2 On the Tmprovemenl.s in West Norfolk. 



It has appeared to me, that it would be interesting^ to our 

 Society, not only to state these results, but to endeavour to point 

 out the means by which they have been produced ; and with this 

 view I have made the best inquiries I could from Lord Leicester, 

 the only person now living who is able to recollect the former 

 state of this district, and to tell the means by which it has been 

 improved into its present flourishing condition. 



Lord Leicester came into possession of his estate in the year 

 1776. At this time the whole district round Holkham was 

 unenclosed, and the cultivation was of the most miserable cha- 

 racter ; the course of cropping, as long as the land would produce 

 anything, was three white crops in succession, and then broad- 

 cast turnips ; no manure was purchased, and very little, and that 

 of no value, was produced on the farm. The sheep were of the 

 old Norfolk breed, and, with the exception of a few milch cows, 

 there were no cattle kept upon any of the farms. 



It happened that the lease of a large part of the land, which 

 now forms Holkham Park, was within two years of its expiration. 

 In the lease previous to the one then current, this land had been 

 let at 1^. 6c?. an acre ; in the then current lease it had been 

 raised to 3s. ; Lord Leicester offered to the tenant to renew it at 

 bs., but Mr. Brett, the tenant, who deserves to have his name re- 

 corded for the great good he unintentionally did to the country, 

 refused to give so much for the land, upon which Lord Leicester 

 determined to take it into his own hands. Thus the real origin 

 of the great improvement of this district was, that Mr. Brett re- 

 fused to give 5.S. an acre for land, which now, under an improved 

 system of cultivation, usually produces nearly four quarters of 

 wheat per acre. For nothing would have been much more im- 

 probable than that Lord Leicester, then an extremely young man, 

 fond of and excelling in field-sports, with a princely fortune, 

 should have applied himself to the detailed management of a 

 farm, had he not been compelled to take this tract of land into 

 his own hands by the refusal of Mr. Brett to accept the terms 

 which were offered to him. But having taken it, he found, as 

 every man who will apply himself to agriculture will, the high 

 interest of the pursuit, his taste was formed, the habits of his life 

 accommodated themselves to it, and applying the whole energy of 

 his mind to the collection and dissemination of all the knowledge 

 which he could derive from practical and scientific farmers, he 

 has effected the great improvements which, while they have been 

 a source of continued happiness to himself, have produced the 

 most incalculable benefits to the country. If, on the other hand, 

 Mr. Brett had accepted the terms offered to him. Lord T^eicester 

 would have granted him a lease for twenty-one years, and for that 

 long period of time, and probably much longer, no improvement 



