88 THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH 



circumstances, in consultation with " such grave and discreet 

 persons as they shall think meet." No higher wages than those 

 settled under the assessment were to be given, or received, under 

 severe penalties. At harvest time, artificers and persons " meet 

 to labour " might be compelled to serve at the mowing or " inning " 

 of hay and corn. Persons over twelve and under eighteen might 

 be taken as apprentices in husbandry and compelled to serve till 

 the age of twenty-one. By agreement the age might be extended 

 to twenty-four. 



Under the provisions of this Statute agricultural labourers and 

 servants were engaged annually. Shortly before Martinmas, the 

 chief constable of the division sent out notices that he would sit 

 at a certain town or village on a given day, and required the petty 

 constables to attend with lists of the masters and servants in their 

 districts. At the appointed place and time the chief constable met 

 his subordinates and the masters : the servants also assembled, all 

 " cladde," as Henry Best describes them, 1 " in their best apparrell," 

 in the market square, the churchyard, or some other public place. 

 The chief constable took the lists, called each master in turn accord- 

 ing to the entries, and asked him whether he was willing to set such 

 and such a servant at liberty. If the master replied in the negative, 

 the constable stated what were the wages fixed by the Justices, 

 received a penny fee from the master, and bound the servant for a 

 second term of a year. If the answer was in the affirmative, the 

 constable received from the servant a fee of twopence, and gave him 

 his certificate of lawful departure. Meanwhile masters who wished 

 to hire labourers, whether men or women, walked about among the 

 assembled crowd in order to choose likely-looking servants. When 

 a master had made his choice, his first enquiry was whether the man 

 was at liberty. If the servant had his ticket, the master took him 

 aside, and asked where he was born, where he was last employed, 

 and what he could do. Best once heard the answer : 



" I can so we, 

 I can mowe, 

 And I can stacke, 

 And I can doe 

 My master too, 

 When my master turnes his backe." 



If the last employer was present at the sitting, he was sought out, 



1 Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641, being the Farming and account Books 

 of Henry Best (Surtees Society, vol. xxxiii. 1857), pp. 132-6. 



