90 ENCLOSURES OF THE EIGHTEENTH 



Private Acts had been passed ; but it is not till the begin- 

 ning of the eighteenth century that this method becom( 

 the usual one. 



The rate of enclosure from that date may be gather 

 from the following table : 



The importance of the movement will be best appreciated 

 by comparing the acreage affected by these Acts l with that 

 of the hypothetical table which we gave of the extent of 

 the enclosures from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. 

 Thus, while in the earlier period the maximum percentage 

 of acreage in any one county was 8-94 per cent., and 

 that was only touched by four counties, in the later period 

 in fourteen counties the percentage of acres enclosed by 

 Acts enclosing common field and some waste rises as high 

 as 25 per cent, to 50 per cent., and only falls below 5 per 

 cent, in sixteen counties ; and, whereas only twenty-five 

 counties were affected at all in the earlier period, in the 

 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Acts were passed for 

 thirty-six counties ; and whereas the total acreage enclosed 

 from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century was only 

 744.000 acres, or 2'1 per cent, of the total area of England, 



1 Cp. maps II A, B at end of book. These estimates are based on 

 Slater's Statistical Tables, p. 140. But it should be noted that in 

 some cases the acreage is based on probability, since the Act is some- 

 times silent on this point. 



