BURNHAM BEECHES. 269 
so under these considerations, knowing how grievous a penalty 
the quitting a tenement would be to any East Burnham resident, ° 
I was obliged to lay aside whatever intention I had before 
cherished of seeking to aid my poor neighbours in this matter.” 
While tenacious to the last degree of her rights, 
or supposed rights, Lady Grenville took no pains to 
preserve order or even decency in the Manor. The 
roads were neglected. The gates which had formerly 
prevented cattle from straying from the Common were 
not maintained. Pigs, unrung, were allowed to tear up 
the surface of the Common. 
Mrs. Grote attributed much of the evil to the fact 
that Lady Grenville, on account of her great age, 
delegated her power to an irresponsible and ignorant 
agent. 
“The situation in which the large estate of Lady Grenville 
found itself at this period is one not unfrequently exhibited in 
England, but which is not only unfavourable to the interest of 
the inhabitants, and of those who are in any way dependent on 
the property, but is, in a minor degree, inconvenient to all 
residents in its vicinity. An aged landed proprietor delegates 
her authority over her lands and Manors to persons of an inferior 
station in life, who cannot take the same view either of public 
interests, or of the credit attaching to the condition of a gentleman, 
as the proprietor herself. . . . The whole system under which 
the district was administered revolved round Lady Grenville 
represented by a paid agent (living three hundred miles away in 
Cornwall), and he again by a young deputy instructed to keep 
down expenses and to maintain ‘rights.’ The poor were left 
without anybody to care for them, all trembling at the nod of 
‘the steward.’ ” 
The annoyance, vexation, and sense of injustice 
