A Court Leet. 



BOl 



lives, the continuous interest of the copyholder in the land he 

 held ceased to exist, and in too many cases from that moment 

 he began to grudge the expenditure of a penny on the repair of 

 cottages or buildings or fences or gates, and the annual sum 

 disbursed on the necessary repairs dwindled to a vanishing 

 point as the years went on and the lives became older. 



Sometimes it happened that the last two lives lasted on 

 many years and the lord of the manor had to look on inipo- 

 tently while he saw good cottages and substantial farm 

 buildings melting away into deplorable ruins. And the urban 

 critic came down and was righteously indignant at the state 

 of the cottages, and demanded the name of the local magnate 

 and went away and denounced him, and had no suspicion that 

 the real responsibility for the wretched cottages rested with a 

 man who lived in one of them and for the wretched system 

 with men who had been dead for centuries. 



