OCCUPYING OWNERS 293 



contain " estates of all sizes, from nearly the largest scale to the little 

 freehold ; one of 25,000 a year ; one of 14,000 ; one of 13,000 ; 

 two of 10,000 ; many of about 5,000 ; and an increasing number 

 of all smaller proportions." x In Suffolk (1797) " the rich yeomanry '' 

 are described as " very numerous . . . farmers occupying their own 

 lands, of a value rising from 100 to 400 a year." 2 In Essex (1807), 

 " there never was a greater proportion of small and moderate- 

 sized farms, the property of mere farmers, who retain them in their 

 own immediate occupation, than at present. Such has been the 

 flourishing state of agriculture for twenty or thirty years past, that 

 scarcely an estate is sold, if divided into lots of forty or fifty to two 

 or three hundred a year, but is purchased by farmers. . . . Hence 

 arises a fair prospect of landed property gradually returning to a 

 situation of similar possession to what it was a hundred or a hundred 

 and fifty years ago, when our inferior gentry resided upon their 

 estates in the country." 3 



In the South-Eastern and East Midland counties, no marked 

 decrease in the number of small estates is noticed. " One third " 

 of Berkshire 4 is said to have been occupied in 1813 by the proprietors 

 of the soil. Owners of landed property from 200 to 600 a year 

 were " very numerous." Oxfordshire (1794) contained " many 

 proprietors of a middling size, and many small proprietors, par- 

 ticularly in the open fields." 5 In Nottinghamshire (1798) " some 

 considerable, as well as inferior yeomen occupy their own lands." 6 

 Of late years in Hampshire (1813) "a considerable subdivision of 

 property has taken place." Speaking of the farmers on the chalk 

 hills of the county, the Reporter says that " many of them are the 

 possessors of small estates which then* thrifty management keeps 

 upon the increase." 7 In Kent, up to at least 1793, the number of 

 owners of land seemed annually on the increase, " by the estates 

 which are divided and sold to the occupiers. There is no description 

 of persons who can afford to give so much money for the purchase 

 of an estate as those who buy for their own occupation. Many in 

 the eastern part of this county have been sold, within these few 

 years, for forty, and some for fifty years purchase, and upwards." 8 



1 Young's Norfolk (1804), p. 17. * Young's Suffolk (1797), p. 8. 



'Young's Essex (1807), vol. i. pp. 39, 40. 



Mayor's Berkshire (1808), p. 113. 6 Davis' Oxfordshire (1794), p. 11. 



Lowe's Nottinghamshire (1798), p. 8. 



7 Vancouver's Hampshire (1813), pp. 51, 80. 'Boys' Kent (1796), p. 26. 



