368 
Ixle of WigM. 
down country, they have been found to bear heavily on the horses' 
backs, and have, after a trial of three or four years' together, been 
given up for waggons. The drill is not universally used : " I 
lost a crop of turnips by waiting for it once," said a farmer to me, 
Newport is the market for the whole island : every Saturdav 
for corn and store animals, every alternate Wednesday for fat 
stock. The Whitsuntide fair there has become a mere toy fair. 
The labourer throughout the island is Avell paid, and not over- 
worked. The ordinary labourer has lis. a- week ; carter and 
shepherd 1,9. more, with fuel found : 6/. is given for the harvest 
month, or the wages are continued at that rate, if the harvest last 
longer. Generally ?>d. an hour is paid for all overtime. Through- 
out the year the labourer earns 15^. per week. Is. 6rf. more than 
he has on the mainland. The ploughman in the Island takes out 
his team at seven o'clock in the morning, and hitches off at one 
in the afternoon : on the mainland he is two hours more in the 
field. And yet, though the Island pay is higher, and the work 
less, it would be a mistake, as far as my observation goes, to say 
the laliourer there is the better servant. 
There used to be a practice, almost universal, of boarding and 
lodging the unmarried workmen in the farmer's residence. I 
saw, with pleasure, this winter, in a fine old manor house, the 
master, his family, and his young men, dining, with certain 
distinctions indeed as to the position of their tables, but in the 
same hall and at the same time. It seemed like a revival of the 
good old times ; but it was really here a continuance of them, 
the practice had never been intermitted. No doubt to it was 
owing much of that personal attachment between master and man, 
of that deference and respect to superiors, of good morals and 
manners, the loss of which is justly regretted by those whose 
memories linger in the past. Modern habits of society are, how- 
ever, unhappily incompatible with this beneficial intercourse, and 
the practice is dying out.* 
* The introduction of tlie "privy parlor," or speaking room, in the end of the 
fourteenth century, effected the same change in the manners of the higher ranks 
of society. To this retreat the baron would retire, indulge in some of the comforts 
of a home, and avoid the noisy publicity of the common hall ; where his ancestors 
had. for generations, presided at the dais with their retainers lining the walls on 
both sides. This innovation on ancient usage did not pass unrebuked by the 
moralists, and rulers of the day. Piers Ploughman denounces the growing 
practice, as effeminate and luxurious. The wise and benevolent Bishop Grosteste 
advised all masters that they " ete in the halle afore youre meyn," for their 
honour and worship's sake. Royal ordinances required that " setiynge in the 
halle be kept after the old custome," and denounced " sondrie nobilmen, gentle- 
men, and others who doe much delighte and use to dine in corners and secret 
places, not repairing to the high chamber." — (' Our English Home,' Messrs. Parker.) 
This good advice availed nothing. The domestic privacy of the parlour has 
proved too seductive, in the halls, both of the baron and the farmer. 
