Edward the Confessor took great delight in Haverley Bower, in Essex,
it being woody, solitary, and fit for devotion; but it so abounded
with warbling nightingales, that they disturbed him in his devotions.
He earnestly prayed for their absence, since which time it is
superstitiously said, never nightingale was heard to sing in the park,
though occasionally the warbler is heard outside the pales.
_Wages_.--In 1352, (25th Edward III.) the wages paid to haymakers was
1d. a-day; a mower of meadows, 3d. a-day, or 5d. an acre; reapers of
corn in the first week of August, 2d., in the second 3d. per day, and
so on till the end of August, without meat, drink, or other allowance;
finding their own tools. For threshing a quarter of wheat or rye,
2-1/2d.; a quarter of barley, beans, peas, and oats, 1-1/2d. A master
carpenter, 3d. per day, other carpenters 2d. A master mason 4d. per
day, other masons 3_d_., and their servants 1-1/2d. per day. Tilers
3d., and their "knaves" 1-1/2d. Thatchers 3d. a-day, and their knaves
1-1/2d. Plasterers, and other workers of mud walls and their knaves
in like manner, without meat or drink, and this from Easter to
Michaelmas; and from that time less, according to the direction of the
justices. T. GILL.
_Literary Quizzing_.--Of all human quizzing, ancient and modern,
plebeian or patrician, nothing equals that now in triumphant practice
in the lists of literature.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67