18 ABUNDANCE OF EMPLOY. 



ed from its effects; the severe coughs attending the 

 spring of 1826 afflicted grievously most individuals in 

 every house ; and the measles, which prevailed so great- 

 ly at the same season, visited every cottage, though 

 built upon the very limestone rock. 



This village and its neighboring parishes, by reason 

 of the peculiar culture carried on in them, and the 

 natural production of the district, afford the most ample 

 employment for their laboring inhabitants ; nor perhaps 

 could any portion of the kingdom, neither possessing 

 mineral riches, manufactories, or mills, nor situate in 

 the immediate vicinity of a great town, be found to af- 

 ford superior demand for the labor, healthy employment, 

 and reasonable toil of its population. Our lime-kilns 

 engage throughout the year several persons; this is, 

 perhaps, our most laborious employ ; though its returns 

 are considered as fair. In our culture, after all the va- 

 rious business of the farms, comes the potato-setting ; 

 nor is this finished wholly before haymaking com- 

 mences. Teaseling succeeds ; the corn harvest comes 

 on, followed shortly by the requirements of the potato 

 again, and the digging out and securing this requires 

 the labor of multitudes until the very verge of winter. 

 Then comes our employment for this dark season of the 

 year, the breaking of our limestone for the use of the 

 roads, of which we afford a large supply to less favored 

 districts. This material is not to be sought for in-dis- 

 tant places, or of difficult attainment, but to be found 

 almost at the very doors of the cottages; and old men, 

 women, and children can obtain a comfortable mainte- 

 nance by it without any great exertion of strength, or 

 protraction of labor. The rough material costs nothing: 

 a short pickax to detach the stone, and a hammer to 

 break it, are all the tools required. A man or healthy 

 woman can easily supply about a ton in the day ; a child 

 that goes on steadily, about one-third of this quantity ; 

 and as we give one shilling for a ton, a man, his wife, 

 and two tolerable-sized children, can obtain from 

 2s. 8d. to 3s. per day by this employ, the greater part 

 of the winter; and should the weather be bad, they 

 can work at intervals, and various broken hours, and 



