SOUTH-EASTERN AND MIDLAND DISTRICTS 237 



three old-fashioned, broad, crooked ridges (gathered very high 

 towards the middle, or crown, being the only means of drainage 

 that the manner in which the lands are occupied wiU admit of), 

 and consequently the farmer possessing 100 acres must traverse 

 the whole extent of the parish, however large, in order to cultivate 

 this small portion." 



In Leicestershire ^ (1800) very httle open-field land was left 

 "not more than 10,000 acres." In Nottinghamshire 2 (1798) 

 enclosure was proceeding rapidly, " Good land, with extensive 

 commons," is said to be most capable of improvement ; " clay land 

 with small commons," to have been the least capable. Midway 

 between the two came " clay land with large commons." But 

 " even the worst " may be increased in value by a fourth, after 

 deducting all improvements. 



In Middlesex^ (1794) many thousands of acres of wastes lay 

 unenclosed — " an absolute nuisance to the pubHc." The commons 

 of Enfield, Edmonton, and Tottenham were frequently flooded ; 

 but no effort was made to keep the ditches scoured. In 1798 there 

 were stiU 17,000 acres of " common meadows, all capable of improve- 

 ment, not producing to the community in their present state more 

 than 4s. an acre." To the Reporter's eyes the commons were " a 

 real injury to the public," partly because they tempted the poor 

 man to settle on their borders, build a cottage out of the material 

 they afforded, and trust to his pigs and poultry for a Hving ; partly 

 because they became " the constant rendezvous of gjrpseys, strollers 

 and other loose persons . . . the resort of footpads and highway- 

 men." The arable land of the county is estimated at 23,000 acres, 

 of which, in 1798, 20,000 were in open-fields. 



In Hampshire^ (1813) the Reporter found the commons so over- 

 stocked as to produce httle or no substantial benefit to those who 

 enjoyed the grazing rights, and the surface " shamefully deterio- 

 rated " by the exercise of rights of turbary or paring turf for 

 fuel. He hopes to see " every species of intercommonable rights 

 extinguished," and, with them, " that nest and conservatory of 

 sloth, idleness, and misery, which is uniformly to be witnessed in 



1 Pitt's Leicestershire (1800), p. 68. 



2 Lowe's Nottinghamshire (1798), pp. 19, 165. 



3 Foot's Middlesex (1794), pp. 30, 32, and Middleton's Middlesex (1798), pp. 

 98, 103, 138. 



♦Vancouver's Hampshire (1813), pp. 318, 496. 



