376 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



manures the allotment. Some towns have large com- 

 mon lands, held under certain conditions ; such are 

 Malmesbury, with 500 acres, and Tetbury (the common 

 land of which extends two miles) : both these being 

 arable, etc. These are not exactly in the use of 

 labourers, but they are in the hands of a class to 

 which the labourer often rises. Many labourers have 

 fruit trees in their gardens which, in some seasons, 

 prove very profitable. In the present year, to my 

 knowledge, a labourer sold 4 worth of apples ; and 

 another made 3 10s. of the produce of one pear-tree, 

 pears being scarce. 



To come at last to the difficult question of wages. 

 In Wiltshire there has been no extended strike, and 

 very few meetings upon the subject, for the simple 

 reason that the agitators can gain no hold upon a 

 county where, as a mass, the labourers are well paid. 

 The common day-labourer receives 10s., 11s., and 12s. 

 a week, according to the state of supply and demand for 

 labour in various districts, and, if he milks, Is. more, 

 making 13s. a week, now common wages. These figures 

 are rather below the mark; I could give instances of much 

 higher pay. To give a good idea of the wages paid, I 

 will take the case of a hill farmer (arable, Marlborough 

 Downs), who paid this last summer during harvest 

 18s. per week per man. His reapers often earned 

 10s. a day ; enough to pay their year's rent in a week. 

 These men lived in cottages on the farm, with three 

 bedrooms each, and some larger, with every modern 

 appliance, each having a garden of a quarter of an 

 acre attached and close at hand, for which cottage and 

 garden they paid Is. per week rent. The whole of 

 these cottages were insured by the farmer himself, 



