CHAPTER IV 

 Enclosure for Sheep Pasture 



/ Enclosure made by the tenants themselves by common 

 agreement aroused no opposition or apprehension. No 

 diminution of the area under tillage beyond that which had 

 already of necessity taken place occurred, and the grass' 

 land already present in the fields was made available for 

 more profitable use. The Doctor in Hales' dialogue care- 

 fully excepts this sort of enclosure from condemnation : 



I meane not all Inclosures, nor yet all commons, but only of 

 such Inclosures as turneth commonly arable feildes into pas- 

 tures; and violent Inclosures, without Recompense of them 

 that haue the right to comen therein: for if the land weare 

 seuerallie inclosed to the intent to continue husbandrie theron, 

 and euerie man, that had Right to commen, had for his portion 

 a pece of the same to him self e Inclosed, I thincke no harm but 

 rather good should come therof, yf euerie man did agre theirto.^ 



In this passage Hales recognizes the theoretical possibility 



of a beneficial sort of enclosure, but the conditional form in 



which his remarks are thrown indicates that, so far as he 



[ knew, there was little systematic division of the land among 



the tenants by common consent. 



Orderly rearrangement of holdings into compact plots 

 suitable for enclosure was difficult unless the small holders 

 had all disappeared, leaving in the community only men of 

 some means, who were able to undertake the expenses of 



1 Lamond, op. cit., p. 49. 



86 [242 



