74 ENCLOSUEES, 1770-1820 



riglits, and were allotted sufficient land for the summer 

 and winter keep of their cows. Wherever this plan was 

 adopted the poor rate remained low, even during the trou- 

 bled times of the French war. Men of that generation^ 

 who knew what it was to keep and to want a cow, pre- 

 ferred the cow to parochial relief of 5s. or 6s. a week. 



Asfainst these individual losses must be set the national 

 gain. Without the enclosure of commons England could 

 never have fed her growing population, or gained the first 

 place in the race for industrial supremacy. ' Where,' asks 

 Arthur Young, ' is the little farmer to be found who will 

 cover his whole farm with marl at the rate of 100 or 150 

 tons per acre ? who will drain all his land at the expense 

 of 2/. or ol. an acre ? who will pay a heavy price for the 

 manure of towns, and convey it thirty miles by land carriage ? 

 who will float his meadows at the expense of 5^. per acre ? 

 who, to improve the breed of his sheep, will give 1,000 

 guineas for the use of a single ram for a single season ? 

 who will send across the kingdom to distant provinces for 

 new implements, and for men to use them ? who will 

 employ and pay men for residing in provinces where 

 practices are found which they want to introduce into their 

 farms ? ' Nor was the commoner without compensation in 

 more certain employment and higher wages. If it is un- 

 practical sentiment to regret the enclosure of commons, the 

 rural poet of Dorsetshire may be invoked to tell the great- 

 ness of the loss to the labouring population. 



Thomas (loq.) : Why, 'tis a handy thing 



To have a bit o' common, I do know, 

 To put a little cow upon in spring, 

 The while woone's bit ov orchard grass do grow. 

 John : Aye, that's the thing, you zee. Now I do mow 

 My bit o' grass, an meake a little i"ick ; 

 An' in the summer while do grow, 



