INTRODUCTION 23 



years. The wages of farm servants with victuals are from (Jo to £10, 

 and of maid servants ^^3 to £4 per year. Common labourers receive 

 I2d. in summer and 8d. in winter with victuals per day — and men 

 hiring for the month in hay harvest receive from £2 to £3, women 

 16/- to £1 7/-, and boys 12/- to £1 4/-, all with victuals and drink ; 

 after the harvest is over they all betake themselves to knitting, by 

 which they earn from 5/- to 6/- per week. The number of poor 

 for the year (1800) upon the roll was 156, and the sum expended 

 upon their relief upwards of £500 ; on an average they received 1/3 

 each per week. Three pence per pound, according to valuation, is 

 paid annually out of all landed property as a modus or prescription 

 for making and repairing the roads. 



There are not more than 100 acres of corn in the valley, and 

 but very few potatoes are grown; " they neither dig nor plough 

 the ground for potatoes ; but having placed upon it the intended 

 manure, plant the potatoes and spread over them a light covering 

 of soil." Only two or three families grow potatoes, the rest buy them 

 from Appleby at a cost of gd. per Winchester peck — but during the 

 past winter they sold for 6/- per Winchester bushel. Those that 

 grow corn grow three or four crops of oats in succession and then leave 

 the land to itself. The excellent pasture land will sufficiently fatten 

 a cow for market in five or six months, and twenty yards of well-got 

 hay without com or anything else will answer the same purpose in 

 winter — the great price of fat cattle in recent years has made the 

 graziers' business very lucrative, and some have been sold for upwards 

 of 30 guineas each — the profit generally being from £8 to £9 for summer 

 fattening. About 500 sheep pasture on the inclosed lands and 

 10,170 upon the commons ; when fat they make from 10 to 14 lbs. 

 a quarter. They are the long Scotch sheep, and four fleeces would 

 make a stone. Ravenstonedale produced excellent butter and cheese, 

 " in most counties they wash their butter with water, but here they 

 do not, and butter of a more excellent taste and flavour cannot 

 be obtained." In the parish there are about 180 horses of all descrip- 

 tions. One person had sown a small field of turnips, the most that had 

 ever been grown in the valley. The cost of coals, which had to be 

 brought from the Stainmore Pits 18 miles away, was 5/6 per cart- 

 load, which equals 25 pecks of coal, and a peck equals 16 quarts 



