READING THE NEWS.
Below are given a few years of average prices of farmers' produce in grain:—
AVERAGE PRICES.
Wheat. Barley. Oats.
Year. s. d. s. d. s. d.
1785 43 1 24 9 17 8
1790 54 9 26 3 19 5
1795 75 2 37 5 24 5
1799 69 0 36 2 27 6
1800 113 10 59 10 39 4
1801 119 6 68 6 37 0
1802 69 10 33 4 20 4
1805 89 9 44 6 28 4
1809 97 4 47 0 31 5
1810 106 5 48 1 28 7
1812 126 6 66 9 44 6
The year 1812 was a famine year, but, after this time, prices never rose so high, ranging for wheat from 75s. in 1814, and 96s. in 1817 to 44s. in 1822. Though the landlords took their share and nearly doubled rents between 1790 and 1804, the farmer had reason to remember the good old times if the following story of a Hertfordshire farmer in 1807 be true:—
"A wealthy Hertfordshire farmer not long ago made application to one of the clerks in the Bank of England for the loan of L800, and offered to deposit with him, as a security, a bank note of L10,000, which he then held in his hand! The clerk refused him, saying that such a thing was unusual, at the same time told him he would change it for lesser notes. This, however, did not satisfy the farmer, who still persevered. At his own request he was waited upon by one of the directors, who readily lent him the sum he required; and at the end of eight days he returned, according to his promise, and repaid the money. When he was asked why he had such an attachment to that particular note, he frankly replied, 'Because I have the fellow of it at home!'"
The old style of farmer had the laugh on his side in the matter of balance sheets compared with the farmer of to-day. Here is one under date 1770 for a farm of 300 acres at a rental of L240 (the average rent in this district appears to have been about 12s. to 15s. an acre, but was more than doubled by the end of the century). It was stocked and worked with 10 cows, 150 sheep, 30 oxen, 12 horses, four servants and boys, eight labourers (average L20 a year each), and two maids. In the annual expenditure is put down the modest allowance of L100 for house-keeping of the farmer and his family (exclusive of servants), and the total then comes out at
Year's produce . . . . . . . . . . . L1,599 13 0
Expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . L1,146 0 0
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Profit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . L453 13 0
Trade was not so much an every day affair in those days as now, but persons obtained their supplies in large quantities and on special occasions. In harvest time therefore little was doing at the shops, and the tradesmen in the High Street were accustomed to form themselves into neighbouring groups of four or five, and, taking up their position outside their shops, smoked their pipes, while one of their number would read the news, nearly always coloured at that time by the doings of Napoleon, or the French. About the beginning of the century, Mr. William Henry Andrews, son of the astronomer, as a man having the most talent for reading, was in particular request at these quiet siestas between the intervals of trade.