226 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



farmers, who paid their rents very badly, although these 

 were very low ; and ultimately a great many of them 

 abandoned their farms altogether, because they could not 

 make a livelihood out of them. It was then that Mr 

 Coke decided upon farming a portion of these sandy 

 wastes himself ; the rest he put into very large farms, 

 and, by offering leases of twenty-one years, held out an 

 inducement to farmers of intelligence and capital to take 

 them. It is estimated that in the course of fifty years 

 Mr Coke expended 400,000 in improvements of all sorts, 

 which caused the farmers to lay out about as much more 

 an excellent investment on the part of both, since they 

 have all made money by it. 



Any one who wishes to get an idea of this period in 

 the history of English agriculture ought to visit Hoik- 

 ham. The farm which Lord Leicester personally directed 

 lies in the park belonging to the mansion. Its extent is 

 1800 acres, 500 of which are in permanent pasture ; the 

 rest is arable, laid out exactly for the four-course rotation. 

 The farm maintains 250 large cattle, 2500 southdown 

 sheep, and 150 pigs. An equally profitable visit may 

 also be paid to Castleacre, a farm of 1500 acres, and 

 several others in this district also deservingly famous. 

 It will be found that the same principles are everywhere 

 applied upon as large a scale, and followed by similar 

 results. The whole of this land formerly grew only rye ; 

 now it does not produce a particle of this grain, but 

 instead are to be seen the finest wheat crops and the best 

 cattle in the world. The present Earl of Leicester is a 

 worthy representative of his father. 



The agricultural amelioration of Bedfordshire has been 

 no less complete and rapid than that of Norfolk. Less 

 than a century ago, three-fourths of the county consisted 

 of nothing but waste commons. These unproductive 



