SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



let an industrious labourer work his hardest at piece-work. He would do 

 more than they could afford." 



Again, farmers did all they could to prevent a settlement being established 

 by their labourers in the parish, and so the old custom of hiring by the year 

 and boarding in had disappeared in many parts of the county. With regard 

 to the industry and skill of the labourers, the reports from the majority of 

 parishes complained of a great falling off, but the reasons given are not all 

 identical. In the Chilterns, as a whole, there was little difference in point of 

 skill ; Farnham Royal was the one instance where it was increasing, but 

 throughout the district drunkenness was a new and growing difficulty." 1 



At Bledlow the labourers were said to have less energy in their work 

 and to give less time to it, but that the wages too were less ; their actual 

 efficiency was, however, much the same. Elsewhere the unprofitable 

 employment of men in gangs, or as roundsmen, was the chief cause of the 

 decrease in the quality of labour. The wages were extremely low, 2 " and no 

 superintendence was exercised over the gangs of workmen, hence there was 

 no check upon idleness. A labourer said to Sir H. Verney, ' I had much 

 rather have parish work which does not exhaust my strength than farmer's 

 work and another shilling a week.' 



At Steeple Claydon the causes of deterioration were summed up as the 

 round system, low wages, want of constant employment, and worse food, since 

 the labourers were no longer boarded in their masters' houses. 



Another evil which arose from the poor relief was the habit of changing 

 masters, but it was generally due to the farmers, who did not wish to hire a 

 man for a long period." 3 On the other hand, men had no fear of want by 

 leaving a place, since the parish gave them as much whether they worked 

 hard or not, and by working for the parish there was more time for working 

 in their gardens, &c. 



The two cases at Burnham and Leckhampstead, where the best labourers 

 were employed on the same farms all the year round, and some of them at 

 the same farm for many years, were but rare exceptions, the majority of 

 farmers employing men sent to them at the choice of the overseers of the 

 poor. 



In the parishes making returns to the commissioners in 1832, which 

 were situated in the southern part of the county, there had been practically 

 no riots at all ; but in the neighbourhood of Wycombe and Colnbrook "* the 

 disturbances had been serious. The paper mills in the valleys of the Wye 

 and the Colne were burnt down, and many men were convicted of riot and 

 arson, and suffered imprisonment or transportation. At Adstock, Bledlow, 

 Steeple Claydon, Oving, Sherington, and Turville, the disturbances were 

 attributed to want of employment, low wages, and the poor laws. At 

 Turville the rising was due to ' distress driving to desperation,' and only at 

 Oving was there a suggestion that new machinery was unpopular. The 



" But compare note on Upton-cum-Chalvey. 



nl Beer-shops had sprung up in out-of-the-way comers, and are specially mentioned at Denham, Fawley, 

 and Taplow. 



m At Whitchurch and Oving the wages at the stone-pits were $J. a day. 



"' At Sherington, owing to the labour-assessment system, a farmer could not be certain of having the men 

 whom he would have been willing to employ for a long period sent to him by the overseen. A worse 

 workman might suddenly be substituted. 



" J. K. Fowler, Recoil, of Old Country Lift. 



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