Tlte Country Gentleman! s Magazine 



25 



TIP TREE HALL FARM. 



By Mr J. J. Mechi. 



IN order to remove agitation, excitement, 

 and divergence of opinion as regards 

 the history of this farm, I will simply state 

 the facts, and leave your readers to draw their 

 own conclusions. The farm, when I bought 

 it, was known as Sadler's Farm, because a 

 very worthy farmer of that name had occu- 

 pied it originally for many years. Its name 

 in the deeds was " Bignore's Farm. " It was 

 never called a hall until I so named it, after 

 rebuilding the whole of the premises on a 

 new site. 



My original purchase was 128 acres and 

 some poles, for ;£^3i5o, or a fraction under 

 ;^24 per acre. I bought it in 1841 of a re- 

 spectable land agent, who once farmed it 

 himself, and it was considered a reasonable 

 price. The tenant then in possession paid 

 ^150 per annum rent for it. The great and 

 small tithes were commuted (fortunately just 

 ' before I made my improvements) at 5s. per 

 acre. The farm-house was an antient white- 

 washed lath-and-plaster building ; the bed 

 rooms were in the roof, lofty in the centre, 

 and coming down at the eaves to about 18 

 inches, as near as I can remember. The old 

 thatched farm buildings were detached from 

 each other, and the north-east or any other 

 wind had free passage between them. In fact, 

 it was just such a piece of antiquity as one 

 too frequently sees in this and other counties. 

 The land was undrained, the fields and open 

 ditch numerous, and of various and irregular 

 shapes, as are at this moment most of the 

 fields in Essex. 



There was a bog (unsafe for man or beast) 

 called the Wabbings, and a winding road 

 down from Potter Row Lane to the premises, 

 having a great hedge and ditch on each side 

 with trees. By-the-by, I paid ;^ioo for the 

 timber on the farm. There were sundry odd 

 pieces of waste, which I enclosed. I removed 

 altogether about y/2, miles of fences, and 



filled in ditches, and have now 60 acres in one 

 enclosure, and 42 in another, without a tree, 

 but I have a shrubbery of some 2 acres for 

 the birds to breed in. I have no doubt 

 that in favourable seasons respectable crops 

 were grown on the area available for cereals, 

 but a wet season must have been disastrous, 

 for when I first visited the farm in September 

 1S42, on a wet day, with my old friend Dean 

 (now hearty at eighty-seven), the light land was 

 swampy^ and the heavy as loving as birdlime, 

 but as slippery as butter. The me n assured me 

 that some of the wheat crops that year yielded 

 only about i}4 to 2 qr. per acre ; and, judg- 

 ing by the weak stubble and paucity of stacks, 

 I can easily believe it. Now, owing to my 

 deep drainage, the light land is always dry 

 and workable, and the bog especially so, and 

 I send down to my neighbours for many 

 miles about 40 to 50 gallons of pure water 

 each minute — summer and winter — more in 

 the latter. The late medical man of the dis- 

 trict used, jocularly, to say that I had spoiled 

 all his best cases of fever down that line ot 

 brook. Any one who will take the trouble 

 to inquire of some of the old men on our 

 heath about the comparative condition and 

 yield of this farm now and formerly will soon 

 arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. 



Finding the old buildings too tender for 

 substantial repair, and otherwise unsuitable, 

 I cleared the lot away — a very easy task — 

 and erected a new house and homestead on 

 higher ground, for when I first visited the 

 farm I noticed a heap of peas growing from 

 damp in what had been the best room. 

 In fact the bailiff there lost his wife and 

 several children from fever in a short space 

 of time. In our new buildings health for man 

 and beast for thirty years has been the order 

 of the day. Some land adjoining, which I 

 subsequently purchased, was enclosed from 

 the heath about ninety yeai'S ago. 



