Lancashire, however, does show an instructive variation. 

 There, as shown in Table XI, there is a very considerable 

 decrease in the numbers of both classes of owners. The 

 explanation of this is no doubt to be looked for in the 

 geographical position of the county. Including some of 

 the great manufacturing towns, it felt the influence of the 

 industrial revolution far earlier than the three counties 

 above mentioned. Unfortunately, the early assessments for 

 the West Riding of Yorkshire have not been preserved. 

 It would have been most interesting to learn whether, as 

 we should expect, they told the same tale. 



This evidence again receives most satisfactory confirma- 

 tion from contemporary authorities. Thus Holt, in his 

 general view of the agriculture of the county of Lancaster, 

 1795, says that ' while property has become more minutely 

 divided since the introduction of manufactures, yet the 

 yeomanry, formerly numerous, have greatly diminished of 

 late . . . the greater wealth which has in many instances 

 been acquired by some of their neighbours, and probably 

 heretofore their dependants, has offered sufficient tempta- 

 tion to venture their property in trade, in order that they 

 might keep pace with these fortunate adventurers', and 

 that the farmers who have mostly sprung from the in- 

 dustrious labourers place their children in the manufac- 

 turing line. 1 This is also supplemented by the account of 

 Cheshire, where Aikin, 1795, tells us that the old yeomen 

 have disappeared, a number of small farms having been 

 bought by manufacturers of cotton, though apparently 

 this meant a change of personnel, not a consolidation of 

 holdings. 2 



1 Holt, Lancaster, c. 11, p. 13. 



2 Aikin, Manchester, pp. 43, 44 ; Holland, Cheshire, 1808, quoted 

 Contemporary Review, pp. 145-55. 



