To repair buildings, accidents by fire excepted.

  To repair gates and fences.

  When required, to cut and plash the hedges, and make the
    ditches 3 feet by 2 feet, or pay or cause to be paid to
    the landlord 1s. per rood for such as shall not be done
    after three months’ notice has been given in writing.

  Not to break up certain lands specified in the schedule,
    ‘under L20 an acre.’

  Not to plough more than a specified number of acres of the
    rest of the land in any one year, under the same penalty.

  To forfeit the same sum for every acre that shall be ploughed
    for any longer time than three crops successively, without
    making a clean summer fallow thereof after the third
    crop.

  And the like sum for every acre over and above a specified
    number (clover excepted) that shall be mown in any one
    year.

  At the time of laying down arable lands to grass he shall
    manure them with 8 quarters of lime per acre, and sow
    the same with 12 lb. of clover seeds, and one bushel of
    rye-grass per acre.

  Shall spend on the premises all hay, straw, and manure, or
      leave them at the end of the term.

  Tenant on quitting to be allowed for hay left on the premises,
      for clover and rye-grass sown in the last year, and for all
      fallows made within that time.’[489]

A striking picture of the conditions prevailing in many parts of England at this period is given by Mr. Loch in his account of the estates of the Marquis of Stafford.[490] When this nobleman inherited his property in Staffordshire and Shropshire, much of the land, as in other parts of England, was held on leases for three lives, a system said to have been ruinous in its effects.  Although the farms were held at one-third of their value, nothing could be worse than the course of cultivation pursued, no improvements were carried out, and all that could be hoped for was that the land would not be entirely run out when the lease expired.  The closes were extremely small and of the most irregular shape; the straggling fences occupied a large portion of the land; the crookedness of the ditches, by keeping the water stagnant, added to, rather than relieved, the wetness of the soil.  Farms were much scattered, and to enable the occupiers to get at their land, lanes wound backwards and forwards from field to field, covering a large quantity of ground.

It is to the great credit of the Marquis of Stafford that this miserable state of things was swept away.  Lands were laid together, the size of the fields enlarged, hedges and ditches straightened, the drainage conducted according to a uniform plan, new and substantial buildings erected, indeed the whole countryside transformed.