Transactions. 43 
all dead, but the descendants of one of the sons are farmers in 
Ireland. A farmer still living in the parish (1894), 85 years of 
age, but some eighteen years retired from farming, tells me that 
he, his father, and grandfather, and, he believes, his great- 
grandfather, were tenants of the same farm, the farm of 
Burnside, from time immemorial, or for a period of 300 years. 
The farm, if it can be so called, was doubtless at first but a bit 
of barren and unprofitable moorland; and my informant, who 
did more than all his forefathers put together to reclaim the 
land, and to bring it into its present well cultivated, well fenced, 
and well housed condition, tells me that about 100 years ago the 
rent was £20, but, to keep’ himself correct, he added that to the 
original little croft, for it was nothing better, there were 
added two small portions of swampy and but partially reclaimed 
land. Eighteen years ago, when he retired from the farm, he 
was offered a renewal of his lease by his landlord—a different 
landlord from that of his middle age, at a rise of £60, or £10 
more than he was paying. 
Fifty years ago no landlord wished to remove from his estate 
a family that wished to remain, or, at the expiry of a lease, so 
raised the rent on an old tenant that he could not retake it. 
It was a thing unknown at that time to have a farm advertised 
to be let. Now it is a thing almost as unknown to find a farm 
let without being advertised. Between the years 1850 and 
1860 the change began. A steady and ever increasing rise of 
rents set in. Then, whenever a lease was out, and the farm 
advertised to be let, if the outgoing tenant was not to be an 
offerer, applicants were numerous—more numerous of course 
where the farms were small; and rents were offered, rents were 
given, which to the older tenants seemed ruinous. For a time— 
for a period of fifteen or twenty years, rents at a high figure 
were maintained, and farmers seemed to thrive and prosper. At 
that time properties were sold and properties were bought at 
prices which cannot now be realised, and farms everywhere, in 
all parts of the country, changed hands. Colvend did not escape 
the revolution. Colvend, indeed, which seemed to lie outside 
the influence of change and civilization, felt it more. Of the old 
tenants, whose fathers made the farms, and whose forefathers 
for generations occupied the farms, hardly a descendant now 
remains in the parish, and only two occupy farms, but not the 
farms which their fathers tilled. 
