BUY 
 
 T^Yir^T TCTT A PDPG 
 
 ENGLloH ACRbb 
 
 C. F. DOWSETT. F.S.C
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 BUY ENGLISH ACRES. 
 
 BY 
 
 C. F. DOWSETT 
 
 (FOR MANY YEARS IN LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON), 
 
 Fellow of the Surveyors' Institution ; 
 
 Member of the Royal Agricrtltural Society ; 
 
 Member of the Society of Authors (1890) ; 
 
 Author of " Striking Events in Irish History " ; 
 
 Editor and part Author of "Land: its Attractions and Riches" 
 
 Author of Various Historical Descriptions of Estates, 
 
 Numerous Pamphlets, Articles, etc. 
 
 May be obtained of the Author- 
 Mr. C. F. DOWSETT, 
 
 Winklebury, Basingstoke, 
 
 Hampshire. 
 
 Net price, 3s. 6d., post free, being 3s. for the book, 
 . postage, and lid. packing. 
 
 1904.
 
 The First Edition issued last January was very 
 favourably reviewed by the Press generally, and 
 the whole Edition was disposed of. It comprised 
 55 pages, and the Price was iod., post free. 
 
 The First Edition remains intact in the First 
 55 pages of the Second Edition, so that the Second 
 Edition is an addition, commencing at page 56, 
 the two together numbering 224 pages. 
 
 The Price of the Second Edition is 35. 6d., post 
 free, being 35. for the book, 4^d. for postage, and 
 I id. for packing.
 
 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST EDITION, 
 
 * 
 
 Which remains intaot as it was, the Second Edition 
 being an addition. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGE 
 
 REFERENCE TO THE BOOK 5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PURITY OF AIR IN THE COUNTRY 
 IMPURITY OF AIR IN TOWNS 
 
 f , CHAPTER III. 
 RURAL HOMES FOR TOWN WORKERS 9 
 
 H 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Two MOTIVES IN BUYING LAND 12 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE LAW'S DELAY 14 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 LAND v. STOCKS AND SHARES 18 
 
 C3 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 a IT is BRITISH ACRES WHICH MUST YIELD THE PEOPLE 
 
 FOOD IN TIME OF AN EUROPEAN WAR ., ... 20 
 
 384604
 
 4 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. PAGE 
 
 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS 24 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 DRY OR DAMP POSITIONS 35 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 ON LANDSCAPES 3 8 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 LAND AS A LUXURY 39 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY 49 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 BUSINESS PREMISES AND FACTORIES IN RURAL DISTRICTS 51 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 ADVANTAGES TO THE WORKERS 54 
 
 The Contents of the Second Edition commences at page 56.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 REFERENCE TO THE BOOK. 
 
 T N this small book I am making but brief references 
 to a few points of interest to the general public 
 touching the acquisition of land. 
 
 For a more thorough and exhaustive treatment 
 of subjects on land, I refer my readers to " Land : 
 its Attractions and Riches," which I issued in 1892, 
 and which comprised 900 pages (9^ by 5-^- inches), 
 and was subscribed for before a line was written, by 
 His Royal Highness the late Duke of Edinburgh, 
 and six other dukes, two marquesses, eight earls, 
 three viscounts, fifteen barons, and two hundred and 
 sixty-five ladies, baronets, knights, admirals, generals, 
 professional men and others. 
 
 The book was published at i. 73. 6d. per copy, 
 but the whole edition of 2000 copies has been dis- 
 posed of. It may, however, be obtained at Mudie's 
 and most of the leading libraries. The late Queen 
 Victoria purchased a copy for the library at Windsor 
 Castle.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PURITY OF AIR IN THE COUNTRY. 
 IMPURITY OF AIR IN TOWNS. 
 
 IT is a startling fact that the atmosphere of towns 
 is very impure in comparison with that of rural 
 districts. The investigation of a Scientific Com- 
 mittee found that in Manchester 19 cwt. of free 
 sulphuric acid and 10 cwt. of ammonia fell in one 
 inch of rain, so that instead of rain water being 
 of the soft character so much prized it was little 
 better than a dilute solution of sulphuric acid, 
 black from tarry matter and suspended soot In 
 Manchester in three days were carried down 6 cwt. 
 of sulphuric acid and over 13 cwt. of blacks per 
 square mile. 
 
 Fresh air is one of the principal supports of a 
 healthy and comfortable existence, and this in its 
 purity is only to be found in rural districts. The 
 Registrar-General reported that out of 613 town- 
 dwelling recruits only 213 were fit to join the Army.
 
 PURITY OF AIR IN THE COUNTRY. / 
 
 IMPURITY OF AIR IN TOWNS. 
 
 Eminent authorities have laid down that where more 
 than about 400 persons were resident in a square 
 mile the death-rate increased in a definite ratio. 
 
 It stands to reason that town dwellers who have 
 to breathe poisonous acids into their lungs over and 
 over again must become weak and unhealthy. 
 
 Mr. W. H. Dickinson, L.C.C., wrote to the 
 Times (October 14, 1903), as follows: 
 
 " We are now, year by year, both in the poor and in the rich 
 parts of London, piling more and more people on to an acre of land. 
 Where there have been two-storied houses with gardens we have six- 
 storied flats, often times, in well-to-do localities, built so close together 
 that they would not even comply with the requirements of Parliament 
 had they been designed for artizans' dwellings. Our broad streets 
 are being narrowed both to the eye and to the lungs by the erection 
 of masses of high buildings on either side. We have more and more 
 need of air. And yet at the same time we are gradually losing the 
 private squares, in which parts of London have been very rich, and 
 which have been of incalculable benefit to the inhabitants by reason 
 of the circulation of the air which they facilitate and the oxydization 
 effected by the trees that they contain." 
 
 A recent " General Annual Return " of the 
 British Army gives the following totals of recruits 
 which were rejected : 
 
 Rejected before Attestation. 
 By recruiters ... ... ... 10,448 
 
 By medical officers ... ... 17,073 
 
 Rejected after Attestation. 
 By medical officers ... ... 3,583 
 
 By approving officers ... ... 1,226
 
 8 PURITY OF AIR IN THE COUNTRY. 
 
 IMPURITY OV AIR IN TOWNS. 
 
 It is not asserted that these rejections were all 
 in consequence of close packing in towns ; but so 
 many evidences have appeared in the press from 
 time to time of physical disability arising from this 
 cause, that it is considered as reasonable to make 
 this general statement. 
 
 In the Nineteenth Century for August, 1887, 
 Dr. Percy Frankland, referring to micro-organisms 
 in the air, states, " the greater the distance from 
 human habitation, the purer," and that it has been 
 fully proved that the presence of these microbes in 
 the air is a source of many diseases that, even in 
 the healthy parts of London, such as those close to 
 the parks, the result of his investigations proved 
 that on a dry, dusty day there were 554 of these 
 organisms in two gallons of air, while on the chalk 
 downs he found only two.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 RURAL HOMES FOR TOWN WORKERS. 
 
 THE subject of rural homes for those whose occupa- 
 tions are in London and other large towns is another 
 of the interesting questions which affect the value 
 of land-owning. The Times recently published a 
 letter from Lord Farrer, headed " Overcrowded 
 London." In it he stated that the three counties 
 of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex contained 300 railway 
 stations beyond the twenty-mile radius from London, 
 and none more than eighty-five miles from London. 
 Lord Farrer's argument was that, if the five rail- 
 ways which traverse the three said counties were 
 remodelled, they could run trains at fifty miles an 
 hour, and thus the neighbourhoods of the 300 sta- 
 tions would be available as suitable districts for the 
 residence of persons whose occupations required 
 their daily attendance in London. To give point 
 to his suggestion, Lord Farrer stated that during 
 the Naval Review the South - Western Railway 
 Company ran trains to the coast at fifty miles an
 
 10 RURAL HOMES FOR TOWN WORKERS. 
 
 hour, with only five minutes apart, for three hours 
 on end. 
 
 Lord Farrer's proposal in regard to the five 
 railways in the three counties is already accomplished 
 by the London and South- Western Railway Com- 
 pany in Hampshire. This Company is remodelling 
 its line by constructing a new one all the way from 
 Waterloo to Southampton, and the whole distance 
 from Waterloo to below Basingstoke is already 
 actually completed. 
 
 Thus the South- Western Railway has four sets 
 of lines, whereas the five railways in the three 
 counties referred to by Lord Farrer have only two 
 sets of lines. 
 
 As an illustration of Lord Farrer's scheme, take 
 Basingstoke, which is forty-eight miles from London. 
 Some trains do the journey every day in less than 
 an hour. The neighbourhood of Basingstoke is one 
 of the most pleasant and healthy in England, and 
 one in which Lord Farrer's proposal is now actually 
 being carried out. Lord Farrer's proposal is in 
 strict accord with public feeling. A century ago 
 the merchants, professional men, and clerks of 
 London lived either over the places where they 
 daily worked or within an easy walk of them, 
 but now large numbers of such people reside twenty, 
 thirty, forty, and even fifty miles distant. 
 
 In the February of 1882 I commenced a series
 
 RURAL HOMES FOR TOWN WORKERS II 
 
 of articles, suggesting villa farms. The suggestion 
 has been adopted now and then by land developers. 
 The argument was that busy brain workers confined 
 in close offices in towns needed fresh air, quiet, and 
 repose after their labours, and that if short spur 
 railways or tramways were constructed off main 
 lines of railways they would penetrate open agri- 
 cultural lands, which could be dealt with in sections 
 of from one to (say) fifty acres each. Such broad 
 acre sections could be obtained either on building 
 lease or by purchase at little more cost than the 
 price of some of the closely-packed tiny plots in 
 the near suburbs of towns. Twenty-one years have 
 passed since 1 882, and during that period the facilities 
 of locomotion have widely developed in very many 
 ways, so that what was just possible then would be 
 very easy now.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 TWO MOTIVES IN BUYING LAND. 
 
 THERE are at least two motives in buying land 
 pleasure and profit. If land is bought for pleasure 
 the purchaser should not grumble if it pays him no 
 interest on his outlay, or if indeed he has to pay 
 something per annum to keep it up. People who 
 buy pictures or so-called old china, or other odd- 
 ments of curio value, do not expect interest on their 
 outlay, unless they are dealers who buy to sell again 
 at a profit. Buyers of land should not expect 
 income from a natural landscape which is enduring 
 any more than they should from an artificial land- 
 scape which is perishing. We are all familiar with 
 the whine of some persons who, having bought 
 land for pleasure, and who, being unable to afford 
 to hold it, write to the newspapers with a complaint 
 that they have lost money by land-owning. 
 
 If land is bought for profit under the advice of 
 an agricultural valuer it produces as safe an income 
 as Consols, with this difference that it pays about
 
 TWO MOTIVES IN BUYING LAND. 13 
 
 one per cent, more than Consols, besides yielding 
 other advantages. Such land is bought for what it 
 will produce in corn and other kinds of food. It is 
 not supposed to possess the aesthetic qualities which 
 form the staple of land bought only for pleasure. 
 
 Some estates are bought both for pleasure and 
 profit, and they yield to the purchaser what he 
 expected by an income from the farms, and by the 
 pleasure of shooting, fishing, hunting, etc. 
 
 In this little island with its teeming millions of 
 people, and amongst them its millionaires, demi- 
 millionaires, and multitudes of lesser wealthy men, 
 who can afiford to buy painted landscapes at the 
 price of natural ones, land is becoming more and 
 more valuable, especially land possessing aesthetic 
 features, and yet so situate near to rapidly develop- 
 ing towns as to ensure in the near future such 
 results as have accrued to many well-known 
 families who to-day enjoy the wealth which the 
 shrewd thoughtfulness of their ancestors laid the 
 foundation of in buying land near to towns.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE LAW'S DELAY. 
 
 THE delay by solicitors in carrying through sales of 
 land is gradually rousing up the laity to take the law 
 into their own hands, thus every week through a 
 great part of the year may be seen advertisements 
 of sales by public auction and private contract, in 
 which the public are offered land which they can 
 possess as easily and quickly as a share certificate 
 in a company. The description, the plan, the con- 
 tract, the conveyance, and everything necessary to 
 an immediate transfer is anticipated ; the purchaser 
 pays his money and gets in return a printed con- 
 veyance, which is filled up in a few minutes, and he 
 is a freeholder. The vendor's title had been very 
 thoroughly examined by his solicitors when he pur- 
 chased, and being satisfied that he had a thoroughly 
 good marketable title he was assured that all reason- 
 able purchasers would be satisfied too, but in order 
 to meet any objection from a nervous buyer he had 
 abstracts of title printed, and so. on signing a printed
 
 THE LAW'S DELAY. 1$ 
 
 contract, a printed abstract was handed to him there 
 and then. 
 
 Now what is the ordinary way of solicitors in deal- 
 ing with a sale of land ? The vendor and purchaser 
 meet at his office and he solemnly takes instructions ; 
 after a week or more a draft contract is prepared 
 and the solicitors of vendor and purchaser commence 
 a correspondence as to its various conditions ; this 
 goes on for another week or two, and by the end of 
 a month from the first verbal agreement to purchase 
 a contract may be signed, then ten days will be 
 given for the delivery of an abstract of title, and by 
 the end of two months from the original verbal 
 agreement it is possible that a day may be fixed for 
 completion of the purchase. Thus this system takes 
 two months at least, but frequently three months are 
 occupied in the process, and sometimes a much 
 longer time, during which period the hands of both 
 buyer and seller are tied ; they can neither deal, the 
 one with the land, nor the other with the money kept 
 ready to pay for it. The loss of interest on money 
 lying idle if the purchase price is large is a sub- 
 stantial one. 
 
 It is this intolerable system of delay which has 
 so disgusted dealers in land that they now protect 
 themselves by having everything prepared and 
 printed ready for immediate execution, and thus men 
 who before the ready-made system made investments
 
 1 6 THE LAWS DELAY. 
 
 on the Stock Exchange because of the benefit of 
 immediate transfer, now put some of their moneys 
 into land, as is evidenced by the records in the 
 newspapers of continual sales on the immediate 
 transfer system. Solicitors rarely ever think of 
 calling upon one another to explain difficulties as to 
 a contract or conveyance they frequently give 
 inadequate answers to questions, and thus corre- 
 spondence is prolonged, time wasted, other opportu- 
 nities of dealing lost, and disappointment and 
 annoyance caused to the clients on both sides, 
 neither of whom are encouraged to continue the 
 buying and selling of land. They go to the Stock 
 Exchange, or to trade speculations or investments. 
 Thus, by unnecessary delays, and oftentimes un- 
 reasonable quibbles, men having money to invest 
 employ it anywhere that will save them from a 
 lawyer's office, so that solicitors lose business for 
 themselves and others. 
 
 There are, however, exceptions, and very 
 notable ones, to this severe and unreasonable 
 practice of red tape, but they are very few. I 
 have met a few solicitors whose aim is to carry 
 through contracts and conveyances with great 
 expedition, and in some cases even a few days 
 have sufficed where firms following the old course 
 have taken weeks. These expeditious lawyers 
 are accreting business, gaining public favour by
 
 THE LAW'S DELAY. 17 
 
 their common sense, and adding considerably to 
 their incomes. Their expeditionary process, how- 
 ever, is by personally settling difficulties which, 
 by correspondence, would take weeks to do. 
 
 When a title has once been enquired into, 
 and found to be satisfactory, it should be registered 
 as such, which saves the expense and delay of 
 having it again thoroughly investigated every time 
 it is sold. 
 
 I have given my reasons for this at considerable 
 length in " Land : its Attractions and Riches/' see 
 pages 707 to 721. Mr. S. A. Sillem, barrister-at- 
 law, also has a chapter on the subject, see pages 
 686 to 696. 
 
 I am not a believer in very large estates. I 
 would like to see Englishmen own their own 
 freehold land, whether a plot or broad acres, 
 because I am convinced that nothing tends more 
 to suppress an anarchical and revolutionary spirit 
 than the possession of part of the soil of one's 
 country. 
 
 Land would, if the title were registered, be a 
 more marketable commodity, and as readily con- 
 veyed from owner to owner as shares in the great 
 shipping or railway companies, or as in the great 
 Government arrangement of Consols.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 LAND v. STOCKS AND SHARES. 
 
 IN " Land : its Attractions and Riches," pages 236 
 to 253, I give masses of figures showing the losses 
 which investors have sustained through a too 
 confident trust in Stock Exchange properties. I 
 give various lists, and will briefly refer to them, 
 which prove that within a few years millions upon 
 millions upon millions sterling have been lost to 
 the British investor. 
 
 In a few brewery companies more than three 
 millions were lost. In some commercial companies 
 nine and a half millions were lost. In some 
 financial companies more than two and three- 
 quarter millions were lost. 
 
 In some trust companies some four and a 
 quarter millions were lost. Many other companies 
 are referred to representing losses by millions. 
 
 Then follows a reference to loans to foreign 
 States, which show an actual loss to British
 
 LAND V. STOCKS AND SHARES. 19 
 
 investors of no less than one hundred and fifty- 
 seven and a quarter millions sterling. The moral 
 is to investors put some of your money into 
 English acres. 
 
 See the articles by Mr. Leyson T. Merry on 
 pages 172 and 173, and by Mr. H. Dawson on 
 pages 173 to 1 86, on the formation of dishonest 
 companies, and note especially Mr. Dawson's 
 concluding paragraph on page 186.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IT IS BRITISH ACRES WHICH MUST 
 
 YIELD THE PEOPLE FOOD IN 
 
 TIME OF AN EUROPEAN WAR. 
 
 ONE important subject now before the country is 
 that of our " Food Supply in Time of War," and it 
 is worth consideration as affecting the question of 
 land-owning, for if the long-expected European 
 War were to come, the price of wheat and flour 
 would be enormously increased. An association 
 was recently formed composed of some hundreds of 
 the leading men in Great Britain to urge the 
 Government to take steps to secure a better reserve 
 of grain. 
 
 During the Crimean War in 1854 our popula- 
 tion was only 27,000,000, and we produced nearly 
 all our own food. Now, in 1904, our population is 
 41.000,000, and we are compelled to import three-
 
 IT IS BRITISH ACRES WHICH MUST YIELD 21 
 
 THE PEOPLE FOOD IN TIME OF AN EUROPEAN WAR. 
 
 fourths of our food and all our raw material. 
 Millions of acres formerly producing wheat are now 
 in grass because it has not paid the farmers to grow 
 wheat at recent prices. 
 
 Numerous suggestions have been made ; some 
 people urge that the Government should establish 
 granaries, others propose a tax on foreign wheat or 
 else a bounty on home-grown wheat, so that our 
 farmers should not receive less than 405. per quarter, 
 and it is asserted that if wheat were at 403. per 
 quarter it would have the almost instantaneous effect 
 of putting two and a half or three million more acre 
 of land in this country into cultivation for wheat, 
 yielding ten to twelve million quarters more as food 
 for the people. 
 
 Numerous other suggestions have been made, 
 but the effect of them all is to raise the price of 
 wheat so as to make it worth the while of the farmer 
 to grow it. 
 
 Now, what does all this mean to the owner ol 
 land but that wheat will rise immensely in value 
 as it has done before, during European wars. 
 
 During the wars in the early part of the last 
 century wheat was, in 1800, on the average 1 133. lod. 
 per quarter; in 1801 it averaged 1195. 6d. per 
 quarter ; in 1812 it averaged 1263. 6d. per quarter ; 
 and when the next European war comes, which has 
 been expected for so many years, it is supposed,
 
 22 IT IS BRITISH ACRES WHICH MUST YIELD 
 
 THE PEOPLE FOOD IN TIME OF AN EUROPEAN WAR. 
 
 for reasons given, that it will be at loos, and 
 some think 2003. per quarter. During the past 
 twenty years wheat has only averaged about 303. 
 per quarter. 
 
 Owners of land would then possess the most 
 valuable securities in the country. As it is, under 
 the present system of grass growing, it is paying 
 well enough, but then land would bring large 
 fortunes to its possessors. 
 
 Land adjoining important towns with first-class 
 railway stations and fast trains to London and all 
 parts of the country even now rises in value because 
 of its contiguity to central positions, because of the 
 ready access to all principal places, because of its 
 present value for dairy and accommodation purposes, 
 because of its residential and building value, and 
 what to the student of the last twenty years seems 
 strangest of all, it will rise in case of European war 
 immensely, because of its value for wheat growing, 
 for the plough can be put into the grass lands 
 and golden corn will bring golden sovereigns in 
 abundance. 
 
 Men who reflect on the future should put some 
 of their capital into land, it would pay them better 
 than cabinets stuffed with sentimental curios. It 
 would make men of their boys by country life 
 instead of the effete kind of beings which many
 
 IT IS BRITISH ACRES WHICH MUST YIELD 23 
 
 THE PEOPLE FOOD IN TIME OF AN EUROPEAN WAR. 
 
 town-bred youths turn out to be unable to shoot 
 or ride or use an implement. The backbone of the 
 country is in rural-bred men when courage and grit 
 are wanted for the country's service.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS.* 
 
 WHEN investors are brought to face an income 
 of only 25 per annum for every ;iooo of capital, 
 their energies may well be quickened to contemplate 
 the whole field of possible investments, so that by 
 reflection they may be able to ascertain how their 
 means can be more profitably employed than in 
 two-and-a-half per cent. Stock. 
 
 Debentures, bonds, and the whole tribe of scrip 
 securities have little attraction for some persons, 
 especially those who remember losses which their 
 friends have made by Stock Exchange securities. 
 They prefer to see something for their money ; they 
 believe in something tangible so many acres of 
 solid earth, so many well-built houses these are 
 the securities which, apparent to their senses, they 
 are better able to understand, and so the better 
 able to appreciate. 
 
 * This chapter appeared in " Land : its Attractions and Riches."
 
 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS. 2$ 
 
 FARMS. 
 
 Farms may now be profitably purchased, if care 
 is taken in the selection to buy land in sound 
 condition, with substantial buildings, conveniently 
 placed as to roads, station and market, and let 
 to tenants who are not impecunious. Such farms 
 purchased to pay four per cent, on their present 
 rentals will prove to be not only safe, but improving 
 investments. 
 
 Dairy Farms command higher prices, and if 
 purchased to pay 3f per cent, would be a sound 
 investment. They are not subject to such fluctua- 
 tions as arable or even mixed farms, and are always 
 in demand by a good class of tenant. 
 
 RESIDENTIAL LANDS. 
 
 By residential lands, I mean land which has 
 more than an agricultural value, and yet would not 
 correctly be described as building land. Residential 
 land has peculiarities of value in its position in rela- 
 tion to towns, villages, parks, stations, etc., also 
 in its contour and its intrinsic merits as to soil, 
 water, timber, etc. 
 
 Such lands, if wisely chosen, and paying an 
 interest from an agricultural rental of from one to 
 three per cent, are worth securing by those who 
 can afford to wait, or who buy for posterity. 
 Immense fortunes have been made by buying land
 
 26 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS. 
 
 having residential capabilities, and which has grown 
 more or less rapidly into building land. 
 
 Very striking instances of this were demonstrated 
 to me in crossing the Continent of North America 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean at the end 
 of 1890. I learned that that vast continuity of 
 cities, townlets, and homesteads west of Chicago, 
 that is, for more than 2000 miles, are the growth 
 of fifty years, that in fact fifty years ago the 
 extensive prairies west of Chicago were known 
 only to the Indian and the occasional white-man- 
 trapper. For the information of such of our readers 
 as do not know the United States, and who will not 
 perhaps take the trouble to refer to a map, I may 
 mention that Chicago is 913 miles west from New 
 York, and that from Chicago to San Francisco on 
 the Pacific Ocean is 2355 miles by the straight 
 route I traversed, and excepting perhaps a few 
 miles around San Francisco, the whole of this 2355 
 miles was, as I have stated, known only to the 
 trapper and the Indian fifty years ago. Now, it is 
 a succession of ranches, villages, towns and cities, 
 the whole traversed by railways, and in most places 
 there exists a great development of electrical light 
 and motors, telephones and other recent scientific 
 inventions. Now, within these fifty years, the 
 wealth that has been accumulated may be reckoned 
 by vast millions of pounds sterling. At one town,
 
 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS. 2? 
 
 Council Bluffs, where I stayed, I learned that land 
 quite in the suburbs fetched in lots ^"640 per acre, 
 and business sites in the heart of the town fetched 
 prices equalling ,32,000 (not dollars) per acre. 
 The secret of the growth of so many American 
 millionaires during the past twenty years is that 
 they were wise enough to buy lands along the 
 railway tracks which have developed into home- 
 steads, villages, towns and cities.* Land in some 
 parts of the city of Chicago will equal in value 
 land in Cheapside, London. Larger fortunes have 
 been made in land buying and developing and 
 selling than perhaps in any other description of 
 enterprise. Certainly millionaires are plentiful in 
 America, and many of them owe their wealth to the 
 results of enterprises in broad acres. The same 
 argument applies in a degree to our various British 
 colonies. 
 
 Some generations ago thoughtful men, such as the 
 ancestors of our Westminsters, Bedfords, Portlands, 
 Portmans, Derby s, Norfolks, and others, as also 
 corporate bodies, acquired lands lying around London 
 and other large towns of Great Britain, and with 
 what result ? Lands then bought at agricultural 
 
 * City, in England, means a town with a Cathedral, or which 
 has been the capital of a Bishop's See ; but City in the United 
 States means a corporate town, a town or collective body of 
 inhabitants incorporated and governed by a Mayor and Aldermen.
 
 28 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS. 
 
 prices have since developed into high building prices, 
 and have accordingly enriched the descendants of 
 the far-seeing purchasers. Their sagacity was 
 rewarded by gains in some instances beyond the 
 dreams of avarice. Outside Old London were the 
 Bishop of London's Stepney Manor in the East, 
 and his Paddington and Westbourne Manor in the 
 West, with many prebendal Manors between ; these 
 have since become building estates of enormous 
 wealth. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth let Ebury Farm of 430 acres 
 on lease to a person named Whasbe for 21 per 
 annum. In 1663, Sir Thomas Grosvenor, on the 
 death of Alexander Davies, Esq. (whose daughter 
 and sole heiress Sir Thomas had married in 1656), 
 became possessed of this farm ; it was open land 
 and the resort of low characters till the reign of 
 George IV., but building operations commenced 
 upon it, and, as is well known, it has since become 
 the centre of aristocratic residence in London, and 
 is known as Belgravia, and is largely owned by 
 Sir Thomas Grosvenor's descendant, the Duke of 
 Westminster. 
 
 That magnificent property in the City of London, 
 now known as Draper's Gardens, was in part let 
 to the father of the celebrated Stowe for 6s. 6d. per 
 annum as a garden. The ground rent of Draper's 
 Gardens is now stated to be ; 10,000 per annum.
 
 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS. 29 
 
 Provincial towns, such as Liverpool, Sheffield, 
 etc., bear testimony to the fact of great wealth 
 amassed to fortunate owners through their ancestors 
 having prudently bought lands forming part of, or 
 contiguous to them. 
 
 In A.D. uoo land at Hampstead was let at l^d. 
 per acre, which would now sell at ^5000 per acre. 
 In the next century seventy acres of Kensington 
 Manor were let at 4d. per acre, which now is worth 
 many thousands per acre. 
 
 In A.D. 1340, 120 acres of the Lisson Grove 
 Estate were let at ^10 per annum. 
 
 In A.D. 1580, Marylebone Manor was let on 
 lease at 26 per annum. In 1710 the Duke of 
 Newcastle bought it for ^17,500, now its value 
 is enormous. 
 
 Moorfields, let at four marks per annum in the 
 reign of Edward II., now yields ^60,000 a year. 
 
 In A.D. 1512, the Portman Estate of 270 acres 
 was let at 8 per annum ; now its value is estimated 
 by hundreds of thousands. 
 
 In A.D. 1504, the Pedlars' Acre at Lambeth 
 produced 2s. 8d. ; in 1690 ^4; in 1860 upwards 
 of TOQ per annum. 
 
 In A.D. 1600, Netting Barns, a portion of Netting 
 Hill, was purchased by Sir William Cope for ^2000, 
 now it produces considerably more than that per 
 annum.
 
 30 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS. 
 
 In A.D. 1617, the Bloomsbury Estate was sold 
 to the Earl of Southampton for ^600, its value is 
 now estimated by hundreds of thousands. 
 
 In A.D. 1668, two acres of grass land at Highgate 
 were valued at 120 purchase-money, now they 
 produce ^673 per annum. 
 
 Instances of increased value might be given 
 to any length, but in the above few varied cases 
 sufficient has been stated to prove that a prudent 
 choice of residential lands would be a wise purchase. 
 
 BUILDING LANDS. 
 
 Lands having an immediate building value are 
 building lands, but although land may have a 
 building value, it does not follow that it is wise to 
 build upon it immediately. Nothing tends more to 
 depreciate a neighbourhood than a large number of 
 empty houses and carcases. Building operations 
 should be conducted with a due regard to the chances 
 of the houses being occupied. 
 
 No investment is more profitable than the 
 development of building lands if prudently carried 
 out. Lands which I valued and which were sold 
 in the London suburbs ten years ago at ^300 per 
 acre are now covered with houses, and produce in 
 ground rents about ;ioo per acre per annum, or of 
 the capital value of ^2700 per acre. When some 
 of the new streets in London were formed a few
 
 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS. 31 
 
 years ago, such as Queen Victoria Street, Charing 
 Cross Road, and Shaftesbury Avenue, the prices at 
 which the plots were sold when first offered by the 
 Metropolitan Board of Works, and the prices which 
 were afterwards obtained, left in some instances very 
 large margins of profit, especially to those who built 
 upon them, and created ground rents. 
 
 Whether in the central parts of London or the 
 suburbs, or in provincial towns, there is no surer 
 way of securing a handsome competency by those 
 having the command of capital, and who can afford 
 to wait for the right moment than by buying 
 building lands. 
 
 GROUND RENTS. 
 
 It was immediately after the financial calamity of 
 1866 that freehold ground rents became so popular 
 a form of property, and the desire to purchase them 
 spread so widely that many persons, especially the 
 trustees of widows, orphans, and industrial and other 
 corporate bodies, regarded them as the very acme 
 of a safe and satisfactory investment, because not 
 only are they secured by rack rents often five times 
 the amount of the ground rents, but at the expiration 
 of the leases these rack rents become the property 
 of the owner of the ground rents. 
 
 Competition for ground rents increased so rapidly 
 after 1866 that prices increased too.
 
 32 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS. 
 
 The same class of freehold ground rent which, 
 in 1866, and few following years, could be purchased 
 at twenty-five years purchase, could not, in say 
 1880 and few following years, have been purchased 
 for less than twenty-seven years purchase. 
 
 Prices, of course, have fluctuated during the 
 period named to some extent, according to the 
 position of the money market and the price of 
 Consols. 
 
 Ground rents being secured several times over 
 are absolutely safe, and if purchased to pay three- 
 and-a-half to four per cent, offer an investment in 
 point of safety, income, and reversionary value, of 
 an unparalleled character, and thus are justly in 
 great demand. 
 
 Leasehold ground rents may be bought to pay 
 from four to five per cent., according to the length 
 of the lease and the nature of the security. 
 
 HOUSES, SHOPS, AND COTTAGES. 
 
 Well built house property in good positions, let 
 on repairing leases, may be bought to produce a 
 perfectly secure income, ranging from four to six 
 per cent, for freehold, or from five to six-and-a-half 
 per cent, for leasehold. 
 
 Good shop property in leading thoroughfares of 
 London, or other large towns, is a class of invest- 
 ment much sought after, for the reason that there is
 
 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS. 33 
 
 a goodwill attaching to the premises. Goodwills 
 range in value from hundreds to thousands, and 
 thus there is an additional security. 
 
 Cottage property, if in positions where cottages 
 are greatly needed, and, if really well built, forms 
 also a safe investment. The income is ready money, 
 it conies in regularly every week; and the owner 
 generally employs a local man to collect the rents, 
 attend to tenancies and repairs, so that the owner 
 receives a liberal interest devoid of any anxiety or 
 trouble. Poor weekly property brings trouble, and 
 should never be purchased by prudent investors. 
 
 HOUSES FOR OCCUPATION. 
 
 By the purchase of a house, whether it be a 
 mansion and park, a moderate residence, a villa, or 
 a cottage, the owner is always certain of one thing, 
 regular payment of interest for his outlay. 
 
 If he did not live in his own house he would 
 have to live in a house belonging to some one else, 
 and to pay rent for it ; but inasmuch as houses pay 
 a higher rate of interest than many other invest- 
 ments, it is a wise and safe way of employing money 
 by purchasing a house for occupation. It has also 
 this additional advantage that whatever money is 
 spent upon it by the occupier, goes to improve his 
 own and not another's property. 
 
 Lands and houses, if prudently purchased under
 
 34 
 
 LAND AND HOUSE INVESTMENTS. 
 
 advice, would return more profitable results in the 
 main than could be secured by dealings at the Stock 
 Exchange. 
 
 The following Equivalent Tables will be found 
 useful to purchasers of income-producing property. 
 I have constantly used them since 1859. 
 
 EQUIVALENT TABLES. 
 
 Years. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Years. 
 
 *. d. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Months. 
 
 I 
 
 loo per cent 
 
 21 
 
 4 15 3 
 
 3 
 
 33 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 50 o o 
 
 22 
 
 4 10 ii 
 
 3i 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 33 6 8 
 
 23 
 
 470 
 
 3| 
 
 28 
 26 
 
 6 
 g 
 
 4 
 
 25 o o 
 
 24 
 
 434 
 
 4 
 
 25 
 
 o 
 
 5 
 6 
 
 2O 
 
 16 13 4 
 
 25 
 26 
 
 400 
 3 16 ii 
 
 4i 
 4J 
 
 J 
 
 23 
 22 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 14 5 8 
 
 27 
 
 3 14 I 
 
 41 
 
 21 
 
 O 
 
 8 
 
 12 10 
 
 28 
 
 3 ii 5 
 
 5 
 
 20 
 
 O 
 
 9 
 
 II 2 2 
 
 29 
 
 
 Si 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 IO O 
 
 3 
 
 368 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 ii 
 
 9 I 10 
 
 
 346 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 868 
 
 32 
 
 326 
 
 7 
 74 
 
 14 
 13 
 
 3 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 7 13 10 
 
 33 
 
 37 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 7 2 IO 
 
 34 
 
 2 18 9^ 
 
 8* 
 
 II 
 
 9 
 
 14* 
 
 6 17 ii 
 
 35 
 
 2 17 l 
 
 9 
 
 II 
 
 i? 
 
