There were reasons why the
Marquis was willing to sell, and the tenants were eager to buy. It was a
hard pull for some of them to raise the one-third of the purchase money.
They paid at the rate of thirty years' rent as purchase money. They are
paying now a rent and a half yearly, but hope is in the distance and
cheers them on. So if they have a millstone about their necks, as my
Moville friend insinuated, it will drop off some day and leave them free
for ever. Some of them have already paid the principal.
The Marquis got such a high price for his land that he only sold two-
thirds of the estate, retaining the rest in his own hands, and raising
the rents. Some two or three of the purchasers had a good deal of
difficulty in raising their payments, but Mr. Brown has no doubt they
will eventually pull through.
I heard again and again, before I met with Mr. Brown, of Limavady, that
it was about thirty years since the tenants of the rich lands of the
Ulster settlement began to feel the landlords nibbling at their tenant
right. The needy or greedy class of landlords discovered a way to evade
the Ulster custom, by raising the rents in such a way as to extinguish
the tenant right in many places.
