But to return.  Mrs. ——­ and her daughter have also their saddle horses.  They do not often hunt, but frequently go to the meet.  They have, it is true, an acceptable excuse for preferring riding to walking—­the fashion of tying the dress back so tightly makes it extremely difficult for a lady to get over a country stile.  The rigours of winter only enable them to appear even yet more charming in furs and sealskin.  In all this the Grange people have not laid themselves open to any reproach as to the extravagance or pretension of their doings.  With them it is genuine, real, unaffected:  in brief, they have money, and have a right to what it can purchase.

Mr. ——­ is not a tenant farmer from necessity; personally he is not a farmer at all, and knows no more of shorthorns than the veriest ‘City’ man.  He has a certain taste for country life, and this is his way of enjoying it—­and a very acute way, too, when you come to analyse it.  The major portion of his capital is, with his wife’s, in the ‘firm’; it is administered and employed for him by men whose family interests and his are identical, whose knowledge of business is profound, whose own capital is there too.  It is a fortunate state of things, not brought about in a day, but the growth of more than one generation.  Now this man, as has been remarked, has a taste for country life—­that is to say, he is an enthusiast over horses—­not betting, but horses in their best form.  He likes to ride and drive about, to shoot, and fish, and hunt.  There is nothing despicable in this, but, after the manner of men, of course he must find an excuse.

He found it in the children when they were young—­two boys and one girl.  It was better for them to have country air, to ride about the country lanes, and over the hills.  The atmosphere altogether was more healthy, more manly than in the suburbs of a city.  The excuse is a good one.  Now come the means; two plans are open to him.  He can buy an estate, or he can rent a large farm, or rather series of farms.  If he purchases a fine estate he must withdraw his capital from business.  In the first place, that would be inconvenient to old friends, and even unjust to them; in the second place, it would reduce his income most materially.  Suppose we say, not for absolute exactness, but for the sake of present contrast, that capital well invested in business brings in ten per cent.  The same capital invested in land brings in, say, three per cent. nominally; but is it as much in reality if you deduct those expensive improvements upon which tenants insist nowadays, and the five per cents, and ten per cents, allowed off the rent in bad years?  At all events, it is certain that landlords, as a class, are investing more and more every year in business, which looks as if they did not consider land itself sufficiently remunerative.  In addition, when you have bought your estate, should you subsequently wish to realise, the difficulties and delays are very trying.  You cannot go down to your broker and say, ’Sell me a thousand acres this morning.’  Capital in land is locked up.