Note 165 — Chapter XXIII · FALL OF LORD BEACONSFIELD.

The origin of the term was as follows:—Captain Boycott, an agent of Lord Earne, and a farmer at Lough Mask, had served notices of eviction on the Earne tenantry. Suddenly he found himself “marooned,” as it were, on his farm. Nobody would work for him, speak to him, do business with him, or even supply him at any price with the necessaries of life. Police guards watched over him and his family whilst they did their own farm and household work. At last some of the Orange lodges in the North sent down a gang of armed labourers to help him out of his difficulties. These were called “Emergency men.” Subsequently the dispute between Lord Earne and his tenants was arranged, and all of a sudden Captain Boycott found that the leper’s ban had been removed from his household, and he himself treated as if he had been all his life the most popular person in the neighbourhood.