THE NEW RACE OF TENANTS 223 



I seemed to have lost a century in time, or to have moved a thousand 

 miles in a day. Liberal communication, the result of enlarged ideas, 

 was contrasted with a dark ignorance under the covert of wise 

 suspicions ; a sullen reserve lest landlords should be rendered too 

 knowing, and false information given under the hope that it 

 might deceive, were in such opposition, that it was easy to see 

 the change, however it might work, had not done its business. The 

 old open-field school must die off before new ideas can become 

 generally rooted." In Lincolnshire, in the early years of George 

 III., Arthur Young had found few points in the management of 

 arable land which did not merit condemnation. The progress, 

 which he noted as Reporter to the Board of Agriculture in 1799, 

 was largely due to the changed character of the farmers. " I have 

 not," he says, " seen a set more liberal in any part of the kingdom. 

 Industrious, active, enlightened, free from all foolish and expensive 

 show, . . . they live comfortably and hospitably, as good farmers 

 ought to live ; and in my opinion are remarkably void of those 

 rooted prejudices which sometimes are reasonably objected to this 

 race of men. I met with many who had mounted their nags, and 

 quitted their homes purposely to examine other parts of the king- 

 dom ; had done it with enlarged views, and to the benefit of their 

 own cultivation." 



