FEUDALISM IN ENGLAND

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13921, 27 March 1909, Page 10

FEUDALISM IN ENGLAND

The tenants ou the Thoruoy (Cambridgeshire) estate of the Duke oi Bedlord have awakened out oi" their iviiddlo Ages toi-por in affright to learn that the entire estate is shortly to bo offered for sale by auction. Evorvonc in 'the ancient village or 1 homey is concerned except the two constables and the manager of tho model publichouse, for the Duke of Bedford owns every house in tKe hamlet and the outlying farms on the Fens for miles round. The villager^ live— and have lived for generations — under successive Dukes of Bedford in grey brick cottages at a merely nominal rent. A correspondent of the Daily Express, who visited the little community, found everybody in a state of distressed bewilderment at the idea of the ancient conditions beinj^ disturbed, "is it true about the Duke?" a patriarch of eighty-four asked. "He i-an'i k selling Thorney ? Why my grandfather I and his father were here heiorc 1110 under the old Dukes, always looked to him to keep us 111 the old place." The tenants were considering the question of petitioning the Duke to retain the estate, a former petition having availed. The family associations of many dated back more than 200 years, and they could not bear tho idea of any change. Everywhere the same cry was met — nobody could f.ace the prospect of a new regime with equanimity. "We have always lived here." said one. "and we have nowhere else to go. n That about sums up the prevailing sentiment of hopeless helplessness. The- proposal that the tenants should take yip their allotments or buy their cottages under a scheme of gradual payments is regarded with open suspicion. Under the former system of benevolent feudalism" a wellbuilt cottage with a garden could be rented at from Is Gd to 2s 6d a week, and in all other respects Thorney was a model village. It seems hard that tho old ties should have to be snapped, but the march of progress hfl3 brought inevitable changes throughout the length and breadth of rural England of late years, and even sleepy Thorney must be aroused to a sense of the newness of things.