GROWTH UNDER STORMY SKIES. 185 



In 1912 labourers were becoming restless, not only as to 

 wages, but also as to being secure of a home. They were 

 repeatedly told by Lord Lansdowne on behalf of the Conser- 

 vatives, and by Mr. Lloyd George on behalf of the Liberals, 

 that they should be secure of their cottage homes, but 

 instead, they found from bitter experience that their foot- 

 hold was as insecure as ever. 



In the depths of the winter of 1912, in January of that 

 year, a most discreditable eviction took place at Foxham 

 in Wilts, where lies some of Lord Lansdowne's property, 

 though I do not mean to imply that he was to blame for what 

 happened. The incident is worth recounting in order to 

 show how the Town Planning Act worked, or rather how it 

 did not work, in rural districts. 



The County Council acquired a farm on Lord Lansdowne's 

 property, and eight families received notices to quit their cot- 

 tages. Some of the other cottages were bought by farmers 

 who wanted them for their own employees, with the result 

 that cottage accommodation became extremely scarce. 



The Parish Council, typical of those in Wiltshire, consist- 

 ing of seven farmers and two labourers, made no attempt to 

 get cottages built ; but two labourers, armed with Mr. John 

 Burns' Town Planning Act, sent a petition, signed also by 

 two other men, for the application of the Housing Act, to the 

 Rural District Council at Calne. Calne is the centre of the 

 pig industry, and its Rural District Councillors, it is recorded, 

 received the application with swinish laughter. With a 

 chuckle of sardonic merriment they referred the matter to 

 the Parish Council of Bremhill the Parish Council on which 

 seven of their farmer friends sat. An application was also 

 sent to the County Council. 



No response, save a curt acknowledgment, came from the 

 County Council to these poor labourers of Foxham in direful 

 distress. " The Cerberus of officialism had snarled them 

 back with all his three pairs of jaws," wrote Lieut.-Col. 

 D. C. Pedder, who lived in this neighbourhood. The appeal 

 then had to go to headquarters that is, direct to the Presi- 

 dent of the Local Government Board. Through the good 

 offices of the National Land and Home League, sufficient 



