54 ENCLOSURES OF THE FIFTEENTH III 



It. began in the county of Somerset, where the number of 

 enclosures complained of in 1517-19 were few, it only spread 

 to 6 of the counties mentioned in that inquisition at all 

 (Berks., Bucks., Oxford, Gloucester, Hampshire, and 

 Norfolk), and to 3 only of the 5 counties where the 

 complaints had been the loudest (Berks., Bucks., Oxon.). 

 But a better proof remains. It was exactly these Midland 

 counties where the enclosures of the sixteenth century 

 had caused the bitterest complaints which were the least 

 enclosed at the opening of the eighteenth century, witness 

 the far larger percentage of area enclosed under Acts of 

 Parliament in those counties than elsewhere. 



To appreciate the nature of the grievances caused by this 

 process of enclosure we must clearly grasp the character of 

 the offences complained of. And here let it once more be 

 noted that we are dealing chiefly with the commonable or 

 open field, not with the enclosure of the waste or common. 



The offences then were ^ engrossing or acquiring- different 

 holdings not necessarily contiguous or in the same manor ; 

 ^.2| consolidating, that is joining, two or more holdings or 

 strips on the common field; (} decaying Jhouses, which 

 would be natural result of consolidating, and also might be 

 done with regard to cottagers' houses who had no land on 

 the open field, and only a small plot if any on the demesne 

 and some rights of pasture on the waste ; (4) putting down 

 ploughs ; Kgy converting arable land to pasture ; (6) em- 

 parking for purposes of keeping- deer or warrens r>f conks. 

 and such ' vame commodities '. l 



In dealing with these grievances it should be remembered 

 that a man could legally enclose his own land, or feed any 

 number of sheep even under the statute 25 Henry VIII, 

 where no man had common, and that neither^en grossing 



1 Harrison, England, ed. New Shakespcre Soc., p. 303. For abstract 

 of Statutes, Slater, Enclosures, 323. 



