306 THE RURAL POPULATION, 1780-1813 



upon an average that keeps even a cow." 1 Nor was the disappear- 

 ance of the cow invariably due to the loss of commons. Some- 

 times commercial motives operated. At Baldon, in Oxfordshire, 

 " many cottagers had two, three or four acres, and they kept 

 cows ; now, still having the land, they keep no cows ; their rent 

 from 30s. to 42s. per acre and all applied as arable." 2 In this 

 instance, at all events, the cheapness of butter and the high price 

 of wheat had tempted these men to plough up their grass-land. 



Whatever exceptions there may have been, the loss of the cow 

 generally followed the loss of the commons. Nor was this the only 

 injury which the cottager suffered. He lost his free firing, and the 

 run for his geese and poultry. It is, in fact, impossible to measure 

 in terms of cash equivalents the benefits derived from the commons, 

 or the loss inflicted by their withdrawal. The case is well sum- 

 marised by Barnes, the Dorsetshire poet of rural life : 



Thomas (log.) : 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 rick ; 

 An' in the zummer, while do grow, 

 My cow do run in common vor to pick 

 A bleade or two o' grass, if she can vind em, 

 Vor tother cattle don't leave much behind em. 

 An' then, bezides the cow, why we do let 

 Our geese run out among the emmet hills ; 

 An' then, when we do pluck em, we do get 

 Vor zeale zome veathers an' zome quills ; 

 An' in the winter we do fat em well, 

 An' car em to the market vor to zell 

 To gentle- volks. .... 

 An' then, when I ha' nothen else to do, 

 Why, I can teake my hook an' gloves, an' goo 

 To cut a lot o' vuzz and briars 

 Vor heten ovens or vor lighten viers ; 

 An' when the childern be too young to earn 

 A penny, they can g'out in zunny weather, 

 An' run about, an' get together 

 A bag o' cow-dung vor to burn. 



The material loss inflicted on the poor was great : still more 

 serious was the moral damage. It is probably true that the com- 

 mons had attracted to their borders numbers of the idle and 

 dissolute. But it is equally certain that they also afforded to 

 hard-working and thrifty peasants the means of supplementing 



1 Hints to Gentlemen (1776), p. 112. * Young's Oxfordshire, p. 23. 



