THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMER 147 



ness and canny tact, which has made them such a 

 power in the world. Of somewhat higher dignity than 

 the mere freeholder was the " lord of the manor," or 

 country squire with tenants under him. He might be 

 the son of a peer, or he might be a yeoman who had 

 risen in life. This rural middle-class had many points 

 of contact on the one hand with the nobility and on 

 the other hand with the burghers of the large towns. 

 They were all used from time immemorial to carrying 

 on public business and settling questions of general 

 interest by means of local representative assemblies. 

 There was far less antagonism between town and 

 country than on the Continent, and when it became 

 necessary to curb the sovereign it was comparatively 

 easy for the middle class in town and country to join 

 hands with part of the nobility for that purpose. 



We can thus understand why the earl and his castle 

 have not furnished popular tradition with the themes 

 of such blood-curdling legends as have surrounded the 

 count and his chateau. The old English yeoman, 

 with his yew-tree bow and clothyard shaft, was the 

 most independent of mortals, and nothing could exceed 

 his pitying contempt of the whole array of armoured 

 knights and starveling peasantry that he scattered in 

 headlong flight at Poitiers and Navarre te. His lord 

 of the manor was not so much the taskmaster of his 

 tenants as their leader and representative. A sturdy 

 and thrifty race were these old English squires. To- 

 day perhaps it was to call out their archers and march 

 against the invading Scot ; to-morrow it was to sit in 

 Parliament with hats drawn over their knitted brows 

 and put into dutiful but ominous phrases some stern 

 demand for a redress of wrongs. Age after age of such 



