in the farmer's rent. Wages are paid mostly in kind, and perhaps the best idea I can give of what this means is to quote a statement given by the post-master at Wooler to the Commissioner, as to the value of wages paid in this fashion:—
| Cow (its keep)£ | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| House | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Coals (carrying from the pit) | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Potatoes | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Oats | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Barley | 4 | 16 | 0 |
| Peas | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Wheat | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Stint Money | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| £ | 37 | 1 | 0 |
A hind can, if he prefers it, get paid in cash, but taking all things into consideration he can by this system make from fifteen to eighteen shillings a week.
But there is one great drawback. The hind has to provide a woman to work for his master as required. The hind has to give the "bondager"—for such is the ugly title, evidently a relic of serfdom—yearly wages amounting to £12, 10s., besides food, and lodging, and washing. As he only receives £ for her work, it is clear that he only gets 50s. for her lodging and maintenance all the year round. It frequently happens, however, that the bondager is his own daughter, and this leads to his making a bargain for the labour of his whole family.
To get to Wooler one must go off the line—railways have not penetrated so far—and so I rode across the country on the top of the coach, with the Cheviots full in view. There were only two travellers besides myself, one of whom, though fashionably dressed, quietly informed me that he was a Newcastle policeman going home for a holiday, and that his friends were shepherds.
Wooler is a little town, with one long street branching out into two or three ways at one end. It has a number of inns, but all but two were very small, and none appeared to do any business. It was market-day when I arrived, but the sole additional excitement consisted in the entry about noon of a dozen or twenty
