TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT. 15 



Westmorland, and York ; but even there, there has been 

 a marked indication of decline of the custom farmers 

 preferring to re-engage their old men, instead of going 

 to the fairs for " new " ones. It is found to be in- 

 creasingly difficult to get women, even for dairy- work 

 or domestic service from these fairs, at which there is a 

 diminished attendance for this purpose. In Cambridge- 

 shire, some hirings at fairs take place notably at 

 Wisbech for foremen and for men in charge of animals. 

 Some hirings at the " mop " or " statute " fairs, as these 

 institutions are alternatively called, are effected in 

 the counties of Nottingham and Rutland, but it is in 

 Lincolnshire that the fairs are most common, and 

 farmers go there from Rutland and Nottinghamshire 

 to hire farm servants. The practice still lingers, too, 

 in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicester- 

 shire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Wor- 

 cestershire ; but they are held chiefly for the hiring of 

 youths to take charge of animals, but also for hiring 

 girls for farmhouse and domestic service although 

 some of the so-called hiring-fairs are simply pleasure 

 fairs private hirings in those places having superseded 

 the use of the " mop " fair for that purpose, although 

 sometimes the farmer obtains the " hands " he requires 

 by means of advertisements in the papers. The system 

 of fair-hiring, though not extinct, is expiring in Here- 

 fordshire, but is more prevalent in Monmouthshire. 

 Fair-hiring, however, to a certain extent, still goes 

 on in Dorset, Gloucester, Hants, and Wilts. In 

 Durham and Northumberland many engagements of 

 farm servants are made at hiring fairs ; but shepherds, 

 as in Scotland, in the Border counties and the Lothians, 

 are privately hired. The engagements are mostly 

 yearly ones, though the wages are quoted at a weekly 

 sum. A good many women are employed, too, in 

 Durham and Northumberland. A curious and rather 

 interesting practice, too, exists in these counties : that 



