26 Large and Small Holdings 



Naturally, therefore, the landlords as a rule followed up enclosure 

 by " engrossing 1 ." Small farmers, whose families had in many cases 

 occupied the open-field holdings for centuries, disappeared in hun- 

 dreds 2 . Their fate was shared by the small freeholders and copy- 

 holders, who had also held a large number of the old type of holdings. 

 They did not perhaps feel the effects of enclosure quite so directly 

 as the tenant-farmers, who were simply given notice to quit by their 

 landlords. The yeoman class could not suffer in the same way by 

 a demand for increased rent on the competition of a large farmer 

 bidding higher for the land they occupied. But they were equally 

 touched by the economic difficulties entailed on small holders by 

 the enclosures. The disappearance of the commons, for instance, 

 was a great blow to them 8 . Again, they had not the capital necessary 

 for fencing 4 . For this purpose many of them borrowed money from 

 the large landowners, and so became indebted to their richer neigh- 

 bours. Very soon they found themselves unable to keep up the 

 payment of the interest due : and thereupon they sold their land to 

 their creditor, "whose sole view at first setting out was to get the 

 land of the whole parish into his own hands 5 ." So soon as any parish 

 came wholly into the hands of one landlord, he of course turned 

 out the small holders and replaced them by large farmers'. There 



had declared that he would give 25.?. an acre and take the expenses of enclosure on himself 

 if he might have a lease of 100 acres for twenty-one years. 



1 J. Donaldson, A General View of the Agriculture of Northamptonshire, 1794, p. 60, says 

 that after the enclosures " several of those who occupy small farms must necessarily be re- 

 moved, in order to enable the proprietors to class the lands into farms of a proper size." See 

 also The Advantages and Disadvantages, pp. 7 f. , for a description of the effect on the village 

 community : " The landowner, seeing the great increase of rent made by his neighbour, 

 conceives a desire of following his example; the village is alarmed ;... the small farmer 

 dreads that his farm will be taken from him to be consolidated with the larger ; the cottager 

 ...expects to lose his commons." Cp. also Essays on Agriculture occasioned by reading 

 Mr Stone's Report, 1796, p. 74 : "When the commoners happen to be only tenants, which 

 is frequently the case, the landlord, on enclosing, not uncommonly turns several of them out, 

 to convert his smaller divisions into large farms." 



2 Even the General Report, though in favour of the enclosures, admits (p. 32) that "there 

 is, however, one class of farmers which have undoubtedly suffered by enclosures ; for they 

 have been greatly lessened in number: these are the little farmers." Cp. also T. Batchelor, 

 A General View of the Agriculture of Bedford, p. 25 : " It is evident that the prevalence 

 of the enclosing system, and other causes, have diminished the number of farms within the 

 last fifty years to a considerable amount." 



3 General Report on Enclosures, p. 158. 



4 Addington, op. cit. p. 35 : "When their fields are enclosed, not a few of these small 

 proprietors are obliged to sell their land, because they have not money to enclose it." 



8 Cursory Remarks on Enclosures, 1786, pp. 6-7. 



6 F. Moore, Considerations on the exorbitant Price of Provisions, 1773, p. : "In 



