1903.] on Rural England, 325 



the purposes of pleasure and not of profit, for the shooting of pheasants, 

 the hunting of foxes, and as sites for " the stately homes of England," 

 and so forth ? 



Would not matters be improved if more individuals held less land 

 and worked it themselves to earn a living out of it, thus getting rid 

 of one of the three profits that it has to bear ? If, in short, instead 

 of supporting their acres by extraneous means, owners were forced, as 

 in the past history of England, to make those acres support them ? 



This is not at all the feudal idea that still has so firm a hold 

 upon our national life, which finds perfect expression in such a 

 document as the will of that great man, the late Mr. Cecil Ehodes, 

 who therein defined " country landlords " as a class " who devote 

 their efl"orts to the maintenance of those on their own property," I 

 suppose out of means acquired otherwise than from their own property 

 — in English land. 



Ought they not rather to devote their efi"orts to enabling those on 

 their estates to support themselves without the aid of any extraneous 

 or artificial assistance ? In fact, is not all this lingering feudalism — 

 built, as it must be in our conditions, upon a false basis, and often 

 maintained, where it still exists, with money drawn from trade, or the 

 Stock Exchange, or American heiresses, or African mines — a grave 

 mistake ? 



The question is large, and, I admit, difficult to answer, yet it may 

 — at any rate to some extent — be dealt with by contrast. When I 

 was engaged upon my researches, I visited Jersey and Guernsey, 

 places with some agricultural advantages, though these are by no 

 means so pronounced as is perhaps generally imagined. 



Now in the Channel Islands the land system is totally different 

 from our own. 



Thus : Eeal property, on the death of the head of a family, must 

 be divided among all the children in certain proportions, the eldest 

 son by virtue of his prior birth having only an extra right to the 

 principal house and some twenty perches of land. Consequently 

 there are a multitude of small freeholders, the average holding in 

 Guernsey amounting to about one acre only, and in Jersey to fifteen 

 or twenty, many there being under ten and few over fifty. If we are to 

 believe half of what is preached to us as to the disadvantages of such 

 holdings, this state of affairs should mean misery to all concerned. 



And yet what are the facts, unless they have changed since 1901 ? 

 In Guernsey, land to be used for agricultural purposes fetches as 

 much as 500Z. an acre, acd lets at from 4,1. to 9/. the acre. In Jersey 

 I saw a little farm of about twenty-three acres which had been sold 

 not long before, also for agricultural purposes, for 6760L Compare 

 this state of affairs with that which prevails — or prevailed at that 

 date — in Wiltshire, where land sells often enough for 61. the acre, 

 and lets at from 5s. to 15s. the acre. Yet, in the Channel Islands, 

 the people are as a whole, extraordinarily prosperous, and often 

 accumulate fortunes. 



Can this be said to be the case in Wiltshire ? 



