1^6 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY 



rent, or a certain fum of money, to fluctuate in 

 proportion to the general fcale of provifions. 



Poor-rates, which no longer back than twenty- 

 years, were fo light, that a farmer, when he went 

 to take a farm, hardly thought it worth while 

 to enquire the amount of it ; but now it is become 

 the hi ft quettion he muft aflk. 



The caufes of the aflonifhing increafe of thefe 

 rates, it is prefumed, will chiefly be found in the 

 rife of provifions, beyond the proportional rife in 

 the price of labour. There may be fome other 

 caufes, but this is the chief. 



When this great alteration firft began to be felt, 

 the Houfes of Induftry, of which there are feveral 

 in this county, took their rife, and, for a time, 

 there was great expectation of advantage from 

 them, but I am informed, that fome of them, at 

 leaft, have been for fome time upon the decline, 

 and this laft year of fcarcity, they are minus in 

 their accounts, fo that, it is to be feared, they will 

 not anfwer the end that was expected from them. 

 The grievance, therefore, in and out of the houfes, 

 is become of a molt ferious nature; there are 

 few parifhes now, that pay leis than five or fix 

 fhiiiings in the pound, upon the rack-rents. In 

 the parifh of Hevingham, where I refide, they are 

 nine millings in the pound ; in the parifh of Bux- 

 ton 



