j8oo. Waste Lands in Torkjhire. 369' 



Immenfe tracls of thefe lands are now loft, for want of 

 draining ; lands of the moil valuable quality, under that im- 

 provement. Large and valuable tra6ls miglit be gained from 

 the fea, by embankments, &c. which are utterly negledled. 

 in the prefent ftate of things, to the very great lofs, nay in- 

 jury, of the community. All thefe circumftances ftrongly 

 impel the condderaiion, that the leading interefts of this 

 county could not better employ their attention, than by en- 

 deavouring, by all pollible means, to bring thefe lands into 

 a ftate of cultivation ; efpecially at a time when the .com- 

 iDoneft necelTaiies of life, the growth and produce of the 

 country, are n<;arly out of the reach of the middling and 

 lower claffes of the people. It is an awful confideratlon, 

 and ought deeply to imprefs the minds of the rulers of any- 

 country, that while objedls of comparatively tri/ling import- 

 ance, perhaps remote or foreign interefts, engage luch an- 

 xious and expenfive attention, the real interefts of home may 

 be neglected. 



In regard to the hiftory of this particular diftrlbutlon of 

 the territory of pariihes, it may appear, by the peculiar mode 

 of allocation, to have been introduced with the feudal fyf- 

 tero. Three or four large fields of arable, and one tra£t oi 

 pafture or common, no doubt were the original domains of 

 the lord of the manor, who had tlie labour on them per- 

 formed for him by his vaiTals, who had afterwards different 

 allotments or parcels of land, fcattered over various parts of 

 the lordftiip, granted, probably, for particular or eminent 

 fervices, or in other v/ays alienated : as we fee, in moft un- 

 inclofed townftiips, a number of fmall inclofures, indeed 

 much too fmall to be otherwife eafily accounted for. Hence, 

 there is reafon to believe, that a confiderable change in the 

 management and occupation of land, was one effect of the 

 feudal inftitutions, at the time our Norman Conqueror for- 

 ced them over the head of the much more excellent Saxon 

 jL:ws of our more remote anceftors : and we cannot but with 

 pain obferve, that greatly too much of the malignant fpirit 

 of thofe inftitutions remains, checking, if not blafting, the 

 rifing efforts of improvement, and, in a thoufand inltahces, 

 abfolutely prohibiting the inclcfure and fuperior cultivation 

 of fuch open and wild diftricls. Yet, here, let us obferve, 

 that fome open fields might not be much improved by in- 

 clofmg J but, as fuch fields are in very particular circum- 

 itances, they aro by no means to be confiderjd but as the 



I i 4 trifling 



