“This field should have been set down for wheat,” the Earl commented as they rode on.
“I have often thought that myself,” Devona agreed, “and the next one has not been ploughed for thirty years.”
The Earl did not say anything.
Devona recognised, as they trotted on, that he was beginning to realise what an enormous amount there was to be done.
They came to an empty farm which was about two miles away from The Hall.
It was pathetic to see that the roofs of the buildings had fallen in and there was nothing but ruin where animals had once sheltered and cows had been milked.
Next they moved on to see two more farms where everything needed repairing and the windows were filled with broken glass and yet the brick walls were standing as firm as they had at the beginning of the century.
“The
