4S HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE [xrr. 



XII. 

 EFFECTS OF STRICT ENTAILS. 



THE evils arising from strict entails, vividly 

 depicted by modern writers, appear to have escaped 

 the observation of contemporaries. They do not 

 allege that agriculture retrograded, or that the con- 

 dition of the rural population deteriorated, under 

 the operation of the statute De Donis. 



It was during the period in which the statute was 

 in full force, that, in the great forest of the Weald 

 ("according to Mr. Furley, the historian of the Weald 

 of Kent) extensive clearings were made, and an 

 industrious agricultural population took the place 

 of the herds of swine which, from the most remote 

 ages, had been the principal inhabitants. 



Serfdom was rapidly disappearing before the 

 advance of wealth and prosperity. The labourers 

 began to claim freedom as a right, and strove, not 

 always without success, to break the antiquated 

 links, which still bound some of their number to 

 the soil. 



