Word: garbett
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Last week six trucks rolled up to the old manor house, and policemen stepped out under the copper beeches and laburnums. Admitted to the great house, one of them thrust a document at Lady Garbett. It was an eviction notice ordering her to leave home and farm by 3 o'clock that afternoon...
...Legalized Robbery." Lady Garbett had committed no crime. No bank was foreclosing a mortgage, no creditor had a complaint. She was being dispossessed of her home and land on the order of the Ministry of Agriculture. Why? Because, in the ministry's judgment, she was not farming her land "in accordance with the rules of good husbandry...
Harrows and plows were loaded into ministry trucks and disappeared. The animals-30 cows, ten goats, eight hens-had been previously boarded out to neighboring farmers. Lady Garbett and her daughter repaired to a nearby hotel with three dogs, twelve cats and three geese. "I call it legalized robbery," wailed Lady Garbett, and retired to bed with a headache. "Grossly immoral and against the Magna Carta," snapped Susan. "Is your property yours, or not?" She did not talk of getting a lawyer. There was nothing illegal about it. It was the law of the land...
...nine years the law has run, Labor and Tory governments have dispossessed or evicted 376 farmers. The dispossessed have gone quietly, shrouded in official silence, and without stirring public outrage. Lady Garbett's case differed only in the distinction of her name (her husband was a distant cousin of the late Archbishop of York, was himself knighted for his reclamation work). Though she claimed to have studied agriculture at her husband's side, the A.E.C. put her under supervision. She quickly became rattled and demoralized. Each year, A.E.C. inspectors would stalk around the farm criticizing and commenting, showered...
Last week a ministry official declared Lady Garbett had no right of further appeal. She may rent her house and land to a tenant if she can find one "acceptable" to the A.E.C. Or she may sell to an A.E.C.-approved farmer. But she may not move back into her own home. Growled the Daily Express: "Maybe Lady Garbett is a deplorable farmer. Maybe the Ministry of Agriculture is fully justified in its contention that her land is neglected. But is not Britain a free country? Is she not the rightful owner of her own farm? It is a scandal...