 IS 
 
 6 13 4 
 
 36 
 
 2 15 6| 
 
 9i 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 iSJ 
 
 690 
 
 37 
 
 2 14 Oj 
 
 IO 
 
 i j 
 
 10 
 
 Q 
 
 o" 
 
 16 
 
 650 
 
 38 
 
 2 12 7* 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 16* 
 
 612 
 
 39 
 
 2 II 3* 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 8J 
 
 17 
 
 5 17 7 
 
 40 
 
 2 10 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 i 
 
 r 7i 
 
 5 14 3 
 
 4i 
 
 2 8 9 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 18 
 
 5 ii i 
 
 42 
 
 2 7 7i 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 3! 
 
 i8i 
 
 5 8 i 
 
 43 
 
 266 
 
 17 
 18 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 IO 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 5 5 3 
 
 44 
 
 2 5 5* 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 20 
 
 500 
 
 45 
 
 245* 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 EXAMPLE. A property bought at 16 years' purchase of the 
 net income will pay 6J per cent., i.e., 16 years' purchase is 
 equivalent to 6} per cent. 
 
 EXAMPLE. To pur- 
 chase a property to pay 
 sj per cent., multiply the 
 net income by 18 years 
 and a months purchase,
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 DRY OR DAMP POSITIONS. 
 
 THE most important point in considering the pur- 
 chase of a property, or of a site upon which to 
 build a residence, is its position. 
 
 In wet seasons a low lying position, and 
 especially a valley, is not only very uncomfortable 
 from a residential point of view, but very unhealthy, 
 for there is constant evaporation, and one is, there- 
 fore, breathing a humid atmosphere, which is very 
 deleterious to health. 
 
 Many persons have an impression that a gravel 
 soil is the acme of perfection, and yet how mistaken 
 is this idea. Consider a deposit of gravel lying in 
 a bed of clay. As an analogy, take a basin and fill 
 it with gravel ; then fill it up with water, and stand 
 it in the open. What happens ? A few days 
 of occasional sunshine evaporates all the water. 
 Now, if this was a district instead of a basin, all 
 the persons living in that district would have had 
 the damp evaporation passing through their lungs,
 
 36 DRY OR DAMP POSITIONS. 
 
 producing lassitude, lowness of spirits, and general 
 debility. 
 
 Compare gravel under such circumstances with 
 chalk. The chalk deposits are deep, and their 
 porosity is such that they can absorb any amount 
 of moisture. 
 
 There are no more healthy positions for residence 
 than the chalk hills of Hampshire say, around 
 Basingstoke and Winchester. 
 
 I append the opinions of a few eminent clima- 
 tologists on this subject. 
 
 " Where there is a tendency to cancer, let the 
 
 patient be removed to the high dry sites. Cancer 
 
 does not thrive on a high dry soil ; the essentially 
 
 chalk county of Hampshire is remarkably free from 
 
 cancer, and we find throughout the whole of England 
 
 the districts situated on the chalk hills are the 
 
 healthy or low mortality districts." Dr. HAVILAND. 
 
 " Dryness, a free circulation of air, a full 
 
 exposure to the sun, are the material conditions 
 
 to be attended to in choosing a site for a residence. 
 
 Of all the physical qualities of the air humidity 
 
 is the most injurious to human life, and therefore, 
 
 in selecting a situation for building, particular regard 
 
 should be had to the circumstances which are 
 
 calculated to obviate humidity in the soil and 
 
 atmosphere." Sir JAMES CLARK, on Climate. 
 
 1 ' A chalk subsoil is remarkably porous so
 
 DRY OR DAMP POSITIONS. 37 
 
 much so, indeed, that no artificial drainage is 
 required, neither are there any ditches or water- 
 courses. The whole of the pluvial waters pass 
 off by infiltration. The great porosity of the sub- 
 soil, and the quickness with which the moisture 
 drys up after rain give great dryness to the atmo- 
 sphere." Dr. KEBBELL. 
 
 "In chalky districts the air is cool and dry, 
 and the bracing exhilarating nature of its effects 
 upon the body corresponds with the pleasing sensa- 
 tions that are excited in the mind by the transparent 
 sky and the cheerful smiling richness of the land- 
 scape so usually observed in such districts." 
 Dr. FRANCIS, on Change of Climate. 
 
 The conclusion, therefore, is that a dry soil at 
 a high elevation is the most healthy and the most 
 desirable, because, in the place of lassitude, it 
 produces exhilaration of spirit, which makes life 
 worth living. 
 
 384604
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 ON LANDSCAPES. 
 
 THE Royal Geographical Society recently listened 
 to a lecture by Dr. Herbertson on " Landscapes." 
 He said that the study of landscapes was at once 
 fascinating and useful, yet very little attention was 
 given to it. That ordinary guide books devoted 
 pages to buildings, pictures and museums, and yet 
 contained scarcely anything of the landscapes through 
 which travellers passed. 
 
 Many thanks to Dr. Herbertson for drawing 
 public attention to the subject, for what is more 
 inspiring than a broad, diversified landscape, with its 
 ever-varying changes caused by reflection of clouds, 
 changes of weather, changes of season, changes of 
 cultivation, etc., which brings an ever-present enjoy- 
 ment to all those who have a soul of appreciation.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 LAND AS A LUXURY.* 
 
 ONE of the definitions of Luxury given in the 
 Century Dictionary is " That which is delightful 
 to the senses " and whether it be a delight in 
 tasting, touching, smelling, hearing or seeing, it is a 
 luxury. 
 
 A purchaser of land has an object in his purchase 
 it may be income, or occupation, or speculation, 
 or luxury. 
 
 If he buys for income, he must not be too par- 
 ticular to insist on beauty ; if he buys for occupation 
 he must make the basis of value a correspondence 
 between the advantages the property possesses, and 
 his requirements. If he buys for speculation he 
 must consider the prospective results by develop- 
 ment whether it be in minerals, or ground rents, or 
 anything else ; but if he buys for luxury he must 
 regard it then from an aesthetic standpoint and by 
 aesthetic, I mean " The theory or philosophy of 
 taste ; the science of the beautiful in nature and art." 
 
 This chapter appeared in " Land : its Attractions and Riches."
 
 40 LAND AS A LUXURY. 
 
 In a small country, especially like the British 
 Islands, the principle of aesthetics should obtain as 
 much in Nature as in art. If an owner of a beautiful 
 art landscape is content to pay hundreds of pounds 
 sterling per foot of canvas, why should he object to 
 pay tens of pounds sterling per acre for the more 
 magnificent (because real) landscape in Nature which 
 lies before him ? He sits in his chair, and on one 
 side he sees the beautiful painted landscape hanging 
 on his wall, and on the other side he sees through 
 his window the beautiful natural landscape of his 
 broad acres. Some may say that the picture requires 
 no "keeping up," but I reply that even if the land 
 is not profitable, the " keeping up " of the worst has 
 some compensation of value, equivalent at least to 
 the "keeping up." 
 
 Is there any comparison from an aesthetic point 
 of view between a low lying, heavy clay flat in Essex 
 and a high lying, light soil, well timbered undulation 
 of the Surrey Hills ? The first may yield more gold, 
 but the second will yield more beauty, and a pur- 
 chaser must determine in choosing land what his 
 object is in its possession. 
 
 When at the Syston Library sale (in December, 
 1884) ^3000 was paid for a Mazarin Bible, not so 
 useful as one which could have been bought for three 
 shillings, and enormous prices were paid for other 
 books, the purchasers gratified their desire for luxury.
 
 LAND AS A LUXURY. 41 
 
 When Meissonier's picture (twelve inches by 
 nine) of " Napoleon the First in the Campaign of 
 Paris," was sold (in June, 1882,) at Christie's rooms 
 for 5800 guineas (.6080), i.e., .56 per square inch, 
 the purchaser gratified his desire for luxury. 
 
 When in 1890 Meissonier's picture " 1814 " sold 
 for .34ooo sterling, the purchaser gratified his 
 desire for luxury. 
 
 When a purchaser paid .22,120 for the picture 
 of Millett's " Angelus " ; when ,23,440 was paid for 
 Murillo's " Conception of the Virgin " ; when ,7350 
 was paid for Turner's " Grand Canal " ; when 1 0,605 
 was paid for Gainsborough's " Duchess of Devon- 
 shire" ; when .7200 was paid for Ruben's "Venus 
 and Adonis " ; when .9975 was paid for Gains- 
 borough's "The Sisters" ; when ,10,395 was paid 
 for Boucher's " Madame de Pompadour " (and such 
 instances could be extended indefinitely), these pur- 
 chasers all gratified their desire for luxury. 
 
 When in 1890 one of the Rothschilds purchased 
 an historic clock in Paris for 840,000 francs (about 
 ;33>6oo sterling), he gratified his desire for luxury. 
 
 When some time ago a client of mine sold a 
 park hack for i TOO guineas because of its perfect 
 symmetry, the price was paid to gratify a desire 
 for luxury. 
 
 When in December, 1891, at the sale of 
 Admiral Spratt's old coins by Messrs. Sotheby
 
 42 LAND AS A LUXURY. 
 
 and Co., a Richard II. farthing was sold for 
 4 guineas; an Edward V. groat sold for .5 73. 6d. ; 
 a Richard III. half-groat sold for 7 173. 6d., etc.; 
 the purchasers all gratified their desire for luxuries. 
 So we might extend the list in examples of old 
 china, and various articles of virtu ; but the facts 
 mentioned will suffice to enable me to enforce my 
 point that articles of luxury must be paid for at 
 their proper value ; whether it be choice food, or 
 choice drink, or choice pictures, or choice land, the 
 value, of luxury must be considered, and assessed, 
 and paid for. 
 
 The broad acres of the British Islands are not 
 so broad as to be indefinite ; the limit to them is 
 very real a few hundred miles in any direction 
 determines their boundary ; and when we consider 
 that the richest people of the earth are located 
 upon them, and the richest metropolis the world 
 has ever seen is its centre of life, we recognise 
 at once the reason why in the past such high prices 
 have been paid for its choicest parts. I submit 
 that as regards the future in proportion to the 
 commercial prosperity of our country, and in 
 proportion to the rich colonial, continental, and 
 other persons who come to it to settle, so will 
 aesthetic acres be valued at aesthetic prices. 
 
 To give an illustration of aesthetic acres from 
 my personal experience I will refer to an estate in
 
 LAND AS A LUXURY. 43 
 
 " Wild Wales," which I once had for sale, and ask 
 who, with any taste for the majestically picturesque, 
 would not in estimating its value take into account 
 its beauty as well as its usefulness ? 
 
 The estate comprised the magnificent Moel 
 (mountain) Hebog, a portion of the very summit 
 of which forms a part of it. This majestic mass 
 of country rises up by the side of Beddgelert. 
 Near by is the celebrated Pass of Aberglaslyn, one 
 of the most romantic bits of scenery in the British 
 Islands. At one part the stream runs through two 
 precipices which rise to some 700 feet. The entire 
 district is an unbroken succession of mountains and 
 valleys, of magnificent contour and dependencies. 
 I regret my inability to give that graphic touch 
 of representation which would make a reflective 
 mind picture faithfully its claims to that profound 
 admiration which none who can really value natural 
 beauty and who visited the original, could fail to 
 yield. Lakes, tarns, pools, rivers, rivulets, streams, 
 rills, cataracts, waterfalls, cascades, mountains, hills, 
 peaks, passes, plains, precipices, tors, slopes, declivi- 
 ties, crests, coombes, dingles, exposed bluffs, secluded 
 dells, ridges, knolls, gullets, islets, nooks, caves, 
 craggy pastures, plantations, wild tracts, cultivated 
 enclosures, fertile valleys, and almost every form of 
 change into which the earth's surface is phenomenally 
 or commonly disposed are perceptible in the views
 
 44 LAND AS A LUXURY. 
 
 obtained in this exceptionally favoured part of the 
 remnant of ancient Britain. Every portion commands 
 views of great variety according to the aspect of vision 
 chosen. The views range from the sublimity and 
 severity of grandeur, embracing a continuity of 
 mountains, down to the picturesque simplicity of the 
 details of some pretty waterfall and its surroundings. 
 I will describe one view as it presented itself to me 
 piece by piece in my ascent of another part of the 
 estate adjoining Snowdon, and this will represent 
 something of an average of the whole, although the 
 view from the Moel Hebog is in some respects 
 even grander, as it rises to an altitude of 2566 feet, 
 whereas this portion only rises to 2032 feet. From 
 the very base it is exquisite. It embraces ponderous 
 masses of indistinct interminable mountain in all 
 directions, but discloses the details of the near bases, 
 and the beauties of the valley, which from the sum- 
 mits are not apparent. The lovely Gwynant Lake 
 is sufficient of itself to give a charm to any domain ; 
 it is well known, and as well appreciated for its 
 great boating and fishing attractions. The valley 
 has some rich pastures, offering a marked contrast 
 in their emerald green to the darker colours of the 
 uplands. Opposite is a bold, distinct hill, covered 
 with pine trees (referred to below as a " black lump.") 
 Along the valley courses the well-known salmon and 
 trout River Glaslyn, which forms a boundary. Along
 
 LAND AS A LUXURY. 45 
 
 the base of the Pine Hill and its adjuncts are resi- 
 dences and grounds, well-kept cottages, and the 
 village school. The lower portion contains some 
 extensive plantations, amidst which are beautifully 
 blended some very bold rocks, extending over a 
 wide area, and jumping through them are mountain 
 streams, the silver heads of which are now and again 
 demonstrated. The ascent of the mountain is some- 
 what tiring, but the views which it reveals of itself, 
 as well as of the whole circumference of vision, well 
 repay the effort of the climb. The land is well 
 watered by mountain streams, taking their rise in 
 some mysterious hidden fissure, whence they trickle 
 out, and growing in volume they develop into cas- 
 cades, waterfalls, cataracts, and rivers. The little 
 rill flows out, meandering on, reaching a rock, over 
 which it falls, dashing itself to drops in silver spray. 
 Again it gathers together and is lost to sight, 
 whence, emerging, it finds a cleft, through which 
 it tumbles in cascade, and pursues its downward 
 course, reaching a level plateau, where it describes 
 a tortuous form, and by its pent up strength forces 
 a passage up hill, returning in gentler force, until 
 by a headlong dash it acquires a momentum which 
 produces a grand display of power over a broad 
 expanse of rocks, tearing on, ever and anon exposing 
 a silver crest as it comes into contact with some 
 obstruction, against which it shatters itself into foam
 
 46 LAND AS A LUXURY. 
 
 and hastes away. Reaching some narrow defile it 
 drops as a cataract into the pool below, and thence 
 emerges wide and broken, repeating all the forms of 
 water eccentricity, with its perpetual chants on its 
 course down a steep mountain side, until it is lost in 
 the Glaslyn River. From all parts of the ascent 
 the view is remarkable. Standing out against a 
 clear sky, the mountains beyond the valley stretching 
 away as far as human vision can depict, are objects 
 of exceptional beauty. Hills rise out of hills, hills 
 around hills, hills upon hills, hills of every form 
 and size, making in the aggregate a mass of moun- 
 tains, not having a tame, gradual slope, but the 
 whole interpenetrated by such irregularities of hill, 
 ravine, precipice, and declivity, as with the varied 
 clothing of fir or larch, heather or grass, inter- 
 mingled with rocks, varied with different hues, and 
 acted upon by the diversities of shade and brightness 
 by the passing clouds, presents a picture the effect 
 of which can never be accurately painted in words, 
 but which when once fully gazed upon may ever 
 after be understood. A ray of sunshine will illumine 
 one peak with a golden coronet, while all around 
 is dark. The play of light and shade upon the 
 physical features of such a country affords a com- 
 bination and alternation of the rarest beauty. The 
 views from some part of this estate would possibly 
 rank amongst the grandest in the British Islands.
 
 LAND AS A LUXURY. 47 
 
 But views must be viewed. I can easily imagine 
 a pretending purchaser driving up to the land and 
 looking up the mountain side, and return denouncing 
 my description as invention ; but if he will don some 
 hob-nail boots and walk over it for several hours, 
 as I did, he will admit its accuracy. The mountains 
 seem to interlace one another, one peeping behind 
 another, then again a higher peering over its head, 
 and so on and on to the right hand and the left, 
 stretching away into the vague distance. The 
 summit is reached at last, it rises to a sharp rock, 
 beyond which is seen the gigantic monarch Snowdon, 
 with its breast appropriately draped in streaks of 
 ermine (snow). Between the breast of Snowdon and 
 our peak other summits form a kind of semicircle, 
 revealing one extended precipice, at the foot of which 
 the land shelves down to a lake in the depression. 
 The view reaches on the south-west side to the 
 mighty Atlantic, where vision is lost, except when 
 arrested by shipping bound to the distant regions of 
 the earth. The shore is marked by the town of 
 Portmadoc. Then inland, stretching away along the 
 eastern horizon, is the great gathering of mountains, 
 not in a chain of continuity, but in all the grand 
 diversity of an aggregation of independent sovereigns. 
 Nearer to us, at the base, shines out the Gwynant 
 Lake, like a well-set jewel, and above on the right 
 what appears to be a "black lump," which with a
 
 48 LAND AS A LUXURY. 
 
 dazzling sun is indefinable. On the north-east 
 beyond Llanberis Pass, arise the Glyders. Snowdon 
 keeps the north, while towards the west Moel Hebog 
 stands. Then, completing the compass, the eye looks 
 down upon another part where the house is, though 
 two miles off or more, as the bird flies, and in the 
 line of sight is the pretty village of Beddgelert. 
 
 Who would not estimate these magnificent acres 
 of land and water as a something worth securing ? 
 
 Luxury applies to land-owning as much as to 
 any other owning. The beauties of Nature should 
 be estimated at their fair and reasonable value, and 
 the growing appreciation of the sesthetical will 
 influence the prices to be paid for the beautiful in 
 Nature as well as for the beautiful in art.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 TOWN AND COUNTRY. 
 
 MANY persons of both sexes regard it as incumbent 
 upon them by the unwritten laws of custom and 
 etiquette to spend several months of their year 
 in London. There is excitement and pleasure in 
 the gaieties of dinner-parties, balls, theatres, operas, 
 and social functions, but with some the interest 
 soon flags, and they pine for the country, with its 
 clear, brisk, invigorating air, its grand nature- 
 pictures on all sides, its melody of song-birds, its 
 wide lawns, its gardens of bespangled beauty, its 
 pleasant hum of rural sounds, and its freedom from 
 the constraints of town. It is true they can get 
 a canter in Rotten Row, but it does not equal 
 the gallop of the country. Then for both sexes 
 there are shooting, hunting, fishing, riding, walking, 
 golf, cricket, and other diversions, as well as 
 occasional dinner-parties, balls, and other social 
 gatherings, arrived at perhaps by a long enjoyable 
 drive or ride. Some would fain make their stay
 
 50 TOWN AND COUNTRY. 
 
 in town shorter ; but the laws of ton are inexorable, 
 and so they remain. The late hours in vitiated 
 air take the roses out of their cheeks, and leave 
 a sallow complexion, with a tired aspect of feature. 
 
 And yet there are some persons who reside 
 permanently in towns when they could live in 
 the country. They look upon blank walls, soot- 
 begrimed houses, muddy or dusty streets, and have 
 to endure the barrel-organs, and all the discordant 
 yells which make up the sum of London street-life. 
 
 Truly, there is no accounting for taste, but I 
 do think that a more serious reflection upon all 
 the pros and cons of town and country advantages 
 would lead to the conclusion that residence in the 
 country offers greater benefits than residence in town, 
 and also that the country resident should purchase 
 the property he occupies, and use some of his 
 money in the purchase of a few English acres, for 
 reasons already given in the foregoing pages.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 BUSINESS PREMISES AND FACTORIES 
 IN RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 MANY large firms of printers and other business 
 men have of late years removed to premises in the 
 country. Upon this subject a paper was read by 
 Mr. Herbert T. Scoble, at the Surveyors' Institution, 
 on the 23rd of November last, in which he said : 
 
 " The most successful appeal will be made to 
 the manufacturer, if it can be shown to him that the 
 costs of production will be materially lessened by 
 establishing his factory in the country. No one 
 item alone would, as a rule, serve to demonstrate 
 the advantage to be derived by the suggested change 
 of habitat, but the number of small economies to 
 be effected, coupled with the actual savings on large 
 outgoings, will clearly indicate that if he wishes to 
 keep abreast of the times he must move, and 
 that right speedily. The land on which the 
 buildings will stand is cheap or the rental is low,
 
 52 BUSINESS PREMISES AND FACTORIES IN 
 
 RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 and the rates the manufacturer pays are, in con- 
 sequence, less, as the local rates are probably lower, 
 and the rateable value much less. Ample space 
 permits of workshop design giving light and air, 
 the economical application of motive power, the 
 provision of most useful yards and room for extension 
 of premises. A ground floor factory needs no 
 expensive and unnecessary hoisting, etc., of goods, 
 and if carefully designed can be relied on to entail 
 but a minimum of handling both of raw material 
 and finished products, insurance premiums will be 
 greatly reduced, and a lower trade union rate of 
 wages already prevails in the country. Increased 
 efficiency in labour may be expected, for the 
 country factory must needs be a more healthy 
 place in which to work, and the attention paid 
 nowadays to heating, ventilation, and the admis- 
 sion of daylight will be duly rewarded by the 
 greater staying power of the hands employed. It 
 will also be possible when making so far-reaching 
 a change as a migration to rural districts to discard 
 antiquated methods and machinery in favour of 
 
 the most modern equipment. 
 
 * * * 
 
 " The chief result is that the manufacturer will 
 be able to produce more cheaply. Less costly 
 goods will compete in the home, colonial and
 
 BUSINESS PREMISES AND FACTORIES IN 53 
 
 RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 foreign markets with a greater measure of success, 
 and it follows that in many cases business will 
 increase. A more certain and quicker execution 
 of orders can be relied on, as the factory will be 
 capable of turning the work out more smartly and 
 will be practically independent of help from sources 
 outside."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 ADVANTAGES TO THE WORKERS 
 
 MR. SCOBLE states : 
 
 "In what respects will the workers at a suburban 
 or rural factory be better off than their town 
 brethren ? Stated briefly, their homes will give 
 superior accommodation at less cost, a garden or an 
 allotment will be obtainable affording healthy 
 recreation and bringing in a substantial return ; the 
 time wasted and the money spent in travelling daily 
 to and from work will be saved ; the chief meal of 
 the day will be taken with the family. The physical 
 powers will be improved by better conditions of 
 existence at home and at work, and the fascination 
 of the public-house will vanish as the various clubs, 
 etc., and the vastly improved home life will be more 
 
 attractive. 
 
 # * * 
 
 " A house to himself, which may be truly called 
 1 home,' a garden or an allotment where pleasure 
 and profit are combined, and the perpetual enjoy-
 
 ADVANTAGES TO THE WORKERS. 5$ 
 
 ment of sunlight and pure air, present a happy 
 contrast with the lot of the town worker. Tram, 
 train, or cycle place the artisan within reach of the 
 amusements of town, and he has the satisfaction of 
 knowing that his children are better off physically 
 and morally in the country, than cooped up in some 
 tenement building with only a paved yard to play in 
 (and even then with flights of steps first to be 
 negotiated) or in rooms whence they are turned 
 
 into mean streets for their recreation. 
 
 * * * 
 
 " The death rate and infant mortality rate in 
 many districts of London and other towns are far 
 too high, and the body politic suffers in consequence. 
 The total ' time * lost through illness in any year is 
 a very large amount (estimated figures have often 
 been quoted), and this loss to the community is due 
 in great part to unhealthy conditions, which will 
 not obtain in country factories and villages."
 
 CONTENTS OF THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. PAGE 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS 57 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 LAND, AN ARTICLE OF VIRTU 104 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING COUNTRY BRED 107 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 THE FOSTERS AND GLADSTONES AS EXAMPLES... 109 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 EXAMPLES OF BREATHING IMPURE AIR 112 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 AMERICAN REFERENCE TO ENGLISH LANDOWNING 114 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 WATER FROM THE CHALK 118 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 COBDEN 120 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 THE CORN LAWS 124 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. By T. PENN 
 GASKELL, M.INST.C.E., ETC 129 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS AND RICHES," 
 BY VARIOUS WELL-KNOWN WRITERS 144 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 SOME BIRDS WHICH VISIT ENGLISH ACRES PERIODICALLY ... 210 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS : AN EXAMPLE OF THE LOVE OF 
 ENGLISH ACRES 213
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 I HAVE read the biographies of more than 2000 
 Americans who have been eminently successful in 
 the acquisition of wealth, and have found that men 
 of every calling in life have made investments in 
 lands. Many have accumulated large fortunes by 
 buying and selling land alone. 
 
 I have selected some names which are most 
 prominent, some of them being enthusiasts in the 
 possession of land, so as to convey some idea to 
 the minds of my English readers of the opinion 
 held by our American cousins upon the question of 
 land buying. 
 
 Many of the wealthy families in America to-day 
 owe their wealth and their position to the foresight 
 of their fathers or grandfathers, who bought lands 
 at prices and in positions which were certain to 
 increase in value, and the increase in some cases 
 has been far beyond any possible expectation thus 
 prairies have become cities, and wild tracts have
 
 58 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 become gold mines. All the mineral products of 
 the earth, including oil, have yielded up many 
 millions of dollars to a one man owner in very 
 numerous places. 
 
 In the following selected list I have been com- 
 pelled to use the strictest brevity for want of space. 
 
 I am fully aware that some readers will say that 
 in a new country like America opportunities exist 
 for making money in land buying which are im- 
 possible in England. I would ask such persons to 
 reflect that in the extensions of hundreds of towns 
 in England within the last few years considerable 
 fortunes have been made and others inherited by 
 enterprising development, and by the natural in- 
 crease of value. 
 
 The population of England and Wales in 1801 
 was 8,892,536, in 1851 it was 17,927,609, and in 1901 
 it was 32,526,075. Consider what this enormous 
 increase of population means in its effect upon the 
 value of land for residential purposes. The popula- 
 tion of England and Wales had increased 3,524,550 
 in the one decade between 1891 and 1901, and is 
 still increasing. 
 
 To purchase lands lying close to towns is a 
 prudent investment for one's children. If it pro- 
 duces very little income at present, it is better than 
 life insurance for the large increase which will one 
 day result.
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 59 
 
 MICHAEL JOSEPH ADRIAN, born June, 1826, a 
 cigar manufacturer, who, as soon as he had made 
 sufficient savings, began buying unimproved local 
 land and building on it. He has been very 
 successful. He is now a large owner of freehold 
 estates. 
 
 JOHN ANDERSON, born in 1812, died in 1881, was 
 a merchant in New York, who invested the income 
 from his business in freehold estates ; and a great 
 appreciation in the value of property with the growth 
 of the city brought him a fortune of several millions. 
 
 WALLACE C. ANDREWS, president of the New 
 York Steam Company, began life on his father's 
 farm in Ohio. His country life gave him physical 
 vigour. When coal was discovered in the Mahoning 
 Valley he invested his savings in exploration for 
 coal, and in the purchase of land possessing mines. 
 During the petroleum excitement he made money. 
 He bought several coal mining companies and sold 
 them at an advance, and in time he, with his brother, 
 became the largest miners of coal in the State. They 
 bought large areas of land, which were taken by the 
 Hodling Valley Railroad and its connecting lines, 
 and made a fortune, but it was largely done by the 
 investment of outside capital, and by re-investing 
 borrowed money rapidly. Mr. Andrews was also 
 one of the promoters of the original great Standard 
 Oil Company.
 
 60 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 CHARLES ARBUCKLE, a coffee importer, who died 
 in 1891, added much to the attractions of Brooklyn 
 by operations in freehold estates. 
 
 JOHN ARBUCKLE was president of the Royal 
 Horse Association, a syndicate owning ranches in 
 Wyoming devoted to horse breeding. 
 
 OLIVER HAZARD PERRY ARCHER retired from 
 business in 1873, an d has since become a large owner 
 of freehold properties. 
 
 ROBERT H. ARKENBURGH added to his fortune 
 by judicious investments in local freeholds. 
 
 HERMAN OSSIAN ARMOUR, member of the 
 celebrated firm of Chicago packers, was the son of 
 a sturdy farmer of remarkable force of character. 
 The sons, brought up on a farm, had vigorous healths 
 and strong constitutions. At their abattoirs in 
 Chicago thousands of animals are slaughtered every 
 day. Their business is so great that they give 
 employment to upwards of 15,000 persons, and by 
 their auxiliary branches to some 300 more. 
 
 PHILANDER BANNISTER ARMSTRONG, born in 1847, 
 owns the largest almond orchard in the world, there 
 being 34,000 almond trees upon a ranch of 1015 
 acres, with a total of 70,000 fruit trees, including 
 figs, oranges, olives, peaches, apricots, cherries, 
 pears, prunes, nectarines and lemons, 
 
 AARON ARNOLD, a life insurance president, 
 bought freehold land in what, time back, was
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 6l 
 
 Upper Broadway, which increased enormously in 
 value. 
 
 JOHN JACOB ASTOR, " the greatest merchant of 
 his time and founder of one of the most conspicuous 
 families in America, was born at Waldorf, near 
 Heidelberg, Germany, July 17th, 1763, and died in 
 New York City, March 29th, 1848." 
 
 He traded in furs, employing many Indians in 
 trapping the wild animals. He founded Astoria at 
 the mouth of the Columbia River in 1809. He made 
 large sums of money in his various tradings, and 
 what helped him to the acquisition of great wealth 
 was the fact that every year he invested two- 
 thirds of his earnings in freehold property. He 
 accumulated $20,000,000 principally through his 
 purchases of freehold property. 
 
 JOHN JACOB ASTOR, the third of the name, and 
 son of William B. Astor, died in 1890. He, too, 
 invested largely in freehold property. 
 
 WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR was born in 1848. 
 He is the well-known enterprising proprietor of the 
 Pall Mall Gazette and the owner of the charming 
 Cliveden Woods Estate on the River Thames. 
 One of his biographers states : "His life has been 
 largely controlled by the influence of two women of 
 noble character. To his mother in early manhood 
 he owed his ideal ; from his wife, in his maturity, 
 he received an unfailing example of courage, charity
 
 62 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 and good sense." Mr. Astor has shown a grand 
 public spirit in many ways for the good of the 
 people, and it has been said that the name of Astor 
 " has been a synonym for honesty and high 
 character and pure life in the history of New York." 
 
 A man of clear judgment and high character 
 like Mr. William Waldorf Astor, whose wealth has 
 been so largely increased by investments in freehold 
 property, should be an incentive to others to make 
 similar investments. It ought to be added that he 
 was educated principally in Europe, that he was a 
 Member of the Legislature of the State of New 
 York from 1878 to 1881, and that he was the author 
 of Valentino, Sforza, etc. 
 
 WILLIAM ASTOR, son of W. B. Astor, died 
 in 1892. He made great enterprises in Florida, and 
 the Government voted him a grant of 80,000 acres 
 of land. 
 
 JOHN JACOB ASTOR, fourth son of William Astor, 
 is a large freeholder in the Island of Manhattan. 
 
 CHARLES BANKS, a well-known capitalist, devotes 
 his business activity mainly to freehold investments. 
 
 AMZI LORENZO BARBER, M.A., LL.B., the son 
 of a clergyman, was born in 1843. He dealt largely 
 in freehold estates, and when Jay Cooke's banking 
 house failed, many property owners were obliged to 
 sell at a disadvantage, but Mr. Barber held on to 
 his freeholds and ultimately realized from them a
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 63 
 
 handsome profit. After this he continued his 
 dealings in freeholds with signal success. 
 
 HENRY BARCLAY, a merchant, who died in 1865, 
 invested largely in freeholds, principally in the 
 lower business portion of New York City, and his 
 sons now manage his estates. 
 
 CHARLES BARLOW, reporter of mercantile credits, 
 invested largely in Metropolitan freeholds. He 
 died in 1880. 
 
 WILLIAM JOSHUA BARNEY, a great grandson of 
 Commodore Barney, of the American Revolution, 
 acquired a fortune by buying and selling freehold 
 properties in the West, and also in New York. 
 
 OLIVER THOMAS BEARD, who died in 1886, was 
 a lawyer, and purchased wharves and stores now 
 extremely valuable. 
 
 GEORGE BECHTEL, a brewer, made large invest- 
 ments in property, so that he became the largest 
 individual tax-payer on Staten Island. 
 
 CHARLES BATHGATE BECK, a philanthropist, was 
 a large landowner. 
 
 HENRY BEDLOW, a capitalist, was descended 
 from an old family, which originally came from 
 Holland about 1639, and his ancester of that period 
 was a son of Godfrey Bedlow, physician to William, 
 Prince of Orange. Henry Bedlow bought an 
 island in New York Harbour, now known as 
 Bedlow's Island.
 
 64 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 JAMES WILLIAM BEEKMAN, who died in 1877, 
 was a landowner by inheritance, owning parts of 
 New York City and Beekman Hill from 42nd to 
 55th Streets on East River, where stood the old 
 Beekman Mansion of historic interest, as connected 
 with the American Revolution. 
 
 JOSIAH BELDEN was a merchant, who died in 
 1892, was of an old family who settled in Connecticut 
 in 1645. He had an adventurous life, but eventually 
 succeeded, and bought a great deal of freehold 
 property in New York and San Francisco. 
 
 MILO MERRICK BELDING is a silk manufacturer 
 who built up a city of over 5000 inhabitants at 
 Belding, Michigan, where he owns a large and 
 prosperous freehold estate. 
 
