80 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



have 220 acres let out to seventy tenants. Tliese 

 are quite a different type of holding to those 

 we have reviewed, for their success depends 

 largely upon their common rights for grazing. 

 For generations the people here have been, 

 more or less, small holders in a squatter-like 

 way. Here too, it is asserted, there was 

 much poaching and fowl-stealing, owing to the 

 ])overty of the district prior to the Parish 

 Council taking up land in 1894. The popula- 

 tion had dropped from 950 in 1881 to 720 in 

 1891. In 1901 it rose to 795, a rise due to 

 the acquisition of allotments. 



With grazing ground at hand, stock- 

 keeping, rather than market-keeping, is the 

 kind of farming pursued here. Welsh colts 

 bought at the Hereford fairs are turned out on 

 to the common, cider is made from the apple- 

 orchards, and poultry reared for the Malvern 

 markets. Most of the tenants follow some 

 other occupation, and go out sheep-shearing, 

 hedging, faggoting, pig -killing, and carting. 

 Lady Henry Somerset is the chief landowner 

 here, and she leases the land to the Parish 

 Council at from 12s. to 28s. an acre. If the rent 

 is not paid on audit day, the fine of Is. is exacted ; 

 and so strict are they in insisting upon the 



