THE ENGLISH LAND SYSTEM 65 



" While large estates were being thus acquired by 

 the Butlers, little holdings were being thrown to- 

 gether, to be held in the same hands. The history of 

 the Downlands estate will illustrate the process. A 

 small copyhold called by that name for centuries was 

 enfranchised by George Enticknap in 1686, and an- 

 other adjoining it called 'Clerks,' by Thomas Entick- 

 nap in 1703. The two were merged in 1742 and sold 

 to Nicolas Kent. . . . The other tenement at ' Clerks ' 

 was used by the labourers on the land. 'Adams' and 

 the * Church Farm * with ' Old Place ' were acquired 

 at different dates, and so the present estate was 

 rounded off. ... A like accumulation was going on 

 elsewhere." 



After oivino- several other cases the writer con- 

 tinues : — 



" In 1786 twelve of the farms consisted in each case 

 of two or three of the old holdingrs thrown tooether. 

 . . . All this could not have gone on without con- 

 siderable displacement of the old yeomanry, the copy- 

 holders of early date. They have left their names in 

 many cases linked to the farmhouses which they once 

 occupied, or where their dwellings stood, but one after 

 another they departed, and while a few rose to more 

 substantial fortunes, most of them sank to the level of 

 the wage-earners around them. Even thus early the 

 changes had begun which turned the substantial 

 houses of the yeomen into pairs of inconvenient 

 tenements for carter and for shepherd who were 

 needed close to the farm buildings. . . . At West- 

 meon all the land at the beginning of the last century 

 (nineteenth century) was owned by the men who 



has thought it best to illustrate his general statements by concrete cases. 

 This might be thought unnecessary, and even tedious, by experts, but 

 by the general public — for whom, it might again be stated, these pages 

 are mainly written — the way taken might be found a gainful one. 



