DORSETSHIRE AND WILTSHIRE 233 



obtained for draining a portion of this fen called King's Sedgmoor, 

 containing " about 20,000 acres." 



The Dorsetshire l commons in 1794 were " generally overrun 

 with furze and ant-hills," worth 8s. an acre unenclosed, but " highly 

 proper to cultivate, and, if converted, would be worth from 18s. 

 to 20s. an acre." A second Report on Dorsetshire was issued in 

 1812. 2 The Reporter calls attention to the " hah* year meads." 

 One person has the hay, and another person the " after-shear." 

 These meadows were not near commonable fields, and the origin 

 of the claim is not clear. Obviously, neither of the persons who 

 shared the produce was likely to attempt to improve the herbage. 



In Wiltshire 3 (1794) the Reporter fixes on four disadvantages of 

 open-field husbandry : (1) the obligation to plough and crop all 

 soils alike ; (2) the impossibility of improving sheep ; (3) the diffi- 

 culty of raising food for their winter keep ; (4) the expense, trouble, 

 and excessive number of horses required to cultivate detached 

 dispersed lands. On the. south-east side of the county lay a con- 

 siderable tract of open-fields, and in the north-west, in the 

 centre of the richest land of the district, were scattered numerous 

 commons. The open arable fields are said to be in "a very 

 bad state of husbandry," and the common pastures in a " very 

 neglected unimproved " condition. " There are," says the Reporter, 

 " numerous instances in which the common-field arable land lets 

 for less than half the price of the inclosed arable adjoining ; and the 

 commons are very seldom reckoned worth anything, in valuing any 

 estate that has a right on them." For the last half -century very 

 little land had been enclosed, " although the improvement on the 

 lands, heretofore inclosed, has been so very great." " The reason 

 seems to have been the very great difficulty and expence of making 

 new roads in a country naturally wet and deep, and where the old 

 public roads were, till within the last few years, almost impassable." 

 Good turnpike roads had now been introduced ; villages were 

 energetic in repairing the approaches to them ; and " it is to be 

 hoped that so great an improvement as that of inclosing and 

 cultivating the commonable lands will no longer be neglected." 

 The crying need was the want of drainage. The common pastures 



1 Claridge's Dorsetshire (1793), p. 43. 

 * Stevenson's Dorsetshire (1812), p. 307. 



8 Davis' Wiltshire (1794), p. 136. This is, perhaps, the best of all the agri- 

 cultural Reports. 



