249] ENCLOSURE FOR SHEEP PASTURE 93 



either to minyshe the thirde parte of our houshold, or to raise 

 the thirde parte of our Revenues/ 



It was difficult for the landowners to make economic use 

 of even those portions of the land which were not in the 

 hands of customary tenants. If they were willing to invest 

 capital in enclosing demesne land and stocking it with sheep, 

 without disturbing their small tenants, they found it im- 

 possible to do so. Not only did the poorer tenants have to 

 cultivate land which was barely productive of more than^ 

 the seed used, because they could not afford to allow it to lie 

 idle as long as it would produce anything; not only did they, 

 allow the land which was under grass to remain practically \ 

 waste, because they could not afford to enclose it and stock 

 it with sheep ; not only did they neglect manuring and marl- 

 ing the land because these improvements were beyond their 

 means, so that the land was constantly growing poorer in 

 their hands, and so that they could pay very little rent ; but j 

 they were also tenacious of their rights of common over the 1 

 rest of the land, and resisted all attempts at enclosure of the ! 

 holdings of the more prosperous tenants, because they had ' 

 to depend for their living largely upon the " little brede of ! 

 neate, shepe, swine, gese and hens " which were maintained 

 partly by the gleanings from other men's land when it lay 

 common. 



They undoubtedly suffered when the lord himself or one 

 of the large leaseholders insisted on enclosing some of the 

 land. If the commonable area was reduced, or if the land 

 enclosed was converted from arable to pasture (as it usually 

 was) , the means by which they made their living was dimin- 

 ished. The occasional day's wages for labor spent on the 

 land converted was now withdrawn, and the pasturage for 

 the little flock was cut down. The practical effect of even 



1 Lamond, Common Weal of this Realm of England, pp. 19-20. 



