The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

STATISTICS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 447
lu Ireland and Scotland the estates are even larger than in Eno-land* In
Ireland, owing to the financial embarrassments of many of the landowners, about
one- sixth of the land has latel}- changed hands, in addition to which about
G,000 i^easant proprietors have been created in consequence of the sale of a
portion of Ihe estate of the disestablished Irish Church. In Scotland, however
no changes of this kind have taken place through the intervention of Parliament,
and 93 per cent, of the total area is held by 3,745 proprietors. There are land-
owners in that kingdom who from the highest of the mountains within their
demesnes cannot survey all they are lords of, and several of the finest lakes of
Scotland lie wholly within the bounds of a single park.
The population of the British Islands has considerably increased since the
Norman invasion, but there is no reason to believe that the number of landowners
has grown less since "William the Conqueror divided all England amongst his
followers. The old Domesday Book, or register of lands, framed by order of that
king, and carefully preserved in the Record Office, enumerates in England 9,271
tenants in cajnte and under tenants, and 44,531 tenants in socage, i.e. tenants by
hereditary right, who rendered knightly service, or paid a fixed rent in exchange
for the land they held. The 108,407 villains, who held an intermediate posi-
tion between bui-gesses and serfs, were originally only tenants at will, and at
the mercy of their lords, but in com'se of time they developed iato copyholders,
and their estates passed from father to son. It was these villains who formed the
bulk of that stout i/conianri/ which conferred such conscious strength upon the
people of mediaeval England. The old Saxon custom of dividing the land in equal
portions amongst all the children still survives in a few parts of the country, and
more especially in the county of Kent, where it is known as gavelkind, t and
during the centuries which immediately succeeded the Norman conquest must
have largely increased the number of landowners. The yeomen, according to
Macaiday, about the middle of the seventeenth century stiU constituted one-
seventh of the total population."
But what has become of Old England, with its peasant proprietors and
country gentlemen ? No doubt small capitalists and even working men are
intent upon car^'ing out of the land a small plot which they may call their own,
and which is just large enough for a house and a small garden. In these laudable
efforts they are assisted by numerous Building Societies, and around Birmingham
the number of these small freeholders already exceeds 13,000. But the peasant
Proportionate size and annual value of landed properties :
Size of Estates.
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