iv INTRODUCTION. 



the later " eighties " were recovering a little from 

 the staggering blows of the early years of the 

 decade were confronted with still heavier buffet- 

 ing in the " nineties." To many a man who had 

 struggled through the " eighties," the " nineties " 

 gave the coup de grace. In reporting on the state 

 of agriculture in Norfolk in 1894, I stated : 

 " At the date of the Richmond Commission 

 (1880-82) the ' good times ' had been left behind 

 for some years, but ever since then matters have 

 gone from bad to worse, and in spite of transient 

 gleams of hopefulness the dark cloud of depression 

 has become blacker and blacker, until a positive 

 gloom has fallen over the face of the country. 

 Old families are gone, old houses are shut up or 

 let to strangers, old acres are abandoned, or are 

 owned or occupied by new men. Steadily, relent- 

 lessly, the depression deepened and spread, until 

 the season of 1893 and 1894 aggravated and 

 accentuated the trouble with startling sudden- 

 ness." 1 What was true of Norfolk was true in 

 more or less degree of many other districts of 

 England. Like vessels on a long voyage, farmers 

 who had survived the earlier gales, with strained 

 timbers and torn canvas, were unable to weather 

 the later hurricane. But though storms arise 

 and vessels founder, the sea remains always 

 changeful yet always the same, and the tides ebb 

 and flow in eternal sequence. So also, through 



1 Report on Norfolk to the Royal Commission on Agriculture. 

 C. 7915. 



