PRIVILEGES DYING OUT. 271 



In Dorsetshire, except in a few places, it was noticeable 

 that privileges were declining. An exception was to be 

 noticed at Puddleton, about four miles from Dorchester. 

 In the village mentioned, labourers hired by the year 

 were annually given two hundred and fifty faggots of 

 firewood, valued at a pound a hundred, although if a 

 poor person in the village wanted one it could be bought 

 for twopence ; but the supply in such a case was limited 

 to six in a fortnight. Another privilege at Puddleton 

 obtained by the farm labourers was an annual ton and 

 a half of coal. 



Amongst a few privileges not extinct in Devonshire, 

 at the period under mention, was, besides, an occasional 

 piece of potato-ground free, and permission for the 

 labourer's poultry to run in the farmyard. But the 

 birds, if their pens were near and the farmyard ac- 

 cessible, would avail themselves of the " run " without 

 permission, and yet return punctually to their own 

 roosts at night. One South Devon farmer who gave 

 this " privilege " considered it to be worth, with straw 

 given for the labourer's pig, a shilling a week ; and 

 another farmer reckoned an allowance of firewood given 

 to his men as worth a shilling a week. It was calculated 

 that the privileges mentioned, together with cider, where 

 given, valued at eighteenpence a week, were altogether, 

 with wages in cash of twelve shillings, worth a total of 

 sixteen shillings. The keeping of a cow belonging to 

 the labourer on the farm, though probably a very rare 

 and exceptional occurrence, was mentioned as some- 

 times allowed ; one correspondent who referred to it 

 thinking it was a practice that would be allowed to 

 increase as a substitute for what is called peasant- 

 farming. Certainly the more advantages, even if 

 individually slight, that could be given to the men, 

 would make it all the more likely to keep them to their 

 occupations, and help to stem the serious tide of emi- 

 gration. Nevertheless, when all has been told, the fact 



