INTRODUCTORY. 29 



and even in some luxury, on such an income 1 ; for Master 

 keeps a stud, and a considerable establishment of servants. 

 Besides, Puritan as his bringing-up was, he spends a good 

 deal of money on his dress and his wigs. 



Now I have it in my power, owing to the kindness of Lord 

 John Manners, who procured me the information from the 

 Belvoir archives, to interpret the modern meaning of a landed 

 estate of from 300 to 400 a year. I have been supplied 

 from this source with the rentals of twelve estates or manors 

 at different periods from before 1692 down to 1850. The 

 area of these twelve estates is 17,837 acres in 1692, and 

 2O >375 acres in 1850, the difference being mainly due to 

 enclosures. In 1692, the rental was 3^. q\d. an acre. In 

 this year another valuation is made, and the rental rises to 

 4^. \\d. In 1799 it is 19^. $\d. an acre; in 1812 it is 25^. $>\d. ; 

 in 1830, 25-y. i \d. ; and in 1850, 36^. M. Now it is well known 

 that the Dukes of Rutland have been, traditionally, particularly 

 indulgent landlords, as is illustrated by the fact that so slight 

 a rise is made in their rents between 1799 and 1812, when 

 corn was almost always at famine prices and the Bank note 

 was depreciated, and that there is a remission in 1830 to a 

 considerable amount in the case of certain estates. Still, under 

 contracts and valuations which were I believe most favourable 

 to the tenant, the rise in rent is nearly tenfold in little more 

 than a century and a-half. 



The Duke's agent, who supplied me with these figures, 

 or rather the figures from which I draw my inferences, informs 

 nje also that three of the twelve estates are red marl, three 

 are ' heath ' lands, five are strong lands in the Vale, and one is 

 m.u'nly pasture. It is on the second of these that the greatest 

 rise has taken place ; on the third, the strong lands, that the 

 least rise is discoverable. The rise on the pasture estate is 

 > above the average. I should conclude therefore that, as 

 a rule, the rental of an estate at the date of the English Revo- 



1 The account is printed partly in the Kent Archwological Society's Journal. 

 The Editor of what is already published kindly lent me the MS. to examine. 



