STATISTICS OF THE UNITED KIXGDOM. 447 



In Ireland and Scotland the estates are even larger tlian in England.* In 

 Ireland, owing to the financial embarrassments of many of the landowners, about 

 one-sixth of the land has lately changed hands, in addition to which about 

 6,000 peasant proprietors have been created in consequence of the sale of a 

 portion of the estate of the disestablished Irish Church. In Scotland, however, 

 no changes of this kind have taken place through the intervention of Parliament, 

 and 93 per cent, of the total area is held by 3,745 proprietors. There are land- 

 owners in that kingdom who from the highest of the mountains within their 

 demesnes cannot survey all they are lords of, and several of the finest lakes of 

 Scotland lie wholly within the bounds of a single park. 



The population of the British Islands has considerably increased since the 

 Norman invasion, but there is no reason to believe that the number of landowners 

 has. grown less since William the Conqueror divided all England amongst his 

 followers. The old Domesday Book, or register of lands, framed by order of that 

 king, and carefully preserved in the Record Ofiice, enumerates in England 9,271 

 tenants in capite and under tenants, and 44,531 tenants in socage, i.e. tenants bj^ 

 hereditary right, who rendered knightly service, or paid a fixed rent in exchange 

 for the land they held. The 108,407 rillains, who held an intermediate posi- 

 tion between burgesses and serfs, were originally only tenants at will, and at 

 the mercy of their lords, but in course of time they developed into copyholders, 

 and their estates passed from father to son. It was these villains who formed the 

 bulk of that stout yeomanry which conferred such conscious strength upon the 

 people of mediaeval England. The old Saxon custom of dividing the land in equal 

 portions amongst all the children still survives in a few parts of the country, and 

 more especially in the county of Kent, where it is known as gavelkind, f and 

 during the centuries which immediately succeeded the Norman conquest must 

 have largely increased the number of landowners. The yeomen, according to 

 Macaulay, about the middle of the seventeenth century still constituted one- 

 seventh of the total population. 



But what has become of Old England, with its peasant proprietors and 

 country gentlemen ? No doubt small capitalists and even working men are 

 intent upon carving out of the land a small plot which they may call their own, 

 and which is just large enough for a house and a small garden. In these laudable 

 efibrts they are assisted by numerous Building Societies, and around Birmingham 

 the number of these small freeholders already exceeds 13,000. But the peasant 



Proportionate size and annual value of landed properties :- 



t Shaw-Lofevre, Fortnightly Review, vol. xxi. New Series. 



