84 ME. COKE OF HOLKHAM 



Prices fell, but the debt remained. The struggle was 

 brief; farming deteriorated, buildings fell into ruins, 

 finally the estate was sold. The purchasers were not 

 yeomen, for after 1820 small capitalists ceased to invest 

 their savings in land, but neighbouring squires or success- 

 ful manufacturers. In Shropshire their capital dwindled, 

 and they were forced to sell. In Wiltshire their farming 

 retrograded and their buildings fell into bad repair. In 

 Yorkshire the number of small proprietors diminished : for- 

 merly, if one small freeholder went, another took his 

 place; now this ceased to be the case. In Worcester- 

 shire the small owners were obliged to sell, and men of 

 their own class ceased to buy land after 1812. In Kent 

 and Somersetshire many freeholders retained their land by 

 practising the most rigorous self-denial, and by entirely 

 ceasing to employ labour ; but all who had mortgages or 

 annuities to pay were forced to sell their properties. 

 Everywhere large landed properties were built up on the 

 ruin of small landowners. It was only in counties like 

 Lancashire, where the prices of dairy produce had not 

 fluctuated during the war, and where huge markets sprang 

 up at the doors of the farmer, that yeomen weathered the 

 storm. The agricultural gain, derived from the extinction 

 both of the common-field farmer and the small freeholder, 

 was at the time great and undeniable. ' One-horse 

 farmers ' on heavy soils had to struggle with the incon- 

 venience of borrowing and lending horses. Hours were 

 wasted before the teams could be collected and baited ; 

 the process of ploughing was interrupted by frequent 

 turns in small fields ; the area of cultivation was unduly 

 encroached upon by hedgerows ; the methods of farming 

 were antiquated, the implements old-fashioned ; without 

 stock, capital, or machinery, living firom hand to mouth, 



