IN THE SHIRE-RECKONING by Diane Finnis-Robb  

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Part One; Chapter Eight "The bristling Borders"

   So it was with the spring of Year Two that there were over four hundred families who came to live in the Shire. An accurate census of all those family members was still not possible, but Twoody guessed that there might be more than two thousand hobbits of various ages, skills or professions all trying to manage working together at building their homes and their communities. Alaura thought it likely to be more and that many more should still be coming. But in either case two thousand is a very great number of people and it is a wonder that they managed to work together with so few complications during those first months. Indeed, it was only the hobbitfolk’s customary kindness and gracious manners which helped to maintain the peace and, no matter what might be said of the Shire-hobbits in later days, they should be praised for this rare quality. For Hobbits on a whole were, and always have been, quite a communal and hospitable people, preferring to live together with their kinfolk alongside neighbours who they knew well and with whom they shared a sense of history. They liked space to grow (which they now had very much of) just as they liked everyday comforts (many of which they had forsaken to get here). They liked to have their loved ones around them (as now they did), but very much despised overcrowding (which was unlikely to happen for some time). So despite the ruggedness of their new homes it was, by all accounts, an excellent time to be a hobbit and a citizen of the Shire.

   A reasonably comfortable hobbit couple, married at an appropriate yet responsible young age, might expect to have seven to twelve children together over the years. In the relative safety of places like the Bree-land and now, in the Shire, all of these children could be expected to grow into adulthood and stay with their immediate family for many generations. New hobbitholes being built into the hilly areas of the Shire during Year One showed this tendency toward large family development; they were designed with space for numerous bedrooms, extra sitting rooms, secondary kitchens and long tunnels leading to new wings set aside for future generations.

   From the first influx of families the development grew fastest in three major encampments of the East-farthing; Budge, to the north, Stock to the south and the area around Bridgefields which lay about five miles down the Road from the Stonebows bridge. Buckland, further away and requiring a bit more self-reliance from its settlers, grew much slower at first and Gondo and all of his neighbours there found that situation to be most agreeable.

   It was Budge that had grown first and faster than the rest. The whole of the Bolger family had been there for nearly seven months before any other hobbit families and had made a very good start for themselves. Alaura traveled there to visit friends in the summer of Year Two and, in a letter to Twoody, she had this to say:

   “...they have already built a clearwater well, two marvelously water-driven mills, one for the cutting of lumber and another for the grinding of grains, a bakery and numerous little trade shops. When they had lived in the Bree-land some of old Heindewin Bolger’s many sons had been coopers and woodworkers, furriers and tanners, brewers and bakers (and, in good family sensibility, the younger boys and nephews were apprenticed to do the same). For any settlers coming to the Shire from small towns the familiar comforts and luxuries they have left behind can be found here in Budge, making it seem the most civilized place of all. It is easy to see why so many of our Breefolk neighbors have come to settle just inside the Bridge and north of the Road; it is not a year since the pioneering Budges came to build here and already it looks to be crowding itself into a town. I have even heard some wild talk of building a bridge across the little river. Such ambitious Budges!

   “The little public-house that they have set near the Road, charmingly called the ‘Budge-and-Bridge,’ is run by Heindewin’s youngest daughter the widow Leubovera and her young sons. Be wary should you come this way, Twoody, for she is an unrelenting talemonger who, many claim, knows the stories of every hobbit to whom she has ever served a drink. She is boisterous, bawdy, full of song and still fair to the eye. But she is keen-witted and sharp-eared and could slide secrets out of the lips of the most stone-faced and well-practiced diplomats. You might find her a very worthy conversant. Oh, but she sets a fine table in a rustic place and many new settlers have stopped there to dine and to talk and have found themselves going little further.”

 

   Many of the first incoming hobbits were not from the land surrounding Bree-hill but were fisherfolk from south to the Greyflood or low-bottom farmers from the Midgefield Marshes. They did not know the folk of the Bree-land well and their ways, or so it seemed to each of these new neighbours, were quite different. Many of those southern hobbits went south again from the Stonebows bridge along the Brown river to Stock and toward the Marish seeking familiar lands and familiar people. There they fished the streams and worked the land so that, for two or three years of the western expansion it was the crops of Stock which sustained most of the early settlers of the Shire. Bree-hobbits at this time became quite fond of baked fish, strawberries (a crop that many had not seen before) and it is also said that the rather advanced art of mushroom farming began there in the southern end of the East-farthing (though a famous Bree-land hobbit would perfect it some three hundred and fifty years later).1

   Gondo had led many of these people south from the Stonebows and had this to say about the first settlements around the Stockbrook in a letter to Twoody dated the First of Harvestmath (or the twenty-second of August in our current calendar):

“There is news to give you of the southern end of the Shire which will make all of our plans more interesting! I suspect that it will have a major change in how the merchants of the Shire might think about the furtherance of their industry and so, my dear friend, Best of Bankers and Our Captain of Commerce, I must send you this news right away!

