LABOUR AND HIKINGS 



93 



By the month for hay and harvest season : — 



Male labourers . . . . ;^i 12s. 6d. with victuals. 



Women „ . . . . i6s. to £1 4s. with board. 



By the day for hay and harvest season : — 



Male labourers . . . . is. 4d. to is. lod. with victuals. 



Women „ . . . . 8d. to lod. with victuals. 



Male labourers at other seasons of the year receive is. 4d. to is. 8d., and 

 women labourers 8d. to is. per day. 



Mole catchers receive 3d. an acre where they have not been caught before, 

 2d. and i^d. per acre yearly afterwards. 



A description of a labourer on the west side of the County, as 

 given by himself to a writer in the early years of the century, was : 

 " Till I was wedded I had wrought for my father, and had got clothes 

 when I wanted them. We had always a few sheepskins for breeches, 

 and I used to spin during winter nights. As to money, I never thought 

 anything about it. When I got married, we had just seven shiUings 

 between us, when all was over. That little cottage was empty, and I 

 took it for half a guinea a year, and had some peat moss and a garden 

 with it. Our parents soon supplied us with the necessary furniture, 

 which I thought at that time was exceedingly elegant. I engaged 

 to work the following winter for a neighbouring farmer for sixpence a 

 day and my meat, but to have nothing but meat on wet days. This 

 was an excellent wage at the time. My wife spun flax and I carded 

 and spun wool at nights after work, which she took occasionally to 

 Hawkshead, which was then a noted yam fair." 



At the Whitsuntide hiring in 1817 the rate of wages for the year 

 was, men £10 to £13 and women £3 to £4, " but many were engaged 

 for bare board and lodging." At the hirings on November 14th, 1829, 

 the rates of wages for the half-year were : men £5 to £y, women £2 



to£3- 



The half-yearly wages at the Whitsuntide hirings, in addition to 

 board, lodging and washing, were in : — 



