POOR MOORLAND HOLDINGS. 123 



rights, charging a rent of only 10s. an acre. 

 One by one mud huts began to go up on these 

 rented allotments. The building material 

 was cheap and handy. The clay for making 

 the yellow-ochred walls was under their feet ; 

 the heather for thatching was cut from the 

 Common around them ; and rough timber could 

 be had almost for the asking from the forest 

 near by. With great faith in the integrity 

 of the squire's family, tenants went on build- 

 ing on land which was not then- own. The 

 property being entailed, the squire himself 

 could not grant the freehold, but being troubled 

 over possible eventualities, especially as he 

 was childless, he got an Act of Parliament 

 passed in the 'eighties giving him power to 

 grant eighty-year leases. In spite of this, 

 there are tenants to-day living on land rented 

 by them only annually, who refuse to be 

 bothered with the eighty-year lease to which 

 they are entitled ! 



Rents are rarely raised here, for the reason 

 that they generally are elsewhere. They are 

 not raised because the industry of the tenants 

 has made sites more valuable. At Verwood 

 they are fixed at 10s. or 15s. the acre. This 

 landlord apparently never says to his tenants, 



