Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/286

 260 grass; these he signified they roasted for food, with a long white root, growing like a parsnip, which they dig up in wet weather.

I have this day dismissed the sawyers, because, in addition to the stipulated price for sawing, they charged 3l. for merely making a saw-pit, and felling a few trees.

I have been obliged to pay 2l. for the woodwork of a pair of harrows; so you see how mechanics may thrive here; they are the sort of people to get on well, or those who have everything within themselves—a self-contained family, as it were, who can do without servants;—the father to plan, the boys to execute, and the girls to cook, wash, and transact all the household affairs—these are the persons calculated for this place; your gentleman will never do, unless he brings out a cheap, steady establishment, a capital to support it, and is willing to employ both himself and them in active labour.

A sad discovery—my rum cask is empty: I shall have to pay 27l. for refilling it; and this will be only one year's supply, even for my small establishment.

With you "grog" means a mixture of spirits and water, in the ratio of one to three, or one to four—no such thing here—it means unmixed ardent spirits. The habits which many of the English peasantry bring with them are ruinous; and every man's expenditure seems to be regulated