ii6 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



on the estate were let at is. ^d. and is. 6d. an acre, so that 

 there had not generally been much advance since 1500, which 

 is what we should expect, as the great rise took place at the 

 end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth 

 centuries. In 1589, therefore, it is not surprising to find that 

 40 acres of meadow and pasture let at ^s. an acre, and in 161 1 

 some buildings and 155 acres of park at lis. an acre. In 

 1616, ^66 acres of arable and pasture and 39 acres of meadow 

 were valued at icis. an acre for letting, and the Hall Farm of 

 175 acres (8|^ acres meadow) at 10s. ; and Great Pipers Farm 

 of 138 acres (8 meadow) at ys., while meadow and pasture 

 near the mansion was valued at 21s. an acre. 



In T658 the rent of the Hall Farm had advanced from 10s. 

 an acre to about i3i'., though in 1682 it went down to lis. 6d. ^ 

 According to the survey of the Manor of Manydown in Hamp- 

 shire in 1650, meadow land was worth 20s. an acre, pasture Sj. 

 to I oj., arable from 2s. io loj.jthe latter showing a great varia- 

 tion in quality.'* In 1723 Bryers Wood Farm at Hawsted, 

 which had been let in 1630 for £1$, was let at £2() ^s. These 

 rents are considerably higher than the estimate of Davenant 

 and King ; but it must be remembered that they were for land 

 in the parts of England, where farming was at its best, and 

 they, in accounting for the whole country, had to take into 

 consideration a vast amount of land in the north and west 

 which was worth very little. In the Rawlinson Collection ^ in 

 the Bodleian Library is a rental of Lord Kingston's estate 

 in north Nottinghamshire in 1689, the rents averaging loj-. 

 an acre ; but this was an exceptionally good estate, much of 

 the property being meadow and pasture. The farm-houses also 

 were above the average, while in two of the parishes the tenants 

 had rights of common, and in two others the tenancies were 

 tithe free. There was very little arable land on the estate, 



^ In 1677 there were complaints of a fall in rents. 

 . ^ Manydown Manor Rolls, Hampshire Record Society, pp. 178 ef seq, 

 ' Rawl. A. 170, No. lol. 



