20 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



seeming confusion, in the end, an allocation of the land 

 evolved itself that apparently gave satisfaction to those 

 concerned. 



ENCLOSURE 



In England after the Norman conquest most of the 

 land was " common land " — the hedged-in farm as 

 we know it did not exist — and this common land or 

 common or open field system of tenure continued, 

 though in ever diminishing extent, well into the nine- 

 teenth century. 



High farming was impossible under this system ; 

 there was nothing for it but to enclose this land, 

 and I believe the earliest case of legal enclosure was 

 at the end of the thirteenth century. This process 

 continued through the succeeding centuries, at a 

 gradually accelerating rate, till all land worth enclosing 

 was enclosed. 



The enclosing of the open farm, and doing away with 

 the common land system of farming, was all to the good. 

 The enclosing of wild and uncultivated land, and bringing 

 it under cultivation, was also beneficial from every 

 point of view. But alas there was much enclosure 

 which was far from being sound from the national point 

 of view, and that was the enclosing of common lands 

 over which the smallholders and labourers had common 

 rights, and valuable rights they were. 



To-day some of these commons still survive, but 

 they are now rather public pleasure grounds than the 

 land of the commoners — a class which, in the old sense 

 of the term, is practically extinct. In the old days the 

 common lands were for the use of the commoners, i.e. 

 those who had common rights, the right to pasture their 

 sheep and geese and even cows on the common lands. 



