334 History of the English Landed Interest. 



of landowners ruined, many fertile soils devastated. What 

 else could have been expected while half the landed interest 

 was at the other half's throat ? Charles suffered and Cromwell 

 came into power. The two Cromwells died, and the military- 

 absolutism continued. Through the conduct of Charles the 

 King, the monarchy had lost all favour with the nation, 

 through that of Charles Stuart it regained its lost ground, 

 and through the memory of Charles the Martyr it had become 

 more popular than ever. It is now time to examine the 

 effects of this national struggle upon the rank and file of the 

 class which drew its profits from the soil. 



The last years of the Tudor dynasty had been marked by 

 unfruitful harvests, but the seasons seem to have had very 

 little effect on the prosperity of agriculturalists. Indeed, from 

 1576 prices began to rise, both the yeomen freeholders and 

 the tenant farmers profiting by the circumstance, and the 

 landowners ultimately sharing in the general prosperity as 

 soon as they had obtained a proportionate rise of rents.^ The 

 labouring class alone suffered ; their wages remained stationary, 

 although the necessaries of life had risen in value. It is an 

 ill wind that blows nobody good, and the Civil War, which 

 caused to stagnate, if it did not throw back, agricultural de- 

 velopment, stepped in between this last-named class and desti- 

 tution. Many confiscated estates fell into the hands of men 

 risen from the plough who, chiefly animated by a love of gain, 

 returned with delight to their old pursuits. Platts, Hartlib, 

 Blyth, and many others encouraged the revival of husbandry 

 by their writings. Cromwell himself was an interested patron 

 of all connected with this profession, and much attention 

 began to be directed to the scientific farming of the Flemings.^ 

 The object of these intelligent and industrious people was as 

 far as possible to make a farm resemble a garden. They culti- 

 vated small estates only, which they frequently hoed, dug and 

 manured. They made the great discovery that ten acres of 

 vegetables maintained a larger stock of grazing animals than 

 forty acres of common field grass, and that the latter pasturage 



* Eogers, Prices and Agriculture, vol. v. 

 ^ Eees, Encyclo., sub vac. Agriculture. 



