The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-10-16
FARMER FOxTON's FATE.
How After Expending $4,000 in
Thirty.three Years. Time He Was
EViCted.
London Spectator.l

! Evicted.
| LONDON SPECTATOR
AT Kirbymoorside, in North Yorkshire,
a mournful company of substantial farm
ers met the other day for the purpose of
giving complimentary dinner and a
testimonial to one Of their number, whose
connection with the neighborhood has
been rudely and suddenly severed. From
the report of the speeches in the local
paper tolerahly clear narrative of this
gentleman's case may be drawn up. Mr..
Richard Foxton appears to have occu-
pied the farm of Welburn, near Kirby
moorside, for thirty-.hree years. 1t has
been the home of his family and fore
fathers for three centuries, in the course
of which it has become for the Foxtons
a treasure-house of sacred memories.
Like true Northern farmer, Mr..
Foxton has always "done his duty hon
estly by the land" In fact, SO skillful
and enterprising has he been in his
business that his eviction is bewailed, on
account of the loss which the district
will suffer by being deprived of the good
example and high standard of farming
he set before his neighbors. During his
occupancy he has "drained 70 acres of
land; reclaimed 30 acres of bog, by
making an outlet of 700 yards to drain it
s feet 6 inches deep; built almost an en-
tirely new farmstead, anew wing to the
dwelling-house, and other offices; con-
verted an old fold-yard in front of the
dwelling-house into garden; covered 80
perches with turf or sod, made artificial
mounds run quickwood fencing, planted
443 fruit trees, Is filbert trees, and 7S
shrubs and other Towering trees" doing,
at the same time, all the team and hand
labor required in making these improve
ments.
The post-prandial speaker from whose
address we take this statement, in emu
merating Mr.. Foxton's merits, added the
sollowing: "Taking into account the fer
tilization inherent in the soil, Mr.. Fox
tons outlay in lettering it can not have
been under 5000, and his landlord had
notoriously netted more than that sum
out of Mr.. Foxton's improvements. In
fact the skill and enterprise, not to men,
tion the capital, which Mr.. Foxton put
into his land enabled its owner to sell it
for 97 900 more than he would have got
for it had Mr.. Foxton given it up in the
same condition he found it in. And
what reward has Mr.. Foxton received for
his labor7 Instant notice to quit, when
his landlord, who had fallen into difficult
ties, had sold the place. Nor is this an
exceptional case. The Chairman of the
dinner party that met in honor of Mr..
Foxton said he, too, had, at the end of
thirty three years tenancy, been treated in
the same way. He, however, did not feel
the blow SO keenly, because, unlike Mr..
Foxton, he had another house to 60 to,
and his family had no ancestral connec-
ton with the holding"
Now, the point about this plain un-
vanished story, taken from the columns
of All obscure country newspaper
story the like of which may be culled
every day from the unread rural press
is obvious enough. 1t is a typical illus
tration of the Kind of security which a
British farmer enjoys through the senti-
mental or sympathetic combination"
that "good and neighborly understand
ing which, we are told, usually exists
between landlord and tenant, and is far
more effective in securing tenant-rght
than any act of Parliament could be.
The odd thing is that Mr.. Foxton had
not to deal with bad landlord, but
landlord whose family had retained his
family on the land since the
days of Elizabeth and who had
himself no wish to evict so that if such
cruel wrong and hcartbreaking family
suffering can be inflicted under "a SYM
pathetic combination" with good land
lord we leave it to our readers to estimate
what tenant-farmer's life must be un-
der bad one. The owner of Mr.. Fox
toms farm would probably, following the
wholesome and kindly traditions Of his
family never have eyicted him or confis-
Gated his improvements if he could have
helped himself. In him apparently the
unconscious instinct of rural England in
establishing that non-legalized but prac-
tical fxity of tenure which prevails on
most of the old-fashioned estates, not as
matter Of law, but of custom and good
will, was strong. He seems to have been
one Of these generous gentlemen
who are proud to see their farms
occupied by the same families gen.
Grafton after generation-in fact, to have
had on his estate practically working the
very system of fxity of tenure, a pro-
posal to legalize which would probably
have thrilled him with horror. But mis-
fortune seems to have come upon him.
His estates were "thrown into Choncery,"
and when there, the "good understand
ing" sentimental combination" be-
tween landlord and tenant, on the fate
of which Mr.. Foxton had dug his brains
and his money into Welburn Farm,
were simply laughed at. The holding
was sold, with its Improvements to the
highest bidder, who simply seized every
thing he could. As the new owner did
not propose to occupy the farm himself,
but to let it, Mr. Foxton sup
posing he would have been accepted
as tenant, had, Of course, to choose be-
tween eviction and payino q higher rent