LAND HOLDING 



251 



As showing how holdings were being absorbed by wealthy land- 

 owners, the evidence of F. Punchard before the Small Holdings 

 Committee in 1888 may be quoted. The Underley estate, of which 

 he speaks, was bought by Alderman Thompson from A. Nowell in 

 1840. He said that in Kirkby Lonsdale, under the Tithe Award in 

 1834, there were 218 owners, there were now 120 ; and in New Hutton 

 where 20 years ago there were 18 owners there are now eleven. The 

 largest land purchaser in the county had been Lord Bective, his 25,000 

 acres having been bought within the last 50 years from 220 different 

 owners. The estate had : — 



19 holdings under 5 acres. 



194 holdings of which 49 were under 15 acres and 32 more under 50 

 acres in extent. 



The same absorption was taking place on the smaller estates 

 of the county, and is even yet continuing. 



The Garden Allotment system was started in Kendal in 1887 

 through the Underley Hall Estate laying out a lield for the purpose 

 near Kendal. At the third annual meeting in 1S90 F. Punchard, 

 the agent of the estate, remarked that the field produced three times 

 as much as it did before it was converted into gardens. 



According to Major Craigie, in the Statistics of the Board of 

 Agriculture in 1890, there were only seven parishes or townships 

 giving a return of allotments (detached from cottages) in the 

 county : — 



