LIVING-IN 249 



The tenant sold milk and butter; he also raised 

 calves to sell as milkers, and again bought in Irish 

 cattle to fatten off, but on the whole he considered 

 he made most of his rent out of his sheep. He was 

 tenant of an adjacent salt marsh, a piece of land that 

 had once been reclaimed, but which through the 

 breach of the enclosing wall was flooded at high 

 tides a few times a year. This salt marsh not only 

 provided keep, but was free from the parasitic diseases 

 which so generally affect sheep, so that his stock 

 remained very healthy and did not need to be sent 

 away to winter. He made it his business to sell 

 fat lambs, the ewe flock being composed of hill sheep 

 Herd wicks, etc. and the rams of the old Leicester 

 breed. Such lambs as did not come to sale in the 

 first summer were wintered and then fattened. The 

 tenant also bred several heavy horses each year, but 

 was, if anything, rather inclined to the Clydesdale 

 instead of the Shire. 



From the tenant we got some information about 

 labour, which, as is usual in the North, had to be 

 well paid. He worked mainly with single men 

 boarded in his own house and receiving 30 a year, 

 and supplemented them with casual labour hired from 

 the coast villages, where many men are half fishermen 

 and half farm labourers, paying them by the piece. 

 But he wanted to get rid of the men living-in ; the 

 quality of the food appeared to be a continual source 

 of dispute, and the managing, cooking, washing, etc., 

 made their presence a great burden on the wife. 



The rent of this fine reclaimed land averaged about 

 253. per acre, though part of the holding was without 

 any buildings ; but even taking this into account we 

 could not help feeling that he was occupying some 

 of the cheapest land in England. It was evidently 



