DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS IN ENGLAND 315 



of the yeomen of Cheshire were living beyond their means. 

 During the period of high prices they had accustomed them- 

 selves to a standard of living which they were unable to main- 

 tain after prices had fallen, without gradually consuming their 

 estates. Lee says of this class, " Their property is nearly gone." 

 There is a suggestion that a change of this kind in the habits 

 of the yeomen farmers may have been the occasion of forced 

 sales of land in Worcestershire and in Somersetshire. 



But while extravagance may at times have been the cause of 

 failure, the yeomen as a class were industrious and frugal. 

 Speaking of the yeomanry of Cumberland, Blamire says, they 

 " are quite as frugal as the tenantry and often more so, and 

 their situation is often worse. . . . They equally lodge their 

 laborers in their own houses, and dine at the same table 

 with them." Having to give up their estates was "by no 

 means the effect of improvidence on their part." Mr. W. Thur- 

 nall said that in Cambridgeshire the yeomen were very economi- 

 cal and always hard-working men. " There is not a more 

 industrious man in the three counties," says J. B. Turner, 

 " than a man in Herefordshire whose estate has been sold under 

 bankruptcy." 



It was not, as a rule, lack of frugality and industry which ruined 

 so many of the yeomanry during this period of depression ; 

 it was primarily the fall in prices at a time when indebtedness 

 was very prevalent with this class. This indebtedness was 

 sometimes incurred for the purpose of purchasing land, some- 

 times for improvement, often to provide for the younger mem- 

 bers of the family, and, occasionally, to cover general living 

 expenses. 



Mr. W. Simpson told the Committee of 1833 that the yeo- 

 manry near Doncaster were " many of . them bankrupts." 

 " Farmers who, having four or five thousand pounds, bought 

 farms twenty-five or thirty years ago, borrowing part of the 

 purchase money, have been obliged to sell, and they have 

 nothing left." In Nottinghamshire " a great number bought 

 land at high prices, and having mortgaged their farms for 

 more than their value at the reduced prices, they have been 



