46 



Ebe7i Ehhender, the Moor Farmer. 



Vol. IX. 



Eben Elshender, the Moor Farmer. 



There is something so lively and agreeable, and sn 

 thoroughly practical, in the following article, which 

 we find in LittcWs Licing Age, of the 17tti of last 

 month, and which is there credited to Chambers' Jour- 

 i\al, that we have particular pleasure in transferring 

 it to the Cabinet. It present- to our view a beautiful 

 illustration of the philosophy of farming. The man 

 whose main object is the maintenance of his family, 

 must be careful that his experiments and his enter- 

 prises shall eventually prove successful — they should 

 therefore, be of a very limited character, compared 

 with what those may be, of the large capitalist — our 

 friend Eben, for instance. Where the means are 

 abundant, we can scarcely imagine a more pleasing 

 and rational employment, than that of improving 

 worn-out or impoverished, or naturally repulsive soils. 

 It is a delightful spectacle to observe the man of 

 gloomy mind, roused up to successful action and public 

 usefulness, by an object with which tlio healthiest 

 and strongest might almost fear to grapple. Refer- 

 ence has occasionally been made in the Cabinet to the 

 advantages of long leases. We are aware, that these 

 are less strikingly obvious in this country than in 

 England, where there is not so strong a probability 

 that economy and thrift will soon enable their pos- 

 sessor to make himself his own landlord: and in the 

 case before us, we at once perceive, that nothing could 

 have been done without a long protracted engage- 

 ment. — Ed. 



Ebenezer Alexander, or, as he was 

 usually called, Eben Elshender, a native of 

 the north of Scotland, was originally a man- 

 ufacturer, but not being successful in this 

 line, and falling into low spirits, he went to 

 ppend some time at a village where an elder 

 and more prosperous brother had a bleach 

 ing establishment, in the hope of recovering 

 the tone of his mind by means of country 

 air and exercise. The place seemed at 

 first sight unlikely to cheer up an invalid of 

 the mind, being situated in a higli and ste- 

 rile district, with a north-east exposure, and 

 far from all other human haunts; but things 

 turned out much better than might have 

 been expected, and we shall tell how this 

 came about. 



Eben, in his wanderings in the neighbour- 

 hood, was speedily attracted to a hollow in 

 the neighbouring moorlands, which might 

 be considered as the only place within seve- 

 ral miles presenting the least charm for the 

 eye — a brook, fringed by a line of willows 

 and a strip of green, formed the simple ele- 

 ments of the scene, and from its situation it 

 had a look of seclusion and warmth. He 

 was led, by what he saw here, to surmise 

 that elevation is not an insuperable difficulty 

 in cultivation, provided there be shelter; and 

 soon becoming convinced of the fact, his ac- 

 tive mind in no long time conceived that he 

 might employ himself worse than*) endea- 



vouring to clear a little possession for him- 

 .self, at a nominal rent, out of the neighbour- 

 ing lands. He looked around, but, excepting 

 the few patches in the neighbourhood of the 

 village, the region was one either of un- 

 broken heath or of moss of great depth, 

 broken into pits, and filled with water even 

 at midsummer. Nothing, therefore,, could 

 seem more hopeless. On the left only, as 

 he looked northward, a large flat, lying far 

 beneath him, and black and barren, or co- 

 vered with brown heath, but looking to the 

 sun, seemed to offer the semblance of a cul- 

 tivated field, and he determined to visit it. 

 He did so, but found it very unpromising. 

 The surface, though apparently smooth at a 

 distance, was rough and uneven ; the soil 

 was either stony and shallow, or a deep 

 quick moss, wet everywhere even in sum- 

 mer, and with no fall by which it might be 

 drained. A rivulet skirted it on the east, 

 and was the natural boundary in that direc- 

 tion ; but a swell many feet in height rose 

 on the bank, and closed in the surface of 

 the proposed farm from almost the possibility 

 of being drained ; and there were similar 

 embankments on the north and west. Still 

 it was a large surface, not materially un- 

 even ; it lay beautifully to the sun, and he 

 could not but think that, if drained, and 

 sheltered, and cultivated, here might be an 

 extensive, perhaps a valuable farm. It 

 would not require deep cuttings, as in moss- 

 flows, nor extensive levellings, as in very 

 unequal surfaces. He determined to think 

 further. 



He spoke of his purpose to no one, but he 

 brooded over it for days, again and again 

 visiting the ground, antl at last he waited 

 on the agent of the- proprietor. Even from 

 him he exacted a promise of secrecy, if no- 

 tiiing should follow upon his offer; and then, 

 for a lease of thirty years, offered a shilling 

 an acre for four hundred acres of that un- 

 broken waste, with power to renew his lease 

 for thirty years more, if he should so incline, 

 at five shillings per acre; but with liberty, 

 also, to quit at the end of five years, without 

 being liable in damages from any cause. 



Many landlords seem to fancy that though 

 land is of no value in their hands, they have 

 yet a right to be sharers in the profits pro- 

 duced by the intelligence, labour, and capi- 

 tal of others; and that they are extremely 

 liberal in forbearing to share for a few years 

 in what had never existed for them, and yet 

 will, at the end of those few years, be a 

 valuable inheritance to them and their heirs 

 forever. The landlord in the present case 

 was wiser. He saw that he was about to 

 receive immediately, for a small portion of 

 this moor in cultivation, almost as much as 



