Sir Robert Walpole, who was then Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and afterwards Prime Minister for the long period of
twenty-two years, was strongly opposed to the South Sea Scheme, and
when, ten years later, he exposed it, the bubble burst and the whole
thing collapsed, thousands of people, including the worthy Vicar of
Castleton, being ruined.
[Illustration: CASTLETON CHURCH.]
It also appeared from the diary that, like the vicar Goldsmith
describes, he was "passing rich on forty pounds a year," for he never
received more than L40 per year for his services. The prices he paid for
goods for himself and his household in the year 1748 formed very
interesting reading, as it enabled us to compare the past with the
present.
Bohea Tea was 8s. per pound; chickens, threepence each; tobacco, one
penny per ounce; a shoulder of mutton cost him fifteen-pence, while the
forequarter of a lamb was eighteen-pence, which was also the price of a
"Cod's Head from Sheffield."
He also recorded matters concerning his family. He had a son named Harry
whom he apprenticed to a tradesman in Leeds. On one occasion it appeared
that the Vicar's wife made up a parcel "of four tongues and four pots of
potted beef" as a present for Hal's master.
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