Ill 



TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 



43 



exaggeration'. 1 To prove his assertion he refers us to the 

 statistics of the period. Unfortunately these, as he him- 

 self fully allows, are by no means complete. They are 

 based on returns made in Chancery by the Commissioners 

 of 1517-19, in 1548 and 1566, and again in 1607, 

 appointed to inquire into the violations of the various acts. 

 The presentments for 1517-19 are preserved either in 

 abstract or in full, and deal with twenty-four counties. 

 Those for 1548-66 give very meagre information for 

 four, while those for 1607 only deal with six counties, all 

 of them among the previous twenty-four, except Hunting- 

 don. Lastly, there are some judicial proceedings before 

 the Courts of Exchequer, the Court of Chancery, the Star 

 Chamber, and the Court of Requests. 2 



Now the total area declared to have been enclosed in 

 these presentments is only 171,051 acres out of a total 

 acreage of 18,947,958 (roughly nineteen millions) or 0-90 



1 Quarterly Journal of Economics, xvii, p. 587. 



2 Cf. Transactions Royal Hist. Soc. xiv. 238, No. 2 ; Quarterly 

 Journal of Economics, xvii. 577. The counties are as follows : 



Visitations, 1517-19. 



1548-66. 



Visitation, 1607, caused 

 by the Revolt of the 

 Diggers, cf. Transactions 



Royal Hist. Soc. xviii. 



