Agriculture of Durham. 97 



:at rack-rent. The manor of Westoe is held under the Dean and 

 Chapter, and so was a g^reat portion of South Shields ; hut a few- 

 years ajjo, under the authority of parliament, on the establishment 

 of the Universit}' at Durham, they enfranchised property at that 

 place by which they realized above 48,000/. It was wished to 

 have raised 95,000/., but many of the lessees refused to accept 

 the terms. The valuable manor of Gateshead is leasehold under 

 the Bishop, held for 21 years, a renewal being made each year. 

 The manor of Whickham is copyhold, also under the Bishop. 

 Large portions of freehold lands, however, lie in detached par- 

 cels within these two manors. I have felt it necessary to refer 

 more at length to this property, because I believe that the nature 

 and extent of it has been for many years a great bar to agricul- 

 tural improvement in this county. This fact has been more 

 than once proved, by the evidence of impartial and competent 

 witnesses, before Committees of both Houses of Parliament. The 

 buildings on this property are almoot invariably of an inferior 

 description, and include no more than will barely suffice for the 

 occupation of the land. The ground is just in a similar condition 

 in regard to draining ; indeed no man having this species of 

 property, and aware of the manner in which the fuies on renewal 

 are made to rise in proportion to all improvements, would think 

 of laying out more money on his estate than he could not 

 well avoid. But one particular by which these lands may be 

 readily distinguished from all others is their being almost 

 universally destitute of trees. This is owing, no doubt, to the 

 stringent reservation in the leases of " all woods and underwoods." 

 In some parts of the county there are thousands of acres of land 

 which would liave been planted if it had been of freehold tenure ; 

 but on this kind of property, if the lessee planted a thousand 

 ncres he could not cut down a single tree when grown up for his 

 own use without the leave of the lessor ; and the consequence is, 

 that many a Ijleak hill remains unplanted, and many a cold farm 

 remains unslieltered. The advantage to be derived from exten- 

 sive plantations has been repeatedly pointed out. Over a great 

 deal of the poor land of this county it has been shown that, if 20 

 acres were planted out of every 100, the remaining 80 would, in 

 a few years, be equal in value to what the 100 used to be ; and, 

 in addition, there would be the 20 acres of wockI rapidly coming 

 into a saleable state ol growth, in a district where the numerous 

 collieries created an almost unlimited demand for all kinds of 

 timber. Thus the estates would be increased in value more than 

 20 per cent. There is an increasing want of confidence in this 

 property. A 21-years lease at one time would produce 18 vears' 

 purchase; of late years much has been sold at IG or 17 ; and 

 within the last two or three years, since the subject was so nmcli 

 VOL. XVII. II 



