y hit the parish badly, and dozens of men were out of work
here--the railway-company suddenly stopped this train, and consternation
spread through the village at the prospect of forty more being added to
the numbers of its unemployed.

Reviewing the figures, and making allowance for short time due to bad
weather, public holidays, sickness, and so on, it may be estimated that
even when trade is good the average weekly wage earned by one of the
village men at his recognized work is something under seventeen
shillings. This, however, does not constitute quite the whole income of
the family. In most cases the man's wages are supplemented by small and
uncertain sums derived from the work of women and children, and from odd
jobs done in the evenings, and from extra earnings in particular
seasons.

Field-work still employs a few women, although every year their numbers
decrease. It is miserably paid at a shilling a day, or in some cases on
piece-work terms which hardly work out at a higher figure. Piecework,
for instance, was customary in the hop-gardens (now rapidly
disappearing), where the women cut the bines and "tied" or "trained" the
hops at so much per acre, providing their own rushes for the tying. At
haymaking and at harvesting there is work for women; and again in the
hop-gardens, when the picking is over, women are useful at clearing up
the bines. They can earn money, too, at trimming swedes, picking up
newly-dug potatoes, and so on; but when all is said, there are not many
of them who can find work to do in the fields all the year round. At the
best, bad weather often interrupts them, and the stress and hardships of
the work, not to mention other drawbacks, make the small earnings from
it a doubtful blessing.

A considerable number of women formerly eked out the family income by
taking in washing for people in the town. Several properly equipped
laundries have of late years greatly reduced this employment, but it
still occupies a few. The difficulties of carrying it on are
considerable, apart from the discomforts of it in a small cottage.
Unless a woman has a donkey and cart, it is hard for her to get the
washing from her customers' homes and carry it back again. Of the amount
that can be earned at the work by a married woman, with husband and
children to do for, I have no knowledge.

Charwomen, more in demand than ever as the residential character of the
place grows more pronounced, earn latterly as much as two