RUIN OF MANY FARMERS 323 



tions, executions, seizures, arrests and imprisonments for debt 

 multiplied. Farmhouses were full of sheriffs' officers. Many large 

 farmers lost everything, and became applicants for pauper allowances. 

 Even in Norfolk the number of writs and executions rose from 636 

 in 1814 to 844 in 1815 ; in Suffolk from 430 to 850 ; in Worcester 

 from 640 to 890. In the Isle of Ely the number of arrests and 

 executions increased from 57 in 1812-13 to 263 in 1814-15. In the 

 same district several farmers failed for an aggregate sum of 72,500, 

 and the creditors in hardly any instance received a dividend. 

 Between 1815 and 1820, 52 farmers, cultivating between them 24,000 

 acres, failed in Dorsetshire. Agricultural improvements were at 

 a stand-still. Live-stock was reduced to a minimum. Lime-kilns 

 ceased to burn ; less manure was used on the land ; the least possible 

 amount of labour was employed. The tradesmen, innkeepers, anc 

 shopkeepers of country towns suffered heavily by the loss of custom 

 Blacksmiths, wheelwrights, collar makers, harness makers, carpenters 

 found no work. At first the depression had been chiefly felt ii 

 corn-growing districts, especially on heavy land. But by 1816 it 

 had spread to mixed and grass farms. In that year, bad seasons 

 created a temporary scarcity ; the rise of wheat to the old prices 

 aggravated rural distress without helping any persons except dealers, 

 and the wealthier farmers who could afford to wait ; the potato 

 crop, which had recently become important in England, failed ; 

 perpetual floods in the spring and summer were succeeded by a 

 winter of such unusual severity, that the loss of sheep in the North 

 was enormous. Landlords, whose land was thrown upon their 

 hands, or who had laid charges on their estates, found themselves 

 confronted with ruin. The alternative was hard. If the mortgagee 

 foreclosed, the estate sold for a sum which barely recouped the 

 charges. Preston, 1 in 1816, states that " in Norfolk alone landed 

 property to the value of one million and a half is on sale, without 

 buyers for want of money." One property, for which " 140,000 

 was offered two years ago, is now on sale at 80,000." In a second 

 pamphlet 2 he states that " some of the best estates of the kingdom 

 are selling at a depreciation of 50 per cent. One of the finest grass 

 farms in Somersetshire sold lately at 10 years purchase." " There 



1 Review of the Present Ruined Condition of the Agricultural and Landed 

 Interests, by Richard Preston, M.P. (1810), (Pamphleteer, vol. vii. pp. 149, 

 167). 



1 Further Observations on the State of the Nation (1816), (Pamphleteer^ vol. 

 be. p. 127.) 



