The land in the town
suitable for building was let at chief rents to the highest bidder, with no
consideration for the mutual convenience of neighbours, or the welfare of
future residents.
Thus mismanaged and dilapidated, the estates were brought into the market,
and purchased for Messrs. Peto & Betts, by their land agent, Mr. Francis
Fuller, for less than 200,000 pounds; and the lands of the aristocracy of
blood passed into the possession of the aristocracy of trade. Here was a
subject for a doleful ballad from "A Young Englander," commencing--
"Ye tenants old of Middleton ye cannot need but sigh,
Departed are the traces of your own nobility,
The Locomotivocracy have gone and done the trick,
And England's aristocracy's obliged to cut its stick."
A visit to Middleton, however, will show that on this occasion the tenantry
have no reason either to sigh or weep, and the visit is worth making,
independently of the pleasantness of a change from town to country, because
it affords an opportunity of seeing what can be done with a neglected domain
when it passes into the hands of men of large capital, liberal views, and a
thorough determination that whatever they take in hand shall be done in the
best possible manner.
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