A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



disseminated by the annual meetings at Woburn, and by the Bedfordshire Agricultural Society. 

 Mention is also made of the beneficial influence upon local agriculture exerted by ' the late and 

 present Mr, Whitbread,' and by Mr. Lee Antonie and other resident noblemen and gentlemen. 

 As to the farmers themselves, Mr. Foster admits that formerly ' with too much reason ' they were ' in 

 general accounted ignorant, obstinate, and niggardly ; now there are to be found among them men 

 of superior information, and of liberal minds.' There was also an improvement in the labouring 

 class, as to both skill and character. Mr. Batchelor apologizes for the unwillingness of common 

 farmers to adopt new improvements on the grounds that the recommendation of these improvements 

 ' often comes in a questionable shape,' and that experimentation is troublesome and costly. Even 

 the large farmers, men of liberal minds and considerable experience, confess that the 'chemical 

 nature of soils, and the first principles of vegetation and animalization, are desiderata in agriculture ' 

 as inaccessible to. the occupier of i,ooo acres as to the occupier of only 50. Here, again, nearly 

 the whole of the experimentation that had been done in feeding, in the values of various 

 foodstuffs, in the properties of different breeds of animals, &c., had been done by ' the late 

 Duke of Bedford.' 



Mr. Batchelor gives us some interesting details as to the local agricultural rents a century 

 ago. Half a century before his time, it had been common about Lidlington to pay half a year's 

 rent when a year and a halPs rent was due ; but in his time a farmer was expected to pay half 

 a year's rent when it had been due only three months : hence, 'an additional capital, equal to three- 

 fourths of a year's rent, is necessary to stock a farm, and the rent is raised ^^3 15^. per cent. 

 without any alteration in the nominal sum.' There had been a very considerable rise in rent. In 

 many of the new inclosures the nominal rent had been doubled ; in other cases it had been raised 

 40 or 50 per cent., but in some cases only 20 or 30 per cent. The value of the land 

 I in the same parish, and frequently on the same form, was so various that it was useless to strike an 

 average. As examples of the rise of rent, Mr. Batchelor mentions Turvey, where rent rose from 

 91. td. to 17J. bd. ; Stevington, from ioj. to 20s. ; Biddenham, from 17^. to 30^. ; Milton Ernest, 

 from lOJ. bd. to 30J., sward 40^. These are sufficient as examples. At Sandy, doubtless on 

 account of the market-gardening, rent varied from los. to £^ or ^^5. At Bedford, pasture let at 

 ^3 or more ; at Dunstable some pasture let at j^5. Mr. Batchelor complains of the recent intro- 

 duction of the mode of letting the land by ' secret auction ' whereby ' a price is not set upon the 

 land . . . but the farmers are required to make what offers they choose, upon which they are 

 generally informed that a greater price has been already offered, but without producing any proof 

 that such is a true statement of the case.' 



Mr. Batchelor found that only a few of the inclosed parishes remained subject to tithes. But 

 rarely the tithe was still taken in kind. 



As to tenancy, farms were generally held from year to year, or for the usual three years' course 

 of cropping in the uninclosed parishes. In every part of the county there were a few farms held on 

 lease ; but leases recently executed were mostly for a short term, eight or at most fourteen years, 

 and some of these were voidable upon half a year's notice from either landlord or tenant. The 

 leases often contained stipulations as to the cultivation of the land and the courses that should be 

 followed ; but these stipulations were not always observed ; and Mr. Batchelor quotes the opinion 

 of several considerable farmers that the ' tenant's hands were sometimes tied by the arbitrary rules of 

 such as are destitute of local experience.' He says also that the ' farms of Bedfordshire generally 

 descend from father to son through a long series of years, and perhaps as frequently change their 

 owners as their occupiers.' 



In a curious section upon the farmer's domestic expenses, Mr. Batchelor gives an interesting 

 glimpse of the daily life of the rural population a century ago. ' Most of the farmers that are not 

 very poor,' he says, ' are in the practice of purchasing some joint of butcher's meat for the Sabbath 

 day at least.' But pork, 'affording the cheapest subsistence,' is seldom omitted from the farmer's 

 table. He estimates the cost of this per head, in a farmer's household, at an average of 11. 6rf. per 

 week. Next comes ' brown bread or common pudding,' at 2d. per pound or u. bd. per week. A 

 poi:nd of cheese per head per week accounts for 9J. A third of a gallon of skimmed milk per diem 

 costs "jd. per week. A pint and a half of small beer per diem costs j^d. per week. Allowing 2d. 

 per week for vegetables, the < expense of common diet ' per head per week in a farmhouse was 51. 

 A touch of luxury, in the form of ' additional articles,' is added in a pint of ale per diem, lo^d. per 

 week ; half a pound of butter for the week, (>\d. ; half a pound of sugar, 4^;^. ; and an ounce of 

 tea at bd. per ounce; the 'additional articles' costing a weekly sum oi 2s. i\d. To this the 

 ' Sabbath ' day's butcher's meat has to be added. 



From Mr. Batchelor's elaborate analysis of the ' Expense and Profit of Arable Land ' we 

 extract a very few representative items. In ploughing, the number of horses employed averaged a 

 little over three. In dry weather four were necessary, sometimes five or six on strong clays. In 

 uninclosed parishes, clay fallows were seldom ploughed more than three times previous to wheat or barley 



132 



