VII DECLINE OF SMALL LANDOWNER 129 



to-day. But although my inquiries were answered with 

 the greatest courtesy, and I did obtain some interesting 

 information, I was more often met either with a nai've 

 assertion from each individual that neither he nor his 

 ancestors had been guilty of the sin of Ahab, or by a frank 

 acknowledgement of total ignorance on the subject. Their 

 title-deeds, they said, were lying either at their solicitors' or 

 stowed away in their ancestral mansions. I was at liberty 

 to consult them, but they had not the time themselves to 

 pursue the inquiry, nor in these evil days of heavy taxation 

 and death duties the wherewithal to meet the expense of 

 having the search made for ihein. Clearly, with the limited 

 time at my disposal, a personal search was out of the question. 



Suddenly the idea occurred to me that the Land Tax 

 assessments might help me. Finding that these assess- 

 ments were in the hands of the Clerks of the Peace, or the 

 Clerks to the County Councils, up to 1832, and then in the 

 hands of Clerks to the Commissioners of the Land Tax, I 

 sent a circular-letter to all the English counties. I once more 

 met with the greatest cordiality, except from the county of 

 Essex, whence I was informed that the county records were 

 not open to inspection, and, in spite of my applying to the 

 Lord Lieutenant, and then, by his direction, to the Chair- 

 man of the County Council, I have not as yet obtained the 

 necessary leave. 



Elsewhere, however, I discovered that I had hit upon a 

 perfect mine of evidence, evidence which as far as I know 

 has never been made use of. 1 It is true that these returns 



1 The origin of the Land Tax is to be found in the monthly assess- 

 ments raised by the Long Parliament during the Civil War. These 

 assessments were continued after the Restoration in the Property 

 Tax, a tax of 4s. in the pound on the annual value of land, personal 

 property, and on official salaries. Until 1692, periodical assessments 

 Were made, then, owing to the difficulty of such assessments, the Acts 

 9-10 and 10-11 William and Mary declared that a tax of Is. in the 



JOHNSON I 