 ROBERT LENOX BELKNAP was born in New 
 York in 1848. He is a descendant of one of that 
 name who is mentioned on the roll of Battle Abbey 
 (1067). Another ancestor who died in 1400 was 
 Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, in the 
 reign of Richard II., and who was a considerable 
 landowner in Kent and Sussex. Other members 
 of the family are mentioned in English history. 
 The first to go to America was Abraham Belknap, 
 who, about 1625, settled in Massachusetts. Mr. 
 Robert Lenox Belknap inherited considerable landed 
 property from both his parents, which he has since 
 largely increased.
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 6$ 
 
 AUGUST BELMONT was a banker, who died in 
 1890. His father was a banker and landed 
 proprietor. 
 
 MARCUS ABRAHAM BETTMAN, who was born in 
 1845, nas so purchased land as to have used the 
 oleic treasures of mother earth to have secured a 
 fortune, for he owns no less than 850 oil wells in 
 various parts of the United States. 
 
 GEORGE HENRY BISSELL, who died in 1884, was 
 the founder of the petroleum industry and a large 
 owner of freehold lands, as also his son PELHAM ST. 
 GEORGE BISSELL, who was born in 1858, who dealt 
 largely and very successfully in real estate. 
 
 ANTHONY JAMES BLEEKER, who died in 1884, 
 was born on his grandfather's farm. He began life 
 as an auctioneer and was very successful in real 
 estate. 
 
 ELIPHALET WILLIAMS BLISS, a manufacturer of 
 Brooklyn, was born in 1836. He is largely 
 interested in improved freeholds and railroads. 
 
 ROBERT BORMER, proprietor of the New York 
 Ledger, born in 1824, invested largely in freehold 
 property. 
 
 JAMES CARSON BREVOORT, a civil engineer, and 
 man of letters, owed his wealth principally to invest- 
 ments in freehold land, made by his father. He died 
 in 1887. He wrote much on history, fish, bugs, and 
 coins, and had a library in his own house of some 
 
 B
 
 66 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 100,000 volumes. His collections in entomology 
 and ichthyology are now owned by public insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 JOHN ULMORE BROOKMAN, a shipping merchant, 
 was born in 1830, and was a very successful dealer 
 in freeholds, especially in the development of 
 Tacoma, Washington. 
 
 JOHN HAZARD BROWNING, a merchant, was 
 descended from Nathaniel Browning, who went 
 from England in 1645, an( * a l so commenced the 
 well-being of his family by purchasing some land 
 in Rhode Island from the Indians for three pounds 
 of wampum. 
 
 GEORGE BRUCE, who died in 1866, was a type 
 founder, and who made a fortune by type founding, 
 and the investment of his profits in freehold 
 property. 
 
 CALVIN BURR, merchant, went about 1847 to 
 New York City with considerable means, which he 
 invested in freehold property with such good 
 judgment as brought him great wealth. 
 
 RICHARD F. CARMAN created the beautiful town- 
 let of Carmansville on the Hudson River. He 
 invested in freehold property, and his investments 
 are now enormously valuable. 
 
 ISAAC F. CHAPMAN, a ship owner, invested his 
 money in large tracts of timber land. 
 
 HORACE BRIGHAM CLAFLIN, a merchant, invested
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 67 
 
 large sums in freehold property in Brooklyn and 
 Fordham. 
 
 JOHN H. CONTOIT was a purveyor of ice creams, 
 by which he gained large means and invested them 
 in freehold property, which increased enormously in 
 value. 
 
 JACOB CRAM, a merchant, bought uptown free- 
 holds largely, which increased enormously in value. 
 
 RAMON FERNANDEZ CREADO Y. GOMEZ was a 
 planter who successfully owned and developed large 
 freehold estates. 
 
 WILLIAM BEDLOW CROSBY, who died in 1865, 
 profited by the far-seeing thoughtfulness of his 
 father, Dr. Crosby, and his grandfather, Judge 
 Crosby, who bought in their days a great portion 
 of the Seventh Ward in New York City, which 
 afterwards became of great value. 
 
 DON ALONZO CUSHMAN, whose ancestor, Robert 
 Cushman, in June, 1620, chartered the ship May- 
 flower, which took over to America the first 
 company of Pilgrims, and who followed them in the 
 Fortune in the following November. Mr. Don 
 Alonzo Cushman was a pioneer in developing the 
 Chelsea district of New York, and he also created a 
 village of well-to-do families, and built institutions. 
 
 JOHN BALTHASAR DASH, a merchant, who died 
 in 1888, profited largely by the investments of his 
 father in New York freeholds, in the Broadway,
 
 68 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 Liberty Street, Cortlandt Street and Fulton Street. 
 He also purchased property near Kingsbridge, which 
 has grown very valuable. 
 
 JOHN DAVIDSON, a lawyer, born in 1837, ' ls another 
 who secured wealth by investments in New York 
 City properties. 
 
 JOSEPH RAFAEL DE LA MAR had in early life a 
 very rough experience ; he was a stowaway, then 
 a cabin boy, then a sailor, then a diver, then again 
 a sailor, and then a captain. He was shipwrecked, 
 and exposures brought unconsciousness. After 
 various adventures he went to Idaho and bought 
 a group of mining claims, a mile long and three- 
 quarters of a mile wide, for a small sum, where were 
 discovered many veins of gold and silver. He took 
 about a million and a half of dollars worth from the 
 mines, and then sold his interest in them for two 
 million dollars more. A very profitable land 
 speculation. He again embarked in buying mining 
 lands in Idaho and Nevada, and added very largely 
 to his fortune. 
 
 JACOB GERHARD DETTMER, born in 1845, was a 
 manufacturer, who so invested his moneys in 
 freeholds as to acquire an important estate. 
 
 FREDERICK WILLIAM DEVOE, born in 1828, a 
 manufacturer, made large purchases of land from 
 time to time. 
 
 WILLIAM PROCTOR DOUGLAS, born in 1842, son
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 69 
 
 of a gentleman farmer in Scotland who sold his 
 lands and went to America, where he invested 
 his capital in lands very successfully. 
 
 DENNING DUER, a banker, who died in 1891, 
 invested largely in freeholds. 
 
 SAMUEL BOWNE DURYEA, who died in 1892, was 
 a freeholder and philanthropist, who did much for 
 the preservation of forests, streams and fish, and who 
 left a large tract of land in trust for schools, churches 
 and societies. 
 
 LEWIS EINSTEIN, a banker and manufacturer, 
 who died in 1874, derived most of his wealth in 
 successful transactions in buying freehold properties. 
 
 STEPHEN BENTON ELKINS, a lawyer, financier and 
 Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President 
 Harrison, was the son of a farmer, and was born in 
 1841. He made much money by his plucky enter- 
 prises in undeveloped districts, and became one of 
 the largest land proprietors in the country, and an 
 extensive owner in the silver mines of Colorado. 
 
 AMBROSE KITCHELL ELY, a merchant, born in 
 1823, successfully dealt in freehold estates. 
 
 AMOS RICHARDS ENO, born in 1810, built the 
 Fifth Avenue Hotel (where the present writer stayed 
 a fortnight, in one of his American journeys), at a 
 cost of a million dollars. His investments were so 
 well selected as to have increased enormously in 
 value.
 
 70 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 HAMILTON FISH, a diplomat, who died in 1893, 
 possessed a large inheritance in freeholds through 
 the careful investments of his father. 
 
 HENRY M. FLAGLER, the well-known oil pro- 
 ducer and refiner, born about 1830, is the son of a 
 country clergyman. He commenced life "almost 
 penniless," but by hard work in various ways and 
 by great self-denial he saved money and gradually 
 prospered. He built the Pouce de Leon and the 
 Alcazar Hotels at St. Augustine, in Florida, at a cost 
 of three million dollars, and he also constructed 
 about 600 miles of railroad in that State, and ranks 
 now amongst the very wealthy set. 
 
 WILLIAM P. FURNISS, who died in 1871, was a 
 merchant who invested his means in freeholds with 
 so much judgment that the increase of population 
 and thereby demand for property made him a 
 wealthy man. Among his possessions was the 
 Globe Hotel. Even before the Civil War he 
 ranked amongst the leading property owners in New 
 York. 
 
 PETER GILSEY, who died in 1873, a merchant, 
 gained the greater part of his fortune by investments 
 in freehold property. 
 
 GOELET. The various generations of this cele- 
 brated family have invested largely in freehold 
 property. A biographer writes of Peter Goelet that 
 he "continued the policy of investing in land and
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 7 1 
 
 buildings mainly in those parts of the growing city 
 where in a few years there was certain to be a dense 
 aggregation of buildings of the highest class." The 
 Goelets were a Huguenot family who fled from 
 Rochelle, France, to Amsterdam in Holland in 1621, 
 and went to America in 1676. 
 
 WILLIAM RUSSELL GRACE, a merchant, inherited 
 wealth through an ancestor, who possessed extensive 
 lands in Queens County. 
 
 DAVID HENRY HAIGHT, a merchant, who died 
 in 1876, gave up his business to deal in freeholds. 
 He built the St. Nicholas Hotel and several other 
 large buildings. 
 
 JAMES HOOKER HAMERSLEY, a lawyer, who died 
 in 1872, was a descendant of William Hamersley, 
 an English merchant, who was born in 1687, and 
 who emigrated to America. Mr. J. H. Hamersley 
 invested mainly in New York freeholds. His son, 
 Louis CARR HAMERSLEY, also a lawyer, who died 
 in 1883, was educated at Christ Church College, 
 Oxford, inherited about five million dollars' worth of 
 freeholds. A biographer, Mr. Hall, says : " His 
 wife, Lilly W., daughter of Commodore Price, of 
 the United States Navy, and one of the belles of 
 Troy, New York, her native city, speedily became 
 a social leader in the metropolis. Mr. Hamersley 
 joined the famous 7th Regiment as a private, after- 
 wards becoming captain in the 9th N.G., S.N.Y.
 
 72 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 Having no children, brothers or sisters, he provided 
 that his wife should enjoy the entire income of his 
 estate until her death, when the entire property, 
 real and personal, should descend to the male heirs 
 of James Hooker Hamersley, his cousin, and in case 
 of lack of such heirs, to charitable institutions. In 
 1888 Mrs. Hamersley became the Duchess of 
 Marlborough by marriage in New York, and 
 established her residence in England, where she 
 spent large sums of money in restoring the ancient 
 magnificence of Blenheim Castle. The Duke oi 
 Marlborough died November 9th, 1892, and the 
 Duchess has since married Lord William Beresford." 
 An ancestor, Sir Hugh Hamersley, was Lord Mayor 
 of London in 1627. The Hamersleys have always 
 been important persons holding high public positions 
 and the various branches of the family own extensive 
 freeholds. 
 
 COLONEL ALEXANDER HAMILTON, a lawyer, son 
 of Alexander Hamilton the statesman, became rich 
 through transactions in real estate. 
 
 ELIAS H. HIGGINS, a manufacturer, who died 
 in 1889, was a large buyer of freeholds, not as 
 speculations but as investments. 
 
 SAMUEL VERPLANCK HOFFMAN, who died in 1880, 
 was descended from Martin Hoffman, who went to 
 America from Holland in 1660 and bought land. 
 The example was followed in the family, and
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 73 
 
 S. V. Hoffman is a landowner of considerable 
 wealth. 
 
 DAVID HARRISON HOUGHTALING, a tea merchant, 
 born in 1834, owns a considerable freehold estate 
 in the City of Brooklyn. 
 
 COLGATE HOYT, a banker, born in 1849, owns 
 and lends money on freehold estates, as also does 
 GEORGE ALLEN HOYT. 
 
 MARK HOYT, a merchant, owns a large acreage 
 of bark lands. 
 
 COLLIS POTTER HUNTINGTON, who died in 
 August, 1900, was well known personally by the 
 present writer. He ranks amongst the very great 
 and very successful landowners, inasmuch as he had 
 to purchase some 12,000 miles of land for his rail- 
 road purposes, besides land for his docks. The 
 following extract from a daily newspaper will be 
 interesting of so very remarkable a man : 
 
 "RAILWAY KING DEAD. 
 
 "MR. C. P. HUNTINGTON LEAVES ^"16,000,000. 
 
 " ' Express ' Telegram. 
 
 " New York, Tuesday. 
 
 " Mr. Collis P. Huntington, one of America's 
 greatest railroad and industrial magnates, died 
 suddenly at an early hour this morning at his lodge 
 in the Adirondack Mountains.
 
 74 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 " Death was due to heart failure, induced by 
 over-exertion in the open air. 
 
 " Mr. Huntington was 74 years of age. 
 
 "He had gone to Pine Knot Camp, which he 
 built in the heart of the wilderness on Lake Mohican 
 at a cost of ,50,000 to escape the extreme heat in 
 New York. 
 
 " His wife and a party of friends were with him, 
 and he seemed in excellent health and spirits when 
 he retired last night. 
 
 " The body is on the way to New York, where 
 it will be placed in a marble mausoleum in Wood- 
 lawn Cemetery, built a few years ago at great cost. 
 
 " The stocks of the various railroads which he 
 controlled are unaffected by his death. 
 
 " Of late years no estimate of Mr. Huntington's 
 wealth has placed it below ^16,000,000. 
 
 "A MEMOIR, BY ONE WHO KNEW HIM. 
 
 " Mr. Huntington never was a boy in the 
 accepted sense, for at fourteen years of age he had 
 attained great stature, and was powerfully built, his 
 muscular strength then and through life being re- 
 markable. 
 
 " His father gave him full freedom at that early 
 age, and the stalwart youth saved 17, and earned 
 his board and clothing in the ensuing year. 
 
 " He worked and saved, and when twenty-one
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 7$ 
 
 years old started for California by the Isthmian 
 route with ^240. 
 
 " Detained on the Isthmus for three months, he 
 neither gambled nor dissipated like his fellow gold- 
 seekers, but speculated in merchandise, and resumed 
 his trip with ^"1000. 
 
 " At Sacramento he opened a hardware shop in a 
 tent, for timber cost 45. a foot. 
 
 " Mr. Huntington was a wise investor, and when 
 a cargo of bar steel was landed before the settlers 
 needed it he bought it all for halfpenny a pound 
 and sold it four years later for 43. a pound. 
 
 " He accumulated a fortune, and in 1861 con- 
 ceived the building of a railway to connect California 
 with the East. 
 
 " Patiently he went to work, and overcoming 
 apparently insuperable difficulties, first of legislation 
 and finance, then of desert and mountain, built the 
 Central Pacific Railway, which gave him world-wide 
 fame. 
 
 " Steadily Mr. Huntington extended railway 
 lines and built steamers to bring trade to his 
 terminals. He invaded Old Mexico and the 
 Isthmus ; he bought the Chesapeake and Ohio 
 Railway, and shortly after rode in his own 
 carriage over his own metals from the Pacific to 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 " At his Atlantic terminal, Newport News,
 
 76 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 Virginia, he established a huge shipbuilding yard, 
 which has built, and is building, battleships. 
 
 " A few weeks ago he began work on a new 
 armour plant which was to rival the Carnegie 
 works. 
 
 " After consolidating all his railroads into the 
 Southern Pacific Company, he recently acquired 
 absolute control of the vast system, and died the 
 master of over 12,000 miles of railway, of great 
 steamship lines, and of innumerable enterprises. 
 
 " In his triumphant march to millions he spared 
 no one in his path and crushed rivals relentlessly. 
 He was hated by many Americans, who denounced 
 his methods that sometimes sought success by any 
 means. 
 
 " He ventured into the Stock Market, but Jay 
 Gould speedily drove him to cover, and he stuck to 
 railways thereafter. 
 
 " His daughter married a Continental Prince, 
 and returned to his marble house on Fifth Avenue, 
 which is one of the most magnificent structures on 
 that thoroughfare of millionaires." 
 
 Mr. Huntington's step-daughter and only child 
 married Prince Hatzfeldt some 14 years ago. The 
 Prince and Princess are stated both to be very fond 
 of the country, and are residing at Draycott, Lord 
 Cowley's Wiltshire seat, which they have taken on 
 a long lease.
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 77 
 
 DAVID HUNTER McALPiN, an eminent manufac- 
 turer of tobacco, resolved from the first day his 
 business began to prosper, that he would invest in 
 freeholds, and he became a very large owner in New 
 York and elsewhere. He owns the Alpine block 
 on the Broadway, besides his large establishment in 
 West 23rd Street, and considerable property in 
 residential districts. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAM MACKAY, whom the present 
 writer knew personally in New York, was the 
 famous " Silver King." His lands were in Nevada, 
 through which the famous Bonanza lode of silver 
 ran. From the principal mine he extracted in gold 
 and silver one hundred and fifty million dollars' 
 worth. It was his immense discovery of silver, which 
 began in 1875, that led to the starting of bi-metallic 
 agitations in all countries, where many people 
 were interested in keeping up the price of the metal. 
 
 WILLIAM H. MAIRS, a manufacturer, born in 
 1834, was the son of a Scotch Presbyterian clergy- 
 man who went from the north of Ireland to Saratoga 
 county about 1790, but his maternal ancestor was 
 Jan Frause Van Hussam, a Hollander who went to 
 America in 1645. He bought the Claverack lands, 
 on which the City of Hudson now stands, from the 
 Indians for 500 guilders of beavers. When W. H. 
 Mairs' business had brought him a fortune he invested 
 nearly all of it in freehold property.
 
 78 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 DARIUS ODGEN MILLS, banker, whom the present 
 writer knew when once staying in New York, is 
 descended from an ancient family who went to 
 America before the Revolution. He is a consider- 
 able owner of freehold property in land, in gold, 
 silver and quicksilver mines and industrial enterprises 
 in California, also in freehold property in New 
 York. 
 
 JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN, the eminent banker, 
 whom the present writer also knew in New York, 
 was the son of Junius Spencer Morgan, banker, and 
 was descended from Miles Morgan who went to 
 America from Wales in 1636. Mr. Morgan's father 
 was a partner in the great banking firm of George 
 Peabody, the philanthropist, which is one of the 
 largest banking houses in the world, and is now 
 known as J. S. Morgan & Co. Mr. John Pierpont 
 Morgan was born in 1837, and was educated at 
 Colleges in America and Germany. He inherited 
 a large property from his father, although he has 
 made a larger one by his own exertions. 
 
 JOHN DAVISON ROCKEFELLER, one of the founders 
 of the great Standard Oil Company, was born in 
 1839. He gradually worked his way up to the 
 great millionaire which he is, his lands containing 
 immense oil deposits. 
 
 JACOB ROTHSCHILD, a merchant, born in 1843, was 
 a considerable freeholder. During the depression
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 79 
 
 from 1874 to 1879 many wanted to sell and few 
 had the courage to buy land or house property. 
 He could see that the growth of New York City 
 would revive values, and so he invested largely in 
 building lands and buildings in the best streets, and 
 his good judgment repaid him handsomely. 
 
 FRANCIS P. SCHOALS, a banker, who died in 
 1 88 1 , devoted himself to the purchase of freeholds. 
 
 THE VANDERBILTS. We have seen that Mrs. 
 Hamersley is now the Dowager Duchess of 
 Marl borough, and now we refer to the family of 
 the Duchess of Marlborough, who was Miss 
 Vanderbilt. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the great grand- 
 father of the Duchess of Marlborough, who was 
 born on Staten Island, March 27th, 1794, was 
 descended from Jan Aertsen Van der Bilt, who 
 went from Holland to America about 1650. His 
 portrait is before the writer as he pens these lines, 
 and a more handsome, intelligent, classical face he 
 never saw. He was known as Commodore 
 Vanderbilt. In 1715 a grandson of Jan and great 
 grandfather of the Commodore purchased a con- 
 siderable area of land on Staten Island. The 
 Commodore's father devoted his fields to the 
 growing of vegetables for the New York market, 
 and young Cornelius used to have charge of 
 the boat between the Island and the City, and 
 this was the origin of the Staten Island Ferry.
 
 8o AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 The Commodore was a man of great energy and 
 courage, and equal rectitude. The biographical 
 sketch of him by Mr. Henry Hall is exceedingly 
 interesting and instructive, as showing the way a 
 man of mettle and high character can succeed, for 
 he accumulated a fortune estimated variously at 
 from 60 to 100 million dollars, or say in pounds 
 1 2, 000,000 to 2 0,000,000 sterling. His biographer 
 says of him, " He was a man of great physical 
 vigour and striking personality, six feet tall, hand- 
 some, and with clear complexion." The Com- 
 modore was succeeded by his son, William Henry 
 Vanderbilt, who commenced life on a farm, ashisfather, 
 not then recognizing the splendid business abilities 
 which he afterwards developed, thought that 
 occupation best suited to him. William Henry 
 cultivated 250 acres of land, out of which he made 
 12,000 dollars (say ^2400) a year by the sale of his 
 produce. He soon took up larger matters and like 
 his father became a Railway President, and wealth 
 still flowed into the family. He was very generous, 
 and his gifts to religious and other institutions 
 amounted to some millions of dollars. His son was 
 Cornelius Vanderbilt, the father of the present 
 Duchess of Marlborough. He also was a Railway 
 President. He was born November 27th, 1843, 
 and died a year or two ago. He fully sustained the 
 traditions of his family by his great abilities and high
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 8 1 
 
 character. On him rested the principal responsi- 
 bility of directing the policy of 16,000 miles of 
 railway. He, of course, succeeded to immense 
 wealth, besides what he himself accumulated in his 
 various great works. He was very generous, and 
 largely helped religious efforts and many public 
 institutions. 
 
 ANDREW CARNEGIE. This well-known philan- 
 thropist is an iron and steel manufacturer. He was 
 born November 25th, 1837, and was the son of a 
 weaver. The family went to America in 1848. 
 Passing through the experience of various forms of 
 effort, his first important transaction was buying 
 a farm or oil creek for 40,000 dollars. The oil 
 extracted yielded htm in one year more than one 
 million dollars in cash dividends. With this help as 
 a start he went on in ventures until his interests in 
 the Carnegie Steel Company amounted to 25 
 millions. Mr. Carnegie owned no less than 18 
 English newspapers in the interests of Radicalism. 
 Mr. Carnegie has a cultivated mind, and is naturally 
 of a literary cast, for he has written a large number 
 of essays and other works, some of which have been 
 so important as to have been translated into French, 
 Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese and other 
 languages. One of his works on " Wealth," was 
 reprinted, at the request of Mr. Gladstone, as "The 
 Gospel of Wealth." Mr. Carnegie's name is known
 
 82 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 all over the world as a man of phenomenal success 
 and philanthropy. It will be observed that his first 
 start towards the millions was in purchasing land. 
 His gifts have been in millions and large portions of 
 millions, and are very numerous. 
 
 WILLIAM H. WEBB, the veteran shipbuilder, 
 had a most interesting and enterprising career. 
 He built many of the famous clippers and a great 
 variety of other sea-going craft. He invested the 
 large sums of money he made mainly in freehold 
 city properties. 
 
 JAY ELMER ADAMS, born in 1862, who removed 
 from Colorado to Texas in 1890, bought much city 
 property in San Antonio and developed the 
 attractive suburb of Laurel Heights, the best 
 residential part of the city. He also owns 30,000 acres 
 in Colorado and 4000 acres in Blanco County. 
 
 FRANCIS GRANGER BABCOCK, banker, born in 
 1831, was very quick to perceive the value of 
 properties offered to him. He bought extensive 
 pine lands in Michigan and Pennsylvania, after very 
 careful personal examination of them. Large tracts 
 in Pennsylvania, purchased only on account of their 
 timber, turned out to be very valuable in petroleum, 
 and Mr. Babcock came to be known as one of the 
 largest oil land owners in McKean County. 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON BLACKWELL was born in 1842. 
 He fought in the Civil War and became known as
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 83 
 
 "Colonel." There is a slight strain of Indian blood 
 in his veins. He took up public lands, pre-empted 
 sites, and built towns. In 1864 he built the first 
 house in Ottawa, boomed the town, and served it as 
 Mayor. In 1882, he took up a site at what is now 
 known as the Town of Blackwell, he boomed the 
 district, which was a successful enterprise, and is 
 now a very prosperous place. On account of the 
 Indian blood in him he laid his claims before the 
 Cherokee nation for recognition as a member of 
 the tribe, but his claim was rejected ; then he 
 married Miss Rosa Vaught, one of the most hand- 
 some girls of the Cherokees, and thus secured 
 recognition amongst that people. Rosa had a right 
 to claim a portion of the domain of the Cherokees, 
 which she exercised, and her husband thereupon 
 laid out the City of David and started to boom it, 
 but the Cherokees hearing that he was selling lots 
 to persons not of their nation (an offence punishable 
 by death), he was arrested, loaded with chains, and 
 hidden in the woods. They tried to extort a con- 
 fession by torture. After great sufferings he 
 managed to send word to his wife, who raised such 
 a storm of alarm and indignation that her husband 
 was released. The Cherokees have tried to thwart 
 his enterprises, but nothing daunts him, says Mr. 
 Hall, his biographer, and the City of David continues 
 to grow, and has schools, stores, and a newspaper.
 
 84 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 DR. HENRY MARTYN CALDWELL, born in 1836, 
 was a man of integrity and great energy, also 
 believed thoroughly in real estate investments. He 
 invested all the money he had saved in forming the 
 Elyton Land Co., with a capital of 200,000 dollars, 
 to purchase several thousand acres of land in Jones 
 Valley, at a railroad crossing, and laying it out in 
 streets. A town was formed and smelting works 
 for dealing with the iron under the land. This 
 town was a hundred miles away from any other 
 community and contained 5000 people. Land sales 
 were made in a single month amounting to one 
 million dollars, and taxes on the property amount to 
 no less than 900,000 dollars a year. 
 
 JAMES EDWARD CALHOUN, a naval officer, who 
 died in 1889, accumulated an estate of some 25,000 
 acres in Abbeville County and Washington County. 
 He also accumulated an estate of 100,000 acres in 
 what is now known as Oconee and Pickens Counties 
 and became very wealthy. 
 
 CHARLES CROCKER, a merchant and railroad 
 builder, of San Francisco, owned much land on the 
 Oakland water front and was joint owner of the 
 Crocker- Huffman estate at Merced in California. 
 The present writer stayed a fortnight with Mr. 
 Huffman on this estate in January, 1891. 
 
 LEONARD RICHARDSON CUTTER, a merchant, did a 
 large business in dealings in lands and houses. He
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 85 
 
 invested all his earnings in freeholds, which very 
 greatly appreciated in value. 
 
 JAMES DOYLE, of Colorado, "prospected for gold 
 in 1891 and staked off a claim, and after passing 
 through various vicissitudes became a rich man in 
 consequence of his discovery of the precious metal. 
 
 DR, EVANS, founder of Evanston, Illinois, created 
 a fine property by buying freehold lands and build- 
 ing large blocks of houses upon them. 
 
 JAMES GRAHAM FAIR, called the " bonanza king," 
 who died in 1 894, acquired lands which proved to be 
 exceedingly rich in gold and silver, and out of which 
 many millions' worth was secured. 
 
 CHARLES AND JOHN FARWELL, for works in Texas, 
 received a grant of three million acres of land, which 
 they stocked with cattle and turned to a profitable 
 account, 
 
 JOHN FITZGERALD, contractor, of Nebraska, after 
 making a fortune, invested in 4000 acres of land, 
 with horses, cattle, and buildings. 
 
 GEORGE NICHOLS FLETCHER, lumberman, of 
 Detroit, owned 75,000 acres in Michigan, 75,000 in 
 Wisconsin, 40,000 in Georgia and Florida, and 
 40,000 in Canada. He bought the town site of 
 Alpena, where 14,000 persons now live. He also 
 owned 100,000 acres in New Mexico and 50,000 
 acres in Texas. 
 
 DANIEL FREEMAN, of Los Angelos, purchased a
 
 86 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 ranch near there of 26,000 acres, on which he grew 
 fruits and cereals. He gave six dollars an acre for 
 the land and sold half of it in 1886 at 25 dollars an 
 acre, and in 1887 sold 11,000 acres at 125 dollars 
 an acre. He also owns a great deal of house 
 property. 
 
 WILLIAM GILPIN, Governor of Colorado, was 
 engaged in many wars, and it fell to his lot to 
 become possessed, at a nominal price, of a Spanish 
 grant of one million acres. According to his right 
 he chose them in the beautiful San Luis Valley. 
 He sold one-half in Europe for 500,000 dollars, and 
 the other half he kept. 
 
 RICHARD GIRD, miner and ranchman in 
 California, born in 1836. He went in for mining 
 and buying wild lands at the low prices which then 
 prevailed. He sold his mining shares for 800,000 
 dollars and bought the Climo Ranch of 36,000 acres 
 in 1 88 1, and with other purchases has made it up 
 to 50,000 acres. 
 
 SAMUEL EBERLY GROSS, of Chicago, descended 
 from an ancient Continental family, was born in 
 1843, nas na -d an enterprising and successful career in 
 dealing in freeholds. In 1880 he created "The 
 
 
 
 New City," and changed vegetable gardens into 
 a suburb of 5000 inhabitants. He built homes for 
 the people, accepting small cash payments by 
 instalments. In the first year he built and sold 300
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 87 
 
 houses. He purchases rough land, lays out streets 
 and parks, erects railway stations, public buildings, 
 etc. He founded the town of Brookdale, transformed 
 a prairie farm of 500 acres near Riverside into a 
 beautiful city. He also made various other creations 
 resulting in securing to him property worth several 
 millions. 
 
 JAMES McCujRG GUFFEY, of Pittsburgh, born in 
 1839, and whose ancestor went to America in 1738. 
 His investments were made in lands producing 
 petroleum oil and other natural products such as 
 coal, gold, silver, etc., which have brought him great 
 riches. 
 
 GEORGE HEARST, financier, of California, born in 
 1820, acquired large landed interests. One bold 
 operation brought him great wealth. He got early 
 information of the capture of Geronimo, the famous 
 Apache Chief, and immediately bought a tract of 
 land over the border in Mexico which hitherto 
 could not be sold because of Apache raids. He 
 gave 200,000 dollars for it, and it became worth 
 several millions. 
 
 FRANK WAYLAND HIGGINS, born in 1856, is 
 descended from an ancestor who settled in 
 Connecticut about 1650. He deals in vast tracts of 
 prairie and pine lands in the West, which have in- 
 creased immensely in value. One of his properties 
 paid a royalty of 300,000 dollars in one year.
 
 88 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 JAMES MADISON HOYT, LL.D., a lawyer, bought 
 large tracts of suburban lands which brought most 
 profitable returns. 
 
 JAMES FREDERIC JOY, LL.D., of Detroit, a lawyer, 
 bought lands and promoted railways with much 
 success. 
 
 CAPTAIN MIFFLIN KENEDY, descended from a 
 Huguenot family, bought lands until he had acquired 
 242,000 acres, which he sold in 1882 for 1,100,000 
 dollars. He afterwards formed a Company which 
 owned 765,000 acres, and became rich. 
 
 CAPTAIN RICHARD KING, known as " The Cattle 
 King of Texas," died in 1885. He invested all his 
 profits in more land. He owned 600,000 acres in 
 Nueces County, 650,000 acres in the adjoining 
 County of Cameron, 25,000 acres in Duval County 
 adjoining and 85,000 acres in Tom Green County. 
 At one time cattle thieves infested the district, and 
 Captain King and Captain Kenedy cleared the 
 country of them. 
 
 JAMES LICK, founder of the famous Lick 
 Observatory, died in 1876. He invested his money in 
 City Building Lots, in large tracts of land in Placer 
 County, and in the whole of the Island of San 
 Catalina of 50,000 acres off Los Angelos. He 
 left great wealth, which was principally bequeathed 
 to public works. 
 
 HENRY MILLER, of California, known as the
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 89 
 
 " Cattle King." He was a member of the famous 
 firm of Lux & Miller. Miller began without means 
 as a butcher's assistant, but he saved money and 
 prospered until he began buying tracts of low-priced 
 lands in California, Oregon and Nevada. He and 
 his partner purchased in all some 800,000 acres. 
 
 DAYTON SAMUEL MORGAN, a manufacturer who 
 died in 1890, and whose ancestor went from Wales 
 to America in 1607, was a large investor in country 
 and city lands. 
 
 SAMUEL ALFRED MUNSON, financier, who died 
 in 1 88 1, invested in coal lands in Pennsylvania 
 and developed coal mines largely. 
 
 DANIEL T. MURPHY, a merchant of San 
 Francisco who died in 1885, became a very rich 
 man through land buying and cattle raising. At 
 one time he owned no less than 6,000,000 acres in 
 Durango, Mexico. 
 
 GEORGE WILLIS PACK, a lumberman born in 1831, 
 invested in large tracts of valuable pine forests. He 
 was descended from an ancestor who went to 
 America in 1664. He lived in the wild forests and 
 tells many tales of his experiences with men and 
 beasts. 
 
 POTTER PALMER, a financier of Chicago (whose 
 ancestor went to America in 1629), retired from 
 business in 1867 and invested his fortune in free- 
 hold property, which brought an immense revenue.
 
 QO AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 FRANCIS PALMS bought farming, timber, and 
 mineral lands in Michigan and Wisconsin, which 
 brought him a fortune of about 5,000,000 dollars. 
 
 EDWARD BURT PERRIN, M.D., born in 1839. 
 Dr. Perrin made a large fortune through his pur- 
 chases of land. He bought 40,000 acres of fruit 
 land in Fresno County and planted five colonies 
 there. In Arizona he owns about 260,000 acres, and 
 also the Baca grant of 100,000 acres, and the 
 Babacomorie grant of 130,000 acres, and owns 
 considerable live stock. 
 
 ALEXANDER RAMSEY of St. Paul, Minnesota, born 
 in 1 8 1 5 . In company with another made a treaty with 
 the Sioux Indians, and bought from them 40,000,000 
 acres of fertile land, which he opened up for settle- 
 ment. In the same year (1851) he held a council 
 with the Chippewa Indians for the famous Red 
 River Valley, now the greatest wheat district in the 
 world, but this treaty was not ratified and the cession 
 was not made till 1863. 
 
 HIRAM SIBLEY, financier, died in 1888. Russia 
 once offered to sell Alaska to Mr. Sibley for 750,000 
 dollars, but he did not purchase. He invested in 
 the United States in several hundreds of farms and 
 other land property. 
 