   “As you know, I am here in the southern reaches of the East-farthings at the urgings of our friend Eumaeus Sandyman; he has a pretty, charming and plump sister who has married one of those Mugwort hobbits from the Far South, those folk who have traveled into the lands around Stockbrook and done such a fine job of settling a riverside place for themselves. They have made quite a fast town down here where the the Stockbrook meets the Brown River and, for safety’s sake, I should like to send Clooty or some other of our builder folk down here to make sure that their expediency has not made them grow a town which is a danger, a health-hazard, and overly susceptible to burning from sheer carelessness. To be frank and a bit more serious, Twoody, these settlements are budding up so fast, and with so little supervision that I sometimes feel my services, requested first as an explorer, are spent more as a regulator and concilitor; ‘Oh, no, a thatched roof is fine,’ I say, ‘but straw will burn, don’t you know? Careful around that chimney, don’t you know?’ ‘River mud will make excellent bricks, to be sure, but you’ll need to mix and fire them so they won’t crack and chip, of course,’ or ‘that creek empties into the Stockbrook, you see, so you’ll want another place for your pigs to wallow.’ Stars and Moonsongs! You have become Chief Assayer of Deeds and Titles, a work for which you are chiefly suited and one which I would want no part in. Alaura has the very fine distinction of being called Chief of Records and Histories, a title which allows her the opportunity for brief social contacts followed by long bouts of writing, and we both know how well that arrangement suits her. It seems that my job lately has been Purveyor of Cautionary Tales and Judge of Disputes. These past months I have settled more arguments than townships, and, though you may think that I am well suited to this job, it is not one which I enjoy.

   “I am sorry, Twoody. I go on too long about my troubles and stray from my latest discovery. I wish you were here beside my shoulder to, in your characteristically direct way, remind me to get back to my point. I miss you here in this little adventure but I shall try, with this letter, to imagine you in my ear.

   “‘Go on, Gondo,’ you would say, ‘for I’m sure you’ll come to a point soon enough!’

   “I was asked by Dursdale Mugwort, brother-in-law of our friend Eumaeus, to take him south to the Shire’s end. ‘I’ve more family coming,’ he told me, ‘and we’ll want room to spread along the river just as we have done in our past.’

   “I was happy to take on this little job, knowing that it could excuse me from the squabbles of the other folks here in the town of Stock and, of course, explore the land further. Now there is another river about one day's walk south of the Stockbrook and so I agreed to escort Mugwort, his new wife, three brothers and their families there. About twenty hobbits in all and, I believed, a good start at settling that land which I’ve come to refer to as ‘The Marish.’ It is a fine country of low rolling hills and, if that little unnamed river2 should prove to be anything like the Stockbrook, a small community might grow there quite quickly.

   “Surprisingly, Mugwort and his brothers pressed me to take them further. They felt that only a day’s walk from Stock was not far enough and wondered about the very southern edge of the Shire. As you know, I had not gone beyond this little river before. To do so would take us to the very edge of the unexplored South-farthing and, as you might suspect, I was very excited to continue. By my estimation we would have another three to five days of walking with carts of goods over unknown lands before we would approach the area marked on the king’s map for a border. In hope of shortening that time I took Dursdale and two of the other Mugwort brothers with me, leaving the third behind with the family to wait beside the riverbank.

“At first we attempted to follow the path of Brown River as it turned southeastward, but within a mile or so it became too marshy.3 So I turned our course due south for drier land, eventually finding long flat meadows with little streams and, to the west, a line of hills longer than I have previously seen in the Shire. They are low and even, running northwest toward Buckland and away southeast. We climbed the first tall hill and found that we could see the Brown River again winding its way upon the eastern side.

   “Needless to say, Mugwort and his brothers were very excited to find the big river running so close to fertile meadows and sheltering hills. We made our way to the furthest edge of hills and Dursdale claimed it on the spot; he calls it ‘Longbottom,’ for the valley which cuts deep near the river.

   “We sent the two Mugwort brothers back for the rest of the family while Dursdale and I remained to explore. He found a good spot for a pier and docks (for these Mugworts are river people who go about the water on boats, of all things!) and from there we followed the swerve of the Brown River further south. And this is where we found a most curious thing and yes, Twoody, I’ve finally come to it, the subject of my letter.

