3^)2 



History of the English Landed Interest. 



In a speech of Bacon's, delivered in the first session of James 

 I.'s parliament, we may gather how grievous these last exac- 

 tions had become. The purveyors, he complained, had become 

 " taxers " instead of " takers." They extorted from the people 

 annual fines of money, sometimes in gross and sometimes in 

 the nature of stipends, in lieu of their oppressive demands. If 

 these were refused, they destroyed ornamental timber, defaced 

 and despoiled mansions and other dwellings, exacted poundage 

 out of the royal debts for themselves twice over, viz. once 

 when received and again when discharged. If affronted they 

 would watch for the temporary absence of a proprietor or 

 his bailiff, and put their axes to some favourite shrub. They 

 would seize the poor man's hay or poultry, and mulct him in 

 poundage over its payment, which was neither assessed nor 

 attested according to law. Though produce on the highways 

 was exempted and the hours of purveyance limited to sunlight, 

 they chose to ignore these regulations of the statute book, and 

 no one knew when and where he might not be visited with 

 their unwelcome presence, or, since they refused to exhibit 

 their authority, by whom he was despoiled.^ 



"We now come to a period when the sons of those who had 

 fought at Edgehill, had, save in a few cases of longevity, suc- 

 ceeded to the possession of the family acres. The fervid loyalty 

 of the previous generation had become weakened by time, and a 

 reaction had set in. Few save the richest of the nobility could 

 afford to attend the Court ; and even the latter's income would 

 not allow them to compete in splendour with the highly 

 salaried or heavily pensioned courtiers and favourites of the 

 sovereign. According to Gregory King, the average income 

 of a temporal lord was £3,200 per annum, whereas such court 

 favourites as Burleigh in Elizabeth's reign maintained twenty 

 gentlemen retainers at a thousand pounds salary each, and had 

 servants whose fortunes varied from one to twenty thousand 

 pounds. Yet Burleigh was, practically' speaking, landless.^ 

 The bulk of the landed interest remained therefore at home, 

 living much the same life as the well-to-do yeoman of the 



' Bacon, TrorA"."?, vol. iv., pp. 805-G. 

 " Collins, Life, of Burlei(jh. 