 ASA MEAD SIMPSON, shipbuilder, born in 1826, 
 bought 27,000 acres of splendid fir lands and built 
 saw mills, etc.
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 91 
 
 THOMPSON SMITH, lumberman, died in 1842, 
 commenced from his start in life to invest his sav- 
 ings in land. He purchased immense tracks of 
 white pine lands in Michigan, and his mills in 
 Duncan were the largest in the state in fact the 
 whole town of Duncan practically belonged to him. 
 
 ASA TITUS SOULE, manufacturer, who died in 
 1890, invested mainly in lands in Kansas, where at 
 one time he controlled a whole county. 
 
 JOHN SOUTHWORTH, financier, who died in 1877, 
 invested profitably in pine lands. 
 
 LELAND STANFORD, first President of the Central 
 Pacific Railroad, was one in conjunction with 
 Huntington, Crocker and Hopkins, who pledged 
 their private fortunes to pay for the labour of 800 
 men for the first year in the construction of the line. 
 He bought a ranch of 7500 acres in Santa Clara 
 Valley, California; a ranch of 55,000 acres in Vina, 
 of which 3575 acres were cultivated as a vineyard; 
 the Gridley wheat ranch of 22,000 acres in Butte 
 County, besides a large amount of town freeholds. 
 
 ISAAC STEPHENSON, lumberman, spent every 
 dollar he could save in buying timber lands and 
 eventually acquired several hundred thousand acres 
 of forest lands in Michigan and Louisiana. 
 
 EDWARD WILLIAM VOIGHT, brewer, born in 1844, 
 bought land at 7000 dollars, which increased in value 
 to 80,000 dollars. A purchase of 11,200 dollars
 
 92 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 grew into value of 100,000 dollars. A river frontage 
 he bought in 1881 for 21,000 dollars is now rated 
 at 250,000 dollars, and two farms which he bought 
 in 1884 and 1886 for 70,000 dollars he has since 
 refused 600,000 dollars for. He has since also 
 bought 600 acres at the head of Grosse Isle. 
 
 JABEZ BUNTING WATKINS, lawyer, born in 1845, 
 explored a region in Louisiana, and received a gift 
 of 2,000,000 acres partly covered with timber. This 
 property is now estimated to be worth many 
 millions. 
 
 BENJAMIN HENRY WISDOM is a very large and 
 successful owner of an enormous number of town 
 lots as well as extensive tracts of ranches. 
 
 THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN JACKSON, a lawyer, 
 born in 1830, owns considerable freeholds in the 
 1 8th Ward of New York City. 
 
 EDWARD SAUERVILLE JAFFRAY, a merchant, died 
 in 1892, was a large owner of real estate. Also 
 HARVEY KENNEDY, a capitalist, who died in 1889. 
 FRANCIS SHERWOOD KINNEY, born in 1839, owns 
 extensive freeholds in New York City ; his property 
 in Broadway alone has grown to be worth 1,500,000 
 dollars. 
 
 FRANCIS W. LASAK, a merchant, who died in 
 1889, invested in freeholds in New York, West- 
 chester and King's Counties, which have increased 
 in value more than ten times their original cost, and
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 93 
 
 have brought him a fortune of several millions. 
 WILLIAM BEACH LAURENCE, a lawyer, who died in 
 
 1 88 1, possessed much real estate in the Broadway, 
 New York, and in the Murray Hill district. JAMES 
 LENOX, founder of the Lenox Library, who died in 
 1880, bought freeholds in various parts and gained 
 a fortune of several millions by the increase of value. 
 Amongst his possessions was a farm between what 
 is now Fourth and Fifth Avenues near 72nd Street, 
 which, after 1864, he divided into city lots. He 
 founded the Lenox Library at a cost of 2,000,000 
 dollars. EDWARD FRANCIS LINTON bought large 
 tracts of land in the 26th Ward, and in four years 
 built over 400 houses,. 
 
 FREDERICK MARQUAND, a merchant who died in 
 
 1882, invested most of his means in New York 
 freeholds. 
 
 CQURTLANDT PALMER, a merchant, sustained 
 heavy losses in a year of panic and emerged with 
 only a very small capital this he used in dealing in 
 freeholds until he became wealthy, owning much 
 property, not only in the Eastern but in the 
 Western States. 
 
 TREVOR WILLIAM PARK was a member of the 
 firm of lawyers, Halleck, Peachy, Billings & Park, 
 and who made a speciality of land titles which drew 
 them into investments in lands and mines which 
 yielded fortunes to them all.
 
 94 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 ELEAZAR PARMLY, the "father of American 
 dentistry," died in 1874. Dr. Parmly was of 
 English Puritan descent. He studied dentistry in 
 Paris and London, from which he derived a 
 large income, which he shrewdly invested in New 
 York freeholds during the period of greatest 
 municipal growth, and his property became very 
 valuable. 
 
 FOSTER PETTIT, a capitalist, invested his money 
 in freeholds in Brooklyn. 
 
 CHARLES PRATT, a merchant who died in 1891, 
 invested his surplus income in freeholds. 
 
 FREDERIC PRENTICE, president of the Prentice 
 & Excelsior Brown Stone Company, made extensive 
 purchases of timbered lands which were suitable for 
 slab and black walnut timber. After clearing the 
 lands he sold it successfully to settlers. He still 
 owns other lands in large areas very valuable for 
 lumber, coal and oil. 
 
 ROBERT BARNWELL ROOSEVELT, a lawyer and 
 banker, born in 1829, is a very large owner of 
 freeholds. 
 
 ALBERT S. ROSENBAUM, a merchant who died in 
 1849, owned important freehold properties. 
 
 JOHN HUNNAN SHERWOOD, a merchant, made a 
 fortune through buying and selling freeholds. 
 
 WALTER SIMPSON, a pawnbroker, born in 1837, 
 invested largely in real estate.
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 95 
 
 WILLIAM TILDEN, a manufacturer, who died in 
 1869, was largely interested in real estate. 
 
 WILLIAM WATSON, a merchant who died in 1877, 
 invested nearly all his profits in freeholds in the City, 
 the growth of which increased them largely in value. 
 
 GEORGE WEST, a manufacturer, born at Bradnitch, 
 in Devonshire, England, in 1823, became a man of 
 mark in the United States, was successful in business, 
 and bought mining lands in the West as well as other 
 freehold properties. 
 
 ALBERT TREDNAY WHITE, a merchant born in 
 1846, did a great business in furs, and invested 
 largely in real estate. 
 
 SAMUEL WOOD, merchant, who died in 1878, made 
 large investments of his profits in freehold property. 
 
 JOHN SHERLOCK YOUNG, merchant and financier, 
 made large profits out of land dealings. B RUN AH 
 S. ABELL, who died in 1888, was a large owner of 
 freeholds in Baltimore, and built many houses. 
 ALEXANDER JOHN ALEXANDER besides wealth derived 
 through his brother's investments in land, made a 
 fortune through his own dealings in freeholds. 
 FREDERICK LOTHROP AMES invested about six million 
 dollars in Boston freeholds. BENJAMIN AYCRIGG, 
 who died in 1893, was a large investor in real 
 estate which increased greatly in value. ELI 
 AYLSWORTH, merchant, judge and banker, invested 
 largely in freehold property. JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY, a
 
 96 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 manufacturer, who died in 1881, was largely engaged 
 in real estate ventures. HENRY PORTER BALDWIN 
 amassed a large fortune in manufacturing boots 
 and shoes which he invested in freehold property. 
 PHILETUS SWIFT BARBER, a merchant, who died in 
 
 1893, realized handsome profits on his operations in 
 freehold properties. A. C. BARSTOW, who died in 
 
 1 894, after having made a fortune in business as a 
 manufacturer, in vested in freeholds. WILLIAM BARTH, 
 who went to America in 1851, foresaw the great 
 future of Denver, invested in freeholds, which, 
 through the constant rises in value, brought him 
 considerable wealth. PHILIP BECKER, a merchant, 
 invested profits in freeholds. PHILO DANIEL 
 BECKWITH, a manufacturer, born in 1825, invested 
 some of his profits in freeholds, which grew into 
 great value. LUTHER BEECHER, a merchant, who 
 died in 1892, greatly increased his fortune by invest- 
 ments in freeholds. 
 
 EDWARD L. BONNER, a merchant, born in 1834, 
 has been very successful in his dealings in free- 
 holds. JOHN W. BOOKWALTER, a manufacturer, has 
 invested largely in farming lands in Illinois and 
 Nebraska, and has a 20,000 acre sheep ranch at 
 Missouri Creek. EDUARD BREITUNG made such 
 successful investments in freeholds around Mar- 
 quette and Negaunee that when he died in 1887 he 
 was worth more than 2,000,000 dollars. PETER
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 97 
 
 BRENT BRIGHAM very successfully invested his 
 savings in freeholds, as also did CALVIN BRONSON, 
 a manufacturer ; and also HENRY FRANCIS BROWN, 
 born in 1838, a financier. Also SAMUEL RITTER 
 BROWN, a financier, who bought some freeholds 
 which advanced in value to half a million. 
 
 WILLIAM BUCKNELL bought and sold suburban 
 lands, and erected buildings, and so created wealth. 
 THOMAS OLIVER HAZARD PERRY BURNHAM, book- 
 seller, born in 1814, was helped to become rich 
 through dealings in freeholds. JAMES CULLANAN 
 acquired extensive freeholds which turned out 
 prosperously. JOHN T. DAVIS, a merchant of 
 St. Louis, who died in 1894, was so impressed in 
 favour of the growth of his city that he invested 
 several million dollars in freehold properties therein. 
 
 CHARLES WESLEY CANNON, a pioneer of Montana, 
 born in 1836, invested largely in real estate and 
 mining lands. LEONARD CASE became wealthy 
 through dealings in real estate. GENERAL LEWIS 
 CASS, of Detroit, got wealthy through buying 
 lands at Detroit in the early days. ALEXANDER 
 JOHNSON CASSATT, a civil engineer and railroad 
 manager, made a considerable fortune by dealings in 
 land. 
 
 FELIPE CHAVES, a banker of Belen, N.M., son 
 of the late Governor of New Mexico, has done well 
 by buying lands. JAMES CHENEY, a lawyer, of Fort
 
 98 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 Wayne, made a fortune through the rise in value of 
 his lands. RICHARD CHUTE, of Minneapolis, trans- 
 formed an unoccupied wilderness into civilization 
 with a very prosperous result. CRAWFORD W. 
 CLARKE, merchant, of the firm of Cox & Clarke, 
 cattle raisers, owns 40,000 acres in Kern and other 
 counties, besides his share in 100,000 acres in 
 California, etc., owned by the firm. KERSEY COATES 
 got rich through aiding the resources of Kansas 
 City. SILAS B. COBB, merchant, confined his opera- 
 tions to land dealings and buildings in Chicago. 
 ABNER COBURN and his partners, lumbermen, bought 
 450,000 acres of timber lands and 60,000 acres in 
 the West. 
 
 JOSEPH SPENCER CONE, who died in 1894, na d 
 an adventurous life, and after many ventures turned 
 his attention to land buying, which he sold for 
 12,000 dollars, and bought 16,000 acres near Red 
 Bluff, and then increased his purchases till he had 
 secured about 100,000 acres, which brought him 
 riches. Col. ARTHUR LATHAM CONGER, a manu- 
 facturer, spent his money in Chicago building lands, 
 which brought him a fortune. JAMES WHEATON 
 CONVERSE bought lands which grew into value of 
 more than ONE MILLION DOLLARS. JAMES E. COOPER, 
 a showman, invested his profits in real estate. JOB 
 A. COOPER, a banker, and SAMUEL CHAMPION 
 COOPER, a lawyer, did the same.
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 99 
 
 HENRY WINSLOW CORBETT, a merchant, paid 
 taxes on an income of 850,000 dollars of realty. 
 WILLIAM WILSON CORCORAN, a banker, who left, 
 at his death, besides other property, 1,800,000 
 dollars worth of freeholds. ERASTUS CORNING, a 
 banker, invested in many thousand acres of pine 
 lands. HENRY CORNELL, a merchant, did well by 
 buying many thousands of acres in California, on 
 which a large number of lime kilns were built. 
 HORACE H. CREARY, a tanner, born in 1824, bought 
 thousands of acres on which he derived much profit 
 from hemlock, bark, oil and natural gas. ALEXANDER 
 HENRY DAVIS invested largely in land having coal, 
 as also did HENRY GASSAWAY DAVIS. JOHN T. 
 DAVIS, a merchant, bought land in the City of 
 St. Louis which paid him remarkably well. 
 
 TIME AND SPACE FAIL TO CONTINUE EVEN 
 THE SHORT NOTICES GIVEN ABOVE, AND FOR 
 THE FOLLOWING I MUST DO LITTLE MORE THAN 
 REFER TO THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO HAVE 
 OBTAINED WEALTH THROUGH TRANSACTIONS IN 
 FREEHOLD PROPERTIES. 
 
 WILLIAM M. DERBY, financier, of Chicago ; 
 FRANKLIN GORDON DEXTER, financier, of Boston ; 
 WIRT DEXTER, lawyer, of Chicago ; JOHN WESLEY 
 DOANE, Merchant, of Chicago ; and STEPHEN 
 LELAND Dows, contractor in Iowa, all made money 
 by buying freehold properties.
 
 100 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 JAMES DOYLE made a fortune through the gold dis- 
 coveries made on Cripple Creek in 1891. COL. JOHN 
 H. ESTELL, born in 1840, did remarkably well by 
 buying land. D. M. FERRY, born in 1833 ; CHARLES 
 FLEISCHMANN, born in 1834; S. FOSDICK, died in 
 1 88 1 ; S. M. Fox, born in 1821 ; CARLOS FRENCH, 
 born in 1835 J H. B. FRENCH, born in 1848 ; J. W. 
 GARRETT, died in 1884; H. M. GRIFFIN, born in 
 1848; T. HAMM, born in 1826 ; F. B. HAYES, died 
 in 1884; E, S. HEINEMANN, died 1896; GENGE 
 HILES, died in 1896 ; N. P. HILL, born 1832 ; 
 W. C. HILL, died 1890; A.M. HOLTER, born 1831 ; 
 M. HOPKINS, born 1817; REVD. J. M. HOWE, M.D., 
 a descendant of an original settler ; F. JONES, born in 
 1832 ; F. A. KEENER, born in 1827; T. H. KING, 
 born 1848; T. KINGSFORD, founder of the Oswego 
 Starch Factory; W. S. LADD, died in 1893 5 J- M. 
 LONGYEAR, died in 1875 ; L. LUNING, died 1890 ; 
 GENERAL G. J. MAGEE; EDWARD MANNING, born 
 1810; W. G. MEANS, died 1894; T. MELLON 
 (Judge), born 1813; A. C. MERRYMAN, born 1831 ; 
 W. R. MERRIAUR, born 1849; R- W. MILLSAPS, 
 born 1833 ; A. MITCHELL, died 1887 ; COLONEL 
 C. A. MORTON, born 1839; G. MUHLHAUSER, born 
 1836; M. MURPHY, died in 1884; G. S. PEPPER, 
 died 1890; H. B. PERKINS, born 1824; E. S. PIKE, 
 a descendant of one of the original settlers ; 
 J. S. PILLSBURY, born in 1828; D. PINGREE, died
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. IOI 
 
 1863 ; O. POWERS, born in 1812 ; J. PRATT, born 
 1814; S. A. QUALE, died 1890; GEN. C. M. REED, 
 died 1871 ; SETH RICHARDS, died 1895 ; J. M. 
 RICHMOND, died 1834 ; R. A. ROBINSON, born 1817 ; 
 C. ROSE, died 1877; H. W. SAGE, killed by Indians 
 in 1838 ; T. L. SCHURMEIER, born 1852 ; GEN. 
 W. H. SEWARD, born 1839 ; W. SHARON, born 1821 ; 
 P. W. SHEAFER, died 1891 ; J. SKINKLE, born 
 1815 ; ALFRED SMITH, died 1886; GERRITT SMITH, 
 E. G. SPAULDING and H. C. SPAULDING ; EDWARD 
 FALLIS SPENCE, died 1892 ; L. M. STEWART, said to 
 be a descendant of Charles II. and Nell Gwynne; 
 J. W. STICKLER, born 1814; E. H. STOKES, born 
 1824; N. STORY, born 1838; ABNER TAYLOR, born 
 1829; H. P. UPHAM, born 1837; DAVID WARD, M.D., 
 born 1822 ; E. B. WARD, died 1875 ; W. G. WARDEN 
 died 1895 J JOHN WENTWORTH, LL.D., stood 
 6 feet 6 inches, and called Long John, died in 1888 ; 
 J. McM. WESTCOTT, born 1834; J. B. WHITE and 
 M. M. WHITE; J. C. WILLARD, born 1820; G. W. 
 WILLIAMS, born 1820 ; W. S. WOODS, M.D., born 
 1840; A. W. WRIGHT, born 1822 ; W. C. YAWKEY ; 
 and many, many others, all acquired wealth 
 through the purchase of land. 
 
 INHERITANCES. 
 
 Many Americans were born to wealth through 
 the increase in the value of freehold property which
 
 IO2 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 had been purchased by their fathers or grandfathers, 
 amongst whom may be mentioned : 
 
 JOHN JAY, a lawyer, who inherited valuable free- 
 hold in the City of New York. Also EUGENE 
 KETELTAS who inherited extensive property on the 
 east side of New York. SHEPPARD KNAPP, a mer- 
 chant, born in 1839, owns lands which have been 
 handed down from father to son through successive 
 generations. THOMAS LORD, a merchant, inherited 
 considerable freehold property in the business portion 
 of New York, which afterwards rose to a high value. 
 HOPPER STRIKER MOTT, born in 1864, succeeded to 
 large family estates which were originally purchased 
 from the Dutch in 1642, and confirmed by the 
 English in 1667. Portions of the lands form what 
 is now the Sixth Avenue, New York City. JORDAN 
 LAURENCE MOTT held similar farm lands which grew 
 into valuable New York streets. HENRY EVELYN 
 PIERREPONT inherited a large amount of freeholds in 
 Brooklyn, and wild lands in the northern part of 
 New York State which greatly increased in value. 
 BENJAMIN ROBERT WINTHROP became possessed of 
 large estates through the wise investments of his 
 father. WILLIAM HOLT AVERELL inherited extensive 
 lands in the West which grew greatly in value. 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, lawyer, inherited 500 acres of 
 valuable land judiciously bought by his father. 
 HERBERT A. BEIDLER, born in 1861, inherited a large
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. IO3 
 
 estate of freehold city property, principally on the 
 west side of Chicago around Madison and Halstead 
 Streets. HENRY CORDES BROWN inherited some 
 Freehold land of 10 acres, and he continued to deal 
 in such property that he now pays taxes upon his 
 estate of more than 350,000 dollars a year. 
 GENERAL BUCKNER inherited freehold shops in 
 Chicago which he improved, and sold part of, for 
 half a million dollars. 
 
 THE NUMBER OF AMERICANS WHO ARE WEALTHY 
 TO-DAY THROUGH THE PRUDENT INVESTMENTS IN 
 LAND MADE BY THEIR FOREFATHERS, ARE TOO 
 NUMEROUS TO REFER TO, AND THE ABOVE FEW 
 INSTANCES MUST SERVE SIMPLY AS EXAMPLES. 
 
 / have observed in the biographical sketches of 
 Americans that many men can trace their descent 
 from well-known ancient British and Continental 
 families. These sketches also reveal how fond the 
 Americans are of a small farm or country homestead 
 where they can have the advantage of pure air and 
 this accounts for so many splendidly grown men 
 amongst them.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 LAND, AN ARTICLE OF VIRTU. 
 
 AND what is an article of virtu ? The Century 
 Dictionary (published by the Times newspaper), 
 the present great authority, alters the spelling from 
 ft vertu " to " virtu," and states that it means " ex- 
 cellence ; a love of the fine arts ; a word used chiefly 
 in the phrase " article of virtu" ; an object interesting 
 for its precious material, antiquity, etc." 
 
 What is more interesting, more precious, and of 
 greater antiquity than land ? Every other object, 
 such as gems, enamels, etc., falls into insignificance 
 in comparison with the brilliant magnificence of some 
 of the choicest broad acre domains of England. 
 
 I go then straight to the point, and say that the 
 gems of English residential landed property should 
 be bought, not for their intrinsic, but for their 
 aesthetic, value. 
 
 In the small area of our England, with its ever
 
 LAND, AN ARTICLE OF VIRTU. 10$ 
 
 largely increasing population and wealth, the pic- 
 turesque sections possessing some of the greatest 
 attractions land can offer are gems indeed, and 
 should be purchased as other gems are purchased, 
 not for income, but for ornament and for pleasure. Of 
 course, it is of no more use to talk of the pleasure 
 of possessing diamonds to a man who finds no 
 pleasure in locking up thousands of pounds in the 
 purchase of them, than it is to talk of the pleasure 
 of possessing a beautiful estate in the country, large 
 or small, to a man whose soul is centred in town 
 life and in the personal adornments which town 
 life requires of its votaries; but there are many men 
 who really love the country for its own sake, for the 
 numerous benefits and pleasures it yields, and to 
 those I suggest that they should regard the acquisition 
 of a country property as an article of virtu, as much 
 as the town man regards his diamonds and other 
 valuables of a similar character. 
 
 The town man does not expect any interest on 
 his purchase neither should the country buyer expect 
 any interest on his. It has been said that persons 
 who buy gems, diamonds, pictures and various nick- 
 nacks, whether for personal ornament or to be locked 
 up in cabinets, buy with a hope of selling again at a 
 profit ; if this is so then I reply that the buyer of an 
 aesthetic estate has the same opportunity. 
 
 It has in the past been the custom to say of land,
 
 106 LAND, AN ARTICLE OF VIRTU. 
 
 " What will it pay ?" To this question I submit 
 that the payment in kind, of pleasures and advantages 
 to those who appreciate them, is profit enough, and 
 if rightly estimated, a very large profit.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING 
 COUNTRY BRED. 
 
 MOST men of mark in England have either been 
 born or bred in the country and as an authority for 
 this statement see Dr. Smiles' " Life and Labour," 
 which gives many names of such men who became 
 eminent. 
 
 Many well known country bred men who had to 
 pass most of their lives in towns retained their great 
 longing for the country \ and got away to its quiet 
 solitudes "whenever opportunities existed. Amongst 
 whom were Sir Hugh Middleton, who brought the 
 New River to London, Metcalfe the road maker, 
 Edwards the bridge builder, Brindley the canal 
 maker, Smeaton, Rennie, Talfourd, George 
 Stephenson, Professor Henslow, Buffon, Wicliffe, 
 Luther, Knox, Loyola, Latimer, Wesley, Oliver 
 Cromwell, Washington, Professor Alexander 
 Murray, James Ferguson, James Hogg, Sir
 
 108 THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING COUNTRY BRED. 
 
 Benjamin Brodie, Jenner, Dr. Arnold of Rugby, 
 Wordsworth, Sydney Smith, Carlyle, Goldsmith, 
 Sir Walter Scott, Shakespeare, Shenstone, Cowley, 
 Cowper, Burns, Thomson, Ruskin, Coleridge, Sir 
 Francis Drake, Dr. Beddoe, and hosts of others. 
 Dr. Farr said, " The nearer people live to each 
 other, the shorter their lives are." Dioclesian, 
 Horace, Virgil, Cato, Lucilius, Scipio, Lord Bacon, 
 Daniel Webster, Pitt, Wilberforce, Dr. Whateley, 
 Gladstone, Hobbes, and others too numerous to 
 mention, but these are referred to as illustrations 
 sufficient to prove the general desire for a country 
 life.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE FOSTERS AND GLADSTONES AS 
 EXAMPLES. 
 
 VERY naturally do some men turn to the possession 
 of broad acres when they have accumulated wealth, 
 especially those who have known the charm of a 
 country life when young, though it may have been 
 only in a cottage. Take as an example Mr. John 
 Foster, the famous manufacturer of Queensbury, in 
 Yorkshire. When quite young he was employed on 
 his father's farm, and when he grew older he learned 
 the art of worsted manufacture by which in the 
 course of years he prospered so much as to have 
 secured a very considerable fortune, and then 
 he turned to the acquisition of land. He purchased 
 Hornby Castle, near Lancaster, a fine landed estate 
 which was one of the ancient possessions of the 
 Stanleys, whence a Stanley of Hornby went out 
 with his retainers to the battle of Fiodden Field in 
 Scotland, the great decisive battle between the
 
 110 THE FOSTERS AND GLADSTONES AS EXAMPLES. 
 
 English and the Scots, which was fought on 
 September 9, 1513, when there fell on the Scots 
 side King James, an Archbishop, two Bishops, two 
 Abbots, thirteen Earls, fifteen Lords and Chiefs 
 of Clans, five Peers' eldest sons, the French 
 Ambassador, and names of the gentry so numerous 
 that there were few families of note in Scotland 
 which did not lose one of its members, and some 
 had to weep the death of all of the Scots there fell a 
 total of 10,000 men. Turner, the artist, painted 
 several views of the scenery around Hornby Castle, 
 and Dr. Whitaker said : " The noble windings of 
 the river, the fruitful alluvial lands upon its banks, 
 the woody and cultivated ridge which bounds it to 
 the north-west, the striking feature of Hornby 
 Castle in front, and, above all, the noble form of 
 Ingleborough, certainly form an assemblage of 
 features not united to compose any rival scenery in 
 the Kingdom." Mr. Foster bought adjoining lands, 
 so that the extent of the present Hornby Estate is 
 more than 5000 acres, and his two sons bought also 
 the Egton Estate near Whitby, comprising more 
 than 13,000 acres. 
 
 Take again the Gladstone family, who were 
 merchants of Liverpool. History informs us : 
 "John Gladstone & Co. opened up trade connections 
 with all parts of the world. They had ships 
 constantly plying between Liverpool and Russia,
 
 THE FOSTERS AND GLADSTONES AS EXAMPLES. Ill 
 
 with which country they did a very large business. 
 In course of time they also were enabled to extend 
 their operations to India and China, their firm being 
 the first to send out a private vessel to Culcutta, 
 after the extension of the East India and China 
 trades beyond the limits of the East India 
 Company's monopoly. 
 
 All this time Mr. John Gladstone was not 
 neglecting his interests in Liverpool, but while his 
 trade with foreign nations increased, he contrived to 
 make many valuable investments in land and house 
 property, all of which proved very fortunate specula- 
 tions. He thus became the possessor of property 
 in Liverpool, Seaforth and elsewhere, which in 
 course of time doubled and trebled itself in value.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 EXAMPLES OF BREATHING IMPURE 
 
 AIR. 
 
 IN occasionally visiting my only brother, a Lancashire 
 Rector, I have been struck with the appearance of 
 those operatives whose occupations are in hot, closely 
 confined factories, and those workmen whose lives 
 are passed on the land in the open air. The factory 
 workers are pale, short, and haggard looking, whilst 
 the farm labourers are well-developed and have the 
 appearance of splendid health and strength. No 
 more forcible example could be found of the differ- 
 ence between town and country life. 
 
 As an evidence of the effect of breathing each 
 other's breaths in a closely confined space, I will 
 refer to an extreme case the unfortunate persons 
 who some years ago were shut up in the Black Hole 
 of Calcutta. The suffering induced was the intoler- 
 able irritation caused by the inspired air. The 
 sensation was described as if the face were held over 
 a vessel of hartshorn. Within two hours after the
 
 EXAMPLES OF BREATHING IMPURE AIR. 113 
 
 incarceration, out of the 146 persons imprisoned 50 
 died, and next morning 1 only 23 remained alive, and 
 nearly all of them suffered from putrid typhus, of 
 which many of them died. This of course is an 
 extreme case, but it explains the principle at work 
 in the Lancashire case I have just mentioned. 
 
 The late Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, F.R.S., 
 M.D., said, in his " Diseases of modern life," 
 " confined air becomes definitely poisonous and 
 disease producing, and that charged with the 
 emanations of those who are worst fed and most 
 exhausted by work or by disease, it gains in intensity 
 of power for the production of disease." .... 
 " Devitalized air finds its entrance into human 
 habitations. It is this air in our over-crowded towns 
 and cities where there is no vegetation to revivify it, 
 which we distinguish as something so different from 
 the fresh country air that streams over meadow and 
 forest. It is the breathing of this air that makes 
 the child of the close town so pale and lax and 
 feeble, as compared with the child of the country. 
 It is this air that renders the atmosphere of the 
 crowded hospital so deficient in sustaining power. 
 It is this air that gives to many of our public 
 institutions, in which large numbers of our poorer, 
 ill-clad, uncleansed masses are herded together, that 
 * poor smell,' as it is called, which is so depressing 
 both to the senses and to the animal power." 
 
 K
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 AMERICAN REFERENCE TO ENGLISH 
 LANDOWNING. 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON, one of the United States' 
 most brilliant authors, writes in his " English 
 Traits,"* in the chapter on " Aristocracy," that 
 which follows below : 
 
 " In evidence of the wealth amassed by ancient 
 families, the traveller is shown the palaces in 
 Piccadilly, Burlington House, Devonshire House, 
 Lansdowne House in Berkshire Square, and, lower 
 down in the city, a few noble houses which still 
 
 * This volume was presented to me on " December 24th, 1862," by 
 E. W. Emerson, son of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He is now the well known 
 Dr. Emerson. I find a memo which I wrote in a fly leaf thus E. W. 
 Emerson and C. F. Dowsett were passengers together on the "Orizaba" s.s. 
 from California, September and October, 1862, to Acapulco, thence across 
 the Isthmus of Panama to Aspinwall and New York, and on that passage 
 Emerson promised Dowsett one of his father's works, and in accordance with 
 that promise sent this volume to Dowsett in England. C. F. D.
 
 AMERICAN REFERENCE TO ENGLISH LANDOWNING. 11$ 
 
 withstand in all their amplitude the encroachment of 
 streets. The Duke of Bedford includes or included 
 a mile square in the heart of London, where the 
 British Museum, once Montague House, now stands, 
 and the land occupied by Woburn Square, Bedford 
 Square, Russell Square. The Marquis of West- 
 minster built within a few years the series of 
 squares called Belgravia. Stafford House is the 
 noblest palace in London. Northumberland House 
 holds its place by Charing Cross.* Chesterfield 
 House remains in Audley Street. Sion House and 
 Holland House are in the suburbs. But most of 
 the historical houses are masked or lost in the 
 modern uses to which trade or charity has con- 
 verted them. A multitude of town palaces contain 
 inestimable galleries of art. 
 
 " In the country, the size of private estates is 
 more impressive. From Barnard Castle I rode on 
 the highway twenty -three miles from High Force, a 
 fall of the Tees, towards Darlington, past Raby 
 Castle, through the estate of the Duke of Cleveland. 
 The Marquis of Breadalbane rides out of his house 
 a hundred miles in a straight line to the sea, on his 
 own property. The Duke of Sutherland owns the 
 County of Sutherland, stretching across Scotland 
 from sea to sea. The Duke of Devonshire, besides 
 
 * This has long ago been pulled down and Northumberland Avenue 
 occupies the site. C. F. D.
 
 Il6 AMERICAN REFERENCE TO ENGLISH LANDOWNING. 
 
 his other estates, owns 96,000 acres in the County 
 of Derby, The Duke of Richmond has 40,000 
 acres at Goodwood, and 300,000 at Gordon Castle. 
 The Duke of Norfolk's park in Sussex is fifteen 
 miles in circuit. An agriculturist bought lately the 
 island of Lewes, in Hebrides, containing 500,000 
 acres. The possessions of the Earl of Lonsdale 
 give him eight seats in Parliament. This is the 
 Heptarchy again : and before the Reform of 1832, 
 one hundred and fifty-four persons sent three 
 hundred and seven members to Parliament. The 
 borough-mongers governed England." 
 
 " These large domains are growing larger. The 
 great estates are absorbing the small freeholds. 
 In 1786, the soil of England was owned by 250,000 
 corporations and proprietors; and in 1822, by 
 32,000. These broad estates find room in this 
 narrow island. All over England, scattered at 
 short intervals among ship-yards, mills, mines, and 
 forges, are the paradises of the nobles, where the 
 livelong repose and refinement are heightened by 
 the contrast with the roar of industry and necessity, 
 out of which you have stepped aside." 
 
 " The English nobles are high-spirited, active, 
 educated men, born to wealth and power, who have 
 run through every country, and kept in every 
 country the best company, have seen every secret 
 of art and nature, and when men of any ability or
 
 AMERICAN REFERENCE TO ENGLISH LANDOWNING. 117 
 
 ambition, have been consulted in the conduct of 
 every important action." 
 
 "The upper classes have only birth, say the 
 people here, and not thoughts. Yes, but they have 
 manners, and, 'tis wonderful, how much talent runs 
 into manners : nowhere and never so much as in 
 England. They have the sense of superiority, the 
 absence of all the ambitious effort which disgusts in 
 the aspiring classes, a pure tone of thought and 
 feeling, and the power to command, among their 
 other luxuries, the presence of the most accom- 
 plished men in their festive meetings." 
 
 These extracts explain that many families 
 amassed wealth or added to their wealth by the 
 purchase of land. 
 
 It must be remembered, however, that since the 
 agricultural depression which commenced at the 
 end of the seventies, many large estates in Great 
 Britain have been reduced in size through portions 
 having been sold, for since that period there has 
 been a great desire on the part of the public to 
 acquire land, and its diffusion has extended year by 
 year, as witness the records in the newspapers of 
 sales in large and small portions in all parts of the 
 country. This, however, helps our argument that 
 there is a growing desire to buy English acres.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 WATER FROM THE CHALK. 
 
 THE following are extracts from the sixth report 
 of the Commissioners appointed in 1868 on the 
 Domestic Water Supply of Great Britain : 
 
 " Of all water-bearing strata the chalk is perhaps 
 held most in favour for the sinking of deep shafts 
 and boreholes. This is no doubt due both to the 
 abundant supply of water which it is capable of 
 furnishing and to the facility with which the opera- 
 tions of boring and sinking in it can be accom- 
 plished." p. 99. 
 
