268 BURNHAM BEECHES. 
that of extreme dissatisfaction, coupled with a sense of 
injustice. The cottagers asserted that carts belonging to 
persons living ata distance were continually sent to carry 
away from the Common, by permission of the steward, 
quantities of peat, sand, fallen leaves, and turf. They 
complained that these parties were allowed to benefit by 
the Common, although they contributed nothing to the 
rates, whilst not one of these very ratepayers could 
take a single barrow-load without going to Dropmore 
to ask leave. ‘“ They felt, in short, that Lady Grenville 
was seeking to establish an ‘absolute’ rather than a 
manorial property in the soil; giving away the same 
out of the parish in any quantity she thought fit, 
and preventing any one but herself from using the soil 
unless specially authorised by herself.” 
Mrs. Grote goes on to say that she felt a strong 
desire to probe the whole matter, and to contest Lady 
Grenville’s rights, in the interest of the labouring 
people; and that she would willingly have taken steps to 
this end, but she found herself deterred by the fear 
of bringing down upon the heads of the labouring 
people the vengeance of the agent. 
“ He had lately, it seems, explicitly given them to understand 
that whoever moved in tbe matter or furnished information, 
tending to call in question Lady Grenville’s supremacy, would be 
immediately turned out of their tenements. This menace had 
the effect of tying up the tongues of all her tenants, and of 
inducing them to wish that no further ‘stir’ should be made. 
The whole of the inhabitants, it may be said, rented cottages 
under Lady Grenville, with the exception of my gardener, Mr. 
Ludlam’s three tenants, and one or two cottages on the Common ; 
