Ill TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 59 



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of a truth which applies to all social and economic history. 

 We often find that the same forces will act in contrary 

 ways, according to the different circumstances of different 

 localities. 



Thus, in the older enclosed districts, where the enclosure 

 took place early and gradually or where, as in Devon or 

 Cornwall and some of the northern counties, the enclosure 

 of the common field was accompanied by a partial and 

 satisfactory reclamation of the waste, whereby each tenant 

 on the manor received a share of the waste, and yet found 

 some remaining on which to turn out his cattle the 

 movement seems to have been accompanied by a positive 

 increase in the number of small holders. Hence the large 

 number of small holders l in Kent and Devonshire, and the 

 statesmen of Cumberland and Westmoreland. 



Elsewhere, especially in the Midland group, the results 

 were otherwise. According to Mr. Gay's hypothetical tahlg., 

 the number of people displaced was some 34,000. What we 

 have to decide is how far these evictions were of lease- 

 holders, or people who had no right to their holdings ; how 

 far of freeholders or copyholders. 2 And here it is important 

 to distinguish between the lord's demesne, the waste or 

 common, and the commonable fields. 



Onthe demesne the tenants would be leaseholders, hold- 

 ing either at the will of the lord, or by indenture either for 

 years or for lives. 3 The leases for lives would be renewable 



1 Cf. evidence quoted by Cheyney, Social Changes, p. 44 ; Slater, 

 Enclosures, p. 261. 



2 It is noticeable that the operation of the Act, 27 Henry VIII, c. 22, 

 'That on every thirty acres of land a house shall be built,' is limited 

 to fourteen counties, Lincoln, Leicester, Rutland, Beds., Berks., Wor- 

 cester, Cambridge, Notts., Warwick, Northampton, Bucks., Oxon., 

 Herts., Isle of Wight, showing that evils of enclosure were worst 

 there. 



3 The tenure on the demesne was very various. We find all these 

 terms adfirmam, ad toluntatem, per indenturam, per literas patentes, dimissae 



