18 ABUNDANCE OF EMPLOY. 
ed from its effects ; the severe coughs attending the 
spring of 1826 afflicted grievously most individuals in 
every house ; and the measles, which prevailed so great- 
ly at the same season, visited every cottage, though 
built upon the very limestone rock. 
This village and its neighboring parishes, by reason 
of the peculiar culture carried on in them, and the 
natural production of the district, afford the most ample 
employment for their laboring inhabitants ; nor perhaps 
could any portion of the kingdom, neither possessing 
mineral riches, manufactories, or mills, nor situate in 
the immediate vicinity of a great town, be found to af- 
ford superior demand for the labor, healthy employment, 
and reasonable toil of its population. Our lime-kilns 
engage throughout the year several persons ; this is, 
perhaps, our most laborious employ ; though its returns 
are considered as fair. In our culture, after all the va- 
rious business of the farms, comes the potato-setting ; 
nor is this finished wholly before haymaking com- 
mences. Teaseling succeeds ; the corn harvest comes 
on, followed shortly by the requirements of the potato 
again, and the digging out and securing this requires 
the labor of multitudes until the very verge of winter. 
Then comes our employment for this dark season of the 
year, the breaking of our limestone for the use of the 
roads, of which we afford a large supply to less favored 
districts. This material is not to be sought for in dis- 
tant places, or of difficult attainment, but to be found 
almost at the very doors of the cottages; and old men, 
women, and children can obtain a comfortable mainte- 
nance by it without any great exertion of strength, or 
protraction of labor. The rough material costs nothing : 
a short pickax to detach the stone, and a hammer to 
break it, are all the tools required. A man or healthy 
woman can easily supply about a ton in the day ; a child 
that goes on steadily, about one-third of this quantity ; 
and as we give one shilling for a ton, a man, his wife, 
and two tolerable-sized children, can obtain from 
2s. 8 d. to 3s. per day by this employ, the greater part 
of the winter; and should the weather be bad, they 
can work at intervals, and various broken hours, and 
