156 THE HISTON ESTATE 



opportunities to acquire land at the enhanced price 

 necessary to make things pay on the lines of 

 the land company's methods ; but that when the 

 opportunity occurs to acquire the same land at a 

 reasonable price, the same men apparently find 

 the means to do so without being helped in their 

 payments. 



There is a certain irony in the fact that within a 

 few miles of this very place small holdings have 

 been developing at an amazing rate in a natural 

 manner, purely as an outcome of local conditions. 



THE HISTON ESTATE. 



The Histon estate was bought in 1886. It con- 

 sists of 59 acres, about one and a half miles from 

 Cottenham, and approached from the road from 

 Cottenham to Landbeach down a narrow grass 

 lane. The sum paid for it was 2,131. This 

 includes the cost of enfranchising the land, which 

 was copyhold. A further sum of 100 was spent 

 in draining and cutting open ditches, for the land, 

 which is heavy, was very wet. The total cost 

 works out at about 37 an acre. 



No purchasers were found for this land. Thirty- 

 three acres of it were let to ten tenants at a rent 

 of from 2 5s. to 2 10s. an acre ; the rest seems 

 to have remained out of cultivation. 



In 1892 the gross rental is reported as being 

 72 12s. 6d., the rents having been reduced to 2 

 and 2 5s. an acre and other allowances made. 



