FARMING AND FOXHUNTING 



later in life to be known as the Napoleon of 

 the Turf. 



Those who put their eye on this neighbourhood 

 to-day have no conception of its appearance in those 

 early days of which I speak. From a farming point 

 of view there may not be so great a change, although 

 this has undergone much variation and I very much 

 doubt whether the output of farm produce is any- 

 thing like as much to-day, but that is not to be laid 

 to the charge of those who now farm the land. It 

 is quite certain that, had the present-day tenants 

 continued to practise the old methods of farming, 

 their pockets would be now very nigh empty. 



But let us get back to those early years. On my 

 arrival my neighbours were William Chandler at 

 North Farm, Job Kevil at the manor, Farmer 

 Kemble at Netlebed Farm — to-day known as 

 King Edward Place — all farmers following the 

 four-course system and hurdle flocks. Versed in 

 the same system, I could not do otherwise than fall 

 in, and so practised the same methods until I came 

 out twenty-six years later, 1919, and I am not 

 conscious of coming out with less than I went in. 



Henry Jeans at Hill Manor followed Ferryman, 

 who I believe left the neighbourhood because he 

 did not feel happy at hill farming on the old lines. 

 Perhaps this particular farm did not lend itself to 

 the later nineteenth-century habits. It certainly 

 was, and is, a difficult job to get up and down the 

 hills to the Homestead with the home-grown arable 

 crops. Henry Jeans was wise in his generation to 

 adopt the round fence system and lay on the water. 



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