Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/314

 and paid at the rate of £4 to £7 a year. It seems little enough to us to-day, but Defoe complains bitterly of the difficulty of getting female servants and of the high wages they expect In past years content with 30s. a year, they now demanded £6, and he suggests a fixed wage to counteract the tendency to rise to an impossible £20! It is interesting to note that the commission system, so much deplored to-day, was in full swing at this time. Cooks received from tradesmen a percentage on everything supplied to the house, thereby nearly doubling their wages. Here is a page from an old eighteenth-century account-book kept by a country squire. Wages for the whole year were paid on Lady Day:—"Sarah" receives £4 19s.; "Old Becky," £1; "Anne," £2; "Nanny," 5 guineas; "Cook," 7 guineas; Gardener, £2 7s.; "Bray the waggoner," £9; "Betty," £6.

Complaints as to the worry and inefficiency of servants are by no means confined to the present day, though through the ages faithful and devoted service is ever on record. "I think it is the duty," says a current number of the eighteenth-century Times "of every good master and mistress to stop as much as possible the present ridiculous and