pass away from their families. 1 The testimony of 

 these writers is supported by a host of others. In short, 

 there is an almost universal consensus of opinion on the 

 subject writers of doggerel ballads, pamphleteers, and 

 preachers. 2 



Nor should we forget that the preambles to the 

 numerous statutes 3 passed, and the royal proclamations 

 issued during the period tell the same tale. We hear of 

 houses and townships wilfully decayed, of churches decayed 

 for want of parishioners, of population being inestimably 

 diminished, of ' marvellous multitudes ' reduced to beggary 

 and crime, of England being in 'marvellous desolation'. 

 Unfortunately this evidence is not of itself conclusive. 

 Nothing is more delusive than popular estimates of this 

 sort. Not only is the writer who caters for the public ear 

 likely to exaggerate, but a witness who sees trouble and 

 distress around him is apt to conclude that the evil is 

 universal, while the preambles to the Tudor statutes are 

 "always ex parte statements ; they were penned to vindi- 

 cate the aim of the statute and they reflect the views of 

 authors of those statutes just as the speeches of an advocate 

 of a measure do to-day. 



"When, on the other hand, we turn _tp actual evidence 

 as to the extent of the enclosures of the periocT we 

 are astonished to find that the number of counties 

 affected are comparatively few, and the area incon- 

 siderable. Accordingly, Mr. Gay, who has devoted much 

 time and labour to this question, declares that the 

 literature of the period is marked by ' hysterical ana" 

 rhetorical complaint, and is condemned by Its very 



1 Scruton, Commons, p. 84; Slater, Enclosures, p. 91. 



a See Cheyney, Social Changes, for a useful bibliography of con- 

 temporary writers, p. 108. 



3 There were twelve statutes passed during reigns of Henry VIII to 

 Elizabeth ; cf. for a short summary, Slater, Enclosures, p. 328. 



