Social Classes of Wales in the 1800s
"In the past hundred years there has been a very wide and marked alteration in the social aspect of Wales..."
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From Glimpses of Welsh Life and Character by Marie Trevelyan, 1893.
In the past hundred years there has been a very wide and marked alteration in the social aspect of Wales.
An old diarist of that period attributed the social changes to the "exorbitant practice of tea-drinking, which has corrupted the morals of people of every rank!”
In former times there was but the slightest difference between the landlord and tenant, the served and server, the rich and the poor. There was then to all appearance a freer mingling of the classes less separation between the degrees of social rank which made up the rural community. An old Welsh adage illustrative of the relationship that formerly existed between the employer and employed runs thus:
"Uncle and aunt and broth,
Master and mistress and tea."
In those broth-days a bond of friendship and unity existed between all classes, and it was nothing unusual to see the wealthy landlord and poor tenant riding abreast to market, and sitting down at the same "market ordinary." It sometimes happened that the poor tenant was a more intelligent man than the landlord, in which case the latter always gave him the fullest credit. Men of money were duly respected, and men with intellect received honour.
"Money makes the mare to go," said a poor Welshman to a rich neighbour." "Ay, ay boy! but it's manners make the man!" was the reply.
Talent then received ample recognition, and not a few clever but poor men were to be found in Wales. A notable instance of the social feeling formerly prevalent in the country was the life of Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name, Iolo Morganwg or Glamorgan. He was a self-taught mason, a learned antiquary, and a somewhat erratic and credulous genius; but the doors of the castle and mansion were alike opened to him. Travelling through the country in search of antiquarian lore, he met with all classes and conditions of the community, and he amply testified to the unity and hospitality of the people.
In those days the nobleman recognised worth and wit, genius and talent; and it was then only necessary for a man to prove himself to be of Welsh ancestry and birth, in order to gain access to the best society in the Principality. Now even a Welshman is obliged to present his credentials before he can enter the ranks of middle class families, not to mention the county aristocracy and gentry. Wealthy merchants and strangers are gradually buying up the ancient estates of the old families, and slowly but surely Wales has been losing its individuality, especially in the large towns.
Another marked alteration due perhaps to the introduction of tea! in the social condition of Wales, is that which exists between the served and the server. Love and affection, those once all-powerful ties between master and man, mistress and maid, no longer exist. Personal attachment has almost ceased to be felt at all, and money is the sole consideration in a market where the demand continually increases, and the supply falls off. The good old days of long and faithful servitude have passed away, except in very remote parts of the country.
In the old times, the servant never thought of closing the service excepting by marriage or death. An aged Welshman said, "I have often visited families where the servants have lived to their eightieth year, and never served any other person. One old woman had been seventy years in the same situation, and at the age of ninety she would affectionately speak of her employer as "the young mistress," when she had passed her seventieth year. But then, the good old dame had nursed her!"
Still in some of the lonely rural districts aged servants are to be seen. They are the last of a class that soon will be gone. Patient, hardy, serving women were they the servants of all work. They were always up with the lark, singing over their work during the day, and at night ready for a romp with the children. Pleasant household creatures they were too. They seemed a part of the house and family; and they scarcely ever went from home from one year's end to the other, only to do a little shopping in May or November, and to church or chapel on Sunday evenings. They never left "for good," only to get married or to be buried, and if they went away to the sound of wedding bells, it was always in a shower of tears.
Masters and mistresses at that time had "the pick" of the boys and girls of the labouring classes. There were then no recruiting-sergeants, like gay plumaged birds to decoy lads into the army; no "young lady for the showroom" needed; no drapery assistants wanted, and there was no State education to interfere with them. In most cases it was a choice between domestic service out, or hard work with great privation at home. But of course servitude a hundred years ago had its disadvantages. Wages were very low—too small for the work done and the domestic drudge could not read or write.
From entries made in 1709, we find that the salaries of female servants in gentlemen's families were not more than two pounds a year! Three pounds a year for a manservant, and two pounds a year for women, with sixteen shillings a year for girls, were considered very good wages! Fifty years later there was a rise of five shillings! In 1800, a Welsh cook would go to London for ten pounds a year, and consider herself "made for life."
During the last fifty years, wages have gone rapidly up, but even now in country places five pounds a year for a general servant are considered quite enough. The servants of small farmers do not get more than about three or four pounds a year, and they have to work very hard for that. May is still the hiring month for servants in the Principality, only in the towns the monthly system has been introduced as in England. In a great number of the smaller farmhouses the servants sit at the same table with the master and mistress, and, if when the daughter of a farmer gets married, she introduces the new custom of dining before her maid dines, she is regarded as being very "proud," for which reason the Welsh are exceedingly slow in following any English innovation. They may feel very proud, but do not like to be thought so.
There have been many other social changes in Wales during the past fifty years. Before the introduction of the penny postage in 1840, women chiefly carried the letters to the nearest town twice a week in times of peace, and thrice in times of war. Three pence was charged for each letter or paper, which, with the carriage, would often cost fourteen or fifteen pence. In some of the distant hamlets, the post is still carried by boys; and if anybody wishes to send a reply "by return," he 'must write quickly while the messenger goes to the last house in the place, where a number of people who live beyond the reach of postal delivery come to "fetch the letters." The lad is not supposed to wait for letters, but will do so for ten or fifteen minutes, for the sake of getting a "tip," and it is often better to pay a trifle than have perhaps to walk two or more miles to post, especially in the rainy weather, or during the severe winter months.
Newspapers are now to be had daily, even in the small towns, but only weekly away in the villages and hamlets. In the past they were regularly taken by the county nobility and gentry, who sometimes allowed their favourites among the middle classes to have the loan of them. The poorer classes, clubbing together, subscribed for the papers. In one part of the Vale, an old man, best known by his sobriquet of "Jack the Tailor," regularly took the papers to which the people subscribed. Jack's house was called the local Parliament, and therein the Whigs and Tories of those days congregated. The old man was a splendid reader, to whom the illiterate paid the greatest possible attention, alternately expressing praise and fierce denunciation.
Jack was very mischievous too. He would frequently read the Tory paper to the Whigs, who, not being always up to the tricks of the reader, would go away highly enraged, and firmly convinced that the party they favoured had become turncoats. Then when the Tories came in, Jack would proceed to read the Whig paper, to the intense irritation of the opposite party. Weeks would sometimes elapse before the people found out the trick that had been played upon them. Jack loved an occasional uproar, and laughed in his sleeves when the Whigs and Tories abused their own parties.
Next time Jack would change the papers, and the Parliament was once more peaceful.
Jack was the letter-writer for the poor of his district, and in a small way an accountant.
Trevelyan, Marie. Glimpses of Welsh Life and Character. J. Hogg, 1893.
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