90 THE SILK INDUSTRY IN WESSEX. 



HOUSEHOLD MATTERS. 



There is very little information as to articles of food. This 

 may be due to the fact that for many years a weekly sum of 

 five guineas was devoted to housekeeping expenses, which 

 would presumably be defrayed in ready money and would 

 not appear among the accounts. Among the stray items 

 are lump sugar at 8d. and butter at 7Jd. the pound, both 

 in 1776. Nevertheless there is no lack of details concerning 

 purchases of alcohol in almost every form, as might be 

 expected in Georgian times. A pipe of port, costing about 

 42 in the 'eighties, was stored in the cellar at Westbury on 

 more than one occasion. Another favourite beverage was 

 X ale brewed at Cerne by Thomas Coombs, a hogshead of 

 which represented 75s. in the year 1775, and 70s. in 1782. 

 On the other hand, tobacco is scarcely ever mentioned ; 

 I noted only one instance of its use, and the quantity was 

 quite trifling. 



Although some domestic articles show little difference in 

 cost when compared with modern prices, the wages of maid 

 servants were then on a much lower scale. A cook of five 

 years' standing received six guineas per annum, with one 

 guinea for tea, in 1789, and another maid was paid 4 10s. 

 without the solace of tea -money. 



The bills from Sampson Boys, surgeon and apothecary, are 

 among the longest in the series, but apparently they do not 

 include his fees for advice or treatment. The earliest begins in 

 1774, and proves that a surprising quantity of medicine was 

 supplied to Willmott's family, almost daily, in fact. Dr. 

 \ Gumming and Dr. Johnson are mentioned in 1775 ; presumably 

 they were physicians in Sherborne. An account book records 

 that Boys inoculated the household in January, 1782, during 

 one of the periodical visitations of small -pox. John Melliar 

 was a later surgeon whose drugs were frequently in demand 

 throughout 1792-94. On the back of a letter dated 27 Nov., 

 1779. are three curious recipes for the cure of the ague, the 

 itch, and a sore throat. 



