1831, there were 1O9 families to every 100 houses,[1] and not quite 5 persons to each family.
The general habits of the peasantry are very similar, in most respects, to those of their brethren in the other agricultural districts of the kingdom. They are quiet, remarkably civil, and hospitable; living, principally, in little detached cottages, thatched with straw, overrun with the rose and honeysuckle, and surrounded by a garden stocked with apple and pear trees, but too often deficient of comforts within.
Wages seldom, if ever, exceed 8s. or 9s. a week, and in some of the parishes, I believe, they are as low as 7s. with the daily allowance of two or three quarts of a very poor cider, commonly known here under the provincial appellation of family drink.
Throughout the district, nearly all the females are employed in sewing gloves, at which they used to earn considerable sums; but now they seldom get, on an average, more than from 2s. to 3s. or 3s. 6d. a week; the glovers of Worcester, for all the ordinary kinds, not paying more than 2d. or 3d. per pair for the sewing. For the better sorts, such as white kid, and some others, they pay 4d. per
- ↑ In large towns the number of families, compared with the number of houses, is greater, as might be expected, than in the rural district of Malvern.
In London there are 171 families to every 100 houses. Hull 134 100 Bristol 131 100 England and Wales 117 100
