OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 13 



who arc the stability of our country; for while revolutions in foreign 

 lands have altered the succession of estates and destroyed that middle 

 class of a landed gentry between the nobility and the lower orders, 

 while changes in our own political and social condition have brought 

 about many alterations in other respects, there has always been main- 

 tained among us a class of landed proprietors and sturdy yeomen who 

 have formed a link between the upper and lower classes, occasionally 

 amalgamating with both, and keeping up that chain which constitutes 

 a nation's strength. "With the view of preserving this system, the 

 feudal principle of primogeniture was established, and still prevails 

 among us. jS^o sooner does any man, by his talents or perseverance, 

 accumulate a property, but he seeks to perpetuate it in his family, as 

 a record of his talents or his industry. So it has always been amongst 

 us, and I confess I, for one, should be sorry to see in this country that 

 levelling spirit which would destroy the system ; but I don't think 

 that it is very likely to occur, for we invariably remark that the men 

 who acquire property by the work of their brain or their hands, are 

 the most anxious to entail the same upon their posterity , and quite 

 right too, so long as they remember one thing : — Nothing without the 

 Lord. " The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich," and so long as 

 they remember that it is only the virtuous and the upright upon 

 whose efforts the Lord looks with satisfaction. In these cases, where 

 a landed estate is to be retained in a family, one alone, of course, can 

 be its representative; the younger branches, like the swarms of a hive 

 of bees, must push out to forage for themselves. Thus, while the 

 acres passed to "William, and, failing his issue, to Eobert "Whittington, 

 Richard must sally forth to seek his own fortune in the world. 



At the time I am speaking of, the Manor of Pauntley must have 

 been of very small value, scarcely, I should imagine, more than a 

 knight's fee, or £20. per annum. The parish was at that time nearly 

 all moorland and chase, or woodland, so that there could not be much 

 to spare for younger children consistent with keeping up the family 

 estate. It was held at one knight's fee at the time of the Norman 

 Conquest, and had scarcely improved much in value at the time of 

 Eichard II. for I find it described as " Pauntelcy unum feodum per 

 Willum de "Whytington." — Cal. Inqiiis.post mortem, 22 Rich II. 



