V AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES ' ^3 



This resemblance is, no doubt, to be accounted for by 

 the fact that it was exactly in those counties that the till- 

 age in the commonable open field was most extensive, and 

 the exceptions to this similarity are, most of them, to be 

 explained. Again, all the four counties Lancashire, 

 Devon, Cornwall, Kent where there is no enclosure in the 

 eighteenth century are among those where there was no 

 complaint in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. L^ 



When, however, we come to deal with enclosure of the 

 waste only, 1 no such comparison is to be made, because the 

 enclosures of the earlier period did not seriously affect the 

 waste at all, and because it is just in those counties where 

 there is most waste that there is usually less land in 

 cultivation, either in the common field or otherwise. A 

 reference to the table given at p. 90 will show that it is 

 with the year 1761 that the enclosing movement becomes 

 very active. This is partly due to the influence of A. 

 Young and others of his school, partly to the necessity for 

 a protectionist country, engaged during a greater part of 

 the period in war, to feed its population a population 

 which was increasing with extraordinary rapidity ; and, as 

 we should naturally expect, it is accompanied by increased 

 attention being paid to the agricultural question, both by 

 writers and practical agriculturists, and by additional facili- 

 ties granted by Parliament for the work of enclosure. 2 



1 Of. Map II B at end of book. 



2 In 1793 the Board of Agriculture was started, and it reported in 

 1795. In 1801 the first general Act was passed for consolidating 

 into one Act provisions hitherto usually inserted in Private Acts, and 

 for facilitating enclosure. Expenses were thereby reduced, though 

 a Private Act was still in each case necessary. In 1834 an Act was 

 passed for facilitating exchanges of land lying intermixed. In 1836 an 

 Act for facilitating enclosure of open fields, but not of wastes, allowed 

 Commissioners to be appointed, without reference to Parliament, with 

 consent of possessors of common-rights to amount of two-thirds value. 

 In 1845, by the General Enclosure Act^ Enclosure Commissioners were 