 " Chalk is an excellent filtering and cleansing 
 material for water, and whilst it absorbs a larger 
 proportion of the rainfall than does any other 
 stratum, the water is again yielded to deep wells in 
 a condition of freedom from organic matters not 
 surpassed by the water from any other geological 
 formation." p. 101. 
 
 " The deep well waters from the chalk rank 
 amongst the best and most wholesome with which
 
 WATER FROM THE CHALK. 1 19 
 
 we have become acquainted. They are almost in- 
 variably colourless, palatable, and brilliantly clear." 
 p. 102. 
 
 " The chalk constitutes magnificent underground 
 reservoirs, in which vast volumes of water are not 
 only rendered and kept pure, but stored and pre- 
 served at a uniform temperature of about 10 C. 
 (50 F.), so as to be cool and refreshing in summer, 
 and far removed from the freezing point in winter. 
 It would probably be impossible to devise, even 
 regardless of expense, any artificial arrangement for 
 the storage of water that could secure more favour- 
 able conditions than those naturally and gratuitously 
 afforded by the chalk, and there is reason to believe 
 the more this stratum is drawn upon for its abun- 
 dant and excellent water, the better will its qualities 
 as a storage medium become."
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 COBDEN. 
 
 THERE is a singular coincidence between the lives of 
 Mr. Cobden 'and Mr. Chamberlain as regards the 
 alteration of our Fiscal policy, that calls for notice. 
 
 I will briefly refer to Cobden's position. He 
 lived between the years 1804 and 1865. He was 
 born at a farmhouse near Midhurst, in Sussex, 
 and his family had been resident in that district for 
 many generations, engaged in trade and agriculture. 
 Through family reverses his education was some- 
 what neglected. He began life as a commercial 
 traveller, and was a great reader and thinker. He 
 became connected with a manufacturing firm in 
 Lancashire and succeeded so well by his ingenious 
 inventions that his share in the profits one year 
 amounted to from ^"8000 to ,10,000. He engaged 
 himself largely in politics and wrote upon them, 
 which writings received much attention in the 
 United States. He went to New York in 1835 and 
 then on to Canada. He continued his literary
 
 COBDEN. 121 
 
 pursuits after his return to England, and then 
 travelled in Egypt, Turkey and Spain. This, with 
 his numerous writings, brought him great notoriety. 
 An Anti-Corn Law League was formed at 
 Manchester, of which Cobden was the leader. 
 
 When he first spoke in the House of Commons 
 he, like Disraeli, was greeted with jeers, but this did 
 not in the least disturb him, for he was convinced 
 of his cause, and he soon became acknowledged as 
 a foremost debater. Sir Robert Peel attributed 
 to Cobden, before the House of Commons, 
 that he (Cobden) was the cause of the success 
 of the measures which brought about the 
 repeal of the Corn Laws. Influential persons in 
 France, Prussia, Austria, Russia and Spain, invited 
 him to go to those countries to speak upon the 
 subject which was next his heart. He said, " I feel 
 that I could succeed in making out a stronger case 
 for the prohibitive nations of Europe to compel them 
 to adopt a freer system than I had here to overturn 
 our Protection policy" Thus his object was like 
 that of Mr. Chamberlain. Cobden's desire was for 
 the abolition of protection and for the establishment 
 of Free Trade, not for England only but for all 
 Europe, and if I understand Mr. Chamberlain's 
 position correctly he is not aiming at Protection for 
 England but for Free Trade amongst all the 
 European countries, and to accomplish this he finds
 
 122 COBDEN. 
 
 that it is necessary to protect ourselves against the 
 unfair system which now prevails, whereby we give 
 foreigners every facility for trading free of onerous 
 duties, whilst they impose liabilities which handicap 
 us unmercifully. If we use protective means, other 
 nations may see the advantage of Free Trade all 
 round, and thus the aim of Cobden and Mr. 
 Chamberlain would be accomplished. 
 
 Cobden visited France, Spain, Italy, Germany, 
 and Russia, and in his absence there was in England 
 a General Election, and he was returned for the 
 West Riding of Yorkshire, and also for Stockport. 
 
 Cobden was a strong advocate for peace, and 
 although the public mind was much perturbed by 
 the idea of Louis Napoleon's descent upon England 
 he resisted the popular feeling, and thus lost the 
 popularity which his advocacy of Free Trade had 
 won for him, and he became then " the best abused 
 man in England." He lost his seat in Parliament, 
 and retired to his farm in Sussex, but soon after 
 paid another visit to the United States, and during 
 his absence he was returned, unopposed, for Roch- 
 dale. Lord Palmerston offered him a seat in the 
 Cabinet, which he refused, and he then went to 
 France and had a long audience with Napoleon 
 urging the adoption of Free Trade. He there had 
 interviews with the French Ministers, but no 
 conclusion could be arrived at. He was then asked
 
 COBDEN. 123 
 
 by the British Government to act as its Pleni- 
 potentiary in conjunction with Lord Cowley, the 
 Ambassador in France, but the French Protectionists 
 were too strong for them. He, however, succeeded 
 in establishing a better feeling of amity between the 
 two countries, and Lord Palmerston offered him a 
 baronetcy, which he declined. Indisposition caused 
 him to go to Algeria in the winter of 1860, and his 
 weakness of bronchial irritation increased so that on 
 April 2nd, 1865, he died at his apartments in 
 Suffolk Street, London.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 THE CORN LAWS. 
 
 THE first Corn Laws in this country arose to meet 
 various difficulties and to reduce the price of corn. 
 Transit from one part of the kingdom to another 
 was so difficult that it caused a great variation in 
 prices and it was sometimes cheaper to export corn 
 to a foreign market than to carry it to inland 
 markets where it was wanted. Export of corn, 
 however, was prohibited during the four centuries 
 which succeeded the Norman Conquest, except 
 when there was an unusually good harvest, farmers 
 carried their corn into the nearest town and sold to 
 the consumers at whatever price it would bring. 
 
 In 1436, during the reign of Henry VI., the 
 exportation of corn was permitted without a license 
 if the current value of wheat fell below a fixed price, 
 and this has been considered as the origin of the 
 British Corn Laws. In the South-Eastern Counties 
 the wheat growers could have sold their produce to
 
 THE CORN LAWS. 12$ 
 
 the Dutch merchants at higher prices than they 
 could have obtained in their own market towns, or 
 in London. The Act of Parliament prevented 
 them selling abroad, and yet they were unable 
 through lack of transport to sell at inland English 
 towns at the prices which obtained at the best 
 centres. In 1463, during the reign of Edward IV., 
 an Act was passed prohibiting importation from 
 abroad. It was only allowed to import foreign 
 wheat if the price was above the export price of 
 home grown wheat. Continental countries also 
 prohibited export of wheat, and therefore we could 
 get little, if any, from abroad. 
 
 In 1554, in the reign of Philip and Mary, 
 the Acts passed in the reigns of Henry VI. and 
 Edward IV. were ignored, and a similar law to that 
 passed in 1436 was brought into force. Previous to 
 this, in the reign of Edward VI., and also subsequently 
 in the reign of Elizabeth, there was a decay of tillage, 
 dearth of corn and troubles amongst the agricultural 
 labourers in consequence. Then measures were 
 passed to the encouragement of tillage, the 
 extension of farms, and heavy restrictions on dealing 
 in grain as an act of merchandise. In 1562, wheat 
 could only be exported if raised to los. per quarter, 
 but in 1570 it was permitted in particular districts by 
 a duty of is. 8d. per quarter, yet even then it could 
 be prohibited by the Government. In 1603,
 
 126 THE CORN LAWS. 
 
 restrictions as to tillage and enlargement of pastoral 
 farms was done away with, and wheat was allowed 
 to be exported at a duty of 23. per quarter, when the 
 price was not more than 203. Transport in England 
 was so difficult that some parts of England often 
 suffered from scarcity of wheat. 
 
 I can well understand this, for during 
 a visit to Australia in 1855, the price of the 
 carriage of a ton of flour to Friers Creek gold field, 
 only some 100 miles from Melbourne, was ^100 a 
 ton, and I had to pay is. 6d. for a two-pound loaf. 
 
 In 1660, in the reign of Charles II., an Act was 
 passed more prohibitory than the law which obtained 
 since the days of Elizabeth. The export and import 
 of corn were subjected to heavy duties, which 
 considerably raised the price of corn, so that in 1 663 
 the duties were reduced. In 1670 high duties were 
 again imposed. In the time of William and Mary 
 duties on export were abolished, but heavy duties 
 on imports were continued. In 1773, Burke's Act 
 permitted imports of foreign wheat at a nominal 
 duty of 6d., when the price at home was 483. per 
 quarter, and it stopped the bounty on exports, when 
 the home price was 443. per quarter. An Act was 
 passed in 1791, whereby the 6d. import duty was 
 raised to 25. 6d. when wheat was 503. to 545., and if 
 under 503. per quarter a prohibitory duty of 243. 3d., 
 the export bounty was continued, but if the price
 
 THE CORN LAWS. I2/ 
 
 came down to 463., export without bounty was 
 allowed. In 1804 an Act was passed, whereby an 
 import duty of 243. 3d. was imposed on foreign 
 wheat, when British grown wheat was 635* or less, 
 and the bounty on export was paid when the price 
 came as low as- 403., but wheat might be exported 
 without bounty at 543. In 1815 an Act was passed 
 which had for its object the keeping of British 
 wheat at about 8os. per quarter. In 1822 Parliament 
 reduced the import limit at 703. per quarter for 
 wheat. In 1827 Canning introduced a system of 
 duties which, however, failed, and in 1828 Charles 
 Grant introduced another set on a sliding scale, which 
 made corn dealing entirely prohibitory for 
 merchants. 
 
 In 1822 Parliament passed an Act which ad- 
 mitted corn from our North American Colonies 
 under specially favoured rates, and in 1825 allowed 
 these Colonies to send wheat into England at a 
 fixed duty of 53. per quarter. In 1842 Sir Robert 
 Peel carried a new sliding scale of duties, but, under 
 the influence of Cobden and the Anti-Corn Law 
 League, put an end to all the Corn Laws by the 
 Act 9 & 10 Viet., c. 22, which provided that in 
 three years, *>., on February ist, 1849, all duties 
 were to cease, except the nominal duty of one 
 shilling per quarter on foreign corn. In 1860 even 
 these nominal duties were abolished, since when
 
 128 THE CORN LAWS. 
 
 wheat and other goods have been admitted into 
 Great Britain free of all charge, so that foreigners 
 have been supplying our markets with goods at 
 prices which have been very detrimental to the 
 wages of our own labouring classes.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE 
 
 FIRST. 
 
 THE following letter is from Mr. T. Penn Gaskell, 
 Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, Member 
 of the London County Council, Author of " Free 
 Trade a Failure from the First," etc., etc. 
 
 I have much pleasure in sending you at your 
 request a short statement of the principal points and 
 arguments in my little book, called " Free Trade a 
 Failure from the First," and published by Messrs. 
 MacMillan & Co., Limited, in November last. 
 
 In order, properly, to understand the effects 
 produced by the introduction of Free Trade into 
 the United Kingdom during the last decade of the 
 first half of the nineteenth century, it is necessary to 
 look back at the condition of the country for some 
 years previously. When the Napoleonic wars were 
 terminated by the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, Great 
 Britain naturally took some years to recover from
 
 130 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 
 
 the absolutely exhausted and impoverished situation 
 which had been brought about by these wars. 
 However, after the lapse of 10 or 15 years marked 
 signs of improvement became manifest on all sides. 
 Agriculture, commerce and manufacture were pros- 
 pering, as was evident from a rapid increase of 
 population, large and constant additions to the 
 annual exports, continuous and substantial repayments 
 of the National Debt, and a corresponding decrease 
 in the annual charges for interest, with a still more 
 marked reduction in the charges per head of popula- 
 tion. 
 
 There can be little doubt that it was these growing 
 signs of prosperity in the early years of the reign of 
 Queen Victoria that made Mr. Cobden and the 
 Manchester School, to which he belonged, so anxious 
 to see Free Trade adopted. They anticipated that 
 the time must of necessity soon arrive when, even 
 with good harvests, England would be dependent to 
 a considerable extent on foreign food supplies, whilst 
 no doubt it was also hoped that the free entry of 
 corn from abroad would greatly reduce prices, and 
 that manufactures would be exported to pay for the 
 food imported. The Anti-Corn Law League was 
 formed with the expressed object of repealing all the 
 duties on corn. The duty on wheat was 23 shillings 
 a quarter when the price was not over 64 shillings a 
 quarter, with a graduated reduction in duty as the
 
 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 131 
 
 price increased over this figure. The duties on 
 other kinds of grain were proportionately less with 
 very great preferential advantages to the Colonies, 
 especially Canada, where the duty was limited to a 
 shilling per quarter. Unfortunately for the country 
 Sir Robert Peel, instead of bringing in a Bill to 
 reduce the excessive duties to a reasonable figure, 
 went in for Free Trade pure and simple. The 
 Repeal Act was passed in 1846 and the duty on 
 wheat was at once reduced to 10 shillings a quarter 
 when the price was under 48 shillings, with lower 
 duties still as the price of wheat rose above 
 48 shillings. In the early part of 1849 all the 
 Corn Duties were taken off, leaving only a regis- 
 tration duty of a shilling a quarter on all 
 corn. This registration duty was itself removed 
 in 1860. 
 
 Much to the surprise of everyone at the time, 
 the passing of the Act in 1 846, produced little effect 
 on prices, and in 1847, when the duty was entirely 
 suspended from early in January till the end of the 
 year, on account of the preceding bad harvest, the 
 price of wheat was higher than it had been for 
 many years previously. It was in fact the home 
 harvests at the time which mainly regulated prices, 
 about nine-tenths of the total consumption being 
 home grown, and high freights and expensive land 
 transit forming natural protection independently of
 
 132 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 
 
 tariffs. The consequence of this state of things was 
 that Free Trade at first, at any rate, did little or 
 nothing to check the cultivation of the soil or injure 
 agriculture. 
 
 For the first few years following the Repeal Act, 
 trade was stagnant, until after the gold discoveries 
 in California and Australia in 1849 and 1850 (dealt 
 with later on), when a rapid improvement set in. 
 Free Traders claim the credit of this improvement, 
 but this claim it is my endeavour to confute. The 
 21 years from 1852 to 1872 inclusive, were years of 
 great and continuous prosperity, succeeded by a 
 long period of decline and reaction. Nothing 
 therefore can be fairer to Free Traders than to 
 select this period and compare it with the 2 1 years 
 of Protection, 1826 to 1846, inclusive. We are 
 told that Free Trade produced prosperity principally 
 by bringing down the price of food-stuffs, and thus 
 enabled manufacturers and workmen to produce 
 goods under cheaper and more favourable con- 
 ditions than before. In the period 1826-46 under 
 Protection, the Gazette price of wheat on the average 
 was 573. 5d., whilst the corresponding price in 
 1852-72, was 535. iod., showing that the remission 
 of a duty of 22 shillings resulted in a fall in prices 
 of only 33. 7d. If, however, we take wheat, barley 
 and oats together, and the combined values of an 
 arbitrary quantity of 18 quarters of each, we get
 
 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 133 
 
 during the Protection period an average value of 
 ;ioi. us. 2d., and during the Free Trade period 
 an average value of ^102. 6s. 6d., showing a rise 
 instead of a fall after Free Trade. This shows that 
 the rise in the prices of barley and oats more than 
 counter- balanced the fall in the price of wheat. It 
 will be shown, as may be expected from this fact, 
 that the increase in the cost of animal foods 
 (barley and oats being used as feeding stuffs) 
 after the introduction of Free Trade was very 
 considerable and much more than outweighed the 
 saving to consumers, arising from the lower price 
 of wheat. 
 
 The Board of Trade returns show that from 
 1852 to 1872 inclusive, the average annual quantity 
 of wheat imported was 7,050,000 quarters, so that 
 at 35. 7d. the average annual saving was ,1,263,125 
 as compared with the price on the average for 
 the years 1826-46. Now as regards animal 
 foods, it would appear from available statistics, 
 that prices in 1826-46, as compared with 1852-72, 
 were 6*3 per cent, lower for beef, mutton, and 
 pork, 2 2' 7 per cent, lower for bacon, 16*3 per cent, 
 lower for butter, whilst cheese, eggs, and lard were 
 10 per cent, lower. Taking these percentages on 
 the various items of animal foods imported in 
 1852-1872, and the annual average value of which 
 was ; 1 2,9 1 5,09 1, we find that there was an annual
 
 134 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 
 
 increase in the cost to the consumer during the 
 Free Trade period of ; 1,773,585. Deducting 
 from this last figure the saving on imported wheat 
 we arrive at a net loss to the consumer on his 
 imported food after Free Trade of ^51 0,460 per 
 annum, as compared with the cost had the prices 
 under Protection continued. If we take into 
 account the cost of home-produced wheat and 
 animal foods there would, during the Free Trade 
 period, be a further additional loss to the 
 consumer of .3,833,391, making a total net 
 loss of .4,343,851, as compared with the 
 average cost of the Protection period 1826-46. 
 The population of the United Kingdom in the 
 middle of 1862 and the middle of the period 
 1852-72 was 29,204,983, so that the increased cost 
 of the rise in the price of food that followed the 
 introduction of Free Trade, was as nearly as 
 possible three shillings per head per annum. 
 
 Therefore, if it be said that Free Trade brought 
 prosperity by cheapening food, my answer is that 
 this proposition is disproved by the fact that there 
 was no cheapening of food for 25 years after Free 
 Trade. 
 
 I will now state the real causes (as I think) of 
 that prosperity which Free Traders claim as their 
 own. 
 
 ist Shipping and Railways. From 1831 to
 
 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 135 
 
 1851 (nearly all Protection years) shipping tonnage 
 increased at the rate of 2^ per cent, per annum 
 compound interest, whilst under Free Trade the 
 increase was 2^ percent, from 1851 to 1871, from 
 1871 to 1891 it was 2 per cent., and from 1891 to 
 1901 it was ij per cent., the most rapid rate of 
 increase being under Protection. Steam as applied 
 to shipping was first introduced in the early years 
 of the 1 9th century. In 1816 the first steam 
 passenger boat crossed the English Channel. In 
 1819 the "Savannah" was the first steamer to 
 cross the Atlantic, and in 1820 the first iron steam- 
 boat was constructed. In 1833 the carrying of 
 mails by steamboats was entrusted to private enter- 
 prise, the British Government having for a few years 
 previously done this work with its own steamers. 
 In 1838 Mr. Brunei built the ''Great Western" of 
 1340 tons, the first steamer constructed for the 
 trans- Atlantic service, and in 1843 he built the 
 " Great Britain," the first steamer in which the screw 
 took the place of paddles. It was not till after 
 1860 that iron predominated over wood in ship- 
 building, or that the tonnage of steamers under 
 construction exceeded that of sailing vessels. 
 
 As regards railways, the first of any great impor- 
 tance, that from Liverpool to Manchester, 30 miles 
 in length, was opened in 1830. The next great 
 scheme of any magnitude, the railway from London
 
 136 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 
 
 to Birmingham, 112 miles in length, was opened in 
 1838. Up to the end of 1844 there had been con- 
 structed 2240 miles of railway in the United 
 Kingdom at the cost of about ^70,000,000, and an 
 additional 3200 miles were under construction or 
 authorised. At the time of Sir Robert Peel's Act in 
 1 846, about 3000 miles of railway were in operation 
 and the capital expended was about ; 100,000,000, 
 whereas at the end of 1902 there were, in the 
 United Kingdom, 22,152 miles of railway in work, 
 and the capital expended reached the enormous sum 
 of i , 2 1 6,86 1 ,42 1 . Moreover at the time of repeal 
 railway construction was proceeding at a rapid rate, 
 839 miles being opened for traffic in 1847 an d 975 
 miles in 1848. 
 
 In all probability shipping and railways exercised 
 a hundred, or perhaps a thousand times, more 
 influence on Great Britain's prosperity than the 
 much vaunted policy of Free Trade. 
 
 2nd Gold Discoveries. However there can be 
 little doubt that the most potent factor of all was 
 that connected with the great gold discoveries in 
 California in 1849, and in Australia in 1850. The 
 gold production of the world from 1780 to 1840 
 was fairly constant and averaged only about 
 .2,250,000 per annum. After 1840 small dis- 
 coveries were made in the United States, from time to 
 time, culminating by the California discovery in 1849.
 
 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 137 
 
 For the 10 years ending with 1850, the average 
 annual production of the world was ^7,500,000. 
 In 1850 came the Australian discovery, and for the 
 10 years ending with 1860, the average annual out- 
 put of the world was of the enormous value of 
 .27,500,000. After this there was a slight but 
 gradual decline in the production, until it fell to 
 about ^"20,000,000 in the early eighties. In 1886 
 the gold discoveries in the Transvaal restored the 
 industry, and from this date there was an increase, 
 more especially in very recent years, in the world's 
 annual production of gold, which exceeded 
 ^63,000,000 in value in 1903, and is estimated to 
 reach .73,000,000 in 1904. The effect of the gold 
 discoveries of 1849 and 1850 on the trade of the 
 United Kingdom, must have been very great, and 
 the specific results as regards the exports of British 
 and Irish products to the United States and 
 Australia, were most striking, the average annual 
 increase to these two countries being for some years 
 after the discoveries, much greater in actual amount 
 and enormously greater in proportion than that to 
 all the rest of the world. 
 
 The general effect of these discoveries may be 
 imagined from trustworthy estimates that have been 
 made ; that the world's gold coin in circulation 
 amounted to ,167,000,000 in 1850, and to 
 ^536,000,000 in 1870.
 
 138 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 
 
 Dealing now with the question of the exports of 
 British and Irish products, it will be convenient to 
 divide these into three divisions, first, those to 
 " Competitive Foreign Countries," meaning Ger- 
 many, Holland, Belgium, France, and United States; 
 second, " Neutral Foreign Countries/' meaning all 
 foreign countries not in the first division ; and third, 
 " British Possessions Abroad." Taking quinquennial 
 averages, and starting with 1827, we have in million 
 pounds for the three divisions, in the order stated, 
 I 3i I2 i an d i r making a total of 37 for 1827-31, 
 and 2oJ, 1 8^ and i6J respectively, making a total 
 of 55 J for 1842-46, and showing an uniform increase 
 of about 50 per cent, in the 15 years, or about 
 2 j per cent, (compound interest) per annum. This 
 was all under Protection. Under Free Trade the 
 quinquennial averages for 1897-1901 were, for the 
 three divisions, 75!, 89 J and 89! respectively, making 
 a total of 255. The total increase over 1842-46 is 
 equal to 2f per cent, per annum, compound interest, 
 or the same as that under Protection. However, 
 under Free Trade it was the third division (British 
 Possessions) that showed the best, and the first 
 division (Competitive Foreign Countries) that 
 showed the worst results. 
 
 As regards imports, no Government returns are 
 available before 1854, so that in this case Protection 
 results in Great Britain cannot be compared with
 
 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 139 
 
 those of Free Trade. It may, however, be useful 
 to show by figures how Protection abroad has in- 
 jured Free Trade England, by comparing the 
 exports of British and Irish products with the im- 
 ports for the same periods. As, however, a certain 
 portion (about 12 per cent.) of the imports are 
 re-exported, in order to get a fair comparison, such 
 re-exports will be deducted, and the figures thus 
 obtained are called " adjusted imports." Taking 
 the three divisions as before, Competitive Foreign 
 Countries, Neutral Foreign Countries, and British 
 Possessions, the quinquennial average values of the 
 exports in million pounds for 1870-4 were 96, 78 
 and 6oJ respectively, the total being 234^, whilst the 
 adjusted imports were 107^, mjand 71 J respec- 
 tively, the total being 290^. For the years 1898- 
 1902 the corresponding figures were for the exports, 
 ?6|, 925-, and 95 J-, the total being 264, whilst for 
 the adjusted imports the figures were 225, 118 and 
 98 respectively, and the total was 441. The most 
 remarkable features of these returns are the great 
 decrease in the exports during the last 28 years as 
 regards the first division, or Competitive Foreign 
 Countries, accompanied with an enormous increase in 
 the imports, the decrease in the annual exports being 
 ^"19,750,000, and the increase in the annual imports 
 ^117,500,000. This result is a clear proof of the 
 evil of what is popularly known as " dumping,"
 
 140 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 
 
 brought about by the heavy duties imposed by our 
 competitors, excluding to a large extent British 
 goods, whilst the enlarged markets they thereby 
 obtain in their own countries, combined with the 
 free entry into the United Kingdom, enable them 
 to produce largely, and, consequently, cheaply. 
 
 The matter at present causing great discussion 
 relates to the question of the advantage or otherwise 
 of an excess of imports over exports. Imports of 
 necessity must be paid for, but it may happen that 
 they may be paid for in part by capital, and not 
 altogether by goods, income derived from investments 
 abroad, earnings of shipping, &e. It will be seen 
 from the figures above given for the quinquennial 
 averages of adjusted imports and exports for the 
 years 1898-1902, that the former were ^441,000,000, 
 and the latter ^264,000,000, showing an excess of 
 imports of ^177,000,000. There are certain small 
 items that would go to somewhat reduce, and others 
 that would slightly increase it, but the total result 
 would be practically the same. The latest Govern- 
 ment returns state that the income from investments 
 abroad to be ^62,500,000 per annum, but probably 
 it would be fair to add fifty per cent, to this figure 
 for unknown investments. Money earned abroad 
 and spent in England, or, say in all, ^94,000,000. 
 Sir Thomas Sutherland says, that at the outside 
 British shipping freights, &c., may provide the pay-
 
 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 141 
 
 ment for ^40,000,000 worth of imports. Putting 
 these two figures together, we have ^134,000,000 
 to meet the excess of imports of ^177,000,000, or a 
 total balance on the wrong side of ^43,000,000. It 
 is difficult to know how this balance is provided, but 
 there can be little doubt that the present holdings 
 by British investors in American railway securities, 
 Austrian, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Spanish 
 bonds, &c., have been greatly reduced of late years, 
 and probably this cause and the fact that large 
 amounts of Continental and American money are in- 
 vested in British undertakings, or in British bills 
 and securities, may account for the mystery. At 
 any rate the situation is far from reassuring to those 
 who have the interests of their country at heart. 
 
 I have lengthened this statement beyond my 
 original intention, but have left out the trade union 
 argument, which is the strongest of all in favour of 
 Protection against Free Trade, for if trade unionism 
 is to be maintained, it would appear impossible that 
 British manufactured goods can successfully compete 
 against those made abroad, and which escape being 
 handicapped by similar conditions. It may also be 
 mentioned that the essence of cheapness is large 
 production, and it would seem impossible to obtain 
 this without protection, retaliation and preference. 
 Another matter that has always been lost sight of by 
 Free Traders, is connected with the fact that
 
 142 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 
 
 the best customers for our home producers are 
 our own countrymen, and that it is of the utmost 
 importance that every industry in Great Britain 
 and Ireland should be encouraged to the 
 utmost. When the Corn Laws were abolished, 
 the loss to the Revenue on the imported wheat 
 was fully equal to the saving to the consumer 
 by the reduction in price, whilst as there was no fall 
 in the prices of other kinds of grain, there was no 
 compensation for the loss of the duties. It is to be 
 hoped that when the present ruinous fiscal policy of 
 the country is discarded, as it must be, unless 
 England is to sink to the level of the smaller 
 European nations, that the claims of agriculture 
 will not be ignored. Protection in France enables 
 that country with its own production of wheat, to 
 meet at least 95 per cent, of its home requirements, 
 whilst Free Trade England has to obtain 75 per 
 cent, of its wheat from abroad. French and German 
 Protection, and the consequential large home 
 production of wheat, has much to do with the 
 keeping down of the world's prices, to the advantage 
 of the consumers of all nations alike, whilst the 
 French and German agriculturists, owing to heavy 
 protective duties on foreign goods, find it to their 
 advantage to spend their profits and earnings in 
 buying manufactured goods produced by their own 
 countrymen. Why should the policy which is
 
 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE FIRST. 143 
 
 making Great Britain's rivals richer and more 
 prosperous every day, not be applied to Great 
 Britain itself, which, without doubt, is year by year 
 becoming poorer and poorer ? 
 
 14, Victoria Street, 
 
 Westminster, S.W., 
 
 1 5th March, 1904.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS AT- 
 TRACTIONS AND RICHES," BY 
 VARIOUS WELL-KNOWN WRITERS. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING EXTRACTS ARE FROM CHAPTERS IN 
 " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS AND RICHES," WHICH 
 WERE WRITTEN BY LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC PERSONS 
 OF EMINENCE IN THEIR SPHERES I 
 
 IN the recesses of every mind, worn and obliterated 
 by years of friction against London life though it 
 may be, there lies concealed a sentiment that can 
 only find adequate satisfaction in the sights and the 
 sounds of the country ; in the wide distances, the 
 soft horizons, the scent of new-mown hay, or the 
 melancholy odour of decaying leaves. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Swept along by the human tide in Fleet Street, 
 who has not longed to be in the wild bosom of 
 Dartmoor, hearing only the wind sighing over the
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 145 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 reeds, or the cry of the bittern from the rushy pool, 
 with the horizon broken by the serrated edges of 
 the ragged Druid Tors ? Nature will rebel against 
 the straight waistcoat we impose on ourselves and 
 proudly wear. Man is undoubtedly a gregarious 
 animal, but not to the extent of desiring to be a 
 unit amongst four millions of his fellows. The 
 amount of happiness derived from country sur- 
 roundings, to one of the right temperament, is out 
 of all proportion to the feverish diversions of life in 
 a great town. What an ideal picture at once comes 
 before the mind of that existence which a healthy 
 man of competent means may make for himself in 
 rural England ! How steeped he is in unconscious 
 
 poetry ! 
 
 ***** 
 
 The country must always be the great delight 
 of England. The chief expression of our national 
 life in the past, in architecture and literature, must 
 be sought there. We are justly proud of our 
 beautiful land, but we have little reason to boast of 
 the grandeur of our towns. The expression that 
 the natural life has taken there is entirely utilitarian 
 and materialistic. In the vast accumulation of brick 
 houses, most of them mean and depressing to the 
 senses, the deeply spiritual tendencies of the 
 national character are hardly suspected. The
 
 146 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 imagination seems to have had no part in their 
 construction ; aesthetically they are as meaningless 
 as the burrows of the rabbits. But in our associa- 
 tion with the country we have displayed, perhaps 
 unwittingly, a taste that is the unconscious proof of 
 our sympathy with the tender beauties of our land- 
 scapes. The old homes of the land, the low-roofed 
 thatched cottage, the stately Elizabethan mansion, 
 the gabled rectory of nameless architecture and 
 doubtful age, seem almost as much a part of the 
 landscape as the trees that cluster round them. 
 Hence is the delightful harmony we see in all our 
 remoter rural districts. 
 
 PERCY WHITE, Editor of " Public Opinion." 
 
 AND as time goes on, and existence becomes more 
 crowded and more fretful, the chances are that a 
 great many people will turn with delight to rural 
 joys as the sole way of escape from the overtaxed 
 existence of the town. In doing that they will be 
 choosing the better part. That "God made the 
 country," but "man made the town," is truer now 
 than it has ever been, but not so true as it will be ; 
 and if many of us now sigh for rural peace, what will 
 not be the longing for the silence of the open air 
 a generation hence ? The difference between the 
 two lives is already sufficiently strongly emphasized.
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 147 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 The real delight of Nature, the true exhilaration of 
 life, we can find only in the lanes and hedgerows, 
 amid the reposeful silences of mead and park. The 
 happy wight, who has the fortune, the courage, or 
 the right temper of mind put it as you will to 
 ignore the town at his pleasure, opens his eyes of a 
 morning upon a different and an enchanted world. 
 Instead of being choked and poisoned with smoke- 
 laden fog, which makes the eyes to smart and the 
 head to throb, before he is out of his bath, he 
 breathes the ether that Nature has distilled ; where 
 the townsman inhales lassitude and depression, he 
 breathes in health, vigor, and exhilaration. Rising 
 betimes, which in town is the most disagreeable and 
 irksome of all tasks, becomes in the perfumed rural 
 atmosphere a pure pleasure, and indeed a duty 
 which man owes to himself. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 A vast deal of nonsense has been talked about 
 the dulness, and even the " misery " of life in the 
 country in the winter ; but that kind of language 
 can surely never have been held by any convinced 
 lover of rural life. A winter in the country, "with 
 old wood to burn, old books to read, old wine to 
 drink, old friends to meet," is about as near an 
 approach to the earthly paradise as mortal man is 
 ever likely to attain. A walk through the winter
 
 148 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 woods is in itself a revelation. The woods are 
 always full of delight ; but whether they are more 
 lovely in autumn or in winter is largely a matter of 
 taste and sentiment. 
 
 ***** 
 Even in weather too bad to permit of walking, 
 the country is (to the proper temper of mind) 
 infinitely more endurable than the town. You may 
 sit to read or write without the infinite disturbance 
 of the streets without the brown and darksome fog 
 which is now becoming common, not in London 
 alone, but in all great towns. It is only in the 
 country that the fogs are still white and harmless. 
 It is not always easy to understand why people 
 who may live where they list deliberately choose 
 the town in preference to the country. They fancy, 
 no doubt, that they could not be happy away from 
 the streets ; but the fault is in them, not in the way 
 of life which they despise. And, looked at even 
 from the money point of view, there is commonly a 
 balance of economy on the side of the rural life. 
 
 J. PENDEREL-BRODHURST. 
 
 HORACE himself Horace, the polished cynic, the 
 Anacreon and the Rochester of the Augustan 
 age, appears to have prized his Sabine valley 
 solely because of its superlative vines. Not as
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 149 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 a sculptor, not as a painter, did this poet of the 
 golden lyre regard his rural retreat, but rather in 
 the spirit of a Herefordshire rustic, whose orchard 
 teems with the old fox-whelp apple, that yields a 
 cyder in value equal to the vintages of Epernay. 
 
 ***** 
 In a word, we love the country because it 
 furnishes a mine of artistic wealth, whereas the 
 majority of cities if we except Rome, Florence, 
 Oxford, Munich, and a few others jar against our 
 sensibilities at every turn. 
 
