1903.] on Bural England. 321 



occupied by small gentry, yeomen and peasant-holders, all of whom in 

 the majority of districts have disappeared, to be replaced by large 

 owners, tenant farmers, and an ever-lessening number of agricultural 

 labourers working for a weekly wage with but little prospect of 

 raising themselves in the world. 



Quite recently — by which I mean to within the last forty years 

 and later — thousands of families of each of which the head for the 

 time being was called " Squire," lived from generation to generation 

 upon their own properties and, even where the estates were small — 

 say from one to two thousand acres — in most cases without extran- 

 eous resources maintained a certain position with suflBciency, and 

 fulfilled its duties on the whole to their own credit and to the advan- 

 tage of the country. Now members of this class are rare. Rents have 

 fallen, charges have increased ; more is expected of the minor gentry, 

 who can no longer live in the old simple fashion ; mortgages, join- 

 tures and portions, often based upon a too liberal estimate of the 

 productive powers of the estate, have accumulated. The result is that 

 these little squires have vanished, or, where they still remain, support 

 themselves upon outside means. I can recall none of moderate 

 estate who still exist upon the revenues of that estate alone, except 

 perhaps a few in Yorkshire and in the richest parts of southern and 

 western England, whereas even those who own large properties and 

 nothing else, are frequently much crippled. 



The yeomen, too, who once formed the very backbone of the 

 nation, have gone. In the prosperous days many of them were 

 bought out at tempting prices by their richer neighbours, in order 

 that their parcels of land might be absorbed into the great estates. 

 In the evil years that followed, which began about 1879, the majority 

 of those who remained were starved out, with the result that the 

 yeoman farmer living on and out of his own acres is now hard to find. 

 In all my wanderings through England I met but very few of them. 



The class of agricultural labourers is in much the same case. 

 Thus, as is pointed out in the final report of the Koyal Commission 

 on Agriculture published in 1897, the population of Great Britain 

 between the years 1871 and 1891 increased by nearly seven millions, 

 whereas the agricultural labourers of Great Britain during the same 

 period decreased by about 242,000. I have not at hand the figures 

 for the decade between 1891 and 1901, and am not certain whether 

 they are as yet fully available, but if I may trust to the results of 

 my own knowledge and observation, I believe that decrease to have 

 been progressive. I read in fact, that in England and Wales their 

 number has further dwindled by about 160,000. Also I think that I 

 am right in saying that this last Census shows a shrinkage of the 

 population in no less than 401 of the rural districts of England and 

 Wales. When it is remembered that in 1891 about 77 per cent, of 

 their inhabitants were already living in cities or their suburbs, as 

 against 23 per cent, living in the country, it will be admitted that 

 this fresh depletion of the villages is a very significant fact. A 



