[Hardy-l] woodlanders historical context

[Rosemarie Morgan]

Pat -- since you are delving into a most complicated aspect of British 
socio-political  history (I can see from your postings that this is 
a  horribly opaque area for you) I should have added that "common law" in 
Britain is very complex. "The custom of the people," (as it may be roughly 
termed), was not and is not, today, subject to any written Constitution and 
therefore retains great power. "Common law," in Hardy's day, gave 
opportunities & rights to ordinary working folk who operated under custom, 
not law (to wit, wife-sales) . Hence the Winterborne family, who probably 
possessed longstanding rights over several generations to work the land  -- 
such as planting trees, apple orchards, and sustaining the forest for 
timber-- earned a living by agreement with the landowner (just to confuse 
you, Mrs Charmond is probably  "landed gentry" that is of the upper class 
of landowners which is not of the peerage - ). However, as Hardy makes 
clear in *The Woodlanders, *  such customs could be undermined (even 
overriden) by the gentry who might find wriggle room under the law if they 
saw the need to overpower the underclasses forever dependent on their goodwill.

The same applies to what Tony refers to : private ownership and poaching 
violations. If, for example,  Giles'  family has been game -keeping for 
generations on the Ilchester/Charmond estates and still manages the 
hunting, shooting and fishing rights on the land he oversees, such rights 
are likely to continue, as far as local agreements are concerned. But 
gamekeepers have friends and relatives and are not averse to having their 
palms lined with silver (bribery) -- while, necessarily they keep "in" with 
the estate owners. Hardy has a good deal to say on such matters elsewhere.

Which is only to say that that customs wd vary from region to region and 
were often very relaxed -- certainly if good relations obtained all around. 
When Giles gets uppity and annoys Mrs Charmond by not giving her 
right-of-way with her carriage in the lane, he is in for serious trouble. 
(and loses his leaseholding as a result -- or *partly* as a result. Close 
reading of Hardy reveals that he too has been rather relaxed about 
deadlines -- and has missed the final date of renewal.).

This is possibly more nonsense than you can bear!. But I wanted to make 
sure that you are not taking on more than you can chew!

Blessings and Good Luck
Rosemarie

At 09:17 AM 6/18/2008, you wrote:

>>Was the area  controlled by the State?
>
>>who had access to the woodlands in those days. Was the area  controlled 
>>by the State? Or did private businesses have contracts?
>>Pat  Louw