 ***** 
 It is an education in mental-balance to listen for 
 the trill of the skylark, perhaps the most sublime 
 music in nature, or for the notes, now akin to the 
 weird themes of Chopin, now to the ravishing 
 melodies of Schubert, that issue in spring from 
 thrush, blackbird, linnet ; or the home-going diapason 
 of the dove, or in their merrier moods, to the chirp 
 of chaffinch or robin. 
 
 ***** 
 We want some evangelist to preach the 
 sacredness of the beautiful ; to cry aloud and shout 
 against the reckless axe, and the defacement and 
 destruction of the relics of a better past ; to preach 
 the salvation of the goldfinch and the green 
 woodpecker, not to mention other and rarer species.
 
 I5O EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 Perhaps, when the age of thought succeeds that of 
 incessant locomotion, when the world will have 
 sickened of the game of Sisyphus, and people 
 abandon the dream of being millionaires, then to 
 live with nature and with art will become the 
 new summum bonum. 
 
 COMPTON READE. 
 
 To watch the progress of one's crops gives an 
 interest and pleasure continually increasing as 
 experience and knowledge increase. And to walk 
 round a farm for that purpose is generally enlivened 
 by observing the habits of the wild animals that 
 share with us the occupancy of the land ; now a 
 hen partridge pretending to be hurt in order to draw 
 us away from her tiny brood running at our feet ; 
 now a hawk swooping down upon his quarry ; now 
 a stoat or weasel ; and occasionally some rare bird 
 visitant of our island. Natural History, busied with 
 technical classification, and derived only from books, 
 is often a dry and tedious study ; but when to some 
 degree of scientific knowledge is added the obser- 
 vation of real animal life in the fields and woods, it 
 becomes a charming pursuit. 
 
 Judicious planting on land, suitable for the pur- 
 pose, gives to the planter, in the care and observation 
 of his rising woods, continual pleasure ; which may
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 151 
 AND RICHES/' 
 
 be increased by the anticipation of certain, if 
 distant, profit, to be enjoyed probably by a 
 descendant or relative. 
 
 And the lover of field sports, possessing only a 
 small farm, is seldom without some means of 
 gratifying his tastes. Although his fields may have 
 bred only two or three coveys of birds, there are 
 generally some rabbits, and may be fishing. 
 ***** 
 
 But far more important than all the pleasures 
 above mentioned is to be reckoned the great 
 advantage of health improved by life in the country. 
 There cannot be a question as to the immense 
 benefit to health from continually breathing pure 
 air, instead of air largely contaminated by smoke, 
 noxious vapours, and dirt of many sorts. If to pure 
 air be added country walks and drives, and space 
 and opportunity for a variety of outdoor exercises, 
 it is apparent that to live in the country is one of the 
 best means of strengthening and maintaining the 
 health of a family, especially of one including young 
 people. 
 
 GEORGE NORTON, M.A. 
 
 IT is a novel experience to wander on an autumn 
 afternoon through these unbroken forests. The 
 Scotch fir usually looks its best at this time, for the
 
 152 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES/' 
 
 older leaves, that have a brown, withered hue, have 
 been cast, and the new ones developed during the 
 summer shine with a beautiful freshness and 
 greenness peculiar to this season, The ground in 
 the open spaces is covered with a dense under- 
 growth of heather, into which the foot sinks up to 
 the knee. Under the shelter of the trees, this 
 heather develops a variety in the colour of the 
 flowers, from a pale pink to a deep purple or even 
 scarlet hue, rarely to be seen on the open moor- 
 lands. When the trees crowd together more 
 closely the heather disappears, and in its place the 
 ground is carpeted with thick luxuriant bushes of 
 the bilberry and the mock cranberry, whose vivid 
 greenness is very refreshing to the eye. In the 
 darkest parts of the forest there are only here and 
 there patches of green moss, shining in the occasional 
 glints of sunlight that struggle through the dense 
 foliage above ; and in the gloomiest retreats of all, 
 where hardly a ray of light can penetrate, and a 
 perpetual twilight reigns around, the floor is littered 
 only with yellow needles and empty cones that have 
 fallen from the branches overhead, and form a dry 
 and unchanging covering on which no brightening 
 tint of herbage ever appears. The aromatic smell 
 that pervades all the air is most refreshing. It 
 stimulates the whole system as you fill your lungs
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 153 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 with its invigorating breath. The sanative influence 
 of fir forests is most remarkable. Where they pre- 
 vail there is no epidemic visitation ; the plague and 
 the pestilence disappear, the polluted air is 
 deodorized, and with an effect as magical as that of 
 the tree which sweetened the bitter Marah of the 
 wilderness, the presence of this tree purifies the 
 most deadly atmosphere. 
 
 For the contemplative and poetic mind there is 
 no more impressive scene than a fir forest. It is 
 full of suggestion. It quickens the mind, while it 
 lays its solemn spell upon the spirit like the aisles 
 of a cathedral. Here time has no existence. It is 
 not marked as elsewhere by the varying lights and 
 shades, by the opening and closing of the flowers, 
 by the changes of the seasons, and the appearance 
 and disappearance of various objects that make up 
 the landscape. The fir forest is independent of all 
 these influences. Its aspect is perennially the same, 
 unchangeable amid all the changes that are going 
 on outside. 
 
 Rev. HUGH MACMILLAN, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E. 
 
 IN the English language " The Deserted Village " 
 is our most pathetic lament. Like the tolling of 
 a bell, it reiterates in sad monotone the decay of 
 the nation equally through the wealth of the
 
 154 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 wealthy and through the poverty of the poor. 
 Hear it thus : 
 
 " 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay : 
 Princes and Lords may flourish, or may fade, 
 A breath can make them, as a breath has made ; 
 But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
 When once destroy'd, can never be supplied." * 
 
 And hear it again : 
 
 " A time there was, ere England's griefs began, 
 When every rod of ground maintain'd its man ; 
 For him light labour spread her wholesome store, 
 Just gave what life required, but gave no more : 
 His best companions, innocence and health, 
 And his best riches, ignorance of wealth." * 
 
 CONSTANCE L. MAYNARD. 
 
 I SUPPOSE no one would question the superior health- 
 fulness of country life. We have only to contrast 
 the pale face and puny limbs of a little town-bred 
 child, taken from some ill-favoured London slum, 
 with a rosy-cheeked little rustic from a cottage door, 
 to see at once the effect of town and country air in 
 its most marked aspect. Of course in higher life 
 there are mitigations, and the effect would not be 
 quite so apparent, for the children of well-to-do 
 
 * Goldsmith, "The Deserted Village."
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 155 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 parents are taken from town to the seaside or else- 
 where several times in the year, and thus the lack 
 of pure air and light is in a measure supplied ; but 
 still there remains the artificial routine of daily life, 
 walking in crowded streets instead of joyous rambles 
 in country lanes, growing up in the midst of society 
 pleasures which may eventually lead to dissipated 
 habits, instead of drinking in the pure delights 
 which the Creator has designed to be our 
 recreation. 
 
 There are, doubtless, thousands of people who 
 would live in the country but are tied in town by 
 their daily avocations, and there are thousands more 
 who might live out of the noise and smoke of cities, 
 but who simply know nothing of the exquisite 
 delights of rural life, Walk through a leafy wood 
 towards the end of May or early in June ; listen to 
 the happy chorus of birds up in the branches ; see 
 on all sides the marvellous variety of tints, the glow 
 of sunlight resting on beds of anemones and blue- 
 bells, and feel the fresh, pure breezes which seem to 
 bring health and vigour, in this way through all the 
 senses we are drinking in the purest enjoyment ; 
 can a walk in a dusty street compare with such a 
 ramble ? Autumn, with its rich corn-fields and 
 mellow beauty of colouring; winter with its fairy 
 frost work and sparkling ice ; each and all the
 
 156 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 seasons bring their pleasures to those hearts that 
 are attuned to the sweet harmonies of Nature. 
 
 ELIZA BRIGHTWEN, 
 Vice-President Selborne Society. 
 
 BUT let us get away from men and their doings and 
 occupations, from the farm and the labourers. 
 Country life is not made up of these interests 
 wholly. There is the realm of Nature around 
 us, and we may go and hold sweet though 
 silent intercourse with it, learning some of its 
 secrets and making friends with its countless in- 
 habitants. Someone has said, someone who evi- 
 dently had seen too much of the arts and artifices of 
 town life, that you find no adulteration, nor any 
 flimsily-made things in Nature. No shoddy-dressed 
 birds can be discovered. No painted flower dis- 
 closes its sham on nearest approach. Everything 
 is perfect and beautiful. Take a ramble in the wood 
 in spring-time. Watch the rabbits at their play, 
 running round and round, and crossing and re- 
 crossing, and skipping, as though they were dancing 
 a quadrille to the songs of the birds above. And 
 look at those nimble little squirrels as they run round 
 and up the trunk of that tree, dodging each other, 
 as it seems, at a game of touch- who-touch-can. 
 There! they see you, and are off along the boughs
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS I 57 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 and springing from tip to tip of the branches as 
 though the trees were their highway, as indeed they 
 are. And look at those beautiful but mischievous 
 jays, as they gleam in the sunlight, their shaded 
 backs and blue-touched wings glistening like gems. 
 What a hoarse and unpleasant cry from such well- 
 favoured birds. Ah, that cry means something in 
 the way of news or delight. See! they have found 
 a wood pigeon's nest and are helping themselves to 
 the two white eggs. No doubt they are preserving 
 the balance of Nature, though their ways seem out 
 of harmony with the song and murmur of life around 
 us. There is Philomel trilling a tiny lay in the sun- 
 light. We shall not hear more than a few notes of 
 her rippling song at this hour; but you may en- 
 courage a repetition by imitating that first plaintive 
 note. 'Tis as though she were practising some 
 difficult passages for performance to-night, when all 
 other voices are silent. Just above our heads bursts 
 out a flood of song little short of the nightingale's 
 in beauty. It is the blackcap, and as we stand to 
 listen, we are suddenly aware that within three yards 
 of our feet two soft dark eyes are peering at us with 
 wistful glance, as who should say, " Please go 
 away." It is a pheasant upon her nest, and we 
 would not disturb or frighten her on any account. 
 What is that tap, tap, tap, like someone hammering
 
 I $8 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 nails into wood? There it is, somewhere in yonder 
 oak tree. It is a little bird with an elongated bill 
 and the shape of a kingfisher a nuthatch, busily at 
 work culling out the insects that lie hidden in the 
 crevices of the bark. And here is the nest of the 
 blue tit so exquisitely fashioned in the midst of a 
 thorn bush. Beneath our feet is a carpet of bright 
 and varied hue, the delicate primrose and wild 
 hyacinth set-off by the background of varied 
 green. 
 
 Let us step down to the banks of the river or 
 burn, and spend a time watching its inhabitants and 
 attendants. The water as it flows along, now calm 
 and peaceful, now tumbling over rock and rapid, 
 now toss down the fall and throwing its bright spray 
 like diamonds over the mossy fern-covered banks of 
 the pool below, is full of movement and life. The 
 ousel, the kingfisher, the dipper make sport amongst 
 the boulders, or under the waterfall, or in the 
 crevices of the banks. The cautious heron rises 
 from his patient fishing at man's approach, and 
 slowly cleaves the air as he soars on high to 
 seek a safer spot. The water rat, more bold, runs 
 along the bank and lets you watch his movements 
 without concern. Here is an overhanging tree 
 whose branches spread out above the stream. Let 
 us take a quiet seat amongst the leaves and watch
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 1 59 
 AND RICHES/' 
 
 the fish beneath. Quick of sight beyond measure 
 the trout will see the smallest move, but up here 
 amongst the branches, motionless, we may observe 
 him. No sign of him at first, for he is disturbed by 
 our movement. Presently a fine fellow comes into 
 sight, swimming very leisurely up the stream, with 
 nose near the surface. He is on the feed and 
 watches every tiny speck that the stream carries 
 down. If he likes the look of it he will rise, open 
 his mouth and suck it in. If it turn out a delusion, 
 such as the empty case of some fly or moth, he will 
 disgorge at once. All this is done in a listless, lazy 
 way, with scarce a movement of the fins or tail. 
 But here comes floating down a may fly, not long set 
 free from its case, with wings erect, gauze-like, and 
 shimmering in the sun. He sees it. The listless- 
 ness is gone, and with a dart and a plunge he secures 
 the delicate morsel. Presently a damaged bee floats 
 by. He hurries up to it, looks it over, swims 
 round it, looks at it again, seems irresolute for a 
 moment, then springs out of the water and strikes 
 the insect with his tail as he descends, thus making 
 sure of his death by drowning before he will mouth 
 him. Thus does our trout feed by the hour at 
 certain times in the day, always working up a short 
 piece of water and turning at a certain point and 
 coming down to his starting place again; and should
 
 160 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 a smaller fish venture upon this hunting ground he 
 is quickly driven off and put to flight. 
 
 ***** 
 Many a man who has fancied himself entirely 
 devoted to town life, but has been forced into the 
 country, has found out what a mistake he had been 
 making, and how infinitely preferable the country is 
 to the town to live in ; how full of interests it is, 
 and how those interests increase and grow, making 
 what, after all, is the great desideratum of humanity 
 a little world of our own, from which we may go 
 forth at will, and mix with others and sharpen 
 mind with mind, and to which we may return, 
 bringing our experiences and our knowledge, be 
 they for better or for worse a microcosm into 
 which we may retire and be at rest when weary of 
 the turmoil and strife of the world around us a 
 circle of interests which are not dependent upon 
 excitement, nor upon the goodwill of others, nor 
 upon fashion, but which spring from Nature, and 
 may be enjoyed naturally. 
 
 HERMIT (Contributor to " The Field"). 
 
 FOX-HUNTING is the oldest sport enjoyed in England 
 at the present time. My views upon it differ from 
 many, still I write as an agriculturist, and one who 
 has followed the chase over the most celebrated of
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS l6l 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 all hunting grounds the shires. Fox-hunting is 
 becoming less popular in many parts year by year. 
 Why ? Because too many hunting men look upon 
 it as a selfish way of enjoying themselves. Indeed, 
 there are those who ride regardless of doing 
 damage to crops, stock, and fences. Possibly one- 
 half of the horsemen are not aware that they ride 
 over fields on sufferance, hence upon a word of 
 reproof from farmers are as likely as not to return 
 angry words. This must not be if hunting is still 
 to go on. Regard must be paid to rights of 
 property, and kind words should ever be on the 
 lips of those who follow hounds at the expense of 
 owners and occupiers of land. 
 
 Hunting conducted as follows would shortly 
 again become a popular sport : Firstly, all damage 
 done should be paid for, and that without a 
 murmur, for surely those who can afford to keep 
 from a half-dozen to a dozen horses at Melton, 
 Market Harborough, or Rugby, can pay farmers 
 for losses sustained. If every hunting man would 
 keep one horse less in his stud he could save 
 sufficient money to pay twice over for all damage 
 done. A polite note should be sent to those whose 
 land is likely to be ridden over at the beginning of 
 each season, to ask permission for hounds to cross 
 the fields, and at the end of each, a call from the
 
 162 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 master of hounds, or a substitute, to thank farmers 
 or landowners for allowing sport over the district. 
 
 JOHN WALKER. 
 
 FOR what is more fascinating than the art of 
 angling ? It tests the skill of the cleverest, it arouses 
 the energy of the most phlegmatic, it entices into the 
 open air, and often into the water, the most 
 hypochondriacal, it charms the most used-up man of 
 the world, and it so occupies the attention and 
 engrosses the mind that the hours slip by unnoticed 
 and a real re-creation is produced in the worn-out 
 frame. It is well known how the late Right 
 Honourable John Bright was recommended to try 
 salmon fishing, when every other remedy for an 
 overwrought mind was exhausted and without effect. 
 He tried it and was quickly restored to health and 
 vigour. I remember taking a very tired and worn- 
 out man fishing with me. He was no angler and had, 
 indeed, never attempted it before, except on one 
 occasion. We fished on a well-known lake for trout 
 and, as is usually the case, the neophyte came in for 
 the best of the luck. His first fish was a game 
 pound-and-a-halfer, and he went on in the same way. 
 We began to fish about half-past ten in the morning 
 and at half-past six I remarked that we must begin 
 to think of packing up for we had a long way to
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 163 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 go. " What!" exclaimed he ; "do you mean to say 
 the day is over and it is time to go home! " 
 * * # # * 
 
 And now we are off a mixed crowd of gillies, 
 helpers, shooters, ponies and dogs. Six guns to be 
 divided into two companies, each having two brace 
 of dogs and their own pony and men. " We meet 
 at lunch by the loch at the foot of Glenvich," cries 
 the host, as the parties divide, and each side 
 determines to keep a steady nerve and a clear head 
 and have the bigger bag when they meet again. 
 
 " Hie on ! Don and Carlow, hold up !" and off go 
 the setters in quest of the first birds of the season. 
 They have not far to go. Up goes Don's head ; he 
 has struck scent, and in a moment is standing " in a 
 straight line " from nose to tail, while Carlow espying 
 him follows suit and backs him up. It is an exciting 
 time, and yet coolness is everything. The dogs are 
 so steady the birds must be very close, but no sign 
 of them appears, until with a flutter, and perhaps a 
 crow from the old cock, they rise and are off! A 
 little start and then crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, 
 crack. How many are down, keeper ? Keepers 
 are wise and do not always reply to such questions. 
 The dogs will settle the matter. There, they have 
 found one, two, three and no more ! Hold up 
 again, dogs, and away over the hill-side. For some-
 
 1 64 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 time they range without coming to a decided set, 
 but at last they are steadied again a short way 
 off, and the shooters draw towards them. But 
 this time there is a wary old cock amongst the 
 young brood and he has taught them tricks already. 
 Enough for them to see the dogs so near, they will 
 not wait for any further warning, but are up and off 
 fifty yards ahead of the guns. Such birds will be 
 best secured by driving ; and on some moors this has 
 to be resorted to very early in the season on account 
 of the wildness of the grouse. 
 
 The day passes on, hit and miss, lose and find, 
 varying luck until lunch-time when the bag is counted 
 and it is found that twenty, thirty, forty brace have 
 been brought down. And what an hour of enjoyment 
 is that one amidst the heather at the luncheon. No 
 gilded banqueting hall, no floral decoration could 
 ever approach the wide canopy of blue sky and the 
 delicate table-cloth of exquisite purple and emerald 
 green set off by tall bracken and the water reeds 
 that fringe the loch; 
 
 The afternoon passes all too soon. The dogs 
 are changed and a new pair turned out. The birds 
 lie closer in the heat of the afternoon sun. The sets 
 are more frequent, for Donald has kept the best 
 ground until now, like a wise old hand as he is, and 
 it is the fault of the shooters if the bag does not
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 165 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 increase rapidly. Evening finds the sportsmen 
 enjoying a healthy tiredness and awell-earned dinner, 
 enlivened, it may be, with many references to the 
 events of the day. 
 
 ****** 
 September ended we reach the open season for 
 Pheasants, and although no one thinks of entering 
 the coverts during this month, yet there is some 
 sport to be had, here and there, on most shootings. 
 A few birds will be found in the roots, and, if full 
 grown, will be bagged. Then there are the out- 
 side coverts which afford a day or two. But the 
 big days are reserved for November and December, 
 when the trees are bare of leaf and the undergrowth 
 is somewhat cleared, so that rabbits can be seen 
 
 and shot. 
 
 ****** 
 
 But to see the active bunny in his most attractive 
 state he must be met in the bracken or amongst the 
 thickets of gorse, or lying out in the reeds and long 
 rushy grass. In such places he offers a tempting 
 shot to the quick gunner as he glides along amongst 
 the stones and cover, or pops across the twenty foot 
 rides, giving just a momentary chance at his scuttling 
 form. A rabbit shoot in such places as these, with 
 active and tuneful spaniels fussing about and stirring 
 the " varmin " up, is considered by many superior
 
 l66 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 to the big day with the pheasants. And if, as often 
 happens, there is a cry of " Mark woodcock " every 
 now and then, the charm of the sport is greatly 
 enhanced. For is there not something about that 
 dreamy bird that arouses the cupidity of every 
 shooter? It would be hard to say what it is that 
 makes every one wish to shoot the woodcock. In 
 some places it may be his scarceness. In others, 
 where more often met, it is perhaps his subtle way 
 of skimming around trees and through bushes when 
 flushed, making a shot at him very difficult if not 
 impossible. Or perhaps he visits the spot for but a 
 short time, just dropping in for a few days on his 
 arrival at and departure from these shores, and 
 leaving again abruptly. Or possibly the company 
 of gunners has a sweepstake on the first cock. 
 Whether these or other reasons are to account for 
 the eagerness to slay the woodcock let someone else 
 decide the fact remains. 
 
 * * * 
 
 For sportsman and naturalist few things supply 
 more amusement and interest than the Decoy. 
 Here twice daily, in favourable weather, the pipes 
 may be worked, and captures of wild fowl may be 
 made, varying from one or two birds to one 
 hundred. And here may be watched the mallard, 
 the teal, the wigeon, and the other stray visitants
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 167 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 without disturbance. For anyone who delights to 
 observe the ways of such wild birds, here is an 
 opportunity to be met with hardly anywhere else. 
 Himself unseen, the observer may spend what time 
 he likes peering through the peepholes of the screens 
 without fear of being discovered by the timid wild- 
 fowl. 
 
 It seems strange, considering the amusement and 
 profit that may be had from decoys that they are 
 so little in use, and that so many have been allowed 
 to fall into decay. In former years we read of fowl 
 to the number of 5000 being taken in one decoy in 
 one season, and though there seems to be some 
 decrease in the number of duck, teal and wigeon 
 that visit our shores, yet large quantities might even 
 now be captured in well- worked decoys. In the 
 winter of 1888, in one decoy with which the writer 
 is familiar, more than 2000 teal and mallards were 
 taken. 
 
 The decoy is a pond from one to two acres in 
 extent. Around it are planted trees and bushes, and 
 it has from one to half-a-dozen channels running 
 from the pond into the shrubs around. It is best 
 placed in a quiet and secluded spot within reach of 
 sea or some estuary of a tidal river. The outside 
 of the decoy is protected by a fence or a wide ditch. 
 The channels that run from the decoy into the
 
 1 68 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 surrounding bushes are curved and grow narrower 
 as they recede from the main water, so that looking 
 from the decoy, the ends cannot be seen. Over 
 these channels are placed iron hoops upon which are 
 spread nets. The hoops are from 12 to 1 5 feet high 
 at the wide part of the channels, and decrease in size 
 as they near the narrow end. At the end is a net, 
 called the tunnel, which is detachable from the last 
 iron hoop, and into which the fowl are finally driven. 
 The whole decoy and its channels are protected 
 from sight by overlapping screens of reed placed 
 echelon-wise, so that the decoyman can pass behind 
 them without being seen from the decoy, whilst he 
 can look down the channels towards their narrow 
 end and be seen by any birds in the channel called 
 the decoy pipe. Between the openings of the reed 
 screens and joining them, on the water side, is a low 
 reed screen of some 12 to 18 inches, called the dog 
 jump. In the decoy are kept some tame ducks, 
 which attract the wild fowl to the water, and often 
 help to lead them up the pipes. 
 
 Several essential points about a decoy and its 
 working are these. First and chiefest the wild fowl 
 must never see a human being as they rest upon 
 the waters of the decoy. Nor must they smell him. 
 And they must never be disturbed by the sound of 
 gun or in any other way. If they are it is
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 169 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 probable they will not return to the decoy for the 
 season. In approaching the decoy care must first 
 be taken that there is some wind stirring, and that 
 it is kept in the right quarter. For this purpose 
 there are several entrances to the decoy, and the 
 different pipes are worked with reference to the 
 wind. On entering the decoy it is usual first to 
 peep through the nearest screen and see if there are 
 any ducks already up the channel or pipe that it 
 is proposed to work. Should there be any the 
 decoyman quickly gets behind them, *>., on the 
 decoy side of them, shows himself between the 
 screens, and so drives them up the narrowing pipe 
 until they fly helter-skelter into the tunnel net. 
 This is not, however, a frequent piece of luck, nor 
 the usual way of making a capture. 
 
 HERMIT (Contributor to the " Field "). 
 
 AFTER referring to many items of Natural 
 History, Mr. Harris says : But among the greatest 
 natural history charms of a country life must be 
 reckoned the birds. We hardly know where to 
 begin in calling attention to their attractions. The 
 beautiful plumage of the finches, woodpeckers, and 
 kingfishers, the graceful flight of the swallow, the 
 wagtail, and the yellow-hammer, the exquisite song 
 of thrush and blackbird (this last reminding us of an
 
 I/O EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS 'ATTRACTIONS 
 ANJD RICHES." 
 
 old-fashioned Tory squire of portly dimensions and 
 mellow-toned voice) ; the still more enchanting notes 
 of nightingale and black-cap and garden warbler ; 
 the marvellously constructed nests of the tits and 
 chaffinches ; the softly tinted eggs of hedge-sparrow, 
 starling, and robin ; the saucy pertness of the 
 thrush, and the all-in-earnest run of the starling as 
 they search our lawns for food ; the impudent 
 chatter of the magpie and plebeian utterance of the 
 jackdaw while stealing our choicest cherries; the 
 soft f< coo-coo " of the stock-dove, the solemn caw 
 of the melancholy rook, the scream of the swifts as 
 they sweep and swirl about our chimneys or the 
 church tower ; the lazy flight and ominous hoot of 
 the barn owl as he flaps along the hedgerow or over 
 the farmyard, with a thousand other bird associations 
 which crowd across the field of memory, irresistibly 
 draw us in feeling and desire to the rural scenes, amid 
 which we first learnt a now undying love of " beasts 
 and all cattle, creeping things, and flying fowl." 
 
 Charms of the country forsooth ! Our wonder 
 often is that any who have really known them can 
 tear themselves asunder from them except under 
 direst compulsion, and how there can be found man, 
 woman, or child, who is without taste for the 
 beauties, the wonders, and the ever-blessed influences 
 coming from meadow and woodland, " banks and
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS I/ 1 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 braes," streamlet and riverside. Nature with a 
 thousand voices seems calling to us, " I have yet 
 boundless glories to reveal," and if our eyes are 
 opened to see her wonders, and our deaf ears are 
 unstopped to listen to her harmonies, our intellectual 
 outlook will be daily enlarged. 
 
 W. H. HARRIS, B.A., B.Sc. 
 
 THE intellectual pleasure derived from the study of 
 botany passes through four stages. First, there is 
 the delight of collecting, drying, and mounting 
 specimens, the names having been obtained by 
 asking someone who knew them. This I would 
 call the embryonic stage. The second is to under- 
 stand the morphological structure of plants, i.e., all 
 the more conspicuous details of the floral and other 
 parts, so as to be able to distinguish the different 
 species by discovering for oneself their names by 
 means of the descriptions given in technical botanical 
 terms in a "flora," and thereby acquiring a know- 
 ledge of classification. Botanists formerly almost 
 entirely limited themselves to this stage. A second 
 branch is the study of vegetable tissues by means 
 of the microscope. This is called histology. 
 
 ***** 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. To all living in the country 
 an elementary knowledge of botany, if not to drink
 
 172 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES.'* 
 
 deep of the well of science, is extremely desirable ; 
 as from youth to age it has its advantages and 
 pleasures. To the child at school it is one of the 
 best educational weapons that can be employed, if 
 the teacher really knows how to use it rightly. To 
 the housewife a knowledge of the composition of 
 vegetable foods is useful, as she will then under- 
 stand that cornflour, sago, arrowroot, etc., have no 
 true nourishment whatever capable of building up 
 the tissues of the body. The cottage gardener will 
 know that the aconite, so common in cottage gardens, 
 is a deadly foe to his children ; the children them- 
 selves will know that they must avoid touching the 
 bright red or purple berries of the bryony, woody 
 and deadly nightshade and others. 
 
 Rev. Professor G. HENSLOW, M.A., F.L.S., &c. 
 
 IN another instance, and even more recently, the 
 prospectus was issued of a company which was 
 formed with a capital of .200,000 to purchase 
 certain brown bread businesses. I think something 
 like ;i 37,000 was to be paid for them, and a list of 
 1400 members of the medical profession was given 
 with the statement that they were patrons of the 
 company. Would it be believed that these 1400 
 members of the medical profession were patrons only 
 in the vivid imagination of the promoter, and that
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 173 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 the property to be acquired consisted only of a dirty 
 little baker's shop whose takings were 7 per week. 
 And yet so plausible was this prospectus that a good 
 many thousand pounds were received from credulous 
 investors. Thanks, however, to the timely exposure 
 of the fraud by the City Leader, a journal that has 
 rendered signal service in this direction on many 
 occasions, the greater portion of the money found 
 its way back into the pockets of the silly people who 
 parted with it. 
 
 I could go on enumerating similar instances of 
 fraud and gullibility indefinitely did space permit, 
 but I think I have adduced enough evidence to 
 prove, up to the hilt, my assertion that it is sheer 
 folly for any man, however clever he may think 
 himself to be, to expect to make a fortune out of 
 the new companies that are offered to him at the 
 present day unless he is in the swim. 
 
 LEYSON T. MERRY. 
 
 I HAD just completed a rather unprofitable morn- 
 ing's work, and feeling despondent, I turned into a 
 wine-bar in the City, a few hundred yards from the 
 Royal Exchange. There I met a gentleman and 
 we got into conversation. He told me he was 
 engaged in bringing out a company which was to 
 purchase a patent for manufacturing candles. The
 
 1/4 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 subject interested me, and I treated my new 
 acquaintance to several glasses of wine, as well as to 
 numerous questions. By degrees I discovered that 
 he was to pay the patentee about ^200 for a 
 valuable (?) invention which he was selling again to 
 the company for no less a sum than .25,000 in 
 cash, and a substantial number of fully-paid shares, 
 which he said he was compelled to take, otherwise 
 the public would not believe in the thing. After a 
 little further conversation I found that this profitable 
 transaction for rny friend was the work of a very few 
 days. I think six weeks at the outside. Leaving 
 the wine-bar I reflected on the subject-matter of the 
 conversation I had had. I considered my own 
 position ; the numerous insults and disappointments 
 to which I was subjected in securing my advertise- 
 ments, and the paltry return they yielded when 
 obtained, and contrasted all with the glorious 
 chances I had had expounded to me in the 
 wine-bar. I resolved that night to have done with 
 advertisements and to try patents. The next 
 morning I was early at the wine-bar. As I antici- 
 pated, my acquaintance of yesterday was not long 
 in following me. A few glasses of wine ensued and 
 I boldly suggested the subject of a partnership. 
 He jibbed a little, and evidently wanted the whole 
 of his profit. I discussed the patent, asked him if
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 175 
 AND RICHES/' 
 
 he had any statistics as to the number of candles 
 used nightly ; put down various figures on paper for 
 his edification, and ultimately we came to the 
 conclusion that a partnership would not be un- 
 desirable, but that the terms upon which the 
 company was to obtain the patent were very 
 much too low. This was the beginning. After 
 a good deal of haggling we came to terms, but had 
 some considerable difficulty in getting the directors 
 of the candle company to agree to our terms, and 
 they only did so after we had somewhat modified 
 them. The company was launched, but it was not 
 altogether a success ; still I cleared by my first effort 
 about ^3000 in hard cash, and obtained possession 
 of ^5000 worth of fully-paid shares. These, 
 however, I regret to say, proved valueless, as owing 
 to the mismanagement of the company, on the part 
 of the directors, the undertaking very soon after- 
 wards found a resting place in an accountant's 
 office. 
 
