THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT. 113 



When the van visited Stoke Gifford, owned by the Duke 

 of Beaufort, not a single inhabitant dared to avow himself 

 a sympathiser of the Red Van, and it appears that not even 

 a Tory, if he made himself unpopular with the Duke, was 

 permitted to take office in any public capacity. 



" At a vestry meeting in 1894 the parishioners of Stoke Gifford 

 elected as their churchwarden Admiral Close, a local Tory. The 

 Duke, who objected to the Admiral, apparently on the ground 

 of some difference of opinion as to the restoration of the parish 

 church, thereupon gave notice to all his tenants to quit and yield 

 up all their holdings. In reply to an appeal for mercy from his 

 tenants his Grace wrote on May n, 1894 : ' Now, on one 

 condition only will I withdraw the notices which each of you 

 have received, and it is this that Admiral Close resigns his 

 churchwardenship, or if he cannot legally do so, that he appoints 

 one of you to be his deputy or sidesman, and that he gives me in 

 writing his undertaking not to interfere with the repairs, etc., of 

 the parish church, and not to attend any parish meetings called 

 in reference to anything to do with the church. If this is not 

 done we shall postpone the repairs until his term of office expires, 

 and the notices to quit your farms will stand good. I hope such 

 will not have to be the case. (Signed, BEAUFORT).' 



" Rather than let the helpless tenants suffer, Admiral Close, 

 protesting against the ' unconstitutional coercion ' accepted 

 these conditions, and appointed George Parker (farmer) as his 

 sidesman." l 



Yet the Duke of Beaufort was a good landlord, who 

 paid I2s. a week to his labourers, with half pay when they 

 were sick, and pensioned off all his old servants at from 

 55. to 8s. a week. 



Not even so good a landlord as the Duke of Bedford was 

 free from the weaknesses which come from overlordship. 

 He made it one of the conditions of letting allotments to 

 labourers that " no occupier who is at work for any Employer 

 will be allowed to work upon his Land after Six in the 

 Morning, or before Six in the Evening, without permission 

 from his master," to which was added, " All occupiers will 

 be expected to conduct themselves with propriety at all 

 times, and to bring up their families in a decent and orderly 

 manner." 



1 Bristol Mercury, $th July 1894. 

 VOL. II. I 



