Household Administration Part 10

[33] Eddy, "English House," p. 133.

[34] England at that time possessed her own vineyards, _e.g._ near Gloucester, and produced white wine.

[35] Rules of S. Robert as given in "Walter of Henley," p. 145.

[36] Broth in which the meat had been boiled.

[37] Pepper.

[38] Stiff.

[39] "Meals and Manners of the Olden Time," p. 164.

[40] Kind of sauce.

[41] Pork, eggs, cloves, currants, dates, sugar boiled in a bladder, cut into strips and served with hot rich sauce.

[42] A soteltie was an elaborate confection of pastry painted or adorned with paper to represent a saint or a figure of spring, summer, &c.

[43] Spiced wine.

[44] Panter and pantry, from pain.

[45] Butler = bottler.

[46] Rules of S. Robert in "Walter of Henley," pp. 138-140, _pa.s.sim._

[47] Webb, "Essay on Gloucester Abbey," p. 13.

[48] "Meals and Manners," p. 74.

[49] _Libes Niges Domus_, p. 65.

[50] Gasquet, "English Monastic Life," p. 211.

[51] The maintenance of a large retinue was one of the easiest ways available for indicating the possession of surplus wealth. This fact, coupled with the almost absurd over-elaboration of the details of serving, incline me to believe that in the mediaeval castle servants were numerous and not overworked.

[52] Riley, "Memorials of London," p. 48.

[53] Riley, "Memorials of London," p. 199. There is, unfortunately, no indication of the social standing of this felon, Hugh le Bevere by name. The list of clothes suggests that he was fairly well-to-do, in which case his equipment of cooking and table utensils is certainly meagre. It is curious that pottery is not mentioned; it can hardly be urged that although in use it was too unimportant for a place in the inventory, since room is found for one small canvas bag, value 1d.

[54] Hence the name convertible husbandry.

[55] This is, of course, a very summary statement of changes which it took centuries to bring about. On the one hand, money economy existed in the mediaeval town; on the other, subsistence farming continued in England to some extent until within a hundred years ago. Yet it is roughly true that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries production for the market and not for use markedly and suddenly increased.

[56] By an Act of 1589, it was ordained that four acres of land should be attached to every cottage. _Cf._ Hasbach. "English Agricultural Labourer," p. 40.

[57] See Cunningham, "English Industry and Commerce," vol. ii. p. 40 (4th ed.).

[58] Poultry.

[59] "Description of England," p. 238 _ff._

[60] _Op. cit._, vol. i. p. 150.

[61] Pickled pork.

[62] This cla.s.s is never described by him.

[63] See Cunningham, ii. p. 78, "Issue of Patents for making Soap and Vinegar."

[64] _e.g._ Slater, "English Peasantry and the Enclosure of the Common Fields." Hasbach, "History of the English Agricultural Labourer." Toynbee, "The Industrial Revolution." Hobson, "Evolution of Capitalism."

[65] [Near Halifax]. "After we had mounted the third hill, we found the country one continuous village ... hardly a House standing out of speaking distance from another, and as the day wore on we could see at every House a tenter, and on almost every tenter a Piece of Cloth, Kersey or Shalloon, which are the three articles of this country's labour.... Then as every clothier must necessarily keep one horse at least to fetch home his wool and his provisions from the market, to carry his yarn to the spinners, his Manufacture to the fulling mill, and when finished to the market to be sold and the like; so every one generally keeps a cow or two for his Family.... Nor is the industry of the people wanting.... Though we met few People without Doors, yet within we saw the Houses full of l.u.s.ty fellows, some at the dye-vat, some at the loom, others dressing the cloths, the women and children carding or spinning. All employed from the youngest to the oldest. Scarce a thing above four years old, but its hands were sufficient for its own support." Defoe, "Tour through Great Britain" (1769), vol. iii. p. 146.

[66] "The increase of urban areas can be gathered from the Census Reports. In 1851 ... the population of such areas amounted approximately to 9,000,000, or 50 per cent. of the total population of England and Wales; by 1881 the population of urban sanitary areas, as defined by the Public Health Acts, 1872 and 1875, was 17,600,000, or 68 per cent. of the aggregate population; by 1901 ... the population of boroughs and urban districts amounted to 25,000,000, or 77 per cent. of the aggregate population."--Blue Book on Public Health and Social Conditions, p. 6 [Cd. 4671 of 1909].

[67] It should be noted, too, that the advantages of the large-scale method of production are greatly diminished by the dangers of adulteration. _Cf._ p. 177.

[68] In the absence of an efficient system of police, it probably was not safe for women to walk or travel alone. In the security provided for us by paved and lighted streets, guarded by trained constables, and in the complete safety of modern methods of travelling, some of us are apt now to forget these elementary considerations, once of supreme importance.

[69] For the whole subject, see Hutchins and Harrison, "History of Factory Legislation."

[70] In "Educated Working Women," by Clara E. Collet, 1902. Miss Collet says: "Were statistics available it might perhaps be shown that the unmarried women are to a large extent the daughters of clerks and professional men.... Emigration is probably more frequent in the salaried cla.s.s; and where the sons are obliged to emigrate, it frequently happens that the daughters have to work for their living. In this cla.s.s I believe the inequality of the s.e.xes is greatest and the chances of marriage least" (pp.

37-38).

[71] P. 171.

[72] I cannot refrain at this point from inserting the following quotations from "Shirley" (chapter xxii.). Charlotte Bronte's genius illumined the situation of many girls even in her time, and of a larger number since. Caroline is speaking. "Old maids, like the houseless and unemployed poor, should not ask for a place and an occupation in the world; the demand disturbs the happy and rich; it disturbs parents. Look at the numerous families of girls in this neighbourhood. The brothers of these girls are every one in business or in professions ... their sisters have no earthly employment but household work and sewing.... Men of England! look at your poor girls, many of them fading around you, dropping off in consumption or decline; or, what is worse, degenerating to sour old maids, envious, backbiting, wretched, because life is a desert to them; or, what is worst of all, reduced to strive, by scarce modest coquetry and debasing artifice, to gain that position and consideration by marriage which to celibacy is denied."

[73] I am not suggesting here that the pioneers of women's higher education were wrong in the att.i.tude they adopted. To win for women intellectual freedom was the most important duty for them, and that could only be achieved by women submitting to the same intellectual tests as men. But the problems which call for solution by their successors of a later generation have a.s.sumed a new form.

[74] See Raymond Unwin, "Housing and Town-Planning."

[75] In June 1908, the value of the property of the various tenants'

companies was only a little short of a quarter of a million pounds, and their operations have since then been extended in various directions.

[76] For comparison:--

Number of Occupation. Persons Employed.

Agriculture 1,197,922 Textile fabrics 1,155,397 Professional occupations 606,260

[77] Owing to a change in the system of enumeration which alters the basis of comparison, the year 1891 cannot be used in our calculations.

[78] The competent single-handed maid is meant here, not the little "slavey" who a.s.sists her mistress in the rougher part only of the work.

[79] A further inquiry is needed into this matter. I am not at all clear whether servants are derived from the cla.s.s of the fairly prosperous artisan or from the unskilled labouring cla.s.s.