36 History of the English Landed Interest. 



power ; and instead of the timber used for breaking down the 

 sides of the lead veins, gunpowder was coming into use as a 

 blasting agent. 



In many parts of England, therefore, landed proprietors 

 were looking to other sources than mere agricultural rents for 

 income, and had, at any rate under the surface of enclosed 

 lands, if not also below the common fields, established their 

 titles to mineral ownership, except in those districts where 

 the miners retained some relics of their old popular rights.^ 



^ Had space permitted, I should have given a short account of the seig- 

 norial and popular disputes over the rights to the Cheshire salt-mines. 



