20 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



headed, gentle and mild in his manner, deliberate 

 and unruffled in his speech, though some of 

 his expressions were not very qualified." 



Here, at Winterslow, in 1893, Major 

 Poore bought a poor bleak hillside farm of 

 200 acres. He made the one and only bid for 

 it at £7 : 10s. an acre. This was accepted, and 

 Major Poore then formed what he called a Land 

 Court (he is a great student of Anglo-Saxon 

 customs), in which copyholds were knitted 

 together by a thin thread of communal interest. 



The land was then divided amongst the 

 members of the Land Court, the smallest sum 

 per acre paid being £8, for a sixteen - acre 

 holding, the highest £30, for a single acre with 

 a road frontage. The purchase money was 

 repayable in fifteen years. Every one of the 

 original purchasers has now cleared his debt to 

 the Land Court, and out of the large surplus 

 of £1400 acquired over the deal, every small 

 holder has built a house with money borrowed 

 at 3 per cent interest. Practically a new village 

 has arisen at Middle AVinterslow, created by 

 these small holders. 



It must not, however, be supposed for one 

 instant that the men have acquired their land 

 and built their houses entirely out of the profits 



