Labourers' Cottages. 
313 
lace is wretchedly paid for now, and straw-hat liraiding is not so 
lucrative as formerly, but fjood hands when the trade is brisk can 
still earn Ss. per week. The straw costs from 6/. to 10/. a ton ; 
it is sometimes purchased in the neighbourhood, but in adverse 
seasons, when blight prevails, it has to be procured from a con- 
siderable distance. An expert and industrious woman at lace- 
making can rarely earn more than Qd. a day. The wages of agri- 
cultural labourers in Bucks are now 11*. and 12s. a week. The 
pioughboys, who are hired by the year, have from 35. 6c?. to 5s. 
a week, and 20s. to 60s. at Michaelmas. Women's Wages are 
from 8(?. to lOfZ. per day. The prices of task-work vary with 
the locality and season, but the average price of mowing clovers 
is 3s., and of natural grasses 4s. per acre. Hand-hoeing broad- 
cast turnips twice costs 9s. ; when drilled and horse-hoed, from 5s. 
to 6s. Tlie greater part of the corn is bagged or fagged, cut 
with a liook close to the ground, which costs from 9s. to 12s. per 
acre. Towards Aylesbury, however, the wheat is mostly reaped. 
This may cost a little less, but afterwards there is the haulm or 
stubble to cut, which is done for 2s. or 2s. 6c?. an acre, the man 
using a scythe, and heaping the stubble with his leg. The arable 
farmers sell their stubbles to the dairymen for about 6s. an acre, 
tlie purchaser paying for the cutting and carting it away. On 
the Chilterns, and in other parts of the county, barley and other 
spring corns are mown. The corn-ricks, which are mostly rect- 
angular, are very well made, but cannot be compared in neatness 
or beauty to those of Oxfordshire. The hay-ricks in the grass 
grounds are built in a conical shape, taken up gradually to a 
sharp point, and covered at the top with a small portion of well- 
placed thatch. 
Among the many causes which assist in degrading the poor, 
insufficiency of cottage-room, with bad situations and frequently 
high rents, is certainly among the chief. Some wealthy pro- 
prietors seem fully alive to the necessity of providing the poor with 
proper dwellings. At Cheneys and Aston Abbotts some really 
admirable cottages have been lately built. The former is, indeed, 
a beautiful specimen of an English village. The noble old manor- 
house, the church, the school, the elegant, commodious, and well- 
arranged cottages, are all pleasing and useful mementos of tliat 
illustrious family whose honoured dead now sleep peacefully 
in that quiet church. In these cottages comfort has not been 
sacrificed to architectural beauty, and each, having an ample 
garden, is let at a very reasonable rent. At Aston Abbotts 
twelve new cottages are just completed. They are built in groups 
of four each, and are constructed in a most handsome, substantial, 
and convenient manner, at a cost of 160/. each. The noble pro- 
prietor of this estate sets a good example to all owners of the 
