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Landowning in Northumberland. By the late R. G. 

 BoLAM, Berwick-on-Tweed. 



[Reprinted from the Newcastle Daily Journal, 14th July 1887.] 



Since the day when God spake unto Adam and Eve, 

 saying: "Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, 

 and subdue it," the desire to possess some portion of the 

 earth's surface seems to have been the ruling passion among 

 their descendants, whether in the form of an inordinate 

 desire to possess the whole, as in Alexander, or in the more 

 humble wish of the old sea captain, who only wanted a bit 

 of land in which to stick his wooden leg, and call his own. 

 For this end wars innumerable have deluged the world in 

 blood, and crimes without number have been committed ; 

 for this end we find Abraham purchasing the field of 

 Machpelah for a place in which to bury his dead ; Jacob 

 purchasing the birthright of his brother Esau ; aad Joseph 

 purchasing the land of Egypt for Pharaoh ; Alexander con- 

 quering the world, and sighing for other worlds to conquer ; 

 the Romans invading Britain ; and, in more recent times, 

 the Normans invading and conquering England, William 

 promising lands and lordships both rich and plentiful to his 

 barons and retainers ; while recent events would go far to 

 prove that the passion is still as strong in the human 

 breast, as it was in the days of Alexander or of William 

 the Conqueror. 



As it would be impossible within the limits of the present 

 article to deal, except very partially, with all the questions 

 which an enquiry into '* Landowning in Northumberland " 

 opens up, it must suffice to take only a cursory view of the 

 past, giving an illustration here and there in passing, in 

 order to devote more attention to the changes which have 

 taken place witliin the last fifty years, or during the reign 

 of Her Most Gracious Majesty whose Jubilee we have just 

 been celebrating. 



We are told on high authority (Haydn) that agriculture 

 was introduced into England by the Romans, a.d. 27, but 



