The Cost of Living 200 Years Ago

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3481, 9 August 1937, Page 2

The Cost of Living 200 Years Ago

"Looking back" is always an entertaining: pastime, and never more so than in the matter of money (writes Kenneth Barwell). Two hundred years ago, for instance, we learn that a "dark-colored cloth suit, trimmed with silver buttons and loops," including two pairs of breeches, cost seventeen guineas; the price of cloth being 18/a yard.

Schooling was comparatively cheap. A certain Mr. Gervase Scrope sent his thirteen-year-old-son "to schoole at Mr. Hesledine's near Union Stars in Wapping, at £26 per annum for his board, without washing, and a guinea a month for learning arithmetick and navigation, and two guineas entrance." The lad was intended for the Navy. When Food Was Cheap.

Meat was exceedingly cheap at this time, and this probably accounts for the low school fees at boarding-schools. A quarter of lamb c«st 1/6, a leg and a saddle of fine mutton 4/7, veal 3Jd. a pound, round of beef 41d., ribs of beef 3d., mutton 2Jd., and pork 3d. Rabbits could be bought for from 6d. to 1/- a pair, but sugar was very dear at 9d. a pound for lump. Soap was also dear at 6d. a pound, and coffee cost 6/- a pound. Good port cost ony 17/- a dozen bottles, and other wines were just as reasonable. Hence, we presume, the of that.age. |pw, as we have so often heard, and in the year 1748 "two days' work done in the gardens at Coleby Hall" cost 1/6, although there are records to show that In the same year laborers were sometimes paid 1/- a day.

Servants were paid £3 to £6 a year; and a washerwoman would be hired for 9d. a day and a charwoman or 4d. a day.; Head gardeners were usually fairly well paid, however, receiving from £l6 to £2O a year from generous employers. Coals were * usually about 17/- a cauldron, and glass was really quite inexpensive. It is recorded that a pane of glass for the window of the best guest-chamber at Coleby Hall cost one shilling. All the same, the windowtax made the luxury of windows an expensive one, £2/17/- being paid every year for that stately Norfolk home.