262 RURAL DENMARK 



problem and the great opportunity with which circum- 

 stances have once more provided them in the matter. 



Things have come to this over large stretches of 

 England that few proprietors of land, except those 

 who own great acreages, or rich soil that still lets at a 

 very high rent, really live out of their land. They live 

 upon the produce of other investments, made perhaps 

 in Johannesburg or the Argentine or elsewhere. They 

 are no longer country gentlemen in the old sense, 

 supported by their estates, but gentlemen of wealth 

 residing in the country. 



Often enough, however, this is not their fault but 

 their misfortune. Rents over wide areas of England, 

 and especially in the corn-growing districts, have, until 

 quite recently, almost continuously decreased since 

 about the year 1880. Thus in "Rural England," 

 vol. ii. p. 433, amongst other instances I print the 

 balance-sheet of an East Anglian estate belonging to 

 a gentleman of my acquaintance, which covers 1 6,000 

 acres, and in the years 1899 and 1900 produced a gross 

 rental of ,10,000 a year. Except for some drainage and 

 land-improvement charges amounting to under ^2000 

 a year, this estate is practically unencumbered ; also 

 the shooting was let for ; 13 40 a year, and the garden 

 produce sold. Yet from all this great property the 

 owner received in 1899 on ty 2 3 l > I2S - 2 ^. paid into 

 his account, and in 1900 ^298, 13s. id. Of the nominal 

 rent-roll over 16 per cent, was disbursed in tithe and 

 about as much more in repairs. Probably since 1900 

 the rents may have risen a little, perhaps as much as 

 10 per cent., though this I doubt. On the other hand 

 the rates and taxes and other sundry outgoings will 

 certainly have risen also, so that the owner can be 

 but little richer now than he was then. If he tried to 