 Having made a beginning, and being a really 
 energetic man, I very soon set to work with other 
 schemes, and in one year I formed five companies 
 for the purchase of patents, two mining companies, 
 a bank, and an insurance company and a dressmakers' 
 association. I am sorry to say, however, that all these 
 concerns were not successful. I had not quite
 
 1/6 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 caught the public fancy, and in two instances I was 
 severely bitten. In fact my banking experience 
 was decidedly disastrous, as the concern which I 
 intended to form into a worthy successor to the Bank 
 of England was very rotten, and it was necessary 
 for all concerned in the matter to change their 
 addresses late at night, as well as their names. I 
 fear a good many of the public suffered as well as 
 myself. I know for several days some suspicious- 
 looking characters followed me about in a 
 most unpleasant manner ; but, after about a 
 week's inactivity, it suddenly occurred to me it 
 would be good for the shareholders to meet and 
 discuss their grievances. In two of my other enter- 
 prises I recollected that obnoxious individuals had 
 circularised their fellow shareholders. Why should 
 I not do likewise ? No sooner had I thought of 
 the idea than I was at work, but I had a difficulty 
 to face. I knew if I wrote to the shareholders and 
 gave them my address I would have rather a warm 
 quarter-of-an-hour. I therefore adopted the some- 
 what bold expedient of calling upon a shareholder, 
 a gentleman whom luckily I found to be an invalid, 
 and after a short interview persuaded him that I 
 was a very much maligned man. He read through 
 my circular and signed it. This was what I wanted. 
 I had it lithographed, signature and all, and taking
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 177 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 an address in the City my fellow-shareholders 
 received by the next morning's post a circular from 
 their invalid colleague. As I had anticipated all 
 were ready to support the "invalid" and to heap 
 their abuse on me. I really felt somewhat amused 
 as I opened their letters. Their remarks were very 
 vindictive, and they were quite prepared to support 
 the "invalid" in any steps he might take against the 
 base promoter. Of course, I had a sympathetic 
 reply sent out again from the " invalid," and quite 
 friendly relations were thus established ; in fact, 
 several called, but the old man I had in my employ 
 was careful not to introduce them to the " invalid." 
 Matters were progressing most favourably ; a 
 subscription list had been started to defray the 
 costs of any action taken against myself. I opened 
 an account in the name of the "invalid" in one of 
 the banks, and I most scrupulously employed the 
 money thus acquired in paying my office expenses, 
 costs of postage, circulars, etc. The time, however, 
 was getting on, and it was necessary that the 
 shareholders should soon meet, and I foresaw a 
 difficulty in dealing with the " invalid." I thought 
 over several plans, but for a whole week I could not 
 solve the difficulty. On Sunday afternoon, however, 
 I resolved to call on the "invalid." I did so, 
 and imagine my surprise when I found that
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 the good gentleman had died on the night of my 
 first visit. The difficulty was solved. It was now 
 only necessary to obtain another shareholder, or a 
 gentleman to represent the "invalid." As I came 
 away from the house of the "invalid," who had so 
 ably assisted me but who, alas ! had departed this 
 life without knowing how very much he had benefited 
 me, I thought of a friend of mine who would make 
 an excellent executor for him, and who would be just 
 the person to meet the shareholders and revile me. 
 I saw him as quickly as possible, and after a little 
 hesitation on his part, I persuaded him to undertake 
 the office. The meeting was called, the executor's 
 address (which, by the way, I had written), was 
 excellent, and was received with great applause. 
 Resolutions were carried, the executor was thanked 
 most cordially and everything was left in his hands, 
 and I could, consequently, resume my daily work 
 without fear of interruption. I suppose it is hardly 
 necessary to say that the " executor " did not take 
 proceedings against me, but was "advised by Counsel 
 that the shareholders had better consent to a volun- 
 tary liquidation "; which they did. This event took 
 place during the early years of my promoting experi- 
 ence. These years were not particularly profitable, 
 still I made a few thousands and lost a few thousands 
 on the Stock Exchange and lived very comfortably.
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 My time, however, was coming. An ingenious 
 German called upon me one day with a sweet little 
 invention, quite the thing for the ladies. Nearly 
 everyone has seen people struggling with brooms 
 and brushes cleaning carpets. My German caller 
 had invented the neatest little arrangement for 
 accomplishing this without any trouble, and without 
 any dust, that it was possible to imagine, if it would 
 only work. It could be made and sold, so he led 
 me to believe, at a handsome profit for a few shillings. 
 I bought that invention, or at least I arranged with 
 the German that I would find the money for manu- 
 facturing, etc., and pay him a royalty upon all 
 machines sold if he assigned me the patent. After a 
 little negotiation I found myself the proud possessor 
 of his patent. I lost no time in preparing a plausible 
 prospectus which carefully set forth the numerous 
 advantages to be obtained by using the machine ; 
 the enormous profits which were to be realised by 
 the sale which was sure to follow its introduction, 
 and indeed when I had finished the prospectus I 
 could hardly convince myself that my little treasure 
 was not a perfect gold mine. Unfortunately, just 
 when I had got thus far my supply of cash ran out, 
 and I was vulgarly near being "stone broke." I 
 consulted a friend or two on the subject, and they 
 consented to join me in engineering my treasure,
 
 ISO EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 and forming a syndicate to bring out a company. 
 A difficulty, however, arose. We could not get 
 the machine made at anything like the price we 
 anticipated ; go where we would, try as we would, 
 all manufacturers were unwilling to quote anywhere 
 near the German's figures. Still our syndicate 
 prospectus and circular letter had brought us up 
 sufficient money to bring out the company, and 
 we thought after mature consideration, that our 
 manufacturing friends might be wrong, and our 
 German friend right, so we determined to go on with 
 the scheme. We had several machines made at con- 
 siderably more than six times the cost mentioned in 
 the prospectus. These worked admirably, and we 
 employed several nice-looking housemaids to use the 
 machines in a shop window. The result was truly 
 magic. In a few hours after we had issued the pros- 
 pectus of the company the whole of the share capital 
 had been subscribed, and we were positively inundated 
 with orders for the machine. Postal orders came in 
 by the score. So many orders reached us that the 
 postal authorities actually grew suspicious and 
 employed detectives to watch our office. The 
 company was a brilliant success as far as I was 
 concerned. I cleared by its promotion about 
 1 0,000 in hard cash, and very many thousand 
 shares ; but here again these proved valueless, as
 
 EXTRACTS FROM ''LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS l8l 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 the directors turned out to be utterly incompetent, 
 as they could not get the machines made at our price. 
 
 Two other small things came off about this time, 
 and in a few weeks I found myself, from being 
 penniless, a happy possessor of 20,000. I had 
 almost made up my mind to retire, but the share- 
 holders in the Sweeping Company grew exceedingly 
 restless, and this restlessness resulted in a big storm, 
 which made me decide to visit the States. There, 
 finding time hang somewhat heavily on my hands, 
 I embarked into various speculations. At first I 
 was very successful and matters went well. Touch 
 what I would, fortune smiled upon me. I enjoyed the 
 game and took to plunging, but for some unknown 
 cause, or whether it was that the Yankees were too 
 sharp, as soon as my speculations reached three or 
 four figures, I began to lose rapidly. Before many 
 months were out it was necessary for me to leave 
 New York and proceed South. Here, however, my 
 reception was not particularly encouraging, and I 
 could do nothing, and I resolved once more to try 
 my luck this side of the herring pond. 
 
 I returned very quietly. During my journey 
 across I had the good fortune to meet with a clergy- 
 man who was very much interested in speculations. 
 He put me on my feet by relieving me of some 
 shares which I had been vainly endeavouring to sell
 
 182 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 elsewhere. For a little time we were great friends, 
 but he grew sceptical as to the value of the shares, 
 and made some exceedingly ungentlemanly charges 
 against me, and I had once more to change my 
 address. This unpleasantness blew over, and with 
 the aid of one or two of my old friends, and a most 
 valuable colleague in the shape of a real live Major, 
 whom I met on the racecourse at Sandown, I soon 
 found myself busily employed. The Major had the 
 most unblemished reputation, and we became fast 
 friends. I made him director of a syndicate I 
 formed ; its chief object was to undertake anything 
 under the sun ; its memorandum and articles were 
 decidedly wide, and I think, barring murder, we 
 could do anything. We took an excellent suite of 
 offices, opened a modest banking account, and began 
 operations. A grand scheme presented itself. I 
 was somewhat dubious at first as to its feasibility, 
 but as our banker's balance was getting low, it was 
 necessary that we should make a bold bid for success. 
 This we did by founding an association for supplying 
 the Metropolis with firewood on co-operative 
 principles. It is astonishing what weight a circular 
 signed by a Major will have with a certain class of 
 individuals. I prepared the circular and my gallant 
 Major signed it, inviting noblemen and gentlemen 
 holding high positions to co-operate with him in
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 183 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 establishing on a firm basis the " Firewood Associa- 
 tion." In a few weeks everything was completed. A 
 splendid prospectus, about one of the most respec- 
 table I have ever seen, was prepared and ready for 
 issue. I still had my doubts as to whether the 
 public would come in, but these were speedily 
 dispersed when we brought the concern out. There 
 was quite a rush for prospectuses. The capital was 
 subscribed for three or four times over in less than 
 twelve hours. Indeed, so eager were certain gentle- 
 men to obtain shares in our Association, that one 
 gentleman travelled up from Brighton, called at his 
 bankers, filled in a cheque for ^3000, and wrote on 
 it that he would accept shares for nothing less than 
 that amount. I had a good deal to do with the 
 management of this Company. Hitherto nearly all 
 my failures had been due to the want of business 
 capacity of the directors, and I was determined that 
 this should no longer be the case. The manage- 
 ment was a peculiar one. There was a board and a 
 committee. One was ornamental and the other 
 practical. I belonged, of course, to the practical 
 body, which was composed of my friends. We set 
 to work and voted to ourselves a small remuneration 
 for our services in promoting the undertaking. We 
 also voted away several other sums of money for 
 promoting other industries, and began our operations ;
 
 184 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 but, somehow or other, the shareholders would not 
 be quiet. I verily believe, had they let me alone, I 
 could have made a handsome fortune for each one of 
 them. But no, they began to try and wreck their 
 own property. Several stormy meetings were held, 
 and numerous circulars were issued, but up to a point 
 I held my own. Suddenly, however, I discovered 
 that a large number of shareholders, who had hitherto 
 been my warm supporters, v/ere getting lukewarm, 
 and the adjournment of one meeting was carried 
 only by the narrowest majority. I could not risk 
 another, so I conceived the idea of making a call, 
 which disqualified about one-half of the shareholders 
 from voting. Nearly all of these were antagonistic 
 to myself. I also distributed shares to various men 
 whom I employed, and to my friends on whom I 
 could rely, and thus we managed to carry the next 
 meeting by a large majority of proxies. The com- 
 mittee appointed by the opposition shareholders 
 were, however, not to be done. They went into 
 Court, and after a severe fight the company was 
 ordered to be wound up. But I may remark that, 
 in my opinion, the Judge strained the law severely 
 on the side of the shareholders. This result was 
 most disastrous. The shareholders were vindictive 
 in the extreme, and I think, if I had not been a 
 particularly active man, some of them would have
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 18$ 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 had my blood. They really thirsted for revenge. I 
 never saw a more inhuman lot in my life. I am 
 now convinced that one must never expect gratitude 
 from a British shareholder. Give him good 
 dividends and he wants more ; treat him moderately 
 well, and he thirsts for your blood. As I just said 
 the winding up of my " Firewood Company " 
 was most disastrous. My health immediately 
 required a change of climate and I decided to winter 
 abroad. I had, of course, made a few thousands by 
 the promotion of the company, and was able to live 
 pretty comfortably for a time ; still I could not 
 altogether forsake my old resorts, and with the aid 
 of a pair of black glasses, a wig, and a respirator, I 
 am able to visit London on occasions without suffer- 
 ing any ill effects, although I am advised by my 
 doctors that it is an exceedingly risky thing to do. 
 Owing to my health not having yet recovered the 
 severe strain it underwent I am still compelled to 
 take great care of myself, and I consequently do very 
 little in the way of promoting. As I hinted before, 
 the game is hardly now worth the candle. Thanks 
 to some of the promoting fraternity, the British 
 Investor has become sceptical of prospectuses, and I 
 fear it will be some time before he once more regains 
 his original guilelessness ; until he does I think I 
 shall abstain from helping him further.
 
 186 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES/' 
 
 The above narrative may to some readers appear 
 to be a mere sketch of the imagination. It is, 
 however, nothing of the sort. Every word written 
 is vouched for by documents which have been 
 shown me during my conversations with various 
 promoters. 
 
 H. DAWSON. 
 
 THE chief object of cultivation is to bring the atmos- 
 pheric air into direct contact with the chemical 
 constituents contained in the soil ; the most valuable 
 of which are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, soda, 
 lime, and magnesia. Before the nitrogen of the soil 
 can be utilised by plants it must first be oxidised. 
 The object of cultivation is to bring the atmospheric 
 air into contact with the nitrogen in the soil which 
 takes up the nitrogen and forms nitric acid ; this 
 chemical change is chiefly performed in the soil 
 through the agency of living organisms which are 
 present in the soil in myriads. Recent discoveries 
 in plant nutrition have opened up a new and 
 interesting field of investigation. There can be no 
 nitrification without the aid of living germs ; these 
 are admittedly of a low order of life, the oxygen of 
 the air is of itself sufficient to sustain their operations ; 
 darkness is also requisite for their activity. This 
 will explain to the cultivator the advantage
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 187 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 wherever practicable of stirring, rather than invert- 
 ing the soil ; the action of these microbes and their 
 operations cease at a temperature slightly above 
 freezing, and cannot endure a temperature of more 
 than one hundred degrees. They are most active 
 in their operations a few inches below the surface, 
 and practically become inoperative at a depth often 
 inches, hence their activity is greatest near the 
 surface. 
 
 GILBERT MURRAY, F.S.I. 
 
 WHAT is needed is a free flow of capital in land 
 improvement, with freedom in making the most 
 profitable use of the improved land. I believe that 
 the produce of the land of the United Kingdom 
 could be doubled, and doubled profitably, under 
 favourable conditions as to the investment of capital 
 and the conveyance, the purchase, and the sale of 
 farmers' requirements and productions. 
 
 WILLIAM E. BEAR. 
 
 THERE is not, and never has been, a wide margin 
 between the values of dairy produce in Great 
 Britain and in other countries, and it has always been 
 possible, and is possible to-day, for our own people, 
 especially under modern conditions, to compete 
 against the butter-makers of France, Denmark,
 
 1 88 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 Sweden and Italy, and the cheese-makers of the 
 American continent and New Zealand. The 
 market for dairy produce is at our very doors. 
 No other country can land such fine cheese as the 
 best we make, or finer butter than we can produce. 
 We have no competitor in the production of milk 
 for sale au naturel ; our consumption is increasing 
 enormously in every direction, and our means of 
 producing with greater economy have assisted us 
 materially in holding our own. 
 
 PROFESSOR LONG. 
 
 THE truth is this Large, well-fed, fleshy fruits 
 deprive the soil of less of its substantial constituents 
 than do the small " woody " juiceless samples in 
 which rind, core, and seeds are the chief character- 
 istics, or, in other words, the parts which cannot be 
 eaten cost more to produce than does the thick 
 luscious flesh, which alone can find favour with 
 consumers. That is one of the truths which science 
 teaches, and practice confirms, and it ought not to 
 be forgotten ; it is a " landmark " that should both 
 guide and encourage to a better, cheaper, and more 
 profitable supply, namely, fruit which, by its size, 
 colour, and quality, will command attention, and 
 meet with a ready sale at prices remunerative to the 
 producers. It must not be inferred, however, that
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 189 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 young fruit trees should be planted on the sites of 
 old orchards. The soil there is deprived of the 
 elements that build up healthy trees, and its fruit- 
 producing power is exhausted. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 There are plenty of men in the country to grow 
 all the fruit that Britain needs, and more for expor- 
 tation, without drawing the impecunious town-born 
 and town-trained workers into an occupation in 
 which the majority would fail. When agricultural 
 labourers, who in too great numbers find their way 
 into large cities, can be transformed into hotel 
 waiters, and as such gain a livelihood, the much-to-be 
 pitied unemployed townsman will prosper on the 
 land as a fruit grower, and not till then. The great 
 desideratum of the times is the acquirement of land 
 by a greater number of city capitalists, who will so 
 conduct the operations on their country estates, that 
 employment can be given to a greater number of 
 workers, and thus keep them out of the too thickly 
 populated towns, where a life of misery is lived by 
 thousands ; but the investment in labour, to be satis- 
 factory, must leave a margin of profit to the em- 
 ployer. Fruit can be grown much more profitably 
 than farm crops, by farm workers, under competent 
 supervision ; and at the same time worthy, striving, 
 capable men should be encouraged to grow fruit,
 
 190 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 especially bush fruit, on plots that in many districts 
 either are or might be provided near their dwellings. 
 Regard the matter from whatever point of view we 
 may, it cannot be otherwise than desirable to find 
 work for labourers on the land. Depopulation is 
 an indication of decay, and leaves a country poorer, 
 because the strong and most enterprising the real 
 creators of wealth are the first to go, and become 
 in other lands competitors with their kinsmen at 
 home, leaving the weak, lame and lazy behind them. 
 These prey on the accumulations of others, and 
 hence impoverish instead of enrich the land in which 
 they spend their profitless time and live their luck- 
 less lives. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Quietly but surely the work has been going on 
 for some years in Kent and a few other districts ; and 
 the best evidence of that soundness the most prac- 
 tical, cogent and indisputable is the fact that 
 numbers of persons who were among the first to 
 engage in the revival of fruit culture are enlarging 
 the field of their operations. The result of this is 
 that hundreds of acres of land have been raised from 
 a low agricultural to a high horticultural value, to 
 the advantage of owners and occupiers of land, 
 labourers and purchasers of produce ; for the first 
 get higher rents, the second better profits, the third
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 receive more money in the form of wages, and the 
 fourth obtain better fruit at prices that were formerly 
 paid for inferior ; thus fruit culture, well conducted, 
 is beneficial all round. 
 
 ***** 
 The cost, including seventy-five apple trees per 
 acre twenty-five feet apart, and one thousand one 
 hundred and thirty-five gooseberries at six feet 
 asunder, manuring, preparing the land, planting, and 
 the first year's cultivation, would be about twenty- 
 five pounds ; second year's cultivation, including 
 hoeing, light digging and pruning, five pounds ; the 
 third year the gooseberries would more than defray 
 cost of culture, the fourth year give a gross return 
 of ten pounds an acre, the fifth fifteen pounds, the 
 sixth twenty pounds, and the seventh twenty-five 
 pounds. The apples would defray expenses the fifth 
 year, weather being favourable, be remunerative the 
 sixth, increasing in value yearly, in ten years giving 
 a return of twenty pounds ; in fifteen years forty 
 pounds. In eight years the combined gross returns 
 would be forty pounds, in twelve years fifty pounds. 
 This is assuming the varieties are good, the trees 
 well managed, and the weather in those years 
 not unfavourable ; if specially favourable and the 
 soil of the best character, the returns might be 
 considerably more. When in full profit the cost of
 
 192 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES/' 
 
 gathering, marketing and cultural routine would be 
 twenty-five pounds. Such a plantation would give 
 a full return for twenty-five or thirty years or more 
 according to the soil staple and support given to the 
 trees. The gooseberries would wane after twelve 
 years, but the apples would increase in greater 
 proportionate value up to twenty or more years. 
 These estimates are not founded on maximum crops 
 and values, but on average yields and prices. In 
 the absence of suitable soils and positions, also of 
 good varieties and management, fruit culture cannot 
 be expected to prove remunerative ; but, fortunately, 
 the necessary concrete conditions, fertile soil and 
 favourable situations, are waiting to be turned to 
 profitable account in various part of the kingdom, 
 the requisites for this being enterprise, business 
 aptitude and cultural skill. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 As further evidence of fruit culture enhancing 
 the value of land, an example in Sussex may be 
 cited. A gentleman at Petworth had a small field 
 of about four acres near his home. This he worked 
 himself, growing ordinary farm crops, but these did 
 little more than defray the cost of production. He 
 divided the field into fifteen allotments, and the 
 occupying tenants planted many fruit trees and 
 bushes. The result of the change from farm to
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 193 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 garden culture, from corn to fruit growing mainly, 
 is very striking, for the land which formerly brought 
 him next to nothing per acre, now brings him a 
 rental of thirty-five pounds per annum. With the 
 object of encouraging the tenants to grow fruit, this 
 landlord made a rule that when a plot was vacated, 
 the incoming tenant should pay a fair valuation for 
 the trees established on it; thus, these are the 
 property of the tenants, and the allotments have 
 always been let on that condition. It is a just and 
 fair condition which has proved mutually advan- 
 tageous. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Different changes were tried, and one man, 
 named Collins, planted his half acre with raspberries 
 and strawberries. The year on which the returns 
 were obtained on the spot, and their accuracy is 
 beyond dispute, he gathered nearly a ton and a half 
 of strawberries, which he sold for forty pounds, and 
 a little over a ton and a half of raspberries, which 
 he sold for thirty-five pounds, or the extraordinary 
 total of seventy-five pounds sterling from half an 
 acre of land. This is above the average for straw- 
 berries, considerably, but for raspberries only 
 slightly. The strawberries were in their prime, the 
 raspberries approaching it. Upwards of sixteen 
 tons of manure were used, and there would be the
 
 194 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 cost of gathering the fruit, say a total of twenty-five 
 pounds. Also the cost of planting and cultivation 
 the first year might amount to thirty pounds. 
 Assuming there were no returns the first year, the 
 second half of an average crop, and the third a full 
 yield, then allowing a margin for contingencies, we 
 have an average profit per acre of thirty-three pounds. 
 This is in exact accordance with experience in 
 Hampshire, where the actual average profit per acre 
 over an extent of one thousand five hundred acres of 
 strawberries is just thirty-three pounds. Full crops 
 of raspberries are still more profitable, but they 
 are one or two years longer in becoming re- 
 munerative, or say strawberries in two years, rasp- 
 berries in three or four years ; but the former only 
 remain productive over three, four or five years, 
 according to the soil, while the latter are profitable 
 over twice the period, and even much, longer under 
 good management. 
 
 The land round Botley (Hants), has, in conse- 
 quence of the change from ordinary agricultural 
 tillage to strawberry cultivation, increased from a 
 rental of thirty shillings to sixty shillings an acre, 
 and sixty tons of fruit have been gathered and sent 
 by rail to London and other markets in one day. 
 * * * * * 
 
 The demand for fruit is enormous, and first-
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 195 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 class samples placed on the market in first-class 
 condition invariably meet with a ready sale at 
 
 remunerative prices. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 A man who began life as a labourer, but gained 
 knowledge on fruit culture in America, then com- 
 menced a fruit farm of thirteen acres in Cheshire, 
 and eventually, with his savings from the profits, 
 bought the freehold of his little estate. This he 
 could not have done by the ordinary methods of 
 cropping land which prevail in the district. 
 ***** 
 
 Too much manure is often placed in the soil 
 before planting fruit trees, which induces succulent 
 growth, and too little given afterwards when the 
 soil has become more or less exhausted by crops of 
 fruit. 
 
 J. WRIGHT, F.R.H.S. 
 
 WHAT sort of farming, it is sometimes asked, affords 
 the best prospect of good returns ? Soil, situation, 
 markets, as well as the capital and capabilities of 
 the farmer, must be taken into account in answering 
 such a question. Notwithstanding relatively high 
 rent and taxes, the best land is generally the 
 cheapest. Recent bad times have not materially 
 reduced the rental, either of high-class arable or
 
 196 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 grass lands. Farms adapted for the rearing and 
 feeding of cattle and sheep afford the best prospect 
 of paying their way. 
 
 FINLAY DUN, F.R.C.V.S. 
 
 PROBABLY the best way of carrying out the principle 
 of establishing national granaries would be by the 
 employment of Government officers who would visit 
 the various parts of the country after harvest and 
 buy up a certain amount of new corn after it was 
 stacked. Of course, only such corn would be 
 bought as was harvested in suitable condition and 
 stacked properly, so that it would suffer no deteriora- 
 tion from weather or vermin. At the same time that 
 new corn was bought it would be possible to 
 dispose of, possibly to some extent in exchange, 
 a certain portion of the corn bought in former 
 years ; of course, however, it being understood 
 that the annual increment in stock would be main- 
 tained. 
 
 T. PENN GASKELL, M.I.C.E. 
 
 SHEEP farming is one of the most pleasant occupations 
 I know. It is the "beau ideal" of employment for 
 a country gentleman. A few good shepherds and 
 helps, with some faithful dogs, are sufficient to take 
 care of thousands of sheep. Labourers are difficult
 
 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 197 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 to get on arable land, but in raising ovine flocks one 
 is not troubled with the paucity of hands. The 
 greatest curse to British farming has been allowing 
 unprofitable arable land to tumble into pasture, or 
 rather weed beds, instead of thoroughly cleaning, 
 seeding down, and grazing it with sheep. It is 
 surely a happy state of things for one who has 
 invested in land to find that it is year by year 
 becoming enriched by ovine flocks, while the 
 latter are profitable to a degree. There is no 
 fear that the business will be over done, for, 
 with the ever increasing population and improve- 
 ment in trade, the demand for mutton will always 
 be brisk ; such meat being the favourite diet of 
 all classes. 
 
 JOHN WALKER. 
 
 MANY who live in towns and who know little of the 
 true economy of forestry who, in fact, look upon 
 our beautiful woodland tracts as the resort of 
 pheasants and rabbits consider them very beautiful 
 and well managed, and the presence of large areas 
 presents a charm which tends to maintain the value 
 of our landed estates, quite apart from the intrinsic 
 value of the timber. I f our landowners would consider 
 the indirect value of their woodlands, and bear in 
 mind that their presence adds materially to the value
 
 198 EXTRACTS FROM "LAND: ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 of their whole estate, they would exercise greater 
 care and preserve more completely both the area and 
 the quality of the timber. 
 
 CHARLES E. CURTIS, F.S.I., F.S.S. 
 
 AND in the past too the landowner has been fortunate, 
 as till within the last few years his security steadily 
 rose in value. As well put by the late Professor 
 Rogers, "If one capitalist in the reign of Queen 
 Anne invested his savings in the public funds to the 
 amount of ; 100,000, and another laid out ,100,000 
 in the purchase of land, each would probably have 
 received some ^"6000 a year from the investment. 
 Bui if the same property is held at the present day, 
 each by the descendant of those ancestors, the former 
 would be receiving about ^2500 a year, and the 
 latter about .60,000 a year." 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 In the case of land there has evidently been a 
 steady rise in rent, varied only by occasional 
 fluctuations, ever since the latter part of the Middle 
 Ages. Between 1270 and 1870 the average money 
 rental of corn land has risen from 80 to 1 20 times, 
 whilst the rent of natural meadow land has not risen 
 more than about 12 times. 
 
 Between 1670 and 1870 agricultural rents rose 
 on an average from six to nine times. In the
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 199 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 period of the long war, 1792-1815, there was 
 an extraordinary rise in rents (estimated in 
 gold), followed by an extraordinary revulsion, 
 though rents seem not to have fallen back to the 
 level of 1792. 
 
 ***** 
 The faults of the landowner have been, in this 
 century, indolence and inattention to his business. 
 The country squire of 1685, described by Macaulay 
 as one who " examined samples of grain, handled 
 pigs, and made bargains over a tankard with drovers 
 and hop merchants," was no doubt rough and coarse 
 enough, but the chief business of his life was the care 
 of his property ; and as men grew more enlightened 
 during the eighteenth century this habit remained, 
 and it was to the zeal and diligence of the country 
 gentry during that period that we owe, if not most 
 of the discoveries in agricultural and cattle breeding, 
 at least their practical and intelligent application. 
 The country gentry had their reward in a vast increase 
 of rent, though between the Restoration and the reign 
 of George III. the price of both bread and meat fell 
 considerably. For their price did not diminish nearly 
 so fast as did the cost of production, a result brought 
 about partly by good seasons and partly by improved 
 methods, so that a much larger margin of profit 
 remained, and (as rent is paid out of profits) a large
 
 200 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 margin for the payment of rent.* And this conduct on 
 the part of the landowners was merely an instance 
 of the general habits of the day. The manufacturer 
 lived close to his factory, and the shopkeeper over 
 his shop. Farmers' wives and daughters looked 
 after the dairy, and thought more of eggs and butter 
 than of the piano and lawn tennis. Land was 
 regarded more and more as a food manufactory in 
 the commercial, and less and less as a mode of 
 linking together the various orders of society in the 
 feudal sense.f But no sooner was the revolution 
 accomplished by which the ideal landlord became a 
 sort of master manufacturer of corn and fat cattle, 
 with dependent farmers for overseers and labourers 
 for workmen, than men began to draw very disagree- 
 able comparisons between the indulgence of the old, 
 and the rapacity of the new school of landlords. 
 The latter were accused, with some truth, of loving 
 large farms and " close " parishes, and thinking more 
 of money than of men. In other words they were 
 blamed for conducting their affairs in a commercial 
 spirit, in the commercial and materialistic eighteenth 
 
 * The average rent on the Belvoir estate in 1689 was 35. 6d. per acre. 
 In 1853 it was 365. 8d. But wheat was on an average dearer in 1689 than 
 in 1853. 
 
 t If such a system is consistently carried out, agriculture becomes simply 
 a case of the application of the capitalist system to the soil.
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 2OI 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 century (which, in this respect, presents many 
 analogies with the fifteenth), though, at the same 
 time, a manufacturer would have been laughed at had 
 he employed an unnecessary number of overseers or 
 an unnecessary number of workmen, out of philan- 
 thropic consideration for either class. 
 
 But the age being an eminently practical one, 
 these sentimental views seem to have produced but 
 little effect, and the man who made two blades of 
 grass grow where but one had grown before, was 
 generally lauded as a public benefactor. Arthur 
 Young, indeed, regards a penal rise in rent as the 
 only mode of getting rid of an idle or ignorant 
 tenant, and severely blames those landlords (too 
 often styled " good ") who, from indolence or feeble 
 good nature, allowed rents to remain as they had 
 long been, and thus took away from the tenant a 
 powerful inducement to improve. 
 
 The effect of all this has been aggravated by the 
 general carelessness of modern Englishmen in the 
 matter of account-keeping, and to this a curious 
 parallel may be found in the legal and economic 
 history of the Romans. In the early times the book- 
 keeping of " bonus paterfamilias " was perfect, and 
 even in the days of Cicero, not to keep fairly good 
 accounts was regarded as a proof of extraordinary 
 neglect and a strong presumption of dishonesty ;
 
 202 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 but under the early empire, the good old custom had 
 begun to fall into disuse, and the contract "Literis" 
 into neglect. Similarly in the England of the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries farming accounts 
 were kept with accuracy and minuteness, and the 
 consumption of produce on the farm is debited as 
 exactly to the gross receipts of agriculture, as were the 
 purchases. And numerous allusions in the "Laws" of 
 Arthur Young, indicate a general practice on the part 
 of both landowners and farmers, of taking stock 
 annually of their position, and of carefully noting 
 the gains and losses of the year or of the special 
 crop. But at the present day few farmers keep 
 accounts that are better than mere memorandum 
 books, and never even think of balancing them.* 
 
 ***** 
 But the landlord who can do what he pleases on 
 his own ground, and who is guided by enlightened self- 
 interest is under no such restraint, and accordingly 
 we find that at least twice in the course of English 
 History, great landowners have conferred in- 
 calculable benefits upon English rural economy. 
 These periods in their full strength lasted from about 
 1260 to 1350, and again from 1730 to 1780. In 
 
 * The fear of such a proceeding is especially hostile to fruit culture. No 
 man will plant trees which may at any moment become the full property of 
 his landlord unless an enhanced rent be paid.
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 2O3 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 the former case the process was seriously interrupted 
 by the ravages of the Black Death, which dis- 
 organised the labour market, and in the latter by the 
 enormous rise in agricultural prices at the latter end 
 of the eighteenth century. 
 
 A model landlord at the former date is to be 
 found in Roger Bigod, the great Earl of Norfolk, 
 the traditional hero who dared to bandy words with 
 Edward I., and not only cultivated his English estates 
 according to the best lights of his time under his 
 own personal superintendence, but also introduced 
 the English system upon his Irish estates. From 
 such men the English farmer learned much.* He 
 was exceedingly prosperous throughout the wars of 
 the Roses, in which the aristocracy committed 
 suicide, though all Bigod's zeal and skill could not 
 make up for the absence of winter roots and artificial 
 grasses, which were then unknown, whilst the 
 rotation of crops was not thought of. On the other 
 hand, in the eighteenth century the chief feature of 
 the new agriculture consisted in the change which it 
 made in the rotation of crops, in the substitution of 
 
 * The peasant freeholders and copyholders having before them an 
 example in the mode of cultivation pursued on the lord's estate, profited by 
 his successes and failures. And in addition to this the lord guaranteed the 
 king's peace that is, the continuity of the farmer's industry free from the risk 
 of brigandage. The whole doctrine of express and implied, of lineal and 
 collateral, warranty points in the same direction.
 
 204 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 roots, especially the turnip, for bare fallows, and in 
 the careful hoeing and weeding of the root crop, by 
 feeding on which at leisure sheep fertilised the soil. 
 No men ever earned their money more fairly than 
 the English landlords earned the great rise in rent 
 during the eighteenth century, and it is unfortunate 
 that the great rise of prices consequent upon bad 
 seasons towards its close, and the artificial famine of 
 the Corn Laws, coupled with an erroneous theory 
 of rent, led their successors to take a very different 
 
 course. 
 
 ***, 
 
 Many labourers, who have had allotments of 
 land to the extent of two or three acres, and have 
 cultivated these with their own hands, state that 
 every day's labour has been worth ten shillings to 
 them, not for the sale of the produce, but for the 
 maintenance of their families, as they thus save all 
 the intermediate expenses of carriage, markets, and 
 agents. 
 
 WOLSELEY P. EMERTON, D.C.L. 
 
 Now let us see how Free Trade affects the question 
 of land. As far as laws go, each person should have 
 the same equal liberty to acquire and enjoy land by 
 the exercise of his faculties ; each should be free to 
 share in the universal competition by which it is to
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 be acquired. Upon such exercise of faculties and 
 liberty to acquire, no restriction of any kind should 
 be placed, in the interest of any persons or any 
 class, except such restrictions as are necessarily 
 involved in and spring out of this exercise of faculties 
 and this liberty of acquisition. To give examples 
 of what I mean : a natural, or necessarily involved, 
 restriction to the acquisition of land would be the 
 prohibition that a man should move his neighbour's 
 landmarks by force or fraud, since the idea of 
 force and fraud (or the violent and fraudulent 
 setting aside of another person's consent), is opposed 
 to the idea of acquiring in a free market, where 
 both persons concerned consent to the transaction. 
 The free market means the common ground 
 on which men met to exchange all services and 
 all forms of world-material, each acting in his own 
 right of doing the best that he can for himself in 
 the universal competition, and only restricted by the 
 condition that he is not to employ force and fraud, 
 because force and fraud are fatal to dealings which 
 are based on free consent on both sides. On the 
 other hand, all the restrictions that politicians love 
 to impose, restrictions favouring the buyer or the 
 seller, limiting quantity, regulating prices, establishing 
 certain systems supposed to be favourable to a special 
 class, are all arbitrary and from a moral point of
 
 2O6 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 view, immoral, since they are nothing more nor less 
 than limitations placed by the holders of power upon 
 a man's right to do the best that he can for himself. 
 
 The solution of the land problem, therefore, 
 depends, like the solution of every other industrial 
 problem, in finding out what system of buying and 
 selling, of owning and enjoying, allows men the 
 freest scope to use their faculties for their own 
 advantage, neither deducting from this freest scope 
 anything that falls short, nor adding anything which 
 exceeds. Let me try to describe such a system. It 
 must allow men (i) To acquire all such land as they 
 can acquire in the open market ; to possess full 
 powers of ownership over it ; to make all such con- 
 tracts as they choose in reference to it during the 
 term of their own life ; to sell it in the same un- 
 restricted way as they have acquired it, and to devise 
 it at death to such person as they choose. All these 
 powers are necessary in order to make ownership 
 perfect, and to make land yield the fullest enjoyment 
 to those who own it. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 State burdens are not to be placed on the land. 
 If it is mischievous to tax corn, it is far more 
 mischievous to tax land, which, by its nature, is so 
 immediately associated with the all-important ques- 
 tions of home, and a man's independence of life.
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 207 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 Nothing interferes so much with the possibilities of 
 human enjoyment of any object, and the exercise of 
 human energies, as the vague claims of what we call 
 the State. The State is an abstract body which runs 
 no risks, undergoes no labour, which neither toils 
 nor spins, but is ever stretching out greedy and 
 unsatisfied hands to seize a part of what the toil of 
 the individual has produced. Both the dead owner 
 and the State are abstractions much given to 
 encroachment upon the free individual, and both 
 must be driven back within their own territory. 
 Nothing less than the complete untaxed freehold, 
 perfect in all its rights and enjoyments, should be 
 the goal of our efforts. 
 
