1NTROD UCTOR K 27 



could be safely divided, the average of the seven years is 

 ^1140 6s., which does not materially differ from the annual 

 dividend of the Cromwellian fellows 1 . 



I have dwelt on these facts, and similar facts could be 

 given from the annals of other corporations, not only because 

 they illustrate a notable change in the traditions of academical 

 corporations, but because they throw light on the way in which 

 prudent persons hoarded during the seventeenth century. The 

 intrusion of the Cromwellian fellows was a rude interruption in 

 the habits and probably in the secrets of collegiate life. The ex- 

 pelled fellows do not seem to have considered that the accumu- 

 lations were their own property, as some theorists of our time 

 ingenuously assert, or to have secured them before they were 

 dispossessed. But no such break occurred in the habits of 

 those who could save, particularly in the great body of those 

 members of the middle classes who I am persuaded clung 

 in secret at least to the principles of the first Revolution, 

 the farmers in the country and the tradesmen in the towns. 

 I do not believe that the vices of the Restored Court induced 

 anything but disgust on the mass of the people, and I am 

 convinced that a good deal of the wealth which was subscribed 

 so freely and so continuously during William's reign came 

 from the hoards of those who had kept up their old tra- 

 ditions of economy during the days of the last two male 

 Stewarts. 



One notable fact in the economical history of the seven- 

 teenth century is the large amount of waste land which existed, 

 and the use which it appears was made of it. My reader 

 will find occasional records of the enormous amount of wild 

 animals, chiefly winged game, which is purchased by wealthy 

 persons. These purchases do not include deer, which seem 

 to have always been considered private property, or at least 

 preserved game, and to have been kept in forests, chases or 



-omarkable that, during the Parliamentary war, Winchester and Eton were 

 not disturbed at all, though Winchester lay on the line of the conflict and Eton 

 very near it. 



