6d. for a 

 new hat ; i6s. $d. for 'bif and a halfpenny for lard; 

 and a debt of twopence is set down as punctiliously 

 as one of twenty pounds. But, as the quantities are 

 not mentioned, you cannot as much as guess at the 

 cost of many important commodities. 



MAKING EVEN 



Two phrases still recurrent under Henery Kemble's 

 pen are a source of infinite amusement. They illus- 

 trate the countryman's reluctance to make full and 



