viii PREFACE 



detail, of English Farming Past and Present, is to suggest that 

 advances in agricultural skill, the adoption of new methods, the 

 application of new resources the invention of new implements, 

 have been, under the pressure of national necessities powerful 

 instruments in breaking up older forms of rural society, and in mould- 

 ing them into their present shape. 



Students of economic and social questions and at the present 

 day most people are interested in these subjects will decide 

 whether the influence of these simple and natural causes has been 

 greater or less than is suggested. Even those who consider that 

 their importance is exaggerated, may find in the record of their 

 progress a useful commentary on the political explanations which 

 they themselves prefer to adopt. The book may still serve another 

 purpose. It touches rural life at many different points and at 

 many different stages. Dwellers in the country are surrounded 

 by traces of older conditions of society. They may perhaps find, 

 through English Farming Past and Present, a new interest in piecing 

 together the fragments of an agricultural past, and in reconstructing, 

 as in one of the fashionable occupations of the day, a picture of the 

 Middle Ages or of the eighteenth century in the midst of their 

 own familiar surroundings. 



Now that the book is in print and on the eve of publication, I 

 feel more acutely than ever the disadvantages under which it has 

 been prepared. English Farming Past and Present is the by-product 

 of a life occupied in other pursuits than those of literature. It has 

 been impossible to work upon it for any continuous period of time. 

 Written in odd half -hours, it has been often laid aside for weeks 

 and even months. My thanks are therefore due, in more abundant 

 measure, to Professor Ashley, Sir Ernest Clarke, and Mr. H. Trus- 

 tram Eve, who have kindly read the proof-sheets and helped me 

 with corrections, and above all to Mr. G. H. Holden, who has also 

 verified the references and prepared the Index. 



ROWLAND E. PROTHERO. 



September 6, 1912. 



