172 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



remained unimproved, sometimes not because of its poor quality 

 but because of the inertness of the occupiers. The arable and 

 pasture were usually described as enclosed.' 



Against this background of enclosures and unimproved wastes 

 there were to be discerned, however, certain patches of common 

 arable field. The reporter from Flintshire wrote: "There are 

 no common fields, or fields in run-rig in this county, as I am in- 

 formed, except between Flint and St. Asaph and it is intended 

 to divide and inclose them. The difference in rent between open 

 and inclosed fields is estimated at one-third. . . . From the 

 appearance of the fences in this county, inclosing has been very 

 general many years ago." ^ Thus in northeastern Wales the 

 remnants, at least, of common fields lingered, their value was 

 estimated relative to that of enclosed land, and the writer 

 thought it probable that existent closes were made within Hving 

 memory. On the western coast another instance was noted by 

 the reporters from Cardiganshire: " The only tract like a com- 

 mon field is an extent of very productive barley-land, reaching 

 on the coast from Aberairon to Llanrhysted. This quarter is 

 much intermixed and chiefly in small holdings." ^ The tract in 

 question is some ten miles in length. Farther along the coast 

 at the southwestern extremity of Wales, is St. David's. Here 

 again the reporter for Pembrokeshire noted and explained the 

 existence of common fields: " In the neighborhood of St. David's 



of 120,000 acres; upon which common without stint is exercised by the occupiers 

 in the vicinity of such waste land." Carnarvon, p. 15 : "A great part of Carnarvon- 

 shire is still unenclosed." Denbigh, p. 11: " There are . . . several commons of 

 very considerable extent." Flint, p. 2: "Although some small portions of the 

 waste lands have lately been divided and inclosed, yet there are many thousand 

 acres still left in their original state, which are capable of being converted into 

 arable and pasture lands. And although all the waste lands or commons in North 

 Wales are denominated mountains, yet many of them are as level as a bowling 

 green; and in this county they are, in general, not more hilly than the arable lands 

 nor is the soil inferior in quality, were it well cultivated." 



1 Merioneth, p. 8: "The lands in this county are mostly enclosed, the sheep 

 walks excepted." Montgomeryshire, p. 9: " The cultivated parts of this county 

 are mostly inclosed, and the fences are in general old, consisting of an intermixture 

 of hawthorn, hazel, crab, etc., as in Flintshire." 



^ George Kay, Flintshire, p. 4. 



' T. Lloyd and the Rev. Mr. Turner, Cardigan, p. 29. 



