KINGTON AND RADNORSHIRE 157 



not to give to the poor or to any individuals, but to so 

 administer as to enable every man to live by honest work, to 

 restore to the whole people their birthright in their native 

 soil, and to relieve all alike from a heavy burden of unneces- 

 sary and unjust taxation. This will be the true statesmanship 

 of the future, and it will be justified alike by equity, by ethics, 

 and by religion. 



In the few preceding pages I have expressed the opinions 

 which have been gradually formed as the result of the 

 experience and study of my whole life. My first work on the 

 subject was entitled "Land Nationalization: its Necessity and 

 its Aims," and was published in the year 1882 ; and this, 

 together with the various essays in the second volume of my 

 " Studies Scientific and Social," published in 1900, may be 

 taken as expressing the views I now hold, and as pointing 

 out some of the fundamental conditions which I believe to. be 

 essential for the well-being of society. 



But at the time of which I am now writing such ideas never 

 entered my head. I certainly thought it a pity to enclose 

 a wild, picturesque, boggy, and barren moor, but I took it 

 for granted that there was some right and reason in it, instead 

 of being, as it certainly was, both unjust, unwise, and cruel. 

 But the surveying was interesting work, as every trickling 

 stream, every tree, every mass of rock or boggy waterhole, 

 had to be marked on the map in its true relative position, 

 as well as the various footpaths or rough cart-roads that 

 crossed the common in various directions. 



At that time the medicinal springs, though they had been 

 used from the time of the Romans, were only visited by a 

 few Welsh or west of England people, and there was little 

 accommodation for visitors, except in the small hotel where 

 we lodged. One of our great luxuries here was the Welsh 

 mutton fed on the neighbouring mountains, so small that a 

 hind-quarter weighed only seven or eight pounds, but which, 

 when hung a few days or a week, was most delicious eating. 

 I agree with George Borrow in his praise of this dish. In 

 his " Wild Wales " he says, " As for the leg of mutton it was 



