208 ikfngs of tbe IRofc, 18ffle, anfc 6un 



to the ' Angel,' now the 'Royal' Hotel. The gates 

 were closed ; the Anti-Corn Law rioters assembled 

 round the inn. It was whispered that Coke would 

 be found in the boot of the London night coach, now 

 about to take its departure. The gates were opened, 

 the coach was searched, no Coke was to be found. 

 He and my father, having escaped by the back way, 

 were on their road to Quidenham, where they arrived 

 safely the same evening." 



But it is not as a politician that I am concerned 

 with "Coke of Norfolk," it is at Holkham amongst 

 his cattle and his game, as farmer and sportsman, 

 that I have it in my mind to picture him. 



When Thomas William Coke, on the death of his 

 father, succeeded to the Holkham estates, he found 

 the inheritance a poor one. His predecessors had been 

 content to let the fat manors and rich collieries of 

 Longford supply them with revenue, and had expected 

 little from their barren Norfolk farms. The whole 

 district round Holkham was unenclosed ; there was little 

 or no attempt at cultivation, for the land would produce 

 nothing but scanty crops of rye. The sheep were all 

 of the miserable old Norfolk breed, and, with the 

 exception of a few milch-cows, cattle there were none. 

 The average rent was not two shillings an acre. Probably 

 things would never have been much better had not 

 Mr. Coke been forced to take up farming himself. It 

 came about in this way. 



The Great Park Farm, one of the best on the estate, 

 had been leased to a Mr. Butt at one shilling and 

 sixpence an acre, and subsequently at three shillings. 



