f 



C 212 ) 



Von fee that during the lafl twelve years the three averages, of four years each, have de- 

 creafed more than lool. a year. This has been ov/ing, I believe, to thefe two caufes: 

 firfl, a determination in the parifli officers to fpare their money to the utmofl ; and 

 fecondly, by admitting as few as poffible into the workhoufe ; where experience has 

 taught them, that the maintenance of the poor is much more expenfive than out of it. 

 Perhaps this circumftance alone will account for a very large proportion of the above- 

 flated decreafe. The price of provifions has all the time been greatly advancing ; the 

 natural conclufion feems to be, that the neceffities of the poor have not been fo well pro- 

 vided for. This however is not to be admitted in its full apparent extent ; for it is to 

 be obferved, that in the year 1782 a putrid fever took place, and carried ofF three times 

 the average number ; and chiefly prevailing amongft the poor, it at once raifed the rates 

 from about 800I. to upwards of laool. The workhoufe is, upon the whole, very well 

 conduced. The rates will be very high this year, befides a voluntary contribution of 

 upwards of 190I. 



35. The feeding, treating, management, and working of the farmer's horfes, is infinitely 



various, according to the temper, views and generofity of the farmers. Thofe who take a 

 pride in having fine horfes, feed them high and work them moderately, that they may always 

 as it were, be ready for fale, Thofe who have little concern about the appearance of 

 their horfes, nor their breed, keep an ordinary fort both in fize and figure, and give them 

 juft fufficient to enable them to hold their work, and often become dreadfully poor and 

 lean. In ploughing and carting manure, they ufually continue it from fix in the morn- 

 ing to about two in the afternoon ; are then taken home, fed and drej/ej, as it is here 

 ufually called, but go out no- more that day, as, I believe, is cuflomary in fome parts of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk. Our general breed of horfes, in this parifh and neighbourhood, 

 is greatly improved, within the lafl forty years, both for the plough and the faddle. 



36. Our tythes are commuted: the great tythes are, I believe, nearly double what they were 

 fifty years ago, and are flill moderate. The fmall tythes have not been advanced in the 

 fame period any thing at all before lafl year, when an addition of about two-thirds of the 

 former fum was made ; and now they are not charged at one-third of their real value. 

 The rents within the fame courfe of years have not been raifed above one-eighth, and 

 were they advanced to the utmofl of which they are capable, it would not be above one- 

 fourth, if fo much; nor would it be nearly fo much, if the tythes were taken in kind. 

 I know not any thing that renders tythes more objedionable, than this difproportionate 

 advance of the value compared with that of the lands which produce them ; and nothing 



but 