   “There is an old stone ford and the relic of a road at the southern end of the Shire! There is no guardhouse here as there is at the Bridge, but two tall pillars mark the ford on either side and indicate the road. Clearly not used for a very long time, this road seems to head northwest through our land for as far as I can see. Is this also the property of the King in Norbury? Did he set our borders here so that we should keep the ford as well?”

   While Gondo and the hobbits were discovering it for the first time, the ford of the Branduin River had long been known to the kings of Arnor and all the friendly peoples of the northwest of Middle-earth. The Númenóreans had called it “Sarn Ford” in honor of another such place in which a great battle was once fought.4 But the Númenóreans had not laid the stones of this crossing nor did they know who had. It is likely that this ford predates the building of the Stonebows bridge itself and has been forgotten in the memory of Men.

   But this landmark did serve as the southernmost border of the Shire for a very long time and, just as Gondo had expected, the village at Longbottom would grow to be a very important part of the Shire economy and the Mugworts would become a large and prosperous family.

 

   Meanwhile, north along the Road which headed into the open west, the little trading village founded by Twoody’s brother Childebrand became a very important hub of Shire activity. Accepted with dubious regard by all the citizenry, Childy had his father’s eye for an opportunity even if, as many of his customers claimed, he lacked his father's genuine friendliness with his clientele. This enterprising hobbit had, under no advisement from either his brothers or his father, quietly invested all the money of his youth in the success of the Shire. For long months, even before Twoody and Gondo had set out to petition the king in Norbury, Childy had wisely and secretly purchased any tools and supplies which he believed eager pioneers would need in the coming years. These included farming implements, general hardware for building and seed for planting. He hoarded these items until the spring of Year Two and sold them at high (though not exorbitant) prices; so much so that customers were often encouraged to sign agreements offering a share on sales of their crops, thereby ensuring Childy’s continued profit in the Shire’s success.

   Now in the earliest days of the Shire Childy’s foresightedness had seemed a good thing and he was, to many settlers, as well known a figure in the Shire expansion as Twoody or even Gondo. But as the years went on this arrangement did not place him in a position of great respect among his neighbors and would later cause great issues for him and his kinfolk.

   But in Year Two Childy’s trading post had been moved from the Bree-land and built along the Road in time to meet all of the incoming families. It was also there, for convenience's sake, that Twoody came and established the first practical banking system and Alaura set up the institution of schools and postal carrying. This location, alongside the Great Road, facilitated and accelerated the hobbits' move into the west and for a few years this became the center of the Shire’s early administration. While Childy’s trading post remained its own unique and private operation the bank and the post office resulted in the first two great public buildings of the Shire; the Office of Deeds and, across the street and in a more modest size, the Office of Postings. In the well-lighted large hall of the Office of Deeds Porro Noakesburrow, one of Gondo’s friends who was very gifted in drawing, had painted a great mural of the known areas of the Shire in greens and yellows and many other bright colors of which hobbits were so fond. When new names of the families were given deeds and titles and as new settlements arose over the months and the early years Old Noakes had the steady job updating his creation; he drew boundary lines for farms and properties and set up a key list of businesses indicating their placement on the map with colour-coded dots. Many hobbits took great pride seeing their own names and their contributions added.

 

   “Childsbank”, as that settlement was later disparagingly called,5 was still ten leagues from the Farthing Stone. Only Gondo and his Bucklanders had dared to go that far and further before the spring of Year Two. But many had heard that the land around the Farthing Stone, particularly northwest and southwest of that spot, was ideally suited to hobbits. This land, called the West-farthing, seemed too remote for those first families who sought familiarity as they came into the Shire. Yet Gondo and Alaura and Twoody, and even Childebrand, always ready to push west, believed that this area held great promise. Therefore, Childy set very good conditions upon any loans to hobbits who wished to go into the west. These offers for loans were not accepted immediately, of course. While they may love stories of luck and prosperity, hobbits have a very great (and enviable) resilience against “get-rich-quick” schemes and clever promotions. It is quite rightly said that “good hobbit-sense is a good guard against a good hood-winking.”

