272 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



remains that " privileges " generally in Devon were 

 disappearing. 



Coming to the last county for mention Somerset- 

 shire it was to be noted that privileges generally were 

 gradually disappearing. 



From a note of our own, made in 1880, we say : 



"It is very much the same with regard to privileges in 

 Somersetshire as in the three other western counties. In 

 a general way it may be said, with regard to all four, that 

 the system of privileges is dying out. Where it still exists it 

 is on sufferance, so to speak, and is rather owing to the 

 generosity of individual farmers than to any desire to retain 

 it, as formerly, as part of the payment of labour. It is 

 no doubt a healthy sign of the times that wages now keep 

 to a much more uniform rate throughout the West of England 

 than they formerly did. Where privileges remain they are 

 not given generally as part payment, but are ' thrown in/ 

 as it were, by the employers, who probably think that if they 

 have any gifts to bestow, their own poor servants are the 

 most deserving recipients, and that even at the best the 

 weekly wages of a farm labourer enable him to provide 

 nothing but the barest sustenance." 