 ***** 
 But if land is not be taxed, how about the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer's revenue, and all the 
 gilt gingerbread which is provided for the nation 
 out of taxation ? I am not writing a paper on 
 taxation, else I might try to show that the mass of 
 money taken from us does far more harm than the 
 usual Government services do us good. Our present 
 State system is much like that of a doctor who 
 bleeds his patient in the morning, and in the 
 afternoon tries to restore his strength by administer- 
 ing powerful tonics. With this part of the matter, 
 however, I am not concerned here ; all that I want
 
 208 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 now to insist upon is, that if land is to be a blessing 
 to our people, we must relieve it from State 
 burdens. At present burdens are lumped upon 
 land, and then people wonder that not only in 
 England do our labourers so seldom make efforts 
 to acquire land, and steadily desert the agricultural 
 districts, but even in a country like France, where 
 the love of land exists as a passion, the stream 
 sets in from country to town. The truth is that 
 everywhere the horrible army of tax collectors 
 penalises the possession of land. What we have to 
 do is to make war upon rates and taxes, provide 
 easy methods for redeeming tithe, and allow a man 
 who acquires land to feel he is quit of the official 
 demand-note. The effect upon human efforts would 
 be very great. No doubt land would rise in value, 
 and the price paid for it would be higher. But it is 
 not a high price that discourages buying. It is the 
 sense of the yearly, and probably increasing burden 
 which never pauses or ceases, which will have to be 
 paid in old age as well as in youth, in sickness as 
 well as in health, in bad seasons as well as in good. 
 Free our people from that dread, and land will smile 
 to them as it never has smiled before. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 To conclude, what we want is free land, in the 
 sense of free from State burdens, free from intricacies
 
 EXTRACTS FROM " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS 2OQ 
 AND RICHES." 
 
 of title, free from interferences of the dead hand and 
 limitations of ownership, free from State-made 
 contracts, free from partialities of all kinds, and able 
 by virtue of its freedom to reward him who acquires 
 it with the full rights and perfect enjoyment of 
 complete ownership. The land once freed in this 
 fashion, the people's question would settle itself in 
 the one true and healthy way. Peasant proprietor- 
 ship, co-operative farming, the landlord system, 
 would all compete together, and human wants 
 would find as they always do where artificial 
 complications and entanglements are removed 
 their truest method of satisfaction. 
 
 AUBERON HERBERT.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 SOME BIRDS WHICH VISIT ENGLISH 
 ACRES PERIODICALLY. 
 
 ONE attraction to the lover of country life is the 
 periodical return of birds to this country, who, by 
 heir songs and their plumage, add to the beauty of 
 our gardens, fields, woodlands and hedgerows. 
 
 HOBBY. This bird comes from the Palearctic 
 region generally. It arrives in England in April 
 and stays till October. 
 
 BUTCHER BIRD. (Red-Backed Shrike). Comes 
 from parts of Europe as far east as the Ural Moun- 
 tains to England, in April or May, and leaves again 
 in August. 
 
 SPOTTED FLYCATCHER. Comes from parts ot 
 Europe, Asia and Africa. It arrives in April or 
 May, and leaves in August or September. 
 
 REDSTART. It comes from many parts of Europe. 
 It arrives in April, and leaves in September. 
 
 WHEATEAR. It is common all over the western 
 Palearctic Region, from Greenland to Africa, Siberia, 
 North China and North America. It arrives late 
 in February and leaves in September.
 
 SOME BIRDS WHICH VISIT ENGLISH ACRES 211 
 PERIODICALLY. 
 
 NIGHTINGALE. It comes from Western and 
 Central Europe, is common in South Europe and 
 migrates to Africa before the winter. It arrives in 
 England early in April. 
 
 BLACKCAP. It comes from all parts of Europe 
 except the extreme north, Persia, Africa, Canaries, 
 Madeira, and the Azores. It arrives in April and 
 leaves in September or October. 
 
 GARDEN WARBLER. Comes from parts of Europe 
 and Asia. It arrives in April or May and leaves in 
 September for South Africa. 
 
 WHITETHROAT. It comes from all parts of 
 Europe and Western Asia. It arrives in April or 
 May and goes to North Africa in September. 
 
 LESSER WHITETHROAT, It arrives in March or 
 April and sometimes in May, from all parts of 
 Europe and before the winter goes to Africa. 
 
 SEDGE WARBLER. It comes from various parts 
 of Europe in April, and leaves in September for 
 North Africa. 
 
 WILLOW WREN. It comes from various parts of 
 Europe, some parts of Asia including Persia, in 
 March or April, and leaves in September. 
 
 CHIFFCHAFF. It comes from Europe, Persia and 
 North Africa. It arrives in March or April and 
 leaves in October. 
 
 TREE PIPIT. It comes from North and Central
 
 212 SOME BIRDS WHICH VISIT ENGLISH ACRES 
 PERIODICALLY. 
 
 Europe and Asia, arriving in April and leaving in 
 September or October. 
 
 CUCKOO. It is found in nearly the whole of 
 Europe and Northern Asia in summer, and towards 
 winter it migrates to South Africa and India. It 
 arrives in England about the middle of April and 
 leaves in August, the young birds following about a 
 month later. 
 
 SWALLOW. Is common throughout Europe, Asia 
 and Africa. It arrives in April and leaves in 
 October or November. 
 
 COMMON SWIFT. Comes from Europe generally, 
 and some parts of Asia. It arrives late and leaves 
 early. 
 
 WRYNECK. It comes from Europe generally as 
 far as North Scandinavia and from Japan. It 
 arrives in March or April and leaves for Africa 
 before the winter. 
 
 GREAT PLOVER OR STONE CURLEW. It comes 
 from parts of Europe and North Africa in April 
 and leaves in October. 
 
 LANDRAIL. It comes from Europe generally, 
 and Western Asia, arriving in April or May and 
 leaving in September or October. 
 
 SPOTTED CRAKE. It comes from Europe 
 generally, and from Asia as far as East Siberia, 
 arriving in March and wintering in North Africa.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS*: AN EXAMPLE OF 
 THE LOVE OF ENGLISH ACRES. 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS is thus referred to : A man of 
 dauntless will and indefatigable industry, his family 
 was ancient and illustrious, but their vicissitudes of 
 fortune and ill-requited loyalty in the cause of the 
 Stuarts brought them to poverty, and the family 
 estate at Daylesford, of which they had been lords 
 of the manor for hundreds of years, at length passed 
 from their hands. The last Hastings of Daylesford 
 had, however, presented the parish living to his 
 second son ; and it was in his house, many years 
 later, that Warren Hastings, his grandson, was 
 born. The boy learnt his letters at the village 
 school, and on the same bench with the children of 
 the peasantry. He played in the fields which his 
 fathers had owned ; and what the loyal and brave 
 
 * See " Self-Help, by Dr, Smiles,
 
 214 WARREN HASTINGS: AN EXAMPLE OF THE 
 LOVE OF ENGLISH ACRES. 
 
 Hastings of Daylesford had been was ever in the 
 boy's thoughts. His young ambition was fired, 
 and it is said that one summer's day, when only 
 seven years old, as he laid him down on the bank 
 of the stream which flowed through the domain, 
 
 HE FORMED IN HIS MIND THE RESOLUTION THAT HE 
 WOULD YET RECOVER POSSESSION OF THE FAMILY 
 
 LANDS. It was the romantic vision of a boy ; yet 
 he lived to realize it. The dream became a passion, 
 rooted in his very life ; and he pursued his deter- 
 mination through youth up to manhood, with calm 
 but indomitable force of will, which was the most 
 striking peculiarity of his character. The orphan 
 boy became one of the most powerful men of his 
 time ; he retrieved the fortunes of his line, BOUGHT 
 
 BACK THE OLD ESTATE AND REBUILT THE FAMILY 
 
 MANSION. When, under a tropical sun, says 
 Macaulay, he ruled fifty millions of Asiatics, his 
 hopes, amidst all the cares of war, finance, and 
 legislation, STILL POINTED TO DAYLESFORD. And 
 when his long public life . . . had at length closed 
 for ever, IT WAS TO DAYLESFORD THAT HE RETIRED 
 TO DIE.
 
 Extracts from some of the Reviews of 
 "Buy English Acres." 
 
 "Is land worth buying as an investment? Mr. C. F. Dowsett 
 answers the question with an emphatic affirmative in the second 
 edition of his ' Buy English Acres.' He declares that, to others 
 besides those who can afford to buy painted landscapes at the 
 price of natural ones, land is becoming more and more valuable, 
 especially land possessing aesthetic features and yet so situate 
 near to rapidly developing towns as to ensure in the near future 
 such results as have accrued to many well-known families who to-day 
 enjoy the wealth of which the shrewd thoughtfulness of their ancestors 
 laid the foundation." The Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " Adventurers on the Stock Exchange may well pause before 
 Mr. Dowsett's list of men who have become millionaires by buying 
 land." Morning Post. 
 
 " Decidedly interesting, and likely to serve what is, after all, a 
 patriotic cause." Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 " The book exhibits good workmanship and much care." Financial 
 Standard. 
 
 " Mr. Dowsett, who is not at all limited in his views to the financial 
 aspect of the question, has our warmest sympathy." The Spectator. 
 
 " The kind of book that many a land agent might find useful to 
 give to a hesitating client." County Gentleman. 
 
 " All who are concerned in the prosperity of Rural England will 
 find much to interest them in it." The Agricultural World. 
 
 " The volume is full of suggestive pages." Public Opinion, 
 
 " Accounts of men who have accumulated fortunes in land." 
 The Field. 
 
 " Mr. Dowsett, as most students of the land problem are aware, is 
 a strong advocate of real estate, and in the volume before us he is at 
 great pains to demonstrate how many men of enormous wealth and 
 varied nationalities have wrested from the land the name and fame of 
 millionaires or have acquired fortunes to be counted in hundreds of 
 thousands of pounds." The Western Morning News.
 
 2l6 EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS. 
 
 " During his long career as a land agent, Mr. Dowsett himself a 
 great traveller has dealt with lands situate in most of our Colonies, 
 in Australia. New Zealand, British Columbia, and the Transvaal, as 
 well as lands in California, Florida, &c., and his wide experience greatly 
 adds to the importance of his book entitled ' Buy English Acres,' the 
 second edition of which has just been published, our firm conviction 
 being that those who invest their capital in the purchase of English 
 acres will in the end receive much greater benefit from their invest- 
 ment than if they acquired stocks and shares, which are liable to 
 great fluctuation." Property Market Review. 
 
 " Much of what is said will appeal to the sportsman, the rich 
 owner of land, and to the poor man seeking a home in the country 
 which will not be at too great a distance from town." Medical Times 
 and Hospital Gazette. 
 
 " Mr. Dowsett argues his case in the most convincing way right 
 through, and interests you in spite of yourself." Bath Chronicle. 
 
 " Cites instances of immense appreciation in land values in 
 London and in America." The Literary World. 
 
 " Well worthy the attention of all who have dealings with landed 
 estate or who contemplate buying." Midland Counties Herald. 
 
 " The book throughout deals with the Land Question in all its 
 phases, and should be used by all." Hants and Sussex County Press. 
 
 " The book is a very readable one, and its main thesis must be 
 approved by every well-wisher of his country." The Financier. 
 
 " The book is a very readable one." The Capitalist. 
 
 " The book is readable and chatty." Farm and Home. 
 
 " The book is readable and educational." Lincolnshire Echo. 
 
 tt Mr. Dowsett writes with remarkable lucidity." Leamington 
 Sfa Courier. 
 
 " Makes out a strong case for the return to the land." Sussex 
 Daily News. 
 
 " Facts tending to support the principle that land is the foundation 
 of wealth." Agricultural Gazette. 
 
 " Highly persuasive in its tone and in the eloquent facts with which 
 it very attractively deals." Hampshire Observer. 
 
 "Mr. Dowsett's great experience makes his advice valuable." 
 Surrey Advertiser. 
 
 " A good many points of interest to the general public." Anglian 
 Daily Times. 
 
 " Goes into the Fiscal Question in relation to land, in which 
 connection the Author is very outspoken." Hampshire Independent,
 
 EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS. 
 
 "The arguments are set forth forcibly and attractively." 
 Gloucester Citizen. 
 
 " Excellent reasons for the choice of British land." Manchester 
 Courier. 
 
 " It is admirably arranged, and the various subjects are dealt with 
 in an interesting style. By its issue Mr. Dowsett has rendered a 
 national service to his country." Eastleigh Weekly News. 
 
 u The author makes out a good case for his contention." Harrogate 
 Advertiser. 
 
 "Advances several good reasons for making investments in 
 land." Andover Advertiser. 
 
 " Deals in an exhaustive manner with some of the aspects of the 
 Land Question." Newmaris Exmouth Journal. 
 
 " Throws considerable light on the land question." Western 
 Daily Press. 
 
 " A good case certainly seems to be made out." Estates Gazette. 
 
 " To Anglo-Indians coming home for good, and each year sees a 
 large contingent, Mr. C. F. Dowsett's book contains a practical 
 message." Home and Colonial Mail. 
 
 " The work contains many points of interest to the general public 
 touching the acquisition of land." Oxford Times. 
 
 " The Law's delay in the transfer of land is exposed ; the value of 
 Land and House Investments is demonstrated ; and other matters 
 are dealt with." Leicester Chronicle. 
 
 " Puts forward many strong arguments as to the advisability of 
 acquiring land. His arguments are presented in a convincing and 
 entertaining form." East Anglian Daily Times. 
 
 " Mr. Dowsett's admirable work. He makes out a strong case for 
 the return to the land." Hereford Times. 
 
 " Instances in which people have amassed money in land." 
 North Devon Herald. 
 
 " May be perused with profit." Lymington Chronicle. 
 
 "Will have the sympathy of all readers." Nottinghamshire 
 Guardian. 
 
 " Contains a mass of useful information, and contrary to the 
 usual run of works of this kind, is also interesting." The Bazaar. 
 
 " A good many people will find this work interesting." Salisbury 
 Journal. 
 
 " Much curious and interesting information." 77?* Record. 
 
 " Ought to have the heartiest best wishes of every lover of his 
 country." Land Agents' Record.
 
 2l8 EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS. 
 
 " Mr. Dowsett gives expert advice as to the selection of estates." 
 Hereford Journal. 
 
 " The book is a combination of the beautiful and the very 
 practical." Surrey Comet. 
 
 " We own to the ability with which those opinions are advanced, 
 and to the charm and lucidity of his manner." Bury Times. 
 
 " A powerful plea for a return to the land." Newcastle Journal. 
 
 " A thoughtful, earnest, and practical treatise. The author has 
 studied the subject for many years, and he here gives us the rich and 
 welcome fruits of his labour. A copy ought to be found in all our 
 country libraries, for the book cannot be too widely known." West 
 Kent Advertiser. 
 
 " The new chapters contain an interesting collection of facts 
 tending to support the principle that land is the foundation of wealth. 
 ... A number of short biographical sketches of well-known 
 American millionaires showed that all owed some at any rate of their 
 wealth to the judicious purchase of land." Darlington and Stockton 
 Times. 
 
 " May be perused with profit by all." Bournemouth Directory. 
 
 " Mr. Dowsett is entitled to speak on the subject of land. He 
 urges, both from a point of investment, of national health, and the 
 general well-being of the nation, rural life ; and he makes out a strong 
 case in support of his contention." Bury Gitardian. 
 
 " Urging as emphatically as before the advantages of a country 
 life." Essex County Standard. 
 
 " The law's delay and expense is dealt with in a chapter which 
 dilates on the increasing popularity of the immediate transfer 
 system." Hereford Times. 
 
 " Mr. Dowsett is a well-known authority, and he has been well 
 advised in bringing out this second and enlarged edition of his 
 interesting work" Liverpool Courier. 
 
 " Mr. Dowsett has several things to say which have particular 
 force just now when there is a growing disposition amongst city folk 
 to see more of country life." Hearth and Home. 
 
 " Mr. Dowsett points out how many huge fortunes have been made 
 by the purchase of land in the immediate vicinity of growing towns."- 
 Bath Chronicle. 
 
 " This is the work of a thoroughly practical man who treats his 
 subject in such a manner as not. only to make a very readable book 
 but also an extremely useful one." Kensington Express. 
 
 " A readable book that contains suggestions capable of bringing 
 prosperity to country villages and hamlets." Bedfordshire Mercury.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ACCOUNT-KEEPING, 201, 202. 
 ADVANTAGES OF BEING COUNTRY 
 BRED, 107. 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 chief object of cultivation, 1 86, 187. 
 why Free Trade did no harm at 
 first, 131. 
 
 AIR. 
 
 only pure in rural districts, 6, 1 1 2. 
 
 in neighbourhood of Basingstoke, 36. 
 
 in neighbourhood of Manchester, 6. 
 
 in Black Hole of Calcutta, 112. 
 ALLOTMENTS, 204. 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 compared with England, 58. 
 
 AMERICAN INHERITANCES, 101. 
 
 AMERICAN LAND BUYERS. 
 
 Biographical notes, arranged in 
 alphabetical order of names (except 
 as to CARNEGIE, which will be 
 found on page 81). 
 
 First Series, 59-82. 
 
 Second Series, 82-92. 
 
 Third Series, 92-95. 
 
 Fourth Series, 95-99. 
 
 Fifth Series, 99-101. 
 
 Ancestry of, 103. 
 AMERICAN LAND VALUES, 27. 
 
 AMERICAN REFERENCE TO ENGLISH 
 LANDOWNING, 114. 
 
 ANGLING, 162. 
 ARMY^RECRUITING, 7. 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
 in America, 26, 73, 77, 78. 
 
 in Australia, 126. 
 
 in Wales, 43. 
 
 suggests Villa Farms, 1 1 . 
 
 BASINGSTOKE. 
 
 chalk hills, an ideal residential 
 
 position, 36. 
 has the railway facilities required by 
 
 Lord Farrer's scheme, IO. 
 
 BIRDS. 
 
 among greatest charms of country 
 life, 169. 
 
 which visit English Acres periodi- 
 cally, 210-212 
 
 (see also " Shooting," " Wildfowl," 
 etc.) 
 
 BOOK-KEEPING, 201, 202. 
 
 BOTANY. 
 study of, 171. 
 advantages of knowledge, 172. 
 
 BRAIN WORKERS. 
 need fresh air, etc., n. 
 
 BRITISH ACRES must supply food in 
 time of European War, 20. 
 
 BUILDING LANDS. 
 definition, 30. 
 
 empty houses tend to depreciate, 30. 
 examples of profitable investment, 31. 
 
 BUSINESS PREMISES IN RURAL 
 
 DISTRICTS. 
 
 advantages to the Employer, 51-53. 
 advantages to the Workers, 54, 55.
 
 22O 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 CAPITAL. 
 
 free flow required for land improve- 
 ment, 187. 
 in Railways at various periods, 136. 
 
 CATTLE FARMS, 196. 
 
 CHALK sub- soil. 
 
 most healthy for residential position, 
 
 36. 
 gives purest water supply, 118, 119. 
 
 CHAMBERLAIN, Mr. 
 
 anxious for Free Trade, 121. 
 compared with Mr. Cobden, 120. 
 the aim of his Fiscal Policy, 121. 
 
 CLIMATOLOGISTS. 
 on chalk as a sub-soil, 36, 37. 
 
 COBDEN, Mr. 
 
 Biographical chapter, 120-123. 
 compared with Mr. Chamberlain, 120. 
 his anxiety for Free Trade explained, 
 121, 130. 
 
 COMPANY PROMOTION. 
 
 Illustrations of Fraud, 172-186. 
 
 CONSOLS. 
 
 compared with land as an invest- 
 ment, 12, 13, 17, 198. 
 effect upon price of Ground Rents, 32. 
 
 CORN LAWS. 
 
 historical account, from Norman 
 
 Conquest to Cobden, 124-128. 
 object of Anti-Corn Law League, 130. 
 purpose of, 124. 
 repeal, first effects of, 131. 
 (see also " Wheat," " Free Trade," 
 
 etc.). 
 
 COTTAGE PROPERTY. 
 as an investment, 32. 
 poor, should be avoided, 33. 
 
 COUNTRY, ADVANTAGES OF RESI- 
 DENCE IN, 6, 7,8, 49, 50, 145-151. 
 
 COUNTRY LIFE. 
 
 American fondness of, 103. 
 rural-bred men, backbone of country, 
 
 23, 107. 
 
 town life contrasted with, 144-148, 
 154-156. 
 
 CRIMEAN WAR. 
 
 comparison of 1904 with that period, 
 20. 
 
 DAIRY FARMS AND PRODUCE, 25, 
 187, 1 88. 
 
 DEATH RATE. 
 
 definite ratio to density of popula- 
 tion, 7. 
 of London and other towns, 55. 
 
 DECOY, construction and management 
 of a, 166-169. 
 
 DEPRECIATION OF BUILDING ESTATE. 
 empty houses and carcases, tend to, 30. 
 
 "DESERTED VILLAGE." 
 the pathos of, 153, 154. 
 
 DICKINSON, W. H., L.C.C. 
 
 on increasing density of population, 7. 
 
 DISEASES of Modern Life. 
 
 Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson 
 on, 113. 
 
 DRY OR DAMP POSITIONS, 35. 
 
 EMERSON, RALPH WALDO. 
 on English Landowning, 1 14. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 compared with America, 58. 
 
 EQUIVALENT TABLES, 34. 
 
 EXAMPLE OF THE FOSTERS AND 
 GLADSTONES, 109. 
 
 EXPORTS. 
 under Protection and Free Trade, 
 
 138. 
 excess of imports over, 140. 
 
 FACTORIES IN RURAL DISTRICTS 
 advantages to the employer, 51-53. 
 advantages to the worker, 54-55. 
 
 FARMING IN ENGLAND. 
 history of, 199-204. 
 
 FARMS. 
 
 as a profitable investment, 25. 
 best land cheapest in the ena, 195. 
 cattle and sheep, 196. 
 
 FARRER, LORD. 
 
 on "Overcrowded London" and a 
 remedy, 9. 
 
 FIR FORESTS, 151-153. 
 
 FISCAL POLICY. 
 
 (see "Chamberlain"; "Cobden"; 
 "Free Trade"; "Corn Laws"; 
 "Wheat, "etc.)
 
 INDEX. 
 
 221 
 
 FISHING, 162. 
 
 FOOD SUPPLY IN TIME OF WAR, 20 
 
 FOREIGN INVESTMENTS. 
 in British securities, 141. 
 of British capital, 140. 
 
 FORESTRY, 197, 198. 
 
 FOSTERS, THE. 
 their example, 109. 
 
 FOX-HUNTING, 160-162. 
 
 FRANKLAND, Dr. PERCY. 
 on air-pollution by micro-organisms, 
 
 8. 
 FREE TRADE A FAILURE FROM THE 
 
 FIRST. 
 
 Letter from Mr. T. Penn Gaskell, 
 M.I.C.E., L.C.C., 129-143. 
 
 FREE TRADE. 
 
 and the Land question, 204. 
 condition of England previous to, 
 
 and at period of, introduction, 130. 
 consumer's loss, as shown by Board 
 
 of Trade returns, 133, 134. 
 evil of "dumping," 139. 
 excess of imports over exports, 140. 
 imports under, 139. 
 increase in cost of barley and oats, 
 
 after, 133. 
 no cheapening of food for 25 years 
 
 after, 134. 
 
 not the real cause of prosperity, 136. 
 Protection compared in respect of 
 
 exports, 138. 
 
 Shipping, its influence on, 136, 141. 
 "Trade Union argument" against, 
 
 141. 
 
 why Cobden was so anxious for, 130. 
 why it was not at 6rst injurious to 
 
 agriculture, 131. 
 FRUIT GROWING, 188-195 
 GASKELL, Mr. T. PENN, M.I.C.E., 
 
 L.CC. 
 
 on Free Trade, 129. 
 on National granaries, 196. 
 
 GLADSTONES, THE. 
 their example, 109. 
 
 GOLD. 
 
 coin circulation at two periods, 137. 
 Discoveries, 136. 
 
 GOODWILLS. 
 
 range of value is large, 33. 
 
 GRAVEL SOIL. 
 
 not necessarily the acme of per- 
 fection, 35. 
 
 GROUND RENTS. 
 Freehold, 
 an investment of unparalleled 
 
 character, 31, 32. 
 
 prices depend on Money Market,32 . 
 Leasehold. 
 
 as an investment, 32. 
 
 GROUSE, 163, 164 
 
 HOUSE PROPERTY. 
 as an investment, 32. 
 for purchaser's occupation, 32-36. 
 
 HUMIDITY OF AIR. 
 most injurious to human life, 36. 
 
 HUNTING-TON, COLLIS POTTER. 
 Memoir, 74. 
 
 IMPORTS. 
 
 excess of, over exports, 140. 
 
 under Free Trade, 139. 
 
 value of British Shipping freights, 141. 
 
 IMPURITY OF AIR. 
 in towns, 6. 
 examples, 112. 
 
 INVESTMENT TABLES, 34. 
 
 " LAND : ITS ATTRACTIONS AND 
 
 RICHES." 
 
 Original Subscribers, 5. 
 particulars of publication, 5. 
 Queen Victoria a purchaser, 5. 
 Extracts from, by : 
 Bear, William E., 187. 
 Brightwen, Eliza, 154-156. 
 Curtis, Charles E., F.S.I., F.S.S., 
 
 197, 198. 
 
 Dawson, H., 173-186. 
 Dun, Finlay.F.R.C.V.S., 195,196. 
 Emerton, Wolseley P., D.C.L., 
 
 198-204. 
 
 Gaskell, T. Penn, M.I.C.E., 196. 
 Harris, W. H., B.A., B.Sc., 169- 
 
 171. 
 Henslow, Rev. Prof. G., M.A., 
 
 F.L.S., etc., 171, 172. 
 Herbert, Auberon, 204-209.
 
 222 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 " LAND," etc. continued. 
 
 "Hermit" (Contributor to "The 
 
 Field"), 156-160, 162-169. 
 Long, Professor, 187, 188. 
 MacMillan, Rev. Hugh, D.D., 
 
 LL.D., F.R.S.E., 151-153. 
 Maynard, Constance L., 153, 154. 
 Merry, Leyson T., 172, 173. 
 Murray, Gilbert, F.S.I., 186, 187. 
 Norton, George, M.A., 150, 151. 
 Penderel-Brodhurst, J., 146-148. 
 Reade, Compton, 148-150. 
 Walker, John, 160-162, 196, 197. 
 White, Percy (editor of " Public 
 
 Opinion"), 144-146. 
 Wright, J.,F.R.H.S., 188-195. 
 
 LAND. 
 
 sesthetic value, 13, 104. 
 
 an article of virtu, 104. 
 
 and house investments, 24. 
 
 as an investment, 12, 13, 17, 24. 
 
 as a luxury, 39-48. 
 
 building (see " Building Lands "). 
 
 compared with Consols as an invest- 
 ment, 12, 13, 17, 198. 
 
 conditions which make for increase 
 in value, 22. 
 
 grass growing, 22, 197. 
 
 how affected by Free Trade, 204. 
 
 in England, growing desire to buy, 
 117. 
 
 motives in buying, 12, 13. 
 
 must supply food in time of war, 20. 
 
 past and present values, 27-32. 
 
 possession of, its influence for good, 
 
 17- 
 
 produce could be doubled, 187. 
 purchase in neighbourhood of towns, 
 
 27, 58. 
 rent at various periods, 28-30, 198, 
 
 199 (200, foot-note), 
 residential (see " Residential Lands"), 
 sporting value, 13 (see also "Sport"), 
 taxation of, 206-209. 
 title should be registered, 17. 
 transfer, 14. 
 
 values (see ' ' Land Values "). 
 i. stocks and shares, 18. (see also 
 
 "Company promotion.") 
 
 LAND BUYERS. 
 American, 57-101. 
 English, 27-30, 109-111 
 
 LAND VALUES. 
 American, 27. 
 Old English, 28-30. 
 Modern English, 30-32. 
 enhanced by fast train service to 
 Metropolis, 10, 22. 
 
 LANDSCAPES. 
 Dr. Herbertson on, 38. 
 in Wales, 43-48. 
 
 LANDSCAPES AS PROPERTY. 
 the real thing v. the artist's canvas, 
 12, 40. 
 
 LAW'S DELAY, 14. 
 
 LUXURY. 
 definition, 39. 
 illustrations of, 40-48. 
 
 MANCHESTER. 
 illustration of impure air, 6. 
 
 MEDICAL OPINIONS, re. 
 chalk sub-soil, 36, 37. 
 humid air, 36. 
 town life, 113. 
 
 MILLIONAIRES MADE BY LAND 
 BUYING, 27, 57, 103. 
 
 NATIONAL GRANARIES, 21, 196. 
 NATURE, STUDY OF, 150, 156-160. 
 
 PASTURE LAND. 
 
 proper method of creation, 197. 
 
 PHEASANTS, 165. 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 England and Wales (past and present), 
 20, 58. 
 
 POSITION OF PROPERTY. 
 low lying, to be avoided, 35. 
 
 PROTECTION (see " Free Trade"). 
 
 PURITY OF AIR IN THE COUNTRY, 
 6, 112. 
 
 RABBITS, 165, 166. 
 
 RAILWAYS. 
 
 Lord Farrer's scheme an accom- 
 plished fact at Basingstoke, 10. 
 
 mileage and capital at various 
 periods, 136. 
 
 (see also " Transport ")
 
 INDEX. 
 
 223 
 
 " RED TAPE " IN LAND TRANSFER, 16. 
 
 RENT OF LAND. 
 
 at various periods, 28-30, 198, 199 
 (200, foot-note). 
 
 RESIDENCE IN COUNTRY OR TOWN. 
 comparative advantages, 6-8, 23, 
 
 49. 50, 103, 107. 
 RESIDENTIAL LANDS. 
 definition, 25. 
 fortunes that have been made by 
 
 buying, 26-27. 
 peculiarities of value, 25. 
 
 REVIEWS OF FIRST EDITION, 215-218. 
 
 RICHARDSON, SIR BENJAMIN WARD, 
 on " Diseases of Modern Life," 113. 
 
 RURAL HOMES FOR TOWN WORKERS, 
 9-11. 
 
 SCOBLE, Mr. HERBERT T. 
 on Business Premises and Factories 
 in Rural Districts, 51-55. 
 
 SHARES (see "Stock Exchange" and 
 " Company promotion "). 
 
 SHEEP FARMS, 196, 197. 
 
 SHIPPING (see " Transport " and "Free 
 Trade "). 
 
 SHOOTING, 163. 
 
 SHOP PROPERTY. 
 as an investment, 32. 
 value of goodwill, 33. 
 
 SOIL. 
 
 object of cultivation, 186, 187. 
 important consideration, 35. 
 
 SPORT, 13, 23, 49, 151. 
 
 (see also "Fishing"; " Fox- 
 Hunting " ; " Shooting," etc.) 
 
 STOCK EXCHANGE. 
 investments used to be made for the 
 
 sake of immediate transfer, 16. 
 (N.B. Immediate transfer can now 
 
 be attained in land sales, 14.) 
 transactions not so profitable as 
 
 land, 34. 
 
 STOCK EXCHANGE LOSSES. 
 cause appreciation of Land, 24. 
 in Brewery Shares, 18. 
 in Commercial Companies iS. 
 
 STOCK EXCHANGE LOSSES continued. 
 in Financial Companies, 18. 
 in Loans to Foreign States, 19. 
 in Trust Companies, 18. 
 
 TABLES OF EQUIVALENT INVEST- 
 MENTS, 34. 
 
 TAXATION, 206-209. 
 TIMBER, 197, 198. 
 
 TIME : the effective measure of distance 
 
 on railways, 9. 
 lost through illness, 55. 
 
 TOWN. 
 
 Disadvantages of residence in, 6-8, 
 
 49, 5, *45' 
 Life in country contrasted with, 
 
 . 144-148, 154-156. 
 " TRADE UNION ARGUMENT." 
 in favour of Protection, 141. 
 
 TRANSPORT, MEANS OF. 
 
 difficulties in olden times, 126. 
 facilities in modern times, u, 135. 
 influence on national prosperity, 136. 
 Author's experience in Australia, 126. 
 
 VILLA FARMS. 
 
 suggested in 1882 by Author, n. 
 
 VIRTU, what is an article of? 104. 
 
 WAR. 
 
 British Acres must supply food in 
 
 time of, 20. 
 Crimean period compared with 
 
 present time, 20. 
 Napoleonic, effect of, 130. 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS. 
 Daylesford, 213. 
 Macaulay, 214. 
 
 WATER FROM THE CHALK is the 
 best, 1 1 8. 
 
 WEALTH MADE BY INVESTMENT IN 
 LAND, 27-31, 57, 103. 
 
 WELSH SCENERY, 43-48. 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 a larger grain reserve required, 20. 
 at higher prices would have good 
 
 effect, 21. 
 
 bounty, effect of, 21. 
 bounty on exports, 126.
 
 224 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 WHEAT continued. 
 
 difficulties of transport in olden 
 
 times, 126. 
 
 import and export duties on, 125, 131. 
 imported by England, 20, 142. 
 imported by France, 142. 
 national granaries, 196. 
 price of, at various periods, 7.1, 22, 
 
 132, 133- 
 
 WHEAT continued. 
 ratio of imported to home-grown, 
 
 20, 21. 
 
 registration duty, 127, 131. 
 {see also " Corn Laws.") 
 
 WILDFOWL, 166-169. 
 WOODCOCK, 166. 
 WOODLANDS, 197, 198. 
 
 Withtrby & Co. Printers, 326, High Holbom, London, W.C.
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9-25m-9,'47(A5618)444 
 
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 1904 
 
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 1904 
 
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