   But any who entered and settled in the West-farthing could hardly deny its beauty. Rolling grass-covered hills with small stands of oaks and alders and silver birches. Other than Buckland the first area to be developed was called Hobbiton-by-the-Water. The little lake there and the hills which surrounded it looked like a dreamscape for the Breeland hobbits who had been crowded into one great hillside for the past two or three generations. There was farmland which surrounded these hills of course, but here a hobbit family could have a whole hill of their own and create a little garden for themselves of flowers and vegetables. They could keep their pigs or chickens in small numbers and remain largely self-sufficient. There were little valleys near to the lake where a little town, with a mill and an inn and hopefully a brewery, might one day prosper. It was quite knowingly named “Hobbiton-by-the-Water” in the hope that this would become the very great capital city of the Shire. Twoody himself bought land and commissioned a house there, though it would be many years before he would come to live in it.

   All the remaining land along the Road between the Stonebows bridge and the Farthing-stone had, by Year Ten, been claimed for farms or shops or public works. The Stock Road and the Budge Road were built quickly during that first decade and shops, shippers, public baths and inns lined their way inviting travelers and commerce. Budgeford grew its population with workers and tradesfolk as did Stock and, eventually, the Marish with fishers and farmers. But it was the wealthiest of hobbits who were encouraged to fill up Hobbiton-by-the-Water and even the noisy little swamp town which grew in the lands east of it, Frogmorton. Rather idyllic hobbit holes were built there at the edge of the West-farthing, some of the oldest and most well-crafted homes in all of the Shire, built during its earliest prosperity. An undelivered letter by Childebrand Swiftalk, believed to be written early in the calamitous Year Fourteen of the Shire, indicates something of the settlement by that time while also hinting at the trouble brewing beneath the surface of the Shire’s early history:

   “Last year’s harvest in the Bridgefields [Year Thirteen?] proved to be one of the most profitable on record and shares in those farms have provided the necessary sums for more acquisitions in the township called Hobbiton-by-the-Water. The homes and holes of that pleasant little settlement are among the most desirable west of the Stonebows bridge, built with the best of materials and the finest craftsmanship since the Shire began. It is there that I have partnered with many of the best shopkeepers to set their businesses. All of these shops are neatly arranged and constructed in the little rows of streets, having round wooden doors and windows, clean stone walls and neatly thatched roofs. Many have signs upon their doors, neatly painted in a great variety of colors, proclaiming the professions and shopowner’s names alongside a numerical designation: “Ragnfred Roundwort, Cooper and Bowl-maker, no. 17” and “Obo Longriver, Ferrier, no. 19” and “Tassilo Hedgehopper, Tailor, no. 15” which stands next door to “Durand Hogpen, Butcher, no. 13” and across the way from the small shop of “Adalhaid Goodbody, Cheesemonger, no. 14” who is my current (and rather too talkative) neighbor. In short, there is a series of specialty shops which serve the small community of new business owners who have recently come to this land. Many are still young with no large families of their own but have staked out large areas of land for their homes and taken significant mortgages on their investments.

   “The little township has no large industry of its own as one might find in Bridgefields, Stock and Budge, but the homes here are all rather large and have room for many generations of families. They have quaint little gardens and some raise their own livestock, but mostly this is a settlement ideal for the wealthiest of hobbits and our investments in its future have been sound, judicious and, I believe, will lead to great profit.”

   The dream which the Townfathers had for the West-farthing did not happen, or to be more exact, did not ever happen just as they meant it to. In the earliest designs of Twoody and Gondo and Alaura, and, indeed even Childy, Hobbiton-by-the-Water was meant to be much more than a place wherein country gentlemen like Bilbo and Frodo Baggins might retire. It was meant to be the capital of a new and thriving nation and, in spite of these wishes, it rather became a placid township for people who cared nothing for the world outside their own fenceposts.

 

end of chapter eight

Chapter End Notes

Notes

1) For those of you who may be reading this out of context with the rest of my work on The Fall of Arnor, this is a reference to a character found in those books and not part of the regular Legendarium. Tolkien gives his hobbits a great love of mushrooms but research shows that to be quite a modern bit of farming in Northern Europe. Mushrooms are seldom grown in open fields as Farmer Maggot seems to do in FotR. My own work plays with that a bit.

2)  This river will eventually be called “the Shirebourn” but it seems too early in the land’s history to give it that name now.

3)  This would be “the Overbourn Marshes” noted on the map and east of the Old Winyards.

4)  “Sarn Ford” is named after “Sarn Athrad”, the stony ford of the river Gelion in East Beleriand. There Beren, great hero of ancient Men, led a battle against the Dwarves of Nogrod.

5)  I did mention before that Childsbank is my own invention for this first settlement which would later, by Frodo’s time, be called Whitfurrows. It is placed in the perfect spot for a trading post of western migration, but Tolkien didn’t leave us with anything further about its Whitfurrows’ origins.

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