REASONS OF FAILURE 123 



and the finances became so involved that the com- 

 pany was finally dissolved by Act of Parliament in 

 1851. Five estates had been bought by this time 

 viz., at Minster Lovell in Oxfordshire, Snig's 

 End in Gloucestershire, Lowbands and Dodford in 

 Worcestershire, and Rickmansworth in Hertford- 

 shire. A receiver was appointed by the Court of 

 Chancery, and the rent-charges upon the different 

 properties were put up to sale. In connection with 

 the sale, Mr. Doyle, in his report to the Royal 

 Commission on Agriculture in 1882, says that one 

 of the properties (Minster Lovell) appears to have 

 been sold in lots to various small investors ; and 

 that on the other estates, while many of the 

 allottees would have been glad to buy their own 

 holdings, they were not enabled to do so, as the 

 receiver put up the properties for sale as a whole. 

 ' Some of the present occupants have an impression 

 that the receiver, having applied for, and failing to 

 obtain, permission to purchase the property on his 

 own account, commissioned the solicitor of the 

 company to purchase it for him. That gentleman 

 having a large bill of costs, amounting to several 

 thousand pounds, against the company, purchased 

 but for himself. Whatever may be the facts, the 

 property is now (subject to certain mortgages) 

 vested in the widow of the former legal adviser of 

 the company.' 



This, then, was the end of the company as such. 

 But its results have extended on into the present 

 time, and will be studied in the accounts given of 



