WESTMORELAND " STATESMEN "\ 295 



however, been very much altered of late years. From the advan- 

 tages which have been derived from trade, and from the effects of 

 the increase of taxes, which have prevented a man Hving with the 

 same degree of comfort on the same portion of land he could for- 

 merly, many of the old owners have been induced to sell their estates ; 

 and new proprietors have spread themselves over the county, very 

 different in their habits and prejudices." ^ In Lancashire (1795) 

 " the yeomanry, formerly numerous and respectable, have greatly 

 diminished of late, but are not yet extinct ; the great wealth, which 

 has in many instances been so rapidly acquired by some of their 

 neighbours, and probably heretofore dependants, has offered suffi- 

 cient temptation to venture their property in trade, in order that 

 they might keep pace with these fortunate adventurers. . . . Not 

 only the yeomanry, but almost all the farmers, who have raised 

 fortunes by agriculture, place their children in the manufacturing 

 hne." 2 "A large proportion of the county of Westmoreland," says 

 the Reporter,^ " is possessed by a yeomanry, who occupy small 

 estates of their own, from £10 to £50 a year." These owners, as 

 distinguished from tenant-farmers, were called " statesmen. They 

 live poorly and labour hard ; and some of them, particularly in the 

 vicinity of Kendall, in the intervals of labour from agricultural 

 avocations, busy themselves in weaving stuffs for the manufacturers 

 of that town. . . . This class of men is daily decreasing. The turn- 

 pike roads have brought the manners of the capital to this extremity 

 of the kingdom. The simphcity of ancient times is gone. Finer 

 clothes, better dwellings, and more expensive viands, are now sought . 

 after by all. This change of manners, combined with other 

 circumstances which have taken place within the last forty years, has 

 compelled many a statesman to sell his property, and reduced him to 

 the necessity of working as a labourer in those fields, which, perhaps, 

 he and his ancestors had for many generations cultivated as their 

 own." "A considerable part of the West Riding " (of Yorkshire), 

 in 1799, " is possessed by small proprietors, and this respectable 

 class of men, who generally farm their own lands, are as numerous 

 in this district as in any other part of the Klingdom." ^ In the North 

 Riding (1800), " the size of estates is very variable ; about one-third 

 of it is possessed by yeomanry . . . much the largest proportion of 



1 Holland's Cheshire (1808), p. 79. ^ Holt's Lancashire (1795), p. 13. 



aPringle's Westmoreland (1794), pp. 18, 40. 



* Brown's West Riding of Yorkshire (1799), p. 7. 



