ao8 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



wanted to be even with his master for short payment emptied 

 a two-gallon bottle without taking it from his lips. Even 

 this feat was excelled by ' four well-seasoned yeomen, who 

 resolved to have a fresh hogshead tapped, and setting foot to 

 foot emptied it at one sitting.' l Yet in the beer-drinking 

 counties great quantities were consumed ; a gallon a day per 

 man all the year round being no uncommon allowance. 2 



The superior thrift of the north was shown in clothes as 

 well as food, the midland and southern labourer at the end of 

 the century buying all his clothes, the northerner making 

 them almost all at home ; there were many respectable 

 families in the north who had never bought a pair of stockings, 

 coat, or waistcoat in their lives, and a purchased coat was 

 considered a mark of extravagance and pride. 



Perhaps the most remarkable feature of Young's dietary is/ 

 that green vegetables are absolutely ignored. The peasant 

 was supposed to need them as little as in the Middle Ages. 



However, Young admit5 that very few labourers lived as 

 cheaply as this, and he found the actual ordinary budget for 

 the same family to be : 



*. d. 



Food, per week, 7-r. 6d. ; per year . . . 19 10 o 

 Beer is. 6d. . 3 18 o 



Soap and candles 150 



Rent i 10 o 



Clothes . . . . . . . 2 10 o 



Fuel 200 



Illness, &c 100 



Infant 2 12 o 



34 S o 



This, with the same income as before, left him with a surplus 

 of 3 los. od. ; but as it was not likely his wife could work all 

 the year round, or that both his eldest children should be boys, 

 it appears that his expenses must often have exceeded his 



1 Rural Economy of Gloucestershire, i. 53. 

 * Eden, op. cit. i. 547. 



