45 



service as a fence for agricultural fields came in 

 concurrently with the great movement in favour 

 of enclosures which took place during the last 

 half of the Eighteenth and the beginning of the 

 Nineteenth Centuries. 



" Before the tide of enclosure had begun to 

 " set in" (see Scrutton, "Commons and Common 

 Fields," page 113), "a large portion of the land 



" of England was in common fields 



" Of the 8,500 parishes (roughly speaking) in 

 " existence before the Reformation, nearly 4,000 

 " were enclosed from their open condition between 

 " 1760 and 1844." The wholesale enclosing of 

 agricultural land led to the introducftion of the 

 white thorn as the fencing for the purpose. 

 Before that time, such field boundaries as there 

 were appear to have been largely formed of balks 

 of turf and ditches. 



A native of Great Britain, there are several 

 varieties of the white thorn. C. 0. pvcecox^ the 

 early flowering or Glastonbur}- thorn, is reputed 

 to have come into leaf and blossomed in favour- 

 able winters at Christmas. The most familiar 

 varieties are the double-blossom white and the 

 double and single scarlet. The white thorn is 

 propagated from its berries or hawes and from 

 cuttings. 



