In 1767 Young found wages differing according to the distance from London[465]:—
| s. | d. | |||
| 20 miles | from London they were per week | 10 | 9 | |
| From | 20 to 60 | " " " | 7 | 8 |
| " | 60 to 110 | " " " | 6 | 4 |
| " | 110 to 170 | " " " | 6 | 3 |
Giving an average of 7s. 9d. which, however, was often exceeded as there was much piece-work which enabled the men to earn more.
Young drew up a dietary for a labourer, his wife, and a family of three children, which he declared to be sufficient:—
| £ | s. | d. | |
| Food, 6s. per week[466]; per year | 15 | 12 | 0 |
| Rent | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| Clothes | 2 | 10 | 0 |
| Soap and candles | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Loss of time through illness, and medicine | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Fuel | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| ————— | |||
| £23 | 17 | 0 | |
| ========= | |||
£ | s. | d. | |
| The man's wages were, @ 1s. 3d. a day, for the year | 19 | 10 | 0 |
| The woman's, @ 33/4 d. a day, for the year | 4 | 17 | 6 |
| The boy of fifteen could earn | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| The boy of ten could earn | 4 | 7 | 6 |
| ————— | |||
| £37 | 15 | 0 | |
| ========= | |||
Which would give the family a surplus of £13 18s. 0d. a year.
What the man's food should consist of is shown by a list of 'seven days' messes for a stout man':—
| s. | d. | ||
| 1st day. | 2 lb. of bread made of wheat, rye, and potatoes—'no bread exceeds it' | 2 | |
| Cheese, 2 oz. @ 4d. a lb | 1/2 | ||
| Beer, 2 quarts | 1 | ||
| 2nd day. | Three messes of soup | 2 | |
| 3rd day. | Rice pudding | 21/2 | |
| 4th day. | 1/4 lb. of fat meat and potatoes baked together | 23/4 | |
| Beer | 1 | ||
| 5th day. | Rice milk | 2 | |
| 6th day. | Same as first day | 31/2 | |
| 7th day. | Potatoes, fat meat, cheese, and beer | 4 | |
| ———— | |||
| 1 | 91/4 | ||
| ======== | |||
As Young was a man of large practical experience we may assume that this, though it seems a very insufficient diet, was not unlike the food of some labourers at that date. However, the bread he recommends was not that eaten by a large number of them. Eden[467] states that in 1764 about half the people of England were estimated to be using wheaten bread, and at the end of the century, although prices had risen greatly, he says that in the Home Counties wheaten bread was universal among the peasant class. Young, indeed, acknowledges that many insisted on wheaten bread.[468] In Suffolk, according to Cullum,[469] pork and bacon were the labourer's delicacies, bread and cheese his ordinary diet.
The north of England was more thrifty than the south. At the end of the eighteenth century barley and oaten bread were much used there. Lancashire people fed largely on oat bread, leavened and unleavened; the 33rd Regiment, which went by the name of the 'Havercake lads', was usually recruited from the West Riding where oat bread was in common use, and was famous for having fine men in its ranks.[470] The labourers of the north were also noted for their skill in making soups in which barley was an important ingredient. In many of the southern counties tea was drunk at breakfast, dinner, and supper by the poor, often without milk or sugar; but alcoholic liquors were also consumed in great quantities, the southerner apparently always drinking a considerable amount, the northerner at rare intervals drinking deep. The drinking in cider counties seems always to have been worse as far as quantity goes than elsewhere, and the drink bills on farms were enormous. Marshall says that in Gloucestershire drinking a gallon 'bottle', generally a little wooden barrel, at a draught was no uncommon feat; and in the Vale of Evesham a labourer who wanted to be even with his master for short payment emptied a two-gallon bottle without taking it from his lips. Even this feat was excelled by 'four well-seasoned yeomen, who resolved to have a fresh hogshead tapped, and setting foot to foot emptied it at one sitting.'[471] Yet in the beer-drinking counties great quantities were consumed; a gallon a day per man all the year round being no uncommon allowance.[472]