STIRRINGS OF NEW LIFE. 165 



to speed up the County Councils, and six more were ap- 

 pointed in addition to the two. This improved matters 

 slightly and a certain amount of headway was made by 

 counties such as Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Worcestershire, 

 Somersetshire, Devon, Lincoln (Holland). Other counties, 

 such as West Sussex, Westmoreland and Middlesex, did 

 practically nothing at this date. 



Impetus to the Small Holding movement was given by 

 the publication of Miss J ebb's book, The Small Holdings of 

 England. The founding of several Land Clubs (which had 

 their origin in an obscure hamlet) , together with the Central 

 Small Holdings Society of which Mr. Charles Roden Buxton 

 was the sponsor, expressed a wide-spread demand for small 

 holdings. These societies became merged into the 

 National Land and Home League, which was professedly 

 non-party and did most useful work in suggesting amend- 

 ments to Small Holding and Housing Acts. Its political 

 activity had in many instances the desired effect of speeding 

 up the administrative bodies in getting land for men who 

 had been kept waiting, and of instituting Housing Enquiries. 



This League embraced a number of Land Clubs in various 

 parts of the country, and became perhaps the most expert 

 body interested in small holdings, allotments, and cottages. 

 Its chief workers were Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Pease, Mr. C. R. 

 Buxton, Mr. R. L. Reiss, who afterwards became chief organ- 

 iser of the Liberal Land Enquiry ; Lord Henry Bentinck, 

 M.P., Lord Saye and Sele, Mr. Lloyd Graeme, M.P., Mr. 

 G. H. Roberts, M.P., Mr. Montague Fordham, Sir Richard 

 Winfrey, M.P., and Mr. T. Hamilton Fox. Another im- 

 portant society was formed in the Midlands with its head- 

 quarters at Birmingham. This was the Small Holdings 

 and Allotments Association of England. 



During the years which followed after the passing of 

 the Small Holdings Act, whilst making my notes in different 

 counties for my book, The Awakening of England, and whilst 

 giving lantern lectures to labourers in out-of-the-way 

 villages in Dorset, the Cotswolds and elsewhere, it was 

 borne in upon me as I explained Acts of Parliament to them, 

 how difficult it was to get anything done if there were no 



