226 OPEN-FIELD FARMS AND PASTURE COMMONS 



would be only fair to add that the Reporters were not likely to be 

 prejudiced in favour of open-field farms or unappropriated commons. 

 1 . In the North and North- Western District, enclosure had gone on 

 apace since 1770. In Northumberland, for instance (1805), very 

 little common land was left which could be made profitable under 

 the plough. 120,000 acres were said to have been enclosed " in 

 the last thirty years." ^ In Durham, it is stated that " the lands,, 

 or common fields of townships, were for the most part inclosed 

 soon after the Restoration." The Reporter laments " that in some 

 of the rich parts of the county, particularly in the neighbourhood 

 of the capital of it, large quantities of land should still lie totally 

 deprived of the benefit of cultivation, in commons ; and that 

 ancient inclosures, by being subject to the perverse custom of 

 intercommon, be prevented from that degree of fertilization, to 

 which the easy opportunity of procuring manure, in most cases, 

 would certainly soon carry the improvement of them ; in their 

 present state, little or no benefit is derived to any person what- 

 soever, entitled either to common, or intercommon, from the use 

 of them." 2 The waste lands of the West Riding of Yorkshire^ 

 are calculated at 265,000 acres capable of cultivation. The Reporter 

 proposes to " add to these the common fields which are also exten- 

 sive, and susceptible of as much improvement as the wastes." The 

 man on inclosed land " has not the vis inertiae of his stupid neighbour 

 to contend with him, before he can commence any alteration in his 

 management ... he is completely master of his land, which, in 

 its open state, is only half his own. This is strongly evident in the 

 cultivation of turnips, or other vegetables for the winter consump- 

 tion of cattle ; they are constantly cultivated in inclosures, when 

 they are never thought of in the open fields in some parts." In 

 the North Riding " few open or common fields now remain, nearly 

 the whole having long been inclosed." * But on the commons the 

 practice of surcharging is said to have increased to "an alarming 

 degree." It had become a frequent custom for persons, often 

 dwelling in distant townships, to take single fields which were 

 entitled to common rights, and stock the commons with an excessive 

 quantity of cattle. In Cumberland (1794),^ there were still 150,000 



^ Northumberland, by J. Bailey and G. Culley (3rd edition, 1806), p. 126. 



* Granger's Durham (1794), p. 44. 



•Brown's West Riding of Yorkshire (1799), pp. 131, 133. 



* Tuke's North Riding (1800), pp. 90, 199. 



* Cumberland, by J. Bailey and G. Culley (1794), pp. 202, 215, 236. 



