Running my eye accidentally through the household book of Sir Roger
Twysden, from 1659 to 1670, it occurred to me to make a comparison
between the relative prices of meat and wages, as there given, in
order to ascertain the position of our peasantry in these parts, at
the close of the 17th century. I send you a few extracts, by which
it will be seen that, in Kent, at least, our agricultural labourers
appear to have been in far better condition than those of the rest
of England, who, in Mr. Macaulay's brilliant work, are represented
as living "almost entirely on rye, barley, and oats," owing to the
exorbitantly high price of meat, as compared with the ordinary scale
of wages.