I 



LABOURERS' WAGES AND DIET 205 



lands, who had brought up a family of five or six sons and 

 daughters on a wage of ^s. to ']s. a week, and after they were 

 out in the world saved enough to support him in his old age. 

 The majority, however, long before the crushing times of the 

 French War, seem to have been thoroughly demoralized by in- 

 discriminate parish relief, and habitually looked to the parish 

 to maintain them in sickness and old age. Cullum,^ a few years 

 later, remarks on the poor demanding assistance without the 

 scruple and delicacy they used to have, and says ' the present 

 age seems to aim at abolishing all subordination and depen- 

 dence and reducing all ranks as near a level as possible.' ! Idle- 

 ess, drunkenness, and what was then often looked on with 

 disgust and contempt, excessive tea-drinking, were rife. Tea 

 then was very expensive, 8j. or loi". a lb. being an ordinary 

 price, so that the poor had to put up with a very much adul- 

 terated article, most pernicious to health. The immoderate use 

 of this was stated to have worse effects than the immoderate 

 use of spirits. The consumption of it was largely caused by 

 the deficiency of the milk supply, owing to the decrease of 

 small farms ; the large farmers did not retail such small com- 

 modities as milk and butter, but sent them to the towns so 

 that the poor often went without.^ 



In 1767 Young found wages differing according to the 

 distance from London ^ : — 



Giving an average of 7^. gd. which, however, was often 



^ History of Hawsted, p. 169. 



* Hasbach, op. cit. p. 127 ; Kent, Hints to Gentlemen, p. 152. 



' Southern Tour, p. 324. He says nothing of the manufacturing towns, 

 which had not yet begun to influence the wages of farm labourers near 

 them as they soon afterwards did. 



