THE LANDSWOMAN
Part of the Story of English Land
W
HEN the Land Girl is out in tho fields alone,
p<>rhaps hoeing a. novor-ending row of
mnngoJd~:~, sho has plenty of time to thmk.
Some
of you as you were t bus scratcluog a.\\ ay at tho
surio.c~ of the earth, may ha vo occasionally wondered
to whom aJJ the land around you belonged and how
1t came to be held as it ie. If you aro looking
forward to land work as a. permanent career, as
wa.c; outlin<'d in the August LANDSWO)IAN• you will
have to start thinking about the difforont ways of
holding land oven tf you have not dono .so before,
(ot you
be preparmg to work upon land which
will be your own, either to mako or to mn.r. It is
A wonderful idea to have a. b1t of land nil your own
even 1f It bo no moro than half a rood wluch you
rent as an allo tment from year to year.
~Iankind irom tho most remote ages has depended
upon food and dr10k produced 1rom the earth,
and so '~o naturally speak of earth aa the mother
of us alJ and tho }JO£ and customs dlii<>r
~'· ry much 1n ddicrent parts and chmtlto~:..
V~ry long ago the only law Wll.S that Of tbo
strongust :
" . . . the simple plan,
That they should take who have thl' power,
And they should keep who can."
En<>h man, or each tribe, took what hl' conquered
&nd hunt<.-d thoro for game to oat or pastured npon
1 t his HoC!ks, until gradual!) part~ of th1' lands
began to bo cultivat<'d in o. rude way.
A group of fnmilit•s would p<'rha)JS move on to a
frtsh trnot of Jand. "lwro oa<•h would built! its homl'·
tend. it cattle sht>d:'l and ~>tarkynrd: th<" rest of
tbc land they would ~;haro togbther. Each family
h rH'stcd iU! own hay, then tho fences were thro\l-n
down, and tho mcado" was sh~tt"C'd as pn"turo until
then< x.t sprin~.
Dut arrnngcm<>nts liko this gradually gavo \\ay
to privatA' property 10 land, for if one fam1ly had
improved thoir part of the ground. naturally tho
members wantE-d to koep it for th<'mdt.'lws, and go
on with tlu-1r work, which \\llS hotter than th<'ir
n<• ghbours'.
bomo p~oplt• no\\ndays \H ~h to sec Jand O\\Don-lup
t1\\cpt away, and think that It l\Ould be best for
tho land to belo ng to no iudiv1duaJ peraom!, but for
Uo~ornmont to dt•cido how· it should be held and
n1nnagcd nnd . hared. They ay this because th<'y
hti.\'C h~ani of Sl)mo injustico \\ith 1'\•gard to land,
whkh they think would novor ha.vo ha.pp<•n~·d if
thAra had lx~n no lnncllordl!.
But until cvoryonc
1 perfect th~re is euro to bt•mjusticc som<'timcs, and
no Go,·ornment, own 1£ 1t to(\k a.Il the land a\\a.y
from tbo pro ent hoJd r.-, < t. uld prewnt it, But
cvC'ry Govcrnmt.•nt should try to mnko th<' bE•st
l&\\S and rules it eau for the Jand so that the best
can be made of each 1necc of it.
EuRh•h land laws are Ycry ddlil•ttlt for ordmar;
J)CQple to follow; there JP no doubt thnt they mtght
wm
be a. great deal simpler and clearer, only to make
them so would bo a very difficult taak, for they
have beginnings in very old English history and
are full of old complications.
Somo of you may have had to herd cows upon
a village common, and you know that a common
is an open space which belongs to a village, and
certain people livmg thoro have the right to food
animals upon it. Probably those village commona
ha.vo como down like this from Saxon times, nod it
is a groat pity that many have been lost; but in
the nineteenth century a. good deal has been done
towards preserving many opon spaces, commons
and public footpo.tbs which were in danger of wing
oncloscd. In the dev('nth century, when tho
Normnns conquct"C'd England, what is called
feudalism was brought to this country. This was
the ~nrs, but as the
country ndvanccd in arts and commerce ddiarent
kind!> of land laws grndually s upcrscdod the feudal
ones. It would not be possible for us hero to go
into all tht' different laws for English land that have
been made since the ft>udal systom ; of late y<'ars
especially, a good many different Acts havo been
passed in ParHam<'nt ,,. hi eh deal with the holding
of land in ono way or another, such as the Local
Go\·crnment .Act of 1894, which put the manage-
ment of allotmcnt~ into the hands of the Parish
Counc i Is.
But pt•rhap~ enough has been said to point out
to JOU bow old and complicated the question of
holdwg land is. An Act of Parliament has to be
passed into law before the new ~ettlcment on tbe
land of ex-Land Army Girls can take shap<', but
probably tb(' futun• will se(' a considerable increase
1n thl' number of small landholdcrs in England,
peopl<• who wu;h to try their skill as individual
landowners.
Impending Combats
Ut u IU91ftmd thnl p(Jifon uru lhoold
b~ tlftd to
dulrov
and rau.]
QERTRUDE, get the gt:l•gmw; Freddy, feroh tho
Hurry I There's plenty to be don!' ;
~rtbn, &'I' th~ bnyonet,.. aro !!harp enough to a<>e ;
Ch:nhe, go nnd el.can tht>
wa~pf
tuse
vwis gun.
Wlro for tbP art1Uery, moblh!~e tbl) Wll.\{'•,
Caulry ? We'd bettur haw a. troop.
8h~mC'
upon Uu• orn.wn soul who hesltnt:Rs or slacks-
rather's found nn earw1g In the soup.
Tommy, put your tors ,\way, thcn•'s work for you to do: ·
Fetch th" tank thnt dt:cb the vUlage green ;
R•11ht upon the rockery we'll mount n four-point two,
u,mg m~a.•d Robin ns t\ '!oret>n.
Monty, mount your mot{)r·btko anu oiJ to Plymouth Sound,
n.'g !or thl' nQslstano- of the Fleet:
'1\11 thl'm it Is urg.•nt-for the gnrdener has found
Cat..rplllar':~ tooth m.arb on the 00et.
Br1dget, bid tbl! butk•r brlnl{ a buckl't full of bombs,
Olve the twecny-maiu a \t~ry Ught.
I will be thl' CAptain. G~ and Owendolln uon-conu :
Xlwre will be some duty work t{)·ul(tht.
Set' your r,•sp•ratoN are ~ung at the alert,
l)ee the h3by'a wearing h.ta tm bat,
And on t{) ta~ a ""~ngeauoo nothing can nert-
Mother's been usaulted by a gnat.
·r. H. In the Dailv Cltroni~l'
21f
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