DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS IN ENGLAND 311 



occupied entirely by this class of farmers. But by 1787 there 

 had been a striking decline in the number of those belonging to 

 this class. Marshall says that the small proprietors saw all 

 about them tenant farmers, whom they had held as their 

 inferiors, reaping great profits and rising to a degree of affluence 

 superior to their own. The tenant farmers were able to live 

 in a style too extravagant for the small proprietors, and this 

 naturally made the latter dissatisfied with their position, " and 

 either launched out into extravagance ill suited to their income, 

 or voluntarily sold their comparatively small patrimonies, in 

 order that they might, agreeably with the fashion or frenzy 

 of the day, become great farmers." The lands owned by these 

 yeoman farmers fell into the hands of men of fortune and became 

 united with their large estates. 



The manufacturing industries did not merely expand during 

 this period, they changed their form of organization ; and this 

 change in organization had an important influence upon the 

 small farmers of England. As the factory system became 

 established, the domestic system of manufacturing was no 

 longer profitable, and the small farmers who had depended 

 upon spinning and weaving for a part of their income were 

 deprived of this means of supplementing the returns of their 

 small holdings. Many of these small farmer-manufacturers 

 were absorbed by the large industries of the towns, others turned 

 their entire attention to agriculture and became prosperous 

 farmers, while others were reduced, in time, to the ranks of the 

 agricultural laborers. 



But these are not the only ways in which the growth of manu- 

 factures and commerce influenced rural affairs. Many who had 

 made their fortunes in manufactures or in commerce desired 

 to own country homes. These country homes often consisted 

 of very small areas with villas built upon them, but more com- 

 monly, owing to an " inordinate desire " to be connected with the 

 new agriculture, the wealthy merchants and manufacturers pur- 

 chased farms and operated them, not for profit, but for pleasure. 



While farming for pleasure led to the buying out of many 

 landowning farmers in the vicinity of the large centers of wealth, 



