i64 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



in their proclamation on the plenty of the times and 

 were afraid that for the northern part of the county, which 

 was then very backward, the wages were too liberal. Wheat 

 was, unfortunately, that year 46s. i^. a quarter, but a few 

 years before and after that date it was cheap — 20s., 24s., 

 28s. a quarter — and fresh meat was only 3^. a lb., so that 

 their wages went a long way.^ A considerable portion of 

 the wages was paid in kind, not only in drink but in food, 

 though this custom became less frequent as the century 

 went on.^ 



As for his food, Eden tells us^ that the diet of Bedford 

 workhouse in 1730 was much better than that of the most 

 industrious labourer in his own home, and this was the diet : 

 bread and cheese or broth for breakfast, boiled beef hot or 

 cold, sometimes with suet pudding for dinner, and bread and 

 cheese or broth for supper. This must have been sufficiently 

 monotonous, and we may be sure the labourer at home very 

 seldom had boiled beef for dinner ; but in the north he was 

 much cleverer than his southern brother in cooking cereal 

 foods such as oatmeal porridge, crowdie (also of oatmeal), 

 frumenty or barley milk, barley broth, &c.^ 



The village of the first half of the eighteenth century 

 contained a much better graded society than the village of 

 to-day. It had few gaps, so that there was a ladder from 

 the lowest to the highest ranks, owing to the existence of 

 many small holders of various degree, soon to be diminished 

 by enclosure and consolidation.^ 



There was a great increase in the number of live stock 

 owing to the spread, gradual though it was, of roots and 

 clover, which increased the winter food ; ' of late years/ it was 

 said in 1739, 'there have been improvements made in the 

 breed of sheep by changing of rams, and sowing of turnips, 



' In Herefordshire at this time it was l|^. per lb, 



2 Hasbach, op. cit. p. 86. ^ Eden, op, cit. i. 286. 



* Ibid. i. 498. ** Hasbach, op. cit. p. 71. 



