outbreak occurred in 1747.  It is well known that farmers are always grumblers, probably with an eye to the rent; but even in these much praised times they apparently made small profits.  The west country farmer quoted before, who had been fifty years on the same estate, and writes with the stamp of sincerity, admits in 1737 that ’with all the skill and diligence in the world he can hardly keep the cart upon the wheels.  Wool had gone down, wheat didn’t pay and graziers were doing badly; tho’ formerly our cattle and wool was always a sure card’.  He says that the profits of grazing were reckoned at one-third of the improvement that ensued from the grazing, but the grazier was not now getting this.  He attributed much of the distress, however, to the extravagance of the times.  Landlords, including his own, preferred London to the country, and spent their money there.  How different was the behaviour of his landlord’s grandfather.  ’Many a time would his worship send for me to go a-hunting or shooting with him; often would he take me with him on his visits and would introduce me as his friend.  The country gentlewoman and the parson’s wife, that used to stitch for themselves, are now so hurried with dressings and visits and other attractions that they hire an Abigail to do it.’

He thought, too, the labourers were getting too high wages; ’they are so puffed up by our provender as to offer us their heels and threaten on any occasion to leave us to do our work ourselves.’  One would like to hear the labourers’ opinion on this point, but they were dumb.  In spite of higher wages the young men and young women flocked to the cities, and those who remain were lazy and extravagant, even the country wenches contending about ’double caps, huge petticoats, clock stockings, and other trumpery’.[427]

The bounty now paid on the export of wheat was naturally resented by the common people, as it raised the price of their bread.  In 1737 a load belonging to Farmer Waters of Burford, travelling along the road to Redbridge for exportation, was stopped near White parish by a crowd of people who knocked down the leading horse, broke the wagon in pieces, cut the sacks, and strewed about the corn, with threats that they would do the like to all who sold wheat to export.[428] While England was paying farmers to export wheat she was also importing, though in plentiful years importers had a very bad time.  In 1730 there were lying at Liverpool 33,000 windles (a windle—­220 lb.) of imported corn, unsaleable owing to the great crop in England.[429] The year 1740 was distinguished by one of the severest winters on record.  From January 1 to February 5 the thermometer seldom reached 32 deg., and the cold was so intense that hens and ducks, even cattle in their stalls died of it, trees were split asunder, crows and other birds fell to the ground frozen in their flight.  This extraordinary winter was followed by a cold and late spring; no verdure had appeared by May; in July it was still cold, and thousands of acres of turnips rotted in the ground.  Among minor misfortunes may be noticed the swarms of grasshoppers who devastated the pastures near Bristol at the end of August 1742,[430] and the swarms of locusts who came to England in 1748 and consumed the vegetables.[431]