213 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



often barely, it is said, exceed the already-quoted weekly rate. 

 In the Vale of Berkeley there was a higher rate, making it from 

 one to two shillings more. Cottage rents were from one to two 

 shillings a week. In the following unions wages were returned 

 as under : in the Cheltenham Union, ten shillings a week ; in the 

 Newent Union, the same ; in the Stow Union, nine and sixpence ; 

 but in the Strood Union they ranged from ten to twelve shillings. 

 It must be noted that the general rate first given as ranging from 

 nine to ten shillings a week for the whole county of Gloucester 

 comes from the summary of the Agricultural Commissioner, and 

 that the maximum is exceeded by the Poor Law returns in one 

 Union, that of Strood, where it is given at twelve shillings. The 

 more reliable returns were understood at the time to be those 

 of the Commissioners, and for this reason, in all probability: 

 Boards of Guardians in the rural districts, then as now, were 

 largely composed of farmers, and when the clerk of a union was 

 written to for information his easiest method would naturally 

 be to bring up the inquiry at a Board meeting, as all the districts 

 in the union would be there represented. Naturally also the 

 farmers' disposition would be not to minimise the amount of 

 wages paid ; and some possibly local circumstances might have 

 occasioned a temporary rise in the Strood Union of Essex when 

 the farmers were asked to give the prevailing rate of wages. 

 The present writer, who is a member of a rural Board of Guardians, 

 remembers, only a short time before penning these lines, an 

 inquiry coming from the Local Government Board as to the 

 existing rates of wages in his particular union. There was quite 

 an appreciable variety of opinion, and finally a vote had to be 

 taken on the subject, and the opinion not of the whole Board but 

 of the majority of those present at the inquiry had to be sent to 

 the Local Government as the answer ; and it would not probably 

 have been stated by the clerk that it was only the " return " of 

 the majority. Returning to the Gloucestershire record, pauper- 

 ism was given as 5*2 per cent, of the population. That informa- 

 tion also was of course obtained from the Poor Law Guardians of 

 the unions ; but it may be assumed to be accurate, because it was 

 a mere question of arithmetical calculation based upon the actual 

 number of the poor dealt with by the various unions, and 

 calculated upon the number of the population, or, to be more 

 exact, the estimated population. 



HAMPSHIRE. 



Wages in the county of Hants were returned at from ten to 

 eleven shillings a week ; but there was no truck system in that 

 county, and therefore no " cider truck." Cottage rents were 

 from a shilling to eighteenpence a week. The Poor Law returns 

 gave wages as follows : in the Alresford Union, ten shillings ; in 

 the Andover Union, ten to eleven shillings ; in the Droxford 

 Union, eleven to twelve shillings ; and in the South Stoneham 

 Union, eleven to eleven and sixpence. Pauperism was returned 

 as 5 '5 per cent, of the population. 



