Below this, but likewise
occupying a very important position in the country, were the clergy
and yeomen. Probably at no time was the yeoman class more numerous,
more prosperous, and more influential. The squire was in point of
education often inferior to the well-to-do farmer of our own day, but
very proud of his family.
10. THE CLERGY
The clergymen of the period were, as a rule, especially in the remoter
districts, men of inferior standing, often of low origin and of little
learning. They were badly paid, generally speaking, and often had to
eke out a slender income by taking to farming pursuits. It was not at
all unusual for the clergyman to marry the lady's maid or other of the
upper servants in the great family of his neighbourhood. Queen Anne,
to relieve the poverty of the poorer livings, founded the fund known
as Queen Anne's Bounty, giving up for the purpose the _first-fruits_
and the _tenths_. It is worth noting that the terms Low and High
Churchmen were political rather than religious terms, the former being
applied to the Whigs, and the latter to the Tories.
11. DWELLINGS
The style of architecture known as that of Queen Anne prevailed at
this time, and many a country mansion of this date, red-bricked and
many-windowed, is still to be seen in England.
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