LATER HISTORY OF THE MIDLAND SYSTEM II3 



enclosures may in such cases be computed. When different com- 

 putations as to the areas of old enclosures do not agree, the 

 area got by subtracting open-field arable and waste from the 

 entire township has been here adopted. Despite all the uncer- 

 tainties attendant upon the examination of the awards, a study 

 of them repays the labor, since the information which they 

 yield is far more precise than that to be secured in any other 

 way. 



The open fields of Oxfordshire which were enclosed by act of 

 parhament are set down township by township in Appendix IV. 

 The townships are grouped in accordance with the percentage of 

 the area in each which, exclusive of the waste, was thus enclosed. 

 This arrangement amounts to a comparison between the open- 

 field arable and meadow on the one hand and the old enclosures 

 on the other. The assignment of a township to a group has 

 depended upon whether the land to be enclosed, apart from the 

 waste, amounted to more than three-fourths of the township's 

 total area, or to less than three-fourths but to more than one- 

 half of it, or to less than one-half but to more than one-fourth 

 of it, or, lastly, to less than one-fourth of it. The history of 

 parliamentary enclosure between 1758 and 1867 S as thus told 

 by the awards,^ may be summarized as follows, reference being 

 had to the number of townships that fall within the respective 

 groups and to the ratio which the areas of the groups bear to the 

 total area of the county (478,112 acres ^). 



In 89 townships more than three-fourths of the area, exclusive 

 of the waste, was enclosed by parUamentary award during the 

 century in question, and these townships represent 29 per cent 

 of the county's area. In 58 townships, which constitute 22.1 

 per cent of the county's area, between one-half and three-fourths 

 of the improved area was enclosed. In 28 townships, comprising 



1 The Mixbury act dates from 1729, and the Crowell award was made in 1882; 

 but all other parliamentary enclosures of arable fields in Oxfordshire fall between 

 the years mentioned. 



2 In fifteen instances the information is taken from the petitions for enclosure. 

 With one exception the awards in these cases are neither at Oxford nor at the 

 Public Record Oflace. 



^ This is the area of the land. The area of land and water is 480,687 acres. 



